initial commit of ebook 2111HEADmain

2 files changed, 5734 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/11frd10.txt b/old/11frd10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf3a48f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/11frd10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5734 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 11
+#17 in our series by Thomas Carlyle
+V11 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.  We need your donations.
+
+
+History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 11
+
+by Thomas Carlyle
+
+March, 2000  [Etext #2111]
+
+
+Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 11
+*******This file should be named 11frd10.txt or 11frd10.zip********
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, 11frd11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 11frd10a.txt
+
+
+Prepared by D.R. Thompson <drthom@ihug.co.nz>
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,
+all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a
+copyright notice is included.  Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any
+of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+
+Please note:  neither this list nor its contents are final till
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.  To be sure you have an
+up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes
+in the first week of the next month.  Since our ftp program has
+a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a
+look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a
+new copy has at least one byte more or less.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-six text
+files per month, or 432 more Etexts in 1999 for a total of 2000+
+If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the
+total should reach over 200 billion Etexts given away this year.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only ~5% of the present number of computer users.
+
+At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
+of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we
+manage to get some real funding; currently our funding is mostly
+from Michael Hart's salary at Carnegie-Mellon University, and an
+assortment of sporadic gifts; this salary is only good for a few
+more years, so we are looking for something to replace it, as we
+don't want Project Gutenberg to be so dependent on one person.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+
+All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are
+tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.  (CMU = Carnegie-
+Mellon University).
+
+For these and other matters, please mail to:
+
+Project Gutenberg
+P. O. Box  2782
+Champaign, IL 61825
+
+When all other email fails. . .try our Executive Director:
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org
+if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if
+it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . .
+
+We would prefer to send you this information by email.
+
+******
+
+To access Project Gutenberg etexts, use any Web browser
+to view http://promo.net/pg.  This site lists Etexts by
+author and by title, and includes information about how
+to get involved with Project Gutenberg.  You could also
+download our past Newsletters, or subscribe here.  This
+is one of our major sites, please email hart@pobox.com,
+for a more complete list of our various sites.
+
+To go directly to the etext collections, use FTP or any
+Web browser to visit a Project Gutenberg mirror (mirror
+sites are available on 7 continents; mirrors are listed
+at http://promo.net/pg).
+
+Mac users, do NOT point and click, typing works better.
+
+Example FTP session:
+
+ftp sunsite.unc.edu
+login: anonymous
+password: your@login
+cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg
+cd etext90 through etext99
+dir [to see files]
+get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
+GET GUTINDEX.??  [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99]
+GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]
+
+***
+
+**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor**
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
+you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-
+tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor
+Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at
+Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project").  Among other
+things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this
+etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,
+officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost
+and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or
+indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:
+[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,
+or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word pro-
+     cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the
+     net profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon
+     University" within the 60 days following each
+     date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare)
+     your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time,
+scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty
+free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution
+you can think of.  Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg
+Association / Carnegie-Mellon University".
+
+*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+Prepared by D.R. Thompson <drthom@ihug.co.nz>
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK XI.
+
+FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND.
+ 
+June-December, 1740.
+ 
+
+Chapter I.
+
+PHENOMENA OF FRIEDRICH'S ACCESSION.
+
+In Berlin, from Tuesday, 31st May, 1740, day of the late King's
+death, till the Thursday following, the post was stopped and the
+gates closed; no estafette can be despatched, though Dickens and
+all the Ambassadors are busy writing. On the Thursday, Regiments,
+Officers, principal Officials having sworn, and the new King being
+fairly in the saddle, estafettes and post-boys shoot forth at the
+top of their speed; and Rumor, towards every point of the compass,
+apprises mankind what immense news there is. [Dickens (in State-
+Paper Office), 4th June, 1740.]
+
+A King's Accession is always a hopeful phenomenon to the public;
+more especially a young King's, who has been talked of for his
+talents and aspirings,--for his sufferings, were it nothing more,
+--and whose ANTI-MACHIAVEL is understood to be in the press.
+Vaguely everywhere there has a notion gone abroad that this young
+King will prove considerable. Here at last has a Lover of
+Philosophy got upon the throne, and great philanthropies and
+magnanimities are to be expected, think rash editors and idle
+mankind. Rash editors in England and elsewhere, we observe, are
+ready to believe that Friedrich has not only disbanded the Potsdam
+Giants; but means to "reduce the Prussian Army one half" or so,
+for ease (temporary ease which we hope will be lasting) of parties
+concerned; and to go much upon emancipation, political rose-water,
+and friendship to humanity, as we now call it.
+
+At his first meeting of Council, they say, he put this question,
+"Could not the Prussian Army be reduced to 45,000?" The excellent
+young man. To which the Council had answered, "Hardly, your
+Majesty! The Julich-and-Berg affair is so ominous hitherto!"
+These may be secrets, and dubious to people out of doors, thinks a
+wise editor; but one thing patent to the day was this, surely
+symbolical enough: On one of his Majesty's first drives to Potsdam
+or from it, a thousand children,--in round numbers a thousand of
+them, all with the RED STRING round their necks, and liable to be
+taken for soldiers, if needed in the regiment of their Canton,--
+"a thousand children met this young King at a turn of his road;
+and with shrill unison of wail, sang out: "Oh, deliver us from
+slavery,"--from the red threads, your Majesty. Why should poor we
+be liable to suffer hardship for our Country or otherwise, your
+Majesty! Can no one else be got to do it? sang out the thousand
+children. And his Majesty assented on the spot, thinks the rash
+editor. [<italic> Gentleman's Magazine <end italic> (London,
+1740), x. 318; Newspapers, &c.] "Goose, Madam?" exclaimed a
+philanthropist projector once, whose scheme of sweeping chimneys
+by pulling a live goose down through them was objected to:
+"Goose, Madam? You can take two ducks, then, if you are so sorry
+for the goose!"--Rash editors think there is to be a reign of
+Astraea Redux in Prussia, by means of this young King; and forget
+to ask themselves, as the young King must by no means do, How far
+Astraea may be possible, for Prussia and him?
+
+At home, too, there is prophesying enough, vague hope enough,
+which for most part goes wide of the mark. This young King, we
+know, did prove considerable; but not in the way shaped out for
+him by the public;--it was in far other ways! For no public in the
+least knows, in such cases: nor does the man himself know, except
+gradually and if he strive to learn. As to the public,--
+"Doubtless," says a friend of mine, "doubtless it was the Atlantic
+Ocean that carried Columbus to America; lucky for the Atlantic,
+and for Columbus and us: but the Atlantic did not quite vote that
+way from the first; nay ITS votes, I believe, were very various at
+different stages of the matter!" This is a truth which kings and
+men, not intending to be drift-logs or waste brine obedient to the
+Moon, are much called to have in mind withal, from perhaps an
+early stage of their voyage.
+
+Friedrich's actual demeanor in these his first weeks, which is
+still decipherable if one study well, has in truth a good deal of
+the brilliant, of the popular-magnanimous; but manifests strong
+solid quality withal, and a head steadier than might have been
+expected. For the Berlin world is all in a rather Auroral
+condition; and Friedrich too is,--the chains suddenly cut loose,
+and such hopes opened for the young man. He has great things
+ahead; feels in himself great things, and doubtless exults in the
+thought of realizing them. Magnanimous enough, popular, hopeful
+enough, with Voltaire and the highest of the world looking on:--
+but yet he is wise, too; creditably aware that there are limits,
+that this is a bargain, and the terms of it inexorable. We discern
+with pleasure the old veracity of character shining through this
+giddy new element; that all these fine procedures are at least
+unaffected, to a singular degree true, and the product of nature,
+on his part; and that, in short, the complete respect for Fact,
+which used to be a quality of his, and which is among the highest
+and also rarest in man, has on no side deserted him at present.
+
+A trace of airy exuberance, of natural exultancy, not quite
+repressible, on the sudden change to freedom and supreme power
+from what had gone before: perhaps that also might be legible, if
+in those opaque bead-rolls which are called Histories of Friedrich
+anything human could with certainty be read! He flies much about
+from place to place; now at Potsdam, now at Berlin, at
+Charlottenburg, Reinsberg; nothing loath to run whither business
+calls him, and appear in public: the gazetteer world, as we
+noticed, which has been hitherto a most mute world, breaks out
+here and there into a kind of husky jubilation over the great
+things he is daily doing, and rejoices in the prospect of having a
+Philosopher King; which function the young man, only twenty-eight
+gone, cannot but wish to fulfil for the gazetteers and the world.
+He is a busy man; and walks boldly into his grand enterprise of
+"making men happy," to the admiration of Voltaire and an
+enlightened public far and near. 
+
+Bielfeld speaks of immense concourses of people crowding about
+Charlottenburg, to congratulate, to solicit, to &c.; tells us how
+he himself had to lodge almost in outhouses, in that royal village
+of hope, His emotions at Reinsberg, and everybody's, while
+Friedrich Wilhelm lay dying, and all stood like greyhounds on the
+slip; and with what arrow-swiftness they shot away when the great
+news came: all this he has already described at wearisome length,
+in his fantastic semi-fabulous way. [Bielfeld, i. 68-77; ib. 81.]'
+Friedrich himself seemed moderately glad to see Bielfeld; received
+his high-flown congratulations with a benevolent yet somewhat
+composed air; and gave him afterwards, in the course of weeks, an
+unexpectedly small appointment: To go to Hanover, under Truchsess
+von Waldburg, and announce our Accession. Which is but a simple,
+mostly formal service; yet perhaps what Bielfeld is best equal to.
+
+The Britannic Majesty, or at least his Hanover people have been
+beforehand with this civility; Baron Munchhausen, no doubt by
+orders given for such contingency, had appeared at Berlin with the
+due compliment and condolence almost on the first day of the New
+Reign; first messenger of all on that errand; Britannic Majesty
+evidently in a conciliatory humor,--having his dangerous Spanish
+War on hand. Britannic Majesty in person, shortly after, gets
+across to Hanover; and Friedrich despatches Truchsess, with
+Bielfeld adjoined, to return the courtesy.
+
+Friedrich does not neglect these points of good manners;
+along with which something of substantial may be privately
+conjoined. For example, if he had in secret his eye on Julich and
+Berg, could anything be fitter than to ascertain what the French
+will think of such an enterprise? What the French; and next to
+them what the English, that is to say, Hanoverians, who meddle
+much in affairs of the Reich. For these reasons and others he
+likewise, probably with more study than in the Bielfeld case,
+despatches Colonel Camas to make his compliment at the French
+Court, and in an expert way take soundings there. Camas, a fat
+sedate military gentleman, of advanced years, full of observation,
+experience and sound sense,--"with one arm, which he makes do the
+work of two, and nobody can notice that the other arm resting in
+his coat-breast is of cork, so expert is he,"--will do in this
+matter what is feasible; probably not much for the present. He is
+to call on Voltaire, as he passes, who is in Holland again, at the
+Hague for some months back; and deliver him "a little cask of
+Hungary Wine," which probably his Majesty had thought exquisite.
+Of which, and the other insignificant passages between them, we
+hear more than enough in the writings and correspondences of
+Voltaire about this time.
+
+In such way Friedrich disposes of his Bielfelds; who are rather
+numerous about him now and henceforth. Adventurers from all
+quarters, especially of the literary type, in hopes of being
+employed, much hovered round Friedrich through his whole reign.
+But they met a rather strict judge on arriving; it cannot be said
+they found it such a Goshen as they expected.
+
+Favor, friendly intimacy, it is visible from the first, avails
+nothing with this young King; beyond and before all things he will
+have his work done, and looks out exclusively for the man ablest
+to do it. Hence Bielfeld goes to Hanover, to grin out euphuisms,
+and make graceful courtbows to our sublime little Uncle there.
+On the other hand, Friedrich institutes a new Knighthood, ORDER OF
+MERIT so called; which indeed is but a small feat, testifying mere
+hope and exuberance as yet; and may even be made worse than
+nothing, according to the Knights he shall manage to have.
+Happily it proved a successful new Order in this last all-
+essential particular; and, to the end of Friedrich's life,
+continued to be a great and coveted distinction among
+the Prussians.
+
+Beyond doubt this is a radiant enough young Majesty; entitled to
+hope, and to be the cause of hope. Handsome, to begin with;
+decidedly well-looking, all say, and of graceful presence, though
+hardly five feet seven, and perhaps stouter of limb than the
+strict Belvedere standard. [Height, it appears, was five feet five
+inches (Rhenish), which in English measure is five feet seven or a
+hair's-breadth less. Preuss, twice over, by a mistake unusual with
+him, gives "five feet two inches three lines" as the correct
+cipher (which it is of NAPOLEON'S measure in FRENCH feet);
+then settles on the above dimensions from unexceptionable
+authority (Preuss, <italic> Buch fur Jedermann, <end italic>
+i. 18; Preuss, <italic> Fredrich der Grosse, <end italic> i. 39
+and 419).] Has a fine free expressive face; nothing of austerity
+in it; not a proud face, or not too proud, yet rapidly flashing on
+you all manner of high meanings. [Wille's Engraving after Pesne
+(excellent, both Picture and Engraving) is reckoned the best
+Likeness in that form.] Such a man, in the bloom of his years;
+with such a possibility ahead, and Voltaire and mankind waiting
+applausive!--Let us try to select, and extricate into coherence
+and visibility out of those Historical dust-heaps, a few of the
+symptomatic phenomena, or physiognomic procedures of Friedrich in
+his first weeks of Kingship, by way of contribution to some
+Portraiture of his then inner-man.
+
+
+FRIEDRICH WILL MAKE MEN HAPPY: CORN-MAGAZINES.
+
+On the day after his Accession, Officers and chief Ministers
+taking the Oath, Friedrich, to his Officers, "on whom he counts
+for the same zeal now which he had witnessed as their comrade,"
+recommends mildness of demeanor from the higher to the lower, and
+that the common soldier be not treated with harshness when not
+deserved: and to his Ministers he is still more emphatic, in the
+like or a higher strain. Officially announcing to them, by Letter,
+that a new Reign has commenced, he uses these words, legible soon
+after to a glad Berlin public: "Our grand care will be, To further
+the Country's well-being, and to make every one of our subjects
+(EINEN JEDEN UNSERER UNTERTHANEN) contented and happy. Our will
+is, not that you strive to enrich Us by vexation of Our subjects;
+but rather that you aim steadily as well towards the advantage of
+the Country as Our particular interest, forasmuch as We make no
+difference between these two objects," but consider them one and
+the same. This is written, and gets into print within the month;
+and his Majesty, that same day (Wednesday, 2d June), when it came
+to personal reception, and actual taking of the Oath, was pleased
+to add in words, which also were printed shortly, this comfortable
+corollary: "My will henceforth is, If it ever chance that my
+particular interest and the general good of my Countries should
+seem to go against each other,--in that case, my will is, That the
+latter always be preferred." [Dickens, Despatch, 4th June, 1740:
+Preuss, <italic> Friedrichs Jugend und Thronbesteigung <end
+italic> (Berlin, 1840), p. 325;--quoting from the Berlin
+Newspapers of 28th June and 2d July, 1740.]
+
+This is a fine dialect for incipient Royalty; and it is brand-
+new at that time. It excites an admiration in the then
+populations, which to us, so long used to it and to what commonly
+comes of it, is not conceivable at once. There can be no doubt the
+young King does faithfully intend to develop himself in the way of
+making men happy; but here, as elsewhere, are limits which he will
+recognize ahead, some of them perhaps nearer than was expected.
+
+Meanwhile his first acts, in this direction, correspond to these
+fine words. The year 1740, still grim with cold into the heart of
+summer, bids fair to have a late poor harvest, and famine
+threatens to add itself to other hardships there have been.
+Recognizing the actualities of the case, what his poor Father
+could not, he opens the Public Granaries,--a wise resource they
+have in Prussian countries against the year of scarcity;--orders
+grain to be sold out, at reasonable rates, to the suffering poor;
+and takes the due pains, considerable in some cases, that this be
+rendered feasible everywhere in his dominions. "Berlin, 2d June,"
+is the first date of this important order; fine program to his
+Ministers, which, we read, is no sooner uttered, than some
+performance follows. An evident piece of wisdom and humanity;
+for which doubtless blessings of a very sincere kind rise to him
+from several millions of his fellow-mortals.
+
+Nay furthermore, as can be dimly gathered, this scarcity
+continuing, some continuous mode of management was set on foot for
+the Poor; and there is nominated, with salary, with outline of
+plan and other requisites, as "Inspector of the Poor," to his own
+and our surprise, M. Jordan, late Reader to the Crown-Prince, and
+still much the intimate of his royal Friend. Inspector who seems
+to do his work very well. And in the November coming this is what
+we see: "One thousand poor old women, the destitute of Berlin, set
+to spin," at his Majesty's charges; vacant houses, hired for them
+in certain streets and suburbs, have been new-planked,
+partitioned, warmed; and spinning is there for any diligent female
+soul. There a thousand of them sit, under proper officers, proper
+wages, treatment;--and the hum of their poor spindles, and of
+their poor inarticulate old hearts, is a comfort, if one chance to
+think of it.--Of "distressed needlewomen" who cannot sew, nor be
+taught to do it; who, in private truth, are mutinous maid-servants
+come at last to the net upshot of their anarchies; of these, or of
+the like incurable phenomena, I hear nothing in Berlin; and can
+believe that, under this King, Indigence itself may still have
+something of a human aspect, not a brutal or diabolic as is
+commoner in some places.--This is one of Friedrich's first acts,
+this opening of the Corn-magazines, and arrangements for the
+Destitute; [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 367.
+Rodenbeck, <italic> Tagebuch aus Friedrichs des Grossen
+Regentenleben <end italic> (Berlin, 1840), i. 2, 26 (2d June,
+October, 1740): a meritorious, laborious, though essentially
+chaotic Book, unexpectedly futile of result to the reader; settles
+for each Day of Friedrich's Reign, so far as possible, where
+Friedrich was and what doing; fatally wants all index &c., as
+usual.] and of this there can be no criticism. The sound of hungry
+pots set boiling, on judicious principles; the hum of those old
+women's spindles in the warm rooms: gods and men are well pleased
+to hear such sounds; and accept the same as part, real though
+infinitesimally small, of the sphere-harmonies of this Universe!
+
+
+ABOLITION OF LEGAL TORTURE.
+
+Friedrich makes haste, next, to strike into Law-improvements.
+It is but the morrow after this of the Corn-magazines, by
+KABINETS-ORDRE (Act of Parliament such as they can have in that
+Country, where the Three Estates sit all under one Three-cornered
+Hat, and the debates are kept silent, and only the upshot of them,
+more or less faithfully, is made public),--by Cabinet Order,
+3d June, 1740, he abolishes the use of Torture in Criminal Trials.
+[Preuss, <italic> Friedrichs Jugend und Thronbesteigung <end
+italic> (Berlin, 1840,--a minor Book of Preuss's), p. 340.
+Rodenbeck, i. 14 ("3d June").] Legal Torture, "Question" as they
+mildly call it, is at an end from this date. Not in any Prussian
+Court shall a "question" try for answer again by that savage
+method. The use of Torture had, I believe, fallen rather obsolete
+in Prussia; but now the very threat of it shall vanish,--the
+threat of it, as we may remember, had reached Friedrich himself,
+at one time. Three or four years ago, it is farther said, a dark
+murder happened in Berlin: Man killed one night in the open
+streets; murderer discoverable by no method,--unless he were a
+certain CANDIDATUS of Divinity to whom some trace of evidence
+pointed, but who sorrowfully persisted in absolute and total
+denial. This poor Candidatus had been threatened with the rack;
+and would most likely have at length got it, had not the real
+murderer been discovered,--much to the discredit of the rack in
+Berlin. This Candidatus was only threatened; nor do I know when
+the last actual instance in Prussia was; but in enlightened
+France, and most other countries, there was as yet no scruple upon
+it. Barbier, the Diarist at Paris, some time after this, tells us
+of a gang of thieves there, who were regularly put to the torture;
+and "they blabbed too, ILS ONT JASE," says Barbier with official
+jocosity. [Barbier, <italic> Journal Historique du Regne de Louis
+XV. <end italic> (Paris, 1849), ii. 338 (date "Dec. 1742").]
+
+Friedrich's Cabinet Order, we need not say, was greeted
+everywhere, at home and abroad, by three rounds of applause;--in
+which surely all of us still join; though the PER CONTRA also is
+becoming visible to some of us, and our enthusiasm grows less
+complete than formerly. This was Friedrich's first step in Law-
+Reform, done on his fourth day of Kingship. A long career in that
+kind lies ahead of him; in reform of Law, civil as well as
+criminal, his efforts ended with life only. For his love of
+Justice was really great; and the mendacities and wiggeries,
+attached to such a necessary of life as Law, found no favor from
+him at any time.
+
+
+WILL HAVE PHILOSOPHERS ABOUT HIM, AND A REAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
+
+To neglect the Philosophies, Fine Arts, interests of Human
+Culture, he is least of all likely. The idea of building up the
+Academy of Sciences to its pristine height, or far higher, is
+evidently one of those that have long lain in the Crown-Prince's
+mind, eager to realize themselves. Immortal Wolf, exiled but safe
+at Marburg, and refusing to return in Friedrich Wilhelm's time,
+had lately dedicated a Book to the Crown-Prince; indicating that
+perhaps, under a new Reign, he might be more persuadable.
+Friedrich makes haste to persuade; instructs the proper person,
+Reverend Herr Reinbeck, Head of the Consistorium at Berlin, to
+write and negotiate. "All reasonable conditions shall be granted"
+the immortal Wolf,--and Friedrich adds with his own hand as
+Postscript: "I request you (IHN) to use all diligence about Wolf.
+A man that seeks truth, and loves it, must be reckoned precious in
+any human society; and I think you will make a conquest in the
+realm of truth if you persuade Wolf hither again." [In <italic>
+OEuvres de Frederic <end italic> (xxvii. ii. 185), the Letter
+given.] This is of date June 6th; not yet a week since Friedrich
+came to be King. The Reinbeck-Wolf negotiation which ensued can be
+read in Busching by the curious. [Busching's <italic> Beitrage
+<end italic> (? Freiherr von Wolf), i. 63-137.] It represents to
+us a croaky, thrifty, long-headed old Herr Professor, in no haste
+to quit Marburg except for something better: "obliged to wear
+woollen shoes and leggings;" "bad at mounting stairs;" and
+otherwise needing soft treatment. Willing, though with caution, to
+work at an Academy of Sciences;--but dubious if the French are so
+admirable as they seem to themselves in such operations.
+Veteran Wolf, one dimly begins to learn, could himself build a
+German Academy of Sciences, to some purpose, if encouraged!
+This latter was probably the stone of stumbling in that direction.
+Veteran Wolf did not get to be President in the New Academy of
+Sciences; but was brought back, "streets all in triumph," to his
+old place at Halle; and there, with little other work that was
+heard of, but we hope in warm shoes and without much mounting of
+stairs, lived peaceably victorious the rest of his days.
+Friedrich's thoughts are not of a German home-built Academy, but
+of a French one: and for this he already knows a builder;
+has silently had him in his eye, these two years past,--Voltaire
+giving hint, in the LETTER we once heard of at Loo. Builder shall
+be that sublime Maupertuis; scientific lion of Paris, ever since
+his feat in the Polar regions, and the charming Narrative he gave
+of it. "What a feat, what a book!" exclaimed the Parisian
+cultivated circles, male and female, on that occasion;
+and Maupertuis, with plenty of bluster in him carefully
+suppressed, assents in a grandly modest way. His Portraits are in
+the Printshops ever since; one very singular Portrait, just coming
+out (at which there is some laughing): a coarse-featured,
+blusterous, rather triumphant-looking man, blusterous, though
+finely complacent for the nonce; in copious dressing-gown and fur
+cap; comfortably SQUEEZING the Earth and her meridians flat (as if
+HE had done it), with his left hand; and with the other, and its
+outstretched finger, asking mankind, "Are not you aware, then?"--
+"Are not we!" answers Voltaire by and by, with endless waggeries
+upon him, though at present so reverent. Friedrich, in these same
+days, writes this Autograph; which who of men or lions
+could resist?
+
+
+TO MONSIEUR DE MAUPERTUIS, at Paris.
+
+(No date;--datable, June, 1740.)
+
+"My heart and my inclination excited in me, from the moment I
+mounted the throne, the desire of having you here, that you might
+put our Berlin Academy into the shape you alone are capable of
+giving it. Come, then, come and insert into this wild crab-tree
+the graft of the Sciences, that it may bear fruit. You have shown
+the Figure of the Earth to mankind; show also to a King how sweet
+it is to possess such a man as you.
+
+"Monsieur de Maupertuis,--votre tres-affectionne
+
+"FEDERIC" (SIC).
+[<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xvii. i. 334. The fantastic
+"Federic," instead of "Frederic," is, by this time, the common
+signature to French Letters.]
+
+This Letter--how could Maupertuis prevent some accident in such a
+case?--got into the Newspapers; glorious for Friedrich, glorious
+for Maupertuis; and raised matters to a still higher pitch.
+Maupertuis is on the road, and we shall see him before long.
+
+
+AND EVERY ONE SHALL GET TO HEAVEN IN HIS OWN WAY.
+
+Here is another little fact which had immense renown at home and
+abroad, in those summer months and long afterwards.
+
+June 22d, 1740, the GEISTLICHE DEPARTEMENT (Board of Religion, we
+may term it) reports that the Roman-Catholic Schools, which have
+been in use these eight years past, for children of soldiers
+belonging to that persuasion, "are, especially in Berlin,
+perverted, directly in the teeth of Royal Ordinance, 1732, to
+seducing Protestants into Catholicism;" annexed, or ready for
+annexing, "is the specific Report of Fiscal-General to this
+effect:"--upon which, what would it please his Majesty to direct
+us to do?
+
+His Majesty writes on the margin these words, rough and ready,
+which we give with all their grammatical blotches on them;
+indicating a mind made up on one subject, which was much more
+dubious then, to most other minds, than it now is:--
+
+"Die Religionen Musen (MUSSEN) alle Tollerirt (TOLERIRT) werden,
+und Mus (MUSS) der Fiscal nuhr (NUR) das Auge darauf haben, das
+(DASS) keine der andern abrug Tuhe (ABBRUCH THUE), den (DENN) hier
+mus (MUSS) ein jeder nach seiner Fasson Selich (FACON SELIG)
+werden." [Preuss, <italic> Thronbesteigung, <end italic> p. 333;
+Rodenbeck, IN DIE.
+
+Which in English might run as follows:--
+
+"All Religions must be tolerated (TOLLERATED), and the Fiscal must
+have an eye that none of them make unjust encroachment on the
+other; for in this Country every man must get to Heaven in his
+own way."
+
+Wonderful words; precious to the then leading spirits, and which
+(the spelling and grammar being mended) flew abroad over all the
+world: the enlightened Public everywhere answering his Majesty,
+once more, with its loudest "Bravissimo!" on this occasion.
+With what enthusiasm of admiring wonder, it is now difficult to
+fancy, after the lapse of sixscore years! And indeed, in regard to
+all these worthy acts of Human Improvement which we are now
+concerned with, account should be held (were it possible) on
+Friedrich's behalf how extremely original, and bright with the
+splendor of new gold, they then were: and how extremely they are
+fallen dim, by general circulation, since that. Account should be
+held; and yet it is not possible, no human imagination is adequate
+to it, in the times we are now got into.
+
+
+FREE PRESS, AND NEWSPAPERS THE BEST INSTRUCTORS.
+
+Toleration, in Friedrich's spiritual circumstances, was perhaps no
+great feat to Friedrich: but what the reader hardly expected of
+him was Freedom of the Press, or an attempt that way!
+From England, from Holland, Friedrich had heard of Free Press, of
+Newspapers the best Instructors: it is a fact that he hastens to
+plant a seed of that kind at Berlin; sets about it "on the second
+day of his reign," so eager is he. Berlin had already some meagre
+INTELLIGENZ-BLATT (Weekly or Thrice-Weekly Advertiser), perhaps
+two; but it is a real Newspaper, frondent with genial leafy
+speculation, and food for the mind, that Friedrich is intent upon:
+a "Literary-Political Newspaper," or were it even two Newspapers,
+one French, one German; and he rapidly makes the arrangements for
+it; despatches Jordan, on the second day, to seek some fit
+Frenchman. Arrangements are soon made: a Bookselling Printer,
+Haude, Bookseller once to the Prince-Royal,--whom we saw once in a
+domestic flash-of-lightning long ago, [Antea, Book vi. c. 7.]--is
+encouraged to proceed with the improved German article, MERCURY or
+whatever they called it; vapid Formey, a facile pen, but not a
+forcible, is the Editor sought out by Jordan for the French one.
+And, in short, No. 1 of Formey shows itself in print within a
+month; ["2d July, 1740:" Preuss, <italic> Thronbesteigung, <end
+italic> p. 330; and Formey, <italic> Souvenirs, <end italic>
+i. 107, rectified by the exact Herr Preuss.] and Haude and he,
+Haude picking up some grand Editor in Hamburg, do their best for
+the instruction of mankind.
+
+In not many months, Formey, a facile and learned but rather vapid
+gentleman, demitted or was dismissed; and the Journals coalesced
+into one, or split into two again; and went I know not what road,
+or roads, in time coming,--none that led to results worth naming.
+Freedom of the Press, in the case of these Journals, was never
+violated, nor was any need for violating it. General Freedom of
+the Press Friedrich did not grant, in any quite Official or steady
+way; but in practice, under him, it always had a kind of real
+existence, though a fluctuating, ambiguous one. And we have to
+note, through Friedrich's whole reign, a marked disinclination to
+concern himself with Censorship, or the shackling of men's poor
+tongues and pens; nothing but some officious report that there was
+offence to Foreign Courts, or the chance of offence, in a poor
+man's pamphlet, could induce Friedrich to interfere with him or
+it,--and indeed his interference was generally against his
+Ministers for having wrong informed him, and in favor of the poor
+Pamphleteer appealing at the fountain-head. [Anonymous (Laveaux),
+<italic> Vie de Frederic II., Roi de Prusse <end italic>
+(Strasbourg, 1787), iv. 82. A worthless, now nearly forgotten
+Book; but competent on this point, if on any; Laveaux (a handy
+fellow, fugitive Ex-Monk, with fugitive Ex-Nun attached) having
+lived much at Berlin, always in the pamphleteering line.]
+To the end of his life, disgusting Satires against him,
+<italic> Vie Privee <end italic> by Voltaire, <italic> Matinees du
+Roi de Prusse, <end italic> and still worse Lies and Nonsenses,
+were freely sold at Berlin, and even bore to be printed there,
+Friedrich saying nothing, caring nothing. He has been known to
+burn Pamphlets publicly,--one Pamphlet we shall ourselves see on
+fire yet;--but it was without the least hatred to them, and for
+official reasons merely. To the last, he would answer his
+reporting Ministers, "LE PRESSE EST LIBRE (Free press, you must
+consider)!"--grandly reluctant to meddle with the press, or go
+down upon the dogs barking at his door. Those ill effects of Free
+Press (first stage of the ill effects) he endured in this manner;
+but the good effects seem to have fallen below his expectation.
+Friedrich's enthusiam for freedom of the press, prompt enough, as
+we see, never rose to the extreme pitch, and it rather sank than
+increased as he continued his experiences of men and things.
+This of Formey and the two Newspapers was the only express attempt
+he made in that direction; and it proved a rather disappointing
+one. The two Newspapers went their way thenceforth, Friedrich
+sometimes making use of them for small purposes, once or twice
+writing an article himself, of wildly quizzical nature, perhaps to
+be noticed by us when the time comes; but are otherwise, except
+for chronological purposes, of the last degree of insignificance
+to gods or men.
+
+"Freedom of the Press," says my melancholic Friend, "is a noble
+thing; and in certain Nations, at certain epochs, produces
+glorious effects,--chiefly in the revolutionary line, where that
+has grown indispensable. Freedom of the Press is possible, where
+everybody disapproves the least abuse of it; where the
+'Censorship' is, as it were, exercised by all the world. When the
+world (as, even in the freest countries, it almost irresistibly
+tends to become) is no longer in a case to exercise that salutary
+function, and cannot keep down loud unwise speaking, loud unwise
+persuasion, and rebuke it into silence whenever printed, Freedom
+of the Press will not answer very long, among sane human
+creatures: and indeed, in Nations not in an exceptional case, it
+becomes impossible amazingly soon!"--
+
+All these are phenomena of Friedrich's first week. Let these
+suffice as sample, in that first kind. Splendid indications
+surely; and shot forth in swift enough succession, flash following
+flash, upon an attentive world. Betokening, shall we say, what
+internal sea of splendor, struggling to disclose itself, probably
+lies in this young King; and how high his hopes go for mankind and
+himself? Yes, surely;--and introducing, we remark withal, the "New
+Era," of Philanthropy, Enlightenment and so much else; with French
+Revolution, and a "world well suicided" hanging in the rear!
+Clearly enough, to this young ardent Friedrich, foremost man of
+his Time, and capable of DOING its inarticulate or dumb aspirings,
+belongs that questionable honor; and a very singular one it would
+have seemed to Friedrich, had he lived to see what it meant!
+
+Friedrich's rapidity and activity, in the first months of his
+reign, were wonderful to mankind; as indeed through life he
+continued to be a most rapid and active King. He flies about;
+mustering Troops, Ministerial Boards, passing Edicts, inspecting,
+accepting Homages of Provinces;--decides and does, every day that
+passes, an amazing number of things. Writes many Letters, too;
+finds moments even for some verses; and occasionally draws a
+snatch of melody from his flute.
+
+His Letters are copiously preserved; but, as usual, they are in
+swift official tone, and tell us almost nothing. To his Sisters he
+writes assurances; to his friends, his Suhms, Duhans, Voltaires,
+eager invitations, general or particular, to come to  him.
+"My state has changed," is his phrase to Voltaire and other dear
+intimates; a tone of pensiveness, at first even of sorrow and
+pathos traceable in it; "Come to me,"--and the tone, in an old
+dialect, different from Friedrich's, might have meant, "Pray for
+me." An immense new scene is opened, full of possibilities of good
+and bad. His hopes being great, his anxieties, the shadow of them,
+are proportionate. Duhan (his good old Tutor) does arrive,
+Algarotti arrives, warmly welcomed, both: with Voltaire there are
+difficulties; but surely he too will, before long, manage to
+arrive. The good Suhm, who had been Saxon Minister at Petersburg
+to his sorrow this long while back, got in motion soon enough;
+but, alas, his lungs were ruined by the Russian climate, and he
+did not arrive. Something pathetic still in those final LETTERS of
+Suhm. Passionately speeding on, like a spent steed struggling
+homeward; he has to pause at Warsaw, and in a few days dies
+there,--in a way mournful to Friedrich and us! To Duhan, and
+Duhan's children afterwards, he was punctually, not too lavishly,
+attentive; in like manner to Suhm's Nephews, whom the dying man
+had recommended to him.--We will now glance shortly at a second
+and contemporaneous phasis of Friedrich's affairs.
+
+
+INTENDS TO BE PRACTICAL WITHAL, AND EVERY INCH A KING.
+
+Friedrich is far indeed from thinking to reduce his Army, as the
+Foreign Editor imagines. On the contrary, he is, with all
+industry, increasing it. He changed the Potsdam Giants into four
+regiments of the usual stature; he is busy bargaining with his
+Brother-in-law of Brunswick, and with other neighbors, for still
+new regiments;--makes up, within the next few months, Eight
+Regiments, an increase of, say, 16,000 men. It would appear he
+means to keep an eye on the practicalities withal; means to have a
+Fighting-Apparatus of the utmost potentiality, for one thing.!
+Here are other indications.
