At the appointed day he reap-
pears; the chest is ready; -- we hope, an unexception-
able article?
pears; the chest is ready; -- we hope, an unexception-
able article?
Thomas Carlyle
Indeed,
they are all portrayed; all the privates of this distin-
guished Regiment are, if anybody cared to look at
them. "Redivanoff from Moscow" seems of far better
* Forster: Uandbuch der Ceschichtc, Geographic uni Statislik des
Premsischen Reichs (Berlin, 1820), iv. 130, 132; -- not in a very lucid state.
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? 6 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [book v.
1723-1720.
bone than Kirkman, though still more stolid of aspect.
One Hohmann, a born Prussian, was so tall, you could
not, though yourself tall, touch his bare crown with
your hand; August the Strong of Poland tried, on one
occasion, and could not . Before Hohmann turned-up, there had been "Jonas the Norwegian Blacksmith,"
also a dreadfully tall monster. Giant "Macdoll," --
who was to be married, no consent asked on either side,
to the tall young woman, which latter tumed-out to be
a decrepit old woman (all Jest-Books know the myth),
-- he also was an Irish Giant, his name probably
M'Dowal. * This Hohmann was now Flugelmann ("fugle-
man" as we have named it, leader of the file), the
Tallest of the Regiment, a very mountain of pipeclayed
flesh and bone.
Here, in reference to one other of those poor
Giants, is an Anecdote from Fassmann (who is very
full on this subject of the Giants; abstruse Historical
Fassmann, often painfully cited by us): a most small
Anecdote, but then an indisputably certain one; --
which brings back to us, in a strange way, the
vanished Time and its populations; as the poorest
authentic wooden lucifer may do, kindling suddenly,
and peopling the void Night for moments, to the seeing
eye! --
Fassmann, a very dark German literary man, in obsolete
costume and garniture, how living or what doing we cannot
guess, found himself at Paris, gazing about, in the year 1713;
* Forstcr: Prevssens Helden im Krieij uni Fricden (Berlin, 1848), i. 531;
no date to the story, no evidence what grain of truth may be in it.
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? CHAP. v. ] CEOWN-PEINCE IN THE POTSDAM QDAEDS. 7
1728.
where, among other things, the Fair of St. Germain was
going on. Loud, large Fair of St. Germain, "which lasts
from Candlemas to the Monday before Easter;" and Fass-
mann one day took a walk of contemplation through the
same. Much noise, gesticulation, little meaning. Show-
booths, temporary theatres, merry-andrews, sleight-of-hand
men; and a vast public, drinking, dancing, gambling, flirting,
as its wont is. Nothing new for us there; new only that it all
lies five generations from us now. Did 'the Old Pretender,'
who was then in his expectant period, in this same village of
St. Germain, see it, too, as Fassmann did? And Louis XIV. ,
he is at Versailles; drooping fast, very dull to his Maintenon.
And our little Fritz in Berlin is a child in arms; -- and the
world is all awake as usual, while Fassmann strolls through
this noisy inanity of show-booths, in the year 1713.
Strolling along, Fassmann came upon a certain booth with
an enormous Picture hung aloft in front of it: "Picture of a
"very tall man, in heyduc livery, coat reaching to his ancles,
"in grand peruke, cap and big heron-plume, with these
"words, lLe Ge'ant Allemand (German Giant),' written under-
"neath. Partly from curiosity, partly for country's sake,"
Fassmann expended twopence; viewed the gigantic fellow-
creature; admits he had never seen one so tall; though "Bentenrieder, the Imperial Diplomatist," thought by some
to be the tallest of men, had come athwart him once. This
giant's name was Miiller; birthplace the neighbourhood of
Weissenfels; -- "a Saxon like myself. He had a small
"German Wife, not half his size. He made money readily,
"showing himself about, in France, England, Holland;" --
and Fassman went his way, thinking no more of the fellow. --
But now, continues Fassmann:
"Coming to Potsdam, thirteen years after, in the spring of
"1726, by his Majesty's order, to" -- in fact, to read the
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? 8 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [hook v.
1723-1726.
Newspapers to his Majesty, and be generally useful, chiefly
in the Tobacco-College, as we shall discover, -- "what was
"my surprise to find this same '? Giant Allemand' of St. Ger-
"main ranked among the King's Grenadiers! No doubt of
"the identity: I renewed acquaintance with the man; his
"little German Wife was dead; but he had got an English
"one instead, an uncommonly shifty creature. They had a
"neat little dwelling-house" (as most of the married giants
had), "near the Palace: here the Wife sold beer" (brandy
not permissible on any terms), "and lodged travellers;-- I
"myself have lodged there on occasion. In the course of
"some years, the man took swelling in the legs; good-for-
"nothing as a grenadier; and was like to fall heavy on
"society. But no, his little Wife snatched him up, easily
"getting his discharge; carried him over with her to England,
"where he again became a show-giant, and they were doing
"very well, when last heard of," -- in the Country-Wakes of
George II. 's early time. And that is the real Biography of
one Potsdam Giant, by a literary gentleman who had lodged
with him on occasion. *
The pay of these sublime Footguards is greatly
higher than common; they have distinguished privileges
and treatment: on the other hand, their discipline is
nonpareil, and discharge is never to be dreamt of, while
strength lasts. Poor Kirkman, does he sometimes think
of the Hill of Howth, and that he will never see it
more? Kirkman, I judge, is not given to thought; --
considers that he has tobacco here, and privileges and
perquisites; and that Howth, and Heaven itself, is in-
accessible to many a man.
* Fassmann, pp. 723-730.
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? CHAP, v. ] CKOWN PKiflCK IN THE POTSDAM GUARDS. 0
1728.
Friedrich Wilhelm's recruiting difficulties.
Tall men, not for this regiment only, had become
a necessary of life to Friedrich Wilhelm. Indispensable
to him almost as his daily bread. To his heart there
is no road so ready as that of presenting a tall man or
two. Friedrich Wilhelm's regiments are now, by his
exact new regulations, levied and recruited each in its
own Canton, or specific district: there all males as soon
as born are enrolled; liable to serve, when they have
grown to years and strength. All grown-men (under
certain exceptions, as of a widow's eldest son, or of the
like evidently ruinous cases) are liable to serve; Captain
of the Regiment and Amtmann of the Canton settle
between them which grown-man it shall be. Better for
you not to be tall! In fact, it is almost a kindness of
Heaven to be gifted with some safe impediment of
body, slightly crooked back or the like, if you much
dislike the career of honour under Friedrich Wilhelm.
