You resemble her;--but don't resemble her in--feebleness of health! You are in the flower of your age [coming forty, I should fear]: let such bright flower lose nothing of its splendor; may your happiness be able to equal [PUISSO EGALER] your beauty; may all your days be serene, and the sweets of friendship add a new charm to them! These are my wishes; they are as lively as my regrets at not being at your feet.
What a consolation it would be for me to speak of your loving Mother, and of all your august relatives! Why must Destiny send you to Lausanne [consulting Dr.Tissot there], and hinder me from flying thither!--Let your most Serene Highness deign to accept the profound respect of the old moribund Philosopher of Ferney .-- V." [_OEuvres de Voltaire,_ xcii.
331.] The Answer of the Princess, or farther Correspondence on the matter, is not given; evident only that by and by, as Voltaire himself will inform us, she did appear at Ferney;--and a certain Swedish tourist, one Bjornstahl, who met her there, enables us even to give the date.

He reports this anecdote:-- "At supper, on the evening of 7th September, 1773, the Princess sat next to Voltaire, who always addressed her 'VOTRE ALTESSE.' At last the Duchess said to him, 'TU ES ANON PAPA, JE SUIS TA FILLE, ET JE VOUZ ETRE APPELEE TA FILLE.' Voltaire took a pencil from his pocket, asked for a card, and wrote upon it:-- 'Ah, le beau titre que voila! Vous me donnez la premiere des places; Quelle famille j'aurais la! Je serais le pere des Graces' [_OEuvres de Voltaire,_ xviii.

342.] He gave the card to the Princess, who embraced and kissed him for it." [Vehse, _Geschichte der Deutschen Hofe_ (Hamburg, 1853), xxv.

252, 253.] VOLTAIRE TO FRIEDRICH (a fortnight after).
"FERNEY, 22d September, 1773.
"I must tell you that I have felt, in these late days, in spite of all my past caprices, how much I am attached to your Majesty and to your House.

Madam the Duchess of Wurtemberg having had, like so many others, the weakness to believe that health is to be found at Lausanne, and that Dr.Tissot gives it if one pay him, has, as you know, made the journey to Lausanne; and I, who am more veritably ill than she, and than all the Princesses who have taken Tissot for an AEsculapius, had not the strength to leave my home.