“Deo erexit Voltaire” is cut into a small tablet below the belfry.
Will it be believed that I heard, actually and literally, the conversation I now write down?
“I call that blasphemous!”
The speaker was a lady, in dress and deportment.
“Heaven-daring blasphemy!” she added, in a low, horrified tone, reading the Latin aloud.
“I don’t see that—exactly,” answered a deeper voice. “It is strange that an infidel, such as Voltaire is usually considered, should build a church at all, but there is nothing wrong——”
“But look at the inscription! ‘God erects it to Voltaire!’ Horrible!”
“I doubt if that is quite the right translation, my love”—began the spouse.
The lady caught him up—“I may not be a classical scholar, but I hope I can read, and I am not altogether ignorant of Latin. And Baedeker says it is an ’ostentatious inscription.’ I suppose Baedeker knows what he is talking about—if I do not!”
They walked off down the lane.