[27] P. 112. Nicholas Charles Joseph Trublet (1697-1770) was a French writer whose criticism of Voltaire was revenged in passages such as this one in _Candide_, and one in the _Pauvre Diable_ beginning: L'abbe Trublet avait alors le rage D'etre a Paris un petit personage. [28] P. 120. Damiens, who attempted the life of Louis XV. in 1757, was born at Arras, capital of Artois (Atrebatie). [29] P. 120. On May 14, 1610, Ravaillac assassinated Henry VI. [30] P. 120. On December 27, 1594, Jean Chatel attempted to assassinate Henry IV. [31] P. 122. This same curiously inept criticism of the war which cost France her American provinces occurs in Voltaire's _Memoirs_, wherein he says, "In 1756 England made a piratical war upon France for some acres of snow." See also his _Precis du Siecle de Louis_ XV. [32] P. 123. Admiral Byng was shot on March 14, 1757. [33] P. 129. Commenting upon this passage, M. Sarcey says admirably: "All is there! In those ten lines Voltaire has gathered all the griefs and all the terrors of these creatures; the picture is admirable for its truth and power! But do you not feel the pity and sympathy of the painter? Here irony becomes sad, and in a way an avenger. Voltaire cries out with horror against the society which throws some of its members into such an abyss. He has his 'Bartholomew' fever; we tremble with him through contagion." [34] P. 142. The following particulars of the six monarchs may prove not uninteresting. Achmet III. (_b._ 1673, _d._ 1739) was dethroned in 1730. Ivan VI. (_b._ 1740, _d._ 1762) was dethroned in 1741. Charles Edward Stuart, the Pretender (_b._ 1720, _d._ 1788). Auguste III. (_b._ 1696, _d._ 1763). Stanislaus (_b._ 1682, _d._ 1766). Theodore (_b._ 1690, _d._ 1755). It will be observed that, although quite impossible for the six kings ever to have met, five of them might have been made to do so without any anachronism. [35] P. 149. Francois Leopold Ragotsky (1676-1735). * * * * *