engaged in study of the etiquettes: they have settled
that the meeting cannot be in Chlumetz; lest it might lead to
night's lodgings, and to intricacies. "Let it be at Kladrup," say the
Ample-wigged; Kladrup, an Imperial Stud, or Horse-Farm, half a dozen
miles from this; where there is room for nothing more than dinner. There
let the meeting be, to-morrow at a set hour; and, in the mean time, we
will take precautions for the etiquettes. So it is settled, and Grumkow
returns with the decision in a complimentary form.

Through Konigsgratz, down the right bank of the Upper Elbe, on the
morrow morning, Thursday, 31st July, 1732, Friedrich Wilhelm rushes on
towards Kladrup; finds that little village, with the Horse-edifices,
looking snug enough in the valley of Elbe;--alights, welcomed by Prince
Eugenio von Savoye, with word that the Kaiser is not come, but steadily
expected soon. Prinoe Eugenio von Savoye: ACH GOTT, it is another thing,
your Highness, than when we met in the Flanders Wars, long since;--at
Malplaquet that morning, when your Highness had been to Brussels,
visiting your Lady Mother in case of the worst! Slightly grayer your
Highness is grown; I too am nothing like so nimble; the great Duke, poor
man, is dead!--Prince Eugenio von Savoye, we need not doubt, took snuff,
and answered in a sprightly appropriate manner.

Kladrup is a Country House as well as a Horse-Farm: a square court is
the interior, as I gather; the Horse-buildings at a reverent distance
forming the fourth side. In the centre of this court,--see what a
contrivance the Aulic Councillors have hit upon,--there is a wooden
stand built, with three staircases leading up to it, one for each
person, and three galleries leading off from it into suites of rooms: no
question of precedence here, where each of you has his own staircase
and own gallery to his apartment! Friedrich Wilhelm looks down like
a rhinoceros on all those cobwebberies. No sooner are the Kaiser's
carriage-wheels heard within the court, than Friedrich Wilhelm rushes
down, by what staircase is readiest; forward to the very carriage-door;
and flings his arms about the Kaiser, embracing and embraced, like mere
human friends glad to see one another. On these terms, they mount the
wooden stand, Majesty of Prussia, Kaiser, Kaiserinn, each by his own
staircase; see, for a space of two hours, the Kaiser's foals and horses
led about,--which at least fills up any gap in conversation that may
thr