+
+We saw the Old Dessauer, in a sad hour lately, speaking beside the
+mark; and with what Olympian glance, suddenly tearless, the new
+King flashed out upon him, knowing nothing of "authority" that
+could reside in any Dessauer. Nor was that a solitary experience;
+the like befell wherever needed. Heinrich of Schwedt, the Ill
+Margraf, advancing with jocose countenance in the way of old
+comradeship, in those first days, met unexpected rebuff, and was
+reduced to gravity on the sudden: "JETZT BIN ICH KONIG,--My
+Cousin, I am now King!" a fact which the Ill Margraf could never
+get forgotten again. Lieutenant-General Schulenburg, too, the
+didactic Schulenburg, presuming, on old familiarity, and willing
+to wipe out the misfortune of having once condemned us to death,
+which nobody is now upbraiding him with, rushes up from Landsberg,
+unbidden, to pay his congratulations and condolences, driven by
+irresistible exuberance of loyalty: to his astonishment, he is
+reminded (thing certain, manner of the thing not known), That an
+Officer cannot quit his post without order; that he, at this
+moment, ought to be in Landsberg! [Stenzel, iv. 41; Preuss,
+<italic> Thronbesteigung; <end italic> &c.] Schulenburg has a hard
+old military face; but here is a young face too, which has grown
+unexpectedly rigorous. Fancy the blank look of little Schulenburg;
+the light of him snuffed out in this manner on a sudden. It is
+said he had thoughts of resigning, so indignant was he: no doubt
+he went home to Landsberg gloomily reflective, with the pipe-clay
+of his mind in such a ruinous condition. But there was no
+serious anger, on Friedrich's part; and he consoled his little
+Schulenburg soon after, by expediting some promotion he had
+intended him. "Terribly proud young Majesty this," exclaim the
+sweet voices. And indeed, if they are to have a Saturnian Kingdom,
+by appearance it will be on conditions only!
+
+Anticipations there had been, that old unkindnesses against the
+Crown-Prince, some of which were cruel enough, might be remembered
+now: and certain people had their just fears, considering what
+account stood against them; others, VICE VERSA, their hopes.
+But neither the fears nor the hopes realized themselves;
+especially the fears proved altogether groundless. Derschau, who
+had voted Death in that Copenick Court-Martial, upon the Crown-
+Prince, is continued in his functions, in the light of his King's
+countenance, as if nothing such had been. Derschau, and all others
+so concerned; not the least question was made of them, nor of what
+they had thought or had done or said, on an occasion once so
+tragically vital to a certain man.
+
+Nor is reward much regulated by past services to the Crown-Prince,
+or even by sufferings endured for him. "Shocking ingratitude.!"
+exclaim the sweet voices here too,--being of weak judgment, many
+of them! Poor Katte's Father, a faithful old Soldier, not capable
+of being more, he does, rather conspicuously, make Feldmarschall,
+make Reichsgraf; happy, could these honors be a consolation to the
+old man. The Munchows of Custrin,--readers remember their kindness
+in that sad time; how the young boy went into petticoats again,
+and came to the Crown-Prince's cell with all manner of
+furnishings,--the Munchows, father and sons, this young gentleman
+of the petticoats among them, he took immediate pains to reward by
+promotion: eldest son was advanced into the General Directorium;
+two younger sons, to Majorship, to Captaincy, in their respective
+Regiments; him of the petticoats "he had already taken altogether
+to himself," [Preuss, i. 66.] and of him we shall see a glimpse at
+Wilhelmina's shortly, as a "milkbeard (JEUNE MORVEUX)" in personal
+attendance on his Majesty. This was a notable exception. And in
+effect there came good public service, eminent some of it, from
+these Munchows in their various departments. And it was at length
+perceived to have been, in the main, because they were of visible
+faculty for doing work that they had got work to do; and the
+exceptional case of the Munchows became confirmatory of the rule.
+
+Lieutenant Keith, again, whom we once saw galloping from Wesel to
+save his life in that bad affair of the Crown-Prince's and his,
+was nothing like so fortunate. Lieutenant Keith, by speed on that
+Wesel occasion, and help of Chesterfield's Secretary, got across
+to England; got into the Portuguese service; and has there been
+soldiering, very silently, these ten years past,--skin and body
+safe, though his effigy was cut in four quarters and nailed to the
+gallows at Wesel;--waiting a time that would come. Time being
+come, Lieutenant Keith hastened home; appealed to his effigy on
+the gallows;--and was made a Lieutenant-Colonel merely, with some
+slight appendages, as that of STALLMEISTER (Curator of the
+Stables) and something else; income still straitened, though
+enough to live upon. [Preuss, <italic> Friedrich mit Verwandten
+und Freunden, <end italic> p. 281.] Small promotion, in comparison
+with hope, thought the poor Lieutenant; but had to rest satisfied
+with it; and struggle to understand that perhaps he was fit for
+nothing bigger, and that he must exert himself to do this small
+thing well. Hardness of heart in high places! Friedrich, one is
+glad to see, had not forgotten the poor fellow, could he have done
+better with him. Some ten years hence, quite incidentally, there
+came to Keith, one morning, a fine purse of money from his
+Majesty, one pretty gift in Keith's experience;--much the topic in
+Berlin, while a certain solemn English gentleman happened to be
+passing that way (whom we mean to detain a little by and by), who
+reports it for us with all the circumstances. [Sir Jonas Hanway,
+<italic> Travels, <end italic> &c. (London, 1753), ii. 202.
+Date of the Gift is 1750.]
+
+Lieutenant Spaen too had got into trouble for the Crown-Prince's
+sake, though we have forgotten him again; had "admitted Katte to
+interviews," or we forget what;--had sat his "year in Spandau" in
+consequence; been dismissed the Prussian service, and had taken
+service with the Dutch. Lieutenant Spaen either did not return at
+all, or disliked the aspects when he did, and immediately withdrew
+to Holland again. Which probably was wise of him. At a late
+period, King Friedrich, then a great King, on one of his Cleve
+Journeys, fell in with Spaen; who had become a Dutch General of
+rank, and was of good manners and style of conversation:
+King Friedrich was charmed to see him; became his guest for the
+night; conversed delightfully with him, about old Prussian matters
+and about new; and in the colloquy never once alluded to that
+interesting passage in his young life and Spaen's. [Nicolai,
+<italic> Anekdoten, <end italic> vi. 178.] Hard as polished steel!
+thinks Spaen perhaps; but, if candid, must ask himself withal, Are
+facts any softer, or the Laws of Kingship to a man that holds it?
+--Keith silently did his Lieutenant-Colonelcy with the appendages,
+while life lasted: of the Page Keith, his Brother, who indeed had
+blabbed upon the Prince, as we remember, and was not entitled to
+be clamorous, I never heard that there was any notice taken;
+and figure him to myself as walking with shouldered firelock, a
+private Fusileer, all his life afterwards, with many reflections
+on things bygone. [These and the other Prussian Keiths are all of
+Scotch extraction; the Prussians, in natural German fashion,
+pronounce their name KAH-IT (English "KITE" with nothing of the Y
+in it), as may be worth remembering in a more important instance.]
+
+Old friendship, it would seem, is without weight in public
+appointments here: old friends are somewhat astonished to find
+this friend of theirs a King every inch! To old comrades, if they
+were useless, much more if they were worse than useless, how
+disappointing! "One wretched Herr [name suppressed, but known at
+the time, and talked of, and whispered of], who had, like several
+others, hoping to rise that way, been industrious in encouraging
+the Crown-Prince's vices as to women, was so shocked at the return
+he now met, that in despair he hanged himself in LobeJun"
+(Lobegun, Magdeburg Country): here is a case for the humane!
+[Kuster, <italic> Characterzuge des &c. von Saldern <end italic>
+(Berlin, 1793), p. 63.]
+
+Friend Keyserling himself, "Caesarion" that used to be, can get
+nothing, though we love him much; being an idle topsy-turvy fellow
+with revenues of his own. Jordan, with his fine-drawn wit, French
+logics, LITERARY TRAVELS, thin exactitude; what can be done for
+Jordan? Him also his new Majesty loves much; and knows that,
+without some official living, poor Jordan has no resource.
+Jordan, after some waiting and survey, is made "Inspector of the
+Poor;"--busy this Autumn looking out for vacant houses, and
+arrangements for the thousand spinning women;--continues to be
+employed in mixed literary services (hunting up of Formey, for
+Editor, was one instance), and to be in much real intimacy.
+That also was perhaps about the real amount of amiable Jordan.
+To get Jordan a living by planting him in some office which he
+could not do; to warm Jordan by burning our royal bed for him:
+that had not entered into the mind of Jordan's royal friend.
+The Munchows he did promote; the Finks, sons of his Tutor
+Finkenstein: to these and other old comrades, in whom he had
+discovered fitness, it is no doubt abundantly grateful to him to
+recognize and employ it. As he notably does, in these and in other
+instances. But before all things he has decided to remember that
+he is King; that he must accept the severe laws of that trust, and
+do IT, or not have done anything.
+ 
+An inverse sign, pointing in the same way, is the passionate
+search he is making in Foreign Countries for such men as will suit
+him. In these same months, for example, he bethinks him of two
+Counts Schmettau, in the Austrian Service, with whom he had made
+acquaintance in the Rhine Campaign; of a Count von Rothenburg,
+whom he saw in the French Camp there; and is negotiating to have
+them if possible. The Schmettaus are Prussian by birth, though in
+Austrian Service; them he obtains under form of an Order home,
+with good conditions under it; they came, and proved useful men
+to him. Rothenburg, a shining kind of figure in Diplomacy as well
+as Soldiership, was Alsatian German, foreign to Prussia; but him
+too Friedrich obtained, and made much of, as will be notable by
+and by. And in fact the soul of all these noble tendencies in
+Friedrich, which surely are considerable, is even this, That he
+loves men of merit, and does not love men of none; that he has an
+endless appetite for men of merit, and feels, consciously and
+otherwise, that they are the one thing beautiful, the one thing
+needful to him.
+
+This, which is the product of all fine tendencies, is likewise
+their centre or focus out of which they start again, with some
+chance of fulfilment;--and we may judge in how many directions
+Friedrich was willing to expand himself, by the multifarious kinds
+he was inviting, and negotiating for. Academicians,--and not
+Maupertuis only, but all manner of mathematical geniuses (Euler
+whom he got, 's Gravesande, Muschenbroek whom he failed of);
+and Literary geniuses innumerable, first and last. Academicians,
+Musicians, Players, Dancers even; much more Soldiers and Civil-
+Service men: no man that carries any honest "CAN DO" about with
+him but may expect some welcome here. Which continued through
+Friedrich's reign; and involved him in much petty trouble, not
+always successful in the lower kinds of it. For his Court was the
+cynosure of ambitious creatures on the wing, or inclined for
+taking wing: like a lantern kindled in the darkness of the world;
+--and many owls impinged upon him; whom he had to dismiss
+with brevity.
+
+Perhaps it had been better to stand by mere Prussian or German
+merit, native to the ground? Or rather, undoubtedly it had!
+In some departments, as in the military, the administrative,
+diplomatic, Friedrich was himself among the best of judges: but in
+various others he had mainly (mainly, by no means blindly or
+solely) to accept noise of reputation as evidence of merit; and in
+these, if we compute with rigor, his success was intrinsically not
+considerable. The more honor to him that he never wearied of
+trying. "A man that does not care for merit," says the adage,
+"cannot himself have any." But a King that does not care for
+merit, what shall we say of such a King!--
+
+
+BEHAVIOR TO HIS MOTHER; TO HIS WIFE.
+
+One other fine feature, significant of many, let us notice:
+his affection for his Mother. When his Mother addressed him as
+"Your Majesty," he answered, as the Books are careful to tell us:
+"Call me Son; that is the Title of all others most agreeable to
+me!" Words which, there can be no doubt, came from the heart.
+Fain would he shoot forth to greatness in filial piety, as
+otherwise; fain solace himself in doing something kind to his
+Mother. Generously, lovingly; though again with clear view of the
+limits. He decrees for her a Title higher than had been customary,
+as well as more accordant with his feelings; not "Queen Dowager,"
+but "Her Majesty the Queen Mother." He decides to build her a new
+Palace; "under the Lindens" it is to be, and of due magnificence:
+in a month or two, he had even got bits of the foundation dug,
+and the Houses to be pulled down bought or bargained for;
+[Rodenbeck, p. 15 (30th June-23d Aug. 1740); and correct Stenzel
+(iv. 44).]--which enterprise, however, was renounced, no doubt
+with consent, as the public aspects darkened. Nothing in the way
+of honor, in the way of real affection heartily felt and
+demonstrated, was wanting to Queen Sophie in her widowhood.
+But, on the other hand, of public influence no vestige was
+allowed, if any was ever claimed; and the good kind Mother lived
+in her Monbijou, the centre and summit of Berlin society;
+and restricted herself wisely to private matters. She has her
+domesticities, family affections, readings, speculations;
+gives evening parties at Monbijou. One glimpse of her in 1742 we
+get, that of a perfectly private royal Lady; which though it has
+little meaning, yet as it is authentic, coming from Busching's
+hand, may serve as one little twinkle in that total darkness, and
+shall be left to the reader and his fancy:--
+
+A Count Henkel, a Thuringian gentleman, of high speculation, high
+pietistic ways, extremely devout, and given even to writing of
+religion, came to Berlin about some Silesian properties,--a man I
+should think of lofty melancholic aspect; and, in severe type,
+somewhat of a lion, on account of his Book called "DEATH-BED
+SCENES, in four Volumes." Came to Berlin; and on the 15th August,
+1742, towards evening (as the ever-punctual Busching looking into
+Henkel's Papers gives it), "was presented to the Queen Mother;
+who retained him to supper; supper not beginning till about ten
+o'clock. The Queen Mother was extremely gracious to Henkel;
+but investigated him a good deal, and put a great many questions,"
+not quite easy to answer in that circle, "as, Why he did not play?
+What he thought of comedies and operas? What Preachers he was
+acquainted with in Berlin? Whether he too was a Writer of Books?
+[covertly alluding to the DEATH-BED SCENES, notes Busching].
+And abundance of other questioning. She also recounted many
+fantastic anecdotes (VIEL ABENTEUERLICHES) about Count von
+Zinzendorf [Founder of HERNNHUTH, far-shining spiritual Paladin of
+that day, whom her Majesty thinks rather a spiritual Quixote]; and
+declared that they were strictly true." [Busching's <italic>
+Beitrage, <end italic> iv. 27.]' Upon which, EXIT Henkel, borne by
+Busching, and our light is snuffed out.
+
+This is one momentary glance I have met with of Queen Sophie in
+her Dowager state. The rest, though there were seventeen years of
+it in all, is silent to mankind and me; and only her death, and
+her Son's great grief about it, so great as to be surprising, is
+mentioned in the Books.
+
+Actual painful sorrow about his Father, much more any new outburst
+of weeping and lamenting, is not on record, after that first
+morning. Time does its work; and in such a whirl of occupations,
+sooner than elsewhere: and the loved Dead lie silent in their
+mausoleum in our hearts,--serenely sad as Eternity, not in loud
+sorrow as of Time. Friedrich was pious as a Son, however he might
+be on other heads. To the last years of his life, as from the
+first days of his reign, it was evident in what honor he held
+Friedrich Wilhelm's memory; and the words "my Father," when they
+turned up in discourse, had in that fine voice of his a tone which
+the observers noted. "To his Mother he failed no day, when in
+Berlin, however busy, to make his visit; and he never spoke to
+her, except hat in hand."
+
+With his own Queen, Friedrich still consorts a good deal, in these
+first times; is with her at Charlottenburg, Berlin, Potsdam,
+Reinsberg, for a day or two, as occasion gives; sometimes at
+Reinsberg for weeks running, in the intervals of war and business:
+glad to be at rest amid his old pursuits, by the side of a kind
+innocent being familiar to him. So it lasts for a length of time.
+But these happy intervals, we can remark, grow rarer: whether the
+Lady's humor, as they became rarer, might not sink withal, and
+produce an acceleration in the rate of decline? She was thought to
+be capable of "pouting (FAIRE LA FACHEE)," at one period! We are
+left to our guesses; there is not anywhere the smallest whisper to
+guide us. Deep silence reigns in all Prussian Books.--To feel or
+to suspect yourself neglected, and to become MORE amiable
+thereupon (in which course alone lies hope), is difficult for any
+Queen! Enough, we can observe these meetings, within two or three
+years, have become much rarer; and perhaps about the end of the
+third or fourth year, they altogether cease; and pass merely into
+the formal character. In which state they continued fixed, liable
+to no uncertainty; and were transacted, to the end of Friedrich's
+life, with inflexible regularity as the annual reviews were.
+This is a curious section of his life; which there will be other
+opportunities of noticing. But there is yet no thought of it
+anywhere, nor for years to come; though fables to the contrary
+were once current in Books. [Laveaux, &c.]
+
+
+NO CHANGE IN HIS FATHER'S METHODS OR MINISTRIES.
+
+In the old mode of Administration, in the Ministries, Government
+Boards, he made no change. These administrative methods of his
+wise Father's are admirable to Friedrich, who knows them well;
+and they continue to be so. These men of his Father's, them also
+Friedrich knows, and that they were well chosen. In methods or in
+men, he is inclined to make the minimum of alteration at present.
+One Finance Hofrath of a projecting turn, named Eckart, who had
+abused the last weak years of Friedrich Wilhelm, and much
+afflicted mankind by the favor he was in: this Eckart Friedrich
+appointed a commission to inquire into; found the public right in
+regard to Eckart, and dismissed him with ignominy, not with much
+other punishment. Minister Boden, on the contrary, high in the
+Finance Department, who had also been much grumbled at, Friedrich
+found to be a good man: and Friedrich not only retained Boden, but
+advanced him; and continued to make more and more use of him in
+time coming. His love of perfection in work done, his care of
+thrift, seemed almost greater than his late Father's had been,--to
+the disappointment of many. In the other Departments, Podewils,
+Thulmeyer and the rest went on as heretofore;--only in general
+with less to do, the young King doing more himself than had been
+usual. Valori, "MON GROS VALORI (my fat Valori)," French Minister
+here, whom we shall know better, writes home of the new King of
+Prussia: "He begins his government, as by all appearance he will
+carry it on, in a highly satisfactory way: everywhere traits of
+benevolence, sympathy for his subjects, respect shown to the
+memory of the Deceased," [<italic>Memoires des Negociations du
+Marquis de Valori <end italic> (a Paris, 1820), i. 20 ("June 13th,
+1740"). A valuable Book, which we shall often have to quote:
+edited in a lamentably ignorant manner.]--no change made, where it
+evidently is not for the better.
+
+Friedrich's "Three principal Secretaries of State," as we should
+designate them, are very remarkable. Three Clerks he found, or had
+known of, somewhere in the Public Offices; and now took, under
+some advanced title, to be specially his own Private Clerks:
+three vigorous long-headed young fellows, "Eichel, Schuhmacher,
+Lautensack" the obscure names of them; [Rodenbeck, 15th June,
+1740.] out of whom, now and all along henceforth, he got
+immensities of work in that kind. They lasted all his life;
+and, of course, grew ever more expert at their function.
+Close, silent; exact as machinery: ever ready, from the smallest
+clear hint, marginal pencil-mark, almost from a glance of the eye,
+to clothe the Royal Will in official form, with the due rugged
+clearness and thrift of words. "Came punctually at four in the
+morning in summer, five in winter;" did daily the day's work;
+and kept their mouths well shut. A very notable Trio of men;
+serving his Majesty and the Prussian Nation as Principal
+Secretaries of State, on those cheap terms;--nay almost as Houses
+of Parliament with Standing Committees and appendages, so many
+Acts of Parliament admittedly rather wise, being passed daily by
+his Majesty's help and theirs!--Friedrich paid them rather well;
+they saw no society; lived wholly to their work, and to their own
+families. Eichel alone of the three was mentioned at all by
+mankind, and that obscurely; an "abstruse, reserved, long-headed
+kind of man;" and "made a great deal of money in the end,"
+insinuates Busching, [<italic> Beitrage, <end italic} v. 238, &c.]
+no friend of Friedrich's or his.
+
+In superficial respects, again, Friedrich finds that the Prussian
+King ought to have a King's Establishment, and maintain a decent
+splendor among his neighbors,--as is not quite the case at
+present. In this respect he does make changes. A certain quantity
+of new Pages, new Goldsticks; some considerable, not too
+considerable, new furbishing of the Royal Household,--as it were,
+a fair coat of new paint, with gilding not profuse,--brought it to
+the right pitch for this King, About "a hundred and fifty" new
+figures of the Page and Goldstick kind, is the reckoning given.
+[<italic> Helden Geschichte, <end italic> i. 353.] So many of
+these; and there is an increase of 16,000 to one's Army going on:
+that is the proportion noticeable. In the facts as his Father left
+them Friedrich persisted all his life; in the semblances or outer
+vestures he changed, to this extent for the present.--These are
+the Phenomena of Friedrich's Accession, noted by us.
+
+Readers see there is radiance enough, perhaps slightly in excess,
+but of intrinsically good quality, in the Aurora of this new
+Reign. A brilliant valiant young King; much splendor of what we
+could call a golden or soft nature (visible in those "New-Era"
+doings of his, in those strong affections to his Friends); and
+also, what we like almost better in him, something of a STEEL-
+BRIGHT or stellar splendor (meaning, clearness of eyesight,
+intrepidity, severe loyalty to fact),--which is a fine addition to
+the softer element, and will keep IT and its philanthropies and
+magnanimities well under rule. Such a man is rare in this world;
+how extremely rare such a man born King! He is swift and he is
+persistent; sharply discerning, fearless to resolve and perform;
+carries his great endowments lightly, as if they were not heavy to
+him. He has known hard misery, been taught by stripes; a light
+stoicism sits gracefully on him.
+
+"What he will grow to?" Probably to something considerable.
+Very certainly to something far short of his aspirations;
+far different from his own hopes; and the world's concerning him.
+It is not we, it is Father Time that does the controlling and
+fulfilling of our hopes; and strange work he makes of them and us.
+For example, has not Friedrich's grand "New Era," inaugurated by
+him in a week, with the leading spirits all adoring, issued since
+in French Revolution and a "world well suicided,"--the leading
+spirits much thrown out in consequence! New Era has gone to great
+lengths since Friedrich's time; and the leading spirits do not now
+adore it, but yawn over it, or worse! Which changes to us the then
+aspect of Friedrich, and his epoch and his aspirations, a good
+deal.--On the whole, Friedrich will go his way, Time and the
+leading spirits going theirs; and, like the rest of us, will grow
+to what he can. His actual size is not great among the Kingdoms:
+his outward resources are rather to be called small. The Prussian
+Dominion at that date is, in extent, about four-fifths of an
+England Proper, and perhaps not one-fifth so fertile:
+subject Population is well under Two Millions and a Half; Revenue
+not much above One Million Sterling,' [The exact statistic cipher
+is, at Friedrich's Accession: PRUSSIAN TERRITORIES, 2,275 square
+miles German (56,875 English); POPULATION, 2,240,000; ANNUAL
+REVENUE, 7,371,707 thalers 7 groschen (1,105,756 pounds without
+the pence). See Prenss, <italic> Buch fur Jedermann, <end italic>
+i. 49; Stenzel, iii. 692; &c.]--very small, were not thrift such
+a VECTIGAL.
+
+This young King is magnanimous; not much to be called ambitious,
+or not in the vulgar sense almost at all,--strange as it may sound
+to readers. His hopes at this time are many;--and among them,
+I perceive, there is not wanting secretly, in spite of his
+experiences, some hope that he himself may be a good deal
+"happier" than formerly. Nor is there any ascetic humor, on his
+part, to forbid trial. He is much determined to try.
+Probably enough, as we guess and gather, his agreeablest
+anticipations, at this time, were of Reinsberg: How, in the
+intervals of work well done, he would live there wholly to the
+Muses; have his chosen spirits round him, his colloquies, his
+suppers of the gods. Why not? There might be a King of Intellects
+conceivable withal; protecting, cherishing, practically guiding
+the chosen Illuminative Souls of this world. A new Charlemagne,
+the smallest new Charlemagne of Spiritual type, with HIS Paladins
+round him; how glorious, how salutary in the dim generations now
+going!--These too were hopes which proved signally futile.
+Rigorous Time could not grant these at all;--granted, in his own
+hard way, other things instead. But, all along, the Life-element,
+the Epoch, though Friedrich took it kindly and never complained,
+was ungenial to such a man.
+
+"Somewhat of a rotten Epoch, this into which Friedrich has been
+born, to shape himself and his activities royal and other!"--
+exclaims Smelfungus once: "In an older earnest Time, when the
+eternally awful meanings of this Universe had not yet sunk into
+dubieties to any one, much less into levities or into mendacities,
+into huge hypocrisies carefully regulated,--so luminous, vivid and
+ingenuous a young creature had not wanted divine manna in his
+Pilgrimage through Life. Nor, in that case, had he come out of it
+in so lean a condition. But the highest man of us is born brother
+to his Contemporaries; struggle as he may, there is no escaping
+the family likeness. By spasmodic indignant contradiction of them,
+by stupid compliance with them,--you will inversely resemble, if
+you do not directly; like the starling, you can't get out!--Most
+surely, if there do fall manna from Heaven, in the given
+Generation, and nourish in us reverence and genial nobleness day
+by day, it is blessed and well. Failing that, in regard to our
+poor spiritual interests, there is sure to be one of two results:
+mockery, contempt, disbelief, what we may call SHORT-DIET to the
+length of very famine (which was Friedrich's case); or else slow-
+poison, carefully elaborated and provided by way of
+daily nourishment.
+
+"Unhappy souls, these same! The slow-poison has gone deep into
+them. Instead of manna, this long while back, they have been
+living on mouldy corrupt meats sweetened by sugar-of-lead;
+or perhaps, like Voltaire, a few individuals prefer hunger, as the
+cleaner alternative; and in contemptuous, barren, mocking humor,
+not yet got the length of geniality or indignation, snuff the
+east-wind by way of spiritual diet. Pilgriming along on such
+nourishment, the best human soul fails to become very ruddy!--
+Tidings about Heaven are fallen so uncertain, but the Earth and
+her joys are still Interesting: 'Take to the Earth and her joys;--
+let your soul go out, since it must; let your five senses and
+their appetites be well alive.' That is a dreadful 'Sham-Christian
+Dispensation' to be born under! You wonder at the want of heroism
+in the Eighteenth Century. Wonder rather at the degree of heroism
+it had; wonder how many souls there still are to be met with in it
+of some effective capability, though dieting in that way,--nothing
+else to be had in the shops about. Carterets, Belleisles,
+Friedrichs, Voltaires; Chathams, Franklins, Choiseuls: there is an
+effective stroke of work, a fine fire of heroic pride, in this man
+and the other; not yet extinguished by spiritual famine or slow-
+poison; so robust is Nature the mighty Mother!--
+
+"But in general, that sad Gospel, 'Souls extinct, Stomachs well
+alive!' is the credible one, not articulately preached, but
+practically believed by the abject generations, and acted on as it
+never was before. What immense sensualities there were, is known;
+and also (as some small offset, though that has not yet begun in
+1740) what immense quantities of Physical Labor and contrivance
+were got out of mankind, in that Epoch and down to this day.
+As if, having lost its Heaven, it had struck desperately down into
+the Earth; as if it were a BEAVER-kind, and not a mankind any
+more. We had once a Barbaossa; and a world all grandly true.
+But from that to Karl VI., and HIS Holy Romish Reich in such a
+state of 'Holiness'--!" I here cut short my abstruse Friend.
+
+Readers are impatient to have done with these miscellaneous
+preludings, and to be once definitely under way, such a Journey
+lying ahead. Yes, readers; a Journey indeed! And, at this point,
+permit me to warn you that, where the ground, where Dryasdust and
+the Destinies, yield anything humanly illustrative of Friedrich
+and his Work, one will have to linger, and carefully gather it,
+even as here. Large tracts occur, bestrewn with mere pedantisms,
+diplomatic cobwebberies, learned marine-stores, and inhuman
+matter, over which we shall have to skip empty-handed: this also
+was among the sad conditions of our Enterprise, that it has to go
+now too slow and again too fast; not in proportion to natural
+importance of objects, but to several inferior considerations
+withal. So busy has perverse Destiny been on it; perverse Destiny,
+edacious Chance;--and the Dryasdusts, too, and Nightmares, in
+Prussia as elsewhere, we know how strong they are!
+
+Friedrich's character in old age has doubtless its curious
+affinities, its disguised identities, with these prognostic
+features and indications of his youth: and to our readers,--if we
+do ever get them to the goal, of seeing Friedrich a little with
+their own eyes and judgments,--there may be pleasant contrasts and
+comparisons of that kind in store, one day. But the far commoner
+experience (which also has been my own),--here is Smelfungus's
+stern account of that:-- 
+
+"My friend, you will be luckier than I, if, after ten years, not
+to say, in a sense, twenty years, thirty years, of reading and
+rummaging in those sad Prussian Books, ancient and new (which
+often are laudably authentic, too, and exact as to details), you
+can gather any character whatever of Friedrich, in any period of
+his life, or conceive him as a Human Entity at all! It is strange,
+after such thousand-fold writing, but it is true, his History is
+considerably unintelligible to mankind at this hour; left chaotic,
+enigmatic, in a good many points,--the military part of it alone
+being brought to clearness, and rendered fairly conceivable and
+credible to those who will study. And as to the Man himself, or
+what his real Physiognomy can have been--! Well, it must be owned
+few men were of such RAPIDITY of face and aspect; so difficult to
+seize the features of. In his action, too, there was such
+rapidity, such secrecy, suddenness: a man that could not be read,
+even by the candid, except as in flashes of lightning. And then
+the anger of by-standers, uncandid, who got hurt by him; the hasty
+malevolences, the stupidities, the opacities: enough, in modern
+times, what is saying much, perhaps no man's motives, intentions,
+and procedure have been more belied, misunderstood,
+misrepresented, during his life. Nor, I think, since that, have
+many men fared worse, by the Limner or Biographic class, the
+favorable to him and the unfavorable; or been so smeared of and
+blotched of, and reduced to a mere blur and dazzlement of cross-
+lights, incoherences, incredibilities, in which nothing, not so
+much as a human nose, is clearly discernible by way of feature!"--
+Courage, reader, nevertheless; on the above terms let us march
+according to promise.
+
+
+
+Chapter II.
+
+THE HOMAGINGS.
+
+Young Friedrich, as his Father had done, considers it unnecessary
+to be crowned. Old Friedrich, first of the name, and of the King
+series, we did see crowned, with a pinch of snuff tempering the
+solemnities. That Coronation once well done suffices all his
+descendants hitherto. Such an expense of money,--of diluted
+mendacity too! Such haranguing, gesturing, symbolic fugling, all
+grown half false:--avoid lying, even with your eyes, or knees, or
+the coat upon your back, so far as you easily can!
+
+Nothing of Coronation: but it is thought needful to have the
+HULDIGUNGEN (Homagings) done, the Fealties sworn; and the young
+Majesty in due course goes about, or gives directions, now here
+now there, in his various Provinces, getting that accomplished.
+But even in that, Friedrich is by no means strait-laced or
+punctilious; does it commonly by Deputy: only in three places,
+Konigsberg, Berlin, Cleve, does he appear in person. Mainly by
+deputy; and always with the minimum of fuss, and no haranguing
+that could be avoided. Nowhere are the old STANDE (Provincial
+Parliaments) assembled, now or afterwards: sufficient for this and
+for every occasion are the "Permanent Committees of the STANDE;"
+nor is much speaking, unessential for despatch of business, used
+to these. 
+
+"STANDE--of Ritterschaft mainly, of Gentry small and great--
+existed once in all those Countries, as elsewhere," says one
+Historian; "and some of them, in Preussen, for example, used to be
+rather loud, and inclined to turbulence, till the curb, from a
+judicious bridle-hand, would admonish them. But, for a long while
+past,--especially since the Great Elector's time, who got an
+'Excise Law' passed, or the foundations of a good Excise Law laid;
+[Preuss, iv. 432; and <italic> Thronbesteigung, <end italic>
+pp. 379-383.] and, what with Excise, what with Domain-Farms, had a
+fixed Annual Budget, which he reckoned fair to both parties,--they
+have been dying out for want of work; and, under Friedrich
+Wilhelm, may be said to have gone quite dead. What work was left
+for them? Prussian Budget is fixed, many things are fixed:
+why talk of them farther? The Prussian King, nothing of a fool
+like certain others,"--which indeed is the cardinal point, though
+my Author does not say so,--"is respectfully aware of the facts
+round him; and can listen to the rumors too, so far as he finds
+good. The King sees himself terribly interested to get into the
+right course in all things, and avoid the wrong one! Probably he
+does, in his way, seek 'wise Advice concerning the arduous matters
+of the Kingdom;' nay I believe he is diligent to have it of the
+wisest:--who knows if STANDE would always give it wiser;
+especially STANDE in the haranguing condition?"--Enough, they are
+not applied to. There is no Freedom in that Country. "No Freedom
+to speak of," continues he: "but I do a little envy them their
+Fixed Budget, and some other things. What pleasure there can be in
+having your household arrangements tumbled into disorder every new
+Year, by a new-contrived scale of expenses for you, I never could
+ascertain!"--
+
+Friedrich is not the man to awaken Parliamentary sleeping-dogs
+well settled by his Ancestors. Once or twice, out of Preussen, in
+Friedrich Wilhelm's time, there was heard some whimper, which
+sounded like the beginning of a bark. But Friedrich Wilhelm was on
+the alert for it: Are you coming in with your NIE POZWALAM (your
+LIBERUM VETO), then? None of your Polish vagaries here. "TOUT LE
+PAYS SERA RUINE (the whole Country will be ruined)," say you?
+(Such had been the poor Marshal or Provincial SPEAKER'S
+Remonstrance on one occasion): "I don't believe a word of that.
+But I do believe the Government by JUNKERS [Country Squires] and
+NIE POZWALAM will be ruined,"--as it is fully meant to be! "I am
+establishing the King's Sovereignty like a rock of bronze (ICH
+STABILIRE DIE SOUVERAINETAT WIE EINEN ROCHER VON BRONZE)," some
+extremely strong kind of rock! [Forster, b. iii.
+(<italic> Urkundenbuch, <end italic> i. 50); Preuss, iv. 420 n.
+"NIE POZWALAM" (the formula of LIBERUM VETO) signifies "I Don't
+Permit!"] This was one of Friedrich Wilhelm's marginalia in
+response to such a thing; and the mutinous whimper died out again.
+Parliamentary Assemblages are sometimes Collective Wisdoms, but
+by no means always so. In Magdeburg we remember what trouble
+Friedrich Wilhelm had with his unreasonable Ritters.
+Ritters there, in their assembled capacity, had the Reich behind
+them, and could not be dealt with like Preussen: but Friedrich
+Wilhelm, by wise slow methods, managed Magdeburg too, and reduced
+it to silence, or to words necessary for despatch of business.
+
+In each Province, a Permanent Committee--chosen, I suppose, by
+King and Knights assenting; chosen I know not how, but admitted to
+be wisely chosen--represents the once Parliament or STANDE; and
+has its potency for doing good service in regard to all Provincial
+matters, from roads and bridges upwards, and is impotent to do the
+least harm. Roads and bridges, Church matters, repartition of the
+Land-dues, Army matters,--in fact they are an effective non-
+haranguing Parliament, to the King's Deputy in every such
+Province; well calculated to illuminate and forward his subaltern
+AMTmen and him. Nay, we observe it is oftenest in the way of gifts
+and solacements that the King articulately communicates with these
+Committees or their Ritterschafts. Projects for Draining of Bogs,
+for improved Highways, for better Husbandry; loans granted them,
+Loan-Banks established for the Province's behoof:--no need of
+parliamentary eloquence on such occasions, but of something
+far different.
