ngly undertook spoiling; and, as is
well known, did it, January 22d, 1761; a thing Quintus never heard the
end of. What the amount of profit, or the degree of spoil and mischief,
Quintus's people made of it, I could not learn; but infer from this new
event that the wreck had not been so considerable as the noise was; at
any rate, that the Schloss had soon been restored to its pristine state
of brilliancy. The Plenipotentiaries,--for Saxony, Fritsch; for Austria,
a Von Collenbach, unknown to us; for Prussia, one Hertzberg, a man
experienced beyond his years, who is of great name in Prussian History
subsequently,--sat here till February 15th, 1763, that is for six weeks
and five days. Leaving their Protocols to better judges, who report them
good, we will much prefer a word or two from Friedrich himself, while
waiting the result they come to.

FRIEDRICH TO PRINCE HENRI (home at Berlin).

"LEIPZIG, 14th JANUARY, 1763.... Am not surprised you find Berlin
changed for the worse: such a train of calamities must, in the end,
make itself felt in a poor and naturally barren Country, where continual
industry is needed to second its fecundity and keep up production.
However, I will do what I can to remedy this dearth (LA DISETTE), at
least as far as my small means permit....

"No fear of Geldern and Wesel; all that has been cared for by Bauer and
the new Free-Corps. By the end of February Peace will be signed; at the
beginning of April everybody will find himself at home, as in 1756.

"The Circles are going to separate: indifferent to me, or nearly so;
but it is good to be plucking out tiresome burning sticks, stick after
stick. I hope you amuse yourself at Berlin: at Leipzig nothing but balls
and redouts; my Nephews diverting themselves amazingly. Madam Friedrich,
lately Garden-maid at Seidlitz [Village in the Neumark, with this Beauty
plucking weeds in it,--little prescient of such a fortune], now Wife
to an Officer of the Free Hussars, is the principal heroine of these
Festivities." [Schoning, iii. 528.]

LEIPZIG, 25th JANUARY, 1763. "Thanks for your care about my existence. I
am becoming very old, dear Brother; in a little while I shall be useless
to the world and a burden to myself: it is the lot of all creatures
to wear down with age,--but one is not, for all that, to abuse one's
privilege of falling into dotage.

"You still speak without full confidence of our Negotiation business
[going on at Hubertsburg yonder]. Mo