A general shadow of unquiet apprehension we can well
fancy hanging over those rural populations, and much
unpleasant haggling now and then; -- nothing but the
King's justice that can be appealed to. King's justice,
very great indeed, but heavily checked by the King's
value for handsome soldiers.
Happily his value for industrial labourers and in-
crease of population is likewise great . Townsfolk,
skilful workmen as the theory supposes, are exempt;
the more ingenious classes, generally, his Majesty
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? 10 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE TROJECT STARTED. [book v.
1723-1726.
exempts in this respect, to encourage them in others.
For, on the whole, he is not less a Captain of Work,
to his Nation, than of other things. What he did for
Prussia in the way of industries, improvements, new
manufactures, new methods; in settling "colonies,"
tearing-up drowned bogs and subduing them into dry
cornfields; in building, draining, digging, and encoura-
ging or forcing others to do so, would take a long
chapter. He is the enemy of Chaos, not the friend of
it, wherever you meet with him.
For example, Potsdam itself. Potsdam, now a
pleasant, grassy, leafy place, branching-out extensively
in fine stone architecture, with swept pavements; where,
as in other places, the traveller finds land and water
separated into two firmaments, -- Friedrich Wilhelm
found much of it a quagmire, land and water still
weltering in one. In these very years, his cuttings,
embankments, buildings, pile-drivings there, are enor-
mous; and his perseverance needs to be invincible. For
instance, looking out, one morning after heavy rain,
upon some extensive anti-quagmire operations and
strong pile-drivings, he finds half-a-furlong of his latest
heavy piling clean gone. What in the world has be-
come of it? Pooh, the swollen lake has burst it top-
syturvy; and it floats yonder, bottom uppermost, a
half-furlong of distracted liquid-peat . Whereat his
Majesty gave a loud laugh, says Bielfeld,* and com-
menced anew. The piles now stand firm enough, like
* Baron de Bielfeld: Lettres Familieret (second edition, A LeUe. 1767),
1. 81.
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? CHAP. v. ] CROWN-PRINCE IN THE POTSDAM GUARDS. 11
1726.
the rest of the Earth's crust, and carry strong ashlar
houses and umbrageous trees for mankind-, and trivial
mankind can walk in clean pumps there, shuddering
or sniggering at Friedrich Wilhelm, as their humour
may be.
No danger of this "Canton-system" of recruitment
to the more ingenious classes, who could do better than
learn drill. Nor, to say truth, does the poor clayey
peasant suffer from it, according to his apprehensions.
Often perhaps, could he count profit and loss, he might
find himself a gainer: the career of honour turns out to
be, at least, a career of practical Stoicism and Spar-
tanism; useful to any peasant or to any prince. Clean-
liness, of person and even of mind; fixed rigour of
method, sobriety, frugality, these are virtues worth ac-
quiring. Sobriety in the matter of drink is much
attended-to here: his Majesty permits no distillation of
strong-waters in Potsdam, or within so many miles;*
nor is sale of such allowed, except in the most in-
tensely select manner. The soldier's pay is in the
highest degree exiguous; not above three half-pence a
day, for a common foot-soldier, in addition to what
rations he has: -- but it is found adequate to its pur-
pose, too; supports the soldier in sound health, vigor-
ously fit for his work; into which points his Majesty
looks with his own eyes, and will admit no dubiety.
Often, too, if not already oftenest (as it ultimately grew
to be), the peasant-soldier gets home for many months
of the year, a soldier-ploughman; and labours for his
* Fassmann, p. 728.
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? 12 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [book v.
1723-1726.
living in the old way. His Captain (it is one of the
Captain's perquisites, who is generally a veteran of
fifty, with a long Spartan training, before he gets so
high) pockets the pay of all these furloughs supernu-
merary to the real work of the regiment; -- and has
certain important furnishings to yield in return.
At any rate, enrolment, in time of peace, cannot
fall on many; three or four recruits in the year, to
replace vacancies, will carry the Canton through its
crisis. For we are to note withal, the third part of
every regiment can, and should by rule, consist of
"foreigners," -- men not born Prussians. These are
generally men levied in the Imperial Free-towns; in
"the Eeich" or Empire, as they term it; that is to say,
in the countries of Germany that are not Austrian or
Prussian. For this foreign third-part, too, the recruits
must be got; excuses not admissible for Captain or
Colonel; nothing but recruits of the due inches will do.
Captain and Colonel (supporting their enterprise on
frugal adequate "perquisites," hinted of above) have to
be on the outlook; vigilantly, eagerly; and must con-
trive to get them. Nay we can take supernumerary
recruits; and have in fact always on hand, attached to
each regiment, a stock of such. Any number of re-
cruits, that stand well on their legs, are welcome; and
for a tall man there is joy in Potsdam, almost as if he
were a wise man or a good man.
The consequence is, all countries, especially all
German countries, are infested with a new species of
predatory two-legged animals: Prussian recruiters. They
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? CHAP, v. ] CROWN-PRINCE IN THE POTSDAM GDARDS. 13
1726.
glide about, under disguise if necessary; lynx-eyed, eager
almost as the Jesuit hounds are; not hunting the souls
of men, as the spiritual Jesuits do, but their bodies in
in a merciless carnivorous manner. Better not to be
too tall, in any country, at present! Irish Kirkman
could not be protected by the aegis of the British Con-
stitution itself. In general, however, the Prussian
recruiter, on British ground, reports, That the people
are too well off, that there is little to be done in those
parts. A tall British sailor, if we pick him up strolling
about Memel or the Baltic ports, is inexorably claimed
by the Diplomatists; no business doable till after resto-
ration of him; and he proves a mere loss to us. *
Germany, Holland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, these
are the fruitful fields for us, and there we do hunt
with some vigour.
For example, in the town of Jiilich there lived and
worked a tall young carpenter: one day a well-dressed
positive-looking gentleman ("Baron von Hompesch," the
records name him) enters the shop; wants "a stout
chest, with lock on it, for household purposes; must be
of such and such dimensions, six feet six in length
especially, and that is an indispensable point, -- in
fact it will be longer than yourself, I think, Herr Zim-
mermann: what is the cost; when can it be ready? "
Cost, time, and the rest are settled. "A right stout
chest, then; and see you don't forget the size; if too
short, it will be of no use to me: mind! " -- "<</a wohl!
Gewiss! " And the positive-looking, well-clad gentle-
* Despatches in the State-Paper Office.
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? 14 DOUBLE-MAKRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [book v.
1723-1726.
man goes his ways.