+
+It is from this quiescent, or busy but noiseless kind of STANDE
+and Populations that Friedrich has his HULDIGUNG to take;--and the
+operation, whether done personally or by deputy, must be an
+abundantly simple one. He, for his part, is fortunate enough to
+find everywhere the Sovereignty ESTABLISHED; "rock of bronze" not
+the least shaken in his time. He will graciously undertake, by
+Written Act, which is read before the STANDE, King or King's
+Deputy witnessing there, "To maintain the privileges" of his
+STANDE and Populations; the STANDE answer, on oath, with lifted
+hand, and express invocation of Heaven, That they will obey him as
+true subjects; And so--doubtless with something of dining
+superadded, but no whisper of it put on record--the HULDIGUNG will
+everywhere very quietly transact itself.
+
+The HULDIGUNG itself is nothing to us, even with Friedrich there,
+--as at Konigsberg, Berlin, Cleve, the three exceptional places.
+To which, nevertheless, let us briefly attend him, for the sake of
+here and there some direct glimpse we may get of the then
+Friedrich's actual physiognomy and ways. Other direct view, or the
+chance of such, is not conceded us out of those sad Prussian
+Books; which are very full on this of the HULDIGUNG, if silent on
+so many other points. [Preuss, <italic> Thronbesteigung, <end
+italic> p. 382.]
+
+
+FRIEDRICH ACCEPTS THE HOMAGES, PERSONALLY, IN THREE PLACES.
+
+To Konigsberg is his first excursion on this errand. Preussen has
+perhaps, or may be suspected of having, some remnants of sour
+humors left in it, and remembrances of STANDE with haranguings and
+even mutinies: there if anywhere the King in person may do good on
+such an occasion, He left Berlin, July 7th, bound thitherward;
+here is Note of that first Royal Tour,--specimen of several
+hundreds such, which he had to do in the course of the next
+forty-five years.
+
+"Friend Algarotti, charming talker, attended him; who else,
+official and non-official, ask not. The Journey is to be
+circuitous; to combine various businesses, and also to have its
+amusements. They went by Custrin; glancing at old known Country,
+which is at its greenest in this season. By Custrin, across the
+Neumark, into Pommern; after that by an intricate winding route;
+reviewing regiments, inspecting garrisons, now here now there;
+doing all manner of inspections; talking I know not what; oftenest
+lodging with favored Generals, if it suited. Distance to
+Konigsberg, by the direct road, is about 500 miles; by this
+winding one, it must have been 800: Journey thither took nine days
+in all. Obliquely through Pommern, almost to the coast of the
+Baltic; their ultimatum there a place called Coslin, where they
+reviewed with strictness,--omitting Colberg, a small Sea-Fortress
+not far rearward, time being short. Thence into West-Preussen,
+into Polish Territory, and swiftly across that; keeping Dantzig
+and its noises wide enough to the left: one night in Poland;
+and the next they are in Ost-Preussen, place called Liebstadt,--
+again on home-ground, and diligently reviewing there.
+
+"The review at Liebstadt is remarkable in this, That the
+regiments, one regiment especially, not being what was fit, a
+certain Grenadier-Captain got cashiered on the spot; and the old
+Commandant himself was soon after pensioned, and more gently sent
+his ways. So strict is his Majesty. Contrariwise, he found
+Lieutenant-General von Katte's Garrison, at Angerburg, next day,
+in a very high perfection; and Colonel Posadowsky's regiment
+specially so; with which latter gentleman he lodged that night,
+and made him farther happy by the ORDER OF MERIT: Colonel
+Posadowsky, Garrison of Angerburg, far off in East-Preussen,
+Chevalier of the Order of Merit henceforth, if we ever meet him
+again. To the good old Lieutenant-General von Katte, who no doubt
+dined with them, his Majesty handed, on the same occasion, a
+Patent of Feldmarschall;--intends soon to make him Graf; and did
+it, as readers know. Both Colonel and General attended him
+thenceforth, still by a circuitous route, to Konigsberg, to assist
+in the solemnities there. By Gumbinnen, by Trakehnen,--the Stud of
+Trakehnen: that also his Majesty saw, and made review of;
+not without emotion, we can fancy, as the sleek colts were trotted
+out on those new terms! At Trakehnen, Katte and the Colonel would
+be his Majesty's guests, for the night they stayed. This is their
+extreme point eastward; Konigsberg now lies a good way west of
+them. But at Trakehnen they turn; and, Saturday, 16th July, 1740,
+after another hundred miles or so, along the pleasant valley of
+the Pregel, get to Konigsberg: ready to begin business on Monday
+morning,--on Sunday if necessary." [From Preuss, <italic>
+Thronbesteigung, <end italic> pp. 382, 385; Rodenbeck, p. 16; &c.]
+
+On Sunday there did a kind of memorability occur: The HULDIGUNGS-
+PREDIGT (Homage Sermon)--by a reverend Herr Quandt, chief Preacher
+there. Which would not be worth mentioning, except for this
+circumstance, that his Majesty exceedingly admired Quandt, and
+thought him a most Demosthenic genius, and the best of all the
+Germans. Quandt's text was in these words: <italic> "Thine are we,
+David, and on thy side, thou Son of Jesse; Peace, peace be unto
+thee, and peace be to thine helpers; for thy God helpeth thee."
+<end italic> [<italic> First Chronicles, <end italic> xii. 18.]
+Quandt began, in a sonorous voice, raising his face with
+respectful enthusiasm to the King, "Thine are we, O Friedrich, and
+on thy side, thou Son of Friedrich Wilhelm;" and so went on:
+sermon brief, sonorous, compact, and sticking close to its text.
+Friedrich stood immovable, gazing on the eloquent Demosthenic
+Quandt, with admiration heightened by surprise;--wrote of Quandt
+to Voltaire; and, with sustained enthusiasm, to the Public long
+afterwards; and to the end of his days was wont to make Quandt an
+exception, if perhaps almost the only one, from German barbarism,
+and disharmony of mind and tongue. So that poor Quandt cannot ever
+since get entirely forgotten, but needs always to be raked up
+again, for this reason when others have ceased: an almost
+melancholy adventure for poor Quandt and Another!--
+
+The HULDIGUNG was rather grand; Harangue and Counter-harangue
+permitted to the due length, and proper festivities following:
+but the STANDE could not manage to get into vocal covenanting or
+deliberating at all; Friedrich before leaving Berlin had answered
+their hint or request that way, in these words: "We are likewise
+graciously inclined to give to the said STANDE, before their
+Homaging, the same assurance which they got from our Herr Father's
+Majesty, who is now with God,"--general assurance that their, and
+everybody's, "Rights shall be maintained [as we see they are],--
+with which, it is hoped (HOFFENTLICH), they will be content, and
+get to peace upon this matter (SICH DABEI BERUHIGEN WERDEN)."
+[Preuss, <italic> Thronbesteigung, <end italic> p. 380.] It will
+be best for them!
+
+Friedrich gave away much corn here; that is, opened his Corn-
+Granaries, on charitable terms, and took all manner of measures,
+here as in other places, for relief of the scarcity there was.
+Of the illuminations, never so grand, the reader shall hear
+nothing. A "Torch-Procession of the Students" turned out a pretty
+thing:--Students marching with torches, with fine wind-music,
+regulated enthusiasm, fine succinct address to his Majesty;
+and all the world escorting, with its "Live Forever!" Friedrich
+gave the Students "a TRINK-GELAG (Banquet of Liquors)," how
+arranged I do not know: and to the Speaker of the Address, a
+likely young gentleman with VON to his name, he offered an
+Ensigncy of Foot ("in Camas's Fusileer Regiment,"--Camas now gone
+to Paris, embassying), which was joyfully accepted.
+Joyfully accepted;--and it turned out well for all parties;
+the young gentleman having risen, where merit was the rule of
+rising, and become Graf and Lieutenant-General, in the course of
+the next fifty years. [Preuss, <italic> Thronbesteigung, <end
+italic> p. 387.]
+
+Huldigung and Torch-Procession over, the Royal Party dashed
+rapidly off, next morning (21st July), homewards by the shortest
+route; and, in three days more, by Frankfurt-on-Oder (where a
+glimpse of General Schwerin, a favorite General, was to be had),
+were safe in Berlin; received with acclamation, nay with
+"blessings and even tears" some say, after this pleasant
+Fortnight's Tour. General Schwerin, it is rumored, will be made
+Feldmarschall straightway, the Munchows are getting so promoted as
+we said; edicts are coming out, much business speeding forward,
+and the tongues of men keep wagging.
+
+Berlin HULDIGUNG--and indeed, by Deputy, that of nearly all the
+other Towns--was on Tuesday, August 2d. At Berlin his Majesty was
+present in the matter: but, except the gazing multitudes, and
+hussar regiments, ranked in the Schloss-Platz and streets
+adjoining, there was little of notable in it; the upholstery
+arrangements thrifty in the extreme. His Majesty is prone to
+thrift in this of the Huldigung, as would appear; perhaps
+regarding the affair as scenic merely. Here, besides this of
+Berlin, is another instance just occurring. It appears, the
+Quedlinburg people, shut out from the light of the actual Royal
+Countenance, cannot do their Homaging by Deputy, without at least
+a Portrait of the King and of the Queen: How manage? asks the
+Official Person. "Have a Couple of Daubs done in Berlin, three
+guineas apiece; send them these," answers the King! [<italic> "On
+doit faire barbouiller de mauvaises copies a Berlin, la piece a 20
+ecus. {end italic>--FR." Preuss, ii. (<italic> Urkundenbuch, <end
+italic> s. 222).]
+
+Here in the Berlin Schloss, scene the Large Hall within doors,
+there is a "platform raised three steps; and on this, by way of a
+kind of throne, an arm-chair covered with old black velvet;" the
+whole surmounted by a canopy also of old black velvet: not a
+sublime piece of upholstery; but reckoned adequate.
+Friedrich mounted the three steps; stood before the old chair, his
+Princes standing promiscuously behind it; his Ritters in quantity,
+in front and to right and left, on the floor. Some Minister of the
+Interior explains suitably, not at too great length, what they are
+met for; some junior Official, junior but of quality, responded
+briefly, for himself and his order, to the effect, "Yea, truly:"
+the HULDIGUNGENS-URKUNDE (Deed of Homage) was then read by the
+proper Clerk, and the Ritters all swore; audibly, with lifted
+hands. This is the Ritter Huldigung.
+
+His Majesty then steps out to the Balcony, for Oath and Homage of
+the general Population. General population gave its oath, and
+"three great shouts over and above." "ES LEBE DER KONIG!" thrice,
+with all their throats. Upon which a shower of Medals, "Homage-
+Medals," gold and silver (quantity not mentioned) rained down upon
+them, in due succession; and were scrambled for, in the usual way.
+"His Majesty," they write, and this is perhaps the one point worth
+notice, "his Majesty, contrary to custom and to etiquette,
+remained on the Balcony, some time after the ceremony, perhaps a
+full half-hour;"--silent there, "with his look fixed attentively
+on the immeasurable multitude before the Schloss; and seemed sunk
+in deep reflection (BETRACHTUNG):"--an almost awfully eloquent
+though inarticulate phenomenon to his Majesty, that of those
+multitudes scrambling and huzzaing there! [Preuss, <italic>
+Thronbesteigung, <end italic> p. 389.]
+
+These, with the Cleve one, are all the Hornagings Friedrich was
+personally present at; the others he did by Deputy, all in one day
+(2d August); and without fuss. Scenic matters these; in which,
+except where he can, as in the Konigsberg case, combine
+inspections and grave businesses with them, he takes no interest.
+However, he is now, for the sake chiefly of inspections and other
+real objects, bent on a Journey to Cleve;--the fellow of that to
+Konigsberg: Konigsberg, Preussen, the easternmost outlying wing of
+his long straggling Dominions; and then Cleve-Julich, its
+counterpart on the southwestern side,--there also, with such
+contingencies hanging over Cleve-Julich, it were proper to make
+some mustering of the Frontier garrisons and affairs. [In regard
+to the Day of HULDIGUNG at Cleve, which happily is not of the
+least moment to us, Preuss (<italic> Thronbesteigung, <end italic>
+p, 390) and <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> (i. 423) seem
+to be in flat contradiction.] His Majesty so purposes: and we
+purpose again to accompany,--not for inspection and mustering, but
+for an unexpected reason. The grave Journey to Cleve has an
+appendage, or comic side-piece, hanging to it; more than one
+appendage; which the reader must not miss!--Before setting out,
+read these two Fractions, snatched from the Diplomatist Wastebag;
+looking well, we gain there some momentary view of Friedrich on
+the business side. Of Friedrich, and also of Another:--
+
+Sunday, 14th August, 1740, Dickens, who has been reporting
+hitherto in a favorable, though in a languid exoteric manner, not
+being in any height of favor, England or he,--had express Audience
+of his Majesty; being summoned out to Potsdam for that end:
+"Sunday evening, about 7 P.M."--Majesty intending to be off on the
+Cleve Journey to-morrow. Let us accompany Dickens. Readers may
+remember, George II. has been at Hanover for some weeks past;
+Bielfeld diligently grinning euphemisms and courtly graciosities
+to him; Truchsess hinting, on opportunity, that there are perhaps
+weighty businesses in the rear; which, however, on the Britannic
+side, seem loath to start. Britannic Majesty is much at a loss
+about his Spanish War, so dangerous for kindling France and the
+whole world upon him. In regard to which Prussia might be so
+important, for or against.--This, in compressed form, is what
+Dickens witnesses at Potsdam that Sunday evening from 7 P.M.:--
+
+"Audience lasted above an hour: King turned directly upon
+business; wishes to have 'Categorical Answers' as to Three Points
+already submitted to his Britannic Majesty's consideration.
+Clear footing indispensable between us. What you want of me? say
+it, and be plain. What I want of you is, These three things:--
+  "1. Guarantee for Julich and Berg. All the world knows WHOSE
+these Duchies are. Will his Britannic Majesty guarantee me there?
+And if so, How, and to what lengths, will he proceed about it?
+  "2. Settlement about Ost-Friesland. Expectancy of Ost-Friesland
+soon to fall heirless, which was granted me long since, though
+Hanover makes hagglings, counter-claimings: I must have some
+Settlement about that.
+  "3. The like about those perplexities in Mecklenburg.
+No difficulty there if we try heartily, nor is there such pressing
+haste about it.
+
+"These are my three claims on England; and I will try to serve
+England as far in return, if it will tell me how. 'Ah, beware of
+throwing yourself into the arms of France!' modestly suggests
+Dickens.--'Well, if France will guarantee me those Duchies, and
+you will not do anything?' answers his Majesty with a fine laugh:
+'England I consider my most natural friend and ally; but I must
+know what there is to depend on there. Princes are ruled by their
+interest; cannot follow their feelings. Let me have an explicit
+answer; say, at Wesel, where I am to be on the 24th,'" ten days
+hence. Britannic Majesty is at Hanover, and can answer within that
+time. "This he twice told me, 'Wesel, 24th,' in the course of our
+interview. Permit me to recommend the matter to your Lordship,"--
+my Lord Harrington, now attending the Britannic Majesty.
+
+"During the whole audience," adds Dickens, "the King was in
+extreme good humor; and not only heard with attention all the
+considerations I offered, but was not the least offended at any
+objections I made to what he said. It is undoubtedly the best way
+to behave with frankness to him." These last are Dickens's own
+words; let them modestly be a memorandum to your Lordship.
+This King goes himself direct to the point; and 
+straightforwardness, as a primary condition, will profit your
+Lordship with him. [Dickens (in State-Paper Office, 17th
+August, 1740).]
+
+Most true advice, this;--and would perhaps be followed, were it
+quite easy! But things are very complicated. And the Britannic
+Majesty, much plagued with Spanish War and Parliamentary noises in
+that unquiet Island, is doubtless glad to get away to Hanover for
+a little; and would fain be on holiday in these fine rural months.
+Which is not well possible either. Jenkins's Ear, rising at last
+like a fiery portent, has kindled the London Fog over yonder, in a
+strange way, and the murky stagnancy is all getting on fire;
+the English intent, as seldom any Nation was, to give the
+Spaniards an effectual beating. Which they hope they can,--though
+unexpected difficulties will occur. And, in the mean while, what
+a riddle of potentialities for his poor Majesty to read, and pick
+his way from!--
+
+Bielfeld, in spite of all this, would fain be full of admiration
+for the Britannic Majesty. Confesses he is below the middle size,
+in fact a tiny little creature, but then his shape is perfect;
+leg much to be commended,--which his Majesty knows, standing
+always with one leg slightly advanced, and the Order of the Garter
+on it, that mankind may take notice. Here is Bielfeld's
+description faithfully abridged:--
+
+"Big blue eyes, perhaps rather of parboiled character, though
+proud enough; eyes flush with his face or more, rather IN RELIEF
+than on a level with it,"--A FLEUR DE TETE, after the manner of a
+fish, if one might say so, and betokening such an intellect behind
+them! "Attitude constrained, leg advanced in that way;
+his courtiers call it majestic. Biggish mouth, strictly shut in
+the crescent or horse-shoe form (FERMEE EN CROISSANT); curly wig
+(A NOEUDS, reminding you of lamb's-wool, color not known);
+eyebrows, however, you can see are ashy-blond; general tint is
+fundamentally livid; but when in good case, the royal skin will
+take tolerably bright colors (PREND D'ASSEZ BELLES COULEURS).
+As to the royal mind and understanding, what shall Bielfeld say?
+That his Majesty sometimes makes ingenious and just remarks, and
+is laudably serious at all times, and can majestically hold his
+tongue, and stand with advanced leg, and eyes rather more than
+flush. Sense of his dignity is high, as it ought to be; on great
+occasions you see pride and a kind of joy mantling in the royal
+countenance. Has been known to make explosions, and to be very
+furious to Prince Fred and others, when pricked into:--but, my
+friend, what mortal is exempt from failings? Majesty reads the
+English Newspapers every morning in bed, which are often biting.
+Majesty has his Walmoden, a Hanoverian Improper Female, Countess
+of Yarmouth so called; quiet, autumnal, fair complexioned, stupid;
+who is much a comfort to him. She keeps out of mischief, political
+or other; and gives Bielfeld a gracious nod now and then."
+[Bielfeld, i. 158.] Harrington is here too;--and Britannic Majesty
+and he are busy governing the English Nation on these terms.--
+We return now to the Prussian Majesty.
+
+About six weeks after that of Dickens,--Cleve Journey and much
+else now ended,--Praetorius the Danish Envoy, whom we slightly
+knew at Reinsberg once, gives this testimony; writing home to an
+Excellency at Copenhagen, whose name we need not inquire into:--
+
+"To give your Excellency a just idea of the new Government here,
+I must observe that hitherto the King of Prussia does as it were
+everything himself; and that, excepting the Finance Minister von
+Boden, who preaches frugality, and finds for that doctrine
+uncommon acceptance, almost greater even than in the former reign,
+his Majesty allows no counselling from any Minister; so that Herr
+von Podewils, who is now the working hand in the department of
+Foreign Affairs, has nothing given him to do but to expedite the
+orders he receives from the Cabinet, his advice not being asked
+upon any matter; and so it is with the other Ministers.
+People thought the loss of Herr von Thulmeyer," veteran Foreign
+Minister whom we have transiently heard of in the Double-Marriage
+time, and perhaps have even seen at London or elsewhere, [Died 4th
+August (Rodenbeck, p. 20).] "would be irreparable; so expert was
+he, and a living archive in that business: however, his post seems
+to have vanished with himself. His salary is divided between Herr
+von Podewils," whom the reader will sometimes hear of again,
+"Kriegsrath (Councillor of War) von Ilgen," son of the old
+gentleman we used to know, "and Hofrath Sellentin who is RENDANT
+OF THE LEGATIONS-KASSE" (Ambassadors' Paymaster, we could guess,
+Ambassador Body having specialty of cash assigned it, comparable
+with the specialty of value received from it, in this strict
+frugal Country),--neither of which two latter names shall the
+reader be troubled with farther. "A good many resolutions, and
+responses by the King, I have seen: they combine laconic
+expression with an admirable business eye (GESCHAFTSBLICK).
+Unhappily,"--at least for us in the Diplomatic line, for your
+Excellency and me unhappily,--"there is nobody about the King who
+possesses his complete confidence, or whom we can make use of in
+regard to the necessary introductions and preliminary movements.
+Hereby it comes that,--as certain things can only be handled with
+cautious foresight and circumlocution, and in the way of beginning
+wide,--an Ambassador here is more thrown out of his course than in
+any other Court; and knows not, though his object were steadily in
+sight, what road to strike into for getting towards it." [Preuss,
+<italic> Thronbesteigung, <end italic> p. 377 (2d October, 1740).]
+
+
+
+Chapter III.
+
+FRIEDRICH MAKES AN EXCURSION, NOT OF DIRECT SORT
+INTO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES.
+
+King Friedrich did not quite keep his day at Wesel; indeed this
+24th was not the first day, but the last of several, he had
+appointed to himself for finis to that Journey in the Cleve
+Countries; Journey rather complex to arrange. He has several
+businesses ahead in those parts; and, as usual, will group them
+with good judgment, and thrift of time. Not inspections merely,
+but amusements, meetings with friends, especially French friends:
+the question is, how to group them with skill, so that the
+necessary elements may converge at the right moment, and one shot
+kill three or four birds. This is Friedrich's fine way,
+perceptible in all these Journeys. The French friends, flying each
+on his own track, with his own load of impediments, Voltaire with
+his Madame for instance, are a difficult element in such problem;
+and there has been, and is, much scheming and corresponding about
+it, within the last month especially.
+
+Voltaire is now at Brussels, with his Du Chatelet, prosecuting
+that endless "lawsuit with the House of Honsbruck,"--which he, and
+we, are both desirous to have done with. He is at the Hague, too,
+now and then; printing, about to print, the ANTI-MACHIAVEL;
+corresponding, to right and left, quarrelling with Van Duren the
+Printer; lives, while there, in the VIEILLE COUR, in the vast
+dusky rooms with faded gilding, and grand old Bookshelves "with
+the biggest spider-webs in Europe." Brussels is his place for Law-
+Consultations, general family residence; the Hague and that old
+spider-web Palace for correcting Proof-sheets; doing one's own
+private studies, which we never quite neglect. Fain would
+Friedrich see him, fain he Friedrich; but there is a divine
+Emilie, there is a Maupertuis, there are--In short, never were
+such difficulties, in the cooking of an egg with water boiling;
+and much vain correspondence has already been on that subject, as
+on others equally extinct. Correspondence which is not pleasant
+reading at this time; the rather as no reader can, without endless
+searching, even understand it. Correspondence left to us, not in
+the cosmic, elucidated or legible state; left mainly as the
+Editorial rubbish-wagons chose to shoot it; like a tumbled quarry,
+like the ruins of a sacked city;--avoidable by readers who are not
+forced into it! [Herr Preuss's edition (<italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> vols. xxi. xxii. xxiii.) has come out since
+the above was written: it is agreeably exceptional; being, for the
+first time, correctly printed, and the editor himself having
+mostly understood it,--though the reader still cannot, on the
+terms there allowed.] Take the following select bricks as sample,
+which are of some use; the general Heading is, 
+
+KING FRIEDERIC TO M. DE VOLTAIRE (at the Hague, or at Brussels).
+
+"CHARLOTTENBURG, 12th JUNE, 1740.--... My dear Voltaire, resist no
+longer the eagerness I have to see you. Do in my favor whatever
+your humanity allows. In the end of August, I go to Wesel, and
+perhaps farther. Promise that you will come and join me; for I
+could not live happy, nor die tranquil, without having embraced
+you! Thousand compliments to the Marquise," divine Emilie. "I am
+busy with both hands [Corn-Magazines, Free Press, Abolition of
+Torture, and much else]; working at the Army with the one hand, at
+the People and the Fine Arts with the other."
+
+"BERLIN, 5th AUGUST, 1740.--... I will write to Madame du
+Chatelet, in compliance with your wish:" mark it, reader.
+"To speak to you frankly concerning her journey, it is Voltaire,
+it is you, it is my Friend that I desire to see; and the divine
+Emilie with all her divinity is only the Accessory of the Apollo
+Newtonized.
+
+"I cannot yet say whether I shall travel [incognito into foreign
+parts a little] or not travel;" there have been rumors, perhaps
+private wishes; but--... "Adieu, dear friend; sublime spirit,
+first-born of thinking beings. Love me always sincerely, and be
+persuaded that none can love and esteem you more than I.
+VALE.                                                  FEDERIC."
+
+"BERLIN, 6th AUGUST [which is next day].--You will have received a
+Letter from me dated yesterday; this is the second I write to you
+from Berlin; I refer you to what was in the other. If it must be
+(FAUT) that Emilie accompany Apollo, I consent; but if I could see
+you alone, that is what I would prefer. I should be too much
+dazzled; I could not stand so much splendor all at once; it would
+overpower me. I should need the veil of Moses to temper the united
+radiance of your two divinities." ... In short, don't bring her,
+if you please.
+
+"REMUSBERG [poetic for REINSBERG], 8th AUGUST, 1740.--... My dear
+Voltaire, I do believe Van Duren costs you more trouble and pains
+than you had with HENRI QUATRE. In versifying the Life of a Hero,
+you wrote the history of your own thoughts; but in coercing a
+scoundrel you fence with an enemy who is not worthy of you."
+To punish him, and cut short his profits, "PRINT, then, as you
+wish [your own edition of the ANTI-MACHIAVEL, to go along with
+his, and trip the feet from it]. FAITES ROULER LA PRESSE; erase,
+change, correct; do as you see best; your judgment about it shall
+be mine."--"In eight days I leave for [where thinks the reader?
+"DANTZIG" deliberately print all the Editors, careful Preuss among
+them; overturning the terrestrial azimuths for us, and making day
+night!]--for Leipzig, and reckon on being at Frankfurt on the 22d.
+In case you could be there, I expect, on my passage, to give you
+lodging! At Cleve or in Holland, I depend for certain on embracing
+you." [Preuss, <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xx.
+pp. 5, 19-21; Voltaire, <italic> OEuvres, <end italic> lxxii. 226,
+&c. (not worth citing, in comparison).]
+
+Intrinsically the Friedrich correspondence at this time, with
+Voltaire especially, among many friends now on the wing towards
+Berlin and sending letters, has,--if you are forced into
+struggling for some understanding of it, and do get to read parts
+of it with the eyes of Friedrich and Voltaire,--has a certain
+amiability; and is nothing like so waste and dreary as it looks in
+the chaotic or sacked-city condition. Friedrich writes with
+brevity, oftenest on practicalities (the ANTI-MACHIAVEL, the
+coming Interview, and the like), evidently no time to spare;
+writes always with considerable sincerity; with friendliness,
+much admiration, and an ingenuous vivacity, to M. de Voltaire.
+Voltaire, at his leisure in Brussels or the Old Palace and its
+spider-webs, writes much more expansively; not with insincerity,
+he either;--with endless airy graciosities, and ingenious twirls,
+and touches of flattering unction, which latter, he is aware, must
+not be laid on too thick. As thus:--
+
+In regard to the ANTI-MACHIAVEL,--Sire, deign to give me your
+permissions as to the scoundrel of a Van Duren; well worth while,
+Sire,--"IT is a monument for the latest posterity; the only Book
+worthy of a King for these fifteen hundred years."
+
+This is a strongish trowelful, thrown on direct, with adroitness;
+and even this has a kind of sincerity. Safer, however, to do it in
+the oblique or reflex way,--by Ambassador Cumas, for example:--
+
+"I will tell you boldly, Sir [you M. de Camas], I put more value
+on this Book (ANTI-MACHIAVEL) than on the Emperor Julian's CAESAR,
+or on the MAXIMS of Marcus Aurelius,"--I do indeed, having a kind
+of property in it withal! [Voltaire, <italic> OEuvres, <end
+italic> lxxii. 280 (to Camas, 18th October, 1740).]
+
+In fact, Voltaire too is beautiful, in this part of the
+Correspondence; but much in a twitter,--the Queen of Sheba, not
+the sedate Solomon, in prospect of what is coming. He plumes
+himself a little, we perceive, to his d'Argentals and French
+Correspondents, on this sublime intercourse he has got into with a
+Crowned Head, the cynosure of mankind:---Perhaps even you, my best
+friend, did not quite know me, and what merits I had!
+Plumes himself a little; but studies to be modest withal; has not
+much of the peacock, and of the turkey has nothing, to his old
+friends. All which is very naive and transparent; natural and even
+pretty, on the part of M. de Voltaire as the weaker vessel.--
+For the rest, it is certain Maupertuis is getting under way at
+Paris towards the Cleve rendezvous. Brussels, too, is so near
+these Cleve Countries; within two days' good driving:--if only the
+times and routes would rightly intersect?
+
+Friedrich's intention is by no means for a straight journey
+towards Cleve: he intends for Baireuth first, then back from
+Baireuth to Cleve,--making a huge southward elbow on the map, with
+Baireuth for apex or turning-point:--in this manner he will make
+the times suit, and have a convergence at Cleve. To Baireuth;--who
+knows if not farther? All summer there has gone fitfully a rumor,
+that he wished to see France; perhaps Paris itself incognito?
+The rumor, which was heard even at Petersburg, [Raumer's <italic>
+Beitrage <end italic> (English Translation, London, 1837), p. 15
+(Finch's Despatch, 24th June, 1740).] is now sunk dead again;
+but privately, there is no doubt, a glimpse of the sublime French
+Nation would be welcome to Friedrich. He could never get to
+Travelling in his young time; missed his Grand Tour altogether,
+much as he wished it; and he is capable of pranks!--Enough, on
+Monday morning, 15th August, 1740, [Rodenbeck, p. 15, slightly in
+error: see Dickens's Interview, supra, p. 187.] Friedrich and
+Suite leave Potsdam; early enough; go, by Leipzig, by the route
+already known to readers, through Coburg and the Voigtland
+regions; Wilhelmina has got warning, sits eagerly expecting her
+Brother in the Hermitage at Baireuth, gladdest of shrill sisters;
+and full of anxieties how her Brother would now be. The travelling
+party consisted, besides the King, of seven persons: Prince August
+Wilhelm, King's next Brother, Heir-apparent if there come no
+children, now a brisk youth of eighteen; Leopold Prince of Anhalt-
+Dessau, Old Dessauer's eldest, what we may call the "Young
+Dessauer;" Colonel von Borck, whom we shall hear of again;
+Colonel von Stille, already heard of (grave men of fifty, these
+two); milk-beard Munchow, an Adjutant, youngest of the promoted
+Munchows; Algarotti, indispensable for talk; and Fredersdorf, the
+House-Steward and domestic Factotum, once Private in Schwerin's
+Regiment, whom Bielfeld so admired at Reinsberg, foreseeing what
+he would come to. One of Friedrich's late acts was to give
+Factotum Fredersdorf an Estate of Land (small enough, I fancy, but
+with country-house on it) for solace to the leisure of so useful a
+man,--studious of chemistry too, as I have heard. Seven in all,
+besides the King. [Rodenbeck, p. 19 (and for Chamberlain
+Fredersdorf's estate, p. 15).] Direct towards Baireuth, incognito,
+and at the top of their speed. Wednesday, 17th, they actually
+arrive. Poor Wilhelmina, she finds her Brother changed; become a
+King in fact, and sternly solitary; alone in soul, even as a King
+must be! [Wilhelmina, ii. 322, 323.]--
+
+"Algarotti, one of the first BEAUX-ESPRITS of this age," as
+Wilhelmina defines him,--Friend Algarotti, the young Venetian
+gentleman of elegance, in dusky skin, in very white linen and
+frills, with his fervid black eyes, "does the expenses of the
+conversation." He is full of elegant logic, has speculations on
+the great world and the little, on Nature, Art, Papistry, Anti-
+Papistry, and takes up the Opera in an earnest manner, as capable
+of being a school of virtue and the moral sublime. His respectable
+Books on the Opera and other topics are now all forgotten, and
+crave not to be mentioned. To me he is not supremely beautiful,
+though much the gentleman in manners as in ruffles, and
+ingeniously logical:--rather yellow to me, in mind as in skin, and
+with a taint of obsolete Venetian Macassar. But to Friedrich he is
+thrice-dear; who loves the Sharp faceted cut of the man, and does
+not object to his yellow or Extinct-Macassar qualities of mind.
+Thanks to that wandering Baltimore for picking up such a jewel and
+carrying him Northward! Algarotti himself likes the North: here in
+our hardy climates,--especially at Berlin, and were his loved
+Friedrich NOT a King,--Algarotti could be very happy in the
+liberty allowed. At London, where there is no King, or none to
+speak of, and plenty of free Intelligences, Carterets, Lytteltons,
+young Pitts and the like, he is also well, were it not for the
+horrid smoke upon one's linen, and the little or no French of
+those proud Islanders.
+
+Wilhelmina seems to like him here; is glad, at any rate, that he
+does the costs of conversation, better or worse. In the rest is no
+hope. Stille, Borck are accomplished military gentlemen; but of
+tacit nature, reflective, practical, rather than discursive, and
+do not waste themselves by incontinence of tongue. Stille, by his
+military Commentaries, which are still known to soldiers that
+read, maintains some lasting remembrance of himself: Borck we
+shall see engaged in a small bit of business before long. As to
+Munchow, the JEUNE MORVEUX of an Adjutant, he, though his manners
+are well enough, and he wears military plumes in his hat, is still
+an unfledged young creature, "bill still yellow," so to speak;--
+and marks himself chiefly by a visible hankering after that
+troublesome creature Marwitz, who is always coquetting.
+Friedrich's conversation, especially to me Wilhelmina, seems
+"GUINDE, set on stilts," likewise there are frequent cuts of
+banter in him; and it is painfully evident he distinguishes my
+Sister of Anspach and her foolish Husband, whom he has invited
+over hither in a most eager manner, beyond what a poor Wilhelmina
+with her old love can pretend to. Patience, my shrill Princess,
+Beauty of Baireuth and the world; let us hope all will come right
+again! My shrill Princess--who has a melodious strength like that
+of war-fifes, too--knows how to be patient; and veils many things,
+though of a highly unhypocritical nature.
+
+These were Three great Days at Baireuth; Wilhelmina is to come
+soon, and return the visit at Berlin. To wait upon the King, known
+though incognito, "the Bishop of Bamberg" came driving over:
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 419.] Schonborn,
+Austrian Kanzler, or who? His old City we once saw (and plenty of
+hanged malefactors swinging round it, during that JOURNEY TO THE
+REICH);--but the Bishop himself never to our knowledge, Bishop
+being absent then, I hope it is the same Bishop of Bamberg, whom
+a Friend of Busching's, touring there about that same time, saw
+dining in a very extraordinary manner, with medieval trumpeters,
+"with waiters in spurs and buff-belts;" [Busching's <italic>
+Beitrage; <end italic>--Schlosser (<italic> History of the
+Eighteenth Century <end italic>) also quotes the scene.] if it is
+not, I have not the slightest shadow of acquaintance with him,--
+there have been so many Bishops of Bamberg with whom one wishes to
+have none! On the third day Friedrich and his company went away,
+towards Wurzburg; and Wilhelmina was left alone with her
+reflections. "I had had so much to say to him; I had got nothing
+said at all:" alas, it is ever so. "The King was so changed, grown
+so much bigger (GRANDI), you could not have known him again;"
+stands finely erect and at full breadth, every inch a King;
+his very stature, you would say, increased.--Adieu, my Princess,
+pearl of Princesses; all readers will expect your return-visit at
+Berlin, which is to be soon.
+
+
+FRIEDRICH STRIKES OFF TO THE LEFT, AND HAS A VIEW OF
+STRASBURG FOR TWO DAYS.
+
+Through Wurzburg, Frankfurt-on-Mayn, speeds Friedrich;--
+Wilhelmina and mankind understand that it is homewards and to
+Cleve; but at Frankfurt, in deepest privacy, there occurs a sudden
+whirl southward,--up the Rhine-Valley; direct towards Strasburg,
+for a sight of France in that quarter! So has Friedrich decided,--
+not quite suddenly, on new Letters here, or new computations about
+Cleve; but by forethought taken at Baireuth, as rather appears.
+From Frankfurt to Strasburg, say 150 miles; from Strasburg home,
+is not much farther than from Frankfurt home: it can be done,
+then; husht! 
+
+The incognito is to be rigorous: Friedrich becomes COMTE DUFOUR, a
+Prussian-French gentleman; Prince August Wilhelm is Graf von
+Schaffgotsch, Algarotti is Graf von Pfuhl, Germans these two;
+what Leopold, the Young Dessauer, called himself,--still less what
+the others, or whether the others were there at all, and not
+shoved on, direct towards Wesel, out of the way as is likelier,--
+can remain uncertain to readers and me. From Frankfurt, then, on
+Monday morning, 22d August, 1740, as I compute, through old known
+Philipsburg Campaign country, and the lines of Ettlingen and
+Stollhofen; there the Royal Party speeds eagerly (weather very
+bad, as appears): and it is certain they are at Kehl on Tuesday
+evening; looking across the long Rhine Bridge, Strasburg and its
+steeples now close at hand.
+
+This looks to be a romantic fine passage in the History of the
+young King;--though in truth it is not, and proves but a feeble
+story either to him or us. Concerning which, however, the reader,
+especially if he should hear that there exists precise Account of
+it, Two Accounts indeed, one from the King's own hand, will not
+fail of a certain craving to become acquainted with details.
+This craving, foolish rather than wise, we consider it thriftiest
+to satisfy at once; and shall give the King's NARRATIVE entire,
+though it is a jingling lean scraggy Piece, partly rhyme, "in the
+manner of Bachaumont and La Chapelle;" written at the gallop, a
+few days hence, and despatched to Voltaire:--"You," dear Voltaire,
+"wish to know what I have been about, since leaving Berlin;
+annexed you will find a description of it," writes Friedrich.
+[<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xxii. 25 (Wesel, 2d Septemher,
+1740).] Out of Voltaire's and other people's waste-baskets, it has
+at length been fished up, patch by patch, and pasted together by
+victorious modern Editors; and here it is again entire. The other
+Narrative, which got into the Newspapers soon after, is likewise
+of authentic nature,--Fassmann, our poor old friend, confirming
+it, if that were needful,--and is happily in prose. [Given in
+<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 420-423;--see likewise
+Fassmann's <italic> Merkwurdigster Regierungs-Antritt <end italic>
+(poor old Book on FRIEDRICH'S ACCESSION); Preuss
+(<italic> Thronbesteigung, <end italic> pp. 395-400); &c. &c.]
+Holding these two Pieces well together, and giving the King's
+faithfully translated, in a complete state, it will be possible to
+satisfy foolish cravings, and make this Strasburg Adventure
+luminous enough.
+
+
+  KING FRIEDRICH TO VOLTAIRE (from Wesel, 2d September, 1740),
+     CHIEFLY IN DOGGEREL, CONCERNING THE RUN TO STRASBURG.
+Part of it, incorrect, in Voltaire, <italic> OEuvres <end italic>
+(scandalous Piece now called <italic> Memoires, <end italic> once
+<italic> Vie Privee du Roi de Prusse <end italic>), ii. 24-26;
+finally, in Preuss, <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic>
+xiv. 156-161, the real and complete affair, as fished up by
+victorious Preuss and others.
+
+"I have just finished a Journey, intermingled with singular
+adventures, sometimes pleasant, sometimes the reverse. You know I
+had set out for Baireuth,"--BRUXELLES the beautiful French Editor
+wrote, which makes Egyptian darkness of the Piece!--"to see a
+Sister whom I love no less than esteem. On the road [thither or
+thence; or likeliest, THERE], Algarotti and I consulted the map,
+to settle our route for returning by Wesel. Frankfurt-on-Mayn
+comes always as a principal stage;--Strasburg was no great
+roundabout: we chose that route in preference. The INCOGNITO was
+decided, names pitched upon [Comte Dufour, and the others];
+story we were to tell: in fine, all was arranged and concerted to
+a nicety as well as possible. We fancied we should get to
+Strasburg in three days [from Baireuth].
+
+But Heaven, which disposes of all things,
+Differently regulated this thing.
+With lank-sided coursers,
+Lineal descendants from Rosinante,
+With ploughmen in the dress of postilions,
+Blockheads of impertinent nature;
+Our carriages sticking fast a hundred times in the road,
+We went along with gravity at a leisurely pace,
+Knocking against the crags.
+The atmosphere in uproar with loud thunder,
+The rain-torrents streaming over the Earth
+Threatened mankind with the Day of Judgment [VERY BAD WEATHER],
+And in spite of our impatience,
+Four good days are, in penance,
+Lost forever in these jumblings.
+
+<italic>
+Mais le ciel, qui de tout dispose,
+Regla differemment la chose.
+Avec de coursiers efflanques,
+En ligne droites issus de Rosinante,
+Et des paysans en postillons masques,
+Dutors de race impertinente,
+Notre carrosse en cent lieux accroche,
+Nous allions gravement, d'une allure indolente,
+Gravitant contre les rochers.
+Les airs emus par le bruyant tonnerre,
+Les torrents d'eau repandus sur la terre,
+Du dernier jour menacaient les humains;
+Et malgre notre impatience,
+Quatre bons jours en penitence
+Sont pour jamais perdus dans les charrains.
+<end italic>
+
+"Had all our fatalities been limited to stoppages of speed on the
+journey, we should have taken patience; but, after frightful
+roads, we found lodgings still frightfuler.
+
+For greedy landlords
+Seeing us pressed by hunger
+Did, in a more than frugal manner,
+In their infernal hovels,
+Poisoning instead of feeding,
+Steal from us our crowns.
+O age different [in good cheer] from that of Lucullus!
+
+<italic>
+Car des hotes interesses,
+De la faim nous voyant presses,
+D'une facon plus que frugale,
+Dans une chaumiere infernale,
+En nous empoisonnant,
+Nous volaient nos ecus.
+O siecle different des temps de Lucullus!
+<end italic>
+
+"Frightful roads; short of victual, short of drink: nor was that
+all. We had to undergo a variety of accidents; and certainly our
+equipage must have had a singular air, for in every new place we
+came to, they took us for something different.
+
+Some took us for Kings,
+Some for pickpockets well disguised;
+Others for old acquaintances.
+At times the people crowded out,
+Looked us in the eyes,
+Like clowns impertinently curious.
+Our lively Italian [Algarotti] swore;
+For myself I took patience;
+The young Count [my gay younger Brother, eighteen at present]
+  quizzed and frolicked;
+The big Count [Heir-apparent of Dessau] silently swung his head,
+Wishing this fine Journey to France,
+In the bottom of his heart, most christianly at the Devil.
+
+<italic>
+Les uns nous prenaient pour des rois,
+D'autres pour des filous courtois,
+D'autrespour gens de connaissance;
+Parfois le peuple s'attroupait,
+Entre les yeux nous regardait
+En badauds curieux, remplis d'impertinence.
+Notre vif Italien jurait,
+Pour moi je prenais patience,
+Le jeune Comte folatrait,
+Le grand Comte se dandinait,
+Et ce beau vogage de France
+Dans le fond de son coeur chretiennement damnait.
+<end italic>
+
+"We failed not, however, to struggle gradually along; at last we
+arrived in that Stronghold, where [as preface to the War of 1734,
+known to some of us]--
+
+Where the garrison, too supple,
+Surrendered so piteously
+After the first blurt of explosion
+From the cannon of the French.
+
+<italic>
+Ou a garnison, troupe flasque,
+Se rendit si piteusement
+Apres la premiere bourasque
+Du canon francais foudroyant.
+<end italic>
+
+
+You recognize Kehl in this description. It was in that fine
+Fortress,--where, by the way, the breaches are still lying
+unrepaired [Reich being a slow corpus in regard to such things],
+--that the Postmaster, a man of more foresight than we, asked
+If we had got passports?
+
+No, said I to him; of passports
+We never had the whim.
+Strong ones I believe it would need
+To recall, to our side of the limit,
+Subjects of Pluto King of the Dead:
+But, from the Germanic Empire
+Into the gallant and cynical abode
+Of Messieurs your pretty Frenchmen,--
+A jolly and beaming air,
+Rubicund faces, not ignorant of wine,
+These are the passports which, legible if you look on us,
+Our troop produces to you for that end.
+
+<italic>
+Non, lui dis-je, des passe-ports
+Nous n'eumes jamais la folie.
+Il en faudrait, je crois, de forts
+Pour ressusciter a la vie
+De chez Pluton le roi des morts;
+Mais de l'empire germanique
+Au sejour galant et cynique
+De Messieurs vos jolis Francais,
+Un air rebondissant et frais,
+Une face rouge et bachique,
+Sont les passe-ports qu'en nos traits
+Vous produit ici notre clique.
+<end italic>
+
+"No, Messieurs, said the provident Master of Passports;
+no salvation without passport. Seeing then that Necessity
+had got us in the dilemma of either manufacturing passports
+ourselves or not entering Strasburg, we took the former branch
+of the alternative and manufactured one;--in which feat, the
+Prussian arms, which I had on my seal, were marvellously
+furthersome."
+
+This is a fact, as the old Newspapers and confirmatory Fassmann
+more directly apprise us. "The Landlord [or Postmaster] at Kehl,
+having signified that there was no crossing without Passport,"
+Friedrich, at first, somewhat taken aback, bethought him of his
+watch-seal with the Royal Arms on it; and soon manufactured the
+necessary Passport, signeted in due form;--which, however, gave a
+suspicion to the Innkeeper as to the quality of his Guest.
+After which, Tuesday evening, 23d August, "they at once got across
+to Strasburg," says my Newspaper Friend, "and put up at the SIGN
+OF THE RAVEN, there." Or in Friedrich's own jingle:--
+
+"We arrived at Strasburg; and the Custom-house corsair, with his
+inspectors, seemed content with our evidences.
+
+These scoundrels spied us,
+With one eye reading our passport,
+With the other ogling our purse.
+Gold, which was always a resource,
+Which brought, Jove to the enjoyment
+Of Danae whom he caressed;
+Gold, by which Caesar governed
+The world happy under his sway;
+Gold, more a divinity than Mars or Love;
+Wonder-working Gold introduced us
+That evening, within the walls of Strasburg."
+[Given thus far, with several slight errors, in Voltaire, ii.
+24-26;--the remainder, long unknown, had to be fished up, patch by
+patch (Preuss, <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xiv.
+159-161).]
+
+<italic>
+Ces scelerats nous epiaient,
+D'un oeil le passe-port lisaient,
+De l'autre lorgnaient notre bourse.
+L'or, qui toujours fut de ressource,
+Par lequel Jupin jouissait
+De Danae, qu'il caressait;
+L'or, par qui Cesar gouvernait
+Le monde heureux sous son empire;
+L'or, plus dieu que Mars et l'Amour,
+Le soir, dans les murs de Strasbourg.
+<end italic>
+
+Sad doggerel; permissible perhaps as a sample of the Friedrich
+manufacture, surely not otherwise! There remains yet more than
+half of it; readers see what their foolish craving has brought
+upon them! Doggerel out of which no clear story, such story as
+there is, can be had; though, except the exaggeration and
+contortion, there is nothing of fiction in it. We fly to the
+Newspaper, happily at least a prose composition, which begins at
+this point; and shall use the Doggerel henceforth as illustration
+only or as repetition in the Friedrich-mirror, of a thing
+OTHERWISE made clear to us:--
+
+Having got into Strasburg and the RAVEN HOTEL; Friedrich now on
+French ground at last, or at least on Half-French, German-French,
+is intent to make the most of circumstances. The Landlord, with
+one of Friedrich's servants, is straightway despatched into the
+proper coffee-houses to raise a supper-party of Officers; politely
+asks any likely Officer, "If he will not do a foreign Gentleman
+[seemingly of some distinction, signifies Boniface] the honor to
+sup with him at the Raven?"--"No, by Jupiter!" answer the most, in
+their various dialects: "who is he that we should sup with him?"
+Three, struck by the singularity of the thing, undertake; and with
+these we must be content. Friedrich--or call him M. le Comte
+Dufour, with Pfuhl, Schaffgotsch and such escort as we see--
+politely apologizes on the entrance of these officers:
+"Many pardons, gentlemen, and many thanks. Knowing nobody;
+desirous of acquaintance:--since you are so good, how happy, by a
+little informality, to have brought brave Officers to keep me
+company, whom I value beyond other kinds of men!"
+
+The Officers found their host a most engaging gentleman:
+his supper was superb, plenty of wine, "and one red kind they had
+never tasted before, and liked extremely;"--of which he sent some
+bottles to their lodging next day. The conversation turned on
+military matters, and was enlivened with the due sallies.
+This foreign Count speaks French wonderfully; a brilliant man,
+whom the others rather fear: perhaps something more than a Count?
+The Officers, loath to go, remembered that their two battalions
+had to parade next morning, that it was time to be in bed: "I will
+go to your review," said the Stranger Count: the delighted
+Officers undertake to come and fetch him, they settle with him
+time and method; how happy!
+
+On the morrow, accordingly, they call and fetch him; he looks at
+the review; review done, they ask him to supper for this evening:
+"With pleasure!" and "walks with them about the Esplanade, to see
+the guard march by." Before parting, he takes their names, writes
+them in his tablets; says, with a smile, "He is too much obliged
+ever to forget them." This is Wednesday, the 24th of August, 1740;
+Field-Marshal Broglio is Commandant in Strasburg, and these
+obliging Officers are "of the regiment Piedmont,"--their names on
+the King's tablets I never heard mentioned by anybody (or never
+till the King's Doggerel was fished up again). Field-Marshal
+Broglio my readers have transiently seen, afar off;--"galloping
+with only one boot," some say "almost in his shirt," at the Ford
+of Secchia, in those Italian campaigns, five years ago, the
+Austrians having stolen across upon him:--he had a furious gallop,
+with no end of ridicule, on that occasion; is now Commandant here;
+and we shall have a great deal more to do with him within the next
+year or two.
+
+"This same day, 24th, while I [the Newspaper volunteer Reporter or
+Own Correspondent, seemingly a person of some standing, whose
+words carry credibility in the tone of them] was with Field-
+Marshal Broglio our Governor here, there came two gentlemen to be
+presented to him; 'German Cavaliers' they were called; who, I now
+find, must have been the Prince of Prussia and Algarotti.
+The Field-Marshal,"--a rather high-stalking white-headed old
+military gentleman, bordering on seventy, of Piedmontese air and
+breed, apt to be sudden and make flounderings, but the soul of
+honor, "was very polite to the two Cavaliers, and kept them to
+dinner. After dinner there came a so-styled 'Silesian Nobleman,'
+who likewise was presented to the Field-Marshal, and affected not
+to know the other two: him I now find to have been the Prince
+of Anhalt."
+
+Of his Majesty's supper with the Officers that Wednesday, we are
+left to think how brilliant it was: his Majesty, we hear farther,
+went to the Opera that night,--the Polichinello or whatever the
+"Italian COMODIE" was;--"and a little girl came to his box with
+two lottery-tickets fifteen pence each, begging the foreign
+Gentleman for the love of Heaven to buy them of her; which he did,
+tearing them up at once, and giving the poor creature four
+ducats," equivalent to two guineas, or say in effect even five
+pounds of the present British currency. The fame of this foreign
+Count and his party at The Raven is becoming very loud over
+Strasburg, especially in military circles. Our volunteer Own
+Correspondent proceeds (whom we mean to contrast with the Royal
+Doggerel by and by):--
+
+"Next morning," Thursday, 25th August, "as the Marshal with above
+two hundred Officers was out walking on the Esplanade, there came
+a soldier of the Regiment Luxemburg, who, after some stiff fugling
+motions, of the nature of salutation partly, and partly demand for
+privacy, intimated to the Marshal surprising news: That the
+Stranger in The Raven was the King of Prussia in person; he, the
+soldier, at present of the Regiment Luxemburg, had in other days,
+before he deserted, been of the Prussian Crown-Prince's regiment;
+had consequently seen him in Berlin, Potsdam and elsewhere a
+thousand times and more, and even stood sentry where he was:
+the fact is beyond dispute, your Excellency! said this
+soldier."--Whew!
+
+Whereupon a certain Colonel, Marquis de Loigle, with or without a
+hint from Broglio, makes off for The Raven; introduces himself, as
+was easy; contrives to get invited to stay dinner, which also was
+easy. During dinner the foreign Gentleman expressed some wish to
+see their fortress. Colonel Loigle sends word to Broglio;
+Broglio despatches straightway an Officer and fine carriage:
+"Will the foreign Gentleman do me the honor?" The foreign
+Gentleman, still struggling for incognito, declines the uppermost
+seat of honor in the carriage; the two Officers, Loigle and this
+new one, insist on taking the inferior place. Alas, the incognito
+is pretty much out. Calling at some coffee-house or the like on
+the road, a certain female, "Madame de Fienne," named the foreign
+Gentleman "Sire,"--which so startled him that, though he utterly
+declined such title, the two Officers saw well how it was.
+
+"After survey of the works, the two attendant Officers had
+returned to the Field-Marshal; and about 4 P.M. the high Stranger
+made appearance there. But the thing had now got wind, 'King of
+Prussia here incognito!' The place was full of Officers, who came
+crowding about him: he escaped deftly into the Marechal's own
+Cabinet; sat there, an hour, talking to the Marechal [little
+admiring the Marechal's talk, as we shall find], still insisting
+on the incognito,"--to which Broglio, put out in his high paces by
+this sudden thing, and apt to flounder, as I have heard, was not
+polite enough to conform altogether. "What shall I do, in this
+sudden case?" poor Broglio is thinking to himself: "must write to
+Court; perhaps try to detain--?" Friedrioh's chief thought
+naturally is, One cannot be away out of this too soon. "Sha'n't we
+go to the Play, then, Monsieur le Marechal? Play-hour is come!"--
+Own Correspondent of the Newspaper proceeds:--
+
+"The Marechal then went to the Play, and all his Officers with
+him; thinking their royal prize was close at their heels.
+Marechal and Officers fairly ahead, coast once clear, their royal
+prize hastened back to The Raven, paid his bill; hastily summoning
+Schaffgotsch and the others within hearing; shot off like
+lightning; and was seen in Strasburg no more. Algarotti, who was
+in the box with Broglio, heard the news in the house; regretful
+rumor among the Officers, 'He is gone!' In about a quarter of an
+hour Algarotti too slipped out; and vanished by extra post"--
+straight towards Wesel; but could not overtake the King (whose
+road, in the latter part of it, went zigzag, on business as is
+likely), nor see him again till they met in that Town.
+[From <italic> Helden-Geschichte <end italic> (i. 420-424), &c.]
+
+This is the Prose Truth of those fifty or eight-and-forty hours in
+Strasburg, which were so mythic and romantic at that time.
+Shall we now apply to the Royal Doggerel again, where we left off,
+and see the other side of the picture? Once settled in The Raven,
+within Strasburg's walls, the Doggerel continues:--
+
+"You fancy well that there was now something to exercise my
+curiosity; and what desire I had to know the French Nation in
+France itself.
+
+There I saw at length those French,
+Of whom you have sung the glories;
+A people despised by the English,
+Whom their sad rationality fills with black bile;
+Those French, whom our Germans
+Reckon all to be destitute of sense;
+Those French, whose History consists of Love-stories,
+I mean the wandering kind of Love, not the constant;
+Foolish this People, headlong, high-going,
+Which sings beyond endurance;
+Lofty in its good fortune, crawling in its bad;
+Of an unpitying extent of babble,
+To hide the vacancy of its ignorant mind.
+Of the Trifling it is a tender lover;
+The Trifling alone takes possession of its brain.
+People flighty, indiscreet, imprudent,
+Turning like the weathercock to every wind.
+Of the ages of the Caesars those of the Louises are the shadow;
+Paris is the ghost, of Rome, take it how you will.
+No, of those vile French you are not one:
+You think; they do not think at all.
+
+<italic>
+La je vis enfin ces Francais
+Dont vous avez chante la gloire;
+Peuple meprise' des Anglais,
+Que leur triste raison remplit de bile noire;
+Ces Francais, que nos Allemands
+Pensent tous prives de bon sens;
+Ces Francais, do nt l'amour pourrait dicter l'histoire,
+Je dis l'amour volage, et non l'amour constant;
+Ce peuple fou, brusque et galant,
+Chansonnier insupportable,
+Superbe en sa fortune, en son malheur rampant,
+D'un bavardage impitoyable,
+Pour cacher le creux d'un esprit ignorant,
+Tendre amant de la bagatelle,
+Elle entre seule en sa cervelle;
+Leger, indiscret, imprudent,
+Comme ume girouette il revire a tout vent.
+Des siecles des Cesars ceux des Louis sont l'ombre;
+Rome efface Paris en tout sens, en tout point.
+Non, des vils Francais vous n'etes pas du nombre;
+Vous pensez, ils ne pensent point.
+<end italic>
+
+"Pardon, dear Voltaire, this definition of the French; at worst,
+it is only of those in Strasburg I speak. To scrape acquaintance,
+I had to invite some Officers on our arrival, whom of course I did
+not know.
+
+Three of them came at once,
+Gayer, more content than Kings;
+Singing with rusty voice.
+In verse, their amorous exploits,
+Set to a hornpipe.
+
+<italic>
+Trois d'eux s'en vinrent a la fois,
+Plus gais, plus contents que des rois,
+Chantant d'une voix enrouee,
+En vers, leurs amoureux exploits,
+Ajustes sur une bourree.
+<end italic>
+
+"M. de la Crochardiere and M. Malosa [two names from the tablets,
+third wanting] had just come from a dinner where the wine had not
+been spared.
+
+Of their hot friendship I saw the flame grow,
+The Universe would have taken us for perfect friends:
+But the instant of good-night blew out the business;
+Friendship disappeared without regrets,
+With the games, the wine, the table and the viands.
+
+<italic>
+De leur chaude amitie je vis croitre le flamme,
+L'univers nous eut pris pour des amis parfaits;
+Mais l'instant des adieux en detruisit la trame,
+L'amitie disparut, ssns causer des regrets,
+Avec le jeu, le vin, et la table, et les mets.
+<end italic>
+
+"Next day, Monsieur the Gouverneur of the Town and Province,
+Marechal of France, Chevalier of the Orders of the King, &c. &c.,
+--Marechal Duc de Broglio, in fact," who was surprised at Secchia
+in the late War,--
+
+This General always surprised.
+Whom with regret, young Louis [your King]
+Saw without breeches in Italy
+["With only one boot," was the milder rumor; which we adopted
+(supra, vol. vi. p. 472), but this sadder one, too, was current;
+and "Broglio's breeches," or the vain aspiration after them, like
+a vanished ghost of breeches, often enough turn up in the
+old Pamphlets.]
+Galloping to hide away his life
+From the Germans, unpolite fighters;--
+
+<italic>
+Ce general toujours surpris,
+Qu'a regret le jeune Louis
+Vit sans culottes en Italie,
+Courir pour derober sa vie
+Aux Germains, guerriers impolis.
+<end italic>
+
+this General wished to investigate your Comte Dufour,--foreign
+Count, who the instant he arrives sets about inviting people to
+supper that are perfect strangers. He took the poor Count for a
+sharper; and prudently advised M. de la Crochardiere not to be
+duped by him. It was unluckily the good Marechal that proved to
+be duped.
+
+He was born for surprise.
+His white hair, his gray beard,
+Formed a reverend exterior.
+Outsides are often deceptive:
+He that, by the binding, judges
+Of a Book and its Author
+May, after a page of reading,
+Chance to recognize his mistake.
+
+<italic>
+Il etait ne pour la surprise.
+Ses cheveux blancs, sa barbe grise,
+Formaient un sage exterieur.
+Le dehors est souvent trompeur;
+Qui juge par la reliure
+D'un ouvrage et de son auteur
+Dans une page de lecture
+Peut reconnaitre son erreur.
+<end italic>
+
+"That was my own experience; for of wisdom I could find nothing
+except in his gray hair and decrepit appearance. His first opening
+betrayed him; no great well of wit this Marechal,
+
+Who, drunk with his own grandeur,
+Informs you of his name and his titles,
+And authority as good as unlimited.
+He cited to me all the records
+Where his name is registered,
+Babbled about his immense power,
+About his valor, his talents
+So salutary to France;--
+He forgot that, three years ago
+[Six to a nearness,--"15th September, 1734," if your Majesty will
+be exact.]
+Men did not praise his prudence.
+
+<italic>
+Qui, de sa grandeur enivre;
+Decline son nom et ses titres,
+Et son pouvoir a rien borne.
+Il me cita tous les registres
+Ou son nom est enregistre;
+Bavard de son pouvoir immense,
+De sa valeur, de ces talents
+Si salutaires a la France:
+Il oubliait, passe trois ans,
+Qu'on ne louait pas sa prudence.
+<end italic>
+
+"Not satisfied with seeing the Marechal, I saw the guard mounted
+
+By these Frenchmen, burning with glory,
+Who, on four sous a day,
+Will make of Kings and of Heroes the memory flourish:
+Slaves crowned by the hands of Victory,
+Unlucky herds whom the Court
+Tinkles hither and thither by the sound of fife and drum.
+
+<italic>
+A ces Francais brulants de gloire,
+Dotes de quatre sous par jour,
+Qui des rois, des heros font fleurir la memoire,
+Esclaves couronnes des mains de la victoire,
+Troupeaux malheureux que la cour
+Dirige au seul bruit du tambour.
+<end italic>
+
+"That was my fated term. A deserter from our troops got eye on me,
+recognised me and denounced me.
+
+This wretched gallows-bird got eye on me;
+Such is the lot of all earthly things;
+And so of our fine mystery
+The whole secret came to light."
+
+<italic>
+Ce malheureux pendard me vit,
+C'est le sort de toutes les choses;
+Ainsi de motre pot aux roses
+Tout le secret se decouvrit.
+<end italic>
+
+Well; we must take this glimpse, such as it is, into the interior
+of the young man,--fine buoyant, pungent German spirit, roadways
+for it very bad, and universal rain-torrents falling, yet with
+coruscations from a higher quarter;--and you can forget, if need
+be, the "Literature" of this young Majesty, as you would a
+staccato on the flute by him! In after months, on new occasion
+rising, "there was no end to his gibings and bitter pleasantries
+on the ridiculous reception Broglio had given him at Strasburg,"
+says Valori, [<italic> Memoires, <end italic> i. 88.]--of which
+this Doggerel itself offers specimen.
+
+"Probably the weakest Piece I ever translated?" exclaims one, who
+has translated several such. Nevertheless there is a straggle of
+pungent sense in it,--like the outskirts of lightning, seen in
+that dismally wet weather, which the Royal Party had. Its wit is
+very copious, but slashy, bantery, and proceeds mainly by
+exaggeration and turning topsy-turvy; a rather barren species of
+wit. Of humor, in the fine poetic sense, no vestige. But there is
+surprising veracity,--truthfulness unimpeachable, if you will read
+well. What promptitude, too;--what funds for conversation, when
+needed! This scraggy Piece, which is better than the things people
+often talk to one another, was evidently written as fast as the
+pen could go.--"It is done, if such a Hand could have DONE it, in
+the manner of Bachaumont and La Chapelle," says Voltaire
+scornfully, in that scandalous VIE PRIVEE;--of which phrase this
+is the commentary, if readers need one:--
+
+"Some seventy or eighty years before that date, a M. Bachaumont
+and a M. la Chapelle, his intimate, published, in Prose skipping
+off into dancings of Verse every now and then, 'a charming
+RELATION of a certain VOYAGE or Home Tour' (whence or whither, or
+correctly when, this Editor forgets), ["First printed in 1665,"
+say the Bibliographies; "but known to La Fontaine some time
+before." Good!--Bachaumont, practically an important and
+distinguished person, not literary by trade, or indeed otherwise
+than by ennui, was he that had given (some fifteen years before)
+the Nickname FRONDE (Bickering of Schoolboys) to the wretched
+Historical Object which is still so designated in French annals.]
+which they had made in partnership. 'RELATION' capable still of
+being read, if one were tolerably idle;--it was found then to be
+charming, by all the world; and gave rise to a new fashion in
+writing; which Voltaire often adopts, and is supremely good at;
+and in which Friedrich, who is also fond of it, by no means
+succeeds so well."
+
+Enough, Friedrich got to Wesel, back to his business, in a day or
+two; and had done, as we forever have, with the Strasburg Escapade
+and its Doggerel.
+
+
+FRIEDRICH FINDS M. DE MAUPERTUIS; NOT YET M. DE VOLTAIRE.
+
+Friedrich got to Wesel on the 29th; found Maupertuis waiting
+there, according to appointment: an elaborately polite, somewhat
+sublime scientific gentleman; ready to "engraft on the Berlin
+crab-tree," and produce real apples and Academics there, so soon
+as the King, the proprietor, may have leisure for such a thing.
+Algarotti has already the honor of some acquaintance with
+Maupertuis. Maupertuis has been at Brussels, on the road hither;
+saw Voltaire and even Madame,--which latter was rather a ticklish
+operation, owing to grudges and tiffs of quarrel that had risen,
+but it proved successful under the delicate guidance of Voltaire.
+Voltaire is up to oiling the wheels: "There you are, Monsieur,
+like the [don't name What, though profane Voltaire does, writing
+to Maupertuis a month ago]--Three Kings running after you!" A new
+Pension to you from France; Russia outbidding France to have you;
+and then that LETTER of Friedrich's, which is in all the
+Newspapers: "Three Kings,"--you plainly great man, Trismegistus of
+the Sciences called Pure! Madame honors you, has always done:
+one word of apology to the high female mind, it will work wonders;
+--come now! [Voltaire, <italic> OEuvres, <end italic> lxxii. 217,
+216, 230 (Hague, 21st July, 1740, and Brussels, 9th Aug. &c).]
+
+No reader guesses in our time what a shining celestial body the
+Maupertuis, who is now fallen so dim again, then was to mankind.
+In cultivated French society there is no such lion as
+M. Maupertuis since he returned from flattening the Earth in the
+Arctic regions. "The Exact Sciences, what else is there to depend
+on?" thinks French cultivated society: "and has not Monsieur done
+a feat in that line?" Monsieur, with fine ex-military manners, has
+a certain austere gravity, reticent loftiness and polite
+dogmatism, which confirms that opinion. A studious ex-military
+man,--was Captain of Dragoons once, but too fond of study,--who is
+conscious to himself, or who would fain be conscious, that he is,
+in all points, mathematical, moral and other, the man. A difficult
+man to live with in society. Comes really near the limit of what
+we call genius, of originality, poetic greatness in thinking;--but
+never once can get fairly over said limit, though always
+struggling dreadfully to do so. Think of it! A fatal kind of man;
+especially if you have made a lion of him at any time. Of his
+envies, deep-hidden splenetic discontents and rages, with
+Voltaire's return for them, there will be enough to say in the
+ulterior stages. He wears--at least ten years hence he openly
+wears, though I hope it is not yet so flagrant--"a red wig with
+yellow bottom (CRINIERE JAUNE);" and as Flattener of the Earth,
+is, with his own flattish red countenance and impregnable stony
+eyes, a man formidable to look upon, though intent to be amiable
+if you do the proper homage. As to the quarrel with Madame take
+this Note; which may prove illustrative of some things by
+and by:--
+
+Maupertuis is well known at Cirey; such a lion could not fail
+there. All manner of Bernouillis, Clairauts, high mathematical
+people, are frequent guests at Cirey: reverenced by Madame,--who
+indeed has had her own private Professor of Mathematics; one Konig
+from Switzerland (recommended by those Bernouillis), diligently
+teaching her the Pure Sciences this good while back, not without
+effect; and has only just parted with him, when she left on this
+Brussels expedition. A BON GARCON, Voltaire says; though
+otherwise, I think, a little noisy on occasion. There has been no
+end of Madame's kindness to him, nay to his Brother and him,--sons
+of a Theological Professorial Syriac-Hebrew kind of man at Berne,
+who has too many sons;--and I grieve to report that this heedless
+Konig has produced an explosion in Madame's feelings, such as
+little beseemed him. On the road to Paris, namely, as we drove
+hitherward to the Honsbruck Lawsuit by way of Paris, in Autumn
+last, there had fallen out some dispute, about the monads, the VIS
+VIVA, the infinitely little, between Madame and Konig; dispute
+which rose CRESCENDO in disharmonious duet, and "ended," testifies
+M. de Voltaire, "in a scene TRESDESAGREABLE." Madame, with an
+effort, forgave the thoughtless fellow, who is still rather young,
+and is without malice. But thoughtless Konig, strong in his
+opinion about the infinitely little, appealed to Maupertuis:
+"Am not I right, Monsieur?" "HE is right beyond question!" wrote
+Maupertuis to Madame; "somewhat dryly," thinks Voltaire: and the
+result is, there is considerable rage in one celestial mind ever
+since against another male one in red wig and yellow bottom;
+and they are not on speaking terms, for a good many months past.
+Voltaire has his heart sore ("J'EN AI LE COEUR PERCE") about it,
+needs to double-dose Maupertuis with flattery; and in fact has
+used the utmost diplomacy to effect some varnish of a
+reconcilement as Maupertuis passed on this occasion. As for Konig,
+who had studied in some Dutch university, he went by and by to be
+Librarian to the Prince of Orange; and we shall not fail to hear
+of him again,--once more upon the infinitely little.
+[From <italic> OEuvres de Voltaire, <end italic> ii. 126, lxxii.
+(20, 216, 230), lxiii. (229-239), &c. &c.]
+
+Voltaire too, in his way, is fond of these mathematical people;
+eager enough to fish for knowledge, here as in all elements, when
+he has the chance offered: this is much an interest of his at
+present. And he does attain sound ideas, outlines of ideas, in
+this province,--though privately defective in the due
+transcendency of admiration for it;--was wont to discuss cheerily
+with Konig, about VIS VIVA, monads, gravitation and the infinitely
+little; above all, bows to the ground before the red-wigged
+Bashaw, Flattener of the Earth, whom for Madame's sake and his own
+he is anxious to be well with. "Fall on your face nine times, ye
+esoteric of only Impure Science!"--intimates Maupertuis to
+mankind. "By all means!" answers M. de Voltaire, doing it with
+alacrity; with a kind of loyalty, one can perceive, and also with
+a hypocrisy grounded on love of peace. If that is the nature of
+the Bashaw, and one's sole mode of fishing knowledge from him,
+why not? thinks M. de Voltaire. His patience with M. de
+Maupertuis, first and last, was very great. But we shall
+find it explode at length, a dozen years hence, in a
+conspicuous manner!--
+
+"Maupertuis had come to us to Cirey, with Jean Bernouilli," says
+Voltaire; "and thenceforth Maupertuis, who was born the most
+jealous of men, took me for the object of this passion, which has
+always been very dear to him." [VIE PRIVEE.] Husht, Monsieur!--
+Here is a poor rheumatic kind of Letter, which illustrates the
+interim condition, after that varnish of reconcilement
+at Brussels:--
+
+  VOLTAIRE TO M. DE MAUPERTUIS (at Wesel, waiting for the King,
+                    or with him rather).
