Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia" BOOK VIII.
Page: 52

elbow-room, for that is whither he aims.--Not a bad stroke that,
of the King of Sardinia"--Grand news of the day, at that time;
now somewhat forgotten, and requiring a word from us:

Old King Victor Amadeus of Sardinia had solemnly abdicated in
favor of his Son; went, for a twelvemonth or more, into private
felicity with an elderly Lady-love whom he had long esteemed the
first of women;--tired of such felicity, after a twelvemonth;
demanded his crown back, and could not get it! Lady-love and he
are taken prisoners; lodged in separate castles: [2d September,
1730 abdicated, went to Chambery; reclaims, is locked in Rivoli,
8th October, 1731 (news of it just come to Schulenburg);
dies there, 31st October, 1732, his 67th year.] and the wrath of
the proud old gentleman is Olympian in character,--split an oak
table, smiting it while he spoke (say the cicerones);--and his
silence, and the fiery daggers he looks, are still more emphatic.
But the young fellow holds out; you cannot play handy-dandy with a
king's crown, your Majesty! say his new Ministers. Is and will
continue King. "Not a bad stroke of him," thinks Schulenburg,--

--"especially if his Father meant to play him the same trick,"
that is, clap him in prison. Not a bad stroke;--which perhaps
there is another that could imitate, "if HIS Papa gave him the
opportunity! But THIS Papa will take good care; and the Queen will
not forget the Sardinian business, when he talks again of
abdicating," as he does when in ill-humor.--

"But now had not we better have been friends with England, should
war rise upon that Sardinian business? General Schulenburg,"--the
famed Venetian Field-marshal, bruiser of the Turks in Candia,
[Same who was beaten by Charles XII. before; a worthy soldier
nevertheless, say the Authorities: LIFE of him by Varnhagen von
Ense ( Biographische Denkmale, Berlin,
1845).] my honored Uncle, who sometimes used to visit his Sister
the Maypole, now EMERITA, in London, and sip beer and take tobacco
on an evening, with George I. of famous memory,--he also "writes
me this Victor-Amadeus news, from Paris;" so that it is certain;