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on 2014-11-14 09:17 GMT / http://hdl.
Thomas Carlyle
"
-- Which again produces no effect; the English Answer
being steadily, "Both Marriages, or none. "
And this, then, is what the Hotham mission is come
to? Good Dubourgay is home, recalled about a month
ago, "for the sake of his health,"* -- good old gentle-
* Townshend's polite Despatch to him, Whitehall, 21st April 1730.
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? CHAP. II. ] EXCELLENCY HOTHAM PROVES UNAVAILING. 281
S9th May 1780.
man, never to be heard of in Diplomatic History more.
Dubourgay went in the first days of May; and the
month is not out, when Hotham is off to the Camp of
Radewitz; leaving his Negotiation, as it were, extinct.
To the visible regret of the Berlin public generally; to
the grievous disappointment of Queen Sophie, of the
Crown-Prince and some others, -- not to speak of
Wilhelmina's feelings, which are unknown to us.
Regretful Berlin, Wilhelmina and Mamma among
the others, had, by accident, in these dejected circum-
stances, a strange Sign from the Heavens provided
them, one night, -- if we may be permitted to notice
it here. Monday, 29th May;-- and poor Queen Sophie,
we observe withal, is in the hands of the Monthly Nurse,
since Tuesday last! *
St. Peter's Church in Berlin has an Accident.
Monday, 29th May 1730, Friedrich Wilhelm and
the Crown-Prince and Party were at Potsdam, so far
on their way towards Radewitz. All is peaceable at
Potsdam that night: but it was a night of wild phe-
nomena at Berlin; or rather of one wild phenomenon,
the "Burning of the Sanct-Peters Kirche" which held
the whole City awake and in terror for its life. Dim
Fassmann becomes unusually luminous on this affair
(probably an eye-witness to it, poor old soul); and
enables us to fish-up one old Night of Berlin City and
* "Prince Ferdinand" (her last child, Father of him whose fate lay at
Jena seventy-six years afterwards), "born 23d May 1730. "
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? 282 SniPWRECK OP double-mArriAge PROJECT, [book vn.
29th May 1730.
its vanished populations into clear view again, if we
like.
For two years back Berlin had been diligently
building a non-plus-ultra of Steeples to that fine Church
of St. Peter's. Highest Steeple of them all; one of the
Steeples of the "World, in a manner; -- and Berlin was
now near ending it . Tower, or shaft, has been com-
,plete some time, interior fittings going on; and is just
about to get its ultimate apex, a "Crown Royal" set
on it by way of finis. For his Majesty, the great
-35dile, was much concerned in the thing; and had
given materials, multifarious helps: Three incomparable
Bells, especially, were his gift: melodious old Bells, of
distinguished tone, "bigger than the Great Bell of
Erfurt," than Tom of Lincoln, -- or, as brief popular
rumour has it, the biggest Bells in the world, at least
of such a tone. These Bells are hung, silent but ready
in their upper chamber of the Tower, and the gigantic
Crown or apex is to go on; then will the basket-work
of scaffolding be peeled away, and the Steeple stretch,
high and grand, into the air, for ages it is hoped.
Far otherwise. On Monday Evening, between eight
and nine, there gathered thunder over Berlin; wild
tumult of the elements: thunderbolt "thrice in swift
succession" struck the unfinished Steeple; in the "hood"
of which men thereupon noticed a light, as of a star,
or sparkle of the sun; and straightway, in spite of the
rain-torrents, there burst out blazes of flame. Blazes
unquenchable; grand yet perilous to behold. The fire-
drums beat, the alarm-bells clanged, and ceased not;
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? CHAP. II. ] EXCELLENCY HOTHAM PROVES UNAVAILING 283
? 29th May 1730.
all Berlin struggling there, all night, in vain. Such
volumes of smoke: "the heavens were black as if you
had hung them with mortcloth:" such roaring cataracts
of flame, "you could have picked up a copper doit at
the distance of 800 yards. " -- "Hiss -- s-- s! " What
hissing far aloft is that? That is the incomparable big
Bells melting. There they vanish, their fine tones
never to be tried more, and ooze through the redhot
ruin, "Hush -- sh -- sht! " the last sound heard from
them. And the Stem for holding that immense Crown-
royal,-- it is a bar and bars of iron, "weighing sixteen
hundredweight;" down it comes thundering, crashing
through the belly of St. Peter's, the fall of it like an
earthquake all round. And still the fire-drums beat,
and from all surviving Steeples of Berlin goes the
clangor of alarm; "none but the very young children
can have slept that night," says our vigilant old friend.
Wind was awake, too; kindling the neighbouring
streets; -- storming towards the Powder-Magazine;
where labour innumerable Artillerymen, "busy with
hides from the tanpits, with stable-dung, and other ma-
terial;" speed to them, we will say! Forty dwelling-
houses went; but not the Powder-Magazine; not Berlin
utterly (so to speak) by the Powder-Magazine. On
the morrow St. Peter's and neighbourhood lay black,
but still inwardly burning; not for three days more
could the ruins be completely quenched.
That was the news for Friedrich Wilhelm, before
sunrise, on the point of his departure for Miihlberg and
King August's scenic exhibitions. "Hm; -- but we
>
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? 284 shipwreck or double-mArriAge project, [bookvii.
29lh May 1730.
must go, all the same! We will rebuild it! " said he.
-- And truly he did so. And the polite King August,
sorry to hear of the Peterskirche, "gave him excellent
"sandstone from the quarries of Pirna," says Fassmann:
"great blocks came boating down the Elbe" from that
notable Saxon-Switzerland Country, notable to readers
here in time coming; and are to be found, as ashlar, in
the modern St. Peter's at Berlin; a fact which the
reader, till Pirna be better known to him, may remem-
ber if he likes. *
And now let us to Radewitz without delay.
* Fassmann, pp. 406-409.
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? CHAP. III. ]
June 1780.
CAMP OF RADEWITZ.
285CHAPTER HI.
CAMP OF RADEWITZ.
I
The Camp of Muhlberg, called more properly the
Camp of Radewitz, towards which. Eriedrich Wilhelm,
with English Hotham and many dignitaries are now
gone, was one of the sublimest scenic military exhibi-
tions in the history of the world; leaving all manner
of imitation tournaments, modern "tin-tournaments,"
out of sight; and perhaps equalling the Field of the
Cloth of Gold, or Barbarossa's Maintz Tournament in
ancient times. It lasted for a month, regardless of
expense, -- June month of the year 1730; -- and
from far and wide the idle of mankind ran, by the
thousand, to see it. Shall the thing be abolished utterly,
-- as perhaps were proper, had not our Crown-Prince
been there, with eyes very open to it, and yet with
thoughts very shut; -- or shall some flying trace of
the big Zero be given? Riddling or screening certain
cartloads of heavy old German printed-rubbish,* to omit
* Chiefly the terrible compilation called Helden- Staats- tmd Lebens-
Geschichte des Ac. Friedrichs dcs Audern (History Beroical, Political and
Biographical of Friedrich the Second), Frankfurt and Leipzig. 1758-1760,
vol. i. first half, pp. 171-210. There are Ten thick and thin Half-volumes,
and perhaps more. One of the most hideous imbroglios ever published
under the name of Book, -- without vestige of Index, and on paper that has
no margin and cannot stand ink, -- yet with many curious articles stuffed
blindly into the awful belly of it, like jewels into a rag-sack, or into ten
rag-sacks all In one; with far more authenticity than you could expect in
such case. Let us call it, for brevity, Helden-Geschichle, in future
references.
