THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT VOL. II THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT THE LAST EARL MARISCHALL MRS. EDITH E. GUTHELL, F.R.H.S. AUTHOR OF " WILHILMINA, M4RORAVINE OF BAIREOTH," "AN IMPERIAL VICTIM, MARIE LOUISE," "A VAGABOND COURTIER: FROM THE LETTERS AND MEMOIRS OF BARON VON POLNITZ," ETC. ETC. "He wa,a called the King's JB^iend, and was the only one who had deserved that title, for he always stood high in his favour without flattering him."— Ddtens. With a photogravure frontispiece and 16 other illustrations in half-tone VOL. II LONDON STANLEY PAUL & GO 31 ESSEX STREET, STRAND, W.G. Published in 1915 n5Ci V. 2. CONTENTS VOL. II CHAPTER XXVIII PAGB September 1754 to September 1755 . . 1 CHAPTER XXIX 1755 TO June 1756 17 CHAPTER XXX February to July 1756 .... 24 CHAPTER XXXI January 1757 to October 1758 ... 43 CHAPTER XXXII 1758 61 CHAPTER XXXIII July and August 1759 68 '^GdliKi vi CONTENTS CHAPTER XXXIV PAGB January 1759 to April 1760 .... 76 CHAPTER XXXV August to November 1760 .... 91 CHAPTER XXXVI January to September 1761 .... 100 CHAPTER XXXVII January to May 1762 113 CHAPTER XXXVIII May to November 1762 .... 125 CHAPTER XXXIX August 1762 to March 1763 . . . .146 CHAPTER XL January to May 1763 157 CHAPTER XLI May to July 1763 166 CHAPTER XLII August to October 1763 .... 173 CONTENTS vii CHAPTEK XLIII January 1763 to March 1764 PAGE . 182 CHAPTEK XLIV April to June 1764 .... . 193 CHAPTER XLV July to October 1764 201 CHAPTER XLVI Autumn 1764 to February 1765 . . .214 CHAPTER XLVII Spring to October 1765 .... 224 CHAPTER XLVIII September and October 1765 . . . 246 CHAPTER XLIX November 1765 to March 1766 . . , 256 CHAPTER L July 1766 to March 1767 . . . .265 CHAPTER LI 1766 TO 1768 280 viii CONTENTS December 1768 CHAPTER LII TO May 1778 CHAPTER LIII PAQB . 292 1780 TO 1820 . 307 Epilogue . 312 INDEX . 317 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VOL. II George, Baron Keith, tenth and last Earl Marischall OF Scotland ..... Frontispiece In the Public Library, Neachlltel. FACING PAGH Neuchatel in 1726 4 From an engraving by Nicolet. Chateau de Colombier ....... 24 Chateau de Cotendard 56 Field-Marshal James Keith 68 By Francesco Trevisani. From a portrait at Keith Hall, in the possession of the Earl of Kintore Old Madrid 80 From the collection of A. M. Broadley. The Gateway, Chateau de Colombier . . . .112 Letter from the Earl Marischall to Jean Jacques KoussEAU 128 In the Library at Neuchatel. Jean Jacques Kousseau 152 From the collection of A. M. Broadley. Keith Hall 172 From an old firescreen in the possession of the Earl of Kintore. Old Edinburgh ........ 184 From the collection of A. M. Broadley. Inverugie Castle and the Ugie . . . . .196 ix X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACIKG PAOE The Tenth Earl Marischall of Scotland . . . 200 By Qeorge Mason. From a portrait in the Council Ohambere at Peterhead. The Schloss, Potsdam 228 David Hume . . . . . . . 252 From an engraving in tlie British Museum. The last Earl Marischall of Scotland .... 284 From a drawing by Ilbraham, bis valet, in the possession ot the MoiqniB of Lansdowne. Ermetulla 308 From a portrait at Carberry Tower, in the possession of Lord Elpbinston*. THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT VOLUME II CHAPTER XXVIII SEPTEMBER 1754 TO SEPTEMBER 1755 The " canny Scot," before embarking upon his new- appointment, wrote for full particulars respecting Neuchatel and the position of its Governor. Madame de Natalis, the widow of the late Governor, a Prussian officer of Huguenot extraction, sent him the following details, which throw light on the principaHty and on life there. The Governor of Neuchatel received from the Grand Directory at Berlin eight hundred livres German a year, and seven hundred francs from the rent of the salt tax. During the session of the States he received daily four silver Neuchatel crowns. Also a petty cash allow- ance of seventy to one hundred francs a year. For affixing the greater or lesser seals to legal documents a fee. Two large fields of hay, one at Corset, and one at Val de Ruz. No bread, but twelve hogsheads of wheat, twelve of oats, nine of wine, six red and six white, of the best vintage. The miller was supposed to furnish two hundred and twenty-five pounds of hemp, but only gave two hundred, and it was only fit for II— 1 2 THE SCOTTISH FEIEND OF servants and kitchen. For his stable the Governor received three hundred and twenty-five trusses of hay. He also had two barrels of salt a year, and on New Year's Day wood and coals. Madame de Natalis forgot what quantity, " but it was often hardly sufficient." It had been reduced in 1749 to a hundred and twenty-four feet of beech-wood, the same of fir-wood, and a hundred and sixty sacks of coals. While no milk was provided, all the beef tongues in the city of Neuchatel were the perquisite of the Governor. He possessed two vineyards, now farmed out. The fishing was let, but on all the trout caught two hundred pounds were due to the Governor. While it was com- monly claimed that the shooting was free to all, it reaUy belonged to the Governor, and certainly the partridge and quail shooting was his alone. Yet Madame de Natalis complained that he had to pay for what was brought him, such as a piece of every roe and deer, with the skin, and all the heads of the wild boar, which were really his by right. The King paid the gardener, who was old and might be replaced ; he also paid for the planting. Only a year after taking up the reins of government did the Governor's revenue come in ; it was therefore always a year in arrear. There were no running footmen in the country, and no good cooks. The Neuchatelois did not make good servants, and all servants received food as well as wages. Linen was made in the country, fine, but dear. No carriages were made, and no harness, as the leather was bad. Poultry was dear, especially capons and turkeys ; the best came from Bern ; the geese were small. Coffee and sugar were dear, but good ; the land grew no truffles, nor good vegetables. Those from Geneva were the best. Every four years it was necessary to provide new vegetable seed. Figs were good, and FREDERIC THE GREAT 3 ripened well ; good, also, were the plums, mirabels, apricots, pears of all sorts, and the apples. But there were no chestnuts, nor melons, and no oranges nor pomegranates ripened. A poor prospect, indeed, for such a vegetarian as old Milord ! H is Excellency arrived at Neuchatel on September 20th, 1754, " as tired as a dog," he wrote to the King, " with the bad roads and worse weather, though as I came near here it turned fine." " The first night that I entered Switzerland they gave me cherries at the inn, the second strawberries and raspberries. I was some- what alarmed, as the cherries were not yet ripe ; but in the castle to which Your Majesty's kindness has invalided me I have had, up till now, Spanish weather and the finest view in the world. I have already undergone many speeches, every one privately, and everyone as a body has harangued me, and I have still many awaiting me. My grandeur acquits itself very badly in reply ; I did better in church this morning, where the boredom occasioned by the sermon doubtless passed for a contrite air. I hope the ' Venerable Classe ' (title given to the Synod) was edified by my countenance ; I have naturally a sad and Calvinistic phiz. In eight days the ceremonies will be over, and I beg Your Majesty to believe that I will do my best in your affairs." The journal of Abraham Sandol, justice and civil lieutenant of the mountain village of de Chaux de Fonds, gives us a description of Milord Marechal's arrival at Neuchatel to take up the reins of government. " We followed in the suite of the Council to enter the castle in procession at ten o'clock. The grenadiers lined the road. After the townspeople of Landeron had entered, the door of the grand poele (great hall) was shut and then the President of the Council explained why the corporations of the State had been convoked, and he appointed a deputation to introduce Milord Marechal. The deputation, composed of councillors, mayors, and procureurs, went out through the crowd and between the ranks of the sentries. Re- turning with Monseigneur, they conducted him to the dais of the 4 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF hall, where M. the President asked him to be seated and showed the patent of the Kings, which he read, and asked the opinion of the Councillors of State, who, called by name, approved by a bow. Monseigneur rose to take the oath, administered to him by the President, by raising his hand. Then the sceptre was committed to him, and all were seated. The President made a speech, to which Monseigneur replied, and the Procureur General dismissed the assembly. We joined on to the Council to pass the foot of the dais, and make our bow, and then we went down in procession to the ' XIII Cantons,' and went to dine with M. Sinnet." Early in October the Earl Marischall wrote to his brother already complaining of the climate of a residence 1,400 feet above the sea. " The season had been par- ticularly cold, and the wines admirable." He enclosed a letter from Goring. Nor did he forget that other poor castaway, Elcho. No sooner had Milord settled at Neuchatel than he hastened to have his friend natural- ized as a Prussian subject in Neuchatel, and asked for an appointment for him as chamberlain at the Court at Berlin. But as Elcho was already attached to the French Army, though without pay, he could not hold such a post. The Prussian Government, as His Excellency soon discovered, was on better terms with the State Council than with the Compagnie des Pasteurs. It was the old story of the struggle between the civil and the ecclesi- astical authorities. The Venerable Classe arrogated to themselves the authority in afiiairs of State, wielded in the Middle Ages by the Canons of the Collegiate Church on the castle hill. Neuchatel was pastor-ridden. Very soon after Milord's arrival he had his first bout with the divines. The State Council desired to confer with the Classe as to rescinding the somewhat mediaeval punishment of Public Penances inflicted on fallen women. The Classe wished to continue them for all but first offenders. The matter was referred to the ■fyp: % f ^ FREDERIC THE GREAT 5 King. Such methods were naturally not in keeping with Frederic's enlightened government in Prussia. Moreover, he misunderstood a remark in one of the new Governor's letters, and, imagining that the torture of *' the question," abolished eight years previously in Prussia, was still inflicted in his principality, was pro- portionately horrified. " My dear Mylord, — I am very surprised at the barbarity which still pertain in the laws of your province, after having abrogated in the whole land the remains of the savage customs of our ancient Teutons. You will do me the favour, and I authorize immediately that the inquisition and the penance of the Magdelens ceases. I feel that I shall be obliged to send down there someone connected with justice to put the law on the same footing that I have established here. I congratulate you on having secured the end of the speeches, but I hope you will have one to-morrow, and if I did not think it would importune you I would add a Ciceronian harangue of my own, although I hope that you will believe, without a speech, that I wish you a thousand good things on the first of January as on the last of December, and that I am, with all possible esteem and friend- ship, your sincere friend. " Further about Voltaire, my dear mylord. The lunatic has gone to Avignon, where my sister has sent for him. I fear very much she will soon repent of it." A strenuous struggle went on between the Council and the Classe. It was on a question of morals. A few years later the Governor had to face a far fiercer fight between the two authorities over a question of dogma. It was just at this moment that the latter question began to arise, a little cloud no bigger than a man's hand. In the mountain village of La Sagne is shown to this day a house with seven chimneys, the seventh left unfinished. The story goes that the workmen began quarrelling about eternal punishment, and so the build- ing was never completed. It may well be true, and, 6 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF if so, it throws an interesting light on the mental capacity and intelligence of the peasants of this remote village in the Jura in the mid-eighteenth century, and explains the disturbances to which the argument subsequently led. Ferdinand Olivier Petitpierre, pastor of Pont de Martel, near La Sagne, was a deep thinker, an earnest man of quiet courage. Deeply influenced by Marie Huber's book on " Religions of the World," which had recently appeared at Geneva, he began, in 1754, to preach to his little mountain flock the doctrine of non- eternity of punishment. At La Sagne, Pastor Prince upheld everlasting damnation, a fundamental doctrine of Calvinism to which he had subscribed on entering the ministry. The divergent opinions were hotly taken up in the two villages, and, as we have seen, led to blows. As yet, however, the dispute did not spread, nor did it come to His Excellency's ears, though from the following letter to his brother it is apparent that from the beginning of his appointment he saw that he would have to reckon with the despotism of the Classe. "Neufchatel en Laponie, Jan. 18, 1755. "... I am sorry to hear of your cold, which was not without asthma. ... I have mine, rhumatisme, cramps, hoarseness . . . the ice is above 13 inches thick. I suppose it might pass even at Peters- burg for sufficient : it hinders the cheese from going. You will not have it as soon as I intended. " The King mistook what I said, the question has been abolished of sometime, the stool of repentance shall be as soon as I can ; but there is management to be used with Venerable Classe, whose power is too great. A Councillor told them lately, when they were insisting on the rights of the Church, Je vols done il faut nous reformer encore, and little by little some reformation will not be amiss. The King is not master here to do all the good he can ; they have their privileges, of which they are most jealous, and it is not always easy to engage them even to their own advantage. They cannot be FKEDERIC THE GREAT 7 persuaded not to destroy the game in pairing time, which is all asked of them. If I get credit with them by degrees I hope to bring them to reason, for by force it is not to be attempted, nor to be wished, for without all doubt it is liberty that makes this country peopled : the climate is bad, for even in summer it is bad when the evening comes, cold to the inhabitants. The soil is mostly artificial : rocks, with some earth laid on them to plant vines, supported by 50 terrasses well built one above another. I defy the power of the Grand Monarch and his fermiers generaux to the bargain to cultivate a country as this is, where every one works for himself, and knows well it is for himself. The industry of the inhabitants of the moun- tains in different handy crafts is extraordinary ; constraint or taxes would make them all desert ; they would emediately decamp to Bern and elsewhere. "Don't say any more to Comte Podevals of my expence in furni- ture ; all the Governors have had the same : it is true the last come has the most, because the bad that was is at an end. I hope in some time to get above water ; but I own to you I doubt if I can stand this climate, nor live in prison six months of every year ; tho' the people are to my liking and their way of living." " De Lapponie ce 31 jan. 1755. " Hospidar General, je crois que vous vous repentir du mal que le froid vous donne a Berlin et aussi de celui que je souffre ici, car je vous ecris quasi tons les jours, enferme comme je suis depuis plus d'un mois et mon encrier aupres de moy pour signer ordonances, passeports &ea. vous serez plus en repos I'ete quand j'iray paitre mes vaches a Colombier. " vous avez entendre parler des magnifiques meubles que j'ay trouve ici, et dont selon mes ordres j'ay envoye une inventaire signe par le procureur de Eoy et I'lntendant des batiments mais vous n'auriez pas devine que cela ne suffit pas, et qu'il faut en registret cet inventaire dans les livres du Conseil d'etat par ordre Expres du Roy dont il salt autant que le grand Mogol. c'est apparemment pour empecher un Coquin de gouverneur de s'approprier cet Tresor. il y a cependant un inconvenient, pace tantorum Virorum dixerim, ce qu'il faut tous les jours un nouvel inventaire au registres or archives, puisque tous les jours, quelque morceau perir de vieillesse. Des douze chaises de parade des mes Predecesseurs, de bois garnis au font d'un gros drap verd (ce sont les chaises au moins et non pas les Gouvemeurs qui sont de bois) il y en a deja quelqu'un s'y assoifc 8 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF imprudemment, les quatre pieds s'ecartent, et il tombent a terre, comme hier est arrive au Capitaine Marvel. Or ! Louons a toute outrance (comme dit Brantome) le Grand Directoire qui veille avec tant d' attention aux interets de S. M. " Je vous envoye copie d'une note que j'ay eu d'un bien bon home, qui avoit entre ses mains un Depositum, Lacradink I'entendra et vous I'expliquera. vous ne parler pas de lui depuis long tems ; j'ay peur qu'il ne soit mort, et que qu'Acun de vos lettres ne soit perdu, dites lui s'il vit encore, que Dozon me fait ecrire souvent : Entre autres maux qui lui sont arrives un des plus grands est de se croire au dessu de son metier ; il veut etre ofl&cier. je n'entena point parler de Faccomplissement des promesses qui lui furent faits. bon soir. " notre Tante Lady Betty est tres mal, le Cure lui a refuse le Sacrament, son mari a eu recours au Parliament, le Cure a ete decrete deprise de corps, tout cela afflige trop le pauvre M. L. Edward (Drummond). " P.S. pour vous donner une Idee du bon etat du chatau, au moins en partie, je vous diray que j'ay trouve dans une des chambres le plancbet tellement pourri qu'il etoit deja converti en bon terran, et est actuellement dans jardin comme tel. Karl assure qu'il est tres bon pour les melons. "Fev: 2d. " Gut Morgen, Bruder Suiss, j'ay a vous envoyer la patente de Bourgeois de Neufchatel. comme je crois que vous ecriver au 4 Ministraux pour les en remercier et le Corps de la Bourgeosie de Neufcbatel (non pas de Valengin) j'ajoute leur adresse. A Messieurs les quatre Ministraux de la Ville de Neufchatel en Suisse." With but small resources of his own, the new Governor was in some difficulty as to the furnishing of the Castle of Neuchatel, where he had taken up his residence for the winter in a suite of rooms to the south, looking down over the town on to the lake and the Bernese Oberland mountains beyond it. He was much attracted also by Colombier for a summer retreat, and wished to make habitable the vast old castle, dating from the fourteenth century, while the extremely fertile grounds around it, and the beautiful lime avenues, offered great FEEDERIC THE GREAT 9 possibilities in the way of gardening. The King, hearing of the difficulty, was as thoughtful as ever over his old friend. Milord wrote to his brother that he had sent in to Berlin, as the King had specially ordered, an inventory of all the furniture of Colombier to be regis- tered in the books of the Council as royal property. Always interested in his friends' friends, Frederic wrote sympathetically over Goring's death, which took place soon after his arrival in Berlin. " February 20th, 1755. " My dear Governor, — I am delighted to see you busy with sucli useful objects for your little province. One perceives that the laws of all countries bear traces of the time in which they were promulgated, and there was a mark of barbarism remaining which at last one will be able to get rid of. We are having a winter here which outdoes yours. In all my life I have never seen a worse ; it has proved fatal to many people. Madame de Keyserlingk has died of it, and your friend Gorin [perhaps Goryn or Goring] after having struggled for a long time against the infirmities and the weakness the result of the campaign of young Edward, has at last succumbed ; he died in four days of an inflammatory fever. I am very glad that his long illness prevented my really becoming ac- quainted with him, as it would have made me regret him more. He has the consolation after his death that every one speaks well of him. Adieu, my dear Mylord ; I wish you a long life, a warm climate, heaps of pleasure, and that you may not forget your friends, among whom I hope you count me." Social life in Neuchatel, doubtless, seemed dull to an habitue of Madame Geoft'rin's salon. The Mercure Suisse gave a false air of intellectual activity. Trade and manufacture absorbed the minds of the people. Bouquet, indeed, and Ostervald, had deeply influenced science and letters during the first half of the century ; but they had left no disciples. Society imagined itself cultivated because it danced and sang in excellent private theatricals, and sent little verses to the news- 10 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF papers. But, with the exception of Dupuyron, Escherney , and a few others, with whom Milord soon became intimate, no one cared for anything deeper. " When it was a question of a book like ' L'Esprit des Lois,' " wrote a well-born woman, who suffered from this super- ficiality, " no one took but a passing interest. Cards, rimperiale [all fours] and the latest news about the vintage absorb every one.'' There was a kind of club, the Cercle du Jardin, very exclusive and narrow. Milord seems to have looked askance at it, as we see by a letter, a few years later, when Colonel Chaillet was elected a member. He sarcastically dubbed it the " Sixth Estate." " So you are received in this noble sixth body, from which I expect you will retire, for I remember My lord Wemyss said to me : ' Wee will admit no one who does not think as we do,' and at that time he thought like a Gavocho [Spanish for wretch. Was it a nickname applied by Mylord Marechal to a set of people ?]. You will never be orthodox in this society. William Tel [another nick- name] seems to think that he has some personal grudge against you, otherwise he is too clever to have opposed your admission all by himself. You are the best fellow in the world, and you have no more spite than a lamb, I was going to say a calf, when I thought of your action in support of the Banneret ; this famous Garden was founded by Gavochos, and I think it really remains the same. Never mind, write to His Excellency M. de Haguen about the dues of the Garden owing to the sovereign, and if he speaks to me about it I will try and do you service ; I much approve that when favours are done you that you more than repay them, and if I speak to the Minister of this affair, it will be entirely out of consideration for you." Milord must have imparted his views on Neuchatel society to Frederic, for the King waxes sarcastic, with, as usual, a gibe at the priests. *' I have noticed," he wrote, " that man requires a spectacle, and is fond of it. Where there is no play or opera, one may be sure that FREDERIC THE GREAT 11 the sacred Scaramoucli will occupy and influence minds. If your town kept up a theatre, you could contrast Harlequin with Scaramouch, and gradually the latter would lose his influence ; but I do not think that Neuchatel is civilized enough to abandon itself to such pleasures of polite nations." His Excellency appreciated the mountaineers more than the townsfolk. And, indeed, far in advance of the peasants of other lands were these dwellers on the pine- clad slopes and in the high valleys of the Jura, as regards education, intelligence, inventive genius, and technical training. They turned well to account the long winter evenings they perforce spent pent up in their substantial, broad-eaved, stone cottages with the long, sloping gable, handed down from father to son, and even to-day forming a contrast to the Swiss chalet with its woodwork. At the period of which we write they had become apt and delicate mechanics, and something of inventors. Watch- making was a great trade, and Neuchatel watches were famous all over Europe. The people were comfortably off, independent in feeling and in manner, and living in communes, had something in common in the way of land-ownership. To a great extent self-governing, they were tinged with republicanism, yet patriotic. Moreover, they were fine soldiers to boot, and every army to which they hired themselves out appreciated the Neuchatel regiments. The summer following his arrival. His Excellency paid a little visit to Chaux de Fonds, a thriving village in the Val de Ruz. Justice Sandol again we quote, as his simple diary gives light on the life of the period of the Neuchatel folk and Milord's dealings with them. ^^ July 1th. — The committee about the reception of Milord Marechal assembled, and a letter was sent to Neuchatel to be in- formed as to the exact hour he would arrive. 12 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF '' 9tk. — To market, to church, and to the committee meeting to arrange and order the repast for the reception of Milord and his suite. We settled with Mde Humbert that the dinner on Tuesday should be for fifteen persons without counting governor Robert, at 50 batz a head, and that the table should remain spread till the evening in order that those of the suite who wished could come and have supper, and that what was ordered should be paid for then afresh. The servants will have three meals at ten batz a head, including each a bottle of wine, and without counting a meal for the Sautier of the commune ; . . . The committee having tasted the wine ; . . . " lOih. — Bought of Captain Humbert scarlet cloth for a horse's saddle-cloth which I gave the saddler to make up. Made a chande- lier of fifteen candles for a pyramid over the entrance gate for illumination. I repolished my mounted bridle. Then I mounted on horseback to try the horses which are to compose the cavalcade of the townspeople who meet Milord, to the number of eighteen. We went for this purpose as far as up the Cret de Loche, back to the village, and made the round to the mills, and every one accom- panied me home. " \1ih. — I worked again at chandeliers for illuminations. The Lieutenant lets me know that Milord will arrive on Monday as Chaux de Fonds in the evening after having reviewed the troops, and from the report sent up by M. I'lnspecteur Tribolet, Milord is much pleased with the reception we are preparing for him, except the defiling of the troops and the ringing of the bells on his arrival ; so that the town cavalry should rather follow the military on Monday at 10 o'ck in the morning. " \2>th. — After church we kept back the members of the commune to decide who should be present at Milord's repast. It was decided that it should be the Minister, the Maire if he were here, the Lieu- tenant and the Major. There we discussed if it was not for the commune to provide the pov/der and the hand grenades for firing of the healths during the repasts ; the captain of the grenadiers was ordered to provide the powder for the purpose up to five pounds if necessary. At the repast committee meeting, as we have heard that Milord only drank liqueur wines, it was decided that some must be procured to slacken his Excellency's thirst. " \iih. — At 11 o'ck we all mounted our horses, to wit : all the military officers, and the town cavalry without uniform to the number of twenty, who followed them ; we met the Lieutenant, FREDERIC THE GREAT 13 Colonels Chevalier and Perregaux near the Borne, above Mont de Sagne, where we dismounted, and waited for the arrival of Milord, who was still a long way off. Some time afterwards, the coach appeared, but Milord, who had taken the footpaths, came a little ahead ; the military officers made a circle, and Captain Brandt made a complimentary speech, which was not long ; the answer was even shorter, and Milord went on afoot as far as Boinod, where he got into his carriage ; the officers took the advance guard and the town cavalry the rear guard till the boundary of Sagne ; then, after the troops had been reviewed, His Excellence went into a tent where he dined off dishes provided by M. Sagne, of Boinod, and we, we ate what Mr. Abram-Henri, the Maire brought, that is to say, bread, meat, cheese, and wine ; spent six batz each, and gave a batz for each of our horses and half a batz to each of the two servants. We then rejoined the military, and let Milord and his suite pass on. . . . Milord reached Chaux de Fonds at four o'clock, and put up at Abram Sagne, merchant. We lined the street below, and then the officers passed between us and we followed them to Mde Humbert's, where we bade them adieu. Justice Ferret and I we came and dressed to go and make our bow with the legal body who collected at the maison-de-ville ; we met them at the door headed by M. Matthey, prospective mayor, who made a little speech announcing that, in virtue of the patent received the evening before which ensures him the Mayoralty, he appeared before Milord, accompanied by the Justices, to assure him of our fidelity and de- votion to the person and interests of His Majesty, as also to request the powerful protection of His Excellency. Milord replied that, after the mountain he had crossed over and the road he had found, he did not hope to find such a pretty place and such well-built houses. We made him a bow. The Lieutenant begged me to accompany him to settle the billets, the future Mayor came and lodged at my house. We then all supped together, the military, ourselves, and the suite ; at our table were a dozen guests ; fish was served, roast, and salad, tart, fritters, &c. At ten o'clock all went out to see the illuminations. At every house was a pyramid over the doors of eighteen candles, every window below had six, the first floor four, and the attic one. We then went to bed, but first M. le Maire had the illumination extinguished. " 15th. — The company was marched to the field Cernil des Arbres. Milord came there in a cart ; the drill was very well done, but the first firing was no good, and a second was ordered, which went off 14 THE SCOTTISH FKIEND OF well. Milord and his suite came and placed themselves near the wall under the trees where the troops fired by fours, and the grenadiers, after having fired, each threw a grenade. The com- panies went down to the village again and Milord looked in for a moment at Uncle Robert's ; he then got on to the cart again and went to dine at Mde. Humbert's ; the grenadiers fired when the healths were drunk. About five in the evening Milord started to leave ; the horsemen mounted and lined the road in the middle of the village, they when Milord's carriage, he had Councillor Chaillet on his left, the officers marched in front and we let him pass, and formed the rear guard. The Justices and the military of Loche on horseback came to meet him near Jonas Montaudon's houses, and we followed as far as the great Plane tree, whence we returned in the same order to Mde Hambert's, where we said good-night and every one went home ; the horsemen accompanied me to opposite my house, where I had to sup the future mayor, Mr. Sandoz of Yverdon, and Jaquet Droy." When the winter was over His Excellency removed from the castle of Neuchatel to that of Colombier. Having renovated and furnished the interior, he turned his attention to making a garden. Three long, double avenues of limes, planted by Henri U of Orleans, Duke of Longueville and Count of Neuchatel, about 1660, lead from the towered gateway of the castle almost to the lake. The story of these avenues runs thus. The communes of Colombier and La Cote had gone bail for the Treasurer, Mouchet, and, when the latter failed, found themselves indebted to the State for a considerable sum. One day, as Henri II was returning from a walk, attended by his Chancellor, de Montmollin, the delegates of the encumbered com- munes flung themselves at his feet at the moment when he was entering the castle gate and implored him to remit a part of the debt. Bidding them rise, the Prince replied : *' Certainly, my children, but do not go bail again ! " Then, turning FEEDERIC THE GREAT 15 to the meadow spread out behind him : "I have an idea/' he added, extending his hand with his fingers outspread. " You will plant three wide avenues of fine trees, converging on the spot where I stand, with small avenues on either side ; when that is done, my attorney-general, who is here, will give you a receipt for your debt as soon as he can write it under the shade of the trees which you are going to plant." Montmollin, in his Memoirs, recounts that the astounded villagers, who had only asked for a partial remission of their debt, failed to find words, upon seeing which, the Prince promptly added : " Quickly get your tools ready for the avenues, my children; I will work at them with you ! " In the two openings between the three avenues, in the rich, alluvial soil, the Earl Marischall made the fine flower, fruit, and vegetable gardens, extending from castle to lake, which were his great delight and occu- pation. Here it was that he introduced the cultivation of the potato to Switzerland, serving that hitherto unknown tuber at his table. He had brought with him to Neuchatel his menagerie, "the result," he said, "of a concatination of circum- stances, which has given me this little horde of Tartars, with whom I get on very well " — Ermetulla the Turk, Stepan the Kalmuck, Mocha the Negro, Ilbraham the Tibetan. The latter became converted to Christianity, despite his master, who never interfered with the religion of any one. Dean Chambrier, pastor of Colom- bier, baptized Hbraham in the church there. Milord gave Ilbraham a plot of land for a garden, which adjoined the castle on the south-east, and, till quite recently, was still known as " Ilbraham 's Garden." But an artillery stable now stands upon the site. At Colombier Milord started a manufactory of ver- 16 THE FRIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT micelli, having brought a taste for fasta from Venice and Valencia. He planned a foundry of cannon and arms at Colombier, and translated a little book on ordnance from the Spanish, for the Spaniards and the Turks were at that period the gunsmiths of the world. Very soon after his arrival at Colombier Milord was joined by his young friend, Elcho, whose society was a great pleasure to him. Besides gardening, shooting in the forests on the lower slopes of Mont Boudry behind Colombier — Milord was now too old for steep climbing — and, above all, reading, were his occupations in this plea- sant summer retreat. He kept in touch with all new books which were worth reading, as the following letter to Madame de Marches shows, and became, with Erme- tulla, an early convert to Rousseau's doctrines. " I congratulate you on having tlie company of M. Rousseau. His essay [on the origin of inequality] printed in your country [at Amsterdam] had made two proselytes of me and my little savage Ermet Ulla ; but I hope he will have some indulgence for people to whom in their childhood people gave a bad and unnatural education. They taught me to talk, and it would be difficult to forget it ; I know how to read ; if M. Rousseau wjU but leave me what he has written himself, and an Ariosto, a Boiardo, a Ricciardetto, a little Swift and Voltaire, and the ' Pucelle when it appears, I will give up all other reading. As for writing I always disliked it. Those who know me will do me justice about that. I am ill at sea and I fear I am too old to become a wealthy American savage or a Hottentot ; but if M. Rousseau will be satisfied with the happy medium and settle himself among Kabnucks [Kalmucks beyond Russian domination, well understood] I am ready to start off : they have retained much more of the ancient purity natural to man of any nation to which one can go by land ; but they have some great defects : they read, they have priests. But M' Rousseau and his disciples could be a little tribe apart. I expect you to be one of us, and as we shall live chiefly on the spoils of the chase, it would be as well to encourage your daughter to come with us. Settle the business up with Rousseau and let us start. Good-night." CHAPTER XXIX 1755 TO JUNE 1756 Milord Marechall, as he wrote in September 1755, to Colonel de Chaillet, one of the Council of State, had come here in the hope of " enjoying a pleasant re- treat/' He was to find annoyances on the increase. First, in August, he was threatened with a guest, less to his liking than Elcho. For, now that Milord had come to live so near his *' Hermitage " on Leman, Voltaire was pining for intercourse with him. But the poet dared not set foot in Prussian territory without Frederic's leave. "... Not having the consolation of laying myself at Your Majesty's feet," he wrote to Frederic, " I wish at least to have that of conversing about you with Milord Marechal. I am not far off him, and if Your Majesty gives me leave and if my wretched health gives me strength, I will go and tell him what I do not say to you, how superior you are to other men, and to what an extent I have the boldness and the weakness to love you with all my heart. But I must only speak to Your Majesty of my profound respect." Leave was not forthcoming, and Milord Marischall's peace was not disturbed by Voltaire. That of his pro- vince, however, was agitated this year by the chasing all over the Jura of the noted smuggler Mandrin, who, after doing a good trade in Burgundy and Dauphine at the head of several hundred mounted men, had retired into Neufchatel. The troops were sent after him, a hot II— 2 17 18 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF pursuit resulted in his capture, and he was broken on the wheel at Valence on the Rhone. Meanwhile, all the summer long, the dispute over Public Penance went on. The Classe claimed that the punishment was founded on the General Articles of the Constitution " which confirmed and secured the rights and liberties of State and Church." Frederic would have none of their pretensions. " Potsdam, 29th Jvly, 1755. " My lord, — I have received your letter of the twelfth of this month with the enclosure you wished to communicate to me. Without wishing to enter into your clergy's reasons for and against the subject of public penances, it is not at all necessary that you confer any more with them on this point ; I am their supreme Bishop, my will alone decides in such cases as to all the laws, and by my authority I desire you to override and to entirely abolish these public penances as abuses and scandals. I further await your report upon the success which one may hope for on the estab- lishment of the projected lottery," By the middle of September the Venerable Classe had decided to appeal to the Three Estates, " interested in the maintenance of the said Articles." The Four Town- ships were consulted. The citizens of Neuchatel sided with the Town Council and the Council of State. This latter *' severely rebuked " the Dean of the Classe for having secretly assembled the Consistories (parish councils) and for having made them sign documents which infringed the royal authority, ". . . so that a proceeding of this kind deserves to be reprimanded." " It appears to me," writes His Excellency, the Governor, "that the Venerable Classe has been seized with dementia ! " Far was poor Milord from finding the repose he had anticipated ! For, to the worries with Voltaire, the Classe, and the FREDERIC THE GREAT 19 smuggler was added a further, in the shape of a threat- ened descent upon him of Charles Edward ! To his disgust he learnt that the Young Pretender had pursued him, as it were, and