nst Denmark in order to substantiate his
claims to the Danish crown. Chasot had actually the pleasure of fortifying
Luebeck, and carrying on preparations for war on a small scale, till Peter
was dethroned by his wife, Catherine. All this is told in a very
comprehensive and luminous style; and it is not without regret that we
find ourselves in the last chapter, where M. de Schloezer describes the
last meetings of Chasot and Frederic in 1779, 1784, and 1785. Frederic had
lost nearly all his friends, and he was delighted to see the _matador de
sa jeunesse_ once more. He writes:--

"Une chose qui n'est presque arrivee qu'a moi est que j'ai perdu
tous mes amis de coeur et mes anciennes connaissances; ce sont des
plaies dont le coeur saigne long-temps, que la philosophie apaise,
mais que sa main ne saurait guerir."

How pleasant for the king to find at least one man with whom he could talk
of the old days of Rheinsberg,--of Fraeulein von Schack and Fraeulein von
Walmoden, of Caesarion and Jordan, of Mimi and le Tourbillon! Chasot's two
sons entered the Prussian service, though, in the manner in which they are
received, we find Frederic again acting more as king than as friend.
Chasot in 1784 was still as lively as ever, whereas the king: was in bad
health. The latter writes to his old friend, "Si nous ne nous revoyons
bientot, nous ne nous reverrons jamais;" and when Chasot had arrived,
Frederic writes to Prince Heinrich, "Chasot est venu ici de Luebeck; il ne
parle que de mangeaille, de vins de Champagne, du Rhin, de Madere, de
Hongrie, et du faste de messieurs les marchands de la bourse de Luebeck."

Such was the last meeting of these two knights of the _Ordre de Bayard_.
The king died in 1786, without seeing the approach of the revolutionary
storm which was soon to upset the throne of the Bourbons. Chasot died in
1797. He began to write his memoirs in 1789, and it is to some of their
fragments, which had been preserved by his family, and were handed over to
M. Kurd de Schloezer, that we owe this delightful little book. Frederic the
Great used to complain that Germans could not write history:--

"Ce siecle ne produisit aucun bon historien. On chargea Teissier
d'ecrire l'histoire de Brandebourg: il en fit le panegyrique.
Pufendorf ecrivit la vie de Frederic-Guillaume, et, pour ne rien
omettre, il n'oublia ni ses clercs de chancellerie, ni ses valets
de chambre dont il put recueilli