sur mon sujet, d'autant plus que sa parole n'y fait rien:
suffit que je reitere les promesses que j'ai deja fait au Roi mon
Oncle, de ne prendre jamais d'autre epouse que sa seconde fille la
Princess Amelie. Je suis une personne de parole, qui pourra faire
reussir ce que j'avance, pourvu que l'on se fie a moi. Je vous le
promets, et a present vous pouvez en avertir votre Cour; et je
saurai tenir ma promesse. Je suis toujours tout a vous,

FREDERIC."

[State-Paper Office: Prussian Despatches, vol. xli. (enclosed in
Sir Charles Hotham's Despatch, Berlin, 27th-16th May, 1730).]

"Monsieur,--I believe it is of the last importance that I should
write to you; and I am very sad to have things to say which I
ought to conceal from all the earth. But one must take that bad
leap; and reckoning you among my friends, I the more easily
resolve to open myself to you.

"The case is this: I am treated in an unheard-of manner by the
King; and I know there are terrible things in preparation against
me, touching certain letters which I wrote last winter, of which I
believe you are informed. In a word, to speak frankly to you, the
real secret reason why the King will not consent to this Marriage
is, That he wishes to keep me on a low footing constantly, and to
have the power of driving me mad, whenever the whim takes him,
throughout his life; thus he never will give his consent. If it
were possible that you on your side could consent that your
Princess too should be exposed to such treatment, you may well
comprehend that I should be very sad to bring misery on a Person