igadier's Despatch of the
morrow. It never was intrinsically of much moment; and is now fallen
very obsolete, and altogether of none: but as a glance at first-hand
into the dim old thoughts of Friedrich Wilhelm, the reader may take it
with him:--

"The King said next, That though we made little noise, yet he knew well
our design--was to kindle a fire in other parts of Lower Germany. To
which I answered, That if his Majesty would give me favorable hearing,
I could easily persuade him of the peaceable intentions of our Allies.
'Well,' says he, 'the Emperor will abandon the Netherlands, and who will
be master of them? I see the day when you will make France so powerful,
that it will be difficult to bring them to reason again.'--DUBOURGAY:
'If the Emperor abandoned the Netherlands, they would be governed by
their own Magistrate, and defended by their own Militia. As to the
French, we are too well persuaded of the benefit of our Allies, to--'
Upon which the King of Prussia said, 'It appeared plainly we had a mind
to dispose as we pleased of Kingdoms and provinces in Italy, so
that probably our next thought would be to do the same in
Germany.'--DUBOURGAY: 'The allotments made in favor of Don Carlos have
been made with the consent of the Emperor and the whole Empire. We could
not suffer a longer interruption of our commerce with Spain, for the
sake of the small difference between the Treaty of Seville and the
Quadruple Alliance, in regard to the Garrison,'"--to the introducing
of Spanish Garrisons, at once, into Parma and Piacenza; which was the
special thunder-bolt of the late Soissons Catastrophe, or Treaty of
Seville.--"'Well, then,' says his Prussian Majesty, 'you must allow,
then, there IS an infraction of the Quadruple Alliance, and that the
Emperor will make war!' 'I hope not,' said I: 'but if so, a Ten-Years
War, in conjunction with the Allies of Seville, never would be so bad as
the interruption of our Commerce with Old and New Spain for one year.'

"The King of Prussia's notion about our DISPOSING OF PROVINCES IN
GERMANY," adds Dubourgay, "is, I believe, an insinuation of Seckendorf,
who, I doubt not, has made him believe we intended to do so with respect
to Berg and Julich."

Very probably:--but Hotham is getting under way, hopeful to spoil that
game. Prussian Majesty, we see, is not insensible to so much honor; and
brightens into hopefulness and fine humor in consequence. What
radiancy spread over the Queen's si