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diff --git a/2111.txt b/2111.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d650b9c --- /dev/null +++ b/2111.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5428 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. +XI. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XI. (of XXI.) + Frederick The Great--Friedrich Takes the Reins in + Hand--June-December, 1740 + +Author: Thomas Carlyle + +Posting Date: June 13, 2008 [EBook #2111] +Release Date: March 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. *** + + + + +Produced by D.R. Thompson + + + + + +HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA + +FREDERICK THE GREAT + +By Thomas Carlyle + +Volume XI. + + + + +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. [_Gentleman's +Magazine_ (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, _Buch fur Jedermann,_ i. 18; Preuss, _Fredrich der +Grosse,_ 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, _Friedrichs Jugend und Thronbesteigung_ (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; [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 367. Rodenbeck, _Tagebuch aus +Friedrichs des Grossen Regentenleben_ (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, _Friedrichs Jugend und +Thronbesteigung_ (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, _Journal Historique du Regne de Louis XV._ +(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 _OEuvres de Frederic_ (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 _Beitrage_ (? +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). [_OEuvres,_ 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, +_Thronbesteigung,_ 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, +_Thronbesteigung,_ p. 330; and Formey, _Souvenirs,_ 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), _Vie de Frederic II., Roi de +Prusse_ (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, _Vie Privee_ by Voltaire, _Matinees du +Roi de Prusse,_ 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, _Thronbesteigung;_ &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, _Friedrich mit Verwandten und Freunden,_ 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, _Travels,_ &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, _Anekdoten,_ 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, +_Characterzuge des &c. von Saldern_ (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, at 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 _Beitrage,_ 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," [_Memoires des Negociations du Marquis de Valori_ (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, [_Beitrage,_ 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. [_Helden Geschichte,_ 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, _Buch fur Jedermann,_ 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 _Thronbesteigung,_ 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. (_Urkundenbuch,_ 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, +_Thronbesteigung,_ 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, +_Thronbesteigung,_ 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: _"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." _[_First Chronicles,_ 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, +_Thronbesteigung,_ 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, +_Thronbesteigung,_ 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! [_"On doit faire barbouiller de mauvaises copies a Berlin, la +piece a 20 ecus._--FR." Preuss, ii. (_Urkundenbuch,_ 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, _Thronbesteigung,_ 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 (_Thronbesteigung,_ p, 390) and _Helden-Geschichte,_ (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, _Thronbesteigung,_ 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 (_OEuvres +de Frederic,_ 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, _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xx. pp. 5, 19-21; Voltaire, _OEuvres,_ +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, _OEuvres,_ 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 _Beitrage_ (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: +[_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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 +_Beitrage;_--Schlosser (_History of the Eighteenth Century_) 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. +[_OEuvres,_ 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 _Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 420-423;--see likewise Fassmann's +_Merkwurdigster Regierungs-Antritt_ (poor old Book on FRIEDRICH'S +ACCESSION); Preuss (_Thronbesteigung,_ 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, _OEuvres_ (scandalous Piece now +called _Memoires,_ once _Vie Privee du Roi de Prusse_), ii. 24-26; +finally, in Preuss, _OEuvres de Frederic,_ 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. + + 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. + +"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! + + + 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! + + +"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. + + 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. + +"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. + + Ou a garrison, troupe flasque, + Se rendit si piteusement + Apres la premiere bourasque + Du canon francais foudroyant. + +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. + + 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. + +"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, _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xiv. 159-161).] + + 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. + +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 +_Helden-Geschichte_ (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. + + 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. + +"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. + + 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. + +"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. + + + 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. + +"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;-- + + + Ce general toujours surpris, + Qu'a regret le jeune Louis + Vit sans culottes en Italie, + Courir pour derober sa vie + Aux Germains, guerriers impolis. + +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. + + 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. + +"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. + + 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. + +"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. + + 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. + +"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." + + Ce malheureux pendard me vit, + C'est le sort de toutes les choses; + Ainsi de motre pot aux roses + Tout le secret se decouvrit. + +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, [_Memoires,_ 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, +_OEuvres,_ 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 _OEuvres de Voltaire,_ 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), _3d year since the world flattened._ + +"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) +_Anekdoten und Charakterzuge aus dem Leben Friedrichs des Grossen_ (and +a very ignorant and careless Edition it is; 6 vols. 12mo, Halberstadt, +1829), ii. 160; Laveaus (whom we already cited), _Vie de Frederic;_ +&c. &c. Nicolai's _Anekdoten_ 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 circumambient 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, _OEuvres de Frederic,_ 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 11th, 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, +[_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 _Deutschland_ (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, _Vie de Voltaire_ 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, _OEuvres,_ +(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." +[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ 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; [_Delices du Pais de Liege_ (Liege, 1738); +_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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, _OEuvres (Memoires de Brandebourg)_, end 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." [_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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 reporting 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:-- + +_Exposition of the Reasons which have induced his Majesty the King of +Prussia to make just Reprisals on the Prince Bishop of Liege._ + +"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, 1740." +[_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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;" +[_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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 _Helden-Geschichte,_--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 Friedrich: +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. _OEuvres de Voltaire_ (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!" +[_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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: [_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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 +that wretched 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. [_Daily Post,_ 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;" [_Gentleman's Magazine,_ 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, _Ueber die Denkwurdigkeiten +der Markgrafin van Bayreuth_ (Paper read in the _Akademie der +Wissenschaften,_ 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, _Thronbesteigung,_ 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, +_Thronbesteigung,_ p. 416.]--and then, by Eichel's help, sent off e + 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!"' [_Anecdotes Germaniques_ (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 +20th), 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) _Des &c. Romischen Kaisers Carl +VI. Leben und Thaten_ (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, _Pragmatische Staatsgeschichte_ (Gotha, +1762-1767), ii. 120. JOHANN CHRISTOPH Adelung; the same who did the +DICTIONARY and many other deserving Books; here is the precise Title: +_"Pragmatische Staatsgeschichte Europens,"_ 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, +_Geschichte des Oestreichischen Kaiserstaats_ (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, _Thronbesteigung, +_ 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. +[_OEuvres_ (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). +[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ 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 (_"Billet de Conge,_ 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." + +[_OEuvres de Frederic_ (xiv. 167); _OEuvres de Voltaire;_ &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." [_OEuvres de +Frederic_ (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, _Geschichte der Schlesischen Kriege_ +(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 going to 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 1st, 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 +Majesty!" 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 +_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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 10th, 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 (_Je vais, je crois, jouer votre jeu: si les as me +viennent, nous partagerons)!_" [Voltaire, _OEuvres_ (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 (_OEuvres,_ 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." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ 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 _Helden-Geschichte,_ +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 (_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxii. 49).] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, +Vol. XI. 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