“I have seen your first lover, the one you were on the point of marrying.[167] What a face! They tell me his wife is at Ghent, and the ladies of the place will not pay their respects to her, she gives herself such airs. She sees nobody; but you would have enjoyed yourself like a queen. Think how pleased I should have been, for you would only be two hours from me, and your husband in the army! “Duke Frederick Augustus has left the army with very few honours; he owes money right and left. He left Brussels under a cloud, for he gave a powder to the first jeweller who dunned him which sent the poor man nearly mad. The rogue knew he was going to bolt, but he concealed his intentions and still made promises. The other day I dined with him at the Comte d’Egmont’s, when he made me many hypocritical promises. That is the way young men go on nowadays; I give them a good rating. The season is getting so cold that every one is beginning to speak about winter quarters.” ----- Footnote 165: Evidently in answer to the Princess’s letter of August 24/September 3. Footnote 166: Another reference to their early friendship at Celle. Footnote 167: Most probably Prince Henry Casimir of Nassau-Dietz, Hereditary Governor of Friesland, and nephew of William of Orange. ----- _Königsmarck to Fräulein von Knesebeck._ “You are right to think the visit to Frankfort would displease me, especially as I begged and prayed her not to go. However, all can be repaired if she only stops one day there. It is not fair. Did she not say she hoped I would not go often to Brussels? That was sufficient. I only set foot there for four hours for a game of tennis; I did not even go to Ghent. The wealthy marriage they proposed for me I rejected from the first.[168] I also refused to undertake the journey of which you know,[169] though it was the only thing to save my property. Count Oxanstern[170] assured me that if I had gone the King [of Sweden] would have made me an offer of a regiment with the title of general, and Marshal Hasbert also said that if I had attached myself to the service of the King I should at present be a general. Consider, dear friend, what I have sacrificed and what she is doing, and then say who is in the wrong. This is between ourselves, for I do not wish her to know about this at all, so pray don’t mention it.” ----- Footnote 168: This marriage has been alluded to before—in 1691. Footnote 169: The mission to Sweden; he went no farther than Hamburg. Footnote 170: A Swedish noble of high rank, sometime envoy at Hanover. This letter is very characteristic, and undoubtedly shows that Königsmarck had made sacrifices of his worldly prospects to be near the object of his devotion. But it was hardly generous of him to remind the Princess of it, even indirectly, for she had made a much greater sacrifice for him. -----