e
prowling about; especially one "Ramen," a Queen's soubrette, who gets
trusted with everything, and betrays everything; upon whom Wilhelmina
is often eloquent. Never was such a traitress; took Dubourgay's
bribe, which the Queen had advised; and, all the same, betrays
everything,--bribe included. And the Queen, so bewitched, can keep
nothing from her. Female Parliament must, take precautions about the
Ramen!--For the rest, Female Parliament advises two things: 1. Pressing
Letter to England; that of course, written with the eloquence of
despair: and then 2. That in case of utter extremity, her Majesty
"pretend to fall ill." That is Crisis First; and that is their expedient
upon it.

Letter goes to England, therefore; setting forth the extremity of
strait, and pinch: "Now or never, O my Sister Caroline!" Many such
have gone, first and last; but this is the strongest of all. Nay the
Crown-Prince too shall write to his Aunt of England: you, Wilhelmina,
draw out, a fit brief Letter for him: send it to Potsdam, he will copy
it there! [Wilhelmina, i. 183.] So orders the Mother: Wilhelmina does
it, with a terrified heart; Crown-Prince copies without scruple: "I have
already given your Majesty my word of honor never to wed any one but the
Princess Amelia your Daughter; I here reiterate that Promise, in case
your Majesty will consent to my Sister's Marriage,"--should that alone
prove possible in the present intricacies. "We are all reduced to such
a state that"--Wilhelmina gives the Letter in full; but as it is
professedly of her own composition, a loose vague piece, the very date
of which you have to grope out for yourself, it cannot even count among
the several Letters written by the Crown-Prince, both before and after
it, to the same effect, which are now probably all of them lost, [TRACE
of one, Copy of ANSWER from Queen Caroline to what seems to have been
one, Answer rather of dissuasive tenor, is in State-Paper Office:
_Prussian Despatches,_ vol. xl,--dateless; probably some months later
in 1780.] without regret to anybody; and we will not reckon it worth
transcribing farther. Such Missive, such two Missives (not now found in
any archive) speed to England by express; may the winds be favorable.
Her Majesty waits anxious at Berlin; ready to take refuge in a bed of
sickness, should bad come to worse.

DUBOURGAY STRIKES A LIGHT FOR THE ENGLISH COURT.

In England, in the mean while, they have received a curious little