was now living at Basle. Here, for the next two years, he and Clementina Walkinshaw, with their child, passed as a Doctor and Mrs. Thompson who had come to Switzerland for the benefit of their healths. They were living in easy circumstances, but without any display, and quarrelled a great deal. Charles took little jaunts to Paris to the Carnival. Murray was with them, as sickened of his master as had been poor Goring, and the Cluny had been over to remonstrate with Charles. The latter now made overtures to the Earl Marischall, wishing to come to Colombiers to see him. But Mari- schall quite declined to have anything to do with Charles again. Now the one hard feature in Milord's kindly character was a very Scotch one. When he formed a prejudice against any one — which he did not do lightly — nothing would eradicate that prejudice. He had never forgiven Charles for his treatment of his friend Goring ; he believed Charles intended to betray his adherents, and moreover he had his own private bone to pick with him. He accused Charles of telling the Scots that the Earl Marischall had approved of the expedition of '45, on which he had done his best to throw cold water when it had been suggested to him by Charles. David Hume, the historian, who subsequently formed a great friendship with the Earl Marischall in England, writes many years later that — "... Lord Marischall had a very bad opinion of this unfortunate prince, and thought there was no vice so mean or attrocious of which he was not capable, of which he gave me several instances. My lord, though a man of great honour, may be thought a discontented 20 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF courtier ; but what quite confirmed me in this idea was a conversa- tion I had with Helvetius at Paris. . . . Both Lord Marechal and Helvetius agree that, with all this strange character, he was no bigot, but rather had learnt from the philosopher at Paris to aSect a contempt of all religion. ..." Two years after the Earl Marischall came to Neu- chatel, the Earl of Clancarty, still plotting, was long at Dunkirk with Macallister, the spy, who reports his remarks which corroborate the assertion of Hume. " Sitting with him [Clancarty] in his room in the morning he began to talk of the Young Pretender with great indifference, as he did two or three times before. When we had drunk hard after supper, he broke out saying : ' By G — d, dear Macallister, I'll tell you a secret you don't know : there is not a greater scoundrel on the face of the earth than that same prince : he is in his heart a coward and a poltroon. . . . He is so great a scoundrel and rascal, that he will lie even when drunk : a time when all other men's hearts are most open, and will speak the truth, or what they think ; and,' said he, ' Lord Marshal knows, and he said all this and more of him, and General Keith also ; and they all know him so well at the court of France for a poltroon and a rascal, that they secretly despised him ... as for the Duke of York, he behaved at Boulogne as a petit maitre ; took upon himself to command and give directions in what he was ignorant of : and that both his father, and his brother, had disobliged lord Marshal and general Keith, who knew them now too well to trust them, and do them service ; that lord Marshal would rather want his title and estate, than see them restored, as he knew his country mast be ruined and the subjects enslaved, if ever they succeeded. He asked me if I knew Jemmy Dawkins. I answered I did not. He could give you an account of them, says he ; but lord Marshal has given the true character of the prince, and has given it under his hand to the people of England what a scoundrel and rascal he is.' " It is impossible, after considering all these various worries which pressed upon the old Governor, to wonder at finding him writing as follows, in October, to Colonel de Chaillet. FREDERIC THE GREAT 21 " After due consideration I decided that, as I only desired to live a quiet life in my old age, I was a fool to allow myself to be per- suaded to undertake to govern men." He wished to be relieved of his post. Great was the consternation among the Neuchatel authorities. They felt that the Classe had gone too far, and were alarmed at the prospect of the King's anger. A letter to Colonel Chaillet written by Meuron, the attorney-general from Colombier, on October 7th, in- dicates their trepidation. " I cannot get over the astonishment, the sorrow, and the con- sternation into which I am thrown by the decision of Milord Mare- chal, which seems irrevocable, to leave us and to betake himself to regions where perpetual and wearisome remonstrances are not spoken of, and especially in order to withdraw from the worry which the Comfognie des Pasteur s causes him. He has imparted this decision to M. the mayor of the town in a letter which he sent this morning by one of his servants. It contains expressions which prove how irreparable the loss will be to us. My feeble efforts have not in the least shaken this determination. Mademoiselle Hemetee (sic) will back up the efforts which must be made to retain him ; but I doubt if it wUl be possible to make him change his mind. It is unnecessary to implore you to leave no stone unturned in order to keep this precious treasure with us ; there is not a moment to lose ; I am afraid that his statement to the King is on the point of being sent off, even if it is not already on the way, " I had the honour of spending four hours this morning with Mylord, and as long the day before yesterday, and incessantly he spoke to me about the ministers, either about their scandalous remonstrances, lies, contradictions, &c., till he grows so obsessed with the reasons for his distaste for the appointment, that unless he can be turned away from these ideas, he will become more settled in his resolve. ..." The Council of State hastily summoned the Three Estates — consisting of four ecclesiastics, four nobles, and four citizens. Public Penance was abolished. 22 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF When the Earl Marischall came to Neuchatel he was instructed by the ministry at Berlin to carry out and settle the work of a commission appointed to re-establish federal alliances with the co-citizenships of Bern, Lucerne, Fribourg, and Soleure. The late Governor, Natalis, had not been able to complete this business, because the King demurred to the subsidy the cantons demanded. But Milord, having a friend at Soleure, a member of the cantonal government, one d'Arecker, began with the alliance with that canton, betaking himself there in person, despite the winter weather, to exchange the oaths of alliance. He was accompanied by several officials and by a suite of eight gentlemen, and was armed with gilt basins and other *' presents of ettiquette" for the principal men of the cantons. Due ceremony was observed, as the intention was to emphasize the suzerainty of Prussia in connection wuth the Federal relations of Neuchatel with the four cantons. The Court at Berlin had given eight thousand francs for the renewal of these treaties of alliance. The mission to Soleure, however, proved so expensive that orders were issued that the other missions were to be abandoned. War was in sight, and retrenchment the order of the day. The other treaties were signed at Neuchatel and ratified in the respective capitals. By this means they failed somewhat in their objects. An invidious dis- tinction having been made with Soleure, which was a Catholic canton, the other Protestant States were rather alienated. This decision of the Berlin Ministry rankled in the Governor's mind. After His Excellency had reconsidered his determina- tion to resign, the authorities were very much on their good behaviour, especially the Venerable Classe. On the Governor's return from Soleure the Dean informed FEEDERIC THE GREAT 23 the Compagnie that the corporation.s " would go and wait upon him and salute him " and he inquired if the Compagnie should not act in the same way. After discussion it was resolved to do so, " and as ceremoni- ously as possible," and an address was presented to His Excellency congratulating him on his safe return, " and begging him to continue a work so happily begun." Thus, for the time being, the civil power had triumphed over the ecclesiastical. But there was another struggle to ensue over the dogmatical question which we have seen fermenting. CHAPTER XXX FEBKUARY TO JULY 1756 Milord Marechal's second winter at Neuchatel was but half over when he wrote to his brother that he felt he " could stand the climate no longer." " The Governor is old ; he has not a moment's peace, he is over- whelmed with business. He wishes to leave in the spring for Italy, where he will have polenta, macaronis, rest, and fine weather ; a little contents him. It is impossible for him to remain at Neuf- chatel as Governor ; but he does not want to reproach the King, nor to blame the ministers. The King, in his kindness, thought only of giving him a pleasant retreat. " But this governorship is perhaps the most difficult in all the dominions of the King of Prussia. I hate the climate, which is so cold that for eight months of the year one must remain a prisoner in one's room." He complains of the King's ministers (and especially M- Podewils), who for some time past find fault with what he does, and trust more to an unknown thief, Pastor Gelien, than the Governor of the country. It was a crime in those gentlemen's eyes to have concluded a treaty with Soleure without spending a sou ; after having told them that it might cost 4,000 livres. " He wishes to end his days without being worried by clerks' tempers," nor being incessantly called upon to justify his conduct. 24 :^..■■.:^^ i .fir , V «w t^ icu iGv *^\**^-wi^ ^^ - 1 ^■■%^- 1 h »^ «■«;* TK sill™ THE FRIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT 25 The Earl Marischall to James Keith ''Fev: 4« 1756. " Le manclion et palatine font partis aujourdjui pour Berne, d'en ils iront a Basle pout etre mis sur le postwaggen, vous les aurez en trois semaines, et vous aurez assez d'hiver encore pour les trouver de saison. " j'ay cherche dans les papiers de ceux qui ont ete employe avant moy pour le renouvellement d'alliances, je trouve, que sans les avoir avance en rien, on a depense plus de 1600 livres, j'ay aclieve le traite avec Soleure sans avoir depense un sol de I'argent du Roy ; quand je dis aclieve, je veux dire que je suis d' accord en tout avec le Canton ; car pour finir il faut aller a Soleure, ce que je ne puis sans argent : je ne sais ce que les Ministres veulent, ils me grondent bien mal a propos ; s'ils font echouer I'affaire, pour quelques cen- taines d'ecus ils comprometteront le Roy ; et feront jaser les Suisses ; voyla I'interest principal que je prens a I'affaire. pour moy mon parti est pris, come je vous ay dit. Adieu. " come je vis [a mon ordinaire] du jour a la journee, je souhaite savoir si un quartier de pension etant du (par example dans le mois de Mars au quartier de Reminiscere), si je puis de droit prendre I'autre quartier deja commence quoique payable seulement dans le mois de juin. je said bien que je prenois mes quartiers de cette fa9on d'avance, mais je ne suis pas absolument sure si c'etoit una avance que hazardait les marchands, ou si c'etoit un argent qui leur etoit assure comme m'etant du a la fin du quartier. il me feroit d'une grande consequence dans cette occasion, car sans cet petit secours, quoique je vend tout pour faire de I'argent, je serois bien embarasse pour faire mon voyage, et vivre jusqu'au mois de Decembre. mais contez que d'ici en avant je deviens econome, peutetre seray je avare, et que je moureray de faim, mais riche en argent content ; j'ay fait de la depense a me meubler ici ; mes 6000 francs de Rome font otes ; on m'a fait banqueroute de mes diaments ; j'ay vecu bonorablement selon ma place ; somme totale, je suis un sot, et ce qui est bien pis, sans argent ; sais si je puis gagner Decembre, je seray riche, c'est a dire je feray range, et ne devant rien, vivant de mes ventes, et mangeant macarone avec harlequins, je n'aurez ni ordre a recevoir ni a donner, ni proces, ni harangue, ni privileges a contester. bon soir." A week later he wrote again, addressing his brother jocularly by his official Russian title : 26 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF " Hospidor General, I have written to the King by this courier begging him to give me my conge. I only tell him that I find I have too much business to do, and that I shall be always grateful (which is very true) for his kindness in having given me such a nice retreat in my old days ; but the result does not come up to his intentions, in consequence of the circumstances and trend of affairs, and he is sure that I have too much of it. Every day I see fresh reasons to determine me to the choice of a complete retreat, my age, my small knowledge of affairs of suits and of law, the trouble of privileges badly set forth, and the impossibility of pleasing the ministers. I have just received a rescript by the King^s express order, which says : ' Although you have assured me by the very humble report of . . . that the magistrate of Neuf has not since your arrival granted the right of citizenship of the above-mentioned place to any one, and that my high interests are not neglected in that respect, I have nevertheless seen, by a petition that Jonas Gelien, &c., has sent me that a young foreigner who offered 2,000 ecus for it has since bought this citizenship.' Then they add : ' You will take steps to find out and to inform me who is this young foreigner, and if the said magistrate has granted him the rights of citizen- ship without my preliminary permission, which I do not remember having given and which I reserved to myself the right of bestowing in virtue of a decree of the date of . . . 1750.' I do not enter into argument about this with the ministers ; I merely send a certificate from the chancellor and another from the secretary of the city, that no citizens have been made at all, and that, therefore, I spoke the truth. I shall be content to live on polenta and not to pass the remainder of the days that are left me, in apologizing about things when I do not think I was wrong, and I shall at the same time withdraw from an office, where, with the best intentions in the world, I might, out of ignorance, perhaps be wrong. " If my affairs had been a little better settled at home, I might perhaps have stayed on here ; but, this not being so, I only know that I could not live anywhere but at St. Mark." The consternation into which the Governor's decision to retire threw the ofi&cials at Neuchatel can be per- ceived by the two following letters from Colonel Chaillet, of the Council of State, imploring Marshal Keith to persuade his brother to reconsider his resolution. FREDERIC THE GREAT 27 " My Lord, " Ce n'est que d'Aujourd'huy que My lord Marechal m'a as- sure en m'apprenant qu'il a demande au Roy Son Conge, Sans luy dire un Mot des Mauvais Procedes de Ses Ministres. Dans la Consternation ow je Suis ayez pour Agreable My lord que je m'adresse a V : E : et que Je la Conjure de travailler a Raccommoder le Tout S'il est Possible, Le Ressentiment de My lord Marechal n'est que Trop Legitime Je ne le blame pas, Mais Pourquoy laisser Ignorer au Maitre I'lndignite de Ses Agents. My lord dans plusieurs Lettres au Roy a par bonte d'Ame temoigne au Roy qu'il Se plaisoit Ici plus qu'il en etoit et Aujourd'huy II va brusquement demander Son Conge a Cause des Affaires et du Climat, Je Crain que le Royne Se fache et n'aille toucher au troo leu (sic) et que fera My lord votre digne frere a Venise, II a depensse tout Son Argent Ici, efc ces Meubles qui luy ont coute beaucoup — il n'en tirera Rien. Au lieu qu'il me Semble qu'en disant Tout simplement au Roy Ses Plaintes, Le Roy ne pent Jamais trouver Mauvais qu'il veut etre Se Retirer, Dans le Sisteme meme ou il est fixe, il me Semble qu'il Se fait un Tort infini. Et il y a plus dans I'Etat ou sont les choses Je ne vols pas que My Lord Marechal puisse executter actuellment son Desein, Sans faire un Tort Irreparable au Roy qui n'en pent pas Davantage Si les Ministres Sont des Fouriques {sic) Que dira t'on dans le Monde, Les Affaires de Roy se perdront Absolument en Suisse, il faut le nomer a toutes alliances — e'en est fait. Que diront les Peuples qui Aiment My lord Comme Leur Pere, Et qui le Voiront partir pour leur Avoir Rendu un Service Capital ces Alliances font depuis 50 Ans FObjet de leurs desirs et de leur Ardeur. II n'y en a Qu'une de faite, et S'en est fait des Autres. Je crains que nos Gens ne fassent des Sottises Qui porteront longs a My lord, Car ils mettront le tout Sur Son Compte. " En Verite My lord Ce que Ton pourroit faire de Mieux Seroit de Raccommoder le Tout ce qui Seroit aise Si le Roy le veut, il n'y qu'a mettre le Gouvernement Sur un pied Supportable et qui con- vient a Son Service lorsqu'il a par dessus un homme de bien et de Valleur Car Sur le Pied ou les choses sont, il n'y a pas un honnette homme au Monde qui voullut Se degrader au Point d'Endurer le Stile Pervers et barbare de Touts les Miserables teritoires. Gens D'ailleurs de Comprehension dure, qui n'entendent pas les Affaires les plus Simples Si on ne les accable a Son Tour d'Ecritures Im- menses Alors Seconde par V : E : il n'est pas possible que nous ne vinssions a bout de faire changer de Resolution a My lord Marechal, 28 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF " Ayez My lord Compassion de Nous, Touts les Ordies de I'Etat Corps et Peuples Se Joindront a Moy pour Supplier V : E : de nous aider. Si je sais parler Ces Alliances nous tiennent fortement au Coeur, et je sais My lord Marechal votre digne et Respectable frere nous y tient encore plus. Et ce que me penetre Jusques au fond de I'Ame — c'est qu'on pourra encore Soubconner que nous ayons Augmente Ses Chagrins. Et contribue a Sa Resolution. Je ne scais que trop My lord que nous Avons un Grand Nombrea de coquins et fripons Qui Sont fache de ne pouvoir plus exercer le Metier de delatteurs Et Si ce fourbe de Pretre n'est pas punni et qu'ils voyent qu'ils Soyent ecouttes en Cour loin devant, lis re- prendront Touts leur Premier Metier. Et il n'y auroit pas Moyen d'y Tenir. Les Ministres du Roy Sont d'Etranges Gens ils Se defient de tout homme de bien, et donnent toute leur Confiances a des fripons Sans Pouvoir. My lord Marecbal n'a cesse depuis qu'il est Ici de les leur demasquer, Tout 9a ne les Arrette pas ils osent produire leur Cher Gellien qui a ete demasque par Nombre des devantiers {sic) de S : E : " Je me trouve My lord dans la plus Cruelle Situation ou un honnette liomme puisse Se trouver, J'aime, J'honnore, et Respecte My lord votre frere, mon Attachement est aparement au dela de I'Expression, Je benissois Dieu de tout mon Cceur de Voir au Millieu de Nous, un digne Seigneur, Le plus grand homme de bien qu'il y aye au Monde, II est Indignement persecutte Et il me deffend de parler Ici, et d'ecrire a Berlin meme a V : E : parceque Sa Resolution est prise et qu'on ne feroit que de le brouiller avec le Roy qu'il aime et a qui il a des Obligations, parcequ'. il ne veut plus Servir. II m'a ecarte huit Jour qu'il eut levee et ne m'en parloit pas pour Evitter de me faire du Chagrin Et dans la Crainte qu'il ne combattit Sa Resolution. Mais dans l' Agitation Ou Je Suis il ne m'est pas possible de Tenir la Promesse que le lui ay faitte, Ce que Je dois au Roy et a ma Patrie me force a prendre le part D' Informer le Roy fusee je sure de deplaire Car comme Je ne dis que le Vray, et mSme qu'une partie du Vray Je ne m'embarrasse de Rien, Toute mon Ap- prehension et rUnique Seroit la Crainte de Nuire a My lord Mare- chal, Ce que Je ne voudrois pas faire pour touts les biens de Monde. Dans cette Idee II m'est Venu dans I'esprit de me donner I'honneur de vous Ecrire My lord et de vous adresser ma Lettre a S : M : Et de supplier tres humblement V : E : de le faire mettre a la Poste Si vous Croyer My lord qu'elle ne puisse bien surement. pas Nuire aux Affaires de My lord Marechal au quel Je ne voudrais pas nuire pour FKEDERIC THE GREAT 29 Rien au Mon de Mais bien le Contraire Si Je le pouvois. Je vous Supplie au Reste My lord et Je vous demande en Grace que laisser ignorer a My lord Marechal Que j'aye pris la Liberie de vous Ecrire, N'y qu'on aye loins d'Ici a V : E : parcequ'il Jugeroit que c'est Moy. J'ay L'honneur d'etre avec un Respect Infini. "Neufchatel ce 20 fevrier 1756." " My Lord, " Je pris la Liberte d'Ecrire a V : E : par le dernier Courier Je me flatte que ma Lettre Sera heureusement parvennue et que vous n'aurez pas pris My lord en Mauvaise part la Liberte d'un homme qui fait profession particulier d'Etre devoue a My lord Marechal votre Illustre frere, Je m'y Suis attache plus que Je ne I'Aye Ete de ma Vie a homme du Monde, parceque Je n'en Ay Jamais connu un qui fit autant honneur a I'humanite, n'y qui Merittat autant toute I'Affection le Devouement et les Respects d'Un homme d'honneur Si J'ay beni Dieu de voir Arriver un Si grand homme de bien dans ma Patrie J'ay gemi de voir un Si digne Seigneur embarque Sur la Galere du Monde la plus mal Equipee Depuis le premier moment que My lord a ete dans ce Pays, J'ay 6treint a luy allayer le Poid de dedans Et J'y recessi, Et I'Affection toute Extraordinaire des Peuples et des Gens de bien ont Rendu la chose facile, Tout ce que J'ay eu a combattre c'est les Scrupules de S : E : qui Se faisait Peine d'etre Ici Sans faire tant ce que faisaient Ses Predecesseurs Qui portoient a tout leur presence material et plus qu'Inutile, En luy demontrant que Son Ombre faisoit Mieux les Affaires du Roy et de I'Etat qu'une Legion de Gouverneurs comme Ceux que nous avons eu et pourrons avoir Jusqua I'eternite. Ce n'a Jamais ete Le Pays ny les Affaires de votre Sphere qui nous donne la Moindre Inquietude, C'est la Corre- spondance de Berlin autant celle de Potsdam est gracieux autant celle de Berlin est Insouttenable. Oui My lord est sans Exageration un Galerien sur la Chaine y Retient plutot que de la Souttenir. Les Ministres se levirent dans le Gout de Nostradamus, Les Predictions de Celuy y ne Sont pas plus obscures et Inintelligibles que les Rescripts. II faut deviner, et S'on n'a pas le bonheur de les com- prendre, els accablent d'Injure. " 2v. lis n'ont aucun Sisteme Mais aucun lis en changent Cours de Chemises, Ce qui leur a plut Aujourd'huy leur deplait demain Comment Vivre avec eux un Ange ne Scauvoit a quoy S'Entenir. "3. lis n'entendent Rien a notre Tripot Mais du Tout Rien> 30 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF Depuis le Vieux Colinan ils n'out pas en un liomme qui y entiendit Goutte Ils firent de Longue et perdent en malhabiles Gens les Affaires du Roy, VouUoir Gouverner un peuple Libre, par les Prineipes du Gouvernement Arbitraire, c'est Abus, ils ne font que compromettre I'Authorite Souveraine, et Rendu les Peuples defiants et Mecontents. " 4'. lis n'ont donne leur Confiances et ne les donnent qu'a des fripons Gens Sans honneur et Princippe, qu'ils Tiennent Seuls p' Gens de Dieu. Et comme My lord en toute Rencontre a tra- vaille a les Rammener a des Idees plus Saines Je suis Sur qu'ils Croyent que nous I'avons corrompus. Et il le faut pour Se con- duire Comme ils le font. J' n'entre My lord dans le detail pour vous faire Sentir que cela forme un poid Redoutable et tout a fait Insouttenable, et que S'il en est Rebutte Personne ne pent en etre Surpris. II falloit que Cela Arrivat. Tout ce que me fait peine c'est que My lord Marechal Se rebutte Sans en dire la Raison, Ce Servit Au Reste bien mal Remplir le biit que Je me propose de peindre les desagremens Sans proposer a votre Excellence les Moyens pour y obvier — qui sont bien simples, Point Coutteux et tres aise. Ce Seroit que le Roy charge a un Conseiller d'Etat, En Qualite de Lt. de My lord Ou President, Doyen, Comme ils voudront De la Correspondance de la Cour Et des Affaires Courrantes du Pays Sous les Ordres de My lov. Les Epices dont My lord ne Se prevant Equalement pas formeroient des Petits Avantages a un liomme a qui les ecritures ne coutterient pas. Et cet homme seroit tout trouve dans la Personne du Conseiller d'Etat Samuel Ostervald, Qui par la Caducite de Ceux qui le precedent se trouve a la Tete du Conseil liomme de bien, et d'une Integrit Reconnue. Son Ouvrage de nos Loix seroit Rettarde de peu puisqu'il est a la fin. Et Quant le Roy daigneroit luy donner quelque chose il le meritteroit depuis longtemps qu'il Travaille avee peu de gage Annuil. " Et que S : M : daigna donner Ses Ordres directs a My lord, Qui ne peuvent Jamais etre de Nature a luy prendre | d'heure Sur Ses Grandes Occupations. II n'y a I'Affaire de nos Alliances et le Changement dans nos Loix Du Reste Je n'en prevois pas d'Autres. Mais Si S : M : ne daigne pas chaxger My lord de cette besoigne elle ne se feras Jamais Sans occasioner du Trouble dana I'Etat. Et ne se fera pas au Grand M6contentement de touts les Ordres de I'Etat. " II famdroit Encore My lord une chose bien essentielle c'est que FREDERIC THE GREAT 31 S : M : daigna mettre fin au trafig des charges en les laissant a la Nomination, My lord Marechal dent la parfaite Integrite luy est Connue Car il est honteux que les longs loys Soyent mis a I'Enchere — Malheur a ceux qui n'ont pas pu S' Addresser discretement au Throne II a fallue payer bien Cher des Employs qui ne produisent presque Rien. Ou pour Mieiix dire Malheur au Peuple qui est Oblige d'Achetter en dettail ce que Ton a vendu en Groz. Au Reste My lord Le projet que le fais Ici me paroit bien Uni et I'Est en Effet et J'ay Cru devoir entrer dans le dettail pour en faire Sentir la Necessite Mais Je ne dois pas cacher a V : E : que la Resolution prise tient Tellement fort, que je Crain de pouvoir detterminer My lord Marechal Quant meme S : M : auroit cette Bonte pour Luy. J'ay fort exhorte Mile Emette le baron de Brakel qui est Ici a ne plus luy parler de Cette affaire Car comme II est Incertain quel est le Partique le Roy prendra il faut attendre passamment le Resultat. Un homme qui est bien decide il est dela Meilleure humeur du Monde et il faut I'Ame penetre d'Amertume m'efforcer de luy faire Parole, Rire dans le Temps que je Pleurerois de tout mon Cceur. Tout mon Sallut est en V : E : Mais quoy qu'il en puisse Arriver Je supplie V : E : de dettourner My lord d'Aller a Venise — Qu'il soit Gouverneur du Pays ou Non, il y Jouira du Cceur et des Respects d'Un Chacun Et il y vivra comme il voudra tout Comme a Venise. Je luy suis Tellemt. attache que J ne puis me familliariser avec I'ldee d'un Depart Je Supplie V : E : de me pardonner Si Sans Avoir le bonheur d'Etre Connu de vous My lord, Je vous parlais aussy franchement. "Neufchatel ce 21» Fevrier 1756." The Earl Marischall to Marshal J. Keith " You have seen, My Dearest brother, that I have allready asked my conge ; be easy as to me ; I have wherewith to have el fuchero honrado y macarones, lo que me basta. The multiplicity of afiaira is too great a load, especially as my memory dayly fails ; but, as you well guess, the stile and manner is still worse. Had I thought my retiring from business could have been to you any prejudice, I would have suffered any thing rather than have taken that step ; but as the King well knows that my desire of retreat is not new ; that he gave me this governement as one ; he will not be surprised that, since I find it very different, I wish to be rid of it. If he should a moment suppose that my present motive is from politicks, he will 32 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF soon be undeceived by my attachement to bim and by my conduct towards others ; tbey have discarded me, I have not left them ; a fair riddance, as to my going to Cleves, the climate is much colder and worse than this, I have not the language of the country, I am too old to make new acquaintance ; if the King continued my pension, I should stay here in his old castle of Colombier, plant and eat Brocoli, and go now and then to see B. de Brakel and some- times to my old friend Fanny Oglethorpe about fourty leagues off ; and if, por milagro de Dios, I can gather two hundred louis, go once again to pay my duty to the King and embrace you. if I have only my own small matter I must go to San Marco. " I have finished the affair of Soleure. I don't know if the Ministry will approve of my economy, tho I have carried it as far as I could. I gave those went with me an olla in the morning, we set out to save a dinner on the road ; in returning I only stop to give oats to the horses and saved an other dinner : on all such occasions there is expence of decency which can not be avoided. Comte Podwerts tells you I may send an other in my place ; he does not know the ceremony of the Swiss nation and their scrupulous attache- ment to their old Etiquets ; Mr de Natalis would have been excused because of his age, but if a Governor can go they must make him go : and in truth they have a reason of Politicks for some eclat. Soleure fortified their toune against a sudden insurrection of the paisants, some show it necessary for the Paisants ; it is of effect to containe them in their fears, and respect. " if the King should speak to you of my desire of retreat, you may assure him of my attachement now and ever ; that if I should continue in business it could not be long ; that it is better for his service, as well as quite necessary for my ease and health, that I have nothing to do. Not a month ago one came to speak to me ; I could not find words to express what I wanted to say, no more than if I had been in a fit of aplopexie ; and indeed I believe it was a sort of one, tho I perceived no ailing, except want of words ; for I well knew all said to me. I need no other reason to desire retreat ; you may tell it to M. d'Eichel, and that he need not be affraid to assure the King, that my chief reason of retreat is love of repos, which is absolutely necessary to my health and age, and that my attachement to the King will last as long as I shall, which I flatter my self his Majesty will believe. " you tell me the Cabinet and the Grand Directoire do not agree ; if I was to complain it is of the Cabinet, je vous le dis une fois FREDERIC THE GREAT 33 pour tout, je ne veux absolument aucune defense que c'est qui est indispensable, on voit une aigreur de stile qui vient du cceur ; on croiroit que j'avois deja jette mal a propos bien de I'argent du Roy ; je ne veux pas me plaindre ni au Roy ni aux Ministres, mais me retirer tout doucement. c'est le parti que tout trouve, a qui il reste r ombre de sens commun, doit prendre quand il se sent sur charge d'affaires, je vous ay envoy e une longue lettre il y a huit jours, elle etoit pour vous seul ; je suis bien aise que vous I'ayez entre les mains. Adieu my Dearest brother. " March 2d. 1756." Frederic, though immersed in business, both England and France wooing him for alliance, wrote at once in the kindest manner, two successive letters. "Potsdam, February 8th (1756). " Do not accuse me of laziness, my dear Mylord ; I have been so enormously busy for some time (you will judge over what) [allusion to the treaty signed in London on January 16th, 1756, and the arrival of the Due de Nivernois at Berlin on the 12th of the same month] that I have not possibly been able to write to you ; the agitation still continues, and at least a month must elapse ere I can regain the tranquillity suitable for our correspondence. I am none the less obliged to you for the melon seeds you had the kindness to send me, as well as for the tolerant doctrine which you are striving to introduce into your province. It would be a completion of the work to make this lottery which no one wants succeed. I believe that you must be a prodigal and a spendthrift in order to have any credit ; I see that that answers everywhere ; we must imitate the rest. " Your province is menaced by Voltaire, by an earthquake, by Madame Denis, and by a comet [On October 29th, 1755, Voltaire had written to the Abbe de Prades, in a letter intended to be com- municated to the King : ' I have a little monastery by Lausanne, on the road to Neufchatel, and, if my health had allowed me, I should have gone as far as Neufchatel to see mylord Marischall ; but for that I should have wished to have a letter of permission ']. One of these scourges is enough to destroy everything. I hope these conjectures will turn out like many others. Much the same misfortunes have been prophesied about the Queen of Hungary ; with the exception of Voltaire. She appointed fasts, prayers ; the n— 3 34 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF venerabilc has been exposed at Vienna. Doubtless after that God will think twice before meddling with Austria. You will be told, doubtless, my dear mylord, that I am a little less of a jacobite than I was ; do not let this set you against me, and rest assured that I esteem you always just as much. Adieu." "February 1756. " I am sorry to see you leave a post, my dear mylord, which will be always ill-filled by your successor. You may choose what place of residence you please, certain that I shall join you every time that the locality is available to me. I think those people happy, who, at a certain age, can retire from business, and this happiness seems all the greater to me because I very much fear that I shall never enjoy it. Plans, cares, worries, that is all in which human grandeur consists. When one has seen this magic lantern a few times one is satiated with it, and woe to the Savoyard who brings it ! All one's toil often only ends in making people happy who do not wish to be, in settling the uncertainty of the future, which upsets all our plans. When all this has been going on for a number of years, the moment has come to strike camp, and, adding up, one finds that one has lived for others and not for oneself. But each machine is made for a certain use, the clock to show the hours, the spit for roasting, the mill-stones for grinding. Let us get back to work, then, as such is my lot ; but be sure that, in spite of my turning, despite myself, no one is more interested in your philosophic repose than your friend for all time and in all the circumstances in which you may happen to find yourself. Adieu." Milord asked his brother to assure the King that he is only retiring because he needs rest, and enclosed a Memo, for the King detailing his reasons for resign- ing, and pointing out that on his mission to Soleure and its attendant ceremonies he had but carried out instructions. To Marshal Keith he wrote a fortnight later : " You know by this time, my dearest brother, that the King has offered me my conge, ' si finsistois ladessus,'' giving me at the same time half my salary, and that I propose staying in the old castle of Colombier, which I have asked the King to give me." FKEDERIC THE GREAT 35 And he adds a defence of his conduct during his term of office. Two letters of Frederic's crossed those of Milord : " (Potsdam), March llth, 1756. " To-day's post, my dear mylord, iias brought me two of your letters. In the first you say so many pleasant things to me, that they can but cement the friendship and gratitude I bear you. I see further that it is absolutely necessary to become a bad manager in order to have credit ; but I am still uncertain if the game is worth the candle. " You have made a Swiss alliance down there which will give Messieurs les Neufchdtelois much pleasure. As for me, my dear mylord, I make only political misfortunes. I would wish that people did not destroy themselves in Europe in order to find out who will fish for stockfish, and that they were less set upon the possession of the mountain of Apalache, and of the deserts of Cayenne, where you and I will never go, and which will bring in very little to the happy folk who gain this possession. I could add many others, if I would, to the list of these ; but I suppress them out of prudence, feeling how impossible it is to make people reason- able, and that the most secure course is to let the world go as it is. " I owe you many thanks for the trouble you have taken in ordering a picture by Pompeo for me. I should be strongly tempted to have two by Mengs and one by Costanzi. The two by Mengs might be the Education of Adonis, and that of Tiresias. [The King means the Judgement of Tiresias.] He might make them to match, and Costanzi's might match the one Pompeo is doing. [The pair to the picture by Chevalier Placido Costanzi, painted by Chevalier Pompeo Battoni, represents the Marriage of Pysche. See the Description of the interior of the two palaces of Sans Souci those of Potsdam and of Charlottenburg by Matthew Oesterreich. Potsdam 1773.]" " Potsdam, 2\st March, 1756. " I apologize, my dear mylord, for the stupid mistake I made in giving you commissions for Italian pictures, which should have been addressed to your brother. That day I was very busy, and, not noticing either the handwriting nor the date of the letter, which was the marshal's, I replied to you instead of to him. You 36 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF cannot think me more foolish than I think myself, and I am indeed quite ashamed about it. I might speak of Europe and great affairs, I might find all sorts of fine excuses, but you know as well as I do that Europe, thank Heaven, does not rest on my shoulders, and goes her own way without my interfering. So I content myself with acknowledging ingenuously my slip. I do not know either what the French or what the English will do ; if they make mistakes like mine, if they send to the East Indies orders made for America, I hope they will prepare us to laugh. I could wish that in one way or another they were more sensible ; but, unfortunately, there is nothing less sensible than the man so often defined as above every thing a reasonable animal. Those who define man do not know him ; for me, if I dared to hasard my small opinion upon the attributes of our species, I should be very inclined to define us as chattering animals who reason according to their passions. It is for you, my dear mylord, who have been about the world more than I have, to examine my sentiment to see if my definition is good or not. You are very certain of my blessing, and of all that com- promises my power both spiritual and temporal ; I only find fault with the efficacity. To wish people well is not all, the great thing is to do them good. Do not forget, I beg you, your friends in the North, and count always on the real esteem with which I am always your faithful friend." Elcho returned from Padua and Venice to stay at Colombier with his old friend. But Milord Marechal was at the same time the recipient of other attentions which he did not equally enjoy. Sir Arthur Villettes, British Envoy at Bern, jumped to the conclusion that the Earl Marischall, in breaking with Charles Edward, intended to give in his allegiance to the House of Hanover, and to sue for pardon. " Bern, the 2%th May, 1766. " Very secret. " I have within these few days had an interview at a place four or five leagues distant from this town, with a particular friend of mine who is of Neuchatel ; . . . I had observed that there was something in that part of his correspondence which related to the young Pretender, that was affectedly obscure, and which he seemed FREDERIC THE GREAT 37 unwilling to trust to plain terms on paper ; I therefore agreed to a rendez-vous, where we met, at the hour appt. and spent the best part of the day together. The lights I gained by this conversation with him are of so extraordinary a nature that I think it my duty to lay the substance of them before you. . . . The person above mentioned has lived in the greatest intimacy with the Gov. of N. ever since his coming thither, insomuch that there are few subjects and circumstances of his life, which he has not