At the appointed day he reap-
pears; the chest is ready; -- we hope, an unexception-
able article? "Too short, as I dreaded! " says the
positive gentleman. "Nay, your Honour," says the
carpenter, "I am certain it is six feet six! " and takes
out his foot-rule. -- "Pshaw, it was to be longer than
yourself. " "Well, it is. " -- "No, it isn't! " The
carpenter, to end the matter, gets into his chest; and
will convince any and all mortals. No sooner is he in,
rightly flat, than the positive gentleman, a Prussian
recruiting-officer in disguise, slams-down the lid upon
him; locks it; whistles-in three stout fellows, who pick-
up the chest, gravely walk through the streets with it;
open it in a safe place; and find, -- horrible to relate,
-- the poor carpenter dead; choked by want of air in
this frightful middle-passage of his. * Name of the
Town is given, Jiilich as above; date not. And if the
thing had been only a popular myth, is it not a signi-
ficant one? But it is too true; the tall carpenter lay
dead, and Hompesch got "imprisoned for life" by the
business.
Burgermeisters of small Towns have been carried
off; in one case, "a rich merchant in Magdeburg," whom
it cost a large sum to get free again. ** Prussian
recruiters hover about barracks, parade-grounds, in
Foreign Countries; and if they see a tall soldier (the
Dutch have had instances, and are indignant at them),
will persuade him to desert, -- to make for the Country
* FBrster, ii. 305,306; PSUnitz, ii. 518, 519.
** Slenzel, iii. 366.
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? CHAP. v. ] CKOWN-PKINCE IN THE POTSDAM GUAKDS. 1 5
ITi'l).
where soldier-merit is understood, and a tall fellow of
parts will get his pair of colours in no-time.
But the highest stretch of their art was probably
that done on the Austrian Ambassador, -- tall Herr
von Bentenrieder; tallest of Diplomatists; whom Fass-
mann, till the Fair of St. Germain, had considered the
tallest of men. Bentenrieder was on his road as Kaiser's
Ambassador to George L, in those Congress-of-Cambrai
times; serenely journeying on; when, near by Halber-
stadt, his carriage broke. Carriage takes some time in
mending; the tall Diplomatic Herr walks on, will
stretch his long legs, catch a glimpse of the Town
withal, till they get it ready again. And now, at some
Guardhouse of the place, a Prussian Officer inquires,
not too reverently of a nobleman without carriage,
"Who are you? " "Well," answered he smiling, "I
am Botschafter (Message-bearer) from his Imperial
Majesty. And who may you be that ask? " -- "To
the Guardhouse with us! " Whither he is marched
accordingly. "Kaiser's messenger, why not? " Being
a most tall handsome man, this Kaiser's Botschafter,
striding along on foot here, the Guardhouse Officials
have decided to keep him, to teach him Prussian drill-
exercise; -- and are thrown into a singular quandary,
when his valets and suite come up, full of alarm dis-
solving into joy, and call him "Excellenz! "*
Tall Herr von Bentenrieder accepted the prostrate
apology of these Guardhouse Officials. But he na-
turally spoke of the matter to George I. ; whose patience,
* PSllniti, ii. 207-209.
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? 1G DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [bookv.
1723-172U.
often fretted by complaints on that head, seems to have
taken fire at this transcendant instance of Prussian in-
solency. In consequence of this adventure, he com-
menced, says Pollnitz, a system of decisive measures;
of reprisals even, and of altogether peremptory, minatory
procedures, to clear Hanover of this nuisance; and to
make it cease, in very fact, and not in promise and
profession merely. These were the first rubs Queen
Sophie met with, in pushing-on the Double-Marriage;
and sore rubs they were, though she at last got over
them. Coming on the back of that fine Charlottenburg
Visit, almost within year and day, and directly in the
teeth of such friendly aspects and prospects, this con-
duct on the part of his Britannic Majesty much grieved
and angered Friedrich Wilhelm; and in fact involved
him in considerable practical troubles.
For it was the signal of a similar set of loud
complaints, and menacing remonstrances (with little
twinges of fulfilment here and there), from all quarters
of Germany; a tempest of trouble and public indigna-
tion rising everywhere, and raining-in upon Friedrich
Wilhelm and this unfortunate Hobby of his. No riding
of one's poor Hobby in peace henceforth. Friedrich
Wilhelm always answered, what was only superficially
the fact, That he knew nothing of these violences, and
acts of ill-neighbourship; he, a just King, was sorrier
than any man to hear of them; and would give imme-
diate order that they should end. But they always
went-on again, much the same; and never did end.
I am sorry a just King, led-astray by his Hobby,
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? CHAP. v. J CISOWN-PRINCE IN THE POTSDAM GUARDS. 17
answers thus what is only superficially the fact. But
it seems he cannot help it: his Hobby is too strong for
him; regardless of curb and bridle in this instance.
Let us pity a man of genius, mounted on so ungovern-
able a Hobby; leaping the barriers, in spite of his best
resolutions. Perhaps the poetic temperament is more
liable to such morbid biases, influxes of imaginative
crotchet, and mere folly that cannot be cured? Fried-
rich Wilhelm never would or could dismount from his
Hobby; but he rode him under much sorrow hence-
forth; Tinder showers of anger and ridicule; -- contu-
melious words and procedures, as it were saxa et faeces,
battering round him, to a heavy extent; the rider a
victim of Tragedy and Farce both at once.
Queen Sophie's Troubles: Grumkow with the Old Dessauer,
and Grumkow without him.
Queen Sophie had, by delicate management, got-
over those first rubs, and arrived-at a Treaty of Hano-
ver, and clear ground again; far worse rubs lay ahead;
but smooth travelling, towards such a goal, was not
possible for this Queen. Poor Lady, her Court, as we
discern from Wilhelmina and the Books, is a sad welter
of intrigues, suspicions; of treacherous chambermaids,
head-valets, pick-thank scouts of official gentlemen and
others striving to supplant one another. Satan's Invi-
sible World very busy against Queen Sophie! Under
any terms, much more under those of the Double-Mar-
riage, her place in a kindly but suspicious Husband's
Cnrlyle, Frederic the Great. III. 2
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? 18 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PKOJECT STAHTED. [BOOK v.
1723-1726.
favour was difficult to maintain. Restless aspirants,
climbing this way or that, by ladder-steps discoverable
in this abstruse element, are never wanting, and have
the due eavesdropping satellites, now here, now there.
Queen Sophie and her party have to walk warily, as
if among precipices and pitfalls. Of all which wide
welter of extinct contemptibilities, then and there so
important, here and now become minus quantities, we
again notice the existence, but can undertake no study
or specification whatever. Two Incidents, the latter
of them dating near the point where we now are, will
sufficiently instruct the reader what a welter this was,
in which Queen Sophie and her bright little Son, the
new Major of the Potsdam giants, had to pass their
existence.
