ot: "Do it, at any price;" and finally, as mere price
will not answer, "Do it by any method,--STEAL Lee's Despatch-Box for
us!"

Perhaps few Excellencies living had less appetite for such a job than
Elliot; but his Orders were peremptory, "Lee is a rebel, quasi-outlaw;
and you must!" Elliot thereupon took accurate survey of the matter; and
rapidly enough, and with perfect skill, though still a novice in Berlin
affairs, managed to do it. Privily hired, or made his servant hire, the
chief Housebreaker or Pickpocket in the City: "Lee lodges in such and
such a Hostelry; bring us his Red-Box for a thirty hours; it shall
be well worth your while!" And in brief space the Red-Box arrives,
accordingly; a score or two of ready-writers waiting for it, who copy
all day, all night, at the top of their speed, till they have enough:
which done, the Lee Red-Box is left on the stairs of the Lee Tavern; Box
locked again, and complete; only the Friedrich-Lee Secrets completely
pumped out of it, and now rushing day and night towards England, to
illuminate the Supreme Council-Board there.

This astonishing mass of papers is still extant in England; [In
the EDEN-HOUSE ARCHIVES; where a natural delicacy (unaware that the
questionable Legationary FACT stands in print for so many years past)
is properly averse to any promulgation of them.]--the outside of them I
have seen, by no means the inside, had I wished it;--but am able to say
from other sources, which are open to all the world, that seldom had a
Supreme Council-Board procured for itself, by improper or proper ways,
a Discovery of less value! Discovery that Lee has indeed been urgent at
Berlin; and has raised in Friedrich the question, "Have you got to such
a condition that I can, with safety and advantage, make a Treaty of
Commerce with you?"--That his Minister Schulenburg has, by Order, been
investigating Lee on that head; and has reported, "No, your Majesty, Lee
and People are not in such a condition;" that his Majesty has replied,
"Well, let him wait till they are;" and that Lee is waiting accordingly.
In general, That his Majesty is not less concerned in guidance or
encouragement of the American War than he is in ditto of the Atlantic
Tides or of the East-Wind (though he does keep barometers and
meteorological apparatus by him); and that we of the Council-Board are
a--what shall I say! Not since the case of poor Dr. Cameron, in 1753,
when Friedrich was to have joined the Highlanders