No More Learning

was in the death-car along with Katte; and he had
adjoined to himself one Besserer, the Chaplain of the
Garrison, in this sad function, since arriving. Here is
a glimpse from Besserer, which we may take as better
than nothing:
"His (Katte's) eyes were mostly directed to God; and we
"(Miiller and I), on our part, strove to hold his heart up
"heavenwards, by presenting the examples of those who had
"died in the Lord,-- as of God's Son himself, and Stephen,
"and the Thief on the Cross, --till, under such discoursing,
"we approached the Castle. Here, after long wistful looking
"about, he did get sight of his beloved Jonathan," Royal Highness the Crown-Prince, "at a window in the Castle;
"from whom he, with the politest and most tender expres-
sion, spoken in French, took leave, with no little emotion
"of sorrow. "*
President Munchow and the Commandant were with
the Prince; whose emotions one may fancy, but not
describe. Seldom did any Prince or man stand in such
a predicament. Vain to say, and again say: "In the
"name of God, I ask you, stop the execution till I
"write to the King! " Impossible that; as easily stop
the course of the stars. And so here Katte comes;
cheerful loyalty still beaming on his face, death now
nigh. "Pardonnez-moi, mon cher Katte! " cried Friedrich
in a tone: Pardon me, dear Katte; 0, that this should
be what I have done for you! -- "Death is sweet for
* Letter to Katte's Father (Extract, In Preuss: Friedrich mit Freunden
vnd Verwandtcn, p. 7).
? ? 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
? 112 SHIPWRECK OF DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT. [BOOK vn.
6th Nov. 1730.
a Prince I love so well," said Katte, "La mort est
douce pour un si aimable Prince;"* and fared on, --
round some angle of the Fortress, it appears; not in
sight of Friedrich; who sank into a faint, and had seen
his last glimpse of Katte in this world.
The body lay all day upon the scaffold, by royal
order; and was buried at night obscurely in the com-
mon churchyard; friends, in silence, took mark of the
place against better times, -- and Katte's dust now
lies elsewhere, among that of his own kindred.
"Never was such a transaction before or since, in
Modern History," cries the angry reader: "cruel, like
the grinding of human hearts under millstones, like --"
Or indeed like the doings of the gods, which are cruel,
though not that alone? This is what, after much sort-
ing and sifting, I could get to know about the definite
facts of it. Commentary, not likely to be very final at
this epoch, the reader himself shall supply at dis-
cretion.
* Wilhelmina, i. 307; Preuss, i. 45.
? ? 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
? book vm.
CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED: LIFE AT CtJSTRIN.
November 1730 -- February 1732.
Carlfle, Frederic the Great. IV.
8
? ? 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
? 1
? ? 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
? 6th-19th Nov. 1730.
CHAPTER L
CHAPLAIN MUIXER WAITS ON TOE CROWN-PRINCE.
Friedrich's feelings at this juncture are not made
known to us by himself in the least; or credibly by
others in any considerable degree. As indeed in these
confused Prussian History-Books, opulent in nugatory
pedantisms and learned marine-stores, all that is human
remains distressingly obscure to us; so seldom, and then
only as through endless clouds of ever-whirling idle
dust, can we catch the smallest direct feature of the
young man, and of his real demeanour or meaning, on
the present or other occasions! But it is evident this
last phenomenon fell upon him like an overwhelming
cataract; crushed him down under the immensity of
sorrow, confusion, and despair; his own death not a
theory now, but probably a near fact, -- a welcome
one in wild moments, and then anon so unwelcome.
Frustrate, bankrupt, chargeable with a friend's lost life,
sure enough he, for one, is: what is to become of him?
Whither is he to turn, thoroughly beaten, foiled in all
his enterprises? Proud young soul as he was: the
ruling Powers, be they just, be they unjust, have
proved too hard for him! We hear of tragic vestiges
still traceable of Friedrich, belonging to this time:
texts of Scripture quoted by him, pencil-sketches of
8>>
? ? 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
? 116 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [bOOK vm.
6th-19th Not. 1730.
his drawing; expressive of a mind dwelling in Golgo-
thas, and pathetically, not defiantly, contemplating the
very worst.