Incident First fell-out some six years ago or more,
in 1719, year of the Heidelberg Protestants, of
Clement the Forger, when his Majesty "slept for weeks
with a pistol under his pillow," and had other troubles.
His Majesty, on one of his journeys, which were always
many, was taken suddenly ill at Brandenburg, that
year: so violently ill, that thinking himself about to
die, he sent for his good Queen; and made a Will ap-
pointing her Regent in case of his decease. His Ma-
jesty quite recovered before long. But Grumkow and
the Old Dessauer, main aspirants, getting wind of
this Will, and hunting-out the truth of it, -- what a
puddling of the waters these two made in consequence;
stirring-up mire and dirt round the good Queen, finding
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? CHAP. v. ] CROWN-PRINCE IN THE POTSDAM GUARDS. 19
1723-1726.
she had been preferred to them! * Nay Wilhelmina, in
her wild way, believes they had, not long after, planned
to "fire a Theatre" about the King, one afternoon, in
Berlin City, and take his life, thereby securing for
themselves such benefit in prospect as there might be!
Not a doubt of it, thinks Wilhelmina: "The young Mar-
graf,** our precious Cousin, of Schwedt, is not he
Sister's-son of that Old Dessauer? Grandson of the
Great Elector, even as Papa is. Papa once killed
(and our poor Crown-Prince also made away with), --
that Young Margraf, and his blue Fox-tiger of an Uncle
over him, is King in Prussia! Obviously they meant to
burn that Theatre, and kill Papa! " This is Wilhel-
mina's distracted belief; as, doubtless, it was her
Mother's on the day in question: a jealous, much-suf-
fering, transcendently exasperated Mother, as we see.
Incident Second shows us those two rough Gen-
tlemen fallen out of partnership, into open quarrel and
even duel. "Duel at the Copenick Gate," much noised-
of in the dull old Prussian Books, -- though always in
a reserved manner; not even the date, as if that were
dangerous, being clearly given! It came in the wake
of that Hanover Treaty, as is now guessed; the two
having taken opposite sides on that measure, and got
provoked into ripping-up old sores in general. Dessau
was against King George and the Treaty, it appears;
having his reasons, family-reasons of old standing:
Gromkow, a bribeable gentleman, was for, -- having
also perhaps his reasons. Enough, it came to alterca-
* Wilhelmina, i. 26, 29. ** Born, 1700 (snpra, p. 482).
2*
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? 20 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED, [book V.
1J23-1726.
tions, objurgations between the two; which rose ever
higher, -- rose at length to wager-of-battle. Indignant
challenge on the part of the Old Dessauer; which,
however, Grumkow, not regarded as a Baresark in the
fighting way, regrets that his Christian principles do
not, forsooth, allow him to accept. The King is
appealed-to; the King, being himself, though an or-
thodox Christian, yet a still more orthodox Soldier,
decides That, on the whole, General Grumkow cannot
but accept this challenge from the Fieldmarshal Prince
of Dessau.
Dessau is on the field, at the Copenick Gate, ac-
cordingly, -- late-autumn afternoon (I calculate) of the
year 1725; -- waits patiently till Grumkow make his
appearance. Grumkow, with a chosen second, does at
last appear; advances pensively with slow steps. Gun-
powder Dessau, black as a silent thundercloud, draws
his sword: and Grumkow -- does not draw his; pre-
sents it undrawn, with unconditional submission and
apology: "Slay me, if you like, old Friend, whom I
have injured! " Whereat Dessau, uttering no word,
uttering only some contemptuous snort, turns his back
on the phenomenon; mounts his horse and rides home. *
A divided man from this Grumkow henceforth. The
Prince waited on her Majesty; signified his sorrow for
past estrangements; his great wish now to help her, but
his total inability, being ousted by Grumkow: We are
for Halle, Madam, where our Regiment is; there let us
serve his Majesty, since we cannot here! ** -- And in
* PSIInitz, II. 212, 214. <<* Willielmina, i. 90, 93.
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? CHAP, v. ] CEOWN PBINCB IN THE POTSDAM GUARDS. 2 I
1725.
fact the Old Dessauer lives mostly there in time coming;
sunk inarticulate in tactics of a truly deep nature, not
stranding on politics of a shallow; -- a man still me-
morable in the mythic traditions of that place. Better
to drill men to perfection, and invent iron ramrods,
against the day they shall be needed, than go jostling,
on such terms, with cattle of the Grumkow kind! And
thus, we perceive, Grumkow is in, and the Old Des-
sauer out; and there has been "a change of Ministry,"
change of "Majesty's-Advisers," brought about;-- may
the Advice going be wiser now!
What the young Crown-Prince did, said, thought,
in such environment, of backstairs diplomacies, female
sighs and aspirations, Grumkow duels, drillings in the
Giant Regiment, is not specified for us in the smallest
particular, in the extensive rubbish-books that have
been written about him. Ours is, to indicate that such
environment was: how a lively soul, acted-on by it, did
not fail to react, chameleon-like taking colour from it,
and contrariwise taking colour against it, must be left
to the reader's imagination. One thing we have
gathered and will not forget, That the Old Dessauer
is out, and Grumkow in, -- that the rugged Son of
Gunpowder, drilling men henceforth at Halle, and in
a dumb way meditating tactics as few ever did, has no
share in the foul enchantments that now supervene at
Court
.
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? 22 DOUBLE MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [>>OOK V.
1726.
CHAPTER VI.
ORDNANCE-MASTER SECKENDORF CROSSES THE PALACE-
ESPLANADE.
The Kaiser's terror and embarrassment at the con-
clusion of the Hanover Treaty, as we saw, were ex-
treme. War possible or likely; and nothing but the
termagant caprices of Elizabeth Famese to depend on;
no cash from the Sea-Powers; only cannon-shot, inva-
sion and hostility, from their cash and them: What is
to be done? To "caress the pride of Spain;" to keep
alive the hopes, in that quarter, of marrying their Don
Carlos, the supplementary Infant, to our eldest Arch-
duchess; which indeed has set the Sea-Powers dread-
fully on fire, but which does leave Parma and Piacenza
quiet for the present, and makes the Pragmatic Sanction
too an affair of Spain's own: this is one resource, though
a poor one, and a dangerous. Another is, to make al-
liance with Russia, by well flattering the poor little
brown Czarina there: but is not that a still poorer?
And what third is there! --
There is a third worth both the others, could it be
got done: To detach Friedrich Wilhelm from those
dangerous Hanover Confederates, and bring him gently
over to ourselves. He has an army of 60,000, in per-
fect equipment, and money to maintain them so.
