d
have known me better have been trying to lead me into a dishonorable
scrape'--("Here I called in the hounds, JE ROMPIS LES CHIENS," reports
Grumkow, "for he was going to blab everything; I interrupted, saying):--

"EGO. 'But, your Majesty, what is it ruffles you so? I know not what you
talk of. Your Majesty has honorable people about you; and the man
who lets himself be employed in things against your Majesty must be a
traitor.'

"KING. 'Yes, JA, JA. I will do things that will surprise them. I--'

"And, in short, a torrent of exclamations: which I strove to soften
by all manner of incidents and contrivances; succeeding at last,"--by
dexterity and time (but, at this point, the light is now blown out, and
we SEE no more):--"so that he grew quite calm again, and the rest of the
evening passed gently enough.

"Well, you see what the effect of your fine Proposal is, which you said
he would like! I can tell you, it is the most detestable incident that
could have turned up. I know, you had your orders: but you may believe
and depend on it, he has got his heart driven rabid by the business, and
says, 'Who knows now whether that villain Syberg' Gold-cook, that was
hanged the other day, 'was not set on by some people to poison me?' In a
word, he was like a madman.

"What struck me most was when he repeated, 'Only think! Think! Who would
have expected it of people that should have known me; and whom I
know, and have known, better than they fancy!'"--Pleasant passage for
Seckendorf to chew the cud upon, through the night-watches!

"In fine, as I was somewhat confused; and anxious, above all, to keep
him from exploding with the secret, I cannot remember everything, But
Derschau, who was more at his ease, will be able to give you a full
account. He [the King] said more than once: 'THIS was his sickness; the
thing that ailed him, this: it gnawed his heart, and would be the
death of him!' He certainly did not affect; he was in a very
convulsive condition. [JARNI-BLEU, here is a piece of work, Herr
Seckendorf!]--Adieu, I have a headache." Whereupon to bed.

"GRUMKOW."

[Forster, iii. 135, 136.]

This Hansard Report went off direct to Prince Eugene; and ought to have
been a warning to the high Vienna heads and him. But they persisted
not the less to please Robinson or themselves; considering his Prussian
Majesty to be, in fact, a mere rotatory Clothes-horse for drying the
Imperial linen on; and to have no intellect at all, b