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? 286 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MAKRIAGE PROJECT, [book TO.
June 1730.
the Hotham Despatches, we obtain the following shovel-
ful of authentic particulars, perhaps not quite insup-
portable to existing mankind.
The exact size of the Camp of Badewitz I nowhere
find measured; but to judge on the map,* it must have
covered, with its appendages, some ten or twelve square
miles of ground. All on the Elbe, right bank of the
Elbe: Town of Miihlberg, chief Town of the District,
lying some ten miles northwest; then, not much beyond
it, Torgau; and then famed Wittenberg, all on the
northwest, farther down the River: and on the other
side, Meissen with its Potteries not far to the southeast
of you, up the River, on the Dresden hand. Nay per-
haps many of my readers have seen the place, and
not known, in their touring expeditions; which are now
blinder than ever, and done by steam, without even
eyesight, not to say intelligence. Precisely where the
railway from Leipzig to Dresden crosses the Elbe, --
there, if you happen to have daylight, is a flat, rather
clayey country, dirty-greenish, as if depastured partly
by geese; with a big full River Elbe sweeping through
it, banks barish for a mile or two; River itself swift,
sleek and of flint-colour; not unpleasant to behold, thus
far on its journey from the Bohemian Giant-Mountains
sea-ward: precisely there, when you have crossed the
Bridge, is the southmost corner of August the Strong's
Encampment, -- vanished now like the last flock of
geese that soiled and nibbled these localities; -- and,
* Map at p. 300.
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? CHAP. III. |
June 1730.
CAMP OF RADEWITZ.
287without knowing it, you are actually upon memorable
ground.
Actually, we may well say; apart from August and
his fooleries. For here also it was, on the ground now
under your eye, that Kurfilrst Johann Friedrich the
Magnanimous, having been surprised the day before at
public worship in the above-mentioned Town of Miihl-
berg, and completely beaten by Kaiser Karl the Fifth
and his Spaniards and Duke of Alba, did, on Monday
25th April 1547, ride forth as Prisoner to meet the
said Kaiser; and had the worst reception from him,
poor man. "Take pity on me, 0 God! This is what "it is come to? " the magnanimous beaten Kurfurst was
heard murmuring as he rode. At sight of the Kaiser,
he dismounted, pulled off his ironplated gloves, knelt,
and was for humbly taking the Kaiser's hand, to kiss
it. Kaiser would not; Kaiser looked thunderous tor-
nado on him, with hands rigidly in the vertical direc-
tion. The magnanimous Kurfurst arose therefore;
doffed his hat: "Great-mightiest (c/rossmachtigster) all-
"gracious Kaiser, I am your Majesty's prisoner," said
he, confining himself to the historical. "I am Kaiser
"now, then? " answered the sullen Tornado, with a
black brow and hanging under-jaw. -- "I request my
"imprisonment may be prince-like," said the poor
Prince. "It shall be as your deserts have been! " --
"I am in your power; you will do your pleasure on
"me," answered the other; -- and was led away, to
hard durance and peril of life for five years to come;
his Cousin Moritz having expertly jockeyed his Elec-
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? 288 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT. |book vII.
June 1730.
toral dignities and territories from him in the interim;*
-- as was told above, long since.
Expert Cousin Moritz: in virtue of which same
Moritz, or rather perhaps in vice of him, August the
Strong is even now Elector of Saxony; Papist, Pseudo-
Papist Apostate King of Poland, and Non-plus-ultra of
"gluttonous Royal Flunkeys;" doomed to do these
fooleries on God's Earth for a time. For the sins of
the fathers are visited upon the children, -- in ways
little dreamt of by the flunkey judgment, -- to the
sixth generation and farther. Truly enough this is
memorable ground, little as King August thinks of it;
little as the idle tourists think, or the depasturing geese,
who happen to be there.
The ten square miles have been industriously pre-
pared for many months past; shaved, swept by the
best engineer science; every village of it thoroughly
cleaned, at least: the villages all let lodgings at a
Californian rate; in one village, Moritz by name,** is
the slaughter-house, killing oxen night and day; and
the bakehouse, with 160 mealy bakers who never rest:
in another village, Strbhme, is the playhouse of the
region; in another, Glaubitz, the post-oflice: nothing
could excel the arrangements; much superior, I should
judge, to those for the Siege of Troy, and other world-
great enterprises. Worthy really of admiration, had
the business not been Zero. Foreign Courts, European
* De Wette: Kurzgefassle Lebens-Geschichle ier Hersogc zu Sachscn
(Weimar, 1770), pp. 1-33-73.
** Map at p. 300.
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? chAp, m. ]
June 1730.
CAMP OF RADEWITZ.
239Diplomacy at large, wondered much what cunning
scheme lay hidden here. No scheme at all, nor pur-
pose, on the part of poor August; only that of amusing
himself, and astonishing the flunkeys of Creation, --
regardless of expense. Three temporary Bridges, three
besides the regular ferry of the country, cross the Elbe;
for the high officers, dames, damosels and lordships of
degree, and thousandfold spectators, lodge on both sides
of the Elbe: three Bridges, one of pontoons, one of
wood-rafts, one of barrels; immensely long, made for
the occasion. The whole Saxon Army, 30,000 horse
and foot with their artillery, all in beautiful brand-new
uniforms and equipments, lies beautifully encamped in
tents and wooden huts, near by Zeithayn, its rear to
the Elbe; this is the "Armee-Lager (Camp of the
Army)" in our old Rubbish-Books. Northward of
which, -- with the Heath of Gorisch still well beyond,
and bluish to you, in the farther North, -- rises, on
favourable ground, a high "Pavilion" elaborately built,
elaboratety painted and gilded, with balcony stages
round it; from which the whole ground, and everything
done in it, is surveyable to spectators of rank.
Eastward again, or from the Pavilion southeastward,
at the right flank of the Army, where again rises a
kind of Height, hard by Radewitz, favourable for sur-
vey, -- there, built of sublime silk tents, or solid well-
painted carpentry, the general colour of which is bright
green, with gilt knobs and gilt gratings all about, is
the "Haupt-Lager" Head-quarters, Main Lager, Heart
of all the Lagers; where his Prussian Majesty, and his Carlyle, Frederic the Great. III. 19
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? 290 SHIl'WBECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT. vII.
June1730.
Polish ditto, with their respective suites, are lodged.
