had once got our own out of both, let both
be consumed with fire, and remain a handful of inarticulate black ashes
forevermore." Heavens, will I, of all men, object!

Smelfungus says elsewhere:--

"The moral to be derived, perhaps the chief moral visible at present,
from all this Section of melancholy History is: Modern Diplomacy is
nothing; mind well your own affairs, leave those of your neighbors well
alone. The Pragmatic Sanction, breaking Fritz's, Friedrich Wilhelm's,
Sophie's, Wilhelmina's, English Amelia's and I know not how many private
hearts, and distracting with vain terrors and hopes the general soul of
Europe for five-and-twenty years, fell at once into dust and vapor,
and went wholly towards limbo on the storm-winds, doing nothing for
or against any mortal. Friedrich Wilhelm's 80,000 well-drilled troops
remained very actual with their firelocks and iron ramrods, and did
a thing or two, there being a Captain over them. Friedrich Wilhelm's
Directorium, well-drilled Prussian Downing Street, every man steady
at his duty, and no wind to be wasted where silence was better, did
likewise very authentically remain,--and still remains. Nothing of
genuine and human that Friedrich Wilhelm did but remained and remains an
inheritance, not the smallest item of IT lost or losable;--and the rude
foolish Boor-King (singular enough!) is found to be the only one that
has gained by the game."--

Chapter IV. -- EXCELLENCY HOTHAM QUITS BERLIN IN HASTE.

While the Camp at Radewitz is dissolving itself in this manner, in the
last days of June, Captain Guy Dickens, the oracles at Windsor having
given him their response as to Prince Friedrich's wild project, is
getting under way for Berlin again,--whither also Hotham has returned,
to wait for Dickens's arrival, and directly thereupon come home. Dickens
is henceforth to do the British Diplomacy here, any Diplomacy there can
well be; Dickens once installed, Hotham will, right gladly, wash his
hands of this Negotiation, which he considers to be as good as dead for
a longish while past. First, however, he has one unexpected adventure
to go through in Berlin; of most unexpected celebrity in the world: this
once succinctly set forth, History will dismiss him to the shades of
private life.

Guy Dickens, arriving we can guess about the 8th or 9th of July, brings
two important Documents with him to Berlin, FIRST, the English Response
(in the shape of "Instructions" to himself, whi