aled into the hands of the postmaster; but they feared, no
doubt, that something might be said to inculpate themselves, and refused
him the permission. At the next review Frederick treated them, it is
said, with great severity, and rebuked them for not having granted the
Frenchman his request. However, it was the King's interest to conceal
the matter, and so it was, as I have said before, hushed up--so well
hushed up, that a hundred thousand soldiers in the army knew it; and
many's the one of us that has drunk to the Frenchman's memory over our
wine, as a martyr for the cause of the soldier. I shall have,
doubtless, some readers who will cry out at this, that I am encouraging
insubordination and advocating murder. If these men had served as
privates in the Prussian army from 1760 to 1765, they would not be
so apt to take objection. This man destroyed two sentinels to get his
liberty; how many hundreds of thousands of his own and the Austrian
people did King Frederick kill because he took a fancy to Silesia? It
was the accursed tyranny of the system that sharpened the axe which
brained the two sentinels of Neiss: and so let officers take warning,
and think twice ere they visit poor fellows with the cane.

I could tell many more stories about the army; but as, from having been
a soldier myself, all my sympathies are in the ranks, no doubt my
tales would be pronounced to be of an immoral tendency, and I had best,
therefore, be brief. Fancy my surprise while in this depot, when one day
a well-known voice saluted my ear, and I heard a meagre young gentleman,
who was brought in by a couple of troopers and received a few cuts
across the shoulders from one of them, say in the best English, 'You
infernal WASCAL, I'll be wevenged for this. I'll WITE to my ambassador,
as sure as my name's Fakenham of Fakenham.' I burst out laughing at
this: it was my old acquaintance in MY corporal's coat. Lischen had
sworn stoutly, that he was really and truly the private, and the poor
fellow had been drafted off, and was to be made one of us. But I bear no
malice, and having made the whole room roar with the story of the way
in which I had tricked the poor lad, I gave him a piece of advice, which
procured him his liberty. 'Go to the inspecting officer,' said I; 'if
they once get you into Prussia it is all over with you, and they will
never give you up. Go now to the commandant of the depot, promise him
a hundred--five hundred guineas to set you f