Kinglike wholly, in extensive green palaces ready gilt
and furnished; such drawing-rooms, such bed-rooms, "with floors of dyed wicker-work;" the gilt mirrors,
pictures, musical clocks; -- not even the fine bathing-
tubs for his Prussian Majesty have been forgotten.
Never did man or flunkey see the like. Such immense
successful apparatus, without and within; no end of
military valetaille, chiefly "janizaries," in Turk costume;
improvised flower-gardens even, and walks of yellow sand, -- the whole Hill of Radewitz made into a flower-
garden in that way. Nay, in the Army Lager too,
many of the Captains have made little improvised
flower-gardens, in that Camp of theirs, up and down.
For other Captains not of a poetical turn, there are
billiards, coffee-houses, and plenty of excellent beer
and other liquor. But the mountains of cavalry hay,
that stand guarded by patrols in the rearward places,
and the granaries of cavalry oats, are not to be told.
Eastward, from their open porticoes and precincts, with
imitation "janizaries" pacing silent lower down, the
Two Majesties oversee the Army, at discretion; can
survey all things, -- even while dining, which they do
daily like very kings! Fritz is lodged there; has a
magnificent bed: poor young fellow, he alone now
makes the business of any meaning to us. He is
curious enough to see the phenomena, military and
other; but oppressed with black care: "My Amelia is
not here, and the tyrant Father is -- tyrannous with
his rattan: ye gods! "
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? CHAI-. in. ] CAMP 0F KADEWITZ. 291
Juno 1730.
We could insist much on the notable people that
were there; for the Lists of them are given. Many high
Lordships; some of whom will meet us again. Weissen-
fels, Wilhelmina's unfavoured lover, how busy is he,
commanding gallantly (in the terrific Sham-Battle) against
Wackerbarth; General Wackerbarth, whose house we
saw burnt on a Dresden visit, not so long ago. Old
Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau is there, the Old Dessauer;
with four of his Princes; instructed in soldiering, left
without other instruction; without even writing, unless
they can pick it up for themselves. Likely young
fellows too, with a good stroke of work in them, of
battle in them, when called for. Young Anspach, lately
wedded, comes, in what state he can, poor youth;
lodges with the Prussian Majesty his Father-in-law;
should keep rather quiet, his share of wisdom being
small. Seckendorf with his Grumkow, they also are
here, in the train of Friedrich Wilhelm. Grumkow
shoves the bottle with their Polish and Prussian Ma-
jesties; in jolly hours, things go very high there. I observe they call King August "Ze Patron," the Captain,
or "Patroon;" a fine jollity dwelling in that Man of
Sin. Or does the reader notice Holstein-Beck, Prussian
Major-General; Prince of Holstein-Beck; a solid dull
man; capable of liquor, among other things: not wiser
than he should be; sold all his Apanage or Princeship,
for example, and bought plate with it, wherefore they
call him ever since "Holstein- VaisseUe (Holstein Plate)"
instead of Holstein-Beck. * His next Brother, here like-
* Biisching's BetjtrSge, iv. 109.
19*
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? 292 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT. \noOK TO.
June 1730.
wise I should think, being Major-General in the Saxon
service, is still more foolish. He, poor soul, is just
about to marry the Orzelska, incomparable Princess
known to us, who had been her Father's mistress: --
marriage, as was natural, went asunder again (1733)
after a couple of years. -- But mark especially that
middle-aged heavy gentleman, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst,
Prussian Commandant of Stettin. Not over rich (would
not even be rich if he came to be reigning Duke, as he
will do); attentive at his post in those parts, ever since
the Siege-of-Stralsund time; has done his orders, forti-
fied Stettin to perfection; solid, heavy taciturn man: --
of whom there is nothing notable but this only, That
last year his Wife brought him a little Daughter, Ca-
tharine the name of her. His Wife is a foolish restless
dame, highborn and pennyless; let her nurse well this
little Catharine: little Catharine will become abundantly
distinguished in a thirty years hence; Empress of all
the Russians, that little girl; the Fates have so appointed
it, mocking the prophecies of men! Here too is our
poor unmentionable Duke of Mecklenburg: poor soul,
he has left his quarrels with the Ritterschaft for a week
or two, and is here breathing the air of the Elbe Heaths.
His wild Russian Wife, wild Peter's Niece and more,
we are relieved to know, is dead; for her ways and
Peter's have been very strange! To this unmentionable
Duke of Mecklenburg she has left one Daughter, a
Princess Elizabeth-Catherine, who will be called Prin-
cess Anne, one day: whose fortunes in the world may
turn out to be tragical. Potential heiress of all the
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? CHAP, m. ] CAMP OP RADEWITZ. 293
June 1730.
Russias, that little Elizabeth or Anne. Heiress by her
wily Aunt, Anne of Curland,---Anne with the swollen
cheek, whom Moritz, capable of many things, and of
being Mare'chal de Scute by and by, could not manage
to fall in love with there; and who has now just quitted
Curland, and become Czarina:* -- if Aunt Anne with
the big cheek should die childless, as is likely, this
little Niece were Heiress. Was thut's, What matter! --
In the train of King August are likewise splendours
of a sort, if we had time for them. Dukes of Sachsen-
Gotha, Dukes of Meiningen, most of the Dukes that
putSachsen to their name; -- Sachsen-Weimar for one;
who is Grandfather of Goethe's Friend, if not otherwise
distinguished. The Lubomirskis, Czartoryskis, and
others of Polish breed, shall be considered as foreign
to us, and go unnoticed. Nor are high Dames wanting,
as we see: vast flights of airy bright-hued womankind,
Crown-Princess at the head of them, who lodges in
Tiefenau with her Crown-Prince, -- and though plain-
looking, and not of the sweetest temper, is a very high
Lady indeed. Niece of the present Kaiser Karl, Daughter
of the late Kaiser, Joseph of blessed memory; -- for
which reason August never yet will sign the Pragmatic
Sanction, his Crown-Prince having hereby rights of his
own in opposition thereto. She is young; to her is
Tiefenau, northward, on the edge of the GbrischHeath,
probably the choicest mansion in these circuits, given
up: also she is Lady of "the Bucentaur," frigate equal
* Peter II. , her Cousin-german, died January 1780 (Mannstein's
Russia).
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? 294 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [BOOK TO.
June 1730.
to Cleopatra's galley in a manner; and commands, so
to speak, by land and water. Supreme Lady, she, of
this sublime world-foolery, regardless of expense: so
has the gallantry of August ordered it. Our Friedrich
and she will meet again, on occasions not like this! --
What the other Princesses and Countesses, present on
this occasion, were to Crown-Prince Friedrich, except
a general flowerbed of human nature, -- ask not; nor
even whether the Orzelska was so much as here! The
Orzelska will be married, some two months hence,* to
aHolstein-Beck; not toHolsteinPZate, but to his Brother
the unfortunate Saxon Major-General: a man surely not
of nice tastes in regard to marriage; -- and I would
recommend him to keep his light Wife at home on such
occasions. They parted, as we said, in a year or two,
mutually indignant; and the Orzelska went to Avignon,
to Venice and elsewhither, and settled into Catholic
devotion in cheap countries of agreeable climate. **
Crown-Prince Friedrich, doubtless, looking at this
flowerbed of human nature, and the reward of happy
daring paid by Beauty, has vivid images of Princess
Amelia and her Viceregency of Hanover; bright Prin-
cess and Viceregency, divided from him by bottomless
gulfs, which need such a swim as that of Leander across
the material Hellespont was but a trifle to! -- In which
of the villages Hotham and Dickens lodged, I did not
learn or inquire; nor are their copious Despatches, chro
* 10th August 1730 (Sir T. Robinson: Despatch from Dresden; In State
Paper Office).
