KING. "'Hear! Is that the manor-house (EDELHOF)?'
ICH. "'Ja.'
KING. "'That does look miserable.' Here Mitschepfal's daughter, who has married a baronial Herr von Kriegsheim from Mecklenburg, came forward while the horses were changing. Kriegsheim came on account of her into this country: the King has given them a Colony of 200 MORGEN (acres). Coming to the carriage, Frau von Kriegsheim handed some fruit to his Majesty. His Majesty declined with thanks; asked, who her father was, when he died, &c. On a sudden, she presented her husband; began to thank for the 200 MORGEN; mounted on the coach-step; wished to kiss, if not his Majesty's hand, at least his coat. His Majesty shifted quite to the other side of the carriage, and cried"—good old Fritz!—"'Let be, my daughter, let be! It is all well!—Amtmann, let us get along (MACHT DASS WIR FORTKOMMEN)!'
KING. "'Hear now: these people are not prospering here?'
ICH. "'Far from it, your Majesty; they are in the greatest poverty.'
KING. "'That is bad.—Tell me though; there lived a Landrath here before: he had a quantity of children: can't you recollect his name?'
ICH. "'That will have been the Landrath von Gorgas of Genser.'
KING. "'Ja, ja, that was he. Is he dead now?'
ICH. "'Ja, your Majesty. He died in 1771: and it was very singular; in one fortnight he, his wife and four sons all died. The other four that were left had all the same sickness too, which was a hot fever; and though the sons, being in the Army, were in different garrisons, and no brother had visited the other, they all got the same illness, and came out of it with merely their life left.'
KING. "'That was a desperate affair (VERZWEIFELTER UMSTAND GEWESEN)! Where are the four sons that are still in life?'