KING. "'I ask your pardon for having plagued you so often with that; I regret it for the sake of all mankind. But what a fine Apprenticeship of War! I have committed errors enough to teach you young people, all of you, to do better. MON DIEU, how I love your grenadiers! How well they defiled in my presence! If the god Mars were raising a body-guard for himself, I should advise him to take them hand over head. Do you know I was well pleased (BIEN CONTENT)with the Kaiser last night at supper? Did you hear what he said to me about Liberty of the Press, and the Troubling of Consciences (LAGENE DES CONSCIENCES)? There will be bits of difference between his worthy Ancestors and him, on some points!'
EGO. "'I am persuaded, he will entertain no prejudices on anything;and that your Majesty will be a great Book of Instruction to him.'
KING. "'How adroitly he disapproved, without appearing to mean anything, the ridiculous Vienna Censorship; and the too great fondness of his Mother (without naming her) for certain things which only make hypocrites. By the by, she must detest you, that High Lady?'
EGO. "'Well, then, not at all. She has sometimes lectured me about my strayings, but very maternally: she is sorry for me, and quite sure that I shall return to the right path. She said to me, some time ago, "I don't know how you do, you are the intimate friend of Father Griffet; the Bishop of Neustadt has always spoken well of you; likewise the Archbishop of Malines; and the Cardinal [name Sinzendorf, or else not known to me, dignity and red hat sufficiently visible] loves you much."'
"Why cannot I remember the hundred luminous things which escaped the King in this conversation! It lasted till the trumpet at Head-quarters announced dinner. The King went to take his place; and Ithink it was on this occasion that, some one having asked why M. de Loudon had not come yet, he said, 'That is not his custom:
formerly he often arrived before me. Please let him take this place next me; I would rather have him at my side than opposite.'"That is very pretty. And a better authority gives it, The King said to Loudon himself, on Loudon's entering, "Mettez-vous aupres de moi, M. de Loudon; j'aime mieux vous avoir a cote de moi que vis-a-vis." He was very kind to Loudon;"constantly called him M. LE FELDMARECHAL [delicate hint of what should have been, but WAS not for seven years yet]; and, at parting, gave him [as he did to Lacy also] two superb horses, magnificently equipped." [Pezzl, Vie de Loudon, ii. 29.]
"Another day," continues Prince de Ligne, "the Manoeuvres being over in good time, there was a Concert at the Kaiser's.
Notwithstanding the King's taste for music, he was pleased to give me the preference; and came where I was, to enchant me with the magic of his conversation, and the brilliant traits, gay and bold, which characterize him. He asked me to name the general and particular Officers who were present, and to tell him those who had served under Marshal Traun: 'For, ENFIN,' he said, 'as I think Ihave told you already, he is my Master; he corrected me in the Schooling I was at.'
EGO. "'Your Majesty was very ungrateful, then; you never paid him his lessons. If it was as your Majesty says, you should at least have allowed him to beat you; and I do not remember that you ever did.'
KING. "'I did not get beaten, because I did not fight.'
EGO. "'It is in this manner that the greatest Generals have often conducted their wars against each other. One has only to look at the two Campaigns of M. de Montecuculi and M. de Turenne, in the Valley of the Rench [Strasburg Country, 1674 and 1675, two celebrated Campaigns, Turenne killed by a cannon-shot in the last].
KING. "'Between Traun and the former there is not much difference;but what a difference, BON DIEU, between the latter and me!'
"I named to him the Count d'Althan, who had been Adjutant-General, and the Count de Pellegrini. He asked me twice which was which, from the distance we were at; and said, He was so short-sighted, Imust excuse him.
EGO. "'Nevertheless, Sire, in the war your sight was good enough;and, if I remember right, it reached very far!'
KING. "'It was not I; it was my glass.'
EGO. "'Ha, I should have liked to find that glass;--but, I fear it would have suited my eyes as little as Scanderbeg's sword my arm.'
"I forget how the conversation changed; but I know it grew so free that, seeing somebody coming to join in it, the King warned him to take care; that it was n't safe to converse with a man doomed by the theologians to Everlasting Fire. I felt as if he somewhat overdid this of his 'being doomed,' and that he boasted too much of it. Not to hint at the dishonesty of these free-thinking gentlemen (MESSIEURS LES ESPRITS FORTS), who very often are thoroughly afraid of the Devil, it is, at least, bad taste to make display of such things: and it was with the people of bad taste whom he has had about him, such as a Jordan, a D'Argens, Maupertuis, La Beaumelle, La Mettrie, Abbe de Prades, and some dull sceptics of his own Academy, that he had acquired the habit of mocking at Religion; and of talking (DE PARLER) Dogma, Spinoism, Court of Rome and the like.
In the end, I did n't always answer when he touched upon it. I now seized a moment's interval, while he was using his handkerchief, to speak to him about some business, in connection with the Circle of Westphalia, and a little COMTE IMMEDIAT [County holding direct, of the Reich] which I have there. The King answered me: 'I, for my part, will do anything you wish; but what thinks the other Director, my comrade, the Elector of Cologne, about it?'
EGO. "'I was not aware, Sire, that you were an Ecclesiastical Elector.'
KING. "'I am so; at least on my Protestant account.'
EGO. "'That is not to OUR account's advantage! Those good people of mine believe your Majesty to be their protector.'