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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol.
+XXI. (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. XXI. (of XXI.)
+       Frederick The Great--Afternoon and Evening of Friedrich's
+       Life--1763-1786
+
+Author: Thomas Carlyle
+
+Posting Date: June 13, 2008 [EBook #2121]
+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
+
+
+
+
+BOOK XXI.--AFTERNOON AND EVENING OF FRIEDRICH'S LIFE--1763-1786.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I.--PREFATORY.
+
+The Twelve Hercules-labors of this King have ended here; what was
+required of him in World-History is accomplished. There remain to
+Friedrich Twenty-three Years more of Life, which to Prussian History are
+as full of importance as ever; but do not essentially concern European
+History, Europe having gone the road we now see it in. On the grand
+World-Theatre the curtain has fallen for a New Act; Friedrich's part,
+like everybody's for the present, is played out. In fact, there is,
+during the rest of his Reign, nothing of World-History to be dwelt on
+anywhere. America, it has been decided, shall be English; Prussia be a
+Nation. The French, as finis of their attempt to cut Germany in Four,
+find themselves sunk into torpor, abeyance and dry-rot; fermenting
+towards they know not what. Towards Spontaneous Combustion in the year
+1789, and for long years onwards!
+
+There, readers, there is the next milestone for you, in the History of
+Mankind! That universal Burning-up, as in hell-fire, of Human Shams. The
+oath of Twenty-five Million men, which has since become that of all men
+whatsoever, "Rather than live longer under lies, we will die!"--that
+is the New Act in World-History. New Act,--or, we may call it New PART;
+Drama of World-History, Part Third. If Part SECOND was 1,800 years ago,
+this I reckon will be Part THIRD. This is the truly celestial-infernal
+Event: the strangest we have seen for a thousand years. Celestial in
+one part; in the other, infernal. For it is withal the breaking out
+of universal mankind into Anarchy, into the faith and practice
+of NO-Government,--that is to say (if you will be candid), into
+unappeasable Revolt against Sham-Governors and Sham-Teachers,--which
+I do charitably define to be a Search, most unconscious, yet in deadly
+earnest, for true Governors and Teachers. That is the one fact of
+World-History worth dwelling on at this day; and Friedrich cannot be
+said to have had much hand farther in that.
+
+Nor is the progress of a French or European world, all silently ripening
+and rotting towards such issue, a thing one wishes to dwell on. Only
+when the Spontaneous Combustion breaks out; and, many-colored, with loud
+noises, envelops the whole world in anarchic flame for long hundreds of
+years: then has the Event come; there is the thing for all men to
+mark, and to study and scrutinize as the strangest thing they ever saw.
+Centuries of it yet lying ahead of us; several sad Centuries, sordidly
+tumultuous, and good for little! Say Two Centuries yet,--say even Ten of
+such a process: before the Old is completely burnt out, and the New in
+any state of sightliness? Millennium of Anarchies;--abridge it, spend
+your heart's-blood upon abridging it, ye Heroic Wise that are to
+come! For it is the consummation of All the Anarchies that are and
+were;--which I do trust always means the death (temporary death) of
+them! Death of the Anarchies: or a world once more built wholly on Fact
+better or worse; and the lying jargoning professor of Sham-Fact, whose
+name is Legion, who as yet (oftenest little conscious of himself) goes
+tumulting and swarming from shore to shore, become a species extinct,
+and well known to be gone down to Tophet!--
+
+There were bits of Anarchies before, little and greater: but till that
+of France in 1789, there was none long memorable; all were pygmies in
+comparison, and not worth mentioning separately. In 1772 the Anarchy of
+Poland, which had been a considerable Anarchy for about three
+hundred years, got itself extinguished,--what we may call
+extinguished;--decisive surgery being then first exercised upon it: an
+Anarchy put in the sure way of extinction. In 1775, again, there began,
+over seas, another Anarchy much more considerable,--little dreaming that
+IT could be called an Anarchy; on the contrary, calling itself Liberty,
+Rights of Man; and singing boundless Io-Paeans to itself, as is common
+in such cases; an Anarchy which has been challenging the Universe
+to show the like ever since. And which has, at last, flamed up as an
+independent Phenomenon, unexampled in the hideously SUICIDAL way;--and
+does need much to get burnt out, that matters may begin anew on truer
+conditions. But neither the PARTITION OF POLAND nor the AMERICAN WAR OF
+INDEPENDENCE have much general importance, or, except as precursors
+of 1789, are worth dwelling on in History. From us here, so far as
+Friedrich is concerned with them, they may deserve some transient
+mention, more or less: but World-History, eager to be at the general
+Funeral-pile and ultimate Burning-up of Shams in this poor World, will
+have less and less to say of small tragedies and premonitory symptoms.
+
+Curious how the busy and continually watchful and speculating Friedrich,
+busied about his dangers from Austrian encroachments, from Russian-Turk
+Wars, Bavarian Successions, and other troubles and anarchies close
+by, saw nothing to dread in France; nothing to remark there, except
+carelessly, from time to time, its beggarly decaying condition, so
+strangely sunk in arts, in arms, in finance; oftenest an object of pity
+to him, for he still has a love for France;--and reads not the least
+sign of that immeasurable, all-engulfing FRENCH REVOLUTION which was in
+the wind! Neither Voltaire nor he have the least anticipation of such a
+thing. Voltaire and he see, to their contentment, Superstition
+visibly declining: Friedrich rather disapproves the heat of Voltaire's
+procedures on the INFAME. "Why be in such heat? Other nonsense, quite
+equal to it, will be almost sure to follow. Take care of your own skin!"
+Voltaire and he are deeply alive, especially Voltaire is, to the
+horrors and miseries which have issued on mankind from a Fanatic Popish
+Superstition, or Creed of Incredibilities,--which (except from the
+throat outwards, from the bewildered tongue outwards) the orthodox
+themselves cannot believe, but only pretend and struggle to believe.
+This Voltaire calls "THE INFAMOUS;" and this--what name can any of us
+give it? The man who believes in falsities is very miserable. The man
+who cannot believe them, but only struggles and pretends to believe;
+and yet, being armed with the power of the sword, industriously keeps
+menacing and slashing all round, to compel every neighbor to do like
+him: what is to be done with such a man? Human Nature calls him a Social
+Nuisance; needing to be handcuffed, gagged and abated. Human Nature, if
+it be in a terrified and imperilled state, with the sword of this fellow
+swashing round it, calls him "Infamous," and a Monster of Chaos. He
+is indeed the select Monster of that region; the Patriarch of all the
+Monsters, little as he dreams of being such. An Angel of Heaven the poor
+caitiff dreams himself rather, and in cheery moments is conscious of
+being:--Bedlam holds in it no madder article. And I often think he will
+again need to be tied up (feeble as he now is in comparison, disinclined
+though men are to manacling and tying); so many helpless infirm souls
+are wandering about, not knowing their right hand from their left, who
+fall a prey to him. "L'INFAME" I also name him,--knowing well enough how
+little he, in his poor muddled, drugged and stupefied mind, is conscious
+of deserving that name. More signal enemy to God, and friend of the
+Other Party, walks not the Earth in our day.
+
+Anarchy in the shape of religious slavery was what Voltaire and
+Friedrich saw all round them. Anarchy in the shape of Revolt against
+Authorities was what Friedrich and Voltaire had never dreamed of as
+possible, and had not in their minds the least idea of. In one, or
+perhaps two places you may find in Voltaire a grim and rather glad
+forethought, not given out as prophecy, but felt as interior assurance
+in a moment of hope, How these Priestly Sham Hierarchies will be pulled
+to pieces, probably on the sudden, once people are awake to them. Yes,
+my much-suffering M. de Voltaire, be pulled to pieces; or go aloft,
+like the awakening of Vesuvius, one day,--Vesuvius awakening after
+ten centuries of slumber, when his crater is all grown grassy, bushy,
+copiously "tenanted by wolves" I am told; which, after premonitory
+grumblings, heeded by no wolf or bush, he will hurl bodily aloft, ten
+acres at a time, in a very tremendous manner! [First modern Eruption of
+Vesuvius, A.D. 1631, after long interval of rest.] A thought like this,
+about the Priestly Sham-Hierarchies, I have found somewhere in Voltaire:
+but of the Social and Civic Sham-Hierarchies (which are likewise
+accursed, if they knew it, and indeed are junior co-partners of the
+Priestly; and, in a sense, sons and products of them, and cannot escape
+being partakers of their plagues), there is no hint, in Voltaire, though
+Voltaire stood at last only fifteen years from the Fact (1778-1793); nor
+in Friedrich, though he lived almost to see the Fact beginning.
+
+Friedrich's History being henceforth that of a Prussian King, is
+interesting to Prussia chiefly, and to us little otherwise than as the
+Biography of a distinguished fellow-man, Friedrich's Biography, his
+Physiognomy as he grows old, quietly on his own harvest-field, among his
+own People: this has still an interest, and for any feature of this we
+shall be eager enough; but this withal is the most of what we now want.
+And not very much even of this; Friedrich the unique King not having
+as a man any such depth and singularity, tragic, humorous, devotionally
+pious, or other, as to authorize much painting in that aspect. Extreme
+brevity beseems us in these circumstances: and indeed there are,--as has
+already happened in different parts of this Enterprise (Nature
+herself, in her silent way, being always something of an Artist in such
+things),--other circumstances, which leave us no choice as to that of
+detail. Available details, if we wished to give them, of Friedrich's
+later Life, are not forthcoming: masses of incondite marine-stores,
+tumbled out on you, dry rubbish shot with uncommon diligence for a
+hundred years, till, for Rubbish-Pelion piled on Rubbish-Ossa, you lose
+sight of the stars and azimuths; whole mountain continents, seemingly
+all of cinders and sweepings (though fragments and remnants do lie
+hidden, could you find them again):---these are not details that will be
+available! Anecdotes there are in quantity; but of uncertain quality;
+of doubtful authenticity, above all. One recollects hardly any
+Anecdote whatever that seems completely credible, or renders to us the
+Physiognomy of Friedrich in a convincing manner. So remiss a creature
+has the Prussian Clio been,--employed on all kinds of loose errands over
+the Earth and the Air; and as good as altogether negligent of this most
+pressing errand in her own House. Peace be with her, poor slut;
+why should we say one other hard word on taking leave of her to all
+eternity!--
+
+The Practical fact is, what we have henceforth to produce is more of
+the nature of a loose Appendix of Papers, than of a finished Narrative.
+Loose Papers,--which, we will hope, the reader can, by industry, be made
+to understand and tolerate: more we cannot do for him. No continuous
+Narrative is henceforth possible to us. For the sake of Friedrich's
+closing Epoch, we will visit, for the last time, that dreary imbroglio
+under which the memory of Friedrich, which ought to have been, in all
+the epochs of it, bright and legible, lies buried; and will try to
+gather, as heretofore, and put under labels. What dwells with oneself
+as human may have some chance to be humanly interesting. In the wildest
+chaos of marine-stores and editorial shortcomings (provided only the
+editors speak truth, as these poor fellows do) THIS can be done.
+Part the living from the dead; pick out what has some meaning, leave
+carefully what has none; you will in some small measure pluck up the
+memory of a hero, like drowned honor by the locks, and rescue it, into
+visibility.
+
+That Friedrich, on reaching home, made haste to get out, of the bustle
+of joyances and exclamations on the streets; proceeded straight to his
+music-chapel in Charlottenburg, summoning the Artists, or having them
+already summoned; and had there, all alone, sitting invisible wrapt in
+his cloak, Graun's or somebody's grand TE-DEUM pealed out to him, in
+seas of melody,--soothing and salutary to the altered soul, revolving
+many things,--is a popular myth, of pretty and appropriate character;
+but a myth only, with no real foundation, though it has some loose
+and apparent. [In PREUSS, ii. 46, all the details of it.] No doubt,
+Friedrich had his own thoughts on entering Berlin again, after such
+a voyage through the deeps; himself, his Country still here, though
+solitary and in a world of wild shipwrecks. He was not without piety;
+but it did not take the devotional form, and his habits had nothing of
+the clerical.
+
+What is perfectly known, and much better worth knowing, is the
+instantaneous practical alacrity with which he set about repairing that
+immense miscellany of ruin; and the surprising success he had in dealing
+with it. His methods, his rapid inventions and procedures, in this
+matter, are still memorable to Prussia; and perhaps might with advantage
+be better known than they are in some other Countries. To us, what is
+all we can do with them here, they will indicate that this is still the
+old Friedrich, with his old activities and promptitudes; which indeed
+continue unabated, lively in Peace as in War, to the end of his life and
+reign.
+
+The speed with which Prussia recovered was extraordinary. Within little
+more than a year (June 1st, 1764), the Coin was all in order again; in
+1765, the King had rebuilt, not to mention other things, "in Silesia
+8,000 Houses, in Pommern 6,500." [Rodenbeck, ii. 234, 261.] Prussia has
+been a meritorious Nation; and, however cut and ruined, is and was in a
+healthy state, capable of recovering soon. Prussia has defended itself
+against overwhelming odds,--brave Prussia; but the real soul of its
+merit was that of having merited such a King to command it. Without this
+King, all its valors, disciplines, resources of war, would have availed
+Prussia little. No wonder Prussia has still a loyalty to its great
+Friedrich, to its Hohenzollern Sovereigns generally. Without these
+Hohenzollerns, Prussia had been, what we long ago saw it, the unluckiest
+of German Provinces; and could never have had the pretension to exist
+as a Nation at all. Without this particular Hohenzollern, it had been
+trampled out again, after apparently succeeding. To have achieved a
+Friedrich the Second for King over it, was Prussia's grand merit.
+
+An accidental merit, thinks the reader? No, reader, you may believe me,
+it is by no means altogether such. Nay, I rather think, could we look
+into the Account-Books of the Recording Angel for a course of centuries,
+no part of it is such! There are Nations in which a Friedrich is, or can
+be, possible; and again there are Nations in which he is not and
+cannot. To be practically reverent of Human Worth to the due extent,
+and abhorrent of Human Want of Worth in the like proportion, do
+you understand that art at all? I fear, not,--or that you are much
+forgetting it again! Human Merit, do you really love it enough, think
+you;--human Scoundrelism (brought to the dock for you, and branded as
+scoundrel), do you even abhor it enough? Without that reverence and
+its corresponding opposite-pole of abhorrence, there is simply no
+possibility left. That, my friend, is the outcome and summary of all
+virtues in this world, for a man or for a Nation of men. It is the
+supreme strength and glory of a Nation;--without which, indeed, all
+other strengths, and enormities of bullion and arsenals and warehouses,
+are no strength. None, I should say;--and are oftenest even the REVERSE.
+
+Nations who have lost this quality, or who never had it, what Friedrich
+can they hope to be possible among them? Age after age they grind
+down their Friedrichs contentedly under the hoofs of cattle on their
+highways; and even find it an excellent practice, and pride themselves
+on Liberty and Equality. Most certain it is, there will no Friedrich
+come to rule there; by and by, there will none be born there. Such
+Nations cannot have a King to command them; can only have this or
+the other scandalous swindling Copper Captain, constitutional Gilt
+Mountebank, or other the like unsalutary entity by way of King; and the
+sins of the fathers are visited upon the children in a frightful and
+tragical manner, little noticed in the Penny Newspapers and Periodical
+Literatures of this generation. Oh, my friends--! But there is plain
+Business waiting us at hand.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II.--REPAIRING OF A RUINED PRUSSIA.
+
+That of Friedrich's sitting wrapt in a cloud of reflections
+Olympian-Abysmal, in the music-chapel at Charlottenburg, while he had
+the Ambrosian Song executed for him there, as the preliminary step, was
+a loose myth; but the fact lying under it is abundantly certain. Few
+Sons of Adam had more reason for a piously thankful feeling towards the
+Past, a piously valiant towards the Future. What king or man had seen
+himself delivered from such strangling imbroglios of destruction, such
+devouring rages of a hostile world? And the ruin worked by them lay
+monstrous and appalling all round. Friedrich is now Fifty-one gone;
+unusually old for his age; feels himself an old man, broken with years
+and toils; and here lies his Kingdom in haggard slashed condition, worn
+to skin and bone: How is the King, resourceless, to remedy it? That is
+now the seemingly impossible problem. "Begin it,--thereby alone will it
+ever cease to be impossible!" Friedrich begins, we may say, on the
+first morrow morning. Labors at his problem, as he did in the march to
+Leuthen; finds it to become more possible, day after day, month after
+month, the farther he strives with it.
+
+"Why not leave it to Nature?" think many, with the Dismal Science
+at their elbow. Well; that was the easiest plan, but it was not
+Friedrich's. His remaining moneys, 25 million thalers ready for a
+Campaign which has not come, he distributes to the most necessitous:
+"all his artillery-horses" are parted into plough-teams, and given to
+those who can otherwise get none: think what a fine figure of rye
+and barley, instead of mere windlestraws, beggary and desolation, was
+realized by that act alone. Nature is ready to do much; will of herself
+cover, with some veil of grass and lichen, the nakedness of ruin: but
+her victorious act, when she can accomplish it, is that of getting YOU
+to go with her handsomely, and change disaster itself into new wealth.
+Into new wisdom and valor, which are wealth in all kinds; California
+mere zero to them, zero, or even a frightful MINUS quantity! Friedrich's
+procedures in this matter I believe to be little less didactic than
+those other, which are so celebrated in War: but no Dryasdust, not even
+a Dryasdust of the Dismal Science, has gone into them, rendered men
+familiar with them in their details and results. His Silesian Land-Bank
+(joint-stock Moneys, lent on security of Land) was of itself, had I room
+to explain it, an immense furtherance. [Preuss, iii. 75; _OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ vi. 84.] Friedrich, many tell us, was as great in Peace as
+in War: and truly, in the economic and material provinces, my own
+impression, gathered painfully in darkness, and contradiction of the
+Dismal-Science Doctors, is much to that effect. A first-rate Husbandman
+(as his Father had been); who not only defended his Nation, but made it
+rich beyond what seemed possible; and diligently sowed annuals into it,
+and perennials which flourish aloft at this day.
+
+Mirabeau's _Monarchie Prussienne,_ in 8 thick Volumes 8vo,--composed, or
+hastily cobbled together, some Twenty years after this period,--contains
+the best tabular view one anywhere gets of Friedrich's economics,
+military and other practical methods and resources:--solid exact Tables
+these are, and intelligent intelligible descriptions, done by Mauvillon
+FILS, the same punctual Major Mauvillon who used to attend us in Duke
+Ferdinand's War;--and so far as Mirabeau is concerned, the Work consists
+farther of a certain small Essay done in big type, shoved into the belly
+of each Volume, and eloquently recommending, with respectful censures
+and regrets over Friedrich, the Gospel of Free Trade, dear to Papa
+Mirabeau. The Son is himself a convert; far above lying, even to
+please Papa: but one can see, the thought of Papa gives him new fire of
+expression. They are eloquent, ruggedly strong Essays, those of Mirabeau
+Junior upon Free Trade:--they contain, in condensed shape, everything
+we were privileged to hear, seventy years later, from all organs,
+coach-horns, jews-harps and scrannel-pipes, PRO and CONTRA, on the same
+sublime subject: "God is great, and Plugson of Undershot is his Prophet.
+Thus saith the Lord, Buy in the cheapest market, sell in the dearest!"
+To which the afflicted human mind listens what it can;--and after
+seventy years, mournfully asks itself and Mirabeau, "M. le Comte, would
+there have been in Prussia, for example, any Trade at all, any Nation at
+all, had it always been left 'Free'? There would have been mere sand and
+quagmire, and a community of wolves and bisons, M. le Comte. Have the
+goodness to terminate that Litany, and take up another!"
+
+We said, Friedrich began his problem on the first morrow morning; and
+that is literally true, that or even MORE. Here is how Friedrich takes
+his stand amid the wreck, speedy enough to begin: this view of our old
+friend Nussler and him is one of the Pieces we can give,--thanks to Herr
+Busching and his _Beitrage_ for the last time! Nussler is now something
+of a Country Gentleman, so to speak; has a pleasant place out to east of
+Berlin; is LANDRATH (County Chairman) there, "Landrath of Nether-Barnim
+Circle;" where we heard of the Cossacks spoiling him: he, as who not,
+has suffered dreadfully in these tumults. Here is Busching's welcome
+Account.
+
+
+
+
+LANDRATH NUSSLER AND THE KING (30th March-3d April, 1763).
+
+"MARCH 30th, 1763, Friedrich, on his return to Berlin, came by the route
+of Tassdorf,"--Tassdorf, in Nether-Barnim Circle (40 odd miles from
+Frankfurt, and above 15 from Berlin);--"and changed horses there. During
+this little pause, among a crowd assembled to see him, he was addressed
+by Nussler, Landrath of the Circle, who had a very piteous story to
+tell. Nussler wished the King joy of his noble victories, and of the
+glorious Peace at last achieved: 'May your Majesty reign in health
+and happiness over us many years, to the blessing of us all!'--and
+recommended to his gracious care the extremely ruined, and, especially
+by the Russians, uncommonly devastated Circle, for which," continues
+Busching "this industrious Landrath had not hitherto been able to
+extract any effective help." Generally for the Provinces wasted by the
+Russians there had already some poor 300,000 thalers (45,000 pounds)
+been allowed by a helpful Majesty, not over-rich himself at the moment;
+and of this, Nether-Barnim no doubt gets its share: but what is this to
+such ruin as there is? A mere preliminary drop, instead of the bucket
+and buckets we need!--Busching, a dull, though solid accurate kind
+of man, heavy-footed, and yet always in a hurry, always slipshod, has
+nothing of dramatic here; far from it; but the facts themselves fall
+naturally into that form,--in Three Scenes:--
+
+
+I. TASSDORF (still two hours from Berlin), KING, NUSSLER AND A CROWD OF
+PEOPLE, Nussler ALONE DARING TO SPEAK.
+
+KING (from his Carriage, ostlers making despatch). "What is your Circle
+most short of?"
+
+LANDRATH NUSSLER. "Of horses for ploughing the seedfields of rye to sow
+them, and of bread till the crops come."
+
+KING. "Rye for bread, and to sow with, I will give; with horses I cannot
+assist."
+
+NUSSLER. "On representation of Privy-Councillor van Brenkenhof [the
+Minister concerned with such things], your Majesty has been pleased to
+give the Neumark and Pommern an allowance of Artillery and Commissariat
+Horses: but poor Nether-Barnim, nobody will speak for it; and unless
+your Majesty's gracious self please to take pity on it, Nether-Barnim is
+lost!" (A great many things more he said, in presence of a large crowd
+of men who had gathered round the King's Carriage as the horses were
+being changed; and spoke with such force and frankness that the King was
+surprised, and asked:)--
+
+KING. "Who are you?" (has forgotten the long-serviceable man!)
+
+NUSSLER. "I am the Nussler who was lucky enough to manage the Fixing of
+the Silesian Boundaries for your Majesty!"
+
+KING. "JA, JA, now I know you again! Bring me all the Landraths of the
+Kurmark [Mark of Brandenburg Proper, ELECTORAL Mark] in a body; I will
+speak with them."
+
+NUSSLER. "All of them but two are in Berlin already."
+
+KING. "Send off estafettes for those two to come at once to Berlin; and
+on Thursday," day after to-morrow, "come yourself, with all the others,
+to the Schloss to me: I will then have some closer conversation, and
+say what I can and will do for helping of the country," (King's Carriage
+rolls away, with low bows and blessings from Nussler and everybody).
+
+
+II. THURSDAY, APRIL 1st, NUSSLER AND ASSEMBLED LANDRATHS AT THE SCHLOSS
+OF BERLIN. To them, enter KING....
+
+NUSSLER (whom they have appointed spokesman).... "Your Majesty has given
+us Peace; you will also give us Well-being in the Land again: we
+leave it to Highest-the-Same's gracious judgment [no limit to
+Highest-the-Same's POWER, it would seem] what you will vouchsafe to us
+as indemnification for the Russian plunderings."
+
+KING. "Be you quiet; let me speak. Have you got a pencil (HAT ER
+CRAYON)? Yes! Well then, write, and these Gentlemen shall dictate to
+you:--
+
+"'How much rye for bread; How much for seed; How many Horses, Oxen,
+Cows, their Circles do in an entirely pressing way require?'
+
+"Consider all that to the bottom; and come to me again the day after
+to-morrow. But see that you fix everything with the utmost exactitude,
+for I cannot give much." (EXIT King.)
+
+NUSSLER (to the Landraths). "MEINE HERREN, have the goodness to
+accompany me to our Landschaft House [we have a kind of County Hall, it
+seems]; there we will consider everything."
+
+And Nussler, guiding the deliberations, which are glad to follow him
+on every point, and writing as PRO-TEMPORE Secretary, has all things
+brought to luminous Protocol in the course of this day and next.
+
+
+
+
+III. SATURDAY, APRIL 3d, IN THE SCHLOSS AGAIN: NUSSLER AND LANDRATHS. To
+them, the KING.
+
+Nussler. "We deliver to your Majesty the written Specification you
+were graciously pleased to command of us. It contains only the
+indispensablest things that the Circles are in need of. Moreover, it
+regards only the STANDE [richer Nobility], who pay contribution; the
+Gentry [ADEL], and other poor people, who have been utterly plundered
+out by the Russians, are not included in it:--the Gentry too have
+suffered very much by the War and the Plundering."
+
+KING. "What EDELLEUTE that are members of STANDE have you [ER] got in
+your Circle?"
+
+NUSSLER (names them; and, as finis of the list, adds):... "I myself,
+too, your Majesty, I have suffered more than anybody: I absolutely could
+not furnish those 4,000 bushels of meal ordered of me by the Russians;
+upon which they--"
+
+KING. "I cannot give to all: but if you have poor Nobles in your Circle,
+who can in no way help themselves, I will give them something."
+
+NUSSLER (has not any in Nether-Barnim who are altogether in that extreme
+predicament; but knows several in Lebus Circle, names them to the
+King;--and turning to the Landrath of Lebus, and to another who is
+mute): "Herr, you can name some more in Lebus; and you, in Teltow
+Circle, Herr Landrath, since his Majesty permits."... In a word, the
+King having informed himself and declared his intention, Nussler leads
+the Landraths to their old County Hall, and brings to Protocol what had
+taken place.
+
+Next day, the Kammer President (Exchequer President), Van der Groben,
+had Nussler, with other Landraths, to dinner. During dinner, there came
+from Head Secretary Eichel (Majesty's unwearied Clerk of the PELLS,
+Sheepskins, or PAPERS) an earnest request to Von der Groben for
+help,--Eichel not being able to remember, with the requisite precision,
+everything his Majesty had bid him put down on this matter. "You will
+go, Herr von Nussler; be so kind, won't you?" And Nussler went, and
+fully illuminated Eichel....
+
+To the poorest of the Nobility, Busching tells us, what is otherwise
+well known, the King gave considerable sums: to one Circle 12,000
+pounds, to another 9,000 pounds, 6,000 pounds, and so on. By help
+of which bounties, and of Nussler laboring incessantly with all his
+strength, Nieder-Barnim Circle got on its feet again, no subject having
+been entirely ruined, but all proving able to recover. [Busching,
+_Beitrage_ (Nussler), i. 401-405.]
+
+This Busching Fragment is not in the style of the Elder Dramatists, or
+for the Bankside Theatre; but this represents a Fact which befell in
+God's Creation, and may have an interest of its own to the Practical
+Soul, especially in anarchic Countries, far advanced in the "Gold-nugget
+and Nothing to Buy with it" Career of unexampled Prosperities.
+
+On these same errands the King is soon going on an Inspection Journey,
+where we mean to accompany. But first, one word, and one will suffice,
+on the debased Coin. The Peace was no sooner signed, than Friedrich
+proceeded on the Coin. The third week after his arrival home, there came
+out a salutary Edict on it, April 21st; King eager to do it without loss
+of time, yet with the deliberation requisite. Not at one big leap, which
+might shake, to danger of oversetting, much commercial arrangement; but
+at two leaps, with a halfway station intervening. Halfway station, with
+a new coinage ready, much purer of alloy (and marked HOW much, for
+the benefit of parties with accounts to settle), is to commence on
+TRINITATIS (Whitsunday) instant; from and after Whitsunday the improved
+new coin to be sole legal tender, till farther notice. Farther notice
+comes accordingly, within a year, March 29th, 1764: "Pure money of
+the standard of 1750 [honest silver coinage: readers may remember
+Linsenbarth, the CANDIDATUS THEOLOGIAE, and his sack of Batzen,
+confiscated at the Paekhof] shall be ready on the 1st of June instant;"
+[Rodenbeck, ii. 214, 234.]--from and after which day we hear no more of
+that sad matter. Finished off in about fourteen months. Here, meanwhile,
+is the Inspection Journey.
+
+
+
+
+KRIEGSRATH RODEN AND THE KING (6th-13th June, 1763).
+
+JUNE 2d, 1763, Friedrich left Potsdam for Westphalia; got as far as
+Magdeburg that day. Intends seeing into matters with his own eyes in
+that region, as in others, after so long and sad an absence. There are
+with him Friedrich Wilhelm Prince of Prussia, a tall young fellow of
+nineteen; General-Adjutant von Anhalt; and one or two Prussian
+military people. From Magdeburg and onwards the great Duke Ferdinand
+accompanies,--who is now again Governor of Magdeburg, and a quiet
+Prussian Officer as heretofore, though with excellent Pensions from
+England, and glory from all the world.
+
+The Royal Party goes by Halberstadt, which suffered greatly in the War;
+thence by MINDEN (June 4th); and the first thing next day, Friedrich
+takes view of the BATTLE-FIELD there,--under Ferdinand's own guidance,
+doubtless; and an interesting thing to both Friedrich and him, though
+left silent to us. This done, they start for Lippstadt, are received
+there under joyous clangorous outburst of all the bells and all
+the honors, that same afternoon; and towards sunset, Hamm being the
+Night-quarter ahead, are crossing VELLINGHAUSEN BATTLE-GROUND,--where
+doubtless Ferdinand again, like a dutiful apprentice, will explain
+matters to his old master, so far as needful or permissible. The
+conversation, I suppose, may have been lively and miscellaneous:
+Ferdinand mentions a clever business-person of the name of Roden,
+whom he has known in these parts; "Roden?" the King carefully makes
+note;--and, in fact, we shall see Roden presently; and his bit of
+DIALOGUE with the King (recorded by his own hand) is our chief errand on
+this Journey. From Hamm, next morning (June 6th), they get to Wesel
+by 11 A.M. (only sixty miles); Wesel all in gala, as Lippstadt was,
+or still more than Lippstadt; and for four days farther, they continue
+there very busy. As Roden is our chief errand, let us attend to Roden.
+
+WESEL, MONDAY, JUNE 6th, "Dinner being done," says an authentic
+Third-Party, [Rodenbeck, ii. 217.] "the King had Kammer-Director Meyen
+summoned to him with his Register-Books, Schedules and Reports [what
+they call ETATS]; and was but indifferently contented with Meyen and
+them." And in short, "ordering Meyen to remodel these into a more
+distinct condition,"--we may now introduce the Herr Kriegsrath Roden,
+a subaltern, in rank, but who has perhaps a better head than Meyen, to
+judge of these ETATS. Roden himself shall now report. This is the Royal
+Dialogue with Roden; accurately preserved for us by him;--I wish it had
+been better worth the reader's trouble; but its perfect credibility in
+every point will be some recommendation to it.
+
+"MONDAY, 6th JUNE, 1763, about 11 A.M., his Majesty arrived in Wesel,"
+says Roden (confirming to us the authentic Third-Party); "I waited on
+Adjutant-General Colonel von Anhalt to announce myself; who referred
+me to Kriegsrath Coper ["MEIN SEGRETER KOPER" is a name we have heard
+before], who told me to be ready so soon as Dinner should be over.
+Dinner was no sooner over [2 P.M. or so], than the Herr Kammer-Director
+Meyen with his ETATS was called in. His Majesty was not content with
+these, Herr Meyen was told; and they were to be remodelled into a more
+distinct condition. The instant Herr Meyen stept out, I was called in.
+His Majesty was standing with his back to the fire; and said:--
+
+KING. "'Come nearer [Roden comes nearer]. Prince Ferdinand [of
+Brunswick, whom we generally call DUKE and great, to distinguish him
+from a little Prussian Prince Ferdinand] has told me much good of you:
+where do you come from?'
+
+RODEN. "'From Soest' [venerable "stone-old" little Town, in
+Vellinghausen region].
+
+KING. "'Did you get my Letter?'
+
+RODEN. "'Yea, IHRO MAJESTAT.'
+
+KING. "'I will give you some employment. Have you got a pencil?'
+
+RODEN. "'Yea' [and took out his Note-book and tools, which he had
+"bought in a shop a quarter of an hour before"].
+
+KING. "'Listen. By the War many Houses have got ruined: I mean that
+they shall be put in order again; for which end,--to those that cannot
+themselves help, particularly to Soest, Hamm, Lunen and in part Wesel,
+as places that have suffered most,--I intend to give the moneys. Now you
+must make me an exact List of what is to be done in those places. Thus
+[King, lifting his finger, let us fancy, dictates; Roden, with brand-new
+pencil and tablets, writes:]
+
+"'1. In each of those Towns, how many ruined Houses there are which
+the proprietors themselves can manage to rebuild. 2. How many which
+the proprietors cannot. 3. The vacant grounds or steadings of such
+proprietors as are perhaps dead, or gone else-whither, must be given to
+others that are willing to build: but in regard to this, Law also must
+do its part, and the absent and the heirs must be cited to say, Whether
+they will themselves build? and in case they won't, the steadings can
+then be given to others.'" Roden having written,--
+
+KING. "'In the course of six days you must be ready [what an
+expeditious King! Is to be at Cleve the sixth day hence: Meet me there,
+then],--longer I cannot give you.'
+
+RODEN (considering a moment). "'If your Majesty will permit me to use
+ESTAFETTES [express messengers] for the Towns farthest off,--as I
+cannot myself, within the time, travel over all the Towns,--I hope to be
+ready.'
+
+KING. "'That I permit; and will repay you the ESTAFETTE moneys.--Tell
+me, How comes the decrease of population in these parts? Recruits I got
+none.'
+
+RODEN. "'Under favor of your Majesty, Regiment Schenkendorf got, every
+year, for recompletion, what recruits were wanted, from its Canton in
+the Grafschaft Mark here.'
+
+KING. "'There you may be right: but from Cleve Country we had no
+recruits; not we, though the Austrians had, [with a slight sarcasm of
+tone].
+
+RODEN. "'Out of Cleve, so far as I know, there were no recruits
+delivered to the Austrians.'
+
+KING. "'You could not know; you were with the Allied Army' [Duke
+Ferdinand's, commissariating and the like, where Duke Ferdinand
+recognized you to have a head].
+
+RODEN. "'There have been many epidemic diseases too; especially in
+Soest;--after the Battle of Vellinghausen all the wounded were brought
+thither, and the hospitals were established there.'
+
+KING. "'Epidemic diseases they might have got without a Battle [dislikes
+hearing ill of the soldier trade]. I will have Order sent to the Cleve
+Kammer, Not to lay hindrance in your way, but the contrary. Now God keep
+you (GOTT BEWAHRE IHN).'"--EXIT Roden;--"DARAUF RETIRIRTE MICH," says
+he;--but will reappear shortly.
+
+Sunday, 12th June, is the sixth day hence; later than the end of Sunday
+is not permissible to swift Roden; nor does he need it.
+
+Friday, 10th, Friedrich left Wesel; crossed the Rhine, intending for
+Cleve; went by CREFELD,--at Crefeld had view of another BATTLE-FIELD,
+under good ciceroneship; remarks or circumstances otherwise not
+given:--and, next day, Saturday, 11th, picked up D'Alembert, who, by
+appointment, is proceeding towards Potsdam, at a more leisurely rate.
+That same Saturday, after much business done, the King was at Kempen,
+thence at Geldern; speeding for Cleve itself, due there that night. At
+Geldern, we say, he picked up D'Alembert;--concerning whom, more by and
+by. And finally, "on Saturday night, about half-past 8, the King entered
+Cleve," amid joyances extraordinary, hut did not alight; drove direct
+through by the Nassau Gate, and took quarter "in the neighboring
+Country-house of Bellevue, with the Dutch General von Spaen there,"--an
+obliging acquaintance once, while LIEUTENANT Spaen, in our old
+Crown-Prince times of trouble! Had his year in Spandau for us there,
+while poor Katte lost his head! To whom, I have heard, the King talked
+charmingly on this occasion, but was silent as to old Potsdam matters.
+[Supra, vii. 165.]--
+
+By his set day, Roden is also in Cleve, punctual man, finished or just
+finishing; and ready for summons by his Majesty. And accordingly:--
+
+"CLEVE, MONDAY, JUNE 13th, At 9 in the morning," records he, "I had
+audience of the King's Majesty. [In Spaen's Villa of Bellevue, shall
+we still suppose? Duke Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia and the rest, have
+bestowed themselves in other fit houses; D'Alembert too,--who is to make
+direct for Potsdam henceforth, by his own route; and will meet us on
+arriving.]--I handed him my Report, with the Tabular Schedule. His
+Majesty read it carefully through, in my presence; and examined all
+of it with strictness. Was pleased to signify his satisfaction with
+my work. Resolved to allow 250,000 thalers (37,500 pounds) for this
+business of Rebuilding; gave out the due Orders to his Kammer, in
+consequence, and commanded me to arrange with the Kammer what was
+necessary. This done, his Majesty said:--
+
+KING. "'What you were described to me, I find you to be. You are a
+diligent laborious man; I must have you nearer to me;--in the Berlin
+Hammer you ought to be. You shall have a good, a right good Salary;
+your Patent I will give you gratis; also a VORSPANN-PASS [Standing
+Order available at all Prussian Post-Stations] for two carriages [rapid
+Program of the thing, though yet distant, rising in the Royal fancy!].
+Now serve on as faithfully as you have hitherto done.'
+
+RODEN. "'That is the object of all my endeavors.'" (EXIT:--I did
+not hear specially whitherward just now; but he comes to be supreme
+Kammer-President in those parts by and by.)
+
+"The Herr Kriegsrath Coper was present, and noted all the Orders to
+he expedited." [Preuss, ii. 442; Rodenbeck, ii. 217, 218: in regard to
+D'Alembert, see _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxiv. 190.]
+
+These snatches of notice at first-hand, and what the reader's fancy
+may make of these, are all we can bestow on this Section of Friedrich's
+Labors; which is naturally more interesting to Prussian readers than
+to English. He has himself given lucid and eloquent account of it,--Two
+ample Chapters, "DES FINANCES;" "DU MILITAIRE," [_OEuvres de Frederic,_
+vii. 73-90, 91-109.]--altogether pleasant reading, should there still
+be curiosity upon it. There is something of flowingly eloquent in
+Friedrich's account of this Battle waged against the inanimate Chaos;
+something of exultant and triumphant, not noticeable of him in regard
+to his other Victories. On the Leuthens, Rossbachs, he is always cold
+as water, and nobody could gather that he had the least pleasure in
+recording them. Not so here. And indeed here he is as beautiful as
+anywhere; and the reader, as a general son of Adam,--proud to see human
+intellect and heroism slaying that kind of lions, and doing what
+in certain sad epochs is unanimously voted to be impossible and
+unattemptable,--exults along with him; and perhaps whispers to his own
+poor heart, nearly choked by the immeasurable imbroglio of Blue-books
+and Parliamentary Eloquences which for the present encumber Heaven
+and Earth, "MELIORA SPERO." To Mirabeau, the following details, from
+first-hand, but already of twenty-three years distance, were not known,
+[Appeared first in Tome v. of _"OEuvres Posthumes de Frederic II."_ (are
+in Tome vi. of Preuss's Edition of OEUVRES), "Berlin, 1788;"--above a
+year after Mirabeau had left.] while he sat penning those robust Essays
+on the Duty of LEAVE-ALONE.
+
+"To form an idea of the general subversion," says the King, in regard
+to 1763, "and how great were the desolation and discouragement, you must
+represent to yourself Countries entirely ravaged, the very traces of
+the old habitations hardly discoverable; Towns, some ruined from top to
+bottom, others half destroyed by fire;--13,000 Houses, of which the
+very vestiges were gone. No field in seed; no grain for the food of the
+inhabitants; 60,000 horses needed, if there was to be ploughing carried
+on: in the Provinces generally Half a Million Population (500,000) less
+than in 1756,--that is to say, upon only Four Millions and a Half, the
+ninth man was wanting. Noble and Peasant had been pillaged, ransomed,
+foraged, eaten out by so many different Armies; nothing now left them
+but life and miserable rags.
+
+"There was no credit, by trading people, even for the daily necessaries
+of life." And furthermore, what we were not prepared for, "No police in
+the Towns: to habits of equity and order had succeeded a vile greed of
+gain and an anarchic disorder. The Colleges of Justice and of Finance
+had, by these frequent invasions of so many enemies, been reduced to
+inaction:" no Judge, in many places not even a Tax-gatherer: the silence
+of the Laws had produced in the people a taste for license; boundless
+appetite for gain was their main rule of action: the noble, the
+merchant, the farmer, the laborer, raising emulously each the price of
+his commodity, seemed to endeavor only for their mutual ruin. Such, when
+the War ended, was the fatal spectacle over these Provinces, which had
+once been so flourishing: however pathetic the description may be, it
+will never approach the touching and sorrowful impression which the
+sight of it produced."
+
+Friedrich found that it would never do to trust to the mere aid of Time
+in such circumstances: at the end of the Thirty-Years War, "Time"
+had, owing to absolute want of money, been the one recipe of the Great
+Elector in a similar case; and Time was then found to mean "about a
+hundred Years." Friedrich found that he must at once step in with active
+remedies, and on all hands strive to make the impossible possible.
+Luckily he had in readiness, as usual, the funds for an Eighth Campaign,
+had such been needed. Out of these moneys he proceeded to rebuild the
+Towns and Villages; "from the Corn-Stores (GRANARIES D'ABONDANCE,"
+Government establishments gathered from plentiful harvests against
+scarce, according to old rule) "were taken the supplies for food of the
+people and sowing of the ground: the horses intended for the artillery,
+baggage and commissariat," 60,000 horses we have heard, "were
+distributed among those who had none, to be employed in tillage of the
+land. Silesia was discharged from all taxes for six months; Pommern and
+the Neumark for two years. A sum of about Three Million sterling [in
+THALERS 20,389,000] was given for relief of the Provinces, and as
+acquittance of the impositions the Enemy had wrung from them.
+
+"Great as was this expense, it was necessary and indispensable. The
+condition of these Provinces after the Peace of Hubertsburg recalled
+what we know of them when the Peace of Munster closed the famous
+Thirty-Years War. On that occasion the State failed of help from want
+of means; which put it, out, of the Great Elector's power to assist
+his people: and what happened? That a whole century elapsed before his
+Successors could restore the Towns and Champaigns to what they were.
+This impressive example was admonitory to the King: that to repair the
+Public Calamities, assistance must be prompt and effective. Repeated
+gifts (LARGESSES) restored courage to the poor Husbandmen, who began to
+despair of their lot; by the helps given, hope in all classes sprang
+up anew: encouragement of labor produced activity; love of Country rose
+again with fresh life: in a word [within the second year in a markedly
+hopeful manner, and within seven years altogether], the fields were
+cultivated again, manufacturers had resumed their work; and the Police,
+once more in vigor, corrected by degrees the vices that had taken root
+during the time of anarchy." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ vi. 74, 75.]
+
+To Friedrich's difficulties, which were not inconsiderable, mark only
+this last additament: "During this War, the elder of the Councillors,
+and all the Ministers of the Grand Directorium [centre of Prussian
+Administration], had successively died: and in such time of trouble
+it had been impossible to replace them. The embarrassment was, To find
+persons capable of filling these different employments [some would have
+very soon done it, your Majesty; but their haste would not have tended
+to speed!]--We searched the Provinces (ON FOUILLA, sifted), where
+good heads were found as rare as in the Capital: at length five Chief
+Ministers were pitched upon,"--who prove to be tolerable, and even
+good. Three of them were, the VONS Blumenthal, Massow, Hagen, unknown
+to readers here: fourth and fifth were, the Von Wedell as War-Minister,
+once Dictator at Zullichan; and a Von der Horst, who had what we might
+partially call the Home Department, and who may by accident once or so
+be namable again.
+
+Nor was War all, says the King: "accidental Fires in different places,"
+while we struggled to repair the ravagings of War, "were of unexampled
+frequency, and did immense farther damage. From 1765 to 1769, here is
+the list of places burnt: In East Preussen, the City of Konigsberg
+twice over; in Silesia, the Towns of Freystadt, Ober-Glogau [do readers
+recollect Manteuffel of Foot and "WIR WOLLEN IHM WAS"!], Parchwitz,
+Naumburg-on-Queiss, and Goldberg; in the Mark, Nauen; in the Neumark,
+Calies and a part of Lansberg; in Pommern, Belgard and Tempelburg. These
+accidents required incessantly new expenditures to repair them."
+
+Friedrich was not the least of a Free Trader, except where it
+suited him: and his continual subventions and donations, guidances,
+encouragements, commandings and prohibitions, wise supervision and
+impulsion,--are a thing I should like to hear an intelligent Mirabeau
+(Junior or Senior) discourse upon, after he had well studied them! For
+example: "ON RENDIT LES PRETRES UTILES, The Priests, Catholic Priests,
+were turned to use by obliging all the rich Abbeys to establish
+manufactures: here it was weavers making damasks and table-cloths; there
+oil-mills [oil from linseed]; or workers in copper, wire-drawers; as
+suited the localities and the natural products,--the flaxes and
+the metals, with water-power, markets, and so on." What a charming
+resuscitation of the rich Abbeys from their dormant condition!
+
+I should like still better to explain how, in Lower Silesia, "we (ON)
+managed to increase the number of Husbandmen by 4,000 families. You will
+be surprised how it was possible to multiply to this extent the people
+living by Agriculture in a Country where already not a field was waste.
+The reason was this. Many Lords of Land, to increase their Domain, had
+imperceptibly appropriated to themselves the holdings (TERRES) of their
+vassals. Had this abuse been suffered to go on, in time a great"--But
+the commentary needed would be too lengthy; we will give only the
+result: "In the long-run, every Village would have had its Lord, but
+there would have been no tax-paying Farmers left." The Landlord, ruler
+of these Landless, might himself (as Majesty well knows) have been made
+to PAY, had that been all; but it was not. "To possess something; that
+is what makes the citizen attached to his Country; those who have no
+property, and have nothing to lose, what tie have they?" A weak one, in
+comparison!"All these things being represented to the Landlord Class,
+their own advantage made them consent to replace their Peasants on the
+old footing."...
+
+"To make head against so many extraordinary demands," adds the King
+(looking over to a new Chapter, that of the MILITARY, which Department,
+to his eyes, was not less shockingly dilapidated than the CIVIL,
+and equally or more needed instant repair), "new resources had to
+be devised. For, besides what was needed for re-establishment of the
+Provinces, new Fortifications were necessary; and all our Cannon,
+E'VASES (worn too wide in the bore), needed to be refounded; which
+occasioned considerable new expense. This led us to improvement of the
+Excises,"--concerning which there will have to be a Section by itself.
+
+
+
+
+OF FRIEDRICH'S NEW EXCISE SYSTEM.
+
+In his late Inspection-Journey to Cleve Country, D'Alembert, from Paris,
+by appointment waited for the King; [In (_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxiv.
+377-380 (D'Alembert's fine bits of Letters in prospect of Potsdam,
+"Paris, 7th March-29th April, 1763;" and two small Notes while there,
+"Sans-Souci, 6th July-15th August, 1763").]--picked up at Geldern (June
+11th), as we saw above. D'Alembert got to Potsdam June 22d; stayed till
+middle of August. He had met the King once before, in 1755; who found
+him "a BON GARCON," as we then saw. D'Alembert was always, since that
+time, an agreeable, estimable little man to Friedrich. Age now about
+forty-six; has lately refused the fine Russian post of "Tutor to the
+Czarowitsh" (Czarowitsh Paul, poor little Boy of eight or nine, whom we,
+or Herr Busching for us, saw galloping about, not long since, "in his
+dressing-gown," under Panin's Tutorage); refuses now, in a delicate
+gradual manner, the fine Prussian post of Perpetual President, or
+Successor to Maupertuis;--definitely preferring his frugal pensions at
+Paris, and garret all his own there. Continues, especially after this
+two months' visit of 1763, one of the King's chief correspondents for
+the next twenty years. ["29th October, 1783," D'Alembert died: "born
+16th November, 1717;"--a Foundling, as is well known; "Mother a
+Sister of Cardinal Tencin's; Father," accidental, "an Officer in the
+Artillery."] A man of much clear intellect; a thought SHRIEKY in his
+ways sometimes; but always prudent, rational, polite, and loyally
+recognizing Friedrich as a precious article in this world. Here is a
+word of D'Alembert's to Madame du Deffand, at Paris, some ten or twelve
+days after the Cleve meeting, and the third day after his arrival
+here:--
+
+"POTSDAM, 25th JUNE, 1763. MADAME,--... I will not go into the praises
+of this Prince," King Friedrich, my now Host; "in my mouth it might
+be suspicious: I will merely send you two traits of him, which will
+indicate his way of thinking and feeling. When I spoke to him [at
+Geldern, probably, on our first meeting] of the glory he had acquired,
+he answered, with the greatest simplicity, That there was a furious
+discount to be deducted from said glory; that chance came in for almost
+the whole of it; and that he would far rather have done Ratine's ATHALIE
+than all this War:--ATHALIE is the work he likes, and rereads oftenest;
+I believe you won't disapprove his taste there. The other trait I have
+to give you is, That on the day [15th February last] of concluding this
+Peace, which is so glorious to him, some one saying, 'It is the finest
+day of your Majesty's life:' 'The finest day of life,' answered he, 'is
+the day on which one quits it.'...--Adieu, Madame." [_"OEuvres Posthumes
+de D'Alembert_ (Paris, 1799). i. 197:" cited in PREUSS, ii. 348.]
+
+The meeting in Cleve Country was, no doubt, a very pretty passage, with
+Two pretty Months following;--and if it be true that HELVETIUS was a
+consequence, the 11th of June, 1763, may almost claim to be a kind
+of epoch in Friedrich's later history. The opulent and ingenious M.
+Helvetius, who wrote DE L'ESPRIT, and has got banished for that feat
+(lost in the gloom of London in those months), had been a mighty
+Tax-gatherer as well; D'Alembert, as brother Philosophe, was familiar
+with Helvetius. It is certain, also, King Friedrich, at this time, found
+he would require annually two million thalers more;--where to get them,
+seemed the impossibility. A General Krockow, who had long been in French
+Service, and is much about the King, was often recommending the French
+Excise system;--he is the Krockow of DOMSTADTL, and that SIEGE OF
+OLMUTZ, memorable to some of us:--"A wonderful Excise system," Krockow
+is often saying, in this time of straits. "Who completely understands
+it?" the King might ask. "Helvetius, against the world!" D'Alembert
+could justly answer. "Invite Helvetius to leave his London exile, and
+accept an asylum here, where he may be of vital use to me!" concludes
+Friedrich.
+
+Helvetius came in March, 1765; stayed till June, 1766: [Rodenbeck, ii.
+254; Preuss, iii. 11.]--within which time a French Excise system, which
+he had been devising and putting together, had just got in gear, and
+been in action for a month, to Helvetius's satisfaction. Who thereupon
+went his way, and never returned;--taking with him, as man and
+tax-gatherer, the King's lasting gratitude; but by no means that of the
+Prussian Nation, in his tax-gathering capacity! All Prussia, or all of
+it that fell under this Helvetius Excise system, united to condemn it,
+in all manner of dialects, louder and louder: here, for instance, is
+the utterance of Herr Hamann, himself a kind of Custom-house Clerk (at
+Konigsberg, in East Preussen), and on modest terms a Literary man of
+real merit and originality, who may be supposed to understand this
+subject: "And so," says Hamann, "the State has declared its own subjects
+incapable of managing its Finance system; and in this way has intrusted
+its heart, that is the purse of its subjects, to a company of Foreign
+Scoundrels, ignorant of everything relating to it!" ["Hamann to Jacobi"
+(see Preuss, iii. 1-35), "Konigsberg, 18th January, 1786."]
+
+This lasted all Friedrich's lifetime; and gave rise to not a little
+buzzing, especially in its primary or incipient stages. It seems to
+have been one of the unsuccessfulest Finance adventures Friedrich ever
+engaged in. It cost his subjects infinite small trouble; awakened very
+great complaining; and, for the first time, real discontent,--skin-deep
+but sincere and universal,--against the misguided Vater Fritz. Much
+noisy absurdity there was upon it, at home, and especially abroad:
+"Griping miser," "greedy tyrant," and so forth! Deducting all which,
+everybody now admits that Friedrich's aim was excellent and proper; but
+nobody denies withal that the means were inconsiderate, of no profit in
+proportion to the trouble they gave, and improper to adopt unless the
+necessity compelled.
+
+Friedrich is forbidden, or forbids himself, as we have often mentioned,
+to impose new taxes: and nevertheless now, on calculations deep, minute
+and no doubt exact, he judges That for meeting new attacks of War (or
+being ready to meet, which will oftenest mean averting them),--a thing
+which, as he has just seen, may concern the very existence of the
+State,--it is necessary that there should be on foot such and such
+quantities and kinds of Soldiery and War-furniture, visible to all
+neighbors; and privately in the Treasury never less than such and such
+a sum. To which end Arithmetic declares that there is required about Two
+Million thalers more of yearly revenue than we now have. And where, in
+these circumstances, are the means of raising such a sum?
+
+Friedrich imposes no new taxes; but there may be stricter methods of
+levying the old;--there may, and in fact there must, be means found!
+Friedrich has consulted his Finance Ministers; put the question SERIATIM
+to these wise heads: they answer with one voice, "There are no means."
+[Rodenbeck, ii. 256.] Friedrich, therefore, has recourse to Helvetius;
+who, on due consideration, and after survey of much documentary and
+tabulary raw-material, is of opinion, That the Prussian Excises would,
+if levied with the punctuality, precision and vigilant exactitude of
+French methods, actually yield the required overplus. "Organize me the
+methods, then; get them put in action here; under French hands, if that
+be indispensable." Helvetius bethought him of what fittest French hands
+there were to his knowledge,--in France there are a great many hands
+flung idle in the present downbreak of finance there:--Helvetius appears
+to have selected, arranged and contrived in this matter with his best
+diligence. De Launay, the Head-engineer of the thing, was admitted by
+all Prussia, after Twenty-two years unfriendly experience of him, to
+have been a suitable and estimable person; a man of judicious ways,
+of no small intelligence, prudence, and of very great skill in
+administering business.
+
+Head-engineer De Launay, one may guess, would be consulted by Helvetius
+in choice of the subaltern Officials, the stokers and steerers in this
+new Steam-Machinery, which had all to be manned from France. There were
+Four heads of departments immediately under De Launay, or scarcely under
+him, junior brothers rather:--who chose these I did not hear; but these
+latter, it is evident, were not a superior quality of people. Of these
+Four,--all at very high salaries, from De Launay downwards; "higher than
+a Prussian Minister of State!" murmured the public,--two, within the
+first year, got into quarrel; fought a duel, fatal to one of them; so
+that there were now only Three left. "Three, with De Launay, will do,"
+opined Friedrich; and divided the vacant salary among the survivors: in
+which form they had at least no more duelling.
+
+As to the subaltern working-parties, the VISITATEURS, CONTROLLEURS,
+JAUGEURS (Gaugers), PLOMBEURS (Lead-stampers), or the strangest kind of
+all, called "Cellar-Rats (COMMIS RATS-DE-CAVE), "they were so detested
+and exclaimed against, by a Public impatient of the work itself, there
+is no knowing what their degree of scoundrelism was, nor even, within
+amazingly wide limits, what the arithmetical number of them was. About
+500 in the whole of Prussia, says a quiet Prussian, who has made some
+inquiry; ["Beguelin, ACCISE-UND ZOLL-VERFASSUNG, s. 138" (Preuss, iii,
+18).] 1,500 says Mirabeau; 3,000 say other exaggerative persons, or even
+5,000; De Launay's account is, Not at any time above 200. But we can
+all imagine how vexatious they and their business were. Nobody now is
+privileged with exemption: from one and all of you, Nobles, Clergy,
+People, strict account is required, about your beers and liquors; your
+coffee, salt; your consumptions and your purchases of all excisable
+articles:--nay, I think in coffee and salt, in salt for certain, what
+you will require, according to your station and domestic numbers, is
+computed for you, to save trouble; such and such quantities you will
+please to buy in our presence, or to pay duty for, whether you buy them
+or not. Into all houses, at any hour of the day or of the night, these
+cellar-rats had liberty,--(on warrant from some higher rat of their own
+type, I know not how much higher; and no sure appeal for you, except
+to the King; tolerably sure there, if you be INNOCENT, but evidently
+perilous if you be only NOT-CONVICTED!)--had liberty, I say, to search
+for contraband; all your presses, drawers, repositories, you must open
+to these beautiful creatures; watch in nightcap, and candle in hand,
+while your things get all tumbled hither and thither, in the search for
+what perhaps is not there; nay, it was said and suspected, but I never
+knew it for certain, that these poisonous French are capable of slipping
+in something contraband, on purpose to have you fined whether or not.
+
+Readers can conceive, though apparently Friedrich did not, what a world
+of vexation all this occasioned; and how, in the continual annoyance to
+all mankind, the irritation, provocation and querulous eloquence spread
+among high and low. Of which the King knew something; but far from the
+whole. His object was one of vital importance; and his plan once fixed,
+he went on with it, according to his custom, regardless of little rubs.
+The Anecdote Books are full of details, comic mostly, on this subject:
+How the French rats pounced down upon good harmless people, innocent
+frugal parsonages, farm-houses; and were comically flung prostrate by
+native ready wit, or by direct appeal to the King. Details, never so
+authentic, could not be advisable in this place. Perhaps there are not
+more than Two authentic Passages, known to me, which can now have the
+least interest, even of a momentary sort, to English readers. The first
+is, Of King Friedrich caricatured as a Miser grinding Coffee. I give it,
+without essential alteration of any kind, in Herr Preuss's words, copied
+from those of one who saw it:--the second, which relates to a Princess
+or Ex-Princess of the Royal House, I must reserve for a little while.
+Herr Preuss says:--
+
+"Once during the time of the 'Regie' [which lasted from 1766 to 1786 and
+the King's death: no other date assignable, though 1768, or so, may be
+imaginable for our purpose], as the King came riding along the Jager
+Strasse, there was visible near what is called the Furstenhaus," kind of
+Berlin Somerset House, [Nicolai, i. 155.] "a great crowd of people. 'See
+what it is!' the King sent his one attendant, a heiduc or groom, into
+it, to learn what it was. 'They have something posted up about your
+Majesty,' reported the groom; and Friedrich, who by this time had ridden
+forward, took a look at the thing; which was a Caricature figure of
+himself: King in very melancholy guise, seated on a Stool, a Coffee-mill
+between his knees; diligently grinding with the one hand, and with the
+other picking up any bean that might have fallen. 'Hang it lower,' said
+the King, beckoning his groom with a wave of the finger: 'Lower, that
+they may not have to hurt their necks about it!' No sooner were the
+words spoken, which spread instantly, than there rose from the whole
+crowd one universal huzza of joy. They tore the Caricature into a
+thousand pieces, and rolled after the King with loud (LEBE HOCH, Our
+Friedrich forever!' as he rode slowly away." [Preuss, iii. 275 ("from
+BERLIN CONVERSUTIONSBLATT &c. of 1827, No. 253").) That is their
+Friedrich's method with the Caricature Department. Heffner,
+Kapellmeister in Upsala, reports this bit of memorability; he was then
+of the King's Music-Chapel in Berlin, and saw this with his eyes.
+
+The King's tendency at all times, and his practice generally, when
+we hear of it, was to take the people's side; so that gradually these
+French procedures were a great deal mitigated; and DIE REGIE--so they
+called this hateful new-fangled system of Excise machinery--became much
+more supportable, "the sorrows of it nothing but a tradition to the
+younger sort," reports Dohm, who is extremely ample on this subject.
+[Christian Wilhelm von Dohm, _Denkwurdigkeiten meiner Zeit_ (Lemgo und
+Hanover, 1819), iv. 500 et seq.] De Launay was honorably dismissed, and
+the whole Regie abolished, a month or two after Friedrich's death.
+
+With a splenetic satisfaction authentic Dohm, who sufficiently condemns
+the REGIE, adds that it was not even successful; and shows by evidence,
+and computation to the uttermost farthing, that instead of two million
+thalers annually, it yielded on the average rather less than one. The
+desired overplus of two millions, and a good deal more did indeed come
+in, says he: but it was owing to the great prosperity of Prussia at
+large, after the Seven-Years War; to the manifold industries awakening,
+which have gone on progressive ever since. Dohm declares farther, that
+the very object was in a sort fanciful, nugatory; arguing that nobody
+did attack Friedrich;--but omitting to prove that nobody would have done
+so, had Friedrich NOT stood ready to receive him. We will remark only,
+what is very indisputable, that Friedrich, owing to the Regie, or to
+other causes, did get the humble overplus necessary for him; and did
+stand ready for any war which might have come (and which did in a
+sort come); that he more and more relaxed the Regie, as it became less
+indispensable to him; and was willing, if he found the Caricatures and
+Opposition Placards too high posted, to save the poor reading people any
+trouble that was possible.
+
+A French eye-witness testifies: "They had no talent, these Regie
+fellows, but that of writing and ciphering; extremely conceited too, and
+were capable of the most ridiculous follies. Once, for instance, they
+condemned a common soldier, who had hidden some pounds of tobacco, to a
+fine of 200 thalers. The King, on reviewing it for confirmation, wrote
+on the margin: 'Before confirming this sentence, I should wish to know
+where the Soldier, who gets 8 groschen [ninepence halfpenny] in the
+5 days, will find the 200 crowns for paying this Fine!'" [Laveaux (2d
+edition), iii. 228.] Innumerable instances of a constant disposition
+that way, on the King's part, stand on record. "A crown a head on the
+import of fat cattle, Tax on butcher's-meat?" writes he once to De
+Launay: "No, that would fall on the poorer classes: to that I must
+say No. I am, by office, Procurator of the Poor (L'AVOCAT DU PAUVRE)."
+Elsewhere it is "AVOCAT DEC PAUVRE ET DU SOLDAT (of the working-man and
+of the soldier); and have to plead their cause." [Preuss, iii. 20.]
+
+We will now give our Second Anecdote; which has less of memorability
+to us strangers at present, though doubtless it was then, in Berlin
+society, the more celebrated of the two; relating, as it did, to a high
+Court-Lady, almost the highest, and who was herself only too celebrated
+in those years. The heroine is Princess Elizabeth of Brunswick, King's
+own Niece and a pretty woman; who for four years (14th July, 1765-18th
+April, 1769) of her long life was Princess Royal of Prussia,--Wife of
+that tall young Gentleman whom we used to see dancing about, whom we
+last saw at Schweidnitz getting flung from his horse, on the day of
+Pirch's saddle there:--his Wife for four years, but in the fourth year
+ceased to be so [Rodenbeck, ii. 241, 257.] (for excellent reasons,
+on both sides), and lived thenceforth in a divorced eclipsed state at
+Stettin, where is laid the scene of our Anecdote. I understand it to be
+perfectly true; but cannot ascertain from any of the witnesses in what
+year the thing happened; or whether it was at Stettin or Berlin,--though
+my author has guessed, "Stettin, in the Lady's divorced state," as
+appears.
+
+"This Princess had commissioned, direct from Lyon, a very beautiful
+dress; which arrived duly, addressed to her at Stettin. As this kind of
+stuffs is charged with very heavy dues, the DOUANIER, head Custom-house
+Personage of the Town, had the impertinence to detain the dress till
+payment were made. The Princess, in a lofty indignation, sent word to
+this person, To bring the dress instantly, and she would pay the dues on
+it. He obeyed: but,"--mark the result,--"scarcely had the Princess got
+eye on him, when she seized her Lyon Dress; and, giving the Douanier a
+couple of good slaps on the face, ordered him out of her apartment and
+house.
+
+"The Douanier, thinking himself one and somewhat, withdrew in high
+choler; had a long PROCES-VERBAL of the thing drawn out; and sent it to
+the King with eloquent complaint, 'That he had been dishonored in
+doing the function appointed him.' Friedrich replied as follows: TO
+THE DOUANIER AT STETTIN: 'The loss of the Excise-dues shall fall to my
+score; the Dress shall remain with the Princess; the slaps to him who
+has received them. As to the pretended Dishonor, I entirely relieve
+the complainant from that: never can the appliance of a beautiful hand
+dishonor the face of an Officer of Customs.--F.'" [Laveaux (abridged),
+iii. 229.]
+
+Northern Tourists, Wraxall and others, passing that way, speak of this
+Princess, down to recent times, as a phenomenon of the place. Apparently
+a high and peremptory kind of Lady, disdaining to be bowed too low by
+her disgraces. She survived all her generation, and the next and the
+next, and indeed into our own. Died 18th February, 1840: at the age
+of ninety-six. Threescore and eleven years of that eclipsed Stettin
+Existence; this of the Lyon gown, and caitiff of a Custom-houser slapped
+on the face, her one adventure put on record for us!--
+
+She was signally blamable in that of the Divorce; but not she alone,
+nor first of the Two. Her Crown-Prince, Friedrich Wilhelm, called
+afterwards, as King, "DER DICKE (the Fat, or the Big)," and held in
+little esteem by Posterity,--a headlong, rather dark and physical
+kind of creature, though not ill-meaning or dishonest,--was himself a
+dreadful sinner in that department of things; and had BEGUN the bad
+game against his poor Cousin and Spouse! Readers of discursive turn
+are perhaps acquainted with a certain "Grafin von Lichtenau," and her
+MEMOIRS so called:--not willingly, but driven, I fish up one specimen,
+and one only, from that record of human puddles and perversities:--
+
+"From the first year of our attachment," says this precious Grafin, "I
+was already the confidant of his," the Prince of Prussia's, "most secret
+thoughts. One day [in 1767, second year of his married life, I then
+fifteen, slim Daughter of a Player on the French Horn, in his Majesty's
+pay], the Prince happened to be very serious; and was owning to me with
+frankness that he had some wrongs towards my sex to reproach himself
+with,"--alas, yes, some few:--"and he swore that he would never forsake
+ME; and that if Heaven disposed of my life before his, none but he
+should close my eyes. He was fingering with a penknife at the time; he
+struck the point of it into the palm of his left hand, and wrote with
+his blood [the unclean creature], on a little bit of paper, the Oath
+which his lips had just pronounced in so solemn a tone. Vainly should I
+undertake to paint my emotion on this action of his! The Prince saw what
+I felt; and took advantage of it to beg that I would follow his example.
+I hastened to satisfy him; and traced, as he had done, with my blood,
+the promise to remain his friend to the tomb, and never to forsake
+him. This Promise must have been found among his Papers after his death
+[still in the Archives? we will hope not!]--Both of us stood faithful to
+this Oath. The tie of love, it is true, we broke: but that was by mutual
+consent, and the better to fix ourselves in the bonds of an inviolable
+friendship. Other mistresses reigned over his senses; but I"--ACH GOTT,
+no more of that. [_Memoires de la Comtesse de Lichtenau_ (a Londres,
+chez Colburn Libraire, Conduit-street, Bond-street, 2 tomes, small 8vo,
+1809), i. 129.]
+
+The King's own account of the affair is sufficiently explicit. His words
+are: "Not long ago [about two years before this of the penknife] we
+mentioned the Prince of Prussia's marriage with Elizabeth of Brunswick
+[his Cousin twice over, her Mother, Princess Charlotte of Prussia, being
+his Father's Sister and mine, and her Father HIS Mother's Brother,--if
+you like to count it]. This engagement, from which everybody had
+expected happy consequences, did not correspond to the wishes of the
+Royal House." Only one Princess could be realized (subsequently Wife to
+the late Duke of York),--she came this same year of the penknife,--and
+bad outlooks for more. "The Husband, young and dissolute (SANS MOEURS),
+given up to a crapulous life, from which his relatives could not correct
+him, was continually committing infidelities to his Wife. The Princess,
+who was in the flower of her beauty, felt outraged by such neglect
+of her charms; her vivacity, and the good opinion she had of herself,
+brought her upon the thought of avenging her wrongs by retaliation.
+Speedily she gave in to excesses, scarcely inferior to those of her
+Husband. Family quarrels broke out, and were soon publicly known. The
+antipathy that ensued took away all hope of succession [had it been
+desirable in these sad circumstances!]. Prince Henri [JUNIOR, this
+hopeful Prince of Prussia's Brother], who was gifted with all the
+qualities to be wished in a young man [witness my tears for him], had
+been carried off by small-pox. ["26th May, 1767," age 19 gone; ELOGE
+of him by Friedrich ("MS. still stained with tears"), in _OEuvres de
+Frederic_, vii. 37 et seq.] The King's Brothers, Princes Henri and
+Ferdinand, avowed frankly that they would never consent to have, by some
+accidental bastard, their rights of succession to the crown carried
+off. In the end, there was nothing for it but proceeding to a divorce."
+[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ vi. 23.]
+
+Divorce was done in a beautiful private manner; case tried with strictly
+shut doors; all the five judges under oath to carry into the grave
+whatever they came to know of it: [Preuss, iv. 180-186.] divorce
+completed 18th April, 1769; and, within three months, a new marriage
+was accomplished, Princess Frederika Luisa of Hessen-Darmstadt the happy
+woman. By means of whom there was duly realized a Friedrich Wilhelm, who
+became "King Friedrich Wilhelm III." (a much-enduring, excellent, though
+inarticulate man), as well as various other Princes and Princesses,
+in spite of interruptions from the Lichtenau Sisterhood. High-souled
+Elizabeth was relegated to Stettin; her amount of Pension is not
+mentioned; her Family, after the unhappy proofs communicated to them,
+had given their consent and sanction;--and she stayed there, idle, or
+her own mistress of work, for the next seventy-one years.--Enough of HER
+Lyon Dress, surely, and of the Excise system altogether!--
+
+
+
+
+THE NEUE PALAIS, IN SANS-SOUCI NEIGHBORHOOD, IS FOUNDED AND FINISHED
+(1763-1770).
+
+If D'Alembert's Visit was the germ of the Excise system, it will be
+curious to note,--and indeed whether or not, it will be chronologically
+serviceable to us here, and worth noting,--that there went on a small
+synchronous affair, still visible to everybody: namely, That in the very
+hours while Friedrich and D'Alembert were saluting mutually at Geldern
+(11th June, 1763), there was laid the foundation of what they call the
+NEUE PALAIS; New Palace of Sans-Souci: [Rodenbeck, ii. 219.] a sumptuous
+Edifice, in the curious LOUIS-QUINZE or what is called "Rococo" style
+of the time; Palace never much inhabited by Friedrich or his successors,
+which still stands in those ornamental Potsdam regions. Why built,
+especially in the then down-pressed financial circumstances, some have
+had their difficulties to imagine. It appears, this New Palace had been
+determined on before the War broke out; and Friedrich said to
+himself: "We will build it now, to help the mechanical classes in
+Berlin,--perhaps also, in part [think some, and why should not they, a
+little?] to show mankind that we have still ready money; and are nothing
+like so ruined as they fancy."
+
+"This NEUE PALAIS," says one recent Tourist, "is a pleasant quaint
+object, nowadays, to the stranger. It has the air DEGAGE POCOCURANTE;
+pleasantly fine in aspect and in posture;--spacious expanses round
+it, not in a waste, but still less in a strict condition; and (in its
+deserted state) has a silence, especially a total absence of needless
+flunkies and of gaping fellow-loungers, which is charming. Stands mute
+there, in its solitude, in its stately silence and negligence, like
+some Tadmor of the Wilderness in small. The big square of Stables,
+Coach-houses, near by, was locked up,--probably one sleeping groom in
+it. The very CUSTOS of the grand Edifice (such the rarity of fees to
+him) I could not awaken without difficulty. In the gray autumn zephyrs,
+no sound whatever about this New Palace of King Friedrich's, except the
+rustle of the crisp brown leaves, and of any faded or fading memories
+you may have.
+
+"I should say," continues he, "it somehow reminds you of the City of
+Bath. It has the cut of a battered Beau of old date; Beau still extant,
+though in strangely other circumstances; something in him of pathetic
+dignity in that kind. It shows excellent sound masonries; which have
+an over-tendency to jerk themselves into pinnacles, curvatures and
+graciosities; many statues atop,--three there are, in a kind of grouped
+or partnership attitude; 'These,' said diligent scandal, 'note them;
+these mean Maria Theresa, Pompadour and CATIN DU NORD' (mere Muses, I
+believe, or of the Nymph or Hamadryad kind, nothing of harm in them).
+In short, you may call it the stone Apotheosis of an old French Beau.
+Considerably weather-beaten (the brown of lichens spreading visibly
+here and there, the firm-set ashlar telling you, 'I have stood a hundred
+years');--Beau old and weather-beaten, with his cocked-hat not in the
+fresh condition, all his gold-laces tarnished; and generally looking
+strange, and in a sort tragical, to find himself, fleeting
+creature, become a denizen of the Architectural Fixities and earnest
+Eternities!"--
+
+From Potsdam Palace to the New Palace of Sans-Souci may be a mile
+distance; flat ground, parallel to the foot of Hills; all through
+arbors, parterres, water-works, and ornamental gardenings and cottagings
+or villa-ings,--Cottage-Villa for Lord Marischal is one of them. This
+mile of distance, taking the COTTAGE Royal of Sans-Souci on its
+hill-top as vertex, will be the base of an isosceles or nearly isosceles
+triangle, flatter than equilateral. To the Cottage Royal of Sans-Souci
+may be about three-quarters of a mile northeast from this New Palace,
+and from Potsdam Palace to it rather less. And the whole square-mile or
+so of space is continuously a Garden, not in the English sense, though
+it has its own beauties of the more artificial kind; and, at any rate,
+has memories for you, and footsteps of persons still unforgotten by
+mankind.--Here is a Notice of Lord Marischal; which readers will not
+grudge; the chronology of the worthy man, in these his later epochs,
+being in so hazy a state:--
+
+Lord Marischal, we know well and Pitt knows, was in England in
+1761,--ostensibly on the Kintore Heritage; and in part, perhaps, really
+on that errand. But he went and came, at dates now uncertain; was back
+in Spain after that, had difficult voyagings about; [King's Letters to
+him, in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xx. 282-285.]--and did not get to rest
+again, in his Government of Neufchatel, till April, 1762. There is a
+Letter of the King's, which at least fixes that point:--
+
+"BRESLAU, 10th APRIL, 1762. My nose is the most impertinent nose in
+the universe, MON CHER MYLORD [Queen-Dowager snuff, SPANIOL from
+the fountain-head, of Marischal's providing; quality exquisite, but
+difficult to get transmitted in the Storms of War]; I am ashamed of the
+trouble it costs you! I beg many pardons;--and should be quite abashed,
+did I not know how you compassionate the weak points of your friends,
+and that, for a long time past, you have a singular indulgence for my
+nose. I am very glad to know you happily returned to your Government,
+safe at Colombier (DOVE-COTE) in Neufchatel again." This is 10th April,
+1762. There, as I gather, quiet in his Dove-cote, Marischal continued,
+though rather weary of the business, for about a year more; or till the
+King got home,--who delights in companionship, and is willing to let an
+old man demit for good.
+
+It was in Summer, 1762 (about three months after the above Letter from
+the King), that Rousseau made his celebrated exodus into Neufchatel
+Country, and found the old Governor so good to him,--glad to be allowed
+to shelter the poor skinless creature. And, mark as curious, it must
+have been on two of those mornings, towards the end of the Siege of
+Schweidnitz, when things were getting so intolerable, and at times
+breaking out into electricity, into "rebuke all round," that Friedrich
+received that singular pair of Laconic Notes from Rousseau in
+Neufchatel: forwarded, successively, by Lord Marischal; NOTE FIRST, of
+date, "Motier-Travers, Neufchatel, September," nobody can guess what
+day, "1762:" "I have said much ill of you, and don't repent it. Now
+everybody has banished me; and it is on your threshold that I sit down.
+Kill me, if you have a mind!" And then (after, not death, but the gift
+of 100 crowns), NOTE SECOND, "October, 1762:"... "Take out of my sight
+that sword, which dazzles and pains me; IT has only too well done its
+duty, while the sceptre is abandoned:" Make Peace, can't you! [_OEuvres
+completes de Rousseau_ (a Geneve, 1782-1789), xxxiii. 64, 65.]--What
+curious reading for a King in such posture, among the miscellaneous
+arrivals overnight! Above six weeks before either of these NOTES,
+Friedrich, hearing of him from Lord Marischal, had answered: "An asylum?
+Yes, by all means: the unlucky cynic!" It is on September 1st, that he
+sends, by the same channel, 100 crowns for his use, with advice to "give
+them in NATURA, lest he refuse otherwise;" as Friedrich knows to be
+possible. In words, the Rousseau Notes got nothing of Answer. "A GARCON
+SINGULIER," says Friedrich: odd fellow, yes indeed, your Majesty;--and
+has such a pungency of flattery in him too, presented in the way of
+snarl! His Majesty might take him, I suppose, with a kind of relish,
+like Queen-Dowager snuff.
+
+There was still another shift of place, shift which proved temporary,
+in old Marischal's life: Home to native Aberdeenshire. The two childless
+Brothers, Earls of Kintore, had died successively, the last of them
+November 22d, 1761: title and heritage, not considerable the latter,
+fell duly, by what preparatives we know, to old Marischal; but his Keith
+kinsfolk, furthermore, would have him personally among them,--nay, after
+that, would have him to wed and produce new Keiths. At the age of 78;
+decidedly an inconvenient thing! Old Marischal left Potsdam "August,
+1763," [Letter of his to the King ("LONDRES, 14 AOUT, 1763"), in
+_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xx. 293.--In _Letters of Eminent Persons to
+David Hume_ (Edinburgh, 1849), pp. 57-71, are some Nine from the Old
+Marischal; in curiously mixed dialect, cheerful, but indistinct; the two
+chief dates of which are: "Touch" (guttural TuCH, in Aberdeenshire),
+"28 October, 1763," and "Potsdam, 20 February, 1765."]--NEW-PALACE
+scaffoldings and big stone blocks conspicuous in those localities;
+pleasant D'Alembert now just about leaving, in the other
+direction;--much to Friedrich's regret, the old Marischal especially, as
+is still finely evident.
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TO LORD MARISCHAL (in Scotland for the last six months).
+
+"SANS-SOUCI, 16th February, 1764.
+
+"I am not surprised that the Scotch fight to have you among them; and
+wish to have progeny of yours, and to preserve your bones. You have in
+your lifetime the lot of Homer after death: Cities arguing which is your
+birthplace;--I myself would dispute it with Edinburgh to possess you.
+If I had ships, I would make a descent on Scotland, to steal off my CHER
+MYLORD, and bring him hither. Alas, our Elbe Boats can't do it. But you
+give me hopes;--which I seize with avidity! I was your late Brother's
+friend, and had obligations to him; I am yours with heart and soul.
+These are my titles, these are my rights:--you sha'n't be forced in
+the matter of progeny here (FAIRE L'ETALON ICI), neither priests nor
+attorneys shall meddle with you; you shall live here in the bosom of
+friendship, liberty and philosophy." Come to me!...--F. [_OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ xx. 295.]
+
+Old Marischal did come; and before long. I know not the precise month:
+but "his Villa-Cottage was built for him," the Books say, "in 1764." He
+had left D'Alembert just going; next year he will find Helvetius coming.
+He lived here, a great treasure to Friedrich, till his death, 25th May,
+1778, age 92.
+
+The New Palace was not finished till 1770;--in which year, also,
+Friedrich reckons that the general Problem of Repairing Prussia was
+victoriously over. New Palace, growing or complete, looks down on all
+these operations and occurrences. In its cradle, it sees D'Alembert go,
+Lord Marischal go; Helvetius come, Lord Marischal come; in its
+boyhood or maturity, the Excise, and French RATS-DE-CAVE, spring up;
+Crown-Prince Friedrich Wilhelm prick his hand for a fit kind of ink;
+Friedrich Wilhelm's Divorced Wife give her Douanier two slaps in
+the face, by way of payment. Nay, the same Friedrich Wilhelm, become
+"Friedrich Wilhelm II., or DER DICKE," died in it,--his Lichtenau AND
+his second Wife, jewel of women, nursing him in his last sickness there.
+["Died 16th November, 1797."]
+
+The violent stress of effort for repairing Prussia, Friedrich intimates,
+was mostly over in 1766: till which date specifically, and in a looser
+sense till 1770, that may be considered as his main business. But it was
+not at any time his sole business; nor latterly at all equal in interest
+to some others that had risen on him, as the next Chapter will now
+show. Here, first, is a little Fraction of NECROLOGY, which may be worth
+taking with us. Readers can spread these fateful specialties over the
+Period in question; and know that each of them came with a kind of
+knell upon Friedrich's heart, whatever he might be employed about.
+Hour striking after hour on the Horologe of Time; intimating how the
+Afternoon wore, and that Night was coming. Various meanings there would
+be to Friedrich in these footfalls of departing guests, the dear, the
+less dear, and the indifferent or hostile; but each of them would mean:
+"Gone, then, gone; thus we all go!"
+
+
+
+
+"OBITUARY IN FRIEDRICH'S CIRCLE TILL 1771."
+
+Of Polish Majesty's death (5th October, 1763), and then (2d December
+following) of his Kurprinz or Successor's, with whom we dined at
+Moritzburg so recently, there will be mention by and by. November 28th,
+1763, in the interval between these two, the wretched Bruhl had died.
+April 14th, 1764, died the wretched Pompadour;--"To us not known, JE NE
+LA CONNAIS PAS:"--hapless Butterfly, she had been twenty years in the
+winged condition; age now forty-four: dull Louis, they say, looked out
+of window as her hearse departed, "FROIDEMENT," without emotion of any
+visible kind. These little concern Friedrich or us; we will restrict
+ourselves to Friends.
+
+"DIED IN 1764. At Pisa, Algarotti (23d May, 1764, age fifty-two); with
+whom Friedrich has always had some correspondence hitherto (to himself
+interesting, though not to us), and will never henceforth have more.
+Friedrich raised a Monument to him; Monument still to be seen in the
+Campo-Santo of Pisa: 'HIC JACET OVIDII AEMULUS ET NEUTONI DISCIPULUS;'
+friends have added 'FREDERICUS MAGNUS PONI FECIT;' and on another part
+of the Monument, 'ALGAROTTUS NON OMNIS.' [Preuss, iv. 188.]
+
+"--IN 1765. At the age of eighty, November 18th, Grafin Camas, 'MA BONNE
+MAMAN' (widow since 1741); excellent old Lady,--once brilliantly young,
+German by birth, her name Brandt;--to whom the King's LETTERS used to
+be so pretty." This same year, too, Kaiser Franz died; but him we will
+reserve, as not belonging to this Select List.
