d with fear and fatigue, it was
not possible for me to compose myself to write. After passing these
dreadful rocks, Dresden appeared to me a wonderfully agreeable
situation, in a fine large plain on the banks of the Elbe. I was
very glad to stay there a day to rest myself. The town is the
neatest I have seen in Germany; most of the houses are new built; the
elector's palace is very handsome, and his repository full of
curiosities of different kinds, with a collection of medals very much
esteemed. Sir ----, our king's envoy, came to see me here, and
Madame de L----, whom I knew in London, when her husband was minister
to the king of Poland there. She offered me all things in her power
to entertain me, and brought some ladies with her, whom she presented
to me. The Saxon ladies resemble the Austrian no more than the
Chinese do those of London; they are very genteelly dressed, after
the English and French modes, and have generally pretty faces, but
they are the most determined _minaudieres_ in the whole world. They
would think it a mortal sin against good-breeding, if they either
spoke or moved in a natural manner. They all affect a little soft
lisp, and a pretty pitty-pat step; which female frailties ought,
however, to be forgiven them, in favour of their civility and good
nature to strangers, which I have a great deal of reason to praise.

THE countess of Cozelle is kept prisoner in a melancholy castle, some
leagues from hence; and I cannot forbear telling you what I have
heard of her, because it seems to me very extraordinary, though I
foresee I shall swell my letter to the size of a pacquet.--She was
mistress to the king of Poland, (elector of Saxony) with so absolute
a dominion over him, that never any lady had so much power in that
court. They tell a pleasant story of his majesty's first declaration
of love, which he made in a visit to her, bringing in one hand a bag
of a hundred thousand crowns, and in the other a horse-shoe, which he
snapped asunder before her face, leaving her to draw the consequences
of such remarkable proofs of strength and liberality. I know not
which charmed her most; but she consented to leave her husband, and
to give herself up to him entirely, being divorced publicly, in such
a manner, as, by their laws, permits either party to marry again.
God knows whether it was at this time, or in some other fond fit, but
'tis certain, the king had the weakness to make her a formal contract
o