very openly and frankly let him into. By this means, my friend has been able to explain what he often hinted to me, of the Pretender not being at so great a distance from this part of the world, as I imagine, by ac- quainting me that he has lived, for some time past, at, or in the neighbourhood of Basel, under the name of Thompson. . . . Upon my inquiring into the young Pretender's connection and corre- spondence with the Gov. of Neuchatel, I was told v. positively that they had none whatever ; that the Pret's eldest son had never been at Neuchatel, as was reported ; that indeed, he had offered to make the Gov'' a visit there privately, but the latter had declined it, and wrote him word, in v. plain terms, that he wld acquaint the K. of Pruss. therewith, and immediately made the thing public, upon which it was dropped. And further, that the Gov' never mentioned him but with the utmost horror and detestation, and in the most opprobious terms ; having told him more than once that his conduct, from the setting out from Rome, on his last expedition in Scot'' to this day, had been one continual scene of falsehood, ingratitude, and villany ; and that the father's was little better. The mis- understanding between them, my friend says, has subsisted ever since the Pretender's expedition into Scotland, which he had pre- viously assured his friends in that Kingdom to have been concerted with and approved by the Governor of Neufchatel, though this last in reality had disuaded and was entirely against it, which he afterwards wrote to his friends there, declaring, in so many words, that what the young Chevalier had advanced on this head was false. With regard to his character, my friend tells me that the several particulars which the governor had given him of it had likewise been confirmed to him by Lord Elcho, who held him in so great esteem. . . . My friend says that a person of note was sent over, last year, on a private commission to the young Pretender by the principal men of his party in Scotland, and that this person agreeable to his instructions [which directed him to Neufchatel, on the way to consult with the governor on the whole matter com- Ji66i_03 38 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF mitted to his charge] had been there to pay him a visit, and had spent some days with him ; that when he opened his commission to him he found the governor so totally alienated from the Pre- tender, of whom he gave the most odious character, that he said it was unnecessary he should go any farther, and was for returning to Scotland directly, but that the governor had opposed this, and advised him to proceed, as he was directed, to see the Pretender, and not to frame his notions on the report of others, but to trust to his own senses and judgment. That this person had accordingly continued his journey to Basel, and been several days there, with the Pretender, from whence, being returned to Neufchatel, he declared that he had found things exactly as he had been told, and that the governor, in the account he had given him, had not been influenced by any passion of resentment, or deviated from the truth in any one instance ; having further insinuated to my friend, in private discourse, that he had hitherto been a strenuous promoter of Jaco- bitism, but that, on his return to Great Britain, he would preach quite another doctrine, and turn his whole endeavours towards undeceiving and converting as many as he could of his friends and acquaintances, who were under the same infatuation. ..." Frederic was still looking forward to Milord's return to him, and in the stress of his war preparations sends another little note of welcome. "Sans Souci, June I2th, 1756. " You flatter me pleasantly, my dear my lord, with the hope of seeing you again. You may come boldly ; it is not freezing here, we have the most beautiful weather possible ; I therefore hope to receive you about the middle of July, when I think the marshal will be back from his baths. I have not written to Voltaire, as you suppose ; the Abbe de Prades is conducting that correspondence. As for me, who know the lunatic, I am very careful not to give him the least handle. I know you will be obliged to the review at Magdeburg for the shortness of my letter. I am shortly leaving to see the troops. Adieu, my dear mylord, keep me in your friend- ship, and be sure of mine." But a few days later he begs for a breathing space to reconsider Milord's resignation and Neuchatel afiairs. FEEDERIC THE GREAT 39 That principality lay on the French frontier, exposed to the enemy's attacks ; it was very independent, no mere Prussian province, and not whole-heartedly loyal to its Hohenzollern rulers. Frederic felt that the presence of his devoted friend, Milord Marechal, well versed in French feeling, and in the politics of Louis's Court, might bolster up Neuchatel as a bulwark against France. " Sans Souci, 20th June, 1756. " I would willing reply to you, my dear mylord, more catigoricallyi but in the present crisis I am so overwhelmed with business that I implore you to give me time to think about Neufchatel at my leisure. I hope you would kindly therefore have patience with a poor politician who is struggling in his little nook, like the devil in a pot of holy water. Assuring you of the entire esteem with which I am your faithful friend." The Earl Marischall paid a short visit to Geneva, then rather a favourite centre for British continental travellers, and where he found friends, and he then stayed a few days at Les Delices with Voltaire. It can be imagined how their conversation turned and returned on Frederic ! In the beginning of July the Governor of Neuchatel set out for Potsdam, nominally, on leave, and eager to be once again with his beloved master, who, without doubt, had now great schemes afoot. For Marshal James Keith, who had been at Karls- bad in Bohemia, Imperial territory, for his gout, had, with other Prussian officers, been suddenly and secretly recalled. The brothers met once more, and were for the last time together, but only for a few weeks. Frederic wrote to his sister, the Margravine of Baireuth, on July 22nd, with a thousand excuses for delay in replying to her. *' Milord Marechal has arrived 40 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF here four days ago ; he found me so busy that I have not had a moment to myself/"* Frederic had discovered the secret coalition in France, Austria, and Russia, leagued to crush him, " the iniquitous plot," as he put it. But he had " one foot in the stirrup, and I think another will soon follow,"' to forestall his enemies. It was not only the pending retirement from Neu- chatel that brought the Earl Marischall to Potsdam. England and Prussia were now allied by the Conven- tion of Westminster, which guaranteed the neutrality of Hanover, and promised subsidies to Prussia in case of war. This clever move incensed France, which could not now seize George's German possessions. To counteract it, she allied herself with Austria by the defensive treaty of Versailles in May 1756. Russia had been leagued with Austria for some years and Russian troops were now on the march to Prussia. The ring which was to " round up " Frederic was now complete. The latter was aware of something afoot against him. A bribe to a government clerk at Dresden laid bare the mesh. On the day the Earl Marischall reached Potsdam, July 18th, Frederic sent an ultimatum to Maria Theresa inquiring if her war preparations were directed against himself ? Was Marischall really now considering his reconcilia- tion with the House of Hanover ? In any case, at this moment he attempted to do England a good turn. The British Minister at Berlin was his friend and fellow- countryman. Sir Andrew Mitchell, an Aberdeenshire laird. On August 9th a memorandum was handed in to Sir Andrew warning the British Government that France this year would attempt a descent on the three kingdoms, by French fleets from Brest and Conflans ; FREDERIC THE GREAT 41 and begging him not to neglect the warning, given by the secret channels Marshal Bellisle had in England, which might place the King of England in " terrible embarrassment/' The memo, added that affairs on land were not in less of a crisis. The Prussian Com:t had informed that of St. James how matters stood with Vienna ; " a rupture seemed inevitable." All depended on the reply of Vienna. Was it peace or war ? Among Mitchell's papers is a copy of the follow- ing letter, evidently written by the Earl Marischall. Mitchell received this copy, via Podevils, the King's State Secretary, on August 10th, subsequently to an audience he, Mitchell, had had with Frederic on the 7th. Mitchell sent it on secretly to London to Secre- tary Lord Holdernesse. In his report of the 12th to Holdernesse he mentioned that Frederic thought French invasion of England a wild and adventurous scheme, which could never succeed unless a party within the kingdom favoured it ; but he was of opinion that Belleisle's channels with England should be investi- gated. {Copy.) " Sire, as I am not in the secret, and have no longer anything to do with either party in England, what I have learnt is only by chance and very imperfectly. " I have seen a letter from Marshal Belle-isle to Chavigny [French Envoy at Bern] in February 1755, in which he said ' there would be good business to be done, through the friends and the channels I made when I was in England.' Since then I have known of a correspondence between the folk in England and the ministers of France, that after the arrival of the Hanoverians and the Hessians, these English said that 20,000 men were not enough [evidently France suggested an invasion with that number], and that more were necessary ; they also told me that there was not a single Jacobite in the secret ; that it was the republican party. I am rather led to believe that it is rather some ambitious busybody, who wishes to 42 THE FRIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT deceive France ; but if he succeeds, and if the French can get 30,000 men over, the country is lost and ruined for ever. France, this year, does not require her land forces, and she could well risk 30,000 men. I believe there is little to fear from the Jacobite party ; those I know among them have recanted their error ; it is only in the Scotch mountains where there are still a few who could be seduced by the glitter of gold. " I beg Your Majesty not to let it transpire whence this advice reaches you ; the King, your uncle, would doubtless think my inten- tion was to fill your mind with ill-founded suspicions. I am only a rebel ; I am not false, nor a felon ; I wish to serve you, Sire, and my country at the same time ; I know of no other party." Frederic was right in concluding that such a possible tentative on the part of France could only succeed were it abetted by the Jacobite party in England, and that party was moribund, killed by Pitt ; henceforth there were to be only Whigs and Tories. At the end of August Frederic broke of! " conversa- tions " with Maria Theresa, and incontinently burst into Saxony, which he was determined to add to his kingdom. With 67,000 men he marched on Dresden in three columns, Marshal James Keith in command of the centre one. CHAPTER XXXI JANUARY 1757 TO OCTOBER 1758 Anxiously the Earl Marischall watched Frederic's operations — the occupation of Dresden, the capture of the Saxon army at Pirna, the defeat of Braun at Lobositz. He himself remained at Potsdam. D'Argens, that autumn, sent to Frederic a mot of Sir Andrew Mitchell's : *' One sees Jacobites at Berlin, where there is no Pre- tender, which is odd/' He referred to the Earl Mari- schall and the Earl of Tyrconnel, the French Minister. In January 1757 the King ran home for a few days, leaving Marshal Keith in command of headquarters at Dresden. Milord Marechal took the opportunity of Frederic's presence to arrange for a home for ErmetuUa after his own death. He wrote to Minister Finkenstein : " When the collector's lease shall have run out, the Governor wishes to lease the orchard as a feof from the King, for his own life and for that of Mademoiselle ]£met UUa, a Turkish girl, whom he has brought up from her childhood. He ofEers to pay annually 80 1, though the kitchen garden only brings in 54 1. 13 s. 9 c. and the fruit at most 15 1. For the fruit is bad, and the trees are too old. He further ofEers to plant new ones at his own expense, as he has already planted an espalier where there was nothing hitherto, and a hundred excellent fruit-trees. At the same time the governor begs that Mile. Emet Ulla may be given for life the second floor of the chateau of Colombier, the first floor of which is occupied by himself and the receveur. As to this second floor, it has no 43 44 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF windows, no shutters ; the sun comes in and the floors are rotten, but the governor will eventually have all that repaired at his own expense." In the spring a close alliance was concluded against Frederic — Austria, Russia, France, and even Sweden, whose King his sister had married. Frederic was put to the ban of the Empire, outlawed, as it were. In April he launched his hazardous scheme by burst- ing into Bohemia, and the Austrians were defeated before the capital, Prague. Marshal Keith was left to invest it while Frederic moved to meet Daun, hastening to its relief. On June 18th the latter defeated Frederic at Kolin ; yet on the same day the King found a moment to write to Milord a cheerful letter describing the battle. " The Imperial grenadiers are an admirable corps ; they defended a height which my best infantry has not been able even to carry. Ferdinand attacked it seven times, but in vain. The first time he seized a battery, which he was unable to retain. The enemy had the advantage of a numerous and well-manned artillery ; it does honour to Lichtenstein, who is the head of it. Prussia alone can rival it. I had too few infantry. All my cavalry was present, and was idle, except for an effort I made with my gendarmes and some few dragoons. Ferdinand attacked without powder ; but, on the other hand, the enemy did not spare theirs. On their side were the heights, the entrenchments, and an enormous artillery. Several of my regiments have been shot down. Henry did wonders. I tremble for my worthy brothers ; they are too courageous. Fortune turned her back on me. I ought to have expected it ; she is a woman, and I am not gallant. I ought to have taken more infantry ; twenty- three battalions are not enough to dislodge sixty thousand men from an advantageous post. Success, my dear mylord, often gives a harmful confidence ; we shall do better another time. What do you say to this league which has no other object than the marquis of Brandenburg ? The Great Elector would be very surprised to see his great-grandson fighting with the Russians, the Austrians, nearly all Germany, and one hundred thousand French auxiliaries. FREDERIC THE GREAT 45 I do not know if it would be shameful to me if I succumbed ; but I know that there is little glory in beating me." Even when at his lowest ebb Frederic never forgot his friends, and sought for sympathy where he could count upon it, as he could upon Milord's. "Leitmeritz, July 8th, 1757. " Milord. Much touched by the marks of remembrance and the attentions which you have been kind enough to give in your letter ... as much by the sending me pears and chocolates, as by the kind feelings you continue to show me. I am very much indebted to you. The weather and the luck here have indeed changed lately ; but, thank God ! not so badly that we have lost the good hope of setting our affairs straight with divine assistance, and on a better footing. I hope you will always take the same interest in it." But the siege of Prague had to be abandoned, Marshal Keith making a wonderful retreat out of Bohemia into Lusatia. Things went from bad to worse. In North Germany the French defeated Frederic's Ally, the EngHsh under Cumberland, in July. In August the Russians, under Apraxin, won at Grossjagersdorf. Frederic hurried into Thuringia to meet Soubise advancing to free Saxony. Then came the great victory over him at Rosbach in November. Milord's heart was gladdened by a letter from Weidemann, the Field-Marshal's secretary, announcing the latter's safety, and four days after the battle James himself wrote, describing the battle. " We have honoured the late af?air with the name of a battle, though it was really nothing but a rout. The enemies wished to attack us, but we were beforehand with them. By the rapidity of our movements we were enabled to attack them in flank, while they were marching. . . . We have taken a great many of the Swiss, who do not seem to be such good runners as the French." 46 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF Anxious to do all in his power to help the King in the turmoil of the onslaught hurled at him, the old Governor made up his mind to return to his post at Neuchatel, to its worries, and to its climate, which he detested. He went back in mid-winter. He had asked for details of the battle of Eosbach in the hope that Soubise would be justified, as it seemed incomprehensible that a commander of such ability could have been exposed to such an overthrow only through his own fault. Field Marshal Keith would not go into the investigation ; though he did not like to criticize, it was apparent, however, that he considered that the French had exposed their left flank too much. Prince Henry, however, the King's brother, sent Milord an account of the engagement. " Leipzig, December l^th, 1757. " The relations I have received of the engagement of the fifth are as follows : The enemies were posted beyond the river of Schweid- nitz, at Weesser, having the village of Leuthen exactly at their centre. Our army was formed in two lines, and the cavalry on the two wings. Six battalions were posted on our right, to cover the flank of our cavalry. Eight or ten battalions of our right com- menced the attack upon the left wing of the enemies, where were the troops commanded by Nadasti, and those of Wurtemberg and Bavaria. This wing was taken in flank, and while we thought we should attack their right wing. In consequence, all their batteries were ranged on that side, and it was necessary for them to change them, which they could not do quick enough ; and thus our troops had time to beat them, before their new batteries were formed. At the centre, near the village of Leuthen, all our army was exposed to their fire ; however, our right, which had completely turned their left, decided the afiair in our favour. Our cavalry is not much talked of, but I have great praises of my hussars. Two generals were taken prisoners, and some 160 officers ; and some say 14,000 and some 12,000 men, and 130 canons. General Ziethen has pursued them, and taken 2,000 of their baggage waggons, and a great quantity of ammunition. Our loss amounts to between 4,000 and 5,000 FREDERIC THE GREAT 47 killed and wounded. Breslau is occupied by six battalions of the enemy, and some battalions of Croats. I should think, though, that by this time we were masters of it. ** Here you have, my dear marshal, the faithful relation of all I have heard respecting this event ; from which I conclude, that fortune, which has lately tossed us so much about, has not entirely turned her back upon us ; I therefore still hope our affairs may go on well. " I shall be charmed to send you good news as often as I can ; and the interest you take in all that concerns us will render me the more anxious to give you all the proof possible of the esteem and friend- ship with which I am, Sir, " Your very devoted friend and servant, " Henry." Frederic wrote from the ** Suburbs of Breslau, December 9th, 1757 " : " I thank you, my dear mylord, for the interest you took in our successes. The bad state of my affairs in Silesia obliged me to rush thither after the battle of Weissenfels [the battle of Rosbach, won on November 5th]. On the 5th of this month we attacked the main Austrian army near Lissa ; fortune favoured us, and they suffered greatly. We have a hundred and sixty-three of their officers prisoners, of whom two are lieutenant-generals, besides twenty thousand men, a hundred and sixty-nine guns, forty-three standards, and more than three thousand baggage wagons. I am busy at this moment in retaking Breslau, while General Zieten is at their heels. Quando avral fine il mio tormento ! " At Christmas Milord Marechal was able to send the King's extracts from a letter he had received from Turin, in order to show Frederic how his achievements were impressing the Duke of Savoy. "... You will certainly be surprised and delighted to hear how Monseigneur the Duke of Savoy busies himself. He follows the King of Prussia in all his operations ; he has a book in which he notes them, and which he always carries in his pocket, and on each event he makes his notes. He is his hero, and he considers him as the greatest King and the greatest Captain that has ever been in this world, and he is never tired of talking about and admiring him." 48 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF Milord added : " You are the best judge, Sire, if something complimentary to the Duke of Savoy would not be politic, without it appearing that it was your intention that it should reach his ears." On the back of the EarFs letter Frederic, now in winter quarters at Breslau, jotted down with his own hand : " To thank him, but to write that mediation is not yet in season, and that we must wait till things are riper. Federic." Her King's victories over the French, the Austrians, and the Russians had put Prussia into good spirits again. His relations and friends had collected around him at Breslau — sister Amelia, brother Ferdinand, nephew -in-law of Wiirtemberg, D'Argens, Catte, Len- tulus — and the Silesian city was gay at Carnival. Milord Marechal, amid the snows and fogs of the Jura lake-side, must have longed to be with them all. Early in 1758 Frederic realized that, despite his late trouncing of the three Allies, he must fight another campaign. He wrote to Milord Marechal in February : ** There are so many things in the background very difficult to get over yet, so that you can well see for yourself that it will be necessary to make and to finish a whole campaign without having made an end of everything.'' In spite of Rosbach the French would not hear of peace apart from their AlHes, and were more active than ever. Pitt had roused Great Britain from her apathy, and, determined to wrest from France " every possession that she had outside her frontier, and to leave her crushed, humiliated, and powerless for aggres- sion " ; he poured British gold in subsidies to Prussia. The Russians were threatening East Prussia, Pome- FREDERIC THE GREAT 49 rania, and Brandenburg. Notwithstanding his recent successes, Frederic had his back to the wall and was fighting for his hfe. A body of Swiss had crossed the Rhine, owing, writes James Keith, to the intrigues of one Yessner, of the canton of Bern, who offered his regiment, and whose example was followed by others, except the canton of Zurich, twenty-eight battalions in all. Mitchell, the Prussian Envoy at Bern, was requested to interfere. On the other hand, some of the Swiss wished to fight for Frederic, who, however, declined their services through the Governor of Neuchatel. In the spring Frederic wrote hopefully but anxiously ; he was besieging Schweidnitz, in order to lessen the strain on Silesia. " Breslatt, February 1th, 1758. " I am much obliged to you, my dear mylord, for thinking of me ; we have here so many people who think a la Suisse, that I beg you to rid me of the Swiss who offer themselves to you. I am vmder- going great ventures ; kings, emperoi's, and newspaper men are unchained against me. But I hope to beat, or to have beaten for me, both one and the others. This, my dear mylord, is my firm intention, and I await the event philosophically, convinced that anxiety is of no use, and that only that which pleases fate or chance will happen. Adieu, my dear mylord ; I wish you rest during the troubles in Germany, and that you do not forget your friend while he runs great risks." But Milord had very little rest. He worked hard to cultivate the friendship of the Swiss Confederation, so important to Neuchatel, and grumbled to his brother that " it was necessary to be at one and the same time Governor of Neuchatel, and Ambassador of the King to the Confederation."' But added that he had not asked for the latter post, as he meant to retire when the war was over. II — 4 50 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF " Grussau, 20th March, 1758. " We are condemned to fight this year also, my dear mylord, and, thanks to Heaven and Prince Ferdinand, the French will soon cross the Rhine with their guarantee of the peace of Westphalia, which, by the way, has become one of their strongest generals. I am here in the mountains covering the siege of Schweidnitz, which is going to begin in a few days. I do not know how this campaign will end, but it is quite certain that we shall do our best that it ends well. " You send me a letter from M. Le Commun, to whom I send wishes for common sense ; he has an infernal machine, he says, which some one has invented in order to destroy the human race. Let him take it to Lucifer, if he will ; I will further pay him the secret of completely curing or malignant fevers. I embrace you, my dear mylord. If every one looked on things as philosophi- cally as we two do, peace would have been established long ago ; but we have to deal with folk accursed by God, for they are eaten up with ambition ; that is why I send them to all the devils. Do not doubt, my dear mylord, of the friendship and the regard which I shall only cease to have for you when I lose the feeling of life." But Frederic's friends were all anxious. A pleasing little touch of sympathy came from D'Alembert to Milord — admiring verses to be placed under the por- trait of the King which the latter possessed. The old man's thoughts often turned back to his beloved Spain. In the spring of 1758 he sent a Neuchatel genius to exhibit his marvellous mechanical inventions to the King of Spain. Jacquet Droz was a native of the mountain village of Chaux de Fonds in the Val de Ruz. He had gone on from one invention to another till he had perfected some extraordinary automatons, about three feet high — that of a girl who painted, of another who played the spinet, of a third, most wonderful of all, who wrote a letter dictated to her, erasing mistakes. The method of movement was a secret. It is generally supposed that it wns given by a magnet. Milord sent Droz to the Court of Spain, to his friends there ; to FREDERIC THE GREAT 51 Don Jacynto Jovert he sent a present of a fine piece of mechanism. On the first exhibition of these mar- vellous figures to the King his courtiers scented magic, and, making the sign of the cross, fled, one after the other, till the King was left alone with Droz. Against Field-Marshal Keith's advice, Frederic sent him through Moravia to besiege Olmiitz, which he hoped might stir up a Protestant insurrection in H un- gary. Olmiitz was the only important fortress held by Austria, and its siege would detain the Austrian forces, and free Frederic to act against Russia. In May James Keith sent his brother plans of the siege of Olmiitz with a letter, and a few weeks later he gave him an account of the taking of Schweidnitz, adding that — " The King was much pleased with the part [of Milord's last letter] relating to the canton of Bern [and the Yassner affair]. Many compliments to Mademoiselle Emete. You never tell me anything of Ibrahim and Stepan. I should be glad to know if they are still with you and if they behave well. . . . The Swiss officer's remedy against danger made me laugh heartily, and the King also. ..." For five weeks Milord Marechal waited anxiously for the news of the capture of Olmiitz. James Keith did his utmost, but the engineers blundered and an enor- mous convoy on the way to Keith was attacked by the Croats and had to be blown up to escape capture. The siege was perforce raised, and Frederic retreated into Bohemia. During the pause of a fortnight, when Frederic waited for Daun to engage him, James Keith wrote to his brother from Koniggratz, detailing the arduous retreat, and complaining of suffering from fever and gout for many weeks past. " I have need of repose, but our situation does not permit me to 52 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF hope for it for some time, so I must drag myself along as well as I can. Adieu, my dearest brother. I will try to send you news of myself as often as I can.'" Two daj'^s previously Prince Augustus William, Frederic's next brother and heir, had died at Berlin. The King wrote very soon afterwards to Milord Mare- chal for sympathy. " KoNiorNGRATZ, 20^.' .r-: ? ',■ ^i.'-T^,--.'.'''--^/ y-'. iS''^ ^'tr^-^-iT^^ :;:-J^' ;?::-7.:^^ ■■^■:>^y ^'^ /^':^>.^?- '^.-y-^' ^■'j^>^:? -^'"^^-^ J" fi>:^ ^''s^r^'^'C^ ^r?-:2 . ^-i^? z:'^ V V. -'Z iT '7"^ '^i-r,^ ^':-^-^^ ^.^/ jK^,^. ^^_^,;yy.^ ..^•.--, .,..-^,^?>vV; f^' /f^k^ ■-■:--tfi ^it^o-'J ^^^--^fyt^^-- ^.i^^^t^a^.^^ ^^^^.<. LETTER FROM THE EARL MARISCHALL TO JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU. In tlie Library at Neuchatel. U. 128] FREDERIC THE GREAT 129 " Vitam impendere vero ''July, 1762. " Milord, " A poor author prescribed by France, by his native land, by the canton of Bern, on account of having said what he thought was useful and good, comes to seek for a refuge in the King's States. Milord, do not grant it me if I am guilty, for I ask no favour, and do not think I need one ; but if I am but oppressed, it is worthy of you and of his majesty not to refuse me fire and water, of which th.e whole world wishes to deprive me. I thought myself bound to announce to you both my retreat and my name, unhappily but too well known from my misfortunes. Decree my fate; I submit to your orders, but if you command me to quit the dominion where I am, it is impossible for me to obey, as I should not know whither to fly." Rousseau enclosed a letter to the King : " I have said much harm about you ; I shall perhaps say more ; yet, driven from France, from Geneva, from the canton of Bern, I seek an asylum in your dominions. My fault is that I did not do so at first. The praise is among that of which you are worthy. Sire, I have deserved none of your favours, and I do not ask for any ; but I thought I ought to inform Your Majesty that I was in his power, and that I desired to be : let him do with me as he pleases." We have seen how the Earl Marischall had early fallen a victim to the fascination of Rousseau's writings, and had become a convert to his doctrines. With what delight must he have learnt of Rousseau's proximity ! He had envied his friends their acquaintance with Jean Jacques ; with what pleasure he now could look forward to intercourse with him ! A letter of welcome, far and above what the philo- sopher had dared to hope for, was instantly despatched, and Frederic was promptly informed of Rousseau's appeal. II— 9 130 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF " CoLOMBiER, 12 Jrdy, 1762. " I am writing to the King to ask for orders for your refuge in this country ; in the meantime rest in peace. I shall be very pleased to be able to give you any pleasure, as I admire your mind and respect your character. " If you would come here it would give me much pleasure. I would send a horse or a chair to bring you ; you could remain sans gene as long or as little as you pleased. You will find me an old man, nearly a Savage, though perhaps somewhat spoilt by dealings with civilized savages." Frederic's spirits were rising again. His implacable enemy, the bellicose Elizabeth, had died, and he had just concluded an alliance with the new Czar, Peter III, his fervent admirer. The Austrians were on the verge of being driven out of Silesia. He at once acceded to Rousseau's request. " DiTTMANNSDORF, July 2^th, 1762. " Let us give asylum to the unfortunate, my dear mylord. This Rousfseau is a queer fellow, a cynical philosopher whose wallet is his only goods. As far as possible he must be prevented from writing, because he discusses ticklish subjects which would send the blood to your Neufchatel folks' heads, and bring about a clamour among your priests, already too inclined to disputations and full of fanaticism. I am now opposite Marshal Daun, opposite his Cannon and his mountains. We have almost dragged him out of Schweid- nitz, which we were getting ready to besiege. I had twenty thou- sand Russians here for a fortnight ; I only passed through, and they were no longer there. All their army has gone back to Russia, and we remain good friends, ready to help if I lose. Prince Ferdinand does wonders ; the French are going to withdraw from Hesse and Gottingen. What a succession of victories for the English by land and sea ! All they want is a clever minister who will profit in peace from the splendid position to which their arms have brought them. " Good-bye, my dear mylord ; my nose is full of gratitude for the tobacco with which you have had the kindness to supply it. I tell you nothing about myself ; you know I am your well-tried friend." FREDERIC THE GREAT 131 The Governor lost no time in despatching the King's permission to Rousseau, who had settled himself with Therese Le Vasseur at Motiers, in the high Jura valley of the Val de Ruz. Here he had been lent a comfort- able stone house with high-pitched brown roof over a deep balcony, by Madame Boy de la Tour, the wealthy widow of a Lyonais, a Neuchateloise by birth, with relatives in the neighbourhood of Motiers. This little house, as also relics of Rousseau's sojourn on Neuchatel soil, is carefully preserved by her great-grandson to- day. " Avgust Gth, 1762. " I have the King's reply, who is very pleased to grant asylum to persecuted virtue ; he hopes (he says) that you will not write on prurient matters, which might excite too lively sensations in the heads of the Neufchatelois, and cause a clamour from all your priests (he says your because he was speaking to me of the Neuf- chatelois who are inclined to controversy and full of fanaticism) . I shall write to him that you do not wish either to read, write, or speak ; that you will be content to think and do lacets. " He tells me that the Russian army is returning to Russia, and that we shall remain good friends. His letter is from Ditmansdorf, July 29th. " At last you have a secure refuge ; but I hope that the Petits maitres el Petites maitresses of Motiers from time to time will force your barricades and force you to take refuge in the square tower, where I shall be nearer to see you sometimes, when, like the Delay Lama, you will allow yourself to be visible. Bon jour. " I have just had a visit from a minister, a great admirer of you and your books. I was shewn a letter from Bern in which Voltaire is accused of having plotted the annoyances at Geneva against you, and, if the letter is true, they are sorry for it and are angry with the Poet. You had already told me that it was Voltaire who had stirred up the troubles in your native land, but I was not aware that the public had had its eyes opened over it." Rousseau's reply was as graceful as it was grateful. In Milord he perceived a new and very congenial acquaintance, as well as a protector : 132 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF " It is quite true that I owe to you the permission which the King gives me of residing in his dominions, for it is you who will render it dear to me, and, if it had been refused, you might have blamed yourself for changing my departure into exile.'* He hoped the King was not making, as a condition to enjoying his hospitality, that he should cease to write. As for the little circle of intelligent upper-class Neu- chatelois, in their Val de Ruz country-houses for the summer — the Merveilleux, d'lvernois, the de Pury, friends of Milord, who were pressing a welcome on Rousseau, he had no desire " that the agreeable people of Motiers should drive me thence to wish to inhabit the Tour Carree [the State prison of Geneva]. ... If my pilgrimages are not wearisome to you, I shall divide my time very pleasantly. Here I shall make lace with the women ; at Colombier, I shall go and think with you.