+
+"--IN 1766. At Nanci, 23d February, age eighty-six, King Stanislaus
+Leczinsky: 'his clothes caught fire' (accidental spark or sputter on
+some damask dressing-gown or the like); and the much-enduring innocent
+old soul ended painfully his Titular career.
+
+"DIED IN 1767. October 22d, the Grand-Duchess of Sachsen-Gotha, age
+fifty-seven; a sad stroke this also, among one's narrowing List of
+Friends.--I doubt if Friedrich ever saw this high Lady after the Visit
+we lately witnessed. His LETTERS to her are still in the Archives of
+Gotha: not hers to him; all lost, these latter, but an accidental
+Two, which are still beautiful in their kind. [Given in _OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ xviii. 165, 256.]
+
+"--IN 1770. Bielfeld, the fantastic individual of old days. Had long
+been out of Friedrich's circle,--in Altenburg Country, I think;--without
+importance to Friedrich or us: the year of him will do, without search
+for day or month.
+
+"---IN 1771. Two heavy deaths come this year. January 28th, 1771, at
+Berlin, dies our valuable old friend Excellency Mitchell,--still here on
+the part of England, in cordial esteem as a man and companion; though
+as Minister, I suppose, with function more and more imaginary. This
+painfully ushers in the year. To usher it out, there is still worse:
+faithful D'Argens dies, 26th December, 1771, on a visit in his native
+Provence,--leaving, as is still visible, [Friedrich's two Letters to the
+Widow (Ib. xix. 427-429).] a big and sad blank behind him at Potsdam."
+But we need not continue; at least not at present.
+
+Long before all these, Friedrich had lost friends; with a sad but quiet
+emotion he often alludes to this tragic fact, that all the souls he
+loved most are gone. His Winterfelds, his Keiths, many loved faces, the
+War has snatched: at Monbijou, at Baireuth, it was not War; but they too
+are gone. Is the world becoming all a Mausoleum, then; nothing of divine
+in it but the Tombs of vanished loved ones? Friedrich makes no noise on
+such subjects: loved and unloved alike must go.
+
+We have still to mark Kaiser Franz's sudden death; a thing politically
+interesting, if not otherwise. August, 1765, at Innspruck, during the
+Marriage-festivities of his Second Son, Leopold (Duke of Florence, who
+afterwards, on Joseph's death, was Kaiser),--Kaiser Franz, sauntering
+about in the evening gala, "18th August, about 9 P.M.," suddenly
+tottered, staggered as falling; fell into Son Joseph's arms; and was
+dead. Above a year before, this same Joseph, his Eldest Son, had
+been made King of the Romans: "elected 26th March; crowned 3d April,
+1764;"--Friedrich furthering it, wishful to be friendly with his late
+enemies. [Rodenbeck, ii. 234.]
+
+On this Innspruck Tragedy, Joseph naturally became Kaiser,--Part-Kaiser;
+his Dowager-Mother, on whom alone it depends, having decided that way.
+The poor Lady was at first quite overwhelmed with her grief. She had the
+death-room of her Husband made into a Chapel; she founded furthermore a
+Monastery in Innspruck, "Twelve Canonesses to pray there for the repose
+of Franz;" was herself about to become Abbess there, and quit the
+secular world; but in the end was got persuaded to continue, and take
+Son Joseph as Coadjutor. [Hormayr, OESTERREICHISCHER PLUTARCH (Maria
+Theresa), iv. (2tes Bandchen) 6-124; MARIA THERESIENS LEBEN, p. 30.] In
+which capacity we shall meet the young man again.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III.--TROUBLES IN POLAND.
+
+April 11th, 1764, one year after his Seven-Years labor of Hercules,
+Friedrich made Treaty of Alliance with the new Czarina Catharine.
+England had deserted him; France was his enemy, especially Pompadour and
+Choiseul, and refused reconcilement, though privately solicited: he was
+without an Ally anywhere. The Russians had done him frightful damage in
+the last War, and were most of all to be dreaded in the case of any new
+one. The Treaty was a matter of necessity as well as choice. Agreement
+for mutual good neighborhood and friendly offices; guarantee of each
+other against intrusive third parties: should either get engaged in war
+with any neighbor, practical aid to the length of 12,000 men, or else
+money in lieu. Treaty was for eight years from day of date.
+
+As Friedrich did not get into war, and Catharine did, with the Turks and
+certain loose Polacks, the burden of fulfilment happened to fall wholly
+on Friedrich; and he was extremely punctual in performance,--eager now,
+and all his life after, to keep well with such a Country under such a
+Czarina. Which proved to be the whole rule of his policy on that Russian
+side. "Good that Country cannot bring me by any quarrel with it; evil
+it can, to a frightful extent, in case of my quarrelling with others! Be
+wary, be punctual, magnanimously polite, with that grandiose Czarina and
+her huge territories and notions:" this was Friedrich's constant rule
+in public and in private. Nor is it thought his CORRESPONDENCE WITH
+THE EMPRESS CATHARINE, when future generations see it in print,
+will disclose the least ground of offence to that high-flying Female
+Potentate of the North. Nor will it ever be known what the silently
+observant Friedrich thought of her, except indeed what we already know,
+or as good as know, That he, if anybody did, saw her clearly enough for
+what she was; and found good to repress into absolute zero whatever had
+no bearing upon business, and might by possibility give offence in that
+quarter. For we are an old King, and have learned by bitter experiences!
+No more nicknames, biting verses, or words which a bird of the air could
+carry; though this poor Lady too has her liabilities, were not we old
+and prudent;--and is entirely as weak on certain points (deducting the
+devotions and the brandy-and-water) as some others were! The Treaty
+was renewed when necessary; and continued valid and vital in every
+particular, so long as Friedrich ruled.
+
+By the end of the first eight years, by strictly following this passive
+rule, Friedrich, in counterbalance of his losses, unexpectedly found
+himself invested with a very singular bit of gain,--"unjust gain!" cried
+all men, making it of the nature of gain and loss to him,--which is
+still practically his, and which has made, and makes to this day, an
+immense noise in the world. Everybody knows we mean West-Preussen;
+Partition of Poland; bloodiest picture in the Book of Time, Sarmatia's
+fall unwept without a crime;--and that we have come upon a very
+intricate part of our poor History.
+
+No prudent man--especially if to himself, as is my own poor case
+in regard to it, the subject have long been altogether dead and
+indifferent--would wish to write of the Polish Question. For almost a
+hundred years the Polish Question has been very loud in the world; and
+ever and anon rises again into vocality among Able Editors, as a thing
+pretending not to be dead and buried, but capable of rising again, and
+setting itself right, by good effort at home and abroad. Not advisable,
+beyond the strict limits of compulsion, to write of it at present! The
+rather as the History of it, any History we have, is not an intelligible
+series of events, but a series of vociferous execrations, filling all
+Nature, with nothing left to the reader but darkness, and such remedies
+against despair as he himself can summon or contrive.
+
+"Rulhiere's on that subject," says a Note which I may cite, "is the
+only articulate-speaking Book to which mankind as yet can apply; [Cl.
+Rulhiere, _Histoire de l'Anarchie de Pologne_ (Paris, 1807), 4 vols.
+12mo.] and they will by no means find that a sufficient one. Rulhiere's
+Book has its considerable merits; but it absolutely wants those of a
+History; and can be recognized by no mind as an intelligible cosmic
+Portraiture of that chaotic Mass of Occurrences: chronology, topography,
+precision of detail by time and place; scene, and actors on scene,
+remain unintelligible. Rulhiere himself knew Poland, at least had looked
+on it from Warsaw outwards, year after year, and knew of it what an
+inquiring Secretary of Legation could pick up on those terms, which
+perhaps, after all, is not very much. His Narrative is drowned in
+beautiful seas of description and reflection; has neither dates nor
+references; and advances at an intolerable rate of slowness; in fact,
+rather turns on its axis than advances; produces on you the effect of a
+melodious Sonata, not of a lucid and comfortably instructive History.
+
+"I forget for how long Rulhiere had been in Poland, as Ambassador's
+Assistant: but the Country, the King and leading Personages were
+personally known to him, more or less; Events with all details of them
+were known: 'Why not write a History of the Anarchy and Wreck they fell
+into?' said the Official people to him, on his return home: 'For behoof
+of the Dauphin [who is to be Louis XVI. shortly]; may not he perhaps
+draw profit from it? At the top of the Universe, experience is sometimes
+wanted. Here are the Archives, here is Salary, here are what appliances
+you like to name: Write!' It is well known he was appointed, on a
+Pension of 250 pounds a year, with access to all archives, documents and
+appliances in possession of the French Government, and express charge to
+delineate this subject for benefit of the Dauphin's young mind. Nor can
+I wonder, considering everything, that the process on Rulhiere's part,
+being so full of difficulties, was extremely deliberate; that this Book
+did not grow so steadily or fast as the Dauphin did; and that in
+fact the poor Dauphin never got the least benefit from it,--being
+guillotined, he, in 1793, and the Book intended for him never coming to
+light for fourteen years afterwards, it too in a posthumous and still
+unfinished condition.
+
+"Rulhiere has heard the voices of rumor, knows an infinitude of events
+that were talked of; but has not discriminated which were the vital,
+which were the insignificant; treats the vital and the insignificant
+alike; seldom with satisfactory precision; mournfully seldom giving
+any date, and by no chance any voucher or authority;--and instead of
+practical terrestrial scene of action, with distances, milestones,
+definite sequence of occurrences, and of causes and effects, paints us
+a rosy cloudland, which if true at all, as he well intends it to be, is
+little more than symbolically or allegorically so; and can satisfy no
+clear-headed Dauphin or man. Rulhiere strives to be authentic,
+too; gives you no suspicion of his fairness. There is really fine
+high-colored painting in Rulhiere! and you hope always he will let you
+into the secret of the matter: but the sad fact is, he never does. He
+merely loses himself in picturesque details, philosophic eloquences,
+elegancies; takes you to a Castle of Choczim, a Monastery of
+Czenstochow, a Bay of Tschesme, and lets off extensive fire-works that
+contain little or no shot; leads you on trackless marches, inroads or
+outroads, through the Lithuanian Peat-bogs, on daring adventures and
+hair-breadth escapes of mere Pulawski, Potocki and the like;--had not
+got to understand the matter himself, you perceive: how hopeless to make
+you understand it!"
+
+English readers, however, have no other shift; the rest of the Books I
+have seen,--_Histoire des Revolutions de Pologne;_ [1778 (A WARSOVIE, ET
+SE TROUVE A PARIS), 2 vols. 8vo.] _Histoire des Trois Demembremens de la
+Pologne;_ [Anonymous (by one FERRAND, otherwise unknown to me), Paris,
+1820, 3 vols. 8vo.] _Letters on Poland;_ [Anonymous (by a "Reverend
+Mr. Lindsey," it would seem), LETTERS CONCERNING THE PRESENT STATE OF
+POLAND, TOGETHER WITH &c. (London, 1773; 1 vol. 8vo): of these LETTERS,
+or at least of Reverend Lindsey, Author of them, "Tutor to King
+Stanislaus's Nephew," and a man of painfully loud loose tongue, there
+may perhaps be mention afterwards.] and many more,--are not worth
+mentioning at all. Comfortable in the mad dance of these is Hermann's
+recent dull volume; [Hermann, _Geschichte des Russischen Staats,_ vol.
+v. (already cited in regard to the Peter-Catharine tragedy); seems to be
+compiled mainly from the Saxon Archives, from DESPATCHES written on
+the spot and at the time.]--commonplace, dull, but steady and faithful;
+yielding us at least dates, and an immunity from noise. By help of
+Hermann and the others, distilled to CAPUT MORTUUM, a few dated facts
+(cardinal we dare not call them) may be extracted;--dimly out of these,
+to the meditating mind, some outline of the phenomenon may begin to
+become conceivable. King of Poland dies; and there ensue huge Anarchies
+in that Country.
+
+
+
+
+KING OF POLAND DIES; AND THERE ENSUE HUGE ANARCHIES IN THAT COUNTRY.
+
+The poor old King of Poland--whom we saw, on that fall of the curtain
+at Pirna seven years ago, rush off for Warsaw with his Bruhl, with
+expressive speed and expressive silence, and who has been waiting there
+ever since, sublimely confident that his powerful terrestrial friends,
+Austria, Russia, France, not to speak of Heaven's justice at all, would
+exact due penalty, of signal and tremendous nature, on the Prussian
+Aggressor--has again been disappointed. The poor old Gentleman got no
+compensation for his manifold losses and woes at Pirna or elsewhere; not
+the least mention of such a thing, on the final winding-up of that War
+of Seven Years, in which his share had been so tragical; no alleviation
+was provided for him in this world. His sorrows in Poland have been
+manifold; nothing but anarchies, confusions and contradictions had been
+his Royal portion there: in about Forty different Diets he had tried to
+get some business done,--no use asking what; for the Diets, one and
+all, exploded in NIE POZWALAM; and could do no business, good, bad or
+indifferent, for him or anybody. An unwise, most idle Country; following
+as chief employment perpetual discrepancy with its idle unwise King and
+self; Russia the virtual head of it this long while, so far as it has
+any head.
+
+FEBRUARY-AUGUST, 1763, just while the Treaty of Hubertsburg was blessing
+everybody with the return of Peace, and for long months after Peace had
+returned to everybody, Polish Majesty was in sore trouble. Trouble in
+regard to Courland, to his poor Son Karl, who fancied himself elected,
+under favor and permission of the late Czarina our gracious Protectress
+and Ally, to the difficult post of Duke in Courland; and had proceeded,
+three or four years ago, to take possession,--but was now interrupted
+by Russian encroachments and violences. Not at all well disposed to him,
+these new Peters, new Catharines. They have recalled their Bieren from
+Siberia; declare that old Bieren is again Duke, or at least that young
+Bieren is, and not Saxon Karl at all; and have proceeded, Czarina
+Catharine has, to install him forcibly with Russian soldiers. Karl
+declares, "You shall kill ME before you or he get into this Palace of
+Mietau!"--and by Domestics merely, and armed private Gentlemen, he does
+maintain himself in said Palatial Mansion; valiantly indignant, for
+about six months; the Russian Battalions girdling him on all sides,
+minatory more and more, but loath to begin actual bloodshed. [Rulhiere,
+ii. (livre v.) 81 et antea; Hermann, v. 348 et seq.] A transaction very
+famed in those parts, and still giving loud voice in the Polish Books,
+which indeed get ever noisier from this point onward, till they end in
+inarticulate shrieks, as we shall too well hear.
+
+Empress Catharine, after the lapse of six months, sends an Ambassador
+to Warsaw (Kayserling by name), who declares, in tone altogether
+imperative, that Czarish Majesty feels herself weary of such contumacy,
+weary generally of Polish Majesty's and Polish Republic's multifarious
+contumacies; and, in fine, cruelest of all, that she has troops on the
+frontier; that Courland is not the only place where she has troops.
+What a stab to the poor old man! "Contumacies?" Has not he been Russia's
+patient stepping-stone, all along; his anarchic Poland and he accordant
+in that, if in nothing else? "Let us to Saxony," decides he passionately,
+"and leave all this." In Saxony his poor old Queen is dead long since;
+much is dead: Saxony and Life generally, what a Golgotha! He immediately
+sends word to Karl, "Give up Courland; I am going home!"--and did
+hastily make his packages, and bid adieu to Warsaw, and, in a few weeks
+after to this anarchic world altogether. Died at Dresden, 5th October,
+1763.
+
+Polish Majesty had been elected 5th October, 1733; died, you observe,
+5th October, 1763;--was King of Poland ("King," save the mark!) for 30
+years to a day. Was elected--do readers still remember how? Leaves a
+ruined Saxony lying round him; a ruined life mutely asking him, "Couldst
+thou have done no better, then?" Wretched Bruhl followed him in four or
+five weeks. Nay, in about two months, his Son and Successor, "Friedrich
+Christian" (with whom we dined at Moritzburg), had followed him; [Prince
+died 17th December (Bruhl, 18th November), 1763.] leaving a small
+Boy, age 13, as new Kurfurst, "Friedrich August" the name of him, with
+guardians to manage the Minority; especially with his Mother as chief
+guardian,--of whom, for two reasons, we are now to say something. Reason
+FIRST is, That she is really a rather brilliant, distinguished creature,
+distinguished more especially in Friedrich's world; whose LETTERS to
+her are numerous, and, in their kind, among the notablest he wrote;--of
+which we would gladly give some specimen, better or worse; and reason
+SECOND, That in so doing, we may contrive to look, for a moment or two,
+into the preliminary Polish Anarchies at first-hand; and, transiently
+and far off, see something of them as if with our own eyes.
+
+Marie-Antoine, or Marie-Antoinette, Electress of Saxony, is still a
+bright Lady, and among the busiest living; now in her 40th year: "born
+17th July, 1724; second child of Kaiser Karl VII.;"--a living memento to
+us of those old times of trouble. Papa, when she came to him, was in his
+27th year; this was his second daughter; three years afterwards he had
+a son (born 1727; died 1777), who made the "Peace of Fussen," to
+Friedrich's disgust, in 1745, if readers recollect;--and who, dying
+childless, will give rise to another War (the "Potato War" so called),
+for Friedrich's behoof and ours. This little creature would be in
+her teens during that fatal Kaisership (1742-1745, her age then
+18-21),--during those triumphs, flights and furnished-lodging
+intricacies. Her Mamma, whom we have seen, a little fat bullet given to
+devotion, was four years younger than Papa. Mamma died "11th December,
+1756," Germany all blazing out in War again; she had been a Widow eleven
+years.
+
+Marie-Antoine was wedded to Friedrich Christian, Saxon Kurprinz, "20th
+June, 1747;" her age 23, his 25:--Chronology itself is something, if
+one will attend to it, in the absence of all else! The young pair were
+Cousins, their Mothers being Sisters; Polish Majesty one's Uncle, age
+now 51,--who was very fond of us, poor indolent soul, and glad of
+our company on an afternoon, "being always in his dressing-gown by 2
+o'clock." Concerning which the tongue of Court scandal was not entirely
+idle,--Hanbury chronicling, as we once noticed. All which I believe to
+be mere lying wind. The young Princess was beautiful; extremely clever,
+graceful and lively, we can still see for ourselves: no wonder poor
+Polish Majesty, always in his dressing-gown by 2, was charmed to have
+her company,--the rather as I hope she permitted him a little smoking
+withal.
+
+Her husband was crook-backed; and, except those slight, always perfectly
+polite little passages, in Schmettau's Siege (1759), in the Hubertsburg
+Treaty affair, in the dinner at Moritzburg, I never heard much history
+of him. He became Elector 5th October, 1763; but enjoyed the dignity
+little more than two months. Our Princess had borne him seven
+children,--three boys, four girls,--the eldest about 13, a Boy, who
+succeeded; the youngest a girl, hardly 3. The Boy is he who sent Gellert
+the caparisoned Horse, and had estafettes on the road while Gellert lay
+dying. This Boy lived to be 77, and saw strange things in the world; had
+seen Napoleon and the French Revolution; was the first "King of Saxony"
+so called; saw Jena, retreat of Moscow; saw the "Battle of the Nations"
+(Leipzig, 15th-18th October, 1813), and his great Napoleon terminate in
+bankruptcy. He left no Son. A Brother, age 72, succeeded him as King for
+a few years; whom again a Brother would have succeeded, had not he (this
+third Brother, age now 66) renounced, in favor of HIS Son, the present
+King of Saxony. Enough, enough!--
+
+August 28th, 1763, while afflicted Polish Majesty is making his packages
+at Warsaw, far away,--Marie-Antoinette, in Dresden, had sent Friedrich
+an Opera of her composing, just brought out by her on her Court-theatre
+there. Here is Friedrich's Answer,--to what kind of OPERA I know not,
+but to a Letter accompanying it which is extremely pretty.
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TO THE ELECTORAL PRINCESS (at Dresden).
+
+"POTSDAM, 5th September, 1763.
+
+"MADAM MY SISTER,--The remembrance your Royal Highness sends is the more
+flattering to me, as I regret infinitely not to have been spectator and
+hearer of the fine things [Opera THALESTRIS, words and music entirely
+lost to us] which I have admired for myself in the silent state.
+
+"I wish I could send you things as pleasant out of these parts: but,
+Madam, I am obliged to give you a hint, which may be useful if you can
+have it followed. In Saxony, however, my Letters get opened;--which
+obliges me to send this by a special Messenger; and him, that he may
+cause no suspicion, I have charged with fruits from my garden. You will
+have the goodness to say [if anybody is eavesdropping] that you asked
+them of me at Moritzburg, when I was happy enough to see you there [six
+months ago, coming home from the Seven-Years War]. The hint I had to
+give was this:--
+
+"In Petersburg people's minds are getting angry at the stubbornness your
+friends show in refusing to recognize Duke Bieren [home from Siberia,
+again Duke of Courland, by Russian appointment, as if Russia had that
+right; Polish Majesty and his Prince Karl resisting to the uttermost].
+I counsel you to induce the powerful in your circle to have this
+condescension [they have had it, been obliged to have it, though
+Friedrich does not yet know]; for it will turn out ill to them, if they
+persist in being obstinately stiff. It begins already to be said That
+there are more than a million Russian subjects at this time refugees in
+Poland; whom, by I forget what cartel, the Republic was bound to deliver
+up. Orders have been given to Detachments of Military to enter certain
+places, and bring away these Russians by force. In a word, you will
+ruin your affairs forever, unless you find means to produce a change of
+conduct on the part of him they complain of. Take, Madam, what I now say
+as a mark of the esteem and profound regard with which--"--F. [_OEuvres
+de Frederic,_ xxiv. 46.]
+
+This hint, if the King knew, had been given, in a less kind shape,
+by Necessity itself; and had sent Polish Majesty, and his Bruhls and
+"powerful people," bodily home, and out of that Polish Russian welter,
+in a headlong and tragically passionate condition. Electoral Princess,
+next time she writes, is become Electress all at once.
+
+
+ELECTRESS MARIE-ANTOINE TO FRIEDRICH.
+
+"DRESDEN, 5th October, 1763.
+
+"SIRE,--Your Majesty has given me such assurance of your goodness
+and your friendship, that I will now appeal to that promise. You have
+assured us, too, that you would with pleasure contribute to secure
+Poland for us. The moment is come for accomplishing that promise. The
+King is dead [died this very day; see if _I_ lose time in sentimental
+lamentations!]--with him these grievances of Russia [our stiffness
+on Courland and the like] must be extinct; the rather as we [the now
+reigning] will lend ourselves willingly to everything that can be
+required of us for perfect reconcilement with that Power.
+
+"You can do all, if you will it; you can contribute to this
+reconcilement. You can render it favorable to us. You will, give me
+that proof of the flattering sentiments I have been so proud of
+hitherto,"--won't you, now? "Russia cannot disapprove the mediation you
+might deign to offer on that behalf;--our intentions being so honestly
+amicable, and all ground of controversy having died with the late
+King. Russia reconciled, our views on the Polish Crown might at once be
+declared (ECLATER)." Oh, do it, your Majesty;--"my gratitude shall only
+end with life!--M. A." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxiv. 47.]
+
+Friedrich, who is busy negotiating his Treaty with Russia (perfected
+11th April next), and understands that they will mean not to have
+a Saxon, but to have a Piast, and perhaps dimly even what Piast
+(Stanislaus Poniatowski, the EMERITUS Lover), who will be their own,
+and not Saxony's at all,--must have been a little embarrassed by such an
+appeal from his fair friend at this moment. "Wait a little; don't
+answer yet," would have occurred to the common mind. But that was not
+Friedrich's resource: he answers by return of post, as always in such
+cases;--and in the following adroit manner brushes off, without hurt
+to it, with kisses to it rather, the beautiful hand that has him by the
+button:--
+
+
+TO THE ELECTRESS MARIE-ANTOINE (at Dresden).
+
+"BERLIN, 8th October, 1763.
+
+"MADAM MY SISTER,--I begin by making my condolences and my
+congratulations to your Electoral Highness on the death of the King your
+Father-in-law, and on your Accession to the Electorate.
+
+"Your Electoral Highness will remember what I wrote, not long since,
+on the affairs of Poland. I am afraid, Madam, that Russia will be more
+contrary to you than you think. M. de Woronzow [famous Grand-Chancellor
+of Russia; saved himself dexterously in the late Peter-Catharine
+overturn; has since fallen into disfavor for his notions about our
+Gregory Orlof, and is now on his way to Italy, "for health's sake," in
+consequence], who is just arrived here, ["Had his audience 7th October"
+(yesterday): Rodenbeck, ii. 224.] told me, too, of some things which
+raise an ill augury of this affair. If you do not disapprove of my
+speaking frankly to you, it seems to me that it would be suitable in
+you to send some discreet Diplomatist to that Court to notify the King's
+death; and you would learn by him what you have to expect from her
+Czarish Majesty [the Empress, he always calls her, knowing she prefers
+that title]. It seems to me, Madam, that it would be precipitate
+procedure should I wish to engage you in an Enterprise, which appears to
+myself absolutely dubious (HASARDEE), unless approved by that Princess.
+As to me, Madam, I have not the ascendant there which you suppose: I
+act under rule of all the delicacies and discretions with a Court which
+separated itself from my Enemies when all Europe wished to crush me: but
+I am far from being able to regulate the Empress's way of thinking.
+
+"It is the same with the quarrels about the Duke of Courland; one cannot
+attempt mediation except by consent of both parties. I believe I am
+not mistaken in supposing that the Court of Russia does not mean to
+terminate that business by foreign mediation. What I have heard about
+it (what, however, is founded only on vague news) is, That the Empress
+might prevail upon herself (POURRAIT SE RESOUDRE) to purchase from Bruhl
+the Principality of Zips [Zips, on the edge of Hungary; let readers take
+note of that Principality, at present in the hand of Bruhl,--who has
+much disgusted Poland by his voracity for Lands; and is disgorging them
+all again, poor soul!], to give it to Prince Karl in compensation: but
+that would lead to a negotiation with the Court of Vienna, which might
+involve the affair in other contentions.
+
+"I conjure you, Madam, I repeat it, Be not precipitate in anything;
+lest, as my fear is, you replunge Europe into the troubles it has only
+just escaped from! As to me, I have found, since the Peace, so much
+to do within my own borders, that I have not, I assure you, had time,
+Madam, to think of going abroad. I confine myself to forming a thousand
+wishes for the prosperity of your Electoral Highness, assuring you of
+the high esteem with which I am,--F." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxiv. 48.]
+
+After some farther Letters, of eloquently pressing solicitation on the
+part of the Lady, and earnest advising, as well as polite fencing, on
+the part of Friedrich, the latter writes:--
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TO ELECTRESS.
+
+"MADAM MY SISTER,--At this moment I receive a Letter from the
+
+Empress of Russia, the contents of which do not appear to me favorable,
+Madam, to your hopes. She requires (EXIGE) that I should instruct my
+Minister in Poland to act entirely in concert with the Count Kayserling;
+and she adds these very words: 'I expect, from the friendship of your
+Majesty, that you will not allow a passage through your territory, nor
+the entry into Poland, to Saxon troops, who are to be regarded there
+absolutely as strangers.'
+
+"Unless your Letters, Madam [Madam had said that she had written to the
+Empress, assuring her &c.] change the sentiments of the Empress, I do
+not see in what way the Elector could arrive at the throne of Poland;
+and consequently, whether I deferred to the wishes of the Empress in
+this point, or refused to do so, you would not the more become Queen;
+and I might commit myself against a Power which I ought to keep well
+with (MENAGER). I am persuaded, Madam, that your Electoral Highness
+enters into my embarrassment; and that, unless you find yourself
+successful in changing the Empress's own ideas on this matter, you
+will not require of me that I should embroil myself fruitlessly with a
+neighbor who deserves the greatest consideration from me.
+
+"All this is one consequence of the course which Count Bruhl induced his
+late Polish Majesty to take with regard to the interests of Prince Karl
+in Courland; and your Electoral Highness will remember, that I often
+represented to you the injury which would arise to him from it.
+
+"I will wish, Madam, that other opportunities may occur, where it may be
+in my power to prove to your Electoral Highness the profound esteem and
+consideration with which I am--"--F. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxiv. 52.]
+
+
+ELECTRESS TO FRIEDRICH.
+
+"DRESDEN, 11th November, 1763.
+
+"SIRE,--I am not yet disheartened. I love to flatter myself with your
+friendship, Sire, and I will not easily renounce the hope that you will
+give me a real mark of it in an affair which interests me so strongly.
+Nobody has greater ascendency over the mind of the Empress of Russia
+than your Majesty; use it, Sire, to incline it to our favor. Our
+obligation will be infinite.... Why should she be absolutely against us?
+What has she to fear from us? The Courland business, if that sticks with
+her, could be terminated in a suitable manner."--Troops into Poland,
+Sire?"My Husband so little thinks of sending troops thither, that he has
+given orders for the return of those already there. He does not wish
+the Crown except from the free suffrages of the Nation: if the Empress
+absolutely refuse to help him with her good offices, let her, at least,
+not be against him. Do try, Sire." [Ib. xxiv. 53.]--Friedrich answers,
+after four days, or by return of post--But we will give the rest in the
+form of Dialogue.
+
+FRIEDRICH (after four days).... "If, Madam, I had Crowns to give away, I
+would place the first on your head, as most worthy to bear it. But I am
+far from such a position. I have just got out of a horrible War, which
+my enemies made upon me with a rage almost beyond example; I endeavor
+to cultivate friendship with all my neighbors, and to get embroiled with
+nobody. With regard to the affairs of Poland, an Empress whom I ought to
+be well with, and to whom I owe great obligations, requires me to enter
+into her measures; you, Madam, whom I would fain please if I could, you
+want me to change the sentiments of this Empress. Do but enter into my
+embarrassment!... According to all I hear from Russia, it appears to me
+that every resolution is taken there; and that the Empress is resolved
+even to sustain the party of her partisans in Poland with the forces
+she has all in readiness at the borders. As for me, Madam, I wish, if
+possible, not to meddle at all with this business, which hitherto is
+not complicated, but which may, any day, become so by the neighbors
+of Poland taking a too lively part in it. Ready, otherwise, on all
+occasions, to give to your Electoral Highness proofs of my--" [_OEuvres
+de Frederic,_ xxiv, 54: "Potsdam, 16th November, 1763."]
+
+Electress (after ten days).... "Why should the Empress be so much
+against us? We have not deserved her hatred. On the contrary, we seek
+her friendship. She declares, however, that she will uphold the freedom
+of the Poles in the election of their King. You, Sire"--[Ib. xxiv. 55:
+"Dresden, 26th November, 1763."] But we must cut short, though it lasts
+long months after this. Great is the Electress's persistence,--"My poor
+Husband being dead, cannot our poor Boy, cannot his uncle Prince
+Xavier try? O Sire!" Our last word shall be this of Friedrich's; actual
+Election-time now drawing nigh:--
+
+FRIEDRICH. "I am doing like the dogs who have fought bitterly till they
+are worn down: I sit licking my wounds. I notice most European Powers
+doing the same; too happy if, whilst Kings are being manufactured to
+right and left, public tranquillity is not disturbed thereby, and if
+every one may continue to dwell in peace beside his hearth and his
+household gods." ["Sans-Souci, 26th June, 1764" (Ib. p. 69).] Adieu,
+bright Madam.
+
+No reader who has made acquaintance with Polish History can well doubt
+but Poland was now dead or moribund, and had well deserved to die.
+Anarchies are not permitted in this world. Under fine names, they are
+grateful to the Populaces, and to the Editors of Newspapers; but to
+the Maker of this Universe they are eternally abhorrent; and from the
+beginning have been forbidden to be. They go their course, applauded or
+not applauded by self and neighbors,--for what lengths of time none of
+us can know; for a long term sometimes, but always for a fixed term; and
+at last their day comes. Poland had got to great lengths, two centuries
+ago, when poor John Casimir abdicated his Crown of Poland, after a
+trial of twenty years, and took leave of the Republic in that remarkable
+SPEECH to the Diet of 1667.
+
+This John is "Casimir V.," last Scion of the Swedish House of
+Vasa,--with whom, in the Great Elector's time, we had some slight
+acquaintance; and saw at least the three days' beating he got (Warsaw,
+28th-30th July, 1656) from Karl Gustav of Sweden and the Great Elector,
+[Supra, v. 284-286.] ancestors respectively of Karl XII. and of our
+present Friedrich. He is not "Casimir the Great" of Polish Kings; but he
+is, in our day, Casimir the alone Remarkable. It seems to me I once had
+IN EXTENSO this Valedictory Speech of his; but it has lapsed again into
+the general Mother of Dead Dogs, and I will not spend a week in fishing
+for it. The gist of the Speech, innumerable Books and Dead Dogs tell
+you, [HISTOIRE DES TROIS DEMEMBREMENS does, and many others do;--copied
+in _Biographie Universelle,_ vii. 278 (? Casimir).] is "lamentation over
+the Polish Anarchies" and "a Prophecy," which is very easily remembered.
+The poor old Gentleman had no doubt eaten his peck of dirt among those
+Polacks, and swallowed chagrins till he felt his stomach could no more,
+and determined to have done with it. To one's fancy, in abridged form,
+the Valediction must have run essentially as follows:--
+
+"Magnanimous Polack Gentlemen, you are a glorious Republic, and have NIE
+POZWALAM, and strange methods of business, and of behavior to your Kings
+and others. We have often fought together, been beaten together, by our
+enemies and by ourselves; and at last I, for my share, have enough of
+it. I intend for Paris; religious-literary pursuits, and the society of
+Ninon de l'Enclos. I wished to say before going, That according to all
+record, ancient and modern, of the ways of God Almighty in this world,
+there was not heretofore, nor do I expect there can henceforth be, a
+Human Society that would stick together on those terms. Believe me, ye
+Polish Chivalries, without superior except in Heaven, if your glorious
+Republic continue to be managed in such manner, not good will come
+of it, but evil. The day will arrive [this is the Prophecy, almost
+IN IPSISSIMIS VERBIS], the day perhaps is not so far off, when this
+glorious Republic will get torn into shreds, hither, thither; be stuffed
+into the pockets of covetous neighbors, Brandenburg; Muscovy, Austria;
+and find itself reduced to zero, and abolished from the face of the
+world.
+
+"I speak these words in sorrow of soul; words which probably you will
+not believe. Which only Fate can compel you to believe, one day, if
+they are true words:--you think, probably, they are not? Me at least, or
+interest of mine, they do not regard. I speak them from the fulness of
+my heart, and on behest of friendship and conviction alone; having the
+honor at this moment to bid you and your Republic a very long farewell.
+Good-morning, for the last time!" and so EXIT: to Rome (had been
+Cardinal once); to Paris and the society of Ninon's Circle for the few
+years left him of life. ["Died 16th December, 1672, age 63."]
+
+This poor John had had his bitter experiences: think only of one
+instance. In 1662, the incredible Law of LIBERUM VETO had been
+introduced, in spite of John and his endeavors. LIBERUM VETO; the power
+of one man to stop the proceedings of Polish Parliament by pronouncing
+audibly "NIE POZWALAM, I don't permit!"--never before or since
+among mortals was so incredible a Law. Law standing indisputable,
+nevertheless, on the Polish Statute-Book for above two hundred years:
+like an ever-flowing fountain of Anarchy, joyful to the Polish Nation.
+How they got any business done at all, under such a Law? Truly they did
+but little; and for the last thirty years as good as none. But if Polish
+Parliament was universally in earnest to do some business, and Veto came
+upon it, Honorable Members, I observe, gathered passionately round the
+vetoing Brother; conjured, obtested, menaced, wept, prayed; and, if the
+case was too urgent and insoluble otherwise, the NIE POZWALAM Gentleman
+still obstinate, they plunged their swords through him, and in that way
+brought consent. The commoner course was to dissolve and go home again,
+in a tempest of shrieks and curses.
+
+The Right of Confederation, too, is very curious: do readers know it? A
+free Polack gentleman, aggrieved by anything that has occurred or been
+enacted in his Nation, has the right of swearing, whether absolutely by
+himself I know not, but certainly with two or three others of like mind,
+that he will not accept said occurrence or enactment, and is hereby got
+into arms against its abettors and it. The brightest jewel in the cestus
+of Polish Liberty is this right of confederating; and it has been, till
+of late, and will be now again practised to all lengths: right of every
+Polish, gentleman to confederate with every other against, or for,
+whatsoever to them two may seem good; and to assert their particular
+view of the case by fighting for it against all comers, King and Diet
+included. It must be owned, there never was in Nature such a Form
+of Government before; such a mode of social existence, rendering
+"government" impossible for some generations past.
+
+On the strength of Saxony and its resources and connections, the two
+Augusts had contrived to exist with the name of Kings; with the name,
+but with little or nothing more. Under this last August, as we heard,
+there have been about forty Diets, and in not one of them the least
+thing of business done; all the forty, after trying their best, have
+stumbled on NIE POZWALAM, and been obliged to vanish in shrieks and
+curses. [Buchholz (_Preussisch-Brandenburgische Geschichte,_ ii. 133,
+134, &c. &c.) gives various samples, and this enumeration.] As to August
+the Physically Strong, such treatment had he met with,--poor August, if
+readers remember, had made up his mind to partition Poland; to give away
+large sections of it in purchase of the consent of neighbors, and plant
+himself hereditarily in the central part;--and would have done so, had
+not Grumkow and he drunk so deep, and death by inflammation of the foot
+suddenly come upon the poor man. Some Partition of Poland has been more
+than once thought of by practical people concerned. Poland, as "a house
+chronically smoking through the slates," which usually brings a new
+European War every time it changes King, does require to be taken charge
+of by its neighbors.
+
+Latterly, as we observed, there has been little of confederating;
+indeed, for the last thirty years, as Rulhiere copiously informs us,
+there has been no Government, consequently no mutiny needed; little or
+no National business of any kind,--the Forty Diets having all gone
+the road we saw. Electing of the Judges,--that, says Rulhiere, and
+wearisomely teaches by example again and ever again, has always been an
+interesting act, in the various Provinces of Poland; not with the hope
+of getting fair or upright Judges, but Judges that will lean in the
+desirable direction. In a country overrun with endless lawsuits, debts,
+credits, feudal intricacies, claims, liabilities, how important to
+get Judges with the proper bias! And these once got, or lost till next
+term,--what is there to hope or to fear? Russia does our Politics,
+fights her Seven-Years War across us; and we, happy we, have no
+fighting;--never till this of Courland was there the least ill-nature
+from Russia! We are become latterly the peaceable stepping-stone of
+Russia into Europe and out of it;--what may be called the door-mat of
+Russia, useful to her feet, when she is about paying visits or receiving
+them! That is not a glorious fact, if it be a safe and "lucky" one; nor
+do the Polish Notabilities at all phrase it in that manner. But a fact
+it is; which has shown itself complete in the late Czarina's and late
+August's time, and which had been on the growing hand ever since Peter
+the Great gained his Battle of Pultawa, and rose to the ascendency,
+instead of Karl and Sweden.
+
+The Poles put fine colors on all this; and are much contented with
+themselves. The Russians they regard as intrinsically an inferior
+barbarous people; and to this day you will hear indignant Polack
+Gentlemen bursting out in the same strain: "Still barbarian, sir; no
+culture, no literature,"--inferior because they do not make verses
+equal to ours! How it may be with the verses, I will not decide: but
+the Russians are inconceivably superior in respect that they have, to a
+singular degree among Nations, the gift of obeying, of being commanded.
+Polack Chivalry sniffs at the mention of such a gift. Polack Chivalry
+got sore stripes for wanting this gift. And in the end, got striped to
+death, and flung out of the world, for continuing blind to the want of
+it, and never acquiring it.
+
+Beyond all the verses in Nature, it is essential to every Chivalry and
+Nation and Man. "Polite Polish Society for the last thirty years
+has felt itself to be in a most halcyon condition," says Rulhiere:
+[Rulhiere, i. 216 (a noteworthy passage).] "given up to the agreeable,
+and to that only;" charming evening-parties, and a great deal of
+flirting; full of the benevolences, the philanthropies, the new
+ideas,--given up especially to the pleasing idea of "LAISSEZ-FAIRE, and
+everything will come right of itself." "What a discovery!" said every
+liberal Polish mind: "for thousands of years, how people did torment
+themselves trying to steer the ship; never knowing that the plan was,
+To let go the helm, and honestly sit down to your mutual amusements and
+powers of pleasing!"
+
+To this condition of beautifully phosphorescent rot-heap has Poland
+ripened, in the helpless reigns of those poor Augusts;--the fulness
+of time not now far off, one would say? It would complete the picture,
+could I go into the state of what is called "Religion" in Poland.
+Dissenterism, of various poor types, is extensive; and, over against
+it, is such a type of Jesuit Fanaticism as has no fellow in that day. Of
+which there have been truly savage and sanguinary outbreaks, from
+time to time; especially one at Thorn, forty years ago, which shocked
+Friedrich Wilhelm and the whole Protestant world. [See supra, vi. 64
+(and many old Pamphlets on it).] Polish Orthodoxy, in that time, and
+perhaps still in ours, is a thing worth noting. A late Tourist informs
+me, he saw on the streets of Stettin, not long since, a drunk human
+creature staggering about, who seemed to be a Baltic Sailor, just
+arrived; the dirtiest, or among the dirtiest, of mankind; who, as he
+reeled along, kept slapping his hands upon his breast, and shouting, in
+exultant soliloquy, "Polack, Catholik!" _I_ am a Pole and Orthodox, ye
+inferior two-legged entities!.--In regard to the Jesuit Fanaticisms, at
+Thorn and elsewhere, no blame can attach to the poor Augusts, who always
+leant the other way, what they durst or could. Nor is specialty of
+blame due to them on any score; it was "like People, like King," all
+along;--and they, such their luck, have lived to bring in the fulness of
+time.
+
+The Saxon Electors are again aspirants for this enviable Throne. We have
+seen the beautiful Electress zealously soliciting Friedrich for help in
+that project; Friedrich, in a dexterously graceful manner, altogether
+declining. Hereditary Saxons are not to be the expedient this time, it
+would seem; a grandiose Czarina has decided otherwise. Why should not
+she? She and all the world are well aware, Russia has been virtual
+lord of Poland this long time. Credible enough that Russia intends
+to continue so; and also that it will be able, without very much
+expenditure of new contrivance for that object.
+
+So far as can be guessed and assiduously deduced from RULHIERE, with
+your best attention, Russian Catharine's interference seems first of
+all to have been grounded on the grandiose philanthropic principle.
+Astonishing to the liberal mind; yet to appearance true. Rulhiere
+nowhere says so; but that is gradually one's own perception of
+the matter; no other refuge for you out of flat inconceivability.
+Philanthropic principle, we say, which the Voltaires and Sages of that
+Epoch are prescribing as one's duty and one's glory: "O ye Kings, why
+won't you do good to mankind, then?" Catharine, a kind of She-Louis
+Quatorze, was equal to such a thing. To put one's cast Lover into
+a throne,--poor soul, console him in that manner;--and reduce the
+long-dissentient Country to blessed composure under him: what a thing!
+Foolish Poniatowski, an empty, windy creature, redolent of macassar and
+the finer sensibilities of the heart: him she did make King of Poland;
+but to reduce the long-dissentient Country to composure,--that was
+what she could not do. Countries in that predicament are sometimes very
+difficult to compose. The Czarina took, for above five years, a great
+deal of trouble, without losing patience. The Czarina, after every new
+effort, perceived with astonishment that she was farther from success
+than ever. With astonishment; and gradually with irritation, thickening
+and mounting towards indignation.
+
+There is no reason to believe that the grandiose Woman handled, or
+designed to handle, a doomed Poland in the merciless feline-diabolic
+way set forth with wearisome loud reiteration in those distracted Books;
+playing with the poor Country as cat does with mouse; now lifting her
+fell paw, letting the poor mouse go loose in floods of celestial joy and
+hope without limit; and always clutching the hapless creature back into
+the blackness of death, before eating and ending it. Reason first is,
+that the Czarina, as we see her elsewhere, never was in the least a Cat
+or a Devil, but a mere Woman; already virtual proprietress of Poland,
+and needing little contrivance to keep it virtually hers. Reason second
+is, that she had not the gift of prophecy, and could not foreknow
+the Polish events of the next ten years, much less shape them out
+beforehand, and preside over them, like a Devil or otherwise, in the way
+supposed.
+
+My own private conjecture, I confess, has rather grown to be, on much
+reading of those RULHIERES and distracted Books, that the Czarina,--who
+was a grandiose creature, with considerable magnanimities, natural
+and acquired; with many ostentations, some really great qualities and
+talents; in effect, a kind of She-Louis Quatorze (if the reader will
+reflect on that Royal Gentleman, and put him into petticoats in Russia,
+and change his improper females for improper males),--that the Czarina,
+very clearly resolute to keep Poland hers, had determined with herself
+to do something very handsome in regard to Poland; and to gain glory,
+both with the enlightened Philosophe classes and with her own proud
+heart, by her treatment of that intricate matter. "On the one hand,"
+thinks she, or let us fancy she thinks, "here is Poland; a Country
+fallen bedrid amid Anarchies, curable or incurable; much tormented with
+religious intolerance at this time, hateful to the philosophic mind; a
+hateful fanaticism growing upon it for forty years past [though it
+is quite against Polish Law]; and the cries of oppressed Dissidents
+[Dissenters, chiefly of the Protestant and of the Greek persuasion]
+becoming more and more distressing to hear. And, on the other hand, here
+is Poniatowski who, who--!"
+
+Readers have not forgotten the handsome, otherwise extremely paltry,
+young Polack, Stanislaus Poniatowski, whom Excellency Williams took
+with him 8 or 9 years ago, ostensibly as "Secretary of Legation,"
+unostensibly as something very different? Handsome Stanislaus did
+duly become Lover of the Grand-Duchess; and has duly, in the course of
+Nature, some time ago (date uncertain to me), become discarded Lover;
+the question rising, What is to be done with that elegant inane
+creature, and his vaporous sentimentalisms and sublime sorrows and
+disappointments? "Let us make him King of Poland!" said the Czarina,
+who was always much the gentleman with her discarded Lovers (more so,
+I should say, than Louis Quatorze with his;--and indeed it is computed
+they cost her in direct moneys about twenty millions sterling,--being
+numerous and greedy; but never the least tiff of scolding or ill
+language): [Castera (_Vie de Catharine II._) has an elaborate Appendix
+on this part of his subject.]--"King of Poland, with furnishings, and
+set him handsomely up in the world! We will close the Dissident Business
+for him, cure many a curable Anarchy of Poland, to the satisfaction of
+Voltaire and all leading spirits of mankind. He shall have outfit of
+Russian troops, poor creature; and be able to put down Anarchies, and
+show himself a useful and grateful Viceroy for us there. Outfit
+of 10,000 troops, a wise Russian Manager: and the Question of the
+Dissidents to be settled as the first glory of his reign!"
+
+Ingenuous readers are invited to try, in their diffuse vague RULHIERES,
+and unintelligible shrieky Polish Histories, whether this notion does
+not rise on them as a possible human explanation, more credible than
+the feline-diabolic one, which needs withal such a foreknowledge,
+UNattainable by cat or devil? Poland must not rise to be too strong
+a Country, and turn its back on Russia. No, truly; nor, except by
+miraculous suspension of the Laws of Nature, is there danger of that.
+But neither need Poland lie utterly lame and prostrate, useless to
+Russia; and be tortured on its sick-bed with Dissident Questions and
+Anarchies, curable by a strong Sovereign, of whom much is expected by
+Voltaire and the leading spirits of mankind.
+
+What we shall have to say with perfect certainty, and what alone
+concerns us in our own affair, is, FIRST, that Catharine did proceed
+by this method, of crowning, fitting out and otherwise setting up
+Stanislaus; did attempt settlement (and at one time thought she had
+settled) the Dissident Question and some curable Anarchies,--but stirred
+up such legions of incurable, waxing on her hands, day after day, year
+after year, as were abundantly provoking and astonishing:--and that
+within the next eight years she had arrived, with Poland and her cargo
+of anarchies, at results which struck the whole world dumb. Dumb with
+astonishment, for some time; and then into tempests of vociferation
+more or less delirious, which have never yet quite ended, though sinking
+gradually to lower and lower stages of human vocality. Fact FIRST is
+abundantly manifest. Nor is fact SECOND any longer doubtful, That King
+Friedrich, in regard to all this, till a real crisis elsewhere had
+risen, took little or no visible interest whatever; had one unvarying
+course of conduct, that of punctually following Czarish Majesty in
+every respect; instructing his Minister at Warsaw always to second
+and reinforce the Russian one, as his one rule of policy in that
+Country,--whose distracted procedures, imbecilities and anarchies, are,
+beyond this point of keeping well with a grandiose Czarina concerned in
+it, of no apparent practical interest to Prussia or its King.
+
+Friedrich, for a long time, passed with the Public for contriver of the
+Catastrophe of Poland,--"felonious mortal," "monster of maleficence,"
+and what not, in consequence. Rulhiere, whose notion of him is none of
+the friendliest nor correctest, acquits him of this atrocity; declares
+him, till the very end, mainly or altogether passive in it. Which I
+think is a little more than the truth,--and only a little, as perhaps
+may appear by and by. Beyond dispute, these Polish events did at last
+grow interesting enough to Prussia and its King;--and it will be our
+task, sufficient in this place, to extricate and riddle out what few of
+these had any cardinal or notable quality, and put them down (dated, if
+possible, and in intelligible form), as pertinent to throwing light
+on this distressing matter, with careful exclusion of the immense mass
+which can throw only darkness.
+
+
+
+
+EX-LOVER PONIATOWSKI BECOMES KING OF POLAND (7th Sept. 1764), AND IS
+CROWNED WITHOUT LOSS OF HIS HAIR.
+
+WARSAW, 7th SEPTEMBER 1764, Stanislaus Poniatowski, by what management
+of an Imperial Catharine upon an anarchic Nation readers shall imagine
+AD LIBITUM, was elected, what they call elected, King of Poland. Of
+course there had been preliminary Diets of Convocation, much dieting,
+demonstrating and electing of imaginary members of Diet,--only "ten
+persons massacred" in the business. There was a Saxon Party; but no
+counter-candidate of that or any other nation. King Friedrich, solicited
+by a charming Electress-Dowager, decides to remain accurately passive.
+Polish emissaries came entreating him. A certain Mockranowski, who had
+been a soldier under him (never of much mark in that capacity, though
+now a flamingly conspicuous "General" and Politician, in the new scene
+he has got into), came passionately entreating (Potsdam, Summer of 1764,
+is all the date), "DONNEZ NOUS LE PRINCE HENRI, Give us Prince Henri for
+a King!" the sound of which almost made Friedrich turn pale: "Have you
+spoken or hinted of this to the Prince?" "No, your Majesty." "Home,
+then, instantly; and not a whisper of it again to any mortal!"
+[Rulhiere, ii. 268; Hermann, vi. 355-364.] which, they say, greatly
+irritated Prince Henri, and left a permanent sore-place in his mind,
+when he came to hear of it long after.
+
+"A question rises here," says one of my Notes, which perhaps I had
+better have burnt: "At or about what dates did this glorious Poniatowski
+become Lover of the Grand-Duchess, and then become Ex-Lover? Nobody
+will say; or perhaps can? [Preuss (iv. 12) seems to try, but does not
+succeed.] Would have been a small satisfaction to us, and it is
+denied! 'Ritter Williams' (that is, Hanbury) must have produced him at
+Petersburg some time in 1756; '11th January, 1757,' finding it would
+suit, Poniatowski appeared there on his own footing as 'Ambassador from
+Warsaw,'"--(easy to get that kind of credential from a devoted Warsaw,
+if you are succeeding at the Court of Petersburg; "Warsaw watchfully
+makes that the rule of distributing its honors; and, from freezing-point
+upwards, is the most delicate thermometer," says Hermann somewhere).
+And this, is our one date, "Poniatowski in business, SPRING, 1757;" of
+"Poniatowski fallen bankrupt," date is totally wanting.
+
+"Poniatowski's age is 32 gone;--how long out of Russia, readers have to
+guess. Made his first public appearance on the streets of Warsaw, in the
+late Election time, as a Captain of Patriot Volunteers,--'Independence
+of Poland! Shall Poland be dictated to!" cried Stanislaus and an
+indignant Public at one stage of the affair. His Uncles Czartoryski were
+piloting him in; and in that mad element, the cries, and shiftings of
+tack, had to be many. [In HERMANN, v. 362-380 (still more in RULHIERE,
+ii. 119-289), wearisome account of every particular.] He is Nephew, by
+his mother, of these Czartoryskis; but is not by the father of very high
+family. 'Ought he to be King of Poland?' argued some Polish Emissary at
+Petersburg: 'His Grandfather was Land-steward to the Sapiehas.' 'And
+if he himself had been it!' said the Empress, inflexible, though with
+a blush.--It seems the family was really good, though fallen poor; and,
+since that Land-steward phasis, had bloomed well out again. His Father
+was conspicuous as a busy, shifting kind of man, in the Charles-Twelfth
+and other troubles; had died two years ago, as 'Castellan of Cracow;'
+always a dear friend of Stanislaus Leczinski, who gets his death two
+years hence [in 1766, as we have seen].
+
+"King Stanislaus Poniatowski had five Brothers: two of them dead long
+before this time; a third, still alive, was Bishop of Something, Abbot
+of Something; ate his revenues in peace, and demands silence from us.
+The other two, Casimir and Andreas, are better worth naming,--especially
+the Son of one of them is. Casimir, the eldest, is 'Grand
+Crown-Chamberlain' in the days now coming, is also 'Starost of Zips
+[a Country you may note the name of!]--and has a Son,' who is NOT the
+remarkable one. Andreas, the second Brother (died 1773), was in the
+Austrian Service, 'Ordnance-Master,' and a man of parts and weight;--who
+has been here at Warsaw, ardently helping, in the late Election time.
+He too had a Son (at this time a child in arms),--who is really the
+remarkable 'Nephew of King Stanislaus,' and still deserves a word from
+us.
+
+"This Nephew, bred as an Austrian soldier, like his Father, is the
+JOSEPH PONIATOWSKI, who was very famous in the Newspapers fifty years
+ago. By all appearance, a man of some real patriotism, energy and worth.
+He had tried to believe (though, I think, never rightly able) what his
+omnipotent Napoleon had promised him, that extinct Poland should be
+resuscitated; and he fought and strove very fiercely, his Poles and
+he, in that faith or half-faith. And perished, fiercely fighting for
+Napoleon, fiercely covering Napoleon's retreat when his game was lost:
+horse and man plunged into the Elster River (Leipzig Country, October
+19th, 1813, evening of the 'Battle of the Nations' there), and sank
+forever;--and the last gleam of Poland along with him. [_Biographie
+Universelle_ (Poniatowski, Joseph), xxxv. 349-359.] Not even a
+momentary gleam of hope for her, in the sane or half-sane kind, since
+that,--though she now and then still tries it in the insane: the more to
+my regret, for her and others!
+
+"Besides these three Brothers, King Stanislaus had two Sisters still
+living: one of them Wife of a very high Zamoiski; the other of a
+ditto Branicki (pronounce BraniTZki)--him whom our German Books call
+KRON-GROSSFELDHERR; (Grand Crown-General,' if the Crown have any
+soldiers at all; the sublime, debauched old Branicki, of whom Rulhiere
+is continually talking, and never reports anything but futilities in
+a futile manner. So much is futile, and not worth reporting, in this
+Polish element!--King Stanislaus himself was born 17th January, 1732;
+played King of shreds and patches till 1790,--or even farther (not till
+1795 did Catharine pluck the paper tabard quite off him); he died in
+Petersburg, February 11th or 12th) 1798." After such a life!--
+
+Stanislaus was crowned 25th November, 1764. He needs, as preliminary,
+to be anointed, on the bare scalp of him, with holy oil before crowning;
+ought to have his head close-shaved with that view. Stanislaus, having
+an uncommonly fine head of hair, shuddered at the barbarous idea;
+absolutely would not: whereupon delay, consultation; and at length some
+artificial scalp, or second skull, of pasteboard or dyed leather, was
+contrived for the poor man, which comfortably took the oiling in a
+vicarious way, with the ambrosial locks well packed out of sight
+under it, and capable of flowing out again next day, as if nothing had
+happened. [Rulhiere.] Not a sublime specimen of Ornamental Human Nature,
+this poor Stanislaus! Ornamental wholly: the body of him, and the mind
+of him, got up for representation; and terribly plucked to pieces on the
+stage of the world. You may try to drop a tear over him, but will find
+mostly that you cannot.
+
+
+
+
+FOR SEVERAL YEARS THE DISSIDENT QUESTION CANNOT BE GOT SETTLED;
+CONFEDERATION OF RADOM (23d June, 1767-5th March, 1768) PUSHES IT INTO
+SETTLEMENT.
+
+For several years after this feat of the false scalp, through long
+volumes, wearisome even in RULHIERE, there turns up nothing which can
+now be called memorable. The settling of the Dissident Question proves
+extremely tedious to an impatient Czarina; as to curing of the other
+curable Anarchies, there is absolutely nothing but a knitting up by A,
+with a ravelling-out again by B, and no progress discernible
+whatever. Impatient Czarina ardently pushes on some Dissident
+settlement,--seconded by King Friedrich and the chief Protestant
+Courts, London included, and by the European leading spirits
+everywhere,--through endless difficulties: finds native Orthodoxy an
+unexpectedly stiff matter; Bishops generally having a fanaticism which
+is wonderful to think of, and which keeps mounting higher and higher.
+Till at length there will Images of the Virgin take to weeping,--as
+they generally do in such cases, when in the vicinity of brew-houses and
+conveniences; [Nicolai, in his TRAVELS OVER GERMANY, doggedly undertook
+to overhaul one of those weeping Virgins (somewhere in Austria, I
+think); and found her, he says, to depend on subterranean percolation
+of steam from a Brewery not far off.]--a Carmelite Monk go about the
+country working miracles; and, in short, an extremely ugly phasis of
+religious human nature disclose itself to the afflicted reader. King
+Friedrich thinks, had it not been for this Dissident Question, things
+would have taken their old Saxon complexion, and Poland might have
+rotted on as heretofore, perhaps a good while longer.
+
+As to the knitting-up and ravelling-out again, which is called curing of
+the other anarchies, no reader can or need say anything: it seems to be
+a most painful knitting-up, by the Czartoryskis chiefly, then an
+instant ravelling out by malign Opposition parties of various indistinct
+complexion; the knitting, the ravelling, and the malign Opposition
+parties, alike indistinct and without interest to mankind. A certain
+drunken, rather brutal Phantasm of a Prince Radzivil, who hates the
+Czartoryskis, and is dreadfully given to drink, to wasteful ambitions
+and debaucheries, figures much in these businesses; is got banished and
+confiscated, by some Confederation formed; then, by new Confederations,
+is recalled and reinstated,--worse if possible than ever. The thing is
+reality; but it reads like a Phantasmagory produced by Lapland Witches,
+under presidency of Diabolus (very certainly the Devil presiding, as you
+see at all turns),--and is not worth understanding, were it even easy.
+
+Much semi-intelligible, wholly forgettable stuff about King Stanislaus
+and his difficulties, and his duplicities and treacherous imbecilities,
+[Hermann, v. 400, &c.; Rulhiere PASSIM.] now of interest to no mortal.
+Stanislaus is at one time out with the uncles Czartoryski, at another in
+with these worthy gentlemen: a man not likely to cure Anarchies, unless
+wishing would do it. On the Dissident Question itself he needs spurring:
+a King of liberal ideas, yes; but with such flames of fanaticism under
+the nose of him. In regard to the Dissident and all other curative
+processes he is languid, evasive, for moments recalcitrant to Russian
+suggestions; a lost imbecile,--forget him, with or without a tear. He
+has still a good deal of so-called gallantry on his hands; flies to his
+harem when outside things go contradictory. [Hermann, v. 402, &c.] Think
+of malign Journalists printing this bit of Letter at one time, to do him
+ill in a certain quarter: "Oh, come to me, my Princess! Dearer than all
+Empresses:--imperial charms, what were they to thine for a heart that
+has--" with more of the like stuff, for a Czarina's behoof.
+
+WINTER OF 1766, Imperial Majesty, whether after or before that
+miraculous Carmelite Monk, I do not remember, became impatient of these
+tedious languors and tortuosities about the Dissident Question, and gave
+express order, "Settle it straightway!" To which end, Confederations
+and the other machinery were set agoing: Confederations among the
+Protestants and Dissidents themselves, about Thorn and such places (got
+up by Russian engineering), and much more extensively in the Lithuanian
+parts; Confederations of great extent, imperative, minatory; ostensibly
+for reinstating these poor people in their rights (which, by old Polish
+Law, they quite expressly were, if that were any matter), but in reality
+for bringing back drunken Radzivil, who has covenanted to carry that
+measure. And so,
+
+JUNE 23d, 1767, These multiplex Polish-Lithuanian Confederations,
+twenty-four of them in all, with their sublime marshals and officials,
+and above 80,000 noblemen in them, meet by deputies at Radom, a
+convenient little Town within wind of Warsaw (lies 60 miles to south of
+Warsaw); and there coalesce into one general "Confederation of
+Radom," [Hermann, v. 420.] with drunken Radzivil atop, who, glad to be
+reinstated in his ample Domains and Wine-cellars, and willing at any
+rate to spite the Czartoryskis and others, has pledged himself to carry
+that great measure in Diet, and quash any NIE POZWALAMS and difficulties
+there may be. This is the once world-famous, now dimly discoverable,
+CONFEDERATION OF RADOM, which--by preparatory declaring, under its hand
+and seal, That the Law of the Land must again become valid, and "Free
+Polacks of Dissident opinions concerning Religion (NOS DISSIDENTES DE
+RELIGIONE)," as the old Law phrases it, "shall have equal rights of
+citizenship"--was beautifully instrumental in achieving that bit of
+Human Progress, and pushing it through the Diet, and its difficulties
+shortly ensuing.
+
+Not that the Diet did not need other vigorous treatment as well, the
+flame of fanaticism being frightfully ardent; many of the poor Bishops
+having run nearly frantic at this open spoliation of Mother Church,
+and snatching of the sword from Peter. So that Imperial Majesty had to
+decide on picking out a dozen, or baker's dozen, of the hottest Bishops;
+and carrying them quietly into Russia under lock and key, till the thing
+were done. Done it was, surely to the infinite relief of mankind;--I
+cannot say precisely on what day: October 13th-14th (locking up of the
+dozen Bishops), was one vital epoch of it; November 19th, 1767 (report
+of Committee on it, under Radzivil's and Russia's coercion), was
+another: first and last it took about five months baking in Diet. Diet
+met Oct. 4th, 1767, Radzivil controlling as Grand-Marshal, and Russia as
+minatory Phantom controlling Radzivil; Diet, after adjournments,
+after one long adjournment, disappeared 5th March, 1768; and of
+work mentionable it had done this of the Dissidents only. That of
+contributing to "the sovereign contempt with which King Stanislaus is
+regarded by all ranks of men," is hardly to be called peculiar work or
+peculiarly mentionable.
+
+At this point, to relieve the reader's mind, and, at any rate, as the
+date is fully come, we will introduce a small NEWSPAPER ARTICLE from
+a very high hand, little guessed till long afterwards as the
+writer,--namely, from King Friedrich's own. It does not touch on the
+Dissident Question, or the Polish troubles; but does, in a back-handed
+way, on Prussian Rumors rising about them; and may obliquely show more
+of the King's feeling on that subject than we quite suppose. It seems
+the King had heard that the Berlin people were talking and rumoring
+of "a War being just at hand;" whereupon--"MARCH 5th, 1767, IN THE
+VOSSISCHE ZEITUNG (Voss's Chronicle), No. 28," an inquisitive Berlin
+public read as follows:--
+
+"We are advised from Potsdam, that, on the 27th of February, towards
+evening, the sky began to get overcast; black clouds, presaging a
+tempest of unexampled fury, covered all the horizon: the thunder, with
+its lightnings, forked bolts of amazing brilliancy, burst out; and,
+under its redoubled peals, there descended such a torrent of hail as
+within man's memory had not been seen. Of two bullocks yoked in their
+plough, with which a peasant was hastening home, one was struck on the
+head by a piece of it, and killed outright. Many of the common people
+were wounded in the streets; a brewer had his arm broken. Roofs are
+destroyed by the weight of this hail; all the windows that looked
+windward while it fell were broken. In the streets, hailstones were
+found of the size of pumpkins (CITROUILLES), which had not quite melted
+two hours after the storm ceased. This singular phenomenon has made a
+very great impression. Scientific people say, the air had not buoyancy
+enough to support these solid masses when congealed to ice; that
+the small hailstones in these clouds getting so lashed about in the
+impetuosity of the winds, had united the more the farther they fell,
+and had not acquired that enormous magnitude till comparatively near the
+earth. Whatever way it may have happened, it is certain that occurrences
+of that kind are rare, and almost without example." [VOSSISCHE ZEITUNG,
+ubi supra: _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xv. 204.]
+
+Another singularity is, "Professor Johann Daniel Titius of Wittenberg,"
+who teaches NATURAL PHILOSOPHY in that famous University, one may
+judge with what effect, wrote a Monograph on this unusual Phenomenon!
+[Rodenbeck (ii. 285) gives the Title of it, "CONSIDERATIONS ON THE
+POTSDAM HAIL OF LAST YEAR (Wittenberg, 1768)."]
+
+
+
+
+CONFEDERATION OF BAR ENSUES, ON THE PER-CONTRA SIDE (March 28th,
+1768); AND, AS FIRST RESULT OF ITS ACHIEVEMENTS (October 6th, 1768), A
+TURK-RUSSIAN WAR.
+
+The Confederation of Radom, and its victorious Diet, had hardly begun
+their Song of Triumph, when there ensued on the per-contra side a
+flaming CONFEDERATION OF BAR;--which, by successive stages, does at
+last burn out the Anarchies of Poland, and reduce them to ashes.
+Confederation of Bar; and then, as progeny of that, for and against,
+such a brood of Confederations, orthodox, heterodox, big, little,
+short-lived, long-lived, of all complexions and degrees of noisy fury,
+potent, at any rate, each of them for murder and arson, within a
+certain radius, as the Earth never saw before. Now was the time of those
+inextricable marchings (as inroads and outroads) through the Lithuanian
+Bogs, of those death-defiant, unparalleled exploits, skirmishings,
+scaladings, riding by the edge of precipices, of Pulawski, Potocki and
+others,--in which Rulhiere loses himself and turns on his axis, amid
+impatient readers.
+
+For the Russian troops (summoned by a trembling Stanislaus and his
+Senate, in terms of Treaty 1764), and in more languid manner, the
+Stanislaus soldiery, as per law of the case, proceeded to strike
+in,--generally, my impression was, with an eye to maintain the King's
+Peace and keep down murder and arson:--and sure enough, the small bodies
+of drilled Russians blew an infuriated orthodox Polack chivalry to right
+and left at a short notice; but as to the Constable's Peace or King's,
+made no improvement upon that, far the reverse. It is certain the
+Confederate chivalry were driven about, at a terrible rate,--over
+the Turk frontier for shelter; began to appeal to the Grand Turk, in
+desperate terms: "Brother of the Sun and Moon, saw you ever such a
+chance for finishing Russia? Polack chivalry is Orthodox Catholic, but
+also it is Anti-Russian!" The Turk beginning to give ear to it, made the
+matter pressing and serious. Here, more specifically, are some features
+and successive phases,--unless the reader prefer to skip.
+
+"BAR, MARCH, 1768. The Confederation of Radom, as efficient preliminary,
+and chief agent in that Diet of emancipation to the Dissident human
+mind, might long have been famous over Poland and the world; but there
+instantly followed as corollary to it a CONFEDERATION OF BAR, which
+quite dimmed the fame of Radom, and indeed of all Confederations prior
+or posterior! As the Confederation of Bar and its Doings, or rather
+sufferings and tragical misdoings and undoings, still hang like fitful
+spectralities, or historical shadows, of a vague ghastly complexion,
+in the human memory, one asks at least: Since they were on this Planet,
+tell us where? Bar is in the Waiwodship Podol (what we call Podolia),
+some 400 miles southeast of Warsaw; not far from the Dniester
+River:--not far very from that mystery of the Dniester, the Zaporavian
+Cossacks,--from those rapids or cataracts (quasi-cataracts of the
+Dniester, with Islands in them, where those Cossack robbers live
+unassailable):--across the Dniester lies Turkey, and its famed Fortress
+of Choczim. This is a commodious station for Polish Gentlemen intending
+mutiny by law.
+
+"MARCH 8th, 1768, Three short days after the Diet of Radom had done its
+fine feat, and retired to privacy, news came to Warsaw, That Podolia and
+the Southern parts are all up, confederating with the highest animation;
+in hot rage against such decision of a Diet, contrary to Holy Religion
+and to much else; and that the said decision will have to fight for
+itself, now that it has done voting. This interesting news is true; and
+goes on intensifying and enlarging itself, one dreadful Confederation
+springing up, and then another and ever another, day after day; till at
+last we hear that on the 27th of the month, MARCH 27th, 1768, at Bar, a
+little Town on the Southern or Turkish Frontier, all these more or less
+dreadful Confederations have met by delegates, and coalesced into one
+'Confederatiou of Bar,'--which did surely prove dreadful enough, to
+itself especially, in the months now ensuing!"
+
+No history of Bar Confederation shall we dream of; far be such an
+attempt from us. It consists of many Confederations, and out of each,
+PRO and CONTRA, spring many. Like the Lernean Hydra, or even Hydras in
+a plural condition. A many-headed dog: and how many whelps it
+had,--I cannot give even the cipher of them, or I would! One whelp
+Confederation, that of Cracow, is distinguished by having frequently or
+generally been "drunk;" and of course its procedures had often a vinous
+character. [In HERMANN (v. 431-448); and especially in RULHIERE (ii.
+livre 8 et seq.), details in superabundance.] I fancy to have read
+somewhere that the number of them was one hundred and twenty-five. The
+rumor and the furious barking of Bar and its whelps goes into all lands:
+such rabid loud baying at mankind and the moon; and then, under Russia's
+treatment, such shrill yelping and shrieking, was not heard in the world
+before, though perhaps it has since.
+
+Poor BAR'S exploits in the fighting way were highly inconsiderable; all
+on the same scale; and spread over such a surface of country, mostly
+unknown, as renders it impossible to give them head-room, were you never
+so unfurnished. They can be read in eloquent Rulhiere; but by no mortal
+held in memory. Anarchy is not a thing to be written of; a Lernean
+Hydra, several Lernean Hydras, in chaotic genesis, getting their heads
+lopped off, and at the same time sprouting new ones in such ratio, where
+is the Zoologist that will give account of it? There was not anything
+considerable of fighting; but of bullying, plundering, murdering and
+being murdered, a frightful amount. There are seizures of castles,
+convents, defensible houses; marches at a rate like that of antelopes,
+through the Lithuanian parts, boggy, hungry, boundless, opening to the
+fancy the Infinitude of Peat, in the solid and the fluid state. This,
+perhaps, is the finest species of feats, though they never lead to
+anything. There are heroes famed for these marches.
+
+The Pulawskis, for example,--four of them, Lawyer people,--showed much
+activity, and a talent for impromptu soldiering, in that kind. The
+Magnates of the Confederation, I was surprised to learn, had all quitted
+it, the instant it came to strokes: "You Lawyer people, with your
+priests and orthodox peasantries, you do the fighting part; ours is
+the consulting!" And except Potocki (and he worse than none), there
+is presently not a Magnate of them left in Poland,--the rest all gone
+across the Austrian Border, to Teschen, to Bilitz, a handy little town
+and domain in that Duchy of Teschen;--and sit there as "Committee of
+Government:" much at their ease in comparison, could they but agree
+among themselves, which they cannot. Bilitz is one of the many domains
+of Magnate Sulkowski:--do readers recollect the Sulkowski who at one
+time "declared War" on King Friedrich; and was picked up, both War and
+he, so compendiously by General Goltz, and locked in Glogau to cool?
+This is the same Sulkowski; much concerned now in these matters; a rich
+Magnate, glad to see his friends about him as Governing Committee; but
+gets, and gives, a great deal of vexation in it, the element proving
+again too hot!--
+
+I said there were four famed Pulawskis; [Hermann, v. 465.] a father,
+once Advocate in Warsaw, with three sons and a nephew; who, though
+extremely active people, could do no good whatever. The father Pulawski
+had the fine idea of introducing the British Constitution; clothing
+Poland wholly in British tailorage, and so making it a new Poland: but
+he never could get it done. This poor gentleman died in Turkish
+prison, flung into jail at Constantinople, on calumnious accusation and
+contrivance by a rival countryman; his sons and nephew, poor fellows,
+all had their fame, more or less, in the Cause of Freedom so called; but
+no other profit in this world, that I could hear of. Casimir, the eldest
+son, went to America; died there, still in the Cause of Freedom so
+called; Fort Pulawski, in the harbor of Charleston (which is at present,
+on very singular terms, RE-engaged in the same so-called Cause!), was
+named in memory of this Casimir. He had defended Czenstochow (if anybody
+knew what Czenstochow was, or could find it in the Polish map); and it
+was also he that contrived that wonderful plan of suddenly snapping up
+King Stanislaus from the streets of Warsaw one night, ["3d November,
+1771."] and of locking him away (by no means killing him), as the source
+of all our woes. O my Pulawskis, men not without manhood, what a bedlam
+of a Time have you and I fallen into, and what Causes of Freedom it has
+got in hand!
+
+Bar, a poor place, with no defences but a dry ditch and some miserable
+earthworks, the Confederates had not the least chance to maintain;
+Kaminiec, the only fortress of the Province, they never even got into,
+finding some fraction of royal soldiery who stood for King Stanislaus
+there, and who fired on the Confederates when applied to. Bar a small
+Russian division, with certain Stanislaus soldieries conjoined, took by
+capitulation; and (date not given) entered in a victorious manner. The
+War-Epic of the Confederates, which Rulhiere sings at such length, is
+blank of meaning.
+
+Of "Cloister Czenstochow," a famed feat of Pulawski's, also without
+result, I could not from my Rulhiere discover (what was altogether an
+illuminative fact to me!) that the date of Czenstochow was not till
+1771. A feat of "Cloister BERDICZOW," almost an exact facsimile by the
+same Pulawski, also resultless, I did, under Hermann's guidance, at
+once find;--and hope the reader will be satisfied to accept it instead:
+Cloister Berdiczow, which lies in the Palatinate of Kiow; and which
+has a miraculous Holy Virgin, not less venerated far and wide in those
+eastern parts, than she of Cloister Czenstochow in the western: THIS
+Cloister Berdiczow and its salutary Virgin, Pulawski (the Casimir, now
+of Charleston Harbor) did defend, with about 1,000 men, in a really
+obstinate way, The Monastery itself had in it gifts of the faithful,
+accumulated for ages; and all the richest people in those Provinces,
+Confederate or not, had lodged their preciosities there, as in an
+impregnable and sure place, in those times of trouble. Intensely
+desirous, accordingly, the Russians were to take it, but had no cannon;
+desperately resolute Pulawski and his 1,000 to defend. Pulawski and his
+1,000 fired intensely, till their cannon-balls were quite done; then
+took to firing with iron-work, and hard miscellanies of every sort,
+especially glad when they could get a haul of glass to load with;--and
+absolutely would not yield till famine came; though the terms offered
+were good,--had they been kept.
+
+So that Pulawski, it would appear, did Two Cloister Defences? Two, each
+with a miraculous Holy Virgin; an eastern, and then a westerly. This of
+Berdiczow, not dated to me farther, is for certain of the year 1768;
+and Pulawski, owing to famine, did yield here. In 1771, at miraculous
+Cloister Czenstochow, in the western parts, Pulawski did an external
+feat, or consented to see it done,--that of trying to snuff out poor
+King Stanislaus on the streets (3d November, 10 P.M., "miraculously" in
+vain, as most readers know),--which brought its obloquies and troubles
+on the Defender of Czenstochow. Obloquies and troubles: but as to
+surrendering Czenstochow on call of obloquy, or of famine itself,
+Pulawski would not, not he for his own part; but solemnly left his men
+to do it, and walked away by circuitous uncertain paths, which end in
+Charleston Harbor, as we have seen. [At Savannah, in a stricter sense.
+"Perished at the Siege [futile attempt to storm, by the French, which
+they called a Siege] of Savannah, 9th October, 1779."] Defence of
+Czenstochow in 1771 shall not concern us farther. Truly these two small
+defences of monasteries by Pulawski are almost all, I do not say of
+glorious, but even of creditable or human, that reward the poor wanderer
+in that Polish Valley of Jehoshaphat, much of it peat-country; wherefore
+I have, as before, marked the approximate localities, approximate dates,
+for behoof of ingenuous readers.
+
+The Russians, ever since 1764, from the beginnings of those Stanislaus
+times, are pledged to maintain peace in Poland; and it is they that
+have to deal with this affair,--they especially, or almost wholly, poor
+Stanislaus having scarcely any power, military or other, and perhaps
+being loath withal. There was more of investigating and parleying,
+bargaining and intriguing, than of fighting, on Stanislaus's part. "June
+11th, 1768," says a Saxon Note from Warsaw, "Mokranowski, Stanislaus's
+General [the same that was with Friedrich], has been sent down to Bar to
+look into those Confederates. Mokranowski does not think there are
+above 8,000 of them; about 3,000 have got their death from Russian
+castigation. The 8,000 might be treated with, only Russians are so
+dreadfully severe, especially so intent on wringing money from them.
+Confederates have been complaining to the Turk; Turk ambiguous; gives
+them no definite ground of hope. 'What then, is your hope?' I inquired.
+'Little or none, except in Heaven,' several answered: 'it is for our
+religion and our liberty:' religion cut to pieces by this Dissident
+Toleration-blasphemy; liberty ditto by the Russian guarantee of peace
+among us: 'what can we do but trust in God and our own despair?'"
+["Essen's Report, 11th June, 1768" (in HERMANN, v. 441).] "Prave worts,
+Ancient Pistol,"--but much destitute of sense, and not to be realized in
+present circumstances. Here is something much more critical:--
+
+JUNE-JULY, 1768. "The peasants in the Southern regions, Palatinates
+Podol, Kiow, Braclaw, called UKRAINE or Border-Country by the Poles,
+are mostly of Greek and other schismatic creeds. Their Lords are of
+an orthodox religion, and not distinguished by mild treatment of such
+Peasantry, upon whom civil war and plunder have been latterly a
+sore visitation. To complete the matter, the Confederates in certain
+quarters, blown upon by fanatical priests, set about converting these
+poor peasants, or forcing them, at the point of the bayonet, to swear
+that they adopt the 'Greek united rite,' which I suppose to be a kind
+of half-way house towards perfect orthodoxy. In one Village, which was
+getting converted in this manner, the military party seemed to be small;
+the Village boiled over upon it; trampled orthodoxy and military both
+under foot, in a violent and sanguinary manner; and was extremely
+frightened when it had done. Extremely frightened, not the Village only,
+but the schismatic mind generally in those parts, dreading vengeance for
+such a paroxysm. But the atrocious Russians whispered them, 'We are here
+to protect you in your religions and rights, in your poor consciences
+and skins.' Upon which hint of the atrocious Russians, the schismatic
+mind and population one and all rose; and, 'with the cannibal's
+ferocity, gave way to their appetite for plunder!'...
+
+"Nay, the Russian Government [certain Russian Officials hard pressed]
+had invited the Zaporavian Cossacks to step over from their Islands in
+the Dniester, and assist in defending their Religion [true Greek, of
+course]; who at once did so; and not only extinguished the last glimmer
+of Confederation there, but overwhelmed the Country, thousands on
+thousands of them, attended by revolted peasants,--say a 20,000 of
+peasants under command of these Zaporavians,--who went about plundering
+and burning. That they plundered the Jew pot-houses of their brandy,
+and drank it, was a small matter. Very furious upon Jews, upon Noblemen,
+Landlords, upon Catholic Priests. 'On one tree [tree should have been
+noted] was found hanged a specimen of each of those classes, with a Dog
+adjoined, as fit company.' In one little Town, Town of HUMAN [so called
+in that foreign dialect], getting some provocation or other, they set to
+massacring; and if brandy were plentiful, we can suppose they made short
+work. By the lowest computation the number of slain Jews and Catholics
+amounted to 10,000 odd [Hermann, v. 444; Rulhiere, iii. 93.]--Rulhiere
+says '50,000, by some accounts 200,000.'" This I guess to have been at
+its height about the end of June; this leads direct to the Catastrophe,
+as will presently be seen.
+
+Foreign States don't seem to pay much attention,--indeed, what sane
+person would like to interfere, or hope to do it with profit? France,
+Austria, both wish well to Poland, at least ill to Russia; Choiseul has
+no finance, can do nothing but intrigue, and stir up trouble everywhere:
+a devout Kaiserinn goes with Holy Church, and disapproves of these
+Dissident Tolerations: it is remarked that all through 1768 the
+Confederates of Bar are permitted to retire over the Austrian Frontier
+into Austrian Silesia, and find themselves there in safety. Permitted to
+buy arms, to make preparations, issue orders: at Sulkowski's Bilitz, in
+the Duchy of Teschen, supreme Managing Committee sits there; no Kaunitz
+or Official person meddling with it. About the beginning of next year
+(1769), it is, ostensibly, a little discountenanced; and obliged to go
+to Eperjes, on the Hungarian Frontier [See Busching: for Eperjes, ii.
+1427; for Bilitz, viii. 885.] (as a more decent or less conspicuous
+place),--such trouble now rising; a Turk War having broken
+out, momentous not to the Confederation alone. March, 1769, the
+ever-intriguing Choiseul--fancy with what rapturous effect--had sent
+some kind of Agent or Visitor to Teschen; Vergennes in Turkey, from the
+beginning of these things, has been plying night and day his diplomatic
+bellows upon every live-coal ("I who myself kindled this Turk-War!"
+brags he afterwards);--not till next year (1770) did Choiseul send
+his Dumouriez to the Bilitz neighborhoods; not till next again, when
+Choiseul was himself out, [Thrown out "2d December, 1770,"--by Louis's
+NEW Pompadour.] did his Viomenil come: [Hermann, v. 469-471; in RULHIERE
+(iv. 241-289) account of Dumouries and his fencings and spyings, still
+more of Viomenil, who had "French Volunteers," and did some bits of real
+fighting on the small scale.] neither of whom, by their own head alone,
+without funds, without troops, could do other than with fine effort make
+bad worse.
+
+It is needless continuing such a subject. Here is one glimpse two years
+later, and it shall be our last: "NEAR LUBLIN, 25th SEPTEMBER, 1770. It
+is frightful, all this that is passing in these parts,--about the Town
+of Labun, for example. The dead bodies remain without burial; they are
+devoured by the dogs and the pigs. ... Everywhere reigns Pestilence; nor
+do we fear contagion so much as famine. Offer 100 ducats for a fowl
+or for a bit of bread, I swear you won't get it. General von Essen
+[Russian, we will hope] has had to escape from Laticzew, then from" some
+other place, "Pestilence chasing him everywhere."
