again! "The man is mad, CET HOMME-LA EST FOL!" said Louis XV. when
he heard it. [Raumer, Beitrage (English
Translation, called Frederick II. and his Times; from
British Museum and State-Paper 0ffice: --a very
indistinct poor Book, in comparison with whet it might have been),
p. 73 (24th Dec. 1740).]


FRIEDRICH AT CROSSEN, AND STILL IN HIS OWN TERRITORY,
14th-16th DECEMBER;--STEPS INTO SCHLESIEN.

At all events, the man means to try;--and is here dining at
Crossen, noon of Wednesday, the 14th; certain important persons,
--especially two Silesian Gentlemen, deputed from Grunberg,
the nearest Silesian Town, who have come across the border on
business,--having the honor to dine with him. To whom his manner is
lively and affable; lively in mood, as if there lay no load upon
his spirits. The business of these two Silesian Gentlemen, a Baron
von Hocke one of them, a Baron von Kestlitz the other, was To
present, on the part of the Town and Amt of Grunberg, a solemn
Protest against this meditated entrance on the Territory of
Schlesien; Government itself, from Breslau, ordering them to do so.
Protest was duly presented; Friedrich, as his manner is, and
continues to be on his march, glances politely into or at the
Protest; hands it, in silence, to some page or secretary to deposit
in the due pigeon-hole or waste-basket; and invites the two
Silesian Gentlemen to dine with him; as, we see, they have the
honor to do. "He (ER) lives near Grunberg, then, Mein Herr von
Hocke?" "Close to it, IHRO MAJESTAT. My poor mansion, Schloss of
Deutsch-Kessel, is some fifteen miles hence; how infinitely at your