ept
the way the moat-bridge is lighted: "Bridge furnished," he says, "with
seven Statues representing the seven Planets, each holding in her hand
a glass lamp in the form of a globe;"--which is a pretty object in the
night-time. The House is now finished; Knobelsdorf rejoicing in his
success; Pesne and others giving the last touch to some ceilings of
a sublime nature. On the lintel of the gate is inscribed FREDERICO
TRANQUILLITATEM COLENTI (To Friedrich courting Tranquillity). The
gardens, walks, hermitages, grottos, are very spacious, fine: not yet
completed,--perhaps will never be. A Temple of Bacchus is just now on
hand, somewhere in those labyrinthic woods: "twelve gigantic Satyrs as
caryatides, crowned by an inverted Punch-bowl for dome;" that is the
ingenious Knobelsdorf's idea, pleasant to the mind. Knobelsdorf is of
austere aspect; austere, yet benevolent and full of honest sagacity;
the very picture of sound sense, thinks Bielfeld. M. Jordan is handsome,
though of small stature; agreeable expression of face; eye extremely
vivid; brown complexion, bushy eyebrows as well as beard are black.
[Bielfeld (abridged), i. 45.]

Or did the reader ever hear of "M. Fredersdorf," Head Valet at this
time? Fredersdorf will become, as it were, Privy-Purse, House-Friend,
and domestic Factotum, and play a great part in coming years. "A tall
handsome man;" much "silent sense, civility, dexterity;" something
"magnificently clever in him," thinks Bielfeld (now, or else twenty
years afterwards); whom we can believe. [Ib. p. 49.] He was a gift
from General Schwerin, this Fredersdorf; once a Private in Schwerin's
regiment, at Frankfurt-on-Oder,--excellent on the flute, for one
quality. Schwerin, who had an eye for men, sent him to Friedrich, in the
Custrin time; hoping he might suit in fluting and otherwise. Which he
conspicuously did. Bielfeld's account, we must candidly say, appears
to be an afterthought; but readers can make their profit of it, all the
same.

As to the Crown-Prince and Princess, words fail to express
their gracious perfections, their affabilities, polite
ingenuities:--Bielfeld's words do give us some pleasant shadowy
conceivability of the Crown-Princess:--

"Tall, and perfect in shape; bust such as a sculptor might copy;
complexion of the finest; features ditto; nose, I confess, smallish
and pointed, but excellent of that kind; hair of the supremest flaxen,
'shining' like a flood of sunbeams, when the powder is