Chaplain Miiller of the Gens-d'Armes, being found
a pious and intelligent man, has his orders not to
return at once from Ciistrin; but to stay there, and
deal with the Prince, on that horrible Predestination
topic and his other unexampled backslidings, which
have ended so. Miiller staid accordingly, for a couple
of weeks; intensely busy on the Predestination topic,
and generally in assuaging, and mutually mollifying,
paternal Majesty and afflicted Son. In all which he
had good success; and especially on the Predestination
point, was triumphantly successful. Miiller left a little
Book in record of his procedures there; which, had it
not been bound-over to the official tone, might have
told us something. His Correspondence with the King,
during those two weeks, has likewise been mostly
printed;* and is of course still more official, -- teach-
ing us next to nothing, except poor Friedrich Wilhelm's
profoundly devotional mood, anxieties about "the claws
of Satan" and the like, which we were glad to hear of
above. In Miiller otherwise is small help for us.
But, fifty years afterwards, there was alive a Son
of this Miiller's; an innocent Country Parson, not want-
ing in sense, and with much simplicity and veracity;
who was fished-out by Nicolai, and set to recalling
what his Father used to say of this adventure, much
? Fb'reter, i. 876-379.
? ? 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. I. ] CHAPLAIN MtjLLER Waits OJ< tiu prtvoi! . 117
6th-19th Nov. 1730.
the grandest of his life. In Miiller Junior's Letter of
Reminiscences to Nicolai we find some details, got
from his Father, which are worth gleaning:
"When my Father first attempted, by royal order, to bring
"the Crown-Prince to acknowledgment and repentance of the
"fault committed, Crown-Prince gave this excuse or explana-
tion: 'As his Father could not endure the sight of him, he
'"had meant to get out of the way of his displeasure, and go to
"'a Court with which his Father was in friendship and re-
"' lationship,"' -- clearly indicating England, think the Miil-
lers Junior and Senior.
"For proof that the intention was towards England this
"other circumstance serves, That the one confidant -- Herr
"vonKeith, if I mistake not" (no, you don't mistake), "had
"already bespoken a ship for passage out. " --- Here is some-
thing still more unexpected:
"My Father used to say, he found an excellent knowledge
"and conviction of the truths of religion in the Crown-Prince.
"By the Prince's arrangement, my Father, who at first lodged
"with the Commandant, had to take up his quarters in the
"room right above the Prince; who daily, often as early as
"six in the morning, rapped on the ceiling for him to come
"down; and then they would dispute and discuss, sometimes
"half-days long, about the different tenets of the Christian
"Sects; -- and my Father said, the Prince was perfectly at
"home in the Polemic Doctrines of the Reformed (Calvinistic)
"Church, even to the minutest points. As my Father brought
"him proofs from Scripture, the Prince asked him one time,
"How he could keep chapter and verse so exactly in hisme-
"mory? Father drew from his pocket a little Hand-Con-
"cordance, and showed it him, as one help. This he had to
"leave with the Prince for some days. On getting it back,
? ? 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
? 118 CKUWJS-PKUSiCE RETRIEVED. [bOOK VIII.
6th-19th Nov. 1730.
"he found inside on the fly-leaf, sketched in pencil," --
what is rather notable to History, -- "the figure of a man
"on his knees, with two swords hanging cross-wise over his
"head; and at the bottom these words of Psalm Seventy-
"third (verses 25,26), Wlwm have I in Heaven but thee? And
"there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh
"andmy heart fainteth and faileth; but God isthe strength of my
"heart and my portion forever. " -- PoorFriedrich, this is a very
unexpected pencil-sketch on his part; but an undeniable one;
betokening abstruse night-thoughts and forebodings, in the
presentjuncture! --
"Whoever considers this fine knowledge of religion, and
"reflects on the peculiar character and genius of the young
"Herr, which was ever struggling towards light and clearness
"(for at that time he had not become indifferent to religion,
"he often prayed with my Father on his knees), -- will find
"that it was morally impossible this young Prince could have
"thought" (as some foolish persons have asserted) "ofthrow-
"ing himself into the arms of Papal Superstition," (seeking
help at Vienna, marrying an Austrian Archduchess, and I
know not what,) "or allow the intrigues of Catholic Priests
"to " -- Oh no, Herr Miiller, nobody but very foolish persons
could imagine such a thing of this young Herr.
