fer in his Father's company
than elsewhere, is to go. Wilhelmina had taken leave of him, night of
the 17th, in her Majesty's Apartment; and was in the act of undressing
for bed, when,--judge of a young Princess's terror and surprise,--

"There stept into the anteroom," visible in the half-light there, a
most handsome little Cavalier, dressed, not succinctly as Colonel of the
Potsdam Giants, but "in magnificent French style.--I gave a shriek, not
knowing who it was; and hid myself behind a screen. Madam de Sonsfeld,
my Governess, not less frightened than myself, ran out" to see what
audacious person, at such undue hour, it could be. "But she returned
next moment, accompanying the Cavalier, who was laughing heartily, and
whom I recognized for my Brother. His dress so altered him, he seemed a
different person. He was in the best humor possible.

"'I am come to bid you farewell once more, my dear Sister,' said he:
'and as I know the friendship you have for me, I will not keep you
ignorant of my designs. I go, and do not come back. I cannot endure
the usage I suffer; my patience is driven to an end. It is a favorable
opportunity for flinging off that odious yoke; I will glide out of
Dresden, and get across to England; where I do not doubt I shall work
out your deliverance too, when I am got thither. So I beg you, calm
yourself, We shall soon meet again in places where joy shall succeed our
tears, and where we shall have the happiness to see ourselves in peace,
and free from these persecutions.'" [Wilhelmina, i. 205.]

Wilhelmina stood stupefied, in silence for some moments;--argued long
with her Brother; finally got him to renounce those wild plans, or at
least postpone them; and give her his word that he would attempt nothing
on the present occasion. This small Dresden Excursion of February, 1730,
passed, accordingly, without accident, It was but the prelude to a much
grander Visit now agreed upon between the neighboring Majesties. For
there is a grand thing in the wind. Something truly sublime, of the
scenic-military kind, which has not yet got a name; but shall soon have
a world-wide one,--"Camp of Muhlberg," "Camp of Radewitz," or however to
be named,--which his Polish Majesty will hold in those Saxon parts, in a
month or two. A thing that will astonish all the world, we may hope; and
where the King and Prince of Prussia are to attend as chief guests.

It was during this brief absence in February, or directly after
Fr