It was known he was very ailing; and that he never stirred out,--but this was not quite unusual in late winters; and the rumors about his health were vague and various.

Now, as always, he himself, except to his Doctors, was silent on that subject.

Various military Doctors, Theden, Frese and others of eminence, were within reach; but it is not known to me that he consulted any of them.
Not till January, 1786, when symptoms worse than ever, of asthma, of dropsy, began to manifest themselves, did he call in Selle, the chief Berlin Doctor, and a man of real sagacity, as is still evident; who from the first concluded the disease to be desperate; but of course began some alleviatory treatment, the skilfulest possible to him.

[Christian Gottlieb Selle, KRANKHEITSGESCHICHTE DES HOCHSTSEELIGEN KONIGS VAN PREUSSEN FRIEDRICHS DES ZWEYTEN MAJESTAT (Berlin, 1786); a very small Pamphlet, now very rare;--giving in the most distinct, intelligent, modest and conclusive way, an account of everything pertinent, and rigorously of nothing else.] Selle, when questioned, kept his worst fears carefully to himself: but the King noticed Selle's real opinion,--which, probably, was the King's own too;--and finding little actual alleviation, a good deal of trouble, and no possibility of a victorious result by this warfare on the outworks, began to be weary of Selle; and to turn his hopes--what hopes he yet had--on the fine weather soon due.

He had a continual short small cough, which much troubled him; there was fear of new Suffocation-Fit; the breathing always difficult.
But Spring came, unusually mild; the King sat on the southern balconies in the genial sun and air, looking over the bright sky and earth, and new birth of things: "Were I at Sans-Souci, amid the Gardens!" thought he.