e on Sunday; goes on Wednesday, home now at a stretch;
and, we hope, has had a good time of it here, these three days. Daughter
Charlotte and her Serene Husband, well with their subjects, well with
one another, are doing well; have already two little Children; a Boy
the elder, of whom we have heard: Boy's name is Karl, age now three;
sprightly, reckoned very clever, by the fond parents;--who has many
things to do in the world, by and by; to attack the French Revolution,
and be blown to pieces by it on the Field of Jena, for final thing!
That is the fate of little Karl, who frolics about here, so sunshiny and
ingenuous at present.
Karl's Grandmother, the Serene Dowager Duchess, Friedrich's own
Mother-in-law, his Majesty and Friedrich would also of course see
here. Fine Younger Sons of hers are coming forward; the reigning Duke
beautifully careful about the furtherance of these Cadets of the House.
Here is Prince Ferdinand, for instance; just getting ready for the Grand
Tour; goes in a month hence: [Mauvillon (FILS, son of him whom we cite
otherwise), _Geschichte Ferdinands Herzogs von Braunschweig-Luneburg_
(Leipzig, 1794), i. 17-25.] a fine eupeptic loyal young fellow; who,
in a twenty years more, will be Chatham's Generalissimo, and fight
the French to some purpose. A Brother of his, the next elder, is now
fighting the Turks for his Kaiser; does not like it at all, under such
Seckendorfs and War-Ministries as there are. Then, elder still, eldest
of all the Cadets, there is Anton Ulrich, over at Petersburg for some
years past, with outlooks high enough: To wed the Mecklenburg Princess
there (Daughter of the unutterable Duke), and be as good as Czar of
all the Russias one day. Little to his profit, poor soul!--These,
historically ascertainable, are the aspects of the Brunswick Court
during those three days of Royal Visit, in Fair-time; and may serve to
date the Masonic Transaction for us, which the Crown-Prince has just
accomplished over at Korn's.
As for the Transaction itself, there is intrinsically no harm in this
initiation, we will hope: but it behooves to be kept well hidden from
Papa. Papa's good opinion of the Prince has sensibly risen, in the
course of this Journey, "so rational, serious, not dangling about among
the women as formerly;"--and what a shock would this of Korn's Hotel be,
should Papa hear of it! Poor Papa, from officious tale-bearers he hears
many things: is in distress about Voltaire, about Hete
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