THREE:About a year before this, on the 17th of July, 1744, Fredericks sister Ulrique had been married to Adolf Frederick, the heir-apparent to the throne of Sweden. Eighteen years of this weary worlds history, with its wars and its woes, had since passed away. On the 5th of April, 1751, the old king of Sweden died. Thus Adolf became king, and Fredericks sister Ulrique Queen of Sweden. And now, on the 5th of January, 1762, the Empress of Russia died, and Peter III., with his wife Catharine, ascended the throne of that majestic empire.Indeed, it would seem that, at the time, Voltaire must have been very favorably impressed by the appearance of his royal host. The account he then gave of the interview was very different from that which, in his exasperation, he wrote twenty years afterward. In a letter to a friend, M. De Cideville, dated October 18th, 1740, Voltaire wrote:
