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diff --git a/2109.txt b/2109.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..98674ac --- /dev/null +++ b/2109.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6033 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. +IX. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. IX. (of XXI.) + Frederick The Great--Last Stage of Friedrich's + Apprenticeship: Life in Ruppin--1732-1736 + +Author: Thomas Carlyle + +Posting Date: June 13, 2008 [EBook #2109] +Release Date: March 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. *** + + + + +Produced by D.R. Thompson + + + + + +HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II OF PRUSSIA + +FREDERICK THE GREAT + +By Thomas Carlyle + +Volume IX. + + + + +BOOK IX. -- LAST STAGE OF FRIEDRICH'S APPRENTICESHIP: LIFE IN RUPPIN. -- +1732-1736. + + + + +Chapter I. -- PRINCESS ELIZABETH CHRISTINA OF BRUNSWICK-BEVERN. + +We described the Crown-Prince as intent to comply, especially in +all visible external particulars, with Papa's will and pleasure;--to +distinguish himself by real excellence in Commandantship of the Regiment +Goltz, first of all. But before ever getting into that, there has +another point risen, on which obedience, equally essential, may be still +more difficult. + +Ever since the grand Catastrophe went off WITHOUT taking Friedrich's +head along with it, and there began to be hopes of a pacific settlement, +question has been, Whom shall the Crown-Prince marry? And the debates +about it in the Royal breast and in Tobacco-Parliament, and rumors +about it in the world at large, have been manifold and continual. In the +Schulenburg Letters we saw the Crown-Prince himself much interested, and +eagerly inquisitive on that head. As was natural: but it is not in the +Crown-Prince's mind, it is in the Tobacco-Parliament, and the Royal +breast as influenced there, that the thing must be decided. Who in the +world will it be, then? Crown-Prince himself hears now of this party, +now of that. England is quite over, and the Princess Amelia sunk below +the horizon. Friedrich himself appears a little piqued that Hotham +carried his nose so high; that the English would not, in those +life-and-death circumstances, abate the least from their "Both marriages +or none,"--thinks they should have saved Wilhelmina, and taken his word +of honor for the rest. England is now out of his head;--all romance +is too sorrowfully swept out: and instead of the "sacred air-cities of +hope" in this high section of his history, the young man is looking into +the "mean clay hamlets of reality," with an eye well recognizing them +for real. With an eye and heart already tempered to the due hardness for +them. Not a fortunate result, though it was an inevitable one. We +saw him flirting with the beautiful wedded Wreech; talking to +Lieutenant-General Schulenburg about marriage, in a way which shook the +pipe-clay of that virtuous man. He knows he would not get his choice, +if he had one; strives not to care. Nor does he, in fact, much care; the +romance being all out of it. He looks mainly to outward advantages; to +personal appearance, temper, good manners; to "religious principle," +sometimes rather in the reverse way (fearing an OVERPLUS rather);--but +always to likelihood of moneys by the match, as a very direct item. +Ready command of money, he feels, will be extremely desirable in a Wife; +desirable and almost indispensable, in present straitened circumstances. +These are the notions of this ill-situated Coelebs. + +The parties proposed first and last, and rumored of in Newspapers and +the idle brains of men, have been very many,--no limit to their numbers; +it MAY be anybody: an intending purchaser, though but possessed +of sixpence, is in a sense proprietor of the whole Fair! Through +Schulenburg we heard his own account of them, last Autumn;--but the +far noblest of the lot was hardly glanced at, or not at all, on that +occasion. The Kaiser's eldest Daughter, sole heiress of Austria and +these vast Pragmatic-Sanction operations; Archduchess Maria Theresa +herself,--it is affirmed to have been Prince Eugene's often-expressed +wish, That the Crown-Prince of Prussia should wed the future Empress +[Hormayr, _Allgemeine Geschichte der neueslen Zeit_ (Wien, 1817), +i. 13; cited in Preuss, i. 71.] Which would indeed have saved immense +confusions to mankind! Nay she alone of Princesses, beautiful, +magnanimous, brave, was the mate for such a Prince,--had the Good +Fairies been consulted, which seldom happens:--and Romance itself might +have become Reality in that case: with high results to the very soul +of this young Prince! Wishes are free: and wise Eugene will have been +heard, perhaps often, to express this wish; but that must have been all. +Alas, the preliminaries, political, especially religious, are at once +indispensable and impossible: we have to dismiss that daydream. A +Papal-Protestant Controversy still exists among mankind; and this is one +penalty they pay for not having settled it sooner. The Imperial Court +cannot afford its Archduchess on the terms possible in that quarter. + +What the Imperial Court can do is, to recommend a Niece of theirs, +insignificant young Princess, Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick-Bevern, +who is Niece to the Empress; and may be made useful in this way, to +herself and us, think the Imperial Majesties;--will be a new tie upon +the Prussians and the Pragmatic Sanction, and keep the Alliance still +surer for our Archduchess in times coming, think their Majesties. She, +it is insinuated by Seckendorf in Tobacco-Parliament; ought not she, +Daughter of your Majesty's esteemed friend,--modest-minded, innocent +young Princess, with a Brother already betrothed in your Majesty's +House,--to be the Lady? It is probable she will. + +Did we inform the reader once about Kaiser Karl's young marriage +adventures; and may we, to remind him, mention them a second time? How +Imperial Majesty, some five-and-twenty years ago, then only King of +Spain, asked Princess Caroline of Anspach, who was very poor, and an +orphan in the world. Who at once refused, declining to think of changing +her religion on such a score;--and now governs England, telegraphing +with Walpole, as Queen there instead. How Karl, now Imperial Majesty, +then King of Spain, next applied to Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel; and met with +a much better reception there. Applied to old Anton Ulrich, reigning +Duke, who writes big Novels, and does other foolish good-natured +things;--who persuaded his Grand-daughter that a change to Catholicism +was nothing in such a case, that he himself should not care in the +least to change. How the Grand-daughter changed accordingly, went to +Barcelona, and was wedded;--and had to dun old Grandpapa, "Why don't you +change, then?" Who did change thereupon; thinking to himself, "Plague on +it I must, then!" the foolish old Herr. He is dead; and his Novels, in +six volumes quarto, are all dead: and the Grand-daughter is Kaiserinn, +on those terms, a serene monotonous well-favored Lady, diligent in her +Catholic exercises; of whom I never heard any evil, good rather, in her +eminent serene position. Pity perhaps that she had recommended her Niece +for this young Prussian gentleman; whom it by no means did "attach to +the Family" so very careful about him at Vienna! But if there lay a sin, +and a punishment following on it, here or elsewhere, in her Imperial +position, surely it is to be charged on foolish old Anton Ulrich; not +on her, poor Lady, who had never coveted such height, nor durst for her +soul take the leap thitherward, till the serene old literary gentleman +showed her how easy it was. + +Well, old Anton Ulrich is long since dead, [1714, age 70. Huber, t. +190.] and his religious accounts are all settled beyond cavil; and only +the sad duty devolves on me of explaining a little what and who his +rather insipid offspring are, so far as related to readers of this +History. Anton Ulrich left two sons; the elder of whom was Duke, and +the younger had an Apanage, Blankenburg by name. Only this younger had +children,--serene Kaiserinn that now is, one of them: The elder died +childless, [1731, Michaelis, i. 132.] precisely a few months before +the times we are now got to; reigning Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, +["Welf-BOOTHS" (Hunted Camp of the Welfs), according to Etymology. +"Brunswick," again, is BRAUN'S-Wick; "Braun" (Brown) being an old +militant Welf in those parts, who built some lodge for himself, as a +convenience there,--Year 880, say the uncertain old Books. Hubner, t. +149; Michaelis, &c.] all but certain Apanages, and does not concern +us farther. To that supreme dignity the younger has now come, and his +Apanage of Blankenburg and children with him;--so that there is now only +one outstanding Apanage (Bevern, not known to us yet); which also will +perhaps get reunited, if we cared for it. Ludwig Rudolf is the name of +this new sovereign Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, or Duke in chief; +age now sixty; has a shining, bustling, somewhat irregular Duchess, +says Wilhelmina; and a nose--or rather almost no nose, for sad reasons! +[Wilhelmina, ii. 121.] Other qualities or accidents I know not of +him,--except that he is Father of the Vienna Kaiserinn; Grandfather of +the Princess whom Seckendorf suggests for our Friedrich of Prussia. + +In Ludwig Rudolf's insipid offspring our readers are unexpectedly +somewhat interested; let readers patiently attend, therefore. He +had three Daughters, never any son. Two of his Daughters, eldest and +youngest, are alive still; the middle one had a sad fate long ago. She +married, in 1711, Alexius the Czarowitz of Peter the Great: foolish +Czarowitz, miserable and making others miserable, broke her heart by ill +conduct, ill usage, in four years; so that she died; leaving him only a +poor small Peter II., who is now dead too, and that matter ended all +but the memory of it. Some accounts bear, that she did not die; that she +only pretended it, and ran and left her intolerable Czarowitz. That she +wedded, at Paris, in deep obscurity, an Officer just setting out for +Louisiana; lived many years there as a thrifty soldier's wife; returned +to Paris with her Officer reduced to half-pay; and told him--or told +some select Official person after him, under seven-fold oath, being then +a widow and necessitous--her sublime secret. Sublime secret, which +came thus to be known to a supremely select circle at Paris; and was +published in Books, where one still reads it. No vestige of truth +in it,--except that perhaps a necessitous soldier's widow at Paris, +considering of ways and means, found that she had some trace of likeness +to the Pictures of this Princess, and had heard her tragic story. + +Ludwig Rudolf's second Daughter is dead long years ago; nor has +this fable as yet risen from her dust. Of Ludwig Rudolf's other two +Daughters, we have said that one, the eldest, was the Kaiserinn; +Empress Elizabeth Christina, age now precisely forty; with two beautiful +Daughters, sublime Maria Theresa the elder of them, and no son that +would live. Which last little circumstance has caused the Pragmatic +Sanction, and tormented universal Nature for so many years back! +Ludwig Rudolf has a youngest Daughter, also married, and a Mother in +Germany,--to this day conspicuously so;--of whom next, or rather of her +Husband and Family-circle, we must say a word. + +Her Husband is no other than the esteemed Friend of Friedrich Wilhelm; +Duke of Brunswick-Bevern, by title; who, as a junior branch, lives on +the Apanage of Bevern, as his Father did; but is sure now to inherit the +sovereignty and be Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel at large, he or his +Sons, were the present incumbent, Ludwig Rudolf, once out. Present +incumbent, we have just intimated, is his Father-in-law; but it is +not on that ground that he looks to inherit. He is Nephew of old Anton +Ulrich, Son of a younger Brother (who was also "Bevern" in Anton's +time); and is the evident Heir-male; old Anton being already fallen into +the distaff, with nothing but three Grand-daughters. Anton's heir +will now be this Nephew; Nephew has wedded one of the Grand-daughters, +youngest of the Three, youngest Daughter of Ludwig Rudolf, Sovereign +Duke that now is; which Lady, by the family she brought him, if no +otherwise, is memorable or mentionable here, and may be called, a Mother +in Germany. + + [ANTON ULRICH (1833-1714). Duke in Chief; that is, Duke of + Brunswick-WOLFENBUTTEL. + AUGUST WILHELM, elder Son and Heir (1662, 1714, 1731); had no + children. + LUDWIG RUDOLF, the younger Son (1671, 1731, 1735), apanagad in + Blankenburg: Duke of Brunswick-BLANKENBURG; became WOLFENBUTTEL. + 1731, died, 1st March, 1735. No Son; so that now the Bevern + succeeded. Three Daughters: + Elizabeth Christina, the Kaiserinn (1691, 1708, 1750). + Charlotte Christina (1694, 1711, 1715), Alexius of Russia's, + had a FABULOUS end. + Antoinette Amelia (1695, 1712, 1762); Bevern's Wife,--a + "Mother in Germany." + FERDINAND ALBERT (1636-1687), his younger Brother apanaged in + Bevern; that is, Duke of Brunswick-BEVERN. + FERDINAND ALBERT, eldest Son (an elder had perished, 1704, on + the Schellenberg under Marlborough), followed in Bevern (1680, + 1687-1704, 1735); Kaiser's soldier, Friedrich Wilhelm's friend; + married his Cousin, Antoinette Amelia ("Mother in Germany," as + we call her). Duke in Chief, 1st March, 1785, on Ludwig Rudolf's + decease; died himself, 3d September same year. + BORN 1713, Karl the Heir (to marry our Friedrich's Sister). + 1714, Anton Ulrich (Russia; tragedy of Czar Iwan). + 1715, 8th November, Elizabeth Christina (Crown Prince's). + 1718, Ludwig Ernst (Holland, 1787). + 1721, Ferdinand (Chatham's and England's) of the Seven Years + War. + 1722, 1724, 1725, 1732, Four others; Boys the youngest Two, + who were both killed in Friedrich's Wars.] + +Father Bevern her Husband, Ferdinand Albert the name of him, is now +just fifty, only ten years younger than his serene Father-in-law, Ludwig +Rudolf:--whom, I may as well say here, he does at last succeed, three +years hence (1735) and becomes Duke of Brunswick in General, according +to hope; but only for a few months, having himself died that same year. +Poor Duke; rather a good man, by all the accounts I could hear; +though not of qualities that shone. He is at present "Duke +of Brunswick-Bevern,"--such his actual nomenclature in those +ever-fluctuating Sibyl's-leaves of German History-Books, Wilhelmina's +and the others;--expectant Duke of Brunswick in General; much a friend +of Friedrich Wilhelm. A kind of Austrian soldier he was formerly, and +will again be for brief times; General-Feldmarschall so styled; but is +not notable in War, nor otherwise at all, except for the offspring +he had by this serene Spouse of his. Insipid offspring, the impatient +reader says; but permits me to enumerate one or two of them:-- + +1. Karl, eldest Son; who is sure to be Brunswick in General; who is +betrothed to Princess Charlotte of Prussia,--"a satirical creature, +she, fonder of my Prince than of him," Wilhelmina thinks. The wedding +nevertheless took effect. Brunswick in General duly fell in, first to +the Father; then, in a few months more, to Karl with his Charlotte: and +from them proceeded, in due time, another Karl, of whom we shall hear +in this History;--and of whom all the world heard much in the French +Revolution Wars; in 1792, and still more tragically afterwards. Shot, +to death or worse, at the Battle of Jena, October, 1806; "battle lost +before it was begun,"--such the strategic history they give of it. He +peremptorily ordered the French Revolution to suppress itself; and that +was the answer the French Revolution made him. From this Karl, what NEW +Queens Caroline of England and portentous Dukes of Brunswick, sent upon +their travels through the anarchic world, profitable only to Newspapers, +we need not say!-- + +2. Anton Ulrich; named after his august Great-Grandfather; does not +write novels like him. At present a young gentleman of eighteen; goes +into Russia before long, hoping to beget Czars; which issues dreadfully +for himself and the potential Czars he begot. The reader has heard of +a potential "Czar Iwan," violently done to death in his room, one dim +moonlight night of 1764, in the Fortress of Schlusselburg, middle of +Lake Ladoga; misty moon looking down on the stone battlements, on the +melancholy waters, and saying nothing.--But let us not anticipate. + +3. Elizabeth Christina; to us more important than any of them. +Namesake of the Kaiserinn, her august Aunt; age now seventeen; insipid +fine-complexioned young lady, who is talked of for the Bride of our +Crown-Prince. Of whom the reader will hear more. Crown-Prince fears she +is "too religious,"--and will have "CAGOTS" about her (solemn persons +in black, highly unconscious how little wisdom they have), who may be +troublesome. + +4. A merry young Boy, now ten, called Ferdinand; with whom England +within the next thirty years will ring, for some time, loud enough: the +great "Prince Ferdinand" himself,--under whom the Marquis of Granby +and others became great; Chatham superintending it. This really was a +respectable gentleman, and did considerable things,--a Trismegistus in +comparison with the Duke of Cumberland whom he succeeded. A cheerful, +singularly polite, modest, well-conditioned man withal. To be slightly +better known to us, if we live. He at present is a Boy of ten, chasing +the thistle's beard. + +5. Three other sons, all soldiers, two of them younger than Ferdinand; +whose names were in the gazettes down to a late period;--whom we shall +ignore in this place. The last of them was marched out of Holland, where +he had long been Commander-in-chief on rather Tory principles, in +the troubles of 1787. Others of them we shall see storming forward +on occasion, valiantly meeting death in the field of fight, all +conspicuously brave of character; but this shall be enough of them at +present. + +It is of these that Ludwig Rudolf's youngest daughter, the serene +Ferdinand Albert's wife, is Mother in Germany; highly conspicuous in +their day. If the question is put, it must be owned they are all +rather of the insipid type. Nothing but a kind of albuminous simplicity +noticeable in them; no wit, originality, brightness in the way +of uttered intellect. If it is asked, How came they to the least +distinction in this world?--the answer is not immediately apparent. But +indeed they are Welf of the Welfs, in this respect as in others. One +asks, with increased wonder, noticing in the Welfs generally nothing +but the same albuminous simplicity, and poverty rather than opulence +of uttered intellect, or of qualities that shine, How the Welfs came to +play such a part, for the last thousand years, and still to be at it, +in conspicuous places? Reader, I have observed that uttered intellect is +not what permanently makes way, but unuttered. Wit, logical brilliancy, +spiritual effulgency, true or FALSE,--how precious to idle mankind, +and to the Newspapers and History-Books, even when it is false: +while, again, Nature and Practical Fact care next to nothing for it in +comparison, even when it is true! Two silent qualities you will notice +in these Welfs, modern and ancient; which Nature much values: FIRST, +consummate human Courage; a noble, perfect, and as it were unconscious +superiority to fear. And then SECONDLY, much weight of mind, a noble not +too conscious Sense of what is Right and Not-Right, I have found in +some of them;--which means mostly WEIGHT, or good gravitation, good +observance of the perpendicular; and is called justice, veracity, +high-honor, and other such names. These are fine qualities indeed, +especially with an "albuminous simplicity" as vehicle to them. If the +Welfs had not much articulate intellect, let us guess they made a good +use, not a bad or indifferent, as is commoner, of what they had. + + + + +WHO HIS MAJESTY'S CHOICE IS; AND WHAT THE CROWN-PRINCE THINKS OF IT. + +Princess Elizabeth Christina, the insipid Brunswick specimen, backed +by Seckendorf and Vienna, proves on consideration the desirable to +Friedrich Wilhelm in this matter. But his Son's notions, who as yet +knows her only by rumor, do not go that way. Insipidity, triviality; the +fear of "CAGOTAGE" and frightful fellows in black supremely unconscious +what blockheads they are, haunts him a good deal. And as for any money +coming,--her sublime Aunt the Kaiserinn never had much ready money; +one's resources on that side are likely to be exiguous. He would prefer +the Princess of Mecklenburg, Semi-Russian Catharine or Anna, of whom we +have heard; would prefer the Princess of Eisenach (whose name he does +not know rightly); thinks there are many Princesses preferable. Most of +all he would prefer, what is well known of him in Tobacco-Parliament, +but known to be impossible, this long while back, to go upon a round of +travel,--as for instance the Prince of Lorraine is now doing,--and look +about him a little. + +These candid considerations the Crown-Prince earnestly suggests to +Grumkow, and the secret committee of Tobacco-Parliament; earnestly again +and again, in his Correspondence with that gentleman, which goes on very +brisk at present. "Much of it lost," we hear;--but enough, and to spare, +is saved! Not a beautiful correspondence: the tone of it shallow, hard +of heart; tragically flippant, especially on the Crown-Prince's part; +now and then even a touch of the hypocritical from him, slight touch +and not with will: alas, what can the poor young man do? Grumkow--whose +ground, I think, is never quite so secure since that Nosti +business--professes ardent attachment to the real interests of the +Prince; and does solidly advise him of what is feasible, what not, in +head-quarters; very exemplary "attachment;" credible to what length, the +Prince well enough knows. And so the Correspondence is unbeautiful; not +very descriptive even,--for poor Friedrich is considerably under mask, +while he writes to that address; and of Grumkow himself we want no more +"description;" and is, in fact, on its own score, an avoidable article +rather than otherwise; though perhaps the reader, for a poor involved +Crown-Prince's sake, will wish an exact Excerpt or two before we quite +dismiss it. + +Towards turning off the Brunswick speculation, or turning on the +Mecklenburg or Eisenach or any other in its stead, the Correspondence +naturally avails nothing. Seckendorf has his orders from Vienna: Grumkow +has his pension,--his cream-bowl duly set,--for helping Beckendorf. +Though angels pleaded, not in a tone of tragic flippancy, but with +the voice of breaking hearts, it would be to no purpose. The Imperial +Majesties have ordered, Marry him to Brunswick, "bind him the better to +our House in time coming;" nay the Royal mind at Potsdam gravitates, of +itself, that way, after the first hint is given. The Imperial will has +become the Paternal one; no answer but obedience. What Grumkow can do +will be, if possible, to lead or drive the Crown-Prince into obeying +smoothly, or without breaking of harness again. Which, accordingly, is +pretty much the sum of his part in this unlovely Correspondence: +the geeho-ing of an expert wagoner, who has got a fiery young Arab +thoroughly tied into his dastard sand-cart, and has to drive him by +voice, or at most by slight crack of whip; and does it. Can we hope, a +select specimen or two of these Documents, not on Grumkow's part, or for +Grumkow's unlovely sake, may now be acceptable to the reader? A Letter +or two picked from that large stock, in a legible state, will show +us Father and Son, and how that tragic matter went on, better than +description could. + +Papa's Letters to the Crown-Prince during that final Custrin +period,--when Carzig and Himmelstadt were going on, and there was such +progress in Economics, are all of hopeful ruggedly affectionate tenor; +and there are a good few of them: style curiously rugged, intricate, +headlong; and a strong substance of sense and worth tortuously visible +everywhere. Letters so delightful to the poor retrieved Crown-Prince +then and there; and which are still almost pleasant reading to +third-parties, once you introduce grammar and spelling. This is one +exact specimen; most important to the Prince and us. Suddenly, one +night, by estafette, his Majesty, meaning nothing but kindness, +and grateful to Seckendorf and Tobacco-Parliament for such an idea, +proposes,--in these terms (merely reduced to English and the common +spelling):-- + +"TO THE CROWN-PRINCE AT CUSTRIN (from Papa). "POTSDAM, 4th February, +1732 + +"MY DEAR SON FRITZ,--I am very glad you need no more physic. But you +must have a care of yourself, some days yet, for the severe weather; +which gives me and everybody colds; so pray be on your guard (NEHMET +EUCH KUBSCH IN ACHT). + +"You know, my dear Son, that when my children are obedient, I love +them much: so, when you were at Berlin, I from my heart forgave you +everything; and from that Berlin time, since I saw you, have thought +of nothing but of your well-being and how to establish you,--not in the +Army only, but also with a right Step-daughter, and so see you married +in my lifetime. You may be well persuaded I have had the Princesses +of Germany taken survey of, so far as possible, and examined by trusty +people, what their conduct is, their education and so on: and so a +Princess has been found, the Eldest one of Bevern, who is well brought +up, modest and retiring, as women ought to be. + +"You will without delay (CITO) write me your mind on this. I have +purchased the Von Katsch House; the Feldmarschall," old Wartensleben, +poor Katte's grandfather, "as Governor" of Berlin, "will get that to +live in: and his Government House, [Fine enough old House, or Palace, +built by the Great Elector; given by him to Graf Feldmarschall von +Schomberg, the "Duke Schomberg" who was killed in the Battle of the +Boyne: "same House, opposite the Arsenal, which belongs now (1855) to +his Royal Highness Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia." (Preuss, i. 73; +and _ OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvi. 12 n.)] I will have made new for you, +and furnish it all; and give you enough to keep house yourself there; +and will command you into the Army, April coming [which is quite a +subordinate story, your Majesty!]. + +"The Princess is not ugly, nor beautiful. You must mention it to no +mortal;--write indeed to Mamma (DER MAMA) that I have written to +you. And when you shall have a Son, I will let you go on your +Travels,--wedding, however, cannot be before winter next. Meanwhile I +will try aud contrive opportunity that you see one another, a few +times, in all honor, yet so that you get acquainted with her. She is +a God-fearing creature (GOTTESFURCHTIGES MENSCH), which is all in all; +will suit herself to you [be COMPORTABLE to you] as she does to the +Parents-in-law. + +"God give his blessing to it; and bless You and your Posterity, and keep +Thee as a good Christian. And have God always before your eyes;--and +don't believe that damnable PARTICULAR tenet [Predestination]; and be +obedient and faithful: so shall it, here in Time and there in Eternity, +go well with thee;--and whoever wishes that from the heart, let him say +Amen. + +"Your true Father to the death, + +"FRIEDRICH WILHELM. + + +"When the Duke of Lorraine comes, I will have thee come. I think +thy Bride will be here then. Adieu; God be with you." [_ OEuvres de +Frederic,_ xxvii, part 3d, p. 55.] + +This important Missive reached Custrin, by estafette, that same +midnight, 4th-5th February; when Wolden, "Hofmarschall of the Prince's +Court" (titular Goldstick there, but with abundance of real functions +laid on him), had the honor to awaken the Crown-Prince into the joy of +reading. Crown-Prince instantly despatched, by another estafette, the +requisite responses to Papa and Mamma,--of which Wolden does not know +the contents at all, not he, the obsequious Goldstick;--but doubtless +they mean "Yes," Crown-Prince appearing so overjoyed at this splendid +evidence of Papa's love, as the Goldstick could perceive. [Wolden's +LETTER to Friedrich Wilhelm, "5th February, 1732:" in Preuss, ii. part +2d (or URKUNDENOUCH), p. 206. Mamma's answer to the message brought +her by this return estafette, a mere formal VERY-WELL, written from the +fingers outward, exists (_OEuvres,_ xxvi. 65); the rest have happily +vanished.] + +What the Prince's actual amount of joy was, we shall learn better +from the following three successive utterances of his, confidentially +despatched to Grumkow in the intermediate days, before Berlin or this +"Duke of Lorraine" (whom our readers and the Crown-Prince are to wait +upon), with actual sight of Papa and the Intended, came in course. +Grumkow's Letters to the Crown-Prince in this important interval are not +extant, nor if they were could we stand them: from the Prince's Answers +it will be sufficiently apparent what the tenor of them was. Utterance +first is about a week after that of the estafette at midnight:-- + +TO GENERAL FELDMARSCHALL VON GRUMKOW, AT POTSDAM (from the +Crown-Prince). + +"CUSTRIN, 11th February, 1732. + +"MY DEAR GENERAL AND FRIEND,--I was charmed to learn by your Letter +that my affairs are on so good a footing [Papa so well satisfied with +my professions of obedience]; and you may depend on it I am docile to +follow your advice. I will lend myself to whatever is possible for me; +and provided I can secure the King's favor by my obedience, I will do +all that is within my power. + +"Nevertheless, in making my bargain with the Duke of Bevern, manage that +the CORPUS DELICTI [my Intended] be brought up under her Grandmother +[Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, Ludwig Rudolf's Spouse, an airy +coquettish Lady,--let her be the tutoress and model of my Intended, O +General]. For I should prefer being made a"--what shall we say? by +a light wife,--"or to serve under the haughty FONTANGE [Species +of topknot; so named from Fontange, an unfortunate female of Louis +Fourteenth's, who invented the ornament.] of my Spouse [as Ludwig Rudolf +does, by all accounts], than to have a blockhead who would drive me mad +by her ineptitudes? and whom I should be ashamed to produce. + +"I beg you labor at this affair. When one hates romance heroines as +heartily as I do, one dreads those 'virtues' of the ferocious type [LES +VERTUS FAROUCHES, so terribly aware that they are virtuous]; and I had +rather marry the greatest--[unnamable]--in Berlin, than a devotee with +half a dozen ghastly hypocrites (CAGOTS) at her beck. If it were still +MOGLICH [possible, in German] to make her Calvinist [REFORMEE; our +Court-Creed, which might have an allaying tendency, and at least would +make her go with the stream]? But I doubt that:--I will insist, however, +that her Grandmother have the training of her. What you can do to help +in this, my dear Friend, I am persuaded you will do. + +"It afflicted me a little that the King still has doubts of me, while I +am obeying in such a matter, diametrically opposite to my own ideas. In +what way shall I offer stronger proofs? I may give myself to the Devil, +it will be to no purpose; nothing but the old song over again, doubt on +doubt.--Don't imagine I am going to disoblige the Duke, the Duchess or +the Daughter, I beseech you! I know too well what is due to them, and +too much respect their merits, not to observe the strictest rules +of what is proper,--even if I hated their progeny and them like the +pestilence. + +"I hope to speak to you with open heart at Berlin.--You may think, too, +how I shall be embarrassed, having to do the AMOROSO perhaps without +being it, and to take an appetite for mute ugliness,--for I don't +much trust Count Seckendorf's taste in this article,"--in spite of his +testimonies in Tobacco-Parliament and elsewhere. "Monsieur! Once more, +get this Princess to learn by heart the ECOLE DES MARIS and the ECOLE +DES FEMMES; that will do her much more good than TRUE CHRISTIANITY by +the late Mr. Arndt! [Johann Arndt ("late" this long while back), _Von +wahren Christenthum,_ Magdeburg, 1610.] If, besides, she would learn +steadiness of humor (TOUJOURS DANSER SUR UN PIED), learn music; and, +NOTA BENE, become rather too free than too virtuous,--ah then, my dear +General, then I should feel some liking for her, and a Colin marrying +a Phyllis, the couple would be in accordance: but if she is stupid, +naturally I renounce the Devil and her.--It is said she has a Sister, +who at least has common sense. Why take the eldest, if so? To the King +it must be all one. There is also a Princess Christina Marie of Eisenach +[real name being Christina WILHELMINA, but no matter], who would be +quite my fit, and whom I should like to try for. In fine, I mean to come +soon into your Countries; [Did come, 26th February, as we shall see.] +and perhaps will say like Caesar, VENI, VIDI, VICI."... + +Paragraph of tragic compliments to Grumkow we omit. Letter ends in this +way:-- + +"Your Baireuth News is very interesting; I hope, in September next [time +of a grand problem coming there for Wilhelmina], my Sister will recover +her first health. If I go travelling, I hope to have the consolation of +seeing her for a fortnight or three weeks; I love her more than my +life; and for all my obediences to the King, surely I shall deserve +that recompense. The diversions for the Duke of Lorraine are very well +schemed; but"--but what mortal can now care about them? Close, and seal. +[Forster, iii. 160-162; _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xvi, 37-39.] + +As to this Duke of Lorraine just coming, he is Franz Stephan, a pleasant +young man of twenty-five, son of that excellent Duke Leopold Joseph, +whom young Lyttelton of Hagley was so taken with, while touring in those +parts in the Congress-of-Soissons time. Excellent Duke Leopold Joseph is +since dead; and this Franz has succeeded to him,--what succession there +was; for Lorraine as a Dukedom has its neck under the foot of France +this great while, and is evidently not long for this world. Old Fleury, +men say, has his eye upon it. And in fact it was, as we shall see, eaten +up by Fleury within four years' time; and this Franz proved the last +of all the Dukes there. Let readers notice him: a man of high destiny +otherwise, of whom we are to hear much. For ten years past he has lived +about Vienna, being a born Cousin of that House (Grandmother was Kaiser +Leopold's own Sister); and it is understood, nay it is privately settled +he is to marry the transcendent Archduchess, peerless Maria Theresa +herself; and is to reap, he, the whole harvest of that Pragmatic +Sanction sown with such travail of the Universe at large. May be King of +the Romans (which means successor to the Kaisership) any day; and actual +Kaiser one day. + +We may as well say here, he did at length achieve these dignities, +though not quite in the time or on the terms proposed. King of the +Romans old Kaiser Karl never could quite resolve to make him,--having +always hopes of male progeny yet; which never came. For his peerless +Bride he waited six years still (owing to accidents), "attachment mutual +all the while;" did then wed, 1738, and was the happiest of men and +expectant Kaisers:--but found, at length, the Pragmatic Sanction to have +been a strange sowing of dragon's-teeth, and the first harvest reapable +from it a world of armed men!--For the present he is on a grand Tour, +for instruction and other objects; has been in England last; and is now +getting homewards again, to Vienna, across Germany; conciliating the +Courts as he goes. A pacific friendly eupeptic young man; Crown-Prince +Friedrich, they say, took much to him in Berlin; did not quite swear +eternal friendship; but kept up some correspondence for a while, +and "once sends him a present of salmon."--But to proceed with the +utterances to Grumkow. + +Utterance SECOND is probably of prior date; but introducible here, being +an accidental Fragment, with the date lost:-- + +TO THE FELDMARSCHALL VON GRUMKOW (from the Crown-Prince; exact date +lost). + +"... As to what you tell me of the Princess of Mecklenburg," for whom +they want a Brandenburg Prince,--"could not I marry her? Let her come +into this Country, and think no more of Russia: she would have a dowry +of two or three millions of roubles,--only fancy how I could live with +that! I think that project might succeed. The Princess is Lutheran; +perhaps she objects to go into the Greek Church?--I find none of these +advantages in this Princess of Bevern; who, as many people, even of the +Duke's Court, say, is not at all beautiful, speaks almost nothing, +and is given to pouting (FAISANT LA FACHEE). The good Kaiserinn has so +little herself, that the sums she could afford her Niece would be very +moderate." [Fragment given in _Sechendorfs Leben,_ iii. 249 u.] + +"Given to pouting," too! No, certainly; your Insipidity of Brunswick, +without prospects of ready money; dangerous for CAGOTAGE; "not a word to +say for herself in company, and given to pouting:" I do not reckon her +the eligible article!-- + +Seckendorf, Schulenburg, Grumkow and all hands are busy in this matter: +geeho-ing the Crown-Prince towards the mark set before him. With or +without explosion, arrive there he must; other goal for him is none!--In +the mean while, it appears, illustrious Franz of Lorraine, coming on, +amid the proper demonstrations, through Magdeburg and the Prussian +Towns, has caught some slight illness and been obliged to pause; so +that Berlin cannot have the happiness of seeing him quite so soon as +it expected. The high guests invited to meet Duke Franz, especially +the high Brunswicks, are already there. High Brunswicks, Bevern with +Duchess, and still more important, with Son and with Daughter:--insipid +CORPUS DELICTI herself has appeared on the scene; and Grumkow, we +find, has been writing some description of her to the Crown-Prince. +Description of an unfavorable nature; below the truth, not above it, to +avert disappointment, nay to create some gleam of inverse joy, when the +actual meeting occurs. That is his art in driving the fiery little Arab +ignominiously yoked to him; and it is clear he has overdone it, for +once. This is Friedrich's THIRD utterance to him; much the most emphatic +there is:-- + +TO THE GENERAL FELDMARSCHALL VON GRUMKOW. + +"CUSTRIN, 19th February, 1732. + +"Judge, my dear General, if I can have been much charmed with the +description you give of the abominable object of my desires! For the +love of God, disabuse the King in regard to her [show him that she is a +fool, then]; and let him remember well that fools commonly are the most +obstinate of creatures. + +"Some months ago he wrote a Letter to Walden," the obsequious Goldstick, +"of his giving me the choice of several Princesses: I hope he will not +give himself the lie in that. I refer you entirely to the Letter, which +Schulenburg will have delivered,"--little Schulenburg called here, in +passing your way; all hands busy. "For there is no hope of wealth, +no reasoning, nor chance of fortune that could change my sentiment as +expressed there [namely, that I will not have her, whatever become of +me]; and miserable for miserable, it is all one! Let the King but think +that it is not for himself that he is marrying me, but for MYself; nay +he too will have a thousand chagrins, to see two persons hating one +another, and the miserablest marriage in the world;--to hear their +mutual complaints, which will be to him so many reproaches for having +fashioned the instrument of our yoke. As a good Christian, let him +consider, If it is well done to wish to force people; to cause divorces, +and to be the occasion of all the sins that an ill-assorted marriage +leads us to commit! I am determined to front everything in the world +sooner: and since things are so, you may in some good way apprise the +Duke" of Bevern "that, happen what may, I never will have her. + +"I have been unfortunate (MALHEUREUX) all my life; and I think it is +my destiny to continue so. One must be patient, and take the time as it +comes. Perhaps a sudden tract of good fortune, on the back of all the +chagrins I have made profession of ever since I entered this world, +would have made me too proud. In a word, happen what will, I have +nothing to reproach myself with. I have suffered sufficiently for an +exaggerated crime [that of "attempting to desert;"--Heavens!]--and I +will not engage myself to extend my miseries (CHAGRINS) into future +times. I have still resources:--a pistol-shot can deliver me from my +sorrows and my life: and I think a merciful God would not damn me +for that; but, taking pity on me, would, in exchange for a life of +wretchedness, grant me salvation. This is whitherward despair can lead +a young person, whose blood is not so quiescent as if he were seventy. +I have a feeling of myself, Monsieur; and perceive that, when one hates +the methods of force as much as I, our boiling blood will carry us +always towards extremities. + +... "If there are honest people in the world, they must think how to +save me from one of the most perilous passages I have ever been in. +I waste myself in gloomy ideas; I fear I shall not be able to hide my +grief, on coming to Berlin. This is the sad state I am in;--but it will +never make me change from being,"--surely to an excessive degree, the +illustrious Grumkow's most &c. &c. + +"FREDERIC." + +"I have received a Letter from the King; all agog (BIEN COIFFE) about +the Princess. I think I may still finish the week here. [26th, did +arrive in Berlin: Preuss (in _OEuvres,_ xxvii. part 3d, p. 58 n).] When +his first fire of approbation is spent, you might, praising her all the +while, lead him to notice her faults. Mon Dieu, has he not already seen +what an ill-assorted marriage comes to,--my Sister of Anspach and her +Husband, who hate one another like the fire! He has a thousand vexations +from it every day.... And what aim has the King? If it is to assure +himself of me, that is not the way. Madam of Eisenach might do it; but a +fool not (POINT UNE BETE);--on the contrary, it is morally impossible to +love the cause of our misery. The King is reasonable; and I am persuaded +he will understand this himself." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xvi. 41, 42.] + +Very passionate pleading; but it might as well address itself to +the east-winds. Have east-winds a heart, that they should feel pity? +JARNI-BLEU, Herr Feldzeugmeister,--only take care he don't overset +things again! + +Grumkow, in these same hours, is writing a Letter to the Prince, +which we still have, [Ib. xvi. 43.] How charmed his Majesty is at such +obedience; "shed tears of joy," writes Grumkow, "and said it was the +happiest day of his life." Judge Grumkow's feelings soon after, on this +furious recalcitration breaking out! Grumkow's Answer, which also +we still have [Ib. xvi. pp. 44-46.] is truculence itself in a polite +form:--horror-struck as a Christian at the suicide notion, at the--in +fact at the whole matter; and begs, as a humble individual, not wishful +of violent death and destruction upon self and family, to wash his poor +hands of it altogether. Dangerous for the like of him; "interfering +between Royal Father and Royal Son of such opposite humors, would +break the neck of any man," thinks Grumkow; and sums up with this +pithy reminiscence: "I remember always what, the King said to me at +Wusterhausen, when your Royal Highness lay prisoner in the Castle of +Custrin, and I wished to take your part: _'Nein Grumkow, denket an diese +Stelle, Gott gebe dass ich nicht wahr rede, aber mein Sohn stirht nicht +eines naturlichen Todes; und Gott gebe dass er nicht unter Henkers Hande +komme._ No, Grumkow, think of what I now tell you: God grant it do + not come true,--but my Son won't die a natural death; God grant he do +not come into the Hangman's hands yet!' I shuddered at these words, and +the King repeated them twice to me: that is true, or may I never see +God's face, or have part in the merits of our Lord."--The Crown-Prince's +"pleadings" may fitly terminate here. + + + + +DUKE OF LORRAINE ARRIVES IN POTSDAM AND IN BERLIN. + +Saturday, 23d February, 1732, his Serene Highness of Lorraine did +at length come to hand. Arrived in Potsdam that day; where the two +Majesties, with the Serene Beverns, with the Prince Alexander +of Wurtemberg, and the other high guests, had been some time in +expectation. Suitable persons invited for the occasion: Bevern, a +titular Austrian Feldmarschall; Prince Alexander of Wurtemberg, an +actual one (poor old Eberhard Ludwig's Cousin, and likely to be Heir +there soon); high quasi-Austrian Serenities;--not to mention Schulenburg +and others officially related to Austria, or acquainted with it. Nothing +could be more distinguished than the welcome of Duke Franz; and the +things he saw and did, during his three weeks' visit, are wonderful to +Fassmann and the extinct Gazetteers. Saw the Potsdam Giants do their +"EXERCITIA," transcendent in perfection; had a boar-hunt; "did divine +service in the Potsdam Catholic Church; "--went by himself to Spandau, +on the Tuesday (26th), where all the guns broke forth, and dinner was +ready: King, Queen and Party having made off for Berlin, in the interim, +to be ready for his advent there "in the evening about, five." Majesties +wait at Berlin, with their Party,--among whom, say the old Newspapers, +"is his Royal Highness the Crown-Prince:" Crown-Prince just come in from +Custrin; just blessed with the first sight of his Charmer, whom he finds +perceptibly less detestable than he expected. + +Serene Highness of Lorraine arrived punctually at five, with outburst of +all the artilleries and hospitalities; balls, soirees, EXERCITIA of the +Kleist Regiment, of the Gerns-d'Armes; dinners with Grumkow, dinners +with Seckendorf, evening party with the Margravine Philip (Margravine +in high colors);--one scenic miracle succeeding another, for above a +fortnight to come. + +The very first spectacle his Highness saw, a private one, and of no +intense interest to him, we shall mention here for our own behoof. "An +hour after his arrival the Duke was carried away to his Excellency Herr +Creutz the Finance-Minister's; to attend a wedding there, along with +his Majesty. Wedding of Excellency Creutz's only Daughter to the Herr +HOFJAGERMEISTER von Hacke."--HOFJAGERMEISTER (Master of the Hunt), and +more specifically Captain Hacke, of the Potsdam Guard or Giant regiment, +much and deservedly a favorite with his Majesty. Majesty has known, +a long while, the merits military and other of this Hacke; a valiant +expert exact man, of good stature, good service among the Giants and +otherwise, though not himself gigantic; age now turned of thirty;--and +unluckily little but his pay to depend on. Majesty, by way of increment +to Hacke, small increment on the pecuniary side, has lately made him +"Master of the Hunt;" will, before long, make him Adjutant-General, and +his right-hand man in Army matters, were he only rich;--has, in the mean +while, made this excellent match for him; which supplies that defect. +Majesty was the making of Creutz himself; who is grown very rich, and +has but one Daughter: "Let Hacke have her!" his Majesty advised;--and +snatches off the Duke of Lorraine to see it done. [Fassmann, p. 430.] + +Did the reader ever hear of Finance-Minister Creutz, once a poor +Regiment's Auditor, when his Majesty, as yet Crown-Prince, found talent +in him? Can readers fish up from their memory, twenty years back, +anything of a terrific Spectre walking in the Berlin Palace, for certain +nights, during that "Stralsund Expedition" or famed Swedish-War time, +to the terror of mankind? Terrific Spectre, thought to be in Swedish +pay,--properly a spy Scullion, in a small concern of Grumkow VERSUS +Creutz? [Antea, vol. v. pp. 356-358; Wilhelmina.] This is the same +Creutz; of whom we have never spoken more, nor shall again, now that his +rich Daughter is well married to Hacke, a favorite of his Majesty's and +ours. It was the Duke's first sight in Berlin; February 26th; prologue +to the flood of scenic wonders there. + +But perhaps the wonderfulest thing, had he quite understood it, was that +of the 10th March, which he was invited to. Last obligation laid upon +the Crown-Prince, "to bind him to the House of Austria," that evening. +Of which take this account, external and internal, from authentic +Documents in our hand. + + + + +BETROTHAL OF THE CROWN-PRINCE TO THE BRUNSWICK CHARMER, NIECE OF +IMPERIAL MAJESTY, MONDAY EVENING, 10th MARCH, 1732. + +Document FIRST is of an internal nature, from the Prince's own hand, +written to his Sister four days before:-- + +TO THE PRINCESS WILHELMINA AT BAIREUTH. + +"BERLIN, 6th March, 1732. + +"MY DEAREST SISTER,--Next Monday comes my Betrothal, which will be done +just as yours was. The Person in question is neither beautiful nor +ugly, not wanting for sense, but very ill brought up, timid, and totally +behind in manners and social behavior (MANIERES DU SAVOIR-VIVRE): that +is the candid portrait of this Princess. You may judge by that, dearest +Sister, if I find her to my taste or not. The greatest merit she has is +that she has procured me the liberty of writing to you; which is the one +solacement I have in your absence. + +"You never can believe, my adorable Sister, how concerned I am about +your happiness; all my wishes centre there, and every moment of my +life I form such wishes. You may see by this that I preserve still +that sincere friendship which has united our hearts from our tenderest +years:--recognize at least, my dear Sister, that you did me a sensible +wrong when you suspected me of fickleness towards you, and believed +false reports of my listening to tale-bearers; me, who love only you, +and whom neither absence nor lying rumors could change in respect of +you. At least don't again believe such things on my score, and never +mistrust me till you have had clear proof,--or till God has forsaken me, +and I have lost my wits. And being persuaded that such miseries are not +in store to overwhelm me, I here repeat how much I love you, and with +what respect and sincere veneration,--I am and shall be till death, my +dearest Sister,--Your most humble and faithful Brother and Valet, + +FRIDERICH." + +[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 1st, p. 5] + +That was on the Thursday; Betrothal is on the Monday following. Document +SECOND is from poor old Fassmann, and quite of external nature; which we +much abridge:-- + +"Monday evening, all creatures are in gala, and the Royal Apartments +upstairs are brilliantly alight; Duke of Lorraine with the other high +strangers are requested to take their place up there, and wait for a +short while. Prussian Majesty, Queen and Crown-Prince with him, proceeds +then, in a solemn official manner, to the Durchlaucht of Bevern's +Apartment, in a lower floor of the Palace; where the Bevern Party, +Duke, Duchess, Son and intended Charmer are. Prussian Majesty asks the +Durchlaucht and Spouse, 'Whether the Marriage, some time treated of, +between that their Princess here present, and this his Crown-Prince +likewise here, is really a thing to their mind?' Serene Spouses answer, +to the effect, 'Yea, surely, very much!' Upon which they all solemnly +ascend to the Royal Apartments [upstairs where we have seen Wilhelmina +dancing before now], where Lorraine, Wurtemberg and the other +sublimities are in waiting. Lorraine and the sublimities form a +semicircle; with the two Majesties, and pair of young creatures, in the +centre. You young creatures, you are of one intention with your parents +in this matter? Alas, there is no doubt of it. Pledge yourselves, then, +by exchange of rings! said his Majesty with due business brevity. The +rings are exchanged: Majesty embraces the two young creatures with great +tenderness;" as do Queen and Serenities; and then all the world takes to +embracing and congratulating; and so the betrothal is a finished +thing. Bassoons and violins, striking up, whirl it off in universal +dancing,--in "supper of above two hundred and sixty persons," princely +or otherwise sublime in rank, with "spouses and noble ladies there" in +the due proportion. [Fassmann, pp. 432, 433.] + +Here is fraction of another Note from the Crown-Prince to his Sister at +Baireuth, a fortnight after that event:-- + +BERLIN, 24th MARCH, 1732 (to Princess Wilhelmina).--... "God be praised +that you are better, dearest Sister! For nobody can love you more +tenderly than I do.--As to the Princess of Bevern [my Betrothed], the +Queen [Mamma, whom you have been consulting on these etiquettes] bids me +answer, That you need not style her `Highness,' and that you may write +to her quite as to an indifferent Princess. As to 'kissing of the +hands,' I assure you I have not kissed them, nor will kiss them; they +are not pretty enough to tempt one that way. God long preserve you in +perfect health! And you, preserve for me always the honor of your good +graces; and believe, my charming Sister, that never brother in the +world loved with such tenderness a sister so charming as mine; in short, +believe, dear Sister, that without compliments, and in literal truth, I +am yours wholly (TOUT A VOUS), + +"FRIDERICH." + +[Ib. xxvii. part 1st, p. 5.] + + +This is the Betrothal of the Crown-Prince to an Insipidity of Brunswick. +Insipidity's private feelings, perhaps of a languidly glad sort, are +not known to us; Crown-Prince's we have in part seen. He has decided to +accept his fate without a murmur farther. Against his poor Bride or her +qualities not a word more. In the Schloss of Berlin, amid such tempests +of female gossip (Mamma still secretly corresponding with England), he +has to be very reserved, on this head especially. It is understood he +did not, in his heart, nearly so much dislike the insipid Princess as he +wished Papa to think he did. + +Duke Franz of Lorraine went off above a week ago, on the Saturday +following the Betrothal; an amiable serene young gentleman, well liked +by the Crown-Prince and everybody. "He avoided the Saxon Court, though +passing near it," on his way to old Kur-Mainz; "which is a sign," +thinks Fassmann, "that mutual matters are on a weak footing in that +quarter;"--Pragmatic Sanction never accepted there, and plenty of +intricacies existing. Crown-Prince Friedrich may now go to Ruppin and +the Regiment Goltz; his business and destinies being now all reduced +to a steady condition;--steady sky, rather leaden, instead of the +tempestuous thunder-and-lightning weather which there heretofore was. +Leaden sky, he, if left well to himself, will perhaps brighten a little. +Study will be possible to him; improvement of his own faculties, at +any rate. It is much his determination. Outwardly, besides drilling the +Regiment Goltz, he will have a steady correspondence to keep up with his +Brunswick Charmer;--let him see that he be not slack in that. + + + + +Chapter II. -- SMALL INCIDENTS AT RUPPIN. + +Friedrich, after some farther pause in Berlin, till things were got +ready for him, went to Ruppin. This is in the Spring of 1732; [Still in +Berlin, 6th March; dates from NAUEN (in the Ruppin neighborhood) for +the first time, 25th April, 1732, among his LETTERS yet extant: Preuss, +_OEuvres de Frederic, _ xxvii. part lst, p. 4; xvi. 49.] and he contin + his residence there till August, 1736. Four important years of young +life; of which we must endeavor to give, in some intelligible condition, +what traces go hovering about in such records as there are. + +Ruppin, where lies the main part of the Regiment Goltz, and where the +Crown-Prince Colonel of it dwells, is a quiet dull, little Town, in that +northwestern region; inhabitants, grown at this day to be 10,000, are +perhaps guessable then at 2,000. Regiment Goltz daily rolls its drums in +Ruppin: Town otherwise lifeless enough, except on market-days: and +the grandest event ever known in it, this removal of the Crown-Prince +thither,--which is doubtless much a theme, and proud temporary miracle, +to Ruppin at present. Of society there or in the neighborhood, for such +a resident, we hear nothing. + +Quiet Ruppin stands in grassy flat country, much of which is natural +moor, and less of it reclaimed at that time than now. The environs, +except that they are a bit of the Earth, and have a bit of the sky over +them, do not set up for loveliness. Natural woods abound in that region, +also peat-bogs not yet drained; and fishy lakes and meres, of a dark +complexion: plenteous cattle there are, pigs among them;--thick-soled +husbandmen inarticulately toiling and moiling. Some glass-furnaces, +a royal establishment, are the only manufactures we hear of. Not a +picturesque country; but a quiet and innocent, where work is cut out, +and one hopes to be well left alone after doing it. This Crown-Prince +has been in far less desirable localities. + +He had a reasonable house, two houses made into one for him, in the +place. He laid out for himself a garden in the outskirts, with what they +call a "temple" in it,--some more or less ornamental garden-house,--from +which I have read of his "letting off rockets" in a summer twilight. +Rockets to amuse a small dinner-party, I should guess,--dinner of +Officers, such as he had weekly or twice a week. On stiller evenings +we can fancy him there in solitude; reading meditative, or musically +fluting;--looking out upon the silent death of Day: how the summer +gloaming steals over the moorlands, and over all lands; shutting up the +toil of mortals; their very flocks and herds collapsing into silence, +and the big Skies and endless Times overarching him and them. With +thoughts perhaps sombre enough now and then, but profitable if he face +them piously. + +His Father's affection is returning; would so fain return if it durst. +But the heart of Papa has been sadly torn up: it is too good news to be +quite believed, that he has a son grown wise, and doing son-like! Rumor +also is very busy, rumor and the Tobacco-Parliament for or against; a +little rumor is capable of stirring up great storms in the suspicious +paternal mind. All along during Friedrich's abode at Ruppin, this is a +constantly recurring weather-symptom; very grievous now and then; not to +be guarded against by any precaution;--though steady persistence in the +proper precaution will abate it, and as good as remove it, in course of +time. Already Friedrich Wilhelm begins to understand that "there is much +in this Fritz,"--who knows how much, though of a different type from +Papa's?--and that it will be better if he and Papa, so discrepant in +type, and ticklishly related otherwise, live not too constantly together +as heretofore. Which is emphatically the Crown-Prince's notion too. + +I perceive he read a great deal at Ruppin: what Books I know not +specially: but judge them to be of more serious solid quality than +formerly; and that his reading is now generally a kind of studying +as well. Not the express Sciences or Technologies; not these, in any +sort,--except the military, and that an express exception. These he +never cared for, or regarded as the noble knowledges for a king or man. +History and Moral Speculation; what mankind have done and been in this +world (so far as "History" will give one any glimpse of that), and what +the wisest men, poetical or other, have thought about mankind and +their world: this is what he evidently had the appetite for; appetite +insatiable, which lasted with him to the very end of his days. +Fontenelle, Rollin, Voltaire, all the then French lights, and gradually +others that lay deeper in the firmament:--what suppers of the gods +one may privately have at Ruppin, without expense of wine! Such an +opportunity for reading he had never had before. + +In his soldier business he is punctual, assiduous; having an interest to +shine that way. And is, in fact, approvable as a practical officer and +soldier, by the strictest judge then living. Reads on soldiering withal; +studious to know the rationale of it, the ancient and modern methods +of it, the essential from the unessential in it; to understand it +thoroughly,--which he got to do. One already hears of conferences, +correspondences, with the Old Dessauer on this head: "Account of the +Siege of Stralsund," with plans, with didactic commentaries, drawn up by +that gunpowder Sage for behoof of the Crown-Prince, did actually +exist, though I know not what has become of it. Now and afterwards +this Crown-Prince must have been a great military reader. From Caesar's +COMMENTARIES, and earlier, to the Chevalier Folard, and the Marquis +Feuquiere; [_Memoires sur la Guerre_ (specially on the Wars of Louis +XIV., in which Feuquiere had himself shone): a new Book at this time +(Amsterdam, 1731; first COMPLETE edition is, Paris, 1770, 4 vols. +4to); at Ruppin, and afterwards, a chief favorite with Friedrich.] +from Epaminondas at Leuctra to Charles XII. at Pultawa, all manner of +Military Histories, we perceive, are at his finger-ends; and he has +penetrated into the essential heart of each, and learnt what it had to +teach him. Something of this, how much we know not, began at Ruppin; and +it did not end again. + +On the whole, Friedrich is prepared to distinguish himself henceforth +by strictly conforming, in all outward particulars possible, to the +paternal will, and becoming the most obedient of sons. Partly from +policy and necessity, partly also from loyalty; for he loves his +rugged Father, and begins to perceive that there is more sense in his +peremptory notions than at first appeared. The young man is himself +rather wild, as we have seen, with plenty of youthful petulance and +longings after forbidden fruit. And then he lives in an element of +gossip; his whole life enveloped in a vast Dionysius'-Ear, every word +and action liable to be debated in Tobacco-Parliament. He is very scarce +of money, too, Papa's allowance being extremely moderate, "not above +6,000 thalers (900 pounds)," says Seckendorf once. [Forster, iii. 114 +(Seckendorf to Prince Eugene).] There will be contradictions enough +to settle: caution, silence, every kind of prudence will be much +recommendable. + +In all outward particulars the Crown-Prince will conform; in the inward, +he will exercise a judgment, and if he cannot conform, will at least +be careful to hide. To do his Commandant duties at Ruppin, and avoid +offences, is much his determination. We observe he takes great charge of +his men's health; has the Regiment Goltz in a shiningly exact condition +at the grand reviews;--is very industrious now and afterwards to get +tall recruits, as a dainty to Papa. Knows that nothing in Nature is +so sure of conciliating that strange old gentleman; corresponds, +accordingly, in distant quarters; lays out, now and afterwards, sums far +too heavy for his means upon tall recruits for Papa. But it is good +to conciliate in that quarter, by every method, and at every +expense;--Argus of Tobacco-Parliament still watching one there; and +Rumor needing to be industriously dealt with, difficult to keep down. +Such, so far as we can gather, is the general figure of Friedrich's life +at Ruppin. Specific facts of it, anecdotes about it, are few in those +dim Books; are uncertain as to truth, and without importance whether +true or not. For all his gravity and Colonelship, it would appear the +old spirit of frolic has not quitted him. Here are two small incidents, +pointing that way; which stand on record; credible enough, though vague +and without importance otherwise. Incident FIRST is to the following +feeble effect; indisputable though extremely unmomentous: Regiment +Goltz, it appears, used to have gold trimmings; the Colonel Crown-Prince +petitioned that they might be of silver, which he liked better. Papa +answers, Yes. Regiment Goltz gets its new regimentals done in silver; +the Colonel proposes they shall solemnly BURN their old regimentals. +And they do it, the Officers of them, SUB DIO, perhaps in the Prince's +garden, stripping successively in the "Temple" there, with such degree +of genial humor, loud laughter, or at least boisterous mock-solemnity, +as may be in them. This is a true incident of the Prince's history, +though a small one. + +Incident SECOND is of slightly more significance; and intimates, not +being quite alone in its kind, a questionable habit or method the +Crown-Prince must have had of dealing with Clerical Persons hereabouts +when they proved troublesome. Here are no fewer than three such Persons, +or Parsons, of the Ruppin Country, who got mischief by him. How the +first gave offence shall be seen, and how he was punished: offences +of the second and the third we can only guess to have been perhaps +pulpit-rebukes of said punishments: perhaps general preaching against +military levities, want of piety, nay open sinfulness, in thoughtless +young men with cockades. Whereby the thoughtless young men were again +driven to think of nocturnal charivari? We will give the story in Dr. +Busching's own words, who looks before and after to great distances, +in a way worth attending to. The Herr Doctor, an endless Collector and +Compiler on all manner of subjects, is very authentic always, and does +not want for natural sense: but he is also very crude,--and here and +there not far from stupid, such his continual haste, and slobbery +manner of working up those Hundred and odd Volumes of his:--[See his +Autobiography, which forms _Beitrage,_ B. vi. (the biggest and last +volume).] + +"The sanguine-choleric temperament of Friedrich," says this Doctor, +"drove him, in his youth, to sensual enjoyments and wild amusements of +different kinds; in his middle age, to fiery enterprises; and in his old +years to decisions and actions of a rigorous and vehement nature; yet +so that the primary form of utterance, as seen in his youth, never +altogether ceased with him. There are people still among us (1788) who +have had, in their own experience, knowledge of his youthful pranks; +and yet more are living, who know that he himself, at table, would gayly +recount what merry strokes were done by him, or by his order, in those +young years. To give an instance or two. + +"While he was at Neu-Ruppin as Colonel of the Infantry Regiment +there, the Chaplain of it sometimes waited upon him about the time of +dinner,--having been used to dine occasionally with the former Colonel. +The Crown-Prince, however, put him always off, did not ask him to +dinner; spoke contemptuously of him in presence of the Officers. The +Chaplain was so inconsiderate, he took to girding at the Crown-Prince +in his sermons. 'Once on a time,' preached he, one day, 'there was Herod +who had Herodias to dance before him; and he,--he gave her John +the Baptist's head for her pains!'" This HEROD, Busching says, was +understood to mean, and meant, the Crown-Prince; HERODIAS, the merry +corps of Officers who made sport for him; JOHN THE BAPTIST'S HEAD was no +other than the Chaplain not invited to dinner! "To punish him for such +a sally, the Crown-Prince with the young Officers of his Regiment went, +one night, to the Chaplain's house," somewhere hard by, with cow's-grass +adjoining to it, as we see: and "first, they knocked in the windows of +his sleeping-room upon him [HINGE-windows, glass not entirely broken, +we may hope]; next there were crackers [SCHWARMER, "enthusiasts," so +to speak!] thrown in upon him; and thereby the Chaplain, and his poor +Wife," more or less in an interesting condition, poor woman, "were +driven out into the court-yard, and at last into the dung-heap +there;"--and so left, with their Head on a Charger to that terrible +extent! + +That is Busching's version of the story; no doubt substantially correct; +of which there are traces in other quarters,--for it went farther than +Ruppin; and the Crown-Prince had like to have got into trouble from +it. "Here is piety!" said Rumor, carrying it to Tobacco-Parliament. The +Crown-Prince plaintively assures Grumkow that it was the Officers, and +that they got punished for it. A likely story, the Prince's! + +"When King Friedrich, in his old days, recounted this after dinner, in +his merry tone, he was well pleased that the guests, and even the pages +and valets behind his back, laughed aloud at it." Not a pious old King, +Doctor, still less an orthodox one! The Doctor continues: "In a like +style, at Nauen, where part of his regiment lay, he had--by means of +Herr von der Groben, his First-Lieutenant," much a comrade of his, as +we otherwise perceive--"the Diaconus of Nauen and his Wife hunted out of +bed, and thrown into terror of their lives, one night:"--offence of the +Diaconus not specified. "Nay he himself once pitched his gold-headed +stick through Salpius the Church Inspector's window,"--offence again not +specified, or perhaps merely for a little artillery practice?--"and the +throw was so dexterous that it merely made a round hole in the glass: +stick was lying on the floor; and the Prince," on some excuse or other, +"sent for it next morning." "Margraf Heinrich of Schwedt," continues the +Doctor, very trustworthy on points of fact, "was a diligent helper in +such operations. Kaiserling," whom we shall hear of, "First-Lieutenant +von der Groben," these were prime hands; "Lieutenant Buddenbrock [old +Feldmarschall's son] used, in his old days, when himself grown high +in rank and dining with the King, to be appealed to as witness for the +truth of these stories." [Busching, _Beitrage zu der Lebensgeschichte +denkwurdiger Personen,_ v. 19-21. Vol. v.--wholly occupied with _Friedrich +II. King of Prussia_ (Halle, 1788),--is accessible in French and other +languages; many details, and (as Busching's wont is) few or none not +authentic, are to be found in it; a very great secret spleen against +Friedrich is also traceable,--for which the Doctor may have had his +reasons, not obligatory upon readers of the Doctor. The truth is, +Friedrich never took the least special notice of him: merely employed +and promoted him, when expedient for both parties; and he really was a +man of considerable worth, in an extremely crude form.] + +These are the two Incidents at Ruppin, in such light as they have. And +these are all. Opulent History yields from a ton of broken nails these +two brass farthings, and shuts her pocket on us again. A Crown-Prince +given to frolic, among other things; though aware that gravity would +beseem him better. Much gay bantering humor in him, cracklings, +radiations,--which he is bound to keep well under cover, in present +circumstances. + + + +Chapter III. -- THE SALZBURGERS. + +For three years past there has been much rumor over Germany, of a +strange affair going on in the remote Austrian quarter, down in Salzburg +and its fabulous Tyrolese valleys. Salzburg, city and territory, has an +Archbishop, not theoretically Austrian, but sovereign Prince so styled; +it is from him and his orthodoxies, and pranks with his sovereign +crosier, that the noise originates. Strange rumor of a body of the +population discovered to be Protestant among the remote Mountains, and +getting miserably ill-used, by the Right Reverend Father in those parts. +Which rumor, of a singular, romantic, religious interest for the general +Protestant world, proves to be but too well founded. It has come forth +in the form of practical complaint to the CORPUS EVANGELICORUM at the +Diet, without result from the CORPUS; complaint to various persons;--in +fine, to his Majesty Friedrich Wilhelm, WITH result. + +With result at last; actual "Emigration of the Salzburgers:" and +Germany--in these very days while the Crown-Prince is at Berlin +betrothing himself, and Franz of Lorraine witnessing the EXERCITIA and +wonders there--sees a singular phenomenon of a touching idyllic nature +going on; and has not yet quite forgotten it in our days. Salzburg +Emigration was all in motion, flowing steadily onwards, by various +routes, towards Berlin, at the time the Betrothal took place; and seven +weeks after that event, when the Crown-Prince had gone to Ruppin, and +again could only hear of it, the First Instalment of Emigrants arrived +bodily at the Gates of Berlin, "30th April, at four in the afternoon;" +Majesty himself, and all the world going out to witness it, with +something of a poetic: almost of a psalmist feeling, as well as with a +practical on the part of his Majesty. First Instalment this; copiously +followed by others, all that year; and flowing on, in smaller rills +and drippings, for several years more, till it got completed. A notable +phenomenon, full of lively picturesque and other interest to Brandenburg +and Germany;--which was not forgotten by the Crown-Prince in coming +years, as we shall transiently find; nay which all Germany still +remembers, and even occasionally sings. Of which this is in brief the +history. + +The Salzburg Country, northeastern slope of the Tyrol (Donau draining +that side of it, Etsch or Adige the Italian side), is celebrated by the +Tourist for its airy beauty, rocky mountains, smooth green valleys, +and swift-rushing streams; perhaps some readers have wandered to +Bad-Gastein, or Ischl, in these nomadic summers; have looked into +Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and the Bavarian-Austrian boundary-lands; seen +the wooden-clock makings, salt-works, toy-manufactures, of those +simple people in their slouch-hats; and can bear some testimony to the +phenomena of Nature there. Salzburg is the Archbishop's City, metropolis +of his bit of sovereignty that then was. [Tolerable description of it +in the Baron Riesbeck's _Travels through Germany_ (London, 1787, +Translation by Maty, 3 vols. 8vo), i. 124-222;--whose details otherwise, +on this Emigration business, are of no authenticity or value. A kind of +Play-actor and miscellaneous Newspaper-man in that time (not so opulent +to his class as ours is); who takes the title of "Baron" on this +occasion of coming, out with a Book of Imaginary _"Travels."_ Had +personally lived, practising the miscellaneous arts, about Lintz and +Salzburg,--and may be heard on the look of the Country, if on little +else.] A romantic City, far off among its beautiful Mountains, shadowing +(itself in the Salza River, which rushes down into the Inn, into the +Donau, now becoming great with the tribute of so many valleys. Salzburg +we have not known hitherto except as the fabulous resting-place of +Kaiser Barbarossa: but we are now slightly to see it in a practical +light; and mark how the memory of Friedrich Wilhelm makes an incidental +lodgment for itself there. + +It is well known there was extensive Protestantism once in those +countries. Prior to the Thirty-Years War, the fair chance was, Austria +too would all become Protestant; an extensive minority among all ranks +of men in Austria too, definable as the serious intelligence of mankind +in those countries, having clearly adopted it, whom the others were sure +to follow. In all ranks of men; only not in the highest rank, which +was pleased rather to continue Official and Papal. Highest rank had its +Thirty-Years War, "its sleek Fathers Lummerlein and Hyacinth in Jesuit +serge, its terrible Fathers Wallenstein in chain-armor;" and, by working +late and early then and afterwards, did manage at length to trample out +Protestantism,--they know with what advantage by this time. Trample out +Protestantism; or drive it into remote nooks, where under sad conditions +it might protract an unnoticed existence. In the Imperial Free-Towns, +Ulm, Augsburg, and the like, Protestantism continued, and under hard +conditions contrives to continue: but in the country parts, except in +unnoticed nooks, it is extinct. Salzburg Country is one of those nooks; +an extensive Crypto-Protestantism lodging, under the simple slouch-hats, +in the remote valleys there. Protestantism peaceably kept concealed, +hurting nobody; wholesomely forwarding the wooden-clock manufacture, and +arable or grazier husbandries, of those poor people. More harmless sons +of Adam, probably, did not breathe the vital air, than those dissentient +Salzburgers; generation after generation of them giving offence to no +creature. + +Successive Archbishops had known of this Crypto-Protestantism, and in +remote periods had made occasional slight attempts upon it; but none at +all for a long time past. All attempts that way, as ineffectual for +any purpose but stirring up strife, had been discontinued for many +generations; [Buchholz, i. 148-151.] and the Crypto-Protestantism was +again become a mythical romantic object, ignored by Official persons. +However, in 1727, there came a new Archbishop, one "Firmian", Count +Firmian by secular quality, of a strict lean character, zealous rather +than wise; who had brought his orthodoxies with him in a rigid and very +lean form. + +Right Reverend Firmian had not been long in Salzburg till he smelt +out the Crypto-Protestantism, and determined to haul it forth from +the mythical condition into the practical; and in fact, to see his +law-beagles there worry it to death as they ought. Hence the rumors that +had risen over Germany, in 1729: Law-terriers penetrating into human +cottages in those remote Salzburg valleys, smelling out some German +Bible or devout Book, making lists of Bible-reading cottagers; haling +them to the Right Reverend Father-in-God; thence to prison, since they +would not undertake to cease reading. With fine, with confiscation, +tribulation: for the peaceable Salzburgers, respectful creatures, +doffing their slouch-hats almost to mankind in general, were entirely +obstinate in that matter of the Bible. "Cannot, your Reverence; must +not, dare not!" and went to prison or whithersoever rather; a wide cry +rising, Let us sell our possessions and leave Salzburg then, according +to Treaty of Westphalia, Article so-and-so. "Treaty of Westphalia? Leave +Salzburg?" shrieked the Right Reverend Father: "Are we getting into open +mutiny, then? Open extensive mutiny!" shrieked he. Borrowed a couple of +Austrian regiments,--Kaiser and we always on the pleasantest terms,--and +marched the most refractory of his Salzburgers over the frontiers +(retaining their properties and families); whereupon noise rose louder +and louder. + +Refractory Salzburgers sent Deputies to the Diet; appealed, complained +to the CORPUS EVANGELICORUM, Treaty of Westphalia in hand,--without +result. CORPUS, having verified matters, complained to the Kaiser, to +the Right Reverend Father. The Kaiser, intent on getting his Pragmatic +Sanction through the Diet, and anxious to offend nobody at present, gave +good words; but did nothing: the Right Reverend Father answered a +Letter or two from the CORPUS; then said at last, He wished to close +the Correspondence, had the honor to be,--and answered no farther, when +written to. CORPUS was without result. So it lasted through 1730; rumor, +which rose in 1729, waxing ever louder into practicable or impracticable +shape, through that next year; tribulation increasing in Salzburg; +and noise among mankind. In the end of 1730, the Salzburgers sent Two +Deputies to Friedrich Wilhelm at Berlin; solid-hearted, thick-soled men, +able to answer for themselves, and give real account of Salzburg and the +phenomena; this brought matters into a practicable state. + +"Are you actual Protestants, the Treaty of Westphalia applicable to you? +Not mere fanatic mystics, as Right Reverend Firmian asserts; protectible +by no Treaty?" That was Friedrich Wilhelm's first question; and he set +his two chief Berlin Clergymen, learned Roloff one of them, a divine of +much fame, to catechise the two Salzburg Deputies, and report upon the +point. Their Report, dated Berlin, 30th November, 1730, with specimens +of the main questions, I have read; [Fassmann, pp. 446-448.] and can +fully certify, along with Roloff and friend, That here are orthodox +Protestants, apparently of very pious peaceable nature, suffering hard +wrong;--orthodox beyond doubt, and covered by the Treaty of Westphalia. +Whereupon his Majesty dismisses them with assurance, "Return, and say +there shall be help!"--and straightway lays hand on the business, strong +swift steady hand as usual, with a view that way. + +Salzburg being now a clear case, Friedrich Wilhelm writes to the Kaiser; +to the King of England, King of Denmark;--orders preparations to be +made in Preussen, vacant messuages to be surveyed, moneys to be laid +up;--bids his man at the Regensburg Diet signify, That unless this thing +is rectified, his Prussian Majesty will see himself necessitated to take +effectual steps: "reprisals" the first step, according to the old method +of his Prussian Majesty. Rumor of the Salzburg Protestants rises higher +and higher. Kaiser intent on conciliating every CORPUS, Evangelical +and other, for his Pragmatic Sanction's sake, admonishes Right Reverend +Firmian; intimates at last to him, That he will actually have to let +those poor people emigrate if they demand it; Treaty of Westphalia being +express. In the end of 1731 it has come thus far. + +"Emigrate, says your Imperial Majesty? Well, they shall emigrate," +answers Firmian; "the sooner the better!" And straightway, in the dead +of winter, marches, in convenient divisions, some nine hundred of them +over the frontiers: "Go about your business, then; emigrate--to the Old +One, if you like!"--"And our properties, our goods and chattels?" ask +they.