Letter that my affairs are on so good a footing [Papa so well
satisfied with my professions of obedience]; and you may depend on
it I am docile to follow your advice. I will lend myself to
whatever is possible for me; and provided I can secure the King's
favor by my obedience, I will do all that is within my power.

"Nevertheless, in making my bargain with the Duke of Bevern,
manage that the CORPUS DELICTI [my Intended] be brought up under
her Grandmother [Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, Ludwig
Rudolf's Spouse, an airy coquettish Lady,--let her be the tutoress
and model of my Intended, O General]. For I should prefer being
made a"--what shall we say? by a light wife,--"or to serve under
the haughty FONTANGE [Species of topknot; so named from Fontange,
an unfortunate female of Louis Fourteenth's, who invented the
ornament.] of my Spouse [as Ludwig Rudolf does, by all accounts],
than to have a blockhead who would drive me mad by her
ineptitudes? and whom I should be ashamed to produce.

"I beg you labor at this affair. When one hates romance heroines
as heartily as I do, one dreads those 'virtues' of the ferocious
type [LES VERTUS FAROUCHES, so terribly aware that they are
virtuous]; and I had rather marry the greatest--[unnamable]--in
Berlin, than a devotee with half a dozen ghastly hypocrites
(CAGOTS) at her beck. If it were still MOGLICH [possible, in
German] to make her Calvinist [REFORMEE; our Court-Creed, which
might have an allaying tendency, and at least would make her go
with the stream]? But I doubt that:--I will insist, however, that
her Grandmother have the training of her. What you can do to help
in this, my dear Friend, I am persuaded you will do.