'Wait till 1759,--till 1789!' murmured the Devil to himself." TRAGIC NEWS, THAT CONCERN US, OF VOLTAIRE AND OTHERS.
About two months after those Saxe-Friedrich hospitalities at Sans-Souci, Voltaire, writing, late at night, from the hospitable Palace of Titular Stanislaus, has these words, to his trusted D'Argental:-- LUNEVILLE, 4th SEPTEMBER, 1749....

"Madame du Chatelet, this night, while scribbling over her NEWTON, felt a little twinge; she called a waiting-maid, who had only time to hold out her apron, and catch a little Girl, whom they carried to its cradle.

The Mother arranged her papers, went to bed; and the whole of that (TOUT CELA) is sleeping like a dormouse, at the hour I write to you." My guardian angels, "poor I sha'n't have so easy a delivery of my CATILINA" (my ROME SAVED, for the confusion of old Crebillon and the cabals)! [--OEuvres,--lxxiv.

57 (Voltaire to D'Argental).]...
And then, six days later, hear another Witness present there:-- LUNEVILLE PALACE, 10th SEPTEMBER.

"For the first three or four days, the health of the Mother appeared excellent; denoting nothing but the weakness inseparable from her situation.