"'Just so, Sire,--some Swiss and Germans.' KING.

"''T is a brave and amiable nation, the French; one can't help loving them:--but, MON DIEU, what have they made of their Men of Letters; and what a tone has now come up among them! Voltaire, for example, had an excellent tone.

D'Alembert, whom I esteem in many respects, is too noisy, and insists too much on producing effect in society:--was it the Men of Letters that gave the Court of Louis XIV.
its grace, or did they themselves acquire it from the many amiable persons they found there?
He was the Patriarch of Kings, that one [in a certain sense, your Majesty!].

In his lifetime a little too much good was said of him; but a great deal too much ill after his death.' EGO.

"'A King of France, Sire, is always the Patriarch of Clever People (PATRIARCHE DES GENS D'ESPRIT:' You do not much mean this, Monsieur?
You merely grin it from the teeth outward ?) KING.