rough "Protocol" of it; and here it is, snatched from the
Dust-whirlwinds, and faithfully presented to the English reader. His
Majesty is travelling towards Sonnenburg, on some grand Knight-of-Malta
Ceremony there; and halts at Custrin for a couple of hours as he
passes:--

GRUMKOW'S "PROTOKOLL" OF THE 15th AUGUST, 1731; OR SUMMARY OF WHAT TOOK
PLACE AT CUSTRIN THAT DAY.

"His Majesty arrived at Custrin yesterday [GESTERN Monday 15th,--hour
not mentioned], and proceeded at once to the Government House, with an
attendance of several hundred persons. Major-General Lepel," Commandant
of Custrin, "Colonel Derschau and myself are immediately sent for to
his Majesty's apartment there. Privy-Councillor Walden," Prince's
Hofmarschall, a solid legal man, "is ordered by his Majesty to bring
the Crown-Prince over from his house; who accordingly in a few minutes,
attended by Rohwedel and Natzmer," the two Kammerjunkers, "entered the
room where his Majesty and we were.

"So soon as his Majesty, turning round, had sight of him, the
Crown-Prince fell at his feet. Having bidden him rise, his Majesty said
with a severe mien:--

"'You will now bethink yourself what passed year and day ago; and
how scandalously you saw fit to behave yourself, and what a godless
enterprise you took in hand. As I have had you about me from the
beginning, and must know you well, I did all in the world that was in my
power, by kindness and by harshness, to make an honorable man of you. As
I rather suspected your evil purpose, I treated you in the harshest and
sharpest way in the Saxon Camp,' at Radewitz, in those gala days, 'in
hopes you would consider yourself, and take another line of conduct;
would confess your faults to me, and beg forgiveness. But all in vain;
you grew ever more stiffnecked. When a young man gets into follies with
women, one may try to overlook it as the fault of his age: but to do
with forethought basenesses (LACHETEEN) and ugly actions; 'that is
unpardonable. You thought to carry it through with your headstrong
humor: but hark ye, my lad (HORE, MEIN KERL), if thou wert sixty or
seventy instead of eighteen, thou couldst not cross my resolutions.'
It would take a bigger man to do that, my lad! 'And as, up to this date
(BIS DATO) I have managed to sustain myself against any comer, there
will be methods found of bringing thee to reason too!--

"'How have not I, on all occasions, meant honorably by you! Last time I
got wind of