This looks to be a
romantic
fine passage in the
History of the young King; -- though in truth it is
not, and proves but a feeble story either to him or us.
History of the young King; -- though in truth it is
not, and proves but a feeble story either to him or us.
Thomas Carlyle
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-google
? 60 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [bOOK XI.
June--Sept. 1740.
"To speak to you frankly concerning her journey, it is Vol-
"taire, it is you, it is my Friend that I desire to see; and the
"divine Emiliewith all her divinity is only theAccessory of the
"Apollo Newtonised.
"Icannot yet say whether I shall travel" (incognito into
foreign parts a little) "or not travel;" there have been ru-
mours , perhaps private wishes; but--** " Adieu, dear friend;
"sublime spirit, first-born of thinking beings. Love me al-
"ways sincerely, and be persuaded that none can love and
"esteem you more than I. Vale. "F? d? ric. "
"Berlin 6th August" (which is next day). -- "You will have
"received aLetter from me dated yesterday; this is the second
"I write to you from Berlin; I refer you to what was in the
"other. If it must be (faut) that Emilie accompany Apollo, I
"consent; but if I could see you alone, that is what I would
"prefer. I should be too much dazzled; I could not stand so
"much splendour all at once; it would overpower me. I
"should need the veil of Moses to temper the united radiance
"of your two divinities. " * * In short, don't bring her,
if you please.
"Remusberg" (poetic for Reinsberg), "8th August 1740. --
u * * jfy ,jear Voltaire, I do believe Van Duren costs you
"more trouble and pains than you had with Henri Quatre. In
"versifying the Life of a Hero, you wrote the history of your
"own thoughts; but in coercing a scoundrel you fence with an
"enemy who is not worthy of you. " To punish him, and cut
short his profits, "print, then, as you wish" (your own
edition of the Anti-Macchiavel, to go along with his, and trip
the feet from it). "Faites rouler la presse; erase, change,
"correct; do as you see best; your judgment about it shall be
"mine. "-- "In eight days I,leave for" -- (where thinks the
reader? "Dantzig deliberately print all the Editors, careful
Preuss among them; overturnmg the terrestrial azimuths for
us, and making day night! ) -- "for Leipzig, and reckon on
"being at Frankfort on the 22d. In case you could be there,
"I expect, on my passage, to give you lodging! At Cleve or
"in Holland, I depend for certain on embracing you. " *
for the first time, correctly printed, and the editor himself having mostly
understood it, --though the reader still cannot, on the terms there allowed.
* Preuss, lEunres (ie Frederic, ix. pp. 5, 19-21; Voltaire, (Euvrns,
Ixxii. 226, &c. (not worth citing, in comparison).
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? CHAP, in. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. 61
Juno--Sept. 1740.
Intrinsically the Friedrich correspondence at this
time, with Voltaire especially, among many friends
now on the wing towards Berlin and sending letters,
has, -- if you are forced into struggling for some un-
derstanding of it, and do get to read parts of it with
the eyes of Friedrich and Voltaire, -- has a certain
amiability; and is nothing like so waste and dreary as
it looks in the chaotic or sacked-city condition. Fried-
rich writes with brevity, oftenest on practicalities (the
Anti-Macchiavel, the coming Interview, and the like),
evidently no time to spare; writes always with con-
siderable sincerity; with friendliness, much admiration,
and an ingenuous vivacity, to M. de Voltaire. Voltaire,
at his leisure in Brussels or the Old-Palace and its spider-
webs, writes much more expansively; not with insin-
cerity, he either;-- with endless airy graciosities, and
ingenious twirls, and touches of flattering unction,
which latter, he is aware, must not be laid on too
thick. As thus:
In regard to the Anli-Macchiavel, -- Sire, deign to give me
your permissions as to the scoundrel of a Van Duren; well
worthwhile, Sire, -- '' it is a monument for the latest poste-
rity; the only Book worthy of a King for these Fifteen
"hundred years. "
This is a strongish trowelful, thrown on direct,
with adroitness; and even this has a kind of sincerity.
Safer, however, to do it in the oblique or reflex way,
-- by Ambassador Camas, for example:
"I will tell you boldly, Sir" (you M. de Camas), "I put
"more value on this Book [Anti-Macchiavel) than on the Em-
peror Julian's Ccesa? ; or on the Maxims of Marcus Aurelius,"
-- I do indeed, having a kind of property in it withal! *
* Voltaire, (Euvrcs, lxxii. 280 (To Camas, 18th October 174. 0J.
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? 62 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
15tU Aug. 1740.
In fact, Voltaire too is beautiful, in this part of
the Correspondence; but much in a twitter, -- the
Queen of Sheba, not the sedate Solomon, in prospect
of what is coming. He plumes himself a little, we
perceive, to his d'Argentals and French Correspondents,
on this sublime intercourse he has got into with a
Crowned Head, the cynosure of mankind: -- Perhaps
even you, my best friend, did not quite know me, and
what merits I had! Plumes himself a little; but studies
to be modest withal; has not much of the peacock, and
of the turkey has nothing, to his old friends. All which
is very naive and transparent; natural and even pretty,
on the part of M. de Voltaire as the weaker vessel. --
For the rest, it is certain Maupertuis is getting under
way at Paris towards the Cleve rendezvous. Brussels,
too, is so near these Cleve Countries; within two days
good driving: -- if only the times and routes would
rightly intersect?
Friedrich's intention is by no means for a straight
journey towards Cleve: he intends for Baireuth first,
then back from Baireuth to Cleve, -- making a huge
southward elbow on the map, with Baireuth for apex
or turning-point: -- in this manner he will make the
times suit, and have a convergence at Cleve. To Bai-
reuth;-- who knows if not farther? All summer there
has gone fitfully a rumour, that he wished to see France;
perhaps Paris itself incognito? The rumour, which
was heard even at Petersburg, * is now sunk dead
again; but privately, there is no doubt, a glimpse of
the sublime French Nation would be welcome to Fried-
* Raumer's Beitrdfie (English Translation, London, 1837), p. 15
ch'a Despatch, 24th Jane 1740).
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? CHAP. III. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. G3
17th Aug. i740.
rich. He could never get to Travelling in his young
time; missed his Grand Tour altogether, much as he
wished it; and he is capable of pranks! -- Enough,
on Monday morning, 15th August 1740,* Friedrich
and Suite leave Potsdam, early enough; go, by Leip-
zig, by the route already known to readers, through
Coburg and the Voigtland regions; Wilhelmina has got
warning, sits eagerly expecting her Brother in the Her-
mitage at Baireuth, gladdest of shrill sisters; and full
of anxieties how her Brother would now be. The trav-
elling party consisted, besides the King, of seven per-
sons: Prince August Wilhelm, King's next Brother,
Heir-apparent if there come no children, now a brisk
youth of eighteen; Leopold Prince of Anhalt-Dessau,
Old Dessauer's eldest, what we may call the "Young
Dessauer;" Colonel von Borck, whom we shall hear
of again; Colonel von Stille, already heard of (grave
men of fifty, these two); milk-beard Munchow, an Ad-
jutant, youngest of the promoted Munchows; Algarotti,
indispensable for talk; and Fredersdorf, the House-
steward and domestic Factotum, once Private in
Schwerin's Regiment, whom Bielfeld so admired at
Reinsberg, foreseeing what he would come to. One of
Friedrich's late acts was to give Factotum Fredersdorf
an Estate of Land (small enough, I fancy, but with
country-house on it) for solace to the leisure of so use-
ful a man, -- studious of chemistry too, as I have
heard. Seven in all, besides the King. ** Direct to-
wards Baireuth, incognito, and at the top of their
speed. Wednesday, 17th, they actually arrive. Poor
* Hiiilenbeck, p. 15, slightly in error: sco Dickens's Interview, supra,
p. 50.
