Volume V Part 77 (1/2)
With his old siain, and asked if I proposed ly do so if the king would give me a suitable office I asked him if he would speak a word in e men's characters for himself, and would often discover merit where no one had suspected its presence, and vice versa
He advisedthat I desired to have the honour of an interview ”When you speak to hiood oldwill doubtless address me on the subject, and you e”
”But, , and who knows nothing of ht of such a step”
”I daresay, but don't you wish to speak to hih Your letter willmore”
”But will he reply?”
”Undoubtedly; he replies to everybody He will tell you when and where he will see you His Majesty is now at Sans-Souci I am curious to know the nature of your intervieith theiot ho where and at what time I could introduce ned ”Frederick,” in which the receipt of ed, and I was told that I should find his arden of Sans-Souci at four o'clock
As ined I was punctual to my appointment I was at Sans-Souci at three, clad in a siot into the court-yard there was not so much as a sentinel to stop me, so I went on mounted a stair, and opened a door in front of allery, and the curator came up to me and offered to shew me over it
”I have not come to ad, who inforarden”
”He is now at a concert playing the flute; he does so every day after dinner Did he naotten that”
”The king never forgets anything; he will keep the appointarden and await hiarden for some minutes when I saw him appear, followed by his reader and a pretty spaniel As soon as he sawmy name Then he asked in a terrible voice what I wanted of hi surprised me, and my voice stuck in my throat
”Well, speak out Are you not the person rote tonow I thought that I should not be awed by the , but I was mistaken My lord-marshal should have warned me”
”Then he knows you? Let us walk What is it that you want? What do you think of arden were simultaneous To any other person I should have answered that I did not know anything about gardening, but this would have been equivalent to refusing to answer the question; and no monarch, even if he be a philosopher, could endure that I therefore replied that I thought the garden superb
”But,” he said, ”the gardens of Versailles are much finer”
”Yes, sire, but that is chiefly on account of the fountains”
”True, but it is not my fault; there is no water here I have spent et water, but unsuccessfully”
”Three hundred thousand crowns, sire! If your majesty had spent them all at once, the fountains should be here”
”Oh, oh! I see you are acquainted with hydraulics”
I could not say that he washihtdid not trouble to test e of the science of hydraulics, hich I was totally unacquainted
He kept on the move all the time, and as he turned his head from one side to the other hurriedly asked me what forces Venice could put into the field in war tialleys”
”What are the land forces?”
”Seventy thousand men, sire; all of whoe at one man”