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 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. ^T. 73. 
 
r, /tVTirrt' 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 FREDERICK THE SECOND, 
 
 CALLED 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 A 
 
 By JOHN S. C. "ABBOTT, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE," "THE FRENCH REVOLUTION,' 1 
 "NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA," ETC. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 FRANKLIN SQUARE. 
 I 87 I. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 187 1, by 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
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PREFACE. 
 
 It is not surprising that many persons, not familiar with the wild and 
 wondrous events of the past, should judge that many of the honest nar- 
 ratives of history must be fictions — mere romances. But it is difficult 
 for the imagination to invent scenes more wonderful than can be found 
 in the annals of by-gone days. The novelist who should create such a 
 character as that of Frederick William, or such a career as that of Fred- 
 erick the Great, would be deemed guilty of great exaggeration, and yet 
 the facts contained in this volume are beyond all contradiction. 
 
 Mr. Carlyle has written the Life of Frederick the Great in six closely 
 printed volumes of over five hundred pages each. It is a work of much 
 ability and accuracy. There are, however, but few persons, in this busy 
 age, who can find time to read three thousand pages of fine type, descrip- 
 tive of events, many of which have lost their interest, and have ceased to 
 possess any practical value. Still, the student who has leisure to peruse 
 these voluminous annals of all the prominent actors in Europe during 
 the reign of Frederick and of his half-insane father, will find a rich treat 
 in the wonderfully graphic and accurate pages of Carlyle. 
 
 This volume is intended to give a clear and correct idea of the man — 
 of his public and private character, and of his career. It would be diffi- 
 cult to find, in the whole range of English literature, a theme more full of 
 the elements of entertainment and instruction. 
 
 The reader of these pages will be oppressed with the consciousness of 
 how vast a proportion of the miseries of humanity is caused by the cruelty 
 of man to his brother man. This globe might be a very happy home for 
 those who dwell upon it. But its history, during the last six thousand 
 years, has presented one of the most appalling tragedies of which the 
 imagination can conceive. Among all the renowned warriors of the 
 past, but few can be found who have contributed more to fill the world 
 with desolated homes, with the moans of the dying, with the cry o£ the 
 widow and the orphan, than Frederick the Great; but he laid the foun- 
 dations of an empire which is at this moment the most potent upon the 
 2:lobe. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PARENTAGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Origin of the Prussian Monarchy. — The Duchies of Brandenburg and Prussia. — The Elector 
 crowned King Frederick I. — Frederick William. — His Childhood, Youth, and Marriage. — 
 Birth of Fritz. — Death of Frederick I. — Eccentric Character of Frederick William. — His 
 defective Education. — His Energy. — Curious Anecdotes. — Hatred of the French. — Educa- 
 tion of Fritz. — The Father's Plan of Instruction Page 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 LIFE IN THE PALACE. 
 
 The Palace of Wusterhausen. — Wilhelmina and Fritz. — Education of the Crown Prince. — 
 Rising Dislike of the Father for his Son. — The Mother's Sympathy. — The double Marriage. — 
 Character of George I. — The King of England visits Berlin. — Wilhelmina's Account of the 
 Interview. — Sad Fate of the Wife of George I. — The Giant Guard. — Despotism of Frederick 
 William. — The Tobacco Parliament. — A brutal Scene. — Death of George I. — The Royal 
 Family of Prussia. — Augustus, King of Poland. — Corruption of his Court. — Cruel Treatment 
 of Fritz. — Insane Conduct of the King...> 36 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SUFFERINGS OF FRITZ AND WILHELMINA. 
 
 The King an Artist. — Cruel Exactions of the King. — Conflicts of Etiquette. — Quarrel with 
 George II. — Nuptial Intrigues. — Energetic Action of Frederick William. — Marriage of Fred- 
 erica Louisa. — Fritz and his Flute. — Wrath of the King. — Beats Wimelmina and Fritz. — 
 Attempts to strangle Fritz. — The Hunt at Wusterhausen. — Intrigues in reference to the 
 Double Marriage. — Anguish of Wilhelmina. — Cruelty of her Mother. — Resolve of Fritz to 
 escape to England .... „ 58 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE. 
 
 Objections to the British -Alliance. — Obstinacy of the King. — Wilhelmina's Journal. — Policy 
 of Frederick William and of George II.— Letter from Fritz.— The Camp of Miihlberg.— The 
 Plan of Escape. — The Flight arrested. — Ungovernable Rage of the King. — Endeavors to kill 
 his Son. — Arrest and Imprisonment of Fritz. — Terror of his Mother and Sister. — Wilhelmina 
 imprisoned i 80 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IMPRISONMENT OF FRITZ AND WILHELMINA. 
 
 Spirited Conduct of Fritz. — Fortress of Custrin.— Prison Fare. — Wilhelmina's Captivity. — Sad 
 Fate of Doris Ritter. — Motives of the King. — Doom of Lieutenant Katte. — Pathetic Sup- 
 plications. — The Execution. — Peril of Fritz. — Theology of the King. — Letter from Fritz. — 
 Sufferings of Wilhelmina. — Brutality of the King. — Wilhelmina brought to Terms 100 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF WILHELMINA. 
 
 Wilhelmina's Letter to her Mother. — Cruel Response. — The Court Festival. — First Interview 
 with the Prince of Baireuth. — His Character and Appearance. — Interview between the King 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 and Fritz. — The Partial Reconciliation. — Divine Decrees. — The King's Sense of Justice. — 
 The King's Discipline of the Judges. — Character of Fritz. — Wilhelmina's Annoyances. — Her 
 Marriage. — Interview between Wilhelmina and Fritz. — The Departure Page 118 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE CROWN PRINCE. 
 
 Matrimonial Intrigues. — Letters from the King to his Son. — Letter from Fritz to Grumkow. — 
 Letter to Wilhelmina. — The Betrothal. — Character of Elizabeth. — Her cruel Reception by 
 the Prussian Queen. — Letter from Fritz to Wilhelmina. — Disappointment and Anguish of 
 Elizabeth. — Studious Habits of Fritz. — Continued Alienation of his Father. — The Marriage. 
 — Life in the Castle at Reinsberg 136 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DEVELOPMENTS OF CHARACTER. 
 
 The Castle at Reinsberg. — Slender Purses of Fritz and Wilhelmina. — Liberality of Fritz. — The 
 Ball at Monbijou. — Adventures of Fritz and Wilhelmina. — Letters. — The Interview. — Anec- 
 dote of the King. — Wilhelmina's Account of Jier Brother. — Mental and Physical Maladies 
 of the King. — Frederick's cruel Neglect of his Wife. — Daily Habits of the young Prince. — 
 The shameful Carousal 152 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE DEATH OF FREDERICK WILLIAM. 
 
 Voltaire and Madame Du Chatelet. — Letter from Frederick to Voltaire. — The Reply. — Visit 
 to the Prince of Orange. — Correspondence. — The Crown Prince becomes a Mason. — Inter- 
 esting Letter from the Crown Prince. — Petulance and declining Health of the King. — Scenes 
 in the Death-chamber. — Characteristic Anecdotes. — The Dying Scene 172 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE ACCESSION OF FREDERICK THE SECOND. 
 
 Establishment of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. — Religious Toleration. — A Free Press. — 
 Sternness of the young King. — Domestic Habits of the King. — Provision for the Queen-moth- 
 er. — Absolutism of the King. — Journey to Strasbourg. — First Interview with Voltaire. . . 191 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 DIPLOMATIC INTRIGUES. 
 
 The Herstal Affair. — The Summons. — Voltaire's Manifesto. — George II. visits Hanover. — The 
 Visit of Wilhelmina to Berlin. — Unpopularity of the King. — Death of the Emperor Charles 
 VI 206 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE INVASION OF SILESIA. 
 
 Deceptive Measures of Frederick. — Plans for the Invasion of Silesia. — Avowed Reasons for the 
 Invasion.— The Ball in Berlin.— The March of the Army.— Hardships and Successes.— Let- 
 ter to Voltaire.— Capture of Glogau.— Capture of Brieg.— Bombardment of Neisse 218 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF MOLLWITZ. 
 
 Embarrassments of Frederick. — Attempts a Compromise. — New Invasion of Silesia. — Intrigues 
 for the Imperial Crown.— Rivalry between England and France.— Death of Anne of Russia. 
 — Energy of Austria. — Narrow Escape of Frederick. — Frederick's Antipathy to Christianity. 
 — Capture of Glogau.— Peril of Frederick. — The Siege of Neisse 237 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF FREDERICK. 
 
 Preparing for the Battle. — The Surprise. — The Snow-encumbered Plain. — Horror of the Scene. 
 
CONTENTS. xi 
 
 — Flight of Frederick. — His Shame and Despair. — Unexpected Victory of the Prussians. — 
 Letters of Frederick. — Adventures of Maupertuis Page 254: 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE WAR IN SILESIA. 
 
 The Encampment at Brieg. — Bombardment. — Diplomatic Intrigues. — Luxury of the Spanish 
 Minister. — Rising Greatness of Frederick. — Frederick's Interview with Lord Hyndford. — 
 Plans of France. — Desperate Prospects of Maria Theresa. — Anecdote of Frederick. — Joint 
 Action of England and Holland. — Heroic Character of Maria Theresa. — Coronation of the 
 Queen of Hungary 265 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF SILESIA. 
 
 An extraordinary Interview. — Carlyle's Sympathy. — Trifling Demeanor of Frederick. — Conspir- 
 acy in Breslau. — Guile of Frederick. — The successful Stratagem. — Crossing the Neisse. — 
 The Co-operation of France. — Anguish of Maria Theresa. — Inflexible Will of Frederick. — 
 Duplicity of the King. — The Surrender of Neisse 275 
 
 \ 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF MORAVIA. 
 
 Frederick's Motives for the War. — Marriage of William Augustus. — Testimony of Lord Ma- 
 caulay. — Frederick and his Allies. — Visit to Dresden. — Military Energy. — Charles Albert 
 chosen Emperor. — The Coronation. — Effeminacy of the Saxon Princes. — Disappointment 
 and Vexation of Frederick. — He withdraws in Chagrin. — The Cantonment on the Elbe. — 
 Winter Campaigning. — The Concentration at Chrudim 295 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 FREDERICK TRIUMPHANT. 
 
 The Battle of Chotusitz. — Letter to Jordan. — Results of the Battle. — Secret Negotiations. — 
 The Treaty of Breslau. — Entrance into Frankfort. — Treachery of Louis XV. — Results of the 
 Silesian Campaigns. — Panegyrics of Voltaire. — Imperial Character of Maria Theresa. — Her 
 Grief over the Loss of Silesia. — Anecdote of Senora Barbarina. — Duplicity of both Freder- 
 ick and Voltaire. — Gayety in Berlin. — Straitened Circumstances. — Unamiability of Freder- 
 ick 309 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE INVASION OF BOHEMIA. 
 
 Correspondence between. Frederick and Voltaire. — Voltaire's Visit to Frederick. — Domestic 
 Habits of the King. — Unavailing Diplomacy of Voltaire. — The New Alliance. — The Renewal 
 of War. — The Siege of Prague. — The Advance upon Vienna. — Darkening Prospects. — The 
 Pandours. — Divisions in Council. — Sickness of Louis XV. — Energy of Frederick. — Distress 
 of the Army 326 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE RETREAT. 
 
 The Retreat ordered. — Awful Suffering. — Narrow Escape of the King. — The Flight from 
 Prague. — Military Mistakes of the King. — Frederick returns to Berlin. — His wonderful 
 administrative Ability. — Poland joins Austria. — The Austrians enter Silesia. — Unreasona- 
 ble Demands of Frederick. — Humiliation of the King. — Prince Charles and his Bride. — 
 Character of Leopold. — Death of the Emperor. — Bavaria turns against Frederick. — Anec- 
 dotes of Prince Leopold. — Peril of Frederick. — Battle of Hohenfriedberg. — Signal Victory 
 
x ij CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 BATTLES AND VICTORIES. 
 
 Battle of Hohenfriedberg. — Religious Antagonism. — Anecdote of the King. — Retreat of the 
 Austrians. — Horrors of War. — "A slight Pleasantry." — Sufferings of the Prussian Army. — 
 The Victory of Fontenoy. — Frederick's Pecuniary Embarrassments. — Executive Abilities of 
 Maria Theresa. — Inflexibility of the Austrian Queen. — The Retreat to Silesia. — The Surprise 
 at Sohr. — Military Genius of Frederick. — Great Victory of Sohr Page 352 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE PEACE OF DRESDEN. 
 
 Sufferings of the Peasantry. — Renown and Peril of Frederick. — New Plan of Maria Theresa. — 
 Despondency of Frederick. — Surprise and Rout of the Austrians. — The "Old Dessauer" en- 
 ters Saxony. — Battle of Kesseldorf. — Singular Prayer of the Old Dessauer. — Signal Victory 
 of the Prussians. — Elation of Frederick. — The Peace of Dresden. — Death of M. Duhan . 364 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT AT SANS SOUCI. 
 
 Days of Peace and Prosperity. — The Palace of Sans Souci. — Letter from Marshal Keith. — Do- 
 mestic Habits of the King. — Frederick's Snuff-boxes. — Anecdotes. — Severe Discipline of the 
 Army. — Testimony of Baron Trenck. — The Review. — Death of the "Divine Emilie." — The 
 King's Revenge. — Anecdote of the Poor Schoolmaster. — The Berlin Carousal. — Appearance 
 of his Majesty. — Honors conferred upon Voltaire , 375 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE QUARREL. 
 
 Voltaire and the Jew. — Letter from Frederick to D'Arget. — Letter to Wilhelmina. — Caustic 
 Letters to Voltaire. — Partial Reconciliation. — Frederick's brilliant Conversational Powers. — 
 His Neglect of his Wife. — All Females excluded from his Court. — Maupertuis and the Acad- 
 emy. — Voltaire's Malignity. — Frederick's Anger. — Correspondence between Voltaire and 
 Maupertuis. — Menaces of War. — Catt and the King ..., 387 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF THE SEVEN TEARS' WAR. 
 
 Secret Preparations for a Coalition. — Frederick's Embarrassments. — The uncertain Support of 
 England. — Causes of the War. — Commencement of Hostilities. — Letter from Frederick to his 
 Sister Amelia. — Letter to his Brother. — The Invasion of Saxony. — Misfortunes of the Royal 
 Family of Poland. — Battle of Lobositz. — Energetic Military Movements. — Prisoners of War 
 compelled to enlist in the Prussian Service. — Dispatches from Frederick. — Battle of Prague. 
 — Battle of Kolin. — Retreat of Frederick. — Death of Sophia Dorothea 402 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 DEFEATS AND PERILS. 
 
 Grief of the King over his Mother's Death.— Interesting Letters. —Forces in the Field.— The 
 March upon Dresden.— Devotion of Wilhelmina.— Atheism of the King.— Wilhelmina to 
 Voltaire.— Despair of Frederick.— Great Victory of Rossbach.— Description of the Battle.— 
 Utter Rout of the Allies. —Elation of Frederick.— His Poem on the Occasion. —Ravages of 
 War '. „ 4i8 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE LEUTHEN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Results of the Battle of Rossbach. — The Attack upon Breslau. — Extraordinary Address of the 
 King to his Troops. — Confidence of the Prussians in their Commander. — Magnificent Array 
 of the Austrians at Leuthen. — Tactics of Frederick. — The Battle Hymn. — The Battle and 
 the Victory. — Scenes after the Battle. — Recapture of Breslau by Frederick 434 
 
 [ Seci 
 
 I E 
 
CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 DOMESTIC GRIEFS AND MILITARY REVERSES. 
 
 Destruction of the Army of Prince Charles. — Dismay in Vienna. — Testimony of Napoleon I. — 
 Of Voltaire. — Wretchedness of the King. — Compromise rejected. — New Preparations for 
 War. — Treaty between England and Prussia.— Plan of the Campaign. — Siege of Olmiitz. — 
 Death of Prince Augustus William.— The Baggage Train.— The irreparable Disaster.— Anx- 
 iety of Frederick for Wilhelmina.— The March against the Russians.— The Battle of Zorn- 
 dorf.— Anecdotes of Frederick Page 445 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE THIRD CAMPAIGN OF THE SEVEN TEARS' WAR. 
 
 Frederick's Attempt to Rescue his Brother. — Captured Dispatches.— Battle of Hochkirch. — 
 Defeat and Retreat of Frederick. —Death of Wilhelmina.— Letter to Voltaire.— Rejoicings at 
 Vienna.— The Siege of Neisse.— The Siege of Dresden.— Conflagrations and Terror.— The 
 Siege raised by Frederick.— Results of the Third Campaign.— Unavailing Efforts for Peace. 
 — Despair of Frederick 463 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 FOURTH CAMPAIGN OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Desperate Exertions of Frederick.— Aid from England.— Limited Resources.— Opening of the 
 Campaign.— Disgraceful Conduct of Voltaire.— Letter to Voltaire.— An Act of Desperation. 
 — Letter to Count Finckenstein. — Frankfort taken by the Prussians. — Terrible Battle of 
 Kunersdorf. — Anguish of Frederick. — The Disastrous Retreat. — Melancholy Dispatch. — 
 Contemplating Suicide. — Collecting the Wrecks of the Army. — Consternation in Berlin.— 
 Letters to D'Argens. — Wonderful Strategical Skill. — Literary Efforts of the King 475 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE STRUGGLE CONTINUED. 
 
 Winter Encampment. — Death of Maupertuis. — Infamous Conduct of Voltaire. — Reproof by the 
 King. — Voltaire's Insincerity. — Correspondence. — The King publishes his Poems. — Dishon- 
 orable Conduct of the King. — New Encampment near Dresden. — Destruction of Frederick's 
 Army in Silesia. — Atrocities perpetrated by the Austrians. — Astonishing March. — The Aus- 
 trians outwitted. — Dresden bombarded and almost destroyed by Frederick. — Battle of Leig- 
 nitz. — Utter Rout of the Austrians. — Undiminished Peril of Frederick. — Letter to D'Ar- 
 gens 495 
 
 CHAPTER XXXH. 
 
 ' THE END OF THE FIFTH CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Incessant Marches and Battles. — Letter from Frederick to D'Argens. — Letter to his Brother 
 Henry. — Berlin summoned to Surrender. — Sacking of the City. — Letter to D'Argens. — Des- 
 perate Resolves of Frederick. — The Resort of Suicide. — Remarkable Address of Frederick 
 to his Generals. — Bloody Battle of Torgau. — Dismal Night-scene. — Familiarity of the King 
 with the Soldiers. — Winter Quarters at Freiberg. — Singular Letter to the Countess of Camas. 
 — Death of the Princess Amelia. — Anecdotes of the King. — His domestic Habits. — His un- 
 scrupulous Measures to obtain Men and Money. — Letter of Charlotte of Mecklenburg 507 
 
 CHAPTER XXXin. 
 
 THE END OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Commencement of the Sixth Campaign. — The Fortified Camp at Bunzelwitz. — Skillful En- 
 gineering. — Uninterrupted Toil of the Soldiers. — Retreat of the Russians. — Loss of Schweid- 
 nitz. — Peculiar Treatment of General Zastrow. — Close of the Sixth Campaign. — The King 
 at Breslau. — Desponding Letter to D'Argens. — Death of Elizabeth of Russia. — Accession of 
 Peter III. — His Marriage with the Daughter of a Prussian General. — Takes the Baptismal 
 Name of Catharine. — Assassination of Peter III. — Curious Proclamation by the Empress. — 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 Commencement of the Seventh Campaign. — Alliance of Russia with Prussia. — Withdrawal 
 from the Alliance. — Termination of the War Page 522 
 
 CHAPTER NXXIV. 
 
 THE PARTITION OF POLAND. 
 
 The King patronizes literary and scientific Men. — Anecdotes. — The Family Quarrel. — Birth of 
 Frederick William III. — Rapid Recuperation of Prussia. — The King's Tour of Observation. — 
 Desolate Aspect of the Country. — Absolutism of Frederick. — Interview between Frederick 
 and D'Alembert. — Unpopularity of Frederick. — Death of the King of Poland. — Plans for the 
 Partition of Poland. — Intrigues of Catharine. — Interview between Frederick and the Emperor 
 Joseph. — Poland seized by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. — The Division of the Spoil. — Re- 
 morse of Maria Theresa. — Indifference of Frederick to public Opinion 536 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 life's closing scenes. 
 Character of the Crown Prince. — Stratagem of the Emperor Joseph II. — Death of the Empress 
 Catharine of Russia. — Matrimonial Alliance of Russia and Prussia. — Death of the King of 
 Bavaria. — Attempt to Annex Bavaria to Austria. — Unexpected Energy of Frederick. — Court 
 Intrigues. — Preparations for War. — Address to the Troops. — Declaration of War. — Terror 
 in Vienna. — Irritability of Frederick. — Death of Voltaire. — Unjust Condemnation of the 
 Judges. — Death of Maria Theresa. — Anecdote. — The King's Fondness for Children. — His 
 Fault-finding Spirit. — The King's Appearance. — The Last Review. — Statement of Mirabeau. 
 — Anecdote related by Dr. Moore. — Frederick's Fondness for Dogs. — Increasing Weakness. 
 — Unchanging Obduracy toward the Queen. — The Dying Scene 550 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Frederick the Great. Mt. 73 Frontispiece. 
 
 Frederick the Great Page 19 
 
 Baptism of Frederick 22 
 
 Frederick William 23 
 
 The little Drummer 29 
 
 The Arsenal. 31 
 
 The Sausage Car ?3 
 
 Making a Soldier of him 39 
 
 Captain of the Giant Guards 43 
 
 The Tobacco Parliament 46 
 
 Royalty at Dinner 57 
 
 Wilhelmina 62 
 
 The Dressing-gown 68 
 
 A Koyal Executioner 71 
 
 Frederick and his Sister 79 
 
 The Flight arrested 90 
 
 Frederick William enraged 94 
 
 Destroying the Letters 96 
 
 Wilhelmina Imprisoned. . '. 99 
 
 Frederick in Prison 102 
 
 Doris Patter's Punishment 104 
 
 Frederick at Katte's Execution 108 
 
 ' Grumkow's conference with Wilhelmina.. . 116 
 
 Disciplining the Judges 126 
 
 Berlin Palace 129 
 
 The Reconciliation — 133 
 
 The Betrothal 143 
 
 Frederick and Wilhelmina..' 159 
 
 The King and his Servant 162 
 
 Fritz in his Library 165 
 
 The Banquet 170 
 
 The Crown Prince entering the Tobacco 
 
 Parliament 182 
 
 Frederick meeting his Ministers 190 
 
 Frederick in the Garden 196 
 
 Frederick's first Interview with Voltaire. . . 204 
 
 The Death-scene of the Emperor 215 
 
 Map of Silesia 217 
 
 The March into Silesia 224 
 
 Attack upon Neisse 235 
 
 Frederick on the Field of Baumgarten 241 
 
 The Assault on Glogau 246 
 
 Map illustrating the Mollwitz Campaign. . 247 
 
 The Night before Mollwitz 25] 
 
 Flight of Frederick Page 257 
 
 Frederick at the Mill 260 
 
 Battle of Mollwitz 261 
 
 Frederick's Interview with Valori 272 
 
 Frederick and the British Ministers 276 
 
 The Queen's Appeal to the Hungarian 
 
 Nobles 289 
 
 The King approaching Schnellendorf 290 
 
 Map of the second Silesian Campaign 294 
 
 Frederick the Great. Mt. SO 296 
 
 The young Lords of Saxony on a winter 
 
 Campaign . 303 
 
 Map illustrating the Campaign in Moravia. 306 
 Frederick concentrating his Army at Chru- 
 
 dim 308 
 
 Battle of Chotusitz. 310 
 
 Maria Theresa at the head of her Army.. . 317 
 
 The Pandours 332 
 
 The King in the Tower at Collin 337 
 
 Prince Leopold inspecting the Army in his 
 
 "Cart." 343 
 
 Battle of Hohenfriedberg, June 4, 1745... . 350 
 
 The Retreat of the Austrians 354 
 
 A slight Pleasantry 357 
 
 Frederick and the Old Dessau er 371 
 
 Frederick at the Death-bed of M. Duhan.. 374 
 
 Sans Souci 375 
 
 The new Palace at Potsdam 376 
 
 Frederick and Linsenbarth 382 
 
 Tournament at Berlin in honor of Fred- 
 erick,... 386 
 
 The Invasion of Saxony 405 
 
 Battle of Lobositz, October 1, 1756 407 
 
 The Battle of Prague, May 6, 1757 412 
 
 Battle of Kolin, June 18, 1757 416 
 
 After the Defeat 41 7 
 
 Sophia Dorothea 419 
 
 Map of the Campaign of Rossbach 430 
 
 Battle of Rossbach, November 5, 1757 431 
 
 Map of the Leuthen Campaign 438 
 
 Battle of Leuthen, December 5, 1757 440 
 
 The King in search of Lodgings 444 
 
 Siege of Olmiitz, May 1 2— July 2, 1758 . . . 450 
 Charge of General Seidlitz at Zorndorf . . . 457 
 
XVI 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Battle of Zorndorf, August 25, 1758. .Page 459 
 
 Campaign of Hochkirch 464 
 
 Battle of Hochkirch, October 14, 1758 .... 467 
 
 Frederick crossing the Oder 481 
 
 Battle of Kunersdorf, August 12, 1759 .... 485 
 
 Frederick asleep in the hut at Oetscher.. . . 488 
 
 Battle of Maxen, November 20, 1759 494 
 
 The winter Camp 496 
 
 Battle of Liegnitz, August 16, 1760 505 
 
 Sacking the Palace 510 
 
 Battle of Torgau, November 3, 1760 512 
 
 The King's Bivouac Page 525 
 
 The Empress Catharine 530 
 
 Assassination of Peter III 531 
 
 The Officer and the Curate '. 535 
 
 Frederick the Great. JEt. 59 537 
 
 Map of the East 546 
 
 Condemnation of the Judges 558 
 
 Maria Theresa at the Tomb of her Hus- 
 band 560 
 
 The last Review 564 
 
 Frederick and his Dogs 567 
 
FREDEKICK THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PARENTAGE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Origin of the Prussian Monarchy. — The Duchies of Brandenburg and Prussia. — The Elector 
 crowned King Frederick I. — Frederick William. — His Childhood, Youth, and Marriage. — 
 Birth of Fritz. — Death of Frederick I. — Eccentric Character of Frederick William.— His 
 defective Education. — His Energy. — Curious Anecdotes. — Hatred of the French. — Educa- 
 tion of Fritz. — The Father's Plan of Instruction. 
 
 On the southern coasts of the Baltic Sea, between the latitudes 
 of 52 9 and 54°, there lies a country which was first revealed to 
 civilized eyes about three hundred years before the birth of 
 Christ. The trading adventurers from Marseilles, who landed 
 at various points upon the coast, found it a cold, savage region 
 of lakes, forests, marshy jungles, and sandy wastes. A shaggy 
 tribe peopled it, of semi-barbarians, almost as w T ild as the bears, 
 wolves, and swine which roamed their forests. As the centuries 
 rolled on, centuries of which, in these remote regions, history 
 takes no note, but in which the gloomy generations came and 
 went, shouting, fighting, weeping, dying, gradually the aspect of 
 a rude civilization spread over those dreary solitudes. The sav- 
 age inhabitants, somewhat tamed, increased in numbers, and 
 there appeared a tall and manly race of fair complexion, light 
 hair, stern aspect, great physical strength, and very formidable 
 in battle. 
 
 Still centuries elapsed, leaving little for history to record but 
 war and woe. Fierce tribes swept in all directions. Battle was 
 life's great business. Man, ignorant, degraded, brutal, could have, 
 had but few if any joys. Perhaps, through his degradation, his 
 woes were only such as beasts feel. By degrees, from this chaos, 
 a certain kind of governmental order emerged. Small tribes be- 
 came united under powerful chieftains. Kings arose. There 
 were all varieties of political organizations, 'dukedoms, principal- 
 
 B 
 
18 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ities, marquisates, and electorates. It is recorded that Adalbert, 
 bishop of Prag, about the year 997, with two companions, as 
 apostles of Christianity, first penetrated these wilds. Like Chris- 
 tian heroes they went, with staff and scrip, regardless of danger. 
 The bishop was fifty years of age, and his gray hairs floated in 
 the breeze. As he landed a stout savage struck him with the 
 flat of his oar, and sent him headlong to the ground. 
 
 The zealous bishop, perhaps not unwilling to secure the crown 
 of martyrdom, pressed on, preaching the Gospel, in face of pro- 
 hibitions and menaces, until he entered one of the sacred incis- 
 ures which was a sanctuary of the idols of these heathen. The 
 priests rushed upon him, endeavored to drive him out, and struck 
 him with a dagger in the back of his neck. He uttered but one 
 cry, " Jesus, receive me !" and, stretching out his arms, fell with 
 his face to the ground, and lay dead there " in the form of a cru- 
 cifix." The place is yet pointed out where Adalbert fell. Still 
 the seeds of Christianity were sown. Other missionaries fol- 
 lowed. Idolatry disappeared, and the realm became nominally 
 Christian. Revealed religion introduced increased enlighten- 
 ment and culture, though there still remained much of the sav- 
 agery of ancient days. 
 
 When the Reformation in the sixteenth century was present- 
 ed to Europe, and was rejected by Italy, France, Austria, and 
 Spain, it was accepted, though not unanimously, yet very gener- 
 ally, by the inhabitants of this wild region. In the year 1700 
 there was, in the midst of the realm of which we are about to 
 write, and which is now called Prussia, a province then known 
 as the Marquisate of Brandenburg. It embraced a little over 
 fifteen thousand square miles, being about twice as large as the 
 State of Massachusetts. It was one of the electorates of Ger- 
 many, and the elector or marquis, Frederick, belonged to the re- 
 nowned family of Hohenzollern. To the east of Brandenburg 
 there was a duchy called Prussia. This duchy, in some of the 
 political agitations of the times, had been transferred to the Mar- 
 quis of Brandenburg. The Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick, 
 an ambitious man, rejoicing in the extent of his domain, which 
 was large for a marquisate, though small for a monarchy, ob- 
 tained from the Emperor of Germany its recognition as a king- 
 dom, and assumed the title of Frederick I. of Prussia. Many of 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 19 
 
 FREDERICK THE GR 
 
 the proud monarchies of Europe did not conceal the contempt 
 with which they regarded this petty kingdom. They received 
 the elector into their society very much as haughty nobles, proud 
 of a long line of illustrious ancestry, would receive a successful 
 merchant who had purchased a title. Frederick himself was 
 greatly elated with the honor he had attained, and his subjects 
 shared with him in his exultation. 
 
 Berlin was the capital of Brandenburg. Konigsberg, an im- 
 portant sea-port on the Baltic, nearly five hundred miles east of 
 Berlin, was the capital of the Prussian duchy. The ceremony 
 
20 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 of coronation took place at Konigsberg. The road, for most of 
 the distance, was through a very wild, uncultivated country. 
 Eighteen hundred carriages, with thirty thousand post-horses, 
 were provided to convey the court to the scene of coronation. 
 Such a cavalcade was never beheld in those parts before. The 
 carriages moved like an army, in three divisions of six hundred 
 each. Volumes have been written descriptive of the pageant. 
 It is said that the diamond buttons on the king's coat cost seven 
 thousand five hundred dollars each. The streets were not only 
 tapestried with the richest cloth of the most gorgeous colors, but 
 many of them were softly carpeted for the feet of the high-born 
 men and proud dames who contributed, by their picturesque 
 costume, to the brilliance of the spectacle. Frederick, with his 
 own hands, placed the crown upon his brow. Thus was the king- 
 dom of Prussia^ ushered into being at the close of the year 1700. 
 Frederick I. had a son, Frederick William, then twelve years 
 of age. He accompanied his father upon this coronation tour. 
 As heir to the throne he was called the Crown Prince. His 
 mother was a Hanoverian princess, a sister of the Elector George 
 of Hanover, who subsequently became George I. of England. 
 George I. did not succeed to the British crown until the death 
 of Anne, in 1714. When Frederick William was but five years 
 of age he had been taken by his mother to Hanover, to visit her 
 brother, then the elector. George had two children — a little 
 girl, named Sophie Dorothee, a few months older than Frederick 
 William, and a son, who subsequently became George II. of En- 
 gland. The two boys did not love each other. They often 
 quarreled. Though Frederick William was the younger, it is 
 said that on one occasion he severely beat his cousin, the future 
 King of England, causing the blood to flow freely. He develo]3ed 
 a very energetic but unamiable character. Among other anec- 
 dotes illustrative of his determined spirit, it is recorded that at 
 one time, during this visit, his governess ordered some task which 
 he was unwilling to perform. The headstrong boy sprang out 
 of the third story window of the castle, and, clinging to the sill 
 with his hands, threatened to let himself drop. The terrified 
 Madame Montbail was thus brought to terms.* 
 
 * "He got no improvement in breeding, as we intimated; none at all: fought, on the 
 rary, with his young cousin, afterward our George II., a boy twice his age, though of wt 
 
 con- 
 leaker 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 21 
 
 Sophie Dorothee was a very pretty child. The plan was prob- 
 ably already contemplated by the parents that the two should 
 be married in due time. Soon after this Frederick William lost 
 his mother, and with her all of a mother's care and gentle influ- 
 ences. Her place was taken by a step-mother, whose peevishness 
 and irritability soon developed into maniacal insanity. When 
 Frederick William was eighteen years of age he was allowed to 
 choose between three princesses for his wife. He took his pret- 
 ty cousin, Sophie Dorothee. They were married with great pomp 
 on the 28th of November, 1706. 
 
 A son was born and died. A daughter came, Wilhelmina. 
 But a daughter could not inherit the crown. Another son was 
 born and died. There was great anxiety at court, from fear that 
 the direct line of succession might not be preserved. But on 
 the 24th of January, XZ12+ when the monarchy was but twelve 
 years old, the little j)rince was born who subsequently obtained 
 such renown as Frederick the Great. The king, his grandfather, 
 was aged and infirm. The excessive joy with which he greeted 
 little Fritz, as he fondly called the child, was cordially recipro- 
 cated throughout the Prussian nation. The realm blazed with 
 bonfires and illuminations, and resounded with every demonstra- 
 tion of public joy. The young prince was christened with great 
 pomp, Charles Frederick. The emperor, Charles VI., was pres- 
 ent on the occasion, and in the solemnities there were blended 
 the most imposing civil, military, and ecclesiastical rites. The 
 baptism took place on the 31st of January, 1712, when the babe 
 was a week old. The young prince subsequently dropped the 
 name of Charles, and Frederick became his sole designation. 
 Wilhelmina, Frederick's sister, was about three years older than 
 himself. We .shall have frequent occasion to allude to her in the 
 course of this history, as between her and her brother there 
 sprang up a warm attachment, which was of life-long continu- 
 ance. Ten children were subsequently born to the royal pair, 
 making fourteen in all, most of whom attained mature years. 
 
 Frederick William, the Crown Prince, was at the time of the 
 birth of his son Frederick twenty-four years of age. He was a 
 
 bone, and gave him a bloody nose, to the scandal and consternation of the French Protestant 
 gentlemen and court dames in their stiff silks. 'Ahee your electoral highness!' This had 
 been a rough unruly boy from the first discovery of him.'' — Carlyle. 
 
22 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 BAPTISM OF FREDERICK. 
 
 very peculiar man, sturdy and thick-set in figure, of strong men- 
 tal powers, but quite uneducated. He was unpolished in man- 
 ners, rude in his address, honest and sincere, a stern, persevering 
 worker, despising all luxurious indulgence, and excessively de- 
 voted to the routine of military duties. 
 
 The king, Frederick I., had for some time been in a feeble state 
 of health. The burden of life had proved heavier than he was 
 able to bear. His wife was crazed, his home desolate, his health 
 broken, and many mortifications and disappointments had so 
 crushed his spirits that he had fallen into the deepest state of 
 melancholy. As he was sitting alone and sad in a chill morn- 
 ing of February, 1713, gazing into the fire, absorbed in painful 
 musings, suddenly there was a crash of the glass door of the 
 apartment. His frenzied wife, half-clad, with disheveled hair, 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 23 
 
 FREDERICK WILLIAM. 
 
 having escaped from her keepers, came bursting through the 
 shattered panes. Her arms were gashed with glass, and she was 
 in the highest state of maniacal excitement. The shock proved 
 a death-blow to the infirm old king. He was carried to his bed, 
 which he never left, dying in a few days. His grandson Fred- 
 erick was then fourteen months old. 
 
 Frederick William was too stern a man to shed many tears 
 over his father's death. The old king was ostentatious in his 
 tastes, fond of parade and splendor. The son had almost an in- 
 sane contempt for all court etiquette and all the elegancies of 
 
24 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 life. As he stood by his father's dying bed, his unamiable, rug- 
 ged nature developed itself in .the disgust, almost rage, with 
 which he regarded the courtly pageantry with which the expir- 
 ing monarch was surrounded. The remains of the king were al- 
 lowed to be conveyed to the tomb with that pomp which had 
 been dear to him while living. 
 
 But, immediately after these ceremonies were over, the new 
 monarch, who assumed the crown with the title of Frederick 
 William, not with that of Frederick II., to the utter consterna- 
 tion of the court, dismissed nearly every honorary official of the 
 palace, from the highest dignitary to the humblest page. His 
 flashing eye and determined manner were so appalling that no 
 one ventured to remonstrate. ^A clean sweep was made, so that 
 the household was reduced to the lowest footing of economy con- 
 sistent with the supply of indispensable wants. Eight servants 
 were retained at six shillings a week. His father had thirty 
 pages ; all were dismissed but three. There were one thousand 
 saddle-horses in the royal stables; Frederick William kept thirty. 
 Three fourths of the names were struck from the pension-list. 
 Thus rigidly the king went on through every department of ad- 
 ministrative and household expenses, until they were reduced to 
 below a fifth of what they had been under his father. 
 
 For twenty-seven years this strange man reigned. He was 
 like no other monarch. Great wisdom and shrewdness were 
 blended with unutterable folly and almost maniacal madness. 
 Though a man of strong powers of mind, he was very illiterate. 
 He certainly had some clear views of political economy. Car- 
 lyle says of him, " His semi- articulate papers and rescripts on 
 these subjects are still almost worth reading by a lover of genu- 
 ine human talent in the dumb form. For spelling, grammar, 
 penman ship, and composition they resemble nothing else extant 
 — are as if clone by the paw of a bear ; indeed, the utterance gen- 
 erally sounds more like the growling of a bear than any thing 
 that could be handily spelled or parsed. But there is -a decisive 
 human sense in the heart of it ; and there is such a dire hatred 
 of empty bladders, unrealities, and hypocritical forms and pre- 
 tenses, which he calls wind and humbug, as is very strange in- 
 deed." 
 
 His energy inspired the whole kingdom, and paved the way 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 25 
 
 for the achievements of his son. The father created the machine 
 with which the son attained such wonderful results. He com- 
 muted the old feudal service into a fixed money payment. * He 
 goaded the whole realm into industry, compelling even the ap- 
 ple-woruen to knit at the stalls. The crown lands were careful- 
 ly farmed out. He drained bogs, planted colonies, established 
 manufactures, and in every way encouraged the use of Prussian 
 products. He carried with him invariably a stout rattan cane. 
 Upon the slightest provocation, like a madman, he would thrash 
 those who displeased him. He was thoroughly an arbitrary 
 king, ruling at his sovereign will, and disposing of the liberty, 
 the property, and the lives of his subjects at his pleasure. Every 
 year he was accumulating large masses of coin, which he deposit- 
 ed in barrels in the cellar of his palace. He had no powers of 
 graceful speech, but spent his energetic, joyless life in grumbling 
 and growling. 
 
 The Prussian minister, Baron Pollnitz, in a letter from Berlin 
 dated June 6, 1729, writes : "The king's prime minister is the 
 king himself, who is informed of every thing, and is desirous to 
 know every thing. He gives great application to business, but 
 does it with extraordinary ease ; and nothing escapes his pene- 
 tration nor his memory, which is a very happy one. No sover- 
 eign in the world is of more easy access, his subjects being actu- 
 ally permitted to write to him without any other formality than 
 superscribing the letter To the King. By writing underneath. 
 To he delivered into his Majesty's own hands, one may be sure 
 that the king receives and reads it, and that the next post he 
 will answer it, either with his own hands or by his secretary. 
 These answers are short, but peremptory. There is no town in 
 all the King of Prussia's dominions, except Neufchatel, where he 
 has not been ; no province which he does not know full well ; 
 nor a court of justice but he is acquainted with its chief mem- 
 bers." 
 
 Fully conscious that the respect which would be paid to him 
 as a European sovereign greatly depended upon the number of 
 men he could bring into the field of battle, Frederick William 
 devoted untiring energies to the creation of an army. By the 
 most severe economy, watching with an eagle eye every expendi- 
 ture, and bringing his cudgel down mercilessly upon the shoul- 
 
26 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ders of every loiterer, lie succeeded in raising and maintaining 
 an army of one hundred thousand men ; seventy-two thousand 
 being field troops, and thirty thousand in garrison.* He drilled 
 these troops as troops were never drilled before. 
 
 Kegardless himself of comfort, insensible to fatigue, dead to 
 affection, he created perhaps the most potent military machine 
 earth has ever known. Prussia was an armed camp. The king 
 prized his soldiers as a miser prizes his gold coin, and was as un- 
 willing to expose them to any danger as the miser is to hazard 
 his treasures. War would thin his regiments, soil his uniforms, 
 destroy his materiel. He hated war. But his army caused Prus- 
 sia to be respected. If needful, he could throw one hundred 
 thousand of the best drilled and best furnished troops in Eu- 
 rope, like a thunderbolt, upon any point. Unprincipled mon- 
 archs would think twice before they would encroach upon a man 
 thus armed. 
 
 There was but one short war in which Frederick William en- 
 gaged during his reign of twenty-seven years. That was with 
 Charles XII. of Sweden. It lasted but a few months, and from 
 it the Prussian king returned victorious. The demands of Fred- 
 erick William were not unreasonable. As he commenced the 
 brief campaign, which began and ended with the siege of Stral- 
 sund, he said: "Why will the very king whom I most respect 
 compel me to be his enemy?" In his characteristic farewell. or- 
 der to his ministers, he wrote : " My wife shall be told of all 
 things, and counsel asked of her. And as I am a man, and may 
 be shot dead, I command you and all to take care of Fritz, as God 
 shall reward you. And I give you all, wife to begin with, my 
 curse that God may punish you in time and eternity if you do 
 not, after my death, bury me in the vault of the palace church 
 at Berlin. And you shall make no grand to-do on the occasion. 
 On your body and life no festivals and ceremonials, except that 
 the regiments, one after the other, fire a volley over me. I am 
 assured that you will manage every thing with all the exactness 
 in the world, for which I shall ever, zealously, as long as I live, 
 be your friend." 
 
 The king was scrupulously clean, washing five times a clay. 
 He would allow no drapery, no stuffed furniture, no carpets in 
 
 * Gestdndnisse eines (Esterreichischen Veterans, i., p. G4. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 27 
 
 his apartments. They caught dust. He sat upon a plain wood- 
 en chair. He ate roughly, like a farmer, of roast beef, despising 
 all delicacies. His almost invariable dress was a close military 
 blue coat, with red cuffs and collar, buff waistcoat and breeches, 
 and white linen gaiters to the knee. A sword was belted around 
 his loins, and, as we have said, a stout rattan or bamboo cane 
 ever in his hand. A well-worn, battered, triangular hat covered 
 his head. He walked rapidly through the streets which sur- 
 rounded his palaces at Potsdam and Berlin. If he met any one 
 who attracted his attention, male or female, he would abruptly, 
 menacingly inquire, "Who are you?" A street-lounger he has 
 been known to hit over the head with his cane, exclaiming, 
 " Home, you rascal, and go to work." If any one prevaricated 
 or hesitated, he would sternly demand, " Look me in the face." 
 If there were still hesitancy, or the king were dissatisfied with 
 the answers, the one interrogated was lucky if he escaped with- 
 out a caning.* 
 
 The boorish king hated the refinement and polish of the French. 
 If he met a lady in rich attire, she was pretty sure to be rudely 
 assailed ; and a young man fashionably dressed could hardly es- 
 cape the cudgel if he came within reach of the king's arm. The 
 king, stalking through the streets, was as marked an object as an 
 elephant would have been. Every one instantly recognized him, 
 and many fled at his approach. One day he met a pale, thread- 
 bare young man, who was quietly passing him, when the king 
 stopped, in his jerking gait, and demanded, in his coarse, rapid 
 utterance, " Who are you?" "I am a theological student," the 
 young man quietly replied. "Where from?" added the king. 
 " From Berlin," was the response. " From Berlin ?" the king re- 
 joined; "the Berliners are all a good-for-nothing set." "Yes, 
 your majesty, that is true of many of them," the young man add- 
 ed ; " but I know of two exceptions." " Of two ?" responded the 
 king ; " which are they ?" " Your majesty and myself," the young 
 man replied. The king burst into a good-humored laugh, and, 
 
 * "When his majesty took a walk, every human being fled before him, as if a tiger had broken 
 loose from a menagerie. If he met a lady in the street, he gave her a kick, and told her to go 
 home and mind her brats. If he saw a clergyman staring at the soldiers, he admonished the 
 reverend gentleman to betake himself to study and prayer, and enforced this pious advice by a 
 sound caning administered on the spot. But it was in his own house that he was most unrea- 
 sonable and ferocious. His palace was hell, and he the most execrable of fiends." — Macaulay. 
 
28 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 after having the young man carefully examined, assigned him to 
 a chaplaincy. 
 
 The French minister at the court of Berlin, Count Rothen- 
 burg, was a Prussian by birth. He was a man of much diplo- 
 matic ability, and a very accomplished gentleman. Having spent 
 much of his life in Paris, he had acquired the polished manners 
 of the French court, and wore the costume appropriate to the 
 Tuileries and Versailles. He and his associates in the embassy 
 attracted much attention as they appeared in their cocked hats, 
 flowing wigs, laced coats, and other gorgeous trimmings. The 
 king, in his homespun garb, was apprehensive that the example 
 so obnoxious to him might spread. 
 
 There was to be a grand review on the parade-ground just out 
 from Berlin, at which the French embassy was to be present. 
 The king caused a party equal in number, composed of the low- 
 est of the people, to be dressed in an enormous exaggeration of 
 the French costume. Their cocked hats were nearly a yard in 
 diameter. Immense wigs reached to their heels; and all other 
 parts of the French court costume were caricatured in the most 
 grotesque manner possible. As soon as the French embassy ap- 
 peared, there was a great sound of trumpets and martial bands 
 from another part of the field, and these harlequins were brought 
 forward to the gaze of every eye, and conspicuously to the view 
 of Count Rothenburg and his companions. Military discipline 
 prevented any outburst of derisive laughter. Perfect silence 
 reigned. The king sat upon his horse as stolid and grim as fate. 
 Count Rothenburg yielded to this gross discourtesy of the king, 
 and ever after, while he remained in Berlin, wore a plain Ger- 
 man costume. 
 
 Frederick William was very anxious that little Fritz should 
 be trained to warlike tastes and habits ; that, like himself, he 
 should scorn all effeminacy; that, wearing homespun clothes, 
 eating frugal food, despising all pursuits of pleasure and all lit- 
 erary tastes, he should be every inch a soldier. But, to the bit- 
 ter disappointment of the father, the child manifested no taste 
 for soldiering. He was gentle, affectionate, fond of books and 
 music,* and with an almost feminine love clung to his sister. The 
 
 * "It was the queen-mother who encouraged the prince in his favorite amusement, and who 
 engaged musicians for his service. But so necessary was secrecy in all these negotiations that 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 29 
 
 stern old king was not only disappointed, but angered. These 
 were qualities which he deemed unmanly, and which he thor- 
 oughly despised. 
 
 One day the father, returning home, found, to his inexpressible 
 delight, little Fritz strutting about beating a drum, with Wilhel- 
 mina marching by his side. The king could scarcely restrain his 
 
 THE LITTLE DRUMMER. 
 
 joy. At last the military element was being developed in his 
 child. He hastened with the tidings to his wife, whom he called 
 
 if the king, his father, had discovered he was disobeyed, all these sons of Apollo would have in- 
 curred the danger of being hanged. The prince frequently took occasion to meet his musi- 
 cians a-hunting, and had his concerts either in a forest or cavern." — Burney, Present State of 
 Music in Germany, ii., 139. 
 
30 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 by the pet name of " Phiekin" — a word apparently coined from 
 Sophie. The matter was talked about all over the jDalaee. A 
 painter was sent for to transfer the scene to canvas. This pic- 
 ture, greatly admired, still hangs upon the walls of the Charlot- 
 tenburg palace. Of this picture Carlyle writes: "Fritz is still, 
 if not in ' long-clothes,' at least in longish and flowing clothes of 
 the petticoat sort, which look as of dark blue velvet, very simple, 
 pretty, and appropriate ; in a cap of the same ; has a short ra- 
 ven's feather in the cap, and looks up with a face and eyes full 
 of beautiful vivacity and child's enthusiasm, one of the beauti- 
 fulest little figures, while the little drum responds to his bits of 
 drumsticks. Sister Wilhelmina, taller by some three years, looks 
 on in pretty stooping attitude, and with a graver smile. Black- 
 amoor and room-furniture elegant enough ; and finally the figure 
 of a grenadier on guard, seen far off through an open window, 
 make up the background." 
 
 The early governess of little Fritz was a French lady of much 
 refinement and culture, Madame Racoule. She was in entire 
 sympathy with her pupil. Their tastes were in harmony. Fritz 
 became as familiar with the French language as if it were his 
 mother tongue. Probably through her influence he acquired 
 that fondness for French literature and that taste for French ele- 
 gance which continued with him through life. 
 
 When the child was but six years of age his father organized 
 a miniature soldiers' company for him, consisting of one hundred 
 lads. Gradually the number was increased to three hundred. 
 The band was called "The Crown Prjnce Cadets." A very spir- 
 ited, mature boy of seventeen, named Rentzel, was drill-sergeant, 
 while an experienced colonel was appointed commander-in-chief. 
 Fritz was very thoroughly instructed in his duties, and was fur- 
 nished with a military dress, almost the fac-simile of that which 
 his father wore. An arsenal was also provided for the child on 
 the palace grounds at Potsdam, where he mounted batteries and 
 practiced gunnery with small brass ordnance. Nothing was 
 omitted which could inspire the prince with military enthusiasm, 
 and render him skillful in the art of war. A Prussian gentleman 
 of letters testifies as follows respecting Fritz in his seventh year: 
 
 "The Crown Prince manifests in this tender age an uncommon 
 capacity, nay, we may say, something quite extraordinary. He 
 
 \ 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 31 
 
 THE ARSENAL. 
 
 is a most alert and vivacious prince. He has fine and sprightly 
 manners, and shows a certain kindly sociality and so affection- 
 ate a disposition that all things may be hoped of him. The 
 French lady who has had charge of him hitherto can not speak 
 of him without enthusiasm. ' He is a little angel/ she is wont 
 to say. He takes up and learns whatever is placed before him 
 with the greatest facility." 
 
 When Fritz was seven years of age, he was taken from the 
 care of his female teachers and placed under tutors who had been 
 carefully selected for him. They were all military officers who 
 had won renown on fields of blood. The first of these was M. 
 Duhan, a French gentleman of good birth and acquirements. He 
 was but thirty years of age. By his accomplishments he won 
 the esteem, and by his amiability the love, of his pupil. Count 
 Finkenstein, the second, was a veteran general, sixty years old, 
 who also secured the affections of little Fritz. Colonel Kalk- 
 stein was twenty-eight years of age. He was a thorough soldier 
 and a man of honor. For forty years, until his death, he retained 
 the regards of his pupil, who was ever accustomed to speak of 
 him as " my master Kalkstein." In the education of the young 
 
32 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 prince every thing was conducted in accordance with the most 
 inflexible routine. From the minute directions given to the 
 teachers in a document drawn up by the father, bunglingly ex- 
 pressed and wretchedly spelled, we cull out the following : 
 ^ "My son must be impressed with love and fear of God, as the 
 foundation of our temporal and eternal welfare. No false re- 
 ligions or sects of Atheist, Arian, Socinian, or whatever name the 
 poisonous things have, which can so easily corrupt a young mind, 
 are to be even named in his hearing. He is to be taught a prop- 
 er abhorrence of papistry, and to be shown its baselessness and 
 nonsensicality. Impress on him the true religion, which consists 
 essentially in this, that Christ died for all men. He is to learn 
 no Latin, but French and German, so as to speak and write with 
 brevity and propriety. 
 
 "Let him learn arithmetic, mathematics, artillery, economy, to 
 the very bottom ; history in particular ; ancient history only 
 slightly, but the history of the last hundred and fifty years to 
 the exactest pitch. He must be completely master of geography, 
 as also of whatever is remarkable in each country. With in- 
 creasing years you will more and more, to an especial degree, go 
 upon fortification, the formation of a camp, and other war sci- 
 ences, that the prince may, from youth upward, be trained to act 
 as officer and general, and to seek all his glory in the soldier 
 profession. You have, in the highest measure, to make it your 
 care to infuse into my son a true love for the soldier business, 
 and to impress on him that, as there is nothing in the world 
 which can bring a prince renown and honor like the sword, so 
 he would be a despised creature before all men r if he did not 
 love it and seek his glory therein." 
 
 In October, 1723, when the prince was eleven years of age, his 
 grandfather, George I., came to Berlin to visit his daughter and 
 his son-in-law, the mother and father of Fritz. From the win- 
 dows of his apartment he looked out with much interest upon 
 Fritz, drilling his cadet company upon the esplanade in front of 
 the palace. The clock-work precision of the movements of the 
 boy soldiers greatly surprised him. 
 
 Every year Frederick William rigorously reviewed all his gar- 
 risons. Though accompanied by a numerous staff, he traveled 
 with Spartan simplicity, regardless of exposure and fatigue. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 33 
 
 THE SAUSAGE CAR. 
 
 From an early age he took Fritz with him on these annual re- 
 views. A common vehicle, called the sausage car, and which 
 was the most primitive of carriages, was often used by the king 
 in his rough travels and hunting excursions. This consisted of 
 a mere stuffed pole, some ten or twelve feet long, upon which one 
 sits astride, as if riding a rail. It rested upon wheels, probably 
 with a sort of stirrup for the feet, and the riders, ten or a dozen, 
 were rattled along oyer the rough roads, through dust or mad, 
 alike regardless of winter's frost or summer's rain. The cast- 
 iron king, rejoicing in hardship and exposure, robbed his deli- 
 cate child even of needful sleep, saying, "Too much sleep stupe- 
 fies a fellow." 
 
 This rude, coarse discipline was thoroughly uncongenial to the 
 Crown Prince. He was a boy of delicate feelings and sensitive 
 temperament. The poetic nature very decidedly predominated 
 in him. He was fond of music, played the flute, wrote verses, 
 and was literary in his tastes. He simply hated chasing boars, 
 riding on the sausage car, and being drenched with rain and 
 spattered with mud. The old king, a mere animal with an act- 
 ive intellect, could not appreciate, could not understand even, the 
 
 C 
 
34 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 delicate mental and physical organization of his child. It is in- 
 teresting to observe how early in life these constitutional char- 
 acteristics will develop themselves, and how unavailing are all 
 the efforts of education entirely to obliterate them. When Fred- 
 erick William was a boy, he received, as a present, a truly mag- 
 nificent dressing-gown, of graceful French fashion, richly em- 
 broidered with gold. Indignantly he thrust the robe into the 
 fire, declaring that he would wear no such finery, and demanded 
 instead a jacket of wholesome homespun. Fritz, on the contrary, 
 could not endure the coarse homespun, but, with almost girlish 
 fondness, craved handsome dress. He had no money allowance 
 until he was seventeen years of age. A minute account was 
 kept of every penny expended for him, and the most rigid econ- 
 omy was practiced in providing him with the mere necessaries 
 of life. When Fritz was in the tenth year of his age, his father 
 gave the following curious directions to the three teachers of his 
 son in reference to his daily mode of life. The document, an 
 abridgment of which we give, was dated Wusterhausen, Septem- 
 ber 3,1721: 
 
 "On Sunday he is to rise at seven o'clock, and, as soon as he 
 has got his slippers on, shall kneel at his bedside and pray to 
 God, so as all in the room may hear, in these words : 
 
 "'Lord God, blessed Father, I thank thee from my heart that 
 thou hast so graciously preserved me through this night. Fit 
 me for what thy holy will is, and grant that I do nothing this 
 day, nor all the days of my life, which can divide me from thee; 
 for the Lord Jesus my Kedeemer's sake. Amen.' 
 
 "After which the Lord's Prayer; then rapidly and vigorous- 
 ly wash himself clean ; dress, and powder, and comb himself. 
 While they are combing and queuing him, he is to breakfast on 
 tea. Prayer, washing, breakfast, and the rest to be done point- 
 edly within fifteen minutes. 
 
 "This finished, his domestics and preceptor, Duhan, shall come 
 in and perform family worship. Prayer on their knees. Duhan 
 to read a chapter of the Bible, and sing some proper psalm or 
 hymn. All the domestics then withdraw, and Duhan reads my 
 son the Gospel of the Sunday, expounds it a little, adducing the 
 main points of Christianity, and questioning him from Noltenius's 
 Catechism. It will then be nine o'clock. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 35 
 
 "At nine o'clock he brings my son down to me, who goes to 
 church and dines with me at twelve o'clock. The rest of the 
 day is his own. At half past nine in the evening he shall come 
 and bid me good-night ; shall then go directly to his room ; very 
 rapidly get off his clothes, wash his hands, and, as soon as that 
 is done,Duhan shall make a prayer on his knees and sing a hymn, 
 all the servants being there again. Instantly after which my 
 son shall get into bed ; shall be in bed at half past ten. 
 
 " On Monday, as on all week-days, he is to be called at six 
 o'clock, and so soon as he is called he is to rise. You are to 
 stand by him that he do not loiter or turn in bed, but briskly 
 and at once get up and say his prayers the same as on Sunday 
 morning. This done, he shall, as rapidly as he can, get on his 
 shoes and spatterdashes, also wash his face and hands, but not 
 with soap ; shall put on his dressing-gown, have his hair combed 
 and queued, but not powdered. While being combed and queued, 
 he shall, at the same time, take breakfast of tea, so that both jobs 
 go on at once ; and all this shall be ended before half past six. 
 Preceptor and domestics shall then come in with Bible and 
 hymn-books, and have family worship as on Sunday. This shall 
 be done by seven o'clock. 
 
 "From seven till nine Duhan takes him on history; at nine 
 o'clock comes Noltenius" (a clergyman from Berlin) " with the 
 Christian religion till a quarter to eleven. Then Fritz rapidly 
 washes his face with water, his hands with soap and water ; clean 
 shirt ; powders and puts on his coat. At eleven o'clock he comes 
 to the king, dines with him at twelve, and stays till two. 
 
 "Directly at two he goes back to his room. Duhan is then 
 ready ; takes him upon maps and geography from two to three 
 o'clock, giving account of all the European kingdoms, their 
 strength and weakness ; the size, riches, and poverty of their 
 towns. From three o'clock till four Duhan shall treat of moral- 
 ity ; from four till five shall write German letters with him, and 
 see that he gets a good style. About five o'clock Fritz shall 
 wash his hands and go to the king ; ride out, and divert himself 
 in the air, and not in his room, and do what he likes if it is not 
 against God." 
 
 Thus the employments of every hour were strictly specified 
 for every day in the week. On Wednesday he had a partial 
 
36 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 holiday. After half past nine, having finished his history and 
 " got something by heart to strengthen the memory, Fritz shall 
 rapidly dress himself and come to the king, and the rest of the 
 day belongs to little Fritz." On Saturday he was to be reviewed 
 in all the studies of the week, " to see whether he has profited. 
 General Finkenstein and Colonel Kalkstein shall be present dur- 
 ing this. If Fritz has profited, the afternoon shall be his own. 
 If he has not profited, he shall from two o'clock till six repeat 
 and learn rightly what he has forgotten on the past days. In 
 undressing and dressing, you must accustom him to get out of 
 and into his clothes as fast as is humanly possible. You will 
 also look that he learn to put on and put off his clothes himself, 
 without help from others, and that he be clean, and neat, and not 
 so dirty." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 LIFE IN THE PALACE. 
 
 The Palace of Wusterhausen. — Wilhelraina and Fritz. — Education of tie Crown Prince.— 
 Rising Dislike of the Father for his Son. — The Mother's Sympathy.— Tile double Marriage. — 
 Character of George I. — The King of England visits Berlin. — Wimelmina's Account of the 
 Interview. — Sad Fate of the Wife of George I. — The Giant Guard/— Despotism of Frederick 
 William. — The Tobacco Parliament. — A brutal Scene. — Death of George I. — The Royal 
 Family of Prussia. — Augustus, King of Poland. — Corruption of his Court. — Cruel Treatment 
 of Fritz. — Insane Conduct of the King. 
 
 Wusterhausen, where the young Crown Prince spent many 
 of these early years of his life, was a rural retreat of the king 
 about twenty miles southeast from Berlin. The palace consisted 
 of a plain, unornamented, rectangular pile, surrounded by numer- 
 ous outbuildings, and rising from the midst of low and swampy 
 grounds tangled with thickets and interspersed with fish-pools. 
 Game of all kinds abounded in those lakelets, sluggish streams, 
 and jungles. 
 
 In the court-yard there was a fountain with stone steps, where 
 Frederick William loved to sit on summer evenings and smoke 
 his pipe. He frequently took his frugal dinner here in the open 
 air under a lime-tree, with the additional protection of an awning. 
 After dinner he would throw himself down for a nap on a 
 wooden bench, apparently regardless of the flaming sun. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 37 
 
 There seems to have been but little which was attractive 
 about this castle. It was surrounded by a moat, which Wilhel- 
 mina describes as a " black, abominable ditch." Its pets were 
 shrieking eagles, and two black bears ugly and vicious. Its in- 
 terior accommodations were at the farthest possible remove from 
 luxurious indulgence. "It was a dreadfully crowded place," 
 says Wilhelmina, " where you are stuffed into garrets and have 
 not room to turn." 
 
 Still Wusterhausen was but a hunting-lodge, which was occu- 
 pied by the king only during a few weeks in the autumn. Fritz 
 had many playmates — his brothers and sisters, his cousins, and 
 the children of General Finkenstein. To most boys, the streams, 
 and groves, and ponds of Wusterhausen, abounding with fish and 
 all kinds of game, with ponies to drive and boats to row, with 
 picturesque walks and drives, would have been full of charms. 
 But the tastes of Fritz did not lie in that direction. He does 
 not seem to have become strongly attached to any of his young 
 companions, except to his sister Wilhelmina. The affection and 
 confidence which united their hearts were truly beautiful. They 
 encountered together some of the severest of life's trials, but 
 heartfelt sympathy united them. The nickname which these 
 children gave their unamiable father was Stumpy. 
 
 There were other abodes of the king, the Berlin and Potsdam 
 palaces, which retained much of the splendor with which they 
 had been embellished by the splendor-loving monarch, Frederick 
 I. There were but few regal mansions in the world which then 
 surpassed them. And though the king furnished his own apart- 
 ments with Spartan simplicity and rudeness, there were other 
 portions of these royal residences, as also their surroundings in 
 general, which were magnificent in the highest degree. The 
 health of little Fritz was rather frail, and at times he found it 
 hard to devote himself to his sturdy tasks with the energy which 
 his father required. 
 
 Though Fritz wrote a legible business hand, was well instruct- 
 ed in most points of useful knowledge, and had a very decided 
 taste for elegant literature, he never attained correctness in spell- 
 ing. The father was bitterly opposed to Latin. Perhaps it was 
 the prohibition which inspired the son with an intense desire to 
 learn that language. He took secret lessons. His vigilant fa- 
 
38 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ther caught him in the very act, with dictionary and grammar, 
 and a teacher by his side. The infuriated king, volleying forth 
 his rage, would have caned the teacher had he not in terror fled.* 
 
 The king soon learned, to his inexpressible displeasure and 
 mortification, that his boy was not soldierly in his tastes ; that he 
 did not love the rude adventures of the chase, or the exposure 
 and hardships which a martial life demands. He had caught 
 Fritz playing the flute, and even writing verses. He saw that 
 he was fond of graceful attire, and that he was disposed to dress 
 his hair in the French fashion. He was a remarkably handsome 
 boy, of fine figure, with a lady's hand and foot, and soft blonde 
 locks carefully combed. All this the king despised. Scornfully 
 and indignantly he exclaimed, " My son is a flute-player and a 
 poet !" In his vexation he summoned Fritz to his presence, call- 
 ed in the barber, and ordered his flowing locks to be cut off, 
 cropped, and soaped in the most rigid style of military cut. 
 
 The father was now rapidly forming a strong dislike to the 
 character of his son. In nothing were they in harmony. Five 
 princesses had been born, sisters of Fritz. At last another son 
 was born, Augustus William, ten years younger than Frederick. 
 The king turned his eyes to him, hoping that he would be more 
 in sympathy with the paternal heart. His dislike for Fritz grew 
 continually more implacable, until it assumed the aspect of bit- 
 ter hatred. 
 
 Sophie Dorothee tenderly loved her little Fritz, and, with a 
 mother's fondness, endeavored to shield him, in every way in her 
 power, from his father's brutality. Wilhelmina also clung to 
 her brother Avith devotion which nothing could disturb. Thus 
 both mother and daughter incurred in some degree the hatred 
 with which the father regarded his son. It will be remembered 
 that the mother of Fritz was daughter of George I. of England. 
 Her brother subsequently became George II. He had a son, 
 Fred, about the age of Wilhelmina, and a daughter, Amelia, six 
 months older than Fritz. The mother, Sophie Dorothee, had set 
 her heart upon a double marriage — of Wilhelmina with Fred, 
 
 * "One of the preceptors A'entured to read the 'Golden Bull' in the original Latin with the 
 prince royal. Frederick William entered the room, and broke out, in his usual kingly style, 
 ' Rascal, what are you at there?' 'Please your majesty, ' answered the preceptor, 'I was ex- 
 plaining the " Golden Bull" to his royal highness.' ' I'll Golden Bull you, you rascal !' roared 
 the majesty of Prussia. Up went the king's cane, away ran the terrified instructor, and Fred- 
 erick's classical studies ended forever." — Macaulat. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 SOLDIER OF HIM. 
 
 and of Fritz with Amelia. But many obstacles arose in the 
 way of these nuptials. 
 
 George was a taciturn, jealous, sullen old man, who quarreled 
 with his son, who was then Prince of Wales. The other pow- 
 ers of Europe were decidedly opposed to this double marriage, 
 as it would, in their view, create too intimate a union between 
 Prussia and England, making them virtually one. Frederick 
 William also vexatiously threw hinderances in the way. But 
 the heart of the loving mother, Sophie Dorothee, was fixed upon 
 these nuptials. For years she left no efforts of diplomacy or in- 
 trigue untried to accomplish her end. George I. is represented 
 
40 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 by Horace Walpole as a stolid, stubborn old German, living in 
 a cloud of tobacco-smoke, and stupefying his faculties with beer. 
 He had in some way formed a very unfavorable opinion of Wil- 
 helmina, considering her, very falsely, ungainly in person and 
 fretful in disposition. But at last the tact of Sophie Dorothee 
 so far prevailed over her father, the British king, that he gave 
 his somewhat reluctant but positive consent to the double mat- 
 rimonial alliance. This was in 1723. Wilhelmina was then 
 fourteen years of age. Fritz, but eleven years old, was too young 
 to think very deeply upon the subject of his marriage. The 
 young English Fred bore at that time the title of the Duke of 
 Gloucester. He soon sent an envoy to Prussia, probably to con- 
 vey to his intended bride presents and messages of love. The 
 interview took place in the palace of Charlottenburg, a few miles 
 out from Berlin. The vivacious Wilhelmina, in the following 
 terms, describes the interview in her journal : 
 
 " There came, in those weeks, one of the Duke of Gloucester's 
 gentlemen to Berlin. The queen had a soiree. He was present- 
 ed to her as well as to me. He made a very obliging compli- 
 ment on his master's part. I blushed and answered only by a 
 courtesy. The queen, who had her eye on me, was very angry 
 that I had answered the duke's compliments in mere silence, and 
 rated me sharply for it, and ordered me, under pain of her indig- 
 nation, to repair that fault to-morrow. I retired all in tears to 
 my room, exasperated against the queen and against the duke. 
 I vowed I would never marry him. 
 
 " Meanwhile the King of England's time of arrival was draw- 
 ing nigh. We repaired on the 6th of October to Charlottenburg 
 to receive him. My heart kept beating. I was in cruel agita- 
 tions. King George arrived on the 8th about seven in the even- 
 ing. The King of Prussia, the queen, and all their suite received 
 him in the court of the palace, the apartments being on the 
 ground floor. So soon as he had saluted the king and queen I 
 was presented to him. He embraced me, and, turning to the 
 queen, said, 'Your daughter is very large of her age.' He gave 
 the queen his hand and led her into her apartment, whither ev- 
 ery body followed them. As soon as I came in he took a light 
 from the table and surveyed me from head to foot. I stood mo- 
 tionless as a statue, and was much put out of countenance. All 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 41 
 
 this went on without his uttering the least word. Having thus 
 passed me in review, he addressed himself to my brother, whom 
 he caressed much and amused himself with for a good while. 
 
 " The queen made me a sign to follow her, and passed into a 
 neighboring apartment, where she had the English and Germans 
 of King George's suite successively presented to her. After some 
 talk with these gentlemen she withdrew, leaving me to enter- 
 tain them, and saying, ' Speak English to my daughter ; you will 
 find she speaks it very well.' I felt much less embarrassed when 
 the queen was gone, and, picking up a little courage, entered into 
 conversation with these English. As I spoke their language like 
 my mother tongue I got pretty well out of the affair, and every 
 body seemed charmed with me. They made my eulogy to the 
 queen ; told her I had quite the English air, and was made to 
 be their sovereign one day. It was saying a great deal on their 
 part ; for these English think themselves so much above all other 
 people that they imagine that they are paying a high compliment 
 when they tell any one he has got English manners. 
 
 " Their king" (Wilhelmina's grandfather) " was of extreme 
 gravity, and hardly spoke a word to any body. He saluted 
 Madam Son sf eld, my governess, very coldly, and asked if I was 
 always so serious, and if my humor was of a melancholy turn. 
 ' Any thing but that, sire,' answered Madam Sonsfeld ; i but the 
 respect she has for your majesty prevents her from being as 
 sprightly as she commonly is.' He shook his head and said noth- 
 ing. The reception he had given me, and this question, gave me 
 such a chill that I never had the courage to speak to him." 
 
 The wife of George I., the mother of Sophie Dorothee, was the 
 subject of one of the saddest of earthly tragedies. Her case is 
 still involved in some obscurity. She was a beautiful, haughty, 
 passionate princess of Zelle when she married her cousin George, 
 Elector of Hanover. George became jealous of Count Konigs- 
 mark, a very handsome courtier of commanding address. In an 
 angry altercation with his wife, it is said that the infuriate hus- 
 band boxed her ears. Suddenly, on the 1st of July, 1694, Count 
 Konigsmark disappeared. Mysteriously he vanished from earth, 
 and was heard of no more. The unhappy wife, who had given 
 birth to the daughter Sophie Dorothee, bearing her mother's 
 name, and to a son, afterward George II., almost frenzied with 
 
42 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 rage, was divorced from lier husband, and was locked up in the 
 gloomy castle of Ahlden, situated in the solitary moors of Lune- 
 Iburg heath. Here she was held in captivity for thirty years, 
 until she died. In the mean time, George, ascending the throne 
 of England, solaced himself in the society of female favorites, 
 none of whom he honored with the title of wife. The raging 
 captive of Ahlden, who seems never to have become submissive 
 to her lot, could, of course, exert no influence in the marriage of 
 her grandchildren. 
 
 Wilhelmina says that her grandpapa George was intolerably 
 proud after he had attained the dignity of King of England, and 
 that he was much disposed to look down upon her father, the 
 King of Prussia, as occupying a very inferior position. Vexa- 
 tiously he delayed signing the marriage treaty, to which he had 
 given a verbal assent, evading the subject and presenting frivo- 
 lous excuses. The reputation of the English Fred was far from 
 good. He had attained eighteen years of age, was very unat- 
 tractive in personal appearance, and extremely dissolute. George 
 I., morose and moody, was only rendered more obstinate by be- 
 ing pressed. These delays exasperated Frederick William, who 
 was far from being the meekest of men. Poor Sophie Doro- 
 thee was annoyed almost beyond endurance. Wilhelmina took 
 the matter very coolly, for she declared that she cared noth- 
 ing about her cousin Fred, and that she had no wish to marry 
 him. 
 
 The months rolled rapidly on, and Fritz, having entered his 
 fourteenth year, was appointed by his father, in May, 1725, cap- 
 tain in the Potsdam Grenadier Guard. This giant regiment has 
 attained world-wide renown, solely from the peculiarity of its or- 
 ganization. Such a body of men never existed before, never will 
 again. It was one of the singular freaks of the Prussian king to 
 form a grenadier guard of men of gigantic stature. In the prose- 
 cution of this senseless aim not only his own realms were ran- 
 sacked, but Europe and even Asia was explored insearch of gi- 
 ants. The army was with Frederick William the great object 
 of life, and the giant guard was the soul of the army. This guard 
 consisted of three battalions, 800 in each, 2400 in all. The short- 
 est of the men were nearly seven feet high. The tallest were 
 almost nine feet in height. They had been gathered, at an enor- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 43 
 
 
 CAPTAIN OF THE GIANT GUARDS. 
 
 mous expense, out of every country where they could be found. 
 No greater favor could be conferred upon the king than to ob- 
 tain for him a giant. Many amusing anecdotes are related of 
 the stratagems to which the king resorted to obtain these mam- 
 moth soldiers. Portraits were painted of all of them. Freder- 
 ick William paid very little regard to individual rights or to the 
 law of nations if any chance presented itself by which he could 
 seize upon one of these monster men. Reigning in absolutism, 
 compared with which the despotism of Turkey is mild, if he 
 found in his domains any young woman of remarkable stature, 
 he would compel her to marry one of his giants. It does not, 
 
44 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 however, appear that he thus succeeded in perpetuating a gi- 
 gantic race. 
 
 Prussian recruiters were sent in all directions to search with 
 eagle eyes for candidates for the Potsdam Guard. Their pay 
 was higher than that of any other troops, and they enjoyed un- 
 usual privileges. Their drill and discipline were as perfect as 
 could by any possibility be achieved. The following stories are 
 apparently well authenticated, describing the means to which 
 the king often resorted to obtain these men. 
 
 In the town of Zulich there was a very tall young carpenter 
 by the name of Zimmerman. A Prussian recruiting officer, in 
 disguise, Baron von Hompesch, entered the shop and ordered a 
 stout chest to be made, " six feet six inches in length, at least — 
 at all events, longer than yourself, Mr. Zimmerman. Mind you," 
 he added, " if too short it will be of no service to me." At the 
 appointed time he called for the chest. Looking at it, he ex- 
 claimed, in apparent disappointment, " Too short, as I dreaded !" 
 " I am certain it is over six feet six," said the carpenter, taking 
 out his rule. " But I said that it was to be longer than yourself," 
 was the reply. "Well, it is," rejoined the carpenter. To prove 
 it, he jumped into the chest. Hompesch slammed down the lid, 
 locked it, whistled, and three stout fellows came in, who shoul- 
 dered the chest and carried it through the streets to a remote 
 place outside of the town. Here the chest was opened, and poor 
 Zimmerman was found dead, stifled to death. 
 
 On another occasion, an Austrian gentleman, M. Von Benten- 
 rieder, who was exceedingly tall, was journeying from Vienna to 
 Berlin as the embassador from the Emperor Charles VI. to the 
 Congress of Cambrai. When near Halberstadt some'part of his 
 carriage broke. While the smith was repairing it, M. Benten- 
 rieder walked on. He passed a Prussian guard-house, alone, in 
 plain clothes, on foot, an immensely tall, well-formed man. It 
 was too rich a prize to be lost. The officials seized him, and 
 hurried him into the guard-house. But soon his carriage came 
 along with his suite. He was obsequiously hailed as " Your 
 Excellency." The recruiting officers of Frederick William, mor- 
 tified and chagrined, with many apologies released the embassa- 
 dor of the emperor. 
 
 As we have mentioned, the agents of the King of Prussia were 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 45 
 
 eager to kidnap tall men, in whatever country they could find 
 them. This greatly exasperated the rulers of the various realms 
 of all sizes and conditions which surrounded the Prussian terri- 
 tory. Frederick William was always ready to apologize, and to 
 aver that each individual act was done without his orders or 
 knowledge. Still, there was no abatement of this nuisance. 
 Several seizures had been made in Hanover, which was the he- 
 reditary domain of George I., King of England. George was 
 very angry. He was increasingly obstinate in withholding his 
 assent to the double marriage, and even, by way of reprisal, 
 seized several of the subjects of Frederick William, whom he 
 caught in Hanover. 
 
 Sophie Dorothee seemed to have but one thought — the double 
 marriage. This would make Wilhelmina queen of England, and 
 would give her dear son Frederick an English princess for his 
 bride. Her efforts, embarrassments, disappointments, were end- 
 less. Frederick William began to be regarded by the other 
 powers as a very formidable man, whose alliance was exceeding- 
 ly desirable. His army, of sixty thousand men, rapidly increas- 
 ing, was as perfect in drill and discipline as ever existed. It 
 was thoroughly furnished with all the appliances of war. The 
 king himself, living in Spartan simplicity, and cutting down the 
 expenses of his court to the lowest possible figure, was consecra- 
 ting the resources of his realm to the promotion of its physical 
 strength, and was accumulating iron-bound casks of gold and sil- 
 ver coin in the cellars of his palace. It became a matter of much 
 moment to every court in Europe whether such a monarch 
 should be its enemy or its ally. 
 
 After a long series of intrigues, a narrative of which would not 
 interest the reader, Frederick William was induced to enter into 
 an alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Emperor Charles 
 VI. of Germany. This was renouncing the alliance with En- 
 gland, and threw an additional obstacle in the way of the dou- 
 ble marriage. Sophie Dorothee was bitterly disappointed, and 
 yet pertinaciously struggled on to accomplish her end. 
 
 There was an institution, if we may so call it, in the palace of 
 the King of Prussia which became greatly renowned, and which 
 was denominated " The Tobacco College," or " Tobacco Parlia- 
 ment." It consisted simply of a smoking-room very plainly fur- 
 
46 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Arm 
 
 ~fe , :<--: 
 
 THE TOBACCO PARLIAMENT. 
 
 nished, where the king and about a dozen of his confidential ad- 
 visers met to smoke and to talk over, with perfect freedom and 
 informality, affairs of state. Carlyle thus quaintly describes this 
 Tabagie : 
 
 " Any room that was large enough, and had height of ceiling 
 and air circulation, and no cloth furniture, would do. And m 
 each palace is one, or more than one, that has been fixed upon 
 and fitted out for that object. A high room, as the engravings 
 give it us; contented, saturnine human figures, a dozen or so 
 of them, sitting around a large, long table furnished for the occa- 
 sion ; a long Dutch pipe in the mouth of each man ; su]3plies of 
 knaster easily accessible ; small pan of burning peat, in the Dutch 
 fashion (sandy native charcoal, which burns slowly without 
 smoke), is at your left hand ; at your right a jug, which I find to 
 consist of excellent, thin, bitter beer ; other costlier- materials for 
 drinking, if you want such, are not beyond reach. On side-ta- 
 bles stand wholesome cold meats, royal rounds of beef not want- 
 ing, with bread thinly sliced and buttered ; in a rustic, but neat 
 and abundant way, such innocent accommodations, narcotic or 
 nutritious, gaseous, fluid, and solid, as human nature can require. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 47 
 
 Perfect equality is the rule ; no rising or no notice taken when 
 any body enters or leaves. Let the entering man take his place 
 and pipe without obligatory remarks. If he can not smoke, let 
 him at least affect to do so, and not ruffle the established stream 
 of things. And so puff, slowly puff! and any comfortable speech 
 that is in you, or none, if you authentically have not any." 
 
 Distinguished strangers were often admitted to the Tabagie. 
 The Crown Prince Fritz was occasionally present, though always 
 reluctantly. The other children of this numerous family not 
 unfrequently came in to bid papa good-night. Here every thing 
 was talked of, with entire freedom, all court gossip, the adven- 
 tures of the chase, diplomacy, and the administrative measures 
 of the government. Frederick William had but very little re- 
 spect for academic culture. He had scarcely the slightest ac- 
 quaintance with books, and gathered around him mainly men 
 whose knowledge was gained in the practical employments of 
 life. It would seem, from many well-authenticated, anecdotes, 
 which have come down to us from the Tabagie, that these 
 smoking companions of the king, like Frederick William him- 
 self, must have been generally a coarse set of men. 
 
 One of this smoking cabinet was a celebrated adventurer 
 named Gundling, endowed with wonderful encyclopedian knowl- 
 edge, and an incorrigible drunkard. He had been every where, 
 seen every thing, and remembered all which he had either heard 
 or seen. Frederick William had accidentally picked him up, 
 and, taking a fancy to him, had clothed him, pensioned him, and 
 introduced him to his Tabagie, where his peculiar character oft- 
 en made him the butt of ridicule. He was excessively vain, 
 wore a scarlet coat, and all manner of pranks were cut up by 
 these boon companions, in the midst of their cups, at his expense. 
 ' Another adventurer, by the name of Fassman, who had writ- 
 ten books, and who made much literary pretension, had come to 
 Berlin and also got introduced to the Tabagie. He was in char- 
 acter very like Gundling, and the two could never agree. Fass- 
 man could be very sarcastic and bitter in his speech. One even- 
 ing, as the king and his smoking cabinet were sitting enveloped 
 in the clouds which they were breathing forth, and were all 
 muddled with tobacco and beer — for the king himself was a 
 hard drinker — Fassman so enraged Gundling by some cutting 
 
48 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 remarks, that the latter seized his pan of burning peat and red- 
 hot sand and dashed it into the face of his antagonist. Fass- 
 inan, who was much the more powerful of the two, was seriously 
 burned. He instantly grasped his antagonist, dragged him 
 down, and beat him savagely with his hot pan, amidst roars of 
 laughter from the beer-stupefied bacchanals. 
 
 The half-intoxicated king gravely suggests that such conduct 
 is hardly seemly among gentlemen ; that the duel is the more 
 chivalric way of settling such difficulties. Fassman challenges 
 Gundling. They meet with pistols. It is understood by the 
 seconds that it is to be rather a Pickwickian encounter. The 
 trembling Gundling, when he sees his antagonist before him, 
 with the deadly weapon in his hand, throws his pistol away, 
 which his considerate friends had harmlessly loaded with pow- 
 der only, declaring that he would not shoot any man, or have 
 any man shoot him. Fassman sternly advances with his harm- 
 less pistol, and shoots the powder into Gundling's wig. It 
 blazes into a flame. With a shriek Gundling falls to the ground 
 as if dead. A bucket of water extinguishes the flames, and 
 roars of laughter echo over the chivalric field of combat. 
 
 Such was the Tobacco Parliament in its trivial aspects. But 
 it had also its serious functions. Many questions were discussed 
 there which stirred men's souls, and which roused the ambition 
 or the wrath of the stern old king to the utmost pitch. 
 
 We have now reached the year 1726. The Emperor of Ger- 
 many declares that he can never give his consent to the double 
 marriage with the English princes. Frederick William, who is 
 not at all fond of his wife's relatives, and is annoyed by the hes- 
 itancy which his father-in-law has manifested in reference to it, 
 is also turning his obstinate will against the nuptial alliance. 
 A more imperative and inflexible man never breathed. This 
 year the unhappy wife of George I. died, unreconciled, wretched, 
 exasperated, after thirty years' captivity in the castle of Ahlden. 
 Darker and darker seemed the gloom which enveloped the path 
 of Sophie Dorothee. She still clung to the marriages as the 
 dearest hope of her heart. It was with her an ever-present 
 thought. But Frederick William was the most obdurate and 
 obstinate of mortals. 
 
 " The wide, overarching sky," writes Carlyle, " looks 'down on 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 49 
 
 no more inflexible sovereign man than him, in the red-collared 
 blue coat and white leggins, with the bamboo in his hand ; a 
 peaceable, capacious, not ill-given sovereign man, if you will let 
 him have his way ; but to bar his way, to tweak the nose of his 
 sovereign royalty, and ignominiously force liim into another way, 
 that is an enterprise no man or devil, or body of men or devils, 
 need attempt. The first step in such an attempt will require to 
 be the assassination of Frederick Wilhelm, for you may depend 
 upon it, royal Sophie, so long as he is alive the feat can not be 
 done." 
 
 While these scenes were transpiring the Crown Prince was 
 habitually residing at Potsdam, a favorite royal residence about 
 seventeen miles west from Berlin. Here he was rigidly attend' 
 ing to his duties in the giant regiment. We have now, in our 
 narrative, reached the year 1727. Fritz is fifteen years of age, 
 He is attracting attention by his vivacity, his ingenuous, agree 
 able manners, and his fondness for polite literature. He occa- 
 sionally is summoned by his father to the Smoking Cabinet, 
 But the delicacy of his physical organization is such that he 
 loathes tobacco, and only pretends to smoke, with mock gravity 
 puffing from his empty, white clay pipe. Neither has he any 
 relish for the society which he meets there. Though faithful to 
 the mechanical duties of the drill, they were very irksome to 
 him. His books and his fiute were his chief joy. Voltaire was 
 just then rising to celebrity in France. His writings began to 
 attract the attention of literary men throughout Europe. Fritz, 
 in his youthful enthusiasm, was charmed by them. In the lat- 
 ter part of June, 1729, a courier brought the intelligence to Ber- 
 lin that George I. had suddenly died of apoplexy. He was on 
 a journey to Hanover when he was struck down on the road. 
 Almost insensible, he was conveyed, on the full gallop, to Osna- 
 briick, where his brother, who was a bishop, resided, and where 
 medical aid could be obtained. But the shaft was fatal. At 
 midnight his carriage reached Osnabrtick. The old man, sixty- 
 seven years of age, was heard to murmur, " It is all over with 
 me," and his spirit passed away to the judgment. 
 
 The death of George I. affected the strange Frederick William 
 very deeply. He not only shed tears, but, if we may be par- 
 doned the expression, blubbered like a child. His health seemed 
 
 D 
 
50 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 to fail, and hypochondria, in its most melancholy form, tormented 
 him. As is not unusual in such cases, he became excessively re- 
 ligious. Every enjoyment was deemed sinful, if we except the 
 indulgence in an ungovernable temper, which the self-righteous 
 king made no attempt to curb. Wilhelmina, describing this 
 state of things with her graphic pen, writes : 
 
 " He condemned all pleasures ; damnable all of them, he said. 
 You were to speak of nothing but the Word of God only. All 
 other conversation was forbidden. It was always he who car- 
 ried on the improving talk at table, where he did the office of 
 reader, as if it had been a refectory of monks. The king treated 
 us to a sermon every afternoon. His valet de chambre gave 
 out a psalm, which we all sang. You had to listen to this ser- 
 mon with as much devout attention as if it had been an apos- 
 tle's. My brother and I had all the mind in the world to laugh. 
 We tried hard to keep from laughing, but often we burst out. 
 Thereupon reprimand, with all the anathemas of the Church 
 hurled on us, which we had to take with a contrite, penitent air 
 — a thing not easy to bring your face to at the moment." 
 
 In this frame of mind, the king began to talk seriously of ab- 
 dicating in favor of Frederick, and of retiring from the cares of 
 state to a life of religious seclusion in his country seat at Wus- 
 terhausen. He matured his plan quite to the details. Wilhel- 
 mina thus describes it : 
 
 " He used to say that he would reserve for himself ten thou- 
 sand crowns a year, and retire with the queen and his daughters 
 to Wusterhausen. * There,' added he, ' I will pray to God, and 
 manage the farming economy, while my wife and girls take care 
 of the household matters. You, Wilhelmina, are cl'ever; I will 
 give you the inspection of the linen, which you shall mend and 
 keep in order, taking good charge of laundry matters. Freder- 
 ica, who is miserly, shall have charge of all the stores of the 
 house. Charlotte shall go to market and buy our provisions. 
 My wife shall take charge of the little children and of the 
 kitchen.' " 
 
 At that time the family consisted of nine children. Next to 
 Wilhelmina and Fritz came Frederica, thirteen ; Charlotte, elev- 
 en ; Sophie Dorothee, eight ; Ulrique, seven ; August Wilhelm, 
 five ; Amelia, four ; and Henry, a babe in arms. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 51 
 
 Some of the courtiers, in order to divert the king from his 
 melancholy, and from these ideas of abdication, succeeded in im- 
 pressing upon him the political necessity of visiting Augustus, 
 the King of Poland, at Dresden. The king did not intend to 
 take Fritz with him. But Wilhelmina adroitly whispered a 
 word to Baron Suhm, the Polish embassador, and obtained a 
 special invitation for the Crown Prince. It is a hundred miles 
 from Berlin to Dresden — a distance easily traversed by post in 
 a day. It was the middle of January, 1728, when the Prussian 
 king reached Dresden, followed the day after by his son. They 
 were sumptuously entertained for four weeks in a continuous 
 round of magnificent amusements, from which the melancholic 
 King of Prussia recoiled, but could not well escape. 
 
 Augustus, King of Poland, called "Augustus the Strong," was 
 a man of extraordinary physical vigor and muscular strength. 
 It was said that he could break horseshoes with his hands, and 
 crush half-crowns between his finger and thumb. He was an 
 exceedingly profligate man, introducing to his palaces scenes of 
 sin and shame which could scarcely have been exceeded in Rome 
 in the most corrupt days of the Csesars. Though Frederick 
 William, a stanch Protestant, was a crabbed, merciless man, 
 drinking deeply and smoking excessively, he was irreproachable 
 in morals, according to the ordinary standard. Augustus, nom- 
 inally a Catholic, and zealously advocating political Catholicism, 
 though a good-natured, rather agreeable man, recognized no other 
 law of life than his own pleasure. 
 
 Augustus had formed apparently the deliberate resolve to 
 test his visitor by the most seductive and adroitly - arranged 
 temptations. But, so far as Frederick William was concerned, 
 he utterly failed. Upon one occasion his Prussian majesty, when 
 conducted by Augustus, whirled around and indignantly left the 
 room. That evening, through his minister, Grumkow, he in- 
 formed the King of Poland that if there were any repetition of 
 such scenes he would immediately leave Dresden. 
 
 Fritz, however, had not his father's strength to resist the al- 
 lurements of this wicked court. He was but sixteen years of 
 age. From childhood he had been kept secluded from the world, 
 and had been reared under the sternest discipline. He was re- 
 markably handsome, full of vivacity, which qualified him to shine 
 
52 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 in any society, and was heir to the Prussian monarchy. He was, 
 consequently, greatly caressed, and every conceivable inducement 
 was presented to him to lure him into the paths of guilty pleas- 
 ure. He fell. From such a fall one never on earth recovers. 
 Even though repentance and reformation come, a scar is left upon 
 the soul which time can not efface. 
 
 This visit to Dresden, so fatal to Fritz, was closed on the 12th 
 of February. The dissipation of those four weeks introduced 
 the Crown Prince to habits which have left an indelible stain 
 upon his reputation, and which poisoned his days. Upon his 
 return to Potsdam he was seized with a fit of sickness, and for 
 many years his health remained feeble. But he had entered 
 upon the downward course. His chosen companions were those 
 who were in sympathy with his newly-formed tastes. The career 
 of dissipation into which the young prince had plunged could 
 not be concealed from his eagle-eyed father. The king's previ- 
 ous dislike to his son was converted into contempt and hatred, 
 which feelings were at times developed in almost insane ebulli- 
 tions of rage. 
 
 Still the queen-mother, Sophie Dorothee, clung to the double 
 marriage. Her brother, George II., was now King of England. 
 His son Fred, who had been intended for Wilhelmina, was not 
 a favorite of his father's, and had not yet been permitted to go 
 to England. In May, 1728, he was twenty-one j^ears of age.. He 
 was living idly in Hanover, impatient to wed his cousin Wil- 
 helmina, who was then nineteen years of age. He seems to 
 have secretly contemplated, in conference with Wilhelmina's 
 mother, Sophie Dorothee, a trip incognito to Berlin, where he 
 would marry the princess clandestinely, and then leave it with 
 the royal papas to settle the difficulty the best way they could. 
 The plan was not executed. Wilhelmina manifested coquettish 
 indifference to the whole matter. She, however, writes that 
 Queen Sophie was so confidently expecting him that " she took 
 every ass or mule for his royal highness." 
 
