ussian councils,
and to urge on the commander of the army an immediate march on the
French capital; with a postscript, directing me, in case of tardiness
being exhibited at headquarters, instantly to transmit a despatch home,
and return to my post in Paris. The second letter--which I must, however
undiplomatically, admit that I opened with much stronger interest--was
from Mordecai. I glanced over it for some mention of the "ane braw
name," and bitterly laughed at my own folly in expecting to find such
communications in the letter of the hard-headed and busy Jew. All was
brief and rapid.

"If this shall find you in the Prussian camp, you will have no more time
for me than I have for you. Let me not clip your diplomatic hopes; but
this I forewarn you, you will not obtain a single object of your
journey; except, perhaps, showing that you can gallop a hundred miles in
the four-and-twenty hours, and can make your way through a country of
lunatics without being piked or sabred.

"The campaign is over already--over before it was begun. The battle was
fought in the council at Berlin, and the allies were beaten. The duke,
within the next fortnight, will be deciding on the merits of the ballet
in Brunswick, and the French will be madder than ever with triumphs
which they never won, preparing for conquests which are already gained,
and knocking down thrones, the owners themselves supplying the pickaxes
and hammers. You will see the two best armies of the Continent running
away from their own shadows; the old councillors of Frederick and Maria
Theresa baffled by cabinets of cobblers and tinkers; grey-beard
generals, covered with orders, hunted over the frontier by boys, girls,
and old women; and France, like a _poissarde_ in a passion, with her
hair flying about her ears, a knife in her hand, and her tongue in full
swing, scampering half naked over Europe, to the infinite wonder of the
wearers of velvet, Mechlin lace, and diadems,--ha, ha, ha!"

While I was trying to decipher this riddle, which was rather too
contemptuous for my new views of things, but which I referred to the
habitual feelings of a strong-headed man in humble life, brought just
close enough to higher to feel his exclusion, an officer was announced
as Count Varnhorst, on the staff of the duke. His countenance struck me
at first sight, as one which I had seen before; and I soon discovered,
that when I was a boy at Eton, he had been on a visit of a few days at
Mor