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diff --git a/old/09frd10.txt b/old/09frd10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c69068 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/09frd10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6377 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 9 +#15 in our series by Thomas Carlyle +V9 of 21 + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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Thompson <drthom@ihug.co.nz> + + + + + + +Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia" + + + + +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 distingnish 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, <italic> +Allgemeine Geschichte der neueslen Zeit <end italic> (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 Tobaoco-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, +aud 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 Cnmberland +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 nothiug 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 <italic> +OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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." [<italic> +OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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 (<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> +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), <italic> Von wahren +Christenthum, <end italic> 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; +<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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 <italic> Sechendorfs Leben, <end +italic> 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. + +"FRIDERIC." + +"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 <italic> OEuvres, <end +italic> 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." +[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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: <italic> 'Nein +Grumkow, denket an diese Stelle, Gott gebe dass ich nicht wahr +rede, aber mein Sohn stirbt nicht eines naturlichen Todes; +und Gott gebe dass er nicht unter Henkers Hande komme. <end +italic> 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." + +[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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, <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end +italic> xxvii. part lst, p. 4; xvi. 49.] and he continued to have +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; [<italic> Memoires sur la Guerre <end italic> +(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, strippiug 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 Volnmes of his:-- [See his Autobiography, which forms +<italic> Beitrage, <end italic> 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, <italic> +Beitrage zu der Lebensgeschichte denkwurdiger Personen, <end +italic> v. 19-21. Vol. v.--wholly occupied with <italic> Friedrich +II. King of Prussia <end italic> (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 <italic> Travels through Germany <end italic> +(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 <italic> "Travels." <end italic> +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, +<italic> 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. <end italic> [Matthew xix. 29.] Text of the +second was, <italic> 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." <end italic> [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, <italic> What the true Church is built of, <end +italic> and then <italic> Of true Faith, and what love a Christian +ought to have; <end italic> 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, <italic> Neueste +Preussisch-Brandenburgische Geschichte <end italic> (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 +<italic> "Ancient History of Bran denburg," <end italic> 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 +<italic> Hermann and Dorothea? <end italic> 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 <italic> Charles Douze, <end italic> +[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." +[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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: <italic> OEuvres, <end italic> 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 <italic> Morning +Post <end italic> 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 <italic> Morning Post <end italic> 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 Julioh 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: +[<italic> Die Legende vom heiligen Johann von Nepomuk, <end +italic> 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 Churoh,--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 stie 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. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic (Memoires +de Brandenbourg), <end italic> 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 l0th, 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 l0th, +1733; [Fassmann, <italic> Leben Friedrich Augusti des Grossen, +<end italic> 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 timea 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. +[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic (Memoires de Brandenbourg), <end +italic> 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 oopiously, or copiously pressed drink on +one another, all night (llth-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 <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> +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 <italic> +Ecclesiastical History <end italic> 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. [<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> 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 <italic> +Works." <end italic>]--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 +oarriages 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, <italic> Beitrage, <end italic> 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;" +[<italic> OEuvres (Memoires de Brandenbourg), <end italic> +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 Polisb 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, <italic> Leben Frederici Augusti Konigs in +Pohlen, <end italic> 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, <italic> Munzbelustigungen, <end +italic> 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; <italic> +Histoire de Stanislas I., Roi de Pologlne <end italic> (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, +<italic> Erdbeschreibung, <end italic> 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. [<italic> History of Stanislaus <end italic> (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. + +"SEPTEBER 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 quencth, 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); [<italic> OEuvres de +Frederic, <end italic> 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. <italic> Memoires du +Marechal de Berwick <end italic> (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" [<italic> Fastes du Regne de Louis XV. <end +italic> (Paris, 1766), i. 248.]--a merry Christmas there. +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. +[<italic> 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; +<italic> Fastes, <end italic> 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. +[<italic> Leopoldi von Anhalt-Dessau Leben <end italic> (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. [<italic> OEuvres de +Frederic, <end italic> 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, <italic> Munzbelustigungen, <end +italic> 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, <italic> Memoires <end italic> (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-qnarters; +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 Russiau 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 (<italic> History of Stanislaus, +<end italic> already cited, pp. 235-248).]l 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" + +[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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 +Wilhelmiua 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), <italic> Lebens- und Regierungs-Geschichte Friedrichs +des Andern <end italic> (Leipzig, 1786), ii. 200. <italic> OEuvres +de Frederic, <end italic> vii. 33. Preuss, <italic> Friedrich mit +seinen Verwandten <end italic> (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." + +[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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." + +[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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." + +[<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> 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 <italic> (Portrait du +Prince-Royal, par M. de Suhm)." <end italic> 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." +[<italic> Correspondance de Frederic II. avec M. de Suhm <end +italic> (Berlin, 1787); Avant-propos, p. xviii. (written 28th +April, 1740). The CORRESPONDANCE is all in <italic> OEuvres de +Frederic <end italic> (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 <italic> Walpole, +<end italic> 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 tbe Fugitive Majesty, +[<italic> Militair-Lexikon, <end italic> 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. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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" +(<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> 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------ + + +"WEINHEIM, 17th August, 1734. + +"HERDEK TEREMTETE! 'Went with them, got hanged with them,' +[<italic> "Mitgegangen mitgehangen:" <end italic> 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. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, +<end italic> 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," [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> +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; <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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. [<italic> Memoires de Noailles <end italic> (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 l0th, 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, <italic> +Chasot <end italic> (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; [<italic> OEuvres (Memoires de +Brandebourg), <end italic> 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 littie, 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 Lieuteuant 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: [<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> 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 <italic> Memoires, <end italic> "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 <italic> +Leyden Gazette, <end italic> 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, <italic> Geschichte der +Schlesischen Kriege <end italic> (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 3Oth, 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), <italic> Journal Secret; <end +italic> 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), <italic> Journal Secret; <end italic> 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 <italic> Militair- +Lexikon, <end italic> 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. [<italic> Life of Ziethen <end italic> (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 (<italic> 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. +[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> +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 (<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end +italic> 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. [<italic>History of Stanislaus. +<end italic>] 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 <italic> Lines +of Ettlingen <end italic> 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. [<italic> OEuvres de +Frederic, <end italic> 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: +<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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 +(l00,000 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 TheirO 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 Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 9 + diff --git a/old/09frd10.zip b/old/09frd10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2453365 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/09frd10.zip |