** Eci. lcnbeck, p. 10 (and for Chamberlain Fredcrsdorf's estate, p. 15;.
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? 64 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
17ttt-20th Aug. 1740.
Wilhelmina, she finds her Brother changed; -- become
a King in fact, and sternly solitary; alone in soul, even
as a King must be! * --
"Algarotti, one of the first beaux-esprits of this age,"
as Wilhelmina defines him, -- Friend Algarotti, the
young Venetian gentleman of elegance, in dusky skin,
in very white linen and frills, with his fervid black
eyes, "does the expenses of the conversation. " He is
full of elegant logic, has speculations on the great world
and the little, on Nature, Art, Papistry, Anti-Papistry,
and takes up the Opera in an earnest manner, as ca-
pable of being a school of virtue and the moral sublime.
His respectable Books on the Opera and other topics
are now all forgotten, and crave not to be mentioned.
To me he is not supremely beautiful, though much
the gentleman in manners as in ruffles, and ingeniously
logical: -- rather yellow to me, in mind as in skin,
and with a taint of obsolete Venetian Macassar. But
to Friedrich he is thrice dear; who loves the sharp
facetted cut of the man, and does not object to his
yellow or Extinct-Macassar qualities of mind. Thanks
to that wandering Baltimore for picking up such a
jewel and carrying him Northward! Algarotti himself
likes the North: here in our hardy climates, -- espe-
cially at Berlin, and were his loved Friedrich not a
King, -- Algarotti could be very happy in the liberty
allowed. At London, where there is no King, or none
to speak of, and plenty of free Intelligences, Carterets,
Lytteltons, young Pitts and the like, he is also well,
were it not for the horrid smoke upon one's linen, and
the little or no French of those proud Islanders.
Wilhelmina seems to like him here; is glad, at any
* Wilholmina, ii. 322, 323.
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? CHAP. III. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. 65
17tk-S0th Aug. 1740.
rate, that he does the costs of conversation, better or
worse. In the rest is no hope. Stille, Borck are ac-
complished military gentlemen; but of tacit nature,
reflective, practical, rather than discursive, and do not
waste themselves by incontinence of tongue. Stille, by
his military Commentaries, which are still known to
soldiers that read, maintains some lasting remembrance
of himself: Borck we shall see engaged in a small bit
of business before long. As to Miinchow, the jeune
moneux of an Aidecamp, he, though his manners are
well enough, and he wears military plumes in his hat,
is still an unfledged young creature, "bill still yellow,"
so to speak; -- and marks himself chiefly by a visible
hankering after that troublesome creature Marwitz, who
is always coquetting. Friedrich's conversation, espe-
cially to my Wilhelmina, seems "tjuinde, set on stilts,"
likewise there are frequent cuts of banter in him; and
it is painfully evident he distinguishes my Sister of
Anspach and her foolish Husband, whom he has in-
vited over hither in a most eager manner, beyond what
a poor Wilhelmina with her old love can pretend to.
Patience, my shrill Princess, Beauty of Baireuth and
the world; let us hope all will come right again! My
shrill Princess, -- who has a melodious strength like
that of war-fifes, too, -- knows how to be patient; and
veils many things, though of a highly unhypocritical
nature.
These were Three great Days at Baireuth; Wilhel-
mina is to come soon, and return the visit at Berlin.
To wait upon the King, known though incognito, "the
Bishop of Bamberg" came driving over: * Schonborn,
Austrian Kanzler, or who? His old City we once saw
* llelden-Geschichle, I. 419.
Cerbjle, Frederick the Great. VI. ?
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? 66 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [bOOK XI.
20th Aug. 1740.
(and plenty of hanged malefactors swinging round it,
during that Journey to the Reich); -- but the Bishop
himself never to our knowledge, Bishop being absent
then. I hope it is the same Bishop of Bamberg whom
a Friend of Busching's, touring there about that same
time, saw dining in a very extraordinary manner, with
mediaeval trumpeters, "with waiters in spurs and buff-
belts: * if it is not, I have not the slightest shadow of
acquaintance with him, -- there have been so many
Bishops of Bamberg with whom one wishes to have
none! On the third day Friedrich and his company
went away towards Wiirzburg; and Wilhelmina was
left alone with her reflections. "I had had so much to
"say to him; I had got nothing said at all:" alas, it is
ever so. "The King was so changed, grown so much
"bigger (grandt), you could not have known him again;"
stands finely erect and at full breadth, every inch a
King; his very stature, you would say, increased. --
Adieu, my Princess, pearl of Princesses; all readers
will expect your return-visit at Berlin, which is to be
soon.
Friedrich strikes off to the left, and has a View of
Strasburg for Two Days.
Through Wiirzburg, Frankfurt on the Mayn, speeds
Friedrich; -- Wilhelmina and mankind understand that
it is homewards and to Cleve: but at Frankfurt, in
deepest privacy, there occurs a sudden whirl south-
ward, -- up the Rhine-Valley; direct towards Stras-
burg, for a sight of France in that quarter! So has
Friedrich decided, -- not quite suddenly, on new Let-
* Biisching's Beulrage; -- Schlosser (History of the Eighteenth Century)
also qaotes the scene.
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? CHAP. III. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. 67
22d-25th Aug. 1840.
ters here, or new computations about Cleve; but by
forethought taken at Baireuth, as rather appears. From
Frankfurt to Strasburg, say 150 miles; from Strasburg
home, is not much farther than from Frankfurt home:
it can be done, then; husht! --
The incognito is to be rigorous: Friedrich becomes
Comte Dufour, a Prussian-French gentleman; Prince
August Wilhelm is Graf von Schaffgotsch, Algarotti is
Graf von Pfuhl, Germans these two; what Leopold, the
Young Dessauer called himself, -- still less what the
others, or whether the others were there at all, and not
shoved on, direct towards Wesel, out of the way as is
likelier, -- can remain uncertain to readers and me.
From Frankfurt, then, on Monday morning, 22d Au-
gust 1740, as I compute, through old known Philips-
burg-Campaign country, and the lines of Ettlingen
and Stollhofen; there the royal Party speeds eagerly
(weather very bad, as appears): and it is certain they
are at Kehl on Tuesday evening; looking across the
long Rhine Bridge, Strasburg and its steeples now
close at hand.
This looks to be a romantic fine passage in the
History of the young King; -- though in truth it is
not, and proves but a feeble story either to him or us.
Concerning which, however, the reader, especially if
lie should hear that there exists precise Account of it,
Two Accounts indeed, one from the King's own hand,
will not fail of a certain craving to become acquainted
with details. This craving, foolish rather than wise,
we consider it thriftiest to satisfy at once; and shall
give the King's Narrative entire, though it is a jingling
lean scraggy Piece, partly rhyme, "in the manner of
Bachaumont and La Chapelle;" written at the gallop,
5*
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? 68 FRIEDKICII TAKES TIIE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
22il-25th Aug. 1740.
a few days hence, and despatched to Voltaire: --
"You," dear Voltaire, l<rwish to know what I have
"been about, since leaving Berlin; annexed you will
"find a description of it," writes Friedrich. * Out of
Voltaire's and other people's wastebaskets, it has at
length been fished up, patch by patch, and pasted to-
gether by victorious modern Editors; and here it is
again entire. The other Narrative, which got into the
Newspapers soon after, is likewise of authentic nature,
-- Fassmann, our poor old friend, confirming it, if
that were needful, --, and is happily in prose. ** Hold-
ing these two Pieces well together, and giving the
King's, faithfully translated, in a complete state, it
will be possible to satisfy foolish cravings, and make
this Strasburg Adventure luminous enough.
