's
sublime goat's-hair wig: wig blazes into flame; Gundling falls
shrieking, a dead man, to the earth; and they quench and revive him
with a bucket of water. Was there ever seen such horse-play? Roaring
laughter, huge, rude, and somewhat vacant, as that of the Norse gods
over their ale at Yule time;--as if the face of the Sphinx were to
wrinkle itself in laughter; or the fabulous Houyhnhnms themselves were
there to mock in their peculiar fashion.

His Majesty at length gave Gundling a wine-cask, duly figured;
"painted black with a white cross," which was to stand in his room as
MEMENTO-MORI, and be his coffin. It stood for ten years; Gundling often
sitting to write in it; a good screen against draughts. And the poor
monster was actually buried in this cask; [Died 11th April, 1731, age
58: description of the Burial "at Bornstadt near Potsdam," in Forster,
i. 276.] Fassmann pronouncing some funeral oration,--and the orthodox
clergy uttering, from the distance, only a mute groan. "The Herr Baron
von Gundling was a man of many dignities, of much Book-learning; a man
of great memory," admits Fassmann, "but of no judgment," insinuates
he,--"LOOKING FOR the Judgment (EXPECTANS JUDICIUM)," says Fassmann, with
a pleasant wit. Fassmann succeeded to all the emoluments and honors; but
did not hold them; preferred to run away before long: and after him
came one and the other, whom the reader is not to be troubled with here.
Enough if the patient reader have seen, a little, into that background
of Friedrich Wilhelm's existence; and, for the didactic part, have
caught up his real views or instincts upon Spiritual Phosphorescence, or
Stupidity grown Vocal, which are much sounder than most of us suspect.

These were the sports of the Tobacco-Parliament; and it was always meant
primarily for sport, for recreation: but there is no doubt it had a
serious function as well. "Business matters," adds Beneckendorf, who had
means of knowing, [Benekendorf, _Karakterzuge,_ i. 137-149; vi. 37.]
"were often a subject of colloquy in the TABAKS-COLLEGIUM. Not that they
were there finished off, decided upon, or meant to be so. But Friedrich
Wilhelm often purposely brought up such things in conversation there,
that he might learn the different opinions of his generals and chief
men, without their observing it,"--and so might profit by the Collective
Wisdom, in short.

Chapter VIII. -- SECKENDORF'S RETORT TO HER MAJESTY.

The Treaty of Wusterha