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guest. The police, whom Voltaire bombarded with complaints, did nothing whatever, nor did his friends at Court. Mme de Prie was on his side, but the Due de Bourbon’s position was weak and he could not afford to alienate any supporters.
    Like a herd of cows, one of which has got into a shindy with a small, furious dog, the French aristocracy now drew together, staring sadly but inertly at the fray. Nearly all Voltaire’s friends would have been glad to help him to justice, but nobody cared to make the first move. Unluckily for him, Richelieu, who had nothing bovine in his make-up and who might have rallied to his friend, was now French Ambassador at Vienna. He was kept informed of the affair by Mme de Prie, entirely sympathetic to Voltaire.
    Voltaire’s nerves began to give way under the strain of so much humiliation. He wandered about Paris, frequenting low haunts and curious company, continually changed his lodging, and presently went to stay in the house of a fencing master. The police, hitherto so torpid over this affair, now began to take notice; he was obviously learning to fence in order to fight with Rohan-Chabot. They informed the Chevalier and his family who immediately caused Voltaire to be arrested and put into protective custody. It was his second Bastille. The Governor again treated his prisoner very well, entertained him at his own table, and allowed him as many visitors as he wanted, until the crowd became unmanageable and had to be cut down. The Comte de Maurepas, Minister of the Interior, who never got on with Voltaire, had the decency to write to the Governor suggesting special treatment for him, adding that his character called for a good deal of tact. Voltaire’s imprisonment lasted less than a fortnight. He asked permission to go to England, and this was granted.
    * le dernier, which also means the lowest.
    â€  Travailleurs, a military term for the men who dig trenches.

3. Voltaire in England
    In the month of May 1726, Voltaire sailed up the Thames. It was one of those perfect days of early summer which make our island seem like fairyland. The aspect of London as he saw it from his ship is familiar to us in the pictures of Canaletto: a low skyline of brick houses, overshadowed by the huge white dome of St Paul’s Cathedral and punctuated by the white spires of innumerable churches. The Thames was crowded with boats; flags were flying in honour of the King and Queen, * who presently came down the river in a gilded barge. Voltaire said it was easy to see by their faces that the boatmen were not slaves and furthermore that they lived on the fat of the land. They held their heads high, knowing that not a hair could be touched. When he landed, it seemed that the streets were full of lords and ladies who, he soon discovered, were merely the honest burghers going about their ordinary occasions. Voltaire’s whole view of England was for ever coloured by this smiling first impression. But a shock awaited him when he presented himself at the house of a Jew to whom he had a letter of credit.
    â€˜My damned Jew’, he wrote, in English, to Thieriot, ‘was broken. I was without a penny, sick to death of a violent ague, a stranger, alone, helpless, in the midst of a city wherein I was known to nobody. My lord and my lady Bolingbroke were in the country. I could not make bold to see our Ambassador in so wretched a condition. I had never undergone such distress; but I am born torun through all the misfortunes of life. In these circumstances, my star, that among all its direful influences pours allways on me some kind refreshment, sent to me an English gentleman unknown to me, who forced me to receive some money that I wanted. Another London citizen that I had seen but once at Paris carried me to his own country house, where I lead an obscure and charming life since that time, without going to London and quite given over to the pleasures of indolence and friendship. The true and