text:  Munificent as this proposal may appear--and it really was so when the relative situation of the parties is considered--it did not at first sight appear large enough to satisfy the craving appetite of Frederick William who in a private interview with Lord Malmesbury had the assurance to demand for the proposed succours no less a sum than _twenty millions_ of dollars without reckoning the "bread and forage!" The firm conduct and resolute tone of Lord Malmesbury seem at last to have convinced the rapacious monarch that in grasping at too much he might lose all; and after a great deal of shabby negotiation and bargaining a settlement was nearly effected on the original terms