<636> pécuniaire, y compris le subside actuel, the extent of which secours pécuniaire is not to be measured by the number of troops the King of Prussia may be able to obtain, but that the number of troops must be determined by His Prussian Majesty's own faculties added to the secours His Majesty may be induced to give, and I begged him to recollect that the words in the précis were pour vous aider à entretenir les troupes etc. The King of Prussia replied there was weight in several things I had said, and I proceeded to acquaint him that such were the gracious intentions of the King my master that, if His Prussian Majesty would make a demand which the King should find just and reasonable to ask of his subjects, His Majesty will comply with it, that, whenever the point of the subsidy is settled with England, the King, as a farther proof of his friendship, will, as Elector, consent that a number of his Electoral troops, proportioned to the sum granted by England, shall enter into the service and pay of the King of Prussia, and the King will likewise use his utmost endeavours to induce the Landgrave of Hesse and the Duke of Brunswick to consent that their troops may enter into His Prussian Majesty's service and pay. The King of Prussia observed that it was difficult for him to make a demand of a certain sum, as he did not know what specific agreements had been made with those Princes for their troops. I answered that I wished, however, this was done without loss of time, as I knew it was His Majesty's intention to take no step towards a negotiation for peace, until the succour to be given to the King of Prussia, in case of a separate peace with France, be assertained and determined ....
As I have been every day since at his levée, I expected to have been able to send Your Lordship a satisfactory answer to the question: « What pecuniary succour, comprehending the actual subsidy already granted, His Prussian Majesty should think proper to demand of the King? » Hitherto the King of Prussia has not explained himself to me, and, if I may venture to conjecture at the cause of this silence, I believe it owing to a notion that his ministers have adopted that the dispatch sent by the Prussian courrier of the 3d instant1 will sufficiently explain and remove all difficulties ...
Notwithstanding all I have said, I have not been able to convince the Prussian ministers that their dispatch of the 3d cannot be satisfactory, and I think they have made an impression upon the King their master, for this day I had an opportunity of seeing him again, upon pretence of communicating to him the contents of Mr. Keith's dispatch of the 15th from Petersbourg, when I took occasion to put him in mind of what had passed in my audience of last wednesday, but the King of Prussia artfully turned the discourse and shifted giving me an answer; I therefore conclude that his ministers here have persuaded him to give
1 Nr. 12619.