 In May the King of Poland returned the visit of Frederick 
 William. He came with a numerous retinue and in great splen- 
 dor. During the past year his unhappy wife had died ; and he, 
 then fifty-five years of age, was seeking to bargain for the hand 
 of Wilhelmina, hoping, by an alliance with Prussia, to promote 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 53 
 
 some of his political schemes. The wicked old Polish king was 
 much broken by age and his " terrible debaucheries." He had 
 recently suffered the amputation of two toes from an ulcerated 
 foot, which no medical skill could cure. He was brought into 
 the palace at Berlin in a sedan, covered with red velvet embroid- 
 ered with gold. Wilhelmina had no suspicion of the object of 
 his visit, and was somewhat surprised by the intensity of his 
 gaze and his glowing compliments. Diplomatic obstacles arose 
 which silenced the question of the marriage before Wilhelmina 
 knew that it had been contemplated. 
 
 Fritz had been for some time confined to his chamber and to 
 his bed. He was now getting out again. By his mother's per- 
 suasion he wrote to his aunt, Queen Caroline of England, ex- 
 pressing, in the strongest terms, his love for her daughter the 
 Princess Amelia, and his unalterable determination never to mar- 
 ry unless he could lead her to the altar. Though Frederick Wil- 
 liam knew nothing of these intrigues, he hated his son with daily 
 increasing venom. Sometimes, in a surly fit, he would not speak 
 to him or recognize him. Again he would treat him with stud- 
 ied contempt, at the table refusing to give him any food, leaving 
 him to fast while the others were eating. Not unfrequently, 
 according to Wilhelmina's account, he even boxed his ears, and 
 smote him with his cane. Wilhelmina gives us one of the let- 
 ters of her brother to his father about this time, and the charac- 
 teristic paternal answer. Frederick writes, under date of Sep- 
 tember llj 1728, from Wusterhausen : 
 
 " My dear Papa, — I have not, for a long while, presumed to 
 come near my dear papa, partly because he forbade me, but 
 chiefly because I had reason to expect a still worse reception 
 than usual ; and for fear of angering my dear papa by my pres- 
 ent request, I have preferred making it in writing to him. 
 
 " I therefore beg my dear papa to be gracious to me ; and can 
 here say that, after long reflection, my conscience has not accused 
 me of any the least thing with which I could reproach myself. 
 But if I have, against my will and knowledge, done any thing 
 which has angered my dear papa, I herewith most submissively 
 beg forgiveness, and hope my dear papa will lay aside that cruel 
 hatred which I can not but notice in all his treatment of me. I 
 
54 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 could not otherwise suit myself to it, as I always thought I had 
 a gracious papa, and now have to see the contrary. I take con- 
 fidence, then, and hope that my dear papa will consider all this, 
 and again be gracious to me. And in the mean while I assure 
 him that I will never, all my days, fail with my will ; and, not- 
 withstanding his disfavor to me, remain my dear papa's most 
 faithful and obedient servant and son, Frederick." 
 
 The returning messenger took back the following reply. It 
 was, as usual, ungrammatical, miserably spelled, and confused. 
 Contemptuously the king spoke of his son in the third person, 
 writing lie and Ms instead of you and yours. Abruptly he com- 
 mences : 
 
 " His obstinate perverse disposition which does not love his 
 father ; for when one does every thing, and really loves one's fa- 
 ther, one does what the father requires, not while he is there to 
 see it, but when his back is turned too. For the rest he knows 
 very well that I can endure no effeminate fellow who has no hu- 
 man inclination in him ; who puts himself to shame, can not ride 
 or shoot ; and, withal, is dirty in his person, frizzles his hair like 
 a fool, and does not cut it off. And all this I have a thousand 
 times reprimanded, but all in vain, and no improvement in noth- 
 ing. For the rest, haughty ; proud as a churl ; speaks to nobody 
 but some few, and is not popular and affable ; and cuts grimaces 
 with his face as if he were a fool ; and does my will in nothing 
 but following his own whims ; no use to him in any thing else. 
 This is the answer. Frederick William." 
 
 Still the question of the marriages remained the subject of in- 
 numerable intrigues. There were several claimants for the hand 
 of Wilhelmina, and many nuptial alliances suggested for Fritz. 
 Frederick William proposed the marriage of Wilhelmina to Fred, 
 the Prince of Wales, and to let the marriage of Fritz and Amelia 
 for the present remain undecided. But England promptly re- 
 plied "No; both marriages or none." It is intimated by the 
 ministers of the Prussian king that he was influenced in his vac- 
 illating course respecting the marriages not only by his doubts 
 whether the English or a German alliance would be most desir- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 55 
 
 able, but also by avarice, as he knew not what dowry he could 
 secure with the English princess, and by jealousy, as he was very 
 unwilling to add to the importance and the power of his hated 
 son Fritz. He also disliked extremely his brother-in-law, 
 George II.* 
 
 About the middle of January, 1729, the king went upon a 
 hunt with his companions, taking with him Fritz, who he knew 
 detested the rough barbaric sport. This hunting expedition to 
 the wilds of Brandenburg and Pommern was one of great re- 
 nown. Three thousand six hundred and two wild swine these 
 redoubtable Mmrods boasted as the fruits of their prowess. 
 Frederick William was an economical prince. He did not allow 
 one pound of this vast mass of wild pork to be wasted. Every 
 man, according to his family, was bound to take a certain portion 
 at a fixed price. From this fierce raid through swamps and jun- 
 gles in pursuit of wild boars the king returned to Potsdam. 
 Soon after he was taken sick. Having ever been a hard drinker, 
 it is not strange that his disease proved to be the gout. He was 
 any thing but an amiable patient. The pangs of the disease ex- 
 torted from him savage growls, and he vented his spleen upon 
 all who came within the reach of his crutch or the hearing of his 
 tongue. Still, even when suffering most severely, he never omit- 
 ted any administrative duties. His secretaries every morning 
 came in with their papers, and he issued his orders with his cus- 
 tomary rigorous devotion to business. It was remarked that 
 this strange man would never allow a profane expression or an 
 indelicate allusion in his presence. This sickness lasted five 
 weeks, and Wilhelmina writes, " The pains of Purgatory could 
 not equal those which we endured." 
 
 During this sickness a very curious scene occurred, character- 
 istic of the domestic life of this royal family. The second daugh- 
 ter, Frederica Louisa, " beautiful as an angel, and a spoiled child 
 of fifteen," was engaged to the Marquis of Anspach. We will 
 allow Wilhelmina to describe the event which took place at the 
 
 * "Frederick William and George II., though brothers-in-law, and, in a manner, brought up 
 together, could never endure each other, even when children. This personal hatred and settled 
 antipathy had like to have proved fatal to their subjects. The King of England used to style 
 the King of Prussia my brother the sergeant. The King of Prussia called the King of England 
 my brother the player. This animosity soon infected their dealings, and did not fail to have its 
 influence on the most important events." — Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg, by Freder- 
 ick II., vol. ii., p. 69. 
 
56 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 table. It was early in March, 1729, while the king was still 
 suffering from the gout : 
 
 " At table his majesty told the queen that he had letters from 
 Anspach ; the young marquis to be at Berlin in May for his 
 wedding; that M. Bremer, his tutor, was just coming with the 
 ring of betrothal for Louisa. He asked my sister if that gave 
 her pleasure, and how she would regulate her housekeeping 
 when married. My sister had got into the way of telling him 
 whatever she thought, and home truths sometimes, without his 
 taking it ill. She answered, with her customary frankness, that 
 she would have a good table, which should be delicately served, 
 and, added she, l which shall be better than yours. And if I 
 have children I will not maltreat them like you, nor force them 
 to eat what they have an aversion to.' 
 
 " l What do you mean by that V replied the king ; i what is 
 there wanting at my table V 
 
 " ' There is this wanting,' she said, ' that one can not have 
 enough; and the little there is consists of coarse pot-herbs that 
 nobody can eat.' 
 
 " The king, as was not unnatural, had begun to get angry at 
 her first answer. This last put him quite in a fury. But all his 
 anger fell on my brother and me. He first threw a plate at my 
 brother's head, who ducked out of the way. He then let fly an- 
 other at me, which I avoided in like maimer. A hail-storm of 
 abuse followed these first hostilities. He rose into a passion 
 against the queen, reproaching her with the bad training which 
 she gave her children, and, addressing my brother, said, 
 
 " ' You have reason to curse your mother, for it is she who 
 causes your being an ill-governed fellow. I had a preceptor,' 
 continued he, ' who was an honest man. I remember always a 
 story which he told me in his youth. There was a man at Car- 
 thage who had been condemned to die for many crimes he had 
 committed. While they were leading him to "execution he de- 
 sired he might speak to his mother. They brought his mother. 
 He came near, as if to whisper something to her, and bit away a 
 piece of her ear. " I treat you thus," said he, " to make you an 
 example to all parents who take no heed to bring up their chil- 
 dren in the practice of virtue." Make the application,' contin- 
 ued he, always addressing my brother ; and, getting no answer 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 57 
 
 ROYALTY AT DINNER. 
 
 from him, he again set to abusing us till he could speak no lon- 
 ger. 
 
 " We rose from table. As we had to pass near him in going 
 out, he aimed a great blow at me with his crutch, which, if I had 
 not jerked away from it, would have ended me. He chased me 
 for a while in his wheel-chair, but the people drawing it gave 
 me time to escape to the queen's chamber." 
 
 That evening Wilhelmina was taken sick with burning fever 
 and severe pain. Still she was compelled to rise from her bed 
 and attend a court party. The next morning she was worse. 
 The king, upon being told of it, exclaimed gruffly, " 111 ? I will 
 
58 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 cure you !" and compelled her to swallow a large draught of 
 wine. Soon her sickness showed itself to be small-pox. Great 
 was the consternation of her mother, from the fear that, even 
 should she survive, her beauty would be so marred that the En- 
 glish prince would no longer desire her as his bride. Fortu- 
 nately she escaped without a scar. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SUFFERINGS OF FRITZ AND WILHELMFNA. 
 
 The King an Artist. — Cruel Exactions of the King. — Conflicts of Etiquette. — Quarrel with 
 George II. — Nuptial Intrigues. — Energetic Action of Frederick William. — Marriage of Fred- 
 erica Louisa. — Fritz and his Flute. — Wrath of the King. — Beats Wilhelmina and Fritz. — 
 Attempts to strangle Fritz. — The Hunt at Wusterhausen. — Intrigues in reference to the 
 Double Marriage.— Anguish of Wilhelmina.— Cruelty of her Mother.— Resolve of Fritz to 
 escape to England. 
 
 While Frederick William was confined to his room, torment- 
 ed by the gout, he endeavored to beguile the hours in painting 
 in oil. Some of these paintings still exist, with the epigraph, 
 " Painted by Frederick William in his torments." Wilhelmina 
 writes : 
 
 " For the most part, one of his own grenadiers was the model 
 from which he copied. And when the portrait had more color 
 in it than the original, he was in the habit of coloring the cheeks 
 of the soldier to correspond with the picture. Enchanted with 
 the fruits of his genius, he showed them to his courtiers, and 
 asked their opinion concerning them. As he would have been 
 very angry with any one who had criticised them, he was quite 
 sure of being gratified with admiration. 
 
 " ' Well,' said he one day to an attendant, who was extolling 
 the beauties of one of his pictures, ' how much do you think that 
 picture would bring at a sale V 
 
 "'Sire, it would be cheap at a hundred ducats.' 
 
 "'You shall have it for fifty,' said the king, ' because you are 
 a good judge, and I am therefore anxious to do you a favor.' 
 
 "The poor courtier," Wilhelmina adds, " obliged to become 
 possessor of this miserable performance, and to pay so dear for 
 it, determined for the future to be more circumspect in his ad- 
 miration." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 59 
 
 While the king was thus suffering the pangs of the gout, his 
 irascibility vented itself upon his wife and children. " We were 
 obliged," says Wilhelruina, " to appear at nine o'clock in the 
 morning in his room. We dined there, and did not dare to leave 
 it even for a moment. Every day was passed by the king in 
 invectives against my brother and myself. He no longer called 
 me any thing but ' the English blackguard.' My brother was 
 named the i rascal Fritz.' He obliged us to eat and drink the 
 things for which we had an aversion. Every day was marked 
 by some sinister event. It was impossible to raise one's eyes 
 without seeing some unhappy people tormented in one way or 
 other. The king's restlessness did not allow him to remain in 
 bed. He had himself placed in a chair on rollers, and was thus 
 dragged all over the palace. His two arms rested upon crutches, 
 which supported them. We always followed this triumphal 
 car, like unhappy captives who are about to undergo their sen- 
 tence." 
 
 We have now reached the summer of 1729. George II. was 
 a weak-minded, though a proud, conceited man, who, as King of 
 England, assumed airs of superiority which greatly annoyed 
 his irascible and petulant brother-in-law, Frederick William. 
 Flushed with his new dignity, he visited his hereditary domain 
 of Hanover. The journey led him through a portion of the 
 Prussian territory. Courtesy required that George II. should 
 announce that intention to the Prussian king. Courtesy also re- 
 quired that, as the British monarch passed over Prussian soil, 
 Frederick William should furnish him with free post-horses. " I 
 will furnish the post-horses," said Frederick William, " if the king 
 apprise me of his intention. If he do not, I shall do nothing 
 about it." George did not write. In affected unconsciousness 
 that there was any such person in the world as the Prussian 
 king, he crossed the Prussian territory, paid for his own post- 
 horses, and did not even condescend to give Frederick William 
 any notice of his arrival in Hanover. The King of Prussia, who 
 could not but be conscious of the vast inferiority of Prussia to 
 England, stung to the quick by this contemptuous treatment, 
 growled ferociously in the Tobacco Parliament. 
 
 The English minister at Berlin, Dubourgay, wrote to Hanover, 
 urging that some notification of the king's arrival should be sent 
 
60 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 to the Prussian court to appease the angry sovereign. George 
 replied through Lor.d Townshend that, " under the circumstances, 
 it is not necessary." Thus the two kings were no longer on 
 speaking terms. It is amusing, while at the same time it is hu- 
 miliating, to observe these traits of frail childhood thus devel- 
 oped in full-grown men wearing crowns. When private men or 
 kings are in such a state of latent hostility, an open rupture is 
 quite certain soon to follow. George accused Frederick William 
 of recruiting soldiers in Hanover. In retaliation, he seized some 
 Prussian soldiers caught in Hanoverian territory. There was an 
 acre or so of land, called the " Meadow of Clamei," which both 
 Hanover and Brandenburg claimed. The grass, about eight cart- 
 loads, had been cut by Brandenburg, and was well dried. 
 
 On the 28th of June, 1729, the population of Buhlitz, a Han- 
 overian border village, sallied forth with carts, escorted by a 
 troop of horse, and, with demonstrations both defiant and exult- 
 ant, raked up and carried off all the hay. The King of Prussia 
 happened to be at that time about one hundred miles distant 
 from Buhlitz, at Magdeburg, reviewing his troops. He was 
 thrown into a towering passion. Sophie Dorothee,Wilhelmina, 
 Fritz, all felt the effects of his rage. Dubourgay writes, under 
 date of July 30,1729: 
 
 " Her majesty, all in tears, complained of her situation. The 
 king is nigh losing his senses on account of the differences with 
 Hanover; goes from bed to bed in the night-time, and from 
 chamber to chamber, like one whose brains are turned. Took 
 a fit at two in the morning lately to be off to Wusterhausen. 
 Since his return he gives himself up entirely to drink. The king 
 will not suffer the prince royal to sit next his majesty at table, 
 but obliges him to go to the lower end, where things are so or- 
 dered that the poor prince often rises without getting one bit, 
 insomuch that the queen was obliged two days ago to send, by 
 one of the servants who could be trusted, a box of cold fowls 
 and other eatables for his royal highness' s subsisten^e " 
 
 Frederick William, in his extreme exasperation, seriously con- 
 templated challenging George II. to a duel. In his own mind 
 he arranged all the details — the place of meeting, the weapons, 
 the seconds. With a stern sense of justice, characteristic of the 
 man, he admitted that it would not be right to cause the blood 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 61 
 
 of his subjects to flow in a quarrel which was merely personal. 
 But the " eight cart-loads of hay" had been taken under circum- 
 stances so insulting and contemptuous as to expose the Prussian 
 king to ridicule ; and he was firm in his determination to settle 
 the difficulty by a duel. The question was much discussed in 
 the Tobacco Parliament. The Prussian ministers opposed in 
 vain. " The true method, I tell you," said the king, " is the duel, 
 let the world cackle as it may." 
 
 But at length one of the counselors, Baron Borck, urged the 
 following consideration : u Swords will be the weapons used. 
 Your majesty has been very sick, is now weak, and also crippled 
 with gout. The King of England is in health and vigor. There 
 is great danger that your majesty may be worsted in the com- 
 bat. That would render matters tenfold worse." 
 
 The king was staggered. War seemed the only alternative. 
 But war would empty his money-casks, disfigure his splendid 
 troops, and peril the lives even of his costly giants. One of these 
 men, James Kirkman, picked up in the streets of London, cost 
 the king six thousand dollars "before he could be inveigled, 
 shipped, and brought to hand." Nearly all had cost large sums 
 of money. Such men were too valuable to be exposed to dan- 
 ger. Frederick William was in a state of extreme nervous ex- 
 citement, There was no rest for him night or day. His deep 
 potations did not calm his turbulent spirit. War seemed immi- 
 nent. Military preparations were in vigorous progress. Ovens 
 were constructed to bake ammunition bread. Artillery was 
 dragged out from the arsenals. It was rumored that the Prus- 
 sian troops were to march immediately upon the duchy of Meck- 
 lenburg, which was then held by George II. as an appendage to 
 Hanover. 
 
 All thoughts of the double marriage were for the moment re- 
 linquished. The Czar of Russia had a son and a daughter. It 
 was proposed to marry Wilhelmina to the son and Fritz to the 
 daughter, and thus to secure a Kussian instead of an English al- 
 liance. Harassed by these difficulties, Frederick William grew 
 increasingly morose, venting his spite upon his wife and children. 
 Fritz seriously contemplated escaping from his father's abuse by 
 flight, and to take refuge with his uncle George in England, and 
 thus to secure his marriage with Amelia. The portraits of the 
 
62 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 WILHELMINA. 
 
 princess which he had seen proved her to be very beautiful. All 
 reports pronounced her to be as lovely in character as in person. 
 He was becoming passionately attached to her. Wilhelmina 
 was his only confidante. Regard for her alone restrained him 
 from attempting to escape. " He would have done so long ago," 
 writes Dubourgay, under date of August 11, 1729, "were it not 
 for his sister, upon whom the whole weight of his father's re- 
 sentment would then fall. Happen what will, therefore, he is 
 resolved to share with her all the hardships which the king, his 
 father, may be pleased to put upon her." 
 
 One night, about the middle of August, as the king was toss- 
 ing restlessly upon his pillow, he sprang from his bed, exclaim- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 63 
 
 ing " Eureka ! I now see what will bring a settlement." Im- 
 mediately a special messenger was dispatched, with terms of 
 compromise, to Kannegiesser, the king's embassador at Hanover. 
 We do not know what the propositions were. But the king 
 was exceedingly anxious to avoid war. He had, in many re- 
 spects, a very stern sense of justice, and would not do that which 
 he considered to be wrong. When he abused his family or oth- 
 ers he did not admit that he was acting unjustly. He assumed, 
 and with a sort of fanatical conscientiousness, detestable as it 
 was, that he was doing right ; that they deserved the treatment. 
 And now he earnestly desired peace, and was disposed to pre- 
 sent the most honorable terms to avert a war. 
 
 Kannegiesser, at Hanover, received the king's propositions for 
 reconciliation at ten o'clock in the morning of the 15th of Au- 
 gust, 1729. George II. was then absent on a hunting excursion. 
 The Prussian embassador called immediately at the council- 
 chamber of the Hanoverian court, and informed M. Hartoff, the 
 privy secretary, that he wished an audience with the ministry, 
 then in session, to make a proposition to them from the Prussian 
 court. Hartoff, who had met Kannegiesser in a room adjoining 
 the council-chamber, reported the request to the council, and re- 
 turned with the disrespectful answer that " M. Kannegiesser 
 must defer what he has to say to some other time." 
 
 'The Prussian minister condescended then so importunately to 
 urge an audience* in view of the menacing state of affairs, that 
 M. Hartoff returned to the council-chamber, and in seven minutes 
 came back with an evasive answer, still refusing to grant an au- 
 dience. The next day M. Kannegiesser called again at the coun- 
 cil-chamber. " I let them know in the mildest terms," he writes 
 in his dispatch home, " that I desired to be admitted to speak 
 with them, which was refused me a second time." He then in- 
 formed M. Hartoff that the Prussian court expected a definite 
 answer to some propositions which had previously been sent to 
 the council at Hanover ; that he would remain two days to re- 
 ceive it ; that, in case he did not receive it, he would call again, 
 to remind them that an answer was desired. 
 
 The next day M. Hartoff called at the residence of M. Kanne- 
 giesser, and informed him "that the ministers, understanding 
 that he designed to ask an audience to-morrow to remind them 
 
64: FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 of the answer which he demanded, wished to say that such ap- 
 plications were not customary among sovereign princes; that 
 they dared not treat farther in that affair with him ; that, as soon 
 as they received instructions from his Britannic majesty, they 
 would communicate to him the result." 
 
 The Prussian minister replied that he could not conceive why 
 he should be refused an audience ; that he should not fail to be 
 at the council-chamber at eleven o'clock the next day to receive 
 an answer to the proposals already made, and also to the propo- 
 sals which he was prepared to make. He endeavored to inform 
 Hartoff of the terms of compromise which the Prussian king was 
 ready to present. But Hartoff refused to hear him, declaring 
 that he had positive orders not to listen to any thing he had to 
 say upon the subject. We will give the conclusion in the words 
 of the Prussian minister, as found in his dispatch of the 18th of 
 August, 1729: 
 
 61 At eleven this day I went to the council-chamber for the 
 third time, and desired Secretary Hartoff to prevail with the 
 ministry to allow me to speak with them, and communicate what 
 the King of Prussia had ordered me to propose. Herr von Har- 
 toff gave them an account of my request, and brought me, for 
 answer, that I must wait a little, because the ministers were not 
 yet all assembled ; which I did. But after having made me stay 
 almost an hour, and after the president of the council was come, 
 Herr von Hartoff came out to me and repeated what he had said 
 yesterday, in very positive and absolute terms, that the ministers 
 were resolved not to see me, and had expressly forbid him tak- 
 ing any paper at my hands. 
 
 " To which I replied, that this was very hard usage, and the 
 world would see how the King of Prussia would relish it. But 
 having strict orders from his majesty, my most gracious master, 
 to make a declaration to the ministers of Hanover in his name, 
 and finding that Herr von Hartoff would neither receive it nor 
 take a copy of it, I had only to tell him that I was under the neces- 
 sity of leaving it in writing, and had brought the paper with me ; 
 and that now, as the council were pleased to refuse to take it, I 
 was obliged to leave the said declaration on a table in an adjoin- 
 ing room, in the presence of Herr von Hartoff and other secreta- 
 ries of the council, whom I desired to lay it before the ministry. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 65 
 
 " After this I went home, but had scarcely entered my apart- 
 ment when a messenger returned me, by order of the ministers, 
 the declaration, still sealed as I left it ; and perceiving that I 
 was not inclined to receive it, he laid it on my table, and imme- 
 diately left the house." 
 
 Having met with this repulse, Kannegiesser returned to Ber- 
 lin with the report. Frederick William was exasperated in the 
 highest degree by such treatment from a brother-in-law whom 
 he both hated and despised. He had at his command an army 
 in as perfect condition, both in equipment and drill, as Europe 
 had ever seen. Within a week's time forty-four thousand troops, 
 horse, foot, and artillery, were rendezvoused at Magdeburg. 
 Fritz was there, looking quite soldierly on his proud charger, at 
 the head of his regiment of the giant guard. Vigorously they 
 were put upon the march. George II., who had already in his 
 boyhood felt the weight of Frederick William's arm, and who 
 well knew his desperate energy when once roused, was terrified. 
 He had no forces in Hanover which could stand for an hour in 
 opposition to the army which the Prussian king was bringing 
 against him. 
 
 War between Prussia and England might draw all the neigh- 
 boring nations into the conflict. There was excitement in every 
 continental court. The Pope, it is reported, was delighted. " He 
 prays," says Carlyle, " that Heaven would be graciously pleased 
 to foment and blow up to the proper degree this quarrel be- 
 tween the two chief heretical powers, Heaven's chief enemies, 
 whereby holy religion might reap a good benefit." 
 
 In the general alarm, France, Holland, and other neighboring 
 courts interposed and called loudly for a settlement. Frederick 
 William had never wished for war. George II. was thoroughly 
 frightened. As it was certain that he would be severely chas- 
 tised, he was eager to escape from the difficulty through the me- 
 diation of others. An arbitration was agreed upon, and the 
 quarrel was settled without bloodshed. 
 
 On the 8th of September Fritz returned to Potsdam from this 
 his first military expedition, with his regiment of giants. He 
 was then seventeen years of age. His soldierly bearing had 
 quite rejoiced the king, and he began to think that, after all, pos- 
 sibly something might be made of Fritz. 
 
 E 
 
66 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Just as these troubles were commencing, there was, in May, 
 1729, a marriage in the Prussian royal family. Some two hun- 
 dred miles south of Brandenburg there was, at that time, a small 
 marquisate called Anspach, next in dignity to a dukedom. The 
 marquis was a frail, commonplace boy of seventeen, under the 
 care of a young mother, who was widowed, sick, and dying. 
 Much to the dissatisfaction of Sophie Dorothee, the queen-moth- 
 er, Frederick William had arranged a marriage between this 
 young man, who was far from rich, and his second daughter, 
 Frederica Louisa, who was then fifteen years of age.* 
 
 Fritz went in the royal carriage, with suitable escort, to meet 
 the young marquis on the Prussian frontier, as he came to his 
 bridals. They returned together in the carriage to Potsdam 
 with great military display. The wedding took place on the 
 30th of May, 1729. It was very magnificent. Fritz was con- 
 spicuous on the occasion in a grand review of the giant grena- 
 diers. Wilhelmina, in her journal, speaks quite contemptuously 
 of her new brother-in-law, the Marquis of Anspach, describing 
 him as a foolish young fellow. It was, indeed, a marriage of 
 children. The bridegroom was a sickly, peevish, undeveloped 
 boy of seventeen ; and the bride was a self-willed and ungovern- 
 ed little beauty of fifteen. The marriage proved a very unhap- 
 py one. There was no harmony between them. Frederick 
 writes : " They hate one another like the fire" (comme le feu). 
 They, however, lived together in incessant petty quarrelings for 
 thirty years. Probably during all that time neither one of them 
 saw a happy day. 
 
 Fritz had now attained eighteen years of age, and Wilhelmina 
 twenty-one. Fritz was very fond of music, particularly of his 
 flute, upon which he played exquisitely, being, however, careful 
 never to sound its notes within hearing of his father. A cele- 
 brated music-master from Dresden, by the name of Quantz, was 
 his teacher. He came occasionally from Dresden and spent a 
 week or two at Potsdam, secretly teaching the young prince. 
 
 * "It was a marriage much beneath what this princess might have pretended to. But Fred- 
 erick William loved such alliances — first, because they were at hand, and brought about without 
 trouble, and thus his daughters were taken off his hands at an early age ; and, secondly, because 
 to these little princes the honor of obtaining a Princess of Prussia was sufficient, whereas great 
 sovereigns would have required a more considerable dower than the avaricious habits of Fred- 
 erick William permitted him to give." — Life of Frederick II. , by Lord Dover. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 67 
 
 The mother of Fritz was in warm sympathy with her son, and 
 aided him in all ways in her power in this gratification. Still it 
 was a very hazardous measure. The fierce old king was quite 
 uncertain in his movements. He might at any hour appear at 
 Potsdam, and no one could tell to what lengths, in case of a dis- 
 covery, he might go in the intensity of his rage. Fritz had an 
 intimate friend in the army, a young man of about his own age, 
 one Lieutenant Katte, who, when Fritz was with his music-teach- 
 er, was stationed on the look-out, that he might give instant 
 warning in case there were any indications of the king's approach. 
 His mother also was prepared, when Quantz was at Potsdam, 
 promptly to dispatch a messenger to her son in case she sus- 
 pected his father of being about to turn his steps in that direc- 
 tion. 
 
 Fritz, having thus established his outposts, was accustomed 
 to retire to his room with his teacher, lay aside his tight-fitting 
 Prussian military coat, which he detested, and called his shroud, 
 draw on a very beautiful, flowing French dressing-gown of scar- 
 let, embroidered with gold, and decorated with sash and tags, 
 and, with his hair dressed in the most fashionable style of the 
 French court, surrender himself to the indulgence of his own 
 luxurious tastes for sumptuous attire as well as for melodious 
 sounds. He was thus, one day, in the height of his enjoyment, 
 taking his clandestine music-lesson, when Lieutenant Katte came 
 rushing into the room in the utmost dismay, with the announce- 
 ment that the king was at the door„ The wily and ever-suspi- 
 cious monarch had stolen the march upon them. He was about 
 to make his son a very unwelcome surprise visit. 
 
 A bomb bursting in the room could scarcely have created a 
 greater panic. Katte and Quantz seized the flutes and music- 
 books, and rushed into a wood-closet, where they stood quaking 
 with terror. Fritz threw off his dressing-gown, hurried on his 
 military coat, and sat down at the table, affecting to be deeply 
 engaged with his books. The king, frowning like a thunder- 
 cloud — for he always frowned when he drew near Fritz — burst 
 into the room. The sight of the frizzled hair of his son "kindled 
 the paternal wrath into a tornado pitch." The king had a won- 
 derful command of the vocabulary of abuse, and was heaping 
 epithets of vituperation upon the head of the prince, when he 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 THE DRESSING-GOWN. 
 
 caught sight of the dressing-gown behind a screen. He seized 
 the glittering garment, and, with increasing outbursts of rage, 
 crammed it into the fire. Then searching the room, he collected 
 all the French books, of which Fritz had quite a library, and, 
 sending for a bookseller near by, ordered him to take every vol- 
 ume away, and sell them for what they would bring. For more 
 than an hour the king was thus raging, like a maniac, in the 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 69 
 
 apartment of his son. Fortunately lie did not look into the 
 wood-closet. Had he done so, both Quantz and Katte would 
 have been terribly beaten, even had they escaped being sent im- 
 mediately to the scaffold. 
 
 " The king," writes Wilhelmina, " almost caused my brother 
 and myself to die of hunger. He always acted as carver, and 
 served every body except us. When, by chance, there remained 
 any thing in the dish, he spit in it, to prevent our eating of it. 
 We lived entirely upon coffee, milk, and dried cherries, which 
 ruined our health. I was nourished with insults and invectives, 
 and was abused all day long, in every possible manner, and be- 
 fore every body. The king's anger went so far against my broth- 
 er and myself that he drove us from him, forbidding us to ap- 
 pear in his presence except at meals, 
 
 " The queen had contrived in her bedroom a sort of labyrinth 
 of screens, so arranged that I could escape the king without be- 
 ing seen, in case he suddenly entered. One day the king came 
 and surprised us. I wished to escape, but found myself embar- 
 rassed among these screens, of which several fell, and prevented 
 my getting out of the room. The king was at my heels, and 
 tried to catch hold of me in order to beat me. Not being able 
 any longer to escape, I placed myself behind my governess. The 
 king advanced so much that she was obliged to fall back, but, 
 finding herself at length near the chimney, she was stopped. I 
 found myself in the alternative of bearing the fire or the blows. 
 The king overwhelmed me with abuse, and tried to seize me by 
 the hair. I fell upon the floor. The scene would have had a 
 tragical end had it continued, as my clothes were actually begin- 
 ning to take fire. The king, fatigued with crying out and with 
 his passion, at length put an end to it and went away." 
 
 These sufferings bound the brother and sister very intimately 
 together. " This dear brother," Wilhelmina writes, " passed all 
 his afternoons with me. We read and wrote together, and oc- 
 cupied ourselves in cultivating our minds. The king now never 
 saw my brother without threatening him with the cane. Fritz 
 repeatedly told me that he would bear any thing from the king 
 except blows ; but that, if he ever came to such extremities with 
 him, he would regain his freedom by flight." 
 
 On the 10th of December, 1729, Dubourgay writes in his jour- 
 
70 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 nal : " His Prussian majesty can not bear the sight of either the 
 prince or the princess royal. The other day he asked the prince, 
 'Kalkstein makes you English, does not heV To which the 
 prince answered, ' I respect the English, because I know the peo- 
 ple there love me.' Upon which the king seized him by the 
 collar, struck him fiercely with his cane, and it was only by su- 
 perior strength that the poor prince escaped worse. There is a 
 general apprehension of something tragical taking place before 
 long." 
 
 Wilhelmina gives the following account of this transaction, as 
 communicated to her by her brother : " As I entered the king's 
 room this morning, he first seized me by the hair and then threw 
 me on the floor, along which, after having exercised the vigor of 
 his arm upon my unhappy person, he dragged me, in spite of all 
 my resistance, to a neighboring window. His intention appar- 
 ently was to perform the office of the mutes of the seraglio, for, 
 seizing the cord belonging to the curtain, he placed it around 
 my neck. I seized both of his hands, and began to cry out. A 
 servant came to my assistance, and delivered me from his hands." 
 
 In reference to this event, the prince wrote to his mother from 
 Potsdam, " I am in the utmost despair. What I had always ap- 
 prehended has at last come on me. The king has entirely for- 
 gotten that I am his son. This morning I came into his room 
 as usual. At the first sight of me he sprang forward, seized -me 
 by the collar, and struck me a shower of blows with his rattan. 
 I tried in vain to screen myself, he was in so terrible a rage, al- 
 most out of himself It was only weariness that made him give 
 up. I am driven to extremity. I have too much honor to en- 
 dure such treatment, and I am resolved to put an end to it in 
 one way or another." { 
 
 Wilhelmina well understood that her brother contemplated 
 running away, escaping, if possible, to England. We have men- 
 tioned that the young prince, after his return from Dresden, had 
 become quite dissipated. The companions he chose were wild 
 young army officers of high birth, polished address, and, in god- 
 less lives, fashionable men of the world Lieutenant Katte was 
 a genteel man of pleasure. Another of his bosom companions, 
 Lieutenant Keith, a young man of illustrious lineage, was also a 
 very undesirable associate for any young man whose principles 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 A ROYAL EXECUTIONER. 
 
 of virtue were not established* Of Keith and Katte, the two 
 most intimate friends of Fritz, Wilhelmina writes, about this 
 time: 
 
 "Lieutenant Keith had been gone some time, stationed in 
 Wesel with his regiment. Keith's departure had been a great 
 joy to me, in the hope my brother would now lead a more reg- 
 ular life. But it proved quite otherwise. A second favorite, and 
 a much more dangerous, succeeded Keith. This was a young 
 man of the name of Katte, captain lieutenant in the regiment 
 
 * "The sad truth, dimly indicated, is sufficiently visible. His life for the next four or five 
 years was extremely dissolute. Poor young man, he has got into a disastrous course ; consorts 
 chiefly with debauched young fellows, as Lieutenants Katte, Keith, and others of their stamp, 
 who lead him on ways not pleasant to his father, nor conformable to the laws of this universe. 
 Health, either of body or mind, is not to be looked for in his present way of life. The bright 
 young soul, with its fine strengths and gifts wallowing like a rhinoceros in the mud bath. Some 
 say it is wholesome for a human soul ; not Ave." — Carlyle, ii., p. 21. 
 
72 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Gens cPArmes. He was highly connected in the army. His 
 mother was daughter of Field-marshal Wartensleben. General 
 Katte, his father, had sent him to the universities, and afterward 
 to travel, desiring that he should be a lawyer. But, as there 
 was no favor to be hoped for out of the army, the young man 
 found himself at last placed there, contrary to his expectation. 
 He continued to apply himself to studies. He had wit, book- 
 culture, and acquaintance with the world. The good company 
 which he continued to frequent had given him polite manners 
 to a degree then rare in Berlin. His physiognomy was rather 
 disagreeable than otherwise. A pair of thick black eyebrows 
 almost covered his eyes. His look had in it something omin- 
 ous, presage of the fate he met with. A tawny skin, torn by 
 small-pox, increased his ugliness. He affected the freethinker, 
 and carried libertinism to excess. A great deal of ambition and 
 headlong rashness accompanied this vice. Such a favorite was 
 not the man to bring back my brother from his follies." 
 
 Early in January, 1730, the king, returning from a hunt at 
 Wusterhausen, during which he had held a drinking carouse 
 and a diplomatic interview with the King of Poland, announced 
 his intention of being no longer annoyed by matrimonial ar- 
 rangements for Wilhelmina, He resolved to abandon the En- 
 glish alliance altogether,' unless an immediate and unequivocal 
 assent were given by George II. for the marriage of Wilhelmina 
 with the Prince of Wales, without any compact for the marriage 
 of Fritz with the Princess Amelia. Count Finckenstein, Baron 
 Grumkow, and General Borck were sent to communicate this, 
 the king's unalterable resolve, to the queen. The first two were 
 friends of the queen. Grumkow was understood to be the in- 
 stigator of the king. Wilhelmina chanced to be with her moth- 
 er when the gentlemen announced themselves as the bearers of 
 a very important message from the king to her majesty. Wil- 
 helmina trembled, and said in a low tone to her mother, " This 
 regards me. I have a dreading." " No matter," the worn and 
 weary mother replied ; " one must have firmness, and that is not 
 what I shall want." The queen retired with the ministers to 
 the audience-chamber. 
 
 There they informed her that they had each received a letter 
 the night before from the king, the contents of which they were 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 73 
 
 forbidden, under penalty of death, from communicating to any 
 one but to her. The king wished them to say to her majesty 
 that he would no longer endure her disobedience in reference to 
 the marriage of Wilhelmina ; that, in case this disobedience con- 
 tinued, there should be an entire separation between him and 
 his wife — a divorce — and that she and her daughter should both 
 be banished to the chateau of Oranienburg, about twenty miles 
 from Berlin, and there held in close imprisonment. The king 
 was willing that Sophie Dorothee should write once more, and 
 only once more, to her brother, George II., and demand of him a 
 categorical answer, yes or no, whether he would consent to the 
 immediate marriage of the Prince of Wales and Wilhelmina. 
 The king would wait a fortnight for an answer, or, if the winds 
 were contrary, three weeks ; but not a day more. Should no 
 answer in that time be returned, or a negative or an evasive an- 
 swer, then Wilhelmina was to make her immediate choice of a 
 husband between either the Duke of Weissenfels or the Marquis 
 of Schwedt, and to be married without dela}^.* 
 
 Weissenfels was a small duchy in Saxony. The duke, so 
 called by courtesy, had visited Berlin before in the train of his 
 sovereign, King Augustus, when his majesty returned the visit 
 of Frederick William. He was then quite captivated by the 
 beauty and vivacity of Wilhelmina. He was titular duke mere- 
 ly, his brother being the real duke ; and he was then living on 
 his pay as officer in the army, and was addicted to deep pota- 
 tions. Carlyle describes him as " a mere betitled, betasseled, eld- 
 erly military gentleman of no special qualities, evil or good." 
 Sophie Dorothee, noticing his attentions to Wilhelmina, deemed 
 it the extreme of impudence for so humble a man to aspire to 
 the hand of her illustrious child. She reproved him so severely 
 that he retired from the court in deep chagrin. He never would 
 have presumed to renew the suit but for the encouragement 
 given by Frederick William. 
 
 The Marquis of Schwedt was a very indifferent young man, 
 living under the tutelage of his dowager mother. She was a 
 cousin of the King of Prussia, and had named her son Frederick 
 
 * "Never in any romance or stage play was young lady, without blame, without furtherance, 
 and without hinderance of her own, so tormented about a settlement in life — passive she all the 
 while, mere clay in the hands of the potter, and begging the universe to have the extreme good- 
 ness only to leave her alone." — Carlyle. 
 
74 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 William. Having rendered herself conspicuously ridiculous by 
 the flaunting colors of her dress, which tawdry display was in 
 character with her mind, both she and her son were decidedly 
 disagreeable to Wilhelmina. 
 
 There was no alternative left the young princess. Unless 
 there were an immediate consummation of the marriage contract 
 with the English Frederick, she was, without delay, to choose 
 between Weissenfels and Schwedt. The queen, in response to 
 this communication, said, " I will immediately write to England ; 
 but, whatever may be the answer, it is impossible that my daugh- 
 ter should marry either of the individuals whom the king has 
 designated." Baron Grumkow, who was in entire accord with 
 the king, " began," says Wilhelmina, " quoting Scripture on her 
 majesty, as the devil. can on occasion. 'Wives, be obedient to 
 your husbands,' said he. The queen very aptly replied, i Yes ; 
 but did not Bethuel, the son of Milcah, when Abraham's servant 
 asked his daughter in marriage for young Isaac, answer, "We 
 will call the damsel, and inquire of her mouth V It is true, wives 
 must obey their husbands, but husbands must command things 
 just and reasonable.' 
 
 " The king's procedure," added the unhappy mother, " is not 
 in accordance with that law. He is doing violence to my daugh- 
 ter's inclinations, thus rendering her wretched for the remainder 
 of her days. He wishes to give her for a husband a brutaL de- 
 bauchee, a younger brother, who is nothing but an officer in the 
 army of the King of Poland ; a landless man, without the means 
 of living according to his rank. I will write to England. But, 
 whatever the answer, I had rather a thousand times see my 
 child in the grave than hopelessly miserable." 
 
 The queen, looking reproachfully at Grumkow, remarked, " I 
 know full well to whom I owe all this." She then excused her- 
 self, saying that she was not well, and retired to her apartment. 
 There she communicated to the anxious Wilhelmina the cruel 
 message of the king. Sophie Dorothee then wrote a very earn- 
 est letter to Queen Caroline, the wife of George II., imploring 
 that all obstacles in the way of the marriage of Wilhelmina with 
 the Prince of Wales might be withdrawn. The idea of marriage 
 with either Weissenfels or Schwedt was dreadful. But, on the 
 other hand, the wrath of the king, the divorce of the queen, and 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 75 
 
 the imprisonment of both mother and daughter in the chateau 
 of Oranienburg, were also dreadful. Fritz was taken into the 
 councils of his mother and sister. It was decided that he should 
 also write to his aunt, urging his suit for the Princess Amelia. 
 It is true that George II. was ready to accede to this marriage, 
 but Frederick William threw obstacles in the way. It was prob- 
 ably the hope of Fritz to secure Amelia, notwithstanding his fa- 
 ther's opposition. The ready pen of Wilhelmina was employed 
 to draft the letter, which her brother submissively copied. As 
 it was not probable, in the intricacies in which the question was 
 now involved, that both marriages could take place together, 
 Fritz wrote pleading for the marriage of Wilhelmina at once, 
 pledging his word that he would remain faithful to the Princess 
 Amelia. 
 
 " I have already," he wrote, " given your majesty my word of 
 honor never to wed any one but the Princess Amelia, your 
 daughter. I here reiterate that promise, in case your majesty 
 will consent to my sister's marriage." 
 
 Sophie Dorothee dispatched a courier with these documents, 
 to go with the utmost speed to England. It was a long journey 
 in those days, and the winds were often contrary. A fortnight 
 passed. Three weeks were gone. Still there was no answer. 
 On the 25th of January, 1730 — "a day," writes Wilhelmina, 
 " which I shall never forget" — Finckenstein, Borck, and Grum- 
 kow again called upon the queen, with the following message 
 from the king: 
 
 "Whatever answer may now be returned from England I will 
 have nothing to do with it. Whether negative, affirmative, or 
 evasive, to me it shall be as nothing. You, madam, must now 
 choose between the Duke of Weissenfels and the Marquis of 
 Schwedt. If you do not choose, you and Wilhelmina may pre- 
 pare for J3ranienburg, where you shall suffer the just penalty of 
 mutiny against the authority set over you by God and men." 
 
 The queen summoned firmness to reply : "You can inform the 
 king that he will never make me consent to render my daughter 
 miserable ; and that, so long as a breath of life remains in me, I 
 will not permit her to take either the one or the other of these 
 persons." 
 
 Then addressing Grumkow, she said, in tones deliberate and 
 
76 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 intense, " For you, sir, who are the author of my misfortunes, 
 may my curse fall upon you and your house. You have this 
 day killed me. But I doubt not that Heaven will hear my 
 prayer and avenge my wrongs." 
 
 The queen was at this time in a delicate state of health, and 
 anxiety and sorrow threw her upon a sick-bed. The king, who 
 felt as much affection for " Phiekin" as such a coarse, brutal man 
 could feel for any body, was alarmed ; but he remained obdurate. 
 He stormed into her room, where, in the fever of her troubles, she 
 tossed upon her pillow, and obstreperously declared that Wilhel-. 
 mina should be married immediately, and that she must take ei- 
 ther Weissenfels or Schwedt. As both mother and daughter re- 
 mained firm in their refusal to choose, he resolved to decide the 
 question himself. 
 
 Accordingly, he made proposals to the Marquise of Schwedt 
 that Wilhelmina should marry her son. The lady replied, in 
 terms very creditable both to her head and her heart, " Such a. 
 union, your majesty, would be in accordance with the supreme 
 wish of my life. But how can I accept such happiness against 
 the will of the princess herself? This I can positively never do." 
 Here she remained firm. The raging king returned to the bed- 
 side of his wife, as rough and determined as ever. He declared 
 that the question was now settled that Wilhelmina was to mar- 
 ry the old Duke of Weissenfels. 
 
 The unhappy princess, distracted by these griefs, had grown 
 thin and pale. It was soon rumored throughout the court that 
 the king had written to Weissenfels, and that the duke was on 
 his way to seize his reluctant bride. In this emergence, the 
 queen's friend, Baron Borck, suggested to her that, in order to 
 get rid of the obnoxious Weissenfels, she should so far yield to 
 the wishes of the king as to give up the English alliance, and' 
 propose a third party, who might be more acceptable to Wilhel- 
 mina. But who shall this substitute be \ 
 
 About two hundred miles south of Berlin there "was quite an 
 important marquisate called Baireuth. The marquis had a good- 
 looking young son, the heir-apparent, who had just returned from 
 the grand tour of Europe. Upon the death of his father he 
 would enter upon quite a rich inheritance. This young marquis, 
 Frederick by name, Baron Borck proposed as a substitute for 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 77 
 
 the Duke of Weissenfels. It was understood that Wilhelmina 
 was such a prize that kings, even, would be eager to obtain her 
 hand. There could therefore be no doubt but that the Marquis 
 of Baireuth would feel signally honored by such nuptials. The 
 worn and weary mother eagerly accepted this proposal. She 
 suggested it to the king. Sullenly he gave it his assent, saying, 
 " I will passively submit to it, but will take no active part what- 
 ever in the affair. Neither will I give Wilhelmina one single 
 copper for dowry." 
 
 The queen, delighted in having obtained even this measure 
 of acquiescence on the part of the king, now conferred with Wil- 
 helmina. But, to her surprise and bitter disappointment, the 
 young princess did not share in her mother's joy. She was not 
 disposed to be thus bartered away, and presented sundry objec- 
 tions. The poor mother, harassed by these interminable difficul- 
 ties, now lost all patience. She broke out upon her equally un- 
 happy daughter with cruel reproaches. 
 
 11 Take, then," she exclaimed, " the Grand Turk or the Great 
 Mogul for your husband. Follow your own caprice. Had I 
 known you better I would not have brought so many sorrows 
 upon myself. You may follow the king's bidding. It is hence- 
 forth your own affair. I will no longer trouble myself about 
 your concerns. And spare me, if you please, the sorrows of your 
 odious presence. I can not stand it." 
 
 Wilhelmina endeavored to reply. But the angry mother 
 sternly exclaimed, ■" Silence !" and the tortured girl left the apart- 
 ment, weeping bitterly. Even Fritz took his mother's part, and 
 reproached Wilhelmina for not acceding to her plan. New troub- 
 les were thickening around him. He was in debt. The king 
 had found it out. To his father's stern questioning, Fritz, in his 
 terror, had uttered deliberate falsehood. He confessed a debt 
 of about eight hundred dollars, which his father had detected, 
 and solemnly declared that this was all. In fact, he owed an 
 additional sum of seven thousand dollars. Should the king dis- 
 cover this debt, and thus detect Fritz in a lie, his rage would be 
 -tremendous. The king paid the eight hundred dollar debt of 
 his son, and then issued a decree declaring that to lend money 
 to any princes of the blood, even to the prince royal, was a high 
 crime, to be punished, not only by forfeiture of the money, but 
 
78 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 by imprisonment. The king had begun to suspect that Fritz 
 intended to escape. He could not escape without money. The 
 king therefore took special precautions that his purse should be 
 ever empty, and watched him with renewed vigilance. 
 
 While matters were in this extremity, the British minister, 
 Dubourgay, and Baron Knyphausen, a distinguished Prussian 
 official, dispatched Rev. Dr. Villa, a scholarly man, who had been 
 Wilhelmina' s teacher of English, on a secret mission to the court 
 of England, to communicate the true state of affairs, and to en- 
 deavor to secure some disentanglement of the perplexities. Dr. 
 Villa was a warm friend of Wilhelmina, and, in sympathy with 
 her sorrows, wept as he bade her adieu. The king was in such 
 ill humor that his daughter dared not appear in his presence. 
 If Fritz came within reach of his father's arm he was pretty sure 
 to receive a blow from his rattan. 
 
 On the 18th of February, 1730, some affairs of state led the 
 king to take a trip to Dresden to see the King of Poland. He 
 decided to take Fritz with him, as he was afraid to leave him 
 behind. Fritz resolved to avail himself of the opportunity which 
 the journey might offer to attempt his escape. He was unwill- 
 ing to do this without bidding adieu to his sister, who had been 
 the partner of so many of his griefs. It was not easy to obtain 
 a private interview. On the evening of the 17th of February 
 as Wilhelmina, aided by her governess, was undressing for bed 
 the door of the anteroom of her chamber was cautiously opened 
 and a young gentleman, very splendidly dressed in French cos- 
 tume, entered. Wilhelmina, terrified, uttered a shriek, and en- 
 deavored to hide herself behind a screen. Her governess, Mad 
 am Sonsfeld, ran into the anteroom to ascertain what such an 
 intrusion meant. The remainder of the story we will give in 
 the words of Wilhelmina : 
 
 " But she returned the next moment accompanying the cava- 
 lier, who was laughing heartily, and whom I recognized for my 
 brother. His dress so altered him he seemed a different person. 
 He was in the best humor possible. 'I am come to bid you 
 farewell once more, my dear sister, 7 said he ; ' and as I know the 
 friendship you have for me, I will not keep you ignorant of my 
 designs. I go, and do not come back. I can not endure the 
 usage I suffer. My patience is driven to an end. It is a favor- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 79 
 
 ijill'i'MIMIl 
 
 ii Si! 1 " 
 
 FREDERICK AND HIS SISTER. 
 
 able opportunity for flinging off that odious yoke. I will glide 
 out of Dresden and get across to England, where, I do not doubt, 
 I shall work out .your deliverance too, when I am got thither. 
 So I beg you calm yourself. We shall soon meet again in places 
 where joy shall succeed our tears, and where we shall have the 
 happiness to see ourselves in peace, and free from these persecu- 
 tions.' " 
 
 Wilhelmina was appalled in view of the difficulty and clanger 
 of the enterprise. It was a long distance from Dresden to the 
 coast. Head winds might detain the vessel. The suspicious 
 king would not long remain ignorant that he was missing. He 
 would be pursued with energy almost demoniac. Being cap. 
 
80 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 tured, no one could tell how fearful would be his doom. The 
 sagacious sister was right. Fritz could not but perceive the 
 strength of her arguments, and gave her his word of honor that 
 he would not attempt, on the present occasion, to effect his flight, 
 Fritz accordingly went to Dresden with his father, and returned. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE. 
 
 Objections to the British Alliance. — Obstinacy of the King. — Wilhelmina's Journal. — Policy 
 of Frederick William and of George II. — Letter from Fritz. — The Camp of Miihlberg. — The 
 Plan of Escape. — The Flight arrested. — Ungovernable Rage of the King. — Endeavors to kill 
 his Son. — Arrest and Imprisonment of Fritz. — Terror of his Mother and. Sister. — Wilhelmina 
 imprisoned. 
 
 In the mean time Dr. Villa reached England. In conference 
 with the British cabinet, the members deemed it very desirable, 
 at all events, to effect the marriage of the Prince of Wales with 
 the Prussian princess. The main consideration was that it 
 would tend to detach Prussia from Germany, and secure its alli- 
 ance with England. It was also a good Protestant match, and 
 would promote the interests of Protestantism. The king desired 
 this marriage. But he was inflexible in his resolve that both 
 marriages should take place or neither. The Prussian king was 
 equally inflexible in his determination that, while he would, con- 
 sent to one marriage, he would not consent to both. Colonel 
 Hotham, a man of good family and of some personal distinction, 
 was accordingly sent, as envoy extraordinary, to Berlin, to make 
 new efforts in favor of the double marriage. 
 
 The Queen of Prussia had recently given birth* to another 
 prince. She was on a bed of languor. The king was somewhat 
 mollified, and was anxious to be relieved from these protracted 
 difficulties. Colonel Hotham reached the palace of Charlotten- 
 burg on the 2d of April, 1730, and was graciously received by 
 the king. The next day quite a splendid dinner-was given in 
 honor of the British envoy. All the notables who surrounded 
 the table, the English and the Prussian, in accordance with the 
 degrading custom of those times, drank deeply. Hotham, in his 
 dispatch, without any apparent sense of shame, writes, " We all 
 got immoderately drunk." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 81 
 
 The object of Colonel Hot ham's mission was well known. The 
 cordial reception he had met from the king indicated that his 
 message was not an unwelcome one to his Prussian majesty. In 
 the indecent hilarity of the hour, it was assumed that the mar- 
 riage contract between Wilhelmina and the Prince of Wales was 
 settled. Brains addled with wine gave birth to stupid jokes 
 upon the subject. "A German ducat was to be exchanged for 
 an English half guinea." At last, in the semi-delirium of their 
 intoxication, one proposed as a toast, " To the health of Wilhel- 
 mina, Princess of Wales." The sentiment was received with up- 
 roarious jollity. Though all the company were in the same state 
 of silly inebriation, neither the king nor the British ministers, 
 Hotham and Dubourgay, for a moment lost sight of their settled 
 policy. The king remained firm in his silent resolve to consent 
 only to the marriage of Wilhelmina and the Prince of Wales. 
 Hotham and Dubourgay could not swerve from the positive in- 
 structions which they had received, to insist upon both mar- 
 riages or neither. Thus, notwithstanding this bacchanal jollifi- 
 cation, neither party was disposed to swerve a hair's-breadth from 
 its fixed resolve, and the question was no nearer a settlement 
 than before. 
 
 Still, most of the courtly carousers did not comprehend this. 
 And when the toast to Wilhelmina as Princess of Wales was re- 
 ceived with such acclaim, they supposed that all doubt was at 
 an end. The news flew upon the wings of the wind to Berlin. 
 It was late in the afternoon of Monday, April 30. Wilhelmina 
 writes : 
 
 " I was sitting quiet in my apartment, busy with work, and 
 some one reading to me, when the queen's ladies rushed in, with 
 a torrent of domestics in their rear, who all bawled out, putting 
 one knee to the ground, that they were come to salute the Prin- 
 cess of Wales. I fairly believed these poor people had lost their 
 wits. They would not cease overwhelming me with noise and 
 tumult ; their joy was so great they knew not what they did. 
 When the farce had lasted some time, they told me what had 
 occurred at the dinner. 
 
 " I was so little moved by it that I answered, going on with 
 my work, i Is that all V which greatly surprised them. A while 
 
 F 
 
82 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 after, rny sisters and several ladies came to congratulate me. I 
 was much loved, and I felt more delighted at the proofs each 
 gave me of that than at what had occasioned their congratula- 
 tions. In the evening I went to the queen's. You ma}^ readily 
 conceive her joy. On my first entrance she called me her dear 
 Princess of Wales, and addressed Madam De Sonsfeld as l Mi- 
 ladi.' This latter took the liberty of hinting to her that it would 
 be better to keep quiet ; that the king, having yet given no no- 
 tice of this business, might be provoked at such demonstration, 
 and that the least trifle could still ruin all her hopes." 
 
 The king, upon his return from Charlottenburg to Berlin, made 
 no allusion whatever in his family to the matter. In the court, 
 however, it was generally considered that the question, so far as 
 Wilhelmina was concerned, was settled. Hotham held daily in- 
 terviews with the king, and received frequent communications 
 from the Prince of Wales, who appears to have been very eager 
 for the consummation of the marriage. Many of these letters 
 were shown to Wilhelmina. She was much gratified with the 
 fervor they manifested on the part of a lover who had never yet 
 seen her. In one of these letters the prince says: "I conjure 
 you, my dear Hotham, get these negotiations finished. I am 
 madly in love (amoureux comrrte un fou), and my impatience is 
 unequaled." 
 
 The question arises, Why was Frederick William so averse to 
 the marriage of Fritz with the Princess Amelia ? Probably the 
 real reason was his rooted antipathy to his son, and his conse- 
 quent unwillingness to do any thing which would promote his 
 interests or increase his influence. His advisers strengthened 
 him in this sentiment. The English were very unpopular at 
 Berlin. Their assumption of superiority over all other peoples 
 was a constant annoyance. The Prussian king said to his con- 
 fidential friends, 
 
 " If the English Princess Amelia come here as the bride of my 
 son, she will bring with her immense wealth. Accustomed to 
 grandeur, she will look contemptuously upon our simplicity. 
 With her money she can dazzle and bribe. I hate my son. He 
 hates me. Aided by the gold of England, my son can get up a 
 party antagonistic to me. No ! I will never, never consent to 
 his marrying the Princess Amelia. If he is never married it is 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 83 
 
 no matter. Fortunately I have other sons, and the succession 
 will not be disturbed."* 
 
 The king had made many efforts to force his son to surrender 
 his rights of primogeniture, and to sign an act renouncing his 
 claim to the succession of the Prussian throne in favor of his 
 next brother. His only answer was, " Declare my birth illegiti- 
 mate, and I will give up the throne." But the king could never 
 consent to fix such a stain upon the honor of his wife. 
 
 And why was George II. so averse to the single marriage of 
 the Prince of Wales to Wilhelmina ? It is supposed that the op- 
 position arose simply from his own mulish obstinacy. He hated 
 his brother-in-law, the Prussian king. He was a weak, ill-tem- 
 pered man; and having once said "Both marriages or none" 
 nothing could induce him to swerve from that position. In such 
 a difficulty, with such men, there could be no possible compro- 
 mise. 
 
 George II. was far from popular in England. There was but 
 little in the man to win either affection or esteem. The Prince 
 of Wales was also daily becoming more disliked. He was as- 
 suming haughty airs. He was very profligate, and his associates 
 were mainly actresses and opera girls. The Prussian minister 
 at London, who was opposed to any matrimonial connection 
 whatever between the Prussian and the English court, watched 
 the Prince of Wales very narrowly, and wrote home quite unfa- 
 vorable reports respecting his character and conduct. He had 
 searched out the fact that Fritz had written to his aunt, Queen 
 Caroline, pledging to her his word " never to marry any body in 
 the world except the Princess Amelia of England, happen what 
 will." This fact was reported to the king, greatly exciting his 
 wrath. 
 
 To obviate the difficulty of the Crown Prince becoming the 
 head of a party in Berlin antagonistic to the king, the plan was 
 suggested of having him appointed, with his English princess, 
 vice-regent of Hanover, But this plan failed. Hotham now 
 
 * The Prussian minister Reichenbach, at London, wrote to M. Grumkow, under date of 
 March 14, 1730 : " Reichenbach flatters himself that the king will remain firm, and not let his 
 enemies deceive him. If Grumkow and Seckendorf have opportunity, they may tell his Prus- 
 sian majesty that the whole design of this court is to render his country a province dependent 
 on England. When once the Princess Royal of England shall be wedded to the Prince Royal 
 of Prussia, the English, by that means, will form such a party at Berlin that they will altogether 
 tie his Prussian majesty's hands. n 
 
84 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 became quite discouraged. He wrote home, on the 22d of April, 
 that he had that day dined with the king; that the Crown 
 Prince was present, but dreadfully dejected, and that great sym- 
 pathy was excited in his behalf, as he was so engaging and so 
 universally popular. He evidently perceived some indications 
 of superiority in the Crown Prince, for he added, " If I am not 
 much mistaken, this young prince will one day make a very con- 
 siderable figure." 
 
 After much diplomatic toil, the ultimatum obtained from Fred- 
 erick William was the ever inflexible answer : " 1. The marriage 
 of the Prince of Wales to Wilhelmina I consent to. 2. The mar- 
 riage of the Crown Prince Frederick with the Princess Amelia 
 must be postponed. I hope it may eventually take place." 
 
 Hotham, quite indignant, sent this dispatch, dated May 13, to 
 London, including with it a very earnest letter from the Crown 
 Prince to his uncle, in which Fritz wrote : 
 
 "The Crown Prince begs his Britannic majesty not to reject 
 the king's proposals, whatever they may be, for his sister Wil- 
 helmina's sake. For, though the Crown Prince is determined to 
 lose his life sooner than marry any body but the Princess Ame- 
 lia, yet, if this negotiation were broken off, his father would go 
 to extremities to force him and his sister into other engagements." 
 
 The return mail brought back, under date of May 22, the 
 stereotype British answer : " Both marriages or none." Just be- 
 fore the reception of this reply, as Colonel Hotham was upon 
 the eve of leaving Berlin, the Crown Prince addressed to him, 
 from Potsdam, the following interesting letter : 
 
 " Monsieur, — I believe that it is of the last importance that I 
 should write to you, and I am very sad to have things to say 
 which I ought to conceal from all the earth. But one must take 
 that bad leap, and, reckoning you among my friends, I the more 
 easily resolve to open myself to you. 
 
 " The case is this : I am treated in an unheard-of manner by 
 .the king ; and I know that there are terrible things in prepara- 
 tion against me touching certain letters which I wrote last win- 
 ter, of which I believe you are informed. In a word, to speak 
 frankly to you, the real, secret reason why the king will not con- 
 sent to this marriage is, that he wishes to keep me on a low foot- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 85 
 
 ing constantly, and to have the power of driving me mad when- 
 ever the whim takes him, throughout his life. Thus he will 
 never give his consent. 
 
 " For my own part, therefore, I believe it would be better to 
 conclude my sister's marriage in the first place, and not even to 
 ask from the king any assurance in regard to mine, the rather as 
 his word has nothing to do with it. It is enough that I here 
 reiterate the promises which I have already made to the king, 
 my uncle, never to take another wife than his second daughter, 
 the Princess Amelia. I am a person of my word, and shall be 
 able to bring about what I set forth, provided that there is trust 
 put in me. I promise it to you. And now you may give your 
 court notice of it, and I shall manage to keep my promise. I re- 
 main yours always." 
 
 In June, 1730, Augustus, King of Poland, had one of the most 
 magnificent military reviews of which history gives any record. 
 The camp of Miihlberg, as it was called, was established upon 
 an undulating field, twelve miles square, on the right bank of 
 the Elbe, a few leagues below Dresden. It is hardly too much 
 to say that all the beauty and chivalry of Europe were gathered 
 upon that field. Fabulous amounts of money and of labor were 
 expended to invest the scene with the utmost sublimity of splen- 
 dor. A military review had great charms for Frederick William. 
 He attended as one of the most distinguished of the invited 
 guests. The Crown Prince accompanied the king, as his father 
 dared not leave him behind. But Fritz was exposed to every 
 mortification and every species of ignominy which the ingenuity 
 of this monster parent could heap upon him. 
 
 In the presence of monarchs, of lords and ladies, of the highest 
 dignitaries of Europe, the young heir apparent to the throne of 
 Prussia, beautiful in person, high-spirited, and of superior genius, 
 was treated by his father with studied contumely and insult. 
 Every thing was done to expose him to contempt. He even 
 openly flogged the prince with his rattan. It would seem that 
 the father availed himself of this opportunity so to. torture the 
 sensibilities of his son as to drive him to suicide. Professor 
 Ranke writes : 
 
 " In that pleasure-camp of Miihlberg, where the eyes of many 
 
SQ FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 strangers were directed to him, the Grown Prince was treated 
 like a disobedient boy, and at one time even with blows, to make 
 him feel that he was such. The enraged king, who never weigh- 
 ed the consequences of his words, added mockery to his manual 
 outrage. i Had I been so treated,' he said, ' by my father, I would 
 have blown my brains out. But this fellow has no honor. He 
 takes all that comes.' " 
 
 It would seem that if ever there were an excuse for suicide it 
 was to be found here. But what folly it would have been! 
 Dark as these days were, they led the prince to a crown, and to 
 achievements of whose recital the world will never grow weary. 
 Fritz, goaded to madness, again adopted the desperate resolve to 
 attempt an escape. A young Englishman, Captain Guy Dick- 
 ens, secretary of the British embassador, Dubourgay, had become 
 quite the intimate friend of the Crown Prince. They conferred 
 together upon plans of escape. But the precautions adopted by 
 the father were such that no plan which they could devise seem- 
 ed feasible at that time. Fritz confided his thoughts to his 
 friend, Lieutenant Keith, at Berlin. 
 
 It is probable that the suspicions of the king were excited, for 
 suddenly he sent Lieutenant Keith to a garrison at Wesel, at a 
 great distance from Berlin, in a small Prussian province far down 
 the Rhine. The three had, however, concocted the following 
 plan, to be subsequently executed. Immediately after the re- 
 turn from Miihlberg the king was to undertake a long journey 
 to the Rhine. The Crown Prince, as usual, was to be dragged 
 along with him. In this journey they would pass through Stutt- 
 gart, within a few miles of Strasbourg, which was on the French 
 side of the river. From Stuttgart the prince was to escape in 
 disguise, on fleetest horses, to Strasbourg, and thence proceed to 
 London. Colonel Hotham, who had accompanied the Prussian 
 king to the camp of Miihlberg, was apprised of all this by his 
 secretary. He immediately dispatched the secretary, on the 16th 
 of June, to convey the confidential intelligence to London. 
 
 At the close of these festivities at Miihlberg Frederick William 
 and his suite took boat down the River Elbe to his hunting pal- 
 ace at Lichtenberg. Here they killed, in a grand hunting bout, 
 a thousand animals, boars and deer. The Crown Prince, dishon- 
 ored by insults which he could not revenge, and stung to the 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 87 
 
 quick by innumerable humiliations, followed, dejected, like a 
 guarded captive, in the train of his father. The unhappy prince 
 had but just returned to his garrison at Potsdam, where spies 
 ever kept their eyes vigilantly upon him, when his friend, Cap- 
 tain Guy Dickens, brought him the answer, returned from Lon- 
 don, to the confidential communication of the Crown Prince to 
 his uncle, the British king. The substance of the document was 
 as follows : 
 
 " Mr. Guy Dickens may give to the prince the assurance of the 
 deep compassion which the king feels in view of the sad condi- 
 tion in which the prince finds himself, and of the sincere desire 
 of his majesty to aid, by all the means in his power, to extricate 
 him. While waiting the result of some negotiations now on foot, 
 his majesty is of the opinion that it would be best for the prince 
 to defer for a time his present design ; that the present critical 
 state of affairs in Europe do not present a favorable opportunity 
 for the execution of the contemplated plan ; that the idea of re- 
 tiring to France demands very careful deliberation; and that 
 there is not time now to ascertain how such a step would be re- 
 garded by the French court, which his majesty would think to 
 be essential before he advise a prince so dear to him to with- 
 draw to that country." 
 
 Soon after this, Colonel Hotham, having received a gross in- 
 sult from the king, demanded his passports. The English em- 
 bassador had presented the king with a document from his court. 
 Frederick William angrily threw the paper upon the floor, ex- 
 claiming, " I have had enough of those things !" and, turning 
 upon his heel, left the room. Colonel Hotham, a high-bred En- 
 glish gentleman, could not brook such an indignity, not only to 
 himself, but to his" sovereign. The passionate king had scarcely 
 left the apartment before he perceived the impolicy of his con- 
 duct. He tried to make amends. But Colonel Hotham, justly 
 regarding it as an insult to his court, persisted in demanding his 
 passports, and returned to London. The Crown Prince in vain 
 begged Colonel Hotham to remain. Very properly he replied 
 that the incivility was addressed to his king, and that it was for 
 him only to judge what satisfaction was due for the indignity 
 offered. 
 
 All negotiation in reference to the marriages was now appar- 
 
S8 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ently at an end. Lieutenant Katte remained at Potsdam. In 
 the absence of Lieutenant Keith he became more than ever the 
 friend and confidant of the Crown Prince. Wilhelmina, aware 
 of the dissipated character of Katte, mourned over this intimacy. 
 The king was very much annoyed by the blunder of which he 
 himself had been guilty in insulting the court of England in the 
 person of its embassador. He declared, in his vexation, that he 
 would never again treat in person with a foreign minister ; that 
 his hot temper rendered it unsafe for him to do so. 
 
 He informed Wilhelmina that the question of her marriage 
 with the Prince of Wales was now settled forever, and that, as 
 she declined taking the Duke of Weissenfels for a husband, she 
 might prepare to retire to the abbey of Hereford, a kind of Prot- 
 estant nunnery for ladies of quality, who, for any reason, wished 
 to be buried from the world. He mercilessly resolved to make 
 her the abbess of this institution. This living burial was almost 
 the last situation to suit the taste of Wilhelmina. The king was 
 in the worst possible humor. " He bullies and outrages his poor 
 Crown Prince almost worse than ever. There have been rattan 
 showers hideous to think of, descending this very week (July, 
 1730) on the fine head and far into the high heart of a royal 
 young man, who can not in the name of manhood endure, and 
 must not in the name of sonhood resist, and vainly calls to all 
 the gods to teach him what he shall do in this intolerable, inex- 
 tricable state of affairs."* 
 
 As soon as Hotham had left Berlin the Crown Prince held a 
 secret midnight interview with Captain Dickens and Lieutenant 
 Katte, to devise some new plan of escape during the journey to 
 the Rhine, which was to commence in a few days. He made ar- 
 rangements to leave all his private papers with Katte, provided 
 himself with a large gray overcoat as a partial disguise, and, 
 with much difficulty, obtained about a thousand ducats to defray 
 his expenses. Lieutenant Keith was at Wesel. He was written 
 to with the utmost secrecy, as he might be able to render effi- 
 cient aid, could the Crown Prince reach him. 
 
 On Saturday, the 15th of July, 1730, the king, with a small 
 train, which really guarded Fritz, set out at an early hour from 
 Potsdam on this memorable journey. Three reliable officers of 
 
 * Carl vie. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 89 
 
 the king occupied the same carriage with Fritz, with orders to 
 keep a strict watch over him, and never to leave him alone. 
 Thus, throughout the journey, one of his guards sat by his side, 
 and the other two on the seat facing him. The king was not a 
 luxurious traveler. He seemed to covet hardship and fatigue. 
 Post-horses were provided all along the route. The meteoric 
 train rushed along, scarcely stopping for food or sleep, but occa- 
 sionally delayed by business of inspection, until it reached An- 
 spach, where the king's beautiful daughter, then but sixteen 
 years of age, resided with her uncongenial husband. Here the 
 Crown Prince had some hope of escape. He endeavored to per- 
 suade his brother-in-law, the young Marquis of Anspach, to lend 
 him a pair of saddle-horses, and to say nothing about it. But 
 the characterless young man, suspecting his brother, and dread- 
 ing the wrath of his terrible father-in-law, refused, with many 
 protestations of good- will. 
 
 When near Augsburg, Fritz wrote a letter to Lieutenant Katte, 
 stating that he should embrace the first opportunity to escape 
 to the Hague ; that there he should assume the name of the 
 Count of Alberville. He wished Katte to join him there, and 
 to bring with him the overcoat and the one thousand ducats 
 which he had left in his hands. On Thursday, August 3d, the 
 royal party reached the little hamlet of Steinfurth, not far from 
 the Rhine. Here, as was not unfrequently the case, they slept 
 in barns, carefully swept and prepared for them. The usual 
 hour of starting was three o'clock in the morning. 
 
 Just after midnight, the prince, seeing his associates soundly 
 asleep, cautiously rose, dressed, and crept out into the open air. 
 He had secretly made arrangements with his valet, a brother of 
 Lieutenant Keith, to meet him with some horses on the village 
 green. He reached the green. His valet soon appeared with 
 the horses. Just at that moment, one of his guard, Rochow, who 
 had been aroused by a servant whom he had left secretly on the 
 watch, came forward through the gloom of the night, and, stern- 
 ly addressing Keith, inquired, " Sirrah, what are you doing with 
 those horses V With much self-possession Keith replied, " I am 
 getting the horses ready for the hour of starting." " His majes- 
 ty," Rochow replied, " does not start till five o'clock. Take the 
 horses directly back to the stable." 
 
90 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 THE FLIGHT ARRESTED. 
 
 Keith, trembling in every limb, returned to the stable. Though 
 Eochow pretended not to suspect any attempt at escape, it was 
 manifestly pretense only. The prince had provided himself with 
 a red overcoat as a disguise to his uniform, the gray one having 
 been left with Katte at Potsdam. As Fritz was returning to 
 the barn with Eochow, wearing this suspicious garment, they 
 met the minister Seckendorf, whom Fritz and his mother thor- 
 oughly hated as one of the counselors of the king. Very coolly 
 and cuttingly Eochow inquired of Seckendorf, " How do you like 
 his royal highness in the red overcoat?" It was a desperate 
 game these men were playing ; for, should the king suddenly 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 91 
 
 die, Fritz would surely inherit the crown, and they would be en- 
 tirely at his mercy. All hope of escape seemed now to vanish, 
 and the prince was quite in despair. 
 
 The king was doubtless informed of all that had occurred. 
 They reached Manheim the next night. Keith was so terrified, 
 fearing that his life would be the penalty, that he there threw 
 himself upon his knees before the king, confessing all, and im- 
 ploring pardon. The king, in tones of intense agitation, informed 
 the vigilance trio that death would be their inevitable doom if 
 they allowed the prince to escape. Thus far the prince had been 
 nominally free. Those who occupied the carriage with him — 
 Rochow, Waldau, and Buddenbrock — had assumed to be merely 
 his traveling companions. Their office of guardship had been 
 scrupulously concealed. But henceforth he was regarded and 
 treated as a culprit in the custody of his jailers. 
 
 The king, smothering his wrath, did not immediately seek an 
 interview with his son. But the next day, encountering him, he 
 said, sarcastically, " Ah ! you are still here, then ; I thought that 
 by this time you would have been in Paris." The prince, some- 
 what emboldened by despair, ventured to reply, " I certainly 
 could have been there had I wished it." 
 
 At Frankfort-on-the-Main the party were to take boats to de- 
 scend the river. The prince was informed that the king had 
 given express orders that he should not be permitted to enter 
 the town, but that he should be conducted immediately to one 
 of the royal yachts. Here the king received an intercepted let- 
 ter from the Crown Prince to Lieutenant Katte. Boiling with 
 indignation, he stalked on board the yacht, and assailed his cap- 
 tive son in the coarsest and most violent language of abuse. In 
 the frenzy of his passion he seized Fritz by the collar, shook him, 
 hustled him about, tore out handfuls of hair, and thrust his cane 
 into his face, causing the blood to gush from his nose. " Never 
 before," exclaimed the unhappy prince, pathetically, " did a Bran- 
 denburg face suffer the like of this." 
 
 The king then, having ordered his guard to watch him with 
 the utmost vigilance, assuring them that their heads should an- 
 swer for* it if they allowed him to escape, sent his son to another 
 boat. He was prevailed upon to do so, as no one could tell to 
 what length the king's ungovernable passions might lead him. 
 
92 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 The royal yachts glided down the Main to the Rhine, and 
 thence down the Rhine to Wesel. Probably a heavier heart 
 than that of the prince never floated upon that world-renowned 
 stream. Lost in painful musings, he had no eye to gaze upon the 
 picturesque scenes of mountain, forest, castle, and ruins through 
 which they were gliding. At Bonn he had an interview with 
 Seckendorf, whose influence was great with his father, and whom 
 he hoped to interest in his favor. To him he said, 
 
 " I intended to have escaped at Steinfurth. I can not endure 
 the treatment which I receive from my father — his abuse and 
 blows. I should have escaped long ago had it not been for the 
 condition in which I should have thus left my mother and sister. 
 I am so miserable that I care but little for my own life. My 
 great anxiety is for those officers who have been my friends, and 
 who are implicated in my attempts. If the king will promise 
 to pardon them, I will make a full confession of every thing. If 
 you can help me in these difficulties, I shall be forever grateful 
 to you." 
 
 It is probable that even Seckendorf was somewhat moved by 
 this pathetic appeal. Fritz succeeded in sending a letter to the 
 post-office, addressed to Lieutenant Keith at Wesel, containing 
 simply the words " Sauvez vous ; tout est decouverf (Save your- 
 self; all is found out). Keith received the letter but an hour 
 or so before a colonel of gens d'armes arrived to arrest him. 
 Seckendorf had an interview with the king, and seems to have 
 endeavored to mitigate his wrath. He assured the infuriate 
 monarch of his son's repentance, and of his readiness to make a 
 full confession if his father would spare those who had been led 
 by their sympathies to befriend him. The unrelenting father 
 received this message very sullenly, saying that he had no faith 
 that his son would make an honest confession, but that he would 
 see what he had to say for himself. 
 
 At Geldern, when within a few miles of Wesel, the king's 
 wrath flamed up anew as he learned that Lieutenant Keith had 
 escaped. The imperiled young officer, warned of his danger, had 
 saddled his horse as if for an evening ride in the country. He 
 passed out at one of the gates of the city, and, riding gently till 
 darkness came, he put spurs to his horse and escaped to the 
 Hague. Here, through the friendly offices of Lord Chesterfield, 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 93 
 
 the British embassador, he embarked for England. The author- 
 ities there received him kindly, and he entered the British army. 
 For ten years he was heard of no more. The king dispatched 
 officers in pursuit of the fugitive, and redoubled the vigilance 
 with which Fritz was guarded. 
 
 . Upon the king's arrival at Wesel he ordered his culprit son to 
 be brought on shore and to be arraigned before him. It was 
 Saturday evening, August 12, 1730. A terrible scene ensued. 
 The despairing Crown Prince, tortured by injustice, was not dis- 
 posed to humble himself before his father. Receiving no assur- 
 ance that his friends would be pardoned, he evaded all attempts 
 to extort from him confessions which would implicate them. 
 General Mosel alone was present at this examination. 
 
 " Why," asked the king, furiously," did you attempt to desert?" 
 
 " I wished to escape," the prince boldly replied, " because you 
 did not treat me like a son, but like an abject slave." 
 
 " You are a cowardly deserter," the father exclaimed, " devoid 
 of all feelings of honor." 
 
 " I have as much honor as you have," the son replied ; " and I 
 have only done that which I have heard you say a hundred 
 times you would have done yourself had you been treated as I 
 have been." 
 
 The wrath of the king was now ungovernable. He drew his 
 sword, threatening to thrust it through the heart of his son, and 
 seemed upon the point of doing so, when General Mosel threw 
 himself before the king, exclaiming, " Sire, you may kill me, but 
 spare your son."* 
 
 The prince was withdrawn, and placed in a room where two 
 sentries watched over him with fixed bayonets. The king ma- 
 lignantly assumed that the prince, being a colonel in the army 
 and attempting to escape, was a deserter, whose merited doom 
 was death. General Mosel urged the king not to see his son 
 again, as his presence was sure to inflame his anger to so alarm- 
 ing a pitch. The father did not again see him for a year and 
 three days. 
 
 A stern military commission was, however, appointed to inter- 
 rogate the prince from questions drawn up by the king. The 
 examination took place the next day. The prince confessed that 
 
 * Memoires de la Margrave De Bareuth. 
 
94 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 FREDERICK WILLIAM ENRAGED. 
 
 it was his intention to cross the Rhine at the nearest point, and 
 to repair to Strasbourg, in France. There he intended to enlist 
 incognito as a volunteer in the French army. He refused to tell 
 how he obtained his money, or to make any revelations which 
 would implicate his friends Katte and Keith. 
 
 As this report was made to the king, he exclaimed, angrily, 
 "Let him lie in ward, then, and await the doom which the laws 
 adjudge to him. He is my colonel. He has attempted to de- 
 sert. He has endeavored to induce others to desert with him. 
 The law speaks plainly enough as to the penalty for such crimes." 
 
 In the mean time, the queen and Wilhelmina, at Berlin, uncon- 
 scious of the dreadful tidings they were soon to receive, were 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 95 
 
 taking advantage of the absence of the king in seeking a few 
 hours of social enjoyment. They gave a ball at the pretty little 
 palace of Monbijou, on the banks of the Spree, a short distance 
 out from Berlin. In the midst of the entertainment the queen 
 received, by a courier, the following dispatch from Frederick 
 William : 
 
 "I have arrested the rascal Fritz. I shall treat him as his 
 crime and his cowardice merit. He has dishonored me and all 
 my family. So great a wretch is no longer worthy to live." 
 
 Wilhelmina, in the following graphic narrative, describes the 
 scene : " Mamma had given a ball in honor of papa's birthday. 
 We recommenced the ball after supper. For six years I had 
 not danced before. It was new fruit, and I took my fill of it, 
 without heeding much what was passing. Madam Bulow, who, 
 with others, had worn long faces all night, pleading illness when 
 one noticed it, said to me several times, 
 
 " ' It is late. I wish you had done.' 
 
 " ' Oh dear me !' I exclaimed ; i do let me have enough of dan- 
 cing this one new time. It may be long before it comes again.' 
 
 " She returned to me an hour after, and said, with a vexed air, 
 6 Will you end, then ? You are so engaged you have eyes for 
 nothing.' 
 
 "I replied, 'You are in such a humor I know not what to 
 make of it.' 
 
 " l Look at the queen, then,' she added, i and you will cease to 
 reproach me.' 
 
 "A glance which I gave that way filled me with terror. There 
 sat the queen, in a corner of the room, paler than death, in low 
 conference with Madam Sonsfeld and Countess Finckenstein. 
 As my brother was most in my anxieties, I asked if it concerned 
 h'im. Madam Bulow shrugged her shoulders, answering, i I do 
 not know at all.' " 
 
 They repaired to the carriage, which was immediately ordered 
 Not a word was spoken until they reached the palace. Wilhel 
 mina did not venture to ask any questions. Fearing that her 
 brother was dead, she was in terrible trepidation. Having ar- 
 rived at the palace, Madam Sonsfeld informed her of the con 
 tents of the dispatch. 
 
 The next morning they learned that Lieutenant Katte had 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 DESTROYING THE LETTERS. 
 
 been arrested. All the private papers of Fritz were left, under 
 Katte's charge, in a small writing-desk. These letters would 
 implicate both the mother and the daughter. They were terror- 
 stricken. Count Finckenstein, who was in high authority, was 
 their friend. Through him, by the aid of Madam Finckenstein, 
 they obtained the desk. It was locked and sealed. Despair 
 stimulated their ingenuity. They succeeded in getting the let- 
 ters. To destroy them and leave nothing in their place would 
 only rouse to greater fury the suspicion and rage of the king. 
 The letters were taken out and burned. The queen and Wil- 
 helmina immediately set to work writing new ones, of a very 
 different character, with which to replace them. For three days 
 they thus labored almost incessantly, writing between six and 
 seven hundred letters. They were so careful to avoid any thing 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 97 
 
 which might lead to detection that paper was employed for each 
 letter bearing the date of the year in which the letter was sup- 
 posed to be written. " Fancy the mood," writes Carlyle, " of 
 these two royal women, and the black whirlwind they were in. 
 Wilhelinina's dispatch was incredible. Pen went at the gallop 
 night and day. New letters of old date and of no meaning are 
 got into the desk again, the desk closed without mark of injury, 
 and shoved aside while it is yet time." 
 
 Wesel was the fortress of a small province belonging to Prus- 
 sia, on the Rhine, many leagues from Berlin. The intervening 
 territory belonged to Hanover and Hesse Cassel. The king or- 
 dered his captive son to be taken, under a strong guard, by cir- 
 cuitous roads, so as not to attract attention, to the castle of Mit- 
 tenwalde, near Berlin. The king then started for home, proba- 
 bly as wretched as he was making every body about him. Aft- 
 er a very rapid journey, he reached Berlin late in the afternoon 
 of Sunday, the 27th of August, 1730. It was the evening after 
 the fabrication of the letters had been completed. We give, from 
 the gra]3hic pen of Wilhelmina, the account of the king's first in- 
 terview with his family : 
 
 " The queen was alone, in his majesty's apartment, waiting for 
 him as he approached. As soon as he saw her at the end of the 
 suite of rooms, and long before he arrived in the one where she 
 was, he cried out, i Your unworthy son has at last ended him- 
 self. You have done with him.' 
 
 " l What !' cried the queen, ' have you had the barbarity to 
 kill him V 
 
 " ' Yes, I tell you,' the king replied ; ' but I must have his 
 writing-case.' For he had already informed himself that it was 
 in the queen's possession. 
 
 " The queen went to her own apartment to fetch it. I ran in 
 to her there for a moment. She was out of her senses, wringing 
 her hands, crying incessantly, and exclaiming, ' O God, my son, 
 my son !' Breath failed me. I fell fainting into the arms of 
 Madam Sonsfeld. The queen took the writing-desk to the king. 
 He immediately broke it open and tore out the letters, with 
 which he went away. The queen came back to us. We were 
 comforted by the assurance, from some of the attendants, that 
 my brother at least was not dead. 
 
 G 
 
98 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " Pretty soon the king came back, and we, his children, ran to 
 pay our respects to him, by kissing his hands. But he no soon- 
 er noticed me than rage and fury took possession of him. He 
 became black in the face, his eyes sparkling tire, his mouth foam- 
 ing. ' Infamous wretch !' said he, ' dare you show yourself be- 
 fore me ? Go and keep your scoundrel brother company.' 
 
 " So saying, he seized me with one hand, striking me several 
 blows in the face with the other fist. One of the blows 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 Sonsfeld 
 caught me by the head-dress and broken the fall. I lay on the 
 floor without consciousness. The king, in his frenzy, proceeded 
 to kick me out of a window which opened to the floor. The 
 queen, my sisters, and the rest, ran between, preventing him. 
 They all ranged themselves around me, which gave Mesdames 
 De Kamecke and Sonsfeld time to pick me up. They put me 
 in a chair in an embrasure of a window. Madam Sonsfeld sup- 
 ported my head, which was wounded and swollen with the blows 
 I had received. They threw water upon my face to bring me 
 to life, which care I lamentably reproached them with, death be- 
 ing a thousand times better in the pass things had come to. 
 The queen was shrieking. Her firmness had entirely abandon- 
 ed her. She ran wildly about the room, wringing her hands in 
 despair. My brothers and sisters, of whom the youngest -was 
 not more than four years old, were on their knees begging for 
 me. The king's face was so disfigured with rage that it was 
 frightful to look upon. 
 
 "The king now admitted that my brother was still alive, but 
 vowed horribly that he would put him to death, and lay me fast 
 within four walls for the rest of my life. He accused me of be- 
 ing the prince's accomplice, whose crime was high treason. ' I 
 hope now,' he said, i to have evidence enough to convict the ras- 
 cal Fritz and the wretch Wilhelmina, and to cut their heads off. 
 As for Fritz, he will always, if he lives, be a worthless fellow. 
 I have three other sons, who will all turn out better than he has 
 done.' 
 
 " 'Oh, spare my brother,' I cried, l and I will marry the Duke 
 of Weissenfels.' But in the great noise he did not hear me. 
 And while I strove to repeat it louder, Madam Sonsfeld clapped 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 99 
 
 her handkerchief on my mouth. Pushing aside to get rid of the 
 handkerchief, I saw Katte crossing the square. Four soldiers 
 were conducting him to the king. My brother's trunks and his 
 were following in the rear. Pale and downcast, he took off his 
 hat to salute me. He fell at the king's feet imploring pardon." 
 The king kicked him, and struck him several heavy blows 
 with his cane. He was hit repeatedly in the face, and blood 
 gushed from the wounds. With his own hands the king tore 
 from Katte's breast the cross of the Order of Saint John. After 
 this disgraceful scene the interrogatory commenced. Katte con- 
 fessed all the circumstances of the prince's intended escape, but 
 denied that there had been any design against the king or the 
 state. His own and the prince's letters were examined, but 
 nothing was found in them to criminate either. Katte was then 
 
 WILHELMINA IMPRISONED. 
 
100 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 remanded to prison. Wilhelmina, after receiving the grossest 
 possible insults from her father, who accused her, in coarsest 
 terms, of being the paramour of Lieutenant Katte, was ordered 
 to her room. Two sentries were placed at her door, and direc- 
 tions were given that she should be fed only on prison fare. 
 
 " Tell your unworthy daughter," said the king to the queen, 
 " that her room is to be her prison. I shall give orders to have 
 the guard there doubled. I shall have her examined in the 
 most rigorous manner, and will afterward have her removed to 
 some fit place, where she may repent of her crimes." 
 
 The whole city of Berlin was agitated by the rumor of these 
 events. The violent scene in the palace had taken place in an 
 apartment on the ground floor. The loud and angry tones of 
 the king, the shrieks of the queen, the cries of the children, the 
 general clamor, had so attracted the attention of the passers-by 
 that a large crowd had assembled before the windows. It was 
 necessary to call out the guard to disperse them. Difficult as it 
 was to exaggerate outrages so infamous, still they were exagger- 
 ated. The report went to all foreign courts that the king, in his 
 ungovernable rage, had knocked clown the Princess Wilhelmina 
 and trampled her to death beneath his feet. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IMPRISONMENT OF FRITZ AND WILHELMINA. 
 
 Spirited Conduct of Fritz. — Fortress of Custrin. — Prison Fare. — Wilhelmina's Captivity. — Sad 
 Fate of Doris Ritter. — Motives of the King. — Doom of Lieutenant Katte. — Pathetic Sup- 
 plications. — The Execution. — Peril of Fritz. — Theology of the King.— -Letter from Fritz. — 
 Sufferings of Wilhelmina. — Brutality of the King. — Wilhelmina Drought to Terms. 
 
 The captive Crown Prince was conveyed from Wesel to the 
 castle of Mitten walde, where he was imprisoned in a room with- 
 out furniture or bed. An old chest which chanced to be there 
 was his only seat. One of the king's favorite ministers, Grum- 
 kow, with other officials, was sent to interrogate him. The 
 prince, probably aware that nothing which he could now do 
 could make matters worse than they actually were, displayed 
 much spirit in the interview. Frankly avowing his intention to 
 escape, he refused to make any disclosures which should impli- 
 cate his friends. Grumkow insolently informed him that the 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 101 
 
 use of the rack was not yet abolished in his majesty's dominions, 
 and that, if he were not more pliant, the energies of that instru- 
 ment might be called into requisition. Frederick admitted aft- 
 erward that his blood ran cold at that suggestion. Still he had 
 the nerve to reply, according to the testimony of Wilhelmina, 
 
 " A hangman such as you naturally takes pleasure in talking 
 of his tools and of his trade, but on me they will produce no 
 effect. I have owned every thing, and almost regret to have 
 done so. I ought not to degrade myself by answering the ques- 
 tions of a scoundrel such as you are." 
 
 Grumkow gathered up his papers, and, with his associate offi- 
 cials, departed, probably meditating upon his own prospects 
 should the Crown Prince ever become King of Prussia. The 
 next day, September 5, the captive was taken from the castle of 
 Mittenwalde, and sent to the fortress of Ciistrin, a small and 
 quiet town about seventy miles from Berlin. The strong, dun- 
 geon-like room in which he was incarcerated consisted of bare 
 walls, without any furniture, the light being admitted by a sin- 
 gle aperture so high that the prince could not look out at it. 
 He was divested of his uniform, of his sword, of every mark of 
 dignity. 
 
 Coarse brown clothes of plainest cut were furnished him. His 
 flute was taken from him, and he was deprived of all books but 
 the Bible and a few devotional treatises. He was allowed a 
 daily sum, amounting to twelve cents of our money, for his food 
 — eight cents for his dinner and four for his supper. His food 
 was purchased at a copk-shop near by, and cut for him. He was 
 not permitted the use of a knife. The door was opened three 
 times a day for ventilation — morning, noon, and night — but not 
 for more than four minutes each time. A single tallow-candle 
 was allowed him; but that was to be extinguished at seven 
 o'clock in the evening. 
 