"When my Father, Herr von Katte's execution being
"ended, hastened to the Crown-Prince; he finds him miser-
"ably ill (sehr alterirt); advises him to take a cooling-powder
"in water, both which materials were ready on the table.
"This he presses on him: but the Prince always shakes his
"head. " Suspects poison, you think? "Hereupon my Father
"takes from his pocket a paper, in which he carried cooling-
"powder for his own use; shakes out a portion of it into his
"hand, and so into his mouth; and now the Crown-Prince
"grips at my Father's powder, and takes that. " Privately to
? ? 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. I. ] CHAPLAIN MtlLLEB WAITS ON THE PRINCE. 119
6th-19th Nov. 1730.
be made away with; death resolved upon in some way! thinks
the desperate young man? *
That scene of Katte's execution, and of the Prince's
and other people's position in regard to it, has never
yet been humanly set forth, otherwise the response had
been different. Not humanly set forth, -- and so was
only barked at, as by the infinitude of little dogs, in
all countries; and could never yet be responded to in
austere vox humana, deep as a De Profundis, terrible
as a Chorus of ^Eschylus, -- for in effect that is rather
the character of it, had the barking once pleased to
cease.
"King of Prussia cannot sleep," writes Dickens:
"the officers sit up with him every night, and in his
"slumbers he raves and talks of spirits and appari-
tions. "** We saw him, ghost-like, in the night time,
gliding about, seeking shelter with Feekin against
ghosts; Ginkel by daylight saw him, now clad in
thunderous tornado, and anon in sorrowful fog. Here, farther on, is a new item, -- and, joined to it and the
others, a remarkable old one:
"In regard to Wilhelmina's marriage, and whether
"a Father cannot give his Daughter in wedlock to
"whom he pleases, there have been eight Divines con-
sulted, four Lutheran, four Reformed (Calvinist); who,
"all but one" (he of the Garrison Church, a rhadaman-
thine fellow in serge), have answered, 'No, your Ma-
? Nicolai: Anekdoten, vi. 183-189. <<* Despatch, 3d October 1730.
? ? 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
? 120 CECWU-PEINCE RETEIEVED. [book vm.
6th-19th Nov. 1730.
jesty! ' "It is remarkable that his Majesty has not
"gone to bed sober, for this month past. "*
What Seckendorf and Grumkow thought of all
these phenomena? They have done their job too well.
They are all for mercy; lean with their whole weight
that way, -- in black qualms, one of them withal,
thinking tremulously to himself, "What if his now
Majesty were to die upon us, in the interim! "
* Dickens, 9th and 19th December 1730.
? ? 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, n. ] PRINCE TO REPENT AND NOT PERISH. 121
6th-19th Nov. 1730.
CHAPTER n.
CROWN-PRINCE TO REPENT AND NOT PERISH.
In regard to Friedrich, the Court-Martial needs no
amendment from the King; the sentence on Friedrich,
a Lieutenant-Colonel guilty of desertion, is, from Pre-
sident and all members except two, Death as by law.
The two who dissented, invoking royal clemency and
pardon, were Major-Generals by rank, -- Schwerin, as
some write, one of them, or if not Schwerin, then
Linger; and for certain, Donhof,-- two worthy gentle-
men not known to any of my readers, nor to me, ex-
cept as names. The rest are all coldly of opinion that
the military code says Death. Other codes and con-
siderations may say this and that, which it is not in
their province to touch upon; this is what the military
code says: and they leave it there.
The Junius Brutus of a Royal Majesty had an-
swered in his own heart grimly, Well then! But his
Councillors, Old Dessauer, Grumkow, Seckendorf, one
and all interpose vehemently. "Prince of the Empire,
your Majesty, not a Lieutenant-Colonel only! Must not,
cannot;" -- nay good old Buddenbrock, in the fire of
still unsuccessful pleading, tore open his waistcoat: "If
"your Majesty requires blood, take mine; that other
"you shall never get, so long as I can speak! " Foreign
Courts interpose; Sweden, the Dutch; the English in a
? ?