--"Be thankful you have kept your skins. Emigrate, I say.!" And the +poor nine hundred had to go out, in the rigor of winter, "hoary old men +among them, and women coming near their time;" and seek quarters in the +wide world mostly unknown to them. Truly Firmian is an orthodox Herr; +acquainted with the laws of fair usage and the time of day. The sleeping +Barbarossa does not awaken upon him within the Hill here:--but in the +Roncalic Fields, long ago, I should not have liked to stand in his +shoes! + +Friedrich Wilhelm, on this procedure at Salzburg, intimates to his +Halberstadt and Minden Catholic gentlemen, That their Establishments +must be locked up, and incomings suspended; that they can apply to the +Right Reverend Firmian upon it;--and bids his man at Regensburg signify +to the Diet that such is the course adopted here. Right Reverend Firmian +has to hold his hand; finds both that there shall be Emigration, and +that it must go forward on human terms, not inhuman; and that in fact +the Treaty of Westphalia will have to guide it, not he henceforth. Those +poor ousted Salzburgers cower into the Bavarian cities, till the weather +mend, and his Prussian Majesty's arrangements be complete for their +brethren and them. + +His Prussian Majesty has been maturing his plans, all this +while;--gathering moneys, getting lands ready. We saw him hanging +Schlubhut in the autumn of 1731, who had peculated from said moneys; and +surveying Preussen, under storms of thunder and rain on one occasion. +Preussen is to be the place for these people; Tilsit and Memel region, +same where the big Fight of Tannenberg and ruin of the Teutsch Ritters +took place: in that fine fertile Country there are homes got ready for +this Emigration out of Salzburg. + +Long ago, at the beginning of this History, did not the reader hear of +a pestilence in Prussian Lithuania? Pestilence in old King Friedrich's +time; for which the then Crown-Prince, now Majesty Friedrich Wilhelm, +vainly solicited help from the Treasury, and only brought about partial +change of Ministry and no help. "Fifty-two Towns" were more or less +entirely depopulated; hundreds of thousands of fertile acres fell to +waste again, the hands that had ploughed them being swept away. The +new Majesty, so soon as ever the Swedish War was got rid of, took this +matter diligently in hand; built up the fifty-two ruined Towns; issued +Proclamations once and again (Years 1719, 1721) to the Wetterau, to +Switzerland, Saxony, Schwaben; [Buchholz, i. 148.] inviting Colonists +to come, and, on favorable terms, till and reap there. His terms are +favorable, well-considered; and are honestly kept. He has a fixed set of +terms for Colonists: their road-expenses thither, so much a day allowed +each travelling soul; homesteads, ploughing implements, cattle, land, +await them at their journey's end; their rent and services, accurately +specified, are light not heavy; and "immunities" from this and that are +granted them, for certain years, till they get well nestled. Excellent +arrangements: and his Majesty has, in fact, got about 20,000 families +in that way. And still there is room for thousands more. So that if the +tyrannous Firmian took to tribulating Salzburg in that manner, Heaven +had provided remedies and a Prussian Majesty. Heaven is very opulent; +has alchemy to change the ugliest substances into beautifulest. +Privately to his Majesty, for months back, this Salzburg Emigration is +a most manageable matter. Manage well, it will be a god-send to his +Majesty, and fit, as by pre-established harmony, into the ancient +Prussian sorrow; and "two afflictions well put together shall become +a consolation," as the proverb promises! Go along then, Right Reverend +Firmian, with your Emigration there: only no foul-play in it,--or +Halberstadt and Minden get locked:--for the rest of the matter we will +undertake. + +And so, February 2d, 1732, Friedrich Wilhelm's Proclamation [Copy of +it in Mauvillon, February, 1732, ii. 311.] flew abroad over the world; +brief and business-like, cheering to all but Firmian;--to this purport: +"Come, ye poor Salzburgers, there are homes provided for you. Apply at +Regensburg, at Halle: Commissaries are appointed; will take charge of +your long march and you. Be kind, all Christian German Princes: do not +hinder them and me." And in a few days farther, still early in February +(for the matter is all ready before proclaiming), an actual Prussian +Commissary hangs out his announcements and officialities at Donauworth, +old City known to us, within reach of the Salzburg Boundaries; collects, +in a week or two, his first lot of Emigrants, near a thousand strong; +and fairly takes the road with them. + +A long road and a strange: I think, above five hundred miles before we +get to Halle, within Prussian land; and then seven hundred more to +our place there, in the utmost East. Men, women, infants and hoary +grandfathers are here;--most of their property sold,--still on ruinous +conditions, think of it, your Majesty. Their poor bits of preciosities +and heirlooms they have with them; made up in succinct bundles, stowed +on ticketed baggage-wains; "some have their own poor cart and horse, +to carry the too old and the too young, those that cannot walk." A +pilgrimage like that of the Children of Israel: such a pilgrim caravan +as was seldom heard of in our Western Countries. Those poor succinct +bundles, the making of them up and stowing of them; the pangs of simple +hearts, in those remote native valleys; the tears that were not seen, +the cries that were addressed to God only: and then at last the actual +turning out of the poor caravan, in silently practical condition, staff +in hand, no audible complaint heard from it; ready to march; practically +marching here:--which of us can think of it without emotion, sad, and +yet in a sort blessed! + +Every Emigrant man has four GROSCHEN a day (fourpence odd) allowed him +for road expenses, every woman three groschen, every child two: and +regularity itself, in the shape of Prussian Commissaries, presides +over it. Such marching of the Salzburgers: host after host of them, by +various routes, from February onwards; above seven thousand of them this +year, and ten thousand more that gradually followed,--was heard of +at all German firesides, and in all European lands. A phenomenon +much filling the general ear and imagination; especially at the first +emergence of it. We will give from poor old authentic Fassmann, as if +caught up by some sudden photograph apparatus, a rude but undeniable +glimpse or two into the actuality of this business: the reader will in +that way sufficiently conceive it for himself. + +Glimpse FIRST is of an Emigrant Party arriving, in the cold February +days of 1732, at Nordlingen, Protestant Free-Town in Bavaria: three +hundred of them; first section, I think, of those nine hundred who +were packed away unceremoniously by Firmian last winter, and have been +wandering about Bavaria, lodging "in Kaufbeuern" and various preliminary +Towns, till the Prussian arrangements became definite. Prussian +Commissaries are, by this time, got to Donauworth; but these poor +Salzburgers are ahead of them, wandering under the voluntary principle +as yet. Nordlingen, in Bavaria, is an old Imperial Free-Town; +Protestantism not suppressed there, as it has been all round; scene of +some memorable fighting in the Thirty-Years War, especially of a bad +defeat to the Swedes and Bernhard of Weimar, the worst they had in the +course of that bad business. The Salzburgers are in number three hundred +and thirty-one; time, "first days of February, 1732, weather very cold +and raw." The charitable Protestant Town has been expecting such an +advent:-- + +"Two chief Clergymen, and the Schoolmaster and Scholars, with some +hundreds of citizens and many young people" went out to meet them; +there, in the open field, stood the Salzburgers, with their wives +and their little ones, with their bullock-carts and baggage-wains," +pilgriming towards unknown parts of the Earth. "'Come in, ye blessed +of the Lord! Why stand ye without?' said the Parson solemnly, by way of +welcome; and addressed a Discourse to them," devout and yet human, +true every word of it, enough to draw tears from any Fassmann that were +there;--Fassmann and we not far from weeping without words. "Thereupon +they ranked themselves two and two, and marched into the Town," straight +to the Church, I conjecture, Town all out to participate; "and there +the two reverend gentlemen successively addressed them again, from +appropriate texts: Text of the first reverend gentleman was, _And every +one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, +or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall +receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life._ [Matthew +xix. 29.] Text of the second was, _Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, +Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's +house, unto a land that I will show thee."_ [Genesis xii. 1.] Excellent +texts; well handled, let us hope,--especially with brevity. After which +the strangers were distributed, some into public-houses, others taken +home by the citizens to lodge. + +"Out of the Spital there was distributed to each person, for the first +three days, a half-pound of flesh-meat, bread, and a measure of beer. +The remaining days they got in money six CREUTZERS (twopence) each, and +bread. On Sunday, at the Church-doors there was a collection; no less +than eight hundred GULDEN [80 pounds; population, say, three thousand] +for this object. At Sermon they were put into the central part of the +Church," all Nordlingen lovingly encompassing them; "and were taught in +two sermons," texts not given, _What the true Church is built of, and +ought to have;_ Nordlingen copiously shedding tears the while (VIELE +THRANEN VERGOSSEN), as it well might. "Going to Church, and coming from +it, each Landlord walked ahead of his party; party followed two and two. +On other days, there was much catechising of them at different parts +of the Town;"--orthodox enough, you see, nothing of superstition or +fanaticism in the poor people;--"they made a good testimony of their +Evangelical truth. + +"The Baggage-wagons which they had with them, ten in number, upon which +some of their old people sat, were brought into the Town. The Baggage +was unloaded, and the packages, two hundred and eighty-one of them in +all [for Fassmann is Photography itself], were locked in the Zoll-Haus. +Over and above what they got from the Spital, the Church-collection and +the Town-chest, Citizens were liberal; daily sent them food, or daily +had them by fours and fives to their own houses to meat." And so let +them wait for the Prussian Commissary, who is just at hand: "they would +not part from one another, these three hundred and thirty-one," says +Fassmann, "though their reunion was but of that accidental nature." +[Fassmann, pp. 439, 440.] + +Glimpse SECOND: not dated; perhaps some ten days later; and a Prussian +Commissary with this party:-- + +"On their getting to the Anspach Territory, there was so incredible +a joy at the arrival of these exiled Brothers in the Faith +(GLAUBENS-BRUDER) that in all places, almost in the smallest hamlets, +the bells were set a-tolling; and nothing was heard but a peal of +welcome from far and near." Prussian Commissary, when about quitting +Anspach, asked leave to pass through Bamberg; Bishop of Bamberg, too +orthodox a gentleman, declined; so the Commissary had to go by Nurnberg +and Baireuth. Ask not if his welcome was good, in those Protestant +places. "At Erlangen, fifteen miles from Nurnberg, where are +French Protestants and a Dowager Margravine of Baireuth,"--Widow of +Wilhelmina's Father-in-law's predecessor (if the reader can count +that); DAUGHTER of Weissenfels who was for marrying Wilhelmina not long +since!--"at Erlangen, the Serene Dowager snatched up fifty of them into +her own House for Christian refection; and Burghers of means had twelve, +fifteen and even eighteen of them, following such example set. Nay +certain French Citizens, prosperous and childless, besieged the +Prussian Commissary to allow them a few Salzburg children for adoption; +especially one Frenchman was extremely urgent and specific: but the +Commissary, not having any order, was obliged to refuse." [Fassmann, +p. 441.] These must have been interesting days for the two young +Margravines; forwarding Papa's poor pilgrims in that manner. + +"At Baireuth," other side of Nurnberg, "it was towards Good Friday when +the Pilgrims under their Commissarius arrived. They were lodged in the +villages about, but came copiously into the Town; came all in a body to +Church on Good Friday; and at coming out, were one and all carried off +to dinner, a very scramble arising among the Townsfolk to get hold of +Pilgrims and dine them. Vast numbers were carried to the Schloss:" one +figures Wilhelmina among them, figures the Hereditary Prince and old +Margraf: their treatment there was "beyond belief," says Fassmann; "not +only dinner of the amplest quality and quantity, but much money added +and other gifts." From Baireuth the route is towards Gera and Thuringen, +circling the Bamberg Territory: readers remember Gera, where the Gera +Bond was made?--"At Gera, a commercial gentleman dined the whole party +in his own premises, and his wife gave four groschen to each individual +of them; other two persons, brothers in the place, doing the like. One +of the poor pilgrim women had been brought to bed on the journey, a day +or two before: the Commissarius lodged her in his own inn, for greater +safety; Commissarius returning to his inn, finds she is off, nobody +at first can tell him whither: a lady of quality (VORMEHME DAME) has +quietly sent her carriage for the poor pilgrim sister, and has her in +the right softest keeping. No end to people's kindness: many wept aloud, +sobbing out, 'Is this all the help we can give?' Commissarius said, +'There will others come shortly; them also you can help.'" + +In this manner march these Pilgrims. "From Donauworth, by Anspach, +Nurnberg, Baireuth, through Gera, Zeitz, Weissenfels, to Halle," where +they are on Prussian ground, and within few days of Berlin. Other Towns, +not upon the first straight route to Berlin, demand to have a share in +these grand things; share is willingly conceded: thus the Pilgrims, what +has its obvious advantages, march by a good variety of routes. Through +Augsburg, Ulm (instead of Donauworth), thence to Frankfurt; from +Frankfurt some direct to Leipzig: some through Cassel, Hanover, +Brunswick, by Halberstadt and Magdeburg instead of Halle. Starting all +at Salzburg, landing all at Berlin; their routes spread over the Map of +Germany in the intermediate space. + +"Weissenfels Town and Duke distinguished themselves by liberality: +especially the Duke did;"--poor old drinking Duke; very Protestant +all these Saxon Princes, except the Apostate or Pseudo-Apostate the +Physically Strong, for sad political reasons. "In Weissenfels Town, +while the Pilgrim procession walked, a certain rude foreign fellow, +flax-pedler by trade, ["HECHELTRAGER," Hawker of flax-combs or +HECKLES;--is oftenest a Slavonic Austrian (I am told).] by creed Papist +or worse, said floutingly, 'The Archbishop ought to have flung you +all into the river, you--!' Upon which a menial servant of the Duke's +suddenly broke in upon him in the way of actuality, the whole crowd +blazing into flame; and the pedler would certainly have got irreparable +damage, had not the Town-guard instantly hooked him away." + +April 21st, 1732, the first actual body, a good nine hundred strong, +[Buchholz, i. 156.] got to Halle; where they were received with devout +jubilee, psalm-singing, spiritual and corporeal refection, as at +Nordlingen and the other stages; "Archidiaconus Franke" being prominent +in it,--I have no doubt, a connection of that "CHIEN DE FRANKE," +whom Wilhelmina used to know. They were lodged in the Waisenhaus (old +Franke's ORPHAN-HOUSE); Official List of them was drawn up here, with +the fit specificality; and, after three days, they took the road again +for Berlin. Useful Buchholz, then a very little boy, remembers the +arrival of a Body of these Salzburgers, not this but a later one in +August, which passed through his native Village, Pritzwalk in the +Priegnitz: How village and village authorities were all awake, with +opened stores and hearts; how his Father, the Village Parson, preached +at five in the afternoon. The same Buchholz, coming afterwards +to College at Halle, had the pleasure of discovering two of the +Commissaries, two of the three, who had mainly superintended in this +Salzburg Pilgrimage. Let the reader also take a glance at them, as +specimens worth notice:-- + +COMMISSARIUS FIRST: "Herr von Reck was a nobleman from the Hanover +Country; of very great piety; who, after his Commission was done, +settled at Halle; and lived there, without servant, in privacy, from the +small means he had;--seeking his sole satisfaction in attendance on +the Theological and Ascetic College-Lectures, where I used to see him +constantly in my student time." + +COMMISSARIUS SECOND: "Herr Gobel was a medical man by profession; and +had the regular degree of Doctor; but was in no necessity to apply his +talents to the gaining of bread. His zeal for religion had moved him to +undertake this Commission. Both these gentlemen I have often seen in my +youth," but do not tell you what they were like farther; "and both their +Christian names have escaped me." + +A third Commissarius was of Preussen, and had religious-literary +tendencies. I suppose these three served gratis;--volunteers; but no +doubt under oath, and tied by strict enough Prussian law. Physician, +Chaplain, Road-guide, here they are, probably of supreme quality, ready +to our hand. [Buchholz, _Neueste Preussisch-Brandenburgische Geschichte_ +(berlin, 1775, 2 vols. 4to), i. 155 n.] + +Buchholz, after "his student time," became a poor Country-schoolmaster, +and then a poor Country-Parson, in his native Altmark. His poor Book +is of innocent, clear, faithful nature, with some vein of "unconscious +geniality" in it here and there;--a Book by no means so destitute of +human worth as some that have superseded it. This was posthumous, this +"NEWEST HISTORY," and has a LIFE of the Author prefixed. He has four +previous Volumes on the _"Ancient History of Brandenburg,"_ which +are not known to me.--About the Year 1745, there were four poor +Schoolmasters in that region (two at Havelberg, one at Seehausen, one at +Werben), of extremely studious turn; who, in spite of the Elbe which ran +between, used to meet on stated nights, for colloquy, for interchange +of Books and the like. One of them, the Werben one, was this Buchholz; +another, Seehausen, was the Winckelmann so celebrated in after years. +A third, one of the Havelberg pair, "went into Mecklenburg in a year or +two, as Tutor to Karl Ludwig the Prince of Strelitz's children,"--whom +also mark. For the youngest of these Strelitz children was no other than +the actual "Old Queen Charlotte" (ours and George III.'s), just ready +for him with her Hornbooks about that time: Let the poor man have what +honor he can from that circumstance! "Prince Karl Ludwig," rather a +foolish-looking creature, we may fall in with personally by and by. + +It was the 30th April, 1732, seven weeks and a day since Crown-Prince +Friedrich's Betrothal, that this first body of Salzburg Emigrants, +nine hundred strong, arrived at Berlin; "four in the afternoon, at the +Brandenburg Gate;" Official persons, nay Majesty himself, or perhaps +both Majesties, waiting there to receive them. Yes, ye poor footsore +mortals, there is the dread King himself; stoutish short figure in +blue uniform and white wig, straw-colored waistcoat, and white gaiters; +stands uncommonly firm on his feet; reddish, blue-reddish face, with +eyes that pierce through a man: look upon him, and yet live if you are +true men. His Majesty's reception of these poor people could not but be +good; nothing now wanting in the formal kind. But better far, in all the +essentialities of it, there had not been hitherto, nor was henceforth, +the least flaw. This Salzburg Pilgrimage has found for itself, and will +find, regulation, guidance, ever a stepping-stone at the needful place; +a paved road, so far as human regularity and punctuality could pave one. +That is his Majesty's shining merit. "Next Sunday, after sermon, they +[this first lot of Salzburgers] were publicly catechised in church; and +all the world could hear their pertinent answers, given often in the +very Scripture texts, or express words of Luther." + +His Majesty more than once took survey of these Pilgrimage Divisions, +when they got to Berlin. A pleasant sight, if there were leisure +otherwise. On various occasions, too, her Majesty had large parties of +them over to Monbijou, to supper there in the fine gardens; and "gave +them Bibles," among other gifts, if in want of Bibles through Firmian's +industry. Her Majesty was Charity itself, Charity and Grace combined, +among these Pilgrims. On one occasion she picked out a handsome young +lass among them, and had Painter Pesne over to take her portrait. +Handsome lass, by Pesne, in her Tyrolese Hat, shone thenceforth on +the walls of Monbijou; and fashion thereupon took up the Tyrolese Hat, +"which has been much worn since by the beautiful part of the Creation," +says Buchholz; "but how many changes they have introduced in it no pen +can trace." + +At Berlin the Commissarius ceased; and there was usually given the +Pilgrims a Candidatus Theologiae, who was to conduct them the rest of +the way, and be their Clergyman when once settled. Five hundred long +miles still. Some were shipped at Stettin; mostly they marched, stage +after stage,--four groschen a day. At the farther end they found all +ready; tight cottages, tillable fields, all implements furnished, and +stock,--even to "FEDERVIEH," or Chanticleer with a modicum of Hens. Old +neighbors, and such as liked each other, were put together: fields grew +green again, desolate scrubs and scrags yielding to grass and corn. +Wooden clocks even came to view,--for Berchtesgaden neighbors also +emigrated; and Swiss came, and Bavarians and French:--and old trades +were revived in those new localities. + +Something beautifully real-idyllic in all this, surely:--Yet do not +fancy that it all went on like clock-work; that there were not jarrings +at every step, as is the way in things real. Of the Prussian Minister +chiefly concerned in settling this new Colony I have heard one saying, +forced out of him in some pressure: "There must be somebody for a +scolding-stock and scape-goat; I will be it, then!" And then the +Salzburg Officials, what a humor they were in! No Letters allowed from +those poor Emigrants; the wickedest rumors circulated about them: "All +cut to pieces by inroad of the Poles;" "Pressed for soldiers by the +Prussian drill-sergeant;" "All flung into the Lakes and stagnant waters +there; drowned to the last individual;" and so on. Truth nevertheless +did slowly pierce through. And the "GROSSE WIRTH," our idyllic-real +Friedrich Wilhelm, was wanting in nothing. Lists of their unjust losses +in Salzburg were, on his Majesty's order, made out and authenticated, by +the many who had suffered in that way there,--forced to sell at a +day's notice, and the like:--with these his Majesty was diligent in the +Imperial Court; and did get what human industry could of compensation, +a part but not the whole. Contradictory noises had to abate. In the end, +sound purpose, built on fact and the Laws of Nature, carried it; lies, +vituperations, rumors and delusion sank to zero; and the true result +remained. In 1738, the Salzburg Emigrant Community in Preussen held, +in all their Churches, a Day of Thanksgiving; and admitted piously that +Heaven's blessing, of a truth, had been upon this King and them. There +we leave them, a useful solid population ever since in those parts; +increased by this time we know not how many fold. + +It cost Friedrich Wilhelm enormous sums, say the Old Histories; probably +"ten TONS OF GOLD,"--that is to say, ten hundred thousand thalers; +almost 150,000 pounds, no less! But he lived to see it amply repaid, +even in his own time; how much more amply since;--being a man skilful +in investments to a high degree indeed. Fancy 150,000 pounds invested +there, in the Bank of Nature herself; and a hundred millions invested, +say at Balaclava, in the Bank of Newspaper rumor: and the respective +rates of interest they will yield, a million years hence! This was +the most idyllic of Friedrich Wilhelm's feats, and a very real one the +while. + +We have only to add or repeat, that Salzburgers to the number of about +7,000 souls arrived at their place this first year; and in the year or +two following, less noted by the public, but faring steadily forward +upon their four groschen a day, 10,000 more. Friedrioh Wilhelm would +have gladly taken the whole; "but George II. took a certain number," say +the Prussian Books (George II., or pious Trustees instead of him), "and +settled them at Ebenezer in Virginia,"--read, Ebenezer IN GEORGIA, where +General Oglethorpe was busy founding a Colony. [Petition to Parliament, +10th (21st) May, 1733, by Oglethorpe and his Trustees, for 10,000 pounds +to carry over these Salzburgers; which was granted; Tindal's RAPIN +(London, 1769), xx. 184.] There at Ebenezer I calculate they might go +ahead, too, after the questionable fashion of that country, and increase +and swell;--but have never heard of them since. + +Salzburg Emigration was a very real transaction on Friedrich Wilhelm's +part; but it proved idyllic too, and made a great impression on the +German mind. Readers know of a Book called _Hermann and Dorothea?_ It is +written by the great Goethe, and still worth reading. The great Goethe +had heard, when still very little, much talk among the elders about this +Salzburg Pilgrimage; and how strange a thing it was, twenty years ago +and more. [1749 was Goethe's birth-year.] In middle life he threw it +into Hexameters, into the region of the air; and did that unreal Shadow +of it; a pleasant work in its way, since he was not inclined for more. + + + + +Chapter IV. -- PRUSSIAN MAJESTY VISITS THE KAISER. + +Majesty seeing all these matters well in train,--Salzburgers under way, +Crown-Prince betrothed according to his Majesty's and the Kaiser's (not +to her Majesty's, and high-flying little George of England my Brother +the Comedian's) mind and will,--begins to think seriously of another +enterprise, half business, half pleasure, which has been hovering in +his mind for some time. "Visit to my Daughter at Baireuth," he calls it +publicly; but it means intrinsically Excursion into Bohmen, to have a +word with the Kaiser, and see his Imperial Majesty in the body for once. +Too remarkable a thing to be omitted by us here. + +Crown-Prince does not accompany on this occasion; Crown-Prince is with +his Regiment all this while; busy minding his own affairs in the +Ruppin quarter;--only hears, with more or less interest, of these +Salzburg-Pilgrim movements, of this Excursion into Bohmen. Here are +certain scraps of Letters; which, if once made legible, will assist +readers to conceive his situation and employments there. Letters +otherwise of no importance; but worth reading on that score. The FIRST +(or rather first three, which we huddle into one) is from "Nauen," few +miles off Ruppin; where one of our Battalions lies; requiring frequent +visits there:-- + +1. TO GRUMKOW, AT BERLIN (from the Crown-Prince). + +"NAUEN, 26th April, 1732. + +"MONSIEUR MY DEAREST FRIEND,--I send you a big mass of papers, which a +certain gentleman named Plotz has transmitted me. In faith, I know not +in the least what it is: I pray you present it [to his Majesty, or in +the proper quarter], and make me rid of it. + +"To-morrow I go to Potsdam [a drive of forty miles southward], to see +the exercise, and if we do it here according to pattern. NEUE BESEN +KEHREN GUT [New brooms sweep clean, IN GERMAN]; I shall have to +illustrate my new character" of Colonel; "and show that I am EIN +TUCHTIGER OFFICIER (a right Officer). Be what I may, I shall to you +always be", &c. &c. + +NAUEN, 7th MAY, 1732. "... Thousand thanks for informing me how +everything goes on in the world. Things far from agreeable, those +leagues [imaginary, in Tobacco-Parliament] suspected to be forming +against our House! But if the Kaiser don't abandon us;... if God second +the valor of 80,000 men resolved to spend their life,... let us hope +there will nothing bad happen. + +"Meanwhile, till events arrive, I make a pretty stir here (ME TREMOUSSE +ICI D'IMPORTANCE), to bring my Regiment to its requisite perfection, +and I hope I shall succeed. The other day I drank your dear health, +Monsieur; and I wait only the news from my Cattle-stall that the Calf +I am fattening there is ready for sending to you. I unite Mars and +Housekeeping, you see. Send me your Secretary's name, that I may address +your Letters that way,"--our Correspondence needing to be secret in +certain quarters. + +... "With a" truly infinite esteem, "FREDERIC." + +NAUEN, 10th MAY, 1732. "You will see by this that I am exact to follow +your instruction; and that the SCHULZ of Tremmen [Village in the +Brandenburg quarter, with a SCHULZ or Mayor to be depended on], becomes +for the present the mainspring of our correspondence. I return you all +the things (PIECES) you had the goodness to communicate to me,--except +_Charles Douze,_ [Voltaire's new Book; lately come out, "Bale, 1731."] +which attaches me infinitely. The particulars hitherto unknown which +he reports; the greatness of that Prince's actions, and the perverse +singularity (BIZARRERIE) of his fortune: all this, joined to the lively, +brilliant and charming way the Author has of telling it, renders this +Book interesting to the supreme degree.... I send you a fragment of my +correspondence with the most illustrious Sieur Crochet," some French +Envoy or Emissary, I conclude: "you perceive we go on very sweetly +together, and are in a high strain. I am sorry I burnt one of his +Letters, wherein he assured me he would in the Versailles Antechamber +itself speak of me to the King, and that my name had actually been +mentioned at the King's Levee. It certainly is not my ambition to choose +this illustrious mortal to publish my renown; on the contrary, I +should think it soiled by such a mouth, and prostituted if he were the +publisher. But enough of the Crochet: the kindest thing we can do for +so contemptible an object is to say nothing of him at all." [_OEuvres de +Frederic,_ xvi. 49, 51.]--... + +Letter SECOND is to Jaagermeister Hacke, Captain of the Potsdam Guard; +who stands in great nearness to the King's Majesty; and, in fact, +is fast becoming his factotum in Army-details. We, with the Duke of +Lorraine and Majesty in person, saw his marriage to the Excellency +Creutz's Fraulein Daughter not long since; who we trust has made him +happy;--rich he is at any rate, and will be Adjutant-General before +long; powerful in such intricacies as this that the Prince has fallen +into. + +The Letter has its obscurities; turns earnestly on Recruits tall and +short; nor have idle Editors helped us, by the least hint towards +"reading" it with more than the EYES. Old Dessauer at this time is +Commandant at Magdeburg; Buddenbrock, perhaps now passing by Ruppin, we +know for a high old General, fit to carry messages from Majesty,--or, +likelier, it may be Lieutenant Buddenbrock, his Son, merely returning to +Ruppin? We can guess, that the flattering Dessauer has sent his Majesty +five gigantic men from the Magdeburg regiments, and that Friedrich is +ordered to hustle out thirty of insignificant stature from his own, by +way of counter-gift to the Dessauer;--which Friedrich does instantly, +but cannot, for his life, see how (being totally cashless) he is to +replace them with better, or replace them at all! + +2. TO CAPTAIN HACKE, OF THE POTSDAM GUARD. + +"RUPPIN, 15th July, 1732. + +"MEIN GOTT, what a piece of news Buddenbrock has brought me! I am to get +nothing out of Brandenburg, my dear Hacke? Thirty men I had to shift out +of my company in consequence [of Buddenbrock's order]; and where am I +now to get other thirty? I would gladly give the King tall men, as the +Dessauer at Magdeburg does; but I have no money; and I don't get, or +set up for getting, six men for one [thirty short for five tall], as he +does. So true is that Scripture: To him that hath shall be given; and +from him that hath not shall be taken away even that he hath. + +"Small art, that the Prince of Dessau's and the Magdeburg Regiments are +fine, when they have money at command, and thirty men GRATIS over +and above! I, poor devil, have nothing; nor shall have, all my days. +Prithee, dear Hacke (BITTE IHN, LIEBER HACKE), think of all that: and +if I have no money allowed, I must bring Asmus [Recruit unknown to +me] alone as Recruit next year; and my Regiment will to a certainty be +rubbish (KROOP). Once I had learned a German Proverb-- + + 'VERSPRECHEN UND HALTEN (To promise and to keep) + ZIEMT WOHL JUNGEN UND ALTEN (Is pretty for young and for old)!' + +"I depend alone on you (IHN), dear Hacke; unless you help, there is a +bad outlook. To-day I have knocked again [written to Papa for money]; +and if that does not help, it is over. If I could get any money to +borrow, it would do; but I need not think of that. Help me, then, dear +Hacke! I assure you I will ever remember it; who, at all times, am my +dear Herr Captain's devoted (GANZ ERGEBENER) servant and friend, + +"FRIDERICH." + +[In German: _OEuvres,_ xxvii. part 3d, p. 177.] + +To which add only this Note, two days later, to Seckendorf; +indicating that the process of "borrowing" has already, in some form, +begun,--process which will have to continue: and to develop itself;--and +that his Majesty, as Seckendorf well knows, is resolved upon his +Bohemian journey:-- + +3. TO THE GENERAL FELDZEUGMEISTER GRAF VON SECKENDORF. + +"RUPPIN, 17th July, 1732. + +"MY VERY DEAR GENERAL,--I have written to the King, that I owed you +2,125 THALERS for the Recruits; of which he says there are 600 paid: +there remain, therefore, 1,525, which he will pay you directly. + +"The King is going to Prague: I shall not be of the party [as you will]. +To say truth, I am not very sorry; for it would infallibly give rise to +foolish rumors in the world. At the same time, I should have much wished +to see the Emperor, Empress, and Prince of Lorraine, for whom I have a +quite particular esteem. I beg you, Monsieur, to assure him of it;--and +to assure yourself that I shall always be,--with a great deal of +consideration, MONSIEUR, MON TRES-CHER GENERAL, &c. FREDERIC." + +And now--for the Bohemian Journey, "Visit at Kladrup" as they call +it;--Ruppin being left in this assiduous and wholesome, if rather +hampered condition. + +Kaiser Karl and his Empress, in this summer of 1732, were at Karlsbad, +taking the waters for a few weeks. Friedrich Wilhelm, who had long, for +various reasons, wished to see his Kaiser face to face, thought this +would be a good opportunity. The Kaiser himself, knowing how it stood +with the Julich-and-Berg and other questions, was not anxious for such +an interview; still less were his official people; among whom the +very ceremonial for such a thing was matter of abstruse difficulty. +Seckendorf accordingly had been instructed to hunt wide, and throw in +discouragements, so far as possible;--which he did, but without effect. +Friedrich Wilhelm had set his heart upon the thing; wished to behold for +once a Head of the Holy Roman Empire, and Supreme of Christendom;--also +to see a little, with his own eyes, into certain matters Imperial. + +And so, since an express visit to Karlsbad might give rise to newspaper +rumors, and will not suit, it is settled, there shall be an accidental +intersection of routes, as the Kaiser travels homeward,--say in some +quiet Bohemian Schloss or Hunting-seat of the Kaiser's own, whither +the King may come incognito; and thus, with a minimum of noise, may +the needful passage of hospitality be done. Easy all of this: only the +Vienna Ministers are dreadfully in doubt about the ceremonial, +Whether the Imperial hand can be given (I forget if for kissing or for +shaking)?--nay at last they manfully declare that it cannot be given; +and wish his Prussian Majesty to understand that it must be refused. +[Forster, i. 328.] "RES SUMMAE CONSEQUENTIAE," say they; and shake +solemnly their big wigs.--Nonsense (NARRENPOSSEN)! answers the Prussian +Majesty: You, Seckendorf, settle about quarters, reasonable food, +reasonable lodgings; and I will do the ceremonial. + +Seckendorf--worth glancing into, for biographical purposes, in this +place--has written to his Court: That as to the victual department, his +Majesty goes upon good common meat; flesh, to which may be added all +manner of river-fish and crabs: sound old Rhenish is his drink, with +supplements of brown and of white beer. Dinner-table to be spread always +in some airy place, garden-house, tent, big clean barn,--Majesty likes +air, of all things;--will sleep, too, in a clean barn or garden-house: +better anything than being stifled, thinks his Majesty. Who, for the +rest, does not like mounting stairs. [Seckendorf's Report (in Forster, +i. 330).] These are the regulations; and we need not doubt they were +complied with. + +Sunday, 27th July, 1732, accordingly, his Majesty, with five or six +carriages, quits Berlin, before the sun is up, as is his wont: eastward, +by the road for Frankfurt-on-Oder; "intends to look at Schulenburg's +regiment," which lies in those parts,--Schulenburg's regiment for +one thing: the rest is secret from the profane vulgar. Schulenburg's +regiment (drawn up for Church, I should suppose) is soon looked at; +Schulenburg himself, by preappointment, joins the travelling party, +which now consists of the King and Eight:--known figures, seven, +Buddenbrock, Schulenburg, Waldau, Derschau, Seckendorf; Grumkow, Captain +Hacke of the Potsdam Guard; and for eighth the Dutch Ambassador, +Ginkel, an accomplished knowing kind of man, whom also my readers have +occasionally seen. Their conversation, road-colloquy, could it interest +any modern reader? It has gone all to dusk; we can know only that it +was human, solid, for most part, and had much tobacco intermingled. They +were all of the Calvinistic persuasion, of the military profession; +knew that life is very serious, that speech without cause is much to be +avoided. They travelled swiftly, dined in airy places: they are a FACT, +they and their summer dust-cloud there, whirling through the vacancy of +that dim Time; and have an interest for us, though an unimportant one. + +The first night they got to Grunberg; a pleasant Town, of vineyards +and of looms, across the Silesian frontier. They are now turning more +southeastward; they sleep here, in the Kaiser's territory, welcomed by +some Official persons; who signify that the overjoyed Imperial Majesty +has, as was extremely natural, paid the bill everywhere. On the morrow, +before the shuttles awaken, Friedrich Wilhelm is gone again; towards +the Glogau region, intending for Liegnitz that night. Coursing +rapidly through the green Silesian Lowlands, blue Giant Mountains +(RIESENGEBIRGE) beginning to rise on the southwestward far away. Dines, +at noon, under a splendid tent, in a country place called Polkwitz, +["Balkowitz," say Pollnitz (ii. 407) and Forster; which is not the +correct name.] with country Nobility (sorrow on them, and yet thanks to +them) come to do reverence. At night he gets to Liegnitz. + +Here is Liegnitz, then. Here are the Katzbach and the Blackwater +(SCHWARZWASSER), famed in war, your Majesty; here they coalesce; gray +ashlar houses (not without inhabitants unknown to us) looking on. Here +are the venerable walls and streets of Liegnitz; and the Castle which +defied Baty Khan and his Tartars, five hundred years ago. [1241, the +Invasion, and Battle here, of this unexpected Barbarian.]--Oh, your +Majesty, this Liegnitz, with its princely Castle, and wide rich +Territory, the bulk of the Silesian Lowland, whose is it if right were +done? Hm, his Majesty knows full well; in Seckendorf's presence, and +going on such an errand, we must not speak of certain things. But the +undisputed truth is, Duke Friedrich II., come of the Sovereign Piasts, +made that ERBVERBRUDERUNG, and his Grandson's Grandson died childless: +so the heirship fell to us, as the biggest wig in the most benighted +Chancery would have to grant;--only the Kaiser will not, never would; +the Kaiser plants his armed self on Schlesien, and will hear no +pleading. Jagerndorf too, which we purchased with our own money---No +more of that; it is too miserable! Very impossible too, while we have +Berg and Julich in the wind!-- + +At Liegnitz, Friedrich Wilhelm "reviews the garrison, cavalry and +infantry," before starting; then off for Glatz, some sixty miles before +we can dine. The goal is towards Bohemia, all this while; and his +Majesty, had he liked the mountain-passes, and unlevel ways of the Giant +Mountains, might have found a shorter road and a much more picturesque +one. Road abounding in gloomy valleys, intricate rock-labyrinths, haunts +of Sprite RUBEZAHL, sources of the Elbe and I know not what. Majesty +likes level roads, and interesting rock-labyrinths built by man rather +than by Nature. Majesty makes a wide sweep round to the east of all +that; leaves the Giant Mountains, and their intricacies, as a blue +Sierra far on his right,--had rather see Glatz Fortress than the caverns +of the Elbe; and will cross into Bohemia, where the Hills are fallen +lowest. At Glatz during dinner, numerous Nobilities are again in +waiting. Glatz is in Jagerndorf region; Jagerndorf, which we purchased +with our own money, is and remains ours, in spite of the mishaps of the +Thirty-Years War;--OURS, the darkest Chancery would be obliged to +say, from under the immensest wig! Patience, your Majesty; Time brings +roses!-- + +From Glatz, after viewing the works, drilling the guard a little, not to +speak of dining, and despatching the Nobilities, his Majesty takes +the road again; turns now abruptly westward, across the Hills at their +lowest point; into Bohemia, which is close at hand. Lewin, Nachod, +these are the Bohemian villages, with their remnant of Czechs; not a +prosperous population to look upon: but it is the Kaiser's own +Kingdom: "King of Bohemia" one of his Titles ever since Sigismund +SUPER-GRAMMATICAM'S time. And here now, at the meeting of the waters +(Elbe one of them, a brawling mountain-stream) is Jaromierz, respectable +little Town, with an Imperial Officiality in it,--where the Official +Gentlemen meet us all in gala, "Thrice welcome to this Kingdom, your +Majesty!"--and signify that they are to wait upon us henceforth, while +we do the Kaiser's Kingdom of Bohemia that honor. + +It is Tuesday night, 29th July, this first night in Bohemia. The +Official Gentlemen lead his Majesty to superb rooms, new-hung with +crimson velvet, and the due gold fringes and tresses,--very grand +indeed; but probably not so airy as we wish. "This is the way the Kaiser +lodges in his journeys; and your Majesty is to be served like him." The +goal of our journey is now within few miles. Wednesday, 30th July, 1732, +his Majesty awakens again, within these crimson-velvet hangings with +the gold tresses and fringes, not so airy as he could wish; despatches +Grumkow to the Kaiser, who is not many miles off, to signify what honor +we would do ourselves. + +It was on Saturday last that the Kaiser and Kaiserinn, returning +from Karlsbad, illuminated Prag with their serene presence; "attended +high-mass, vespers," and a good deal of other worship, as the meagre old +Newspapers report for us, on that and the Sunday following. And then, +"on Monday, at six in the morning," both the Majesties left Prag, for +a place called Chlumetz, southwestward thirty miles off, in the Elbe +region, where they have a pretty Hunting Castle; Kaiser intending +"sylvan sport for a few days," says the old rag of a Newspaper, "and +then to return to Prag." It is here that Grumkow, after a pleasant +morning's drive of thirty miles with the sun on his back, finds Kaiser +Karl VI.; and makes his announcements, and diplomatic inquiries what +next. + +Had Friedrich Wilhelm been in Potsdam or Wusterhausen, and heard that +Kaiser Karl was within thirty miles of him, Friedrich Wilhelm would have +cried, with open arms, Come, come! But the Imperial Majesty is otherwise +hampered; has his rhadamanthine Aulic Councillors, in vast amplitude of +wig, sternly engaged in study of the etiquettes: they have settled +that the meeting cannot be in Chlumetz; lest it might lead to +night's lodgings, and to intricacies. "Let it be at Kladrup," say the +Ample-wigged; Kladrup, an Imperial Stud, or Horse-Farm, half a dozen +miles from this; where there is room for nothing more than dinner. There +let the meeting be, to-morrow at a set hour; and, in the mean time, we +will take precautions for the etiquettes. So it is settled, and Grumkow +returns with the decision in a complimentary form. + +Through Konigsgratz, down the right bank of the Upper Elbe, on the +morrow morning, Thursday, 31st July, 1732, Friedrich Wilhelm rushes on +towards Kladrup; finds that little village, with the Horse-edifices, +looking snug enough in the valley of Elbe;--alights, welcomed by Prince +Eugenio von Savoye, with word that the Kaiser is not come, but steadily +expected soon. Prinoe Eugenio von Savoye: ACH GOTT, it is another thing, +your Highness, than when we met in the Flanders Wars, long since;--at +Malplaquet that morning, when your Highness had been to Brussels, +visiting your Lady Mother in case of the worst! Slightly grayer your +Highness is grown; I too am nothing like so nimble; the great Duke, poor +man, is dead!