+
+To apply to the Turks,--afflicted Polish Patriots prostrating themselves
+with the hope of despair, "Save us, your sublime Clemency; throw a ray
+of pity on us, Brother of the Sun and Moon: oh, chastise our
+diabolic oppressors!"--this was one of the first resources of the Bar
+Confederates. The Turks did give ear; not inattentive, though pretending
+to be rather deaf. M. de Vergennes,--of whose "diplomatic bellows" we
+just heard (in fact, for diligence in this Turk element, in this young
+time, the like of him was seldom seen; we knew him long afterwards as
+a diligent old gentleman, in French-Revolution days),--M. de Vergennes
+zealously supports; zealous to let loose the Turk upon Anti-French
+parties. The Turks seem to wag their heads, for some time; and their
+responses are ambiguous. For some time, not for long. Here, fast enough,
+comes, in disguised shape, the Catastrophe itself, ye poor plaintive
+Poles!
+
+JULY-OCTOBER, 1768. Those Zaporavian and other Cossacks, with 20,000
+peasants plundering about on both sides of the Dniester, had set fire to
+the little Town of Balta, which is on the south side, and belongs to
+the Turks: a very grave accident, think all political people, think
+especially the Foreign Excellencies at Warsaw, when news of it arrives.
+Burning of Balta, not to be quenched by the amplest Russian apologies,
+proved a live-coal at Constantinople; and Vergennes says, he set
+population and Divan on fire by it: a proof that the population and
+Divan had already been in a very inflammable state. Not a wise Divan,
+though a zealous. Plenty of fury in these people; but a sad deficiency
+of every other faculty. They made haste, in their hot humor, to declare
+War (6th October, 1768); [Hermann, v. 608-611.] not considering much how
+they would carry it on. Declared themselves in late Autumn,--as if to
+give the Russians ample time for preparing; those poor Turks
+themselves being as yet ready with nothing, and even the season for
+field-operations being over.
+
+King Friedrich, who has still a Minister at the Porte, endeavored to
+dissuade his old Turk friends, in this rash crisis; but to no purpose;
+they would listen to nothing but Vergennes and their own fury. Friedrich
+finds this War a very mad one on the part of his old Turk friends; their
+promptitude to go into it (he has known them backward enough when
+their chances were better!), and their way of carrying it on, are alike
+surprising to him. He says: "Catharine's Generals were unacquainted with
+the first elements of Castrametation and Tactic; but the Generals of the
+Sultan had a still more prodigious depth of ignorance; so that to form a
+correct idea of this War, you must figure a set of purblind people, who,
+by constantly beating a set of altogether blind, end by gaining over
+them a complete mastery." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ vi. 23, 24.] This,
+as Friedrich knows, is what Austria cannot suffer; this is what
+will involve Austria and Russia, and Friedrich along with them,
+in--Friedrich, as the matter gradually unfolds itself, shudders to think
+what. The beginnings of this War were perhaps almost comical to the
+old Soldier-King; but as it gradually developed itself into complete
+shattering to pieces of the stupid Blind by the ambitious Purblind, he
+grew abundantly serious upon it.
+
+It is but six months since Polish Patriotism, so effulgent to its own
+eyes in Orthodoxy, in Love of glorious Liberty, confederated at Bar,
+and got into that extraordinary whirlpool, or cesspool, of miseries
+and deliriums we have been looking at; and now it has issued on a broad
+highway of progress,--broad and precipitous,--and will rapidly arrive
+at the goal set before it. All was so rapid, on the Polish and on the
+Turkish part. The blind Turks, out of mere fanaticism and heat of humor,
+have rushed into this adventure;--and go rushing forward into a series
+of chaotic platitudes on the huge scale, and mere tragical disasters,
+year after year, which would have been comical, had they not been so
+hideous and sanguinary: constant and enormous blunders on the Turk
+part, issuing in disasters of like magnitude; which in the course of
+Two Campaigns had quite finished off their Polish friends, in a very
+unexpected way; and had like to have finished themselves off, had not
+drowned Poland served as a stepping-stone.
+
+Not till March 26th, 1769, six months after declaring in such haste,
+did the blind Turks "display their Banner of Mahomet," that is, begin
+in earnest to assemble and make ready. Nor were the Russians shiningly
+strategic, though sooner in the field,--a Prince Galitzin commanding
+them (an extremely purblind person); till replaced by Romanzow, our old
+Colberg acquaintance, who saw considerably better. Galitzin, early in
+the season, made a rush on Choczim (ChoTzim), the first Turk Fort beyond
+the Dniester; and altogether failed,--not by Turk prowess, but by his
+own purblind mal-arrangements (want of ammunition, want of bread, or I
+will forget what);--which occasioned mighty grumblings in Russia:
+till in a month or two, by favor of Fortune and blindness of the Turk,
+matters had come well round again; and Galitzin, walking up to Choczim
+the second time, found there was not a Turk in the place, and that
+Choczim was now his on those uncommonly easy terms!
+
+Instead of farther details on such a War,--the shadow or reflex of
+which, as mirrored in the Austrian mind, has an importance to Friedrich
+and us; but the self or substance of which has otherwise little or
+none,--we will close here with a bit of Russian satire on it, which is
+still worth reading. The date is evidently Spring, 1769; the scene what
+we are now treating of: Galitzin obliged to fall back from Choczim;
+great rumor--"What a Galitzin; what a Turk War his, in contrast to
+the last we had!" [Turk War of 1736-1739, under Munnich (supra, vii.
+81-126).]--no Romanzow yet appointed in his room. And here is a small
+Manuscript, which was then circulating fresh and new in Russian Society;
+and has since gone over all the world (though mostly in an uncertain
+condition, in old Jest-Books and the like), as a genuine bit of CAVIARE
+from those Northern parts:--
+
+MANUSCRIPT CIRCULATING IN RUSSIAN SOCIETY. Galitzin, much grieved about
+Choczim, could not sleep; and, wandering about in his tent, overheard,
+one night, a common soldier recounting his dream to the sentry outside
+the door.
+
+"A curious dream," said the soldier: "I dreamt I was in a battle; that
+I got my head cut off; that I died; and, of course, went to Heaven.
+I knocked at the door: Peter came with a bunch of Keys; and made such
+rattling that he awoke God; who started up in haste, asking, 'What is
+the matter?' 'Why,' says Peter, 'there is a great War on earth between
+the Russians and the Turks.' 'And who commands my Russians?' said the
+Supreme Being. 'Count Munnich,' answered Peter. 'Very well; I may go
+to sleep again!'--But this was not the end of my dream," continued
+the soldier; "I fell asleep and dreamt again, the very same as before,
+except that the War was not Count Munnich's, but the one we are now in.
+Accordingly, when God asked, 'Who commands my Russians?' Peter answered,
+'Prince Galitzin.' 'Galitzin? Then get me my boots!' said the [Russian]
+Supreme Being." [W. Richardson (then at Petersburg, Tutor to Excellency
+Cathcart's Children; afterwards Professor at Glasgow, and a man of
+Some reputation in his old age), _Anecdotes of the Russian Empire, in a
+Series of Letters written a few years ago from St. Petersburg_ (London,
+1784), p. 110: date of this Letter is "17th October, 1769."]
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV.--PARTITION OF POLAND.
+
+These Polish phenomena were beginning to awaken a good deal of
+attention, not all of it pleasant, on the part of Friedrich. From the
+first he had, as usual, been a most clear-eyed observer of everything;
+and found the business, as appears, not of tragical nature, but of
+expensive-farcical, capable to shake the diaphragm rather than touch the
+heart of a reflective on-looker. He has a considerable Poem on it,--WAR
+OF THE CONFEDERATES by title (in the old style of the PALLADION,
+imitating an unattainable JEANNE D'ARC),--considerable Poem, now
+forming itself at leisure in his thoughts, ["LA GUERRE DES CONFEDERES
+[_OEuvres,_ xiv. 183 et seq.], finished in November, 1771."] which
+decidedly takes that turn; and laughs quite loud at the rabid
+fanaticisms, blusterous inanities and imbecilities of these noisy
+unfortunate neighbors:--old unpleasant style of the PALLADION and
+PUCELLE; but much better worth reading; having a great deal of sharp
+sense in its laughing guise, and more of real Historical Discernment
+than you will find in any other Book on that delirious subject.
+
+Much a laughing-stock to this King hitherto, such a "War of the
+Confederates,"--consisting of the noisiest, emptiest bedlam tumults,
+seasoned by a proportion of homicide, and a great deal of battery and
+arson. But now, with a Russian-Turk War springing from it, or already
+sprung, there are quite serious aspects rising amid the laughable. By
+Treaty, this War is to cost the King either a 12,000 of Auxiliaries to
+the Czarina, or a 72,000 pounds (480,000 thalers) annually; [_OEuvres
+de Frederic,_ vi. 13.]--which latter he prefers to pay her, as the
+alternative: not an agreeable feature at all; but by no means the worst
+feature. Suppose it lead to Russian conquests on the Turk, to Austrian
+complicacies, to one knows not what, and kindle the world round one
+again! In short, we can believe Friedrich was very willing to stand well
+with next-door neighbors at present, and be civil to Austria and its
+young Kaiser's civilities.
+
+
+
+
+FIRST INTERVIEW BETWEEN FRIEDRICH AND KAISER JOSEPH (Neisse, 25th-28th
+August, 1769).
+
+In 1766, the young Kaiser, who has charge of the Military Department,
+and of little else in the Government, and is already a great traveller,
+and enthusiastic soldier, made a pilgrimage over the Bohemian and Saxon
+Battle-fields of the Seven-Years War. On some of them, whether on all
+I do not know, he set up memorial-stones; one of which you still see
+on the field of Lobositz;--of another on Prag field, and of reverent
+salutation by Artillery to the memory of Schwerin there, we heard long
+ago. Coming to Torgau on this errand, the Kaiser, through his Berlin
+Minister, had signified his "particular desire to make acquaintance
+with the King in returning;" to which the King was ready with the
+readiest;--only that Kaunitz and the Kaiserinn, in the interim, judged
+it improper, and stopped it. "The reported Interview is not to take
+place," Friedrich warns the Newspapers; "having been given up, though
+only from courtesy, on some points of ceremonial." ["FRIEDRICH TO ONE OF
+HIS FOREIGN AMBASSADORS" (the common way of announcing in Newspapers):
+Preuss, iv. 22 n.]
+
+The young Kaiser felt a little huffed; and signified to Friedrich that
+he would find a time to make good this bit of uncivility, which his
+pedagogues had forced upon him. And now, after three years, August,
+1769, on occasion of the Silesian Reviews, the Kaiser is to come across
+from his Bohemian businesses, and actually visit him: Interview to be
+at Neisse, 25th August, 1769, for three days. Of course the King was
+punctual, everybody was punctual, glad and cordial after a sort,--no
+ceremony, the Kaiser, officially incognito, is a mere Graf von
+Falkenstein, come to see his Majesty's Reviews. There came with him four
+or five Generals, Loudon one of them; Lacy had preceded: Friedrich is in
+the palace of the place, ready and expectant. With Friedrich are: Prince
+Henri; Prince of Prussia; Margraf of Anspach: Friedrich's Nephew (Lady
+Craven's Margraf, the one remnant now left there); and some Generals and
+Military functionaries, Seidlitz the notablest figure of these. And so,
+FRIDAY, AUGUST 25th, shortly after noon--But the following Two Letters,
+by an Eye-witness, will be preferable; and indeed are the only real
+Narrative that can be given:--
+
+
+No. 1. ENGINEER LEFEBVRE TO PERPETUAL SECRETARY FORMEY (at Berlin).
+
+"NEISSE, 26th [partly 25th] August, 1769.
+
+"MY MOST WORTHY FRIEND,-I make haste to inform you of the Kaiser's
+arrival here at Neisse, this day, 25th August, 1769, at one in the
+afternoon. The King had spent the morning in a proof Manoeuvre, making
+rehearsal of the Manoeuvre that was to be. When the Kaiser was reported
+just coming, the King went to the window of the grand Episcopal Saloon,
+and seeing him alight from his carriage, turned round and said, 'JE L'AI
+VU (I have seen him).' His Majesty then went to receive him on the
+grand staircase [had hardly descended three or four steps], where they
+embraced; and then his Majesty led by the hand his august Guest into
+the Apartments designed for him, which were all standing open and
+ready,"--which, however, the august Guest will not occupy except with
+a grateful imagination, being for the present incognito, mere Graf von
+Falkenstein, and judging that THE THREE-KINGS Inn will be suitabler.
+
+"Arrived in the Apartments, they embraced anew; and sat talking together
+for an hour and half.--[The talk, unknown to Lefebvre, began in this
+strain. KAISER: "Now are my wishes fulfilled, since I have the honor to
+embrace the greatest of Kings and Soldiers." KING: "I look upon this day
+as the fairest of my life; for it will become the epoch of uniting Two
+Houses which have been enemies too long, and whose mutual interests
+require that they should strengthen, not weaken one another." KAISER:
+"For Austria there is no Silesia farther." [Preuss, v. 23; _OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ vi. 25, 26.] Talk, it appears, lasted an hour and half.]
+
+--"The Kaiser [continues our Engineer] had brought with him the Prince
+of Sachsen-Teschen [his august Brother-in-law, Duke of Teschen, son
+of the late Polish Majesty of famous memory]: afterwards there came
+Feldmarschall Lacy, Graf von Dietrichstein, General von Loudon," and
+three others of no account to us. "At the King's table were the Kaiser,
+the Prince of Prussia [dissolute young Heir-Apparent, of the polygamous
+tendency], Prince Henri, the Margraf of Anspach [King's Nephew,
+unfortunate Lady-Craven Margraf, ultimately of Hammersmith vicinity];
+the above Generals of the Austrian suite, and Generals Seidlitz and
+Tauentzien. The rest of the Court was at two other tables." Of the
+dinner itself an Outside Individual will say nothing.
+
+"The Kaiser, having expressly requested the King to let him lodge in an
+Inn (THREE KINGS), under the name of Graf von Falkenstein, would not
+go into the carriage which had stood expressly ready to conduct him
+thither. He preferred walking on foot [the loftily scornful Incognito]
+in spite of the rain; it was like a lieutenant of infantry stepping out
+of his quarters. Some moments after, the King went to visit him; and
+they remained together from 5 in the evening till 8. It was thought they
+would be present (ASSISTER) at a Comic Opera which was to be played: but
+after waiting till 7 o'clock, the people received orders to go on with
+the Piece;"--both Majesties did afterwards look in; but finding it bad,
+soon went their way again. (MAJOR LEFEBVRE STOPS WRITING FOR THE NIGHT.)
+
+"This morning, 26th, the Manoeuvre [rehearsed yesterday] has been
+performed before both their Majesties; the troops, by way of finish,
+filing past them in the highest order. The Kaiser accompanied the King
+to his abode; after which he returned to his own. This is all the news
+I have to-day: the sequel by next Post (apparently a week hence). I am,
+and shall ever be,--your true Friend, LEFEBVRE."
+
+
+No. 2. SAME TO SAME.
+
+"NEISSE, 2d September, 1769.
+
+"MONSIEUR AND DEAREST FRIEND,--We had, as you heard, our first Manoeuvre
+on Saturday, 26th, in presence of the Kaiser and the King, and of the
+whole Court of each. That evening there was Opera; which their Majesties
+honored by attending. Sunday was our Second Manoeuvre; OPERETTE in the
+evening. Monday, 28th, was our last Manoeuvre; at the end of which the
+two Majesties, without alighting from horseback, embraced each other;
+and parted, protesting mutually the most constant and inviolable
+friendship. One took the road for Breslau; the other that of
+Konigsgratz. All the time the Kaiser was here, they have been
+continually talking together, and exhibiting the tenderest
+friendship,--from which I cannot but think there will benefit result.
+
+"I am almost in the mind of coming to pass this Winter at Berlin; that
+I may have the pleasure of embracing you,--perhaps as cordially as King
+and Kaiser here. I am, and shall always be, with all my heart,--your
+very good Friend, "LEFEBVRE." [Formey, _Souvenirs d'un Citoyen,_ ii.
+145-148.]
+
+The Lefebvre that writes here is the same who was set to manage the
+last Siege of Schweidnitz, by Globes of Compression and other fine
+inventions; and almost went out of his wits because he could not do it.
+An expert ingenious creature; skilful as an engineer; had been brought
+into Friedrich's service by the late Balbi, during Balbi's ascendency
+(which ended at Olmutz long ago). At Schweidnitz, and often elsewhere,
+Friedrich, who had an esteem for poor Lefebvre, was good to him; and
+treated his excitabilities with a soft hand, not a rough. Once at Neisse
+(1771, second year after these Letters), on looking round at the
+works done since last review, in sight of all the Garrison he embraced
+Lefebvre, while commending his excellent performance; which filled the
+poor soul with a now unimaginable joy.
+
+"HELAS," says Formey, "the poor Gentleman wrote to me of his endless
+satisfaction; and how he hoped to get through his building, and retire
+on half-pay this very season, thenceforth to belong to the Academy and
+me; he had been Member for twenty years past." With this view, thinks
+Formey, he most likely hastened on his buildings too fast: certain
+it is, a barrack he was building tumbled suddenly, and some workmen
+perished in the ruins. "Enemies at Court suggested," or the accident
+itself suggested without any enemy, "Has not he been playing false,
+using cheap bad materials?"--and Friedrich ordered him arrest in his own
+Apartments, till the question were investigated. Excitable Lefebvre was
+like to lose his wits, almost to leap out of his skin. "One evening at
+supper, he managed to smuggle away a knife; and, in the course of the
+night, gave himself sixteen stabs with it; which at length sufficed. The
+King said, 'He has used himself worse than I should have done;' and was
+very sorry." Of Lefebvre's scientific structures, globes of compression
+and the rest, I know not whether anything is left; the above Two Notes,
+thrown off to Formey, were accidentally a hit, and, in the great blank,
+may last a long while.
+
+The King found this young Kaiser a very pretty man; and could have
+liked him considerably, had their mutual positions permitted. "He had a
+frankness of manner which seemed natural to him," says the King; "in his
+amiable character, gayety and great vivacity were prominent features."
+By accidental chinks, however, one saw "an ambition beyond measure"
+burning in the interior of this young man, [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ (in
+_Memoires de 1763 jusqu'a_ 1775, a Chapter which yields the briefest,
+and the one completely intelligible account we yet have of those
+affairs), vi. 25.]--let an old King be wary. A three days, clearly,
+to be marked in chalk; radiant outwardly to both; to a certain depth,
+sincere; and uncommonly pleasant for the time. King and Kaiser were seen
+walking about arm in arm. At one of the Reviews a Note was brought to
+Friedrich: he read it, a Note from her Imperial Majesty; and handing it
+to Kaiser Joseph, kissed it first. At parting, he had given Joseph,
+by way of keepsake, a copy of Marechal de Saxe's REVERIES (a strange
+Military Farrago, dictated, I should think, under opium ["MES REVERIES;
+OUVRAGE POSTHUME, par" &c. (2 vols. 4to: Amsterdam et Leipzig, 1757).]):
+this Book lay continually thereafter on the Kaiser's night-table; and
+was found there at his death, Twenty-one years hence,--not a page of
+it read, the leaves all sticking together under their bright gilding.
+[Preuss, iv. 24 n.]
+
+It was long believed, by persons capable of seeing into millstones,
+that, under cover of this Neisse Interview, there were important
+Political negotiations and consultings carried on;--that here, and in
+a Second Interview or Return-Visit, of which presently, lay the real
+foundation of the Polish Catastrophe. What of Political passed at the
+Second Interview readers shall see for themselves, from an excellent
+Authority. As to what passed at the present ("mutual word-of-honor:
+should England and France quarrel, we will stand neutral" [_OEuvres
+de Frederic,_ ubi supra.]), it is too insignificant for being shown to
+readers. Dialogues there were, delicately holding wide of the mark, and
+at length coming close enough; but, at neither the one Interview nor the
+other, was Poland at all a party concerned,--though, beyond doubt, the
+Turk War was; silently this first time, and with clear vocality on the
+second occasion.
+
+In spite of Galitzin's blunders, the Turk War is going on at a fine rate
+in these months; Turks, by the hundred thousand, getting scattered
+in panic rout:--but we will say nothing of it just yet. Polish
+Confederation--horror-struck, as may be imagined, at its auxiliary
+Brother of the Sun and Moon and his performances--is weltering in
+violently impotent spasms into deeper and ever deeper wretchedness,
+Friedrich sometimes thinking of a Burlesque Poem on the subject;--though
+the Russian successes, and the Austrian grudgings and gloomings, are
+rising on him as a very serious consideration. "Is there no method,
+then, of allowing Russia to prosecute its Turk War in spite of Austria
+and its umbrages?" thinks Friedrich sometimes, in his anxieties about
+Peace in Europe:--"If the Ukraine, and its meal for the Armies, were
+but Russia's! At present, Austria can strike in there, cut off the
+provisions, and at once put a spoke in Russia's wheel." Friedrich tells
+us, "he (ON," the King himself, what I do not find in any other Book)
+"sent to Petersburg, under the name of Count Lynar, the seraphic
+Danish Gentleman, who, in 1757, had brought about the Convention of
+Kloster-Zeven, a Project, or Sketch of Plan, for Partitioning certain
+Provinces of Poland, in that view;"--the Lynar opining, so far as I can
+see, somewhat as follows: "Russia to lay hold of the essential bit of
+Polish Territory for provisioning itself against the Turk, and allow to
+Austria and Prussia certain other bits; which would content everybody,
+and enable Russia and Christendom to extrude and suppress AD LIBITUM
+that abominable mass of Mahometan Sensualism, Darkness and Fanaticism
+from the fairest part of God's Creation." An excellent Project, though
+not successful! "To which Petersburg, intoxicated with its own outlooks
+on Turkey, paid not the least attention," says the King. [_OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ vi. 26.] He gives no date to this curious statement; nor
+does anybody else mention it at all; but we may fancy it to have been of
+Winter, 1769-1770,--and leave it with the curious, or the idly curious,
+since nothing came of it now or afterwards.
+
+POTSDAM, 20th-29th OCTOBER, 1769. Only two months after Neisse, what
+kindles Potsdam into sudden splendor, Electress Marie-Antoine makes a
+Visit of nine days to the King. "In July last," says a certain Note of
+ours, "the Electress was invited to Berlin, to a Wedding; 'would have
+been delighted to come, but letter of invitation arrived too late. Will,
+however, not give up the plan of seeing the great Friedrich.' Comes to
+Potsdam 20th-29th October. Stays nine days; much delighted, both, with
+the visit. 'Magnificent palaces, pleasant gardens, ravishing concerts,
+charming Princes and Princesses: the pleasantest nine days I ever had
+in my life,' says the Electress. Friedrich grants, to her intercession,
+pardon for some culprit. 'DIVA ANTONIA' he calls her henceforth for some
+time; she him, 'PLUS GRAND DES MORTELS,' 'SALOMON DU NORD,' and the
+like names." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ (CORRESPONDANCE AVEC L'ELECTRICE
+MARIE-ANTOINE), xxiv. 179-186.] Next year too (September 26th-October
+5th, 1770), the bright Lady made a second visit; [Rodenbeck, iii. 24.]
+no third,--the times growing too political, perhaps; the times not
+suiting. The Correspondence continues to the end; and is really pretty.
+And would be instructive withal, were it well edited. For example,--if
+we might look backwards, and shoot a momentary spark into the vacant
+darkness of the Past,--Friedrich wrote (the year before this):--
+
+POTSDAM, 3d MAY, 1768.... "Jesuits have got all cut adrift: A dim rumor
+spreads that his Holiness will not rest with that first anathema, but
+that a fulminating Bull is coming out against the Most Christian, the
+Most Catholic and the Most Faithful. If that be so, my notion is, Madam,
+that the Holy Father, to fill his table, will admit the Defender of the
+Faith [poor George III.] and your Servant; for it does not suit a Pope
+to sit solitary....
+
+"A pity for the human race, Madam, that men cannot be tranquil,--but
+they never and nowhere can! Not even the little Town of Neufchatel but
+has had its troubles; your Royal Highness will be astonished to learn
+how. A Parson there [this was above seven years ago, in old Marischal's
+reign [See Letters to Marischal, "Leipzig, 9th March, 1761," "Breslau,
+14th May, 1762:" in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xx. 282, 287.]] had set forth
+in a sermon, That considering the immense mercy of God, the pains of
+Hell could not last forever. The Synod shouted murder at such scandal;
+and has been struggling, ever since, to get the Parson exterminated. The
+affair was of my jurisdiction; for your Royal Highness must know that I
+am Pope in that Country;--here is my decision: Let the parsons, who make
+for themselves a cruel and barbarous God, be eternally damned, as they
+desire, and deserve; and let those parsons, who conceive God gentle and
+merciful, enjoy the plenitude of his mercy! However, Madam, my sentence
+has failed to calm men's minds; the schism continues; and the number of
+the damnatory theologians prevails over the others." ["April 2d, 1768"
+(a month before this Letter to Madam), there is "riot at Neufchatel; and
+Avocat Gardot [heterodox Parson's ADVOCATE] killed in it" (Rodenbeck,
+ii. 303).]--Or again:--
+
+POTSDAM, 1st DECEMBER, 1766. "At present I have with me my Niece
+[Sister's Daughter, of Schwedt], the Duchess of Wurtemberg; who
+remembers with pleasure to have had the happiness of seeing your Royal
+Highness in former times. She is very unhappy and much to be pitied;
+her Husband [Eugen of Wurtemberg, whom we heard much of, and last at
+Colberg] gives her a deal of trouble: he is a violent man, from whom
+she has everything to fear; who gives her chagrins, and makes her
+no allowances. I try my best to bring him to reason;"--but am little
+successful. Three years after this, "May 3d, 1769," we find Eugen, who
+once talked of running his august Reigning Brother through the body, has
+ended by returning to Stuttgard and him; where, or at Mumpelgard, his
+Apanage, he continued thenceforth. And was Reigning Duke himself, long
+afterwards, for two years, at the very end of his life. ["Succeeded," on
+his Brother Karl's death, "20th May, 1795; died 23d December, 1797, age
+75."] At this date of 1766, "my poor Niece and he" have been married
+thirteen years, and have half a score of children;--the eldest of them
+Czar Paul's Second Wife that is to be, and Mother of the now Czars.
+
+DECEMBER 17th, 1765.... "I have had 12,360 houses and barns to rebuild,
+and am nearly through with that. But how many other wounds remain yet to
+be healed!"
+
+JULY 22d, 1766.... "Wedding festivities of Prince of Prussia. Duchess
+of Kingston tipsy on the occasion!"--But we must not be tempted farther.
+[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxiv. 90-155.]
+
+
+
+
+NEXT YEAR THERE IS A SECOND INTERVIEW; FRIEDRICH MAKING A RETURN-VISIT
+DURING THE KAISER'S MORAVIAN REVIEWS (Camp of Mahrisch-Neustadt, 3d-7th
+September, 1770).
+
+The Russian-Turk especially in Second Campaign of it, "Liberation of
+Greece," or, failing that, total destruction of the Turk Fleet in Greek
+waters; conquest of Wallachia, as of Moldavia; in a word, imminency of
+total ruin to the Turk by land and sea,--all this is blazing aloft at
+such a pitch, in Summer, 1770, that a new Interview upon it may well, to
+neighbors so much interested, seem more desirable than ever. Interview
+accordingly there is to be: 3d September, and for four days following.
+
+Kaunitz himself attends, this time; something of real business privately
+probable to Kaunitz. Prince Henri is not there; Prince Henri is gone to
+Sweden; on visit to his Sister, whom he has not seen since boyhood: of
+which Visit there will be farther mention. Present with the King were:
+[Rodenbeck, iii. 21.] the Prince of Prussia (luckier somewhat in his
+second wedlock, little red-colored Son and Heir born to him just a
+month ago); [Friedrich Wilhelm III., "born 3d August, 1770."] Prince
+Ferdinand; two Brunswick Nephews, ERBPRINZ whom we used to hear of, and
+Leopold a junior, of whom we shall once or so. No Seidlitz this
+time. Except Lentulus, no General to name. But better for us than
+all Generals, in the Kaiser's suite, besides Kaunitz, was Prince de
+Ligne,--who holds a PEN, as will appear.
+
+"Liberation of the Greeks" had kindled many people, Voltaire among the
+number, who is still intermittently in correspondence with Friedrich: "A
+magnificent Czarina about to revivify that true Temple of Mankind, or
+at least to sweep the blockhead Turks out of it; what a prospect!"
+Friedrich is quite cool on Greece; not too hot on any part of this
+subject, though intensely concerned about it. Besides his ingenious
+Count-Lynar Project, and many other businesses, Friedrich has just been
+confuting Baron d'Holbach's _Systeme de la Nature;_ ["EXAMEN CRITIQUE
+DU SYSTEME DE LA NATURE [in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ ix. 153 et seq.],
+finished July, 1770."]--writing to Voltaire, POTSDAM, 18th AUGUST, 1770,
+on this subject among others, he adds: "I am going for Silesia, on
+the Reviews. I am to see the Kaiser, who has invited me to his Camp in
+Mahren. That is an amiable and meritorious Prince; he values your Works,
+reads them as diligently as he can; is anything but superstitious: in
+brief, a Kaiser such as Germany has not for a great while had. Neither
+he nor I have any love for the blockhead and barbaric sort;--but that
+is no reason for extirpating them: if it were, your Turks [oppressors of
+Greece] would not be the only victims!" [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxiii.
+165, 166.]
+
+In a lengthy Letter, written by request, TO STANISLAUS, KING OF POLAND,
+1735, or at a distance of fifteen years from this Interview at Neustadt,
+Prince de Ligne, who was present there, has left us some record or
+loose lively reminiscence of it; [Prince de Ligne, _Memoires et
+Melanges Historiques_ (Par. 1827), i. 3-21.]--sputtering, effervescing,
+epigrammatic creature, had he confined himself to a faithful
+description, and burnt off for us, not like a pretty fire-work, but like
+an innocent candle, or thing for seeing by! But we must take what we
+have, and endeavor to be thankful. By great luck, the one topic he
+insists on is Friedrich and his aspect and behavior on the occasion:
+which is what, of all else in it, we are most concerned with.
+
+"You have ordered me, Sire [this was written for him in 1785], to speak
+to you of one of the greatest men of this Age. You admire him, though
+his neighborhood has done you mischief enough; and, placing yourself at
+the impartial distance of History, feel a noble curiosity on all that
+belongs to this extraordinary genius. I will, therefore, give you
+an exact account of the smallest words that I myself heard the great
+Friedrich speak.... The I (LE JE) is odious to me; but nothing is
+indifferent when"--Well, your account, then, your account, without
+farther preambling, and in a more exact way than you are wont!--
+
+"By a singular chance, in 1770 [3d-7th September, if you would but
+date], the Kaiser was [for the second time] enabled to deliver himself
+to the personal admiration which he had conceived for the King of
+Prussia; and these Two great Sovereigns were so well together, that they
+could pay visits. The Kaiser permitted me to accompany; and introduced
+me to the King: it was at Neustadt in Moravia [MAHRISCH-NEUSTADT, short
+way from AUSTERLITZ, which is since become a celebrated place]. I can't
+recollect if I had, or had assumed, an air of embarrassment; but what I
+do well remember is, that the Kaiser, who noticed my look, said to the
+King, 'He has a timid expression, which I never observed in him before;
+he will recover presently.' This he said in a graceful merry way; and
+the two went out, to go, I believe, to the Play. On the way thither, the
+King for an instant quitting his Imperial Friend, asked me if my LETTER
+TO JEAN JACQUES [now an entirely forgotten Piece], which had been
+printed in the Papers, was really by me? I answered, 'Sire, I am not
+famous enough to have my name forged' [as a certain Other name has been,
+on this same unproductive topic]. He felt what I meant. It is known that
+Horace Walpole took the King's name to write his famous LETTRE A JEAN
+JACQUES [impossible to attend to the like of it at present], which
+contributed the most to drive mad that eloquent and unreasonable man of
+genius.
+
+"Coming out of the Play, the Kaiser said to the King of Prussia: 'There
+is Noverre, the famous Composer of Ballets; he has been in Berlin, I
+believe.' Noverre made thereupon a beautiful dancing-master bow. 'Ah,
+I know him,' said the King: 'we saw him at Berlin; he was very droll;
+mimicked all the world, especially our chief Dancing Women, to make you
+split with laughing.' Noverre, ill content with this way of remembering
+him, made another beautiful third-position bow; and hoped possibly the
+King would say something farther, and offer him the opportunity of a
+small revenge. 'Your Ballets are beautiful,' said the King to him; 'your
+Dancing Girls have grace; but it is grace in a squattish form (DE LA
+GRACE ENGONCEE). I think you make them raise their shoulders and their
+arms too much. For, Monsieur Noverre, if you remember, our principal
+Dancing Girl at Berlin wasn't so.' 'That is why she was at Berlin,
+Sire,' replied Noverre [satirically, all he could].
+
+"I was every day asked to sup with the King; too often the conversation
+addressed itself to me. In spite of my attachment to the Kaiser, whose
+General I like to be, but not whose D'Argens or Algarotti, I had not
+beyond reason abandoned myself to that feeling. When urged by the King's
+often speaking to me, I had to answer, and go on talking. Besides, the
+Kaiser took a main share in the conversation; and was perhaps more at
+his ease with the King than the King with him. One day, they got talking
+of what one would wish to be in this world; and they asked my opinion. I
+said, I should like to be 'a Pretty Woman till thirty; then, till sixty,
+a fortunate and skilful General;'--and not knowing what more to say, but
+for the sake of adding something, whatever it might be, 'a Cardinal till
+eighty.' The King, who likes to banter the Sacred College, made himself
+merry on this; and the Kaiser gave him a cheap bargain of Rome and its
+upholders (SUPPOTS). That supper was one of the gayest and pleasantest
+I have ever seen. The Two Sovereigns were without pretension and without
+reserve; what did not always happen on other days; and the amiability of
+two men so superior, and often so astonished to see themselves together,
+was the agreeablest thing you can imagine. The King bade me come and
+see him the first time he and I should have three or four hours to
+ourselves.
+
+"A storm such as there never was, a deluge compared with which that of
+Deucalion was a summer shower, covered our Hills with water [cannot say
+WHICH day of the four], and almost drowned our Army while attempting
+to manoeuvre. The morrow was a rest-day for that reason. At nine in the
+morning, I went to the King, and stayed till one. He spoke to me of
+our Generals; I let him say, of his own accord, the things I think of
+Marshals Lacy and Loudon; and I hinted that, as to the others, it was
+better to speak of the dead than of the living; and that one never can
+well judge of a General who has not in his lifetime actually played
+high parts in War. He spoke to me of Feldmarschall Daun: I said, 'that
+against the French I believed he might have proved a great man; but that
+against him [you], he had never quite been all he was; seeing always
+his opponent as a Jupiter, thunder-bolt in hand, ready to pulverize his
+Army.' That appeared to give the King pleasure: he signified to me a
+feeling of esteem for Daun; he spoke favorably of General Brentano [one
+of the Maxen gentlemen]. I asked his reason for the praises I knew he
+had given to General Beck. 'Why (MAIS), I thought him a man of
+merit,' said the King. 'I do not think so, Sire; he didn't do you much
+mischief.' 'He sometimes took Magazines from me.' 'And sometimes let
+your Generals escape.' (Bevern at REICHENBACH, for instance, do you
+reckon that his blame?)--'I have never beaten him,' said the King. 'He
+never came near enough for that: and I always thought your Majesty
+was only appearing to respect him, in order that we might have more
+confidence in him, and that you might give him the better slap some day,
+with interest for all arrears.'
+
+KING. "'Do you know who taught me the little I know? It was your old
+Marshal Traun: that was a man, that one.--You spoke of the French: do
+they make progress?'
+
+EGO. "'They are capable of everything in time of war, Sire: but in
+Peace,--their chiefs want them to be what they are not, what they are
+not capable of being.'
+
+KING. "'How, then; disciplined? They were so in the time of M. de
+Turenne.'
+
+EGO. "'Oh, it isn't that. They were not so in the time of M. de Vendome,
+and they went on gaining battles. But it is now wished that they become
+your Apes and ours; and that does n't suit them.'
+
+KING. "'Perhaps so: I have said of their busy people (FAISEURS,' St.
+Germains and Army-Reformers), 'that they would fain sing without knowing
+music.'
+
+EGO. "'Oh, that is true! But leave them their natural notes; profit
+by their bravery, their alertness (LEGERETE), by their very faults,--I
+believe their confusion might confuse their enemies sometimes.'
+
+KING. "'Well, yes, doubtless, if you have something to support them
+with.'
+
+EGO. "'Just so, Sire,--some Swiss and Germans.'
+
+KING. "''T is a brave and amiable nation, the French; one can't help
+loving them:--but, MON DIEU, what have they made of their Men of
+Letters; and what a tone has now come up among them! Voltaire, for
+example, had an excellent tone. D'Alembert, whom I esteem in many
+respects, is too noisy, and insists too much on producing effect in
+society:--was it the Men of Letters that gave the Court of Louis XIV.
+its grace, or did they themselves acquire it from the many amiable
+persons they found there? He was the Patriarch of Kings, that one [in
+a certain sense, your Majesty!]. In his lifetime a little too much good
+was said of him; but a great deal too much ill after his death.'
+
+EGO. "'A King of France, Sire, is always the Patriarch of Clever People
+(PATRIARCHE DES GENS D'ESPRIT:' You do not much mean this, Monsieur? You
+merely grin it from the teeth outward?)
+
+KING. "'That is the bad Number to draw: they are n't worth a doit (NE
+VALENT PAS LE DIABLE, these GENS D'ESPRIT) at Governing. Better be
+Patriarch of the Greek Church, like my sister the Empress of Russia!
+That brings her, and will bring, advantages. There's a religion for
+you; comprehending many Countries and different Nations! As to our
+poor Lutherans, they are so few, it is not worth while being their
+Patriarch.'
+
+EGO. "'Nevertheless, Sire, if one join to them the Calvinists, and
+all the little bastard Sects, it would not be so bad a post. [The King
+appeared to kindle at this; his eyes were full of animation. But it did
+not last when I said:] If the Kaiser were Patriarch of the Catholics,
+that too wouldn't be a bad place.'
+
+KING. "'There, there: Europe divided into Three Patriarchates. I was
+wrong to begin; you see where that leads us: Messieurs, our dreams are
+not those of the just, as M. le Regent used to say. If Louis XIV. were
+alive, he would thank us.'
+
+"All these patriarchal ideas, possible and impossible to realize, made
+him, for an instant, look thoughtful, almost moody.
+
+KING. "'Louis XIV., possessing more judgment than cleverness (ESPRIT),
+looked out more for the former quality than for the latter. It was
+men of genius that he wanted, and found. It could not be said that
+Corneille, Bossuet, Racine and Conde were people of the clever sort (DES
+HOMMES D'ESPRIT).'
+
+EGO. "'On the whole, there is that in the Country which really deserves
+to be happy, It is asserted that your Majesty has said, If one would
+have a fine dream, one must--'
+
+KING. "'Yes, it is true,--be King of France.'
+
+EGO. "'If Francis I. and Henri IV. had come into the world after your
+Majesty, they would have said, "be King of Prussia."'
+
+KING. "'Tell me, pray, is there no citable Writer left in France?'
+
+"This made me laugh; the King asked the reason. I told him, He reminded
+me of the RUSSE A PARIS, that charming little piece of verse of M. de
+Voltaire's; and we remembered charming things out of it, which made us
+both laugh. He said,
+
+KING. "'I have sometimes heard the Prince de Conti spoken of: what sort
+of man is he?'
+
+EGO. "'He is a man composed of twenty or thirty men. He is proud, he is
+affable,'"--he is fiddle, he is diddle (in the seesaw epigrammatic way,
+for a page or more); and is not worth pen and ink from us, since the
+time old Marshal Traun got us rid of him,--home across the Rhine, full
+speed, with Croats sticking on his skirts. [Supra, viii. 475.]
+
+"This portrait seemed to amuse the King. One had to captivate him by
+some piquant detail; without that, he would escape you, give you no time
+to speak. The success generally began by the first words, no matter how
+vague, of any conversation; these he found means to make interesting;
+and what, generally, is mere talk about the weather became at once
+sublime; and one never heard anything vulgar from him. He ennobled
+everything; and the examples of Greeks and Romans, or of modern
+Generals, soon dissipated everything of what, with others, would have
+remained trivial and commonplace.
+
+"'Have you ever,' said he, 'seen such a rain as yesterday's? Your
+orthodox Catholics will say, "That comes of having a man without
+religion among us: what are we to do with this cursed (MAUDIT) King; a
+Protestant at lowest?" for I really think I brought you bad luck. Your
+soldiers would be saying, "Peace we have; and still is this devil of a
+man to trouble us!"'
+
+EGO. "'Certainly, if your Majesty was the cause, it is very bad. Such
+a thing is only permitted to Jupiter, who has always good reasons for
+everything; and it would have been in his fashion, after destroying the
+one set by fire, to set about destroying the others by water. However,
+the fire is at an end; and I did not expect to revert to it.'
+
+KING. "'I ask your pardon for having plagued you so often with that; I
+regret it for the sake of all mankind. But what a fine Apprenticeship
+of War! I have committed errors enough to teach you young people, all of
+you, to do better. MON DIEU, how I love your grenadiers! How well they
+defiled in my presence! If the god Mars were raising a body-guard for
+himself, I should advise him to take them hand over head. Do you know
+I was well pleased (BIEN CONTENT) with the Kaiser last night at supper?
+Did you hear what he said to me about Liberty of the Press, and the
+Troubling of Consciences (LA GENE DES CONSCIENCES)? There will be bits
+of difference between his worthy Ancestors and him, on some points!'
+
+EGO. "'I am persuaded, he will entertain no prejudices on anything; and
+that your Majesty will be a great Book of Instruction to him.'
+
+KING. "'How adroitly he disapproved, without appearing to mean anything,
+the ridiculous Vienna Censorship; and the too great fondness of
+his Mother (without naming her) for certain things which only make
+hypocrites. By the by, she must detest you, that High Lady?'
+
+EGO. "'Well, then, not at all. She has sometimes lectured me about my
+strayings, but very maternally: she is sorry for me, and quite sure
+that I shall return to the right path. She said to me, some time ago,
+"I don't know how you do, you are the intimate friend of Father Griffet;
+the Bishop of Neustadt has always spoken well of you; likewise the
+Archbishop of Malines; and the Cardinal [name Sinzendorf, or else not
+known to me, dignity and red hat sufficiently visible] loves you much."'
+
+"Why cannot I remember the hundred luminous things which escaped the
+King in this conversation! It lasted till the trumpet at Head-quarters
+announced dinner. The King went to take his place; and I think it was on
+this occasion that, some one having asked why M. de Loudon had not come
+yet, he said, 'That is not his custom: formerly he often arrived before
+me. Please let him take this place next me; I would rather have him at
+my side than opposite.'"
+
+That is very pretty. And a better authority gives it, The King said to
+Loudon himself, on Loudon's entering, _"Mettez-vous aupres de moi, M.
+de Loudon; j'aime mieux vous avoir a cote de moi que vis-a-vis."_ He was
+very kind to Loudon; "constantly called him M. LE FELDMARECHAL [delicate
+hint of what should have been, but WAS not for seven years yet]; and,
+at parting, gave him [as he did to Lacy also] two superb horses,
+magnificently equipped." [Pezzl, _Vie de Loudon,_ ii. 29.]
+
+"Another day," continues Prince de Ligne, "the Manoeuvres being over
+in good time, there was a Concert at the Kaiser's. Notwithstanding the
+King's taste for music, he was pleased to give me the preference; and
+came where I was, to enchant me with the magic of his conversation, and
+the brilliant traits, gay and bold, which characterize him. He asked
+me to name the general and particular Officers who were present, and
+to tell him those who had served under Marshal Traun: 'For, ENFIN,' he
+said, 'as I think I have told you already, he is my Master; he corrected
+me in the Schooling I was at.'
+
+EGO. "'Your Majesty was very ungrateful, then; you never paid him
+his lessons. If it was as your Majesty says, you should at least have
+allowed him to beat you; and I do not remember that you ever did.'
+
+KING. "'I did not get beaten, because I did not fight.'
+
+EGO. "'It is in this manner that the greatest Generals have often
+conducted their wars against each other. One has only to look at the two
+Campaigns of M. de Montecuculi and M. de Turenne, in the Valley of
+the Rench [Strasburg Country, 1674 and 1675, two celebrated Campaigns,
+Turenne killed by a cannon-shot in the last].
+
+KING. "'Between Traun and the former there is not much difference; but
+what a difference, BON DIEU, between the latter and me!'
+
+"I named to him the Count d'Althan, who had been Adjutant-General, and
+the Count de Pellegrini. He asked me twice which was which, from the
+distance we were at; and said, He was so short-sighted, I must excuse
+him.
+
+EGO. "'Nevertheless, Sire, in the war your sight was good enough; and,
+if I remember right, it reached very far!'
+
+KING. "'It was not I; it was my glass.'
+
+EGO. "'Ha, I should have liked to find that glass;--but, I fear it would
+have suited my eyes as little as Scanderbeg's sword my arm.'
+
+"I forget how the conversation changed; but I know it grew so free that,
+seeing somebody coming to join in it, the King warned him to take care;
+that it was n't safe to converse with a man doomed by the theologians
+to Everlasting Fire. I felt as if he somewhat overdid this of his
+'being doomed,' and that he boasted too much of it. Not to hint at
+the dishonesty of these free-thinking gentlemen (MESSIEURS LES ESPRITS
+FORTS), who very often are thoroughly afraid of the Devil, it is, at
+least, bad taste to make display of such things: and it was with the
+people of bad taste whom he has had about him, such as a Jordan, a
+D'Argens, Maupertuis, La Beaumelle, La Mettrie, Abbe de Prades, and
+some dull sceptics of his own Academy, that he had acquired the habit of
+mocking at Religion; and of talking (DE PARLER) Dogma, Spinoism, Court
+of Rome and the like. In the end, I did n't always answer when he
+touched upon it. I now seized a moment's interval, while he was using
+his handkerchief, to speak to him about some business, in connection
+with the Circle of Westphalia, and a little COMTE IMMEDIAT [County
+holding direct, of the Reich] which I have there. The King answered me:
+'I, for my part, will do anything you wish; but what thinks the other
+Director, my comrade, the Elector of Cologne, about it?'
+
+EGO. "'I was not aware, Sire, that you were an Ecclesiastical Elector.'
+
+KING. "'I am so; at least on my Protestant account.'
+
+EGO. "'That is not to OUR account's advantage! Those good people of mine
+believe your Majesty to be their protector.'
+
+"He continued asking me the names of persons he saw. I was telling him
+those of a number of young Princes who had lately entered the Service,
+and some of whom gave hopes. 'That may be,' said he; 'but I think the
+breed of the governing races ought to be crossed. I like the children of
+love: look at the Marechal de Saxe, and my own Anhalt [severe Adjutant
+von Anhalt, a bastard of Prinz Gustav, the Old Dessauer's Heir-Apparent,
+who begot a good many bastards, but died before inheriting: bastards
+were brought up, all of them to soldiering, by their Uncles,---this one
+by Uncle Moritz; was thrown from his horse eight years HENCE, to the
+great joy of many]; though I am afraid that SINCE [mark this SINCE,
+alas!] his fall on his head, that latter is not so good as formerly.
+I should be grieved at it, [Not for eight years yet, MON PRINCE, I am
+sorry to say! Adjutant von Anhalt did, in reality, get this fall,
+and damaging hurt on the head, in the "Bavarian War" (nicknamed
+KARTOFFEL-KRIEG, "Potato-War"), 1778-1779. _Militair-Lexikon,_ i. 69:
+see Preuss, ii. 356, iv. 578; &c.] both for his sake and for mine; he is
+a man full of talents.'
+
+"I am glad to remember this; for I have heard it said by silly
+slanderous people (SOTS DENIGRANTS), who accuse the King of Prussia of
+insensibility, that he was not touched by the accident which happened to
+the man he seemed to love most. Too happy if one had only said that
+of him! He was supposed to be jealous of the merit of Schwerin and of
+Keith, and delighted to have got them killed. It is thus that mediocre
+people seek to lower great men, to diminish the immense space that lies
+between themselves and such.
+
+"Out of politeness, the King, and his Suite as well, had put on white
+[Austrian] Uniforms, not to bring back on us that blue which we had so
+often seen in war. He looked as though he belonged to our Army and to
+the Kaiser's suite. There was, in this Visit, I believe, on both
+sides, a little personality, some distrust, and perhaps a beginning
+of bitterness;--as always happens, says Philippe de Comines, when
+Sovereigns meet. The King took Spanish snuff, and brushing it off with
+his hand from his coat as well as he could, he said, 'I am not clean
+enough for you, Messieurs; I am not worthy to wear your colors.' The
+air with which he said this, made me think he would yet soil them with
+powder, if the opportunity arose.
+
+"I forgot a little Incident which gave me an opportunity of setting off
+(FAIRE VALOIR) the two Monarchs to each other [Incident about the King's
+high opinion of the Kaiser's drill-sergeantry in this day's manoeuvres,
+and how I was the happy cause of the Kaiser's hearing it himself:
+Incident omissible; as the whole Sequel is, except a sentence or two].--
+
+... "On this Neustadt occasion, the King was sometimes too ceremonious;
+which annoyed the Kaiser. For instance,--I know not whether meaning
+to show himself a disciplined Elector of the Reich, but so it
+was,--whenever the Kaiser put his foot in stirrup, the King was sure to
+take his Majesty's horse by the bridle, stand respectfully waiting the
+Kaiser's right foot, and fit it into ITS stirrup: and so with everything
+else. The Kaiser had the more sincere appearance, in testifying his
+great respect; like that of a young Prince to an aged King, and of a
+young Soldier to the greatest of Captains....
+
+"Sometimes there were appearances of cordiality between the two
+Sovereigns. One saw that Friedrich II. loved Joseph II., but that the
+preponderance of the Empire, and the contact of Bohemia and Silesia, a
+good deal barred the sentiments of King and Kaiser. You remember, Sire
+[Ex-Sire of Poland], their LETTERS [readers shall see them, in
+1778,--or rather REFUSE to see them!'] on the subject of Bavaria; their
+compliments, the explanations they had with regard to their intentions;
+all carried on with such politeness; and that from politeness to
+politeness, the King ended by invading Bohemia."
+
+Well, here is legible record, with something really of portraiture in
+it, valuable so far as it goes; record unique on this subject;--and
+substantially true, though inexact enough in details. Thus, even in
+regard to that of Anhalt's HEAD, which is so impossible in this First
+Dialogue, Friedrich did most probably say something of the kind, in a
+Second which there is, of date 1780; of which latter De Ligne is here
+giving account as well,--though we have to postpone it till its time
+come.
+
+At this Neustadt Interview there did something of Political occur;
+and readers ought to be shown exactly what. Kaunitz had come with the
+Kaiser; and this something was intended as the real business among
+the gayeties and galas at Neustadt. Poland, or its Farce-Tragedy now
+playing, was not once mentioned that I hear of; though perhaps, as
+FLEBILE LUDIBRIUM, it might turn up for moments in dinner-conversation
+or the like: but the astonishing Russian-Turk War, which has sprung out
+of Poland, and has already filled Stamboul and its Divans and Muftis
+with mere horror and amazement; and, in fact, has brought the Grand Turk
+to the giddy rim of the Abyss; nothing but ruin and destruction visible
+to him: this, beyond all other things whatever, is occupying these high
+heads at present;--and indeed the two latest bits of Russian-Turk news
+have been of such a blazing character as to occupy all the world more
+or less. Readers, some glances into the Turk War, I grieve to say, are
+become inevitable to us!
+
+
+
+
+RUSSIAN-TURK WAR, FIRST TWO CAMPAIGNS.
+
+"OCTOBER 6th, 1768, Turks declare War; Russian Ambassador thrown into
+the Seven Towers as a preliminary, where he sat till Peace came to
+be needed. MARCH 23d, 1769, Display their Banner of Mahomet, all in
+paroxysm of Fanaticism risen to the burning point: 'Under pain of death,
+No Giaour of you appear on the streets, nor even look out, of window,
+this day!' Austrian Ambassador's Wife, a beautiful gossamer creature,
+venturing to transgress on that point, was torn from her carriage by the
+Populace, and with difficulty saved from destruction: Brother of the
+Sun and Moon, apologizing afterwards down to the very shoe-tie, is
+forgiven."
+
+FIRST CAMPAIGN; 1769. "APRIL 26th-30th, Galitzin VERSUS Choczim;
+can't, having no provender or powder. Falls back over Dniester
+again,--overhears that extraordinary DREAM, as above recited,
+betokening great rumor in Russian Society against such Purblind
+Commanders-in-Chief. Purblind VERSUS Blind is fine play, nevertheless;
+wait, only wait:--
+
+"JULY 2d, Galitzin slowly gets on the advance again: 150,000 Turks,
+still slower, are at last across the Donau (sharp enough French
+Officers among them, agents of Choiseul; but a mass incurably
+chaotic);--furiously intending towards Poland and extermination of the
+Giaour. Do not reach Dniester River till September, and look across
+on Poland,--for the first time, and also for the last, in this War.
+SEPTEMBER 17th: Weather has been rainy; Dniester, were Galitzin
+nothing, is very difficult for Turks; who try in two places, but cannot.
+[Hermann, v. 611-613.] In a third place (name not given, perhaps has
+no name), about 12,000 of them are across; when Dniester, raging into
+flood, carries away their one Bridge, and leaves the 12,000 isolated
+there. Purblind Galitzin, on express order, does attack these 12,000
+(night of September 17th-18th):--'Hurrah' of the devouring Russians
+about midnight, hoarse shriek of the doomed 12,000, wail of their
+brethren on the southern shore, who cannot, help:--night of horrors
+'from midnight till 2 A.M.;' and the 12,000 massacred or captive, every
+man of them; Russian loss 600 killed and wounded. Whereupon the Turk
+Army bursts into unanimous insanity; and flows home in deliquium of
+ruin. Choczim is got on the terms already mentioned (15 sick men and
+women lying in it, and 184 bronze cannon, when we boat across); Turk
+Army can by no effort be brought to halt anywhere; flows across the
+Donau, disappears into Chaos:--and the whole of Moldavia is conquered
+in this cheap manner. What, perhaps is still better, Galitzin (28th
+September) is thrown out; Romanzow, hitherto Commander of a second
+smaller Army, kind of covering wing to Galitzin, is Chief for Second
+Campaign.
+
+"In the Humber, this Winter, to the surprise of incredulous mankind,
+a Russian Fleet drops anchor for a few days: actual Russian Fleet
+intending for the Greek waters, for Montenegro and intermediate errands,
+to conclude with 'Liberation of Greece next Spring,'--so grandiose is
+this Czarina." [Hermann, v. 617.]
+
+SECOND CAMPAIGN; 1770. "This is the flower of Anti-Turk
+Campaigns,--victorious, to a blazing pitch, both by land and sea.
+Romanzow, master of Moldavia, goes upon Wallachia, and the new or
+rehabilitated Turk Army; and has an almost gratis bargain of both.
+Romanzow has some good Officers under him ('Brigadier Stoffeln,' much
+more 'General Tottlenen,' 'General Bauer,' once Colonel Bauer of the
+Wesel Free-Corps,--many of the Superior Officers seem to be German,
+others have Swedish or Danish names);--better Officers; and knows better
+how to use them than Galitzin did. August 1st, Romanzow has a Battle,
+called of Kaghul, in Pruth Country. That is his one 'Battle' this
+Summer; and brings him Ismail, Akkerman, all Wallachey, and no Turks
+left in those parts. But first let us attend to sea-matters, and the
+Liberation of Greece, which precede in time and importance.
+
+"'Liberation of Greece:' an actual Fleet, steering from Cronstadt to
+the Dardanelles to liberate Greece! The sound of it kindles all the warm
+heads in Europe; especially Voltaire's, which, though covered with the
+snow of age, is still warm internally on such points. As to liberating
+Greece, Voltaire's hopes were utterly balked; but the Fleet from
+Cronstadt did amazing service otherwise in those waters. FEBRUARY 28th,
+1770, first squadron of the Russian Fleet anchors at Passawa,--not far
+from Calamata, in the Gulf of Coron, on the antique Peloponnesian coast;
+Sparta on your right hand, Arcadia on your left, and so many excellent
+Ghosts (GREEK TEXT) of Heroes looking on:--Russian squadron has four big
+ships, three frigates, more soon to follow: on board there are arms and
+munitions of war; but unhappily only 500 soldiers. Admiral-in-Chief (not
+yet come up) is Alexei Orlof, a brother of Lover Gregory's, an extremely
+worthless seaman and man. Has under him 'many Danes, a good few English
+too,'--especially Three English Officers, whom we shall hear of, when
+Alexei and they come up. Meanwhile, on the Peloponnesian coast are
+modern Spartans, to the number of 15,000, all sitting ready,
+expecting the Russian advent: these rose duly; got Russian muskets,
+cartridges,--only two Russian Officers:--and attacked the Turks
+with considerable fury or voracity, but with no success of the least
+solidity. Were foiled here, driven out there; in fine, were utterly
+beaten, Russians and they: lost Tripolizza, by surprise; whereupon
+(April 19th) the Russians withdrew to their Fleet; and the Affair
+of Greece was at an end. [Hermann, v. 621.] It had lasted (28th
+February-19th April) seven weeks and a day. The Russians retired to
+their Fleet, with little loss; and rode at their ease again, in Navarino
+Bay. But the 15,000 modern Spartans had nothing to retire to,--these had
+to retire into extinction, expulsion and the throat of Moslem vengeance,
+which was frightfully bloody and inexorable on them.
+
+"Greece having failed, the Russian Fleet, now in complete tale, made for
+Turkey, for Constantinople itself. 'Into the very Dardanelles' they say
+they will go; an Englishman among them--Captain Elphinstone, a dashing
+seaman, if perhaps rather noisy, whom Rulhiere is not blind to--has been
+heard to declare, at least in his cups: 'Dardanelles impossible? Pshaw,
+I will do it, as easily as drink this glass of wine!' Alexei Orlof is a
+Sham-Admiral; but under him are real Sea-Officers, one or two.
+
+"In the Turkish Fleet, it seems, there is an Ex-Algerine, Hassan Bey,
+of some capacity in sea-matters; but he is not in chief command, only
+in second; and can accomplish nothing. The Turkish Fleet, numerous but
+rotten, retires daily,--through the famed Cyclades, and Isles of Greece,
+Paros, Naxos, apocalyptic Patmos, on to Scio (old Chios of the wines);
+and on July 5th takes refuge behind Scio, between Scio and the Coast
+of Smyrna, in Tchesme Bay. 'Safe here!' thinks the chief Turk Admiral.
+'Very far from safe!' remonstrates Hassan; though to no purpose. And
+privately puts the question to himself, 'Have these Giaours a real
+Admiral among them, or, like us, only a sham one?'"
+
+TCHESME BAY, 7th JULY, 1770. "Nothing can be more imaginary than Alexei
+Orlof as an Admiral: but he has a Captain Elphinstone, a Captain Gregg,
+a Lieutenant Dugdale; and these determine to burn poor Hassan and his
+whole Fleet in Tchesme here:--and do it totally, night of July 7th; with
+one single fireship; Dugdale steering it; Gregg behind him, to support
+with broadsides; Elphinstone ruling and contriving, still farther to
+rear; helpless Turk Fleet able to make no debate whatever. Such a blaze
+of conflagration on the helpless Turks as shone over all the world--one
+of Rulhiere's finest fire-works, with little shot;--the light of which
+was still dazzling mankind while the Interview at Neustadt took place.
+Turk Fleet, fifteen ships, nine frigates and above 8,000 men, gone to
+gases and to black cinders,--Hassan hardly escaping with I forget how
+many score of wounds and bruises. [Hermann, v. 623.]
+
+"'Now for the Dardanelles,' said Elphinstone: (bombard Constantinople,
+starve it,--to death, or to what terms you will!' 'Cannot be done; too
+dangerous; impossible!' answered the sham Admiral, quite in a tremor,
+they say;--which at length filled the measure of Elphinstone's disgusts
+with such a Fleet and Admiral. Indignant Elphinstone withdrew to his
+own ship, 'Adieu, Sham-Admiral!'--sailed with his own ship, through the
+impossible Dardanelles (Turk batteries firing one huge block of granite
+at him, which missed; then needing about forty minutes to load
+again); feat as easy to Elphinstone as this glass of wine. In sight of
+Constantinople, Elphinstone, furthermore, called for his tea; took his
+tea on deck, under flourishing of all his drums and all his trumpets:
+tea done, sailed out again scathless; instantly threw up his
+command,--and at Petersburg, soon after, in taking leave of the Czarina,
+signified to her, in language perhaps too plain, or perhaps only too
+painfully true, some Naval facts which were not welcome in that high
+quarter." [Rulhiere, iii. 476-509.] This remarkable Elphinstone I take
+to be some junior or irregular Balmerino scion; but could never much
+hear of him except in RULHIERE, where, on vague, somewhat theatrical
+terms, he figures as above.
+
+"AUGUST 1st, Romanzow has a 'Battle of Kaghul,' so they call it;
+though it is a 'Slaughtery' or SCHLACHTEREI, rather than a 'Slaught' or
+SCHLACHT, say my German friends. Kaghul is not a specific place, but a
+longish river, a branch of the Pruth; under screen of which the Grand
+Turk Army, 100,000 strong, with 100,000 Tartars as second line, has
+finally taken position, and fortified itself with earthworks and
+abundant cannon. AUGUST 1st, 1770, Romanzow, after study and advising,
+feels prepared for this Grand Army and its earthworks: with a select
+20,000, under select captains, Romanzow, after nightfall, bursts in
+upon it, simultaneously on three different points; and gains, gratis or
+nearly so, such a victory as was never heard of before. The Turks, on
+their earthworks, had 140 cannons; these the Turk gunners fired off two
+times, and fled, leaving them for Romanzow's uses. The Turk cavalry then
+tried if they could not make some attempt at charging; found they could
+not; whirled back upon their infantry; set it also whirling: and in
+a word, the whole 200,000 whirled, without blow struck; and it was a
+universal panic rout, and delirious stampede of flight, which never
+paused (the very garrisons emptying themselves, and joining in it) till
+it got across the Donau again, and drew breath there, not to rally or
+stand, but to run rather slower. And had left Wallachia, Bessarabia,
+Dniester river, Donau river, swept clear of Turks; all Romanzow's
+henceforth. To such astonishment of an invincible Grand Turk, and of his
+Moslem Populations, fallen on such a set of Giaours ["ALLAH KERIM, And
+cannot we abolish them, then?" Not we THEM, it would appear!],--as every
+reader can imagine." Which shall suffice every reader here in regard
+to the Turk War, and what concern he has in the extremely brutish
+phenomenon.
+
+Tchesme fell out July 7th; Elphinstone has hardly done his tea in the
+Dardanelles, when (August 1st) this of Kaghul follows: both would be
+fresh news blazing in every head while the Dialogues between Friedrich
+and Kaunitz were going on. For they "had many dialogues," Friedrich
+says; "and one of the days" (probably September 6th) was mainly devoted
+to Politics, to deep private Colloquy with Kaunitz. Of which, and of the
+great things that followed out of it, I will now give, from Friedrich's
+own hand, the one entirely credible account I have anywhere met with in
+writing.
+
+Friedrich's account of Kaunitz himself is altogether life-like: a
+solemn, arrogant, mouthing, browbeating kind of man,--embarrassed at
+present by the necessity not to browbeat, and by the consciousness that
+"King Friedrich is the only man who refuses to acknowledge my claims to
+distinction:" [Rulhiere (somewhere) has heard this, as an utterance
+of Kaunitz's in some plaintive moment.]--a Kaunitz whose arrogances,
+qualities and claims this King is not here to notice, except as they
+concern business on hand. He says, "Kaunitz had a clear intellect,
+greatly twisted by perversities of temper (UN SENS DROIT, L'ESPRIT
+REMPLI DE TRAVERS), especially by a self-conceit and arrogance
+which were boundless. He did not talk, but preach. At the smallest
+interruption, he would stop short in indignant surprise: it has happened
+that, at the Council-Board in Schonbrunn, when Imperial Majesty herself
+asked some explanation of a word or thing not understood by her, Kaunitz
+made his bow (LUI TIRA SA REVERENCE), and quitted the room." Good to
+know the nature of the beast. Listen to him, then, on those terms, since
+it is necessary. The Kaunitz Sermon was of great length, imbedded in
+circumlocutions, innuendoes and diplomatic cautions; but the gist of
+it we gather to have been (abridged into dialogue form) essentially as
+follows:--
+
+KAUNITZ. "Dangerous to the repose of Europe, those Russian encroachments
+on the Turk. Never will Imperial Majesty consent that Russia possess
+Moldavia or Wallachia; War sooner,--all things sooner! These views of
+Russia are infinitely dangerous to everybody. To your Majesty as well,
+if I may say so; and no remedy conceivable against them,--to me none
+conceivable,--but this only, That Prussia and Austria join frankly in
+protest and absolute prohibition of them."
+
+FRIEDRICH. "I have nothing more at heart than to stand well with
+Austria; and always to be her ally, never her enemy. But your Highness
+sees how I am situated: bound by express Treaty with Czarish Majesty;
+must go with Russia in any War! What can I do? I can, and will with all
+industry, labor to conciliate Czarish Majesty and Imperial; to produce
+at Petersburg such a Peace with the Turks as may meet the wishes of
+Vienna. Let us hope it can be done. By faithful endeavoring, on my part
+and on yours, I persuade myself it can. Meanwhile, steadfastly together,
+we two! All our little rubs, custom-house squabbles on the Frontier,
+and such like, why not settle them here, and now? [and does so with
+his Highness.] That there be nothing but amity, helpfulness and mutual
+effort towards an object so momentous to us both, and to all mankind!"
+
+KAUNITZ. "Good so far. And may a not intolerable Turk-Russian Peace
+prove possible, without our fighting for it! Meanwhile, Imperial Majesty
+[as she has been visibly doing for some time] must continue massing
+troops and requisites on the Hungarian Frontier, lest the contrary
+happen!"
+
+This was the result arrived at. Of which Friedrich "judged it but polite
+to inform the young Kaiser; who appeared to be grateful for this mark
+of attention, being much held down by Kaunitz in his present state of
+tutelage." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvi. 30.]
+
+And by a singular chance, on the very morrow there arrived from the
+Divan (dated August 12th) an Express to Friedrich: "Mediate a Peace for
+us with Russia; not you alone, as we have often asked, but Austria AND
+you!" For the Kaghul Slaughtery has come on us; Giaour Elphinstone
+has taken tea in the Dardanelles; and we know not to what hand to
+turn!--"The young Kaiser did not hide his joy at this Overture, as
+Kaunitz did his, which was perhaps still greater:" the Kaiser warmly
+expressed his thanks to Friedrich as the Author of it; Kaunitz, with
+a lofty indifference (MORGUE), and nose in air as over a small matter,
+"merely signified his approval of this step which the Turks had taken."
+
+"Never was mediation undertaken with greater pleasure," adds the King.
+And both did proceed upon it with all zeal; but only the King as real
+"mediator," or MIDDLEman; Kaunitz from the first planting himself
+immovably upon the Turk side of things, which is likewise the Austrian;
+and playing in secret (as Friedrich probably expected he would) the
+strangest tricks with his assumed function.
+
+So that Friedrich had to take the burden of mediating altogether on
+himself; and month after month, year after year, it is evident he
+prosecutes the same with all the industry and faculty that are in
+him,--in intense desire, and in hope often nearly desperate, to keep his
+two neighbors' houses, and his own and the whole world along with
+them, from taking fire. Apart from their conflicting interests, the two
+Empresses have privately a rooted aversion to one another. What with
+Russian exorbitancy (a Czarina naturally uplifted with her Tchesmes and
+Kaghuls); what with Austrian cupidity, pride, mulishness, and private
+trickery of Kaunitz; the adroit and heartily zealous Friedrich never had
+such a bit of diplomacy to do. For many months hence, in spite of his
+intensest efforts and cunningest appliances, no way of egress visible:
+"The imbroglio MUST catch fire!" At last a way opens, "Ha, at last
+a way!"--then, for above a twelvemonth longer, such a guiding of the
+purblind quadrupeds and obstinate Austrian mules into said way: and
+for years more such an urging of them, in pig-driver fashion, along the
+same, till Peace did come!--
+
+And here, without knowing it, we have insensibly got to the topmost
+summit of our Polish Business; one small step more, and we shall be on
+the brow of the precipitous inclined-plane, down which Poland and its
+business go careering thenceforth, down, down,--and will need but few
+words more from us. Actual discovery of "a way out" stands for next
+Section.
+
+First, however, we will notice, as prefatory, a curious occurrence
+in the Country of Zips, contiguous to the Hungarian Frontier. Zips, a
+pretty enough District, of no great extent, had from time immemorial
+belonged to Hungary; till, above 300 years ago, it was--by Sigismund
+SUPER GRAMMATICAM, a man always in want of money (whom we last saw, in
+flaming color, investing Friedrich's Ancestor with Brandenburg instead
+of payment for a debt of money)--pledged to the Crown of Poland for
+a round sum to help in Sigismund's pressing occasions. Redemption by
+payment never followed; attempt at redemption there had never been,
+by Sigismund or any of his successors. Nay, one successor, in a Treaty
+still extant, [Preuss, iv. 32 (date 1589; pawning had beep 1412).]
+expressly gave up the right of redeeming: Pledge forfeited: a Zips
+belonging to Polish Crown and Republic by every law.
+
+Well; Imperial Majesty, as we have transiently seen, is assembling
+troops on the Hungarian Frontier, for a special purpose. Poor Poland is,
+by this time (1770), as we also saw, sunk in Pestilence,--pigs and dogs
+devouring the dead bodies: not a loaf to be had for a hundred ducats,
+and the rage of Pestilence itself a mild thing to that of Hunger, not to
+mention other rages. So that both Austria and Prussia, in order to keep
+out Pestilence at least, if they cannot the other rages, have had to
+draw CORDONS, or lines of troops along the Frontiers. "The Prussian
+cordon," I am informed, "goes from Crossen, by Frankfurt northward,
+to the Weichsel River and border of Warsaw Country:" and "is under the
+command of General Belling," our famous Anti-Swede Hussar of former
+years. The Austrian cordon looks over upon Zips and other Starosties, on
+the Hungarian Border: where, independently of Pestilence, an alarmed
+and indignant Empress-Queen has been and is assembling masses of troops,
+with what object we know. Looking over into Zips in these circumstances,
+indignant Kaunitz and Imperial Majesty, especially HIS Imperial Majesty,
+a youth always passionate for territory, say to themselves, "Zips was
+ours, and in a sense is!"--and (precise date refused us, but after
+Neustadt, and before Winter has quite come) push troops across into
+Zips Starosty: seize the whole Thirteen Townships of Zips, and not only
+these, but by degrees tract after tract of the adjacencies: "Must have
+a Frontier to our mind in those parts: indefensible otherwise!" And
+quietly set up boundary-pillars, with the Austrian double-eagle stamped
+on them, and intimation to Zips and neighborhood, That it is now become
+Austrian, and shall have no part farther in these Polish Confederatings,
+Pestilences, rages of men, and pigs devouring dead bodies, but shall
+live quiet under the double-eagle as others do. Which to Zips, for the
+moment, might be a blessed change, welcome or otherwise; but which awoke
+considerable amazement in the outer world,--very considerable in King
+Stanislaus (to whom, on applying, Kaunitz would give no explanation the
+least articulate);--and awoke, in the Russian Court especially, a rather
+intense surprise and provocation.
+
+
+
+
+PRINCE HENRI HAS BEEN TO SWEDEN; IS SEEN AT PETERSBURG IN MASQUERADE (on
+or about New-year's Day, 1771); AND DOES GET HOME, WITH RESULTS THAT ARE
+IMPORTANT.
+
+Prince Henri, as we noticed, was not of this Second King-and-Kaiser
+Interview; Henri had gone in the opposite direction,--to Sweden, on a
+visit to his Sister Ulrique,--off for West and North, just in the same
+days while the King was leaving Potsdam for Silesia and his other errand
+in the Southeast parts. Henri got to Drottingholm, his Sister's country
+Palace near Stockholm, by the "end of August;" and was there with Queen
+Ulrique and Husband during these Neustadt manoeuvres. A changed Queen
+Ulrique, since he last saw her "beautiful as Love," whirling off in the
+dead of night for those remote Countries and destinies. [Supra, viii.
+309.] She is now fifty, or on the edge of it, her old man sixty,--old
+man dies within few months. They have had many chagrins, especially she,
+as the prouder, has had, from their contumacious People,--contumacious
+Senators at least (strong always both in POCKET-MONEY French or Russian,
+and in tendency to insolence and folly),--who once, I remember, demanded
+sight and count of the Crown-Jewels from Queen Ulrique: "There, VOILA,
+there are they!" said the proud Queen; "view them, count them,--lock
+them up: never more will I wear one of them!" But she has pretty Sons
+grown to manhood, one pretty Daughter, a patient good old Husband; and
+Time, in Sweden too, brings its roses; and life is life, in spite of
+contumacious bribed Senators and doggeries that do rather abound. Henri
+stayed with her six or seven weeks; leaves Sweden, middle of October,
+1770,--not by the straight course homewards: "No, verily, and well knew
+why!" shrieks the indignant Polish world on us ever since.
+
+It is not true that Friedrich had schemed to send Henri round by
+Petersburg. On the contrary, it was the Czarina, on ground of old
+acquaintanceship, who invited him, and asked his Brother's leave to
+do it. And if Poland got its fate from the circumstance, it was by
+accident, and by the fact that Poland's fate was drop-ripe, ready to
+fall by a touch.--Before going farther, here is ocular view of the
+shrill-minded, serious and ingenious Henri, little conscious of being so
+fateful a man:--PRINCE HENRI IN WHITE DOMINO. "Prince Henri of Prussia,"
+says Richardson, the useful Eye-witness cited already, "is one of the
+most celebrated Generals of the present age. So great are his military
+talents, that his Brother, who is not apt to pay compliments, says of
+him,--That, in commanding an army, he was never known to commit a fault.
+This, however, is but a negative kind of praise. He [the King] reserves
+to himself the glory of superior genius, which, though capable of
+brilliant achievements, is yet liable to unwary mistakes: and allows him
+no other than the praise of correctness.
+
+"To judge of Prince Henri by his appearance, I should form no high
+estimate of his abilities. But the Scythian Ambassadors judged in the
+same manner of Alexander the Great. He is under the middle size; very
+thin; he walks firmly enough, or rather struts, as if he wanted to
+walk firmly; and has little dignity in his air or gesture. He is
+dark-complexioned; and he wears his hair, which is remarkably thick,
+clubbed, and dressed with a high toupee. His forehead is high; his eyes
+large and blue, with a little squint; and when he smiles, his upper
+lip is drawn up a little in the middle. His look expresses sagacity and
+observation, but nothing very amiable; and his manner is grave and
+stiff rather than affable. He was dressed, when I first saw him, in a
+light-blue frock with silver frogs; and wore a red waistcoat and blue
+breeches. He is not very popular among the Russians; and accordingly
+their wits are disposed to amuse themselves with his appearance, and
+particularly with his toupee. They say he resembles Samson; that all his
+strength lies in his hair; and that, conscious of this, and recollecting
+the fate of the son of Manoah, he suffers not the nigh approaches of any
+deceitful Delilah. They say he is like the Comet, which, about fifteen
+months ago, appeared so formidable in the Russian hemisphere; and which,
+exhibiting a small watery body, but a most enormous train, dismayed the
+Northern and Eastern Potentates with 'fear of change.'
+
+"I saw him a few nights ago [on or about New-year's Day, 1771; come
+back to us, from his Tour to Moscow, three weeks before; and nothing
+but galas ever since] at a Masquerade in the Palace, said to be the most
+magnificent thing of the kind ever seen at the Russian Court. Fourteen
+large rooms and galleries were opened for the accommodation of the
+masks; and I was informed that there were present several thousand
+people. A great part of the company wore dominos, or capuchin dresses;
+though, besides these, some fanciful appearances afforded a good deal
+of amusement. A very tall Cossack appeared completely arrayed in the
+'hauberk's twisted mail.' He was indeed very grim and martial. Persons
+in emblematical dresses, representing Apollo and the Seasons, addressed
+the Empress in speeches suited to their characters. The Empress herself,
+at the time I saw her Majesty, wore a Grecian habit; though I was
+afterwards told that she varied her dress two or three times during the
+masquerade. Prince Henri of Prussia wore a white domino. Several persons
+appeared in the dresses of different nations,--Chinese, Turks, Persians
+and Armenians. The most humorous and fantastical figure was a Frenchman,
+who, with wonderful nimbleness and dexterity, represented an overgrown
+but very beautiful Parrot. He chattered with a great deal of spirit; and
+his shoulders, covered with green feathers, performed admirably the part
+of wings. He drew the attention of the Empress; a ring was formed; he
+was quite happy; fluttered his plumage; made fine speeches in Russ,
+French and tolerable English; the ladies were exceedingly diverted;
+everybody laughed except Prince Henri, who stood beside the Empress, and
+was so grave and so solemn, that he would have performed his part
+most admirably in the shape of an owl. The Parrot observed him; was
+determined to have revenge; and having said as many good things as he
+could to her Majesty, he was hopping away; but just as he was going out
+of the circle, seeming to recollect himself, he stopped, looked over his
+shoulder at the formal Prince, and quite in the parrot tone and French
+accent, he addressed him most emphatically with 'HENRI! HENRI! HENRI!'
+and then, diving into the crowd, disappeared. His Royal Highness was
+disconcerted; he was forced to smile in his own defence, and the company
+were not a little amused.
+
+"At midnight, a spacious hall, of a circular form, capable of containing
+a vast number of people, and illuminated in the most magnificent manner,
+was suddenly opened. Twelve tables were placed in alcoves around the
+sides of the room, where the Empress, Prince Henri, and a hundred and
+fifty of the chief nobility and foreign ministers sat down to supper.
+The rest of the company went up, by stairs on the outside of the room,
+into the lofty galleries placed all around on the inside. Such a row of
+masked visages, many of them with grotesque features and bushy beards,
+nodding from the side of the wall, appeared very ludicrous to those
+below. The entertainment was enlivened with a concert of music: and
+at different intervals persons in various habits entered the hall, and
+exhibited Cossack, Chinese, Polish, Swedish and Tartar dances. The whole
+was so gorgeous, and at the same time so fantastic, that I could not
+help thinking myself present at some of the magnificent festivals
+described in the old-fashioned romantes:--
+
+     'The marshal'd feast
+     Served up in hall with sewers and seneschals.'
+
+The rest of the company, on returning to the rooms adjoining, found
+prepared for them also a sumptuous banquet. The masquerade began at 6 in
+the evening, and continued till 5 next morning.
+
+"Besides the masquerade, and other festivities, in honor of, and
+to divert Prince Henri, we had lately a most magnificent show of
+fire-works. They were exhibited in a wide apace before the Winter
+Palace; and, in truth, 'beggared description.' They displayed, by a
+variety of emblematical figures, the reduction of Moldavia, Wallachia,
+Bessarabia, and the various conquests and victories achieved since the
+commencement of the present War. The various colors, the bright
+green and the snowy white, exhibited in these fire-works, were truly
+astonishing. For the space of twenty minutes, a tree, adorned with the
+loveliest and most verdant foliage, seemed to be waving as with a gentle
+breeze. It was entirely of fire; and during the whole of this stupendous
+scene, an arch of fire, by the continued throwing of rockets and
+fire-balls in one direction, formed as it were a suitable canopy.
+
+"On this occasion a prodigious multitude of people were assembled; and
+the Empress, it was surmised, seemed uneasy. She was afraid, it was
+apprehended, lest any accident, like what happened at Paris at the
+marriage of the Dauphin, should befall her beloved people. I hope I
+have amused you; and ever am"--[W. Richardson, _Anecdotes of the Russian
+Empire,_ pp. 325-331: "Petersburg, 4th January, 1771."]
+
+The masquerades and galas in honor of Prince Henri, from a grandiose
+Hostess, who had played with him in childhood, were many; but it is not
+with these that we have to do. One day, the Czarina, talking to him of
+the Austrian procedures at Zips, said with pique, "It seems, in Poland
+you have only to stoop, and pick up what you like of it. If the Court
+of Vienna have the notion to dismember that Kingdom, its neighbors will
+have right to do as much." [Rulhiere, iv. 210; _Trois Demembremens,_
+i. 142; above all, Henri himself, in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvi. 345,
+"Petersburg, 8th January, 1771."] This is supposed, in all Books, to
+be the PUNCTUM SALIENS, or first mention, of the astonishing Partition,
+which was settled, agreed upon, within about a year hence, and has
+made so much noise ever since. And in effect it was so; the idea rising
+practically in that high head was the real beginning. But this was
+not the first head it had been in; far from that. Above a year ago,
+as Friedrich himself informed us, it had been in Friedrich's own
+head,--though at the time it went for absolutely nothing, nobody even
+bestowing a sneer on it (as Friedrich intimates), and disappeared
+through the Horn-Gate of Dreams.
+
+Friedrich himself appears to have quite forgotten the Count-Lynar idea;
+and, on Henri's report from Russia, was totally incredulous; and even
+suspected that there might be trickery and danger in this Russian
+proposal. Not till Henri's return (FEBRUARY 18th, 1771) could he
+entirely believe that the Czarina was serious;--and then, sure enough,
+he did, with his whole heart, go into it: the EUREKA out of all these
+difficulties, which had so long seemed insuperable. Prince Henri "had
+an Interview with the Austrian Minister next day" (February 19th),
+who immediately communicated with his Kaunitz,--and got discouraging
+response from Kaunitz; discouraging, or almost negatory; which did not
+discourage Friedrich. "A way out," thinks Friedrich: "the one way to
+save my Prussia and the world from incalculable conflagration." And
+entered on it without loss of a moment. And labored at it with such
+continual industry, rapidity and faculty for guiding and pushing, as
+all readers have known in him, on dangerous emergencies: at no moment
+lifting his hand from it till it was complete.