+
+          "BRUSSELS, 29th August (1740), <italic> 3d year since
+                    the world flattened. <end italic>
+"How the Devil, great Philosopher, would you have had me write to
+you at Wesel? I fancied you gone from Wesel, to seek the King of
+Sages on his Journey somewhere. I had understood, too, they were
+so delighted to have you in that fortified lodge (BOUGE FORTIFIE)
+that you must be taking pleasure there, for he that gives pleasure
+gets it.
+
+"You have already seen the jolly Ambassador of the amiablest
+Monarch in the world,"--Camas, a fattish man, on his road to
+Versailles (who called at Brussels here, with fine compliments,
+and a keg of Hungary Wine, as YOU may have heard whispered).
+"No doubt M. de Camas is with you. For my own share, I think it is
+after you that he is running at present. But in truth, at the hour
+while I say this, you are with the King;"--a lucky guess; King did
+return to Wesel this very day. "The Philosopher and the Prince
+perceive already that they are made for each other. You and
+M. Algarotti will say, FACIAMUS HIC TRIA TABERNACULA: as to me,
+I can only make DUO TABERNACULA,"--profane Voltaire!
+
+"Without doubt I would be with you if I were not at Brussels;
+but my heart is with you all the same; and is the subject, all the
+same, of a King who is, formed to reign over every thinking and
+feeling being. I do not despair that Madame du Chatelet will find
+herself somewhere on your route: it will be a scene in a fairy
+tale;--she will arrive with a SUFFICIENT REASON [as your Leibnitz
+says] and with MONADS. She does not love you the less though she
+now believes the universe a PLENUM, and has renounced the notion
+of VOID. Over her you have an ascendant which you will never lose.
+In fine, my dear Monsieur, I wish as ardently as she to embrace
+you the soonest possible. I recommend myself to your friendship in
+the Court, worthy of you, where you now are."--TOUT A VOUS,
+somewhat rheumatic! [Voltaire, lxxii. p. 243.]
+
+Always an anxious almost tremulous desire to conciliate this big
+glaring geometrical bully in red wig. Through the sensitive
+transparent being of M. de Voltaire, you may see that feeling
+almost painfully busy in every Letter he writes to the Flattener
+of the Earth.
+
+
+
+Chapter IV.
+
+VOLTAIRE'S FIRST INTERVIEW WITH FRIEDRICH.
+
+At Wesel, in the rear of all this travelling and excitement,
+Friedrich falls unwell; breaks down there into an aguish feverish
+distemper, which, for several months after, impeded his movements,
+would he have yielded to it. He has much business on hand, too,--
+some of it of prickly nature just now;--but is intent as ever on
+seeing Voltaire, among the first things. Diligently reading in the
+Voltaire-Friedrich Correspondence (which is a sad jumble of
+misdates and opacities, in the common editions), [Preuss (the
+recent latest Editor, and the only well-informed one, as we said)
+prints with accuracy; but cannot be read at all (in the sense of
+UNDERSTOOD) without other light.] this of the aguish condition
+frequently turns up; "Quartan ague," it seems; occasionally very
+bad; but Friedrich struggles with it; will not be cheated of any
+of his purposes by it.
+
+He had a busy fortnight here; busier than we yet imagine.
+Much employment there naturally is of the usual Inspection sort;
+which fails in no quarter of his Dominions, but which may be
+particularly important here, in these disputed Berg-Julich
+Countries, when the time of decision falls. How he does his
+Inspections we know;--and there are still weightier matters afoot
+here, in a silent way, of which we shall have to speak before
+long, and all the world will speak. Business enough, parts of it
+grave and silent, going on, and the much that is public,
+miscellaneous, small: done, all of it, in a rapid-punctual precise
+manner;--and always, after the crowded day, some passages of
+Supper with the Sages, to wind up with on melodious terms. A most
+alert and miscellaneously busy young King, in spite of the ague.
+
+It was in these Cleve Countries, and now as probably as
+afterwards, that the light scene recorded in Laveaux's poor
+HISTORY, and in all the Anecdote-Books, transacted itself one day.
+Substance of the story is true; though the details of it go all at
+random,--somewhat to this effect:--
+
+"Inspecting his Finance Affairs, and questioning the parties
+interested, Friedrich notices a certain Convent in Cleve, which
+appears to have, payable from the Forest-dues, considerable
+revenues bequeathed by the old Dukes, 'for masses to be said on
+their behalf.' He goes to look at the place; questions the Monks
+on this point, who are all drawn out in two rows, and have broken
+into TE-DEUM at sight of him: 'Husht! You still say those Masses,
+then?' 'Certainly, your Majesty!'--'And what good does anybody get
+of them?' 'Your Majesty, those old Sovereigns are to obtain
+Heavenly mercy by them, to be delivered out of Purgatory by
+them.'--'Purgatory? It is a sore thing for the Forests, all this
+while! And they are not yet out, those poor souls, after so many
+hundred years of praying?' Monks have a fatal apprehension, No.
+'When will they be out, and the thing complete?' Monks cannot say.
+'Send me a courier whenever it is complete!' sneers the King, and
+leaves them to their TE-DEUM." [C. Hildebrandt's Modern Edition
+of the (mostly dubious) <italic> Anekdoten und Charakterzuge aus
+dem Leben Friedrichs des Grossen <end italic> (and a very ignorant
+and careless Edition it is; 6 vols. 12mo, Halberstadt, 1829), ii.
+160; Laveaus (whom we already cited), <italic> Vie de Frederic;
+<end italic> &c. &c. Nicolai's <italic> Anekdoten <end italic>
+alone, which are not included in this Hildebrandt Collection, are
+of sure authenticity; the rest, occasionally true, and often with
+a kind of MYTHIC truth in them worth attending to, are otherwise
+of all degrees of dubiety, down to the palpably false and absurd.]
+
+Mournful state of the Catholic Religion so called! How long must
+these wretched Monks go on doing their lazy thrice-deleterious
+torpid blasphemy; and a King, not histrionic but real, merely
+signify that he laughs at them and it? Meseems a heavier whip than
+that of satire might be in place here, your Majesty? The lighter
+whip is easier;--Ah yes, undoubtedly! cry many men. But horrible
+accounts are running up, enough to sink the world at last, while
+the heavier whip is lazily withheld, and lazy blasphemy, fallen
+torpid, chronic, and quite unconscious of being blasphemous,
+insinuates itself into the very heart's-blood of mankind!
+Patience, however; the heavy whip too is coming,--unless universal
+death be coming. King Friedrich is not the man to wield such whip.
+Quite other work is in store for King Friedrich; and Nature will
+not, by any suggestion of that terrible task, put him out in the
+one he has. He is nothing of a Luther, of a Cromwell; can look
+upon fakirs praying by their rotatory calabash, as a ludicrous
+platitude; and grin delicately as above, with the approval of his
+wiser contemporaries. Speed to him on his own course!
+
+What answer Friedrich found to his English proposals,--answer due
+here on the 24th from Captain Dickens,--I do not pointedly learn;
+but can judge of it by Harrington's reply to that Despatch of
+Dickens's, which entreated candor and open dealing towards his
+Prussian Majesty. Harrington is at Herrenhausen, still with the
+Britannic Majesty there; both of them much at a loss about their
+Spanish War, and the French and other aspects upon it: "Suppose
+his Prussian Majesty were to give himself to France against us!"
+We will hope, not. Harrington's reply is to the effect, "Hum,
+drum:--Berg and Julich, say you? Impossible to answer; minds not
+made up here:--What will his Prussian Majesty do for US?"
+Not much, I should guess, till something more categorical come
+from you! His Prussian Majesty is careful not to spoil anything by
+over-haste; but will wait and try farther to the utmost, Whether
+England or France is the likelier bargain for him.
+
+Better still, the Prussian Majesty is intent to do something for
+himself in that Berg-Julich matter: we find him silently examining
+these Wesel localities for a proper "entrenched Camp," Camp say of
+40,000, against a certain contingency that may be looked for.
+Camp which will much occupy the Gazetteers when they get eye on
+it. This is one of the concerns he silently attends to, on
+occasion, while riding about in the Cleve Countries. Then there is
+another small item of business, important to do well, which is now
+in silence diligently getting under way at Wesel; which also is of
+remarkable nature, and will astonish the Gazetteer and Diplomatic
+circles. This is the affair with the Bishop of Liege, called also
+the Affair of Herstal, which his Majesty has had privately laid up
+in the corner of his mind, as a thing to be done during this
+Excursion. Of which the reader shall hear anon, to great lengths,
+--were a certain small preliminary matter, Voltaire's Arrival in
+these parts, once off our hands.
+
+Friedrich's First Meeting with Voltaire! These other high things
+were once loud in the Gazetteer and Diplomatic circles, and had no
+doubt they were the World's History; and now they are sunk wholly
+to the Nightmares, and all mortals have forgotten them,--and it is
+such a task as seldom was to resuscitate the least memory of them,
+on just cause of a Friedrich or the like, so impatient are men of
+what is putrid and extinct:--and a quite unnoticed thing,
+Voltaire's First Interview, all readers are on the alert for it,
+and ready to demand of me impossibilities about it! Patience,
+readers. You shall see it, without and within, in such light as
+there was, and form some actual notion of it, if you will
+co-operate. From the circum-ambient inanity of Old Newspapers,
+Historical shot-rubbish, and unintelligible Correspondences, we
+sift out the following particulars, of this First Meeting, or
+actual Osculation of the Stars.
+
+The Newspapers, though their eyes were not yet of the Argus
+quality now familiar to us, have been intent on Friedrich during
+this Baireuth-Cleve Journey, especially since that sudden eclipse
+of him at Strasburg lately; forming now one scheme of route for
+him, now another; Newspapers, and even private friends, being a
+good deal uncertain about his movements. Rumor now ran, since his
+reappearance in the Cleve Countries, that Friedrich meant to have
+a look at Holland before going home, And that had, in fact, been a
+notion or intention of Friedrich's. "Holland? We could pass
+through Brussels on the way, and see Voltaire!" thought he.
+
+In Brussels this was, of course, the rumor of rumors.
+As Voltaire's Letters, visibly in a twitter, still testify to us.
+King of Prussia coming! Madame du Chatelet, the "Princess Tour"
+(that is, Tour-and-Taxis), all manner of high Dames are on the
+tiptoe. Princess Tour hopes she shall lodge this unparalleled
+Prince in her Palace: "You, Madame?" answers the Du Chatelet,
+privately, with a toss of her head: "His Majesty, I hope, belongs
+more to M. de Voltaire and me: he shall lodge here, please
+Heaven!" Voltaire, I can observe, has sublime hostelry
+arrangements chalked out for his Majesty, in case he go to Paris;
+which he does n't, as we know. Voltaire is all on the alert, awake
+to the great contingencies far and near; the Chatelet-Voltaire
+breakfast-table,--fancy it on those interesting mornings, while
+the post comes round! [Voltaire, xxii. 238-256 (Letters 22d
+August-22d September, 1740).]
+
+Alas, in the first days of September,--Friedrich's Letter is dated
+"Wesel, 2d" (and has the STRASBURD DOGGEREL enclosed in it),--the
+Brussels Postman delivers far other intelligence at one's door;
+very mortifying to Madame: "That his Majesty is fallen ill at
+Wesel; has an aguish fever hanging on him, and only hopes to
+come:" VOILA, Madame!--Next Letter, Wesel, Monday, 5th September,
+is to the effect: "Do still much hope to come; to-morrow is my
+trembling day; if that prove to be off!"--Out upon it, that proves
+not to be off; that is on: next Letter, Tuesday, September 6th,
+which comes by express (Courier dashing up with it, say on the
+Thursday following) is,--alas, Madame!--here it is:--
+
+KING FRIEDRICH TO M. DE VOLTAIRE AT BRUSSELS.
+
+                                   "WESEL, 6th September, 1740.
+"MY DEAR VOLTAIRE,--In spite of myself, I have to yield to the
+Quartan Fever, which is more tenacious than a Jansenist;
+and whatever desire I had of going to Antwerp and Brussels, I find
+myself not in a condition to undertake such a journey without
+risk. I would ask of you, then, if the road from Brussels to Cleve
+would not to you seem too long for a meeting; it is the one means
+of seeing you which remains to me. Confess that I am unlucky;
+for now when I could dispose of my person, and nothing hinders me
+from seeing you, the fever gets its hand into the business, and
+seems to intend disputing me that satisfaction.
+
+"Let us deceive the fever, my dear Voltaire; and let me at least
+have the pleasure of embracing you. Make my best excuses [polite,
+rather than sincere] to Madame the MARQUISE, that I cannot have
+the satisfaction of seeing her at Brussels. All that are about me
+know the intention I was in; which certainly nothing but the fever
+could have made me change.
+
+"Sunday next I shall be at a little Place near Cleve,"--Schloss of
+Moyland, which, and the route to which, this Courier can tell you
+of;--"where I shall be able to possess you at my ease. If the
+sight of you don't cure me, I will send for a Confessor at once.
+Adieu; you know my sentiments and my heart. [Preuss, <italic>
+OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxii. 27.]          FREDERIC."
+
+After which the Correspondence suddenly extinguishes itself;
+ceases for about a fortnight,--in the bad misdated Editions even
+does worse;--and we are left to thick darkness, to our own poor
+shifts; Dryasdust being grandly silent on this small interest of
+ours. What is to be done?
+
+
+PARTICULARS OF FIRST INTERVIEW, ON SEVERE SCRUTINY.
+
+Here, from a painful Predecessor whose Papers I inherit, are some
+old documents and Studies on the subject,--sorrowful collection,
+in fact, of what poor sparks of certainty were to be found
+hovering in that dark element;--which do at last (so luminous are
+certainties always, or "sparks" that will shine steady) coalesce
+into some feeble general twilight, feeble but indubitable;
+and even show the sympathetic reader how they were searched out
+and brought together. We number and label these poor Patches of
+Evidence on so small a matter; and leave them to the curious:--
+
+No. 1. DATE OF THE FIRST INTERVIEW. It is certain Voltaire did
+arrive at the little Schloss of Moyland, September llth, Sunday
+night,--which is the "Sunday" just specified in Friedrich's
+Letter. Voltaire had at once decided on complying,--what else?--
+and lost no time in packing himself: King's Courier on Thursday
+late; Voltaire on the road on Saturday early, or the night before.
+With Madame's shrill blessing (not the most musical in this vexing
+case), and plenty of fuss. "Was wont to travel in considerable
+style," I am told; "the innkeepers calling him "Your Lordship
+(M. LE COMTE)." Arrives, sure enough, Sunday night; old Schloss of
+Moyland, six miles from Cleve; "moonlight," I find,--the Harvest
+Moon. Visit lasted three days. [Rodenbeck, p. 21; Preuss, &c. &c.]
+
+No. 2. VOLTAIRE'S DRIVE THITHER. Schloss Moyland: How far from
+Brussels, and by what route? By Louvain, Tillemont, Tongres to
+Maestricht; then from Maestricht up the Maas (left bank) to Venlo,
+where cross; through Geldern and Goch to Cleve: between the Maas
+and Rhine this last portion. Flat damp country; tolerably under
+tillage; original constituents bog and sand. Distances I guess to
+be: To Tongres 60 miles and odd; to Maestricht 12 or 15, from
+Maestricht 75; in all 150 miles English. Two days' driving?
+There is equinoctial moon, and still above twelve hours of
+sunlight for "M. le Comte."
+
+No. 3. OF THE PLACE WHERE. Voltaire, who should have known, calls
+it "PETIT CHATEAU DE MEUSE;" which is a Castle existing nowhere
+but in Dreams. Other French Biographers are still more imaginary.
+The little Schloss of Moyland--by no means "Meuse," nor even MORS,
+which Voltaire probably means in saying CHATEAU DE MEUSE--was, as
+the least inquiry settles beyond question, the place where
+Voltaire and Friedrich first met. Friedrich Wilhelm used often to
+lodge there in his Cleve journeys: he made thither for shelter, in
+the sickness that overtook him in friend Ginkel's house, coming
+home from the Rhine Campaign in 1734; lay there for several weeks
+after quitting Ginkel's. Any other light I can get upon it, is
+darkness visible. Busching pointedly informs me,
+[<italic> Erdbeschreibung, v. 659, 677.] "It is a Parish [or patch
+of country under one priest], and Till AND it are a Jurisdiction"
+(pair of patches under one court of justice):--which does not much
+illuminate the inquiring mind. Small patch, this of Moyland, size
+not given; "was bought," says he, "in 1695, by Friedrich
+afterwards First King, from the Family of Spaen,"--we once knew a
+Lieutenant Spaen, of those Dutch regions,--"and was named a Royal
+Mansion ever thereafter." Who lived in it; what kind of thing was
+it, is it? ALTUM SILENTIUM, from Busching and mankind. Belonged to
+the Spaens, fifty years ago;--some shadow of our poor banished
+friend the Lieutenant resting on it? Dim enough old Mansion, with
+"court" to it, with modicum of equipment; lying there in the
+moonlight;--did not look sublime to Voltaire on stepping out.
+So that all our knowledge reduces itself to this one point:
+of finding Moyland in the Map, with DATE, with REMINISCENCE to us,
+hanging by it henceforth! Good. [Stieler's <italic> Deutschland
+<end italic> (excellent Map in 25 Pieces), Piece 12.--Till is a
+mile or two northeast from Moyland; Moyland about 5 or 6 southeast
+from Cleve.]
+
+Mors--which is near the Town of Ruhrort, about midway between
+Wesel and Dusseldorf--must be some forty miles from Moyland,
+forty-five from Cleve; southward of both. So that the place,
+"A DEUX LIEUES DE CLEVES," is, even by Voltaire's showing, this
+Moyland; were there otherwise any doubt upon it. "CHATEAU DE
+MEUSE"--hanging out a prospect of MORS to us--is bad usage to
+readers. Of an intelligent man, not to say a Trismegistus of men,
+one expects he will know in what town he is, after three days'
+experience, as here. But he does not always; he hangs out a mere
+"shadow of Mars by moonlight," till we learn better. Duvernet, his
+Biographer, even calls it "SLEUS-MEUSE;" some wonderful idea of
+Sluices and a River attached to it, in Duvernet's head! [Duvernet
+(2d FORM of him,--that is, <italic> Vie de Voltaire <end italic>
+par T. J. D. V.), p. 117.]
+
+
+WHAT VOLTAIRE THOUGHT OF THE INTERVIEW TWENTY YEARS AFTERWARDS
+
+Of the Interview itself, with general bird's-eye view of the Visit
+combined (in a very incorrect state), there is direct testimony by
+Voltaire himself. Voltaire himself, twenty years after, in far
+other humor, all jarred into angry sarcasm, for causes we shall
+see by and by,--Voltaire, at the request of friends, writes down,
+as his Friedrich Reminiscences, that scandalous VIE PRIVEE above
+spoken of, a most sad Document; and this is the passage referring
+to "the little Place in the neighborhood of Cleve," where
+Friedrich now waited for him: errors corrected by our laborious
+Friend. After quoting something of that Strasburg Doggerel, the
+whole of which is now too well known to us, Voltaire proceeds:--
+
+"From Strasburg he," King Friedrich, "went to see his Lower German
+Provinces; he said he would come and see me incognito at Brussels.
+We prepared a fine house for him,"--were ready to prepare such
+hired house as we had for him, with many apologies for its slight
+degree of perfection (ERROR FIRST),--"but having fallen ill in the
+little Mansion-Royal of Meuse (CHATEAU DE MEUSE), a couple of
+leagues from Cleve,"--fell ill at Wesel; and there is no Chateau
+de MEUSE in the world (ERRORS 2d AND 3d),--"he wrote to me that he
+expected I would make the advances. I went, accordingly, to
+present my profound homages. Maupertuis, who already had his
+views, and was possessed with the rage of being President to an
+Academy, had of his own accord,"--no, being invited, and at my
+suggestion (ERROR 4th),--"presented himself there; and was lodged
+with Algarotti and Keyserling [which latter, I suppose, had come
+from Berlin, not being of the Strasburg party, he] in a garret of
+this Palace.
+
+"At the door of the court, I found, by way of guard, one soldier.
+Privy-Councillor Rambonet, Minister of State--[very subaltern man;
+never heard of him except in the Herstal Business, and here] was
+walking in the court; blowing in his fingers to keep them warm."
+Sunday night, 11th September, 1740; world all bathed in moonshine;
+and mortals mostly shrunk into their huts, out of the raw air.
+"He" Rambonet "wore big linen ruffles at his wrists, very dirty
+[visibly so in the moonlight? ERROR 5th extends AD LIBITUM over
+all the following details]; a holed hat; an old official
+periwig,"--ruined into a totally unsymmetric state, as would
+seem,--"one side of which hung down into one of his pockets, and
+the other scarcely crossed his shoulder. I was told, this man was
+now intrusted with an affair of importance here; and that proved
+true,"--the Herstal Affair.
+
+"I was led into his Majesty's apartment. Nothing but four bare
+walls there. By the light of a candle, I perceived, in a closet, a
+little truckle-bed two feet and a half broad, on which lay a man
+muffled up in a dressing-gown of coarse blue duffel: this was the
+King, sweating and shivering under a wretched blanket there, in a
+violent fit of fever. I made my reverence, and began the
+acquaintance by feeling his pulse, as if I had been his chief
+physician. The fit over, he dressed himself, and took his place at
+table. Algarotti, Keyserling, Maupertuis, and the King's Envoy to
+the States-General"--one Rasfeld (skilled in HERSTAL matters, I
+could guess),--"we were of this supper, and discussed, naturally
+in a profound manner, the Immortality of the Soul, Liberty, Fate,
+the Androgynes of Plato [the ANDROGYNOI, or Men-Women, in Plato's
+CONVIVIUM; by no means the finest symbolic fancy of the divine
+Plato],--and other small topics of that nature." [Voltaire,
+<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> (Piece once called VIE PRIVEE),
+ii. 26, 27.]
+
+This is Voltaire's account of the Visit,--which included three
+"Suppers," all huddled into one by him here;--and he says nothing
+more of it; launching off now into new errors, about HERSTAL, the
+ANTI-MACHIAVEL, and so forth: new and uglier errors, with much
+more of mendacity and serious malice in them, than in this
+harmless half-dozen now put on the score against him.
+
+Of this Supper-Party, I know by face four of the guests:
+Maupertuis, Voltaire, Algarotti, Keyserling;--Rasfeld, Rambonet
+can sit as simulacra or mute accompaniment. Voltaire arrived on
+Sunday evening; stayed till Wednesday. Wednesday morning, 14th of
+the month, the Party broke up: Voltaire rolling off to left hand,
+towards Brussels, or the Hague; King to right, on inspection
+business, and circuitously homewards. Three Suppers there had
+been, two busy Days intervening; discussions about Fate and the
+Androgynoi of Plato by no means the one thing done by Voltaire and
+the rest, on this occasion. We shall find elsewhere, "he declaimed
+his MAHOMET" (sublime new Tragedy, not yet come out), in the
+course of these three evenings, to the "speechless admiration" of
+his Royal Host, for one; and, in the daytime, that he even drew
+his pen about the Herstal Business, which is now getting to its
+crisis, and wrote one of the Manifestoes, still discoverable.
+And we need not doubt, in spite of his now sneering tone, that
+things ran high and grand here, in this paltry little Schloss of
+Moyland; and that those three were actually Suppers of the Gods,
+for the time being.
+
+"Councillor Rambonet,', with the holed hat and unsymmetric wig,
+continues Voltaire in the satirical vein, "had meanwhile mounted a
+hired hack (CHEVAL DE LOUAGE;" mischievous Voltaire, I have no
+doubt he went on wheels, probably of his own): "he rode all night;
+and next morning arrived at the gates of Liege; where he took Act
+in the name of the King his Master, whilst 2,000 men of the Wesel
+Troops laid Liege under contribution. The pretext of this fine
+Marching of Troops,"--not a pretext at all, but the assertion,
+correct in all points, of just claims long trodden down, and now
+made good with more spirit than had been expected,--"was certain
+rights which the King pretended to, over a suburb of Liege.
+He even charged me to work at a Manifesto; and I made one, good or
+bad; not doubting but a King with whom I supped, and who called me
+his friend, must be in the right. The affair soon settled itself
+by means of a million of ducats,"--nothing like the sum, as we
+shall see,--"which he exacted by weight, to clear the costs of the
+Tour to Strasburg, which, according to his complaint in that
+Poetic Letter [Doggerel above given], were so heavy."
+
+That is Voltaire's view; grown very corrosive after Twenty Years.
+He admits, with all the satire: "I naturally felt myself attached
+to him; for he had wit, graces; and moreover he was a King, which
+always forms a potent seduction, so weak is human nature.
+Usually it is we of the writing sort that flatter Kings: but this
+King praised me from head to foot, while the Abbe Desfontaines and
+other scoundrels (GREDINS) were busy defaming me in Paris at least
+once a week." 
+
+WHAT VOLTAIRE THOUGHT OF THE INTERVIEW AT THE TIME.
+
+But let us take the contemporary account, which also we have at
+first hand; which is almost pathetic to read; such a contrast
+between ruddy morning and the storms of the afternoon! Here are
+two Letters from Voltaire; fine transparent human Letters, as his
+generally are: the first of them written directly on getting back
+to the Hague, and to the feeling of his eclipsed condition.
+
+VOLTAIRE TO M. DE MAUPERTUIS (with the King).
+
+"THE HAGUE, 18th September, 1740.
+"I serve you, Monsieur, sooner than I promised; and that is the
+way you ought to be served. I send you the answer of M. Smith,"--
+probably some German or Dutch SCHMIDT, spelt here in English,
+connected with the Sciences, say with water-carriage, the
+typographies, or one need not know what; "you will see where the
+question stands.
+ 
+"When we both left Cleve,"--14th of the month, Wednesday last;
+18th is Sunday, in this old cobwebby Palace, where I am correcting
+ANTI-MACHIAVEL,--"and you took to the right,"--King, homewards,
+got to HAM that evening,--"I could have thought I was at the Last
+Judgment, where the Bon Dieu separates the elect from the damned.
+DIVUS FREDERICUS said to you, 'Sit down at my right hand in the
+Paradise of Berlin;' and to me, 'Depart, thou accursed, into
+Holland.' 
+
+"Here I am accordingly in this phlegmatic place of punishment, far
+from the divine fire which animates the Friedrichs, the
+Maupertuis, the Algarottis. For God's love, do me the charity of
+some sparks in these stagnant waters where I am,"--stiffening,
+cooling,--"stupefying to death. Instruct me of your pleasures, of
+your designs. You will doubtless see M. de Valori,"--readers know
+de Valori; his Book has been published; edited, as too usual, by a
+Human Nightmare, ignorant of his subject and indeed of almost all
+other things, and liable to mistakes in every page; yet partly
+readable, if you carry lanterns, and love "MON GROS VALORI:"--
+"offer him, I pray you, my respects. If I do not write to him, the
+reason is, I have no news to send: I should be as exact as I am
+devoted, if my correspondence could be useful or agreeable to him.
+
+"Won't you have me send you some Books? If I be still in Holland
+when your orders come, I will obey in a moment. I pray you do not
+forget me to M. de Keyserling,"--Caesarion whom we once had at
+Cirey; a headlong dusky little man of wit (library turned topsy-
+turvy, as Wilhelmina called him), whom we have seen.
+
+"Tell me, I beg, if the enormous monad of Volfius--[Wolf, would
+the reader like to hear about him? If so, he has only to speak!]
+is arguing at Marburg, at Berlin, or at Hall [HALLE, which is a
+very different place].
+
+"Adieu, Monsieur: you can address your orders to me 'At the
+Hague:' they will be forwarded wherever I am; and I shall be,
+anywhere on earth,--Yours forever (A VOUS POUR JAMAIS)."
+[Voltaire, lxxii. 252.]
+
+Letter Second, of which a fragment may be given, is to one
+Cideville, a month later; all the more genuine as there was no
+chance of the King's hearing about this one. Cideville, some kind
+of literary Advocate at Rouen (who is wearisomely known to the
+reader of Voltaire's Letters), had done, what is rather an
+endemical disorder at this time, some Verses for the King of
+Prussia, which he wished to be presented to his Majesty.
+The presentation, owing to accidents, did not take place;
+hear how Voltaire, from his cobweb Palace at the Hague, busy with
+ANTI-MACHIAVEL, Van Duren and many other things,--18th October,
+1740, on which day we find him writing many Letters,--explains the
+sad accident:--
+
+VOLTAIRE TO M. DE CIDEVILLE (at Rouen).
+
+"AT THE HAGUE, KING OF PRUSSIA'S PALACE,
+18th October, 1740.
+
+"... This is my case, dear Cideville. When you sent me, enclosed
+in your Letter, those Verses (among which there are some of
+charming and inimitable turn) for our Marcus Aurelius of the
+North, I did well design to pay my court to him with them. He was
+at that time to have come to Brussels incognito: we expected him
+there; but the Quartan Fever, which unhappily he still has,
+deranged all his projects. He sent me a courier to Brussels,"--
+mark that point, my Cideville;--"and so I set out to find him in
+the neighborhood of Cleve.
+
+"It was there I saw one of the amiablest men in the world, who
+forms the charm of society, who would be everywhere sought after
+if he were not King; a philosopher without austerity; full of
+sweetness, complaisance and obliging ways (AGREMENS);
+not remembering that he is King when he meets his friends; indeed
+so completely forgetting it that he made me too almost forget it,
+and I needed an effort of memory to recollect that I here saw
+sitting at the foot of my bed a Sovereign who had an Army of
+100,000 men. That was the moment to have read your amiable Verses
+to him:"--yes; but then?--"Madame du Chatelet, who was to have
+sent them to me, did not, NE L'A PA FAIT." Alas, no, they are
+still at Brussels, those charming Verses; and I, for a month past,
+am here in my cobweb Palace! But I swear to you, the instant I
+return to Brussels, I, &c. &c. [Voltaire, lxii. 282.]
+
+Finally, here is what Friedrich thought of it, ten days after
+parting with Voltaire. We will read this also (though otherwise
+ahead of us as yet); to be certified on all sides, and sated for
+the rest of our lives, concerning the Friedrich-Voltaire
+First Interview.
+
+KING FRIEDRICH TO M. JORDAN (at Berlin).
+
+POTSDAM, 24th September, 1740.
+
+"Most respectable Inspector of the poor, the invalids, orphans,
+crazy people and Bedlams,--I have read with mature meditation the
+very profound Jordanic Letter which was waiting here;"--and do
+accept your learned proposal.
+
+"I have seen that Voltaire whom I was so curious to know; but I
+saw him with the Quartan hanging on me, and my mind as unstrung as
+my body. With men of his kind one ought not to be sick; one ought
+even to be specially well, and in better health than common, if
+one could.
+
+"He has the eloquence of Cicero, the mildness of Pliny, the wisdom
+of Agrippa; he combines, in short, what is to be collected of
+virtues and talents from the three greatest men of Antiquity.
+His intellect is at work incessantly; every drop of ink is a trait
+of wit from his pen. He declaimed his MAHOMET to us, an admirable
+Tragedy which he has done,"--which the Official people smelling
+heresies in it ("toleration," "horrors of fanaticism," and the
+like) will not let him act, as readers too well know:--"he
+transported us out of ourselves; I could only admire and hold my
+tongue. The Du Chatelet is lucky to have him: for of the good
+things he flings out at random, a person who had no faculty but
+memory might make a brilliant Book. That Minerva has just
+published her Work on PHYSICS: not wholly bad. It was Konig"--whom
+we know, and whose late tempest in a certain teapot--"that
+dictated the theme to her: she has adjusted, ornamented here and
+there with some touch picked from Voltaire at her Suppers.
+The Chapter on Space is pitiable; the"--in short, she is still raw
+in the Pure Sciences, and should have waited. ...
+
+"Adieu, most learned, most scientific, most profound Jordan,--or
+rather most gallant, most amiable, most jovial Jordan;--I salute
+thee, with assurance of all those old feelings which thou hast the
+art of inspiring in every one that knows thee. VALE.
+
+"I write the moment of my arrival: be obliged to me, friend; for I
+have been working, I am going to work still, like a Turk, or like
+a Jordan." [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xvii. 71.]
+
+This is hastily thrown off for Friend Jordan, the instant after
+his Majesty's circuitous return home. Readers cannot yet attend
+his Majesty there, till they have brought the Affair of Herstal,
+and other remainders of the Cleve Journey, along with them.
+
+
+
+Chapter V.
+
+AFFAIR OF HERSTAL.
+
+This Rambonet, whom Voltaire found walking in the court of the old
+Castle of Moyland, is an official gentleman, otherwise unknown to
+History, who has lately been engaged in a Public Affair; and is
+now off again about it, "on a hired hack" or otherwise,--with very
+good instructions in his head. Affair which, though in itself but
+small, is now beginning to make great noise in the world, as
+Friedrich wends homewards out of his Cleve Journey. He has set it
+fairly alight, Voltaire and he, before quitting Moyland; and now
+it will go of itself. The Affair of Herstal, or of the Bishop of
+Liege; Friedrich's first appearance on the stage of politics.
+Concerning which some very brief notice, if intelligible, will
+suffice readers of the present day.
+
+Heristal, now called Herstal, was once a Castle known to all
+mankind; King Pipin's Castle, who styled himself "Pipin of
+Heristal," before he became King of the Franks and begot
+Charlemagne. It lies on the Maas, in that fruitful Spa Country;
+left bank of the Maas, a little to the north of Liege;
+and probably began existence as a grander place than Liege
+(LUTTICH), which was, at first, some Monastery dependent on
+secular Herstal and its grandeurs:--think only how the race has
+gone between these two entities; spiritual Liege now a big City,
+black with the smoke of forges and steam-mills; Herstal an
+insignificant Village, accidentally talked of for a few weeks in
+1740, and no chance ever to be mentioned again by men.
+
+Herstal, in the confused vicissitudes of a thousand years, had
+passed through various fortunes, and undergone change of owners
+often enough. Fifty years ago it was in the hands of the Nassau-
+Orange House; Dutch William, our English Protestant King, who
+probably scarce knew of his possessing it, was Lord of Herstal
+till his death. Dutch William had no children to inherit Herstal:
+he was of kinship to the Prussian House, as readers are aware;
+and from that circumstance, not without a great deal of
+discussion, and difficult "Division of the Orange Heritage," this
+Herstal had, at the long last, fallen to Friedrich Wilhelm's
+share; it and Neuchatel, and the Cobweb Palace, and some other
+places and pertinents.
+
+For Dutch William was of kin, we say; Friedrich I. of Prussia, by
+his Mother the noble Wife of the Great Elector, was full cousin to
+Dutch William: and the Marriage Contracts were express,--though
+the High Mightinesses made difficulties, and the collateral Orange
+branches were abundantly reluctant, when it came to the fulfilling
+point. For indeed the matter was intricate. Orange itself, for
+example, what was to be done with the Principality of Orange?
+Clearly Prussia's; but it lies imbedded deep in the belly of
+France, that will be a Caesarean-Operation for you! Had not
+Neuchatel happened just then to fall home to France (or in some
+measure to France) and be heirless, Prussia's Heritage of Orange
+would have done little for Prussia! Principality of Orange was, by
+this chance, long since, mainly in the First King's time, got
+settled: [Neuchatel, 3d November, 1707, to Friedrich I., natives
+preferring him to "Fifteen other Claimants;" Louis XIV. loudly
+protesting: not till Treaty of Utrecht (14th March 1713, first
+month of Friedrich Wilhelm's reign) would Louis XIV., on cession
+of Orange, consent and sanction.] but there needed many years more
+of good waiting, and of good pushing, on Friedrich Wilhelm's part;
+and it was not till 1732 that Friedrich Wilhelm got the Dutch
+Heritages finally brought to the square: Neuchatel and Valengin,
+as aforesaid, in lieu of Orange; and now furthermore, the Old
+Palace at Loo (that VIEILLE COUR and biggest cobwebs), with
+pertinents, with Garden of Honslardik; and a string of items,
+bigger and less, not worth enumerating. Of the items, this Herstal
+was one;--and truly, so far as this went, Friedrich Wilhelm often
+thought he had better never have seen it, so much trouble did it
+bring him.
