at length crockery goes flying
through the rooms, blows descend on the poor Prince's back; and her
Majesty is in tears, mere Chaos come again. For as a general rule,
unless the English Negotiation have some prospering fit, and produce
exceptional phenomena, Friedrich Wilhelm, ever loyal in heart, stands
steadfast by his Kaiser; ever ready "to strike out (LOS ZU SCHLAGEN,"
as he calls it) with his best strength in behalf of a cause which, good
soul, he thinks is essentially German;--all the readier if at any time
it seem now exclusively German, the French, Spanish, English, and other
unlovely Foreign world being clean cut loose from it, or even standing
ranked against it. "When will it go off, then (WANN GEHT ES LOS)?" asks
Friedrich Wilhelm often; diligently drilling his sixty thousand, and
snorting contempt on "Ungermanism (UNDEUTSCHHEIT)," be it on the part
of friends or of enemies. Good soul, and whether he will ever get
Julich and Berg out of it, is distractingly problematical, and the
Tobacco-Parliament is busy with him!

Curious to see, so far as dates go, how Friedrich Wilhelm changes his
tune to Wife and Children in exact correspondence to the notes given
out at Soissons for a Kaiser and his Pragmatic Sanction. Poor Prussian
Household, poor back, and heart, of Crown-Prince; what a concert it is
in this world, Smoking Parliament for souffleur! Let the big Diplomatist
Bassoon of the Universe go this way, there are caresses for a young
Soldier and his behavior in the giant regiment; let the same Bassoon
sound that way, bangs and knocks descend on him; the two keep time
together,--so busy is the Smoking Parliament with his Majesty of
Prussia. The world has seen, with horror and wonder, Friedrich Wilhelm's
beating of his grown children: but the pair of MEERKATZEN, or enchanted
Demon-Apes, disguised as loyal Councillors, riding along with him the
length of a Terrestrial Equator, have not been so familiar to the world.
Seckendorf, Grumkow: we had often heard of Devil-Diplomatists; and
shuddered over horrible pictures of them in Novels; hoping it was
all fancy: but here actually is a pair of them, transcending all
Novels;--perhaps the highest cognizable fact to be met with in
Devil-Diplomacy. And it may be a kind of comfort to readers, both to
know it, and to discern gradually what the just gods make of it withal.
Devil-Diplomatists do exist, at least have existed, never doubt it
farther; and their astonishingly dexter