Against us or for us, -- 60,000 plus or 60,000 minus;
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they are all portrayed; all the privates of this distin-
guished Regiment are, if anybody cared to look at
them. "Redivanoff from Moscow" seems of far better
* Forster: Uandbuch der Ceschichtc, Geographic uni Statislik des
Premsischen Reichs (Berlin, 1820), iv. 130, 132; -- not in a very lucid state.
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? 6 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [book v.
1723-1720.
bone than Kirkman, though still more stolid of aspect.
One Hohmann, a born Prussian, was so tall, you could
not, though yourself tall, touch his bare crown with
your hand; August the Strong of Poland tried, on one
occasion, and could not . Before Hohmann turned-up, there had been "Jonas the Norwegian Blacksmith,"
also a dreadfully tall monster. Giant "Macdoll," --
who was to be married, no consent asked on either side,
to the tall young woman, which latter tumed-out to be
a decrepit old woman (all Jest-Books know the myth),
-- he also was an Irish Giant, his name probably
M'Dowal. * This Hohmann was now Flugelmann ("fugle-
man" as we have named it, leader of the file), the
Tallest of the Regiment, a very mountain of pipeclayed
flesh and bone.
Here, in reference to one other of those poor
Giants, is an Anecdote from Fassmann (who is very
full on this subject of the Giants; abstruse Historical
Fassmann, often painfully cited by us): a most small
Anecdote, but then an indisputably certain one; --
which brings back to us, in a strange way, the
vanished Time and its populations; as the poorest
authentic wooden lucifer may do, kindling suddenly,
and peopling the void Night for moments, to the seeing
eye! --
Fassmann, a very dark German literary man, in obsolete
costume and garniture, how living or what doing we cannot
guess, found himself at Paris, gazing about, in the year 1713;
* Forstcr: Prevssens Helden im Krieij uni Fricden (Berlin, 1848), i. 531;
no date to the story, no evidence what grain of truth may be in it.
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? CHAP. v. ] CEOWN-PEINCE IN THE POTSDAM QDAEDS. 7
1728.
where, among other things, the Fair of St. Germain was
going on. Loud, large Fair of St. Germain, "which lasts
from Candlemas to the Monday before Easter;" and Fass-
mann one day took a walk of contemplation through the
same. Much noise, gesticulation, little meaning. Show-
booths, temporary theatres, merry-andrews, sleight-of-hand
men; and a vast public, drinking, dancing, gambling, flirting,
as its wont is. Nothing new for us there; new only that it all
lies five generations from us now. Did 'the Old Pretender,'
who was then in his expectant period, in this same village of
St. Germain, see it, too, as Fassmann did? And Louis XIV. ,
he is at Versailles; drooping fast, very dull to his Maintenon.
And our little Fritz in Berlin is a child in arms; -- and the
world is all awake as usual, while Fassmann strolls through
this noisy inanity of show-booths, in the year 1713.
Strolling along, Fassmann came upon a certain booth with
an enormous Picture hung aloft in front of it: "Picture of a
"very tall man, in heyduc livery, coat reaching to his ancles,
"in grand peruke, cap and big heron-plume, with these
"words, lLe Ge'ant Allemand (German Giant),' written under-
"neath. Partly from curiosity, partly for country's sake,"
Fassmann expended twopence; viewed the gigantic fellow-
creature; admits he had never seen one so tall; though "Bentenrieder, the Imperial Diplomatist," thought by some
to be the tallest of men, had come athwart him once. This
giant's name was Miiller; birthplace the neighbourhood of
Weissenfels; -- "a Saxon like myself. He had a small
"German Wife, not half his size. He made money readily,
"showing himself about, in France, England, Holland;" --
and Fassman went his way, thinking no more of the fellow. --
But now, continues Fassmann:
"Coming to Potsdam, thirteen years after, in the spring of
"1726, by his Majesty's order, to" -- in fact, to read the
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? 8 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [hook v.
1723-1726.
Newspapers to his Majesty, and be generally useful, chiefly
in the Tobacco-College, as we shall discover, -- "what was
"my surprise to find this same '? Giant Allemand' of St. Ger-
"main ranked among the King's Grenadiers! No doubt of
"the identity: I renewed acquaintance with the man; his
"little German Wife was dead; but he had got an English
"one instead, an uncommonly shifty creature. They had a
"neat little dwelling-house" (as most of the married giants
had), "near the Palace: here the Wife sold beer" (brandy
not permissible on any terms), "and lodged travellers;-- I
"myself have lodged there on occasion. In the course of
"some years, the man took swelling in the legs; good-for-
"nothing as a grenadier; and was like to fall heavy on
"society. But no, his little Wife snatched him up, easily
"getting his discharge; carried him over with her to England,
"where he again became a show-giant, and they were doing
"very well, when last heard of," -- in the Country-Wakes of
George II. 's early time. And that is the real Biography of
one Potsdam Giant, by a literary gentleman who had lodged
with him on occasion. *
The pay of these sublime Footguards is greatly
higher than common; they have distinguished privileges
and treatment: on the other hand, their discipline is
nonpareil, and discharge is never to be dreamt of, while
strength lasts. Poor Kirkman, does he sometimes think
of the Hill of Howth, and that he will never see it
more? Kirkman, I judge, is not given to thought; --
considers that he has tobacco here, and privileges and
perquisites; and that Howth, and Heaven itself, is in-
accessible to many a man.
* Fassmann, pp. 723-730.
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? CHAP, v. ] CKOWN PKiflCK IN THE POTSDAM GUARDS. 0
1728.
Friedrich Wilhelm's recruiting difficulties.
Tall men, not for this regiment only, had become
a necessary of life to Friedrich Wilhelm. Indispensable
to him almost as his daily bread. To his heart there
is no road so ready as that of presenting a tall man or
two. Friedrich Wilhelm's regiments are now, by his
exact new regulations, levied and recruited each in its
own Canton, or specific district: there all males as soon
as born are enrolled; liable to serve, when they have
grown to years and strength. All grown-men (under
certain exceptions, as of a widow's eldest son, or of the
like evidently ruinous cases) are liable to serve; Captain
of the Regiment and Amtmann of the Canton settle
between them which grown-man it shall be. Better for
you not to be tall! In fact, it is almost a kindness of
Heaven to be gifted with some safe impediment of
body, slightly crooked back or the like, if you much
dislike the career of honour under Friedrich Wilhelm.
A general shadow of unquiet apprehension we can well
fancy hanging over those rural populations, and much
unpleasant haggling now and then; -- nothing but the
King's justice that can be appealed to. King's justice,
very great indeed, but heavily checked by the King's
value for handsome soldiers.
