ing one
another, and the miserablest marriage in the world;--to hear their
mutual complaints, which will be to him so many reproaches for having
fashioned the instrument of our yoke. As a good Christian, let him
consider, If it is well done to wish to force people; to cause divorces,
and to be the occasion of all the sins that an ill-assorted marriage
leads us to commit! I am determined to front everything in the world
sooner: and since things are so, you may in some good way apprise the
Duke" of Bevern "that, happen what may, I never will have her.

"I have been unfortunate (MALHEUREUX) all my life; and I think it is
my destiny to continue so. One must be patient, and take the time as it
comes. Perhaps a sudden tract of good fortune, on the back of all the
chagrins I have made profession of ever since I entered this world,
would have made me too proud. In a word, happen what will, I have
nothing to reproach myself with. I have suffered sufficiently for an
exaggerated crime [that of "attempting to desert;"--Heavens!]--and I
will not engage myself to extend my miseries (CHAGRINS) into future
times. I have still resources:--a pistol-shot can deliver me from my
sorrows and my life: and I think a merciful God would not damn me
for that; but, taking pity on me, would, in exchange for a life of
wretchedness, grant me salvation. This is whitherward despair can lead
a young person, whose blood is not so quiescent as if he were seventy.
I have a feeling of myself, Monsieur; and perceive that, when one hates
the methods of force as much as I, our boiling blood will carry us
always towards extremities.

... "If there are honest people in the world, they must think how to
save me from one of the most perilous passages I have ever been in.
I waste myself in gloomy ideas; I fear I shall not be able to hide my
grief, on coming to Berlin. This is the sad state I am in;--but it will
never make me change from being,"--surely to an excessive degree, the
illustrious Grumkow's most &c. &c.

"FREDERIC."

"I have received a Letter from the King; all agog (BIEN COIFFE) about
the Princess. I think I may still finish the week here. [26th, did
arrive in Berlin: Preuss (in _OEuvres,_ xxvii. part 3d, p. 58 n).] When
his first fire of approbation is spent, you might, praising her all the
while, lead him to notice her faults. Mon Dieu, has he not already seen
what an ill-assorted marriage comes to,--my Sister of Anspach and her
Husband, who hate