sia's, "most secret
thoughts. One day [in 1767, second year of his married life, I then
fifteen, slim Daughter of a Player on the French Horn, in his Majesty's
pay], the Prince happened to be very serious; and was owning to me with
frankness that he had some wrongs towards my sex to reproach himself
with,"--alas, yes, some few:--"and he swore that he would never forsake
ME; and that if Heaven disposed of my life before his, none but he
should close my eyes. He was fingering with a penknife at the time; he
struck the point of it into the palm of his left hand, and wrote with
his blood [the unclean creature], on a little bit of paper, the Oath
which his lips had just pronounced in so solemn a tone. Vainly should I
undertake to paint my emotion on this action of his! The Prince saw what
I felt; and took advantage of it to beg that I would follow his example.
I hastened to satisfy him; and traced, as he had done, with my blood,
the promise to remain his friend to the tomb, and never to forsake
him. This Promise must have been found among his Papers after his death
[still in the Archives? we will hope not!]--Both of us stood faithful to
this Oath. The tie of love, it is true, we broke: but that was by mutual
consent, and the better to fix ourselves in the bonds of an inviolable
friendship. Other mistresses reigned over his senses; but I"--ACH GOTT,
no more of that. [_Memoires de la Comtesse de Lichtenau_ (a Londres,
chez Colburn Libraire, Conduit-street, Bond-street, 2 tomes, small 8vo,
1809), i. 129.]

The King's own account of the affair is sufficiently explicit. His words
are: "Not long ago [about two years before this of the penknife] we
mentioned the Prince of Prussia's marriage with Elizabeth of Brunswick
[his Cousin twice over, her Mother, Princess Charlotte of Prussia, being
his Father's Sister and mine, and her Father HIS Mother's Brother,--if
you like to count it]. This engagement, from which everybody had
expected happy consequences, did not correspond to the wishes of the
Royal House." Only one Princess could be realized (subsequently Wife to
the late Duke of York),--she came this same year of the penknife,--and
bad outlooks for more. "The Husband, young and dissolute (SANS MOEURS),
given up to a crapulous life, from which his relatives could not correct
him, was continually committing infidelities to his Wife. The Princess,
who was in the flower of her beauty, felt outraged by such neglect
of her charms; her viv