with as much devout attention as if it had been an apostle's.
My Brother and I had all the mind in the world to laugh;
we tried hard to keep from laughing; but often we burst out.
Thereupon reprimand, with all the anathemas of the Church hurled
out on us; which we had to take with a contrite penitent air, a
thing not easy to bring your face to at the moment. In a word,
this dog of a Franke [he died within few months, poor soul, CE
CHIEN DE FRANKE] led us the life of a set of Monks of La Trappe.

"Such excess of bigotry awakened still more gothic thoughts in the
King. He resolved to abdicate the crown in favor of my Brother.
He used to talk, He would reserve for himself 10,000 crowns a
year; and retire with the Queen and his Daughters to Wusterhausen.
There, added he, I will pray to God; and manage the farming
economy, while my wife and girls take care of the household
matters. You are clever, he said to me; I will give you the
inspection of the linen, which you shall mend and keep in order,
taking good charge of laundry matters. Frederika [now thirteen,
married to ANSPACH two years hence], who is miserly, shall have
charge of all the stores of the house. Charlotte [now eleven,
Duchess of BRUNSWICK by and by] shall go to market and buy our
provisions; and my Wife shall take charge of the little children,
[says Friedrich Wilhelm], and of the kitchen." [Little children
are: 1. Sophie Dorothee, now eight, who married Margraf of
Schwedt, and was unhappy; 2. Ulrique, a grave little soul of
seven, Queen of Sweden afterwards; 3. August Wilhelm, age now
five, became Father of a new Friedrich Wilhelm, who was King by
and by, and produced the Kings that still are; 4. Amelia, now
four, born in the way we saw; and 5. HENRI, still in arms, just
beginning to walk. There will be a Sixth and no more (son of this