+
+His difficulties were enormous: what a team to drive; and on such a
+road, untrodden before by hoof or wheel! Two Empresses that cordially
+hate one another, and that disagree on this very subject. Kaunitz and
+his Empress are extremely skittish in the matter, and as if quite refuse
+it at first: "Zips will be better," thinks Kaunitz to himself; "Cannot
+we have, all to ourselves, a beautiful little cutting out of Poland in
+that part; and then perhaps, in league with the Turk, who has money,
+beat the Russians home altogether, and rule Poland in their stead, or
+'share it with the Sultan,' as Reis-Effendi suggests?" And the dismal
+truth is, though it was not known for years afterward, Kaunitz does
+about this time, in profoundest secret, actually make Treaty of Alliance
+with the Turk ("so many million Piastres to us, ready money, year by
+year, and you shall, if not by our mediating, then by our fighting, be
+a contented Turk"); and all along at the different Russian-Turk
+"Peace-Congresses," Kaunitz, while pretending to sit and mediate
+along with Prussia, sat on that far other basis, privately thwarting
+everything; and span out the Turk pacification in a wretched manner
+for years coming. ["Peace of Kainardschi," not till "21st July,
+1774,"--after four or five abortive attempts, two of them "Congresses,"
+Kaunitz so industrious (Hermann, v. 664 et antea).] A dangerous,
+hard-mouthed, high-stalking, ill-given old coach-horse of a Kaunitz:
+fancy what the driving of him might be, on a road he did not like! But
+he had a driver too, who, in delicate adroitness, in patience and in
+sharpness of whip, was consummate: "You shall know it is your one road,
+my ill-given friend!" (I ostentatiously increase my Cavalry by 8,000;
+meaning, "A new Seven-Years War, if you force me, and Russia by my side
+this time!") So that Kaunitz had to quit his Turk courses (never paid
+the Piastres back), and go into what really was the one way out.
+
+But Friedrich's difficulties on this course are not the thing that
+can interest readers; and all readers know his faculty for overcoming
+difficulties. Readers ask rather: "And had Friedrich no feeling about
+Poland itself, then, and this atrocious Partitioning of the poor
+Country?" Apparently none whatever;--unless it might be, that
+Deliverance from Anarchy, Pestilence, Famine, and Pigs eating your dead
+bodies, would be a manifest advantage for Poland, while it was the
+one way of saving Europe from War. Nobody seems more contented in
+conscience, or radiant with heartfelt satisfaction, and certainty of
+thanks from all wise and impartial men, than the King of Prussia, now
+and afterwards, in regard to this Polish atrocity! A psychological fact,
+which readers can notice. Scrupulous regard to Polish considerations,
+magnanimity to Poland, or the least respect or pity for her as a
+dying Anarchy, is what nobody will claim for him; consummate talent in
+executing the Partition of Poland (inevitable some day, as he may have
+thought, but is nowhere at the pains to say),--great talent, great
+patience too, and meritorious self-denial and endurance, in executing
+that Partition, and in saving IT from catching fire instead of being
+the means to quench fire, no well-informed person will deny him. Of his
+difficulties in the operation (which truly are unspeakable) I will say
+nothing more; readers are prepared to believe that he, beyond others,
+should conquer difficulties when the object is vital to him. I will
+mark only the successive dates of his progress, and have done with this
+wearisome subject:--
+
+June 14th, 1771. Within four months of the arrival of Prince Henri and
+that first certainty from Russia, diligent Friedrich, upon whom the
+whole burden had been laid of drawing up a Plan, and bringing Austria
+to consent, is able to report to Petersburg, That Austria has dubieties,
+reluctances, which it is to be foreseen she will gradually get over;
+and that here meanwhile (June 14th, 1771) is my Plan of Partition,--the
+simplest conceivable: "That each choose (subject to future
+adjustments) what will best suit him; I, for my own part, will say,
+West-Preussen;--what Province will Czarish Majesty please to say?"
+Czarish Majesty, in answer, is exorbitantly liberal to herself; claims,
+not a Province, but four or five; will have Friedrich, if the Austrians
+attack her in consequence, to assist by declaring War on Austria;
+Czarish Majesty, in the reciprocal case, not to assist Friedrich at all,
+till her Turk War is done! "Impossible," thinks Friedrich; "surprisingly
+so, high Madam! But, to the delicate bridle-hand, you are a manageable
+entity."
+
+It was with Kaunitz that Friedrich's real difficulties lay. Privately,
+in the course of this Summer, Kaunitz, by way of preparation for
+"mediating a Turk-Russian Peace," had concluded his "subsidy Treaty"
+with the Turk, ["6th July, 1771" (Preuss, iv. 31; Hermann; &c.
+&c.).]--Treaty never ratified, but the Piastres duly paid;--Treaty
+rendering Peace impossible, so long as Kaunitz had to do with mediating
+it. And indeed Kaunitz's tricks in that function of mediator, and also
+after it, were of the kind which Friedrich has some reason to call
+"infamous." "Your Majesty, as co-mediator, will join us, should the
+Russians make War?" said Kaunitz's Ambassador, one day, to Friedrich.
+"For certain, no!" answered Friedrich; and, on the contrary, remounted
+his Cavalry, to signify, "I will fight the other way, if needed!" which
+did at once bring Kaunitz to give up his mysterious Turk projects, and
+come into the Polish. After which, his exorbitant greed of territory
+there; his attempts to get Russia into a partitioning of Turkey as
+well,--("A slice of Turkey too, your Czarish Majesty and we?" hints he
+more than once),--gave Friedrich no end of trouble; and are singular
+to look at by the light there now is. Not for about a twelvemonth did
+Friedrich get his hard-mouthed Kaunitz brought into step at all; and
+to the last, perpetual vigilance and, by whip and bit, the adroitest
+charioteering was needed on him.
+
+FEBRUARY 17th, 1772, Russia and Prussia, for their own part,--Friedrich,
+in the circumstances, submitting to many things from his Czarina,--get
+their particular "Convention" (Bargain in regard to Poland) completed in
+all parts, "will take possession 4th June instant:" sign said Convention
+(February 17th);--and invite Austria to join, and state her claims.
+Which, in three weeks after, MARCH 4th, Austria does;--exorbitant
+abundantly; and NOT to be got very much reduced, though we try, for a
+series of months. Till at last:--
+
+AUGUST 5th, 1772, Final Agreement between the Three Partitioning Powers:
+"These are our respective shares; we take possession on the 1st OF
+SEPTEMBER instant:"--and actual possession for Friedrich's share did,
+on the 13th of that month, ensue. A right glad Friedrich, as everybody,
+friend or enemy, may imagine him! Glad to have done with such a
+business,--had there been no other profit in it; which was far from
+being the case. One's clear belief, on studying these Books, is of two
+things: FIRST, that, as everybody admits, Friedrich had no real hand in
+starting the notion of Partitioning Poland;--but that he grasped at it
+with eagerness, as the one way of saving Europe from War: SECOND, what
+has been much less noticed, that, under any other hand, it would have
+led Europe to War;--and that to Friedrich is due the fact, that it got
+effected without such accompaniment. Friedrich's share of Territory
+is counted to be in all 9,465 English square miles; Austria's, 62,500;
+Russia's, 87,500, [Preuss, iv. 45.] between nine and ten times the
+amount of Friedrich's,--which latter, however, as an anciently Teutonic
+Country, and as filling up the always dangerous gap between his
+Ost-Preussen and him, has, under Prussian administration, proved much
+the most valuable of the Three; and, next to Silesia, is Friedrich's
+most important acquisition. SEPTEMBER 13th, 1772, it was at last entered
+upon,--through such waste-weltering confusions, and on terms never yet
+unquestionable.
+
+Consent of Polish Diet was not had for a year more; but that is worth
+little record. Diet, for that object, got together 19th APRIL, 1773;
+recalcitrant enough, had not Russia understood the methods: "a common
+fund was raised [ON SE COTISA, says Friedrich] for bribing;" the
+Three Powers had each a representative General in Warsaw (Lentulus the
+Prussian personage), all three with forces to rear: Diet came down
+by degrees, and, in the course of five months (SEPTEMBER 18th, 1773),
+acquiesced in everything.
+
+And so the matter is ended; and various men will long have various
+opinions upon it. I add only this one small Document from Maria
+Theresa's hand, which all hearts, and I suppose even Friedrich's had
+he ever read it, will pronounce to be very beautiful; homely, faithful,
+wholesome, well-becoming in a high and true Sovereign Woman.
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPRESS-QUEEN TO PRINCE KAUNITZ (Undated: date must be Vienna,
+February, 1772).
+
+"When all my lands were invaded, and I knew not where in the world I
+should find a place to be brought to bed in, I relied on my good right
+and the help of God. But in this thing, where not only public law cries
+to Heaven against us, but also all natural justice and sound reason,
+I must confess never in my life to have been in such trouble, and am
+ashamed to show my face. Let the Prince [Kaunitz] consider what an
+example we are giving to all the world, if, for a miserable piece of
+Poland, or of Moldavia or Wallachia, we throw our honor and reputation
+to the winds. I see well that I am alone, and no more in vigor;
+therefore I must, though to my very great sorrow, let things take their
+course." [_"Als alle meine lander angefochten wurden und gar nit mehr
+wusste wo ruhig niederkommen sollte, steiffete ich mich auf mein gutes
+Recht und den Beystand Gottes. Aber in dieser Sach, wo nit allein das
+offenbare Recht himmelschreyent wider Uns, sondern auch alle Billigkeit
+und die gesunde Vernunft wider Uns ist, muess bekhennen dass zeitlebens
+nit so beangstigt mich befunten und mich sehen zu lassen schame. Bedenkh
+der Furst, was wir aller Welt fur ein Exempel geben, wenn wir um ein
+ellendes stuk von Pohlen oder von der Moldau und Wallachey unser ehr und
+REPUTATION in die schanz schlagen. Ich merkh wohl dass ich allein bin
+und nit mehr EN VIGEUR, darum lasse ich die sachen, jedoch nit ohne
+meinen grossten Gram, ihren Weg gehen."_ (From "Hormayr, _Taschenbuch,_
+1831, s. 66:" cited in PREUSS, iv. 38.)]
+
+And, some days afterwards, here is her Majesty's Official Assent:
+"PLACET, since so many great and learned men will have it so: but long
+after I am dead, it will be known what this violating of all that was
+hitherto held sacred and just will give rise to." [From _"Zietgenossen_
+[a Biographical Periodical], lxxi. 29:" cited in PREUSS, iv. 39.] (Hear
+her Majesty!)
+
+Friedrich has none of these compunctious visitings; but his account
+too, when he does happen to speak on the subject, is worth hearing, and
+credible every word. Writing to Voltaire, a good while after (POTSDAM,
+9th OCTOBER, 1773)) this, in the swift-flowing, miscellaneous Letter,
+is one passage:... "To return to your King of Poland. I am aware that
+Europe pretty generally believes the late Partition made (QU'ON A FAIT)
+of Poland to be a result of the Political trickeries (MANIGANCES) which
+are attributed to me; nevertheless, nothing is more untrue. After in
+vain proposing different arrangements and expedients, there was no
+alternative left but either that same Partition, or else Europe kindled
+into a general War. Appearances are deceitful; and the Public judges
+only by these. What I tell you is as true as the Forty-seventh of
+Euclid." [_OEuvres de Frederic_, xxiii. 257.]
+
+
+
+
+WHAT FRIEDRICH DID WITH HIS NEW ACQUISITION.
+
+Considerable obloquy still rests on Friedrich, in many liberal circles,
+for the Partition of Poland. Two things, however, seem by this time
+tolerably clear, though not yet known in liberal circles: first, that
+the Partition of Poland was an event inevitable in Polish History; an
+operation of Almighty Providence and of the Eternal Laws of Nature, as
+well as of the poor earthly Sovereigns concerned there; and secondly,
+that Friedrich had nothing special to do with it, and, in the way of
+originating or causing it, nothing whatever.
+
+It is certain the demands of Eternal Justice must be fulfilled: in
+earthly instruments, concerned with fulfilling them, there may be all
+degrees of demerit and also of merit,--from that of a world-ruffian
+Attila the Scourge of God, conscious of his own ferocities and
+cupidities alone, to that of a heroic Cromwell, sacredly aware that he
+is, at his soul's peril, doing God's Judgments on the enemies of God,
+in Tredah and other severe scenes. If the Laws and Judgments are verily
+those of God, there can be no clearer merit than that of pushing them
+forward, regardless of the barkings of Gazetteers and wayside dogs,
+and getting them, at the earliest term possible, made valid among
+recalcitrant mortals! Friedrich, in regard to Poland, I cannot find to
+have had anything considerable either of merit or of demerit, in the
+moral point of view; but simply to have accepted, and put in his pocket
+without criticism, what Providence sent. He himself evidently views
+it in that light; and is at no pains to conceal his great sense of the
+value of West-Preussen to him. We praised his Narrative as eminently
+true, and the only one completely intelligible in every point: in
+his Preface to it, written some years later, he is still more candid.
+Speaking there in the first person, this once and never before or
+after,--he says:--
+
+"These new pretensions [of the Czarina, to assuage the religious
+putrid-fever of the Poles by word of command] raised all Poland [into
+Confederation of Bar, and WAR OF THE CONFEDERATES, sung by Friedrich];
+the Grandees of the Kingdom implored the assistance of the Turks:
+straightway War flamed out; in which the Russian Armies had only to
+show themselves to beat the Turks in every rencounter." His Majesty
+continues: "This War changed the whole Political System of Europe
+[general Diplomatic Dance of Europe, suddenly brought to a whirl by such
+changes of the music]; a new arena (CARRIERE) came to open itself,--and
+one must have been either without address, or else buried in stupid
+somnolence (ENGOURDISSEMENT), not to profit by an opportunity so
+advantageous. I had read Bojardo's fine Allegory: [Signifies only,
+"seize opportunity;" but here is the passage itself:--
+
+     "Quante volte le disse: 'O bella dama,
+     Conosci l'ora de la tua ventura,
+     Dapoi che un tal Baron piu the che se t'ama,
+     Che non ha il Ciel piu vaga creatura.
+     Forse anco avrai di questo tempo brama,
+     Che'l felice destin sempre non dura;
+     Prendi diletto, mentre sei su 'l verde,
+     Che l'avuto piacer mai non si perde.
+     Questa eta giovenil, ch' e si gioiosa,
+     Tutta in diletto consumar si deve,
+     Perche quasi in un punto ci e nas cosa:
+     Como dissolve 'l sol la bianca neve,
+     Como in un giorno la vermiglia rosa
+     Perde il vago color in tempo breve,
+     Cosi fugge l' eta com' un baleno,
+     E non si puo tener, che non ha freno.'"
+
+(Bojardo, _Orlando Innamorato,_ lib. i. cant. 2.)] I seized by the
+forelock this unexpected opportunity; and, by dint of negotiating and
+intriguing [candid King] I succeeded in indemnifying our Monarchy for
+its past losses, by incorporating Polish Prussia with my Old Provinces."
+[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ (Preface to MEMOIRS DEPUIS 1763 JUSQU'A 1774),
+vi. 6, 7: "MEMOIRES [Chapter FIRST, including all the Polish part] were
+finished in 1775; Preface is of 1779."]
+
+Here is a Historian King who uses no rouge-pot in his Narratives,--whose
+word, which is all we shall say of it at present, you find to be
+perfectly trustworthy, and a representation of the fact as it stood
+before himself! What follows needs no vouching for: "This acquisition
+was one of the most important we could make, because it joined Pommern
+to East Prussia [ours for ages past], and because, rendering us masters
+of the Weichsel River, we gained the double advantage of being able to
+defend that Kingdom [Ost-Preussen], and to draw considerable tolls from
+the Weichsel, as all the trade of Poland goes by that River."
+
+Yes truly! Our interests are very visible: and the interests and wishes
+and claims of Poland,--are they nowhere worthy of one word from you, O
+King? Nowhere that I have noticed: not any mention of them, or allusion
+to them; though the world is still so convinced that perhaps they were
+something, and not nothing! Which is very curious. In the whole course
+of my reading I have met with no Autobiographer more careless to
+defend himself upon points in dispute among his Audience, and marked as
+criminal against him by many of them. Shadow of Apology on such points
+you search for in vain. In rapid bare summary he sets down the sequel of
+facts, as if assured beforehand of your favorable judgment, or with the
+profoundest indifference to how you shall judge them; drops his actions,
+as an Ostrich does its young, to shift for themselves in the wilderness,
+and hurries on his way. This style of his, noticeable of old in regard
+to Silesia too, has considerably hurt him with the common kind of
+readers; who, in their preconceived suspicions of the man, are all the
+more disgusted at tracing in him, not the least anxiety to stand well
+with any reader, more than to stand ill, AS ill as any reader likes!
+
+Third parties, it would seem, have small temptation to become his
+advocates; he himself being so totally unprovided with thanks for you!
+But, on another score, and for the sake of a better kind of readers,
+there is one third party bound to remark: 1. That hardly any Sovereign
+known to us did, in his general practice, if you will examine it, more
+perfectly respect the boundaries of his neighbors; and go on the road
+that was his own, anxious to tread on no man's toes if he could avoid
+it: a Sovereign who, at all times, strictly and beneficently confined
+himself to what belonged to his real business and him. 2. That
+apparently, therefore, he must have considered Poland to be an
+exceptional case, unique in his experience: case of a moribund Anarchy,
+fallen down as carrion on the common highways of the world; belonging to
+nobody in particular; liable to be cut into (nay, for sanitary
+reasons requiring it, if one were a Rhadamanthus Errant, which one
+is not!)--liable to be cut into, on a great and critically stringent
+occasion; no question to be asked of IT; your only question the consent
+of by-standers, and the moderate certainty that nobody got a glaringly
+disproportionate share! That must have been, on the part of an equitable
+Friedrich, or even of a Friedrich accurate in Book-keeping by Double
+Entry, the notion silently formed about Poland.
+
+Whether his notion was scientifically right, and conformable to actual
+fact, is a question I have no thought of entering on; still less,
+whether Friedrich was morally right, or whether there was not a higher
+rectitude, granting even the fact, in putting it in practice. These are
+questions on which an Editor may have his opinion, partly complete for a
+long time past, partly not complete, or, in human language, completable
+or pronounceable at all; and may carefully forbear to obtrude it on his
+readers; and only advise them to look with their own best eyesight, to
+be deaf to the multiplex noises which are evidently blind, and to think
+what they find thinkablest on such a subject. For, were it never so
+just, proper and needful, this is by nature a case of LYNCH LAW; upon
+which, in the way of approval or apology, no spoken word is permissible.
+Lynch being so dangerous a Lawgiver, even when an indispensable one!--
+
+For, granting that the Nation of Poland was for centuries past an
+Anarchy doomed by the Eternal Laws of Heaven to die, and then of
+course to get gradually buried, or eaten by neighbors, were it only for
+sanitary reasons,--it will by no means suit, to declare openly on behalf
+of terrestrial neighbors who have taken up such an idea (granting it
+were even a just one, and a true reading of the silent but inexorably
+certain purposes of Heaven), That they, those volunteer terrestrial
+neighbors, are justified in breaking in upon the poor dying or dead
+carcass, and flaying and burying it, with amicable sharing of skin and
+shoes! If it even were certain that the wretched Polish Nation, for the
+last forty years hastening with especial speed towards death, did in
+present circumstances, with such a howling canaille of Turk Janissaries
+and vultures of creation busy round it, actually require prompt surgery,
+in the usual method, by neighbors,--the neighbors shall and must do that
+function at their own risk. If Heaven did appoint them to it, Heaven,
+for certain, will at last justify them; and in the mean while, for a
+generation or two, the same Heaven (I can believe) has appointed
+that Earth shall pretty unanimously condemn them. The shrieks, the
+foam-lipped curses of mistaken mankind, in such case, are mankind's one
+security against over-promptitude (which is so dreadfully possible) on
+the part of surgical neighbors.
+
+Alas, yes, my articulate-speaking friends; here, as so often elsewhere,
+the solution of the riddle is not Logic, but Silence. When a dark human
+Individual has filled the measure of his wicked blockheadisms, sins and
+brutal nuisancings, there are Gibbets provided, there are Laws provided;
+and you can, in an articulate regular manner, hang him and finish him,
+to general satisfaction. Nations too, you may depend on it as certain,
+do require the same process, and do infallibly get it withal; Heaven's
+Justice, with written Laws or without, being the most indispensable and
+the inevitablest thing I know of in this Universe. No doing without it;
+and it is sure to come:--and the Judges and Executioners, we observe,
+are NOT, in that latter case, escorted in and out by the Sheriffs of
+Counties and general ringing of bells; not so, in that latter case, but
+far otherwise!--
+
+And now, leaving that vexed question, we will throw one glance--only one
+is permitted--into the far more profitable question, which probably
+will one day be the sole one on this matter, What became of poor
+West-Preussen under Friedrich? Had it to sit, weeping unconsolably, or
+not? Herr Dr. Freytag, a man of good repute in Literature, has, in one
+of his late Books of Popular History, [G. Freytag, _Neue Bilder aus dem
+Leben des deutschen Volkes_ (Leipzig, 1862).] gone into this subject,
+in a serious way, and certainly with opportunities far beyond mine for
+informing himself upon it:--from him these Passages have been excerpted,
+labelled and translated by a good hand:--
+
+ACQUISITION OF POLISH PRUSSIA. "During several Centuries, the
+much-divided Germans had habitually been pressed upon, and straitened
+and injured, by greedy conquering neighbors; Friedrich was the first
+Conqueror who once more pushed forward the German Frontier towards the
+East; reminding the Germans again, that it was their task to carry Law,
+Culture, Liberty and Industry into the East of Europe. All Friedrich's
+Lands, with the exception only of some Old-Saxon territory, had, by
+force and colonization, been painfully gained from the Sclave. At no
+time since the migrations of the Middle Ages, had this struggle for
+possession of the wide Plains to the east of Oder ceased. When arms were
+at rest, politicians carried on the struggle."
+
+PERSECUTION OF GERMAN PROTESTANTS IN POLAND. "In the very 'Century of
+Enlightenment' the persecution of the Germans became fanatical in those
+Countries: one Protestant Church after the other got confiscated; pulled
+down; if built of wood, set on fire: its Church once burnt, the Village
+had lost the privilege of having one. Ministers and schoolmasters were
+driven away, cruelly maltreated. 'VEXA LUTHERANURN, DABIT THALERUM
+(Wring the Lutheran, you will find money in him),' became the current
+Proverb of the Poles in regard to Germans. A Protestant Starost of
+Gnesen, a Herr von UNRUH of the House of Birnbaum, one of the largest
+proprietors of the country, was condemned to die, and first to have his
+tongue pulled out and his hands cut off,--for the crime of having copied
+into his Note-book some strong passages against the Jesuits, extracted
+from German Books. Patriotic 'Confederates of Bar,' joined by all the
+plunderous vagabonds around, went roaming and ravaging through the
+country, falling upon small towns and German villages. The Polish
+Nobleman, Roskowski [a celebrated "symbolical" Nobleman, this], put
+on one red boot and one black, symbolizing FIRE and DEATH; and in this
+guise rode about, murdering and burning, from places to place; finally,
+at Jastrow, he cut off the hands, feet, and lastly the head of the
+Protestant Pastor, Willich by name, and threw the limbs into a swamp.
+This happened in 1768."
+
+IN WHAT STATE FRIEDRICH FOUND THE POLISH PROVINCES. "Some few only of
+the larger German Towns, which were secured by walls, and some protected
+Districts inhabited exclusively by Germans,--as the NIEDERUNG near
+Dantzig, the Villages under the mild rule of the Cistercians of
+Oliva, and the opulent German towns of the Catholic Ermeland,--were in
+tolerable circumstances. The other Towns lay in ruins; so also most of
+the Hamlets (HOFE) of the open Country. Bromberg, the city of German
+Colonists, the Prussians found in heaps and ruins: to this hour it
+has not been possible to ascertain clearly how the Town came into this
+condition. [_"Neue Preussische Provinzialblotter,_ Year 1854, No. 4, p.
+259."] No historian, no document, tells of the destruction and slaughter
+that had been going on, in the whole District of the NETZE there, during
+the last ten years before the arrival of the Prussians, The Town of
+Culm had preserved its strong old walls and stately churches; but in the
+streets, the necks of the cellars stood out above the rotten timber and
+brick heaps of the tumbled houses: whole streets consisted merely of
+such cellars, in which wretched people were still trying to live. Of
+the forty houses in the large Market-place of Culm, twenty-eight had no
+doors, no roofs, no windows, and no owners. Other Towns were in similar
+condition."
+
+"The Country people hardly knew such a thing as bread; many had never
+in their life tasted such a delicacy; few Villages possessed an oven. A
+weaving-loom was rare, the spinning-wheel unknown. The main article of
+furniture, in this bare scene of squalor, was the Crucifix and vessel
+of Holy-Water under it [and "POLACK! CATHOLIK!" if a drop of gin
+be added].--The Peasant-Noble [unvoting, inferior kind] was hardly
+different from the common Peasant: he himself guided his Hook Plough
+(HACKEN-PFLUG), and clattered with his wooden slippers upon the
+plankless floor of his hut.... It was a desolate land, without
+discipline, without law, without a master. On 9,000 English square miles
+lived 500,000 souls: not 55 to the square mile."
+
+SETS TO WORK. "The very rottenness of the Country became an attraction
+for Friedrich; and henceforth West-Preussen was, what hitherto Silesia
+had been, his favorite child; which, with infinite care, like that of an
+anxious loving mother, he washed, brushed, new-dressed, and forced to
+go to school and into orderly habits, and kept ever in his eye. The
+diplomatic squabbles about this 'acquisition' were still going on,
+when he had already sent [so early as June 4th, 1772, and still more on
+September 13th of that Year [See his new DIALOGUE with Roden, our Wesel
+acquaintance, who was a principal Captain in this business (in PREUSS,
+iv. 57, 58: date of the Dialogue is "11th May, 1772;"--Roden was on the
+ground 4th June next; but, owing to Austrian delays, did not begin
+till September 13th).]] a body of his best Official People into this
+waste-howling scene, to set about organizing it. The Landschaften
+(COUNTIES) were divided into small Circles; in a minimum of time, the
+land was valued, and an equal tax put upon it; every Circle received its
+LANDRATH, Law-Court, Post-office and Sanitary Police. New Parishes, each
+with its Church and Parson, were called into existence as by miracle;
+a company of 187 Schoolmasters--partly selected and trained by
+the excellent Semler [famous over Germany, in Halle University and
+SEMINARIUM, not yet in England]--were sent into the Country: multitudes
+of German Mechanics too, from brick-makers up to machine-builders.
+Everywhere there began a digging, a hammering, a building; Cities were
+peopled anew; street after street rose out of the heaps of ruins; new
+Villages of Colonists were laid out, new modes of agriculture ordered.
+In the first Year after taking possession, the great Canal [of Bromberg]
+was dug; which, in a length of fifteen miles, connects, by the Netze
+River, the Weichsel with the Oder and the Elbe: within one year after
+giving the order, the King saw loaded vessels from the Oder, 120 feet in
+length of keel," and of forty tons burden, "enter the Weichsel. The vast
+breadths of land, gained from the state of swamp by drainage into this
+Canal, were immediately peopled by German Colonists.
+
+"As his Seven-Years Struggle of War may be called super-human, so was
+there also in his present Labor of Peace something enormous; which
+appeared to his contemporaries [unless my fancy mislead me] almost
+preternatural, at times inhuman. It was grand, but also terrible, that
+the success of the whole was to him, at all moments, the one thing to be
+striven after; the comfort of the individual of no concern at all. When,
+in the Marshland of the Wetze, he counted more the strokes of the 10,000
+spades, than the sufferings of the workers, sick with the marsh-fever in
+the hospitals which he had built for them; [Compare PREUSS, iv. 60-71.]
+when, restless, his demands outran the quickest performance,--there
+united itself to the deepest reverence and devotedness, in his People,
+a feeling of awe, as for one whose limbs are not moved by earthly life
+[fanciful, considerably!]. And when Goethe, himself become an old man,
+finished his last Drama [Second Part of FAUST], the figure of the old
+King again rose on him, and stept into his Poem; and his Faust got
+transformed into an unresting, creating, pitilessly exacting Master,
+forcing on his salutiferous drains and fruitful canals through the
+morasses of the Weichsel." [G. Freytag, _Neue Bilder aus dem Leben des
+deutschen Volkes_ (Leipzig, 1862), pp. 397-408.]
+
+These statements and pencillings of Freytag, apart from here and there
+a flourish of poetic sentiment, I believe my readers can accept as
+essentially true, and a correct portrait of the fact. And therewith, CON
+LA BOCCA DOLCE, we will rise from this Supper of Horrors. That Friedrich
+fortified the Country, that he built an impregnable Graudentz, and two
+other Fortresses, rendering the Country, and himself on that Eastern
+side, impregnable henceforth, all readers can believe. Friedrich has
+been building various Fortresses in this interim, though we have taken
+no notice of them; building and repairing many things;--trimming up his
+Military quite to the old pitch, as the most particular thing of all. He
+has his new Silesian Fortress of Silberberg,--big Fortress, looking
+into certain dangerous Bohemian Doors (in Tobias Stusche's Country,
+if readers recollect an old adventure now mythical);--his new Silesian
+Silberberg, his newer Polish Graudentz, and many others, and flatters
+himself he is not now pregnable on any side.
+
+A Friedrich working, all along, in Poland especially, amid what
+circumambient deluges of maledictory outcries, and mendacious
+shriekeries from an ill-informed Public, is not now worth mentioning.
+Mere distracted rumors of the Pamphleteer and Newspaper kind: which,
+after hunting them a long time, through dense and rare, end mostly in
+zero, and angry darkness of some poor human brain,--or even testify in
+favor of this Head-Worker, and of the sense he shows, especially of the
+patience. For example: that of the "Polish Towns and Villages, ordered"
+by this Tyrant "to deliver, each of them, so many marriageable girls;
+each girl to bring with her as dowry, furnished by her parents,
+1 feather-bed, 4 pillows, 1 cow, 3 swine and 3 ducats,"--in which
+desirable condition this tyrannous King "sent her into the Brandenburg
+States to be wedded and promote population." [Lindsey, LETTERS ON POLAND
+(Letter 2d). p. 61: Peyssonnel (in some. French Book of his, "solemnly
+presented to Louis XVI. and the Constituent Assembly;" cited in PREUSS,
+iv. 85); &c. &c.] Feather-beds, swine and ducats had their value in
+Brandenburg; but were marriageable girls such a scarcity there? Most
+extraordinary new RAPE OF THE SABINES; for which Herr Preuss can find no
+basis or source,--nor can I; except in the brain of Reverend Lindsey and
+his loud LETTERS ON POLAND above mentioned.
+
+Dantzig too, and the Harbor-dues, what a case! Dantzig Harbor, that
+is to say, Netze River, belongs mainly to Friedrich, Dantzig City
+not,--such the Czarina's lofty whim, in the late Partition Treatyings;
+not good to contradict, in the then circumstances; still less
+afterwards, though it brought chicanings more than enough. "And she
+was not ill-pleased to keep this thorn in the King's foot for her own
+conveniences," thinks the King; though, mainly, he perceives that it is
+the English acting on her grandiose mind: English, who were apprehensive
+for their Baltic trade under this new Proprietor, and who egged on an
+ambitious Czarina to protect Human Liberty, and an inflated Dantzig
+Burgermeister to stand up for ditto; and made a dismal shriekery in
+the Newspapers, and got into dreadful ill-humor with said Proprietor
+of Dantzig Harbor, and have never quite recovered from it to this day.
+Lindsey's POLISH LETTERS are very loud again on this occasion, aided
+by his SEVEN DIALOGUES ON POLAND; concerning which, partly for extinct
+Lindsey's sake, let us cite one small passage, and so wind up.
+
+MARCH 2d, 1775, in answer to Voltaire, Friedrich writes:... "The POLISH
+DIALOGUES you speak of are not known to me. I think of such Satires,
+with Epictetus: 'If they tell any truth of thee, correct thyself; if
+they are lies, laugh at them.' I have learned, with years, to become a
+steady coach-horse; I do my stage, like a diligent roadster, and pay
+no heed to the little dogs that will bark by the way." And then, three
+weeks after:--
+
+"I have at length got the SEVEN DIALOGUES ON POLAND; and the whole
+history of them as well. The Author is an Englishman named Lindsey,
+Parson by profession, and Tutor to the young Prince Poniatowski,
+the King of Poland's Nephew,"--Nephew Joseph, Andreas's Son, NOT the
+undistinguished Nephew: so we will believe for poor loud Lindsey's
+sake! "It was at the instigation of the Czartoryskis, Uncles of the King,
+that Lindsey composed this Satire,--in English first of all. Satire
+ready, they perceived that nobody in Poland would understand it, unless
+it were translated into French; which accordingly was done. But as their
+translator was unskilful, they sent the DIALOGUES to a certain Gerard at
+Dantzig, who at that time was French Consul there, and who is at present
+a Clerk in your Foreign Office under M. de Vergennes. This Gerard, who
+does not want for wit, but who does me the honor to hate me cordially,
+retouched these DIALOGUES, and put them into the condition they were
+published in. I have laughed a good deal at them: here and there occur
+coarse things (GROSSIERETES), and platitudes of the insipid kind:
+but there are traits of good pleasantry. I shall not go fencing with
+goose-quills against this sycophant. As Mazarin said, 'Let the French
+keep singing, provided they let us keep doing.'" [_OEuvres de Frederic,_
+xxiii. 319-321: "Potsdam, 2d March, 1775," and "25th March" following.
+See PREUSS, iii. 275, iv. 85.]
+
+
+
+Chapter V.--A CHAPTER OF MISCELLANIES.
+
+After Neustadt, Kaiser Joseph and the King had no more Interviews.
+Kaunitz's procedures in the subsequent Pacification and Partition
+business had completely estranged the two Sovereigns: to friendly
+visiting, a very different state of mutual feeling had succeeded;
+which went on, such "the immeasurable ambition" visible in some of
+us, deepening and worsening itself, instead of improving or abating.
+Friedrich had Joseph's Portrait hung in conspicuous position in the
+rooms where he lived; somebody noticing the fact, Friedrich answered:
+"Ah, yes, I am obliged to keep that young Gentleman in my eye." And,
+in effect, the rest of Friedrich's Political Activity, from this time
+onwards, may be defined as an ever-vigilant defence of himself, and of
+the German Reich, against Austrian Encroachment: which, to him, in the
+years then running, was the grand impending peril; and which to us in
+the new times has become so inexpressibly uninteresting, and will bear
+no narrative, Austrian Encroachment did not prove to be the death-peril
+that had overhung the world in Friedrich's last years!--
+
+These, accordingly, are years in which the Historical interest goes
+on diminishing; and only the Biographical, were anything of Biography
+attainable, is left. Friedrich's industrial, economic and other Royal
+activities are as beautiful as ever; but cannot to our readers, in our
+limits, be described with advantage. Events of world-interest, after the
+Partition of Poland, do not fall out, or Friedrich is not concerned in
+them. It is a dim element; its significance chiefly German or Prussian,
+not European. What of humanly interesting is discoverable in it,--at
+least, while the Austrian Grudge continues in a chronic state, and has
+no acute fit,--I will here present in the shape of detached Fragments,
+suitably arranged and rendered legible, in hopes these may still have
+some lucency for readers, and render more conceivable the surrounding
+masses that have to be left dark. Our first Piece is of Winter, or late
+Autumn, 1771,--while the solution of the Polish Business is still in its
+inchoative stages; perfectly complete in the Artist's own mind; Russia
+too adhering; but Kaunitz so refractory and contradictory.
+
+
+
+
+HERR DOCTOR ZIMMERMANN, THE FAMOUS AUTHOR OF THE BOOK "ON SOLITUDE,"
+WALKS REVERENTIALLY BEFORE FRIEDRICH'S DOOR IN THE DUSK OF AN OCTOBER
+EVENING: AND HAS A ROYAL INTERVIEW NEXT DAY.
+
+Friday Evening, 25th October, 1771, is the date of Zimmermann's walk
+of contemplation,--among the pale Statues and deciduous Gardenings of
+Sans-Souci Cottage (better than any Rialto, at its best),--the eternal
+stars coming out overhead, and the transitory candle-light of a King
+Friedrich close by.
+
+"At Sans-Souci," says he, in his famed Book, "where that old God of War
+(KRIEGSGOTT) forges his thunder-bolts, and writes Works of Intellect
+for Posterity; where he governs his People as the best father would
+his house; where, during one half of the day, he accepts and reads the
+petitions and complaints of the meanest citizen or peasant; comes to
+help of his Countries on all sides with astonishing sums of money,
+expecting no payment, nor seeking anything but the Common Weal;
+and where, during the other half, he is a Poet and Philosopher:--at
+Sans-Souci, I say, there reigns all round a silence, in which you can
+hear the faintest breath of every soft wind. I mounted this Hill for the
+first time in Winter [late Autumn, 25th October, 1771, edge of Winter],
+in the dusk. When I beheld the small Dwelling-House of this Convulser
+of the World close by me, and was near his very chamber, I saw indeed a
+light inside, but no sentry or watchman at the Hero's door; no soul to
+ask me, Who I was, or What I wanted. I saw nothing; and walked about as
+I pleased before this small and silent House." [Preuss, i. 387 ("from
+EINSAMKEIT," Zimmermann's SOLITUDE, "i. 110; Edition of Leipzig,
+1784").]
+
+Yes, Doctor, this is your Kriegsgott; throned in a free-and-easy
+fashion. In regard to that of Sentries, I believe there do come up from
+Potsdam nightly a corporal and six rank-and-file; but perhaps it is at
+a later hour; perhaps they sit within doors, silent, not to make noises.
+Another gentleman, of sauntering nocturnal habits, testifies to having,
+one night, seen the King actually asleep in bed, the doors being left
+ajar. [Ib. i. 388.]--As Zimmermann had a DIALOGUE next day with his
+Majesty, which we propose to give; still more, as he made such noise in
+the world by other Dialogues with Friedrich, and by a strange Book about
+them, which are still ahead,--readers may desire to know a little who or
+what the Zimmermann is, and be willing for a rough brief Note upon him,
+which certainly is not readier than it is rough:--
+
+Johann Georg Zimmermann: born 1728, at Brugg in the Canton of Bern,
+where his Father seems to have had some little property and no
+employment, "a RATHSHERR (Town-Councillor), who was much respected." Of
+brothers or sisters, no mention. The Mother being from the French part
+of the Canton, he learned to speak both languages. Went to Bern for his
+Latin and high-schooling; then to Gottingen, where he studied Medicine,
+under the once great Haller and other now dimmed celebrities. Haller,
+himself from Bern, had taken Zimmermann to board, and became much
+attached to him: Haller, in 1752, came on a summer visit to native Bern:
+Zimmermann, who had in the mean time been "for a few months" in France,
+in Italy and England, now returned and joined him there; but the great
+man, feeling very poorly and very old, decided that he would like to
+stay in Bern, and not move any more;--Zimmermann, accordingly, was sent
+to Gottingen to bring Mrs. Haller, with her Daughters, bandboxes and
+effects, home to Bern. Which he did;--and not only them, but a soft,
+ingenious, ingenuous and rather pretty young Gottingen Lady along with
+them, as his own Wife withal. With her he settled as STADTPHYSICUS
+(Town-Doctor) in native Brugg; where his beloved Hallers were within
+reach; and practice in abundance, and honors, all that the place
+yielded, were in readiness for him.
+
+Here he continued some sixteen years; very busy, very successful in
+medicine and literature; but "tormented with hypochondria;"--having
+indeed an immense conceit of himself, and generally too thin a skin for
+this world. Here he first wrote his Book on SOLITUDE, a Book famed over
+all the world in my young days (and perhaps still famed); he wrote it
+a second time, MUCH ENLARGED, about thirty years after: [_Betrachtungen
+uber die Einsamkeit, von Doctor J. G. Zimmermann, Stadtphysicus
+in Brugg_ (Zurich, 1756),--as yet only "1 vol. 8vo, price 6d." (5
+groschen); but it grew with years; and (Leipzig, 1784) came out
+remodelled into 4 vols.;--was translated into French, "with many
+omissions," by Mercier (Paris, 1790); into English from Mercier
+(London, 1791). "Zurich, 1763-1764:" by and by, one "Dobson did it into
+English."] I read it (in the curtailed English-Mercier form, no Scene
+in it like the above), in early boyhood,--and thank it for nothing, or
+nearly so. Zimmermann lived much alone, at Brugg and elsewhere; all his
+days "Hypochondria" was the main company he had:--and it was natural,
+but UNprofitable, that he should say, to himself and others, the best
+he could for that bad arrangement: poor soul! He wrote also on MEDICAL
+EXPERIENCE, a famed Book in its day;" also on NATIONAL PRIDE; and
+became famed through the Universe, and was Member of infinite Learned
+Societies.
+
+All which rendered dull dead Brugg still duller and more dead; unfit
+utterly for a man of such sublime accomplishments. Plenty of Counts
+Stadion, Kings of Poland even, offered him engagements; eager to
+possess such a man, and deliver him from dull dead Brugg; but he
+had hypochondria, and always feared their deliverance might be into
+something duller. At length,--in his fortieth year, 1768,--the place of
+Court-Physician (HOFMEDICUS) at Hanover was offered him by George the
+Third of pious memory, and this he resolved to accept; and did lift
+anchor, and accept and occupy accordingly.
+
+Alas, at the Gate of Hanover, "his carriage overset;" broke his poor old
+Mother-in-law's leg (who had been rejoicing doubtless to get home
+into her own Country), and was the end of her--poor old soul;--and the
+beginning of misfortunes continual and too tedious to mention. Spleen,
+envy, malice and calumny, from the Hanover Medical world; treatment, "by
+the old buckram Hofdames who had drunk coffee with George II.," "which
+was fitter for a laquais-de-place" than for a medical gentleman
+of eminence: unworthy treatment, in fact, in many or most
+quarters;--followed by hypochondria, by dreadful bodily disorder (kind
+not given or discoverable), "so that I suffered the pains of Hell," sat
+weeping, sat gnashing my teeth, and could n't write a Note after dinner;
+followed finally by the sickness, and then by the death, of my poor
+Wife, "after five months of torment." Upon which, in 1771, Zimmermann's
+friends--for he had many friends, being, in fact, a person of fine
+graceful intellect, high proud feelings and tender sensibilities, gone
+all to this sad state--rallied themselves; set his Hanover house in
+order for him (governess for his children, what not); and sent him
+off to Berlin, there to be dealt with by one Meckel, an incomparable
+Surgeon, and be healed of his dreadful disorder ("LEIBESSCHADE, of which
+the first traces had appeared in Brugg"),--though to most people it
+seemed rather he would die; "and one Medical Eminency in Hanover said to
+myself [Zimmermann] one day: 'Dr. So-and-so is to have your Pension,
+I am told; now, by all right, it should belong to me, don't you think
+so?'" What, "I" thought of the matter, seeing the greedy gentleman thus
+"parting my skin," may be conjectured!--
+
+The famed Meckel received his famed patient with a nobleness worthy
+of the heroic ages. Dodged him in his own house, in softest beds
+and appliances; spoke comfort to him, hope to him,--the gallant
+Meckel;--rallied, in fact, the due medical staff one morning; came up to
+Zimmermann, who "stripped," with the heart of a lamb and lion conjoined,
+and trusting in God, "flung himself on his bed" (on his face, or on
+his back, we never know), and there, by the hands of Meckel and staff,
+"received above 2,000 (TWO THOUSAND) cuts in the space of an hour
+and half, without uttering one word or sound." A frightful operation,
+gallantly endured, and skilfully done; whereby the "bodily disorder"
+(LEIBESSCHADE), whatever it might be, was effectually and forever sent
+about its business by the noble Meckel.
+
+Hospitalities and soft, hushed kindnesses and soothing ministrations, by
+Meckel and by everybody, were now doubled and trebled: wise kind Madam
+Meckel, young kind Mamsell Meckel and the Son (who "now, in
+1788, lectures in Gottingen"); not these only, nor Schmucker Head
+Army-Surgeon, and the ever-memorable HERR GENERALCHIRURGUS Madan, who
+had both been in the operation; not these only, but by degrees all that
+was distinguished in the Berlin world, Ramler, Busching, Sulzer, Prime
+Minister Herzberg, Queen's and King's Equerries, and honorable men and
+women,--bore him "on angel-wings" towards complete recovery. Talked
+to him, sang and danced to him (at least, the "Muses" and the female
+Meckels danced and sang), and all lapped him against eating cares, till,
+after twelve weeks, he was fairly on his feet again, and able to make
+jaunts in the neighborhood with his "life's savior," and enjoy the
+pleasant Autumn weather to his farther profit.--All this, though
+described in ridiculous superlative by Zimmermann, is really touching,
+beautiful and human: perhaps never in his life was he so happy, or
+a thousandth part so helped by man, as while under the roof of this
+thrice-useful Meckel,--more power to Meckel!
+
+Head Army-Surgeon Schmucker had gone through all the Seven-Years War;
+Zimmermann, an ardent Hero-worshipper, was never weary questioning
+him, listening to him in full career of narrative, on this great
+subject,--only eight years old at that time. Among their country drives,
+Meckel took him to Potsdam, twenty English miles off; in the end of
+October, there to stay a night. This was the ever-memorable Friday, when
+we first ascended the Hill of Sans-Souci, and had our evening walk of
+contemplation:--to be followed by a morrow which was ten times more
+memorable: as readers shall now see. [Jordens, _Lexikon_ (Zimmermann),
+v. 632-658 (exact and even eloquent account, as these of Jordens,
+unexpectedly, often are); Zimmermann himself, UNTERREDUNGEN MIT
+FRIEDRICH DEM GROSSEN (ubi infra); Tissot, _Vie de M. Zimmermann_
+(Lausanne, 1797): &c. &c.]
+
+NEXT DAY, ZIMMERMANN HAS A DIALOGUE. Schmucker had his apartments
+in "LITTLE SANS-SOUCI," where the King now lived (Big Sans-Souci, or
+"Sans-Souci" by itself, means in those days, not in ours at all, "New
+Palace, NEUE PALAIS," now in all its splendor of fresh finish). De
+Catt, Friedrich's Reader, whom we know well, was a Genevese, and knew
+Zimmermann from of old. Schmucker and De Catt were privately twitching
+up Friedrich's curiosity,--to whom also Zimmermann's name, and
+perhaps his late surgical operation, might be known: "Can he speak
+French?"--"Native to him, your Majesty." Friedrich had some notion to
+see Zimmermann; and judicious De Catt, on this fortunate Saturday, "26th
+October, 1771," morrow after Zimmermann's arrival at Potsdam, "came to
+our inn about, 1 P.M. [King's dinner just done]; and asked me to come
+and look at the beauties of Sans-Souci [Big Sans-Souci] for a little."
+Zimmermann willingly went: Catt, left him in good hands to see the
+beauties; slipt off, for his own part, to "LITTLE Sans-Souci;" came
+back, took Zimmermann thither; left, him with Schmucker, all trembling,
+thinking perhaps the King might call him. "I trembled sometimes, then
+again I felt exceeding happiness:" I was in Schmucker's room, sitting
+by the fire, mostly alone for a good while, "the room that had once
+been Marquis d'Argens's" (who is now dead, and buried far away, good
+old soul);--when, at last, about half-past 4, Catt came jumping in,
+breathless with joy; snatched me up: "His Majesty wants to speak with
+you this very moment!" Zimmermann's self shall say the rest.
+
+"I hurried, hand-in-hand with Catt, along a row of Chambers. 'Here,'
+said Catt, 'we are now at the King's room!'--My heart thumped, like
+to spring out of my body. Catt went in; but next moment the door again
+opened, and Catt bade me enter.
+
+"In the middle of the room stood an iron camp-bed without curtains.
+There, on a worn mattress, lay King Friedrich, the terror of Europe,
+without coverlet, in an old blue roquelaure. He had a big cocked-hat,
+with a white feather [hat aged, worn soft as duffel, equal to most caps;
+"feather" is not perpendicular, but horizontal, round the inside of the
+brim], on his head.
+
+"The King took off his hat very graciously, when I was perhaps ten steps
+from him; and said in French (our whole Dialogue proceeded in French):
+'Come nearer, M. Zimmermann.'
+
+"I advanced to within two steps of the King; he said in the mean while
+to Catt: 'Call Schmucker in, too.' Herr Schmucker came; placed himself
+behind the King, his back to the wall; and Catt stood behind me. Now the
+Colloquy began.
+
+KING. "'I hear you have found your health again in Berlin; I wish you
+joy of that.'
+
+EGO. "'I have found my life again in Berlin; but at this moment, Sire, I
+find here a still greater happiness!' [ACH!]
+
+KING. "'You have stood a cruel operation: you must have suffered
+horribly?'
+
+EGO. "'Sire, it was well worth while.'
+
+KING. "'Did, you let them bind you before the operation?'
+
+EGO. "'No: I resolved to keep my freedom.'
+
+KING (laughing in a very kind manner). "'Oh, you behaved like a brave
+Switzer! But are you quite recovered, though?'
+
+EGO. "'Sire, I have seen all the wonders of your creation in Sans-Souci,
+and feel well in looking at them.'
+
+KING. "'I am glad of that. But you must have a care, and especially not
+get on horseback.'
+
+EGO. "'It will be pleasant and easy for me to follow the counsels of
+your Majesty.'
+
+KING. "'From what Town in the Canton of Bern are you originally?'
+
+EGO. "'From Brugg.'
+
+KING. "'I don't know that Town.' [No wonder, thought I!]
+
+KING. "'Where did you study?'
+
+EGO. "'At Gottingen: Haller was my teacher.'
+
+KING. "'What is M. Haller doing now?'
+
+EGO. "'He is concluding his literary career with a romance.' [USONG had
+just come out;--no mortal now reads a word of it; and the great Haller
+is dreadfully forgotten already!]
+
+KING. "'Ah, that is pretty!--On what system do you treat your patients?'
+
+EGO. "'Not on any system.'
+
+KING. "'But there are some Physicians whose methods you prefer to those
+of others?'
+
+EGO. "'I especially like Tissot's methods, who is a familiar friend of
+mine.'
+
+KING. "'I know M. Tissot. I have read his writings, and value them very
+much. On the whole, I love the Art of Medicine. My Father wished me to
+get some knowledge in it. He often sent me into the Hospitals; and even
+into those for venereal patients, with a view of warning by example.'
+
+EGO. "'And by terrible example!--Sire, Medicine is a very difficult Art.
+But your Majesty is used to bring all Arts under subjection to the force
+of your genius, and to conquer all that is difficult.'
+
+KING. "'Alas, no: I cannot conquer all that is difficult!' [Hard-mouthed
+Kaunitz, for example; stock-still, with his right ear turned on Turkey:
+how get Kaunitz into step!]--Here the King became reflective; was silent
+for a little moment, and then asked me, with a most bright smile: 'How
+many churchyards have you filled?' [A common question of his to Members
+of the Faculty.]
+
+EGO. "'Perhaps, in my youth, I have done a little that way! But now it
+goes better; for I am timid rather than bold.'
+
+KING. "'Very good, very good.'
+
+"Our Dialogue now became extremely brisk. The King quickened into
+extraordinary vivacity; and examined me now in the character of Doctor,
+with such a stringency as, in the year 1751, at Gottingen, when I
+stood for my Degree, the learned Professors Haller, Richter, Segner
+and Brendel (for which Heaven recompense them!) never dreamed of! All
+inflammatory fevers, and the most important of the slow diseases, the
+King mustered with me, in their order. He asked me, How and whereby I
+recognized each of these diseases; how and whereby distinguished them
+from the approximate maladies; what my procedure was in simple and
+in complicated cases; and how I cured all those disorders? On
+the varieties, the accidents, the mode of treatment, of small-pox
+especially, the King inquired with peculiar strictness;--and spoke, with
+much emotion, of that young Prince of his House who was carried off,
+some years ago, by that disorder--[suddenly arrested by it, while on
+march with his regiment, "near Ruppin, 26th May, 1767." This is the
+Prince Henri, junior Brother of the subsequent King, Friedrich Wilhelm
+II., who, among other fooleries, invaded France, in 1792, with such
+success. Both Henri and he, as boys, used to be familiar to us in
+the final winters of the late War. Poor Henri had died at the age of
+nineteen,--as yet all brightness, amiability and nothing else: Friedrich
+sent an ELOGE of him to his ACADEMIE, [In _OEuvres de Frederic,_ vii. 37
+et seq.] which is touchingly and strangely filled with authentic sorrow
+for this young Nephew of his, but otherwise empty,--a mere bottle of
+sighs and tears]. Then he came upon Inoculation; went along over an
+incredible multitude of other medical subjects. Into all he threw
+masterly glances; spoke of all with the soundest [all in superlative]
+knowledge of the matter, and with no less penetration than liveliness
+and sense.
+
+"With heartfelt satisfaction, and with the freest soul, I made my
+answers to his Majesty. It is true, he potently supported and
+encouraged me. Ever and anon his Majesty was saying to me: 'That is
+very good;--that is excellently thought and expressed;--your mode of
+proceeding, altogether, pleases me very well;--I rejoice to see how much
+our ways of thinking correspond.' Often, too, he had the graciousness to
+add: 'But, I weary you with my many questions!' His scientific questions
+I answered with simplicity, clearness and brevity; and could not forbear
+sometimes expressing my astonishment at the deep and conclusive (TIEFEN
+UND FRAPPANTEN) medical insights and judgments of the King.
+
+"His Majesty came now upon the history of his own maladies. He told me
+them over, in their series; and asked my opinion and advice about each.
+On the HAEMORRHOIDS, which he greatly complained of, I said something
+that struck him. Instantly he started up in his bed; turned his head
+round towards the wall, and said: 'Schmucker, write me that down!'
+I started in fright at this word; and not without reason! Then our
+Colloquy proceeded:--
+
+KING. "'The Gout likes to take up his quarters with me; he knows I am
+a Prince, and thinks I shall feed him well. But I feed him ill; I live
+very meagrely.'
+
+EGO. "'May Gout, thereby get disgusted, and forbear ever calling on your
+Majesty!'
+
+KING. "'I am grown old. Diseases will no longer have pity on me.'
+
+EGO. "'Europe feels that your Majesty is not old; and your Majesty's
+look (PHYSIOGNOMIE) shows that you have still the same force as in your
+thirtieth year.'
+
+KING (laughing and shaking his head). "'Well, well, well!'
+
+"In this way, for an hour and quarter, with uninterrupted vivacity, the
+Dialogue went on. At last the King gave me the sign to go; lifting his
+hat very kindly, and saying: 'Adieu, my dear M. Zimmermann; I am very
+glad to have seen you.'"
+
+Towards 6 P.M. now, and Friedrich must sign his Despatches; have his
+Concert, have his reading; then to supper (as spectator only),--with
+Quintus Icilius and old Lord Marischal, to-night, or whom? [Of Icilius,
+and a quarrel and estrangement there had lately been, now happily
+reconciled, see Nicolai, _Anekdoten,_ vi. 140-142.]
+
+"Herr von Catt accompanied me into the anteroom, and Schmucker followed.
+I could not stir from the spot; could not speak, was so charmed and so
+touched, that I broke into a stream of tears [being very weak of nerves
+at the time!]. Herr von Catt said: 'I am now going back to the King; go
+you into the room where I took you up; about eight I will conduct you
+home.' I pressed my excellent countryman's hand, I"--"Schmucker said, I
+had stood too near his Majesty; I had spoken too frankly, with too much
+vivacity; nay, what was unheard of in the world, I had 'gesticulated'
+before his Majesty! 'In presence of a King,' said Herr Schmucker, 'one
+must stand stiff and not stir.' De Catt came back to us at eight; and,
+in Schmucker's presence [let him chew the cud of that!], reported the
+following little Dialogue with the King:--
+
+KING. "'What says Zimmermann?'
+
+DE CATT. "'Zimmermann, at the door of your Majesty's room, burst into a
+stream of tears.'
+
+KING. "'I love those tender affectionate hearts; I love right well those
+brave Swiss people!'
+
+"Next morning the King was heard to say: 'I have found Zimmermann
+quite what you described him.'--Catt assured me furthermore, 'Since the
+Seven-Years War there had thousands of strangers, persons of rank, come
+to Potsdam, wishing to speak with the King, and had not attained that
+favor; and of those who had, there could not one individual boast that
+his Majesty had talked with him an hour and quarter at once.' [Fourteen
+years hence, he dismissed Mirabeau in half an hour; which was itself a
+good allowance.]
+
+"Sunday 27th, I left Potsdam, with my kind Meckels, in an enthusiasm
+of admiration, astonishment, love and gratitude; wrote to the King from
+Berlin, sent him a Tissot's Book (marked on the margins for Majesty's
+use), which he acknowledged by some word to Catt: whereupon
+I"--In short, I got home to Hanover, in a more or less seraphic
+condition,--"with indescribable, unspeakable," what not,--early in
+November; and, as a healed man, never more troubled with that disorder,
+though still troubled with many and many, endeavored to get a little
+work out of myself again. [Zimmermann, _Meine Unterredungen_ (Dialogues)
+_with Friedrich the Great_ (8vo, Leipzig, 1788), pp. 305-326.]
+
+"Zimmermann was tall, handsome of shape; his exterior was distinguished
+and imposing," says Jordens. [Ubi supra, p. 643.] "He had a firm and
+light step; stood gracefully; presented himself well. He had a fine
+head; his voice was agreeable; and intellect sparkled in his eyes:"--had
+it not been for those dreadful hypochondrias, and confused disasters, a
+very pretty man. At the time of this first visit to Friedrich he is 43
+years of age, and Friedrich is on the borders of 60. Zimmermann, with
+still more famous DIALOGUES, will reappear on us from Hanover, on a sad
+occasion! Meanwhile, few weeks after him, here is a Visit of far more
+joyful kind.
+
+
+
+
+SISTER ULRIQUE, QUEEN-DOWAGER OF SWEDEN, REVISITS HER NATIVE PLACE
+(December, 1771-August, 1772).
+
+Prince Henri was hardly home from Petersburg and the Swedish Visit, when
+poor Adolf Friedrich, King of Sweden, died. [12th February, 1771.] A
+very great and sad event to his Queen, who had loved her old man; and
+is now left solitary, eclipsed, in circumstances greatly altered on the
+sudden. In regard to settlements, Accession of the new Prince,
+dowager revenues and the like, all went right enough; which was some
+alleviation, though an inconsiderable, to the sorrowing Widow. Her two
+Princes were absent, touring over Europe, when their Father died, and
+the elder of them, Karl Gustav, suddenly saw himself King. They were
+in no breathless haste to return; visited their Uncle, their Prussian
+kindred, on the way, and had an interesting week at Potsdam and Berlin;
+[April 22d-29th: Rodenbeck, iii. 45.] Karl Gustav flying diligently
+about, still incognito, as "Graf von Gothland,"--a spirited young
+fellow, perhaps too spirited;--and did not reach home till May-day was
+come, and the outburst of the Swedish Summer at hand.
+
+Some think the young King had already something dangerous and serious in
+view, and wished his Mother out of the way for a time. Certain it is she
+decided on a visit to her native Country in December following: arrived
+accordingly, December 2d, 1771; and till the middle of August next was a
+shining phenomenon in the Royal House and upper ranks of Berlin Society,
+and a touching and interesting one to the busy Friedrich himself, as may
+be supposed. She had her own Apartments and Household at Berlin, in the
+Palace there, I think; but went much visiting about, and receiving many
+visits,--fond especially of literary people.
+
+Friedrich's notices of her are frequent in his Letters of the time,
+all affectionate, natural and reasonable. Here are the first two I meet
+with: TO THE ELECTRESS OF SAXONY (three weeks after Ulrique's arrival);
+"A thousand excuses, Madam, for not answering sooner! What will plead
+for me with a Princess who so well knows the duties of friendship, is,
+that I have been occupied with the reception of a Sister, who has come
+to seek consolation in the bosom of her kindred for the loss of a loved
+Husband, the remembrance of whom saddens and afflicts her." And again,
+two months later: "... Your Royal Highness deigns to take so obliging
+an interest in the visit I have had [and still have] from the Queen of
+Sweden. I beheld her as if raised from the dead to me; for an absence
+of eight-and-twenty years, in the short space of our duration, is almost
+equivalent to death. She arrived among us, still in great affliction
+for the loss she had had of the King; and I tried to distract her sad
+thoughts by all the dissipations possible. It is only by dint of such
+that one compels the mind to shift away from the fatal idea where grief
+has fixed it: this is not the work of a day, but of time, which in the
+end succeeds in everything. I congratulate your Royal Highness on your
+Journey to Bavaria [on a somewhat similar errand, we may politely say];
+where you will find yourself in the bosom of a Family that adores you:"
+after which, and the sight of old scenes, how pleasant to go on to
+Italy, as you propose! [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxiv. 230, 235. "24th
+December 1771," "February, 1772." See also, _"Eptire a la Reine
+Douairiere de Suede"_ (Poem on the Troubles she has had: _OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ xiii. 74, "written in December, 1770"), and _"Vers a la Reine
+de Suede,"_ "January, 1771" (ib. 79).]
+
+Queen Ulrique--a solid and ingenuous character (in childhood a
+favorite of her Father's, so rational, truthful and of silent staid
+ways)--appears to have been popular in the Berlin circles; pleasant and
+pleased, during these eight months. Formey, especially Thiebault, are
+copious on this Visit of hers; and give a number of insipid Anecdotes;
+How there was solemn Session of the Academy made for her, a Paper of
+the King's to be read there, ["DISCOURS DE L'UTILITE DES SCIENCES ET
+DES ARTS DAM UN ETAT" (in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ ix. 169 et seq.): read
+"27th January, 1772." Formey, ii. 16, &c. &c.]--reading beautifully done
+by me, Thiebault (one of my main functions, this of reading the King's
+Academy Papers, and my dates of THEM always correct); how Thiebault was
+invited to dinner in consequence, and again invited; how Formey dined
+with her Majesty "twenty-five times;" and "preached to her in the
+Palace, August 19th" (should be August 9th): insipid wholly, vapid and
+stupid; descriptive of nothing, except of the vapidities and vanities
+of certain persons. Leaving these, we will take an Excerpt, probably our
+last, from authentic Busching, which is at least to be depended on for
+perfect accuracy, and has a feature or two of portraiture.
+
+Busching, for the last five or six years, is home from Russia;
+comfortably established here as Consistorialrath, much concerned with
+School-Superintendence; still more with GEOGRAPHY, with copious rugged
+Literature of the undigested kind: a man well seen in society; has "six
+families of rank which invite him to dinner;" all the dining he is equal
+to, with so much undigested writing on his hands. Busching, in his
+final Section, headed BERLIN LIFE, Section more incondite even than its
+foregoers, has this passage:--
+
+"On the Queen-Dowager of Sweden, Louise Ulrique's, coming to Berlin, I
+felt not a little embarrassed. The case was this: Most part of the SIXTH
+VOLUME of my MAGAZINE [meritorious curious Book, sometimes quoted by us
+here, not yet known in English Libraries] was printed; and in it, in the
+printed part, were various things that concerned the deceased Sovereign,
+King Adolf Friedrich, and his Spouse [now come to visit us],--and
+among these were Articles which the then ruling party in Sweden could
+certainly not like. And now I was afraid these people would come upon
+the false notion, that it was from the Queen-Dowager I had got the
+Articles in question;--notion altogether false, as they had been
+furnished me by Baron Korf [well known to Hordt and others of us, at
+Petersburg, in the Czar-Peter time], now Russian Minister at Copenhagen.
+However, when Duke Friedrich of Brunswick [one of the juniors,
+soldiering here with his Uncle, as they almost all are] wrote to me, one
+day, That his Lady Aunt the Queen of Sweden invited me to dine with her
+to-morrow, and that he, the Duke, would introduce me,--I at once decided
+to lay my embarrassment before the Queen herself.
+
+"Next day, when I was presented to her Majesty, she took me by the hand,
+and led me to a window [as was her custom with guests whom she judged to
+be worth questioning and talking to], and so placed herself in a corner
+there that I came to stand close before her; when she did me the
+honor to ask a great many questions about Russia, the Imperial Court
+especially, and most of all the Grand-Duke [Czar Paul that is to be,--a
+kind of kinsman he, his poor Father was my late Husband's Cousin-german,
+as perhaps you know]. A great deal of time was spent in this way; so
+that the Princes and Princesses, punctual to invitation, had to wait
+above half an hour long; and the Queen was more than once informed that
+dinner was on the table and getting cold. I could get nothing of my own
+mentioned here; all I could do was to draw back, in a polite way, so
+soon as the Queen would permit: and afterwards, at table, to explain
+with brevity my concern about what was printed in the MAGAZINE; and
+request the Queen to permit me to send it her to read for herself. She
+had it, accordingly, that same afternoon.
+
+"A few days after, she invited me again; again spoke with me a long
+while in the window embrasure, in a low tone of voice: confirmed to
+me all that she had read,--and in particular, minutely explained that
+LETTER OF THE KING [one of my Pieces] in which he relates what passed
+between him and Count Tessin [Son's Tutor] in the Queen's Apartment. At
+table, she very soon took occasion to say: 'I cannot imagine to myself
+how the Herr Consistorialrath [Busching, to wit] has come upon that
+Letter of my deceased Lord the King of Sweden's; which his Majesty did
+write, and which is now printed in your MAGAZINE. For certain, the King
+showed it to nobody.' Whereupon BUSCHING: 'Certainly; nor is that to
+be imagined, your Majesty. But the person it was addressed to must
+have shown it; and so a copy of it has come to my hands.' Queen still
+expresses her wonder; whereupon again, Busching, with a courageous
+candor: 'Your Majesty, most graciously permit me to say, that hitherto
+all Swedish secrets of Court or State have been procurable for money and
+good words!' The Queen, to whom I sat directly opposite, cast down her
+eyes at these words and smiled;--and the Reichsrath Graf von Schwerin [a
+Swedish Gentleman of hers], who sat at my left, seized me by the
+hand, and said: 'Alas, that is true!'"--Here is a difficulty got
+over; Magazine Number can come out when it will. As it did, "next
+Easter-Fair," with proper indications and tacit proofs that the Swedish
+part of it lay printed several months before the Queen's arrival in our
+neighborhood.
+
+Busching dined with her Majesty several times,--"eating nothing," he is
+careful to mention and was careful to show her Majesty, "except, very
+gradually, a small bit of bread soaked in a glass of wine!"--meaning
+thereby, "Note, ye great ones, it is not for your dainties; in fact, it
+is out of loyal politeness mainly!" the gloomily humble man.
+
+"One time, the Queen asked me, in presence of various Princes and
+Princesses of the Royal House: 'Do you think it advisable to enlighten
+the Lower Classes by education?' To which I answered: 'Considering only
+under what heavy loads a man of the Lower Classes, especially of the
+Peasant sort, has to struggle through his life, one would think it was
+better neither to increase his knowledge nor refine his sensibility. But
+when one reflects that he, as well as those of the Higher Classes, is to
+last through Eternity; and withal that good instruction may [or might,
+IF it be not BAD] increase his practical intelligence, and help him
+to methods of alleviating himself in this world, it must be thought
+advisable to give him useful enlightenment.' The Queen accorded with
+this view of the matter.
+
+"Twice I dined with her Majesty at her Sister, Princess Amelia, the
+Abbess of Quedlinburg's:--and the second time [must have been Summer,
+1772], Professor Sulzer, who was also a guest, caught his death there.
+When I entered the reception-room, Sulzer was standing in the middle of
+a thorough-draught, which they had managed to have there, on account of
+the great heat; and he had just arrived, all in a perspiration, from
+the Thiergarten: I called him out of the draught, but it was too late."
+[Busching: _Beitrage,_ vi. 578-582.] ACH, MEIN LIEBER SULZER,--Alas,
+dear Sulzer: seriously this time!
+
+Busching has a great deal to say about Schools, about the "School
+Commission 1765," the subjects taught, the methods of teaching devised
+by Busching and others, and the King's continual exertions, under
+deficient funds, in this province of his affairs. Busching had
+unheard-of difficulty to rebuild the old Gymnasium at Berlin into a new.
+Tried everybody; tried the King thrice over, but nobody would. "One of
+the persons I applied to was Lieutenant-General von Ramin, Governor of
+Berlin [surliest of mankind, of whose truculent incivility there go
+many anecdotes]; to Ramin I wrote, entreating that he would take a
+good opportunity and suggest a new Town Schoolhouse to his Majesty:
+'Excellenz, it will render you immortal in the annals of Berlin!' To
+which Ramin made answer: 'That is an immortality I must renounce the
+hope of, and leave to the Town-Syndics and yourself. I, for my own part,
+will by no means risk such a proposal to his Majesty; which he would,
+in all likelihood, answer in the negative, and receive ill at anybody's
+hands.'" [Ib. vi. 568.] By subscriptions, by bequests, donations and the
+private piety of individuals, Busching aiding and stirring, the thing
+was at last got done. Here is another glance into School-life: not from
+Busching:--
+
+JUNE 9th, 1771. "This Year the Stande of the Kurmark find they have
+an overplus of 100,000 thalers (15,000 pounds); which sum they do
+themselves the pleasure of presenting to the King for his Majesty's
+uses." King cannot accept it for his own uses. "This money," answers he
+(9th June), "comes from the Province, wherefore I feel bound to lay it
+out again for advantage of the Province. Could not it become a means of
+getting English husbandry [TURNIPS in particular, whether short-horns
+or not, I do not know] introduced among us? In the Towns that follow
+Farming chiefly, or in Villages belonging to unmoneyed Nobles, we will
+lend out this 15,000 pounds, at 4 per cent, in convenient sums for
+that object: hereby will turnip-culture and rotation be vouchsafed us;
+interest at 4 per cent brings us in 600 pounds annually; and this we
+will lay out in establishing new Schoolmasters in the Kurmark, and
+having the youth better educated." What a pretty idea; neat and
+beautiful, killing two important birds with one most small stone! I have
+known enormous cannon-balls and granite blocks, torrent after torrent,
+shot out under other kinds of Finance-gunnery, that were not only less
+respectable, but that were abominable to me in comparison.
+
+Unluckily, no Nobles were found inclined; English Husbandry ["TURNIPSE"
+and the rest of it] had to wait their time. The King again writes: "No
+Nobles to be found, say you? Well; put the 15,000 pounds to interest in
+the common way,--that the Schoolmasters at least may have solacement:
+I will add 120 thalers (18 pounds) apiece, that we may have a chance
+of getting better Schoolmasters;--send me List of the Places where the
+worst are." List was sent; is still extant; and on the margin of it, in
+Royal Autograph, this remark:--
+
+"The Places are well selected. The bad Schoolmasters are mostly Tailors;
+and you must see whether they cannot be got removed to little Towns, and
+set to tailoring again, or otherwise disposed of, that our Schools might
+the sooner rise into good condition, which is an interesting thing."
+"Eager always our Master is to have the Schooling of his People improved
+and everywhere diffused," writes, some years afterwards, the excellent
+Zedlitz, officially "Minister of Public Justice," but much and
+meritoriously concerned with School matters as well. The King's ideas
+were of the best, and Zedlitz sometimes had fine hopes; but the want of
+funds was always great.
+
+"In 1779," says Preuss, "there came a sad blow to Zedlitz's hopes:
+Minister von Brenkenhof [deep in West-Preussen canal-diggings and
+expenditures] having suggested, That instead of getting Pensions, the
+Old Soldiers should be put to keeping School." Do but fancy it; poor
+old fellows, little versed in scholastics hitherto! "Friedrich, in his
+pinch, grasped at the small help; wrote to the War-Department: 'Send
+me a List of Invalids who are fit [or at least fittest] to be
+Schoolmasters.' And got thereupon a list of 74, and afterwards 5
+more [79 Invalids in all]; War-Department adding, That besides these
+scholastic sort, there were 741 serving as BUDNER [Turnpike-keepers,
+in a sort], as Forest-watchers and the like; and 3,443 UNVERSORGT"
+(shifting for themselves, no provision made for them at all),--such
+the check, by cold arithmetic and inexorable finance, upon the genial
+current of the soul!--
+
+The TURNIPS, I believe, got gradually in; and Brandenburg, in our
+day, is a more and more beautifully farmed Country. Nor were the
+Schoolmasters unsuccessful at all points; though I cannot report a
+complete educational triumph on those extremely limited terms. [Preuss,
+iii. 115, 113, &c.]
+
+Queen Ulrique left, I think, on the 9th of August, 1772; there is sad
+farewell in Friedrich's Letter next day to Princess Sophie Albertine,
+the Queen's Daughter, subsequently Abbess of Quedlinburg: he is just
+setting out on his Silesian Reviews; "shall, too likely, never see your
+good Mamma again." ["Potsdam, 10th August, 1772:" _OEuvres de Frederic,_
+xxvii. ii. 93.] Poor King; Berlin City is sound asleep, while he rushes
+through it on this errand,--"past the Princess Amelia's window," in the
+dead of night; and takes to humming tender strophes to her too; which
+gain a new meaning by their date. ["A MA SOEUR AMELIE, EN PASSANT, LA
+NUIT, SOUS SA FENETRE, POUR ALLER EN SILESIE (AOUT 1772):" _OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ xiii. 77.]
+
+Ten days afterwards (19th August, 1772),--Queen Ulrique not yet
+home,--her Son, the spirited King Gustav III., at Stockholm had made
+what in our day is called a "stroke of state,"--put a thorn in the
+snout of his monster of a Senate, namely: "Less of palaver, venality and
+insolence, from you, Sirs; we 'restore the Constitution of 1680,' and
+are something of a King again!" Done with considerable dexterity and
+spirit; not one person killed or hurt. And surely it was the muzzling-up
+of a great deal of folly on their side,--provided only there came wisdom
+enough from Gustav himself instead. But, alas, there did not, there
+hardly could. His Uncle was alarmed, and not a little angry for the
+moment: "You had two Parties to reconcile; a work of time, of patient
+endeavor, continual and quiet; no good possible till then. And instead
+of that--!" Gustav, a shining kind of man, showed no want of spirit, now
+or afterwards: but he leant too much on France and broken reeds;--and,
+in the end, got shot in the back by one of those beautiful "Nobles"
+of his, and came to a bad conclusion, they and he. ["16th-29th March,
+1792," death of Gustav III. by that assassination: "13th March, 1809,"
+his Son Gustav IV, has to go on his travels; "Karl XIII.," a childless
+Uncle, succeeds for a few years: after whom &c.] Scandinavian Politics,
+thank Heaven, are none of our business.
+
+Queen Ulrique was spared all these catastrophes. She had alarmed her
+Brother by a dangerous illness, sudden and dangerous, in 1775; who
+writes with great anxiety about it, to Another still more anxious: [See
+"Correspondence with Gustav III." (in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. ii.
+84, &c.).] of this she got well again; but it did not last very long.
+July 16th, 1782, she died;--and the sad Friedrich had to say, Adieu.
+Alas, "must the eldest of us mourn, then, by the grave of those
+younger!"
+
+
+
+
+WILHELMINA'S DAUGHTER, ELIZABETH FREDERIKE SOPHIE, DUCHESS OF
+WURTEMBERG, APPEARS AT FERNEY (September, 1773).
+
+Of our dear Wilhelmina's high and unfortunate Daughter there should be
+some Biography; and there will surely, if a man of sympathy and faculty
+pass that way; but there is not hitherto. Nothing hitherto but a few
+bare dates; bare and sternly significant, as on a Tombstone; indicating
+that she had a History, and that it was a tragic one. Welcome to all of
+us, in this state of matters, is the following one clear emergence of
+her into the light of day, and in company so interesting too! Seven
+years before her death she had gone to Lausanne (July, 1773) to consult
+Tissot, a renowned Physician of those days. From Lausanne, after
+two months, she visited Voltaire at Ferney. Read this Letter of
+Voltaire's:--
+
+
+TO ELIZABETH FREDERIKE SOPHIE, DUCHESS OF WURTEMBERG (at Lausanne).
+
+"FEENEY, 10th July, 1773.
+
+"MADAM,--I am informed that your most Serene Highness has deigned to
+remember that I was in the world. It is very sad to be there, without
+paying you my court. I never felt so cruelly the sad state to which old
+age and maladies have reduced me.
+
+"I never saw you except as a child [1743, her age then 10]: but you
+were certainly the beautifulest child in Europe. May you be the happiest
+Princess [alas!], as you deserve to be! I was attached to Madam the
+Margravine [your dear Mother] with equal devotedness and respect; and I
+had the honor to be pretty deep in her confidence, for some time
+before this world, which was not worthy of her, had lost that adorable
+Princess. You resemble her;--but don't resemble her in--feebleness of
+health! You are in the flower of your age [coming forty, I should fear]:
+let such bright flower lose nothing of its splendor; may your happiness
+be able to equal [PUISSO EGALER] your beauty; may all your days be
+serene, and the sweets of friendship add a new charm to them! These are
+my wishes; they are as lively as my regrets at not being at your feet.
+What a consolation it would be for me to speak of your loving Mother,
+and of all your august relatives! Why must Destiny send you to Lausanne
+[consulting Dr. Tissot there], and hinder me from flying thither!--Let
+your most Serene Highness deign to accept the profound respect of the
+old moribund Philosopher of Ferney.--V." [_OEuvres de Voltaire,_ xcii.
+331.]
+
+The Answer of the Princess, or farther Correspondence on the matter, is
+not given; evident only that by and by, as Voltaire himself will inform
+us, she did appear at Ferney;--and a certain Swedish tourist, one
+Bjornstahl, who met her there, enables us even to give the date. He
+reports this anecdote:--
+
+"At supper, on the evening of 7th September, 1773, the Princess sat
+next to Voltaire, who always addressed her 'VOTRE ALTESSE.' At last the
+Duchess said to him, 'TU ES ANON PAPA, JE SUIS TA FILLE, ET JE VOUZ ETRE
+APPELEE TA FILLE.' Voltaire took a pencil from his pocket, asked for a
+card, and wrote upon it:--
+
+    'Ah, le beau titre que voila!
+     Vous me donnez la premiere des places;
+     Quelle famille j'aurais la!
+     Je serais le pere des Graces'
+    [_OEuvres de Voltaire,_ xviii. 342.]
+
+He gave the card to the Princess, who embraced and kissed him for it."
+[Vehse, _Geschichte der Deutschen Hofe_ (Hamburg, 1853), xxv. 252, 253.]
+
+
+VOLTAIRE TO FRIEDRICH (a fortnight after).
+
+"FERNEY, 22d September, 1773.
+
+"I must tell you that I have felt, in these late days, in spite of all
+my past caprices, how much I am attached to your Majesty and to your
+House. Madam the Duchess of Wurtemberg having had, like so many others,
+the weakness to believe that health is to be found at Lausanne, and that
+Dr. Tissot gives it if one pay him, has, as you know, made the journey
+to Lausanne; and I, who am more veritably ill than she, and than all
+the Princesses who have taken Tissot for an AEsculapius, had not the
+strength to leave my home. Madam of Wurtemberg, apprised of all the
+feelings that still live in me for the memory of Madam the Margravine
+of Baireuth her Mother, has deigned to visit my hermitage, and pass two
+days with us. I should have recognized her, even without warning; she
+has the turn of her Mother's face with your eyes.
+
+"You Hero-people who govern the world don't allow yourselves to be
+subdued by feelings; you have them all the same as we, but you maintain
+your decorum. We other petty mortals yield to all our impressions: I set
+myself to cry, in speaking to her of you and of Madam the Princess her
+Mother; and she too, though she is Niece of the first Captain in Europe,
+could not restrain her tears. It appears to me, that she has the talent
+(ESPRIT) and the graces of your House; and that especially she is more
+attached to you than to her Husband [I should think so!]. She returns, I
+believe, to Baireuth,--[No Mother, no Father there now: foolish Uncle
+of Anspath died long ago, "3d August, 1757:" Aunt Dowager of Anspach
+gone to Erlangen, I hope, to Feuchtwang, Schwabach or Schwaningen,
+or some Widow's-Mansion "WITTWENSITZ" of her own; [Lived, finally at
+Schwaningen, in sight of such vicissitudes and follies round her, till
+"4th February, 1784" (Rodenbeck, iii. 304).] reigning Son, with his
+French-Actress equipments, being of questionable figure],--
+
+--"returns, I believe, to Baireuth; where she will find another Princess
+of a different sort; I mean Mademoiselle Clairon, who cultivates
+Natural History, and is Lady Philosopher to Monseigneur the
+Margraf,"--high-rouged Tragedy-Queen, rather tyrannous upon him, they
+say: a young man destined to adorn Hammersmith by and by, and not go a
+good road.
+
+... "I renounce my beautiful hopes of seeing the Mahometans driven out
+of Europe, and Athens become again the Seat of the Muses. Neither you
+nor the Kaiser are"--are inclined in the Crusading way at all.... "The
+old sick man of Ferney is always at the feet of your Majesty; he feels
+very sorry that he cannot talk of you farther with Madam the Duchess of
+Wurtemberg, who adores you.--LE VIEUX MALADE." [_OEuvres de Voltaire,_
+xcii. 390.]
+
+To which Friedrich makes answer: "If it is forevermore forbidden me to
+see you again, I am not the less glad that the Duchess of Wurtemberg has
+seen you. I should certainly have mixed my tears with yours, had I been
+present at that touching scene! Be it weakness, be it excess of regard,
+I have built for her lost Mother, what Cicero projected for his Tullia,
+a TEMPLE OF FRIENDSHIP: her Statue occupies the background, and on each
+pillar stands a mask (MASCARON) containing the Bust of some Hero in
+Friendship: I send you the drawing of it." ["Potsdam, 24th October,
+1773:" _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxiii. 259:--"Temple" was built in 1768
+(Ib. p. 259 n.).] Which again sets Voltaire weeping, and will the
+Duchess when she sees it. [Voltaire's next Letter: _OEuvres de
+Voltaire,_ xcii. 434.]
+
+We said there hitherto was nearly nothing anywhere discoverable as
+History of this high Lady but the dates only; these we now give. She was
+"born 30th August, 1732,"--her Mother's and Father's one Child;--four
+years older than her Anspach Cousin, who inherited Baireuth too, and
+finished off that genealogy. She was "wedded 26th September, 1748;" her
+age then about 16; her gloomy Duke of Wurtemberg, age 20, all sunshine
+and goodness to her then: she was "divorced in 1757:" "died 6th April,
+1780,"--Tradition says, "in great poverty [great for her rank,
+I suppose, proud as she might be, and above complaining],--at
+Neustadt-on-the-Aisch" (in the Nurnberg region), whither she had
+retired, I know not how long after her Papa's death and Cousin's
+accession. She is bound for her Cousin's Court, we observe, just now;
+and, considering her Cousin's ways and her own turn of mind, it is easy
+to fancy she had not a pleasant time there.
+
+Tradition tells us, credibly enough, "She was very like her Mother:
+beautiful, much the lady (VON FEINEM TON), and of energetic character;"
+and adds, probably on slight foundation, "but very cold and proud
+towards the people." [Vehse, xxv. 251.] Many Books will inform you how,
+"On first entering Stuttgard, when the reigning Duke and she were met
+by a party of congratulatory peasant women dressed in their national
+costume, she said to her Duke," being then only sixteen, poor young
+soul, and on her marriage-journey, "'WAS WILL DAS GESCHMEISS (Why does
+that rabble bore us)!'" This is probably the main foundation. That "her
+Ladies, on approaching her, had always to kiss the hem of her gown," lay
+in the nature of the case, being then the rule to people of her rank.