 Thus deprived of all the ordinary comforts of life, the prince, 
 in the nineteenth year of his age, was consigned to an imprison- 
 ment of absolute solitude. For weeks and months he was left 
 to his own agitating thoughts, with the apparent blighting of 
 every earthly hope, awaiting whatever doom his merciless father 
 might award to him. His jailers, not unmindful of the embar- 
 rassing fact that their captive might yet become King of Prus- 
 
102 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 FREDERICK IN PRISON. 
 
 sia, with their fate in his hands, gradually treated him with all 
 the secret kindness which they dared to exhibit * 
 
 Though Wilhelmina was also a close prisoner in her apart- 
 ment in the Berlin palace, and was fed upon the coarsest fare, she 
 
 * "A Captain Fouque' comes to Custrin on duty or as a volunteer by-and-by. He is an old 
 friend of the prince's ; a ready-witted, hot-tempered, highly-estimable man. He is often with 
 the prince. Their light is extinguished precisely at seven o'clock. 'Very well, lieutenant,' he 
 would say, ' you have done your orders to the Crown Prince's light. But his majesty has no 
 concern with Captain Fouque's candles,' and thereupon would light a pair. Nay, I have heard 
 of lieutenants who punctually blew out the prince's light, as a matter of duty and command, and 
 then kindled it again as a civility left free to human nature. In short, his majesty's orders can 
 only be fulfilled to the letter. Even in the letter his majesty's orders are severe enough." — 
 Carlyle, vol. ii., p. 218. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 103 
 
 still had a comfortable room, her musical instruments, and the 
 companionship of her governess, Madam Sonsfeld. It was rather 
 a relief to the unhappy princess to be shut out from the pres- 
 ence of her father and from the sound of his voice. She occasion- 
 ally obtained a smuggled letter from her mother, and even got 
 one, in pencil, from her brother, full of expressions of tenderness. 
 
 All the friends of Fritz were treated by the infuriate father 
 with the most cruel severity. No mercy was shown to any one 
 who had ever given the slightest indication of sympathy with 
 the Crown Prince. A bookseller, who had furnished Fritz with 
 French books, was cruelly exiled to the remote shores of the 
 Baltic, on the extreme northern frontiers of Prussia. A French 
 gentleman, Count Montholieu, who had loaned the Crown Prince 
 money, would probably have perished upon the scaffold had he 
 not escaped by flight. His effigy was nailed to the gallows. 
 
 There was a young lady in Potsdam by the name of Doris 
 Bitter. She was the daughter of highly respectable parents, 
 and was of unblemished character. As Fritz was extremely fond 
 of music, and she played sweetly on the harpsichord, he loaned 
 her pieces of music, and occasion ally, under the eye of her par- 
 ents, accomj>anied her with the flute. The life of a colonel in 
 garrison at Potsdam was so dull, that this innocent amusement 
 was often quite a help in beguiling the weary hours. 
 
 The young lady was not beautiful, and there was no evidence 
 of the slightest improprieties, or of any approach even to flirta- 
 tion. But the infuriate king, who, without the shadow of rea- 
 son, could accuse his own daughter of infamy, caused this young 
 lady, under the pretext that she had been the guilty intimate of 
 his son, to be taken from her parents, to be delivered to the exe- 
 cutioners, and to be publicly conveyed in a cart and whipped on 
 the bare back through the principal streets of the town. She 
 was then imprisoned, and doomed to beat hemp as a culprit for 
 three years. 
 
 One's faith in a superintending Providence is almost staggered 
 by such outrages. It would seem that there could scarcely be 
 any compensation even in the future world for so foul a wrong 
 inflicted upon this guileless and innocent girl. There can be no 
 possible solution of the mystery but in the decree, " After death 
 cometh the judgment." 
 
104 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 DORIS HITTER S PUNISHMENT. 
 
 " It is impossible," writes Lord Dover, " not to perceive that 
 the real reason of his conduct was his enmity to his son, and 
 that the crime of the poor girl was the having assisted in mak- 
 ing the son's existence more supportable. The intention of Fred- 
 erick William apparently being that the infliction of so infa- 
 mous a punishment in so public a manner should prevent the 
 possibility of Frederick's ever seeing her again."* 
 
 A court-martial was convened to pronounce sentence upon the 
 
 * Voltaire, in his unreliable "Vie Prive'e du Roi de Prusse" t. ii., p. 51, says that, when Fred- 
 erick became king, he settled upon Doris, who was then married and poor, an annuity of sev- 
 enty-six dollars. Thiebault, far more accurate, in his "Souvenirs de Vingt Ans de Sejour a 
 Berlin," says he gave her a pension of one hundred and fifty-six dollars. It does not speak 
 well for Frederick that he could have so meanly requited so terrible a wrong. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 105 
 
 Crown Prince and his confederates. The court was appointed 
 by the king, and consisted of three major generals, three colonels, 
 three lieutenant colonels, three majors, three captains, and three 
 belonging to the civil courts, called auditors. The court, thus 
 composed of eighteen members, met on the 20th of October, 1730, 
 in the little town of Copenick, a few miles from Berlin. Grum- 
 kow, well aware that these proceedings would attract the atten- 
 tion of every court in Europe, had persuaded the king to sub- 
 mit to the formality of a court-martial. 
 
 It was well understood that a verdict was to be returned in 
 accordance with the wishes of the king, and also that the king 
 desired that no mercy should be shown to his son.* After a 
 session of six days the verdict of the court was rendered. The 
 crime of the Crown Prince, in endeavoring to escape from the 
 brutality of his father, was declared to be desertion, and the pen- 
 alty was death. Lieutenant Keith was also declared to be a de- 
 serter, and doomed to die. But as he had escaped, and could 
 not be recaptured, he was sentenced to be hanged in effigy, which 
 effigy was then to be cut in four quarters and nailed to the gal- 
 lows at Wesel. Lieutenant Katte, who certainly had not desert- 
 ed, and whose only crime was that he had been a confidant of 
 the Crown Prince in his plan to escape, was condemned to im- 
 prisonment in a fortress for two years, some say for life. 
 
 The king approved of the first two sentences of the court. 
 The mildness of the last roused his indignation. " Katte," he 
 exclaimed, "is guilty of high treason. He shall die by the 
 sword of the headsman. It is better that he should die than 
 that justice depart out of the world." His doom was thus fixed 
 as irreversible as fate. 
 
 Fortunately for the young man's mother, she was in her grave. 
 His father was at that time commandant of Konigsberg, in high 
 favor with the king. His illustrious grandfather on his moth- 
 er's side, Field-marshal Wartensleben, was still living. For half 
 
 * "The first idea of Frederick William was to deliver his son over to be condemned by the 
 ordinaiy tribunal of Prussia, well knowing that his judges would never venture to decide except 
 according to his wishes. Indeed, he took a very summary as well as a very certain mode of ef- 
 fecting this object ; for, whenever their sentiments were not approved by him, he was in the 
 habit of going into the court where they sat and there distributing kicks and blows to all the 
 judges in turn, at the same time calling them rogues and blackguards ! From men so circum- 
 stanced Frederick would have no chance of acquittal. " — The Life of Frederick II, by Lord 
 Dover, vol. i., p. 33. 
 
106 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 a century he had worthily occupied the most eminent posts of 
 honor. The tears, the agonizing entreaties of these friends were 
 not of the slightest avail. The king's heart was as impervious 
 to appeals for mercy as are the cliffs of Sinai. 
 
 There are several letters still remaining which Lieutenant 
 Katte wrote to his friends during those hours of anguish in 
 which he was awaiting his death. No one can read them with- 
 out compassionate emotion, and without execrating the memory 
 of that implacable tyrant who so unjustly demanded his execu- 
 tion. The young man wrote to the king a petition containing 
 the following pathetic plea : 
 
 " Sire, — It is not to excuse myself that I address this letter to 
 your majesty ; but, moved by sincere repentance and heartfelt 
 sorrow, I implore your clemency, and beseech you, sire, to have 
 some consideration for my youth, which renders me capable of 
 imprudence without any bad design. 
 
 " God does not always follow the impulse of his justice to- 
 ward sinners, but often, by his mercy, reclaims those who have 
 gone astray. And will not your majesty, sire, who are a resem- 
 blance of the divinity, pardon a criminal who is guilty of disobe- 
 dience to his sovereign ? The hope of pardon supports me, and 
 I flatter myself that your majesty will not cut me off in the flow- 
 er of my age, but will give me time to prove the effect your, maj- 
 esty's clemency will have on me. 
 
 " Sire, I own that I am guilty. Will not your majesty grant 
 me a pardon, which God never refuses to the greatest sinner who 
 sincerely confesses his sins? I shall be always ready to shed 
 even the last drop of my blood to show your majesty what grate- 
 ful sentiments your clemency can raise in me." 
 
 It was all in vain. On Sunday evening, September 5th, as the 
 condemned young man was sitting alone in his prison cell, sadly 
 awaiting his doom, yet clinging to hopes of mercy^ an officer en- 
 tered with the startling intelligence that the carriage was at the 
 door to convey him to the fortress of Custrin, at a few leagues 
 distance, where he was to be executed. For a moment he was 
 greatly agitated. He soon, however, regained his equanimity. 
 It must indeed have been a fearful communication to one in the 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 107 
 
 vigor of health, in the prime of youth, and surrounded by every 
 thing which could render life desirable. Two brother-officers 
 . and the chaplain accompanied him upon this dismal midnight 
 ride. Silence, pious conversation, prayers, and occasional devo- 
 tional hymns occupied the hours. The dawn of a cold winter's 
 morning was just appearing as they reached the fortress. 
 
 His companions had no heart to witness the bloody execution 
 of their friend and brother-officer. The chaplain, Muller, who 
 had accompanied the condemned to Custrin, and also Besserer, 
 the chaplain of the garrison there, were either obliged by their 
 official position, or were constrained by Christian sympathy, to 
 ride by his side in the death-cart to the scaffold. Of the rest of 
 his friends he took an affectionate leave, saying, " Adieu, my 
 brothers ; may God be with you evermore I" He was conveyed 
 to the rampart of the castle dressed in coarse brown garments 
 precisely like those worn by the prince. 
 
 By order of the king, Fritz, who had also been condemned to 
 die and was awaiting his doom, was brought down into a lower 
 room of the fortress, before whose window the scaffold was erect- 
 ed, that he might be compelled " to see Katte die." At his en- 
 trance the curtains were closed, shutting out the view of the 
 court-yard. Upon the drawing of the curtains, Fritz, to his hor- 
 ror, beheld the scaffold draped in black on a level with the win- 
 dow, and directly before it. 
 
 The unhappy Crown Prince was in an agony of despair. 
 Again and again he frantically exclaimed, " In the name of God, 
 I beg you to stop the execution till I write to the king ! I am 
 ready to renounce all my rights to the crown if he will pardon 
 Katte I" As the condemned was led by the window to ascend 
 the scaffold, Fritz -cried out to him, in anguish as intense as a 
 generous heart can endure, " Pardon me, my dear Katte, pardon 
 me ! Oh that this should be what I have done for you !" 
 
 A smile flitted across Katte's pallid features as he replied, 
 " Death is sweet for a prince I love so well/' With fortitude 
 he ascended the scaffold. The executioner attempted to band- 
 age his eyes, but he resisted, and, looking to heaven, said, "Fa- 
 ther, into thy hands I surrender my soul !" Four grenadiers 
 held Fritz with his face toward the window. Fainting, he fell 
 senseless upon the floor. At the same moment, by a single blow, 
 
108 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 FREDERICK AT KATTE S EXECUTION. 
 
 Katte's head rolled upon the scaffold. As the prince recovered 
 consciousness, he found himself still at the window, in full view 
 of the headless and gory corpse of his friend. Another swoon 
 consigned him to momentary unconsciousness.* 
 
 * "The prince had been some weeks in his prison atCiistrin when one day an old officer, follow- 
 ed by four grenadiers, entered his chamber weeping. Frederick had no doubt that he was to be 
 made a head shorter. But the officer, still in tears, ordered the grenadiers to take him to the 
 window and hold his head out of it, that he might be obliged to look on the execution of his 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT 109 
 
 The body of Katte remained -upon the scaffold during the 
 short wintry day, and at night was buried in one of the bastions 
 of the fortress. This cruel tragedy was enacted more than a 
 century ago ; but there are few who even now can read the rec- 
 ord without having their eyes flooded, through the conflicting 
 emotions of sympathy for the sufferers and indignation against 
 the tyrant who could perpetrate such crimes. 
 
 When Frederick returned to consciousness his misery plunged 
 him into a high fever. Delirium ensued, during which Chaplain 
 Mtiller, who remained with him, says that he frequently attempt- 
 ed to destroy himself. As the fever abated and he became more 
 tranquil, floods of tears gushed from his eyes. He for some time 
 refused to take any nourishment. It seemed to him now that 
 every hope in life was forever blighted. He had no doubt that 
 his own death was fully decided upon, and that he would soon 
 be led to his execution. In his moments of delirious anguish he 
 at times longed for death to come as speedily as possible. And 
 again it seemed awful to have his young life — for he was then 
 but eighteen years of age — cut off by the bloody sword.* 
 
 Chaplain Miiller seems to have enjoyed the confidence of the 
 king to an unusual degree. He was ordered to remain at Ciis^ 
 trin, and to have daily interviews with the prince, to instruct 
 him in religion. The king professed to be eminently a religious 
 man. While torturing the body and the mind of the prince in 
 every way, he expressed great anxiety for the salvation of his 
 soul. It is not strange that the example of such a father had 
 staggered the faith of the son. Illogically he renounced that re- 
 ligion which condemned, in the severest terms, the conduct of 
 the father, and which caused the king often to tremble upon his 
 throne, appalled by the declaration, " Know thou that for all 
 these things God will bring thee into judgment." 
 
 The young prince had- also become dissolute in life. The sa- 
 
 friend Katte upon a scaffold expressly built for that purpose. He saw, stretched out his hand, 
 and fainted. The father was present at this exhibition." — Memoirs of the Life of Voltaire, 
 p. 26. 
 
 * " General Ginkel, the Dutch embassador, here told me of an interview he had with the 
 king. The king harbors most monstrous wicked designs, not fit to be spoken of in words. It 
 is certain, if he 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. He will sacrifice his 
 whole family — every body, except Grumkow, being, as he imagines, in conspiracy against him. 
 All these things he said with such imprecations and disordered iooks, foaming at the mouth all 
 the while, as it was terrible either to see or hear." — Dickens's Dispatch, 1th December, 1730. 
 
HO FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 cred volume denounced such a career as offensive to God, as sure 
 to bring down upon the guilty prince the divine displeasure in 
 this life, and, if unrepented of, in the life to come. No man who 
 believes the Bible to be true can, with any comfort whatever, in- 
 dulge in sin. The prince wished to indulge his passions with- 
 out restraint. He therefore, thus living, found it to be a neces- 
 sity to renounce that religion which arrayed against his sinful 
 life all the terrors of the final judgment. A wicked life and true 
 Christian faith can not live in peace together. The one or the 
 other must be abandoned. Frederick chose to abandon Chris- 
 tian faith. 
 
 It seems that the Crown Prince had an inquiring mind. He 
 was interested in metaphysical speculations. He had adopted, 
 perhaps, as some excuse for his conduct, the doctrine of predesti- 
 nation, that God hath foreordained whatsoever cometh to pass. 
 The idea that there is a power, which Hume calls philosophical 
 necessity, which Napoleon calls destiny, which Calvin calls pre- 
 destination, by w T hich all events are controlled, and that this ne- 
 cessity is not inconsistent with free agency, is a doctrine which 
 ever has commanded the assent, and probably ever will, of many 
 <*)f the strongest thinkers in the world. 
 
 " The heresy about predestination," wTites Carlyle, " or the 
 election by free grace, as his majesty terms it, according to which 
 a man is preappointed, from all eternity, either to salvation or 
 the opposite, which is Fritz's notion, and indeed Calvin's, and 
 that of many benighted creatures, this editor among them, ap- 
 pears to his majesty an altogether shocking one. 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 V The mind of his majesty shud- 
 ders as if looking over the edge of an abyss." 
 
 Chaplain Mliller was especially directed to argue with Fred- 
 erick upon this point, and, if possible, to convert him to Chris- 
 tianity. The correspondence which ensued between the king 
 and Miiller is preserved. The king wrote to the chaplain, un- 
 der date of November 3d, 1730 : 
 
 " I have been assured that you are an honest and pious cler- 
 gyman, and a faithful minister of the Word of God. Since, there- 
 fore, you are going to Ciistrin, on account of the execution of 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. Ill 
 
 Lieutenant Katte, I command you, after the execution, to pay a 
 visit to the Prince Royal ; to reason with him and to represent 
 to him that whosoever abandons God is also abandoned by God ; 
 and that, when God has abandoned a man, and has taken away 
 his grace from him, that man is incapable of doing what is good, 
 and can only do what is evil. You will exhort him to repent, 
 and to ask pardon for the many sins he has committed, and into 
 which he has seduced others, one of whom has been just punish- 
 ed with death. 
 
 " If you then find the prince contrite and humble, you will en- 
 gage him to fall on his knees with you, to ask pardon of God 
 with tears of penitence. But you must proceed with prudence 
 and circumspection, for the prince is cunning. You will repre- 
 sent to him also, in a proper manner, the error he labors under 
 in believing that some are predestinated to one thing and some 
 to another; and that thus he who is predestinated to evil can 
 do nothing but evil, and he who is predestinated to good can do 
 nothing but good, and that, consequently, we can change nothing 
 of what is to happen — a dreadful error, especially in what re- 
 gards our salvation. 
 
 u Now, as I hope that his present situation, and the execution* 
 which has just taken place before his eyes, will touch and soften 
 his heart, and will lead him to better sentiments, I charge you, 
 ' as you value your conscience, to do all that is humanly possible 
 to represent forcibly to the prince these things ; and particularly, 
 in what relates to predestination, to convince him by means of 
 passages from the Scriptures which satisfactorily prove wdiat I 
 wish you to advance." 
 
 This letter was addressed to the " reverend, well - beloved, 
 and faithful Midler," and was signed " your affectionate king.' 1 
 Though the king had not yet announced any intention of spar- 
 ing the life of his son, and probably was fully resolved upon his 
 execution, he was manifestly disturbed by the outcry against 
 his proceedings raised in all the courts of Europe. Three days 
 before the king wrote the above letter, the Emperor of Germany, 
 Charles VI., had written to him, with his own hand, earnestly 
 interceding for the Crown Prince. In addition to the letter, the 
 emperor, through his minister Seckendorf, had presented a very 
 firm remonstrance. He announced to Frederick William that 
 
112 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Prince Frederick was a prince of the empire, and that he was 
 entitled to the protection of the laws of the Germanic body ; that 
 the heir-apparent of the Prussian monarchy was under the safe- 
 guard of the Germanic empire, and that the king was bound to 
 surrender to this tribunal the accused, and the documents rel- 
 ative to this trial. 
 
 The emperor was probably induced to this decisive course 
 not merely by motives of humanity, but also by the considera- 
 tion that by thus saving the life of Frederick he would forever 
 attach him to the interests of the house of Austria. The kings 
 of Poland and Sweden also wrote to the king, earnestly interced- 
 ing for the life of the Crown Prince. 
 
 The king was at first much incensed by these attempts at in- 
 terference. It was not safe for him to bid defiance to the opin- 
 ions of the civilized world. Emotions of anger and mortification 
 struggled in the bosom of the king. Captain Guy Dickens, sec- 
 retary of Dubourgay, writes : 
 
 " The King of Prussia can not sleep. The officers sit up with 
 him every night, and in his slumbers he raves and talks of spir- 
 its and apparitions." 
 
 He drank deeply, wandering about by night as if possessed 
 by fiends. " He has not," writes Captain Dickens, " gone to bed 
 sober for a month past." Once he rose, about midnight, and, 
 with a candle in his hand, entered the apartment of the queen, 
 apparently in a state of extreme terror, saying that there was 
 something haunting him. His agitation was so great that a bed 
 was made up for him there. 
 
 Two clays after the death of Katte, the king wrote to Chap- 
 lain Mtiller, under date of November 7th, 1730, a letter closing 
 with the following words : 
 
 "As God often, by wondrous guidance, 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 until 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-affectionecl king, 
 
 " Frederick William." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 113 
 
 The prince supposed that the object of Miiller's visits was to 
 prepare him for his death. But upon receiving the full assur- 
 ance that his father contemplated pardoning him, should there 
 be evidence of repentance, he promised to take an oath of entire 
 submission to his father's will. Seven commissioners were sent 
 to the prison of Custrin, on the 19th of November, to administer 
 this oath with the utmost solemnity. He was conducted to the 
 church. A large crowd was in attendance. A sermon appro- 
 priate to the occasion was preached. The sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper was administered to him. And then he audibly repeat- 
 ed the oath and attached to it his signature. 
 
 From the church the prince was conducted, not back to his 
 prison in the fortress, but to a town mansion, which was assigned 
 as his residence. His sword was restored to him. But he was 
 still not fully liberated. Officials, appointed by his father, sur- 
 rounded him, who watched and reported all his movements. 
 The first act of the young prince, upon reaching his apartment 
 after this partial liberation, was to write as follows to his father. 
 We give the letter as translated by Carlyle : 
 
 " Custrin, November 19, 1730. 
 
 " All-serenest and All-graciousest Father, — To your royal 
 majesty, my all-graciousest Father, I have, by my disobedience as 
 Their subject and soldier, not less than by my undutifulness as 
 Their 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 
 Ail-graciously to pardon me, as it is not so .much the withdrawal 
 of my liberty, in a sad 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, Frederick." 
 
 Here, in the little town of Custrin, in a house very meagerly 
 furnished, the Crown Prince established his household upon the 
 humblest scale. The prince was allowed to wear his sword, but 
 not his uniform. He was debarred all amusements, and was 
 forbidden to read, write, or speak French. To give him employ - 
 
 H 
 
114 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 merit, he was ordered to attend regularly the sittings of the 
 Chamber of Counselors of that district, though he was to take 
 his seat as the youngest member. Three persons were appoint- 
 ed constantly to watch over him. Lord Dover writes : 
 * " His diet was regulated at a sum which made it barely suf- 
 ficient to prevent actual starvation. His apartment was most 
 miserable, and almost entirely devoid of furniture. He was in 
 great want of linen, and of others of the first necessaries of life. 
 At nine o'clock at night his candle was taken from him, while 
 pen, ink, paper, and books were alike denied him." 
 
 " His very flute," Carlyle writes, " most innocent ' Princess,' as 
 he used to call his flute in old days, is denied him ever since he 
 came to Ctistrin. But by degrees he privately gets her back, and 
 consorts much with her; wails forth, in beautiful adagios, emo- 
 tions for which there is no other utterance at present. He has 
 liberty of Ctistrin and the neighborhood. Out of Ciistrin he is 
 not to lodge any night without leave had of the commandant." 
 
 While these sad scenes were transpiring, the Princess Wilhel- 
 mina was held in close captivity in her apartment at the palace 
 in Berlin. The king had convened a council of eight clergymen, 
 and had put to them the question whether a father had not a 
 right to give his daughter in wedlock to whom he pleased. 
 Much to the honor of these clergymen, they replied, with but one 
 exception, in the negative. 
 
 The queen remained firm in her determination that Wilhel- 
 mina should marry the Prince of Wales. The king was equally 
 inflexible in his resolve that she should not marry the Prince of 
 Wales. The queen occasionally had interviews with Wilhel- 
 mina, when they wept together over their disappointments and 
 trials. The spirited young princess had no special predilections 
 for the English prince, but she was firm in her resolve not to 
 have a repugnant husband forced upon her. On the night of 
 the 27th of January, 1731, as the queen was about to leave Ber- 
 lin for Potsdam, she said to her daughter, 
 
 " Be firm, my child. Trust in my management. Only swear 
 to me, on your eternal salvation, that never, on any compulsion, 
 will you marry another than the Prince of Wales. Give me that 
 oath." 
 
 But Wilhelmina evaded the oath upon the ground of religious 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 115 
 
 scruples. Anxiety, confinement, and bad diet had so preyed upon 
 her health that she was reduced almost to a skeleton. The fol- 
 lowing extract from her journal gives a graphic account of her 
 painful condition : 
 
 " I was shut up in my bedchamber, where I saw nobody, and 
 continued always to fast. I was really dying of hunger. I read 
 as long as there was daylight, and made remarks upon what I 
 read. My health began to give way. I became as thin as a 
 skeleton from want of food and exercise. One day Madam De 
 Sonsfeld and myself were at table, looking sadly at one another, 
 having nothing to eat but soup made with salt and water, and a 
 ragout of old bones, full of hairs and other dirt, when we heard 
 a knocking at the window. Surprised, we rose hastily to see 
 what it was. We found a raven with a morsel of bread in its 
 beak, which it laid down on the sill of the window so soon as it 
 saw us, and flew away. Tears came into our eyes at this adven- 
 ture. ' Our lot is very deplorable,' said I to my governess, l since 
 it even touches the creatures devoid of reason. They have more 
 compassion for us than men, who treat us with so much cruelty.' " 
 
 The raven was a tame one, which had got lost and was seek- 
 ing for its home. The story, however, spread, and created great 
 sympathy for the imprisoned princess. There was a large num- 
 ber of French refugees in Berlin. With characteristic kindness, 
 at the risk of incurring the royal displeasure, they sent daily a 
 basket of food, which was placed in a situation from which Wil- 
 helmina's maids could easily convey the contents to her, while 
 compassionate sentries kindly looked the other way. The prin- 
 cess wrote to her father, imploring permission to receive the sac- 
 rament, from which she had been debarred for nearly a year. 
 The reply from her father was couched in the following terms: 
 
 iC M.j blackguard daughter may receive the sacrament." 
 
 Her sisters were now permitted occasionally to visit her, and 
 her situation became somewhat ameliorated. On the 10th of 
 May Wilhelmina received a letter from her mother which caused 
 her to wring her hands in anguish. It informed her that the 
 next day a deputation was to call upon her from the king, to in- 
 sist upon her giving her consent to marry the Prince of Baireuth. 
 The letter was as follows : 
 
 "All is lost, my dear daughter. The king is determined, at 
 
116 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 all hazards, upon your marriage. I have sustained several dread- 
 ful contests on this subject, but neither my prayers nor my tears 
 have had any effect. Eversman has orders to make the pur- 
 chases necessary for your marriage. You must prepare yourself 
 to lose Madam Sonsfeld. The king is determined to have her 
 degraded with infamy if you do not obey him. Some one will 
 be sent to persuade you. In God's name consent to nothing, and 
 
 GKUMKOW'S CONFERENCE WITH WILHELMINA. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 117 
 
 God will support you in it. A prison is better than a bad mar- 
 riage. Adieu, my dear daughter ! I expect every thing from 
 your firmness." 
 
 A deputation of four ministers, headed by Baron Grumkow, 
 the next day presented themselves to the princess. To overawe 
 Wilhelmina, they approached her with all the solemnity of state. 
 Grumkow opened the conference : 
 
 "Obey the wishes of the king," said he, "and the royal favor 
 will be restored to you. Eefuse to do it, and no one can tell 
 what will be the doom which will fall upon your mother, your 
 brother, and yourself." 
 
 They all united their entreaties, arguments, prayers, and 
 threats. The princess was in a state of terrible agitation. Al- 
 most distracted she paced the floor. That she might have a lit- 
 tle time to reflect, the four deputies retired into the recess of a 
 window. One of them, M. Tulmier, then approached the prin- 
 cess, and, in a low tone of voice, said to her, 
 
 " Do not resist any longer. Submit to whatever is required 
 of you. I will answer with my life that the marriage will never 
 really take place. It is necessary, at whatever cost, to appease 
 the king for the present. I will explain to the queen that this 
 is the only means of obtaining a favorable declaration from the 
 King of England." 
 
 Thus influenced, she yielded. Tears flooded her eyes, and her 
 voice was broken with sobs as she said, " I am ready to sacrifice 
 myself for the peace of the family." The deputation withdrew, 
 leaving the princess in despair. Baron Grumkow conveyed to 
 the king the pleasing intelligence of her submission. 
 
118 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF WILHELMINA. 
 
 Wilhelmina's Letter to her Mother. — Cruel Response. — The Court Festival. — First Interview 
 with the Prince of Baireuth. — His Character and Appearance. — Interview between the King 
 and Fritz. — The Partial Reconciliation. — Divine Decrees. — The King's Sense of Justice. — 
 The King's Discipline of the Judges. — Character of Fritz. — Wilhelmina's Annoyances. — Her 
 Marriage. — Interview between Wilhelmina and Fritz. — The Departure. 
 
 Wilhelmlna, having thus given her very reluctant assent to 
 her marriage with the Prince of Baireuth, wrote as follows to 
 her mother : 
 
 " I have hardly strength enough to trace these lines. My state 
 is altogether worthy of pity. It is not through any menaces, 
 however violent they may have been, that I have yielded my 
 consent to the king's wishes. An interest still more dear to me 
 has determined me to this sacrifice. I have been till now the 
 innocent cause of all the unhappiness which your majesty has 
 endured. My too sensible heart has been penetrated by the 
 touching details you have latterly made of them. 
 
 "You have been willing to suffer for me. Is it not much more 
 natural that I should sacrifice myself for you, and that I should 
 finish, once for all, this fatal division in the family ? Could I 
 balance a moment between the choice of unhappiness for myself 
 and the pardon of my brother ? What dreadful discourses have 
 there not been held to me on this subject ! I tremble when I 
 think of them. All the objections I could allege* against the 
 king's proposal were refuted to me beforehand. Your majesty 
 yourself had proposed to him the Prince of Baireuth as a fit al- 
 liance for me. I can not therefore imagine that you will disap- 
 prove of my resolution. Besides, necessity is not to be resisted. 
 I shall have the honor to offer a more circumstantial detail of 
 the whole transaction to your majesty when I shall be permitted 
 to throw myself at your feet. I can understand easily what 
 must be your grief on the occasion. It is that which touches 
 me the most." 
 
 The king, in response to the report of Baron Grumkow, which 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 119 
 
 was so gratifying to him, sent the same evening the following 
 note to Wilhelmina : 
 
 " I am delighted, my dear Wilhelmina, that you are so submis- 
 sive to the wishes of your father. The good God will bless you 
 for it ; and I will never abandon you. I will take care of you 
 all my life, and will endeavor to prove to you that I am your 
 very affectionate father." 
 
 The next morning the princess received the following cruel 
 epistle from her mother : . 
 
 " You have cut me to the heart, and have inflicted on me the 
 greatest misery I ever endured. I had placed all my hope in 
 you, in consequence of my ignorance of your character. You 
 have had the address to disguise to me the bad propensities of 
 your heart, and the baseness of your disposition. I repent a 
 thousand times the kindness I have shown you, the care I have 
 taken of your education, and all that I have suffered on your ac- 
 count. I no longer acknowledge you as my daughter, and shall, 
 in future, never regard you but as my most cruel enemy, since 
 it is you who have sacrificed me to my persecutors, who now tri- 
 umph over me. Never count upon me again. I vow eternal 
 hatred to you, and will never forgive you." 
 
 Soon after, the king returned to Berlin and summoned his 
 daughter to his presence. He received her very graciously. 
 The queen, however, remained quite unreconciled, and was loud 
 in the expression of her anger: "I am disgraced, vanquished, 
 and my enemies are triumphant !" she exclaimed. Her chagrin 
 was so great that she fell quite sick. To a few words of sympa- 
 thy which her child uttered, she replied, "Why do you pretend 
 to weep ? It is you who have killed me." 
 
 Frederick William was in high spirits. Many distinguished 
 strangers were invited to his court, and they were received with 
 great magnificence. There were costly and showy entertain- 
 ments, served by " six-and-twenty blackamoors," bands of music, 
 with much pomp of etiquette, and reviews of the giant guard 
 and of the marvelously drilled army. Preparations were made 
 for a review of great splendor on Monday, the 28th of May. 
 The Prince of Baireuth was invited, though neither the queen 
 nor Wilhelmina were aware of it. At the early hour of seven 
 o'clock of the preceding evening the king went to bed, that he 
 
120 Frederick the great. 
 
 might be fresh for the review on the morrow. His high-born 
 guests were left to be entertained by the queen and the princess. 
 Just as they were passing in to supper, the sound of carriage 
 wheels, approaching the foot of the grand staircase, was heard in 
 the court-yard. As that was an honor conferred only upon 
 princes, the queen was a little surprised, and sent to inquire who 
 had arrived. To her consternation, she found that it was the 
 Prince of Baireuth. 
 
 " The head of Medusa," writes the princess, " never produced 
 such horror as did this piece of news to the queen. For some 
 time she could not utter a word, and changed color so often that 
 we thought she would faint. Her state went to my heart. I 
 remained as immovable as she. Every one present appeared 
 full of consternation." 
 
 The prince retired to his chamber, to be presented to the roy- 
 al family at the review the next day. Wilhelmina passed a 
 miserable night. She could not sleep, and in the morning found 
 herself so ill that she begged to be excused from the review. 
 She also greatly dreaded encountering the coarse jests of her fa- 
 ther. But she could not be released from the review. Both 
 she and her mother were compelled to go. In an open carriage, 
 the queen and princess, with attendant ladies of the court, pass- 
 ed before the line. The Marquis of Schwedt, whom the princess 
 had so emphatically discarded, was at the head of his regiment. 
 He seemed " swollen with rage," and saluted the royal party 
 with his eyes turned away. The royal carriages were then with- 
 drawn to a little distance that the ladies might witness the spec- 
 tacle. 
 
 "Such a show for pomp and circumstance, Wilhelmina owns, 
 as could not be equaled in the world ; such wheeling, rhythmic 
 coalescing and unfolding, accurate as clock-work, far and wide ; 
 swift, big column here hitting big column there at the appoint- 
 ed place and moment; with their volleyings and trumpetings, 
 bright uniforms, and streamers, and field-music, in equipment 
 and manoeuvre perfect all, to the meanest drummer or black ket- 
 tle-drummer ; supreme drill sergeant playing on the thing as on 
 his huge piano, several square miles in area."* 
 
 As the ladies of the court were gazing upon this spectacle, an 
 
 * Carlyle. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 121 
 
 officer rode up to the royal carriage, cap in hand, and said that 
 he was directed to present to the queen and princess his High- 
 ness the Prince of Baireuth. Immediately a tall young man, in 
 rich dress and of very courtly air, rode up to the carriage and 
 saluted his future mother and his destined bride. His reception 
 was very chilling. The queen, with frigid civility, scarcely rec- 
 ognized his low bow. Wilhelmina, faint from fasting, anxiety, 
 and sleeplessness, was so overcome by her emotions that she fell 
 back upon her seat in a swoon. 
 
 Wilhelmina had never seen the Prince of Wales. Her moth- 
 er had not attempted to conceal from her that he was exceeding- 
 ly plain in person, slightly deformed, weak in intellect, and de- 
 based by his debaucheries. But the ambitious queen urged 
 these considerations, not as objections, but as incentives to the 
 marriage. " You will be able," she said, " to have him entirely 
 under your direction. You will thus be virtually King of En- 
 gland, and can exert a powerful control over all the nations of 
 Europe." These considerations, however, did not influence the 
 princess so much as they did her mother. She had never taken 
 any special interest in her marriage with the Prince of Wales. 
 Indeed, at times, she had said that nothing should ever induce 
 her to marry him. 
 
 The first glance at the Prince of Baireuth prepossessed the 
 princess in his favor. She subsequently, when better acquaint- 
 ed with him, described him in the following terms : 
 
 " The prince is tall, well made, and has a noble air. His feat- 
 ures are neither handsome nor regular; but his countenance, 
 which is open, engaging, and very agreeable, stands him in the 
 place of beauty. He is of a hasty temper, and replies with 
 quickness and without embarrassment. Though his nature is 
 inclined to anger, he knows so well how to overcome it that it 
 is never perceived, and no one has ever suffered by it. He is 
 very gay. His conversation is very agreeable, though he has 
 some difficulty in making himself intelligible from lisping so 
 much. His conception is quick, and his intellect penetrating. 
 The goodness of his heart gains him the attachment of all who 
 know him. He is generous, charitable, compassionate, polite, en- 
 gaging, and enjoys very equal spirits. The only fault I know in 
 him is too much levity, which I must mention here, as otherwise 
 
122 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 I should be accused of partiality. He has, however, much cor- 
 rected himself of it." 
 
 The next Sunday, June 3d, the betrothal took place with great 
 magnificence. The ceremony was attended by a large concourse 
 of distinguished guests. Lord Dover says that the very evening 
 of the day of the betrothing a courier arrived from England with 
 dispatches announcing that the English court had yielded to all 
 the stipulations demanded by the King of Prussia in reference 
 to the marriage of Wilhelmina to the Prince of Wales. It was 
 now too late to retract. Probably both the king and Wilhel- 
 mina were gratified in being able to decline the offer. But the 
 chagrin of the queen was terrible. She fell into a violent fever, 
 and came near dying, reproaching her daughter with having 
 killed her. 
 
 There seems to be no end to the complications and troubles 
 of this royal family. It is said that Wilhelmina, to soothe her 
 mother, treated her betrothed with great coldness; that her 
 younger sister Charlotte fell deeply in love with the Prince of 
 Baireuth, and endeavored to win him to herself; and that the 
 prince himself, attracted by warmth on the one hand and re- 
 pelled by coldness on the other, was quite disposed to make the 
 exchange.* The king, irritated by these interminable annoy- 
 ances, and the victim of chronic petulance and ill nature, recom- 
 menced his brutal treatment of his daughter. 
 
 While these scenes were transpiring, the Crown Prince was at 
 Custrin, upon probation, being not yet admitted to the presence 
 of his father. He seems to have exerted himself to the utmost 
 to please the king, applying himself diligently to become familiar 
 with all the tedious routine and details of the administration of 
 finance, police, and the public domains. Fritz was naturally 
 very amiable. He was consequently popular in the little town 
 in which he resided, all being ready to do every thing in their 
 power to serve him. The income still allowed him by his father 
 was so small that he would have suffered from poverty had not 
 the gentry in the neighborhood, regardless of the prohibition to 
 lend money to the prince, contributed secretly to replenish his 
 purse. 
 
 A year and a day had elapsed since the father had seen the 
 
 * Life of Frederick II , by Lord Dover, vol. i., p. 127. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 123 
 
 son. On the loth of August, the king, being on a journey, stop- 
 ped for a couple of hours at Custrin, and held an interview with 
 Fritz. The monarch was attended by a retinue of several hun- 
 dred persons. The scene which ensued is described by Gruni- 
 kow in his summary of what took place at Custrin on the 15th 
 of August, 1731. The king sent for the prince to be brought 
 before him at the government house. As Fritz entered he fell 
 upon his knees at his father's feet. The king coldly ordered 
 him to rise, saying, 
 
 " You will now recall to mind what passed a year and a day 
 ago — how scandalously you behaved, and what a godless enter- 
 prise you undertook. As I have had you about me from the 
 beginning, and must know you well, I did all in the world that 
 was in my power, by kindness and by harshness, to make an 
 honorable man of you. As I rather suspected your evil pur- 
 poses, I treated you in the harshest and sharpest way in the Sax- 
 on camp, in hopes you would consider yourself, and take anoth- 
 er line of conduct ; would confess your faults to me, and beg for- 
 giveness. But all in vain. You grew ever more stiff-necked. 
 You thought to carry it through with your headstrong humor. 
 But hark ye, my lad ! if thou wert sixty or seventy instead of 
 eighteen, thou couldst not cross my resolutions. And as up to 
 this date I have managed to sustain myself against any comer, 
 there will be methods found to bring thee to reason too. 
 
 " Have I not, on all occasions, meant honorably by you ? Last 
 time I got wind of your debts, did I not, as a father, admonish 
 you to tell me all ? I would pay all ; you were only to tell me 
 the truth; whereupon you said there were still two thousand 
 thalers beyond the sum named. I j)aid these also at once, and 
 fancied I had made peace with you. And then it was found, 
 -by-and-by, you owed many thousands more. And as you knew 
 you could not pay, it was as good as if the money had been 
 stolen — not to reckon how the French vermin, Month olieu and 
 partner, cheated you with their new loans. 
 
 " Nothing touched me so much as that you had not any trust 
 in me. All this that I was doing for the aggrandizement of the 
 house, the army, and the finances, could only be for you, if you 
 made yourself worthy of it. I here declare that I have done all 
 things to gain your friendship, and all has been in vain." 
 
124 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 The Crown Prince, either deeply touched with penitence or 
 affecting to be so, again threw himself upon his knees before his 
 father, as if imploring pardon. The king continued : 
 
 " Was it not your intention to go to England ?" 
 
 " Yes," the prince replied. 
 
 " Then hear what the consequences would have been. Your 
 mother would have got into the greatest misery. I could not 
 but have suspected she was the author of the business. Your 
 sister I would have cast for life into a place where she would 
 never have seen sun or moon again. Then on with my army to 
 Hanover, and burn and ravage — yes, if it had cost me life, land, 
 and people. Your thoughtless and godless conduct, see what it 
 was leading to. I intended to employ you in all manner of 
 business, civil and military. But how, after such action, could I 
 show your face to my officers ?" 
 
 Here the young prince made the most solemn promises to try 
 to regain his father's favor. The king then asked: "Was it 
 thou that temptedst Katte, or did Katte tempt thee?" Fritz 
 promptly replied, "I tempted Katte." "I am glad," rejoined 
 the king, " to hear the truth from you, at any rate." 
 
 The king then rattled on without waiting for replies : " How 
 do you like your Ciistrin life ? Do you still have as much aver- 
 sion to Wusterhausen, and to wearing your shroud, as you called 
 your uniform ? Likely enough my company does not suit you. 
 I have no French manners, and can not bring out witty sayings 
 in the coxcomb way ; and I truly consider all that as a thing to 
 be thrown to the dogs. I am a German prince, and mean to live 
 and die in that character. But you can now say what you have 
 got by your caprices and obstinate heart, hating every thing 
 that I liked, and if I distinguished any one, despising him. If 
 an officer was put in arrest, you took to lamenting about him. 
 Your real friends, who intended your good, you hated and ca- 
 lumniated. Those who flattered you and encouraged your bad 
 purpose you caressed. You see what that has come to. In Ber- 
 lin, in all Prussia, for some time back, nobody asks after you, 
 whether you are in the world or not. And were it not that one 
 or the other coming from Ciistrin reports you as playing tennis 
 or wearing French hair-bags, nobody would know whether you 
 were dead, or alive." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 125 
 
 Grumkow then goes on to relate, quite in detail, that the king 
 took up the subject of theology. " He set forth the horrible re- 
 sults of that absolute decree notion which makes God the author 
 of sin ; and that Jesus Christ died only for some." The prince 
 declared that he had thoroughly renounced that heresy. The 
 king then added : 
 
 " When godless fellows about you speak against your duties 
 to God, the king, and your country, fall instantly on your knees 
 and pray with your whole soul to Jesus Christ to deliver you 
 from such wickedness, and lead you on better ways. And if it 
 come in earnest from your heart, Jesus, who would have all men 
 saved, will not leave you unheard." 
 
 The Crown Prince, with what degree of sincerity we know 
 not, was now in tears. Prostrating himself before his majesty, 
 he kissed his feet. The king, much moved, was in tears also, 
 and retired to another room. 
 
 "It being his majesty's birthday," writes Grumkow, "the 
 prince, in deep emotion, followed his father, and, again falling 
 prostrate, testified such heartfelt joy, gratitude, and affection 
 over this blessed anniversary as quite touched the heart of the 
 king, who at last clasped him in his arms, and hurried out to 
 avoid sobbing aloud. The Crown Prince followed his majesty, 
 and, in the presence of many hundred people, kissed his majesty's 
 feet, and was again embraced by his majesty, who said, ' Behave 
 well, as I see you mean, and I will take care of you.' Which 
 words," writes Grumkow, " threw the Crown Prince into such 
 an ecstasy of joy as no pen can express." 
 
 Two events occurred at this time highly characteristic of the 
 king. There was a nobleman by the name of Schlubhut, occu- 
 pying a high official position, who was found a defaulter to the 
 ■amount of a sum equal to twenty-five thousand dollars. The 
 supreme court sentenced him to three or four years' imprison- 
 ment. The king was indignant at the mildness of the sentence. 
 "What," said he, "when the private thief is sent to the gallows, 
 shall a nobleman and a magistrate escape with fine and impris- 
 onment?" Schlubhut was immediately sent to prison. All 
 night long he was disturbed with the noise of carpentering in 
 the castle square in front of his cell. In the morning he saw di- 
 rectly before his window a huge gallows erected. Upon that 
 
126 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 gallows he was immediately hung, and his body was left to 
 swing in the wind for several days, some say for weeks. 
 
 Soon after, a soldier, six feet three inches tall, the ringleader 
 of a gang, broke into a house and robbed it of property to the 
 amount of about fi.ve thousand dollars. He was sentenced to 
 be hung. We give the result in the words of Carlyle : 
 
 " Friedrich Wilhelm feels this sad contrast very much ; the 
 
 DISCIPLINING THE JUDGES. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 127 
 
 more, as the soldier is his own chattel withal, and of superlative 
 inches. Friedrich Wilhelm flames up into wrath ; sends off swift 
 messengers to bring these judges, one and all, instantly into his 
 presence. The judges are still in their dressing-gowns, shaving, 
 breakfasting. They make what haste they can. So soon as the 
 first three or four are reported to be in the anteroom, Friedrich 
 Wilhelm, in extreme impatience, has them called in; starts dis- 
 coursing with them upon the two weights and two measures. 
 Apologies, subterfuges, do but provoke him farther. It is not 
 long till he starts up growling terribly, ' Ye scoundrels, how 
 could you V and smites down upon the crown of them with the 
 royal cudgel itself. Fancy the hurry-scurry, the unforensic atti- 
 tudes and pleadings ! Royal cudgel rains blows right and left. 
 Blood is drawn, crowns cracked, crowns nearly broken ; and sev- 
 eral judges lost a few teeth and had their noses battered before 
 they could get out. The second relay, meeting them in this di- 
 lapidated state on the staircases, dashed home again without the 
 honor of a royal interview. This is an actual scene, of date, Ber- 
 lin, 1731, of which no constitutional country can hope to see the 
 fellow. Schlubhut he hanged, Schlubhut being only Schlubhut' s 
 chattel. This musketeer, his majesty's own chattel, he did not 
 hang, but set him shouldering arms again after some preliminary 
 dusting." 
 
 The king, after his apparent reconciliation with Fritz, granted 
 him a little more liberty. He was appointed to travel over and 
 carefully inspect several of the crown domains. He was ordered 
 to study thoroughly the practical husbandry of those domains — 
 how they were to be" plowed, enriched, and sown. He was also 
 to devote his attention to the rearing of cattle ; to the preparing 
 of malt and the brewing of ale. " Useful discourse," said the 
 king, " is to be kept up with him on these journeys, pointing out 
 why this is and that, and whether it could not be better." On 
 the 2 2d of September the Crown Prince wrote to his father as 
 follows : 
 
 " I have been to Lebus. There is excellent land there ; fine 
 weather for the husbandmen. Major Roder passed this way, 
 and dined with me last Wednesday. He has got a fine fellow 
 for my most all-gracious father's regiment. I depend on my 
 most all-gracious father's grace that he will be good to me. I 
 
128 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ask for nothing, and for no happiness in the world but what 
 comes from him ; and hope that he will some day remember me 
 in grace, and give me the blue coat to put on again." 
 
 It is very evident, from the glimpses we catch of Fritz at this 
 time, that he was a wild fellow, quite frivolous, and with but a 
 feeble sense of moral obligation. General Schulenburg, an old 
 soldier, of stern principles, visited him at Custrin, and sent an ac- 
 count of the interview to Baron Grumkow, under date of October 
 4th, 1731. From this letter we cull the following statement : 
 
 " I found him much grown ; an air of health and gayety about 
 him. He caressed me greatly. We went to dinner. He asked 
 me to sit beside him. Among other things, he said that he liked 
 the great world, and was charmed to observe the ridiculous, weak 
 side of some people." 
 
 The prince inquired, in quite an indifferent tone, respecting 
 the marriages his father had in contemplation for him. He ob- 
 jected to the marriage with the Princess of Mecklenberg, niece 
 of the Czar Peter, that it would require him to change his relig- 
 ion, which he would not do. He expressed himself as inclined 
 to take the second daughter of the Emperor of Germany, if the 
 emperor would throw in a duchy or two. 
 
 " Since you speak so much of marriages," said the general, " I 
 suppose you wish to be married ?" 
 
 " No," the prince replied ; " but if the king absolutely will 
 have it, I will marry to obey him. After that I will shove my 
 wife into a corner, and live after my own fancy." 
 
 Against this unprincipled declaration General Schulenburg 
 remonstrated, declaring it to be unchristian and dishonorable. 
 But the prince seemed to regard such suggestions very contempt- 
 uously. "I can perceive," the general adds, "that if he mar- 
 ries, it will only be that he may have more liberty than now. 
 It is certain that if he had his elbows free he would strike out. 
 He said to me several times, \ I am young ; I want to profit by 
 my youth.' " 
 
 A fortnight later General Schulenburg wrote, under date of 
 the 19th of October : " I introduced to the Crown Prince all the 
 officers of my regiment who are here. He received them in the 
 style of a king. It is certain he feels what he is born to ; and if 
 he ever get to it, he will stand on the top of it. As to me, I 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 129 
 
 mean to keep myself retired, and shall see as little of him as I 
 can. I perceive well he does not like advice, and does not take 
 pleasure except with men inferior to him in mind. His first aim 
 is to find out the ridiculous side of every one, and he loves to 
 banter and quiz. 
 
 " I assure you he is a prince who has talent, but who will be 
 the slave of his passions, and will like nobody but such as en- 
 courage him therein. For me, I think all princes are cast in the 
 same mould. There is only a more and a less." 
 
 On Tuesday, the 20th of November, 1731, Wilhelmina, eight 
 months after her betrothal, was married to the Prince of Bai- 
 reuth. The marriage ceremony was attended with great mag- 
 nificence in the royal palace of Berlin. The father of Frederick 
 William, who was fond of pageantry, had reared one of the most 
 sumptuous mansions in Europe, and had furnished it with splen- 
 
 BERLIN PALACE. 
 
 dor which no other court could outvie. Entering the interior 
 of the palace through the outer saloon, one passed through nine 
 apartments en suite, of grand dimensions, magnificently decora- 
 ted, the last of which opened into the picture-gallery, a room 
 ninety feet in length, and of corresponding breadth. All these 
 were in a line. Then turning, you entered a series of fourteen 
 rooms, each more splendid than the preceding. The chandeliers 
 were of massive solid silver. The ceilings were exquisitely paint- 
 
130 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ed by Correggio. Between each pair of windows there were mir- 
 rors twelve feet high, and of such width that before each mirror 
 tables could be spread for twelve guests. The last of these mag- 
 nificent apartments, called the Grand Saloon, was illuminated by 
 " a lustre weighing fifty thousand crowns ; the globe of it big 
 enough to hold a child of eight years, and the branches of solid 
 silver." 
 
 Though Frederick the First had reared and originally fur- 
 nished this Berlin palace, yet the masses of solid silver wrought 
 into its ornamentation were mainly the work of Frederick Wil- 
 liam. Conscious that his influence in Europe depended not only 
 upon the power of his army, but also upon the fullness of his 
 treasury, he had been striving, through all his reign, to accumu- 
 late coin. But the money, barreled up and stored away in the 
 vaults of his palace, was of no service while thus lying idle. 
 Banking institutions seem not then to have been in vogue in his 
 realms. But the silver, wrought into chandeliers, mirror-frames, 
 and music balconies, added to the imposing splendor of his court, 
 gave him the reputation of great wealth, and could, at any time 
 when necessary, be melted down and coined. The wealth thus 
 hoarded by the father afterward saved the son from ruin, when 
 involved in wars which exhausted his treasury. 
 
 The queen remained bitterly unreconciled to the marriage of 
 Wilhelmina with any one but the Prince of Wales. Stung by 
 the sense of defeat, she did every thing in her power, by all sorts 
 of intrigues, to break off the engagement with the Prince of Bai- 
 reuth. When she found her efforts entirely unavailing, she even 
 went so far as to take her daughter aside and entreat her, since 
 the ceremony must take place, to refuse, after the marriage, to re- 
 ceive the Prince of Baireuth as her husband, that the queen 
 might endeavor to obtain a divorce. 
 
 The annoyances to which Wilhelmina was exposed, while thus 
 preparing for her wedding, must have been almost unendurable. 
 Not only her mother was thus persistent and implacable in her 
 f hostility, but her father reluctantly submitted to the connection. 
 He had fully made up his mind, with all the strength of his in- 
 flexible will, that Wilhelmina should marry either the Margrave 
 of Schwedt or the Duke of Weissenfels. It was with extreme 
 reluctance, and greatly to his chagrin, that the stern old man 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 131 
 
 found himself constrained, perhaps for the first time in his life, 
 to yield to others. 
 
 Even Wilhelmina had accepted the Prince of Baireuth, whom 
 she had never seen, only to avoid being sacrificed to men whom 
 she utterly loathed. Fortunately for the princess, her affections 
 were not otherwise engaged, and when introduced to her intend- 
 ed she became quite reconciled to the idea of accepting him as 
 her husband. 
 
 On the day of the marriage, the princess, having formally re- 
 nounced all her rights to the personal property of the family, 
 dined with the royal household and her intended, and then re- 
 tired to her apartment to dress for the wedding. It would seem 
 that the queen must have become quite insane upon this point. 
 Even at this late hour she did every thing she could to delay 
 operations and to gain time, hoping every moment that some 
 courier would arrive from England with proposals which would 
 induce the king to break off the engagement. As fast as the 
 princess's hair on one side was dressed the queen would contrive 
 to undo it, so that at last the hair would no longer curl, making 
 her look, as Wilhelmina said, " like a mad woman." She adds : 
 
 "A royal crown was placed upon my head, together with twen- 
 ty-four curls of false hair, each as big as my arm. I could not 
 hold up my head, as it was too weak for so great a weight. My 
 gown was a very rich silver brocade, trimmed with gold lace, and 
 my train was twelve yards long. I thought I should have died 
 under this dress." 
 
 The marriage took place in the Grand Saloon. The moment 
 the benediction was pronounced, a triple discharge of cannon an- 
 nounced the event to the inhabitants of Berlin. Then the new- 
 ly-married pair, seated under a gorgeous canopy, received the 
 congratulations of the court. A ball followed, succeeded by a 
 supper. After supper there came, according to the old German 
 custom, what was called the dance of torches. This consisted of 
 the whole company marching to music in procession through the 
 rooms, each holding a lighted torch. The marriage festivities 
 were continued for several days, with a succession of balls each 
 night. Wilhelmina had not yet been permitted to see her broth- 
 er since his arrest. But the king had promised Wilhelmina, as 
 her reward for giving up the wretched Prince of Wales, that he 
 
132 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 would recall her brother and restore him to favor. On Friday 
 evening, the 23d, three days after the wedding, there was a bril 
 liant ball in the Grand Apartment. Wilhelmina thus describes 
 the event which then took place : 
 
 " I liked dancing, and was taking advantage of my chances. 
 Grumkow came up to me, in the middle of a minuet, and said 
 1 Mon dieu 7 niadame, you seem to have got bit by the tarantula, 
 Don't you see those strangers who have just come in V I stop 
 ped short, and, looking all around, I noticed at last a young man 
 dressed in gray, whom I did not know. i Go, then,' said Grum- 
 kow, ' and embrace the Grown Prince. There he is before you. 
 My whole frame was agitated with joy. ' Oh, heavens, my broth- 
 er!' cried I; 'but I do not see him. Where is he? For God's 
 Bake show him to me.' 
 
 " Grumkow led me to the young man in gray. Coming near, 
 I recognized him, though with difficulty. He had grown much 
 stouter, and his neck was much shorter. His face also was much 
 changed, and was no longer as handsome as it had been. I fell 
 upon his neck. I was so overcome that I could only speak in 
 an unconnected manner. I wept, I laughed like a person out of 
 her senses. In my life I have never felt so lively a joy. After 
 these first emotions were subsided I went and threw myself at 
 the feet of the king, who said to me aloud, in the presence of my 
 brother, 
 
 '"'Are you content with me? You see that I have kept my 
 word with you.' 
 
 " I took my brother by the hand, and implored the king to re- 
 store his affection to him. This scene was so touching that it 
 drew tears from all present. I then approached the queen. She 
 was obliged to embrace me, the king being close opposite. But 
 I remarked that her joy was only affected. I turned to my broth- 
 er again. I gave him a thousand caresses, to all which he re- 
 mained cold as ice, and answered only in monosyllables. I pre- 
 sented to him my husband, to whom he did not say one word. 
 I was astonished at this; but I laid the blame of it on the king, 
 who was observing us, and who I judged might be intimidating 
 my brother. But even the countenance of my brother surprised 
 me. He wore a proud air, and seemed to look down upon every 
 body." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 133 
 
 THE RECONCILIATION. 
 
 Neither the king nor the Crown Prince appeared at the sup- 
 per. With a select circle, to which neither Wilhelmina nor her 
 mother were admitted, they supped in a private apartment. At 
 the report that the king was treating the Crown Prince with 
 great friendliness, the queen could not conceal her secret pique. 
 " In fact," says Wilhelmina, " she did not love her children ex- 
 cept as they served her ambitious views." She was jealous of 
 
134 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Wilhelrnina because she, and not her mother, had been the means 
 of the release of Fritz. After supper the dancing was resumed, 
 and Wilhelrnina embraced an opportunity to ask her brother 
 why he was so changed, and why he treated her so coldly. He 
 assured her that he was not changed ; that his reserve w-as ex- 
 ternal only; that he had reasons for his conduct. Still he did 
 not explain his reasons, and Wilhelrnina remained wounded and 
 bewildered. 
 
 Before the king released the Crown Prince he extorted from 
 him an oath that he would be, in all respects, obedient to his fa- 
 ther ; that he would never again attempt to escape, or take any 
 journey without permission; that he would scrupulously dis- 
 charge all the duties of religion, and that he would marry any 
 princess whom his father might select for him. The next morn- 
 ing, after the interview to which we have above alluded, the 
 prince called upon his sister. They had a short private inter- 
 view, Madam Sonsfeld alone being present. The prince gave a 
 recital of his adventures and misfortunes during the many months 
 since they last had met. The princess gave an account of her 
 great trials, and how she had consented to a marriage, which 
 was not one of her choice, to obtain her brother's release. 
 
 " He appeared," she writes, " quite discountenanced at this last 
 part of my narrative. He returned thanks for the obligations I 
 have laid on him, with some caressings which evidently did not 
 proceed from the heart. To break this conversation he started 
 some indifferent topic, and, under pretense of seeing my apart- 
 ment, moved into the next room, where the prince, my husband, 
 was. Him he surveyed with his eyes from head to foot for some 
 time; then, after some constrained civilities to him, he went his 
 way." 
 
 Wilhelrnina and her husband soon left for Baireuth. Though 
 the princess thus left the splendors of a royal palace for the far 
 more quiet and humble state of a ducal mansion, still she was 
 glad to escape from a home where she had experienced so many 
 sorrows. 
 
 " Berlin," she writes, " had become as odious to me as it once 
 was dear. I flattered myself that, renouncing grandeurs, I might 
 lead a soft and tranquil life in my new home, and begin a hap- 
 pier year than the one which had just ended." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 135 
 
 As the king was about to take leave of his child, whom he 
 had treated so cruelly, he was very much overcome by emotion. 
 It is a solemn hour, in any family, when a daughter leaves the 
 parental roof, never to return again but as a visitor. Whether 
 the extraordinary development of feeling which the stern old 
 monarch manifested on the occasion was the result of nervous 
 sensibility, excited by strong drink or by parental affection, it is 
 not easy to decide. Wilhelmina, in a few words of intense emo- 
 tion, bade her father farewell. 
 
 " My discourse," she writes, " produced its effect. He melted 
 into tears, and could not answer me for sobs. He explained his 
 thoughts by his embracings of me. Making an effort at length, 
 he said, ' I am in despair that I did not know thee. They had 
 told me such horrible tales — I hated thee as much as I now love 
 thee. If I had addressed myself direct to thee I should have es- 
 caped much trouble, and thou too. But they hindered me from 
 speaking. They said that thou wert ill-natured as the devil, and 
 wouldst drive to extremities, which I wanted to avoid. Thy 
 mother, by her intriguings, is in part the cause of the misfortunes 
 of the family. I have been deceived and duped on every side. 
 But my hands are tied. Though my heart is torn in pieces, I 
 must leave these iniquities unpunished.' " 
 
 " The queen's intentions were always good," Wilhelmina kind- 
 ly urged. The king replied, " Let us not enter into that detail. 
 What is past is past. I will try to forget it. You are the dear- 
 est to me of all the family. I am too sad of heart to take leave 
 of you. Embrace your husband on my part. I am so overcome 
 that I must not see him." 
 
 Wilhelmina, with flooded eyes, entered her carriage, bidding 
 a final adieu to the home of her childhood, where she had passed 
 through so many scenes, eventful and afflictive. Though she aft- 
 erward visited Berlin, it was her home no more. The Crown 
 Prince returned to Custrin, where he impatiently awaited his fu- 
 ture destinies. 
 
136 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE CROWN PRINCE. 
 
 Matrimonial Intrigues. — Letters from the King to his Son. — Letter from Eritz to Grumkow. — 
 Letter to Wilhelmina. — The Betrothal. — Character of Elizabeth. — Her cruel Reception by 
 the Prussian Queen. — Letter from Eritz to Wilhelmina. — Disappointment and Anguish of 
 Elizabeth. — Studious Habits of Fritz. — Continued Alienation of his Father. — The Marriage. 
 — Life in the Castle at Reinsberg. 
 
 Upon the return of the Crown Prince to Clistrin after the 
 marriage of Wilhelmina, several of the officers of the army sent 
 in a petition to the king that he would restore to the prince his 
 uniform and his military rank. The king consented, and made 
 out his commission anew as colonel commandant of the Goltz 
 regiment at Ruppin. This was a small town about seventy-five 
 miles northeast of Berlin. His commission was signed on the 
 29th of February, 1732, he being then twenty years of age. In 
 this little hamlet, mainly engaged in the dull routine of garrison 
 duties, the prince passed most of his time for the next eight 
 years. 
 
 The Crown Prince was quite exasperated that the English 
 court would not listen to his earnest plea for the marriage of 
 Wilhelmina to the Prince of Wales, and accept his vows of fidel- 
 ity to the Princess Amelia. The stubborn adhesion of the King 
 of England to the declaration of " both marriages or none" so 
 annoyed him that he banished Amelia from his thoughts. In 
 his reckless way he affirmed that the romance of marriage was 
 all over with him ; that he cared not much what bride was 
 forced upon him, provided only that she were rich, and that she 
 were not too scrupulous in religious principle. The tongues of 
 all the court gossips were busy upon this theme. Innumerable 
 were the candidates suggested to share the crown of the future 
 Prussian king. The Archduchess Maria Theresa, subsequently 
 the renowned Empress of Germany, was proposed by Prince 
 Eugene. But the imperial court could not wed its Catholic 
 heiress to a Protestant prince. Still the emperor, though un- 
 willing to give his daughter to the Crown Prince, was anxious 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 137 
 
 for as close an alliance as possible with Prussia, and recommend- 
 ed a niece of the empress, the young Princess Elizabeth Chris- 
 tina, only daughter of Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick Be vera. 
 She was seventeen years of age, rather pretty, with a fine com- 
 plexion, not rich, of religious tastes, and remarkably quiet and 
 domestic in her character. 
 
 The Crown Prince did not fancy this connection at all. His 
 first wish was to journey about, through the courts of Europe, 
 to select him a wife. But that measure his father would not 
 think of. Frederick professed a willingness to submit to marry 
 Anna, Princess of Mecklenberg, or the Princess of Eisenach. 
 Seckendorf, the embassador of the emperor, aided by Grumkow, 
 who had been bribed, urged the marriage with Elizabeth. The 
 king adopted their views. His decision was like a decree of 
 fate. The following letter, written by the king to his son, dated 
 Potsdam, February 4, 1732, very clearly expresses his views: 
 
 " My dear Son Fritz, — I am glad you need no more medicine. 
 But you must have a care of yourself some days yet, for the se- 
 vere weather gives me and every body colds. So pray be on 
 your guard. 
 
 " You know, my dear son, that when my children are obedient 
 I love them much. So when you were at Berlin, I from my 
 heart forgave you every thing ; and from that Berlin time, since 
 I saw you, have thought of nothing but of your well-being, and 
 how to establish you ; not in the army only, but also with a 
 right step-daughter, and so see you married in my lifetime. You 
 may be well persuaded I have had the Princesses of Germany 
 taken survey of, so far as possible, and examined by trusty peo- 
 ple what their conduct is, their education, and so on. And so a 
 princess has been found, the eldest one of Be vera, who is well 
 brought up, modest and retiring as a woman ought to be. 
 
 " You will quickly write me your mind on this. I have pur- 
 chased the Von Katsch house. The field marshal, as governor 
 of Berlin, will get that to live in. His government house I will 
 have made new for you, and furnish it all, and give you enough 
 to keep house yourself there. 
 
 " The princess is not ugly nor beautiful. You must mention 
 it to no mortal. Write indeed to mamma that I have written 
 
138 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 to you. And when you shall have a son, I will let you go on 
 your travels ; wedding, however, can not be before next winter. 
 Meanwhile I will try and contrive opportunity that you see one 
 another a few times, in all honor, yet so that you get acquainted 
 with her. She is a God-fearing creature, will suit herself to you, 
 as she does to the parents-in-law. 
 
 " God give his blessing to it, and bless you and your posterity, 
 and keep you as a good Christian. And have God always be- 
 fore your eyes, and don't believe that damnable predestination 
 tenet ; and be obedient and faithful. So shall it here in time, 
 and there in eternity, go well with thee. And whosoever wish- 
 es that from the heart, let him say Amen. 
 
 " Your true father to the death, 
 
 " Friedrich Wilhelm. 
 
 "When the Duke of Lorraine comes I will have thee come. 
 I think the bride will be here then. Adieu ; God be with you." 
 
 One week after the reception of this letter the Crown Prince 
 wrote to Baron Grumkow in the following flippant and revolt- 
 ing strain. He probably little imagined that the letter was to 
 be read by all Europe and all America. But those whose paths 
 through life lead over the eminences of rank and power can not 
 conceal their words or deeds from the scrutiny of the world. 
 Grumkow, a very shrewd man, had contrived to secure influence 
 over both the father and the son. The prince's letter was dated 
 Custrin, February 11, 1732 : 
 
 "My dear General and Friend, — I was charmed to learn, 
 by your letter, that my affairs are on so good a footing. You 
 may depend on it I am prepared to follow your advice. I will 
 lend myself to whatever is possible for me. And, provided I 
 can secure the king's favor by my obedience, I will do all that 
 is within my power. 
 
 "Nevertheless, in making my bargain with the Duke of Be- 
 vern, manage that my intended be brought up under her grand- 
 mother.* I should rather have a wife who would dishonor me 
 than to marry a blockhead who would drive me mad by her 
 awkwardness, and whom I should be ashamed to produce. 
 
 * The grandmother was a very gay, fashionable woman, entirely devoted to pleasure. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 139 
 
 " I beg you labor at this affair. When one hates romantic 
 heroines as heartily as I do, one dreads those timid virtues ; and 
 I had rather marry the greatest profligate* in Berlin than a dev- 
 otee with half a dozen bigots at her beck. If it were still possi- 
 ble to make her a Calvinist ! But I doubt that. I will insist, 
 however, that her grandmother have the training of her. What 
 you can do to help me in this, my dear friend, I am persuaded 
 you will do. 
 
 " It afflicted me a little that the king still has doubts of me, 
 while I am obeying in such a matter diametrically opposite to 
 my own ideas. In what way shall I offer stronger proofs ? I 
 may give myself to the devil, it will be to no purpose. Nothing 
 but the old song over again, doubt on doubt. Don't imagine 
 I am going to disoblige the duke, the duchess, or the daughter, 
 I beseech you. I know too well what is due to them, and too 
 much respect their merits, not to observe the strictest rules of 
 what is proper, even if I hated their progeny and them like the 
 pestilence. 
 
 " I hope to speak to you with open heart at Berlin. You may 
 think, too, how I shall be embarrassed in having to act the lover 
 without being it, and to feign a passion for mute ugliness; for 
 I have not much faith in Count Seckendorf 's taste in this article. 
 Monsieur, once more get this princess to learn by heart the Ecole 
 des Maris and the Ecole des Eemmes. That will clo her much 
 more good than True Christianity by the late Arnclt. If, be- 
 side, she would learn steadiness of humor, learn music, become 
 rather too free than too virtuous — ah ! then, my dear general, 
 then I should feel some liking for her ; and a Colin marrying a 
 Phillis, the couple would be in accordance. But if she is stupid, 
 naturally I renounce the devil and her. 
 
 . "It is said she has a sister who at least has common sense. 
 Why take the eldest, if so ? To the king it must be all one. 
 There is also a princess, Christina Marie, of Eisenach, who would 
 be quite my fit, and whom I should like to try for. In fine, I 
 mean soon to come into your countries, and perhaps will say, 
 like Csesar, Veni, vidi, viciP 
 
 In another letter to Grumkow, he writes : " As to what you 
 tell me of the Princess of Mecklenberg, could not I marry her? 
 
 * The prince used a harsher term, which we can not quote. 
 
140 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 She would have a dowry of two or three million rubles.* Only 
 fancy how I could live with that. I think that project might 
 succeed. I find none of these advantages in the Princess of Be- 
 vern, who, as many people even of the duke's court say, is not at 
 all beautiful, speaks almost nothing, and is given to pouting. 
 The good empress has so little money herself that the sums she 
 could afford her niece would be very moderate." 
 
 Again, on the 19th of February, 1732, the Crown Prince wrote 
 from Custrin to Baron Grumkow. From his letter we make the 
 following extracts : 
 
 " Judge, my dear general, if I have been much charmed with 
 the description you give of the abominable object of my desires. 
 For the love of God disabuse the king in regard to her. Let 
 him remember that fools are commonly the most obstinate of 
 creatures. Let the king remember that it is not for himself that 
 he is marrying me, but for myself. Nay, he too will have a 
 thousand chagrins to see two persons hating one another, and 
 the most miserable marriage in the world ; to hear their mutual 
 complaints, which will be to him so many reproaches for having 
 fashioned the instrument of our yoke. As a good Christian, let 
 him consider if it is well done to wish to force people, to cause 
 divorces, and to be the occasion of all the sins that an ill-assorted 
 marriage leads us to commit. I am determined to front every 
 thing in the world sooner. Since things are so, you may, in 
 some good way, apprise the Duke of Bevern that, happen what 
 may, I never will have her. 
 
 " I have been unhappy all my life, and I think it is my destiny 
 to continue so. One must be patient, and take the time as it 
 comes. Perhaps a sudden tract of good fortune, on t the back of 
 all the chagrins I have encountered since I entered this world, 
 would have made me too proud. I have suffered sufficiently, 
 and I will not engage myself to extend my miseries into future 
 times. I have still resources. A pistol-shot can deliver me from 
 my sorrows and my life, and I think a merciful God would not 
 damn me for that, but, taking pity on me, would, in exchange 
 for a life of wretchedness, srant me salvation. This is whither- 
 ward despair can lead a young person whose blood is not so 
 quiescent as if he were seventy. 
 
 * A ruble was about eighty-five cents of our money. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 141 
 
 " I have received a letter from the king, all agog about the 
 princess. When his first fire of approbation is spent, you might, 
 praising her all the while, lead him to notice her faults. Mon 
 Dieu, has he not already seen what an ill-assorted marriage comes 
 to — my sister of Anspach and her husband, who hate one anoth- 
 er like the fire \ He has a thousand vexations from it every day. 
 
 " And what aim has the king ? If it is to assure himself of 
 me, that is not the way. Madam of Eisenach might do it, but a 
 fool not. On the contrary, it is morally impossible to love the 
 cause of our misery. The king is reasonable, and I am persuaded 
 he will understand this himself." 
 
 To his sister, Fritz wrote, about the same time, in a more sub- 
 dued strain, referring simply to his recent life in Custrin : " Thus 
 far my lot has been a tolerably happy one. I have lived quiet- 
 ly in the garrison. My flute, my books, and a few affectionate 
 friends have made my way of life there sufficiently agreeable. 
 They now want to force me to abandon all this in order to mar- 
 ry me to the Princess of Bevern, whom I do not know. Must 
 one always be tyrannized over without any hope of a change ? 
 Still, if my dear sister were only here, I should endure all with 
 patience." 
 
 Queen Sophie, who still clung pertinaciously to the idea of 
 the English match, was, of course, bitterly hostile to the nuptial 
 alliance with Elizabeth. Indeed, the queen still adhered to the 
 idea of the double English marriage, and exhausted all the arts 
 of diplomacy and intrigue in the endeavor to secure the Princess 
 Amelia for the Crown Prince, and to unite the Prince of Wales 
 to a younger sister of Wilhelmina. Very naturally she cherish- 
 ed feelings of strong antipathy' toward Elizabeth, who seemed 
 to be the cause, though the innocent cause, of the frustration of 
 her plans. She consequently spoke of the princess in the most 
 contemptuous manner, and did every thing in her power to in- 
 duce her son to regard her with repugnance. But nothing could 
 change the inexorable will of the king. Early in March the 
 doomed Princess Elizabeth, a beautiful, artless child of seventeen 
 years, who had seen but little of society, and was frightened in 
 view of the scenes before her, was brought to Berlin to be be- 
 trothed to the Crown Prince, whom she had never seen, of whom 
 she could not have heard any very favorable reports, and from 
 
142 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 whom she had never received one word of tenderness. The 
 . wreck of happiness of this young princess, which was borne so 
 meekly and uncomplainingly, is one of the saddest which history 
 records. Just before her arrival, Fritz wrote to his sister as fol- 
 lows. The letter was dated Berlin, March 6, 1732 : 
 
 "My dearest Sister, — Next Monday comes my betrothal, 
 which will be done just as yours was. The person in question 
 is neither beautiful nor ugly ; not wanting in sense, but very ill 
 brought up, timid, and totally behind in fashionable address. 
 That is the candid portrait of the princess. You may judge by 
 that, my dearest sister, if I find her to my taste or not. 
 
 " You never can believe, my adorable sister, how concerned I 
 am about your happiness. All my wishes centre there, and every 
 moment of my life I form such wishes. You may see by this 
 that I preserve still that sincere friendship which has united our 
 hearts from our tenderest years. Recognize at least, my dear 
 sister, that you did me a sensible wrong when you suspected me 
 of fickleness toward you, and believed false reports of my listen- 
 ing to tale-bearers — me, who love only you, and whom neither 
 absence nor lying rumors could change in respect of you. At 
 least, don't again believe such things on my score, and never mis- 
 trust me till you have had clear proof, or till God has forsaken 
 me, or I have lost my wits. 
 
 " Your most humble brother and servant, 
 
 " Frederick." 
 
 The betrothal took place in the Berlin palace on Monday 
 evening, March 10, 1732. Many distinguished guests from for- 
 eign courts were present. The palace was brilliantly illumin- 
 ated. The Duke and Duchess of Bevern, with their son, had ac- 
 companied their daughter Elizabeth to Berlin. The youthful 
 pair, who were now to be betrothed only, not married, stood in 
 the centre of the grand saloon, surrounded by the brilliant assem- 
 blage. With punctilious observance of court etiquette, they ex- 
 changed rings, and plighted their mutual faith. The old king 
 embraced the bride tenderly. The queen-mother, hoping that 
 the marriage would never take place, saluted her with repulsive 
 coldness. And, worst of all, the prince himself scarcely treated 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 143 
 
 THE BETROTHAL. 
 
 her with civility. The sufferings of this lovely princess must 
 have been terrible. The testimony to her beauty, her virtues, 
 her amiable character, is uncontradicted. The following well- 
 merited tribute to her worth is from the pen of Lord Dover : 
 
 " Elizabeth Christina, who became the wife of Frederick the 
 Great, was a princess adorned with all the virtues which most 
 dignify human nature; religious, benevolent, charitable, affec- 
 
144 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 tionate, of the strictest and most irreproachable conduct herself, 
 yet indulgent and forgiving for the faults of others. Her whole 
 life was passed in fulfilling the circle of her duties, and, above 
 all, in striving without ceasing to act in the way she thought 
 would be most pleasing to her husband, whom she respected, ad- 
 mired, and even loved, in spite of his constant neglect of her." 
 
 Baron Bielfeld, a member of the court, thus describes her per- 
 sonal appearance : " Her royal highness is tall of stature, and 
 her figure is perfect. Never have I seen a more regular shape 
 in all its proportions. Her neck, her hands, and her feet might, 
 serve as models to the painter. Her hair, which I have particu- 
 larly admired, is of a most beautiful flaxen, but somewhat inclin- 
 ing to white, and shines, when not powdered, like rows of pearls. 
 Her complexion is remarkably fine ; and in her large blue eyes 
 vivacity and sweetness are so happily blended as to make them 
 perfectly animated. 
 
 "The princess has an open countenance; her eyebrows are 
 neat and regular ; her nose is small and angular, but very ele- 
 gantly defined; and her coral lips and well-turned neck are 
 equally admirable. Goodness is strongly marked in her coun- 
 tenance ; and we may say, from her whole figure, that the Graces 
 have exerted themselves in forming a great princess. Her high- 
 ness talks but little, especially at table, but all she says is ster- 
 ling sense. She appears to have an uncommon genius, which 
 she ornaments by the continual study of the best French au- 
 thors." 
 
 The reception of the princess was so cruel, by Queen Sophie 
 and her younger daughter Charlotte, that the inexperienced 
 maiden of but seventeen summers must have been perfectly 
 wretched. But she could only bear her anguish in* silence. 
 There was nothing for her to say, and nothing for her to do. She 
 was led, by resistless powers, a victim to the sacrifice. 
 
 About three weeks after this sad betrothal, Fritz wrote to his 
 sister Wilhelmina, under date of Berlin, March 24, 1732, as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " God be praised, my dearest sister, that you are better. No- 
 body can love you more tenderly than I do. As to the Princess 
 of Bevern, the queen bids me answer that you need not style her 
 1 Highness,' but that you may write to her quite as to an indif- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 145 
 
 ferent princess. As to ' kissing the hands,' I assure you I have 
 not kissed thern nor will kiss them. They are not pretty enough 
 to tempt me that way. 
 
 " Believe, my charming sister, that never brother in the world 
 loved with such tenderness a sister so charming as mine." 
 
 The betrothed princess, bewildered, wounded, heart-broken, 
 returned with her parents to her home, there to await the con- 
 summation of her sacrifice by being married to a..man who had 
 never addressed to her a loving word, and who, in his heart, had 
 resolved never to receive her as his wife. The Crown Prince, un- 
 feeling and reckless, returned to his dissolute life in garrison at 
 Kuppin. The queen continued an active correspondence with 
 England, still hoping to break the engagement of her son with 
 Elizabeth, and to secure for him the Princess Amelia. 
 
 Ruppin, where the Crown Prince continued to reside for sev- 
 eral years, was a small, dull town of about two thousand inhab- 
 itants. The only life it exhibited was found in the music and 
 drillings of the garrison. The only important event in its his- 
 tory was the removal of the Crown Prince there. Of what is 
 called society there was none. The hamlet was situated in the 
 midst of a flat, marshy country, most of it quite uncultivated. 
 The region abounded in peat bogs, and dark, still lakes, well 
 stocked with fish. 
 
 A comfortable house, with garden and summer-house, was pro- 
 vided for the Crown Prince. He occasionally gave a dinner- 
 party to his brother officers ; and from the summer-house rock- 
 ets were thrown into the sky, to the great gratification of the 
 rustic peasantry. 
 
 Both father and son had become by this time fully satisfied 
 that their tastes and characters were so different that it was not 
 best for them to live near each other. The prince spent much 
 of his time with his flute. He also engaged in quite a wide 
 range of reading to occupy the listless hours. Works of the 
 most elevated and instructive character especially interested him, 
 such as history, biography, moral and intellectual philosophy, 
 and polite literature in its higher branches of poetry and the 
 drama. " What mankind have done and been in this world," 
 writes Carlyle, " and what the wisest men, poetical or other, have 
 thought about mankind and their world, this is what he evi- 
 
 K 
 
146 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 dently had the appetite for — appetite insatiable, which lasted 
 him to the very end of his days." 
 
 It is unquestionable that the mental discipline acquired by 
 this elevated course, to which he consecrated so diligently his 
 hours, prepared him for the wonderful career upon which he 
 soon entered, and enabled him to act with efficiency which filled 
 Europe with his renown. 
 
 It appears, moreover, that Fritz devoted himself very assidu- 
 ously to his military duties, earnestly studying the art of war, 
 and making himself familiar with the achievements of the most 
 renowned commanders. His frugal father allowed him but a 
 very meagre income for a prince — not above four thousand five 
 hundred dollars a year. With this sum it was scarcely possible 
 to keep up even the appearance of such an establishment as be- 
 longed to his rank. Such glimpses as we get of his moral and 
 social developments during this period are not favorable. He 
 paid no respect to the claims of religion, and was prone to revile 
 Christianity and its advocates. He was particularly annoyed 
 if the chaplain uttered, in his sermons, any sentiments which the 
 prince thought had a bearing against the sensual indulgences 
 and the wild amusements of himself and his companions. On 
 one occasion the chaplain said in his sermon, " There was Her- 
 od, who had Herodias to dance before him, and he gave her 
 John the Baptist's head for her pains." 
 
 The prince assumed to make a personal application of this. 
 Herod meant the Crown Prince ; Herodias, his boon companions'; 
 and John the Baptist was the chaplain. To punish the offender, 
 the prince, with several brother officers, went at night, smashed 
 the windows of the chaplain, and threw in a shower of fire-crack- 
 ers upon him and his wife, who was in delicate healthy driving 
 them in dismay out into the stable-yard. The stern old king 
 was very indignant at this conduct. Grumkow affirms, we hope 
 falsely, that the prince threw the whole charge upon his asso- 
 ciate officers, and that they were punished for the deed, while he 
 escaped. 
 
 Thus the summer of 1732 passed away. In November Wil- 
 helmina returned from Baireuth to Berlin on a visit. She re- 
 mained at home for ten months, leaving her babe, Frederica, at 
 Baireuth. There must have been some urgent reason to have 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 147 
 
 induced her to make this long visit, for her reception, by both 
 father and mother, was far from cordial. Neither of them had 
 been really in favor of the match with the young prospective 
 Margraf of Baireuth, but had yielded to it from the force of cir- 
 cumstances. The journey to Berlin was long and cold. Her 
 mother greeted her child with the words, "What do you want 
 here? What is a mendicant like you come hither for?" The 
 next day her father, who had been upon a journey, came home. 
 His daughter had been absent for two years. And yet this 
 strange father addressed her in the following cruel and sarcastic 
 words : 
 
 "Ah ! here you are. I am glad to see you." Then, taking a 
 light, he carefully examined her from head to foot. After a mo- 
 ment's silence, he added, " How changed you are ! I am sorry 
 for you, on my word. You have not bread to eat, and but for 
 me you might go a-begging. I am a poor man myself; not able 
 to give you much ; will do what I can. I will give you now 
 and then twenty or thirty shillings, as my affairs permit. It will 
 always be something to assuage your want. And you, madam," 
 turning to the queen, " will sometimes give her an old dress, for 
 the poor child hasn't a shift to her back." 
 
 This merciless banter from her parents cut the unhappy prin- 
 cess to the heart. With the utmost difficulty she refrained from 
 bursting into convulsive crying. Her husband seems to have 
 been a kind man, inspired with true and tender affection for his 
 wife. But much of the time he was necessarily absent on regi- 
 mental duty. The old Marquis of Baireuth, her husband's fa- 
 ther, was penurious, irascible, and an inebriate. Wilhelmina often 
 suffered for the necessaries of life. There seemed to be no refuge 
 for her. The home of her step-parents was unendurable, and 
 the home of her childhood was still more so. Few and far be- 
 tween must have been the joys which visited her crushed heart. 
 
 A few days after her arrival at Berlin, Fritz, on short leave of 
 absence, ran over from Ruppin, and had a brief interview with 
 his sister, whom he had not seen since her marriage. The royal 
 family supped together, with the exception of the king, who was 
 absent. At the table the conversation turned upon the future 
 princess royal, Elizabeth. The queen said, addressing Wilhel- 
 mina, and fixing her eyes on Fritz, 
 
148 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 "Your brother is in despair at the idea of marrying her. And 
 he is not wrong. She is an actual fool. She can only answer 
 whatever is said to her by yes or no, accompanied by a silly 
 laugh, which is painful to hear." ^—^__^ 
 
 Charlotte added, in terms still more bitter and unpardonable, 
 "Your majesty is not yet aware of all her merit. I was one 
 morning at her toilet. I remarked that she is deformed. Her 
 gown is stuffed on one side, and she has one hip higher than the 
 other." The cruel girl even went so far as to accuse the prin- 
 cess of suffering from loathsome ulcers. This discourse was ut- 
 tered in a loud voice, in presence of the domestics. Fritz was 
 evidently greatly annoyed, and blushed deeply, but said noth- 
 ing. Immediately after supper he retired. Wilhelrnina soon fol- 
 lowed him, and they met again privately in Wilhelmina's room. 
 The princess asked her brother how he was now getting along 
 with his father. He replied, 
 
 " My situation changes every moment. Sometimes I am in fa- 
 vor, sometimes in disgrace. My chief happiness consists in my 
 being absent from him. I lead a quiet and tranquil life with 
 my regiment at Kuppin. Study and music are my principal oc- 
 cupations. I have built me a house there, and laid out a garden 
 where I can read and walk about." 
 
 "Then," writes Wilhelmina, "as to his bride, I begged him to 
 tell me candidly if the portrait the queen and my sister had been 
 making of her were the true one." 
 
 " We are alone," Fritz replied, " and I will conceal nothing from 
 you. The queen, by her miserable intrigues, has been the source 
 of our misfortunes. Scarcely were you gone when she began 
 again with England. She wished to substitute our sister Char- 
 lotte for you, and to contrive her marriage with the Prince of 
 Wales. 
 
 "You may easily imagine that she used every endeavor for 
 the success of her plan, and also to marry me to the English 
 Princess Amelia. The king was informed of this design from 
 its commencement. He was much nettled at these fresh in- 
 trigues, which have caused many quarrels between the queen 
 and him. Seckendorf finally took part in the affair, and coun- 
 seled the king to make an end of all these plans by concluding 
 my marriage with the Princess of Bevern. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 149 
 
 " The queen can not console herself for this reverse. She vents 
 her despair in the abuse of that poor princess. She wanted me 
 to refuse the marriage decidedly, and told me that she should 
 not mind my quarreling again with the king provided I would 
 only show firmness, in which case she would be well able to 
 support me. I would not follow her advice, and declared to her 
 plainly that I did not choose to incur the displeasure of my fa- 
 ther, which had already caused me so much suffering. 
 
 "With regard to the princess herself, I do not dislike her as 
 much as I pretend. I affect not to be able to bear her, in order 
 to make the more merit of my obedience to the king. She is 
 pretty — a complexion of lily and rose. Her features are deli- 
 cate, and her whole face is that of a beautiful person. She has 
 no breeding, and dresses ill. But I flatter myself that when she 
 comes here you will have the goodness to assist in forming her. 
 I recommend her to you, my dear sister ; and I hope you will 
 take her under your protection." 
 
 On Monday, the 8th of June, 1733, the Crown Prince left Kup- 
 pin, and, joining his father and mother, set out, with a suitable 
 retinue, for the ducal palace of Salzdahlum, in Brunswick, where 
 the marriage ceremony was to be solemnized. Fritz was twen- 
 ty-one years of age. Elizabeth was not quite eighteen. The 
 wedding took place at noon of Friday, the 12th, in the beautiful 
 chapel of the palace, with the usual display of splendor and re- 
 joicing. The mansion, situated a few miles from Wolfenbiittel, 
 was renowned for its gardens and picture-galleries, and was con- 
 sidered one of the finest in Europe. 
 
 The ceremony was performed by the Keverend Johann Lorenz 
 Mosheim, favorably known throughout Christendom for his treat- 
 ise upon Ecclesiastical History. Immediately after the nuptial 
 benediction had been pronounced, Fritz wrote as follows to Wil- 
 li elniin a : 
 
 " Salzdahlum, Noon, June 12, 1 733. 
 
 " My dear Sister, — A minute since the whole ceremony was 
 finished. God be praised, it is over. I hope you will take it as 
 a mark of my friendship that I give you the first news of it. I 
 hope that I shall have the honor to see you again soon, and to 
 assure you, my dear sister, that I am wholly yours. I write in 
 great haste, and add nothing that is merely formal. Adieu. 
 
 " Frederick." 
 
150 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 The queen behaved very unainiably, " plunged in black melan- 
 choly," and treating her new daughter-in-law with great con- 
 tempt. There have been many sad weddings, but this was surely 
 one of the saddest. Frederick had often declared that he never 
 would receive the princess as his wife. In the evening, just after 
 the newly-married couple had retired to their room, through the 
 arrangement of the prince, a false alarm of fire was raised by 
 some of his friends. This furnished him with the opportunity 
 to rush from the apartment. He did not return. Ever after 
 he saw the princess but unfrequently, treating her with cold po- 
 liteness when they met, though on public occasions giving her, 
 with all external forms of civility, the position of honor to which, 
 as his wedded wife, she was entitled. 
 
 It was apparently easy for the Crown Prince to relinquish 
 Amelia. But the English princess, being very unhappy at home, 
 had fixed her affections upon Frederick with the most romantic 
 tenderness. In beauty of person, in chivalric reputation, in ex- 
 alted rank, he was every thing an imaginative maiden could have 
 desired. She regarded him probably as, in heart, true to her. 
 He had often sent his protestations to the English court that he 
 would never marry any one but Amelia. Though the marriage 
 ceremony had been performed with Elizabeth, he recognized only 
 its legal tie. Poor Amelia was heart-crushed. Earth had no lon- 
 ger any joys for her. She never married, but wore the miniature 
 of the prince upon her breast for the rest of her days. We have 
 no record of the weary years during which grief was consuming 
 her life. Her eyelids became permanent^ swollen with weep- 
 ing. And when, at the age of sixty, she died, the miniature of 
 the Crown Prince was still found resting upon her true and faith- 
 ful heart. Amelia and Elizabeth — how sad their fate ! Through 
 no fault of their own, earth was to them both truly a vale of 
 tears. The only relief from the contemplation of the terrible 
 tragedies of earth is found in the hope that the sufferers may 
 find compensation in a heavenly home. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 16th, the King and Queen of Prussia left 
 Salzdahlum to return to Potsdam. At the close of the week 
 the Crown Prince and his bride, escorted by a brilliant retinue 
 of Brunswick notabilities, set out on their return. In most of 
 the intervening towns they were received with great pomp. On 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 151 
 
 the 27th, the last day of the next week, the bridal pair had a 
 grand entrance into Berlin. The troops were all out upon pa- 
 rade. The clang of bells, the roar of cannon, and peals of mar- 
 tial music filled the air. All the inhabitants of Berlin and the 
 surrounding region were in the streets, which were spanned by 
 triumj3hal arches, and garlanded with flowers. Gladly would 
 the princess have exchanged all this for one loving word from 
 her husband. But that word was not uttered. Two days be- 
 fore the grand reception at Berlin the princess arrived at Pots- 
 dam. Here Wilhelmina, for the first time, met her cruelly- 
 wronged and heart-crushed sister-in-law. In the following terms 
 she describes the interview : 
 
 " The king led the princess into the queen's apartment. Then 
 seeing, after she had saluted us all, that she was much heated 
 and her hair deranged, he bade my brother take her to her own 
 room. I followed them thither. My brother said to her, intro- 
 ducing me, 
 
 " ' This is a sister I adore, and to whom I am obliged beyond 
 measure. She has the goodness to promise me that she will 
 take care of you and help you with her good counsel. I wish 
 you to respect her beyond even the king and queen, and not to 
 take the least step without her advice. Do you understand V 
 
 " I embraced the Princess Royal," Wilhelmina continues, " and 
 gave her every assurance of my attachment. But she remained 
 like a statue, not answering a word. Her people not being come, 
 I arranged her hair and readjusted her dress a little, without the 
 least sign of thanks or any answer to all my caressings. My 
 brother got impatient at last, and said aloud, 
 
 " ' Devil's in the blockhead ! Thank my sister, then V 
 
 "She made me a courtesy on the model of that of Agnes in 
 the Ecole des Femmes. I took her back to the queen's apart- 
 ment, little edified by such a display of talent." 
 
