play with me is only a means to an end.  Where should I have been without it?  A private still in King Frederick’s grenadiers.  I come of a race which gave princes to my country; but persecutions have deprived them of their vast possessions.  My uncle’s adherence to his ancient faith drove him from our country.  I too resolved to seek advancement in the military service; but the insolence and ill-treatment which I received at the hands of the English were not bearable by a high-born gentleman, and I fled their service.  It was only to fall into another bondage to all appearance still more hopeless; when my good star sent a preserver to me in my uncle, and my spirit and gallantry enabled me to take advantage of the means of escape afforded me.  Since then we have lived, I do not disguise it, by play; but who can say I have done him a wrong?  Yet, if I could find myself in an honourable post, and with an assured maintenance, I would never, except for amusement, such as every gentleman must have, touch a card again.  I beseech your Highness to inquire of your resident at Berlin if I did not on every occasion act as a gallant soldier.  I feel that I have talents of a higher order, and should be proud to have occasion to exert them; if, as I do not doubt, my fortune shall bring them into play.’

The candour of this statement struck his Highness greatly, and impressed him in my favour, and he was pleased to say that he believed me, and would be glad to stand my friend.

Having thus the two Dukes, the Duchess, and the reigning favourite enlisted on my side, the chances certainly were that I should carry off the great prize; and I ought, according to all common calculations, to have been a Prince of the Empire at this present writing, but that my ill luck pursued me in a matter in which I was not the least to blame,—­the unhappy Duchess’s attachment to the weak, silly, cowardly Frenchman.  The display of this love was painful to witness, as its end was frightful to think of.  The Princess made no disguise of it.  If Magny spoke a word to a lady of her household, she would be jealous, and attack with all the fury of her tongue the unlucky offender.  She would send him a half-dozen of notes in the day:  at his arrival to join her circle or the courts which she held, she would brighten up, so that all might perceive.  It was a wonder that her husband had not long ere this been made aware of her faithlessness; but the Prince Victor was himself of so high and stern a nature that he could not believe in her stooping so far from her rank as to forget her virtue:  and I have heard say, that when hints were given to him of the evident partiality which the Princess showed for the equerry, his answer was a stern command never more to be troubled on the subject.  ’The Princess is light-minded,’ he said; ’she was brought up at a frivolous Court; but her folly goes not beyond coquetry:  crime is impossible; she has her birth, and my name, and her