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
? 122 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [bOOK vm.
6th-19th Nov. 1730.
circuitous way, round by Vienna to wit; finally the
Kaiser himself sends an Autograph;* for poor Queen
Sophie has applied even to Seckendorf, will be friends
with Grumkow himself, and in her despair is knocking
at every door. Junius Brutus is said to have had
paternal affections withal. Friedrich Wilhelm, alone
against the whispers of his own heart and the voices of
all men, yields at last in this cause. To Seckendorf,
who has chalked out a milder didactic plan of treat-
ment, still rigorous enough,** he at last admits that
such plan is perhaps good; that the Kaiser's Letter has
turned the scale with him; and the didactic method,
not the beheading one, shall be tried. That Donhof
and Schwerin, with their talk of mercy, with "their
eyes upon the Rising Sun," as is evident, have done
themselves no good, and shall perhaps find it so one
day. But that, at any rate, Friedrich's life is spared;
Katte's execution shall suffice in that kind. Repentance,
prostrate submission and amendment, -- these may do
yet more for the prodigal, if he will in heart return.
These points, sometime before the 8th of November,
we find to be as good as settled.
The unhappy prodigal is in no condition to resist
farther. Chaplain Muller had introduced himself with
Katte's dying admonition to the Crown-Prince to repent
and submit. Chaplain Muller, with his wholesome
cooling-powders, with his ghostly counsels, and consi-
? Date, 11th October 1730 (Forster, i. 880).
** His Letter to the King, 1st November 1730 (in Forster, i. 37S, 376).
? ? 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. II. J PRINCE TO REPENT AND NOT PERISH. 123
6th-I9th Nov. 1730.
derations of temporal and eternal nature, -- we saw
how he prospered almost beyond hope. Even on
Predestination, and the real nature of Election by Free
Grace, all is coming right, or come, reports Miiller.
The Chaplain's Reports, Friedrich Wilhelm's grimly
mollified Responses on the same: they are written, and
in confused form have been printed; but shall be spared
the English reader.
And Grumkow has been out at Ciistrin, preaching
to the same purport from other texts: Grumkow, with
the thought ever present to him, "What if Friedrich
Wilhelm should die? " is naturally an eloquent preacher.
Enough, it has been settled (perhaps before the day of
Katte's death, or at the latest three days after it, as we
can see), That if the Prince will, and can with free
conscience, take an Oath ("no mental reservation,"
mark you! ) of contrite repentance, of perfect prostrate
submission, and purpose of future entire obedience and
conformity to the paternal mind in all things, "Gnaden-
wahl" included, -- the paternal mind may possibly
relax his durance a little, and put him gradually on
proof again. *
Towards which issue, as Chaplain Miiller reports,
the Crown-Prince is visibly gravitating, with all his
weight and will. The very Gnadenwahl is settled; the
young soul (truly a lover of Truth, your Majesty) taps
on his ceiling, my floor being overhead, before the
winter sun rises, as a signal that I must come down to
him; -- so eager to have error and darkness purged
* King's Letter to Mflller, 8th November (Fb'rster, i. 379).
? ? 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
? 124 CROWN-PRESCE RETRIEVED. [book VIH.
19th Nov. 1730.
away. Believes himself, as I believe him, ready to
undertake that Oath; desires, however, to see it first,
that he may maturely study every clause of it. -- Say
you verily so? answers Majesty. And may my ursine
heart flow out again, and blubber gratefully over a
sinner saved, a poor Son plucked as brand from the
burning? "God, the Most High, give his blessing on
"it, then! " concludes the paternal Majesty: "And as
"He often, by wondrous guidances, strange paths and
"thorny steps, will bring men into the Kingdom of
"Christ, so may our Divine Redeemer help that this
"prodigal son be brought into His communion. That
"his godless heart be beaten till it is softened and
"changed; and so he be snatched from the claws of
"Satan. This grant us the Almighty God and Father,
"for our Lord Jesus Christ and His passion and death's
"sake! Amen! -- I am, for the rest, your well-affec-
"tioned King, Friedrich Wilhelm (Wusterhausen, 8th
"November 1730). "*
Crown-Prince begins a new Course.