King Friedrich to Voltaire (from Wesel, 2d September 1740),
chiefly in Doggerel, concerning the Run to Strasburg. ***
"I have just finished a Journey, intermingled with singular
"adventures, sometimes pleasant, sometimes the reverse.
"You know I had set out for Baireuth," -- Bruxelles the
beautiful French Editor wrote, which makes Egyptian dark-
ness of the Piece! -- "to see a Sister whom I love no less than
"esteem. On the road" (thither or thence; or likeliest, there),
"Algarotti and I consulted the map, to settle our route for
"returning by Wesel. Frankfurt on the Mayn comes always
"as a principal stage; -- Strasburg was no great roundabout:
"we chose that route in preference. The incognito was de-
"cided, names pitched upon" (Comte Dufour,and the others);
* (Enures, xxii. 25 (Wesel, 2d September 1740).
** Given in tlelden-Geschichtc, i. 420-423; -- see likewise Fassmann's
Mei'kwHrdigster Itegierungs-Anlrui (poor old Book on Friedrick's Acces-
sion); Preuss (Tltronbesteinunq, pp. 395-400; &c. &c. )
*** Part of it, incorrect, in Voltaire, (Envres (scandalous Piece now
called UemoireB, once Vie Priv^e du Hoi dcPnisse), ii. 24-26; finally, in
Preuss, iEtnres de Fiederic, xiv. I5fi-161, the real and complete affair, -- . is
fished up by victorious Preuss and others.
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? CHAP. HI. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. 09
22d-25th Aug. 1740.
"story we were to tell: in fine all was arranged and concerted
"to a nicety as well as possible. We fancied we should get to
"Strasburg in three days," from Baireuth.
"But Heaven, which disposes of all
"things,
"Differently regulated this thing.
"With lank-sided coursers,
"Lineal descendants from Rosi-
"nante,
"With ploughmen in the dress of
"postillions,
"Blockheads of impertinent nature;
"Our carriages sticking fast a hun-
"dred times in the road,
"We went along with gravity at a
"leisurely pace,
"Knocking against the crags.
"The atmosphere in uproar with
"loud thunder,
"The rain-torrents streaming over
"the Earth
"Threatened mankind with theBay
"of Judgment [very bad weather],
"And in spite of our impatience
"Four good days are, in penance,
"Lost forever in these juinblings.
Mais Ic ciel, qui de tout dispose,
Regla differ emment la chose.
Avec de courtiers efflanques,
En ligne droites issus de Rosinante.
Et des puysans en postilions masques,
Butors do race impertinence,
Notre carrosse en cent lieux accroche.
Nous aliions gravcmcut, d^une allure
indolent e,
Gravitant contre les rockers.
Les airs emus par le bntyant ton-
nerre,
Les torrents d'eau repandus sur la
terre,
Du demicr jour menacaient tes hu-
mains;
Et malgre notre impatience,
Quatre bons jours en penitence
Sont pour jamais pcrdus dans les
char rains*
"Had all our fatalities been limited to stoppages of speed
"on the journey, we should have taken patience; but, after
"frightful roadB, we found lodgings still frightfuller.
"For greedy landlords
"Seing us pressed by hunger
"Did, in a more than frugal manner,
"In their infernal hovels,
"Poisoning instead of feeding,
"Steal from us our crowns.
"0 age different" (in good cheer)
"from that of Lucullus!
Car da holes intcressis,
De la faim nous vuyant presses,
Wane faron plus que frugale,
Dans une chaumiere infernnle,
En nous empoisonnant, nous volaient
nos ecus.
0 siecle different des temps de Lu-
cullus!
"Frightful roads; short of victual, short of drink: nor was
"that all. We had to undergo a variety of accidents; and
? ? "certainly our equipage must have had a singular air, for in
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? 70 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
22d-25th Aug. 1740.
Les wis nous prrnaient pour des rois,
D\iutres pour des filous courtois,
"Some took us for Kings,
"Some for pickpockets well dis
"guised;
"Others for old acquaintances.
"At times the people crowded out,
"Looked us in the eyes,
"Like clowns impertinently curious.
D'antres pour gens do connaissance;
Parfois le peuple s'attroupait,
Entre les yeux nous reyardait
En badauds curieux, remplis (Tim-
pertinence.
"Our lively Italian" ( Algarotti) Notre vif ltalicn juralt,
"swore;
"For myself I took patience;
"The young Count" (my gay
younger Brother, eighteen at
present) "quizzed and frolicked;
"The big Count" (Heir-apparent of
Dessau) "silently swung his
"head,
"Wishing this fine Journey to
"France,
"In the bottom of his heart, most
"christianly at the Devil.
Pour moi je prenaiIs patience,
Lejeune Comte foldtrait,
Le grand Comte se dandinait,
Et ce beau voyage de France
Dans le fond de son ctsur chretienne-
ment damnait.
"We failed not, however, to struggle gradually along; at
"last we arrived in that Stronghold, where" (as preface to the
War of 1734, known to some of us) --
Oil la garnison, troupe flasque,
Se rendit si piteusement
Apres la premiere bourasque
Du canon francais foudroyant.
"You recognise Kehl in this description. It was in that fine
"Fortress, -- where, by the way, the breaches are still lying
"unrepaired" (Reich being a slow corpus in regard to such
things) -- "that the Postmaster, a man of more foresight than
"we, asked If we had got passports?
"Where the garrison, too supple,
"Surrendered so piteously
"After the first blurt of explosion
"From the cannon of the French.
"No, said I to him; of passports
"We never had the whim.
"Strong ones I believe it would
"need
"To recal, to our side of the limit,
"Subjects of Pluto King oftheDead:
"But, from the Germanic Empire
"Into the gallant and cynical abode
"Of Messieurs your pretty French-
"men, --
Non, lui dis~je, des passe-ports
Nous n'eumes jamais la folie.
II en faudrait, je crois, des [oris
Pour ressusciter a la vie
De chez Pinion le rot des morts]
Mais de Vempire germanique
An sdjaur galanf et cynique
? ? De Messieurs vosjolis Francais,
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? CHAP. III. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. 71
22d-25th Aug. 17-10.
"Ajolly and beaming air, Un air rebondissant et frais,
"Rubicund faces, not ignorant of Une face rouge et bachique,
"wine,
"These are the passports which, le- Sunt lespasse-ports qu'en nos traits
"gible if you look on us,
"Our troop produces to you for that Vout proditit ici noire clique.
"end.
"No, Messieurs, said the provident Master of Passports ',
"no salvation without passport. Seeing then that Necessity
"had got us in the dilemma of either manufacturing passports
"ourselves or not entering Strasburg, we took the former
"branch of the alternative and manufactured one; -- in which
"feat the Prussian arms, which I had on my seal, were
"marvellously further3ome. "
This is a fact, as the old Newspapers and con-
firmatory Fassmann more directly apprise us. "The
"Landlord" (or Postmaster) "at Kehl, having signified
"that there was no crossing without Passport," Fried-
rich, at first somewhat taken aback, bethought him of
his watch-seal with the Royal Arms on it; and soon
manufactured the necessary Passport, signeted in due
form; -- which, however, gave a suspicion to the Inn-
keeper as to the quality of his Guest. After which,
Tuesday evening, 23d August, "they at once got
"across to Strasburg," says my Newspaper Friend,
"and put up at the Sign of the Raven there. " Or in
Friedrich's own jingle:
"We arrived at Strasburg; and the Custom-house corsair,
"with his inspectors, seemed content with our evidences.
"These scoundrels'spied us, Cos scelerats nous ipiaicnt,
"With one eye reading our passport, D'ttn osil le passe~porl Usaicnt,
"With the other ogling our purse. De I'aulre lorgnaient noire bourse.