Happily his value for industrial labourers and in-
crease of population is likewise great . Townsfolk,
skilful workmen as the theory supposes, are exempt;
the more ingenious classes, generally, his Majesty
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? 10 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE TROJECT STARTED. [book v.
1723-1726.
exempts in this respect, to encourage them in others.
For, on the whole, he is not less a Captain of Work,
to his Nation, than of other things. What he did for
Prussia in the way of industries, improvements, new
manufactures, new methods; in settling "colonies,"
tearing-up drowned bogs and subduing them into dry
cornfields; in building, draining, digging, and encoura-
ging or forcing others to do so, would take a long
chapter. He is the enemy of Chaos, not the friend of
it, wherever you meet with him.
For example, Potsdam itself. Potsdam, now a
pleasant, grassy, leafy place, branching-out extensively
in fine stone architecture, with swept pavements; where,
as in other places, the traveller finds land and water
separated into two firmaments, -- Friedrich Wilhelm
found much of it a quagmire, land and water still
weltering in one. In these very years, his cuttings,
embankments, buildings, pile-drivings there, are enor-
mous; and his perseverance needs to be invincible. For
instance, looking out, one morning after heavy rain,
upon some extensive anti-quagmire operations and
strong pile-drivings, he finds half-a-furlong of his latest
heavy piling clean gone. What in the world has be-
come of it? Pooh, the swollen lake has burst it top-
syturvy; and it floats yonder, bottom uppermost, a
half-furlong of distracted liquid-peat . Whereat his
Majesty gave a loud laugh, says Bielfeld,* and com-
menced anew. The piles now stand firm enough, like
* Baron de Bielfeld: Lettres Familieret (second edition, A LeUe. 1767),
1. 81.
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? CHAP. v. ] CROWN-PRINCE IN THE POTSDAM GUARDS. 11
1726.
the rest of the Earth's crust, and carry strong ashlar
houses and umbrageous trees for mankind-, and trivial
mankind can walk in clean pumps there, shuddering
or sniggering at Friedrich Wilhelm, as their humour
may be.
No danger of this "Canton-system" of recruitment
to the more ingenious classes, who could do better than
learn drill. Nor, to say truth, does the poor clayey
peasant suffer from it, according to his apprehensions.
Often perhaps, could he count profit and loss, he might
find himself a gainer: the career of honour turns out to
be, at least, a career of practical Stoicism and Spar-
tanism; useful to any peasant or to any prince. Clean-
liness, of person and even of mind; fixed rigour of
method, sobriety, frugality, these are virtues worth ac-
quiring. Sobriety in the matter of drink is much
attended-to here: his Majesty permits no distillation of
strong-waters in Potsdam, or within so many miles;*
nor is sale of such allowed, except in the most in-
tensely select manner. The soldier's pay is in the
highest degree exiguous; not above three half-pence a
day, for a common foot-soldier, in addition to what
rations he has: -- but it is found adequate to its pur-
pose, too; supports the soldier in sound health, vigor-
ously fit for his work; into which points his Majesty
looks with his own eyes, and will admit no dubiety.
Often, too, if not already oftenest (as it ultimately grew
to be), the peasant-soldier gets home for many months
of the year, a soldier-ploughman; and labours for his
* Fassmann, p. 728.
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? 12 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [book v.
1723-1726.
living in the old way. His Captain (it is one of the
Captain's perquisites, who is generally a veteran of
fifty, with a long Spartan training, before he gets so
high) pockets the pay of all these furloughs supernu-
merary to the real work of the regiment; -- and has
certain important furnishings to yield in return.
At any rate, enrolment, in time of peace, cannot
fall on many; three or four recruits in the year, to
replace vacancies, will carry the Canton through its
crisis. For we are to note withal, the third part of
every regiment can, and should by rule, consist of
"foreigners," -- men not born Prussians. These are
generally men levied in the Imperial Free-towns; in
"the Eeich" or Empire, as they term it; that is to say,
in the countries of Germany that are not Austrian or
Prussian. For this foreign third-part, too, the recruits
must be got; excuses not admissible for Captain or
Colonel; nothing but recruits of the due inches will do.
Captain and Colonel (supporting their enterprise on
frugal adequate "perquisites," hinted of above) have to
be on the outlook; vigilantly, eagerly; and must con-
trive to get them. Nay we can take supernumerary
recruits; and have in fact always on hand, attached to
each regiment, a stock of such. Any number of re-
cruits, that stand well on their legs, are welcome; and
for a tall man there is joy in Potsdam, almost as if he
were a wise man or a good man.
The consequence is, all countries, especially all
German countries, are infested with a new species of
predatory two-legged animals: Prussian recruiters. They
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? CHAP, v. ] CROWN-PRINCE IN THE POTSDAM GDARDS. 13
1726.
glide about, under disguise if necessary; lynx-eyed, eager
almost as the Jesuit hounds are; not hunting the souls
of men, as the spiritual Jesuits do, but their bodies in
in a merciless carnivorous manner. Better not to be
too tall, in any country, at present! Irish Kirkman
could not be protected by the aegis of the British Con-
stitution itself. In general, however, the Prussian
recruiter, on British ground, reports, That the people
are too well off, that there is little to be done in those
parts. A tall British sailor, if we pick him up strolling
about Memel or the Baltic ports, is inexorably claimed
by the Diplomatists; no business doable till after resto-
ration of him; and he proves a mere loss to us. *
Germany, Holland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, these
are the fruitful fields for us, and there we do hunt
with some vigour.
For example, in the town of Jiilich there lived and
worked a tall young carpenter: one day a well-dressed
positive-looking gentleman ("Baron von Hompesch," the
records name him) enters the shop; wants "a stout
chest, with lock on it, for household purposes; must be
of such and such dimensions, six feet six in length
especially, and that is an indispensable point, -- in
fact it will be longer than yourself, I think, Herr Zim-
mermann: what is the cost; when can it be ready? "
Cost, time, and the rest are settled. "A right stout
chest, then; and see you don't forget the size; if too
short, it will be of no use to me: mind! " -- "<</a wohl!
Gewiss! " And the positive-looking, well-clad gentle-
* Despatches in the State-Paper Office.
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? 14 DOUBLE-MAKRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [book v.
1723-1726.
man goes his ways.
