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'ashlar telling you, "I have stood a hundred years");— 'Beau old and weatherbeaten, with his cocked-hat not ' in the fresh condition, all his gold-laces tarnished; and generally looking strange, and in a sort tragical, to ' find himself, fleeting creature, become a denizen of the 'Architectural Fixities and earnest Eternities!'

From Potsdam Palace to the New Palace of SansSouci may be a mile distance; flat ground, parallel to the foot of Hills; all through arbours, parterres, waterworks, and ornamental gardenings and cottagings or villa-ings,-Cottage-Villa for Lord Marischal is one of them. This mile of distance, taking the Cottage Royal of Sans-Souci on its hill-top as vertex, will be the base of an isosceles or nearly isosceles triangle, flatter than equilateral. To the Cottage Royal of Sans-Souci may be about three-quarters of a mile north-east from this New Palace, and from Potsdam Palace to it rather less. And the whole square-mile or so of space is continuously a Garden, not in the English sense, though it has its own beauties of the more artificial kind; and, at any rate, has memories for you, and footsteps of persons still unforgotten by mankind.-Here is a Notice of Lord Marischal; which readers will not grudge; the chronology of the worthy man, in these his later epochs, being in so hazy

a state:

Lord Marischal, we know well and Pitt knows, was in England in 1761,—ostensibly, on the Kintore Heritage; and in part perhaps, really on that errand. But he went and came, at dates now uncertain; was back in Spain after that, had difficult voyagings about;29-and did not get to rest again, in his Government of Neufchâtel, till April 1762. There is a Letter of the King's, which at least fixes that point:

"Breslau, 10th April 1762. My nose is the most impertinent

20 King's Letters to him, in Euvres de Frédéric, xx. 282-285.

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"nose in the universe, mon cher Mylord" (Queen-Dowager snuff, Spaniol from the fountain-head, of Marischal's providing; quality exquisite, but difficult to get transmitted in the Storms of War); "I am ashamed of the trouble it costs you! I beg many pardons; "-and should be quite abashed, did I not know how you com"passionate the weak points of your friends, and that, for a long "time past, you have a singular indulgence for my nose. I am "very glad to know you happily returned to your Government, "safe at Colombier (Dove-cote) in Neufchâtel again." This is 10th April 1762. There, as I gather, quiet in his Dove-cote, Marischal continued, though rather weary of the business, for about a year more; or till the King got home,-who delights in companionship, and is willing to let an old man demit for good.

It was in Summer 1762 (about three months after the above Letter from the King), that Rousseau made his celebrated exodus into Neufchâtel Country, and found the old Governor so good to him,-glad to be allowed to shelter the poor skinless creature. And, mark as curious, it must have been on two of those mornings, towards the end of the Siege of Schweidnitz, when things were getting so intolerable, and at times breaking out into electricity, into 'rebuke all round,' that Friedrich received that singular pair of Laconic Notes from Rousseau in Neufchâtel: forwarded, successively, by Lord Marischal; Note First, of date, Motier-Travers, Neufchâtel, September,' nobody can guess what day, 1762: "I have said much ill of you, "and don't repent it. Now everybody has banished me; and "it is on your threshold that I sit down. Kill me, if you "have a mind!" And then (after, not death, but the gift of 100 crowns), Note Second, 'October 1762?' "Take "out of my sight that sword, which dazzles and pains me; it "has only too well done its duty, while the sceptre is aban"doned:" Make Peace, can't you !30-What curious reading for a King in such posture, among the miscellaneous arrivals overnight! Above six weeks before either of these Notes, Friedrich, hearing of him from Lord Marischal, had answered: "An asylum? Yes, by all means: the unlucky cynic!" It is on

30 Euvres complètes de Rousseau (à Genève, 1782-1789), xxxiii. 64, 65.

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September 1st, that he sends, by the same channel, 100 crowns for his use, with advice to "give them in naturâ, lest he refuse otherwise;" as Friedrich knows to be possible. In words, the Rousseau Notes got nothing of Answer. "A garçon singulier," says Friedrich: odd fellow, yes indeed, your Majesty ;—and has such a pungency of flattery in him, too, presented in the way of snarl! His Majesty might take him, I suppose, with a kind of relish, like Queen-Dowager snuff.

There was still another shift of place, shift which proved temporary, in old Marischal's life: Home to native Aberdeenshire. The two childless Brothers, Earls of Kintore, had died successively, the last of them, November 22d, 1761: title and heritage, not considerable the latter, fell duly, by what preparatives we know, to old Marischal; but his Keith kinsfolk, furthermore, would have him personally among them,—nay, after that, would have him to wed and produce new Keiths. At the age of 78; decidedly an inconvenient thing! Old Marischal left Potsdam, 'August 1763,3-New-Palace scaffoldings and big stone-blocks conspicuous in those localities; pleasant D'Alembert now just about leaving in the other direction;-much to Friedrich's regret, the old Marischal especially, as is still finely evident.

