"Indeed! then the Maestro Porpora displeased the king in talking of Trenck?"
"The king never mentioned it to me, and I feared to remind him of it. It is certain, that in spite of my prayers, and his majesty's promises, Porpora has not been recalled."
"And he never will be," said Amelia, "for the king forgets nothing, and never pardons frankness when it wounds his self-love. The Solomon of the north hates and persecutes whoever doubts the infallibility of his opinions; his arrest is but a gross feint, and an odious pretext to get rid of an enemy. Weep, then, if you wish, my dear, for you will never see Porpora at Berlin."
"In spite of my chagrin at his absence, I do not wish, madame, to see him here, and I will take no steps to induce the king to pardon him. I received a letter from him this morning, in which he announces that an opera of his had been received at the imperial theatre at Vienna. After a thousand disappointments he has attained his purpose, and his pieces are about to be studied: I prefer, therefore, to go to him, than to bring him hither. I am afraid, though, I shall not be at more liberty to go hence, than I was to come."
"What say you?"
"At the frontier, when I saw that my master was forced to return I wished to accompany him and give up my engagement at Berlin. I was so indignant at the brutality and apparent bad faith of such a reception, that to pay the penalty I would have lived by the sweat of my brow rather than enter a country so despotically ruled. At the first exhibition of my intentions I was ordered by the officer to get into the post-chaise, which was ready in the twinkling of an eye; and as I saw myself surrounded by soldiers determined to use constraint, I embraced my master with tears, and resolved to suffer myself to be taken to Berlin, which, crushed with grief and fatigue, I reached at midnight. I was set down near the palace, not far from the opera in a handsome house belonging to the king, in which I was absolutely alone. I found servants at my orders, and supper all ready. I have learned that Von Poelnitz had been directed to prepare every thing for my arrival. I was scarcely installed when the Baron Von Kreutz sent to know if I was visible. I hastened to receive him, being anxious to complain of Porpora's treatment, and to ask reparation. I pretended not to know that Frederick II. was the Baron Von Kreutz. I appeared to be ignorant of it. The deserter, Karl, in confiding his plan to murder him, to me, had not mentioned his name, but had spoken of him as a superior Prussian officer, and I had learned who it was from the lips of Count Hoditz, after the king had left Roswald. He came in with a smiling and affable air, which I had not seen during his incognito. Under his false name, and in a foreign country, he had been much annoyed. At Berlin he seemed to have regained all the majesty of his character—that is, the benevolent kindness and generous mildness which sometimes decks his omnipotence. He came to me with his hand extended, and asked if I remembered to have met him.
"'Yes, baron,' said I, 'and I remember that you offered and promised me your good offices at Berlin, should I need them.' I then told him with vivacity what had taken place on the frontier, and asked if he could not forward to the king, his illustrious master, a demand for reparation for the outrage and the constraint to which I had been subjected.
"'Reparation?' said the king, smiling maliciously, 'that all! Would Signor Porpora call the King of Prussia out? Signorina Porporina, perhaps, would require him to kneel to her.'
"This jeer increased my ill-humor. 'Your majesty may add irony to what I have already suffered, but I had rather thank than fear you.'
"The king shook his arm rudely. 'Ah!' said he, 'you play a sharp game.' As he spoke he fixed his penetrating eyes on mine: 'I thought you simple and full of honesty; yet you know me at Roswald.'"