+
+
+HOW THE HERSTALLERS HAD BEHAVED TO FRIEDRICH WILHELM.
+
+The Herstal people, knowing the Prussian recruiting system and
+other rigors, were extremely unwilling to come under Friedrich
+Wilhelm's sway, could they have helped it. They refused fealty,
+swore they never would swear: nor did they, till the appearance,
+or indubitable foreshine, of Friedrich Wilhelm's bayonets
+advancing on them from the East, brought compliance. And always
+after, spite of such quasi-fealty, they showed a pig-like
+obstinacy of humor; a certain insignificant, and as it were
+impertinent, deep-rooted desire to thwart, irritate and contradict
+the said Friedrich Wilhelm. Especially in any recruiting matter
+that might arise, knowing that to be the weak side of his Prussian
+Majesty. All this would have amounted to nothing, had it not been
+that their neighbor, the Prince Bishop of Liege, who imagined
+himself to have some obscure claims of sovereignty over Herstal,
+and thought the present a good opportunity for asserting these,
+was diligent to aid and abet the Herstal people in such their
+mutinous acts. Obscure claims; of which this is the summary,
+should the reader not prefer to skip it:--
+
+"The Bishop of Liege's claims on Herstal (which lie wrapt from
+mankind in the extensive jungle of his law-pleadings, like a
+Bedlam happily fallen extinct) seem to me to have grown mainly
+from two facts more or less radical.
+
+"FACT FIRST. In Kaiser Barbarossa's time, year 1171, Herstal had
+been given in pawn to the Church of Liege, for a loan, by the then
+proprietor, Duke of Lorraine and Brabant. Loan was repaid, I do
+not learn when, and the Pawn given back; to the satisfaction of
+said Duke, or Duke's Heirs; never quite to the satisfaction of the
+Church, which had been in possession, and was loath to quit, after
+hoping to continue. 'Give us back Herstal; it ought to be ours!'
+Unappeasable sigh or grumble to this effect is heard thenceforth,
+at intervals, in the Chapter of Liege, and has not ceased in
+Friedrich's time. But as the world, in its loud thoroughfares,
+seldom or never heard, or could hear, such sighing in the Chapter,
+nothing had come of it,--till--
+
+"FACT SECOND. In Kaiser Karl V.'s time, the Prince Bishop of Liege
+happened to be a Natural Son of old Kaiser Max's;--and had friends
+at headquarters, of a very choice nature. Had, namely, in this
+sort, Kaiser Karl for Nephew or Half-Nephew; and what perhaps was
+still better, as nearer hand, had Karl's Aunt, Maria Queen of
+Hungary, then Governess of the Netherlands, for Half-Sister.
+Liege, in these choice circumstances, and by other good chances
+that turned up, again got temporary clutch or half-clutch of
+Herstal, for a couple of years (date 1546-1548, the Prince of
+Orange, real proprietor, whose Ancestor had bought it for money
+down, being then a minor); once, and perhaps a second time in like
+circumstance; but had always to renounce it again, when the Prince
+of Orange came to maturity. And ever since, the Chapter of Liege
+sighs as before, 'Herstal is perhaps in a sense ours. We had once
+some kind of right to it!'--sigh inaudible in the loud public
+thoroughfares. That is the Bishop's claim. The name of him, if
+anybody care for it, is 'Georg Ludwig, titular COUNT OF BERG,' now
+a very old man: Bishop of Liege, he, and has been snatching at
+Herstal again, very eagerly by any skirt or tagrag that might
+happen to fly loose, these eight years past, in a rash and
+provoking manner; [<italic> Delices du Pais de Liege <end italic>
+(Liege, 1738); <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
+ii. 57-62.]--age eighty-two at present; poor old fool, he had
+better have sat quiet. There lies a rod in pickle for him, during
+these late months; and will be surprisingly laid on, were the
+time come!"
+
+"I have Law Authority over Herstal, and power of judging there in
+the last appeal," said this Bishop:--"You!" thought Friedrich
+Wilhelm, who was far off, and had little time to waste.--
+"Any Prussian recruiter that behaves ill, bring him to me!" said
+the Bishop, who was on the spot. And accordingly it had been done;
+one notable instance two years ago: a Prussian Lieutenant locked
+in the Liege jail, on complaint of riotous Herstal; thereupon a
+Prussian Officer of rank (Colonel Kreutzen, worthy old Malplaquet
+gentleman) coming as Royal Messenger, not admitted to audience,
+nay laid hold of by the Liege bailiff instead; and other unheard-
+of procedures. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> ii.
+63-73.] So that Friedrich Wilhelm had nothing but trouble with
+this petty Herstal, and must have thought his neighbor Bishop a
+very contentious high-flying gentleman, who took great liberties
+with the Lion's whiskers, when he had the big animal at
+an advantage.
+
+The episcopal procedures, eight years ago, about the First
+Homaging of Herstal, had been of similar complexion; nor had other
+such failed in the interim, though this last outrage exceeded them
+all. This last began in the end of 1738; and span itself out
+through 1739, when Friedrich Wilhelm lay in his final sickness,
+less able to deal with it than formerly. Being a peaceable man,
+unwilling to awaken conflagrations for a small matter, Friedrich
+Wilhelm had offered, through Kreutzen on this occasion, to part
+with Herstal altogether; to sell it, for 100,000 thalers, say
+16,000 pounds, to the high-flying Bishop, and honestly wash his
+hands of it. But the high-flying Bishop did not consent, gave no
+definite answer; and so the matter lay,--like an unsettled
+extremely irritating paltry little matter,--at the time Friedrich
+Wilhelm died.
+
+The Gazetteers and public knew little about these particulars, or
+had forgotten them again; but at the Prussian Court they were in
+lively remembrance. What the young Friedrich's opinion about them
+had been we gather from this succinct notice of the thing, written
+seven or eight years afterwards, exact in all points, and still
+carrying a breath of the old humor in it. "A miserable Bishop of
+Liege thought it a proud thing to insult the late King.
+Some subjects of Herstal, which belongs to Prussia, had revolted;
+the Bishop gave them his protection. Colonel Kreutzen was sent to
+Liege, to compose the thing by treaty; credentials with him, full
+power, and all in order. Imagine it, the Bishop would not receive
+him! Three days, day after day, he saw this Envoy apply at his
+Palace, and always denied him entrance. These things had grown
+past endurance." [Preuss, <italic> OEuvres (Memoires de
+Brandebourg), end italic> ii. 53.] And Friedrich had taken note of
+Herstal along with him, on this Cleve Journey; privately intending
+to put Herstal and the high-flying Bishop on a suitabler footing,
+before his return from those countries.
+
+For indeed, on Friedrich's Accession, matters had grown worse, not
+better. Of course there was Fealty to be sworn; but the Herstal
+people, abetted by the high-flying Bishop, have declined swearing
+it. Apology for the past, prospect of amendment for the future,
+there is less than ever. What is the young King to do with this
+paltry little Hamlet of Herstal? He could, in theory, go into some
+Reichs-Hofrath, some Reichs-Kammergericht (kind of treble and
+tenfold English Court-of-Chancery, which has lawsuits 250 years
+old),--if he were a theoretic German King. He can plead in the
+Diets, and the Wetzlar Reichs-Kammergericht without end:
+"All German Sovereigns have power to send their Ambassador
+thither, who is like a mastiff chained in the back-yard [observes
+Friedrich elsewhere] with privilege of barking at the Moon,"--
+unrestricted privilege of barking at the Moon, if that will avail
+a practical man, or King's Ambassador. Or perhaps the Bishop of
+Liege will bethink him, at last, what considerable liberty he is
+taking with some people's whiskers? Four months are gone;
+Bishop of Liege has not in the least bethought him: we are in the
+neighborhood in person, with note of the thing in our memory.
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TAKES THE ROD OUT OF PICKLE.
+
+Accordingly the Rath Rambonet, whom Voltaire found at Moyland that
+Sunday night, had been over at Liege; went exactly a week before;
+with this message of very peremptory tenor from his Majesty:--
+
+TO THE PRINCE BISHOP OF LIEGE.
+
+"WESEL, 4th September, 1740.
+
+"MY COUSIN,--Knowing all the assaults (ATTEINTES) made by you upon
+my indisputable rights over my free Barony of Herstal; and how the
+seditious ringleaders there, for several years past, have been
+countenanced (BESTARKET) by you in their detestable acts of
+disobedience against me,--I have commanded my Privy Councillor
+Rambonet to repair to your presence, and in my name to require
+from you, within two days, a distinct and categorical answer to
+this question: Whether you are still minded to assert your
+pretended sovereignty over Herstal; and whether you will
+protect the rebels at Herstal, in their disorders and
+abominable disobedience?
+
+"In case you refuse, or delay beyond the term, the Answer which I
+hereby of right demand, you will render yourself alone
+responsible, before the world, for the consequences which
+infallibly will follow. I am, with much consideration,--
+My Cousin,--
+
+"Your very affectionate Cousin,
+
+"FRIEDRICH."
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> ii. 75, 111.]
+
+Rambonet had started straightway for Liege, with this missive;
+and had duly presented it there, I guess on the 7th,--with notice
+that he would wait forty-eight hours, and then return with what
+answer or no-answer there might be. Getting no written answer, or
+distinct verbal one; getting only some vague mumblement as good as
+none, Rambonet had disappeared from Liege on the 9th; and was home
+at Moyland when Voltaire arrived that Sunday evening,--just
+walking about to come to heat again, after reportiag progress to
+the above effect.
+
+Rambonet, I judge, enjoyed only one of those divine Suppers at
+Moyland; and dashed off again, "on hired hack" or otherwise, the
+very next morning; that contingency of No-answer having been the
+anticipated one, and all things put in perfect readiness for it.
+Rambonet's new errand was to "take act," as Voltaire calls it, "at
+the Gates of Liege,"--to deliver at Liege a succinct Manifesto,
+Pair of Manifestoes, both in Print (ready beforehand), and bearing
+date that same Sunday, "Wesel, 11th September;" much calculated to
+amaze his Reverence at Liege. Succinct good Manifestoes, said to
+be of Friedrich's own writing; the essential of the two is this:--
+ 
+
+<italic> Exposition of the Reasons which have induced his Majesty
+the King of Prussia to make just Reprisals on the Prince Bishop of
+Liege. <end italic>
+
+"His Majesty the King of Prussia, being driven beyond bounds by
+the rude proceedings of the Prince Bishop of Liege, has with
+regret seen himself forced to recur to the Method of Arms, in
+order to repress the violence and affront which the Bishop has
+attempted to put upon him. This resolution has cost his Majesty
+much pain; the rather as he is, by principle and disposition, far
+remote from whatever could have the least relation to rigor
+and severity.
+
+"But seeing himself compelled by the Bishop of Liege to take new
+methods, he had no other course but to maintain the justice of his
+rights (LA JUSTICE DE SES DROITS), and demand reparation for the
+indignity done upon his Minister Von Kreuzen, as well as for the
+contempt with which the Bishop of Liege has neglected even to
+answer the Letter of the King.
+
+"As too much rigor borders upon cruelty, so too much patience
+resembles weakness. Thus, although the King would willingly have
+sacrificed his interests to the public peace and tranquillity, it
+was not possible to do so in reference to his honor; and that is
+the chief motive which has determined him to this resolution, so
+contrary to his intentions.
+
+"In vain has it been attempted, by methods of mildness, to come to
+a friendly agreement: it has been found, on the contrary, that the
+King's moderation only increased the Prince's arrogance;
+that mildness of conduct on one side only furnished resources to
+pride on the other; and that, in fine, instead of gaining by soft
+procedure, one was insensibly becoming an object of vexation
+and disdain.
+
+"There being no means to have justice but in doing it for oneself,
+and the King being Sovereign enough for such a duty,--he intends
+to make the Prince of Liege feel how far he was in the wrong to
+abuse such moderation so unworthily. But in spite of so much
+unhandsome behavior on the part of this Prince, the King will not
+be inflexible; satisfied with having shown the said Prince that he
+can punish him, and too just to overwhelm him.          FREDERIC.
+"WESEL, September 11th, 174O."
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> ii. 77. Said to be by
+Friedrich himself (Stenzel, iv. 59).]
+
+Whether Rambonet insinuated his Paper-Packet into the Palace of
+Seraing, left it at the Gate of Liege (fixed by nail, if he saw
+good), or in what manner he "took act," I never knew; and indeed
+Rambonet vanishes from human History at this point: it is certain
+only that he did his Formality, say two days hence;--and that the
+Fact foreshadowed by it is likewise in the same hours, hour after
+hour, getting steadily done.
+
+For the Manifestoes printed beforehand, dated Wesel, 11th
+September, were not the only thing ready at Wesel; waiting, as on
+the slip, for the contingency of No-answer. Major-General Borck,
+with the due Battalions, squadrons and equipments, was also ready.
+Major-General Borck, the same who was with us at Baireuth lately,
+had just returned from that journey, when he got orders to collect
+2,000 men, horse and foot, with the due proportion of artillery,
+from the Prussian Garrisons in these parts; and to be ready for
+marching with them, the instant the contingency of No-answer
+arrives,--Sunday, 11th, as can be foreseen. Borck knows his route:
+To Maaseyk, a respectable Town of the Bishop's, the handiest
+for Wesel; to occupy Maaseyk and the adjoining "Counties of Lotz
+and Horn;" and lie there at the Bishop's charge till his
+Reverence's mind alter.
+
+Borck is ready, to the last pontoon, the last munition-loaf;
+and no sooner is signal given of the No-answer come, than Borck,
+that same "Sunday, 11th," gets under way; marches, steady as
+clock-work, towards Maaseyk (fifty miles southwest of him,
+distance now lessening every hour); crosses the Maas, by help of
+his pontoons; is now in the Bishop's Territory, and enters
+Maaseyk, evening of "Wednesday, 14th,"--that very day Voltaire and
+his Majesty had parted, going different ways from Moyland; and
+probably about the same hour while Rambonet was "taking act at the
+Gate of Liege," by nail-hammer or otherwise. All goes punctual,
+swift, cog hitting pinion far and near, in this small Herstal
+Business; and there is no mistake made, and a minimum of
+time spent.
+
+Borck's management was throughout good: punctual, quietly exact,
+polite, mildly inflexible. Fain would the Maaseyk Town-Baths have
+shut their gates on him; desperately conjuring him, "Respite for a
+few hours, till we send to Liege for instructions!" But it was to
+no purpose. "Unbolt, IHR HERREN; swift, or the petard will have to
+do it!" Borck publishes his Proclamation, a mild-spoken rigorous
+Piece; signifies to the Maaseyk Authorities, That he has to exact
+a Contribution of 20,000 thalers (3,000 pounds) here, Contribution
+payable in three days; that he furthermore, while he continues in
+these parts, will need such and such rations, accommodations,
+allowances,--"fifty LOUIS (say guineas) daily for his own private
+expenses," one item;--and, in mild rhadamanthine language, waves
+aside all remonstrance, refusal or delay, as superfluous
+considerations: Unless said Contribution and required supplies
+come in, it will be his painful duty to bring them in.
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 427; ii. 113.]
+
+The high-flying Bishop, much astonished, does now eagerly answer
+his Prussian Majesty, "Was from home, was ill, thought he had
+answered; is the most ill-used of Bishops;" and other things of a
+hysteric character. [Ib. ii. 85, 86 (date, 16th September).]
+And there came forth, as natural to the situation, multitudinous
+complainings, manifestoings, applications to the Kaiser, to the
+French, to the Dutch, of a very shrieky character on the Bishop of
+Liege's part; sparingly, if at all noticed on Friedrich's:
+the whole of which we shall consider ourselves free to leave
+undisturbed in the rubbish-abysses, as henceforth conceivable to
+the reader. "SED SPEM STUPENDE FEFELLIT EVENTUS," shrieks the poor
+old Bishop, making moan to the Kaiser: "ECCE ENIM, PRAEMISSA
+DUNTAXAT UNA LITERA, one Letter," and little more, "the said King
+of Borussia has, with about 2,000 horse and foot, and warlike
+engines, in this month of September, entered the Territory of
+Liege;" [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> ii. 88.] which
+is an undeniable truth, but an unavailing. Borck is there, and
+"2,000 good arguments with him," as Voltaire defines the
+phenomenon. Friedrich, except to explain pertinently what my
+readers already know, does not write or speak farther on the
+subject; and readers and he may consider the Herstal Affair, thus
+set agoing under Borck's auspices, as in effect finished; and that
+his Majesty has left it on a satisfactory footing, and may safely
+turn his back on it, to wait the sure issue at Berlin before long.
+
+
+WHAT VOLTAIRE THOUGHT OF HERSTAL.
+
+Voltaire told us he himself "did one Manifesto, good or bad," on
+this Herstal business:--where is that Piece, then, what has become
+of it? Dig well in the realms of Chaos, rectifying stupidities
+more or less enormous, the Piece itself is still discoverable;
+and, were pieces by Voltaire much a rarity instead of the reverse,
+might be resuscitated by a good Editor, and printed in his WORKS.
+Lies buried in the lonesome rubbish-mountains of that <italic>
+Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>--let a SISTE VIATOR, scratched on
+the surface, mark where. [Ib. ii. 98-98.] Apparently that is the
+Piece by Voltaire? Yes, on reading that, it has every internal
+evidence; distinguishes itself from the surrounding pieces, like a
+slab of compact polished stone, in a floor rammed together out of
+ruinous old bricks, broken bottles and mortar-dust;--agrees, too,
+if you examine by the microscope, with the external indications,
+which are sure and at last clear, though infinitesimally small;
+and is beyond doubt Voltaire's, if it were now good for much.
+
+It is not properly a Manifesto, but an anonymous memoir published
+in the Newspapers, explaining to impartial mankind, in a legible
+brief manner, what the old and recent History of Herstal, and the
+Troubles of Herstal, have been, and how chimerical and "null to
+the extreme of nullity (NULLES DE TOUT NULLITE)" this poor
+Bishop's pretensions upon it are. Voltaire expressly piques
+himself on this Piece; [Letter to Priedrich: dateless, datable
+"soon after 17th September;" which the rash dark Editors have by
+guess misdated "August; "or, what was safer for them, omitted it
+altogether. <italic> OEuvres de Voltaire <end italic> (Paris,
+1818, 40 vols.) gives the Letter, xxxix. 442 (see also ibid. 453,
+463); later Editors, and even Preuss, take the safer course.]
+brags also how he settled "M. de Fenelon [French Ambassador at the
+Hague], who came to me the day before yesterday," much out of
+square upon the Herstal Business, till I pulled him straight.
+And it is evident (beautifully so, your Majesty) how Voltaire
+busied himself in the Gazettes and Diplomatic circles, setting
+Friedrich's case right; Voltaire very loyal to Friedrich and his
+Liege Cause at that time;--and the contrast between what his
+contemporary Letters say on the subject, and what his ulterior
+Pasquil called VIE PRIVEE says, is again great.
+
+The dull stagnant world, shaken awake by this Liege adventure,
+gives voice variously; and in the Gazetteer and Diplomatic circles
+it is much criticised, by no means everywhere in the favorable
+tone at this first blush of the business. "He had written an ANTI-
+Machiavel," says the Abbe St. Pierre, and even says Voltaire (in
+the PASQUIL, not the contemporary LETTERS), "and he acts thus!"
+Truly he does, Monsieur de Voltaire; and all men, with light upon
+the subject, or even with the reverse upon it, must make their
+criticisms. For the rest, Borck's "2,000 arguments" are there;
+which Borck handles well, with polite calm rigor: by degrees the
+dust will fall, and facts everywhere be seen for what they are.
+
+As to the high-flying Bishop, finding that hysterics are but
+wasted on Friedrich and Borck, and produce no effect with their
+2,000 validities, he flies next to the Kaiser, to the Imperial
+Diet, in shrill-sounding Latin obtestations, of which we already
+gave a flying snatch: "Your HUMILISSIMUS and FIDELISSIMUS
+VASSALLUS, and most obsequient Servant, Georgius Ludovicus;
+meek, modest, and unspeakably in the right: Was ever Member of the
+Holy Roman Empire so snubbed, and grasped by the windpipe, before?
+Oh, help him, great Kaiser, bid the iron gripe loosen itself!"
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> ii, 86-116.] The Kaiser
+does so, in heavy Latin rescripts, in German DEHORTATORIUMS more
+than one, of a sulky, imperative, and indeed very lofty tenor;
+"Let Georgius Ludovicus go, foolish rash young Dilection (LIEBDEN,
+not MAJESTY, we ourselves being the only Majesty), and I will
+judge between you; otherwise--!" said the Kaiser, ponderously
+shaking his Olympian wig, and lifting his gilt cane, or sceptre of
+mankind, in an Olympian manner. Here are some touches of his
+second sublimest DEHORTATORIUM addressed to Friedrich, in a very
+compressed state: [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
+ii. 127; a FIRST and milder (ibid. 73).]--
+
+We Karl the Sixth, Kaiser of (TITLES ENOUGH), ... "Considering
+these, in the Holy Roman Reich, almost unheard-of violent Doings
+(THATLICHKEITEN), which We, in Our Supreme-Judge Office, cannot
+altogether justify, nor will endure ... We have the trust that you
+yourself will magnanimously see How evil counsellors have misled
+your Dilection to commence your Reign, not by showing example of
+Obedience to the Laws appointed for all members of the Reich, for
+the weak and for the strong alike, but by such Doings
+(THATHANDLUNGEN) as in all quarters must cause a great surprise.
+
+"We give your Dilection to know, therefore, That you must
+straightway withdraw those troops which have broken into the Liege
+Territory; make speedy restitution of all that has been extorted;
+--especially General von Borck to give back at once those 50 louis
+d'or daily drawn by him, to renounce his demand of the 20,000
+thalers, to make good all damage done, and retire with his whole
+military force (MILITZ) over the Liege boundaries;--and in brief,
+that you will, by law or arbitration, manage to agree with the
+Prince Bishop of Liege, who wishes it very much. These things We
+expect from your Dilection, as Kurfurst of Brandenburg, within the
+space of Two Months from the Issuing of this; and remain,"--
+Yours as you shall demean yourself,--KARL.
+
+"Given at Wien, 4th of October, 1740."--The last Dehortatorium
+ever signed by Karl VI. In two weeks after he ate too many
+mushrooms,--and immense results followed!
+
+Dehortatoriums had their interest, at Berlin and elsewhere, for
+the Diplomatic circles; but did not produce the least effect on
+Borck or Friedrich; though Friedrich noted the Kaiser's manner in
+these things, and thought privately to himself, as was evident to
+the discerning, "What an amount of wig on that old gentleman!"
+A notable Kaiser's Ambassador, Herr Botta, who had come with some
+Accession compliments, in these weeks, was treated slightingly by
+Friedrich; hardly admitted to Audience; and Friedrich's public
+reply to the last Dehortatorium had almost something of sarcasm in
+it: Evil counsellors yourself, Most Dread Kaiser! It is you that
+are "misled by counsellors, who might chance to set Germany on
+fire, were others as unwise as they!" Which latter phrase was
+remarkable to mankind.--There is a long account already run up
+between that old gentleman, with his Seckendorfs, Grumkows, with
+his dull insolencies, wiggeries, and this young gentleman, who has
+nearly had his heart broken and his Father's house driven mad by
+them! Borck remains at his post; rations duly delivered, and fifty
+louis a day for his own private expenses; and there is no answer
+to the Kaiser, or in sharp brief terms (about "chances of setting
+Germany on fire"), rather worse than none.
+
+Readers see, as well as Friedrich did, what the upshot of this
+affair must be;--we will now finish it off, and wash our hands of
+it, before following his Majesty to Berlin. The poor Bishop had
+applied, shrieking, to the French for help;--and there came some
+colloquial passages between Voltaire and Fenelon, if that were a
+result. He had shrieked in like manner to the Dutch, but without
+result of any kind traceable in that quarter: nowhere, except from
+the Kaiser, is so much as a DEHORTATORIUM to be got. Whereupon the
+once high-flying, now vainly shrieking Bishop discerns clearly
+that there is but one course left,--the course which has lain wide
+open for some years past, had not his flight gone too high for
+seeing it. Before three weeks are over, seeing how Dehortatoriums
+go, he sends his Ambassadors to Berlin, his apologies, proposals:
+[Ambassadors arrived 28th September; last Dehortatorium not yet
+out. Business was completed 20th October (Rodenbeck, IN DIEBUS).]
+"Would not your Majesty perhaps consent to sell this Herstal, as
+your Father of glorious memory was pleased to be willing once?"--
+
+Friedrich answers straightway to the effect: "Certainly! Pay me
+the price it was once already offered for: 100,000 thalers, PLUS
+the expenses since incurred. That will be 180,000 thalers, besides
+what you have spent already on General Borck's days' wages.
+To which we will add thatwretched little fraction of Old Debt,
+clear as noon, but never paid nor any part of it; 60,000 thalers,
+due by the See of Liege ever since the Treaty of Utrecht; 60,000,
+for which we will charge no interest: that will make 240,000
+thalers,--36,000 pounds, instead of the old sum you might have had
+it at. Produce that cash; and take Herstal, and all the dust that
+has risen out of it, well home with you." [Stenzel, iv. 60, who
+counts in gulden, and is not distinct.] The Bishop thankfully
+complies in all points; negotiation speedily done ("20th Oct." the
+final date): Bishop has not, I think, quite so much cash on hand;
+but will pay all he has, and 4 per centum interest till the whole
+be liquidated. His Ambassadors "get gold snuffboxes;" and return
+mildly glad!
+
+And thus, in some six weeks after Borck's arrival in those parts,
+Borck's function is well done. The noise of Gazettes and
+Diplomatic circles lays itself again; and Herstal, famous once for
+King Pipin, and famous again for King Friedrich, lapses at length
+into obscurity, which we hope will never end. Hope;--though who
+can say? ROUCOUX, quite close upon it, becomes a Battle-ground in
+some few years; and memorabilities go much at random in
+this world!
+
+
+
+Chapter VI.
+
+RETURNS BY HANOVER; DOES NOT CALL ON HIS ROYAL UNCLE THERE.
+
+Friedrich spent ten days on his circuitous journey home;
+considerable inspection to be done, in Minden, Magdeburg, not to
+speak of other businesses he had. The old Newspapers are still
+more intent upon him, now that the Herstal Affair has broken into
+flame: especially the English Newspapers; who guess that there are
+passages of courtship going on between great George their King and
+him. Here is one fact, correct in every point, for the old London
+Public: "Letters from Hanover say, that the King of Prussia passed
+within a small distance of that City the 16th inst. N.S., on his
+return to Berlin, but did not stop at Herrenhausen;"--about which
+there has been such hoping and speculating among us lately.
+[<italic> Daily Post, <end italic> 22d September, 1740;
+other London Newspapers from July 31st downwards.] A fact which
+the extinct Editor seems to meditate for a day or two; after which
+he says (partly in ITALICS), opening his lips the second time,
+like a Friar Bacon's Head significant to the Public: "Letters from
+Hanover tell us that the Interview, which it was said his Majesty
+was to have with the King of Prussia, did not take place, for
+certain PRIVATE REASONS, which our Correspondent leaves us to
+guess at!"
+
+It is well known Friedrich did not love his little Uncle, then or
+thenceforth; still less his little Uncle him: "What is this
+Prussia, rising alongside of us, higher and higher, as if it would
+reach our own sublime level!" thinks the little Uncle to himself.
+At present there is no quarrel between them; on the contrary, as
+we have seen, there is a mutual capability of helping one another,
+which both recognize; but will an interview tend to forward that
+useful result? Friedrich, in the intervals of an ague, with
+Herstal just broken out, may have wisely decided, No. "Our sublime
+little Uncle, of the waxy complexion, with the proudly staring
+fish-eyes,--no wit in him, not much sense, and a great deal of
+pride,--stands dreadfully erect, 'plumb and more,' with the
+Garter-leg advanced, when one goes to see him; and his remarks are
+not of an entertaining nature. Leave him standing there: to him
+let Truchsess and Bielfeld suffice, in these hurries, in this ague
+that is still upon us." Upon which the dull old Newspapers, Owls
+of Minerva that then were, endeavor to draw inferences.
+The noticeable fact is, Friedrich did, on this occasion, pass
+within a mile or two of his royal Uncle, without seeing him;
+and had not, through life, another opportunity; never saw the
+sublime little man at all, nor was again so near him.
+
+I believe Friedrich little knows the thick-coming difficulties of
+his Britannic Majesty at this juncture; and is too impatient of
+these laggard procedures on the part of a man with eyes A FLEUR-
+DE-TETE. Modern readers too have forgotten Jenkins's Ear; it is
+not till after long study and survey that one begins to perceive
+the anomalous profundities of that phenomenon to the poor English
+Nation and its poor George II.
+
+The English sent off, last year, a scanty Expedition, "six ships
+of the line," only six, under Vernon, a fiery Admiral, a little
+given to be fiery in Parliamentary talk withal; and these did
+proceed to Porto-Bello on the Spanish Main of South America; did
+hurl out on Porto-Bello such a fiery destructive deluge, of
+gunnery and bayonet-work, as quickly reduced the poor place to the
+verge of ruin, and forced it to surrender with whatever navy,
+garrison, goods and resources were in it, to the discretion of
+fiery Vernon,--who does not prove implacable, he or his, to a
+petitioning enemy. Yes, humble the insolent, but then be merciful
+to them, say the admiring Gazetteers. "The actual monster," how
+cheering to think, "who tore off Mr. Jenkins's Ear, was got hold
+of [actual monster, or even three or four different monsters who
+each did it, the "hold got" being mythical, as readers see], and
+naturally thought he would be slit to ribbons; but our people
+magnanimously pardoned him, magnanimously flung him aside out of
+sight;" [<italic> Gentleman's Magazine, <end italic> x. 124, 145
+(date of the Event is 3d December N.S., 1739).] impossible to
+shoot a dog in cold blood.
+ 
+Whereupon Vernon returned home triumphant; and there burst forth
+such a jubilation, over the day of small things, as is now
+astonishing to think of. Had the Termagant's own Thalamus and
+Treasury been bombarded suddenly one night by red-hot balls,
+Madrid City laid in ashes, or Baby Carlos's Apanage extinguished
+from Creation, there could hardly have been greater English joy
+(witness the "Porto-Bellos" they still have, new Towns so named);
+so flamy is the murky element growing on that head. And indeed had
+the cipher of tar-barrels burnt, and of ale-barrels drunk, and the
+general account of wick and tallow spent in illuminations and in
+aldermanic exertions on the matter, been accurately taken, one
+doubts if Porto-Bello sold, without shot fired, to the highest
+bidder, at its floweriest, would have covered such a sum. For they
+are a singular Nation, if stirred up from their stagnancy; and are
+much in earnest about this Spanish War.
+
+It is said there is now another far grander Expedition on the
+stocks: military this time as well as naval, intended for the
+Spanish Main;--but of that, for the present, we will defer
+speaking. Enough, the Spanish War is a most serious and most
+furious business to those old English; and, to us, after forced
+study of it, shines out like far-off conflagration, with a certain
+lurid significance in the then night of things. Night otherwise
+fallen dark and somniferous to modern mankind. As Britannic
+Majesty and his Walpoles have, from the first, been dead against
+this Spanish War, the problem is all the more ominous, and the
+dreadful corollaries that may hang by it the more distressing to
+the royal mind.
+
+For example, there is known, or as good as known, to be virtually
+some Family Compact, or covenanted Brotherhood of Bourbonism,
+French and Spanish: political people quake to ask themselves, "How
+will the French keep out of this War, if it continue any length of
+time? And in that case, how will Austria, Europe at large?
+Jenkins's Ear will have kindled the Universe, not the Spanish Main
+only, and we shall be at a fine pass!" The Britannic Majesty
+reflects that if France take to fighting him, the first stab given
+will probably be in the accessiblest quarter and the intensely
+most sensitive,--our own Electoral Dominions where no Parliament
+plagues us, our dear native country, Hanover. Extremely
+interesting to know what Friedrich of Prussia will do in
+such contingency?
+
+Well, truly it might have been King George's best bargain to close
+with Friedrich; to guarantee Julich and Berg, and get Fredrich to
+stand between the French and Hanover; while George, with an
+England behind him, in such humor, went wholly into that Spanish
+Business, the one thing needful to them at present. Truly;
+but then again, there are considerations: "What is this Friedrich,
+just come out upon the world? What real fighting power has he,
+after all that ridiculous drilling and recruiting Friedrich
+Wilhelm made? Will he be faithful in bargain; is not, perhaps,
+from of old, his bias always toward France rather? And the Kaiser,
+what will the Kaiser say to it?" These are questions for a
+Britannic Majesty! Seldom was seen such an insoluble imbroglio of
+potentialities; dangerous to touch, dangerous to leave lying;--and
+his Britannic Majesty's procedures upon it are of a very slow
+intricate sort; and will grow still more so, year after year, in
+the new intricacies that are coming, and be a weariness to my
+readers and me. For observe the simultaneous fact. All this while,
+Robinson at Vienna is dunning the Imperial Majesty to remember old
+Marlborough days and the Laws of Nature; and declare for us
+against France, in case of the worst. What an attempt!
+Imperial Majesty has no money; Imperial Majesty remembers recent
+days rather, and his own last quarrel with France (on the Polish-
+Election score), in which you Sea-Powers cruelly stood neuter!
+One comfort, and pretty much one only, is left to a nearly
+bankrupt Imperial heart; that France does at any rate ratify
+Pragmatic Sanction, and instead of enemy to that inestimable
+Document has become friend,--if only she be well let alone.
+"Let well alone," says the sad Kaiser, bankrupt of heart as well
+as purse: "I have saved the Pragmatic, got Fleury to guarantee it;
+I will hunt wild swine and not shadows any more: ask me not!"
+And now this Herstal business; the Imperial Dehortatoriums,
+perhaps of a high nature, that are like to come? More hopeless
+proposition the Britannic Majesty never made than this to the
+Kaiser. But he persists in it, orders Robinson to persist;
+knocks at the Austrian door with one hand, at the Prussian or
+Anti-Austrian with the other; and gazes, with those proud fish-
+eyes, into perils and potentialities and a sea of troubles.
+Wearisome to think of, were not one bound to it! Here, from a
+singular CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND, not yet got into
+print, are two Excerpts; which I will request the reader to
+try if he can take along with him, in view of much that
+is Coming:--
+
+1. A JUST WAR.--"This War, which posterity scoffs at as the WAR OF
+JENKINS'S EAR, was, if we examine it, a quite indispensable one;
+the dim much-bewildered English, driven into it by their deepest
+instincts, were, in a chaotic inarticulate way, right and not
+wrong in taking it as the Commandment of Heaven. For such, in a
+sense, it was; as shall by and by appear. Not perhaps since the
+grand Reformation Controversy, under Oliver Cromwell and
+Elizabeth, had there, to this poor English People (who are
+essentially dumb, inarticulate, from the weight of meaning they
+have, notwithstanding the palaver one hears from them in certain
+epochs), been a more authentic cause of War. And, what was the
+fatal and yet foolish circumstance, their Constitutional Captains,
+especially their King, would never and could never regard it as
+such; but had to be forced into it by the public rage, there being
+no other method left in the case.
