them in this dilapidated state, on the staircases, dashed home
again without the honor of a RoyaI interview. [Benekendorf, vii.
33; Forster, ii. 270.] Let them learn to keep one balance, and one
set of weights, in their Law-Court hence forth.--This is an actual
scene, of date Berlin, 1731, or thereby; unusual in the annals of
Themis. Of which no constitutional country can hope to see the
fellow, were the need never so pressing.--I wish his Majesty had
been a thought more equal, when he was so rhadamanthine!
Schlubhut he hanged, Schlubhut being only Schlubhut's chattel;
this musketeer, his Majesty's own chattel, he did not hang, but
set him shouldering arms again, after some preliminary dusting!--

His Majesty was always excessively severe on defalcations;
any Chancellor, with his Exchequer-bills gone wrong, would have
fared ill in that country. One Treasury dignitary, named Wilke
(who had "dealt in tall recruits," as a kind of by-trade, and
played foul in some slight measure), the King was clear for
hanging; his poor Wife galloped to Potsdam, shrieking mercy;
upon which Friedrich Wilhelm had him whipt by the hangman, and
stuck for life into Spandau. Still more tragical--was poor Hesse's
case. Hesse, some domain Rath out at Konigsberg, concerned with
moneys, was found with account-books in a state of confusion, and
several thousands short, when the outcome was cleared up. What has
become of these thousands, Sir? Poor old Hesse could not tell:
"God is my witness, no penny of them eyer stuck to me,"
asseverated poor old Hesse; "but where they are--?
My account-books are in such a state;--alas, and my poor old
memory is not what it was!" They brought him to Berlin; in the end
they actually hanged the poor old soul;--and then afterwards in
his dusty lumber-rooms, hidden in pots, stuffed into this nook and