*' Milord hastened to disabuse Rousseau of any notion that Frederic wished to restrict his pen. " August 24, 1762. " The King, in agreeing to your residence in this country, made no condition at all ; what he said about the Neufchatelois heads, etc., was to me, without any order to speak to you about it ; but we are of one mind ; you will not set the house on fire in which you live, and I, I only wish that your retreat may be agreeable to you. As to the engagement not to read, write, etc., I miderstand it as you do ; and as a facon de parler, not to be taken seriously, I should be very sorry if we had no more of you than your lacets, even if you made them to the utmost perfection. I will not speak again of the square tower, but it will remain empty ; one does not know what may happen ; the cold might drive you to your very humble and very obedient servant, " Le Marechal d'Ecosse." Milord Marechal wrote to Frederic that something might be done to relieve Rousseau pecuniarily. But this was a most delicate matter to set in hand. FREDERIC THE GREAT 133 " Petebwaldau, September \st, 1762. " Your letter, my dear mylord, about Rousseau at Geneva gave me much pleasure. I see that we think alike ; this poor unfortunate must be relieved, for his only sin is in having peculiar opinions, which he thinks are good. I will have a hundred ecus sent you, and you will kindly make over to him what he needs. I think by giving him things of this kind he will accept them rather than money. If we were not at war, if we were not ruined, I would have a hermit- age built for him, with a garden where he could dwell as he thinks our forefathers lived. I confess my ideas are as different from his as the finite from the infinite ; he will never persuade me to graze on herbs and to go on all fours. It is true that this Asiatic luxury, this superfluity of good living, of voluptuousness, of delicacy, is not essential for our preservation, and that we could live more simply and more frugally than we do ; but why give up the amenities of life when we can enjoy them ? True philosophy, it seems to me, is that which, without forbidding use, condemns abuse ; one should know how to do without everything, but not give up anything. I confess that many modern philosophers do not please me by the paradoxes which they enunciate. They wish to pronounce new truths, and they only give out errors which shock common sense. I hold with Locke, with my friend Lucretius, with my good Emperor Marcus Aurelius ; these people have told us all that we can know, save the physics of Epicurus, and all that can make us moderate, good, and wise. After that it is amusing to be told that we are all equal, and therefore should live like savages, without laws, without social intercourse, without police ; that fine arts have hurt morals, and other as little tenable paradoxes. I think Rousseau has missed his vocation ; he was doubtless born to be a famous hermit, a Father of the desert celebrated by his devotions and his macerations, a Stylites. He would have performed miracles, have become a saint ; he would have swelled the long catalogue of martyrology ; but now he will only be looked upon as an extraordinary philosopher who is resuscitating, two thousand years after, the sect of Diogenes. It is not worth while to graze on grass, to quarrel with all the contem- porary philosophers. The late Maupertuis told me a story about him which hits him off well. During his first stay in France, Rousseau lived in Paris on what he earned by copying music. The Due d' Orleans heard that he was poor and unfortimate and gave him some music to transcribe, that he might have the opportunity of treating him generously, ile sent him fifty louis ; Rousseau only 134 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF took five, and returned the rest, which he would never take, however much he was pressed to do so, saying that his work was not worth more, and that the Due d'Orleans could spend the money better in giving it to people poorer and more idle than himself. Such great disinterestedness is without doubt the essential foundation of virtue ; thus I judge that your savage has morals as pure as his mind is inconsistent, " I pass from your savage philosopher to the savages in white clothing who have less morals than he has, against whom we fight daily, but who, up till now, do not crush us. We are besieging Schweidnitz under their nose ; they wanted to prevent us, but fortune declared for the Prince of Bevern and ourselves. The fortress is at its last gasp ; the garrison wished to capitulate ; there are ten thousand men ready to be taken. If I let them go out, they will perch themselves on high mountains, so that in ten years I shall not take them ; but with a little patience we shall have them. There, my dear mylord, is an epitome of our campaign, and, I think, as much as you need to satisfy your curiosity. It looks very much as if this campaign would be the last of this unhappy war. I have renewed hopes of seeing you again, and it is one of the ideas which gives me the greatest joy ; I do not conceal from you, my dear my- lord, how I like your fine character, and I think I find in you some- what of what I have lost and what I mourn. Good-bye, my dear mylord. Should Rousseau find no philosopher worthy of his trust, I at least hope that you rely on friendship which will never belie itself." Milord to Rousseau " Wednesday, 15 September, 1702. " You will do a good deed in coming to see me — to me I mean, to yourself not at all. I am nothing ; I am too old ; all the machinery is worn out ; I need not say so, it is but too plain to see. Moreover, you see no one, and I am obliged to see many people, and God knows what sort. Patience ! I am too old to go and become a naturalized Kalmuc, and you too infirm fo retire to the forests of North America. Come at least while I am still here ; you will be quieter than in the town, and freer. I am going there soon ; the bad weather will drive me hence. I will send my carriage ; bring your housekeeper, and stay as long us you will, and live as you like, and as if you were in the forests. FREDERIC THE GREAT 135 "... How is one to prevent Voltaire from writing and publishing his writings ? Short of having a Carvajal and using the remedy he employed to silence his commune, one must let him go on. It will pass like the mist which is over the mountains ; if Frederick was a fool and an idiot, he would be a pleasant man beloved and praised to excess, and no one would say anything against him, have you never heard a pretty woman praised without the other adding some huts ? It is the same with men. Bon jour. Let me know when you want my chaise for two." Let Jean Jacques himself describe his meeting with " good mylord " — the latter in his stiff-skirted coat and flowing wig, the philosopher in his queer long brown Armenian dress, with girdle and fur cap : " The pastor said it was good enough for the ' temple,' so I saw no impropriety in wearing it at Milord MarechaVs. His Excellency, on seeing me in this dress, only said to me : ' Salamaliki.' After which I never wore anything else." " On my arrival at Metiers I had written to Lord Keith, marshal of Scotland, and governor of Neuchatel, informing him of my retreat into the states of his Prussian majesty, and requesting of him his protection. He answered me with his well-known generosity, and in the manner I had expected from him. He invited me to his house, and I went with Mr. Martinet, lord of the manor of Val de Travers, who was in great favour with his Excellency. The venerable appearance of this illustrious and virtuous Scotchman powerfully affected my heart, and from that instant began between him and me the strong attachment, which on my part still remains the same, and would be so on his, had not the traitors who have deprived me of all the consolations of life taken advantage of my absence to deceive his old age and to depreciate me in his esteem. George Keith, hereditary marshal of Scotland, and brother to the famous General Keith, who lived gloriously and died in the bed of honour, had quitted his country at a very early age, and was proscribed on account of his attachment to the house of Stuart. With that house, however, he soon became disgusted by the unjust and tyrannical spirit he remarked in the ruling character of the Stuart family. He lived a long time in Spain, the climate of which pleased him ex- 136 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF ceedingly, and at length attached himself, as his brother had done, to the service of the King of Prussia, who knew men and gave them the reception they merited. His Majesty received a great return for this reception, in the services rendered him by Marshal Keith, and, by what was infinitely more precious, the sincere friendship of his lordship. The great mind of this worthy man, haughty and repub- lican, could stoop to no other yoke than that of friendship, but to this it was so obedient, that, with very different principles, he saw nothing but Frederic the moment he became attached to him. The King entrusted the marshal with affairs of importance, sent him to Paris, to Spain, and at length, seeing he was already ad- vanced in years, let him retire with the government of Neuchatel, and the delightful employment of passing there the remainder of his life in rendering the inhabitants happy. The people of Neu- chatel, who only love tinsel and affectation, know not how to dis- tinguish solid merit, and suppose wit to consist in long discourses. When they saw a sedate man of simple manners appear amongst them, they mistook his simplicity for haughtiness, his candour for rusticity, his laconism for stupidity, and rejected his benevolent attentions, because, wishing to be useful and not being a sycophant, he knew not how to flatter people whom he did not esteem. In the ridiculous affair of the minister Petitpierre, who was displaced by his colleagues for having been unwilling they should be eternally damned, my Lord, opposing the usurpations of the ministers, saw the wkole country, of which he took the part, rise up against him, and when I arrived there the stupid murmur had not entirely sub- sided. He passed for a man influenced by the prejudices with which he was inspired by others, and of all the imputations brought against him it was the most devoid of truth. " My first sentiment, on seeing this venerable old man, was that of tender commiseration, on account of his extreme leanness of body, years having already left him little else but skin and bone ; but when I raised my eyes to his animated, open, noble countenance, I felt a respect mingled with confidence which absorbed every other sentiment. He answered the very short compliment I made him when first I came into his presence by speaking of something else, as if I had already been a week in his house. He did not bid us sit down. The stupid chatelain, the lord of the manor, remained standing. For my part, I at first sight saw in the fine and piercing eye of his lordship something so conciliating that, feeling myself entirely at ease, I without ceremony took my seat by his side upon FREDERIC THE GREAT 137 the sopha. By the familiarity of his manner I immediately per- ceived this liberty I took gave him pleasure, and that he said to himself : this is not a Neuchatelois. Singular efiect of the similarity of characters ! at an age when the heart loses its natural warmth, that of this old man grew warm by his attachment to me to a degree which surprised everybody." We have from Rousseau a pleasant glimpse of the Earl Marischairs life that summer, at Colombier, and of his visit to the Val de Ruz, and of the friendship which promptly sprang up between the two. " He came to see me at Motiers under the pretence of quail shooting, and staid there two days without touching a gun. We conceived such a friendship for each other that we knew not how to live separate : the castle of Colombier, where he passed the summer, was six leagues from Motiers ; I went there at least once a fortnight, and made a stay of twenty-four hours, and then returned like a pilgrim with my heart full of affection for my host. The emotion I had formerly experienced in my journeys from the Her- mitage to Eaubonne was certainly very different, but it was not more pleasing than that with which I approached Colombier. What tears of tenderness have I not shed when on the road to it, while thinking of the paternal goodness, amiable virtues, and charming philosophy of this venerable old man ! I called him father, and he called me son. These affectionate names give, in some measure, an idea of the attachment by which we were united, but by no means that of the want we felt of each other, nor of our continual desire to be together. He even wished to give me an apartment at the castle of Colombier, and for a long time pressed me to take up my residence in that in which I lodged during my visits. I at length told him I was more free and at my ease in my own house, and that I had rather continue until the end of my life to come and see him. He approved of my frankness, and never afterwards spoke to me on the subject. . . .The journey from Motiers to Colombier being too long for me to perform in a single day, I commonly divided it by setting off after dinner and sleeping at Brot, which is half-way. The landlord of the inn when I stopt, named Sandoz, having to solicit at Berlin a favour of importance to him, begged I would request his excellency to ask it on his behalf. Most willingly, said 138 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF I, and took him with me. I left him in the antechamber, and mentioned the matter to his lordship, who returned me no answer. After passing the whole morning with him, I saw as I crossed the hall to go to dinner, poor Sandoz, who was tired to death with waiting. Thinking the governor had forgotten what I had said to him, I again spoke of the business before we sat down to table ; but still received no reply. I thought that this manner of making me feel that I was importunate was rather severe, and, pitying the man who was waiting, held ray tongue. On my return the next day I was much surprised at the thanks he returned me for the good dinner his Excellency had given him after receiving his paper. Three weeks afterwards his lordship sent him the rescript he had solicited, despatched by the minister, and signed by the King, and this without having said a word either to myself or Sandoz con- cerning the business, about which I thought he did not choose to give himself the least concern. I could wish incessantly to talk of George Keith ; from him proceeds my recollection of the last happy moment I have enjoyed ; the rest of my life, since our separation, has been passed in affliction and grief of heart. The remembrance of this is so melancholy and confused that it was impossible for me to observe the least order in what I write, so that in future I shall be under the necessity of stating facts without giving them a regular arrangement. " I was soon relieved from my uneasiness arising from the un- certainty of my asylum by the answer from His Majesty to the Lord Marshal, in whom, as it will readily be believed, I had found an able advocate. The King not only approved of what had been done, but desired him, for I must relate everything, to give me twelve louis. The good old man, rather embarrassed by the commission, and not knowing how to execute it properly, endeavoured to soften the insult by transforming the money into provisions, and writing to me that he had received orders to furnish me with wood and coal for my little establishment ; he moreover added, and perhaps from himself, that His Majesty would willingly build me a little house, such a one as I should choose to have, provided I would fix on the ground. I was extremely sensible of the kindness of the last oiier, which made me forget the weakness of the other." The friendship progressed, and the Earl Marischall, who liked his friends to be also his friends' friends, FREDERIC THE GREAT 139 made Rousseau better acquainted by hearsay with " the good David '' Hume, by writing : " September 1762. " I cannot remember if I have already sent you a print of Mr. Hume ; here is one. I will tell you two anecdotes about this Philo- sopher which have particularly pleased me : the first is the meeting with one Wallace, who wrote (and very well) against one of hia essays, David asked him when it would be printed ; Mr. Wallace having replied that he was too busy then to have the time to revise Ms work, David undertook this business, and did it honestly. The other is that the Lamas being assembled in Synod to excommunicate this Antichrist (for such he is in Scotland, as you in Switzerland), David went and sat down among the Lamas to listen with an admirable sang froid to all the abuse so devoutly hurled at him, taking snuii and holding his tongue. His composure disconcerted the Lamas ; they broke up without excommunicating him. " Nota bene, our Lamas can only excommunicate ; yours claim to burn, which is no joke, at least for those who are burnt. " If you have already got a print, send this one to Mylord Stan- hope (living at Geneva)." " October 2nd, 1762. " I have written to Mr. Hume and am building some Chateaux en Espagne; they are easy to build, and are perhaps as good as any others. Through David Hume I am arranging your business with the publisher. I am marrying off my daughter ; when she is settled I am going to Scotland. I will give you a couple of rooms in my house, and the same to good and gentle David. No one goes into anyone else's rooms ; there will be a reception room to see each other in ; we shall have Placidam sub libertate quietem ; that is my motto. I should wish every one to contribute to the necessary expenses of the little republic according to his income, and should tax himself ; the food would not be much, as trout, salmon, sea- fish, and vegetables cost me nothing ; David would pay for the sirloin because he eats it. We must have two carriages if the fancy takes us to go out ; there will be no other rules or laws in the republic; each one will make his own, both Spiritual and temporal. There is my castle ; the foundation is already laid. I have seen since you left that the ' Emile ' is printed by two or three booksellers in London ; it is announced in the public papers, and new editions 140 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF of ' Heloise.' There is a foundation which I consider as sound, a good edition of your works, for your share of the voluntary taxes ; and on that foundation I guarantee to find you the money, while waiting for the new edition. Bon jour. " As your works are being publicly retailed in London, the pub- lisher who compiled a complete edition will make his fortune." " I send you, Monsieur, a letter to which I await a reply, and I trust it will be favourable to the wishes of the King and of your Servant. " The King writes to me : ' Your letter, my dear mylord, on the matter of Eousseau has given me much pleasure. I see that we think alike.' " Then he orders me to send you from him some corn, wine, and wood ; adding, ' I think that in giving him things of Nature, he will accept them rather than money.' I leave you to decide if this way of treating you does not deserve some return from you, and if in conscience you can refuse to please a man who would be very glad, did affairs permit him, to make a fourth with David, Jean Jaques, and your humble servant. "M. " October 29, 1762." To Milord MarecJial, in sending him the following letter : " MoTiERS, Nov. 1st, 1762. " I am much touched. Milord, with the value of your letter to Mde. de Bouffiers ; but it tells me nothing new, and your generous attentions can henceforth surprise me no more than they increase my feelings towards you. I think I need not tell you how touched I am with the King's kindness ; but in order to make you feel the effect of his kindness and of yours, I must confess to you that I did not like him before, or rather I had been deceived in him ; I hated another man under his name. You have given me a new heart, but a heart staunch to every attack, which will never change neither to him nor to you. " I have enough to live on for two or three years, and never have I been so careful ; but, if I was about to die of hunger, I should prefer, in this good Prince's present situation, and being of no use to him, to go and eat grass and gnaw roots than to accept a piece FREDEEIC THE GREAT 141 of bread from liim. May I not rather, on his account and on the account of all the world, go and throw the pittance into a fund he requires, and which he knows so well how to use ! I should never in my life have done anything with greater pleasure. Let him make a glorious peace, settle his finances, restore his exhausted dominions ; and if I still live and he still feel as kindly towards me, you will see if I dread his benefactions. " Here, milord, is a letter I beg you to send him. I know how great his trust is in you, and I hope you do not doubt mine. . . . The latter must be seen only by the King, unless he gives leave. " I send your Excellency a parcel, the contents of which I beg him to accept ; it is the fruit of my garden. They are not so sweet as yours ; but then have they not been watered with tears ? " Milord, not a day passes, but that my heart expands at the thought of our castle in the air. Ah ! if he could only make the fourth of us, that worthy man whom Heaven has condemned to pay so dearly for his glory and never to know the happiness of life ! accept all my respect." " To the King of Prussia "30 Oct. 1762. " Sire, " You are my protector and my benefactor, and I have a heart made for gratitude ; I wish to pay my debts to you, if I can. " You wish to give me bread ; is there none of your subjects who lacks it ? Take from my eyes that sword which dazzles me and wounds me ; it has but too well done its work, and the sceptre has been relinquished. For kings of your mould there is a great career, and you are yet far off the end of your time : yet time presses ; there is not a moment to lose in order to reach the end. " May I see Frederic, so just and so dreaded, cover his dominions with a numerous population, of which he is the father ! and I, J. J. Rousseau, the enemy of monarchs, will go and die at the foot of his throne." Milord MarechaVs re fly "'November 3rd, 1762. " I had hoped, with the help of Madame du Boufflers, to succeed in my negotiation ; but you are harder than Grimaldi, etc., and I do not yet allow that your reasons are sufficient. A little corn, wine, 142 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF and wood in Switzerland would not influence the King's affairs in Silesia ; then you exclude me from taking part in the consequences of this negotiation in asking too long a time, for such is necessary to restore the King's dominions after peace to a condition in which the exhaustion caused by the war is no longer apparent. There is much to be done ; you might as well have laid upon me to beget children to repopulate his country, as to live till they were grown up, which must be done to revive his country ; if you had told me, ' I have enough to live upon for two years ; when my capital has been exhausted, then I will accept the King's offer,' I should in all probability have been able to serve you. " I will send the letter to the King. There is no reason to think that it will be seen by any one but him alone, as it is sealed, and I send it in an envelope to a merchant. " I thank you for the good, fine book ; we have a good edition of the ' Contrat Social ' here, published by R'ldy. They tell me that the cold at Motiers keeps you too much indoors. The chateau of Colombier is more my own than my house in Scotland, as I have the entail on Eremetulla ; you will certainly be more comfortable there than at Motiers ; why not put yourself there till we realize our other plan ? It is true that David Hume is not there, nor at Motiers either." "November 11, 1762. " You make me long more than ever for the return of the fine weather, because you promise me to return to Colombier ; mean- while, you must allow the master of the house to give his advice, which you will not follow. One cannot prevent people from talking ; but one gangs one's ain gait nevertheless. " I have had a cold, but not so bad as they told you. My room is sometimes too hot ; the servants throw wood unnecessarily into the stove in order not to have to come back again. When the room is too hot, I open the door into the gallery. I am old, thin, and I spent the greater part of my youth in Valentia in Spain, and that is a reason for feeling the cold of this country more than the inhabitants of this country do. The room in which I sleep is temperate ; the door which communicates with the one which has the stove in is always open. " If you are my friend, as I hope you are, I see nothing contrary to good manners or against the law in your telling me so. It seems to me that, to be a friend, one must have kindliness and esteem ; it FREDERIC THE GREAT 143 would be a burlesque to see two people produce their genealogy, to see if they were within the permitted degrees, as if it was a question of entering a Chapter of Canons as in Germany, my Turk, Ilbraham (before he had been spoilt by the Giaours), finished his letter, ' Je suis plus votre ami que jamais, Ilbraham.' I thought it much better than ' Le tres-humble, etc.,' which is generally put, and which is but a sort of paraphe before the name ; I shall, therefore, sign by telling you, like good Ilbraham, that I am more your friend than ever. " Le Marechal d'Ecosse." " Peace between England, France and Spain, and Portugal was signed (that is to say the preliminaries) on the third ; agreement was reached on the second, on the second couriers were sent to stay hostilities, and, if the news is confirmed that we have beaten the Austrians in Saxony, we shall have peace this winter." "November 23rd, 1762. " They tell me you have a cold. I am uneasy as to your health in the sharp mountain air. " I have pleasure in telling you that your works are so much liked in England that ' Emile ' has been translated there, and that a second edition of this translation has already been made. I have no reply yet from good David ; I believe some inquisitive person has taken my letter en route." " P.S. I forgot to tell you in my letter that I have more than a thousand bottles of Spanish wine ; if you think it does you good ask for some, as I am your doctor, and certainly none so good will be found at the apothecary's at Motiers." " No, milord" Rousseau writes shortly afterwards, " I am neither in health or spirits ; but when I receive from you some mark of kind remembrance I am moved to tears, I forget my troubles : moreover, my heart is heavy, as I draw less encouragement from my philosopher than from your Spanish wine. » " I do not know, milord, if you are still thinking of our castle in the air ; but I feel that this idea, if it is not carried out, will be the misfortune of my life . . . separated by insurmountable obstacles from the few friends I have left, I cannot live in peace save far from all other society. It is, I hope, an advantage I shall have in your country that, being unacquainted with any one, and not knowing the 144 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF language of the country ... if I cannot live with you, I will live alone. But it is a far cry from here to Scotland, and I am not much in a condition to undertake such a long journey. As for Colombier, I could not think of it ; I would rather live in a town ; it is enough to make occasional trips there when I know I am not incommoding you. ... I ask your pardon for my familiar tone, milord ; I could not take another when my heart overflows. ... I adopt no formula, . . . yet could I have adopted one with you, milord, ... it would be that of the good Ilbrahim." From Milord Marechal " November 30tk, 1762. "... I only sent you my plan as a castle in the air ; I am very old to go and settle in a land where my old friends are no more ; where I should have to receive every one ; and where I have not the resource which you have of being ignorant of the language. The worst of all is that my property is entailed, and at my death our republic would be overthrown ; if it were my own I would erect a Christian hermitage to the right, and a Mahomedan one to the left, and David Hume should be housed between the two. Nevertheless, I will tell you, without joking, that as I am as little pleased as I can be with the people here, I might go home. I love the country and the people ; I have a very good house, with everything in it ; I should not have to buy anything ; I have a gardener and others ; the climate is vile for an old Spaniard : no summer. One must wait for peace, which we have not got yet ; the English have got a rather foolish one, I think. I should have to ask for passports ; I do not wish to take that step ; the Court of France made me wait nearly a year before giving me one. There are plenty of obstacles ; at peace I am invited to Sans Souci ; I could become a hermit in the English or Chinese house, which is in a corner of the garden. There is another castle in the air. I do not know what will happen. Bon jour.^^ Frederic replied through Milord to Rousseau's letter : " Meissen, November 26th, 1762. " I have received, my dear mylord, your letter and that of the savage philosopher. One must confess no one could go further in disinterestedness than he has done ; it is a great step towards virtue, if not virtue itself. He wishes me to make peace ; the good FREDERIC THE GREAT 145 man does not know how difficult that is to arrive at, and, if he knew the politicians I have to deal with, he would find them more in- tractable than the philosophers with whom he has quarrelled. " We are going into winter quarters ; the campaign has happily come to an end. " You ask for my portrait ; I do not know, my dear mylord, if one exists. I send you a pleasanter face than my own, and which will give you greater pleasure ; it is only fair that I should give a sflufi-box to him who supplies me with tobacco. You English give me plenty of snuff, and your dear countryman Bute is a funny fellow. Good-bye my dear mylord, rely upon my affection, for my heart is entirely yours." n— 10 CHAPTER XXXIX AUGUST 1762 TO MARCH 1763 Peace was in the air. It had already been conchided between England and France, between Russia and England. All the summer long the Austrians had been beaten by Frederic, and their Empress-Queen was re- signing herself to the inevitable. But there was no peace at Neuchatel. Its Governor was perfectly aware that, since the recent victory of the body ecclesiastical over the royal authority, the fire of discontent, if not of actual rebellion, still glowed beneath the embers. The Government at Berlin did not act with sufficient firmness ; Frederic was too busy. In April Milord had asked to be allowed to retire, writing that it was '* un- endurable to see the authority of the King so weakened in his dominions." Finkenstein tried to soothe Milord's exasperation. On August 2nd, 1762, the latter had reported that — " By far the greater number of the members of the Council of State are bad servants of the King, like George Montmollin, who declared at the Council that he was Councillor of State and not of the King." On September 2-4th he had reported again that™ " It must not be thought that all would be over when the Neu- chitclois obtained the removal of Pastor I'etitpierre ; thi^ success H9 THE FEIEND OF FREDEEIC THE GREAT 147 encouraged them in their scheme of total independence, and they will get it by means of the Council of State, and not of the King ; always they will abuse their power." On October 28th, 1762, the King sent a stem decree, with a postscript that the Governor was to inform the Four Ministers that " because of their audacious pro- ceedings they did not deserve the King's pardon. But, as he was convinced that the evil mind of the faction pre- dominated over the small number of his really faithful servants, the King leaves it to the Governor to make known this decree to the Council or not." The King thought that, after his condescension in giving way over the dismissal of Petitpierre, the authorities would pardon Chaillet and Ostervald, who were faithful to him. But, instead of restoring them to their rights of citizenship, the tithe of their vineyards was put up to public auction. Milord reported on November 10th, 1762, that — " The magistrates of Neuchatel have had the impertinence to ask for even more humiliating proceedings on the part of the two Councillors, Chaillet and Ostervald. . . . The insolence is growing. The Baron d'Armin has been heard to say publicly, ' The King has no orders to give in this country.' Four years ago a man would have been killed at Valangin for saying that ; but in the town of Neuchatel this insolence towards the King continues." According to Milord's advice, in order to bring these sort of people to reason, a special commission would be necessary with the consent of Bern ; punishment of the guilty, the disbanding of the militia, or, at least, the cashiering of the officers ; limiting the claims of certain bodies to their proper bounds ; reducing half the numbers of the Council of State, etc." To Finkinstein be wrote on December 20th; 1762, that te had— ^ 148 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF " Not given the King's decree to the Council because the words, ' after our condescension in naming the Pastor Breguet to Chaux de Fonds, we expect that, according to the declaration of the bodies of the State, and out of gratitude, all the difficulties oc- casioned by this afEair will be definitely settled,' would have been interpreted as a general amnesty for all attacks, acts of violence, and revolt which had been committed on the dismissal of Petitpierre." Further, that, as Finkenstein had written that nothing definite could be settled till general peace was made, it was best now only to apply temporary pal- liatives to restore order and loyalty. Anxious, as soon as his master's service allowed of it, to retire for good from Neuchatel and its worries, Milord Marechal was concerned at doing all he could for Jean Jacques before he left. "December 9, 1762. " Be assured that the good opinion I have of you extends also towards those in whom you are interested, and that at any time I shall do what I can for your housekeeper. If my property was not entailed, I would immediately make an arrangement to ease you on this point. I am at work for my own children : I have a legitimate daughter, ErmetuUa, a natural son, Ilbraham, and two bastards, Motcho of Guinea, and Stepan the Calmuck. Their business settled (and it will be soon, I hope), I shall take on yours ; but I must live a year or two longer : this is a strong reason for remaining in this country in order to set aside something for my poor children. I note with regret that your health is shattered, and how little pleasure you have in this land. When you go to Zurich you will find fools and pretenders to bel esprit, the worst sort of fools ; the fame of your name will draw down upon you this accursed race, as wasps go for good fruit. I do not yet know if I shall go to Sans Soucie ; if I do go, I shall choose the month of May for going there, and the month of September for returning. We could go together as far as Zurich, and if you do not fancy your stay there I could bring you back. Anyhow, let us consult together as to the plan of my castles in the air. When the season is a little milder I intend to go and see you ; I have a coach, and you have not ; it will lie with FREDERIC THE GREAT 149 you to use mine, if you are well enough to spend a few days at Colombier in building castles. " I intend to go, towards the end of the month, to Geneva to see the great men of position, my Lord Htanhope, his wife and his sister- in-law. Tell me if I can be of use to you in anything. Good-bye ; I am more your friend than ever. "M." " If we go together to Zurich I place myself under the protection of your friends, not be speechified, nor asked out to dine — two de- testable things, I think. " I do not like to leave things to chance. I am writing to Mr. Martinet. I do not know if I can prevent the seal being put ; but I can certainly spare the expenses, that it will cost your gouvernante nothing, if any misfortune happens. " P.S. — If your housekeeper has the misfortune to lose you, let her come to me ; and, if I am no longer in this world, let her come to Ermetulla. I have some money of yours (some corn, wine, and wood, which you would not have), etc. ; this little sum will be for her ; it is in a paper, ticketed from the King for M. Rousseau. Calm yourself ; keep from cold and from fever, and do not spare my good wine too much. Good- night. " P.S. of Postscript. " I have committed my lawyers. The Seal will not be put on. Without a will, written in your hand, your relations, if they wish to take your little estate, will have nothing." " 14^A December. " I will with pleasure do what I can to serve you when I go to Geneva, which I shall do at the beginning of next month. ... I have not given up the castle in Spain or in Scotland; one is not harangued there, and there are many good things and good people. " I think my letters must be stopped ; I have had none for a long time. I want to write again to David Hume ; one of those I am going to see is indeed a man of letters, but I do not think him much in touch with the living, the chevalier Newton, etc., as those he consorts with. He could tell me nothing about publishers ; but he is so hon {hon in French is not enough, for often it is a term of abuse, to the shame of that language), so good a man, that he will find out how to set about the edition of your works ; if he approves of them, which I do not know ; for I do not know him as well as his wife and 150 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF his sister-in-law. They are Scotch, aud all Scotchmen and Scotch- women are my brothers and sisters ; I am a fool and a rascal not to go and live among them. Bon jour." In the New Year Frederic wrote to his old friend in the highest spirits ; at last his heart's desire had been fulfilled, and peace was actually being signed. " Leipzig, January 28th, 1763. " Your letter, my dear mylord, found me in the midst of great excitement. We are on the point of making peace ; the negotia- tions are being pushed on vigorously ; I wish to be neither a dupe nor a thief, but to make as good a peace as the circumstances in which I find myself will allow me. Thus plenty of cares and troubles, but anyhow I prefer them to those which the opening of a new campaign would curtail, too glad, after seven acts, to find the end of a bad play in which I have been an actor despite myself. Here is an issue which one would not have expected a year ago. I do not know if it will please your fellow-countryman, who, it appears to me, is preparing for himself a more tragic denouement by the way in which he is exercising his despotic power upon a free nation. But let him do as he likes, and let us return to what concerns us. I hope, therefore, my old friend, my dear mylord, that peace will bring me the comfort of seeing you again ; I think we shall sign next month, and that this great business will be satisfactorily ended. Picture to yourself a man who has long been buffeted by storms at sea, and who sights the coast where he wishes to land. That is exactly my case, and I rejoice so much over this happy prospect that sometimes I revoke it in doubt, but thank Heaven there is too much reality for fearing anything in the future. I hope by the month of April to be back by my penates and my domestic hearths, and pray fate that I may never leave them again for a similar reason ! Finally, my dear mylord, here is a great risk escaped, and the repose which every one so much needs is on the point of being re-established all over Europe. I am quite convinced that you participate in my joy, and that you share it with me. Good-bye, my dear mylord ; I will write to you directly I am rid of the great business which occupies me at present, and my toil begins to grow lighter. Busy or idle, I shall always be the same to you, that is to say, your faithful friend ; I hope you are sure of that." FREDERIC THE GREAT 151 While waiting to be set free Milord busied himself by helping his friends. Colonel de Chaillet and Ostervald, disgusted with having been so humiliated by the Town Council on their return from exile, had resigned their positions as Comicillors of State. Milord laid the matter before Finkenstein, writing that " Chaillet was a very honest man, but his boldness made him enemies ; and he would never have been allowed to do his duties as councillor in peace ; therefore he resigned." Upon this explanation and on a hint from Berlin, the two victims of the Petitpierre war were rehistated. Next, Rousseau was in trouble over the business side of his literary work. " January 8, 1763, " Here, then, is your book become good, apparently because it has amended itself with age, as sometimes happens with young men. As for M. Fourmey, one must snap one's fingers at him ; he wished to practise Christian zeal (I have heard him preach) and maim your book, which will stand on its own feet in spite of him ; if he feels a wish to pilfer you, so much the worse for him. I do not even know who is the President of the Academy since Maupertuis, it should be to him that a complaint against Fourmey's proceedings should be addressed. The King must be at this moment overwhelmed (if he could be so) with business ; but, from my point of view, it is best to despise the small pilferings of those who are in need. " Let us talk business. I think that Jean Jaques will do what my relations, my friends, the natural love of one's country, and the comfort of being at home, have not been able to accomplish. The main point in life I consider to be a perfect reliance on people with whom one lives ; I should have that with Jean Jaques and Ermetulla. We will meet when the weather is milder, and we will consult together ; I shall have got another clause to add to the former rules I proposed, that in the case of an invasion of country gentlemen, I might sometimes have a refuge in your impregnable fortress. Bon jour. " The folk here whom I thought I had predisposed to peace and on the high road to tranquillity, are still up to bad digressions ; they have just asked the Canton of Bern that the Canton gives them a copy 152 THE SCOTTISH FEIEND OF of a letter wliicli I wrote to that Canton by order of tlie King. N.B. — They have the copy, but they want to give themselves the airs of sovereignty, and that the King of Prussia may not write without the leave of the Quatre Miuistraux, and that the Canton shall give them an original copy. Let us leave the Fourmeys and the ministraux to maim books and govern the world, and let us fly to our castle with David Hume, whom we will appoint grand almoner. Bon soir." A trip to Geneva to see his friends the Stanhopes gave Milord an opportunity to investigate for Rousseau how the feeling ran for or against him in his native