was so good a wife, as not to wake Mr W——­y, who was fast asleep by my side, to make him share in my fears, since the danger was unavoidable, till I perceived, by the bright light of the moon, our postilions nodding on horse-back, while the horses were on a full gallop.  Then indeed I thought it very convenient to call out to desire them to look where they were going.  My calling waked (sic) Mr W——­Y, and he was much more surprised than myself at the situation we were in, and assured me, that he passed the Alps five times in different places, without ever having gone a road so dangerous.  I have been told since, that ’tis common to find the bodies of travellers in the Elbe; but, thank God, that was not our destiny; and we came safe to Dresden, so much tired with fear and fatigue, it was not possible for me to compose myself to write.  After passing these dreadful rocks, Dresden appeared to me a wonderfully agreeable situation, in a fine large plain on the banks of the Elbe.  I was very glad to stay there a day to rest myself.  The town is the neatest I have seen in Germany; most of the houses are new built; the elector’s palace is very handsome, and his repository full of curiosities of different kinds, with a collection of medals very much esteemed.  Sir ——­, our king’s envoy, came to see me here, and Madame de L——­, whom I knew in London, when her husband was minister to the king of Poland there.  She offered me all things in her power to entertain me, and brought some ladies with her, whom she presented to me.  The Saxon ladies resemble the Austrian no more than the Chinese do those of London; they are very genteelly dressed, after the English and French modes, and have generally pretty faces, but they are the most determined minaudieres in the whole world.  They would think it a mortal sin against good-breeding, if they either spoke or moved in a natural manner.  They all affect a little soft lisp, and a pretty pitty-pat step; which female frailties ought, however, to be forgiven them, in favour of their civility and good nature to strangers, which I have a great deal of reason to praise.

THE countess of Cozelle is kept prisoner in a melancholy castle, some leagues from hence; and I cannot forbear telling you what I have heard of her, because it seems to me very extraordinary, though I foresee I shall swell my letter to the size of a pacquet.—­She was mistress to the king of Poland, (elector of Saxony) with so absolute a dominion over him, that never any lady had so much power in that court.  They tell a pleasant story of his majesty’s first declaration of love, which he made in a visit to her, bringing in one hand a bag of a hundred thousand crowns, and in the other a horse-shoe, which he snapped asunder before her face, leaving her to draw the consequences of such remarkable proofs of strength and liberality.  I know not which charmed her most; but she consented to leave her husband, and to give herself up to him