Hamburg, 12 December 1768

You have filled me with gratitude and joy, sir, in rendering to me the honour of your remembrance, so necessary to the consolation of my old days.
Everyone admires you, but few hearts pardon the violence that is done to their vanity when they are forced to admiration. Do you sometimes remember that for nearly forty years I have devoted to you all the sentiments that equity, taste, and esteem can bring together, and that at no moment has my heart varied for an instant towards you? You see, however, sir, that in spite of this act of simple justice, which is, perhaps, unique, I do not abuse your kindness nor bombard you with homages and importunities. Too satisfied, too happy, to obtain at rare intervals the least sign of your precious benevolence, I am not in truth sufficiently an enemy to myself and to humanity to deprive you of that leisure which you employ only in enlightening us and in rendering us better and happier.

Alas! sir, must I die by the side of my dreary Arctic pole without thanking you once again by word of mouth for all the good that you alone have done to my thinking being, by tearing it away from a thousand foolish and inimical projects and leading it continually in the direction of good sense and justice? I am bitterly disappointed, I must own, at perceiving no likelihood, no possibility, of the accomplishment of the only comfort which I still longed for. Pity me, sir, but I entreat you not to forget me. I will not speak further of myself on this condition.

We have here at present a phenomenon from your country. It is a young French nobleman who combines the elegance of his nation with the solidity of mature age, and refinement of mind with the most genuine and the most touching kindness. It is the marquis de Noailles, a minister of far too high a rank for our town of Hamburg. He has the most amiable wife in the world; she is worthy of him by her charms and her character. The only things wanting to this interesting couple are better health and a more brilliant scene of action. I enjoy, as far as my decrepitude will permit me, this sweet society which I am greatly surprise at meeting in this degree of latitude. You are known by heart in this house, and m. and mme de Noailles have both shone in rendering in a superior manner the treasures which we owe to you.

If these particular tributes do not suffice you, sir, we are soon expecting a king who pays you, it is said, others quite as decided. This is our young Danish monarch, who has had the glory of obtaining the favour of France and of the greatest king of the world. Everything which happens to him bears an air of enchantment. Is it not very curious that a king of Denmark should render to the French theatre the first actress of the world, whose natural and self-taught wit has been able to satisfy the best and the most enlightened judges? All honest people, sir, flatter themselves that this journey, which was so much condemned beforehand, will be the happiness of master and subjects; and that it is the most august mentor, the most cherished of kings, who has himself taught our young sovereign to rule, to love his peoples, and to take delight in making himself adored. All that is wanting in this happy occurrence, sir, and to the glory of the two monarchs is owing to the singular fact that this event has been extolled only by talents of a poor order up to the present; and everyone joins in asking of you eight or ten verses which will put in a better form that which is to be said, and will finish by awakening the noble emulation of the young king and his passion for veritable glory, which you alone perhaps are capable of engraving by a few ineffaceable words on his heart, moved by so many objects which have appeared to make an impression upon him. It is even asserted, sir, that he has expressed the most extreme desire to see you, and that he wished to go to seek you, but that endeavours are being made to prevent him. Sovereigns are not fortunate enough to be surrounded by courtiers, and less still by ministers, who have the good intention to accommodate themselves to the sight of the truth which you would show them.

If you would honour me merely with a quatrain for this prince, who will return here from Altona on the 6th of January and will remain with us seven or eight days, you would enable us to give him a finer fête than all those that the gratitude of the people of Hamburg is preparing for him. If I am too indiscreet in my pretensions, punish me by your silence; but the desire to ripen virtue in a royal heart, by the voice of the organ which alone has appeared to me susceptible of making it speak justly, must serve as an excuse for my rash proposition.

Here, sir, is a long letter for you. I send you by my correspondent at Schaffhausen a little essay on the talents which an illustrious family has cultivated in your various works; I refer to the young princes of Saxony, who have derived from you alone their first intellectual lessons. Ah! sir, how delightful it is for me to see all the earth agree in confessing that they owe you so much. Do not forget the person in the world who is the most imbued with this truth. Adieu.

C. S. comtesse de Bentinck, née d'Aldenburg]