His Majesty
slaughters
3,602 Head of Wild Swine.
Thomas Carlyle
One Letter, supremely dangerous should it
come to be known, Wilhelmina has copied for us,* --
in Official style (for it is the Mother's composition this
one) and without date to it: -- the guessable date is
* Wilholmlnn, 1. 183.
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? 126 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT. [aOOK vI.
1728.
about two years hence; and we will give the poor Do-
cument further on, if there be place for it
.
Such particulars are yet deeply unknown to Fried-
rich Wilhelm; but he surmises the general drift of
things in that quarter; and how a disobedient Son,
crossing his Father's will in every point, abets his
Mother's disobedience, itself audacious enough, in re-
gard to this one. It is a fearful aggravation of Fried-
rich Wilhelm's ill-humour with such a Son, which has
long been upon the growing hand. His dislikes, we
know, were otherwise neither few nor small. Mere
"dislikes" properly so called, or dissimilarities to Fried-
rich Wilhelm, a good many of them; dissimilarities
also to a Higher Pattern, some! But these troubles of
the Double-Marriage will now hurry them, the just and
the unjust of them, towards the flaming pitch. The
poor youth has a bad time; and the poor Father too,
whose humour we know! Surly gusts of indignation, not
unfrequently cuffs and strokes; or still worse, a settled
aversion, and rage of the chronic kind; studied neglect
and contempt, -- so as not even to help him at table,
but leave him fasting while the others eat:* -- all this
the young man has to bear. The innumerable maltreat-
ments, authentically chronicled in Wilhelmina's and the
other Books, though in a dateless, unintelligible manner,
would make a tragic sum! -- Here are two Billets,
copied from the Prussian State-archives, which will
show us to what height matters had gone, in this the
young man's seventeenth year.
* Dubourgay, saepiits*
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? ChAP. Iv. ] DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT NOT DKAD. 127
iltli Sept. 1728.
To His Majesty (from the Crown-Prince).
"Wusterhausen, 11th September 1728.
'My dear Papa, -- I have not, for a long while, presumed
"to come to my dear Papa; partly because he forbade me;
"but chiefly because I had reason to expect a still worse re-
ception than usual: and, for fear of angering my dear Papa
"by my present request, I have preferred making it in writing
"to him.
"I therefore beg my dear Papa to be gracious to me; and
"can here say that, after long reflection, my conscience has
"not accused me of any the least thing with which I could re-
"proach myself. But if Ihave, against my will andknowledge,
"done anything that has angered my dear Papa, I herewith
"most submissively beg forgiveness; and hope my dear Papa
"will lay aside that cruel hatred which I cannot but notice in
"all his treatment of me. I could not otherwise suit myself
"to it; as I always thought I had a gracious Papa, and now
"have to see the contrary. I take confidence, then, and hope
"that my dear Papa will consider all this, and again be gra-
cious to me. And, in the mean while, I assure him that I
"will never, all my days, fail with my will; and, notwith-
"standing his disfavour to me, remain
"My dear Papa's
"Most faithful and obedient Servant and Son,
"Feiedbich. "
To which Friedrich Wilhelm, by return of mes-
senger, writes what follows. Very implacable, we may
perceive; -- not calling his Petitioner "Thou," as kind
Paternity might have dictated; infinitely less by the
polite title "They (Sie)" which latter indeed, the dis-
tinguished title of "Sie" his Prussian Majesty, we can
remark, reserves for Foreigners of the supremest qua-
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? 128 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT C10ING ADRIFT, [book vI.
11th Sept. 1728.
lity, and domestic Princes of the Blood; naming all
other Prussian subjects, and poor Fritz in this place,
"He (Er)," in the style of a gentleman to his valet,--
which style even a valet of these new days of ours
would be unwilling to put up with. "Er, He," "His"
and the other derivatives sound loftily repulsive in the
German ear; and lay-open impassable gulfs between
the Speaker and the Spoken-to. "His obstinate" --
But we must, after all, say Thy and Thou, for intelligi-
bility's sake:
"Thy obstinate perverse disposition" (Kopf, head), "which
"does not love thy Father, -- for when one does everything"
(everything commanded) "and really loves one's Father, one
"does what the Father requires, not while he is there to see it,
"but when his back is turned too" -- (His Majesty's style is
very abstruse, ill-spelt, intricate, and in this instance trips
itself, and falls on its face here, a mere intricate nominative
without a verb! ) -- "For the rest, thou know'st very well that
"I can endure no effeminate fellow (efeminirten. Kert), who has
"no human inclination in him; who puts himself to shame,
"cannot ride nor shoot; and withal is dirty in his person;
"frizzles his hair like a fool, and does not cut it off. And all
"this I have, a thousand times, reprimanded; but all in vain,
"and no improvement in nothing (fane Besserung innitsisl).
"For the rest, haughty, proud as a churl; speaks to nobody
"but some few, and is not popular and affable; and cuts
"grimaces with his face, as if he were a fool; and does my will
''in nothing unless held to it by force; nothing out of love; --
"and has pleasure in nothing but following his own whims"
(own Kopf), -- "no use to him in anything else. This is the
"answer. "Friedrich Wilhelm. " *
* Preuss, 1. 27; from Cramer, pp. 33, 34.
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? CHAP. Iv. ] DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT HOT DEAD. 129
1728.
Double-Marriage Project reemerges in an Official shape.
These are not favourable outlooks for the Double-
Marriage. Nevertheless it comes and goes; and within
three weeks later, we are touched almost with a kind
of pity to see it definitely emerging in a kind of Offi-
cial state once more. For the question is symbolical
of important political questions. The question means
withal, What is to be done in these dreadful Congress-
of-Soissons complexities, and mad reelings of the Ter-
restrial Balance? Shall we hold by a dubious and
rather losing Kaiser of this kind, in spite of his dubie-
ties, his highly inexplicit procedures (for which he may
have reasons) about the Promise of Jiilich and Berg?
Or shall we not clutch at England, after all, -- and
perhaps bring him to terms? The Smoking Parlia-
ment had no Hansard; but we guess its Debates
(mostly done in dumb-show) were cloudy, abstruse
and abundant, at this time! The Prussian Ministers,
if they had any power, take different sides; old II-
gen, the oldest and ablest of them, is strong for
England.
Enough, in the beginning of October, Queen Sophie,
"by express desire of his Majesty," who will have ex-
plicit Yes or No on that matter, writes to England, a
Letter "private and official" of such purport, -- Letter
(now invisible) which Dubourgay is proud to trans-
mit. * Dubourgay is proud; and old Ilgen, her Majesty
* Despatch, 5th October 1728, in State-Paper Office.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. 111. 9
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? 130 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [book VI.
Oct. 1728.
informed me on the morrow, "wept for joy," so zealous
was he on that side. Poor old gentleman, -- respect-
able rusty old Iron Safe with seven locks, which no-
body would now care to pick, -- he died few weeks
after, at his post as was proper; and saw no Double-
Marriage, after all. But Dubourgay shakes-out his
feathers; the Double-Marriage being again evidently
alive.
For England answers, cordially enough, if not with
all the hurry Friedrich Wilhelm wanted, "Yea, we are
willing for the thing;" -- and meets, with great equa-
nimity and liberality, the new whims, difficulties and
misgivings, which arose on Friedrich Wilhelm's part, at
a wearisome rate, as the negotiation went on; and
which are always frankly smoothed away again by the
cooler party. Why did not the bargain close, then?
Alas, one finds, the answer Yea had unfortunately set
his Prussian Majesty on viewing, through magnifiers,
what advantages there might have been in No: this is
a difficulty there is no clearing away! Probably, too,
the Tobacco-Parliament was industrious. Friedrich
Wilhelm, at last, tries if Half will not do; anxious, as
we all too much are, "to say Yes and No;" being in
great straits, poor man: -- "Your Prince of Wales to
wed Wilhelmina at once; the other Match to stand
over? " To which the English Government answers
always briefly, "No; both the Marriages or none! " --
Will the reader consent to a few compressed glances
into the extinct Dubourgay Correspondence; much com-
pressed, and here and there a rushlight stuck in it, for
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? CHAP. Iv. ] D0UBLE-1IAEEIAGE PROJECT NOT DEAD. 131
Nov. 1728.
his behoof. Dubourgay, at Berlin, writes; my Lord
Townshend, in St . James's, reads, usually rather lan-
guid in answering:
Berlin, 9th November 1728. "Prussian Majesty much
"pleased with English Answers" to the Yes-or-No question;
"will send a Minister to our Court about the time his Britannic
"Majesty may think of coming over to hisGermanDominions.
"WouldPinckenstein (HeadTutor), or would Knyphausen
"(distinguished Offieial here), be the agreeable man? " --
'Either,' answer the English; 'either is good. '
Berlin, same date. "Queen sent for me just now; is highly
"content with the state of things. 'I have now,' said her
Majesty, 'the pleasure to tell you that I am free, God be
'blessed, of all the anguish I have laboured under for some
'time past, which was so great that I have several times been
'on the point of sending for you to procure my Brother's pro-
'tectionfor my Son, who, I thought, ran the greatest danger
'from the artifices of Seckendorf and "' -- Poor Queen!
Nov. 16th. "Queen told me: When the Court was at
"Wusterhausen," two months ago, hunting partridges and
wild swine,* "Seckendorf and Grumkow intrigued for a
"match between Wilhelmina and the Prince of Weissenfels,"
elderly Royal Highness in the Abstract, whom we saw al-
ready, "thereby to prevent a closer union between the Prus-
sian and English Courts, -- and Grumkow having withal
"the private view of ousting his antagonist the Prince of
"Anhalt" (Old Dessauer, whom he had to meet in duel, but
did not fight), "as Weissenfels, once Son-in-law, would
"certainly be made Commander-in-Chief,"** to the extrusion
* Fassmann, p. 386.
** Dubourgay, in State-Paper Office (Prussian Despatches, vol. xxxv,).
9*
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? 132 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [boOKVI.
Dec. 1728.
of Anhalt from that office. Which notable piece of policy her
Majesty, by a little plain speech, took her opportunity of
putting an end to, as we saw. For the rest, "the Dutch
"Minister and also the French Secretaries here," greatly in-
terested about the Peace of Europe, and the Congress of
Soissons in these weeks, "have had a communication, from
"this Court, of the favourable disposition ours is in with
"respect to the Double Match," -- beneficent for the Ter-
restrial Balance, as they and I hope. So that things look
well? Alas, --
December, 25th. "Queen sent for me yesterday: Hopes
"she does no wrong in complaining of her Husband to her
"Brother. King shows scruples about the Marriages; does
"not relish the expense of an establishment for the Prince;
"hopes, at all events, the Marriage will not take place for a
"year yet; -- would like to know what Dowry the English
'' Princess is to bring? " -- 'No Dowry with our Princess,' the
English answer; 'nor shall you give any with yours. '
New-Year's Day, 1729. "Queen sent for me: King is get-
"ting intractable about the Marriages; she reasoned with
"him from two o'clock till eight," without the least per-
manent effect. "It is his covetousness," I Dubourgay pri-
vately think! -- Knyphausen, who knows the King well,
privately tells me, 'He will come round. ' 'It is his avarice,'
thinks Knyphausen too; 'nay it is also his jealousy of the
'Prince, who is very popular with the Army. King does
'everything to mortify him, uses him like a child; Crown-
'Prince bears it with admirable patience. ' This is Knyp-
hausen's weak notion; rather a weak croaky official gentle-
man, I should gather, of a crypto-splenetic turn. "Queen
"told me some days later, His Majesty ill-used the Crown-
"Prince because he did not drink hard enough; makes him
"hunt though ill;" is very hard upon the poor Crown-Prince,
*mmJ
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? CHAP. VI. ] DOUBLE-MAKRIAGE PROJECT NOT DEAD. 133
Jan. 1729.
-- who, for the rest, "sends loving messages to England,"
as usual; * covertly meaning the Princess Amelia, as usual.
"Some while ago, I must inform your Lordship, the Prince
"was spoken to," by Papa as would appear, "to sound his
"inclination as to the Princess Caroline," Princess likewise
of England, and whose age, some eighteen months less than
his own, might be suitabler, the Princess Amelia being half-
a-year his elder; ** "but," -- mark how true he stood, --
"his Koyal Highness broke-out into such raptures of love and
"passion for the Princess Amelia, and showed so much im-
"patience for the conclusion of that Match, as gave the King
"of Prussia a great deal of surprise, and the Queen as much
"satisfaction. " Truth is, if an old Brigadier Diplomatist
may be judge, "The great and good qualities of that young
"Prince, both of person and mind, deserve a distinct and par-
"ticular account, with which I shall trouble your Lordship
"another day;"***--which unluckily I never did; his Lord-
ship Townshend having, it would seem, too little curiosity on
the subject.
And so the matter wavers; and in spite of Dubour-
gay's and Queen Sophie's industry, and the Crown-
Prince's willing mind, there can nothing definite be
made of it at this time. Friedrich Wilhelm goes on
visits, goes on huntings; leaves the matter to itself to
mature a little. Thus the negotiation hangs-fire; and
will do so, -- till dreadful waterspouts come, and per-
haps quench it altogether?
* Dubourgay, 16th January.
*>> Caroline born 10th Jane 1713; Amelia, 10th July 1711.
*** Deapatch, 251h December 1728.
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? 134 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [book YI.
Jan. 1729.
His Majesty slaughters 3,602 Head of Wild Swine.
His Majesty is off for a Hunting Visit to the Old
Dessauer, -- Crown-Prince with him, who hates hunt-
ing. Then, "19th January 1729," says the reveren-
tial Fassmann, he is off for a grand hunt at Copenick;
then for a grander in Pommern (Crown-Prince still with
him): such a slaughter of wild swine as was seldom
heard of, and as never occurred again. No fewer than
"1,882 head (Stuck) of wild swine, 300 of them of un-
common magnitude," in the Stettin and other Pom-
mern regions; "together with 1,720 Stuck in the Mark
"Brandenburg, once 450 in a day: in all, 3,602 Stuck. "
Never was his Majesty in better spirits: a very Nimrod
or hunting Centaur; trampling the cobwebs of Diplo-
macy, and the cares of life, under his victorious hoofs.
All this slaughter of swine, 3,602 Stuck by tale, was
done in the season 1729. "From which," observes the
adoring Fassmann,* "is to be inferred the importance,"
at least in wild swine, "of those royal Forests in Pom-
"mern and the Mark;" not to speak of his Majesty's
supreme talent in hunting as in other things.
What Friedrich Wilhelm did with such a mass of
wild pork? Not an ounce of it was wasted, every
ounce of it brought money in. For there exist Official
Schedules, lists as for a window-tax or property-tax,
drawn-up by his Majesty's contrivance, in the chief
Localities: every man, according to the house he keeps,
* p. 887.
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? cnAr. rv. ] DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT NOT DEAD. 135
Jan. 1729.
is bound to take, at a just value by weight, such and
such quotities of suddenly slaughtered wild swine, one
or so many; and consume them at his leisure, as ham
or otherwise, -- cash payable at a fixed term, and no
abatement made. * For this is a King that cannot
stand waste at all; thrifty himself, and the cause of
thrift.
Falls ill, in consequence; and the Double-Marriage cannot
get forward.
This was one of Friedrich Wilhelm's grandest
hunting-bouts, this of January 1729; at all events, he
will never have another such. By such fierce riding,
and defiance of the winter elements and rules of regi-
men, his Majesty returned to Potsdam with ill symptoms
of health; -- symptoms never seen before; except tran-
siently, three years ago, after a similar bout; when the
Doctors, shaking their heads, had mentioned the word
"Gout. " -- "Narren-Possen! " Friedrich Wilhelm had
answered, "Gout? " -- But now, February 1729, it is
gout in very deed. His poor Majesty has to admit:
"I am gouty, then! Shall have gout for companion
henceforth. I am breaking-up, then? " Which is a
terrible message to a man. His Majesty's age is not
forty-one till August coming: but he has hunted
furiously.
Adoring Fassmann gives a quite touching account
of Friedrich Wilhelm's performances under gout, now
* FBrster, Beneckendorf (if they had an Index! ).
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? 136 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT. [boOKVI.
Feb. -March 1729.
and generally, which were begun on this occasion.
How he suffered extremely, yet never neglected his
royal duties in any press of pain. Could seldom get
any sleep till towards four or five in the morning, and
then had to be content with an hour or two; after
which his Official Secretaries came in with their Papers,
and he signed, despatched, resolved, with best judg-
ment, -- the top of the morning always devoted to
business. At noon, up if possible; and dines, "in
dressing-gown, with Queen and children. " After din-
ner, commonly to bed again; and would paint in oil;
sometimes do light joiner-work, chiselling and inlaying;
by and by lie inactive, with select friends sitting round,
some of whom had the right of entry, others not, under
penalties. Buddenbrock, Derschau, rough old Marlbo-
rough stagers, were generally there; these, "and two
other persons," -- Grumkow and Seckendorf, whom
Fassmann does not name, lest he get into trouble, --
"sat, well within earshot, round the bed. And always
"at the head was Theiro Majesty the Queen, sometimes
"with the King's hand laid in hers, and his face turned
"up to her, as if he sought assuagement" -- 0 my dim
old Friend, let us dry our tears!
"Sometimes the Crown-Prince read aloud in some
French Book," Title not given; Crown-Prince's voice
known to me as very fine. Generally the Princess
Louisa was in the room, too; Louisa, who became of
Anspach shortly; not Wilhelmina, who lies in fever
and relapse and small-pox, and close at death's door,
almost since the beginning of these bad days. The
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? CHAP. Iv. ] DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT NOT DEAD. 137
Feb. -March 1729.
Crown-Prince reads, we say, with a voice of melodious
clearness, in French more or less instructive. "At other
"times there went on discourse, about public matters,
"foreign news, things in general; discourse of a cheer-
"ful or of a serious nature," always with some sub-
stance of sense in it, -- "and not the least smut per-
mitted, as is too much the case in certain higher
"circles! " says adoring Fassmann; who privately knows
of "Courts" (perhaps the Glorwurdigste, Gloryworthiest,
August the Great's Court, for one? ) "with their hired
Tom-Fools," not yet an extinct species, attempting to
ground wit on that bad basis. Prussian Majesty could
not endure any "Zoten:" profanity and indecency, both
avaunt. "He had to hold out in this way, awake till
"ten o'clock, for the chance of night's sleep. " Earlier
in the afternoon, we said, he perhaps does a little in
oil-painting, having learnt something of that art in
young times; -- there is a poor Artist in attendance,
to mix the colours, and do the first sketch of the thing.
Specimens of such Pictures still exist, Portraits gene-
rally; all with this epigraph, Fredericus Wilhelmus in
tormentis pinxit (Painted by Friedrich Wilhelm in his
torments); and are worthy the attention of the curious. *
Is not this a sublime patient?
Fassmann admits, "there might be spurts of im-
"patience now and then; but how richly did Majesty
"make it good again after reflection! He was also
"subject to whims even about people whom he other-
"wise esteemed. One meritorious gentleman, who shall
* Fassmann, p. 392; see FSrstor, &c.
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? 138 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [BOOKVI.
Fcb. -March 1729.
"be nameless, much thought of by the King, his Ma-
jesty's nerves could not endure, though his mind well
"did: "Makes my gout worse to see him drilling in
"the esplanade there; let another do it! "--and vouch-
safed an apologetic assurance "to the meritorious gen-
tleman afflicted in consequence. " -- O my dim old
Friend, these surely are sublimities of the sick bed?
"So it lasted for some five weeks long," well on to-
wards the summer of this bad Year 1729. Wilhel-
mina says, in briefer business language, and look-
ing only at the wrong-side of the tapestry, "It was
"a Hell-on-Earth to us, Les peines du Purgatoire ne
"pouvaient e'galer celles que nous endurions;"* and sup-
ports the statement by abundant examples, during those
flamy weeks.
For, in the interim, withal, the English negotiation
is as good as gone out; nay there are waterspouts brew-
ing aloft yonder, enough to wash negotiation from the
world. Of which terrible weather-phenomena we shall
have to speak by and by: but must first, by way of
commentary, give a glance at Soissons and the Ter-
restrial Libra, so far as necessary for human objects,
-- not far by any means.
* i. 157.
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? CHAP, v. ] CONGRESS OF SOISSONS.
Juno 1728-Nov. 1729.
CHAPTER V.
CONGRESS OF SOISSONS, SIXTH CRISIS IN THE SPECTRE-HUNT.
The so-called Spanish-War, and dangerous futile
Siege of Gibraltar, had not ended at the death of
George I. ; though measures had already been agreed
upon, by the Kaiser and parties interested, to end
it, -- only the King of Spain (or King's Wife, we
should say) made difficulties. Difficulties, she; and
kept firing, without effect, at the Fortress for about
a year more; after which her humour or her powder
being out, Spanish Majesty signed like the others.
Peace again for all and sundry of us: "Preliminaries"
of Peace signed at Paris, 31st May 1727, three
weeks before George's death, "Peace" itself finally
at the Pardo or at Madrid, the Termagant having
spent her powder, 6th March 1728;* and a "Con-
gress" (bless the mark! ) to settle on what terms in
every point.
Congress, say at Aix-la-Chapelle; say at Cambrai
again, -- for there are difficulties about the place.
Or say finally at Soissons; where Fleury wished it
to be, that he might get the reins of it better in hand;
and where it finally was, -- and where the ghost or
name of it yet is, an empty enigma in the memories
of some men. Congress of Soissons did meet, 14th
* Schtm, ii. 212, 213.
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? 140 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [book vI.
Junc-1728-Nov. 1729.
June 1728; opened itself, as a Corporeal Entity in this
world; sat for above a year; -- and did nothing;
Fleury quite declining the Pragmatic Sanction, though
the anxious Kaiser was ready to make astonishing
sacrifices, give up his Ostend Company (Paper Shadow
of a Company), or what you will of that kind, -- if
men would have conformed.
These Diplomatic gentlemen, -- say, are they aught?
They seem to understand me, by each at once his
choppy finger laying on his skinny lips! Princes of
the Powers of the Air, shall we define them? It is
certain the solid Earth or her facts, except being held
in perpetual terror by such workings of the Shadow-
world, reaped no effect from those Twenty Years of
Congressing; Seckendorf himself might as well have
lain in bed, as ridden those 25,000 miles, and done
such quantities of double-distillations. No effect at all:
only some futile gunpowder spent on Gibraltar, and
splinters of shot and shells (saleable as old iron) found
about the rocks there; which is not much of an effect,
for Twenty Years of such industry.
The sublime Congress of Soissons met, as we say,
at the above date (just while the Polish Majesty was
closing his Berlin Visit); but found itself no abler for
work than that of Cambrai had been. The Deputies
from France I do not mention; nor from Spain, nor
from Austria. The Deputies from England were Co-
lonel or now properly Brigadier-General Stanhope, after-
wards Lord Harrington; Horace Walpole (who is Ro-
bert's Brother, and whose Secretary is Sir Thomas
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? CHAP. V. ] CONGRESS OP SOISSONS. 141
June 1728-Nov. 1729.
Robinson, "Quoi done, Crusoe? " -whom we shall hear
of farther); and Stephen Poyntz, a once bright gentle-
man, now dim and obsolete, whom the readers of
Coxe's Walpole have some nominal acquaintance with.
Here, for Chronology's sake, is a clipping from the
old English Newspapers to accompany them: "There
"is rumour that Polly Peachum is gone to attend
"the Congress at Soissons; where, it is thought, she
"will make as good a figure, and do her country
"as much service, as several others that shall be
"nameless. "*
Their task seemed easy to the sanguine mind.
The Kaiser has agreed with Spain in the Italian-
Apanage matter; with the Sea-Powers in regard to his
Ostend Company, which is abolished forever: what
then is to prevent a speedy progress, and glad con-
clusion? The Pragmatic Sanction. "Accept my Pragma-
tic Sanction," said the Kaiser; "let that be the pre-
liminary of all things. " -- "Not the preliminary,"
answered Fleury; "we will see to that as we go
on; not the preliminary, by any means! " There was
the rub. The sly old Cardinal had his private treaties
with Sardinia; views of his own in the Mediterranean,
in the Rhine quarter; and answered steadily, "Not
the preliminary, by any means! " The Kaiser was
equally inflexible. Whereupon immensities of proto-
colling, arguing, and the Congress "fell into complete
languor," say the Histories. ** Congress ate its dinner
* Mist's Weekly Journal, 29th June 1728.
** SehSU, U. 215.
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? 142 DOUBLE-MABMAGE PEOJECT GOING ADRIFT, [bOOKvI.
Juno 1728-Nov. 1729.
heartily, and wrote immensely, for the space of eighteen
months; but advanced no hairsbreadth anywhither; no
prospect before it, but that of dinner only, for un-
limited periods.
Kaiser will have his Pragmatic Sanction, or not
budge from the place; stands mulelike amid the rain of
cudgellings from the bystanders; can be beaten to death,
but stir he will not. Hints, glances of the eye,
pass between Elizabeth Farnese and the other by-
standers: suddenly, 9th November 1729, it is found
they have all made a "Treaty of Seville" with Eliza-
beth Farnese; France, England, Holland, Spain, have
all closed, -- Italian Apanages to be at once secured,
Ostend to be at once suppressed, with what else be-
hoves;-- and the Kaiser is left alone; standing upon his
Pragmatic Sanction there, nobody bidding him now
budge!
At which the Kaiser is naturally thrice and four
times wroth and alarmed: -- and Seckendorf in the
Tabaks-Collegium had need to be doubly busy. As
we shall find he is (though without effect), when the
time comes round: -- but we have not yet got to
November of this Year 1729; there are still six or
eight important months between us and that . Important
months; and a Prussian-English "Waterspout," as we
have named it, to be seen, with due wonder, in the
political sky! --
Congress of Soissons, now fallen mythical to man-
kind, and as inane as that of Cambrai, is perhaps still
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?
come to be known, Wilhelmina has copied for us,* --
in Official style (for it is the Mother's composition this
one) and without date to it: -- the guessable date is
* Wilholmlnn, 1. 183.
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? 126 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT. [aOOK vI.
1728.
about two years hence; and we will give the poor Do-
cument further on, if there be place for it
.
Such particulars are yet deeply unknown to Fried-
rich Wilhelm; but he surmises the general drift of
things in that quarter; and how a disobedient Son,
crossing his Father's will in every point, abets his
Mother's disobedience, itself audacious enough, in re-
gard to this one. It is a fearful aggravation of Fried-
rich Wilhelm's ill-humour with such a Son, which has
long been upon the growing hand. His dislikes, we
know, were otherwise neither few nor small. Mere
"dislikes" properly so called, or dissimilarities to Fried-
rich Wilhelm, a good many of them; dissimilarities
also to a Higher Pattern, some! But these troubles of
the Double-Marriage will now hurry them, the just and
the unjust of them, towards the flaming pitch. The
poor youth has a bad time; and the poor Father too,
whose humour we know! Surly gusts of indignation, not
unfrequently cuffs and strokes; or still worse, a settled
aversion, and rage of the chronic kind; studied neglect
and contempt, -- so as not even to help him at table,
but leave him fasting while the others eat:* -- all this
the young man has to bear. The innumerable maltreat-
ments, authentically chronicled in Wilhelmina's and the
other Books, though in a dateless, unintelligible manner,
would make a tragic sum! -- Here are two Billets,
copied from the Prussian State-archives, which will
show us to what height matters had gone, in this the
young man's seventeenth year.
* Dubourgay, saepiits*
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? ChAP. Iv. ] DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT NOT DKAD. 127
iltli Sept. 1728.
To His Majesty (from the Crown-Prince).
"Wusterhausen, 11th September 1728.
'My dear Papa, -- I have not, for a long while, presumed
"to come to my dear Papa; partly because he forbade me;
"but chiefly because I had reason to expect a still worse re-
ception than usual: and, for fear of angering my dear Papa
"by my present request, I have preferred making it in writing
"to him.
"I therefore beg my dear Papa to be gracious to me; and
"can here say that, after long reflection, my conscience has
"not accused me of any the least thing with which I could re-
"proach myself. But if Ihave, against my will andknowledge,
"done anything that has angered my dear Papa, I herewith
"most submissively beg forgiveness; and hope my dear Papa
"will lay aside that cruel hatred which I cannot but notice in
"all his treatment of me. I could not otherwise suit myself
"to it; as I always thought I had a gracious Papa, and now
"have to see the contrary. I take confidence, then, and hope
"that my dear Papa will consider all this, and again be gra-
cious to me. And, in the mean while, I assure him that I
"will never, all my days, fail with my will; and, notwith-
"standing his disfavour to me, remain
"My dear Papa's
"Most faithful and obedient Servant and Son,
"Feiedbich. "
To which Friedrich Wilhelm, by return of mes-
senger, writes what follows. Very implacable, we may
perceive; -- not calling his Petitioner "Thou," as kind
Paternity might have dictated; infinitely less by the
polite title "They (Sie)" which latter indeed, the dis-
tinguished title of "Sie" his Prussian Majesty, we can
remark, reserves for Foreigners of the supremest qua-
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? 128 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT C10ING ADRIFT, [book vI.
11th Sept. 1728.
lity, and domestic Princes of the Blood; naming all
other Prussian subjects, and poor Fritz in this place,
"He (Er)," in the style of a gentleman to his valet,--
which style even a valet of these new days of ours
would be unwilling to put up with. "Er, He," "His"
and the other derivatives sound loftily repulsive in the
German ear; and lay-open impassable gulfs between
the Speaker and the Spoken-to. "His obstinate" --
But we must, after all, say Thy and Thou, for intelligi-
bility's sake:
"Thy obstinate perverse disposition" (Kopf, head), "which
"does not love thy Father, -- for when one does everything"
(everything commanded) "and really loves one's Father, one
"does what the Father requires, not while he is there to see it,
"but when his back is turned too" -- (His Majesty's style is
very abstruse, ill-spelt, intricate, and in this instance trips
itself, and falls on its face here, a mere intricate nominative
without a verb! ) -- "For the rest, thou know'st very well that
"I can endure no effeminate fellow (efeminirten. Kert), who has
"no human inclination in him; who puts himself to shame,
"cannot ride nor shoot; and withal is dirty in his person;
"frizzles his hair like a fool, and does not cut it off. And all
"this I have, a thousand times, reprimanded; but all in vain,
"and no improvement in nothing (fane Besserung innitsisl).
"For the rest, haughty, proud as a churl; speaks to nobody
"but some few, and is not popular and affable; and cuts
"grimaces with his face, as if he were a fool; and does my will
''in nothing unless held to it by force; nothing out of love; --
"and has pleasure in nothing but following his own whims"
(own Kopf), -- "no use to him in anything else. This is the
"answer. "Friedrich Wilhelm. " *
* Preuss, 1. 27; from Cramer, pp. 33, 34.
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? CHAP. Iv. ] DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT HOT DEAD. 129
1728.
Double-Marriage Project reemerges in an Official shape.
These are not favourable outlooks for the Double-
Marriage. Nevertheless it comes and goes; and within
three weeks later, we are touched almost with a kind
of pity to see it definitely emerging in a kind of Offi-
cial state once more. For the question is symbolical
of important political questions. The question means
withal, What is to be done in these dreadful Congress-
of-Soissons complexities, and mad reelings of the Ter-
restrial Balance? Shall we hold by a dubious and
rather losing Kaiser of this kind, in spite of his dubie-
ties, his highly inexplicit procedures (for which he may
have reasons) about the Promise of Jiilich and Berg?
Or shall we not clutch at England, after all, -- and
perhaps bring him to terms? The Smoking Parlia-
ment had no Hansard; but we guess its Debates
(mostly done in dumb-show) were cloudy, abstruse
and abundant, at this time! The Prussian Ministers,
if they had any power, take different sides; old II-
gen, the oldest and ablest of them, is strong for
England.
Enough, in the beginning of October, Queen Sophie,
"by express desire of his Majesty," who will have ex-
plicit Yes or No on that matter, writes to England, a
Letter "private and official" of such purport, -- Letter
(now invisible) which Dubourgay is proud to trans-
mit. * Dubourgay is proud; and old Ilgen, her Majesty
* Despatch, 5th October 1728, in State-Paper Office.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. 111. 9
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? 130 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [book VI.
Oct. 1728.
informed me on the morrow, "wept for joy," so zealous
was he on that side. Poor old gentleman, -- respect-
able rusty old Iron Safe with seven locks, which no-
body would now care to pick, -- he died few weeks
after, at his post as was proper; and saw no Double-
Marriage, after all. But Dubourgay shakes-out his
feathers; the Double-Marriage being again evidently
alive.
For England answers, cordially enough, if not with
all the hurry Friedrich Wilhelm wanted, "Yea, we are
willing for the thing;" -- and meets, with great equa-
nimity and liberality, the new whims, difficulties and
misgivings, which arose on Friedrich Wilhelm's part, at
a wearisome rate, as the negotiation went on; and
which are always frankly smoothed away again by the
cooler party. Why did not the bargain close, then?
Alas, one finds, the answer Yea had unfortunately set
his Prussian Majesty on viewing, through magnifiers,
what advantages there might have been in No: this is
a difficulty there is no clearing away! Probably, too,
the Tobacco-Parliament was industrious. Friedrich
Wilhelm, at last, tries if Half will not do; anxious, as
we all too much are, "to say Yes and No;" being in
great straits, poor man: -- "Your Prince of Wales to
wed Wilhelmina at once; the other Match to stand
over? " To which the English Government answers
always briefly, "No; both the Marriages or none! " --
Will the reader consent to a few compressed glances
into the extinct Dubourgay Correspondence; much com-
pressed, and here and there a rushlight stuck in it, for
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? CHAP. Iv. ] D0UBLE-1IAEEIAGE PROJECT NOT DEAD. 131
Nov. 1728.
his behoof. Dubourgay, at Berlin, writes; my Lord
Townshend, in St . James's, reads, usually rather lan-
guid in answering:
Berlin, 9th November 1728. "Prussian Majesty much
"pleased with English Answers" to the Yes-or-No question;
"will send a Minister to our Court about the time his Britannic
"Majesty may think of coming over to hisGermanDominions.
"WouldPinckenstein (HeadTutor), or would Knyphausen
"(distinguished Offieial here), be the agreeable man? " --
'Either,' answer the English; 'either is good. '
Berlin, same date. "Queen sent for me just now; is highly
"content with the state of things. 'I have now,' said her
Majesty, 'the pleasure to tell you that I am free, God be
'blessed, of all the anguish I have laboured under for some
'time past, which was so great that I have several times been
'on the point of sending for you to procure my Brother's pro-
'tectionfor my Son, who, I thought, ran the greatest danger
'from the artifices of Seckendorf and "' -- Poor Queen!
Nov. 16th. "Queen told me: When the Court was at
"Wusterhausen," two months ago, hunting partridges and
wild swine,* "Seckendorf and Grumkow intrigued for a
"match between Wilhelmina and the Prince of Weissenfels,"
elderly Royal Highness in the Abstract, whom we saw al-
ready, "thereby to prevent a closer union between the Prus-
sian and English Courts, -- and Grumkow having withal
"the private view of ousting his antagonist the Prince of
"Anhalt" (Old Dessauer, whom he had to meet in duel, but
did not fight), "as Weissenfels, once Son-in-law, would
"certainly be made Commander-in-Chief,"** to the extrusion
* Fassmann, p. 386.
** Dubourgay, in State-Paper Office (Prussian Despatches, vol. xxxv,).
9*
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? 132 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [boOKVI.
Dec. 1728.
of Anhalt from that office. Which notable piece of policy her
Majesty, by a little plain speech, took her opportunity of
putting an end to, as we saw. For the rest, "the Dutch
"Minister and also the French Secretaries here," greatly in-
terested about the Peace of Europe, and the Congress of
Soissons in these weeks, "have had a communication, from
"this Court, of the favourable disposition ours is in with
"respect to the Double Match," -- beneficent for the Ter-
restrial Balance, as they and I hope. So that things look
well? Alas, --
December, 25th. "Queen sent for me yesterday: Hopes
"she does no wrong in complaining of her Husband to her
"Brother. King shows scruples about the Marriages; does
"not relish the expense of an establishment for the Prince;
"hopes, at all events, the Marriage will not take place for a
"year yet; -- would like to know what Dowry the English
'' Princess is to bring? " -- 'No Dowry with our Princess,' the
English answer; 'nor shall you give any with yours. '
New-Year's Day, 1729. "Queen sent for me: King is get-
"ting intractable about the Marriages; she reasoned with
"him from two o'clock till eight," without the least per-
manent effect. "It is his covetousness," I Dubourgay pri-
vately think! -- Knyphausen, who knows the King well,
privately tells me, 'He will come round. ' 'It is his avarice,'
thinks Knyphausen too; 'nay it is also his jealousy of the
'Prince, who is very popular with the Army. King does
'everything to mortify him, uses him like a child; Crown-
'Prince bears it with admirable patience. ' This is Knyp-
hausen's weak notion; rather a weak croaky official gentle-
man, I should gather, of a crypto-splenetic turn. "Queen
"told me some days later, His Majesty ill-used the Crown-
"Prince because he did not drink hard enough; makes him
"hunt though ill;" is very hard upon the poor Crown-Prince,
*mmJ
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? CHAP. VI. ] DOUBLE-MAKRIAGE PROJECT NOT DEAD. 133
Jan. 1729.
-- who, for the rest, "sends loving messages to England,"
as usual; * covertly meaning the Princess Amelia, as usual.
"Some while ago, I must inform your Lordship, the Prince
"was spoken to," by Papa as would appear, "to sound his
"inclination as to the Princess Caroline," Princess likewise
of England, and whose age, some eighteen months less than
his own, might be suitabler, the Princess Amelia being half-
a-year his elder; ** "but," -- mark how true he stood, --
"his Koyal Highness broke-out into such raptures of love and
"passion for the Princess Amelia, and showed so much im-
"patience for the conclusion of that Match, as gave the King
"of Prussia a great deal of surprise, and the Queen as much
"satisfaction. " Truth is, if an old Brigadier Diplomatist
may be judge, "The great and good qualities of that young
"Prince, both of person and mind, deserve a distinct and par-
"ticular account, with which I shall trouble your Lordship
"another day;"***--which unluckily I never did; his Lord-
ship Townshend having, it would seem, too little curiosity on
the subject.
And so the matter wavers; and in spite of Dubour-
gay's and Queen Sophie's industry, and the Crown-
Prince's willing mind, there can nothing definite be
made of it at this time. Friedrich Wilhelm goes on
visits, goes on huntings; leaves the matter to itself to
mature a little. Thus the negotiation hangs-fire; and
will do so, -- till dreadful waterspouts come, and per-
haps quench it altogether?
* Dubourgay, 16th January.
*>> Caroline born 10th Jane 1713; Amelia, 10th July 1711.
*** Deapatch, 251h December 1728.
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? 134 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [book YI.
Jan. 1729.
His Majesty slaughters 3,602 Head of Wild Swine.
His Majesty is off for a Hunting Visit to the Old
Dessauer, -- Crown-Prince with him, who hates hunt-
ing. Then, "19th January 1729," says the reveren-
tial Fassmann, he is off for a grand hunt at Copenick;
then for a grander in Pommern (Crown-Prince still with
him): such a slaughter of wild swine as was seldom
heard of, and as never occurred again. No fewer than
"1,882 head (Stuck) of wild swine, 300 of them of un-
common magnitude," in the Stettin and other Pom-
mern regions; "together with 1,720 Stuck in the Mark
"Brandenburg, once 450 in a day: in all, 3,602 Stuck. "
Never was his Majesty in better spirits: a very Nimrod
or hunting Centaur; trampling the cobwebs of Diplo-
macy, and the cares of life, under his victorious hoofs.
All this slaughter of swine, 3,602 Stuck by tale, was
done in the season 1729. "From which," observes the
adoring Fassmann,* "is to be inferred the importance,"
at least in wild swine, "of those royal Forests in Pom-
"mern and the Mark;" not to speak of his Majesty's
supreme talent in hunting as in other things.
What Friedrich Wilhelm did with such a mass of
wild pork? Not an ounce of it was wasted, every
ounce of it brought money in. For there exist Official
Schedules, lists as for a window-tax or property-tax,
drawn-up by his Majesty's contrivance, in the chief
Localities: every man, according to the house he keeps,
* p. 887.
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? cnAr. rv. ] DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT NOT DEAD. 135
Jan. 1729.
is bound to take, at a just value by weight, such and
such quotities of suddenly slaughtered wild swine, one
or so many; and consume them at his leisure, as ham
or otherwise, -- cash payable at a fixed term, and no
abatement made. * For this is a King that cannot
stand waste at all; thrifty himself, and the cause of
thrift.
Falls ill, in consequence; and the Double-Marriage cannot
get forward.
This was one of Friedrich Wilhelm's grandest
hunting-bouts, this of January 1729; at all events, he
will never have another such. By such fierce riding,
and defiance of the winter elements and rules of regi-
men, his Majesty returned to Potsdam with ill symptoms
of health; -- symptoms never seen before; except tran-
siently, three years ago, after a similar bout; when the
Doctors, shaking their heads, had mentioned the word
"Gout. " -- "Narren-Possen! " Friedrich Wilhelm had
answered, "Gout? " -- But now, February 1729, it is
gout in very deed. His poor Majesty has to admit:
"I am gouty, then! Shall have gout for companion
henceforth. I am breaking-up, then? " Which is a
terrible message to a man. His Majesty's age is not
forty-one till August coming: but he has hunted
furiously.
Adoring Fassmann gives a quite touching account
of Friedrich Wilhelm's performances under gout, now
* FBrster, Beneckendorf (if they had an Index! ).
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? 136 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT. [boOKVI.
Feb. -March 1729.
and generally, which were begun on this occasion.
How he suffered extremely, yet never neglected his
royal duties in any press of pain. Could seldom get
any sleep till towards four or five in the morning, and
then had to be content with an hour or two; after
which his Official Secretaries came in with their Papers,
and he signed, despatched, resolved, with best judg-
ment, -- the top of the morning always devoted to
business. At noon, up if possible; and dines, "in
dressing-gown, with Queen and children. " After din-
ner, commonly to bed again; and would paint in oil;
sometimes do light joiner-work, chiselling and inlaying;
by and by lie inactive, with select friends sitting round,
some of whom had the right of entry, others not, under
penalties. Buddenbrock, Derschau, rough old Marlbo-
rough stagers, were generally there; these, "and two
other persons," -- Grumkow and Seckendorf, whom
Fassmann does not name, lest he get into trouble, --
"sat, well within earshot, round the bed. And always
"at the head was Theiro Majesty the Queen, sometimes
"with the King's hand laid in hers, and his face turned
"up to her, as if he sought assuagement" -- 0 my dim
old Friend, let us dry our tears!
"Sometimes the Crown-Prince read aloud in some
French Book," Title not given; Crown-Prince's voice
known to me as very fine. Generally the Princess
Louisa was in the room, too; Louisa, who became of
Anspach shortly; not Wilhelmina, who lies in fever
and relapse and small-pox, and close at death's door,
almost since the beginning of these bad days. The
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? CHAP. Iv. ] DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT NOT DEAD. 137
Feb. -March 1729.
Crown-Prince reads, we say, with a voice of melodious
clearness, in French more or less instructive. "At other
"times there went on discourse, about public matters,
"foreign news, things in general; discourse of a cheer-
"ful or of a serious nature," always with some sub-
stance of sense in it, -- "and not the least smut per-
mitted, as is too much the case in certain higher
"circles! " says adoring Fassmann; who privately knows
of "Courts" (perhaps the Glorwurdigste, Gloryworthiest,
August the Great's Court, for one? ) "with their hired
Tom-Fools," not yet an extinct species, attempting to
ground wit on that bad basis. Prussian Majesty could
not endure any "Zoten:" profanity and indecency, both
avaunt. "He had to hold out in this way, awake till
"ten o'clock, for the chance of night's sleep. " Earlier
in the afternoon, we said, he perhaps does a little in
oil-painting, having learnt something of that art in
young times; -- there is a poor Artist in attendance,
to mix the colours, and do the first sketch of the thing.
Specimens of such Pictures still exist, Portraits gene-
rally; all with this epigraph, Fredericus Wilhelmus in
tormentis pinxit (Painted by Friedrich Wilhelm in his
torments); and are worthy the attention of the curious. *
Is not this a sublime patient?
Fassmann admits, "there might be spurts of im-
"patience now and then; but how richly did Majesty
"make it good again after reflection! He was also
"subject to whims even about people whom he other-
"wise esteemed. One meritorious gentleman, who shall
* Fassmann, p. 392; see FSrstor, &c.
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? 138 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [BOOKVI.
Fcb. -March 1729.
"be nameless, much thought of by the King, his Ma-
jesty's nerves could not endure, though his mind well
"did: "Makes my gout worse to see him drilling in
"the esplanade there; let another do it! "--and vouch-
safed an apologetic assurance "to the meritorious gen-
tleman afflicted in consequence. " -- O my dim old
Friend, these surely are sublimities of the sick bed?
