A handsome avenue conducts the traveller to the château, the
architecture of which is nothing very remarkable. After mounting three
steps, and crossing a narrow vestibule, we entered the _salon_, which in
its day received most of the wits and celebrated personages of Europe:
for as a contemporary of Voltaire observed, 'to have been admitted at
Ferney, is to have taken out a patent for genius.' The appearance of
this salon is far from brilliant: a few indifferent pictures, some old
red tapestry, and antiquated furniture compose the whole of its
ornaments. To the left we entered the chamber of Voltaire.

"On one side of the apartment an humble mausoleum has been reared, the
sanctity of which was not however respected by the sabres of the
Austrians. The inscription on the top (a happy inspiration of the
husband of Mademoiselle Varicourt), contains these simple words: 'Mon
coeur est ici; et mon esprit est partout.' The most elaborate panegyric
could not have conveyed a finer eulogium.

"On entering, the spectator is struck with the view of a bed of simple
materials, and which was pillaged by the Austrians. Hung round the room
are the portraits of Frederick, of Catharine, of Lekain--one of Voltaire
himself, taken at the age of forty, and full of expression, with a
number of _silhouettes_ of the celebrated men of the day.

"The window of this apartment looks upon the gardens, and upon a little
wood, which has undergone many changes since the death of Voltaire. Time
however has hitherto respected a long and thick row of elm trees,
whither he was wont to repair at sunrise, and where he usually meditated
and recited aloud the scenes of his tragedies when finished, to any one
whom he could find. His jealousy of criticism on such occasions is
matter of record.