At the appointed day he reap-
pears; the chest is ready; -- we hope, an unexception-
able article? "Too short, as I dreaded! " says the
positive gentleman. "Nay, your Honour," says the
carpenter, "I am certain it is six feet six! " and takes
out his foot-rule. -- "Pshaw, it was to be longer than
yourself. " "Well, it is. " -- "No, it isn't! " The
carpenter, to end the matter, gets into his chest; and
will convince any and all mortals. No sooner is he in,
rightly flat, than the positive gentleman, a Prussian
recruiting-officer in disguise, slams-down the lid upon
him; locks it; whistles-in three stout fellows, who pick-
up the chest, gravely walk through the streets with it;
open it in a safe place; and find, -- horrible to relate,
-- the poor carpenter dead; choked by want of air in
this frightful middle-passage of his. * Name of the
Town is given, Jiilich as above; date not. And if the
thing had been only a popular myth, is it not a signi-
ficant one? But it is too true; the tall carpenter lay
dead, and Hompesch got "imprisoned for life" by the
business.
Burgermeisters of small Towns have been carried
off; in one case, "a rich merchant in Magdeburg," whom
it cost a large sum to get free again. ** Prussian
recruiters hover about barracks, parade-grounds, in
Foreign Countries; and if they see a tall soldier (the
Dutch have had instances, and are indignant at them),
will persuade him to desert, -- to make for the Country
* FBrster, ii. 305,306; PSUnitz, ii. 518, 519.
** Slenzel, iii. 366.
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? CHAP. v. ] CKOWN-PKINCE IN THE POTSDAM GUAKDS. 1 5
ITi'l).
where soldier-merit is understood, and a tall fellow of
parts will get his pair of colours in no-time.
But the highest stretch of their art was probably
that done on the Austrian Ambassador, -- tall Herr
von Bentenrieder; tallest of Diplomatists; whom Fass-
mann, till the Fair of St. Germain, had considered the
tallest of men. Bentenrieder was on his road as Kaiser's
Ambassador to George L, in those Congress-of-Cambrai
times; serenely journeying on; when, near by Halber-
stadt, his carriage broke. Carriage takes some time in
mending; the tall Diplomatic Herr walks on, will
stretch his long legs, catch a glimpse of the Town
withal, till they get it ready again. And now, at some
Guardhouse of the place, a Prussian Officer inquires,
not too reverently of a nobleman without carriage,
"Who are you? " "Well," answered he smiling, "I
am Botschafter (Message-bearer) from his Imperial
Majesty. And who may you be that ask? " -- "To
the Guardhouse with us! " Whither he is marched
accordingly. "Kaiser's messenger, why not? " Being
a most tall handsome man, this Kaiser's Botschafter,
striding along on foot here, the Guardhouse Officials
have decided to keep him, to teach him Prussian drill-
exercise; -- and are thrown into a singular quandary,
when his valets and suite come up, full of alarm dis-
solving into joy, and call him "Excellenz! "*
Tall Herr von Bentenrieder accepted the prostrate
apology of these Guardhouse Officials. But he na-
turally spoke of the matter to George I. ; whose patience,
* PSllniti, ii. 207-209.
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? 1G DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [bookv.
1723-172U.
often fretted by complaints on that head, seems to have
taken fire at this transcendant instance of Prussian in-
solency. In consequence of this adventure, he com-
menced, says Pollnitz, a system of decisive measures;
of reprisals even, and of altogether peremptory, minatory
procedures, to clear Hanover of this nuisance; and to
make it cease, in very fact, and not in promise and
profession merely. These were the first rubs Queen
Sophie met with, in pushing-on the Double-Marriage;
and sore rubs they were, though she at last got over
them. Coming on the back of that fine Charlottenburg
Visit, almost within year and day, and directly in the
teeth of such friendly aspects and prospects, this con-
duct on the part of his Britannic Majesty much grieved
and angered Friedrich Wilhelm; and in fact involved
him in considerable practical troubles.
For it was the signal of a similar set of loud
complaints, and menacing remonstrances (with little
twinges of fulfilment here and there), from all quarters
of Germany; a tempest of trouble and public indigna-
tion rising everywhere, and raining-in upon Friedrich
Wilhelm and this unfortunate Hobby of his. No riding
of one's poor Hobby in peace henceforth. Friedrich
Wilhelm always answered, what was only superficially
the fact, That he knew nothing of these violences, and
acts of ill-neighbourship; he, a just King, was sorrier
than any man to hear of them; and would give imme-
diate order that they should end. But they always
went-on again, much the same; and never did end.
I am sorry a just King, led-astray by his Hobby,
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? CHAP. v. J CISOWN-PRINCE IN THE POTSDAM GUARDS. 17
answers thus what is only superficially the fact. But
it seems he cannot help it: his Hobby is too strong for
him; regardless of curb and bridle in this instance.
Let us pity a man of genius, mounted on so ungovern-
able a Hobby; leaping the barriers, in spite of his best
resolutions. Perhaps the poetic temperament is more
liable to such morbid biases, influxes of imaginative
crotchet, and mere folly that cannot be cured? Fried-
rich Wilhelm never would or could dismount from his
Hobby; but he rode him under much sorrow hence-
forth; Tinder showers of anger and ridicule; -- contu-
melious words and procedures, as it were saxa et faeces,
battering round him, to a heavy extent; the rider a
victim of Tragedy and Farce both at once.
Queen Sophie's Troubles: Grumkow with the Old Dessauer,
and Grumkow without him.
Queen Sophie had, by delicate management, got-
over those first rubs, and arrived-at a Treaty of Hano-
ver, and clear ground again; far worse rubs lay ahead;
but smooth travelling, towards such a goal, was not
possible for this Queen. Poor Lady, her Court, as we
discern from Wilhelmina and the Books, is a sad welter
of intrigues, suspicions; of treacherous chambermaids,
head-valets, pick-thank scouts of official gentlemen and
others striving to supplant one another. Satan's Invi-
sible World very busy against Queen Sophie! Under
any terms, much more under those of the Double-Mar-
riage, her place in a kindly but suspicious Husband's
Cnrlyle, Frederic the Great. III. 2
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? 18 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PKOJECT STAHTED. [BOOK v.
1723-1726.
favour was difficult to maintain. Restless aspirants,
climbing this way or that, by ladder-steps discoverable
in this abstruse element, are never wanting, and have
the due eavesdropping satellites, now here, now there.
Queen Sophie and her party have to walk warily, as
if among precipices and pitfalls. Of all which wide
welter of extinct contemptibilities, then and there so
important, here and now become minus quantities, we
again notice the existence, but can undertake no study
or specification whatever. Two Incidents, the latter
of them dating near the point where we now are, will
sufficiently instruct the reader what a welter this was,
in which Queen Sophie and her bright little Son, the
new Major of the Potsdam giants, had to pass their
existence.