"Gold,which wasalwaysaresource, Uor, qui lonjours fut de ressource,
"Which brought Jove to the enjoy- Par lequel iupin jouissait
"ment
"Of Danae whom he caressed; De Dame', qiCil caressait;
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? 72 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
22d-25th Aug. 17-10.
"Gold, by which Crcsar governed
"The world happy under his sway;
"Gold, more a divinity than Mars
"or Love;
"Wonder-working Gold introduced
"us,
"That evening, within the walls of
"Strasburg. "*
L'or, par qui Cesar gouvernait
he monde heureux sous son empire;
L'or, plus Aim que Mars et VAmour,
he memo or sut nous inlroduire,
Le soir, dans In murs de Strasbourg.
Sad doggerel; permissible perhaps as a sample of
the Friedrich manufacture, surely not otherwise! There
remains yet more than half of it; readers see what their
foolish craving has brought upon them! Doggerel out
of which no clear story, such story as there is, can be
had; though, except the exaggeration and contortion,
there is nothing of fiction in it. We fly to the News-
paper, happily at least a prose composition, which be-
gins at this point; and shall use the Doggerel hence-
forth as illustration only, or as repetition in the Fried-
rich-mirror, of a thing otherwise made clear to us:
Having got into Strasburg and the Raven Hotel; Friedrich
now on French ground at last, or at least on Half-French,
German-French, is intent to make the most of circumstances.
The Landlord, with one of Friedrich's servants, is straightway
despatched into the proper coffeehouses; to raise a supper-
party of Officers * politely asks any likely Officer, "If he will
not do a foreign Gentleman" (seemingly of some distinction,
signifies Boniface) "the honour to sup with him at theltaven? "
"No, by Jupiter! " answer the most, in their various dialects:
"who is he that we should sup with him? " Three, struck by the
singularity of the thing, undertake; and with these we must be
content. Friedrich, -- or call him M. le Comte Dufbur, with
Pfuhl, Schaffgotsch and such escort as we see, -- politely
apologises on the entrance of these Officers: "Many pardons,
gentlemen, and many thanks. Knowing nobody; desirous of
acquaintance: -- since you are so good, now happy, by a little
* Given thus far,'with several slight errors, in Voltaire, ii. 24-26; --
the remainder, long unknown, had to be fished up, patch by patch (Preuss,
(Euvres de Frederic, xiv. 159-161).
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? CUAP. III. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE OOUKTRIES. 73
22d-25th Aug. 1740.
informality, to have brought brave Officers to keep me com-
pany, whom I value beyond other kinds of men! "
The Officers found their host a most engaging gentleman:
his supper was superb, plenty of wine, "and one red kind they
had never tasted before, and liked extremely:" -- of which he
sent some bottles to their lodging next day. The conversation
turned on military matters, and was enlivened with the due
sallies. This foreign Count speaks French wonderfully; a
brilliantman, whom the others rather fear: perhaps something
more than a Count? The Officers, loth to go, remembered
that their two battalions had to parade next morning, that it
was time to be in bed: "I will go to your review," said the
Stranger Count: the delighted Officers undertake to come and
fetch him, they settle with him time and method; how happy!
On the morrow, accordingly, they call and fetch him; he
looks at the review; review done, they ask him to supper for
thisevening: "With pleasure! " and "walks with them about
the Esplanade, to see the guard march by. " Before parting,
he takes their names, writes them in his tablets; says with a
smile, "He is too much obliged ever to forget them. " This is
Wednesday, the 24th of August 1740; Field-Marshal Broglio
is Commandant in Strasburg, and these obliging Officers are
"of the regiment Piedmont," -- their names on the King's
tablets I never heard mentioned by anybody (or never till the
King's Doggerel was fished up again). Field-Marshal Broglio
my readers have transiently seen, afar off; -- " galloping with
only one boot," some say "almost in his shirt," at the Ford of
Secchia, in those Italian campaigns, five years ago, the Aus-
trians having stolen across upon him: -- he had a furious
gallop, with no end of ridicule, on that occasion; is now Com-
mandant here; and we shall have a great deal more to do with
him within the next year or two.
"This same day, 24th, while I" (the Newspaper volunteer
Reporter or Own Correspondent, seemingly a person of some
standing, whose words carry credibility in the tone of them)
"was with Field-Marshal Broglio our Governor here, there
"came two gentlemen to be presented to him; 'German Ca-
valiers' they were called; who, I now find, must have been
"the Prince of Prussia and Algarotti. The Field-Marshal,"
-- a rather high-stalking white-headed old military gentle-
man, bordering on seventy, of Piemontese air and breed, apt
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? 74 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
22d-2oth Aug. 1740.
to be sudden and make flounderings, but the soul of honour,
"was very polite to the two Cavaliers, and kept them to
"dinner. After dinner there came a so-styled 'Silesian Noble-
"man,' who likewise was presented to the Field-Marshal, and
"affected not to know the other two: him I now find to have
"been the Prince of Anhalt. "
Of his Majesty's supper with the Officers that Wednesday,
we are left to think how brilliant it was: his Majesty, we hear
farther, went to the Opera that night, -- the Polichinello or
whatever the "Italian Comodie" was; -- " and a little girl came
"to his box with two lottery - tickets fifteen pence each,
"begging the foreign Gentleman for the love of Heaven to
"buy them of her; which he did, tearing them up at once, and
"giving the poor creature four ducats," equivalent to two
guineas, or say in effect eyen five pounds of the present British
currency. The fame of this foreign Count and his party at
The Kaven is becoming very loud over Strasburg, especially
in military circles. Our volunteer Own Correspondent pro-
ceeds (whom we mean to contrast with the Royal Doggerel by
and by):
"Next morning," Thursday, 25th August, "as the Marshal
"with above two hundred Officers was out walking on the
"Esplanade, there came a soldier of the Regiment Luxem-
"burg, who, after some stiff fugling motions, of the nature of
"salutation partly, and partly demand for privacy, intimated
"to the Marshal surprising news: That this Stranger in The
"Raven was the King of Prussia in person; he, the soldier, at
"present of the Regiment Luxemburg, had in other days be-
"fore he deserted, been of the Prussian Crown Prince's regi-
"ment; had consequently seen him in Berlin, Potsdam and
"elsewhere a thousand times and more, and even stood sentry
"where he was: the fact is beyond dispute, your Excellency!
"said this soldier. " -- Whew!
Whereupon a certain Colonel, Marquis de Loigle, with or
without a hint from Broglio, makes off for The Raven; intro-
duces himself, as was easy; contrives to get invited to stay
dinner, which also was easy. During dinner the foreign Gen-
tleman expressed some wish to see their fortress. Tlolonel
Loigle sends word to Broglio; Broglio despatches straightway
an Officer and fine carriage: "Wifl the foreign Gentleman do
me the honour? " The foreign Gentleman, still struggling for
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? CHAP, ill. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. 75
22d-25th Aug. 1740.
incognito, declines the uppermost seat of honour in the
carriage; the two Officers, Loigle and this new one, insist on
taking the inferior place. Alas, the incognito is pretty much
out. Calling at some coffeehouse or the Tike on the road, a
certain female, "Madame de Fienne," named the foreign Gen-
tleman " Sire," -- which so startled him that though he utterly
declined such title, the two Officers saw well how it was.
"After survey of the works, the two attendant Officers had
"returned to the Field-Marshal; and about 4 p. m. the high
"Stranger made appearance there. But the thing had now
"got wind, 'King of Prussia here incognito! ' The place was
"full of Officers, who came crowding about him: he escaped
"deftly into the Marshal's own Cabinet; sat there, an hour,
"talking to the Marechal "(littleadmiring theMardchal'stalk,
as we shall find), "still insisting on the incognito," -- to which
Broglio, put out in his high paces by this sudden thing, and
apt to flounder, as I have heard, was not polite enough to con-
form altogether.
