s abstract of HOTHAM'S
DESPATCH, 16th June, 1730, which Dickens is to deliver with all caution
at St. James's: "Crown-Prince has communicated to Dickens his plan of
escape; 'could no longer bear the outrages of his Father.' Is to attend
his Father to Anspath shortly (JOURNEY TO THE REICH, of which we shall
hear anon), and they are to take a turn to Stuttgard: which latter
is not very far from Strasburg on the French side of the Rhine. To
Strasburg he will make his escape; stay six weeks or a couple of months
(that his Mother be not suspected); and will then proceed to England.
Hopes England will take such measures as to save his Sister from ruin."
These are his fixed resolutions: what will England do in such abstruse
case?--Captain Dickens speeds silently with his Despatch; will find Lord
Harrington, not Townshend any more; [Resigned 15th May, 1730: Despatch
to Hotham, as farewell, of that date.] will copiously open his lips to
Harrington on matters Prussian. A brisk military man, in the prime of
his years; who might do as Prussian Envoy himself, if nothing great were
going on? Harrington's final response will take some deliberating.

Hotham, meanwhile, resumes his report, as we too must do, of the Scenic
Exhibitions;--and, we can well fancy, is getting weary of it; wishing to
be home rather, "as his business here seems ended." [Preceding Despatch
(of 16th June).] One day he mentions a rumor (inane high rumors being
prevalent in such a place); "rumor circulated here, to which I do not
give the slightest credit, that the Prince-Royal of Prussia is to have
one of the Archduchesses," perhaps Maria Theresa herself! Which might
indeed have saved immensities of trouble to the whole world, as well
as to the Pair in question, and have made a very different History for
Germany and the rest of us. Fancy it! But for many reasons, change of
religion, had there been no other, it was an impossible notion. "May
be," thinks Hotham, "that the Court of Vienna throws out this bait to
continue the King's delusion,"--or a snuffle from Seckendorf, without
the Court, may have given it currency in so inane an element as
Radewitz.

Of the terrific Sham-Battles, conducted by Weissenfels on one side and
Wackerbarth on the other; of the charges of cavalry, play of artillery,
threatening to end in a very doomsday, round the Pavilion and the Ladies
and the Royalties assembled on the balconies there (who always go to
dinner safe, when victory has de