Ferdinand for _her_ pleasure, and when she tired of him the other could do as she pleased, but until then she would keep him well. There is a happy man! As for his mistress, she may comfort herself, for the lover remains [at Berlin] and the Electress remains. “I am waiting with extreme impatience for your news. If, haply, you have arrived, I hope my prayers will protect you from misfortune, and that you will compass your journey in perfect health. Since there seems so little chance of getting anything substantial from your parents, I do not see why you should be afraid of them, or why you flatter them, for everything that is to come to you after their death will come to you without that, so you can easily spare yourself the trouble. But you are very timid—so much the worse for you! They would be silly if they gave you anything when they see you are contented with fine words. I have won a thousand pistoles, but I may lose them again. The King has asked me to play with him in the Elector’s tent, where he is breakfasting; but I don’t know if my rage will let me go, for I am in the very devil of a rage. I am yours until the tomb.” ----- Footnote 162: Ferdinand was the Electress of Brandenburg’s violinist. She took him with her wherever she went and treated him with marked favour. But she was passionately fond of music, and we need not therefore accept Königsmarck’s construction of the intimacy, which, however, agrees with the common scandal of the court of Berlin at that time. ----- _The Princess to Königsmarck._ “WIESBADEN, _August_ 24/_September_ 3. “Yesterday I received two of your letters, one very different from the other. One filled me with ecstasy. If I had held you in my arms I could have devoured you with kisses then and there. I will begin by answering all the nice and charming things you say, and then I will scold you for so easily believing all the lies they wrote to you about me. I deserve more than a little of the love you show me, for nothing equals my devotion. “I have long ago forgiven your carelessness, though I did not get your letter until I had sent _three times_ the post without finding any, not _twice_, as you say; but when your letter came it gave me such joy that I forgot all my sorrow and anxiety of a fortnight. One kind word from you is enough to bring me back from that other world of grief and pain.