[FROM KÖNIGSMARCK TO SOPHIA DOROTHEA]
[Hanover, _December 1692_.]
One could not be better pleased with you than I am. Your obliging
ways of yesterday, your very dear letter, in a word everything,
charms me; I begin to revive, and yesterday is one of those days
which I ought to mark in my book. In order to take full advantage of
it, I beg that I may see you this evening; I shall await the signal
with great impatience, for I die with desire to prove to you my
joy—it is beyond all bounds, and cannot express itself. For the love
of you, of myself, and of everything that is dear to you, continue
in the same way; you will then be able to persuade me that I have
nothing to fear, that I shall always be happy and contented—that is
the pleasure of love, those are the charms of an attachment that is
sincere and genuine. The avowal of the _Grond[eur]_ further gives me
much hope—seek to soften him, you will be able to do it if you try;
but you must take pains about it, and choose your time well. Be
withal convinced that, if Heaven destines me the joy of having you
for my own, my ways will be quite different from what you have
imagined to yourself, and I swear to you that I shall regulate them
according to yours. Put faith in this avowal, for it is sincere, and
springs from a soul without guile and without finesse; as the
weather is fine, I hope to see you in the [falconry] [?].[222] I
hope to find you there loving and happy. Farewell till then; you
will, I feel sure, say a little word to me, from which I can
perceive that you grant my prayer.
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Footnote 221:
Of Hanover (on the point of becoming such).
Footnote 222:
I cannot be sure about the ‘falconry.’ The list of the Elector’s
household in 1696, ap. Malortie, _Der Hannoversche Hof unter d.
Kürfürsten Ernst August_, &c., p. 40, includes one ‘bird-catcher,’
and one ‘ortolan-catcher.’
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