+Beautiful Unfortunate, adieu:--and be Voltaire thanked, too!--
+
+It is long since we have seen Voltaire before:--a prosperous Lord at
+Ferney these dozen years ("the only man in France that lives like a
+GRAND SEIGNEUR," says Cardinal Bernis to him once [Their CORRESPONDENCE,
+really pretty of its kind, used to circulate as a separate Volume in the
+years then subsequent.]); doing great things for the Pays de Gex and
+for France, and for Europe; delivering the Calases, the Sirvens and the
+Oppressed of various kinds; especially ardent upon the INFAME, as the
+real business Heaven has assigned him in his Day, the sunset of
+which, and Night wherein no man can work, he feels to be hastening on.
+"Couldn't we, the few Faithful, go to Cleve in a body?" thinks he at one
+time: "To Cleve; and there, as from a safe place, under the Philosopher
+King, shoot out our fiery artilleries with effect?" The Philosopher King
+is perfectly willing, "provided you don't involve me in Wars with
+my neighbors." Willing enough he; but they the Faithful--alas, the
+Patriarch finds that they have none of his own heroic ardor, and that
+the thing cannot be done. Upon which, "struck with sorrow," say his
+Biographers, "he writes nothing to Friedrich for two years." ["Nov.
+1769," recommences (_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxiii. 140. 139).]
+
+The truth is, he is growing very old; and though a piercing radiance, as
+of stars, bursts occasionally from the central part of him, the outworks
+are getting decayed and dim; obstruction more and more accumulating, and
+the immeasurable Night drawing nigh. Well does Voltaire himself, at all
+moments, know this; and his bearing under it, one must say, is rather
+beautiful. There is a tenderness, a sadness, in these his later Letters
+to Friedrich; instead of emphasis or strength, a beautiful shrill
+melody, as of a woman, as of a child; he grieves unappeasably to have
+lost Friedrich; never will forgive Maupertuis:--poor old man! Friedrich
+answers in a much livelier, more robust tone: friendly, encouraging,
+communicative on small matters;--full of praises,--in fact, sincerely
+glad to have such a transcendent genius still alive with him in
+this world. Praises to the most liberal pitch everything of
+Voltaire's,--except only the Article on WAR, which occasionally (as
+below) he quizzes a little, to the Patriarch or his Disciple.
+
+ As we have room for nothing of all this, and perhaps shall not see
+Voltaire again,--there are Two actual Interviews with him, which, being
+withal by Englishmen, though otherwise not good for much, we intend for
+readers here. In these last twenty years D'Alembert is Friedrich's chief
+Correspondent. Of D'Alembert to the King, it may be or may not, some
+opportunity will rise for a specimen; meanwhile here is a short Letter
+of the King's to D'Alembert, through which there pass so many threads of
+contemporaneous flying events (swift shuttles on the loud-sounding Loom
+of Time), that we are tempted to give this, before the two Interviews in
+question.
+
+Date of the Letter is two months after that apparition of the Duchess of
+Wurtemberg at Ferney. Of "Crillon," an ingenious enough young Soldier,
+rushing ardently about the world in his holiday time, we have nothing to
+say, except that he is Son of that Rossbach Crillon, who always fancies
+to himself that once he perhaps spared Friedrich's life (by a glass of
+wine judiciously given) long since, while the Bridge of Weissenfels was
+on fire, and Rossbach close ahead. [Supra, x. 6.] Colonel "Guibert"
+is another Soldier, still young, but of much superior type; greatly an
+admirer of Friedrich, and subsequently a Writer upon him. [Of Guibert's
+visit to Friedrich (June, 1773), see Preuss, iv. 214; Rodenbeck, iii.
+80.]
+
+In regard to the "Landgravine of Darmstadt," notice these points.
+First, that her eldest Daughter is Wife, second Wife, to the
+dissolute Crown-Prince of Prussia; and then, that she has Three other
+Daughters,--one of whom has just been disposed of in an important way;
+wedded to the Czarowitsh Paul of Russia, namely. By Friedrich's means
+and management, as Friedrich informs us. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_
+(MEMOIRES DE 1763 JUSQU'A 1775), vi. 57.] The Czarina, he says, had sent
+out a confidential Gentleman, one Asseburg, who was Prussian by birth,
+to seek a fit Wife for her Son: Friedrich, hearing of this, suggested
+to Asseburg, "The Landgravine of Darmstadt, the most distinguished and
+accomplished of German Princesses, has three marriageable Daughters; her
+eldest, married to our Crown-Prince, will be Queen of Prussia in time
+coming;--suppose now, one of the others were to be Czarina of Russia
+withal? Think, might it not be useful both to your native Country and to
+your adopted?" Asseburg took the hint; reported at Petersburg, That of
+all marriageable Princesses in Germany, the Three of Darmstadt, one
+or the other of them, would, in his humble opinion, be the eligiblest.
+"Could not we persuade you to come to Petersburg, Madam Landgravine?"
+wrote the Czarina thereupon: "Do us the honor of a visit, your three
+Princesses and you!" The Landgravine and Daughters, with decent
+celerity, got under way; [Passed through Berlin 16th-19th May, 1773:
+Rodenbeck, iii. 78.] Czarowitsh Paul took interesting survey, on
+their arrival; and about two months ago wedded the middle one of the
+three:--and here is the victorious Landgravine bringing home the other
+two. Czarowitsh's fair one did not live long, nor behave well: died of
+her first child; and Czarowitsh, in 1776, had to apply to us again for
+a Wife, whom this time we fitted better. Happily, the poor victorious
+Landgravine was gone before anything of this; she died suddenly five
+months hence; [30th March, 1774.] nothing doubting of her Russian
+Adventure. She was an admired Princess of her time, DIE GROSSE
+LANDGRAFIN, as Goethe somewhere calls her; much in Friedrich's
+esteem,--FEMINA SEXU, INGENIO VIR, as the Monument he raised to her
+at Darmstadt still bears. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xx. 183 n. His
+CORRESPONDENCE with her is Ib. xxvii ii. 135-153; and goes from 1757 to
+1774.]
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TO D'ALEMBERT.
+
+"POTSDAM, 16th December, 1773.
+
+"M. de Crillon delivered me your CRILLONADE [lengthy Letter of
+introduction]; which has completed me in the History of all the Crillons
+of the County of Avignon. He does n't stop here; he is soon to be off
+for Russia; so that I will take him on your word, and believe him the
+wisest of all the Crillons: assuring myself that you have measured and
+computed all his curves, and angles of incidence. He will find Diderot
+and Grimm in Russia [famous visit of Diderot], all occupied with the
+Czarina's beautiful reception of them, and with the many things worthy
+of admiration which they have seen there. Some say Grimm will possibly
+fix himself in that Country [chose better],--which will be the asylum at
+once of your fanatic CHAUMEIXES and of the ENCYCLOPEDISTES, whom he used
+to denounce. [This poor Chaumeix did, after such feats, "die peaceably
+at Moscow, as a Schoolmaster."]
+
+"M. de Guibert has gone by Ferney; where it is said Voltaire has
+converted him, that is, has made him renounce the errors of ambition,
+abjure the frightful trade of hired manslayer, with intent to become
+either Capuchin or Philosophe; so that I suppose by this time he will
+have published a 'Declaration' like Gresset, informing the public That,
+having had the misfortune to write a Work on Tactics, he repented it
+from the bottom of his soul, and hereby assured mankind that never more
+in his life would he give rules for butcheries, assassinations, feints,
+stratagems or the like abominations. As to me, my conversion not being
+yet in an advanced stage, I pray you to give me details about Guibert's,
+to soften my heart and penetrate my bowels.
+
+"We have the Landgravine of Darmstadt here: [Rodenbeck, iii. 89, 90.]
+no end to the Landgravine's praises of a magnificent Czarina, and of all
+the beautiful and grand things she has founded in that Country. As to
+us, who live like mice in their holes, news come to us only from mouth
+to mouth, and the sense of hearing is nothing like that of sight.
+I cherish my wishes, in the mean while, for the sage Anaxagoras [my
+D'Alembert himself]; and I say to Urania, 'It is for thee to sustain thy
+foremost Apostle, to maintain one light, without which a great Kingdom
+[France] would sink into darkness;' and I say to the Supreme Demiurgus:
+'Have always the good D'Alembert in thy holy and worthy keeping.'--F."
+[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxiv. 614.]
+
+THE BOSTON TEA (same day). Curious to remark, while Friedrich is writing
+this Letter, "THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16th, 1773," what a commotion is
+going on, far over seas, at Boston, New England,--in the "Old South
+Meeting-house" there; in regard to three English Tea Ships that are
+lying embargoed in Griffin's Wharf for above a fortnight past. The case
+is well known, and still memorable to mankind. British Parliament,
+after nine years of the saddest haggling and baffling to and fro, under
+Constitutional stress of weather, and such east-winds and west-winds
+of Parliamentary eloquence as seldom were, has made up its mind, That
+America shall pay duty on these Teas before infusing them: and America,
+Boston more especially, is tacitly determined that it will not; and
+that, to avoid mistakes, these Teas shall never be landed at all. Such
+is Boston's private intention, more or less fixed;--to say nothing of
+the Philadelphias, Charlestons, New Yorks, who are watching Boston, and
+will follow suit of it.
+
+"Sunday, November 26th,--that is, nineteen days ago,--the first of
+these Tea Ships, the DARTMOUTH, Captain Hall, moored itself in Griffin's
+Wharf: Owner and Consignee is a broad-brimmed Boston gentleman called
+Rotch, more attentive to profits of trade than to the groans of
+Boston:--but already on that Sunday, much more on the Monday following,
+there had a meeting of Citizens run together,--(on Monday, Faneuil Hall
+won't hold them, and they adjourn to the Old South Meeting-house),--who
+make it apparent to Rotch that it will much behoove him, for the sake
+both of tea and skin, not to 'enter' (or officially announce) this
+Ship DARTMOUTH at the Custom-house in any wise; but to pledge his
+broad-brimmed word, equivalent to his oath, that she shall lie dormant
+there in Griffin's Wharf, till we see. Which, accordingly, she has
+been doing ever since; she and two others that arrived some days later;
+dormant all three of them, side by side, three crews totally idle; a
+'Committee of Ten' supervising Rotch's procedures; and the Boston world
+much expectant. Thursday, December 16th: this is the 20th day since
+Rotch's DARTMOUTH arrived here; if not 'entered' at Custom-house in the
+course of this day, Custom-house cannot give her a 'clearance' either
+(a leave to depart),--she becomes a smuggler, an outlaw, and her fate is
+mysterious to Rotch and us.
+
+"This Thursday accordingly, by 10 in the morning, in the Old South
+Meeting-house, Boston is assembled, and country-people to the number of
+2,000;--and Rotch never was in such a company of human Friends before.
+They are not uncivil to him (cautious people, heedful of the verge of
+the Law); but they are peremptory, to the extent of--Rotch may shudder
+to think what. "I went to the Custom-house yesterday,' said Rotch, 'your
+Committee of Ten can bear me witness; and demanded clearance and leave
+to depart; but they would not; were forbidden, they said!' 'Go, then,
+sir; get you to the Governor himself; a clearance, and out of harbor
+this day: had n't you better?' Rotch is well aware that he had; hastens
+off to the Governor (who has vanished to his Country-house, on purpose);
+Old South Meeting-house adjourning till 3 P.M., for Rotch's return with
+clearance.
+
+"At 3 no Rotch, nor at 4, nor at 5; miscellaneous plangent intermittent
+speech instead, mostly plangent, in tone sorrowful rather than
+indignant:--at a quarter to 6, here at length is Rotch; sun is long
+since set,--has Rotch a clearance or not? Rotch reports at large,
+willing to be questioned and cross-questioned: 'Governor absolutely
+would not! My Christian friends, what could I or can I do?' There are
+by this time about 7,000 people in Old South Meeting-house, very few
+tallow-lights in comparison,--almost no lights for the mind either,--and
+it is difficult to answer. Rotch's report done, the Chairman [one Adams,
+"American Cato," subsequently so called] dissolves the sorrowful 7,000,
+with these words: 'This Meeting declares that it can do nothing more to
+save the Country.' Will merely go home, then, and weep. Hark, however:
+almost on the instant, in front of Old South Meeting-house, (a terrific
+War-whoop; and about fifty Mohawk Indians,)--with whom Adams seems to be
+acquainted; and speaks without Interpreter: Aha?--
+
+"And, sure enough, before the stroke of 7, these fifty painted Mohawks
+are forward, without noise, to Griffin's Wharf; have put sentries all
+round there; and, in a great silence of the neighborhood, are busy,
+in three gangs, upon the dormant Tea Ships; opening their chests, and
+punctually shaking them out into the sea. 'Listening from the distance,
+you could hear distinctly the ripping open of the chests, and no other
+sound.' About 10 P.M. all was finished: 342 chests of tea flung out to
+infuse in the Atlantic; the fifty Mohawks gone like a dream; and Boston
+sleeping more silently even than usual." ["Summary of the Advices from
+America" (in _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1774, pp. 26, 27); Bancroft,
+iii. 536 et seq.]
+
+"Seven in the evening:" this, I calculate, allowing for the Earth's
+rotation, will be about the time when Friedrich, well tired with the
+day's business, is getting to bed; by 10 on the Boston clocks, when the
+process finishes there, Friedrich will have had the best of his sleep
+over. Here is Montcalm's Prophecy coming to fulfilment;--and a curious
+intersection of a flying Event through one's poor LETTER TO D'ALEMBERT.
+We will now give the two English Interviews with Voltaire; one of which
+is of three years past, another of three years ahead.
+
+
+
+
+No. 1. DR BURNEY HAS SIGHT OF VOLTAIRE (July, 1770).
+
+In the years 1770-1771, Burney, then a famous DOCTOR OF MUSIC, made
+his TOUR through France and Italy, on Musical errands and researches:
+[Charles Burney's _Present State of Music in France and Italy, being
+the Journal of a Tour through those Countries to collect Materials for
+a General History of Music_ (London, 1773). The _History of Music_
+followed duly, in Four 4tos (London, 1776-1789).] with these we have no
+concern, but only with one most small exceptional offshoot or
+episode which grew out of these. Enough for us to know that Burney, a
+comfortable, well-disposed, rather dull though vivacious Doctor, age
+near 45, had left London for Paris "in June, 1770;" that he was on to
+Geneva, intending for Turin, "early in July;" and that his "M. Fritz,"
+mentioned below, is a veteran Brother in Music, settled at Geneva for
+the last thirty years, who has been helpful and agreeable to Burney
+while here. Our Excerpt therefore dates itself, "one of the early days
+of July, 1770,"--Burney hovering between two plans (as we shall dimly
+perceive), and not exactly executing either:--
+
+.... "My going to M. Fritz broke [was about breaking, but did not quite]
+into a plan which I had formed of visiting M. de Voltaire, at the same
+hour, along with some other strangers, who were then going to Ferney.
+But, to say the truth, besides the visit to M. Fritz being more MY
+BUSINESS, I did not much like going with these people, who had only a
+Geneva Bookseller to introduce them; and I had heard that some English
+had lately met with a rebuff from M. de Voltaire, by going without any
+letter of recommendation, or anything to recommend themselves. He asked
+them What they wanted? Upon their replying That they wished only to see
+so extraordinary a man, he said: 'Well, gentlemen, you now see me: did
+you take me for a wild beast or monster, that was fit only to be stared
+at as a show?' This story very much frightened me; for, not having, when
+I left London, or even Paris, any intention of going to Geneva, I was
+quite unprovided with a recommendation. However, I was determined to see
+the place of his residence, which I took to be [still LES DELICES],
+
+CETTE MAISON D'ARISTIPPE, CES JARDINS D'PICURE,
+
+to which he retired in 1755; but was mistaken [not The DELICES now at
+all, but Ferney, for nine or ten years back].
+
+"I drove to Ferney alone, after I had left M. Fritz. This House is
+three or four miles from Geneva, but near the Lake. I approached it with
+reverence, and a curiosity of the most minute kind. I inquired WHEN I
+first trod on his domain; I had an intelligent and talkative postilion,
+who answered all my questions very satisfactorily. M. de Voltaire's
+estate is very large here, and he is building pretty farm-houses
+upon it. He has erected on the Geneva side a quadrangular JUSTICE, or
+Gallows, to show that he is the SEIGNEUR. One of his farms, or rather
+manufacturing houses,--for he is establishing a manufacture upon his
+estate,--was so handsome that I thought it was his chateau.
+
+"We drove to Ferney, through a charming country, covered with corn and
+vines, in view of the Lake, and Mountains of Gex, Switzerland and Savoy.
+On the left hand, approaching the House, is a neat Chapel with this
+inscription:--
+
+'DEO EREXIT VOLTAIRE MDCCLXI.'
+
+I sent to inquire, Whether a stranger might be allowed to see the House
+and Gardens; and was answered in the affirmative. A servant soon came,
+and conducted me into the cabinet or closet where his Master had just
+been writing: this is never shown when he is at home; but having walked
+out, I was allowed that privilege. From thence I passed to the
+Library, which is not a very large one, but well filled. Here I found
+a whole-length Figure in marble of himself, recumbent, in one of the
+windows; and many curiosities in another room; a Bust of himself, made
+not two years since; his Mother's picture; that of his Niece, Madam
+Denis; his Brother, M. Dupuis; the Calas Family; and others. It is a
+very neat and elegant House; not large, nor affectedly decorated.
+
+"I should first have remarked, that close to the Chapel, between that
+and the house, is the Theatre, which he built some years ago; where he
+treated his friends with some of his own Tragedies: it is now only used
+as a receptacle for wood and lumber, there having been no play acted in
+it these four years. The servant told me his Master was 78 [76 gone],
+but very well. 'IL TRAVAILLE,' said he, 'PENDANT DIX HEURES CHAQUE JOUR,
+He studies ten hours every day; writes constantly without spectacles,
+and walks out with only a domestic, often a mile or two--ET LE VOILA, LA
+BAS, And see, yonder he is!'
+
+"He was going to his workmen. My heart leaped at the sight of so
+extraordinary a man. He had just then quitted his Garden, and was
+crossing the court before his House. Seeing my chaise, and me on the
+point of mounting it, he made a sign to his servant who had been my
+CICERONE, to go to him; in order, I suppose, to inquire who I was.
+After they had exchanged a few words together, he," M. de Voltaire,
+"approached the place where I was standing motionless, in order to
+contemplate his person as much as I could while his eyes were turned
+from me; but on seeiug him move towards me, I found myself drawn by
+some irresistible power towards him; and, without knowing what I did, I
+insensibly met him half-way.
+
+"It is not easy to conceive it possible for life to subsist in a form
+so nearly composed of mere skin and bone as that of M. de Voltaire."
+Extremely lean old Gentleman! "He complained of decrepitude, and said,
+He supposed I was anxious to form an idea of the figure of one walking
+after death. However, his eyes and whole countenance are still full
+of fire; and though so emaciated, a more lively expression cannot be
+imagined.
+
+"He inquired after English news; and observed that Poetical squabbles
+had given way to Political ones; but seemed to think the spirit of
+opposition as necessary in poetry as in politics. _'Les querelles
+d'auteurs sont pour le bien de la litterature, comme dans un
+gouvernement libre les querelles des grands, et les clameurs des petits,
+sont necessaires a la liberte._' And added, 'When critics are silent, it
+does not so much prove the Age to be correct, as dull.' He inquired
+what Poets we had now; I told him we had Mason and Gray. 'They write
+but little,' said he: 'and you seem to have no one who lords it over the
+rest, like Dryden, Pope and Swift.' I told him that it was one of the
+inconveniences of Periodical Journals, however well executed, that they
+often silenced modest men of genius, while impudent blockheads were
+impenetrable, and unable to feel the critic's scourge: that Mr. Gray and
+Mr. Mason had both been illiberally treated by mechanical critics, even
+in newspapers; and added, that modesty and love of quiet seemed in these
+gentlemen to have got the better even of their love of fame.
+
+"During this conversation, we approached the buildings that he was
+constructing near the road to his Chateau. 'These,' said he, pointing
+to them, 'are the most innocent, and perhaps the most useful, of all
+my works.' I observed that he had other works, which were of far more
+extensive use, and would be much more durable, than those. He was so
+obliging as to show me several farm-houses that he had built, and the
+plans of others: after which I took my leave." [Burney's _Present State
+of Music_ (London, 1773), pp. 55-62.
+
+
+
+
+NO. 2. A REVEREND MR. SHERLOCK SEES VOLTAIRE, AND EVEN DINES WITH HIM
+(April, 1776).
+
+Sherlock's Book of TRAVELS, though he wrote it in two languages, and it
+once had its vogue, is now little other than a Dance of Will-o'-wisps
+to us. A Book tawdry, incoherent, indistinct, at once flashy and opaque,
+full of idle excrescences and exuberances;--as is the poor man himself.
+He was "Chaplain to the Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Derry;" gyrating
+about as ecclesiastical Moon to that famed Solar Luminary, what could
+you expect! [Title of his Book is, _Letters from an English Traveller;
+translated from the French Original_ (London, 1780). Ditto, _Letters
+from an English Trader; written originally in French;_ by the Rev.
+Martin Sherlock, A.M., Chaplain to the Earl of Bristol, &c. (a new
+Edition, 2 vols., London, 1802).] Poor Sherlock is nowhere intentionally
+fabulous; nor intrinsically altogether so foolish as he seems: let that
+suffice us. In his Dance of Will-o'-wisps, which in this point happily
+is dated,--26th-27th April, 1776,--he had come to Ferney, with proper
+introduction to Voltaire; and here (after severe excision of the flabby
+parts, but without other change) is credible account of what he saw and
+heard. In Three Scenes; with this Prologue,--as to Costume, which is
+worth reading twice:--
+
+VOLTAIRE'S DRESS. "On the two days I saw him, he wore white cloth shoes,
+white woollen stockings, red breeches, with a nightgown and waistcoat
+of blue linen, flowered, and lined with yellow. He had on a grizzle wig
+with three ties, and over it a silk nightcap embroidered with gold and
+silver."
+
+
+SCENE I. THE ENTRANCE-HALL OF FERNEY (Friday, 26th April, 1776):
+EXUBERANT SHERLOCK ENTERING, LETTER OF INTRODUCTION HAVING PRECEDED.
+
+"He met in the hall; his Nephew M. d'Hornoi" (Grand-nephew; Abbe Mignot,
+famous for BURYING Voltaire, and Madame Denis, whom we know, were
+D'Hornoi's Uncle and Aunt)--Grand-nephew, "Counsellor in the Parlement
+of Paris, held him by the arm. He said to me, with a very weak voice:
+'You see a very old man, who makes a great effort to have the honor of
+seeing you. Will you take a walk in my Garden? It will please you, for
+it is in the English taste:--it was I who introduced that taste into
+France, and it is become universal. But the French parody your Gardens:
+they put your thirty acres into three.'
+
+"From his Gardens you see the Alps, the Lake, the City of Geneva and its
+environs, which are very pleasant. He said:--
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'It is a beautiful prospect.' He pronounced these words
+tolerably well.
+
+SHERLOCK. "'How long is it since you were in England?'
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'Fifty years, at least.' [Not quite; in 1728 left; in 1726
+had come.] [Supra, vii. 47.]
+
+D'HORNOI. "'It was at the time when you printed the First Edition of
+your HENRIADE.'
+
+"We then talked of Literature; and from that moment he forgot his age
+and infirmities, and spoke with the warmth of a man of thirty. He
+said some shocking things against Moses and against Shakspeare. [Like
+enough!]... We then talked of Spain.
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'It is a Country of which we know no more than of the most
+savage parts of Africa; and it is not worth the trouble of being known.
+If a man would travel there, he must carry his bed, &c. On arriving in
+a Town, he must go into one street to buy a bottle of wine; a piece of
+a mule [by way of beef] in another; he finds a table in a third,--and he
+sups. A French Nobleman was passing through Pampeluna: he sent out for
+a spit; there was only one in the Town, and that was lent away for a
+wedding.'
+
+D'HORNOI. "'There, Monsieur, is a Village which M. de Voltaire has
+built!'
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'Yes, we have our freedoms here. Cut off a little corner, and
+we are out of France. I asked some privileges for my Children here, and
+the King has granted me all that I asked, and has declared this Pays de
+Gex exempt from all Taxes of the Farmers-General; so that salt, which
+formerly sold for ten sous a pound, now sells for four. I have nothing
+more to ask, except to live.'--We went into the Library" (had made the
+round of the Gardens, I suppose).
+
+
+SCENE II. IN THE LIBRARY.
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'There you find several of your countrymen [he had
+Shakspeare, Milton, Congreve, Rochester, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke,
+Robertson, Hume and others]. Robertson is your Livy; his CHARLES FIFTH
+is written with truth. Hume wrote his History to be applauded, Rapin to
+instruct; and both obtained their ends.'
+
+SHERLOCK. "'Lord Bolingbroke and you agreed that we have not one good
+Tragedy.'
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'We did think so. CATO is incomparably well written: Addison
+had a great deal of taste;--but the abyss between taste and genius is
+immense! Shakspeare had an amazing genius, but no taste: he has spoiled
+the taste of the Nation. He has been their taste for two hundred years;
+and what is the taste of a Nation for two hundred years will be so for
+two thousand. This kind of taste becomes a religion; there are, in your
+Country, a great many Fanatics for Shakspeare.'
+
+SHERLOCK. "'Were you personally acquainted with Lord Bolingbroke?'
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'Yes. His face was imposing, and so was his voice; in his
+WORKS there are many leaves and little fruit; distorted expressions,
+and periods intolerably long. [TAKING DOWN A BOOK.] There, you see the
+KORAN, which is well read, at least. [It was marked throughout with bits
+of paper.] There are HISTORIC DOUBTS, by Horace Walpole [which had also
+several marks]; here is the portrait of Richard III.; you see he was a
+handsome youth.'
+
+SHERLOCK (making an abrupt transition). "'You have built a Church?'
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'True; and it is the only one in the Universe in honor of
+God [DEO EREXIT VOLTAIRE, as we read above]: you have plenty of Churches
+built to St. Paul, to St. Genevieve, but not one to God.'" EXIT Sherlock
+(to his Inn; makes jotting as above;--is to dine at Ferney to-morrow).
+
+
+SCENE III. DINNER-TABLE OF VOLTAIRE.
+
+"The next day, as we sat down to Dinner," our Host in the above shining
+costume, "he said, in English tolerably pronounced:--
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'We are here for liberty and property! [parody of some old
+Speech in Parliament, let us guess,--liberty and property, my Lords!]
+This Gentleman--whom let me present to Monsieur Sherlock--is a Jesuit
+[old Pere Adam, whom I keep for playing Chess, in his old, unsheltered
+days]; he wears his hat: I am a poor invalid,--I wear my nightcap.'...
+
+"I do not now recollect why he quoted these verses, also in English, by
+Rochester, on CHARLES SECOND:--
+
+     'Here lies the mutton-eating King,
+
+     Who never said a foolish thing,
+     Nor ever did a wise one.'
+
+But speaking of Racine, he quoted this Couplet (of Roscomman's ESSAY ON
+TRANSLATED VERSE):--
+
+     'The weighty bullion of one sterling line
+     Drawn to French wire would through whole pages shine.
+
+SHERLOCK. "'The English prefer Corneille to Racine.'
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'That is because the English are not sufficiently acquainted
+with the French tongue to feel the beauties of Racine's style, or
+the harmony of his versification. Corneille ought to please them more
+because he is more striking; but Racine pleases the French because he
+has more softness and tenderness.'
+
+SHERLOCK. "'How did you find [LIKE] the English fare (LA CHERE
+ANGLAISE?'--which Voltaire mischievously takes for 'the dear
+Englishwoman').
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'I found her very fresh and white,'--truly! [It should
+be remembered, that when he made this pun upon Women he was in his
+eighty-third year.]
+
+SHERLOCK. "'Their language?'
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'Energetic, precise and barbarous; they are the only Nation
+that pronounce their A as E.... [And some time afterwards] Though I
+cannot perfectly pronounce English, my ear is sensible of the harmony of
+your language and of your versification. Pope and Dryden have the most
+harmony in Poetry; Addison in Prose.' [Takes now the interrogating
+side.]
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'How have you liked (AVEX-VOUS TROUVE) the French?'
+
+SHERLOCK. "'Amiable and witty. I only find one fault with them: they
+imitate the English too much.'
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'How! Do you think us worthy to be originals ourselves?'
+
+SHERLOCK. "'Yes, Sir.'
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'So do I too:--but it is of your Government that we are
+envious.'
+
+SHERLOCK. "'I have found the French freer than I expected.'
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'Yes, as to walking, or eating whatever he pleases, or
+lolling in his elbow-chair, a Frenchman is free enough; but as to
+taxes--Ah, Monsieur, you are a lucky Nation; you can do what you like;
+poor we are born in slavery: we cannot even die as we will; we must have
+a Priest [can't get buried otherwise; am often thinking of that!]...
+Well, if the English do sell themselves, it is a proof that they are
+worth something: we French don't sell ourselves, probably because we are
+worth nothing.'
+
+SHERLOCK. "'What is your opinion of the ELOISE' [Rousseau's immortal
+Work]?
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'That it will not be read twenty years hence.'
+
+SHERLOCK. "'Mademoiselle de l'Enclos wrote some good LETTERS?'
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'She never wrote one; they were by the wretched Crebillon'
+[my beggarly old "Rival" in the Pompadour epoch]!...
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'The Italians are a Nation of brokers. Italy is an
+Old-Clothes shop; in which there are many Old Dresses of exquisite
+taste.... But we are still to know, Whether the subjects of the Pope
+or of the Grand Turk are the more abject.' [We have now gone to the
+Drawing-room, I think, though it is not jotted.]
+
+"He talked of England and of Shakspeare; and explained to Madame Denis
+part of a Scene in Henry Fifth, where the King makes love to Queen
+Catherine in bad French; and of another in which that Queen takes a
+lesson in English from her Waiting-woman, and where there are several
+very gross double-entendres"--but, I hope, did not long dwell on
+these....
+
+VOLTAIRE. "'When I see an Englishman subtle and fond of lawsuits, I say,
+"There is a Norman, who came in with William the Conqueror." When I
+see a man good-natured and polite, "That is one who came with the
+Plantagenets;" a brutal character, "That is a Dane:"--for your Nation,
+Monsieur, as well as your Language, is a medley of many others.'
+
+"After dinner, passing through a little Parlor where there was a head of
+Locke, another of the Countess of Coventry, and several more, he took
+me by the arm and stopped me: 'Do you know this Bust [bust of Sir
+Isaac Newton]? It is the greatest genius that ever existed: if all the
+geniuses of the Universe were assembled, he should lead the band.'
+
+"It was of Newton, and of his own Works, that M. de Voltaire always
+spoke with the greatest warmth." [Sherlock, LETTERS (London, 1802), i.
+98-106.] (EXIT Sherlock, to jot down the above, and thence into Infinite
+Space.)
+
+
+
+
+GENERAL OR FIELDMARSHAL CONWAY, DIRECT FROM THE LONDON CIRCLES, ATTENDS
+ONE OF FRIEDRICH'S REVIEWS (August-September, 1774).
+
+Now that Friedrich's Military Department is got completely into trim
+again, which he reckons to have been about 1770, his annual Reviews
+are becoming very famous over Europe; and intelligent Officers of all
+Countries are eager to be present, and instruct themselves there. The
+Review is beautiful as a Spectacle; but that is in no sort the intention
+of it. Rigorous business, as in the strictest of Universities examining
+for Degrees, would be nearer the definition. Sometimes, when a new
+manoeuvre or tactical invention of importance is to be tried by
+experiment, you will find for many miles the environs of Potsdam, which
+is usually the scene of such experiments, carefully shut in; sentries
+on every road, no unfriendly eye admitted; the thing done as with closed
+doors. Nor at any time can you attend without leave asked; though to
+Foreign Officers, and persons that have really business there, there
+appears to be liberality enough in granting it. The concourse of
+military strangers seems to keep increasing every year, till Friedrich's
+death. [Rodenbeck, iii. IN LOCIS.] French, more and more in quantity,
+present themselves; multifarious German names; generally a few English
+too,--Burgoyne (of Saratoga finally), Cornwallis, Duke of York, Marshal
+Conway,--of which last we have something farther to say at present.
+
+In Summer, 1774, Conway--the Marshal Conway, of whom Walpole is
+continually talking as of a considerable Soldier and Politician, though
+he was not in either character considerable, but was Walpole's friend,
+and an honest modest man--had made up his mind, perhaps partly on
+domestic grounds (for I have noticed glimpses of a "Lady C." much out
+of humor), to make a Tour in Germany, and see the Reviews, both Austrian
+and Prussian, Prussian especially. Two immense LETTERS of his on that
+subject have come into my hands, [Kindly presented me by Charles Knight,
+Esq., the well-known Author and Publisher (who possesses a Collection by
+the same hand): these Two run to fourteen large pages in my Copy!] and
+elsewhere incidentally there is printed record of the Tour; [In Keith
+(Sir Robert Murray), _Memoirs and Correspondence,_ ii. 21 et, seq.]
+unimportant as possible, both Tour and Letters, but capable, if squeezed
+into compass, of still being read without disadvantage here.
+
+Sir Robert Murray Keith--that is, the younger Excellency Keith, now
+Minister at Dresden, whom we have sometimes heard of--accompanies Conway
+on this Tour, or flies alongside of him, with frequent intersections
+at the principal points; and there is printed record by Sir Robert, but
+still less interesting than this of Conway, and perfectly conformable
+to it:--so that, except for some words about the Lord Marischal, which
+shall be given, Keith must remain silent, while the diffuse Conway
+strives to become intelligible. Indeed, neither Conway nor Keith tell us
+the least thing that is not abundantly, and even wearisomely known from
+German sources; but to readers here, a pair of English eyes looking on
+the matter (put straight in places by the help there is), may give it
+a certain freshness of meaning. Here are Conway's Two Letters, with the
+nine parts of water charitably squeezed out of them, by a skilful friend
+of mine and his.
+
+
+CONWAY TO HIS BROTHER, MARQUIS OF HERTFORD (in London).
+
+"BERLIN, July 17th, 1774.
+
+"DEAR BROTHER,--In the hurry I live in--... Leaving Brunswick, where,
+in absence of most of the Court, who are visiting at Potsdam, my old
+Commander," Duke Ferdinand, now estranged from Potsdam, [Had a kind of
+quarrel with Friedrich in 1766 (rough treatment by Adjutant von
+Anhalt, not tolerable to a Captain now become so eminent), and quietly
+withdrew,--still on speaking terms with the King, but never his Officer
+more.] and living here among works of Art, and speculations on Free
+Masonry, "was very kind to me, I went to Celle, in Hanover, to pay my
+respects to the Queen of Denmark [unfortunate divorced Matilda, saved
+by my friend Keith,--innocent, I will hope!]... She is grown extremely
+fat.... At Magdeburg, the Prussian Frontier on this side, one is not
+allowed, without a permit, even to walk on the ramparts,--such the
+strictness of Prussian rule.... Driving through Potsdam, on my way to
+Berlin, I was stopped by a servant of the good old Lord Marischal, who
+had spied me as I passed under his window. He came out in his nightgown,
+and insisted upon our staying to dine with him--[worthy old man; a word
+of him, were this Letter done]. We ended, on consultation about times
+and movements of the King, by staying three days at Potsdam, mostly with
+this excellent old Lord.
+
+"On the third day [yesterday evening, in fact], I went, by appointment,
+to the New Palace, to wait upon the King of Prussia. There was some
+delay: his Majesty had gone, in the interim, to a private Concert, which
+he was giving to the Princesses [Duchess of Brunswick and other high
+guests [Rodenbeck (IN DIE) iii. 98.]]; but the moment he was told I
+was there, he came out from his company, and gave me a most flattering
+gracious audience of more than half an hour; talking on a great variety
+of things, with an ease and freedom the very reverse of what I had
+been made to expect.... I asked, and received permission, to visit the
+Silesian Camps next month, his Majesty most graciously telling me the
+particular days they would begin and end [27th August-3d September,
+Schmelwitz near Breslau, are time and place [Ib. iii. 101.]]. This
+considerably deranges my Austrian movements, and will hurry my return
+out of those parts: but who could resist such a temptation!--I saw the
+Foot-Guards exercise, especially the splendid 'First Battalion;' I could
+have conceived nothing so perfect and so exact as all I saw:--so well
+dressed, such men, and so punctual in all they did.
+
+"The New Palace at Potsdam is extremely noble. Not so perfect, perhaps,
+in point of taste, but better than I had been led to expect. The King
+dislikes living there; never does, except when there is high Company
+about him; for seven or eight months in the year, he prefers Little
+Sans-Souci, and freedom among his intimates and some of his Generals....
+His Music still takes up a great share of the King's time. On a table in
+his Cabinet there, I saw, I believe, twenty boxes with a German flute
+in each; in his Bed-chamber, twice as many boxes of Spanish snuff; and,
+alike in Cabinet and in Bed-chamber, three arm-chairs in a row for three
+favorite dogs, each with a little stool by way of step, that the getting
+up might be easy....
+
+"The Town of Potsdam is a most extraordinary and, in its appearance,
+beautiful Town; all the streets perfectly straight, all at right angles
+to each other; and all the houses built with handsome, generally elegant
+fronts.... He builds for everybody who has a bad or a small house, even
+the lowest mechanic. He has done the same at Berlin." Altogether, his
+Majesty's building operations are astonishing. And "from whence does
+this money come, after a long expensive War? It is all fairyland and
+enchantment,"--MAGNUM VECTIGAL PARSIMONIA, in fact!... "At Berlin here,
+I saw the Porcelain Manufacture to-day, which is greatly improved. I
+leave presently. Adieu, dear Brother; excuse my endless Letter [since
+you cannot squeeze the water out of it, as some will!]--Yours most
+sincerely,
+
+"HENRY SEYMOUR CONWAY."
+
+Keith is now Minister at Dresden for some years back; and has, among
+other topics, much to say of our brilliant friend the Electress there:
+but his grand Diplomatic feat was at Copenhagen, on a sudden sally
+out thither (in 1771): [In KEITH, i. 152 &c., nothing of intelligible
+Narrative given, hardly the date discoverable.] the saving of Queen
+Matilda, youngest Sister of George Third, from a hard doom. Unfortunate
+Queen Matilda; one never knows how guilty, or whether guilty at all,
+but she was very unfortunate, poor young Lady! What with a mad Husband
+collapsed by debaucheries into stupor of insanity; what with a Doctor,
+gradually a Prime Minister, Struensee, wretched scarecrow to look
+upon, but wiser than most Danes about; and finally, with a
+lynx-eyed Step-sister, whose Son, should Matilda mistake, will
+inherit,--unfortunate Matilda had fallen into the awfulest troubles;
+got divorced, imprisoned, would have lost her head along with
+scarecrow Struensee had not her Brother George III. emphatically
+intervened,--Excellency Keith, with Seventy-fours in the distance,
+coming out very strong on the occasion,--and got her loose. Loose from
+Danish axe and jail, at any rate; delivered into safety and solitude
+at Celle in Hanover, where she now is,--and soon after suddenly dies of
+fever, so closing a very sad short history.
+
+Excellency Keith, famed in the Diplomatic circles ever since, is at
+present ahead of Conway on their joint road to the Austrian Reviews.
+Before giving Conway's Second Letter, let us hear Keith a little on his
+kinsman the Old Marischal, whom he saw at Berlin years ago, and still
+occasionally corresponds with, and mentions in his Correspondence. Keith
+LOQUITUR; date is Dresden, February, 1770:--
+
+HAS VISITED THE OLD MARISCHAL AT POTSDAM LATELY.... "My stay of three
+days with Lord Marischal.... He is the most innocent of God's creatures;
+and his heart is much warmer than his head. The place of his abode," I
+must say, "is the very Temple of Dulness; and his Female Companion [a
+poor Turk foundling, a perishing infant flung into his late Brother's
+hands at the Fall of Oczakow, [Supra, vii. 82.]--whom the Marischal has
+carefully brought up, and who refuses to marry away from him,--rather
+stupid, not very pretty by the Portraits; must now be two-and-thirty
+gone] is perfectly calculated to be the Priestess of it! Yet he
+dawdles away his day in a manner not unpleasant to him; and I really am
+persuaded he has a conscience that would gild the inside of a dungeon.
+The feats of our bare-legged warriors in the late War [BERG-SCHOTTEN,
+among whom I was a Colonel], accompanied by a PIBRACH [elegiac bagpipe
+droning MORE SUO] in his outer room, have an effect on the old Don,
+which would delight you." [Keith, i. 129; "Dresden, 25th February,
+1770:" to his Sister in Scotland.]
+
+AND THEN SEEN HIM IN BERLIN, ON THE SAME OCCASION.... "Lord Marischal
+came to meet me at Sir Andrew's [Mitchell's, in Berlin, the last year of
+the brave Mitchell's life], where we passed five days together. My visit
+to his country residence," as you already know, "was of three days; and
+I had reason to be convinced that it gave the old Don great pleasure.
+He talked to me with the greatest openness and confidence of all the
+material incidents of his life; and hinted often that the honor of the
+Clan was now to be supported by our family, for all of whom he had the
+greatest esteem. His taste, his ideas, and his manner of living, are a
+mixture of Aberdeenshire and the Kingdom of Valencia; and as he seeks
+to make no new friends, he seems to retain a strong, though silent,
+attachment for his old ones. As to his political principles, I believe
+him the most sincere of converts" to Whiggery and Orthodoxy.... "Since
+I began this, I have had a most inimitable Letter from Lord Marischal. I
+had mentioned Dr. Bailies to him [noted English Doctor at Dresden, bent
+on inoculating and the like], and begged he would send me a state of his
+case and infirmities, that the Doctor might prescribe for him. This is a
+part of his answer:--
+
+"'I thank you for your advice of consulting the English Doctor to repair
+my old carcass. I have lately done so by my old coach, and it is now
+almost as good as new. Please, therefore, to tell the Doctor, that from
+him I expect a good repair, and shall state the case. First, he must
+know that the machine is the worse for wear, being nearly eighty years
+old. The reparation I propose he shall begin with is: One pair of new
+eyes, one pair of new ears, some improvement on the memory. When this
+is done, we shall ask new legs, and some change in the stomach. For
+the present, this first reparation will be sufficient; and we must not
+trouble the Doctor too much at once.'--You see by this how easy his
+Lordship's infirmities sit upon him; and it is really so as he says.
+Your friend Sir Andrew is, I am afraid, less gay; but I have not heard
+from him these three months." [Keith, i. 132, 133; "Dresden, 13th March,
+1770:" to his Father.]
+
+CONWAY TO KEITH, ON THE LATE THREE DAYS AT POTSDAM. [Date, "Dresden,
+21st July, 1774:" in KEITH, ii. 15.] "I stayed three days at Potsdam,
+with much entertainment, for good part of which I am obliged to your
+Excellency's old friend Lord Marischal, who showed me all the kindness
+and civility possible. He stopped me as I passed, and not only made me
+dine with him that day, but in a manner live with him. He is not at all
+blind, as you imagined; so much otherwise, that I saw him read, without
+spectacles, a difficult hand I could not easily decipher.... Stayed but
+a day at Berlin;" am rushing after you:--Here is my Second Letter:--
+
+
+CONWAY'S SECOND LETTER (to his Brother, as before).
+
+"SCHMELWITZ [near Breslau] HEAD-QUARTERS,
+
+August 31st, 1774.
+
+"DEAR BROTHER... I left that Camp [Austrian Camp, and Reviews in
+Hungary, where the Kaiser and everybody had been very gracious to
+me] with much regret." Parted regretfully with Keith;--had played, at
+Presburg, in sight of him and fourteen other Englishmen, a game with the
+Chess Automaton [brand-new miracle, just out]; [Account of it, and of
+this game, in KEITH too (ii. 18; "View, 3d September, 1774:" Keith to
+his Father).]--came on through Vienna hitherward, as fast as post-horses
+could carry us; travelling night and day, without stopping, being rather
+behind time. "Arrived at Breslau near dark, last night; where I learnt
+that the Camp was twenty miles off; that the King was gone there,
+and that the Manoeuvres would begin at four or five this morning. I
+therefore ordered my chaise at twelve at night, and set out, in darkness
+and rain, to be presented to the King of Prussia next morning at five,
+at the head of his troops.... When I arrived, before five, at the place
+called 'Head-quarters,' I found myself in the middle of a miserable
+Village [this Schmelwitz here]; no creature alive or stirring, nor a
+sentinel, or any Military object to be seen.... As soon as anything
+alive was to be found, we asked, If the King was lodged in that Village?
+'Yes,' they said, 'in that House' (pointing to a clay Hovel). But
+General Lentulus soon appeared; and--
+
+"His Majesty has been very gracious; asked me many questions about my
+tour to Hungary. I saw all the Troops pass him as they arrived in Camp.
+They made a very fine appearance really, though it rained hard the whole
+time we were out; and as his Majesty [age 62] did not cloak, we were all
+heartily wet. And, what was worse, went from the field to Orders
+[giving out of Parole, and the like] at his Quarters, there to make our
+bow;--where we stayed in our wet clothes an hour and half [towards 10
+A.M. by this time].... How different at the Emperor's, when his Imperial
+Majesty and everybody was cloaked! [Got no hurt by the wet, strange to
+say.] ... These are our news to this day. And now, having sat up five
+nights out of the last six, and been in rain and dirt almost all day, I
+wish you sincerely good-night.--H. S. C.
+
+"P.S. Breslau, 4th September.--... My Prussian Campaign is finished,
+and as much to my satisfaction as possible. The beauty and order of
+the Troops, their great discipline, their" &c. &c., "almost pass all
+belief.... Yesterday we were on horseback early, at four o'clock. The
+movement was conducted with a spirit and order, on both sides, that was
+astonishing, and struck the more delightful (SIC) by the variety, as in
+the course of the Action the Enemy, conducted by General Anhalt [head
+all right as yet], took three different positions before his final
+retreat.
+
+"The moment it was over [nine o'clock or so], his Majesty got a fresh
+horse, and set out for Potsdam, after receiving the compliments of those
+present, or rather holding a kind of short Levee in the field. I can't
+say how much, in my particular, I am obliged to his Majesty for his
+extraordinary reception, and distinction shown me throughout. Each day
+after the Manoeuvre, and giving the Orders of the day, he held a little
+Levee at the door, or in the court; at which, I can assure you, it is
+not an exaggeration of vanity to say, that he not only talked to me, but
+literally to nobody else at all. It was a good deal each time, and as
+soon as finished he made his bow, and retired, though all, or most, of
+the other Foreigners were standing by, as well as his own Generals. He
+also called me up, and spoke to me several times on horseback, when we
+were out, which he seldom did to anybody.
+
+"The Prince Royal also showed me much civility. The second day, he asked
+me to come and drink a dish of tea with him after dinner, and kept me an
+hour and half. He told me, among other things, that the King of Prussia
+had a high opinion of me, and that it came chiefly from the favorable
+manner in which Duke Ferdinand and the Hereditary Prince [of Brunswick]
+had spoken of me.... Pray let Horace Walpole know my address, that I may
+have all the chance I can of hearing from him. But if he comes to Paris,
+I forgive him.--H. S. C."
+
+Friedrich's Reviews, though fine to look upon, or indeed the finest in
+the world, were by no means of spectacular nature; but of altogether
+serious and practical, almost of solemn and terrible, to the parties
+interested. Like the strictest College Examination for Degrees, as we
+said; like a Royal Assize or Doomsday of the Year; to Military people,
+and over the upper classes of Berlin Society, nothing could be more
+serious, Major Kaltenborn, an Ex-Prussian Officer, presumably of
+over-talkative habits, who sounds on us like a very mess-room of the
+time all gathered under one hat,--describes in an almost awful manner
+the kind of terror with which all people awaited these Annual Assizes
+for trial of military merit.
+
+"What a sight," says he, "and awakening what thoughts, that of a body
+of from 18,000 to 20,000 soldiers, in solemn silence and in deepest
+reverence, awaiting their fate from one man! A Review, in Friedrich's
+time, was an important moment for almost the whole Country. The fortune
+of whole families often depended on it: from wives, mothers, children
+and friends, during those terrible three days, there arose fervent
+wishes to Heaven, that misfortune might not, as was too frequently the
+case, befall their husbands, fathers, sons and friends, in the course of
+them. Here the King, as it were, weighed the merits of his Officers, and
+distributed, according as he found them light or heavy, praise or blame,
+rebukes or favors; and often, too often, punishments, to be felt through
+life. One single unhappy moment [especially if it were the last of a
+long series of such!] often deprived the bravest Officer of his bread,
+painfully earned in peace and war, and of his reputation and honor,
+at least in the eyes of most men, who judge of everything only by its
+issue. The higher you had risen, the easier and deeper your fall might
+be at an unlucky Review. The Heads and Commanders of regiments were
+always in danger of being sent about their business (WEGGEJAGT)."
+
+The fact is, I Kaltenborn quitted the Prussian Service, and took
+Hessian,--being (presumably) of exaggerative, over-talkative nature, and
+strongly gravitating Opposition way!--Kaltenborn admits that the King
+delighted in nothing so much as to see people's faces cheerful about
+him; provided the price for it were not too high. Here is another
+passage from him:--
+
+"At latest by 9 in the morning the day's Manoeuvre had finished, and
+everything was already in its place again. Straight from the ground
+all Heads of regiments, the Majors-DE-JOUR, all Aides-de-Camp, and from
+every battalion one Officer, proceed to Head-quarters. It was impossible
+to speak more beautifully, or instructively, than the King did on such
+occasions, if he were not in bad humor. It was then a very delight to
+hear him deliver a Military Lecture, as it were. He knew exactly who
+had failed, what caused the fault, and how it might and should have been
+retrieved. His voice was soft and persuasive (HINREISSEND); he looked
+kindly, and appeared rather bent upon giving good advice than commands.
+
+"Thus, for instance, he once said to General van Lossow, Head of the
+Black Hussars: 'Your (SEINE) Attack would have gone very well, had not
+your own squadron pressed forward too much (VORGEPRELLT). The brave
+fellows wanted to show me how they can ride. But don't I know that well
+enough;--and also that you [covetous Lossow] always choose the best
+horses from the whole remount for your own squadron! There was,
+therefore, no need at all for that. Tell your people not to do so
+to-morrow, and you will see it will go much better; all will remain
+closer in their places, and the left wing be able to keep better in
+line, in coming on.'--Another time, having observed, in a certain
+Foot-regiment, that the soldiers were too long in getting out their
+cartridges, he said to the Commandant: 'Do you know the cause of this,
+my dear Colonel? Look, the cartouche, in the cartridge-box, has 32
+holes; into these the fellow sticks his eight cartridges, without caring
+how: and so the poor devil fumbles and gropes about, and cannot get hold
+of any. But now, if the Officers would look to it that he place them
+all well together in the middle of the cartouche, he would never make
+a false grasp, and the loading would go as quick again. Only tell your
+Officers that I had made this observation, and I am sure they will
+gladly attend to it.'" [Anonymous (Kaltenborn), _Briefe eines alten
+Preussischen Officiers_ (Hohenzollern, 1790), ii. 24-26.]
+
+Of humane consolatory Anecdotes, in this kind, our Opposition Kaltenborn
+gives several; of the rhadamanthine desolating or destructive kind,
+though such also could not be wanting, if your Assize is to be good for
+anything, he gives us none. And so far as I can learn, the effective
+punishments, dismissals and the like, were of the due rarity and
+propriety; though the flashes of unjust rebuke, fulminant severity,
+lightnings from the gloom of one's own sorrows and ill-humor, were much
+more frequent, but were seldom--I do not know if ever--persisted in to
+the length of practical result. This is a Rhadamanthus much interested
+not to be unjust, and to discriminate good from bad! Of Ziethen there
+are two famous Review Anecdotes, omitted and omissible by Kaltenborn,
+so well known are they: one of each kind. At a certain Review, year not
+ascertainable,--long since, prior to the Seven-Years War,--the King's
+humor was of the grimmest, nothing but faults all round; to Ziethen
+himself, and the Ziethen Hussars, he said various hard things, and at
+length this hardest: "Out of my sight with you!" [Madame de Blumenthal,
+_Life of Ziethen,_ i. 265.] Upon which Ziethen--a stratum of red-hot
+kindling in Ziethen too, as was easily possible--turns to his Hussars,
+"Right about, RECHTS UM: march!" and on the instant did as bidden.
+Disappeared, double-quick; and at the same high pace, in a high frame of
+mind, rattled on to Berlin, home to his quarters, and there first drew
+bridle. "Turn; for Heaven's sake, bethink you!" said more than one
+friend whom he met on the road: but it was of no use. Everybody said,
+"Ziethen is ruined;" but Ziethen never heard of the thing more.
+
+Anecdote Second is not properly of a Review, but of an incidental Parade
+of the Guard, at Berlin (25th December, 1784), by the King in person:
+Parade, or rather giving out of the Parole after it, in the King's
+Apartments; which is always a kind of Military Levee as well;--and
+which, in this instance, was long famous among the Berlin people. King
+is just arrived for Carnival season; old Ziethen will not fail to pay
+his duty, though climbing of the stairs is heavy to a man of 85 gone.
+This is Madam Blumenthal's Narrative (corrected, as it needs, in certain
+points):--
+
+"SATURDAY, 25th DECEMBER, 1784, Ziethen, in spite of the burden of
+eighty-six years, went to the Palace, at the end of the Parade, to pay
+his Sovereign this last tribute of respect, and to have the pleasure
+of seeing him after six months' absence. The Parole was given out, the
+orders imparted to the Generals, and the King had turned towards the
+Princes of the Blood,--when he perceived Ziethen on the other side of
+the Hall, between his Son and his two Aides-de-Camp. Surprised in a
+very agreeable manner at this unexpected sight, he broke out into an
+exclamation of joy; and directly making up to him,--'What, my good old
+Ziethen, are you there!' said his Majesty: 'How sorry am I that you have
+had the trouble of walking up the staircase! I should have called upon
+you myself. How have you been of late?' 'Sire,' answered Ziethen, (my
+health is not amiss, my appetite is good; but my strength! my strength!)
+'This account,' replied the King, 'makes me happy by halves only: but
+you must be tired;--I shall have a chair for you.' [Thing unexampled in
+the annals of Royalty!] A chair," on order to Ziethen's Aides-de-Camp,
+"was quickly brought. Ziethen, however, declared that he was not at all
+fatigued: the King maintained that he was. 'Sit down, good Father (MEIN
+LIEBER ALTER PAPA ZIETHEN, SETZE ER SICH DOCH)!' continued his Majesty:
+'I will have it so; otherwise I must instantly leave the room; for I
+cannot allow you to be incommoded under my own roof.' The old General
+obeyed, and Friedrich the Great remained standing before him, in the
+midst of a brilliant circle that had thronged round them. After asking
+him many questions respecting his hearing, his memory and the general
+state of his health, he at length took leave of him in these words:
+'Adieu, my dear Ziethen [it was his last adieu!]--take care not to catch
+cold; nurse yourself well, and live as long as you can, that I may often
+have the pleasure of seeing you.' After having said this, the King,
+instead of speaking to the other Generals, and walking through the
+saloons, as usual, retired abruptly, and shut himself up in his closet."
+[Blumenthal, ii. 341; _Militair-Lexikon,_ iv. 318. Chodowiecki has
+made an Engraving of this Scene; useful to look at for its military
+Portraits, if of little esteem otherwise. Strangely enough, both in
+BLUMENTHAL and in Chodowiecki's ENGRAVING the year is given as 1785
+(plainly impossible); _Militair-Lexikon_ misprints the month; and, one
+way or other, only Rodenbeck (iii. 316) is right in both day and year.]
+
+Following in date these small Conway Phenomena, if these, so extraneous
+and insignificant, can have any glimmer of memorability to readers, are
+two other occurrences, especially one other, which come in at this
+part of the series, and greatly more require to be disengaged from the
+dust-heaps, and presented for remembrance.
+
+In 1775, the King had a fit of illness; which long occupied certain
+Gazetteers and others. That is the first occurrence of the two, and far
+the more important. He himself says of it, in his HISTORY, all that is
+essential to us here:--
+
+"Towards the end of 1775, the King was attacked by several strong
+consecutive fits of gout. Van Swieten, a famous Doctor's Son, and
+Minister of the Imperial Court at Berlin, took it into his head that
+this gout was a declared dropsy; and, glad to announce to his Court
+the approaching death of an enemy that had been dangerous to it, boldly
+informed his Kaiser that the King was drawing to his end, and would
+not last out the year. At this news the soul of Joseph flames into
+enthusiasm; all the Austrian troops are got on march, their Rendezvous
+marked in Bohemia; and the Kaiser waits, full of impatience, at Vienna,
+till the expected event arrives; ready then to penetrate at once into
+Saxony, and thence to the Frontiers of Brandenburg, and there propose
+to the King's Successor the alternative of either surrendering Silesia
+straightway to the House of Austria, or seeing himself overwhelmed by
+Austrian troops before he could get his own assembled. All these things,
+which were openly done, got noised abroad everywhere; and did not, as is
+easy to believe, cement the friendship of the Two Courts. To the Public
+this scene appeared the more ridiculous, as the King of Prussia, having
+only had a common gout in larger dose than common, was already well
+of it again, before the Austrian Army had got to their Rendezvous. The
+Kaiser made all these troops return to their old quarters; and the Court
+of Vienna had nothing but mockery for its imprudent conduct." [_OEuvres
+de Frederic,_ vi. 124.]
+
+The first of these gout-attacks seems to have come in the end of
+September, and to have lasted about a month; after which the illness
+abated, and everybody thought it was gone. The Kaiser-Joseph evolution
+must have been in October, and have got its mockery in the next months.
+Friedrich, writing to VOLTAIRE, October 22d, has these words:... "A pair
+of charming Letters from Ferney; to which, had they been from the great
+Demiurgus himself, I could not have dictated Answer. Gout held me tied
+and garroted for four weeks;--gout in both feet and in both hands; and,
+such its extreme liberality, in both elbows too: at present the pains
+and the fever have abated, and I feel only a very great exhaustion."
+[Ib. xxv. 44.] "Four consecutive attacks; hope they are now all over;"
+but we read, within the Spring following, that there have been in
+all twelve of them; and in May, 1776, the Newspapers count eighteen
+quasi-consecutive. So that in reality the King's strength was sadly
+reduced; and his health, which did not recover its old average till
+about 1780, continued, for several years after this bad fit, to be a
+constant theme of curiosity to the Gazetteer species, and a matter of
+solicitude to his friends and to his enemies.
+
+Of the Kaiser's immense ambition there can be no question. He is
+stretching himself out on every side; "seriously wishing," thinks
+Friedrich, "that he could 'revivify the German Reich,'"--new Barbarossa
+in improved FIXED form; how noble! Certainly, to King Friedrich's sad
+conviction, "the Austrian Court is aiming to swallow all manner of
+dominions that may fall within its grasp." Wants Bosnia and Servia in
+the East; longs to seize certain Venetian Territories, which would unite
+Trieste and the Milanese to the Tyrol. Is throwing out hooks on Modena,
+on the Ferrarese, on this and on that. Looking with eager eyes on
+Bavaria,--the situation of which is peculiar; the present Kur-Baiern
+being elderly, childless; and his Heir the like, who withal is already
+Kur-Pfalz, and will unite the Two Electorates under one head; a thing
+which Austria regards with marked dislike. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ vi.
+123.] These are anxious considerations to a King in Friedrich's sick
+state. In his private circle, too, there are sorrows: death of Fouquet,
+death of Quintus Icilius, of Seidlitz, Quantz (good old Quantz, with his
+fine Flutings these fifty years, and the still finer memories he awoke!
+[Friedrich's Teacher of the Flute; procured for him by his Mother
+(supra vi. 144).]),--latterly an unusual number of deaths. The ruggedly
+intelligent Quintus, a daily companion, and guest at the supper-table,
+died few months before this fit of gout; and must have been greatly
+missed by Friedrich. Fouquet, at Brandenburg, died last year: his
+benefactor in the early Custrin distresses, his "Bayard," and chosen
+friend ever since; how conspicuously dear to Friedrich to the last is
+still evident. A Friedrich getting lonely enough, and the lights of his
+life going out around him;--has but one sure consolation, which comes
+to him as compulsion withal, and is not neglected, that of standing
+steadfast to his work, whatever the mood and posture be.
+
+The Event of 1776 is Czarowitsh Paul's arrival in Berlin, and Betrothal
+to a second Wife there; his first having died in childbirth lately. The
+first had been of Friedrich's choosing, but had behaved ill,--seduced by
+Spanish-French Diplomacies, by this and that, poor young creature:--the
+second also was of Friedrich's choosing, and a still nearer connection:
+figure what a triumphant event! Event now fallen dead to every one of
+us; and hardly admitting the smallest Note,--except for chronology's
+sake, which it is always satisfactory to keep clear:--
+
+"Czarowitsh Paul's first Wife, the Hessen-Darmstadt Princess of Three,
+died of her first child April 26th, 1776: everybody whispered, 'It is
+none of Paul's!' who, nevertheless, was inconsolable, the wild heart of
+him like to break on the occurrence. By good luck, Prince Henri had set
+out, by invitation, on a second visit to Petersburg; and arrived there
+also on April 26th, [Rodenbeck, iii. 139-146.] the very day of the
+fatality. Prince Henri soothed, consoled the poor Czarowitsh; gradually
+brought him round; agreed with his Czarina Mother, that he must have a
+new Wife; and dexterously fixed her choice on a 'Niece of the King's
+and Henri's.' Eldest Daughter of Eugen of Wurtemberg, of whom, as an
+excellent General, though also as a surly Husband, readers have some
+memory; now living withdrawn at Mumpelgard, the Wurtemberg Apanage
+[Montbeillard, as the French call it], in these piping times of
+Peace:--she is the Princess. To King Friedrich's great surprise and joy.
+The Mumpelgard Principalities, and fortunate Princess, are summoned
+to Berlin. Czarowitsh Paul, under Henri's escort, and under gala and
+festivities from the Frontier onward, arrived in Berlin 21st July, 1776;
+was betrothed to his Wurtemberg Princess straightway; and after about a
+fortnight of festivities still more transcendent, went home with her
+to Petersburg; and was there wedded, 18th October following;--Czar and
+Czarina, she and he, twenty years after, and their posterity reigning
+ever since. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ vi. 120-122.]
+
+"At Vienna," says the King, "everybody was persuaded the Czarowitsh
+would never come to Berlin. Prince Kaunitz had been,"--been at his old
+tricks again, playing his sharpest, in the Court of Petersburg again:
+what tricks (about Poland and otherwise) let us not report, for it is
+now interesting to nobody. Of the Czarowitsh Visit itself I will remark
+only,--what seems to be its one chance of dating itself in any of our
+memories,--that it fell out shortly after the Sherlock dinner with
+Voltaire (in 1776, April 27th the one event, July 21st the other);--and
+that here is, by pure accident, the exuberant erratic Sherlock, once
+more, and once only, emerging on us for a few moments!--
+
+
+
+
+EXUBERANT SHERLOCK AND ELEVEN OTHER ENGLISH ARE PRESENTED TO FRIEDRICH
+ON A COURT OCCASION (8th October, 1777); AND TWO OF THEM GET SPOKEN TO,
+AND SPEAK EACH A WORD. EXCELLENCY HUGH ELLIOT IS THEIR INTRODUCER.
+
+Harris, afterwards Earl of Malmesbury, succeeded Mitchell at Berlin;
+"Polish troubles" (heartily indifferent to England), "Dantzig squabbles"
+(miraculously important there),--nothing worth the least mention now.
+Excellency Harris quitted Berlin in Autumn, 1776; gave place to an
+Excellency Hugh Elliot (one of the Minto Elliots, Brother of the first
+Earl of Minto, and himself considerably noted in the world), of whom we
+have a few words to say.
+
+Elliot has been here since April, 1777; stays some five years in this
+post;--with not much Diplomatic employment, I should think, but with
+a style of general bearing and social physiognomy, which, with some
+procedures partly incidental as well, are still remembered in Berlin.
+Something of spying, too, doubtless there was; bribing of menials,
+opening of Letters: I believe a great deal of that went on; impossible
+to prevent under the carefulest of Kings. [An ingenious young Friend of
+mine, connected with Legationary Business, found lately, at the Hague, a
+consecutive Series, complete for four or five years (I think, from 1780
+onwards), of Friedrich's LETTERS to his MINISTER IN LONDON,--Copies
+punctually filched as they went through the Post-office
+there:--specimens of which I saw; and the whole of which I might have
+seen, had it been worth the effort necessary. But Friedrich's London
+Minister, in this case, was a person of no significance or intimacy; and
+the King's Letters, though strangely exact, clear and even elucidative
+on English Court-Politics and vicissitudes, seemed to be nearly barren
+as to Prussian.] Hitherto, with one exception to be mentioned presently,
+his main business seems to have been that of introducing, on different
+Court-Days, a great number of Travelling English, who want to see the
+King, and whom the King little wants, but quietly submits to. Incoherent
+Sherlock, whom we discover to have been of the number, has, in his
+tawdry disjointed Book, this Passage:--
+
+"The last time of my seeing him [this Hero-King of my heart] was at
+Berlin [not a hint of the time when]. He came thither to receive the
+adieus of the Baron de Swieten, Minister from their Imperial Majesties
+[thank you; that means 8th October, 1777 [Rodenbeck, iii. 172.]], and
+to give audience to the new Minister, the Count Cobenzl. The Foreign
+Ministers, the persons who were to be presented [we, for instance], and
+the Military, were all that were at Court. We were ten English [thirteen
+by tale]: the King spoke to the first and the last; not on account of
+their situation, but because their names struck him. The first was Major
+Dalrymple. To him the King said: 'You have been presented to me before?'
+'I ask your Majesty's pardon; it was my Uncle' (Lord Dalrymple, of
+whom presently). Mr. Pitt [unknown to me which Pitt, subsequent Lord
+Camelford or another] was the last. THE KING: 'Are you a relation of
+Lord Chatham's?' 'Yes, Sire.'--'He is a man whom I highly esteem' [read
+"esteemed"].
+
+"He then went to the Foreign Ministers; and talked more to Prince
+Dolgorucki, the Russian Ambassador, than to any other. In the midst of
+his conversation with this Prince, he turned abruptly to Mr. Elliot, the
+English Minister, and asked: 'What is the Duchess of Kingston's family
+name?' This transition was less Pindaric than it appears; he had just
+been speaking of the Court of Petersburg, and that Lady was then there."
+[Sherlock, ii. 27.] Whereupon Sherlock hops his ways again; leaving us
+considerably uncertain. But, by a curious accident, here, at first-hand,
+is confirmation of the flighty creature;--a Letter from Excellency
+Elliot himself having come our way:--
+
+
+TO WILLIAM EDEN, ESQUIRE (of the Foreign Office, London; Elliot's
+Brother-in-law; afterwards LORD AUCKLAND).
+
+"BERLIN, 12th October, 1777.
+
+"MY DEAR EDEN,--If you are waiting upon the pinnacle of all impatience
+to give me news from the Howes [out on their then famous "Seizure of
+Philadelphia," which came to what we know!], I am waiting with no less
+impatience to receive it, and think every other subject too little
+interesting to be mentioned. I must, however, tell you, the King has
+been here; ["Came to Berlin 8th October," on the Van-Swieten errand;
+"saw Princess Amelia twice; and on the 9th returned to Potsdam"
+(Rodenbeck, iii. 172).] to the astonishment of all croakers, hearty and
+in high spirits. He was very civil to all of us. I was attended by one
+dozen English, which nearly completes my half-hundred this season.
+Pitt made one of the twelve, and was particularly distinguished. KING:
+_"Monsieur est-il parent de Mylord Chatham?'_ PITT: _'Oui, Sire.'_ KING:
+_'C'est un homme que j'ai beaucoup estime.'_
+
+"You have no idea of the joy the people expressed to see the King on
+Horseback,--all the Grub-street nonsense of 'a Country groaning under
+the weight of its burdens,' of 'a Nation governed with a rod of iron,'
+vanished before the sincere acclamations of all ranks, who joined in
+testifying their enthusiasm for their great Monarch. I long for Harris
+and Company [Excellency Harris; making for Russia, I believe]; they are
+to pig together in my house; so that I flatter myself with having a near
+view, if not a taste, of connubial joys. My love to E and _e_ [your
+big _E_leanor and your LITTLE, a baby in arms, who are my Sister and
+Niece;--pretty, this!]. Your most affectionate, H. E.
+
+"P.S. I quite forgot to tell you, I sent out a servant some time ago
+to England to bring a couple of Horses. He will deliver some Packets to
+you; which I beg you will send, with Lord Marischal's compliments, to
+their respective Addresses. There is also a china cup for Mr. Macnamara,
+Lawyer, in the Temple or Lincoln's Inn, from the same person [lively old
+gentleman, age 91 gone; did die next year]. What does Eleanor mean about
+my Congratulatory Letter to Lord Suffolk [our Foreign Secretary, on his
+marriage lately]? I wished his Lordship, most sincerely, every happiness
+in his new state, as soon as I knew of it. I beg, however, Eleanor will
+do the like;--and although it is not my system to 'congratulate' anybody
+upon marriage, yet I never fail to wish them what, I think, it is always
+two to one they do not obtain." [EDEN-HOUSE CORRESPONDENCE (part of
+which, not this, has been published in late years).]
+
+As to the Dalrymple of SHERLOCK, read this (FRIEDRICH TO D'ALEMBERT, two
+years before [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxv. 21: 5th August, 1775.]):...
+"A Mylord of wonderful name [Lord Dalrymple, if I could remember it], of
+amiable genius (AU NOM BAROQUE, A L'ESPRIT AIMABLE), gave me a Letter on
+your part. 'Ah, how goes the Prince of Philosophers, then? Is he gay;
+is he busy; did you see him often?' To which the Mylord: 'I? No; I am
+straight from London!'"--"QUOI DONC--?" In short, knowing my Anaxagoras,
+this Mylord preferred to be introduced by him; and was right: "One of
+the amiablest Englishmen I have seen; I except only the name, which I
+shall never remember [but do, on this new occasion]: Why doesn't he
+get himself unchristened of it, and take that of Stair, which equally
+belongs to him?" (Earl of Stair by and by; Nephew, or Grand-Nephew,
+of the great Earl of Stair, once so well known to some of us. Becomes
+English Minister here in 1785, if we much cared.)
+
+That word of reminiscence about Pitt is worth more attention. Not spoken
+lightly, but with meaning and sincerity; something almost pathetic
+in it, after the sixteen years separation: "A man whom I much
+esteemed,"--and had good reason to do so! Pitt's subsequent sad and
+bright fortunes, from the end of the Seven-Years War and triumphant
+summing up of the JENKINS'S-EAR QUESTION, are known to readers. His
+Burton-Pynsent meed of honor (Estate of 3,000 pounds a year bequeathed
+him by an aged Patriot, "Let THIS bit of England go a noble road!");
+his lofty silences, in the World Political; his vehement attempts in it,
+when again asked to attempt, all futile,--with great pain to him, and
+great disdain from him:--his passionate impatiences on minor matters,
+"laborers [ornamenting Burton-Pynsent Park, in Somersetshire] planting
+trees by torchlight;" "kitchen people [at Hayes in North Kent, House
+still to be seen] roasting a series of chickens, chicken after chicken
+all day, that at any hour, within ten minutes, my Lord may dine!"--these
+things dwell in the memory of every worthy reader. Here, saved from my
+poor friend Smelfungus (nobody knows how much of him I suppress), is a
+brief jotting, in the form of rough MEMORANDA, if it be permissible:--
+
+"Pitt four years King; lost in quicksands after that; off to Bath,
+from gout, from semi-insanity; 'India should pay, but how?' Lost in
+General-Warrants, in Wilkes Controversies, American Revolts,--generally,
+in shallow quicksands;--dies at his post, but his post had become a
+delirious one.
+
+"A delicate, proud, noble man; pure as refined gold. Something
+sensitive, almost feminine in him; yet with an edge, a fire, a
+steadiness; liker Friedrich, in some fine principal points, than any
+of his Contemporaries. The one King England has had, this King of Four
+Years, since the Constitutional system set in. Oliver Cromwell, yes
+indeed,--but he died, and there was nothing for it but to hang his body
+on the gallows. Dutch William, too, might have been considerable,--but
+he was Dutch, and to us proved to be nothing. Then again, so long as
+Sarah Jennings held the Queen's Majesty in bondage, some gleams
+of Kinghood for us under Marlborough:--after whom Noodleism and
+Somnambulism, zero on the back of zero, and all our Affairs, temporal,
+spiritual and eternal, jumbling at random, which we call the Career of
+Freedom, till Pitt stretched out his hand upon them. For four years;
+never again, he; never again one resembling him,--nor indeed can ever
+be.
+
+"Never, I should think. Pitts are not born often; this Pitt's ideas
+could occur in the History of Mankind once only. Stranger theory of
+society, completely believed in by a clear, sharp and altogether human
+head, incapable of falsity, was seldom heard of in the world. For King:
+open your mouth, let the first gentleman that falls into it (a mass of
+Hanover stolidity, stupidity, foreign to you, heedless of you) be King:
+Supreme Majesty he, with hypothetical decorations, dignities, solemn
+appliances, high as the stars (the whole, except the money, a mendacity,
+and sin against Heaven): him you declare Sent-of-God, supreme Captain of
+your England; and having done so,--tie him up (according to Pitt) with
+Constitutional straps, so that he cannot stir hand or foot, for fear of
+accidents: in which state he is fully cooked; throw me at his Majesty's
+feet, and let me bless Heaven for such a Pillar of Cloud by day.
+
+"Pitt, closely as I could scrutinize, seems never to have doubted in
+his noble heart but he had some reverence for George II. 'Reverenced
+his Office,' says a simple reader? Alas, no, my friend, man does not
+'reverence Office,' but only sham-reverences it. I defy him to reverence
+anything but a Man filling an Office (with or without salary) nobly.
+Filling a noble office ignobly; doing a celestial task in a quietly
+infernal manner? It were kinder perhaps to run your sword through him
+(or through yourself) than to take to revering him! If inconvenient
+to slay him or to slay yourself (as is oftenest likely),--keep well to
+windward of him; be not, without necessity, partaker of his adventures
+in this extremely earnest Universe!...
+
+"No; Nature does not produce many Pitts:--nor will any Pitt ever again
+apply in Parliament for a career. 'Your voices, your most sweet voices;
+ye melodious torrents of Gadarenes Swine, galloping rapidly down steep
+places, I, for one; know whither I'"...--Enough.
+
+About four months before this time, Elliot had done a feat, not in
+the Diplomatic line at all, or by his own choice at all, which had
+considerably astonished the Diplomatic world at Berlin, and was
+doubtless well in the King's thoughts during this introduction of the
+Dozen. The American War is raging and blundering along,--a delectable
+Lord George Germaine (ALIAS Sackville, no other than our old Minden
+friend) managing as War-Minister, others equally skilful presiding at
+the Parliamentary helm; all becoming worse and worse off, as the matter
+proceeds. The revolted Colonies have their Franklins, Lees, busy in
+European Courts: "Help us in our noble struggle, ye European Courts;,
+now is your chance on tyrannous England!" To which France at least does
+appear to be lending ear. Lee, turned out from Vienna, is at work in
+Berlin, this while past; making what progress is uncertain to some
+people.
+
+I know not whether it was by my Lord Suffolk's instigation, or what had
+put the Britannic Cabinet on such an idea,--perhaps the stolen Letters
+of Friedrich, which show so exact a knowledge of the current of events
+in America as well as England ("knows every step of it, as if he
+were there himself, the Arch-Enemy of honest neighbors in a time of
+stress!")--but it does appear they had got it into their sagacious heads
+that the bad neighbor at Berlin was, in effect, the Arch-Enemy, probably
+mainspring of the whole matter; and that it would be in the highest
+degree interesting to see clearly what Lee and he had on hand. Order
+thereupon to Elliot: "Do it, at any price;" and finally, as mere price
+will not answer, "Do it by any method,--STEAL Lee's Despatch-Box for
+us!"
+
+Perhaps few Excellencies living had less appetite for such a job than
+Elliot; but his Orders were peremptory, "Lee is a rebel, quasi-outlaw;
+and you must!" Elliot thereupon took accurate survey of the matter; and
+rapidly enough, and with perfect skill, though still a novice in Berlin
+affairs, managed to do it. Privily hired, or made his servant hire, the
+chief Housebreaker or Pickpocket in the City: "Lee lodges in such and
+such a Hostelry; bring us his Red-Box for a thirty hours; it shall
+be well worth your while!" And in brief space the Red-Box arrives,
+accordingly; a score or two of ready-writers waiting for it, who copy
+all day, all night, at the top of their speed, till they have enough:
+which done, the Lee Red-Box is left on the stairs of the Lee Tavern; Box
+locked again, and complete; only the Friedrich-Lee Secrets completely
+pumped out of it, and now rushing day and night towards England, to
+illuminate the Supreme Council-Board there.
+
+This astonishing mass of papers is still extant in England; [In
+the EDEN-HOUSE ARCHIVES; where a natural delicacy (unaware that the
+questionable Legationary FACT stands in print for so many years past)
+is properly averse to any promulgation of them.]--the outside of them I
+have seen, by no means the inside, had I wished it;--but am able to say
+from other sources, which are open to all the world, that seldom had a
+Supreme Council-Board procured for itself, by improper or proper ways,
+a Discovery of less value! Discovery that Lee has indeed been urgent at
+Berlin; and has raised in Friedrich the question, "Have you got to such
+a condition that I can, with safety and advantage, make a Treaty of
+Commerce with you?"--That his Minister Schulenburg has, by Order, been
+investigating Lee on that head; and has reported, "No, your Majesty, Lee
+and People are not in such a condition;" that his Majesty has replied,
+"Well, let him wait till they are;" and that Lee is waiting accordingly.
+In general, That his Majesty is not less concerned in guidance or
+encouragement of the American War than he is in ditto of the Atlantic
+Tides or of the East-Wind (though he does keep barometers and
+meteorological apparatus by him); and that we of the Council-Board are
+a--what shall I say! Not since the case of poor Dr. Cameron, in 1753,
+when Friedrich was to have joined the Highlanders with 15,000 chosen
+Prussians for Jacobite purposes,--and the Cham of Tartary to have taken
+part in the Bangorian Controversy,--was there a more perfect platitude,
+or a deeper depth of ignorance as to adjacent objects on the part of
+Governing Men. For shame, my friends!--
+
+This surprising bit of Burglary, so far as I can gather from the
+Prussian Books, must have been done on WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25th, 1777;
+Box (with essence pumped out) restored to staircase night of
+Thursday,--Police already busy, Governor Ramin and Justice-President
+Philippi already apprised, and suspicion falling on the English
+Minister,--whose Servant ("Arrest him we cannot without a King's
+Warrant, only procurable at Potsdam!") vanishes bodily. Friday, 27th,
+Ramin and Philippi make report; King answers, "greatly astonished:" a
+"GARSTIGE SACHE (ugly Business), which will do the English no honor:"
+"Servant fled, say you? Trace it to the bottom; swift!" Excellency
+Elliot, seeing how matters lay, owned honestly to the Official People,
+That it was his Servant (Servant safe gone, Chief Pickpocket not
+mentioned at all); SUNDAY EVENING, 29th, King orders thereupon, "Let the
+matter drop." These Official Pieces, signed by the King, by Hertzberg,
+Ramin and others, we do not give: here is Friedrich's own notice of it
+to his Brother Henri:--
+
+"POTSDAM, 29th JUNE, 1777.... There has just occurred a strange thing
+at Berlin. Three days ago, in absence of the Sieur Lee, Envoy of the
+American Colonies, the Envoy of England went [sent!] to the Inn where
+Lee lodged, and carried off his Portfolio; it seems he was in fear,
+however, and threw it down, without opening it, on the stairs [alas,
+no, your Majesty, not till after pumping the essence out]. All Berlin is
+talking of it. If one were to act with rigor, it would be necessary to
+forbid this man the Court, since he has committed a public theft: but,
+not to make a noise, I suppress the thing. Sha'n't fail, however, to
+write to England about it, and indicate that there was another way of
+dealing with such a matter, for they are impertinent" (say, ignorant,
+blind as moles, your Majesty; that is the charitable reading!).
+[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvi. 394. In PREUSS, v. (he calls it "iv." or
+"URKUNDENBUCH to vol. iv.," but it is really and practically vol. v.)
+278, 279, are the various Official Reports.]
+
+This was not Excellency Elliot's Burglary, as readers see,--among all
+the Excellencies going, I know not that there is one with less natural
+appetite for such a job; but sometimes what can a necessitous Excellency
+do? Elliot is still remembered in Berlin society, not for this only,
+but for emphatic things of a better complexion which he did; a man more
+justly estimated there, than generally here in our time. Here his chief
+fame rests on a witty Anecdote, evidently apocryphal, and manufactured
+in the London Clubs: "Who is this Hyder-Ali," said the old King to him,
+one day (according to the London Clubs). "Hm," answered Elliot, with
+exquisite promptitude, politeness and solidity of information, "C'EST UN
+VIEUX VOLEUR QUI COMMENCE A RADOTER (An old robber, now falling into his
+dotage),"--let his dotard Majesty take that.
+
+Alas, my friends!--Ignorance by herself is an awkward lumpish wench;
+not yet fallen into vicious courses, nor to be uncharitably treated: but
+Ignorance and Insolence,--these are, for certain, an unlovely Mother and
+Bastard! Yes;--and they may depend upon it, the grim Parish-beadles
+of this Universe are out on the track of them, and oakum and the
+correction-house are infallible sooner or later! The clever Elliot, who
+knew a hawk from a hernshaw, never floundered into that platitude. This,
+however, is a joke of his, better or worse (I think, on his quitting
+Berlin in 1782, without visible resource or outlook): "I am far from
+having a Sans-Souci," writes he to the Edens; "and I think I am coming
+to be SANS SIX-SOUS."--Here still are two small Fractions, which I must
+insert; and then rigorously close. Kaiser Joseph, in these months, is
+travelling through France to instruct his Imperial mind. The following
+is five weeks anterior to that of Lee's Red-Box:--
+
+1. A BIT OF DIALOGUE AT PARIS (Saturday, 17th May, 1777). After solemn
+Session of the ACADEMIE FRANCAISE, held in honor of an illustrious COMTE
+DE FALKENSTEIN (privately, Kaiser Joseph II.), who has come to look at
+France, [Minute and rather entertaining Account of his procedures there,
+and especially of his two Visits to the Academy (first was May 10th),
+in Mayer, _Reisen Josephs II._ (Leipzig, 1778), pp. 112-132, 147
+et seq.]--Comte de Falkenstein was graciously pleased to step up to
+D'Alembert, who is Perpetual Secretary here; and this little Dialogue
+ensued:--
+
+FALKENSTEIN. "I have heard you are for Germany this season; some say you
+intend to become German altogether?"
