There were clairvoyant spirits who traced the new theories to
their logical results. Mme. du Deffand speaks with prophetic
vision of the reasoners and beaux esprits "who direct the age and
lead it to its ruin." There were conservative women, too, who
used their powerful influence against them. It was in the salon
of the delicate but ardent young Princesse de Robecq that
Palissot was inspired to write the satirical comedy of "The
Philosophers," in which Rousseau was represented as entering on
all fours, browsing a lettuce, and the Encyclopedists were so
mercilessly ridiculed. This spirited and heroic daughter-in-law
of the Duchesse de Luxembourg, the powerful patroness of
Rousseau, was hopelessly ill at the time, and, in a caustic reply
to the clever satire, the abbe Morellet did not spare the
beautiful invalid who desired for her final consolation only to
see its first performance and be able to say, "Now, Lord, thou
lettest thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen
vengeance." The cruel attack was thought to have hastened her
death, and the witty abbe was sent to the Bastille; but he came
out in two months, went away for a time, and returned a greater
hero than ever. There is a picture, full of pathetic
significance, which represents the dying princess on her pillow,
crowned with a halo of sanctity, as she devotes her last hours to
the defense of the faith she loves. One is reminded of the sweet
and earnest souls of Port Royal; but her vigorous protest, which
furnished only a momentary target for the wit of the
philosophers, was lost in the oncoming wave of skepticism.

The vogue of these men received its final stamp in the admiring
patronage of the greatest sovereigns in Europe. Voltaire had his