uch
of the peacock, and of the turkey has nothing, to his old friends. All
which is very naive and transparent; natural and even pretty, on the
part of M. de Voltaire as the weaker vessel.--For the rest, it is
certain Maupertuis is getting under way at Paris towards the Cleve
rendezvous. Brussels, too, is so near these Cleve Countries; within
two days' good driving:--if only the times and routes would rightly
intersect?

Friedrich's intention is by no means for a straight journey towards
Cleve: he intends for Baireuth first, then back from Baireuth to
Cleve,--making a huge southward elbow on the map, with Baireuth for apex
or turning-point:--in this manner he will make the times suit, and have
a convergence at Cleve. To Baireuth;--who knows if not farther? All
summer there has gone fitfully a rumor, that he wished to see France;
perhaps Paris itself incognito? The rumor, which was heard even at
Petersburg, [Raumer's _Beitrage_ (English Translation, London, 1837),
p. 15 (Finch's Despatch, 24th June, 1740).] is now sunk dead again; but
privately, there is no doubt, a glimpse of the sublime French Nation
would be welcome to Friedrich. He could never get to Travelling in his
young time; missed his Grand Tour altogether, much as he wished it; and
he is capable of pranks!--Enough, on Monday morning, 15th August, 1740,
[Rodenbeck, p. 15, slightly in error: see Dickens's Interview, supra, p.
187.] Friedrich and Suite leave Potsdam; early enough; go, by Leipzig,
by the route already known to readers, through Coburg and the Voigtland
regions; Wilhelmina has got warning, sits eagerly expecting her Brother
in the Hermitage at Baireuth, gladdest of shrill sisters; and full of
anxieties how her Brother would now be. The travelling party consisted,
besides the King, of seven persons: Prince August Wilhelm, King's next
Brother, Heir-apparent if there come no children, now a brisk youth of
eighteen; Leopold Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, Old Dessauer's eldest, what
we may call the "Young Dessauer;" Colonel von Borck, whom we shall hear
of again; Colonel von Stille, already heard of (grave men of fifty,
these two); milk-beard Munchow, an Adjutant, youngest of the promoted
Munchows; Algarotti, indispensable for talk; and Fredersdorf, the
House-Steward and domestic Factotum, once Private in Schwerin's
Regiment, whom Bielfeld so admired at Reinsberg, foreseeing what
he would come to. One of Friedrich's late acts was to give Factotum
Fredersdorf