stirr’d up and managed, he was to be persuaded to any thing. _Kolbe_ who for a long time had made his Temper his only Study, plainly perceiv’d his Foible, artfully wrought upon it, and in the sequel made it subservient to the Accomplishment of his Designs. He soon attain’d to the highest Degree of Favor; the Elector made him his Great Chamberlain and First Minister; all the Court was oblig’d to truckle to him; and as it always happens in the Changes of Government, the Minister in Disgrace was regretted. Indeed _Kolbe_ did not want for personal Qualities enough to make him belov’d; but the worst on’t was, they were eclips’d by an astonishing Fondness for his Wife, to whom he was so blindly complaisant, that all the good People at Court despis’d and hated him. This Lady has play’d so extraordinary a Part in the World, that I can’t avoid giving you some Account of her Origin and Character. Her Father, one _Rickers_, was a Bargeman at _Emmerick_, a Town in the Duchy of _Cleves_, where for better Subsistance he kept a sort of Tavern. He had two Daughters, who pass’d for fine Women, that brought a good deal of Company to his House, and in a Journey which the Elector made to _Cleves, Bidekan_ his Valet de Chambre fell in love with the eldest, the Lady I am speaking of, marry’d her and took her with him to _Berlin_, where she fell so passionately in love with _Kolbe_, that after having been his Mistress in her Husband’s Life-time, he was hardly cold in his Grave but she became his Wife. The Wedding was kept at the House of one _Commesser_, another of the Elector’s Valets de Chambre, where that Prince was present, with seven or eight Persons in his Company; and from that very Juncture he began to shew such great Marks of Complaisance to the Lady, that several People thought she ow’d them to something more than to the Friendship he had for his Favorite. Nevertheless I am very well persuaded they were mistaken; and I remember, that when I was Gentleman of the Bed-chamber to the Elector, he said to me in one of his ill Humors with his Favorite and his Wife (and in these sort of Pets he was not capable of dissembling) _I know the Notion that prevails of my being under certain Tyes to +Kolbe’s+ Lady, but there is nothing in it_; _and the Wrong is greater to me than to her_. For really was it not enough for a Woman of such mean Extraction, Parts and Beauty too, to be the Wife of a Minister, but she must also be ambitious to be the Mistress of a Sovereign? Yet it must be confess’d, that whether it was meer Humor, or a weak Attachment to the Favorite, the Elector heap’d Wealth and Honors upon this Lady, insomuch that nothing would serve him but she must be admitted to the Electoress’s Circle, who at that time indeed obstinately refus’d it; for who is there would not have been disgusted to have seen the Daughter of _Rickers_ the Bargeman mixing with Ladies of Quality that had a Right to be in the Circle?