eg of one's little joke!] in this Country; they eat up
everything!' The King burst out laughing; for it is only absurdities
that cause laughter.

"One day I had turned a plate to see of what, porcelain it was. 'Where
do you think it comes from?' asked the King.

EGO. "'I thought it was Saxon; but, instead of two swords [the Saxon
mark], I see only one, which is well worth both of them.'

KING. "'It is a sceptre.'

EGO. "'I beg your Majesty's pardon; but it is so much like a sword,
that one could easily mistake it for one.' And such was really the
case. This, it, is known, is the mark of the Berlin china. As the
King sometimes PLAYED KING, and thought himself, sometimes, extremely
magnificent while taking up a walking-stick or snuffbox with a few
wretched little diamonds running after one another on it, I don't quite
know whether he was infinitely pleased with my little allegory.

"One day, as I entered his room, he came towards me, saying, 'I tremble
to announce bad news to you. I have just heard that Prince Karl of
Lorraine is dying.' [Is already dead, "at Brussels, July 4th;" Duke of
Sachsen-Teschen and Wife Christine succeeded him as Joint-Governors in
those parts.] He looked at me to see the effect this would have; and
observing some tears escaping from my eyes, he, by gentlest transitions,
changed the conversation; talked of war, and of the Marechal de Lacy.
He asked me news about Lacy; and said, 'That is a man of the greatest
merit. In former time, Count Mercy among yourselves [killed, while
commanding in chief, at the Battle of Parma in 1733], Puysegur among
the French, had some notions of marches and encampments; one sees from
Hyginus's Book [ancient Book] ON CASTRAMETATION, that the Greeks also
were much occupied with the subject: but your Marechal surpasses the
Ancients, the Moderns and all the most famous men who have meddled with
it. Thus, whenever he was your Quartermaster-General, if you will
permit me to make the remark to you, I did not gain the least advantage.
Recollect the two Campaigns of 1758 and 1759; you succeeded in
everything. I often said to myself, 'Shall I never get rid of that man,
then?' You yourselves got me rid of him; and--[some liberal or even
profuse eulogy of Lacy, who is De Ligne's friend; which we can omit].

"Next day the King, as soon as he saw me, came up; saying with the most
penetrated air: 'If you are to learn the loss of a man who loved you,
and who did honor to mankind