in the wretched barrack-court of Berlin. The Court
of the Archduchess-Governess of the Netherlands was, likewise, a royal
place for us knights of the dice-box and gallant votaries of fortune;
whereas in the stingy Dutch or the beggarly Swiss republics, it was
impossible for a gentleman to gain a livelihood unmolested.

After our mishap at Mannheim, my uncle and I made for the Duchy of X---.
The reader may find out the place easily enough; but I do not choose to
print at full the names of some illustrious persons in whose society I
then fell, and among whom I was made the sharer in a very strange and
tragical adventure.

There was no Court in Europe at which strangers were more welcome than
at that of the noble Duke of X---; none where pleasure was more eagerly
sought after, and more splendidly enjoyed. The Prince did not inhabit
his capital of S---, but, imitating in every respect the ceremonial of
the Court of Versailles, built himself a magnificent palace at a
few leagues from his chief city, and round about his palace a superb
aristocratic town, inhabited entirely by his nobles, and the officers of
his sumptuous Court. The people were rather hardly pressed, to be sure,
in order to keep up this splendour; for his Highness's dominions were
small, and so he wisely lived in a sort of awful retirement from them,
seldom showing his face in his capital, or seeing any countenances but
those of his faithful domestics and officers. His palace and gardens of
Ludwigslust were exactly on the French model. Twice a week there were
Court receptions, and grand Court galas twice a month. There was the
finest opera out of France, and a ballet unrivalled in splendour;
on which his Highness, a great lover of music and dancing, expended
prodigious sums. It may be because I was then young, but I think I never
saw such an assemblage of brilliant beauty as used to figure there on
the stage of the Court theatre, in the grand mythological ballets which
were then the mode, and in which you saw Mars in red-heeled pumps and
a periwig, and Venus in patches and a hoop. They say the costume was
incorrect, and have changed it since; but for my part, I have never
seen a Venus more lovely than the Coralie, who was the chief dancer, and
found no fault with the attendant nymphs, in their trains, and lappets,
and powder. These operas used to take place twice a week, after
which some great officer of the Court would have his evening, and his
brilliant su