"So it lasted for some five weeks long," well on to-
wards the summer of this bad Year 1729. Wilhel-
mina says, in briefer business language, and look-
ing only at the wrong-side of the tapestry, "It was
"a Hell-on-Earth to us, Les peines du Purgatoire ne
"pouvaient e'galer celles que nous endurions;"* and sup-
ports the statement by abundant examples, during those
flamy weeks.
For, in the interim, withal, the English negotiation
is as good as gone out; nay there are waterspouts brew-
ing aloft yonder, enough to wash negotiation from the
world. Of which terrible weather-phenomena we shall
have to speak by and by: but must first, by way of
commentary, give a glance at Soissons and the Ter-
restrial Libra, so far as necessary for human objects,
-- not far by any means.
* i. 157.
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? CHAP, v. ] CONGRESS OF SOISSONS.
Juno 1728-Nov. 1729.
CHAPTER V.
CONGRESS OF SOISSONS, SIXTH CRISIS IN THE SPECTRE-HUNT.
The so-called Spanish-War, and dangerous futile
Siege of Gibraltar, had not ended at the death of
George I. ; though measures had already been agreed
upon, by the Kaiser and parties interested, to end
it, -- only the King of Spain (or King's Wife, we
should say) made difficulties. Difficulties, she; and
kept firing, without effect, at the Fortress for about
a year more; after which her humour or her powder
being out, Spanish Majesty signed like the others.
Peace again for all and sundry of us: "Preliminaries"
of Peace signed at Paris, 31st May 1727, three
weeks before George's death, "Peace" itself finally
at the Pardo or at Madrid, the Termagant having
spent her powder, 6th March 1728;* and a "Con-
gress" (bless the mark! ) to settle on what terms in
every point.
Congress, say at Aix-la-Chapelle; say at Cambrai
again, -- for there are difficulties about the place.
Or say finally at Soissons; where Fleury wished it
to be, that he might get the reins of it better in hand;
and where it finally was, -- and where the ghost or
name of it yet is, an empty enigma in the memories
of some men. Congress of Soissons did meet, 14th
* Schtm, ii. 212, 213.
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? 140 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [book vI.
Junc-1728-Nov. 1729.
June 1728; opened itself, as a Corporeal Entity in this
world; sat for above a year; -- and did nothing;
Fleury quite declining the Pragmatic Sanction, though
the anxious Kaiser was ready to make astonishing
sacrifices, give up his Ostend Company (Paper Shadow
of a Company), or what you will of that kind, -- if
men would have conformed.
These Diplomatic gentlemen, -- say, are they aught?
They seem to understand me, by each at once his
choppy finger laying on his skinny lips! Princes of
the Powers of the Air, shall we define them? It is
certain the solid Earth or her facts, except being held
in perpetual terror by such workings of the Shadow-
world, reaped no effect from those Twenty Years of
Congressing; Seckendorf himself might as well have
lain in bed, as ridden those 25,000 miles, and done
such quantities of double-distillations. No effect at all:
only some futile gunpowder spent on Gibraltar, and
splinters of shot and shells (saleable as old iron) found
about the rocks there; which is not much of an effect,
for Twenty Years of such industry.
The sublime Congress of Soissons met, as we say,
at the above date (just while the Polish Majesty was
closing his Berlin Visit); but found itself no abler for
work than that of Cambrai had been. The Deputies
from France I do not mention; nor from Spain, nor
from Austria. The Deputies from England were Co-
lonel or now properly Brigadier-General Stanhope, after-
wards Lord Harrington; Horace Walpole (who is Ro-
bert's Brother, and whose Secretary is Sir Thomas
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? CHAP. V. ] CONGRESS OP SOISSONS. 141
June 1728-Nov. 1729.
Robinson, "Quoi done, Crusoe? " -whom we shall hear
of farther); and Stephen Poyntz, a once bright gentle-
man, now dim and obsolete, whom the readers of
Coxe's Walpole have some nominal acquaintance with.
Here, for Chronology's sake, is a clipping from the
old English Newspapers to accompany them: "There
"is rumour that Polly Peachum is gone to attend
"the Congress at Soissons; where, it is thought, she
"will make as good a figure, and do her country
"as much service, as several others that shall be
"nameless. "*
Their task seemed easy to the sanguine mind.
The Kaiser has agreed with Spain in the Italian-
Apanage matter; with the Sea-Powers in regard to his
Ostend Company, which is abolished forever: what
then is to prevent a speedy progress, and glad con-
clusion? The Pragmatic Sanction. "Accept my Pragma-
tic Sanction," said the Kaiser; "let that be the pre-
liminary of all things. " -- "Not the preliminary,"
answered Fleury; "we will see to that as we go
on; not the preliminary, by any means! " There was
the rub. The sly old Cardinal had his private treaties
with Sardinia; views of his own in the Mediterranean,
in the Rhine quarter; and answered steadily, "Not
the preliminary, by any means! " The Kaiser was
equally inflexible. Whereupon immensities of proto-
colling, arguing, and the Congress "fell into complete
languor," say the Histories. ** Congress ate its dinner
* Mist's Weekly Journal, 29th June 1728.
** SehSU, U. 215.
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? 142 DOUBLE-MABMAGE PEOJECT GOING ADRIFT, [bOOKvI.
Juno 1728-Nov. 1729.
heartily, and wrote immensely, for the space of eighteen
months; but advanced no hairsbreadth anywhither; no
prospect before it, but that of dinner only, for un-
limited periods.
Kaiser will have his Pragmatic Sanction, or not
budge from the place; stands mulelike amid the rain of
cudgellings from the bystanders; can be beaten to death,
but stir he will not. Hints, glances of the eye,
pass between Elizabeth Farnese and the other by-
standers: suddenly, 9th November 1729, it is found
they have all made a "Treaty of Seville" with Eliza-
beth Farnese; France, England, Holland, Spain, have
all closed, -- Italian Apanages to be at once secured,
Ostend to be at once suppressed, with what else be-
hoves;-- and the Kaiser is left alone; standing upon his
Pragmatic Sanction there, nobody bidding him now
budge!
At which the Kaiser is naturally thrice and four
times wroth and alarmed: -- and Seckendorf in the
Tabaks-Collegium had need to be doubly busy. As
we shall find he is (though without effect), when the
time comes round: -- but we have not yet got to
November of this Year 1729; there are still six or
eight important months between us and that . Important
months; and a Prussian-English "Waterspout," as we
have named it, to be seen, with due wonder, in the
political sky! --
Congress of Soissons, now fallen mythical to man-
kind, and as inane as that of Cambrai, is perhaps still
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?
