trength, which might be very tempting
to him. There has been a great deal of unwise babble on this subject,
which I find no reason to believe, except as just said: In the fall of
this year, as usual, perhaps rather later than usual,--not till November
8th (for what reason so delaying, Marwitz told us already),--he withdrew
from Sans-Souci, his Summer-Cottage; shut himself up in Potsdam Palace
(Old Palace) for the winter. It was known he was very ailing; and that
he never stirred out,--but this was not quite unusual in late winters;
and the rumors about his health were vague and various. Now, as always,
he himself, except to his Doctors, was silent on that subject. Various
military Doctors, Theden, Frese and others of eminence, were within
reach; but it is not known to me that he consulted any of them.

Not till January, 1786, when symptoms worse than ever, of asthma, of
dropsy, began to manifest themselves, did he call in Selle, the chief
Berlin Doctor, and a man of real sagacity, as is still evident; who from
the first concluded the disease to be desperate; but of course began
some alleviatory treatment, the skilfulest possible to him. [Christian
Gottlieb Selle, KRANKHEITSGESCHICHTE DES HOCHSTSEELIGEN KONIGS VAN
PREUSSEN FRIEDRICHS DES ZWEYTEN MAJESTAT (Berlin, 1786); a very small
Pamphlet, now very rare;--giving in the most distinct, intelligent,
modest and conclusive way, an account of everything pertinent, and
rigorously of nothing else.] Selle, when questioned, kept his
worst fears carefully to himself: but the King noticed Selle's real
opinion,--which, probably, was the King's own too;--and finding little
actual alleviation, a good deal of trouble, and no possibility of a
victorious result by this warfare on the outworks, began to be weary of
Selle; and to turn his hopes--what hopes he yet had--on the fine weather
soon due. He had a continual short small cough, which much troubled him;
there was fear of new Suffocation-Fit; the breathing always difficult.

But Spring came, unusually mild; the King sat on the southern balconies
in the genial sun and air, looking over the bright sky and earth, and
new birth of things: "Were I at Sans-Souci, amid the Gardens!" thought
he. APRIL 17th, he shifted thither: not in a sedan, as Marwitz told us
of the former journey; but "in his carriage, very early in the
morning, making a long roundabout through various Villages, with
new relays,"--probably with the motive Marwitz assigns