this league; and my ambassador, Rexin, was, with
the consent of the Grand Vizier Mustapha, and indeed by his advice,
disguised and sent secretly to Constantinople. The negotiations were
almost completed, when the Russian and French ambassadors discovered my
plans, and by bribery, lies, and intrigues of every base sort, succeeded
in interfering. Mustapha broke his promise, and his only answer to me
was--'that the Sublime Porte must wait for happier and more propitious
days to confirm her friendship and good understanding with the King of
Prussia.' This was the will of God the Almighty. This propitious year
has been a long time coming, but I hope it is now at hand, and this
longed-for alliance will at length be concluded. The last dispatches
from my ambassador in Constantinople seem favorable. The wise and
energetic Grand Vizier Raghile, the first self-reliant and enterprising
Turkish statesman, has promised Rexin to bring this matter before the
sultan, and I am daily expecting a courier who will bring me a decisive
and perhaps favorable answer from Tartary."

[Footnote: Kammer, "History of the Porte," vol. viii., p. 190.]

Le Catt gazed with admiration upon the noble, excited countenance of the
king. "Oh, sire," said he, deeply moved, "pardon, that in the fulness
of my heart, overcome with joy and rapture. I dare for once to give
expression in words to my love and my admiration. It is a glorious
spectacle to see the proud oak in the midst of the wild tempest firm and
unmoved, not even bowing its proud head to the raging elements, offering
a bold but calm defiance. But it is a still more exalted spectacle to
see a man with a brave heart and flashing eye defy disaster and death;
alone, in the consciousness of his own strength, meeting Fate as an
adversary and gazing upon it eye to eye unterrified. Misfortune is like
the lion of the desert. If a man with steady eye and firm step advances
to meet him, he ceases to roar and lies down humbly at his feet; he
recognizes and quails before man made in the likeness of God. You, my
king, now offer this spectacle to the astonished world. Can you wonder
that I, who am ever near you, are filled with devotion and adoration,
and must at last give utterance to my emotion? I have seen your majesty
on the bloody battle-field, and in the full consciousness of victory,
but never have I seen the laurels which crown your brow so radiant as in
these days of your misfortune and defeat. Never was