No More Learning

It chanced that some years after, Augustus was
passing the night at Bononia with a veteran of Antony's. The
Emperor was sumptuously entertained; and as the talk at table
fell on the battle of Zela and the plundering of the temple of
Anaitis, he asked his host as an eye-witness, whether it was true
that the first who laid a hand on her had been suddenly stricken
dead to the earth. “You see that foolhardy one before you,”
replied the veteran; "and you are in fact eating off the leg of
the goddess. I had the fortune to conquer her first. Anaitis is
a very good sort of person, and I acknowledge gratefully that I
owe to her all my wealth. ”
Serapis - You give me poor consolation, Quirinus. If things
are going in the world as Mercury declares, I can promise my
colossus at Alexandria no better fate. It is simply shocking that
Jupiter can regard such outrageous things so coolly!
Jupiter - You will do well, Serapis, if you can manage to do
the same.
You have enjoyed long enough the honor of being
reverenced from East to West, — you, a mere god from the
Pontus; and you certainly can't desire that it should fare better


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CHRISTOPHER MARTIN WIELAND
15961
with your temples than with mine, or that your colossus should
last longer than the godlike master-work of Phidias. If we all
topple over, you would not wish to be the only one who remains
upright?
Momus — Ho, ho, Jupiter, where have you left your renowned
thunderbolt, that you take your downfall so mildly?
Jupiter - If I were not what I am, I would answer you with
one of them for this silly question, you noodle!
Quirinus [to Mercury] – You must tell me once more, Mer-
cury, if I am to believe you. My flamen superseded ? my temple
closed ? my feast no longer celebrated ? and the enervated, slav-
ish, heartless Quirites have sunk to this degree of unthankfulness
towards their founder?
Mercury- I should be deceiving you if I gave you any other
information.
Victoria – I don't need to ask what is happening to my altar
and my statue in the Julian Curia. It is so long now since the
Romans have learned the art of conquest, that I find nothing
more natural than that they cannot any longer endure the pres-
ence of my picture. At every glance which they throw upon it,
it must be to them a reproach for their shameful degeneration.
With the Romans, whose name has become a byword among
the barbarians which only blood can wash away, Victoria has
nothing more to do.
Vesta - Under these circumstances they will certainly not
allow the holy fire in my temple to burn any longer! Heavens,
what will be the fate of my poor virgins!
Mercury - Oh, not a hair of their heads will be touched, hon-
ored Vesta! They will be allowed to die of hunger in perfect
peace.
Quirinus - How times change! Once it was a shocking mis-
fortune for the whole Roman world, if the holy fire on the altar
of Vesta went out –
Mercury — And now there would be more to-do made if the
profane fire in some Roman cook-shop went out than if the ves-
tals had allowed theirs to be extinguished twice a week.
Quirinus — But who, then, in the future shall be the patron
of war at Rome in my place ?
Mercury — St. Peter with his double key has assumed to him-
self this duty.
Quirinus — St. Peter with his double key? Who is he?


## p. 15962 (#308) ##########################################

15962
CHRISTOPHER MARTIN WIELAND
Mercury – I don't know myself exactly; ask Apollo, - perhaps
he can give you more points about it.
Apollo — He's a man, Quirinus, who, in his successors, shall
rule half the world eight hundred years on end, although he him-
self was only a poor fisherman.
Quirinus — What?
The world will let itself be ruled by fish-
ermen ?
Apollo — By a certain kind of fishermen, at least: fishers of
men, who, in a very cunning kind of fish-net called decretals,
shall little by little catch all the nations and princes of Europe.
Their commands shall be esteemed as oracles of the gods, and
a piece of sheepskin or paper sealed with St. Peter's fisherman's
ring will have the power to seat and unseat kings.
Quirinus - This St. Peter of the double key must be a mighty
magician!
Apollo — No less than that! As you ought to have known
long ago, all the strange and wonderful things in the world occur
quite naturally in this way. The avalanche which shakes down
a whole village was at first a little snowball, and the flood that
shatters a great ship is at its source a purling mountain spring.
Why should not the successors of the Galilean fishermen in a
few centuries be able to become lords of Rome, and arrange a
new religion, of which they constitute themselves high priests,
and with the aid of brand-new ethics and politics, which they
know how to build upon it, finally be masters for a while of
half the world? Didn't you yourself herd the flocks of the King
of Alba, before you made yourself the head of all the bandits in
Latium, and patched together the little robbers' nest that finally
became the capital city and queen of the world ? St. Peter, to
be sure, in his life cut no great figure; but he shall see the time
when kaisers shall hold the stirrups of his successors, and queens
shall humbly kiss their feet.
Quirinus — What doesn't one go through, when one is im-
mortal!
A pollo — It needs a good deal of time, perhaps, and not a
little craft also, in order to bring fishermen so far; but then
the fish will be stupid enough who let themselves be caught by
them.
Quirinus — In the mean time, here we are all together deposed,
aren't we?
Mercury - That's the way things stand.