+
+D'ALEMBERT. "I did promise myself the high honor of a visit to his
+Prussian Majesty, who has deigned to invite me, with all the kindness
+possible: but, alas, for such hopes! The bad state of my health--"
+
+FALKENSTEIN. "It seems to me you have already been to see the King of
+Prussia?"
+
+D'ALEMBERT. "Two times; once in 1756 [1755, 17th-19th June,--if you will
+be exact], at Wesel, when I remained only a few days; and again in 1763,
+when I had the honor to pass three or four months with him. Since that
+time I have always longed to have the honor of seeing his Majesty again;
+but circumstances hindered me. I, above all, regretted not to have been
+able to pay my court to him that year he saw the Emperor at Neisse,--but
+at this moment there is nothing more to be wished on that head" (Don't
+bow: the Gentleman is INCOGNITO).
+
+FALKENSTEIN. "It was very natural that the Emperor, young, and desiring
+to instruct himself, should wish to see such a Prince as the King of
+Prussia; so great a Captain, a Monarch of such reputation, and who has
+played so great a part. It was a Scholar going to see his Master" (these
+are his very words, your Majesty).
+
+D'ALEMBERT. "I wish M. le Comte de Falkenstein could see the Letters
+which the King of Prussia did me the honor to write after that
+Interview: it would then appear how this Prince judged of the Emperor,
+as all the world has since done." ["D'Alembert to Friedrich [in _OEuvres
+de Frederic,_ xxv. 75], 23d May, 1777." Ib. xxv. 82; "13th August,
+1777."]
+
+KING TO D'ALEMBERT (three months after. Kaiser is home; passed Ferney,
+early in August; and did not call on Voltaire, as is well known).... "I
+hear the Comte de Falkenstein has been seeing harbors, arsenals, ships,
+manufactures, and has n't seen Voltaire. Had I been in the Emperor's
+place, I would not have passed Ferney without a glance at the old
+Patriarch, were it only to say that I had seen and heard him. Arsenals,
+ships, manufactures, these you can see anywhere; but it requires ages
+to produce a Voltaire. By the rumors I hear, it will have been a certain
+great Lady Theresa, very Orthodox and little Philosophical, who forbade
+her Son to visit the Apostle of Tolerance."
+
+D'ALEMBERT (in answer): "No doubt your Majesty's guess is right. It must
+have been the Lady Mother. Nobody here believes that the advice came
+from his Sister [Queen Marie Antoinette], who, they say, is full of
+esteem for the Patriarch, and has more than once let him know it by
+third parties." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxv. 84.]
+
+According to Friedrich, Joseph's reflections in France were very gloomy:
+"This is all one Country; strenuously kneaded into perfect union and
+incorporation by the Old Kings: my discordant Romish Reich is of
+many Countries,--and should be of one, if Sovereigns were wise and
+strenuous!" [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ vi. 125.]
+
+2. A CABINET-ORDER AND ACTUAL (fac-simile) SIGNATURE OF
+FRIEDRICH'S.--After unknown travels over the world, this poor brown Bit
+of Paper, with a Signature of Friedrich's to it, has wandered hither;
+and I have had it copied, worthy or not. A Royal Cabinet-Order on the
+smallest of subjects; but perhaps all the more significant on that
+account; and a Signature which readers may like to see.
+
+Fordan, or Fordon, is in the Bromberg Department in West
+Preussen,--Bromberg no longer a heap of ruins; but a lively,
+new-built, paved, CANALLED and industrious trading Town. At Fordan is a
+Grain-Magazine: Bein ("Leg," DER BEIN, as they slightingly call him) is
+Proviant-Master there; and must consider his ways,--the King's eye being
+on him. Readers can now look and understand:--
+
+
+AN DEN OBER-PROVIANTMEISTER BEIN, zu Fordan.
+
+"POTSDAM, den 9ten April, 1777.
+
+_"Seiner Koniglicher Majestat von Preussen, Unser allergnadigster Herr,
+lassen dem Ober-Proviantmeister Bein hiebey die Getraide-Preistabelle
+des Brombergschen Departments zufertigen; Woraus derselbe ersiehet
+wie niedrig solche an einigen Orthen sind, und dass zu Inovraclaw und
+Strezeltnow der Scheffel Roggen um 12 Groschen kostet: da solches nun
+hier so wohlfeil ist, somuss ja der Preis in Pohlen noch wohl geringer,
+und ist daher nicht abzusehen warum die Pohlen auf so hohe Preise
+bestehen; der Bein muss sich daher nun rechte Muhe gebem, und den
+Einkauf so wohlfeil als nur immer mog_ lich zu machen suchen."
+
+"His Royal Majesty of Preussen, Our most all-gracious Lord, lets
+herewith, to the Head Proviant-Master Bein, the Grain-Prices Table of
+the Bromberg Department be despatched; Wherefrom Bein perceives how low
+in some places these are, and that, at Inovraclaw and Strezeltnow the
+Bushel of Rye costs about 14 Pence: now, as it is so cheap there, the
+price in Poland must be still smaller; and therefore it is not to be
+conceived why the Poles demand such high prices," as the said Bein
+reports: "Bein therefore is charged to take especial pains, and try not
+to make the purchase dearer than is indispensable."
+
+FRIEDRICH'S SIGNATURE HERE--PAGE 390, BOOK XXI----
+
+[Reference re signature] Original kindly furnished me by Mr. W. H. Doeg,
+Barlow Moor, Manchester: whose it now is,--purchased in London, A.D.
+1863. The FRH of German CURSIV-SCHRIFT (current hand), which the
+woodcutter has appended, shut off by a square, will show English readers
+what the King means: an _"Frh"_ done as by a flourish of one's stick,
+in the most compendious and really ingenious manner,--suitable for an
+economic King, who has to repeat it scores of times every day of his
+life!
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI.--THE BAVARIAN WAR.
+
+At the very beginning of 1778, the chronic quarrel with Austria passed,
+by an accident just fallen out, into the acute state; rose
+gradually, and, in spite of negotiating, issued in a thing called
+Bavarian-Succession War, which did not end till Spring of the following
+year. The accident was this. At Munchen, December 30th, 1777, Max
+Joseph Kurfurst of Baiern, only Brother of our lively friend the
+Electress-Dowager of Saxony, died; suddenly, of small-pox unskilfully
+treated. He was in his fifty-second year; childless, the last of that
+Bavarian branch. His Heir is Karl Theodor, Kur-Pfalz (Elector Palatine),
+who is now to unite the Two Electorates,--unless Austria can bargain
+with him otherwise. Austria's desire to get hold of Baiern is of very
+old standing; and we have heard lately how much it was an object with
+Kaunitz and his young Kaiser. With Karl Theodor they did bargain,--in
+fact, had beforehand as good as bargained,--and were greatly astonished,
+when King Friedrich, alone of all Teutschland or the world, mildly, but
+peremptorily, interfered, and said No,--with effect, as is well known.
+
+Something, not much, must be said of this Bavarian-Succession War; which
+occupied, at a pitch of tension and anxiety foreign to him for a long
+time, fifteen months of Friedrich's old age (January, 1778-March, 1779);
+and filled all Europe round him and it, in an extraordinary manner.
+Something; by no means much, now that we have seen the issue of such
+mountains all in travail. Nobody could then say but it bade fair to
+become a Fourth Austrian-Prussian War, as sanguinary as the Seven-Years
+had been; for in effect there stood once more the Two Nations ranked
+against each other, as if for mortal duel, near half a million men in
+whole; parleying indeed, but brandishing their swords, and ever and anon
+giving mutual clash of fence, as if the work had begun, though there
+always intervened new parleying first.
+
+And now everybody sees that the work never did begin; that parleying,
+enforced by brandishing, turned out to be all the work there was: and
+everybody has forgotten it, and, except for specific purposes, demands
+not to be put in mind of it. Mountains in labor were not so frequent
+then as now, when the Penny Newspaper has got charge of them; though
+then as now to practical people they were a nuisance. Mountains all in
+terrific travail-throes, threatening to overset the solar system, have
+always a charm, especially for the more foolish classes: but when once
+the birth has taken place, and the wretched mouse ducks past you,
+or even nothing at all can be seen to duck past, who is there but
+impatiently turns on his heel?
+
+Those Territories, which adjoin on its own dominions, would have been
+extremely commodious to Austria;--as Austria itself has long known; and
+by repeatedly attempting them on any chance given (as in 1741-1745, to
+go no farther back), has shown how well it knows. Indeed, the whole
+of Bavaria fairly incorporated and made Austrian, what an infinite
+convenience would it be!
+
+"Do but look on the Map [this Note is not by Busching, but by somebody
+of Austrian tendencies]: you would say, Austria without Bavaria is like
+a Human Figure with its belly belonging to somebody else. Bavaria is the
+trunk or belly of the Austrian Dominions, shutting off all the limbs of
+them each from the other; making for central part a huge chasm.
+
+"Ober-Pfalz,--which used to be Kur-Pfalz's, which is Bavaria's since we
+took it from the Winter-King and bestowed it in that way,--Ober-Pfalz,
+the country of Amberg, where Maillebois once pleased to make invasion of
+us;--does not it adjoin on the Bohemian Forest? The RIBS there, Bohemian
+all, up to the shoulder, are ours: but the shoulder-blade and left
+arm, whose are they! Austria Proper and Hungary, these may be taken as
+sitting-part and lower limbs, ample and fleshy; but see, just above the
+pelvis, on the south side, how Bavaria and its Tyrol sticks itself
+in upon Austria, who fancied she also had a Tyrol, and far the more
+important one. Our Tyrol, our Styria, Carniola, Carinthia,--Bavaria
+blocks these in. Then the Swabian Austria,--Breisach, and those
+Upper-Rhine Countries, from which we invade France,--we cannot reach
+them except through Bavarian ground. Swabian Austria should be our right
+arm, fingers of it reaching into Switzerland; Ober-Pfalz our left:--and
+as to the broad breast between these two; left arm and broad breast
+are Bavaria's, not ours. Of the Netherlands, which might be called
+geographically the head of Austria, alas, the long neck, Lorraine, was
+once ours; but whose is it? Irrecoverable for the present,--perhaps may
+not always be so!"
+
+These are Kaunitz's ideas; and the young Kaiser has eagerly adopted them
+as the loadstar of his life. "Make the Reich a reality again," thinks
+the Kaiser (good, if only possible, think we too); "make Austria great;
+Austria is the Reich, how else can the Reich be real?"
+
+In practical politics these are rather wild ideas; but they are really
+Kaunitz's and his Kaiser's; and were persisted in long after this
+Bavarian matter got its check: and as a whole, they got repeated checks;
+being impossible all, and far from the meaning of a Time big with French
+Revolution, and with quite other things than world-greatness to Austria,
+and rejuvenescence on such or on any terms to the poor old Holy Roman
+Reich, which had been a wiggery so long. Nobody could guess of what it
+was that France or the world might be with child: nobody, till the birth
+in 1789, and even for a generation afterwards. France is weakly and
+unwieldy, has strange enough longings for chalky, inky, visionary,
+foolish substances, and may be in the family-way for aught we know.
+
+To Kaunitz it is pretty clear that France will not stand in his path
+in this fine little Bavarian business; which is all he cares for at
+present. England in war with its Colonies; Russia attentive to its Turk;
+foreign Nations, what can they do but talk; remonstrate more or less, as
+they did in the case of Poland; and permit the thing with protest? Only
+from one Sovereign Person, and from him I should guess not much, does
+Kaunitz expect serious opposition: from Friedrich of Prussia; to whom
+no enlargement of Austria can be matter of indifference. "But cannot we
+perhaps make it worth his while?" thinks Kaunitz: "Tush, he is old and
+broken; thought to be dying; has an absolute horror of war. He too will
+sit quiet; or we must make it worth his while." In this calculation
+Kaunitz deceived himself; we are now shortly to see how.
+
+Kaunitz's Case, when he brings it before the Reich, and general Public
+of mankind and its Gazetteers, will by no means prove to be a strong
+one. His Law "TITLE" is this:--
+
+"Archduke Albert V., of Austria, subsequently Kaiser Albert II., had
+married Elizabeth, only Daughter of Kaiser Sigismund SUPER-GRAMMATICAM:
+Albert is he who got three crowns in one year, Hungary, Bohemia, Romish
+Reich; and 'we hope a fourth,' say the Old Historians, 'which was a
+heavenly and eternal one,'--died, in short (1439, age forty). From him
+come the now Kaisers.
+
+"In 1426, thirteen years before this event of the Crowns, Sigismund
+GRAMMATICAM had infeoffed him in a thing still of shadowy nature,--the
+Expectancy of a Straubingen Princedom; pleasant extensive District,
+only not yet fallen, or like falling vacant: 'You shall inherit, you
+and yours (who are also my own), so soon as this present line of
+Wittelsbachers die!' said Kaiser Sigismund, solemnly, in two solemn
+sheepskins. 'Not a whit of it,' would the Wittelsbachers have answered,
+had they known of the affair. 'When we die out, there is another Line of
+Wittelsbachers, plenty of other lines; and House-treaties many and old,
+settling all that, without help of you and Albert of the Three Crowns!'
+And accordingly there had never come the least fruit, or attempt at
+fruit, from these two Sigismund Sheepskins; which were still lying in
+the Vienna Archives, where they had lain since the creation of them,
+known to an Antiquary or two, but not even by them thought worthy
+of mention in this busy world. This was literally all the claim that
+Austria had; and every by-stander admitted it to be, in itself, not
+worth a rush."
+
+"In itself perhaps not," thought Kaunitz; "but the free consent of Karl
+Theodor the Heir, will not that be a Title in full? One would hope so;
+in the present state of Europe: France, England, Russia, every Nation
+weltering overhead in its own troubles and affairs, little at leisure
+for ours!" And it is with Karl Theodor, to make out a full Title for
+himself there, that Kaunitz has been secretly busy this long time back,
+especially in the late critical days of poor Kurfurst Max.
+
+Karl Theodor of the Pfalz, now fallen Heir to Baiern, is a poor idle
+creature, of purely egoistic, ornamental, dilettante nature; sunk in
+theatricals, bastard children and the like; much praised by Voltaire,
+who sometimes used to visit him; and by Collini, to whom he is a kind
+master. Karl Theodor cares little for the integrity of Baiern, much
+for that of his own skin. Very long ago, in 1742, in poor Kaiser Karl's
+Coronation time, we saw him wedded, him and another, to two fair Sister
+Sulzbach Princesses, [Supra, viii. 119.] Grand-daughters of old Karl
+Philip, the then Kur-Pfalz, whom he has inherited. It was the last act
+of that never-resting old Karl Philip, of whom we used to hear so
+much: "Karl Theodor to have one of my inestimable Grand-daughters; Duke
+Clement, younger Brother of our blessed new Kaiser, to have another;
+thereby we unite the kindred branches of the Pfalz-Baiern Families, and
+make the assurance of the Heritages doubly sure!" said old Karl Philip;
+and died happy, or the happiest he could.
+
+Readers no doubt have forgotten this circumstance; and, in their total
+lack of interest in Karl Theodor and his paltry affairs, may as well
+be reminded of it;--and furthermore, that these brilliant young Wives,
+"Duchess Clement" especially, called on Wilhelmina during the Frankfurt
+Gayeties, and were a charm to Kaiser Karl Albert, striving to look
+forward across clouds into a glittering future for his House. Theodor's
+Princess brought him no children; she and her Sister are both still
+living; a lone woman the latter (Duke Clement dead these seven
+years),--a still more lone the former, with such a Husband yet living!
+Lone women both, well forward in the fifties; active souls, I should
+guess, at least to judge by Duchess Clement, who being a Dowager, and
+mistress of her movements, is emphatic in denouncing such disaster and
+disgrace; and plays a great part, at Munchen, in the agitating
+scenes now on hand. Comes out "like a noble Amazon," say the admiring
+by-standers, on this occasion; stirs whatever faculty she has,
+especially her tongue; and goes on urging, pushing and contriving all
+she can, regardless of risks in such an imminency.
+
+Karl Theodor finds his Heritages indisputable; but he has no Legitimate
+Son to leave them to; and has many Illegitimate, whom Austria can
+provide for,--and richly will. His Heir is a Nephew, Karl August
+Christian, of Zweibruck; whom perhaps it would not be painful to him
+to disappoint a little of his high expectations. On the whole, Peace;
+plentiful provision, titular and other, for his Illegitimates; and
+a comfortable sum of ready money over, to enliven the Theatricals,
+Dusseldorf Picture-Galleries and Dilettante operations and
+Collections,--how much welcomer to Theodor than a Baiern never so
+religiously saved entire at the expense of quarrel, which cannot but be
+tedious, troublesome and dangerous! Honor, indeed--but what, to an old
+stager in the dilettante line, is honor? Old stagers there are who will
+own to you, like Balzac's Englishman in a case of conflagration, when
+honor called on all men to take their buckets, "MAIS JE N'AI POINT
+D'HONNEUR!" To whom, unluckily, you cannot answer as in that case,
+"C'EST EGAL, 'T is all one; do as if you had some!" Karl Theodor
+scandalously left Baiern to its fate.
+
+Karl Theodor's Heir, poor August Christian of Zweibruck, had of course
+his own gloomy thoughts on this parcelling of his Bavarian reversion:
+but what power has he? None, he thinks, but to take the inevitable
+patiently. Nor generally in the Princes of the Reich, though one would
+have thought them personally concerned, were it only for danger of a
+like mistreatment, was there any emotion publicly expressed, or the
+least hope of help. "Perhaps Prussia will quarrel about it?" think they:
+"Austria, Prussia, in any of their quarrels we get only crushed; better
+to keep out of it. We well out of it, the more they quarrel and fight,
+the better for us!" England, in the shape of Hanover, would perhaps have
+made some effort to interfere, provided France did: on either side, I
+incline to think,--that is to say, on the side opposite to France. But
+poor England is engaged with its melancholy American War; France on the
+point of breaking out into Alliance with the Insurrection there. Neither
+France nor England did interfere. France is sinking into bankruptcy;
+intent to have a Navy before most things; to assist the Cause of Human
+Liberty over seas withal, and become a sublime spectacle, and a ruin to
+England,--not as in the Pitt-Choiseul time, but by that improved method.
+Russia, again involved in Turk business, looks on, with now and then
+a big word thrown out on the one side and the other.--Munchen, in the
+interval, we can fancy what an agitated City! One Note says:--
+
+"Kurfurst Max Joseph being dead (30th December, 1777), Privy Councillor
+Johann Euchar von Obermayr, favorite and factotum Minister of the
+Deceased, opened the Chatoulle [Princely Safe, or Case of Preciosities];
+took from it the Act, which already lay prepared, for Homaging and
+solemn Instalment of Karl Theodor Kur-Pfalz, as heir of Baiern; with
+immediate intent to execute the same. Euchar orders strict closure
+of the Town-gates; the Soldiery to draw out, and beset all
+streets,--especially that street where Imperial Majesty's Ambassador
+lives: 'Rank close with your backs to that House,' orders Euchar; 'and
+the instant anybody stirs to come out, sound your drums, and, at the
+same instant, let the rearmost rank of you, without looking round [for
+one would not give offence, unless imperative] smite the butts of their
+muskets to the ground' (ready for firing, IF imperative). Nobody, I
+think, stirred out from that Austrian Excellency's House; in any case,
+Obermayr completed his Act without the least protest or trouble from
+anybody; and Karl Theodor, almost to his terror [for he meant to sell,
+and satisfy Austria, by no means to resist or fight, the paltry old
+creature, careful of self and skin only], saw himself solemnly secured
+by all forms of law in all the Lands of the Deceased. [Fischer,
+_Geschichte Friedrichs des Zweiten_ (Halle, 1787), ii. 358.]
+
+"Kaiser Joseph, in a fume at this, shot off an express to Bohemia: 'Such
+and such regiments, ten or twelve of you, with your artillery and tools,
+march instantly into Straubingen, and occupy that Town and District.'
+At Vienna, to the Karl-Theodor Ambassador, the Kaunitz Officials were
+altogether loud-voiced, minatory: 'What is this, Herr Excellenz? Bargain
+already made; lying ready for mere signature; and at Munchen such
+doings. Sign this Bargain, or there cross your frontier 60,000 Austrian
+men, and seize both Baiern and the Ober-Pfalz; bethink you, Herr!' The
+poor Herr bethought him, what could he do? signed the Bargain, Karl
+Theodor sanctioning, 3d January, 1778,--the fourth day after Obermayr's
+Homaging feat;--and completes the first act of this bad business. The
+Bargain, on Theodor's side, was of the most liberal kind: All and
+sundry the Lands and Circles of Duke Johann of Straubingen, Lordship
+of Mindelheim [Marlborough's old Place] superadded, and I know not what
+else; Sovereignty of the Fiefs in Ober-Pfalz to lapse to the Crown of
+Bohmen on my decease." Half Bavaria, or better; some reckon it as good
+as two-thirds.
+
+The figure of Duchess Clement, Amazon in hair-powder, driviug
+incessantly about among the officialities and aristocratic circles;
+this and the order of "Rattle your muskets on the ground;" let these
+two features represent to us the Munchen of those months. Munchen,
+Regensburg, Vienna are loud with pleading, protocolling; but it is not
+there that the crisis of the game will be found to lie.
+
+Friedrich has, for some time back, especially since the late
+Kur-Baiern's illness, understood that Austria, always eager for a clutch
+at Baiern, had something of that kind in view; but his first positive
+news of it was a Letter from Duchess Clement (date, JANUARY 3d), which,
+by the detail of facts, unveiled to his quick eye the true outline,
+extent and nature of this Enterprise of Austria's; Enterprise which, he
+could not but agree with Duchess Clement, was one of great concernment
+not to Baiern alone. "Must be withstood; prevented, at whatever risk,"
+thought Friedrich on the instant: "The new Elector, Karl Theodor, he
+probably is dead to the matter; but one ought to ask him. If he answer,
+Dead; then ask his Heir, Have you no life to it?" Heir is a gallant
+enough young gentleman, of endless pedigree, but small possessions,
+"Karl August Christian [Karl II. in Official style], Duke of
+Zweibruck-Birkenfeld," Karl Theodor's eldest Nephew; Friedrich judges
+that he probably will have haggled to sign any Austrian convention for
+dismembering Baiern, and that he will start into life upon it so soon as
+he sees hope.
+
+"A messenger to him, to Karl Theodor and him," thinks Friedrich: "a
+messenger instantly; and who?" For that clearly is the first thing. And
+a delicate thing it is; requiring to be done in profoundest secrecy,
+by hint and innuendo rather than speech; by somebody in a cloak of
+darkness, who is of adroit quality, and was never heard of in diplomatic
+circles before, not to be suspected of having business of mine on hand.
+Friedrich bethinks him that in a late visit to Weimar, he had noticed,
+for his fine qualities, a young gentleman named Gortz; Eustace von
+Gortz, [Preuss, iv. 92 n. &c.] late Tutor to the young Duke (Karl
+August, whom readers know as Goethe's friend): a wise, firm,
+adroit-looking young gentleman; who was farther interesting as Brother
+to Lieutenant-General von Gortz, a respectable soldier of Friedrich's.
+Ex-Tutor at Weimar, we say, and idle for the moment; hanging about Court
+there, till he should find a new function.
+
+Of this Ex-Tutor Friedrich bethinks him; and in the course of that
+same day,--for there is no delay,--Friedrich, who is at Berlin, beckons
+General Gortz to come over to him from Potsdam instantly. "Hither this
+evening; and in all privacy meet me in the Palace at such an hour"
+(hour of midnight or thereby); which of course Gortz, duly invisible
+to mankind, does. Friedrich explains: An errand to Munchen; perfectly
+secret, for the moment, and requiring great delicacy and address;
+perhaps not without risk, a timorous man might say: will your Brother
+go for me, think you? Gortz thinks he will. "Here is his Instruction, if
+so," adds the King, handing him an Autograph of the necessary outline
+of procedure,--not signed, nor with any credential, or even specific
+address, lest accident happen. "Adieu then, Herr General-Lieutenant;
+rule is, shoes of swiftness, cloak of darkness: adieu!" And Gortz Senior
+is off on the instant, careering towards Weimar, where he finds Gortz
+Junior, and makes known his errand. Gortz Junior stares in the natural
+astonishment; but, after some intense brief deliberation, becomes
+affirmative, and in a minimum of time is ready and on the road.
+
+Gortz Junior proved to have been an excellent choice on the King's part;
+and came to good promotion afterwards by his conduct in this affair.
+Gortz Junior started for Munchen on the instant, masked utterly, or
+his business masked, from profane eyes; saw this person, saw that, and
+glided swiftly about, swiftly and with sure aim; and speedily kindled
+the matter, and had smoke rising in various points. And before January
+was out, saw the Reichs-Diet at Regensburg, much more the general
+Gazetteerage everywhere, seized of this affair, and thrown into
+paroxysms at the size and complexion of it: saw, in fact, a world
+getting into flame,--kindled by whom or what nobody could guess, for
+a long time to come. Gortz had great running about in his cloak of
+darkness, and showed abundant talent of the kind needed. A pushing,
+clear-eyed, stout-hearted man; much cleverness and sureness in what
+he did and forbore to do. His adventures were manifold; he had much
+travelling about: was at Regensburg, at Mannheim; saw many persons
+whom he had to judge of on the instant, and speak frankly to, or speak
+darkly, or speak nothing; and he made no mistake. One of his best
+counsellors, I gather, was Duchess Clement: of course it was not long
+till Duchess Clement heard some inkling of him; till, in some of his
+goings and comings, he saw Duchess Clement, who hailed him as an angel
+of light. In one journey more mysterious than ever, "he was three
+days invisible in Duchess Clement's Garden-house." "AH, MADAME, QUE
+N'ETIEZ-VOUS ELECTEUR, Why were not you Elector!" writes Friedrich to
+her once: "We should not have seen those shameful events, which every
+good German must blush for, to the bottom of his heart (DONT TOUT BON
+ALLEMAND DOIT ROUGIR JUSQU'AU FOND DU COEUR)!" [Preuss, iv. 94.]
+
+We cannot afford the least narrative of Gortz and his courses:
+imagination, from a few traits, will sufficiently conceive them. He had
+gone first to Karl Theodor's Minister: "Dead to it, I fear; has already
+signed?" Alas, yes. Upon which to Zweibruck the Heir's Minister; whom
+his Master had distinctly ordered to sign, but who, at his own peril,
+gallant man, delayed, remonstrated, had not yet done it; and was able
+to answer: "Alive to it, he? Yes, with a witness, were there hope in
+the world!"--which threw Gortz upon instant gallop towards Zweibruck
+Schloss, in search of said Heir, the young Duke August Christian; who,
+however, had left in the interim (summoned by his Uncle, on Austrian
+urgency, to consent along with him); but whom Gortz, by dexterity and
+intuition of symptoms, caught up by the road, with what a mutual joy!
+As had been expected, August Christian, on sight of Gortz, with an armed
+Friedrich looming in the distance, took at once into new courses and
+activities. From him, no consent now; far other: Treaty with Friedrich;
+flat refusal ever to consent: application to the Reich, application even
+to France, and whatever a gallant young fellow could do.
+
+It was by Friedrich's order that he applied to France; his younger
+Brother, Max Joseph, was a soldier there, and strove to back him in
+Official and other circles,--who were all friendly, even zealous for
+him; and gave good words, but had nothing more. This French department
+of the business was long a delay to Friedrich's operations: and in
+result, poor Max's industry there, do what he could, proved rather a
+minus quantity than otherwise. A good young man, they say; but not
+the man to kindle into action horses that are dead,--of which he had
+experience more than once in time coming. He is the same that, 30 years
+after, having survived his childless elder Brother, became King Max,
+first King of Baiern; begot Ludwig, second King,--who, for his part,
+has begotten Otho King of Greece, and done other feats still less
+worth mentioning. August Christian's behavior is praised as
+excellent,--passively firm and polite; the grand requisite, persistence
+on your ground of "No:"--but his luck, to find such a Friedrich, and
+also to find such a Gortz, was the saving clause for him.
+
+Friedrich was in very weak health in these months; still considered by
+the Gazetteers to be dying. But it appears he is not yet too weak for
+taking, on the instant necessary, a world-important resolution; and
+of being on the road with it, to this issue or to that, at full speed
+before the day closed. "Desist, good neighbor, I beseech you. You must
+desist, and even you shall:" this resolution was entirely his own; as
+were the equally prompt arrangements he contrived for executing it,
+should hard come to hard, and Austria prefer war to doing justice.
+"Excellent methods," say the most unfriendly judges, "which must at
+once have throttled Austria into compliance, had he been as prompt in
+executing them;--which he by no means was. And there lies his error
+and failure; very lamentable, excusable only by decrepitude of body
+producing weakness and decay of mind." This is emphatically and
+wearisomely Schmettau's opinion, [F. W. C. Graf van Schmettau (this is
+the ELDER Schmettau's Son, not the DRESDENER'S whom we used to quote),
+FELDZUG DER PREUSSISCHEN ARMEE IN BOHMEN IM JAHRE 1778 (Berlin,
+1789,--simultaneously in French too, with Plans): with which--as the
+completest Account by an eager Witness and Participator--compare
+always Friedrich's own (MEMOIRES DE LA GUERRE DE 1778), in _OEuvres
+de Frederic,_ vi. 135-208. Schoning (vol. iv.), besides his own loose
+Narrative, or Summary, has given all the CORRESPONDENCE between Henri
+and the King:--sufficient to quench the sharpest appetite on this
+subject.] who looks at it only as a military Adjutant, intent on honor
+and rapid feats of war,--with how much reason, readers not Prussian or
+military shall judge as we go on.
+
+Saxony, we ought to mention, was also aggrieved. The Dowager-Electress
+Maria Antoinette, our sprightly friend, had, as sole surviving Sister
+of the late Kurfurst Max, the undoubted heirship of Kurfurst Max's
+"allodial properties and territories:" territories, I think, mainly in
+the Ober-Pfalz (which are NOT Bavaria Proper, but were acquired in the
+Thirty-Years War), which are important in value, and which Austria,
+regardless of our lively friend, has laid hold of as lapsed fiefs of
+Bohemia. Clearly Bohemian, says Austria; and keeps hold. Our lively
+friend hereupon makes over all her rights in that matter to her Son,
+the reigning Elector; with the counsel, if counsel were needed,
+"Ask protection of King Friedrich; go wholly with King Friedrich."
+Mecklenburg too has an interest. Among the lapsed fiefs is one to a
+Duchy called of Leuchtenberg;--in regard to which, says Mecklenburg,
+as loud as it can, "That Duchy is not lapsed at all; that is now mine,
+witness this Document" (of a valid testamentary nature)! Other claims
+were put in; but these three: Zweibruck endlessly important; Saxony
+important too, though not in such degree; Mecklenburg unimportant, but
+just,--were alone recognized in impartial quarters as authentic and
+worthy of notice.
+
+Of the pleadings and procedures in the Reichs Diet no reader would
+permit me to speak, were I inclined. Enough to understand that they
+went on in the usual voluminous dull-droning way, crescendo always; and
+deserve, what at present they are sure of, oblivion from all creatures.
+The important thing was, not those pleadings in the Reichs Diet, nor the
+Austrian proposals there or elsewhere; but the brandishing of arms in
+emitting and also in successively answering the same. Answer always No
+by Friedrich, and some new flash of handled arms,--the physiognomy of
+which was the one significant point, Austria, which is far from ready
+with arms, though at each fresh pleading or proposal it tries to give
+a kind of brandish, says mainly three things, in essence somewhat thus.
+AUSTRIA: "Cannot two States of the Reich come to a mutual understanding,
+as Austria and Bavaria have done? And what have third parties to say
+to it?" FRIEDRICH: "Much! Parties of the Reich have much to say to it!"
+(This several times with variations.) AUSTRIA: "Our rights seem to us
+valid: Zweibruck, Saxony, Mecklenburg, if aggrieved, can try in the
+Reichs Law-Courts." FRIEDRICH: "Law-Courts!" with a new brandish; that
+is, sets more regiments on march, from Pommern to Wesel all on march, to
+Berlin, to Silesia, towards the Bohemian Frontier. AUSTRIA, by the voice
+of Kaunitz: "We will not give up our rights without sentence of Law.
+We cannot recognize the King of Prussia as Law-Judge in this matter."
+FRIEDRICH: "The King of Prussia is of the Jury!"
+
+Pulse after pulse, this is something like the course things had,
+crescendo till, in about three months, they got to a height which
+was evidently serious. Nay, in the course of the pleadings it became
+manifest that on the Austrian grounds of claim, not Maria Theresa
+could be heir to Straubingen, but Friedrich himself: "I descend from
+Three-Crown Albert's Daughter," said Maria Theresa. "And I from an elder
+Daughter of his, and do not claim!" Friedrich could have answered,
+but did not; treating such claim all along as merely colorable and
+chimerical, not worth attention in serious affairs of fact. Till, at
+length, after about three months, there comes a really serious brandish.
+
+SUNDAY, APRIL 5th, 1778, at Berlin, Friedrich holds review of his Army,
+all assembled, equipped and in readiness; and (in that upper Parole-Room
+of the Schloss) makes this Speech, which, not without extraneous
+intention, was printed in the Newspapers:--
+
+FRIEDRICH'S SPEECH TO HIS GENERALS. "Gentlemen, I have assembled you
+here for a public object. Most of you, like myself, have often been in
+arms along with one another, and are grown gray in the service of our
+Country: to all of us is well known in what dangers, toils and renown we
+have been fellow-sharers. I doubt not in the least that all of you, as
+myself, have a horror of bloodshed: but the danger which now threatens
+our Countries, not only renders it a duty, but puts us in the
+absolute necessity, to adopt the quickest and most effectual means for
+dissipating at the right time the storm which threatens to break out on
+us.
+
+"I depend with complete confidence on your soldierly and patriotic zeal,
+which is already well and gloriously known to me, and which, while I
+live, I will acknowledge with the heartiest satisfaction. Before all
+things, I recommend to you, and prescribe as your most sacred duty,
+That, in every situation, you exercise humanity on unarmed enemies;
+and be continually attentive that, in this respect too, there be the
+strictest discipline (MANNSZUCHT) kept among those under you.
+
+"To travel with the pomp of a King is not among my wishes: and all of
+you are aware that I have no pleasure in rich field-furniture: but
+my increasing age, and the weakness it brings, render me incapable of
+riding as I did in my youth. I shall, therefore, be obliged to make use
+of a post-chaise in times of marching; and all of you have liberty to
+do the same. But on the day of battle you shall see me on horseback; and
+there, also, I hope my Generals will follow that example."
+
+VOLTAIRE SMOTHERED UNDER ROSES. King's Speech was on Sunday, April 5th,
+Evening of last Monday (March 30th), at the Theatre Francais in
+Paris, poor Voltaire had that world-famous apotheosis of his; and got
+"smothered under roses," as he termed it. He had left Ferney (such the
+urgency of Niece Denis and her unappeasable desire for a sight of Paris
+again) February 5th; arrived in Paris February 10th; ventured out to see
+his poor last Tragedy, not till the sixth night of it, March 30th; was
+beshouted, crowned, raised to the immortal gods by a repentant Paris
+world: "Greatest of men,--You were not a miscreant and malefactor, then:
+on the contrary, you were a spiritual Hercules, a heroic Son of Light;
+Slayer of the Nightmare Monsters, and foul Dragons and Devils that were
+preying on us: to you shall not we now say, Long life, with all our
+throats and all our hearts,"--and so quench you at last! Which they
+managed to do, poor repentant souls. The tottering wayworn Voltaire,
+over-agitated in this way, took to bed; never rose again; and on that
+day two months was dead. [In DUVERNET, and still better in LONGCHAMP ET
+WAGNIERE, ample account of these interesting occurrences.] His light all
+done; to King Friedrich, or to any of us, no flash of radiancy from him
+any more forever.
+
+APRIL 6th, Friedrich gets on march--perhaps about 100,000 strong--for
+Schonwalde, in the Neisse-Schweidnitz neighborhood; and there, in
+the course of the week, has cantoned himself, and sits completing his
+magazines and appliances for actual work of war. This is a considerable
+brandish; and a good deal astonishes Kaunitz and the Vienna people, who
+have not 10,000 at present on those Frontiers, and nothing whatever in
+a state of readiness. "Dangerous really!" Kaunitz admits; and sets new
+regiments on march from Hungary, from the Netherlands, from all ends
+of the Earth where they are. Tempers his own insolent talk, too; but
+strives to persuade himself that it is "Menace merely. He won't; he
+abhors war." Kaunitz had hardly exaggerated Friedrich's abhorrence of
+war; though it turned out there were things which Friedrich abhorred
+still more.
+
+Schonwalde, head-quarter of this alarming Prussian cantonment, is close
+on the new Fortress of Silberberg, a beautiful new impregnability,
+looking into those valleys of the Warta, of the young Neisse, which
+are the road to Bohemia or from it,--where the Pandour torrents used to
+issue into the first Silesian Wars; where Friedrich himself was once
+to have been snapped up, but was not quite,--and only sang Mass as
+Extempore Abbot, with Tobias Stusche, in the Monastery of Camenz,
+according to the myth which readers may remember. No more can Pandours
+issue that way; only Prussians can enter in. Friedrich's windows in the
+Schloss of Schonwalde,--which are on the left hand, if you be touring in
+those parts,--look out, direct upon Silberberg, and have its battlements
+between them and the 3-o'clock Sun. [Schoning, iv. (Introductory
+Part).] In the Town of Silberberg, Friedrich has withal a modest little
+lodging,--lodging still known,--where he can alight for an hour or
+a night, in the multifarious businesses that lead him to and fro. "A
+beautiful place," says Schoning; "where the King stayed twelve weeks"
+or more; waiting till the Bavarian-Austrian case should ripen better. At
+Schonwalde, what was important in his private circle, he heard of Lord
+Marischal's death, then of Voltaire's; not to mention that of English
+Pitt, and perhaps others interesting to him. [Voltaire died May 30th;
+Marischal, May 25th; Pitt, May 11th;--and May 4th, in the Cantonment
+here, died General von Rentzel, the same who, as Lieutenant Rentzel,
+sixty years ago, had taught the little Crown-Prince his drill
+(Rodenbeck, iii. 187).]
+
+"Now was the time," cry Schmettau and the unfavorable, "when he might
+have walked across into Eastern Bohemia, into Mahren, whither you like;
+to Vienna itself, and taken Austria by the throat at discretion: 'Do
+justice, then, will you! Let go Bavaria, or--!' In his young years,
+would not he have done so? His Plan, long since laid down, was grand:
+To march into Mahren, leaving Silesia guarded; nay leaving Bohemia to be
+invaded,--for Prince Henri, and the Saxons, who are a willing handful,
+and will complete Henri likewise to 100,000, were to do that, feat the
+while;--March into Mahren, on to Vienna if he chose; laying all flat.
+Infallible," say the Schmettau people. "He had the fire of head to
+contrive it all; but worn down and grown old, he could not execute his
+great thoughts." Which is obviously absurd, Friedrich's object not being
+to lay Austria flat, or drive animosities to the sanguinary point, and
+kindle all Europe into war; but merely to extract, with the minimum of
+violence, something like justice from Austria on this Bavarian matter.
+For which end, he may justly consider slow pressure preferable to
+the cutting method. His problem is most ticklish, not allowed for by
+Schmettau.
+
+The encampment round Schonwalde, especially as there was nothing ready
+thereabouts on the Austrian side, produced a visible and great effect
+on the negotiations; and notably altered the high Kaunitz tone towards
+Friedrich. "Must two great Courts quarrel, then, for the sake of a small
+one?" murmured Kaunitz, plaintively now, to himself and to the King,--to
+the King not in a very distinct manner, though to himself the principle
+is long since clear as an axiom in Politics: "Great Courts should
+understand one another; then the small would be less troublesome." For
+a quarter of a century this has been the Kaunitz faith. In 1753, when he
+miraculously screwed round the French into union with the Austrians to
+put down an upstart Prussia, this was his grand fulcrum, the immovable
+rock in which the great Engineer fixed down his political capstans, and
+levered and screwed. He did triumphantly wind matters round,--though
+whether they much profited him when round, may be a question.
+
+But the same grand principle, in the later instance of partitioning
+Poland, has it not proved eminently triumphant, successful in all
+points? And, doubtless, this King of Prussia recognizes it, if made
+worth his while, thinks Kaunitz. In a word, Kaunitz's next utterance is
+wonderfully changed. The great Engineer speaks almost like a Bishop on
+this new text. "Let the Two Courts," says he, "put themselves each in
+the other's place; each think what it would want;" and in fact each, in
+a Christian manner, try to do as it would be done by! How touching in
+the mouth of a Kaunitz, with something of pathos, of plaintiveness,
+almost of unction in it! "There is no other method of agreeing," urges
+he: "War is a terrible method, disliked by both of us. Austria wishes
+this of Bavaria; but his Prussian Majesty's turn will come, perhaps now
+is (let him say and determine); we will make it worth his while." This
+is of APRIL 24th; notable change since the cantoning round Schonwalde.
+
+Germany at large, though it lay so silent, in its bedrid condition, was
+in great anxiety. Never had the Holy Romish Reich such a shock before:
+"Meaning to partition us like Poland?" thought the Reich, with a
+shudder. "They can, by degrees, if they think good; these Two Great
+Sovereigns!" Courage, your Durchlauchts: one of the Two great ones has
+not that in his thoughts; has, and will have, the reverse of that; which
+will be your anchorages in the storms of fate for a long time to come!
+Nor was it--as will shortly appear to readers--Kaunitz's immediate
+intention at all: enough if poor we can begin it, set it fairly under
+way; let some unborn happier Kaunitz, the last of a series, complete
+such blessed consummation; in a happier time, far over the practical
+horizon at present. This we do gather to have been Kaunitz's real view;
+and it throws a light on the vexed Partition-of-Poland question, and
+gives weight to Dohm's assertion, That Kaunitz was the actual beginner
+there.
+
+Weeks before Friedrich heard of this remarkable Memorial, and ten
+days before it was brought to paper, there came to Friedrich another
+unexpected remarkable Document: a LETTER from Kaiser Joseph himself, who
+is personally running about in these parts, over in Bohemia, endeavoring
+to bring Army matters to a footing; and is no doubt shocked to find
+them still in such backwardness, with a Friedrich at hand. The Kaiser's
+Letter, we perceive, is pilot-balloon to the Kaunitz episcopal Document,
+and to an actual meeting of Prussian and Austrian Ministers on the
+Bavarian point; and had been seen to be a salutary measure by an Austria
+in alarm. It asks, as the Kaunitz Memorial will, though in another
+style, "Must there be war, then? Is there no possibility left in
+negotiation and mutual concession? I am your Majesty's friend and
+admirer; let us try." This was an unexpected and doubtless a welcome
+thing to Friedrich; who answers eagerly, and in a noble style both of
+courtesy and of business sense: upon which there followed two other
+Imperial Letters with their two Royal answers; [In _OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ (vi. 183-193), Three successive Letters from the Kaiser (of
+dates, "Olmutz," "Litau," "Konigsgratz," 13th-19th April, 1778),
+with King's Answers ("Schonwalde," all of them, and 14th-20th
+April),--totally without interest to the general reader.] and directly
+afterwards the small Austrian-Prussian Congress we spoke of, Finkenstein
+and Hertzberg on the Prussian part, Cobenzl on the Austrian (Congress
+sitting at Berlin), which tried to agree, but could not; and to which
+Kaunitz's Memorial of April 24th was meant as some helpful sprinkling of
+presidential quasi-episcopal oil.
+
+Oil merely: for it turned out, Kaunitz had no thought at present of
+partitioning the German Reich with Friedrich; but intended merely to
+keep his own seized portion of Baiern, and in return for Friedrich's
+assent intended to recompense Friedrich with--in fact, with Austria's
+consent, That if Anspach and Baireuth lapsed home to Prussia (as it
+was possible they might, the present Margraf, Friedrich's Nephew, the
+Lady-Craven Margraf, having a childless Wife), Prussia should freely
+open the door to them! A thing which Friedrich naturally maintained
+to be in need of nobody's consent, and to lie totally apart from this
+question; but which Austria always considered a very generous thing,
+and always returned to, with new touches of improvement, as their
+grand recipe in this matter. So that, unhappily, the Hertzberg-Cobenzl
+treatyings, Kaiser's Letters and Kaunitz's episcopal oil, were without
+effect,--except to gain for the Austrians, who infinitely needed it,
+delay of above two months. The Letters are without general interest:
+but, for Friedrich's sake, perhaps readers will consent to a specimen?
+Here are parts of his First Letter: people meaning to be Kings (which
+I doubt none of my readers are) could not do better than read it, and
+again read it, and acquire that style, first of knowing thoroughly the
+object in hand, and then of speaking on it and of being silent on it, in
+a true and noble manner:--
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TO HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY (at Olmutz).
+
+"SCHONWALDE, 14th April, 1778.
+
+"SIRE MY BROTHER,--I have received, with all the satisfaction possible,
+the Letter which your Imperial Majesty has had the goodness to write to
+me. I have neither Minister nor Clerk (SCRIBE) about me; therefore your
+Imperial Majesty will be pleased to put up with such Answer as an Old
+Soldier can give, who writes to you with probity and frankness, on one
+of the most important subjects which have risen in Politics for a long
+time.
+
+"Nobody wishes more than I to maintain peace and harmony between the
+Powers of Europe: but there are limits to everything; and cases so
+intricate (EPINEUX) arise that goodwill alone will not suffice to
+maintain things in repose and tranquillity. Permit me, Sire, to state
+distinctly what the question seems to me to be. It is to determine if
+an Emperor can dispose at his will of the Fiefs of the Empire. Answer in
+the affirmative, and, all these Fiefs become TIMARS [in the Turk way],
+which are for life only; and which the Sultan disposes of again, on the
+possessor's death. Now, this is contrary to the Laws, to the Customs and
+Constitutions of the German Empire."--"I, as member of the Empire, and
+as having, by the Treaty of Hubertsburg, re-sanctioned the Peace of
+Westphalia, find myself formally engaged to support the immunities, the
+liberties and rights of the Germanic Body.
+
+"This, Sire, is the veritable state of things. Personal interest I have
+none: but I am persuaded your Majesty's self would regard me as a paltry
+man, unworthy of your esteem, should I basely sacrifice the rights,
+immunities and privileges, which the Electors and I have received from
+our Ancestors.
+
+"I continue to speak to your Majesty with the same frankness. I love and
+honor your person. It will certainly be hard for me to fight against a
+Prince gifted with excellent qualities, and whom I personally esteem.
+But"--And is there no remedy? Anspach and Baireuth stand in no need
+of sanction. I consent to the Congress proposed:--being with the &c.
+&c.--F. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ vi. 187.]
+
+The sittings of this little Congress at Berlin lasted all through
+May and June; to the disgust of Schmettau and the ardent Prussian
+mess-rooms, "lying ready here, and forbidden to act." For the Austrians
+all the while were at their busiest, improving the moments, marching
+continually hitherward from Hungary, from Limburg, from all ends of the
+earth. Both negotiating parties had shown a manifest wish to terminate
+without war; and both made various attempts or proposals that way;
+Friedrich offering, in the name of European peace, to yield the
+Austrians some small rim or paring of Bavaria from the edge
+adjoining them; the Austrians offering Anspach-Baireuth with some
+improvements;--always offering Friedrich his own Baireuth-Anspach with
+some new sauce (as that he might exchange those Territories with Saxony
+for a fine equivalent in the Lausitz, contiguous to him, which was a
+real improvement and increase):--but as neither party would in the least
+give up in essentials, or quit the ground it had taken, the result was
+nothing. Week after week; so many weeks are being lost to Friedrich;
+gained to Austria: Schmettau getting more and more disgusted.
+
+Friedrich still waited; not in all points quite ready yet, he said, nor
+the futile diplomacies quite complete;--evidently in the highest degree
+unwilling to come to the cutting point, and begin a War which nobody
+could see the end of. Many things he tried; Peace so precious to him,
+try and again try. All through June too, this went on; the result always
+zero,--obviously certain to be so. As even Friedrich had at last to own
+to himself; and likewise that the Campaign season was ebbing away; and
+that if his grand Moravian scheme was to be tried on Austria, there was
+not now a moment to lose.
+
+Friedrich's ultimate proposal, new modification of what all his
+proposals had been, "To you some thin rim of Baiern; to Saxony and
+Mecklenburg some ETCETERA of indemnity, money chiefly (money always to
+be paid by Karl Theodor, who has left Baiern open to the spoiler in this
+scandalous manner)," was of June 13th; Austrians for ten days meditating
+on it, and especially getting forward their Army matters, answer, June
+24th "No we won't." Upon which Friedrich--to the joy of Schmettau and
+every Prussian--actually rises. Emits his War-Manifesto (JULY 3d):
+"Declaration to our Brethren (MITSTANDE) of the Reich," that
+Austria will listen to nothing but War; [Fischer, ii 388; Dohm,
+_Denkwurdigkeiten,_ i. 110; _OEuvres de Frederic,_ vi. 145.] and, on and
+from that day, goes flowing forward in perfect columns and arrangements,
+100,000 strong; through the picturesque Glatz Country, straight towards
+the Bohemian Border, hour by hour. Flows over the Bohemian Border by
+Nachod Town; his vanguard bursting into field-music and flourishes of
+trumpeting at that grand moment (July 5th); flowed bodily over; and
+encamped that night on Bohemian ground, with Nachod to rear; thence
+towards Kwalkowitz, and on the second day to Jaromirtz ("Camp of
+Jaromirtz"), a little Town which we have heard of before, but which
+became more famous than ever during the next ten weeks.
+
+Jaromirtz, Kwalkowitz, Konigsgratz: this is the old hill-and-dale
+labyrinth of an Upper-Elbe Country; only too well known to his Majesty
+and us, for almost forty years past: here again are the Austrians
+waiting the King; watching diligently this new Invasion of his out of
+Glatz and the East! In the same days, Prince Henri, who is also near
+100,000, starts from Dresden to invade them from the West. Loudon,
+facing westward, is in watch of Henri; Lacy, or indeed the Kaiser
+himself, back-to-back of Loudon, stands in this Konigsgratz-Jaromirtz
+part; said to be embattled in a very elaborate manner, to a length of
+fifty miles on this fine ground, and in number somewhat superior to the
+King;--the Austrians in all counting about 250,000; of whom Lacy has
+considerably the larger share. The terror at Vienna, nevertheless, is
+very great: "A day of terror," says one who was there; "I will not trust
+myself to describe the sensation which this news, 'Friedrich in Bohemia
+again!' produced among all ranks of people." [Cogniazzo, iv. 316, 320,
+321; Preuss, iv. 101, &c.] Maria Theresa, with her fine motherly heart,
+in alarm for her Country, and trembling "for my two Sons [Joseph and
+Leopold] and dear Son-in-Law [of Sachsen-Teschen], who are in the Army,"
+overcomes all scruples of pride; instantly despatches an Autograph to
+the King ("Bearer of this, Baron von Thugut, with Full Powers"); and
+on her own strength starts a new Negotiation,--which, as will be seen,
+ended no better than the others. [Her Letters, four in all, with their
+Appendixes, and the King's Answers, in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ vi.
+196-200.]
+
+Schmettau says, "Friedrich, cheated of his Mahren schemes, was still in
+time; the Austrian position being indeed strong, but not being even
+yet quite ready." Friedrich himself, however, on reconnoitring, thought
+differently. A position such as one never saw before, thinks he;
+contrived by Lacy; masterly use of the ground, of the rivers, of the
+rocks, woods, swamps; Elbe and his branches, and the intricate shoulders
+of the Giant Mountains: no man could have done it better than Lacy
+here, who, they say, is the contriver and practical hand. [_OEuvres
+de Frederic,_ vi. 147.] From Konigsgratz, northward, by Konigshof, by
+Arnau, up to Hohenelbe, all heights are crowned, all passes bristling
+with cannon. Rivers Aupa, Elbe beset with redoubts, with dams in
+favorable places, and are become inundations, difficult to tap. There
+are "ditches 8 feet deep by 16 broad." Behind or on the right bank of
+Elbe, it is mere intrenchment for five-and-twenty miles. With bogs, with
+thickets full of Croats; and such an amount of artillery,--I believe
+they have in battery no fewer than 1,500 cannon. A position very
+considerable indeed:--must have taken time to deliberate, delve and
+invest; but it is done. Near fifty miles of it: here, clear to your
+glass, has the head of Lacy visibly emerged on us, as if for survey of
+phenomena:--head of Lacy sure enough (body of him lying invisible in
+the heights, passes and points of vantage); and its NECK of fifty miles,
+like the neck of a war-horse clothed with thunder. On which (thinks
+Schmettau privately) you may, too late, make your reflections!
+
+Schmettau asserts that the position, though strong, was nothing like
+so infinitely strong; and that Friedrich in his younger days would very
+soon have assaulted it, and turned Lacy inside out: but Friedrich, we
+know, had his reasons against hurry. He reconnoitred diligently; rode
+out reconnoitring "fifteen miles the first day" (July 6th), ditto the
+second and following; and was nearly shot by Croats,--by one specific
+Croat, says Prussian Mythology, supported by Engraving. An old
+Engraving, which I have never seen; represents Friedrich reconnoitring
+those five-and-twenty miles of Elbe, which have so many redoubts on
+their side of it, and swarm with Croat parties on both sides: this is
+all the truth that is in the Engraving. [Rodenbeck, p. 188.] Fact says:
+Friedrich ("on the 8th," if that were all the variation) "was a mark for
+the Austrian sharpshooters for half an hour." Myth says, and engraves
+it, with the date of "July 7th:" Friedrich, skirting some thicket,
+suddenly came upon a single Croat with musket levelled at him, wild
+creature's finger just on the trigger;--and quietly admonishing,
+Friedrich lifts his finger with a "DU, DU (Ah you!);" upon which, such
+the divinity that hedges one, the wild creature instantly flings down
+his murder-weapon, and, kneeling, embraces the King's boot,--with
+kisses, for anything I know. It is certain, Friedrich, about six times
+over in this paltry War or Quasi No-War, set his attendants on the
+tremble; was namely, from Croateries and Artilleries, in imminent peril
+of life; so careless was he, and dangerous to speak to in his sour
+humor. Humor very sour, they say, for most part; being in reality
+altogether backward and loath for grand enterprise; and yet striving
+to think he was not; ashamed that any War of his should be a No-War.
+Schmettau says:--
+
+"On the day of getting into Jaromirtz [July 8th], the King, tired of
+riding about while the Columns were slowly getting in, lay down on the
+ground with his Adjutants about him. A young Officer came riding past;
+whom the King beckoned to him;--wrote something with pencil (an Order,
+not of the least importance), and said: 'Here; that Order to General
+Lossow, and tell him he is not to take it ill that I trouble him, as I
+have none in my Suite that can do anything.'" Let the Suite take it
+as they can! A most pungent, severe old King; quite perverse at times,
+thinks Schmettau. Thus again, more than once.:--
+
+"On arriving with his Column where the Officer, a perfectly skilful
+man, had marked out the Camp, the King would lift his spy-glass; gaze
+to right and left, riding round the place at perhaps a hundred yards'
+distance; and begin: 'SIEHT ER, HERR, But look, Herr, what a botching
+you have made of it again (WAS ER DA WIEDER FUR DUMM ZEUG GEMACHT HAT)!'
+and grumbling and blaming, would alter the Camp, till it was all out
+of rule; and then say, 'See there, that is the way to mark out Camps.'"
+[Schmettau, xxv. 30, 24.]
+
+In a week's time, July 13th, came another fine excuse for inaction;
+Plenipotentiary Thugut, namely, and the Kaiserinn's Letter, which we
+spoke of. Autograph from Maria Theresa herself, inspired by the terror
+of Vienna and of her beautiful motherly heart. Negotiation to be private
+utterly: "My Son, the Kaiser, knows nothing of it; I beg the most
+absolute secrecy;" which was accordingly kept, while Thugut, with
+Finkenstein and Hertzberg again, held "Congress of Braunau" in those
+neighborhoods,--with as little effect as ever. Thugut's Name, it seems,
+was originally TUNICOTTO (Tyrolese-Italian); which the ignorant Vienna
+people changed into "THU-NICHT-GUT (Do-no-good)," till Maria Theresa, in
+very charity, struck out the negative, and made him "Do-good." Do-good
+and his Congress held Friedrich till August 10th: five more weeks gone;
+and nothing but reconnoitring,--with of course foraging, and diligently
+eating the Country, which is a daily employment, and produces fencing
+and skirmishing enough.
+
+Henri, in the interim, has invaded from the West; seen Leitmeritz,
+Lobositz;--Prag Nobility all running, and I suppose Prayers to St. Titus
+going again,--and Loudon in alarm. Loudon, however, saved Prag "by two
+masterly positions" (not mentionable here); upon which Henri took
+camp at Niemes; Loudon, the weaker in this part, seizing the Iser as a
+bulwark, and ranking himself behind it, back-to-back of Lacy. Here for
+about five weeks sat Henri, nothing on hand but to eat the Country. Over
+the heads of Loudon and Lacy, as the crow flies, Henri's Camp may be
+about 70 miles from Jaromirtz, where the King is. Hussar Belling, our
+old Anti-Swede friend, a brilliant cutting man, broke over the Iser
+once, perhaps twice; and there was pretty fencing by him and the like
+of him: "but Prince Henri did nothing," says the King, [_OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ vi. 154]--was, in fact, helping the King to do nothing.
+By the 10th of September, as Henri has computed, this Country will be
+eaten; "Forage, I find, will be quite done here on September 10th,"
+writes Henri, after a week or two's experience.
+
+There was always talk of Henri and the King, who are 100,000 each,
+joining hands by the post of Arnau, or some weak point of Lacy's
+well north of Konigsgratz; thus of cutting off the meal-carts of that
+back-to-back copartnery, and so of tumbling it off the ground (which
+was perfectly possible, says Schmettau); and small detachments and
+expeditious were pushed out, General Dahlwig, General Anhalt, partly for
+that object: but not the least of it ever took effect. "Futile, lost by
+loitering, as all else was," groans Schmettau. Prince Henri was averse
+to attempt, intimates the King,--as indeed (though refusing to own
+it) was I. "September 10th, my forage will be out, your Majesty," says
+Henri, always a punctual calculating man.
+
+The Austrians, on their side, were equally stagnant; and, except the
+continual skirmishing with the Prussian foragers, undertook nothing.
+"Shamefully ill-clone our foraging, too," exclaims Schmettau again and
+again: "Had we done it with neatness, with regularity, the Country would
+have lasted us twice as long. Doing it headlong, wastefully and by the
+rule-of-thumb, the Country was a desert, all its inhabitants fled, all
+its edibles consumed, before six weeks were over. Friedrich is not now
+himself at all; in great things or in little; what a changed Friedrich!"
+exclaims Schmettau, with wearisome iteration.
+
+From about August 6th, or especially August 10th, when the Maria-Theresa
+Correspondence, or "Congress of Braunau," ended likewise in zero,
+Friedrich became impatient for actual junction with Prince Henri, actual
+push of business; and began to hint of an excellent plan he had: "Burst
+through on their left flank; blow up their post of Hohenelbe yonder:
+thence is but one march to Iser river; junction with Prince Henri
+there; and a Lacy and a Loudon tumbled to the winds." "A plan perfectly
+feasible," says Schmettau; "which solaced the King's humor, but which he
+never really intended to execute." Possibly not; otherwise, according
+to old wont, he would have forborne to speak of it beforehand. At
+all events, August 15th, in the feeling that one ought really to do
+something, the rather as forage hereabouts was almost or altogether
+running out, he actually set about this grand scheme.
+
+Got on march to rightward, namely, up the Aupa river, through the gloomy
+chasms of Kingdom-Wood, memorable in old days: had his bakery shifted
+to Trautenau; his heavy cannon getting tugged through the mire and the
+rains, which by this time were abundant, towards Hohenelbe, for the
+great enterprise: and sat encamped on and about the Battle-ground
+of Sohr for a week or so, waiting till all were forward; eating Sohr
+Country, which was painfully easy to do. The Austrians did next to
+nothing on him; but the rains, the mud and scarcity were doing much.
+Getting on to Hohenelbe region, after a week's wet waiting, he, on
+ocular survey of the ground about, was heard to say, "This cannot be
+done, then!" "Had never meant to do it," sneers Schmettau, "and only
+wanted some excuse." Which is very likely. Schmettau gives an Anecdote
+of him here: In regard to a certain Hill, the Key of the Austrian
+position, which the King was continually reconnoitring, and lamenting
+the enormous height of, "Impossible, so high!" One of the Adjutants took
+his theodolite, ascertained the height, and, by way of comforting his
+Majesty, reported the exact number of feet above their present level.
+"How do YOU know, Herr?" said the King angrily. "Measured it by
+Trigonometry, your Majesty."--"Trigonometry! SCHER' ER SICH ZUM TEUFEL
+(Off with you, Sir, to the Devil, your Trigonometry and you!)"--no
+believer in mathematics, this King.
+
+He was loath to go; and laid the blame on many things. "Were Prince
+Henri now but across the Iser. Had that stupid Anhalt, when he was upon
+it [galloping about, to the ruin of his head], only seized Arnau, Arnau
+and its Elbe-Bridge; and had it in hand for junction with Prince Henri!"
+In fine, just as the last batch of heavy cannon--twenty or thirty
+hungered horses to a gun, at the rate of five miles a day in roads
+unspeakable--were getting in, he ordered them all to be dragged back,
+back to the Trautenau road; whither we must now all go. And, SEPTEMBER
+8th, in perfect order, for the Austrians little molested him, and got a
+bad bargain when they did, the great Friedrich with his whole Army
+got on march homeward, after such a Campaign as we see. Climbed the
+Trautenau-Landshut Pass, with nothing of effective loss except from
+the rainy elements, the steep miry ways and the starved horses;
+draught-horses especially starved,--whom, poor creatures, "you would
+see spring at the ropes [draught-harness], thirty of them to a gun, when
+started and gee-ho'd to; tug violently with no effect, and fall down in
+whole rows."
+
+Prince Henri, forage done, started punctually September 10th, two days
+after his Brother; and with little or no pursuit, from the Austrians,
+and with horses unstarved, got home in comparatively tolerable
+circumstances. Cantoned himself in Dresden neighborhood, and sat
+waiting: he had never approved this War; and now, I suppose, would not
+want for reflections. Friedrich's cantonments were round Landshut,
+and spread out to right and to left, from Glatz Country and the
+Upper-Silesian Hills, to Silberberg and Schweidnitz;--his own quarter
+is the same region, where he lay so long in Summer, 1759, talking on
+learned subjects with the late Quintus Icilius, if readers remember,
+and wearily waiting till Cunctator Daun (likewise now deceased) took
+his stand, or his seat, at Mark Lissa, and the King could follow him
+to Schmottseifen. Friedrich himself on this present occasion stayed at
+Schatzlar as rear-guard, to see whether the Austrians would not perhaps
+try to make some Winter Campaign of it, and if so, whether they would
+attempt on Prince Henri or on him. The Austrians did not attempt on
+either; showed no such intention,--though mischievous enough in
+other small ways. Friedrich wrote the ELOGE of Voltaire [_OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ vii. 50 et seq. ("finished Nov. 26th, 1778").] while he
+waited here at Schatzlar, among the rainy Mountains. Later on, as
+prospects altered, he was much at Breslau, or running about on civic
+errands with Breslau as centre: at Breslau he had many Dialogues with
+Professor Garve,--in whose good, but oppressively solemn, little Book,
+more a dull-droning Preachment than a Narrative, no reader need look for
+them or for him.
+
+As to the EULOGY OF VOLTAIRE, we may say that it is generous, ingenious,
+succinct; and of dialect now obsolete to us. There was (and is,
+though suppressed) another EULOGY, brand-new, by a Contemporary of our
+own,--from which I know not if readers will permit me a sentence or two,
+in this pause among the rainy Mountains?
+
+... "A wonderful talent lay in this man--[in Voltaire, to wit; "such
+an intellect, the sharpest, swiftest of the world," thinks our
+Contemporary; "fathoming you the deepest subject, to a depth far beyond
+most men's soundings, and coming up with victory and something wise
+and logically speakable to say on it, sooner than any other man,--never
+doubting but he has been at the bottom, which is from three to ten miles
+lower!"] wonderful talent; but observe always, if you look closely, it
+was in essence a mere talent for Speech; which talent Bavius and Maevius
+and the Jew Apella may admire without looking behind it, but this
+Eulogist by no means will. Speech, my friend? If your sublime talent
+of speech consists only in making ignorance appear to be knowledge, and
+little wisdom appear to be much, I will thank you to walk on with it,
+and apply at some other shop. The QUANTITY of shops where you can
+apply with thrice-golden advantage, from the Morning Newspapers to
+the National Senate, is tremendous at this epoch of the poor world's
+history;--go, I request you! And while his foot is on the stairs,
+descending from my garret, I think: O unfortunate fellow-creature in an
+unfortunate world, why is not there a Friedrich Wilhelm to 'elect' you,
+as he did Gundling, to his TOBACCO Parliament, and there set Fassmann
+upon you with the pans of burning peat? It were better even for
+yourself; wholesomely didactic to your poor self, I cannot doubt; and
+for the poor multitudes to whom you are now to be sacred VATES, speaking
+and singing YOUR dismal GUNDLINGIANA as if inspired by Heaven, how
+infinitely better!--Courage, courage! I discern, across these hideous
+jargons, the reign of greater silence approaching upon repentant men;
+reign of greater silence, I say; or else that of annihilation, which
+will be the most silent of all....
+
+"Voltaire, if not a great man, is a remarkably peculiar one; and did
+such a work in these Ages as will render him long memorable, more or
+less. He kindled the infinite dry dung-heap of things; set it blazing
+heaven-high;--and we all thought, in the French Revolution time, it
+would burn out rapidly into ashes, and then there would a clear Upper
+Firmament, if over a blackened Earth, be once more vouchsafed us. The
+flame is now done, as I once said; and only the dull dung-heap, smokily
+burning, but not now blazing, remains,--for it was very damp, EXCEPT on
+the surface, and is by nature slow of combustion:--who knows but it may
+have to burn for centuries yet, poisoning by its villanous mal-odors
+the life-atmosphere of all men? Eternal Author of this Universe, whose
+throne is Truth, to whom all the True are Sons, wilt thou not look down
+upon us, then!--Till this sad process is complete? Voltaire is like to
+be very memorable."...
+
+To Friedrich the Winter was in general tranquil; a Friedrich busy
+preparing all things for his grand Mahren Enterprise, and for "real work
+next year." By and by there came to be real Peace-prospects instead.
+Meanwhile, the Austrians do try a little, in the small Pandour way,
+to dislodge him from the Upper-Silesian or Teschen regions, where the
+Erbprinz of Brunswick is in command; a man not to be pricked into gratis
+by Pandours. Erbprinz, accordingly, provoked by their Pandourings, broke
+out at last; and about Zuckmantel instantly scourged them home, and
+had peace after. Foiled here, they next tried upon Glatz; "Get into his
+Glatz Country, then;--a snatch of that will balance the account" (which
+was one of Newspaper glory only): and a certain Wurmser of theirs,
+expert in such things, did burn the Town of Habelschwert one morning;
+["18th January, 1779" (Rodenbeck, iii. 195; Schmettau, &c.).] and tried
+farther, not wisely this time, a surprisal of Glatz Fortress itself; but
+got smitten home by our old friend General Wunsch, without profit there.
+This was the same Wurmser who came to bad issues in the Napoleon time
+afterwards; a rising man then; not a dim Old-Newspaper ghost as now.
+
+Most shameful this burning of Habelschwert by way of mere bravura,
+thinks Friedrich, in a time of actual Treaty for Peace, when our
+Congress of Teschen was just struggling to get together! It was the
+chief stroke done by the Austrians in this War; glorious or shameful, we
+will not think of inquiring. Nor in fact of adding one word more on such
+a War,--except, what everybody longs for, That, NOVEMBER 27th, 1778,
+Czarina Catharine, by her Prince Galitzin at Vienna, intervened in the
+matter, in a lofty way; and ended it. Czarina Catharine,--small thanks
+to her, it seems, for it was Friedrich that by his industries and
+world-diplomacies, French and other, had got her Turks, who had been
+giving trouble again, compesced into peace for her; and indeed, to
+Friedrich or his interests, though bound by Treaty, she had small regard
+in taking this step, but wished merely to appear in German Politics as
+a She-Jove,--Czarina Catharine signified, in high and peremptory though
+polite Diplomatic terms, at Vienna, "Imperial Madam, how long is such a
+War to last? Be at Peace, both of you; or--! I shall, however, mediate,
+if you like, being the hearty friend of both." [Copy of Galitzin's
+"Declaration," in FISCHER, ii. 406-411.]
+
+"Do," answers Maria Theresa, whose finance is quite out, whose motherly
+heart is almost broken, though a young Kaiser still prances violently,
+and kicks against the pricks: "Do, your noble Czarish Majesty; France
+too is interfering: France and you will decide what is just, and we will
+end." "Congress of Teschen" met accordingly, MARCH 10th, 1779: Teschen,
+in Austrian Silesia, where we have been;--Repnin as Russian, Breteuil
+the Frenchman, Cobentzl and Hertzberg as Austrian and Prussian;--and,
+MAY 13th (in two months' time, not in two weeks', as had been expected,
+for there rose unexpected haggles), did close everything, firm as
+Diplomacy could do it, into equitable, or approximately equitable
+finis: "Go home, you Austria; quit your stolen Bavaria (all but a rim or
+paring, Circle of Burghausen, since you must have something!): Saxony,
+Mecklenburg, these must be satisfied to moderate length; and therewith
+general AS-YOU-WERE."
+
+Russia and France were agreed on the case; and Friedrich, bitterly
+longing to have done with it, had said to himself, "In two weeks or so:"
+but it proved far otherwise. Never were such hagglings, provocations and
+unreasonable confusions as now rose. The burning of Habelschwert was but
+a type of them. Haggles on the part of worthless Karl Theodor, kindled
+by Joseph and his Kaunitz, kicking against the pricks. Haggles on
+Saxony's part: "I claimed 7,000,000 pounds sterling, and you allow me
+600,000 pounds." "Better that than nothing," answered Friedrich. Haggles
+with Mecklenburg: "Instead of my Leuchtenberg, I get an improvement in
+my Law-Courts, right of Judging without Appeal; what is that!"
+Haggles with the once grateful Duke of Zweibruck: "Can't part with my
+Burghausen." "Suppose you had had to part with your Bavaria altogether?"
+In short, Friedrich, who had gained nothing for himself, but such
+infinity of outlay in all kinds, never saw such a coil of human follies
+and cupidities before; and had to exhaust his utmost patience, submit
+to new losses of his own, and try all his dexterities in pig-driving:
+overjoyed, at last, to get out of it on any terms. Outlay of Friedrich
+is about Two Millions sterling, and above 10,000 men's lives (his own
+narrowly not included), with censures, criticisms, provocations and
+botherations without end. In return for which, he has, truly, put a
+spoke in Austria's proud wheel for this time, and managed to see fair
+play in the Reich; which had seemed to him, and seems, a considerable
+thing. By way of codicil, Austria agrees not to chicane him in regard to
+Anspach-Baireuth,--how generous of Austria, after this experience!--
+
+In reality, the War was an Imaginary War; deserving on its own score
+little record anywhere; to readers here requiring almost less than it
+has got. Schmettau, Schoning and others have been abundantly minute
+upon it; but even to soldiers there is little either of interest or
+instruction; to us, all it yields is certain Anecdotes of Friedrich's
+temper and ways in that difficult predicament; which, as coming at
+first-hand, gathered for us by punctual authentic Schmettau, who was
+constantly about him, with eyes open and note-book ready, have a kind of
+worth in the Biographic point of view.
+
+The Prussian Soldiery, of whom we see a type in Schmettau, were
+disgusted with this War, and called it, in allusion to the foraging, A
+scramble for potatoes, "DER KARTOFFEL-KRIEG, The Potato War;" which
+is its common designation to this day. The Austrians, in a like humor,
+called it "ZWETSCHKEN-RUMMEL" (say "THREE-BUTTON Loo"); a game not worth
+playing; especially not at such cost. Combined cost counted to have been
+in sum-total 4,350,000 pounds and 20,000 men. [Preuss, iv. 115.]
+"The Prussian Army was full of ardor, never abler for fight" (insists
+Schmettau), which indeed seems to have been the fact on every small
+occasion;--"but fatally forbidden to try." Not so fatally perhaps, had
+Schmettau looked beyond his epaulettes: was not the thing, by that slow
+method, got done? By the swifter method, awakening a new Seven-Years
+business, how infinitely costlier might it have been!
+
+Schmettau's NARRATIVE, deducting the endless lamentings, especially the
+extensive didactic digressions, is very clear, ocular, exact; and, in
+contrast with Friedrich's own, is really amusing to read. A Schmettau
+giving us, in his haggard light and oblique point of vision, the naked
+truth, NAKED and all in a shiver; a Friedrich striving to drape it a
+little, and make it comfortable to himself. Those bits of Anecdotes in
+SCHMETTAU, clear, credible, as if we had seen them, are so many crevices
+through which it is curiously worth while to look.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII.--MILLER ARNOLD'S LAWSUIT.
+
+About the Second Law-Reform, after reading and again reading much dreary
+detail, I can say next to nothing, except that it is dated as beginning
+in 1776, near thirty years after Cocceji's; ["In 1748" Cocceji's was
+completed; "in 1774-1775," on occasion of the Silesian Reviews, Von
+Carmer, Chancellor of Silesia, knowing of the King's impatience at the
+state of Law, presented successively Two MEMORIALS on the subject; the
+Second of which began "4th January, 1776" to have visible fruit.] that
+evidently, by what causes is not stated, but may be readily enough
+conjectured (in the absence of Cocceji by death, and of a Friedrich
+by affairs of War), the abuses of Law had again become more or less
+unendurable to this King; that said abuses did again get some reform
+(again temporary, such the Law of Nature, which bids you sweep
+vigorously your kitchen, though it will next moment recommence the
+gathering of dirt upon it); and that, in fine, after some reluctance in
+the Law circles, and debating PRO and CONTRA, oral some of it, and done
+in the King's presence, who is so intent to be convinced and see his
+practical way in it, [At Potsdam, "4th January, 1776," Debate, by
+solemn appointment, in the King's presence (King very unwell), between
+Silesian-Chancellor von Carmer and Grand-Chancellor von Furst, as to the
+feasibility of Carmer's ideas; old Furst strong in the negative;--King,
+after reflection, determining to go on nevertheless. (Rodenbeck, iii.
+131, 133.)]--there was, as supplement to the mere Project or Theory of
+a CODEX FREDERICIANUS in Cocceji's time, an actual PRUSSIAN CODE set
+about; Von Carmer, the Silesian Chancellor, the chief agent: and a
+First Folio, or a First and partly a Second of it, were brought out in
+Friedrich's lifetime, the remainder following in that of his Successor;
+which Code is ever since the Law of the Prussian Nation to this day.
+[Not finished and promulgated till "5th February, 1794;" First Volume
+(containing PROZESS-ORDNUNG, Form of Procedure, in all its important
+details) had come out "26th April, 1784" (Preuss, iii. 418-422).] Of
+its worth as a Code I have heard favorable opinions, comparatively
+favorable; but can myself say nothing: famed Savigny finds it superior
+in intelligence and law-knowledge to the CODE NAPOLEON,--upon which
+indeed, and upon all Codes possible to poor hag-ridden and wig-ridden
+generations like ours, Savigny feels rather desperate. Unfortunate
+mortals do want to have their bits of lawsuits settled, nevertheless;
+and have, on trial, found even the ignorant CODE NAPOLEON a mighty
+benefit in comparison to none!--
+
+Readers all see how this Second Prussian Law-Reform was a thing
+important to Prussia, of liveliest interest to the then King of Prussia;
+and were my knowledge of it greater than it is, this is all I could
+hope to say of it that would be suitable or profitable at present. Let
+well-disposed readers take it up in their imaginations, as a fact and
+mass of facts, very serious there and then; and color with it in some
+degree those five or six last years of this King's life.
+
+Connected with this Second Law Reform, and indeed partially a source of
+it, or provocation to go on with it, mending your speed, there is one
+little Lawsuit, called the MILLER ARNOLD CASE, which made an immense
+noise in the world, and is still known by rumor to many persons, who
+would probably be thankful, as certainly I myself should, for some
+intelligible word on it. In regard to which, and to which alone, in this
+place, we will permit ourselves a little more detail.
+
+In the sandy moors towards the Silesian border of the Neumark, southwest
+of Zullichau,--where we once were, with Dictator Wedell, fighting the
+Russians in a tragic way,--there is, as was casually then indicated,
+on one of the poor Brooks trickling into Oder, a Mill called KREBSMUHLE
+(Crabmill); Millers of which are a line of dusty Arnolds, laboriously
+for long generations grinding into meal the ryes, pulses, barleys of
+that dim region; who, and whose Crabmill, in the year 1779-1780,
+burst into a notoriety they little dreamt of, and became famous in the
+fashionable circles of this Universe, where an indistinct rumor of them
+lives to this day. We indicated Arnold and his Mill in Wedell's time;
+Wedell's scene being so remote and empty to readers: in fact,
+nobody knows on what paltriest of moors a memorable thing will not
+happen;--here, for instance, is withal the Birthplace of that Rhyming
+miracle, Frau Karsch (Karschin, KarchESS as they call her), the Berlin
+literary Prodigy, to whom Friedrich was not so flush of help as had
+been expected. The child of utterly poor Peasants there; whose poverty,
+shining out as thrift, unweariable industry and stoical valor, is
+beautiful to me, still more their poor little girl's bits of fortunes,
+"tending three cows" in the solitudes there, and gazing wistfully into
+Earth and Heaven with her ingenuous little soul,--desiring mainly
+one thing, that she could get Books, any Book whatever; having
+half-accidentally picked up the art of reading, and finding hereabouts
+absolutely nothing to read. Frau Karsch, I have no doubt, knows the
+Crabmill right well; and can, to all permissible lengths, inform the
+Berlin Circles on this point. [See JORDENS (Karschin), ii. 607-640.] An
+excellent Silesian Nobleman lifted her miraculously from the sloughs of
+misery, landed her from his travelling-carriage in the upper world of
+Berlin, "January, 1761" (age then thirty-nine, husband Karsch a wretched
+drunken Tailor at Glogau, who thereupon enlisted, and happily got
+shot or finished): Berlin's enthusiasm was, and continued to be,
+considerable;--Karschin's head, I fear, proved weakish, though her
+rhyming faculty was great. Friedrich saw her once, October, 1763,
+spoke kindly to her (DIALOGUE reported by herself, with a Chodowiecki
+ENGRAVING to help, in the MUSEN-ALMANACHS ensuing); and gave her a
+10 pounds, but never much more:--"somebody had done me ill with him,"
+thinks the Karschin (not thinking, "Or perhaps nobody but my poor self,
+and my weakness of head"). She continued rhyming and living--certain
+Principalities and High People still standing true--till "12th October,
+1791."
+
+Crabmill is in Pommerzig Township, not far from Kay:--Zullichau, Kay,
+Palzig, Crossen, all come to speech again, in this Narrative; fancy how
+they turned up in Berlin dinner-circles, to Dictator Wedell, gray old
+gentleman, who is now these many years War-Minister, peaceable, and
+well accepted, but remembers the flamy youth he had. Landlord of these
+Arnolds and their Mill is Major Graf von Schmettau (no connection of our
+Schmettaus),--to what insignificantly small amount of rent, I could
+not learn on searching; 10 pounds annually is a too liberal guess.
+Innumerable things, of no pertinency to us, are wearisomely told, and
+ever again told, while the pertinent are often missed out, in that
+dreary cart-load of Arnold Law-Papers, barely readable, barely
+intelligible, to the most patient intellect: with despatch let us fish
+up the small cardinal particles of it, and arrange in some chronological
+or human order, that readers may form to themselves an outline of the
+thing. In 1759, we mentioned that this Mill was going; Miller of it an
+old Arnold, Miller's Lad a young. Here is the subsequent succession of
+occurrences that concern us.
+
+In 1762, Young Arnold, as I dimly gather, had got married, apparently
+a Wife with portion; bought the Mill from his Father, he and Wife
+co-possessors thenceforth;--"Rosine his Spouse" figuring jointly in all
+these Law-Papers; and the Spouse especially as a most shifty litigant.
+There they continue totally silent to mankind for about eight years.
+Happy the Nation, much more may we say the Household, "whose Public
+History is blank." But in the eighth year,
+
+In 1770, Freyherr Baron von Gersdorf in Kay, who lies farther up the
+stream, bethinks him of Fish-husbandry; makes a Fish-pond to himself,
+and for part supply thereof, lays some beam or weir across the poor
+Brook, and deducts a part of Arnold's water.
+
+In 1773, the Arnolds fall into arrear of rent: "Want of water; Fish-pond
+spoils our water," plead they to Major Graf von Schmettau. "Prosecute
+Von Gersdorf, then," says Schmettau: "I must have my rent! You shall
+have time, lengthened terms; but pay THEN, or else-!" For four years
+the Arnolds tried more or less to pay, but never could, or never did
+completely: during which period Major von Schmettau had them up in his
+Court of Pommerzig,--manorial or feudal kind of Court; I think it is
+more or less his, though he does not sit there; and an Advocate, not
+of his appointing, though probably of his accepting, dispenses justice
+there. Schlecker is the Advocate's name; acquitted by all Official
+people of doing anything wrong. No appearance that the Herr Graf von
+Schmettau put hand to the balances of justice in this Court; with his
+eye, however, who knows but he might act on them more or less! And, at
+any rate, be suspected by distressed Arnolds, especially by a distressed
+Frau Arnold, of doing so. The Frau Arnold had a strong suspicion that
+way; and seems to have risen occasionally upon Schlecker, who did once
+order the poor woman to be locked up for contempt of Court: "Only two
+hours!" asseverates Schlecker afterwards; after which she came out cool
+and respectful to Court.
+
+Not the least account survives of those procedures in Schlecker's Court;
+but by accident, after many readings, you light upon a little fact which
+does shed a transient ray over them. Namely, that already in 1775, four
+years before the Case became audible in Official circles, much more in
+general society, Frau Arnold had seized an opportunity, Majesty being
+at Crossen in those neighborhoods, and presented a Petition: "Oh,
+just King, appoint a MILITARY COMMISSION to investigate our business;
+impartial Officers will speedily find out the facts, and decide what
+is just!" [Preuss, iii. 382.] Which denotes an irritating experience in
+Schlecker's Court. Certain it is, Schlecker's Court did, in this tedious
+harassing way, decide against Frau Arnold in every point. "Pay Herr Graf
+von Schmettau, or else disappear; prosecute Von Gersdorf, if you like!"
