e 11th May, 1726, towards sunset, in the
TABAGIE of the Berlin Palace, as we gather from laborious comparison of
windy Pollnitz with other indistinct witnesses of a dreary nature,--in
the following manner:--

Prussian Majesty sits smoking at the window; nothing particular going
on. A square-built shortish steel-gray Gentleman, of military cut, past
fifty, is strolling over the SCHLOSSPLATZ (spacious Square in front of
the Palace), conspicuous amid the sparse populations there; pensively
recreating himself, in the yellow sunlight and long shadows, as after a
day's hard labor or travel. "Who is that?" inquires Friedrich Wilhelm,
suspending his tobacco. Grumkow answers cautiously, after survey: He
thinks it must be Ordnance-Master Seckendorf; who was with him
to-day; passing on rapidly towards Denmark, on business that will not
wait.--"Experienced Feldzeugmeister Graf von Seckendorf, whom we stand
in correspondence with, of late, and were expecting about this time?
Whom we have known at the Siege of Stralsund, nay ever since the
Marlborough times and the Siege of Menin, in war and peace; and have
always reckoned a solid reasonable man and soldier: Why has he not
come to us?"--"Your Majesty," confesses Grumkow, "his business is so
pressing! Business in Denmark will not wait. Seckendorf owned he
had come slightly round, in his eagerness to see our grand Review at
Tempelhof the day after to-morrow: What soldier would omit the sight (so
he was pleased to intimate) of soldiering carried to the non-plus-ultra?
But he hoped to do it quite incognito, among the general public;--and
then to be at the gallop again: not able to have the honor of paying
his court at this time."--"Court? NARREN-POSSEN (Nonsense)!" answers
Friedrich Wilhelm,--and opening the window, beckons Seckendorf up, with
his own royal head and hand. The conversation of a man who had rational
sense, and could tell him anything, were it only news af foreign parts
in a rational manner, was always welcome to Friedrich Wilhelm.

And so Seckendorf, how can he help it, is installed in the Tabagie;
glides into pleasant conversation there. A captivating talker; solid for
religion, for the rights of Germany against intrusive French and others:
such insight, orthodoxy, sense and ingenuity; pleasant to hear; and all
with the due quantity of oil, though he "both snuffles and lisps;" and
has privately, in case of need, a capacity of lying,--for he curiously
distils you any lie,