timer castle, in the suite of one of the Prussian princes. We had
been thus old friends, and we now became young ones within the first
quarter of an hour. His countenance was that of a humourist, and his
recollections of the Great Frederick rendered him sarcastic on all
things of the later generation.

"The duke has sent me for you," said he, "with his apology for keeping
you out of bed; but he has appointed midnight for the delivery of your
despatches. The truth is, that hitherto we have all slept so soundly,
that we must make up for lost time by turning night into day now, just
as we have turned day into night for the last twelvemonth."

"But what can you tell me of the duke?"

"Oh! a great deal; but you know that I am on his staff, and therefore
bound to keep his secrets."

"Yet, count, remember that we have sworn an eternal friendship within
the last five minutes. What can he or I be the worse for my knowing his
great and good qualities?"

"My dear young friend, when you are as old as I am, you will see the
improprieties of such questions."

"Well, then, to come to the point; is he a great general?"

"He speaks French better than any other prince in Germany."

"Is he an able politician?"

"You must see him on horseback; he rides like a centaur."

"Well, then, in one sentence, will he fight the French?"

"That wholly depends on whether he turns his horse's head towards Paris
or Berlin."

"Count, but one question more, which you may answer without a riddle. Do
you think that he will receive my mission cordially?"

"He speaks your language; he wears your broad cloth; he loves your
porter; and he has married one of your princesses."

"All my difficulties are answered. I am ready; but what shall I find him
doing at this extraordinary hour?"

"If asleep, dreaming of the opera at Brunswick; if awake, dreaming of
the opera at Paris."

His diamond repeater, which he had laid on the table between us, struck
twelve as he spoke; and, wrapping ourselves in our cloaks, we sallied
forth into one of the most starry nights of autumn, and made our way,
through long ranges of patrols and videttes, to the quarters of the
generalissimo.

The mansion was an old chateau, evidently long abandoned to loneliness
and decay one of those huge edifices; whose building had cost one
fortune, and whose support had exhausted another. But the struggle had
been over for the last fifty years, and two or three shrivelled
domestics