It was Monday 6th November when poor Katte died. Within a fortnight, on the second Sunday after,
there has a Select Commission, Grumkow, Borck, Bud-
denbrock, with three other Soldiers, and the Privy
Councillor Thulmeyer, come out to Ciistrin: there and
then, Sunday, November 19th,** these Seven, with due
* Forster, i. 879.
** Nicolai, exactest of men, only tbat Documents were occasionally
? ? 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, n. ] PRINCE TO REPENT AND NOT PERISH. 125
19th Nov. 1730.
solemnity administer the Oath (terms of Oath concei-
vable by readers); Friedrich being found ready. He
signs the Oath, as well as audibly swears it: whereupon
his sword is restored to him, and his prison-door
opened. He steps forth to the Town Church with his
Commissioners; takes the sacrament; listens, with all
Custrin, to an allusive Sermon on the subject; "text
happily chosen, preacher handling it well. " Text was
Psalm Seventy-seventh, verse eleventh (tenth of our
English version), And I said, This is my infirmity; but
I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most
High; or, as Luther's version more intelligibly gives it,
This I have to suffer; the right hand of the Most High
can change all. Preacher (not Miiller but another) rose
gradually into didactic pathos; Prince, and all Custrin,
were weeping, or near weeping, at the close of the
business. *
Straight from Church the Prince is conducted, not
to the Fortress, but to a certain Town Mansion, which
he is to call his own henceforth, under conditions: an
erring Prince half-liberated, and mercifully put on proof
again. His first act here is to write, of his own com-
position, or helped by some official hand, this Letter to
his All-serenest Papa; which must be introduced,
though, except to readers of German who know the
"Dero" (Theiro), "Allerdurchlauchtigster" and strange
lees accessible In his time, gives (Anekdoten, vi. 187) "Saturday, Novem-
ber 25th," as the day of the Oath; but, no doubt, the later inquirers, Preuss
(i. 56) and others, have found him wrong in this small instance.
* Preuss, i. 56.
? ? 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
? 126 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [BOOK VIU.
19th Not. 1T30.
pipeclay solemnity of the Court-style, it is like to be
in great part lost in any translation:
"Ciistrin, 19th November 1730.
"All-serenest and All-graciousest Father, -- To your
"Royal Majesty, my All-graciousest Father, have," -- t. e.
"Ihave," if one durst write the "I," -- "by my disobedience
"as Theiro" (Youro) "subject and soldier, not less than by
"my undutifulness as Theiro Son, given occasion to a just
"wrath and aversion against me. With the All-obedientest
"respect I submit myself wholly to the grace of my most All-
"gracious Father; and beg him, Most All-graciously to pardon
"me; as it is not so much the withdrawal of my liberty in a
"sad arrest (malheureusen Arrest), as my own thoughts of
"the fault I have committed, that have brought me to reason:
"Who, with all obedientest respect and submission, continue
"till my end,
"My All-graciousest King's and Father's faithfully
obedientest "Servant and Son,
"FriedbicH. "*
This new House of Friedrich's, in the little Town of
Ciistrin, he finds arranged for him on rigorously thrifty
principles, yet as a real Household of his own; and
even in the form of a Court, with Hofmarschall, Kam-
merjunkers, and the other adjuncts; -- Court reduced
to its simplest expression, as the French say, and
probably the cheapest that was ever set up. Hof-
, marschall (Court-Marshal) is one Wolden, a civilian
Official here. The Kammerjunkers are Rohwedel and
? Preuas, 1. 56, 57; and Anonymous, Friedrichs des Grossen Briefe an
teinen Vater (Berlin, Posen nnd Bromberg, 1838), p. 3.
? ? 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. II. ] PRINCE TO REPENT AND NOT PERISH. 127
19th Nov. 1730.