+
+"I say, a most necessary War, though of a most stupid appearance;
+such the fatality of it:--begun, carried on, ended, as if by a
+People in a state of somnambulism! More confused operation never
+was. A solid placid People, heavily asleep (and snoring much,
+shall we say, and inarticulately grunting and struggling under
+indigestions, Constitutional and other? Do but listen to the hum
+of those extinct Pamphlets and Parliamentary Oratories of
+theirs!),--yet an honestly intending People; and keenly alive to
+any commandment from Heaven, that could pierce through the thick
+skin of them into their big obstinate heart. Such a commandment,
+then and there, was that monition about Jenkins's Ear. Upon which,
+so pungent was it to them, they started violently out of bed, into
+painful sleep-walking; and went, for twenty years and more,
+clambering and sprawling about, far and wide, on the giddy edge of
+precipices, over house-tops and frightful cornices and parapets;
+in a dim fulfilment of the said Heaven's command. I reckon that
+this War, though there were intervals, Treaties of Peace more than
+one, and the War had various names,--did not end till 1763.
+And then, by degrees, the poor English Nation found that (at, say,
+a thousand times the necessary expense, and with imminent peril to
+its poor head, and all the bones of its body) it had actually
+succeeded,--by dreadful exertions in its sleep! This will be more
+apparent by and by; and may be a kind of comfort to the sad
+English reader, drearily surveying such somnambulisms on the part
+of his poor ancestors."
+
+2. TWO DIFFICULTIES.--"There are Two grand Difficulties in this
+Farce-Tragedy of a war; of which only one, and that not the worst
+of the Pair, is in the least surmised by the English hitherto.
+Difficulty First, which is even worse than the other, and will
+surprisingly attend the English in all their Wars now coming, is:
+That their fighting-apparatus, though made of excellent material,
+cannot fight,--being in disorganic condition; one branch of it,
+especially the 'Military' one as they are pleased to call it,
+being as good as totally chaotic, and this in a quiet habitual
+manner, this long while back. With the Naval branch it is
+otherwise; which also is habitual there. The English almost as if
+by nature can sail, and fight, in ships; cannot well help doing
+it. Sailors innumerable are bred to them; they are planted in the
+Ocean, opulent stormy Neptune clipping them in all his moods
+forever: and then by nature, being a dumb, much-enduring, much-
+reflecting, stout, veracious and valiant kind of People, they
+shine in that way of life, which specially requires such.
+Without much forethought, they have sailors innumerable, and of
+the best quality. The English have among them also, strange as it
+may seem to the cursory observer, a great gift of organizing;
+witness their Arkwrights and others: and this gift they may often,
+in matters Naval more than elsewhere, get the chance of
+exercising. For a Ship's Crew, or even a Fleet, unlike a land
+Army, is of itself a unity, its fortunes disjoined, dependent on
+its own management; and it falls, moreover, as no land army can,
+to the undivided guidance of one man,--who (by hypothesis, being
+English) has now and then, from of old, chanced to be an
+organizing man; and who is always much interested to know and
+practise what has been well organized. For you are in contact with
+verities, to an unexampled degree, when you get upon the Ocean,
+with intent to sail on it, much more to fight on it;--bottomless
+destruction raging beneath you and on all hands of you, if you
+neglect, for any reason, the methods of keeping it down, and
+making it float you to your aim!
+
+The English Navy is in tolerable order at that period. But as to
+the English Army,--we may say it is, in a wrong sense, the wonder
+of the world, and continues so throughout the whole of this
+History and farther! Never before, among the rational sons of
+Adam, were Armies sent out on such terms,--namely without a
+General, or with no General understanding the least of his
+business. The English have a notion that Generalship is not
+wanted; that War is not an Art, as playing Chess is, as finding
+the Longitude, and doing the Differential Calculus are (and a much
+deeper Art than any of these); that War is taught by Nature, as
+eating is; that courageous soldiers, led on by a courageous Wooden
+Pole with Cocked-hat on it, will do very well. In the world I have
+not found opacity of platitude go deeper among any People. This is
+Difficulty First, not yet suspected by an English People, capable
+of great opacity on some subjects.
+
+"Difficulty Second is, That their Ministry, whom they had to force
+into this War, perhaps do not go zealously upon it. And perhaps
+even, in the above circumstances, they totally want knowledge how
+to go upon it, were they never so zealous; Difficulty Second might
+be much helped, were it not for Difficulty First. But the
+administering of War is a thing also that does not come to a man
+like eating.--This Second Difficulty, suspicion that Walpole and
+perhaps still higher heads want zeal, gives his Britannic Majesty
+infinite trouble; and"--
+
+--And so, in short, he stands there, with the Garter-leg advanced,
+looking loftily into a considerable sea of troubles,--that day
+when Friedrich drove past him, Friday, 16th September, 1740, and
+never came so near him again.
+
+The next business for Friedrich was a Visit at Brunswick, to the
+Affinities and Kindred, in passing; where also was an important
+little act to be done: Betrothal of the young Prince, August
+Wilhelm, Heir-Presumptive whom we saw in Strasburg, to a Princess
+of that House, Louisa Amelia, younger Sister of Friedrich's own
+Queen. A modest promising arrangement; which turned out well
+enough,--though the young Prince, Father to the Kings that since
+are, was not supremely fortunate otherwise. [Betrothal was 20th
+September, 1740; Marriage, 5th January, 1742 (Buchholz, i. 207).]
+After which, the review at Magdeburg; and home on the 24th, there
+to "be busy as a Turk or as a M. Jordan,"--according to what we
+read long since.
+
+
+
+Chapter VII.
+
+WITHDRAWS TO REINSBERG, HOPING A PEACEABLE WINTER.
+
+By this Herstal token, which is now blazing abroad, now and for a
+month to come, it can be judged that the young King of Prussia
+intends to stand on his own footing, quite peremptorily if need
+be; and will by no means have himself led about in Imperial
+harness, as his late Father was. So that a dull Public
+(Herrenhausen very specially), and Gazetteer Owls of Minerva
+everywhere, may expect events. All the more indubitably, when that
+spade-work comes to light in the Wesel Country. It is privately
+certain (the Gazetteers not yet sure about it, till they see the
+actual spades going), this new King does fully intend to assert
+his rights on Berg-Julich; and will appear there with his iron
+ramrods, the instant old Kur-Pfalz shall decease, let France and
+the Kaiser say No to it or say Yes. There are, in fact, at a fit
+place, "Buderich in the neighborhood of Wesel," certain rampart-
+works, beginnings as of an Entrenched Camp, going on;--"for Review
+purposes merely," say the Gazetteers, IN ITALICS. Here, it
+privately is Friedrich's resolution, shall a Prussian Army, of
+the due strength (could be well-nigh 100,000 strong if needful),
+make its appearance, directly on old Kur-Pfalz's decease, if one
+live to see such event. [Stenzel, iv. 61.] France and the Kaiser
+will probably take good survey of that Buderich phenomenon
+before meddling.
+
+To do his work like a King, and shun no peril and no toil in the
+course of what his work may be, is Friedrich's rule and intention.
+Nevertheless it is clear he expects to approve himself magnanimous
+rather in the Peaceable operations than in the Warlike; and his
+outlooks are, of all places and pursuits, towards Reinsberg and
+the Fine Arts, for the time being. His Public activity meanwhile
+they describe as "prodigious," though the ague still clings to
+him; such building, instituting, managing: Opera-House, French
+Theatre, Palace for his Mother;--day by day, many things to be
+recorded by Editor Formey, though the rule about them here is
+silence except on cause.
+
+No doubt the ague is itself privately a point of moment. Such a
+vexatious paltry little thing, in this bright whirl of Activities,
+Public and other, which he continues managing in spite of it;
+impatient to be rid of it. But it will not go: there IT reappears
+always, punctual to its "fourth day,"--like a snarling street-dog,
+in the high Ball-room and Work-room. "He is drinking Pyrmont
+water;" has himself proposed Quinquina, a remedy just come up, but
+the Doctors shook their heads; has tried snatches of Reinsberg,
+too short; he intends soon to be out there for a right spell of
+country, there to be "happy," and get quit of his ague. The ague
+went,--and by a remedy which surprised the whole world, as will
+be seen!
+
+
+
+WILHELMINA'S RETURN-VISIT.
+
+Monday, 17th October, came the Baireuth Visitors; Wilhelmina all
+in a flutter, and tremor of joy and sorrow, to see her Brother
+again, her old kindred and the altered scene of things. Poor Lady,
+she is perceptibly more tremulous than usual; and her Narrative,
+not in dates only, but in more memorable points, dances about at a
+sad rate; interior agitations and tremulous shrill feelings
+shivering her this way and that, and throwing things topsy-turvy
+in one's recollection. Like the magnetic needle, shaky but
+steadfast (AGITEE MAI CONSTANTE). Truer nothing can be, points
+forever to the Pole; but also what obliquities it makes;
+will shiver aside in mad escapades, if you hold the paltriest bit
+of old iron near it,--paltriest clack of gossip about this loved
+Brother of mine! Brother, we will hope, silently continues to be
+Pole, so that the needle always comes back again; otherwise all
+would go to wreck. Here, in abridged and partly rectified form,
+are the phenomena witnessed:--
+
+"We arrived at Berlin the end of October [Monday, 17th, as
+above said]. My younger Brothers, followed by the Princes of the
+Blood and by all the Court, received us at the bottom of the
+stairs. I was led to my apartment, where I found the Reigning
+Queen, my Sisters [Ulrique, Amelia], and the Princesses [of the
+Blood, as above, Schwedt and the rest]. I learned with much
+chagrin that the King was ill of tertian ague [quartan; but that
+is no matter]. He sent me word that, being in his fit, he could
+not see me; but that he depended on having that pleasure
+to-morrow. The Queen Mother, to whom I went without delay, was in
+a dark condition; rooms all hung with their lugubrious drapery;
+everything yet in the depth of mourning for my Father. What a
+scene for me! Nature has her rights; I can say with truth, I have
+almost never in my life been so moved as on this occasion."
+Interview with Mamma--we can fancy it--"was of the most touching."
+Wilhelmina had been absent eight years. She scarcely knows the
+young ones again, all so grown;--finds change on change: and that
+Time, as he always is, has been busy. That night the Supper-Party
+was exclusively a Family one.
+
+Her Brother's welcome to her on the morrow, though ardent enough,
+she found deficient in sincerity, deficient in several points;
+as indeed a Brother up to the neck in business, and just come out
+of an ague-fit, does not appear to the best advantage.
+Wilhelmina noticed how ill he looked, so lean and broken-down
+(MAIGRE ET DEFAIT) within the last two months; but seems to have
+taken no account of it farther, in striking her balances with
+Friedrich. And indeed in her Narrative of this Visit, not, we will
+hope, in the Visit itself, she must have been in a high state of
+magnetic deflection,--pretty nearly her maximum of such,
+discoverable in those famous MEMOIRS,--such a tumult is there in
+her statements, all gone to ground-and-lofty tumbling in this
+place; so discrepant are the still ascertainable facts from this
+topsy-turvy picture of them, sketched by her four years hence (in
+1744). The truest of magnetic needles; but so sensitive, if you
+bring foreign iron near it!
+
+Wilhelmina was loaded with honors by an impartial Berlin Public
+that is Court Public; "but, all being in mourning, the Court was
+not brilliant. The Queen Mother saw little company, and was sunk
+in sorrow;--had not the least influence in affairs, so jealous was
+the new King of his Authority,--to the Queen Mother's surprise,"
+says Wilhelmina. For the rest, here is a King "becoming truly
+unpopular [or, we fancy so, in our deflected state, and judging by
+the rumor of cliques]; a general discontent reigning in the
+Country, love of his subjects pretty much gone; people speaking of
+him in no measured terms [in certain cliques]. Cares nothing about
+those who helped him as Prince Royal, say some; others complain of
+his avarice [meaning steady vigilance in outlay] as surpassing the
+late King's; this one complained of his violences of temper
+(EMPORTEMENS); that one of his suspicions, of his distrust, his
+haughtinesses, his dissimulation" (meaning polite impenetrability
+when he saw good). Several circumstances, known to Wilhelmina's
+own experience, compel Wilhelmina's assent on those points.
+"I would have spoken to him about them, if my Brother of Prussia
+[young August Wilhelm, betrothed the other day] and the Queen
+Regnant had not dissuaded me. Farther on I will give the
+explanation of all this,"--never did it anywhere. "I beg those who
+may one day read these MEMOIRS, to suspend their judgment on the
+character of this great Prince till I have developed it."
+[Wilhelmina, ii. 326.] O my Princess, you are true and bright, but
+you are shrill; and I admire the effect of atmospheric
+electricity, not to say, of any neighboring marine-store shop, or
+miserable bit of broken pan, on one of the finest magnetic needles
+ever made and set trembling!
+
+Wilhelmina is incapable of deliberate falsehood; and this her
+impression or reminiscence, with all its exaggeration, is entitled
+to be heard in evidence so far. From this, and from other sources,
+readers will assure themselves that discontents were not wanting;
+that King Friedrich was not amiable to everybody at this time,--
+which indeed he never grew to be at any other time. He had to be a
+King; that was the trade he followed, not the quite different one
+of being amiable all round. Amiability is good, my Princess;
+but the question rises, "To whom?-for example, to the young
+gentleman who shot himself in Lobegun?" There are young gentlemen
+and old sometimes in considerable quantities, to whom, if you were
+in your duty, as a King of men (or even as a "King of one man and
+his affairs," if that is all your kingdom), you should have been
+hateful instead of amiable! That is a stern truth; too much
+forgotten by Wilhelmina and others. Again, what a deadening and
+killing circumstance is it in the career of amiability, that you
+are bound not to be communicative of your inner man, but
+perpetually and strictly the reverse! It may be doubted if a good
+King can be amiable; certainly he cannot in any but the noblest
+ages, and then only to a select few. I should guess Friedrich was
+at no time fairly loved, not by those nearest to him. He was
+rapid, decisive; of wiry compact nature; had nothing of his
+Father's amplitudes, simplicities; nothing to sport with and
+fondle, far from it. Tremulous sensibilities, ardent affections;
+these we clearly discover in him, in extraordinary vivacity; but
+he wears them under his polished panoply, and is outwardly a
+radiant but metallic object to mankind. Let us carry this along
+with us in studying him; and thank Wilhelmina for giving us hint
+of it in her oblique way.--Wilhelmima's love for her Brother rose
+to quite heroic pitch in coming years, and was at its highest when
+she died. That continuation of her MEMOIRS in which she is to
+develop her Brother's character, was never written: it has been
+sought for in modern times; and a few insignificant pages, with
+evidence that there is not, and was not, any more, are all that
+has turned up. [Pertz, <italic> Ueber die Denkwurdigkeiten der
+Markgrafin van Bayreuth <end italic> (Paper read in the
+<italic> Akademie der Wissenschaften, <end italic> Berlin,
+25th April, 1850).
+
+Incapable of falsity prepense, we say; but the known facts, which
+stand abundantly on record if you care to search them out, are
+merely as follows: Friedrich, with such sincerity as there might
+be, did welcome Wilhelmina on the morrow of her arrival; spoke of
+Reinsberg, and of air and rest, and how pleasant it would be;
+rolled off next morning, having at last gathered up his
+businesses, and got them well in hand, to Reinsberg accordingly;
+whither Wilhelmina, with the Queen Regnant and others of agreeable
+quality, followed in two days; intending a long and pleasant spell
+of country out there. Which hope was tolerably fulfilled, even for
+Wilhelmina, though there did come unexpected interruptions, not of
+Friedrich's bringing.
+
+
+UNEXPECTED NEWS AT REINSBERG.
+
+Friedrich's pursuits and intended conquests, for the present, are
+of peaceable and even gay nature. French Theatre, Italian Opera-
+House, these are among the immediate outlooks. Voltaire, skilled
+in French acting, if anybody ever were, is multifariously
+negotiating for a Company of that kind,--let him be swift, be
+successful. [Letters of Voltaire (PASSIM, in these months).]
+An Italian Opera there shall be; the House is still to be built:
+Captain Knobelsdorf, who built Reinsberg, whom we have known, is
+to do it. Knobelsdorf has gone to Italy on that errand; "went by
+Dresden, carefully examining the Opera-House there, and all the
+famed Opera-Houses on his road." Graun, one of the best judges
+living, is likewise off to Italy, gathering singers. Our Opera 
+too shall be a successful thing, and we hope, a speedy. Such are
+Friedrich's outlooks at this time.
+
+A miscellaneous pleasant company is here; Truchsess and Bielfeld,
+home from Hanover, among them; Wilhelmina is here;--Voltaire
+himself perhaps coming again. Friedrich drinks his Pyrmont waters;
+works at his public businesses all day, which are now well in
+hand, and manageable by couriers; at evening he appears in
+company, and is the astonishment of everybody; brilliant, like a
+new-risen sun, as if he knew of no illness, knew of no business,
+but lived for amusement only. "He intends Private Theatricals
+withal, and is getting ready Voltaire's MORT DE CESAR." [Preuss,
+<italic> Thronbesteigung, <end italic> p. 415.] These were pretty
+days at Reinsberg. This kind of life lasted seven or eight weeks,
+--in spite of interruptions of subterranean volcanic nature, some
+of which were surely considerable. Here, in the very first week,
+coming almost volcanically, is one, which indeed is the sum of
+them all.
+
+Tuesday forenoon, 25th October, 1740, Express arrives at
+Reinsberg; direct from Vienna five days ago; finds Friedrich under
+eclipse, hidden in the interior, laboring under his ague-fit:
+question rises, Shall the Express be introduced, or be held back?
+The news he brings is huge, unexpected, transcendent, and may
+agitate the sick King. Six or seven heads go wagging on this
+point,--who by accident are namable, if readers care: "Prince
+August Wilhelm," lately betrothed; "Graf Truchsess," home from
+Hanover; "Colonel Graf von Finkenstein," old Tutor's Son, a
+familiar from boyhood upwards; "Baron Pollnitz" kind of chief
+Goldstick now, or Master of the Ceremonies, not too witty, but the
+cause of wit; "Jordan, Bielfeld," known to us; and lastly,
+"Fredersdorf," Major-domo and Factotum, who is grown from Valet to
+be Purse-Keeper, confidential Manager, and almost friend,--
+a notable personage in Friedrich's History. They decide,
+"Better wait!" 
+
+They wait accordingly; and then, after about an hour, the
+trembling-fit being over, and Fredersdorf having cautiously 
+preluded a little, and prepared the way, the Despatch is
+delivered, and the King left with his immense piece of news.
+News that his Imperial Majesty Karl VI. died, after short illness,
+on Thursday, the 20th last. Kaiser dead: House of Hapsburg, and
+its Five Centuries of tough wrestling, and uneasy Dominancy in
+this world, ended, gone to the distaff:--the counter-wrestling
+Ambitions and Cupidities not dead; and nothing but Pragmatic
+Sanction left between the fallen House and them! Friedrich kept
+silence; showed no sign how transfixed he was to hear such
+tidings; which, he foresaw, would have immeasurable consequences
+in the world.
+
+One of the first was, that it cured Friedrich of his ague.
+It braced him (it, and perhaps "a little quinquina which he now
+insisted on") into such a tensity of spirit as drove out his ague
+like a mere hiccough; quite gone in the course of next week;
+and we hear no more of that importunate annoyance. He summoned
+Secretary Eichel, "Be ready in so many minutes hence;" rose from
+his bed, dressed himself; [Preuss, <italic> Thronbesteigung, <end
+italic> p. 416.]--and then, by Eichel's help, sent off expresses
+for Schwerin his chief General, and Podewils his chief Minister.
+A resolution, which is rising or has risen in the Royal mind, will
+be ready for communicating to these Two by the time they arrive,
+on the second day hence. This done, Friedrich, I believe, joined
+his company in the evening; and was as light and brilliant as if
+nothing had happened. 
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII.
+
+THE KAISER'S DEATH. 
+
+The Kaiser's death came upon the Public unexpectedly; though not
+quite so upon observant persons closer at hand. He was not yet
+fifty-six out; a firm-built man; had been of sound constitution,
+of active, not intemperate habits: but in the last six years,
+there had come such torrents of ill luck rolling down on him, he
+had suffered immensely, far beyond what the world knew of; and to
+those near him, and anxious for him, his strength seemed much
+undermined. Five years ago, in summer 1735, Robinson reported,
+from a sure hand: "Nothing can equal the Emperor's agitation under
+these disasters [brought upon him by Fleury and the Spaniards,
+as after-clap to his Polish-Election feat]. His good Empress is
+terrified, many times, he will die in the course of the night,
+when singly with her he gives a loose to his affliction, confusion
+and despair." Sea-Powers will not help; Fleury and mere ruin will
+engulf! "What augments this agitation is his distrust in every one
+of his own Ministers, except perhaps Bartenstein," [Robinson to
+Lord Warrington, 5th July, 1735 (in State-Paper Office).]--who is
+not much of a support either, though a gnarled weighty old stick
+in his way ("Professor at Strasburg once"): not interesting to us
+here. The rest his Imperial Majesty considers to be of sublimated
+blockhead type, it appears. Prince Eugene had died lately, and
+with Eugene all good fortune.
+
+And then, close following, the miseries of that Turk War, crashing
+down upon a man! They say, Duke Franz, Maria Theresa's Husband,
+nominal Commander in those Campaigns, with the Seckendorfs and
+Wallises under him going such a road, was privately eager to have
+done with the Business, on any terms, lest the Kaiser should die
+first, and leave it weltering. No wonder the poor Kaiser felt
+broken, disgusted with the long Shadow-Hunt of Life; and took to
+practical field-sports rather. An Army that cannot fight, War-
+Generals good only to be locked in Fortresses, an Exchequer that
+has no money; after such wagging of the wigs, and such Privy-
+Councilling and such War-Councilling:--let us hunt wild swine, and
+not think of it! That, thank Heaven, we still have; that, and
+Pragmatic Sanction well engrossed, and generally sworn to by
+mankind, after much effort!--
+
+The outer Public of that time, and Voltaire among them more
+deliberately afterwards, spoke of "mushrooms," an "indigestion of
+mushrooms;" and it is probable there was something of mushrooms
+concerned in the event, Another subsequent Frenchman, still more
+irreverent, adds to this of the "excess of mushrooms," that the
+Kaiser made light of it. "When the Doctors told him he had few
+hours to live, he would not believe it; and bantered his
+Physicians on the sad news. 'Look me in the eyes,' said he;
+'have I the air of one dying? When you see my sight growing dim,
+then let the sacraments be administered, whether I order or not.'"
+Doctors insisting, the Kaiser replied: "'Since you are foolish
+fellows, who know neither the cause nor the state of my disorder,
+I command that, once I am dead, you open my body, to know what the
+matter was; you can then come and let me know!"'
+[<italic> Anecdotes Germaniques <end italic> (Paris, 1769),
+p. 692.]--in which also there is perhaps a glimmering of distorted
+truth, though, as Monsieur mistakes even the day ("18th October,"
+says he, not 2Oth), one can only accept it as rumor from the
+outside.
+ 
+Here, by an extremely sombre domestic Gentleman of great
+punctuality and great dulness, are the authentic particulars, such
+as it was good to mention in Vienna circles. [(Anonymous) <italic>
+Des &c. Romischen Kaisers Carl VI. Leben und Thaten <end italic>
+(Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1741), pp. 220-227.] An extremely dull
+Gentleman, but to appearance an authentic; and so little defective
+in reverence that he delicately expresses some astonishment at
+Death's audacity this year, in killing so many Crowned Heads.
+"This year 1740," says he, "though the weather throughout Europe
+had been extraordinarily fine," or fine for a cold year, "had
+already witnessed several Deaths of Sovereigns: Pope Clement XII.,
+Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, the Queen Dowager of Spain
+[Termagant's old stepmother, not Termagant's self by a great way].
+But that was not enough: unfathomable Destiny ventured now on
+Imperial Heads (WAGTE SICH AUCH AN KAISER-KRONEN): Karl VI.,
+namely, and Russia's great, Monarchess;"--an audacity to be
+remarked. Of Russia's great Monarchess (Czarina Anne, with the big
+cheek) we will say nothing at present; but of Karl VI. only,--
+abridging much, and studying arrangement.
+
+"Thursday, October 13th, returning from Halbthurn, a Hunting Seat
+of his," over in Hungary some fifty miles, "to the Palace Favorita
+at Vienna, his Imperial Majesty felt slightly indisposed,"--
+indigestion of mushrooms or whatever it was: had begun AT
+Halbthurn the night before, we rather understand, and was the
+occasion of his leaving. "The Doctors called it cold on the
+stomach, and thought it of no consequence. In the night of
+Saturday, it became alarming;" inflammation, thought the Doctors,
+inflammation of the liver, and used their potent appliances, which
+only made the danger come and go; "and on the Tuesday, all day,
+the Doctors did not doubt his Imperial Majesty was dying.
+["Look me in the eyes; pack of fools; you will have to dissect me,
+you will then know:" Any truth in all that? No matter.]
+
+"At noon of that Tuesday he took the Sacrament, the Pope's Nuncio
+administering. His Majesty showed uncommonly great composure of
+soul, and resignation to the Divine Will;" being indeed
+"certain,"--so he expressed it to "a principal Official Person
+sunk in grief" (Bartenstein, shall we guess?), who stood by him--
+"certain of his cause," not afraid in contemplating that dread
+Judgment now near: "Look at me! A man that is certain of his cause
+can enter on such a Journey with good courage and a composed mind
+(MIT GUTEM UND DELASSENEM MUTH)." To the Doctors, dubitating what
+the disease was, he said, "If Gazelli" my late worthy Doctor,
+"were still here, you would soon know; but as it is, you will
+learn it when you dissect me;"--and once asked to be shown the Cup
+where his heart would lie after that operation.
+
+"Sacrament being over," Tuesday afternoon, "he sent for his
+Family, to bless them each separately. He had a long conversation
+with Grand Duke Franz," titular of Lorraine, actual of Tuscany,
+"who had assiduously attended him, and continued to do so, during
+the whole illness." The Grand Duke's Spouse,--Maria Theresa, the
+noble-hearted and the overwhelmed; who is now in an interesting
+state again withal; a little Kaiserkin (Joseph II.) coming in five
+months; first child, a little girl, is now two years old;--"had
+been obliged to take to bed three days ago; laid up of grief and
+terror (VOR SCHMERZEN UND SCHRECKEN), ever since Sunday the 16th.
+Nor would his Imperial Majesty permit her to enter this death-
+room, on account of her condition, so important to the world;
+but his Majesty, turning towards that side where her apartment
+was, raised his right hand, and commanded her Husband, and the
+Archduchess her younger Sister, to tell his Theresa, That he
+blessed her herewith, notwithstanding her absence." Poor Kaiser,
+poor Theresa! "Most distressing of all was the scene with the
+Kaiserin. The night before, on getting knowledge of the sad
+certainty, she had fainted utterly away (STARKE OHNMACHT), and had
+to be carried into the Grand Duchess's [Maria Theresa's] room.
+Being summoned now with her Children, for the last blessing, she
+cried as in despair, 'Do not leave me, Your Dilection, do not (ACH
+EUER LIEBDEN VERLASSEN MICH DOCH NICHT)!'" Poor good souls!
+"Her Imperial Majesty would not quit the room again, but remained
+to the last.
+
+"Wednesday, 19th, all day, anxiety, mournful suspense;" poor
+weeping Kaiserin and all the world waiting; the Inevitable visibly
+struggling on. "And in the night of that day [night of 19th-20th
+Oct., 1740], between one and two in the morning, Death snatched
+away this most invaluable Monarch (DEN PREISWURDIGSTEN MONARCHEN)
+in the 66th year of his life;" and Kaiser Karl VI., and the House
+of Hapsburg and its Five tough Centuries of good and evil in this
+world had ended. The poor Kaiserin "closed the eyes" that could
+now no more behold her; "kissed his hands, and was carried out
+more dead than alive." [Anonymous, UT SUPRA, pp. 220-227.--
+Adelung, <italic> Pragmatische Staatsgeschichte <end italic>
+(Gotha, 1762-1767), ii. 120. JOHANN CHRISTOPH Adelung; the same
+who did the DICTIONARY aud many other deserving Books; here is the
+precise Title: <italic> "Pragmatische Staatsgeschichte Europens,"
+<end italic> that is, "Documentary History of Europe, from Kaiser
+Karl's Death, 1740, till Peace of Paris, 1763." A solid, laborious
+and meritorious Work, of its kind; extremely extensive (9 vols.
+4to, some of which are double and even treble), mostly in the
+undigested, sometimes in the quite uncooked or raw condition;
+perhaps about a fifth part of it consists of "Documents" proper,
+which are shippable. It cannot help being dull, waste, dreary, but
+is everywhere intelligible (excellent Indexes too),--and offers an
+unhappy reader by far the best resource attainable for survey of
+that sad Period.]
+
+A good affectionate Kaiserin, I do believe; honorable, truthful,
+though unwitty of speech, and converted by Grandpapa in a peculiar
+manner, For her Kaiser too, after all, I have a kind of love.
+Of brilliant articulate intellect there is nothing; nor of
+inarticulate (as in Friedrich Wilhelm's case) anything
+considerable: in fact his Shadow-Hunting, and Duelling with the
+Termagant, seemed the reverse of wise. But there was something of
+a high proud heart in it, too, if we examine; and even the
+Pragmatic Sanction, though in practice not worth one regiment of
+iron ramrods, indicates a profoundly fixed determination, partly
+of loyal nature, such as the gods more or less reward. "He had
+been a great builder," say the Histories; "was a great musician,
+fit to lead orchestras, and had composed an Opera,"--poor Kaiser.
+There came out large traits of him, in Maria Theresa again, under
+an improved form, which were much admired by the world. He looks,
+in his Portraits, intensely serious; a handsome man, stoically
+grave; much the gentleman, much the Kaiser or Supreme Gentleman.
+As, in life and fact, he was; "something solemn in him, even when
+he laughs," the people used to say. A man honestly doing his very
+best with his poor Kaisership, and dying of chagrin by it.
+"On opening the body, the liver-region proved to be entirely
+deranged; in the place where the gall-bladder should have been, a
+stone of the size of a pigeon's egg was found grown into the
+liver, and no gall-bladder now there."
+
+That same morning, with earliest daylight, "Thursday, 20th, six
+A.M.," Maria Theresa is proclaimed by her Heralds over Vienna:
+"According to Pragmatic Sanction, Inheritress of all the," &c.
+&c.;--Sovereign Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and
+Bohemia, for chief items. "At seven her Majesty took the Oath from
+the Generals and Presidents of Tribunals,--said, through her
+tears, 'All was to stand on the old footing, each in his post,'"--
+and the other needful words. Couriers shoot forth towards all
+Countries;--one express courier to Regensburg, and the enchanted
+Wiggeries there, to say That a new Kaiser will be needed;
+REICHS-Vicar or Vicars (Kur-Sachsen and whoever more, for they are
+sometimes disagreed about it) will have to administer in
+the interim.
+
+A second courier we saw arrive at Reinsberg; he likewise may be
+important. The Bavarian Minister, Karl Albert Kur-Baiern's man,
+shot off his express, like the others; answer is, by return of
+courier, or even earlier (for a messenger was already on the
+road), Make protest! "We Kur-Baiern solemnly protest against
+Pragmatic Sanction, and the assumption of such Titles by the
+Daughter of the late Kaiser. King of Bohemia, and in good part
+even of Austria, it is not you, Madam, but of right WE; as, by
+Heaven's help, it is our fixed resolution to make good!"
+Protest was presented, accordingly, with all the solemnities,
+without loss of a moment. To which Bartenstein and the Authorities
+answered "Pooh-pooh," as if it were nothing. It is the first
+ripple of an immeasurable tide or deluge in that kind, threatening
+to submerge the new Majesty of Hungary;--as had been foreseen at
+Reinsberg; though Bartenstein and the Authorities made light of
+it, answering "Pooh-pooh," or almost "Ha-ha," for the present.
+
+Her Hungarian Majesty's chief Generals, Seckendorf, Wallis,
+Neipperg, sit in their respective prison-wards at this time (from
+which she soon liberates them): Kur-Baiern has lodged protest;
+at Reinsberg there will be an important resolution ready:--and in
+the Austrian Treasury (which employs 40,000 persons, big and
+little) there is of cash or available, resource, 100,000 florins,
+that is to say, 10,000 pounds net. [Mailath, <italic> Geschichte
+des Oestreichischen Kaiserstaats <end italic> (Hamburg, 1850),
+v. 8.] And unless Pragmatic sheepskin hold tighter than some
+persons expect, the affairs of Austria and of this young
+Archduchess are in a threatening way.
+
+His Britannic Majesty was on the road home, about Helvoetsluys or
+on the sea for Harwich, that night the Kaiser died; of whose
+illness he had heard nothing. At London, ten days after, the
+sudden news struck dismally upon his Majesty and the Political
+Circles there: "No help, then, from that quarter, in our Spanish
+War; perhaps far other than help!"--Nay, certain Gazetteers were
+afraid the grand new Anti-Spanish Expedition itself, which was
+now, at the long last, after such confusions and delays, lying
+ready, in great strength, Naval and Military, would be
+countermanded,--on Pragmatic-Sanction considerations, and the
+crisis probably imminent. [London Newspapers (31st Oct.-6th Nov.,
+1740). But it was not countermanded; it sailed all the same,
+"November 6th" (seventh day after the bad news); and made towards
+--Shall we tell the reader, what is Officially a dead secret,
+though by this time well guessed at by the Public, English and
+also Spanish?--towards Carthagena, to reinforce fiery Vernon, in
+the tropical latitudes; and overset Spanish America, beginning
+with that important Town!
+
+Commodore Anson, he also, after long fatal delays, is off, several
+weeks ago; [29th (18th) September, 1740.] round Cape Horn; hoping
+(or perhaps already not hoping) to co-operate from the Other
+Ocean, and be simultaneous with Vernon,--on these loose principles
+of keeping time! Commodore Anson does, in effect, make a Voyage
+which is beautiful, and to mankind memorable; but as to keeping
+tryst with Vernon, the very gods could not do it on those terms!
+
+
+
+Chapter IX.
+
+RESOLUTION FORMED AT REINSBERG IN CONSEQUENCE.
+
+Thursday, 27th October, two days after the Expresses went for
+them, Schwerin and Podewils punctually arrived at Reinsberg.
+They were carried into the interior privacies, "to long
+conferences with his Majesty that day, and for the next four days;
+Majesty and they even dining privately together;" grave business
+of state, none guesses how grave, evidently going on.
+The resolution Friedrich laid before them, fruit of these two days
+since the news from Vienna, was probably the most important ever
+formed in Prussia, or in Europe during that Century: Resolution to
+make good our Rights on Silesia, by this great opportunity, the
+best that will ever offer. Resolution which had sprung, I find,
+and got to sudden fixity in the head of the young King himself;
+and which met with little save opposition from all the other sons
+of Adam, at the first blush and for long afterwards. And, indeed,
+the making of it good (of it, and of the immense results that hung
+by it) was the main business of this young King's Life henceforth;
+and cost him Labors like those of Hercules, and was in the highest
+degree momentous to existing and not yet existing millions of
+mankind,--to the readers of this History especially.
+
+It is almost touching to reflect how unexpectedly, like a bolt out
+of the blue, all this had come upon Friedrich; and how it overset
+his fine program for the winter at Reinsberg, and for his Life
+generally. Not the Peaceable magnanimities, but the Warlike, are
+the thing appointed Friedrich this winter, and mainly henceforth.
+Those "GOLDEN or soft radiances" which we saw in him, admirable to
+Voltaire and to Friedrich, and to an esurient philanthropic
+world,--it is not those, it is "the STEEL-BRIGHT or stellar kind,"
+that are to become predominant in Friedrich's existence:
+grim hail-storms, thunders and tornado for an existence to him,
+instead of the opulent genialities and halcyon weather,
+anticipated by himself and others! Indisputably enough to us, if
+not yet to Friedrich, "Reinsberg and Life to the Muses" are done.