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CHRISTOPHER MARTIN WIELAND
15963
Various Gods - Better not be immortal than experience such
things!
Jupiter — My dear sons, uncles, nephews, one and all! I see
that you take this little revolution, which I have quietly seen
coming for a long while, in a more tragic way than the affair is
worth. Take your seats, if you will, and let us speak calmly and
undisturbed of these things, over a glass of nectar. Everything
in nature has its time. Everything changes; and so it is with
the notions of men. They are always changing with their cir-
cumstances; and when we remember what a difference fifty years
make between grandson and grandfather, it will not appear
strange to us that the world seems to acquire within a thousand
years or so, imperceptibly, an entirely new aspect. For at bot-
tom it is only appearance: it remains, under whatever other masks
and names, always the same comedy. The silly people down
there have occupied themselves long enough with superstitions
about us; and if some among you fancied they were advantaged
by it, I must tell them that they were wrong.
Mankind ought
not to be envied if they finally become wiser. By heavens, it is
none too soon!
But that is not to be thought about for the time being. In-
deed, they always flatter themselves that the last foolishness of
which they get knowledge will be the last which they shall com-
mit. The hope of better times is their eternal chimera, by which
they will ever keep on deceiving themselves again and yet again;
because they will never realize that not the time, but their own
inborn wretched foolishness, is the reason why it will never be
better with them. For it is indeed their lot to get pure enjoy-
ment out of nothing good; and only to exchange one folly with
which they have finally become weary, as children with a worn-
out doll, for another with which for the most part they fare
worse than they did with the former one. This time it actually
seemed as if they were winners by the exchange, but I knew
about it too well not to foresee that they wouldn't get help in
this way; for indeed if Wisdom herself should come down to
them in person, and wish to dwell visibly among them, they
would not stop bedecking her with feathers and furbelows, with
baubles and bells, until they had made a fool out of her.
Believe me, gods, the triumphal song which they at this
moment are raising on account of the famous victory they have
our defenseless statues, is for posterity a raven-cry
won
over


## p. 15964 (#310) ##########################################

15964
CHRISTOPHER MARTIN WIELAND
foreboding ill fortune. They think to better themselves, but they
may go further and fare worse. They are weary of us, they wish
to have nothing more to do with us; but so much the worse for
them! We don't need them. If their priests declare us to be
impure and evil spirits, and assure the simple-minded folk that
our dwelling is an eternally flaming pool of sulphur, what harm
does that do to you or me? What matters it to us what ideas
only half-developed earth-creatures have of us, or in what rela-
tion they stand to us, or whether they smoke us with a loath-
some mixture of sacrificial stink and incense, or with brimstone
of hell ? Neither the one nor the other rises up to us. They
don't know us, you say, now that they wish to withdraw them-
selves from our government. Did they know us any better when
they served us? What the poor people call their religion is only
their affair after all, not ours. They alone have to lose or win
by it, when they direct their manner of life wisely or the re-
verse. And their descendants too, when they once feel the results
of the unwise decrees of their Valentinians, their Gratiani, and
their Theodosii, will find cause enough to rue the rash measures
which have heaped together upon their dizzy heads a flood of
new and unendurable evils, whereof the world, so long as it was
subject to the old belief or superstition, had no conception.
It would be another thing if they actually bettered themselves
by this new arrangement. Who among us could or would take
it evil of them ? But it is just the contrary! They are like a
man who in order to drive away a small trouble with which he
might be able to live as long as Tithonus, endures ten others
which are ten times worse. Thus, for example, they raise a great
outcry against our priests, because they fed the people, that is
everywhere superstitious and will ever so remain, with delusions
from which the State derives just as much profit as do they them-
selves. Will their priests improve matters? At this moment they
are founding a superstition which will avail no one but them-
selves, and instead of strengthening the political situation, will
cast into confusion and destroy all human and civil relations; a
superstition which will lie like lead in their brains, shut out
every sane conception of natural and moral things, and under
the color of a chimerical perfection, will poison in the bud the
humanity in each and every man. When one has said the worst
that can be said with truth concerning the superstition which up
till now has befooled the world, one must at least concede that


