h; but dispense with consolation, and keep his
wits about him, till this squall pass. After much deliberating, it is
found that the royal clemency can be extended; and an outlet devised,
under conditions. Next Tabagie, a servant enters with one of the biggest
trays in the world, and upon it a "Wooden Key gilt, about an ell long;"
this gigantic implement is solemnly hung round the repentant Kammerherr;
this he shall wear publicly as penance, and be upon his behavior, till
the royal mind can relent. Figure the poor blockhead till that happen!
"On recovering his metal key, he goes to a smith, and has it fixed on
with wire."

What Gundling thought to himself, amid these pranks and hoaxings, we do
not know. The poor soul was not born a fool; though he had become one,
by college-learning, vanity, strong-drink, and the world's perversity
and his own. Under good guidance, especially if bred to strict silence,
he might have been in some measure a luminous object,--not as now a
phosphorescent one, shining by its mere rottenness! A sad "Calamity of
Authors" indeed, when it overtakes a man!--Poor Gundling probably
had lucid intervals now and then; tragic fits of discernment, in the
inner-man of him. He had a Brother, also a learned man, who retained his
senses; and was even a rather famed Professor at Halle; whose
Portrait, looking very academic, solemn and well-to-do, turns up in
old printshops; whose Books, concerning "Henry the Fowler (_De Henrico
Aucupe_)," "Kaiser Conrad I.," and other dim Historical objects, are
still consultable,--though with little profit, to my experience. The
name of this one was NICOLAUS HIERONYMUS; ours is JAKOB PAUL, the senior
brother,--once the hope of the House, it is likely, and a fond Father's
pride,--in that poor old Nurnberg Parsonage long ago!

Jakob Paul likewise continued to write Books, on Brandenburg Heraldries,
Topography, Genealogies: even a "LIFE" or two of some old Brandenburg
Electors are still extant from his hand; but not looked at now by any
mortal. He had been, perhaps was again, Historiographer Royal; and felt
bound to write such Books: several of them he printed; and we hear of
others still manuscript, "in five folio volumes written fair." He held
innumerable half-mock Titles and Offices; among others, was actual
President of the Berlin Royal Society, or ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES,
Leibnitz's pet daughter,--there Gundling actually sat in Office; and
drew the salary, for one certainty