Incident First fell-out some six years ago or more,
in 1719, year of the Heidelberg Protestants, of
Clement the Forger, when his Majesty "slept for weeks
with a pistol under his pillow," and had other troubles.
His Majesty, on one of his journeys, which were always
many, was taken suddenly ill at Brandenburg, that
year: so violently ill, that thinking himself about to
die, he sent for his good Queen; and made a Will ap-
pointing her Regent in case of his decease. His Ma-
jesty quite recovered before long. But Grumkow and
the Old Dessauer, main aspirants, getting wind of
this Will, and hunting-out the truth of it, -- what a
puddling of the waters these two made in consequence;
stirring-up mire and dirt round the good Queen, finding
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? CHAP. v. ] CROWN-PRINCE IN THE POTSDAM GUARDS. 19
1723-1726.
she had been preferred to them! * Nay Wilhelmina, in
her wild way, believes they had, not long after, planned
to "fire a Theatre" about the King, one afternoon, in
Berlin City, and take his life, thereby securing for
themselves such benefit in prospect as there might be!
Not a doubt of it, thinks Wilhelmina: "The young Mar-
graf,** our precious Cousin, of Schwedt, is not he
Sister's-son of that Old Dessauer? Grandson of the
Great Elector, even as Papa is. Papa once killed
(and our poor Crown-Prince also made away with), --
that Young Margraf, and his blue Fox-tiger of an Uncle
over him, is King in Prussia! Obviously they meant to
burn that Theatre, and kill Papa! " This is Wilhel-
mina's distracted belief; as, doubtless, it was her
Mother's on the day in question: a jealous, much-suf-
fering, transcendently exasperated Mother, as we see.
Incident Second shows us those two rough Gen-
tlemen fallen out of partnership, into open quarrel and
even duel. "Duel at the Copenick Gate," much noised-
of in the dull old Prussian Books, -- though always in
a reserved manner; not even the date, as if that were
dangerous, being clearly given! It came in the wake
of that Hanover Treaty, as is now guessed; the two
having taken opposite sides on that measure, and got
provoked into ripping-up old sores in general. Dessau
was against King George and the Treaty, it appears;
having his reasons, family-reasons of old standing:
Gromkow, a bribeable gentleman, was for, -- having
also perhaps his reasons. Enough, it came to alterca-
* Wilhelmina, i. 26, 29. ** Born, 1700 (snpra, p. 482).
2*
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? 20 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED, [book V.
1J23-1726.
tions, objurgations between the two; which rose ever
higher, -- rose at length to wager-of-battle. Indignant
challenge on the part of the Old Dessauer; which,
however, Grumkow, not regarded as a Baresark in the
fighting way, regrets that his Christian principles do
not, forsooth, allow him to accept. The King is
appealed-to; the King, being himself, though an or-
thodox Christian, yet a still more orthodox Soldier,
decides That, on the whole, General Grumkow cannot
but accept this challenge from the Fieldmarshal Prince
of Dessau.
Dessau is on the field, at the Copenick Gate, ac-
cordingly, -- late-autumn afternoon (I calculate) of the
year 1725; -- waits patiently till Grumkow make his
appearance. Grumkow, with a chosen second, does at
last appear; advances pensively with slow steps. Gun-
powder Dessau, black as a silent thundercloud, draws
his sword: and Grumkow -- does not draw his; pre-
sents it undrawn, with unconditional submission and
apology: "Slay me, if you like, old Friend, whom I
have injured! " Whereat Dessau, uttering no word,
uttering only some contemptuous snort, turns his back
on the phenomenon; mounts his horse and rides home. *
A divided man from this Grumkow henceforth. The
Prince waited on her Majesty; signified his sorrow for
past estrangements; his great wish now to help her, but
his total inability, being ousted by Grumkow: We are
for Halle, Madam, where our Regiment is; there let us
serve his Majesty, since we cannot here! ** -- And in
* PSIInitz, II. 212, 214. <<* Willielmina, i. 90, 93.
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? CHAP, v. ] CEOWN PBINCB IN THE POTSDAM GUARDS. 2 I
1725.
fact the Old Dessauer lives mostly there in time coming;
sunk inarticulate in tactics of a truly deep nature, not
stranding on politics of a shallow; -- a man still me-
morable in the mythic traditions of that place. Better
to drill men to perfection, and invent iron ramrods,
against the day they shall be needed, than go jostling,
on such terms, with cattle of the Grumkow kind! And
thus, we perceive, Grumkow is in, and the Old Des-
sauer out; and there has been "a change of Ministry,"
change of "Majesty's-Advisers," brought about;-- may
the Advice going be wiser now!
What the young Crown-Prince did, said, thought,
in such environment, of backstairs diplomacies, female
sighs and aspirations, Grumkow duels, drillings in the
Giant Regiment, is not specified for us in the smallest
particular, in the extensive rubbish-books that have
been written about him. Ours is, to indicate that such
environment was: how a lively soul, acted-on by it, did
not fail to react, chameleon-like taking colour from it,
and contrariwise taking colour against it, must be left
to the reader's imagination. One thing we have
gathered and will not forget, That the Old Dessauer
is out, and Grumkow in, -- that the rugged Son of
Gunpowder, drilling men henceforth at Halle, and in
a dumb way meditating tactics as few ever did, has no
share in the foul enchantments that now supervene at
Court
.
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? 22 DOUBLE MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [>>OOK V.
1726.
CHAPTER VI.
ORDNANCE-MASTER SECKENDORF CROSSES THE PALACE-
ESPLANADE.
The Kaiser's terror and embarrassment at the con-
clusion of the Hanover Treaty, as we saw, were ex-
treme. War possible or likely; and nothing but the
termagant caprices of Elizabeth Famese to depend on;
no cash from the Sea-Powers; only cannon-shot, inva-
sion and hostility, from their cash and them: What is
to be done? To "caress the pride of Spain;" to keep
alive the hopes, in that quarter, of marrying their Don
Carlos, the supplementary Infant, to our eldest Arch-
duchess; which indeed has set the Sea-Powers dread-
fully on fire, but which does leave Parma and Piacenza
quiet for the present, and makes the Pragmatic Sanction
too an affair of Spain's own: this is one resource, though
a poor one, and a dangerous. Another is, to make al-
liance with Russia, by well flattering the poor little
brown Czarina there: but is not that a still poorer?
And what third is there! --
There is a third worth both the others, could it be
got done: To detach Friedrich Wilhelm from those
dangerous Hanover Confederates, and bring him gently
over to ourselves. He has an army of 60,000, in per-
fect equipment, and money to maintain them so.
Against us or for us, -- 60,000 plus or 60,000 minus;
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