Seckendorf
and Grumkow are, as it were, too
victorious; and now have their apprehensions on that
latter score.
victorious; and now have their apprehensions on that
latter score.
Thomas Carlyle
CHAP.
VII.
] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN.
85
27th Aug. 1730.
noise and censure, made up of laughter and horror, it
will behove us to be the more exact in relating them
as they actually befel. Very difficult to pull, out of
that ravelled cartload of chaotic thrums, here a thread
and there a thread, capable of being brought to the
straight state, and woven into legible narrative! But
perhaps, by that method, the mingled laughter and
horror will modify itself a little. What we can well
say is, that pity also ought not to be wanting. The
next six months were undoubtedly by far the wretchedest
of Friedrich Wilhelm's life. The poor King, except
that he was not conscious of intending wrong, but much
the reverse, walked in the hollow night of Gehenna, all that while, and was often like to be driven mad by
the turn things had taken.
Here is scene first: Wilhelmina reports his Majesty's
arrival that Sunday afternoon, to the following effect;
she was present in the adventure, and not a spectatress
only:
"The Queen was alone in hisMajesty's Apartment, waiting
"for him as he approached. At sight of her, in the distance,
"he called out: 'Your losel of a Son (votre indigne fils) has
"'ended at last; you have done with him,' or words to that
"effect. 'What,' cried the Queen,'you have had the barbarity
"'to kill him? ' -- 'Yes, I tell you, -- but where is the sealed
"'Desk? ' The Queen went to her own Apartment to fetch
"it; I ran in to her there for a moment: she was out of herself,
"wringing her hands, crying incessantly, and said without
"ceasing: lMon Dieu, mon fils (0 God, my Son)! ' Breath
"failed me; I fell fainting into the arms of Madam de Sons-
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? 86 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book VII.
? 27th Ang. 3730.
"feld. " -- The Queen took away the Writing-case; King tore
out the letters, and went off; upon which the Queen came
down again to us.
"We learned from some attendant that, at least, my
"Brother was not dead. The King now came back. We all
"ran to kiss his hands; but me he no sooner noticed than rage
"and fury took possession of him. He became black in the
"face, his eyes sparkling fire, his mouth foaming. 'Infamous
"'canaille,' said he: 'darest thou show thyself before me? Go,
"'keep thy scoundrel of a Brother company! ' And so saying,
"he seized me with one hand, slapping me on the face with the
"other,"-- clenched as a fist (j>ninq), --"several blows; one of
"which struck me on the temple, so that I fell back, and
"should have split my head against a corner of the wainscot,
"had not Madam de Sonsfeld caught me by the headdress and
"broken the fall. I lay on the ground without consciousness.
"The King, in a frenzy, was for striking me with his feet; had
"not the Queen, my Sisters and the rest, run between, and
"those who were present prevented him. They all ranked
"themselves round me, which gave Mesdames de Kamecke
"and Sonsfeld time to pick me up. They put me in a chair in
"the embrasure of a window; threw water on my face to bring
"me to life: which care I lamentably reproached them with,
"death being a thousand times better, in the pass things had
"come to. The Queen kept shrieking, her firmness had quite
"left her: she wrung her hands, and ran in despair up and
"down the room. The King's face was so disfigured with
"rage, it was frightful to look upon. The little ones were on
"their knees, begging for me,"*--
-- poor little beings, what a group: Amelia, the youngest
girl, about six; Henri, in his bits of trousers, hardly
* ? Wilhelmina, 1. 265-267.
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? CHAP. TIT. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 87
27th Aag. 1730.
over four! -- For the rest, I perceive, this room was
on the first or a lower floor, and such noises were very audible. The Guard had turned out at the noise; and
a crowd was collecting to see and hear: "Move on!
Move on! " --
"The King had now changed his tune: he admitted that
"my Brother was still alive; but vowed horribly he would put
"him to death, and lay me fast, within four walls, for the rest
"of my life. He accused me of being the Prince's accomplice,
"whose crime was high treason; --also of having anintrigue
"of love with Katte, to whom, he said, I had borne several
"children. " The timid Governante flamed up at this unheard-
of insult: 'That is not true,' said she fiercely, 'whoever has
told your Majesty such a thing has told a lie! ' 'O, spare my
'"Brother, and I will marry the Duke of Weissenfels,'
"whimpered I; but in the great noise he did not hear; and
"while I strove to repeat it louder, Sonsfeld clapt her hand kerchief on my face.
"Hustling aside to get rid of the handkerchief, I saw Katte
"crossing the Square. Four soldiers were conducting him to
"the King; trunks, my Brother's and his own, sealed, were
"coming on in the rear. Pale and downcast, he tookoff his
"hat to salute me," --poor Katte, to me always so prostrate
in silent respect, and now so unhappy! "A moment after, the
"King hearing he was come, went out, exclaiming, 'Now I
"'shall have proof about the scoundrel Fritz and the off-
"' scouring (canaille) Wilhelmina; clear proofs to cut the
"'heads off them. '"-- The two Hofdames again interfered;
and one of them,Kamecke it was, rebuked him; told him, in the
tone of a prophetess, To take care what he was doing. Whom
his Majesty gazed into with astonishment, but rather with
respect than with anger, saying, "Your intentions are good! "
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? 88 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book TO.
27th Aug. 1730.
And so his Majesty flung out, seeking Katte; and
vanished: "Wilhelmina saw no more of him for about a
year after; being ordered to her room, and kept pri-
soner there on low diet, with sentries guarding her
doors, and no outlook but the worst horror her imagi-
nation pleased to paint.
This is the celebrated assault of paternal Majesty
on Wilhelmina; the rumour of which has gone into all
lands, exciting wonder and horror, but could not be so
exact as this account at first-hand. Naturally the crowd
of street passengers, once dispersed by the Guard, car-
ried the matter abroad, and there was no end of sym-
pathetic exaggerations. Report ran in Berlin, for
example, that the poor Princess was killed, beaten or
trampled to death; which we clearly see she was not.
