Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia" BOOK VIII.
Page: 59

futility, who, till his death some twenty years after, had to
reside abroad and be nominal merely), 1711; Moritz's attempt with
Adrienne Lecouvreur's cash was, 1726; Anne became Sovereign of all
the Russias (on her poor Cousin Peter II.'s death), 1730;
Bieren (BIRON as he tried to write himself, being of poor birth)
did not get installed till 1737; and had, he and Courland both,
several tumbles after that before getting to stable equilibrium.]
--We hurry to the "Grand Apartment" in Berlin Schloss, and glance
rapidly, with Wilhelmina (in an abridged form), how magnificent
it is:--

Royal Apartment, third floor of the Palace at Berlin, one must
say, few things equal it in the world. "From the Outer Saloon or
Antechamber, called SALLE DES SUISSES [where the halberdier and
valet people wait] you pass through six grand rooms, into a saloon
magnificently decorated: thence through two rooms more, and so
into what they call the Picture-Gallery, a room ninety feet long.
All this is in a line." Grand all this; but still only common in
comparison. From the Picture-Gallery you turn (to right or left is
not said, nor does it matter) into a suite of fourteen great
rooms, each more splendid than the other: lustre from the ceiling
of the first room, for example, is of solid silver; weighs, in
pounds avoirdupois I know not what, but in silver coin "10,000
crowns:" ceilings painted as by Correggio; "wall-mirrors between
each pair of windows are twelve feet high, and their piers
(TRUMEAUX) are of massive silver; in front of each mirror, table
can be laid for twelve;" twelve Serenities may dine there, flanked
by their mirror, enjoying the Correggiosities above, and the
practical sublimities all round. "And this is but the first of the
fourteen;" and you go on increasing in superbness, till, for
example, in the last, or superlative Saloon, you find "a lustre
weighing 50,000 crowns; the globe of it big enough to hold a child
of eight years; and the branches (GUERIDONS) of it," I forget how
many feet or fathoms in extent: silver to the heart. Nay the
music-balcony is of silver; wearied fiddler lays his elbow on
balustrades of that precious metal. Seldom if ever was seen the