braces the two young creatures with great
tenderness;" as do Queen and Serenities; and then all the world takes to
embracing and congratulating; and so the betrothal is a finished
thing. Bassoons and violins, striking up, whirl it off in universal
dancing,--in "supper of above two hundred and sixty persons," princely
or otherwise sublime in rank, with "spouses and noble ladies there" in
the due proportion. [Fassmann, pp. 432, 433.]

Here is fraction of another Note from the Crown-Prince to his Sister at
Baireuth, a fortnight after that event:--

BERLIN, 24th MARCH, 1732 (to Princess Wilhelmina).--... "God be praised
that you are better, dearest Sister! For nobody can love you more
tenderly than I do.--As to the Princess of Bevern [my Betrothed], the
Queen [Mamma, whom you have been consulting on these etiquettes] bids me
answer, That you need not style her `Highness,' and that you may write
to her quite as to an indifferent Princess. As to 'kissing of the
hands,' I assure you I have not kissed them, nor will kiss them; they
are not pretty enough to tempt one that way. God long preserve you in
perfect health! And you, preserve for me always the honor of your good
graces; and believe, my charming Sister, that never brother in the
world loved with such tenderness a sister so charming as mine; in short,
believe, dear Sister, that without compliments, and in literal truth, I
am yours wholly (TOUT A VOUS),

"FRIDERICH."

[Ib. xxvii. part 1st, p. 5.]

This is the Betrothal of the Crown-Prince to an Insipidity of Brunswick.
Insipidity's private feelings, perhaps of a languidly glad sort, are
not known to us; Crown-Prince's we have in part seen. He has decided to
accept his fate without a murmur farther. Against his poor Bride or her
qualities not a word more. In the Schloss of Berlin, amid such tempests
of female gossip (Mamma still secretly corresponding with England), he
has to be very reserved, on this head especially. It is understood he
did not, in his heart, nearly so much dislike the insipid Princess as he
wished Papa to think he did.

Duke Franz of Lorraine went off above a week ago, on the Saturday
following the Betrothal; an amiable serene young gentleman, well liked
by the Crown-Prince and everybody. "He avoided the Saxon Court, though
passing near it," on his way to old Kur-Mainz; "which is a sign,"
thinks Fassmann, "that mutual matters are on a weak footing in that
quarter;"--Pragmatic Sanction never accep