 It is probable that the princess, in the strangeness of her po- 
 sition, very young and inexperienced, and insulted by cruel neg- 
 lect, in the freshness of her great grief dared not attempt to ut- 
 ter a syllable, lest her voice should break in uncontrollable sob- 
 bings. The Crown Prince returned to Ruppin, leaving the prin- 
 cess at Berlin. Charles, the heir-apparent to the ducal crown 
 of Brunswick, and brother of the Princess Elizabeth, about a 
 
152 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 week after the arrival of the princess in Berlin, was married to 
 Fritz's sister Charlotte — that same wicked Charlotte who had 
 flirted with Wilhelmina's intended, and who had so shamelessly 
 slandered the betrothed of her brother. Several fetes followed 
 these marriages, with the nsual concomitants of enjoyment and 
 * disappointment. Wilhelmina thns describes one of them : 
 
 * The next day there was a great promenade. We were all 
 in phaetons, dressed out in our best. All the nobility followed 
 in carriages, of which there were eighty-five. The king, in a Ber- 
 ime, led the procession. He had beforehand ordered the round 
 we were to take, and very soon fell asleep. There came on a 
 tremendous storm of wind and rain, in spite of which we contin- 
 ued Our procession at a foot's pace. It may easily be imagined 
 what state we were in. We were as wet as if we had been in 
 the river. Our hair hung about our ears, and our gowns and 
 head-dresses were destroyed. We got out at last, after three 
 hours' rain, at Monbijou, where there was to be a great illumina- 
 tion and ball. I never saw any thing so comical as all these la- 
 dies, looking like so many Xantippes, with their dresses sticking 
 to their persons. We could not even dry ourselves, and were 
 obliged to remain all the evening in our wet clothes." 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DEVELOPMENTS OF CHARACTER. 
 
 The Castle at Reinsberg. — Slender Purses of Fritz and Wilhelmina. — Liberality of Fritz. — The 
 Ball at Monbijou. — Adventures of Fritz and Wilhelmina. — Letters. — The Interview. — Anec- 
 dote of the King. — Wimelmina's Account of her Brother. — Mental and Physical Maladies 
 of the King. — Frederick's cruel Neglect of his Wife. — Daily Habits of the young Prince. — 
 The shameful Carousal. 
 
 About six miles from Ruppin there was the village of Reins- 
 berg, containing about one thousand inhabitants, clustered around 
 an ancient dilapidated castle. Frederick was with his regiment 
 in Ruppin. The Princess Royal, his wife, resided in Berlin. 
 There was an ostensible reason for this separation in the fact 
 that there was no suitable mansion for the royal couple at Rup- 
 pin. The castle, with its extensive grounds, belonged to a French 
 refugee. The king purchased it, and assigned it to his son. As 
 the whole estate was in a condition of extreme dilapidation, 
 Frederick immediately commenced improvements and repairs. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 153 
 
 The building, the gardens, the forests, and the surrounding lands 
 rapidly assumed a new aspect, until Reinsberg became one of 
 the most attractive spots in Europe. 
 
 The situation of the castle was admirable. A beautiful sheet 
 of water bathed its walls on one side, while a dense forest of 
 oaks and beeches rose like an amphitheatre upon the other. 
 The whole edifice assumed the form of a square, with two tow- 
 ers connected by a double colonnade, richly ornamented with 
 vases and statuary. Over the majestic portal was inscribed the 
 motto, Frederico, tranquillitatem colenti* The interior of the 
 palace, in the magnitude and arrangement of the apartments, 
 their decoration and furniture, was still more imposing than the 
 exterior. The grand saloon was a superb hall, the walls lined 
 with mirrors and costly marbles, and the ceiling painted by the 
 most accomplished artists of the day. The garden, with its ave- 
 nues, and bowers, and labyrinth of bloom, extended the whole 
 length of the lake, upon whose waters two beautiful barges float- 
 ed, ever ready, under the impulse of sails or oars, to convey par- 
 ties on excursions of pleasure. 
 
 This immense building presented a front of nearly a thousand 
 feet ; for, being in a quadrangular form, it fronted four ways. It 
 was all faced with hammered stone. In one of the towers this 
 bachelor husband constructed his library. It was a magnificent 
 apartment, provided with every convenience, and decorated with 
 the most tasteful adornments which the arts could furnish. Its 
 windows commanded an enchanting prospect of the lake, with 
 its tufted islands and the densely wooded heights beyond. 
 
 The apartments prepared for the Princess Royal were also very 
 magnificent. Her parlor was twenty feet high. It had six win- 
 dows, three opening in the main front toward the town, and the 
 other three opening toward the interior court. The spaces be- 
 tween the windows were covered with immense mirrors, so ar- 
 ranged as to display the ceiling, beautifully painted by one of 
 the finest artists of the day. The artist had spread his colors 
 with such delicacy and skill, so exquisitely blending light and 
 shade, that the illusion was almost perfect. The spectator felt 
 that the real sky, with its fleecy clouds and infinite depth of 
 blue, overarched him. 
 
 * To Frederick cultivating tranquillity. 
 
154 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Three years were occupied in enlarging and decorating this 
 palace. In the mean time the Princess Elizabeth resided in Ber- 
 lin, or in a small country house provided for her at Schonhausen. 
 The Crown Prince occasionally visited her, always treating her 
 with the marked respect due a lady occupying her high position. 
 
 The king was by no means pleased with the costly luxuries 
 with which his son was surrounding himself. But he had, in a 
 very considerable degree, lost his control over the Crown Prince. 
 Frederick was now twenty-one years of age. He had married 
 the niece of the Emperor of Germany. The emperor had proba- 
 bly once saved his life, and was disposed particularly to befriend 
 him, that he might secure his alliance when he should become 
 King of Prussia. Frederick was now the rising sun, and his fa- 
 ther the setting luminary. All the courts in Europe were inter- 
 ested in winning the regards of the Crown Prince. 
 
 The king, as we have mentioned, allotted to his son a very 
 moderate income, barely enough for the necessary expenses of 
 his establishment. But the prince borrowed money in large 
 sums from the Empress of Germany, from Russia, from England. 
 It was well known that, should his life be preserved, he would 
 soon have ample means to repay the loan. Frederick William 
 probably found it expedient to close his eyes against these trans- 
 actions. But he did not attempt to conceal the chagrin with 
 which he regarded the literary and voluptuous tastes of his son. 
 
 " When I am dead," he said, petulantly, " you will see Berlin 
 full of madmen and freethinkers, and the sort of people who 
 walk about the streets." 
 
 Wilhelmina's purse was generally empty, and she was often in 
 great want of money. Her penurious father had married her 
 below her rank that he might escape settling upon her a dowry. 
 Though her husband was heir to the marquisate of Baireuth, his 
 father was still liying. That father was a drunkard and a miser. 
 It seems that the son received but little more than his wages as 
 colonel in the army. Wilhelmina records that one day her 
 brother Fritz came to her and said, 
 
 "Seckendorf" (the embassador of the emperor) "sometimes 
 sends me money, of which I have great need. I have already 
 taken measures that he should procure some for you. My gal- 
 leons arrived yesterday, and I will divide their contents with you." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 155 
 
 He then gave her a thousand crowns. Wilhelmina manifest- 
 ed a little natural reluctance in receiving the money. But he 
 shrugged his shoulders and said, 
 
 "Take them freely. The empress sends me as much money 
 as I wish. I assure you that by this means I get rid of the de- 
 mon of poverty as soon as I find him approaching me." 
 
 " The empress, then," added Wilhelmina, u is a better exorcist 
 .than other priests." 
 
 "Yes," the Crown Prince replied; "and I promise you that 
 she will drive away your demon as well as mine." 
 
 Poland, ever in turmoil, was at this time choosing a king. 
 The emperor advocated the claims of August of Saxony. France 
 urged Stanislaus, a Polish noble, whose daughter had married 
 the French dauphin. War ensued between France and Ger- 
 many. Frederick William became the ally of the emperor. An 
 army of ten thousand men, admirably equipped and organized, 
 was upon the march for the Rhine, to act with the emperor 
 against France. The Crown Prince was very eager to join the 
 expedition, and obtained permission to do so. 
 
 On the evening of the 29th of June, 1734, there was a grand 
 ball at the little palace of Monbijou. At three o'clock in the 
 morning the Crown Prince changed his ball-dress for a military 
 suit, and with his staff set out at full speed for the seat of war. 
 They traveled in carriages, by post, night and day, hastening to 
 take part in the siege of Philipsburg. A little after midnight 
 on the morning of the 2d of July, they reached Hof, having trav- 
 eled two hundred miles, and having two hundred miles still far- 
 ther to go. At Hof the prince was within thirty-five miles of 
 Baireuth, to which place Wilhelmina had some time before re- 
 turned. He was very anxious to see her. But his father had 
 strictly prohibited his going through Baireuth, under the as- 
 sumption that it would occasion loss of time. Frederick made 
 arrangements with Wilhelmina, who was in a very delicate state 
 of health, to meet him at Berneck, about twelve miles from Bai- 
 reuth. But, unfortunately, one of the carriages which conveyed 
 the Crown Prince and his companions lost a wheel, which de- 
 tained them several hours. The commands of the king were ex- 
 plicit that the Crown Prince should not be separated from the 
 rest of the company. 
 
156 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Thus Wilhelniina, upon reaching Berneck, according to ap- 
 pointment, did not find her brother there, and could hear noth- 
 ing from him. The prince, upon his arrival at Hof, wrote as fol- 
 lows to his sister 
 
 " Hof, July 2, 1734, not long after 4 A.M. 
 
 " My dear Sister, — Here I am, within six leagues of a sister 
 I love, and I have to decide that it will be impossible to see her 
 after all. I have never so lamented the misfortune of not de- 
 pending on myself as at this moment. The king being very sour 
 sweet on my score, I dare not risk the least thing. A week from 
 next Monday, when he arrives himself, I should be queerly treat- 
 ed in the camp if I were found to have disobeyed orders. 
 
 "The queen commands me to give you a thousand regards 
 from her. She appeared much affected at your illness. But I 
 can not warrant you how sincere it was, for she is totally changed, 
 and I no longer comprehend her. She has done me all the hurt 
 with the king she could. As to Sophie, she is no longer the 
 same. She approves all the king says or does, and is charmed 
 with her big clown of a bridegroom. 
 
 "The king is more difficult than ever. He is content with 
 nothing. He has no gratitude for whatever favors one can do 
 him. As to his health, it is one day better, another worse ; but 
 the legs they are always swelled. Judge what my joy must be 
 to get out of that turpitude ; for the king will only stay a fort- 
 night at most in camp. 
 
 " Adieu ! my adorable sister. I am so tired I can not stir, 
 having left on Tuesday night, or rather Wednesday morning, at 
 three o'clock, from a ball at Monbijou, and arrived here this Fri- 
 day morning at four. I recommend myself to your gracious re- 
 membrance, and am, for my own part, till death, dearest sister, 
 your Frederick." 
 
 In the mean time, Wilhelmina, disappointed in not finding her 
 brother, wrote to him the following account of her adventures : 
 
 "I got to Berneck at ten. The heat was excessive; I found 
 myself quite worn out with the little journey I had taken. I 
 alighted air the house which had been got ready for my brother. 
 We waited for him, and in vain waited till three in the after- 
 noon. At three we lost patience; had dinner served without 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 157 
 
 him. While we were at table there came on a frightful thun- 
 der-storm. I have witnessed nothing so terrible. The thunder 
 roared and reverberated among the rocky cliffs which begirdle 
 Berneck, and it seemed as if the world were going to perish. A 
 deluge of rain succeeded the thunder. 
 
 " It was four o'clock, and I could not understand what had 
 become of my brother. I had sent out several persons on horse- 
 back to get tidings of him, and none of them came back. At 
 length, in spite of all my prayers, the hereditary prince* himself 
 would go in search. I was in cruel agitations. These cataracts 
 of rain are very dangerous in the mountain countries. The roads 
 get suddenly overflowed, and accidents often happen. I thought 
 for certain one had happened to my brother, or to the hereditary 
 prince. 
 
 " At last, about nine, somebody brought word that my broth- 
 er had changed his route and gone to Culmbach, there to stay 
 overnight. I was for setting out thither. Culmbach is twenty 
 miles from Berneck. But the roads are frightful, and full of 
 precipices. Every body rose in opposition. And whether I 
 would or not they put me into the carriage for Himmelkron, 
 which is only about ten miles off. We had like to have got 
 drowned on the road, the waters were so swollen. The horses 
 could not cross but by swimming. 
 
 " I arrived at last about one in the morning. I instantly threw 
 myself on a bed. I was like to die of weariness, and in mortal 
 terror that something had happened to my brother or the hered- 
 itary prince. The latter relieved me on his own score. He ar- 
 rived at last about four o'clock ; had still no news of my broth- 
 er. I was beginning to doze a little, when they came to inform 
 me that M. von Knobelsdorf wished to speak to me from the 
 Prince Royal. I darted out of bed and ran to him." 
 
 Knobelsdorf was the bearer of a second letter from the Crown 
 Prince. The first had not reached her. Frederick, having taken 
 an hour or two of sleep at Hof, rose much refreshed, and, contin- 
 uing his journey about fifteen miles farther, wrote this second 
 letter as follows to his sister : 
 
 "Munchberg, July 2, 173-1. 
 
 My dearest Sister, — I am in despair that I can not satisfy 
 
 * Her husband. 
 
158 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 my impatience and my duty, to throw myself at your feet this 
 day. But, alas ! dear sister, it does not depend upon me. We 
 poor princes are obliged to wait here till our generals come up. 
 We dare not go along without them. They broke a wheel in 
 Gera. Hearing nothing of them since, we are absolutely forced 
 to wait here. Judge in what a mood I am, and what sorrow 
 must be mine. Express order not to go by Baireuth or Anspach. 
 Forbear, dear sister, to torment me on things not depending on 
 myself at all. 
 
 " I waver between hope and fear of paying my court to you. 
 I ho]3e it might still be at Berneck, if you could contrive a road 
 into the Niirnberg highway again, avoiding Baireuth ; other- 
 wise I dare not go. The bearer, Captain Knobelsdorf, will ap- 
 prise you of every particular. Let him settle something that 
 may be possible. This is how I stand at present: instead of 
 having to expect some favor from the king, I get nothing but 
 chagrin. But what is more cruel upon me than all is that you 
 are ill. God, in his grace, be pleased to help you, and restore 
 that health which I so much wish for you. Frederick." 
 
 Arrangements were made for them to meet at eight o'clock 
 Saturday morning, at the Lake House, situated on a small island 
 in a beautiful artificial sheet of water a couple of miles north of 
 Baireuth. The prince thus obeyed the letter of the order not 
 to go to Baireuth. The following account of the interview which 
 ensued is from the pen of Wilhelmina : 
 
 " My brother overwhelmed me with caresses, but found me 
 in so pitiable a state that he could not restrain his tears. I was 
 not able to stand on my limbs, and felt like to faint every mo- 
 ment, so weak was I. He told me that the king was very angry 
 at the margraf for not letting his son make the campaign. I 
 told him all the margraf s reasons, and added surely they were 
 good, in respect of my dear husband. 
 
 " ' Well,' said he, ' let him quit soldiering then, and give back 
 his regiment to the king. But quiet yourself as to the fears you 
 may have about him if he do; for I know, by certain informa- 
 tion, that there will be no blood spilt,' 
 
 " The hereditary prince came in while we were talking, and 
 earnestly entreated my brother to get him away from Baireuth. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 159 
 
 FREDERICK AND WILHELMINA. 
 
 They went to a window and talked a long time together. My 
 brother told me he would write a letter to the margraf, and give 
 him such reasons in favor of the campaign that he doubted not 
 it would turn the scale. He promised to obtain the king's ex- 
 press leave to stop at Baireuth on his return, after which he went 
 away. It was the last time I saw him on the old footing with 
 me. He has much changed since then. We returned to Bai- 
 
160 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 reuth, where I was so ill that for three days they did not think 
 I should get over it." 
 
 After this interview the Crown Prince hurried away on his 
 route to Philipsburg. He reached Nurnberg that night, where . 
 he wrote the following brief but affectionate letter to his sister: 
 
 "Nurnberg, July 3, 1734. 
 
 " My very dear Sister, — It would be impossible to leave 
 this place without signifying, dearest sister, my lively gratitude 
 for all the marks of favor you showed me in the House on the 
 Lake. The highest of all that it was possible to do was that 
 of procuring me the satisfaction of paying my court to you. I 
 beg millions of pardons for so incommoding you, dearest sister, 
 but I could not help it, for you know my sad circumstances well 
 enough. I entreat you write me often about your health. Adieu, 
 my incomparable and dear sister. I am always the same to you, 
 and will remain so till my death. Frederick." 
 
 Early on the morning of the 4th the prince left Nurnberg, and 
 reached the camp at Weisenthal on the 7th. Here the imperial 
 and Prussian troops were collected, who had been sent to attempt 
 to raise the siege of Philipsburg. But the French lines invest- 
 ing the city were so strong that Prince Eugene, in command of 
 the imperial army, did not venture to make an attack. The 
 Crown Prince almost immediately rode out to reconnoitre the 
 lines of the foe. As he was returning through a strip of forest 
 a cannonade was opened, and the balls went crashing around 
 him through the trees. Pride of character probably came to the 
 aid of constitutional courage. The prince did not in the slight- 
 est degree quicken his pace. Not the least tremor could be per- 
 ceived in his hand as he held the reins. He continued convers- 
 ing with the surrounding generals in perfect tranquillity, as if 
 unconscious of any danger. 
 
 A week after the arrival of the prince the Prussian king en- 
 tered the camp. As it was expected that some remarkable feats 
 of war would be exhibited in the presence of the king, under the 
 leadership of the renowned Prince Eugene, a very large assem- 
 blage of princes and other distinguished personages was collect- 
 ed on the field. The king remained for a month, dwelling in a 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 161 
 
 tent among his own troops, and sharing all their hardships. He, 
 with his son, attended all the councils of war. Still no attempt 
 was made to relieve Philipsburg. The third day after the king's 
 arrival the city surrendered to the French. The campaign con- 
 tinued for some time, with unavailing manoeuvring on both sides 
 of the Ehine ; but the Crown Prince saw but little active serv- 
 ice. About the middle of August the king left the camp to re- 
 turn home. His health was seriously impaired, and alarming 
 symptoms indicated that he had not long to live. His journey 
 was slow and painful. Gout tortured him. Dropsy threatened 
 to strangle him. He did not reach home until the middle of 
 September. The alarming state of the king's health added very 
 much to the importance of the Crown Prince. It was evident 
 that ere long he must come into power. The following charac- 
 teristic anecdote is related of the king during this illness : 
 
 One evenings being too unwell to read his usual devotions, he 
 called upon his valet de cliambre to read prayers. In the prayer 
 occurred the words, " May God bless thee." The servant, not 
 deeming it respectful to use thee in reference to the king, took 
 the liberty to change the phrase, and read it, " May God bless 
 you? The king, exasperated, hurled something at the head of 
 the speaker, exclaiming, " It is not so ; read it again." The ter- 
 rified servant, not conceiving in what he had done wrong, read 
 again, " May God bless you." The irascible monarch, having 
 nothing else he could grasp, took off his night-cap and threw it 
 into the man's face, exclaiming, " It is not so ; read it over again." 
 The servant, frightened almost out of his senses, read for the 
 third time, " May God bless you." " Thee, rogue," shouted the 
 king. " ' May God bless thee? Dost thou not know, rascal, that, 
 in the eyes of God, I am only a miserable rascal like thyself?" 
 
 Early in October, the Crown Prince, not socially or morally 
 improved by his campaigning, set out on his return to Berlin. 
 He was by no means insensible to the fact that the crown of 
 Prussia would soon rest upon his brow. On the 5th he called 
 again upon his sister at Baireuth. She was sick and very sad. 
 The following is Wilhelmina's account of the interview : 
 
 " My brother arrived on the 5th of October. He seemed to 
 me in ill humor. To break off conversation with me, he said that 
 he had to write to the king and queen. I ordered him pen and 
 
 L 
 
162 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 THE KING AND HIS SERVANT. 
 
 paper. He wrote in my room, and spent more than a good hour 
 in writing a couple of letters of a line or two each. He then 
 had all the court, one after another, introduced to him ; said 
 nothing to any of them ; looted merely with a mocking air at 
 them ; after which we went to dinner. 
 
 " Here his whole conversation consisted in quizzing whatever 
 he saw, and repeating to me, above a hundred times over, the 
 words ' little prince,' ' little court.' I was shocked, and could not 
 understand how he had changed so suddenly toward me. The 
 etiquette of all courts in the empire is, that nobody who has not 
 at least the rank of captain can sit at a prince's table. My 
 brother put a lieutenant there who was in his suite, saying, ' A 
 king's lieutenant is as good as a margraf 's minister.' I swallow- 
 ed this incivility, and showed no sign. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 163 
 
 " After dinner, being alone with me, he said, ' Our sire is ap- 
 proaching his end. He will not live out this month. I know 
 that I have made you great promises, but I am not in the condi- 
 tion to keep them. I will leave you the half of the sum which 
 my predecessor lent you. I think that you will have every rea- 
 son to be satisfied with that.' 
 
 " I answered that my regard for him had never been of an in- 
 terested nature ; that I would never ask any thing of him but 
 the continuance of his friendship ; and that I did not wish for 
 one penny if it would in the least inconvenience him. 
 
 " l No, no,' said he ; ' you shall have those one hundred thou- 
 sand thalers. I have destined them for you. People will be 
 much surprised to see me act quite differently from what they 
 had expected. They imagine I am going to lavish all my treas- 
 ures, and that money will become as common as pebbles in 
 Berlin. But they will find that I know better. I mean to in- 
 crease my army, and to leave all other things on the old footing. 
 I will have every consideration for the queen, my mother, and 
 will satiate her with honors. But I do not mean that she shall 
 meddle with my affairs. If she try it she will find so.' 
 
 " I fell from the clouds on hearing all that, and knew not if I 
 were sleeping or waking. He then questioned me on the affairs 
 of this country. I gave him the detail of them. He said to me, 
 'When your goose of a father-in-law dies, I advise you to break 
 up the whole court, and reduce yourselves to the footing of a 
 private gentleman's establishment in order to pay your debts. 
 In real truth, you have no need of so many people. And you 
 must try to reduce the wages of those whom you can not help 
 keeping. You have been accustomed to live, at Berlin, with a 
 table of four dishes. That is all you want here. I will invite 
 you now and then to Berlin, which will spare table and house 
 expenses.' 
 
 " For a long time my heart had been swelling. I could not 
 restrain my tears at hearing all these indignities. ' Why do you 
 cry?' said he. 'Ah ! ah ! I see that you are in low spirits. We 
 must dissipate that dark humor. The music waits us. I will 
 drive that fit out of you by an air or two on the flute.' He 
 gave me his hand and led me into the other room. I sat down 
 to the harpsichord, which I inundated with my tears." 
 
164 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 On the fourth day after the arrival of the Crown Prince at 
 Baireuth, a courier came with a letter from the queen conjuring 
 him to return immediately, as the king was growing worse and 
 worse. Frederick immediately hastened to Potsdam, and on 
 the 12th of October entered the sick-chamber of his father in the 
 palace there. He seems to have thought nothing of his wife, 
 who was at Berlin. We have no evidence that he wrote to her 
 during his absence, or that he visited her upon his return. For 
 four months the king remained a great sufferer in Potsdam, trem- 
 bling between life and death. It was often with great difficulty 
 that he could breathe. He was impatient and irritable in the 
 extreme. As he was rolled about in his Bath chair, he would 
 petulantly cry out, " Air ! air !" as if his attendants were to blame 
 for his shortness of breath. The distress from the dropsy was 
 very great. " If you roll the king a little fast," writes an attend- 
 ant, " you hear the water jumble in his body." The Crown 
 Prince was deeply affected in view of the deplorable condition 
 of his father, and wept convulsively. The stern old king was 
 stern to the end. He said one day to Frederick, "If you begin 
 at the wrong end with things, and all go topsy-turvy after I am 
 gone, I will laugh at you out of my grave." 
 
 Quite unexpectedly, the latter part of January the virulence 
 of the king's complicated diseases of gout, dropsy, and ulcers 
 seemed to abate. Though but forty-seven years of age, he was, 
 from his intemperate habits, an infirm old man. Though he lin- 
 gered along for many months, he was a great sufferer. His un- 
 amiability filled the palace with discomfort. 
 
 Frederick returned to Buppin. Though he treated his wife 
 with ordinary courtesy, as an honored member of the court, his 
 attentions were simply such as were due to every lady of the 
 royal household. It does not appear that she accompanied him 
 to Kuppin or to Reinsberg at that time, though the apartments 
 to which we have already alluded were subsequently provided 
 for her at Reinsberg, where she was ever treated with the most 
 punctilious politeness. Lord Dover says that after the.accession 
 of the prince to the throne he went to see his wife but once a 
 year, on her birthday. She resided most of the time at Berlin, 
 surrounded by a quiet little court there. However keen may 
 have been her sufferings in view of this cruel neglect, we have 
 
FREDEKICK THE GREAT. 
 
 165 
 
 no record that any word of complaint was ever heard to escape 
 her lips. "This poor Crown Princess, afterward queen," says 
 Carlyle, " has been heard, in her old age, reverting in a touching, 
 transient way to the glad days she had at Reinsberg. Com- 
 plaint openly was never heard of her in any kind of days ; but 
 these, doubtless, were the best of her life." 
 
 Frederick had become very ambitious of high intellectual cul- 
 ture and of literary renown. He gathered around him a numer- 
 ous class of scholarly men, and opened an extensive correspond- 
 ence with the most distinguished philosophers, poets, and histo- 
 rians all over Europe. He commenced and persevered in a course 
 of very rigorous study, rising at an early hour, and devoting the 
 unbroken morning to intellectual pursuits. The renowned men 
 of earth have not attained their renown but by untiring exer- 
 
 FRITZ IX HIS LIBRARY. 
 
166 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 tions. For six or seven consecutive hours every day the prince 
 was busy in his library, when no one was allowed to interrupt 
 him. He wrote to a friend about this time : 
 
 " Having been not quite well lately, my physician has advised 
 me to take more exercise than I have hitherto done. This has 
 obliged me to mount my horse and take a gallop every morning. 
 But, in order not to be obliged on that account to change my 
 ordinary way of life, I get up earlier, in order to regain on the 
 one hand what I lose on the other." 
 
 He rose about five o'clock. After a horseback ride of an hour 
 he devoted the mornings to his books. The remainder of the 
 day was given to society, music, and recreation. The following 
 extract from his correspondence throws additional light upon 
 the employment of his time. The letter was addressed to an 
 intimate friend, Baron Von Suhm, of Saxony : 
 
 " I think you will not be sorry if I say a few words to you re- 
 specting our rural amusements, for with persons who are dear 
 to us we love to enter even into the smallest details. We have 
 divided our occupations into two classes, of which the first con- 
 sists of what is useful, and the second of what is agreeable. I 
 reckon in the list of the usefuls the study of philosophy, history, 
 and languages. The agreeables are music, the tragedies and com- 
 edies which we represent, the masquerades and presents which 
 we give. The serious occupations, however, have always the 
 prerogative of going before the others. And I think I can say 
 that we make a reasonable use of our pleasures, only indulging 
 in them to relieve the mind, and to prevent moroseness and too 
 much philosophic gravity, which is apt not to yield a smile even 
 to the graces." 
 
 Again he wrote a few months after, while absent from home : 
 " I set off on the 25th to return to my dear garden at Kuppin. 
 I burn with impatience to see again my vineyards, my cherries, 
 and my melons. There, tranquil and free from all useless cares, 
 I shall live really for myself. I become every day more avari- 
 cious of my time, of which I render an account to myself, and 
 never lose any of it without much regret. My mind is now 
 wholly turned toward philosophy. That study renders me won- 
 derful services, which are repaid by me with affection. I find 
 myself happy because I am more tranquil than formerly. My 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 167 
 
 soul is much less agitated with violent and tumultuous emo- 
 tions. I suppress the first impulses of my passions, and do not 
 proceed to act upon them till after having well considered the 
 question before me." 
 
 Immediately after his return he wrote again: "I am now a 
 peaceable inhabitant of Reinsberg, applying myself to study and 
 reading almost from morning till night. With regard to the news 
 of this world, you w 7 ill learn them better through the gazetteers 
 than through me. They contain the history of the madness and 
 folly of the great, the wars of some, the quarrels of others, and 
 the childish amusements of all. These news are as little worthy 
 the attention of a man of sense as the quarrels of rats and mice 
 would be."* 
 
 The king was not at all pleased either with his son's studies 
 or his recreations. Philosophy and literature were as obnoxious 
 to the sturdy old monarch as were music and all amusements 
 save the rough pastime of hunting stags and boars. He was a 
 thorough materialist, having no other thought than to drill his 
 troops and develop the resources of his realm. Beer and tobac- 
 co, both of which he used inordinately, were almost his only lux- 
 uries. He often growled loudly at what he deemed the cox- 
 combry of his son and companions at Reinsberg, and frequently 
 threatened to disperse his associates. 
 
 But Frederick was now a full-grown man. His heirship to 
 the throne rendered him a power among the courts of Europe. 
 It was doubtful whether he would again submit to a caning. 
 The infirm old king, gouty, dropsical, weakened, and lamed by 
 ulcers, could not conceal from himself that his power, with his 
 energies, was rapidly waning. Indeed, at times, he even talked 
 of abdicating in favor of his son. Whenever there was a tran- 
 sient abatement in his maladies, he roused himself to the utmost, 
 took short journeys, and tried to deceive himself into the belief 
 that he was well again. 
 
 The principal companions of Frederick at Reinsberg were gay, 
 pleasure-loving men. Among them were Major Keyserling, a 
 thoughtless young man, full of vivacity, and of very agreeable 
 manners ; and M. Jordan, a French young gentleman, formerly a 
 
 * The above extracts are taken from CorrespondanceFamiliere et Amicale de Frederic II., 
 Roi de Prusse, avec U. F. de Suhm. 
 
168 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 preacher, very amiable, and an author of considerable note. M. 
 Jordan was devotedly attached to the prince, and continued so 
 through life. He gives the following testimony to the good qual- 
 ities of Frederick : 
 
 " It is not the king that I love in him ; it is the man. If I 
 considered the dignity and the power of the king, I should only 
 seek to keep myself at a distance from him. But the qualities 
 which are personal to him, both of the heart and of the head, 
 they attach me to him for life, without reserve and without 
 fear."* 
 
 Lieutenant Chasot, another of his friends, was a French offi- 
 cer who had killed a brother officer in a duel at Philipsburg, 
 and, in consequence, had fled to the Prussian lines. He had 
 brightness of intellect and winning manners, which rendered 
 him a universal favorite. Captain Knobelsdorf was a distin- 
 guished musician and architect. He rendered signal service in 
 enlarging and decorating the chateau at Reinsberg. Baron De 
 Suhm, with whom Frederick kept up a constant correspondence, 
 was then in Saxony, translating for the Crown Prince the philos- 
 ophy of Wolff. He sent the prince chapter by chapter, with co- 
 pious notes. 
 
 In this assembly of gay young men religion was generally a 
 topic of ridicule. Even Jordan, the ex-preacher, was either will- 
 ingly or unwillingly borne along by the current. Subsequent- 
 ly, when youth and health had fled, and he was on a sick-bed 
 suffering from lingering disease, he felt the need of those conso- 
 lations which Christianity alone can give. He wrote, under date 
 of April, 1745, to Frederick, who was then king, and whose 
 friendship continued unabated : 
 
 " My complaint increases so much that I no longer even hope 
 to recover from it. I feel strongly, in the situation in which I 
 at present find myself, the necessity of an enlightened religion 
 arising from conviction. Without that, we are the beings on 
 earth most to be pitied. Your majesty will, after my death, do 
 me the justice to testify that if I have combated superstition 
 with vehemence, I have always supported the interests of the 
 Christian religion, though differing from the ideas of some theo- 
 logians. As it is only possible when in danger to discover the 
 
 * Thibault, Souvenirs de Vingt Ans de Sejours a Berlin. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 169 
 
 necessity of bravery, so no one can really have the consoling ad- 
 vantage of religion except through sufferings." 
 
 It speaks well for Frederick that during this illness, which 
 was long and painful, he almost daily visited at the bedside of 
 his friend, ministering to his wants with his own hand. After 
 his death the king continued his kindness to the bereaved fam- 
 ily. Baron Bielfeld gives the following account of one of the 
 scenes of carousal in which these men engaged, when in the en- 
 joyment of youth and health : 
 
 " About a fortnight ago the prince was in a humor of extraor- 
 dinary gayety at the table. His gayety animated all the rest ; 
 and some glasses of Champagne still more enlivened our mirth. 
 The prince, perceiving our disposition, was willing to promote it, 
 and on rising from table, told us that he was determined that we 
 should recommence our jollity at supjDer. 
 
 " We were scarcely seated at supper before he began by drink- 
 ing a number of interesting healths, which there was a necessity 
 of pledging. This first skirmish being over, it was followed by 
 an incessant flow of sallies and repartees. The most contracted 
 countenances became expanded. The gayety was general, even 
 the ladies assisting in promoting our jollity. 
 
 "After about two hours I stepped out for a moment into the 
 vestibule. I had placed before me a large glass of water, which 
 the princess, opposite to whom I had the honor to sit, in a vein 
 of mischievous pleasantry, had ordered to be emptied, and had 
 filled it with Sellery wine, which was as clear as rock water. 
 Having already lost my taste, I mixed my wine with wine. 
 Thinking to refresh myself, I became joyous, but it was a kind 
 of joy that leaned toward intoxication. 
 
 " To finish my picture — the prince ordered me to come and sit 
 by him. He- said many gracious things to me, and let me see 
 into futurity as far as my feeble sight was then capable of dis- 
 covering. At the same time, he made me drink bumper after 
 bumper of his Lunelle wine. The rest of the company, however, 
 were not less sensible than I of the effects of the nectar which 
 there flowed in such mighty streams. 
 
 "At last, whether by accident or design, the princess broke a 
 glass. This was the signal for our impetuous jollity, and an ex- 
 ample that appeared highly worthy of our imitation. In an in- 
 
170 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 THE BANQUET. 
 
 stant all the glasses flew to the several corners of the room. All 
 the crystals, porcelain, mirrors, branches, bowls, and vases were 
 broken into a thousand pieces. In the midst of this universal 
 destruction, the prince stood, like the man in Horace who con- 
 templates the crush of worlds, with a look of perfect tranquillity. 
 " To this tumult succeeded a fresh burst of mirth, during which 
 the prince slipped away, and, aided by his pages, retired to his 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 171 
 
 apartment ; and the princess immediately followed. The clay 
 after this adventure the court was at its last gasp. Neither the 
 prince nor any of the courtiers could stir from their beds." 
 
 Baron Bielfeld himself was so intoxicated that, in attempting 
 to retire, he fell down the grand staircase from top to bottom. 
 He was severely bruised, and was taken up senseless. " After 
 lying about a fortnight in bed," he writes, " where the prince had 
 the goodness to come every day to see me, and to contribute 
 every thing possible to my cure, I got abroad again." 
 
 Frederick William, through spies, kept himself informed of 
 every thing which was said or done at Reinsberg. Such orgies 
 as the above excited his contempt and abhorrence. But, notwith- 
 standing the above narrative, there is abundant testimony that 
 the prince was not ordinarily addicted to such shameful excesses. 
 The Italian Count Algarotti, distinguished alike for his familiar- 
 ity with the sciences and his cultivated taste for the fine arts, 
 was an honored guest at Reinsberg. In a letter addressed to 
 Lord Hervey, under elate of September 30th, 1739, the count 
 writes : 
 
 "What shall I say to you, my lord, of the Prince Royal, the 
 lover and the favorite of the Muses ? Several days, which we 
 passed with him in his castle of Reinsberg, seemed to be but a 
 few hours. He is the most intelligent and the most amiable of 
 men. Though I could notice only his private virtues, I can bold- 
 ly assure you, my lord, that the world will one day admire his 
 royal qualifications, and that when he shall be upon the throne 
 he will show himself to be the greatest of sovereigns. There is 
 all the reason in the world to believe that he will seek out for 
 great men with as much eagerness as his father does for giants." 
 
 Baron Bielfeld gives the following account of the ordinary 
 employments, and the tone of conversation of the prince : " All 
 the employments and all the pleasures of the prince are those 
 of a man of understandiDg. He is, at this time, actually engaged 
 in refuting the dangerous political reveries of Machiavel. His 
 conversation at table is charming. He talks much and excel- 
 lently welL His mind seems to be equal to all sorts of subjects, 
 and his imagination produces on each of them a number of new 
 and iust ideas. His genius resembles the fire of the vestals that 
 was never extinct. A decent and polite contradiction is not dis- 
 
172 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 agreeable to him. He possesses the rare talent of displaying 
 the wit of others, and of giving them opportunity to shine on 
 those subjects in which they excel. He jests frequently, and 
 sometimes rallies, but never with asperity ; and an ingenious re- 
 tort does not displease him. 
 
 " Nothing can be more elegant than this prince's library. It 
 has a view of the lake and gardens. A collection, not very nu- 
 merous, but well chosen, of the best books in the French language 
 are ranged in glass cases, which are ornamented with carvings 
 and gildings in excellent taste. The portrait of M. De Voltaire 
 occupies an honorable place in this library. He is the favorite 
 author of the prince, who has, in general, a high esteem for good 
 French writers both in prose and verse. 
 
 " The evenings are devoted to music. The prince has a con- 
 cert in his saloon, where no one enters who is not invited, and 
 such invitation is regarded as an extraordinary favor. The prince 
 has commonly performed a sonata and a concert for the flute, on 
 which he plays in the greatest perfection. He fills the flute ad- 
 mirably well, has great agility with the fingers, and a vast fund 
 of music. He composes himself sonatas. I have had the honor 
 of standing behind him more than once while he was playing, 
 and was charmed with his taste, especially in the adagio. He 
 has a continual creation of new ideas." 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE DEATH OF FREDERICK WILLIAM. 
 
 Voltaire and Madame Du Chatelet. — Letter from Frederick to Voltaire. — The Reply. — Visit 
 to the Prince of Orange. — Correspondence. — The Crown Prince becomes a Mason. — Inter- 
 esting Letter from the Crown Prince. — Petulance and declining Health of the King. — Scenes 
 in the Death-chamber. — Characteristic Anecdotes. — The Dying Scene. 
 
 The Crown Prince had for some time been insjDired with an 
 ever-increasing ambition for high intellectual culture. Gradual- 
 ly he was gathering around him, in his retreat at Reinsberg, men 
 of high literary reputation, and was opening correspondence with 
 the most distinguished men of letters in all the adjacent coun- 
 tries. 
 
 Voltaire was, at this time, about forty years of age. His re- 
 nown as a man of genius already filled Europe. He was resid- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 173 
 
 ing, on terms of the closest intimacy, with Madame Du Chatelet, 
 who had separated from her husband. With congenial tastes 
 and ample wealth they occupied the chateau of Cirey, delight- 
 fully situated in a quiet valley in Champagne, and which they 
 had rendered, as Madame testifies, a perfect Eden on earth. It 
 is not always, in the divine government, that sentence against 
 an evil work is " executed speedily." Madame Du Chatelet, re- 
 nowned in the writings of Voltaire as the "divine Emilie," was 
 graceful, beautiful, fascinating. Her conversational powers were 
 remarkable, and she had written several treatises upon subjects 
 connected with the pure sciences, which had given her much de- 
 served celebrity. 
 
 Still it is evident that the serpent was in this Eden. Carlyle 
 writes : " An ardent, aerial, gracefully predominant, and, in the 
 end, somewhat termagant female, this divine Emilie. Her tem- 
 per, radiant rather than bland, was none of the patientest on oc- 
 casion. Nor was M. De Voltaire the least of a Job if you came 
 athwart him in a wrong way. I have heard that their domestic 
 symphony was liable to furious flaws ; that plates, in presence 
 of the lackeys, actual crockery or metal, have been known to fly 
 from end to end of the dinner-table ; nay, they mention i knives/ 
 though only in the way of oratorical action ; and Voltaire has 
 been heard to exclaim, ' Don't fix those haggard, sidelong eyes 
 on me in that way !' — mere shrillness of pale rage presiding over 
 the scene." 
 
 Voltaire had already written the epic poem the Henriade, the 
 history of Charles XIZ, and several tragedies. 
 
 The first letter from Frederick to Voltaire was dated August 
 8th, 1736. The following extracts will show the spirit of this 
 flattering epistle : 
 
 " Monsieur, — Although I have not the satisfaction of know- 
 ing you personally, you are not the less known to me through 
 your works. They are treasures of the mind, if I may so express 
 myself; and they reveal to the reader new beauties at every pe- 
 rusal. I think I have recognized in them the character of their 
 ingenious author, who does honor to our age and to human na- 
 ture. If ever the dispute on the comparative merits of the mod- 
 erns and the ancients should be revived, the modern great men 
 
174 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 will owe it to you, and to you only, that the scale is turned in 
 their favor. With the excellent quality of poet you join innu- 
 merable others more or less related to it. 
 
 " Monsieur, there is nothing I wish so much as to possess all 
 your writings. Pray do communicate them to me without re- 
 serve. If there be among your manuscripts any that you wish 
 to conceal from the eyes of the public, I engage to keep them in 
 profoundest secrecy. 
 
 " I should think myself richer in the possession of your works 
 than in that of all the transient goods of fortune. 
 
 "You inspire the ambition to follow in your footsteps. But 
 I, how often have I said to myself, unhappy man ! throw down 
 a burden which is above thy strength ! One can not imitate 
 Voltaire without being Voltaire. 
 
 " It is in such moments that I have felt how small are those 
 advantages of birth, those vapors of grandeur, with which vanity 
 would solace us. They amount to little, properly to nothing. 
 Ah ! would glory but make use of me to crown your successes ! 
 
 " If my destiny refuse me the happiness of being able to pos- 
 sess you, may I at least hope one day to see the man whom I 
 have admired so long now from afar, and to assure you, by word 
 of mouth, that I am, with all the esteem and consideration due 
 those who, following the torch of truth for guide, consecrate their 
 labors to the public, Monsieur, your affectionate friend, 
 
 " Frederick, Prince Royal of Prussia." - 
 
 Voltaire promptly replied to this letter in corresponding terms 
 of flattery. His letter was dated Cirey, August 26th, 1736 : 
 
 " Monseigneur, — A man must be void of all feeling who were 
 not infinitely moved by the letter which your royal highness has 
 deigned to honor me with. My self-love is only too much flat- 
 tered by it. But my love of mankind, which I have always 
 nourished in my heart, and which, I venture to say, forms the 
 basis of my character, has given me a very much purer pleasure 
 to see that there is now in the world a prince who thinks as a 
 man — a Pliilosoplier prince, who will make men happy. 
 
 " Permit me to say there is not a man on the earth but owes 
 thanks for the care you take to cultivate, by sound philosophy, 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 175 
 
 a soul that is born for command. Good kings there never were 
 except those who had begun by seeking to instruct themselves ; 
 by knowing good men from bad ; by loving what was true ; by 
 detesting persecution and superstition. No prince, persisting in 
 such thoughts, but might bring back the golden age into his 
 countries. 
 
 " Unless one day the tumult of business and the wickedness 
 of men alter so divine a character, you will be worshiped by 
 your people and loved by the whole world. Philosophers, wor- 
 thy of the name, will flock to your states. The illustrious Queen 
 Christina quitted her kingdom to go in search of the arts. Reign 
 •you, Monseigneur, and the arts will come to seek you. 
 
 " I will obey your commands as to sending those unpublished 
 pieces. Your criticism will be my reward. It is a price few 
 sovereigns can pay. I am sure of your secrecy. Your virtue 
 and your intellect must be in proportion. I should indeed con- 
 sider it a precious happiness to come and pay my court to your 
 royal highness. One travels to Rome to see paintings and ruins. 
 A prince such as you is a much more singular object, worthier 
 of a long journey. 
 
 " In whatever corner of the world I may end my life, be as- 
 sured, Monseigneur, my wishes will be continually for you. My 
 heart will rank itself among your subjects. Your glory will be 
 ever dear to me. I shall wish, May you always be like yourself, 
 and may other kings be like you. I am, with profound respect, 
 your royal highness' s most humble Voltaire." 
 
 The correspondence thus commenced was prosecuted with 
 great vigor. It seemed difficult to find language sufficiently ex- 
 pressive of their mutual admiration. Frederick received many 
 of Voltaire's unpublished manuscripts, and sent him many tokens 
 of regard. Some of Frederick's manuscripts Voltaire also exam- 
 ined, and returned with slight corrections and profuse expres- 
 sions of delight. 
 
 In the summer of 1738 the infirm old king undertook a jour- 
 ney to Holland, on a visit of diplomacy to the Prince of Orange. 
 The Crown Prince accompanied him. It does not, however, ap- 
 pear that they had much intercourse with each other on the 
 journey. They spent several days at the beautiful palace of 
 
176 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Loo, in Geldern, occupied by the Prince of Orange and his En- 
 glish bride, a niece to his Prussian majesty. The palace was 
 imposing in its architectural structure, containing many gorgeous 
 saloons, and surrounded with beautiful gardens. In a letter 
 which Frederick wrote from Loo to Voltaire, dated August 6th, 
 we find the following sentiments : 
 
 " I write from a place where there lived once a great man* 
 which is now the Prince of Orange's house. The demon of am- 
 bition sheds its unhappy poisons over his days. He might be 
 the most fortunate of men, and he is devoured by chagrins in his 
 beautiful palace here, in the middle of his gardens and of a bril- 
 liant court." 
 
 In one of the letters of the Crown Prince, speaking of the mode 
 of traveling with his father, he says : " We have now been trav- 
 eling near three weeks. The heat is as great as if we were rid- 
 ing astride upon a ray of the sun. The dust is like a dense 
 cloud, which renders us invisible to the eyes of the by-standers. 
 In addition to this, we travel like the angels, without sleep, and 
 almost without food. Judge, then, what my condition must be." 
 
 While on this journey to Holland the Crown Prince was one 
 day dining with a prince of Lippe-Biickeburg. Freemasonry 
 became one of the topics of conversation at the table. King 
 Frederick William denounced the institution in his usual style 
 of coarse vituperation, as tomfoolery, atheism, and every thing 
 else that was bad. But the Prince of Biickeburg, himself a ma- 
 s^bn and a very gentlemanly man, defended the craft with such 
 persuasive eloquence as quite captivated the Crown Prince. Aft- 
 er dinner the prince took him secretly aside, conversed with him 
 more fully upon the subject, expressed his admiration of the sys- 
 tem, and his wish to be admitted into the fraternity: But it 
 was necessary carefully to conceal the step from the irate king. 
 Arrangements were immediately made to assemble at Brunswick 
 a sufficient number of masons from Hamburg, where the Crown 
 Prince, on his return, could be received in a secret meeting into 
 the mystic brotherhood. 
 
 The Crown Prince met the masons by agreement at " Korn's 
 Hotel." On the night of Tuesday, August 14th, 1738, the king 
 having that evening continued his journey, Frederick, after adopt- 
 
 * William III. of England. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 177 
 
 ing extreme precautions to prevent any publicity of the act, fear- 
 ing probably only lest it should reach his father's ears, passed 
 through the mysterious rites of initiation. It does not, however, 
 appear that subsequently he took any special interest in the so- 
 ciety.* 
 
 The year 1739 was spent by the prince mostly at Reinsberg. 
 Many distinguished visitors were received at the chateau. Fred- 
 erick continued busily engaged in his studies, writing both prose 
 and verse, and keeping up a lively correspondence with Voltaire 
 and other literary friends. He engaged very earnestly in writ- 
 ing a book entitled Anti-Machiavel, which consisted of a refuta- 
 tion of Machiavel's Prince. This book was published, praised, 
 and read, but has long since been forgotten. The only memora- 
 ble thing about the book now is that in those dark days of ab- 
 solutism, when it was the almost universally recognized opinion 
 that power did not ascend from the people to their sovereign, 
 but descended from the monarch to his subjects, Frederick should 
 have spoken of the king as the " born servant of his people." 
 
 In July of this year the Crown Prince took another journey 
 with his father through extensive portions of the Prussian terri- 
 tory. The following extract from one of his letters to Voltaire 
 reflects pleasing light upon the heart of Frederick, and upon the 
 administrative ability of his father: 
 
 " Prussian Lithuania is a hundred and twenty miles long, by 
 from forty to sixty broad. It was ravaged by pestilence at the 
 beginning of this century, and they say three hundred thousand 
 people died of disease and famine. The disorder carried off the 
 people, and the lands remained uncultivated and full of weeds. 
 The most flourishing of our provinces was changed into the most 
 miserable of solitudes. 
 
 * Baron Bielfeld, in his letters, gives the following account of the prince's admission to the 
 masonic fraternity: "On the 14th the whole day was spent in preparations for the lodge. A 
 
 little after midnight we saw the Prince Royal arrive, accompanied by Count W . The 
 
 prince presented this gentleman as a candidate whom he recommended, and whose reception he 
 wished immediately to succeed his own. He desired us likewise to omit, in his reception, not 
 any one rigorous ceremony that was used in similar cases ; to grant him no indulgence what- 
 ever ; but gave us leave, on this occasion, to treat him merely as a private person. In a word, 
 he was received with all the usual and requisite formalities. I admired his intrepidity, the se- 
 renity of his countenance, and his graceful deportment even in the most critical moments.* Aft- 
 er the two receptions we opened the lodge, and proceeded to our work. He appeared delighted, 
 and acquitted himself with as much dexterity as discernment." — Letters of Baron Bielfeld, vol. 
 iii.,p. 36. 
 
 M 
 
178 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " Meanwhile Frederick the First died, and with him was buried 
 all his false grandeur, which consisted only in a vain magnifi- 
 cence, and in the pompous display of frivolous ceremonies. My 
 father, who succeeded him, compassionated the general misery. 
 He visited the spot, and saw, with his own eyes, this vast coun- 
 try laid waste, and all the dreadful traces which a contagious 
 malady, a famine, and the sordid avarice of a venal administra- 
 tion leave behind them. Twelve or fifteen towns depopulated, 
 and four or five hundred villages uninhabited, presented them- 
 selves to his view. Far from being discouraged by such a sad 
 spectacle, his compassion only became the more lively from it ; 
 and he resolved to restore population, plenty, and commerce to 
 this land, which had even lost the appearance of an inhabited 
 country. 
 
 " Since this time he has spared no expense for the furtherance 
 of his salutary intentions. He first established wise regulations 
 and laws. He rebuilt whatever had been allowed to go to ruin 
 in consequence of the plague. He brought and established there 
 thousands of families from the different countries of Europe. 
 The lands became again productive, and the country populous. 
 Commerce reflourished; and at the present time abundance 
 reigns in this country more than ever before. There are now 
 half a million of inhabitants in Lithuania. There are more towns 
 than formerly; more flocks, and more riches and fertility than 
 in any other part of Germany. 
 
 "And all that I have b v een relating to you is due to the king 
 alone, who not only gave the orders, but himself saw that they 
 were faithfully obeyed. He both conceived the designs and ex- 
 ecuted them. He spared neither care, nor trouble, nor vast treas- 
 ures, nor promises, nor recompenses, in order to assure* the exist- 
 ence and the comfort of half a million of rational beings, who 
 owe to him alone their happiness. There is something in my 
 mind so heroic in the generous and laborious manner in which 
 the king has devoted himself to the restoring to this deserted 
 country its population, fertility, and happiness, that I think you 
 will see his conduct in the same light as I do when you are made 
 acquainted with the circumstances." 
 
 It would be unjust alike to the father and the son to withhold 
 a letter which reflects so much credit upon them both — upon 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 179 
 
 the father for his humane measures, and upon the son for his ap- 
 preciation of their moral beauty. 
 
 The king was so pleased with the conduct of his son during 
 this journey that, in a moment of unusual good-nature, he made 
 him a present of a very extensive horse-breeding establishment 
 near Tilsit, consisting of seven farms, all in the most perfect or- 
 der, as every thing was sure to be which was under the control 
 of Frederick William. The profits of this establishment added 
 about ten thousand dollars to the annual income of the Crown 
 Prince. He was quite overjoyed at the unexpected gift, and 
 wrote to his sister Wilhelmina a letter glowing with satisfaction. 
 
 During the first part of his journey the king had been remark- 
 ably cheerful and genial, but toward its close he was attacked 
 by a new fit of very serious illness. To the discomfort of all, 
 his chronic moodiness returned. A few extracts from Pollnitz's 
 account of this journey throws interesting light upon those 
 scenes : 
 
 "Till now his majesty has been in especial good-humor. But 
 in Dantzig his cheerfulness forsook him, and it never came back. 
 He arrived about ten o'clock at night in that city, slept there, 
 and was off again next morning at five. He drove only fifty 
 miles this day ; stopped in Luppow. From Luppow he went 
 to a poor village near Belgard, and staid there overnight. 
 
 "At Belgard next morning he reviewed the dragoon regiment, 
 and was very ill content with it. And nobody, with the least 
 understanding of that business, but must own that never did 
 Prussian regiment manoeuvre worse. Conscious themselves how 
 bad it was, they lost head and got into confusion. The king did 
 every thing that was possible to help them into order again, 
 but it was all in vain. The king, contrary to wont, restrained 
 himself amazingly, and would not show his displeasure in pub- 
 lic. He got into his carriage and drove away, not staying to 
 dine with General Von Platen, as was always his custom with 
 commandants whom he had reviewed. 
 
 "As the prince was anxious to come up with his majesty again, 
 and knew not where he would meet him, we had to be very 
 swift in the business. We found the king, with Anhalt and 
 Winterfeld, by-and-by, sitting in a village in front of a barn, eat- 
 ing a cold pie there which the Marquis of Anhalt chanced to 
 
180 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 have with him. His majesty, owing to what he had seen on the 
 parade-ground, was in the utmost ill-humor. Next day, Satur- 
 day, he went a hundred and fifty or two hundred miles, and ar- 
 rived in Berlin at ten o'clock at night, not expected there till the 
 morrow, so that his rooms were locked, her majesty being over 
 in Monbijou giving her children a ball." 
 
 Late in the fall of 1739 the health of Frederick William was 
 so rapidly failing that it became manifest to all that his days on 
 earth would soon be ended. He sat joylessly in his palace, list- 
 ening to the moaning of the wind, the rustle of the falling leaves, 
 and the pattering of the rain. His gloomy spirit was in accord 
 with the melancholy days. More dreary storms darkened his 
 turbid soul than those which wrecked the autumnal sky. 
 
 Early in November he came to Berlin, languid, crippled, and 
 wretched. The death-chamber in the palace is attended with 
 all the humiliations and sufferings which are encountered in the 
 poor man's hut. The king, through all his life, had indulged his 
 irritable disposition, and now, imprisoned by infirmities and tor- 
 tured with pain, his petulance and abuse became almost unen- 
 durable. Miserable himself, he made every one wretched around 
 him. He was ever restless — now in his bed, now out of it, now 
 in his wheel chair, continually finding fault, and often dealing 
 cruel blows to those who came within his reach. He was un- 
 willing to be left for a moment alone. The old generals were 
 gathered in his room, and sat around his bed talking and smok- 
 ing. He could not sleep at night, and allowed his attendants 
 no repose. Restlessly he tried to divert his mind by whittling, 
 painting, and small carpentry. The Crown Prince dared not 
 visit him too often, lest his solicitude should be interpreted into 
 impatience for the king to die, that he might grasp the crown. 
 In the grossest terms the king insulted his physicians, attributing 
 all his sufferings to their wickedness or their ignorance. Fortu- 
 nately the miserable old man was too weak to attempt to cane 
 them. A celebrated physician, by the name of Hoffman, was 
 sent for to prescribe for the king. He was a man of much in- 
 tellectual distinction, and occupied an important position in the 
 university. As his prescriptions failed to give relief to his maj- 
 esty, he was assailed, like the rest, in the vilest language of vi- 
 tuperation. With great dignity Professor Hoffman replied : 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 181 
 
 " Sire, I can not bear these reproaches, which I do not deserve. 
 I have tried, for the relief of your majesty, all the remedies which 
 art can supply, or which nature can admit. If my ability or my 
 integrity is doubted, I am willing to leave not only the univer- 
 sity, but the kingdom. But I can not be driven into any place 
 where the name of Hoffman will not be respected." 
 
 The king was so impressed by this firm attitude of his physi- 
 cian that he even made an apology for his rudeness. As Fred- 
 erick William was now convinced that ere long he must appear 
 before the tribunal of God, he gradually became a little more 
 calm and resigned* It is, however, evident that the Crown 
 Prince still had his share of earthly annoyances, and certainly 
 his full share of earthly frailties. In a letter to his friend Suhm, 
 written this summer, he says : 
 
 " Tantalus never suffered so much while standing in the river, 
 the waters of which he could not drink, as I when, having re- 
 ceived your package of the translation of Wolff, I was unable to 
 read it. All the accidents and all the bores in the world were, 
 I think, agreed to prevent me. A journey to Potsdam, daily re- 
 views, and the arrival of my brother in company with Messrs. 
 De Hacke and De Rittberg, have been my impediments. Imag- 
 ine my horror, my dear Diaphanes,f at seeing the arrival of this 
 caravan without my having in the least expected them. They 
 weigh upon my shoulders like a tremendous burden, and never 
 quit my side, in order, I believe, to make me wish myself at the 
 devil." 
 
 As the king's infirmities and sufferings increased, the sympa- 
 thies of his son were more and more excited. He seemed to for- 
 get all his father's cruel treatment, and to remember only his 
 kingly energies. The thought of his death became very painful 
 to him, and at times he recoiled from the oppressive cares he 
 must of necessity assume with the crown. 
 
 One evening in April, the king, feeling a little better, decided 
 
 * Baron Bielfeld gives the following account of the personal appearance of the king at this 
 time : "If we judge by his portraits, he was in his youth very handsome. But it must be con- 
 fessed that he does not now retain any traces of beauty. His eyes are indeed lively, but his 
 looks are frightful. His complexion is composed of a mixture of high red, blue, yellow, and . 
 green. His head is large. His neck is quite sunk between his shoulders, and his figure is short 
 and gross." — Letters, vol. iii., p. 67. 
 
 t Frederick had taken the fancy of calling his companions by classical names. Suhm was 
 Diaphanes ; Keyserling was called Cassarion, etc. 
 
182 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 to dress and hold a tobacco parliament, as formerly. Quite a 
 numerous party of his customary cabinet was assembled, and the 
 circle .was full. The pipes were lighted ; the king was in good- 
 humor ; the beer-pots circulated merrily ; and as every one made 
 an effort to be agreeable, the scene was unusually animated. 
 Quite unexpectedly, in the midst of the lively talk, the door 
 opened, and the Crown Prince entered. Simultaneously, as by a 
 
 THE CROWN PRINCE ENTERING THE TOBACCO PARLIAMENT. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 183 
 
 common instinct, the whole company arose and bowed profound- 
 ly to the young prince. The king was exceedingly annoyed. 
 Trembling with rage, he exclaimed, 
 
 " This is the homage you render the rising sun, though you 
 know that the rule in the tobacco parliament is to rise to no one. 
 You think I am dead. But I will teach you that I am yet liv- 
 ing." 
 
 Kinging violently for his servants, and deaf to all protestations 
 and excuses, he had himself immediately rolled from the room. 
 As the courtiers stood bewildered and gazing at each other in 
 consternation, an officer came in with an order from the king that 
 they should all leave the palace immediately, and come not back 
 again. The next' morning Pollnitz, who occupied a position 
 somewhat similar to that of prime minister, applied for admis- 
 sion to his majesty's apartment. But a gendarme seized him by 
 the shoulder and turned him around, saying, " There is no ad- 
 mittance." It was several days, and not till after repeated acts 
 of humiliation, that the king would permit any member of the 
 parliament again to enter his presence. 
 
 In the latter part of April, the weather being very fine, the 
 king decided to leave Berlin and retire to his rural palace at 
 Potsdam. It seems, however, that he was fully aware that his 
 days were nearly ended, for upon leaving the city he said, "Fare 
 thee well, then, Berlin ; I am going to die in Potsdam." The 
 winter had been one of almost unprecedented severity, and the 
 month of May was cold and wet. As the days wore on the 
 king's health fluctuated, and he was continually struggling be- 
 tween life and death. The king, with all his great imperfections, 
 was a thoughtful man. As he daily drew near the grave, the 
 dread realities of the eternal world oppressed his mind. He sent 
 for three clergymen of distinction, to converse with them respect- 
 ing his preparation for the final judgment. It seems that they 
 were very faithful with him, reminding him of his many acts of 
 violence and tyranny, alluding particularly to his hanging Baron 
 Schlubhut, at Konigsberg, without even a trial. The king en- 
 deavored to defend himself, saying, 
 
 "It is true that Schlubhut had no trial, but he certainly de- 
 served his doom. He was a public thief, stealing the taxes he 
 was sent to gather ; insolently offering to repay, as if that were 
 
184: FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 all the amends required ; and saying that it was not good man- 
 ners to hang a nobleman." 
 
 Still the clergymen pressed upon him his sins, his many acts 
 of oppression, his unrelenting and unforgiving spirit. Singular- 
 ly enough, most of the members of the tobacco parliament were 
 present at this strange interview; and some of them, courtier 
 like, endeavored to defend the king against several of the charges 
 brought against him. The king might emphatically be called a 
 good hater ; and he hated his brother-in-law, the King of En- 
 gland, perhaps with passion as implacable as ever took posses- 
 sion of a human heart. In allusion to this, one of the clergy- 
 men, M. Roloff, said, 
 
 " There is the forgiveness of enemies. Your majesty is bound 
 to forgive all men. If you do not do this, how can you ask to 
 be forgiven V 
 
 The king had a logical mind. He could keenly feel where the 
 argument pinched. He seemed quite troubled. After a mo- 
 ment's pause, he said, "Well, I will do it." Then, turning to the 
 queen, he said, " You, Phiekin, may write to your brother, after 
 I am dead, and tell him that I forgave him, and died at peace 
 with him." 
 
 " It would be better," M. Roloff mildly suggested, " that your 
 majesty should write at once." 
 
 "No," said the king, sternly and peremptorily. "Write after 
 I am dead. That will be safer." 
 
 > At parting, the king bore magnanimous testimony to the fidel- 
 ity of his spiritual advisers. He said to M. Roloff, who had been 
 the principal speaker, " You do not spare me. It is right. You 
 do your duty like an honest Christian man." 
 
 For such a mind and such a body there could be no .possible 
 peace or repose in the dying-chamber. Feverish, restless, sleep- 
 less, impatient, he knew not what to do with himself. He was 
 incessantly passing from his bed to his wheel-chair and back 
 again, irascibly demanding this and that, complaining of every 
 body and every thing. Sometimes he would declare that he 
 would no longer be sick, but would dress and be well ; and 
 scarcely would he get his clothes on ere he would sink in faint- 
 ing weakness, as though he had not another hour to live. Thus 
 the sad days of sickness wore away as death drew near. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 185 
 
 On the 26th of May the Crown Prince received an express in- 
 forming him that his father was dying, and that he must hasten 
 to Potsdam with the utmost speed if he would ever again see 
 him alive. Reinsberg was about thirty miles north from Pots- 
 dam. It took the courier some hours to reach the place. Freder- 
 ick, with emotions not easily imagined, started before the dawn 
 of the morning, followed by a train of attendants, to hasten to the 
 death-bed of his father, and to receive the kingly crown of Prussia. 
 
 As he reached Potsdam and turned the corner of the palace, 
 he saw, at a little distance, a small crowd gathered around some 
 object ; and soon, to his inexpressible surprise, beheld his father, 
 dressed, in his wheel-chair, out of doors, giving directions about 
 laying the foundations of a house he had undertaken to build. 
 The old king, at the sight of his son, threw open his arms, and 
 Frederick, kneeling before him, buried his face in his father's lap, 
 and they wept together. The affecting scene forced tears into 
 the eyes of all the by-standers. Frederick William, upon recov- 
 ering from a fainting-fit, had insisted that he would not die, and 
 had compelled his attendants to dress him and conduct him to 
 the open air. 
 
 But the exertion, and the emotion occasioned by the interview 
 with his son, prostrated him again. He was taken back into his 
 palace and to his bed more dead than alive. Reviving a little 
 in the afternoon, he dictated to Frederick all the arrangements 
 he wished to have adopted in reference to his funeral. This cu- 
 rious document is characteristic, in every line, of the strange man. 
 His. coffin, which was of massive oak carpentry, had been made 
 for some time, and was in the king's chamber awaiting its occu- 
 pant. He not unfrequently, with affected or real complacency, 
 fixed his eyes upon it, saying, " I shall sleep right well there." 
 In the minute directions to his son as to his burial, he said, 
 
 " As soon as I am dead, my body must be washed, a white 
 shirt must be placed upon it, and it must be stretched out upon 
 a table. They must then shave and wash me, and cover me 
 with a sheet. After four hours my body must be opened. The 
 surgeons of the regiments in town will examine into the mal- 
 ady which has caused my death. They will then dress me in 
 my best clothes, with all my decorations. Then I am to be 
 placed in my coffin, and thus left all night. 
 
186 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " The next day the battalions will be formed in complete or- 
 der, each grenadier with three cartridges. Crape will be placed 
 about the colors, the drums, the fifes, and hautboys. Every offi- 
 cer will have crape on his hat, around his arm, and on the hilt 
 of his sword. The funeral car will be placed near the green 
 staircase, with the heads of the horses toward the river. Eight 
 captains of my regiment will carry me toward the funeral car. 
 These eight captains will also take me out of the car, and carry 
 me into the church. 
 
 "As soon as the car shall begin to move, the drums shall beat 
 the dead march, and the hautboys shall play the well-known an- 
 them, '■ O blessed head, covered with blood and wounds ? The 
 car will stop at the iron gate. The regiment will defile before 
 it. My two sons, Augustus William and Henry, will remain with 
 the regiment. You, as my eldest son, with little Ferdinand, my 
 youngest son, will walk in uniform behind the car. 
 
 " When the body has been carried into the church, there shall 
 be placed upon the coffin my handsomest sword, my best scarf, 
 a pair of gilt spurs, and a gilt helmet. There shall be brought 
 from Berlin twenty-four six-pounders, which shall make twelve 
 discharges singly. Then the battalions will fire. 
 
 "I forbid any funeral sermon to be preached over me. In the 
 evening a festival will be given in the great room in the garden. 
 The cask of hock which I have in my cellar must be opened. At 
 this repast good wine alone shall be drank. 
 
 "A fortnight after a funeral sermon shall be preached for me 
 in all the churches. The text shall be, ' I have fought a good 
 fight ; I have finished my course ; I have kept the faith. 9 They 
 shall not speak any thing of my life, of my actions, nor any thing 
 personal of me. But they shall tell the people that I confessed 
 my sins, and that I died in full confidence of the goodness of 
 God and of my Savior." 
 
 During the next three days the king suffered much from weak- 
 ness and a violent cough. He was often heard murmuring pray- 
 ers, and would say to those around him, " Pray for me-; pray for 
 me." Several times he pathetically exclaimed, " Lord, enter not 
 into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man 
 living be justified." A favorite hymn was often sung to him 
 containing the words, " Naked came I into the world, and naked 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 187 
 
 shall I go out of it." At this passage he repeatedly exclaimed, 
 with much vivacity, as though it were an admirable joke, " No, 
 not quite naked ; I shall have my uniform on." 
 
 At one o'clock in the morning of May 31 he sent for a clergy- 
 man, M. Cochius, and seemed to be in great distress both of body 
 and of mind. " I fear," said he, " that I have a great deal of pain 
 yet to suffer. I can remember nothing. I can not pray. I have 
 forgotten all my prayers." M. Cochius endeavored to console 
 him. At the close of the interview the king said, sadly, " Fare 
 thee well. We shall most probably never meet again in this 
 world." He was then rolled, in his wheel-chair, into the cham- 
 ber of the queen. 
 
 " Oh, Phiekin, my Phiekin !" said he, " thou must rise and help 
 me what thou canst. This day I am going to die. Thou must 
 be with me this day." 
 
 The dying king strangely decided, at that late hour, to abdi- 
 cate. All the officials were hurriedly summoned to his cham- 
 ber. The poor old man, bandaged, with his night-cap on, and a 
 mantle thrown over him, was wheeled into the anteroom where 
 the company was assembled. As he saw Pollnitz he exclaimed, 
 sadly, "It is all over." Noticing one in tears, he said to him, 
 kindly, " Nay, my friend, this is a debt we all have to pay." The 
 king then solemnly abdicated in favor of his " good son Freder- 
 ick." The deed was made out, signed, and sealed. But scarce- 
 ly was it executed ere the king fainted, and was carried to his 
 bed. Still the expiring lamp of life flickered in its socket. 
 About eleven o'clock the clergyman, M. Cochius, was sent for. 
 The king was in his bed, apparently speechless. He, however, 
 revived a little, and was in great pain, often exclaiming, " Pray 
 for me ; pray for me ; my trust is in the Savior." He called for 
 a mirror, and carefully examined his face for some moments, say- 
 ing at intervals, " Not so worn out as I thought." " An ugly 
 face." "As good as dead already."* 
 
 * Bielfeld informs us that "about one in the afternoon he sent for Ellert, his first physician, 
 and asked him if he thought that his life and his sufferings could continue long, and if the ago- 
 nies of his last moments would be great. The physician answered, ' Your majesty has already 
 arrived at that period. I feel the pulse retire. It now beats below your elbow. ' 
 
 " The king inquired, ' Where will it retire at last ?' 
 
 "'To the heart,' the doctor replied. ' And in about an hour it will cease to beat at all.' 
 
 " On which the king said, with perfect resignation, ' God's will be done !' " — Letters, vol. iii., 
 p. 127. 
 
188 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 He then summoned his physician, M. Pitsch, and said, " Feel 
 my pulse. Tell me how long this will last." 
 
 The physician replied, " Alas ! not long." 
 
 " Say not alas," added the king. " But how do you know V 
 
 " The pulse is gone," the physician said, sadly. 
 
 The king seemed surprised, raised his hand, opening and shut- 
 ting the fingers, and then said, " It is impossible. How could I 
 move my fingers so if the pulse were gone V 
 
 M. Pitsch made no reply. The king, probably feeling at the 
 moment some physical monition of approaching death, cried out, 
 " Lord Jesus, to thee I live. Lord Jesus, to thee I die. In life 
 and in death thou art my gain." 
 
 These were his last words. He fainted, and, after a few gasps, 
 died. It was about two o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, the 
 31st of May, 1740. Thus the soul of Frederick William passed 
 to the spirit land, in the fifty-first year of its sojourn here on earth. 
 
 The king having "breathed his last, Frederick, in tears, retired 
 to a private room, there to reflect upon the sad receding past, 
 and upon the opening future, with the vast responsibilities thus 
 suddenly thrown upon him. He was now King of Prussia ; and 
 not only absolute master of himself, but absolute monarch over 
 a realm containing two millions two hundred and forty thou- 
 sand souls. He was restrained by no Parliament, no Constitu- 
 tion, no customs or laws superior to his own resolves. He could 
 take advice of others, and call energetic men to his aid, but his 
 will alone was sovereign. 
 
 The Prussian kingdom, which thus fell to Frederick by " di- 
 vine right," consisted of an assemblage of duchies, marquisates, 
 principalities, and lordships, comprising an area of nearly fifty- 
 seven thousand square miles, being about the size of the State 
 of Michigan, and very similarly situated as to climate and soil. 
 It was unfortunately not a compact country, as several of the 
 states could only be reached by passing through the territories 
 of other powers. The annual revenue amounted to a little over 
 six million dollars. There was also in the treasury a sum, which 
 Frederick William had saved, of about seven million dollars. 
 The army consisted of seventy-six thousand men, in the highest 
 state of discipline, and abundantly furnished with all the materiel 
 of war. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 189 
 
 Quite an entire change seemed immediately to take place in 
 the character of the young king. M. Bielfeld was the first who 
 was introduced to his apartment after the death of Frederick 
 William. Frederick was in tears, and seemed much affected. 
 
 " You do not know," said he to M. Bielfeld, "what I have lost 
 in losing my father." 
 
 " It is true, sire," Bielfeld replied, " but I know very well what 
 you have gained in getting a kingdom. Your loss is great, but 
 your motives for consolation are very powerful." 
 
 The king smiled, and immediately entered very vigorously 
 upon business. It was not possible, under these circumstances, 
 for him deeply to mourn over the death of so tyrannical a father. 
 Frederick was twenty-eight years of age. He is described as a 
 handsome young man, five feet seven inches in stature, and of 
 graceful presence. The funeral ceremonies of the deceased mon- 
 arch were conducted essentially according to the programme al- 
 ready given. The body of the king mouldered to dust in the 
 sepulchre of his fathers. His spirit returned to the God who 
 gave it. 
 
 " The mind is its own place, and in itself 
 Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." 
 
 If these words are true, which Milton places in the lips of the 
 apostate fiend, it is appalling to think of the ungoverned and un- 
 governable spirit with which the king entered the unseen world. 
 We know not that there is any power in the alembic of death 
 to transform the character ; and certain it is that if Frederick 
 William carried with him to the abode of spirits the same char- 
 acter which he cherished in this world, there are but few who 
 could be rendered happy by his society. But we must leave 
 him with his God, and return to the stormy scenes upon which 
 his son now entered. 
 
 The young sovereign commenced his reign with the utterance 
 of very noble sentiments. The day after his accession he assem- 
 bled the chief officers of his father to administer to them the oath 
 of allegiance. He urged them to be humane in the exercise of 
 all authority which might be delegated to them. 
 
 " Our grand care," said he, " will be to further the country's 
 well-being, and to make every one of our subjects contented and 
 happy. If it ever chance that my particular interest and the 
 
190 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 
 
 
 FREDERICK MEETING HIS MINISTERS. 
 
 general good of my country should seem to conflict, it is my wish 
 that the latter should always be preferred." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 191 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE ACCESSION OF FREDERICK THE SECOND. 
 
 Establishment of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. — Religious Toleration. — A Free Press. — 
 Sternness of the young King. — Domestic Habits of the King. — Provision for the Queen-moth- 
 er. — Absolutism of the King. — Journey to Strasbourg. — First Interview with Voltaire. 
 
 The conduct of Frederick the Second, upon his accession to 
 the throne, was in accordance with his professions. The winter 
 had been intensely cold. The spring was late and wet. There 
 was almost a famine in the land. The public granaries, which 
 the foresight of his father had established, contained large stores 
 of grain, which were distributed to the poor at very low prices. 
 A thousand aged and destitute women in Berlin were provided 
 with rooms, well warmed, where they spun in the service of the 
 king, with good wages, and in their grateful hearts ever thank- 
 ing their benefactor. He abolished the use of torture in crimi- 
 nal trials, not forgetting that he himself had come very near hav- 
 ing his limbs stretched upon the rack. This important decree, 
 which was hailed with joy all over Prussia, was issued the third 
 day after his accession. 
 
 Very vigorous measures were immediately adopted to estab- 
 lish an Academy pf Sciences. The celebrated French philoso- 
 pher Maupertuis, who had just obtained great renown from meas- 
 uring a degree of the meridian at the polar circle, was invited 
 to organize this very important institute. The letter to the phi- 
 losopher, written by the king but a few days after his accession, 
 was as follows : 
 
 " My heart and my inclination excited in me, from the mo- 
 ment I mounted the throne, the desire of having you here, that 
 you might put our Berlin Academy in the shape you alone are 
 capable of giving it. Come then, come, and insert into this wild 
 crab-tree the sciences, that it may bear fruit. You have shown 
 the figure of the earth to mankind; show also to a king how 
 sweet it is to possess such a man as you. 
 
 " Monsieur De Maupertuis, your very affectionate 
 
 " Frederick." 
 
192 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 On the 2 2d of June a complaint was made to the king that 
 the Eoman Catholic schools were perverted to seducing Protest- 
 ants to become Catholics. Frederick returned the complaint 
 with the following words written upon the margin : 
 
 " All religions must be tolerated, and the king's solicitor must 
 have an eye that none of them make unjust encroachments on 
 the other ; for in this country every man must get to heaven his 
 own way." 
 
 It is a fact worthy of mention, as illustrative of the neglect 
 with which the king had regarded his own German language in 
 his devotion to the French tongue, that in these three lines there 
 were eleven words wrongly spelled. 
 
 But the good sense of the utterance, so rare in those dark 
 days, electrified thousands of minds. It drew the attention of 
 Europe to Frederick, and gave him wide-spread renown. 
 
 Under Frederick William the newspaper press in Berlin 
 amounted to nothing. The capital had not a single daily paper. 
 Speedy destruction would crush any writer who, in journal, 
 pamphlet, or book, should publish any thing displeasing to the 
 king. Frederick proclaimed freedom of the press. Two news- 
 papers were established in Berlin, one in French and one in Ger- 
 man. Distinguished men w T ere selected to edit them. One was 
 a noted writer from Hamburg. Frederick, in his absolutism, 
 had adopted the resolve not to interfere with the freedom of the 
 press unless there were some gross violation of what he deemed 
 proper. He allowed very bitter satires to be circulated in Ber- 
 lin against himself, simply replying to the remonstrances of his 
 ministers, "The press is free? 
 
 Such were the measures adopted during the first week of 
 Frederick's reign. He soon abolished the enormously expensive 
 regiment of giants, and organized, instead of them, four regiments 
 composed of men of the usual stature.* Within a few months 
 he added sixteen thousand men to his already large army, thus 
 
 * Frederick William, in his reviews of the giant guard, was frequently attended by the foreign 
 ministers who chanced to be at his court. On one of these occasions he asked the French min- 
 ister if he thought that an equal number of the soldiers of France would venture to engage with 
 these troops. With politeness, characteristic of the nation, the minister replied that it was im- 
 possible that men of the ordinary stature should think of such an attempt. The same question 
 was asked of the English embassador. He replied, " I can not affirm that an equal number of 
 my countrymen would beat them, but I think that I may safely say that half the number would 
 try." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 193 
 
 raising the number of the standing army of his little realm to 
 over ninety thousand men. He compelled his old associates to 
 feel, and some of them very keenly, that he was no longer their 
 comrade, but their king. One of the veteran and most honored 
 officers of Frederick William, in his expressions of condolence 
 and congratulation, ventured to suggest the hope that he and 
 his sons might continue to " occupy the same posts and retain 
 the same authority as in the last reign.". 
 
 "You will retain your posts" said the king, severely. "I have 
 no thought of making any change. But as to authority, I know 
 of none there can be but what resides in the king that is sover- 
 eign." 
 
 The Marquis of Schwedt advanced to meet the new-made sov- 
 ereign, his face beaming jovially, and with outstretched hands, 
 as in the days of their old companionship. Frederick, fixing his 
 cold eye steadfastly upon him, almost floored him with the re- 
 buff, " My cousin, I am now king." 
 
 General Schulenburg, trembling in memory of the fact that he 
 had once, in court-martial, given his vote in favor of beheading 
 the Crown Prince, hastened from his post at Landsberg to con- 
 gratulate the prince upon his accession to the throne. To his 
 extreme chagrin and indignation, he was repelled by the words, 
 " An officer should not quit his post without order. Return im- 
 mediately to Landsberg." 
 
 As an administrative officer the young sovereign was inexora- 
 ble and heartless in the extreme. Those who had befriended 
 him in the days of his adversity were not remembered with any 
 profusion of thanks or favors. Those who had been in sympa- 
 thy with his father in his persecution of the Crown Prince en- 
 countered no spirit of revenge. Apparently dead to affection, 
 and oblivious- of the past, the young sovereign only sought for 
 those agents who could best assist him in the work to which he 
 now consecrated all his energies — the endeavor to aggrandize 
 the kingdom of Prussia. Poor Doris Eitter received but a triv- 
 ial pension for her terrible wrongs. Lieutenant Keith, his friend 
 and confederate in his contemplated flight, who had barely es- 
 caped with his life from Wesel, after ten years of exile hastened 
 home, hoping that his faithful services and sufferings would meet 
 with a reward. The king appointed him merely lieutenant col- 
 
 N 
 
194 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 onel, with scarcely sufficient income to keep him from absolute 
 want. Perhaps the king judged that the young man was not 
 capable of filling, to the advantage of the state, a higher station, 
 and he had no idea of sacrificing his interests to gratitude. 
 
 Ten years later the king made poor Keith a present of a purse 
 of gold, containing about seven thousand dollars, under circum- 
 stances which reflected much credit upon the donor. In the fol- 
 lowing quaint style Carlyle records the incident : 
 
 " The king did a beautiful thing to Lieutenant Keith the oth- 
 er day — that poor Keith who was nailed to the gallows, in effigy, 
 for him at Wesel, long ago, and got far less than he expected. 
 The other day there had been a grand review, part of it extend- 
 ing into Madame Knyphausen's grounds, who is Keith's mother- 
 in-law. 
 
 " ' Monsieur Keith,' said the king to him, ' I am sorry we had 
 to spoil Madame's fine shrubbery by our manoeuvres ; have the 
 goodness to give her that, with my apologies,' and handed him 
 a pretty casket with key to it, and in the interior 10,000 crowns. 
 
 " Not a shrub of Madame's had been cut or injured. But the 
 king, you see, would count it £1500 of damage done, and here is 
 acknowledgment for it, which please accept. Is not that a gra- 
 cious little touch ?" 
 
 One wretched man, who had been the guilty accomplice of the 
 Crown Prince in former scenes of guilt and shame, was so troub- 
 led by the neglect with which he was treated that he hanged 
 himself. 
 
 Frederick, as Crown Prince, had been quite methodical in the 
 distribution of his time, and had cultivated rigid habits of in- 
 dustry. Now, fully conscious of the immense duties and cares 
 which would devolve upon him as king, he entered into a very 
 systematic arrangement of the employments of each hour, to 
 which he rigidly adhered during nearly the whole of his reign 
 of forty-six years. He ordered his servants to wake him at four 
 o'clock every morning. Being naturally inclined to sleep, he 
 found it hard to shake off his lethargy. The attendants were 
 therefore directed, every morning, to place upon his forehead a 
 towel dipped in cold water. He thus continued to rise at four 
 o'clock, summer and winter, until an advanced age. 
 
 A single servant lighted his lire, shaved him, and dressed his 
 
FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 195 
 
 haii\ He always wore the uniform of his guards, and allowed 
 only fifteen minutes for his morning toilet. He did not indulge 
 in the luxury of slippers or dressing-gown, though occasionally, 
 when ill, he put on a sort of linen wrapper, but even then he 
 wore his military boots. Only on one day in the year did he 
 appear in silk stockings, and that was on the birthday of his 
 neglected wife, when he formally called upon her with his con- 
 gratulations. 
 
 The ordinary routine of the day, when not absent on travels 
 or campaigns, was as follows : As soon as dressed, one of his 
 pages brought the packet of letters. The number was usually 
 very large. He employed himself in reading these letters till 
 eight o'clock. By a particular style of folding, he designated 
 those to which no reply was to be returned, those to which there 
 was to be an immediate reply, and those which required further 
 consideration. At eight o'clock one of the four secretaries of 
 the cabinet entered, took the three parcels, and, while the king 
 was breakfasting, received from him very briefly the character 
 of the response to be made. 
 
 At nine o'clock Frederick received one of the general officers, 
 and arranged with him all the military affairs of the day, usual- 
 ly dismissing him loaded with business. At ten o'clock he re- 
 viewed some one of the regiments ; and then, after attending pa- 
 rade, devoted himself to literary pursuits or private correspond- 
 ence until dinner-time. This was the portion of the day he usu- 
 ally appropriated to authorship. He was accustomed to com- 
 pose, both in prose and verse, while slowly traversing the grav- 
 eled walks of his garden. 
 
 He was particularly fond of dogs of the graceful greyhound 
 breed, and might often be seen with book and pencil in his hand, 
 in the shady walks, with three or four Italian greyhounds gam- 
 boling around him, apparently entirely absorbed in deep medi- 
 tation. A page usually followed at a short distance behind, to 
 attend his call. At twelve o'clock he dined with invited guests. 
 As quite a number of distinguished men always met at his table, 
 and the king was very fond of good living, as well as of the 
 " feast of reason and the flow of soul," the repast was frequently 
 prolonged until nearly three o'clock. At dinner he was very so- 
 cial, priding himself not a little upon his conversational powers. 
 
196 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 In pleasant weather lie took a long walk after dinner, and 
 generally at so rapid a pace that it was difficult for most persons 
 
 FREDERICK IN THE GARDEN. 
 
 to keep up with him. At four o'clock the secretaries brought 
 to him the answers to the letters which they had received from 
 him in the morning. He glanced them over, examining some 
 with care. Then, until six o'clock, he devoted himself to reading, 
 to literary compositions, and to the affairs of the Academy, in 
 which he took a very deep interest. At six o'clock he had a 
 private musical concert, at which he performed himself upon the 
 flute. He was passionately fond of fnis instrument, and contin- 
 ued to play upon it until, in old age, his teeth decaying, he was 
 unable to produce the sounds he wished. 
 
 After the concert, which usually continued an hour, he en- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 197 
 
 gaged in conversation until ten o'clock. He then took supper 
 with a few friends, and at eleven retired to his bed. 
 
 To his mother he was very considerate in all his manifesta- 
 tions of filial affection, while, at the same time, he caused her 
 very distinctly to understand that she was to take no share 
 whatever in the affairs of government. When she addressed 
 him, upon his accession to the throne, as "Your Majesty," he re- 
 plied, " Call me son. That is the title of all others most agree- 
 able to me." He decreed to her the title of "Her Majesty the 
 Queen -mother." The palace of Monbijou was assigned her, 
 where she was surrounded with every luxury, treated with the 
 most distinguished attention, and her court was the acknowl- 
 edged centre of fashionable society. 
 
 He seems ever to have treated his nominal wife, Queen Eliza- 
 beth, politely. For some months after the accession he was quite 
 prominent in his public attentions to her. But these intervals 
 of association grew gradually more rare, until after three or four 
 years they ceased almost entirely, 
 
 Frederick, under the tutelage of his stern father, had not en- 
 joyed the privileges of foreign travel. While other princes of 
 far humbler expectations were taking the grand tour of Europe, - 
 the Crown Prince was virtually imprisoned in the barracks, day 
 after day, engaged in the dull routine of drilling the giant guard. 
 After the death of his father he did not condescend to be crowrP] 
 ed, proudly assuming, in contradiction to some of his earlier 
 teachiDgs, that the crown was already placed upon his brow by 
 divine power. He, however, exacted from the people through- '* 
 out his realms oaths of allegiance, and in person visited several 
 of the principal cities to administer those oaths with much pomp 
 of ceremony. The Danish envoy, writing home to his govern- 
 ment respecting the administration of Frederick, says, 
 
 " I must observe that hitherto the King of Prussia does, as it 
 were, every thing himself; and that, excepting the finance min- 
 ister, who preaches frugality, and finds for that doctrine uncom- 
 mon acceptance, his majesty allows no counseling from any min- 
 ister ; so that the minister for foreign affairs has nothing to clo 
 but to expedite the orders he receives, his advice not being asked 
 upon any matter. And so it is with the other ministers." > 
 
 On the 12th of June, but a fortnight after his accession, Fred- 
 
198 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 erick wrote from Charlottenburg to Voltaire, who was then at 
 Brussels, as follows : 
 
 " My dear Voltaire, — Resist no longer the eagerness I have 
 to see you. Do, in my favor, whatever your humanity allows. 
 In the end of August I go to Wesel, and perhaps farther. Prom- 
 ise that you will come and join me, for I could not live happy 
 nor die tranquil without having embraced you. Thousand com- 
 pliments to the Marquise" (Madame Du Chatelet, the divine 
 Emilie). " I am busy with both hands — working at the army 
 with one hand, at the people and the fine arts with the other." 
 
 It would seem that Frederick was not very willing to receive, 
 as his guest, the divine Emilie, who occupied so questionable a 
 position in the household of Voltaire ; for he wrote again, on the 
 5th of August, in reply to a letter from Voltaire, saying, 
 
 " I will write to Madame Du Chatelet in compliance with your 
 wish. To speak to you frankly concerning her journey, it is Vol- 
 taire, it is you, it is my friend that I desire to see. I can not say 
 whether I shall travel or not travel. Adieu, dear friend, sublime 
 spirit, first-born of thinking beings. Love me always sincerely, 
 and be persuaded that none can love and esteem you more 
 than I." 
 
 Again the next day he wrote : 
 
 <% You will have received a letter from me dated yesterday. 
 This is the second I write to you from Berlin. I refer you to 
 what was in the other. If it must be that Emilie accompany 
 Apollo, I consent. But if I could see you alone, that is what I 
 should prefer. I should be too much dazzled. I could not stand 
 so much splendor all at once. It would overpower me. I should 
 need the veil of Moses to temper the united radiance of your 
 two divinities." 
 
 In return, Voltaire compliments the king very profusely. 
 Speaking of the book of the royal author, the Anti-3fachiavel, 
 he writes : 
 
 " It is a monument for the latest posterity ; the only book 
 worthy of a king for these fifteen hundred years."* 
 
 * Voltaire, after he had quarreled with Frederick, gave the following amusing account of a 
 gift he received from the king soon after his accession to the throne : " He began his reign by 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 199 
 
 Frederick was very desirous of visiting France, whose litera- 
 ture, science, and distinguished men he so greatly admired. Ear- 
 ly Monday morning, the 15th of August, the king left Potsdam 
 to visit his sister Wilhelmin a, intending then to continue his jour- 
 ney incognito into France, and, if circumstances favored, as far as 
 Paris. The kins: assumed the name of the Count Dufour. His 
 next younger brother, William, eighteen years of age, accompa- 
 nied him, also under an assumed name. xJWilliam was now Crown 
 Prince, to inherit the throne should Frederick leave no children!) 
 Six other gentlemen composed the party. They traveled in two 
 coaches, with but few attendants, and avoided all unnecessary 
 display. 
 
 Frederick spent three days with his sister at Baireuth. Wil- 
 helmina was disappointed in his appearance. The brotherly af- 
 fection she looked for was not found. He was cold, stately, dis- 
 posed to banter her, and his conversation seemed " set on stilts." 
 Leaving Baireuth, the king continued his journey very rapidly 
 toward Strasbourg. When they reached Kehl, on the eastern 
 banks of the Rhine, they were informed that they could not cross 
 the river without passports. One of the gentlemen drew up the 
 necessary document, which the king signed and sealed with his 
 signet-ring. The curiosity of the landlord had been excited, and 
 he watched his guests from a closet. Seeing what was done, he 
 said to Frederstorf, the king's valet, " Count Dufour is the King 
 of Prussia, sir ; 1 saw him sign his name." He was bribed to 
 keep the secret. 
 
 When they reached Strasbourg they provided themselves with 
 French dresses. The king and his brother put up at different 
 inns, that they might be less liable to suspicion. Frederick, 
 
 sending an embassador extraordinary to France, one Camas, who had lost an arm. He said 
 that, as there was a- minister from the French court at Berlin who had bat one hand, he, that he 
 might acquit himself of all obligation toward the most Christian king, had sent him an embas- 
 sador with one arm. Camas, as soon as he arrived safe at his inn, dispatched a lad to tell me 
 that he was too much fatigued to come to my house, and therefore begged that I would come 
 to him instantly, he having the finest, greatest, and most magnificent present that was ever pre- 
 sented to make me on the part of the king his master. 'Run, run, as fast as you can,' said 
 Madame Du Chatelet; 'he has assuredly sent you the diamonds of the crown.' Away I ran, 
 and found my embassador, whose only baggage was a small keg of wine, tied behind his chaise, 
 sent from the cellar of the late king by the reigning monarch, with a royal command for me to 
 drink. I emptied myself in protestations of astonishment and gratitude for these liquid marks 
 of his majesty's bounty, instead of the solid ones I had been taught to expect, and divided my 
 keg with Camas." — Memoirs, p. 34. 
 
200 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 with several of his party, took lodgings at the Raven Hotel. He 
 sent the landlord out to invite several army officers to sup with 
 a foreign gentleman, Count Dufour, from Bohemia, who was an 
 entire stranger in the place. Some of the officers very perempto- 
 rily declined the invitation, considering it an imposition. Three, 
 however, allured by the singularity of the summons, repaired to 
 the inn. The assumed count received them with great courtesy, 
 apologized for the liberty he had taken, thanked them for their 
 kindness, and assured them that, being a stranger, he was very 
 happy to make the acquaintance of so many brave officers, whose 
 society he valued above that of all others. 
 
 The companions of the king were well-bred men, of engaging 
 manners, commanding intelligence, and accustomed to authority. 
 The entertainment was superb, with an abundance of the richest 
 wines. The conversation took a wide range, and was interesting 
 and exciting to a high degree. The French officers were quite 
 bewildered by the scene. The count was perfect master of the 
 French language, was very brilliant in his sallies, and seemed 
 perfectly familiar with all military affairs. He was treated with 
 remarkable deference by his companions, some of whom were 
 far his superiors in years. 
 
