On his asking, after dancing, for some wine and water, he was answered--"the wine is all gone, but you may have some tea;" and this was a peculiarly distinguished party. He saw the king himself directing the servants in lighting up the ball-room, and telling them where to put the candles. Whilst this operation was performing, the queen, the royal family, and the company, were waiting literally in the dark; as the king did not begin this ceremony till supper was finished, and no one dared to give orders to have it done. Frederick, when a young man, was intended for the husband of a British princess. This was a match of his mother's construction. But the old king, who hated George II., threatened to cut off his son's head for his presumption. The English king called the Prussian "my brother the sergeant;" the Prussian retaliated by calling the English king "my brother the dancing-master." This hostility amounted to a mixture of the profane and the ludicrous. When the old king was seized with his mortal illness, he asked whether "it was necessary to forgive all his enemies." On receiving the proper answer, he said to the Queen--"Dorothy, write to your brother that I forgive him all the evil that he has done me; but wait till I'm dead first." A good repartee of Sir Andrew Mitchell on the battle of Quebec, is mentioned. "Is it true," said the king to him, "that, after all, you have taken Quebec?" "Yes, sire," said Sir Andrew Mitchell the envoy, "by the help of Providence." "What!" said the king, "is Providence among your allies?" "Yes," said the envoy, "and the only one among then who demands _no subsidy_." Sir Charles Williams wrote to one of the queen's marshals a letter introducing Lord Essex, ludicrously finishing with--"You may be sure that it is not he who had his head cut off in the time of Elizabeth." The marshal, not perfectly understanding this, but depending on his information, introduced him in this style to her majesty--"Madam, my Lord Essex; and I assure your majesty it is not he who was decapitated by Queen Elizabeth." Frederick, sending a minister to Denmark who complained of the smallness of his salary, and said that he could keep neither an equipage nor a table; the king's remark to him was--"You are a prodigal; you ought to know that it is more healthy to go on foot than it is to go in a carriage; and that, so far as eating is concerned, another man's table is always the best."