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-Gueldres to the Baltic sea, to visit, incognito, thefrontiers and troops of France . He took the name, atStrasbourg , of the count du Four, a rich Bohemiannobleman. He sent me, at Brussels, an account of histravels, half prose, half verse, in the style of Bachau-mont and Chapelle ; that is, as near the style as aking of Prussia could attain ; telling of bad roads andthe passport he was obliged to give himself, which,having with him a seal with the arms of Prussia, heeasily fabricated ; and the surprise his party excited —•some taking them for sovereigns, others for swindlers.From Strasbourg he visited his states in Lower Ger-many, and sent word that he would visit me at Brusselsincognito. We prepared a good residence for him;but falling ill at the little castle of Meuse , two leaguesfrom Cleves, he wrote to beg that I would make thefirst advances. I went, therefore, to present my mostprofound homage. Maupertuis , who already had hisown views, and was possessed by a mania to be pre-sident of an academy, had presented himself, andlodged with Algarotti and Keyserling in a loft of thispalace. I found a single soldier as guard at the gate.The privy counsellor Rambonet, minister of state, waswalking about the court, blowing his fingers ; he hadon large dirty linen ruffles, a hat full of holes, and anold judge’s wig, which on one side reached to hispockets, and on the other scarcely touched his shoulder.I was told, and truly, that this man was charged withimportant state affairs. I was conducted to his ma-jesty’s apartment, where I saw only four walls. Atlength, by the light of a candle, I perceived, in a closet,a truckle bed, two feet and a half wide, on which wasa little man, wrapped in a dressing-gown of coarse bluecloth. It was the king, trembling beneath an oldcounterpane, in a violent access of fever. I bowed tohim, and began my acquaintance by feeling his pulse,as if I had been his first physician. When the accesswas over, he dressed and went to supper with me,AJgarotti, Keyserling, Maupertuis , and his minister tol> 4