‘I’m glad my dearest brother says nothing of his health in the letter ... 27th Dec., for Count Podewils had alarmed me a good deal by telling me that you had been obliged more than once to send Mr. Knyphausen in your place to Versailles, on occasion of incommoditys; and tho’ I hope you would not disguise to me the state of your health ... yet a conversation I had some days ago with the King gives me still reason to suspect that it is not so good as I ought to wish it. He told me that for some time past you had solicitated him to allow you to retire ... and at your earnest desire he had granted your request, but at the same time had acquainted you how absolutely necessary it was for his interest that you should continue in the same post till the end of harvest, by which time he must think of some other to replace you; he asked me at the same time if your intention was to return here; to which I answer’d ... it was, tho’ I said this without any authority from you ... he told me that in that case he thought you should keep the time of your journey and route as private as possible, and that after taking leave of the Court of France you should give it out that your health required your going for some time to the S. of France, that it was easy on the way to take a cross road to Strasbourg and Francfort, and after passing the Hessian dominions to turn into Saxony, by which you would evite all the Hanoverian Territories and arrive safely here. Everything he said was more like a friend than a sovereign, and showed a real tenderness for your preservation....’ Frederick did not wish his friend to run any risk of being kidnapped in Hanoverian territory, by the minions of the Elector. The Earl could not be allowed to return at once, for the clouds over Anglo-Prussian relations were clearing, while England was at odds with France, both about the secret fortifying of Dunkirk, contrary to treaty, about the East Indies, and about North America. So Frederick philosophised, in letters to the Earl, concerning the disagreeable yoke he had still to bear, and about the inevitable hardships of mortal life in general. He also asked the Earl to find him a truly excellent French cook. On March 31, Frederick offered the Earl the choice of any place of residence he liked, and expressed a wish that he could retire from politics. He foresaw the crucial struggle of his life, the Seven Years’ War. ‘But every machine is made for its special end: the clock to mark time, the spit to roast meat, the mill to grind. Let us grind then, since such is my fate, but believe that while I turn and turn by no will of my own, nobody is more interested in your philosophical repose than your friend to all time and in all situations where you may find yourself.’ Frederick is never so amiable as in his correspondence with the old Jacobite exile.