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CHRISTOPHER MARTIN WIELAND
15965
it was far more humane, blameless, and beneficent, than the new
faith which one has put in its stead. Our priests were always
more harmless people than these to whom they must now yield.
Those enjoyed their station and their revenues in peace, were on
good terms with every one, and attacked no man's belief; but
these are arrogant and impatient, persecute each other with the
fiercest anger on account of a mere insignificant play on words,
decide by a majority of votes what one must think of unthink-
able things, how one must speak of unspeakable things, and
reckon all who think and speak otherwise as enemies of God and
man. For the priests of the gods to come into collision with the
civic power or otherwise disturb the peace of the State, before
they were interfered with by these raging iconoclasts, has scarcely
been heard of in a thousand years; the new priesthood, on the
contrary, since its party has been popular, has not ceased to
throw the world into confusion. So far their pontiffs work in
secret; but in a short time they will seize on the sceptres of
kings, set themselves up as viceroys of God, and under this title
assume a hitherto unheard-of power over heaven and earth.
If it be true that our priests were (as was right) no very
zealous patrons of philosophy, yet at least they were not its
declared enemies; for they feared nothing from it, under the
protection of the law. Least of all did they conceive of draw-
ing the thoughts and ideas of men under their jurisdiction, or
wish to hinder their currency in society. Those others, on the
contrary,— who so long as they were the weaker party, made so
much of having reason on their side, and in any attack from
us always placed it to the fore,— since now it would only be a
hindrance to them in their wider operations, say good-by to it,
and will not rest until they make it all dark around them, until
they take away from the people all means of enlightenment,
and have condemned the free use of natural judgment as the
first of all sins. Formerly, when they themselves still depended
upon alms, the well-being and comfortable manner of life of
our priests was an abomination to them; now that they fare with
full sails, the moderate incomes of our temples, which they have
made themselves masters of, are much too small to satisfy the
needs of their pride and their vanity. Already now their pon-
tiffs at Rome — through the liberality of rich and foolish matrons
whose dreamy sentimentality they know very well how to use,
through the most shameless legacy-hunting, and a thousand


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15966
CHRISTOPHER MARTIN WIELAND
other tricks of this kind - put themselves in a position to surpass
the first persons in the State in pomp, expenditure, and voluptu-
ousness. But all these springs, although grown to streams through
ever new tributaries, will not satisfy these insatiable ones: they
will find a thousand ways never heard of before to levy upon the
simpleness of men untutored and beguiled; even the sins of the
world will they transform through their magic art to golden
fountains; and to make them yield the more, they will think up
a monstrous multitude of new sins, of which the Theophrastuses
and the Epictetuses had never a suspicion.
Wherefore do I say all this? What does it matter to us
what these people do, or don't do, and how well or ill they
shall administer their new government over the sick souls of
men nerveless and stunted through lust and slavery? Even
the deceivers are themselves deceived: they too know not what
they do; but we who see clear in all this— it befits us to treat
them with forbearance as sick and insane, and in the future to
show them as much kindness as their own unreason will give
us opportunity. Poor unfortunates! Whom do they harm but
themselves, when they of their own free will rob themselves of
the beneficent influence whereby Athens has become the school
of wisdom and of art, and Rome the law-bearer and regent of
the earth ? through which influence both cities reach a grade of
culture to which not even the better descendants of these barba-
rians, who now have it in mind to divide among themselves the
lands and riches of these effeminate Greeks and Romans, will
ever be able to raise themselves again. For what shall be the
fate of men from whom the Muses and Graces, philosophy, and
all the beauty-breeding arts of life and of a finer enjoyment of
life, together with the gods their begetters and guardians, have
withdrawn themselves ? I foresee at a glance all the evil that
will come flooding in in the place of the good; all the unformed,
the warped, the monstrous, and the misshapen, that these fanatic
destroyers of beauty will pile up on the ashes and fragments
of the works of genius — and I sicken at the loathsome sight.
Away with it! For so sure as I am Jupiter Olympius it shall
not be so forever, although centuries shall pass by before man-
kind reaches the deepest depths of its downfall, and still more
centuries before, with our help, it shall again rear itself above
the mire. The time shall come when they shall seek us again,
call upon us for aid once more, and confess that without us they


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CHRISTOPHER MARTIN WIELAND
15967
new
have no power; the time shall come, when, with unwearying
labor, they shall once more draw out of the dirt, or dig up from
its deep bed of mold and rubbish, every shattered or disfigured
relic of the works which under our influence sprang from the
soul and the hands of our darlings of art; and shall weary them-
selves in vain by an affected enthusiasm, to imitate those won-
ders of true inspiration and the very afflatus of divine power.
A pollo — Surely shall it come, Jupiter, that time! I see it as
if it stood before me in the full splendor of the present. Again
shall they set up our images, gaze upon them astonished, with a
thrill of feeling and of reverent admiration, take them as models
for their idols, which in those barbaric hands had become ugly,
and — oh what a triumph! their pontiffs shall be proud to build
for us, under another name, the most splendid temple!
Jupiter [with a great beaker full of nectar in his hand] –
Here's to the future! [To Minerva. ] My daughter, here's to
the time when you shall see all Europe changed into a
Athens, filled with academies and lyceums, and shall hear the
voices of Philosophy from the midst of the German forest sound
forth perchance freer and clearer than aforetime from the halls
of Athens and Alexandria.
Minerva (shaking her head a little] - I am glad, Father Jupi-
ter, to see you in such good courage at this present juncture;
but you must pardon me if I believe as little in a new Athens
as I do in a new Olympus.
Quirinus [to Mercury] – That Peter with the double key, who
is to be my successor— I can't get him out of my head, Mer-
cury
How is it with this key? Is it actual or figurative, a
natural or a magic key? Where did he get it, and what will he
open with it?
Mercury - All that I can tell you about it, Quirinus, is, that
with this key he unlocks for whom he will the gates of heaven
or of hell.
Quirinus — He may unlock hell for whom he will, for all me;
but heaven! - that's another story.
Mercury- In fact, they have arranged to people heaven with
such a great multitude of gods of their own coinage that there
won't be any room left for us old ones.
Jupiter - Let me look out for that, Hermes!
Our temples
and landed properties on earth they could very easily get away
from us, but we have been established in Olympus too long to


