empts, we have said, turned out
impossible; nor would the Hereditary Prince and his 12,000, though
a good deal talked about in England and elsewhere, [Walpole, _George
Second,_ iii. 248 (in a sour Opposition tone); &c. &c.] require more
than mention; were it not that on the road thither, at Fulda ("Fulda is
half-way house to Saxony," thinks Ferdinand, "should Pitt and Britannic
Majesty be pleased to consent, as I dare presume they will"), the
Hereditary Prince had, in his swift way, done a thing useful for
Ferdinand himself, and which caused a great emotion, chiefly of
laughter, over the world, in those weeks.

"No Enemy of Friedrich's," says my Note, "is of feller humor than the
Serenity of Wurtemberg, Karl Eugen, Reigning Duke of that unfortunate
Country; for whom, in past days, Friedrich had been so fatherly, and
really took such pains. 'Fatherly? STEP-fatherly, you mean; and for his
own vile uses!' growled the Serenity of Wurtemberg:--always an ominous
streak of gloom in that poor man; streak which is spread now to whole
skies of boiling darkness, owing to deliriums there have been! Enough,
Karl Eugen, after divorcing his poor Wife, had distinguished himself
by a zeal without knowledge, beyond almost all the enemies of
Friedrich;--and still continues in that bad line of industry. His poor
Wife he has made miserable in some measure; also himself; and, in a
degree, his poor soldiers and subjects, who are with him by compulsion
in this Enterprise. The Wurtembergers are Protestants of old type; and
want no fighting against 'the Protestant Hero,' but much the reverse!
Serene Karl had to shoot a good few of these poor people, before they
would march at all; and his procedures were indeed, and continued to be,
of a very crying nature, though his poor Populations took them silently.
Always something of perverse in this Serene Highness; has it, I think,
by kind.

"Besides his quota to the Reich, Karl Eugen has 12,000 more on
foot,--and it is of them we are treating at present. In 1757 he had lent
these troops to the Empress Queen, for a consideration; it was they
that stood on the Austrian left, at Leuthen; and were the first that
got beaten, and had to cease standing,--as the Austrians were abundantly
loud in proclaiming. To the disgust of Serene Highness: 'Which of you
did stand, then? Was it their blame, led as they were?' argued he.
And next year, 1758, after Crefeld, he took his 12,000 to the French
('subsidy,' or con