Voltaire, in that mass of angry calumnies, very men-
dacious indeed, which he calls Vie Prive'e du Boi de
Prusse, mentions the matter with emphasis; and says
farther. The Princess once did him (Voltaire) the
"honour to show him a black mark she carried on her
breast ever after;" -- which is likelier to be false than
true. Captain Guy Dickens, the Legationary Captain,
who seems a clear, ingenuous and ingenious man, and
of course had access to the highest circles of refined
rumour, reports the matter about ten days after, with
several errors, in this manner:
"Berlin, 5th September 1730. Four or five days ago" (by
the Almanac nine, and directly on his Majesty's return, which
Dickens had announced a week ago without that fact at-
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? CHAP. VII. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 89
27th Aug. 1780.
tached), "the King dreadfully ill-treated Wilhelmina in
"bed" (not in bed at all); "whole Castle (Schloss or Palace)
"was alarmed; Guard turned out," -- to clear away the
crowd, as we perceive. Not properly a crowd, such was not
permissible there: but a stagnation of the passers-by would
naturally ensue on that esplanade; till the Guard turned out,
and indicated with emphasis, "Move on! " Dickens bears
farther that "the Queen fares no better;" -- such is the state
of rumour in Berlin at present.
Poor Katte had a hard audience of it too. He fell
at Friedrich Wilhelm's feet; and was spurned and
caned; -- for the rest, beyond what was already evi-
dent, had little or nothing to confess: Intention of flight
and of accompanying in flight, very undeniable; al-
though preliminaries and ulterior conditions of said
flight not perfectly known to Katte; known only that
the thought of raising trouble in foreign Courts, or fhe
least vestige of treason against his Majesty, had not
entered even into their dreams. A name or two of per-
sons who had known, or guessed, of these operations,
is wrung from Katte; -- name of a Lieutenant Spaen,
for one; who, being on guard, had admitted Katte into
Potsdam once or twice in disguise: -- for him and for
the like of him, of whatever rank or whichever sex, let
arrests he made out, and the scent as with sleuth-
hounds be diligently followed on all sides; and Katte,
stript of his uniform, be locked up in the grimmest
manner. Berlin, with the rumour of these things, is a
much agitated city.
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? 90 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book vir.
27th Aug. -5th Sept. 1730.
CHAPTEE Vm.
SEQUEL TO CROWN-PRINCE AND FRIENDS.
As for the Crown-Prince, prosecuting his circuitous
route, he arrives safe at Mittenwalde; is lodged in the
old Castle there, I think, for two nights (but the date,
in these indexless Books, is blown away again), in a
room bare of all things, with sentries at the door; and
looks out, expecting Grumkow and the Officials to make
assault on him. One of these Officials, a certain "Gerber,
Fiscal General," who, as head of Prussian Fiscals (kind
of Public Prosecutor, or supreme Essence of Bailiffs,
Catchpoles and Grand-Juries all in one), wears a red
cloak, -- gave the Prince a dreadful start. Red cloak
is the Berlin Hangman's or Headsman's dress; and poor
Friedrich had the idea his end had summarily come in
this manner. Soon seeing it was otherwise, his spirits
recovered, perhaps rose by the shock.
He fronted Grumkow and the Officials, with a high,
almost contemptuous look; answered promptly, -- if
possible, without lying, and yet without telling any-
thing; -- showed self-possession, pride; retorted some-
times, "Have you nothing more to ask? " Grumkow
finding there was no way made into anything, not even
into the secret of the Writing-case and the Royal Women's
operations there, began at last, as Wilhelmina says, to
hint, That in his Majesty's service there were means of
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? CHAP. Tin. J SEQUEL TO CEOWN' PRINCE AND FRIENDS. 91
5th Sept. 1730.
bringing out the truth in spite of refractory humours;
that there was a thing called the rack, not yet abolished
in his Prussian Majesty's dominions! Friedrich owned
afterwards, his blood ran cold. However, he put on a
high look: "A Hangman, such as you, naturally takes
"pleasure in talking of his tools and his trade; but on
"me they will not produce any effect. I have owned
"everything; -- and almost regret to have done so. For
"it is not my part to stand questionings and bandy re-
sponses with a coquin comme vous, scoundrel like you,"
reports Wilhelmina,* though we hope the actual term
was slightly less candid! -- Grumkow gathered his
Notes together; and went his ways, with the man in
red cloak and the rest; thus finishing the scene in Mit-
tenwalde. Mittenwalde, which we used to know long
since, in our Wusterhausen rides with poor Duhan;
little thinking what awaited us there one day!
Mittenwalde being finished, Friedrich, on Monday,
5th September 1730, is sent forward to Ciistrin, a strong
little Town in a quiet Country, some sixty or seventy
miles eastward of Berlin. On the evening of the 5th he
finds himself lodged in a strong room of the Fortress
there, -- room consisting of bare walls lighted from far
up; no furniture, not even the needfullest; everything
indicating that the proud spirit and the iron laws shall
here have their duel out at leisure, and see which is
stronger.
His sword was taken from him at Wesel; sword,
uniform, every mark of dignity, all are now gone: he
? i. 280.
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? 92 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book TO.
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
is clad in brown prison dress of the plainest cut and
cloth; his diet is fixed at tenpence a-day ("to be got
from the cook's shop, six groschen for dinner, four for
supper");* food to be cut for him, no knife allowed. Room is to be opened, morning, noon and evening, "on
the average not above four minutes each time;" lights,
or single tallow light, to be extinguished at seven p. m.
Absolute solitude; no flute allowed, far from it; no
Books allowed, except the Bible and a Prayer-Book,--
or perhaps Noltenius's Manual, if he took a hankering
for it. There, shut out from the babble of fools, and
conversing only with the dumb Veracities, with the
huge inarticulate moanings of Destiny, Necessity and
Eternity, let the fool of a Fritz bethink himself, if there
is any thought in him! There, among the Bogs of the
Oder, the very sedges getting brown all round him, and
the very curlews flying off for happier climes, let him
wait, till the question of his doom, rather an abstruse
question, ripen in the royal breast.
As for Wilhelmina, she is close prisoner in her
apartments in the Berlin Palace, sentries pacing at
every outlet, for many months to come. Wilhelmina
almost rather likes it, such a dog of an existence has
she had hitherto, for want of being well let alone. She
plays, reads; composes music; smuggles letters to and
from Mamma, -- one in pencil, from my Brother even,
0 Heavens! Wilhelmina weeps, now and then, with
her good Sonsfeld; hopes nevertheless there will be
? Order, 14th September 1730 (in Forster, 1. 372).
