History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 6 | Page 7

Maypole's; and there is a
Nephew of hers, one of Friedrich Wilhelm's Field-Officers here, whom
we shall meet by and by. She has been obliging to Queen Sophie on
occasions; they can, and do, now weep heartily together. I believe she
returned to England, being Duchess of Kendal, with heavy pensions
there; and "assiduously attended divine ordinances, according to the
German Protestant form, ever afterwards." Poor foolish old soul, what
is this world, with all its dukeries!--
The other or fat Mistress, "Cataract of fluid Tallow," Countess of
Darlington, whom I take to have been a Half-Sister rather, sat sorrowful
at Isleworth; and kept for many years a Black Raven, which had come
flying in upon her; which she somehow understood to be the soul, or
connected with the soul, of his Majesty of happy memory. [Horace
Walpole, Reminiscences. ] Good Heavens, what
fat fluid-tallowy stupor, and entirely sordid darkness, dwells among
mankind; and occasionally finds itself lifted to the very top, by way of
sample!--
Friedrich Wilhelm wept tenderly to Brigadier Dubourgay, the British
Minister at Berlin (an old military gentleman, of diplomatic merit, who
spells rather ill), when they spoke of this sad matter. My poor old
Uncle; he was so good to me in boyhood, in those old days, when I
blooded Cousin George's nose! Not unkind, ah, only proud and sad;
and was called sulky, being of few words and heavy-laden. Ah me,
your Excellenz; if the little nightingales have a11 fallen silent, what
may not I, his Son and sephew, do?--And the rugged Majesty
blubbered with great tenderness; having fountains of tears withal,
hidden in the rocky heart of him, not suspected by every one.
[Dubourgay's Despatches, in the State-Paper Office.]
I add only that the Fabrice, who had poor George in his arms that night,
is a man worth mentioning. The same Fabrice (Fabricius, or perhaps
GOLDSCHMIDT in German) who went as Envoy from the
Holstein-Gottorp people to Charles XII. in his Turkish time; and stayed
with his Swedish Majesty there, for a year or two, indeed till the
catastrophe came. His Official LETTERS from that scene are in print,

this long while, though considerably forgotten; [ Anecdotes du
Sejour du Roi de Suide a Bender, ou Lettres de M. le Baron de Fabrice
pour servir d'elaircissement a l'Histoire de Charles XII.
(Hambourg, 1760, 8vo).] a little Volume, worth many big ones that
have been published on that subject. The same Fabrice, following
Hanover afterwards, came across to London in due course; and there he
did another memorable thing: made acquaintance with the Monsieur
Arouet, then a young French Exile there, Arouet Junior ("LE JEUNE or
L. J."), who,-- by an ingenious anagram, contrived in his indignation at
such banishment,--writes himself VOLTAIRE ever since; who has been
publishing a HENRIADE, and doing other things. Now it was by
questioning this Fabrice, and industriously picking the memory of him
clean, that M. de Voltaire wrote another book, much more of an "Epic"
than Henri IV.,--a HISTORY, namely, OF CHARLES XII.; [See
Voltaire, OEuvres Completes, ii. 149, xxx. 7, 127. Came out in
1731 (ib. xxx. Avant-Propos, p. ii).] which seems to me the best-written
of all his Books, and wants nothing but TRUTH (indeed a dreadful
want) to make it a possession forever. VOLTAIRE, if you want fine
writing; ADLERFELD and FABRICE, if you would see the features of
the Fact: these three are still the Books upon Charles XII.
HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY FALLS INTO ONE OF HIS
HYPOCHONDRIACALFITS.
Before this event, his Majesty was in gloomy humor; and special
vexations had superadded themselves. Early in the Spring, a difficult
huff of quarrel, the consummation of a good many grudges long
subsisting, had fallen out with his neighbor of Saxony, the Majesty of
Poland, August, whom we have formerly heard of, a conspicuous
Majesty in those days; called even "August the Great" by some persons
in his own time; but now chiefly remembered by his splendor of
upholstery, his enormous expenditure in drinking and otherwise, also
by his three hundred and fifty-four Bastards (probably the maximum of
any King's performance in that line), and called August DER STARKE,
"August the Physically Strong." This exemplary Sovereign could not
well be a man according to Friedrich Wilhelm's heart: accordingly they
had their huffs and little collisions now and then: that of the Protestant

Directorate and Heidelberg Protestants, for instance; indeed it was
generally about Protestantism; and more lately there had been high
words and correspondings about the "Protestants of Thorn" (a bad
tragedy, of Jesuit intrusion and Polish ferocity, enacted there in 1724);
[Account of it in Buchholz, i. 98-102.]--in which sad business Friedrich
Wilhelm loyally interfered, though Britannic George of blessed
memory and others were but lukewarm; and nothing could be done in