? 60 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [bOOK XI.
June--Sept. 1740.
"To speak to you frankly concerning her journey, it is Vol-
"taire, it is you, it is my Friend that I desire to see; and the
"divine Emiliewith all her divinity is only theAccessory of the
"Apollo Newtonised.
"Icannot yet say whether I shall travel" (incognito into
foreign parts a little) "or not travel;" there have been ru-
mours , perhaps private wishes; but--** " Adieu, dear friend;
"sublime spirit, first-born of thinking beings. Love me al-
"ways sincerely, and be persuaded that none can love and
"esteem you more than I. Vale. "F? d? ric. "
"Berlin 6th August" (which is next day). -- "You will have
"received aLetter from me dated yesterday; this is the second
"I write to you from Berlin; I refer you to what was in the
"other. If it must be (faut) that Emilie accompany Apollo, I
"consent; but if I could see you alone, that is what I would
"prefer. I should be too much dazzled; I could not stand so
"much splendour all at once; it would overpower me. I
"should need the veil of Moses to temper the united radiance
"of your two divinities. " * * In short, don't bring her,
if you please.
"Remusberg" (poetic for Reinsberg), "8th August 1740. --
u * * jfy ,jear Voltaire, I do believe Van Duren costs you
"more trouble and pains than you had with Henri Quatre. In
"versifying the Life of a Hero, you wrote the history of your
"own thoughts; but in coercing a scoundrel you fence with an
"enemy who is not worthy of you. " To punish him, and cut
short his profits, "print, then, as you wish" (your own
edition of the Anti-Macchiavel, to go along with his, and trip
the feet from it). "Faites rouler la presse; erase, change,
"correct; do as you see best; your judgment about it shall be
"mine. "-- "In eight days I,leave for" -- (where thinks the
reader? "Dantzig deliberately print all the Editors, careful
Preuss among them; overturnmg the terrestrial azimuths for
us, and making day night! ) -- "for Leipzig, and reckon on
"being at Frankfort on the 22d. In case you could be there,
"I expect, on my passage, to give you lodging! At Cleve or
"in Holland, I depend for certain on embracing you. " *
for the first time, correctly printed, and the editor himself having mostly
understood it, --though the reader still cannot, on the terms there allowed.
* Preuss, lEunres (ie Frederic, ix. pp. 5, 19-21; Voltaire, (Euvrns,
Ixxii. 226, &c. (not worth citing, in comparison).
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? CHAP, in. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. 61
Juno--Sept. 1740.
Intrinsically the Friedrich correspondence at this
time, with Voltaire especially, among many friends
now on the wing towards Berlin and sending letters,
has, -- if you are forced into struggling for some un-
derstanding of it, and do get to read parts of it with
the eyes of Friedrich and Voltaire, -- has a certain
amiability; and is nothing like so waste and dreary as
it looks in the chaotic or sacked-city condition. Fried-
rich writes with brevity, oftenest on practicalities (the
Anti-Macchiavel, the coming Interview, and the like),
evidently no time to spare; writes always with con-
siderable sincerity; with friendliness, much admiration,
and an ingenuous vivacity, to M. de Voltaire. Voltaire,
at his leisure in Brussels or the Old-Palace and its spider-
webs, writes much more expansively; not with insin-
cerity, he either;-- with endless airy graciosities, and
ingenious twirls, and touches of flattering unction,
which latter, he is aware, must not be laid on too
thick. As thus:
In regard to the Anli-Macchiavel, -- Sire, deign to give me
your permissions as to the scoundrel of a Van Duren; well
worthwhile, Sire, -- '' it is a monument for the latest poste-
rity; the only Book worthy of a King for these Fifteen
"hundred years. "
This is a strongish trowelful, thrown on direct,
with adroitness; and even this has a kind of sincerity.
Safer, however, to do it in the oblique or reflex way,
-- by Ambassador Camas, for example:
"I will tell you boldly, Sir" (you M. de Camas), "I put
"more value on this Book [Anti-Macchiavel) than on the Em-
peror Julian's Ccesa? ; or on the Maxims of Marcus Aurelius,"
-- I do indeed, having a kind of property in it withal! *
* Voltaire, (Euvrcs, lxxii. 280 (To Camas, 18th October 174. 0J.
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? 62 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
15tU Aug. 1740.
In fact, Voltaire too is beautiful, in this part of
the Correspondence; but much in a twitter, -- the
Queen of Sheba, not the sedate Solomon, in prospect
of what is coming. He plumes himself a little, we
perceive, to his d'Argentals and French Correspondents,
on this sublime intercourse he has got into with a
Crowned Head, the cynosure of mankind: -- Perhaps
even you, my best friend, did not quite know me, and
what merits I had! Plumes himself a little; but studies
to be modest withal; has not much of the peacock, and
of the turkey has nothing, to his old friends. All which
is very naive and transparent; natural and even pretty,
on the part of M. de Voltaire as the weaker vessel. --
For the rest, it is certain Maupertuis is getting under
way at Paris towards the Cleve rendezvous. Brussels,
too, is so near these Cleve Countries; within two days
good driving: -- if only the times and routes would
rightly intersect?
Friedrich's intention is by no means for a straight
journey towards Cleve: he intends for Baireuth first,
then back from Baireuth to Cleve, -- making a huge
southward elbow on the map, with Baireuth for apex
or turning-point: -- in this manner he will make the
times suit, and have a convergence at Cleve. To Bai-
reuth;-- who knows if not farther? All summer there
has gone fitfully a rumour, that he wished to see France;
perhaps Paris itself incognito? The rumour, which
was heard even at Petersburg, * is now sunk dead
again; but privately, there is no doubt, a glimpse of
the sublime French Nation would be welcome to Fried-
* Raumer's Beitrdfie (English Translation, London, 1837), p. 15
ch'a Despatch, 24th Jane 1740).
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? CHAP. III. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. G3
17th Aug. i740.
rich. He could never get to Travelling in his young
time; missed his Grand Tour altogether, much as he
wished it; and he is capable of pranks! -- Enough,
on Monday morning, 15th August 1740,* Friedrich
and Suite leave Potsdam, early enough; go, by Leip-
zig, by the route already known to readers, through
Coburg and the Voigtland regions; Wilhelmina has got
warning, sits eagerly expecting her Brother in the Her-
mitage at Baireuth, gladdest of shrill sisters; and full
of anxieties how her Brother would now be. The trav-
elling party consisted, besides the King, of seven per-
sons: Prince August Wilhelm, King's next Brother,
Heir-apparent if there come no children, now a brisk
youth of eighteen; Leopold Prince of Anhalt-Dessau,
Old Dessauer's eldest, what we may call the "Young
Dessauer;" Colonel von Borck, whom we shall hear
of again; Colonel von Stille, already heard of (grave
men of fifty, these two); milk-beard Munchow, an Ad-
jutant, youngest of the promoted Munchows; Algarotti,
indispensable for talk; and Fredersdorf, the House-
steward and domestic Factotum, once Private in
Schwerin's Regiment, whom Bielfeld so admired at
Reinsberg, foreseeing what he would come to. One of
Friedrich's late acts was to give Factotum Fredersdorf
an Estate of Land (small enough, I fancy, but with
country-house on it) for solace to the leisure of so use-
ful a man, -- studious of chemistry too, as I have
heard. Seven in all, besides the King. ** Direct to-
wards Baireuth, incognito, and at the top of their
speed. Wednesday, 17th, they actually arrive. Poor
* Hiiilenbeck, p. 15, slightly in error: sco Dickens's Interview, supra,
p. 50.