city. " 13 February, 1763. " I returned from Geneva three days ago. I am very pleased with M. Moulton ; here is a letter from him. I believe you may reckon on his friendship, and on that of many others; I know you can always count on mine. I am told that the Parliament of Paris, having condemned your book and having its eye on what will be done about it at Geneva, they thought themselves obliged t« defend it. I did not object to this convincing reason ; on the contrary, I complimented the ministry who spoke to me about it, on the conversion of the Republic, as the Parliament at Paris con- demns the doctrine of Calvin as well as the book of M. Rousseau. " In order not to mutilate the letter of the good David, I had it translated. It has been massacred ; I have corrected it a little ; you will understand what he means. I have not the time to do any better, being overwhelmed with letters which require a prompt reply." Milord wrote to Hume to endeavour to secure his help for Rousseau over his literary business. " Jean Jacques Rousseau, persecuted for having writ what he thinks good, or, rather, as some folks think, for having displeased persons in great power who attributed to him what he never meant, came here to seek retreat, which I readily granted, and the King of Prussia not only approved of my so doing, but gave me orders to furnish him his small necessarys, if he would accept them ; and tho' that King's philosophy be very different from that of Jean Jacques, yet he does not think that a man of an irreproachable life JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU. From the collection of A. M. Broadley. ri. isr:] FREDERIC THE GREAT 153 i3 to be persecuted because his sentiments are singular ; he designs to build him a hermitage with a little garden, which I find he will not accept, nor perhaps the rest which I have not yet offered to him. He is gay in company, polite, and what the French call aimahle, and gains ground dayly in the opinion of even the clergy here ; his enemys else where continue to persecute him, he is pelted with anonimous letters. This is not a country for him ; his attachment and love to his native Toune is a strong tye to its neighbourhood, the liberty of England, and the character of my good and honoured friend D. Hume F i D r (perhaps more singular than that of Jean Jacques, for I take him to be the only historian impartial) draws him to be near to the F i D r ; for my part, though it be to me a very great pleasure to converse with the honest savage, yet I advise him to go to England, where he will enjoy Placidam sub lihertate quietem. He wishes to know if he can print all his works and make some profit, merely to live, from such an edition. I entreat you will let me know your thoughts on this, and if you can be of use to him in finding him a bookseller to undertake the work ; you know he is not interested, and little will content him. H he goes to Brittain, he will be a treasure to you and you to him, and perhaps both to me (if I were not so old). " I have offered him lodgings at Keith Hall. I am ever, with the greatest regard, your most obedient servant, " M." Milord to Rousseau "20 February, 1763. "... I do not think that Canton of Bern will do anything against you ; on the contrary, I believe they regret what they have akeady done ; they allowed themselves to be led away without reflecting by the example of others. France, by means of small pensions and great promises, is gradually putting Switzerland under the yoke. ... I want to see you, when your health permits you ; if you would come I would go and spend some days tete-d-tete at Colombier; we would talk of our castles in Spain. My ancestral estates, which are large, are to be sold, they say ; that may decide me to go to Scotland, in order to have something to give away, for as for myself I have already [more than I require. I think our peace is certain; my inclinations and the kind invitations of the good Frederick attract me to Sans Soucie. You enter into all my plana aa to the •astle in the air. I feel it is madness to make plans at my 154 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF age, but yet it is pleasant to liave nice dreams ; we hardly do anything else all our life long. Bon jour." Milord to Rousseau "22 February, 1763. " I am thinking about wliat you tell me of your fellow citizens of Geneva, the greater number there are with you. It is of those who govern that you have reason to complain ; and these are dazed by France. I do not wish you to take a step which would reflect upon your fellow citizens who love you ; they would com- plain, and not without reason ; wait, reflect, take time. My friend- ship impells me to write as I do ; it is for you to judge if I am right. Bon soir." Milord to Rousseau " February 24, 1763. " The more I think of it — and my friendship makes me often think — the more I am confirmed in my opinion that you should not take a step which might offend your friends in your native Land. I have been proscribed for long years in mine, and a reward of 2,000 pounds sterling to who should take me. If I had given up my status as a Scotsman, I should not have been received in the country as I was, I should no longer have been in a position to claim the friendship of my fellow countrymen ; at this moment I do not think there is one who does not wish me well. The same thing will come to you in time, as you deserve and as I wish. Bon jour. " Tell me about your health." Milord to Rousseau " February 28th, 1763. " We must see each other to work at our castles ; one cannot say enough in writing ; the replies and the objections are lacking. " Your castle, the changing your name, will not do ; for you will never change in character or in mind; the citizen of Geneva will soon be known. I see nothing better than for you to fortify your- self in a corner of Colombier; we will join forces, and I hope we shall be impregnable ; that is, if I do not go to Scotland, which may be ; it depends on the news I have from that country. Bon jour. " Peace was signed on February 15th ; the King gives back Saxony, but all that he possessed before the war is returned to him." FREDERIC THE GREAT 155 To Fiukenstein Milord wrote on the conclusion of peace : " God be praised that the King is quiet, and full of glory. There was never such a man, not even Julius Caesar. Everything will be done at Neufchatel to show joy." Milord to Rousseau ''Uth March, 1763. " I agree that you are a man of simple character, but in mind you are a burning flame which can never be hidden. If I was not so old I should not be sorry to see you set about your plan of retreat ; first, they would begin by suspecting you of being a Turkish or Prussian spy, or a general of Jesuits ; then they would seize your person, to be sure who you were ; I (for I should have followed you and should have laughed over the silly talk about you), I would rescue you by declaring who you were and by demanding that you should be made over to me. You would see that Colombier was the more peaceful retreat, and we would barricade ourselves there against fools and speech-makers, etc. Bon jour. " I intend to go to Colombier about the 10th of the next month, and to Berlin at the beginning of May." Milord to Rousseau "March 19, 1763. " This world was made for Caesar," says Cato in the tragedy made by Rowe. All I know is, it was not made for my friend Jean Jacques, because it is not to be hoped for that he will become a trickster, panderer, etc. . . . There is only one country which would suit us perhaps more than another, and that is my own. I have just received a letter which lures me extremely to go among such people. The cold frightens me ; I do not know what I shall do. I shall be on the 10th April at Colombier; we will consult each other. Bon jour. " We have illuminated, with inscriptions ; the finest is in a German newspaper : " ' The King of Prussia has remitted some years' taxation to his people who have suffered most ; he has had distributed amongst them 30,000 horses ; he has had given them 100,000 crowns in corn, 156 THE FRIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT with money to buy plouglia, etc., with ; he has declared his Prussian peasants who were serfs, free.' I defy the flattery of all the Acade- micians in the world to compose a finer inscription. I wish he had offered you corn, wine, etc., at this moment; you would have accepted it. This act will make him hated, nevertheless, it is a bad example." Jean Jacques wrote on March 21st, that — " A sentence in your letter of the 19th gave me palpitations ; it was the one about Scotland. I will only say one word about it : it is that I would give half my remaining days to spend the rest with you. But as for Colombier, do not count upon me. I love you, milord ; but I must have a place I like to stay in, and I cannot bear that part of the country." CHAPTEK XL JANUARY TO MAY 1763 After the dismissal of Ferdinand Olivier Petitpierre, the Governor, partly by way, doubtless, of opposing the Classe, and partly, also, because he appreciated him, took into his favour Ferdinand's brother, Henri David, and had him transferred as pastor to Neu- chatel. Milord liked having Henri David about him. He had been many years in the British Isles, for the most part as pastor of a Swiss Reformed Church near Dublin, and, like all his brothers — there were four of them, all pastors, sons of the Pastor of Fonts de Martel — were men of intellect and learning, and connected with some of the best Neuchatel families. After the conversion of Ilbraham, Henry David took that of Ermetella in hand. He talked to her about Christianity " in a manner that made it pleasing to her.'" Milord was of opinion that people should die in the religion in which they were brought up. When speak- ing of " his good and faithful Tartars," he remarked : ** My business is that they shall be happy and good in this world. ... I am very satisfied with my un- circumcised ; they could not serve me better had they the honour of being Christians." In a letter to Hume, a year later, ErmetuUa's guar- dian refers to her conversion : " You are somewhat mistaken as to her conversion ; it was made by a Swiss minister. I could not even adjust the preliminary articles 157 158 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF of the treaty. She had in her own head, almost as a child, con- ceived doubt of living after she was dead. I was to prove to her the immortality of the soul. I did my best, without metaphysical reasoning, which I do not understand — which she could not have understood — which, I suspect, the metaphysicians themselves do not understand. My arguments pushed her somewhat, but carried no conviction. She had a great idea of my truth, and had found me knowing more than herself ; so she demanded if I was, to my certain knowledge, sure that we were to live after we were dead. I could not answer to her demand in so positive a way as I wished ; and so came to an end of my short mission. You, I fear, do me too much honour. I profess to maintain the articles of the Church jusqiie au feu exclusive, and shall never pretend to the honour of a martyr." When Ermetulla expressed a wish to become Chris- tian, Pastor Petitpierre was invited to pay a visit to Colombier in order to instruct her. He wrote to his exiled brother in London that he liked the Turkish lady, after his interviews with her, " that she possessed more ignorance than prejudice, and that her uprightness and good sense pleased him." Milord had had her carefully educated and long companionship with him was likely to produce these two best qualities. In January Ermetulla was baptized by Petitpierre in the old thirteenth- century collegiate church on the castle hill. He did not wish to have a large concourse for the ceremony; only a few" friends were present, and his catechumen, who took the name of Marie, asked him to tell no one. Not many weeks later the marriage was announced of Mademoiselle Ermetulla, as she continued to be called. Her age is uncertain. She may have been a child of six or a girl of twelve when she clung to the stirrup-leather of Marshal James Keith during the terrible sack of Oczakow in 1737. In any case, she mn^t have been in 1763 between thirty anci forty years FREDERIC THE GREAT 159 of age, a somewhat late age for marriage in the mid- eighteenth century. But now that his brother was dead her aged guardian was loathe to leave her un- protected in the world. Colonel Denis David de Froment that winter passed through Neuchatel, and made a short stay there. He was an officer in the Sardinian service, of the Languedoc family of that name, and related to Paul de Froment, the second Prussian Governor of Neuchatel. He appears to have been a very attractive man, who in- sinuated himself speedily into the affection of Ermetulla, who was known to be richly dowered by Milord. The latter wrote to Rousseau that he believed him to be a " good, gallant man,'' and was satisfied with the match. The marriage took place very privately at the Island of St. Jean in the Lake of Bienne, near Neuchatel, and was performed by the Pastor of Ligueres and no an- nouncement of it was published. The dowry of the bride was five hundred thousand francs, and at Milord's death she was to inherit sixteen thousand louis. As the Earl Marischall was definitely leaving Neu- chatel very soon, he, doubtless, unfortunately, hurried on the marriage, though with the best intentions in the world, for he was devoted to his adopted daughter. Though very occupied with the wedding, Milord found a moment to further disabuse Rousseau of some of his eccentric predispositions against monarchs, and against the King of Prussia in particular. Milord to Rousseau " March 25, 1763. " Directly I go to Colombier I shall remind you of your promise. I do not know \s.'hp» I shal) go ■; I am busy njarrying Emetujla witji a good gallant man, as I believe. I shall be sorry to leave such ^ good girl alone in a, world of knaves ; she needed some one boupd to fepr by ties oi ii^teye.st, I .?}?.al.l not i.nyite you to tjj^ wedding* 160 THE SCOTTISH FEIEND OF " I feel sure that the King of Prussia knows mankind well enough to set a right value on eulogies and praises ; he cannot prevent men from praising him ; the peasants of Prussia will do so because he has made them free; your fellow citizens, in that he had by a treaty regulated the Customs affairs, and tlie Count Bruhl will not be able any longer to pillage the Customs. A person who has come from Geneva tells me that it is worth four millions for Geneva ; so they heartily praise the King of Prussia, and they are right. Bon jour." Milord to Rousseau ''April 1763. " Now that my daughter EmetuUa is settled, I am at work for myself." He is arranging with a friend in Scotland to go there from Berlin in August and " reach home in the middle of September." He is considering Jean Jacques, as the latter, when he has left, may find himself in difficulties, " as anything that offends a Frenchman, were it even a laquay, frightens them '' at Geneva. So he sends itineraries for London, but — " As all the savants, all the demi-savants, all who fancy themselves hels-esprits, all the fools, all the inquisitive folk, would wish to see the Citizen of Geneva, I should like to have a camel with two paniers for you and your gouvernante, as the ladies travel in Persia, unless you would prefer to travel like an elephant I saw, by night, in order to conceal him from people who did not pay. Joking apart, come to Colombier, where I shall be at the end of next week, to unburden and avenge ourselves." Milord to Rousseau "21 April, 1763. *' I am impatient to hear about the state of your health, and if it will permit of your coming here. I am leaving this in a week to-day. " I have a book, the ' letters of Queen Christine,' and a letter from M. de la Combe who has published them ; do you know him ? Bon jour. " I have many things to tell you and to settle with you before I leave." FREDERIC THE GREAT 161 He was also anxious to see Hume, as the latter was, he heard, coming to France in the summer. The his- torian had been writing to Milord for information con- cerning the Jacobite history. Milord to Hume "29th Aprile. " In answer to your question, the Don Quixotisme you mention never entered my head. I wish I could see you to answer honestly all your questions, for tho' I had my share of the follys with others, yet, as my intentions were at the bottom honest, I should open to you my whole budget, and lett you know many things which are perhaps not all represented ; I mean not truly. I remember to have recommended to your acquaintance Mr. Floyd, son to old David Floyd at St. Germains, as a man of good sense, honor, and honesty : I fear he is dead ; he would have been of great service to you in a part of your history since 1688. A propos of history, when you see Helvetius, tell him I desired you to enquire of him concerning a certain history. I fancy he will answer you with his usual frank- ness. " I do believe M. Rousseau will find it impossible to live where he finds nobody who understands a word of what he says ; there occurs so often occasion, even of trifling things necessary, that it is a vexation not to understand the language of the country. I feel it often, though I understand many words of German, such as Kleigh nigh, nogh, ter migh, ter Teyfel, and others, high sounding as here pronounced, and of which the Ter Tunder would, I believe, put to flight the delicate ears of the whole town of Sienne. " I hear you are going to France this summer. If you will come to Frankfort on Main, I will meet you there the end of July, and stay with you a fortnight. Bon jour. " N.B. You have better roads than I, you are strong as a giant, and I am growing ten years older every month ; so I think my offer fair." A sad letter from Potsdam now reached Milord from the King. Frederic was home again, and at peace; but it turned to Dead Sea ashes in his mouth. His country was in a terrible state of impoverishment ; its n— 11 162 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF population diminished by a million, famine and misery reigned in the country districts, the people were living on horses' forage. Death had not spared Frederic's own family and immediate circle of friends. Gone were some of the congenial cronies of the Abbey of Sans Souci, gone some of his " best heads," the men on whom he leant. Frederic felt lonely. Home was not the same as seven years ago, and he longed to have his old Milord Marechal back with him. "Potsdam, 2'itk April, 1763. " I found on arriving here, my dear my lord, work for six months, and work which is hard, toilsome, and disagreeable. But one must put up with it. You give me hopes of seeing you, which I feel a great pleasure. I recognize here all the walls of my native land, but I no longer find my acquaintances ; so you will be a comfort to me here. I understand that the swallows will announce your return, and that the sun, stronger than it is now, will come with you. Will you kindly, before you leave, write to Rome ? I should like to be able to engage Battoni to come here into my service, but I must know what he asks and if he is moderate. Good- bye, my dear mylord ; business interrupts me, and every moment fresh comes in ; be assured no one likes nor esteems you better than I do." Milord Marechal shook the dust of Neuchatel from of! his feet. He started in May for Berlin, leaving behind him his private secretary, as old as he was, on whom he settled a pension. But after a little while the faithful servant, who had been a long time in his service, could not endure the separation from his " dear master," and came back to Potsdam to die with him. From Bern Milord Marechal fired a final volley at ** the wicked folk," as Voltaire put it. For he found, on arrival there, various misstatements current about himself which he hastened to refute to Colonel Chaillet, the principal one being that it was FREDERIC THE GREAT 163 through his influence that Michel, whom the King had put in as deputy-governor during his absence in Spain and England, was to succeed him. The Neuchatelois seemed to have confused this officer with the English- man, Sir Andrew Mitchell, and to have imagined a motive for Milord's recommendation of Michel, who was unpopular with them. There was, however, never any question of the subordinate succeeding to the chief post. " Bern, May 2nd, 1763. " As I have learnt, Sir, of the complaint of your countrymen against me for having had Mr. Michel appointed to succeed me in my government, I will tell you what I know about it ; but, before going into the matter, I may tell you that it is to my praise (though not to theirs) to tell Hes against me, it will be thought that it is for lack of real crimes that they fall back on false statements with the object of calumniating me. Let them talk ; do not contradict them ; time will do so. I wish there were no rascals in the world ; but, as there are, it is good that they should be unmasked. It is false that I recommended M. Michel as my successor ; I did not even give the least hint to the Court that I wished to leave my province, it is not in the least probable that the King, who has been so kind to me, has taken it away from me to give to another without telling me a word about it ; M. Michel wrote to me two or three months ago that he thought of retiring, and he asked me if there was any employment here (Bern) would suit him. He in no wise hinted that he was aiming at the governorship. I answered him that there was no employment which would suit me ; he thanked me for telling him. It is false that M. Michel rendered me a great service in getting my pardon in England ; the King of Prussia asked for it {with the eager- ness of friendship; those are his words). M. de Kniphausen was merely the bearer of the letter of His Majesty the King of England ; you know yourself that I was requested by the English minister to persuade the King to ask for my pardon, and that I would not speak to him about it at a time when he was too busy with great affairs for me to distract him for a moment about private affairs ; but suppose I did wish to do M. Michel a service (and I would do it with pleasure, as I believe him to be a gentleman and an honest man), certainly I should not advise him the governorship of the Neuchatelois as a pleasant retirement ; this quarrel that they are 164 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF picking with me now about M. Michel confirms me in my opinion. Everything on this head is true ; if M. Michel, having heard among my relations and friends that they hoped that my family affairs would make me return amongst them, and that upon this that he thought about succeeding me, I am not responsible, but I do not see any probability that this was the case. Keep this letter ; let your fellow-countrymen tell lies as much as they please ; if they unmask themselves, so much the better. I shall never forget you, and some other honest folk of your country ; but, as a whole, I do not want to think about it again ; this last stricture, without advantage, without foundation, except the wish to lie to my detriment, is conclusive for me. Bon jour ; I embrace you heartily. " Le Marechal d'Ecosse. " Do not shew my letter to any one for six months ; during that time the lie will be stale and stinking." We have seen how Frederic fondly imagined that in sending his friend to Neuchatel he was providing him with a post, remote from the turmoil of war, where he could end his days in peace and quiet. The King told d'Alembert that he considered " the government of Neuchatel exactly suited to the philosophical and peaceful character of Milord Marechal." But the latter was hardly the right man in the right place. If, in the abstract, he was a " republican Jaco- bite," by hereditary tendency he was a Tory. Further, the official and social environment of a life-time at the despotic courts of France and Spain, and even at that of Berlin, where Frederic's notions of liberty were theoretical rather than practical, had unsuited him to rule over a people, ' ' republican in feeling and in all but name, and who, though attached to their King, were more so to their rights and their constitution." Though his kindly and benevolent disposition en- deared him personally to the people of Neuchatel, yet, when he came into opposition with their wishes, his Scottish obstinacy made itself felt. Wide-minded, and FREDERIC THE GREAT 165 highly cultivated and deeply read, his very breadth of view made it impossible for him to understand how " an ecclesiastical body could amputate one of its limbs for resisting its order to discontinue the preaching of a dogma not examined by that body, and not in opposition to the Apostle^s Creed, the only Confession of Faith of the Church of Neuchatel/' Again, it passed his com- prehension that Councillors of State appointed by the King could be stripped of their civil rights, not for act- ing in contradiction to the Constitution, or to the Crown, but merely for publishing writings discussing that Constitution, and upholding the authority of the King. As a mass the people could not forgive him what seemed to them a narrow outlook, but some of the most highly-placed inhabitants were the loyal friends " of this excellent man, whose only foible was to abuse some- what the ' lamas,' and put them on a par with those of all other countries." Frederic did not accept Milord's actual resignation. He put in a Lieutenant-Governor, Michel, and Milord did not really retire till four years later, when his friend, Colonel David de Pury wrote, " As for our Governor, Milord Marechal, we shall long lament him." CHAPTER XLI MAY TO JULY 1763 Very soon after his return to Potsdam, Milord Marechal wrote to Rousseau : " 3Iay 29th, 1763. " I have received your two letters. You say very flattering things to me ; your friendship and your affectionate heart, which responds to the least thing one does to serve you, deceives you, I fear, a little with reference to myself. I still intend to execute our project, but till I am on the journey I cannot answer for myself, any more than Catullus to his mistress : " ' Juravi quoties rediturum ad limina nunquam. Cum bene juravi, pes tamen ipse redit.' " Old Milord's memory played him false ; not only in his Latin, which we have corrected, but as to his author. The quotation is from Tibullus, an elegiac poet of Catullus 's period and style, Book II., Elegy vi. " In truth, I swear nothing. I am old ; I am good for nothing. My old shred of a body claims a retreat ; I must go and seek it ; that is decided. I will write to you when I start. ... I am lodged at the King's ; he spoke to me praising your disinterestedness ; he said that you had scolded him, but he said so without any sharpness. It was not his fault that peace was not made sooner, and it is to his moderation that it is due now. ... I have many messages to give you from the Duchess of Gotha, your friend and admirer. Bon soir. " Yesterday at dinner the King spoke of the distress he had often been in during the late war, and he does not praise himself in the least for his cleverness in extricating himself from straits in which THE FRIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT 167 the superiority of his enemies, the necessity of withstanding so many Powers, and sometimes fate, had placed him. He rather attributed his good fortune to the embarrassing orders of the Court of Vienna to its generals, which hindered them from employing moments precious during war. It was necessary to send couriers to Vienna, to await orders ; the opportunity had gone. Daun had a strong party against him ; Laudon, a foreigner, was obliged to use even more circumspection ; the Court of Vienna wished to spare its troops ; the generals knew that I was quite determined to sell my shin as dearly as possible, he said ; all that, with the want of unanimity with the Russian generals, has been my good fortune. To hear him, without knowing him, one would have taken him for a polite and sensible Austrian who was taking Daun and Laudon's part ; he praised the military talents and the valour of the Austrians ; he praised the valour of the French officers, and only found fault with their dis- cipline. I admired his modesty and moderation in making peace for if he had made another campaign the Empress Queen would have had 80,000 Tartars, and a strong army of Janissaries and of Spahis in her dominions. The dinner lasted nearly four hours, and there was only at table the King, one other and your servant ; not a single word escaped him in his own praise or to glorify himself, not a single complaint ; no resentment, no bitterness against one of his enemies ; you might have thought that a sensible and judicious man was arguing over some war of a thousand years ago. ... In offering me an apartment in his chateau, he told me that it was ready, but that I was not to put myself out ; his kindnesses are so easy, and not embarrassing, which makes them so much the more captivating; that is why I feel my weakness, and why I cannot answer for myself any more than Catullus to his mistress. "'Pes tamen ipse redit.' " Nevertheless, you will hold me in Scotland. You have no other hold over me than the feebleness of my feet, which cannot carry me off. I wish yours will be strengthened for the voyage, and I wish to embrace you in as good health as we can hope for. Bon soir.^'' At the same time Milord also wrote to Colonel Chaillet. " Potsdam, 28 3Iaij, 1763. " It is certain, Monsieur, that I shall always regret you, and shall retain for you an inviolable friendship. I have not yet sent in my 168 THE SCOTTISH FEIEND OF resignation, but I have told the King that I cannot put up any longer with your fellow-countrymen. I will not meddle any more in their afEairs, either for good or for evil. I shall not advise him to send a wicked man in my place ; but I cannot, in conscience, advise an honest man to go there, being firmly convinced that he would have neither peace nor quiet. Their refusal of having accepted the Advocate-General's wager of 200 louis shows that they know they were lying. Thank M. Godot for this proof of his friendship towards me. After all that has passed, put your hand on your heart and tell me if you had your goods and chattels, your relations, and your native land elsewhere, if you would leave everything to go and live with the Neuchatelois ; or, if you had a nice lodging at the King's, with excellent pilaw, polenta made by a Genoese cook, etc., with good Hungarian wine, splendid Spanish wine, if you would not prefer it to the famous Jardin [the Garden Club, founded in 1759, pre- sided over by the Banneret (F. S. Ostervald) and Perregaux.] . . . The King is well pleased with the English people, but not with Mylord Bute ; and how could he be ? The English Minister was pressing the Czar not to withdraw his troops from the Austrian army in order to force the King to make peace according to the Empress's wishes, and advised him to renew his old alliances natural to Russia ; the indignant Czar sent the letter to the King. All the above is the exact truth. Shew this letter to Madame Sandoz and a few others, but do not give a copy of it : my writing has already been forged, and this letter will be forged. Good-night ; I embrace you with sincere afiection." But, though intensely interested and pleased to be once more in Frederic's intimacy, old Milord's thoughts turned longingly to his native land, to his new inheri- tance, and to a quiet retreat for the rest of his days, with the friendship and intercourse with kindred spirits. He began, too, to take an interest in his old neighbour- hood, and had appointed, upon Sir Andrew Mitchell's recommendation, a new minister to Inverurie. Then there were business affairs to be settled. To Rousseau he writes : FREDERIC THE GREAT 169 "Berlin, June 11, 1763. "... I intend to start for our hermitages about the 20th of July. We will leave Messieurs les Neuchatelois in a perfect oblivion, except a few ; they hate you because I love you, and you have defended yourself against a Bishop of Paris, Capital of France ; these are two enormous crimes. " In my last I told you of a conversation I had with the King at table. As yet he is only known by his battles, for these he is well known by the Austrians, and a little too by the French. People like to make him out rough and severe ; I, I think him too gentle. He will not have any one hanged ; his dominions have been horribly defrauded during his absence ; monopolies have been made of every- thing, especially of firewood and corn. When the peasants took corn to Berlin to sell the governors threatened to have it thrown into the river, and had the peasantry and their corn driven away ; by this means they made it and the wood rise to an exorbitant price, and caused people to die of hunger and cold. They ought to have been hanged ; the King contented himself with removing them from their posts ; as if it was a sufficient punishment to mulct an official of 1,000 crowns, or of 1,500 a rascal who had stolen 300,000." " Beblin, 16 June, 1763. " You will receive with this some newspapers ; the author has stuck in a preamble of his own, which I do not think is true. Lying is an epidemic which is only to be cured by two means : one (which would be too severe) is by a universal deluge ; the other, good, and which we will adopt, a retreat to our hermitage in Scotland. " I had a battle with a lady, a friend of mine, yesterday at the Queen's table ; each of the opponents was wrong, and we were both right. You were the cause of this quarrel ; the good lady is perhaps 80 ; the events of the last forty years seem quite recent to her. She was very angry with that wicked M. Rousseau, but at last I disillusioned her, that you were not he who died many years ago, whom I gave over to her anger. Good day. "... I hope to leave here about the 20th of this next month to arrive before the cold, " Extract from an English newspaper : " ' Lord Marischall has persuaded the famous M. Rousseau to go to Scotland with him.' " You are expected ; but, as you have the advantage of not knowing the language, you wiU not be bothered, and moreover 170 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF when you arrive you will find good locks to your room. Do you like stoves ? They are unknown in Scotland. I want one for myself, and one for you if you wish it." " Sans Soucie, 24 June, 1763. " My business is settled. I have asked and taken my leave to go to our hermitage ; I expect to be there during August. It will be very pleasant for me, and comfortable for you, if you can at once start for Basle, and embark on the Rhine ; in 8 days from Basle 5'ou will be in Holland. I expect to be there myself on August 1st, but I will stop with great pleasure to await you. I think you can set out in safety. Mr. d'Alembert has confirmed what I already believed, that the Parliament having dealt vigourously against the Jesuits, attacked you that it might not be said that they were lacking in zeal for religion. He also told me that poor Christopher is hooted everywhere, and that the Bishops have had such a good lesson over it that he does not think that they will set about giving such man- dates again. I must do him justice; he speaks of you in a friendly manner, and with the greatest respect. I need not tell you of my feeling for you, with whom I am about to shut myself up for the rest of my days. Bon soir." Neither did Milord forget other friends at Neuchatel. Frederic William de Montmollin, Chaplain to His Majesty and Minister of his Court, of whom more anon, had applied, shortly before the Governor's departure, for the cure of Motiers and the pension of 100 crowns re- ceived by the late pastor. In forwarding the applica- tion, His Excellency recalls how, before he left, he had recommended Abram de Pury as Councillor of State in place of Chaillet, resigned. For Pury had exhibited loyalty to the King, and possessed talent and know- ledge. Then Meuron, the Attorney-General, wished to be ennobled by the King. His Excellency considered that he " had the best head and was the cleverest man in the country ; moreover, the King's zealous servant." The Governor considered " that it was to the King's FREDERIC THE GREAT 171 great interest that he should show favour to the small number of his devoted servants/" Milord to Finkenstein "2Sth June, 1763. " Their Excellencies (the Ministers) are at a loss to find a person at Neuchatel who deserves the King's favours, because you do not know the country ; I am in the same plight, because I know it. M. de Montmollin, who has been a ringleader of the disaffected, certainly does not deserve the King's favours. According to my opinion, Petitpierre, called the Irishman, a good subject of the King and a man who deserves it might have kept the pension and the Pastor at Ponts, who also deserves it, needs the other. . . . But if it is not to be given to the pastors, then to M, Chaillet, to shew that he knows how to reward fidelity." De Montmollin did not receive the pension ; hence trouble later on. Further, the Earl Marischall considered Ermetulla, commending her to the care of Frederic, and settling on her 2,100 crowns, charged on the unentailed estates in Scotland. The de Froments had been left behind at Colombier, where they wished to reside. Milord wrote to Finkenstein at the end of June : " The Ex-governor of Neuchatel begs the minister to give Madame de Froment, formerly Mademoiselle Emet Ulla, who already has the first floor of the chateau of Colombier, and the orchard, also the first floor and the garden. . . . For all this has cost the King no- thing. I have had all the wood-work repaired, have had stoves, ceilings, and mantle pieces put in, and that at my own expense. I have spent over it nearly 300 crowns. Mde la Captaine de Froment would also like to lodge in the apartments of the widow Tribolet, after her death. For this apartment is of no use to the Governor, as it does not communicate with his lodgings." The King gave Mde. de Froment the increase of apart- ments, but took away from her the stable and coach- 172 THE FRIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT house, as they were not expressly described in the Rescript. " People are cavillers in that country," wrote Milord Marechal, " and perhaps also with a view to annoying me and also to show their insolence to all those who are attached to the King/' However, in December Madame de Froment got her coach-house and stable for life. On the eve of starting we find the Earl Marischall writing further plans and instructions to Rousseau, as to following him : " July 5, 1763, Sans Soucie. "... I am preparing to start in eight or 10 days, and I hope your health will allow you to undertake the journey ; the month of October is generally good in Scotland ; once you are at Basle all the route is easy. If I arrive before you, as is very likely, your hermit- age will be quite prepared for you ; that is easy ; the house have much more furniture than we two require. Have a passport given you by the Senior of the Council of State, and put Neuchdtelois, or Subject of the King of Prussia, though I think you will not be asked for one en route. It is Parliament which was after you in order to make zealous disciples, and not the Court ; you will not pass through any places of resort of the Parliament of Paris. When we are once in our hermitage we shall live according to our own laws, without offending the Public ones, made for the Public. I wish we were there already; I have a damnable route from here to Holland. Good bye ; I embrace you with all my heart." CHAPTER XLII AUGUST TO OCTOBER 1763 Though the Earl Marischall had now succeeded to the Kintore property, it was strictly entailed and he could raise nothing on it. However, the Act of Parliament passed subsequently to his pardon gave him, as we have seen, a benefaction from George II, " not much,"' he said, " but enough to live on." He now proposed to use this for buying back some of his own estates again, not so much for what they would bring in, as out of sentiment. These he would charge for Madame de Froment. These affairs therefore necessitated his presence in Scotland. Early in August the Milord Marechal left Berlin. D*Alembert, paying his brief visit to Frederic, was pre- sent at the pathetic parting between the war-worn King, already der alte Fritz, though only fifty, and his vener- able friend, nearly thirty years his senior. With tears in their eyes they embraced each other. ** Remember," were Frederic's parting words, " that, if you are not happy in Scotland, you have a friend here, who will always miss you, whose longing you can always satisfy at your pleasure." Milord immediately notified his arrival in London to Frederic : " London, August lith, 1763. " Sire, — I arrived here after a disagreeable and even difficult journey, because of the rain ; that is over, but I worry myself by 173 174 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF thinking still of these same difficulties, for though I have never ventured to reply to your kindness in bidding me return, in con- sequence of my advanced age, I do not forego the secret hope. My heart is full of gratitude to you for your benefits, and shall be all my life with the deepest respect, Your Majesty's very humble, very obedient, and very faithful servant. " Le Marechal d'Ecosse." In a postscript he returns thanks for the King's favour to Madame de Froment about her apartments at Colombier. " Permit me to thank, very humbly. Your Majesty for his kindness towards a respectable Musselman woman, whom I, unworthy, have dragged from the claws of Satan." Frederic hastened to reply : "Sans Souci, 4ec., 1765. "... I have written to Mr. Pennack, a very honest man ; consult him. Also a note to Mr. Holroyd, for you ; he will advise the county of York for you, a very fine county. Mr. Pennack, probably, will speak for Cornwall ; each one for his own country. Every one will wish to have you ; Cornwall is the milder climate. Think it over. Perhaps you will be able to settle yourself on the banks of the Thames, within reach of London by boat. In a few days I will send you a letter of change for London. . . ." " Potsdam, February 6, 1766. *' I have just received with much pleasure yours of 20 Jan : before going to the province of Wales, consult Mr. Pennack ; you can go as if to see the Museum ; so this visit will lead to no consequences. David does not know England very well, I think. I have heard that it rains much more in the Province of Wales than in the rest of England, where it rains a great deal too much. Cornwall is the mildest climate, and, as brother Jean des Emtomures says, we poor monks have only our life in this world. " I approve of short visits ; at Berlin during the Carnival I do not pay any, nor dine away from home, except sometimes at Court. I have lived as if I was Mr. Price in his old monastery. I am much inclined to Falmouth, unless you learn that it rains there as much as in the province of Wales. Bon jour.'