Madrigals, dramas (not without actresses), satirical wit, airy verse, and all manner of adventurous speculation, were what this young man went upon; and was getting more and more loved for; introduced, even, to the superior circles, and recognized there as one of the brightest young fellows ever seen.

Which tended, of course, to confirm him in his folly, and open other outlooks and harbors of refuge than the paternal one.
"Such things, strange to M.Arouet Senior, were in vogue then; wicked Regent d'Orleans having succeeded sublime Louis XIV., and set strange fashions to the Quality.

Not likely to profit this fool Francois, thought M.Arouet Senior; and was much confirmed in his notion, when a rhymed Lampoon against the Government having come out (LES J'AI VU, as they call it ["I have seen (J'AI VU)" this ignominy occur, "I have seen" that other,--to the amount of a dozen or two;--"and am not yet twenty." Copy of it, and guess as to authorship, in _OEuvres de Voltaire_, i.
321.]), and become the rage, as a clever thing of the kind will, it was imputed to the brightest young fellow in France, M.Arouet's Son.

Who, in fact, was not the Author; but was not believed on his denial; and saw himself, in spite of his high connections, ruthlessly lodged in the Bastille in consequence.

'Let him sit,' thought M.Arouet Senior, 'and come to his senses there!' He sat for eighteen months (age still little above twenty); but privately employed his time, not in repentance, or in serious legal studies, but in writing a Poem on his Henri Quatre.