le are pleased to wish it! I know not what your
Instructions are: but, in the supposition that the King your Master, zow
assured by your Successes, will have put it in your power to labor in
the pacification of Germany, I address to you the Sieur d'Elcheset"
(Sieur Balbi is the real name of him, an Italian Engineer of mine,
who once served with you in the Fontenoy times,--and some say he has
privately a 15,000 pounds for your Grace's acceptance,--"the Sieur
d'Elcheset), in whom you may place complete confidence.

"Though the events of this Year afford no hope that your Court still
entertains a favorable disposition for my interests, I cannot persuade
myself that a union which has lasted between us for sixteen years may
not have left some trace in the mind. Perhaps I judge others by myself.
But, however that may be, I, in short, prefer putting my interests into
the King your Master's hands rather than into any other's. If you have
not, Monsieur, any Instructions as to the Proposal hereby made, I beg of
you to ask such, and to inform me what the tenor of them is.

"He who has merited statues at Genoa [ten years ago, in those
ANTI-Austrian times, when Genoa burst up in revolt, and the French
and Richelieu beautifully intervened against the oppressors]; he who
conquered Minorca in spite of immense obstacles; he who is on the point
of subjugating Lower Saxony,--can do nothing more glorious than to
restore Peace to Europe. Of all your laurels, that will be the fairest.
Work in this Cause, with the activity which has secured you such rapid
progress otherwise; and be persuaded that nobody will feel more grateful
to you than, Monsieur le Duc,--Your faithful Friend,-- FREDERIC." [Given
in RODENBECK, i. 313 (doubtless from _Memoires de Richelieu,_ Paris,
1793, ix. 175, the one fountain-head in regard to this small affair):
for "the 15,000 pounds" and other rumored particulars, sea Retzow, i.
197; Preuss, ii. 84; _ OEuvres de Frederic,_ iv. 145.]

Richelieu, it appears by any evidence there is, went willingly into
this scheme; and applied at Versailles, as desired; with a peremptory
negative for result. Nothing came of the Richelieu attempt there; nor of
"CE M. DE MIRABEAU," if he ever went; nor of any other on that errand.
Needless to apply for Peace at Versailles (and a mere waste of your "sum
of 15,000 pounds," which one hopes is fabulous in the present scarcity
of money):--or should we perhaps have mentioned the thing at all,