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In the wooded country of the two "Lost Provinces" there was but little time or chance to bury the dead encumbering the hills and fields. Even six weeks after the beginning of the war horror made a camping ground of the regions which lay to the east of the Meurthe, between the villages of Blamont and Badonviller, Cirey les Forges and Arracourt, Chateau Salins and Baudrecourt.
"In this retreat at Cirey, varied with flying visits to Paris, and kept awake by multifarious Correspondences, the quantity of Literature done by the two was great and miscellaneous. By Madame, chiefly in the region of the pure sciences, in Newtonian Dissertations, competitions for Prizes, and the like: really sound and ingenious Pieces, entirely forgotten long since.
August 1 Germany declares war on Russia and general mobilization is under way in France and Austria-Hungary. Aug. 2 German troops enter France at Cirey; Russian troops enter Germany at Schwidden; German army enters Luxemburg over protest, and Germany asks Belgium for free passage of her troops.
Here is what little we have, if the lively reader will exert his fancy on it. Voltaire and his Du Chatelet had been to Cirey, and thence been at Paris through this Spring and Summer, 1742; engaged in what to Voltaire and Paris was a great thing, though a pacific one: The getting of MAHOMET brought upon the boards.
Whom readers have forgotten again; though they saw him once: in violent quarrel, about the Infinitely Little, with Madame du Chatelet, Voltaire witnessing with pain; it was just as they quitted Cirey together, ten years ago, for these new courses of adventure. Do readers recall the circumstance?
In vain Monsieur Voltaire called upon the gentlemen to assist him; he was left helpless in the hands of the ladies, who maltreated him severely. Monsieur Voltaire's evident enjoyment of his punishment at the hands of these captivating creatures brought about one of those domestic tempests which frequently disturbed the atmosphere of Cirey and of the "Petit Palais" on the isle of St. Louis.
But she had already given a charming picture of the life at Cirey. Mme. du Chatelet plunged into abstractions during the day. In the evening she was no more the savante, but gave herself up to the pleasures of society with the ardor of a nature that was extreme in everything.
He soon left it to return to the castle of Cirey, to the Marchioness du Chatelet's, a woman as learned as she was impassioned, devoted to literature, physics, and mathematics, and tenderly attached to Voltaire, whom she enticed along with her into the paths of science. For fifteen years Madame du Chatelet and Cirey ruled supreme over the poet's life.
Germans invade Luxemburg. Sir E. Grey gives France an assurance that the English fleet will protect the North Coast of France against the German fleet. Germans enter French territory near Cirey. Aug. 3. Monday. Italy declares itself neutral, as the other members of the Triple Alliance are not engaged in a defensive war. Germany presents an ultimatum to Belgium.
During his life at the Château de Cirey he had received letters from Prince Frederick of Prussia. Now the prince is king, and he asks Voltaire to be his guest, and find with him a refuge and a home. The "respectable Emily" being dead, Voltaire, after considerable haggling about money matters with Frederick, who behaved generously, at last consented.
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