* * * * *
When Voltaire was at Berlin, he wrote this epigram on his patron and host
the king of Prussia:--
"King, author, philosopher, hero, musician,
Freemason, economist, bard, politician,
How had Europe rejoiced if a _Christian_ he'd been,
If a man, how he then had enraptured his queen."
For this effort of wit, Voltaire was paid with thirty lashes on his bare
back, administered by the king's sergeant-at-arms, and was compelled to
sign the following curious receipt for the same:--
"Received from the righthand of Conrad
Backoffner, thirty lashes on my bare
back, being in full for an epigram on
Frederick the Third, King of Prussia."