^ " Potsdam, 28 February, 1766, " As I often think about you and as I want very much to find for you an abode, I think I have found a nook which has just been suggested to me and which will be all we are seeking for ; it ia at 260 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF Baron Wolf's, a very good and honest man, gentle, quiet, who will make you the master, and leave you alone as much as you like, in a little house he has in a great wood ; for he built a house for him- self a half mile off. It is three miles from Plimouth ; there is an old French refugee there now ; you will not find in all England such a retired man as M. Wolf . . . the Baron has written to offer you this little house. " The Classe or Company of Lamas have written to the King asking for something that they have not obtained, but have been snubbed for having attacked an honest man protected by H.M. I am very glad ; they deserved it well. Good night. . . . " The Lamas' letter was to justify their proceedings against you ; they will not be proud of the reply." " There can be no hesitation ; you must accept the offer of the King of England. You have voluntarily become his subject ; you have rights to these advantages, as you are obliged to contribute to what is to the advantage of the country as much as you can. The refusal you gave to the offer of help from the King of Prussia was not approved, as you know, by your friends ; you must not give them another opportunity to blame you. I wrote to you a few days ago to tell you that the Lamas had written a fine letter to the King to justify their proceedings over your affair; they have been well snubbed ; never have those venerable Lamas had such a letter. I told you also that I had found an abode for you ; M' Wolf is the gentlest fellow I know, without pretensions, benevolent. You will not easily find another such place, nor such another host ; he is modest, even timid, speaking little, not at all unless you speak to him. Do not trouble about anything ; he will let you do as you like. Put yourself into his house, take his furniture, burn his fire- wood, pay him afterwards, if you like ; though he was very aston- ished when I told him that perhaps you would not want his wood ; he thinks, as I do, that these little mutual assistances are among men like shewing the way to a passer-by. " I congratulate you on Mile Le Vasseur's arrival, and Mr. Boswell on the pleasure he will have in serving you ; he is a real man of honour, a Preux chevalier ; give him my complements. If ever I have time to write two words to good David, I will send him by M' Wolf a rather unorthodox book ; I send it to David to reply to, if he will. " M"^ Wolf says he has no nearer neighbours than five miles ofi FREDERIC THE GREAT 261 except the town ; liis woods are cut in avenues . The good French- man will be a help to you to shew you how the land lies, prices, etc. If you go to Wales you will not be so comfortable, I am sure. . . . ' ' I have made a mistake ; it is near Southampton, not Plimouth, M" Wolf makes Mile le Vasseur a present of milk from his little cow. " I have studied the apocalypse ; I do not find it clear there that Jean Jacques is the Antichrist ; one must believe it on the word of the Sacrogorgon, confirmed by his colleague the blacksmith. Here are my discoveries which I submit, however, to the sacrogorgon. The antichrist rode on a great beast which was seated on seven mountains. The beast is clearly Colonel de Pury, the seven moun- tains are clearly Meuron, Martinet, the four elders, and Dupeyrou. I am sorry not to find Chaillet among them, but I will not make any forced interpretations. Bon soir.'^ The Earl Marischall to Hume " Ce 4 Mars, 1766. " J'admire le bon cceur du Roi d'Angleterre, il faut qu'il soit veritablement bon pour n'etre pas endurci par la devotion envers notre ami. Je lui ai ecrit, qu'il n'y a pas a balancer. Ainsi, je le compte a I'aise pour le reste de ses jours. " Je lui propose d'aller s'etablir chez le Baron Wolf, tout a fait bon enfant et doux. II sera le maitre de vivre a sa fagon et dans un grand bois ; mais je compte qu'il vous montera ma lettre. " Je suis bien aise que vous trouverez que je n'ai rien dit que de vrai de J. J. de meme a I'egard de ce que j'ai avance sur le bon David, a qui le Baron Wolf porte un livre nouveau, 'Extrait de I'Histoire Ecclesiastique,' auquel vous repondrez si vous voulez, comme F i D r, ou que vous laisserez sans reponse comme veritable descendant des Comtes de Hume. Bon soir. Je vous embrasse de tout mon cceur." Milord to Rousseau " Potsdam, 26 April, 1766. " I hope you are comfortable where you are, and that the fogs are lifting ; nevertheless, it is good to have another retreat at your disposal in case where you are does not please you. M'' Wolf is so good, so gentle, that I am sure you would be very happy with him ; moreover, I am a kind of amphibious animal, and I am never very happy away from the sea, which is very convenient ; his house ia 262 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF three leagues from a seaport. You will see myrtles growing without a greenhouse there. It seems to me that you had better write and thank M'' Wolf for his very sincere and friendly offers. When he has built his house you will be Lord of the old one ; in the meantime you will free ; for I have drawn up the preliminaries. " I am very greatly astonished as to what you tell me about David. Yon say that he is serving you with the greatest zeal. I should like to think that his intentions are disinterested, and that the methods he is pursuing are not to your taste, rather than to imagine interested views on his part. Young Tronchin, who, if I am not mistaken, has studied in Scotland with an intimate friend of David, to whom he was recommended ; if he made any mystery as to having lodged the son of the Juggler in his house, he would have done it in order not to ofiend you by a misunderstood delicacy. He lived in Paris with every one ; he lived amicably in Scotland with those who were censuring his works ; he always spoke to me of you with feelings of most cordial esteem ; when people utter false sentiments it is difficult for them not to shew a claw. You have gone through so many persecutions from these two-legged animals without feathers, and who are not so faithful as a poodle or a Turk, that I am not surprised that you are not on your guard against some one whom you have not known for a long time. I hope these suspicions will evaporate. If Mr. Walpole has spread about the letter in question, it does not give one a great idea of his judgement. As regards the pension I am still of the same opinion, that you should accept it if it is offered to you, without your having made any effort on your side, as you have not made. Your letter reached me without being opened, as far as I could see. I do not fancy that they will open your letters or mine ; but I found the other day, in one of mine coming from Scotland, one written to Dublin by a merchant his correspondent at Barcelona. How it got into my envelope I do not know. I suspect that it was an oversight of one of the letter-openers at the post : they want sometimes to know some one's correspondence, so they open all the letters ; and perhaps a letter I expect from my lawyer in Scotland is gone to Barcelona. This is a common evil ; it is a court etiquette, well established every- where. " You apparently know that they say that the Corsicans will not write to you to ask you to make their laws, and that the letter was fictitious in order to give you useless trouble. I wish I could tell you exactly about it," FREDERIC THE GREAT 263 " 8 May. " This is only an envelope to a very good letter which has been printed in Switzerland. How the Lamas let the copy go free I do not know ; but it is authentic, as I have verified here. " How are you in Derbyshire ? The climate should be less mild than near Plimouth. I have lived so long in the Spanish sun that I look upon the temperature of the air as a great factor in this world. Bon jour. " Copy of the reply of the King of Prussia to the complaints of the Classe des Pasteurs at Neufchatel. " The King, on the very humble petition of the Company of Pastors of the principality of Neuchatel and of Valangin, concerning the pretended claims that the Council has for some time made on the rights which it, as well as its members, should enjoy, orders answer to be made to it, that H.M. , very far from acquiescing in this humble petition of the above-named Company on this subject, cannot help being very ill-satisfied with the restless, turbulent pro- ceedings, tending to sedition, which the same Pastors had taken towards a man whom the King deigned to honour with his pro- tection. " Given at Potsdam, 26 February, 1766." Postscript in the King's own hand : " You do not deserve to be protected unless you put as much Evangelical gentleness in your conduct, as there is at present hot- headedness, restlessness, and sedition. " Federic." " These two documents having fallen into our hands, we make them public that they may for ever serve as examples to all Princes, and as instructions to all Magistrates in Europe, and as Safeguards to all citizens. Given at our Residence, this 10 March 1766." "... I send you an extract (in Italian) from an essay called ' Of Crimes and Punishments.' They think it is by Tannuci, minister of the King of Naples. " A great man, who has enlightened humanity, who persecuted him, has shewn in detail what are the principal rules of education really useful to men, etc. The book was burnt, because it was 264 THE FBIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT good, as usually happens ; Tannuci, not having put his name to it, was not burnt. I have received a letter from Geneva from a very worthy lady, one of my friends, my Lady Stanhope. She thinks she owes the life of her son who died to M. Tronchin, and recommends his son to me, as she looks upon him, she says, as her son, and therefore I am obliged to do the polite to the son of the Juggler, David Hume, I think, was in the same plight. I cannot doubt that David is not faithfully attached to you. Good Day. I embrace you heartily. Tell me how you like Derbyshire ; you cannot judge of the cUmate till the winter." CHAPTER L JULY 1766 TO MARCH 1767 Poor Rousseau was not destined to find peace of mind ; it would also appear as if he was determined that neither should his venerable benefactor enjoy any. Following on the pubhc disturbances about him came his private quarrels with his hon Milord's intimate friend, Hume. Le hon David and Jean Jacques, who, with Milord, were to have formed a happy trio of hermits at Keith Hall, were now at loggerheads. Jean Jacques was shrieking to his father for sympathy, and Milord exhausted his pen in soothing the irritated susceptibihties of his friends. Rousseau to Milord Marechal " July 20th, 1766. " The last letter, milord, that I received jErom you, was of the 25th of May. Since then I have been obliged to express my feelings about Mr. Hume : he wished for an explanation ; he has had it ; I do not know what use he will make of it. However that may be, all is henceforward over between him and myself. I should like to send you a copy of the letters, but they form a book. Milord, the cruel feeling that we shall see each other no more weighs on my heart like an insupportable load ; I would give half my blood to see you for a quarter of an hour yet once again in my life : you know how dear to me would be that quarter of an hour, but you do not know how important it would be to me. ... I have resolved to break off all correspondence ... I shall cease to write or to reply to any one. I only make two exceptions : one is M. du Peyrou. 265 266 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF I do not think it necessary to tell you who is the other. Henceforth only friendship is left, and, living only for that, you will feel that I have more need than ever of your letters. ... I am far away from that dear time of 1762, but I shall come back to it, at least I hope so. I shall go over again, in my mind at least, those pilgrimages to Colombier, which were the purest days of my life. Might they only begin over again, and again ! I should ask no other eternity. "... I hoped you would tell me a little about your house and your garden, if only as regards botany. Ah ! were I but within reach of that blessed garden, even if my poor Sultan rummaged in it a little, as he used to do in the one at Colombier ! " Milord Marechal to Rousseau •' Potsdam, July 3, 1766. " You are able to dispense with the pension, and I hope that is the case, and have foregone it only for the present ; and that with suitable excuses, I have no more to say against it. I believe, how- ever, that David Hume is innocent towards you, that he is really your friend. He may have listened too complacently to your enemies, but it does not seem possible to believe that he has opened your letters ; he is not naturally fond of annoying, and he knows very well that you are not ; and for what reason should he have opened your letters ? Letters are often so clumsily sealed (mine among the rest) that they appear to have been opened. The line you are taking of reducing your correspondence to three persons (and I hope very much that I shall be of that Triumvirate) will put you at rest ; an attempt may be made to disturb your solitude (the wasps settle on the ripest fruit) but when it is seen that you do not give yourself the trouble to reply, they will leave you in peace. " Someone told me you complained of the climate ; last winter was more severe than usual, and am pleased to see the confidence you have in Mr. Davenport, and I hope, that with a good fire, you will be able to live in Derbyshire without your health suffering. I only wanted to tell you that you can write to M' Wolf by addressing your letter to London to him ; he is a very nice man, very quiet, and I should like to arrange this retreat for you in case the cold is too great where you are. " I am in my new house. I dine with the King ; the rest of the time I am at home, almost always alone ; I do not pay any visits, I have none. I am too old for the noisy world ; when I do not dine FREDERIC THE GREAT 267 with the King, I have my fillau, stewed lettuces, and peas or beans, and from time to time a little fish. Pythagorus would be pleased, for the most part, at seeing me dine ; I regret daily the distance that separates us. " You have perhaps heard of the representation which several Bishops made to the King of France against several writers against established religion. Voltaire was very keenly alarmed ; he asked the King of Prussia for an asylum in his dominions, which he has received, though the King is not unaware of the black calumnies which he has written against him, which does certainly more honour to the King than to Voltaire.'" Rousseau to Milord " August 9th, 1766. " The incredible things which Mr. Hume writes to Paris about me make me presume, if he dare, that he will not fail to write as much to you ; I am not troubled as to what you will think about it. I hope, milord, I am sufficiently well-known to you, and that tran- quilizes me ; but he accuses me so impudently of having uncivilly refused the pension, after having accepted it, that I think I must send you a true copy of the letter I wrote about it to General Con- way. I was in a great difficulty about that letter, as I did not wish to give the real reason for my refusal, and could not allege another. You will agree, I am sure, that if it could have been better put, at least it could not have been put more sincerely. I will add that it is false that I ever accepted the pension ; I only put your consent as a necessary condition, and, when this consent came, Mr. Hume went straight ahead with consulting me again. As you cannot know what has occurred in England with respect to myself since my arrival, it is impossible that you can judge in this afiair without knowledge, between Mr. Hume and myself ; his secret proceedings are too incredible, and there is no one in the world less likely to put faith in them. ... I ask yoH, milord, a justice you cannot refuse : it is, when any one tells you or writes to you that I have done willingly an unjust or uncivil thing, to be quite sure that it is not true." The Earl Marischall to Hume " Potsdam, \bih August, 1766. " I have three of yours ; the last by Mr. Franklin only yesterday, sent me from Utrect by Mr. Brown. I am much grieved by what 268 THE SCOTTISH FEIEND OF happens between you and J. J. ; for still I cannot suspect him of black ingratitude in his heart, which many now accuse him of ; but I believe his warm imagination has realized to him suspicions which have not the least foundation, as I know, being well informed of your warm and hearty friendship to him, and having seen with what tenderness and regard you did all in your power to serve him. His error afflicts me, more on his account than on yours, who have, I am sure, nothing to reproach yourself. It will be good and humane in you, and like le bon David, not to answer ; which you say is your own opinion. " J. J. is already attacked, and will be more so on all hands. His enemies pursued him with inveterate malice, when they had nothing in truth to say. Now he has given them hold, they are all upon him. If somebody should accuse me of having murdered Henry IV of France, I should not justify myself, because the accusation would not gain the least credit. " I shall be happy to see you here ; but I must in conscience tell you, What went you out to see ? A reed shaken with the wind ! My memory fails me much. You must expect from me no more, if so much, as from an old monkish chronicle of a thousand years; where, perhaps, you might here and there pick out some notes to clear dates : and every six months makes me considerably less of any use to your intention. All you can count on is truth, as far as my memory serves. If, after this fair warning, you shall resolve to come, you shall be most welcome. I have a room for you, a Spanish olla, Spanish wine, pen, ink, paper. I dine every day with the King. You will be invited to dine and sup every night with the Prince of Prussia. We shall lodge in the same house like a fashion- able French husband and lady, without seeing other ; vous serez comme des heaux esprits et des dames. I am good for nothing for either ; so that I run risk to see you not often, and we shall want some time in quietness. If you do come, let your journey be either in May, when the King goes to Berlin, or about this time when he goes to Silesia. Then I am quiet in my hermitage, for in Carnival time it's too cold. I am there also in retreat when others are rioting ; for I shall remain in my hermitage and not go to Berlin this year. My complements to Dr. Juan : I shall write to him in a post or two. I think Gillespie has done wisely to give Dr. Juan the house, and to enjoy quietly the rest of his days. I am to both a humble servant, and to you ever faithfully." FREDERIC THE GREAT 269 Milord Marechal to Dwpeyrou " 21 August, 1766. "... Our friend J. J. has resolved to withdraw still more from all dealings with men ; he complains of David Hume, and David of him. I am afraid that both are in the wrong : David to have listened too complacently to our friend's enemies, and he perhaps took this indolence on the part of David in not taking up the cudgels for him as an alliance with his enemies. I am very troubled, for David is such a good man, and our friend has already so many enemies, that many people will be led to think him in the wrong ; but as he is in the utmost retreat, and as he limits himself to corre- sponding with two or three people, the best is to say no more of this fresh annoyance. I am sorry you have to complain of the gout, and I hope with all my heart that this may find you in good health, and remain with a very sincere friendship and a particular esteem, etc. . . ." Milord Marechal to Rousseau " Potsdam, 24 August, 1766. " I have yours of July 20th ; it has been more than a month on the road. I already knew about your explication with Mr. Hume, and I regret very much that you two have fallen out ; as I have seen nearly all his proceedings, I cannot yet persuade myself that he has not acted in good faith. He wrote so much good of you after having made your acquaintance, and before that he regretted * your prosecution in Switzerland, and your situation in a manner which made it impossible that he did not feel what he said ; especi- ally having seen a letter which you wrote to M. Clairan about having the Dictionary of Music printed, you would have been touched by his expressions ; it was this letter which suggested to him to serve you by proposing the pension in England, where you were going, and where, I think, you did well to go for good reasons ; it is the country for him who wrote Le Contrat Social, etc. ; you understand what I mean to say ; and it was for that that I con- sented to be deprived of your society, in order that you might be more comfortable. Now I hope your taste for Botany may amuse you, and that you may enjoy health and quietness. I have fairly got both in my hermitage, and I potter in my garden, where I have plenty of Spanish onions, Tomatoes, and Pimontones , vegetables unknown in England except among Spanish and Portuguese Jews. 270 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF I have fruit fairly good for the climate ; I feed myself, my cow, and my goat, out of my garden during the absence of the King, who is in Silesia. My servants eat meat like wolves. I regret daily the distance which separates us, and it seems likely to be greater in a short time, seeing how old I am ; but be sure that, as long as I live, I shall retain my real friendship for you. " I heard from Neuchatel, by M. Chaillet, in favour of M. d'Escher- ney for Patents of Nobility. I refused them because, being no longer Governor, I ought not to mix myself up any more with the affairs of Neuchatel ; still, as you are interested in those two gentlemen, I will speak to the Ministers about them, and shortly will inform you of what they say. " The post which I had heard you had been given in Derbyshire was not a very important one, but showed me that the inhabitants wished to shew you their esteem. It was (as I was told) that of Inspector of Roads. Good night ; I embrace you heartily." Milord Marechal to Rousseau " Potsdam, 5 Sep., 1766. " I am very grieved to see that your enemies do not cease to put to Mr. Hume's account all that it pleases them to add to the broil between you and him. You tell me, ' When they are able to write or to say to you that I have done anything voluntarily and uncivilly, be quite certain that it is not true.' Your precaution is unnecessary, for I will never believe anything against you voluntarily as to honesty, and I shall always do my best to make every one agree to that opinion. " Your letter to Mr. Conway seems well put about being excused the pension, and has nothing in it to offend Mr. Conway. " You do not like Mr. Hume having solicited the sending of this pension on your account; you agreed to it on my advice. It was not sent on account of the Ministry being overworked, and of the Secretary's illness. Was it not very natural that Mr. Hume begged it to be bestowed without thinking it necessary to consult you, having already received your approbation, especially serving you with zeal and friendship, as I am sure he did till this unhappy misunder- standing ? I regret, and shall regret all my days, not to have been in England, to prevent it, as I certainly should have done by shewing you all David wrote to me. You would have seen how really friendly he was. FREDEEIC THE GREAT 271 " I have been to Berlin on purpose to recommend Mr, d'Escherney and Mr. d'lvernois affair ... as I foresee that you will be inundated with petitions to this Court through me, I beg you to say that I had already declared that I would not interfere any more with the affairs of Neufchatel, and that I had refused Colonel Chaillet what I have just done in your favour." Rousseau to Milord Marechal " 7 September, 1766. " I cannot express, milord, how much, under the circumstances in which I find myself, I am alarmed at your silence. The last letter I have received from you was of the .... Could it possibly be that the terrible outcry of Mr. Hume has made an impression on you, and have snatched from me, in the midst of such misfortunes, the only comfort I have left on earth ? No, milord, it cannot be that ; your strong mind could not have been carried away by the crowd ; your clear judgment could not be misled to that point. You have never known this man, no one has known him ; or rather, he is not the same person. He has never hated but one ; but what a hatred ! a single heart, can it suffice for two like that ? Hitherto he has walked in darkness, he has hid himself ; but now he shews himself in the open. He has filled England, France, the news- papers, the whole of Europe, with an outcry to which I cannot reply, with abuse of which I should think myself worthy if I con- descended to repulse it. . . . But let us leave Mr. Hume, I will forget him, despite the evils he has wrought, if only he does not take my father from me ; that loss is the only one which I could not endure. Have you received my letters ? Have they luckily escaped the net with which I am surrounded, and through which but little passes ? It seems that my persecutor intends to close all my communication with the continent. ... I am prepared for everything, and I can bear anything except your silence. Ah ! milord ! if only a letter comes from you, I am consoled for all the rest." Milord Marechal to Dupeyrou " Sept. 19, 1766. *' I send you the name of a drug, or bark, Quassia, which they say is more efiicacious than Quinine against tertian fever. It is worth while trying it. 272 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF " The unhappy quarrel of our friend and Mr. Hume makes me daily more troubled ; every one is talking about it. I cannot justify his proceeding; all I can do is to justify his heart, and to divide it from an error of his judgement which has misinterpreted David's intentions. I have seen a letter of d'Alembert about it. He also complains ; he said he spoke very favourably here about M. Rousseau at the King's table, which is true ; but I should not be sure that he has not changed his opinion, even before this un- fortunate affair. Our fiiend is blamed (the King spoke about it yesterday at table) because he said that they wanted to dishonour him in making him take a pension from the King of England : I said to H.M. that Mr. Kousseau had made a difficulty about receiving it after having refused his favours, but the Public outcry is too great. And, in truth, I do not see that M. Rousseau dishonoured himself by receiving that pension secretly, as the King of England wished, in order that the bigots among his clergy might not make an outcry against him, which is a fact ; it was a complaisance to a devout King, who had to consider his clergy, and was not dishonouring. Adieu. Bon soir.^' Milord Marechal to Rousseau " Potsdam, 25 Sep. 1766. " You have received mine, in which I write of this unhappy quarrel with Mr. Hume, whose intention I am convinced you have misinter- preted. In your last of the 6th you say that Mr. Hume never hated any one but you ; that is impossible : a fanatic, a false religious devotee, a flatterer of Despotism, or perhaps a writer who would not argue with you about something might not like you, but that Hume, whom you say has never hated any one, should begin by you, seems to me impossible ; unless your letter to him, who felt innocent, made him despair of ever again possessing your friendship : and it is more than probable that most of what you see in the public papers are by others than Mr. Hume ; the worst of it all is, that I do not see any remedy for the past : the best, it seems to me, will be not to talk about it any more. Your friends will do you justice because of your uprightness of heart. You must find some occupation for your mind ; botany wiU amuse you . But you are very lonely, and all men require some relaxation. I dread this winter for you. Good-bye; I embrace you heartily." FREDERIC THE GREAT 273 Rousseau to Milord Marechal " WooTTON, 21th September, 1766. " I need not tell you, milord, how much your last two letters pleased me, and were necessary to me. This pleasure has been modified by more than one expression ; by one, which I will keep for a special letter, and also by those which concern Mr. Hume, whose name I cannot read, nor anything about it, without a heart-ache and a convulsive movement, which does worse than kill me, because it lets me live. I do not seek, milord, to destroy the opinion you and all Europe have of this man ; but I implore you, by your fatherly heart, not to speak to me ever again about him except in case of great necessity. . . . " Thank Heaven, I have now done at present as concerns Mr. Hume. The subject on which I have to speak to you now is such that I cannot make up my mind to mix it with that one in the same letter. For my sake take care of your precious life, I implore you ! Ah ! you do not know the gulf of misery into which I am plunged, what it would be to me to survive you ! " Then follows a more than two months' silence. Milord does not write ; he has done his best to assuage the injured feehngs, to unravel the misunderstandings ; his health and power fail him ; at fourscore years he can do no more. There is now a change of tone towards his " son *' Jean Jacques. Milord Marechal to Rousseau " Potsdam, 22 Nov, 1766. " I ask your pardon if I have misinterpreted your feelings about the King of England's pensions ; and, as you had said to me of Mr. Hume, and as I was in destitution, he tried rather to have alms given me than to find me friends, that made me think that you did not want the pension. " But certainly I had no intention of taking M. du Peyrou's friend- ship from you. I tried to remove your suspicions of Mr. Hume ; I did not succeed. I foresaw,, that they would harm you, and I hoped that M. du Peyrou would remove them and help to calm n— 18 274 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF the unhappy quarrel with Mr. Hume. I wrote to him with that intention ; and I am sure he will do me justice on that head. " It is not for me to judge between you and me. I may be wrong ; I leave M. du Peyi'ou to judge. You tell me that M. du Peyrou, on the faith of my letter, looks upon you as an eccentric at least ; let M. du Peyrou also be the judge about that. '' I am old, infirm, with too little memory left ; I do not re- member what I wrote to M. du Peyrou, but I am quite positive that I wished to serve you by calming a quarrel about suspicions which seemed to me ill-founded, and not to take a friend away from you : perhaps I also have done some silly things. In order not to do any in the future, I think it would be as well that I abridged our corre- spondence, as I have already done that with nearly all the world, even with my nearest relations and friends, in order to end my days in peace. Good night. " I say abridge, because I should always wish to hear news from time to time of your health, and if it is good. " I am reading Herera, and admiring the valour and the natural good sense (I do not say bon coeur) of the Spaniards. A little while after they came to America, on three difierent occasions, they petitioned their King not to allow any lawyers, whom they called Lettrados, nor doctors, nor baptized Jews, to go to the new colonies. There is common sense. I pop this note in the folds of my letter." Milord leaves Jean Jacques in Dupeyrou's hands. Milord Marechal to M. Dupeyrou "November 28, 1766. " I have had a letter from M. Rousseau complaining of me with much gentleness, because I misinterpreted his refusal of a pension ; this other is what I wrote to you about. As I am writing from memory, and as I find mine fails me much, I do not know at all what I wrote to you about in the letter in question ; but I know very well that I only wrote to you with the intention and in the hope that you could dispel his suspicious of Mr. Hume, which, in my opinion, every one would consider unjust ; I tried to dispel them long before the quarrel began, and you can judge for yourself if what I said was as a friend or an enemy. I consider him still as a good man, but embittered by misfortunes, and carried away by his passions, and who will not listen sufficiently to his friends. I cannot FKEDEKIC THE GREAT 275 agree with him till he seems to me to be in the right. If in the future he shews proofs that Hume is a thorough scoundrel, cer- tainly I shall not agree with him ; but up till now I do not see any appearance of solid proofs. "It is very sad, especially for me who love peace and quiet and not worries, to be almost obliged to enter into a quarrel between two friends whom I esteem. I think I shall take the line, necessary for my peace, of not talking of or listening to anything about this unhappy affair. " As I cannot remember what I wrote to you, and as I have no copy of my letters, examine them. M'' Rousseau does not give me my words, nor those of my letter to you, which, in order to judge rightly, I should know. This is how he ends : ' But if I have not been as wrong as you say, remember, I beg you, that the only friend I count on, besides you, looks on me, on the strength of your letter, as at least an eccentric' " The letter of November 22nd is the last extant letter of Milord Marechal to Rousseau. Whether he wrote again is unknown ; the three following wails from poor Jean Jacques — always his own enemy, always making trouble for himself, and, so terribly susceptible, ever on the look-out for sUghts and resentment — would show that, from henceforth, he had lost, not, indeed, the kindly feeling of one whom he had looked upon as a father, but all direct touch with him. December 11th, he repeats Milord's words : " Shorten our correspondence ! . . . Milord, what do you tell me, and what a time to take to do so ! Have I fallen perhaps into disgrace with you ? Ah ! in all the sorrows which overwhelm me that alone is the one I could not bear. If I am in the wrong, be pleased to forgive me ; could it be that my feelings for you could not redeem it ? Your kindnesses to me are the only comfort of my life ; do you wish to take from me this sole and dear consolation ? You have given up writing to your relations ! Ah ! what matter your relations, all your friends put together ? Have they such an affection for you as I have ? Ah ! milord, it is your age, it is my sorrows which make us mutually useful : how can we better employ the 276 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF remains of life than by conversing witli those who are dear to us ? You have promised me an eternal friendship ; I desire it always, I am still worthy of it. Land and sea divide us, men can sow discord between us ; but nothing can separate my heart from yours, and he who loved you once has never changed. " If really you dread the trouble of writing, it is my duty to spare you as much as possible ; I only ask, each time, two lines, always the same, and nothing more : ' I have received your letter of such a date ; I am well, and I love you still.' That is all ; repeat to me these ten words twelve times a year, and I am happy. " On my side I will be most careful never to write you anything which may annoy you or displease you : but to cease to write to you ere death separates us ! No, milord, that cannot be ; that can no more be than ceasing to love you. " If you keep to your cruel resolve, I shall die of it ; but that is not the worst ; I shall die in grief, and I predict that you will have some remorse. I await a reply, I await it in deadly anxiety ; but I know your soul, and that reassures me. If you can feel how neces- sary this reply is to me, I am very certain that it will soon come." Another two months' silence. Then, from the drear and dank Enghsh north, came another lamentation to the biting cold of the Brandenburg winter, which affected seriously *' the old Valentian." Rousseau to Milord Marechal " February 8, 1767. " What ! milord, not a single word from you ! What a silence, and how cruel it is ! But that is not the worst ; the Duchess of Portland alarmed me much by telling me that the newspapers had said you were very ill, and begging me to give her news of you. You know my feelings, you can judge of the state in which I was ; to be in fear at one and the same time for your friendship and