The Duchess of Shrewsbury was much of the same Temper as her Lord the Ambassador: She did not care for expensive Living. I remember that one day when I was at the Palace of Soissons, where she lodg'd, the Duchess de ----, who was a very gay Lady, wou'd fain have engag'd the Ambassadress to give a Ball: for this purpose she signify'd what a general Melancholy there was all over France, on account of the Death of the Princes, and a War of several years continuance; and said, every body expected that the Duke of Shrewsbury, who was come over to France to bring Peace, would also be inclinable to procure the Return of those Pleasures which so many Calamities had banish'd. But it all avail'd nothing; for the Ambassadress made answer to the Duchess, that she should be very glad to see a general Mirth at Paris; and that she thought the Duke of Shrewsbury had brought the French such important News, as wou'd have put an end to all Sadness for the past Misfortunes, without expecting him to procure other Pleasures. 'Twas to no purpose therefore to insist any longer on a Ball from that Quarter.
You will undoubtedly be surpriz'd, Madame, when you hear who was the Person that gave the first Ball, instead of the Ambassador of England. 'Twas I that reviv'd Paris out of that fatal Lethargy, into which it seem'd to be fallen. I gave a Ball at Carneaux, or rather Mesdames de la M—— D—— and de V—— gave it for me. These Ladies having in form desir'd me to give a Ball, I immediately excus'd my self, on the consideration that as I was a Stranger it did not become me to set a Pattern for Entertainments, especially for a Peace which could be of no farther Advantage to me, than as it would indeed enable me to live more to my Satisfaction, in a Country where it had been long wish'd for. Moreover, there were other Reasons much of the same nature as those that govern'd the Duke of Shrewsbury, which made me grudge the Expence of a Ball that I foresaw would be very chargeable. My Arguments had some weight with the Ladies; but a Ball they were resolv'd to have, and therefore they made a Proposal to me, that if I would give them but ten Lewid'ors there should be a Ball, and I should have nothing else to do but to give out at the Opera and the Comedy, that there would be a Ball such a day at Carneaux. This I did not fail to do, and wherever I came I found People very well inclin'd to be present at the Assembly. The Ladies on their part hir'd the great Hall of the Carneaux, which they caus'd to be very finely illuminated, and having provided a very good Concert of Music there, they caus'd the Ball to be open'd by their Waiting-Women and Valets de Chambre. I supp'd with the Ladies that Evening, and ingenuously own'd to them that I did not very well know what Effect a Ball of that sort would have at Paris.
After a good deal of joke upon it we went thither as soon as ever we had supp'd, and I confess that in my Life I never saw more Maskers. They crouded one another from the very Gate of the Court into the Hall, where the People were ready to faint for the very Heat, and did not know whom to apply to for a drop of Water: Every body rav'd against the Ball, and against the Person that gave it. But by good luck they did not know whom they were oblig'd to for such an Entertainment. Mean time I had the Precaution to provide some Refreshments for the Ladies in my Company, and they were not ill bestow'd. This Ball drew me in to give ten or a dozen other Entertainments of the like kind, and altogether as unprovided of Refreshments. Yet notwithstanding the general Thirst complain'd of for want of Liquor, and the Curses that I heard them utter against the Undertaker, there was always a vast Croud of Masqueraders.
Thus, Madame, did I pass my time at Paris, I kept the greatest and the gayest Company, and I had pretty good Fortune at Play, which, together with what was remitted to me from home, put me in a Condition to live there like a Prince. I made fresh Acquaintance every day, and they gave me fresh Pleasures, till I receiv'd News which troubled me very much, viz. the Death of our King Frederic I. which happen'd on the 15th of February this Year, and was occasion'd by one of the saddest Accidents that could have fallen out. 'Twas the Queen herself who in one of those Vertigo's, to which she had been for some time past subject, frighten'd the King so that he never recover'd it. It happen'd thus:
The Queen had for a long while given herself up to more than ordinary Devotion, and to a
rigid Life not very agreeable to her natural Temper. But the Princess thought 'twas the best Course she could take, to stop the Mouths of those who had been so audacious as to give out that before her Marriage she was not always the Fondest of Retirement. The recluse and self-denying Life she led after Marriage, made her subject to Vapors, which ended in Frenzy, the Fits whereof were terrible. The King was not acquainted with her unhappy Disorder for a long time, till at last the Queen being one day in a more outragious Fit than ordinary, was so strong as to get loose from the Ladies that had the Care of her Person, and being but half dress'd, with her Hair dishevel'd, she went thro' a private Gallery to the King's Apartment. As she enter'd it she broke a Glass-Door, by which she cut both her Hands and Arms; and in this bloody pickle rush'd in upon the King like a Fury, and abus'd him with such Reproaches as would never have enter'd into the head of the poor Princess, if she had been well. The King, who was at the same time somewhat indispos'd, was taking a Nap in an easy Chair; but he started out of his Sleep, and imagin'd himself in the hands of a Ghost, every thing contributing to confirm him in that Notion. For the Queen having her Hair flying about her Temples, and no Clothes on but an Under-Petticoat, and a quilted Waistcoat of Marseilles Linnen, and her Arms and Face being moreover of a Gore-Blood, the King fancy'd her to be the White Woman[42], and did so much believe that this Apparition was a certain Presage of his approaching Dissolution, that it threw him the
same Instant into a Fever, which oblig'd him to take to his Bed, and he never recover'd it. This Prince lay ill for near six Weeks, during which he had the Consolation to see how dear he was to his Subjects; for one day as he thought himself a little better, so that the Physicians began to have hopes of his Recovery, he caus'd himself to be carry'd towards a Window, from whence he saw the whole Square full of People, who were offering up Vows to Heaven for his Life. This was so moving a Scene to him, that the generous Prince could not refuse a Tribute of Tears for the Tenderness of his People. But their Prayers were not heard; and his Majesty died at Berlin with a Constancy and Courage worthy of him, after having given excellent Instructions to his Son the Prince Royal.
This young Prince was heartily griev'd for the Death of the King his Father, and as soon as he had receiv'd the first Homages of the Margraves who were the late King's Brothers, and of the whole Court, he shut himself up in his Apartment where he abandon'd himself to that Lamentation which he had reason to make for the Loss he had sustain'd. The Person that notify'd his Death to the Courtiers who crouded the Apartments, was M. de Printz, the Grand Marshal. They say, that when this Nobleman made his appearance to proclaim the melancholy News, it so seiz'd him that he could only say, The King, the King, the King! his redoubled Sighs discovering the rest that his Tongue had not power to declare.
The King's Funeral Obsequies were very magnificent. In the Streets, from the Palace to the place of Interment, several Regiments of Soldiers were drawn up in a Line on each