History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21
by
Thomas Carlyle
Part 6 out of 7
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'0liva 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
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