** See PStlnltz (Memoirs, &c), whoever is curious about her.
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? CHAP, in. ] CAMP OF RADEWITZ. 295
June 1730. *
nicling these sublime phenomena from day to day for
behoof of St. James's, other than entirely inane to us
at this time. But one thing we do learn from them:
Our Crown-Prince, escaping the paternal vigilance, was
secretly in consultation with Dickens, or with Hotham
through Dickens; and this in the most tragic humour
on his side. In such effulgences of luxury and scenic
grandeur, how sad an attendant is Black Care, -- nay
foul misusage, not to be borne by human nature! Ac-
curate Professor Ranke has read somewhere, -- does
not comfortably say where, nor comfortably give the
least date, -- this passage, or what authorises him to
write it. "In that Pleasure-Camp of Muhlberg, where
"the eyes of so many strangers were directed to him,
"the Crown-Prince was treated like a disobedient boy,
"and one time even with strokes (korperlich misshandelt),
"to make him feel he was only considered as such. The
"enraged King, who never weighed the consequences
"of his words, added mockery to his manual outrage.
"He said, 'Had I been treated so by my Father, I would
"have blown my brains out: but this fellow has no
"honour, he takes all that comes! '"* Einmal Mrper-
lieh misshandelt: why did not the Professor give us time,
occasion, circumstances, and name of some eye-witness?
For the fact, which stands reported in the like fashion
in all manner of Histories, we shall otherwise find to
be abundantly certain; and it produced conspicuous de-
finite results. It is, as it were, the one fact still worth
human remembrance in this expensive Radewitz and its
* Ranke: Neun Biicher Preussischer Geschichte (Berlin, 1847), i. 297.
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? 296 SUIPWKJJCK OF DOUBLK-MAK1UAGE PROJECT, [hook VII.
June 1730.
fooleries; and is itself left in that vague inert state, --
irremediable at present.
Beaten like a slave; while lodged, while figuring
about, like a royal highness, in this sumptuous manner!
It appears clearly the poor Prince did hereupon, in spite
of his word given to Wilhelmina, make up his mind to
run. Ingenious Ranke, forgetting again to date, knows
from the Archives, that Friedrich went shortly after-
wards to call on Graf von Hoym, one day. Speaking
to Graf von Hoym, who is Saxon First-Minister, and
Factotum of the arrangements here, he took occasion
cursorily to ask, Could not a glimpse of Leipzig, among
all these fine things, be had? Order for horses to or at
Leipzig, for "a couple of Officers" (Lieutenant Keith and
self), -- quietly, without fuss of passes and the like, Herr Graf? -- The Herr Graf glances into it with eyes which
have a twinkle in them: Schwerlich, Royal Highness.
They are very strict about passes. Do not try it, Royal
Highness! * And Friedrich did desist, in that direction,
poor youth; but tried it the more in others. Very busy,
in deep secrecy, corresponding with Lieutenant Katte
at Berlin, consulting tragically with Captain Guy Dickens
here. -- Whether any hint or whisper came to the Prus-
sian Majesty from Graf von Hoym? Lieutenant Keith was,
shortly after, sent to Wesel to mind his soldiering there,
far down the Rhine Country in the Garrison of Wesel ;**
* Ranke, ubi supra; Fb'rster: i. 365, and more especially iii. 4 (Secken-
dorfs Narrative there).
** Wilhelmina told us lately (supra, p. 209;, Keith had been sent to
Wesel; but she has misdated as usual.
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? ciiAr. m. ]
Jane 1730.
CAMP OF RADEWITZ.
297better there than colleaguing with a Fritz, and suggesting
to him idle truantcies or worse.
With Katte at Berlin the desperate Prince has con-
cocted another scheme of Flight, this Hoym one being
impossible; scheme executable by Katte and him, were
this Radewitz once over. And as for his consultations
with Guy Dickens, the result of them is: Captain Dickens,
on the 16th of June, with eyes brisk enough, and lips
well shut, sets out from Eadewitz express for London.
This is what I read as abstract of Hotham's Despatch,
16th June 1730, which Dickens is to deliver with all
caution at St. James's: "Crown-Prince has communicated
"to Dickens his plan of escape; 'could no longer bear
"the outrages of his Father. ' Is to attend his Father
"to Anspach shortly" (Journey to the Reich, of which
we shall hear anon), "and they are to take a turn to
"Stuttgard; which latter is not very far from Strasburg
"on the French side of the Rhine. To Strasburg he
"will make his escape; stay six weeks or a couple of
"months (that his Mother be not suspected); and will
"then proceed to England. Hopes England will take
"such measures as to save his Sister from ruin. " These
are his fixed resolutions: what will England do in such
abstruse case? -- Captain Dickens speeds silently with
his Despatch; will find Lord Harrington, notTownshend
any more;* will copiously open his lips to Harrington
on matters Prussian. A brisk military man, in the
prime of his years; who might do as Prussian Envoy
* Resigned, 15th May 1730: Despatch to Hotham, as farewell, of that
date*
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? 298 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book vH.
June 1730.
himself, if nothing great were going on? Harrington's
final response will take some deliberating.
Hotham, meanwhile, resumes his report, as we too
must do, of the Scenic Exhibitions; -- and, we can
well fancy, is getting weary of it; wishing to be home
rather, "as his business here seems ended. "* One day
he mentions a rumour (inane high rumours being pre-
valent in such a place); "rumour circulated here, to
"which I do not give the slightest credit, that the
"Prince-Royal of Prussia is to have one of the Arch-
"duchesses," perhaps Maria Theresa herself! Which
might indeed have saved immensities of trouble to the
whole world, as well as to the Pair in question, and
have made a very different History for Germany and
the rest of us. Fancy it! But for many reasons, change
of religion, had there been no other, it was an im-
possible notion. "May be," thinks Hotham, "that the
"Court of Vienna throws out this bait to continue the
"King's delusion," -- or a snuffle from Seckendorf,
without the Court, may have given it currency in so
inane an element as Radewitz.
Of the terrific Sham-Battles, conducted by Weissen-
fels on one side and Wackerbarth on the other; of the
charges of cavalry, play of artillery, threatening to end
in a very doomsday, round the Pavilion and the Ladies
and the Royalties assembled on the balconies there (who
always go to dinner safe, when victory has declared it-
self), I shall say nothing. Nor of that supreme "attack
* Preceding Despatch (of 16th June).
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-- Which again produces no effect; the English Answer
being steadily, "Both Marriages, or none. "
And this, then, is what the Hotham mission is come
to? Good Dubourgay is home, recalled about a month
ago, "for the sake of his health,"* -- good old gentle-
* Townshend's polite Despatch to him, Whitehall, 21st April 1730.
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? CHAP. II. ] EXCELLENCY HOTHAM PROVES UNAVAILING. 281
S9th May 1780.
man, never to be heard of in Diplomatic History more.
Dubourgay went in the first days of May; and the
month is not out, when Hotham is off to the Camp of
Radewitz; leaving his Negotiation, as it were, extinct.
To the visible regret of the Berlin public generally; to
the grievous disappointment of Queen Sophie, of the
Crown-Prince and some others, -- not to speak of
Wilhelmina's feelings, which are unknown to us.
Regretful Berlin, Wilhelmina and Mamma among
the others, had, by accident, in these dejected circum-
stances, a strange Sign from the Heavens provided
them, one night, -- if we may be permitted to notice
it here. Monday, 29th May;-- and poor Queen Sophie,
we observe withal, is in the hands of the Monthly Nurse,
since Tuesday last! *
St. Peter's Church in Berlin has an Accident.
Monday, 29th May 1730, Friedrich Wilhelm and
the Crown-Prince and Party were at Potsdam, so far
on their way towards Radewitz. All is peaceable at
Potsdam that night: but it was a night of wild phe-
nomena at Berlin; or rather of one wild phenomenon,
the "Burning of the Sanct-Peters Kirche" which held
the whole City awake and in terror for its life. Dim
Fassmann becomes unusually luminous on this affair
(probably an eye-witness to it, poor old soul); and
enables us to fish-up one old Night of Berlin City and
* "Prince Ferdinand" (her last child, Father of him whose fate lay at
Jena seventy-six years afterwards), "born 23d May 1730. "
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? 282 SniPWRECK OP double-mArriAge PROJECT, [book vn.
29th May 1730.
its vanished populations into clear view again, if we
like.
For two years back Berlin had been diligently
building a non-plus-ultra of Steeples to that fine Church
of St. Peter's. Highest Steeple of them all; one of the
Steeples of the "World, in a manner; -- and Berlin was
now near ending it . Tower, or shaft, has been com-
,plete some time, interior fittings going on; and is just
about to get its ultimate apex, a "Crown Royal" set
on it by way of finis. For his Majesty, the great
-35dile, was much concerned in the thing; and had
given materials, multifarious helps: Three incomparable
Bells, especially, were his gift: melodious old Bells, of
distinguished tone, "bigger than the Great Bell of
Erfurt," than Tom of Lincoln, -- or, as brief popular
rumour has it, the biggest Bells in the world, at least
of such a tone. These Bells are hung, silent but ready
in their upper chamber of the Tower, and the gigantic
Crown or apex is to go on; then will the basket-work
of scaffolding be peeled away, and the Steeple stretch,
high and grand, into the air, for ages it is hoped.
Far otherwise. On Monday Evening, between eight
and nine, there gathered thunder over Berlin; wild
tumult of the elements: thunderbolt "thrice in swift
succession" struck the unfinished Steeple; in the "hood"
of which men thereupon noticed a light, as of a star,
or sparkle of the sun; and straightway, in spite of the
rain-torrents, there burst out blazes of flame. Blazes
unquenchable; grand yet perilous to behold. The fire-
drums beat, the alarm-bells clanged, and ceased not;
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? CHAP. II. ] EXCELLENCY HOTHAM PROVES UNAVAILING 283
? 29th May 1730.
all Berlin struggling there, all night, in vain. Such
volumes of smoke: "the heavens were black as if you
had hung them with mortcloth:" such roaring cataracts
of flame, "you could have picked up a copper doit at
the distance of 800 yards. " -- "Hiss -- s-- s! " What
hissing far aloft is that? That is the incomparable big
Bells melting. There they vanish, their fine tones
never to be tried more, and ooze through the redhot
ruin, "Hush -- sh -- sht! " the last sound heard from
them. And the Stem for holding that immense Crown-
royal,-- it is a bar and bars of iron, "weighing sixteen
hundredweight;" down it comes thundering, crashing
through the belly of St. Peter's, the fall of it like an
earthquake all round. And still the fire-drums beat,
and from all surviving Steeples of Berlin goes the
clangor of alarm; "none but the very young children
can have slept that night," says our vigilant old friend.
Wind was awake, too; kindling the neighbouring
streets; -- storming towards the Powder-Magazine;
where labour innumerable Artillerymen, "busy with
hides from the tanpits, with stable-dung, and other ma-
terial;" speed to them, we will say! Forty dwelling-
houses went; but not the Powder-Magazine; not Berlin
utterly (so to speak) by the Powder-Magazine. On
the morrow St. Peter's and neighbourhood lay black,
but still inwardly burning; not for three days more
could the ruins be completely quenched.
That was the news for Friedrich Wilhelm, before
sunrise, on the point of his departure for Miihlberg and
King August's scenic exhibitions. "Hm; -- but we
>
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? 284 shipwreck or double-mArriAge project, [bookvii.
29lh May 1730.
must go, all the same! We will rebuild it! " said he.
-- And truly he did so. And the polite King August,
sorry to hear of the Peterskirche, "gave him excellent
"sandstone from the quarries of Pirna," says Fassmann:
"great blocks came boating down the Elbe" from that
notable Saxon-Switzerland Country, notable to readers
here in time coming; and are to be found, as ashlar, in
the modern St. Peter's at Berlin; a fact which the
reader, till Pirna be better known to him, may remem-
ber if he likes. *
And now let us to Radewitz without delay.
* Fassmann, pp. 406-409.
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? CHAP. III. ]
June 1780.
CAMP OF RADEWITZ.
285CHAPTER HI.
CAMP OF RADEWITZ.
I
The Camp of Muhlberg, called more properly the
Camp of Radewitz, towards which. Eriedrich Wilhelm,
with English Hotham and many dignitaries are now
gone, was one of the sublimest scenic military exhibi-
tions in the history of the world; leaving all manner
of imitation tournaments, modern "tin-tournaments,"
out of sight; and perhaps equalling the Field of the
Cloth of Gold, or Barbarossa's Maintz Tournament in
ancient times. It lasted for a month, regardless of
expense, -- June month of the year 1730; -- and
from far and wide the idle of mankind ran, by the
thousand, to see it. Shall the thing be abolished utterly,
-- as perhaps were proper, had not our Crown-Prince
been there, with eyes very open to it, and yet with
thoughts very shut; -- or shall some flying trace of
the big Zero be given? Riddling or screening certain
cartloads of heavy old German printed-rubbish,* to omit
* Chiefly the terrible compilation called Helden- Staats- tmd Lebens-
Geschichte des Ac. Friedrichs dcs Audern (History Beroical, Political and
Biographical of Friedrich the Second), Frankfurt and Leipzig. 1758-1760,
vol. i. first half, pp. 171-210. There are Ten thick and thin Half-volumes,
and perhaps more. One of the most hideous imbroglios ever published
under the name of Book, -- without vestige of Index, and on paper that has
no margin and cannot stand ink, -- yet with many curious articles stuffed
blindly into the awful belly of it, like jewels into a rag-sack, or into ten
rag-sacks all In one; with far more authenticity than you could expect in
such case. Let us call it, for brevity, Helden-Geschichle, in future
references.
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? 286 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MAKRIAGE PROJECT, [book TO.
June 1730.
the Hotham Despatches, we obtain the following shovel-
ful of authentic particulars, perhaps not quite insup-
portable to existing mankind.
The exact size of the Camp of Badewitz I nowhere
find measured; but to judge on the map,* it must have
covered, with its appendages, some ten or twelve square
miles of ground. All on the Elbe, right bank of the
Elbe: Town of Miihlberg, chief Town of the District,
lying some ten miles northwest; then, not much beyond
it, Torgau; and then famed Wittenberg, all on the
northwest, farther down the River: and on the other
side, Meissen with its Potteries not far to the southeast
of you, up the River, on the Dresden hand. Nay per-
haps many of my readers have seen the place, and
not known, in their touring expeditions; which are now
blinder than ever, and done by steam, without even
eyesight, not to say intelligence. Precisely where the
railway from Leipzig to Dresden crosses the Elbe, --
there, if you happen to have daylight, is a flat, rather
clayey country, dirty-greenish, as if depastured partly
by geese; with a big full River Elbe sweeping through
it, banks barish for a mile or two; River itself swift,
sleek and of flint-colour; not unpleasant to behold, thus
far on its journey from the Bohemian Giant-Mountains
sea-ward: precisely there, when you have crossed the
Bridge, is the southmost corner of August the Strong's
Encampment, -- vanished now like the last flock of
geese that soiled and nibbled these localities; -- and,
* Map at p. 300.
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? CHAP. III. |
June 1730.
CAMP OF RADEWITZ.
287without knowing it, you are actually upon memorable
ground.
Actually, we may well say; apart from August and
his fooleries. For here also it was, on the ground now
under your eye, that Kurfilrst Johann Friedrich the
Magnanimous, having been surprised the day before at
public worship in the above-mentioned Town of Miihl-
berg, and completely beaten by Kaiser Karl the Fifth
and his Spaniards and Duke of Alba, did, on Monday
25th April 1547, ride forth as Prisoner to meet the
said Kaiser; and had the worst reception from him,
poor man. "Take pity on me, 0 God! This is what "it is come to? " the magnanimous beaten Kurfurst was
heard murmuring as he rode. At sight of the Kaiser,
he dismounted, pulled off his ironplated gloves, knelt,
and was for humbly taking the Kaiser's hand, to kiss
it. Kaiser would not; Kaiser looked thunderous tor-
nado on him, with hands rigidly in the vertical direc-
tion. The magnanimous Kurfurst arose therefore;
doffed his hat: "Great-mightiest (c/rossmachtigster) all-
"gracious Kaiser, I am your Majesty's prisoner," said
he, confining himself to the historical. "I am Kaiser
"now, then? " answered the sullen Tornado, with a
black brow and hanging under-jaw. -- "I request my
"imprisonment may be prince-like," said the poor
Prince. "It shall be as your deserts have been! " --
"I am in your power; you will do your pleasure on
"me," answered the other; -- and was led away, to
hard durance and peril of life for five years to come;
his Cousin Moritz having expertly jockeyed his Elec-
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? 288 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT. |book vII.
June 1730.
toral dignities and territories from him in the interim;*
-- as was told above, long since.
Expert Cousin Moritz: in virtue of which same
Moritz, or rather perhaps in vice of him, August the
Strong is even now Elector of Saxony; Papist, Pseudo-
Papist Apostate King of Poland, and Non-plus-ultra of
"gluttonous Royal Flunkeys;" doomed to do these
fooleries on God's Earth for a time. For the sins of
the fathers are visited upon the children, -- in ways
little dreamt of by the flunkey judgment, -- to the
sixth generation and farther. Truly enough this is
memorable ground, little as King August thinks of it;
little as the idle tourists think, or the depasturing geese,
who happen to be there.
The ten square miles have been industriously pre-
pared for many months past; shaved, swept by the
best engineer science; every village of it thoroughly
cleaned, at least: the villages all let lodgings at a
Californian rate; in one village, Moritz by name,** is
the slaughter-house, killing oxen night and day; and
the bakehouse, with 160 mealy bakers who never rest:
in another village, Strbhme, is the playhouse of the
region; in another, Glaubitz, the post-oflice: nothing
could excel the arrangements; much superior, I should
judge, to those for the Siege of Troy, and other world-
great enterprises. Worthy really of admiration, had
the business not been Zero. Foreign Courts, European
* De Wette: Kurzgefassle Lebens-Geschichle ier Hersogc zu Sachscn
(Weimar, 1770), pp. 1-33-73.
** Map at p. 300.
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? chAp, m. ]
June 1730.
CAMP OF RADEWITZ.
239Diplomacy at large, wondered much what cunning
scheme lay hidden here. No scheme at all, nor pur-
pose, on the part of poor August; only that of amusing
himself, and astonishing the flunkeys of Creation, --
regardless of expense. Three temporary Bridges, three
besides the regular ferry of the country, cross the Elbe;
for the high officers, dames, damosels and lordships of
degree, and thousandfold spectators, lodge on both sides
of the Elbe: three Bridges, one of pontoons, one of
wood-rafts, one of barrels; immensely long, made for
the occasion. The whole Saxon Army, 30,000 horse
and foot with their artillery, all in beautiful brand-new
uniforms and equipments, lies beautifully encamped in
tents and wooden huts, near by Zeithayn, its rear to
the Elbe; this is the "Armee-Lager (Camp of the
Army)" in our old Rubbish-Books. Northward of
which, -- with the Heath of Gorisch still well beyond,
and bluish to you, in the farther North, -- rises, on
favourable ground, a high "Pavilion" elaborately built,
elaboratety painted and gilded, with balcony stages
round it; from which the whole ground, and everything
done in it, is surveyable to spectators of rank.
Eastward again, or from the Pavilion southeastward,
at the right flank of the Army, where again rises a
kind of Height, hard by Radewitz, favourable for sur-
vey, -- there, built of sublime silk tents, or solid well-
painted carpentry, the general colour of which is bright
green, with gilt knobs and gilt gratings all about, is
the "Haupt-Lager" Head-quarters, Main Lager, Heart
of all the Lagers; where his Prussian Majesty, and his Carlyle, Frederic the Great. III. 19
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? 290 SHIl'WBECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT. vII.
June1730.
Polish ditto, with their respective suites, are lodged.
Kinglike wholly, in extensive green palaces ready gilt
and furnished; such drawing-rooms, such bed-rooms, "with floors of dyed wicker-work;" the gilt mirrors,
pictures, musical clocks; -- not even the fine bathing-
tubs for his Prussian Majesty have been forgotten.
Never did man or flunkey see the like. Such immense
successful apparatus, without and within; no end of
military valetaille, chiefly "janizaries," in Turk costume;
improvised flower-gardens even, and walks of yellow sand, -- the whole Hill of Radewitz made into a flower-
garden in that way. Nay, in the Army Lager too,
many of the Captains have made little improvised
flower-gardens, in that Camp of theirs, up and down.
For other Captains not of a poetical turn, there are
billiards, coffee-houses, and plenty of excellent beer
and other liquor. But the mountains of cavalry hay,
that stand guarded by patrols in the rearward places,
and the granaries of cavalry oats, are not to be told.
Eastward, from their open porticoes and precincts, with
imitation "janizaries" pacing silent lower down, the
Two Majesties oversee the Army, at discretion; can
survey all things, -- even while dining, which they do
daily like very kings! Fritz is lodged there; has a
magnificent bed: poor young fellow, he alone now
makes the business of any meaning to us. He is
curious enough to see the phenomena, military and
other; but oppressed with black care: "My Amelia is
not here, and the tyrant Father is -- tyrannous with
his rattan: ye gods! "
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? CHAI-. in. ] CAMP 0F KADEWITZ. 291
Juno 1730.
We could insist much on the notable people that
were there; for the Lists of them are given. Many high
Lordships; some of whom will meet us again. Weissen-
fels, Wilhelmina's unfavoured lover, how busy is he,
commanding gallantly (in the terrific Sham-Battle) against
Wackerbarth; General Wackerbarth, whose house we
saw burnt on a Dresden visit, not so long ago. Old
Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau is there, the Old Dessauer;
with four of his Princes; instructed in soldiering, left
without other instruction; without even writing, unless
they can pick it up for themselves. Likely young
fellows too, with a good stroke of work in them, of
battle in them, when called for. Young Anspach, lately
wedded, comes, in what state he can, poor youth;
lodges with the Prussian Majesty his Father-in-law;
should keep rather quiet, his share of wisdom being
small. Seckendorf with his Grumkow, they also are
here, in the train of Friedrich Wilhelm. Grumkow
shoves the bottle with their Polish and Prussian Ma-
jesties; in jolly hours, things go very high there. I observe they call King August "Ze Patron," the Captain,
or "Patroon;" a fine jollity dwelling in that Man of
Sin. Or does the reader notice Holstein-Beck, Prussian
Major-General; Prince of Holstein-Beck; a solid dull
man; capable of liquor, among other things: not wiser
than he should be; sold all his Apanage or Princeship,
for example, and bought plate with it, wherefore they
call him ever since "Holstein- VaisseUe (Holstein Plate)"
instead of Holstein-Beck. * His next Brother, here like-
* Biisching's BetjtrSge, iv. 109.
19*
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? 292 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT. \noOK TO.
June 1730.
wise I should think, being Major-General in the Saxon
service, is still more foolish. He, poor soul, is just
about to marry the Orzelska, incomparable Princess
known to us, who had been her Father's mistress: --
marriage, as was natural, went asunder again (1733)
after a couple of years. -- But mark especially that
middle-aged heavy gentleman, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst,
Prussian Commandant of Stettin. Not over rich (would
not even be rich if he came to be reigning Duke, as he
will do); attentive at his post in those parts, ever since
the Siege-of-Stralsund time; has done his orders, forti-
fied Stettin to perfection; solid, heavy taciturn man: --
of whom there is nothing notable but this only, That
last year his Wife brought him a little Daughter, Ca-
tharine the name of her. His Wife is a foolish restless
dame, highborn and pennyless; let her nurse well this
little Catharine: little Catharine will become abundantly
distinguished in a thirty years hence; Empress of all
the Russians, that little girl; the Fates have so appointed
it, mocking the prophecies of men! Here too is our
poor unmentionable Duke of Mecklenburg: poor soul,
he has left his quarrels with the Ritterschaft for a week
or two, and is here breathing the air of the Elbe Heaths.
His wild Russian Wife, wild Peter's Niece and more,
we are relieved to know, is dead; for her ways and
Peter's have been very strange! To this unmentionable
Duke of Mecklenburg she has left one Daughter, a
Princess Elizabeth-Catherine, who will be called Prin-
cess Anne, one day: whose fortunes in the world may
turn out to be tragical. Potential heiress of all the
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? CHAP, m. ] CAMP OP RADEWITZ. 293
June 1730.
Russias, that little Elizabeth or Anne. Heiress by her
wily Aunt, Anne of Curland,---Anne with the swollen
cheek, whom Moritz, capable of many things, and of
being Mare'chal de Scute by and by, could not manage
to fall in love with there; and who has now just quitted
Curland, and become Czarina:* -- if Aunt Anne with
the big cheek should die childless, as is likely, this
little Niece were Heiress. Was thut's, What matter! --
In the train of King August are likewise splendours
of a sort, if we had time for them. Dukes of Sachsen-
Gotha, Dukes of Meiningen, most of the Dukes that
putSachsen to their name; -- Sachsen-Weimar for one;
who is Grandfather of Goethe's Friend, if not otherwise
distinguished. The Lubomirskis, Czartoryskis, and
others of Polish breed, shall be considered as foreign
to us, and go unnoticed. Nor are high Dames wanting,
as we see: vast flights of airy bright-hued womankind,
Crown-Princess at the head of them, who lodges in
Tiefenau with her Crown-Prince, -- and though plain-
looking, and not of the sweetest temper, is a very high
Lady indeed. Niece of the present Kaiser Karl, Daughter
of the late Kaiser, Joseph of blessed memory; -- for
which reason August never yet will sign the Pragmatic
Sanction, his Crown-Prince having hereby rights of his
own in opposition thereto. She is young; to her is
Tiefenau, northward, on the edge of the GbrischHeath,
probably the choicest mansion in these circuits, given
up: also she is Lady of "the Bucentaur," frigate equal
* Peter II. , her Cousin-german, died January 1780 (Mannstein's
Russia).
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? 294 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [BOOK TO.
June 1730.
to Cleopatra's galley in a manner; and commands, so
to speak, by land and water. Supreme Lady, she, of
this sublime world-foolery, regardless of expense: so
has the gallantry of August ordered it. Our Friedrich
and she will meet again, on occasions not like this! --
What the other Princesses and Countesses, present on
this occasion, were to Crown-Prince Friedrich, except
a general flowerbed of human nature, -- ask not; nor
even whether the Orzelska was so much as here! The
Orzelska will be married, some two months hence,* to
aHolstein-Beck; not toHolsteinPZate, but to his Brother
the unfortunate Saxon Major-General: a man surely not
of nice tastes in regard to marriage; -- and I would
recommend him to keep his light Wife at home on such
occasions. They parted, as we said, in a year or two,
mutually indignant; and the Orzelska went to Avignon,
to Venice and elsewhither, and settled into Catholic
devotion in cheap countries of agreeable climate. **
Crown-Prince Friedrich, doubtless, looking at this
flowerbed of human nature, and the reward of happy
daring paid by Beauty, has vivid images of Princess
Amelia and her Viceregency of Hanover; bright Prin-
cess and Viceregency, divided from him by bottomless
gulfs, which need such a swim as that of Leander across
the material Hellespont was but a trifle to! -- In which
of the villages Hotham and Dickens lodged, I did not
learn or inquire; nor are their copious Despatches, chro
* 10th August 1730 (Sir T. Robinson: Despatch from Dresden; In State
Paper Office).
** See PStlnltz (Memoirs, &c), whoever is curious about her.
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? CHAP, in. ] CAMP OF RADEWITZ. 295
June 1730. *
nicling these sublime phenomena from day to day for
behoof of St. James's, other than entirely inane to us
at this time. But one thing we do learn from them:
Our Crown-Prince, escaping the paternal vigilance, was
secretly in consultation with Dickens, or with Hotham
through Dickens; and this in the most tragic humour
on his side. In such effulgences of luxury and scenic
grandeur, how sad an attendant is Black Care, -- nay
foul misusage, not to be borne by human nature! Ac-
curate Professor Ranke has read somewhere, -- does
not comfortably say where, nor comfortably give the
least date, -- this passage, or what authorises him to
write it. "In that Pleasure-Camp of Muhlberg, where
"the eyes of so many strangers were directed to him,
"the Crown-Prince was treated like a disobedient boy,
"and one time even with strokes (korperlich misshandelt),
"to make him feel he was only considered as such. The
"enraged King, who never weighed the consequences
"of his words, added mockery to his manual outrage.
"He said, 'Had I been treated so by my Father, I would
"have blown my brains out: but this fellow has no
"honour, he takes all that comes! '"* Einmal Mrper-
lieh misshandelt: why did not the Professor give us time,
occasion, circumstances, and name of some eye-witness?
For the fact, which stands reported in the like fashion
in all manner of Histories, we shall otherwise find to
be abundantly certain; and it produced conspicuous de-
finite results. It is, as it were, the one fact still worth
human remembrance in this expensive Radewitz and its
* Ranke: Neun Biicher Preussischer Geschichte (Berlin, 1847), i. 297.
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? 296 SUIPWKJJCK OF DOUBLK-MAK1UAGE PROJECT, [hook VII.
June 1730.
fooleries; and is itself left in that vague inert state, --
irremediable at present.
Beaten like a slave; while lodged, while figuring
about, like a royal highness, in this sumptuous manner!
It appears clearly the poor Prince did hereupon, in spite
of his word given to Wilhelmina, make up his mind to
run. Ingenious Ranke, forgetting again to date, knows
from the Archives, that Friedrich went shortly after-
wards to call on Graf von Hoym, one day. Speaking
to Graf von Hoym, who is Saxon First-Minister, and
Factotum of the arrangements here, he took occasion
cursorily to ask, Could not a glimpse of Leipzig, among
all these fine things, be had? Order for horses to or at
Leipzig, for "a couple of Officers" (Lieutenant Keith and
self), -- quietly, without fuss of passes and the like, Herr Graf? -- The Herr Graf glances into it with eyes which
have a twinkle in them: Schwerlich, Royal Highness.
They are very strict about passes. Do not try it, Royal
Highness! * And Friedrich did desist, in that direction,
poor youth; but tried it the more in others. Very busy,
in deep secrecy, corresponding with Lieutenant Katte
at Berlin, consulting tragically with Captain Guy Dickens
here. -- Whether any hint or whisper came to the Prus-
sian Majesty from Graf von Hoym? Lieutenant Keith was,
shortly after, sent to Wesel to mind his soldiering there,
far down the Rhine Country in the Garrison of Wesel ;**
* Ranke, ubi supra; Fb'rster: i. 365, and more especially iii. 4 (Secken-
dorfs Narrative there).
** Wilhelmina told us lately (supra, p. 209;, Keith had been sent to
Wesel; but she has misdated as usual.
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? ciiAr. m. ]
Jane 1730.
CAMP OF RADEWITZ.
297better there than colleaguing with a Fritz, and suggesting
to him idle truantcies or worse.
With Katte at Berlin the desperate Prince has con-
cocted another scheme of Flight, this Hoym one being
impossible; scheme executable by Katte and him, were
this Radewitz once over. And as for his consultations
with Guy Dickens, the result of them is: Captain Dickens,
on the 16th of June, with eyes brisk enough, and lips
well shut, sets out from Eadewitz express for London.
This is what I read as abstract of Hotham's Despatch,
16th June 1730, which Dickens is to deliver with all
caution at St. James's: "Crown-Prince has communicated
"to Dickens his plan of escape; 'could no longer bear
"the outrages of his Father. ' Is to attend his Father
"to Anspach shortly" (Journey to the Reich, of which
we shall hear anon), "and they are to take a turn to
"Stuttgard; which latter is not very far from Strasburg
"on the French side of the Rhine. To Strasburg he
"will make his escape; stay six weeks or a couple of
"months (that his Mother be not suspected); and will
"then proceed to England. Hopes England will take
"such measures as to save his Sister from ruin. " These
are his fixed resolutions: what will England do in such
abstruse case? -- Captain Dickens speeds silently with
his Despatch; will find Lord Harrington, notTownshend
any more;* will copiously open his lips to Harrington
on matters Prussian. A brisk military man, in the
prime of his years; who might do as Prussian Envoy
* Resigned, 15th May 1730: Despatch to Hotham, as farewell, of that
date*
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? 298 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book vH.
June 1730.
himself, if nothing great were going on? Harrington's
final response will take some deliberating.
Hotham, meanwhile, resumes his report, as we too
must do, of the Scenic Exhibitions; -- and, we can
well fancy, is getting weary of it; wishing to be home
rather, "as his business here seems ended. "* One day
he mentions a rumour (inane high rumours being pre-
valent in such a place); "rumour circulated here, to
"which I do not give the slightest credit, that the
"Prince-Royal of Prussia is to have one of the Arch-
"duchesses," perhaps Maria Theresa herself! Which
might indeed have saved immensities of trouble to the
whole world, as well as to the Pair in question, and
have made a very different History for Germany and
the rest of us. Fancy it! But for many reasons, change
of religion, had there been no other, it was an im-
possible notion. "May be," thinks Hotham, "that the
"Court of Vienna throws out this bait to continue the
"King's delusion," -- or a snuffle from Seckendorf,
without the Court, may have given it currency in so
inane an element as Radewitz.
Of the terrific Sham-Battles, conducted by Weissen-
fels on one side and Wackerbarth on the other; of the
charges of cavalry, play of artillery, threatening to end
in a very doomsday, round the Pavilion and the Ladies
and the Royalties assembled on the balconies there (who
always go to dinner safe, when victory has declared it-
self), I shall say nothing. Nor of that supreme "attack
* Preceding Despatch (of 16th June).
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