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? CHAP, vm. ] SEQUEL TO CROWN-PRINCE AND FRIENDS. 93
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
some dawn to this ragnarok, or general "twilight of the
gods. " Friedrich Wilhelm, convinced that England has
had a hand in this treason, signifies officially to his Ex-
cellency Captain Dickens, That the English negotiations
are concluded; that neither in the way of Single-Mar-
riage nor of Double-Marriage will he have anything
more to do with England. "Well," answers England,
"who can help it? Negotiation was not quite of our
seeking. Let it so end! "* -- Nay at dinner one
day (Seckendorf reports, while Fritz was on the road
to Custrin) he proposes the toast, "Downfall of Eng-
land! "** and would have had the Queen drink it; who
naturally wept, but I conjecture could not be made to
drink. Her Majesty is a weeping, almost broken-hearted
woman; his Majesty a raging, almost broken-hearted
man.
Seckendorf and Grumkow are, as it were, too
victorious; and now have their apprehensions on that
latter score. But they look on with countenances well
veiled, and touch the helm judiciously in Tobacco-
Parliament, intent on the nearest harbour of refuge.
Her Majesty nevertheless steadily persists; merely
sinks deeper out of sight with her English schemes;
ducking till the wave go by. Messages, desperate
appeals still go, through Mamsell Biilow, Wilhelmina's
Hofdame, and other channels; nay Wilhelmina thinks
there were still intentions on the part of England, and
that the nonfulfilment of them at the last moment
* Dickens's Despatch, 25th September 1730; and Harrington's Answer
to it, of 6th October: Seckendorf (in Fb'rster; ill. *), 23d September.
? * Seckendorf (in Fb'rster, iii. 11).
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? 94 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book VII.
5thSept. -25th Oct. 1730.
turned on accident; English "Courier arrived some
hours too late," thinks Wilhelmina. * But that is a
mistake. The negotiation, in spite of her Majesty's
endeavours, was essentially out; England, after such a
message, could not, nor did, stir farther in the matter.
In that Writing-case his Majesty found what we
know; nothing hut mysterious effects of female art, and
no light whatever. It is a great source of wrath and
of sorrow to him, that neither in the Writing-case, nor
in Katte's or the Prince's so called "Confessions," can
the thing be seen into. A deeper bottom it must have,
thinks his Majesty, but knows not what or where. To
overturn the Country, belike; and fling the Kaiser, and
European Balance of Power, bottom uppermost? Me
they presumably meant to poison! he tells Seckendorf
one day. ** Was ever Father more careful for his
children, soul and body? Anxious, to excess, to bring
them up in orthodox nurture and admonition: and this
is how they reward me, Herr Feldzeugmeister! "Had
"he honestly confessed, and told me the whole truth,
"at Wesel, I would have made it up with him quietly
"there. But now it must go its lengths; and the whole
"world shall be judge between us. " ***
His Majesty is in a flaming height. He arrests,
punishes and banishes, where there is trace of coopera-
tion or connexion with Deserter Fritz and his schemes.
* Wilhelmina (i. 369, 384), and Preuss and others after her.
Dickens, Despatch, 16th September 1730.
*** Seckendorf (Fb'rster, ubi supra), 23d September.
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? CHAP. VHI. ] SEQUEL TO CROWN-PEINCE AND FRIENDS. 95
Sth Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
The Biilows, brother and sister, brother in the King's
service, sister in Wilhelmina's, respectable goldstick
people, originally of Hanover, are hurled out to Li-
thuania and the world's end: let them live in Memel,
and repent as they can. Minister Knyphausen, always
of English tendencies, he, with his Wife, -- to whom
it is specially hard, while General Schwerin, gallant
witty Kurt, once of Mecklenburg, stays behind, -- is
ordered to disappear, and follow his private rural busi-
ness far off; no minister, ever more. The Lieutenant
Spaen of the Giant Regiment, who kept false watch,
and did not tell of Katte, gets cashiering and a year
in Spandau. He wandered elsewhither, and came to
something afterwards, poor Spaen. * Bookseller Hanau
with this bad Fritz's Books: To Memel with him also;
let him deal in more orthodox kinds of Literature
there.
It is dangerous to have lent the Crown-Prince
money, contrary to the Royal Edict: lucky if loss of
your money will settle the account. Witness French
Montholieu, for one; Count, or whatever he styled
himself: nailed to the gallows (in effigy) after he had
fled. It is dangerous to have spoken kindly to the
Crown-Prince, or almost to have been spoken to by
him. Doris Ritter, a comely enough good girl, nothing
of a beauty, but given to music, Potsdam Cantor's
(Precentor's) daughter, has chanced to be standing in
the door, perhaps to be singing within doors, once or
twice, when the Prince passed that way: Prince inquired
? Preusa, i. 63, 66.
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? 96 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT. [bOOK VTt.
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
about her music, gave her music, spoke a civility, as
young men will, -- nothing more, upon my honour;
though his Majesty believes there was much more; and
condemns poor Doris to be whipt by the Beadle, and
beat hemp for three years. Rhadamanthus is a strict
judge, your Majesty; and might be a trifle better in-
formed! -- Poor Doris got out of this sad pickle, on
her own strength; and wedded, and did well enough,
-- Prince and King happily leaving her alone thence-
forth. Voltaire, twenty years after, had the pleasure
of seeing her at Berlin: "Wife of one Shommers, Clerk
"of the Hackney-Coach Office," -- read, Schomer,
Farmer of the Berlin Hackney-Coach Enterprise in
general; decidedly a poor man. Wife, by this time,
was grown hard enough of feature: "tall, lean; looked
"like a Sibyl; not the least appearance how she could
"ever have deserved to be whipt for a Prince. " *
The excellent Tutor of the Crown-Prince, good
Duhan de Jandun, for what fault or complicity we know not, is hurled off to Memel; ordered to live
there, -- on what resources is equally unknown. Ap-
parently his fault was the general one, of having mis- educated the Prince, and introduced these French Lite-
ratures, foreign poisonous elements of thought and
practice into the mind of his Pupil, which have ruined
the young man. For his Majesty perceives that there
lies the source of it; that only total perversion of the
heart and judgment, first of all, can have brought about
* Voltaire, (Euvres (calumnious Vie Privee du Roi de Prusse), ii. 51, 52.