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15968
CHRISTOPHER MARTIN WIELAND
be supplanted. For the rest, as a proof of our perfect impartial-
ity, we will grant to the new Romans, in spite of their insolence,
the right of apotheosis under the same conditions as before. Ac-
cording to what I hear, most of their candidates who lay claim
to this promotion are not persons of the best society. We will,
therefore, with St. Peter's permission, before we let anybody in,
undertake to give him a little examination. If it turns out that
in respect of his other qualifications and services he can uphold
his place among us, no objection shall be made to him on account
of the golden circle around his head; and Momus himself shall
not reproach him with the miracles which one works with his
bones or his outfit of clothes.
Juno — You can do as you like about the men-persons, but I
shall have the ladies forbidden.
Venus — They say there are some very pretty ones among
them.
Jupiter — We will talk about that when the case comes up.
And now — not a word more of disagreeables! A fresh beaker,
Antinous.
Translated for (A Library of the World's Best Literature)
by Richard Burton


## p. 15969 (#315) ##########################################

15969
WILHELMINE VON BAYREUTH
(1709-1758)
TO
a
He memoirs of Wilhelmine of Bayreuth are possessed of a
twofold interest: not only do they throw light upon
st nge period of Prussian history; they reveal the character
of one of the most remarkable women of the eighteenth century,- a
woman of modern intellect, whose warm humanity could not be dis-
guised or suppressed by the artificiality and pettiness of court life.
Her autobiography is less like truth than fiction, in its detailed
account of this environment, so outlandish and inhuman is its central
overshadowing figure, — her father, Frederick William I. of Prussia.
The acts of this half-insane sovereign and of his weak wife, and the
effect which they produced upon the sensitive natures of Wilhelmine
and her brother Frederick, are here told with a vividness which, only
the actual sufferer could infuse into the narrative.
Frederica Sophie Wilhelmine, the eldest daughter of Frederick
William I. of Prussia, and of Sophie Dorothea, daughter of George I.
of England, was born in Berlin on the 3d of July, 1709. Three years
later a brother was born, Frederick the crown prince, known in his-
tory as Frederick the Great. Between Wilhelmine and this brother
there existed the strongest affection; founded upon mutual sympathy
of character, upon community of tastes, and cemented by the suffer-
ing inflicted upon them both by a most unnatural father, who was
incapable of appreciating the fine quality of their temperaments.
Wilhelmine's autobiography is woven about this brother and herself,
as the only two in a numerous family possessing the primal elements
of a family bond, - affection and understanding. Her love for him
was the light of her life. His for her seems to have been no less
real, if more variable. They grew up as they could, sharing a fright-
ful paternal tyranny from which they were never free. Their in-
explicable father did everything but murder them outright; their weak
mother, in whom ambition was the ruling passion, made their lives a
burden to them by her plans for their marriages. The autobiography
is one long record of the sufferings of the royal family through the
conduct of its heads.
It was through her mother's plans for a double marriage, however,
that Wilhelmine's severest trials were brought about. From the
childhood of herself and her brother, schemes had been set afoot for
their marriages with their royal English cousins, the Prince of Wales
and the Princess Amelia. Both marriages were destined never to
XXVII-999


## p. 15970 (#316) ##########################################

15970
WILHELMINE VON BAYREUTH
take place; but for years the queen mother carried on plots and
intrigues in the interest of this her pet ambition. These were frus-
trated, however, by the house of Hapsburg, which feared the strength
such a close alliance with England would impart to Prussia. Wilhel-
mine has left a most striking record of this long-drawn-out time of
trouble and of persecution.
She herself was to make a happy marriage, though by it she for-
ever alienated her mother. She became the wife of the Margrave of
Bayreuth: a union which had been urged upon her as a political neces-
sity, but which proved to be fortunate; for her husband was a man of
pleasing character, who at once won her love and esteem. After her
marriage she was comparatively happy; as happy as a person of her
high endowments and strong character could be in a petty German
court, - a hot-bed of jealousies and intrigues. At Bayreuth, however,
she formed a circle of men and women of culture and intellectual
aspirations. Like her brother she was abreast of the most advanced
thought of the time, a disciple of Rousseau and Voltaire, hospitable
to the new forces in religious and social life. She was not des-
tined, however, to wield her beneficial influence long.
Her many
hardships, her many illnesses induced by these hardships, had weak-
ened a naturally strong constitution. She died on the 15th of October,
1758, aged only forty-nine years. The shadow of her death stretched
across the remaining years of her brother Frederick's life.
Her autobiography is one of the most remarkable records of its
kind. It is a succession of pictures from which the colors have not
faded. A wonderful common-sense inspires it from the beginning to
the end, tempered moreover with strong human passions and preju-
dices. By reason of the life which is in it, it is of more value than
many histories, and is valuable most of all as a revelation of char-
acter.
VISIT OF PETER THE GREAT TO FREDERICK WILLIAM THE
FIRST
I
HAVE, in the preceding year, forgotten to mention the arrival
in Berlin of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia.
This epi-
sode is curious enough to be worthy of a place in my
memoirs. This sovereign, who was very fond of traveling, was
on his way from Holland, and was obliged to make a stay in the
province of Cleves. As he disliked both society and formalities,
he begged the King to let him occupy a villa on the outskirts
of Berlin which belonged to the Queen. This villa was a pretty
little building, and had been beautifully arranged by the Queen.


## p. 15971 (#317) ##########################################

WILHELMINE VON BAYREUTH
15971
It contained a gallery decorated with china; all the rooms had
most beautiful looking-glasses. The house was really a little
gem, and fully deserved its name, "Monbijou. ”
“Monbijou. ” The garden was
lovely; and its beauty was enhanced by its being close to the
river.
To prevent any damage, -as these Russian gentlemen are
noted for not being particular or over-careful, — the Queen had
the whole house cleared out, and removed everything that might
get broken. A few days afterward the Emperor and Empress
and their suite arrived by water at Monbijou.
The King and Queen received them on the banks of the
river. The King gave the Czarina his hand to help her to
land. As soon as the Emperor had landed, he shook hands with
the King and said, “Brother Frederick, I am very pleased to
see you. ” He then approached the Queen, wishing to embrace
her, which she however declined. The Czarina then kissed my
mother's hand repeatedly; afterwards presenting to her the Duke
and Duchess of Mecklenburg, who accompanied them, and four
hundred so-called ladies. These were, for the most part, Ger-
man maids, - ladies'-maids and cooks, who fulfilled the duties
of ladies-in-waiting.
The Queen did not feel inclined to bow to
these; and indeed she treated the Czarina and the princesses of
the blood with great coldness and haughtiness, and the King had
a great deal of trouble in persuading her to be civil to them. I
saw this curious court the next day, when the Czar and Czarina
came to visit the Queen. She received them in the state rooms
of the castle, met them at the entrance of these rooms, and led
the Empress to her audience chamber.
The King and the Emperor followed behind. As soon as the
Emperor saw me, he recognized me, - having seen me five years
ago,- took me up in his arms and kissed me all over my face.
I boxed his ears, and made frantic efforts to get away from him,
saying he had insulted me. This delighted him, and made him
laugh heartily. They had told me beforehand what I was to say
to him, so I spoke to him of his feet and his victories.
so pleased that he said he would willingly sacrifice one of his
provinces to have such a child as I was. The Czarina too made
much of me. The Queen and the Czarina sat on arm-chairs under
a canopy, and I stood near my mother, the princesses of the
blood standing opposite.
The Czarina was small, broad, and brown-looking, without the
slightest dignity of appearance. You had only to look at her to
He was


## p. 15972 (#318) ##########################################

15972
WILHELMINE VON BAYREUTH
detect her low origin. She might have passed for a German act-
ress, she had decked herself out in such a manner. Her dress
had been bought second-hand, and was trimmed with some dirty-
looking silver embroidery; the bodice was covered with precious
stones, arranged in such a manner as to represent the double
eagle. She wore a dozen orders; and round the bottom of her
dress hung quantities of relics and pictures of saints, which rat-
tled when she walked, and reminded one of a smartly harnessed
mule. The orders too made a great noise, knocking against
each other.
The Czar, on the other hand, was tall and well grown, with a
handsome face; but his expression was coarse, and impressed one
with fear. He wore a simple sailor's dress. His wife, who spoke
German very badly, called her court jester to her aid, and spoke
Russian with her. This poor creature was a Princess Gallizin,
who had been obliged to undertake this sorry office to save her
life; as she had been mixed up in a conspiracy against the Czar,
and had twice been flogged with the knout!
At last we sat down to dinner, the Czar sitting near the
Queen. It is well known that this sovereign had been poisoned
when a young man; and that his nerves had never recovered from
it, so that he was constantly seized with convulsions over which
he had no control. He was suddenly seized with one of these
attacks whilst he was dining, and frightened the Queen so much
that she several times tried to get up and leave the table. After
a while the Czar grew calmer, and begged the Queen to have no
fear, as he would not hurt her. Then taking her hand in his, he
pressed it so tightly that she screamed for mercy; at which he
laughed, saying that she had much more delicate bones than his
Catherine. A ball had been arranged after dinner; but he stole
quietly away, and returned on foot to Monbijou.
The following day he visited all the sights of Berlin, amongst
others the very curious collection of coins and antiques. Among
these last named was a statue representing a heathen god. It
was anything but attractive, but was the most valuable in the
collection. The Czar admired it very much, and insisted on the
Czarina kissing it. On her refusing, he said to her in bad Ger-
man that she should lose her head if she did not at once obey
him. Terrified at the Czar's anger, she immediately complied with
his orders without the least hesitation. The Czar asked the King
to give him this and other statues, a request which he could
not refuse. The same thing happened about a cupboard inlaid


