ese
things for himself from the dull History-Books;--or perhaps it was
better for him if he never sought them? Dukedom of Courland, connected
with Polish sovereignty, and now about to fall vacant, was one of Count
Maurice's grand sallies in the world. Adrienne Lecouvreur, foolish
French Actress, lent him all the 30,000 pounds she had gathered by
holding the mirror up to Nature and otherwise, to prosecute this
Courland business; which proved impossible for him. He was adventurous
enough, audacious enough; fought well; but the problem was, To fall
in love with the Dowager Anne Iwanowna, Cousin of Czar Peter II.; big
brazen Russian woman (such a cheek the Pictures give her, in size and
somewhat in expression like a Westphalia ham!), who was Widow of the
last active Duke:--and this, with all his adventurous audacity, Count
Maurice could not do. The big Widow discovered that he did not like
Westphalia hams in that particular form; that he only pretended to like
them; upon which, in just indignation, she disowned and dismissed him;
and falling herself to be Czarina not long afterwards, and taking Bieren
the Courlander for her beloved, she made Bieren Duke, and Courland
became impossible for Count Maurice.

However, he too is a dashing young fellow; "circular black eyebrows,
eyes glittering bright, partly with animal vivacity, partly with
spiritual;" stands six feet in his stockings, breaks horse-shoes with
his hands; full of irregular ingenuity and audacity; has been soldiering
about, ever since birth almost; and understands many a thing, though the
worst SPELLER ever known. With him too young Fritz is much charmed:
the flower, he, of the illegitimate three hundred and fifty-four, and
probably the chief achievement of the Saxon Man of Sin in this world,
where he took such trouble. Friedrich and he maintained some occasional
correspondence afterwards; but, to judge by Friedrich's part of it (mere
polite congratulations on Fontenoy, and the like), it must have been
of the last vacuity; and to us it is now absolute zero, however clearly
spelt and printed. [Given altogether in _OEuvres de Frederic le Grand,_
xvii. 300-309. See farther, whoever has curiosity, Preuss, _Friedrichs
Lebensgeschichte,_ iii. 167-169; Espagnac, _Vie du Comte de Saxe_ (a
good little military Book, done into German, Leipzig, 1774, 2 vols.);
Cramer, _Denkwurdigkeiten der Grafin Aurora von Konigsmark_ (Leipzig,
1836); &c. &c.]

The Physically Strong, in so