 The entertainment was prolonged until a late hour of the 
 night. The delighted guests, as they retired, urged their host to 
 attend parade with them in the morning, offering to come in per- 
 son to conduct him to the ground. The count, with pleasure, 
 accepted the invitation. In the morning he was escorted to the 
 parade-ground. His fame spread rapidly, Friends multiplied. 
 He was invited to sup with the officers in the evening, and ac- 
 cepted the invitation. Marshal Broglio, a very stately gentle- 
 man of seventy years, was military governor at Strasbourg. The 
 count and one of his companions, the distinguished philosopher 
 Count Algarotti, were invited to dine with the marshal. The 
 supper given in the evening by the officers was brilliant. They 
 then repaired to the opera. A poor little girl came to the box 
 with a couple of lottery tickets for sale. Fredericks gave her 
 four ducats ($25), and tore up the tickets. 
 
 Strasbourg began to echo with the fame of this foreign count. 
 But the next morning, Thursday, August 25, as Marshal Brog- 
 lio was walking on the Esplanade, a soldier, who had formerly 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 201 
 
 been in the regiment of the Crown Prince at Potsdam, and who 
 knew the Crown Prince perfectly, having seen him hundreds of 
 times, but who had deserted and entered the French service, 
 came to the marshal, with much bowing and embarrassment, and 
 assured him that Count Dufour was no less than the King of 
 Prussia. 
 
 The secret was now out. The tidings flew in all directions 
 that the King of Prussia was in Strasbourg incognito. The 
 king, not yet aware of the detection, called upon the marshal. 
 A crowd of officers gathered eagerly around. The marshal was 
 much embarrassed in his desire to respect the incognito, and also 
 to manifest the consideration due to a sovereign. No one yet 
 ventured to address him as king, though there were many indi- 
 cations that his rank was beginning to be known. Frederick 
 therefore decided to get out of the city as soon as possible. To 
 conceal his design, he made arrangements to attend the theatre 
 with the marshal in the evening. The marshal went to the the- 
 atre with all his officers. The building was crowded w r ith the 
 multitude hoping to see the king. Bonfires began to blaze in 
 the streets, and shouts were heard of " Long live the King of 
 Prussia." Frederick hastily collected his companions, paid his 
 enormous bill at the Raven, " shot off like lightning," and was 
 seen in Strasbourg no more. 
 
 Voltaire was at this time in Brussels. Frederick wrote him 
 from Wesel, under date of 2d September, 1740, giving a narra- 
 tive of his adventures, partly in prose, partly in verse. It was a 
 long, communication, the rhyme very much like that which a 
 bright school-girl would write upon the gallop. The following 
 specimen of this singular production will give the reader a suf- 
 ficient idea of the whole : 
 
 "My dear Voltaire, — You wish to know what I have been 
 about since leaving Berlin. Annexed you will find a descrip- 
 tion of it. 
 
 "I have just finished a journey intermingled with singular ad- 
 ventures, sometimes pleasant, sometimes the reverse. You know 
 I had set out for Baireuth to see a sister whom I love no less 
 than esteem. On the road Algarotti and I consulted the map 
 to settle our route for returning by Wesel. Frankfort-on-the- 
 
202 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Main comes always as a principal stage. Strasbourg was no 
 great roundabout. We chose that route in preference. The in- 
 cognito was decided, names pitched upon, story we were to tell. 
 In fine, all was arranged as well as possible. We fancied we 
 should get to Strasbourg in three days. 
 
 ' ' Mais le ciel, qui de tout dispose, (But Heaven, which of all disposes, 
 
 Re'gla diffe'remment la chose. Regulated differently the thing. 
 
 Avec de coursiers efflanques, With coursers lank-sided, 
 
 Et des paysans en postilions masques, And peasants as postiUions disguised, 
 
 Butors de race impertinente, Blockheads of race impertinent, 
 
 Notre carrosse en cent lieux accroche, Our carriages in a hundred places sticking, 
 Nous allions gravement d'une allure indolente, We went gravely at a slow pace, 
 
 Gravitant contre les rochers, Knocking against the rocks, 
 
 L'airs emus par le bruyant tonnere. The air agitated by loud thunder. 
 
 Les toiTents d'eau repandus sur la terre Torrents of water spread over the earth 
 
 Du dernier jour menacaient les humains. With the last day threatened mankind. 
 
 Et malgre notre impatience, And notwithstanding our impatience, 
 
 Quatre bons jours en penitence Four good days in penance 
 
 Sont pour jamais perdus dans les charrains." Are forever lost in these jumbles.) 
 
 " Had all our fatalities been limited to stoppages of speed on 
 the journey, we should have taken patience. But after frightful 
 roads we found lodgings still more frightful." 
 
 Then came another strain of verse. Thus the prose and the 
 doggerel were interspersed through the long narrative. Though 
 very truthful in character, it was a school-boy performance — a 
 very singular document indeed to be sent to the most brilliant 
 genius of that age, by one who soon proved himself to be the 
 ablest sovereign in Europe. 
 
 At Wesel the king met Maupertuis, to whom we have already 
 alluded, who was then one of the greatest of European celebri- 
 ties. His discovery of the flattening of the earth at the poles 
 had given him such renown that the kings of Russia, Trance, 
 and Prussia were all lavishing honors upon him. It was a great 
 gratification to Frederick that he had secured his services in or- 
 ganizing the Berlin Academy. While at Wesel the king was 
 seized by a fever, which shut him up for a time in the small 
 chateau of Moylancl. He had never yet met Voltaire, ^and being 
 very anxious to see him, wrote to him as follows, under date of 
 September 6th, 1740: 
 
 " My deae Voltaiee, — In spite of myself, I have to yield to 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 203 
 
 the quartan fever, which is more tenacious than a Jansenist. 
 And whatever desire I had of going to Antwerp and Brussels, 
 I find myself not in a condition to undertake such a journey 
 without risk. I would ask of you, then, if the road from Brus- 
 sels to Cleves would not to you seem too long for a meeting ? 
 It is the one means of seeing you which remains to me. Con- 
 fess that I am unlucky ; for now, when I could dispose of my 
 person, and nothing hinders me from seeing you, the fever gets 
 its hand into the business, and seems to intend disputing me 
 that satisfaction. 
 
 " Let us deceive the fever, my dear Voltaire, and let me have 
 at least the pleasure of embracing you. Make my best excuses 
 to Madame the Marquise that I can not have the satisfaction of 
 seeing her at Brussels. All that are about me know the inten- 
 tion I was in, which certainly nothing but the fever could make 
 me change. 
 
 " Sunday next I shall be at a little place near Cleves, where I 
 shall be able to possess you at my ease. If the sight of you 
 don't cure me, I will send for a confessor at once. Adieu. You 
 know my sentiments and my heart. Frederick." 
 
 In accordance with this request, Voltaire repaired to Cleves to 
 visit the king. Many years afterward, having quarreled with 
 Frederick, and being disposed to represent him in the most un- 
 favorable light, he gave the following account of this interview 
 in his Vie Privee : 
 
 "The king said that he would come and see me incognito at 
 Brussels. But having fallen ill a couple of leagues from Cleves, 
 he wrote me that he expected I would make the advances. I 
 went accordingly to present my profound homages. I found at 
 the gate of the court-yard a single soldier on guard. The privy 
 councilor Kambonet, Minister of State, was walking about the 
 court, blowing on his fingers to warm them. He had on great 
 ruffles of dirty linen, a hat with holes in it, and an old periwig, 
 one end of which hung down into one of his pockets, while the 
 other hardly covered his shoulder. 
 
 " I was conducted into his majesty's apartment, where there 
 was nothing but the bare walls. I perceived in a closet, lit by 
 a single wax candle, a small bed, two feet and a half wide, on 
 
204 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 which lay a little man wrapped up in a cloak of coarse blue 
 cloth. It was the king, who perspired and shivered, under a 
 miserable coverlet, in a violent access of fever. I made my bow, 
 and began the acquaintance by feeling his pulse, as if I had been 
 his first physician. When the fit was passed he dressed himself 
 and came to supper. Algarotti, Keyserling, Maupertuis, and the 
 king's embassador to the States General made up the party. 
 We talked learnedly respecting the immortality of the soul, lib- 
 erty, and the Androgynes of Plato, and other small topics of that 
 nature." 
 
 FKEDERICK S FIRST INTERVIEW WITH VOLTAIRE. 
 
 Frederick, who was then in the zenith of his admiration for 
 Voltaire, describes as follows, in a letter to his friend M. Jordan, 
 his impressions of the interview : 
 
 " I have at length seen Voltaire, whom I was so anxious to 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 205 
 
 know. But, alas ! I saw him when under the influence of my 
 fever, and when my mind and my body were equally languid. 
 With persons like him one ought not to be sick. On the con- 
 trary, one ought to be specially well. He has the eloquence of 
 Cicero, the mildness of Pliny, and the wisdom of Agrippa. He 
 unites, in a word, all the collected virtues and talents of the three 
 greatest men of antiquity. His intellect is always at work. 
 Every drop of ink that falls from his pen is transformed at once 
 into wit. He declaimed his Mahomet to us, an admirable trage- 
 dy which he has composed. I could only admire in silence." 
 
 Indeed, it would seem that, at the time, Voltaire must have 
 been very favorably impressed by the appearance of his royal 
 host. The account he then gave of the interview was very dif- 
 ferent from that which, in his exasperation, he wrote twenty 
 years afterward. In a letter to a friend, M. De Cideville, dated 
 October 18th, 1740, Voltaire wrote: 
 
 "When you sent me, inclosed in your letter, those verses for 
 our Marcus Aurelius of the North, I fully intended to pay my 
 court to him with them. He was at that time to have come to 
 Brussels incognito. But the quartan fever, which unhappily he 
 still has, deranged all his projects. He has sent me a courier to 
 Brussels, and so I set out to find him in the neighborhood of 
 Cleves. 
 
 " It was there that I saw one of the most amiable men in the 
 world, who forms the charm of society, who would be every 
 where sought after if he were not a king; a philosopher without 
 austerity, full of sweetness, complaisance, and obliging ways — 
 not remembering that he is king when he meets his friends ; in- 
 deed, so completely forgetting it that he made me too almost 
 forget it, and I needed an effort of memory to recollect that I 
 here saw, sitting at the foot of my bed, a sovereign who had an 
 army of a hundred thousand men." 
 
206 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 DIPLOMATIC INTRIGUES. 
 
 The Herstal Affair.— The Summons.— Voltaire's Manifesto.— George II. visits Hanover.— The 
 Visit of Wilhelmina to Berlin. — Unpopularity of the King. — Death of the Emperor Charles 
 VI. 
 
 On the River Maas, a few miles north of the present city of 
 Liege, there was a celebrated castle called Herstal. For many 
 generations feudal lords had there displayed their pomp and 
 power; and it had been the theatre not only of princely revelry, 
 but of many scenes of violence and blood. A surrounding terri- 
 tory of a few thousand acres, cultivated by serfs, who were virtu- 
 ally slaves, was the hereditary domain of the petty lords of the 
 castle. A few miles south of the castle there was a monastery 
 called Liege, which was a dependency of the lords of Herstal. 
 
 Amid the vicissitudes of the revolving centuries the rollick- 
 ing lords grew poor, and the frugal monks grew rich. A thrifty 
 city rose around the monastery, and its bishop wielded a power, 
 temporal and spiritual, more potent than had ever issued from 
 the walls of the now crumbling and dilapidated castle. In some 
 of the perplexing diplomatic arrangements of those days, the cas.- 
 tle of Herstal, with its surrounding district, was transferred to 
 Frederick William of Prussia. The peasants, who had heard of 
 the military rigor of Prussia, where almost every able-bodied 
 man was crowded into the army, were exceedingly troubled by 
 this transfer, and refused to take the oath of allegiance to their 
 new sovereign, who had thus succeeded to the ownership of 
 themselves, their flocks, and their herds. The gleaming sabres 
 of Frederick William's dragoons soon, however, brought them to 
 terms. Thus compelled to submission, they remained unrecon- 
 ciled and irritated. Upon the withdrawal of the Prussian troops, 
 the authority of Frederick William over the Herstal people also 
 disappeared, for they greatly preferred the milder rule of the 
 Bishop of Liege. 
 
 The bishop denied that Frederick William had any claim to 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 207 
 
 Herstal. He brought forward a prior claim of his own in be- 
 half of the Church. The Duke of Lorraine, when proprietor of 
 the castle and its dependencies, had pawned it to the bishop for 
 a considerable sum of money. This money, the bishop averred, 
 had never been repaid. Consequently he claimed the property 
 as still in his possession. 
 
 George Lud wig, Count of Berg, who at this time was Bishop 
 of Liege, was a feeble old man, tottering beneath the infirmities 
 of eighty-two years. He did not venture upon physical resist- 
 ance to the power of Prussia, but confined himself to protests, 
 remonstrances, and to the continued exercise of his own govern- 
 mental authority. As Herstal was many leagues distant from 
 Berlin, was of comparatively little value, and could only be reach- 
 ed by traversing foreign states, Frederick William offered to sell 
 all his claims to it for about eighty thousand dollars. The pro- 
 posal not being either accepted or rejected by the bishop, the 
 king, anxious to settle the question before his death, sent an em- 
 bassador to Liege, with full powers to arrange the difficulty by 
 treaty. For three days the embassador endeavored in vain to 
 obtain an audience. He then returned indignantly to Berlin. 
 The king, of course, regarded this treatment as an insult. The 
 bishop subsequently averred that the audience was prevented 
 by his own sickness. Such was the posture of affairs when Fred- 
 erick William died. 
 
 Upon the accession of Frederick the Second, as officers were 
 dispatched through the realm to exact oaths of allegiance, the 
 Herstal people, encouraged by the bishop, refused to acknowl- 
 edge fealty to the new king. Frederick was now in the district 
 of Cleve, in the near vicinity of Herstal. He sent the following 
 very decisive summons to the " Prince Bishop of Liege," dated 
 Wesel, September 4, 1740 : 
 
 " My Cousin, — Knowing all the assaults made by you upon 
 my indisputable rights over my free barony of Herstal, and how 
 the seditious ringleaders there, for several years past, have been 
 countenanced by you in their detestable acts of disobedience 
 against me, I have commanded my privy counselor, Rambonet, 
 to repair to your presence, and in my name to require from you, 
 within two days, a distinct and categorical answer to this ques- 
 tion: 
 
208 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 "Whether you are still minded to assert your pretended sov- 
 ereignty over Herstal, and whether you will protect the rebels 
 at Herstal in their disorders and abominable disobedience ? 
 
 " In case you refuse, or delay beyond the term, the answer 
 which I hereby of right demand, you will render yourself alone 
 responsible, before the world, for the consequences which infalli- 
 bly will follow. I am, with much consideration, my cousin, your 
 very affectionate cousin, Frederick." 
 
 Eambonet presented the peremptory missive, and waited for- 
 ty-eight hours for the answer. He then returned to Wesel with- 
 out any satisfactory reply, Frederick immediately issued a man- 
 ifesto, declaring the reasons for his action, and ordered two thou- 
 sand men, horse and foot, who were all ready for the emergence, 
 to advance immediately to Maaseyk, one of the principal towns 
 of the bishop, take possession of it and of the surrounding re- 
 gion, quarter themselves upon the people, enforce liberal contri- 
 butions, and remain there until the bishop should come to terms.* 
 
 The solid, compact army, with infantry, artillery, and cavalry 
 in the best possible condition, advanced at the double-quick. 
 Arriving at the gates of Maaseyk, not a moment was spent in 
 parleying. " Open the gates instantly," was the summons, " or 
 we shall open them with the petard." 
 
 With great courtesy of words, but pitiless energy of action, 
 General Borck, who was in command, fulfilled his commission. 
 A contribution was exacted of fifteen thousand dollars, to be 
 paid within three days ; sufficient rations were to be furnished 
 daily for the troops, or the general, it was stated, would be un- 
 der the painful necessity of collecting them for himself. Two 
 hundred and fifty dollars a day were to be provided for the gen- 
 eral's private expenses. Remonstrances were of no avail. Re- 
 sistance was not to be thought of. 
 
 * "As the bishops of Liege had been in possession of the contested districts for more than a 
 century, and as Frederick William had not, any more than his predecessors, adopted any vigorous 
 measures to gain possession of them, it is not probable that the claim of Frederick was very well 
 founded. At all events, his conduct was violent and unjust. The inhabitants of these districts 
 had been guilty of no crime but that of avowing their allegiance to the prince whom they had 
 been accustomed to obey, and whom they appear to have considered as their lawful sovereign. 
 When Frederick, therefore, sent his troops to live upon the inhabitants of those districts at dis- 
 cretion, he committed an act of tyranny and of cruelty which nothing in the circumstances of 
 the case could justify." — Memoirs of Voltaire, p. 44. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 209 
 
 The poor old bishop called loudly upon the Emperor of Ger- 
 many for help. The territory of the Bishop of Liege was under 
 the protection of the empire. The Emperor Charles VI. im- 
 mediately issued a decree ordering Frederick to withdraw his 
 troops, to restore the money which he had extorted, and to set- 
 tle the question by arbitration, or by an appeal to the laws of 
 the empire. This w T as the last decree issued by Charles VI. 
 Two weeks after he died. 
 
 Frederick paid no regard to the remonstrance of the emperor. 
 The bishop, in his distress, applied to the French for aid, and 
 then to the Dutch, but all in vain. He then sent an embassy 
 to Berlin, proposing to purchase Herstal. The king consented 
 to sell upon the same terms his father had offered, adding to the 
 sum the expenses of his military expedition and other little items, 
 bringing the amount up to one hundred and eighty thousand 
 dollars. The money was paid, and the Herstal difficulty was 
 settled. This was Frederick's first act of foreign diplomacy. 
 Many severely censured him for the violent course he pursued 
 with a power incapable of resistance. All admitted the energy 
 and sagacity which he had developed in the affair. 
 
 Voltaire, in his Memoirs, says that he drew up the manifesto 
 for Frederick upon this occasion. " The pretext," he writes, " for 
 this fine expedition was certain rights which his majesty pre- 
 tended to have over a part of the suburbs. It was to me he com- 
 mitted the task of drawing up the manifesto, which I performed 
 as well as the nature of the case would let me, never suspecting 
 that a king, with whom I supped, and who called me his friend, 
 could possibly be in the wrong. The affair was soon brought 
 to a conclusion by the payment of a million of livres, which he 
 exacted in good hard ducats, and which served to defray the ex- 
 penses of his tour to Strasbourg, concerning which he complained 
 so loudly in his poetic prose epistle. 
 
 " I represented to him that perhaps it was not altogether pru- 
 dent to print his Anti-Machiavel just at the time that the world 
 might reproach him with having violated, the principles he 
 taught. He permitted me to stop the impression. I accordingly 
 took a journey into Holland purposely to do him this trifling 
 service. But the bookseller demanded so much money that his 
 majesty, who was not in the bottom of his heart vexed to see 
 
 O 
 
210 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 himself in print, was better pleased to be so for nothing, than to 
 pay for not being so. I could not avoid feeling some remorse at 
 being concerned in printing this Anti-Macliiavelian book at the 
 very moment that the King of Prussia, who had a hundred mil- 
 lions in his coffers, was robbing the poor people of Liege of an- 
 other, by the hand of the privy counselor Rambonet."* 
 
 It must be borne in mind that these words were written after 
 Voltaire had quarreled with Frederick, and when it seems to 
 have been his desire to represent all the acts of the king in as 
 unfavorable a light as possible. Frederick himself, about eight 
 years after the settlement of the Herstal difficulty, gave the fol- 
 lowing as his version of the affair : 
 
 "A miserable Bishop of Liege thought it a proud thing to in- 
 sult the late king. Some subjects of Herstal, which belongs to 
 Prussia, had revolted. The bishop gave them his protection. 
 Colonel Kreutzen was sent to Liege to compose the thing by 
 treaty, with credentials and full power. Imagine it ; the bishop 
 would not receive him ! Three days, day after day, he saw this 
 envoy apply at his palace, and always denied him entrance. 
 These things had grown past endurance." 
 
 Frederick returned to Berlin by a circuitous route, which oc- 
 cupied ten days. His uncle, King George II. of England, whom 
 he exceedingly disliked, was then on a visit to his Hanoverian 
 possessions. Frederick passed within a few miles of his Britan- 
 nic majesty without deigning to call upon him. The slight 
 caused much comment in the English papers. It was regarded 
 as of national moment, for it implied that in the complicated 
 policy which then agitated the courts of Europe the sympathies 
 of Prussia would not be with England. 
 
 Soon after this, Frederick's next younger brother, Augustus 
 William, who was heir-presumptive to the throne in default of 
 a son by Frederick, was betrothed to Louisa Amelia of Bruns- 
 wick, younger sister of Frederick's bride. 
 
 About the middle of October Wilhelmina came to Berlin to 
 see her brothers again. Nine years had passed since her mar- 
 riage, and seven since her last sad visit to the home of her child- 
 hood, in which inauspicious visit the wretchedness of her early 
 years had been renewed by the cruelty of her reception. In 
 
 * Memoirs, p. 47, 48. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 211 
 
 Wilhelmina' s journal we find the following allusion to this her 
 second return to Berlin : 
 
 " We arrived at Berlin the end of October. My younger broth- 
 ers, followed by the princes of the blood and by all the court, 
 received us at the bottom of the stairs. I was led to my apart- 
 ment, where I found the reigning queen, my sisters, and the prin- 
 cesses. I learned, with much chagrin, that the king was ill of 
 tertian ague. He sent me word that, being in his fit, he could 
 not see me, but that he depended on having that pleasure to- 
 morrow. The queen -mother, to whom I went without delay, 
 was in a dark condition. Her rooms were all hung in their lu- 
 gubrious drapery. Every thing was as yet in the depth of 
 mourning for my father. What a scene for me ! Nature has 
 her rights. I can say with truth I have almost never in my life 
 been so moved as on this occasion. My interview with my 
 mother was very touching." 
 
 The next morning Frederick hastened to greet his sister. Wil- 
 helmina was not pleased with his appearance. The cares of his 
 new reign entirely engrossed his mind. The dignity of an ab- 
 solute king did not sit gracefully upon him. Though ostenta- 
 tiously demonstrative in his greeting, the delicate instincts of 
 Wilhelmina taught her that her brother's caresses were heart- 
 less. He was just recovering from a fit of the ague, and looked 
 emaciate and sallow. The court was in mourning. During 
 those funereal days no festivities could be indulged in. The 
 queen-mother was decorously melancholy; she seems to have 
 been not only disappointed, but excessively chagrined, to find 
 that she was excluded by her son from the slightest influence in 
 public affairs. The distant, arrogant, and assuming airs of the 
 young king soon rendered him unpopular. 
 
 "A general discontent," writes Wilhelmina, "reigned in the 
 country. The love of his subjects was pretty much gone. Peo- 
 ple spoke of him in no measured terms. Some accused him of 
 caring nothing about those who helped him as Prince Royal. 
 Others complained of his avarice as surpassing that of the late 
 king. He was accused of violence of temper, of a suspicious dis- 
 position, of distrust, haughtiness, dissimulation. I would have 
 spoken to him about these had not my brother Augustus Wil- 
 liam and the queen regnant dissuaded me." . 
 
212 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Frederick invited his sister to visit him at Reinsberg, to which 
 place either business or pleasure immediately called him. After 
 the lapse of two days, Wilhelinina, with the neglected Queen 
 Elizabeth, repaired to the enchanting chateau, hoping to find, 
 amid its rural scenes, that enjoyment which she never yet had 
 been able to find in the sombre halls of the Berlin palace. Here 
 quite a gay company was assembled. Frederick was very labo- 
 riously occupied during the day in affairs of state. But in the 
 evening he appeared in the social circles, attracting the attention 
 of all by his conversational brilliance, and by the apparent hearti- 
 ness with which he entered into the amusements of the court. 
 He took an active part in some private theatricals, and none 
 were aware of the profound schemes of ambition which, cloaked 
 by this external gayety, were engrossing his thoughts. 
 
 On the 25th of October a courier arrived, direct from Vienna, 
 with the startling intelligence that the Emperor Charles VI. had 
 died five clays before. The king was at the time suffering from 
 a severe attack of chills and fever. There was quite a long de- 
 liberation in the court whether it were safe to communicate the 
 agitating intelligence to his majesty while he was so sick. They 
 delayed for an hour, and then cautiously informed the king of 
 the great event. Frederick listened in silence; uttered not a 
 word ; made no sign.* Subsequent events proved that his soul 
 must have been agitated by the tidings to its profoundest depths. 
 The death of the emperor, at that time, was unexpected. But it 
 is pretty evident that Frederick had, in the sombre recesses of 
 his mind, resolved upon a course of action when the emperor 
 should die which he knew would be fraught with the most mo- 
 mentous results. In fact, this action proved the occasion of wars 
 and woes from which, could the king have foreseen them, he 
 would doubtless have shrunk back appalled. 
 
 The Emperor Charles VI. left no son. He therefore promul- 
 gated a new law of succession in a decree known throughout 
 
 * " His majesty," says M. Bielfeld, "did not appear to be greatly moved. But what fol- 
 lowed convinces me that he possesses the art of composing his countenance, and, that the emo- 
 tion passed within ; for he rose soon after, sent for M.Von Eichel, secretary of the cabinet, and 
 commanded him to write to Marshal Schwerin and M.Von Podewils, Minister for Foreign Af- 
 fairs, and order them to come immediately to Reinsberg. These gentlemen arrived forthwith.. 
 They daily held long and very secret conferences with his majesty. They say that sovereigns 
 have sometimes authority even over their infirmities. The fever has shown itself docile to the 
 will of the monarch, for after two slight attacks it has entirely left him." — Letters, vol. iv., p. 18. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 213 
 
 Europe as the " Pragmatic Sanction." By the custom of the 
 realm the sceptre could descend only to male heirs. But by this 
 decree the king declared that the crown of the house of Haps- 
 burg should be transmitted to his daughter, Maria Theresa. 
 This law had been ratified by the estates of all the kingdoms 
 and principalities which composed the Austrian monarchy. All 
 the leading powers of Europe — England, France, Spain, Prussia, 
 Russia, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, and the Germanic body — had 
 bound themselves by treaty to maintain the "Pragmatic Sanc- 
 tion." It was a peaceable and wise arrangement, acceptable to 
 the people of Austria and to the dynasties of Europe as a means 
 of averting a war of succession, w T hich might involve all the na- 
 tions of the Continent in the conflict. 
 
 The death-scene of the emperor was an event which must in- 
 terest every reader. Upon his return from a hunting excursion 
 into Hungary, he was attacked, on Thursday evening, October 
 16th, by slight indisposition, which was supposed to have been 
 caused by eating imprudently of mushrooms. His sickness, baf- 
 fling the skill of the doctors, increased, and by Saturday night 
 became alarming. On Tuesday it was thought that he was dy- 
 ing. The pope's nuncio administered to him the sacrament of 
 the Lord's Supper. His majesty manifested great composure in 
 view of the sublime change before him, and said to one who was 
 weeping at his bedside, 
 
 " I am not afraid in contemplating the dread tribunal before 
 which I must now so soon appear. I am certain of my cause. 
 Look at me! A "man that is certain of his cause can enter on 
 such a journey with good courage and a composed mind." 
 
 To his physicians, who were doubtful respecting the nature 
 of his disease, he said, " If Doctor Gazelli were here you would 
 soon know what is my complaint. As it is, you will only learn 
 after you have dissected me." 
 
 He then requested to be shown the cup in which his heart 
 would be placed after that operation. His daughter, Maria 
 Theresa, who had married the Grand-duke Francis, was in a 
 delicate state of health. The death of her father would place 
 the weighty crown upon her youthful brow. Grief and agita- 
 tion threw her helpless upon her bed. So important was her 
 life to the world that the emperor was unwilling that, in her 
 
214 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 then condition, she should enter the death-chamber. " Tell my 
 Theresa," said he, in faint and dying accents, " that I bless her, 
 notwithstanding her absence." 
 
 The empress had fainted away at the bedside, and had been 
 borne, in the arms of the attendants, into her daughter Maria 
 Theresa's chamber. She was now summoned, with the younger 
 children, for the final adieu. As the empress, almost delirious 
 with grief, re-entered the apartment, she threw herself upon the 
 bed of her dying husband, and exclaimed, in frenzied tones, " Do 
 not leave me ! Do not leave me !" 
 
 During all the day of Wednesday weeping friends stood 
 around the bed, as the lamp of life flickered in its socket. Ev- 
 ery moment it was expected that the emperor would breathe his 
 last. At two o'clock the next morning the spirit took its flight, 
 and the lifeless clay alone remained. The grief- stricken empress 
 closed the eyes of her departed husband, kissed his hands, and 
 " was carried out more dead than alive." Thus ended the male 
 line of the house of Hapsburg, after Hve centuries of royal sway. 
 The emperor died on the 20th of October 1740, in the fifty-sixth 
 year of his age. 
 
 As Frederick received the tidings of this death, he rose, dress- 
 ed himself, and his ague disappeared, to return no more. A 
 courier was immediately dispatched, at the top of his speed, to 
 summon to his presence General Schwerin and M. Podewils, his 
 chief minister. Two days must elapse before they could reach 
 him. In the mean time, the king, taking counsel of no one, was 
 maturing his plans, and making quiet but vigorous preparations 
 for their execution. He wrote the next day to Voltaire, in allu- 
 sion to the emperor's death, 
 
 " I believe that there will, by June next, be more talk' of can- 
 non, soldiers, trenches, than of actresses and dancers for the bal- 
 let. This small event changes the entire system of Europe. It 
 is the little stone which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, loos- 
 ening itself and rolling down on the image made of four metals, 
 which it shivers to ruin." 
 
 On the southeast frontier of Prussia, between that kingdom, 
 and Poland, and Hungary, there was an Austrian realm called 
 Silesia. The country embraced a territory of twenty thousand 
 square miles, being about twice as large as the State of Vermont. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 215 
 
 THE DEATH-SCENE OF THE EMPEROR. 
 
 The population was about two millions. For more than a cen- 
 tury Silesia had been a portion of the Austrian kingdom. Time, 
 and the assent of Europe, had sanctioned the title. 
 
 But the young King Frederick was very ambitious of enlarg- 
 ing the borders of his Liliputian realm, and of thus attaining a 
 higher position among the proud and powerful monarchs who 
 surrounded him. Maria Theresa, who had inherited the ci;own 
 of Austria, was a remarkably beautiful, graceful, and accomplish- 
 
216 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ed young lady, in the twenty-fourth year of her age. She was 
 a young wife, having married Francis, Duke of Lorraine. Her 
 health, as we have mentioned, was at that time delicate. Fred- 
 erick thought the opportunity a favorable one for wresting Sile- 
 sia from Austria, and annexing it to his own kingdom. The 
 queen was entirely inexperienced, and could not prove a very 
 formidable military antagonist. Her army was in no respect, 
 either in number, discipline, or materiel, prepared for war. Her 
 treasury was deplorably empty. There was also reason for 
 Frederick to hope that several claimants would rise in opposi- 
 tion to her, disputing the succession. 
 
 On the other hand, Frederick himself was in the very prime 
 of manhood. He was ambitious of military renown. He had 
 a compact army of one hundred thousand men, in better drill 
 and more amply provided with all the apparatus of war than 
 any other troops in Europe. The frugality of his father had 
 left him with a treasury full to overflowing. To take military 
 possession of Silesia would be a very easy thing. There was 
 nothing to obstruct the rush of his troops across the frontiers. 
 There were no strongly garrisoned fortresses, and not above 
 three thousand soldiers in the whole realm. No one even sus- 
 pected that Frederick would lay any claim to the territory, or 
 that there was the slightest danger of invasion. The compli- 
 cated claim which he finally presented, in official manifestoes, 
 was founded upon transactions which had taken place a hun- 
 dred years before. In conversation with his friends he did not 
 lay much stress upon any legitimate title he had to the territo- 
 ry. He frankly admitted, to quote his own words, that u ambi- 
 tion, interest, the desire of making people talk about me, carried 
 the day, and I decided for war.""* 
 
 The general voice of history has severely condemned the 
 Prussian king for this invasion of Silesia. Frederick probably 
 
 * Macaulay, speaking of the claims of Frederick to Silesia, says : " They amount to this, that 
 the house of Brandenburg had some ancient pretensions to Silesia, and had, in the previous cen- 
 tury, been compelled, by hard usage on the part of the court of Vienna, to waive those preten- 
 sions. It is certain that, whoever might have been originally in the right, Prussia had submit- 
 ted. Prince after prince of the house of Brandenburg had acquiesced in the existing arrange- 
 ment. Nay, the court of Berlin had recently been allied with that of Vienna, and had guaran- 
 teed the integrity of the Austrian states. Is it not perfectly clear that, if antiquated claims are 
 to be set up against recent treaties and long possession, the world can never be at peace for a 
 day?" — Life of Frederick the Great, by Macaulay, p. 62. 
 
EEEDEEICK THE GEEAT. 
 
 217 
 
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 SWBEWERG pBAUMEAIITEr 
 
 MAP OF SILESIA. 
 
 owed his life to the interposition of the father of Maria Theresa, 
 when the young prince was threatened with the scaffold by his 
 own father. Prussia was bound by the most solemn guarantees 
 to respect the integrity of the Austrian states. There was seem- 
 ingly a great want of magnanimity in taking advantage of the 
 extreme youth, inexperience, and delicate health of the young 
 queen, who was also embarrassed by an empty treasury and a 
 weakened and undisciplined army. Frederick had also made, 
 in his Anti-Machiavel, loud protestations of his love of justice 
 and magnanimity. Mr. Carlyle, while honestly stating these 
 facts, still does not blame Frederick for seizing the opportunity 
 which the death of the emperor presented for him to enlarge his 
 dominions by plundering the domain of Maria Theresa. 
 
 " It is almost touching," Mr. Carlyle writes, " to reflect how 
 unexpectedly, like a bolt out of the blue, all this had come upon 
 Frederick, and how it overset his fine programme for the winter 
 at Rein sb erg, and for his life generally. Not the Peaceable 
 magnanimities, but the Warlike, are the thing appointed Fred- 
 erick this winter, and mainly henceforth. Those ' golden or soft 
 radiances' which we saw in him, admirable to Voltaire and to 
 Frederick, and to an esurient philanthropic world, it is not 
 
218 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 those, it is the ' steel bright or stellar kind' that are to become 
 predominant in Frederick's existence ; grim hail-storms, thunders, 
 and tornado for an existence to him instead of the opulent geni- 
 alities and halcyon weather anticipated by himself and others. 
 
 " Indisputably enough to us, if not yet to Frederick, ' Reins- 
 berg and Life to the Muses' are done. On a sudden, from the 
 opposite side of the horizon, see miraculous Opportunity rushing 
 hitherward ; swift, terrible, clothed with lightning like a courser 
 of the gods ; dare you clutch him by the thunder-mane, and fling 
 yourself upon him, and make for the Empyrean by that course 
 rather ? Be immediate about it, then; the time is now or never ! 
 No fair judge can blame the young man that he laid hold of the 
 flaming Opportunity in this manner, and obeyed the new omen. 
 To seize such an Opportunity and perilously mount upon it was 
 the part of a young, magnanimous king, less sensible to the per- 
 ils and more to the other considerations than one older would 
 have been."* 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE INVASION OF SILESIA. 
 
 Deceptive Measures of Frederick. — Plans for the Invasion of Silesia. — Avowed Reasons for the 
 Invasion. — The Ball in Berlin. — The March of the Army. — Hardships and Successes. — Let- 
 ter to Voltaire. — Capture of Glogau. — Capture of Brieg. — Bombardment of Neisse. 
 
 With the utmost secrecy Frederick matured his plans. It 
 could not be concealed that he was about to embark in some 
 important military enterprise. The embassadors from other 
 courts exerted all their ingenuity, but in vain, to ascertain in 
 what direction the army was to march. Though the Freneh had 
 an embassador at Berlin, still it would seem that Voltaire was 
 sent as a spy, under the guise of friendship, to attempt to ferret 
 out the designs of the king. These men, who did not profess 
 any regard to the principles of religion, seem also to have tram- 
 
 * The King of Prussia, the Anti-Machiavel, had already fully determined to commit the great 
 crime of violating his plighted faith, of robbing the ally whom he was bound to defend, and of 
 plunging all Europe into a long, bloody, and desolating war, and all this for no other end what- 
 ever except that he might extend his dominions and see his name in the gazettes. He deter- 
 mined to assemble a great army with speed and secrecy to invade Silesia before Maria Theresa 
 should be apprised of his design, and to add that rich province to his kingdom." — Life of Fred- 
 erick the Great, by Macaulay, p. 61. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 219 
 
 pled under feet all the instincts of honor. Voltaire endeavored 
 to conceal his treachery beneath smiles and flattery, writing even 
 love verses to the king. The king kept his own secret. Vol- 
 taire was not a little chagrined by his want of success. In his 
 billet of leave he wrote : 
 
 "Non, malgre tos rertus, non malgre vos appas, 
 Mon ame n'est point satisfaite : 
 Non, vous n'etes qu'une coquette, 
 Qui subjuguez les cceurs, et ne vous donnez pas."* 
 
 Frederick, while equally complimentary, while lavishing gifts 
 and smiles upon his guest, to whom he had written that as there 
 " could be but one God, so there could be but one Voltaire," 
 wrote from Ruppin to M. Jordan, on the 28th of November, just 
 before Voltaire took his leave, 
 
 " Thy miser" (Voltaire) " shall drink to the lees of his insa- 
 tiable desire to enrich himself. He shall have the three thou- 
 sand thalers [$2250]. He was with me six days. That will 
 be at the rate of five hundred thalers [$375] a day. That is 
 paying dearly for a fool. Never had court fool such wages be- 
 fore." 
 
 The Austrian envoy expressed to his court a suspicion that 
 Silesia might be threatened. The reply which came back was 
 that the Austrian court would not, and could not, believe that 
 a prince who was under such obligations to the father of Maria 
 Theresa, and who had made such loud professions of integrity 
 and philanthropy, could be guilty of such an outrage. 
 
 Frederick did what he could to divert the attention of the 
 court at Reinsberg by multiplying gayeties of every kind. There 
 was feasting, and music, and dancing, and theatric exhibitions, 
 often continuing until four o'clock in the morning. In the mean 
 time couriers were coming and going. Troops were moving. 
 Provisions and the materiel of war were accumulating. Anx- 
 ious embassadors watched every movement of the king's hand, 
 weighed every word which escaped his lips, and tried every 
 adroit measure to elicit from him his secret. The Danish min- 
 ister, Pratorius, wrote to his court from Berlin : 
 
 * No, notwithstanding your A-irtues, notwithstanding your attractions, 
 
 My soul is not satisfied. 
 No, you are but a coquette ; 
 You subjugate the hearts of others, and do not give your own. 
 
220 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " From all persons who return from Reinsberg the unanimous 
 report is that the king works the whole day through with an 
 assiduity which is unique, and then, in the evening, gives him- 
 self to the pleasures of society with a vivacity of mirth and 
 sprightly humor, which makes those evening parties charming." 
 
 The Marquis of Botta, the Austrian envoy, endeavoring to pen- 
 etrate the plans of Frederick, descanted upon the horrible con- 
 dition of the roads in Silesia, which province he had traversed 
 in coming to Berlin. The king listened with a quiet smile, and 
 then, with much apparent indifference, replied, 
 
 " The worst which can happen to those who wish to travel in 
 Silesia is to get spattered with the mud." 
 
 The English envoy, Sir Gruy Dickens, being utterly baffled in 
 all his endeavors to discover the enterprise upon which the king 
 was about to embark, wrote to his court : 
 
 " Nobody here, great or small, dares make any representation 
 to this young prince against the measures he is pursuing, though 
 all are sensible of the confusion which must follow. A prince 
 who had the least regard to honor, truth, and justice, could not 
 act the part he is going to do. But it is plain his only view is 
 to deceive us all, and conceal for a while his ambitious and mis- 
 chievous designs." 
 
 Dickens at length ventured to ask the king directly, " What 
 shall I write to England V 
 
 Frederick angrily replied, " You can have no instructions to 
 ask that question. And if you had, I have an answer ready for 
 you. England has no right to inquire into my designs. Your 
 great sea armaments, did I ask you any question about them ? 
 No ! I was, and am, silent on that head."* 
 
 * In this wicked Avorld power seldom respects weakness. No sooner was the emperor dead 
 than four claimants sprang up to wrest from Maria Theresa a part or the whole of the kingdoms 
 she had inherited from her father ; and this, notwithstanding nearly all the powers of Europe 
 had guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction. The Elector of Bavaria claimed Bohemia, from an 
 article in the will of the Emperor Ferdinand I. , made two centuries before. The King of Po- 
 land demanded the whole Austrian succession, in virtue of the right of his wife, who was the 
 eldest daughter of the Emperor Joseph, elder brother of Charles VI. The King of Spain 
 claimed all the Austrian possessions, in consequence of his descent from the wife of Philip II., 
 who was daughter of the Emperor Maximilian. The King of Sardinia hunted up an obsolete 
 claim to the duchy of Milan. But for the embarrassment into which these claims plunged Ma- 
 ria Theresa, Frederick would hardly have ventured to invade the province of Silesia. The woes 
 which, in consequence, desolated the nations of Europe, no mind but that of the omniscient God 
 can gauge. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 221 
 
 By the 10th of December, within a fortnight of the time that 
 the king received the tidings of the death of the emperor, he had 
 collected such a force on the frontiers of Silesia that there could 
 be no question that the invasion of that province was intended. 
 As not the slightest preparation had been made on the part of 
 Austria to meet such an event, the king could with perfect ease 
 overrun the province and seize all its fortresses. But Austria 
 was, in territory, resources, and military power, vastly stronger 
 than Prussia. It was therefore scarcely possible that Frederick 
 could hold the province, after he had seized it, unless he could 
 encourage others to dispute the succession of Maria Theresa, and 
 thus involve Europe in a general war. Frederick, having made 
 all his arrangements for prompt and vigorous action, sent to 
 Maria Theresa a message which could be regarded only as an 
 insult : 
 
 " Surrender to me peaceably," was the substance of this de- 
 mand, " the province of Silesia, and I will be the ally of your maj- 
 esty in maintaining your right to the throne, and in defending 
 the integrity of all the rest of your realms. I will exert my in- 
 fluence to have the Grand -duke Francis* chosen Emperor of 
 Germany, and will also immediately pay one million of dollars 
 into the Austrian treasury." 
 
 An embassador, Count De Gotter, was sent to Vienna to pre- 
 sent this demand to Maria Theresa. He wa£ authorized, in case 
 these terms were not accepted, to declare war. But in the mean 
 time, before the count could possibly reach Vienna, consequently 
 before there was any declaration of war, or even any demand 
 presented, Frederick, at the head of his troops, had entered Sile- 
 sia, and was seizing its defenseless fortresses, f 
 
 As the king was about to embark upon this enterprise, it was 
 proposed to place upon the banners the words "For God and our 
 Country." But Frederick struck out the words " For God," say- 
 ing that it was improper to introduce the name of the Deity into 
 the quarrels of men, and that he was embarking in war to gain 
 a province, not for religion. J In a brief speech to his soldiers 
 he said, 
 
 " Gentlemen, I do not look upon you as my subjects, but as 
 my friends. The troops of Brandenburg have always signalized 
 
 * The husband of Maria Theresa. t Voltaire's Age of Louis XV., vol. i., p. 54. t Id. 
 
222 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 themselves by their courage, and given, on different occasions, 
 the fullest evidences of their bravery. I shall be an eye-witness 
 to all your exploits. You will always fight in my presence. I 
 will recompense those who shall distinguish themselves for their 
 zeal in my service rather as a father than as a sovereign." 
 
 In reference to this campaign the king subsequently wrote: 
 " At the death of the emperor there were but two Austrian reg- 
 iments in Silesia. Being determined to assert my right to that 
 duchy, I was obliged to make war during the winter, that I might 
 make the banks of the Neisse the scene of action. Had I waited 
 till the spring, what we gained by one single march would cer- 
 tainly have cost us three or four difficult campaigns."* 
 
 To the summons which Frederick sent to Maria Theresa, de- 
 manding the surrender of Silesia, no response could be returned, 
 consistent with the dignity of the crown, but a peremptory re- 
 fusal. The reply was unanswerable in its logic. Though it 
 was, in general, couched in courteous terms, one sentence crept 
 into it of rather scornful defiance. 
 
 " It seems strange," said the Austrian minister of war, " that 
 his Prussian majesty, whose official post in Germany, as cham- 
 berlain of the emperor, is to present the basin and towel to the 
 house of Austria, should now presume to prescribe rules to it." 
 
 On Tuesday night, the 12th of December, 1740, there was a 
 very splendid masked ball in Berlin. The king and queen were 
 both present. The mind of the king was evidently preoccupied, 
 though he endeavored to assume an air of gayety. Privately 
 quitting the ball at a late hour, he set out, early in the morning, 
 to place himself at the head of forty thousand troops whom he 
 had assembled near the Silesian frontier. A small escort only 
 accompanied him. It was a cold winter's day. Driving rapid- 
 ly, they reached Frankfort that night, sixty miles distant. In 
 the dawn of the next day the king was again upon the road, 
 and, after a drive of forty miles, reached Crossen, a border town, 
 where he established his head-quarters. 
 
 Two Silesian barons called upon him, and presented, a protest 
 from the authorities they represented against his meditated in- 
 vasion, the design of which was now manifest to all. The king 
 received them very courteously, tossed the protest to a secretary 
 
 * Military Instructions, p. 171. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 223 
 
 to file away or to cast into the waste-paper basket, and invited 
 the two gentlemen to dine with him. 
 
 The next day the Prussian army, in two divisions, occupying 
 a space about ten miles long and ten broad in the lines of march, 
 crossed the frontiers, and entered the Silesian territory.* Fred- 
 erick issued a proclamation declaring that he had come as a 
 friend ; that no one would be molested in person, property, or 
 religious privileges; and that every thing used by the army 
 would be amply paid for. 
 
 In very rapid march, the troops advanced through Griinberg 
 toward Glogau, about forty miles in the interior. Here there 
 was a fortified town, which was considered the key of Northern 
 Silesia. It was but feebly garrisoned, and was entirely unpre- 
 pared for resistance. By great exertions, the Austrian governor 
 of the province, Count Wallis, and his second in command, Gen- 
 eral Browne, succeeded in placing behind the works a little gar- 
 rison of one thousand men. The whole population was sum- 
 moned to work upon the ramparts. Count Wallis remained in 
 Glogau. General Browne took command of the troops and gar- 
 risons abroad. But there was a division of sentiment within 
 the walls. Quite a large portion of the population was Protest- 
 ant, and would be glad to come under the protection of Protest- 
 ant Prussia. The Catholics were zealous for the continued reign 
 of Austria. 
 
 The Prussian troops, meeting with no opposition, spread over 
 the country, and a strong division reached Weichau on Saturday, 
 the 17th. There they spent Sunday in rest. Frederick was 
 anxious to win to his cause the Protestant population. He con- 
 sequently favored their religious institutions, and ordered that 
 Protestant worship should be held in the villages which he oc- 
 cupied, and where there was no Protestant church edifice, one 
 part of the day in the Catholic churches. This plan he contin- 
 ued through the campaign, much to the gratification of the chap- 
 lains of his regiments and the Protestant community in Silesia. 
 Though the Austrian government had not been particularly op- 
 pressive to the Protestants, still it leaned decidedly against what 
 
 * The army with which Frederick invaded Silesia consisted of a general force of 28,000 men, 
 which was followed hy a rear-guard of 12,000. He had, in all, about 12,000 cavalry. The re- 
 mainder were foot soldiers. The artillery consisted of 20 three-pounders, 4 twelve-pounders, 4 
 howitzers, and 4 large mortars of fifty-pounds calibre. His artillerymen numbered 166. 
 
224 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 THE MARCH INTO SILESIA. 
 
 it deemed heresy. The Jesuits, favored by the governmental of- 
 ficials, were unwearied in their endeavors to promote the inter- 
 ests of their Church. Frederick, by allowing the impression to 
 be spread abroad that he was the champion of Protestantism, 
 was enabled to secure the sympathies of quite a strong party in 
 Silesia in his favor. It is said that two thirds of the inhabitants 
 of Silesia were Protestants, and therefore favorable to Frederick. 
 
 In the suburbs of Glogau there was a Protestant church which 
 Count Wallis deemed it a military necessity to order to be burn- 
 ed down, lest it should protect the Prussians in their attack. 
 " The Prussians," said Wallis, " will make a block-houser of it." 
 The Protestants pleaded earnestly for a brief respite, and sent a 
 delegation to Frederick to intercede for the safety of their church. 
 The king very courteously, and with shrewd policy, replied, 
 
 " You are the first who have asked any favor of me on Sile- 
 sian ground. Your request shall be granted." 
 
 Immediately he sent a polite note to Count Wallis, assuring 
 him that the attack, if attack were necessary, should be made on 
 the other side of the city, so that no military advantage could 
 be taken of the church. This popular act resounded widely not 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 225 
 
 only through the Protestant community of Silesia, but through- 
 out Europe. 
 
 Monday morning, December 19th, the army was again on the 
 move, now spread out into a length of nearly fifteen miles, and 
 even more than that in breadth. Concentration was unnecessa- 
 ry, as there was no foe to be encountered. The occupation of 
 this wide area enabled Frederick to take advantage of good 
 roads, and also to obtain abundance of supplies. Their advance 
 led them in a southerly direction, up the western banks of the 
 Oder, which stream here runs nearly north. 
 
 It seems to be ever the doom of an army to encounter mud 
 and rain. It was cold, gloomy, December weather. The troops 
 were drenched and chilled by the floods continually falling from 
 the clouds. The advance of the army was over a flat country 
 where the water stood in pools. All day long, Monday and 
 Tuesday, the rain continued to fall without intermission. But 
 the Prussian army, under its impetuous leader, paid no regard to 
 the antagonistic elements. 
 
 "Waters all out, bridges down," writes Carlyle; "the country 
 one wide lake of eddying mud ; up to the knee for many miles 
 together ; up to the middle for long spaces ; sometimes even to 
 the chin or deeper, where your bridge was washed away. The 
 Prussians marched through it as if they had been slate or iron. 
 Kank and file — nobody quitted his rank, nobody looked sour in 
 the face — they took the pouring of the skies and the red seas of 
 terrestrial liquid as matters that must be ; cheered one another 
 with jocosities, with choral snatches, and swashed unweariedly 
 forward. Ten hours some of them were out, their march bein^ 
 twenty or twenty-five miles." 
 
 They reached Milkau Tuesday night, the 20th. Here they 
 were allowed one day of rest, and Frederick gave each soldier a 
 gratuity of about fifteen cents. On Thursday the march was re- 
 sumed, and the advance-guard of the army was rapidly gathered 
 around Grlogau, behind whose walls Count Wallis had posted 
 his intrepid little garrison of a thousand men. Here Frederick 
 encountered his first opposition. The works were found too 
 strong to be carried by immediate assault, and Frederick had 
 not yet brought forward his siege cannon. The following ex- 
 tracts from the correspondence which Frederick carried on at 
 
 P 
 
226 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 this time develop the state of public sentiment, and the views 
 and character of the king. His friend Jordan, who had been 
 left in Berlin, wrote to him as follows, under date of December 
 14, 1740, the day after the king left to place himself at the head 
 of his army : 
 
 " Every body here is on tiptoe for the event, of which both 
 origin and end are a riddle to most. Those who, in the style 
 of theologians, consider themselves entitled to be certain, main- 
 tain that your majesty is expected with religious impatience by 
 the Protestants ; and that the Catholics hope to see themselves 
 delivered from a multitude of imposts, which cruelly tear up the 
 beautiful bosom of their Church. You can not but succeed in 
 your valiant and stoical enterprise, since both religion and world- 
 ly interest rank themselves under your flag. Wallis, they say, 
 has punished a Silesian heretic, of enthusiastic turn, as blasphem- 
 er, for announcing that a new Messiah is just coming. I have a 
 taste for that kind of martyrdom. Critical persons consider the 
 present step as directly opposed to certain maxims in the Anti- 
 MacMavel." 
 
 Again M. Jordan wrote, a week later, on the 20th of Decem- 
 ber: 
 
 "The day before yesterday, in all churches, was prayer to 
 Heaven for success to your majesty's arms, interest of the Prot- 
 estant religion being one cause of the war, or the only one as- 
 signed by the reverend gentleman. At the sound of these words 
 the zeal of the people kindles. - Bless God for raising such a 
 defender ! Who dared suspect our king's indifference to Prot- 
 estantism V " 
 
 On the 19th of December the king wrote, from the vicinity of 
 Grlogau, to M. Jordan. Perhaps he would not so frankly have 
 revealed his ambition and his want of principle had he supposed 
 that the private letter would be exposed to the perusal of the 
 whole civilized w r orld. 
 
 " Seigneur Jordan," the king writes, " thy letter has given me 
 a great deal of pleasure in regard to all these talkings thou re- 
 portest. To-morrow I arrive at our last station this side of Glo- 
 gau, which place I hope to get in a few days. All things favor 
 my designs ; and I hope to return to Berlin, after executing them, 
 gloriously, and in a way to be content with. Let the ignorant 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 227 
 
 and the envious talk. It is not they who shall ever serve as 
 load-star to my designs ; not they, but glory. With the love 
 of that I am penetrated more than ever. My troops have their 
 hearts big with it, and I answer to thee for success. Adieu ! 
 dear Jordan. Write me all the ill the public says of thy friend, 
 and be persuaded that I love and will esteem thee always." 
 
 To Voltaire the king wrote, in a very similar strain, four days 
 later, on the 23d of December: 
 
 " My dear Voltaire, — I have received two of your letters, 
 but could not answer sooner. I am like Charles Twelfth's chess 
 king, who was always on the move. For a fortnight past we 
 have been kept continually afoot and under way in such weath- 
 er as you never saw. 
 
 " I am too tired to reply to your delightful verses, and shiver- 
 ing too much with cold to taste all the charm of them. But 
 that will come round again. Do not ask poetry from a man 
 who is actually doing the work of a wagoner, and sometimes 
 even of a wagoner stuck in the mud. Would you like to know 
 my way of life ? We march from seven in the morning till four 
 in the afternoon. I dine then ; afterward I work — I receive tire- 
 some visits; with these comes a detail of insipid matters of bus- 
 iness. 'Tis wrong-headed men, punctiliously difficult, who are to 
 be set right ; heads too hot which must be restrained, idle fel- 
 lows that must be urged, impatient men that must be rendered 
 docile, plunderers to be restrained within the bounds of equity, 
 babblers to hear babbling, dumb people to keep in talk ; in fine, 
 one has to drink .with those that like it, to eat with those who 
 are hungry ; one has to become a Jew with Jews, a pagan with 
 pagans. Such are my occupations, which I would willingly 
 make over to another if the phantom they call glory did not rise 
 on me too often. In truth, it is a great folly, but a folly difficult 
 to cast away when once you are smitten by it. 
 
 " Adieu, my dear Voltaire ! May Heaven preserve from mis- 
 fortune the man I should so like to sup with at night after fight- 
 ing in the morning. Do not forget the absent who love you. 
 
 " Frederick." 
 
 As we have mentioned, the army advanced mainly in two col- 
 
228 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 unms. While the left was briefly delayed at Glogau, the right, 
 under the command of General Schwerin, was pushed rapidly 
 forward a few leagues, to Liegnitz. They reached the city, un- 
 expectedly to its inhabitants, just at the dawn of a drear, chill 
 winter's morning, the rain having changed to freezing cold. It 
 was Wednesday, December 28. The Prussian grenadiers stole 
 softly .upon the slumbering sentinels, seized them, and locked 
 them in the guard-house. Then the whole column marched into 
 the heart of the city silently, without music, but with a tramp 
 which aroused all the sleepers in the streets through which they 
 passed — many of whom, in their night-caps, peered curiously out 
 of their chamber windows. Having reached the central square, 
 or market-place, the forces were concentrated, and the drums and 
 bugles pealed forth notes of triumph. The Prussian flag rose 
 promptly from rampart and tower. Liegnitz was essentially a 
 Protestant town. The inhabitants, who had received but few 
 favors from the Catholic Austrian government, welcomed their 
 invaders with cautious demonstrations of joy. 
 
 Frederick, having completed the investment of Glogau, cutting 
 off all its supplies, left a sufficient detachment there to starve the 
 city into submission. There were about seven thousand inhab- 
 itants within the walls — " a much-enduring, frugal, pious, and 
 very desirable people." As it was probable that the feeble gar- 
 rison, after a brief show of resistance, would surrender, Frederick 
 hastened in person, with all his remaining available troops, to- 
 ward Breslau, the capital of Silesia. On the 27th he wrote to 
 M. Jordan : 
 
 " I march to-morrow for Breslau, and shall be there in four 
 days. You Berliners have a spirit of prophecy which goes be- 
 yond me. In fine, I go my road ; and you will shortly see Sile- 
 sia ranked in the list of our provinces. Adieu ! this is all I have 
 time to tell you. Keligion and our brave soldiers will do the 
 rest." 
 
 With almost unprecedented rapidity Frederick pressed his 
 troops along, accomplishing " in three marches near upon seventy 
 miles." The course of the Oder here is, in its general direction, 
 northwest. The army marched along its southwestern banks. 
 On Saturday evening, the last day of the year, the advance-guard 
 took possession of the southern and western suburbs of Breslau. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 229 
 
 The city, of one hundred thousand inhabitants, was spread out 
 over both banks of the stream. Frederick established his head- 
 quarters at the palace of Pilsnitz, about five miles from the city. 
 There were many Protestants in Breslau, who rejoiced in the 
 idea of exchanging a Catholic for a Protestant government. It 
 is said that some of the sentinels on the walls would watch their 
 opportunity and present arms to the Prussian soldiers, and even 
 at times exclaim, " Welcome, dear sirs !" 
 
 Before sunrise Sunday morning the Prussians had seized upon 
 many important posts. About seven o'clock a flag of truce, or 
 rather a trumpeter, ajDproached one of the gates, demanding ad- 
 mittance to communicate to the chief magistrate of the city the 
 intentions and requisitions of the Prussian king. After some 
 delay, two colonels were admitted. They demanded the entire 
 surrender of the city, and that the authority of Frederick, the 
 Kins; of Prussia, should be recognized instead of that of Maria 
 Theresa, Queen of Austria. All their local laws and customs 
 were to be respected, and they were to be protected in all their 
 rights and privileges. Their own garrison should guard the 
 city. No Prussian soldier should enter the gates with other than 
 side-arms. The king himself, in taking possession of the city, 
 should be accompanied by a.bocly-guarcl of but thirty men. The 
 city council was assembled to consider this summons, and thirty 
 hours were spent in anxious deliberation. 
 
 In the mean time Frederick took positions which commanded 
 the three gates on his, the southern, side of the river; construct- 
 ed abridge of boats; and sent four hundred men across the 
 stream, and made preparations to force an entrance. At four 
 o'clock in the afternoon of Monday, not a gun having yet been 
 fired, a messenger brought the intelligence that the town would 
 be surrendered. At eight o'clock the next morning, Tuesday, 
 3d of January, 1741, the city authorities came in their coaches, 
 with much parade, to welcome their new sovereign. It was a 
 bitter cold morning. The king had ridden away to reconnoitre 
 the walls in their whole circuit. It was not until near noon that 
 he was prepared to accompany the officials to the palace which 
 was made ready for him. He then, on horseback, attended by 
 his principal officers, and followed by an imposing retinue, in a 
 grand entrance, proudly took possession of his easy conquest. 
 
230 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 He rode a very magnificent gray charger, and wore his usual 
 cocked hat and a blue cloak, both of which were somewhat the 
 worse for wear. Four footmen, gorgeously dressed in scarlet, 
 trimmed with silver lace, walked by the side of his horse. The 
 streets through which he passed were thronged, and the win- 
 dows and balconies were crowded with spectators of both sexes. 
 Though Frederick did not meet with an enthusiastic reception, 
 he was very gracious, bowing to the people on each side of the 
 street, and saluting with much courtesy those who seemed to be 
 people of note. 
 
 On the evening of the 5th his Prussian majesty gave a grand 
 ball. All the nobility, high and low, were invited. The provi- 
 dent king arranged that the expenses, which he was to defray, 
 should not exceed half a guinea for each guest. Early hours 
 were fashionable in those days. Frederick entered the assem- 
 bly-rooms at six o'clock, and opened the ball with a Silesian lady. 
 He was very complaisant, and walked through the rooms with a 
 smile upon his countenance, conversing freely with the most dis- 
 tinguished of his guests. About ten o'clock he silently with- 
 drew, but the dancing and feasting continued until a late hour. 
 
 The king exerted all his powers of fascination to gain the af- 
 fections of the people. Though he dismissed all the Austrian 
 public fuuctionaries, and supplied their places by his own friends, 
 he continued to the Catholics their ancient privileges, and paid 
 marked attention to the bishop and his clergy. At the same 
 time, he encouraged the Protestants with the expectation that 
 he would prove their especial friend. At the assemblies which 
 he gave each evening that he was in the city, he lavished his 
 smiles upon the ladies who were distinguished either for exalt- 
 ed rank or for beauty. But there is no evidence that, 'during 
 this campaign, he wrote one line to his absent, neglected wife, or 
 that he expended one thought upon her. 
 
 About thirty miles southeast of Breslau is the -pleasant little 
 town of Ohlau, situated in the delta formed by the junction of 
 the Ohlau River with the Oder. It was a place of some strength, 
 and the Austrian authorities had thrown into it a garrison of 
 three hundred men. Frederick appeared before its gates on the 
 morning of January the 9th. He immediately sent in the fol- 
 lowing summons to the garrison : 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 231 
 
 " If you make any resistance, you shall be treated as prisoners 
 of war. If you make no resistance, and promise not to serve 
 against us, you may march out of the city unmolested, with your 
 arms." 
 
 The surrender was made. Fifteen miles nearly east from 
 Ohlau, on the southern banks of the Oder, is the little town of 
 Brieg. Frederick approached it with divisions of his army on 
 both sides of the river. The country was flat and densely wood- 
 ed. On the southern side, where Frederick marched with the 
 major part of his troops, it was traversed by an admirably paved 
 road. This was constructed one hundred and fifty-six years be- 
 fore by one of the dukes of that realm. It was a broad high- 
 way, paved with massive flat stones, climbing the mountains, 
 threading the valleys, traversing the plains — a road such as those 
 which the Romans constructed, and over which the legions of 
 the Caesars tramped in their tireless conquests. This duke, in 
 consequence of his religious character, was called " George the 
 Pious." His devotional spirit may be inferred from the follow- 
 ing inscription, in Latin, which he had engraved on a very massive 
 monument, constructed in commemoration of the achievement : 
 
 • "Others have made roads for us. We make them for posterity. 
 But Christ has opened for us all a road to heaven."* 
 
 On the 11th, Brieg was summoned to surrender. The prompt 
 and resolute response was "No." The place was found unex- 
 pectedly strong, and a gallant little garrison of sixteen hundred 
 men had been assembled behind its walls. Frederick was much 
 annoyed by the delay thus occasioned. He promptly invested 
 the city so as to cut off all supplies, and dispatched an order to 
 Glogau to have the field artillery sent, as speedily as possible, 
 up the Oder to Brieg. 
 
 Two days before Frederick reached Brieg, a column of his 
 army, under General Schwerin, which had advanced by a line 
 parallel to the Oder, but several miles to the west, encounter- 
 ing no opposition, reached Ottmachau, a considerable town with 
 a strong castle on the River Neisse. This was near the extreme 
 southern border of Silesia. The Austrian commander, General 
 Browne, had placed here also a garrison of sixteen hundred men, 
 
 * Stravernnt alii nobis, nos posteritati : 
 Omnibus at Christus stravit ad astra viam. 
 
232 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 with orders not to yield upon any terms, for that re-enforcements 
 should be speedily sent to them. A slight conflict ensued. 
 Twelve of the Prussians were killed. This was the first blood 
 which was shed. A delay of three days took place, when four 
 cannon were brought up, and the gates, both of the town and of 
 the castle, were blown open. The garrison offered to withdraw 
 upon the terms proposed in the summons to surrender. The 
 king was sent for to obtain his decision. He rebuked the gar- 
 rison sternly, and held all as prisoners of war. The officers were 
 sent to Ctistrin, the common soldiers to Berlin. 
 
 Preparations were now made for the capture of Neisse. This 
 was an opulent, attractive, well - fortified town of about seven 
 thousand inhabitants. It then occupied only the left or north 
 bank of the stream, which runs from the west to the east. The 
 region around, being highly cultivated, presented a beautiful as- 
 pect of rich meadows, orchards, and vineyards. It was the chief 
 fortress of Southern Silesia, and, being very near the frontier of 
 Austria proper, was a position of great importance. Frederick, 
 having encountered so little opposition thus far, was highly 
 elated, expecting that Neisse would also immediately fall into 
 his hands. From Ottmachau he wrote, on the 14th of January, 
 to M. Jordan as follows : 
 
 "My dear Monsieur Jordan, my sweet Monsieur Jordan, my 
 quiet Monsieur Jordan, my good, my benign, my pacific, my most 
 humane Monsieur Jordan, — I announce to thy serenity the con- 
 quest of Silesia. I warn thee of the bombardment of Neisse, and 
 I prepare thee for still more projects, and instruct thee of the 
 happiest successes that the womb of fortune ever bore."* 
 
 Three, days after, on the 17th, the king wrote again to M.Jor- 
 dan : 
 
 " I have the honor to inform your humanity that we are Chris- 
 tianly preparing to bombard Neisse ; and that, if the place will 
 not surrender of good- will, needs must that it be beaten to pow- 
 der. For the rest, our affairs go the best in the world ; and soon 
 
 * Charles Etienne Jordan was thirty-six years of age. He was the son of wealthy parents 
 in Berlin, and had been a preaeher. The death of a beloved wife, leaving him with an only 
 daughter, had plunged him into the profoundest melancholy. Frederick, when Crown Prince, 
 took a great fancy to him, making him nominally his reader, giving him charge of his library. 
 He is represented as a man of small figure, genial, and affectionate, of remarkable vivacity, very 
 courteous, and one who was ever careful never, by word or action, to give pain to others. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 233 
 
 thou wilt hear nothing more of us, for in ten days it will all be 
 over, and I shall have the pleasure of seeing you and hearing 
 you in about a fortnight. 
 
 "I have seen neither my brother* nor Keyserling.f I left 
 them at Breslau, not to expose them to the dangers of war. They 
 perhaps will be a little angry, but what can I do % the rather as, 
 on this occasion, one can not share in the glory unless one is a 
 mortar ! 
 
 "Adieu ; go and amuse yourself with Horace, study Pausanias, 
 and be gay over Anacreon. As to me, who for amusement have 
 nothing but merlons, fascines, and gabions, I pray God to grant 
 me soon a pleasanter and peacefuler occupation, and you health, 
 satisfaction, and whatever your heart desires." 
 
 A letter of the same date as the above, addressed to Count 
 Algarotti,$ contains the following expressions : 
 
 " I have begun to settle the figure of Prussia. The outline 
 will be altogether regular; for the whole of Silesia is taken in 
 except one miserable hamlet, which perhaps I shall have to keep 
 blockaded until next spring. Up to this time the whole con- 
 quest has cost me only twenty men and two officers. 
 
 "You are greatly wanting to me here. In all these three 
 hundred miles I have found no human creature comparable to 
 the Swan of Padua. I would willingly give ten cubic leagues 
 of ground for a genius similar to yours. But I perceive I was 
 about entreating you to return fast, and join me again, while you 
 are not yet arrived where your errand was. Make haste to ar- 
 rive then, to execute your commission, and fly back to me. I 
 wish you had a Fortunatus hat ; it is the only thing defective 
 in your outfit. 
 
 * His next younger brother, Augustus William, who had accompanied him on the expedition. 
 
 t Colonel Keyserling was a Courlander of good family. He had been officially named as 
 "Companion" of the Crown Prince in his youthful clays. Frederick entitled him Cczsarion, 
 and ever regarded him as one of the choicest of his friends. He was a man of very eccentric 
 manners, but warm-hearted and exceedingly companionable. 
 
 % Algarotti was a Venetian gentleman of much elegance of manners and dress. He was very 
 fervent in his utterance, and could talk fluently upon every subject. He was just of the age of 
 Frederick. Being the son of wealthy parents, he had enjoyed great advantages of study and 
 travel, had already published several works, and was quite distinguished as a universal genius, 
 a logician, a poet, a philosopher, and a connoisseur in all the arts. He was a great favorite of 
 Frederick, and accompanied him to Strasbourg and on this expedition to Silesia. Wilhelmina 
 describes him as "one of the first beaux esprits of the age," and " as one who does the expenses 
 of the conversation. " 
 
234 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " Adieu, dear Swan of Padua. Think, I pray, sometimes of 
 those who are getting themselves cut in slices for the sake of 
 glory here ; and, above all, do not forget your friends who think 
 a thousand times of you." 
 
 The River Neisse is quite narrow. In preparation for the 
 bombardment, Frederick planted his batteries on the south side 
 of the stream, and also approached the city from the north. It 
 will be remembered that Frederick had an army in Silesia at his 
 command of about forty thousand men, abundantly provided 
 with all the munitions of war. The little Austrian garrison 
 hurriedly thrown into Neisse consisted of but sixteen hundred 
 men, but poorly prepared either for battle or for siege. The 
 Austrian commandant, General Roth, determined upon a heroic 
 resistance. To deprive the assailants of shelter, the torch was 
 applied to all the beautiful suburbs. In a few hours the cruel 
 names destroyed the labor of ages. Many once happy families 
 were impoverished and rendered homeless. Ashes, blackened 
 walls, and smouldering ruins took the place of gardens, villas, 
 and comfortable homes. 
 
 On Sunday morning, January 15th, the deadly, concentric fire 
 of shot and shell was opened upon the crowded city, where 
 women and children, torn by war's merciless missiles, ran to and 
 fro frantic w T ith terror. The dreadful storm continued to rage, 
 with but few intermissions, until Wednesday. Still there were 
 no signs of surrender. The king, though his head-quarters were 
 a few miles distant, at Ottmachau, was almost constant^ on the 
 ground superintending every thing. As he felt sure of the en- 
 tire conquest of Silesia, the whole province being now in his 
 possession except three small towns, he looked anxiously upon 
 the destruction which his own balls and bombs were effecting. 
 He was destroying his own property. 
 
 On Wednesday morning General Borck was sent toward the 
 gates of the city, accompanied by a trumpeter, who, with bugle 
 blasts, was to summon General Roth to a parley. General Borck 
 was instructed to inform the Austrian commander thatjf he sur- 
 rendered immediately he should be treated with great leniency 
 but that if he persisted in his defense the most terrible severity 
 should be his doom. To the people of Neisse it was a matter 
 of but very little moment whether they were under Austrian or 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 235 
 
 ATTACK UPON KEISSE. 
 
 Prussian domination. They would gladly accede to any terms 
 which would deliver them from the dreadful bombardment. 
 General Roth, therefore, would not allow what we should call 
 the flag of truce to approach the gates. He opened fire upon 
 General Borck so as not to wound him, but as a warning that 
 he must approach no nearer. The king was greatly angered by 
 this result. 
 
 In burning the suburbs, one of the mansions of the bishop, a 
 few miles from Neisse, had escaped the general conflagration. 
 The Prussians had taken possession of this large and commodi- 
 ous structure, with its ample supply of winter fuel. General 
 Roth employed a resolute butcher, who, under the pretense of 
 supplying the Prussians with beef, visited the bishop's mansion, 
 and secretly applied the torch. It was a cold winter's night. 
 The high wind fanned the flames. Scarcely an hour passed ere 
 the whole structure, with all its supplies, was in ashes. The 
 Prussian officers who had found a warm home were driven into 
 the icy fields. 
 
 These two events so exasperated his Prussian majesty that 
 the next morning, at an early hour, he reopened upon the doom- 
 
236 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ed city with renewed vigor his fire of bombshells and red-hot 
 shot. Fire companies were organized throughout the city, to 
 rush with their engines wherever the glowing balls descended, 
 and thus the flames which frequently burst out were soon extin- 
 guished. All day Thursday, Thursday night, Friday, and until 
 nine in the morning of Saturday, the tempest of battle, with oc- 
 casional lulls, hurled its bolts and uttered its thunders. There 
 was then a short rest until four o'clock on Sunday afternoon, 
 when the batteries again opened their action more vigorously 
 than ever, nine bombs being often in the air at the same time. 
 
 Frederick, not willing utterly to destroy the city, which he 
 wished to preserve for himself, and perhaps, though no word of 
 his indicates it, influenced by some sympathy for the seven thou- 
 sand unoffending inhabitants of the place, men, women, and chil- 
 dren, very many of whom were Protestants, who were suffering 
 far more from the missiles of war than the Austrian garrison, ar- 
 rested the fire of his batteries, and decided to convert the siege 
 into a blockade. His own troops were suffering much in the 
 bleak fields swept by the gales of winter. The whole of Silesia 
 was in his hands excepting the small towns of Brieg, Glogau, and 
 Neisse. These were so closely invested that neither food nor re- 
 enforcements could be introduced to them. Should they hold 
 out until spring, Frederick could easily then, aided by the warm 
 weather, break open their gates. 
 
 He therefore spread his troops abroad in winter quarters, levy-- 
 ing contributions upon the unhappy inhabitants of Silesia for 
 their support. The king, ever prompt in his movements, having 
 on Monday, the 23d of January, converted the siege into a block- 
 ade, on Wednesday, the 25th, set out for home. Visiting one or 
 two important posts by the way, he reached Berlin the* latter 
 part of the week. Here he was received with great acclamations 
 as a conquering hero. In six weeks he had overrun Silesia, and 
 had virtually annexed it to his own realms. Whether Austria 
 would quietly submit to this robbery, and whether Frederick 
 would be able to retain his conquest, were questions wet to be 
 decided. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 237 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF MOLLWITZ. 
 
 Embarrassments of Frederick. — Attempts a Compromise. — New Invasion of Silesia. — Intrigues 
 for the Imperial Crown. — Rivalry between England and France. — Death of Anne of Russia. 
 — Energy of Austria. — Narrow Escape of Frederick. — Frederick's Antipathy to Christianity. 
 — Capture of Glogau. — Peril of Frederick. — The Siege of Neisse. 
 
 Frederick, returniug to Berlin from his six weeks' campaign 
 in Silesia, remained at home but three weeks. He had reckless- 
 ly let loose the dogs of war, and must already have begun to be 
 appalled in view of the possible results. His embassadors at 
 the various courts had utterly failed to secure for him any alli- 
 ance. England and some of the other powers were manifestly 
 unfriendly to him. Like Frederick himself, they were all dis- 
 posed to consult merely their own individual interests. Thus 
 influenced, they looked calmly on to see how Frederick, who had 
 thrown into the face of the young Queen of Austria the gage of 
 battle, would meet the forces which she, with great energy, was 
 marshaling in defense of her realms. Frederick was manifestly 
 and outrageously in the wrong. 
 
 The chivalry of Europe was in sympathy with the young and 
 beautiful queen, who, inexperienced, afflicted by the death of her 
 father, and about to pass through the perils of maternity, had 
 been thus suddenly and rudely assailed by one who should have 
 protected her with almost a brother's love and care. Every 
 court in Europe was familiar with the fact that the father of 
 Maria Theresa had not only humanely interceded, in the most 
 earnest terms, for the life of Frederick, but had interposed his im- 
 perial authority* to rescue him from the scaffold, with which he 
 was threatened by his unnatural parent. Frederick found that 
 he stood quite alone, and that he had nothing to depend upon 
 but his own energies and those of his compact, well-disciplined 
 army. 
 
 It would seem that Frederick was now disposed to compro- 
 mise. He authorized the suggestion to be made to the court at 
 Vienna by his minister, Count Gotter, that he was ready to with- 
 
238 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 draw from his enterprise, and to enter into alliance with Aus- 
 tria, if the queen would surrender to him the duchy of Glogau 
 only, which was but a small part of Silesia. But to these terms 
 the heroic young queen would not listen. She justly regarded 
 them but as the proposition of the highway robber, who offers 
 to leave one his watch if he will peaceably surrender his purse. 
 Whatever regrets Frederick might have felt in view of the diffi- 
 culties in which he found himself involved, not the slightest in- 
 dication of them is to be seen in his correspondence. He had 
 passed the Rubicon. And now he summoned all his energies — 
 such energies as the world has seldom, if ever, witnessed before, 
 to carry out the enterprise upon which he had so recklessly en- 
 tered, and from which he could not without humiliation with- 
 draw. 
 
 On the 19th of February, 1741, Frederick, having been at home 
 but three weeks, again left Berlin with re-enforcements, increas- 
 ing his army of invasion to sixty thousand men, to complete the 
 conquest of Silesia by the capture of the three fortresses which 
 still held out against him. On the 21st he reached Glogau. 
 After carefully reconnoitring the works, he left directions with 
 Prince Leopold of Dessau, who commanded the Prussian troops 
 there, to press the siege with all possible vigor. He was fearful 
 that Austrian troops might soon arrive to the relief of the place. 
 
 The king then hastened on to Schweidnitz, a few miles west 
 from Breslau. This was a small town, strongly fortified, about 
 equally distant from the three beleaguered fortresses — Neisse, 
 Brieg, and Glogau. The young monarch was daily becoming 
 more aware that he had embarked in an enterprise which threat- 
 ened him with fearful peril. He had not only failed to secure a 
 single ally, but there were indications that England and* other 
 powers were in secret deliberation to join against him. He soon 
 learned that England had sent a gift or loan of a million of dol- 
 lars — a large sum in those days — to replenish the exhausted 
 treasury of Maria Theresa. His minister in Russia also trans- 
 mitted to him an appalling rumor that a project was in contem 
 plation by the King of England, the King of Poland, Anne, re- 
 * gent of Russia, and Maria Theresa, to unite, and so partition the 
 Prussian kingdom as to render the ambitious Frederick power- 
 less to disturb the peace of Europe. The general motives which 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 239 
 
 influenced the great monarchies in the stupendous war which 
 was soon evolved are sufficiently manifest. But these motives 
 led to a complication of intrigues which it would be alike tedi- 
 ous and unprofitable to attempt to unravel. 
 
 Frederick wished to enlarge his Liliputian realms, and become 
 one of the powers of Europe. This he could only do by taking 
 advantage of the apparent momentary weakness of Austria, and 
 seizing a portion of the territory of the young queen. In order 
 to accomplish this, it was for his interest to oppose the election 
 of Maria Theresa's husband, the Grand-duke Francis, as emperor. 
 The imperial crown placed upon the brow of Francis would in- 
 vest Austria with almost resistless power. Still, Frederick was 
 ready to promise his earnest concurrence in this arrangement if 
 Maria Theresa would surrender to him Silesia. He had even 
 moderated his terms, as we have mentioned, to a portion of the 
 province. 
 
 France had no fear of Prussia. Even with the addition of Si- 
 lesia, it would be comparatively a feeble realm. But France did 
 fear the supremacy of Austria over Europe. It was for the ap- 
 parent interest of the court of Versailles that Austria should be 
 weakened, and, consequently, that the husband of the queen 
 should not be chosen Emperor of Germany. Therefore France 
 was coming into sympathy with Frederick, and was disposed to 
 aid him in his warfare against Austria. 
 
 England w^as the hereditary foe of France. It was one of the 
 leading objects in her diplomacy to circumvent that power. 
 "Our great-grandfathers," writes Carlyle, " lived in perpetual 
 terror that they would be devoured by France ; that French am- 
 bition would overset the Celestial Balance, and proceed next to 
 eat the British nation." Strengthening Austria was weakening 
 France. Therefore the sympathies of England were strongly 
 with Austria. In addition to this, personal feelings came in. 
 The puerile little king, George II., hated implacably his nephew, 
 Frederick of Prussia, which hatred Frederick returned with in- 
 terest. 
 
 Spain was at war wdth England, and was ready to enter into 
 an alliance with any power which would aid her in her struggle 
 with that formidable despot of the seas. 
 
 The Czarina, Anne of Russia, died the 28th of October, 1740, 
 
240 EKEDEEICK THE GREAT. 
 
 just eight days after the death of the emperor. She left, in the 
 cradle, the infant Czar Iwan, her nephew, two months old. The 
 father of this child was a brother of Frederick's neglected wife 
 Elizabeth. The mother was the Eussian Princess Catharine of 
 Mecklenburg, now called Princess Anne, whom Frederick had at 
 one time thought of applying for as his wife. Russia was a semi- 
 barbaric realm just emerging into consideration, and no one could 
 tell by what influences it would be swayed. The minor powers 
 could be controlled by the greater — constrained by terror or led 
 by bribes. Such, in general, was the state of Europe at this time. 
 
 Austria was rapidly marshaling her hosts, and pouring them 
 through the defiles of the mountains to regain Silesia. Her 
 troops still held three important fortresses — Neisse, Brieg, and 
 Glogau. These places were, however, closely blockaded by the 
 Prussians. Though it was midwinter, bands of Austrian horse- 
 men were soon sweeping in all directions, like local war tempests 
 borne on the wings of the wind. Wherever there was an un- 
 protected baggage-train, or a weakly -defended post, they came 
 swooping down to seize their prey, and vanished as suddenly as 
 they had appeared. Their numbers seemed to be continually in- 
 creasing. All the roads were swept by these swarms of irregu- 
 lars, who carefully avoided any serious engagement, while they 
 awaited the approach of the Austrian army, which was gather- 
 ing its strength to throw down to Frederick the gauntlet on an 
 open field of battle. 
 
 Much to Frederick's chagrin, he soon learned that a body of 
 three hundred foot and three hundred horse, cautiously approach- 
 ing through by-paths in the mountains, had thrown itself into 
 Neisse, to strengthen the garrison there. This was on the 5th 
 of March. But six days before a still more alarming event had 
 occurred. On the 27th of February, Frederick, with a small es- 
 cort, not dreaming of danger, set out to visit two small posts in 
 the vicinity of Neisse. He stopped to dine with a few of his 
 officers in the little village of Wartha, while the principal part 
 of the detachment which accompanied him continued its move- 
 ment to Baumgarten. 
 
 The leader of an Austrian band of live hundred dragoons was. 
 on the watch. As the detachment of one hundred aucl fifty 
 horse approached Baumgarten, the Austrians, from their ambus- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 241 
 
 cade, plunged upon them. There was a short, sharp conflict, 
 when the Prussians fled, leaving ten dead, sixteen prisoners, one 
 standard, and two kettle-drums in the hands of the victors. The 
 king had just sat down at the dinner-table, when he heard, at 
 the distance of a few miles, the tumult of the musketry. He 
 sprang from the table, hurriedly mustered a small force of forty 
 hussars and fifty foot, and hastened toward the scene. Arriving 
 at the field, he found it silent and deserted, and the ten men lying 
 
 FREDERICK ON THE FIELD OF BAUMGARTEN. 
 
 Q 
 
242 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 dead upon it. The victorious Austrians, disappointed in not 
 finding the king, bore their spoils in triumph to Vienna. It was 
 a very narrow escape for Frederick. Had he then been cap- 
 tured it might have changed the history of Europe, and no one 
 can tell the amount of blood and woe which would have been 
 averted. 
 
 It is perhaps not strange that Frederick should have imbibed 
 a strong feeling of antipathy to Christianity. In his father's life 
 he had witnessed only its most repulsive caricature. "While mak- 
 ing the loudest protestations of piety, Frederick William, in his 
 daily conduct, had manifested mainly only every thing that is 
 hateful and of bad report. Still, it is quite evident that Freder- 
 ick was not blind to the distinction between the principles of 
 Christianity as taught by Jesus and developed in his life, and 
 the conduct of those who, professing his name, trampled those 
 principles beneath their feet. In one of his letters to Voltaire, 
 dated Cirey, August 26, 1736, Frederick wrote: 
 
 " May you never be disgusted with the sciences by the quar- 
 rels of their cultivators ; a race of men no better than courtiers ; 
 often enough as greedy, intriguing, false, and cruel as these. 
 
 "And how sad for mankind that the very interpreters of Heav- 
 en's commandments — the theologians, I mean — are sometimes 
 the most dangerous of all ! professed messengers of the Divinity, 
 yet men sometimes of obscure ideas and pernicious behavior, 
 their soul blown out with mere darkness, full of gall and pride 
 in proportion as it is empty of truths. Every thinking being 
 who is not of their opinion is an atheist; and every king who 
 does not favor them will be damned. Dangerous to the very 
 throne, and yet intrinsically insignificant. 
 
 " I respect metaphysical ideas. Eays of lightning they' are in 
 the midst of deep night. More, I think, is not to be hoped from 
 metaphysics. It does not seem likely that the first principles 
 of things will ever be known. The mice that nestle in some lit- 
 tle holes of an immense building know not whether it is eternal, 
 or who the architect, or why he built it. Such mice are we. 
 And the divine architect has never, that I know of, told his se- 
 cret to one of us." 
 
 Notwithstanding these sentiments, the king sent throughout 
 Silesia a supply of sixty Protestant preachers, ordained especially 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 243 
 
 for the work. Though Frederick himself did not wish to live 
 in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ, it is very evi- 
 dent that he did not fear the influence of that Gospel upon his 
 Silesian subjects. Very wisely the Protestant preachers were 
 directed carefully to avoid giving any offense to the Catholics. 
 They were to preach in barns and town-halls in places where 
 there was no Protestant church. The salary of each was one 
 hundred and fifty dollars a year, probably with rations. They 
 were all placed under the general superintendence of one of the 
 army chaplains. 
 
 Every day it became more clear that Maria Theresa was re- 
 solved not to part with one inch of her territory, and that the 
 Austrian court was thoroughly roused in its determination to 
 drive the intrusive Prussians out of Silesia. Though Frederick 
 had no scruples of conscience to prevent him from seizing a por- 
 tion of the domains of Maria Theresa, his astonishment and in- 
 dignation were alike aroused by the rumor that England, Po- 
 land, and Russia were contemplating the dismemberment of his 
 realms. An army of thirty-six thousand men, under the old 
 Duke Leopold of Dessau,* was immediately dispatched by Fred- 
 erick to Gotten, on the frontiers of Hanover, to seize upon that 
 Continental possession of the King of England upon the slight- 
 est indication of a hostile movement. George II. was greatly 
 alarmed by this menace. 
 
 Frederick found himself plunged into the midst, of difficulties 
 and perils which exacted to the utmost his energies both of body 
 and of mind. Every moment was occupied in strengthening his 
 posts, collecting magazines, recruiting his forces, and planning to 
 circumvent the foe. From the calm of Reinsberg he found him- 
 self suddenly tossed by the surges of one of the most terrible 
 tempests of conflict which a mortal ever encountered. Through 
 night and storm, almost without sleep and without food, drenched 
 and chilled, he was galloping over the hills and through the val- 
 
 * Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau was one of the most extraordinary men of any age. His life 
 was but a constant whirlwind of battle, almost from his birth in 1676, to his death in 1747. His 
 face was of the " color of gunpowder, " and his fearless, tumultuous soul was in conformity with 
 the rugged body in which it was incased. The whole character of the man may be inferred 
 from the following prayer, which it is said he was accustomed to offer before entering battle : 
 ' ' God ! assist our side. At least, avoid assisting the enemy, and leave the result to me. " 
 Leopold, called the Old Dessauer, and his son, the Young Leopold, were of essential service to 
 Frederick in his wars. Pages might be filled illustrative of the character of this eccentric man. 
 
244 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 leys, climbing the steeples, fording the streams, wading the mo- 
 rasses, involved in a struggle which now threatened even the 
 crown which he had so recently placed upon his brow. Had 
 Frederick alone suffered, but few tears of sympathy would have 
 been shed in his behalf; but his ambition had stirred up a con- 
 flict which was soon to fill all Europe with the groans of the 
 dying, the tears of the widow, the wailings of the orphan. 
 
 Frederick deemed it of great importance to gain immediate 
 possession of Glogau. It was bravely defended by the Austrian 
 commander, Count Wallis, and there was hourly danger that an 
 Austrian army might appear for its relief. Frederick, in the in- 
 tensity of his anxiety, as he hurried from post to post, wrote 
 from every stopping-place to young Leopold, whom he had left 
 in command of the siege, urging him immediately to open the 
 trenches, concentrate the fire of his batteries, and to carry the 
 place by storm. " I have clear intelligence," he wrote, " that 
 troops are actually on the way for the rescue of Glogau." Each 
 note was more imperative than the succeeding one. On the 6th 
 of March he wrote from Ohlau : 
 
 " I am certainly informed that the enemy will make some at- 
 tempt. I hereby, with all distinctness, command that, so soon 
 as the petards are come, you attack Glogau. And you must 
 make your dispositions for more than one attack, so that if one 
 fail the other shall certainly succeed. I hope you will put off 
 no longer. Otherwise the blame of all the mischief that might 
 arise out of longer delay must lie on you alone." 
 
 On the 8th of March Leopold summoned all his generals at 
 noon, and informed them that Glogau, at all hazards, must be 
 taken that very night. The most minute directions were given 
 to each one. There were to be three attacks — one up the river 
 on its left bank, one down the river on its right bank, and one on 
 the land side perpendicular to the other two. The moment the 
 clock on the big steeple in Glogau should give the first stroke of 
 midnight, the three columns were to start. Before the last stroke 
 should be given they were all to be upon the silent, rapid advance. 
 
 Count AYallis, who was intrusted with the defense of the place, 
 had a garrison of about a thousand men, with fifty-eight heavy 
 guns and several mortars, and a large amount of ammunition. 
 Glogau was in the latitude of fifty-two, nearly six degrees north 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 245 
 
 of Quebec. It was a cold wintry night. The ground was cov- 
 ered Avith snow. Water had been thrown upon the glacis, so 
 that it was slippery with ice. Prince Leopold in person led one 
 of the columns. The sentinels upon the walls were not alarmed 
 until three impetuous columns, like concentrating tornadoes, were 
 sweeping down upon them. They shouted " To arms !" The 
 soldiers, roused from sleep, rushed to their guns. Their light- 
 ning flashes were instantly followed by war's deepest thunders, 
 as discharge followed discharge in rapid succession. 
 
 But the assailants were already so near the walls that the shot 
 passed harmlessly over their heads. Without firing a gun or ut- 
 tering a sound, these well-drilled soldiers of Frederick William 
 hewed down the palisades, tore out the chevaux-cle-frise, and 
 clambered over the glacis. With axe and petard they burst 
 open the gates and surged into the city. 
 
 In one short hour the gallant deed was done. But ten of the 
 assailants were killed and forty-eight wounded. The loss of the 
 Austrians was more severe. The whole garrison, one thousand 
 sixty-five in number, and their materiel of war, consisting of fifty 
 brass cannons, a large amount of ammunition, and the military 
 chest, containing thirty-two thousand florins, fell into the hands 
 of the victors. To the inhabitants of Grlogau it was a matter of 
 very little moment whether the Austrian or the Prussian ban- 
 ner floated over their citadel. Neither party paid much more 
 regard to the rights of the people than they did to those of the 
 mules and the horses. 
 
 But to Frederick the importance of the achievement was very 
 great. The exploit was justly ascribed to his general direction. 
 Thus he obtained a taste of that military renown which he had 
 so greatly coveted. The king was, at this time, at his head-quar- 
 ters at Schweidnitz, about one hundred and twenty miles from 
 Glogau. A courier, dispatched immediately from the captured 
 town, communicated to him, at five o'clock in the afternoon, the 
 glad tidings of the brilliant victory. 
 
 Frederick was overjoyed. In the exuberance of his satisfac- 
 tion, he sent Prince Leopold a present of ten thousand dollars. 
 To each private soldier he gave half a guinea, and to the officers 
 sums in proportion. To the old Duke of Dessauer, father of the 
 young Prince Leopold, he wrote : 
 
246 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 THE ASSAULT ON GLOGATJ. 
 
 " The more I think of the Glogau business the more important 
 I find it. Prince Leopold has achieved the prettiest military 
 stroke that has been done in this century. From my heart I 
 congratulate you on having such a son. In boldness of resolu- 
 tion, in plan, in execution, it is alike admirable, and quite gives 
 a turn to my affairs." 
 
 Leaving a sufficient force to garrison Glogau, the king ordered 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 247 
 
 all the remaining regiments to be distributed among the other 
 important posts; while Prince Leopold, in high favor Joined the 
 king at Sckweidnitz, to assist in the siege of Neisse. Frederick 
 rapidly concentrated his forces for the capture of Neisse before 
 the Austrian army should march for its relief. He thought that 
 the Austrians would not be able to take the field before the 
 snow should disappear and the new spring grass should come, 
 affording forage for their horses. 
 
 But General Neipperg, the Austrian commander-in-chief, 
 proved as watchful, enterprising, and energetic as Frederick. 
 
 MAP ILLUSTRATING THE MOLLWITZ CAMPAIGN. 
 
248 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 His scouting bands swarmed in all directions. The Prussian 
 foraging parties were cut off, their reconnoitrers were driven 
 back, and all the movements of the main body of the Austrian 
 army were veiled from their view. General Neipperg, hearing 
 of the fall of Glogau, decided, notwithstanding the inclemency 
 of the weather and the snow, to march immediately, with thirty 
 thousand men, to the relief of Neisse. His path led through 
 mountain defiles, over whose steep and icy roads his heavy guns 
 and lumbering ammunition-wagons were with difficulty drawn. 
 
 At the same time, Frederick, unaware of the movement of the 
 Austrians, prepared to push the siege of Neisse with the Utmost 
 vigor. Leaving some of his ablest generals to conduct the op- 
 erations there, Frederick himself marched, with strong re-enforce- 
 ments, to strengthen General Schwerin, who was stationed among 
 the Jagerndorf hills, on the southern frontier of Silesia, to pre- 
 vent the Austrians from getting across the mountains. March- 
 ing from Ottmachau, the king met General Schwerin at Neustadt, 
 half way to Jagerndorf, and they returned together to that place. 
 But the swarming horsemen of General Neipperg were so bold 
 and watchful that no information could be obtained of the situ- 
 ation or movements of the Austrian army. Frederick, seeing no 
 indications that General Neipperg was attempting to force his 
 way through the snow-encumbered defiles of the mountains, pre- 
 pared to return, and, with his concentrated force, press with all 
 vigor the siege of Neisse. 
 
 As he was upon the point of setting off, seven Austrian de- 
 serters came in and reported that General Neipperg's full army 
 was advancing at but a few miles' distance. Even as they were 
 giving their report, sounds of musketry and cannon announced 
 that the Prussian outposts were assailed by the advance-guard 
 of the foe. The peril of Frederick was great. Had Neipperg 
 known the prize within his reach, the escape of the Prussian 
 king would have been almost impossible. Frederick had but 
 three or four thousand men with him at Jagerndorf, and only 
 three pieces of artillery, with forty rounds of ammunition.- Bands 
 of Austrian cavalry on fleet horses were swarming all around 
 him. Seldom, in the whole course of his life, had Frederick 
 been placed in a more critical position. 
 
 It was soon ascertained that the main body of the Austrian 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 249 
 
 army was fifteen miles to the southwest, at Freudenthal, pressing 
 on toward Neisse. General Neipperg, without the slightest sus- 
 picion that Frederick was any where in his vicinity, had sent 
 aside a reconnoitring party of skirmishers to ascertain if there 
 were any Prussians at Jagerndorf. General Neipperg, at Freu- 
 denthal, was as near Neisse as Frederick was at Jagerndorf. 
 
 There was not a moment to be lost. General Neipperg was 
 moving resolutely forward with a cloud of skirmishers in the 
 advance and on his wings. With the utmost exertions Frederick 
 immediately rendezvoused all his remote posts, destroying such 
 stores as could not hastily be removed, and by a forced inarch 
 of twenty-five miles in one day reached Neustadt. General Neip- 
 perg was marching by a parallel road about twenty miles west 
 of that which the Prussians traversed. At Neustadt the king 
 was still twenty miles from Neisse. With the delay of but a 
 few hours, that he might assemble all the Prussian bands from 
 the posts in that neighborhood, the king again resumed his 
 march. He had no longer any hope of continuing the siege of 
 Neisse. His only aim was to concentrate all his scattered forces, 
 which had been spread over an area of nearly two thousand 
 square miles, and, upon some well-selected field, to trust to the 
 uncertain issues of a general battle. There was no choice left 
 for him between this course and an ignominious retreat. 
 
 Therefore, instead of marching upon Neisse, the king directed 
 his course to Steinau, twenty miles east of ISTeisse. The siege 
 was abandoned, and the whole Prussian army, so far as was pos- 
 sible, was gathered around the king. On the 5th of April Fred- 
 erick established his head-quarters at Steinau. On that same 
 day, General Neipperg, with the advanced corps of his army, tri- 
 umphantly entered Neisse. Apprehensive of an immediate at- 
 tack, Frederick made all his arrangements for a battle. In the 
 confusion of those hours, during which the whole Prussian army, 
 with all its vast accumulation of artillery and baggage- wagons, 
 was surging like an inundation through the streets of Steinau, 
 the village took fire and was burned to ashes. With great diffi- 
 culty the artillery and powder were saved, being entangled in 
 the narrow streets while the adjoining houses were enveloped in 
 flames. The night was intensely cold. The Prussian army biv- 
 ouacked in the open frozen fields. 
 
250 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 General Neipperg, as his men were weary with their long 
 march, did not make an attack, but allowed his troops a short 
 season of repose in the enjoyment of the comforts of Keisse. The 
 next morning, the 6th, Frederick continued his retreat to Fried- 
 land, ten miles farther north. He was anxious to get between 
 the Austrians and Ohlau. He had many pieces of artillery there, 
 and large stores of ammunition, which would prove a rich prize 
 to the Austrians. It was Frederick's intention to cross the River 
 Xeisse at a bridge at Sorgau, eight miles from Friedland ; but 
 the officer in charge there had been compelled to destroy the 
 bridge, to protect himself from the Austrian horsemen, who in 
 large numbers had appeared upon the opposite banks. Prince 
 Leopold was sent with the artillery and a strong force to recon- 
 struct the bridge and force the passage, but the Austrian dra- 
 goons were encountered in such numbers that the enterprise was 
 found impossible. 
 
 Frederick therefore decided to march down the river twenty 
 miles farther, to Lowen, where there was a good bridge. To fa- 
 vor the operation, Prince Leopold, with large divisions of the 
 army and much of the baggage, was to cross the Neisse on pon- 
 toons at Michelau, a few miles above Lowen. Both passages 
 were successfully accomplished, and the two columns effected a 
 junction on the west side of the river on the 8th of April. The 
 blockade of Brieg was abandoned, and its blockading force 
 united with the general army. 
 
 General Neipperg had now left Neisse ; but he kept himself 
 so surrounded by clouds of skirmishers as to render his march 
 entirely invisible. Frederick, anxious to unite with him his 
 troops under the Prince of Holstein Beck, advanced toward 
 Grottkau to meet that division, which had been ordered 'to join 
 him. The prince had been stationed at Frankenstein, with a 
 force of about eight thousand, horse and foot ; but the Austrian 
 scouts so occupied all the roads that the king had not been able 
 to obtain any tidings from him whatever. 
 
 It was Saturday, the 8th of April. A blinding, smothering 
 storm of snow swept over the bleak plains. Breasting the gale, 
 and wading through the drifts, the Prussian troops tramped 
 along, unable to see scarcely a rod before them. At a little ham- 
 let called Leipe the vanguard encountered a band of Austrian 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 251 
 
 hussars. They took several captives. From them they learned, 
 much to their chagrin and not a little to their alarm, that the 
 Austrian army was already in possession of Grottkau. 
 
 Instantly the Prussian troops were ordered to the right about. 
 Rapidly retracing their steps through the streets of Leipe, much 
 to the surprise of its inhabitants, they pressed on seven miles 
 farther toward Ohlau, and encamped for the night. The anxiety 
 of Frederick in these hours when he was retiring before the foe, 
 and when there was every probability of his incurring disgrace 
 instead of gaining honor, must have been dreadful. There was 
 no sleep for him that night. The Prussians were almost sur- 
 rounded by the Austrians, and it was quite certain that the mor- 
 row would usher in a battle. Oppressed by the peril of his po- 
 sition, the king, during the night, wrote to his brother Augustus 
 
 THE NIGHT BEFORE MOLLWITZ. 
 
252 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 William, who was at Breslau, as follows. The letter was dated 
 at the little village of Pogerell, where the king had taken shelter. 
 
 " My dearest Brother, — The enemy has just got into Silesia. 
 We are not more than a mile from them. To-morrow must de- 
 cide our fortune. If I die, do not forget a brother who has al- 
 ways loved you most tenderly. I recommend to you my most 
 dear mother, my domestics, and my first battalion. Eichel and 
 Schuhmacher are informed of all my testamentary wishes. 
 
 " Remember me always, but console yourself for my death. 
 The glory of the Prussian arms and the honor of the house have 
 set me in action, and will guide me to my last moment. You 
 are my sole heir. I recommend to you, in dying, those whom I 
 have the most loved during my life — Keyserling, Jordan, War- 
 tensleben, Hacke, who is a very honest man, Fredersdorf, and 
 Eichel, in whom you may place entire confidence. 
 
 "I bequeath eight thousand crowns ($6000) to my domestics. 
 All that I have elsewhere depends on you. To each of my broth- 
 ers and sisters make a present in my name ; a thousand affection- 
 ate regards to my sister at Baireuth. You know what I think 
 on their score ; and you know, better than I can tell you, the ten- 
 derness and all the sentiments of most inviolable friendship with 
 which I am, dearest brother, your faithful brother and servant 
 till death, Frederick." 
 
 To his friend Jordan, who was also in Breslau, he wrote : 
 
 " My dear Jordan, — We are going to fight to-morrow. Thou 
 knowest the chances of war. The life of kings is not more re- 
 garded than that of private people. I know not what will hap- 
 pen to me. 
 
 " If my destiny is finished, remember a friend who loves thee 
 always tenderly. If Heaven prolong my days, I will write to 
 thee after to-morrow, and thou shalt hear of our victory. Adieu, 
 dear friend; I shall love thee till death. Frederick." 
 
 It is worthy of notice that there is no indication that the king 
 sent any word of affectionate remembrance to his neglected wife. 
 It is a remarkable feature in the character of the Emperor Na- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 253 
 
 poleon I. that in his busiest campaigns rarely did a day pass in 
 which he did not write to Josephine. He often wrote to her 
 twice a day. 
 
 Sunday morning, the 9th, dawned luridly. The storm raged 
 unabated. The air was so filled with the falling snow that one 
 could not see the distance of twenty paces, and the gale was 
 piling up large drifts on the frozen plains. Neither army could 
 move. Neipperg was in advance of Frederick, and had estab- 
 lished his head-quarters at the village of Mollwitz, a few miles 
 northwest of Pogerell. He had therefore got fairly between the 
 Prussians and Ohlau. But Frederick knew not where the Aus- 
 trian army w T as. For six-and-thirty hours the wild storm drove 
 both Prussians and Austrians to such shelter as could be ob- 
 tained in the several hamlets which were scattered over the ex- 
 tended plain. 
 
 Frederick disjmtched messengers to Ohlau to summon the 
 force there to his aid; the messengers were all captured. The 
 Prussians were now in a deplorable condition. The roads were 
 encumbered and rendered almost impassable by the drifted snow. 
 The army was cut off from its supplies, and had provisions on 
 hand but for a single day. Both parties alike plundered the 
 poor inhabitants of their cattle, sheep, and grain. Every thing 
 that could burn was seized for their camp-fires. We speak of the 
 carnage of the battle-field, and often forget the misery which is 
 almost invariably brought upon the helpless inhabitants of the 
 region through which the armies move. The schoolmaster of 
 Mollwitz, a kind, simple-hearted, accurate old gentleman, wrote 
 an account of the scenes he witnessed. Under date of Mollwitz, 
 Sunday, April 9, he writes : 
 
 " Country, for two days back, was in new alarm by the Aus- 
 trian garrison of Brieg, now left at liberty, who sallied out upon 
 the villages about, and plundered black cattle, sheep, grain, and 
 whatever they could come at. But this day in Mollwitz the 
 whole Austrian army was upon us. First there went three hun- 
 dred hussars through the village to Griiningen, who quartered 
 themselves there, and rushed hither and thither into houses, rob- 
 bing and plundering. From one they took his best horses ; from 
 another they took linen, clothes, and other furnitures and victual. 
 
 " General Neipperg halted here at Mollwitz with the whole 
 
254 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 army before the village, in mind to quarter. And quarter was 
 settled, so that a plow-farmer got four to five companies to lodge, 
 and a spade-farmer two or three hundred cavalry. The houses 
 were full of officers, and the fields full of horsemen and baggage ; 
 and all around you saw nothing but fires burning. The wooden 
 railings were instantly torn down for firewood. The hay, straw, 
 barley were eaten away, and brought to nothing. Every thing 
 from the barns was carried out. As the whole army could not 
 lodge itself with us, eleven hundred infantry quartered at Laug- 
 witz. Barzdorf got four hundred cavalry; and this day nobody 
 knew what would come of it." 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF FREDERICK. 
 
 Preparing for the Battle. — The Surprise. — The Snow-encumbered Plain. — Horror of the Scene. 
 — Flight of Frederick. — His Shame and Despair. — Unexpected Victory of the Prussians. — 
 Letters of Frederick. —Adventures of Maupertuis. 
 
 Monday morning the storm ceased. There was a perfect calm. 
 For leagues the spotless snow, nearly two feet deep, covered all 
 the extended plains. The anxiety of Frederick had been so 
 great that for two nights he had not been able to get any sleep. 
 He. had plunged into this war with the full assurance that he 
 was to gain victory and glory. It now seemed inevitable that 
 he was to encounter but defeat and shame. 
 
 At the earliest dawn the whole army was in motion. Rank- 
 ed in four columns, they cautiously advanced toward Ohlau, 
 ready to deploy instantly into line of battle should the enemy 
 appear. Scouts were sent out in all directions. But, toiling 
 painfully through the drifts, they could obtain no reliable in- 
 formation. The spy-glass revealed nothing but the winding- 
 sheet of crisp and sparkling snow, with scarcely a shrub or a 
 tree to break the dreary view. There were no fences to be seen 
 — nothing but a smooth, white plain, spreading for miles around. 
 The hamlet of Mollwitz, where General NeijDperg had establish- 
 ed his head-quarters, was about seven miles north from Pogerell, 
 from which point Frederick was marching. At the distance of 
 a few miles from each other there were several wretched little 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 255 
 
 hamlets, consisting of a few low, thatched, clay farm-houses clus- 
 tered together. 
 
 General Neipperg was not attempting to move in the deep 
 snow. He, however, sent out a reconnoitring party of mounted 
 hussars under General Kothenburg. About two miles from 
 Mollwitz this party encountered the advance-guard of the Prus- 
 sians. The hussars, after a momentary conflict, in which several 
 fell, retreated and gave the alarm. General Neipperg was just 
 sitting down to dinner. The Prussian advance waited for the 
 rear columns to come up, and then deployed into .line. As the 
 Austrian hussars dashed into the village of Mollwitz with the 
 announcement that the Prussians were on the march, had attack- 
 ed them, and killed forty of their number, General Neipperg 
 dropped knife and fork, sprang from the table, and dispatched 
 couriers in all directions, galloping for life, to concentrate his 
 troops. His force was mainly distributed about in three vil- 
 lages, two or three miles apart. The clangor of trumpets and 
 drums resounded ; and by the greatest exertions the Austrian 
 troops were collected from their scattered encampments, and 
 formed in two parallel lines, about two miles in length, facing 
 the Prussians, who were slowly advancing in the same order, 
 wading through the snow. Each army was formed with the in- 
 fantry in the centre and the cavalry on the wings. Frederick 
 was then but an inexperienced soldier. He subsequently con- 
 demned the want of military ability which he displayed upon 
 this occasion. 
 
 " We approached," he writes, " Marshal Neipperg's army with- 
 out being discovered by any one man living. His troops were 
 then cantoned in three villages. But at that time I had not suf- 
 ficient experience to know how to avail myself of such an oppor- 
 tunity. I ought immediately to have ordered two of my col- 
 umns to surround the village of Mollwitz, and then to have at- 
 tacked it. I ought at the same instant to have detached my 
 dragoons with orders to have attacked the other two villages, 
 which contained the Austrian cavalry. The infantry, w^hich 
 should have followed, would have prevented them from mount- 
 ing. If I had proceeded in this way I am convinced that I 
 should have totally destroyed the Austrian army."* 
 
 * Military Instructions, p. 113. 
 
256 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 It was now about noon. The sun shone brightly on the glis- 
 tening snow. There was no wind. Twenty thousand peasants, 
 armed and drilled as soldiers, were facing each other upon either 
 side, to engage in mutual slaughter, with no animosity between 
 them — no cause of quarrel. It is one of the unrevealed myster- 
 ies of Providence that any one man should thus have it in his 
 power to create such wide-spread death and misery. The Aus- 
 trians had a splendid body of cavalry, eight thousand six hun- 
 dred in number. Frederick had but about half as many horse- 
 men. The Prussians had sixty pieces of artillery, the Austrians 
 but eighteen. 
 
 The battle soon began, with its tumult, its thunder-roar of ar- 
 tillery and musketry, its' gushing blood, its cries of agony, its 
 death convulsions. Both parties fought with the reckless cour- 
 age, the desperation with which trained soldiers, of whatever 
 nationality, almost always fight. 
 
 The Prussians advanced in their long double line, trampling 
 the deep snow beneath their feet. All their banners were wav- 
 ing. All their bands of music were pealing forth their most 
 martial airs. Their sixty pieces of artillery, well in front, open- 
 ed a rapid and deadly fire. The thoroughly-drilled Prussian 
 artillerymen discharged their guns with unerring aim, breaking 
 gaps in the Austrian ranks, and with such wonderful rapidity 
 that the unintermitted roar of the cannons drowned the sound 
 of drums and trumpets. 
 
 The Austrian cavalry made an impetuous charge u]3on the 
 weaker Prussian cavalry on the right of the Prussian line. Fred- 
 erick commanded here in person. The Prussian right wing was 
 speedily routed, and driven in wild retreat over the plain. The 
 king lost his presence of mind and fled ingloriously with the fu- 
 gitives. General Schulenberg endeavored, in vain, to rally the 
 disordered masses. He received a sabre slash across his face. 
 Drenched in blood, he still struggled, unavailingly, to arrest the 
 torrent, when a bullet struck him dead. The battle was now 
 raging fiercely all along the lines. 
 
 General Eomer, in command of the Austrian cavalry, had 
 crushed the right wing of the Prussians. Resolutely he follow- 
 ed up his victory, hotly chasing the fugitives in the wildest dis- 
 order far away to the rear, capturing nine of their guns. Who 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 257 
 
 can imagine the scene? There were three or four thousand 
 horsemen put to utter rout, clattering over the plain, impetuous- 
 ly pursued by six or seven thousand of the finest cavalry in the 
 world, discharging pistol-shots into their flying ranks, and rain- 
 ing down upon them sabre-blows. 
 
 ■ The young king, all unaccustomed to those horrors of war 
 which he had evoked, was swept along with the inundation. 
 The danger of his falling in the midst of the general carnage, or 
 of his capture, which was, perhaps, still more to be dreaded, was 
 imminent. His friends entreated him to escape for his life. 
 Even Marshal Schwerin, the veteran soldier, assured him that 
 the battle was lost, and that he probably could escape capture 
 only by a precipitate flight. 
 Frederick, thus urged, leaving the main body of his army, as 
 
 FLIGHT OF FREDERICK. 
 
 E 
 
258 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 he supposed, in utter rout, with a small escort, put spurs to his 
 steed in the attempt to escape. The king was well mounted on 
 a very splendid bay horse. A rapid ride of fifteen miles in a 
 southerly direction brought him to the River Neisse, which he 
 crossed by a bridge at the little town of Lowen. Immediately 
 after his departure Prince Leopold dispatched a squadron of 
 dragoons to accompany the king as his body-guard. But Fred- 
 erick fled so rapidly that they could not overtake him, and in 
 the darkness, for night soon approached, they lost his track. 
 Even several of the few who accompanied him, not so well 
 mounted as the king, dropped off by the way, their horses not 
 being able to keep up with his swift pace. 
 
 It was Frederick's aim to reach Oppeln, a small town upon 
 the River Oder, about thirty miles from the field of battle. He 
 supposed that one of his regiments still held that place. But 
 this regiment had hurriedly vacated the post, and had repaired, 
 with all its baggage, to Pampitz, in the vicinity of Mollwitz. 
 Upon the retirement of this garrison a wandering party of sixty 
 Austrian hussars had taken possession of the town. 
 
 Frederick, unaware that Oppeln was in the hands of the ene- 
 my, arrived, with the few of his suite who had been able to keep 
 up with him, about midnight before the closed gates of the town. 
 "Who are you?" the Austrian sentinels inquired. "We are 
 Prussians," was the reply, "accompanying a courier from the 
 king." The Austrians, unconscious of the prize within their 
 grasjj, and not knowing how numerous the Prussian party might 
 be, instantly opened a musketry fire upon them through the iron 
 gratings of the gate. Had they but thrown open the gate and 
 thus let the king enter the trap, the whole history of Europe 
 might have been changed. Upon apparently such trivial chances 
 the destinies of empires and of the world depend. Fortunately, 
 in the darkness and the confusion, none were struck by the bul- 
 lets. 
 
 At Oppeln there was a bridge across the Oder by which the 
 king hoped to escape with his regiment to the free country be- 
 yond. There he intended to summon to his aid the army of 
 thirty-six thousand men which he had sent to Gotten under the 
 " Old Dessauer." The discharge of the musketry of the Aus- 
 trians blasted even this dismal hope. It seemed as though Fred- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 259 
 
 erick were doomed to drain the cup of misery to its dregs ; and 
 his anguish must have been intensified by the consciousness that 
 he deserved it all. But a few leagues behind him, the bleak, 
 snow-clad plains, swept by the night- winds, were strewed with 
 the bodies of eight or nine thousand men, the dying and the 
 dead, innocent peasant-boys torn from their homes, whose butch- 
 ery had been caused by his own selfish ambition. 
 
 The king, in utter exhaustion from hunger, sleeplessness, anx- 
 iety, and misery, for a moment lost all self-control. As with his 
 little band of fugitives he vanished into the gloom of the night, 
 not knowing where to go, he exclaimed, in the bitterness of his 
 despair, " O my God, my God, this is too much I" 
 
 Retracing his steps in the darkness some fifteen miles, he re- 
 turned to Lowen, where, by a bridge, a few hours before, he had 
 crossed the Neisse. Taught caution by the misadventure at Op- 
 peln, he reined up his horse, before the morning dawned, at the 
 mill of Hilbersdorf, about a mile and a half from the town. The 
 king, upon his high-blooded charger, had outridden nearly all 
 his escort ; but one or two were now with him. One of these 
 attendants he sent into the town to ascertain if it were still held 
 by the Prussians. Almost alone, he waited under the shelter of 
 the mill the return of his courier. It was still night, dark and 
 cold. The wind, sweeping over the snow-clad plains, caused the 
 exhausted, half-famished monarch to shiver in his saddle. 
 
 There is a gloom of the soul far deeper than any gloom with 
 which nature can ever be shrouded. It is not easy to conceive 
 of a mortal placed in circumstances of greater mental suffering 
 than was the proud, ambitious young monarch during the hour 
 in which he waited, in terror and disgrace, by the side of the 
 mill, for the return of his courier. At length the clatter of hoofs 
 was heard, and the messenger came back, accompanied by an ad- 
 jutant, to announce to the king that the Prussians still held 
 Lowen, and that the Prussian army had gained a signal victory 
 at Mollwitz. 
 
 Who can imagine the conflicting emotions of joy and wretch- 
 edness, of triumph and shame, of relief and chagrin, with which 
 the heart of Frederick must have been rent ! The army of Prus- 
 sia had triumphed, under the leadership of his generals, while 
 he, its young and ambitious . sovereign, who had unjustly pro- 
 
260 
 
 FEEDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 FREDERICK AT THE MILL. 
 
 voked war that lie might obtain military glory, a fugitive from 
 the field, was scampering like a coward over the plains at mid- 
 night, seeking his own safety. Never, perhaps, was there a more 
 signal instance of a retributive providence. Frederick knew full 
 well that the derision of Europe would be excited by caricatures 
 and lampoons of the chivalric fugitive. Nor was he deceived in 
 his anticipations. There was no end to the ridicule which was 
 heaped upon Frederick, galloping, for dear life, from the battle- 
 field in one direction, while his solid columns were advancing to 
 victory in the other. His sarcastic foes were ungenerous and 
 unjust. But when do foes, wielding the weapons of ridicule, 
 ever pretend even to be just and generous ? 
 
 The king, upon receiving these strange and unexpected tid- 
 ings, immediately rode into Lowen. It was an early hour in the 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 261 
 
 morning. He entered the place, not as a king and a conqueror, 
 but as a starving fugitive, exhausted with fatigue, anxiety, and 
 sleeplessness. It is said that his hunger was so great that he 
 stopped at a little shop on the corner of the market-place, where 
 " widow Panzern" served him with a cup of coffee and a cold 
 roast fowl. Thus slightly refreshed, the intensely humiliated 
 young king galloped back to his victorious army at Mollwitz, 
 having been absent from it, in his terror-stricken flight, for six- 
 teen hours. 
 
 The chagrin of Frederick in view of this adventure may be 
 inferred from the fact that, during the whole remainder of his 
 life, he was never known to make any allusion to it whatever. 
 
 After the king, swept away in the wreck of his right wing of 
 cavalry, had left the field, and was spurring his horse in his im- 
 petuous flight, his generals in the centre and on the left, in com- 
 mand of infantry so highly disciplined that every man would 
 stand at his post until he died, resolutely maintained the battle. 
 Frederick William had drilled these men for twenty years as 
 men were never drilled. before or since, converting them into 
 mere machines. They were wielded by their officers as they 
 themselves handled their muskets. Five successive cavalry 
 charges these cast-iron men resisted. They stood like rocks dash- 
 ing aside the torrent. The assailing columns melted before their 
 terrible fire — they discharging five shots to the Austrians' two. 
 
 After the fifth charge, the Austrians, dispirited, and leaving 
 the snow plain crimsoned with the blood and covered with the 
 bodies of their slain, withdrew out of ball range. Torn and ex- 
 hausted, they could not be driven by their officers forward to 
 another assault. The battle had now lasted for live hours. 
 
 BATTLE OF 
 
 MOLLWITZ, 
 
 April 10, 1741. 
 
 a. Advance of Prussians. 
 
 b. Where Rothenburg met 
 
 the Hussars. 
 
 c. Prussian Infantry. 
 dd. " Cavalry. 
 
 e. Austrian Iufantry. 
 ///. " Cavalry. 
 gg. Retreat of Austrians. 
 
262 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Night was at hand, for the sun had already set. The repulsed 
 Austrians were collected in scattered and confused bands. The 
 experienced eye of General Schwerin saw that the hour for de- 
 cisive action had come. He closed up his ranks, ordered every 
 band to play its most spirited air, and gave the order " For- 
 ward." An Austrian officer, writing the next week, describes 
 the scene. 
 
 " I can well say," he writes, " that I never in my life saw any 
 thing more beautiful. They marched with the greatest steadi- 
 ness, arrow straight and their front like a line, as if they had 
 been upon parade. The glitter of their clear arms shone strange- 
 ly in the setting sun, and the fire from them went on no other- 
 wise than a continued peal of thunder. The spirits of our army 
 sank altogether, the foot plainly giving way, the horse refusing 
 to come forward — all things wavering toward dissolution." 
 
 The Austrians had already lost, in killed, wounded, and miss- 
 ing, four thousand four hundred and ten men. And though the 
 Prussians had lost four thousand six hundred and thirteen, still 
 their infantry lines had never for a moment wavered ; and now, 
 with floating banners and peals of music, they were advancing 
 with the strides of conquerors. 
 
 Thus circumstanced, General Neipperg gave the order to re- 
 treat. At the double quick, the Austrians retired back through 
 the street of Mollwitz, hurried across the Eiver Laugwitz by a 
 bridge, and, turning short to the south, continued their retreat 
 toward Grottkau. They left behind them nine of their own 
 guns, and eight of those which they had captured from the Prus- 
 sians. The Prussians, exhausted by the long battle, their caval- 
 ry mostly dispersed and darkness already enveloping them, did 
 not attempt any vigorous pursuit. They bivouacked on the 
 grounds, or quartered themselves in the villages from which the 
 Austrians had fled. 
 
 On Wednesday, April 12, two days after the battle, Frederick 
 wrote to his sister Wilhelmina from Ohlau as follows : 
 
 " My dearest Sister, — I have the satisfaction to inform you 
 that we have yesterday* totally beaten the Austrians. They 
 
 * It was the day before. But it is not surprising that the bewildered young king should have 
 been somewhat confused in his dates. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 263 
 
 have lost more than five thousand men in killed, wounded, and 
 prisoners. We have lost Prince Frederick, brother of Margraf 
 Karl ; General Schulenberg, Wartensleben of the Carabineers, 
 and many other officers. Our troops did miracles, and the re- 
 sult shows as much. It was one of the rudest battles fought 
 within the memory of man. 
 
 " I am sure you will take part in this happiness, and that you 
 will not doubt the tenderness with which I am, dearest sister, 
 yours wholly, Frederick." 
 
 The king's intimate friend, Jordan, had accompanied him as 
 far as Breslau. There he remained, anxiously awaiting the issue 
 of the conflict. On the 11th, the day succeeding the battle, he 
 wrote from Breslau to the king as follows : 
 
 " Sire, — Yesterday I was in terrible alarms. The sound of 
 the cannon heard, the smoke of powder visible from the steeple- 
 tops here, all led us to suspect that there was a battle going on. 
 Glorious confirmation of it this morning. Nothing but rejoicing 
 among all the Protestant inhabitants, who had begun to be in 
 apprehension from the rumors which the other party took pleas- 
 ure in spreading. Persons who were in the battle can not 
 enough celebrate the coolness and bravery of your majesty. 
 For myself, I am at the overflowing point. I have run about all 
 day announcing this glorious news to the Berliners who are here. 
 In my life I have never felt a more perfect satisfaction. One 
 finds at the corner of every street an orator of the people cele- 
 brating the warlike feats of your majesty's troops. I have oft- 
 en, in my idleness, assisted at these discourses ; not artistic elo- 
 quence, it must be owned, but gushing full from the heart." 
 
 Frederick immediately sent an announcement of the victory 
 to his friend Voltaire. It does not appear that he alluded to his 
 own adventures. Voltaire received the note when in the thea- 
 tre at Lisle, while listening to the first performance of his trage- 
 dy of Mahomet. He read the account to the audience between 
 the acts. It was received with great applause. "You will see," 
 said Voltaire, " that this piece of Mollwitz will secure the suc- 
 cess of mine." Votes verrez que cette piece de Mollwitz f era reus- 
 sir la miene. 
 
 The distinguished philosopher Maupertuis accompanied Fred- 
 
264 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 erick on this campaign. Following the king to the vicinity of 
 the field of battle, he took a post of observation at a safe dis- 
 tance, that he might witness the spectacle. Carlyle, in his pe- 
 culiar style of word-painting, describes the issue as follows : 
 
 " The sage Maupertuis, for example, had climbed some tree, or 
 place of impregnability, hoping to see the battle there. And he 
 did see it much too clearly at last ! In such a tide of charging 
 and chasing on that Eight Wing, and round all the field in the 
 Prussian rear ; in such wide bickering and boiling of Horse-cur- 
 rents, which fling out round all the Prussian rear-quarters such 
 a spray of Austrian Hussars for one element, Maupertuis, I have 
 no doubt, wishes much he were at home doing his sines and 
 tangents. An Austrian Hussar party gets sight of him on his 
 tree or other stand-point (Voltaire says elsewhere he was mount- 
 ed on an ass, the malicious spirit !) — too certain the Austrian 
 Hussars got sight of him ; his purse, gold watch, all he has of 
 movable, is given frankly; all will not do. There are frills 
 about the man, fine laces, cloth ; a goodish yellow wig on him 
 for one thing. Their Slavonic dialect, too fatally intelligible by 
 the pantomime accompanying it, forces sage Maupertuis from his 
 tree or stand-point; the big red face flurried into scarlet, I can 
 fancy, or scarlet and ashy- white mixed ; and — Let us draw a 
 veil over it. He is next seen shirtless, the once very haughty, 
 blustery, and now much humiliated man; still conscious of su- 
 preme acumen, insight, and pure science; and, though an Aus- 
 trian prisoner and a monster of rags, struggling to believe that he 
 is a genius, and the Trismegistus of mankind. What a pickle !'■ 
 
 While in this deplorable condition, Maupertuis was found by 
 the Prince of Lichtenstein, an Austrian officer who had met him 
 in Paris. The prince rescued him from his brutal captors and 
 supplied him with clothing. He was, however, taken to Vienna 
 as a prisoner of war, where he was placed on parole. Voltaire, 
 whose unamiable nature was pervaded by a very marked vein 
 of malignity, made himself very merry over the misfortunes of 
 the philosopher. As Maupertuis glided about the streets of Vi- 
 enna for a time in obscurity, the newspapers began to speak of 
 his scientific celebrity. He was thus brought into notice. The 
 queen treated him with distinction. The Grand-duke Francis 
 drew his own watch from his pocket, and presented it to Mau- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 265 
 
 pertuis in recompense for the one he had lost. Eventually he 
 was released, and, loaded with many presents, was sent to Brit- 
 tany. 
 
 In the account which Frederick gave, some years after, of this 
 campaign, in his Histoire de Mons Temps, he wrote : 
 
 " The contest between General Neipperg and myself seemed 
 to be which should commit the most faults. Mollwitz was the 
 school of the king and his troops. That prince reflected pro- 
 foundly upon all the faults and errors he had fallen into, and 
 tried to correct them for the future." 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 THE WAR ES" SILESIA. 
 
 The Encampment at Brieg. — Bombardment. — Diplomatic Intrigues. — Luxury of the Spanish 
 Minister. — Rising Greatness of Frederick. — Frederick's Interview with Lord Hyndford. — 
 Plans of France. — Desperate Prospects of Maria Theresa. — Anecdote of Frederick. — Joint 
 Action of England and Holland. — Heroic Character of Maria Theresa. — Coronation of the 
 Queen of Hungary. 
 
 After the battle of Mollwitz, General Neipperg withdrew 
 the defeated Austrian army to the vicinity of Neisse, where he 
 strongly intrenched himself. Frederick encamped his troops 
 around Brieg, and made vigorous preparations to carry the place 
 by storm. With great energy he pushed forward his works, 
 and in less than three weeks was ready for the assault. On the 
 night of April 26 there was a tempest of extraordinary violence, 
 which was followed, the next night, by a dead calm, a cloudless 
 sky, and a brilliant moon. On both sides of the River Oder, 
 upon which Brieg was situated, there was an open champaign 
 country. Several bridges crossed the river. At a fixed moment 
 two thousand diggers were collected, at appointed stations, di- 
 vided into twelve equal parties. With the utmost exactness 
 they were equipped with all the necessary implements. These 
 diggers, with spade and pickaxe, and yet thoroughly armed, were 
 preceded a few yards by covering battalions, who, having stealth- 
 ily and silently obtained the position assigned to them, were to 
 lie flat upon the ground. Not a gun was to be fired; not a 
 word was to be spoken save in a whisper ; not even a pipe was 
 to be lighted. Some engineers were to mark out with a straw 
 
266 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 rope, just in the rear of the covering party, the line of the first 
 parallel. Every imaginable contingency was provided for, and 
 each man was to attend to his individual duty with the precision 
 of clock-work. 
 
 Precisely at midnight all were in silent, rapid motion. The 
 march of half an hour brought them to their appointed stations. 
 The soft and sandy soil was easily shoveled. Every man plied 
 pick and spade with intensest energy. As the town clock of 
 Brieg struck one, they had so far dug themselves in as to be 
 quite sheltered from the fire of the hostile batteries, should the 
 guns open upon them. Before the dawn of day they had two 
 batteries, of twenty-five guns each, in position, and several mor- 
 tars ready for action. 
 
 Thus far the enemy had no suspicion of the movement. But 
 now the sun was rising, and, almost simultaneously on both 
 sides, the roar of battle commenced. The positions had been so 
 adroitly taken as to bring three Prussian guns to bear upon 
 each gun of the Austrians. The Prussian gunners, drilled to, the 
 utmost possible accuracy and precision of fire, poured into the 
 city a terrific tempest of shot and shells. Every thing had been 
 so carefully arranged that, for six days and nights, with scarcely 
 a moment's intermission, the doomed city was assailed with such 
 a tornado of cannonading and bombardment as earth had sel- 
 dom, if ever, witnessed before. . 
 
 The city took fire in many places ; magazines were consumed ; 
 the ducal palace was wrapped in fiames. Nearly fifteen thou- 
 sand cannon-balls, and over two thousand bombs, were hurled 
 crashing through the thronged dwellings. Many of the Aus- 
 trian guns were silenced. General Piccolomini, who was intrust- 
 ed with the defense of the place, could stand it no longer. On 
 the 4th of May he raised above the walls the white flag of sur- 
 render. The gallant general was treated magnanimously. He 
 was invited to dine with Frederick, and, with the garrison, was 
 permitted to retire to Neisse, pledged not to serve against the 
 Prussians for two years. The town had been nearly demolished 
 by the war-tempest which had beat so fiercely upon it. Fred- 
 erick immediately commenced repairing the ruins and strength- 
 ening the fortifications. 
 
 All Europe was thrown into commotion by this bold and sue- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 267 
 
 cessful invasion of Silesia. France was delighted, for Prussia 
 was weakening Austria. England was alarmed. The weaken- 
 ing of Austria was strengthening France, England's dreaded ri- 
 val. And Hanover was menaced by the Prussian army at Got- 
 ten, under the Old Dessauer. The British Parliament voted an 
 additional subsidy of £300,000 to Maria Theresa. Two hundred 
 thousand had already been granted her. This, in all, amounted 
 to the sum of two million five hundred thousand dollars. En- 
 voys from all the nations of Europe were sent to Frederick's en- 
 campment at Strehlen, in the vicinity of Brieg. Some were sent 
 seeking his alliance, some with terms of compromise, and all to 
 watch his proceedings. The young king was not only acquiring 
 the territory which he sought, but seemed to be gaining that re- 
 nown which he had so eagerly coveted. He did not feel strong 
 enough to make an immediate attack upon the Austrian army, 
 which General Neipperg held, in an almost impregnable posi- 
 tion, behind the ramparts of Neisse. For two months he re- 
 mained at Strehlen, making vigorous preparations for future 
 movements, and his mind much engrossed with diplomatic in- 
 trigues. Strehlen is a pretty little town, nestled among the hills, 
 about twenty-five miles west of Brieg, and thirty northwest of 
 Neisse. The troops were mainly encamped in tents on the fields 
 around. The embassadors from the great monarchies of Europe 
 were generally sumptuously lodged in Strehlen, or in Breslau, 
 which was a beautiful city about thirty miles north of Strehlen. 
 Baron Bielfeld in the following terms describes the luxury in 
 which the Spanish minister indulged : 
 
 " Each of these ministers makes a most brilliant figure, and 
 never have I seen one travel with more ease and convenience, 
 more elegance and grandeur, than does the Marquis of Montijo. 
 Wherever he- stops to dine or sup, he finds a room hung with 
 the richest tapestry, and the floor covered with Turkey carpets, 
 with velvet chairs, and every other kind of convenience ; a table 
 sumptuously served, the choicest wines, and a dessert of fruit and 
 confectionery that Paris itself could not excel. This kind of en- 
 chantment, this real miracle in Germany, is performed by means 
 of three baggage- wagons, of which two always go before the em- , 
 bassador, and carry with them every thing necessary for his re- 
 ception. When they arrive in some poor village, the domestics 
 
268 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 that accompany each wagon immediately clear and clean some 
 chamber, fix the tapestry by rings to the walls, cover the floor 
 with carpets, and furnish the kitchen and cellar with every kind 
 of necessary."* 
 
 Speaking of Frederick at this time, Bielfeld says : " Notwith- 
 standing all the fatigues of war, the king is in perfect health, 
 and more gay and pleasant than ever. All who approach his 
 majesty meet with a most gracious reception. In the midst of 
 his camp, and at the head of sixty thousand Prussians, our mon- 
 arch appears to me with a new and superior air of greatness." 
 
 Circumstances had already rendered Frederick one of the most 
 important personages in Europe. He could ally himself with 
 France, and humble Austria ; or he could ally himself with En- 
 gland and Austria, and crush France. All the lesser lights in 
 the Continental firmament circulated around these central lumi- 
 naries. Consequently Frederick was enabled to take a conspic- 
 uous part in all the diplomatic intrigues which were then agita- 
 ting the courts of Europe. 
 
 On the 7th of May, three days after the capture of Brieg, Lord 
 Hyndford ? the English embassador, arrived at the camp of Fred- 
 erick, and obtained an audience with his majesty. It was eleven 
 o'clock in the forenoon. He gave his government a very minute 
 narrative of the interview. The following particulars, gleaned 
 from that narrative, will interest the reader. It will be remem- 
 bered that Frederick cherished a strong antipathy against his 
 uncle, George II. of England. 
 
 Lord Hyndford commenced his communication by assuring his 
 majesty of the friendly feelings and good wishes of the English 
 government. Frederick listened with much impatience, and soon 
 interrupted him, exclaiming passionately, 
 
 " How is it possible, my lord, to believe things so contradict- 
 ory ? It is mighty fine, all this that you now tell me, on the 
 part of the King of England. But how does it correspond with 
 his last speech in Parliament, and with the doings of his minis- 
 ters at Petersburg and at the Hague, to stir up allies against 
 me ? I have reason to doubt the sincerity of the King of En- 
 gland. Perhaps he means to amuse me. But" (with an oathf) 
 
 * Monsieur le Baron Bielfeld, Lettres Farnilieres et Autres, tome i. , p. 3. 
 f "Some men," says a quaint writer, "have a God to swear by, though they have none to 
 pray to." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 269 
 
 " he is mistaken. I will risk every thing rather than abate the 
 least of my pretensions." 
 
 Lord Hyndford, evidently embarrassed, for the facts were 
 strongly against him, endeavored, in some additional remarks, to 
 assnme ignorance of any unfriendly action on the part of the 
 British government. The king again, in a loud and angry tone, 
 replied, 
 
 " My lord, there seems to be a contradiction in all this. The 
 King of England, in his letter, tells me you are instructed as to 
 every thing, and yet you pretend ignorance. But I am perfectly 
 informed of all. And I should not be surprised if, after all these 
 fine words, you should receive some strong letter or resolution 
 for me." Then, turning to his secretary, he added, sarcastically, 
 " Write down that my lord would be surprised to receive such 
 instruction." 
 
 Lord Hyndford, who says that by this rude assailment he was 
 put extremely upon his guard, rejoined : 
 
 "Europe is under the necessity of taking some speedy resolu- 
 tion, things are in such a state of crisis. Like a fever in a hu- 
 man body, got to such a height that quinquina becomes necessa- 
 ry. Shall we apply to Vienna, your majesty ?" 
 
 A transient smile flitted across the king's countenance. Then, 
 looking cold again, he added, " Follow your own will in that." 
 
 "Would your majesty," Lord Hyndford replied, "engage to 
 stand by his excellency Gotter's original offer at Vienna on your 
 part ? That is, would you agree, in consideration of the surren- 
 der to you of Lower Silesia and Breslau, to assist the Queen of 
 Austria, with all your troops, for the maintenance of the Prag- 
 matic Sanction, and to vote for the Grand-duke Francis as em- 
 peror V 
 
 "Yes," was. the monosyllabic reply. 
 
 "What was the sum of money your majesty then offered the 
 Queen of Austria V Lord Hyndford inquired. 
 
 The king hesitated, as though he had forgotten. But his sec- 
 retary answered, "Three million florins ($1,500,000)." 
 
 " I should not value the money," the king added. " If money 
 would content her I would give more." 
 
 After a long pause Lord Hyndford inquired, "Would your 
 majesty consent to an armistice V 
 
270 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 "Yes," Frederick replied; "but for not less than six months" 
 (counting on his fingers from May to December) — " till Decem- 
 ber 1. The season then would be so far gone that the) 7 could 
 do nothing." 
 
 As the secretary, Podewils, had been taking notes, Lord Hynd- 
 ford requested permission to look at them, that he might see 
 that no mistake had been made. The king assented, and then 
 Lord Hyndford bowed himself out. Thus ended the audience. 
 
 A few days after this interview, the Dutch embassador, Gen- 
 eral Ginckel, arrived with the Kesolution from the English and 
 Dutch courts, demanding that the king should evacuate Silesia. 
 Lord Hyndford was much embarrassed, apprehending that the 
 presentation of the summons at that time would work only mis- 
 chief. He persuaded General Ginckel to delay the presentation 
 until he could send a courier to England for instructions. In a 
 fortnight the courier returned with the order that the Kesolu- 
 tion was immediately to be presented to his Prussian majesty. 
 
 In the mean time, Frederick, who kept himself thoroughly in- 
 formed of all these events, signed secretly, on the 5th of June, a 
 treaty of intimate alliance with France. Though he had not yet 
 received the Joint Resolution of the English and Dutch courts, 
 he was well aware of its existence, and the next day sent to his 
 envoy, M. Easfeld, at the Hague, the following dispatch : 
 
 " You will beforehand inform the high mightinesses in regard 
 to that Advice of April 24th, which they determined on giving, 
 me, through his excellency General Ginckel, along with his ex- 
 cellency Lord Hyndford, that such advice can be considered by 
 me only as a blind complaisance to the court of Vienna's im- 
 proper urgencies. That for certain I will not quit Silesia till 
 my claims be satisfied. And the longer I am forced to continue 
 warring for them here, the higher they will rise." 
 
 The plan of France, as conceived and pushed resolutely for- 
 ward by the Count of Belleisle, the renowned minister of Louis 
 XV., was to divide Germany into four small kingdoms of about 
 equal power, Bavaria, Saxony, Prussia, and Austria. The King 
 of Bavaria, as one of the proteges of France, was to be chosen 
 Emperor of Germany To accomplish this, Austria was to be 
 reduced to a second-rate power by despoiling the young queen, 
 Maria Theresa, of large portions of her territory, and annexing 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 271 
 
 the provinces wrested from her to the petty states of Prussia, 
 Bavaria, and Saxony, thus sinking Austria to an equality with 
 them. France, the grand nation, would then be indisputably 
 the leading power in Europe. By bribery, intimidation, and in- 
 citing one kingdom against another, the court of Versailles could 
 control the policy of the whole Continent. Magnificent as was 
 this plan, many circumstances seemed then combining to render 
 it feasible. The King of Prussia, inspired simply by the desire 
 of enlarging his kingdom by making war against Austria, and 
 striving to wrest Silesia from the realms of Maria Theresa, was 
 co-operating, in the most effectual way possible, to further the 
 designs of France. And it had now also become a matter of 
 great moment to Frederick that he should secure the alliance of 
 the court of Versailles. 
 
 All the courts of Europe were involved in these intrigues, 
 which led to minor complications which it would be in vain to 
 attempt to unravel. In the secret treaty into which Frederick 
 entered with France on the 5th of June, 1741, the Count of Belle- 
 isle engaged, in behalf of his master, Louis XV., to incite Sweden 
 to declare war against Russia, that the semi-barbaric power of 
 the North, just beginning to emerge into greatness, might be so 
 occupied as not to be able to render any assistance to Austria. 
 France also agreed to guarantee Lower Silesia, with Breslau, to 
 Frederick, and to send two armies, of forty thousand men each, 
 one across the Upper and the other across the Lower Rhine, to 
 co-operate with his Prussian majesty. The forty thousand men 
 on the Upper Rhine were to take position in the vicinity of the 
 Electorate of Hanover, which belonged to George II. of England, 
 prepared to act immediately in concert with the Prussian army 
 at Gotten under the " Old Dessauer," in seizing Hanover resist- 
 lessly, should England make the slightest move toward sending 
 troops to the aid of Maria Theresa. 
 
 The prospects of Maria Theresa seemed now quite desperate. 
 We know not that history records a more inglorious act than 
 that Europe should have thus combined to take advantage of 
 the youth and inexperience of this young queen, weeping over 
 the grave of her father, and trembling in view of her own ap- 
 proaching hour of anguish, by wresting from her the inheritance 
 which had descended to her from her ancestors. France and 
 
272 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Germany, inspired by the most intense motives of selfish ambi- 
 tion, were to fall upon her, while the most effectual precautions 
 were adopted to prevent Russia and England from coming to 
 her aid. 
 
 In carrying forward these intrigues at the camp of Frederick, 
 the Count of Belleisle had an associate minister in the embassy, 
 M. De Valori. A slight incident occurred in connection with 
 this minister which would indicate, in the view of most persons, 
 that Frederick did not cherish a very high sense of honor. M. 
 Valori was admitted to an audience with his Prussian majesty. 
 During the interview, as the French minister drew his hand from 
 his pocket, he accidentally dropped a note upon the floor. Fred- 
 erick, perceiving it, slyly placed his foot upon it. As soon as the 
 minister had bowed himself out, Frederick eagerly seized the 
 
 FREDERICKS INTERVIEW WITH VALORI. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 273 
 
 note and read it. It contained some secret instructions to M. 
 Valori from the French court, directing him not to give Grlatz 
 to his Prussian majesty if it could possibly be avoided. Freder- 
 ick did not perceive any thing ignoble in this act of his, for he 
 records it himself;* neither does Mr. Carlyle condemn him.f 
 Most readers will probably regard it as highly dishonorable. 
 
 On the 8th of June the English and Dutch ministers, not yet 
 aware of the alliance into which Frederick had entered with 
 France, presented the joint resolution of their two courts, exhort- 
 ing Frederick to withdraw his army from Silesia. Lord Hynd- 
 ford, who was somewhat annoyed by the apparent impolicy of 
 the measure just at that time, solicited and obtained a private 
 audience with the king, hoping by apologies and explanations 
 to make the summons a little less unpalatable to his majesty. 
 In the brief interview which ensued Lord Hyndford appealed to 
 the magnanimity of the king, declaring that it would be gener- 
 ous and noble for him to accept moderate terms from Austria. 
 The king angrily interrupted him, saying, 
 
 "My lord, do not talk to me of magnanimity. A prince ought, 
 in the first place, to consult his interest. I am not opposed to 
 peace. But I expect to have four duchies given me." 
 
 Maria Theresa was much encouraged by the subsidy she had 
 received from England. She was not yet informed of the for- 
 midable alliance into which France, with a portion of Germany, 
 had entered for her destruction. About the 20th of June she 
 left Vienna for Presburg, in Hungary, a drive of about fifty miles. 
 Here, on the 25th of June, 1741, she was crowned Queen of 
 Hungary. She was a very beautiful woman in person, devout 
 in spirit, and those who admire manly developments in the fe- 
 male character must regard her as presenting the highest type 
 of womanhood. She merits the following beautiful tribute to 
 her worth from the pen of Carlyle : 
 
 " As to the brave young Queen of Hungary, my admiration 
 goes with that of all the world. Not in the language of flattery, 
 but of evident fact, the royal qualities abound in that high 
 
 * (Euvres de Frederic, t. xi., p. 90. 
 
 t "Valori was one night with him, and, on rising to take leave, the fat hand, sticking proba- 
 bly in the big waistcoat pocket, twitched out a little diplomatic-looking Note, which Frederick, 
 with gentle adroitness (permissible in such circumstances), set his foot upon, till Valori had bow- 
 ed himself out. " — Carlyle, vol. iii., p. 330. 
 
 s 
 
274 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 young lady. Had they left the world, and grown to mere cos- 
 tume elsewhere, you might find certain of them again here. 
 Most brave, high and pious minded ; beautiful too, and radiant 
 with good-nature, though of temper that will easily catch fire ; 
 there is, perhaps, no nobler woman then living. And she fronts 
 the roaring elements in a truly grand, feminine manner, as if 
 Heaven itself and the voice of Duty called her. ' The inherit- 
 ances which my fathers left me, we will not part with these. 
 Death if it so must be, but not dishonor.' 
 
 " This, for the present, is her method of looking at the matter; 
 this magnanimous, heroic, and occasionally somewhat female one. 
 Her husband, the grand-duke, an inert but good-tempered, well- 
 conditioned duke, after his sort, goes with her. Now, as always, 
 he follows loyally his wife's lead, never she his. Wife being in- 
 trinsically as well as extrinsically the better man, what other 
 can he do ?" 
 
 The ceremony of coronation was attended, near Presburg, on 
 the 25th of June, with much semi-barbaric splendor, as the Iron 
 Crown* of St. Stephen was placed upon the pale, beautiful brow 
 of the young wife and mother. All the renowned chivalry of 
 Hungary were assembled upon that field. They came in gor- 
 geous costume, with embroidered banners, and accompanied by 
 imposing retinues. At the close of the ceremonies, the queen, 
 who was distinguished as a bold rider, mounted a swift charger, 
 and, followed by a long retinue of Magyar warriors, galloped to 
 the top of a small eminence artificially constructed for the occa- 
 sion, called the Konigsburg, or King's Hill, where she drew her 
 sword, and, flourishing it toward the four quarters of the heav- 
 ens, bade defiance to any adversary who should venture to ques- 
 tion her claims. The knightly warriors who crowded the plain 
 flashed their swords in the sunlight, as with one accord, with 
 chivalric devotion, they vowed fidelity to their queen. 
 
 * The Iron Crown. It was so called because there was entwined, amidst its priceless gems 
 and exquisitely wrought frosted gold, some iron wire, said to be drawn from one of the spikes 
 which had been driven through one of the hands of our Savior. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 275 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF SILESIA. 
 
 An extraordinary Interview. — Carlyle's Sympathy. — Trifling Demeanor of Frederick. — Conspir- 
 acy in Breslau. — Guile of Frederick. — The successful Stratagem. — Crossing the Neisse. — 
 The Co-operation of France. — Anguish of Maria Theresa. — Inflexible Will of Frederick. — 
 Duplicity of the King. — The Surrender of Neisse. 
 
 Gradually the secret treaty which allied France, Bavaria, and 
 Prussia, and it was not known how many other minor powers, 
 against Austria, came to light. Two French armies of fifty thou- 
 sand men each were on the march to act in co-operation with 
 Frederick. England, trembling from fear of the loss of Hanover, 
 dared not move. The Aulic Council at Vienna, in a panic, " fell 
 back into their chairs like dead men." The ruin of Maria The- 
 resa and the fatal dismemberment of Austria seemed inevitable. 
 
 Under these circumstances, the young queen, urged by her 
 council and by the English court, very reluctantly consented to 
 propose terms of compromise to Frederick. Sir Thomas Kobin- 
 son,. subsequently Earl of Grantham, was sent from Vienna to 
 Breslau to confer with the British minister there, Lord Hynd- 
 ford, and with him to visit Frederick, at his camp at Strehlen, 
 in the attempt to adjust the difficulties. The curious interview 
 which ensued has been minutely described by Sir Thomas Bob- 
 inson. It took place under the royal canvas tent of his Prussian 
 majesty at 11 o'clock A.M. of the 7th of August, 1741. 
 
 The two English gentlemen, stout, burly, florid men, were 
 dressed in the gorgeous court costume of those days. Each 
 wore a large, frizzled, powdered wig. Their shirts were heavily 
 ruffled in the bosoms and at the wrists. Their coats, of antique 
 cut, were covered with embroidery of gold lace. Their waist- 
 coats hung down in deep flaps, and large buckles adorned their 
 shoes. 
 
 Frederick was a trig, slender young man of twenty-nine years. 
 He was dressed in a closely-fitting blue coat, with buff breeches 
 and high cavalry boots. He wore a plumed hat, which he court- 
 eously raised as the embassadors entered his tent. The scene 
 
276 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 which ensued was substantially as follows, omitting those pas- 
 sages which were of no permanent interest. After sundry pre- 
 liminary remarks, Sir Thomas Robinson said, 
 
 " I am authorized to offer your majesty two million guilders 
 [$1,000,000] if your majesty will consent to relinquish this en- 
 terprise and retire from Silesia." 
 
 " Retire from Silesia !" exclaimed the king, vehemently. " And 
 
 FREDERICK AND THE BRITISH MINISTERS. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 277 
 
 for money ? Do you take me for a beggar ? Retire from Sile- 
 sia, in the conquest of which I have expended so much blood 
 and treasure ! No, sir, no. That is not to be thought of. If 
 you have no better proposals to suggest, it is not worth while 
 talking." 
 
 Sir Thomas, somewhat discomposed, apologetically intimated 
 that that was not all he had to offer. 
 
 "Very well," said the king, impatiently; "let us see, then, what 
 there is more." 
 
 "I am permitted," the embassador said, " to offer your majesty 
 the whole of Austrian Guelderland. It lies contiguous to your 
 majesty's possessions in the Rhine country. It will be a very 
 important addition to those possessions. I am permitted to say 
 the whole of Austrian Guelderland." 
 
 " What do you mean ?" exclaimed the king, with an air of real 
 or affected surprise. Then, turning to his secretary, M.Podewils, 
 he inquired, " How much of Guelderland is theirs, and not ours 
 already V 
 
 " Almost none," M. Podewils replied. 
 
 Here the king quite lost his temper. In a loud tone and with 
 angry gesticulation he exclaimed, " Do you offer me such rags 
 and rubbish, such paltry scrapings, for all my just claims in Si- 
 lesia V And so he ran on for quite a length of time, with ever- 
 increasing violence, fanning himself into a flame of indignation. 
 
 " His contempt," writes Sir Thomas in his narrative, " was so 
 great, and was expressed in such violent terms, that now, if ever, 
 was the time to make the last effort. A moment longer was not 
 to be lost, to hinder the king from dismissing us." 
 
 "I am also permitted, sire," said Sir Thomas, "to add the Duchy 
 of Limburg. It is a duchy of great wealth and resources, so val- 
 uable that the -Elector Palatine was willing to give in exchange 
 for it the whole Duchy of Berg." 
 
 " It is inconceivable to me," Frederick replied, " how Austria 
 should dare to think of such a proposal. Limburg ! Are there 
 not solemn engagements upon Austria which render every inch 
 of ground in the Netherlands inalienable ?" 
 
 " These engagements," said Sir Thomas, " are good as against 
 the French, your majesty. But the Barrier treaty, confirmed at 
 Utrecht, was for our benefit and that of Holland." 
 
278 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " That is your interpretation," said Frederick. " But the 
 French assert that it was an arrangement made in their favor." 
 
 " Your majesty," Sir Thomas rejoined, " by a little engineering 
 art, could render Limburg impregnable to the French or any 
 others." 
 
 "I have not the least desire," the king replied, " to aggrandize 
 myself in those parts, or to spend money in fortifying there. It 
 would be useless to me. Am I not fortifying Brieg and Glogau ? 
 These are enough for one who wishes to live well with his neigh- 
 bors. Neither the Dutch nor the French have offended me, nor 
 will I offend them by acquisitions in the Netherlands. Besides, 
 who would guarantee them ?'- 
 
 " The proposal," Sir Thomas replied, " is to give guarantees at 
 once." 
 
 " Guarantees !" exclaimed the king, scornfully. " Who minds 
 or keeps guarantees in this age? Has not France guaranteed 
 the Pragmatic Sanction ? Has not England ? Why do you not 
 all fly to the queen's succor ?" 
 
 Sir Thomas, who was not aware of the engagement into which 
 the allies had entered to keep Bussia busy by a war with Swe- 
 den, intimated that there were powers which might yet come to 
 the rescue of the queen, and mentioned Bussia as one. 
 
 The king, with a very complaisant smile, said, " Bussia, my 
 good sir — It is not proper for me to explain myself, but I have 
 means to keep the Bussians employed." 
 
 " Bussia," added Sir Thomas, with some stateliness of utter- 
 ance, " is not the only power which has engagements with Aus- 
 tria, and which must keep them too ; so that, however averse to 
 a breach — " 
 
 Here the king interrupted him, and with scornful gesture, " lay- 
 ing his finger on his nose," and in loud tones, exclaimed, 
 
 " No threats, sir, if you please, no threats." 
 
 Lord Hyndford here came to the rescue of his colleague, and 
 said, meekly, 
 
 "I am sure his excellency had no such meaning, ^sire. His 
 excellency will advance nothing so very contrary to his instruc- 
 tions." 
 
 Sir Thomas Bobinson added, " Sire, I am not talking of what 
 this power or that means to do, but of what will come of itself. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 279 
 
 To prophesy is not to threaten, sire. It is my zeal for the pub- 
 lic good which brought me here, and — " 
 
 Again the king interrupted him, saying, " The public will be 
 much obliged to you, sir ! But hear me. With respect to Rus- 
 sia, you know how matters stand. From the King of Poland I 
 have nothing to fear. As for the King of England, he is my re- 
 lation. If he do not attack me, I shall not him. If he do attack 
 me, the Prince of Anhalt, with my army at Gotten, will take 
 care of him." 
 
 " It is the common rumor now," Sir Thomas replied, " that 
 your majesty, after the 12th of August, will join the French. 
 Sire, I venture to hope not. Austria prefers your friendship ; 
 but if your majesty disdain Austria's advances, what is it to do? 
 Austria must throw itself entirely into the hands of France, and 
 endeavor to outbid your majesty." 
 
 This was a very serious suggestion. None of these sovereigns 
 professed to be influenced by any other considerations than their 
 own interests. And it was manifest that Austria could easily 
 outbid Prussia, if determined to purchase the French alliance. 
 For a moment the king was silent, apparently somewhat per- 
 plexed. He then said, 
 
 " I am at the head of an army which has already vanquished 
 the enemy, and which is ready to meet the enemy again. The 
 country which alone I desire is already conquered and securely 
 held. This is alii want. I now have it. I will and must keep 
 it. Shall I be bought out of this country ? Never ! I will 
 sooner perish in it with all my troops. With what face shall I 
 meet my ancestors if I abandon my right which they have trans- 
 mitted to me? My first enterprise, and to be given up lightly? 
 
 " Have I need of peace ? Let those who need it give me what 
 I want, or let them fight me again and be beaten again. Have 
 they not given whole kingdoms to Spain ? And to me they can 
 not spare a few trifling principalities. If the queen do not now 
 grant me all I require, I shall, in four weeks, demand four prin- 
 cipalities more. I now demand the whole of Lower Silesia, Bres- 
 lau included. With that answer you can return to Vienna." 
 
 "With that answer!" Sir Thomas replied, in tones of surprise. 
 "Is your majesty serious? Is that your majesty's deliberate 
 answer ?" 
 
2S0 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " Yes, I say," the king rejoined. " That is my answer, and I 
 will never give any other." 
 
 Both of the English ministers, in much agitation, spoke to- 
 gether. The king, impatiently interrupting them, said, 
 
 " Gentlemen, gentlemen, it is of no use to think about it." 
 
 Taking off his hat, he slightly saluted them, and retired be- 
 hind the curtain into the interior tent. 
 
 A brief account of this interview has been given by Frederick,* 
 and also a very minute narrative by Sir Thomas Eobinson, in 
 his official report to his government. There is no essential dis- 
 crepancy between the two statements. Frederick alludes rather 
 contemptuously to the pompous airs of Sir Thomas, saying that 
 " he negotiated in a wordy, high, droning way, as if he were 
 speaking in Parliament." Mr. Carlyle seems to be entirely in 
 sympathy with Frederick in his invasion of Silesia. The reader 
 will peruse with interest his graphic, characteristic comments 
 upon this interview : 
 
 " The unsuccessfulest negotiation well imaginable by a public 
 man. Strehlen, Monday, 7th August, 1741 — Frederick has van- 
 ished into the interior of his tent, and the two diplomatic geotle- 
 .men, the wind struck out of them in this manner, remain gazing 
 at one another. Here, truly, is a young, royal gentleman that 
 knows his own mind, while so many do not. Unspeakable im- 
 broglio of negotiations, mostly insane, welters over all the earth ; 
 the Belleisles, the Aulic Councils, the British Georges, heaping 
 coil upon coil ; and here, notably in that now so extremely sor- 
 did murk of wiggeries, inane diplomacies, and solemn deliriums, 
 dark now and obsolete to all creatures, steps forth one litle hu- 
 man figure, with something of sanity in it, like a star, like a 
 gleam of steel, sheering asunder your big balloons, and letting 
 out their diplomatic hydrogen. Salutes with his hat, ' Gentle- 
 men, gentlemen, it is of no use !' and vanishes into the interior 
 of his tent." 
 
 The next day the two British ministers dined with Frederick. 
 
 The king was in reality, or assumed to be, in exultant spirits. 
 
 . He joked and bantered his guests even upon those great issues 
 
 ' which were threatening to deluge Europe in blood. As they 
 
 took leave, intending to return to Vienna through Neisse, which 
 
 * CEuvres de Frederic, vol. ii., p. 84. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 281 
 
 was held by the Austrian army, the king said to Sir Thomas 
 Robinson, derisively, 
 
 "As you pass through Neisse, please present my compliments 
 to Marshal Neipperg ; and you can say, your excellency, that I 
 hope to have the pleasure of calling upon him one of these days." 
 
 It seemed to be the policy of Frederick to assume a very tri- 
 fling, care-for-nothing air, as though he were engaged in very 
 harmless child's play. He threw out jokes, and wrote ludicrous 
 letters to M. Jordan and M. Algarotti. But behind this exte- 
 rior disguise it is manifest that all the energies of his soul were 
 aroused, and that, with sleepless vigilance, he was watching every 
 event, and providing for every possible emergence. 
 
 It will be remembered that Breslau, whose inhabitants were 
 mainly Protestant, and which was one of the so-called free cities 
 of Germany, was surrendered to Frederick under peculiar condi- 
 tions. It was to remain, in its internal government, in all re- 
 spects exactly as it had been, with the simple exception that it 
 was to recognize the sovereignty of Prussia instead of that of 
 Austria. Its strict neutrality was to be respected. It was to 
 be protected by its own garrison. No Prussian soldier could 
 enter with any weapons but side-arms. The king himself, in en- 
 tering the city, could be accompanied only by thirty guards. 
 
 When under the sovereignty of Austria, though the Protest- 
 ants were not persecuted, very decided favor was shown to the 
 Catholics. But the influence of Protestant Prussia was to. place 
 both parties on a perfect equality. This greatly annoyed the 
 Catholics. Certain Catholic ladies of rank, with a few leading 
 citizens, entered into a secret society, and kept the court of Vi- 
 enna informed of every thing which transpired in Breslau. They 
 also entered into intimate communication with General Neip- 
 perg, entreating him to come to their rescue. They assured him 
 that if he would suddenly appear before their gates with his 
 army, or with a strong detachment, the conspiring Catholics 
 would open the gates, and he could rush in and take possession 
 of the city. 
 
 But the ever- vigilant Frederick had smuggled a " false sister" 
 into the society of the Catholic ladies, who kept him informed 
 of every measure that was proposed. At the very hour when 
 Frederick was dining with the two English ministers, and mak- 
 
282 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ing himself so merry with jests and banter, he was aware that 
 General Neipperg, with the whole Austrian army, was crossing 
 the Kiver Neisse, on the march, by a route thirty miles west of 
 his encampment, to take Breslau by surprise. But he had al- 
 ready adopted effectual measures to thwart their plans. 
 
 On the 10th of August there was a magnificent review of the 
 Prussian army on the plain of Strehlin, to which all the foreign 
 embassadors were invited. During the night of the 9th, Gen- 
 eral Schwerin and Prince Leopold, with eight thousand Prussian 
 troops, horse and foot, arrived in the southwestern suburbs of 
 Breslau, and, at six o'clock in the morning, demanded simply a 
 passage through the city for their regiments and baggage, on the 
 march to attack a marauding band of the Austrians on the other 
 side of the Oder. 
 
 The rule, in such cases, was that a certain number of companies 
 were to be admitted at a time. The gate was then to be closed 
 until they had marched through the city and out at the oppo- 
 site gate. After this another detachment was to be admitted, 
 and so on, until all had passed through. But General Schwerin 
 so contrived it, by stratagem, as to crowd in a whole regiment at 
 once. Instead of marching through Breslau, to the surprise of 
 the inhabitants, he directed his steps to the market-place, where 
 he encamped and took possession of the city, admitting the re- 
 mainder of his regiments. In an hour and a half the whole thing 
 was done, and the streets were strongly garrisoned by Prussian 
 troops. The majority of the inhabitants, being Protestant, were 
 well pleased, and received the achievement with laughter. , Many 
 cheers resounded through the streets, with shouts of " Frederick 
 and Silesia forever." All the foreign ministers in Breslau, and 
 the magistrates of the city, had been lured to Strehlin to wit- 
 ness the grand review. v 
 
 Frederick had caused signal cannon to be placed at suitable 
 points between Breslau and Strehlin, which, by transmitting re- 
 ports, should give him as early intelligence as possible of the 
 success of the enterprise. About noon, in the midst of the grand 
 manoeuvrings on the parade-ground, one distant cannon-shot was 
 heard, to the great satisfaction of Frederick, who alone under- 
 stood its significance. 
 
 General Neipperg had advanced as far as Baumgarten when 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 283 
 
 he heard of this entire circumvention of his plans. Exasperated 
 by the discomfiture, he pushed boldly forward to seize Schweid- 
 nitz, where Frederick had a large magazine, which was supposed 
 not to be very strongly protected. But the vigilant Frederick 
 here again thwarted the Austrian general. Either anticipating 
 the movement, or receiving immediate information of it, he had 
 thrown out some strong columns to Reichenbach, where they so 
 effectually intrenched themselves as to bar, beyond all hope of 
 passage, the road to Schweidnitz. General Neipperg had ad- 
 vanced but half a day's march from Baumgarten when he heard 
 of this. He ordered a halt, and retraced his steps as far as Frank- 
 enstein, where he had a very strongly intrenched camp. 
 
 Frederick soon followed the Austrians with his whole army, 
 hoping to bring them to a decisive battle. But General Neip- 
 perg was conscious that he was unable to cope with the Prus- 
 sian army in the open field. For a week there was manoeuvring 
 and counter-manoeuvring with great skill on both sides, General 
 Neipperg baffling all the endeavors of Frederick to bring him to 
 a general action. 
 
 At length Frederick, weary of these unavailing efforts, dashed 
 off in rapid march toward the River Neisse, and with his van- 
 guard, on the 11th of September, crossed the river at the little 
 town of Woitz, a few miles above the city. The river was speed- 
 ily spanned with his pontoon bridges. As the whole army hur- 
 ried forward to effect the passage, Frederick, to his surprise, found 
 the Austrian army directly before him, occupying a position from 
 which it could not be forced, and where it could not be turned. 
 For two days Frederick very earnestly surveyed the region, and 
 then, recrossing the river and gathering in his pontoons, passed 
 rapidly down the stream on the left or northern bank, and, after 
 a brief encampment of a few days, crossed the river fifteen miles 
 below the city. He then threw his army into the rear of Neip- 
 perg's, so as to cut off his communications and his daily convoys 
 of food. He thus got possession again of Oppeln, of the strong 
 castle of Friedland, and of the country generally between the 
 Oder and the Neisse rivers. 
 
 General Neipperg cautiously advanced toward him, and en- 
 camped in the vicinity of Steinau — the same Steinau which but 
 a few weeks before had been laid in ashes as the Prussian troops 
 
284 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 passed through it. The two armies were now separated from 
 each other but by an interval of about five miles. The country 
 was flat, and it was not probable that the contest which Freder- 
 ick so eagerly sought could long be avoided. 
 
 Affairs were now assuming throughout Europe a very threat- 
 ening aspect. The two French armies, of forty thousand each, 
 had already crossed the Rhine to join their German allies in the 
 war against Austria. One of these armies, to be commanded by 
 Belleisle, had crossed the river about thirty miles below Stras- 
 bourg to unite with the Elector of Bavaria's troops and march 
 upon Vienna. The other army, under Maillebois, had crossed 
 the Lower Rhine a few miles below Dlisseldorf. Its mission 
 was, as we have mentioned, to encamp upon the frontiers of Han- 
 over, prepared to invade that province, in co-operation with the 
 Prussian troops in the camp at Grottin, should the King of En- 
 gland venture to raise a hand in behalf of Austria. It was also 
 in position to attack and overwhelm Holland, England's only 
 ally, should that power manifest the slightest opposition to the 
 designs of Prussia and France. At the same time, Sweden, on 
 the 4th of August, had declared war against Russia, so that no 
 help could come to Austria from that quarter. Great diplo- 
 matic ability had been displayed in guarding every point in these 
 complicated measures. The French minister, Belleisle, was prob- 
 ably the prominent agent in these wide-spread combinations* 
 
 The queen, Maria Theresa, still remained at Presburg, in her 
 Hungarian kingdom. The Aulic Council was with her. On 
 the loth of August Sir Thomas Robinson had returned to Pres- 
 burg with the intelligence of his unsuccessful mission, and of the 
 unrelenting determination of Frederick to prosecute the war 
 with the utmost vigor unless Silesia were surrendered to him. 
 
 These tidings struck the Austrian council with consternation. 
 The French armies were declared to be the finest that had ever 
 taken the field. The Prussian army, in stolid bravery and per- 
 
 * "Sure enough, the Sea Powers are checkmated now. Let them make the least attempt in 
 favor of the queen if they dare. Holland can be overrun from Osnabriick quarter at a day's 
 warning. Little George has his Hanoverians, his subsidized Hessians, Danes, in Hanover ; his 
 English on Lexden Heath. Let him come one step over the marches, Maillebois and the Old 
 Dessauer swallow him. It is a surprising stroke of theatrical-practical Art, brought about, to 
 old Fleury's sorrow, by the genius of Belleisle, and they say of Madame Chateauroux; enough 
 to strike certain Governing Persons breathless for some time, and denotes that the Universal 
 Hurricane, or World Tornado has broken out." — Carlyle, vol. iii., p. 357. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 285 
 
 fection of discipline, had never been surpassed. Germany was 
 to be cut into four equal parts, and France was to be the sover- 
 eign power on the Continent. 
 
 In this terrible emergence, the queen, resolute as she was, was 
 almost compelled, by the importunity of her counselors, to per- 
 mit Sir Thomas Eobinson, who was acting for England far more 
 than for Austria, to go back to Frederick with the offer so hu- 
 miliating to her, that she would surrender to him one half of Si- 
 lesia if he would withdraw his armies and enter into an alliance 
 with her against the French. The high-spirited queen wrung 
 her hands in anguish as she assented to this decision, exclaiming 
 passionately, 
 
 " If these terms are not accepted within a fortnight, I will not 
 be bound by them." 
 
 Sir Thomas hastened back to Breslau, and anxiously entered 
 into communication with Lord Hyndford. The British minister 
 entreated the king to admit Sir Thomas to another interview, 
 assuring him that he came with new and more liberal proposi- 
 tions for a compromise. The king replied, in substance, with his 
 customary brusqueness, 
 
 " I will not see him. I wish to listen to no more of his offers. 
 The sooner he takes himself away the better." 
 
 Sir Thomas, deeply chagrined, hastened back to Presburg. 
 Acting in behalf of the English cabinet, he trembled in view of 
 the preponderance of the French court and of the loss of Han- 
 over. With the most impassioned earnestness he entreated the 
 queen to yield to the demands of Frederick, and thus secure his 
 alliance. 
 
 "High madam," he said, fervently, " at this crisis, alliance with 
 Frederick is salvation to Austria. His continued hostility is ut- 
 ter ruin. England can not help your majesty. The slightest 
 endeavor would cause the loss of Hanover." 
 
 Thus pressed by England, and with equal earnestness by her 
 own Aulic Council, the queen again yielded, though almost fran- 
 tic with grief, and consented to surrender the whole of Lower 
 Silesia to Frederick if he would become her ally. As Frederick 
 had offered these terms, it was supposed, of course, that he would 
 accept them. Sir Thomas was again dispatched, at the top of 
 his speed, to convey them to the camp of Frederick. But the 
 
286 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 repulse of the king was peremptory and decisive. To Lord 
 Hyndford, soliciting an audience for the envoy, he replied, 
 
 " I will not see him. There was a time when I would have 
 listened to a compromise. That time has passed. I have now 
 entered into arrangements with France. Talk to me no more." 
 
 Sir Thomas hastened back to Presburg in despair. Feeling 
 the " game was up," and that there was no more hope, he asked 
 permission to return home. The British cabinet was in a state 
 of consternation. France, the dreaded rival of England, was at- 
 taining almost sovereign power over the Continent of Europe. 
 Frederick himself was uneasy. He had sufficient penetration to 
 be fully aware that he was aiding to create a resistless power, 
 which might, by-and-by, crush him. Sir Thomas, in a state of 
 great agitation, which was manifest in his disordered style, wrote 
 from Presburg to Lord Hyndford at Breslau as follows. The 
 letter was dated September 8, 1741. 
 
 " My lord, I could desire your lordship to summon up, if it 
 were necessary, the spirit of all your lordship's instructions, and 
 the sense of the king, of the Parliament, and of the whole British 
 nation. It is upon this great moment that depends the fate, not 
 of the house of Austria, not of the empire, but of the house of 
 Brunswick, of Great Britain, of all Europe. I verily believe the 
 King of Prussia himself does not know the extent of the present 
 danger. With whatever motive he may act, there is not one, 
 not that of the wildest resentment, that can blind him to this 
 degree — of himself perishing in the ruin he is bringing upon 
 others. With his concurrence, the French will, in less than six 
 weeks, be masters of the German empire. The weak Elector of 
 Bavaria is but their instrument. Prague and Vienna may, and 
 probably will, be taken in that short time. Will even the King 
 of Prussia himself be reserved to the last ?" 
 
 These considerations probably weighed heavily upon the mind 
 of Frederick; for, after having so peremptorily repulsed the 
 queen's messenger, he sent, on the 9th of September, Colonel 
 Golt2 with a proposition to Lord Hyndford, which was substan- 
 tially the same which the queen in her anguish had consented 
 to make. The strictest secrecy was enjoined upon Colonel Goltz. 
 The proposition was read from a paper without signature, and 
 was probably in the king's handwriting, for Lord Hyndford was 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 287 
 
 not permitted to see the paper. He took a copy from dictation, 
 which was as follows : 
 
 " The whole of Lower Silesia ; the River Neisse for the bound- 
 ary ; the city of Neisse for us, as also Grlutz ; on the other side 
 of the Oder, the ancient boundary between the Duchies of Brieg 
 and Oppeln. Namslau for us. The affairs of religion in statu 
 quo. No dependence upon Bohemia. Cession eternal. In ex- 
 change we will go no farther. We will besiege Neisse for form. 
 The commandant shall surrender and depart. We will quietly 
 go into winter quarters ; and they (the Austrians) can take their 
 army where they will. Let all be finished in twelve days." 
 
 But Frederick did not seem to think himself at all bound by 
 his treaty obligations with France to refrain from entering into 
 secret arrangements with the foe which would promote his in- 
 terests, however antagonistic those arrangements might be to his 
 assumed obligations. He was the ally of France in the attempt 
 to wrest territory from the young Queen of Austria, and to 
 weaken her power. His armies and those of France were acting 
 in co-operation. Frederick now proposed to the common enemy 
 that, if Silesia were surrendered to him, he would no longer act 
 in co-operation with his ally ; but, that France might not dis- 
 cover his perfidy, he would still pretend to make war. The 
 Austrians were to amuse themselves in defending Neisse from a 
 sham siege until the pleasant weeks of autumn were gone, and 
 then they were to march, with all their guns and ammunition, 
 south to Vienna, there to fight the French. Frederick, still as- 
 suming that he was the ally of France, was to avail himself of 
 the excuse that the season of ice and snow was at hand, and 
 withdraw into winter quarters. Such, in general, were the terms » 
 which Frederick authorized his minister, Goltz, to propose to 
 Lord Hyndford, as the agent of England and Austria. 
 
 Most of our readers will pronounce this to be as unwarranta- 
 ble an act of perfidy as history has recorded. But, in justice to 
 Frederick, we ought to state that there are those who, while ad- 
 mitting all these facts, do not condemn him for his course. It is 
 surprising to see how different are the opinions which intelligent 
 men can form upon the same actions. Mr. Carlyle writes, in ref- 
 erence to these events : 
 , " Magnanimous I can by no means call Frederick to his allies 
 
288 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 and neighbors, nor even superstitiously veracious in this busi- 
 ness ; but he thoroughly understands, he alone, what just thing 
 he wants out of it, and what an enormous wigged mendacity it 
 is he has got to deal with. For the rest, he is at the gaming-ta- 
 ble with these sharpers, their dice all cogged, and he knows it, 
 and ought to profit by his knowledge of it, and, in short, to win 
 his stake out of that foul, weltering melley, and go home safe 
 with it if he can." 
 
 While these scenes of war and intrigue were transpiring, no 
 one knowing what alarming developments any day might pre- 
 sent, Vienna was thrown into a state of terror in apprehension 
 of the immediate approach of a French army to open upon it all 
 the horrors of a bombardment. The citizens were called out en 
 masse to work upon the fortifications. The court fled to Pres- 
 burg, in Hungary. The national archives were hurried off to 
 Gratz. The royal family was dispersed. There were but six 
 thousand troops in the city. General Neipperg, with nearly the 
 whole Austrian army, was a hundred and fifty miles distant to 
 the north, on the banks of the Neisse. The queen, on the 10th 
 of September, assembled at Presburg the Hungarian Parliament, 
 consisting almost exclusively of chivalric nobles renowned in 
 war. The queen appeared before them with her husband, the 
 Grand-duke Francis, by her side, and with a nurse attending, 
 holding her infant son and heir. Addressing them in Latin, in 
 a brief, pathetic speech, she said : 
 
 "I am abandoned by all. Hostile invasion threatens the 
 kingdom of Hungary, our person, our children, our crown. I 
 have no resource but in your fidelity and valor. I invoke the 
 ancient Hungarian virtue to rise swiftly and save me." 
 
 The queen was radiantly beautiful in form and features. ' Her 
 eyes were filled with tears. The scene and the words roused 
 the zeal of these wild Magyar warriors to the highest pitch. 
 They drew their sabres, flourished them over their heads, and 
 with united voice shouted Moriamur pro nostro rege, Maria 
 Theresa — " Let us die for our king, Maria Theresa." " They al- 
 ways," writes Voltaire, " give the title of king to their queen. 
 In fact, no princess ever better deserved that title." 
 
 Between the two camps of the Austrians and Prussians, south 
 of the River Neisse, there was a castle called Little Schnellen- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 289 
 
 THE QUEEN S APPEAL TO THE HUNGARIAN NOBLES. 
 
 dorf, belonging to Count Von Steinberg. It was a very retired 
 retreat, far from observation. Arrangements were made for a 
 secret meeting there between Frederick and General Neipperg, 
 to adjust the details of their plot. It was of the utmost import- 
 ance that the perfidious measure should be concealed from France. 
 The French minister, Valori, was in the Prussian camp, watching 
 every movement with an eagle eye. "Frederick," writes Car- 
 lyle, " knows that the French are false to him. He by no means 
 
 T 
 
290 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 intends to be romantically true to them, and that they also 
 know." 
 
 On Monday morning, the 9th of October, 1741, the British 
 minister, Lord Hyndford, accompanied by General Neipperg and 
 General Lentulus from the Austrian camp, repaired to this cas- 
 tle, ostensibly to fix some cartel for the exchange of prisoners. 
 Frederick rode out that morning with General Goltz, assuming 
 that he was going to visit some of his outposts. In leaving, he 
 said to the French minister Valori, " I am afraid that I shall not 
 be home to dinner." At the same time, to occupy the attention 
 of M. Valori, he was invited to dine with Prince Leopold. By 
 circuitous and unfrequented paths, the king and his companion 
 hied to the castle. 
 
 THE KING APPROACHING SCHNELLENDORF. 
 
 Frederick cautiously refused to sign his name to any paper. 
 Verbally, he agreed that in one week from that time,£>n the 16th, 
 General Neipperg should have liberty to retire to the south 
 through the mountains, unmolested save by sham attacks in his 
 rear. A small garrison was to be left in Neisse. After main- 
 taining a sham siege for a fortnight, they were to surrender the 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 291 
 
 city. Sham hostilities, to deceive the French, were to be contin- 
 ued until the year was out, and then a treaty was to be signed 
 and ratified. 
 
 His majesty pledged his word of honor that he would fulfill 
 these obligations, but declared that, should the slightest intima- 
 tion of the agreement leak out, so that the French should dis- 
 cover it, he would deny the whole thing, and refuse in any way 
 to be bound by it. This w T as assented to. 
 
 At the close of the business, the king, who had been exceed- 
 ingly courteous during the whole interview, took General Neip- 
 perg aside, and, beckoning Lord Hyndford to join them, said, ad- 
 dressing Lord Hyndford, 
 
 " I wish you too, my lord, to hear every word I speak to Gen- 
 eral Neipperg. His Britannic majesty knows, or should know, 
 my intentions never were to do him hurt, but only to take care 
 of myself. And pray inform him that I have ordered my army 
 in Brandenburg to go into winter quarters, and break up that 
 camp at Gottin." 
 
 The reader will bear in mind that the camp at Gottin, men- 
 acing Hanover, was acting in co-operation with Frederick's ally, 
 France, and that forty thousand men had been sent from France 
 to the aid of those Prussian troops. Frederick now, entering 
 into secret treaty with the enemy, while still feigning to be true 
 to his ally, was perfidiously withdrawing his troops so as to leave 
 the French unsupported. His treachery went even farther than 
 this. In the presence of Lord Hyndford, the representative of 
 England, he informed the Austrian general minutely how he 
 could, to the greatest advantage, attack the French. 
 
 " Join," said he, " the Austrian force under Prince Lobkowitz in 
 Bohemia. Fall immediately and impetuously upon the French, 
 before they can combine their forces to resist you.' If you suc- 
 ceed in this, perhaps I will by-and-by join you ; if you fail — 
 well, you know every one must look out for himself." 
 
 The audacious duplicity of this ambitious young king was 
 still more conspicuously developed by his entering into a secret 
 correspondence with the court of Austria, through certain gen- 
 erals in the Austrian army. And that he might the more effect- 
 ually disguise his treachery from his allies, the French, he re- 
 quested Lord Hyndford to write dispatches to various courts — 
 
292 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 to Presburg, to England, to Dresden — complaining that Freder- 
 ick was deaf to all proposals ; that nothing could influence him 
 to enter into terms of reconciliation with Austria. It was to be 
 so arranged that the couriers carrying these dispatches of false- 
 hood should be captured by the French, so that these documents 
 should be carried to the French court. 
 
 And, in addition to all this, the more effectually to hoodwink 
 the eagle eyes of the French minister in the Prussian camp, M. 
 Valori, the following stratagem was arranged. The king was 
 to invite M. Valori to dine with him. While at the table, merry 
 over their wine, a courier was to arrive, and with trumpet blast 
 announce dispatches for the king. They were to be delivered 
 to the king at the table. He was to open them before Valori, 
 to find that they consisted of a bitter complaint and remon- 
 strance, on the part of the British minister, that the king was in- 
 flexible in repelling all advances toward an amicable adjustment 
 of their difficulties, that unrelentingly he persisted in co-operating 
 with France in her warfare against Austria. All this farce took 
 place according to the programme. M. Valori was effectually 
 deceived. 
 
 Some of our readers may think that the above narrative is 
 quite incredible ; that a young sovereign, who had just written 
 the Anti-Machiavel, and who knew that the eyes of the world 
 were upon him, could not be guilty of such perfidy. But, unhap- 
 pily, there is no possible room for doubt. The documentary evi- 
 dence is ample. There is no contradictory testimony. 
 
 General Neipperg, in his account of the interview, writes, in 
 reference to Frederick : " He is a very spirited young king. He 
 will not stand contradiction ; but a great deal may be made of 
 him if you seem to adopt his ideas, and honor him in a delicate, 
 dexterous way. He did not in the least hide his engagements 
 with France, Bavaria, Saxony. But he would really, so far as I 
 could judge, prefer friendship with Austria on the given terms. 
 He seems to have a kind of pique at Saxony, and manifests no 
 favor for the French and their plans." 
 
 Mr. Carlyle, who, with wonderful accuracy, and with impar- 
 tiality which no one will call in question, has recorded the facts 
 in Frederick's career, gives the story as it is here told. In the 
 following terms Mr. Carlyle comments upon these events : 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 293 
 
 " Of the political morality of this game of fast-and-loose what 
 have we to say, except that the dice on both sides seem to be 
 loaded; that logic might be chopped upon it forever; that a 
 candid mind will settle what degree of wisdom (which is always 
 essential veracity) and what of folly (which is always falsity) 
 there was in Frederick and the others ; whether, or to what de- 
 gree, there was a better course open to Frederick in the circum- 
 stances ; and, in fine, it will have to be granted that you can not 
 work in pitch and keep hands evidently clean. Frederick has 
 got into the enchanted wilderness populous with devils and their 
 work, alas ! It will be long before he get out of it again ; his 
 life waning toward night before he get victoriously out, and be- 
 queath his conquest to luckier successors !" 
 
 On the 16th of November General Neipperg broke up his 
 camp at Neisse, according to the arrangement,, and, leaving a 
 small garrison in the city to encounter the sham siege, defiled 
 through the mountains on the south into Moravia. The Prus- 
 sians, pretending to pursue, hung upon his rear for a short dis- 
 tance, making as much noise and inflicting as little harm as pos- 
 sible. General Neipperg pressed rapidly on to Vienna, where 
 he was exultingly welcomed to aid in defending the city men- 
 aced by the French. 
 
 Frederick on the 17th, the day after the departure of the Aus- 
 trian army, invested Neisse. He had an embarrassing part to 
 play. He was to conduct a sham siege in the presence of M. 
 Valori, who was not only a man of ability, but w T ho possessed 
 much military intelligence. Feigning the utmost zeal, Frederick 
 opened his trenches, and ostentatiously manoeuvred his troops. 
 He sent the young Prince Leopold, with fifteen thousand horse 
 and foot, into the Glatz country, many leagues to the east, to 
 guard against surprise from an enemy, where no enemy was to be 
 found. He marked out his parallels, sent imperious summonses 
 for surrender, and dispatched reconnoitring parties abroad. M. 
 Valori began to be surprised — amazed. "What does all this 
 mean ?" he said to himself. " They have great need of some good 
 engineers here. 1 ' 
 
 With that vigilant eye upon him, Frederick was compelled to 
 some vigor of action. On the night of October 17th he com- 
 menced the bombardment. The noise was terrific. It could not 
 
294 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 be prevented but that the shot and shell should do some harm. 
 Some buildings were burned ; several lives were lost. M. Va- 
 lori, who knew that the result could not be doubtful, was in- 
 duced to go to Breslau and await the surrender. After the gar- 
 rison had made apparently a gallant resistance, and Frederick 
 had achieved apparent prodigies of valor, the city was surren- 
 dered on the 31st of October. Most of the garrison immediately 
 enlisted in the Prussian service. 
 
 Thus the last fortress in Silesia fell into the hands of Freder- 
 ick. There was no longer any 
 
 foe left in the province to dis- 
 pute his acquisition. He took 
 possession of Neisse on the 1st 
 of November, celebrating his 
 victory with illuminations and 
 all the approved demonstra- 
 tions of public rejoicing. 
 
 On the 4th of November he 
 returned to Breslau, entering 
 the city with great military 
 display. Seated in a splendid 
 carriage, he was drawn through 
 the streets by eight cream-col- 
 ored horses. Taking his seat 
 upon the ancient ducal throne, 
 he was crowned, with great 
 ceremonial pomp, Sovereign Duke of Lower Silesia. Four hun- 
 dred of the notables of the dukedom, in gala dresses, and taking 
 oaths of homage, contributed to the imposing effect of the spec- 
 tacle. Illuminations, balls, and popular festivities, in great vari- 
 ety, closed the triumph. 
 
 On the morning of the 9th of November Frederick set out for 
 Berlin, visiting Glogau by the way. On the 11th he entered 
 Berlin, where he was received by the whole population with en- 
 thusiastic demonstrations of joy. For a short time lie proba- 
 bly thought that through guile he had triumphed, and that his 
 troubles were now at an end. But such victories, under the 
 providence of God, are always of short duration. Frederick 
 soon found that his troubles had but just begun. He had en- 
 
 MAP OF THE SECOND SILESIAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
FREDEKICK THE GREAT. , 295 
 
 tered upon a career of toil, care, and peril, from which lie was to 
 have no escape until he was ready to sink into his grave. 
 
 But a few days after his return, Lord Hyndford, who had fol- 
 lowed the king to Berlin, met his majesty in one of the apart- 
 ments of the palace. Frederick, struggling to conceal the emo- 
 tions with which he was agitated, said to him, 
 
 "My lord, the court of Vienna has entirely divulged our se- 
 cret. The Dowager Empress has acquainted the court of Bava- 
 ria with it. Wasner, the Austrian minister at Paris, has com- 
 municated it to the French minister, Fleury. The Austrian min- 
 ister at St. Petersburg, M. Linzendorf, has told the court of Kus- 
 sia of it. Sir Thomas Robinson has divulged it to the court of 
 Dresden. Several members of the British government have 
 talked about it publicly." 
 
 Frederick immediately and publicly denied that he had ever 
 entered into any such arrangement with Austria, and declared 
 the whole story to be a mere fabrication. Having by the strata- 
 gem obtained Neisse, and delivered Silesia from the presence of 
 the Austrian army, he assured the French of his unchanging fidel- 
 ity to their interests, and with renewed vigor commenced co-op- 
 erating with them in the furtherance of some new ambitious 
 plans. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF MORAVIA. 
 
 Frederick's Motives for the War. — Marriage of William Augustus. — Testimony of Lord Ma- 
 caulay. — Frederick and his Allies. — Visit to Dresden. — Military Energy. — Charles Albert 
 chosen Emperor. — The Coronation. — Effeminacy of the Saxon Princes.— Disappointment 
 and Vexation of Frederick. — He withdraws in Chagrin. — The Cantonment on the Elbe. — 
 Winter Campaigning. — The Concentration at Chrudim. 
 
 It was on the 11th of November, 1741, that Frederick, elated 
 with his conquest of Silesia, had returned to Berlin. In com- 
 mencing the enterprise he had said, " Ambition, interest, and the. 
 desire to make the world speak of me, vanquished all, and war 
 was determined on." He had, indeed, succeeded in making the 
 "world speak" of him. He had suddenly become the most 
 prominent man in Europe. Some extolled his exploits. Some 
 expressed amazement at his perfidy. Many, recognizing his sa- 
 
296 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 gacity and his tremendous energy, sought his alliance. Embas- 
 sadors from the various courts of Europe crowded his capital. 
 Fourteen sovereign princes, with many foreigners of the highest 
 rank, were counted among the number. The king was in high 
 spirits. While studiously maturing his plans for the future, he 
 assumed the air of a thoughtless man of fashion, and dazzled the 
 eyes and bewildered the minds of his guests with feasts and pa- 
 geants. 
 
 On the 7th of January, 1742, Frederick's eldest brother, Wil- 
 liam Augustus, was married to Louisa Amelia, a younger sister 
 of the king's neglected wife, Elizabeth. The king himself graced 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. ^T. 30. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 297 
 
 the festival, in gorgeous attire, and very successfully plied all his 
 wonderful arts of fascination. "He appeared," says Bielfeld, " so 
 young, so gay, so graceful, that I could not have refrained from 
 loving him, even if he had been a stranger." 
 
 But, in the midst of these scenes of gayety, the king was con- 
 templating the most complicated combinations of diplomacy. 
 Europe was apparently thrown into a state of chaos. It was 
 Frederick's one predominant thought to see what advantages he 
 could secure to Prussia from the general wreck and ruin. Lord 
 Macaulay, speaking of these scenes, says : 
 
 " The selfish rapacity of the King of Prussia gave the signal 
 to his neighbors. His example quieted their sense of shame. 
 The whole world sprang to arms. On the head of Frederick is 
 all the blood which was shed in a war which raged during many 
 years, and in every quarter of the globe — the blood of the col- 
 umn of Fontenoy, the blood of the brave mountaineers who were 
 slaughtered at Culloden. The evils produced by this wicked- 
 ness were felt in lands where the name of Prussia was unknown. 
 In order that he might rob a neighbor whom he had promised 
 to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel, and red 
 men scalped each other by the great lakes of North America." 
 
 As we have stated, Frederick had declared that if any rumor 
 should be spread abroad of the fact that he had entered into a 
 secret treaty with Austria, he would deny it, and would no lon- 
 ger pay any regard to its stipulations. He had adopted the pre- 
 caution not to affix his signature to any paper. By this ignoble 
 stratagem he had obtained Neisse and Silesia. The rumor of 
 the secret treaty had gone abroad. He had denied it. And 
 now, in accordance with the principles of his peculiar code of 
 honor, he felt himself at liberty to pursue any course which pol- 
 icy might dictate. 
 
 Frederick, in his Histoire de mon Temps, states that, in the ne- 
 gotiations which at this time took place in Berlin, France press- 
 ed the king to bring forward his armies into vigorous co-opera- 
 tion ; that England exhorted him to make peace with Austria ; 
 that Spain solicited his alliance in her warfare against England ; 
 that Denmark implored his counsel as to the course it was wise 
 for that kingdom to pursue; that Sweden entreated his aid 
 against Russia; that Russia besought his good offices to make 
 
298 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 peace with the court at Stockholm; and that the German em- 
 pire, anxious for peace, entreated him to put an end to those 
 troubles which were convulsing all Europe. 
 
 The probable object of the Austrian court in revealing the se- 
 cret treaty of Schnellendorf was to set Frederick and France at 
 variance. Frederick, much exasperated, not only denied the 
 treaty, but professed increased devotion to the interests of Louis 
 XV. The allies, consisting of France, Prussia, Bavaria, and Sax- 
 ony, now combined to wrest Moravia from Maria Theresa, and 
 annex it to Saxony. This province, governed by a marquis, was 
 a third larger than the State of Massachusetts, and contained a 
 population of about a million and a half. Moravia bounded Si- 
 lesia on the south. Frederick made a special treaty with the 
 King of Saxony, that the southern boundary of Silesia should 
 be a full German mile, which was between four and five English 
 miles, beyond the line of the River Neisse. With Frederick's 
 usual promptitude, he insisted that commissioners should be im- 
 mediately sent to put down the boundary stones. France was 
 surprised that the King of Saxony should have consented to the 
 surrender of so important a strip of his territory. 
 
 Frederick paid but little regard to his allies save as he could 
 make them subservient to the accomplishment of his purposes. 
 He pushed his troops forward many leagues south into Moravia, 
 and occupied the important posts of Troppau, Friedenthal, and 
 Olmtitz. These places were seized the latter part of December. 
 The king hoped thus to be able, early in the spring, to carry the 
 war to the gates of Vienna. 
 
 On the 18th of January, 1742, Frederick visited Dresden, to 
 confer with Augustus III., King of Poland, who was also Elec- 
 tor of Saxony, and whose realms were to be increased by the 
 annexation of Moravia. His Polish majesty was a weak man, 
 entirely devoted to pleasure. His irresolute mind, subjected to 
 the dominant energies of the Prussian king, was as clay in the 
 hands of the potter. 
 
 " You are now," said Frederick, " by consent of the allies, King 
 of Moravia. Now is the time, now or never, to become so in 
 fact. Push forward your Saxon troops. The Austrian forces 
 are weak in that country. At Iglau, just over the border from 
 Austria, there is a large magazine of military stores, which can 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 299 
 
 easily be seized. Urge forward your troops. The French will 
 contribute strong divisions. I will join you with twenty thou- 
 sand men. We can at once take possession of Moravia, and per- 
 haps march directly on to Vienna." 
 
 Frederick, in describing this interview, writes : " Augustus an- 
 swered yes to every thing, with an air of being convinced, joined 
 to a look of great ennui. Count Bruhl,* whom this interview 
 displeased, interrupted it by announcing to his majesty that the 
 Opera was about to commence. Ten kingdoms to conquer would 
 not have kept the King of Poland a minute longer. He went, 
 therefore, to the Opera ; and the King of Prussia obtained at 
 once, in spite of those who opposed it, a final decision."f 
 
 The next morning, in the intense cold of midwinter, Frederick 
 set out several hours before daylight for the city of Prague, 
 which the French and Bavarians had captured on the 25th of 
 November. Declining all polite attentions, for business was ur- 
 gent, he eagerly sought M. De Sechelles, the renowned head of 
 the commissariat department, and made arrangements with him 
 to perform the extremely difficult task of supplying the army 
 with food in a winter's campaign. 
 
 The next morning, at an early hour, he again dashed off to the 
 east, toward Glatz, a hundred miles distant, where a portion of 
 the Prussian troops were in cantonments, under the young Prince 
 Leopold. Within a week he had ridden over seven hundred 
 miles, commencing his journey every morning as early as four 
 o'clock, and doing a vast amount of business by the way. 
 ' It will be remembered that, in the note which M. Valori acci- 
 dentally dropped,. and which Frederick furtively obtained, the 
 minister was instructed by the French court not to give up Glatz 
 to the Prussian king if he could possibly avoid it. But Fred- 
 erick had now seized the city, and the region around, by force 
 
 * Count Briihl was for many years the first minister of the king. He was a weak, extrava- 
 gant man, reveling in voluptuousness. His decisions could always be controlled by an ample 
 bribe. His sole object seemed to be his own personal luxurious indulgence. " Public affairs,'' 
 he said, "will carry themselves on, provided we do not trouble ourselves about them." 
 
 Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, in his letters from Dresden, writes : " Now, as every thing of 
 every kind, from the highest affairs of the state down to operas and hunting, are all in Count 
 Bruhl's immediate care, I leave you to judge how his post is executed. His expenses are im- 
 mense. He keeps three hundred servants and as many horses. It is said, and I believe it, that 
 he takes money for every thing the king disposes of in Poland, where they frequently have very 
 great employments to bestow." f Histoire de mon Temps. 
 
300 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 of arms, and held them with a gripe not to be relaxed. Glatz 
 was a Catholic town. In the convent there was an image of the 
 Virgin, whose tawdry robes had become threadbare and faded. 
 The wife of the Austrian commandant had promised the Virgin 
 a new dress if she would keep the Prussians out of the city. 
 Frederick heard of this. As he took possession of the city, with 
 grim humor he assured the Virgin that she should not lose in 
 consequence of the favor she had shown the Prussians. New 
 and costly garments were immediately provided for her at the 
 expense of the Prussian king. 
 
 On the 26th of January Frederick set out from Glatz, with a 
 strong cortege, for Olmtitz, far away to the southeast. This place 
 his troops had occupied for a month past. His route led through 
 a chain of mountains, whose bleak and dreary defiles were clog- 
 ged with drifted snow, and swept by freezing gales. It was a 
 dreadful march, accompanied by many disasters and much suf- 
 fering. 
 
 General Stille, one of the aids of Frederick on this expedition, 
 says that the king, with his retinue, mounted and in carriages, 
 pushed forward the first day to Landskron. " It was," he writes, 
 " such a march as I never witnessed before. Through the ice 
 and through the snow, which covered that dreadful chain of 
 mountains between Bohmen and Mahren, we did not arrive till 
 very late. Many of our carriages were broken down, and others 
 were overturned more than once."* 
 
 Frederick, ever regardless of fatigue and exposure for himself, 
 never spared his followers. It was after midnight of the 28th 
 when the weary column, frostbitten, hungry, and exhausted, 
 reached Olmutz. The king was hospitably entertained in the 
 fine palace of the Catholic bishop, " a little, gouty man," writes 
 Stille, " about fifty-two years of age, with a countenance open 
 and full of candor." 
 
 Orders had been issued for all the Prussian troops to be ren- 
 dezvoused by the 5th of February at Wischau. They were then 
 to march immediately about seventy-five miles west, to Trebitsch, 
 which was but a few miles south of Iglau, the point of attack. 
 Here they were to join the French and Saxon troops. The force 
 thus concentrated would amount to twenty-four thousand Prus- 
 
 * Campagnes de le Roi de Prusse, p. 5. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 301 
 
 sian troops, twenty thousand Saxons, an d # five thousand French 
 horsemen. With this army — forty-nine thousand strong — Fred- 
 erick was to advance, by one short day's march, upon Iglau, 
 where the Austrian garrison amounted to but ten thousand men. 
 
 In the mean time, on the 24th of January, Charles Albert, 
 King of Bavaria, through the intrigues of the French minister 
 and the diplomacy of Frederick, was chosen Emperor of Ger- 
 many. This election Frederick regarded as a great triumph on 
 his part. It was the signal defeat of Austria. Very few of 
 the sons of Adam have passed a more joyless and dreary earth- 
 ly pilgrimage than was the fortune of Charles Albert. At the 
 time of his election he was forty-five years of age, of moderate 
 stature, polished manners, and merely ordinary abilities. He 
 was suffering from a complication of the most painful disorders. 
 His previous life had been but a series of misfortunes, and dur- 
 ing all the rest of his days he was assailed by the storms of ad- 
 versity. In death alone he found refuge from a life almost with- 
 out a joy. 
 
 Charles Albert, who took the title of " the Emperor Charles 
 VII.," was the son of Maximilian, King of Bavaria, who was 
 ruined at Blenheim, and who, being placed under the ban of the 
 empire, lived for many years a pensioner upon the charity of 
 Louis XIV. Charles was then but seven years of age, a prince 
 by birth, yet homeless, friendless, and in poverty. With vary- 
 ing fortunes, he subsequently married a daughter of the Emperor 
 Joseph. She was a cousin of Maria Theresa. Upon the death 
 of his father in 1726, Charles Albert became King of Bavaria; 
 but he was involved in debt beyond all hope of extrication. The 
 intrigues of Frederick placed upon his wan and wasted brow 
 the imperial crown of Germany. The coronation festivities took 
 place at Frankfort, with great splendor, on the 12th of February, 
 1742. 
 
 Wilhelmina, who was present, gives a graphic account, with 
 her vivacious pen, of many of the scenes, both tragic and comic, 
 which ensued. 
 
 " Of the coronation itself," she writes, " though it was truly 
 grand, I will say nothing. The poor emperor could not enjoy it 
 much. He was dying of gout and other painful diseases, and 
 could scarcely stand upon his feet. He spends most of his time 
 
302 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 in bed, courting all manner of German princes. He has man- 
 aged to lead my margraf into a foolish bargain about raising 
 men for him, which bargain I, on fairly getting sight of it, per- 
 suade my margraf to back out of; and, in the end, he does so. 
 The emperor had fallen so ill he was considered even in danger 
 of his life. Poor prince ! What a lot he had achieved for him- 
 self!" 
 
 While these coronation splendors were transpiring, Frederick 
 was striving, with all his characteristic enthusiasm, to push for- 
 ward his Moravian campaign to a successful issue. Inspired by 
 as tireless energies as ever roused a human heart, he was annoy- 
 ed beyond measure by the want of efficient co-operation on the 
 part of his less zealous allies. Neither the Saxons nor the French 
 could keep pace with his impetuosity. The princes who led the 
 Saxon troops, the petted sons of kings- and nobles, were loth to 
 abandon the luxurious indulgences to which they had been ac- 
 customed. When they arrived at a capacious castle where they 
 found warm fires, an abundant larder, and sparkling wines, they 
 would linger there many days, decidedly preferring those com- 
 forts to campaigning through the blinding, smothering snow- 
 storm, and bivouacking on the bleak and icy plains, swept by 
 the gales of a northern winter. The French were equally averse 
 to these terrible marches, far more to be dreaded than the battle- 
 field. 
 
 Frederick remonstrated, argued, implored, but all in vain. 
 He was not disposed to allow considerations of humanity, regard 
 for suffering or life, to stand in the way of his ambitious plans. 
 For two months, from February 5th, when Frederick rendez- 
 voused the Prussians at Wischau, until April 5th, he found him- 
 self, to his excessive chagrin, unable to accomplish any thing of 
 moment, in consequence of the lukew r armness of his allies. He 
 was annoyed almost beyond endurance. It was indeed inipor- 
 tant, in a military point of view, that there should be an immedi- 
 ate march upon Iglau. It was certain that the Austrian s, fore- 
 w r arned,would soon remove their magazines or destroy them. The 
 utmost expedition was essential to the success of the enterprise. 
 
 The young officers in the Saxon army, having disposed their 
 troops in comfortable barracks, had established their own head- 
 quarters in the magnificent castle of Budischau, in the vicinity 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 303 
 
 of Trebitsch. "Nothing like this superb mansion," writes Stille, 
 " is to be seen except in theatres, on the drop-scene of the en- 
 chanted castle." Here these young lords made themselves very 
 comfortable. They had food in abundance, luxuriously served, 
 
 THE YOUNG LORDS OF SAXONY ON A WINTER CAMPAIGN. 
 
 with the choicest wines. Roaring fires in huge stoves convert- 
 ed, within the walls, winter into genial summer. Here these 
 pleasure-loving nobles, with song, and wine, and such favorites, 
 male and female, as they carried with them, loved to linger. 
 
 At length, however, Frederick succeeded in pushing forward 
 a detachment of his army to seize the magazines and the post he 
 so greatly coveted. The troops marched all night. Toward 
 morning, almost perishing with cold, they built enormous fires. 
 
304: FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Having warmed their numbed and freezing limbs, they pressed 
 on to Iglau, to find it abandoned by the garrison. The Austrian 
 general Lobkowitz had carried away every thing which could 
 be removed, and then had reduced to ashes seventeen magazines, 
 filled with military and commissary stores. The king was ex- 
 ceedingly chagrined by this barren conquest. He was anxious 
 to advance in all directions, to take full possession of Moravia, 
 before the Austrians could send re-enforcements to garrison its 
 fortresses ; but the Saxon lords refused to march any farther in 
 this severe winter campaign. Frederick complained to the Sax- 
 on king. His Polish majesty sent an angry order to his troops 
 to go forward. Sullenly they obeyed, interposing every obstacle 
 in their power. Some of the leaders threw up their commissions 
 and went home. Frederick, with his impetuous Prussians and 
 his unwilling Saxons, spread over Moravia, levying contributions 
 and seizing the strong places. 
 
 The Saxons, much irritated, were rather more disposed to 
 thwart his plans than to co-operate in them. The Austrian 
 horsemen were vigilant, pouncing upon every unprotected de- 
 tachment. Frederick marched for the capture of Briinn, the 
 strongest fortress in Moravia. It had a garrison of seven thou- 
 sand men, under the valiant leader Koth. To arrest the march 
 of Frederick, and leave him shelterless on the plains, the Aus- 
 trian general laid sixteen villages in ashes. The poor peasants 
 — men, women, and children — foodless and shelterless, were thus 
 cast loose upon the drifted fields. Who can gauge such woes? 
 
 Frederick, finding that he could not rely upon the Saxons, sent 
 to Silesia for re-enforcements of his own troops. Briinn could 
 not be taken without siege artillery. He was capturing Mora- 
 via for the King of Poland. Frederick dispatched a courier to 
 his Polish majesty at Dresden, requesting him immediately to 
 forward the siege guns. The reply of the king, who was volup- 
 tuously lounging in his palaces, was, " I can not meet the expense 
 of the carriage." Frederick contemptuously remarked, " He has 
 just purchased a green diamond which would have carried them 
 thither and back again." The Prussian king sent for siege ar- 
 tillery of his own, drew his lines close around Briinn, and urged 
 Chevalier De Saxe, general of the Saxon horse, to co-operate 
 with him energetically in battering the city into a surrender. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 305 
 
 The chevalier interposed one obstacle, and another, and another. 
 At last he replied, showing his dispatches, " I have orders to re- 
 tire from this business altogether, and join the French at Prague." 
 
 Frederick declares, in his history, that never were tidings more 
 welcome to him than these. He had embarked in the enterprise 
 for the conquest of Moravia with the allies. He could not, with- 
 out humiliation, withdraw. But, now that the ally, in whose be- 
 half he assumed to be fighting, had abandoned him, he could, 
 without dishonor, relinquish the field. Leaving the Saxons to 
 themselves, with many bitter words of reproach, he countermand- 
 ed his order for Silesian re-enforcements, assembled his troops at 
 Wischau, and then, by a rapid march through Olmutz, returned 
 to his strong fortresses in the north. 
 
 The Saxons were compelled to a precipitate retreat. Their 
 march was long, harassing, and full of suffering, from the severe 
 cold of those latitudes, and from the assaults of the fierce Pan- 
 dours, every where swarming around. Villages were burned, 
 and maddened men wreaked direful vengeance on each other. 
 Scarcely eight thousand of their number, a frostbitten, starving, 
 emaciate band, reached the borders of Saxony. Curses loud and 
 deep were heaped upon the name of Frederick. His Polish maj- 
 esty, though naturally good-natured, was greatly exasperated in 
 view of the conduct of the Prussian king in forcing the troops 
 into the severities of such a campaign. Frederick himself was 
 also equally indignant with Augustus for his want of co-opera- 
 tion. The French minister, Valori, met him on his return from 
 these disasters. He says that his look was ferocious and dark ; 
 that his laugh was bitter and sardonic ; that a vein of suppress- 
 ed rage, mockery, and contempt pervaded every word he uttered. 
 
 Frederick withdrew his troops into strong cantonments in the 
 valley of the upper Elbe. This beautiful river takes its rise in 
 romantic chasms, among the ridges and spurs of the Giant Moun- 
 tains, on the southeastern borders of Silesia. Here the Prussian 
 army was distributed in small towns along a line following the 
 windings of the stream, about forty miles in length. All the 
 troops could be concentrated in forty-eight hours. The encamp- 
 ments faced the south, with the Elbe behind them. At some 
 little distance north of the river, safe from surprise, the maga- 
 zines were stationed. The mountains of Bohemia rose sublime- 
 
 U 
 
306 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ly in the distant background. In a letter to M. Jordan, under 
 date of Chrudim, May 5th, 1742, Frederick expresses his views 
 of this profitless campaign in the following terms : 
 
 MAP ILLUSTRATING THE CAMPAIGN IN MORAVIA. 
 
 " Moravia, w^hieh is a very bad country, could not be held, ow- 
 ing to want of provisions. The town of Brtinn could not be 
 taken because the Saxons had no cannon. When you wish to 
 enter a town, you must first make a hole to get in by. Besides, 
 the country has been reduced to such a state that the enemy can 
 not subsist in it, and you will soon see him leave it. There is 
 your little military lesson. I would not have you at a loss what 
 to think of our operations, or what to say, should other people 
 talk of them in your presence." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 307 
 
 Elsewhere, Frederick, speaking of these two winter campaigns, 
 says: "Winter campaigns are bad, and should always be avoid- 
 ed, except in cases of necessity. The best army in the world is 
 liable to be ruined by them. I myself have made more winter 
 campaigns than any general of this age. But there were reasons. 
 In 1740 there were hardly above two Austrian regiments in Si- 
 lesia, at the death of the Emperor Charles VI. Being deter- 
 mined to assert my right to that duchy, I had to try it at once, 
 in winter, and carry the war, if possible, to the banks of the 
 Neisse. Had I waited till spring, we must have begun the war 
 between Crossen and Glogau. What was now to be gained by 
 one march would then have cost us three or four campaigns. A 
 sufficient reason, this, for campaigning in winter. If I did not 
 succeed in the winter campaigns of 1742, a campaign which I 
 made to deliver Moravia, then overrun by Austrians, it was be- 
 cause the French acted like fools, and the Saxons like traitors."* 
 
 Frederick, establishing his head-quarters at Chrudim, did not 
 suppose the Austrians would think of moving upon him until 
 the middle of June. Not till then would the grass in that cold 
 region afford forage. But Maria Theresa was inspired by ener- 
 gies fully equal to those of her renowned assailant. Undismay- 
 ed by the powerful coalition against her, she sent Prince Charles, 
 her brother-in-law, early in May, at the head of an army thirty 
 thousand strong, to advance by a secret, rapid flank march, and 
 seize the Prussian magazines beyond the Elbe. 
 
 The ever-wakeful eye of Frederick detected the movement. 
 His beautiful encampment at Chrudim had lasted but two days. 
 Instantly couriers were dispatched in all directions to rendezvous 
 the Prussian troops on a vast plain in the vicinity of Chrudim. 
 But a few hours elapsed ere every available man in the Prussian 
 ranks was on the march. This movement rendered it necessary 
 for Prince Charles to concentrate the Austrian army also. The 
 field upon which these hosts were gathering for battle was an 
 undulating prairie, almost treeless, with here and there a few 
 hamlets of clustered peasant cottages scattered around. 
 
 It was a serene, cloudless May morning when Frederick rode 
 upon a small eminence to view the approach of his troops, and 
 to form them in battle array. General Stille, who was an eye- 
 
 * (Euvres de Frederic, xvii., p. 196. 
 
308 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 FREDERICK CONCENTRATING HIS ARMY AT CHRUDIM. 
 
 witness of the scene, describes the spectacle as one of the most 
 beautiful and magnificent which was ever beheld. The trans- 
 parent atmosphere, the balmy air, transmitting with wonderful 
 accuracy the most distant sounds, the smooth, wide-spreading 
 prairie, the hamlets, to which distance lent enchantment, sur- 
 mounted by the towers or spires of the churches, the winding 
 columns of infantry and cavalry, their polished weapons flashing 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 309 
 
 in the sunlight, the waving of silken and gilded banners, while 
 bugle peals and bursts of military airs floated now faintly, and 
 now loudly, upon the ear, the whole scene being bathed in the 
 rays of the most brilliant of spring mornings — all together pre- 
 sented war in its brightest hues, divested of every thing revolt- 
 ing.* 
 
 There were nearly thirty thousand men, infantry and cavalry, 
 thus assembling under the banners of Frederick for battle. They 
 were in as perfect state of drill as troops have ever attained, and 
 were armed with the most potent implements of war which that 
 age could furnish. The king was visibly affected by the spec- 
 tacle. Whether humane considerations touched his heart, or 
 merely poetic emotion moved him, we can not tell. But he was 
 well aware that within a few hours not merely hundreds, but 
 thousands of those men, torn by shot and shell, would be pros- 
 trate in their blood upon the plain ; and he could not but know 
 that for all the carnage and the suffering, he, above all others, 
 would be responsible at the bar of God. 
 
 " The king," writes Stille, " though fatigued, would not rest 
 satisfied with reports or distant view. Personally he made the 
 tour of the whole camp, to see that every thing was right, and 
 posted the pickets himself before retiring." 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 FREDERICK TRIUMPHANT. 
 
 The Battle of Chotusitz. — Letter to Jordan. — Results of the Battle. — Secret. Negotiations. — 
 The Treaty of Breslau. — Entrance into Frankfort. — Treachery of Louis XV. — Results of the 
 Silesian Campaigns. — Panegyrics of Voltaire. — Imperial Character of Maria Theresa. — Her 
 Grief over the Loss of Silesia. — Anecdote of Senora Barbarina. — Duplicity of both Frederick 
 and Voltaire. — Gayety in Berlin. — Straitened Circumstances. — Unamiability of Frederick. 
 
 It was the aim of Prince Charles to get between Frederick's 
 encampment at Chrudim and his French allies, under Marshal 
 Broglio, at Prague. When discovered by Frederick, the Aus- 
 trian army was on the rapid march along a line about fifteen 
 miles nearly southwest of Chrudim. It thus threatened to cut 
 Frederick's communication with Prague, which was on the Mol- 
 dau, about sixty miles west of the Prussian encampment. The 
 
 * Campaigns of the King of Prussia, p. 57. 
 
310 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 forces now gathering for a decisive battle were nearly equal. 
 The reader would not be interested in the description of the 
 strategic and tactical movements of the next two days. The 
 leaders of both parties, with great military sagacity, were accu- 
 mulating and concentrating their forces for a conflict, which, un- 
 der the circumstances, would doubtless prove ruinous to the one 
 or the other. A battle upon that open plain, with equal forces, 
 was of the nature of a duel, in which one or the other of the com- 
 batants must fall. 
 
 On the morning of the 17th of May Frederick's army was 
 drawn out in battle array, facing south, near the village of Cho- 
 tusitz, about fifteen miles west of Chruclim. Almost w T ithin can- 
 non-shot of him, upon the same plain, near the village of Czaslau, 
 facing north, was the army of Prince Charles. The field was 
 like a rolling western prairie, with one or two sluggish streams 
 running through it ; and here and there marshes, which neither 
 infantry nor cavalry could traverse. The accompanying map will 
 give the reader an idea of the nature of the ground and the po- 
 sition of the hostile forces. 
 
 BATTLE OF CHOTUSITZ. 
 
 a. Prussian Camp, b b. Prussian Infantry, c c. Prussian Cavalry, d. Position of Budderibrock. 
 e e. Austrian Infantry, ff. Austrian Cavalry, g. Austrian Hussars. 
 
 The sun rose clear and cloudless over the plain, soon to be 
 crimsoned with blood and darkened by the smoke of battle. 
 The Prussians took position in accordance with very minute di- 
 rections given to the young Prince Leopold by Frederick. It 
 was manifest to the most unskilled observer that the storm of 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 311 
 
 battle would rage over many miles, as the infantry charged to 
 and fro; as squadrons of strongly -mounted cavalry swept the 
 field ; as bullets, balls, and shells were hurled in all directions 
 from the potent enginery of war. 
 
 About seven o'clock in the morning the king ascended an em- 
 inence, and carefully scanned the field, where sixty thousand men 
 were facing each other, soon to engage in mutual slaughter. 
 There were two spectacles which arrested his attention. The 
 one was the pomp, and pageantry, and panoply of war, with its 
 serried ranks, its prancing steeds, its flashing armor, its waving 
 banners, its inspiriting bugle -peals — a scene in itself beautiful 
 and sublime in the highest conceivable degree. 
 
 But there was another picture which met the eye of the king 
 very different in its aspect. We know not whether it at all 
 touched his heart. It was that of the poor peasants, with their 
 mothers, their wives, their children, hurrying from their hamlets 
 in all directions, in the utmost dismay. Grandmothers tottered 
 beneath the burden of infant children. Fathers and mothers 
 struggled on with the household goods they were striving to res- 
 cue from impending ruin. The cry of maidens and children 
 reached the ear as they fled from the tramp of the war-horse and 
 the approaching carnage of the death-dealing artillery. 
 
 Frederick, having carefully scanned the Austrian lines for an 
 instant or two, gave the signal, and all his batteries opened their 
 thunders. Under cover of that storm of iron, several thousand 
 of the cavalry, led by .the veteran General Bredow, deployed from 
 behind some eminences, and first at a gentle trot, and then upon 
 the most impetuous run, with flashing sabres, hurled themselves 
 upon the left wing of the Austrian lines. The ground was dry 
 and sandy, and a prodigious cloud of dust enveloped them. For 
 a moment the tornado, vital with human energies, swept on, ap- 
 parently unobstructed. The first line of the Austrian horse was 
 met, crushed, annihilated. But the second stood as the rock 
 breasts the waves, horse against horse, rider against rider, sabre 
 against sabre. Nothing met the eye but one vast eddying whirl- 
 pool of dust, as if writhing in volcanic energies, while here and 
 there the flash of fire and the gleam of steel flickered madly 
 through it. 
 
 The battle, thus commenced, continued to rage for four long 
 
312 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 hours, with all its demon energies, its blood, its wounds, its oaths, 
 its shrieks, its death ; on the right wing, on the left wing, in the 
 centre ; till some ten or twelve thousand, some accounts say more, 
 of these poor peasant soldiers lay prostrate upon the plain, crush- 
 ed by the hoof, torn by the bullet, gashed by the sabre. Many 
 were dead. Many were dying. Many had received wounds 
 which would cripple them until they should totter into their 
 graves. At the close of these four hours of almost superhuman 
 effort, the villages all around in names, the Austrians slowly, 
 sullenly retired from the contest. Prince Charles, having lost 
 nearly seven thousand men, with his remaining forces breathless, 
 exhausted, bleeding, retired through Czaslau, and vanished over 
 the horizon to the southwest. Frederick, with his forces almost 
 equally breathless, exhausted, and bleeding, and counting five 
 thousand of his soldiers strewn over the plain, in death or 
 wounds, remained master of the field. Such was the famous bat- 
 tle of Chotusitz. 
 
 In the following terms, Frederick, the moment the battle was 
 over, announced his victory, not to his wife, but to his friend 
 Jordan : 
 
 " From the Field of Battle of Chotusitz, May 17, 1742. 
 
 " Dear Jordan, — I must tell you, as gayly as I can, that we 
 have beaten the enemy soundly, and that we are all pretty well 
 after it. Poor Kothenburg is wounded in the breast and in the 
 arm, but, as it is hoped, without danger. Adieu. You will be 
 happy, I think, at the good news I send you. My compliments 
 to Csesarion."* 
 
 Frederick did not pursue the Austrians after this victory. 
 Nine acres of ground were required to bury the dead. He rent- 
 ed this land from the proprietor for twenty-five years. His alien- 
 ation from his allies was such that, without regard to them, he 
 was disposed to make peace with Austria upon the best terms 
 he could for himself. England also, alarmed in view of the in- 
 creasing supremacy of France, was so anxious to detach Freder- 
 ick, with his invincible troops, from the French alliance, that the 
 British cabinet urged Maria Theresa to make any sacrifice what- 
 ever that might be necessary to secure peace with Prussia. Fred- 
 
 * Correspondance de Frederic II. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 313 
 
 erick, influenced by such considerations, buried the illustrious 
 Austrian dead with the highest marks of military honor, and 
 treated with marked consideration his distinguished prisoners 
 of war. 
 
 Secret negotiations were immediately opened at Breslau, in 
 Silesia, between England, Austria, and Prussia. Maria Theresa, 
 harassed by the entreaties of her cabinet and by the importu- 
 nities of the British court, consented to all that Frederick de- 
 manded. 
 
 The French, who, through their shrewd embassador, kept 
 themselves informed of all that was transpiring, were quite 
 alarmed in view of the approaching accommodation between 
 Prussia and Austria. It is said that Frederick, on the 6th of 
 June, in reply to the earnest remonstrances of the French min- 
 ister, Marshal Belleisle, against his withdrawal from the alliance, 
 frankly said to him, 
 
 " All that I ever wanted, more than I ever demanded, Austria 
 now offers me. Can any one blame me that I close such an al- 
 liance as ours all along has been, when such terms are presented 
 to me as Austria now proposes?" 
 
 On the 15th of June Frederick gave a grand dinner to his 
 generals at his head-quarters. In an after-dinner speech he said 
 to them, 
 
 " Gentlemen, I announce to you that, as I never wished to op- 
 press the Queen of Hungary, I have formed the resolution of 
 agreeing with that princess, and accepting the proposals she has 
 made me, in satisfaction of my rights." 
 
 Toasts were then drank with great enthusiasm to the health 
 of " Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary," to " the queen's consort, 
 Francis, Grand-duke of Lorraine ;" and universal and cordial was 
 the response of applause when the toast was proposed " to the 
 brave Prince Charles." 
 
 The treaty of Breslau was signed on the 11th of June, and 
 ratified at Berlin on the 28th of July. By this treaty, Silesia, 
 Lower and Upper, was ceded to "Frederick and his heirs for ever- 
 more," while Frederick withdrew from the French alliance, and 
 entered into friendly relations with her Hungarian majesty. Im- 
 mediately after the settlement of this question, Frederick, can- 
 toning his troops in Silesia, returned to Berlin. Elate with vie- 
 
314 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 tory and accompanied by a magnificent suite, the young conquer- 
 or hastened home, over green fields and beneath a summer's sun. 
 Keenly he enjoyed his triumph, greeted with the enthusiastic ac- 
 claim of the people in all the towns and villages through which 
 he passed.* At Frankfort-on-the-Oder, where a fair was in opera- 
 tion, the king stopped for a few hours. Vast crowds, which had 
 been drawn to the place by the fair, lined the highway for a long 
 distance on both sides, eager to see the victor who had aggran- 
 dized Prussia by adding a large province to its realms. 
 
 " His majesty's entrance into Frankfort," writes M. Bielfeld, 
 who accompanied him, " although very triumphant, was far from 
 ostentatious. We passed like lightning before the eyes of the 
 spectators, and were so covered with dust that it was difficult to 
 distinguish the color of our coats and the features of our faces. 
 We made some purchases at Frankfort, and the next day arrived 
 safely in Berlin, where the king was received with the acclama- 
 tions of his people."f 
 
 If we can rely upon the testimony of Frederick, an incident 
 occurred at this time which showed that the French court was 
 as intriguing and unprincipled as was his Prussian majesty. It 
 is quite evident that the Austrian court also was not animated 
 by a very high sense of honor. 
 
 After the battle of Chotusitz, Frederick called upon General 
 Pallant, an Austrian officer, who was wounded and a prisoner. 
 In the course of the conversation, General Pallant stated that 
 France was ready at any moment to betray his Prussian majesty, 
 and that, if he would give him six days' time, he would furnish 
 him with documentary proof. A courier was instantly dispatch- 
 ed to Vienna. He soon returned with a letter from Cardinal 
 Fleury, the prime minister of Louis XV., addressed to Maria 
 Theresa, informing her that, if she would give up Bohemia to 
 the emperor, France would guarantee to her Silesia. Frederick, 
 though guilty of precisely the same treachery himself, read the 
 document with indignation, and assumed to be as much amazed 
 at the perfidy as he could have been had he been an honest man. 
 
 * "Huge huzzaing, herald-trumpeting, bob-major-ing, burst forth from all Prussian towns, es- 
 pecially from all Silesian ones, in those June days, as the drums beat homeward ; elaborate il- 
 luminations in the short nights, with bonfires, with transparencies ; transparency inscribed ' Fred- 
 erico Magno (To Frederick the Great),' in one small instance, still of premature nature." — Car- 
 lyle. t Bielfeld, 251. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 315 
 
 "The cardinal," he said, "takes me for a fool. He wishes to 
 betray me. I will try and prevent him." 
 
 The French marshal, Belleisle, alarmed by the report that 
 Frederick was entering into a treaty of peace with Austria, 
 hastened to the Prussian camp to ascertain the truth or false- 
 hood of the rumor. Frederick, emboldened by the document he 
 had in his pocket, was very frank. 
 
 " I have prescribed," he said, " the conditions of peace to the 
 Queen of Hungary. She accepts them. Having, therefore, all 
 that I want, I make peace. All the world in my situation would 
 do the same." 
 
 " Is it possible, sire," Marshal Belleisle replied, " that you can 
 dare to abandon the best of your allies, and to deceive so illus- 
 trious a monarch as the King of France ¥'■ 
 
 " And you, sir," responded the king, with an air of great dis- 
 dain, at the same time placing in his hand the cardinal's letter, 
 " do you dare to talk to me in this manner V 
 
 The marshal glanced his eye over the document, and retired, 
 overwhelmed with confusion. Thus ended the alliance between 
 Prussia and France. " Each party," writes Frederick r " wished 
 to be more cunning than the other."* 
 
 In the following terms, Frederick correctly sums up the inci- 
 dents of N the two Silesian campaigns : 
 
 " Thus was Silesia reunited to the dominions of Prussia. Two 
 years of war sufficed for the conquest of this important province. 
 The treasure which the late king had left was nearly exhausted. 
 But it is a cheap purchase, where whole provinces are bought 
 for seven or eight, millions of crowns. The union of circum- 
 stances at the moment peculiarly favored this enterprise. It 
 was necessary for it that France should allow- itself to be drawn 
 into the war ; that Russia should be attacked by Sweden ; that, 
 from timidity, the Hanoverians and Saxons should remain inac- 
 tive ; that the successes of the Prussians should be uninterrupt- 
 ed ; and that the King of England, the enemy of Prussia, should 
 become, in spite of himself, the instrument of its aggrandizement. 
 What, however, contributed the most to this conquest was an 
 army which had been formed for twenty-two years, by means of 
 a discipline admirable in itself, and superior to the troops of the 
 
 * Ilistoire de mon Temps. 
 
316 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 rest of Europe. Generals, also, who were true patriots, wise and 
 incorruptible ministers, and, finally, a certain good fortune which 
 often accompanies youth, and often deserts a more advanced 
 age."* 
 
 There was no end to the panegyrics which Voltaire, in his 
 correspondence with Frederick, now lavished upon him. He 
 greeted him with the title of Frederick the Great. 
 
 " How glorious," he exclaimed, " is my king, the youngest of 
 kings, and the grandest ! A king who carries in the one hand 
 an all-conquering sword, but in the other a blessed olive-branch, 
 and is the arbiter of Europe for peace or war." 
 
 Frederick, having obtained all that, for the present, he could 
 hope to obtain, deemed it for his interest to attempt to promote 
 the peace of Europe. His realms needed consolidating, his army 
 recruiting, his treasury replenishing. But he found it much eas- 
 ier to stir up the elements of strife than to allay them. 
 
 His withdrawal from the French alliance removed the menace 
 from the English Hanoverian possession. George II. eagerly 
 sent an army of sixty thousand men to the aid of Maria Theresa 
 against France, and freely opened to her his purse. The French 
 were defeated every where. They were driven from Prague in 
 one of the most disastrous wintry retreats of blood and misery 
 over which the demon of war ever gloated. The powerless, pen- 
 niless emperor, the creature of France, who had neither purse 
 nor army, was driven, a fugitive and a vagabond, from his petty 
 realm of Bavaria, and was exposed to humiliation, want, and in- 
 sult. 
 
 Maria Theresa was developing character which attracted the 
 admiration of Europe. She seriously contemplated taking com- 
 mand of her armies herself. She loved Duke Francis, her hus- 
 band, treated him very tenderly, and was anxious to confer upon 
 him honor ; but by nature vastly his superior, instinctively she 
 assumed the command. She led ; he followed. She was a mag- 
 nificent rider. Her form was the perfection of grace. Her beau- 
 tiful, pensive, thoughtful face was tanned by the weather. All 
 hearts throbbed as, on a spirited charger, she sometimes swept 
 before the ranks of the army, with her gorgeous retinue, appear- 
 ing and disappearing like a meteor. She was as devout as she 
 
 * Bielfeld, p. 251. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 317 
 
 was brave, winning the homage of all Catholic hearts. We 
 know not where, in the long list of sovereigns, to point to man 
 or woman of more imperial energies, of more exalted worth. 
 
 MARIA THERESA AT THE HEAD OF HER ARMY. 
 
 The loss of Silesia she regarded as an act of pure highway 
 robbery. It rankled in her noble heart as the great humiliation 
 and disgrace of her reign. Frederick was to her but as a hated 
 and successful bandit, who had wrenched from her crown one of 
 
318 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 its brightest jewels. To the last day of her life she never ceased 
 to deplore the loss. It is said that if any stranger, obtaining an 
 audience, was announced as from Silesia, the eyes of the queen 
 would instantly flood with tears. But the fortunes of war had 
 now triumphantly turned in her favor. Aided by the armies 
 and the gold of England, she was on the high career of conquest. 
 Her troops had overrun Bohemia and Bavaria. She was dis- 
 posed to hold those territories in compensation for Silesia, which 
 she had lost. 
 
 In the mean time, during the two years in which Maria The- 
 resa was making these conquests, Frederick, alarmed by the ag- 
 grandizement of Austria and the weakening of France, while un- 
 availingly striving to promote peace, was busily employed in the 
 administration of his internal affairs. He encouraged letters; 
 devoted much attention to the Academy of Arts and Sciences ; 
 reared the most beautiful opera-house in Europe ; devoted large 
 sums to secure the finest musicians and the most exquisite ballet- 
 dancers which Europe could afford. He sought to make his 
 capital attractive to all those throughout Europe who were in- 
 spired by a thirst for knowledge, or who were in the pursuit of 
 pleasure. 
 
 One incident in this connection, illustrative of the man and 
 of the times, merits brief notice. His agent at Venice reported 
 a female dancer there of rare attainments, Senora Barberina. 
 She was marvelously beautiful, and a perfect fairy in figure and 
 grace, and as fascinating in her vivacity and sparkling intelli- 
 gence as she was lovely in person. Frederick immediately or- 
 dered her to be engaged for his opera-house at Berlin, at a salary 
 of nearly four thousand dollars, and sundry perquisites. 
 
 But it so happened that the beautiful dancer had in the train 
 of her impassioned admirers a young English gentleman, a 
 younger brother of the Earl of Bute. He was opposed to Bar- 
 berina's going to Prussia, and induced her to throw up the en- 
 gagement. Frederick was angry, and demanded the execution 
 of the contract. The pretty Barberina, safe in Venice,, made her- 
 self merry with the complaints of the Prussian monarch. Fred- 
 erick, not accustomed to be thwarted, applied to the doge and 
 the Senate of Venice to compel Barberina to fulfill her contract. 
 They replied with great politeness, but did nothing. Barberina 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 319 
 
 remained with her lover under the sunny skies of Italy, charm- 
 ing with her graceful pirouettes admiring audiences in the Vene- 
 tian theatres. 
 
 In the mean time a Venetian embassador, on his way to one 
 of the northern courts, passed a night at a hotel in'Berlin. He 
 was immediately arrested, with his luggage, by a royal order. 
 A dispatch was transmitted to Venice, stating that the embassa- 
 dor would be held as a hostage till Barberina was sent to Prus- 
 sia. " A bargain," says Frederick, in his emphatic utterance, " is 
 a bargain. A state should have law courts to enforce contracts 
 entered into in their territories." 
 
 The doge and senate were brought to terms. They seized the 
 beautiful Barberina, placed her carefully in a post-chaise, and, 
 under an escort of armed men, sent her, from stage to stage, over 
 mountain and valley, till she arrived at Berlin. The Venetian 
 embassador was then discharged. The young English gentle- 
 man, James Mackenzie, a grandson of the celebrated advocate, 
 Sir George Mackenzie, eagerly followed his captured inamorata, 
 and reached Berlin two hours after Barberina. The rumor was 
 circulated that he was about to marry her. 
 
 It is said that Frederick, determined not to lose his dancer in 
 that manner, immediately informed the young gentleman's friends 
 that he was about to form a mesalliance with an opera girl. 
 The impassioned lover was peremptorily summoned home. Ha- 
 tred for Frederick consequently rankled in young Mackenzie's 
 heart. This hatred he communicated to his brother, Lord Bute, 
 which subsequently had no little influence in affairs of national 
 diplomacy. 
 
 The king himself became much fascinated with the personal 
 loveliness and the sparkling intelligence of the young dancer. 
 He even condescended to take tea with her, in company with 
 others. . Not long after her arrival in Berlin she made a con- 
 quest of a young gentleman of one of the first Prussian families, 
 M. Cocceji, son of the celebrated chancellor, and was privately 
 married to him. For a time Barberina continued upon the stage. 
 At length, in the enjoyment of ample wealth, she purchased a 
 splendid mansion, and, publicly announcing her marriage, retired 
 with her husband to private life. But the mother of Cocceji, 
 and other proud family friends, scorned the lowly alliance. A 
 
320 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 divorce was the result. Soon after, Barberina was married to a 
 nobleman of high rank, and we bear of ber no more. 
 
 Though Frederick, in his private correspondence, often spoke 
 very contemptuously of Voltaire, it would seem, if any reliance 
 can be placed on the testimony of Voltaire himself, that Freder- 
 ick sedulously courted the author, whose pen was then so poten- 
 tial in Europe. By express invitation, Voltaire spent a week 
 with Frederick at Aix la Chapelle early in September, 1742. 
 He writes to a friend from Brussels under date of December 10 : 
 
 " I have been to see the King of Prussia. I have courageous- 
 ly resisted his fine proposals. He offers me a beautiful house in 
 Berlin, a pretty estate, but I prefer my second floor in Madame 
 Du Chatelet's here. He assures me of his favor, of the perfect 
 freedom I should have ; and I am running to Paris, to my slav- 
 ery and persecution. I could fancy myself a small Athenian re- 
 fusing the bounties of the King of Persia ; with this difference, 
 however, one had liberty at Athens." 
 
 Again he writes, nnder the same date, to the Marquis D'Ar- 
 genson : 
 
 "I have just been to see the King of Prussia, I have seen 
 him as one seldom sees kings, much at my ease, in my own room, 
 in the chimney-corner, whither the same man who has gained 
 two battles would come and talk familiarly, as Scipio did with 
 Terence. You will tell me I am not Terence. True ; but nei- 
 ther is he altogether Scipio." 
 
 Again he writes, under the same date, to Cardinal De Fleury, 
 then the most prominent member of the cabinet of Louis XV. : 
 
 " Monseioteur, — I am bound to give your excellency some 
 account of my journey to Aix la Chapelle. I could not leave 
 Brussels until the second of this month. On the road I met a 
 courier from the King of Prussia, coming to reiterate his master's 
 orders on me. The king had me lodged in quarters near his 
 own apartment. He passed, for two consecutive days, four hours 
 at a time in my room, with all that goodness and familiarity 
 which form, as you know, part of his character, and which does 
 not lower the king's dignity, because one is duly careful not to 
 abuse it. I had abundant time to speak with a great deal of 
 freedom on what your excellency had prescribed to me, and the 
 king spoke to me with an equal frankness. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 321 
 
 " First he asked me ' if it were true that the French nation 
 were so angered against him, if the king was, and if you were.' 
 I answered ' that there was nothing permanent.' He then con- 
 descended to speak fully upon the reasons which induced him 
 to make peace. These reasons were so remarkable that I dare 
 not trust them to this paper. All that I dare say is, that it 
 seems to me easy to lead back the mind of this sovereign, whom 
 the situation of his territories, his interest, and his taste would 
 appear to mark as the natural ally of France. He said, more- 
 over, ' that he earnestly desired to see Bohemia in the emperor's 
 hands, that he renounced all claim on Berg and Jtilick, and that 
 he thought only of keeping Silesia.' He said 'that he knew 
 well enough that the house of Austria would one day wish to 
 recover that fine province, but that he trusted he could keep his 
 conquest. That he had at that time a hundred and thirty thou- 
 sand soldiers perfectly prepared for war; that he would make 
 of Neisse, Glogau, and Brieg fortresses as strong as Wesel ; that 
 he was well informed that the Queen of Hungary owed eighty 
 million German crowns ($60,000,000) ; that her provinces, ex- 
 hausted and wide apart, would not be able to make long efforts ; 
 and that the Austrians for a long time to come could not of them- 
 selves be formidable.' "* 
 
 Frederick was accustomed to cover his deep designs of diplom- 
 
 * It would seem that Voltaire was sent to Frederick as the secret agent and spy of the French 
 minister. " Voltaire," writes Macaulay, " was received with every mark of respect and friend- 
 ship. The negotiation was of an extraordinary description. Nothing can he conceived more 
 whimsical than the conferences which took place between the first literary man and the first 
 practical man of the age, whom a strange weakness had induced to change their parts. The 
 great poet would talk of nothing but treaties and guarantees, and the king of nothing but met- 
 aphors and rhymes. On one occasion Voltaire put into his majesty's hand a paper on the state 
 of Europe, and received it back with verses scrawled on the margin. In secret they both laugh- 
 ed at each other. Voltaire did not spare the king's poems, and the king has left on record his 
 opinion of Voltaire's diplomacy, saying, ' He had no credentials, and the whole mission was a 
 * mere farce. ' " 
 
 As a specimen of the character of the document above alluded to, we give the following. Vol- 
 taire, in what he deemed a very important state paper, had remarked, 
 
 "The partisans of Austria burn with the desire to open the campaign in Silesia again. Have 
 you, in that case, any ally but France? And, however potent you are, is an ally useless to 
 you ?" 
 
 The king scribbled on the margin, 
 
 " Mon ami, 
 Don't you see 
 We will receive them 
 A la Barbari!" 
 
 X 
 
322 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 acy by the promotion of the utmost gayety in his capital. Nev- 
 er did Berlin exhibit such spectacles of festivity and pleasure as 
 during the winter of 1742 and 1743. There was a continued suc- 
 cession of operas, balls, fetes, and sleigh-parties. Frederick's two 
 younger sisters were at that time brilliant ornaments of his court. 
 They were both remarkably beautiful and vivacious. The Prin- 
 cess Louise Ulrique was in her twenty-third year. The follow- 
 ing letter to Frederick from these two princesses will be keenly 
 appreciated by many of our young lady readers whose expenses 
 have exceeded their allowance. It shows very conclusively that 
 there may be the same pecuniary annoyances in the palaces of 
 kings as in more humble homes. 
 
 "Berlin, 1st of March, 1743. 
 
 "My dearest Brother, — I know not if it is not too bold. to 
 trouble your majesty on private affairs. But the great confidence 
 my sister and I have in your kindness encourages us to lay be- 
 fore you a sincere avowal of our little finances, which are a good 
 deal deranged just now. The revenues, having for two years 
 and a half past been rather small, amounting to only four hun- 
 dred crowns ($300) a year, could not be made to cover all the 
 little expenses required in the adjustment of ladies. This cir- 
 cumstance, added to our card-playing, though small, which we 
 could not dispense with, has led us into debt. Mine amounts 
 to fifteen hundred crowns ($1125) ; my sister's, to eighteen hun- 
 dred crowns ($1350). We have not spoken of it to the queeji- 
 mother, though we are sure she would have tried to assist us. 
 But as that could not have been done without some inconven- 
 ience to her, and as she would have retrenched in some of her 
 own little entertainments, I thought we should do better to ap- 
 ply directly to your majesty. We were persuaded you' would 
 have taken it amiss had we deprived the queen of her smallest 
 pleasure, and especially as we consider you, my dear brother, the 
 father of the family, and hope you will be so gracious as to help 
 us. We shall never forget the kind acts of your majesty. We 
 beg you to be persuaded of the perfect and tender attachment 
 with which we are proud to be, all our lives, your majesty's 
 most humble sisters and servants, Louise Ulrique, 
 
 "Anne Amelia. 
 
 " P.S. — I most humbly beg your majesty not to speak of this 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 323 
 
 to the queen-mother, as perhaps she would not approve of the 
 step we are now taking. Ann Amelia.' 
 
 ?>* 
 
 About this time Frederick was somewhat alarmed by a state- 
 ment issued by the court of Austria, that the emperor, Charles 
 Albert, was no legitimate emperor at all ; that the election was 
 not valid ; and that Austria, which had the emperor's kingdom 
 of Bavaria by the throat, insisted upon compensation for the Si- 
 lesia she had lost. It was evident that Maria Theresa, whose 
 armies were every where successful, was determined that her 
 husband, Duke Francis, should be decorated with the imperial 
 crown. It now seemed probable that she would be able to ac- 
 complish her design. Frederick was alarmed, and deemed it 
 necessary to strengthen himself by matrimonial alliances. 
 
 The heir to the Russian throne was an orphan boy, Peter 
 Federowitz. The Russian court was looking around to obtain 
 for him a suitable wife. Frederick's commandant at Stettin, a 
 man of renowned lineage, had a beautiful daughter of fourteen. 
 She was a buxom girl, full of life as she frolicked upon the ram- 
 parts of the fortress with her young companions. Frederick suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining her betrothal to the young Prince of Russia. 
 She was solemnly transferred from the Protestant to the Greek 
 religion ; her name was changed to Catharine ; and she was 
 eventually married, greatly to the satisfaction of Frederick, to 
 the young Russian czar. 
 
 Adolph Frederick was the heir to the throne of Sweden. Suc- 
 cessful diplomacy brought a magnificent embassy from Stock- 
 holm to Berlin, to demand Princess Ulrique as the bride of 
 Sweden's future king. The course of love, whether true or false, 
 certainly did in this case run smooth. The marriage ceremony 
 was attended in Berlin with such splendor as the Prussian cap- 
 ital had never witnessed before. The beautiful Ulrique was 
 very much beloved. She was married by proxy, her brother 
 Augustus William standing in the place of the bridegroom. 
 
 All eyes were dimmed with tears as, after a week of brilliant 
 festivities, she prepared for her departure. The carriages were 
 at the door to convey her, with her accompanying suite of lords 
 and ladies, to Stralsund, where the Swedish senate and nobles 
 
 * (Euvres de Frederic, XXVII. , vol. i.,p. 387. 
 
324 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 were to receive her. The princess entered the royal apartment 
 to take leave of her friends, dressed in a rose-colored riding-habit 
 trimmed with silver. The vest which encircled her slender waist 
 was of sea-green, with lappets and collar of the same. She wore 
 a small English bonnet of black velvet with a white plume. 
 Her flowing hair hung in ringlets over her shoulders, bound with 
 rose-colored ribbon. 
 
 The king, who was devotedly attached to his sister, and who 
 was very fond, on all occasions, of composing rhymes which he 
 called poetry, wrote a very tender ode, bidding her adieu. It 
 commenced with the words 
 
 " Pavtez, ma soeur, partez ; 
 La Suede yous attend, la Suede 
 vous desire." 
 Go, my sister, go ; 
 Sweden waits you, Sweden 
 wishes you. 
 
 "His majesty gave it to her at the moment when she was 
 about to take leave of the two queens. The princess threw her 
 eyes on it and fell into a faint. The king had almost done the 
 like. His tears flowed abundantly. The princes and princesses 
 were overcome with sorrow. At last Gotter judged it time to 
 put an end to this tragic scene. He entered the hall almost like 
 Boreas in the ballet of " The Rose 1 ' — that is to say, with a crash. 
 He made one or two whirlwinds, clove the press, and snatched 
 away the princess from the arms of the queen-mother, took her 
 in his own, and whisked her out of the hall. All the world fol- 
 lowed. The carriages were waiting in the court, and the prin- 
 cess in a moment found herself in hers. 
 
 " I was in such a state I know not how we got down stairs. I 
 remember only that it was in a concert of lamentable sobbings. 
 Madame, the Marchioness of Schwedt, who had been named to 
 attend the princess to Stralsund, on the Swedish frontier, this 
 high lady, and the two dames D'Atours, who were for Sweden 
 itself, having sprung into the same carriage, the door of it was 
 shut with a slam, the' postillions cracked, the carriage shot away, 
 and disappeared from our eyes. In a moment the king and 
 court lost sight of the beloved Ulrique forever."* 
 
 Frederick was far from being an amiable man. He would 
 
 * Letters of Bielfeld, vol. i., p. 188. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 325 
 
 often cruelly banter his companions, knowing that it was impos- 
 sible for them to indulge in any retort. Baron Pollnitz was a 
 very weak old man, who had several times changed his religion 
 to subserve his private interests. He had been rather a petted 
 courtier during three reigns. Now, in extreme old age, and weary 
 of the world, he wished to renounce Protestantism, and to enter 
 the cloisters of the convent in preparation for death. He ap- 
 plied to the king for permission to do so. Frederick furnished 
 him with the following sarcastic parting testimony. It was 
 widely circulated through many of the journals of that day, ex- 
 citing peals of laughter as a capital royal joke : 
 
 "Whereas the Baron De Pollnitz, born of honest parents, so 
 far as we know, having served our grandfather as gentleman of 
 the chamber, Madame D'Orleans in the same rank, the King of 
 Spain as colonel, the deceased Emperor Charles VI. as captain 
 of horse, the pope as chamberlain, the Duke of Brunswick as 
 chamberlain, the Duke of Weimar as ensign, our father as cham- 
 berlain, and, in fine, us as grand master of ceremonies, has, not- 
 withstanding such accumulation of honors, become disgusted 
 with the world, and requests of us a parting testimony ; 
 
 " We, remembering his important services to our house in di- 
 verting for nine years long the late king our father, and doing 
 the honors of our court through the now reign, can not refuse 
 such request. We do hereby certify that the said Baron Poll- 
 nitz has never assassinated, robbed on the highway, poisoned, 
 forcibly cut purses, or done other atrocity or legal crime at our 
 court ; but that he has always maintained gentlemanly behavior, 
 making not more than honest use of the industry and talents he 
 has been endowed with at birth; imitating the object of the 
 drama — that is, correcting mankind by gentle quizzing — follow- 
 ing in the matter of sobriety Boerhaave's counsels, pushing Chris- 
 tian charity so far as often to make the rich understand that it 
 is more blessed to give than to receive ; possessing perfectly the 
 anecdotes of our various mansions, especially of our worn-out fur- 
 nitures, rendering himself by his merits necessary to those who 
 know him, and, with a very bad head, having a very good heart. 
 
 " Our anger the said Baron Pollnitz never kindled but once.* 
 
 * In Pollnitz's memoirs and letters he repeated the rumor that the great elector's second wife, 
 an ancestor of Frederick, had attempted to poison her step-son. 
 
326 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 But as the loveliest countries have their barren spots, the most 
 beautiful forms their imperfections, pictures by the greatest mas- 
 ters their faults, we are willing to cover with the veil of oblivion 
 those of the said baron. We do hereby grant him, with regret, 
 the leave of absence he requires, and abolish his office altogether, 
 that it may be blotted from the memory of man, not judging 
 that any one, after the said baron, can be worthy to fill it. 
 
 " Frederick. 
 
 "Potsdam, April 1, 1744." 
 
 No man of kindly sympathies could have thus wantonly 
 wounded the feelings of a poor old man who had, according to 
 his capacity, served himself, his father, and his grandfather, and 
 wdio was just dropping into the grave. A generous heart would 
 have forgotten the foibles, and, remembering only the virtues, 
 would have spoken w T ords of cheer to the world-weary heart, 
 seeking a sad refuge in the glooms of the cloister. It must be 
 confessed that Frederick often manifested one of the worst traits 
 in human nature. He took pleasure in inflicting pain upon 
 others. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE INVASION OF BOHEMIA. 
 
 Correspondence between Frederick and Voltaire. — Voltaire's Visit to Frederick. — Domestic 
 Habits of the King. — Unavailing Diplomacy of Voltaire. — The New Alliance. — The Renewal 
 of War. — The Siege of Prague. — The Advance upon Vienna. — Darkening Prospects. — The 
 Pandours. — Divisions in Council. — Sickness of Louis XV. — Energy of Frederick. — Distress 
 of the Army. 
 
 The correspondence carried on between Frederick and Vol- 
 taire, and their mutual comments, very clearly reveal the rela- 
 tions existing between these remarkable men. Frederick was 
 well aware that the eloquent pen of the great dramatist and his- 
 torian could give him celebrity throughout Europe. Voltaire 
 was keenly alive to the consideration that the friendship of a 
 monarch could secure to him position and opulence. And yet 
 each privately spoke of the other very contemptuously, while in 
 the correspondence which passed between them they professed 
 for each other the highest esteem and affection. Frederick 
 wrote from Berlin as follows to Voltaire : 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 327 
 
 "October 7, 1743. 
 
 " My dear Voltaire, — France has been considered thus far 
 as the asylum of unfortunate rnonarchs. I wish that my capital 
 should become the temple of great men. Come to it, then, my 
 dear Voltaire, and give whatever orders can tend to render a 
 residence in it agreeable to you. My wish is to please you, and 
 wishing this, my intention is to enter entirely into your views. 
 
 " Choose whatever apartment in our house you like. Regu- 
 late yourself all that you want, either for comfort or luxury. 
 Make your arrangements in such a way as that you may be hap- 
 py and comfortable, and leave it to me to provide for the rest. 
 You will be always entirely free, and master to choose your own 
 way of life. My only pretension is to enchain you by friend- 
 ship and kindness. 
 
 " You will have passports for the post-horses, and whatever 
 else you may ask. I hope to see you on Wednesday. I shall 
 then profit by the few moments of leisure which remain to me, 
 to enlighten myself by the blaze of your powerful genius. I 
 entreat you to believe I shall always be the same toward you. 
 Adieu: 7 
 
 Voltaire has given a detailed account of the incidents con- 
 nected with this visit to his Prussian majesty. It is a humilia- 
 ting exhibition of the intrigues and insincerity which animated 
 the prominent actors in those scenes. 
 
 " The public affairs in France," writes Voltaire, " continued in 
 as bad a state after the death of Cardinal De Fleury as during 
 the last two years of his administration. The house of Austria 
 rose again from its" ashes. France was cruelly pressed upon by 
 that power and by England. No other resource remained to us 
 but the chance of regaining the King of Prussia, who, having 
 drawn us into the war, had abandoned us as soon as it was con- 
 venient to himself so to do. It was thought advisable, under 
 these circumstances, that I should' be sent to that monarch to 
 sound his intentions, and, if possible, persuade him to avert the 
 storm which, after it had first fallen on us, would be sure, sooner 
 or later, to fall from Vienna upon him. We also wished to se- 
 cure from him the loan of a hundred thousand men, with the as- 
 surance that he could thus better secure to himself Silesia. 
 
328 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 "The minister for foreign affairs was charged to hasten my 
 departure. A pretext, however, was necessary. I took that of 
 my quarrel with the Bishop Mirepoix. I wrote accordingly to 
 the King of Prussia that I could no longer endure the persecu- 
 tions of this monk, and that I should take refuge under the pro- 
 tection of a philosophical sovereign, far from the disputes of this 
 bigot. When I arrived at Berlin the king lodged me in his pal- 
 ace, as he had clone in my former journeys. He then led the 
 same sort of life which he had always done since he came to the 
 throne. He rose at five in summer and six in winter.* A sin- 
 gle servant came to light his fire, to dress and shave him. In- 
 deed, he dressed himself almost without any assistance. His 
 bedroom was a handsome one. A rich and highly ornamented 
 balustrade of silver inclosed apparently a bed hung with cur- 
 tains, but behind the curtains, instead of a bed, there was a li- 
 brary. As for the royal couch, it was a wretched truckle-bed, 
 with a thin mattress, behind a screen, in one corner of the room. 
 Marcus Aurelius and Julian, his favorite heroes, and the greatest 
 men among the Stoics, were not worse lodged." 
 
 The king devoted himself very energetically to business dur- 
 ing the morning, and reviewed his troops at eleven o'clock. He 
 dined at twelve. 
 
 " After dinner," writes Voltaire, " the king retired alone into 
 his cabinet, and made verses till five or six o'clock. A concert 
 commenced at seven, in which the king performed on the flute 
 as well as the best musician. The pieces of music executed were 
 also often of the king's composition. On the days of public cer- 
 emonies he exhibited great magnificence. It was a fine spectacle 
 to see him at table, surrounded by twenty princes of the empire, 
 served on the most beautiful gold plate in Europe, and attended 
 by thirty handsome pages, and as many young heyducs, superb- 
 ly dressed, and carrying great dishes of massive gold. After 
 these banquets the court attended the opera in the great theatre, 
 three hundred feet long. The most admirable singers and the 
 best dancers were at this time in the pay of the King of Prus- 
 sia." 
 
 Voltaire seems to have formed a very different estimate of his 
 
 * Voltaire is proverbially inaccurate in details. It was the king's invariable custom to rise 
 at four in summer and six in winter. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 329 
 
 own diplomatic abilities from those expressed by the King of 
 Prussia. Voltaire writes: 
 
 " In the midst of fetes, operas, and suppers, my secret negotia- 
 tion advanced. The king allowed me to speak to him on all 
 subjects. I often intermingled questions respecting France and 
 Austria in conversations relating to the ^Eneid and Livy. The 
 .discussion was sometimes very animated. At length the king 
 said to me, c Let France declare war against England, and I will 
 march.' This was all I desired. I returned as quickly as possi- 
 ble to the court of France. I gave them the same hopes which 
 I had myself been led to entertain at Berlin, and which did not 
 prove delusive." 
 
 The fact was, that the diplomacy of Voltaire had probably 
 not the slightest influence in guiding the action of the king. 
 Frederick had become alarmed in view of the signal successes of 
 the armies of Maria Theresa, under her brother-in-law, Prince 
 Charles of Lorraine. Several Austrian generals, conspicuous 
 among whom was Marshal Traun, were developing great milita- 
 ry ability. The armies of Austria had conquered Bohemia and 
 Bavaria. The French troops, discomfited in many battles, had 
 been compelled to retreat to the western banks of the Rhine, 
 vigorously pursued by Prince Charles. The impotent emperor 
 Charles Albert, upon whom France had placed the imperial 
 crown of Germany, was driven from his hereditary realm, and 
 the heart-broken man, in poverty and powerlessness, was an em- 
 peror but in name. It was evident that Maria Theresa was 
 gathering her strength to reconquer Silesia. She had issued a 
 decree that the Elector of Bavaria was not legitimately chosen 
 enrperor. It was very manifest that her rapidly increasing in- 
 fluence would soon enable her to dethrone the unfortunate 
 Charles Albert, and to place the imperial crown upon the brow 
 of her husband. 
 
 Under these circumstances, it was evidently impossible for 
 Frederick to retain Silesia unless he could again rally France 
 and other powers to his aid. It was always easy to rouse France 
 against England, its hereditary foe. Thus influenced, Frederick, 
 early in the spring of 1744, entered into a new alliance with 
 France and the Emperor Charles Albert against Maria Theresa. 
 The two marriages which he had so adroitly consummated con- 
 
330 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 strained Kussia and Sweden to neutrality. While France, "by 
 the new treaty, was engaged to assail with the utmost energy 
 under the leadership of Louis XV. himself, the triumphant Aus 
 trian columns upon the Rhine, Frederick, at the head of one hun 
 dred thousand troops, was to drive the Austrians out of Bohe- 
 mia, and reseat Charles Albert upon his hereditary throne. For 
 this service Frederick was to receive from the Bohemian king 
 three important principalities, with their central fortresses near 
 upon the borders of Silesia. 
 
 The shrewd foresight of Frederick, and his rapidly developing 
 military ability, had kept his army in the highest state of dis- 
 cipline, while his magazines were abundantly stored with all 
 needful supplies. It was written at the time : 
 
 " Some countries take six months, some twelve, to get in mo- 
 tion for war. But in three weeks Prussia can be across the fron- 
 tiers and upon the throats of its enemy. Some countries have a 
 longer sword than Prussia, but none can unsheath it so soon." 
 
 Public opinion was then much less potent than now ; still it 
 was a power. Frederick had two objects in view in again draw- 
 ing the sword. One was to maintain possession of Silesia, which 
 was seriously menaced; the other was to enlarge his territory, 
 and thus to strengthen his hold upon his new conquest, by add- 
 ing to Prussia the three important Bohemian principalities of 
 Koniggratz, Bunzlau, and Leitmeritz. By a secret treaty, he had 
 secured the surrender of these provinces in payment for the as- 
 sistance his armies might furnish the allies ; but policy required 
 that he should not avow his real motives. He therefore issued 
 a manifesto, in which he falsely stated, 
 
 " His Prussian majesty requires nothing for himself He has 
 taken up arms simply and solely with the view of restoring to 
 the empire its freedom, to the emperor his imperial crown, and 
 to all Europe the peace which is so desirable." 
 
 Frederick published his manifesto on the 10th of August, 
 1744. Early in the morning of the loth he set out from Pots- 
 dam upon this new military expedition. His two eldest broth- 
 ers, Augustus William, Prince of Prussia, and Prince Henry, ac- 
 companied him. The army entered Bohemia in three columns, 
 whose concentrated force amounted to nearly one hundred thou- 
 sand men. Frederick in person led the first column, the old 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 331 
 
 Prince Leopold the second, and Marshal Schwerin the third. 
 Marching by different routes, they swept all opposition before 
 them. On the 4th of September the combined army appeared 
 before the walls of Prague. Here, as in every act of Frederick's 
 life, his marvelous energy was conspicuous. 
 
 The works were pushed with the utmost vigor. On the 8th 
 the siege cannon arrived ; late in the night of Wednesday, the 
 9th, they were in position. Immediately they opened their rap- 
 id, well-aimed, deadly fire of solid shot and shell from three quar- 
 ters — the north, the west, and the east. Frederick, watching the 
 bombardment from an eminence, was much exposed to the re- 
 turn fire of the Austrians. He called upon others to take care 
 of themselves, but seemed regardless of his own personal safety. 
 His cousin, Prince William, and a page, were both struck down 
 at his side by a cannon-ball. 
 
 On the 16th the battered, smouldering, blood-stained city was 
 surrendered, with its garrison of sixteen thousand men. The 
 prisoners of war were marched off to Frederick's strong places 
 in the north. Prague was compelled to take the oath of alle- 
 giance to the emperor, and to pay a ransom of a million of dol- 
 lars. Abundant stores of provision and ammunition were found 
 in the city. It was a brilliant opening of the campaign. 
 
 The impetuous Frederick made no delay at Prague. The day 
 after the capture, leaving five thousand men, under General Ein- 
 siedel, to garrison the city, he put his troops in motion, ascend- 
 ing the right bank of the Moldau. It would seem that he was 
 about to march boldly upon Vienna. Wagons of meal, drawn 
 by oxen, followed, the army. The heavy artillery was left be- 
 hind. The troops were forced along as rapidly as possible. 
 They advanced in two columns. One was led by Frederick, and 
 the other by young Leopold. The country through which they 
 passed was dreary, desolate, barren in the extreme — a wild waste 
 of precipitous rocks, and bogs, and tangled forest. The roads 
 were wretched. No forage could be obtained. The starved 
 oxen were continually dropping, exhausted, by the way; the 
 path of the army w T as marked by their carcasses. 
 
 It was but sixty miles from Prague to Tabor. The march of 
 Frederick's division led through Kunraditz, across the Sazawa 
 River, through Bistritz and Miltchin. It was not until the ninth 
 
332 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 day of their toilsome march that the steeples of Tabor were de- 
 scried, in the distant horizon, on its high, scarped rock. Here 
 both columns united. Half of the draught cattle had perished 
 by the way, and half of the wagons had been abandoned. 
 
 The prospects of Frederick were now gloomy. The bright 
 morning of the campaign had darkened into a stormy day. The 
 barren region around afforded no supplies. The inhabitants 
 were all Catholics; they hated the heretics. Inspired by their 
 priests, they fled from their dwellings, taking with them or de- 
 stroying every thing which could aid the Prussian army. But 
 most annoying of all, the bold, sagacious chieftain, General Bath- 
 yani, with hordes of Pandours which could not be counted — 
 horsemen who seemed to have the vitality and endurance of cen- 
 taurs — was making deadly assaults upon every exposed point. 
 
 THE PANDOUKS. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 333 
 
 " Such a swarm of hornets as darkens the very daylight !" 
 writes Carlyle. " Vain to scourge them down, to burn them off 
 by blaze of gunpowder ; they fly fast, but are straightway back 
 again. They lurk in these bushy wildernesses, scraggy woods ; 
 no foraging possible unless whole regiments are sent out to do 
 it ; you can not get a letter safely carried for them." 
 
 Thus Frederick found himself in a barren, hostile country, with 
 a starving army, incessantly assailed by a determined foe, grop- 
 ing his way in absolute darkness, and with the greatest difficul- 
 ty communicating even with his own divisions, at the* distance 
 of but a few leagues. He knew not from what direction to an- 
 ticipate attack, or how formidable might be his assailants. He 
 knew not whether the French, on the other side of the Ehine, 
 had abandoned him to his own resources, or were marching to 
 his rescue. He knew that they were as supremely devoted to 
 their own interests as he was to his, and that they would do 
 nothing to aid him, unless by so doing they could efficiently ben- 
 efit themselves. 
 
 As is usual under such circumstances, a quarrel arose among 
 his officers. Young Leopold proposed one plan, Marshal Schwe- 
 rin another. They were both bold, determined men. Frederick 
 found it difficult to keep the peace between them. It was now 
 October. Winter, with its piercing gales, and ice, and snow, was 
 fast approaching. It was necessary to seek winter quarters. 
 Frederick, with the main body of his army, took possession of 
 Budweis, on the Upper Moldau. A detachment was stationed 
 at Neuhaus, about thirty miles northeast of Budweis. 
 
 It will be remembered that Prince Charles was at the head of 
 a strong Austrian army, on the western banks of the Rhine. It 
 numbered over fifty thousand combatants. The King of France 
 had pledged himself to press them closely, so that they could 
 not recross the Rhine and rush into Bohemia to thwart the op- 
 erations of Frederick ; but, unfortunately, Louis XV was seized 
 with a malignant fever, which brought him near to the grave. 
 Taking advantage of this, Prince Charles, on the night of the 23d 
 of August, crossed the Rhine with his whole army. It was 
 bright moonlight, so that every movement was as visible as if it 
 had been made by day. But the French officers, glad thus to 
 be rid of the Austrian army, preferring much that Frederick 
 
334 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 should encounter it in Bohemia than that they should struggle 
 against it on the Rhine, went quietly to their beds, even forbid- 
 ding the more zealous subalterns from harassing Prince Charles 
 in his passage of the river. It was then the great object of the 
 French to take Freyburg. The withdrawal of Prince Charles, 
 with his fifty thousand men, was a great relief to them. 
 
 While Frederick was involved in all these difficulties, he was 
 cheered by the hope that the French would soon come to his 
 rescue. Unutterable was his chagrin when he learned, early in 
 October, that the French had done exactly as he would have 
 done in their circumstances. Appalling, indeed, were the tidings 
 soon brought to him, that Prince Charles, with his army, had 
 marched unmolested into Bohemia; that he had already effected 
 a junction with General Bathyani and his countless swarm of 
 Pandours ; and, moreover, that a Saxon army, twenty thousand 
 strong, in alliance with the Queen of Hungary, was on the way 
 to join his already overwhelming foes. It was reported, at the 
 same time, that Prince Charles was advancing upon Budweis, 
 and that his advance-guard had been seen, but a few miles off, 
 on the western side of the Moldau. 
 
 The exigency demanded the most decisive action, Frederick 
 promptly gathered his army, and dashed across the Moldau, re- 
 solved, with the energies of despair, to smite down the troops of 
 Prince Charles ; but no foe could be found. For four days he 
 sought for them in vain. He then learned that the Austrian 
 army had crossed the Moldau several miles north of him, thus 
 cutting off his communications w T ith Prague. 
 
 Though Prince Charles was nominally commander-in-chief of 
 the Austrian forces, Marshal Traun, as we have mentioned, was 
 its military head. He was, at that time, far Frederick's superior 
 in the art of war. Frederick had sufficient intelligence and can- 
 dor to recognize that superiority. "When he heard of this adroit 
 movement of his foes, he exclaimed, " Old Traun understands his 
 trade." 
 
 Prince Charles was now forming magazines at Beneschau, just 
 south of the Sazawa Biver, about seventy miles north of Fred- 
 erick's encampment at Budweis. Frederick hastily recrossed the 
 Moldau, and, marching through Bechin, concentrated nearly all 
 his forces at Tabor. He hoped by forced marches to take the 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 335 
 
 Austrians by surprise, and capture their magazines at Beneschau. 
 Thousands, rumor said fourteen thousand, of the wild Pandours, 
 riding furiously, hovered around his line of march. They were 
 in his front, on his rear, and upon his flanks. Ever refusing bat- 
 tle, they attacked every exposed point with the utmost ferocity. 
 The Prussian king thus found himself cut off from Prague, with 
 i exhausted magazines, and forage impossible. He had three hun- 
 dred sick in his hospitals. He could not think of abandoning 
 them, and yet he had no means for their transportation. 
 
 The salvation of the army seemed to depend upon capturing 
 the Austrian magazines at Beneschau. Marshal Schwerin was 
 sent forward with all speed, at the head of a strong detachment, 
 and was so lucky as to take Beneschau. Here he intrenched 
 himself. Frederick, upon hearing the glad tidings, immediately 
 started from Tabor to join him. His sick were at Fraunberg, 
 Budweis, and Neuhaus, some dozen miles south of Tabor. Gar- 
 risons, amounting to three thousand men, had been left to pro- 
 tect them from the Pandours. As Frederick was about to aban- 
 don that whole region, it was manifest that these garrisons could 
 not maintain themselves. He dispatched eight messengers in 
 succession to summon the troops immediately to join him. The 
 sick were to be left to their fate. It was one of the cruel neces- 
 sities of war. But not one of these messengers escaped capture 
 by the Pandours. Frederick commenced his march without these 
 garrisons. The three thousand fighting men, with the three hun- 
 dred sick, all fell into the hands of the Pandours. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE RETREAT. 
 
 The Retreat ordered. — Awful Suffering. — Narrow Escape of the King. — The Flight from 
 Prague. — Military Mistakes of the King. — Frederick returns to Berlin. — His wonderful 
 administrative Ability. — Poland joins Austria. — The Austrians enter Silesia, — Unreasona- 
 ble Demands of Frederick. — Humiliation of the King. — Prince Charles and his Bride. — 
 Character of Leopold. — Death of the Emperor. — Bavaria turns against Frederick. — Anec- 
 dotes of Prince Leopold. — Peril of Frederick. — Battle of Hohenfriedberg. — Signal Victory 
 of Frederick. 
 
 Frederick concentrated his army at Konopischt, very near 
 Beneschau. He could bring into the field sixty thousand men. 
 Prince Charles was at the head of seventy thousand. In vain 
 
336 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 the Prussian king strove to bring his foes to a pitched battle. 
 Adroitly Prince Charles avoided any decisive engagement. 
 Frederick was fifty miles from Prague. The roads were quag- 
 mires. November gales swept his camp. A foe, superior in 
 numbers, equal in bravery, surrounded him on all sides. The 
 hostile army was led by a general whose greater military ability 
 Frederick acknowledged. 
 
 A council of war was held. It was decided to commence an 
 immediate and rapid retreat to Silesia. Prague, with its garri- 
 son of five thousand men, and its siege artillery, was to be aban- 
 doned to its fate. Word was sent to General Einsiedel to spike 
 his guns, blow up his bastions, throw his ammunition into the 
 river, and to escape, if possible, down the valley of the Moldau, 
 to Leitmeritz. 
 
 Frederick divided his retreating army into two columns. 
 One, led by the young Leopold, was to retire through Glatz. 
 The other, led by Frederick, traversed a road a few leagues to 
 the west, passing through Koniggratz. It was an awful retreat 
 for both these divisions — through snow, and sleet, and mud, hun- 
 gry, weary, freezing, with swarms of Pandours hanging upon 
 their rear. Thousands perished by the way. The horrors of 
 such a retreat no pen can describe. Their very guides deserted 
 them, and became spies, to report their movements to the foe. 
 
 On one occasion the king himself narrowly escaped being taken 
 prisoner. One of his officers, General Trenck, gives the follow- 
 ing graphic narrative of the incident : 
 
 " One day the king entered the town of Collin, with his horse 
 and foot guard and the whole of the baggage. We had but 
 four small field-pieces with us. The squadron to which I be- 
 longed was placed in the suburb. In the evening our advanced 
 posts were driven back into the town, and the huzzas of the 
 enemy followed them pell-mell. All the country around was 
 covered with the light troops of the Austrians. My comman- 
 dant sent me to the king to take his orders. 
 
 " After a long search, I at length found him in a tower of a 
 church, with a telescope in his hand. Never had I seen him in 
 so much perplexity and anxiety as at this moment. The order 
 he gave me was, ' You must get out of this scrape as well as 
 you can.' I had hardly got back to my post when his adjutant 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 337 
 
 THE KIXG IN THE TOWER AT COLLIX. 
 
 followed rue with a new order to cross the town, and to remain 
 on horseback with my squadron in the opposite suburb. 
 
 "We had just arrived there when it began to rain heavily, 
 and the night became exceedingly dark. About nine o'clock 
 one of the Austrian generals approached us with his light troops, 
 and set fire to the houses close to w r hich we were posted. By 
 the blaze of the conflagration he soon discovered us, and began 
 firing at us from the windows. The town was so full that it 
 was impossible for us to find a place in it. Besides, the gate 
 was barricaded, and from the top they were firing at us with 
 our small field-pieces, which they had captured. 
 
 " In the mean time the Austrians had turned in upon us a riv- 
 ulet, and by midnight we found our horses in the water up to 
 their bellies. We were really incapable of defending ourselves." 
 
 Y 
 
338 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Just at that time, when all hope seemed lost, it so happened 
 that a cannon-ball crushed the foot of the Austrian, commander. 
 This disaster, together with the darkness and the torrents of rain, 
 caused the fire of the enemy to cease. The next morning some 
 Prussian re-enforcements came to the rescue of the king, and he 
 escaped. 
 
 It was on the night of the 25th of November, cold and dreary, 
 that General Einsiedel commenced his retreat from Prague. He 
 pushed his wagon trains out before him, and followed with his 
 horse and foot. The Austrians were on the alert. Their light 
 horsemen came clattering into the city ere the rear-guard had 
 left. The Catholic populace of the city, being in sympathy with 
 the Austrians, immediately joined the Pandours in a fierce at- 
 tack upon the Prussians. The retreating columns were torn by 
 a terrific fire from the windows of the houses, from bridges, from 
 boats, from every point whence a bullet could reach them. But 
 the well-drilled Prussians met the shock with the stern compos- 
 ure of machines, leaving their path strewn with the dying and 
 the dead. 
 
 The heroic General Einsiedel struggled along through the 
 snow and over the pathless hills, pursued and pelted every hour 
 by the indomitable foe. He was often compelled to abandon 
 baggage-wagons and ambulances containing the sick, while the 
 wounded and the exhausted sank freezing by the way. At one 
 time he was so crowded by the enemy that he was compelled 
 to continue his march through the long hours of a wintry night, 
 by the light of pitch-pine torches. After this awful retreat of 
 twenty days, an emaciate, ragged, frostbitten band crossed the 
 frontier into Silesia, near Friedland. They were soon united 
 with the other columns of the discomfited and almost' ruined 
 army. 
 
 It will generally be admitted by military men that Frederick 
 did not display much ability of generalship in this campaign. 
 He was fearless, indomitable in energy, and tireless in the en- 
 durance of fatigue, but in generalship he was entirely eclipsed 
 by his formidable rival. Indeed, Frederick could not be blind 
 to this, and he had sufficient candor to confess it. Subsequent- 
 ly, giving an account of these transactions in his "Works," he 
 writes: 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 339 
 
 " No general has committed more faults than did the king in 
 this campaign. The conduct of Marshal Traun is a model of 
 perfection, which every soldier who loves his business ought to 
 study, and try to imitate if he have the talent. The king has 
 admitted that he himself regarded this campaign as his school 
 in the art of war, and Marshal Traun as his teacher." 
 
 He then adds the philosophical reflection : " Bad is often bet- 
 ter for princes than good. Instead of intoxicating them with 
 presumption, it renders them circumspect and modest."* 
 
 Frederick, leaving his army safe for a short time, quartered, as 
 he supposed, for the winter, in his strong fortresses of Silesia, re- 
 turned hastily to Berlin. It was necessary for him to make im- 
 mediate preparation for another campaign. "From December 
 13, 1744," writes Carlyle, "when he hastened home to Berlin, 
 under such aspects, to June 4, 1745, when aspects suddenly 
 changed, are probably the worst six months Frederick had yet 
 had in the world."f 
 
 His wintry ride, a defeated monarch leaving a shattered army 
 behind him, must have been dark and dreary. He had already 
 exhausted nearly all the resources which his father, Frederick 
 William, had accumulated. His army was demoralized, weak- 
 ened, and his materiel of war greatly impaired. His subjects 
 were already heavily taxed. Though practicing the most rigid 
 economy, with his eye upon every expenditure, his disastrous 
 Bohemian campaign had cost him three hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand dollars a month. The least sum with which he could com- 
 mence a new campaign for the protection of Silesia was four mil- 
 lion five hundred thousand dollars. He had already melted up 
 the sumptuous plate, and the massive silver balustrades and bal- 
 conies where his father had deposited so much solid treasure. 
 
 . " It was in these hours of apparently insurmountable difficulty 
 * that the marvelous administrative genius of Frederick was dis- 
 played. No modern reader can imagine the difficulties of Fred- 
 erick at this time as they already lay disclosed, and kept gradu- 
 ally disclosing themselves, for months coming; nor will ever 
 know what perspicacity, what patience of scanning, sharpness of 
 
 * " In his retreat Frederick is reported to have lost above thirty thousand men, together with 
 most of his heavy baggage and artillery, and many wagons laden with provisions and plunder." 
 — Tower's Life and Reign of Frederick, vol. i., p. 209. 
 
 t Carlyle, vol. iv. , p. 50. 
 
340 EREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 discernment, dexterity of management, were required at Freder- 
 ick's hands ; and under what imminency of peril too — victorious 
 deliverance or ruin and annihilation, wavering fearfully in the 
 balance, for him more than once, or rather all along."* 
 
 To add to the embarrassments of Frederick, the King of Po- 
 land, entirely under the control of his minister Briihl, who hated 
 Frederick, entered into an alliance with Maria Theresa, and en- 
 gaged to furnish her with thirty thousand troops, who were to 
 be supported by the sea powers England and Holland, who 
 were also in close alliance with Austria. 
 
 Maria Theresa, greatly elated by her success in driving the 
 Prussians out of Bohemia, resolved immediately, notwithstand- 
 ing the. severity of the season, to push her armies through the 
 " Giant Mountains" for the reconquering of Silesia. She order- 
 ed her generals to press on with the utmost energy and overrun 
 the whole country. At the same time she issued a manifesto, 
 declaring that the treaty of Breslau was a treaty no longer; 
 that the Silesians were absolved from all oaths of allegiance to 
 the King of Prussia, and that they were to hold themselves in 
 readiness to take the oath anew to the Queen of Hungary. 
 
 On the 18th of December a strong Austrian army entered Si- 
 lesia and took possession of the country of Glatz. The Prussian 
 troops were withdrawn in good order to their strong fortresses 
 on the Oder. The old Prince Leopold, the cast iron man, called 
 the Old Dessauer, the most inflexible of mortals, was left in com- 
 mand of the Prussian troops. He was, however, quite seriously 
 alienated from Frederick. A veteran soldier, having spent his 
 lifetime on fields of blood, and having served the monarchs of 
 Prussia when Frederick was but a child, and who had been the 
 military instructor of the young prince, he deemed himself en- 
 titled to consideration which an inexperienced officer might not 
 command. In one of the marches to which we have referred, 
 Leopold ventured to take a route different from that which 
 Frederick had prescribed to him. In the following terms the 
 Prussian king reprimanded him for his disobedienca: 
 
 " I am greatly surprised that your excellency does not more 
 accurately follow my orders. If you were more skillful than 
 Cassar, and did not with strict fidelity obey my directions, all 
 
 * Carlyle, vol. iv., p. 7G. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 341 
 
 else were of no help to nie. I hope this notice, once for all, will 
 be enough, and that in future you will give no cause for com- 
 plaint." 
 
 Prince Leopold was keenly wounded by this reproof. Though 
 he uttered not a word in self-defense, he was ever after, in the 
 presence of his majesty, very silent, distant, and reserved. Though 
 scrupulously faithful in every duty, he compelled the king to 
 feel that an impassable wall of separation had risen up between 
 them. He was seeking for an honorable pretext to withdraw 
 from his majesty's service. 
 
 Frederick had hardly reached Berlin ere he was astonished to 
 learn, from dispatches from the Old Dessauer, that the Austrians, 
 not content with driving him out of Bohemia, had actually in- 
 vaded Silesia. Amazed, or affecting amazement, at such audaci- 
 ty, he sent reiterated and impatient orders to his veteran gener- 
 al to fall immediately upon the insolent foe and crush him. 
 
 " Hurl them out," he wrote. " Gather twenty, thirty thousand 
 men, if need be. Let there be no delay. I will as soon be pitch- 
 ed out of Brandenburg as out of Silesia." 
 
 But it was much easier for Frederick to issue these orders 
 than for Leopold to execute them. As Leopold could not, in a 
 day, gather sufficient force to warrant an attack upon the Aus- 
 trians, the king was greatly irritated, and allowed himself to 
 write to Leopold in a strain of which he must afterward have 
 been much ashamed. On the 19th he addressed a note to the 
 veteran officer couched in the following terms : 
 
 "On the 21st I leave Berlin, and mean to be at Neisse on the 
 24th at least. Your excellency Avill, in the mean time, make out 
 the order of battle for the regiments which have come in. For 
 I will, on the 25th, without delay, cross the Neisse, and attack 
 those people, cost what it may, and chase them out of Silesia, 
 and follow them as far as possible. You will, therefore, take 
 measure and provide every thing, that the project may be exe- 
 cuted the moment I arrive." 
 
 In this fiery humor, the king leaped upon his horse and gal- 
 loped to Schweidnitz. Here he met the Old Dessauer. He must 
 have been not a little mortified to learn that his veteran general 
 was right, and he utterly in the wrong. Prince Charles had re- 
 turned home. Marshal Traun was in command of the Austrians. 
 
342 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 He had a compact army of 20,000 men, "flushed wit li victory and 
 surrounded by countless thousands of Pandours, who veiled every 
 movement from view. He had established himself in an im- 
 pregnable position on the south side of the Neisse, where he 
 could not be assailed, with any prospect of success, by the force 
 which Leopold could then summon to his aid. 
 
 Frederick was silenced, humiliated. He returned to Berlin, 
 having accomplished nothing, and having lost four days in his 
 fruitless adventure. Leopold was left to accumulate his re- 
 sources as rapidly as he could, and to attack the Austrians at 
 his discretion. 
 
 Prince Charles had married the only sister of Maria Theresa. 
 She was young, beautiful, and amiable. While the prince was 
 conducting his arduous campaign on the Moldau, his wife, grief- 
 stricken, consigned her new-born babe to the tomb. The little 
 stranger, born in the absence of his father, had but opened his 
 eyes upon this sad world when he closed them forever. The 
 princess sank rapidly into a decline. 
 
 Charles, feeling keenly the bereavement, and alarmed for the 
 health of his wife, whom he loved most tenderly, hastened to his 
 -home in Brussels. The prince and princess were vice-regents, or 
 "joint governors" of the Netherlands. The decline of the prin- 
 cess was very rapid. On the 16th of December, the young prince, 
 with flooded eyes, a broken-hearted man, followed the remains of 
 his beloved companion to their burial. Charles never recovered 
 from the blow. He had been the happiest of husbands. He 
 sank into a state of deep despondency, and could never be in- 
 duced to wed again. Though in April he resumed, for a time, 
 the command of the army, his energies were wilted, his spirit 
 saddened, and he soon passed into oblivion. This is 'but one 
 among the countless millions of the unwritten tragedies of hu- 
 man life. 
 
