Catharine.
The majority of the nine deputies who have been appointed to work at our new Code having now arrived, we shall embark to-morrow upon that great and epoch-making task with due solemnity.
What a contrast does the vigorous letter of Catharine "Slay-Czar," as Horace Walpole was pleased to call her, present to the following letter of Louis XVI., written to Lavoisier, the Physicist, while the premonitory grumblings of the coming storm were still audible!
Versailles le 15 Mars 1789.
Votre derniere experience, Monsieur, fixe encore toutte mon admiration. Cette découverte prouve que vous avez aggrandi la sphère des connoissances utiles. Vos expériences sur le gaz inflammable prouvent combien vous vous occupiez de cette science admirable qui, tous les jours, fait de nouveaux progrès. La Reine et quelques personnes que je desire rendre témoins de votre découverte, se réuniront dans mon cabinet, demain a sept heures du soir. Vous me ferez plaisir de m'i apporter le traitté des gaz inflammables. Vous connoissez, Monsieur, toutte mon amitié pour vous.
Louis.
[Translation].
Versailles 15 March 1789.
Sir,—My admiration is still wholly riveted upon your latest experiment. This discovery proves that you have enlarged the sphere of useful knowledge. Your experiments on inflammable gas prove to what extent you have cultivated that admirable science which is daily making further strides. The Queen and a few persons to whom I am anxious to show your discovery will meet in my study to-morrow evening, at seven. I shall be pleased if you will bring with you the Treatise on inflammable Gas. You are not unaware, sir, of the very great friendship which I bear you.