es
the road again; turns now abruptly westward, across the Hills at their
lowest point; into Bohemia, which is close at hand. Lewin, Nachod,
these are the Bohemian villages, with their remnant of Czechs; not a
prosperous population to look upon: but it is the Kaiser's own
Kingdom: "King of Bohemia" one of his Titles ever since Sigismund
SUPER-GRAMMATICAM'S time. And here now, at the meeting of the waters
(Elbe one of them, a brawling mountain-stream) is Jaromierz, respectable
little Town, with an Imperial Officiality in it,--where the Official
Gentlemen meet us all in gala, "Thrice welcome to this Kingdom, your
Majesty!"--and signify that they are to wait upon us henceforth, while
we do the Kaiser's Kingdom of Bohemia that honor.

It is Tuesday night, 29th July, this first night in Bohemia. The
Official Gentlemen lead his Majesty to superb rooms, new-hung with
crimson velvet, and the due gold fringes and tresses,--very grand
indeed; but probably not so airy as we wish. "This is the way the Kaiser
lodges in his journeys; and your Majesty is to be served like him." The
goal of our journey is now within few miles. Wednesday, 30th July, 1732,
his Majesty awakens again, within these crimson-velvet hangings with
the gold tresses and fringes, not so airy as he could wish; despatches
Grumkow to the Kaiser, who is not many miles off, to signify what honor
we would do ourselves.

It was on Saturday last that the Kaiser and Kaiserinn, returning
from Karlsbad, illuminated Prag with their serene presence; "attended
high-mass, vespers," and a good deal of other worship, as the meagre old
Newspapers report for us, on that and the Sunday following. And then,
"on Monday, at six in the morning," both the Majesties left Prag, for
a place called Chlumetz, southwestward thirty miles off, in the Elbe
region, where they have a pretty Hunting Castle; Kaiser intending
"sylvan sport for a few days," says the old rag of a Newspaper, "and
then to return to Prag." It is here that Grumkow, after a pleasant
morning's drive of thirty miles with the sun on his back, finds Kaiser
Karl VI.; and makes his announcements, and diplomatic inquiries what
next.

Had Friedrich Wilhelm been in Potsdam or Wusterhausen, and heard that
Kaiser Karl was within thirty miles of him, Friedrich Wilhelm would have
cried, with open arms, Come, come! But the Imperial Majesty is otherwise
hampered; has his rhadamanthine Aulic Councillors, in vast amplitude of
wig, sternly