The Confessions of the Celebrated Countess of Lichtenau, Late Mrs. Rietz: Now Confined in the Fortress of Gloglau as a State-prisonerHusen, Heinrich
History
The Confessions of the Celebrated Countess of Lichtenau, Late Mrs. Rietz: Now Confined in the Fortress of Gloglau as a State-prisoner
Husen, Heinrich
Lichtenau, Wilhelmine Enke, Gräfin Lichtenau, 1752-1820; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick William II, 1786-1797 -- Biography
[2] Mademoiselle Voss has a kind of natural wit, some information, is
rather more wilful than firm, and is very obviously aukward, which she
endeavours to disguise by assuming an air of simplicity. She is ugly,
and that even to a degree; and her only excellence is the goodness of
her complexion, which I think rather wan than white, and a fine neck;
over which she threw a double handkerchief the other day, as she was
leaving Prince Henry’s comedy, to cross the apartments, saying to the
Princess Frederica, “I must take good care of them, for it is after
these they run.” It is this mixture of eccentric licentiousness (which
she accompanies with airs of ignorant innocence) and vestal severity,
which the world says has seduced the King. Mademoiselle Voss, who holds
it ridiculous to be German, and who is tolerably well acquainted with
the English language, affects the Anglomania to excess, and thinks it
a proof of politeness not to love the French. Her vanity, which has
found itself under restraint, when in company with some amiable people
of that nation, hates those it cannot imitate, more especially because
her sarcasms are returned with interest. Thus, for instance, the other
day I could not keep silence when I heard an exclamation, “Oh, heavens!
when shall I see, when shall we have an English play! I really should
expire with rapture!” For my part, Madam, said I drily, “I rather wish
you may not, sooner than you imagine, stand in need of French plays.”
All those who began to be offended by her high airs, smiled; and Prince
Henry, who pretended not to hear her, laughed aloud. Her face was
suffused with blushes, and she did not answer a word, but it is easy to
punish, difficult to correct.
She has hitherto declared open war against the mystics, and detests
the daughters of the chief favourite, who are maids of honour to the
Queen. But as amidst her weaknesses she is transported by devotion even
to superstition, nothing may be depended on for futurity.--_Mirabeau’s
Secret History of the Court of Berlin._
[3] Literally true. Had this good and liberal soul lived longer, the
sweat of the brows of the subjects would not have been squandered away
in so wanton a manner.
LETTERS
FROM
_VIENNA, ITALY, FRANCE, and PYRMONT_[4].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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