rank would permit; for these allowances were regulated by the
king himself.

"The poor colonel had a wife and a large family of children; he did not
understand how to make the best of his small income, nor to improve it
by other employment, so that he was at last reduced to what was little
short of beggary and starvation. Day after day he placed himself in the
royal ante-chamber and begged an audience; but the king would not hear
him, and one day got into a towering passion when the officer-in-waiting
ventured to utter the poor man's name in the king's presence. At last
the colonel grew desperate. He could not make up his mind to beg; his
wife was ill, his children starving,--what was he to do? He hit upon
the curious idea of getting relief for his family by putting up,
unobserved, in the night time, at the corners of the streets in Berlin,
placards breathing the most venomous abuse of the king, in the hope that
a reward would be offered to the person who should disclose who was the
writer of the placard, that he might then himself claim the reward by
informing against himself, and so might relieve the immediate pressing
necessities of his wife and children, whatever might be the personal
suffering and consequences to himself.

"The plan succeeded. The king, in a transport of rage, offered a reward
of fifty gold pieces to whoever should disclose the offender. But you
may imagine Frederick's amazement when the poor colonel, in ragged
regimentals, and half perishing with hunger, obtained an interview, and
named himself as the guilty libeller.

"And now, how did the king act, when the unhappy officer begged that the
reward might be sent at once to his wife, that she might obtain medical
help for herself and bread for her children? What was such a man as
Frederick likely to do? The colonel, when he confessed his crime,
acknowledged that his life was justly forfeited, and asked no pity for
himself; and had the king acted up to his ordinary rules, he would have
at once ordered the miserable officer off to execution, or, at least,
lifelong imprisonment. But it was not thus that he punished the crushed
and miserable culprit. His heart was touched, his conscience was
pricked; he felt that he had acted wrongly to the colonel in times past,
and that he must now undo the wrong as far as was possible. But then
remember the king's character and habits, especially in military
matters. When he had once said `No,' when he