is sound asleep, while he rushes
through it on this errand,--"past the Princess Amelia's window," in the
dead of night; and takes to humming tender strophes to her too; which
gain a new meaning by their date. ["A MA SOEUR AMELIE, EN PASSANT, LA
NUIT, SOUS SA FENETRE, POUR ALLER EN SILESIE (AOUT 1772):" _OEuvres de
Frederic,_ xiii. 77.]

Ten days afterwards (19th August, 1772),--Queen Ulrique not yet
home,--her Son, the spirited King Gustav III., at Stockholm had made
what in our day is called a "stroke of state,"--put a thorn in the
snout of his monster of a Senate, namely: "Less of palaver, venality and
insolence, from you, Sirs; we 'restore the Constitution of 1680,' and
are something of a King again!" Done with considerable dexterity and
spirit; not one person killed or hurt. And surely it was the muzzling-up
of a great deal of folly on their side,--provided only there came wisdom
enough from Gustav himself instead. But, alas, there did not, there
hardly could. His Uncle was alarmed, and not a little angry for the
moment: "You had two Parties to reconcile; a work of time, of patient
endeavor, continual and quiet; no good possible till then. And instead
of that--!" Gustav, a shining kind of man, showed no want of spirit, now
or afterwards: but he leant too much on France and broken reeds;--and,
in the end, got shot in the back by one of those beautiful "Nobles"
of his, and came to a bad conclusion, they and he. ["16th-29th March,
1792," death of Gustav III. by that assassination: "13th March, 1809,"
his Son Gustav IV, has to go on his travels; "Karl XIII.," a childless
Uncle, succeeds for a few years: after whom &c.] Scandinavian Politics,
thank Heaven, are none of our business.

Queen Ulrique was spared all these catastrophes. She had alarmed her
Brother by a dangerous illness, sudden and dangerous, in 1775; who
writes with great anxiety about it, to Another still more anxious: [See
"Correspondence with Gustav III." (in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. ii.
84, &c.).] of this she got well again; but it did not last very long.
July 16th, 1782, she died;--and the sad Friedrich had to say, Adieu.
Alas, "must the eldest of us mourn, then, by the grave of those
younger!"

WILHELMINA'S DAUGHTER, ELIZABETH FREDERIKE SOPHIE, DUCHESS OF
WURTEMBERG, APPEARS AT FERNEY (September, 1773).

Of our dear Wilhelmina's high and unfortunate Daughter there should be
some Biography; and there will surely, if a man of sympathy and f