.]

I add only that the Fabrice, who had poor George in his arms that night,
is a man worth mentioning. The same Fabrice (Fabricius, or perhaps
GOLDSCHMIDT in German) who went as Envoy from the Holstein-Gottorp
people to Charles XII. in his Turkish time; and stayed with his Swedish
Majesty there, for a year or two, indeed till the catastrophe came. His
Official LETTERS from that scene are in print, this long while, though
considerably forgotten; [_Anecdotes du Sejour du Roi de Suide a Bender,
ou Lettres de M. le Baron de Fabrice pour servir d'elaircissement a
l'Histoire de Charles XII._ (Hambourg, 1760, 8vo).] a little Volume,
worth many big ones that have been published on that subject. The same
Fabrice, following Hanover afterwards, came across to London in due
course; and there he did another memorable thing: made acquaintance with
the Monsieur Arouet, then a young French Exile there, Arouet Junior
("LE JEUNE or L. J."), who,--by an ingenious anagram, contrived in his
indignation at such banishment,--writes himself VOLTAIRE ever since; who
has been publishing a HENRIADE, and doing other things. Now it was by
questioning this Fabrice, and industriously picking the memory of him
clean, that M. de Voltaire wrote another book, much more of an "Epic"
than Henri IV.,--a HISTORY, namely, OF CHARLES XII.; [See Voltaire,
_OEuvres Completes_, ii. 149, xxx. 7, 127. Came out in 1731 (ib. xxx.
Avant-Propos, p. ii).] which seems to me the best-written of all his
Books, and wants nothing but TRUTH (indeed a dreadful want) to make it
a possession forever. VOLTAIRE, if you want fine writing; ADLERFELD
and FABRICE, if you would see the features of the Fact: these three are
still the Books upon Charles XII.

HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY FALLS INTO ONE OF HIS HYPOCHONDRIACAL FITS.

Before this event, his Majesty was in gloomy humor; and special
vexations had superadded themselves. Early in the Spring, a difficult
huff of quarrel, the consummation of a good many grudges long
subsisting, had fallen out with his neighbor of Saxony, the Majesty of
Poland, August, whom we have formerly heard of, a conspicuous Majesty
in those days; called even "August the Great" by some persons in his
own time; but now chiefly remembered by his splendor of upholstery,
his enormous expenditure in drinking and otherwise, also by his three
hundred and fifty-four Bastards (probably the maximum of any King's
performance in that line), and called August DER STARKE