I passed a few days at Berlin in ’96, and was fortunate enough (for I then thought it so) to arrive the day before a review; which, when I had seen I found I had seen nothing. For, stunned by the noise, choked with the smoke, and blinded by the dust, the four hours spent upon the sandy plain were so many of bodily sufferance, and the only instruction I derived was that a man may easily evade and play the part _I_ should in a battle, viz., run away and not be missed. Glad to escape from a scene, disagreeable in itself, and made more detestable by reflecting upon the intention of it, I went to a small house on a cross-road, which was found filled with royal attendants, _i.e._ a seraglio. Shortly after the unwieldy monster, for whose pleasures they were assembled, appeared upon a horse of a proportionable size to himself. After hearing their names he selected those he chose to have follow him to Charlottenburg. The royal wish being signified, three or four ascended a carriage that was in waiting, and the whole party, accompanied by the famous Bischoffsverder and some other courtiers, set off to engage in the most disgusting debaucheries that ever disgraced a court. When he was dying he frequently asked of the physicians when they thought it would be over with him, and expressed great impatience for the moment of dissolution. This desire of death in a timid, bad man was remarkable, for such a contempt of life was not in his character; but it appeared that he firmly gave credit to the _Illuminés_, and believed he should return within eight days to life in the form of a handsome young woman. Some of his mistresses are under a suspicion of having embezzled great sums, and the celebrated Mde. de Rietz[180] is under confinement, and her goods, etc., confiscated--a paltry measure for a Sovereign, for if the money was given, however injudiciously, it is a reflection upon the memory of his parent, and is a shabby robbery. Mde. de Rietz was the Pompadour of Berlin; no longer fit to please the King she sought those that could. It is her daughter that Ld. Bristol quarrelled with his son for not marrying last year. [Sidenote: FREDERICK WILLIAM II.] Ld. Malmesbury was to have gone to make the compliments, but most likely Mr. Canning made him relinquish it for the sake of his young friend; and Ld. M. did it more readily since the memento of mortality he has lately had. His head is awry, and his whole appearance indicates a universal shock.