--Prince Eugenio von Savoye, we need not doubt, took snuff, +and answered in a sprightly appropriate manner. + +Kladrup is a Country House as well as a Horse-Farm: a square court is +the interior, as I gather; the Horse-buildings at a reverent distance +forming the fourth side. In the centre of this court,--see what a +contrivance the Aulic Councillors have hit upon,--there is a wooden +stand built, with three staircases leading up to it, one for each +person, and three galleries leading off from it into suites of rooms: no +question of precedence here, where each of you has his own staircase +and own gallery to his apartment! Friedrich Wilhelm looks down like +a rhinoceros on all those cobwebberies. No sooner are the Kaiser's +carriage-wheels heard within the court, than Friedrich Wilhelm rushes +down, by what staircase is readiest; forward to the very carriage-door; +and flings his arms about the Kaiser, embracing and embraced, like mere +human friends glad to see one another. On these terms, they mount the +wooden stand, Majesty of Prussia, Kaiser, Kaiserinn, each by his own +staircase; see, for a space of two hours, the Kaiser's foals and horses +led about,--which at least fills up any gap in conversation that may +threaten to occur. The Kaiser, a little man of high and humane air, is +not bright in talk; the Empress, a Brunswick Princess of fine carriage, +Grand-daughter of old Anton Ulrich who wrote the Novels, is likewise +of mute humor in public life; but old Nord-Teutschland, cradle of one's +existence; Brunswick reminiscences; news of your Imperial Majesty's +serene Father, serene Sister, Brother-in-law the Feldmarschall +and Insipid Niece whom we have had the satisfaction to betroth +lately,--furnish small-talk where needful. + +Dinner being near, you go by your own gallery to dress. From the +drawing-room, Friedrich Wilhelm leads out the Kaiserinn; the Kaiser, as +Head of the world, walks first, though without any lady. How they drank +the healths, gave and received the ewers and towels, is written duly in +the old Books, but was as indifferent to Friedrich Wilhelm as it is to +us; what their conversation was, let no man presume to ask. Dullish, we +should apprehend,--and perhaps BETTER lost to us? But where there are +tongues, there are topics: the Loom of Time wags always, and with it the +tongues of men. Kaiser and Kaiserinn have both been in Karlsbad lately; +Kaiser and Kaiserinn both have sailed to Spain, in old days, and been in +sieges and things memorable: Friedrich Wilhelm, solid Squire Western +of the North, does not want for topics, and talks as a solid rustic +gentleman will. Native politeness he knows on occasion; to etiquette, so +far as concerns his own pretensions, he feels callous altogether,--dimly +sensible that the Eighteenth Century is setting in, and that solid +musketeers and not goldsticks are now the important thing. "I felt mad +to see him so humiliate himself," said Grumkow afterwards to Wilhelmina, +"J'ENRAGEAIS DANS MA PEAU:" why not? + +Dinner lasted two hours; the Empress rising, Friedrich Wilhelm leads her +to her room; then retires to his own, and "in a quarter of an hour" +is visited there by the Kaiser; "who conducts him," in so many minutes +exact by the watch, "back to the Empress,"--for a sip of coffee, as one +hopes; which may wind up the Interview well. The sun is still a good +space from setting, when Friedrich Wilhelm, after cordial adieus, +neglectful of etiquette, is rolling rapidly towards Nimburg, thirty +miles off on the Prag Highway; and Kaiser Karl with his Spouse move +deliberately towards Chlumetz to hunt again. In Nimburg Friedrich +Wilhelm sleeps, that night;--Imperial Majesties, in a much-tumbled +world, of wild horses, ceremonial ewers, and Eugenios of Savoy and +Malplaquet, probably peopling his dreams. If it please Heaven, there may +be another private meeting, a day or two hence. + +Nimburg, ah your Majesty, Son Fritz will have a night in Nimburg +too;--riding slowly thither amid the wrecks of Kolin Battle, not to +sleep well;--but that happily is hidden from your Majesty. Kolin, +Czaslau (Chotusitz), Elbe Teinitz,--here in this Kladrup region, your +Majesty is driving amid poor Villages which will be very famous by and +by. And Prag itself will be doubly famed in war, if your Majesty +knew it, and the Ziscaberg be of bloodier memory than the Weissenberg +itself!--His Majesty, the morrow's sun having risen upon Nimburg, rolls +into Prag successfully about eleven A.M., Hill of Zisca not disturbing +him; goes to the Klein-Seite Quarter, where an Aulic Councillor with +fine Palace is ready; all the cannon thundering from the walls at his +Majesty's advent; and Prince Eugenio, the ever-present, being there to +receive his Majesty,--and in fact to invite him to dinner this day at +half-past twelve. It is Friday, 1st of August, 1732. + +By a singular chance, there is preserved for us in Fassmann's Book, what +we may call an Excerpt from the old _Morning Post_ of Prag, bringing +that extinct Day into clear light again; recalling the vanished +Dinner-Party from the realms of Hades, as a thing that once actually +WAS. The List of the Dinner-guests is given complete; vanished ghosts, +whom, in studying the old History-Books, you can, with a kind of +interest, fish up into visibility at will. There is Prince Eugenio von +Savoye at the bottom of the table, in the Count-Thun Palace where he +lodges; there bodily, the little man, in gold-laced coat of unknown cut; +the eyes and the tempers bright and rapid, as usual, or more; nose not +unprovided with snuff, and lips in consequence rather open. Be seated, +your Majesty, high gentlemen all. + +A big chair-of-state stands for his Majesty at the upper end of the +table: his Majesty will none of it; sits down close by Prince Eugene at +the very bottom, and opposite Prince Alexander of Wurtemberg, whom we +had at Berlin lately, a General of note in the Turkish and other wars: +here probably there will be better talk; and the big chair may preside +over us in vacancy. Which it does. Prince Alexander, Imperial General +against the Turks, and Heir-Apparent of Wurtemberg withal, can speak of +many things,--hardly much of his serene Cousin the reigning Duke; whose +health is in a too interesting state, the good though unlucky man. +Of the Gravenitz sitting now in limbo, or travelling about disowned, +TOUJOURS UN LAVEMENT SES TROUSSES, let there be deep silence. But the +Prince Alexander can answer abundantly on other heads. He comes to his +inheritance a few months hence; actual reigning Duke, the poor serene +Cousin having died: and perhaps we shall meet, him transiently again. + +He is Ancestor of the Czars of Russia, this Prince Alexander, who is now +dining here in the body, along with Friedrich Wilhelm and Prince +Eugene: Paul of Russia, unbeautiful Paul, married the second time, from +Mumpelgard (what the French call Montbeillard, in Alsace), a serene +Grand-daughter of his, from whom come the Czars,--thanks to her or +not. Prince Alexander is Ancestor withal of our present "Kings of +Wurtemberg," if that mean anything: Father (what will mean something) to +the serene Duke, still in swaddling-clothes, [Born 21st January, +1732; Carl Eugen the name of him (Michaelis, iii. 450).] who will +be son-in-law to Princess Wilhelmina of Baireuth (could your Majesty +foresee it); and will do strange pranks in the world, upon poet Schiller +and others. Him too, and Brothers of his, were they born and become +of size, we shall meet. A noticeable man, and not without sense, this +Prince Alexander; who is now of a surety eating with us,--as we find by +the extinct _Morning Post_ in Fassmann's old Book. + +Of the others eating figures, Stahrembergs, Sternbergs, Kinsky +Ambassador to England, Kinsky Ambassador to France, high Austrian +dignitaries, we shall say nothing;--who would listen to us? Hardly can +the Hof-Kanzler Count von Sinzendorf, supreme of Aulic men, who holds +the rudder of Austrian State-Policy, and probably feels himself loaded +with importance beyond most mortals now eating here or elsewhere,--gain +the smallest recognition from oblivious English readers of our time. It +is certain he eats here on this occasion; and to his Majesty he does not +want for importance. His Majesty, intent on Julich and Berg and other +high matters, spends many hours next day, in earnest private dialogue +with him. We mention farther, with satisfaction, that Grumkow and +Ordnance-Master Seckendorf are both on the list, and all our Prussian +party, down to Hacke of the Potsdam grenadiers, friend Schulenburg +visibly eating among the others. Also that the dinner was glorious +(HERRLICH), and ended about five. [Fassmann, p. 474.] After which his +Majesty went to two evening parties, of a high order, in the Hradschin +Quarter or elsewhere; cards in the one (unless you liked to dance, or +grin idle talk from you), and supper in the other. + +His Majesty amused himself for four other days in Prag, interspersing +long earnest dialogues with Sinzendorf, with whom he spent the greater +part of Saturday, [Pollnitz, ii. 411.]--results as to Julion and Berg of +a rather cloudy nature. On Saturday came the Kaiser, too, and Kaiserinn, +to their high Nouse, the Schloss in Prag; and there occurred, in the +incognito form, "as if by accident," three visits or counter-visits, two +of them of some length. The King went dashing about; saw, deliberately +or in glimpses, all manner of things,--from "the Military Hospital" to +"the Tongue of St. Nepomuk" again. Nepomuk, an imaginary Saint of those +parts; pitched into the Moldau, as is fancied and fabled, by wicked King +Wenzel (King and Deposed-Kaiser, whom we have heard of), for speaking +and refusing to speak; Nepomuk is now become the Patron of Bridges, in +consequence; stands there in bronze on the Bridge of Prag; and still +shows a dried Tongue in the world: [_Die Legende vom heiligen Johann von +Nepomuk, _von D. Otto Abel (Berlin, 1855); an acute bit of +Historical Criticism.] this latter, we expressly find, his Majesty saw. + +On Sunday, his Majesty, nothing of a strait-laced man, attended divine +or quasi-divine worship in the Cathedral Church,--where high Prince +Bishops delivered PALLIUMS, did histrionisms; "manifested the ABSURDITAT +of Papistry" more or less. Coming out of the Church, he was induced to +step in and see the rooms of the Schloss, or Imperial Palace. In one of +the rooms, as if by accident, the Kaiser was found lounging:--"Extremely +delighted to see your Majesty!"--and they had the first of their long or +considerable dialogues together; purport has not transpired. The second +considerable dialogue was on the morrow, when Imperial Majesty, as if +by accident, found himself in the Count-Nostitz Palace, where Friedrich +Wilhelm lodges. Delighted to be so fortunate again! Hope your Majesty +likes Prag? Eternal friendship, OH JA:--and as to Julich and Berg? +Particulars have not transpired. + +Prag is a place full of sights: his Majesty, dashing about in +all quarters, has a busy time; affairs of state (Julich and Berg +principally) alternating with what we now call the LIONS. Zisca's +drum, for instance, in the Arsenal here? Would your Majesty wish to see +Zisca's own skin, which he bequeathed to be a drum when HE had done +with it?"NARRENPOSSEN!"--for indeed the thing is fabulous, though in +character with Zisca. Or the Council-Chamber window, out of which "the +Three Prag Projectiles fell into the Night of things," as a modern +Historian expresses it? Three Official Gentlemen, flung out one +morning, [13th (23d) May, 1618 (Kohler, p. 507).] 70 feet, but fell on +"sewerage," and did not die, but set the whole world on fire? That is +too certain, as his Majesty knows: that brought the crowning of the +Winter-King, Battle of the Weissenberg, Thirty-Years War; and lost us +Jagerndorf and much else. + +Or Wallenstein's Palace,--did your Majesty look at that? A thing worth +glancing at, on the score of History and even of Natural-History. That +rugged son of steel and gunpowder could not endure the least noise in +his sleeping-room or even sitting-room,--a difficulty in the soldiering +way of life;--and had, if I remember, one hundred and thirty houses torn +away in Prag, and sentries posted all round in the distance, to secure +silence for his much-meditating indignant soul. And yonder is the +Weissenberg, conspicuous in the western suburban region: and here in the +eastern, close by, is the Ziscaberg;--O Heaven, your Majesty, on +this Zisca-Hill will be a new "Battle of Prag," which will throw the +Weissenberg into eclipse; and there is awful fighting coming on in these +parts again! + +The THIRD of the considerable dialogues in Prag was on this same Monday +night; when his Majesty went to wait upon the Kaiserinn, and the Kaiser +soon accidentally joined them. Precious gracious words passed;--on Berg +and Julich nothing particular, that we hear;--and the High Personages, +with assurances of everlasting friendship, said adieu; and met no +more in this world. On his toilet-table Friedrich Wilhelm found a gold +Tobacco-box, sent by the highest Lady extant; gold Tobacco-box, item +gold Tobacco-stopper or Pipe-picker: such the parting gifts of her +Imperial Majesty. Very precious indeed, and grateful to the honest +heart;--yet testifying too (as was afterwards suggested to the royal +mind) what these high people think of a rustic Orson King; and how they +fling their nose into the air over his Tabagies and him. + +On the morrow morning early, Friedrich Wilhelm rolls away again +homewards, by Karlsbad, by Baireuth; all the cannon of Prag saying +thrice, Good speed to him. "He has had a glorious time," said the Berlin +Court-lady to Queen Sophie one evening, "no end of kindness from +the Imperial Majesties: but has he brought Berg and Julich in his +pocket?"--Alas, not a fragment of them; nor of any solid thing whatever, +except it be the gold Tobacco-box; and the confirmation of our claims +on East-Friesland (cheap liberty to let us vindicate them if we can), +if you reckon that a solid thing. These two Imperial gifts, such as they +are, he has consciously brought back with him;--and perhaps, though as +yet unconsciously, a third gift of much more value, once it is developed +into clearness: some dim trace of insight into the no-meaning of these +high people; and how they consider US as mere Orsons and wild Bisons, +whom they will do the honor to consume as provision, if we behave well! + +The great King Friedrich, now Crown-Prince at Ruppin, writing of this +Journey long afterwards,--hastily, incorrectly, as his wont is, in +regard to all manner of minute outward particulars; and somewhat +maltreating, or at least misplacing, even the inward meaning, which was +well known to him WITHOUT investigation, but which he is at no trouble +to DATE for himself, and has dated at random,--says, in his thin rapid +way, with much polished bitterness:-- + +"His [King Friedrich Wilhelm's] experience on this occasion served to +prove that good-faith and the virtues, so contrary to the corruption of +the age, do not succeed in it. Politicians have banished sincerity (LA +CANDEUR) into private life: they look upon themselves as raised quite +above the laws which they enjoin on other people; and give way without +reserve to the dictates of their own depraved mind. + +"The guaranty of Julich and Berg, which Seckendorf had formally +promised in the name of the Emperor, went off in smoke; and the Imperial +Ministers were in a disposition so opposed to Prussia, the King saw +clearly [not for some years yet] that if there was a Court in Europe +intending to cross his interests, it was certainly that of Vienna. This +Visit of his to the Emperor was like that of Solon to Croesus [Solon not +I recognizable, in the grenadier costume, amid the tobacco-smoke, and +dim accompaniments?]--and he returned to Berlin, rich still in his own +virtue. The most punctilious censors could find no fault in his conduct, +except a probity carried to excess. The Interview ended as those of +Kings often do: it cooled [not for some time yet], or, to say better, +it extinguished the friendship there had been between the two Courts. +Friedrich Wilhelm left Prag full of contempt [dimly, altogether +unconsciously, tending to have some contempt, and in the end to be full +of it] for the deceitfulness and pride of the Imperial Court: and the +Emperor's Ministers disdained a Sovereign who looked without interest on +frivolous ceremonials and precedences. Him they considered too ambitious +in aiming at the Berg-and-Julich succession: them he regarded [came to +regard] as a pack of knaves, who had broken their word, and were not +punished for it." + +Very bitter, your Majesty; and, in all but the dates, true enough. +But what a drop of concentrated absinthe follows next, by way of +finish,--which might itself have corrected the dating! + +"In spite of so many subjects of discontent, the King wedded his Eldest +Son [my not too fortunate self], out of complaisance to the +Vienna Court, with a Princess of Brunswick-Bevern, Niece to the +Empress:"--bitter fact; necessitating change of date in the paragraphs +just written. [_OEuvres de Frederic (Memoires de Brandenbourg),_ i. 162, +163.] + +Friedrich Wilhelm, good soul, cherishes the Imperial gifts, Tobacco-box +included;--claps the Arms of East-Friesland on his escutcheon; will take +possession of Friesland, if the present Duke die heirless, let George of +England say what he will. And so he rolls homeward, by way of Baireuth. +He stayed but a short while in Karlsbad; has warned his Wilhelmina that +he will be at Baireuth on the 9th of the month. [Wilhelmina, ii. 55.] + +Wilhelmina is very poorly; "near her time," as wives say; rusticating +in "the Hermitage," a Country-House in the vicinity of Baireuth; Husband +and Father-in-law gone away, towards the Bohemian frontier, to hunt +boars. Oh, the bustle and the bother that high Lady had; getting her +little Country House stretched out to the due pitch to accommodate +everybody,--especially her foolish Sister of Anspach and foolish +Brother-in-law and suite,--with whom, by negligence of servants and +otherwise, there had like to have risen incurable quarrel on the matter. +But the dexterous young Wife, gladdest; busiest and weakliest of hopeful +creatures, contrived to manage everything, like a Female Fieldmarshal, +as she was. Papa was delighted; bullied the foolish Anspach people,--or +would have done so, had not I intervened, that the matter might die. +Papa was gracious, happy; very anxious about me in my interesting state. +"Thou hast lodged me to perfection, good Wilhelmina. Here I find my +wooden stools, tubs to wash in; all things as if I were at Potsdam:--a +good girl; and thou must take care of thyself, my child (MEIN KIND)." + +At dinner, his Majesty, dreading no ill, but intent only on the +practical, got into a quiet, but to me most dreadful, lecture to the old +Margraf (my Father-in-law) upon debt and money and arrears: How he, the +Margraf, was cheated at every turn, and led about by the nose, and +kept weltering in debt: how he should let the young Margraf go into the +Offices, to supervise, and withal to learn tax-matters and economics +betimes. How he (Friedrich Wilhelm) would send him a fellow from Berlin +who understood such things, and would drill his scoundrels for him! +To which the old Margraf, somewhat flushed in the face, made some +embarrassed assent, knowing it in fact to be true; and accepted the +Berlin man:--but he made me (his poor Daughter-in-law) smart for +it afterwards: "Not quite dead YET, Madam; you will have to wait a +little!"--and other foolish speech; which required to be tempered down +again by a judicious female mind. + +Grumkow himself was pleasant on this occasion; told us of Kladrup, the +Prag etiquettes; and how he was like to go mad seeing his Majesty so +humiliate himself. Fraulein Grumkow, a niece of his, belonging to the +Austrian court, who is over here with the rest, a satirical intriguing +baggage, she, I privately perceive, has made a conquest of my foolish +Brother-in-law, the Anspach Margraf here;--and there will be jealousies, +and a cat-and-dog life over yonder, worse than ever! Tush, why should +we talk?--These are the phenomena at Baireuth; Husband and Father-in-law +having quitted their boar-hunt and hurried home. + +After three days, Friedrich Wilhelm rolled away again; lodged, once +more, at Meuselwitz, with abstruse Seckendorf, and his good old Wife, +who do the hospitalities well when they must, in spite of the single +candle once visible. On the morrow after which, 14th August, 1732, +his Majesty is off again, "at four in the morning," towards Leipzig, +intending to be home that night, though it is a long drive. At Leipzig, +not to waste time, he declines entering the Town; positively will not, +though the cannon-salvos are booming all round;--"breakfasts in the +suburbs, with a certain Horse-dealer (ROSS-HANDLER) now deceased:" a +respectable Centaur, capable, no doubt, of bargaining a little about +cavalry mountings, while one eats, with appetite and at one's ease. +Which done, Majesty darts off again, the cannon-salvos booming out a +second time;--and by assiduous driving gets home to Potsdam about eight +at night. And so has happily ENDED this Journey to Kladrup: [Fassmann, +pp. 474-479; Wilhelmina, ii. 46-55; Pollnitz, ii. 407-412; Forster, i. +328-334.] + + + + +Chapter V. -- GHOST OF THE DOUBLE-MARRIAGE RISES; TO NO PURPOSE. + +We little expected to see the "Double-Marriage" start up into vitality +again, at this advanced stage; or, of all men, Seckendorf, after riding +25,000 miles to kill the Double-Marriage, engaged in resuscitating it! +But so it is: by endless intriguing, matchless in History or Romance, +the Austrian Court had, at such expense to the parties and to itself, +achieved the first problem of stifling the harmless Double-Marriage; +and now, the wind having changed, it is actually trying its hand the +opposite way. + +Wind is changed: consummate Robinson has managed to do his +thrice-salutary "Treaty of Vienna;" [16th March, 1731, the TAIL of it +(accession of the Dutch, of Spain, &c.) not quite coiled up till 20th +February, 1732: Scholl, i. 218-222.] to clout up all differences +between the Sea-Powers and the Kaiser, and restore the old Law of +Nature,--Kaiser to fight the French, Sea-Powers to feed and pay him +while engaged in that necessary job. And now it would be gratifying +to the Kaiser, if there remained, on this side of the matter, no rent +anywhere, if between his chief Sea ally and his chief Land one, +the Britannic Majesty and the Prussian, there prevailed a complete +understanding, with no grudge left. + +The honor of this fine resuscitation project is ascribed to Robinson by +the Vienna people: "Robinson's suggestion," they always say: how far +it was, or whether at all it was or not, nobody at present knows. Guess +rather, if necessary, it had been the Kaiser's own! Robinson, as the +thing proceeds, is instructed from St. James's to "look on and not +interfere;" [Despatches, in State-Paper Office] Prince Eugene, too, +we can observe, is privately against it, though officially urgent, and +doing his best. Who knows,--or need know? + +Enough that High Heads are set upon it; that the diplomatic wigs are all +wagging with it, from about the beginning of October, 1732; and rumors +are rife and eager, occasionally spurting out into the Newspapers: +Double-Marriage after all, hint the old Rumors: Double-Marriage somehow +or other; Crown-Prince to have his English Princess, Prince Fred of +England to console the Brunswick one for loss of her Crown-Prince; or +else Prince Karl of Brunswick to--And half a dozen other ways; which +Rumor cannot settle to its satisfaction. The whispers upon it, from +Hanover, from Vienna, at Berlin, and from the Diplomatic world in +general, occasionally whistling through the Newspapers, are manifold and +incessant,--not worthy of the least attention from us here. [Forster, +iii. 111, 120, 108, 113, 122.] What is certain is, Seckendorf, in the +end of October, is corresponding on it with Prince Eugene; has got +instructions to propose the matter in Tobacco-Parliament; and does +not like it at all. Grumkow, who perhaps has seen dangerous clouds +threatening to mount upon him, and never been quite himself again in the +Royal Mind since that questionable NOSTI business, dissuades earnestly, +constantly. "Nothing but mischief will come of such a proposal," says +Grumkow steadily; and for his own share absolutely declines concern in +it. + +But Prince Eugene's orders are express; remonstrances, cunctations only +strengthen the determination of the High Heads or Head: Forward with +this beautiful scheme! Seckendorf, puckered into dangerous anxieties, +but summoning all his cunning, has at length, after six weeks' +hesitation, to open it, as if casually, in some favorable hour, to his +Prussian Majesty. December 5th, 1732, as we compute;--a kind of epoch in +his Majesty's life. Prussian Majesty stares wide-eyed; the breath as +if struck out of him; repeats, "Julich and Berg absolutely secured, say +you? But--hm, na!"--and has not yet taken in the unspeakable dimensions +of the occurrence. "What? Imperial Majesty will make me break my word +before all the world? Imperial Majesty has been whirling me about, face +now to the east, face straightway round to the west: Imperial Majesty +does not feel that I am a man and king at all; takes me for a mere +machine, to be seesawed and whirled hither and thither, like a rotatory +Clothes-horse, to dry his Imperial Majesty's linen upon. TAUSEND +HIMMEL--!" + +The full dimensions of all this did not rise clear upon the intellect of +Prussian Majesty,--a slow intellect, but a true and deep, with terrible +earthquakes and poetic fires lying under it,--not at once, or for +months, perhaps years to come. But they had begun to dawn upon him +painfully here; they rose gradually into perfect clearness: all things +seen at last as what they were;--with huge submarine earthquake for +consequence, and total change of mind towards Imperial Majesty and the +drying of his Pragmatic linen, in Friedrich Wilhelm. Amiable Orson, true +to the heart; amiable, though terrible when too much put upon! + +This dawning process went on for above two years to come, painfully, +reluctantly, with explosions, even with tears. But here, directly on the +back of Seckendorf's proposal, and recorded from a sure hand, is what +we may call the peep-of-day in that matter: First Session of +Tobacco-Parliament, close after that event. Event is on the 5th +December, 1732; Tobacco Session is of the 6th;--glimpse of it is given +by Speaker Grumkow himself; authentic to the bone. + + + + +SESSION OF TOBACCO-PARLIAMENT, 6th DECEMBER, 1732. + +Grumkow, shattered into "headache" by this Session, writes Report of +it to Seckendorf before going to bed. Look, reader, into one of the +strangest Political Establishments; and how a strange Majesty comports +himself there, directly after such proposal from Vienna to marry with +England still!--"Schwerin" is incidentally in from Frankfurt-on-Oder, +where his Regiment and business usually lie: the other Honorable Members +we sufficiently know. Majesty has been a little out of health lately; +perceptibly worse the last two days. "Syberg" is a Gold-cook (Alchemical +gentleman, of very high professions), came to Berlin some time ago; +whom his Majesty, after due investigation, took the liberty to hang. +[Forster, iii. 126.] Readers can now understand what speaker Grumkow +writes, and despatches by his lackey, in such haste:-- + +"I never saw such a scene as this evening. Derschau, Schwerin, +Buddenbrock, Rochow, Flanz were present. We had been about an hour in +the Red Room [languidly doing our tobacco off and on], when he [the +King] had us shifted into the Little Room: drove out the servants; and +cried, looking fixedly at me: 'No, I cannot endure it any longer! ES +STOSSET MIR DAS HERZ AB,' cried he, breaking into German: 'It crushes +the heart out of me; to make me do a bit of scoundrelism, me, me! I say; +no, never! Those damned intrigues; may the Devil take them!'-- + +"EGO (Grumkow). 'Of course, I know of nothing. But I do not comprehend +your Majesty's inquietude, coming thus on the sudden, after our common +indifferent mood.' + +"KING. 'What, make me a villain! I will tell it right out. Certain +damned scoundrels have been about betraying me. People that should +have known me better have been trying to lead me into a dishonorable +scrape'--("Here I called in the hounds, JE ROMPIS LES CHIENS," reports +Grumkow, "for he was going to blab everything; I interrupted, saying):-- + +"EGO. 'But, your Majesty, what is it ruffles you so? I know not what you +talk of. Your Majesty has honorable people about you; and the man +who lets himself be employed in things against your Majesty must be a +traitor.' + +"KING. 'Yes, JA, JA. I will do things that will surprise them. I--' + +"And, in short, a torrent of exclamations: which I strove to soften +by all manner of incidents and contrivances; succeeding at last,"--by +dexterity and time (but, at this point, the light is now blown out, and +we SEE no more):--"so that he grew quite calm again, and the rest of the +evening passed gently enough. + +"Well, you see what the effect of your fine Proposal is, which you said +he would like! I can tell you, it is the most detestable incident that +could have turned up. I know, you had your orders: but you may believe +and depend on it, he has got his heart driven rabid by the business, and +says, 'Who knows now whether that villain Syberg' Gold-cook, that was +hanged the other day, 'was not set on by some people to poison me?' In a +word, he was like a madman. + +"What struck me most was when he repeated, 'Only think! Think! Who would +have expected it of people that should have known me; and whom I +know, and have known, better than they fancy!'"--Pleasant passage for +Seckendorf to chew the cud upon, through the night-watches! + +"In fine, as I was somewhat confused; and anxious, above all, to keep +him from exploding with the secret, I cannot remember everything, But +Derschau, who was more at his ease, will be able to give you a full +account. He [the King] said more than once: 'THIS was his sickness; the +thing that ailed him, this: it gnawed his heart, and would be the +death of him!' He certainly did not affect; he was in a very +convulsive condition. [JARNI-BLEU, here is a piece of work, Herr +Seckendorf!]--Adieu, I have a headache." Whereupon to bed. + +"GRUMKOW." + +[Forster, iii. 135, 136.] + +This Hansard Report went off direct to Prince Eugene; and ought to have +been a warning to the high Vienna heads and him. But they persisted +not the less to please Robinson or themselves; considering his Prussian +Majesty to be, in fact, a mere rotatory Clothes-horse for drying the +Imperial linen on; and to have no intellect at all, because he was +without guile, and had no vulpinism at all. In which they were very much +mistaken indeed. History is proud to report that the guileless Prussian +Majesty, steadily attending to his own affairs in a wise manner, though +hoodwinked and led about by Black-Artists as he had been, turned out +when Fact and Nature subsequently pronounced upon it, to have had more +intellect than the whole of them together,--to have been, in a manner, +the only one of them that had any real "intellect," or insight into Fact +and Nature, at all. Consummate Black-art Diplomacies overnetting the +Universe, went entirely to water, running down the gutters to the last +drop; and a prosperous Drilled Prussia, compact, organic in every part, +from diligent plough-sock to shining bayonet and iron ramrod, remained +standing. "A full Treasury and 200,000 well-drilled men would be the one +guarantee to your Pragmatic Sanction," Prince Eugene had said. But that +bit of insight was not accepted at Vienna; Black-art, and Diplomatic +spider-webs from pole to pole, being thought the preferable method. + +Enough, Seckendorf was ordered to manipulate and soothe down the +Prussian Majesty, as surely would be easy; to continue his galvanic +operations on the Double-Match, or produce a rotation in the purposes of +the royal breast. Which he diligently strove to do, when once admitted +to speech again;--Grumkow steadily declining to meddle, and only Queen +Sophie, as we can fancy, auguring joyfully of it. Seckendorf, admitted +to speech the third day after that explosive Session, snuffles his +softest, his cunningest;--continues to ride diligently, the concluding +portion (such it proved) of his 25,000 miles with the Prussian Majesty +up and down through winter and spring; but makes not the least progress, +the reverse rather. + +Their dialogues and arguings on the matter, here and elsewhere, are lost +in air; or gone wholly to a single point unexpectedly preserved for us. +One day, riding through some village, Priort some say his Majesty calls +it, some give another name,--advocate Seckendorf, in the fervor of +pleading and arguing, said some word, which went like a sudden flash of +lightning through the dark places of his Majesty's mind, and never would +go out of it again while he lived after. In passionate moments, his +Majesty spoke of it sometimes, a clangorous pathos in his tones, as of +a thing hideous, horrible, never to be forgotten, which had killed +him,--death from a friend's hand. "It was the 17th of April, 1733, [All +the Books (Forster, ii. 142, for one) mention this utterance of his +Majesty, on what occasion we shall see farther on; and give the date +"1732," not 1733: but except as amended above, it refuses to have any +sense visible at this distance. The Village of Priort is in the Potsdam +region.] riding through Priort, a man said something to me: it was as if +you had turned a dagger about in my heart. That man was he that killed +me; there and then I got my death!" + +A strange passion in that utterance: the deep dumb soul of his Majesty, +of dumb-poetic nature, suddenly brought to a fatal clearness about +certain things. "O Kaiser, Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire; and this is +your return for my loyal faith in you? I had nearly killed my Fritz, my +Wilhelmina, broken my Feekin's heart and my own, and reduced the world +to ruins for your sake. And because I was of faith more than human, you +took me for a dog? O Kaiser, Kaiser!"--Poor Friedrich Wilhelm, he spoke +of this often, in excited moments, in his later years; the tears running +down his cheeks, and the whole man melted into tragic emotion: but if +Fritz were there, the precious Fritz whom he had almost killed for their +sake, he would say, flashing out into proud rage, "There is one that +will avenge me, though; that one! DA STEHT EINER, DER MICH RACHEN +WIRD!" [Forster, ii. 153.] Yes, your Majesty; perhaps that one. And it +will be seen whether YOU were a rotatory Clothes-horse to dry their +Pragmatic linen upon, or something different a good deal. + + + + +Chapter VI. -- KING AUGUST MEDITATING GREAT THINGS FOR POLAND. + +In the New-year's days of 1733, the topic among diplomatic gentlemen, +which set many big wigs wagging, and even tremulously came out in the +gray leaves of gazetteers and garreteers of the period, was a royal +drama, dimly supposed to be getting itself up in Poland at this time. +Nothing known about it for certain; much guessed. "Something in the +rumor!" nods this wig; "Nothing!" wags that, slightly oscillating; and +gazetteers, who would earn their wages, and have a peck of coals apiece +to glad them in the cold weather, had to watch with all eagerness the +movements of King August, our poor old friend, the Dilapidated-Strong, +who is in Saxony at present; but bound for Warsaw shortly,--just about +lifting the curtain on important events, it is thought and not thought. +Here are the certainties of it, now clear enough, so far as they deserve +a glance from us. + +January 10th, 1733, August the Dilapidated-Strong of Poland has been in +Saxony, looking after his poor Electorate a little; and is on the road +from Dresden homewards again;--will cross a corner of the Prussian +Dominions, as his wont is on such occasions. Prussian Majesty, if not +appearing in person, will as usual, by some Official of rank, send a +polite Well-speed-you as the brother Majesty passes. This time, however, +it was more than politeness; the Polish Majesty having, as was thought, +such intricate affairs in the wind. Let Grumkow, the fittest man in all +ways, go, and do the greeting to his old Patroon: greeting, or whatever +else may be needed. + +Patroon left Dresden,--"having just opened the Carnival" or fashionable +Season there, opened and nothing more,--January 10th, 1733; [Fassmann, +_Leben Friedrich Augusti des Grossen,_ p. 994.] being in haste home +for a Polish Diet close at hand. On which same day Grumkow, we suppose, +drives forth from Berlin, to intersect him, in the Neumark, about +Crossen; and have a friendly word again, in those localities, over jolly +wine. Intersection took place duly;--there was exuberant joy on the part +of the Patroon; and such a dinner and night of drinking, as has seldom +been. Abstruse things lie close ahead of August the Dilapidated-Strong, +important to Prussia, and for which Prussia is important; let Grumkow +try if he can fish the matter into clearness out of these wine-cups. And +then August, on his side, wishes to know what the Kaiser said at Kladrup +lately; there is much to be fished into clearness. + +Many are the times August the Strong has made this journey; many are +the carousals, on such and other occasions, Grumkow and he have had. +But there comes an end to all things. This was their last meeting, over +flowing liquor or otherwise, in the world. Satirical History says, +they drank all night, endeavoring to pump one another, and with such +enthusiasm that they never recovered it; drank themselves to death +at Crossen on that occasion. [_OEuvres de Frederic (Memoires de +Brandenbourg),_ i. 163.] It is certain August died within three weeks; +and people said of Grumkow, who lived six years longer, he was never +well after this bout. Is it worth any human Creature's while to look +into the plans of this precious pair of individuals? Without the least +expense of drinking, the secrets they were pumping out of each other are +now accessible enough,--if it were of importance now. One glance I may +perhaps commend to the reader, out of these multifarious Note-books in +my possession:-- + +"August, by change of his religion, and other sad operations, got to be +what they called the King of Poland, thirty five years ago; but, +though looking glorious to the idle public, it has been a crown of +stinging-nettles to the poor man,--a sedan-chair running on rapidly, +with the bottom broken out! To say nothing of the scourgings he got, +and poor Saxony along with him, from Charles XII., on account of this +Sovereignty so called, what has the thing itself been to him? In Poland, +for these thirty-five years, the individual who had least of his real +will done in public matters has been, with infinite management, and +display of such good-humor as at least deserves credit, the nominal +Sovereign Majesty of Poland. Anarchic Grandees have been kings over him; +ambitious, contentious, unmanageable;--very fanatical too, and never +persuaded that August's Apostasy was more than a sham one, not even when +he made his Prince apostatize too. Their Sovereignty has been a mere +peck of troubles, disgraces and vexations: for those thirty-five +years, an ever-boiling pot of mutiny, contradiction, insolence, hardly +tolerable even to such nerves as August's. + +"August, for a long time back, has been thinking of schemes to clap +some lid upon all that. To make the Sovereignty hereditary in his House: +that, with the good Saxon troops we have, would be a remedy;--and in +fact it is the only remedy. John Casimir (who abdicated long ago, in +the Great Elector's time, and went to Paris,--much charmed with Ninon +de l'Enclos there) told the Polish Diets, With their LIBERUM VETO, and +'right of confederation' and rebellion, they would bring the country +down under the feet of mankind, and reduce their Republic to zero one +day, if they persisted. They have not failed to persist. With some +hereditary King over it, and a regulated Saxony to lean upon: truly +might it not be a change to the better? To the worse, it could hardly +be, thinks August the Strong; and goes intent upon that method, this +long while back;--and at length hopes now, in few days longer, at the +Diet just assembling, to see fruits appear, and the thing actually +begin. + +"The difficulties truly are many; internal and external:--but there +are calculated methods, too. For the internal: Get up, by bribery, +persuasion, some visible minority to countenance you; with these +manoeuvre in the Diets; on the back of these, the 30,000 Saxon troops. +But then what will the neighboring Kings say? The neighboring Kings, +with their big-mouthed manifestoes, pities for an oppressed Republic, +overwhelming forces, and invitations to 'confederate' and revolt: +without their tolerance first had, nothing can be done. That is the +external difficulty. For which too there is a remedy. Cut off sufficient +outlying slices of Poland; fling these to the neighboring Kings to +produce consent: Partition of Poland, in fact; large sections of its +Territory sliced away: that will be the method, thinks King August. + +"Neighboring Kings, Kaiser, Prussia, Russia, to them it is not grievous +that Poland should remain in perennial anarchy, in perennial impotence; +the reverse rather: a dead horse, or a dying, in the next stall,--he +at least will not kick upon us, think the neighboring Kings. And +yet,--under another similitude,--you do not like your next-door neighbor +to be always on the point of catching fire; smoke issuing, thicker or +thinner, through the slates of his roof, as a perennial phenomenon? +August will conciliate the neighboring Kings. Russia, big-cheeked Anne +Czarina there, shall have not only Courland peaceably henceforth, but +the Ukraine, Lithuania, and other large outlying slices; that surely +will conciliate Russia. To Austria, on its Hungarian border, let us +give the Country of Zips;--nay there are other sops we have for Austria. +Pragmatic Sanction, hitherto refused as contrary to plain rights of +ours,--that, if conceded to a spectre-hunting Kaiser? To Friedrich +Wilhelm we could give West-Preussen; West-Preussen torn away three +hundred years ago, and leaving a hiatus in the very continuity of +Friedrich Wilhelm: would not that conciliate him? Of all enemies or +friends, Friedrich Wilhelm, close at hand with 80,000 men capable of +fighting at a week's, notice, is by far the most important. + +"These are August's plans: West-Preussen for the nearest Neighbor; Zips +for Austria; Ukraine, Lithuania, and appendages for the Russian Czarina: +handsome Sections to be sliced off, and flung to good neighbors; as it +were, all the outlying limbs and wings of the Polish Territory sliced +off; compact body to remain, and become, by means of August and Saxon +troops, a Kingdom with government, not an imaginary Republic without +government any longer. In fact, it was the 'Partition of Poland,' such +as took effect forty years after, and has kept the Newspapers weeping +ever since. Partition of Poland,--MINUS the compact interior held under +government, by a King with Saxon troops or otherwise. Compact interior, +in that effective partition, forty years after, was left as anarchic as +ever; and had to be again partitioned, and cut away altogether,--with +new torrents of loud tears from the Newspapers, refusing to be comforted +to this day. + +"It is not said that Friedrich Wilhelm had the least intention of +countenancing August in these dangerous operations, still less of going +shares with August; but he wished much, through Grumkow, to have some +glimpse into the dim program of them; and August wished much to know +Friedrich Wilhelm's and Grumkow's humor towards them. Grumkow and August +drank copiously, or copiously pressed drink on one another, all night +(11th-12th January, 1733, as I compute; some say at Crossen, some say +at Frauendorf a royal domain near by), with the view of mutually fishing +out those secrets;--and killed one another in the business, as is +rumored." + +What were Grumkow's news at home-coming, I did not hear; but he +continues very low and shaky;--refuses, almost with horror, to have the +least hand in Seckendorf's mad project, of resuscitating the English +Double-Marriage, and breaking off the Brunswick one, at the eleventh +hour and after word pledged. Seckendorf himself continues to dislike and +dissuade: but the High Heads at Vienna are bent on it; and command new +strenuous attempts;--literally at the last moment; which is now come. + + + + +Chapter VII. -- CROWN-PRINCE'S MARRIAGE. + +Since November last, Wilhelmina is on visit at Berlin,--first visit +since her marriage;--she stays there for almost ten months; not under +the happiest auspices, poor child. Mamma's reception of her, just +off the long winter journey, and extenuated with fatigues and sickly +chagrins, was of the most cutting cruelty: "What do you want here? What +is a mendicant like you come hither for?" And next night, when Papa +himself came home, it was little better. "Ha, ha," said he, "here you +are; I am glad to see you." Then holding up a light, to take view of +me: "How changed you are!" said he: "What is little Frederika [my little +Baby at Baireuth] doing?" And on my answering, continued: "I am sorry +for you, on my word. You have not bread to eat; and but for me you might +go begging. I am a poor man myself, not able to give you much; but I +will do what I can. I will give you now and then a twenty or a thirty +shillings (PAR DIX OU DOUZE FLORINS), as my affairs permit: it will +always be something to assuage your want. And you, Madam," said he, +turning to the Queen, "you will sometimes give her an old dress; for +the poor child has n't a shift to her back." [Wilhelmina, ii. 85.] This +rugged paternal banter was taken too literally by Wilhelmina, in her +weak state; and she was like "to burst in her skin," poor Princess. + +So that,--except her own good Hereditary Prince, who was here "over from +Pasewalk" and his regimental duties, waiting to welcome her; in whose +true heart, full of honest human sunshine towards her, she could always +find shelter and defence,--native Country and Court offer little to the +brave Wilhelmina. Chagrins enough are here: chagrins also were there. At +Baireuth our old Father Margraf has his crotchets, his infirmities +and outbreaks; takes more and more to liquor; and does always keep +us frightfully bare in money. No help from Papa here, either, on the +finance side; no real hope anywhere (thinks Seckendorf, when we consult +him), except only in the Margraf's death: "old Margraf will soon drink +himself dead," thinks Seckendorf; "and in the mean while there +is Vienna, and a noble Kaiserinn who knows her friends in case of +extremity!" thinks he. [Wilhelmina, ii. 81-111.] Poor Princess, in her +weak shattered state, she has a heavy time of it; but there is a tough +spirit in her; bright, sharp, like a swift sabre, not to be quenched in +any coil; but always cutting its way, and emerging unsubdued. + +One of the blessings reserved for her here, which most of all concerns +us, was the occasional sight of her Brother. Brother in a day or two +["18th November," she says; which date is wrong, if it were of moment +(see _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 1st, where their CORRESPONDENCE +is).] ran over from Ruppin, on short leave, and had his first interview. +Very kind and affectionate; quite the old Brother again; and "blushed" +when, at supper, Mamma and the Princesses, especially that wicked +Charlotte (Papa not present), tore up his poor Bride at such a rate. +"Has not a word to answer you, but YES or NO," said they; "stupid as a +block." "But were you ever at her toilette?" said the wicked Charlotte: +"Out of shape, completely: considerable waddings, I promise you: and +then"--still worse features, from that wicked Charlotte, in presence +of the domestics here. Wicked Charlotte; who is to be her Sister-in-law +soon;--and who is always flirting with my Husband, as if she liked that +better!