re
_OEuvres de Frederic,_ ii. 84; and Valori, i. 119, 122.]

The unsuccessfulest negotiation well imaginable by a public man.
Strehlen, Monday, 7th August, 1741:--Friedrich has vanished into the
interior of his tent; and the two Diplomatic gentlemen, the wind struck
out of them in this manner, remain gazing at one another. Here truly is
a young Royal gentleman that knows his own mind, while so many do not.
Unspeakable imbroglio of negotiations, mostly insane, welters over all
the Earth; the Belleisles, the Aulic Councils, the British Georges,
heaping coil upon coil: and here, notably, in that now so extremely
sordid murk of wiggeries, inane diplomacies and solemn deliriums, dark
now and obsolete to all creatures, steps forth one little Human
Figure, with something of sanity in it: like a star, like a gleam
of steel,--shearing asunder your big balloons, and letting out their
diplomatic hydrogen;--salutes with his hat, "Gentlemen, Gentlemen, it
is of no use!" and vanishes into the interior of his tent. It is to
Excellency Robinson, among all the sons of Adam then extant, that we owe
this interesting Passage of History,--authentic glimpse, face to face,
of the young Friedrich in those extraordinary circumstances: every
feature substantially as above, and recognizable for true. Many
Despatches his Excellency wrote in this world,--sixty or eighty volumes
of them still left,--but among them is this One: the angriest of mankind
cannot say that his Excellency lived and embassied quite in vain!

The Two Britannic Gentlemen, both on that distressing Monday and the day
following, had the honor to dine with the King: who seemed in exuberant
spirits; cutting and bantering to right and left; upon the Court of
Vienna, among other topics, in a way which I Robinson "will not repeat
to your Lordship." Bade me, for example, "As you pass through Neisse,
make my compliments to Marshal Neipperg; and you can say, Excellency
Robinson, that I hope to have the pleasure of calling, one of these
days!"--Podewils, who was civil, pressed us much to stay over Wednesday,
the 9th. "On Thursday is to be a Grand Review, one of the finest
military sights; to which the Excellencies from Breslau, one and all,
are coming out." But we, having our Despatches and Expresses on hand,
pleaded business, and declined, in spite of Podewils's urgencies. And
set off for Breslau, Wednesday, morning,--meeting various Excellencies,
by degrees all the Excellencies, on the