he liked,--in such an
atmosphere, in such an element. "The little Princes were all wont
to come in," doffing their bits of triangular hats, "and bid Papa
good-night. One of the old Generals would sometimes put them through
their exercise; and the little creatures were unwilling to go away to
bed."

In such Assemblage, when business of importance, foreign or domestic,
was not occupying the royal thoughts,--the Talk, we can believe, was
rambling and multifarious: the day's hunting, if at Wusterhausen; the
day's news, if at Berlin or Potsdam; old reminiscences, too, I can
fancy, turning up, and talk, even in Seckendorf's own time, about Siege
of Menin (where your Majesty first did me the honor of some notice),
Siege of Stralsund, and--duly on September 11th at least--Malplaquet,
with Marlborough and Eugene: what Marlborough said, looked: and
especially Lottum, late Feldmarschall Lottum; [Died 1719.] and how the
Prussian Infantry held firm, like a wall of rocks, when the horse were
swept away,--rocks highly volcanic, and capable of rolling forward too;
and "how a certain Adjutant [Derschau smokes harder, and blushes brown]
snatched poor Tettau on his back, bleeding to death, amid the iron
whirlwinds, and brought him out of shot-range." [_ Militair-Lexikon,_
iv. 78,? Major-General von Tettau, and i. 348,? Derschau. This was the
beginning of Derschau's favor with Friedrich Wilhelm, who had witnesssed
this piece of faithful work.]--"Hm, na, such a Day, that, Herr
Feldzeugmeister, as we shall not see again till the Last of the Days!"

Failing talk, there were Newspapers in abundance; scraggy Dutch
Courants, Journals of the Rhine, FAMAS, Frankfurt ZEITUNGS; with which
his Majesty exuberantly supplied himself;--being willing to know what
was passing in the high places of the world, or even what in the dark
snuffy Editor's thoughts was passing. This kind of matter, as some
picture of the actual hour, his Majesty liked to have read to him, even
during meal-time. Some subordinate character, with clear windpipe,--all
the better too, if he be a book-man, cognizant of History, Geography,
and can explain everything,--usually reads the Newspaper from some
high seat behind backs, while his Majesty and Household dine. The same
subordinate personage may be worth his place in the Tabagie, should
his function happen to prove necessary there. Even book-men, though
generally pedants and mere bags of wind and folly, are good for
something, mo