+And, in fine, as the Arnolds could not pay up, nor see any daylight
+through prosecuting Baron von Gersdorf, the big gentleman in
+Kay,--Schlecker, after some five years of this, decreed Sale of the
+Mill:--and sold it was. In Zullichau, September 7th, 1778, there is
+Auction of the Mill; Herr Landeinnehmer (CESS-COLLECTOR) Kuppisch bought
+it; knocked down to him for the moderate sum of 600 thalers, or 90
+pounds sterling, and the Arnolds are an ousted family. "September
+7th,"--Potato-War just closing its sad Campaign; to-morrow, march for
+Trautenau, thirty horses to a gun.--
+
+The Arnolds did make various attempts and appeals to the Neumark
+REGIERUNG (College of Judges); but it was without the least result.
+"Schlecker right in every point; Gersdorf right," answered the College:
+"go, will you!" A Mill forfeited by every Law, and fallen to the
+highest bidder. Cess-Collector Kuppisch, it was soon known, had sold
+his purchase to Von Gersdorf: "Hah!" said the rural public, smelling
+something bad. Certain it is, Von Gersdorf is become proprietor both of
+Pond and Mill; and it is not to the ruined Arnolds that Schlecker law
+can seem an admirable sample. And truly, reading over those barrow-loads
+of pleadings and RELATIONES, one has to admit that, taken as a reason
+for seeing oneself ruined, and one's Mill become the big gentleman's who
+fancies carp, they do seem considerably insufficient. The Law-Pleadings
+are duly voluminous. Barrow-loads of them, dreariest reading in
+Creation, remain; going into all manner of questions, proving, from
+Grotius and others, that landlords have rights upon private rivers, and
+another sort upon public ditto; that Von Gersdorf, by Law of 1566, had
+verily the right to put down his Fish-pond,--whether Schmettau the
+duty to indemnify Arnold for the same? that is not touched upon: nor,
+singular to say, is it anywhere made out, or attempted to be made out,
+How much of water Arnold lost by the Pond, much less what degree of real
+impediment, by loss of his own time, by loss of his customers (tired of
+such waiting on a mill), Arnold suffered by the Pond. This, which you
+would have thought the soul of the matter, is absolutely left out;
+altogether unsettled,--after, I think, four, or at least three, express
+Commissions had sat on it, at successive times, with the most esteemed
+hydraulic sages opining and examining;--and remains, like the part of
+Hamlet, omitted by particular desire. No wonder Frau Arnold begged for
+a Military Commission; that is to say, a decision from rational human
+creatures, instead of juridical wigs proceeding at this rate.
+
+It was some time in 1775 that Rosine (what we reckoned a very
+elucidative point!) had given in her Petition to the King at Crossen,
+showing how ill Schlecker was using them. She now, "about Mayday, 1779,"
+in a new Petition, referred to that, and again begged a Commission of
+Soldier-people to settle it. May 4th, 1779,--King not yet home, but
+coming, ["Arrived at Berlin May 27th" (Rodenbeck, iii. 201).]--King's
+Cabinet, on Order, "SENDS this to Justice-Department;" nothing SAID
+on it, the existence of the Petition sufficiently SAYING.
+Justice-Department thereupon demands the Law-Records, documentary
+Narrative of RES Arnold, from Custrin; finds all right: "Peace, ye
+Arnolds; what would you have?" [Preuss, iii. 382.]
+
+Same year, 1779 (no express date), Grand-Chancellor von Furst, being at
+Custrin, officially examining the condition of Law-matters, Frau Arnold
+failed not to try there also with a Petition: "See, great Law-gentleman
+come to reform abuses, can that possibly be Law; or if so, is it not
+Injustice as well?" "Tush!" answered Furst;--for I believe Law-people,
+ever since this new stringency of Royal vigilance upon them, are plagued
+with such complaints from Dorfships and dark greedy Peasant people;
+"Tush!" and flung it promptly into his waste-basket.
+
+Is there no hope at all, then? Arnold remembers that a Brother of his
+is a Prussian soldier; and that he has for Colonel, Prince Leopold of
+Brunswick, a Prince always kind to the poor. The Leopold Regiment
+lies at Frankfurt: try Prince Leopold by that channel. Prince Leopold
+listened;--the Soldier Arnold probably known to him as rational and
+respectable. Prince Leopold now likewise applies to Furst: "A defect,
+not of Law, Herr Kanzler, but of Equity, there does seem. Schmettau had
+a right to his rent; Von Gersdorf, by Deed of 1566, to his Pond: but
+the Arnolds had not water and have lost their Mill. Could not there,"
+suggests Leopold, "be appointed, without noise of any kind, a Commission
+of neutral people, strangers to the Neumark, to search this matter
+to the actual root of it, and let Equity ensue?" To whom also Furst
+answers, though in a politer shape, "Tush, Durchlaucht! Every man to his
+trade!"
+
+So that Prince Leopold himself, the King's own Nephew, proves futile?
+Some think Leopold did, this very Autumn, casually, or as if casually,
+mention the matter to the King,--whose mind is uneasily awake to
+all such cases, knowing what a buckram set his Lawyers are. "At the
+Reviews," as these people say, Leopold could not have done it; there
+being, this Year, no Reviews, merely return of King and Army from the
+Bavarian War. But during August, and on into September this Year, it
+is very evident, there was a Visit of the Brunswick Family at Potsdam,
+[Rodenbeck, iii. 206 et seq.] Leopold's Mamma and certain of his
+Brothers,--of which, Colonel Prince Leopold, though not expressly
+mentioned in the Books, may very possibly have been permitted, for a day
+or two, to form part, for Mamma's behoof and his own; and may have made
+his casual observation, at some well-chosen moment, with the effect
+intended. In which case, Leopold was by no means futile, but proved,
+after all, to be the saving clause for the Arnolds.
+
+Gallant young fellow, one loves to believe it of him; and to add it to
+the one other fact now known of him, which was also beautiful, though
+tragic. Six years after, Spring, 1785, Oder River, swollen by rains, was
+in wild deluge; houses in the suburbs like to be washed away. Leopold,
+looking on it from the Bridge or shore, perhaps partly with an Official
+eye, saw the inhabitants of some houses like to be drowned;
+looked wildly for assistance, but found none; and did, himself, in
+uncontrollable pity, dash off in a little boat, through the wild-eddying
+surges; and got his own death there, himself drowned in struggling to
+save others. Which occasioned loud lamentation in the world; in his poor
+Mother's heart what unnamable voiceless lamentation! [Friedrich's Letter
+to her: _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. i. 351 ("12th May, 1785").] He had
+founded a Garrison School at Frankfurt; spared no expenditure of pains
+or of money. A man adored in Frankfurt. "His Brother Friedrich, in
+memory of him, presented, next year, the Uniform in which Leopold was
+drowned, to the Freemason Lodge of Berlin, of which he had been member."
+[_Militair-Lexikon,_ i. 24.] SUNT LACRYMAE RERUM.
+
+But to return to the Arnolds, and have done with them: for we are now,
+by Leopold's help or otherwise, got to the last act of that tedious
+business.
+
+August 21st, 1779 (these high Brunswickers still at Potsdam, if that had
+any influence), the Arnolds again make Petition to the King: "Alas, no
+justice yet, your Majesty!" "Shall we never see the end of this, then?"
+thinks the King: "some Soldier, with human eyes, let him, attended by
+one of their Law-wigs, go upon the ground; and search it!" And,
+next day, having taken Protocol of the Arnold Complaint, issues
+Cabinet-Order, or King's Message to the Custrin Law-wigs: "Colonel
+Heucking [whose regiment lies in Zullichau district, a punctual enough
+man], he shall be the Soldier; to whom do YOU adjoin what member of
+your Court you think the fittest: and let, at last, justice be done. And
+swift, if you please!"
+
+The Custrin Regierung, without delay, name REGIERUNGS-RATH Neumann; who
+is swiftly ready, as is Colonel Heucking swiftly,--and they two set out
+together up the Pommerzig Brook, over that moor Country; investigating,
+pondering, hearing witnesses, and no doubt consulting, and diligently
+endeavoring to get to the bottom of this poor Arnold question. For how
+many September days, I know not: everybody knows, however, that they
+could not agree; in other words, that they saw TWO bottoms to it,--the
+Law gentleman one bottom, the Soldier another. "True bottom is already
+there," argued the Law gentleman: "confirm Decision of Court in
+every point." "No; Arnold has lost water, has suffered wrong," thinks
+Heucking; "that is the true bottom." And so they part, each with his
+own opinion. Neumann affirmed afterwards, that the Colonel came with a
+predetermination that way, and even that he said, once or oftener, in
+his eagerness to persuade: "His Majesty has got it into his thought;
+there will be nothing but trouble if you persist in that notion."
+To which virtuous Neumann was deaf. Neumann also says, The Colonel,
+acquainted with Austrian enemies, but not with Law, had brought with him
+his Regiment's-Auditor, one Bech, formerly a Law-practitioner in Crossen
+(readers know Crossen, and Ex-Dictator Wedell does),--Law-practitioner
+in Crossen; who had been in strife with the Custrin Regierung, under
+rebuke from them (too importunate for some of his pauper clients,
+belike); was a cunning fellow too, and had the said Regierung in
+ill-will. An adroit fellow Bech might be, or must have been; but his now
+office of Regiment's-Auditor is certificate of honesty,--good, at least,
+against Neumann.
+
+Neumann's Court was silent about these Neumann surmises; but said
+afterwards, "Heucking had not gone to the bottom of the thing." This was
+in a subsequent report, some five or six weeks subsequent. Their present
+report they redacted to the effect, "All correct as it stood," without
+once mentioning Heucking. Gave it in, 27th September; by which time
+Heucking's also was in, and had made a strong impression on his Majesty.
+Presumably an honest, intelligible report; though, by ill-luck for the
+curious, it is now lost; among the barrow-loads of vague wigged stuff,
+this one Piece, probably human, is not to be discovered.
+
+Friedrich's indignation at the Custrin report, "Perfectly correct as
+it stood," and no mention of Heucking or his dissent, was considerable:
+already, 27th September,--that is, on the very day while those Custrin
+people were signing their provoking report,--Friedrich, confident
+in Heucking, had transmitted to his Supreme Board of Justice
+(KAMMERGERICHT) the impartial Heucking's account of the affair, with
+order, "See there, an impartial human account, clear and circumstantial
+(DEUTLICHES UND GANZ UMSTANDLICHES), going down to the true roots of the
+business: swift, get me justice for these Arnolds!" [Preuss, iii. 480.]
+Scarcely was this gone, when, September 29th, the Custrin impertinence,
+"Perfectly right as it stood," came to hand; kindling the King into hot
+provocation; "extreme displeasure, AUSSERSTES MISFALLEN," as his Answer
+bore: "Rectify me all that straightway, and relieve these Arnolds of
+their injuries!" You Pettifogging Pedant Knaves, bring that Arnold
+matter to order, will you; you had better!--
+
+The Custrin Knaves, with what feelings I know not, proceed accordingly;
+appoint a new Commission, one or more Lawyers in it, and at least one
+Hydraulic Gentleman in it, Schade the name of him; who are to go upon
+the ground, hear witnesses and the like. Who went accordingly; and
+managed, not too fast, Hydraulic Schade rather disagreeing from the
+Legal Gentlemen, to produce a Report, reported UPON by the Custrin
+Court, 28th October: "That there is one error found: 6 pounds 12s. as
+value of corn LEFT, clearly Arnold's that, when his Mill was sold; that,
+with this improvement, all is NOW correct to the uttermost; and that
+Heucking had not investigated things to the bottom." By some accident,
+this Report did not come at once to Friedrich, or had escaped his
+attention; so that--
+
+November 21st, matters hanging fire in this way, Frau Arnold applies
+again, by Petition to his Majesty; upon which is new Royal Order, [Ib.
+iii. 490.] far more patient than might have been expected: "In God's
+name, rectify me that Arnold matter, and let us at last see the end of
+it!" To which the Custriners answer: "All is rectified, your Majesty.
+Frau Arnold, in her Petition, has not mentioned that she gained 6
+pounds 12s.;"--important item that; 6 pounds 12s. for CORN left (clearly
+Arnold's that, when his Mill was sold)! "Our sentence we cannot alter; a
+Court's sentence is alterable only by appeal; your Majesty decides where
+the appeal is to lie!" Friedrich's patience is now wearing out; but
+he does not yet give way: "Berlin Kammergericht be your Appeal
+Court," decides he, 28th November: and will admit of no delay on the
+Kammergericht's part either. "Papers all at Custrin, say you? Send for
+them by express; they will come in one day: be swift, I say!"
+
+Chancellor Furst is not a willing horse in this case; but he is
+obliged to go. December 7th, Kammergericht sits on the Arnold Appeal;
+Kammergericht's view is: "Custrin papers all here, not the least delay
+permitted; you, Judge Rannsleben, take these Papers to you; down
+upon them: let us, if humanly possible, have a Report by to-morrow."
+Rannsleben takes the Papers in hand December 7th; works upon them all
+day, and all night following, at a rate of energy memorable among Legal
+gentlemen; and December 8th attends with lucid Report upon them, or
+couple of Reports; one on Arnold VERSUS Schmettau, in six folios; one on
+Arnold VERSUS Gersdorf, in two ditto; draws these two Documents from his
+pocket December 8th; reads them in assembled Court (six of the Judges
+present) [Preuss, iii. 496.],--which, with marked thankfulness to the
+swift Rannsleben, at once adopts his Report, and pronounces upon the
+Custrin Raths, "Right in every particular." Witness our hands: every one
+affixing his signature, as to a matter happily got done with.
+
+It was Friday, 10th December, 1779, before Friedrich got this fine bit
+of news; Saturday 11th, before he authentically saw their Sentence. He
+is lying miserably ill of gout in the Schloss of Berlin; and I suppose,
+since his Father, of blessed memory, took cudgel to certain Judges and
+knocked out teeth from them, and broke the judicial crowns, nobody in
+that Schloss has been in such humor against men of Law. "Attend me here
+at 2 P.M. with the Three Raths who signed in Arnold's Case:" Saturday,
+about 11 A.M., Chancellor Furst receives this command; gets Rannsleben,
+and two others, Friedel, Graun,--and there occurred such a scene--But it
+will be better to let Rannsleben himself tell the story; who has left
+an AUTOBIOGRAPHY, punctually correct, to all appearance, but except this
+alone notable passage of it, still unpublished, and like to continue
+so:--
+
+"BERLIN, TUESDAY, 7th DECEMBER, 1779," says Rannsleben (let him tell it
+again in his own words), "the ACTA, which had arrived from Custrin IN RE
+Miller Arnold and his Wife VERSUS Landrath von Gersdorf, as also those,
+in the same matter, VERSUS Count von Schmettau, were assigned to me, to
+be reported on QUAM PRIMUM;--our President von Rebeur," President of
+the Supreme KAMMERGERICHT (King's-Chamber Tribunal, say Exchequer High
+Court, or COLLEGIUM), whereof I have the honor to be one of the Seven
+Judges, or RATHS,--"our President von Rebeur enjoining me to make such
+utmost despatch that my Report on both these sets of Papers might be
+read to the assembled Court next day; whereby said Court might then and
+there be enabled to pronounce judgment on the same, I at once set to
+work; went on with it all night; and on the morrow I brought both my
+Reports (RELATIONES),"--one referring to the Gersdorf, the other to
+the Schmettau part of the suit,--"one of six sheets, the other of two
+sheets, to the Kammergericht; where both RELATIONES were read. There
+were present, besides me, the following six members of the COLLEGIUM:
+President von Rebeur, Raths Uhl, Friedel, Kircheisen, Graun, Gassler.
+
+"Appellant," as we all know, "was Miller Arnold; and along with the ACTA
+were various severe Cabinet-Orders, in which the King, who had taken
+quite particular notice of the Case, positively enjoined, That Miller
+Arnold should have justice done him. The King had not, however, given
+formally any authoritative Decision of his own (KEINEN EIGENTLICHEN
+MACHTSPRUCH GETHAN)," which might have given us pause, though not
+full-stop by any means: "but, in his Order to the Kammergericht, had
+merely said, we were to decide with the utmost despatch, and then at
+once inform his Majesty how." With the speed of light or of thought,
+Rannsleben hardly done reading, this Kammergericht decided,--it is well
+known how: "In the King's name; right in every particular, you Custrin
+Gentlemen;--which be so good as publish to parties concerned!"
+
+Report of Kammergericht's Judgment to this effect, for behoof of
+Custrin, was at once got under way; and Kammergericht, in regard to his
+Majesty, agreed merely to announce the fact in that quarter: "Judgment
+arrived at, please your Majesty;--Judgment already under way for
+Custrin:"--you, Rannsleben, without saying what the Judgment is, you
+again write for us. And Rannsleben does so; writes the above little
+Message to his Majesty, "which got to the King's hand, Friday, December
+10th. And the same day," continues Rannsleben, "the King despatched
+a very severe Cabinet-Order to Minister von Dornberg,"--head of the
+Department to which the Kammergericht belongs,--"demanding a Copy of the
+Judgment. Which order was at once obeyed.
+
+"Hereupon, on Saturday, about 11 A.M., there came to Grand-Chancellor
+von Furst," sublime head of us and of all Lawyers, "a Cabinet-Order,
+'Appear before me here, this day, at 2 o'clock; and bring with you your
+Three Kammergericht Raths who drew up (MINUTIRT) the Judgment in the
+Arnold Case.'" Message bodeful to Furst and the three Raths.
+
+"NOTA," says Rannsleben here, "the King is under the impression that, in
+judging a Case, Three Raths are always employed, and therefore demands
+Three of us. But, properly, all the above-named Six MEMBRA COLLEGII,
+besides myself, ought to have gone to the Palace, or else I alone." On
+some points an ill-informed King. Rannsleben continues:--
+
+"President von Rebeur came to me in his carriage, at a quarter to 12;
+told me of the King's Order; and said, as the King demanded only Three
+Raths, there was nothing for it but to name me and Raths Friedel and
+Kircheisen, my usual partners in Judgment business. Finding, however,
+on looking into the Sentence itself, that Kircheisen was not amongst the
+signers of it, he [Rebeur] named, instead of him, Rath Graun, who was.
+For the Herr President apprehended the King might demand to see our
+Sentence IN ORIGINALI, and would then be angry that a person had been
+sent to him who had not signed the same. President von Rebeur instructed
+me farther, That I, as Reporter in the Case, was to be spokesman at the
+Palace; and should explain to his Majesty the reasons which had weighed
+with the Kammergericht in coming to such decision.
+
+"To my dear Wife I," as beseemed a good husband, "said nothing of all
+this; confiding it only to my Father-in-law, who tried to cheer me. Nor,
+indeed, did I feel any fear within me, being persuaded in my conscience
+that, in this decision of the Arnold Case, I had proceeded according to
+the best of my knowledge and conviction.
+
+"At 1 o'clock I drove to the Grand-Chancellor's, where I found the
+Raths Friedel and Graun already arrived. The Chancellor," old Furst,
+"instructed us as to what we had to do when we came before the King. And
+then, towards 2 o'clock, he took us in his carriage to the Palace. We
+entered the room immediately at the end of the Great Hall. Here we found
+a heyduc [tall porter], by whom the Chancellor announced to the King
+that we were here. Heyduc soon came back to inquire, Whether the
+CABINETS-RATH Stellter," a Secretary or Short-hand writer of his
+Majesty's, "had arrived yet; and whether we [WE, what a doubt!] were
+Privy Councillors. We were then shortly after shown in to the King. We
+passed through three rooms, the second of which was that in which stands
+the CONFIDENZ TAFEL [Table that goes by pulleys through the floor, and
+comes up refurnished, when you wish to be specially private with your
+friends]. In the fourth, a small room with one window, was the King. The
+Chancellor walked first; I followed him close; behind me came the Rath
+Friedel, and then Graun. Some way within, opposite the door, stood a
+screen; with our backs to this," the Kingward side of this, "we ranged
+ourselves,"--in respectful row of Four, Furst at the inward end of us
+(right or left is no matter). "The King sat in the middle of the room,
+so that he could look point-blank at us; he sat with his back to the
+chimney, in which there was a fire burning. He had on a worn hat, of the
+clerical shape [old-military in fact, not a shovel at all]; CASSAQUIN,"
+short dressing-gown, "of red-brown (MORDORE) velvet; black breeches, and
+boots which came quite up over the knee. His hair was not dressed. Three
+little benchlets or stools, covered with green cloth, stood before him,
+on which he had his feet lying [terribly ill of gout]. In his lap he had
+a sort of muff, with one of his hands in it, which seemed to be giving
+him great pain. In the other hand he held our Sentence on the Arnold
+Case. He lay reclining (LAG) in an easy-chair; at his left stood a
+table, with various papers on it,--and two gold snuffboxes, richly set
+with brilliants, from which he kept taking snuff now and then.
+
+"Besides us, there was present in the room the Cabinets-Rath Stellter
+[of the short-hand], who stood at a desk, and was getting ready for
+writing. The King looked at us, saying, 'Come nearer!' Whereupon we
+advanced another step, and were now within less than two steps of him.
+He addressed himself to us three Raths, taking no notice at all of the
+Grand-Chancellor:--
+
+KING. "'Is it you who drew up the judgment in the Arnold case?'
+
+WE (especially I, with a bow). "'Yea.'
+
+"The King then turned to the Rath Friedel [to Friedel, as the central
+figure of the Three, perhaps as the portliest, though poor Friedel,
+except signing, had little cognizance of the thing, in which not he but
+Rannsleben was to have been spokesman], and addressed to Friedel those
+questions, of which, with their answers, there is Protocol published,
+under Royal authority, in the Berlin newspapers of December 14th, 1779;"
+[VON SEINER KONIGLICHEN MAJESTAT HOCHSTSELBAT ANGEHALTENES PROTOCOLL:
+"Protocol [Minute of Proceedings] held by Royal Majesty's Highest-self,
+on the 11th December, 1779, concerning the three Kammergerichts-Raths,
+Friedel, Graun and Rannsleben:" in PREUSS, iii. 495.] Shorthand Stellter
+taking down what was said,--quite accurately, testifies Rannsleben. From
+Stellter (that is to say from the "Protocol" just mentioned), or from
+Stellter and Rannsleben together, we continue the Dialogue:--
+
+KING to Friedel [in the tone of a Rhadamanthus suffering from gout].
+"'To give sentence against a Peasant from whom you have taken wagon,
+plough and everything that enables him to get his living, and to pay his
+rent and taxes: is that a thing that can be done?'
+
+FRIEDEL (and the two Mutes, bowing). "'No.'
+
+KING. "'May a Miller who has no water, and consequently cannot grind,
+and, therefore, not earn anything, have his mill taken from him, on
+account of his not having paid his rent: is that just?'
+
+FRIEDEL (and Mutes as aforesaid). "'No.'
+
+KING. "'But here now is a Nobleman, wishing to make a Fish-pond: to get
+more water for his Pond, he has a ditch dug, to draw into it the water
+from a small stream which drives a water-mill. Thereby the Miller loses
+his water, and cannot grind; or, at most, can only grind in the spring
+for the space of a fortnight, and late in the autumn, perhaps another
+fortnight. Yet, in spite of all this, it is pretended that the Miller
+shall pay his rent quite the same as at the time when he had full water
+for his mill. Of course, he cannot pay his rent; his incomings are gone!
+And what does the Custrin Court of Justice do? It orders the mill to
+be sold, that the Nobleman may have his rent. And the Berlin
+Tribunal'"--Chancellor Furst, standing painfully mute, unspoken to,
+unnoticed hitherto, more like a broomstick than a Chancellor, ventures
+to strike in with a syllable of emendation, a small correction, of these
+words "Berlin Tribunal"--
+
+FURST (suggestively). "'Kammergericht [mildly suggestive, and perhaps
+with something in his tone which means, "I am not a broomstick!"]:
+Kammergericht!'
+
+KING (to short-hand Stellter). "'Kammergerichts-Tribunal:--[then to
+Furst] Go you, Sir, about your business, on the instant! Your
+Successor is appointed; with you I have nothing more to do.
+Disappear!'"--"Ordered," says Official Rannsleben, "ordered the
+Grand-Chancellor, in very severe terms, To be gone! telling him that
+his Successor was already appointed. Which order Herr von Furst, without
+saying a word, hastily obeyed, passing in front of us three, with the
+utmost speed." In front,--screen, I suppose, not having room behind
+it,--and altogether vanishes from Friedrich's History; all but some
+GHOST of him (so we may term it), which reappears for an instant once,
+as will be noticed.
+
+KING (continues to Friedel, not in a lower tone probably):--"'the
+Kammergerichts-Tribunal confirms the same. That is highly unjust; and
+such Sentence is altogether contrary to his Majesty's landsfatherly
+intentions:--my name [you give it, "In the King's Name," forsooth]
+cruelly abused!'"
+
+So far is set forth in the "Royal Protocol printed next Tuesday," as
+well as in Rannsleben. But from this point, the Dialogue--if it can be
+called Dialogue, being merely a rebuke and expectoration of Royal wrath
+against Friedel and his Two, who are all mute, so far as I can learn,
+and stand like criminals in the dock, feeling themselves unjustly
+condemned--gets more and more into conflagration, and cannot be
+distinctly reported. "MY name to such a thing! When was I found to
+oppress a poor man for love of a rich? To follow wiggeries and forms
+with solemn attention, careless what became of the internal fact? Act
+of 1566, allowing Gersdorf to make his Pond? Like enough;--and Arnold's
+loss of water, that is not worth the ascertaining; you know not yet what
+it was, some of you even say it was nothing; care not whether it was
+anything. Could Arnold grind, or not, as formerly? What is Act of 1566,
+or any or all Acts, in comparison? Wretched mortals, had you wigs
+a fathom long, and Law-books on your back, and Acts of 1566 by the
+hundredweight, what could it help, if the right of a poor man were left
+by you trampled under foot? What is the meaning of your sitting there
+as Judges? Dispensers of Right in God's Name and mine? I will make an
+example of you which shall be remembered!--Out of my sight!" Whereupon
+EXEUNT in haste, all Three,--though not far, not home, as will be seen.
+
+Only the essential sense of all this, not the exact terms, could (or
+should) any Stellter take in short-hand; and in the Protocol it is
+decorously omitted altogether. Rannsleben merely says: "The King farther
+made use of very strong expressions against us,"--too strong to be
+repeated,--"and, at last, dismissed us without saying what he intended
+to do with us. We had hardly left the room, when he followed us,
+ordering us to wait. The King, during the interview with us, held
+the Sentence, of my composition, in his hand; and seemed particularly
+irritated about the circumstance of the judgment being pronounced in his
+name, as is the usual form. He struck the paper again and again with
+his other hand,"--heat of indignation quite extinguishing gout, for the
+moment,--"exclaiming at the same time repeatedly, 'Cruelly abused my
+name (MEINEN NAMEN CRUEL MISSBRAUCHT)!'" [Preuss, iii. 495-498.]--We
+will now give the remaining part of the Protocol (what directly follows
+the above CATECHETICAL or DIALOGUE part before that caught fire),--as
+taken down by Stellter, and read in all the Newspapers next Tuesday:--
+
+
+
+
+"PROTOCOL [of December 11th, Title already given; [Supra, p. 439 n.]
+Docketing adds], WHICH IS TO BE PRINTED."
+
+... (CATECHETICS AS ABOVE,--AND THEN): "The King's desire always is
+and was, That everybody, be he high or low, rich or poor, get prompt
+justice; and that, without regard of person or rank, no subject of his
+fail at any time of impartial right and protection from his Courts of
+Law.
+
+"Wherefore, with respect to this most unjust Sentence against the
+Miller Arnold of the Pommerzig Crabmill, pronounced in the Neumark, and
+confirmed here in Berlin, his Majesty will establish an emphatic example
+(EIN NACHDRUCKLICHES EXEMPEL STATUIREN); to the end that all Courts of
+Justice, in all the King's Provinces, may take warning thereby, and not
+commit the like glaring unjust acts. For, let them bear in mind, That
+the least peasant, yea, what is still more, that even a beggar, is, no
+less than his Majesty, a human being, and one to whom due justice must
+be meted out. All men being equal before the Law, if it is a prince
+complaining against a peasant, or VICE VERSA, the prince is the same as
+the peasant before the Law; and, on such occasions, pure justice must
+have its course, without regard of person: Let the Law-Courts, in all
+the Provinces, take this for their rule. And whenever they do not carry
+out justice in a straightforward manner, without any regard of person
+and rank, but put aside natural fairness,--then they shall have to
+answer his Majesty for it (SOLLEN SIC ES MIT SEINER KONIGLICHEN MAJESTAT
+ZU THUN KRIEGEN). For a Court of Law doing injustice is more dangerous
+and pernicious than a band of thieves: against these one can protect
+oneself; but against rogues who make use of the cloak of justice to
+accomplish their evil passions, against such no man can guard himself.
+These are worse than the greatest knaves the world contains, and deserve
+double punishment.
+
+"For the rest, be it also known to the various Courts of Justice, That
+his Majesty has appointed a new Grand-Chancellor." Furst dismissed. "Yet
+his Majesty will not the less look sharply with his own eyes after the
+Law-proceedings in all the Provinces; and he commands you"--that is,
+all the Law-courts--"urgently herewith: FIRSTLY,"--which is also
+lastly,--"To proceed to deal equally with all people seeking justice,
+be it prince or peasant; for, there, all must be alike. However, if
+his Majesty, at any time hereafter, come upon a fault committed in this
+regard, the guilty Courts can now imagine beforehand how they will
+be punished with rigor, President as well as Raths, who shall have
+delivered a judgment so wicked and openly opposed to justice. Which all
+Colleges of Justice in all his Majesty's Provinces are particularly to
+take notice of."
+
+"MEM. By his Majesty's special command, measures are taken that this
+Protocol be inserted in all the Berlin Journals." [In _Berlin'sche
+Nachrichten von Staats und Gelehrten Sachen,_ No. 149, "Tuesday, 14th
+December, 1779." Preuss, iii. 494.]
+
+The remainder of Rannsleben's Narrative is beautifully brief and
+significant.--"We had hardly left the room," said he SUPRA, "when
+the King followed us," lame as he was, with a fulminant "Wait there!"
+Rannsleben continues: "Shortly after came an Aide-de-Camp, who took
+us in a carriage to the common Town-prison, the Kalandshof; here two
+Corporals and two Privates were set to guard us. On the 13th December,
+1779," third day of our arrest, "a Cabinet-Order was published to us,
+by which the King had appointed a Commission of Inquiry; but had, at
+the same time, commanded beforehand that the Sentence should not be
+less than a year's confinement in a fortress, dismissal from office,
+and payment of compensation to the Arnold people for the losses they had
+sustained." Which certainly was a bad outlook for us.
+
+Precisely the same has befallen our Brethren of Custrin; all suddenly
+packed into Prison, just while reading our Approval of them;--there
+they sit, their Sentence to be like ours. "Our arrest in the Kalandshof
+lasted from 11th December, 1779, till 5th January, 1780," three weeks
+and three days,--when (with Two Exceptions, to be noted presently) we
+were all, Kammergerichters and Custriners alike, transferred to Spandau.
+
+I spoke of what might be called a ghost of Kanzler Furst once revisiting
+the glimpses of the Moon, or Sun if there were any in the dismal
+December days. This is it, witness one who saw it: "On the morning
+of December 12th, the day after the Grand-Chancellor's dismissal, the
+Street in which he lived was thronged with the carriages of callers,
+who came to testify their sympathy, and to offer their condolence to the
+fallen Chancellor. The crowd of carriages could be seen from the windows
+of the King's Palace." The same young Legal Gentleman, by and by a very
+old one, who, himself one of the callers at the Ex-Chancellor's house
+that day, saw this, and related it in his old age to Herr Preuss,
+[Preuss, iii. 499, 500.] remembers and relates also this other
+significant fact:--
+
+"During the days that followed" the above event and Publication of the
+Royal Protocol, "I often crossed, in the forenoon, the Esplanade in
+front of the Palace (SCHLOSSPLATZ), at that side where the King's
+apartments were; the same which his Royal Highness the Crown-Prince now
+[1833] occupies. I remember that here, on that part of the Esplanade
+which was directly under Friedrich's windows, there stood constantly
+numbers of Peasants, not ten or twelve, but as many as a hundred at
+a time; all with Petitions in their hands, which they were holding up
+towards the window; shouting, 'Please his Majesty to look at these;
+we have been still worse treated than the Arnolds!' And indeed, I have
+understood the Law-Courts, for some time after, found great difficulty
+to assert their authority: the parties against whom judgment went,
+taking refuge in the Arnold precedent, and appealing direct to the
+King."
+
+Far graver than this Spectre of Furst, Minister Zedlitz hesitates,
+finally refuses, to pronounce such a Sentence as the King orders on
+these men of Law! Estimable, able, conscientious Zedlitz; zealous on
+Education matters, too;--whom I always like for contriving to attend a
+Course of Kant's Lectures, while 500 miles away from him (actual
+Course in Konigsberg University, by the illustrious Kant; every Lecture
+punctually taken in short-hand, and transmitted to Berlin, post after
+post, for the busy man). [Kuno Fischer, _Kant's Leben_ (Mannheim, 1860),
+pp. 34, 35.] Here is now some painful Correspondence between the King
+and him,--painful, yet pleasant:--
+
+KING TO MINISTER VON ZEDLITZ, WHO HAS ALARMING DOUBTS (Berlin, 28th
+December, 1779).--"Your Report of the 20th instant in regard to Judgment
+on the arrested Raths has been received. But do you think I don't
+understand your Advocate fellows and their quirks; or how they can
+polish up a bad cause, and by their hyperboles exaggerate or extenuate
+as they find fit? The Goose-quill class (FEDERZEUG) can't look at facts.
+When Soldiers set to investigate anything, on an order given, they go
+the straight way to the kernel of the matter; upon which, plenty of
+objections from the Goose-quill people!--But you may assure yourself
+I give more belief to an honest Officer, who has honor in the heart of
+him, than to all your Advocates and sentences. I perceive well they are
+themselves afraid, and don't want to see any of their fellows punished.
+"If, therefore, you will not obey my Order, I shall take another in your
+place who will; for depart from it I will not. You may tell them that.
+And know, for your part, that such miserable jargon (MISERABEL STYL)
+makes not the smallest impression on me. Hereby, then, you are to guide
+yourself; and merely say whether you will follow my Order or not; for
+I will in no wise fall away from it. I am your well-affectioned
+King,--FRIEDRICH."
+
+MARGINALE (in Autograph).--"My Gentleman [you, Herr von Zedlitz, with
+your dubitatings] won't make me believe black is white. I know the
+Advocate sleight-of-hand, and won't be taken in. An example has become
+necessary here,--those Scoundrels (CANAILLEN) having so enormously
+misused my name, to practise arbitrary and unheard-of injustices. A
+Judge that goes upon chicaning is to be punished more severely than a
+highway Robber. For you have trusted to the one; you are on your guard
+against the other."
+
+ZEDLITZ TO THE KING (Berlin, 31st December, 1779).--"I have at all times
+had your Royal Majesty's favor before my eyes as the supreme happiness
+of my life, and have most zealously endeavored to merit the same: but I
+should recognize myself unworthy of it, were I capable of an undertaking
+contrary to my conviction. From the reasons indicated by myself, as
+well as by the Criminal-Senate [Paper of reasons fortunately lost],
+your Majesty will deign to consider that I am unable to draw up a
+condemnatory Sentence against your Majesty's Servants-of-Justice now
+under arrest on account of the Arnold Affair. Your Majesty's till
+death,--VON ZEDLITZ."
+
+KING TO ZEDLITZ (Berlin, 1st January, 1780).--"My dear State's-Minister
+Freiherr von Zedlitz,--It much surprises me to see, from your Note
+of yesterday, that you refuse to pronounce a judgment on those
+Servants-of-Justice arrested for their conduct in the Arnold Case,
+according to my Order. If you, therefore, will not, I will; and do it as
+follows:--
+
+"1. The Custrin Regierungs-Rath Scheibler, who, it appears in evidence,
+was of an opposite opinion to his Colleagues, and voted That the man
+up-stream had not a right to cut off the water from the man down-stream;
+and that the point, as to Arnold's wanting water, should be more closely
+and strictly inquired into,--he, Scheibler, shall be set free from
+his arrest, and go back to his post at Custrin. And in like manner,
+Kammergerichts-Rath Rannsleben--who has evidently given himself faithful
+trouble about the cause, and has brought forward with a quite visible
+impartiality all the considerations and dubieties, especially about
+the condition of the water and the alleged hurtfulness of the Pond--is
+absolved from arrest.
+
+"2. As for the other arrested Servants-of-Justice, they are one and
+all dismissed from office (CASSIRT), and condemned to one year's
+Fortress-Arrest. Furthermore, they shall pay to Arnold the value of his
+Mill, and make good to him, out of their own pocket, all the loss
+and damage he has suffered in this business; the Neumark KAMMER
+(Revenue-Board) to tax and estimate the same. [Damage came to 1,358
+thalers, 11 groschen, 1 pfennig,--that is, 203 pounds 14s. and some
+pence and farthings; the last farthing of which was punctually paid to
+Arnold, within the next eight months;] [Preuss, iii. 409.]--so that
+
+"3. The Miller Arnold shall be completely put as he was (IN INTEGRUM
+RESTITUIRT).
+
+"And in such way must the matter, in all branches of it, be immediately
+proceeded with, got ready, and handed in for my Completion (VOLLZIEHUNG)
+by Signature. Which you, therefore, will take charge of, without delay.
+For the rest, I will tell you farther, that I am not ill pleased to know
+you on the side you show on this occasion [as a man that will not go
+against his conscience], and shall see, by and by, what I can farther do
+with you. [Left him where he was, as the best thing.] Whereafter you
+are accordingly to guide yourself. And I remain otherwise your
+well-affectioned King, FRIEDRICH." [Ib. iii. 519, 520; see ib. 405 n.]
+
+This, then, is an impartial account of the celebrated passage between
+Friedrich and the Lawyers known by the name of "the MILLER-ARNOLD CASE;"
+which attracted the notice of all Europe,--just while the decennium of
+the French Revolution was beginning. In Russia, the Czarina Catharine,
+the friend of Philosophers, sent to her Senate a copy of Friedrich's
+PROTOCOL OF DECEMBER 11th, as a noteworthy instance of Royal supreme
+judicature. In France, Prints in celebration of it,--"one Print
+by Vangelisti, entitled BALANCE DE FREDERIC,"--were exhibited
+in shop-windows, expounded in newspapers, and discoursed of in
+drawing-rooms. The Case brought into talk again an old Miller Case
+of Friedrich's, which had been famous above thirty years ago, when
+Sans-Souci was getting built. Readers know it: Potsdam Miller, and his
+obstinate Windmill, which still grinds on its knoll in those localities,
+and would not, at any price, become part of the King's Gardens. "Not at
+any price?" said the King's agent: "Cannot the King take it from you
+for nothing, if he chose?" "Have n't we the Kammergericht at Berlin!"
+answered the Miller. To Friedrich's great delight, as appears;--which
+might render the Windmill itself a kind of ornament to his Gardens
+thenceforth. The French admiration over these two Miller Cases continued
+to be very great. [Dieulafoi, LE MEUNIER DE SANS-SOUCI (Comedy or farce,
+of I know not what year); Andrieux, LE MOULIN DE SANS-SOUCI ("Poem," at
+INSTITUT NATIONAL 15 GERMINAL, AN 5), &c. &c.: Preuss, iii. 412, 413.]
+
+As to Miller Arnold and his Cause, the united voice of Prussian Society
+condemned Friedrich's procedure: Such harshness to Grand-Chancellor
+Furst and respectable old Official Gentlemen, amounting to the barbarous
+and tyrannous, according to Prussian Society. To support which feeling,
+and testify it openly, they drove in crowds to Furst's (some have told
+me to the Prison-doors too, but that seems hypothetic); and left cards
+for old Furst and Company. In sight of Friedrich, who inquired, "What is
+this stir on the streets, then?"--and, on learning, made not the least
+audible remark; but continued his salutary cashierment of the wigged
+Gentlemen, and imprisonment till their full term ran.
+
+My impression has been that, in Berlin Society, there was more
+sympathy for mere respectability of wig than in Friedrich. To Friedrich
+respectability of wig that issues in solemnly failing to do justice,
+is a mere enormity, greater than the most wigless condition could be.
+Wigless, the thing were to be endured, a thing one is born to, more or
+less: but in wig,--out upon it! And the wig which screens, and would
+strive to disguise and even to embellish such a thing: To the gutters
+with such wig!
+
+In support of their feeling for Furst and Company, Berlin Society was
+farther obliged to pronounce the claim of Miller Arnold a nullity, and
+that no injustice whatever had been done him. Mere pretences on his
+part, subterfuges for his idle conduct, for his inability to pay due
+rent, said Berlin Society. And that impartial Soldier-person, whom
+Friedrich sent to examine by the light of nature, and report? "Corrupted
+he!" answer they: "had intrigues with--" I forget whom; somebody of the
+womankind (perhaps Arnold's old hard-featured Wife, if you are driven
+into a corner!)--"and was not to be depended on at all!" In which
+condemned state, Berlin Society almost wholly disapproving it, the
+Arnold Process was found at Friedrich's death (restoration of honors to
+old Furst and Company, one of the first acts of the New Reign, sure of
+immediate popularity); and, I think, pretty much continues so still, few
+or none in Berlin Society admitting Miller Arnold's claim to redress,
+much less defending that onslaught on Furst and the wigs. [Herr Preuss
+himself inclines that way, rather condemnatory of Friedrich; but
+his Account, as usual, is exact and authentic,--though distressingly
+confused, and scattered about into different corners (Preuss, iii.
+381-413; then again, ibid. 520 &c.). On the other hand, there is one
+Segebusch, too, a learned Doctor, of Altona, who takes the King's
+side,--and really is rather stupid, argumentative merely, and
+unilluminative, if you read him: Segebusch, _Historischrechtliche
+Wurdigung der Einmischung Friedrich's des Grossen in die bekannte
+Rechtssache des Mullers Arnold, auch fur Nicht-Juristen_ (Altona,
+1829).]
+
+Who, from the remote distance, would venture to contradict? Once more,
+my own poor impression was, which I keep silent except to friends,
+that Berlin Society was wrong; that Miller Arnold had of a truth lost
+portions of his dam-water, and was entitled to abatement; and that
+in such case, Friedrich's horror at the Furst-and-Company Phenomenon
+(horror aggravated by gout) had its highly respectable side withal.
+
+When, after Friedrich's death, on Von Gersdorf's urgent reclamations,
+the case was reopened, and allowed to be carried "into the Secret
+Tribunal, as the competent Court of Appeal in third instance," the said
+Tribunal found, That the law-maxim depended upon by the Lower Courts, as
+to "the absolute right of owners of private streams," did NOT apply
+in the present case; but that the Deed of 1566 did; and also that "the
+facts as to pretended damage [PRETENCE merely] from loss of water, were
+satisfactorily proved against Arnold:" Gersdorf, therefore, may have his
+Pond; and Arnold must refund the money paid to him for "damages" by the
+condemned Judges; and also the purchase-money of his Mill, if he means
+to keep the latter. All which moneys, however, his Majesty Friedrich
+Wilhelm II., Friedrich's Successor, to have done with the matter,
+handsomely paid out of his own pocket: the handsome way of ending it.
+
+In his last journey to West-Preussen, June, 1784, Friedrich said to the
+new Regierungs-President (Chief Judge) there: "I am Head Commissary of
+Justice; and have a heavy responsibility lying on me,"--as will you
+in this new Office. Friedrich at no moment neglected this part of his
+functions; and his procedure in it throughout, one cannot but admit
+to have been faithful, beautiful, human. Very impatient indeed when he
+comes upon Imbecility and Pedantry threatening to extinguish Essence
+and Fact, among his Law People! This is one MARGINALE of his, among many
+such, some of them still more stinging, which are comfortable to every
+reader. The Case is that of a murderer,--murder indisputable; "but may
+not insanity be suspected, your Majesty, such the absence of motive,
+such the--?" Majesty answers: "That is nothing but inanity and stupid
+pleading against right. The fellow put a child to death; if he were a
+soldier, you would execute him without priest; and because this CANAILLE
+is a citizen, you make him 'melancholic' to get him off. Beautiful
+justice!" [Preuss, iii. 375.]
+
+Friedrich has to sign all Death-Sentences; and he does it, wherever I
+have noticed, rigorously well. For the rest, his Criminal Calendar
+seems to be lighter than any other of his time; "in a population of
+5,200,000," says he once, "14 to 15 are annually condemned to death."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII.--THE FURSTENBUND: FRIEDRICH'S LAST YEARS.
+
+At Vienna, on November 29th, 1780, the noble Kaiserinn Maria Theresa,
+after a short illness, died. Her end was beautiful and exemplary, as
+her course had been. The disease, which seemed at first only a bad
+cold, proved to have been induration of the lungs; the chief symptom
+throughout, a more and more suffocating difficulty to breathe. On the
+edge of death, the Kaiserinn, sitting in a chair (bed impossible in such
+struggle for breath), leant her head back as if inclined to sleep.
+One of her women arranged the cushions, asked in a whisper, "Will your
+Majesty sleep, then?" "No," answered the dying Kaiserinn; "I could
+sleep, but I must not; Death is too near. He must not steal upon me.
+These fifteen years I have been making ready for him; I will meet him
+awake." Fifteen years ago her beloved Franz was snatched from her, in
+such sudden manner: and ever since, she has gone in Widow's dress; and
+has looked upon herself as one who had done with the world. The 18th
+of every month has been for her a day of solitary prayer; 18th of every
+August (Franz's death-day) she has gone down punctually to the vaults
+in the Stephans-Kirche, and sat by his coffin there;--last August,
+something broke in the apparatus as she descended; and it has ever since
+been an omen to her. [Hormayr, _OEsterreichischer Plutarch,_ iv. (2tes)
+94; Keith, ii. 114.] Omen now fulfilled.
+
+On her death, Joseph and Kaunitz, now become supreme, launched abroad
+in their ambitious adventures with loose rein. Schemes of all kinds;
+including Bavaria still, in spite of the late check; for which latter,
+and for vast prospects in Turkey as well, the young Kaiser is now upon
+a cunning method, full of promise to him,--that of ingratiating himself
+with the Czarina, and cutting out Friedrich in that quarter. Summer,
+1780, while the Kaiserinn still lived, Joseph made his famous First
+Visit to the Czarina (May-August, 1780), [Hermann, vi. 132-135.]--not
+yet for some years his thrice-famous Second Visit (thrice-famous
+Cleopatra-voyage with her down the Dnieper; dramaturgic cities and
+populations keeping pace with them on the banks, such the scenic faculty
+of Russian Officials, with Potemkin as stage-manager):--in the course
+of which First Visit, still more in the Second, it is well known the
+Czarina and Joseph came to an understanding. Little articulated of it as
+yet; but the meaning already clear to both. "A frank partnership, high
+Madam: to you, full scope in your glorious notion of a Greek Capital and
+Empire, Turk quite trampled away, Constantinople a Christian metropolis
+once more [and your next Grandson a CONSTANTINE,--to be in readiness]:
+why not, if I may share too, in the Donau Countries, that lie handy? To
+you, I say, an Eastern Empire; to me, a Western: Revival of the poor
+old Romish Reich, so far as may be; and no hindrance upon Bavaria,
+next time. Have not we had enough of that old Friedrich, who stands
+perpetually upon STATUS QUO, and to both of us is a mere stoppage of the
+way?"
+
+Czarina Catharine took the hint; christened her next Grandson
+"Constantine" (to be in readiness); [This is the Constantine who
+renounced, in favor of the late Czar Nicholas; and proved a failure in
+regard to "New Greek Empire," and otherwise.] and from that time stiffly
+refused renewing her Treaty with Friedrich;--to Friedrich's great grief,
+seeing her, on the contrary, industrious to forward every German scheme
+of Joseph's, Bavarian or other, and foreshadowing to himself dismal
+issues for Prussia when this present term of Treaty should expire. As to
+Joseph, he was busy night and day,--really perilous to Friedrich and
+the independence of the German Reich. His young Brother, Maximilian, he
+contrives, Czarina helping, to get elected Co-adjutor of Koln; Successor
+of our Lanky Friend there, to be Kur-Koln in due season, and make the
+Electorate of Koln a bit of Austria henceforth. [Lengthy and minute
+account of that Transaction, in all the steps of it, in DOHM, i.
+295-39.] Then there came "PANIS-BRIEFE," [PANIS (Bread) BRIEF is a
+Letter with which, in ancient centuries, the Kaiser used to furnish an
+old worn-out Servant, addressed to some Monastery, some Abbot or Prior
+in easy circumstances: "Be so good as provide this old Gentleman with
+Panis (Bread, or Board and Lodging) while he lives." Very pretty in
+Barbarossa's time;--but now--!]--who knows what?--usurpations, graspings
+and pretensions without end:--finally, an open pretension to incorporate
+Bavaria, after all. Bavaria, not in part now, but in whole: "You, Karl
+Theodor, injured man, cannot we give you Territory in the Netherlands;
+a King there you shall be, and have your vote as Kur-Pfalz still; only
+think! In return for which, Bavaria ours in fee-simple, and so finish
+that?" Karl Theodor is perfectly willing,--only perhaps some others are
+not. Then and there, these threatening complexities, now gone like a
+dream of the night, were really life-perils for the Kingdom of Prussia;
+never to be lost sight of by a veteran Shepherd of the People. They
+kept a vigilant King Friedrich continually on the stretch, and were
+a standing life-problem to him in those final Years. Problem nearly
+insoluble to human contrivance; the Russian card having palpably
+gone into the other hand. Problem solved, nevertheless; it is still
+remembered how.
+
+On the development of that pretty Bavarian Project, the thing became
+pressing; and it is well known by what a stroke of genius Friedrich
+checkmated it; and produced instead a "FURSTENBUND," or general
+"Confederation of German Princes," Prussia atop, to forbid peremptorily
+that the Laws of the Reich be infringed. FURSTENBUND: this is the
+victorious summit of Friedrich's Public History, towards which all his
+efforts tended, during these five years: Friedrich's last feat in the
+world. Feat, how obsolete now,--fallen silent everywhere, except in
+German Parish-History, and to the students of Friedrich's character in
+old age! Had no result whatever in European History; so unexpected was
+the turn things took. A FURSTENBUND which was swallowed bodily within
+few years, in that World-Explosion of Democracy, and War of the Giants;
+and--unless Napoleon's "Confederation of the Rhine" were perhaps some
+transitory ghost of it?--left not even a ghost behind. A FURSTENBUND
+of which we must say something, when its Year comes; but obviously not
+much.
+
+Nor are the Domesticities, as set forth by our Prussian authorities,
+an opulent topic for us. Friedrich's Old Age is not unamiable; on the
+contrary, I think it would have made a pretty Picture, had there been
+a Limner to take it, with the least felicity or physiognomic
+coherency;--as there was not. His Letters, and all the symptoms we have,
+denote a sound-hearted brave old man; continually subduing to himself
+many ugly troubles; and, like the stars, always steady at his work. To
+sit grieving or desponding is, at all times, far from him: "Why despond?
+Won't it be all done presently; is it of much moment while it lasts?" A
+fine, unaffectedly vigorous, simple and manful old age;--rather serene
+than otherwise; in spite of electric outbursts and cloudy weather that
+could not be wanting.
+
+Of all which there is not, in this place, much more to be said.
+Friedrich's element is itself wearing dim, sombre of hue; and the
+records of it, too, seem to grow dimmer, more and more intermittent. Old
+friends, of the intellectual kind, are almost all dead; the new are
+of little moment to us,--not worth naming in comparison, The chief,
+perhaps, is a certain young Marchese Lucchesini, who comes about this
+time, ["Chamberlain [titular, with Pension, &c.], 9th May, 1780, age
+then 28" (Preuss, iv. 211);-arrived when or how is not said.]
+and continues in more and more favor both with Friedrich and his
+Successor,--employed even in Diplomatics by the latter. An accomplished
+young Gentleman, from Lucca; of fine intelligence, and, what was no less
+essential to him here, a perfect propriety in breeding and carriage. One
+makes no acquaintance with him in these straggling records, nor desires
+to make any. It was he that brought the inane, ever scribbling
+Denina hither, if that can be reckoned a merit. Inane Denina came as
+Academician, October, 1782; saw Friedrich, [Rodenbeck, iii. 285, 286.]
+at least once ("Academician, Pension; yes, yes!")--and I know not
+whether any second time.
+
+Friedrich, on loss of friends, does not take refuge in solitude;
+he tries always for something of substitute; sees his man once or
+twice,--in several instances once only, and leaves him to his pension in
+sinecure thenceforth. Cornelius de Pauw, the rich Canon of Xanten
+(Uncle of Anacharsis Klootz, the afterwards renowned), came on those
+principles; hung on for six months, not liked, not liking; and was
+then permitted to go home for good, his pension with him. Another,
+a Frenchman, whose name I forget, sat gloomily in Potsdam, after his
+rejection; silent (not knowing German), unclipt, unkempt, rough as
+Nebuchadnezzar, till he died. De Catt is still a resource; steady till
+almost the end, when somebody's tongue, it is thought, did him ill with
+the King.
+
+Alone, or almost alone, of the ancient set is Bastiani; a tall,
+black-browed man, with uncommonly bright eyes, now himself old, and a
+comfortable Abbot in Silesia; who comes from time to time, awakening
+the King into his pristine topics and altitudes. Bastiani's history is
+something curious: as a tall Venetian Monk (son of a tailor in Venice),
+he had been crimped by Friedrich Wilhelm's people; Friedrich found him
+serving as a Potsdam Giant, but discerned far other faculties in the
+bright-looking man, far other knowledges; and gradually made him what
+we see. Banters him sometimes that he will rise to be Pope one day, so
+cunning and clever is he: "What will you say to me, a Heretic, when you
+get to be Pope; tell me now; out with it, I insist!" Bastiani parried,
+pleaded, but unable to get off, made what some call his one piece of
+wit: "I will say: O Royal Eagle, screen me with thy wings, but spare me
+with thy sharp beak!" This is Bastiani's one recorded piece of wit; for
+he was tacit rather, and practically watchful, and did not waste his
+fine intellect in that way.
+
+Foreign Visitors there are in plenty; now and then something brilliant
+going. But the old Generals seem to be mainly what the King has for
+company. Dinner always his bright hour; from ten to seven guests daily.
+Seidlitz, never of intelligence on any point but Soldiering, is long
+since dead; Ziethen comes rarely, and falls asleep when he does; General
+Gortz (brother of the Weimar-Munchen Gortz); Buddenbrock (the King's
+comrade in youth, in the Reinsberg times), who has good faculty;
+Prittwitz (who saved him at Kunersdorf, and is lively, though stupid);
+General and Head-Equerry Schwerin, of headlong tongue, not witty, but
+the cause of wit; Major Graf von Pinto, a magniloquent Ex-Austrian ditto
+ditto: these are among his chief dinner-guests. If fine speculation
+do not suit, old pranks of youth, old tales of war, become the staple
+conversation; always plenty of banter on the old King's part;--who
+sits very snuffy (says the privately ill-humored Busching) and does not
+sufficiently abhor grease on his fingers, or keep his nails quite clean.
+Occasionally laughs at the Clergy, too; and has little of the reverence
+seemly in an old King. The truth is, Doctor, he has had his sufferings
+from Human Stupidity; and was always fond of hitting objects on the raw.
+For the rest, as you may see, heartily an old Stoic, and takes matters
+in the rough; avoiding useless despondency above all; and intent to have
+a cheerful hour at dinner if he can.
+
+Visits from his Kindred are still pretty frequent; never except on
+invitation. For the rest, completely an old Bachelor, an old Military
+Abbot; with business for every hour. Princess Amelia takes care of
+his linen, not very well, the dear old Lady, who is herself a cripple,
+suffering, and voiceless, speaking only in hoarse whisper. I think I
+have heard there were but twelve shirts, not in first-rate order,
+when the King died. A King supremely indifferent to small concerns;
+especially to that of shirts and tailorages not essential. Holds to
+Literature, almost more than ever; occasionally still writes; [For one
+instance: The famous Pamphlet, DE LA LITTERATURE ALLEMANDE (containing
+his onslaught on Shakspeare, and his first salutation, with the reverse
+of welcome, to Goethe's GOTZ VON BERLICHINGEN);--printed, under stupid
+Thiebault's care, Berlin, 1780. Stands now in _OEuvres de Frederic,_
+vii. 89-122. The last Pieces of all are chiefly MILITARY INSTRUCTIONS
+of a practical or official nature.] has his daily Readings, Concerts,
+Correspondences as usual:--readers can conceive the dim Household
+Picture, dimly reported withal. The following Anecdotes may be added as
+completion of it, or at least of all I have to say on it:--
+
+YOU GO ON WEDNESDAY, THEN?--"Loss of time was one of the losses
+Friedrich could least stand. In visits even from his Brothers and
+Sisters, which were always by his own express invitation, he would say
+some morning (call it Tuesday morning): 'You are going on Wednesday, I
+am sorry to hear' (what YOU never heard before)!--'Alas, your Majesty,
+we must!' 'Well, I am sorry: but I will lay no constraint on you.
+Pleasant moments cannot last forever!' And sometimes, after this had
+been agreed to; he would say: 'But cannot you stay till Thursday, then?
+Come, one other day of it!'--'Well, since your Majesty does graciously
+press!' And on Thursday, not Wednesday, on those curious terms, the
+visit would terminate. This trait is in the Anecdote-Books: but its
+authenticity does not rest on that uncertain basis; singularly enough,
+it comes to me, individually, by two clear stages, from Friedrich's
+Sister the Duchess of Brunswick, who, if anybody, would know it well!"
+[My informant is Sir George Sinclair, Baronet, of Thurso; his was the
+distinguished Countess of Finlater, still remembered for her graces of
+mind and person, who had been Maid-of-Honor to the Duchess.]
+
+DINNER WITH THE QUEEN.--The Queen, a prudent, simple-minded, worthy
+person, of perfect behavior in a difficult position, seems to have been
+much respected in Berlin Society and the Court Circles. Nor was the King
+wanting in the same feeling towards her; of which there are still
+many proofs: but as to personal intercourse,--what a figure has that
+gradually taken! Preuss says, citing those who saw: "When the King,
+after the Seven-Years War, now and then, in Carnival season, dined
+with the Queen in her Apartments, he usually said not a word to her. He
+merely, on entering, on sitting down at table and on leaving it, made
+the customary bow; and sat opposite to her. Once, in the Seventies
+[years 1770, years now past], the Queen was ill of gout; table was in
+her Apartments; but she herself was not there, she sat in an easy-chair
+in the drawing-room. On this occasion the King stepped up to the Queen,
+and inquired about her health. The circumstance occasioned, among the
+company present, and all over Town as the news spread, great wonder and
+sympathy (VERWUNDERUNG UND THEILNAHME). This is probably the last time
+he ever spoke to her." [Preuss, iv. 187.]
+
+THE TWO GRAND-NEPHEWS.--"The King was fond of children; liked to have
+his Grand-Nephews about him. One day, while the King sat at work in his
+Cabinet, the younger of the two, a boy of eight or nine [who died soon
+after twenty], was playing ball about the room; and knocked it once and
+again into the King's writing operation; who twice or oftener flung it
+back to him, but next time put it in his pocket, and went on. 'Please
+your Majesty, give it me back!' begged the Boy; and again begged:
+Majesty took no notice; continued writing. Till at length came, in the
+tone of indignation, 'Will your Majesty give me my ball, then?' The
+King looked up; found the little Hohenzollern planted firm, hands on
+haunches, and wearing quite a peremptory air. 'Thou art a brave little
+fellow; they won't get Silesia out of thee!' cried he laughing, and
+flinging him his ball." [Fischer, ii. 445 ("year 1780").]
+
+Of the elder Prince, afterwards Friedrich Wilhelm III. (Father of the
+now King), there is a much more interesting Anecdote, and of his own
+reporting too, though the precise terms are irrecoverable: "How the
+King, questioning him about his bits of French studies, brought down a
+LA FONTAINE from the shelves, and said, 'Translate me this Fable;' which
+the Boy did, with such readiness and correctness as obtained the King's
+praises: praises to an extent that was embarrassing, and made the honest
+little creature confess, 'I did it with my Tutor, a few days since!' To
+the King's much greater delight; who led him out to walk in the Gardens,
+and, in a mood of deeper and deeper seriousness, discoursed and exhorted
+him on the supreme law of truth and probity that lies on all men, and on
+all Kings still more; one of his expressions being, 'Look at this high
+thing [the Obelisk they were passing in the Gardens], its UPRIGHTness
+is its strength (SA DROITURE FAIT SA FORCE);' and his final words,
+'Remember this evening, my good Fritz; perhaps thou wilt think of it,
+long after, when I am gone.' As the good Friedrich Wilhelm III. declares
+piously he often did, in the storms of fate that overtook him." [R.
+F. Eylert, _Charakterzuge und historische Fragmente aus dem Leben
+des Konigs von Preussen Friedrich Wilhelm III._ (Magdeburg, 1843), i.
+450-456. This is a "King's Chaplain and Bishop Eylert:" undoubtedly he
+heard this Anecdote from his Master, and was heard repeating it; but the
+dialect his Editors have put it into is altogether tawdry, modern,
+and impossible to take for that of Friedrich, or even, I suppose, of
+Friedrich Wilhelm III.]
+
+Industrial matters, that of Colonies especially, of drainages,
+embankments, and reclaiming of waste lands, are a large item in the
+King's business,--readers would not guess how large, or how incessant.
+Under this head there is on record, and even lies at my hand translated
+into English, what might be called a Colonial DAY WITH FRIEDRICH (Day of
+July 23d, 1779; which Friedrich, just come home from the Bavarian War,
+spent wholly, from 5 in the morning onward, in driving about, in earnest
+survey of his Colonies and Land-Improvements in the Potsdam-Ruppin
+Country); curious enough Record, by a certain Bailiff or Overseer, who
+rode at his chariotside, of all the questions, criticisms and remarks
+of Friedrich on persons and objects, till he landed at Ruppin for the
+night. Taken down, with forensic, almost with religious exactitude, by
+the Bailiff in question; a Nephew of the Poet Gleim,--by whom it was
+published, the year after Friedrich's death; [Is in _Anekdoten und
+Karakterzuge,_ No. 8 (Berlin, 1787), pp. 15-79.] and by many others
+since. It is curiously authentic, characteristic in parts, though in
+its bald forensic style rather heavy reading. Luckier, for most readers,
+that inexorable want of room has excluded it, on the present occasion!
+[Printed now (in Edition 1868, for the first time), as APPENDIX to this
+Volume.]
+
+No reader adequately fancies, or could by any single Document be made to
+do so, the continual assiduity of Friedrich in regard to these interests
+of his. The strictest Husbandman is not busier with his Farm, than
+Friedrich with his Kingdom throughout;--which is indeed a FARM leased
+him by the Heavens; in which not a gate-bar can be broken, nor a stone
+or sod roll into the smallest ditch, but it is to his the Husbandman's
+damage, and must be instantly looked after. There are Meetings with the
+Silesian manufacturers (in Review time), Dialogues ensuing, several of
+which have been preserved; strange to read, however dull. There are many
+scattered evidences;--and only slowly does, not the thing indeed, but
+the degree of the thing, become fully credible. Not communicable, on the
+terms prescribed us at present; and must be left to the languid fancy,
+like so much else.
+
+Here is an Ocular View, here are several such, which we yet happily
+have, of the actual Friedrich as he looked and lived. These, at a cheap
+rate, throw transiently some flare of illumination over his Affairs and
+him: these let me now give; and these shall be all.
+
+
+
+
+PRINCE DE LIGNE, AFTER TEN YEARS, SEES FRIEDRICH A SECOND TIME; TIME;
+AND REPORTS WHAT WAS SAID.
+
+In Summer, 1780, as we mentioned, Kaiser Joseph was on his first Visit
+to the Czarina. They met at Mohilow on the Dnieper, towards the end of
+May; have been roving about, as if in mere galas and amusements (though
+with a great deal of business incidentally thrown in), for above a month
+since, when Prince de Ligne is summoned to join them at Petersburg. He
+goes by Berlin, stays at Potsdam with Friedrich for about a week; and
+reports to Polish Majesty these new Dialogues of 1780, the year after
+sending him those of Mahrisch-Neustadt of 1770, which we read above.
+Those were written down from memory, in 1785; these in 1786,--and
+"towards the end of it," as is internally evident. Let these also be
+welcome to us on such terms as there are.
+
+"Since your Majesty [Quasi-Majesty, of Poland] is willing to lose
+another quarter of an hour of that time, which you employ so well in
+gaining the love of all to whom you deign to make yourself known, here
+is my Second Interview. It can be of interest only to you, Sire, who
+have known the King, and who discover traits of character in what to
+another are but simple words. One finds in few others that confidence,
+or at least that kindliness (BONHOMIE), which characterizes your
+Majesty. With you, one can indulge in rest; but with the King of
+Prussia, one had always to be under arms, prepared to parry and to
+thrust, and to keep the due middle between a small attack and a grand
+defence. I proceed to the matter in hand, and shall speak to you of him
+for the last time.
+
+"He had made me promise to come to Berlin. I hastened thither directly
+after that little War [Potato-War], which he called 'an action where he
+had come as bailiff to perform an execution.' The result for him, as is
+known, was a great expense of men, of horses and money; some appearance
+of good faith and disinterestedness; little honor in the War; a little
+honesty in Policy, and much bitterness against us Austrians. The King
+began, without knowing why, to prohibit Austrian Officers from entering
+his Territories without an express order, signed by his own hand.
+Similar prohibition, on the part of our Court, against Prussian Officers
+and mutual constraint, without profit or reason. I, for my own part, am
+of confident humor; I thought I should need no permission, and I think
+still I could have done without one. But the desire of having a Letter
+from the great Friedrich, rather than the fear of being ill-received,
+made me write to him. My Letter was all on fire with my enthusiasm,
+my admiration, and the fervor of my sentiment for that sublime and
+extraordinary being; and it brought me three charming Answers from him.
+He gave me, in detail, almost what I had given him in the gross; and
+what he could not return me in admiration,--for I do not remember
+to have gained a battle,--he accorded me in friendship. For fear of
+missing, he had written to me from Potsdam, to Vienna, to Dresden, and
+to Berlin. [In fine, at Potsdam I was, SATURDAY, 9th JULY, 1780,
+waiting ready;--stayed there about a week.] ["9th (or 10th) July, 1780"
+(Rodenbeck, iii. 233): "Stayed till 16th."]
+
+"While waiting for the hour of 12, with my Son Charles and M. de Lille
+[Abbe de Lille, prose-writer of something now forgotten; by no means
+lyrical DE LISLE, of LES JARDINS], to be presented to the King, I went
+to look at the Parade;--and, on its breaking up, was surrounded, and
+escorted to the Palace, by Austrian deserters, and particularly from
+my own regiment, who almost caressed me, and asked my pardon for having
+left me.
+
+"The hour of presentation struck. The King received me with an
+unspeakable charm. The military coldness of a General's Head-quarters
+changed into a soft and kindly welcome. He said to me, 'He did not think
+I had so big a Son.'
+
+EGO. "'He is even married, Sire; has been so these twelve months.'
+
+KING. "'May I (OSERAIS-JE) ask you to whom?' He often used this
+expression, 'OSERAIS-JE;' and also this: 'If you permit me to have the
+honor to tell you, SI VOUS ME PERMETTES D'AVOIR L'HONNEUR DE VOUS DIRE.'
+
+EGO. "'To a Polish-Lady, a Massalska.'
+
+KING (to my Son). "'What, a Massalska? Do you know what her Grandmother
+did?'
+
+"'No, Sire,' said Charles.
+
+KING. "'She put the match to the cannon at the Siege of Dantzig with her
+own hand; [February, 1734, in poor Stanislaus Leczinski's SECOND fit of
+Royalty: supra vi. 465.] she fired, and made others fire, and
+defended herself, when her party, who had lost head, thought only of
+surrendering.'
+
+EGO. "'Women are indeed undefinable; strong and weak by turns,
+indiscreet, dissembling, they are capable of anything.' 'Without doubt,'
+said M. de Lille, distressed that nothing had yet been said to him,
+and with a familiarity which was not likely to succeed; 'Without doubt.
+Look--' said he. The King interrupted him. I cited some traits in
+support of my opinion,--as that of the woman Hachette at the Siege
+of Beauvais. [A.D. 1472; Burgundians storming the wall had their flag
+planted; flag and flag-bearer are hurled into the ditch by Hachette and
+other inspired women,--with the finest results.] The King made a little
+excursion to Rome and to Sparta: he liked to promenade there. After
+half a second of silence, to please De Lille, I told the King that M. de
+Voltaire died in De Lille's arms. That caused the King to address some
+questions to him; he answered in rather too long-drawn a manner, and
+went away. Charles and I stayed dinner." This is day first in Potsdam.
+
+"Here, for five hours daily, the King's encyclopedical conversation
+enchanted me completely. Fine arts, war, medicine, literature and
+religion, philosophy, ethics, history and legislation, in turns passed
+in review. The fine centuries of Augustus and of Louis XIV.; good
+society among the Romans, among the Greeks, among the French; the
+chivalry of Francois I.; the frankness and valor of Henri IV.; the
+new-birth (RENAISSANCE) of Letters and their revolution since Leo X.;
+anecdotes about the clever men of other times, and the trouble they
+give; M. de Voltaire's slips; susceptibilities of M. de Maupertuis;
+Algarotti's agreeable ways; fine wit of Jordan; D'Argens's hypochondria,
+whom the King would send to bed for four-and-twenty hours by simply
+telling him that he looked ill;--and, in fine, what not? Everything, the
+most varied and piquant that could be said, came from him,--in a most
+soft tone of voice; rather low than otherwise, and no less agreeable
+than were the movements of his lips, which had an inexpressible grace.
+
+"It was this, I believe, which prevented one's observing that he was,
+in fact, like Homer's heroes, somewhat of a talker (UN PEU BABILLARD),
+though a sublime one. It is to their voices, their noise and gestures,
+that talkers often owe their reputation as such; for certainly one could
+not find a greater talker than the King; but one was delighted at his
+being so. Accustomed to talk to Marquis Lucchesini, in the presence of
+only four or five Generals who did not understand French, he compensated
+in this way for his hours of labor, of study, of meditation and
+solitude. At least, said I to myself, I must get in a word. He had just
+mentioned Virgil. I said:--
+
+EGO. "'What a great Poet, Sire; but what a bad gardener!'
+
+KING. "'Ah, to whom do you tell that! Have not I tried to plant, sow,
+till, dig, with the GEORGICS in my hand? "But, Monsieur," said my man,
+"you are a fool (BETE), and your Book no less; it is not in that way
+one goes to work." Ah, MON DIEU, what a climate! Would you believe it,
+Heaven, or the Sun, refuse me everything? Look at my poor orange-trees,
+my olive-trees, lemon-trees: they are all starving.'
+
+EGO. "'It would appear, then, nothing but laurels flourish with
+you, Sire.' (The King gave me a charming look; and to cover an inane
+observation by an absurd one, I added quickly:) 'Besides, Sire, there
+are too many GRENADIERS [means, in French, POMEGRANATES as well as
+GRENADIERS,--peg of one's little joke!] in this Country; they eat up
+everything!' The King burst out laughing; for it is only absurdities
+that cause laughter.
+
+"One day I had turned a plate to see of what, porcelain it was. 'Where
+do you think it comes from?' asked the King.
+
+EGO. "'I thought it was Saxon; but, instead of two swords [the Saxon
+mark], I see only one, which is well worth both of them.'
+
+KING. "'It is a sceptre.'
+
+EGO. "'I beg your Majesty's pardon; but it is so much like a sword,
+that one could easily mistake it for one.' And such was really the
+case. This, it, is known, is the mark of the Berlin china. As the
+King sometimes PLAYED KING, and thought himself, sometimes, extremely
+magnificent while taking up a walking-stick or snuffbox with a few
+wretched little diamonds running after one another on it, I don't quite
+know whether he was infinitely pleased with my little allegory.
+
+"One day, as I entered his room, he came towards me, saying, 'I tremble
+to announce bad news to you. I have just heard that Prince Karl of
+Lorraine is dying.' [Is already dead, "at Brussels, July 4th;" Duke of
+Sachsen-Teschen and Wife Christine succeeded him as Joint-Governors in
+those parts.] He looked at me to see the effect this would have; and
+observing some tears escaping from my eyes, he, by gentlest transitions,
+changed the conversation; talked of war, and of the Marechal de Lacy.
+He asked me news about Lacy; and said, 'That is a man of the greatest
+merit. In former time, Count Mercy among yourselves [killed, while
+commanding in chief, at the Battle of Parma in 1733], Puysegur among
+the French, had some notions of marches and encampments; one sees from
+Hyginus's Book [ancient Book] ON CASTRAMETATION, that the Greeks also
+were much occupied with the subject: but your Marechal surpasses the
+Ancients, the Moderns and all the most famous men who have meddled with
+it. Thus, whenever he was your Quartermaster-General, if you will
+permit me to make the remark to you, I did not gain the least advantage.
+Recollect the two Campaigns of 1758 and 1759; you succeeded in
+everything. I often said to myself, 'Shall I never get rid of that man,
+then?' You yourselves got me rid of him; and--[some liberal or even
+profuse eulogy of Lacy, who is De Ligne's friend; which we can omit].
+
+"Next day the King, as soon as he saw me, came up; saying with the most
+penetrated air: 'If you are to learn the loss of a man who loved you,
+and who did honor to mankind, it will be better that it be from some
+one who feels it as deeply as I do. Poor Prince Karl is no more. Others,
+perhaps, are made to replace him in your heart; but few Princes will
+replace him with regard to the beauty of his soul and to all his
+virtues.' In saying this, his emotion became extreme. I said: 'Your
+Majesty's regrets are a consolation; and you did not wait for his death
+to speak well of him. There are fine verses with reference to him in the
+Poem, SUR L'ART DE LA GUERRE.' My emotion troubled me against my will;
+however, I repeated them to him.
+
+    ["Soutien de mes rivaux, digne appui de ta reine,
+     Charles, d'un ennemi sourd aux cris de la haine
+     Recois l'eloge"...
+
+(for crossing the Rhine in 1744): ten rather noble lines, still worth
+reading; as indeed the whole Poem well is, especially to soldier
+students (L'ART DE LA GUERRE, Chant vi.: _OEuvres de Frederic,_ x.
+273).] The Man of Letters seemed to appreciate my knowing them by heart.
+
+KING. "'His passage of the Rhine was a very fine thing;--but the poor
+Prince depended upon so many people! I never depended upon anybody but
+myself; sometimes too much so for my luck. He was badly served, not
+too well obeyed: neither the one nor the other ever was the case with
+me.--Your General Nadasti appeared to me a great General of Cavalry?'
+Not sharing the King's opinion on this point, I contented myself with
+saying, that Nadasti was very brilliant, very fine at musketry, and
+that he could have led his hussars to the world's end and farther (DANS
+L'ENFER), so well did he know how to animate them.
+
+KING. "'What has become of a brave Colonel who played the devil at
+Rossbach? Ah, it was the Marquis de Voghera, I think?--Yes, that's it;
+for I asked his name after the Battle.'
+
+EGO. "'He is General of Cavalry.'
+
+KING. "'PERDI! It needed a considerable stomach for fight, to charge
+like your Two Regiments of Cuirassiers there, and, I believe, your
+Hussars also: for the Battle was lost before it began.'
+
+EGO. "'Apropos of M. de Voghera, is your Majesty aware of a little thing
+he did before charging? He is a boiling, restless, ever-eager kind of
+man; and has something of the good old Chivalry style. Seeing that his
+Regiment would not arrive quick enough, he galloped ahead of it; and
+coming up to the Commander of the Prussian Regiment of Cavalry which
+he meant to attack, he saluted him as on parade; the other returned the
+salute; and then, Have at each other like madmen.'
+
+KING. "'A very good style it is! I should like to know that man; I would
+thank him for it.--Your General von Ried, then, had got the devil
+in him, that time at Eilenburg [spurt of fight there, in the Meissen
+regions, I think in Year 1758, when the D'Ahremberg Dragoons got so cut
+up], to let those brave Dragoons, who so long bore your Name with glory,
+advance between Three of my Columns?'--He had asked me the same question
+at the Camp of Neustadt ten years since; and in vain had I told him that
+it was not M. de Ried; that Ried did not command them at all; and that
+the fault was Marechal Daun's, who ought not to have sent them into that
+Wood of Eilenburg, still less ordered them to halt there without even
+sending a patrol forward. The King could not bear our General von Ried,
+who had much displeased him as Minister at Berlin; and it was his way to
+put down everything to the account of people he disliked.
+
+KING. "'When I think of those devils of Saxon Camps [Summer,
+1760],--they were unattackable citadels! If, at Torgau, M. de Lacy had
+still been Quartermaster-General, I should not have attempted to attack
+him. But there I saw at once the Camp was ill chosen.'
+
+EGO. "'The superior reputation of Camps sometimes causes a desire to
+attempt them. For instance, I ask your Majesty's pardon, but I have
+always thought you would at last have attempted that of Plauen, had the
+War continued.'
+
+KING. "'Oh, no, indeed! There was no way of taking that one.'
+
+EGO. "'Does n't your Majesty think: With a good battery on the heights
+of Dolschen, which commanded us; with some battalions, ranked behind
+each other in the Ravine, attacking a quarter of an hour before daybreak
+[and so forth, at some length,--excellent for soldier readers who
+know the Plauen Chasm], you could have flung us out of that almost
+impregnable Place of Refuge?'
+
+KING. "'And your battery on the Windberg, which would have scourged my
+poor battalions, all the while, in your Ravine?'
+
+EGO. "'But, Sire, the night?'
+
+KING. "'Oh, you could not miss us even by grope. That big hollow that
+goes from Burg, and even from Potschappel,--it would have poured like a
+water-spout [or fire-spout] over us. You see, I am not so brave as you
+think.'
+
+"The Kaiser had set out for his Interview [First Interview, and indeed
+it is now more than half done, a good six weeks of it gone] with
+the Czarina of Russia. That Interview the King did not like [no
+wonder]:--and, to undo the good it had done us, he directly, and very
+unskilfully, sent the Prince Royal to Petersburg [who had not the least
+success there, loutish fellow, and was openly snubbed by a Czarina gone
+into new courses]. His Majesty already doubted that the Court of Russia
+was about to escape him:--and I was dying of fear lest, in the middle of
+all his kindnesses, he should remember that I was an Austrian. 'What,'
+said I to myself, 'not a single epigram on us, or on our Master? What a
+change!'
+
+"One day, at dinner, babbling Pinto said to the person sitting next him,
+'This Kaiser is a great traveller; there never was one who went so far.'
+'I ask your pardon, Monsieur,' said the King; 'Charles Fifth went to
+Africa; he gained the Battle of Oran.' And, turning towards me,--who
+couldn't guess whether it was banter or only history,--'This time,' said
+he, 'the Kaiser is more fortunate than Charles Twelfth; like Charles,
+he entered Russia by Mohilow; but it appears to me he will arrive at
+Moscow.'
+
+"The same Pinto, one day, understanding the King was at a loss whom to
+send as Foreign Minister some-whither, said to him: 'Why does not your
+Majesty think of sending Lucchesini, who is a man of much brilliancy
+(HOMME D'ESPRIT)?' 'It is for that very reason,' answered the King,
+'that I want to keep him. I had rather send you than him, or a dull
+fellow like Monsieur--' I forget whom, but believe it is one whom he did
+appoint Minister somewhere.
+
+"M. de Lucchesini, by the charm of his conversation, brought out that of
+the King's. He knew what topics were agreeable to the King; and then,
+he knew how to listen; which is not so easy as one thinks, and which no
+stupid man was ever capable of. He was as agreeable to everybody as to
+his Majesty, by his seductive manners and by the graces of his mind.
+Pinto, who had nothing to risk, permitted himself everything. Says he:
+'Ask the Austrian General, Sire, all he saw me do when in the service of
+the Kaiser.'
+
+EGO. "'A fire-work at my Wedding, was n't that it, my dear Pinto?'
+
+KING (interrupting). "'Do me the honor to say whether it was
+successful?'
+
+EGO. "'No, Sire; it even alarmed all my relations, who thought it a bad
+omen. Monsieur the Major here had struck out the idea of joining Two
+flaming Hearts, a very novel image of a married couple. But the groove
+they were to slide on, and meet, gave way: my Wife's heart went, and
+mine remained.'
+
+KING. "'You see, Pinto, you were not good for much to those people, any
+more than to me.'
+
+EGO. "'Oh, Sire, your Majesty, since then, owes him some compensation
+for the sabre-cuts he had on his head.'
+
+KING. "'He gets but too much compensation. Pinto, did n't I send you
+yesterday some of my good Preussen honey?'
+
+PINTO. "'Oh, surely;--it was to make the thing known. If your Majesty
+could bring that into vogue, and sell it all, you would be the greatest
+King in the world. For your Kingdom produces only that; but of that
+there is plenty.'
+
+"'Do you know,' said the King, one day, to me,--'Do you know that the
+first soldiering I did was for the House of Austria? MON DIEU, how the
+time passes!'--He had a way of slowly bringing his hands together, in
+ejaculating these MON-DIEUS, which gave him quite a good-natured and
+extremely mild air.--(Do you know that I saw the glittering of the last
+rays of Prince Eugen's genius?'
+
+EGO. "'Perhaps it was at these rays that your Majesty's genius lit
+itself.'
+
+KING. "'EH, MON DIEU! who could equal the Prince Eugen?'
+
+EGO. "'He who excels him;--for instance, he who could win Twelve
+Battles!'--He put on his modest air. I have always said, it is easy
+to be modest, if you are in funds. He seemed as though he had not
+understood me, and said:--
+
+KING. "'When the cabal which, during forty years, the Prince had always
+had to struggle with in his Army, were plotting mischief on him, they
+used to take advantage of the evening time, when his spirits, brisk
+enough in the morning, were jaded by the fatigues of the day. It was
+thus they persuaded him to undertake his bad March on Mainz' [March not
+known to me].
+
+EGO. "'Regarding yourself, Sire, and the Rhine Campaign, you teach me
+nothing. I know everything your Majesty did, and even what you said.
+I could relate to you your Journeys to Strasburg, to Holland, and what
+passed in a certain Boat. Apropos of this Rhine Campaign, one of our old
+Generals, whom I often set talking, as one reads an old Manuscript, has
+told me how astonished he was to see a young Prussian Officer, whom he
+did not know, answering a General of the late King, who had given out
+the order, Not to go a-foraging: "And I, Sir, I order you to go; our
+Army needs it; in short, I will have it so (JE LE VEUX)!--"'
+
+KING. "'You look at me too much from the favorable side! Ask these
+Gentlemen about my humors and my caprices; they will tell you fine
+things of me.'
+
+"We got talking of some Anecdotes which are consigned to, or concealed
+in, certain obscure Books. 'I have been much amused, said I to the King,
+(with the big cargo of Books, true or false, written by French Refugees,
+which perhaps are unknown in France itself.' [Discourses a little on
+this subject.]