your life, ah ! it was too much ! I wrote at once to M. Rougemont to hear about you ; he informed me indeed that you had been very ill, but that you were better. But that is not enough to reassure me com- pletely, so long as I receive nothing from you. My protector, my benefactor, my friend, my father, will none of these titles move you ? " I fling myself at your feet and ask of you a single word. What FREDEEIC THE GREAT 277 shall I tell tlie Duchess ? Shall I tell her : ' Madame, milord marechal loved me, but he thinks I am too unfortunate for him to love me any more ; he writes to me no longer ! ' " The pen falls from my hand." Six long weeks Jean Jacques waited and then he gave up all hope. " March 19th, 1767. " All this is over, milord ; I have lost for ever your favour and your friendship, without being even able to know or to imagine how this loss has come about, not having any feeling in my heart, not an action in my conduct which has not deserved, I venture to say, to retain that precious good will, which, according to your so often reiterated promises, nothing could ever deprive me of. I easily imagine all they have been able to do with you in order to harm me ; I foresaw it, I warned you about it ; you assured me that they would never succeed ; I was obliged to believe it. Have they succeeded in spite of everything ? That passes me ; and how have they succeeded so far that you have not even condescended to tell me in what I am guilty, or at least of what I am accused ? If I am guilty, why be silent about my crime ? If I am not, why treat me as a criminal ? In informing me that you will cease to write to me, you give me to understand that you will not write any more to any one ; yet I learn that you write to everybody, and that I am the sole exception, though you know what an agony your silence causes me. Milord, however much in error you may be, if you knew that I did not express my feelings, you should know them ; but my situation, of which you can form no idea, your humanity, at least, would speak to you for me. " You are under a wrong impression, milord, and that is what comforts me. I know you too well to believe you capable of such an incomprehensible levity, especially at a time when, having come on your advice to the country in which I am dwelling, I am living there overwhelmed with all the misfortunes which touch most acutely a man of honour. You are under a wrong impression, I repeat ; the man you no longer love doubtless merits your displeasure ; but that man whom you think is myself, is not me. I have not lost your good- will, because I have not deserved to lose it, and because you are neither unjust nor fickle. Under my name they have described to you a phantom ; I leave you to it, and I wait till 278 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF your hallucination passes away, quite certain that directly you see me as I really am you will love me as before. " But, meantime, may I not at least know if you receive my letters ? Is there no means by which I may learn news of your health instead of enquiring second or third hand, and only receiving stale, which does not soothe me ? Would you not at least allow one of your footmen to write and tell me from time to time how you are ? I am resigned to everything, but I cannot conceive anything more cruel than the perpetual uncertainty in which I am regarding what interests me most." The following autumn and winter, in solitude and bitterness at Wootton, Rousseau occupied himself in writing the memoirs he called his Confessions. His perspective had grown clearer with the lapse of time, and he has left us a fine pen-portrait of the friend he had lost. " He used to call me his child, and I called him my father. When I first beheld this venerable man my first feeling was to grieve over his sunken and wasted frame ; but when I raised my eyes to his noble features, so full of fire, and so expressive of truth, I was struck with admiration. Though a wise man, my Lord Marshal is not without defects. With the most penetrating glance, with the nicest judgement, with the deepest knowledge of mankind, he yet is sometimes misled by prejudices, and can never be disabused of them. There is something strange and wayward in his turn of mind. He appears to forget the people he sees every day, and remembers them at the moment when they least expect it ; his attentions appear unseasonable and his presents capricious. He gives or sends away on the spur of the moment whatever strikes his fancy, whether of value or whether a trifle. " A young Genevese, who wished to enter the service of the King of Prussia, being one day introduced to him, my lord gave him, in- stead of a letter, a small satchel full of peas, which he desired him to deliver to His Majesty. On receiving this singular recommenda- tion the King immediately granted a commission to the bearer. These great intellects have a secret language between them, a secret language which ordinary minds can never understand. Such little eccentricities, like the caprices ojE a pretty woman, rendere4 FREDERIC THE GREAT 279 the society of my lord Marischall only tlie more interesting, and never warped in his mind either the feelings or the duties of friend- ship." Milord never breathed a word against Rousseau. The latter abused him, while taking the pension Milord had settled upon him and Therese Le Vasseur. We have seen how Milord tried to be fair in his judgment over their quarrel both to Hume and to Jean Jacques. He kept the correspondence referring to it, but ordered Rousseau's only to be opened after the latter's death. *' One must forgive these outbursts,'" he said, " from a man rendered unjust by misfortunes, and whom one must look upon as an invahd and treat accordingly.'' In his will Milord Marechal bequeathed his watch to Rousseau. But the latter only survived him by a few weeks, and thus this precious personal rehc passed into the hands of — Therese Le Vasseur ! CHAPTER LI 1766 TO 1768 Barely six months after the clamour against Rousseau had died out with his flight from Neuchatel, the latent feehng in the principahty of insubordination against the royal authority broke out into practical rebelHon. The new Deputy-Governor was imbued with the arbitrary methods of a Prussian official. In 1766 began the great fight against the Government, in which the townsfolk made common cause with the communes. " The Court," ran the outcry, " claims to treat us as a province of a German state. As if we were under despotic power, as if we were not part of Switzerland ! They aim at placing us on an equality with the subjects of the Crown, and establishing absolute power over us ! Tithes on sainfoin, tithes on the fields, tithes on almanacs, and, as a culmination of evils, fermiers generaux ! Those are their designs upon us ! " Up till 1748 it had always been the custom to pay taxes according to the current price of grain, abri, and the current price of wine, vente. Then came a royal decree farming out the revenues. The frauds and the pestering of the farmers made the new system most unpopular, but Neuchatel petitioned against it in vain. Michel, the new Vice-Governor, was supported by a strong ruler, of absolute power, in great need of money after his long wars, and to whom the farming- out system was very advantageous. 280 THE FRIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT 281 In 1766 the question became acute, as the leases of the fermiers generaux were expiring, and the people combined to procure a reversion to the old custom of abri and vente. The advertisement of the sale of the leases was forbidden by the Town Council of Neuchatel, and at the pubhc auction no one bid. Frederic sent two Commissioners, Derschau and Co- lomb, to support Michel in carrying out the royal orders. Chaillet, the two de Purys, and Ostervald, violently on the side of the Town Council, were stripped of their citizenship. Gaudot, the lawyer, formerly a defender of the popular rights, but who had now gone over to the court party, was deputed by Derschau to carry the case to Bern, which had the right of arbitrament be- tween Prince and People. Bern gave judgment for Frederic, with costs ; Gaudot, appointed Lieutenant- Governor as a reward for his services, was foully mur- dered by the infuriated mob on the night of his return to Neuchatel. The alUed cantons of Soleure, Friburg, and Lucerne came to the rescue with troops, to re-estabhsh order in the principahty. The citizens were disarmed, and sen- tenced to an indemnity. The Earl Marischall resigned for good, and in August 1768 General Lentulus, the King's personal friend, was appointed Governor in the place of the Earl Marischall ; a flan of pacification was presented and accepted by the people, and the ahris and vente re-estabhshed. The Neuchatelois had gained their cause ; but, as Milord had prophesied, it had come to bloodshed. He wrote to his Courland friend, the Baron de Brackel, exiled from Russia, who hved near Yverdon at the side of the lake of Neuchatel, where he had bought land and built a chateau. 282 THE SCOTTISH FEIEND OF " 23rrf July, 1768. " I am very glad, my good Baron, to hear some news from you of what is going on in Neuchatel, for from people of that country one can only get partial news ; it is true that I do not interfere about, nor have any part in it. The lawyer Pury, is he not Charles- Albert, brother of the Colonel ? We are told that Gaudot had begun by firing many shots from his windows, on the people, on the grenadiers, in the windows of the houses within reach, which had irritated the patience of the people, who, in order to defend them- selves, attacked him ; in short, Gaudot, all alone, like a Briarius, wished to destroy the town and the suburbs by long shots. Other versions say that Gaudot had only his sword and a pair of pistols. I shall be very glad to see the letter you mention, written, it is said, by the lawyer Pury ; you can send it me by officers who are coming from the regiment of Rossiers {sic), the letter to David. " I have just seen a letter from Bern which says that Mr. Ostervald is in prison at Neuchatel ; it is apparently the Standard Bearer. I often said to them : ' Messieurs, you use so much such words as : his head should he broken, he must he shot, that you will soon come to acts.' They also say in the letter I have seen from Bern that three of the murderers are Bernese, or at least two ; the third, who was French, or of French extraction, cut his own throat. I suspect they have been paid to commit the murder, for it is difficult to believe that foreigners would be so fanatical about affairs at Neu- chatel. We shall know many things in time and by the reports. I am very uneasy lest any of my friends should have done anything foolish." The venerable Governor, in his hermit Hfe at Sans Souci, must have once again congratulated himself at being quit of this people, too advanced, too self-asser- tive, too free for the times and also for his views and his master's methods. Chancellor Tribolet, the historian of Neuchatel for the century which included the Earl Marischairs governorship, thus sums up both his character and his rule : " Sa conduite publique et particuliere dans ce pays presente divers traits d'inconstance, de boutade, et meme de hauteur, qui FREDERIC THE GREAT 283 6'accordent peu avec la bonhomie et le simplicie de caractcre qu'un panegyriste [a doctor of medicine] lui attribue. Lord Keith a laisse la reputation d'un honnete homme, mais fier de sa naissance et de la faveur de Frederique II, favour qui lui assura les egards des Corps de I'Etat et des particuliers." The Earl MarischaH's life, after the disturbances in Neuchatel had been appeased, flowed on as placidly in his little house at Sans Souci as that of his master in the villa up the long steps above him. Frederic was busy heaUng the wounds of war all over his lands, per- sonally investigating, reforming, reconstructing every department of the State. The iniquitous partition of Poland, entaihng a legacy which has borne evil fruit for his successors some century and a half later, was accomphshed without bloodshed. The old Milord was in good health. " We cannot eat our Kake and have our Kake," he wrote to Seton; " old age is not to be complained of, after enjoying health long.'^ His flower and kitchen gardens and his cows were now all in order, his house furnished. By Hugh Mitchell he had ordered from Great Britain carpets, mahogany tables, made in a special style, tea- boards, bolts for doors, and, last but not least : Plays : " Humours of Sir John Falstafl." "Merry Wives of Windsor." " Silent Woman." "Love for Love."' "Love a la Mode." " Sir Courtly Nice." " Farquhar's Plays." At midsummer 1766 he wrote to Seton : " I am in my new house, neat and snug ; but if I had any inclina- tion to build, what I now see would correct me ; this little house wjth a little bit of garden (tho' enough since I have a door into the 284 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF King's gardens) cost H.M. 12,000 dolars, tho', having the wood, he builds cheaper than others ; and my small additions and furniture costs me about 4,000 dollars ; the whole if set to sale might be worth 6,000. So that it's folly to build a house if one could buy ready made as Quin bought love, but did not make it. I can only wish Mr. Smith better health, but cannot expect it ; he has enjoyed long health and long life, and never man led a better. I wish the same to every one belonging to you. My respects to your mother, my oldest acquaintance among you all." The venerable Milord was well cared for at home. ErmetuUa had returned to him, and Hved in the adja- cent house. His servants were hke his children. To the Scots he had given the option of returning home. With his " little horde of Tartars '" he " got on very well." At one time not one of his dependents had been baptized. Every sort of rehgion was represented in his household. The orientals he had had educated, but they were in no way slaves, and he made no effort to proselytize them. After his brother's death he added to his menagerie, Motcho, a young negro who had served the Field-Marshal faithfully through all his campaigns. Motcho he provided for in the event of his decease, as he had done for Stepan and Ilbraham, namely, by an annuity on the Hotel de Ville, Paris, on five hundred hvres each. A kind and charitable lady dubbed the old Milord " good Abraham," and he was wont thus to sign himself in his letters to her. Milord had a host of friends. Three generations had loved him. To earn his friendship was the sign-manual of solid qualities. He had correspondents in nearly every capital and every country, to whom he wrote witty, merry letters, showing the charm of the kindly old man. To the French philosopher, Helvetius, he sent turnip-seeds for his garden, and also to Madame de Vasse, whose rooms in the Convent of St. Joseph "<^ THE LAST EARL MAEISCHALL OF SCOTLAND. From a drawing by Ilbraham his valet, in the possession of the Marquis of Lansdowne. Jl. 284] FREDERIC THE GREAT 285 at Paris had been for three years on and of! one of Charles Edward's secret hiding-places, and whom the Earl Marischall had known well in those now far-off days of mystery. To Hume, in France, he wrote often, and when supping with the King wished the stout philosopher were of the party. " Many compliments to the good, or wicked David ; he will be glad to hear that he has been elevated by public acclamation to the supreme rank of Saint. The street where he lives in Edin- burgh is called St. David's Street. Vox populi, vox Dei. Amen." Earl Marischall to Hugh Seton " Your Bergerac wine is very good ; but, being all the summer in a hot cellar, it worked away all its sweetness, and is now a good dry wine ; please order for me by the first occasion to Hamburg one other hogshead of the same. The common table drink here is called Pontac, red, nasty stufT, about 12 pence french a botle, bying it at Stetin, where I suppose it is made ; if I can have some red stuff like unto wine, and very cheap, send me also a hogshead ; but if you have none very cheap, I will make some myself, as good as theirs, with a little brandy, blackberries, and water. . . . My com- plements to your sister ; the promised onion seed from Portugal, make her remember to send me some." The Earl Marischall to Hugh Seton " Potsdam, 12 Sept., 1767. " I expect a clock from Neuchatel, a clock with two cilinders of times, one of scotch ; it is intended as a legacy for you. I am without sickness or pain ; but my memory much failed, my legs, in a word, wearing fast, as is my friend Charles (Smith). I hope your mother holds out stifly ; my best respects and wishes to you all. May you live a thousand years." The Earl MarischalFs lawsuit against the York Build- ing Company, over the balance due on his estate, dragged on from 1766 till the autumn of the following 286 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF year. James Boswell, of Auchenlick, was the Earl's counsel before the Barons of the Exchequer. For, though Marischall won his case, the Company delayed the closing of the accounts, and a petition had to be made to the Exchequer. But these financial worries, with which distance and time made it rather difficult to cope, hardly perturbed the old man*s serenity, as his letters of that time show. To Chaillet he sent a story he remembered current at the time of the battle of Rosbach : " Which reminds me of an amusing adventure of a young fellow, too young to be a soldier, who was with General Seidlitz. ' What must I do ? ' he asked the general, on the day of the battle. Seidlitz replied : ' Take prisoner a French general.' " Seidlitz having been brought in badly wounded, the young fellow came and said to him : ' See, here is a French general, as you have ordered me,' as coolly as if he had been ordered to buy a pound of biscuit ; he was made an officer. " While I am talking about the adventures in the late war, I must tell you about a deed which has not been made known as much as it deserves : after the unhappy affair against the Russians at Cunnersdorff, it was difficult to pursuade the King to retire ; at last a Lieutenant of Hussars (or a Captain at most) named Pretwitz saw a body of the enemy, Grenadiers, Cavalry, and Hussars ; he ran to the King and told him that he really must retire beyond the bridge with the remains of the army which were left, adding : ' I will check the enemy a while, or I will die like a brave man.' He forced the King to retire, so to speak. Then he shouted to his Hussars : ' Let us save our Father ! ' and attacked so fiercely that he crushed two battalions of grenadiers, overthrew the cavalry, fought for two hours, and had the good luck to retire. The King gave him an estate worth fifty thousand francs, and I, if I could, I would put up a statue to him. He is a good fellow through out, gentle and kind." Characteristic is a letter to Baron de Brackel : "25 ,1770. " I hare received, my dear Baron, the pamphlets you have sent me, and have read them with delight, though I find some things to FREDERIC THE GREAT 287 find fault witli ; for instance, the miracle of the drowning 2,000 pigs, where there were no pigs, seems to me all the greater. 1 say the same of the dead horses of Pharaoh's army ; it is grander, as a miracle, to make a dead horse gallop than a living one. I confess that there are miracles which please me very much, and about which it gives me pleasure to think ; some of St. Vincent of Valencia are excellent. The Prior of his convent had forbidden him to do any miracles, from jealousy over the business. The saint saw a workman fall off a steeple ; he was much torn between the wish to save the poor man and to obey his Prior ; he took the happy medium of halting the workman midway in the air, and then ran off to the Prior to ask leave to perform a miracle and not let the workman break his neck. The same saint found a distraught woman : 'What is the matter, my good woman ? ' said the saint. ' Ha ! my Father,' she said, ' my husband maltreats me only because I am not pretty ; he has nothing else to find fault with me about.' 'Be comforted,' replied St. Vincent, giving her two or three little nudges under her chin. The husband, on returning home, found a young person of rare beauty ; he spoke to her ; she replied that she was his wife. The husband was full of delight over the change, for she had become the beauty of the country-side. She was much sought after by gallants, and in a few days she became a finished coquette. The husband complained to the saint, telling him that he would rather have an honest, ugly wife who looked after her house than a pretty one who did nothing else but be courted as much as she could. The saint went to see her, gave her a sermon about the ill use to which she put her beauty, gave her again a few little nudges under the chin, and left her uglier (and I think consequently wiser) than she had ever been before. There is so much humanity and justice in this miracle that you will agree with me that it is one of the finest. I could tell you, for your edification, of many very excellent miracles, and very amusing ones ; but I fear to bore you. . . ." His great friend, his Deeside neighbour, Sir Andrew Mitchell, the British Ambassador, died suddenly ; Stosch, the Earl MarischalFs secretary, used great circumspection in acquainting his master with his friend's demise. Marischall never uttered a word on the subject till three months later, when he praised Mitchell's memory with much warmth, and expressed 288 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF how much he missed his friendship. His friends who had passed away Milord " Hked/' he said, " to re- suscitate, for a moment, in the memory of other men, when they were already nearly effaced, and lived only in his own recollection/' Like Leonardo da Vinci, he hated to see a caged bird. He loved children, and " down to spiders and frogs, he was fond of all created things." All his animals were free and well treated. He had no taste for precocious children. " We only make fools of these poor Httle heads,"" he said, " tormented and tired as they are by forced marches, which they are made to undergo on the first days of their journey, and can only go half-way.'" With fine aristocratic manners, blended with a charm- ing pohteness, he was dignified and proud of his five hundred years of pedigree. But he spoke thus of birth : " How unlucky this gift of Nature is when a man does not know how to turn it to account ! "" and he was wont to tell a story of a peasant who looked upon a gentle- man as a god, and defined the plague as "an abomin- able calamity when a gentleman is not sure of his Hfe."" Singularly upright, he was, though so high in the King's favour, incorruptible, as this anecdote shows. A distinguished personage wanted a principahty in Prussia, and asked Milord to see about it. "I ttink," the latter replied, "that Gradam himself, if he came back to this world, would not succeed if he desired a province of this King, as he failed when he came with all the power and riches of the Orient to secure, by fair means or foul, Bayards and Durlindana. Another reason will prevent our succeeding. The King is not in- solvent [he was speaking at the end of the war in 1763, when half Europe was ruined] ; it would be better to apply to those who are ; his Imperial Majesty is not very straight in his affairs ; the Duke FREDEEIC THE GREAT 289 of W has often an empty purse ; his magnificence surpasses his riches. I could name others ; but I am a discreet negotiator." Though he grumbled enough himself over the chmate of other places, he would not hear d'Argens, the hypo- chondriacal Provencal member of the Sans Souci circle, abuse Berhn. " I think," he said, ** you would not be happy in the Elysian Fields, and would prefer Tar- tarus." " As long as I knew Milord Marechal," writes his secretary, Mussell Stosch, " his Ufe was one succession of acts of charity ; he concealed them carefully, showering his alms in secret with excellent discretion, always in proportion to his means and to the needs and position of those who were the object of them. He always spared them the trouble of gratitude ; he gave liberally, and kept his gifts anonymous if he could ; or, at least, he certainly only had himself as witness of them. He did not like lending ; he preferred to give. ' For if,' he said, ' the presence of a benefactor is sometimes irksome, I notice that that of a creditor is even more so.' " His charities were always delicate ; and he always had money to give because he was methodical and economical in his expendi- ture, and averse to show or ostentation. ' Spendthrifts,' he wrote, ' are not worthy of being charitable ; what they consume in vain expenses is stolen from the unfortunate, often fcom their creditors ; their alms, if they give any, are therefore an injustice, and they therefore but practise one virtue at the expense of another.' " His philanthropy was discriminating. He did not pauperize, nor did he assist the vicious or the idle. But he was afraid of resembhng a philosopher friend who said — " That one of the misfortunes of old age is that it brings coolness to charity, because one has learnt how unworthy people are, and regrets having helped amiss, and who, therefore, proposed to use his last moments in asking pardon of God for the good which he.imagined he has done during his life." n— 19 290 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF At eighty he was interesting himself in promising young officers at Potsdam, and introducing them to Spanish literature. When more than middle-aged he offered marriage, in name only, to a lady he Hked and respected, the widow of a Prussian Lieutenant-General, who was left with two children, many debts, and no money. The Earl Marischall proposed to settle seven thousand livres on her. " This advance jointure,^' he said, " is all the fairer, because, with a husband such as I intend to be, she must enjoy beforehand all the honours and rights of widowhood.^' Discarding any idea of a happy home for himself, he expressly stipulated that neither of them should change their place of abode. However, the King came to the rescue, paid the deceased General's debts, gave his widow a pension, and there was no Countess Marischall. For ten years he maintained a poor old woman whose goodness and misery had touched him. Many times a day he would ask : " My old woman, is she well ? Is she happy ? Does she lack anything ? *' One day he bought a poor pedlar's stock-in-trade and gave him a louis to boot. Two years later the man returned, and with tears in his eyes told Milord Marechal that his kindness had brought him good luck, and begged him to accept the present of a turnip. Milord thanked him, and invited friends to dinner to partake of " one of the finest presents he had ever received, and one he least forgot." To his friends he was generous. His wardrobes were full of things he could give away, and they rarely left empty-handed. " I should be very curious," he re- marked, ** to be present at my inventory, and to see my heirs' surprise when they see so many things which they will wonder what I meant to do with them." FKEDERIC THE GREAT 291 Ilbraham, the Tibetan attendant, was related to the Grand Llama at Llassa, the sovereign pontiff ; Milord often used him as the medium of his charities, and dubbed him, in allusion to his race, " my grand Almoner/' In 1767 Milord Marechal was elected a member of the BerUn Academy of Science and Art. Maupertuis, the President, in his welcoming address, mentioned Field- Marshal Keith, and suggested an Academical Eulogy for the noble dead. Milord made no set speech in return, he did not even speak of himself, but only of James's life and end. " Prohus vixit," he said, " fortis obiit/' But, to others, it seemed as though the words characterized both brothers. CHAPTER LII DECEMBER 1768 TO MAY 1778 Though the Earl Marischall did not like his heir to his Scotch estates, Lord Halkertoun, he took great interest in a Keith cousin, though for years they had served opposing Powers, Sir Robert Keith, son of Keith of Craig. Sir Robert had been British Minister in Russia, and at Vienna. His son. Colonel Robert Murray Keith, had been in the British, Dutch, and German mihtary service. A protege of James Keith, he was very at- tached to the venerable head of his family. In 1765 Colonel Keith was appointed British Minister at Dres- den, and received a congratulatory letter from the Earl Marischall. " PoTZDAM, December 26th, 1768. " I am obliged to you for letting me know of your nomination to the Court of Dresden, for it gives me great pleasure, from the particular concern I take in what regards you, my friendship for your father, and the memory of your grandfather, who had few equals. You are a good race. I wish you would continue it." The following year the Earl Marischall was able to show some civihty to travelhng fellow-countrymen through Colonel Keith, and sent by them a seal to him with his profile engraved on it. Sir Robert wrote to his father : " The invitation [to Court] was communicated through Lord Marischall, who, on my letter, showed the greatest civilities to 292 THE FRIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT 293 Mr. Solicitor Dunning and Colonel Barre ; and they owed to him their introduction to the monarch, which had otherwise been refused. His Lordship sent me, by Mr. Dunning, a cornelian, with his own little thin face upon it ; I seal this lettar with it." A few days later Colonel Keith came from Dresden to pay the Earl Marischall a visit : *' I am on the very point of setting out for Berhn, for a fortnight to see Sir Andrew MitcheU and Lord Marischall, who has long pressed me to make this journey." He wrote, on his return to Dresden, to his sister Anne an account of their stay, which gives a dehghtful ghmpse of the old Milord, now about eighty-four. " Since my return here Lord Marishal has conveyed to me an invitation from him to make a second visit. . . . " My stay of three days with Lord Marishal was productive of no very material consequence, yet I had good reason to believe that I enjoyed both his good opinion and his confidence. He is the most innocent of God's creatures ; and his heart is much warmer than his head. The place of his abode is the very temple of dullness, and his female companion is perfectly calculated to be the priestess of it. He finds, notwithstanding, a hundred little occupations, which fill up the twenty-four hours in a manner to him not un- pleasing ; and I really am persuaded he has a conscience that would gild the inside of a dungeon. The history of the feats performed by the bare-legged warriors (the Highland Regiment in Germany) in the late war, accompanied by a fibroch in his outer room, have an effect upon the old Don which would delight you. If there is a perfect living upon principle to be met with, he is the man, and from conviction so. I am charged with all manner of kind messages from him to the Hermitage." He also wrote to his father : " Dresden, March 18th, 1770. "... I believe I told you that Lord Marischall has conveyed to me, since my return, a very gracious invitation to a second visit which may possibly take place in the autumn. He mentioned you again upon this occasion in very distinguished terms, and I 294 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF know that he said very obliging things of your son to a great lady here, with whom he keeps up a familiar correspondence. All thia is perfectly in his style, but, however honourable, I am weaned from the hope of its being any way advantageous to my fortune. " Lord Marischall came to meet me at Sir Andrew's, where we passed five days together. My visit to his country residence was 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 Kingdom of Valentia, and, as he seeks to make no new friends, he seems to retain a strong, though silent, attachment to his old ones. As to his political principles, I believe him to be the most sincere of all converts. " I told you of the present of the family seals, most of them trifling baubles, and a small MSS. [unfortunately not recovered] containing some curious anecdotes relating to himself and the people he had unfortunately been engaged with. He never mentioned his private affairs, nor his intentions in futurity ; but I have reason to believe that when his stupid companion has had her share — and that a considerable one — the remainder will be very properly disposed of to the Elphinstones. I correspond very regularly with him, and he has even given me hopes of passing a few days here with me in the summer. . . . " Since I began this I have had a most inimitable letter from Lord Marischall. I had mentioned Bailies to him, and begged he would send me a state of his case and infirmities, that the doctor might prescribe for him. This is part of his answer : " ' I thank you for your advice of consulting the English Doctor to repair my old carcase. 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 near eighty years old. The reparation I propose that he shall begin with is : one 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 ; this first reparation will be sufficient ; and we must not trouble the Doctor too much at once.' FEEDERIC THE GREAT 295 " You see by this how easily his Lordship's infirmities sit on hinoi ; and it is really so as he says." The following year Colonel Keith wished to erect, on the field of Hochkirch, a monument to his distinguished cousin, James Keith ; it still exists. Colonel Keith, on being transferred to the Court of Copenhagen, paid the Earl Marischall a little visit at BerUn on his way thither, and discussed the project. He wrote to his father : " My good Lord Marischall seemed mightily glad to see me at Potsdam. He is grown twice as thin and tottering as when you saw him ; but says, with great good humour, that he feels all the springs of the machine wearing out an equal pace, and that he hopes, when it falls to pieces, it will be without much pain and preparation. He seemed much pleased with the Elphinstones, to whom he has lately given the little ready money he had : and told me he had given Mr. Keith a good purchase of Dunottar, as a reward for the attachment of the family." Colonel Keith saw the King, who — " Recapitulated several of these good services [of the clan], be- ginning with those of the late departed Marshal Keith, and finishing with those that came nearer home to me. ... I hardly dare flatter myself with the hope of seeing Lord Marischall again, though I wish it much, from the real affection I bear him. . . . Lord Marischall has agreed to my erecting a decent gravestone to the memory of his late brother, and in the place where he fell. They sent me two inscriptions, but they were long and languid. I have engaged Baron Hagan, a friend of Matestano, to touch me up something manly and energetic, and in the course of this summer my tribute of veneration for the memory of a brave man will be recorded on monumental marble. I need not tell you that upon that marble there will be no more mention of me than of the man in the moon." A New Year's letter to Hugh Seton in 1771 shows how hale the Earl Marischall was. It was sent by one of his great nephews, an Elphinstone, to whom 296 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF ErmetuUa had presented at Berlin a purse of £500, her savings. *' This goes by Mr. Elphinstone with my best wishes to you and yours of many good new years. I am well for my age, though I do not dance reels like the Patriarcall Patersons." The following extract from an old bundle of family- anecdotes at Touch House, explains this reference to the Patersons : " . . . In the year 1776 the writer of the present narrative saw Lady Barrowfield, at the age of 97, her brother, Sir Hugh Paterson, at 94, and their younger sister, Mrs. Smith, at 92, dance a Reel together, to an old Jacobite tune in the drawing-room at Touch House, with wonderful spirit and agility." Among the Earl Marischall's fellow countrymen who all went on pilgrimage to Potsdam when they came to Berhn, and to whom he was ever ready to show all civihty, was General H. S. Conway, nephew of Sir Robert Walpole. This distinguished ojficer and poh- tician arrived in Berhn in the summer of 1774, accom- panied by Colonel Keith, with whom he was making a mihtary tour through France, Flanders, Prussia, and Hungary, to see Frederic the Great's annual reviews. They stayed at Potsdam with the Earl Marischall, who had known General CV)nway in London. The latter 's wife, a Scotswoman, the widow of the Earl of Aylesbury, and a daughter of the Duke of Argyll, was a friend of Hume and Rousseau. Conway wrote from Dresden to Sir Robert Keith about his old friend : "... I stayed three days at Potsdam with much entertainment [of Frederic he had a most flattering gracious audience], for a good part of which I am obliged to your excellent old friend, Lord Marischall, who showed me all the kindness and civility possible. FREDERIC THE GREAT 297 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 a difficult hand I could not easily decipher, without spectacles." Shortly afterwards Sir Robert Keith died and the Earl Marischall wrote to condole with Colonel, now Sir Robert Murray Keith. "Potsdam, 15th October, 1774. " I am very sorry, good sir, for your late loss. I have known three generations of your family, and three successions of so worthy men I know nowhere to he found. I hope, Sir, Basil shall soon give a fourth. I continue without pain, but very weak. If I hold out this winter it will be much. " Ever faithfully yours, " Marischall." From time to time the old Milord's thoughts wan- dered back, as those of old folk will, to the past, and to the south he loved. He wrote to a Scots friend, Sir Arthur Forbes, of Craigievar, who was about to travel for the winter in a warmer chmate. " PoTZDAM, 23rd August, 1771. " I hope, dear Sir, it is for pleasure rather than health that you go to the south of France, as I am told, for you know how well I wish you and your family. If it is for health I advise you to pass the Pyrenees, and jog along the sea-shore until you come to Valencia — the finest air, I believe, in the world. The sea-breezes refresh the air sufficiently all the summer-season. The Captain-General or Vice-Roy is my particular friend, and a Frenchman — his wife a Flamande. You will likewise find a good many of the people of the town and garrison who speak French, which I take to be the only reasonable objection can possibly be made. If you follow my advice, you will thank me for it. " Ever faithfully yours. " M." 298 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF He also remembered Swiss friends, and — the Swiss climate ! " May 22nd, 1773. "... I have not received your thanks about what I am trying to do for those belonging to you ; I thank myself, Ich bedanke mich ; it will always be a pleasure to serve you. . . . You tell me that the Genevese are still blocaded, that no one can leave without a French passport ; they have Savoy and the lake open to get out by. That is what comes of asking the protection of a grande puissance, une grande potence, as a Venetian said to me, that the most Serene [Republic of Venice] was during the war of 1734 between two great gallows, the house of Austria and that of Bourbon. " I appreciate your Canadian seed, a country colder than Switzer- land. " Madame de Froment sends her complements. Good-bye ; I embrace you with most afiectionate friendship." He was also in constant correspondence with Hugh Seton, ErmetuUa's trustee. The following letter shows that the latter's Enghsh was very weak. " Monsieur, — I am writing in French because the letter is from Madame de Froment as well as from myself. . . . My best wishes to all the Patriarchals ; I hope they are all well." Hugh Seton had just bought the Appin estate. " I have often thought that, if your country of Appin is good for trees, you might plant some guine-trees (black cherry-trees, in French morisco). The wood is good for joiners' work, and the cherries give by distillation brandy far better than that from wine . Think on this ; if my project is good for nothing, lay the blame on my desire to serve you." In 1774 Hugh Seton's son went to Berhn, then a Mecca for continental tourists, and was warmly re- ceived by the Earl Marischall and Madame de Froment, who wrote to his father : FREDERIC THE GREAT 299 " Je eu le plaisir de voire ici M' votre fils qui est un charma^t cavalier tre bien eleve, je vous f elicits d'avoire un si emable enfant, et a Madame Seaton a qui je vous pris de milles compliment de me par et a Madame Smith a toutes votre famille. . . . " Emete Froment." Milord Marechal was approaching ninety, happy and placid, despite faihng memory, sight and hearing, and legs. He was pulled about his garden in a chair. But was " as fresh, except as to his legs," writes Frederic to Voltaire, " as a young man.'