Preuss, i. 64, 66.
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? CHAP, vm. ] SEQUEL TO CROWN-PRINCE AND FRIENDS. 97
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
these dreadful issues of conduct. And indeed his Ma-
jesty understands, on credible information, that Deserter
Fritz entertains very heterodox opinions; opinion on
Predestination, for one; -- which is itself calculated to
be the very mother of mischief, in a young mind in-
clined to evil. The heresy about Predestination, or
the "Freie Gnadenwahl (Election by Free Grace)," as
his Majesty terms it, according to which a man is pre-
appointed from all Eternity either to salvation or the
opposite (which is Fritz's notion, and indeed is Calvin's,
and that of many benighted creatures, this Editor
among them), appears to his Majesty an altogether
shocking one; nor would the whole Synod of Dort, or
Calvin, or St. Augustine in person, aided by a Thirty-
Editor power, reconcile his Majesty's practical judgment
to such a tenet. What! May not Deserter Fritz say
to himself, even now, or in whatever other deeps of
sin he may fall into, "I was foredoomed to it: how
could I, or how can I, help it? " The mind of his
Majesty shudders, as if looking over the edge of an
abyss. He is meditating much whether nothing can
be done to save the lost Fritz, at least the soul of
him, from this horrible delusion; -- hurls forth your
fine Duhan, with his metaphysics, to remote Memel, as
the first step. And signifies withal, though as yet only
historically and in a speculative way, to Finckenstein
and Kalkstein themselves, That their method of train-
ing up a young soul, to do God's will, and accomplish
useful work in this world, does by no means appear to Carlyle, Frederic the Great. IV. 7
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? 98 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book to.
5th Scpt. -25th Oct. 1730.
the royal mind an admirable one! * Finckenstein and
Kalkstein were always covertly rather of the Queen's
party, and now stand reprimanded and in marked dis-
favour.
That the treasonous mystery of this Crown-Prince
(parricidal, it is likely, and tending to upset the Uni-
verse) must be investigated to the very bottom, and be
condignly punished, probably with death, his Majesty
perceives too well; and also what terrible difficulties,
formal and essential, there will be. But whatever be-
come of his perishable life, ought not, if possible, the soul of him to be saved from the claws of Satan?
"Claws of Satan;" "brand from the burning;" "for
"Christ our Saviour's sake;" "in the name of the most
"merciful God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Amen:"
-- so Friedrich Wilhelm phrases it, in those confused
old documents and Cabinet-Letters of his;** which
awaken a strange feeling in the attentive reader; and
show us the ruggedest of human creatures melted into
blubbering tenderness, and growling huskily something
which we perceive is real prayer. Here has a business
fallen out, such as seldom occurred before! --
* His Letter to them (3d December 1780), in Fb'rster, 11. 382.
? * FBrater, L 374, 379, Ac.
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? CHAP, ix. ] COURT-MARTIAL ON CROWN-PRINCE.
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
CHAPTER IX.
COURT-MARTIAL ON CROWN-PRINCE AND CONSORTS.
The rumour of these things naturally fills all minds,
and occupies all human tongues, in Berlin and Prussia,
though an Edict threatens, That the tongues shall be
cut out which speak of them in any way; * and sounds
far and wide into foreign Courts and Countries, where
there is no such Edict. Friedrich Wilhelm's conduct,
looked at from without, appears that of a hideous royal
ogre, or blind anthropophagous Polyphemus fallen
mad. Looked at from within, where the Polyphemus
has his reasons, and a kind of inner rushlight to en-
lighten his path; and is not bent on man-eating, but on
discipline in spite of difficulties, -- it is a wild enough
piece of humanity, not so much ludicrous as tragical.
Never was a royal bear so led about before by a pair
of conjuring pipers in the market, or brought to such a
pass in his dancing for them!
"General Ginkel, the Dutch Ambassador here," writes
"Dickens, "told me of an interview he had with the King;"
being ordered, by their High Mightinesses, to solicit his
Majesty in this matter. King "harbours 'most monstrous
"'wicked designs, not fit to be spoken of in words,' reports
Ginkel. "'It is certain,' added he, 'if the King of Prussia
? Dickens, of 7th November, 1730.
7*
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? 100 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book vn.
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
"' continue in the mind he is in at present, we shall see scenes
"'here as wicked and bloody as any that were ever heard of
"'since the creation of the world. ' 'Will sacrifice his whole
"'family,' not the Crown-Prince alone; 'everybody except
"'Grumkow being, as he fancies, in conspiracy against him. '
Poor enchanted King! -- " 'And all these things he said with
"'such imprecations and disordered looks, foaming at the
"'mouth all the while, as it was terrible either to see or hear. '"
That is Ginkel's report, as Dickens conveys it. * Another
time, on new order, a month later, when Ginkel went again to
speak a word for the poor Prisoner, he found his Majesty
clothed not in delirious thunder, but in sorrowful thick fog;
Ginkel "was the less able to judge what the King of Prussia
"meant to do with his Son, as it was evident the King himself
"did not know. "**
Poor Friedrich Wilhelm, through these months,
wanders about, shifting from room to room, in the
night-time, like a man possessed by evil fiends; "orders
his carriage for Wusterhausen at two in the morning,"
but finds he is no better there, and returns; drinks a
great deal, "has not gone to bed sober for a month
past. "*** One night he comes gliding like a perturbed
ghost, about midnight, with his candle in his hand,
into the Queen's apartment; says, wildly staring, "He
thinks there is something haunting him:"-- 0 Feekin,
erring disobedient Wife, wilt not thou protect me, after
all? Whither can I fly when haunted, except to thee?
Feekin, like a prudent woman, makes no criticism;
* Despatch, 7th September 1730. ? * lb. 10th October.
? ** lb. 19th December 1730.
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? CHAP. ES. ] COURT-MARTIAL ON CROWN-PRINCE. 101
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
orders that his Majesty's bed be made up in her apart-
ment till these phenomena cease. * A much-agitated
royal Father.
The question what is to be done with this unhappy
Crown-Prince, a Deserter from the Army, a rebel
against the paternal Majesty, and a believer in the
doctrine of Election by Free Grace, or that a man's
good or ill conduct is foredoomed upon him by decree
of God, -- becomes more intricate the longer one
thinks of it.