--Crown-Prince retired, directly after supper: as did I, to my +apartment, where in a minute or two he joined me. + +"To the question, How with the King and you? he answered, 'That his +situation was changing every moment; that sometimes he was in favor, +sometimes in disgrace;--that his chief happiness consisted in absence. +That he led a soft and tranquil life with his Regiment at Ruppin; study +and music his principal occupations; he had built himself a House there, +and laid out a Garden, where he could read, and walk about.' Then as to +his Bride, I begged him to tell me candidly if the portrait the Queen +and my Sister had been making of her was the true one. 'We are alone,' +replied he, 'and I will conceal nothing from you. The Queen, by her +miserable intrigues, has been the source of our misfortunes. Scarcely +were you gone when she began again with England; wished to substitute +our Sister Charlotte for you; would have had me undertake to contradict +the King's will again, and flatly refuse the Brunswick Match;--which I +declined. That is the source of her venom against this poor Princess. +As to the young Lady herself, I do not hate her so much as I pretend; I +affect complete dislike, that the King may value my obedience more. +She is pretty, a complexion lily-and-rose; her features delicate; face +altogether of a beautiful person. True, she has no breeding, and dresses +very ill: but I flatter myself, when she comes hither, you will have the +goodness to take her in hand. I recommend her to you, my dear Sister; +and beg your protection for her.' It is easy to judge, my answer would +be such as he desired." [Wilhelmina, ii. 89.] + +For which small glimpse of the fact itself, at first-hand, across a +whirlwind of distracted rumors new and old about the fact, let us be +thankful to Wilhelmina. Seckendorf's hopeless attempts to resuscitate +extinct English things, and make the Prussian Majesty break his word, +continue to the very last; but are worth no notice from us. Grumkow's +Drinking-bout with the Dilapidated-Strong at Crossen, which follows now +in January, has been already noticed by us. And the Dilapidated-Strong's +farewell next morning,--"Adieu, dear Grumkow; I think I shall not see +you again!" as he rolled off towards Warsaw and the Diet,--will require +farther notice; but must stand over till this Marriage be got done. Of +which latter Event,--Wilhelmina once more kindling the old dark Books +into some light for us,--the essential particulars are briefly as +follows. + +Monday, 8th June, 1733, the Crown-Prince is again over from Ruppin: +King, Queen and Crown-Prince are rendezvoused at Potsdam; and they set +off with due retinues towards Wolfenbuttel, towards Salzdahlum the Ducal +Schloss there; Sister Wilhelmina sending blessings, if she had them, on +a poor Brother in such interesting circumstances. Mamma was "plunged +in black melancholy;" King not the least; in the Crown-Prince nothing +particular to be remarked. They reached Salzdahlum, Duke Ludwig Rudolf +the Grandfather's Palace, one of the finest Palaces, with Gardens, +with antiques, with Picture-Galleries no end; a mile or two from +Wolfenbuttel; built by old Anton Ulrich, and still the ornament of +those parts;--reached Salzdahlum, Wednesday the 10th; where Bride, +with Father, Mother, much more Grandfather, Grandmother, and all the +sublimities interested, are waiting in the highest gala; Wedding to be +on Friday next. + +Friday morning, this incident fell out, notable and somewhat +contemptible: Seckendorf, who is of the retinue, following his bad +trade, visits his Majesty who is still in bed:--"Pardon, your Majesty: +what shall I say for excuse? Here is a Letter just come from Vienna; in +Prince Eugene's hand;--Prince Eugene, or a Higher, will say something, +while it is still time!" Majesty, not in impatience, reads the little +Prince's and the Kaiser's Letter. "Give up this, we entreat you for +the last time; marry with England after all!" Majesty reads, quiet as a +lamb; lays the Letter under his pillow; will himself answer it; and +does straightway, with much simple dignity, to the effect, "For certain, +Never, my always respected Prince!" [Account of the Interview by +Seckendorf, in Forster, iii, 148-155; Copy of the answer itself is in +the State-Paper Office here.] Seckendorf, having thus shot his last +bolt, does not stay many hours longer at Salzdahlum;--may as well quit +Friedrich Wilhelm altogether, for any good he will henceforth do upon +him. This is the one incident between the Arrival at Salzdahlum and the +Wedding there. + +Same Friday, 12th June, 1733, at a more advanced hour, the Wedding +itself took effect; Wedding which, in spite of the mad rumors and +whispers, in the Newspapers, Diplomatic Despatches and elsewhere, went +off, in all respects, precisely as other weddings do; a quite human +Wedding now and afterwards. Officiating Clergyman was the Reverend Herr +Mosheim: readers know with approval the _Ecclesiastical History_ of +Mosheim: he, in the beautiful Chapel of the Schloss, with Majesties +and Brunswick Sublimities looking on, performed the ceremony: and +Crown-Prince Friedrich of Prussia has fairly wedded the Serene Princess +Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick-Bevern, age eighteen coming, manners +rather awkward, complexion lily-and-rose;--and History is right glad +to have done with the wearisome affair, and know it settled on any +tolerable terms whatever. Here is a Note of Friedrich's to his dear +Sister, which has been preserved:-- + +TO PRINCESS WILHELMINA OF BAIREUTH, AT BERLIN. + +"SALZDAHLUM, Noon, 19th June, 1733. + +"MY DEAR SISTER,--A minute since, the whole Ceremony was got finished; +and God be praised it is over! I hope you will take it as a mark of my +friendship that I give you the first news of it. + +"I hope I shall have the honor to see you again soon; and to assure you, +my dear Sister, that I am wholly yours (TOUT A VOUS). I write in great +haste; and add nothing that is merely formal. Adieu. [_OEuvres,_ xxvii. +part 1st, p. 9.] + +FREDERIC." + +One Keyserling, the Prince's favorite gentleman, came over express, +with this Letter and the more private news; Wilhelmina being full of +anxieties. Keyserling said, The Prince was inwardly "well content with +his lot; though he had kept up the old farce to the last; and pretended +to be in frightful humor, on the very morning; bursting out upon his +valets in the King's presence, who reproved him, and looked rather +pensive,"--recognizing, one hopes, what a sacrifice it was. The Queen's +Majesty, Keyserling reported, "was charmed with the style and ways of +the Brunswick Court; but could not endure the Princess-Royal [new +Wife], and treated the two Duchesses like dogs (COMME DES CHIENS)." +[Wilhelmina, ii. 114.] Reverend Abbot Mosheim (such his title; Head +Churchman, theological chief of Helmstadt University in those parts, +with a couple of extinct little ABBACIES near by, to help his stipend) +preached next Sunday, "On the Marriage of the Righteous,"--felicitous +appropriate Sermon, said a grateful public; [Text, Psalm, xcli. 12; +"Sermon printed in Mosheim's _Works."_]--and in short, at Salzdahlum +all goes, if not as merry as some marriage-bells, yet without jarring to +the ear. + +On Tuesday, both the Majesties set out towards Potsdam again; "where his +Majesty," having business waiting, "arrived some time before the Queen." +Thither also, before the week ends, Crown-Prince Friedrich with his +Bride, and all the Serenities of Brunswick escorting, are upon the +road,--duly detained by complimentary harangues, tedious scenic +evolutions at Magdeburg and the intervening Towns;--grand entrance of +the Princess-Royal into Berlin is not till the 27th, last day of the +week following. That was such a day as Wilhelmina never saw; no sleep +the night before; no breakfast can one taste: between Charlottenburg +and Berlin, there is a review of unexampled splendor; "above eighty +carriages of us," and only a tent or two against the flaming June sun: +think of it! Review begins at four a.m.;--poor Wilhelmina thought she +would verily have died, of heat and thirst and hunger, in the crowded +tent, under the flaming June sun; before the Review could end itself, +and march into Berlin, trumpeting and salvoing, with the Princess-Royal +at the head of it. [Wilhelmina, ii. 127-129.] + +Of which grand flaming day, and of the unexampled balls and effulgent +festivities that followed, "all Berlin ruining itself in dresses and +equipages," we will say nothing farther; but give only, what may +still have some significance for readers, Wilhelmina's Portrait of the +Princess-Royal on their first meeting, which had taken place at Potsdam +two days before. The Princess-Royal had arrived at Potsdam too, on that +occasion, across a grand Review; Majesty himself riding out, Majesty and +Crown-Prince, who had preceded her a little, to usher in the poor young +creature;--Thursday, June 25th, 1733:-- + +"The King led her into the Queen's Apartment; then seeing, after she had +saluted us all, that she was much heated and dispowdered (DEPOUDREE), +he bade my Brother take her to her own room. I followed them thither. My +Brother said to her, introducing me: 'This is a Sister I adore, and am +obliged to beyond measure. She has had the goodness to promise me that +she will take care of you, and help you with her good counsel; I wish +you to respect her beyond even the King and Queen, and not to take +the least step without her advice: do you understand?' I embraced the +Princess-Royal, and gave her every assurance of my attachment; but she +remained like a statue, not answering a word. Her people not being come, +I repowdered her myself, and readjusted her dress a little, without the +least sign of thanks from her, or any answer to all my caressings. My +Brother got impatient at last; and said aloud: 'Devil's in the blockhead +(PESTE SOIT DE LA BETE): thank my Sister, then!' She made me a courtesy, +on the model of that of Agnes in the ECOLE DES FEMMES. I took her back +to the Queen's Apartment; little edified by such a display of talent. + +"The Princess-Royal is tall; her figure is not fine: stooping slightly, +or hanging forward, as she walks or stands, which gives her an awkward +air. Her complexion is of dazzling whiteness, heightened by the +liveliest colors: her eyes are pale blue, and not of much promise +for spiritual gifts. Mouth small; features generally small,--dainty +(MIGNONS) rather than beautiful:--and the countenance altogether is so +innocent and infantine, you would think this head belonged to a child +of twelve. Her hair is blond, plentiful, curling in natural locks. Teeth +are unhappily very bad, black and ill set; which are a disfigurement in +this fine face. She has no manners, nor the least vestige of tact; has +much difficulty in speaking and making herself understood: for most part +you are obliged to guess what she means; which is very embarrassing." +[Wilhelmina, ii. 119-121.] + +The Berlin gayeties--for Karl, Heir-Apparent of Brunswick, brother to +this Princess-Royal, wedded his Charlotte, too, about a week hence [2d +July, 1733.]--did not end, and the serene Guests disappear, till far +on in July. After which an Inspection with Papa; and then Friedrich +got back to Ruppin and his old way of life there. Intrinsically the +old studious, quietly diligent way of life; varied by more frequent +excursions to Berlin;--where as yet the Princess-Royal usually resides, +till some fit residence be got ready in the Ruppin Country for a wedded +Crown-Prince and her. + +The young Wife had an honest guileless heart; if little articulate +intellect, considerable inarticulate sense; did not fail to learn tact, +perpendicular attitude, speech enough;--and I hope kept well clear of +pouting (FAIRE LA FACHEE), a much more dangerous rock for her. With the +gay temper of eighteen, and her native loyalty of mind, she seems to +have shaped herself successfully to the Prince's taste; and growing +yearly gracefuler and better-looking was an ornament and pleasant +addition to his Ruppin existence. These first seven years, spent at +Berlin or in the Ruppin quarter, she always regarded as the flower of +her life. [Busching (Autobiography, _Beitrage,_ vi.) heard her say so, +in advanced years.] + +Papa, according to promise, has faithfully provided a Crown-Prince +Palace at Berlin; all trimmed and furnished, for occasional residences +there; the late "Government House" (originally SCHOMBERG House), +new-built,--which is, to this day, one of the distinguished Palaces +of Berlin. Princess-Royal had Schonhausen given her; a pleasant Royal +Mansion some miles out of Berlin, on the Ruppin side. Furthermore, the +Prince-Royal, being now a wedded man, has, as is customary in such case, +a special AMT (Government District) set apart for his support; the "Amt +of Ruppin," where his business lies. What the exact revenues of Ruppin +are, is not communicated; but we can justly fear they were far too +frugal,--and excused the underhand borrowing, which is evident enough +as a painful shadow in the Prince's life henceforth. He does not seem to +have been wasteful; but he borrows all round, under sevenfold secrecy, +from benevolent Courts, from Austria, Russia, England: and the only +pleasant certainty we notice in such painful business is, that, on his +Accession, he pays with exactitude,--sends his Uncle George of England, +for example, the complete amount in rouleaus of new coin, by the first +courier that goes. [Despatch (of adjacent date) in the State-Paper +Office here.] + +A thought too frugal, his Prussian Majesty; but he means to be kind, +bountiful; and occasionally launches out into handsome munificence. +This very Autumn, hearing that the Crown-Prince and his Princess fancied +Reinsberg; an old Castle in their Amt Ruppin, some miles north +of them,--his Majesty, without word spoken, straightway purchased +Reinsberg, Schloss and Territory, from the owner; gave it to his +Crown-Prince, and gave him money to new-build it according to his mind. +[23d Oct. 1733-16th March, 1734 (Preuss, i. 75).] Which the Crown-Prince +did with much interest, under very wise architectural advice, for the +next three years; then went into it, to reside;--yet did not cease +new-building, improving, artistically adorning, till it became in all +points the image of his taste. + +A really handsome princely kind of residence, that of Reinsberg:--got up +with a thrift that most of all astonishes us. In which improved locality +we shall by and by look in upon him again. For the present we must to +Warsaw, where tragedies and troubles are in the wind, which turn out to +be not quite without importance to the Crown-Prince and us. + + + + +Chapter VIII. -- KING AUGUST DIES; AND POLAND TAKES FIRE. + +Meanwhile, over at Warsaw, there has an Event fallen out. Friedrich, +writing rapidly from vague reminiscence, as he often does, records it +as "during the marriage festivities;" [_OEuvres (Memoires de +Brandenbourg),_ i. 163.] but it was four good months earlier. Event we +must now look at for a moment. + +In the end of January last, we left Grumkow in a low and hypochondriacal +state, much shaken by that drinking-bout at Crossen, when the Polish +Majesty and he were so anxious to pump one another, by copious priming +with Hungary wine. About a fortnight after, in the first days of +February following (day is not given), Grumkow reported something +curious. "In my presence," says Wilhelmina, "and that of forty persons," +for the thing was much talked about, "Grumkow said to the King one +morning: 'Ah Sire, I am in despair; the poor Patroon is dead! I was +lying broad awake, last night: all on a sudden, the curtains of my bed +flew asunder: I saw him; he was in a shroud: he gazed fixedly at me: +I tried to start up, being dreadfully taken; but the phantom +disappeared!'" Here was an illustrious ghost-story for Berlin, in a day +or two when the Courier came. "Died at the very time of the phantom; +Death and phantom were the same night," say Wilhelmina and the +miraculous Berlin public,--but do not say WHAT night for either of them +it was. [Wilhelmina, ii. 98. Event happened, 1st February; news of it +came to Berlin, 4th February: Fassmann (p. 485); Buchholz; &c.] By help +of which latter circumstance the phantom becomes reasonably unmiraculous +again, in a nervous system tremulous from drink. "They had been sad at +parting," Wilhelmina says, "having drunk immensities of Hungary wine; +the Patroon almost weeping over his Grumkow: 'Adieu, my dear Grumkow,' +said he; 'I shall never see you more!'" + +Miraculous or not, the catastrophe is true: August, the once Physically +Strong, lies dead;--and there will be no Partition of Poland for the +present. He had the Diet ready to assemble; waiting for him, at Warsaw; +and good trains laid in the Diet, capable of fortunate explosion under +a good engineer. Engineer, alas! The Grumkow drinking-bout had awakened +that old sore in his foot: he came to Warsaw, eager enough for business; +but with his stock of strength all out, and Death now close upon him. +The Diet met, 26th-27th January; engineer all alert about the good +trains laid, and the fortunate exploding of them; when, almost on the +morrow--"Inflammation has come on!" said the Doctors, and were futile +to help farther. The strong body, and its life, was done; and nothing +remained but to call in the Archbishop, with his extreme unctions and +soul-apparatus. + +August made no moaning or recalcitrating; took, on the prescribed terms, +the inevitable that had come. Has been a very great sinner, he confesses +to the Archbishop: "I have not at present strength to name my many and +great sins to your Reverence," said he; "I hope for mercy on the"--on +the usual rash terms. Terms perhaps known to August to be rash; to have +been frightfully rash; but what can he now do? Archbishop thereupon +gives absolution of his sins; Archbishop does,--a baddish, unlikely kind +of man, as August well knows. August "laid his hand on his eyes," during +such sad absolution-mummery; and in that posture had breathed his last, +before it was well over. ["Sunday, 1st February, 1733, quarter past +4 A.M." (Fassmann, _Leben Frederici Augusti Konigs in Pohlen,_ pp. +994-997).] Unhappy soul; who shall judge him?--transcendent King of +edacious Flunkies; not without fine qualities, which he turned to such a +use amid the temptations of this world! + + + + +POLAND HAS TO FIND A NEW KING. + +His death brought vast miseries on Poland; kindled foolish Europe +generally into fighting, and gave our Crown-Prince his first actual +sight and experience of the facts of War. For which reason, hardly for +another, the thing having otherwise little memorability at present, +let us give some brief synopsis of it, the briefer the better. Here, +excerpted from multifarious old Note-books, are some main heads of the +affair:-- + +"On the disappearance of August the Strong, his plans of Partitioning +Poland disappeared too, and his fine trains in the Diet abolished +themselves. The Diet had now nothing to do, but proclaim the coming +Election, giving a date to it; and go home to consider a little whom +they would elect. ["Interregnum proclaimed," 11th February; Preliminary +Diet to meet 21st April;--meets; settles, before May is done, that the +Election shall BEGIN 25th August: it must END in six weeks thereafter, +by law of the land.] A question weighty to Poland. And not likely to be +settled by Poland alone or chiefly; the sublime Republic, with LIBERUM +VETO, and Diets capable only of anarchic noise, having now reached such +a stage that its Neighbors everywhere stood upon its skirts; asking, +'Whitherward, then, with your anarchy? Not this way;--we say, that +way!'-and were apt to get to battle about it, before such a thing could +be settled. A house, in your street, with perpetual smoke coming through +the slates of it, is not a pleasant house to be neighbor to! One honest +interest the neighbors have, in an Election Crisis there, That the house +do not get on fire, and kindle them. Dishonest interests, in the way of +theft and otherwise, they may have without limit. + +"The poor house, during last Election Crisis,--when August the Strong +was flung out, and Stanislaus brought in; Crisis presided over by +Charles XII., with Czar Peter and others hanging on the outskirts, as +Opposition party,--fairly got into flame; [Description of it in Kohler, +_Munzbelustigungen,_ vi. 228-230.] but was quenched down again by that +stout Swede; and his Stanislaus, a native Pole, was left peaceably as +King for the years then running. Years ran; and Stanislaus was thrown +out, Charles himself being thrown out; and had to make way for August +the Strong again:--an ejected Stanislaus: King only in title; known to +most readers of this time. [Stanislaus Lesczinsky, "Woywode of Posen," +born 1677: King of Poland, Charles XII. superintending, 1704 (age then +27); driven out 1709, went to Charles XII. at Bender; to Zweibruck, +1714; thence, on Charles's death, to Weissenburg (Alsace, or Strasburg +Country): Daughter married to Louis XV., 1725. Age now 56.--Hubner, t. +97; _Histoire de Stanislas I., Roi de Pologlne_ (English Translation, +London, 1741), pp. 96-126; &c.] + +"Poor man, he has been living in Zweibruck, in Weissenburg and such +places, in that Debatable French-German region,--which the French +are more and more getting stolen to themselves, in late +centuries:--generally on the outskirts of France he lives; having +now connections of the highest quality with France. He has had fine +Country-houses in that Zweibruck (TWO-BRIDGE, Deux-Ponts) region; +had always the ghost of a Court there; plenty of money,--a sinecure +Country-gentleman life;--and no complaints have been heard from him. +Charles XII., as proprietor of Deux-Ponts, had first of all sent him +into those parts for refuge; and in general, easy days have been the lot +of Stanislaus there. + +"Nor has History spoken of him since, except on one small occasion: +when the French Politician Gentlemen, at a certain crisis of their game, +chose a Daughter of his to be Wife for young Louis XV., and bring +royal progeny, of which they were scarce. This was in 1724-1725; Duc de +Bourbon, and other Politicians male and female, finding that the best +move. A thing wonderful to the then Gazetteers, for nine days; but not +now worth much talk. The good young Lady, it is well known, a very pious +creature, and sore tried in her new station, did bring royal progeny +enough,--and might as well have held her hand, had she foreseen what +would become of them, poor souls! This was a great event for Stanislaus, +the sinecure Country-gentleman, in his French-German rustication. One +other thing I have read of him, infinitely smaller, out of those ten +years: in Zweibruck Country, or somewhere in that French-German region, +he 'built a pleasure-cottage,' conceivable to the mind, 'and called it +SCHUHFLICK (Shoe-Patch),' [Busching, _Erdbeschreibung,_ v. 1194.]--a +name that touches one's fancy on behalf of the innocent soul. Other +fact I will not remember of him. He is now to quit Shoe-Patch and his +pleasant Weissenburg Castle; to come on the public stage again, poor +man; and suffer a second season of mischances and disgraces still worse +than the first. As we shall see presently;--a new Polish Election Crisis +having come! + +"What individual the Polish Grandees would have chosen for King if +entirely left alone to do it? is a question not important; and indeed +was never asked, in this or in late Elections. Not the individual who +could have BEEN a King among them were they, for a long time back, in +the habit of seeking after; not him, but another and indeed reverse kind +of individual,--the one in whom there lay most NOURISHMENT, nourishment +of any kind, even of the cash kind, for a practical Polish Grandee. So +that the question was no longer of the least importance, to Poland or +the Universe; and in point of fact, the frugal Destinies had ceased +to have it put, in that quarter. Not Grandees of Poland; but Intrusive +Neighbors, carrying Grandees of Poland 'in their breeches-pocket' (as +our phrase is), were the voting parties. To that pass it was come. Under +such stern penalty had Poland and its Grandees fallen, by dint of false +voting: the frugal Destinies had ceased to ask about their vote; and +they were become machines for voting with, or pistols for fighting +with, by bad Neighbors who cared to vote! Nor did the frugal Destinies +consider that the proper method, either; but had, as we shall see, +determined to abolish that too, in about forty years more." + + + + +OF THE CANDIDATES; OF THE CONDITIONS. HOW THE ELECTION WENT. + +It was under such omens that the Polish Election of 1733 had to transact +itself. Austria, Russia, Prussia, as next Neighbors, were the chief +voting parties, if they cared to intrude;--which Austria and Russia were +clear for doing; Prussia not clear, or not beyond the indispensable +or evidently profitable. Seckendorf, and one Lowenwolde the Russian +Ambassador at Berlin, had, some time ago, in foresight of this +event, done their utmost to bring Friedrich Wilhelm into +co-operation,--offering fine baits, "Berg and Julich" again, among +others;--but nothing definite came of it: peaceable, reasonably safe +Election in Poland, other interest Friedrich Wilhelm has not in the +matter; and compliance, not co-operation, is what can be expected of him +by the Kaiser and Czarina. Co-operating or even complying, these three +could have settled it; and would,--had no other Neighbor interfered. But +other neighbors can interfere; any neighbor that has money to spend, or +likes to bully in such a matter! And that proved to be the case, in this +unlucky instance. + +Austria aud Russia, with Prussia complying, had,--a year ago, before the +late August's decease, his life seeming then an extremely uncertain one, +and foresight being always good,--privately come to an understanding, +[31st December, 1731, "Treaty of Lowenwolde" (which never got completed +or became valid): Scholl, ii. 223.] in case of a Polish Election:-- + +"1. That France was to have no hand in it whatever,--no tool of France +to be King; or, as they more politely expressed it, having their eye +upon Stanislaus, No Piast or native Pole could be eligible. + +"2. That neither could August's Son, the new August, who would then be +Kurfurst of Saxony, be admitted King of Poland.--And, on the whole, + +"3. That an Emanuel Prince of Portugal would be the eligible man." +Emanuel of Portugal, King of Portugal's Brother; a gentleman without +employment, as his very Title tells us: gentleman never heard of before +or since, in those parts or elsewhere, but doubtless of the due harmless +quality, as Portugal itself was: he is to be the Polish King,--vote +these Intrusive Neighbors. What the vote of Poland itself may be, the +Destinies do not, of late, ask; finding it a superfluous question. + +So had the Three Neighbors settled this matter:--or rather, I +should say, so had Two of them; for Friedrich Wilhelm wanted, now or +afterwards, nothing in this Election, but that it should not take fire +and kindle him. Two of the Neighbors: and of these two, perhaps we might +guess the Kaiser was the principal contriver and suggester; France and +Saxony being both hateful to him,--obstinate refusers of the Pragmatic +Sanction, to say nothing more. What the Czarina, Anne with the big +cheek, specially wanted, I do not learn,--unless it were peaceable hold +of Courland; or perhaps merely to produce herself in these parts, as +a kind of regulating Pallas, along with the Jupiter Kaiser of Western +Europe;--which might have effects by and by. + +Emanuel of Portugal was not elected, nor so much as spoken of in the +Diet. Nor did one of these Three Regulations take effect; but much the +contrary,--other Neighbors having the power to interfere. France saw +good to interfere, a rather distant neighbor; Austria, Russia, could not +endure the French vote at all; and so the whole world got on fire by the +business. + +France is not a near Neighbor; but it has a Stanislaus much concerned, +who is eminently under the protection of France:--who may be called the +"FATHER of France," in a sense, or even the "Grandfather;" his Daughter +being Mother of a young creature they call Dauphin, or "Child of +France." Fleury and the French Court decide that Stanislaus, Grandfather +of France, was once King of Poland: that it will behoove, for various +reasons, he be King again. Some say old Fleury did not care for +Stanislaus; merely wanted a quarrel with the Kaiser,--having got himself +in readiness, "with Lorraine in his eye;" and seeing the Kaiser not +ready. It is likelier the hot young spirits, Belleisle and others, +controlled old Fleury into it. At all events, Stanislaus is summoned +from his rustication; the French Ambassador at Warsaw gets his +instructions. French Ambassador opens himself largely, at Warsaw, by +eloquent speech, by copious money, on the subject of Stanislaus; +finds large audience, enthusiastic receptivity;--and readers will +now understand the following chronological phenomena of the Polish +Election:-- + +"AUGUST 25th, 1733. This day the Polish Election begins. So has the +Preliminary Diet (kind of Polish CAUCUS) ordered it;--Preliminary Diet +itself a very stormy matter; minority like to be 'thrown out of +window,' to be 'shot through the head,' on some occasions. [_History of +Stanislaus_ (cited above), p. 136.] Actual Election begins; continues +SUB DIO, 'in the Field of Wola,' in a very tempestuous fashion; bound +to conclude within six weeks. Kaiser has his troops assembled over the +border, in Silesia, 'to protect the freedom of election;' Czarina has +30,000 under Marshal Lacy, lying on the edge of Lithuania, bent on a +like object; will increase them to 50,000, as the plot thickens. + +"So that Emanuel of Portugal is not heard of; and French interference +is, with a vengeance,--and Stanislaus, a born Piast, is overwhelmingly +the favorite. Intolerable to Austria, to Russia; the reverse to +Friedrich Wilhelm, who privately thinks him the right man. And Kurfurst +August of Saxony is the other Candidate,--with troops of his own in the +distance, but without support in Poland; and depending wholly on the +Kaiser and Czarina for his chance. And our 'three settled points' are +gone to water in this manner! + +"August seeing there was not the least hope in Poland's own vote, +judiciously went to the Kaiser first of all: 'Imperial Majesty, I will +accept your Pragmatic Sanction root and branch, swallow it whole; make +me King of Poland!'--'Done!' answers Imperial Majesty; [16th July, 1733; +Treaty in Scholl, ii. 224-231.] brings the Czarina over, by good offers +of August's and his;--and now there is an effective Opposition Candidate +in the field, with strength of his own, and good backing close at hand. +Austrian, Russian Ambassadors at Warsaw lift up their voice, like the +French one; open their purse, and bestir themselves; but with no success +in the Field of Wola, except to the stirring up of noise and tumult +there. They must look to other fields for success. The voice of Wola and +of Poland, if it had now a voice, is enthusiastic for Stanislaus. + +"SEPTEMBER 7th. A couple of quiet-looking Merchants arrive in +Warsaw,--one of whom is Stanislaus in person. Newspapers say he is in +the French Fleet of War, which is sailing minatory towards these Coasts: +and there is in truth a Gentleman in Stanislaus's clothes on board +there;--to make the Newspapers believe. Stanislaus himself drove through +Berlin, a day or two ago; gave the sentry a ducat at the Gate, to be +speedy with the Passports,--whom Friedrich Wilhelm affected to put +under arrest for such negligent speed. And so, on the 10th of the month, +Stanislaus being now rested and trimmed; makes his appearance on the +Field of Wola itself; and captivates all hearts by the kind look of him. +So that, on the second day after, 12th September, 1733, he is, as it +were, unanimously elected; with acclamation, with enthusiasm; and +sees himself actual King of Poland,--if France send proper backing +to continue him there. As, surely, she will not fail?--But there are +alarming news that the Russians are advancing: Marshal Lacy with 30,000; +and reinforcements in the rear of him. + +"SEPTEMBER 22d. Russians advancing more and more, no French help arrived +yet, and the enthusiastic Polish Chivalry being good for nothing against +regular musketry,--King Stanislaus finds that he will have to quit +Warsaw, and seek covert somewhere. Quits Warsaw this day; gets covert in +Dantzig. And, in fact, from this 22d of September, day of the autumnal +equinox, 1733, is a fugitive, blockaded, besieged Stanislaus: an +Imaginary King thenceforth. His real Kingship had lasted precisely ten +days. + +"OCTOBER 3d. Lacy and his Russians arrive in the suburbs of Warsaw, +intent upon 'protecting freedom of election.' Bridges being broken, they +do not yet cross the River, but invite the free electors to come across +and vote: 'A real King is very necessary,--Stanislaus being an imaginary +one, brought in by compulsion, by threats of flinging people out of +window, and the like.' The free electors do not cross. Whereupon a small +handful, now free enough, and NOT to be thrown out of window, whom Lacy +had about him, proceed to elect August of Saxony; he, on the 5th +of October, still one day within the legal six weeks, is chosen +and declared the real King:--'twelve senators and about six hundred +gentlemen' voting for him there, free they in Lacy's quarters, the rest +of Poland having lain under compulsion when voting for Stanislaus. That +is the Polish Election, so far as Poland can settle it. We said the +Destinies had ceased, some time since, to ask Poland for its vote; it is +other people who have now got the real power of voting. But that is the +correct state of the poll at Warsaw, if important to anybody." + +August is crowned in Cracow before long; "August III.," whom we shall +meet again in important circumstances. Lacy and his Russians have voted +for August; able, they, to disperse all manner of enthusiastic Polish +Chivalry; which indeed, we observe, usually stands but one volley from +the Russian musketry; and flies elsewhither, to burn and plunder its +own domestic enemies. Far and wide, robbery and arson are prevalent in +Poland; Stanislaus lying under covert; in Dantzig,--an imaginary King +ever since the equinox, but well trusting that the French will give him +a plumper vote. French War-fleet is surely under way hither. + + + + +POLAND ON FIRE; DANTZIG STANDS SIEGE. + +These are the news our Crown-Prince hears at Ruppin, in the first months +of his wedded life there. With what interest we may fancy. Brandenburg +is next neighbor; and these Polish troubles reach far enough;--the +ever-smoking house having taken fire; and all the street threatening +to get on blaze. Friedrich Wilhelm, nearest neighbor, stands anxious +to quench, carefully sweeping the hot coals across again from his +own borders; and will not interfere on one or the other side, for any +persuasion. + +Dantzig, strong in confidence of French help, refuses to give up +Stanislaus when summoned; will stand siege rather. Stands siege, furious +lengthy siege,--with enthusiastic defence; "a Lady of Rank firing off +the first gun," against the Russian batteries. Of the Siege of Dantzig, +which made the next Spring and Summer loud for mankind (February-June, +1734), we shall say nothing,--our own poor field, which also grows loud +enough, lying far away from Dantzig,---except: + +FIRST, That no French help came, or as good as none; the minatory +War-fleet having landed a poor 1,500 men, headed by the Comte de Plelo, +who had volunteered along with them; that they attempted one onslaught +on the Russian lines, and that Plelo was shot, and the rest were blown +to miscellaneous ruin, and had to disappear, not once getting into +Dantzig. + +SECONDLY, That the Saxons, under Weissenfels, our poor old friend, with +proper siege-artillery, though not with enough, did, by effort (end +of May), get upon the scene; in which this is to be remarked, that +Weissenfels's siege-artillery "came by post;" two big mortars expressly +passing through Berlin, marked as part of the Duke of Weissenfels's +Luggage. And + +THIRDLY, That Munnich, who had succeeded Lacy as Besieging General, and +was in hot haste, and had not artillery enough, made unheard-of assaults +(2,000 men, some say 4,000, lost in one night-attack upon a post they +call the Hagelberg; rash attack, much blamed by military men); [_OEuvres +de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 2d, p. 31.]--but nevertheless, having now +(by Russian Fleet, middle of June) got siege-artillery enough, advances +irrepressibly day by day. + +So that at length, things being now desperate, Stanislaus, disguised as +a cattle-dealer, privately quitted Dantzig, night of 27th June, 1734; +got across the intricate mud-and-water difficulties of the Weichsel and +its mouths, flying perilously towards Preussen and Friedrich Wilhelm's +protection. [Narrative by himself, in HISTORY, pp. 235-248.] Whereby the +Siege of Dantzig ended in chamade, and levying of penalties; penalties +severe to a degree, though Friedrich Wilhelm interceded what he could. +And with the Siege of Dantzig, the blazing Polish Election went out +in like manner; [Clear account, especially of Siege, in Mannstein +(pp. 71-83), who was there as Munnich's Aide-de-damp.]--having already +kindled, in quarters far away from it, conflagrations quite otherwise +interesting to us. Whitherward we now hasten. + + + + +Chapter IX. -- KAISER'S SHADOW-HUNT HAS CAUGHT FIRE. + +Franz of Lorraine, the young favorite of Fortune, whom we once saw at +Berlin on an interesting occasion, was about this time to have married +his Imperial Archduchess; Kaiser's consent to be formally demanded and +given; nothing but joy and splendor looked for in the Court of Vienna at +present. Nothing to prevent it,--had there been no Polish Election; +had not the Kaiser, in his Shadow-Hunt (coursing the Pragmatic Sanction +chiefly, as he has done these twenty years past), gone rashly into that +combustible foreign element. But so it is: this was the fatal limit. The +poor Kaiser's Shadow-Hunt, going Scot-free this long while, and merely +tormenting other people, has, at this point, by contact with inflammable +Poland, unexpectedly itself caught fire; goes now plunging, all in +mad flame, over precipices one knows not how deep: and there will be a +lamentable singeing and smashing before the Kaiser get out of this, if +he ever get! Kaiser Karl, from this point, plunges down and down, all +his days; and except in that Shadow of a Pragmatic Sanction, if he can +still save that, has no comfort left. Marriages are not the thing to be +thought of at present!