Employed as he was in various literary undertakings he had been watching with great interest, not, perhaps, without a secret wish for vengeance, the important political and military complications of Europe. After some brilliant successes the Prussian king had been reduced to the last extremity. At this juncture the former friends agreed to forget, as far as possible, their old quarrel, and Voltaire enjoyed the satisfaction of having succeeded in dissuading Friedrich from suicide. The victories of Rosbach and Breslau not long afterwards changed the condition of things once again. From this time the prince and the philosopher resumed the name, if not the cordiality, of friends. A curious accident put the arbitrament of peace and war for some weeks into the hands of Voltaire. The Prussian king, while inactive in his fortified camp, wrote, as his custom was, a quantity of verse and sent the packet to Ferney. Amongst the mass--good, bad, and indifferent--was a satire on Louis and his mistress. The packet had been opened before reaching its destination. “Had I been inclined to amuse myself, it depended only on me to set the King of France and the King of Prussia to war in rhyme, which would have been a novel farce on earth. But I enjoyed another pleasure--that of being more prudent than Friedrich. I wrote him word that his Ode was beautiful, but that he ought not to publish it.... To make the pleasantry complete I thought it possible to lay the foundation of the peace of Europe on these poetical pieces. My correspondence with the Duc de Choiseul [the French Premier] gave birth to that idea, and it appeared so ridiculous, so worthy of the transactions of the times, that I indulged it, and had the satisfaction of proving on what weak and invisible pivots the destinies of nations turn.” Several letters passed between the three before the danger was averted. The limited space at our disposal will allow us only rapidly to notice some of the remaining _chefs-d’œuvre_ of Voltaire. The celebrated _Encyclopédie_, under the auspices of D’Alembert and Diderot, had been lately commenced. To this great work, to which he looked with some hope as promising a severe assault on ignorance and prejudice, Voltaire contributed a few articles. It is not the place here to narrate the history of the fierce war of words to which the _Encyclopédie_ gave birth. It was completed in about fifteen years, in 1775--a memorable year in literature.