the King of Prussia
so great a hero, so glorious a couqueror, as during these last weeks
of destitution and gloom. You have hungered with the hungry, you have
frozen with the freezing; you have passed the long, weary nights upon
your cannon or upon the hard, cold earth. You have divided your last
drop of wine with the poor soldiers. You did this, sire; I was in your
tent and witnessed it--I alone. You sat at your dinner--a piece of bread
and one glass of Hungarian wine, the last in your possession. An officer
entered with his report. You asked him if he had eaten. He said yes,
but his pale, thin face contradicted his words. You, sire, broke off the
half of your bread, you drank the half of your wine, then gave the rest
to the officer, saying in an almost apologetic tone, 'It is all that I
have.' Sire, on that day I did what since my youth I have not done--I
wept like a child, and my every glance upon your nobel face was a
prayer."

"Enthusiast," said the king, giving his hand to Le Catt with a kindly
smile, "is the world so corrupt that so natural an act should excite
surprise, and appear great and exalted? Are you astonished at that which
is simply human? But look! There is a courier! He stops before the door
of my peasant-palace. Quick, quick! Le Catt; let me know the news he
brings."

Le Catt hastened off, and returned at once with the dispatches.

Frederick took them with impatient haste, and while he read, his grave
face lightened, and a happy, hopeful smile played once more upon his
lips. "Ah, Le Catt," said he, "I was a good prophet, and my hopes are
about to be fulfilled. Europe is against me, but Asia is my ally. The
barbarous Russians are my enemies, but the honest Turks and Tartars are
my friends. This dispatch is from my ambassador Rexin. He is coming,
accompanied by an ambassador of Tartary, and may be here in a few
hours."

"Where will your majesty receive him?" said Le Catt.

The king looked around smilingly at the little room, with the rude walls
and dirty floor.

"I will receive him here!" said he; "here, in my royal palace of
Voiseilvitz. I am forced to believe that a right royal king would, by
his presence, transform the lowliest hut into a palace, and the most
ordinary chair into a throne. The eyes of the ambassador may, however,
be as dull as those of the worthy possessor of my present palace. It
may be that he will not recognize me as the visible representative
of God--as king by the grace