-- + +Scarcely had the news of August's Election, and Stanislaus's flight +to Dantzig, reached France, when France, all in a state of readiness, +informed the Kaiser, ready for nothing, his force lying in Silesia, +doing the Election functions on the Polish borders there, "That he +the Kaiser had, by such treatment of the Grandfather of France and +the Polish Kingdom fairly fallen to him, insulted the most Christian +Majesty; that in consequence the most Christian Majesty did hereby +declare War against the said Kaiser,"--and in fact had, that very day +(14th of October, 1733), begun it. Had marched over into Lorraine, +namely, secured Lorraine against accidents; and, more specially, gone +across from Strasburg to the German side of the Rhine, and laid siege +to Kehl. Kehl Fortress; a dilapidated outpost of the Reich there, which +cannot resist many hours. Here is news for the Kaiser, with his few +troops all on the Polish borders; minding his neighbors' business, or +chasing Pragmatic Sanction, in those inflammable localities. + +Pacific Fleury, it must be owned, if he wanted a quarrel with the +Kaiser, could not have managed it on more advantageous terms. Generals, +a Duc de Berwick, a Noailles, Belleisle; generals, troops, artillery, +munitions, nothing is wanting to Fleury; to the Kaiser all things. It is +surmised, the French had their eye on Lorraine, not on Stanislaus, from +the first. For many centuries, especially for these last two,--ever +since that Siege of Metz, which we once saw, under Kaiser Karl V. and +Albert Alcibiades,--France has been wrenching and screwing at this +Lorraine, wriggling it off bit by bit; till now, as we perceived on +Lyttelton junior of Hagley's visit, Lorraine seems all lying unscrewed; +and France, by any good opportunity, could stick it in her pocket. Such +opportunity sly Fleury contrived, they say;--or more likely it might +be Belleisle and the other adventurous spirits that urged it on pacific +Fleury;--but, at all events, he has got it. Dilapidated Kehl yields +straightway: [29th October, 1733. _Memoires du Marechal de Berwick_ (in +Petitot'e Collection, Paris, 1828), ii. 303.] Sardinia, Spain, declare +alliance with Fleury; and not Lorraine only, and the Swabian Provinces, +but Italy itself lies at his discretion,--owing to your treatment of the +Grandfather of France, and these Polish Elective methods. + +The astonished Kaiser rushes forward to fling himself into the arms +of the Sea-Powers, his one resource left: "Help! moneys, subsidies, +ye Sea-Powers!" But the Sea-Powers stand obtuse, arms not open at all, +hands buttoning their pockets: "Sorry we cannot, your Imperial Majesty. +Fleury engages not to touch the Netherlands, the Barrier Treaty; Polish +Elections are not our concern!" and callously decline. The Kaiser's +astonishment is extreme; his big heart swelling even with a +martyr-feeling; and he passionately appeals: "Ungrateful, blind +Sea-Powers! No money to fight France, say you? Are the Laws of Nature +fallen void?" Imperial astonishment, sublime martyr-feeling, passionate +appeals to the Laws of Nature, avail nothing with the blind +Sea-Powers: "No money in us," answer they: "we will help you to +negotiate."--"Negotiate!" answers he: and will have to pay his own +Election broken-glass, with a sublime martyr-feeling, without money from +the Sea-Powers. + +Fleury has got the Sardinian Majesty; "Sardinian doorkeeper of the +Alps," who opens them now this way, now that, for a consideration: "A +slice of the Milanese, your Majesty;" bargains Fleury. Fleury has got +the Spanish Majesty (our violent old friend the Termagant of Spain) +persuaded to join: "Your infant Carlos made Duke of Parma and Piacenza, +with such difficulty: what is that? Naples itself, crown of the Two +Sicilies, lies in the wind for Carlos;--and your junior infant, great +Madam, has he no need of apanages?" The Termagant of Spain, "offended by +Pragmatic Sanction" (she says), is ready on those terms; the Sardinian +Majesty is ready: and Fleury, this same October, with an overwhelming +force, Spaniards and Sardinians to join, invades Italy; great Marshal +Villars himself taking the command. Marshal Villars, an extremely +eminent old military gentleman,--somewhat of a friend, or husband of a +lady-friend, to M. de Voltaire, for one thing;--and capable of slicing +Italy to pieces at a fine rate, in the condition it was in. + +Never had Kaiser such a bill of broken-glass to pay for meddling in +neighbors, elections before. The year was not yet ended, when Villars +and the Sardinian Majesty had done their stroke on Lombardy; taken Milan +Citadel, taken Pizzighetone, the Milanese in whole, and appropriated it; +swept the poor unprepared Kaiser clear out of those parts. Baby Carlos +and the Spaniards are to do the Two Sicilies, Naples or the land one to +begin with, were the Winter gone. For the present, Louis XV. "sings TE +DEUM, at Paris, 23d December, 1733" [_Fastes du Regne de Louis XV._] +Villars, now above four-score, soon died of those fatigues; various +Marshals, Broglio, Coigny, Noailles, succeeding him, some of whom +are slightly notable to us; and there was one Maillebois, still a +subordinate under them, whose name also may reappear in this History. + + + + +SUBSEQUENT COURSE OF THE WAR, IN THE ITALIAN PART OF IT. + +The French-Austrian War, which had now broken out, lasted a couple of +years; the Kaiser steadily losing, though he did his utmost; not so much +a War, on his part, as a Being Beaten and Being Stript. The Scene was +Italy and the Upper-Rhine Country of Germany; Italy the deciding scene; +where, except as it bears on Germany, our interest is nothing, as indeed +in Germany too it is not much. The principal events, on both stages, are +chronologically somewhat as follows;--beginning with Italy:-- + +MARCH 29th, 1734. Baby Carlos with a Duke of Montemar for General, a +difficult impetuous gentleman, very haughty to the French allies and +others, lands in Naples Territory; intending to seize the Two Sicilies, +according to bargain. They find the Kaiser quite unprepared, and their +enterprise extremely feasible. + +"MAY 10th. Baby Carlos--whom we ought to call Don Carlos, who is now +eighteen gone, and able to ride the great horse--makes triumphant entry +into Naples, having easily swept the road clear; styles himself 'King of +the Two Sicilies' (Papa having surrendered him his 'right' there); +whom Naples, in all ranks of it, willingly homages as such. Wrecks of +Kaiser's forces intrench themselves, rather strongly, at a place called +Bitonto, in Apulia, not far off. + +"MAY 25th. Montemar, in an impetuous manner, storms them there:--which +feat procures for him the title, Duke of Bitonto; and finishes off +the First of the Sicilies. And indeed, we may say, finishes Both the +Sicilies: our poor Kaiser having no considerable force in either, nor +means of sending any; the Sea-Powers having buttoned their pockets, and +the Combined Fleet of France and Spain being on the waters there. + +"We need only add, on this head, that, for ten months more, Baby Carlos +and Montemar went about besieging, Gaeta, Messina, Syracuse; and making +triumphal entries;--and that, on the 30th of June, 1735, Baby Carlos had +himself fairly crowned at Palermo. [_Fastes de Louis XV., i. 278._] +'King of the Two Sicilies' DE FACTO; in which eminent post he and his +continue, not with much success, to this day. + +"That will suffice for the Two Sicilies. As to Lombardy again, now that +Villars is out of it, and the Coignys and Broglios have succeeded:-- + +"JUNE 29th, 1734. Kaiser, rallying desperately for recovery of the +Milanese, has sent an Army thither, Graf von Mercy leader of it: Battle +of Parma between the French and it (29th June);--totally lost by the +Kaiser's people, after furious fighting; Graf von Mercy himself killed +in the action. Graf von Mercy, and what comes nearer us, a Prince of +Culmbach, amiable Uncle of our Wilhelmina's Husband, a brave man and +Austrian Soldier, who was much regretted by Wilhelmina and the rest; +his death and obsequies making a melancholy Court of Baireuth in this +agitated year. The Kaiser, doing his utmost, is beaten at every point. + +"SEPTEMBER 15th. Surprisal of the Secchia. Kaiser's people rally,--under +a General Graf von Konigseck worth noting by us,--and after some +manoeuvring, in the Guastalla-Modena region, on the Secchia and Po +rivers there, dexterously steal across the Secchia that night (15th +September), cutting off the small guard-party at the ford of the +Secchia, then wading silently; and burst in upon the French Camp in a +truly alarming manner. [Hormayr, xx. 84; _Fastes,_ as it is liable to +do, misdates.] So that Broglio, in command there, had to gallop with +only one boot on, some say 'in his shirt,' till he got some force +rallied, and managed to retreat more Parthian-like upon his brother +Marechal's Division. Artillery, war-chest, secret correspondence, 'King +of Sardinia's tent,' and much cheering plunder beside Broglio's odd +boot, were the consequences; the Kaiser's one success in this War; +abolished, unluckily, in four days!--The Broglio who here gallops is +the second French Marechal of the name, son of the first; a military +gentleman whom we shall but too often meet in subsequent stages. A son +of this one's, a third Marechal Broglio, present at the Secchia that +bad night, is the famous War-god of the Bastille time, fifty-five years +hence,--unfortunate old War-god, the Titans being all up about him. As +to Broglio with the one boot, it is but a triumph over him till-- + +"SEPTEMBER 19th. Battle of Guastalla, that day. Battle lost by the +Kaiser's people, after eight hours, hot fighting; who are then obliged +to hurry across the Secchia again;--and in fact do not succeed in +fighting any more in that quarter, this year or afterwards. For, next +year (1735), Montemar is so advanced with the Two Sicilies, he can +assist in these Northern operations; and Noailles, a better Marechal, +replaces the Broglio and Coigny there; who, with learned strategic +movements, sieges, threatenings of siege, sweeps the wrecks of Austria, +to a satisfactory degree, into the Tyrol, without fighting, or event +mentionable thenceforth. + +"This is the Kaiser's War of two Campaigns, in the Italian, which was +the decisive part of it: a continual Being Beaten, as the reader sees; a +Being Stript, till one was nearly bare in that quarter." + + + + +COURSE OF THE WAR, IN THE GERMAN PART OF IT. + +In Germany the mentionable events are still fewer; and indeed, but for +one small circumstance binding on us, we might skip them altogether. For +there is nothing comfortable in it to the human memory otherwise. + +Marechal Duc de Berwick, a cautious considerable General (Marlborough's +Nephew, on what terms is known to readers), having taken Kehl and +plundered the Swabian outskirts last Winter, had extensive plans of +operating in the heart of Germany, and ruining the Kaiser there. But +first he needs, and the Kaiser is aware of it, a "basis on the Rhine;" +free bridge over the Rhine, not by Strasburg and Kehl alone: and for +this reason, he will have to besiege and capture Philipsburg first of +all. Strong Town of Philipsburg, well down towards Speyer-and-Heidelberg +quarter on the German side of the Rhine: [See map] here will be our +bridge. Lorraine is already occupied, since the first day of the War; +Trarbach, strong-place of the Moselle and Electorate of Trier, cannot +be difficult to get? Thus were the Rhine Country, on the French side, +secure to France; and so Berwick calculates he will have a basis on the +Rhine, from which to shoot forth into the very heart of the Kaiser. + +Berwick besieged Philipsburg accordingly (Summer and Autumn); Kaiser +doing his feeble best to hinder: at the Siege, Berwick lost his life, +but Philipsburg surrendered to his successor, all the same;--Kaiser +striving to hinder; but in a most paralyzed manner, and to no purpose +whatever. And--and this properly WAS the German War; the sum of all done +in it during those two years. + +Seizure of Nanci (that is, of Lorraine), seizure of Kehl we already +heard of; then, prior to Philipsburg, there was siege or seizure of +Trarbach by the French; and, posterior to it, seizure of Worms by them; +and by the Germans there was "burning of a magazine in Speyer by bombs." +And, in brief, on both sides, there was marching and manoeuvring under +various generals (our old rusty Seckendorf one of them), till the end of +1735, when the Italian decision arrived, and Truce and Peace along with +it; but there was no other action worth naming, even in the Newspapers +as a wonder of nine days, The Siege of Philipsburg, and what hung +flickering round that operation, before and after, was the sum-total of +the German War. + +Philipsburg, key of the Rhine in those parts, has had many sieges; nor +would this one merit the least history from us; were it not for one +circumstance: That our Crown-Prince was of the Opposing Army, and made +his first experience of arms there. A Siege of Philipsburg slightly +memorable to us, on that one account. What Friedrich did there, which +in the military way was as good as nothing; what he saw and experienced +there, which, with some "eighty Princes of the Reich," a Prince Eugene +for General, and three months under canvas on the field, may have been +something: this, in outline, by such obscure indications as remain, +we would fain make conceivable to the reader. Indications, in the +History-Books, we have as good as none; but must gather what there is +from WILHELMINA and the Crown-Prince's LETTERS,--much studying to be +brief, were it possible! + + + + +Chapter X. -- CROWN-PRINCE GOES TO THE RHINE CAMPAIGN. + +The Kaiser--with Kehl snatched from him, the Rhine open, and Louis XV. +singing TE DEUM in the Christmas time for what Villars in Italy had +done--applied, in passionate haste, to the Reich. The Reich, though +Fleury tried to cajole it, and apologize for taking Kehl from it, +declares for the Kaiser's quarrel; War against France on his behalf; +[13th March, 1734 (Buchholz, i. 131).]--it was in this way that +Friedrich Wilhelm and our Crown-Prince came to be concerned in the Rhine +Campaign. The Kaiser will have a Reich's-Army (were it good for much, +as is not likely) to join to his own Austrian one. And if Prince Eugene, +who is Reich's-Feldmarschall, one of the TWO Feldmarschalls, get the +Generalship as men hope, it is not doubted but there will be great work +on the Rhine, this Summer of 1734. + +Unhappily the Reich's-Army, raised from--multifarious contingents, and +guided and provided for by many heads, is usually good for little. +Not to say that old Kur-Pfalz, with an eye to French help in the +Berg-and-Julich matter; old Kur-Pfalz, and the Bavarian set (KUR-BAIERN +and KUR-KOLN, Bavaria and Cologne, who are Brothers, and of old +cousinship to Kur-Pfalz),--quite refuse their contingents; protest in +the Diet, and openly have French leanings. These are bad omens for the +Reich's-Army. And in regard to the Reich's-Feldmarschall Office, +there also is a difficulty. The Reich, as we hinted, keeps two supreme +Feldmarschalls; one Catholic, one Protestant, for equilibrium's sake; +illustrious Prince Eugenio von Savoye is the Catholic;--but as to the +Protestant, it is a difficulty worth observing for a moment. + +Old Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Wurtemberg, the unfortunate old gentleman +bewitched by the Gravenitz "Deliver us from evil," used to be the +Reich's-Feldmarschall of Protestant persuasion;--Commander-in-Chief for +the Reich, when it tried fighting. Old Eberhard had been at Blenheim, +and had marched up and down: I never heard he was much of a General; +perhaps good enough for the Reich, whose troops were always bad. But now +that poor Duke, as we intimated once or more, is dead; there must be, +of Protestant type, a new Reich's-Feldmasschall had. One Catholic, +unequalled among Captains, we already have; but where is the Protestant, +Duke Eberhard being dead? + +Duke Eberhard's successor in Wurtemberg, Karl Alexander by name, whom +we once dined with at Prag on the Kladrup journey, he, a General of some +worth, would be a natural person. Unluckily Duke Karl Alexander +had, while an Austrian Officer and without outlooks upon Protestant +Wurtemberg, gone over to Papacy, and is now Catholic. "Two Catholic +Feldmarschalls!" cries the CORPUS EVANGELICORUM; "that will never do!" + +Well, on the other or Protestant side there appear two Candidates; one +of them not much expected by the reader: no other than Ferdinand Duke of +Brunswick-Bevern, our Crown-Prince's Father-in-law; whom we knew to be +a worthy man, but did not know to be much of a soldier, or capable of +these ambitious views. He is Candidate First. Then there is a Second, +much more entitled: our gunpowder friend the Old Dessauer; who, to say +nothing of his soldier qualities, has promises from the Kaiser,--he +surely were the man, if it did not hurt other people's feelings. But +it surely does and will. There is Ferdinand of Bevern applying upon +the score of old promises too. How can people's feelings be saved? +Protestants these two last: but they cannot both have it; and what will +Wurtemberg say to either of them? The Reich was in very great affliction +about this preliminary matter. But Friedrich Wilhelm steps in with +a healing recipe: "Let there be four Reich's-Feldmarschalls," said +Friedrich Wilhelm; "two Protestant and two Catholic: won't that +do?"--Excellent! answers the Reich: and there are four Feldmarschalls +for the time being; no lack of commanders to the Reich's-Army. +Brunswick-Bevern tried it first; but only till Prince Eugene were ready, +and indeed he had of himself come to nothing before that date. Prince +Eugene next; then Karl Alexander next; and in fact they all might have +had a stroke at commanding, and at coming to nothing or little,--only +the Old Dessauer sulked at the office in this its fourfold state, and +never would fairly have it, till, by decease of occupants, it came to be +twofold again. This glimpse into the distracted effete interior of the +poor old Reich and its Politics, with friends of ours concerned there, +let it be welcome to the reader. [_Leopoldi von Anhalt-Dessau Leben_ (by +Ranfft), p. 127; Buchholz, i. 131.] + +Friedrich Wilhelm was without concern in this War, or in what had led +to it. Practical share in the Polish Election (after that preliminary +theoretic program of the Kaiser's and Czarina's went to smoke) Friedrich +Wilhelm steadily refused to take: though considerable offers were made +him on both sides,--offer of West Preussen (Polish part of Prussia, +which once was known to us) on the French side. [By De la Chetardie, +French Ambassador at Berlin (Buchholz, i. 130).] But his primary fixed +resolution was to stand out of the quarrel; and he abides by +that; suppresses any wishes of his own in regard to the Polish +Election;--keeps ward on his own frontiers, with good military besom in +hand, to sweep it out again if it intruded there. "What King you like, +in God's name; only don't come over my threshold with his brabbles and +him!" + +But seeing the Kaiser got into actual French War, with the Reich +consenting, he is bound, by Treaty of old date (date older than +WUSTERHAUSEN, though it was confirmed on that famous occasion), "To +assist the Kaiser with ten thousand men;" and this engagement he intends +amply to fulfil. No sooner, therefore, had the Reich given sure signs of +assenting ("Reich's assent" is the condition of the ten thousand), +than Friedrich Wilhelm's orders were out, "Be in readiness!" Friedrich +Wilhelm, by the time of the Reich's actual assent, or Declaration of +War on the Kaiser's behalf, has but to lift his finger: squadrons and +battalions, out of Pommern, out of Magdeburg, out of Preussen, to the +due amount, will get on march whitherward you bid, and be with you +there at the day you indicate, almost at the hour. Captains, not of an +imaginary nature, these are always busy; and the King himself is +busy over them. From big guns and wagon-horses down to gun-flints and +gaiter-straps, all is marked in registers; nothing is wanting, nothing +out of its place at any time, in Friedrich Wilhelm's Army. + +From an early period, the French intentions upon Philipsburg might be +foreseen or guessed: and in the end of March, Marechal Berwick, "in +three divisions," fairly appears in that quarter; his purpose evident. +So that the Reich's-Army, were it in the least ready, ought to +rendezvous, and reinforce the handful of Austrians there. Friedrich +Wilhelm's part of the Reich's-Army does accordingly straightway get on +march; leaves Berlin, after the due reviewing, "8th April:" [Fassmann, +p. 495.] eight regiments of it, three of Horse and five of Foot, Goltz +Foot-regiment one of them;--a General Roder, unexceptionable General, to +command in chief;--and will arrive, though the farthest off, "first of +all the Reich's-Contingents;" 7th of June, namely. The march, straight +south, must be some four hundred miles. + +Besides the Official Generals, certain high military dignitaries, +Schulenburg, Bredow, Majesty himself at their head, propose to go as +volunteers;--especially the Crown-Prince, whose eagerness is very great, +has got liberty to go. "As volunteer" he too: as Colonel of Goltz, it +might have had its unsuitabilities, in etiquette and otherwise. Few +volunteers are more interested than the Crown-Prince. Watching the +great War-theatre uncurtain itself in this manner, from Dantzig down to +Naples; and what his own share in it shall be: this, much more than his +Marriage, I suppose, has occupied his thoughts since that event. Here +out of Ruppin, dating six or seven weeks before the march of the Ten +Thousand, is a small sign, one among many, of his outlooks in this +matter. Small Note to his Cousin, Margraf Heinrich, the ill-behaved +Margraf, much his comrade, who is always falling into scrapes; and whom +he has just, not without difficulty, got delivered out of something of +the kind. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 2d, pp. 8, 9.] He writes +in German and in the intimate style of THOU:-- + +"RUPPIN. 23d FEBRUARY, 1734. MY DEAR BROTHER,--I can with pleasure +answer that the King hath spoken of thee altogether favorably to me +[scrape now abolished, for the time]:--and I think it would not have +an ill effect, wert thou to apply for leave to go with the ten thousand +whom he is sending to the Rhine, and do the Campaign with them as +volunteer. I am myself going with that corps; so I doubt not the King +would allow thee. + +"I take the freedom to send herewith a few bottles of Champagne; and +wish" all manner of good things. + +"FRIEDRICH." + +[Ib. xxvii. part 2d, p. 10.] + +This Margraf Heinrich goes; also his elder Brother, Margraf Friedrich +Wilhelm,--who long persecuted Wilhelmina with his hopes; and who is now +about getting Sophie Dorothee, a junior Princess, much better than he +merits: Betrothal is the week after these ten thousand march; [16th +April, 1734 (Ib. part 1st, p. 14 n).] he thirty, she fifteen. He too +will go; as will the other pair of Cousin Margraves,--Karl, who was once +our neighbor in Custrin; and the Younger Friedrich Wilhelm, whose fate +lies at Prag if he knew it. Majesty himself will go as volunteer. Are +not great things to be done, with Eugene for General?--To understand +the insignificant Siege of Philipsburg, sum-total of the Rhine Campaign, +which filled the Crown-Prince's and so many other minds brimful; that +Summer, and is now wholly out of every mind, the following Excerpt may +be admissible:-- + +"The unlucky little Town of Philipsburg, key of the Rhine in that +quarter, fortified under difficulties by old Bishops of Speyer who +sometimes resided there, [Kohler, _Munzbelustigungen,_ vi. 169.] has +been dismantled and refortified, has had its Rhine-bridge torn down and +set up again; been garrisoned now by this party, now by that, who had +'right of garrison there;' nay France has sometimes had 'the right of +garrison;'--and the poor little Town has suffered much, and been tumbled +sadly about in the Succession-wars and perpetual controversies between +France and Germany in that quarter. In the time we are speaking of, it +has a 'flying-bridge' (of I know not what structure), with fortified +'bridge-head (TETE-DE-PONT,)' on the western or France-ward side of the +River. Town's bulwarks, and complex engineering defences, are of good +strength, all put in repair for this occasion: Reich and Kaiser have an +effective garrison there, and a commandant determined on defence to the +uttermost: what the unfortunate Inhabitants, perhaps a thousand or so in +number, thought or did under such a visitation of ruin and bombshells, +History gives not the least hint anywhere. 'Quite used to it!' thinks +History, and attends to other points. + +"The Rhine Valley here is not of great breadth: eastward the heights +rise to be mountainous in not many miles. By way of defence to this +Valley, in the Eugene-Marlborough Wars, there was, about forty miles +southward, or higher up the River than Philipsburg, a military line or +chain of posts; going from Stollhofen, a boggy hamlet on the Rhine, with +cunning indentations, and learned concatenation of bog and bluff, up +into the inaccessibilities,--LINES OF STOLLHOFEN, the name of it,--which +well-devised barrier did good service for certain years. It was not +till, I think, the fourth year of their existence, year 1707, that +Villars, the same Villars who is now in Italy, 'stormed the Lines of +Stollhofen;' which made him famous that year. + +"The Lines of Stollhofen have now, in 1734, fallen flat again; but +Eugene remembers them, and, I could guess, it was he who suggests a +similar expedient. At all events, there is a similar expedient fallen +upon: LINES OF ETTLINGEN this time; one-half nearer Philipsburg; running +from Muhlburg on the Rhine-brink up to Ettlingen in the Hills. [See map] +Nearer, by twenty miles; and, I guess, much more slightly done. We shall +see these Lines of Ettlingen, one point of them, for a moment:--and they +would not be worth mentioning at all, except that in careless Books +they too are called 'Lines of STOLLHOFEN,' [Wilhelmina (ii. 206), for +instance; who, or whose Printer, call them "Lines of STOKOFF" even.] and +the ingenuous reader is sent wandering on his map to no purpose." + +"Lines of ETTLINGEN" they are; related, as now said, to the Stollhofen +set. Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Bevern, one of the four Feldmarschalls, +has some ineffectual handful of Imperial troops dotted about, within +these Lines and on the skirts of Philipsburg;--eagerly waiting till the +Reich's-Army gather to him; otherwise he must come to nothing. Will at +any rate, I should think, be happy to resign in favor of Prince Eugene, +were that little hero once on the ground. + +On Mayday, Marechal Berwick, who has been awake in this quarter, "in +three divisions," for a month past,--very impatient till Belleisle with +the first division should have taken Trarbach, and made the Western +interior parts secure,--did actually cross the Rhine, with his second +division, "at Fort Louis," well up the River, well south of Philipsburg; +intending to attack the Lines of Ettlingen, and so get in upon the Town. +There is a third division, about to lay pontoons for itself a good +way farther down, which will attack the Lines simultaneously from +within,--that is to say, shall come upon the back of poor Bevern and +his defensive handful of troops, and astonish him there. All prospers to +Berwick in this matter: Noailles his lieutenant (not yet gone to Italy +till next year), with whom is Maurice Comte de Saxe (afterwards Marechal +de Saxe), an excellent observant Officer, marches up to Ettlingen, +May 3d; bivouacs "at the base of the mountain" (no great things of a +mountain); ascends the same in two columns, horse and foot, by the +first sunlight next morning; forms on a little plain on the top; +issues through a thin wood,--and actually beholds those same LINES OF +ETTLINGEN, the outmost eastern end of them: a somewhat inconsiderable +matter, after all! Here is Noailles's own account:-- + +"These retrenchments, made in Turk fashion, consisted of big trees set +zigzag (EN ECHIQUIER), twisted together by the branches; the whole about +five fathoms thick. Inside of it were a small forlorn of Austrians: +these steadily await our grenadiers, and do not give their volley +till we are close. Our grenadiers receive their volley; clear the +intertwisted trees, after receiving a second volley (total loss +seventy-five killed and wounded); and--the enemy quits his post; and +the Lines of Ettlingen ARE stormed!" [Noailles, _Memoires_ (in +Petitot's Collection), iii. 207.] This is not like storming the Lines +of Stollhofen; a thing to make Noailles famous in the Newspapers for a +year. But it was a useful small feat, and well enough performed on his +part. The truth is, Berwick was about attacking the Lines simultaneously +on the other or Muhlburg end of them (had not Noailles, now victorious, +galloped to forbid); and what was far more considerable, those other +French, to the northward, "upon pontoons," are fairly across; like to +be upon the BACK of Duke Ferdinand and his handful of defenders. Duke +Ferdinand perceives that he is come to nothing; hastily collects his +people from their various posts; retreats with them that same night, +unpursued, to Heilbronn; and gives up the command to Prince Eugene, who +is just arrived there,--who took quietly two pinches of snuff on hearing +this news of Ettlingen, and said, "No matter, after all!" + +Berwick now forms the Siege, at his discretion; invests Philipsburg, +13th May; [Berwick, ii. 312; 23d, says Noailles's Editor (iii. 210).] +begins firing, night of the 3d-4th June;--Eugene waiting at Heilbronn +till the Reich's-Army come up. The Prussian ten thousand do come, all in +order, on the 7th: the rest by degrees, all later, and all NOT quite +in order. Eugene, the Prussians having joined him, moves down towards +Philipsburg and its cannonading; encamps close to rearward of the +besieging French. "Camp of Wiesenthal" they call it; Village of +Wiesenthal with bogs, on the left, being his head-quarters; Village of +Waghausel, down near the River, a five miles distance, being his limit +on the right. Berwick, in front, industriously battering Philipsburg +into the River, has thrown up strong lines behind him, strongly manned, +to defend himself from Eugene; across the River, Berwick has one Bridge, +and at the farther end one battery with which he plays upon the rear +of Philipsburg. He is much criticised by unoccupied people, "Eugene's +attack will ruin us on those terms!"--and much incommoded by +overflowings of the Rhine; Rhine swoln by melting of the mountain-snows, +as is usual there. Which inundations Berwick had well foreseen, though +the War-minister at Paris would not: "Haste!" answered the War-minister +always: "We shall be in right time. I tell you there have fallen no +snows this winter: how can inundation be?"--"Depends on the heat," said +Berwick; "there are snows enough always in stock up there!" + +And so it proves, though the War-minister would not believe; and Berwick +has to take the inundations, and to take the circumstances;--and to try +if, by his own continual best exertions, he can but get Philipsburg into +the bargain. On the 12th of June, visiting his posts, as he daily does, +the first thing, Berwick stept out of the trenches, anxious for clear +view of something; stept upon "the crest of the sap," a place exposed to +both French and Austrian batteries, and which had been forbidden to the +soldiers,--and there, as he anxiously scanned matters through his glass, +a cannon-ball, unknown whether French or Austrian, shivered away the +head of Berwick; left others to deal with the criticisms, and the +inundations, and the operations big or little, at Philipsburg and +elsewhere! Siege went on, better or worse, under the next in command; +"Paris in great anxiety," say the Books. + +It is a hot siege, a stiff defence; Prince Eugene looks on, but does +not attack in the way apprehended. Southward in Italy, we hear there +is marching, strategying in the Parma Country; Graf von Mercy likely to +come to an action before long. Northward, Dantzig by this time is all +wrapt in fire-whirlwinds; its sallyings and outer defences all driven +in; mere torrents of Russian bombs raining on it day and night; French +auxiliaries, snapt up at landing, are on board Russian ships; and poor +Stanislaus and "the Lady of Quality who shot the first gun" have a +bad outlook there. Towards the end of the month, the Berlin volunteer +Generals, our Crown-Prince and his Margraves among them, are getting +on the road for Philipsburg;--and that is properly the one point we are +concerned with. Which took effect in manner following. + +Tuesday evening, 29th June, there is Ball at Monbijou; the Crown-Prince +and others busy dancing there, as if nothing special lay ahead. +Nevertheless, at three in the morning he has changed his ball-dress +for a better, he and certain more; and is rushing southward, with his +volunteer Generals and Margraves, full speed, saluted by the rising +sun, towards Philipsburg and the Seat of War. And the same night, King +Stanislaus, if any of us cared for him, is on flight from Dantzig, +"disguised as a cattle-dealer;" got out on the night of Sunday last, +Town under such a rain of bombshells being palpably too hot for him: got +out, but cannot get across the muddy intricacies of the Weichsel; lies +painfully squatted up and down, in obscure alehouses, in that Stygian +Mud-Delta,--a matter of life and death to get across, and not a boat +to be had, such the vigilance of the Russian. Dantzig is capitulating, +dreadful penalties exacted, all the heavier as no Stanislaus is to be +found in it; and search all the keener rises in the Delta after him. +Through perils and adventures of the sort usual on such occasions, +[Credible modest detail of them, in a LETTER from Stanislaus himself +(_History of Stanislaus,_ already cited, pp. 235-248).] Stanislaus +does get across; and in time does reach Preussen; where, by Friedrich +Wilhelm's order, safe opulent asylum is afforded him, till the Fates +(when this War ends) determine what is to become of the poor Imaginary +Majesty. We leave him, squatted in the intricacies of the Mud-Delta, +to follow our Crown-Prince, who in the same hour is rushing far +elsewhither. + +Margraves, Generals and he, in their small string of carriages, go +on, by extra-post, day and night; no rest till they get to Hof, in the +Culmbach neighborhood, a good two hundred miles off,--near Wilhelmina, +and more than half-way to Philipsburg. Majesty Friedrich Wilhelm is +himself to follow in about a week: he has given strict order against +waste of time: "Not to part company; go together, and NOT by Anspach or +Baireuth,"--though they lie almost straight for you. + +This latter was a sore clause to Friedrich, who had counted all along +on seeing his dear faithful Wilhelmina, as he passed: therefore, as +the Papa's Orders, dangerous penalty lying in them, cannot be literally +disobeyed, the question rises, How see Wilhelmina and not Baireuth? +Wilhelmina, weak as she is and unfit for travelling, will have to meet +him in some neutral place, suitablest for both. After various shiftings, +it has been settled between them that Berneck, a little town twelve +miles from Baireuth on the Hof road, will do; and that Friday, probably +early, will be the day. Wilhelmina, accordingly, is on the road that +morning, early enough; Husband with her, and ceremonial attendants, in +honor of such a Brother; morning is of sultry windless sort; day hotter +and hotter;--at Berneck is no Crown-Prince, in the House appointed for +him; hour after hour, Wilhelmina waits there in vain. The truth is, one +of the smallest accidents has happened: the Generals "lost a wheel at +Gera yesterday;" were left behind there with their smiths, have not yet +appeared; and the insoluble question among Friedrich and the Margraves +is, "We dare not go on without them, then? We dare;--dare we?" Question +like to drive Friedrich mad, while the hours, at any rate, are slipping +on! Here are three Letters of Friedrich, legible at last; which, with +Wilhelmina's account from the other side, represent a small entirely +human scene in this French-Austrian War,--nearly all of human we have +found in the beggarly affair:-- + +1. TO PRINCESS WILHELMINA, AT BAIREUTH, OR ON THE ROAD TO BERNECK. + +"HOF, 2d July [not long after 4 a.m.], 1794. + +"MY DEAR SISTER,--Here am I within six leagues [say eight or more, +twenty-five miles English] of a Sister whom I love; and I have to decide +that it will be impossible to see her, after all!"--Does decide so, +accordingly, for reasons known to us. + +"I have never so lamented the misfortune of not depending on myself as +at this moment! The King being but very sour-sweet on my score, I dare +not risk the least thing; Monday come a week, when he arrives himself, +I should have a pretty scene (SERAIS JOLIMENT TRAITE) in the Camp, if I +were found to have disobeyed orders. + +"... The Queen commands me to give you a thousand regards from her. She +appeared much affected at your illness; but for the rest, I could not +warrant you how sincere it was; for she is totally changed, and I have +quite lost reckoning of her (N'Y CONNAIS RIEN). That goes so far that +she has done me hurt with the King, all she could: however, that is over +now. As to Sophie [young Sister just betrothed to the eldest Margraf +whom you know], she also is no longer the same; for she approves all +that the Queen says or does; and she is charmed with her big clown (GROS +NIGAUD) of a Bridegroom. + +"The King is more difficult than ever; he is content with nothing, so as +to have lost whatsoever could be called gratitude for all pleasures +one can do him,"--marrying against one's will, and the like. "As to +his health, it is one day better, another worse; but the legs, they +are always swelled, Judge what my joy must be to get out of that +turpitude,--for the King will only stay a fortnight, at most, in the +Camp. + +"Adieu, my adorable Sister: I am so tired, I cannot stir; having left on +Tuesday night, or rather Wednesday morning at three o'clock, from a Ball +at Monbijou, and arrived here this Friday morning at four. I recommend +myself to your gracious remembrance; and am, for my own part, till +death, dearest Sister,"-- + +Your--"FRIEDRICH" + +[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 1st, p. 13.] + +This is Letter First; written Friday morning, on the edge of getting +into bed, after such fatigue; and it has, as natural in that mood, given +up the matter in despair. It did not meet Wilhelmina on the road; and +she had left Baireuth;--where it met her, I do not know; probably at +home, on her return, when all was over. Let Wilhelmina now speak her own +lively experiences of that same Friday:-- + +"I got to Berneck at ten. The heat was excessive; I found myself quite +worn out with the little journey I had done. I alighted at the House +which had been got ready for my Brother. We waited for him, and in vain +waited, till three in the afternoon. At three we lost patience; had +dinner served without him. Whilst we were at table, there came on a +frightful thunder-storm. I have witnessed nothing so terrible: the +thunder roared and reverberated among the rocky cliffs which begirdle +Berneck; and it seemed as if the world was going to perish: a deluge of +rain succeeded the thunder. + +"It was four o'clock; and I could not understand what had become of my +Brother. I had sent out several persons on horseback to get tidings of +him, and none of them came back. At length, in spite of all my prayers, +the Hereditary Prince [my excellent Husband] himself would go in search. +I remained waiting till nine at night, and nobody returned. I was in +cruel agitations: these cataracts of rain are very dangerous in the +mountain countries; the roads get suddenly overflowed, and there often +happen misfortunes. I thought for certain, there had one happened to +my Brother or to the Hereditary Prince." Such a 2d of July, to poor +Wilhelmina! + +"At last, about nine, somebody brought word that my Brother had changed +his route, and was gone to Culmbach [a House of ours, lying westward, +known to readers]; there to stay overnight. I was for setting out +thither,--Culmbach is twenty miles from Berneck; but the roads are +frightful," White Mayn, still a young River, dashing through the +rock-labyrinths there, "and full of precipices:--everybody rose in +opposition, and, whether I would or not, they put me into the carriage +for Himmelkron [partly on the road thither], which is only about ten +miles off. We had like to have got drowned on the road; the waters were +so swoln [White Mayn and its angry brooks], the horses could not cross +but by swimming. + +"I arrived at last, about one in the morning. I instantly threw myself +on a bed. I was like to die with weariness; and in mortal terrors that +something had happened to my Brother or the Hereditary Prince. This +latter relieved me on his own score; he arrived at last, about four +o'clock,--had still no news farther of my Brother. I was beginning to +doze a little, when they came to warn me that 'M. von Knobelsdorf wished +to speak with me from the Prince-Royal.' I darted out of bed, and ran to +him. He," handing me a Letter, "brought word that"-- + +But let us now give Letter Second, which has turned up lately, and which +curiously completes the picture here. Friedrich, on rising refreshed +with sleep at Hof, had taken a cheerfuler view; and the Generals still +lagging rearward, he thinks it possible to see Wilhelmina after all. +Possible; and yet so very dangerous,--perhaps not possible? Here is a +second Letter written from Munchberg, some fifteen miles farther on, at +an after period of the same Friday: purport still of a perplexed nature, +"I will, and I dare not;"--practical outcome, of itself uncertain, is +scattered now by torrents and thunderstorms. This is the Letter, which +Knobelsdorf now hands to Wilhelmina at that untimely hour of Saturday:-- + +2. TO PRINCESS WILHELMINA (by Knobelsdorf). + +"MUNCHBERG, 2d July, 1754. + +"MY DEAREST SISTER,--I am in despair that I cannot satisfy my impatience +and my duty,--to throw myself at your feet this day. But alas, dear +Sister, it does not depend on me: we poor Princes, "the Margraves and +I," are obliged to wait here till our Generals [Bredow, Schulenburg and +Company] come up; we dare not go along without them. They broke a wheel +in Gera [fifty miles behind us]; hearing nothing of them since, we are +absolutely forced to wait here. Judge in what a mood I am, and +what sorrow must be mine! Express order not to go by Baireuth or +Anspach:--forbear, dear sister, to torment me on things not depending on +myself at all. + +"I waver between hope and fear of paying my court to you. I hope it +might still be at Berneck," this evening,--"if you could contrive a road +into the Nurnberg Highway again; avoiding Baireuth: otherwise I dare not +go. The Bearer, who is Captain Knobelsdorf [excellent judicious man, old +acquaintance from the Custrin time, who attends upon us, actual Captain +once, but now titular merely, given to architecture and the fine arts +(Seyfarth (Anonymous), _Lebens-und Regierungs-Geschichte Friedrichs +des Andern_ (Leipzig, 1786), ii. 200. _OEuvres de Frederic,_ vii. 33. +Preuss, _Friedrich mit seinen Verwandten_ (Berlin. 