[History of Friedrich II. of Prussia<br> Vol. XXI. (of XXI.) by Thomas Carlyle]@TWC D-Link book
History of Friedrich II. of Prussia
Vol. XXI. (of XXI.)

CHAPTER V
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Adieu, dear Brother; excuse my endless Letter [since you cannot squeeze the water out of it, as some will!]--Yours most sincerely, "HENRY SEYMOUR CONWAY." Keith is now Minister at Dresden for some years back; and has, among other topics, much to say of our brilliant friend the Electress there: but his grand Diplomatic feat was at Copenhagen, on a sudden sally out thither (in 1771): [In KEITH, i.

152 &c., nothing of intelligible Narrative given, hardly the date discoverable.] the saving of Queen Matilda, youngest Sister of George Third, from a hard doom.

Unfortunate Queen Matilda; one never knows how guilty, or whether guilty at all, but she was very unfortunate, poor young Lady! What with a mad Husband collapsed by debaucheries into stupor of insanity; what with a Doctor, gradually a Prime Minister, Struensee, wretched scarecrow to look upon, but wiser than most Danes about; and finally, with a lynx-eyed Step-sister, whose Son, should Matilda mistake, will inherit,--unfortunate Matilda had fallen into the awfulest troubles; got divorced, imprisoned, would have lost her head along with scarecrow Struensee had not her Brother George III.

emphatically intervened,--Excellency Keith, with Seventy-fours in the distance, coming out very strong on the occasion,--and got her loose.

Loose from Danish axe and jail, at any rate; delivered into safety and solitude at Celle in Hanover, where she now is,--and soon after suddenly dies of fever, so closing a very sad short history.
Excellency Keith, famed in the Diplomatic circles ever since, is at present ahead of Conway on their joint road to the Austrian Reviews.
Before giving Conway's Second Letter, let us hear Keith a little on his kinsman the Old Marischal, whom he saw at Berlin years ago, and still occasionally corresponds with, and mentions in his Correspondence.


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