, but sensible to
the charms of handsome men. To the charms of Count Lynar, especially:
the handsomest of Danish noblemen (more an ancient Roman than a Dane),
whom the Polish Majesty, calculating cause and effect, had despatched to
her, with that view, in the dead of winter lately. To whom she has
given ear;--dismissing her Munnich, as we saw above;--and is ready
for signing, or perhaps has signed! [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ ii. 68.]
Friedrich's astonishment, on hearing of this "detestable Project," was
great. However, he takes his measures on it;--right lucky that he
has the Old Dessauer, and machinery for acting on Kur-Sachsen and the
Britannic Majesty. "Get your machinery in gear!" is naturally his first
order. And the Old Dessauer does it, with effect: of which by and by.

Never did I hear, before or since, of such a plunge into the muddy
unfathomable, on the part of little George, who was an honorable
creature, and dubitative to excess: and truly this rash plunge might
have cost him dear, had not he directly scrambled out again. Or did
Friedrich exaggerate to himself his Uncle's real share in the matter? I
always guess, there had been more of loose talk, of hypothesis and fond
hope, in regard to George's share, than of determinate fact or procedure
on his own part. The transaction, having had to be dropped on the
sudden, remains somewhat dark; but, in substance, it is not doubtful;
[Tindal, xx. 497.] and Parliament itself took afterwards to poking into
it, though with little effect. Kur-Sachsen's objects in the adventure
were of the earth, earthy; but on George's part it was pure adoration of
Pragmatic Sanction, anxiety for the Keystone of Nature, and lest Chaos
come again. In comparison with such transcendent divings, what is a
little Secret-Service money!--

The Count Lynar of this adventure, who had well-nigh done such a feat
in Diplomacy, may turn up transiently again. A conspicuous, more or less
ridiculous person of those times. Busching (our Geographical friend) had
gone with him, as Excellency's Chaplain, in this Russian Journey; which
is a memorable one to Busching; and still presents vividly, through
his Book, those haggard Baltic Coasts in midwinter, to readers who have
business there. Such a journey for grimness of outlook, upon pine-tufts
and frozen sand; for cold (the Count's very tobacco-pipe freezing in
his mouth), for hardship, for bad lodging, and extremity of dirt in the
unfreezable kinds, as seldom