e confesses little: Did design to get across the
Rhine to Landau; thence to Strasburg, Paris, in the strictest incognito;
intended to volunteer there, thought he might take French service,
profoundly incognito, and signalize himself in the Italian War (just
expected to break out), which might have recovered him some favor
from his Majesty: does not tell clearly where his money came from; shy
extremely of elucidating Katte and Keith;--in fact, as we perceive,
struggles against mendacity, but will not tell the whole truth. "Let him
lie in ward, then; and take what doom the Laws have appointed for the
like of him!" Divine Laws, are they not? Well, yes, your Majesty, divine
and human;--or are there perhaps no laws but the human sort, completely
explicit in this case? "He is my Colonel at least," thinks Friedrich
Wilhelm, "and tried to desert and make others desert. If a rebellious
Crown-Prince, breaking his Father's heart, find the laws still
inarticulate; a deserting Colonel of the Potsdam Regiment finds them
speak plain enough. Let him take the answer they give him?"
Dumoulin, in the mean while, can make nothing of Keith, the runaway
Lieutenant. Dumoulin, with his sagacious organ, soon came upon the scent
of Keith; and has discovered these things about him: One evening, a week
before his Majesty arrived, Sunday evening, 6th August, 1730, [RELATIO
EX ACTIS: in Preuss, iv. 473.] Lieutenant Keith, doubtless smelling
something, saddled his horse as above mentioned, decided to have a ride
in the country this fine evening, and issued out at the Brunen Gate of
Wesel. He is on the right bank of the Rhine; pleasant yellow fields
on this hand and that. He ambles slowly, for a space; then gradually
awakens into speed, into full speed; arrives, within a couple of hours,
at Dingden, a Village in the Munster Territory, safe over the Prussian
Border, by the shortest line: and from Dingden rides at more leisure,
but without losing time, into the Dutch Overyssel region, straight
towards the Hague. He must be in the Hague? said Dumoulin to the
Official persons, on arriving there,--to Meinertshagen the Prussian
Ambassador there, [Seckendorf (Forster, iii. 7).] and to Keppel,
Dutch Official gentleman who was once Ambassador at Berlin. Prussian
Ambassador applies, and again applies, in the highest quarters; but we
fear they are slack. Dumoulin discovers that the man was certainly here;
Keppel readily admits, He had Keith to dinner a few days
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