have failed to wait upon him,
but that, being in mourning for your wife, your respect for him prevented
your appearing before him in so melancholy a garb."--"But," he rejoined,
"I am very fond of dancing, and I wish to go to the ball; now I cannot go
thither until I have first visited the King."--"For God's sake," I said,
"do not go to the ball; it is not the custom here. You will be laughed
at, and the more particularly so because the Marechal de Grammont, who
presented you to the King some years ago, said that you could find
nothing to praise in the whole of France, with the exception of a little
goldfinch in the King's cabinet which whistled airs. I recommend you not
to go to see the King, nor to be present at the ball." He was angry, and
said "he saw very well that I discountenanced German Princes, and did not
wish them to be presented to the King." I replied "that the advice I had
given him sprang from the best intentions, and was such as I would have
given to my own brother." He went away quite angry to Marechal
Schomberg's, where he complained of my behaviour to him. The Marshal
asked him what I had said, which he repeated word for word. The Marshal
told him that I had advised him well, and that he was himself of my
opinion. Nevertheless, the Margrave persisted on being presented to the
King, whither he prevailed upon the Marshal to accompany him, and went
the next day to the ball. He was extremely well dressed in
half-mourning, with white lace over the black, fine blue ribands, black
and white laces, and rheingraves, which look well upon persons of a good
figure; in short, he was magnificently dressed, but improperly, for a
widower in the first stage of his mourning. He would have seated himself
within the King's circle, where none but the members of the Royal Family
and the King's grandchildren are allowed to sit; the Princes of the blood
even are not allowed to do so, and therefore foreign Princes can of
course have no right. The Margrave then began to repent not having
believed me, and early the next morning he set off.

Prince Ragotzky is under great obligations to his wife, who saved his
life and delivered him from prison. Some person was repeating things to
her disadvantage, but he interrupted them by saying, "She saved my head
from the axe, and this prevents my having any right to reprove too
strictly whatever she may choose to do; for this reason I shall not thank
any person who speaks to me u