of relief, "I will try England, where the predominant
phrase is, Down with the Irish."

George had at one time set his heart upon a double alliance between his
family and that of King Frederick William of Prussia. The desire of
George was that his eldest son, Frederick, should marry the eldest
daughter of the Prussian King, and that the Prussian King's eldest {46}
son should marry George's second daughter. The negotiation, however,
came to nothing. The King of Prussia was prevailed upon to make
objections to it by those around him who feared that he might be
brought too much under the influence of England; and, indeed, it is
said that he himself became a little afraid of some possible
interference with his ways by an English daughter-in-law. The only
interest the project has now is that it put the two kings into bad
humor with each other. The bad humor was constantly renewed by the
quarrels arising out of the King of Prussia's rough, imperious way of
sending recruiting parties into Hanover to cajole or carry off gigantic
recruits for his big battalions. So unkingly did the disputation at
last become that George actually sent a challenge to Frederick William,
and Frederick William accepted it. A place was arranged where the
royal duellists, each crossing his own frontier for the purpose, were
to meet in combat. The wise and persistent opposition of a Prussian
statesman prevailed upon Frederick to give up the idea, and George too
suffered himself to be talked into something like reason. It is almost
a pity for the amusement of posterity that the duel did not come off.
It would have almost been a pity, if the fight had come off, that both
the combatants should not have been killed. The King of Prussia and
the King of England were, it may safely be said, the two most coarse
and brutal sovereigns of the civilized world at the time. The King of
Prussia was more cruel in his coarseness than the King of England. The
King of England was more indecent in his coarseness than the King of
Prussia. For all their royal rank, it must be owned that they were
_arcades ambo_--that is, according to Byron's translation, "blackguards
both."

[Sidenote: 1736--Following the ways of his ancestors]

The fight, however, did not come off, and George had still to find a
wife for his eldest son. She was found in the person of the Princess
Augusta, sister of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha. The duke gave his consent;
the princess offered no