by his majesty's bounty; but that, if his
abilities or integrity were doubted, he was willing to leave, not only
the university, but the kingdom; and that he could not be driven into
any place where the name of Hoffman would want respect. The king,
however unaccustomed to such returns, was struck with conviction of
his own indecency, told Hoffman, that he had spoken well, and
requested him to continue his attendance.

The king, finding his distemper gaining upon his strength, grew at
last sensible that his end was approaching, and, ordering the prince
to be called to his bed, laid several injunctions upon him, of which
one was to perpetuate the tall regiment by continual recruits, and
another, to receive his espoused wife. The prince gave him a
respectful answer, but wisely avoided to diminish his own right or
power by an absolute promise; and the king died uncertain of the fate
of the tall regiment.

The young king began his reign with great expectations, which he has
yet surpassed. His father's faults produced many advantages to the
first years of his reign. He had an army of seventy thousand men well
disciplined, without any imputation of severity to himself, and was
master of a vast treasure without the crime or reproach of raising it.
It was publickly said in our house of commons, that he had eight
millions sterling of our money; but, I believe, he that said it had
not considered how difficultly eight millions would be found in all
the Prussian dominions. Men judge of what they do not see by that
which they see. We are used to talk in England of millions with great
familiarity, and imagine that there is the same affluence of money in
other countries, in countries whose manufactures are few, and commerce
little.

Every man's first cares are necessarily domestick. The king, being now
no longer under influence, or its appearance, determined how to act
towards the unhappy lady who had possessed, for seven years, the empty
title of the princess of Prussia. The papers of those times exhibited
the conversation of their first interview; as if the king, who plans
campaigns in silence, would not accommodate a difference with his
wife, but with writers of news admitted as witnesses. It is certain
that he received her as queen, but whether he treats her as a wife is
yet in dispute.

In a few days his resolution was known with regard to the tall
regiment; for some recruits being offered him, he rejected them; and
this bod