r.

Chapter VI. -- IMMINENCY OF WAR OR DUEL BETWEEN THE BRITANNIC AND
PRUSSIAN MAJESTIES.

The Double-Marriage negotiation hung fire, in the end of 1728; but
everybody thought, especially Queen Sophie thought, it would come to
perfection; old Ilgen, almost the last thing he did, shed tears of joy
about it. These fine outlooks received a sad shock in the Year now come;
when secret grudges burst out into open flame; and Berlin, instead
of scenic splendors for a Polish Majesty, was clangorous with note of
preparation for imminent War. Probably Queen Sophie never had a
more agitated Summer than this of 1729. We are now arrived at that
thrice-famous Quarrel, or almost Duel, of Friedrich Wilhelm and his
Britannic Brother-in-law little George II.; and must try to riddle
from those distracted Paper-masses some notice of it, not wholly
unintelligible to the reader. It is loudly talked of, loudly, but alas
also loosely to a degree, in all manner of dull Books; and is at once
thrice-famous and extremely obscure. The fact is, Nature intended it for
eternal oblivion;--and that, sure enough, would have been its fate long
since, had not persons who were then thought to be of no importance, but
are now seen to be of some, stood connected with it more or less.

Friedrich Wilhelm, for his own part, had seen in the death of George
I. an evil omen from the English quarter; and all along, in spite of
transient appearances to the contrary, had said to himself, "If the
First George, with his solemnities and tacit sublimities, was offensive
now and then, what will the Second George be? The Second George has been
an offence from the beginning!" In which notions the Smoking Parliament,
vitally interested to do it, in these perilous Soissons times, big
with the fate of the Empire and Universe, is assiduous to confirm his
Majesty. The Smoking Parliament, at Potsdam, at Berlin, in the solitudes
of Wusterhausen, has been busy; and much tobacco, much meditation and
insinuation have gone up, in clouds more abstruse than ever, since the
death of George I.

It is certain, George II. was a proud little fellow; very high and
airy in his ways; not at all the man to Friedrich Wilhelm's heart, nor
reciprocally. A man of some worth, too; "scrupulously kept his word,"
say the witnesses: a man always conscious to himself, "Am not I a man
of honor, then?" to a punctilious degree. For the rest, courageous as a
Welf; and had some sense withal,--though tr