MY DEAR FRIEND: Your last letter, of the 5th, gave me as much pleasure as
your former had given me uneasiness; and Larpent’s acknowledgment of his
negligence frees you from those suspicions, which I own I did entertain,
and which I believe every one would, in the same concurrence of
circumstances, have entertained. So much for that.
You may depend upon what I promised you, before midsummer next, at
farthest, and AT LEAST.
All I can say of the affair between you, of the Corps Diplomatique, and
the Saxon Ministers, is, ‘que voila bien du bruit pour une omelette au
lard’. It will most certainly be soon made up; and in that negotiation
show yourself as moderate and healing as your instructions from hence
will allow, especially to Comte de Flemming. The King of Prussia, I
believe, has a mind to insult him personally, as an old enemy, or else to
quarrel with Saxony, that dares not quarrel with him; but some of the
Corps Diplomatique here assure me it is only a pretense to recall his
envoy, and to send, when matters shall be made up, a little secretary
there, ‘a moins de fraix’, as he does now to Paris and London.
Comte Bruhl is much in fashion here; I like him mightily; he has very
much ‘le ton de la bonne campagnie’. Poor Schrader died last Saturday,
without the least pain or sickness. God bless you!