Friedrich to Lord Marischal (in Scotland for the last six months). "Sans-Souci, 16th February 1764.

"I am not surprised that the Scotch fight to have you among "them; and wish to have progeny of yours, and to preserve your "bones. You have, in your lifetime, the lot of Homer after death: "Cities arguing which is your birthplace;—I myself would dis66 pute it with Edinburgh to possess you. If I had ships, I would "make a descent on Scotland, to steal off my cher Mylord, and

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bring him hither. Alas, our Elbe Boats can't do it. But you "give me hopes;-which I seize with avidity! I was your late "Brother's friend, and had obligations to him; I am yours with "heart and soul. These are my titles, these are my rights:"you shan't be forced in the matter of progeny here (faire l'étalon

:

31 Letter of his to the King ( Londres, 14 Août 1763'), in Œuvres de Frédéric, xx. 293.

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"ici), neither priests nor attorneys shall meddle with you; you "shall live here in the bosom of friendship, liberty and philo"sophy." Come to me! *_F.32

Old Marischal did come; and before long. I know not the precise month but 'his Villa-Cottage was built for him,' the Books say, 'in 1764.' He had left D'Alembert just going; next year, he will find Helvetius coming. He lived here, a great treasure to Friedrich, till his death, 25th May 1778, age 92.

The New Palace was not finished till 1770;-in which year, also, Friedrich reckons that the general Problem of Repairing Prussia was victoriously over. New Palace, growing or complete, looks down on all these operations and occurrences. In its cradle, it sees D'Alembert go, Lord Marischal go; Helvetius come, Lord Marischal come; in its boyhood or maturity, the Excise, and French Rats-de-Cave, spring up; Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm prick his hand for a fit kind of ink; Friedrich Wilhelm's Divorced Wife give her Douanier two slaps in the face, by way of payment. Nay, the same Friedrich Wilhelm, become "Friedrich Wilhelm II., or der Dicke," died in it,-his Lichtenau and his second Wife, jewel of women, nursing him in his last sickness there.33

The violent stress of effort for repairing Prussia, Friedrich intimates, was mostly over in 1766: till which date specifically, and in a looser sense till 1770, that may be considered as his main business. But it was not at any time his sole business; nor latterly at all equal in interest to some others that had risen on him, as the next Chapter will now show. Here, first, is a little Fraction of Necrology, which may be worth taking with us. Readers can spread these fateful specialities

32 Euvres de Frédéric, xx. 295.

33 'Died, 16th November 1797.'

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over the Period in question; and know that each of them came with a kind of knell upon Friedrich's heart, whatever he might be employed about. Hour striking after hour on the Horologe of Time; intimating how the Afternoon wore, and that Night was coming. Various meanings there would be to Friedrich, in these footfalls of departing guests, the dear, the less dear, and the indifferent or hostile; but each of them would mean: "Gone, then, gone; thus we all go!"

'Obituary in Friedrich's Circle till 1771.'

Of Polish Majesty's death (5th October 1763), and then (2d December following) of his Kurprinz or Successor's, with whom we dined at Moritzburg so recently, there will be mention by and by. November 28th, 1763, in the interval between these two, the wretched Brühl had died. April 14th, 1764, died the wretched Pompadour;-"To us not known, Je ne la connais pas"-hapless Butterfly, she had been twenty years in the winged condition; age now forty-four: dull Louis, they say, looked out of window as her hearse departed, "froidement," without emotion of any visible kind. These little concern Friedrich or us; we will restrict ourselves to Friends.

'Died in 1764. At Pisa, Algarotti (23d May 1764, age fiftytwo); with whom Friedrich has always had some correspond'ence hitherto (to himself interesting, though not to us), and 'will never henceforth have more. Friedrich raised a Monu'ment to him; Monument still to be seen in the Campo-Santo "of Pisa: "Hic jacet Ovidii æmulus et Neutoni discipulus ;” friends have added "Fredericus Magnus poni fecit;" and on another 'part of the Monument, "Algarottus non omnis.”34

— in 1765. At the age of eighty, November 18th, Gräfin "Camas, "Ma bonne Maman" (widow since 1741); excellent old 'Lady, once brilliantly young, German by birth, her name 'Brandt;—to whom the King's Letters used to be so pretty.' This same year, too, Kaiser Franz died; but him we will reserve, as not belonging to this Select List.

34 Preuss, iv. 188.