Aug.-Sept. 1774.

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Conway to his Brother, Marquis of Hertford (in London).

"Berlin, July 17th, 1774.

"Leaving

"Dear Brother,-In the hurry I live in❞— "Brunswick, where, in absence of most of the Court, who are "visiting at Potsdam, my old Commander," Duke Ferdinand, now estranged from Potsdam,48 and living here among works of Art, and speculations on Free Masonry, "was very kind to me, "I went to Celle, in Hanover, to pay my respects to the Queen "of Denmark" (unfortunate divorced Matilda, saved by my friend Keith,-innocent, I will hope!) ... "She is grown extremely “fat.” . . . “ At Magdeburg, the Prussian Frontier on this side, "one is not allowed, without a permit, even to walk on the ramparts, such the strictness of Prussian rule.” . . . "Driving through Potsdam, on my way to Berlin, I was stopped by a "servant of the good old Lord Marischal, who had spied me as “I passed under his window. He came out in his nightgown, "and insisted upon our staying to dine with him”—(worthy old man; a word of him, were this Letter done). "We ended, on "consultation about times and movements of the King, by stay"ing three days at Potsdam, mostly with this excellent old Lord. "On the third day" (yesterday evening, in fact), "I went, by appointment, to the New Palace, to wait upon the King of "Prussia. There was some delay: his Majesty had gone, in "the interim, to a private Concert, which he was giving to the "Princesses" (Duchess of Brunswick and other high guests19); "but the moment he was told I was there, he came out from his company, and gave me a most flattering gracious audience of more than half an hour; talking on a great variety of things, "with an ease and freedom the very reverse of what I had been "made to expect.” . . . “I asked, and received permission, to "visit the Silesian Camps next month, his Majesty most graciously 66 telling me the particular days they would begin and end" (27th August-3d September, Schmelwitz near Breslau, are time and

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" Had a kind of quarrel with Friedrich in 1766 (rough treatment by Adjutant von Anhalt, not tolerable to a Captain now become so eminent), and quietly withdrew,-still on speaking terms with the King, but never his Officer more. "Rödenbeck (in die), iii. 98.

Aug. Sept. 1774. place50). "This considerably deranges my Austrian movements, "and will hurry my return out of those parts: but who could "resist such a temptation!-I saw the Foot-Guards exercise, "especially the splendid First Battalion;' I could have con"ceived nothing so perfect and so exact as all I saw :-so well "dressed, such men, and so punctual in all they did.

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"The New Palace at Potsdam is extremely noble. Not so "perfect, perhaps, in point of taste, but better than I had been "led to expect. The King dislikes living there; never does, except when there is high Company about him; for seven or eight months in the year, he prefers Little Sans-Souci, and "freedom among his intimates and some of his Generals." “His Music still takes up a great share of the King's time. On "a table in his Cabinet there, I saw, I believe, twenty boxes with "a German flute in each; in his Bed-chamber, twice as many "boxes of Spanish snuff; and, alike in Cabinet and in Bed"chamber, three arm-chairs in a row for three favourite dogs, "each with a little stool by way of step, that the getting up might be easy."

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even the lowest

"The Town of Potsdam is a most extraordinary and, in its appearance, beautiful Town; all the streets perfectly straight, "all at right angles to each other; and all the houses built with "handsome, generally elegant fronts." . . . "He builds for "everybody who has a bad or a small house, "mechanic. He has done the same at Berlin." Altogether, his Majesty's building operations are astonishing. And "from whence "does this money come, after a long expensive War? It is all "fairy-land and enchantment,"-Magnum vectigal parsimonia, in fact!... "At Berlin here, I saw the Porcelain Manufacture "today, which is greatly improved. I leave presently. Adieu, "dear Brother; excuse my endless Letter" (since you cannot squeeze the water out of it, as some will!)-"Yours most sin"cerely, HENRY SEYMOUR CONWAY."

Keith is now Minister at Dresden for some years back; and has, among other topics, much to say of our brilliant friend the Electress there: but his grand Diplomatic feat was at Copen

50 Rödenbeck, iii. 101.

Aug.-Sept. 1774. hagen, on a sudden sally out thither (in 1771):51 the saving of Queen Matilda, youngest Sister of George Third, from a hard doom. Unfortunate Queen Matilda; one never knows how guilty, or whether guilty at all, but she was very unfortunate, poor young Lady! What with a mad Husband collapsed by debaucheries into stupor of insanity; with a Doctor, gradually a Prime Minister, Struensee, wretched scarecrow to look upon, but wiser than most Danes about; and finally, with a lynx-eyed Step-sister, whose Son, should Matilda mistake, will inherit,-unfortunate Matilda had fallen into the awfullest troubles; got divorced, imprisoned, would have lost her head along with scarecrow Struensee, had not her Brother George III. emphatically intervened, -Excellency Keith, with Seventy-fours in the distance, coming out very strong on the occasion, and got her loose. Loose from Danish axe and jail, at any rate; delivered into safety and solitude at Celle in Hanover, where she now is,-and soon after suddenly dies of fever, so closing a very sad short history.

