“I am to be tried to-morrow, the 17th, at seven o’clock in the morning.
“I have lived long enough, as I have achieved a glorious exploit.
“I put you under the protection of Barbaroux and his colleagues, in case you should be molested.
“Let not my family blush at my fate; for remember, according to Voltaire,
‘That crimes beget disgrace, and not the scaffold.’
“Your affectionate daughter,
“Marie Anne Victoire
“Charlotte Cordet.”
Voltaire,
Superstition ridiculed; tyranny exposed; innocence protected:—a nation, if not prepared for liberty, yet unfitted for bondage. Such were the labours and the triumphs of Voltaire.
The Parisians were always fond of him. Their vanity was, indeed, gratified by his glory, in which they supposed themselves to participate. On his return from banishment, in the time of the monarchy (from what free country would the author of the Henriade have been banished?) he was presented with a wreath of laurel, in the public theatre, and crowned, like the heroes of the ancient republics, in the presence of the whole people.