him." Another passage from the same letter is in Horace's finest vein of sarcasm:-- "And here let calumny blush, who has aspersed so chaste and faithful a monarch with low amours; pretending that he has raised to a seat in his sublime council an artisan of Hamburg, known only by repairing the soles of buskins, because that mechanic would on no other terms consent to his fair daughter's being honoured with majestic embraces.[64] So victorious over his passions is this Scipio from the pole, that though on Shooter's Hill he fell into an ambuscade, laid for him by an illustrious countess, of blood royal herself, his Majesty, after descending from his car and courteously greeting her, again mounted his vehicle, without being one moment eclipsed from the eyes of the surrounding multitude."[65] The princess dowager so overwhelmed Christian with inquiries about her daughter, that her wearied son-in-law could not refrain from whispering to his favourite, Holck: "Cette chère maman m'embête terriblement." Finally, when she begged Christian to restore Frau von Plessen to the post of grande maîtresse, the king replied, that he would not oppose it, but would leave the court himself, as he was resolved never to live under the same roof with Frau von Plessen again. After leaving the Princess of Wales, the royal party attended Lady Hertford's assembly. Walpole, who was present, says: "He only takes the title of _Altesse_ (an absurd mezzo termine), but acts king accordingly, struts in the circle like a cock sparrow, and does the honours of himself very civilly." But the thing that seems to have struck Walpole most, was the subserviency of Christian's ministers and attendants, who (as we shall see presently) bowed as low to him at every word as if he were a Sultan Amurath. Severest are his strictures on Bernstorff, of whom he says: "A grave old man, running round Europe after a chit, for the sake of domineering over a parcel of beggar Danes, when he himself is a Hanoverian, and might live at ease on an estate he has at Mecklenburg."