1838), pp. 8, 17.)], +will apprise you of every particular: let Knobelsdorf settle something +that may be possible. This is how I stand at present; and instead of +having to expect some favor from the King [after what I have done by his +order], I get nothing but chagrin. But what is crueler upon me than +all, is that you are ill. God, in his grace, be pleased to help you, and +restore the precious health which I so much wish you!... FRIEDRICH." + +[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part lst, p. 15.] + +Judicious Knobelsdorf settles that the meeting is to be this very +morning at eight; Wilhelmina (whose memory a little fails her in the +insignificant points) does not tell us where: but, by faint indications, +I perceive it was in the Lake-House, pleasant Pavilion in the ancient +artificial Lake, or big ornamental Fishpond, called BRANDENBURGER +WEIHER, a couple of miles to the north of Baireuth: there Friedrich is +to stop,--keeping the Paternal Order from the teeth outwards in this +manner. Eight o'clock: so that Wilhelmina is obliged at once to get +upon the road again,--poor Princess, after such a day and night. Her +description of the Interview is very good:-- + +"My Brother overwhelmed me with caresses; but found me in so pitiable +a state, he could not restrain his tears. I was not able to stand on my +limbs; and felt like to faint every moment, so weak was I. He told me +the King was much angered at the Margraf [my Father-in-Law] for not +letting his Son make the Campaign,"--concerning which point, said Son, +my Husband, being Heir-Apparent, there had been much arguing in Court +and Country, here at Baireuth, and endless anxiety on my poor part, lest +he should get killed in the Wars. "I told him all the Margraf's reasons; +and added, that surely they were good, in respect of my dear Husband. +'Well,' said he, 'let him quit soldiering, then, and give back his +regiment to the King. But for the rest, quiet yourself as to the fears +you may have about him if he do go; for I know, by certain information, +that there will be no blood spilt.'--'They are at the Siege of +Philipsburg, however.'--'Yes,' said my Brother, 'but there will not be a +battle risked to hinder it.' + +"The Hereditary Prince," my Husband, "came in while we were talking so; +and earnestly entreated my Brother to get him away from Baireuth. +They went to a window, and talked a long time together. In the end, my +Brother told me he would write a very obliging Letter to the Margraf, +and give him such reasons in favor of the Campaign, that he doubted not +it would turn the scale. 'We will stay together,' said he, addressing +the Hereditary Prince; 'and I shall be charmed to have my dear +Brother always beside me.' He wrote the Letter; gave it to Baron Stein +[Chamberlain or Goldstick of ours], to deliver to the Margraf. He +promised to obtain the King's express leave to stop at Baireuth on his +return;--after which he went away. It was the last time I saw him on +the old footing with me: he has much changed since then!--We returned to +Baireuth; where I was so ill that, for three days, they did not think I +should get over it." [Wilhelmina, ii. 200-202.] + +Crown-Prince dashes off, southwestward, through cross country, into +the Nurnberg Road again; gets to Nurnberg that same Saturday night; and +there, among other Letters, writes the following; which will wind up +this little Incident for us, still in a human manner:-- + +3. TO PRINCESS WILHELMINA AT BAIREUTH. + +"NURNBERG, 3d July, 1734. + +"MY DEAREST (TRES-CHERE) SISTER,--It would be impossible to quit this +place without signifying, dearest Sister, my lively gratitude for all +the marks of favor you showed me in the WEIHERHAUS [House on the Lake, +to-day]. The highest of all that it was possible to do, was that of +procuring me the satisfaction of paying my court to you. I beg millions +of pardons for so putting you about, dearest Sister; but I could not +help it; for you know my sad circumstances well enough. In my great joy, +I forgot to give you the Enclosed. I entreat you, write me often news of +your health! Question the Doctors; and"--and in certain contingencies, +the Crown-Prince "would recommend goat's-milk" for his poor Sister. Had +already, what was noted of him in after life, a tendency to give medical +advice, in cases interesting to him?-- + +"Adieu, my incomparable and dear Sister. I am always the same to you, +and will remain so till my death. + +"FRIEDRICH." + +[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part lst, p. 57.] + +Generals with their wheel mended, Margraves, Prince and now the Camp +Equipage too, are all at Nurnberg; and start on the morrow; hardly +a hundred miles now to be done,--but on slower terms, owing to the +Equipage. Heilbronn, place of arms or central stronghold of the +Reich's-Army, they reach on Monday: about Eppingen, next night, if the +wind is westerly, one may hear the cannon,--not without interest. It was +Wednesday forenoon, 7th July, 1734, on some hill-top coming down from +Eppingen side, that the Prince first saw Philipsburg Siege, blotting +the Rhine Valley yonder with its fire and counter-fire; and the Tents +of Eugene stretching on this side: first view he ever had of the +actualities of war. His account to Papa is so distinct and good, we look +through it almost as at first-hand for a moment:-- + +"CAMP AT WIESENTHAL, Wednesday, 7th July, 1734. + +"MOST ALL-GRACIOUS FATHER,--... We left Nurnberg [nothing said of our +Baireuth affair], 4th early, and did not stop till Heilbronn; where, +along with the Equipage, I arrived on the 5th. Yesterday I came with the +Equipage to Eppingen [twenty miles, a slow march, giving the fourgons +time]; and this morning we came to the Camp at Wiesenthal. I have dined +with General Roder [our Prussian Commander]; and, after dinner, rode +with Prince Eugene while giving the parole. I handed him my All-gracious +Father's Letter, which much rejoiced him. After the parole, I went to +see the relieving of our outposts [change of sentries there], and view +the French retrenchment. + +"We," your Majesty's Contingent, "are throwing up three redoubts: at one +of them today, three musketeers have been miserably shot [GESCHOSSEN, +wounded, not quite killed]; two are of Roder's, and one is of +Finkenstein's regiment. + +"To-morrow I will ride to a village which is on our right wing; +Waghausel is the name of it [Busching, v. 1152.] [some five miles off, +north of us, near by the Rhine]; there is a steeple there, from which +one can see the French Camp; from this point I will ride down, between +the two Lines," French and ours, "to see what they are like. + +"There are quantities of hurdles and fascines being made; which, as I +hear, are to be employed in one of two different plans. The first plan +is, To attack the French retrenchment generally; the ditch which is +before it, and the morass which lies on our left wing, to be made +passable with these fascines. The other plan is, To amuse the Enemy by a +false attack, and throw succor into the Town.--One thing is certain, +in a few days we shall have a stroke of work here. Happen what may, +my All-gracious Father may be assured that" &c., "and that I will do +nothing unworthy of him. + +"FRIEDRICH." + +[_OEuvres,_ xxvii. part 3d, p. 79.] + +Neither of those fine plans took effect; nor did anything take effect, +as we shall see. But in regard to that "survey from the steeple of +Waghausel, and ride home again between the Lines,"--in regard to that, +here is an authentic fraction of anecdote, curiously fitting in, which +should not be omitted. A certain Herr van Suhm, Saxon Minister at +Berlin, occasionally mentioned here, stood in much Correspondence with +the Crown-Prince in the years now following: Correspondence which was +all published at the due distance of time; Suhm having, at his decease, +left the Prince's Letters carefully assorted with that view, and +furnished with a Prefatory "Character of the Prince-Royal _(Portrait +du Prince-Royal, par M. de Suhm)."_ Of which Preface this is a small +paragraph, relating to the Siege of Philipsburg; offering us a momentary +glance into one fibre of the futile War now going on there. Of Suhm, +and how exact he was, we shall know a little by and by. Of "Prince +von Lichtenstein," an Austrian man and soldier of much distinction +afterwards, we have only to say that he came to Berlin next year on +Diplomatic business, and that probably enough he had been eye-witness to +the little fact,--fact credible perhaps without much proving. One rather +regretted there was no date to it, no detail to give it whereabout +and fixity in our conception; that the poor little Anecdote, though +indubitable, had to hang vaguely in the air. Now, however, the above +dated LETTER does, by accident, date Suhm's Anecdote too; date "July 8" +as good as certain for it; the Siege itself having ended (July 18) in +ten days more. Herr von Suhm writes (not for publication till after +Friedrich's death and his own):-- + +"It was remarked in the Rhine Campaign of 1734, that this Prince has a +great deal of intrepidity (BEAUCOUP DE VALEUR). On one occasion, among +others [to all appearance, this very day, "July 8," riding home from +Waghausel between the lines], when he had gone to reconnoitre the Lines +of Philipsburg, with a good many people about him,--passing, on his +return, along a strip of very thin wood, the cannon-shot from the Lines +accompanied him incessantly, and crashed down several trees at his side; +during all which he walked his horse along at the old pace, precisely as +if nothing were happening, nor in his hand upon the bridle was there +the least trace of motion perceptible. Those who gave attention to the +matter remarked, on the contrary, that he did not discontinue speaking +very tranquilly to some Generals who accompanied him; and who admired +his bearing, in a kind of danger with which he had not yet had occasion +to familiarize himself. It is from the Prince von Lichtenstein that I +have this anecdote." [_Correspondance de Frederic II. avec M. de Suhm _ +(Berlin, 1787); Avant-propos, p. xviii. (written 28th April, 1740). The +CORRESPONDANCE is all in _OEuvres de Frederic_ (xvi, 247-408); but the +Suhm Preface not.] + +On the 15th arrived his Majesty in person, with the Old Dessauer, +Buddenbrock, Derschau and a select suite; in hopes of witnessing +remarkable feats of war, now that the crisis of Philipsburg was coming +on. Many Princes were assembled there, in the like hope: Prince of +Orange (honeymoon well ended [Had wedded Princess Anne, George II.'s +eldest, 25th (14th) March, 1734; to the joy of self and mankind, in +England here.]), a vivacious light gentleman, slightly crooked in the +back; Princes of Baden, Darmstadt, Waldeck: all manner of Princes and +distinguished personages, fourscore Princes of them by tale, the eyes of +Europe being turned on this matter, and on old Eugene's guidance of it. +Prince Fred of England, even he had a notion of coming to learn war. + +It was about this time, not many weeks ago, that Fred, now falling into +much discrepancy with his Father, and at a loss for a career to himself, +appeared on a sudden in the Antechamber at St. James's one day; and +solemnly demanded an interview with his Majesty. Which his indignant +Majesty, after some conference with Walpole, decided to grant. Prince +Fred, when admitted, made three demands: 1. To be allowed to go upon +the Rhine Campaign, by way of a temporary career for himself; 2. That +he might have something definite to live upon, a fixed revenue being +suitable in his circumstances; 3. That, after those sad Prussian +disappointments, some suitable Consort might be chosen for him,--heart +and household lying in such waste condition. Poor Fred, who of us knows +what of sense might be in these demands? Few creatures more absurdly +situated are to be found in this world. To go where his equals were, +and learn soldiering a little, might really have been useful. Paternal +Majesty received Fred and his Three Demands with fulminating look; +answered, to the first two, nothing; to the third, about a Consort, +"Yes, you shall; but be respectful to the Queen;--and now off with you; +away!" [Coxe's _Walpole,_ i. 322.] + +Poor Fred, he has a circle of hungry Parliamenteers about him; young +Pitt, a Cornet of Horse, young Lyttelton of Hagley, our old Soissons +friend, not to mention others of worse type; to whom this royal Young +Gentleman, with his vanities, ambitions, inexperiences, plentiful +inflammabilities, is important for exploding Walpole. He may have, and +with great justice I should think, the dim consciousness of talents for +doing something better than "write madrigals" in this world; infinitude +of wishes and appetites he clearly has;--he is full of inflammable +materials, poor youth. And he is the Fireship those older hands make use +of for blowing Walpole and Company out of their anchorage. What a school +of virtue for a young gentleman;--and for the elder ones concerned with +him! He did not get to the Rhine Campaign; nor indeed ever to anything, +except to writing madrigals, and being very futile, dissolute and +miserable with what of talent Nature had given him. Let us pity the poor +constitutional Prince. Our Fritz was only in danger of losing his life; +but what is that, to losing your sanity, personal identity almost, and +becoming Parliamentary Fireship to his Majesty's Opposition? + +Friedrich Wilhelm stayed a month campaigning here; graciously declined +Prince Eugene's invitation to lodge in Headquarters, under a roof and +within built walls; preferred a tent among his own people, and took the +common hardships,--with great hurt to his weak health, as was afterwards +found. + +In these weeks, the big Czarina, who has set a price (100,000 rubles, +say 15,000 pounds) upon the head of poor Stanislaus, hears that his +Prussian Majesty protects him; and thereupon signifies, in high terms, +That she, by her Feld-marschall Munnich, will come across the frontiers +and seize the said Stanislaus. To which his Prussian Majesty answers +positively, though in proper Diplomatic tone, "Madam, I will in no wise +permit it!" Perhaps his Majesty's remarkablest transaction, here on +the Rhine, was this concerning Stanislaus. For Seckendorf the +Feldzeugmeister was here also, on military function, not forgetful of +the Diplomacies; who busily assailed his Majesty, on the Kaiser's part, +in the same direction: "Give up Stanislaus, your Majesty! How ridiculous +(LACHERLICH) to be perhaps ruined for Stanislaus!" But without the least +effect, now or afterwards. + +Poor Stanislaus, in the beginning of July, got across into Preussen, as +we intimated; and there he continued, safe against any amount of +rubles and Feldmarschalls, entreaties and menaces. At Angerburg, on the +Prussian frontier, he found a steadfast veteran, Lieutenant-General von +Katte, Commandant in those parts (Father of a certain poor Lieutenant, +whom we tragically knew of long ago!)--which veteran gentleman received +the Fugitive Majesty, [_Militair-Lexikon,_ ii. 254.] with welcome in the +King's name, and assurances of an honorable asylum till the times and +roads should clear again for his Fugitive Majesty. Fugitive Majesty, +for whom the roads and times were very dark at present, went to +Marienwerder; talked of going "to Pillau, for a sea-passage," of +going to various places; went finally to Konigsberg, and there--with +a considerable Polish Suite of Fugitives, very moneyless, and very +expensive, most of them, who had accumulated about him--set up his +abode. There for almost two years, in fact till this War ended, +the Fugitive Polish Majesty continued; Friedrich Wilhelm punctually +protecting him, and even paying him a small Pension (50 pounds a +month),--France, the least it could do for the Grandfather of France, +allowing a much larger one; larger, though still inadequate. France has +left its Grandfather strangely in the lurch here; with "100,000 rubles +on his head." But Friedrich Wilhelm knows the sacred rites, and will +do them; continues deaf as a door-post alike to the menaces and the +entreaties of Kaiser and Czarina; strictly intimating to Munnich, what +the Laws of Neutrality are, and that they must be observed. Which, by +his Majesty's good arrangements, Munnich, willing enough to the contrary +had it been feasible, found himself obliged to comply with. Prussian +Majesty, like a King and a gentleman, would listen to no terms about +dismissing or delivering up, or otherwise, failing in the sacred rites +to Stanislaus; but honorably kept him there till the times and routes +cleared themselves again. [Forster, ii. 132, 134-136.] A plain piece +of duty; punctually done: the beginning of it falls here in the Camp at +Philipsburg, July-August 1734; in May, 1736, we shall see some glimpse +of the end!-- + +His Prussian Majesty in Camp at Philipsburg--so distinguished a +volunteer, doing us the honor to encamp here--"was asked to all the +Councils-of-war that were held," say the Books. And he did attend, the +Crown-Prince and he, on important occasions: but, alas, there was, so to +speak, nothing to be consulted of. Fascines and hurdles lay useless; +no attempt was made to relieve Philipsburg. On the third day after his +Majesty's arrival, July 18th, Philipsburg, after a stiff defence of +six weeks, growing hopeless of relief, had to surrender;--French then +proceeded to repair Philipsburg, no attempt on Eugene's part to molest +them there. If they try ulterior operations on this side the River, he +counter-tries; and that is all. + +Our Crown-Prince, somewhat of a judge in after years, is maturely of +opinion, That the French Lines were by no means inexpugnable; that the +French Army might have been ruined under an attack of the proper kind. +[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ i. 167.] Their position was bad; no room to +unfold themselves for fight, except with the Town's cannon playing on +them all the while; only one Bridge to get across by, in case of coming +to the worse: defeat of them probable, and ruin to them inevitable +in case of defeat. But Prince Eugene, with an Army little to his mind +(Reich's-Contingents not to be depended on, thought Eugene), durst not +venture: "Seventeen victorious Battles, and if we should be defeated in +the eighteenth and last?" + +It is probable the Old Dessauer, had he been Generalissimo, with this +same Army,--in which, even in the Reich's part of it, we know ten +thousand of an effective character,--would have done some stroke upon +the French; but Prince Eugene would not try. Much dimmed from his former +self this old hero; age now 73;--a good deal wearied with the long march +through Time. And this very Summer, his Brother's Son, the last male +of his House, had suddenly died of inflammatory fever; left the old man +very mournful: "Alone, alone, at the end of one's long march; laurels +have no fruit, then?" He stood cautious, on the defensive; and in this +capacity is admitted to have shown skilful management. + +But Philipsburg being taken, there is no longer the least event to be +spoken of; the Campaign passed into a series of advancings, retreatings, +facing, and then right-about facings,--painful manoeuvrings, on both +sides of the Rhine and of the Neckar,--without result farther to the +French, without memorability to either side. About the middle of August, +Friedrich Wilhelm went away;--health much hurt by his month under +canvas, amid Rhine inundations, and mere distressing phenomena. +Crown-Prince Friedrich and a select party escorted his Majesty to Mainz, +where was a Dinner of unusual sublimity by the Kurfurst there; [15th +August (Fassmann, p. 511.)]--Dinner done, his Majesty stept on board +"the Electoral Yacht;" and in this fine hospitable vehicle went +sweeping through the Binger Loch, rapidly down towards Wesel; and the +Crown-Prince and party returned to their Camp, which is upon the Neckar +at this time. + +Camp shifts about, and Crown-Prince in it: to Heidelberg, to Waiblingen, +Weinheim; close to Mainz at one time: but it is not worth following: nor +in Friedrich's own Letters, or in other documents, is there, on the +best examination, anything considerable to be gleaned respecting his +procedures there. He hears of the ill-success in Italy, Battle of Parma +at the due date, with the natural feelings; speaks with a sorrowful +gayety, of the muddy fatigues, futilities here on the Rhine;--has the +sense, however, not to blame his superiors unreasonably. Here, from +one of his Letters to Colonel Camas, is a passage worth quoting for the +credit of the writer. With Camas, a distinguished Prussian Frenchman, +whom we mentioned elsewhere, still more with Madame Camas in time +coming, he corresponded much, often in a fine filial manner:-- + +"The present Campaign is a school, where profit may be reaped from +observing the confusion and disorder which reigns in this Army: it has +been a field very barren in laurels; and those who have been used, all +their life, to gather such, and on Seventeen distinguished occasions +have done so, can get none this time." Next year, we all hope to be on +the Moselle, and to find that a fruitfuler field... "I am afraid, dear +Camas, you think I am going to put on the cothurnus; to set up for a +small Eugene, and, pronouncing with a doctoral tone what each should +have done and not have done, condemn and blame to right and left. No, my +dear Camas; far from carrying my arrogance to that point, I admire +the conduct of our Chief, and do not disapprove that of his worthy +Adversary; and far from forgetting the esteem and consideration due to +persons who, scarred with wounds, have by years and long service gained +a consummate experience, I shall hear them more willingly than ever as +my teachers, and try to learn from them how to arrive at honor, and +what is the shortest road into the secret of this Profession." ["Camp at +Heidelberg, 11th September, 1734" (_OEuvres,_ xvi. 131).] + +This other, to Lieutenant Groben, three weeks earlier in date, shows +us a different aspect; which is at least equally authentic; and may +be worth taking with us. Groben is Lieutenant,--I suppose still of the +Regiment Goltz, though he is left there behind;--at any rate, he is much +a familiar with the Prince at Ruppin; was ringleader, it is thought, +in those midnight pranks upon parsons, and the other escapades there; +[Busching, v. 20.] a merry man, eight years older than the Prince,--with +whom it is clear enough he stands on a very free footing. Philipsburg +was lost a month ago; French are busy repairing it; and manoeuvring, +with no effect, to get into the interior of Germany a little. Weinheim +is a little Town on the north side of the Neckar, a dozen miles or so +from Mannheim;--out of which, and into which, the Prussian Corps goes +shifting from time to time, as Prince Eugene and the French manoeuvre to +no purpose in that Rhine-Neckar Country. "HERDEK TEREMTETEM" it appears, +is a bit of Hungarian swearing; should be ORDEK TEREMTETE; and means +"The Devil made you!" + + +[MAP GOES HERE------missing] + + +"WEINHEIM, 17th August, 1734. + +"HERDEK TEREMTETE! 'Went with them, got hanged with them,' +[_"Mitgegangen mitgehangen:"_ Letter is in German.] said the Bielefeld +Innkeeper! So will it be with me, poor devil; for I go dawdling about +with this Army here; and the French will have the better of us. We want +to be over the Neckar again [to the South or Philipsburg side], and the +rogues won't let us. What most provokes me in the matter is, that +while we are here in such a wilderness of trouble, doing our utmost, by +military labors and endurances, to make ourselves heroic, thou sittest, +thou devil, at home! + +"Duc de Bouillon has lost his equipage; our Hussars took it at Landau +[other side the Rhine, a while ago]. Here we stand in mud to the ears; +fifteen of the Regiment Alt-Baden have sunk altogether in the mud. Mud +comes of a water-spout, or sudden cataract of rain, there was in these +Heidelberg Countries; two villages, Fuhrenheim and Sandhausen, it swam +away, every stick of them (GANZ UND GAR). + +"Captain van Stojentin, of Regiment Flans," one of our eight Regiments +here, "has got wounded in the head, in an affair of honor; he is still +alive, and it is hoped he will get through it. + +"The Drill-Demon has now got into the Kaiser's people too: Prince Eugene +is grown heavier with his drills than we ourselves. He is often three +hours at it;--and the Kaiser's people curse us for the same, at a +frightful rate. Adieu. If the Devil don't get thee, he ought. Therefore +VALE. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 3d, p. 181.] + +"FRIEDRICH." + +No laurels to be gained here; but plenty of mud, and laborious +hardship,--met, as we perceive, with youthful stoicism, of the derisive, +and perhaps of better forms. Friedrich is twenty-two and some months, +when he makes his first Campaign. The general physiognomy of his +behavior in it we have to guess from these few indications. No doubt +he profited by it, on the military side; and would study with quite new +light and vivacity after such contact with the fact studied of. Very +didactic to witness even "the confusions of this Army," and what comes +of them to Armies! For the rest, the society of Eugene, Lichtenstein, +and so many Princes of the Reich, and Chiefs of existing mankind, could +not but be entertaining to the young man; and silently, if he wished +to read the actual Time, as sure enough he, with human and with royal +eagerness, did wish,--they were here as the ALPHABET of it to him: +important for years coming. Nay it is not doubted, the insight he here +got into the condition of the Austrian Army and its management--"Army +left seven days without bread," for one instance--gave him afterwards +the highly important notion, that such Army could be beaten if +necessary!-- + +Wilhelmina says, his chief comrade was Margraf Heinrich;--the ILL +Margraf; who was cut by Friedrich, in after years, for some unknown bad +behavior. Margraf Heinrich "led him into all manner of excesses," says +Wilhelmina,--probably in the language of exaggeration. He himself tells +her, in one of his LETTERS, a day or two before Papa's departure: "The +Camp is soon to be close on Mainz, nothing but the Rhine between Mainz +and our right wing, where my place is; and so soon as Serenissimus goes +[LE SERENISSIME, so he irreverently names Papa], I mean to be across +for some sport," [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 1st, p. 17 (10th +August).]--no doubt the Ill Margraf with me! With the Elder Margraf, +little Sophie's Betrothed, whom he called "big clown" in a Letter we +read, he is at this date in open quarrel,--"BROUILLE A TOUTE OUTRANCE +with the mad Son-in-law, who is the wildest wild-beast of all this +Camp." [Ibid.] + +Wilhelmina's Husband had come, in the beginning of August; but was not +so happy as he expected. Considerably cut out by the Ill Heinrich. Here +is a small adventure they had; mentioned by Friedrich, and copiously +recorded by Wilhelmina: adventure on some River,--which we could guess, +if it were worth guessing, to have been the Neckar, not the Rhine. +French had a fortified post on the farther side of this River; +Crown-Prince, Ill Margraf, and Wilhelmina's Husband were quietly looking +about them, riding up the other side: Wilhelmina's Husband decided to +take a pencil-drawing of the French post, and paused for that object. +Drawing was proceeding unmolested, when his foolish Baireuth Hussar, +having an excellent rifle (ARQUEBUSE RAYEE) with him, took it into his +head to have a shot at the French sentries at long range. His shot +hit nothing; but it awakened the French animosity, as was natural; the +French began diligently firing; and might easily have done mischief. +My Husband, volleying out some rebuke upon the blockhead of a Hussar, +finished his drawing, in spite of the French bullets; then rode up to +the Crown-Prince and Ill Margraf, who had got their share of what was +going, and were in no good-humor with him. Ill Margraf rounded things +into the Crown-Prince's ear, in an unmannerly way, with glances at +my Husband;--who understood it well enough; and promptly coerced such +ill-bred procedures, intimating, in a polite impressive way, that they +would be dangerous if persisted in. Which reduced the Ill Margraf to a +spiteful but silent condition. No other harm was done at that time; the +French bullets all went awry, or "even fell short, being sucked in by +the river," thinks Wilhelmina. [Wilhelmina, ii. 208, 209; _OEuvres de +Frederic,_ xxvii. part 1st, p. 19.] + +A more important feature of the Crown-Prince's life in these latter +weeks is the news he gets of his father. Friedrich Wilhelm, after +quitting the Electoral Yacht, did his reviewing at Wesel, at Bielefeld, +all his reviewing in those Rhine and Weser Countries; then turned aside +to pay a promised visit to Ginkel the Berlin Dutch Ambassador, who has +a fine House in those parts; and there his Majesty has fallen seriously +ill. Obliged to pause at Ginkel's, and then at his own Schloss of +Moyland, for some time; does not reach Potsdam till the 14th September, +and then in a weak, worsening, and altogether dangerous condition, +which lasts for months to come. [Fassmann, pp. 512-533: September, +1734-January, 1735.] Wrecks of gout, they say, and of all manner of +nosological mischief; falling to dropsy. Case desperate, think all the +Newspapers, in a cautious form; which is Friedrich Wilhelm's own opinion +pretty much, and that of those better informed. Here are thoughts for a +Crown-Prince; well affected to his Father, yet suffering much from him +which is grievous. To by-standers, one now makes a different figure: +"A Crown-Prince, who may be King one of these days,--whom a little +adulation were well spent upon!" From within and from without come +agitating influences; thoughts which must be rigorously repressed, and +which are not wholly repressible. The soldiering Crown-Prince, from +about the end of September, for the last week or two of this Campaign, +is secretly no longer quite the same to himself or to others. + + + + +GLIMPSE OF LIEUTENANT CHASOT, AND OF OTHER ACQUISITIONS. + +We have still two little points to specify, or to bring up from the +rearward whither they are fallen, in regard to this Campaign. After +which the wearisome Campaign shall terminate; Crown-Prince leading his +Ten Thousand to Frankfurt, towards their winter-quarters in Westphalia; +and then himself running across from Frankfurt (October 5th), to see +Wilhelmina for a day or two on the way homewards:--with much pleasure to +all parties, my readers and me included! + +FIRST point is, That, some time in this Campaign, probably towards the +end of it, the Crown-Prince, Old Dessauer and some others with them, +"procured passports," went across, and "saw the French Camp," and +what new phenomena were in it for them. Where, when, how, or with what +impression left on either side, we do not learn. It was not much of +a Camp for military admiration, this of the French. [_Memoires de +Noailles_ (passim).] There were old soldiers of distinction in it here +and there; a few young soldiers diligently studious of their art; and a +great many young fops of high birth and high ways, strutting about "in +red-heeled shoes," with "Commissions got from Court" for this War, +and nothing of the soldier but the epaulettes and plumages,--apt to be +"insolent" among their poorer comrades. From all parties, young and old, +even from that insolent red-heel party, nothing but the highest finish +of politeness could be visible on this particular occasion. Doubtless +all passed in the usual satisfactory manner; and the Crown-Prince got +his pleasant excursion, and materials, more or less, for after thought +and comparison. But as there is nothing whatever of it on record for us +but the bare fact, we leave it to the reader's imagination,--fact being +indubitable, and details not inconceivable to lively readers. Among the +French dignitaries doing the honors of their Camp on this occasion, he +was struck by the General's Adjutant, a "Count de Rottembourg" (properly +VON ROTHENBURG, of German birth, kinsman to the Rothenburg whom we +have seen as French Ambassador at Berlin long since); a promising young +soldier; whom he did not lose sight of again, but acquired in due time +to his own service, and found to be of eminent worth there. A Count von +Schmettau, two Brothers von Schmettau, here in the Austrian service; +superior men, Prussian by birth, and very fit to be acquired by and +by; these the Crown-Prince had already noticed in this Rhine +Campaign,--having always his eyes open to phenomena of that kind. + +The SECOND little point is of date perhaps two months anterior to that +of the French Camp; and is marked sufficiently in this Excerpt from our +confused manuscripts. + +Before quitting Philipsburg, there befell one slight adventure, which, +though it seemed to be nothing, is worth recording here. One day, date +not given, a young French Officer, of ingenuous prepossessing look, +though much flurried at the moment, came across as involuntary deserter; +flying from a great peril in his own camp. The name of him is Chasot, +Lieutenant of such and such a Regiment: "Take me to Prince Eugene!" he +entreats, which is done. Peril was this: A high young gentleman, one of +those fops in red heels, ignorant, and capable of insolence to a poorer +comrade of studious turn, had fixed a duel upon Chasot. Chasot ran him +through, in fair duel; dead, and is thought to have deserved it. "But +Duc de Boufflers is his kinsman: run, or you are lost!" cried everybody. +The Officers of his Regiment hastily redacted some certificate for +Chasot, hastily signed it; and Chasot ran, scarcely waiting to pack his +baggage. + +"Will not your Serene Highness protect me?"--"Certainly!" said +Eugene;--gave Chasot a lodging among his own people; and appointed one +of them, Herr Brender by name, to show him about, and teach him the +nature of his new quarters. Chasot, a brisk, ingenuous young fellow, +soon became a favorite; eager to be useful where possible; and very +pleasant in discourse, said everybody. + +By and by,--still at Philipsburg, as would seem, though it is not +said,--the Crown-Prince heard of Chasot; asked Brender to bring him +over. Here is Chasot's own account: through which, as through a small +eyelet-hole, we peep once more, and for the last time, direct into the +Crown-Prince's Campaign-life on this occasion:-- + +"Next morning, at ten o'clock the appointed hour, Brender having ordered +out one of his horses for me, I accompanied him to the Prince; who +received us in his Tent,--behind which he had, hollowed out to the depth +of three or four feet, a large Dining-room, with windows, and a roof," I +hope of good height, "thatched with straw. His Royal Highness, after two +hours' conversation, in which he had put a hundred questions to me [a +Prince desirous of knowing the facts], dismissed us; and at parting, +bade me return often to him in the evenings. + +"It was in this Dining-room, at the end of a great dinner, the day +after next, that the Prussian guard introduced a Trumpet from Monsieur +d'Asfeld [French Commander-in-Chief since Berwick's death], with my +three horses, sent over from the French Army. Prince Eugene, who was +present, and in good humor, said, 'We must sell those horses, they don't +speak German; Brender will take care to mount you some way or other.' +Prinoe Lichtenstein immediately put a price on my horses; and they were +sold on the spot at three times their worth. The Prince of Orange, +who was of this Dinner [slightly crook-backed witty gentleman, English +honeymoon well over], said to me in a half-whisper, 'Monsieur, there is +nothing like selling horses to people who have dined well.' + +"After this sale, I found myself richer than I had ever been in my life. +The Prince-Royal sent me, almost daily, a groom and led horse, that I +might come to him, and sometimes follow him in his excursions. At last, +he had it proposed to me, by M. de Brender, and even by Prince Eugene, +to accompany him to Berlin." Which, of course, I did; taking Ruppin +first. "I arrived at Berlin from Ruppin, in 1734, two days after the +marriage of Friedrich Wilhelm Margraf of Schwedt [Ill Margraf's +elder Brother, wildest wild-beast of this camp] with the Princess +Sophie,"--that is to say, 12th of November; Marriage having been on the +10th, as the Books teach us. Chasot remembers that, on the 14th, "the +Crown-Prince gave, in his Berlin mansion, a dinner to all the Royal +Family," in honor of that auspicious wedding. [Kurd vou Schlozer, _ +Chasot_ (Berlin, 1856), pp. 20-22. A pleasant little Book; tolerably +accurate, and of very readable quality.] + +Thus is Chasot established with the Crown-Prince. He will turn up +fighting well in subsequent parts of this History; and again duelling +fatally, though nothing of a quarrelsome man, as he asserts. + + + + +CROWN-PRINCE'S VISIT TO BAIREUTH ON THE WAY HOME. + +October 4th, the Crown-Prince has parted with Prince Eugene,--not to +meet again in this world; "an old hero gone to the shadow of himself," +says the Crown-Prince; [_OEuvres (Memoires de Brandebourg),_ i. +167.]--and is giving his Prussian War-Captains a farewell dinner at +Frankfurt-on-Mayn; having himself led the Ten Thousand so far, towards +Winter-quarters, and handing them over now to their usual commanders. +They are to winter in Westphalia, these Ten Thousand, in the +Paderborn-Munster Country; where they are nothing like welcome to the +Ruling Powers; nor are intended to be so,--Kur-Koln (proprietor there) +and his Brother of Bavaria having openly French leanings. The Prussian +Ten Thousand will have to help themselves to the essential, therefore, +without welcome;--and things are not pleasant. And the Ruling Powers, +by protocolling, still more the Commonalty if it try at mobbing, ["28th +March, 1735" (Fassmann, p. 547); Buchholz, i. 136.] can only make them +worse. Indeed it is said the Ten Thousand, though their bearing was so +perfect otherwise, generally behaved rather ill in their marches +over Germany, during this War,--and always worst, it was remarked by +observant persons, in the countries (Bamberg and Wurzburg, for instance) +where their officers had in past years been in recruiting troubles. +Whereby observant persons explained the phenomenon to themselves. But +we omit all that; our concern lying elsewhere. "Directly after dinner at +Frankfurt," the Crown-Prince drives off, rapidly as his wont is, +towards Baireuth. He arrives there on the morrow; "October 5th," says +Wilhelmina,--who again illuminates him to us, though with oblique +lights, for an instant. + +Wilhelmina was in low spirits:--weak health; add funeral of the Prince +of Culmbach (killed in the Battle of Parma), illness of Papa, and other +sombre events:--and was by no means content with the Crown-Prince, on +this occasion. Strangely altered since we met him in July last! It may +be, the Crown-Prince, looking, with an airy buoyancy of mind, towards a +certain Event probably near, has got his young head inflated a little, +and carries himself with a height new to this beloved Sister;--but +probably the sad humor of the Princess herself has a good deal to do +with it. Alas, the contrast between a heart knowing secretly its own +bitterness, and a friend's heart conscious of joy and triumph, is harsh +and shocking to the former of the two! Here is the Princess's account; +with the subtrahend, twenty-five or seventy-five per cent, not deducted +from it:-- + +"My Brother arrived, the 5th of October. He seemed to me put out +(DECONTENANCE); and to break off conversation with me, he said he had to +write to the King and Queen. I ordered him pen and paper. He wrote in my +room; and spent more than a good hour in writing a couple of Letters, +of a line or two each. He then had all the Court, one after the other, +introduced to him; said nothing to any of them, looked merely with a +mocking air at them; after which we went to dinner. + +"Here his whole conversation consisted in quizzing (TURLUPINER) whatever +he saw; and repeating to me, above a hundred times over, the words +'little Prince,' 'little Court.' I was shocked; and could not understand +how he had changed so suddenly towards me. The etiquette of all Courts +in the Empire is, that nobody who has not at the least the rank of +Captain can sit at a Prince's table: my Brother put a Lieutenant there, +who was in his suite; saying to me, 'A King's Lieutenants are as good as +a Margraf's Ministers.' I swallowed this incivility, and showed no sign. + +"After dinner, being alone with me, he said,"--turning up the flippant +side of his thoughts, truly, in a questionable way:--"'Our Sire is going +to end (TIRE A SA FIN); he will not live out this month. I know I have +made you great promises; but I am not in a condition to keep them. +I will give you up the Half of the sum which the late King [our +Grandfather] lent you; [Supra, pp. 161, 162.] I think you will have +every reason to be satisfied with that.' I answered, That my regard +for him had never been of an interested nature; that I would never ask +anything of him, but the continuance of his friendship; and did not wish +one sou, if it would in the least inconvenience him. 'No, no,' said +he, 'you shall have those 100,000 thalers; I have destined them for +you.