n of confidence came
in [the fact being, my Grumkow's Missive of instructions came in, or
figuratively speaking, my Grumkow himself], and undertook to give me
in a few days a thorough insight into the intrigues which are concealed
under the sending of this new Minister,' Hotham, 'to Berlin; which, and
how they have been concocted, he says, it will astonish me to hear. Of
all this I shall immediately inform your Majesty in a letter of my own
hand; being ever eager to serve your Majesty alone.'

Hotham is now fairly gone, weeks ago; concluded to be now in Berlin,--to
the horror of both rooks. Here is a croak from NOSTI:--

TO THE HERR GRUMKOW AT BERLIN.

LONDON, APRIL, 1730. "... Hotham is no such conjurer as they fancy in
Berlin;--singular enough, how these English are given to undervalue
the Germans; whilst we in Germany overvalue them" (_avons une idee
trop vaste,_ they _trap petite_). 'There is, for instance, Lord
Chesterfield, passes here for a fair-enough kind of man (BON HOMME),
and is a favorite with the King [not with Walpole or the Queen, if
Nosti knew it]; but nobody thinks him such a prodigy as you all do in
Germany,'--which latter bit of Germanism is an undoubted fact; curious
enough to the English, and to the Germans that now read in extinct
Books.

Hotham, as we said, got to Berlin on the 2d of April. From Berlin comes
thereupon, at great length, sordid description by Grumkow, of that
initiatory Hotham Dinner, April Third, with fearful details of the
blazing favor Hotham is in. Which his Majesty (when Hotham hands it to
him, in due time) will read with painful interest; as Reichenbach now
does;--but which to us is all mere puddle, omissible in this place.

To which sad Strophe, there straightway follows due Anti-strophe,
Reichenbach croaking responsive;--and we are to note, the rooks always
speak in the third person and by ambiguous periphrasis; never once say
"I" or "You," unless forced by this Editor, for brevity's sake, to do
it. Reichenbach from his perch thus hoarsely chants:--

TO THE HERR GRUMKOW AT BERLIN.

LONDON, 11th APRIL. 'Reichenbach EST COUP-DE-FOUDRE,--is struck by
lightning,--to hear these Berlin news;'--and expresses, in the style of
a whipt dog, his sorrows, uncertainties and terrors, on the occasion.
"Struck with lightning. Feel myself quite ill, and not in a condition
to write much today. It requires another head than mine to veer round so
often (_changer si souvent de systame