Do not confound this Knobelsdorff with the late Field-marshal of that
name, who, in 1796, answered to a request which our then Ambassador at
Berlin (Abbe Sieges) had made to be introduced to him, NON ET SANS
PHRASE, the very words this regicide used when he sat in judgment on his
King, and voted LA MORT ET SANS PHRASE. This Knobelsdorff is a very
different character. He pretends to be equally conspicuous in the
Cabinet as in the field, in the boudoir as in the study. A
demi-philosopher, a demi-savant, a demi-gallant and a demi-politician,
constitute, all taken together, nothing except an insignificant courtier.
I do not know whether he was among those Prussian officers who, in 1798,
CRIED when it was inserted in the public prints that the Grand Bonaparte
had been killed in an insurrection at Cairo, but of this I am certain,
that were Knobelsdorff to survive Napoleon the First, none of His
Imperial Majesty's own dutiful subjects would mourn him more sincerely
than this subject of the King of Prussia. He is said to possess a great
share of the confidence of his King, who has already employed him in
several diplomatic missions. The principal and most requisite qualities
in a negotiator are political information, inviolable fidelity,
penetrating but unbiased judgment, a dignified firmness, and
condescending manners. I have not been often enough in the society of
General Knobelsdorff to assert whether nature and education have destined
him to illumine or to cloud the Prussian monarchy.

I have already mentioned in a former letter that it was Count von
Haugwitz who, in 1792, as Prussian Ambassador at Vienna, arranged the
treaty which then united the Austrian and Prussian Eagles against the
Jacobin Cap of Liberty. It is now said in our diplomatic circle that his
second mission to the same capital has for an object the renewal of these
ties, which the Treaty of Basle dissolved; and that our Government, to
impede his success, or to occasion his recall, before he could have time