Part 11

ICH. "'About 150 head.'

"His Majesty must lately have asked the Herr General von Gortz, how I came to know him,--as I told his Majesty to ask General von Gortz about the Holstein rye;--and presumably the Herr General must have answered, what was the fact, That he had first known me in Holstein, where I dealt in horses, and that I had been at Potsdam with horses. Suddenly his Majesty said: 'Hear! I know you are fond of horses. But give up that, and prefer cows; you will find your account better there.'

ICH. "'Your Majesty, I no longer deal in horses. I merely rear a few foals every year.'

KING. "'Rear calves instead; that will be better.'

ICH. "'Oh, your Majesty, if one takes pains with it, there is no loss in breeding horses. I know a man who got, two years ago, 1,000 thalers for a stallion of his raising.'

KING. "'He must have been a fool that gave it.'

ICH. "'Your Majesty, he was a Mecklenburg nobleman.'

KING. "'But nevertheless a fool.'

"We now came upon the territory of the Amt Neustadt; and here the Amtsrath Klausius, who has the Amt in farm, was in waiting on the boundary, and let his Majesty drive past. But as I began to get tired of the speaking, and his Majesty went on always asking about villages, which stand hereabouts in great quantity, and I had always to name the owner, and say what sons he had in the Army,--I brought up Herr Amtsrath Klausius to the carriage, and said:--

ICH. "'Your Majesty, this is the Amtsrath Klausius, of the Amt Neustadt, in whose jurisdiction the Colonies are.'

KING. "'So, so! that is very good (DAS IST MIR LIEB). Bring him up.'

KING. "'What's your name?' (from this point the King spoke mostly with Amtsrath Klausius, and I only wrote down what I heard).

KL. "'Klausius.'

KING. "'Klau-si-us. Na, have you many cattle here on the Colonies?'

KL. "'1,887 head of cows, your Majesty. There would have been above 3,000, had it not been for the murrain that was here.'

KING. "'Do the people too increase well? Are there jolly children?'

KL. "'O ja, your Majesty; there are now 1,576 souls upon the Colonies.'

KING. "'Are you married too?'

KL. "'Ja, your Majesty.'

KING. "'And have you children?'

KL. "'Step-children, your Majesty.'

KING. "'Why not of your own?'

KL. "'Don't know that, your Majesty; as it happens.'

KING. "'Hear: Is it far to the Mecklenburg border, here where we are?'

KL. "'Only a short mile [5 miles English]. But there are some villages scattered still within the boundary which belong to Brandenburg. There are Stetzebart, Rosso and so on.'

KING. "'Ja, ja, I know them. But I should not have thought we were so near upon the Mecklenburg country.' [TO THE HERR AMTSRATH KLAUSIUS] 'Where were you born?'

KL. "'At Neustadt on the Dosse.'

KING. "'What was your father?'