Natzmer; Natzmer Junior, son of a distinguished Feld-
marschall: "a good-hearted, but foolish forward young
fellow," says Wilhelmina; "the failure of a coxcomb
(petit-maitre manque). '1'' For example, once, strolling
about in a solemn Kaiser's Soiree in Vienna, he found
in some quiet corner the young Duke of Lorraine,
Franz, who it is thought will be the divine Maria
Theresa's husband, and Kaiser himself one day. Fool-
ish Natzmer found this noble young gentleman in a
remote corner of the Soiree; went up, nothing loth, to
speak graciosities and insipidities to him: the noble
young gentleman yawned, as was too natural, a wide
long yawn; and in an insipid familiar manner, foolish
Natzmer (Wilhelmina and the Berlin circles know it)
put his finger into the noble young gentleman's mouth,
and insipidly wagged it there. "Sir, you seem to
forget where you are! " said the noble young gentleman;
and closing his mouth with emphasis, turned away; but
happily took no farther notice. * This is all we yet
know of the history of Natzmer, whose heedless ways
and slapdash speculations, tinted with natural ingenuity
and goodhumour, are not unattractive to the Prince.
Hofmarschall and these two Kammerjunkers are of
the lawyer species; men intended for Official Business,
in which the Prince himself is now to be occupied.
The Prince has four lackeys, two pages, one valet.
He "wears his sword, but has no sword-tash (porte-
epe'e)" much less an officer's uniform: a mere Prince
put upon his good behaviour again; not yet a soldier
? Wilhelmina, i. 310.
? ? 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
? 128 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book vm.
19th Nov. 1730.
of the Prussian Army, only hoping to become so again.
He wears a light-gray dress, "hecht-grauer (pike-gray)
frock with narrow silver cordings;" and must recover
his uniform, by proving himself gradually a new man.
For there is, along with the new household, a new
employment laid out for him in Ciistrin; and it shall be
seen what figure he makes in that, first of all. He is
to sit in the Domanen-Kammer or Government Board
here, as youngest Rath; no other career permitted. Let
him learn Economics and the way of managing Domain
Lands (a very principal item of the royal revenues in
this Country): humble work, but useful; which he had
better see well how he will do. Two elder Raths are
appointed to instruct him in the Economic Sciences and
Practices, if he show faculty and diligence; -- which in
fact he turns out to do, in a superior degree, having
every motive to try.
This kind of life lasted with him for the next fifteen
months, all through the year 1731 and farther; and
must have been a very singular, and was probably a
highly instructive year to him, not in the Domain Sci-
ences alone. He is left wholly to himself. All his fellow-
creatures, as it were, are watching him. Hundred-eyed
Argus, or the Ear of Dionysius, that is to say, Tobacco-
Parliament with its spies and reporters, -- no stirring of his finger can escape it here. He has much suspicion
to encounter; Papa looking always sadly askance, sadly
incredulous, upon him. He is in correspondence with
Grumkow; takes much advice from Grumkow (our
? ? 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. II. ] PRINCE TO REPENT AND NOT PERISH. 129
19th Nov. 1730.
prompter-general, president in the Dionysius'-Ear, and
not an ill-wisher farther); -- professes much thankful-
ness to Grumkow, now and henceforth. Thank you
for flinging me out of the six-story window, and catch-
ing me by the coatskirts! -- Left altogether to himself,
as we said; has in the whole Universe nothing that will
save him but his own good sense, his own power of
discovering what is what, and of doing what will be
behoveful therein.
He is to quit his French literatures and pernicious
practices, one and all. His very flute, most innocent
"Princess," as he used to call his flute in old days, is
denied him ever since he came to Ciistrin; -- but by
degrees he privately gets her back, and consorts much
with her; wails forth, in beautiful adagios, emotions for
which there is no other utterance at present. He has
liberty of Ciistrin and the neighbourhood; out of Ciistrin
he is not to lodge, any night, without leave had of the
Commandant . Let him walk warily; and in good
earnest study to become a new creature, useful for
something in the Domain Sciences and otherwise.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great, IV.
9
? ? 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
? 130
[book vin. Jan. 1731.
CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED.