' And so saying,
"he seized me with one hand, slapping me on the face with the
"other,"-- clenched as a fist (j>ninq), --"several blows; one of
"which struck me on the temple, so that I fell back, and
"should have split my head against a corner of the wainscot,
"had not Madam de Sonsfeld caught me by the headdress and
"broken the fall.
"he seized me with one hand, slapping me on the face with the
"other,"-- clenched as a fist (j>ninq), --"several blows; one of
"which struck me on the temple, so that I fell back, and
"should have split my head against a corner of the wainscot,
"had not Madam de Sonsfeld caught me by the headdress and
"broken the fall.
Thomas Carlyle
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? CHAP, vn. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 79
J2th-27tb. Aug. 1730.
"My dear Frau von Kamecke, -- Fritz has attempted to
"desert. I have been under the necessity to have him arrested.
"I request you to tell my Wife of it in some good way, that
"the news may not terrify her. And pity an unhappy Father.
"FrIEDRICH WilHElM. "*
The same post brought an order to the Colonel of
the Gens-d'Armes to put that Lieutenant Katte of his
under close confinement: -- we hope the thoughtless
young fellow has already got out of the way? He is
getting his saddle altered; fettling about this and that;
does not consider what danger he is in. This same
Sunday, his Major met him on the Street of Berlin;
said, in a significant tone, "You still here, Katte! " --
"I go this night," answered Katte; but he again put it
off, did not go this night; and the order for his arrest
did come in. On the morrow morning, Colonel Panne-
witz, hoping now he was not there, went with the
rhadamanthine order; and finding the unlucky fellow,
was obliged to execute it. Katte lies in ward, awaiting
what may be prepared for him.
Friedrich Wilhelm at Wesel has had rough pas-
sages with the Prince and others. On the Saturday
evening, 12th August 1730,** his Majesty had the
Culprit brought on shore, to the Commandant's House,
for an interview. Culprit proving less remorseful than
was expected, and evidently not confessing everything,
a loud terrible scene ensued; which Friedrich Wilhelm,
* No date: "arrived" (fromWcscl, wo conclude), Sunday "20thAugust,"
at the Palace of Berlin (Preuss, i. 42).
>>* Preuss, It. 473; Seckendorf (Fb'rster, lii. 6) says 13th, but wrong.
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? 80 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MABRIAGE PBOJECT. [book VII.
12th-27th Aug. 1730.
the unhappy Father, winded up by drawing his sword
to run the unnatural Son through the body. Old
General Mosel, Commandant of Wesel, sprang between
them, "Sire, cut me to death, but spare your Son! "
and the sword was got back to its scabbard; and the
Prince lodged in a separate room, two sentries with
fixed bayonets keeping watch over him. Friedrich Wil-
helm did not see his face again for twelve months to
come, -- 'twelve months and three days. '
Military gentlemen of due grimness interrogated the
Prince next evening,* from a Paper drawn up by his
Majesty in the interim. Prince confesses little: Did
design to get across the Rhine to Landau; thence to
Strasburg, Paris, in the strictest incognito; intended to
volunteer there, thought he might take French service,
profoundly incognito, and signalise himself in the
Italian War (just expected to break out), which might
have recovered him some favour from his Majesty: does
not tell clearly where his money came from; shy ex-
tremely of elucidating Katte and Keith; -- in fact, as
we perceive, struggles against mendacity, but will not
tell the whole truth. "Let him lie in ward, then; and
take what doom the Laws have appointed for the like
of him! " Divine Laws, are they not? Well, yes,
your Majesty; divine and human; -- or are there per-
haps no laws but the human sort, completely explicit
in this case? "He is my Colonel at least," thinks
Friedrich Wilhehn, "and tried to desert and make
others desert. If a rebellious Crown-Prince, breaking
? Scckeudorf (in Ff rater, iii. 5).
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? CHAP. VII. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 81
12tt>-27th Aug. 1730.
his Father's heart, find the laws still inarticulate; a deserting Colonel of the Potsdam Kegiment finds
them speak plain enough! Let him take the answer they give him. " --
Dumoulin, in the mean while, can make nothing of Keith, the runaway Lieutenant. Dumoulin, with his sagacious organ, soon came upon the scent of Keith; and has discovered these things about him. One even-
ing, a week before his Majesty arrived, Sunday even-
ing 6th August 1730,* Lieutenant Keith, doubtless
smelling something, saddled his horse as above men- 'tioned, decided to have a ride in the country this fine
evening, and issued out at the Briinen Gate of Wesel.
He is on the right bank of the Rhine; pleasant yellow
fields on this hand and that. He ambles slowly, for a
space; then gradually awakens into speed, into full
speed; arrives, within a couple of hours, at Dingden,
a Village in the Munster Territory, safe over the
Prussian border, by the shortest line: and from Dingden
rides at more leisure, but without losing time, into the
Dutch Overyssel region, straight towards the Hague.
He must be in the Hague? said Dumoulin to the
Official persons, on arriving there, -- to Mardenfeld
the Prussian Ambassador there,** and to Keppel, Dutch
Official gentleman who was once Ambassador at Berlin.
Prussian Ambassador applies, and again applies, in the
highest quarters; but we fear they are slack. Dumoulin
discovers that the man was certainly here; Keppel
readily admits, He had Keith to dinner a few days
* Prcuss, iv. 473. ** Seckendorf (Forster, ill. 7).
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. IV. 6
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? 82 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT. [BOOK VII.
12th-27th Aug. 1730.
ago; but where Keith now is, Keppel cannot form the
least guess.
Dumoulin suspects he is with Lord Chesterfield, the
English Ambassador here. A light was seen, for a
night or two, in one of the garret-rooms of Lord
Chesterfield's house, -- probably Keith reading? --
but Keith is not to be heard of, on inquiry there; and
the very light has now gone out. The distinguished
English Lord is gone to England in these days; but
his German Secretary is not gone: the House is in-
violable, impregnable to Prussia. Who knows, in spite
of the light going out, but Keith is still there, merely
with a window-shutter to screen him? One morning, it
becomes apparent Keith is not there. One morning, a
gentleman at the seaside is admiring Dutch fishing-
skiffs, and how they do sail. "Pooh, Sir, that is
nothing! " answers a man in multiplex breeches: "the
other night I went across to England in one, with an
Excellency's Messenger who could not wait! " -- Truth
is, the Chesterfield Secretary, who forbade lights, took
the first good night for conveying Keith to Scheveningen
and the seaside; where a Eisher-boat was provided for
him; which carried him, frail craft as it was, safe
across to England. Once there, the Authorities took
pity on the poor fellow; -- furnished the modicum of
cash and help; sent him with Admiral Norris to assist
the Portuguese, menaced with Spanish war at this
time; among whom he gradually rose to be Major of
Horse. Friedrich Wilhelm cited him by tap of drum
three times in Wesel, and also in the Gazettes, native
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? CHAP. VII. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 83
120>-27th Aug. 1730.
and Dutch; then, as he did not come, nailed an Effigy
of him (cut in four, if I remember) on the gallows
there; and confiscated any property he had. Keith had more pedigree than property; was of Poberow in
Pommern; son of poor gentlefolks there. He sent no
word of himself to Prussia, for the next ten years: so
that he had become a kind of myth to many people;
to his poor Mother among the rest, who has her tragi-
cal surmises about him. He will appear again; but
not to much purpose. His Brother, the Page Keith, is
packed into the Fusileer Regiment, at Wesel here; and
there walks sentry, unheard of for the rest of his life.
So much for the Keiths. *
Other difficulty there is as to the prison of the
Prince. Wesel is a strong Town; but for obvious
reasons one nearer Berlin, farther from the frontier,
would be preferable. Towards Berlin, however, there
is no route all on Prussian ground: from these divided
Cleve Countries we have to cross a bit of Hanover, a
bit of Hessen-Cassel: suppose these Serene Highnesses
were to interfere? Not likely they will interfere, an-
swer ancient military men, of due grimness; at any
rate, we can go a roundabout road, and they need not
know! That is the method settled on; neighbourhood
of Berlin, clearly somewhere there, must be the place?
Old Castle of Mittenwalde, in the Wusterhausen en-
? Preuss: Friedrich mit seinen Verwandten nnd Frennden, pp. 880, 392.
-- See, on this and the other points, Pb'Unitz, Mcmoiren, ii. 352-374 (and
correct his many blunders).
6*
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? 84 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book VET.
27th Aug. 1730.
virons, let that be the first resting-point, then; Rochow,
Waldau, and the Wesel Fusileer-Colonel here, sure
men, with a trooper or two for escort, shall conduct
the Prisoner. By Treuenbrietzen, by circuitous roads:
swift, silent, steady, -- and with vigilance, as you shall
answer! -- These preliminaries settled, Friedrich Wil- helm drives off homewards, black Care riding behind
him. He reaches Berlin, Sunday 27th August; finds a
world gone all to a kind of doomsday with him there,
poor gentleman.
Scene at Berlin on Majesty's Arrival.
On Sunday evening, 27th August 1730, his Majesty,
who had rested overnight at Potsdam from his rapid
journey, drove into Berlin between four and five in the
afternoon. Deserter Fritz is following, under escort of
his three military gentlemen, at a slower rate and by
circuitous routes, so as to avoid the territories of Hano-
ver and Hessen, --- towards Mittenwalde in the Wuster-
hausen neighbourhood. The military gentlemen are
vigilant as Argus, and, though pitying the poor Prince,
must be rigorous as Rhadamanthus. His attempts at
escape, of which Tradition mentions more than one,
they will not report to Papa, nor even notice to the
Prince himself; but will take care to render futile, one
and all: his Majesty may be secure on that score.
The scenes that follow are unusual in royal history;
and having been reported in the world with infinite
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? CHAP. VII. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 85
27th Aug. 1730.
noise and censure, made up of laughter and horror, it
will behove us to be the more exact in relating them
as they actually befel. Very difficult to pull, out of
that ravelled cartload of chaotic thrums, here a thread
and there a thread, capable of being brought to the
straight state, and woven into legible narrative! But
perhaps, by that method, the mingled laughter and
horror will modify itself a little. What we can well
say is, that pity also ought not to be wanting. The
next six months were undoubtedly by far the wretchedest
of Friedrich Wilhelm's life. The poor King, except
that he was not conscious of intending wrong, but much
the reverse, walked in the hollow night of Gehenna, all that while, and was often like to be driven mad by
the turn things had taken.
Here is scene first: Wilhelmina reports his Majesty's
arrival that Sunday afternoon, to the following effect;
she was present in the adventure, and not a spectatress
only:
"The Queen was alone in hisMajesty's Apartment, waiting
"for him as he approached. At sight of her, in the distance,
"he called out: 'Your losel of a Son (votre indigne fils) has
"'ended at last; you have done with him,' or words to that
"effect. 'What,' cried the Queen,'you have had the barbarity
"'to kill him? ' -- 'Yes, I tell you, -- but where is the sealed
"'Desk? ' The Queen went to her own Apartment to fetch
"it; I ran in to her there for a moment: she was out of herself,
"wringing her hands, crying incessantly, and said without
"ceasing: lMon Dieu, mon fils (0 God, my Son)! ' Breath
"failed me; I fell fainting into the arms of Madam de Sons-
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? 86 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book VII.
? 27th Ang. 3730.
"feld. " -- The Queen took away the Writing-case; King tore
out the letters, and went off; upon which the Queen came
down again to us.
"We learned from some attendant that, at least, my
"Brother was not dead. The King now came back. We all
"ran to kiss his hands; but me he no sooner noticed than rage
"and fury took possession of him. He became black in the
"face, his eyes sparkling fire, his mouth foaming. 'Infamous
"'canaille,' said he: 'darest thou show thyself before me? Go,
"'keep thy scoundrel of a Brother company!
' And so saying,
"he seized me with one hand, slapping me on the face with the
"other,"-- clenched as a fist (j>ninq), --"several blows; one of
"which struck me on the temple, so that I fell back, and
"should have split my head against a corner of the wainscot,
"had not Madam de Sonsfeld caught me by the headdress and
"broken the fall. I lay on the ground without consciousness.
"The King, in a frenzy, was for striking me with his feet; had
"not the Queen, my Sisters and the rest, run between, and
"those who were present prevented him. They all ranked
"themselves round me, which gave Mesdames de Kamecke
"and Sonsfeld time to pick me up. They put me in a chair in
"the embrasure of a window; threw water on my face to bring
"me to life: which care I lamentably reproached them with,
"death being a thousand times better, in the pass things had
"come to. The Queen kept shrieking, her firmness had quite
"left her: she wrung her hands, and ran in despair up and
"down the room. The King's face was so disfigured with
"rage, it was frightful to look upon. The little ones were on
"their knees, begging for me,"*--
-- poor little beings, what a group: Amelia, the youngest
girl, about six; Henri, in his bits of trousers, hardly
* ? Wilhelmina, 1. 265-267.
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? CHAP. TIT. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 87
27th Aag. 1730.
over four! -- For the rest, I perceive, this room was
on the first or a lower floor, and such noises were very audible. The Guard had turned out at the noise; and
a crowd was collecting to see and hear: "Move on!
Move on! " --
"The King had now changed his tune: he admitted that
"my Brother was still alive; but vowed horribly he would put
"him to death, and lay me fast, within four walls, for the rest
"of my life. He accused me of being the Prince's accomplice,
"whose crime was high treason; --also of having anintrigue
"of love with Katte, to whom, he said, I had borne several
"children. " The timid Governante flamed up at this unheard-
of insult: 'That is not true,' said she fiercely, 'whoever has
told your Majesty such a thing has told a lie! ' 'O, spare my
'"Brother, and I will marry the Duke of Weissenfels,'
"whimpered I; but in the great noise he did not hear; and
"while I strove to repeat it louder, Sonsfeld clapt her hand kerchief on my face.
"Hustling aside to get rid of the handkerchief, I saw Katte
"crossing the Square. Four soldiers were conducting him to
"the King; trunks, my Brother's and his own, sealed, were
"coming on in the rear. Pale and downcast, he tookoff his
"hat to salute me," --poor Katte, to me always so prostrate
in silent respect, and now so unhappy! "A moment after, the
"King hearing he was come, went out, exclaiming, 'Now I
"'shall have proof about the scoundrel Fritz and the off-
"' scouring (canaille) Wilhelmina; clear proofs to cut the
"'heads off them. '"-- The two Hofdames again interfered;
and one of them,Kamecke it was, rebuked him; told him, in the
tone of a prophetess, To take care what he was doing. Whom
his Majesty gazed into with astonishment, but rather with
respect than with anger, saying, "Your intentions are good! "
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? 88 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book TO.
27th Aug. 1730.
And so his Majesty flung out, seeking Katte; and
vanished: "Wilhelmina saw no more of him for about a
year after; being ordered to her room, and kept pri-
soner there on low diet, with sentries guarding her
doors, and no outlook but the worst horror her imagi-
nation pleased to paint.
This is the celebrated assault of paternal Majesty
on Wilhelmina; the rumour of which has gone into all
lands, exciting wonder and horror, but could not be so
exact as this account at first-hand. Naturally the crowd
of street passengers, once dispersed by the Guard, car-
ried the matter abroad, and there was no end of sym-
pathetic exaggerations. Report ran in Berlin, for
example, that the poor Princess was killed, beaten or
trampled to death; which we clearly see she was not.
Voltaire, in that mass of angry calumnies, very men-
dacious indeed, which he calls Vie Prive'e du Boi de
Prusse, mentions the matter with emphasis; and says
farther. The Princess once did him (Voltaire) the
"honour to show him a black mark she carried on her
breast ever after;" -- which is likelier to be false than
true. Captain Guy Dickens, the Legationary Captain,
who seems a clear, ingenuous and ingenious man, and
of course had access to the highest circles of refined
rumour, reports the matter about ten days after, with
several errors, in this manner:
"Berlin, 5th September 1730. Four or five days ago" (by
the Almanac nine, and directly on his Majesty's return, which
Dickens had announced a week ago without that fact at-
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? CHAP. VII. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 89
27th Aug. 1780.
tached), "the King dreadfully ill-treated Wilhelmina in
"bed" (not in bed at all); "whole Castle (Schloss or Palace)
"was alarmed; Guard turned out," -- to clear away the
crowd, as we perceive. Not properly a crowd, such was not
permissible there: but a stagnation of the passers-by would
naturally ensue on that esplanade; till the Guard turned out,
and indicated with emphasis, "Move on! " Dickens bears
farther that "the Queen fares no better;" -- such is the state
of rumour in Berlin at present.
Poor Katte had a hard audience of it too. He fell
at Friedrich Wilhelm's feet; and was spurned and
caned; -- for the rest, beyond what was already evi-
dent, had little or nothing to confess: Intention of flight
and of accompanying in flight, very undeniable; al-
though preliminaries and ulterior conditions of said
flight not perfectly known to Katte; known only that
the thought of raising trouble in foreign Courts, or fhe
least vestige of treason against his Majesty, had not
entered even into their dreams. A name or two of per-
sons who had known, or guessed, of these operations,
is wrung from Katte; -- name of a Lieutenant Spaen,
for one; who, being on guard, had admitted Katte into
Potsdam once or twice in disguise: -- for him and for
the like of him, of whatever rank or whichever sex, let
arrests he made out, and the scent as with sleuth-
hounds be diligently followed on all sides; and Katte,
stript of his uniform, be locked up in the grimmest
manner. Berlin, with the rumour of these things, is a
much agitated city.
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? 90 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book vir.
27th Aug. -5th Sept. 1730.
CHAPTEE Vm.
SEQUEL TO CROWN-PRINCE AND FRIENDS.
As for the Crown-Prince, prosecuting his circuitous
route, he arrives safe at Mittenwalde; is lodged in the
old Castle there, I think, for two nights (but the date,
in these indexless Books, is blown away again), in a
room bare of all things, with sentries at the door; and
looks out, expecting Grumkow and the Officials to make
assault on him. One of these Officials, a certain "Gerber,
Fiscal General," who, as head of Prussian Fiscals (kind
of Public Prosecutor, or supreme Essence of Bailiffs,
Catchpoles and Grand-Juries all in one), wears a red
cloak, -- gave the Prince a dreadful start. Red cloak
is the Berlin Hangman's or Headsman's dress; and poor
Friedrich had the idea his end had summarily come in
this manner. Soon seeing it was otherwise, his spirits
recovered, perhaps rose by the shock.
He fronted Grumkow and the Officials, with a high,
almost contemptuous look; answered promptly, -- if
possible, without lying, and yet without telling any-
thing; -- showed self-possession, pride; retorted some-
times, "Have you nothing more to ask? " Grumkow
finding there was no way made into anything, not even
into the secret of the Writing-case and the Royal Women's
operations there, began at last, as Wilhelmina says, to
hint, That in his Majesty's service there were means of
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? CHAP. Tin. J SEQUEL TO CEOWN' PRINCE AND FRIENDS. 91
5th Sept. 1730.
bringing out the truth in spite of refractory humours;
that there was a thing called the rack, not yet abolished
in his Prussian Majesty's dominions! Friedrich owned
afterwards, his blood ran cold. However, he put on a
high look: "A Hangman, such as you, naturally takes
"pleasure in talking of his tools and his trade; but on
"me they will not produce any effect. I have owned
"everything; -- and almost regret to have done so. For
"it is not my part to stand questionings and bandy re-
sponses with a coquin comme vous, scoundrel like you,"
reports Wilhelmina,* though we hope the actual term
was slightly less candid! -- Grumkow gathered his
Notes together; and went his ways, with the man in
red cloak and the rest; thus finishing the scene in Mit-
tenwalde. Mittenwalde, which we used to know long
since, in our Wusterhausen rides with poor Duhan;
little thinking what awaited us there one day!
Mittenwalde being finished, Friedrich, on Monday,
5th September 1730, is sent forward to Ciistrin, a strong
little Town in a quiet Country, some sixty or seventy
miles eastward of Berlin. On the evening of the 5th he
finds himself lodged in a strong room of the Fortress
there, -- room consisting of bare walls lighted from far
up; no furniture, not even the needfullest; everything
indicating that the proud spirit and the iron laws shall
here have their duel out at leisure, and see which is
stronger.
His sword was taken from him at Wesel; sword,
uniform, every mark of dignity, all are now gone: he
? i. 280.
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? 92 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book TO.
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
is clad in brown prison dress of the plainest cut and
cloth; his diet is fixed at tenpence a-day ("to be got
from the cook's shop, six groschen for dinner, four for
supper");* food to be cut for him, no knife allowed. Room is to be opened, morning, noon and evening, "on
the average not above four minutes each time;" lights,
or single tallow light, to be extinguished at seven p. m.
Absolute solitude; no flute allowed, far from it; no
Books allowed, except the Bible and a Prayer-Book,--
or perhaps Noltenius's Manual, if he took a hankering
for it. There, shut out from the babble of fools, and
conversing only with the dumb Veracities, with the
huge inarticulate moanings of Destiny, Necessity and
Eternity, let the fool of a Fritz bethink himself, if there
is any thought in him! There, among the Bogs of the
Oder, the very sedges getting brown all round him, and
the very curlews flying off for happier climes, let him
wait, till the question of his doom, rather an abstruse
question, ripen in the royal breast.
As for Wilhelmina, she is close prisoner in her
apartments in the Berlin Palace, sentries pacing at
every outlet, for many months to come. Wilhelmina
almost rather likes it, such a dog of an existence has
she had hitherto, for want of being well let alone. She
plays, reads; composes music; smuggles letters to and
from Mamma, -- one in pencil, from my Brother even,
0 Heavens! Wilhelmina weeps, now and then, with
her good Sonsfeld; hopes nevertheless there will be
? Order, 14th September 1730 (in Forster, 1. 372).
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? CHAP, vm. ] SEQUEL TO CROWN-PRINCE AND FRIENDS. 93
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
some dawn to this ragnarok, or general "twilight of the
gods. " Friedrich Wilhelm, convinced that England has
had a hand in this treason, signifies officially to his Ex-
cellency Captain Dickens, That the English negotiations
are concluded; that neither in the way of Single-Mar-
riage nor of Double-Marriage will he have anything
more to do with England. "Well," answers England,
"who can help it? Negotiation was not quite of our
seeking. Let it so end! "* -- Nay at dinner one
day (Seckendorf reports, while Fritz was on the road
to Custrin) he proposes the toast, "Downfall of Eng-
land! "** and would have had the Queen drink it; who
naturally wept, but I conjecture could not be made to
drink. Her Majesty is a weeping, almost broken-hearted
woman; his Majesty a raging, almost broken-hearted
man. Seckendorf and Grumkow are, as it were, too
victorious; and now have their apprehensions on that
latter score. But they look on with countenances well
veiled, and touch the helm judiciously in Tobacco-
Parliament, intent on the nearest harbour of refuge.
Her Majesty nevertheless steadily persists; merely
sinks deeper out of sight with her English schemes;
ducking till the wave go by. Messages, desperate
appeals still go, through Mamsell Biilow, Wilhelmina's
Hofdame, and other channels; nay Wilhelmina thinks
there were still intentions on the part of England, and
that the nonfulfilment of them at the last moment
* Dickens's Despatch, 25th September 1730; and Harrington's Answer
to it, of 6th October: Seckendorf (in Fb'rster; ill. *), 23d September.
? * Seckendorf (in Fb'rster, iii. 11).
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? 94 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book VII.
5thSept. -25th Oct. 1730.
turned on accident; English "Courier arrived some
hours too late," thinks Wilhelmina. * But that is a
mistake. The negotiation, in spite of her Majesty's
endeavours, was essentially out; England, after such a
message, could not, nor did, stir farther in the matter.
In that Writing-case his Majesty found what we
know; nothing hut mysterious effects of female art, and
no light whatever. It is a great source of wrath and
of sorrow to him, that neither in the Writing-case, nor
in Katte's or the Prince's so called "Confessions," can
the thing be seen into. A deeper bottom it must have,
thinks his Majesty, but knows not what or where. To
overturn the Country, belike; and fling the Kaiser, and
European Balance of Power, bottom uppermost? Me
they presumably meant to poison! he tells Seckendorf
one day. ** Was ever Father more careful for his
children, soul and body? Anxious, to excess, to bring
them up in orthodox nurture and admonition: and this
is how they reward me, Herr Feldzeugmeister! "Had
"he honestly confessed, and told me the whole truth,
"at Wesel, I would have made it up with him quietly
"there. But now it must go its lengths; and the whole
"world shall be judge between us. " ***
His Majesty is in a flaming height. He arrests,
punishes and banishes, where there is trace of coopera-
tion or connexion with Deserter Fritz and his schemes.
* Wilhelmina (i. 369, 384), and Preuss and others after her.
? CHAP, vn. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 79
J2th-27tb. Aug. 1730.
"My dear Frau von Kamecke, -- Fritz has attempted to
"desert. I have been under the necessity to have him arrested.
"I request you to tell my Wife of it in some good way, that
"the news may not terrify her. And pity an unhappy Father.
"FrIEDRICH WilHElM. "*
The same post brought an order to the Colonel of
the Gens-d'Armes to put that Lieutenant Katte of his
under close confinement: -- we hope the thoughtless
young fellow has already got out of the way? He is
getting his saddle altered; fettling about this and that;
does not consider what danger he is in. This same
Sunday, his Major met him on the Street of Berlin;
said, in a significant tone, "You still here, Katte! " --
"I go this night," answered Katte; but he again put it
off, did not go this night; and the order for his arrest
did come in. On the morrow morning, Colonel Panne-
witz, hoping now he was not there, went with the
rhadamanthine order; and finding the unlucky fellow,
was obliged to execute it. Katte lies in ward, awaiting
what may be prepared for him.
Friedrich Wilhelm at Wesel has had rough pas-
sages with the Prince and others. On the Saturday
evening, 12th August 1730,** his Majesty had the
Culprit brought on shore, to the Commandant's House,
for an interview. Culprit proving less remorseful than
was expected, and evidently not confessing everything,
a loud terrible scene ensued; which Friedrich Wilhelm,
* No date: "arrived" (fromWcscl, wo conclude), Sunday "20thAugust,"
at the Palace of Berlin (Preuss, i. 42).
>>* Preuss, It. 473; Seckendorf (Fb'rster, lii. 6) says 13th, but wrong.
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? 80 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MABRIAGE PBOJECT. [book VII.
12th-27th Aug. 1730.
the unhappy Father, winded up by drawing his sword
to run the unnatural Son through the body. Old
General Mosel, Commandant of Wesel, sprang between
them, "Sire, cut me to death, but spare your Son! "
and the sword was got back to its scabbard; and the
Prince lodged in a separate room, two sentries with
fixed bayonets keeping watch over him. Friedrich Wil-
helm did not see his face again for twelve months to
come, -- 'twelve months and three days. '
Military gentlemen of due grimness interrogated the
Prince next evening,* from a Paper drawn up by his
Majesty in the interim. Prince confesses little: Did
design to get across the Rhine to Landau; thence to
Strasburg, Paris, in the strictest incognito; intended to
volunteer there, thought he might take French service,
profoundly incognito, and signalise himself in the
Italian War (just expected to break out), which might
have recovered him some favour from his Majesty: does
not tell clearly where his money came from; shy ex-
tremely of elucidating Katte and Keith; -- in fact, as
we perceive, struggles against mendacity, but will not
tell the whole truth. "Let him lie in ward, then; and
take what doom the Laws have appointed for the like
of him! " Divine Laws, are they not? Well, yes,
your Majesty; divine and human; -- or are there per-
haps no laws but the human sort, completely explicit
in this case? "He is my Colonel at least," thinks
Friedrich Wilhehn, "and tried to desert and make
others desert. If a rebellious Crown-Prince, breaking
? Scckeudorf (in Ff rater, iii. 5).
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? CHAP. VII. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 81
12tt>-27th Aug. 1730.
his Father's heart, find the laws still inarticulate; a deserting Colonel of the Potsdam Kegiment finds
them speak plain enough! Let him take the answer they give him. " --
Dumoulin, in the mean while, can make nothing of Keith, the runaway Lieutenant. Dumoulin, with his sagacious organ, soon came upon the scent of Keith; and has discovered these things about him. One even-
ing, a week before his Majesty arrived, Sunday even-
ing 6th August 1730,* Lieutenant Keith, doubtless
smelling something, saddled his horse as above men- 'tioned, decided to have a ride in the country this fine
evening, and issued out at the Briinen Gate of Wesel.
He is on the right bank of the Rhine; pleasant yellow
fields on this hand and that. He ambles slowly, for a
space; then gradually awakens into speed, into full
speed; arrives, within a couple of hours, at Dingden,
a Village in the Munster Territory, safe over the
Prussian border, by the shortest line: and from Dingden
rides at more leisure, but without losing time, into the
Dutch Overyssel region, straight towards the Hague.
He must be in the Hague? said Dumoulin to the
Official persons, on arriving there, -- to Mardenfeld
the Prussian Ambassador there,** and to Keppel, Dutch
Official gentleman who was once Ambassador at Berlin.
Prussian Ambassador applies, and again applies, in the
highest quarters; but we fear they are slack. Dumoulin
discovers that the man was certainly here; Keppel
readily admits, He had Keith to dinner a few days
* Prcuss, iv. 473. ** Seckendorf (Forster, ill. 7).
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. IV. 6
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? 82 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT. [BOOK VII.
12th-27th Aug. 1730.
ago; but where Keith now is, Keppel cannot form the
least guess.
Dumoulin suspects he is with Lord Chesterfield, the
English Ambassador here. A light was seen, for a
night or two, in one of the garret-rooms of Lord
Chesterfield's house, -- probably Keith reading? --
but Keith is not to be heard of, on inquiry there; and
the very light has now gone out. The distinguished
English Lord is gone to England in these days; but
his German Secretary is not gone: the House is in-
violable, impregnable to Prussia. Who knows, in spite
of the light going out, but Keith is still there, merely
with a window-shutter to screen him? One morning, it
becomes apparent Keith is not there. One morning, a
gentleman at the seaside is admiring Dutch fishing-
skiffs, and how they do sail. "Pooh, Sir, that is
nothing! " answers a man in multiplex breeches: "the
other night I went across to England in one, with an
Excellency's Messenger who could not wait! " -- Truth
is, the Chesterfield Secretary, who forbade lights, took
the first good night for conveying Keith to Scheveningen
and the seaside; where a Eisher-boat was provided for
him; which carried him, frail craft as it was, safe
across to England. Once there, the Authorities took
pity on the poor fellow; -- furnished the modicum of
cash and help; sent him with Admiral Norris to assist
the Portuguese, menaced with Spanish war at this
time; among whom he gradually rose to be Major of
Horse. Friedrich Wilhelm cited him by tap of drum
three times in Wesel, and also in the Gazettes, native
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? CHAP. VII. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 83
120>-27th Aug. 1730.
and Dutch; then, as he did not come, nailed an Effigy
of him (cut in four, if I remember) on the gallows
there; and confiscated any property he had. Keith had more pedigree than property; was of Poberow in
Pommern; son of poor gentlefolks there. He sent no
word of himself to Prussia, for the next ten years: so
that he had become a kind of myth to many people;
to his poor Mother among the rest, who has her tragi-
cal surmises about him. He will appear again; but
not to much purpose. His Brother, the Page Keith, is
packed into the Fusileer Regiment, at Wesel here; and
there walks sentry, unheard of for the rest of his life.
So much for the Keiths. *
Other difficulty there is as to the prison of the
Prince. Wesel is a strong Town; but for obvious
reasons one nearer Berlin, farther from the frontier,
would be preferable. Towards Berlin, however, there
is no route all on Prussian ground: from these divided
Cleve Countries we have to cross a bit of Hanover, a
bit of Hessen-Cassel: suppose these Serene Highnesses
were to interfere? Not likely they will interfere, an-
swer ancient military men, of due grimness; at any
rate, we can go a roundabout road, and they need not
know! That is the method settled on; neighbourhood
of Berlin, clearly somewhere there, must be the place?
Old Castle of Mittenwalde, in the Wusterhausen en-
? Preuss: Friedrich mit seinen Verwandten nnd Frennden, pp. 880, 392.
-- See, on this and the other points, Pb'Unitz, Mcmoiren, ii. 352-374 (and
correct his many blunders).
6*
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? 84 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book VET.
27th Aug. 1730.
virons, let that be the first resting-point, then; Rochow,
Waldau, and the Wesel Fusileer-Colonel here, sure
men, with a trooper or two for escort, shall conduct
the Prisoner. By Treuenbrietzen, by circuitous roads:
swift, silent, steady, -- and with vigilance, as you shall
answer! -- These preliminaries settled, Friedrich Wil- helm drives off homewards, black Care riding behind
him. He reaches Berlin, Sunday 27th August; finds a
world gone all to a kind of doomsday with him there,
poor gentleman.
Scene at Berlin on Majesty's Arrival.
On Sunday evening, 27th August 1730, his Majesty,
who had rested overnight at Potsdam from his rapid
journey, drove into Berlin between four and five in the
afternoon. Deserter Fritz is following, under escort of
his three military gentlemen, at a slower rate and by
circuitous routes, so as to avoid the territories of Hano-
ver and Hessen, --- towards Mittenwalde in the Wuster-
hausen neighbourhood. The military gentlemen are
vigilant as Argus, and, though pitying the poor Prince,
must be rigorous as Rhadamanthus. His attempts at
escape, of which Tradition mentions more than one,
they will not report to Papa, nor even notice to the
Prince himself; but will take care to render futile, one
and all: his Majesty may be secure on that score.
The scenes that follow are unusual in royal history;
and having been reported in the world with infinite
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? CHAP. VII. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 85
27th Aug. 1730.
noise and censure, made up of laughter and horror, it
will behove us to be the more exact in relating them
as they actually befel. Very difficult to pull, out of
that ravelled cartload of chaotic thrums, here a thread
and there a thread, capable of being brought to the
straight state, and woven into legible narrative! But
perhaps, by that method, the mingled laughter and
horror will modify itself a little. What we can well
say is, that pity also ought not to be wanting. The
next six months were undoubtedly by far the wretchedest
of Friedrich Wilhelm's life. The poor King, except
that he was not conscious of intending wrong, but much
the reverse, walked in the hollow night of Gehenna, all that while, and was often like to be driven mad by
the turn things had taken.
Here is scene first: Wilhelmina reports his Majesty's
arrival that Sunday afternoon, to the following effect;
she was present in the adventure, and not a spectatress
only:
"The Queen was alone in hisMajesty's Apartment, waiting
"for him as he approached. At sight of her, in the distance,
"he called out: 'Your losel of a Son (votre indigne fils) has
"'ended at last; you have done with him,' or words to that
"effect. 'What,' cried the Queen,'you have had the barbarity
"'to kill him? ' -- 'Yes, I tell you, -- but where is the sealed
"'Desk? ' The Queen went to her own Apartment to fetch
"it; I ran in to her there for a moment: she was out of herself,
"wringing her hands, crying incessantly, and said without
"ceasing: lMon Dieu, mon fils (0 God, my Son)! ' Breath
"failed me; I fell fainting into the arms of Madam de Sons-
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? 86 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book VII.
? 27th Ang. 3730.
"feld. " -- The Queen took away the Writing-case; King tore
out the letters, and went off; upon which the Queen came
down again to us.
"We learned from some attendant that, at least, my
"Brother was not dead. The King now came back. We all
"ran to kiss his hands; but me he no sooner noticed than rage
"and fury took possession of him. He became black in the
"face, his eyes sparkling fire, his mouth foaming. 'Infamous
"'canaille,' said he: 'darest thou show thyself before me? Go,
"'keep thy scoundrel of a Brother company!
' And so saying,
"he seized me with one hand, slapping me on the face with the
"other,"-- clenched as a fist (j>ninq), --"several blows; one of
"which struck me on the temple, so that I fell back, and
"should have split my head against a corner of the wainscot,
"had not Madam de Sonsfeld caught me by the headdress and
"broken the fall. I lay on the ground without consciousness.
"The King, in a frenzy, was for striking me with his feet; had
"not the Queen, my Sisters and the rest, run between, and
"those who were present prevented him. They all ranked
"themselves round me, which gave Mesdames de Kamecke
"and Sonsfeld time to pick me up. They put me in a chair in
"the embrasure of a window; threw water on my face to bring
"me to life: which care I lamentably reproached them with,
"death being a thousand times better, in the pass things had
"come to. The Queen kept shrieking, her firmness had quite
"left her: she wrung her hands, and ran in despair up and
"down the room. The King's face was so disfigured with
"rage, it was frightful to look upon. The little ones were on
"their knees, begging for me,"*--
-- poor little beings, what a group: Amelia, the youngest
girl, about six; Henri, in his bits of trousers, hardly
* ? Wilhelmina, 1. 265-267.
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? CHAP. TIT. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 87
27th Aag. 1730.
over four! -- For the rest, I perceive, this room was
on the first or a lower floor, and such noises were very audible. The Guard had turned out at the noise; and
a crowd was collecting to see and hear: "Move on!
Move on! " --
"The King had now changed his tune: he admitted that
"my Brother was still alive; but vowed horribly he would put
"him to death, and lay me fast, within four walls, for the rest
"of my life. He accused me of being the Prince's accomplice,
"whose crime was high treason; --also of having anintrigue
"of love with Katte, to whom, he said, I had borne several
"children. " The timid Governante flamed up at this unheard-
of insult: 'That is not true,' said she fiercely, 'whoever has
told your Majesty such a thing has told a lie! ' 'O, spare my
'"Brother, and I will marry the Duke of Weissenfels,'
"whimpered I; but in the great noise he did not hear; and
"while I strove to repeat it louder, Sonsfeld clapt her hand kerchief on my face.
"Hustling aside to get rid of the handkerchief, I saw Katte
"crossing the Square. Four soldiers were conducting him to
"the King; trunks, my Brother's and his own, sealed, were
"coming on in the rear. Pale and downcast, he tookoff his
"hat to salute me," --poor Katte, to me always so prostrate
in silent respect, and now so unhappy! "A moment after, the
"King hearing he was come, went out, exclaiming, 'Now I
"'shall have proof about the scoundrel Fritz and the off-
"' scouring (canaille) Wilhelmina; clear proofs to cut the
"'heads off them. '"-- The two Hofdames again interfered;
and one of them,Kamecke it was, rebuked him; told him, in the
tone of a prophetess, To take care what he was doing. Whom
his Majesty gazed into with astonishment, but rather with
respect than with anger, saying, "Your intentions are good! "
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? 88 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book TO.
27th Aug. 1730.
And so his Majesty flung out, seeking Katte; and
vanished: "Wilhelmina saw no more of him for about a
year after; being ordered to her room, and kept pri-
soner there on low diet, with sentries guarding her
doors, and no outlook but the worst horror her imagi-
nation pleased to paint.
This is the celebrated assault of paternal Majesty
on Wilhelmina; the rumour of which has gone into all
lands, exciting wonder and horror, but could not be so
exact as this account at first-hand. Naturally the crowd
of street passengers, once dispersed by the Guard, car-
ried the matter abroad, and there was no end of sym-
pathetic exaggerations. Report ran in Berlin, for
example, that the poor Princess was killed, beaten or
trampled to death; which we clearly see she was not.
Voltaire, in that mass of angry calumnies, very men-
dacious indeed, which he calls Vie Prive'e du Boi de
Prusse, mentions the matter with emphasis; and says
farther. The Princess once did him (Voltaire) the
"honour to show him a black mark she carried on her
breast ever after;" -- which is likelier to be false than
true. Captain Guy Dickens, the Legationary Captain,
who seems a clear, ingenuous and ingenious man, and
of course had access to the highest circles of refined
rumour, reports the matter about ten days after, with
several errors, in this manner:
"Berlin, 5th September 1730. Four or five days ago" (by
the Almanac nine, and directly on his Majesty's return, which
Dickens had announced a week ago without that fact at-
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? CHAP. VII. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 89
27th Aug. 1780.
tached), "the King dreadfully ill-treated Wilhelmina in
"bed" (not in bed at all); "whole Castle (Schloss or Palace)
"was alarmed; Guard turned out," -- to clear away the
crowd, as we perceive. Not properly a crowd, such was not
permissible there: but a stagnation of the passers-by would
naturally ensue on that esplanade; till the Guard turned out,
and indicated with emphasis, "Move on! " Dickens bears
farther that "the Queen fares no better;" -- such is the state
of rumour in Berlin at present.
Poor Katte had a hard audience of it too. He fell
at Friedrich Wilhelm's feet; and was spurned and
caned; -- for the rest, beyond what was already evi-
dent, had little or nothing to confess: Intention of flight
and of accompanying in flight, very undeniable; al-
though preliminaries and ulterior conditions of said
flight not perfectly known to Katte; known only that
the thought of raising trouble in foreign Courts, or fhe
least vestige of treason against his Majesty, had not
entered even into their dreams. A name or two of per-
sons who had known, or guessed, of these operations,
is wrung from Katte; -- name of a Lieutenant Spaen,
for one; who, being on guard, had admitted Katte into
Potsdam once or twice in disguise: -- for him and for
the like of him, of whatever rank or whichever sex, let
arrests he made out, and the scent as with sleuth-
hounds be diligently followed on all sides; and Katte,
stript of his uniform, be locked up in the grimmest
manner. Berlin, with the rumour of these things, is a
much agitated city.
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? 90 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book vir.
27th Aug. -5th Sept. 1730.
CHAPTEE Vm.
SEQUEL TO CROWN-PRINCE AND FRIENDS.
As for the Crown-Prince, prosecuting his circuitous
route, he arrives safe at Mittenwalde; is lodged in the
old Castle there, I think, for two nights (but the date,
in these indexless Books, is blown away again), in a
room bare of all things, with sentries at the door; and
looks out, expecting Grumkow and the Officials to make
assault on him. One of these Officials, a certain "Gerber,
Fiscal General," who, as head of Prussian Fiscals (kind
of Public Prosecutor, or supreme Essence of Bailiffs,
Catchpoles and Grand-Juries all in one), wears a red
cloak, -- gave the Prince a dreadful start. Red cloak
is the Berlin Hangman's or Headsman's dress; and poor
Friedrich had the idea his end had summarily come in
this manner. Soon seeing it was otherwise, his spirits
recovered, perhaps rose by the shock.
He fronted Grumkow and the Officials, with a high,
almost contemptuous look; answered promptly, -- if
possible, without lying, and yet without telling any-
thing; -- showed self-possession, pride; retorted some-
times, "Have you nothing more to ask? " Grumkow
finding there was no way made into anything, not even
into the secret of the Writing-case and the Royal Women's
operations there, began at last, as Wilhelmina says, to
hint, That in his Majesty's service there were means of
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? CHAP. Tin. J SEQUEL TO CEOWN' PRINCE AND FRIENDS. 91
5th Sept. 1730.
bringing out the truth in spite of refractory humours;
that there was a thing called the rack, not yet abolished
in his Prussian Majesty's dominions! Friedrich owned
afterwards, his blood ran cold. However, he put on a
high look: "A Hangman, such as you, naturally takes
"pleasure in talking of his tools and his trade; but on
"me they will not produce any effect. I have owned
"everything; -- and almost regret to have done so. For
"it is not my part to stand questionings and bandy re-
sponses with a coquin comme vous, scoundrel like you,"
reports Wilhelmina,* though we hope the actual term
was slightly less candid! -- Grumkow gathered his
Notes together; and went his ways, with the man in
red cloak and the rest; thus finishing the scene in Mit-
tenwalde. Mittenwalde, which we used to know long
since, in our Wusterhausen rides with poor Duhan;
little thinking what awaited us there one day!
Mittenwalde being finished, Friedrich, on Monday,
5th September 1730, is sent forward to Ciistrin, a strong
little Town in a quiet Country, some sixty or seventy
miles eastward of Berlin. On the evening of the 5th he
finds himself lodged in a strong room of the Fortress
there, -- room consisting of bare walls lighted from far
up; no furniture, not even the needfullest; everything
indicating that the proud spirit and the iron laws shall
here have their duel out at leisure, and see which is
stronger.
His sword was taken from him at Wesel; sword,
uniform, every mark of dignity, all are now gone: he
? i. 280.
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? 92 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book TO.
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
is clad in brown prison dress of the plainest cut and
cloth; his diet is fixed at tenpence a-day ("to be got
from the cook's shop, six groschen for dinner, four for
supper");* food to be cut for him, no knife allowed. Room is to be opened, morning, noon and evening, "on
the average not above four minutes each time;" lights,
or single tallow light, to be extinguished at seven p. m.
Absolute solitude; no flute allowed, far from it; no
Books allowed, except the Bible and a Prayer-Book,--
or perhaps Noltenius's Manual, if he took a hankering
for it. There, shut out from the babble of fools, and
conversing only with the dumb Veracities, with the
huge inarticulate moanings of Destiny, Necessity and
Eternity, let the fool of a Fritz bethink himself, if there
is any thought in him! There, among the Bogs of the
Oder, the very sedges getting brown all round him, and
the very curlews flying off for happier climes, let him
wait, till the question of his doom, rather an abstruse
question, ripen in the royal breast.
As for Wilhelmina, she is close prisoner in her
apartments in the Berlin Palace, sentries pacing at
every outlet, for many months to come. Wilhelmina
almost rather likes it, such a dog of an existence has
she had hitherto, for want of being well let alone. She
plays, reads; composes music; smuggles letters to and
from Mamma, -- one in pencil, from my Brother even,
0 Heavens! Wilhelmina weeps, now and then, with
her good Sonsfeld; hopes nevertheless there will be
? Order, 14th September 1730 (in Forster, 1. 372).
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, vm. ] SEQUEL TO CROWN-PRINCE AND FRIENDS. 93
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
some dawn to this ragnarok, or general "twilight of the
gods. " Friedrich Wilhelm, convinced that England has
had a hand in this treason, signifies officially to his Ex-
cellency Captain Dickens, That the English negotiations
are concluded; that neither in the way of Single-Mar-
riage nor of Double-Marriage will he have anything
more to do with England. "Well," answers England,
"who can help it? Negotiation was not quite of our
seeking. Let it so end! "* -- Nay at dinner one
day (Seckendorf reports, while Fritz was on the road
to Custrin) he proposes the toast, "Downfall of Eng-
land! "** and would have had the Queen drink it; who
naturally wept, but I conjecture could not be made to
drink. Her Majesty is a weeping, almost broken-hearted
woman; his Majesty a raging, almost broken-hearted
man. Seckendorf and Grumkow are, as it were, too
victorious; and now have their apprehensions on that
latter score. But they look on with countenances well
veiled, and touch the helm judiciously in Tobacco-
Parliament, intent on the nearest harbour of refuge.
Her Majesty nevertheless steadily persists; merely
sinks deeper out of sight with her English schemes;
ducking till the wave go by. Messages, desperate
appeals still go, through Mamsell Biilow, Wilhelmina's
Hofdame, and other channels; nay Wilhelmina thinks
there were still intentions on the part of England, and
that the nonfulfilment of them at the last moment
* Dickens's Despatch, 25th September 1730; and Harrington's Answer
to it, of 6th October: Seckendorf (in Fb'rster; ill. *), 23d September.
? * Seckendorf (in Fb'rster, iii. 11).
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 94 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book VII.
5thSept. -25th Oct. 1730.
turned on accident; English "Courier arrived some
hours too late," thinks Wilhelmina. * But that is a
mistake. The negotiation, in spite of her Majesty's
endeavours, was essentially out; England, after such a
message, could not, nor did, stir farther in the matter.
In that Writing-case his Majesty found what we
know; nothing hut mysterious effects of female art, and
no light whatever. It is a great source of wrath and
of sorrow to him, that neither in the Writing-case, nor
in Katte's or the Prince's so called "Confessions," can
the thing be seen into. A deeper bottom it must have,
thinks his Majesty, but knows not what or where. To
overturn the Country, belike; and fling the Kaiser, and
European Balance of Power, bottom uppermost? Me
they presumably meant to poison! he tells Seckendorf
one day. ** Was ever Father more careful for his
children, soul and body? Anxious, to excess, to bring
them up in orthodox nurture and admonition: and this
is how they reward me, Herr Feldzeugmeister! "Had
"he honestly confessed, and told me the whole truth,
"at Wesel, I would have made it up with him quietly
"there. But now it must go its lengths; and the whole
"world shall be judge between us. " ***
His Majesty is in a flaming height. He arrests,
punishes and banishes, where there is trace of coopera-
tion or connexion with Deserter Fritz and his schemes.
* Wilhelmina (i. 369, 384), and Preuss and others after her.
