become so eminent), and quietly
withdrew,--still on speaking terms with the King, but never his Officer
more.] and living here among works of Art, and speculations on Free
Masonry, "was very kind to me, I went to Celle, in Hanover, to pay my
respects to the Queen of Denmark [unfortunate divorced Matilda, saved
by my friend Keith,--innocent, I will hope!]... She is grown extremely
fat.... At Magdeburg, the Prussian Frontier on this side, one is not
allowed, without a permit, even to walk on the ramparts,--such the
strictness of Prussian rule.... Driving through Potsdam, on my way to
Berlin, I was stopped by a servant of the good old Lord Marischal, who
had spied me as I passed under his window. He came out in his nightgown,
and insisted upon our staying to dine with him--[worthy old man; a word
of him, were this Letter done]. We ended, on consultation about times
and movements of the King, by staying three days at Potsdam, mostly with
this excellent old Lord.

"On the third day [yesterday evening, in fact], I went, by appointment,
to the New Palace, to wait upon the King of Prussia. There was some
delay: his Majesty had gone, in the interim, to a private Concert, which
he was giving to the Princesses [Duchess of Brunswick and other high
guests [Rodenbeck (IN DIE) iii. 98.]]; but the moment he was told I
was there, he came out from his company, and gave me a most flattering
gracious audience of more than half an hour; talking on a great variety
of things, with an ease and freedom the very reverse of what I had
been made to expect.... I asked, and received permission, to visit the
Silesian Camps next month, his Majesty most graciously telling me the
particular days they would begin and end [27th August-3d September,
Schmelwitz near Breslau, are time and place [Ib. iii. 101.]]. This
considerably deranges my Austrian movements, and will hurry my return
out of those parts: but who could resist such a temptation!--I saw the
Foot-Guards exercise, especially the splendid 'First Battalion;' I could
have conceived nothing so perfect and so exact as all I saw:--so well
dressed, such men, and so punctual in all they did.

"The New Palace at Potsdam is extremely noble. Not so perfect, perhaps,
in point of taste, but better than I had been led to expect. The King
dislikes living there; never does, except when there is high Company
about him; for seven or eight months in the year, he prefers Little
Sans-Souci, and freedom among his i