“That is to say, you will force my husband to make use of the power the king has given him?”

Barbarina shrugged her shoulders contemptuously.  “Arrest your son, and cast him into prison, you will thereby add a new celebrity to your name, and quench the last spark of piety and obedience in his heart.  Love has wings, and will follow him everywhere, and will waft him to the altar, where he will wed Barbarina.  Neither your curse, nor your arrest, nor the will of the king, will now protect him.  Before six months are over, will Barbarina the dancer be the wife of Cocceji.”

“Never, never shall that be!” cried Madame Cocceji, trembling with rage.

“That will be!” said Barbarina, smiling sadly, and bending low.  “And now, madame, I think you have attained the object of your visit, and we have nothing more to say to each other.  It only remains for me to commend myself to your grace and courtesy, and to thank you for the honor of your visit.  Allow me to call my servant, to conduct you to your carriage.”

She rang and commanded the servant to open the folding doors, and carry the large muff of the countess to the carriage.  Madame Cocceji was pale with rage.  She wished to remain incognito, and now her name had been called before the servant.  All Berlin would know before night that she had visited Barbarina!

“Give me my muff,” she said impatiently to the servant; “it is not necessary you should carry it.  I came on foot.”

“On foot?” said Barbarina, laughing merrily.  “Truly, you wished to remain incognito, and you would not leave your equipage with its coat of arms, standing before my door!  I thank you once more for the honor of your visit, and commend myself to you with the glad wish that we may meet again.”

“Never more!” said Madame Cocceji, casting a withering look upon the gay dancer, and hastening from the room.

CHAPTER VIII.

Voltaire.

Voltaire was now a continuous guest of King Frederick.  The latter had written a letter to Louis the Fifteenth, and begged him to relinquish his subject and historian, and this request was supposed to be acceded to.  Besides this, the king, who was ever thoughtful of the happiness and comfort of his friends, had proposed to Madame Denis, Voltaire’s beloved niece, to follow her uncle to Berlin, dwell in the royal castle at Potsdam, and accept from him an annuity of four thousand francs.

Voltaire himself besought her to come.  He wrote to her that, as she had lived contentedly with her husband in Landau, she could surely be happy in Berlin and Potsdam.  Berlin was certainly a much more beautiful city than Landau, and at Potsdam they could lead an agreeable and unceremonious life.  “In Potsdam there are no tumultuous feasts.  My soul rests, dreams, and works.  I am content to find myself with a king who has neither a court nor a ministry.