is distasteful to a proud Friedrich: but what, in those
circumstances, can any Friedrich do?

"The first coinages of Ephraim had, it seems, in them about 3-7ths
of copper; something less than the half, and more than the third,"
--your gold sovereign grown to be worth 28s. 6d. "But yearly it
grew worse; and in 1762 [English Subsidy having failed] matters had
got inverted; and there was three times as much copper as silver.
Commerce, as was natural, went rocking and tossing, as on a sea
under earthquakes; but there was always ready money among
Friedrich's soldiers, as among no other: nor did the common people,
or retail purchasers, suffer by it. 'Hah, an Ephraimite!' they
would say, grinning not ill-humoredly, at sight of one of these
pieces; some of which they had more specifically named 'BLUE-GOWNS'
[owing to a tint of blue perceivable, in spite of the industrious
plating in real silver, or at least "boiling in some solution" of
it]; these they would salute with this rhyme, then current:--

"Von aussen schon, van innen schlimm;
Von aussen Friedrich, von innen Ephraim.
Outside noble, inside slim:
Outside Friedrich, inside Ephraim.

"By this time, whatever of money, from any source, can be scraped
together in Friedrich's world, flows wholly into the Army-Chest, as
the real citadel of life. In these latter years of the War,
beginning, I could guess, from 1759, all Civil expenditures, and
wages of Officials, cease to be paid in money; nobody of that kind
sees the color even of bad coin; but is paid only in 'Paper
Assignments,' in Promises to Pay 'after the Peace.' These Paper