Leibniz excused himself so that Sophie Charlotte could scold her son. As he passed beneath the globe he saw Princess Caroline’s shoes flashing out first to one side, then the other, as she reciprocated to and fro, first towards George August, then towards Frederick William. She was singing a little nursery rhyme she had picked up from her English tutor: "Eeny, meeny, miney, moe...catch a suitor by the toe...to England or Prussia shall I go...to be made high or be laid low...eeny, meeny, miney, moe."