. Here are two
contemporaneous Excerpts:--

1. MIRABEAU AT SANS-SOUCI. "This same day," April 17th, it appears,
[Preuss: in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxv. 328 n.] "the King saw Mirabeau,
for the second and last time. Mirabeau had come to Berlin 19th January
last; his errand not very precise,--except that he infinitely wanted
employment, and that at Paris the Controller-General Calonne, since so
famous among mankind, had evidently none to offer him there. He seems to
have intended Russia, and employment with the Czarina,--after viewing
Berlin a little, with the great flashy eyesight he had. He first saw
Friedrich January 25th. There pass in all, between Friedrich and him,
seven Letters or Notes, two of them by the King; and on poor Mirabeau's
side, it must be owned, there is a massively respectful, truthful and
manly physiognomy, which probably has mended Friedrich's first opinion
of him. [... "Is coming to me to-day; one of those loose-tongued
fellows, I suppose, who write for and against all the world." (Friedrich
to Prince Henri, "25 January, 1786:" _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvi. 522.)]
This day, April 17th, 1786, he is at Potsdam; so far on the road to
France again,--Mirabeau Senior being reported dangerously ill. 'My
Dialogue with the King,' say the Mirabeau Papers, 'was very lively; but
the King was in such suffering, and so straitened for breath, I was
myself anxious to shorten it: that same evening I travelled on.'

"Mirabeau Senior did not die at this time: and Controller-General
Calonne, now again eager to shake off an importunate and far too
clear-sighted Mirabeau Junior, said to the latter: 'Back to Berlin,
could n't you? Their King is dying, a new King coming; highly important
to us!'--and poor Mirabeau went. Left Paris again, in May; with money
furnished, but, no other outfit, and more in the character of Newspaper
Vulture than of Diplomatic Envoy," [Rodenbeck, iii. 343. Fils Adoptif,
_Memoires de Mirabeau_ (Paris, 1834), iv. 288-292, 296.] as perhaps we
may transiently see.

2. MARIE ANTOINETTE AT VERSAILLES; TO HER SISTER CHRISTINE AT BRUSSELS
(Husband and she, Duke and Duchess of Sachsen-Teschen, are Governors of
the Netherlands):--

MARCH 20th, 1786.... "There has been arrested at Geneva one Villette,
who played a great part in that abominable Affair [of the Diamond
Necklace, now emerging on an astonished Queen and world]. [Carlyle's
_Miscellanies_ (Library Edition), v. 3-96,? DIAMOND NECKLACE. The
wret