1832.] Anecdotes of German Courts. 627 



" With respect to the Princess," continued the Prince, " she goes many 

 lengths beyond her lord. She fancies herself another Marie Therese, in 

 fact the tone of the court is aristocratic on riy pent plus. Two parties at 

 present divide the state, an Austrian and a Prussian, who hate each other 

 as much as the Guelphs and the Ghebellines of the middle ages. The 

 court inclines to the Austrian faction, for you must know that the Prussian 

 government has seized a village which lay conveniently on their boundary 

 line, which produced a revenue to the Prince of about SQL annually. The 

 consequence of this serious defalcation in the revenue has been an appeal 

 to the German diet, which however is too prudent to shew its impotency 

 by ordering Prussia to make the amende honorable. 



" Observe," said the Prince, " that man bedizened like an English 

 General. On gala days he officiates as commander-in-chief j on others, 

 ' il fait les fonctions,' of architect to the court, director of bridges and 

 highways, and intendant of police. The other on his right is the Minister 

 of Foreign Affairs in his own opinion a second Alberoni. His sagacity 

 has already led him to discover that you are charged with an important 

 diplomatic mission from a foreign power. You may amuse yourself at 

 his expense. And now mark more particularly that old cavalier in ear- 

 nest conversation with the Countess Von S g, it is the Baron Von 



H g ; he has gambled away an immense fortune, and now lives by 



his wits 5 he generally contrives to lay under contributions every stranger 

 who arrives at court. You he has already booked for a vingtaine de Louis, 

 at least. Beware of him, for he is an able tactician, with the effrontery 

 of Beelzebub himself, as the following anecdote will shew. He was play- 

 ing a few days ago at Boston with the Countess Von S., and my cousin 

 the Chevalier B. The Baron lost three thalers and the Chevalier one, who 

 threw down half a Frederick d'or to discharge his debt. This the Baron 

 immediately pocketed, saying to the Countess, this makes my debt to you, 

 Madam, seven tholens j three that I lost, and four that I now borrow of 

 you ; so that the Countess, independently of her winnings, lost four tha- 

 lers, for he has never paid her, and never will !" In truth," said my 

 friend the Baron, " I observed the old fellow hovering on my flanks 

 during the whole of the evening ; but he was forestalled by the Minister 

 of Foreign Affairs, who, drawing me aside, dilated profoundly on the then 

 political state of Europe. War he deemed inevitable, and he took an 

 opportunity of adroitly alluding to the subject of the village, on which 

 would pend the policy of the state. Indeed, Sir, said he, we are on the 

 eve of great events. And so we were, much nearer than his Excellency 

 had any idea of; for while he was so eloquently discoursing on the state 

 of Europe, four of the " Hussars of the Guard" were committing some 

 outrage on the adjoining Prussian territory. 



" Now, it happened that the commandant of the district was Blucher, 

 at that time a colonel. And/' added the Baron, with military frankness, 

 " he was a * matin' not to be trifled with. He accordingly ordered a cor- 

 poral and four file to invade the territory of the Prince, and seize the 

 delinquents. He might have sent, it is true, a larger force, but then the 

 difficulty of subsisting them ! The corporal set out, and executing a 

 march a-la Seidlitz, he surprised the hussars in their cantonments, and 

 carried them prisoners to Blucher's head-quarters. The sensation pro- 

 duced by the invasion on the court and the minds of the people, was 

 astonishing. The Prince carried his hand to his sword, but the rage of 



