which
presently. "In this after-dinner period fall the literary labors,"
says Preuss:--a facile pen, this King's; only two hours of an afternoon
allowed it, instead of all day and the top of the morning. "About six,
or earlier even, came the Reader [La Mettrie or another], came artists,
came learned talk. At seven is Concert, which lasts for an
hour; half-past eight is Supper." [Preuss, i. 344-347 (and, with
intermittencies, pp. 356, 361, 363 &c. to 376), abridged.]

Demon Newswriter says, of the Concert: "It is mostly of
wind-instruments," King himself often taking part with his flute;
"performers the best in Europe. He has three"--what shall we call them?
of male gender,--"a counter-alt, and Mamsell Astrua, an Italian; they
are unique voices. He cannot bear mediocrity. It is but seldom he has
any singing here. To be admitted, needs the most intimate favor; now and
then some young Lord, of distinction, if he meet with such." Concert,
very well;--but let us now, suppressing any little abhorrences, hear him
on another subject:--

"Dinner lasts one hour [says our Demon, no better informed]: upon which
the King returns to his Apartment with bows. It pretty often happens
that he takes with him one of his young fellows. These are all handsome,
like a picture (FAITS A PEINDRE), and of the beautifulest face,"--adds
he, still worse informed; poisonous malice mixing itself, this time,
with the human darkness, and reducing it to diabolic. This Demon's
Paper abounds with similar allusions; as do the more desperate sort of
Voltaire utterances,--VIE PRIVEE treating it as known fact; Letters to
Denis in occasional paroxysms, as rumor of detestable nature, probably
true of one who is so detestable, at least so formidable, to a guilty
sinner his Guest. Others, not to be called diabolical, as Herr Dr.
Busching, for example, speak of it as a thing credible; as good as
known to the well-informed. And, beyond the least question, there did a
thrice-abominable rumor of that kind run, whispering audibly, over
all the world; and gain belief from those who had appetite. A most
melancholy business. Solacing to human envy;--explaining also, to the
dark human intellect, why this King had commonly no Women at his Court.
A most melancholy portion of my raw-material, this; concerning which,
since one must speak of it, here is what little I have to say:--

1. That proof of the NEGATIVE, in this or in any such case, is by the
nature of it impossibl