and memorable on that account, if on no other. There, in old
stagnant Cambrai, through the third year and into the fourth, were
Delegates, Spanish, Austrian, English, Dutch, French, of solemn
outfit, with a big tail to each,--"Lord Whitworth" whom I do not
know, "Lord Polwarth" (Earl of Marchmont that will be, a friend of
Pope's), were the English Principals: [Scholl, ii. 197.]--there,
for about four years, were these poor fellow-creatures busied,
baling out water with sieves. Seen through the Horn-Gate of
Dreams, the figure of them rises almost grand on the mind.

A certain bright young Frenchman, Francois Arouet,--spoiled for a
solid law-career, but whose OEDIPE we saw triumphing in the
Theatres, and who will, under the new name of VOLTAIRE, become
very memorable to us,--happened to be running towards Holland that
way, one of his many journeys thitherward; and actually saw this
Congress, then in the first year of its existence. Saw it,
probably dined with it. A Letter of his still extant, not yet
fallen to the spiders, as so much else has done, testifies to this
fact. Let us read part of it, the less despicable part,--as a
Piece supremely insignificant, yet now in a manner the one
surviving Document of this extraordinary Congress; Congress's own
works and history having all otherwise fallen to the spiders
forever. The Letter is addressed to Cardinal Dubois;--for Dubois,
"with the face like a goat," [Herzogin von Orleans, BRIEFE.] yet
lived (first year of this Congress); and Regent d'Orleans lived,
intensely interested here as third party:--and a goat-faced
Cardinal, once pimp and lackey, ugliest of created souls,
Archbishop of this same Cambrai "by Divine permission" and
favor of Beelzebub, was capable of promoting a young fellow if
he chose:--