27th Aug. 1730.
noise and censure, made up of laughter and horror, it
will behove us to be the more exact in relating them
as they actually befel. Very difficult to pull, out of
that ravelled cartload of chaotic thrums, here a thread
and there a thread, capable of being brought to the
straight state, and woven into legible narrative! But
perhaps, by that method, the mingled laughter and
horror will modify itself a little. What we can well
say is, that pity also ought not to be wanting. The
next six months were undoubtedly by far the wretchedest
of Friedrich Wilhelm's life. The poor King, except
that he was not conscious of intending wrong, but much
the reverse, walked in the hollow night of Gehenna, all that while, and was often like to be driven mad by
the turn things had taken.
Here is scene first: Wilhelmina reports his Majesty's
arrival that Sunday afternoon, to the following effect;
she was present in the adventure, and not a spectatress
only:
"The Queen was alone in hisMajesty's Apartment, waiting
"for him as he approached. At sight of her, in the distance,
"he called out: 'Your losel of a Son (votre indigne fils) has
"'ended at last; you have done with him,' or words to that
"effect. 'What,' cried the Queen,'you have had the barbarity
"'to kill him? ' -- 'Yes, I tell you, -- but where is the sealed
"'Desk? ' The Queen went to her own Apartment to fetch
"it; I ran in to her there for a moment: she was out of herself,
"wringing her hands, crying incessantly, and said without
"ceasing: lMon Dieu, mon fils (0 God, my Son)! ' Breath
"failed me; I fell fainting into the arms of Madam de Sons-
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? 86 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book VII.
? 27th Ang. 3730.
"feld. " -- The Queen took away the Writing-case; King tore
out the letters, and went off; upon which the Queen came
down again to us.
"We learned from some attendant that, at least, my
"Brother was not dead. The King now came back. We all
"ran to kiss his hands; but me he no sooner noticed than rage
"and fury took possession of him. He became black in the
"face, his eyes sparkling fire, his mouth foaming. 'Infamous
"'canaille,' said he: 'darest thou show thyself before me? Go,
"'keep thy scoundrel of a Brother company! ' And so saying,
"he seized me with one hand, slapping me on the face with the
"other,"-- clenched as a fist (j>ninq), --"several blows; one of
"which struck me on the temple, so that I fell back, and
"should have split my head against a corner of the wainscot,
"had not Madam de Sonsfeld caught me by the headdress and
"broken the fall. I lay on the ground without consciousness.
"The King, in a frenzy, was for striking me with his feet; had
"not the Queen, my Sisters and the rest, run between, and
"those who were present prevented him. They all ranked
"themselves round me, which gave Mesdames de Kamecke
"and Sonsfeld time to pick me up. They put me in a chair in
"the embrasure of a window; threw water on my face to bring
"me to life: which care I lamentably reproached them with,
"death being a thousand times better, in the pass things had
"come to. The Queen kept shrieking, her firmness had quite
"left her: she wrung her hands, and ran in despair up and
"down the room. The King's face was so disfigured with
"rage, it was frightful to look upon. The little ones were on
"their knees, begging for me,"*--
-- poor little beings, what a group: Amelia, the youngest
girl, about six; Henri, in his bits of trousers, hardly
* ? Wilhelmina, 1. 265-267.
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? CHAP. TIT. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 87
27th Aag. 1730.
over four! -- For the rest, I perceive, this room was
on the first or a lower floor, and such noises were very audible. The Guard had turned out at the noise; and
a crowd was collecting to see and hear: "Move on!
Move on! " --
"The King had now changed his tune: he admitted that
"my Brother was still alive; but vowed horribly he would put
"him to death, and lay me fast, within four walls, for the rest
"of my life. He accused me of being the Prince's accomplice,
"whose crime was high treason; --also of having anintrigue
"of love with Katte, to whom, he said, I had borne several
"children. " The timid Governante flamed up at this unheard-
of insult: 'That is not true,' said she fiercely, 'whoever has
told your Majesty such a thing has told a lie! ' 'O, spare my
'"Brother, and I will marry the Duke of Weissenfels,'
"whimpered I; but in the great noise he did not hear; and
"while I strove to repeat it louder, Sonsfeld clapt her hand kerchief on my face.
"Hustling aside to get rid of the handkerchief, I saw Katte
"crossing the Square. Four soldiers were conducting him to
"the King; trunks, my Brother's and his own, sealed, were
"coming on in the rear. Pale and downcast, he tookoff his
"hat to salute me," --poor Katte, to me always so prostrate
in silent respect, and now so unhappy! "A moment after, the
"King hearing he was come, went out, exclaiming, 'Now I
"'shall have proof about the scoundrel Fritz and the off-
"' scouring (canaille) Wilhelmina; clear proofs to cut the
"'heads off them. '"-- The two Hofdames again interfered;
and one of them,Kamecke it was, rebuked him; told him, in the
tone of a prophetess, To take care what he was doing. Whom
his Majesty gazed into with astonishment, but rather with
respect than with anger, saying, "Your intentions are good! "
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? 88 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book TO.
27th Aug. 1730.
And so his Majesty flung out, seeking Katte; and
vanished: "Wilhelmina saw no more of him for about a
year after; being ordered to her room, and kept pri-
soner there on low diet, with sentries guarding her
doors, and no outlook but the worst horror her imagi-
nation pleased to paint.
This is the celebrated assault of paternal Majesty
on Wilhelmina; the rumour of which has gone into all
lands, exciting wonder and horror, but could not be so
exact as this account at first-hand. Naturally the crowd
of street passengers, once dispersed by the Guard, car-
ried the matter abroad, and there was no end of sym-
pathetic exaggerations. Report ran in Berlin, for
example, that the poor Princess was killed, beaten or
trampled to death; which we clearly see she was not.