## p. 15973 (#319) ##########################################

WILHELMINE VON BAYREUTH
15973
with amber. It was the only one of its kind, and had cost King
Frederick I. an enormous sum; and the consternation was gen-
eral on its having to be sent to Petersburg.
This barbarous court happily left after two days. The Queen
rushed at once to Monbijou, which she found in a state resem-
bling that of the fall of Jerusalem. I never saw such a sight.
Everything was destroyed, so that the Queen was obliged to
rebuild the whole house.
PICTURES OF COURT LIFE
A.
»
New epoch began with the year 1729. M. de Lamotte, an
officer in the Hanoverian service, and a near relation of Von
Sastot, one of my mother's chamberlains, came to Berlin,
He suddenly arrived at Sastot's, quite secretly, one day.
“I am
the bearer of a most important confidential message,” he said.
“You must hide me somewhere in your house, that my arrival
may remain unknown, and you must manage that one of my let-
ters reaches the King. ” Sastot promised him all he asked, and
then inquired if his business were good or evil. “It will be good
if people can hold their tongues, but if they gossip it will be
evil. However, as I know you are discreet, and as I require your
help in obtaining an interview with the Queen, I must confide
all to you. The Prince of Wales intends being here in three
weeks at the latest. He means to escape secretly from Hano-
ver, brave his father's anger, and marry the princess. He has
intrusted me with the whole affair; and has sent me here to find
out if his arrival would be agreeable to the King and Queen,
and if they are still anxious for this marriage. If she is capable
of keeping a secret, and has no suspicious people about her, will
you undertake to speak to the Queen on the subject? Yet before
doing so, and in order to run no risk, you had better first consult
with Mademoiselle von Sonnsfeld, of whose discretion I am sure.
She will be your guide. ”
That very same evening Sastot appeared as usual in the apart-
ments of the Queen, who was not holding receptions. He called
Mademoiselle von Sonnsfeld on one side, and told her all that
had passed between him and Lamotte: and added that he had
not been able to speak unreservedly with him about the affair,
as he was afraid of telling this good news to the Queen; because
he knew quite well that she would at once confide it all to that


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WILHELMINE VON BAYREUTH
wretched Ramen, who would immediately communicate it to
Seckendorf and his creatures.
Mademoiselle von Sonnsfeld was much perturbed; but after
having well considered the question, decided that Sastot should
speak with the Queen. The joy this news caused her is easily to
be imagined. She at once communicated them to Countess Fink-
enstein, and my lady-in-waiting, who both implored her to keep
them secret. I was just then very ill. I had had a bad fainting-
fit, followed by violent fever, which confined me to my bed. The
Queen desired Mademoiselle von Sonnsfeld to prepare me by
degrees for this happy event, of which she then wished to speak
to me herself.
The next morning Mademoiselle von Sonnsfeld came to drink
her tea by my bedside. "I cannot think what has come to Sas-
tot,” she said: “he dances about, sings, and is full of nonsense;
and says it is all because he is so delighted at some good news
he has heard, which he will however tell nobody. ”
« Perhaps he has taken too much,” I said, “and this makes
him so merry. ”
“Oh no," she replied: "he declares the good news concerns
:
you! ”
“Good God! ” I cried: “what good news can I expect in the
position in which I am placed, and how can Sastot have any.
thing to do with it ?
“But,” continued Mademoiselle von Sonnsfeld, supposing
,
he had received the news direct from the Prince of Wales him-
self? »
“Well, would that be such great happiness ? ”
"Your Royal Highness is very sinful,” she replied; "and
you will be punished for it, if you so despise a prince who risks
everything for your sake. What do you want ? Do you wish to
fade and pine away, or do you wish to marry that delightful
Prince of Weissenfels ? »
Mademoiselle von Sonnsfeld would have endured anything
that this marriage might be accomplished: it was the only point
on which we differed, and we had often had arguments on the
subject. I now laughed at her speech, without taking much heed
of it. I thought that the Prince of Wales had most probably
given an assurance similar to that which my brother had given
the Queen of England, and that this had caused Sastot's high
spirits. When the Queen herself came to me with this pleasant
piece of news, however, I felt in a very different mood. I


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WILHELMINE VON BAYREUTH
15975
(
remained dumb, and could not utter a word. My mother thought
it the result of my satisfaction at the news. “I shall at length
see you happy and my wishes realized at the same time; – how
much joy at once! ” I kissed her hands, which I covered with
tears. “You are crying,” she exclaimed: "what is the matter ? ”
I would not disturb her happiness, so I answered, “The thought
of leaving you distresses me more than all the crowns of the
world could delight me. ” The Queen was only the more tender
towards me in consequence, and then left me. I loved this dear
mother truly, and had only spoken the truth to her. She left
me in a terrible state of mind. I was cruelly torn between
my affection for her and my repugnance to the Prince of Wales;
but I determined to leave all to Providence, who would direct
my ways.
That same evening the Queen held a reception. As bad luck
would have it, the English envoy came to it, and began at once
to tell her all the news he had received from his court. The
conversation grew livelier and livelier; and without reflecting
on the consequences, the Queen confided to him the whole of the
Prince of Wales's project. M. de Bourguait, with intense sur-
prise, asked her if it were all true. "Certainly,” she replied;
"and to show you how true it is, he has sent Lamotte here,
who has already informed the King of everything. ”
"Oh, why does your Majesty tell me this? I am wretched,
for I must prevent it. " Greatly frightened, my mother asked
him why he must do so. "Because I am my sovereign's envoy;
because my office requires of me that I should inform him of so
important a matter. I shall send off a messenger to England
this very evening. Would to God I had known nothing of all
this! ” The Queen's prayers and entreaties were all of no avail;
for he left her, to dispatch the messenger. My mother's conster-
nation was indescribable! She was in utter despair. Countess
Finkenstein came the next morning and told me all that had
happened. The only means we had in our power of preventing
greater misfortune was to endeavor to keep it all from the King.
At the end of a week the King came to Berlin to receive the
Prince of Wales. He had had a secret interview with Lamotte,
after which the long ardently desired arrival of the Prince was
daily expected. But this joy was doomed to be turned to sor-
row. A courier brought the news that at the express command
of his father, the Prince of Wales had suddenly left Hanover for


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WILHELMINE VON BAYREUTH
England. This news fell on the King and Queen like a thunder-
bolt.
But it is time that I should now unravel this mystery. The
English nation were most anxious for the Prince of Wales's pres-
ence in England, and had incessantly begged the King to grant
it. The King, on the other hand, did not feel at all inclined to
do so; as he feared he might suffer in personal consideration, and
that the Prince's arrival in England would raise an opposition
against him which might lead to disturbances. In order to have
some plausible reason against his presence in England, the King
had himself written to the Prince, suggesting his going to Berlin
and marrying me. This step he intended to use afterwards to
bring about a rupture with the Prince, by which means he could
keep him several years longer at Hanover. The Prince, who
ardently desired the alliance with me, was only too delighted to
obey his father's wishes. The sudden arrival of Bourguait's mes-
senger spoilt everything. This messenger was sent to the Secre-
tary of State. Nothing remained to the King, who was anxious
that no suspicion should be aroused in England, but to desire the
Prince to return. Poor Lamotte became the innocent victim of
all this. He had to spend two years in the fortress of Hameln,
and was obliged to leave the Hanoverian service. He afterwards
entered the Prussian army, where he still commands a regiment.
My father was greatly incensed at again finding himself duped
by England. He returned to Potsdam soon after this affair was
settled, and we shortly followed him.
Immediately after our arrival my father had a violent attack
of gout, which troubled him for some time. This illness, added
to his displeasure at his disappointed hopes, made his temper
unbearable. I was called nothing else by him but the English
canaille," and he ill-treated me and my brother in a shocking
manner.
We were
not allowed to leave him for one single
moment during the whole day. We took all our meals near his
bedside; and to torment us still more, he let us have only those
things to eat for which we had an absolute dislike. But good or
bad, we were obliged to swallow them down, and run the risk of
being ill for the rest of the day. Not a single day passed without
some unfortunate occurrence, and we could not lift up our eyes
without beholding some unhappy being who was being tormented.
The King was of too impatient a nature to remain long in bed,
so he sat in an arm-chair in which he had himself wheeled about


