Voltaire is described as about at his best at that period. The air of Lorraine is said to have suited him particularly well. He was just turned fifty--a little too old, as Madame du Châtelet was cruel enough to inform him, to act the part of an ardent lover, but appearing to less exacting persons still in the very vigour of manhood. "Après une vie sobre, réglée, sagement laborieuse," he is represented as "well preserved"--slim, straight, upright, of a good bearing, with a well-shaped leg and a neat little foot. His features, we know, were wanting in regularity; but they wore a benevolent and pleasing expression. His greatest charm is said to have lain in his brilliant and expressive eyes, which seemed by their play to be ever anticipating the action of his lips. His mind certainly was still young, and so were his tastes. He is described as a most fastidious dandy, _irréprochablement poudré et parfumé_, affecting clothes of the latest cut and richly embroidered with gold. To his factotum at Paris, Abbé Moussinot, he writes from Lunéville: "Send me some diamond buckles for shoes or garters, twenty pounds of hair-powder, twenty pounds of scent, a bottle of essence of jessamine, two 'enormous' pots of pomatum _à la fleur d'orange_, two powder puffs, two embroidered vests,"--&c. He was, moreover, an accomplished courtier. Properly to ingratiate himself with his new host, he made his appearance at Commercy with a complimentary copy of his _Henriade_ in his hand, on the flyleaf of which were penned these lines: Le ciel, comme Henri, voulut vous éprouver: La bonté, la valeur à tous deux fut commune, Mais mon héros fit changer la fortune Que votre vertu sut braver.