the proofs of this contract in my hands. There proofs were in the
Saxon archives, and in the dispatches of the Austrian embassy. It
was therefore necessary to get the key of these archives, and to
have copies of these dispatches. I succeeded in doing both, Chance,
or if you prefer it, a kind Providence, came to my aid. The Saxon
chancellor, Reinitz, a former servant of General Winterfeldt, came
from Dresden to Potsdam to look for Winterfeldt and to confide to
him that a friend of his, Chancellor Minzel of Dresden, had informed
him that the state papers interchanged between the court of Vienna
and Dresden were kept in the Dresden archives, of which he had the
key. Winterfeldt brought me this important message. Reinitz
conducted the first negotiations with Menzel, which I then delivered
into the hands of my ambassador in Dresden, Count Mattzahn. Menzel
was poor and covetous. He was therefore easily to be bribed. For
three years Mattzahn has received copies of every dispatch that
passed between the three courts. I am quite as well informed of all
negotiations between Austria and France, for the secretary of the
Austrian legation of this place, a Count Weingarten, gave me, for
promises and gold, copies of all dispatches that came from Vienna
and were forwarded to France. You see the corruption of man has
borne me good fruit, and that gold is a magic wand which reveals all
secrets. And now let us cast a hasty glance over these papers which
I have obtained by the aid of treachery and bribery."

He took one of the papers and spread it before the astonished
generals. "You see here," he continued, "a sample of all other
negotiations. It is a copy of a share contract which the courts of
Vienna and Dresden formed in 1745. They then regarded the decline of
Prussia as so sure an occurrence that they had already divided
amongst themselves the different parts of my land. Russia soon