nts and singularities, as we have heard: the like of
which were spared her in this her second edition (so we may call it);
a second and, in all manner of ways, an improved one. The young Fritz
swallowed no shoe-buckles; did not leap out of window, hanging on by the
hands; nor achieve anything of turbulent, or otherwise memorable, in his
infantine history; the course of which was in general smooth, and runs,
happily for it, below the ken of rumor. The Boy, it is said, and is
easily credible, was of extraordinary vivacity; quick in apprehending
all things, and gracefully relating himself to them. One of the
prettiest, vividest little boys; with eyes, with mind and ways, of
uncommon brilliancy;--only he takes less to soldiering than the paternal
heart could wish; and appears to find other things in the world fully as
notable as loud drums, and stiff men drawn up in rows. Moreover, he is
apt to be a little unhealthy now and then, and requires care from his
nurses, over whom the judicious Roucoulles has to be very vigilant.

Of this respectable Madame de Roucoulles I have read, at least seven
times, what the Prussian Books say of her by way of Biography; but it is
always given in their dull tombstone style; it has moreover next to no
importance; and I,--alas, I do not yet too well remember it! She was
from Normandy; of gentle blood, never very rich; Protestant, in the
Edict-of-Nantes time; and had to fly her country, a young widow, with
daughter and mother-in-law hanging on her; the whole of them almost
penniless. However, she was kindly received at the Court of Berlin, as
usual in that sad case; and got some practical help towards living
in her new country. Queen Sophie Charlotte had liked her society; and
finding her of prudent intelligent turn, and with the style of manners
suitable, had given her Friedrich Wilhelm to take charge of. She was at
that time Madame de Montbail; widow, as we said: she afterwards wedded
Roucoulles, a refugee gentleman of her own Nation, who had gone into the
Prussian Army, as was common for the like of him: She had again become a
widow, Madame de Roucoulles this time, with her daughter Montbail still
about her, when, by the grateful good sense of Friedrich Wilhelm, she
was again intrusted as we see;--and so had the honor of governessing
Frederick the Great for the first seven years of his life. Respectable
lady, she oversaw his nurses, pap-boats,--"beer-soup and bread," he
himself tells us once,