<21> of what has passed in the conversations I have had with the King of Prussia since my arrivai here.
When I communicated the contents of Mr. Keith's letter from Petersbourg of the 15th December,1 I perceived that His Prussian Majesty was very much Struck with the news, for he had certainly imagined that the answer from that Court would have been of a quite différent nature. He endeavoured immediately to recover himself and to conceal from me his surprise, but still I could see that it had made an impression.
The King of Prussia gave me no directions to send to Mr. Keith, and made this single observation, that, if the favourite Schuwalow was so entirely devoted to the French interest, as Mr. Keith represented him to be, it was in the power of France to draw off Russia from the alliance, and he hoped that this would be attended to, in case France was in a humour to treat.
He then touched, but in very general terms, upon the present critical situation, and said, that a few days before he had sent an account of it to England;2 but as he entered no farther into this subject, I did not think proper to continue the conversation, nor to shew any curiosity to know the particulars of what he had wrote to England.
After talking of various matters, His Prussian Majesty told me that, by the accounts he had from Paris, the affairs of France were in the utmost distraction and confusion, but he, by no means, thinks that the French are so exhausted as not to be able to find funds to carry on the war. He seems, however, to believe that France wishes for peace, and he added, that by the information he had from that country, they would be Willing to purchase it with the loss of Canada.
In an audience I had of the King of Prussia two days after, I laid before him the papers transmitted to me in your Lordship's letter of the 21st of December, concerning the Spanish minister's memorial,3 and the answer given to it by the King's order, which he said was wise and spirited; but he owned that the step the King of Spain had taken, gave just ground of jealousy and too much reason to suspect that the French influence was growing at that court; he said he knew they had ail hands at work to draw in His Catholic Majesty to take a part in the present war, that they had prevailed with the King of Poland to write to his daughter, Queen of Spain, upon this point, and particularly to make her diffident of Mr. Wall, whose credit at that Court gives the greatest umbrage to the French. He concluded with saying that he thought our connection with Spain of the greatest consequence in the présent conjuncture, and that he hoped the most serious attention would be given to it. I took the liberty to assure the King of Prussia that
1 Vergl. Nr. 11740.
2 Vergl. Nr. 11733.
3 Vergl. Nr. 11741.