r some
three months he had a tolerable time; perhaps, by contrast, almost a
delightful. Readers must imagine it; we have no details allowed us, nor
any time for them even if we had.

There come various visitors, various gayeties,--King's Birthday (January
24th); quality Balls, "at which Royal Majesty sometimes deigned to
show himself." A lively Breslau, in comparison. Sister Amelia paid a
beautiful visit of a fortnight or more: Sister Amelia, and along with
her, two married Cousins (once Margravines of Schwedt), whose Husbands,
little Brother Ferdinand, and Eugen of Wurtemberg, are wintering
here. The Marquis d'Argens, how exquisitely treated we shall see, is a
principal figure; Excellency Mitchell, deep in very important
business just now, is another. Reader de Catt (he who once, in a Dutch
River-Boat, got into conversation with the snuffy gentleman in black
wig) made his new appearance, this Winter,--needed now, since De Prades
is off. "Should you have known me again?" asked Friedrich. "Hardly, in
that dress; besides, your Majesty looks thinner." "That I can believe,
with the cursed life I have been leading!" [Rodenbeck, i. 285.] There
came also, day not given, a Captain Guichard ("Major Quintus Icilius"
that is to be) with his new Book on the Art Military of the Ancients,
MEMOIRES MILITAIRES SUR LES GRECS ET LES ROMAINS; [a La Haye, 2 tomes,
4to, 1757 (Nicolai, _Anekdoten,_ vi. 134)] which cannot but be welcome
to Friedrich. A solid account of that matter, by the first man who ever
understood both War and Greek. Far preferable to Folard's, a man without
Greek at all, and with military ideas not a little fantastic here and
there. Of Captain Guichard, were his Book once read, and himself a
little known, there will be more to say. For the present, fancy
him retained as supernumerary:--and in regard to Friedrich's Winter
generally, accept the following small hints, small but direct:--

FRIEDRICH TO D'ARGENS (three different times).

1. ON THE ROAD TO LEUTHEN "(Torgau, 15th November 1757).... I have
been obliged to have the Abbe arrested [De Prades, of whom enough, long
since]; he has been playing the spy, and I have many evident proofs of
it. That is very infamous and very ungrateful.--I have made a prodigious
quantity of verses (PRODIGIEUSEMENT DE VERS). If I live, I will show
them you in Winter-quarters: if I perish, they are bequeathed to you,
and I have ordered that they be put into your hand....

"Adieu, my de