Voltaire, in that mass of angry calumnies, very men-
dacious indeed, which he calls Vie Prive'e du Boi de
Prusse, mentions the matter with emphasis; and says
farther. The Princess once did him (Voltaire) the
"honour to show him a black mark she carried on her
breast ever after;" -- which is likelier to be false than
true. Captain Guy Dickens, the Legationary Captain,
who seems a clear, ingenuous and ingenious man, and
of course had access to the highest circles of refined
rumour, reports the matter about ten days after, with
several errors, in this manner:
"Berlin, 5th September 1730. Four or five days ago" (by
the Almanac nine, and directly on his Majesty's return, which
Dickens had announced a week ago without that fact at-
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? CHAP. VII. ] MAJESTY ARRIVES IN BERLIN. 89
27th Aug. 1780.
tached), "the King dreadfully ill-treated Wilhelmina in
"bed" (not in bed at all); "whole Castle (Schloss or Palace)
"was alarmed; Guard turned out," -- to clear away the
crowd, as we perceive. Not properly a crowd, such was not
permissible there: but a stagnation of the passers-by would
naturally ensue on that esplanade; till the Guard turned out,
and indicated with emphasis, "Move on! " Dickens bears
farther that "the Queen fares no better;" -- such is the state
of rumour in Berlin at present.
Poor Katte had a hard audience of it too. He fell
at Friedrich Wilhelm's feet; and was spurned and
caned; -- for the rest, beyond what was already evi-
dent, had little or nothing to confess: Intention of flight
and of accompanying in flight, very undeniable; al-
though preliminaries and ulterior conditions of said
flight not perfectly known to Katte; known only that
the thought of raising trouble in foreign Courts, or fhe
least vestige of treason against his Majesty, had not
entered even into their dreams. A name or two of per-
sons who had known, or guessed, of these operations,
is wrung from Katte; -- name of a Lieutenant Spaen,
for one; who, being on guard, had admitted Katte into
Potsdam once or twice in disguise: -- for him and for
the like of him, of whatever rank or whichever sex, let
arrests he made out, and the scent as with sleuth-
hounds be diligently followed on all sides; and Katte,
stript of his uniform, be locked up in the grimmest
manner. Berlin, with the rumour of these things, is a
much agitated city.
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? 90 SHIPWRECK OP DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book vir.
27th Aug. -5th Sept. 1730.
CHAPTEE Vm.
SEQUEL TO CROWN-PRINCE AND FRIENDS.
As for the Crown-Prince, prosecuting his circuitous
route, he arrives safe at Mittenwalde; is lodged in the
old Castle there, I think, for two nights (but the date,
in these indexless Books, is blown away again), in a
room bare of all things, with sentries at the door; and
looks out, expecting Grumkow and the Officials to make
assault on him. One of these Officials, a certain "Gerber,
Fiscal General," who, as head of Prussian Fiscals (kind
of Public Prosecutor, or supreme Essence of Bailiffs,
Catchpoles and Grand-Juries all in one), wears a red
cloak, -- gave the Prince a dreadful start. Red cloak
is the Berlin Hangman's or Headsman's dress; and poor
Friedrich had the idea his end had summarily come in
this manner. Soon seeing it was otherwise, his spirits
recovered, perhaps rose by the shock.
He fronted Grumkow and the Officials, with a high,
almost contemptuous look; answered promptly, -- if
possible, without lying, and yet without telling any-
thing; -- showed self-possession, pride; retorted some-
times, "Have you nothing more to ask? " Grumkow
finding there was no way made into anything, not even
into the secret of the Writing-case and the Royal Women's
operations there, began at last, as Wilhelmina says, to
hint, That in his Majesty's service there were means of
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? CHAP. Tin. J SEQUEL TO CEOWN' PRINCE AND FRIENDS. 91
5th Sept. 1730.
bringing out the truth in spite of refractory humours;
that there was a thing called the rack, not yet abolished
in his Prussian Majesty's dominions! Friedrich owned
afterwards, his blood ran cold. However, he put on a
high look: "A Hangman, such as you, naturally takes
"pleasure in talking of his tools and his trade; but on
"me they will not produce any effect. I have owned
"everything; -- and almost regret to have done so. For
"it is not my part to stand questionings and bandy re-
sponses with a coquin comme vous, scoundrel like you,"
reports Wilhelmina,* though we hope the actual term
was slightly less candid! -- Grumkow gathered his
Notes together; and went his ways, with the man in
red cloak and the rest; thus finishing the scene in Mit-
tenwalde. Mittenwalde, which we used to know long
since, in our Wusterhausen rides with poor Duhan;
little thinking what awaited us there one day!
Mittenwalde being finished, Friedrich, on Monday,
5th September 1730, is sent forward to Ciistrin, a strong
little Town in a quiet Country, some sixty or seventy
miles eastward of Berlin. On the evening of the 5th he
finds himself lodged in a strong room of the Fortress
there, -- room consisting of bare walls lighted from far
up; no furniture, not even the needfullest; everything
indicating that the proud spirit and the iron laws shall
here have their duel out at leisure, and see which is
stronger.
His sword was taken from him at Wesel; sword,
uniform, every mark of dignity, all are now gone: he
? i. 280.
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? 92 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book TO.
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
is clad in brown prison dress of the plainest cut and
cloth; his diet is fixed at tenpence a-day ("to be got
from the cook's shop, six groschen for dinner, four for
supper");* food to be cut for him, no knife allowed. Room is to be opened, morning, noon and evening, "on
the average not above four minutes each time;" lights,
or single tallow light, to be extinguished at seven p. m.
Absolute solitude; no flute allowed, far from it; no
Books allowed, except the Bible and a Prayer-Book,--
or perhaps Noltenius's Manual, if he took a hankering
for it. There, shut out from the babble of fools, and
conversing only with the dumb Veracities, with the
huge inarticulate moanings of Destiny, Necessity and
Eternity, let the fool of a Fritz bethink himself, if there
is any thought in him! There, among the Bogs of the
Oder, the very sedges getting brown all round him, and
the very curlews flying off for happier climes, let him
wait, till the question of his doom, rather an abstruse
question, ripen in the royal breast.
As for Wilhelmina, she is close prisoner in her
apartments in the Berlin Palace, sentries pacing at
every outlet, for many months to come. Wilhelmina
almost rather likes it, such a dog of an existence has
she had hitherto, for want of being well let alone. She
plays, reads; composes music; smuggles letters to and
from Mamma, -- one in pencil, from my Brother even,
0 Heavens! Wilhelmina weeps, now and then, with
her good Sonsfeld; hopes nevertheless there will be
? Order, 14th September 1730 (in Forster, 1. 372).
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? CHAP, vm. ] SEQUEL TO CROWN-PRINCE AND FRIENDS. 93
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
some dawn to this ragnarok, or general "twilight of the
gods. " Friedrich Wilhelm, convinced that England has
had a hand in this treason, signifies officially to his Ex-
cellency Captain Dickens, That the English negotiations
are concluded; that neither in the way of Single-Mar-
riage nor of Double-Marriage will he have anything
more to do with England. "Well," answers England,
"who can help it? Negotiation was not quite of our
seeking. Let it so end! "* -- Nay at dinner one
day (Seckendorf reports, while Fritz was on the road
to Custrin) he proposes the toast, "Downfall of Eng-
land! "** and would have had the Queen drink it; who
naturally wept, but I conjecture could not be made to
drink. Her Majesty is a weeping, almost broken-hearted
woman; his Majesty a raging, almost broken-hearted
man.
Seckendorf and Grumkow are, as it were, too
victorious; and now have their apprehensions on that
latter score. But they look on with countenances well
veiled, and touch the helm judiciously in Tobacco-
Parliament, intent on the nearest harbour of refuge.
Her Majesty nevertheless steadily persists; merely
sinks deeper out of sight with her English schemes;
ducking till the wave go by. Messages, desperate
appeals still go, through Mamsell Biilow, Wilhelmina's
Hofdame, and other channels; nay Wilhelmina thinks
there were still intentions on the part of England, and
that the nonfulfilment of them at the last moment
* Dickens's Despatch, 25th September 1730; and Harrington's Answer
to it, of 6th October: Seckendorf (in Fb'rster; ill. *), 23d September.
? * Seckendorf (in Fb'rster, iii. 11).
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? 94 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book VII.
5thSept. -25th Oct. 1730.
turned on accident; English "Courier arrived some
hours too late," thinks Wilhelmina. * But that is a
mistake. The negotiation, in spite of her Majesty's
endeavours, was essentially out; England, after such a
message, could not, nor did, stir farther in the matter.
In that Writing-case his Majesty found what we
know; nothing hut mysterious effects of female art, and
no light whatever. It is a great source of wrath and
of sorrow to him, that neither in the Writing-case, nor
in Katte's or the Prince's so called "Confessions," can
the thing be seen into. A deeper bottom it must have,
thinks his Majesty, but knows not what or where. To
overturn the Country, belike; and fling the Kaiser, and
European Balance of Power, bottom uppermost? Me
they presumably meant to poison! he tells Seckendorf
one day. ** Was ever Father more careful for his
children, soul and body? Anxious, to excess, to bring
them up in orthodox nurture and admonition: and this
is how they reward me, Herr Feldzeugmeister! "Had
"he honestly confessed, and told me the whole truth,
"at Wesel, I would have made it up with him quietly
"there. But now it must go its lengths; and the whole
"world shall be judge between us. " ***
His Majesty is in a flaming height. He arrests,
punishes and banishes, where there is trace of coopera-
tion or connexion with Deserter Fritz and his schemes.
* Wilhelmina (i. 369, 384), and Preuss and others after her.
Dickens, Despatch, 16th September 1730.
*** Seckendorf (Fb'rster, ubi supra), 23d September.
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? CHAP. VHI. ] SEQUEL TO CROWN-PEINCE AND FRIENDS. 95
Sth Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
The Biilows, brother and sister, brother in the King's
service, sister in Wilhelmina's, respectable goldstick
people, originally of Hanover, are hurled out to Li-
thuania and the world's end: let them live in Memel,
and repent as they can. Minister Knyphausen, always
of English tendencies, he, with his Wife, -- to whom
it is specially hard, while General Schwerin, gallant
witty Kurt, once of Mecklenburg, stays behind, -- is
ordered to disappear, and follow his private rural busi-
ness far off; no minister, ever more. The Lieutenant
Spaen of the Giant Regiment, who kept false watch,
and did not tell of Katte, gets cashiering and a year
in Spandau. He wandered elsewhither, and came to
something afterwards, poor Spaen. * Bookseller Hanau
with this bad Fritz's Books: To Memel with him also;
let him deal in more orthodox kinds of Literature
there.
It is dangerous to have lent the Crown-Prince
money, contrary to the Royal Edict: lucky if loss of
your money will settle the account. Witness French
Montholieu, for one; Count, or whatever he styled
himself: nailed to the gallows (in effigy) after he had
fled. It is dangerous to have spoken kindly to the
Crown-Prince, or almost to have been spoken to by
him. Doris Ritter, a comely enough good girl, nothing
of a beauty, but given to music, Potsdam Cantor's
(Precentor's) daughter, has chanced to be standing in
the door, perhaps to be singing within doors, once or
twice, when the Prince passed that way: Prince inquired
? Preusa, i. 63, 66.
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? 96 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT. [bOOK VTt.
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
about her music, gave her music, spoke a civility, as
young men will, -- nothing more, upon my honour;
though his Majesty believes there was much more; and
condemns poor Doris to be whipt by the Beadle, and
beat hemp for three years. Rhadamanthus is a strict
judge, your Majesty; and might be a trifle better in-
formed! -- Poor Doris got out of this sad pickle, on
her own strength; and wedded, and did well enough,
-- Prince and King happily leaving her alone thence-
forth. Voltaire, twenty years after, had the pleasure
of seeing her at Berlin: "Wife of one Shommers, Clerk
"of the Hackney-Coach Office," -- read, Schomer,
Farmer of the Berlin Hackney-Coach Enterprise in
general; decidedly a poor man. Wife, by this time,
was grown hard enough of feature: "tall, lean; looked
"like a Sibyl; not the least appearance how she could
"ever have deserved to be whipt for a Prince. " *
The excellent Tutor of the Crown-Prince, good
Duhan de Jandun, for what fault or complicity we know not, is hurled off to Memel; ordered to live
there, -- on what resources is equally unknown. Ap-
parently his fault was the general one, of having mis- educated the Prince, and introduced these French Lite-
ratures, foreign poisonous elements of thought and
practice into the mind of his Pupil, which have ruined
the young man. For his Majesty perceives that there
lies the source of it; that only total perversion of the
heart and judgment, first of all, can have brought about
* Voltaire, (Euvres (calumnious Vie Privee du Roi de Prusse), ii. 51, 52.
Preuss, i. 64, 66.