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WILHELMINE VON BAYREUTH
15977
»
the castle. He held a crutch in each hand to support himself, and
we followed this triumphal car like wretched prisoners expecting
their sentence.
On one occasion, when his temper was more than usually bad,
he told the Queen that he had received letters from Anspach, in
which the margrave announced his arrival at Berlin for the be-
ginning of May. He was coming there for the purpose of marry.
ing my sister; and one of his ministers would arrive previously
with the betrothal ring. My father asked my sister whether she
were pleased at this prospect, and how she would arrange her
household. Now my sister had always made a point of telling
him whatever came into her head, even the greatest home-truths,
and he had never taken her outspokenness amiss. On this occas-
ion, therefore, relying on former experience, she answered him
as follows: “When I have a house of my own I shall take care
to have a well-appointed dinner-table,- better than yours is;
and if I have any children of my own I shall not plague them
as you do yours, and force them to eat things they thoroughly
dislike! ”
«What is amiss with my dinner-table ? » the King inquired,
getting very red in the face.
« You ask what is the matter with it," my sister replied:
there is not enough on it for us to eat, and what there is is
cabbage and carrots, which we detest. ”
Her first answer had already angered my father, but now he
gave vent to his fury. But instead of punishing my sister he
poured it all on my mother, my brother, and myself. To begin
with, he threw his plate at my brother's head, who would have
been struck had he not got out of the way; a second one he
threw at me, which I also happily escaped; then torrents of abuse
followed these first signs of hostility: He reproached the Queen
with having brought up her children so badly. "You will curse
your mother,” he said to my brother, "for having made you such
a good-for-nothing creature.
A man
once condemned to
death in Carthage for various crimes,” he continued, and as he
was being led to the place of execution, he asked to be allowed
to speak to his mother. Whilst pretending to whisper to her,
he bit a piece out of her ear; saying at the same time, I treat
you like this, that you may serve as an example to all mothers
that do not bring up their children virtuously. ' You can do
the same, my father continued, still addressing himself to my
(
was
>>


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WILHELMINE VON BAYREUTH
«
brother; and with this remark he let himself be wheeled away in
his chair. As my brother and I passed near him to leave the
room, he hit out at us with his crutch. · Happily we escaped
the blow, for it would certainly have struck us down; and we at
last escaped without harm from the room. I had been so upset
by this scene that I trembled all over, and was obliged to sit
down to avoid fainting. My mother, who came after us, comforted
us as best she could, and endeavored to persuade us to return to
the King We were, however, not the least inclined to do this:
the scene with the plates and the crutch had frightened us too
much. At length we were obliged to do so, and we found the
King conversing quietly with his officers.
I felt quite ill nevertheless, and fainted away in the Queen's
room. My mother's maid exclaimed, on seeing me, “Good gra-
cious, your Royal Highness, what is the matter ? you look dread-
ful! " I looked in the glass, and saw that my face and neck
were covered with red spots. I told her I had been very much
agitated, and that this was the result. I fainted again several
times. The red spots disappeared as soon as I was in the cold
air, appearing again in the heat of the room. I was obliged to
keep about as best I could, as I was unable to get to bed. That
night I was attacked by violent fever, which left me So weak
next morning that I was obliged to ask my mother to excuse me
from coming to her. She sent me word that dead or alive I
must go to her. I then sent word that I had a rash which made
it impossible. She however repeated her command, and I was
carried into her room, where I went from one fainting-fit into
another. In this condition I was dragged to the King. My sis.
ter, seeing that I was ready to give up the ghost, said to the
King, “I beseech you, dear father, let my sister return to her
room: she has fever, and cannot even stand. ” The King asked
me if this were true. “You look very ill,” he said, “but I will
I
cure you; and he forced me to drink a whole goblet full of
very strong old Rhine wine.
My rash had gone in, and I was
fighting with death.
I had no
sooner drunk the wine than I
began to be delirious, and begged my mother to have me taken
to my room. This she granted on condition that I would leave
it again in the evening.
I laid myself down without taking off my head-dress; but
no sooner was I in bed than the violence of the fever deprived
me of my reason.
The doctor who was called in pronounced me
>>


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WILHELMINE VON BAYREUTH
15979
to be suffering from an inflammatory fever, and gave me three
remedies not at all suitable to my present illness. From time
to time I recovered consciousness, and then I prayed that God
would take me to himself. Amidst bitter tears I said to Ma-
demoiselle von Sonnsfeld, “The many sufferings I have been
through have made me indifferent to this world, and now Provi-
dence will grant me the highest bliss. I am the cause of all my
mother's and brother's sorrows: my death will put an end to
these. If I die, promise me to say two things in my name to
the King: first that I beg he will restore me his affections, and
secondly, implore him to be kinder towards my mother and my
brother. ” I lay for thirty-six hours between life and death, and
at last small-pox declared itself.
The King had never once inquired after me since the com-
mencement of my illness. As soon, however, as he heard the
nature of my complaint, he sent his court surgeon to find out if
I really had small-pox. This rude personage said many unkind
things to me in the King's name, besides being most repulsive
in his own behavior. At any other time this would have pro-
voked my anger, but I was now far too ill to notice his inso-
lence. Upon the doctor's confirming the statement that I had
the small-pox, I was put into quarantine. All communication
with my rooms was cut off, and nobody about the King and
Queen was allowed to come near me. I felt that I was being
treated like a plague-stricken creature. My governess and my
maid were the only attendants I had. Though I lay in an icy
cold room, deserted by the whole world, I had the comfort of my
brother's visits. He had had the small-pox, and came daily to
spend with me what spare time he had.