* But he could no longer go to dinner with the King, unless it was taken in the Chinese pavilion, where there were no steps, so that he could be taken in his chair. But Frederic would occasionally drop in on his old friend, and rest in the little house and have a chat. For, as the circle of friends at Sans Souci dwindled with the years, the venerated Milord Marechal, the elder among the guests, recalled the days of Keyserhng, Rothenburg, Jordan, and the Marquis d'Argens. No one called Milord other than " the, King's Friend.*' " Our honoured and good Milord Marechal,^'' wrote Frederic to Voltaire in 1775, " is wonderfully well, his noble mind is cheerful and contented, and I hope we may yet keep him for a long time. This gentle philosopher lives only to do good. All the English who pass through here gravitate to him. He lives opposite Sans Souci, and is respected and loved by every one. There is a happy old age ! . . . His mind is as clear as in his youth, he is cheerful and amusing, and enjoys universal respect." But to Hume the Earl Marischall wrote that the frost and snow at BerUn were trying to un pohre viejo Cristiano Espanol, and drew a crisp metaphor of his state of health from the practice then in vogue with travellers of descending Mont Cenis by tobogganing — > surely the first known mention of winter sports ! "I am 300 THE SCOTTISH FKIEND OF going down the hill very fast, but easily, as one descends the Mont Cenis ramasse, without toil or trouble/' A touching Httle anecdote exhibits Frederic's tender- ness for his old friend. One day at the King's cafe, after dinner, when Frederic was in the midst of a most interesting conversation with his guests, he suddenly perceived that old Milord Marechal, who had been aihng, had dropped asleep on a sofa in a corner of the room. The King immediately beckoned for silence, stole on tiptoe across towards old Milord, and, taking out his pocket-handkerchief, laid it gently on the old man's head. Then he retired into another apartment, where he resumed the conversation just where it had been interrupted. The Earl Marischall was sinking down into what was to him the Great Unknown in a placidly pagan fashion, as remote both from the faith of his Roman Catholic intimates in Spain and Rome, and from the heathenism and deism of his faithful Orientals, as it was from the Protestantism of the preachers on whom he had been so severe in Switzerland, and the Anghcanism in which he had been reared. When in company of those whose views coincided with his own he joked over the silly ministers ; he made fun of dogmas. In almost every letter he writes there is a gibe against some sort or other of ecclesiastic lamas as he called them. Even to the Inquisition in Spain he boldly announced that he was " a pronounced heretic." Yet those who differed from him loved him. Benedict XIII sent him indulgences, which, however, some think apocryphal, because not countersigned by a diocesan. In any case, the Earl MarischaU became possessed of them ; but it is quite within the bounds of possibihty that he manufactured them himself, to play a joke upon his friends. FREDERIC THE GREAT 301 The correspondence about the donation of these in- dulgences is extant, and consists of four MSS. in foho. No. I. is a letter in bad Itahan, or worse Latin, in which the Pope is asked by Count John Nesselrode, Canon of Miinster and Basel, for indulgences for himself and his relations. He asked for a thousand, and only got three hundred. No. II. is the document of Cardinal Coscia, bestowing upon the petitioner three hundred indulgences. No. III. is a letter of Count W. Nesselrode, bestowing this gift of indulgences, of which twelve were transferable, to *' Keith.'' IV. is the following letter of Milord giving some to his friend. Baron de Brackel. " Potsdam, March the \st, 1777. " My Good Baron, — as I am assured of your friendship, I will tell you that I have become possessed of a treasure surpassing all the goods of this world. It is Plenary Indulgences in articulo mortis, with power to give them to twelve people as I choose. You can well believe that you are among the number of my elect, and I send one also to my good friend David Hume, and I beg you to offer one to M. de Voltaire : it is always well to have two strings to one's bow. I am not yet well informed as to how this remedy, which is infallible, is taken ; one goes to paradise more quickly than a rocket when it is set alight. God bless the holy Pope who discovered this inestimable secret ; it is better than the invention of the com- pass. " N.B. — The matter is too serious to laugh about. Kest assured that these indulgences are authentic ; I have examined them. " I am pretty well. My melons will be ripe in three weeks. ' ' Give me news of yourself ; you know I am deeply interested in it, and that I am faithfully attached to you. " Marischall. " I am going to send ofE your indulgences, which I will send by the first good opportunity. Good night." He also sent one to d'Alembert, with much the same description, adding : 302 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF " As I wish you well in this world and the next, I offer you a place among my Elect. Donation is Authentic ; long live Holiness ! Amen." In another letter to d'Alembert he wrote : " The passport I send seems a very common thing ; but a few centuries hence (if by chance such a thing is to be found) it will be sought after, like the way of baptizing children in their mother's womb, proposed by Good Sterne, which appeared to him very orthodox ; for I don't think such a worthy priest would have laughed over such a grave matter. Adieu : I hope you will come shortly to your servant the Spanish Hermit." Unlike many old people whom faihng hearing, sight, and memory render irritable, Milord, as we have seen, joked about his eyes and ears. Having read somewhere that men matured and fell hke ripened fruit, and that death was full perfection, ** I shall soon be ripe ! " he remarked. He neither clung to Hfe nor did he hate it. A friend who was with him all his last few years has told how that, though often in a state of mental collapse from which he could not rally himself, he spoke of the end without excitement or faltering, " thinking,*' he said, ** with a sage of old, that we should leave this world's stage as quietly as an actor after having ill or well played his part.'* Despite faihng eyesight, he kept up his reading, and when well over eighty re-read the Latin classics. Voltaire, that other old man, spending anything but a happy old age, so far away from the Great Frederic, often inquired of the latter after Milord. A few weeks before Milord's ninetieth birthday Voltaire wrote : " I wish health and a long life to Marshal Keith. I wish him a quiet repose, which his activity of every kind has so well deserved. FREDEEIC THE GEEAT 303 I am in despair at dying so far away from him, and I venture to ask him with as much respect as affection to continue his kindness to me. ... I venture to ask a favour of Your Majesty : it is to deign to tell me which is the older, milord Marechal or myself ; I am in my eighty-third year, and I think he is only eighty-two. I wish that you may one day live to be in your hundred-and-twelfth." The sage of Ferney was deceived. The Earl Mari- schairs httle weakness was to keep his age a secret, and Nature abetted him to the best of her power. Frederic repHed : "As for us Obotrites, we are in comparison with Europe what an ant-heap is to the park of Versailles. We arrange our little dwellings, we lay up provisions for winter, we work and vegetate in silence. My neighbour ant (the good milord Marechal, about whom you ask for news) is now over eighty-six. He is reading the work of Father Sanchez, De Matrimonio, to amuse himself, which makes him feel quite young again. As he is four years older than the protector of the Capuchins at Ferney, I hope the latter would yet give us some of his progeniture ; if he would do so it would be a good work." A traveller to Berhn at that time thus describes what he saw of Milord : ' ' We dined almost every day with the Lord Marechal, who was then eighty-five years old and was still as vigorous as ever both in body and mind. The King had given him a house adjoining the garden of Sans Souci, and frequently went thither to see him. He had excused himself from dining with him, having found that his health would not allow him to sit long at table ; and he was, of all those who had enjoyed the favour of the King, the only one who could truly be called his friend, and who was sincerely attached to his person. Of course every one paid court to him. He was called the King's Friend, and was the only one who had deserved that title, for he always stood high in his favour without flattering him." Never in the shghtest degree self-seeking, the Earl Marischall had no enemies. His kind heart, his sound 304 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF common sense, and the moderation of his criticisms, made his opinion sought after. As is the case generally with very old people, his memory for the past was clear, while that of the pre- sent failed. At eighty-nine he neatly recalled to Finkenstein the persecution of Rousseau ten years before : " The very worthy Sacrogorgon (MontmoUin) assured the people that Jean Jacques was very really the Antichrist in person, and he told the women that Rousseau said that they had no souls. Mar- tinet and four elders took sides with Rousseau in the Consistory and Colonel Pury came in with much effect. At last the Council of State opened every one's eyes by its decree." This is probably the Earl Marischall's last letter to Hugh Seton : "Potsdam, March the 1st, 1777. " I am so very weake that I am not able to write to you ; my good Frinde Mr. Scott assists in writing this. What money of mine you have in your hands please give my nephew Mr. John Elphin- stone when He calls for it. My best wishes to you and the whole famylie. Ever, I Sir, Your most humble Servant, " Marischa'll." The words " ever " and " Marischall " are in his own handwriting. In 1778, after fifteen years of peace, Frederic once more took the field ; this time as an ally of Saxony against Austria. The Bavarian Succession disagree- ment presented a good opportunity of acquiring at least some portions of Saxony which he had always coveted. Frederic concentrated himself in Silesia ; Prince Henry marched in Saxony ; the Austrians gathered in Bohemia under Laudohn and the Kaiser Joseph. " The King's FREDERIC THE GREAT 305 inclination to wage war is very slight/' wrote the Kaiser; *' but his desire forLusatia is all the stronger/' The following was probably the Earl Marischall's last letter to his master before the latter went to the war : " 1778. " Lord Marischall lays himself at Your Majesty's feet and thanks him for his kindness in enquiring after his health. For some days his sight has grown very weak, his legs are done for, and his head and his memory ; deaf into the bargain, he is a very bad guest at dinner. But if Your Majesty is having a repast a Vancienne egyp- tienne, I can well take my place. Heroditus, Book II, chapter 78." Frederic's departure probably shortened his old friend's days. He felt that he could not hope to see the King again. He took to his bed, with a high temperature, and Hngered six weeks. But his natural sweetness of temper never left him, even under great suffering, patiently borne. To the doctor he gently said : " I do not ask you to make me live, for you cannot, it seems, take fifty years off my life. I only ask you to shorten my pain, if you can," and he added, with the calmness of a sage, " it would have been better to have been born among the Eskimos, who knock their old men on the head, instead of letting them die. After all," he continued peacefully, " I have never been ill ; I must have my share of human miseries, and I submit to the decrees of Nature." Two days later he asked for Elhott, the British Minister at Berhn. " I have sent for you," he said, with his habitual cheeriness, " as I think it amusing that a minister of King George should receive the last breath of an old Jacobite. Besides, perhaps you have some message to give me for Lord Chatham [who had died fifteen days before], and, as I expect to see him to-morrow, or the day after, I will with pleasure take your despatches." 11-20 306 THE FEIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT The last Earl Marischall of Scotland died on May 23rd, 1778. Weeping, his own servants carried him to a humble grave. He had ordered that his funeral, attended with no ceremony, was only to cost three louis. " I will not waste in such a miserable way/' he said, " money which had better be employed in helping the poor." CHAPTEE LIII 1780 TO 1820 We have seen, by the Earl Marischall's testamentary directions, that his dependents — European, Asiatic, and African — were well provided for for life. Intimate friends — even Kousseau — received some souvenirs. The Kintore estates, with the old Castle of Hall Forest, given to the Keiths by King Robert I, and Keith Hall, with the title of the Earl of Kintore, devolved on Lord Halkertoun, as heir of entail. The other Keith property was divided among his grand-nephews, John, eleventh Lord Elphinstone, the Honourable Wilham Fullerton Elphinstone, the Honour- able George Keith Elphinstone, who became Lord Keith. WiUiam Elphinstone, whom, as we have told, the Earl Marischall helped with money on his first voyage to India, to buy part of the cargo of the ship he com- manded, died chairman of the East India Company, and wealthy. These were the grandchildren of the Earl Marischall's only surviving sister, the Countess of Wigtown. " The male representation of the Marischall family, to which the office of Marischall, the title, and the estate, were uniformly destined, appears to be now vested in Alexander Keith of Dunnottar and Ravelstoun, descended from William, third Earl Marischall, all the male descendants of subsequent Earls having failed." 307 308 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF On ErmetuUa were settled the houses at Boulogne and Potsdam and such funds as the Earl Marischall was possessed of. ErmetuUa really deserves our sympathy. At the death of her guardian she sustained an irreparable loss. The one being who had cared for her was gone ! Many lonely years still lay before her. For a long time she Hved on at Potsdam and Berhn, chnging very much to Hugh Seton of Touch, who managed her affairs, and she was always interested, in her loneliness, in his family. She had made several friends in Scotland during her brief stay there with the Earl Marischall, and with the Smiths she kept up very friendly relations. In 1780 Mrs. Charles Smith died, and Madame de Froment wrote to condole with Hugh Seton, whom she always called "grand patase."' " Je suis bien facte mousieu d'apprendre que vous alles predre votre respectable mere ce cera un drand perte, jai encor quelque esperance veu son bonne temperament qu elle pourra resister a sa maladie. je ne vous accuse neulement de negligence pour ce que regard mes interre mais ce de me donner de vos nouvelles qui m interese pluss que mes afEers ; vous aves bien raison de ne pas vous sousier des personnes tele que sans qui vous fon des reprocbe d'avoire fait une bonne oeuvre, leurs amitie ne deves pas flater une belle ame comme la votre a de tele procedee mon bonne Lord aura dit ce ne son pas des ecossoi et le bonne Mr. Smith aura dit God bles mis .... milles compliment de ma par a toutes votre emable familes ha qui je suis faclie detre si loin d eus adieu grand patase je vous embrass de tout mon coeur et souhate que vous touvassie votre chere malade en meleur sante." Three years later : " Mon bonne et emable ami je vien de recevoire votre lettre o comme vous maves rejoui je commence a minquiete de ce qui je nave de vos nouvelle depuis sic longtems, milles remercimen grand et bonne patasse pour le plaisir que vous maves procure dieu vous ERMETULLA. From a portrait at Carberry Tower in the possession of Lord Elphinstone. n. 308] FREDERIC THE GREAT 309 le rend, je me porte ase bien je est passe trois moys de lannee en ville pour etre a porte de un peu de societe mais il y a tres peu ici ; milles complimenta Ladi Stuart [Barbara, Lady Steuart of Allan- bank, sister of Hugh Seton] a mis babe je leurs remercie bien de leurs souvenirs a que je serai contente si jai ete aporte de leur fair des visite tens en tens et a grand patasse a si quelque bonne vent pouves vous amene ici que je serai aise ; . . ." From Berlin, the following winter : " Je vien de reservoire votre lettre du 23 novembre je suis tres aise de savoir que vous porte bien ce lesansiele de ce que jai vouloit savoire, pour la dette d'obligation comme rien ne presse je ne pourai vous les envoye que a mon retour a potsdam que ne sera dana deux moys . . . j'ai faite connoissens ici avec un ecossoi qui se noma Coningue lui et sa femme me parais des bonnes gens je suis si aise de voir des ecossi cete un artiste il peint tre bien il compte de passe cette etee a potsdam pour dessiner les environs, il est frileu com moy ayant passe sa jeunesse en ytali nous faisons le pro jet daler dans ce pay la au lieu de nous morfondre ici. adieu mon ami, dieu vous conserve." " '22nd January, 1784. " Mon bonne ami, je vous est ecrit de berlin simblement pour vous donner de me nouvelles connoissan votre bonne coeur et votre amitie pour moy pour que vous ne soye pas en pein de ma sante. . . ." "29th May, 1784. " Mon bonne ami j'ay resu votre tres obligent lettre du 10 May qui ma fait des plaisirs infini d apprendre que vous vous porte bien et que vous est pour moy toujours un bonne ami un bonne frere dont je suis bien flate, je ne veu plus pons parler de la vieller je ne veu pas que cela retomba sur mon ami grand patasse son belle ami serons toujours June toujours belle . . . vous ne me dites rien de votre amable famil jespor que tons ce borte bien et le patis. Jeme jeme majin que cete un bel June bomme a presan. Adieu mon ami, dieu vous conserve en bonne sante et tous votre famils." " March 24th, 1784. "Ne soye pas inquiete sur ma sante je suis xme viele carcas qui 310 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF na bonne a rien, conserves vous votre fanaille, vos amis a besoin de vous, adieu mon ami dieu vous garde. ..." After a long residence in Prussia, Ermetulla de Fro- ment returned to Neuchatel, and took up her abode in a little villa iust beyond Dupeyrou's splendid mansion, built in 1768 ; '* Neuchatel est situe pres de Thotel Dupeyrou," ran the local mot. The low, two-storied, green-shuttered white house still exists. Its garden then ran down to the shore of the lake ; it looks across the water to the serrated white range of the Bernese Oberland. Two eighteenth- century summer-houses flanlc the ends of the httle terrace. Here poor Ermetulla, to cheer her perpetual sohtude, was wont to sit and play the flageolet — ex- ceeding well. The years shpped on. The Prussians rehnquished their hold on Neuchatel, the French clutched it. Mar- shal Berthier clanked it awhile at the chateau, as Prince of Neuchatel. Then the principahty merged into the twenty-first canton of the Swiss Confederation. And still Ermetulla hved on, growing a httle more pecuhar, a httle less happy. Around the httle dark- eyed old lady of the Maison Bonhote Weiss grew up legend. Milord Marechal had become a mere memory — such had been the rush of events of the later years of his century. The passing stranger, Colonel Denis Daniel de Froment, had been quite forgotten, and men imagined Ermetulla to be the widow of the Prussian Governor of Neuchatel of that name, dead a century before. She died in 1820, and must have been nearly a hundred years old. For none could tell the exact age of the httle Turkish girl who had clung .to Marshal Keith's stirrup at the sack of Oczakow. FEEDERIC THE GREAT 311 Even over the pretty picture of Ermetulla — clad in blue satin, with pearls in her dark hair — now on the wall of an old Scotch castle, and a rehc of her happy- visit with the old Earl Marischall to the land of his fathers, hangs a veil of mystery. It is known only as ** the portrait of a Turkish lady/' EPILOGUE The last Earl Marischall of Scotland was buried in the common *' God's Acre," as they call it, of Potsdam. No marble marks his unknown grave. But, a year later, that old and intimate friend, that congenial soul, d'Alembert, reared for him an enduring memorial in the Funeral Oration which he dehvered before the Berlin Academy : " A feeble monument," he terms it, " which I consecrate to the venerated and cherished memory of this virtuous philosopher. " This Eulogy," it runs, " is in truth a very tender tribute exacted by the friendship with which Milord Marechal honoured me, and by the affectionate veneration with which this man of pure and classic morals, whom the best ages of Roman probity might have envied of our times, inspired me ; a true philosopher, who practised without preaching that wisdom which so many others preach without practising ; who united modesty with intelligence ; the gentlest simplicity with a great high-mindedness ; severity toward himself, with indulgence for others ; and who, by his character, his intellect, and his virtue deserved the friendship, the confidence, I might almost say the veneration, of a great King, himself too greatly respected to be offended with this expression." It matters less what a man does than what he is. Though a man of action, the last Earl MarischalFs long and varied hfe was a record of failure. A keen thinker, a scholar, a deep reader, he left no works behind him. He was a wit, a raconteur, in an age of real conversa- tion ; but the art of the talker is almost as evanescent 312 THE FRIEND OF FREDERIC THE GREAT 313 as that of the actor ; both practically die with the breath that gives them birth. " Avec de 1' esprit, des convenances, de I'experience meme," writes Denina, " avec toute la bonne volunte possible, avec du caractere et de la vertu, vefu presque quatre-vingt ana sans avoir reussi dans une seule des afiaires ou il fut employe, pas meme dans la querelle qu'on a suscite contre Jean Jacques Rousseau. II ne laissa ni ouvrage, ni famille. Et cependant on ne pent lui disputer les eloges dont on I'a honore pendant sa vie et apres sa mort ; et il a certainement contribue a encourager les lettres et les arts a le cour de Prusse et a y repandre le gout pour la belle littera- ture." It was the personal magnetism of a fine character — ** naturally good/' Plato would have called him — charm, kindhness, term it what you will, that attracted to him all the important men of the day he came across — that day of wonderful intellectual energy, as well as of terrible vicious activity, the eighteenth century. Throughout a very long span the Earl Marischall was in touch, officially and privately, with hfe in almost every country in Europe. In each he was acquainted not only with the most exalted personages, but also with every one worth knowing in philosophy, htera- ture, and art. For in each was he deeply interested. Brought up a High Church Tory, and employed, in an age of despotism, by absolute rulers whom he admired, loved, and faithfully served, yet he remained a born Liberal, a Repubhcan Jacobite, " hking to praise those who had died for hberty." He had, quotes Elcho, " suckt in such Notions of Liberty and Inde- pendence, and of ye Meanness of Servile Flattery."' The motto he took for his book-plate was Manus Jioec inimica tyrannis. Much of his charm lay in this contrast of characteristics and of feehngs. Yet he was 314 THE SCOTTISH FRIEND OF no time-server, and, scrupulously honest, he carried out his family motto, Veritas vincit, to the letter. Mussell Stosch, his secretary, wrote to d'Alembert after Milord's death : " Lord Marischall was virtuous in the most rigorous sense of the word ; I have never known a man who could, like him, rummage in his conscience without finding any remorse ; and though he possessed and practised all the virtues, he was only strict towards himself, and had extreme indulgence for the frailties of humanity, always provided that they concealed no maliciousness. By the hatred he bore to malicious people one discovered that his indulgence was not a weakness of character and a cowardice." The concluding words of d'Alembert's Eulogy should appeal equally to modern readers as to those who heard them : " At least I have the satisfaction, which few panegyrists will envy me, in having hardly a single line of my own in the feeble monument which I have now consecrated to this venerated and beloved philosopher. Milord Marechal himself furnished me by his deeds and his words with the divers features of the picture I have just drawn, and I might entitle this work : Eulogy of a good man, written by himself. The faithful and true friend to whom, so to speak, he has dictated it, will reap the most pleasing reward of his zeal if, in attracting his readers to the interesting facts he has gleaned, he has never for a moment diverted to himself any of the attention he wished to concentrate entirely upon the object of his regrets." Perhaps the modern reader will pardon the twentieth- century biographer's attempt to catch something of the spirit of the eighteenth- century eulogist. I have endeavoured to let the last Earl Marischall speak for himself — in his correspondence. My grateful thanks are due to those who have so kindly allowed me to make use of his letters, the greater number of which are FREDERIC THE GREAT 315 now published for the first time — to Lord Elphinstone, his collateral descendant ; Sir Douglas Seton-Steuart ; the Director of the Konigliches-Preussisches Haus- Archiv, Berhn ; Mr. Robert, Librarian of the PubHc Library, Neuchatel ; and the Editor of the Musee Neuchdteloise for the letters belonging to M. P. de Coulon ; to Mr. W. Dickeson for permission to use his "Jacobite Attempt of 1719/' Also to the Marquis of Lansdowne ; the Earl of Kintore ; Lord Elphinstone, collateral descendants ; the Earl of Mar and Kellie ; Colonel Stewart Mackenzie of Seaforth ; the Librarian at Neuchatel ; Mr. A. M. Broadley ; the Principal of Marischal College, Aber- deen; and the Director of the Musee des Beaux Arts, Neuchatel, for their very kind permission to reproduce portraits and engravings many hitherto unpubhshed. THE END INDEX Alberoni, Cardinal, I, 83-85, 88, 89, 92, 93 Anne, Empress of Russia, I. 186- 188 Anne, Queen of England, I. 16, 17, 24 Argyle, John, Duke of, I. 25, 35, 40, 44 Atterbiu-y, Bishop, I. 24, 25, 136- 140, 161, 162 — letter to James Keith, I. 140 Bertha, Queen of Burgundy, I. 302 Boufflers, Comtesse de, I. 265 ; II. 225 Braemar, I. 33 Bruce, Robert the, I. 2 Burnet, Alexander, II. 229 Chaillet, Colonel de, letters to Field- Marshal Hon. James Keith, II. 27-29, 30, 31 Charles Edward, the Young Pre- tender, I. 131, 135, 157, 198, 203-206, 208-210, 212-216, 218- 220, 222, 223, 225-227, 234-237, 241, 247, 249, 251, 273, 274, 284, 285, 292, 293, 294-296; II. 19, 20, 37 — letters to Chevalier de St. Georges, I. 199, 209, 210 Earl Marischall, I. 207, 241, 273, 285, 294 Charles II of England, I. 8 Charles III of Spain, II. 82, 83 ChevaUer de St. Georges, James Francis, I. 20, 30, 47, 49, 50-52, 54, 55, 71-74, 79, 80, 90, 91, 125, 131, 135, 136, 138, 154-156, 198, 247-249 — letters, to Earl Marischall, I. 198, 249 to Countess Marischall, I. 138 to Duke of Ormonde, I. 126 to Lord John Drummond, I. 213 Conway, General, letters to Sir Robert Keith, I. 296, 297 Cr^quy, Marqmse de, I. 18-23, 266-269 D'Alembert, I. 298, 299; II. 50, 170, 183, 205, 212, 222, 301, 312, 314 D'Argensen, I. 200, 209, 216, 217 Denis, Mme., I. 279, 282 Drummond, Lady Mary, Countess MarischaU, I. 11, 138, 139, 146, 147 Drummond, Lord John, I. 195 Dimottar Castle, I. 4, 7, 8 ; II. 182 Earl Marischall, William Keith, first Earl Marischall, I. 3 — William Keith, third Earl Mari- schall, I. 3 — William Keith, fom-th Earl Marischall, I. 5 — George Keith, fifth Earl Mari- schall, I. 6 — William Keith, ninth Earl Mari- schall, I. 9 — George Keith, tenth and last Earl Marischall, birth and parent- age, I. 11 early years, I. 13 military career, I. 14, 15, 16 visit to Paris, I. 17 his love-story, I. 18-23 life in London, I. 24 loses an opportunity at the death of Queen Anne, I. 25 resigns his commission under George I, I. 28 joins Mar's rebellion, I. 31- 33 proclaims James III at Aber- deen, I. 34, 35 joins Mar at Perth, I. 35 conduct there criticized, I. 36- 38 317 318 INDEX Earl Marischall, George Keith, distinguishes himself at the battle of Sherriffmuir, I. 41, 43 receives and proclaims the Chevalier at his house of Fet- teresso, I. 47 left behind when the Che- valier escapes, I. 48 bids farewell to Inverugie Castle, I. 58 wanders in the Highlands, I. 60-63 proscribed and condemned for treason, I. 64 reaches Paris, I. 65 quarrels with Mar, I. 66 joins the ChevaUer at Avig- non, I. 69 recriminations with Mar, I. 70-75 returns to Paris, 1.76 inactive at Liege and Lou- vain, I. 79 called by Ormonde and Al- beroni to Spain, I. 84 reaches Madrid, I. 85 plans expedition to Scotland, I. 89 ; sails from Passages, I. 91 is delayed in the Western Isles, I. 95 disembarks on Loch Alsh, I. 99 want of unanimity with Tulli- bardine, I. 96-109 battle of Glenshiel, I. 1 10-124 escapes to Paris, I. 126 imprisoned in the Pyrenees, I. 228 to Rome, I. 129 to Spain, I. 133 returns to Rome, I. 135 probably in England im- plicated in Atterbury Plot, I. 136 at Avignon, I. 137 in Spain, I. 138 at the siege of Gibraltar, I. 141 inactive years in Spain, I. 144-152 recalled to Rome, I. 1 53 with the Spanish Expedition to Morroco, I. 162 at Avignon and Valentia, L 173 to Russia, I. 185 returns to Paris and Spain, I. 188 Earl Marischall, George Keith, plottings in Spain and Avignon, I. 191-195 with Charles Edward at Bou- logne, I. 196 failure of sailing of expedition to Scotland, I. 204-205 attempts to dissuade Charles Edward, I. 206-207 attempts negotiations with Louis XV for Charles Edward, I. 216 to the Russian frontier and Berlin, I. 224 to Venice, I. 225 invited to service of Frederic the Great, I. 231 Ufe at Beriin, I. 233-244 appointed Ambassador at Paris, I. 244 Prussian diplomacy and Jaco- bite plottings in Paris, I. 249-261 intellectual and social life in Paris, I. 262-266 meeting with Mde. de Cr6quy, I. 267-269 Jacobite plots, I. 278 deals with Voltaire, I. 279- 284 breaks with Charles Edwtird, I. 293-296 appointed Governor of Neu- chatel, I. 300 ; II. 3, 4 visits the Jura, II. 11-24 visits to Voltaire, II. 39 to Berhn, II. 43-55 appointed Ambassador to Spain, II. 62, 68 pardoned by George II, II. 73 Embassy in Spain, II. 78, 81 discovers Family Compact, II. 84-88 to England, II. 91, 92 Neuchatel disputes over dog- ma, II. 94-98, 103, 105-109 takes oath of Allegiance to George II, II. 100 returns to Neuchatel, II. 113 his difficulties with provin- cial government, II. 115-127 receives Rousseau at Neu- chatel, II. 128-139 conversion and marriage of Ermetulla, II. 157-159 resigns government of Neu- chatel, II. 162 at Berlin, II, 162 INDEX 319 Earl Marischall, George Keith, in England, II. 173 in Scotland, II. 175 — — estates brought, II. 182 estates sold, II. 199 to Berlin, II. 201 life at Potsdam, II. 206-10 personal traits and anecdotes, II. 210-213 Neuchatelois persecute Rous- seau, II. 218-219, 224-225, 239- 240 divorce of Ermetulla, II. 249 attempts to reconcile Rousseau and Hume, II. 262-273 rebellion in Neuchatel, II. 287-291 personal traits and anecdotes, II. 253, 289, 290 closing years, II. 300-306 testamentary dispositions, II. 307-308 letters to d'Alembert, II. 212, 302, 303 to D'Argenson, I. 201 to Baron de Brackel, II. 282, 286-7, 301 to Colonel de Chaillet, II. 10, 98, 99, 103, 104, 105, 108, 114, 163, 164, 167, 168, 217, 218, 226, 231, 243, 250, 251 to Prince Charles Edward, I. 207, 208, 293, 295, 296 to Madame Denis, I. 280, 281 to Dupeyrou, II. 269, 271, 272, 274, 275, to Drummond, Lord John, I. 194 to Ermetulla, II. 176 to Edgar, I. 233, 247 Frederick II, King of Prus- sia, I. 256-259, 260, 261, 272, 275, 277, 281, 283 to Forbes, Sir Arthur, II. 297 to Goring, I. 250, 251 to Hamilton, General Eze- kiel, I. 176-183 to Hume, David, II. 139, 162, 153, 157, 158, 161, 179, 180, 183, 186, 187, 204, 205, 222, 223, 226, 226, 251, 261, 267, 268, 285, 300 to James Francis, Che- valier de St. Georges, I, 190, 212, 247, 248 Earl Marischall, George Keith, letters to Keith, Hon. James, I. 147-149, 150-154, 158, 159, 160- 163, 167, 168, 170-175, 229-230, 262-263 ; II. 6, 8, 25, 26, 31-34 to Keith, Colonel Sir Robert Murray, II, 292, 297 to Madame de Marches, II. 16 to Meiu-on, II. 239, 240 to Mitchell, Sir Andrew, II. 74, 80, 88, 89-101 to Riva, Signer, II. 230 to Rousseau, J. Jacques, II. 130, 131, 134, 135, 141-144, 148-155, 159, 160, 166, 169, 170, 172, 177, 178, 185, 188, 189, 191, 192, 195, 196, 200-203, 207, 208, 214, 216, 220, 221, 227, 228, 231, 233, 235-238, 240-243, 248, 256-264, 266, 267, 269, 270, 272, 273 to Seton, Hugh of Touch, II. 246-249, 252-255, 283-285, 296, 298, 304 of Wall, Richard, II. 62 Edgar, I. 195 Elcho, Viscount, I. 199, 211, 225- 228,286; II. 4, 16, 36, 55, 58, 115, 1 16 Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, I. 223, 224, 228, 239 Elizabeth of Parma, Queen of Spain, I. 79-82, 139, 140, 144; II. 61, 79, 82, Elphinstone, William, II. 248, 252, 307 Ermetulla, Mme de Froment, I. 191, 196, 225, 227, 228, 266; II. 43, 157, 171, 172, 176, 216, 249- 251, 284, 296, 298, 299, 308-311 — letters to Hugh Seton, II. 308- 310 Ferdinand VI of Spain, II. 61, 78-80 Fetteresso House, I. 47 ; II. 182 Frederic II, King of Prussia, I. 230, 233, 238, 239, 241-243, 255-261, 270-273, 277, 279, 282-288, 290, 291, 297-300 ; II. 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 17, 18, 31-35, 37, 38-45, 48-60, 62, 64-72, 75, 77, 78, 80-84, 89, 93, 94, 99, 100, 103, 106, 109, 113, 114, 119, 122, 123, 129, 130, 132, 133, 140, 141, 144, 146, 147, 150, 164-166, 171, 173, 174, 184, 187, 194, 195, 201, 206, 209-211, 320 INDEX 213, 217, 230, 235, 263, 285, 290, 295, 299, 300, 303-305 Frederic II, King ofj Prussia, letters to Earl Marischall, I. 243, 244, 256, 270-273, 278, 279, 283, 284, 290, 291, 297-299, 300 ; II. 9, 10, 18, 33-36, 38, 39, 44, 45, 47-50, 52, 53, 57-59, 65, 66, 69, 72, 77-82, 93, 106, 107, 109, 113, 114, 123, 124, 130, 133, 134, 144, 145, 150, 162, 174, 187, 188, 192, 194, 195 to George II, II. 70 to Voltaire, II. 299, 303 Geoffrin, Madame, I. 264, 266 ; II. 58, 205 George I, I. 26, 27, 28 George II, II. 70-72, 91 George III, II. 91, 111 Gibraltar, siege of, I. 141-143 Glenshiel, battle of, I. 110, 122 Goring, I. 250, 251, 274 Hamilton, General Ezekiel, I. 177- 183 — letters to Earl Marischall, I. 176- 182 Hanbury- Williams, I. 242 Hay, Earl of Inverness, I. 80 Henry, Prince of Prussia, letter to Earl Marischall, II. 46, 47 Horse Grenadier Guards, I. 15, 16 Hume, David, II. 19, 107, 111, 112 — letters to Blair, II. 181 to Fergusson, II. 181 to Pringle, II. Ill, 112 Inese, Abbe, I. 66 — letter to Earl of Mar, I. 66 Inverugie Castle, I. 13, 58 ; II. 183, 198, 199 Keiths, legends of, I. 1 Keith, Sir Robert, I. 2 ■ — Hon. James Francis Edward, Prussian Field- Marshal, I. 11, 27, 41, 53, 56, 62, 64, 86, 87, 91, 95, 100, 110, 127-129, 132, 133, 141, 143-145, 147-154, 157, 158-163, 167, 168, 170, 172-176, 185-191, 198, 224, 228, 229, 230, 231, 234, 243, 262, 263, 289; II. 39, 51, 56, 57, 60, 189, 202, 292 — letters to Earl Marischall, I. 231, 289; II. 45, 51, 57 Keith, Bishop Robert, of Uras, I. 3, 14 Keith, Sir Robert, of Craig, I. 261 ; II. 292, 293, 297 Keith, Colonel Sir Robert Murray Keith, of Craig, II. 292, 293 — letters to Sir Robert Keith, II. 292, 29.3, 295, 296 to Arme Keith, II. 293, 294 Keith, Alexander, of Ravelstoun, II. 253, 307 Keith Hall, II. 177 Kelly, George, I. 235, 236 Kintore, first Earl of, I. 8 Liria, Duke of, I. 87, 139, 141, 142, 145 Mar, John, Earl of, I. 29, 33, 42, 68, 70, 71, 81, 82, 96, 97, 136, 139 — letters to Duke of Perth, I. 67 to Abb6 Inese, I. 67-69, 70, 71 to Hooke, I. 71 to Earl Marischall, I. 81 Maria Beatrix, wife of James II of England, I. 65, 78, 83 Maria Clementina, wife of Chevalier de Saint Georges, I. 131, 157 Marischall College, I. 14 Marlborough, Duke of, 15, 16, 27 Meston, WilUam, I. 30, 47, 48, 58 Meuron, II. 21 Mitchell, Sir Andrew, II. 91 Morocco expedition, I. 164-166 Neuchatel, history of, I, 301-312 of Counts of, Ulrich de Fenis, I. 302 of Ukich II, I. 302 of Rudolph V, I. 303 of Louis, I. 303 of Conrad of Hochberg, I, 303 of John, I. 303 of Rudolph, I. 304 of Leonor, I. 307 of Henri I, I. 307 of Henri II, I. 307 — Countess Isabel, I. 303 of Jeanne, I. 304 of Duchesse de Nemours, 1. 309 Ormonde, James, Duke of, I. 16, 17, 24, 25, 27, 79, 83, 84, 88, 90-94, 98, 108, 126, 193, 199, 215 — letters to Alberoni, I. 88, 89 to Dillon, I. 84 to Duke of Gordon, I. 90 INDEX 321 Ormonde, James, Duke of, letters to Chevalier de Saint Georges, I. 84, 91 of Earl of Mar, I. 79 of Earl Marischall, I. 85, 92, 108, 109 Oxburgh, I. 236, 237 Paterson, letter to Mar, I. 77 Perth, James, fourth Earl of, first Duke of, I. 12, 65 Petitpierre, Ferdinand Olivier, II. 6, 94-97, 103, 120 PhiUp V. of Spain, I. 139, 170 Pickle, the Spy, I. 252-254, 256, 258, 259, 284, 292 Pury, Abram de, II. 241 Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 11. 128, 144, 151-156, 166-170, 172, 178, 185, 188-192, 201-203, 207, 208, 214-243, 256-279 — letters to Earl Marischall, II. 129, 132, 140, 141, 143, 144, 156, 190, 191, 1^6, 197, 202, 214, 216, 220-222, 234, 235, 265-267, 271, 273, 275-278 to Frederic II, II. 129, 141 Saxe, Comte Mar^chal de, I. 202- 210, 234 Seaforth, Earl of, I. 91, 97, 100, 103, 106, 113-116, 120-122, 125 Seton, Hugh, II. 175, 177, 179, 199, 246-249, 2.52-253, 256, 308-310 Sherriffmuir, battle of, I. 40 Sinclair, John St. Clair, Master of, I. 36, 38, 42 Smith, Charles, II. 175, 308 Tullibardine, Marquis of, I. 78, 91, 97-99, 102-107, 109, 111, 113, 114, 116, 120, 123, 124 — letters to Earl of Mar, I. 111- 114, 122 Voltaire, I. 239, 240, 245, 270-273, 179, 282, 283, 288, 290; II. 17, 33, 162, 216, 299 — letters to the Margravine of Baden-Diirlach, II. 76 to Countess Lutzelburg, II. 76 to D'Argensen, I. 245 to Madame Denis, I. 245, 246 to Earl Marischall, II. 59 Walpole, Horace, I. 21 ; II. 75 — letter to General Conway, II. 75 11—21 PRINTED BT HAZEIi, WATSON AND VINET, LDc, LONDON AND AYLE9BURT: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This book is DUE on the last date stamped below KEC'D Ml FEB 1 3 1962 HErO lO-URC g, MAY 20 t37C^ Aue lt971 m FflTfPston / !«OII-RE«E^^B' Tuu -s^ AUG ^i 2 2000 DUE 2 WKSFROI^A DATE RECEIVED mH^ 'n.i ^RL ^OUsisjxj. 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