History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 08 by Thomas Carlyle
page 54 of 84 (64%)
page 54 of 84 (64%)
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other day; [
HIS charming young Wife, and Daughter of Madam Colonel Schoning our hostess here; lives at Tamsel, in high style, in these parts: mark the young Lady well,-- "who did not appear indifferent to him." No!--"and in fact she was in all her beauty; a complexion of lily and rose." Charming creature; concerning whom there are anecdotes still afloat, and at least verses of this Prince's writing; not too well seen by Wreech, lately made a Knight of Malta, who, though only turning forty, is perhaps twice her age. The beautifulest, cleverest,--fancy it; and whether the peaty Neumark produces nothing in the floral kind! "We went to dinner; he asked me to sit beside him. The conversation fell, among other topics, on the Elector Palatine's Mistress," crotchety old gentleman, never out of quarrels, with Heidelberg Protestants, heirs of Julich and Berg, and in general with an unreasonable world, whom we saw at Mannheim last year; has a Mistress,--"Elector Yalatine's Mistress, called Taxis. Crown-Prince said: 'I should like to know what that good old gentleman does with a Mistress?' I answered, that the fashion had come so much in vogue, Princes did not think they were Princes unless they had mistresses; and that I was amazed at the facility of women, how they could shut their eyes on the sad reverse of fortune nearly inevitable for them;--and instanced the example of Madam Gravenitz"-- "Gravenitz;" example lately fallen out at Wurtemberg, as we |
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