one finds in the
English, and does not usually find in persons of his trade. French
Tragedies played at Berlin, I myself taking part; an Englishman Envoy of
France there: strange circumstances these, are n't they?" [To D'Argental
this (--OEuvres de Voltaire,--lxxiv. 289).] Yes, that latter especially;
and Milord Marischal our Prussian Envoy with you! Which the English
note, sulkily, as a weather-symptom.

AT POTSDAM, BIG DEVILS OF GRENADIERS (No date).--... "But, Sire, one is
n't always perched on the summit of Parnassus; one is a man. There are
sicknesses about; I did not bring an athlete's health to these parts;
and the scorbutic humor which is eating my life renders me truly, of
all that are sick, the sickest. I am absolutely alone from morning till
night. My one solace is the necessary pleasure of taking the air, I
bethink me of walking, and clearing my head a little, in your Gardens at
Potsdam. I fancy it is a permitted thing; I present myself, musing;--I
find huge devils of Grenadiers, who clap bayonets in my belly, who
cry FURT, SACRAMENT, and DER KONIG [OFF, SACKERMENT, THE KING, quite
tolerably spelt]! And I take to my heels, as Austrians and Saxons would
do before them. Have you ever read, that in Titus's or Marcus-Aurelius's
Gardens, a poor devil of a Gaulish Poet"--In short, it shall be mended.
[--OEuvres de Frederic,--xxii. 273.]

HAVE BEEN LAYING IT ON TOO THICK (No date; IN VERSE).--"Marcus Aurelius
was wont to"--(Well, we know who that is: What of Marcus, then?)--"A
certain lover of his glory [STILL IN VERSE] spoke once, at Supper, of
a magnanimity of Marcus's;--at which Marcus [flattery too thick] rather
gloomed, and sat quite silent,--which was another fine saying of his
[ENDS VERSE, STARTS PROSE]:--

"Pardon, Sire, some hearts that are full of you! To justify myself, I
dare supplicate your Majesty to give one glance at this Letter (lines
pencil-marked), which has just come from M. de Chauvelin, Nephew of the
famous GARDE-DES-SCEAUX. Your Majesty cannot gloom at him, writing these
from the fulness of his heart; nor at me, who"--Pooh; no, then! Perhaps
do you a NICHE again,--poor restless fellow! [Ib. 280.]

POTSDAM PALACE (No date): SIRE, NZAY I CHANGE MY ROOM?... "I ascend
to your antechambers, to find some one by whom I may ask permission to
speak with you. I find nobody: I have to return:" and what I wanted was
this, "your protection for my SIECLE DE LOUIS QUATORZE, which I am about
to print in