man, nor had about him
any one that could; and he needed now to be so. This is the service a
Belleisle can do; inflating a poor man to Kaisership, beyond his natural
size! Crowned Kaiser, and Mentzel just entering his Munchen the while;
a Kaiser bedrid, stranded; lying ill there of gout and gravel, with
the Demon Mentzels eating him:--well may his poor little bullet of a
Kaiserinn pray for him night and day, if that will avail!--

THE DUCHESS DOWAGER OF WURTEMBERG, RETURNING FROM BERLIN FAVORS US WITH
ANOTHER VISIT.

I am sorry to say this is almost the last scene we shall get out of
Wilhelmina. She returns to Baireuth; breaks there conclusively that
unwise Frankfurt bargain; receives by and by (after several months,
when much has come and gone in the world) the returning Duchess of
Wurtemberg, effulgent Dowager "spoken of only as a Lais:" and has other
adventures, alluded to up and down, but not put in record by herself any
farther.--Sorrowfully let us hear Wilhelmina yet a little, on this Lais
Duchess, who will concern us somewhat. Dowager, much too effulgent, of
the late Karl Alexander, a Reichs-Feldmarschall (or FOURTH-PART of one,
if readers could remember) and Duke of Wurtemberg,--whom we once dined
with at Prag, in old Friedrich-Wilhelm and Prince-Eugene times:--

"This Princess, very famous on the bad side, had been at Berlin to see
her three Boys settled there, whose education she [and the STANDE of
Wurtemberg, she being Regent] had committed to the King. These Princes
had been with us on their road thither, just before their Mamma last
time. The Eldest, age fourteen, had gone quite agog (S'ETOIT AMOURACHE)
about my little Girl, age only nine; and had greatly diverted us by his
little gallantries [mark that, with an Alas!]. The Duchess, following
somewhat at leisure, had missed the King that time; who was gone for
Mahren, January 18th. ... I found this Princess wearing pretty well. Her
features are beautiful, but her complexion is faded and very yellow. Her
voice is so high and screechy, it cuts your ears; she does not want for
wit, and expresses herself well. Her manners are engaging for those whom
she wishes to gain; and with men are very free. Her way of thinking and
acting offers a strange contrast of pride and meanness. Her gallantries
had brought her into such repute that I had no pleasure in her visits."
[Wilhelmina, ii. 335.] No pleasure; though she often came; and her
Eldest Prince, and my lit