always in his dressing-gown by 2, was charmed to have
her company,--the rather as I hope she permitted him a little smoking
withal.

Her husband was crook-backed; and, except those slight, always perfectly
polite little passages, in Schmettau's Siege (1759), in the Hubertsburg
Treaty affair, in the dinner at Moritzburg, I never heard much history
of him. He became Elector 5th October, 1763; but enjoyed the dignity
little more than two months. Our Princess had borne him seven
children,--three boys, four girls,--the eldest about 13, a Boy, who
succeeded; the youngest a girl, hardly 3. The Boy is he who sent Gellert
the caparisoned Horse, and had estafettes on the road while Gellert lay
dying. This Boy lived to be 77, and saw strange things in the world; had
seen Napoleon and the French Revolution; was the first "King of Saxony"
so called; saw Jena, retreat of Moscow; saw the "Battle of the Nations"
(Leipzig, 15th-18th October, 1813), and his great Napoleon terminate in
bankruptcy. He left no Son. A Brother, age 72, succeeded him as King for
a few years; whom again a Brother would have succeeded, had not he (this
third Brother, age now 66) renounced, in favor of HIS Son, the present
King of Saxony. Enough, enough!--

August 28th, 1763, while afflicted Polish Majesty is making his packages
at Warsaw, far away,--Marie-Antoinette, in Dresden, had sent Friedrich
an Opera of her composing, just brought out by her on her Court-theatre
there. Here is Friedrich's Answer,--to what kind of OPERA I know not,
but to a Letter accompanying it which is extremely pretty.

FRIEDRICH TO THE ELECTORAL PRINCESS (at Dresden).

"POTSDAM, 5th September, 1763.

"MADAM MY SISTER,--The remembrance your Royal Highness sends is the more
flattering to me, as I regret infinitely not to have been spectator and
hearer of the fine things [Opera THALESTRIS, words and music entirely
lost to us] which I have admired for myself in the silent state.

"I wish I could send you things as pleasant out of these parts: but,
Madam, I am obliged to give you a hint, which may be useful if you can
have it followed. In Saxony, however, my Letters get opened;--which
obliges me to send this by a special Messenger; and him, that he may
cause no suspicion, I have charged with fruits from my garden. You will
have the goodness to say [if anybody is eavesdropping] that you asked
them of me at Moritzburg, when I was happy enough to see you there [six
months ago, coming