Despite the work of the flames, a copy of the diatribe found
its way to Paris, was printed there, and copies of it made their way
back to Prussia by mail. Everybody was reading it, everybody laughing,
people fought for copies of the satire, which spread over Europe. The
king, enraged by this treacherous disobedience, as he deemed it,
retorted on Voltaire by having the pamphlet burned in the Place d'Armes.
This brought matters to a crisis. The next day Voltaire sent his
commissions and orders back to Frederick; the next, Frederick returned
them to him. He was bent on leaving Prussia at once, but wished to do it
without a quarrel with the king.
"I sent the Solomon of the North," he wrote to Madame Denis, "for his
present, the cap and bells he gave me, with which you reproached me so
much. I wrote him a very respectful letter, for I asked him for leave to
go. What do you think he did? He sent me his great factotum, Federshoff,
who brought me back my toys; he wrote me a letter saying that he would
rather have me to live with than Maupertuis.
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