Excellency Keith, famed in the Diplomatic circles ever since, is at present ahead of Conway on their joint road to the Austrian Reviews. Before giving Conway's Second Letter, let us hear Keith a little on his kinsman the Old Marischal, whom he saw at Berlin years ago, and still occasionally corresponds with, and mentions in his Correspondence. Keith loquitur; date is Dresden, February 1770:

Has visited the Old Marischal at Potsdam lately. * * 'My stay of three days with Lord Marischal'.... 'He is the most 'innocent of God's creatures; and his heart is much warmer than his head. The place of his abode,' I must say, 'is the 'very Temple of Dulness; and his Female Companion' (a poor Turk foundling, a perishing infant flung into his late Brother's hands at the Fall of Oczakow,52-whom the Marischal has carefully brought up, and who refuses to marry away from him,rather stupid, not very pretty by the Portraits; must now be two-and-thirty gone) 'is perfectly calculated to be the Priestess ' of it! Yet he dawdles away his day in a manner not unplea'sant to him; and I really am persuaded he has a conscience

51 In Keith, i. 152, &c., nothing of intelligible Narrative given, hardly the date discoverable. 52 Suprà, ii. 622.

Aug. Sept. 1774.

'that would gild the inside of a dungeon. The feats of our bare-legged warriors in the late War' (Berg-Schotten, among whom I was a Colonel), 'accompanied by a pibrach' (elegiac bagpipe droning more suo) in his outer room, have an effect on 'the old Don, which would delight you.'

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And then seen him in Berlin, on the same occasion. 'Lord Marischal came to meet me at Sir Andrew's' (Mitchel's, in Berlin, the last year of the brave Mitchel's life), 'where we passed five days together. My visit to his country residence,' as you already know, 'was of three days; and I had reason to be 'convinced that it gave the old Don great pleasure. He talked 'to me with the greatest openness and confidence of all the ' material incidents of his life; and hinted often that the honour ' of the Clan was now to be supported by our family, for all of 'whom he had the greatest esteem. His taste, his ideas, and his ' manner of living, are a mixture of Aberdeenshire and the King'dom of Valencia; and as he seeks to make no new friends, he seems to retain a strong, though silent, attachment for his old As to his political principles, I believe him the most sin" cere of converts' to Whiggery and Orthodoxy. 'Since I began this, I have had a most inimitable Letter from Lord 'Marischal. I had mentioned Dr. Bailies to him' (noted English Doctor at Dresden, bent on inoculating and the like), and begged 'he would send me a state of his case and infirmities, that the 'Doctor might prescribe for him. This is a part of his answer: "I thank you for your advice of consulting the English "Doctor to repair my old carcass. I have lately done so by my old coach, and it is now almost as good as new. Please, "therefore, to tell the Doctor, that from him I expect a good repair, and shall state the case. First, he must know that "the machine is the worse for wear, being nearly eighty years "old. The reparation I propose he shall begin with is: One 66 pair of new eyes, one pair of new ears, some improvement on "the memory. When this is done, we shall ask new legs, and "some change in the stomach. For the present, this first repa

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53 Keith, i. 129; 'Dresden, 25th February 1770:' to his Sister in Scotland.

Aug.-Sept. 1774. "ration will be sufficient; and we must not trouble the Doctor "too much at once."-You see by this, how easy his Lordship's 'infirmities sit upon him; and it is really so as he says. Your 'friend Sir Andrew is, I am afraid, less gay; but I have not 'heard from him these three months.'54

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Conway to Keith, on the late Three Days at Potsdam.3 "I "stayed three days at Potsdam, with much entertainment, for good part of which I am obliged to your Excellency's old friend "Lord Marischal, who showed me all the kindness and civility possible. He stopped me as I passed, and not only made me "dine with him that day, but in a manner live with him. He is "not at all blind, as you imagined; so much otherwise that I "saw him read, without spectacles, a difficult hand I could not easily decipher." .. "Stayed but a day at Berlin;” am rushing after you-Here is my Second Letter:

Conway's Second Letter (to his Brother, as before).

"Dear Brother"

"Schmelwitz" (near Breslau) "Headquarters,

"August 31st, 1774.

"I left that Camp" (Austrian Camp, and Reviews, in Hungary, where the Kaiser and everybody had been very gracious to me) "with much regret." 'Parted regretfully with Keith ;—had played, at Presburg, in sight of him and 'fourteen other Englishmen, a game with the Chess Automaton' (brand-new miracle, just out);56-came on through Vienna 'hitherward, as fast as post-horses could carry us; travelling night ' and day, without stopping, being rather behind time." "Arrived "at Breslau near dark, last night; where I learnt that the Camp was twenty miles off; that the King was gone there, and that the "Manœuvres would begin at four or five this morning. I there"fore ordered my chaise at twelve at night, and set out, in dark"ness and rain, to be presented to the King of Prussia next "morning at five, at the head of his troops." "When I "arrived, before five, at the place called 'Headquarters,' I found

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54 Keith, i. 132, 133; 'Dresden, 13th March 1770' to his Father.

55 Date, Dresden, 21st July 1774 :' in Keith, ii. 15.

55 Account of it, and of this game, in Keith too (ii. 18; 'Vienna, 3d September 1774: Keith to his Father).