labour is thrown away; he has not even sense enough to empty a large glass, and takes pleasure in nothing.' The prince happened to have one which was brought him to drink the king's health in. Enraged at what he had heard-"I could wish," said he aloud to Sekendorff," that the king was not my father-in-law: I should soon shew him that this ass of whom he speaks would make him hold a different sort of language, and that he is not a man to allow himself to be ill-used." At the same time he swallowed the contents of the bumper, which was almost as fatal to him as poison. The king reddened with rage; he had sufficient command over himself, however, to make no reply: he rose from table shortly after, and returned alone in his chaise, without giving the prince a place in it, who was obliged to return on foot to the castle, having no carriage. He was in such a rage, that I was apprehensive he would fall into an apoplexy.

As he was not in a state to go to the play, and I was apprehensive of new catastrophes, I excused him and myself to the queen under pretext of his being indisposed. She returned for answer, that the prince might do what he pleased, but that she would not communicate our excuses to the king, and that I must absolutely go. He would not remain alone, and we both went to that cursed play. I wore a hood to conceal my disorder, and could not refrain from weeping. The prince was so much out of order, that every person noticed it.

We retired immediately after supper. He was very ill the whole night, and insisted on returning to Bareith. I was of the same opinion, but Sekendorff and Grumkow dissuaded him, assuring him that they would speak in strong terms to the king on his account, and endeavour to operate a change in his conduct. They were not on speaking terms with one another so long as he remained at Berlin. At length

the king returned to Potsdam, where we followed him in the year 1733.

The health of the prince was much disordered: he grew visibly thinner and was afflicted with a cough, which allowed him no rest day or night. The Berlin physicians began to be apprehensive lest he should fall into a consumption, which alarmed me cruelly. His stay at Potsdam only increased my alarms; the late nights and continual fatigues he endured augmented his disease. The melancholy life we led there preyed upon the spirits, as much as it was destructive to the body. We dined at mid-day. The meal was bad, and so scanty that we could not appease our hunger. A fool seated opposite the king related to him intelligence from newspapers, on which he made political commentaries as tiresome as ridiculous. On leaving table, this prince slept in an easy chair at the side of the fire. We were all around him to hear him snore. He slept till three o'clock, when he took a ride. I was obliged to remain all the afternoon with the queen and to read to her, which I could not support. Sarcasms and invectives were repeated without end. Hearing them so often, I ought to have accustomed myself to bear them; but my natural sensibility only made me feel them more keenly. I seldom or never saw the prince; the queen would not allow it: the slightest look I bestowed on him was a crime which I had to expiate with the most bitter sarcasms. The king returned at six o'clock, and began to paint, or rather to daub, till seven, and then he smoked. During this time the queen played at tocadille. We supped at eight o'clock with the queen. The table was prolonged to midnight: the conversation was like the sermons of certain preachers—a remedy for sleeplessness. It was kept up principally by La Montbail, who tired us to death with her old stories and legends of the court of Hanover, which we all knew by heart. All the different situations of

my life have appeared nothing to me in comparison with what I suffered then. The prince was dearer to me than all else in the world, and I saw him daily declining without having it in my power either to attend or assist him. I was ill-used on all hands: I had not a farthing, and I suffered continually. The only_consolation which yet remained to me was a speedy death, at all times the last resource of the wretched. I had a perpetual nausea. I lived for two years on bread and water alone, without taking anything at meals, my stomach not being even able to bear broths.

The king was very much grieved on hearing the account of the death of the king of Poland. That prince died at Warsaw, where he went to assist at the diet. Grumkow saw him on the road to Frauenblatt, where he went to compliment him on the part of the king of Prussia. They had a strong debauch together with Hungary wine, which shortened the days of that prince. He took a most tender farewell of the minister, of whom he was very fond: “Adieu, my dear Grumkow," said he, " I shall never see you more." Some days before the arrival of the courier, Grumkow said to the king in my presence, and that of more than forty witnesses, “Ah! sire, I am in despair, my poor patron is dead-I was awakened last night: all of a sudden the curtain of my bed opened: I saw him, he had his shroud on: he looked steadily at me. I wished to rise, being very much alarmed, but the phantom disappeared." It turned out, as chance would have it, that the king of Poland died that very night. I should suppose that Grumkow's mind being struck with the last words of that prince, had taken this dream for a reality: however, the vision made him melancholy for some time, and he only recovered his natural gaiety with the assistance of Hungary wine.

The hereditary prince, however, becoming every moment weaker, yielded to the weight of his disease,

and could no longer quit his bed. I sent for the surgeon-major of the king's regiment, who pronounced him in a fever. He undertook to excuse him to the king, to whom he gave such a picture of the danger he was in, that he was very much alarmed. The uneasiness produced in him by this account obliged him to visit us. He appeared quite surprised that in so short a time the prince should have been so much changed. The fear which he had of his sudden death made him send an express to Berlin for the most experienced physicians. The following day I saw the whole faculty enter my chamber in procession. The prince could not refrain from laughing at the sight of those learned personages, and asked me if I wished him to be installed doctor, or to be sent to the other world. As soon as the noble faculty had examined into all the circumstances of his disease, they concluded that by means of repose and a strict regimen a consumption might be prevented.

I was alone with madame de Sonsfeld at Potsdam, having been obliged to leave the rest of my suite at Berlin by order of the king. I never quitted the prince day or night, except for a quarter of an hour to pay my respects to the queen and king.

The latter made me a thousand caresses and praised my assiduity towards my husband, saying that all wives ought to follow the good example which I set them. "I am very well informed," said he one afternoon to me, when I paid my respects to him," of the cause of your husband's disease: he is chagrined at some things I said of him the day I dined with Glasenap, and he is excessively irritated against some of my officers who have rallied him severely by my orders. I was in the wrong, but all that I did was with the best intention and through friendship for you and him. I wished him to relax. A young man must have vivacity and indiscretion, and not always play the Cato. My officers are all well qualified to form him."

The queen's ill-humour still continued, and she contrived to quarrel with everything I did. When I went to her in the morning she would say: "Good morning, madam. Good God, what an appearance you have! you dress your head like an ideot, and always shew that long neck. I have a hundred times told you I could not endure your awkward air; you will at last wear out my patience." This was every day the burden of her song. She wished me to dress after the Berlin fashion: they wore the hair flat on the head without any curl; mine was dressed in the French style, the hereditary prince wishing me to do so, and the whole country, with the exception of Berlin, wearing it in the same manner. I was so worn down that I could scarcely support myself in my stays, and my stomach being always swelled I suffered a great deal whenever I attempted to stand erect; but all this was considered as frivolous, and not to be listened to.

The news which I received at that time from Bareith was very satisfactory. Mademoiselle de Sonsfeld informed me that the health of the margrave was visibly declining. He had gone to Neustadt to visit his hideous brother, whom I have already described, and who had then married a princess of Anhalt Schaumbourg. The margrave was at enormous expenses during his stay at Neustadt: he passed whole days in drinking and diversion. He had a terrible fall when intoxicated, having tumbled down a staircase he was carried up to his apartment half dead. I know not whether he received any internal injury, as the physicians about him were so ignorant that no reliance could be placed on their account. Whether from the fall or the drinking, one of them at least occasioned him so terrible a loss of blood from hemorrhoids, that his dissolution was looked for. An ecclesiastic was even sent for to pray with him, and prepare him for death; but his constitution still saved him, and he recovered though slowly.