p the Warta Country, eastward some five-and-thirty miles,
much preparatory digging and stubbing there); and he "slept at Massin
[circuitous road back], where he shot a few stags this morning. As I
was told he might probably dine at Kammin [still nearer Custrin, twelve
miles from it; half that distance east of Zorndorf,--mark that, O reader
(see Map)] with Madam Colonel Schoning, I drove thither. He had arrived
there a moment before me." And who is Madam Schoning, lady of Kammin
here?--Patience, reader.

"I found him much grown; an air of health and gayety about him. He
caressed me greatly (ME GRACIEUSA FORT); afterwards questioned me about
my way of life in Vienna; and asked, if I had diverted myself well
there? I told him what business had been the occasion of my journey,
and that this rather than amusements had occupied me; for the rest, that
there had been great affluence of company, and no lack of diversions. He
spoke a long time to Madam de Wreech "--

"Wrochem" Schulenburg calls her: young Wife of Lieutenant-General von
Wreech, a Marlborough Campaigner, made a Knight of Malta the other day;
[_Militair-Lexikon,_ iv. 269.]--HIS charming young Wife, and Daughter of
Madam Colonel Schoning our hostess here; lives at Tamsel, in high
style, in these parts: mark the young Lady well,--"who did not appear
indifferent to him." No!--"and in fact she was in all her beauty; a
complexion of lily and rose."

Charming creature; concerning whom there are anecdotes still afloat, and
at least verses of this Prince's writing; not too well seen by Wreech,
lately made a Knight of Malta, who, though only turning forty, is
perhaps twice her age. The beautifulest, cleverest,--fancy it; and
whether the peaty Neumark produces nothing in the floral kind!

"We went to dinner; he asked me to sit beside him. The conversation
fell, among other topics, on the Elector Palatine's Mistress," crotchety
old gentleman, never out of quarrels, with Heidelberg Protestants, heirs
of Julich and Berg, and in general with an unreasonable world, whom
we saw at Mannheim last year; has a Mistress,--"Elector Valatine's
Mistress, called Taxis. Crown-Prince said: 'I should like to know what
that good old gentleman does with a Mistress?' I answered, that the
fashion had come so much in vogue, Princes did not think they were
Princes unless they had mistresses; and that I was amazed at the
facility of women, how they could shut their eyes on the sad reverse of
fort