<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0231" id="link2H_4_0231"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCXXIX </h2>
<h3> BLACKHEATH, September 5, 1758 </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: I received, with great pleasure, your letter of the 22d
August; for, by not having a line from you in your secretary's two
letters, I suspect that you were worse than he cared to tell me; and so
far I was in the right, that your fever was more malignant than
intermitting ones generally are, which seldom confines people to their
bed, or at most, only the days of the paroxysms. Now that, thank God, you
are well again, though weak, do not be in too much haste to be better and
stronger: leave that to nature, which, at your age, will restore both your
health and strength as soon as she should. Live cool for a time, and
rather low, instead of taking what they call heartening things: Your
manner of making presents is noble, 'et sent la grandeur d'ame d'un preux
Chevalier'. You depreciate their value to prevent any returns; for it is
impossible that a wine which has counted so many Syndicks, that can only
be delivered by a 'senatus consultum', and is the PANACEA Of the North,
should be sold for a ducat a bottle. The 'sylphium' of the Romans, which
was stored up in the public magazines, and only distributed by order of
the magistrate, I dare say, cost more; so that I am convinced, your
present is much more valuable than you would make it.</p>
<p>Here I am interrupted, by receiving your letter of the 25th past. I am
glad that you are able to undertake your journey to Bremen: the motion,
the air, the new scene, the everything, will do you good, provided you
manage yourself discreetly.</p>
<p>Your bill for fifty pounds shall certainly be accepted and paid; but, as
in conscience I think fifty pounds is too little, for seeing a live
Landgrave, and especially at Bremen, which this whole nation knows to be a
very dear place, I shall, with your leave, add fifty more to it. By the
way, when you see the Princess Royal of Cassel, be sure to tell her how
sensible you are of the favorable and too partial testimony, which you
know she wrote of you to Princess Amelia.</p>
<p>The King of Prussia has had the victory, which you in some measure
foretold; and as he has taken 'la caisse militaire', I presume 'Messieurs
les Russes sont hors de combat pour cette campagne'; for 'point d'argent,
point de Suisse', is not truer of the laudable Helvetic body, than 'point
d'argent, point de Russe', is of the savages of the Two Russias, not even
excepting the Autocratrice of them both. Serbelloni, I believe, stands
next in his Prussian Majesty's list to be beaten; that is, if he will
stand; as the Prince de Soubize does in Prince Ferdinand's, upon the same
condition. If both these things happen, which is by no means improbable,
we may hope for a tolerable peace this winter; for, 'au bout du compte',
the King of Prussia cannot hold out another year; and therefore he should
make the best of these favorable events, by way negotiation.</p>
<p>I think I have written a great deal, with an actual giddiness of head upon
me. So adieu.</p>
<p>I am glad you have received my letter of the Ides of July.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0232" id="link2H_4_0232"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCXXX </h2>
<h3> BLACKHEATH, September 8, 1758. </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: This letter shall be short, being only an explanatory note
upon my last; for I am not learned enough, nor yet dull enough, to make my
comment much longer than my text. I told you then, in my former letter,
that, with your leave (which I will suppose granted), I would add fifty
pounds to your draught for that sum; now, lest you should misunderstand
this, and wait for the remittance of that additional fifty from hence,
know then my meaning was, that you should likewise draw upon me for it
when you please; which I presume, will be more convenient to you.</p>
<p>Let the pedants, whose business it is to believe lies, or the poets, whose
trade it is to invent them, match the King of Prussia With a hero in
ancient or modern story, if they can. He disgraces history, and makes one
give some credit to romances. Calprenede's Juba does not now seem so
absurd as formerly.</p>
<p>I have been extremely ill this whole summer; but am now something better.
However, I perceive, 'que l'esprit et le corps baissent'; the former is
the last thing that anybody will tell me; or own when I tell it them; but
I know it is true. Adieu.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0233" id="link2H_4_0233"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCXXXI </h2>
<h3> BLACKHEATH, September 22, 1758 </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: I have received no letter from you since you left Hamburg;
I presume that you are perfectly recovered, but it might not have been
improper to have told me so. I am very far from being recovered; on the
contrary, I am worse and worse, weaker and weaker every day; for which
reason I shall leave this place next Monday, and set out for Bath a few
days afterward. I should not take all this trouble merely to prolong the
fag end of a life, from which I can expect no pleasure, and others no
utility; but the cure, or at least the mitigation, of those physical ills
which make that life a load while it does last, is worth any trouble and
attention.</p>
<p>We are come off but scurvily from our second attempt upon St. Malo; it is
our last for this season; and, in my mind, should be our last forever,
unless we were to send so great a sea and land force as to give us a moral
certainty of taking some place of great importance, such as Brest,
Rochefort, or Toulon.</p>
<p>Monsieur Munchausen embarked yesterday, as he said, for Prince Ferdinand's
army; but as it is not generally thought that his military skill can be of
any great use to that prince, people conjecture that his business must be
of a very different nature, and suspect separate negotiations,
neutralities, and what not. Kniphausen does not relish it in the least,
and is by no means satisfied with the reasons that have been given him for
it. Before he can arrive there, I reckon that something decisive will have
passed in Saxony; if to the disadvantage of the King of Prussia, he is
crushed; but if, on the contrary, he should get a complete victory (and he
does not get half victories) over the Austrians, the winter may probably
produce him and us a reasonable peace. I look upon Russia as 'hors de
combat' for some time; France is certainly sick of the war; under an
unambitious King, and an incapable Ministry, if there is one at all: and,
unassisted by those two powers, the Empress Queen had better be quiet.
Were any other man in the situation of the King of Prussia, I should not
hesitate to pronounce him ruined; but he is such a prodigy of a man, that
I will only say, I fear he will be ruined. It is by this time decided.</p>
<p>Your Cassel court at Bremen is, I doubt, not very splendid; money must be
wanting: but, however, I dare say their table is always good, for the
Landgrave is a gourmand; and as you are domestic there, you may be so too,
and recruit your loss of flesh from your fever: but do not recruit too
fast. Adieu.</p>
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