--People will be much surprised,' continued he, 'to see me act quite +differently from what they had expected. They imagine I am going to +lavish all my treasures, and that money will become as common as pebbles +at Berlin: but they will find I know better. I mean to increase my Army, +and to leave all other things on the old footing. I will have every +consideration for the Queen my Mother, and will sate her (RASSASIERAI) +with honors; but I do not mean that she shall meddle in my affairs; and +if she try it, she will find so.'" What a speech; what an outbreak of +candor in the young man, preoccupied with his own great thoughts and +difficulties,--to the exclusion of any other person's! + +"I fell from the clouds, on hearing all that; and knew not if I was +sleeping or waking. He then questioned me on the affairs of this +Country. I gave him the detail of them. He said to me: 'When your goose +(BENET) of a Father-in-law dies, I advise you to break up the whole +Court, and reduce yourselves to the footing of a private gentleman's +establishment, in order to pay your debts. In real truth, you have no +need of so many people; and you must try also to reduce the wages of +those whom you cannot help keeping. You have been accustomed to live +at Berlin with a table of four dishes; that is all you want here: and +I will invite you now and then to Berlin; which will spare table and +housekeeping.' + +"For a long while my heart had been getting big; I could not restrain my +tears, at hearing all these indignities. 'Why do you cry?' said he: 'Ah, +ah, you are in low spirits, I see. We must dissipate that dark humor. +The music waits us; I will drive that fit out of you by an air or two on +the flute.' He gave me his hand, and led me into the other room. I sat +down to the harpsichord; which I inundated (INONDAI) with my tears. +Marwitz [my artful Demoiselle d'Atours, perhaps too artful in time +coming] placed herself opposite me, so as to hide from the others what +disorder I was in." [Wilhelmina, ii. 216-218.] + +For the last two days of the visit, Wilhelmina admits, her Brother was a +little kinder. But on the fourth day there came, by estafette, a Letter +from the Queen, conjuring him to return without delay, the King growing +worse and worse. Wilhelmina, who loved her Father, and whose outlooks in +case of his decease appeared to be so little flattering, was overwhelmed +with sorrow. Of her Brother, however, she strove to forget that strange +outbreak of candor; and parted with him as if all were mended between +them again. Nay, the day after his departure, there goes a beautifully +affectionate Letter to him; which we could give, if there were room: +[_OEuvres,_ xxvii. part 1st, p. 23.] "the happiest time I ever in my +life had;" "my heart so full of gratitude and so sensibly touched;" +"every one repeating the words 'dear Brother' and 'charming +Prince-Royal:'"--a Letter in very lively contrast to what we have just +been reading. A Prince-Royal not without charm, in spite of the hard +practicalities he is meditating, obliged to meditate!-- + +As to the outbreak of candor, offensive to Wilhelmina and us, we suppose +her report of it to be in substance true, though of exaggerated, +perhaps perverted tone; and it is worth the reader's note, with these +deductions. The truth is, our charming Princess is always liable to +a certain subtrahend. In 1744, when she wrote those _Memoires,_ "in +a Summer-house at Baireuth," her Brother and she, owing mainly to +go-betweens acting on the susceptible female heart, were again in +temporary quarrel (the longest and worst they ever had), and hardly on +speaking terms; which of itself made her heart very heavy;--not to +say that Marwitz, the too artful Demoiselle, seemed to have stolen her +Husband's affections from the poor Princess, and made the world look +all a little grim to her. These circumstances have given their color to +parts of her Narrative, and are not to be forgotten by readers. + +The Crown-Prince--who goes by Dessau, lodging for a night with the Old +Dessauer, and writes affectionately to his Sister from that place, their +Letters crossing on the road--gets home on the 12th to Potsdam. October +12th, 1734, he has ended his Rhine Campaign, in that manner;--and +sees his poor Father, with a great many other feelings besides those +expressed in the dialogue at Baireuth. + + + + +Chapter XI. -- IN PAPA'S SICK-ROOM; PRUSSIAN INSPECTIONS: END OF WAR. + +It appears, Friedrich met a cordial reception in the sickroom at +Potsdam; and, in spite of his levities to Wilhelmina, was struck to +the heart by what he saw there. For months to come, he seems to be +continually running between Potsdam and Ruppin, eager to minister to his +sick Father, when military leave is procurable. Other fact, about him, +other aspect of him, in those months, is not on record for us. + +Of his young Madam, or Princess-Royal, peaceably resident at Berlin or +at Schonhausen, and doing the vacant officialities, formal visitings +and the like, we hear nothing; of Queen Sophie and the others, nothing: +anxious, all of them, no doubt, about the event at Potsdam, and +otherwise silent to us. His Majesty's illness comes and goes; now +hope, and again almost none. Margraf of Schwedt and his young Bride, we +already know, were married in November; and Lieutenant Chasot (two days +old in Berlin) told us, there was Dinner by the Crown-Prince to all the +Royal Family on that occasion;--poor Majesty out at Potsdam languishing +in the background, meanwhile. + +His Carnival the Crown-Prince passes naturally at Berlin. We find he +takes a good deal to the French Ambassador, one Marquis de la Chetardie; +a showy restless character, of fame in the Gazettes of that time; who +did much intriguing at Petersburg some years hence, first in a signally +triumphant way, and then in a signally untriumphant; and is not now +worth any knowledge but a transient accidental one. Chetardie came +hither about Stanislaus and his affairs; tried hard, but in vain, to +tempt Friedrich Wilhelm into interference;--is naturally anxious to +captivate the Crown-Prince, in present circumstances. + +Friedrich Wilhelm lay at Potsdam, between death and life, for almost +four months to come; the Newspapers speculating much on his situation; +political people extremely anxious what would become of him,--or in +fact, when he would die; for that was considered the likely issue. +Fassmann gives dolorous clippings from the _Leyden Gazette,_ all in a +blubber of tears, according to the then fashion, but full of impertinent +curiosity withal. And from the Seckendorf private Papers there are +Extracts of a still more inquisitive and notable character: Seckendorf +and the Kaiser having an intense interest in this painful occurrence. + +Seckendorf is not now himself at Berlin; but running much about, on +other errands; can only see Friedrich Wilhelm, if at all, in a passing +way. And even this will soon cease;--and in fact, to us it is by far +the most excellent result of this French-Austrian War, that it carries +Seckendorf clear away; who now quits Berlin and the Diplomatic line, and +obligingly goes out of our sight henceforth. The old Ordnance-Master, +as an Imperial General of rank, is needed now for War-Service, if he has +any skill that way. In those late months, he was duly in attendance at +Philipsburg and the Rhine-Campaign, in a subaltern torpid capacity, like +Brunswick-Bevern and the others; ready for work, had there been any: +but next season, he expects to have a Division of his own, and to do +something considerable.--In regard to Berlin and the Diplomacies, he has +appointed a Nephew of his, a Seckendorf Junior, to take his place there; +to keep the old machinery in gear, if nothing more; and furnish +copious reports during the present crisis. These Reports of Seckendorf +Junior--full of eavesdroppings, got from a KAMMERMOHR (Nigger Lackey), +who waits in the sick-room at Potsdam, and is sensible to bribes--have +been printed; and we mean to glance slightly into them. But as to +Seckendorf Senior, readers can entertain the fixed hope that they have +at length done with him; that, in these our premises, we shall never +see him again;--nay shall see him, on extraneous dim fields, far enough +away, smarting and suffering, till even we are almost sorry for the old +knave!-- + +Friedrich Wilhelm's own prevailing opinion is, that he cannot recover. +His bodily sufferings are great: dropsically swollen, sometimes like to +be choked: no bed that he can bear to lie on;--oftenest rolls about in a +Bath-chair; very heavy-laden indeed; and I think of tenderer humor than +in former sicknesses. To the Old Dessauer he writes, few days after +getting home to Potsdam: "I am ready to quit the world, as Your +Dilection knows, and has various times heard me say. One ship sails +faster, another slower; but they come all to one haven. Let it be with +me, then, as the Most High has determined for me." [Orlich, _Geschichte +der Schlesischen Kriege_ (Berlin, 1841), i. 14. "From the Dessau +Archives; date, 21st September, 1734."] He has settled his affairs, +Fassmann says, so far as possible; settled the order of his funeral, How +he is to be buried, in the Garrison Church of Potsdam, without pomp or +fuss, like a Prussian Soldier; and what regiment or regiments it is that +are to do the triple volley over him, by way of finis and long farewell. +His soul's interests too,--we need not doubt he is in deep conference, +in deep consideration about these; though nothing is said on that point. +A serious man always, much feeling what immense facts he was surrounded +with; and here is now the summing up of all facts. Occasionally, again, +he has hopes; orders up "two hundred of his Potsdam Giants to march +through the sick-room," since he cannot get out to them; or old +Generals, Buddenbrock, Waldau, come and take their pipe there, in +reminiscence of a Tabagie. Here, direct from the fountain-head, or +Nigger Lackey bribed by Seckendorf Junior, is a notice or two:-- + +"POTSDAM, SEPTEMBER 30th, 1734. Yesterday, for half an hour, the King +could get no breath: he keeps them continually rolling him about" in his +Bath-chair, "over the room, and cries 'LUFT, LUFT (Air, air)!' + +"OCTOBER 2d. The King is not going to die just yet; but will scarcely +see Christmas. He gets on his clothes; argues with the Doctors, is +impatient; won't have people speak of his illness;--is quite black in +the face; drinks nothing but MOLL [which we suppose to be small bitter +beer], takes physic, writes in bed. + +"OCTOBER 5th. The Nigger tells me things are better. The King begins to +bring up phlegm; drinks a great deal of oatmeal water [HAFERGRUTZWASSER, +comfortable to the sick]; says to the Nigger: 'Pray diligently, all of +you; perhaps I shall not die!'" + +October 5th: this is the day the Crown-Prince arrives at Baireuth; to +be called away by express four days after. How valuable, at Vienna +or elsewhere, our dark friend the Lackey's medical opinion is, may +be gathered from this other Entry, three weeks farther on,--enough to +suffice us on that head:-- + +"The Nigger tells me he has a bad opinion of the King's health. If you +roll the King a little fast in his Bath-chair, you hear the water jumble +in his body,"--with astonishment! "King gets into passions; has beaten +the pages [may we hope, our dark friend among the rest?], so that it was +feared apoplexy would take him." + +This will suffice for the physiological part; let us now hear our poor +friend on the Crown-Prince and his arrival:-- + +"OCTOBER 12th. Return of the Prince-Royal to Potsdam; tender +reception.--OCTOBER 21st. Things look ill in Potsdam. The other leg is +now also begun running; and above a quart (MAAS) of water has come from +it. Without a miracle, the King cannot live,"--thinks our dark friend. +"The Prince-Royal is truly affected (VERITABLEMENT ATTENDRI) at the +King's situation; has his eyes full of water, has wept the eyes out of +his head: has schemed in all ways to contrive a commodious bed for the +King; wouldn't go away from Potsdam. King forced him away; he is to +return Saturday afternoon. The Prince-Royal has been heard to say, 'If +the King will let me live in my own way, I would give an arm to lengthen +his life for twenty years.' King always calls him Fritzchen. But +Fritzchen," thinks Seckendorf Junior, "knows nothing about business. The +King is aware of it; and said in the face of him one day: 'If thou begin +at the wrong end with things, and all go topsy-turvy after I am gone, +I will laugh at thee out of my grave!'" [Seckendorf (BARON), _Journal +Secret;_ cited in Forster, ii. 142.] + +So Friedrich Wilhelm; laboring amid the mortal quicksands; looking into +the Inevitable, in various moods. But the memorablest speech he made to +Fritzchen or to anybody at present, was that covert one about the Kaiser +and Seckendorf, and the sudden flash of insight he got, from some word +of Seckendorf's, into what they had been meaning with him all along. +Riding through the village of Priort, in debate about Vienna politics +of a strange nature, Seckendorf said something, which illuminated his +Majesty, dark for so many years, and showed him where he was. A ghastly +horror of a country, yawning indisputable there; revealed to one as if +by momentary lightning, in that manner! This is a speech which all the +ambassadors report, and which was already mentioned by us,--in reference +to that opprobrious Proposal about the Crown-Prince's Marriage, "Marry +with England, after all; never mind breaking your word!" Here is the +manner of it, with time and place:-- + +"Sunday last," Sunday, 17th October, 1734, reports Seckendorf, Junior, +through the Nigger or some better witness, "the King said to the +Prince-Royal: 'My dear Son, I tell thee I got my death at Priort. I +entreat thee, above all things in the world, don't trust those people +(DENEN LEUTEN), however many promises they make. That day, it was April +17th, 1733, there was a man said something to me: it was as if you +had turned a dagger round in my heart.'" [Seckendorf (BARON), _Journal +Secret;_ cited in Forster, ii. 142.]-- + +Figure that, spoken from amid the dark sick whirlpools, the mortal +quicksands, in Friedrich Wilhelm's voice, clangorously plaintive; what a +wild sincerity, almost pathos, is in it; and whether Fritzchen, with +his eyes all bewept even for what Papa had suffered in that matter, felt +lively gratitudes to the House of Austria at this moment!-- + +It was four months after, "21st January, 1735," [Fassmann, p. 533.] when +the King first got back to Berlin, to enlighten the eyes of the Carnival +a little, as his wont had been. The crisis of his Majesty's illness is +over, present danger gone; and the Carnival people, not without some +real gladness, though probably with less than they pretend, can report +him well again. Which is far from being the fact, if they knew it. +Friedrich Wilhelm is on his feet again; but he never more was well. Nor +has he forgotten that word at Priort, "like the turning of a dagger in +one's heart;"--and indeed gets himself continually reminded of it by +practical commentaries from the Vienna Quarter. + +In April, Prince Lichtenstein arrives on Embassy with three requests or +demands from Vienna: "1. That, besides the Ten Thousand due by Treaty, +his Majesty would send his Reich's Contingent," NOT comprehended in +those Ten Thousand, thinks the Kaiser. "2. That he would have the +goodness to dismiss Marquis de la Chetardie the French Ambassador, as +a plainly superfluous person at a well-affected German Court in present +circumstances;"--person excessively dangerous, should the present +Majesty die, Crown-Prince being so fond of that Chetardie. "3. That his +Prussian Majesty do give up the false Polish Majesty Stanislaus, and +no longer harbor him in East Preussen or elsewhere." The whole of which +demands his Prussian Majesty refuses; the latter two especially, as +something notably high on the Kaiser's part, or on any mortal's, to a +free Sovereign and Gentleman. Prince Lichtenstein is eloquent, +conciliatory; but it avails not. He has to go home empty-handed; +manages to leave with Herr von Suhm, who took care of it for us, that +Anecdote of the Crown-Prince's behavior under cannon-shot from +Philipsburg last year; and does nothing else recordable, in Berlin. + +The Crown-Prince's hopes were set, with all eagerness, on getting to the +Rhine-Campaign next ensuing; nor did the King refuse, for a long while, +but still less did he consent; and in the end there came nothing of it. +From an early period of the year, Friedrich Wilhelm sees too well +what kind of campaigning the Kaiser will now make; at a certain +Wedding-dinner where his Majesty was,--precisely a fortnight after +his Majesty's arrival in Berlin,--Seckendorf Junior has got, by +eavesdropping, this utterance of his Majesty's: "The Kaiser has not a +groschen of money. His Army in Lombardy is gone to twenty-four thousand +men, will have to retire into the Mountains. Next campaign [just +coming], he will lose Mantua and the Tyrol. God's righteous judgment +it is: a War like this! Comes of flinging old principles overboard,--of +meddling in business that was none of yours;" and more, of a plangent +alarming nature. [Forster, ii. 144 (and DATE it from _Militair-Lexikon,_ +ii. 54).] + +Friedrich Wilhelm sends back his Ten Thousand, according to contract; +sends, over and above, a beautiful stock of "copper pontoons" to help +the Imperial Majesty in that River Country, says Fassmann;--sends also +a supernumerary Troop of Hussars, who are worth mentioning, "Six-score +horse of Hussar type," under one Captain Ziethen, a taciturn, +much-enduring, much-observing man, whom we shall see again: these are to +be diligently helpful, as is natural; but they are also, for their +own behoof, to be diligently observant, and learn the Austrian Hussar +methods, which his Majesty last year saw to be much superior. Nobody +that knows Ziethen doubts but he learnt; Hussar-Colonel Baronay, his +Austrian teacher here, became too well convinced of it when they met +on a future occasion. [_Life of Ziethen_ (veridical but inexact, by the +Frau von Blumenthal, a kinswoman of his; English Translation, very ill +printed, Berlin, 1803), p. 54.] All this his Majesty did for the ensuing +campaign: but as to the Crown-Prince's going thither, after repeated +requests on his part, it is at last signified to him, deep in the +season, that it cannot be: "Won't answer for a Crown-Prince to be sharer +in such a Campaign;--be patient, my good Fritzchen, I will find other +work for thee." [Friedrich's Letter, 5th September, 1735; Friedrich +Wilhelm's Answer next day (_OEuvres de Frederic_, xxvii. part 3d, +93-95).] Fritzchen is sent into Preussen, to do the Reviewings and +Inspections there; Papa not being able for them this season; and strict +manifold Inspection, in those parts, being more than usually necessary, +owing to the Russian-Polish troubles. On this errand, which is clearly +a promotion, though in present circumstances not a welcome one for +the Crown-Prince, he sets out without delay; and passes there the +equinoctial and autumnal season, in a much more useful way than he could +have done in the Rhine-Campaign. + +In the Rhine-Moselle Country and elsewhere the poor Kaiser does exert +himself to make a Campaign of it; but without the least success. Having +not a groschen of money, how could he succeed? Noailles, as foreseen, +manoeuvres him, hitch after hitch, out of Italy; French are greatly +superior, more especially when Montemar, having once got Carlos crowned +in Naples and put secure, comes to assist the French; Kaiser has to lean +for shelter on the Tyrol Alps, as predicted. Italy, all but some sieging +of strong-places, may be considered as lost for the present. + +Nor on the Rhine did things go better. Old Eugene, "the shadow of +himself," had no more effect this year than last: nor, though Lacy and +Ten Thousand Russians came as allies, Poland being all settled now, +could the least good be done. Reich's Feldmarschall Karl Alexander +of Wurtemberg did "burn a Magazine" (probably of hay among better +provender) by his bomb-shells, on one occasion. Also the Prussian +Ten Thousand--Old Dessauer leading them, General Roder having fallen +ill--burnt something: an Islet in the Rhine, if I recollect, "Islet of +Larch near Bingen," where the French had a post; which and whom the +Old Dessauer burnt away. And then Seckendorf, at the head of thirty +thousand, he, after long delays, marched to Trarbach in the interior +Moselle Country; and got into some explosive sputter of battle with +Belleisle, one afternoon,--some say, rather beating Belleisle; but +a good judge says, it was a mutual flurry and terror they threw one +another into. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ i. 168.] Seckendorf meant to +try again on the morrow: but there came an estafette that night: +"Preliminaries signed (Vienna, 3d October, 1735);--try no farther!" +["Cessation is to be, 5th November for Germany, 15th for Italy; +Preliminaries" were, Vienna, "3d October," 1735 (Scholl, ii. 945).] And +this was the second Rhine-Campaign, and the end of the Kaiser's French +War. The Sea-Powers, steadily refusing money, diligently run about, +offering terms of arbitration; and the Kaiser, beaten at every point, +and reduced to his last groschen, is obliged to comply. He will have a +pretty bill to pay for his Polish-Election frolic, were the settlement +done! Fleury is pacific, full of bland candor to the Sea-Powers; the +Kaiser, after long higgling upon articles, will have to accept the bill. + +The Crown-Prince, meanwhile, has a successful journey into Preussen; +sees new interesting scenes, Salzburg Emigrants, exiled Polish +Majesties; inspects the soldiering, the schooling, the tax-gathering, +the domain-farming, with a perspicacity, a dexterity and completeness +that much pleases Papa. Fractions of the Reports sent home exist for us: +let the reader take a glance of one only; the first of the series; dated +MARIENWERDER (just across the Weichsel, fairly out of Polish Preussen +and into our own), 27th September, 1735, and addressed to the "Most +All-gracious King and Father;"--abridged for the reader's behoof:-- + +... "In Polish Preussen, lately the Seat of War, things look hideously +waste; one sees nothing but women and a few children; it is said the +people are mostly running away,"--owing to the Russian-Polish procedures +there, in consequence of the blessed Election they have had. King +August, whom your Majesty is not in love with, has prevailed at this +rate of expense. King Stanislaus, protected by your Majesty in spite of +Kaisers and Czarinas, waits in Konigsberg, till the Peace, now supposed +to be coming, say what is to become of him: once in Konigsberg, I shall +have the pleasure to see him. "A detachment of five-and-twenty Saxon +Dragoons of the Regiment Arnstedt, marching towards Dantzig, met me: +their horses were in tolerable case; but some are piebald, some sorrel, +and some brown among them," which will be shocking to your Majesty, "and +the people did not look well."... + +"Got hither to Marienwerder, last night: have inspected the two +Companies which are here, that is to say, Lieutenant-Col. Meier's and +Rittmeister Haus's. In very good trim, both of them; and though neither +the men nor their horses are of extraordinary size, they are handsome +well-drilled fellows, and a fine set of stiff-built horses (GEDRUNGENEN +PFERDEN). The fellows sit them like pictures (REITEN WIE DIE PUPPEN); I +saw them do their wheelings. Meier has some fine recruits; in particular +two;"--nor has the Rittmeister been wanting in that respect. "Young +horses" too are coming well on, sleek of skin. In short, all is right on +the military side. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 3d, p. 97.] + +Civil business, too, of all kinds, the Crown-Prince looked into, with +a sharp intelligent eye;--gave praise, gave censure in the right place; +put various things on a straight footing, which were awry when he found +them. In fact, it is Papa's second self; looks into the bottom of all +things quite as Papa would have done, and is fatal to mendacities, +practical or vocal, wherever he meets them. What a joy to Papa: "Here, +after all, is one that can replace me, in case of accident. This +Apprentice of mine, after all, he has fairly learned the Art; and will +continue it when I am gone!"-- + +Yes, your Majesty, it is a Prince-Royal wise to recognize your Majesty's +rough wisdom, on all manner of points; will not be a Devil's-FRIEND, I +think, any more than your Majesty was. Here truly are rare talents; like +your Majesty and unlike;--and has a steady swiftness in him, as of an +eagle, over and above! Such powers of practical judgment, of skilful +action, are rare in one's twenty-third year. And still rarer, have +readers noted what a power of holding his peace this young man has? +Fruit of his sufferings, of the hard life he has had. Most important +power; under which all other useful ones will more and more ripen for +him. This Prince already knows his own mind, on a good many points; +privately, amid the world's vague clamor jargoning round him to no +purpose, he is capable of having HIS mind made up into definite Yes and +No,--so as will surprise us one day. + +Friedrich Wilhelm, we perceive, [His Letter, 24th October, 1735. (Ib. p. +99).] was in a high degree content with this performance of the Prussian +Mission: a very great comfort to his sick mind, in those months +and afterwards. Here are talents, here are qualities,--visibly the +Friedrich-Wilhelm stuff throughout, but cast in an infinitely improved +type:--what a blessing we did not cut off that young Head, at the +Kaiser's dictation, in former years!-- + +At Konigsberg, as we learn in a dim indirect manner, the Crown-Prince +sees King Stanislaus twice or thrice,--not formally, lest there +be political offence taken, but incidentally at the houses of +third-parties;--and is much pleased with the old gentleman; who is of +cultivated good-natured ways, and has surely many curious things, from +Charles XII. downwards, to tell a young man. [Came 8th October, went +21st (_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 3d, p. 98).] Stanislaus has +abundance of useless refugee Polish Magnates about him, with their +useless crowds of servants, and no money in pocket; Konigsberg all on +flutter, with their draperies and them, "like a little Warsaw:" so that +Stanislaus's big French pension, moderate Prussian monthly allowance, +and all resources, are inadequate; and, in fact, in the end, these +Magnates had to vanish, many of them, without settling their accounts in +Konigsberg. [_History of Stanislaus. _] For the present they wait here, +Stanislaus and they, till Fleury and the Kaiser, shaking the urn of doom +in abstruse treaty after battle, decide what is to become of them. + +Friedrich returned to Dantzig: saw that famous City, and late scene of +War; tracing with lively interest the footsteps of Munnich and his Siege +operations,--some of which are much blamed by judges, and by this young +Soldier among the rest. There is a pretty Letter of his from +Dantzig, turning mainly on those points. Letter written to his young +Brother-in-law, Karl of Brunswick, who is now become Duke there; +Grandfather and Father both dead; [Grandfather, 1st March, 1735; Father +(who lost the _Lines of Ettlingen_ lately in our sight), 3d September, +1735. Supra, vol. vi. p. 372.] and has just been blessed with an Heir, +to boot. Congratulation on the birth of this Heir is the formal purport +of the Letter, though it runs ever and anon into a military strain. Here +are some sentences in a condensed form:-- + +"DANTZIG, 26th OCTOBER, 1735.... Thank my dear Sister for her services. +I am charmed that she has made you papa with so good a grace. I fear you +won't stop there; but will go on peopling the world"--one knows not to +what extent--"with your amiable race. Would have written sooner; but I +am just returning from the depths of the barbarous Countries; and having +been charged with innumerable commissions which I did not understand too +well, had no good possibility to think or to write. + +"I have viewed all the Russian labors in these parts; have had the +assault on the Hagelsberg narrated to me; been on the grounds;--and own +I had a better opinion of Marshal Munnich than to think him capable of +so distracted an enterprise. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 2d, p. +31. Pressed for time, and in want of battering-cannon, he attempted +to seize this Hagelsberg, one of the outlying defences of Dantzig, by +nocturnal storm; lost two thousand men; and retired, WITHOUT doing "what +was flatly impossible," thinks the Crown-Prince. See Mannstein, pp. +77-79, for an account of it.]... Adieu, my dear Brother. My compliments +to the amiable young Mother. Tell her, I beg you, that her proof-essays +are masterpieces (COUPS D'ESSAI SONT DES COUPS DE MAITRE)."... + +"Your most," &c., + +"FREDERIC." + +The Brunswick Masterpiece, achieved on this occasion, grew to be a man +and Duke, famous enough in the Newspapers in time coming: Champagne, +1792; Jena, 1806; George IV.'s Queen Caroline; these and other +distracted phenomena (pretty much blotting out the earlier better sort) +still keep him hanging painfully in men's memory. From his birth, now +in this Prussian Journey of our Crown-Prince, to his death-stroke on the +Field of Jena, what a seventy-one years!-- + +Fleury and the Kaiser, though it is long before the signature and +last finish can take place, are come to terms of settlement, at the +Crown-Prince's return; and it is known, in political circles, what the +Kaiser's Polish-Election damages will probably amount to. Here are, in +substance, the only conditions that could be got for him:-- + +"1. Baby Carlos, crowned in Naples, cannot be pulled out again: Naples, +the Two Sicilies, are gone without return. That is the first loss; +please Heaven it be the worst! On the other hand, Baby Carlos will, as +some faint compensation, surrender to your Imperial Majesty his Parma +and Piacenza apanages; and you shall get back your Lombardy,--all but +a scantling which we fling to the Sardinian Majesty; who is a good deal +huffed, having had possession of the Milanese these two years past, in +terms of his bargain with Fleury. Pacific Fleury says to him: 'Bargain +cannot be kept, your Majesty; please to quit the Milanese again, and put +up with this scantling.' + +"2. The Crown of Poland, August III. has got it, by Russian bombardings +and other measures: Crown shall stay with August,--all the rather as +there would be no dispossessing him, at this stage. He was your Imperial +Majesty's Candidate; let him be the winner there, for your Imperial +Majesty's comfort. + +"3. And then as to poor Stanislaus? Well, let Stanislaus be Titular +Majesty of Poland for life;--which indeed will do little for him:--but +in addition, we propose, That, the Dukedom of Lorraine being now in +our hands, Majesty Stanislaus have the life-rent of Lorraine to +subsist upon; and--and that Lorraine fall to us of France on his +decease!--'Lorraine?' exclaim the Kaiser, and the Reich, and the +Kaiser's intended Son-in-law Franz Duke of Lorraine. There is indeed a +loss and a disgrace; a heavy item in the Election damages! + +"4. As to Duke Franz, there is a remedy. The old Duke of Florence, last +of the Medici, is about to die childless: let the now Duke of Lorraine, +your Imperial Majesty's intended Son-in-law, have Florence instead.--And +so it had to be settled. 'Lorraine? To Stanislaus, to France?' exclaimed +the poor Kaiser, still more the poor Reich, and poor Duke Franz. This +was the bitterest cut of all; but there was no getting past it. This too +had to be allowed, this item for the Election breakages in Poland. +And so France, after nibbling for several centuries, swallows Lorraine +whole. Duke Franz attempted to stand out; remonstrated much, with Kaiser +and Hofrath, at Vienna, on this unheard-of proposal: but they told him +it was irremediable; told him at last (one Bartenstein, a famed Aulic +Official, told him), 'No Lorraine, no Archduchess, your Serenity!'--and +Franz had to comply, Lorraine is gone; cunning Fleury has swallowed +it whole. 'That was what he meant in picking this quarrel!' said +Teutschland mournfully. Fleury was very pacific, candid in aspect to the +Sea-Powers and others; and did not crow afflictively, did not say what +he had meant. + +"5. One immense consolation for the Kaiser, if for no other, is: France +guarantees the Pragmatic Sanction,--though with very great difficulty; +spending a couple of years, chiefly on this latter point as was thought. +[Treaty on it not signed till 18th November, 1738 (Scholl, ii. 246).] +How it kept said guarantee, will be seen in the sequel." + +And these were the damages the poor Kaiser had to pay for meddling in +Polish Elections;--for galloping thither in chase of his Shadows. No +such account of broken windows was ever presented to a man before. This +may be considered as the consummation of the Kaiser's Shadow-Hunt; or at +least its igniting and exploding point. His Duel with the Termagant has +at last ended; in total defeat to him on every point. Shadow-Hunt does +not end; though it is now mostly vanished; exploded in fire. Shadow-Hunt +is now gone all to Pragmatic Sanction, as it were: that now is the one +thing left in Nature for a Kaiser; and that he will love, and chase, as +the summary of all things. From this point he steadily goes down, and +at a rapid rate;--getting into disastrous Turk Wars, with as little +preparation for War or Fact as a life-long Hunt of SHADOWS presupposes; +Eugene gone from him, and nothing but Seckendorfs to manage for +him;--and sinks to a low pitch indeed. We will leave him here; shall +hope to see but little more of him. + +In the Summer of 1736, in consequence of these arrangements,--which were +completed so far, though difficulties on Pragmatic Sanction and other +points retarded the final signature for many months longer,--the Titular +Majesty Stanislaus girt himself together for departure towards his new +Dominion or Life-rent; quitted Konigsberg; traversed Prussian Poland, +safe this time, "under escort of Lieutenant-General von Katte [our poor +Katte of Custrin's Father] and fifty cuirassiers;" reached Berlin in the +middle of May, under flowerier aspects than usual. He travelled under +the title of "Count" Something, and alighted at the French Ambassador's +in Berlin: but Friedrich Wilhelm treated him like a real Majesty, almost +like a real Brother; had him over to the Palace; rushed out to meet +him there, I forget how many steps beyond the proper limits; and was +hospitality itself and munificence itself;--and, in fact, that night and +all the other nights, "they smoked above thirty pipes together," for one +item. May 21st, 1736, [Forster (i. 227), following loose Pollnitz (ii. +478), dates it 1735: a more considerable error, if looked into, than +is usual in Herr Forster; who is not an ill-informed nor inexact +man;--though, alas, in respect of method (that is to say, want of +visible method, indication, or human arrangement), probably the most +confused of all the Germans!] Ex-Majesty Stanislaus went on his +way again; towards France,--towards Meudon, a quiet Royal House in +France,--till Luneville, Nanci, and their Lorraine Palaces are quite +ready. There, in these latter, he at length does find resting-place, +poor innocent insipid mortal, after such tossings to and fro: and M. +de Voltaire, and others of mark, having sometimes enlivened the insipid +Court there, Titular King Stanislaus has still a kind of remembrance +among mankind. + +Of his Prussian Majesty we said that, though the Berlin populations +reported him well again, it was not so. The truth is, his Majesty was +never well again. From this point, age only forty-seven, he continues +broken in bodily constitution; clogged more and more with physical +impediments; and his History, personal and political withal, is as +that of an old man, finishing his day. To the last he pulls steadily, +neglecting no business, suffering nothing to go wrong. Building +operations go on at Berlin; pushed more than ever, in these years, by +the rigorous Derschau, who has got that in charge. No man of money +or rank in Berlin but Derschau is upon him, with heavier and heavier +compulsion to build: which is felt to be tyrannous; and occasions an +ever-deepening grumble among the moneyed classes. At Potsdam his Majesty +himself is the Builder; and gives the Houses away to persons of merit. +[Pollnitz, ii. 469.] + +Nor is the Army less an object, perhaps almost more. Nay, at one time, +old Kur-Pfalz being reckoned in a dying condition, Friedrich Wilhelm is +about ranking his men, prepared to fight for his rights in Julich and +Berg; Kaiser having openly gone over, and joined with France against +his Majesty in that matter. However, the old Kur-Pfalz did not die, +and there came nothing of fight in Friedrich Wilhelm's time. But his +History, on the political side, is henceforth mainly a commentary to +him on that "word" he heard in Priort, "which was as if you had turned +a dagger in my heart!" With the Kaiser he has fallen out: there arise +unfriendly passages between them, sometimes sarcastic on Friedrich +Wilhelm's part, in reference to this very War now ended. Thus, when +complaint rose about the Prussian misbehaviors on their late marches +(misbehaviors notable in Countries where their recruiting operations +had been troubled), the Kaiser took a high severe tone, not assuaging, +rather aggravating the matter; and, for his own share, winded up by a +strict prohibition of Prussian recruiting in any and every part of the +Imperial Dominions. Which Friedrich Wilhelm took extremely ill. This is +from a letter of his to the Crown-Prince, and after the first gust of +wrath had spent itself: "It is a clear disadvantage, this prohibition +of recruiting in the Kaiser's Countries. That is our thanks for the Ten +Thousand men sent him, and for all the deference I have shown the Kaiser +at all times; and by this you may see that it would be of no use if one +even sacrificed oneself to him. So long as they need us, they continue +to flatter; but no sooner is the strait thought to be over, and help +not wanted, than they pull off the mask, and have not the least +acknowledgment. The considerations that will occur to you on this matter +may put it in your power to be prepared against similar occasions in +time coming." [6th February, 1736: _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part +3d, p. 102.] + +Thus, again, in regard to the winter-quarters of the Ziethen Hussars. +Prussian Majesty, we recollect, had sent a Supernumerary Squadron to the +last Campaign on the Rhine. They were learning their business, Friedrich +Wilhelm knew; but also were fighting for the Kaiser,--that was what the +Kaiser knew about them. Somewhat to his surprise, in the course of next +year, Friedrich Wilhelm received, from the Vienna War-Office, a little +Bill of 10,284 florins (1,028 pounds 8 shillings) charged to him for the +winter-quarters of these Hussars. He at once paid the little Bill, +with only this observation: "Heartily glad that I can help the Imperial +AERARIUM with that 1,028 pounds 8 shillings. With the sincerest wishes +for hundred-thousandfold increase to it in said AERARIUM; otherwise it +won't go very far!" [Letter to Seckendorf (SENIOR): Forster, ii. 150.] + +At a later period, in the course of his disastrous Turk War, the Kaiser, +famishing for money, set about borrowing a million gulden (100,000 +pounds) from the Banking House Splittgerber and Daun at Berlin. +Splittgerber and Daun had not the money, could not raise it: "Advance +us that sum, in their name, your Majesty," proposes the Vienna Court: +"There shall be three-per-cent bonus, interest six per cent, and +security beyond all question!" To which fine offer his Majesty answers, +addressing Seckendorf Junior: "Touching the proposal of my giving the +Bankers Splittgerber and Daun a lift, with a million gulden, to +assist in that loan of theirs,--said proposal, as I am not a merchant +accustomed to deal in profits and percentages, cannot in that form +take effect. Out of old friendship, however, I am, on Their Imperial +Majesty's request, extremely ready to pay down, once and away (A FOND +PERDU), a couple of million gulden, provided the Imperial Majesty will +grant me the conditions known to your Uncle [FULFILMENT of that now +oldish Julich-and-Berg promise, namely!] which are FAIR. In such case +the thing shall be rapidly completed!" [Forster, ii. 151 (without DATE +there).] + +In a word, Friedrich Wilhelm falls out with the Kaiser more and more; +experiences more and more what a Kaiser this has been towards him. Queen +Sophie has fallen silent in the History Books; both the Majesties may +look remorsefully, but perhaps best in silence, over the breakages and +wrecks this Kaiser has brought upon them. Friedrich Wilhelm does not +meanly hate the Kaiser: good man, he sometimes pities him; sometimes, we +perceive, has a touch of authentic contempt for him. But his thoughts, +in that quarter, premature old age aggravating them, are generally of +a tragic nature, not to be spoken without tears; and the tears have +a flash at the bottom of them, when he looks round on Fritz and says, +"There is one, though, that will avenge me!" Friedrich Wilhelm, to the +last a broad strong phenomenon, keeps wending downward, homeward, from +this point; the Kaiser too, we perceive, is rapidly consummating his +enormous Spectre-Hunts and Duels with Termagants, and before long will +be at rest. We have well-nigh done with both these Majesties. + +The Crown-Prince, by his judicious obedient procedures in these Four +Years at Ruppin, at a distance from Papa, has, as it were, completed +his APPRENTICESHIP; and, especially by this last Inspection-Journey +into Preussen, may be said to have delivered his PROOF-ESSAY with a +distinguished success. He is now out of his Apprenticeship; entitled to +take up his Indentures, whenever need shall be. The rugged old Master +cannot but declare him competent, qualified to try his own hand without +supervision:--after all those unheard-of confusions, like to set the +shop on fire at one time, it is a blessedly successful Apprenticeship! +Let him now, theoretically at least, in the realms of Art, Literature, +Spiritual Improvement, do his WANDERJAHRE, over at Reinsberg, still +in the old region,--still well apart from Papa, who agrees best NOT in +immediate contact;--and be happy in the new Domesticities, and larger +opportunities, provided for him there; till a certain time come, which +none of us are in haste for. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, +Vol. IX. 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