+
+KING. "'Where did you pick up all these fine old Pieces? These would
+amuse me on an evening; better than the conversation of my Doctor of the
+Sorbonne [one Peyrau, a wandering creature, not otherwise of the least
+interest to us], [Nicolai, _Anekdoten,_ ii. 133 n.] whom I have here,
+and whom I am trying to convert.'
+
+EGO. "'I found them all in a Bohemian Library, where I sat diverting
+myself for two Winters.'
+
+KING. "'How, then? Two Winters in Bohemia? What the devil were you doing
+there! Is it long since?'
+
+EGO. "'No, Sire; only a year or two [Potato-War time]! I had retired
+thither to read at my ease.'--He smiled, and seemed to appreciate my not
+mentioning the little War of 1778, and saving him any speech about it.
+He saw well enough that my Winter-quarters had been in Bohemia on that
+occasion; and was satisfied with my reticence. Being an old sorcerer,
+who guessed everything, and whose tact was the finest ever known, he
+discovered that I did not wish to tell him I found Berlin changed since
+I had last been there. I took care not to remind him that I was at
+the capturing of it in 1760, under M. de Lacy's orders [M. de Lacy's
+indeed!].--It was for having spoken of the first capture of Berlin, by
+Marshal Haddick [highly temporary as it was, and followed by Rossbach],
+that the King had taken a dislike to M. de Ried.
+
+"Apropos of the Doctor of the Sorbonne [uninteresting Peyrau] with whom
+he daily disputed, the King said to me once, 'Get me a Bishopric for
+him.' 'I don't think,' answered I, (that my recommendation, or that of
+your Majesty, could be useful to him with us.' 'Ah, truly no!' said the
+King: 'Well, I will write to the Czarina of Russia for this poor devil;
+he does begin to bore me. He holds out as Jansenist, forsooth. MON DIEU,
+what blockheads the present Jansenists are! But France should not have
+extinguished that nursery (FOYER) of their genius, that Port Royal,
+extravagant as it was. Indeed, one ought to destroy nothing! Why have
+they destroyed, too, the Depositaries of the graces of Rome and of
+Athens, those excellent Professors of the Humanities, and perhaps of
+Humanity, the Ex-Jesuit Fathers? Education will be the loser by it. But
+as my Brothers the Kings, most Catholic, most Christian, most Faithful
+and Apostolic, have tumbled them out, I, most Heretical, pick up as many
+as I can; and perhaps, one day, I shall be courted for the sake of them
+by those who want some. I preserve the breed: I said, counting my stock
+the other day, "A Rector like you, my Father, I could easily sell for
+300 thalers; you, Reverend Father Provincial, for 600; and so the rest,
+in proportion." When one is not rich, one makes speculations.'
+
+"From want of memory, and of opportunities to see oftener and longer the
+Greatest Man that ever existed [Oh, MON PRINCE!], I am obliged to stop.
+There is not a word in all this but was his own; and those who have seen
+him will recognize his manner. All I want is, to make him known to those
+who have not had the happiness to see him. His eyes are too hard in the
+Portraits: by work in the Cabinet, and the hardships of War, they had
+become intense, and of piercing quality; but they softened finely in
+hearing, or telling, some trait of nobleness or sensibility. Till his
+death, and but quite shortly before it,--notwithstanding many levities
+which he knew I had allowed myself, both in speaking and writing,
+and which he surely attributed only to my duty as opposed to my
+interest,--he deigned to honor me with marks of his remembrance; and has
+often commissioned his Ministers, at Paris and at Vienna, to assure me
+of his good-will.
+
+"I no longer believe in earthquakes and eclipses at Caesar's death,
+since there has been nothing of such at that of Friedrich the Great. I
+know not, Sire, whether great phenomena of Nature will announce the day
+when you shall cease to reign [great phenomena must be very idle if they
+do, your Highness!]--but it is a phenomenon in the world, that of a King
+who rules a Republic by making himself obeyed and respected for his
+own sake, as much as by his rights" (Hear, hear). [Prince de Ligne,
+_Memoires et Melanges,_ i. 22-40.]
+
+Prince de Ligne thereupon hurries off for Petersburg, and the final
+Section of his Kaiser's Visit. An errand of his own, too, the Prince
+had,--about his new Daughter-in-law Massalska, and claims of extensive
+Polish Properties belonging to her. He was the charm of Petersburg and
+the Czarina; but of the Massalska Properties could retrieve nothing
+whatever. The munificent Czarina gave him "a beautiful Territory in
+the Crim," instead; and invited him to come and see it with her, on his
+Kaiser's next Visit (1787, the aquatic Visit and the highly scenic).
+Which it is well known the Prince did; and has put on record, in his
+pleasant, not untrue, though vague, high-colored and fantastic way,--if
+it or he at all concerned us farther.
+
+
+
+
+HOW GENERAL VON DER MARWITZ, IN EARLY BOYHOOD, SAW FRIEDRICH THE GREAT
+THREE TIMES (1782-1785).
+
+General von der Marwitz, who died not many years ago, is of the
+old Marwitz kindred, several of whom we have known for their rugged
+honesties, genialities and peculiar ways. This General, it appears,
+had left a kind of Autobiography; which friends of his thought might be
+useful to the Prussian Public, after those Radical distractions which
+burst out in 1848 and onwards; and a first Volume of the MARWITZ
+POSTHUMOUS PAPERS was printed accordingly, [NACHLASS DES GENERAL VON DER
+MARWITZ (Berlin, 1852), 1 vol. 8vo.]--whether any more I have not
+heard; though I found this first Volume an excellent substantial bit of
+reading; and the Author a fine old Prussian Gentleman, very analogous
+in his structure to the fine old English ditto; who showed me the
+PER-CONTRA side of this and the other much-celebrated modern Prussian
+person and thing, Prince Hardenberg, Johannes von Muller and the
+like;--and yielded more especially the following Three Reminiscences
+of Friedrich, beautiful little Pictures, bathed in morning light, and
+evidently true to the life:--
+
+1. JUNE, 1782 OR 1783. "The first time I saw him was in 1782 (or it
+might be 1783, in my sixth year)," middle of June, whichever year, "as
+he was returning from his Annual Review in Preussen [WEST-Preussen,
+never revisits the Konigsberg region], and stopped to change horses
+at Dolgelin." Dolgelin is in Mullrose Country, westward of
+Frankfurt-on-Oder; our Marwitz Schloss not far from it. "I had been
+sent with Mamsell Benezet," my French Governess; "and, along with the
+Clergyman of Dolgelin, we waited for the King.
+
+"The King, on his journeys, generally preferred, whether at midday or
+for the night, to halt in some Country place, and at the Parsonages most
+of all; probably because he was quieter there than in the Towns. To
+the Clergyman this was always a piece of luck; not only because, if he
+pleased the King, he might chance to get promoted; but because he was
+sure of profitable payment, at any rate; the King always ordering 50
+thalers [say 10 guineas] for his noon halt, and for his night's lodging
+100. The little that the King ate was paid for over and above. It is
+true, his Suite expected to be well treated; but this consisted only of
+one or two individuals. Now, the King had been wont almost always, on
+these journeys homewards, to pass the last night of his expedition with
+the Clergyman of Dolgelin; and had done so last year, with this present
+one who was then just installed; with him, as with his predecessor, the
+King had talked kindly, and the 100 thalers were duly remembered. Our
+good Parson flattered himself, therefore, that this time too the same
+would happen; and he had made all preparations accordingly.
+
+"So we waited there, and a crowd of people with us. The team of horses
+stood all ready (peasants' horses, poor little cats of things, but the
+best that could be picked, for there were then no post-horses THAT COULD
+RUN FAST);--the country-fellows that were to ride postilion all decked,
+and ten head of horses for the King's coach: wheelers, four, which the
+coachman drove from his box; then two successive pairs before, on each
+pair a postilion-peasant; and upon the third pair, foremost of all, the
+King's outriders were to go.
+
+"And now, at last, came the FELDJAGER [Chacer, Hunting-groom], with his
+big whip, on a peasant's, horse, a peasant with him as attendant. All
+blazing with heat, he dismounted; said, The King would be here in five
+minutes; looked at the relays, and the fellows with the water-buckets,
+who were to splash the wheels; gulped down a quart of beer; and so,
+his saddle in the interim having been fixed on another horse, sprang up
+again, and off at a gallop. The King, then, was NOT to stay in Dolgelin!
+Soon came the Page, mounted in like style; a youth of 17 or 18; utterly
+exhausted; had to be lifted down from his horse, and again helped upon
+the fresh one, being scarcely able to stand;--and close on the rear
+of him arrived the King. He was sitting alone in an old-fashioned
+glass-coach, what they call a VIS-A-VIS (a narrow carriage, two seats
+fore and aft, and on each of them room for only one person). The coach
+was very long, like all the old carriages of that time; between the
+driver's box and the body of the coach was a space of at least four
+feet; the body itself was of pear-shape, peaked below and bellied out
+above; hung on straps, with rolled knuckles [WINDEN], did not rest on
+springs; two beams, connecting fore wheels and hind, ran not UNDER the
+body of the coach, but along the sides of it, the hind-wheels following
+with a goodly interval.
+
+"The carriage drew up; and the King said to his coachman [the far-famed
+Pfund]: 'Is this Dolgelin?' 'Yes, your Majesty!'--'I stay here.'
+'No,' said Pfund; 'The sun is not down yet. We can get on very well
+to Muncheberg to-night [ten miles ahead, and a Town too, perfidious
+Pfund!]--and then to-morrow we are much earlier in Potsdam.' 'NA,
+HM,--well, if it must be so!'--
+
+"And therewith they set to changing horses. The peasants who were
+standing far off, quite silent, with reverently bared heads, came
+softly nearer, and looked eagerly at the King. An old Gingerbread-woman
+(SOMMELFRAU) of Lebbenichen [always knew her afterwards] took me in her
+arm, and held me aloft close to the coach-window. I was now at farthest
+an ell from the King; and I felt as if I were looking in the face of God
+Almighty (ES WAR MIR ALS OB ICH DEN LIEBEN GOTT ANSAHE). He was gazing
+steadily out before him," into the glowing West, "through the front
+window. He had on an old three-cornered regimental hat, and had put the
+hindward straight flap of it foremost, undoing the loop, so that this
+flap hung down in front, and screened him from the sun. The hat-strings
+(HUT-CORDONS," trimmings of silver or gold cord) "had got torn loose,
+and were fluttering about on this down-hanging front flap; the white
+feather in the hat was tattered and dirty; the plain blue uniform, with
+red cuffs, red collar and gold shoulder-bands [epaulettes WITHOUT
+bush at the end], was old and dusty, the yellow waistcoat covered with
+snuff;--for the rest, he had black-velvet breeches [and, of course, the
+perpetual BOOTS, of which he would allow no polishing or blacking, still
+less any change for new ones while they would hang together]. I thought
+always he would speak to me. The old woman could not long hold me up;
+and so she set me down again. Then the King looked at the Clergyman,
+beckoned him near, and asked, Whose child it was? (Herr von Marwitz of
+Friedersdorf's.)--'Is that the General?' 'No, the Chamberlain.' The King
+made no answer: he could not bear Chamberlains, whom he considered as
+idle fellows. The new horses were yoked; away they went. All day the
+peasants had been talking of the King, how he would bring this and that
+into order, and pull everybody over the coals who was not agreeable to
+them.
+
+"Afterwards it turned out that all Clergymen were in the habit of giving
+10 thalers to the coachman Pfund, when the King lodged with them: the
+former Clergyman of Dolgelin had regularly done it; but the new one,
+knowing nothing of the custom, had omitted it last year;--and that was
+the reason why the fellow had so pushed along all day that he could pass
+Dolgelin before sunset, and get his 10 thalers in Muncheberg from the
+Burgermeister there."
+
+2. JANUARY, 1785. "The second time I saw the King was at the Carnival of
+Berlin in 1785. I had gone with my Tutor to a Cousin of mine who was a
+Hofdame (DAME DE COUR) to the Princess Henri, and lived accordingly
+in the Prince-Henri Palace,--which is now, in our days, become the
+University;--her Apartments were in the third story, and looked out into
+the garden. As we were ascending the great stairs, there came dashing
+past us a little old man with staring eyes, jumping down three steps at
+a time. My Tutor said, in astonishment, 'That is Prince Henri!' We now
+stept into a window of the first story, and looked out to see what the
+little man had meant by those swift boundings of his. And lo, there came
+the King in his carriage to visit him.
+
+"Friedrich the Second NEVER drove in Potsdam, except when on journeys,
+but constantly rode. He seemed to think it a disgrace, and unworthy of a
+Soldier, to go in a carriage: thus, when in the last Autumn of his life
+(this very 1785) he was so unwell in the windy Sans-Souci (where there
+were no stoves, but only hearth-fires), that it became necessary to
+remove to the Schloss in Potsdam, he could not determine to DRIVE
+thither, but kept hoping from day to day for so much improvement as
+might allow him to ride. As no improvement came, and the weather grew
+ever colder, he at length decided to go over under cloud of darkness,
+in a sedan-chair, that nobody might notice him.--So likewise during the
+Reviews at Berlin or Charlottenburg he appeared always on horseback: but
+during the Carnival in Berlin, where he usually stayed four weeks, he
+DROVE, and this always in Royal pomp,--thus:--
+
+"Ahead went eight runners with their staves, plumed caps and
+runner-aprons [LAUFER-SCHURZE, whatever these are], in two rows. As
+these runners were never used for anything except this show, the office
+was a kind of post for Invalids of the Life-guard. A consequence of
+which was, that the King always had to go at a slow pace. His courses,
+however, were no other than from the Schloss to the Opera twice a week;
+and during his whole residence, one or two times to Prince Henri and the
+Princess Amelia [once always, too, to dine with his Wife, to whom he did
+not speak one word, but merely bowed at beginning and ending!]. After
+this the runners rested again for a year. Behind them came the Royal
+Carriage, with a team of eight; eight windows round it; the horses with
+old-fashioned harness, and plumes on their heads. Coachman and outriders
+all in the then Royal livery,--blue; the collar, cuffs, pockets, and all
+seams, trimmed with a stripe of red cloth, and this bound on both sides
+with small gold-cord; the general effect of which was very good. In the
+four boots (NEBENTRITTEN) of the coach stood four Pages, red with gold,
+in silk stockings, feather-hats (crown all covered with feathers), but
+not having plumes;--the valet's boot behind, empty; and to the rear of
+it, down below, where one mounts to the valet's boot [BEDIENTEN-TRITT,
+what is now become FOOT-BOARD], stood a groom (STALLKNECHT). Thus came
+the King, moving slowly along; and entered through the portal of the
+Palace. We looked down from the window in the stairs. Prince Henri stood
+at the carriage-door; the pages opened it, the King stepped out, saluted
+his Brother, took him by the hand, walked upstairs with him, and thus
+the two passed near us (we retiring upstairs to the second story), and
+went into the Apartment, where now Students run leaping about."
+
+3. MAY 23d, 1785. "The third time I saw him was that same year, at
+Berlin still, as he returned home from the Review. ["May 21st-23d"
+(Rodenbeck, iii. 327).] My Tutor had gone with me for that end to the
+Halle Gate, for we already knew that on that day he always visited his
+Sister, Princess Amelia. He came riding on a big white horse,--no doubt
+old CONDE, who, twenty years after this, still got his FREE-BOARD in the
+ECOLE VETERINAIRE; for since the Bavarian War (1778), Friedrich hardly
+ever rode any other horse. His dress was the same as formerly at
+Dolgelin, on the journey; only that the hat was in a little better
+condition, properly looped up, and with the peak (but not with the LONG
+peak, as is now the fashion) set in front, in due military style. Behind
+him were a guard of Generals, then the Adjutants, and finally the grooms
+of the party. The whole 'Rondeel' (now Belle-Alliance Platz) and the
+Wilhelms-Strasse were crammed full of people; all windows crowded, all
+heads bare, everywhere the deepest silence; and on all countenances an
+expression of reverence and confidence, as towards the just steersman
+of all our destinies. The King rode quite alone in front, and saluted
+people, CONTINUALLY taking off his hat. In doing which he observed a
+very marked gradation, according as the on-lookers bowing to him from
+the windows seemed to deserve. At one time he lifted the hat a very
+little; at another he took it from his head, and held it an instant
+beside the same; at another he sunk it as far as the elbow. But these
+motions lasted continually; and no sooner had he put on his hat, than
+he saw other people, and again took it off. From the Halle Gate to the
+Koch-Strasse he certainly took off his hat 200 times.
+
+"Through this reverent silence there sounded only the trampling of the
+horses, and the shouting of the Berlin street-boys, who went jumping
+before him, capering with joy, and flung up their hats into the air,
+or skipped along close by him, wiping the dust from his boots. I and my
+Tutor had gained so much room that we could run alongside of him, hat in
+hand, among the boys.--You see the difference between then and now.
+Who was it that then made the noise? Who maintained a dignified
+demeanor?--Who is it that bawls and bellows now? [Nobilities ought to
+be noble, thinks this old Marwitz, in their reverence to Nobleness. If
+Nobilities themselves become Washed Populaces in a manner, what are we
+to say?] And what value can you put on such bellowing?
+
+"Arrived at the Princess Amelia's Palace (which, lying in the
+Wilhelms-Strasse, fronts also into the Koch-Strasse), the crowd grew
+still denser, for they expected him there: the forecourt was jammed
+full; yet in the middle, without the presence of any police, there was
+open space left for him and his attendants. He turned into the Court;
+the gate-leaves went back; and the aged lame Princess, leaning on two
+Ladies, the OBERHOFMEISTERINN (Chief Lady) behind her, came hitching
+down the flat steps to meet him. So soon as he perceived her, he put his
+horse to the gallop, pulled up, sprang rapidly down, took off his hat
+(which he now, however, held quite low at the full length of his arm),
+embraced her, gave her his arm, and again led her up the steps. The
+gate-leaves went to; all had vanished, and the multitude still stood,
+with bared head, in silence, all eyes turned to the spot where he had
+disappeared; and so it lasted a while, till each gathered himself and
+peacefully went his way.
+
+"And yet there had nothing happened! No pomp, no fireworks, no
+cannon-shot, no drumming and fifing, no music, no event that had
+occurred! No, nothing but an old man of 73, ill-dressed, all dusty, was
+returning from his day's work. But everybody knew that this old man was
+toiling also for him; that he had set his whole life on that labor, and
+for five-and-forty years had not given it the slip one day! Every one
+saw, moreover, the fruits of this old man's labor, near and far,
+and everywhere around; and to look on the old man himself awakened
+reverence, admiration, pride, confidence,--in short all the nobler
+feelings of man." [_Nachlass des General von der Marwitz,_ i. 15-20.]
+
+This was May 21st, 1785; I think, the last time Berlin saw its King in
+that public manner, riding through the streets. The FURSTENBUND Affair
+is now, secretly, in a very lively state, at Berlin and over Germany at
+large; and comes to completion in a couple of months hence,--as shall be
+noticed farther on.
+
+
+
+
+GENERAL BOUILLE, HOME FROM HIS WEST-INDIAN EXPLOITS, VISITS FRIEDRICH
+(August 5th-11th, 1784).
+
+In these last years of his life Friedrich had many French of distinction
+visiting him. In 1782, the Abbe Raynal (whom, except for his power of
+face, he admired little); [Rodenbeck, iii. 277 n.] in 1786, Mirabeau
+(whose personal qualities seem to have pleased him);--but chiefly, in
+the interval between these two, various Military Frenchmen, now home
+with their laurels from the American War, coming about his Reviews:
+eager to see the Great Man, and be seen by him. Lafayette, Segur and
+many others came; of whom the one interesting to us is Marquis de
+Bouille: already known for his swift sharp operation on the English
+Leeward Islands; and memorable afterwards to all the world for his
+presidency in the FLIGHT TO VARENNES of poor Louis XVI. and his Queen,
+in 1791; which was by no means so successful. "The brave Bouille," as we
+called him long since, when writing of that latter operation, elsewhere.
+Bouille left MEMOIRES of his own: which speak of Friedrich: in the _Vie
+de Bouille,_ published recently by friendly hands: [Rene de Bouille,
+ESSAI SUR LA VIE DU MARQUIS DE BOUILLE (Paris, 1853)] there is Summary
+given of all that his Papers say on Friedrich; this, in still briefer
+shape, but unchanged otherwise, readers shall now see.
+
+"In July, 1784, Marquis de Bouille (lately returned from a visit to
+England), desirous to see the Prussian Army, and to approach the great
+Friedrich while it was yet time, travelled by way of Holland to Berlin,
+through Potsdam [no date; got to Berlin "August 6th;" [Rodenbeck, iii.
+309.] so that we can guess "August 5th" for his Potsdam day]. Saw, at
+Sans-Souci, in the vestibule, a bronze Bust of Charles XII.; in the
+dining-room, among other pictures, a portrait of the Chateauroux, Louis
+XV.'s first Mistress. In the King's bedroom, simple camp-bed, coverlet
+of crimson taffetas,--rather dirty, as well as the other furniture,
+on account of the dogs. Many books lying about: Cicero, Tacitus, Titus
+Livius [in French Translations]. On a chair, Portrait of Kaiser Joseph
+II.; same in King's Apartments in Berlin Schloss, also in the Potsdam
+New Palace: 'C'EST UN JEUNE HOMME QUE JE NE DOIS PAS PERDRE DE VUE.'
+
+"King entering, took off his hat, saluting the Marquis, whom
+a Chamberlain called Gortz presented [no Chamberlain; a
+Lieutenant-General, and much about the King; his Brother, the Weimar
+Gortz, is gone as Prussian Minister to Petersburg some time ago]. King
+talked about the War DES ISLES [my West-India War], and about England.
+'They [the English] are like sick people who have had a fever; and don't
+know how ill they have been, till the fit is over.' Fox he treated as
+a noisy fellow (DE BROUILLON); but expressed admiration of young Pitt.
+'The coolness with which he can stand being not only contradicted, but
+ridiculed and insulted, CELA PARAIT AU-DESSUS DE LA PATIENCE HUMAINE.'
+King closed the conversation by saying he would be glad to see me in
+Silesia, whither he was just about to go for Reviews [will go in ten
+days, August 15th].
+
+"Friedrich was 72," last January 24th. "His physiognomy, dress,
+appearance, are much what the numerous well-known Portraits represent
+him. At Court, and on great Ceremonies, he appears sometimes in
+black-colored stockings rolled over the knee, and rose-colored or
+sky-blue coat (BLEU CELESTE). He is fond of these colors, as his
+furniture too shows. The Marquis dined with the Prince of Prussia,
+without previous presentation; so simple are the manners of this Soldier
+Court. The Heir Presumptive lodges at a brewer's house, and in a very
+mean way; is not allowed to sleep from home without permission from the
+King."
+
+Bouille set out for Silesia 11th August; was at Neisse in good time.
+"Went, at 5 A.M. [date is August 19th, Review lasts till 24th],
+[Rodenbeck, iii. 310.] to see the King mount. All the Generals, Prince
+of Prussia among them, waited in the street; outside of a very simple
+House, where the King lodged. After waiting half an hour, his Majesty
+appeared; saluted very graciously, without uttering a word. This was
+one of his special Reviews [that was it!]. He rode (MARCHAIT) generally
+alone, in utter silence; it was then that he had his REGARD TERRIBLE,
+and his features took the impress of severity, to say no more. [Is
+displeased with the Review, I doubt, though Bouille saw nothing
+amiss;--and merely tells us farther:] At the Reviews the King inspects
+strictly one regiment after another: it is he that selects the very
+Corporals and Sergeants, much more the Upper Officers; nominating for
+vacancies what Cadets are to fill them,--all of whom are Nobles." Yes,
+with rare exceptions, all. Friedrich, democratic as his temper was, is
+very strict on this point; "because," says he repeatedly, "Nobles have
+honor; a Noble that misbehaves, or flinches in the moment of crisis, can
+find no refuge in his own class; whereas a man of lower birth always can
+in his." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ (more than once).] Bouille continues:--
+
+"After Review, dined with his Majesty. Just before dinner he gave to the
+assembled Generals the 'Order' for to-morrow's Manoeuvres [as we saw in
+Conway's case, ten years ago]. This lasted about a quarter of an hour;
+King then saluted everybody, taking off TRES-AFFECTUEUSEMENT his hat,
+which he immediately put on again. Had now his affable mien, and was
+most polite to the strangers present. At dinner, conversation turned
+on the Wars of Louis XIV.; then on English-American War,--King always
+blaming the English, whom he does not like. Dinner lasted three hours.
+His Majesty said more than once to me [in ill humor, I should almost
+guess, and wishful to hide it]: 'Complete freedom here, as if we were in
+our Tavern, Sir (ICI, TOUTE LIBERTE, MONSIEUR, COMME SI NOUS ETIONS AU
+CABARET)!' On the morrow," August 20th, "dined again. King talked of
+France; of Cardinal Richelieu, whose principles of administration he
+praised. Repeated several times, that 'he did not think the French
+Nation fit for Free Government.' At the Reviews, Friedrich did not
+himself command; but prescribed, and followed the movements; criticised,
+reprimanded and so forth. On horseback six hours together, without
+seeming fatigued.
+
+"King left for Breslau 25th August [24th, if it were of moment]. Bouille
+followed thither; dined again. Besides Officers, there were present
+several Polish Princes, the Bishop of the Diocese, and the Abbot
+Bastiani. King made pleasantries about religion [pity, that]; Bastiani
+not slow with repartees", of a defensive kind. "King told me, on one
+occasion, 'Would you believe it? I have just been putting my poor
+Jesuits' finances into order. They understand nothing of such things,
+CES BONS HOMMES. They are useful to me in forming my Catholic Clergy.
+I have arranged it with his Holiness the Pope, who is a friend of mine,
+and behaves very well to me.' Pointing from the window to the Convent of
+Capuchins, 'Those fellows trouble me a little with their bell-ringings.
+They offered to stop it at night, for my sake: but I declined. One must
+leave everybody to his trade; theirs is to pray, and I should have been
+sorry to deprive them of their chimes (CARILLON).'
+
+"The 20,000 troops, assembled at Breslau, did not gain the King's
+approval,"--far from it, alas, as we shall all see!" To some Chiefs of
+Corps he said, 'VOUS RESSEMBLEZ PLUS A DES TAILLEURS QU'A DES MILITAIRES
+(You are more like tailors than soldiers)!' He cashiered several,
+and even sent one Major-General to prison for six weeks." That of the
+tailors, and Major-General Erlach clapt in prison, is too true;--nor is
+that the saddest part of the Affair to us. "Bouille was bound now on
+an excursion to Prag, to a Camp of the Kaiser's there. 'Mind,' said the
+King, alluding to Bouille's BLUE uniform,--'mind, in the Country you
+are going to, they don't like the blue coats; and your Queen has even
+preserved the family repugnance, for she does not like them either.'
+[ESSAI SUR LA VIE DU MARQUIS DE BOUILLE, pp. l34-149.]
+
+"September 5th, 1784, Bouille arrived at Prag. Austrian Manoeuvres
+are very different; troops, though more splendidly dressed, contrast
+unfavorably with Prussians;"--unfavorably, though the strict King was so
+dissatisfied. "Kaiser Joseph, speaking of Friedrich, always admiringly
+calls him 'LE ROI.' Joseph a great questioner, and answers his own
+questions. His tone BRUSQUE ET DECIDE. Dinner lasted one hour.
+
+"Returned to Potsdam to assist at the Autumn Reviews", 21st-23d
+September, 1784. [Rodenbeck, iii. 313.] "Dinner very splendid,
+magnificently served; twelve handsome Pages, in blue or rose-colored
+velvet, waited on the Guests,--these being forty old rude Warriors
+booted and spurred. King spoke of the French, approvingly: 'But,' added
+he, 'the Court spoils everything. Those Court-fellows, with their red
+heels and delicate nerves, make very bad soldiers. Saxe often told me,
+In his Flanders Campaigns the Courtiers gave him more trouble than did
+Cumberland.' Talked of Marechal Richelieu; of Louis XIV., whose apology
+he skilfully made. Blamed, however, the Revocation of the Edict of
+Nantes. Great attachment of the 'Protestant Refugees' to France and its
+King. 'Would you believe it?' said he: 'Under Louis XIV. they and their
+families used to assemble on the day of St. Louis, to celebrate the
+FETE of the King who persecuted them!' Expressed pity for Louis XV., and
+praised his good-nature.
+
+"Friedrich, in his conversation, showed a modesty which seemed a little
+affected. 'S'IL M'EST PERMIS D'AVOIR UNE OPINION,' a common expression
+of his;--said 'opinion' on most things, on Medicine among others,
+being always excellent. Thinks French Literature surpasses that of the
+Ancients. Small opinion of English Literature: turned Shakspeare into
+ridicule; and made also bitter fun of German Letters,--their Language
+barbarous, their Authors without genius....
+
+"I asked, and received permission from the King, to bring my Son to be
+admitted in his ACADEMIE DES GENTILSHOMMES; an exceptional favor. On
+parting, the King said to me: 'I hope you will return to me Marechal de
+France; it is what I should like; and your Nation could n't do better,
+nobody being in a state to render it greater services.'"
+
+Bouille will reappear for an instant next year. Meanwhile he returns to
+France, "first days of October, 1784," where he finds Prince Henri; who
+is on Visit there for three months past. ["2d July, 1784," Prince Henri
+had gone (Rodenbeck, iii. 309).] A shining event in Prince Henri's Life;
+and a profitable; poor King Louis--what was very welcome in Henri's
+state of finance--having, in a delicate kingly way, insinuated into
+him a "Gift of 400,000 francs" (16,000 pounds): [Anonymous (De la
+Roche-Aymon), _Vie privee, politique et militaire du Prince Henri, Frere
+de Frederic II._ (a poor, vague and uninstructive, though authentic
+little Book: Paris, 1809), pp. 219-239.]--partly by way of retaining-fee
+for France; "may turn to excellent account," think some, "when a certain
+Nephew comes to reign yonder, as he soon must."
+
+What Bouille heard about the Silesian Reviews is perfectly true; and
+only a part of the truth. Here, to the person chiefly responsible, is
+an indignant Letter of the King's: to a notable degree, full of settled
+wrath against one who is otherwise a dear old Friend:--
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TO LIEUTENANT-GENERAL TAUENTZIEN INFANTRY INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF
+SILESIA.
+
+"POTSDAM, 7th September, 1784.
+
+"MY DEAR GENERAL VON TAUENTZIEN,--While in Silesia I mentioned to you,
+and will now repeat in writing, That my Army in Silesia was at no
+time so bad as at present. Were I to make Shoemakers or Tailors into
+Generals, the Regiments could not be worse. Regiment THADDEN is not
+fit to be the most insignificant militia battalion of a Prussian Army;
+ROTHKIRCH and SCHWARTZ"--bad as possible all of them--"of ERLACH, the
+men are so spoiled by smuggling [sad industry, instead of drilling],
+they have no resemblance to Soldiers; KELLER is like a heap of undrilled
+boors; HAGER has a miserable Commander; and your own Regiment is
+very mediocre. Only with Graf von Anhalt [in spite of his head], with
+WENDESSEN and MARGRAF HEINRICH, could I be content. See you, that is the
+state I found the Regiments in, one after one. I will now speak of their
+Manoeuvring [in our Mimic Battles on the late occasion]:--
+
+"Schwartz; at Neisse, made the unpardonable mistake of not sufficiently
+besetting the Height on the Left Wing; had it been serious, the Battle
+had been lost. At Breslau, Erlach [who is a Major-General, forsooth!],
+instead of covering the Army by seizing the Heights, marched off with
+his Division straight as a row of cabbages into that Defile; whereby,
+had it been earnest, the enemy's Cavalry would have cut down our
+Infantry, and the Fight was gone.
+
+"It is not my purpose to lose Battles by the base conduct (LACHETE) of
+my Generals: wherefore I hereby appoint, That you, next year, if I be
+alive, assemble the Army between Breslau and Ohlau; and for four days
+before I arrive in your Camp, carefully manoeuvre with the ignorant
+Generals, and teach them what their duty is. Regiment VON ARNIM and
+Garrison-Regiment VON KANITZ are to act the Enemy: and whoever does not
+then fulfil his duty shall go to Court-Martial,--for I should think it
+shame of any Country (JEDEN PUISSANCE) to keep such people, who trouble
+themselves so little about their business. Erlach sits four weeks longer
+in arrest [to have six weeks of it in full]. And you have to make known
+this my present Declared Will to your whole Inspection.--F." [Rodenbeck,
+iii. 311.]
+
+What a peppering is the excellent old Tauentzien getting! Here is a case
+for Kaltenborn, and the sympathies of Opposition people. But, alas,
+this King knows that Armies are not to be kept at the working point
+on cheaper terms,--though some have tried it, by grog, by sweetmeats,
+sweet-speeches, and found it in the end come horribly dearer! One thing
+is certain: the Silesian Reviews, next Year, if this King be alive,
+will be a terrible matter; and Military Gentlemen had better look to
+themselves in time! Kaltenborn's sympathy will help little; nothing
+but knowing one's duty, and visibly and indisputably doing it, will the
+least avail.
+
+Just in the days when Bouille left him for France, Friedrich ("October,
+1784") had conceived the notion of some general Confederation, or
+Combination in the Reich, to resist, the continual Encroachments of
+Austria; which of late are becoming more rampant than ever. Thus, in
+the last year, especially within the last six months, a poor Bishop of
+Passau, quasi-Bavarian, or in theory Sovereign Bishop of the Reich, is
+getting himself pulled to pieces (Diocese torn asunder, and masses of
+it forcibly sewed on to their new "Bishopric of Vienna"), in the most
+tragic manner, in spite of express Treaties, and of all the outcries
+the poor man and the Holy Father himself can make against it. [Dohm
+(DENKWURDIGKEITEN, iii. 46,--GESCHICHTE DER LETZTEN PERIODE FRIEDRICHS
+DES ZWEITEN) gives ample particulars. Dohm's first 3 volumes call
+themselves "History of Friedrich's last Period, 1778-1786;" and are
+full of Bavarian War, 3d vol. mostly of FURSTENBUND;--all in a candid,
+authentic, but watery and rather wearisome way.] To this of Passau, and
+to the much of PANIS-BRIEFE and the like which had preceded, Friedrich,
+though studiously saying almost nothing, had been paying the utmost of
+attention:--part of Prince Henri's errand to France is thought to
+have been, to take soundings on those matters (on which France proves
+altogether willing, if able); and now, in the general emotion about
+Passau, Friedrich jots down in a Note to Hertzberg the above idea; with
+order to put it into form a little, and consult about it in the
+Reich with parties interested. Hertzberg took the thing up with zeal;
+instructed the Prussian Envoys to inquire, cautiously, everywhere;
+fancied he did find willingness in the Courts of the Reich, in Hanover
+especially: in a word, got his various irons into the fire;--and had not
+proceeded far, when there rose another case of Austrian Encroachment,
+which eclipsed all the preceding; and speedily brought Hertzberg's irons
+to the welding-point. Too brief we cannot be in this matter; here are
+the dates, mostly from Dohm:--
+
+NEW-YEAR'S DAY, 1785, on or about that day, Romanzow, Son of our
+old Colberg and Anti-Turk friend, who is Russian "Minister in the
+Ober-Rheinish Circle," appears at the little Court of Zweibruck, with a
+most sudden and astounding message to the Duke there:--
+
+"Important bargain agreed upon between your Kaiser and his Highness of
+the Pfalz and Baiern; am commanded by my Sovereign Lady, on behalf of
+her friend the Kaiser, to make it known to you. Baiern all and whole
+made over to Austria; in return for which the now Kur-Baiern gets the
+Austrian Netherlands (Citadels of Limburg and Luxemburg alone excepted);
+and is a King henceforth, 'King of Burgundy' to be the Title, he and
+his fortunate Successors for all time coming. To your fortunate self, in
+acknowledgment of your immediate consent, Austria offers the free-gift
+of 100,000 pounds, and to your Brother Max of 50,000 pounds; Kur-Baiern,
+for his loyal conduct, is to have 150,000 pounds; and to all of you, if
+handsome, Austria will be handsome generally. For the rest, the thing is
+already settled; and your refusal will not hinder it from going forward.
+I request to know, within eight days, what your Highness's determination
+is!"
+
+His poor Highness, thunderstruck as may be imagined, asks:
+"But--but--What would your Excellency advise me?" "Have n't the least
+advice," answers his Excellency: "will wait at Frankfurt-on-Mayn, for
+eight days, what your Highness's resolution is; hoping it may be a wise
+one;--and have the honor at present to say Good-morning." Sudden, like a
+thunder-bolt in winter, the whole phenomenon. This, or JANUARY 3d,
+when Friedrich, by Express from Zweibruck, first heard of this, may be
+considered as birthday of a Furstenbund now no longer hypothetic, but
+certain to become actual.
+
+Zweibruck naturally shot off expresses: to Petersburg (no answer ever);
+to Berlin (with answer on the instant);--and in less than eight days,
+poor Zweibruck, such the intelligence from Berlin, was in a condition to
+write to Frankfurt: "Excellency; No; I do not consent, nor ever will."
+For King Friedrich is broad-awake again;--and Hertzberg's smithy-fires,
+we may conceive how the winds rose upon these, and brought matters to a
+welding heat!--
+
+The Czarina,--on Friedrich's urgent remonstrance, "What is this, great
+Madam? To your old Ally, and from the Guaranty and Author of the Peace
+of Teschen!"--had speedily answered: "Far from my thoughts to violate
+the Peace of Teschen; very far: I fancied this was an advantageous
+exchange, advantageous to Zweibruck especially; but since Zweibruck
+thinks otherwise, of course there is an end." "Of course;"--though my
+Romanzow did talk differently; and the forge-fires of a certain person
+are getting blown at a mighty rate! Hertzberg's operation was conducted
+at first with the greatest secrecy; but his Envoys were busy in all
+likely places, his Proposal finding singular consideration; acceptance,
+here, there,--"A very mild and safe-looking Project, most mild in tone
+surely!"--and it soon came to Kaunitz's ear; most unwelcome to the new
+Kingdom of Burgundy and him!
+
+Thrice over, in the months ensuing (April 13th, May 11th, June 23d), in
+the shape of a "Circular to all Austrian Ambassadors", [Dohm, iii. 64,
+68.] Kaunitz lifted up his voice in severe dehortation, the tone of him
+waxing more and more indignant, and at last snuffling almost tremulous
+quite into alt, "against the calumnies and malices of some persons,
+misinterpreters of a most just Kaiser and his actions." But as the
+Czarina, meanwhile, declared to the Reich at large, that she held, and
+would ever hold, the Peace of Teschen a thing sacred, and this or any
+Kingdom of Burgundy, or change of the Reichs Laws, impossible,--the
+Kaunitz clangors availed nothing; and Furstenbund privately, but at
+a mighty pace, went forward. And, JUNE 29th, 1785, after much
+labor, secret but effective, on the part of Dohm and others, Three
+Plenipotentiaries, the Prussian, the Saxon, the Hanoverian ("excellent
+method to have only the principal Three!" ) met, still very privately,
+at Berlin; and laboring their best, had, in about four weeks, a
+Furstenbund Covenant complete; signed, JULY 23d, by these Three,--to
+whom all others that approved append themselves. As an effective
+respectable number, Brunswick, Hessen, Mainz and others, did, [List of
+them in Dohm.]--had not, indeed, the first Three themselves,
+especially as Hanover meant England withal, been themselves moderately
+sufficient.--Here, before the date quite pass, are two Clippings which
+may be worth their room:--
+
+1. BOUILLE'S SECOND VISIT (Spring, 1785). May 10th, 1785,--just while
+FURSTENBUND, so privately, was in the birth-throes,--"Marquis de Bouille
+had again come to Berlin, to place his eldest Son in the ACADEMIE DES
+GENTILSHOMMES; where the young man stayed two years. Was at Potsdam" May
+13th-16th; [Rodenbeck, iii. 325.] "well received; dined at Sans-Souci.
+Informed the King of the Duc de Choiseul's death [Paris, May 8th). King,
+shaking his head, 'IL N'Y A PAS GRAND MAL.' Seems piqued at the Queen of
+France, who had not shown much attention to Prince Henri. Spoke of
+Peter the Great, 'whose many high qualities were darkened by singular
+cruelty.' When at Berlin, going on foot, as his custom was, unattended,
+to call on King Friedrich Wilhelm, the people in the streets crowded
+much about him. 'Brother,' said he to the King, 'your subjects are
+deficient in respect; order one or two of them to be hanged; it will
+restrain the others!' During the same visit, one day, at Charlottenburg;
+the Czar, after dinner, stepped out on a balcony which looked into
+the Gardens. Seeing many people assembled below, he gnashed his teeth
+(GRINCA DES DENTS), and began giving signs of frenzy. Shifty little
+Catharine, who was with him, requested that a certain person down
+among the crowd, who had a yellow wig, should be at once put away, or
+something bad would happen. This done, the Czar became quiet again. The
+Czarina added, he was subject to such attacks of frenzy; and that, when
+she saw it, she would scratch his head, which moderated him. 'VOILA
+MONSIEUR,' concluded the King, addressing me: 'VOILA LES GRANDS HOMMES!'
+
+"Bouille spent a fortnight at Reinsberg, with Prince Henri; who
+represents his Brother as impatient, restless, envious, suspicious, even
+timid; of an ill-regulated imagination",--nothing like so wise as some
+of us! "Is too apprehensive of war; which may very likely bring it on.
+On the least alarm, he assembles troops at the frontier; Joseph does the
+like; and so"--A notably splenetic little Henri; head of an Opposition
+Party which has had to hold its tongue. Cherishes in the silent depths
+of him an almost ghastly indignation against his Brother on some points.
+"Bouille returned to Paris June, 1785." [ESSAI SUR LA VIE DE BOUILLE
+(ubi supra).]
+
+2. COMTE DE SEGUR (on the road to Petersburg as French Minister) HAS
+SEEN FRIEDRICH: January 29th, 1785. Segur says: "With lively curiosity I
+gazed at this man; there as he stood, great in genius, small in stature;
+stooping, and as it were bent down under the weight of his laurels and
+of his long toils. His blue coat, old and worn like his body; his long
+boots coming up above the knee; his waistcoat covered with snuff, formed
+an odd but imposing whole. By the fire of his eyes, you recognized
+that in essentials he had not grown old. Though bearing himself like
+an invalid, you felt that he could strike like a young soldier; in his
+small figure, you discerned a spirit greater than any other man's....
+
+"If used at all to intercourse with the great world, and possessed of
+any elevation of mind, you have no embarrassment in speaking to a King;
+but to a Great Man you present yourself not without fear. Friedrich, in
+his private sphere, was of sufficiently unequal humor; wayward, wilful;
+open to prejudices; indulged in mockery, often enough epigrammatic upon
+the French;--agreeable in a high degree to strangers whom he pleased to
+favor; but bitterly piquant for those he was prepossessed against, or
+who, without knowing it, had ill-chosen the hour of approaching him. To
+me, luck was kind in all these points;" my Interview delightful, but not
+to be reported farther. [_"Memoires par M. le Comte de Segur_ (Paris,
+1826), ii. 133, 120:" cited in PREUSS, iv. 218. For date, see Rodenbeck,
+iii. 322, 323.]
+
+Except Mirabeau, about a year after this, Segur is the last
+distinguished French visitor. French Correspondence the King has
+now little or none. October gone a year, his D'Alembert, the last
+intellectual Frenchman he had a real esteem for, died. Paris and France
+seem to be sinking into strange depths; less and less worth hearing of.
+Now and then a straggling Note from Condorcet, Grimm or the like, are
+all he gets there.
+
+That of the Furstenbund put a final check on Joseph's notions of making
+the Reich a reality; his reforms and ambitions had thenceforth to
+take other directions, and leave the poor old Reich at peace. A mighty
+reformer he had been, the greatest of his day. Broke violently in upon
+quiescent Austrian routine, on every side: monkeries, school-pedantries,
+trade-monopolies, serfages,--all things, military and civil, spiritual
+and temporal, he had resolved to make perfect in a minimum of time.
+Austria gazed on him, its admiration not unmixed with terror. He rushed
+incessantly about; hardy as a Charles Twelfth; slept on his bearskin
+on the floor of any inn or hut;--flew at the throat of every Absurdity,
+however broad-based or dangerously armed, "Disappear, I say!" Will hurl
+you an Official of Rank, where need is, into the Pillory; sets him, in
+one actual instance, to permanent sweeping of the streets in Vienna.
+A most prompt, severe, and yet beneficent and charitable kind of man.
+Immensely ambitious, that must be said withal. A great admirer of
+Friedrich; bent to imitate him with profit. "Very clever indeed," says
+Friedrich; "but has the fault [a terribly grave one!] of generally
+taking the second step without having taken the first."
+
+A troublesome neighbor he proved to everybody, not by his reforms
+alone;--and ended, pretty much as here in the FURSTENBUND, by having,
+in all matters, to give in and desist. In none of his foreign Ambitions
+could he succeed; in none of his domestic Reforms. In regard to these
+latter, somebody remarks: "No Austrian man or thing articulately
+contradicted his fine efforts that way; but, inarticulately, the
+whole weight of Austrian VIS INERTIAE bore day and night against
+him;--whereby, as we now see, he bearing the other way with the force of
+a steam-ram, a hundred tons to the square inch, the one result was, To
+dislocate every joint in the Austrian Edifice, and have it ready for the
+Napoleonic Earthquakes that ensued." In regard to ambitions abroad it
+was no better. The Dutch fired upon his Scheld Frigate: "War, if
+you will, you most aggressive Kaiser; but this Toll is ours!"
+His Netherlands revolted against him, "Can holy religion, and old
+use-and-wont be tumbled about at this rate?" His Grand Russian
+Copartneries and Turk War went to water and disaster. His reforms, one
+and all, had to be revoked for the present. Poor Joseph, broken-hearted
+(for his private griefs were many, too), lay down to die. "You may put
+for epitaph," said he with a tone which is tragical and pathetic to us,
+"Here lies Joseph," the grandly attempting Joseph, "who could succeed
+in nothing." [Died, at Vienna, 20th February, 1790, still under
+fifty;--born there 13th March, 1741. Hormayr, _OEsterreichischer
+Plutarch,_ iv. (2tes) 125-223 (and five or six recent LIVES of Joseph,
+none of which, that I have seen, was worth reading, in comparison).] A
+man of very high qualities, and much too conscious of them. A man of
+an ambition without bounds. One of those fatal men, fatal to themselves
+first of all, who mistake half-genius for whole; and rush on the second
+step without having made the first. Cannot trouble the old King or us
+any more.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX.--FRIEDRICH'S LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH.
+
+To the present class of readers, Furstenbund is become a Nothing; to all
+of us the grand Something now is, strangely enough, that incidental item
+which directly followed, of Reviewing the Silesian soldieries, who had
+so angered his Majesty last year. "If I be alive next year!" said
+the King to Tauentzien. The King kept his promise; and the Fates had
+appointed that, in doing so, he was to find his--But let us not yet
+pronounce the word.
+
+AUGUST 16th, 1785, some three weeks after finishing the Furstenbund,
+Friedrich set out for Silesia: towards Strehlen long known to him and us
+all;--at Gross-Tinz, a Village in that neighborhood, the Camp and Review
+are to be. He goes by Crossen, Glogau; in a circling direction: Glogau,
+Schweidnitz, Silberberg, Glatz, all his Fortresses are to be inspected
+as well, and there is much miscellaneous business by the road. At
+Hirschberg, not on the military side, we have sight of him; the account
+of which is strange to read:--
+
+"THURSDAY, AUGUST 18th," says a private Letter from that little Town,
+[Given IN EXTENSO, Rodenbeck, iii. 331-333.] "he passed through here:
+concourse of many thousands, from all the Country about, had been
+waiting for him several hours. Outriders came at last; then he himself,
+the Unique; and, with the liveliest expression of reverence and love,
+all eyes were directed on one point. I cannot describe to you my
+feelings, which of course were those of everybody, to see him, the aged
+King; in his weak hand the hat; in those grand eyes such a fatherly
+benignity of look over the vast crowd that encircled his Carriage, and
+rolled tide-like, accompanying it. Looking round when he was past, I saw
+in various eyes a tear trembling. ["Alas, we sha'n't have him long!"]
+
+"His affability, his kindliness, to whoever had the honor of speech with
+this great King, who shall describe it! After talking a good while
+with the Merchants-Deputation from the Hill Country, he said, 'Is
+there anything more, then, from anybody?' Upon which, the President
+(KAUFMANNSALTESTE," Merchants'-Eldest) "Lachmann, from Greiffenberg,"
+which had been burnt lately, and helped by the King to rebuild itself,
+"stepped forward, and said, 'The burnt-out Inhabitants of Greiffenberg
+had charged him to express once more their most submissive gratitude for
+the gracious help in rebuilding; their word of thanks, truly, was of no
+importance, but they daily prayed God to reward such Royal beneficence.'
+The King was visibly affected, and said, 'You don't need to thank me;
+when my subjects fall into misfortune, it is my duty to help them up
+again; for that reason am I here.'"...
+
+Saturday 20th, he arrived at Tinz; had a small Cavalry Manoeuvre, next
+day; and on Monday the Review Proper began. Lasted four days,--22d-25th
+August, Monday to Thursday, both inclusive. "Head-quarter was in the
+DORF-SCHULZE'S (Village Mayor's) house; and there were many Strangers
+of distinction quartered in the Country Mansions round." Gross-Tinz is
+about 12 miles straight north from Strehlen, and as far straight east
+from the Zobtenberg: Gross-Tinz, and its Review of August, 1785, ought
+to be long memorable.
+
+How the Review turned out as to proficiency recovered, I have not heard;
+and only infer, by symptoms, that it was not unsatisfactory. The sure
+fact, and the forever memorable, is, That on Wednesday, the third day
+of it, from 4 in the morning, when the Manoeuvres began, till well after
+10, when they ended, there was a rain like Noah's; rain falling as from
+buckets and water-spouts; and that Friedrich (and perhaps most others
+too), so intent upon his business, paid not the least regard to it;
+but rode about, intensely inspecting, in lynx-eyed watchfulness of
+everything, as if no rain had been there. Was not at the pains even to
+put on his cloak. Six hours of such down-pour; and a weakly old man
+of 73 past. Of course he was wetted to the bone. On returning to
+head-quarters, his boots were found full of water; "when pulled off, it
+came pouring from them like a pair of pails."
+
+He got into dry clothes; presided in his usual way at dinner, which soon
+followed; had many Generals and guests,--Lafayette, Lord Cornwallis,
+Duke of York;--and, as might be expected, felt unusually feverish
+afterwards. Hot, chill, quite poorly all afternoon; glad to get to
+bed:--where he fell into deep sleep, into profuse perspiration, as his
+wont was; and awoke, next morning, greatly recovered; altogether well
+again, as he supposed. Well enough to finish his Review comfortably;
+and start for home. Went--round by Neisse, inspection not to be omitted
+there, though it doubles the distance--to Brieg that day; a drive of 80
+miles, inspection-work included. Thence, at Breslan for three days more:
+with dinners of state, balls, illuminations, in honor of the Duke
+of York,--our as yet last Duke of York, then a brisk young fellow of
+twenty-two; to whom, by accident, among his other distinctions, may
+belong this of having (most involuntarily) helped to kill Friedrich the
+Great!
+
+Back to Potsdam, Friedrich pushed on with business; and complained
+of nothing. Was at Berlin in about ten days (September 9th), for an
+Artillery Review; saw his Sister Amelia; saw various public works in a
+state of progress,--but what perhaps is medically significant, went in
+the afternoon to a kind of Spa Well they have at Berlin; and slept,
+not at the Palace, but at this Spa, in the hostelry or lodging-house
+attached. [Rodenbeck, IN DIE.] Next day (September 10th), the Artillery
+Manoeuvre was done; and the King left Berlin,--little guessing he had
+seen Berlin for the last time.
+
+The truth is, his health, unknown to him (though that of taking a Night
+at the Spa Well probably denotes some guess or feeling of the kind
+on his part), must have been in a dangerous or almost ruinous state.
+Accordingly, soon afterwards, September 18th-19th, in the night-time,
+he was suddenly aroused by a Fit of Suffocation (what they call
+STICKFLUSS); and, for some hours, till relief was got, everybody feared
+he would perish. Next day, there came gout; which perhaps he regarded
+almost as a friend: but it did not prove such; it proved the captain
+of a chaotic company of enemies; and Friedrich's end, I suppose,
+was already inexorably near. At the Grand Potsdam Review (22d-23d
+September), chief Review of all, and with such an affluence of Strangers
+to it this Autumn, he was quite unable to appear; prescribed the
+Manoeuvres and Procedures, and sorrowfully kept his room. [This of 23d
+September, 1785, is what Print-Collectors know loosely as "FRIEDRICH'S
+LAST REVIEW;"--one Cunningham, an English Painter (son of a Jacobite
+ditto, and himself of wandering habitat), and Clemens, a Prussian
+Engraver, having done a very large and highly superior Print of it, by
+way of speculation in Military Portraits (Berlin, 1787); in which,
+among many others, there figures the crediblest Likeness known to me
+of FRIEDRICH IN OLD AGE, though Friedrich himself was not there.
+(See PREUSS, iv. 242; especially see RODENBECK, iii. 337 n.)--As
+Crown-Prince, Friedrich had SAT to Pesne: never afterwards to any
+Artist.]
+
+Friedrich was always something of a Doctor himself: he had little faith
+in professional Doctors, though he liked to speak with the intelligent
+sort, and was curious about their science, And it is agreed he really
+had good notions in regard to it; in particular, that he very well
+understood his own constitution of body; knew the effects of causes
+there, at any rate, and the fit regimens and methods:--as an old man of
+sense will usually do. The complaint is, that he was not always faithful
+to regimen; that, in his old days at least, he loved strong soups, hot
+spicy meats;--finding, I suppose, a kind of stimulant in them, as others
+do in wine; a sudden renewal of strength, which might be very tempting
+to him. There has been a great deal of unwise babble on this subject,
+which I find no reason to believe, except as just said: In the fall of
+this year, as usual, perhaps rather later than usual,--not till November
+8th (for what reason so delaying, Marwitz told us already),--he withdrew
+from Sans-Souci, his Summer-Cottage; shut himself up in Potsdam Palace
+(Old Palace) for the winter. It was known he was very ailing; and that
+he never stirred out,--but this was not quite unusual in late winters;
+and the rumors about his health were vague and various. Now, as always,
+he himself, except to his Doctors, was silent on that subject. Various
+military Doctors, Theden, Frese and others of eminence, were within
+reach; but it is not known to me that he consulted any of them.
+
+Not till January, 1786, when symptoms worse than ever, of asthma, of
+dropsy, began to manifest themselves, did he call in Selle, the chief
+Berlin Doctor, and a man of real sagacity, as is still evident; who from
+the first concluded the disease to be desperate; but of course began
+some alleviatory treatment, the skilfulest possible to him. [Christian
+Gottlieb Selle, KRANKHEITSGESCHICHTE DES HOCHSTSEELIGEN KONIGS VAN
+PREUSSEN FRIEDRICHS DES ZWEYTEN MAJESTAT (Berlin, 1786); a very small
+Pamphlet, now very rare;--giving in the most distinct, intelligent,
+modest and conclusive way, an account of everything pertinent, and
+rigorously of nothing else.] Selle, when questioned, kept his
+worst fears carefully to himself: but the King noticed Selle's real
+opinion,--which, probably, was the King's own too;--and finding little
+actual alleviation, a good deal of trouble, and no possibility of a
+victorious result by this warfare on the outworks, began to be weary of
+Selle; and to turn his hopes--what hopes he yet had--on the fine weather
+soon due. He had a continual short small cough, which much troubled him;
+there was fear of new Suffocation-Fit; the breathing always difficult.
+
+But Spring came, unusually mild; the King sat on the southern balconies
+in the genial sun and air, looking over the bright sky and earth, and
+new birth of things: "Were I at Sans-Souci, amid the Gardens!" thought
+he. APRIL 17th, he shifted thither: not in a sedan, as Marwitz told us
+of the former journey; but "in his carriage, very early in the
+morning, making a long roundabout through various Villages, with
+new relays,"--probably with the motive Marwitz assigns. Here are two
+contemporaneous Excerpts:--
+
+1. MIRABEAU AT SANS-SOUCI. "This same day," April 17th, it appears,
+[Preuss: in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxv. 328 n.] "the King saw Mirabeau,
+for the second and last time. Mirabeau had come to Berlin 19th January
+last; his errand not very precise,--except that he infinitely wanted
+employment, and that at Paris the Controller-General Calonne, since so
+famous among mankind, had evidently none to offer him there. He seems to
+have intended Russia, and employment with the Czarina,--after viewing
+Berlin a little, with the great flashy eyesight he had. He first saw
+Friedrich January 25th. There pass in all, between Friedrich and him,
+seven Letters or Notes, two of them by the King; and on poor Mirabeau's
+side, it must be owned, there is a massively respectful, truthful and
+manly physiognomy, which probably has mended Friedrich's first opinion
+of him. [... "Is coming to me to-day; one of those loose-tongued
+fellows, I suppose, who write for and against all the world." (Friedrich
+to Prince Henri, "25 January, 1786:" _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvi. 522.)]
+This day, April 17th, 1786, he is at Potsdam; so far on the road to
+France again,--Mirabeau Senior being reported dangerously ill. 'My
+Dialogue with the King,' say the Mirabeau Papers, 'was very lively; but
+the King was in such suffering, and so straitened for breath, I was
+myself anxious to shorten it: that same evening I travelled on.'
+
+"Mirabeau Senior did not die at this time: and Controller-General
+Calonne, now again eager to shake off an importunate and far too
+clear-sighted Mirabeau Junior, said to the latter: 'Back to Berlin,
+could n't you? Their King is dying, a new King coming; highly important
+to us!'--and poor Mirabeau went. Left Paris again, in May; with money
+furnished, but, no other outfit, and more in the character of Newspaper
+Vulture than of Diplomatic Envoy," [Rodenbeck, iii. 343. Fils Adoptif,
+_Memoires de Mirabeau_ (Paris, 1834), iv. 288-292, 296.] as perhaps we
+may transiently see.
+
+2. MARIE ANTOINETTE AT VERSAILLES; TO HER SISTER CHRISTINE AT BRUSSELS
+(Husband and she, Duke and Duchess of Sachsen-Teschen, are Governors of
+the Netherlands):--
+
+MARCH 20th, 1786.... "There has been arrested at Geneva one Villette,
+who played a great part in that abominable Affair [of the Diamond
+Necklace, now emerging on an astonished Queen and world]. [Carlyle's
+_Miscellanies_ (Library Edition), v. 3-96,? DIAMOND NECKLACE. The
+wretched Cardinal de Rohan was arrested at Versailles, and put in the
+Bastille, "August 15th, 1785," the day before Friedrich set out for
+his Silesian Review; ever since which, the arrestments and judicial
+investigations have continued,--continue till "May 10th, 1786," when
+Sentence was given.] M. Target", Advocate of the enchanted Cardinal, "is
+coming out with his MEMOIR: he does his function; and God knows what are
+the lies he will produce upon us. There is a MEMOIR by that Quack of a
+Cagliostro, too: these are at this moment the theme of all talk."
+
+APRIL 6th. "The MEMOIRS, the lies, succeed each other; and the Business
+grows darker, not clearer. Such a Cardinal of the Church! He brazenly
+maintains his distracted story about the Bosquet [Interview with me in
+person, in that Hornbeam Arbor at Versailles; to me inconceivable, not
+yet knowing of a Demoiselle d'Oliva from the streets, who had acted
+my part there], and my Assent [to purchase the Necklace for me]. His
+impudence and his audacity surpass belief. O Sister, I need all my
+strength to support such cruel assaults.... The King of Prussia's
+condition much engages attention (PREOCCUPE) here, and must do at Vienna
+too: his death is considered imminent. I am sure you have your eyes open
+on that side."...
+
+APRIL 17th (just while the Mirabeau Interview at Potsdam is going
+on).... "King of Prussia thought to be dying: I am weary of the
+political discussions on this subject, as to what effects his death must
+produce. He is better at this moment; but so weak he cannot resist long.
+Physique is gone; but his force and energy of soul, they say, have often
+supported him, and in desperate crises have even seemed to increase.
+Liking to him I never had: his ostentatious immorality (IMMORALITE
+AFFICHEE," ah, Madame!) "has much hurt public virtue [public
+orthodoxy, I mean], and there have been related to me [by mendacious or
+ill-informed persons] barbarities which excite horror. He has done us
+all a great deal of ill. He has been a King for his own Country; but
+a Trouble-feast for those about him;--setting up to be the arbiter of
+Europe; always undertaking on his neighbors, and making them pay the
+expense. As Daughters of Maria Theresa, it is impossible we can regret
+him, nor is it the Court of France that will make his funeral oration."
+[Comte de Hunolstein, _Correspondance inedite de Marie Antoinette_
+(Paris, 1864), pp. 136, 137, 149.--Hunolstein's Book, I since find, is
+mainly or wholly a Forgery! (NOTE of 1868.)]
+
+From Sans-Souci the King did appear again on horseback; rode out several
+times ("Conde," a fine English horse, one of his favorites, carrying
+him,--the Conde who had many years of sinecure afterwards, and was well
+known to Touring people): the rides were short; once to the New Palace
+to look at some new Vinery there, thence to the Gate of Potsdam,
+which he was for entering; but finding masons at work, and the street
+encumbered, did not, and rode home instead: this, of not above two
+miles, was his longest ride of all. Selle's attendance, less and less in
+esteem with the King, and less and less followed by him, did not quite
+cease till June 4th; that day the King had said to Selle, or to himself,
+"It is enough." That longest of his rides was in the third week after;
+June 22d, Midsummer-Day. July 4th, he rode again; and it was for the
+last time. About two weeks after, Conde was again brought out; but it
+would not do: Adieu, my Conde; not possible, as things are!--
+
+During all this while, and to the very end, Friedrich's Affairs, great
+and small, were, in every branch and item, guided on by him, with a
+perfection not surpassed in his palmiest days: he saw his Ministers, saw
+all who had business with him, many who had little; and in the sore coil
+of bodily miseries, as Hertzberg observed with wonder, never was the
+King's intellect clearer, or his judgment more just and decisive. Of his
+disease, except to the Doctors, he spoke no word to anybody. The body
+of Friedrich is a ruin, but his soul is still here; and receives his
+friends and his tasks as formerly. Asthma, dropsy, erysipelas, continual
+want of sleep; for many months past he has not been in bed, but sits day
+and night in an easy-chair, unable to get breath except in that posture.
+He said one morning, to somebody entering, "If you happened to want a
+night-watcher, I could suit you well."
+
+His multifarious Military businesses come first; then his three Clerks,
+with the Civil and Political. These three he latterly, instead of
+calling about 6 or 7 o'clock, has had to appoint for 4 each morning:
+"My situation forces me," his message said, "to give them this trouble,
+which they will not have to suffer long. My life is on the decline; the
+time which I still have I must employ. It belongs not to me, but to
+the State." [Preuss, iv. 257 n.] About 11, business, followed by short
+surgical details or dressings (sadly insisted on in those Books, and
+in themselves sufficiently sad), being all done,--his friends or daily
+company are admitted: five chiefly, or (NOT counting Minister Hertzberg)
+four, Lucchesini, Schwerin, Pinto, Gortz; who sit with him about one
+hour now, and two hours in the evening again:--dreary company to our
+minds, perhaps not quite so dreary to the King's; but they are all he
+has left. And he talks cheerfully with them "on Literature, History,
+on the topics of the day, or whatever topic rises, as if there were no
+sickness here." A man adjusted to his hard circumstances; and bearing
+himself manlike and kinglike among them.
+
+He well knew himself to be dying; but some think, expected that the end
+might be a little farther off. There is a grand simplicity of stoicism
+in him; coming as if by nature, or by long SECOND-nature; finely
+unconscious of itself, and finding nothing of peculiar in this new trial
+laid on it. From of old, Life has been infinitely contemptible to him.
+In death, I think, he has neither fear nor hope. Atheism, truly, he
+never could abide: to him, as to all of us, it was flatly inconceivable
+that intellect, moral emotion, could have been put into HIM by an Entity
+that had none of its own. But there, pretty much, his Theism seems to
+have stopped. Instinctively, too, he believed, no man more firmly,
+that Right alone has ultimately any strength in this world: ultimately,
+yes;--but for him and his poor brief interests, what good was it? Hope
+for himself in Divine Justice, in Divine Providence, I think he had not
+practically any; that the unfathomable Demiurgus should concern himself
+with such a set of paltry ill-given animalcules as oneself and mankind
+are, this also, as we have often noticed, is in the main incredible to
+him.
+
+A sad Creed, this of the King's;--he had to do his duty without fee or
+reward. Yes, reader;--and what is well worth your attention, you will
+have difficulty to find, in the annals of any Creed, a King or man
+who stood more faithfully to his duty; and, till the last hour, alone
+concerned himself with doing that. To poor Friedrich that was all the
+Law and all the Prophets: and I much recommend you to surpass him,
+if you, by good luck, have a better Copy of those inestimable
+Documents!--Inarticulate notions, fancies, transient aspirations, he
+might have, in the background of his mind. One day, sitting for a while
+out of doors, gazing into the Sun, he was heard to murmur, "Perhaps I
+shall be nearer thee soon:"--and indeed nobody knows what his thoughts
+were in these final months. There is traceable only a complete
+superiority to Fear and Hope; in parts, too, are half-glimpses of a
+great motionless interior lake of Sorrow, sadder than any tears or
+complainings, which are altogether wanting to it.
+
+Friedrich's dismissal of Selle, June 4th, by no means meant that he had
+given up hope from medicine; on the contrary, two days after, he had a
+Letter on the road for Zimmermann at Hanover; whom he always remembers
+favorably since that DIALOGUE we read fifteen years ago. His first
+Note to Zimmermann is of June 6th, "Would you consent to come for a
+fortnight, and try upon me?" Zimmermann's overjoyed Answer, "Yes, thrice
+surely yes," is of June 10th; Friedrich's second is of June 16th, "Come,
+then!" And Zimmermann came accordingly,--as is still too well known.
+Arrived 23d June; stayed till 10th July; had Thirty-three Interviews or
+DIALOGUES with him; one visit the last day; two, morning and evening,
+every preceding day;--and published a Book about them, which made
+immense noise in the world, and is still read, with little profit
+or none, by inquirers into Friedrich. [Ritter von Zimmermann, _Uber
+Friedrich den Grossen und meine Unterredungen mit Ihm kurz von seinem
+Tode_ (1 vol. 8vo: Leipzig, 1788);--followed by _Fragmente uber
+Friedrich den Grossen_ (3 vols. 12mo: Leipzig, 1790); and by &c. &c.]
+Thirty-three Dialogues, throwing no new light on Friedrich, none of them
+equal in interest to the old specimen known to us.
+
+In fact, the Book turns rather on Zimmermann himself than on his Royal
+Patient; and might be entitled, as it was by a Satirist, DIALOGUES
+OF ZIMMERMANN I. AND FRIEDRICH II. An unwise Book; abounding in
+exaggeration; breaking out continually into extraneous sallies and
+extravagancies,--the source of which is too plainly an immense conceit
+of oneself. Zimmermann is fifteen years older since we last saw him; a
+man now verging towards sixty; but has not grown wiser in proportion.
+In Hanover, though miraculously healed of that LEIBESSCHADE, and full of
+high hopes, he has had his new tribulations, new compensations,--both
+of an agitating character. "There arose," he says, in reference to
+some medical Review-article he wrote, "a WEIBER-EPIDEMIK, a universal
+shrieking combination of all the Women against me:"--a frightful
+accident while it lasted! Then his little Daughter died on his hands;
+his Son had disorders, nervous imbecilities,--did not die, but did
+worse; went into hopeless idiotcy, and so lived for many years.
+Zimmermann, being dreadfully miserable, hypochondriac, what not, "his
+friends," he himself passive, it would seem, "managed to get a young
+Wife for him;" thirty years younger than he,--whose performances,
+however, in this difficult post, are praised.
+
+Lastly, not many months ago (Leipzig, 1785), the big FINAL edition of
+"SOLITUDE" (four volumes) has come out; to the joy and enthusiasm of all
+philanthropic-philosophic and other circulating-library creatures:--a
+Copy of which came, by course of nature, not by Zimmermann's help, into
+the hands of Catharine of Russia. Sublime imperial Letter thereupon,
+with 'valuable diamond ring;' invitation to come to Petersburg, with
+charges borne (declined, on account of health); to be imperial Physician
+(likewise declined);--in fine, continued Correspondence with Catharine
+(trying enough for a vain head), and Knighthood of the Order of St.
+Wladimir,--so that, at least, Doctor Zimmermann is RITTER Zimmermann
+henceforth. And now, here has come his new Visit to Friedrich the
+Great;--which, with the issues it had, and the tempestuous cloud of
+tumid speculations and chaotic writings it involved him in, quite upset
+the poor Ritter Doctor; so that, hypochondrias deepening to the abysmal,
+his fine intellect sank altogether,--and only Death, which happily
+followed soon, could disimprison him. At this moment, there is in
+Zimmermann a worse "Dropsy" of the spiritual kind, than this of the
+physical, which he has come in relief of!
+
+Excerpts of those Zimmermann DIALOGUES lie copiously round me, ready
+long ago,--nay, I understand there is, or was, an English TRANSLATION of
+the whole of them, better or worse, for behoof of the curious:--but
+on serious consideration now, I have to decide, That they are but as
+a Scene of clowns in the Elder Dramatists; which, even were it NOT
+overdone as it is, cannot be admitted in this place, and is plainly
+impertinent in the Tragedy that is being acted here. Something of Farce
+will often enough, in this irreverent world, intrude itself on the most
+solemn Tragedy; but, in pity even to the Farce, there ought at least to
+be closed doors kept between them.
+
+Enough for us to say, That Ritter Zimmermann--who is a Physician and a
+Man of Literary Genius, and should not have become a Tragic Zany--did,
+with unspeakable emotions, terrors, prayers to Heaven, and paroxysms
+of his own ridiculous kind, prescribe "Syrup of Dandelion" to the King;
+talked to him soothingly, musically, successfully; found the King a
+most pleasant Talker, but a very wilful perverse kind of Patient; whose
+errors in point of diet especially were enormous to a degree. Truth is,
+the King's appetite for food did still survive:--and this might have
+been, you would think, the one hopeful basis of Zimmermann's whole
+treatment, if there were still any hope: but no; Zimmermann merely, with
+uncommon emphasis, lyrically recognizes such amazing appetite in an old
+man overwhelmed by diseases,--trumpets it abroad, for ignorant persons
+to regard as a crime, or perhaps as a type generally of the man's past
+life, and makes no other attempt upon it;--stands by his "Extract of
+Dandelion boiled to the consistency of honey;" and on the seventeenth
+day, July 10th, voiceless from emotion, heart just breaking, takes
+himself away, and ceases. One of our Notes says:--
+
+"Zimmermann went by Dessau and Brunswick; at Brunswick, if he made speed
+thither, Zimmermann might perhaps find Mirabeau, who is still there, and
+just leaving for Berlin to be in at the death:--but if the Doctor and
+he missed each other, it was luckier, as they had their controversies
+afterwards. Mirabeau arrived at Berlin, July 21st: [Mirabeau, HISTOIRE
+SECRETE DE LA COUR DE BERLIN, tome iii. of _OEuvres de Mirabeau:_ Paris,
+1821, LETTRE v. p. 37.] vastly diligent in picking up news, opinions,
+judgments of men and events, for his Calonne;--and amazingly accurate,
+one finds; such a flash of insight has he, in whatever element, foul or
+fair.
+
+"JULY 9th, the day before Zimmerman's departure, Hertzberg had come
+out to Potsdam in permanence. Hertzberg is privately thenceforth in
+communication with the Successor; altogether privately, though no doubt
+Friedrich knew it well enough, and saw it to be right. Of course, all
+manner of poor creatures are diligent about their own bits of interests;
+and saying to themselves, 'A New Reign is evidently nigh!' Yes,
+my friends;--and a precious Reign it will prove in comparison:
+sensualities, unctuous religiosities, ostentations, imbecilities;
+culminating in Jena twenty years hence."
+
+Zimmermann haggles to tell us what his report was at Brunswick; says, he
+"set the Duke [ERBPRINZ, who is now Duke these six years past] sobbing
+and weeping;" though towards the Widow Duchess there must have been some
+hope held out, as we shall now see. The Duchess's Letter or Letters to
+her Brother are lost; but this is his Answer:--
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TO THE DUCHESS-DOWAGER OF BRUNSWICK.
+
+"SANS-SOUCI, 10th August, 1786.
+
+"MY ADORABLE SISTER,--The Hanover Doctor has wished to make himself
+important with you, my good Sister; but the truth is, he has been of no
+use to me (M'A ETE INUTILE). The old must give place to the young, that
+each generation may find room clear for it: and Life, if we examine
+strictly what its course is, consists in seeing one's fellow-creatures
+die and be born. In the mean while, I have felt myself a little easier
+for the last day or two. My heart remains inviolably attached to you, my
+good Sister. With the highest consideration,--My adorable Sister,--Your
+faithful Brother and Servant, "FRIEDRICH." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_
+xxvii. i. 352.]
+
+This is Friedrich's last Letter;--his last to a friend. There is one to
+his Queen, which Preuss's Index seems to regard as later, though without
+apparent likelihood; there being no date whatever, and only these words:
+"Madam,--I am much obliged by the wishes you deign to form: but a
+heavy fever I have taken (GROSSE FIEVRE QUE J'AI PRISE) hinders me from
+answering you." [Ib. xxvi. 62.]
+
+On common current matters of business, and even on uncommon, there
+continue yet for four days to be Letters expressly dictated by
+Friedrich; some about military matters (vacancies to be filled, new
+Free-Corps to be levied). Two or three of them are on so small a subject
+as the purchase of new Books by his Librarians at Berlin. One, and it
+has been preceded by examining, is, Order to the Potsdam Magistrates to
+grant "the Baker Schroder, in terms of his petition, a Free-Pass out of
+Preussen hither, for 100 bushels of rye and 50 of wheat, though Schroder
+will not find the prices much cheaper there than here." His last, of
+August 14th, is to De Launay, Head of the Excise: "Your Account of
+Receipts and Expenditures came to hand yesterday, 13th; but is too
+much in small: I require one more detailed,"--and explains, with brief
+clearness, on what points and how. Neglects nothing, great or small,
+while life yet is.
+
+TUESDAY, AUGUST 15th, 1786, Contrary to all wont, the King did not
+awaken till 11 o'clock. On first looking up, he seemed in a confused
+state, but soon recovered himself; called in his Generals and
+Secretaries, who had been in waiting so long, and gave, with his old
+precision, the Orders wanted,--one to Rohdich, Commandant of Potsdam,
+about a Review of the troops there next day; Order minutely perfect,
+in knowledge of the ground, in foresight of what and how the evolutions
+were to be; which was accordingly performed on the morrow. The Cabinet
+work he went through with the like possession of himself, giving, on
+every point, his Three Clerks their directions, in a weak voice, yet
+with the old power of spirit,--dictated to one of them, among other
+things, an "Instruction" for some Ambassador just leaving; "four quarto
+pages, which," says Hertzberg, "would have done honor to the most
+experienced Minister;" and, in the evening, he signed his Missives as
+usual. This evening still,--but--no evening more. We are now at the last
+scene of all, which ends this strange eventful History.
+
+Wednesday morning, General-Adjutants, Secretaries, Commandant, were
+there at their old hours; but word came out, "Secretaries are to wait:"
+King is in a kind of sleep, of stertorous ominous character, as if it
+were the death-sleep; seems not to recollect himself, when he does
+at intervals open his eyes. After hours of this, [Selle (ut sup.);
+Anonymous (Kletschke), LETZTE STUNDEN UND LEICHENBEGANGNISS FRIEDRICHS
+DES ZWEYTEN, (Potsdam, 1786); Preuss, iv. 264 et seq.; Rodenbeck, iii.
+363-366.] on a ray of consciousness, the King bethought him of Rohdich,
+the Commandant; tried to give Rohdich the Parole as usual; tried twice,
+perhaps three times; but found he could not speak;--and with a glance of
+sorrow, which seemed to say, "It is impossible, then!" turned his head,
+and sank back into the corner of his chair. Rohdich burst into tears:
+the King again lay slumberous;--the rattle of death beginning soon
+after, which lasted at intervals all day. Selle, in Berlin, was sent
+for by express; he arrived about three of the afternoon: King seemed a
+little more conscious, knew those about him, "his face red rather than
+pale, in his eyes still something of their old fire." Towards evening
+the feverishness abated (to Selle, I suppose, a fatal symptom); the
+King fell into a soft sleep, with warm perspiration; but, on awakening,
+complained of cold, repeatedly of cold, demanding wrappage after
+wrappage ("KISSEN," soft QUILT of the old fashion);--and on examining
+feet and legs, one of the Doctors made signs that they were in fact
+cold, up nearly to the knee. "What said he of the feet?" murmured the
+King some time afterwards, the Doctor having now stepped out of sight.
+"Much the same as before," answered some attendant. The King shook his
+head, incredulous.
+
+He drank once, grasping the goblet with both hands, a draught of
+fennel-water, his customary drink; and seemed relieved by it;--his last
+refection in this world. Towards nine in the evening, there had come on
+a continual short cough, and a rattling in the breast, breath more and
+more difficult. Why continue? Friedrich is making exit, on the common
+terms; you may HEAR the curtain rustling down. For most part he was
+unconscious, never more than half conscious. As the wall-clock above his
+head struck 11, he asked: "What o'clock?" "Eleven," answered they. "At
+4" murmured he, "I will rise." One of his dogs sat on its Stool near
+him; about midnight he noticed it shivering for cold: "Throw a quilt
+over it," said or beckoned he; that, I think, was his last completely
+conscious utterance. Afterwards, in a severe choking fit, getting at
+last rid of the phlegm, he said, "LA MONTAGNE EST PASSEE, NOUS IRONS
+MIEUX, We are over the hill, we shall go better now."
+
+Attendants, Hertzberg, Selle and one or two others, were in the outer
+room; none in Friedrich's but Strutzki, his Kammerhussar, one of Three
+who are his sole valets and nurses; a faithful ingenious man, as they
+all seem to be, and excellently chosen for the object. Strutzki, to save
+the King from hustling down, as he always did, into the corner of
+his chair, where, with neck and chest bent forward, breathing was
+impossible,--at last took the King on his knee; kneeling on the ground
+with his other knee for the purpose,--King's right arm round Strutzki's
+neck, Strutzki's left arm round the King's back, and supporting his
+other shoulder; in which posture the faithful creature, for above two
+hours, sat motionless, till the end came. Within doors, all is silence,
+except this breathing; around it the dark earth silent, above it the
+silent stars. At 20 minutes past 2, the breathing paused,--wavered;
+ceased. Friedrich's Life-battle is fought out; instead of suffering and
+sore labor, here is now rest. Thursday morning, 17th August, 1786, at
+the dark hour just named. On the 31st of May last, this King had reigned
+46 years. "He has lived," counts Rodenbeck, "74 years, 6 months and 24
+days."
+
+His death seems very stern and lonely;--a man of such affectionate
+feelings, too; "a man with more sensibility than other men!" But so had
+his whole life been, stern and lonely; such the severe law laid on him.
+Nor was it inappropriate that he found his death in that poor Silesian
+Review; punctually doing, as usual, the work that had come in hand. Nor
+that he died now, rather than a few years later. In these final days
+of his, we have transiently noticed Arch-Cardinal de Rohan, Arch-Quack
+Cagliostro, and a most select Company of Persons and of Actions, like an
+Elixir of the Nether World, miraculously emerging into daylight; and all
+Paris, and by degrees all Europe, getting loud with the DIAMOND-NECKLACE
+History. And to eyes of deeper speculation,--World-Poet Goethe's, for
+instance,--it is becoming evident that Chaos is again big. As has not
+she proved to be, and is still proving, in the most teeming way! Better
+for a Royal Hero, fallen old and feeble, to be hidden from such things.
+
+"Yesterday, Wednesday, August 16th," says a Note which now strikes us
+as curious, "Mirabeau, smelling eagerly for news, had ridden out towards
+Potsdam; met the Page riding furiously for Selle ('one horse already
+broken down,' say the Peasants about); and with beak, powerful beyond
+any other vulture's, Mirabeau perceived that here the end now was. And
+thereupon rushed off, to make arrangements for a courier, for flying
+pigeons, and the other requisites. And appeared that night at the
+Queen's Soiree in Schonhausen [Queen has Apartment that evening,
+dreaming of nothing], 'where,' says he, 'I eagerly whispered the French
+Minister,' and less eagerly 'MON AMI Mylord Dalrymple,' the English
+one;--neither of whom would believe me. Nor, in short, what Calonne will
+regret, but nobody else, could the pigeons be let loose, owing to
+want of funds.'" [Mirabeau, HISTOIRE SECRETE, &c. (LETTRE xiv.), pp.
+58-63.]--Enough, enough.
+
+Friedrich was not buried at Sans-Souci, in the Tomb which he had built
+for himself; why not, nobody clearly says. By his own express will,
+there was no embalming. Two Regiment-surgeons washed the Corpse,
+decently prepared it for interment: "At 8 that same evening, Friedrich's
+Body, dressed in the uniform of the First Battalion of Guards, and laid
+in its coffin, was borne to Potsdam, in a hearse of eight horses, twelve
+Non-commissioned Officers of the Guard escorting. All Potsdam was in the
+streets; the Soldiers, of their own accord, formed rank, and followed
+the hearse; many a rugged face unable to restrain tears: for the rest,
+universal silence as of midnight, nothing audible among the people but
+here and there a sob, and the murmur, 'ACH, DER GUTE KONIG!'
+
+"All next day, the Body lay in state in the Palace; thousands crowding,
+from Berlin and the other environs, to see that face for the last time.
+Wasted, worn; but beautiful in death, with the thin gray hair parted
+into locks, and slightly powdered. And at 8 in the evening [Friday,
+18th], he was borne to the Garnison-Kirche of Potsdam; and laid beside
+his Father, in the vault behind the Pulpit there," [Rodenbeck, iii. 365
+(Public Funeral was not till September 9th).] where the two Coffins are
+still to be seen.
+
+I define him to myself as hitherto the Last of the Kings;--when the
+Next will be, is a very long question! But it seems to me as if Nations,
+probably all Nations, by and by, in their despair,--blinded, swallowed
+like Jonah, in such a whale's-belly of things brutish, waste, abominable
+(for is not Anarchy, or the Rule of what is Baser over what is
+Nobler, the one life's misery worth complaining of, and, in fact, the
+abomination of abominations, springing from and producing all others
+whatsoever?)--as if the Nations universally, and England too if it hold
+on, may more and more bethink themselves of such a Man and his Function
+and Performance, with feelings far other than are possible at present.
+Meanwhile, all I had to say of him is finished: that too, it seems,
+was a bit of work appointed to be done. Adieu, good readers; bad also,
+adieu.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia,
+Vol. XXI. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle
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