** Eci. lcnbeck, p. 10 (and for Chamberlain Fredcrsdorf's estate, p. 15;.
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? 64 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
17ttt-20th Aug. 1740.
Wilhelmina, she finds her Brother changed; -- become
a King in fact, and sternly solitary; alone in soul, even
as a King must be! * --
"Algarotti, one of the first beaux-esprits of this age,"
as Wilhelmina defines him, -- Friend Algarotti, the
young Venetian gentleman of elegance, in dusky skin,
in very white linen and frills, with his fervid black
eyes, "does the expenses of the conversation. " He is
full of elegant logic, has speculations on the great world
and the little, on Nature, Art, Papistry, Anti-Papistry,
and takes up the Opera in an earnest manner, as ca-
pable of being a school of virtue and the moral sublime.
His respectable Books on the Opera and other topics
are now all forgotten, and crave not to be mentioned.
To me he is not supremely beautiful, though much
the gentleman in manners as in ruffles, and ingeniously
logical: -- rather yellow to me, in mind as in skin,
and with a taint of obsolete Venetian Macassar. But
to Friedrich he is thrice dear; who loves the sharp
facetted cut of the man, and does not object to his
yellow or Extinct-Macassar qualities of mind. Thanks
to that wandering Baltimore for picking up such a
jewel and carrying him Northward! Algarotti himself
likes the North: here in our hardy climates, -- espe-
cially at Berlin, and were his loved Friedrich not a
King, -- Algarotti could be very happy in the liberty
allowed. At London, where there is no King, or none
to speak of, and plenty of free Intelligences, Carterets,
Lytteltons, young Pitts and the like, he is also well,
were it not for the horrid smoke upon one's linen, and
the little or no French of those proud Islanders.
Wilhelmina seems to like him here; is glad, at any
* Wilholmina, ii. 322, 323.
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? CHAP. III. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. 65
17tk-S0th Aug. 1740.
rate, that he does the costs of conversation, better or
worse. In the rest is no hope. Stille, Borck are ac-
complished military gentlemen; but of tacit nature,
reflective, practical, rather than discursive, and do not
waste themselves by incontinence of tongue. Stille, by
his military Commentaries, which are still known to
soldiers that read, maintains some lasting remembrance
of himself: Borck we shall see engaged in a small bit
of business before long. As to Miinchow, the jeune
moneux of an Aidecamp, he, though his manners are
well enough, and he wears military plumes in his hat,
is still an unfledged young creature, "bill still yellow,"
so to speak; -- and marks himself chiefly by a visible
hankering after that troublesome creature Marwitz, who
is always coquetting. Friedrich's conversation, espe-
cially to my Wilhelmina, seems "tjuinde, set on stilts,"
likewise there are frequent cuts of banter in him; and
it is painfully evident he distinguishes my Sister of
Anspach and her foolish Husband, whom he has in-
vited over hither in a most eager manner, beyond what
a poor Wilhelmina with her old love can pretend to.
Patience, my shrill Princess, Beauty of Baireuth and
the world; let us hope all will come right again! My
shrill Princess, -- who has a melodious strength like
that of war-fifes, too, -- knows how to be patient; and
veils many things, though of a highly unhypocritical
nature.
These were Three great Days at Baireuth; Wilhel-
mina is to come soon, and return the visit at Berlin.
To wait upon the King, known though incognito, "the
Bishop of Bamberg" came driving over: * Schonborn,
Austrian Kanzler, or who? His old City we once saw
* llelden-Geschichle, I. 419.
Cerbjle, Frederick the Great. VI. ?
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? 66 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [bOOK XI.
20th Aug. 1740.
(and plenty of hanged malefactors swinging round it,
during that Journey to the Reich); -- but the Bishop
himself never to our knowledge, Bishop being absent
then. I hope it is the same Bishop of Bamberg whom
a Friend of Busching's, touring there about that same
time, saw dining in a very extraordinary manner, with
mediaeval trumpeters, "with waiters in spurs and buff-
belts: * if it is not, I have not the slightest shadow of
acquaintance with him, -- there have been so many
Bishops of Bamberg with whom one wishes to have
none! On the third day Friedrich and his company
went away towards Wiirzburg; and Wilhelmina was
left alone with her reflections. "I had had so much to
"say to him; I had got nothing said at all:" alas, it is
ever so. "The King was so changed, grown so much
"bigger (grandt), you could not have known him again;"
stands finely erect and at full breadth, every inch a
King; his very stature, you would say, increased. --
Adieu, my Princess, pearl of Princesses; all readers
will expect your return-visit at Berlin, which is to be
soon.
Friedrich strikes off to the left, and has a View of
Strasburg for Two Days.
Through Wiirzburg, Frankfurt on the Mayn, speeds
Friedrich; -- Wilhelmina and mankind understand that
it is homewards and to Cleve: but at Frankfurt, in
deepest privacy, there occurs a sudden whirl south-
ward, -- up the Rhine-Valley; direct towards Stras-
burg, for a sight of France in that quarter! So has
Friedrich decided, -- not quite suddenly, on new Let-
* Biisching's Beulrage; -- Schlosser (History of the Eighteenth Century)
also qaotes the scene.
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? CHAP. III. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. 67
22d-25th Aug. 1840.
ters here, or new computations about Cleve; but by
forethought taken at Baireuth, as rather appears. From
Frankfurt to Strasburg, say 150 miles; from Strasburg
home, is not much farther than from Frankfurt home:
it can be done, then; husht! --
The incognito is to be rigorous: Friedrich becomes
Comte Dufour, a Prussian-French gentleman; Prince
August Wilhelm is Graf von Schaffgotsch, Algarotti is
Graf von Pfuhl, Germans these two; what Leopold, the
Young Dessauer called himself, -- still less what the
others, or whether the others were there at all, and not
shoved on, direct towards Wesel, out of the way as is
likelier, -- can remain uncertain to readers and me.
From Frankfurt, then, on Monday morning, 22d Au-
gust 1740, as I compute, through old known Philips-
burg-Campaign country, and the lines of Ettlingen
and Stollhofen; there the royal Party speeds eagerly
(weather very bad, as appears): and it is certain they
are at Kehl on Tuesday evening; looking across the
long Rhine Bridge, Strasburg and its steeples now
close at hand.
This looks to be a romantic fine passage in the
History of the young King; -- though in truth it is
not, and proves but a feeble story either to him or us.
Concerning which, however, the reader, especially if
lie should hear that there exists precise Account of it,
Two Accounts indeed, one from the King's own hand,
will not fail of a certain craving to become acquainted
with details. This craving, foolish rather than wise,
we consider it thriftiest to satisfy at once; and shall
give the King's Narrative entire, though it is a jingling
lean scraggy Piece, partly rhyme, "in the manner of
Bachaumont and La Chapelle;" written at the gallop,
5*
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? 68 FRIEDKICII TAKES TIIE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
22il-25th Aug. 1740.
a few days hence, and despatched to Voltaire: --
"You," dear Voltaire, l<rwish to know what I have
"been about, since leaving Berlin; annexed you will
"find a description of it," writes Friedrich. * Out of
Voltaire's and other people's wastebaskets, it has at
length been fished up, patch by patch, and pasted to-
gether by victorious modern Editors; and here it is
again entire. The other Narrative, which got into the
Newspapers soon after, is likewise of authentic nature,
-- Fassmann, our poor old friend, confirming it, if
that were needful, --, and is happily in prose. ** Hold-
ing these two Pieces well together, and giving the
King's, faithfully translated, in a complete state, it
will be possible to satisfy foolish cravings, and make
this Strasburg Adventure luminous enough.
King Friedrich to Voltaire (from Wesel, 2d September 1740),
chiefly in Doggerel, concerning the Run to Strasburg. ***
"I have just finished a Journey, intermingled with singular
"adventures, sometimes pleasant, sometimes the reverse.
"You know I had set out for Baireuth," -- Bruxelles the
beautiful French Editor wrote, which makes Egyptian dark-
ness of the Piece! -- "to see a Sister whom I love no less than
"esteem. On the road" (thither or thence; or likeliest, there),
"Algarotti and I consulted the map, to settle our route for
"returning by Wesel. Frankfurt on the Mayn comes always
"as a principal stage; -- Strasburg was no great roundabout:
"we chose that route in preference. The incognito was de-
"cided, names pitched upon" (Comte Dufour,and the others);
* (Enures, xxii. 25 (Wesel, 2d September 1740).
** Given in tlelden-Geschichtc, i. 420-423; -- see likewise Fassmann's
Mei'kwHrdigster Itegierungs-Anlrui (poor old Book on Friedrick's Acces-
sion); Preuss (Tltronbesteinunq, pp. 395-400; &c. &c. )
*** Part of it, incorrect, in Voltaire, (Envres (scandalous Piece now
called UemoireB, once Vie Priv^e du Hoi dcPnisse), ii. 24-26; finally, in
Preuss, iEtnres de Fiederic, xiv. I5fi-161, the real and complete affair, -- . is
fished up by victorious Preuss and others.
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? CHAP. HI. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. 09
22d-25th Aug. 1740.
"story we were to tell: in fine all was arranged and concerted
"to a nicety as well as possible. We fancied we should get to
"Strasburg in three days," from Baireuth.
"But Heaven, which disposes of all
"things,
"Differently regulated this thing.
"With lank-sided coursers,
"Lineal descendants from Rosi-
"nante,
"With ploughmen in the dress of
"postillions,
"Blockheads of impertinent nature;
"Our carriages sticking fast a hun-
"dred times in the road,
"We went along with gravity at a
"leisurely pace,
"Knocking against the crags.
"The atmosphere in uproar with
"loud thunder,
"The rain-torrents streaming over
"the Earth
"Threatened mankind with theBay
"of Judgment [very bad weather],
"And in spite of our impatience
"Four good days are, in penance,
"Lost forever in these juinblings.
Mais Ic ciel, qui de tout dispose,
Regla differ emment la chose.
Avec de courtiers efflanques,
En ligne droites issus de Rosinante.
Et des puysans en postilions masques,
Butors do race impertinence,
Notre carrosse en cent lieux accroche.
Nous aliions gravcmcut, d^une allure
indolent e,
Gravitant contre les rockers.
Les airs emus par le bntyant ton-
nerre,
Les torrents d'eau repandus sur la
terre,
Du demicr jour menacaient tes hu-
mains;
Et malgre notre impatience,
Quatre bons jours en penitence
Sont pour jamais pcrdus dans les
char rains*
"Had all our fatalities been limited to stoppages of speed
"on the journey, we should have taken patience; but, after
"frightful roadB, we found lodgings still frightfuller.
"For greedy landlords
"Seing us pressed by hunger
"Did, in a more than frugal manner,
"In their infernal hovels,
"Poisoning instead of feeding,
"Steal from us our crowns.
"0 age different" (in good cheer)
"from that of Lucullus!
Car da holes intcressis,
De la faim nous vuyant presses,
Wane faron plus que frugale,
Dans une chaumiere infernnle,
En nous empoisonnant, nous volaient
nos ecus.
0 siecle different des temps de Lu-
cullus!
"Frightful roads; short of victual, short of drink: nor was
"that all. We had to undergo a variety of accidents; and
? ? "certainly our equipage must have had a singular air, for in
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? 70 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
22d-25th Aug. 1740.
Les wis nous prrnaient pour des rois,
D\iutres pour des filous courtois,
"Some took us for Kings,
"Some for pickpockets well dis
"guised;
"Others for old acquaintances.
"At times the people crowded out,
"Looked us in the eyes,
"Like clowns impertinently curious.
D'antres pour gens do connaissance;
Parfois le peuple s'attroupait,
Entre les yeux nous reyardait
En badauds curieux, remplis (Tim-
pertinence.
"Our lively Italian" ( Algarotti) Notre vif ltalicn juralt,
"swore;
"For myself I took patience;
"The young Count" (my gay
younger Brother, eighteen at
present) "quizzed and frolicked;
"The big Count" (Heir-apparent of
Dessau) "silently swung his
"head,
"Wishing this fine Journey to
"France,
"In the bottom of his heart, most
"christianly at the Devil.
Pour moi je prenaiIs patience,
Lejeune Comte foldtrait,
Le grand Comte se dandinait,
Et ce beau voyage de France
Dans le fond de son ctsur chretienne-
ment damnait.
"We failed not, however, to struggle gradually along; at
"last we arrived in that Stronghold, where" (as preface to the
War of 1734, known to some of us) --
Oil la garnison, troupe flasque,
Se rendit si piteusement
Apres la premiere bourasque
Du canon francais foudroyant.
"You recognise Kehl in this description. It was in that fine
"Fortress, -- where, by the way, the breaches are still lying
"unrepaired" (Reich being a slow corpus in regard to such
things) -- "that the Postmaster, a man of more foresight than
"we, asked If we had got passports?
"Where the garrison, too supple,
"Surrendered so piteously
"After the first blurt of explosion
"From the cannon of the French.
"No, said I to him; of passports
"We never had the whim.
"Strong ones I believe it would
"need
"To recal, to our side of the limit,
"Subjects of Pluto King oftheDead:
"But, from the Germanic Empire
"Into the gallant and cynical abode
"Of Messieurs your pretty French-
"men, --
Non, lui dis~je, des passe-ports
Nous n'eumes jamais la folie.
II en faudrait, je crois, des [oris
Pour ressusciter a la vie
De chez Pinion le rot des morts]
Mais de Vempire germanique
An sdjaur galanf et cynique
? ? De Messieurs vosjolis Francais,
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? CHAP. III. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. 71
22d-25th Aug. 17-10.
"Ajolly and beaming air, Un air rebondissant et frais,
"Rubicund faces, not ignorant of Une face rouge et bachique,
"wine,
"These are the passports which, le- Sunt lespasse-ports qu'en nos traits
"gible if you look on us,
"Our troop produces to you for that Vout proditit ici noire clique.
"end.
"No, Messieurs, said the provident Master of Passports ',
"no salvation without passport. Seeing then that Necessity
"had got us in the dilemma of either manufacturing passports
"ourselves or not entering Strasburg, we took the former
"branch of the alternative and manufactured one; -- in which
"feat the Prussian arms, which I had on my seal, were
"marvellously further3ome. "
This is a fact, as the old Newspapers and con-
firmatory Fassmann more directly apprise us. "The
"Landlord" (or Postmaster) "at Kehl, having signified
"that there was no crossing without Passport," Fried-
rich, at first somewhat taken aback, bethought him of
his watch-seal with the Royal Arms on it; and soon
manufactured the necessary Passport, signeted in due
form; -- which, however, gave a suspicion to the Inn-
keeper as to the quality of his Guest. After which,
Tuesday evening, 23d August, "they at once got
"across to Strasburg," says my Newspaper Friend,
"and put up at the Sign of the Raven there. " Or in
Friedrich's own jingle:
"We arrived at Strasburg; and the Custom-house corsair,
"with his inspectors, seemed content with our evidences.
"These scoundrels'spied us, Cos scelerats nous ipiaicnt,
"With one eye reading our passport, D'ttn osil le passe~porl Usaicnt,
"With the other ogling our purse. De I'aulre lorgnaient noire bourse.
"Gold,which wasalwaysaresource, Uor, qui lonjours fut de ressource,
"Which brought Jove to the enjoy- Par lequel iupin jouissait
"ment
"Of Danae whom he caressed; De Dame', qiCil caressait;
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? 72 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
22d-25th Aug. 17-10.
"Gold, by which Crcsar governed
"The world happy under his sway;
"Gold, more a divinity than Mars
"or Love;
"Wonder-working Gold introduced
"us,
"That evening, within the walls of
"Strasburg. "*
L'or, par qui Cesar gouvernait
he monde heureux sous son empire;
L'or, plus Aim que Mars et VAmour,
he memo or sut nous inlroduire,
Le soir, dans In murs de Strasbourg.
Sad doggerel; permissible perhaps as a sample of
the Friedrich manufacture, surely not otherwise! There
remains yet more than half of it; readers see what their
foolish craving has brought upon them! Doggerel out
of which no clear story, such story as there is, can be
had; though, except the exaggeration and contortion,
there is nothing of fiction in it. We fly to the News-
paper, happily at least a prose composition, which be-
gins at this point; and shall use the Doggerel hence-
forth as illustration only, or as repetition in the Fried-
rich-mirror, of a thing otherwise made clear to us:
Having got into Strasburg and the Raven Hotel; Friedrich
now on French ground at last, or at least on Half-French,
German-French, is intent to make the most of circumstances.
The Landlord, with one of Friedrich's servants, is straightway
despatched into the proper coffeehouses; to raise a supper-
party of Officers * politely asks any likely Officer, "If he will
not do a foreign Gentleman" (seemingly of some distinction,
signifies Boniface) "the honour to sup with him at theltaven? "
"No, by Jupiter! " answer the most, in their various dialects:
"who is he that we should sup with him? " Three, struck by the
singularity of the thing, undertake; and with these we must be
content. Friedrich, -- or call him M. le Comte Dufbur, with
Pfuhl, Schaffgotsch and such escort as we see, -- politely
apologises on the entrance of these Officers: "Many pardons,
gentlemen, and many thanks. Knowing nobody; desirous of
acquaintance: -- since you are so good, now happy, by a little
* Given thus far,'with several slight errors, in Voltaire, ii. 24-26; --
the remainder, long unknown, had to be fished up, patch by patch (Preuss,
(Euvres de Frederic, xiv. 159-161).
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? CUAP. III. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE OOUKTRIES. 73
22d-25th Aug. 1740.
informality, to have brought brave Officers to keep me com-
pany, whom I value beyond other kinds of men! "
The Officers found their host a most engaging gentleman:
his supper was superb, plenty of wine, "and one red kind they
had never tasted before, and liked extremely:" -- of which he
sent some bottles to their lodging next day. The conversation
turned on military matters, and was enlivened with the due
sallies. This foreign Count speaks French wonderfully; a
brilliantman, whom the others rather fear: perhaps something
more than a Count? The Officers, loth to go, remembered
that their two battalions had to parade next morning, that it
was time to be in bed: "I will go to your review," said the
Stranger Count: the delighted Officers undertake to come and
fetch him, they settle with him time and method; how happy!
On the morrow, accordingly, they call and fetch him; he
looks at the review; review done, they ask him to supper for
thisevening: "With pleasure! " and "walks with them about
the Esplanade, to see the guard march by. " Before parting,
he takes their names, writes them in his tablets; says with a
smile, "He is too much obliged ever to forget them. " This is
Wednesday, the 24th of August 1740; Field-Marshal Broglio
is Commandant in Strasburg, and these obliging Officers are
"of the regiment Piedmont," -- their names on the King's
tablets I never heard mentioned by anybody (or never till the
King's Doggerel was fished up again). Field-Marshal Broglio
my readers have transiently seen, afar off; -- " galloping with
only one boot," some say "almost in his shirt," at the Ford of
Secchia, in those Italian campaigns, five years ago, the Aus-
trians having stolen across upon him: -- he had a furious
gallop, with no end of ridicule, on that occasion; is now Com-
mandant here; and we shall have a great deal more to do with
him within the next year or two.
"This same day, 24th, while I" (the Newspaper volunteer
Reporter or Own Correspondent, seemingly a person of some
standing, whose words carry credibility in the tone of them)
"was with Field-Marshal Broglio our Governor here, there
"came two gentlemen to be presented to him; 'German Ca-
valiers' they were called; who, I now find, must have been
"the Prince of Prussia and Algarotti. The Field-Marshal,"
-- a rather high-stalking white-headed old military gentle-
man, bordering on seventy, of Piemontese air and breed, apt
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? 74 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
22d-2oth Aug. 1740.
to be sudden and make flounderings, but the soul of honour,
"was very polite to the two Cavaliers, and kept them to
"dinner. After dinner there came a so-styled 'Silesian Noble-
"man,' who likewise was presented to the Field-Marshal, and
"affected not to know the other two: him I now find to have
"been the Prince of Anhalt. "
Of his Majesty's supper with the Officers that Wednesday,
we are left to think how brilliant it was: his Majesty, we hear
farther, went to the Opera that night, -- the Polichinello or
whatever the "Italian Comodie" was; -- " and a little girl came
"to his box with two lottery - tickets fifteen pence each,
"begging the foreign Gentleman for the love of Heaven to
"buy them of her; which he did, tearing them up at once, and
"giving the poor creature four ducats," equivalent to two
guineas, or say in effect eyen five pounds of the present British
currency. The fame of this foreign Count and his party at
The Kaven is becoming very loud over Strasburg, especially
in military circles. Our volunteer Own Correspondent pro-
ceeds (whom we mean to contrast with the Royal Doggerel by
and by):
"Next morning," Thursday, 25th August, "as the Marshal
"with above two hundred Officers was out walking on the
"Esplanade, there came a soldier of the Regiment Luxem-
"burg, who, after some stiff fugling motions, of the nature of
"salutation partly, and partly demand for privacy, intimated
"to the Marshal surprising news: That this Stranger in The
"Raven was the King of Prussia in person; he, the soldier, at
"present of the Regiment Luxemburg, had in other days be-
"fore he deserted, been of the Prussian Crown Prince's regi-
"ment; had consequently seen him in Berlin, Potsdam and
"elsewhere a thousand times and more, and even stood sentry
"where he was: the fact is beyond dispute, your Excellency!
"said this soldier. " -- Whew!
Whereupon a certain Colonel, Marquis de Loigle, with or
without a hint from Broglio, makes off for The Raven; intro-
duces himself, as was easy; contrives to get invited to stay
dinner, which also was easy. During dinner the foreign Gen-
tleman expressed some wish to see their fortress. Tlolonel
Loigle sends word to Broglio; Broglio despatches straightway
an Officer and fine carriage: "Wifl the foreign Gentleman do
me the honour? " The foreign Gentleman, still struggling for
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? CHAP, ill. ] EXCURSION TO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES. 75
22d-25th Aug. 1740.
incognito, declines the uppermost seat of honour in the
carriage; the two Officers, Loigle and this new one, insist on
taking the inferior place. Alas, the incognito is pretty much
out. Calling at some coffeehouse or the Tike on the road, a
certain female, "Madame de Fienne," named the foreign Gen-
tleman " Sire," -- which so startled him that though he utterly
declined such title, the two Officers saw well how it was.
"After survey of the works, the two attendant Officers had
"returned to the Field-Marshal; and about 4 p. m. the high
"Stranger made appearance there. But the thing had now
"got wind, 'King of Prussia here incognito! ' The place was
"full of Officers, who came crowding about him: he escaped
"deftly into the Marshal's own Cabinet; sat there, an hour,
"talking to the Marechal "(littleadmiring theMardchal'stalk,
as we shall find), "still insisting on the incognito," -- to which
Broglio, put out in his high paces by this sudden thing, and
apt to flounder, as I have heard, was not polite enough to con-
form altogether.
