Marguerite,
and confined in a dungeon. The governor of the castle was enchanted by his
talents and gaiety, and gave him great liberty. But Le Grange's pen was
still restless. He must needs make a bitter epigram upon his kind
benefactor, which so aroused the governor's ire that the poet was sent
back to his dungeon cell. A piteous ode addressed to the Regent imploring
pardon secured for him a less rigorous confinement. He succeeded in
effecting his escape; then wandered through many lands; and at last, on
the death of the Regent in 1723, ventured to return to France, where he
lived many years and wrote much poetry and several plays, dying in 1758.
It has never been ascertained what was the cause of his animosity to the
Regent; certainly his verses glow with fiery invective and abuse. He
speaks of him as _un monstre farouche_. The following example will perhaps
be sufficient to be quoted:--
"Il ouvrit a peine les paupieres,
Que, tel qu'il se montre aujourd'hui,
Il fut indigne des barrieres
Qu'il vit entre le trone et lui.
Dans ses detestables idees
De l'art des Circes, des Medees,
Il fit ses uniques plaisirs;
Il crut cette voie infernale
Digne de remplir l'intervalle
Qui s'opposait a ses desirs."
Voltaire suffered one year's imprisonment in the Bastille on account of a
satirical poem on Louis XIV., and in confinement wrote an epic poem, _La
Henriade_.
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