we have gathered and will not forget,
That the Old Dessauer is out, and Grumkow in, that the rugged Son
of Gunpowder, drilling men henceforth at Halle, and in a dumb
way meditating tactics as few ever did, has no share in the foul
enchantments that now supervene at court.

Chapter VI. -- ORDNANCE-MASTER SECKENDORF CROSSES THE PALACE ESPLANADE.

The Kaiser's terror and embarrassment at the conclusion of the Hanover
Treaty, as we saw, were extreme. War possible or likely; and nothing but
the termagant caprices of Elizabeth Farnese to depend on: no cash from
the Sea-Powers; only cannonshot, invasion and hostility, from their cash
and them: What is to be done? To "caress the pride of Spain;" to keep
alive the hopes, in that quarter, of marrying their Don Carlos, the
supplementary Infant, to our eldest Archduchess; which indeed has
set the Sea-Powers dreadfully on fire, but which does leave Parma and
Piacenza quiet for the present, and makes the Pragmatic Sanction too an
affair of Spain's own: this is one resource, though a poor one, and a
dangerous. Another is, to make alliance with Russia, by well flattering
the poor little brown Czarina there: but is not that a still poorer? And
what third is there!--

There is a third worth both the others, could it be got done: To detach
Friedrich Wilhelm from those dangerous Hanover Confederates, and bring
him gently over to ourselves. He has an army of 60,000, in perfect
equipment, and money to maintain them so. Against us or for us,--60,000
PLUS or 60,000 MINUS;--that will mean 120,000 fighting men; a most
weighty item in any field there is like to be. If it lie in the power
of human art, let us gain this wild irritated King of Prussia. Dare
any henchman of ours venture to go, with honey-cakes, with pattings and
cajoleries, and slip the imperial muzzle well round the snout of that
rugged ursine animal? An iracund bear, of dangerous proportions, and
justly irritated against us at present? Our experienced FELDZEUGMEISTER,
Ordnance-Master and Diplomatist, Graf von Seckendorf, a conscientious
Protestant, and the cunningest of men, able to lie to all lengths,--dare
he try it? He has fought in all quarters of the world; and lied in all,
where needful; and saved money in all: he will try it, and will succeed
in it too! [Pollnitz, ii. 235; Stenzel, iii. 544; Forster, ii. 59, iii.
235, 239.]

The Second Act, therefore, of this foolish World-Drama of the
Double-Marriage opens,--on th