138.] but, in deeper fact, for the purpose of apprising certain Crowned Heads, friendly and hostile,--Czarish Majesty and George II.

of England the main two,--what this poetizing King was pleased to think of them in his private moments.

D'Argens declares himself glad of this theft, so exquisitely clever is the Book.

But Friedrich knows better: "March 17th, when a Copy of it came to him," Friedrich sees well what is meant,--and what he himself has to do in it.

He instantly sets about making a few suppressions, changes of phrase; sends the thing to D'Argens: "Publish at once, with a little prefatory word." And, at the top of his speed, D'Argens has, in three weeks' time, the suitable AVANT-PROPOS, or AVIS AU LIBRAIRE, "circulating in great quantities, especially in London and Petersburg" ("Thief Editor has omitted; and, what is far more, has malignantly interpolated: here is the poor idle Work itself, not a Counterfeit of it, if anybody care to read it"), and an Orthodox Edition ready.