By mere accident we were introduced to their Prussian Majesties[147] in the gardens of Charlottenburg. Ld. H. and Duncannon had missed their presentation to the King by coming too late. He was going into Silesia, and another day had not been fixed. I did not dream of being presented to the Queen. However, during our walk we saw her glide like a nymph, with a child in each hand, along the Terrace; soon after Mde. de Voss, her Gde. Maîtresse, came and spoke to me and asked our names, which as soon as she heard she offered to introduce us to the Queen. We accordingly had the pleasure of seeing a most lovely woman; her figure is the finest I ever saw, her manner very affable and easy. She told me she was sorry we were going away from Berlin, but invited us back in three weeks to the reviews. The King came up to us; he is a fine, stout, soldier-like looking man. They are extremely attached to each other; it was unlike Royal marriages, but was a union of love. She is a Pss. of Mecklenburg. The children played and kissed Charles, who seemed to abate his usual shyness in their favour.

At the Pss. Ferdinand’s at Bellevue I made acquaintance with Mde. du Néal, whom I liked extremely. We had some thoughts of going to Rheinsberg, the residence of Prince Henry;[148] she fortified us in the idea, and offered letters to her two nieces, who compose part of his Court. Mr. Bruce, Ld. Elgin’s brother, lodged in our hotel; he is going back to India by way of Constantinople, where he means to visit his brother; he dined with us. Ld. H. invited him out of good nature, from hearing he was solitary and unacquainted with the society of Berlin. Baron Schack, a gens d’armes [sic], to whom we had been civil in London, was at Berlin; he was too much occupied with love, gambling, and military duties to be of much service to us.

RHEINSBERG

Determined to go to Rheinsberg. Set off at 12 o’clock at night on Wednesday, 17th August. Left Charles and Drew: they were to go to Potsdam. We were to join them there. Ld. Duncannon and myself went in the open carriage; Ld. H., Marsh, and Hortense in the chaise; ye coach and three servants left with Drew and Charles.

As soon as we reached Rheinsberg on Thursday eve. we went to the inn, and sent out letters to the ladies and Count Brühl, one of the Chamberlains. They were all at the spectacle, but the gentlemen came out and invited us from the Prince to lodge in his château and to join him at the play. The latter was rather inconvenient as we had no clothes with us (the other carriage being behind), besides that we had travelled all night, and were dinnerless. Those difficulties were soon settled, and we got in time to see the Petite Pièce.

The Prince is one of the most remarkable men in Germany; he distinguished himself in his brother’s wars as a consummate general, and may boast of having done that which is almost unparalleled, of having put a French army to flight; at Rosbach they fled before him. He is 75 years old, and possesses a strength and vivacity of intellect equal to what he formerly enjoyed. He is a Frenchman in his heart, he abhors everything German; cannot speak it. He has a delightful French comedy; his troupe of comedians is really good, the theatre remarkably pretty. I never passed five days more delightfully than under his hospitable roof.

The ladies we found clever, handsome, accomplished, and witty, and endowed with some qualities so rare and captivating that they inspired a sincere attachment. Mde. de la Rocheaimon is so perfectly pleasing, good-hearted, sensible, and amiable, that I never yet saw the person before whom I wished to have been my sister. I should like to pass many of my future days in her society. Her cousin, Mde. Peneval, is witty and highly accomplished; she is more spirituelle than the other, and the other is merrier. She is the widow of a French officer, who was attached to the service of P. Henry; upon his death she was penniless with three children. The Prince continues her husband’s pension, lodging, etc.; the more kind, as she is, as she says, ‘La première femme qui ait trouvé grâce auprès de lui.’ His weakness does not lie in his love for the female sex.

We supped in a Chinese temple in the garden. It was illuminated, and we had some excellent French horns playing in the wood; it was delicious. The next morning we breakfasted by the lake; I bathed in it. The Prince, and indeed the whole party, did every earthly thing they could imagine would please us; I never experienced such warm-hearted, zealous, unaffected desire of obliging as they manifested towards us. He gave us extra plays, and, in short, did the utmost of his power to convince us how much he was pleased at our visit. Rheinsberg is the place where Frederick II. wrote his Anti-Machiavel, and where he lived during the latter end of his father’s life.

AN UNNECESSARY ALARM

Drew grew uncomfortable at staying alone at Potsdam, and employed a certain but alarming method of abridging our pleasure; he said Charles was ill. We set off on Tuesday morning, perfectly persuaded we should find the dear boy, if not quite well, yet at the worst only slightly ill, but we would not risk the possibility of his being really ill, so we went. We travelled all night and reached Potsdam at seven o’clock on Wednesday. Found Charles feverish, but not worse than he has been fifty times since his birth.