+On a sudden, from the opposite side of the horizon, see,
+miraculous Opportunity, rushing hitherward,--swift, terrible,
+clothed with lightning like a courser of the gods: dare you clutch
+HIM by the thundermane, and fling yourself upon him, and make for
+the Empyrean by that course rather? Be immediate about it, then;
+the time is now, or else never!--No fair judge can blame the young
+man that he laid hold of the flaming Opportunity in this manner,
+and obeyed the new omen. To seize such an opportunity, and
+perilously mount upon it, was the part of a young magnanimous
+King, less sensible to the perils, and more to the other
+considerations, than one older would have been.
+
+Schwerin and Podewils were, no doubt, astonished to learn what the
+Royal purpose was; and could not want for commonplace objections
+many and strong, had this been the scene for dwelling on them, or
+dressing them out at eloquent length. But they knew well this was
+not the scene for doing more than, with eloquent modesty, hint
+them; that the Resolution, being already taken, would not alter
+for commonplace; and that the question now lying for honorable
+members was, How to execute it? It is on this, as I collect, that
+Schwerin and Podewils in the King's company did, with extreme
+intensity, consult during those four days; and were, most
+probably, of considerable use to the King, though some of their
+modifications adopted by him turned out, not as they had
+predicted, but as he. On all the Military details and outlines,
+and on all the Diplomacies of this business, here are two Oracles
+extremely worth consulting by the young King.
+
+To seize Silesia is easy: a Country open on all but the south
+side; open especially on our side, where a battalion of foot might
+force it; the three or four fortresses, of which only two, Glogau
+and Neisse, can be reckoned strong, are provided with nothing as
+they ought to be; not above 3,000 fighting men in the whole
+Province, and these little expecting fight. Silesia can be seized:
+but the maintaining of it?--We must try to maintain it,
+thinks Friedrich.
+
+At Reinsberg it is not yet known that Kur-Baiern has protested;
+but it is well guessed he means to do so, and that France is at
+his back in some sort. Kur-Baiern, probably Kur-Sachsen, and
+plenty more, France being secretly at their back. What low
+condition Austria stands in, all its ready resources run to the
+lees, is known; and that France, getting lively at present with
+its Belleisles and adventurous spirits not restrainable by Fleury,
+is always on the watch to bring Austria lower; capable, in spite
+of Pragmatic Sanction, to snatch the golden moment, and spring
+hunter-like on a moribund Austria, were the hunting-dogs once out
+and in cry. To Friedrich it seems unlikely the Pragmatic Sanction
+will be a Law of Nature to mankind, in these circumstances.
+His opinion is, "the old political system has expired with the
+Kaiser." Here is Europe, burning in one corner of it by Jenkins's
+Ear, and such a smoulder of combustible material awakening nearer
+hand: will not Europe, probably, blaze into general War;
+Pragmatic Sanction going to waste sheepskin, and universal
+scramble ensuing? In which he who has 100,000 good soldiers, and
+can handle them, may be an important figure in urging claims, and
+keeping what he has got hold of!--
+
+Friedrich's mind, as to the fact, is fixed: seize Silesia we will:
+but as to the manner of doing it, Schwerin and Podewils modify
+him. Their counsel is: "Do not step out in hostile attitude at the
+very first, saying, 'These Duchies, Liegnitz, Brieg, Wohlau,
+Jagerndorf, are mine, and I will fight for them;' say only,
+'Having, as is well known, interests of various kinds in this
+Silesia, I venture to take charge of it in the perilous times now
+come, and will keep it safe for the real owner.' Silesia seized in
+this fashion," continue they, "negotiate with the Queen of
+Hungary; offer her help, large help in men and money, against her
+other enemies; perhaps she will consent to do us right?"--
+"She never will consent," is Friedrich's opinion. "But it is worth
+trying?" urge the Ministers.--"Well," answers Friedrich, "be it in
+that form; that is the soft-spoken cautious form: any form will
+do, if the fact be there." That is understood to have been the
+figure of the deliberation in this conclave at Reinsberg, during
+the four days. [Stenzel (from what sources he does not clearly
+say, no doubt from sources of some authenticity) gives this as
+summary of it, iv. 61-65.] And now it remains only to fix the
+Military details, to be ready in a minimum of time; and to keep
+our preparations and intentions in impenetrable darkness from all
+men, in the interim. Adieu, Messieurs.
+
+And so, on the 1st of November, fifth morning since they came,
+Schwerin and Podewils, a world of new business silently ahead of
+them, return to Berlin, intent to begin the same. All the Kings
+will have to take their resolution on this matter; wisely, or else
+unwisely. King Friedrich's, let it prove the wisest or not, is
+notably the rapidest,--complete, and fairly entering upon action,
+on November 1st. At London the news of the Kaiser's death had
+arrived the day before; Britannic Majesty and Ministry, thrown
+much into the dumps by it, much into the vague, are nothing like
+so prompt with their resolution on it. Somewhat sorrowfully in the
+vague. In fact, they will go jumbling hither and thither for about
+three years to come, before making up their minds to a resolution:
+so intricate is the affair to the English Nation and them!
+Intricate indeed; and even imaginary,--definable mainly as a
+bottomless abyss of nightmare dreams to the English Nation and
+them! Productive of strong somnambulisms, as my friend has it!--
+
+
+MYSTERY IN BERLIN, FOR SEVEN WEEKS, WHILE THE PREPARATIONS GO
+ON; VOLTAIRE VISITS FRIEDRICH TO DECIPHER IT, BUT CANNOT.
+
+Podewils and Schwerin gone, King Friedrich, though still very busy
+in working-hours, returns to his society and its gayeties and
+brilliancies; apparently with increased appetite after these four
+days of abstinence. Still busy in his working-hours, as a King
+must be; couriers coming and going, hundreds of businesses
+despatched each day; and in the evening what a relish for
+society,--Praetorius is quite astonished at it. Music, dancing,
+play-acting, suppers of the gods, "not done till four in the
+morning sometimes," these are the accounts Praetorius hears at
+Berlin. "From all persons who return from Reinsberg," writes he,
+"the unanimous report is, That the King works, the whole day
+through, with an assiduity that is unique; and then, in the
+evening, gives himself to the pleasures of society, with a
+vivacity of mirth and sprightly humor which makes those Evening-
+Parties charming." [Excerpt, in Preuss, <italic> Thronbesteigung,
+<end italic> p. 418.] So it had to last, with frequent short
+journeys on Friedrich's part, and at last with change to Berlin as
+head-quarters, for about seven weeks to come,--till the beginning
+of December, and the day of action, namely. A notable little
+Interim in Friedrich's History and that of Europe.
+
+Friedrich's secret, till almost the very end, remained
+impenetrable; though, by degrees, his movements excited much
+guessing in the Gazetteer and Diplomatic world everywhere.
+Military matters do seem to be getting brisk in Prussia; arsenals
+much astir; troops are seen mustering, marching, plainly to a
+singular degree. Marching towards the Austrian side, towards
+Silesia, some note. Yes; but also towards Cleve, certain
+detachments of troops are marching,--do not men see? And the
+Intrenchment at Buderich in those parts, that is getting forward
+withal,--though privately there is not the least prospect of using
+it, in these altered circumstances. Friedrich already guesses that
+if he could get Silesia, so invaluable on the one skirt of him, he
+mill probably have to give up his Berg-Julich claims on the other;
+I fancy he is getting ready to do so, should the time come for
+such alternative. But he labors at Buderich, all the same, and
+"improves the roads in that quarter,"--which at least may help to
+keep an inquisitive public at bay. These are seven busy weeks on
+Friedrich's part, and on the world's: constant realities of
+preparation, on the one part, industriously veiled; on the other
+part, such shadows, guessings, spyings, spectral movements above
+ground and below; Diplomatic shadows fencing, Gazetteer shadows
+rumoring;--dreams of a world as if near awakening to something
+great! "All Officers on furlough have been ordered to their
+posts," writes Bielfeld, on those vague terms of his: "On arriving
+at Berlin, you notice a great agitation in all departments of the
+State. The regiments are ordered to prepare their equipages, and
+to hold themselves in readiness for marching. There are magazines
+being formed at Frankfurt-on-Oder and at Crossen,"--handy for
+Silesia, you would say? "There are considerable trains of
+Artillery getting ready, and the King has frequent conferences
+with his Generals." [Bielfeld, i. 165 (Berlin, 30th November, is
+the date he puts to it).] The authentic fact is: "By the middle of
+November, Troops, to the extent of 30,000 and more, had got orders
+to be ready for marching in three weeks hence; their public
+motions very visible ever since, their actual purpose a mystery to
+all mortals except three.
+
+Towards the end of November, it becomes the prevailing guess that
+the business is immediate, not prospective; that Silesia may be in
+the wind, not Julich and Berg. Which infinitely quickens the
+shadowy rumorings and Diplomatic fencings of mankind. The French
+have their special Ambassador here; a Marquis de Beauvau,
+observant military gentleman, who came with the Accession
+Compliment some time ago, and keeps his eyes well open, but cannot
+see through mill-stones. Fleury is intensely desirous to know
+Friedrich's secret; but would fain keep his own (if he yet have
+one), and is himself quite tacit and reserved. To Fleury's Marquis
+de Beauvau Friedrich is very gracious; but in regard to secrets,
+is for a reciprocal procedure. Could not Voltaire go and try?
+It is thought Fleury had let fall some hint to that effect,
+carried by a bird of the air. Sure enough Voltaire does go;
+is actually on visit to his royal Friend; "six days with him at
+Reinsberg;" perhaps near a fortnight in all (20 November-
+2 December or so), hanging about those Berlin regions, on the
+survey. Here is an unexpected pleasure to the parties;--but in
+regard to penetrating of secrets, an unproductive one!
+
+Voltaire's ostensible errand was, To report progress about the
+ANTI-MACHIAVEL, the Van Duren nonsense; and, at any rate, to
+settle the Money-accounts on these and other scores; and to
+discourse Philosophies, for a day or two, with the First of Men.
+The real errand, it is pretty clear, was as above. Voltaire has
+always a wistful eye towards political employment, and would fain
+make himself useful in high quarters. Fleury and he have their
+touches of direct Correspondence now and then; and obliquely there
+are always intermediates and channels. Small hint, the slightest
+twinkle of Fleury's eyelashes, would be duly speeded to Voltaire,
+and set him going. We shall see him expressly missioned hither,
+on similar errand, by and by; though with as bad success as
+at present.
+
+Of this his First Visit to Berlin, his Second to Friedrich,
+Voltaire in the VIE PRIVEE says nothing. But in his SIECLE DE
+LOUIS XV. he drops, with proud modesty, a little foot-note upon
+it: "The Author was with the King of Prussia at that time; and can
+affirm that Cardinal de Fleury was totally astray in regard to the
+Prince he had now to do with." To which a DATE slightly wrong is
+added; the rest being perfectly correct. [<italic> OEuvres <end
+italic> (Siecle de Louis XV., c. 6), xxviii. 74.] No other details
+are to be got anywhere, if they were of importance; the very dates
+of it in the best Prussian Books are all slightly awry. Here, by
+accident, are two poor flint-sparks caught from the dust
+whirlwind, which yield a certain sufficing twilight, when put in
+their place; and show us both sides of the matter, the smooth side
+and the seamy:--
+
+1. FRIEDRICH TO ALGAROTTI, AT BERLIN. From "Reinsberg,
+21st Nov.," showing the smooth side.
+
+"MY DEAR SWAN OF PADUA,--Voltaire has arrived; all sparkling with
+new beauties, and far more sociable than at Cleve. He is in very
+good humor; and makes less complaining about his ailments than
+usual. Nothing can be more frivolous than our occupations here:"
+mere verse-making, dancing, philosophizing, then card-playing,
+dining, flirting; merry as birds on the bough (and Silesia
+invisible, except to oneself and two others). [<italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> xviii. 25.]
+
+2. FRIEDRICH TO JORDAN, AT BERLIN.
+"RUPPIN, 28th November.
+"... Thy Miser [Voltaire, now gone to Berlin, of whom Jordan is to
+send news, as of all things else], thy Miser shall drink to the
+lees of his insatiable desire (SIC) to enrich himself: he shall
+have the 3,000 thalers (450 pounds). He was with me six days:
+that will be at the rate of 500 thalers (75 pounds) a day. That is
+paying dear for one's merry-andrew (C'EST BIEN PAYER UN FOU);
+never had court-fool such wages before." [Ib. xvii. 72.
+Particulars of the money-payment (travelling expenses chiefly,
+rather exorbitant, and THIS journey added to the list; and no
+whisper of the considerable Van-Duren moneys, and copyright of
+ANTI-MACHIAVEL, in abatement) are in Rodenbeck, i. 27. Exact sum
+paid is 3,300 thalers; 2,000 a good while ago, 1,300 at this time,
+which settles the greedy bill.]
+
+Which latter, also at first hand, shows us the seamy side.
+And here, finally, with date happily appended, is a poetic snatch,
+in Voltaire's exquisite style, which with the response gives us
+the medium view:--
+
+VOLTAIRE'S ADIEU (<italic> "Billet de Conge, <end italic>
+2 December, 1740").
+
+"Non, malgre vos vertus, non, malgre vos appas,
+    Mon ame n'est point satisfaite;
+    Non, vous n'etes qu'une coquette,
+Qui subjuguez les coeurs, et ne rous donnez pas."
+
+FRIEDRICH'S RESPONSE.
+
+"Mon ame sent le prix de vos divins appas;
+Mais ne presumez point qu'elle soit satisfaite.
+Traitre, vous me quittez pour suivre une coquette;
+   Moi je ne vous quitterais pas." 
+[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic <end italic> (xiv. 167);
+<italic> OEuvres de Voltaire; <end italic> &c. &c.]
+
+--Meaning, perhaps, in brief English: V. "Ah, you are but a
+beautiful coquette; you charm away our hearts, and do not give
+your own [won't tell me your secret at all]!" F. "Treacherous
+Lothario, it is you that quit me for a coquette [your divine
+Emilie; and won't stay here, and be of my Academy];
+but however--!" Friedrich looked hopingly on the French, but could
+not give his secret except by degrees and with reciprocity.
+Some days hence he said to Marquis de Beauvau, in the Audience of
+leave, a word which was remembered.
+
+
+VIEW OF FRIEDRICH BEHIND THE VEIL.
+
+As to Friedrich himself, since about the middle of November his
+plans seem to have been definitely shaped out in all points;
+Troops so many, when to be on march, and how; no important detail
+uncertain since then. November 17th, he jots down a little Note,
+which is to go to Vienna, were the due hour come, by a special
+Ambassador, one Count Gotter, acquainted with the ground there;
+and explain to her Hungarian Majesty, what his exact demands are,
+and what the exact services he will render. Of which important
+little Paper readers shall hear again. Gotter's demands are at
+first to be high: Our Four Duchies, due by law so long; these and
+even more, considering the important services we propose; this is
+to be his first word;--but, it appears, he is privately prepared
+to put up with Two Duchies, if he can have them peaceably:
+Duchies of Sagan and Glogau, which are not of the Four at all, but
+which lie nearest us, and are far below the value of the Four, to
+Austria especially. This intricate point Friedrich has already
+settled in his mind. And indeed it is notably the habit of this
+young King to settle matters with himself in good time: and in
+regard to all manner of points, he will be found, on the day of
+bargaining about them, to have his own resolution formed and
+definitely fixed;--much to his advantage over conflicting parties,
+who have theirs still flying loose.
+
+Another thing of much concernment is, To secure himself from
+danger of Russian interference. To this end he despatches Major
+Winterfeld to Russia, a man well known to him;--day of
+Winterfeld's departure is not given; day of his arrival in
+Petersburg is "19th December" just coming. Russia, at present, is
+rather in a staggering condition; hopeful for Winterfeld's object.
+On the 28th of October last, only eight days after the Kaiser,
+Czarina Anne of Russia, she with the big cheek, once of Courland,
+had died; "audacious Death," as our poor friend had it, "venturing
+upon another Crowned Head" there. Bieren her dear Courlander, once
+little better than a Horse-groom, now Duke of Courland, Quasi-
+Husband to the late Big Cheek, and thereby sovereign of Russia,
+this long while past, is left Official Head in Russia. Poor little
+Anton Ulrich and his august Spouse, well enough known to us, have
+indeed produced a Czar Iwan, some months ago, to the joy of
+mankind: but Czar Iwan is in his cradle: Father and Mother's
+function is little other than to rock the cradle of Iwan;
+Bieren to be Regent and Autocrat over him and them in the interim.
+To their chagrin, to that of Feldmarschall Munnich and many
+others: the upshot of which will be visible before long.
+Czarina Anne's death had seemed to Friedrich the opportune removal
+of a dangerous neighbor, known to be in the pay of Austria:
+here now are new mutually hostile parties springing up; chance,
+surely, of a bargain with some of them? He despatches Winterfeld
+on this errand;--probably the fittest man in Prussia for it.
+How soon and perfectly Winterfeld succeeded, and what Winterfeld
+was, and something of what a Russia he found it, we propose to
+mention by and by.
+
+These, and all points of importance, Friedrich has settled with
+himself some time ago. What his own private thoughts on the
+Silesian Adventure are, readers will wish to know, since they can
+at first hand. Hear Friedrich himself, whose veracity is
+unquestionable to such as know anything of him:--
+
+"This Silesian Project fulfilled all his (the King's) political
+views,"--summed them all well up into one head. "It was a means of
+acquiriug reputation; of increasing the power of the State; and of
+terminating what concerned that long-litigated question of the
+Berg-Julich Succession;"--can be sure of getting that, at lowest;
+intends to give that up, if necessary.
+
+"Meanwhile, before entirely determining, the King weighed the
+risks there were in undertaking such a War, and the advantages
+that were to be hoped from it. On one side, presented itself the
+potent House of Austria, not likely to want resources with so many
+vast Provinces under it; an Emperor's Daughter attacked, who would
+naturally find allies in the King of England, in the Dutch
+Republic, and so many Princes of the Empire who had signed the
+Pragmatic Sanction." Russia was--or had been, and might again be--
+in the pay of Vienna. Saxony might have some clippings from
+Bohemia thrown to it, and so be gained over. Scanty Harvest, 1740,
+threatened difficulties as to provisioning of troops. "The risks
+were great. One had to apprehend the vicissitudes of war. A single
+battle lost might be decisive. The King had no allies; and his
+troops, hitherto without experience, would have to front old
+Austrian soldiers, grown gray in harness, and trained to war by so
+many campaigns.
+
+"On the other side were hopeful considerations,"--four in number:
+FIRST, Weak condition of the Austrian Court, Treasury empty, War-
+Apparatus broken in pieces; inexperienced young Princess to defend
+a disputed succession, on those terms. SECOND, There WILL be
+allies; France and England always in rivalry, both meddling in
+these matters, King is sure to get either the one or the other.--
+THIRD, Silesian War lies handy to us, and is the only kind of
+Offensive War that does; Country bordering on our frontier, and
+with the Oder running through it as a sure high-road for
+everything. FOURTH, "What suddenly turned the balance," or at
+least what kept it steady in that posture,--"news of the Czarina's
+death arrives:" Russia has ceased to count against us; and become
+a manageable quantity. On, therefore!--
+
+"Add to these reasons," says the King, with a candor which has not
+been well treated in the History Books, "Add to these reasons, an
+Army ready for acting; Funds, Supplies all found [lying barrelled
+in the Schloss at Berlin];--and perhaps the desire of making
+oneself a name," from which few of mortals able to achieve it are
+exempt in their young time: "all this was cause of the War which
+the King now entered upon." [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic <end
+italic> (Histoire de mon Temps), i. 128.]
+
+"Desire to make himself a name; how shocking!" exclaim several
+Historians. "Candor of confession that he may have had some such
+desire; how honest!" is what they do not exclaim. As to the
+justice of his Silesian Claims, or even to his own belief about
+their justice, Friedrich affords not the least light which can be
+new to readers here. He speaks, when business requires it, of
+"those known rights" of his, and with the air of a man who expects
+to be believed on his word; but it is cursorily, and in the
+business way only; and there is not here or elsewhere the least
+pleading:--a man, you would say, considerably indifferent to our
+belief on that head; his eyes set on the practical merely.
+"Just Rights? What are rights, never so just, which you cannot
+make valid? The world is full of such. If you have rights and can
+assert them into facts, do it; that is worth doing!"--
+
+We must add two Notes, two small absinthine drops, bitter but
+wholesome, administered by him to the Old Dessauer, whose gloomy
+wonder over all this military whirl of Prussian things, and
+discontent that he, lately the head authority, has never once been
+spoken to on it, have been great. Guessing, at last, that it was
+meant for Austria, a Power rather dear to Leopold, he can suppress
+himself no longer; but breaks out into Cassandra prophesyings,
+which have piqued the young King, and provoke this return:--
+
+1. "REINSBERG, 24th November, 1740.--I have received your Letter,
+and seen with what inquietude you view the approaching march of my
+Troops. I hope you will set your mind at ease on that score;
+and wait with patience what I intend with them and you. I have
+made all my dispositions; and Your Serenity will learn, time
+enough, what my orders are, without disquieting yourself about
+them, as nothing has been forgotten or delayed."--FRIEDRICH.
+
+Old Dessauer, cut to the bone, perceives he will have to quit that
+method and never resume it; writes next how painful it is to an
+old General to see himself neglected, as if good for nothing,
+while his scholars are allowed to gather laurels. Friedrich's
+answer is of soothing character:--
+
+2. "BERLIN, 2d DECEMBER, 1740.--You may be assured I honor your
+merits and capacity as a young Officer ought to honor an old one,
+who has given the world so many proofs of his talent (DEXTERITAT);
+nor will I neglect Your Serenity on any occasion when you can help
+me by your good Counsel and co-operation." But it is a mere
+"bagatelle" this that I am now upon; though, next year, it may
+become serious.
+
+For the rest, Saxony being a neighbor whose intentions one does
+not know, I have privately purposed Your Serenity should keep an
+outlook that way, in my absence. Plenty of employment coming for
+Your Serenity. "But as to this present Expedition, I reserve it
+for myself alone; that the world may not think the King of Prussia
+marches with a Tutor to the Field."--FRIEDRICH. [Orlich, <italic>
+Geschichte der Schlesischen Kriege <end italic> (Berlin, 1841),
+i. 38, 39.]
+
+And therewith Leopold, eagerly complying, has to rest satisfied;
+and beware of too much freedom with this young King again.
+
+"Berlin, December 2d," is the date of that last Note to the
+Dessauer; date also of Voltaire's ADIEU with the RESPONSE;--
+on which same day, "Friday, December 2d," as I find from the Old
+Books, his Majesty, quitting the Reinsberg sojourn, "had arrived
+in Berlin about 2 P.M.; accompanied by Prince August Wilhelm
+[betrothed at Brunswick lately]; such a crowd on the streets as if
+they had never seen him before." He continued at Berlin or in the
+neighborhood thenceforth. Busy days these; and Berlin a much
+whispering City, as Regiment after Regiment marches away.
+King soon to follow, as is thought,--"who himself sometimes deigns
+to take the Regiments into highest own eyeshine, HOCHST-EIGENEN
+AUGENSCHEIN" (that is, to review them), say the reverential
+Editors. December 6th--But let us follow the strict sequence of
+Phenomena at Berlin.
+
+
+EXCELLENCY BOTTA HAS AUDIENCE; THEN EXCELLENCY DICKENS,
+AND OTHERS: DECEMBER 6th, THE MYSTERY IS OUT.
+
+Of course her Hungarian Majesty, and her Bartensteins and
+Ministries, heard enough of those Prussian rumors, interior
+Military activities, and enigmatic movements; but they seem
+strangely supine on the matter; indeed, they seem strangely
+supine on such matters; and lean at ease upon the Sea-Powers, upon
+Pragmatic Sanction and other Laws of Nature. But at length even
+they become painfully interested as to Friedrich's intentions;
+and despatch an Envoy to sift him a little: an expert Marchese di
+Botta, Genoese by birth, skilful in the Russian and other
+intricacies; who was here at Berlin lately, doing the Accession
+Compliment (rather ill received at that time), and is fit for the
+job. Perhaps Botta will penetrate him? That is becoming desirable,
+in spite of the gay Private Theatricals at Reinsberg, and the
+Berlin Carnival Balls he is so occupied with.
+
+England is not less interested, and the diligent Sir Guy is doing
+his best; but can make out nothing satisfactory;--much the reverse
+indeed; and falls into angry black anticipations. "Nobody here,
+great or small," says his Excellency, "dares make any
+representation to this young Prince against the measures he is
+pursuing; though all are sensible of the confusion which must
+follow. A Prince who had the least regard to honor, truth and
+justice, could not act the part he is goingto do." Alas, no,
+Excellency Dickens! "But it is plain his only view was, to deceive
+us all, and conceal for a while his ambitious and mischievous
+designs." [Despatch, 29th November-3d December, 1740: Raumer,
+p. 58.] "Never was such dissimulation!" exclaims the Diplomatic
+world everywhere, being angered at it, as if it were a vice on the
+part of a King about to invade Silesia. Dissimulation, if that
+mean mendacity, is not the name of the thing; it is the art of
+wearing a polite cloak of darkness, and the King is little
+disturbed what name they call it.
+
+Botta did not get to Berlin till December lst, had no Audience
+till the 5th;--by which time it is becoming evident to Excellency
+Dickens, and to everybody, that Silesia is the thing meant.
+Botta hints as much in that first Audience, December 5th:
+"Terrible roads, those Silesian ones, your Majesy!" says Botta, as
+if historically merely, but with a glance of the eye. "Hm,"
+answers his Majesty in the same tone, "the worst that comes of
+them is a little mud!"--Next day, Dickens had express Audience,
+"Berlin, Tuesday 6th:" a smartish, somewhat flurried Colloquy with
+the King; which, well abridged, may stand as follows:--
+
+DICKENS. ... "Indivisibility of the Austrian Monarchy, Sire!"--
+KING. "Indivisibility? What do you mean?"--DICKENS. "The
+maintenance of the Pragmatic Sanction."--KING. "Do you intend to
+support it? I hope not; for such is not my intention." (There is
+for you!) ...
+
+DICKENS. "England and Holland will much wonder at the measures
+your Majesty was taking, at the moment when your Majesty proposed
+to join with them, and were making friendly proposals!" (Has been
+a deceitful man, Sir Guy, at least an impenetrable;--but this
+latter is rather strong on your part!) "What shall I write to
+England?" ("When I mentioned this," says Dickens, "the King grew
+red in the face," eyes considerably flashing, I should think.)
+
+KING. "You can have no instructions to ask that question! And if
+you had, I have an answer ready for you. England has no right to
+inquire into my designs. Your great Sea-Armaments, did I ask you
+any questions about them? No; I was and am silent on that head;
+only wishing you good luck, and that you may not get beaten by the
+Spaniards." (Dickens hastily draws in his rash horns again;
+after a pass or two, King's natural color returns.) ...
+
+KING. "Austria as a Power is necessary against the Turks. But in
+Germany, what need of Austria being so superlative? Why should
+not, say, Three Electors united be able to oppose her? ...
+Monsieur, I find it is your notion in England, as well as theirs
+in France, to bring other Sovereigns under your tutorage, and lead
+them about. Understand that I will not be led by either. ... Tush,
+YOU are like the Athenians, who, when Philip of Macedon was ready
+to invade them, spent their time in haranguing!"
+
+DICKENS. ... "Berg and Julich, if we were to guarantee them?"--
+KING. "Hm. Don't so much mind that Rhine Country: difficulties
+there,--Dutch always jealous of one. But, on the other Frontier,
+neither England nor Holland could take umbrage,"--points clearly
+to Silesia, then, your Excellency Dickens? [Raumer, (from State-
+Paper Office), pp. 63, 64.]
+
+Alas, yes! Troops and military equipments are, for days past,
+evidently wending towards Frankfurt, towards Crossen, and even the
+Newspapers now hint that something is on hand in that quarter.
+Nay, this same day, TUESDAY, 6th DECEMBER, there has come out
+brief Official Announcement, to all the Foreign Ministers at
+Berlin, Excellency Dickens among them, "That his Royal Majesty,
+our most all-gracious Herr, has taken the resolution to advance a
+Body of Troops into Schlesien,"--rather out of friendly views
+towards Austria (much business lying between us about Schlesien),
+not out of hostile views by any means, as all Excellencies shall
+assure their respective Courts. [Copy of the Paper in <italic>
+Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 447.] Announcement which had
+thrown the Excellency Dickens into such a frame of mind, before he
+got his Audience to-day!--
+
+SATURDAY following, which was December l0th, Marquis de Beauvau
+had his Audience of leave; intending for Paris shortly:
+Audience very gracious; covertly hinting, on both sides, more than
+it said; ending in these words, on the King's side, which have
+become famous: "Adieu, then, M. le Marquis. I believe I am going
+to play your game; if the aces fall to me, we will share (<italic>
+Je vais, je crois, jouer votre jeu: si les as me viennent, nous
+partagerons)!" [Voltaire, <italic> OEuvres <end italic> (Siecle de
+Louis XV., c. 6), xxviii. 74.]
+
+To Botta, all this while, Friedrich strove to be specially civil;
+took him out to Charlottenburg, that same Saturday, with the Queen
+and other guests; but Botta, and all the world, being now certain
+about Silesia, and that no amount of mud, or other terror on the
+roads, would be regarded, Botta's thoughts in this evening party
+are not of cheerful nature. Next day, Sunday, December 11th, he
+too gets his Audience of leave; and cannot help bursting out, when
+the King plainly tells him what is now afoot, and that the
+Prussian Ambassador has got instructions what to offer upon it at
+Vienna. "Sire, you are going to ruin the House of Austria," cried
+Botta, "and to plunge yourself into destruction (VOUS ABIMER) at
+the same time!"--"Depends on the Queen," said Friedrich, "to
+accept the Offers I have made her." Botta sank silent, seemed to
+reflect, but gathering himself again, added with an ironical air
+and tone of voice, "They are fine Troops, those of yours, Sire.
+Ours have not the same splendor of appearance; but they have
+looked the wolf in the face. Think, I conjure you, what you are
+getting into!" Friedrich answered with vivacity, a little nettled
+at the ironical tone of Botta, and his mixed sympathy and menace:
+"You find my troops are beautiful; perhaps I shall convince you
+they are good too." Yes, Excellency Botta, goodish troops;
+and very capable "to look the wolf in the face,"--or perhaps in
+the tail too, before all end! "Botta urged and entreated that at
+least there should be some delay in executing this project.
+But the King gave him to understand that it was now too late, and
+that the Rubicon was passed." [Friedrich's own Account (<italic>
+OEuvres, <end italic> ii. 57).]
+
+The secret is now out, therefore; Invasion of Silesia certain and
+close at hand. "A day or two before marching," may have been this
+very day when Botta got his audience, the King assembled his Chief
+Generals, all things ready out in the Frankfurt-Crossen region
+yonder; and spoke to them as follows; briefly and to the point:--
+
+"Gentlemen, I am undertaking a War, in which I have no allies but
+your valor and your good-will. My cause is just; my resources are
+what we ourselves can do; and the issue lies in Fortune.
+Remember continually the glory which your Ancestors acquired in
+the plains of Warsaw, at Fehrbellin, and in the Expedition to
+Preussen [across the Frische Haf on ice, that time]. Your lot is
+in your own hands: distinctions and rewards wait upon your fine
+actions which shall merit them.
+
+"But what need have I to excite you to glory? It is the one thing
+you keep before your eyes; the sole object worthy of your labors.
+We are going to front troops who, under Prince Eugene, had the
+highest reputation. Though Prince Eugene is gone, we shall have to
+measure our strength against brave soldiers: the greater will be
+the honor if we can conquer. Adieu, go forth. I will follow you
+straightway to the rendezvous of glory which awaits us."
+[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> ii.58.]
+
+
+MASKED BALL, AT BERLIN, 12th-13th DECEMBER.
+
+On the evening of Monday, 12th, there was, as usual, Masked (or
+Half-Masked) Ball, at the Palace. As usual; but this time it has
+become mentionable in World-History. Bielfeld, personally
+interested, gives us a vivid glance into it;--which, though
+pretending to be real and contemporaneous, is unfortunately
+MYTHICAL only, and done at a great interval of years (dates, and
+even slight circumstances of fact, refusing to conform);--which,
+however, for the truth there is in it, we will give, as better
+than nothing. Bielfeld's pretended date is, "Berlin, 15th
+December;" should have been 14th,--wrong by a day, after one's
+best effort!
+
+"BERLIN, 15th DECEMBER, 1740. As for me, dear Sister, I am like a
+shuttlecock whom the Kings of Prussia and of England hit with
+their rackets, and knock to and fro. The night before last, I was
+at the Palace Evening Party (ASSEMBLEE); which is a sort of Ball,
+where you go in domino, but without mask on the face. The Queen
+was there, and all the Court. About eight o'clock the King also
+made his appearance. His Majesty, noticing M. de G---[that is DE
+GUIDIKEN, or Guy Dickens], English Minister, addressed him;
+led him into the embrasure of a window, and talked alone with him
+for more than an hour [uncertain, probably apocryphal this].
+I threw, from time to time, a stolen glance at this dialogue,
+which appeared to me to be very lively. A moment after, being just
+dancing with Madame the Countess de--THREE ASTERISKS,--I felt
+myself twitched by the domino; and turning, was much surprised to
+see that it was the King; who took me aside, and said, 'Are your
+boots oiled (VOS BOTTES SONT-ELLES GRAISSIES, Are you ready for a
+journey)? ' I replied, 'Sire, they will always be so for your
+Majesty's service.'--'Well, then, Truchsess and you are for
+England; the day after to-morrow you go. Speak to M. de
+Podewils!'--This was said like a flash of lightning. His Majesty
+passed into another apartment; and I, I went to finish my minuet
+with the Lady; who had been not less astonished to see me
+disappear from her eyes, in the middle of the dance, than I was at
+what the King said to me." [Bielfeld, i. 167, 168.]
+Next morning, I--
+
+The fact is, next morning, Truchsess and I began preparation for
+the Court of London,--and we did there, for many months
+afterwards, strive our best to keep the Britannic Majesty in some
+kind of tune, amid the prevailing discord of events;--fact
+interesting to some. And the other fact, interesting to everybody,
+though Bielfeld has not mentioned it, is, That King Friedrich, the
+same next morning, punctually "at the stroke of 9," rolled away
+Frankfurt-ward,--into the First Silesian War! Tuesday, "13th
+December, this morning, the King, privately quitting the Ball, has
+gone [after some little snatch of sleep, we will hope] for
+Frankfurt, to put himself at the head of his Troops." [Dickens (in
+State-Paper Office), 13th December, 1740; see also <italic>
+Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 452; &c. &c.] Bellona his
+companion for long years henceforth, instead of Minerva and the
+Muses, as he had been anticipating.
+
+Hereby is like to be fulfilled (except that Friedrich himself is
+perhaps this "little stone") what Friedrich prophesied to his
+Voltaire, the day after hearing of the Kaiser's death: "I believe
+there will, by June next, be more talk of cannon, soldiers,
+trenches, than of actresses, and dancers for the ballet.
+This small Event changes the entire system of Europe. It is the
+little stone which Nebuchadnezzar saw, in his dream, loosening
+itself, and rolling down on the Image made of Four Metals, which
+it shivers to ruin." [Friedrich to Voltaire, busy gathering actors
+at that time, 26th October, 1740 (<italic> OEuvres de Frederic,
+<end italic> xxii. 49).]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 11
+
diff --git a/old/11frd10.zip b/old/11frd10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dca8370
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/11frd10.zip