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? CHAP, vm. ] SEQUEL TO CROWN-PRINCE AND FRIENDS. 97
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
these dreadful issues of conduct. And indeed his Ma-
jesty understands, on credible information, that Deserter
Fritz entertains very heterodox opinions; opinion on
Predestination, for one; -- which is itself calculated to
be the very mother of mischief, in a young mind in-
clined to evil. The heresy about Predestination, or
the "Freie Gnadenwahl (Election by Free Grace)," as
his Majesty terms it, according to which a man is pre-
appointed from all Eternity either to salvation or the
opposite (which is Fritz's notion, and indeed is Calvin's,
and that of many benighted creatures, this Editor
among them), appears to his Majesty an altogether
shocking one; nor would the whole Synod of Dort, or
Calvin, or St. Augustine in person, aided by a Thirty-
Editor power, reconcile his Majesty's practical judgment
to such a tenet. What! May not Deserter Fritz say
to himself, even now, or in whatever other deeps of
sin he may fall into, "I was foredoomed to it: how
could I, or how can I, help it? " The mind of his
Majesty shudders, as if looking over the edge of an
abyss. He is meditating much whether nothing can
be done to save the lost Fritz, at least the soul of
him, from this horrible delusion; -- hurls forth your
fine Duhan, with his metaphysics, to remote Memel, as
the first step. And signifies withal, though as yet only
historically and in a speculative way, to Finckenstein
and Kalkstein themselves, That their method of train-
ing up a young soul, to do God's will, and accomplish
useful work in this world, does by no means appear to Carlyle, Frederic the Great. IV. 7
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? 98 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book to.
5th Scpt. -25th Oct. 1730.
the royal mind an admirable one! * Finckenstein and
Kalkstein were always covertly rather of the Queen's
party, and now stand reprimanded and in marked dis-
favour.
That the treasonous mystery of this Crown-Prince
(parricidal, it is likely, and tending to upset the Uni-
verse) must be investigated to the very bottom, and be
condignly punished, probably with death, his Majesty
perceives too well; and also what terrible difficulties,
formal and essential, there will be. But whatever be-
come of his perishable life, ought not, if possible, the soul of him to be saved from the claws of Satan?
"Claws of Satan;" "brand from the burning;" "for
"Christ our Saviour's sake;" "in the name of the most
"merciful God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Amen:"
-- so Friedrich Wilhelm phrases it, in those confused
old documents and Cabinet-Letters of his;** which
awaken a strange feeling in the attentive reader; and
show us the ruggedest of human creatures melted into
blubbering tenderness, and growling huskily something
which we perceive is real prayer. Here has a business
fallen out, such as seldom occurred before! --
* His Letter to them (3d December 1780), in Fb'rster, 11. 382.
? * FBrater, L 374, 379, Ac.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, ix. ] COURT-MARTIAL ON CROWN-PRINCE.
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
CHAPTER IX.
COURT-MARTIAL ON CROWN-PRINCE AND CONSORTS.
The rumour of these things naturally fills all minds,
and occupies all human tongues, in Berlin and Prussia,
though an Edict threatens, That the tongues shall be
cut out which speak of them in any way; * and sounds
far and wide into foreign Courts and Countries, where
there is no such Edict. Friedrich Wilhelm's conduct,
looked at from without, appears that of a hideous royal
ogre, or blind anthropophagous Polyphemus fallen
mad. Looked at from within, where the Polyphemus
has his reasons, and a kind of inner rushlight to en-
lighten his path; and is not bent on man-eating, but on
discipline in spite of difficulties, -- it is a wild enough
piece of humanity, not so much ludicrous as tragical.
Never was a royal bear so led about before by a pair
of conjuring pipers in the market, or brought to such a
pass in his dancing for them!
"General Ginkel, the Dutch Ambassador here," writes
"Dickens, "told me of an interview he had with the King;"
being ordered, by their High Mightinesses, to solicit his
Majesty in this matter. King "harbours 'most monstrous
"'wicked designs, not fit to be spoken of in words,' reports
Ginkel. "'It is certain,' added he, 'if the King of Prussia
? Dickens, of 7th November, 1730.
7*
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? 100 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE MARRIAGE PROJECT, [book vn.
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
"' continue in the mind he is in at present, we shall see scenes
"'here as wicked and bloody as any that were ever heard of
"'since the creation of the world. ' 'Will sacrifice his whole
"'family,' not the Crown-Prince alone; 'everybody except
"'Grumkow being, as he fancies, in conspiracy against him. '
Poor enchanted King! -- " 'And all these things he said with
"'such imprecations and disordered looks, foaming at the
"'mouth all the while, as it was terrible either to see or hear. '"
That is Ginkel's report, as Dickens conveys it. * Another
time, on new order, a month later, when Ginkel went again to
speak a word for the poor Prisoner, he found his Majesty
clothed not in delirious thunder, but in sorrowful thick fog;
Ginkel "was the less able to judge what the King of Prussia
"meant to do with his Son, as it was evident the King himself
"did not know. "**
Poor Friedrich Wilhelm, through these months,
wanders about, shifting from room to room, in the
night-time, like a man possessed by evil fiends; "orders
his carriage for Wusterhausen at two in the morning,"
but finds he is no better there, and returns; drinks a
great deal, "has not gone to bed sober for a month
past. "*** One night he comes gliding like a perturbed
ghost, about midnight, with his candle in his hand,
into the Queen's apartment; says, wildly staring, "He
thinks there is something haunting him:"-- 0 Feekin,
erring disobedient Wife, wilt not thou protect me, after
all? Whither can I fly when haunted, except to thee?
Feekin, like a prudent woman, makes no criticism;
* Despatch, 7th September 1730. ? * lb. 10th October.
? ** lb. 19th December 1730.
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? CHAP. ES. ] COURT-MARTIAL ON CROWN-PRINCE. 101
5th Sept. -25th Oct. 1730.
orders that his Majesty's bed be made up in her apart-
ment till these phenomena cease. * A much-agitated
royal Father.
The question what is to be done with this unhappy
Crown-Prince, a Deserter from the Army, a rebel
against the paternal Majesty, and a believer in the
doctrine of Election by Free Grace, or that a man's
good or ill conduct is foredoomed upon him by decree
of God, -- becomes more intricate the longer one
thinks of it.