 On the 9th of January, Leopold, having gathered a well-fur- 
 nished army of 25,000 men, crossed the Neisse to attack Marshal 
 Traun. The marshal did not deem it prudent to hazard a bat- 
 tle. Large bodies of troops were soon to be sent to re-enforce 
 ' him. He therefore retired by night toward the south, breaking 
 the bridges behind him. Though Silesia was thus delivered from 
 the main body of the Austrian army, the fleet-footed Pandours 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 343 
 
 remained, scouring the country on their shaggy horses, plunder- 
 ing and destroying. The energetic, tireless Old Dessauer could 
 seldom get a shot at them. But they harassed his army, keep- 
 ing the troops constantly on the march amidst the storms and 
 the freezing cold. 
 
 " The old serene highness himself, face the color of gunpowder, 
 and bluer in the winter frost, went rushing far and wide in an 
 open vehicle which he called his ' cart,' pushing out his detach- 
 ments ; supervising every thing ; wheeling hither and thither as 
 needful ; sweeping out the Pandour world, and keeping it out ; 
 not much fighting needed, but ' a great deal of marching,' mur- 
 murs Frederick, ' which in winter is as bad, and wears down the 
 force of battalions.' "* 
 
 PRINCE LEOPOLD INSPECTING THE ARM IN HIS CAKT. 
 
 We seldom hear from Frederick any recognition of God. But 
 on this occasion, perhaps out of regard to the feelings of his sub- 
 jects, he ordered the Te Deiim to be sung in the churches of Ber- 
 lin " for the deliverance of Silesia from invasion." 
 
 On the 20th of January, 1745, Charles Albert, the unhappy 
 
 * Carlyle, vol. iv. , p. 54. 
 
344 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 and ever-unfortunate Emperor of Germany, died at Munich, in 
 the forty-eighth year of his age. Tortured by a complication of 
 the most painful disorders, he had seldom, for weary years, en- 
 joyed an hour of freedom from acute pain. An incessant series 
 of disasters crushed all his hopes. He was inextricably involved 
 in debt. Triumphant foes drove him from his realms. He wan- 
 dered a fugitive in foreign courts, exposed to humiliation and 
 the most cutting indignities. Thus the victim of bodily and 
 mental anguish, it is said that one day some new tidings of dis- 
 aster prostrated him upon the bed of death. He was patient 
 and mild, but the saddest of mortals. Gladly he sought refuge 
 in the tomb from the storms of his drear and joyless life. An 
 eye-witness writes, " Charles Albert's pious and affectionate de- 
 meanor drew tears from all eyes. The manner in which he took 
 leave of his empress w^ould have melted a heart of stone." 
 
 " The death of the emperor," says Frederick, " was the only 
 event wanting to complete the confusion and embroilment which 
 already existed in the political relations of the European powers." 
 
 Maximilian Joseph, son of the emperor, was at the time of his 
 father's death but seventeen years of age. He was titular Elect- 
 or of Bavaria ; but Austrian armies had overrun the electorate, 
 and he was a fugitive from his dominions. At the entreaty of 
 his mother, he entered into a treaty of alliance with the Queen 
 of Hungary. She agreed to restore to him his realms, and to 
 recognize his mother as empress dowager. He, on the other 
 hand, agreed to support the Pragmatic Sanction, and to give his 
 vote for the Grand-duke Francis as Emperor of Germany. 
 
 Thus Bavaria turned against Frederick. It was manifest to 
 all that Maria Theresa, aided by the alliances into which she had 
 entered, and sustained by the gold which the English cabinet so 
 generously lavished upon her, would be able to place the impe- 
 rial crown upon her husband's brow. It was equally evident 
 that the sceptre of power, of which that crown was the emblem, 
 would be entirely in her own hands. 
 
 Frederick had now France only for an ally. But France was 
 seeking her own private interests on the Rhine, as Frederick was 
 aiming at the aggrandizement of Prussia on his Austrian front- 
 iers. Neither party was disposed to make any sacrifice for the 
 benefit of the other. Frederick, thus thrown mainly upon his 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 345 
 
 own resources, with an impoverished treasury, and a weakened 
 and baffled army, made indirect application to both England and 
 Austria for peace. But both of these courts, flushed with suc- 
 cess, were indisposed to listen to any terms which Frederick 
 would propose. 
 
 There was nothing left for his Prussian majesty but to aban- 
 don Silesia, and retire within his own original borders, defeated 
 and humiliated, the object of the contempt and ridicule of Eu- 
 rope, or to press forward in the conflict, summoning to his aid 
 all the energies of despair. 
 
 Old Prince Leopold of Dessau, whom he had left in command 
 of the army in Silesia, was one of the most extraordinary men 
 of any age. He invented the iron ramrod, and also all modern 
 military tactics. " The soldiery of every civilized country still 
 receives from this man, on the parade-fields and battle-fields, its 
 word of command. Out of his rough head proceeded the essen- 
 tial of all that the innumerable drill-sergeants in various lan- 
 guages repeat and enforce."* 
 
 Dessau w~as a little independent principality embracing a few 
 square miles, about eighty miles southwest of Prussia. The 
 prince had a Liliputian army, and a revenue of about fifty thou- 
 sand dollars. Leopold's mother was the sister of the great 
 Elector of Brandenburg's first wife. The little principality was 
 thus, by matrimonial alliance as well as location, in affinity with 
 Prussia. 
 
 Leopold, in early youth, fell deeply in love with a beautiful 
 young lady, Mademoiselle Fos. She was the daughter of an 
 apothecary. His aristocratic friends were shocked at the idea 
 of so unequal a marriage. The sturdy will of Leopold was un- 
 yielding. They sent him away, under a French tutor, to take 
 the grand tour of Europe. After an absence of fourteen months 
 he returned. The first thing he did was to call upon Mademoi- 
 selle Fos. After that, he called upon his widowed mother. It 
 was in vain to resist the will of such a man. In 1698 he mar- 
 ried her, and soon, by his splendid military services, so ennobled 
 his bride that all were ready to do her homage. For half a cen- 
 tury she was his loved and honored spouse, attending him in all 
 his campaigns. 
 
 * Carlyle, vol. i.,p. 302. 
 
346 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 With a tender heart, Leopold was one of the most stern and 
 rugged of men. Spending his whole life amidst the storms of 
 battle, he seemed ever insensible to fatigue, and regardless of all 
 physical comforts. And yet there was a vein of truly feminine 
 gentleness and tenderness in his heart, which made him one of 
 the most loving of husbands and fathers. 
 
 His young daughter Louisa, bride of Victor Leopold, reigning 
 Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg, lay dying of a decline. A few days 
 before her death she said, "I wish I could see my father at the 
 head of his regiment once again before I die." The remark was 
 reported to Leopold. He was then with his regiment at Halle, 
 thirty miles distant. Immediately the troops were called out, 
 and marched at rapid pace to Bernburg. With banners flying, 
 music playing, and all customary display of military pomp, they 
 entered the court-yard of the palace. The dying daughter, pale 
 and emaciate, sat at the window. The war-worn father rose in 
 his stirrups to salute his child, and then put his regiment through 
 all its most interesting manoeuvrings. The soldiers were then 
 marched to the orphan-house, where the common men were treat- 
 ed with bread and beer, all the officers dining at the prince's ta- 
 ble. " All the officers except Leopold alone, who stole away out 
 of the crowd, sat himself upon the Saale bridge, and wept into 
 the river." 
 
 Leopold was now seventy years of age. On the 5th of Feb- 
 ruary his much -loved wife died at Dessau. Leopold, infirm in 
 health, and broken with grief, entreated the king to allow him 
 to go home. He could not, of course, be immediately spared. 
 
 On the 15th of March Frederick left Berlin for Silesia, Stop- 
 ping to examine some of his works at Glogau and Breslau, he 
 reached JSTeisse on the 23d. On the 29th he dismissed the Old 
 Dessauer, with many expressions of kindness and sympathy, to 
 go home to recover his health. 
 
 " Old Leopold is hardly at home at Dessau," writes Carlyle, 
 " when the new Pandour tempests, tides of ravaging war, again 
 come beating against the Giant Mountains, pouring through all 
 passes, huge influx of wild riding hordes, each with some sup- 
 port of Austrian grenadiers, cannoniers, threatening to submerge 
 Silesia. Precursors, Frederick need not doubt, of a strenuous, 
 regular attempt that way. Hungarian majesty's fixed inten- 
 
EEEDEEICK THE GEEAT. 347 
 
 tion, hope, and determination is to expel him straightway from 
 Silesia."* 
 
 The latter part of April Prince Charles had gathered a large 
 force of Austrian regulars at Olnriitz, with the manifest inten- 
 tion of again invading Silesia. The King of Poland had entered 
 into cordial alliance with Austria, and was sending a large army 
 of Saxon troops to co-operate in the enterprise. Frederick's in- 
 dignation was great, and his peril still greater. Encamped in 
 the valley of the Neisse, assailed on every side, and menaced 
 with still more formidable foes, he dispatched orders to the Old 
 Dessauer immediately to establish an army of observation (thir- 
 ty thousand strong) upon the frontiers of Saxony. He was to 
 be prepared instantly, upon the Saxon troops leaving Saxony, 
 to ravage the country with the most merciless plunderings of war. 
 
 The Queen of Hungary had purchased the co-operation of the 
 Polish king by offering to surrender to him a generous portion 
 of Silesia after the province should have been reconquered. In- 
 deed, there was a great cause of apprehension that the allied 
 army would make a rush upon Berlin itself. The aspect of his 
 Prussian majesty's affairs was now gloomy in the extreme. 
 
 Frederick wrote to his minister Podewils in Berlin, under date 
 of Neisse, March 29, 1745, as follows: "We find ourselves in a 
 great crisis. If we don't by mediation of England get peace, our 
 enemies from different sides will come plunging in against me. 
 Peace I can not force them to. But if we must have war, we 
 will either beat them, or none of us will ever see Berlin again." 
 
 On the 17th of April again he wrote, still from Neisse: "I 
 toil day and night to improve our situation. The soldiers will 
 do their duty. There is none among us who will not rather 
 have his back -bone broken than give up one foot -breadth of 
 ground. They must either grant us a good peace, or we will 
 surpass ourselves by miracles of daring, and force the enemy to 
 accept it from us." 
 
 On the 20th of April he wrote: " Our situation is disagreea- 
 ble, but my determination is taken. If we needs must fight, we 
 will do it like men driven desperate. Never was there a greater 
 peril than that I am now in. Time, at its own pleasure, will un- 
 tie this knot, or destiny, if there is one, determine the event. The 
 
 * Carlyle, vol. iv.,p. 80. 
 
348 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 game I play is so high, one can not contemplate the issue with 
 cold blood. Pray for the return of my good luck."" 
 
 The alarm in Berlin was very great. The citizens were awake 
 to the consciousness that there was danger ; that the city itself 
 would be assaulted. Great was the consternation in the capital 
 when minute directions came from Frederick respecting the 
 course to be pursued in the event of such a calamity, and the 
 pi aces of refuge to which the royal family should retreat. 
 
 On the 26th of April Frederick again wrote to M. Podewils: 
 " I can understand how you are getting uneasy at Berlin. I have 
 the most to lose of you all, but I am quiet and prepared for 
 events. If the Saxons take part in the invasion of Silesia, and 
 we beat them, I am determined to plunge into Saxony. For great 
 maladies there need great remedies. Either I will maintain my 
 all or else lose my all. To me remains only to possess myself 
 in patience. If all alliances, resources, and negotiations fail, and 
 all conjunctures go against me, I prefer to perish with honor 
 rather than lead an inglorious life, deprived of all dignity. My 
 ambition whispers me that I have done more than another to the 
 building up of my house, and have played a distinguished part 
 among the crowned heads of Europe. To maintain myself there 
 has become, as it were, a personal duty, which I will fulfill at the 
 expense of my happiness and my life. I have no choice left. I 
 will maintain my power, or it may go to ruin, and the Prussian 
 name be buried under it. If the enemy attempt any thing upon 
 us, we will either beat them, or will all be hewed to pieces for 
 the sake of our country and the renown of Brandenburg. No 
 other counsel can I listen to. Perform faithfully the given work 
 on your side, as I on mine. For the rest, let what you call Prov- 
 idence decide as it likes. I prepare myself for every event. For- 
 tune may be kind or be unkind, it shall neither dishearten me 
 nor uplift me. If I am to perish, let it be with honor, and sword 
 in hand." 
 
 Frederick was, with great energy, gathering all his resources 
 for a decisive conflict in his fortresses along the banks of the 
 Neisse. By almost superhuman exertions he had collected an 
 army there of about seventy thousand men. The united army 
 of Austria and Saxony marching upon him amounted to one 
 hundred thousand regulars, together with uncounted swarms of 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 349 
 
 Pandours sweeping around him in all directions, interrupting his 
 communications and cutting off his supplies. 
 
 The mountain range upon the south, which separated Silesia 
 from the realms of the Queen of Hungary, was three or four 
 hundred miles long, with some twenty defiles practicable for the 
 passage of troops. The French minister Valori urged Frederick 
 to guard these passes. This was impossible ; and the self-confi- 
 dence of the Prussian king is revealed in his reply : " My friend, 
 if you wish to catch the mouse, you must not shut the trap, but 
 leave it open." 
 
 The latter part of May, Frederick, in his head-quarters at 
 Frankenstein, learned that an Austrian army under Prince 
 Charles, and a Saxon army under the Duke of Weissenfels, in 
 columns, by strict count seventy-five thousand strong, had defiled 
 through the passes of the Giant Mountains, and entered Silesia 
 near Landshut. Day after day he ascended an eminence, and, 
 with his glass, anxiously scanned the horizon, to detect signs of 
 the approach of the foe. On Thursday morning, June 3, an im- 
 mense cloud of dust in the distance indicated that the decisive 
 hour was at hand. 
 
 As this magnificent army entered upon the smooth and beau- 
 tiful fields of Southern Silesia they shook out their banners, and 
 with peals of music gave expression to their confidence of victo- 
 ry. The Austrian officers pitched their tents on a hill near Ho- 
 henfriedberg, where they feasted and drank their wine, while, 
 during the long and beautiful June afternoon, they watched the 
 onward sweep of their glittering host. " The Austrian and Sax- 
 on army," writes an eye-witness, " streamed out all the afternoon, 
 each regiment or division taking the place appointed it ; all the 
 afternoon, till late in the night, submerging the country as in a 
 deluge." 
 
 Far away in the east the Austrian officers discerned a Prus- 
 sian column of observation, consisting of about twelve thousand 
 horse and foot, wending along from hollow to height, their pol- 
 ished weapons flashing back the rays of the afternoon sun. 
 Frederick, carefully examining the ground, immediately made 
 arrangements to bring forward his troops under curtain of the 
 night for a decisive battle. His orderlies were silently dispatch- 
 ed in all directions. At eight o'clock the whole army was in 
 
350 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 motion. His troops were so concentrated that the farthest di- 
 visions had a march of only nine miles. Silently, not a word 
 being spoken, not a pipe being lighted, and all the baggage be- 
 ing left behind, they crossed the bridge of the Striegau River, 
 and, deploying to the right and the left, took position in front 
 of the slumbering allied troops. 
 
 BATTLE OF HOHENFRIEDBERG, JUNE 4, 174:5. 
 
 a a. Austrian Army. b. Prince Weissenfels. c e. Prussian Army. d. Dumoulin. e. Gesler's Dragoons. 
 
 With the first dawn of the morning, the two armies, in close 
 contact, rushed furiously upon each other. There were seventy 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 351 
 
 thousand on the one side, seventy-five thousand on the other. 
 They faced each other in lines over an undulating plain nearly 
 ten miles in extent. It is in vain to attempt to give the reader 
 an adequate idea of the terrible battle which ensued. With 
 musketry, artillery, gleaming sabres, and rushing horsemen, the 
 infuriate hosts dashed upon each other. For fifteen hours the 
 blood-red surges of battle swept to and fro over the plain. At 
 length Prince Charles, having lost nine thousand in dead and 
 wounded, seven thousand prisoners, sixteen thousand in all, six- 
 ty-six cannon, seventy-three flags and standards, beat a retreat. 
 Kapidly his bleeding and exhausted troops marched back 
 through Hohenfriedberg, entered the mountain defiles, and 
 sought refuge, a thoroughly beaten army, among the fortresses 
 of Bohemia. Frederick remained the undisputed victor of the 
 field. Five thousand of his brave soldiers lay dead or wounded 
 upon the plain. Even his stoical heart was moved by the great- 
 ness of the victory. As he first caught sight of M.Valori after 
 the battle, he threw his arms around him, exclaiming, " My friend, 
 God has helped me wonderfully this day." 
 
 " There was, after all," says Valori, " at times a kind of devout 
 feeling in this prince, who possessed such a combination of qual- 
 ities, good and bad, that I know not which preponderates." 
 
 The Prussian army was so exhausted by its midnight march 
 and its long day of battle that his majesty did not deem it wise 
 to attempt to pursue the retreating foe. For this he has been 
 severely, we think unjustly, censured by some military men. 
 He immediately, that evening, wrote to his mother, saying, u So 
 decisive a defeat has not been since Blenheim," and assuring her 
 that the two princes, her sons, who had accompanied him to the 
 battle, were safe. Such was the battle of Hohenfriedberg, once 
 of world-wide renown, now almost forgotten. 
 
352 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 BATTLES AND VICTORIES. 
 
 Battle of Hohenfriedberg. — Religious Antagonism. — Anecdote of the King. — Retreat of the 
 Austrians. — Horrors of War. — "A slight Pleasantry." — Sufferings of the Prussian Army. — 
 The Victory ofFontenoy. — Frederick's Pecuniary Embarrassments. — Executive Abilities of 
 Maria Theresa. — Inflexibility of the Austrian Queen. — The Retreat to Silesia. — The Surprise 
 at Sohr. — Military Genius of Frederick. — Great Victory of Sohr. 
 
 The decisive battle of Hohenfriedberg, by which victory 
 Frederick probably escaped utter destruction, was fought on the 
 4th of June, 1745. From early dawn to the evening twilight of 
 the long summer's day the dreadful work of slaughter had con- 
 tinued without a moment's intermission. As the Austrians, hav- 
 ing lost nearly one fourth of their number, retreated, the Prus- 
 sians, in utter exhaustion, threw themselves upon the ground for 
 sleep. The field around them was covered with fourteen thou- 
 sand of "the wounded, the dying, and the dead. 
 
 Early the next morning Frederick commenced the vigorous 
 pursuit of the retiring foe. A storm arose. For twelve hours 
 the rain fell in torrents. But the Prussian army was impelled 
 onward, through the mud, and through the swollen streams, in- 
 spired by the almost supernatural energy which glowed in. the 
 bosom of its king. It seemed as if no hardships, sufferings, or 
 perils could induce those iron men, who by discipline had been 
 converted into mere machines, to wander from the ranks or to 
 falter on the way. As we have mentioned, there were through- 
 out all this region two religious parties, the Catholics' and the 
 Protestants. They were strongly antagonistic to each other. 
 Under the Austrian sway, the Catholics, having the support of 
 the government, had enjoyed unquestioned supremacy. They 
 had often very cruelly persecuted the Protestants, robbing them 
 of their churches, and, in their zeal to defend what 4hey deemed 
 the orthodox faith, depriving them of their children, and placing 
 them under the care of the Catholic priests to be educated. 
 
 " While the battle of Hohenfriedberg was raging," writes an 
 eye-witness, " as far as the cannon was heard all around, the 
 
EEEDEEICK THE GEE AT. 353 
 
 Protestants fell on their knees praying for victory for the Prus- 
 sians." Indescribable was the exultation when the bugle peals 
 of the Prussian trunrpeters announced to them a Protestant vic- 
 tory. When Frederick approached, in his pursuit, the important 
 town of Landshut, the following incident occurred, as described 
 by the pen of his Prussian majesty : 
 
 " Upon reaching the neighborhood of Landshut, the king was 
 surrounded by a troop of two thousand Protestant peasants. 
 They begged permission of him to massacre the Catholics of 
 those parts, and clear the country of them altogether. This an- 
 imosity arose from the persecutions which the Protestants had 
 suffered during the Austrian domination. 
 
 " The king was very far from granting so barbarous a permis- 
 sion. He told them they ought rather to conform to the pre- 
 cepts of Scripture, and to i bless those that curse them, and pray 
 for those that despitefully use them.' Such, the king assured 
 them, was the way to gain the kingdom of heaven. The peas- 
 ants, after a little reflection, declared that his majesty was right, 
 and desisted from their cruel intention."* 
 
 For several weeks the Austrians slowly and sullenly retired. 
 Their retreat was conducted in two immense columns, by paral- 
 lel roads at some distance from each other. Their wings of for- 
 agers and skirmishers were widely extended, so that the hungry 
 army swept with desolation a breadth of country reaching out 
 many leagues. Though the Austrian army was traversing the 
 friendly territory of Bohemia, still Prince Charles was anxious 
 to leave behind him no resources for Frederick to glean. Fred- 
 erick, with his army, pressed along, following the wide-spread 
 trail of his foes. The Austrians, with great skill, selected every 
 commanding position on which to erect their batteries, and hurl 
 back a storm of shot and shell into the bosoms of their pursuers. 
 'But Frederick allowed them no rest by clay or by night. His 
 solid columns so unremittingly and so impetuously pressed with 
 shot, bullets, bayonet, and sabre-blows upon the rear ranks of 
 the foe that there was almost an incessant battle, continuing for 
 several weeks, crimsoning a path thirty miles wide and more 
 than a hundred miles in length with the blood of the wounded 
 and the slain. 
 
 * CEuvres de Frederic, t. ii., p. 218. 
 
354 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 THE RETREAT OF THE AUSTRIANS. 
 
 The region through which this retreat and pursuit were con- 
 ducted was much of the way along the southern slope of the 
 Giant Mountains. It was a wild country of precipitous rocks, 
 quagmires, and gloomy forests. At length Prince Charles, with 
 his defeated and dispirited army, took refuge at Koriigsgraft, a 
 compact town between the Elbe and the Adler, protected by 
 one stream on the west, and by the other on the south. Here, 
 in an impregnable position, he intrenched his troops. Frederick, 
 finding them unassailable, encamped his forces in a position al- 
 most equally impregnable, a few miles west of the Elbe, in the 
 vicinity of a little village called Chlum. Thus the two hostile 
 armies, almost within sound of each other's bugles, defiantly 
 stood in battle array, each watching an opportunity to strike a 
 blow. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 355 
 
 "War is cruelty," said General Sherman; "and you can not 
 refine it." " No man of refined Christian sensibilities," said the 
 Duke of Wellington, "should undertake the profession of a sol- 
 dier." The exigencies of war often require things to be done 
 from which humanity revolts. " War," said Napoleon I., " is the 
 science of barbarians." One of the principal objects of Freder- 
 ick in this pursuit of the Austrians through Bohemia was to lay 
 waste the country so utterly, destroying its roads and consuming 
 its provisions, that no Austrian army could again pass through 
 it for the invasion of Silesia. Who can imagine the amount of 
 woe thus inflicted upon the innocent peasants of Bohemia? 
 Both armies were reduced to the necessity of living mainly upon 
 the resources of the country in which they were encamped. 
 Their foraging parties were scattered in all directions. There 
 were frequent attacks of outposts and bloody skirmishes, in 
 which many were slain and many were crippled for Kfe. Each 
 death, each wound, sent tears, and often life-long woe, to some 
 humble cottage. 
 
 There are sometimes great and glorious objects to be attained 
 — objects which elevate and ennoble a nation or a race — which 
 warrant the expenditure of almost any amount of temporary suf- 
 fering. It is not the duty of the millions to suffer the proud 
 and haughty hundreds to consign them to ignorance and tram- 
 ple them in the dust. In this wicked world, where kings and 
 nobles have ever been so ready to doom the masses of the peo- 
 ple to ignorance, servitude, and want, human rights have almost 
 never made any advances but through the energies of the sword. 
 Many illustrious generals, who, with saddened hearts, have led 
 their armies over fields of blood, have been among the most de- 
 voted friends and ornaments of humanity. Their names have 
 been enshrined in the affections of grateful millions. 
 
 But this war, into which the Prussian king had so recklessly 
 plunged all Europe, was purely a war of personal ambition. 
 Even Frederick did not pretend that it involved any question 
 of human rights. Unblushingly he avowed that he drew his 
 sword and led his hundred thousand peasant-boys upon their 
 dreadful career of carnage and misery simply that he might en- 
 large his territories, gain renown as a conqueror, and make the 
 world talk about him. It must be a fearful thing to go to the 
 
356 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 judgment seat of Christ with such a crime weighing upon the 
 soul. 
 
 War has its jokes and merriment, but the comedies of war 
 are often more dreadful than the tragedies of peace. Frederick, 
 in his works, records the following incident, which he narrates 
 as " slight pleasantry, to relieve the reader's mind :"* 
 
 The Prussians had a detached post at Smirzitz. The little 
 garrison there was much harassed by lurking bands of Austrians, 
 who shot their sentries, cut off their supplies, and rendered it al- 
 most certain death to any one who ventured to emerge from the 
 ramparts. Some inventive genius among the Prussians com 
 structed a straw man, very like life, representing a sentinel with 
 his shouldered musket. By a series of ropes this effigy was 
 made to move from right to left, as if walking his beat. A well- 
 armed band of Prussians then hid in a thicket near by. 
 
 Ere long a company of Austrian scouts approached. From a 
 distance they eyed the sentinel, moving to and fro as he guarded 
 his post. A sharp-shooter crept near, and, taking deliberate aim 
 at his supposed victim, fired. A twitch upon the rope caused 
 the image to fall flat. The whole band of Austrians, with a 
 shout, rushed to the spot. The Prussians, from their ambuscade, 
 opened upon them a deadly fire of bullets. Then, as the ground 
 was covered with the mutilated and the dead, the Prussians, 
 causing the welkin to ring with their peals of laughter, rushed 
 with fixed bayonets upon their entrapped foes. Not a single 
 Austrian had escaped being struck by a bullet. Those who 
 were not killed outright were wounded, and were taken captive. 
 This is one of the " slight pleasantries" of war. 
 
 Frederick's army was now in a state of great destitution. The 
 region around was so stripped of its resources that it could af- 
 ford his foragers no more supplies. It was difficult for him to 
 fill his baggage- trains even in Silesia, so much had that country 
 been devastated by war ; and wherever any of his supply wag- 
 ons appeared, swarms of Austrian dragoons hovered around, at- 
 tacking and destroying them. To add to the embarrassments of 
 the Prussian king, his purse was empty. His subjects could en- 
 dure no heavier taxation. All the plate which Frederick Wil- 
 liam had accumulated had been converted into coin and expend- 
 
 * CEuvres de Frederic, t. iii., p. 123. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 357 
 
 A SLIGHT PLEASANTRY. 
 
 ed. Even the massive silver balustrades, which were reserved 
 until a time of need, were melted and gone. He knew not where 
 to look for a loan. .AIT the nations were involved in ruinous 
 war. All wished to borrow. None but England had money to 
 lend ; and England was fighting Frederick, and furnishing sup- 
 plies for his foes." 
 
 The expenses of the war were enormous. Frederick made a 
 careful estimate, and found that he required at least three hun- 
 dred and seventy-five thousand dollars a month. He could not 
 carry on another campaign with less than four million five hun- 
 dred thousand dollars. He had been expecting that Louis XV., 
 who in person was in command of the French army on the Rhine, 
 would send him a re-enforcement of sixty thousand troops to en- 
 able him to crush the forces of Prince Charles. But week after 
 
358 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 week passed, and no re-enforcements came. The French, intent 
 upon their conquest, were as selfishly pursuing their own inter- 
 ests on the Rhine as Frederick was pursuing his in Silesia. 
 
 The great victory of Fontenoy, gained by the French on the 
 Rhine, caused boundless exultation throughout France. " The 
 French," writes Carlyle, " made immense explosions of rejoicing 
 over this victory ; Voltaire celebrating it in prose and verse to 
 an amazing degree ; the whole nation blazing out over it into 
 illuminations, arcs of triumph, and universal three times three ; 
 in short, I think nearly the heartiest national huzza, loud, deep, 
 long-drawn, that the nation ever gave in like case." 
 
 But this victory on the Rhine was of no avail to Frederick in 
 Bohemia. It did not diminish the hosts which Prince Charles 
 was gathering against him. It did not add a soldier to his di- 
 minished columns, or supply his exhausted magazines, or replen- 
 ish his empty treasury. Louis XV. was so delighted with the 
 victory that he supposed Frederick would be in sympathy with 
 him. He immediately dispatched a courier to the Prussian king 
 with the glad tidings. But Frederick, disappointed, embarrassed, 
 chagrined, instead of being gratified, was irritated b}^ the news. 
 He sent back the scornful reply " that a victory upon the Sca- 
 niander,* or in the heart of China, would have been just as im- 
 portant to him." 
 
 Louis XV. felt insulted by this message, and responded in a 
 similar strain of irritation. Thus the two monarchs were alien- 
 ated from each other. Indeed, Frederick had almost as much 
 cause to be dissatisfied with the French as they had to.be dis- 
 satisfied with him. Each of the monarchs was ready to sacrifice 
 the other if any thing was to be gained thereby. 
 
 Frederick was now in such deep pecuniary embarrassment 
 that he was compelled to humble himself so far as to apply to 
 the King of France for money. " If your majesty," he wrote, 
 " can not furnish me with any re-enforcements,' you must, at least, 
 send me funds to raise additional troops. The smallest possible 
 sum which will enable me to maintain my position here is three 
 million dollars." 
 
 Louis XV. wrote a very unsatisfactory letter in reply. He 
 stated, with many apologies, that his funds were terribly low, 
 
 * Scamander, a small stream in Asia Minor, celebrated in the songs of Homer. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 359 
 
 that he was exceedingly embarrassed, that it was impossible to 
 send the sum required, but that he would try to furnish him 
 with a hundred thousand dollars a month. 
 
 Frederick was indignant. Scornfully he rejected the proposal, 
 saying, " Such a paltry sum might with propriety, perhaps, be 
 offered to a petty duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, but it is not suita- 
 ble to make such a proposition to the King of Prussia." 
 
 Poor Valori, the French embassador, was placed in a very em- 
 barrassing situation. The anger of the Prussian king vented it- 
 self upon him. He was in complete disgrace. It was his duty 
 daily to wait upon Frederick. But the king would seldom 
 speak to him, or even look upon him ; and if he did favor him 
 with a glance, it was with an expression of scorn. 
 
 Frederick was rapidly awaking to the consciousness that Ma- 
 ria Theresa, whom he had despised as a woman, and a young 
 wife and mother, and whose territory he thought he could dis- 
 member with impunity, was fully his equal, not only in ability 
 to raise and direct armies, but also in diplomatic intrigue. 
 About the middle of August he perceived from his camp in 
 Chlum that Prince Charles was receiving large re-enforcements 
 from the south. At the same time, he saw that corps after corps, 
 principally of Saxon troops, were defiling away by circuitous 
 roads to the north. It was soon evident that the heroic Maria 
 Theresa was preparing to send an army into the very heart of 
 Prussia to attack its capital. This was, indeed, changing the as- 
 pect of the war. 
 
 Berlin was almost defenseless. All Saxony was rising in 
 arms behind Frederick. The invader of Silesia was in danger 
 of having his own realms invaded and his own capital sacked. 
 Frederick was thoroughly roused. But he never allowed him- 
 self to appear agitated or anxious. He ordered Leopold, the Old 
 Dessauer, to march immediately, with all the troops he could 
 rally, to the frontiers of Saxony. He even found it necessary to 
 detach to the aid of Leopold some corps from his own enfeebled 
 forces, now menaced by an Austrian army twice as large as he 
 could oppose to them. 
 
 While affairs were in this posture, the English, eager to crush 
 their hereditary rivals, the French, were very anxious to detach 
 the Prussians from the French alliance. The only way to do 
 
360 FREDERICK THE GREAT, 
 
 this was to induce Maria Theresa to offer terms of peace such as 
 Frederick would accept. They sent Sir Thomas Robinson to 
 Schonbrunn to endeavor to accomplish this purpose. He had 
 an interview with her Hungarian majesty on the 2d of August, 
 1745. The queen was very dignified and reticent. Silently she 
 listened to the proposals of Sir Thomas. She then said, with 
 firmness which left no room for further argument, 
 
 " It would be easier for me to make peace with France than 
 with Prussia. What good could possibly result now from peace 
 with Prussia \ I must have Silesia again. Without Silesia the 
 imperial sceptre would be but a bauble. Would you have us 
 sway that sceptre under the guardianship of Prussia ? Prince 
 Charles is now in a condition to fight the Prussians again. Un- 
 til after another battle, do not speak to me of peace. You say 
 that if we make peace with Prussia, Frederick will give his vote 
 for the grand-duke as emperor. The grand-duke is not so am- 
 bitious of an empty honor as to engage in it under the tutelage 
 of Prussia. Consider, moreover, is the imperial dignity consist- 
 ent with the loss of Silesia ? One more battle I demand. Were 
 I compelled to agree with Frederick to-morrow, I would try him 
 in a battle to-night."* 
 
 On the 13th of September the German Diet met at Frankfort 
 for the election of emperor. Frederick had determined that the 
 Grand-duke Francis, husband of the Hungarian queen, should 
 not be elected. Maria Theresa had outgeneraled him. Francis 
 was elected. He had seven out of nine of the electoral votes. 
 Frederick, thus baffled, could only protest. Maria Theresa was 
 conscious of her triumph. Though the imperial crown was 
 placed upon the brow of Francis, all Europe knew that the scep- 
 tre was in the hands of his far more able and efficient wife. 
 Maria Theresa was at Frankfort at the time of the election. She 
 could not conceal her exultation. She seemed very willing to 
 have it understood that her amiable husband was but the in- 
 strument of her will. She took the title of empress queen, and 
 assumed a very lofty carriage toward the princes of the empire. 
 Alluding to Frederick, she said, in a very imperial tone, for she 
 deemed him now virtually vanquished, 
 
 " His Prussian majesty has unquestionably talent, but what 
 
 * Robinson's Dispatch, August 4, 1745. 
 
EllEDERICK THE GREAT. 361 
 
 a character ! He is frivolous in the extreme, and sadly a heretic 
 in his religious views. He is a dishonorable man, and what a 
 neighbor he has been ! As to Silesia, I would as soon part with 
 my last garment as part with it." 
 
 Her majesty now wrote to Prince Charles, urging him to en- 
 gage immediately in a fight with Frederick She sent two of 
 the highest dignitaries of the court to Koniggratz to press for- 
 ward immediate action. There was an eminence near by, which 
 the Austrian officers daily ascended, and from which they could 
 look directly into the Prussian camp and observe all that was 
 transpiring there. 
 
 The position of Frederick became daily more embarrassing. 
 His forces were continually decreasing. Re-enforcements were 
 swelling the ranks of the Austrians. Elated in becoming the 
 Imperial Army, they grew more bold and annoying, assailing 
 the Prussian outposts and cutting off their supplies. 
 
 On the 18th of September, when the rejoicing Austrians at 
 Koniggratz were firing salutes, drinking wine, and feasting in 
 honor of the election of the grand-duke to the imperial dignity, 
 Frederick, availing himself of the carousal in the camp of his foes, 
 crossed the Elbe with his whole army, a few miles above Ko- 
 niggratz, and commenced his retreat to Silesia. His path led 
 through a wild, sparsely inhabited country, of precipitous rocks, 
 hills, mountain torrents, and quagmires. One vast forest spread 
 along the banks of the Elbe, covering with its gloom an extent 
 of sixty square miles. A few miserable hamlets were scattered 
 over this desolate region. The poor inhabitants lived mainly 
 upon the rye which they raised and the swine which ranged the 
 forest. 
 
 Along the eastern edge of this vast wilderness the army of 
 Frederick marched for two days. But Hungarian Panclours in 
 swarms, savage men on their fleet and shaggy horses, were con- 
 tinually emerging from the paths of the forest, with gleaming 
 sabres and shrill war-cries, assailing the flank of the Prussian 
 line wherever there was the slightest exposure. In the vicinity 
 of the little village of Sohr the king encamped for two days. 
 The halt seemed necessary to refresh his horses, and to send out 
 foraging parties to replenish his stores. But the light horsemen 
 of the foe were so thick around him, so vigilant, and so bold, 
 
362 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 that no baggage train could enter his camp unless protected by- 
 eight thousand foot and three thousand horse. 
 
 Just at the break of day of Thursday morning, September 30, 
 as the king was in his tent, busy with his generals, examining 
 maps in preparation for the immediate resumption of the march, 
 an orderly came, in breathless haste, to inform the king that the 
 Austrians were advancing rapidly upon him, and in great force. 
 While he was yet speaking another messenger arrived, confirm- 
 ing the tidings, and stating that, apparently, the whole Austrian 
 army, in battle array, was coming down upon him. 
 
 It was a cold, dreary autumnal morning. The Austrian army, 
 according to Frederick's statement, amounted to sixty thousand 
 men.* But it was widely dispersed. Many of the cavalry were 
 scouring the country in all directions, in foraging parties and as 
 skirmishers. Large bodies had been sent by circuitous roads to 
 occupy every avenue of retreat. The consolidated army, under 
 Prince Charles, now advancing to the attack, amounted to thirty- 
 six thousand men. Frederick had but twenty-six thousand.f 
 
 In this hour of peril the genius of the Prussian monarch was 
 remarkably developed. He manifested not the slightest agita- 
 tion or alarm. His plan was immediately formed. Indeed, 
 there was no time for a moment's delay. The Austrians had 
 moved rapidly and silently, concealing their approach by a thick 
 veil of hussars. They were already in solid columns, confident 
 of victory, advancing upon the Prussian camp. Frederick was 
 compelled to form his line of battle under fire of the Austrian 
 batteries. The discipline of the Prussians was such that this 
 was done with a recklessness of danger, rapidity, and mechanical 
 precision which seemed almost miraculous, and which elicited 
 the admiration of every one who beheld it. 
 
 The reader would not be interested in the details of the bat- 
 tle which ensued. It lasted for iive hours. It was, as is every 
 battle, an indescribable scene of tumult, uproar, and confusion. 
 The result was long doubtful. Defeat to Frederick would have 
 been utter ruin. It is wonderful how one determined man can 
 infuse his spirit into a whole host. Every Prussian seemed to 
 
 * Histoire de mon Temps. 
 
 t In this, as in most other similar cases, there is considerable diversity of statement as to the 
 precise number of troops engaged on either side. But there is no question that the Austrians 
 were in numbers far superior to the Prussians. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 363 
 
 have the same desperate valor, and determination to conquer or 
 to die, which animated his king. 
 
 The sun had just risen above the horizon when the conflict 
 commenced. It reached its meridian. Still the storm of battle 
 swept the plains and reverberated over the hills. Heights had 
 been taken and retaken ; charges had been made and repelled ; 
 the surges of victory had rolled to and fro ; over many leagues 
 the thunderbolts of battle were thickly flying; bugle peals, cries 
 of onset, shrieks of the wounded crushed beneath artillery wheels, 
 blended with the rattle of musketry and the roar of artillery ; 
 riderless horses were flying in all directions ; the extended plain 
 was covered with the wreck and ruin of battle, and every moment 
 was multiplying the victims of war's horrid butchery. 
 
 At length the Austrians were routed — utterly routed — broken, 
 dispersed, and driven in wild confusion into the glooms of the 
 forest. The victory of Frederick was complete. As a warrior, 
 he was winning the title he so greatly coveted, of Frederick the 
 Great. 
 
 It was a glorious victory. What was the price ? Five thou- 
 sand six hundred Prussian young men lay in their blood upon 
 the field, dead or wounded. Six thousand seven hundred young 
 men from Austrian homes lay by their side, silent in death, or 
 groaning in anguish, lacerated by the missiles of war.* 
 
 Frederick was elated with his victory. He had taken three 
 thousand three hundred prisoners, twenty-one cannon, and twen- 
 ty-two standards. He had added to the renown of his name, 
 and strengthened his hold upon Silesia. 
 
 Prince Charles, as he was leading the main body of his army 
 to the assault, sent a squadron of his fleet-footed cavalry to burn 
 the Prussian camp, and to assail the foe in their rear. But the 
 troops found the camp so rich in treasure that they could not 
 resist the temptation of stopping to plunder. Thus they did 
 not make the attack which had been ordered, and which would 
 probably have resulted in the destruction of the Prussian army. 
 It is said that when Frederick, in the heat of the battle, was in- 
 formed that the Pandours were sacking his camp, he coolly re- 
 plied, " So much the better ; they will not then interrupt us."f 
 
 * Miiller, Tableaux des guerres de Frederic le Grand. 
 f Memoires de Frederic, Baron de Trench. 
 
364 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 THE PEACE OF DRESDEN. 
 
 Sufferings of the Peasantry. — Renown and Peril of Frederick. — New Plan of Maria Theresa. — 
 Despondency of Frederick. — Surprise and Rout of the Austrians. — The " Old Dessauer" en- 
 ters Saxony. — Battle of Kesseldorf. — Singular Prayer of the Old Dessauer. — Signal Victoiy 
 of the Prussians. — Elation of Frederick. — The Peace of Dresden. — Death of M. Duhan. 
 
 After the retreat of the Austrians, Frederick returned to his 
 camp to find it plundered and burned. The semi-barbarian as- 
 sailants had also consigned to the flames eight or ten sick Prus- 
 sians whom they found there, and several women whom they 
 caught. " We found the limbs of these poor men and women 
 lying about," writes General Lehwald. 
 
 The camp was so utterly destroyed that Frederick could not 
 even obtain pen and ink. He was obliged to write with a pen- 
 cil. Not a loaf of bread nor a cup of wine was left for the ex- 
 hausted king. The hungry soldiers, after a conflict of five hours, 
 having had neither breakfast nor dinner, found no refreshments 
 awaiting them ; yet, without a murmur, they smoked their pipes, 
 drank some spring water, and rejoiced in their great victory. 
 
 " Never mind," said the king ; " it is a cheap price to pay for 
 escaping an attack from Pandours in the rear, while such a bat- 
 tle was raging in front." 
 
 Frederick remained at Sohr five days. The country was 
 scoured in all directions to obtain food for his army. It was 
 necessary that the troops should be fed, even if the poor inhab- 
 itants starved miserably. No tongue can tell the sufferings 
 which consequently fell upon the peasantry for leagues around. 
 Prince Charles, with his shattered army, fell back to Koniggratz, 
 remorselessly plundering the people by the way. Frederick, or- 
 dering his army to retire to Silesia, returned to Berlin. 
 
 The victory of Sohr filled Europe with the renown of Fred- 
 erick. Still his peril was great, and the difficulties before him 
 apparently insurmountable. His treasury was exhausted. His 
 only ally, France, would furnish him with no money, had no con- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 365 
 
 fidence in him, and was in heart exasperated against him. Not 
 a single court in Europe expressed any friendship for Frederick. 
 On the contrary, nearly all would have rejoiced at his downfall. 
 There seemed to be no end to the campaigns which were open- 
 ing before him. Yet Frederick knew not where to obtain the 
 money to meet the expense even of a single campaign. 
 
 Under these circumstances, Frederick made indirect but vig- 
 orous exertions to bring the war to a close. " I am ready and 
 desirous now," he said, " as at all times, for peace. I will imme- 
 diately sheathe the sword if I can be guaranteed the possession 
 of Silesia." 
 
 " I, too, am anxious for peace," Maria Theresa replied, " and 
 will joyfully withdraw my armies if Silesia, of which I have been 
 robbed, is restored to me." 
 
 Thus his Prussian majesty and the Queen of Hungary met 
 each other like two icebergs in a stormy sea. The allies were 
 exasperated, not conquered, by the defeat of Sohr. Maria The- 
 resa, notwithstanding the severity of winter's cold, resolved im- 
 mediately to send three armies to invade Prussia, and storm Ber- 
 lin itself. She hoped to keep the design profoundly secret, so 
 that Frederick might be taken at unawares. The Swedish en- 
 voy at Dresden spied out the plan, and gave the king warning. 
 Marshal Griine was to advance from the Rhine, and enter Bran- 
 denburg from the west. Prince Charles, skirting Western Sile- 
 sia, was to march upon Brandenburg from the south. General 
 Rutowski was to spring upon the Old Dessauer, who was en- 
 camped upon the frontiers of Saxony, overwhelm and crush his 
 army with superior numbers, and then, forming a junction with 
 Marshal Briine, with their united force rush upon Berlin. 
 
 Frederick was astounded, alarmed, for a moment overwhelmed, 
 as these tidings were clearly made known to him. He had 
 brought all this upon himself. "And yet," the wretched man 
 exclaimed, " what a life I lead ! This is not living ; this is being 
 killed a thousand times a day !" 
 
 This despondency lasted, however, but a moment. Concealing 
 his emotions, he smoothed his furrowed brow, dressed his face in 
 smiles, and wrote doggerel verses and jocose letters as if he were 
 merely a fashionable man of pleasure. At the same time he ral- 
 lied all his marvelous energies, and prepared to meet the exi- 
 
366 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 gency with sagacity and intrepidity rarely surpassed. Orders 
 were immediately dispatched to the Old Dessauer to marshal an 
 army to oppose Grime and Rutowski, while the king hastened 
 to Silesia to attack Prince Charles. Leopold, though he had 
 nearly numbered his threescore years and ten, according to Fred- 
 erick, was very glad to fight once again before he died. The 
 veteran general ventured to make some suggestions in reference 
 to the orders he had received. The king sternly replied, 
 
 "When your highness gets armies of your own, you will order 
 them according to your mind. At present, it must be according 
 to mine." 
 
 Frederick had an army of thirty-five thousand men at Lieg- 
 nitz, in Silesia, under the command of young Leopold. Every 
 man was a thoroughly trained soldier. The army was in the 
 best possible condition. At seven o'clock in the morning of No- 
 vember 15, 1745, the king left Berlin at full speed for Liegnitz. 
 He arrived there the next day, and at once took the command. 
 " There is great velocity in this young king," writes Carlyle ; " a 
 panther-like suddenness of spring in him ; cunning too, as any 
 felis of them; and with claws as the felis leo on occasion." 
 
 Prince Charles was en route for Berlin — a winter's march of a 
 hundred and fifty miles. He was not aware that the King of 
 Prussia was near him, or that the king was conscious of his bold 
 design. On Saturday night, November 20, the army of Prince 
 Charles, forty thousand strong, on its line of march, suspecting 
 no foe near, was encamped in villages, extending for twenty miles 
 along the banks of the Queiss, one of the tributaries of the Oder. 
 Four marches would bring them into Brandenburg. It was the 
 design of Frederick to fall with his whole force upon the centre 
 of this line, cut it in two, and then to annihilate the extremities. 
 Early in the morning of Sunday, the 21st, Frederick put his 
 troops in motion. He marched rapidly all that day, and Mon- 
 day, and Tuesday. In the twilight of Tuesday evening, a dense 
 fog enveloping the landscape, Frederick, with his concentrated 
 force, fell impetuously upon a division of the Austrian army en- 
 camped in the village of Hennersdorf. 
 
 The assault was as sudden and resistless as the sweep of the 
 avalanche. The Austrian division was annihilated. Scarcely a 
 man escaped. This achievement was deemed a very brilliant 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 367 
 
 passage of war. It cut the Austrian army in twain and secured 
 its ruin. 
 
 The next morning the Prussian troops, led by their indomita- 
 ble king, were early on the march, groping through the thick 
 mist to find more of the foe. But the blow already given was 
 decisive. The Austrian army was shattered, demoralized, ruined. 
 The king could find nothing but broken tumbrils, abandoned 
 wagons, and the debris of an utterly routed army. Prince 
 Charles, bewildered by the disaster, had wheeled his columns 
 around, and fled through the passes of the mountains back to 
 Bohemia. Five thousand of his troops he left behind in killed 
 or prisoners. 
 
 Frederick was not unduly elated with his victory. He was 
 still terribly harassed for money. There were campaigns open- 
 ing before him, in an unending series, requiring enormous expend- 
 iture. Even many such victories as he had just gained would 
 only conduct him to irretrievable ruin, unless he could succeed 
 in conquering a peace. In these dark hours the will of this ex- 
 traordinary man remained inflexible. He would not listen to 
 any propositions for peace which did not guarantee to him Sile- 
 sia. Maria Theresa would listen to no terms which did not re- 
 store to her the lost province. 
 
 Frederick, in this great emergence, condescended again to write 
 imploringly to France for pecuniary aid. He received a sarcastic 
 reply, which exasperated him, and which was couched in such 
 polite terms that he could not openly resent it. Marshal Griine, 
 who was advancing rapidly from the Rhine to Berlin, hearing 
 of the defeat of his confederates at Hennersdorf, and of the re- 
 treat of Prince Charles, wheeled his columns south for Saxony. 
 Here he effected a junction with General Rutowski, near Dres- 
 den. Their combined troops intrenched themselves, and stood 
 on the defensive. 
 
 On the 29th of December, the Old Dessauer, with thirty-five 
 thousand men, crossed the frontiers and entered Saxony. He 
 marched rapidly upon Leipsie, and seized the town, from which 
 a division of Rutowski's army precipitately fled. Leopold found 
 here quite a supply of commissary and ordnance stores. He also 
 replenished his empty army-chest by levying a contribution of 
 two hundred and fifty thousand dollars upon the inhabitants. 
 
368 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Then, by a rapid march northeast to Torgo, on the Elbe, he cap- 
 tured another imperial magazine. Turning south, he pressed his 
 troops along up the river to Myssen, which was within two days' 
 easy march of Dresden. Here there was a bridge across the 
 Oder. Frederick was pushing .his troops, by forced marches, 
 from Hennersdorf, to effect a junction with Leopold at Myssen. 
 Unitedly they were to fall upon Grime and Rutowski at Dres- 
 den. In the mean time, also, Prince Charles, a despondent man, 
 crushed by domestic woe and humiliating defeats, was moving, 
 by not very energetic steps, to re-enforce the allied troops at 
 Dresden. 
 
 It was two o'clock in the afternoon of Sunday, December 12, 
 when the banners of the Old Dessauer appeared before Myssen. 
 The Saxon commander there broke down the bridge, and in the 
 darkness of the night stole away with his garrison to Dresden. 
 Leopold vigorously but cautiously pursued. As the allied army 
 was near, and in greater force than Leopold's command, it was 
 necessary for him to move with much discretion. His march 
 was along the west bank of the river. The ground was frozen 
 and white with snow. 
 
 On Wednesday morning, December 15, the advance-guard of 
 the Prussians saw before them the allied army, thirty-five thou- 
 sand strong, occupying a very formidable position. Marshal 
 Griine and General Rutowski had advanced a few miles north 
 from Dresden to meet the Prussians. Their troops were drawn 
 up in battle array, extending from the River Elbe on the east, 
 to the village of Kesselsdorf on the west. A small stream, with 
 a craggy or broken gully or dell, extended along their whole 
 front. The southern ridge, facing the advancing Prussians, bris- 
 tled with artillery. Some of the pieces were of heavy calibre. 
 Leopold had only light field-pieces. 
 
 In the cold of the winter morning the Old Dessauer carefully 
 reconnoitred the position of his foes. Their -batteries seemed 
 innumerable, protected by earth-works, and frowning along a cliff 
 which could only be reached by plunging into a gully and wad- 
 ing through a half-frozen bog. There was, however, no alterna- 
 tive but to advance or retreat. He decided to advance. 
 
 Forming his army in two parallel lines, nearly five miles long, 
 facing the foe, he prepared to open the battle along the whole 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 369 
 
 extent of the field. While thus engrossing the attention of the 
 enemy, his main attempt was to be directed against the village 
 of Kesselsdorf, which his practiced eye saw to be the key of the 
 position. It was two o'clock in the afternoon ere all his arrange- 
 ments were completed. The Old Dessauer was a devout man — 
 in his peculiar style a religious man, a man of prayer. He never 
 went into battle without imploring God's aid. On this occasion, 
 all things being arranged, he reverently uncovered his head, and 
 in presence of the troops offered, it is said, the following prayer : 
 
 " O my God, help me yet this once. Let me not be disgraced 
 in my old days. But if Thou wilt not help me, don't help those 
 scoundrels, but leave us to try it out ourselves." 
 
 Having uttered this prayer, he waved his hat to his troops, 
 and shouted, " On, in God's name !" 
 
 " The Prussians," writes Carlyle, " tramp on with the usual 
 grim-browed resolution, foot in front, horse in rear. But they 
 have a terrible problem at that Kesselsdorf, with its retrenched 
 batteries and numerous grenadiers fighting under cover. The 
 very ground is sore against them; up-hill, and the trampled snow 
 wearing into a slide, so that you sprawl and stagger sadly. Thir- 
 ty-one big guns, and near nine thousand small, pouring out mere 
 death on you from that knoll-head. The Prussians stagger ; can 
 not stand ; bend to rightward to get out of shot range ; can not 
 manage it this bout. Bally, re-enforced ; try it again. Again 
 with a will; but again there is not a way. The Prussians are 
 again repulsed ; fall back down this slippery course in more dis- 
 order than the first time. Had the Saxons stood still, steadily 
 handling arms, how, on such terms, could the Prussians have ever 
 managed it ?"* 
 
 At the second repulse, the Saxon grenadiers, greatly elated, 
 gave a shout of " victory," and rushed from their works to pur- 
 sue the retreating Prussians. This was their ruin. 
 
 " Old Leopold, quick as thought, noticing the thing, hurls cav- 
 alry on these victorious, down-plunging grenadiers ; slashes them 
 asunder into mere recoiling whirlpools of ruin, so that few of 
 them got back unwounded ; and the Prussians, storming in along 
 with them, aided by eVer new Prussians, the place was, at length 
 carried."f 
 
 * Carlyle, vol. iv., p. 171. t Id. ibid. 
 
 Aa 
 
370 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 And now the Prussians from the centre press the foe with new 
 vigor. Leopold, at the head of his victorious division, charged 
 the allied troops in flank, pouring in upon them his resistless 
 horsemen. Whole regiments were made prisoners. Ere night- 
 fall of the short December day, the whole allied army, broken 
 and disordered, was on the retreat back to Dresden. The night 
 alone protected them from utter ruin. They had lost six thou- 
 sand prisoners, and three thousand in killed and wounded.* 
 
 Prince Charles had arrived in Dresden the night before. He 
 heard the roar of the cannonade all the day, but, for some un- 
 explained reason, did not advance to the support of his friends. 
 The very unsatisfactory excuse offered was, that his troops were 
 exhausted by their long march ; and that, having been recently 
 twice beaten by the Prussians, his army would be utterly de- 
 moralized if led to another defeat. 
 
 On the evening of Tuesday, the 14th, Frederick, with his ad- 
 vanced guard, reached Myssen. All the next day, Wednesday, 
 he was hurrying up his troops from the rear. In the afternoon 
 he heard the deep booming of the cannon far up the Elbe. In 
 the evening the sky was ablaze with the glare of the watch-fires 
 of Leopold's victorious troops. The next morning Frederick 
 pressed forward with all haste to join Leopold. Couriers on the 
 way informed him of the great victory. At W'ilsdruf, a few 
 miles from the field of battle, he met Leopold, who had advanced 
 in person to meet his king. Frederick dismounted, uncovered 
 his head, and threw his arms around the Old Dessauer in a 
 grateful embrace. 
 
 Together the king and his sturdy general returned to Kessels- 
 dorf, and rode over the field of battle, which was still strewn 
 with the ghastly wrecks of war. Large numbers of tne citizens 
 of Dresden were on the field searching for their lost ones among 
 the wounded or the dead. The Queen of Poland and her chil- 
 dren remained in the city. Frederick treated them with mark- 
 ed politeness, and appointed them guards of honor. The King 
 
 * Voltaire, speaking of this action, says : "It was the famous old Prince of Anhalt who gain- 
 ed this decisive victory. He had been a warrior fifty years, and was the first who had entered 
 into the lines of the French army at Turin in 1707. For conducting the infantry he was es- 
 teemed the most experienced officer in Europe. This great battle was the last that filled up the 
 measure of his military glory — the only glory which he had enjoyed, for fighting was his only 
 province." — Age of Louis XV., chap. xvii. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 371 
 
 
 -— 
 
 ^= = ~ z ^ 
 
 FREDERICK AND THE OLD DESSAUER. 
 
 of Poland, who, it will be remembered, was also Elector of Sax- 
 ony, applied for peace. Frederick replied: 
 
 " Guarantee me the possession of Silesia, and pay me seven 
 hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the expenses of this cam- 
 paign, and I will withdraw my army." 
 
 M. D'Arget, private secretary of the French minister Valori, 
 "gives an interesting account of an interview he held with Fred- 
 erick at this time. M. D'Arget was quite a favorite of the king, 
 who conversed with him with unusual frankness. 
 
 " These kind condescensions of his majesty," writes M. D'Ar- 
 get, " emboldened me to represent to him the brilliant position 
 he now held, and how noble it would be, after being the hero of 
 Germany, to become the pacificator of Europe." 
 
 " I grant it, my dear D'Arget," said the king, " but it is too 
 
372 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 dangerous a part to play. A reverse brings me to the edge of 
 ruin. I know too well the mood of mind I was in the last time 
 I left Berlin ever to expose myself to it again. If luck had been 
 against me there, I saw myself a monarch without a throne. A 
 bad game that. In fine, I wish to be at peace." 
 
 " I represented to him," continues M. D'Arget, " that the house 
 of Austria would never, with a tranquil eye, see his house in 
 possession of Silesia." 
 
 " Those that come after me," said the king, " will do as they 
 like. The future is beyond man's reach. I have acquired ; it 
 is theirs to preserve. I am not in alarm about the Austrians. 
 They dread my armies — the luck that I have. I am sure of their 
 sitting quiet for the dozen years or so which may remain to me 
 of life. There is more for me in the true greatness of laboring 
 for the happiness of my subjects than in the repose of Europe. 
 I have put Saxony out of a condition to hurt me. She now 
 owes me twelve million five hundred thousand dollars. By the 
 defensive alliance which I form with her, I provide myself a help 
 against Austria. I would not, henceforth, attack a cat, except to 
 defend myself. Glory and my interests were the occasion of my 
 first campaigns. The late emperor's situation, and my zeal for 
 France, gave rise to the second. Always since, I have been fight- 
 ing for my own hearths — for my very existence. I know the 
 state I have got into. If I now saw Prince Charles at the gates 
 of Paris, I would not stir." 
 
 " And would you regard with the same indifference," M. D'Ar- 
 get rejoined, " seeing us at the gates of Vienna?" 
 
 " Yes" the king replied. " I swear it to you, D'Arget. In a 
 word, I want to have some good of my life. What are we, poor 
 human atoms, to get up projects that cost so much blood !" 
 
 On the 25th of December, 1745, the peace of Dresden was 
 signed. The demands of Frederick were acceded to. Augustus 
 III. of Saxony, Maria Theresa of Austria, and George II. of En- 
 gland became parties to the treaty. The next day Frederick at- 
 tended sermon in the Protestant church. Monday morning his 
 army, by slow marches, commenced its return to Brandenburg. 
 Frederick, highly elated by the wonderful and almost miraculous 
 change in his affairs, entered his carriage in company with his 
 two brothers, and drove rapidly toward Berlin. The next day, 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 373 
 
 at two o'clock in the afternoon, they reached the heath of Britz, 
 five miles out from the city. Here the king found an immense 
 concourse of the citizens, who had come on horseback and in 
 carriages to escort him to his palace. Frederick sat in an open 
 phaeton, accompanied by the Prince of Prussia and Prince Hen- 
 ry. The throng was so great that the horses could only pro- 
 ceed at the slowest pace. The air resounded with shouts of 
 " Long live Frederick the Great. 1 ' The king was especially gra- 
 cious, saying to those who eagerly crowded around his carriage 
 wheels, 
 
 " Do not press each other, my children. Take care of your- 
 selves that the horses may not trample upon you, and that no 
 accident may happen." 
 
 It was remarked that the whole behavior of the king upon 
 this occasion exhibited the utmost mildness, gentleness, and affa- 
 bility. He seemed to be influenced by the most tender regard 
 for the welfare of the people. 
 
 Upon reaching the palace, he stood for a moment upon the 
 grand stairway, and, surveying the thronging thousands, took 
 off his hat and saluted them. This gave rise to a burst of ap- 
 plause louder and heartier than Berlin had ever heard before. 
 The king disappeared within the palace. Where the poor neg- 
 lected queen w T as at this time we are not informed. There are 
 no indications that he gave her even a thought. 
 
 At six o'clock in the evening the whole city was illuminated. 
 Frederick entered his carriage, and, attended by his two broth- 
 ers, the Prince of Prussia and Prince Henry, rode out to take the 
 circuit of the streets. But the king had received information 
 that one of his former preceptors, M. Duhan, lay at the point of 
 death. He ordered his carriage to be at once driven to the res- 
 idence of the dying man. The house of M. Duhan was situated 
 in a court, blazing with the glow of thousands of lamps. 
 
 " It was an affecting sight," says M. Bielfeld, " to see a dying 
 man in the midst of a brilliant illumination, surrounded by 
 princes, and visited by a triumphant monarch, who, in the midst 
 of the incessant clamor of exultation, sought only to alleviate 
 the sick man's pangs, participating in his distress, and reflecting 
 upon the vanity of all human grandeur." 
 
 The king having taken a tender adieu of M. Duhan, who died 
 
374: 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 the next morning, traversed the brilliant streets of the rejoicing 
 city, and returned to the palace about ten that evening. 
 Frederick now entered upon a period of ten years of peace. 
 
 FREDERICK AT THE DEATH-BED OF M. DUHAN. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 375 
 
 SANS SOUCI. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT AT SA^S SOUCI. 
 
 Days of Peace and Prosperity. — The Palace of Sans Souci. — Letter from Marshal Keith. — Do- 
 mestic Habits of the King. — Frederick's Snuff-boxes. — Anecdotes. — Severe Discipline of the 
 Army. — Testimony of Baron Trenck. — The Review. — Death of the "Divine Emilie." — The 
 King's Revenge. — Anecdote of the Poor Schoolmaster. — The Berlin Carousal. — Appearance 
 of his Majesty. — Honors conferred upon Voltaire. 
 
 " Happy the people," says Montesquieu, " whose annals are 
 blank in history books." The annals of the nations are mainly 
 composed of wars, tumult, and woe. For ten years Prussia en- 
 joyed peace. During this happy period, when the days and the 
 years glided by in tranquillity, there is little left for the historian 
 to record. Frederick engaged vigorously in repairing the ruins 
 left by the war. The burned Silesian villages were rebuilt; 
 debts were paid ; agriculture and commerce encouraged ; the 
 laws revised and reformed. A decree was issued that all law- 
 suits should be brought to a decision within a year after their 
 beginning. 
 
 The king, weary of the life of turmoil, constructed for himself 
 
376 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 a beautiful villa, which he named Sans Souci ("Free from Care"), 
 which Carlyle characteristically translates " No bother." It was 
 situated on a pleasant hill-top near Potsdam, in great retirement, 
 yet commanding an enchanting view of land and water. 
 
 On the first of May, 1747, Frederick took formal possession of 
 this beautiful chateau. The occasion was celebrated by quite a 
 magnificent dinner of two hundred covers. Here, for the next 
 forty years, he spent most of his leisure time. He had three 
 other palaces, far surpassing Sans Souci in splendor, which he 
 occasionally visited on days of royal festivities. Berlin and 
 Charlottenburg were about twenty miles distant. The New 
 Palace, so called, at Potsdam, was but about a mile from Sans 
 
 THE NEW PALACE AT POTSDAM. 
 
 Souci. He had also his palace at Rheinsberg, some thirty miles 
 north of Berlin, where he had spent many of his early days. 
 
 It is said that one day, as Frederick was contemplating the 
 royal burying-ground , not far from the spot which he had se- 
 lected for his rural villa, he said to a companion by his side, in 
 reference to his own burial, " Oui, alors je serais sans souci." 
 Yes, then I shall he free from care. From that remark the villa 
 took its name. Frederick adopted it, and inscribed it in golden 
 letters on the lintel. He appropriated to his private use three 
 apartments — an audience-room, a library, and a small alcove for 
 a bedroom. In this alcove, scarcely larger than a closet, he slept, 
 in soldier style, upon an iron bed, without curtains. An old 
 slouched hat, softened by wear, served him for a night-cap. His 
 library was a beautiful room, very richly furnished. There were 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 377 
 
 terrible war-clouds still sweeping over various parts of Europe, 
 but their lightning flashes and their thunder roar disturbed not 
 the repose of Frederick in his elevated retreat. 
 
 In the month of October, 1747, Field-marshal Keith visited his 
 Prussian majesty at Sans Souci. In a letter to his brother he 
 thus describes the results of his observations : 
 
 " I have now the honor, and, what is still more, the pleasure 
 of being with the king at Potsdam. I have the honor to dine 
 and sup with him almost every day. He has more wit than I 
 have wit to tell you ; speaks solidly and knowingly on all kinds 
 of subjects; and I am much mistaken if, with the experience of 
 four campaigns, he is not the best officer of his army. He has 
 several persons with whom he lives with almost the familiarity 
 of a friend, but he has no favorite. He shows a natural polite- 
 ness for every body who is about him. For one who has been 
 four days about his person, you will say, I pretend to know a 
 great deal about his character. But what I tell you you may 
 depend upon. With more time I shall know as much of him as 
 he will let me know, and no one of his ministry knows any more." 
 
 The king was a very busy man. In addition to carrying on 
 quite an extensive literary correspondence, he was vigorously 
 engaged in writing his memoirs. He was also with great ener- 
 gy developing the wealth of his realms. In the exercise of ab- 
 solute power, his government was entirely personal. He had no 
 constitution to restrain him. Under his single control were con- 
 centrated all legislative, judicial, and executive powers. There 
 was no senate or legislative corps to co-operate in framing laws. 
 His ministers were merely servants to do his bidding. The 
 courts had no powers whatever but such as he intrusted to them. 
 He could at any time reverse their decrees, and flog the judges 
 with his cane, or hang them. 
 
 - Frederick was a great snuff-taker. He always carried two 
 large snuff-boxes in his pocket. Several others stood upon ta- 
 bles around in his rooms, always ready for use. The cheapest 
 of these boxes cost fifteen hundred dollars. He had some richly 
 studded with gems, which cost seven thousand five hundred dol- 
 lars. At his death one hundred and thirty snuff-boxes appeared 
 in the inventory of his jewels. 
 
 Many anecdotes are related illustrative of the kind feelings of 
 
378 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 the king toward the peasants. He was much interested in 
 ameliorating their condition, and said to the Bishop of Varmia, 
 a Believe me, if I knew every thing — if I could read every thing 
 myself — all my subjects should be happy. But alas ! I am but 
 a man." 
 
 In the ranks all of the army were equally entitled to distinc- 
 tion. Promotion was conferred upon merit, not upon the acci- 
 dent of birth. This principle, which was entirely ignored in the 
 other European despotisms, probably contributed to the success 
 of Frederick's armies. A Hanoverian count wrote to him, solic- 
 iting a high position in the army for his son, in favor of his ex- 
 alted birth. Frederick dictated the following reply : 
 
 " I am obliged to tell you that I have long forbid counts to be 
 received, as such, into my army ; for when they have served one 
 or two years they retire, and merely make their short military 
 career a subject of vain boasting. If your son wishes to serve, 
 the title of count can be of no use to him. But he will be pro- 
 moted if he learn his profession well." 
 
 The king then took the pen himself, and added with his own 
 hand : 
 
 " Young counts who have learned nothing are the most igno- 
 rant people in all countries. In England the king's son begins 
 by being a sailor on board a ship, in order to learn the manoeu- 
 vres belonging to that service. If it should miraculously hap- 
 pen that a count could be good for any thing, it must be by ban- 
 ishing all thoughts about his titles and his birth, for these are 
 only follies. Every thing depends upon personal merit. 
 
 " Frederick." 
 
 The severity of discipline in the Prussian army was dreadful. 
 The slightest misdemeanor was punished mercilessly. The drill, 
 exposure, and hardships in the camp made life to the soldier a 
 scene of constant martyrdom. Desertion was almost impossible. 
 The only avenue of escape was suicide. In the little garrison at 
 Potsdam, in ten years, over three hundred, by self-inflicted death, 
 escaped their miseries. Dr. Zimmerman states that it not unfre- 
 quently happened that a soldier murdered a child, and then came 
 and gave himself up to justice. They thought that if they com- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 379 
 
 mitted suicide they would be subject to eternal punishment. 
 But the murdered infant was sure to go to heaven, and the mur- 
 derer would have time to repent and make his peace with God. 
 
 Baron Trenck, in his memoir, gives an appalling account of 
 these hardships in the body-guards to which he belonged. In 
 time of peace there was scarcely an hour which he could com- 
 mand. The morning drill commenced at four o'clock. The most 
 complicated and perilous manoeuvres were performed. Frederick 
 considered this the best school for cavalry in the world. They 
 were compelled to leap trenches, which were continually widened 
 till many fell in and broke their legs or arms. They were also 
 compelled to leap hedges, and continue to charge at the highest 
 possible speed for miles together. Almost daily some were 
 either killed or wounded. At midday they took fresh horses, 
 and repeated these toilsome and dangerous labors. Frequently 
 they would be called from their beds two or three times in one 
 night, to keep them on the alert. But eight minutes were al- 
 lowed the guardsman to present himself on horseback, in his 
 place, fully equipped. " In one year of peace," he says, " the 
 body-guards lost more men and horses than they had in two bat-, 
 ties during the war." 
 
 In 1747 Marshal Saxe visited Potsdam. He witnessed a re- 
 view of the guards. In the account of this review given by Al- 
 garotti, he says, " The squadron of guards, which at one time, 
 drawn up close, exhibited the appearance of a rock, at another 
 resembled a cloud scattered along the plain. In the charge on 
 full gallop one horse's head was not a foot beyond another. The 
 line was so exactly straight that Euclid himself could not have 
 found fault with it." 
 
 In September, 1749, Madame Du Chatelet, the" divine Emilie" 
 of Voltaire, suddenly died. The infidel philosopher seemed 
 "much grieved for a time. Frederick, who never fancied Madame 
 Du Chatelet, was the more eager, now that she was out of the 
 way, that Voltaire should come to Sans Souci, and aid him in 
 his literary labors. A trivial incident occurred at this time 
 worthy of record, as illustrative of the character of the king. 
 At the close of the year 1749 there had been a review of Aus- 
 trian t-roops at Mahren. It was not a very important affair, nei- 
 ther the empress queen nor her husband being present. Three 
 
380 EKEDERICK THE GKEAT. 
 
 Prussian officers made their appearance. It was said that they 
 had come to inveigle soldiers to desert, and enlist under the 
 banners of Prussia. They were peremptorily ordered by the 
 Austrian authorities to leave the ground. Frederick, when he 
 heard of it, said nothing, but treasured it up. 
 
 A few months after, in May, 1750, there was a grand review 
 at Berlin. An Austrian officer who chanced to be there was in- 
 vited by his friend, a Prussian officer, Lieutenant Colonel Chasot, 
 to attend. The Austrian was not willing to ride upon the pa- 
 rade-ground without the permission of the king. Colonel Chasot 
 called upon Frederick and informed him that an Austrian officer 
 would be happy, with his majesty's permission, to be present at 
 the review. 
 
 " Certainly, certainly," exclaimed the king. 
 
 This was on the evening before the review. On the morrow 
 the Austrian accordingly rode upon the field. He had hardly 
 arrived there when, just as the manoeuvres were commencing, 
 one of the aids-de-camp of Frederick galloped up to him and 
 said, " By the king's command, sir, you are ordered instantly to 
 retire from this field." 
 
 Colonel Chasot, exceedingly chagrined, rode directly to the 
 king, and inquired, " Did not your majesty grant me permission 
 to invite my friend to the review V 
 
 " Certainly," replied the king, in his most courteous tones ; 
 " and if he had not come, how could I have paid back the 
 Mahren business of last year V 
 
 It is pleasant to record another incident more creditable to 
 Frederick. In the year 1750 there was a poor and aged school- 
 master, by the name of Linsenbarth, a very worthy man, a veri- 
 table Dominie Sampson, residing in the obscure village ofHemm- 
 leben. He had been educated as a clergyman, had considerable 
 book learning, was then out of employment, and was in extreme 
 destitution. The pastor of the village church died, leaving a 
 vacant pulpit, and a salary amounting to about one hundred dol- 
 lars a year. The great man of the place, a feudal lord named 
 Von Werthern, offered the situation to Linsenbarth upon condi- 
 tion that he would marry his lady's termagant waiting-maid. 
 Linsenbarth, who had no fancy for the haughty shrew, declined 
 the offer. The lord and lady were much offended, and in vari- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 381 
 
 ous ways rendered the situation of the poor schoolmaster so un- 
 comfortable that he gathered up his slender means, amounting 
 to about three hundred dollars, all in the deteriorated coin of 
 the province, and went to Berlin. His money was in a bag con- 
 taining nearly nine thousand very small pieces of coin, called 
 batzen. 
 
 At the custom-house the poor man's coin was seized as contra- 
 band. He was informed that the king had forbidden the circu- 
 lation of that kind of money in Berlin. The heartless officials 
 laughed at the poor man's distress, paid no regard to his remon- 
 strances and pleadings, and locked up his confiscated coin. 
 
 Poor Linsenbarth had a feather bed, a small chest of clothes, 
 and a bag of books. He went, to a humble inn, called the 
 "White Swan," utterly penniless. The landlord, seeing that he 
 could levy upon his luggage in case of need, gave him food and 
 a small room in the garret to sleep in. Here he remained in a 
 state verging upon despair for eight weeks. Some of the simple 
 neighbors advised him to go directly to the king, as every poor 
 man could do at certain hours in the day. He wrote a brief 
 statement of the facts, and started on foot for Potsdam. We 
 give the result in the words of Linsenbarth : 
 
 " At Potsdam I was lucky enough to see the king. He was 
 on the esplanade drilling his troops. When the drill was over 
 he went into the garden, and the soldiers dispersed. Four offi- 
 cers remained lounging on the esplanade. For fright, I knew 
 not what to do ; I drew the papers from my pocket. These 
 were my memorial, two certificates of character, and a Thuringian 
 pass. The officers, noticing this, came directly to me and said, 
 'What letters have you there?' I thankfully imparted the 
 whole. When the officers had read them, they said, 'We will 
 give you good advice. The king is extra gracious to-day, and is 
 gone alone into the garden. Follow him straight. You will 
 have luck.' 
 
 " This I would not do ; my awe was too great. They there- 
 upon laid hands upon me. One took me by the right arm, an- 
 other by the left, and Jed me to the garden. Having got me 
 there, they looked out for the king. He was among the garden- 
 ers examining some rare plant, and had his back to us. Here I 
 had to halt. The officers began in an under tone to put me 
 
382 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 through my drill. ' Take your hat under your left arm ; put 
 your right foot foremost ; breast well forward ; hold your head 
 up ; hold your papers aloft in your right hand; there, so — steady 
 — steady !' 
 
 " They then went away, often looking around to see if I kept 
 my posture. I perceived well enough that they were making 
 game of me ; but I stood all the same like a wall, being full of 
 fear. "When the king turned round he gave a look at me like a 
 flash of sunbeams glancing through you. He sent one of the 
 gardeners to bring my papers. Taking them, he disappeared in 
 one of the garden walks. In a few minutes he came back with 
 my papers open in his hand, and waved with them for me to 
 come nearer. I plucked up heart and went directly to him. 
 Oh, how graciously this great monarch deigned to speak to me ! 
 
 FREDERICK AND LIN'SENBARTH. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 383 
 
 " ' My good Thuringian,' said the king, ' you came to Berlin 
 seeking to earn your bread by the industrious teaching of chil- 
 dren, and here at the custom-house they have taken your money 
 from you. True, the batzen are not legal here. They should 
 have said to you, " You are a stranger and did not know of the 
 prohibition. We will seal up the bag of batzen. You can send 
 it back to Thuringia and get it changed for other coin." Be of 
 good heart, however. You shall have your money again, and 
 interest too. But, my poor man, in Berlin they do not give any 
 thing gratis. You are a stranger. Before you are known and 
 get to teaching, your bit of money will be all gone. What then?' 
 
 " I understood the speech perfectly well, but my awe was too 
 great to allow me to say, ' Your majesty will have the grace to 
 allow me something.' But as I was so simple, and asked for 
 nothing, he did not offer any thing. And so he turned away. 
 But he had gone scarcely six or eight steps w T hen he looked 
 around and gave me a sign to walk by his side." 
 
 The king then questioned him very closely respecting the 
 place where he had studied, during what years, under what 
 teachers, and to what branches he had devoted special attention. 
 While thus conversing the clock struck twelve. This was the 
 dinner-hour of his majesty. " Now I must go " said the king. 
 " They wait for their soup." 
 
 Linsenbarth, thus left alone, sauntered from the garden back 
 to the esplanade. There he stood quite bewildered. He had 
 walked that day twenty miles beneath a July sun and over the 
 burning sands. He had eaten nothing. He had not a farthing 
 in his pocket. 
 
 " In this tremor of my heart," writes Linsenbarth, " there came 
 a valet out of the palace and asked, 'Where is the man that was 
 with my king in. the garden V I answered, ' Here.' He led me 
 into the palace to a large room, where pages, lackeys, and soldier 
 valets were about. My valet took me to a little table excellent- 
 ly furnished with soup, beef; likewise carp, dressed with garden 
 salad ; likewise game, with cucumber salad ; bread, knife, fork, 
 plate, spoon were all there. My valet set me a chair, and said, 
 
 " ' This that is on the table the king has ordered to be served 
 for you. You are to eat your fill and mind nobody. I am to 
 serve.' 
 
384 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " I was greatly astonished, and knew not what to do ; least of 
 all could it come into my head that the king's valet who waited 
 on his majesty should wait on me. I pressed him to sit by me; 
 but, as he refused, I did as bidden. 
 
 " The valet took the beef from the table and set it on the char- 
 coal dish until wanted. He did the like with the fish and roast 
 game, and poured me out wine and beer. I ate and drank till I 
 had abundantly enough. Dessert, confectionery, what I could. 
 A plate of big black cherries and a plateful of pears my waiting- 
 man wrapped in paper, and stuffed them into my pockets' to be 
 a refreshment on the way home. And so I rose from the royal 
 table, and thanked God and the king in my heart that I had 
 so gloriously dined. At that moment a secretary came, brought 
 me a sealed order for the custom-house at Berlin, with my cer- 
 tificates and the pass; told down on the table five tail-ducats 
 and a gold Friedrich under them, saying, ' The king sent me this 
 to take me home to Berlin.'* 
 
 "And if the hussar took me into the palace, it was now the 
 secretary took me out again. And there, yoked with six horses, 
 stood a royal wagon, which, having led me to, the secretary said, 
 ' You people, the king has given order that you are to take this 
 stranger to Berlin, and you are to accept no drink-money from 
 him.' I again testified my thankfulness for the royal kindness, 
 took my place, and rolled away. 
 
 " On reaching Berlin I went at once to the custom-house,- and 
 handed them my royal order. The head man opened the seal. 
 In reading, he changed color — went from pale to red;, said noth- 
 ing, and gave it to the second man to read. The second put on 
 his spectacles, read, and gave it to the third. However ; the head 
 man rallied himself at last. I was to come forward and be so 
 good as to write a receipt that I had received for my four hun- 
 dred thalers, all in batzen, the same sum in Brandenburg coin, 
 ready down, without the least deduction. My cash was at once 
 accurately paid, and thereupon the steward was ordered to go 
 with me to the ' White Swan,' and pay what I owed there, what- 
 ever my score was. That was what the king had meant when 
 he said 'you shall have your money back, and interest too.' " 
 
 * ' ' About three pounds ten shillings, I think — better than ten pounds in our day to a common 
 man, and better than one hundred pounds to a Linsenbarth/' — Carlyle. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 385 
 
 This good old man died in Berlin on the 24th of August, 
 1777, eighty-eight years of age. 
 
 In the autumn of 1750 Frederick held a famous Berlin ca- 
 rousal, the celebrity of which filled all Europe. Distinguished 
 guests flocked to the city from all the adjoining realms. Wil- 
 helmina came to share in the festivities. Voltaire was also pres- 
 ent, "the observed of all observers." An English gentleman, Sir 
 Jonas Hanway, in the following terms describes the appearance 
 of Frederick at this time : 
 
 " His Prussian majesty rides much about, often at a rapid rate, 
 with a pleasant business aspect — humane, though imperative; 
 handsome to look upon, though with a face perceptibly reddish. 
 His age, now thirty-eight gone ; a set appearance, as if already 
 got into his forties; complexion florid; figure muscular, almost 
 tending to be plump." 
 
 The carousal presented a very splendid spectacle. It took 
 place by night, and the spacious arena was lighted by thirty 
 thousand torches. The esplanade of the palace, which presented 
 an ample parallelogram, was surrounded by an amphitheatre of 
 rising seats, crowded with the beauties and dignitaries of Eu- 
 rope. At one end of the parallelogram was a royal box, tapes- 
 tried with the richest hangings. The king sat there ; his sister, 
 the Princess Amelia, was by his side, as queen of the festival. 
 Where the neglected wife of Frederick was is not recorded. The 
 entrance for the cavaliers was opposite the throne. The jousting 
 parties consisted of four bands, representing Romans, Persians, 
 Carthaginians, and Greeks. They were decorated with splendid 
 equipments of jewelry, silver helmets, sashes, and housings, and 
 were mounted on the most spirited battle-steeds which Europe 
 could furnish. The scene was enlivened by exhilarating music, 
 and by the most -gorgeous decorations and picturesque costumes 
 "which the taste and art of the times could create. The festivi- 
 ties were closed by a ball in the vast saloons of the palace, and 
 by a supper, where the tables were loaded with every delicacy. 
 
 Voltaire was received on this occasion with very distinguished 
 honor. The king, in inviting him to the court, had sent him a 
 sum amounting to three thousand dollars to pay the expenses of 
 his journey. He had also conferred upon him the cross of the or- 
 der of Merit, and a pension of about four thousand dollars a year. 
 
 Bb 
 
386 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 TOURNAMENT AT BERLIN IN HONOR OF FREDERICK. 
 
 For a time Frederick and Voltaire seem to have lived very 
 pleasantly together. Voltaire writes: "I was lodged under the 
 king's apartment, and never left my room except for-supper. The 
 king composed, above stairs, works of philosophy, history, poet- 
 ry ; and his favorite, below stairs, cultivated the same arts and 
 the same talents. They communicated to one another their re- 
 spective works. The Prussian monarch composed, at this time, 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 387 
 
 liis ' History of Brandenburg ; ? and the French author wrote his 
 ' Age of Louis XIV.,' having brought with him all his materials.* 
 His days thus passed happily in a repose which was only ani- 
 mated by agreeable occupations. Nothing, indeed, could be more 
 delightful than this way of life, or more honorable to philosophy 
 and literature." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE QUARREL. 
 
 Voltaire and the Jew. — Letter from Frederick to D'Arget. — Letter to Wilhelmina. — Caustic 
 Letters to Voltaire. — Partial Reconciliation. — Frederick's brilliant Conversational Powers. — 
 His Neglect of his Wife. — All Females excluded from his Court. — Maupertuis and the Acad- 
 emy. — Voltaire's Malignity. — Frederick's Anger. — Correspondence between Voltaire and 
 Maupertuis. — Menaces of War. — Catt and the King. 
 
 The king and Voltaire soon became involved in a very serious 
 quarrel. Voltaire had employed a Jew, by the name of Hirsch, 
 to engage fraudulently in speculating in the funds. The trans- 
 action was so complicated that few of our readers would have 
 the patience to follow an attempt at its disentanglement. Vol- 
 taire and his agent quarreled. The contention rang through 
 all the court circles, as other conspicuous names were involved 
 in the meshes of the intrigue. A lawsuit ensued, which created 
 excitement almost inconceivable. The recent law reform caused 
 the process to be pushed very rapidly to its conclusion. Vol- 
 taire emerged from the suit with his character sadly maimed. 
 He was clearly convicted of both falsehood and forgery. The 
 king, annoyed by the clamor, retired from Berlin to Sans Souci. 
 Voltaire was not invited to accompany him, but was left in the 
 Berlin palace. In a letter which Frederick wrote to D'Arget, 
 dated April, 1752, he says : 
 
 " Voltaire has conducted himself like a blackguard and a con- 
 summate rascal. I have talked to him as he deserved. He is a 
 sad fellow. I am quite ashamed for human abilities that a man 
 who has so much of them should be so full of wickedness. I 
 am not surprised that people talk at Paris of the quarrel of our 
 beaux esprits. Voltaire is the most mischievous madman I ever 
 knew. He is only good to read. It is impossible for you to 
 
 * Commentaire Historique sur les (Euvres de I'Auteur de la Henriade. 
 
388 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 imagine the duplicities, the impositions, the infamies he practiced 
 here. I am quite indignant that so much talent and acquire- 
 ment do not make men better. I took the part of Maupertuis 
 because he is a good sort of man, and the other had determined 
 upon ruining him. A little too much vanity had rendered him 
 too sensitive to the manoeuvres of this monkey, whom he ought 
 to have despised after having castigated him."* 
 
 Frederick* wrote to Wilhelmina : "Voltaire picks Jews' pock- 
 ets, but he will get out of it by some somersault." 
 
 Voltaire fell sick. He had already quarreled with many per- 
 sons, and had constrained the king in many cases, very reluctant- 
 ly, to take his part. He now wrote to Frederick, begging per- 
 mission to join him in the quietude of Sans Souci. The follow- 
 ing extracts from the reuly of his majesty will be read with in- 
 terest : 
 
 "Potsdam, February 24, 1751. 
 
 "I was glad to receive you in my house. I esteemed your 
 genius, your talents, and your acquirements. I had reason to 
 think that a man of your age, weary of fencing against authors, 
 and exposing himself to the storm, came hither to take refuge, as 
 in a safe harbor." 
 
 After briefly alluding to the many quarrels in which Voltaire 
 had been involved, the king adds : 
 
 "You have had the most villainous affair with a Jew. It has 
 made a frightful scandal all over town. For my own part, I 
 have preserved peace in my house until your arrival; and I 
 warn you that, if you have the passion of intriguing and.cabal- 
 ing, you have applied to the wrong person. I like peaceable, 
 quiet people, who do not put into their conduct the violent pas- 
 sions of tragedy. In case you can resolve to live like a philoso- 
 pher, I shall be glad to see you. But if you abandon yourself 
 to all the violence of your passions, and get into quarrels with 
 all the world, you will do me no good by coming hither, and 
 you may as well stay in Berlin." 
 
 Four days after this Frederick wrote again, in answer to addi- 
 tional applications from Voltaire. 
 
 "If you wish to come hither you can. I hear nothing of law- 
 suits, not even of yours. Since you have gained it I congratu- 
 
 * Supplement aux (Euvres Posthumes de Frediric, ii. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 389 
 
 late you, and I am glad that this scurvy affair is done.* I hope 
 you will have no more quarrels, either with the Old or the New- 
 Testament. Such contentions leave their mark upon a man. 
 Even with the talents of the finest genius in France, you will 
 not cover the stains which this conduct will fasten on your repu- 
 tation in the long run. I write this letter with the rough com- 
 mon sense of a German, without employing equivocal terms 
 which disfigure the truth. It is for you to profit by it." 
 
 Voltaire's visit lasted about thirty-two months. He was, 
 however, during all this time, fast losing favor with the king. 
 Instead of being received as an inmate at Sans Souci, he was as- 
 signed to a small country house in the vicinity, called the Mar- 
 quisat. His wants were, however, all abundantly provided for 
 at the expense of the king. It is evident from his letters that 
 he was a very unhappy man. He was infirm in health, irascible, 
 discontented, crabbed ; suspecting every one of being his enemy, 
 jealous of his companions, and with a diseased mind, crowded 
 with superstitious fears. 
 
 On one occasion, when the king had sent him a manuscript to 
 revise, he sarcastically exclaimed to the royal messenger, "When 
 will his majesty be done with sending me his dirty linen to 
 wash ?" This speech was repeated to the king. He did not lose 
 his revenge. 
 
 Frederick was endowed with brilliant powers of conversation. 
 He was fond of society, where he could exercise and display 
 these gifts and accomplishments. Frequent suppers were given 
 at Sans Souci, which lasted from half past eight till midnight. 
 Gentlemen only— learned men — were invited to these entertain- 
 ments. Frederick was not an amiable man. He took pleasure 
 in inflicting the keenest pain possible with his satirical tongue. 
 No friend was spared. The more deeply he could strike the lash 
 into the quivering nerves of sensibility, the better he seemed 
 pleased with himself. 
 
 He could not but respect his wife. Her character was beyond 
 all possible reproach. She never uttered a complaint, was cheer- 
 ful and faithful in every duty. She had rooms assigned her on 
 the second floor of the Berlin palace, where she was comfortably 
 
 * Voltaire boasted that he had gained the cause, because the Jew was fined thirty shillings. 
 But he knew full well, as did every one else, that the result of the suit covered him with dishonor. 
 
390 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 lodged and fed, and had modest receptions every Thursday, 
 which were always closed at nine o'clock. A gentleman writes 
 from Berlin at this time : 
 
 " The king esteems his wife, and can not endure her. It was 
 but a few days ago she handed him a letter petitioning for some 
 things of which she had the most pressing want. Frederick 
 took the letter with that most smiling, gracious air, which he as- 
 sumes at pleasure, and, without breaking the seal, tore it up be- 
 fore her face, made her a profound bow, and turned his back on 
 her." 
 
 " The king respects his mother," the same writer adds. " She 
 is the only female to whom he pays any sort of attention. She 
 is a good, fat woman, who moves about in her own way." 
 
 It was a peculiarity quite inexplicable which led Frederick to 
 exclude females from his court. His favorites were all men — 
 men of some peculiar intellectual ability. He sought their soci- 
 ety only. With the exception of his sister, and occasionally 
 some foreign princess, ladies were seldom admitted to compan- 
 ionship with him. He was a cold, solitary man, so self-reliant 
 that he seldom asked or took advice. 
 
 Voltaire hated M. Maupertuis. He was the president of the 
 Berlin Academ} 7 , and was regarded by Voltaire as a formidable 
 rival. This hatred gave rise to a quarrel between Frederick and 
 Voltaire, which was so virulent that Europe was filled with the 
 noise of their bickerings. M. Maupertuis had published a pam- 
 phlet, in which he assumed to have made some important dis- 
 covery upon the law of action. M. Konig, a member of the 
 Academy, reviewed the pamphlet, asserting not only that the 
 proclaimed law was false, but that it had been promulgated half 
 a century before. In support of his position he quoted' from a 
 letter of Leibnitz. The original of the letter could not be pro- 
 duced. M. Konig was accused of having forged the extract. 
 M. Maupertuis, a very jealous, irritable man, by his powerful in- 
 fluence as president, caused M. Konig to be expelled from the 
 Academy. 
 
 Frederick regarded the Academy as his pet institution, and 
 was very jealous of the illustrious philosopher, whom he had in- 
 vited to Berlin to preside over its deliberations. Voltaire, 
 knowing this very well, and fully aware that to strike the Acad- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 391 
 
 emy in the person of its president was to strike Frederick, wrote 
 an anonymous communication to a review published in Paris, in 
 which he accused M. Maupertuis — first, of plagiarism, in appro- 
 priating to himself a discovery made by another ; secondly, of a 
 ridiculous blunder in assuming that said discovery was a philo- 
 sophical principle, and not an absurdity ; and thirdly, that he 
 had abused his position as president of the Academy in sup- 
 pressing free discussion, by expelling from the institution a mem- 
 ber merely for not agreeing with him in opinion. These state- 
 ments were probably true, and on that account the more dama- 
 ging. 
 
 The authorship of the article could not be concealed. Fred- 
 erick was indignant. He angrily seized his pen, and wrote a re- 
 ply, which, though anonymous, was known by all to have been 
 written by the king. In this reply he accused the writer of the 
 article, whom he well knew to be Voltaire, of being a " manifest 
 retailer of lies," " a concocter of stupid libels," and as " guilty of 
 conduct more malicious, more dastardly, more infamous" than he 
 had ever known before. 
 
 This roused Voltaire. He did not venture to attack the king, 
 but he assailed M. Maupertuis again, anonymously, but with 
 greatly increased venom. A brief pamphlet appeared, entitled, 
 " The Diatribe of Doctor Akakia, Physician to the Pope." It 
 was a merciless satire against M. Maupertuis. Voltaire was en- 
 tirely unscrupulous, and was perfect master of the language of 
 sarcasm. No moral principle restrained him from exaggerating, 
 misrepresenting, or fabricating any falsehoods which would sub- 
 serve his purpose. M. Maupertuis was utterly overwhelmed 
 with ridicule. The satire was so keen that few could read it 
 without roars of laughter. Voltaire, the king's guest, was thus 
 exposing to the contempt of all Europe the president of the Ber- 
 lin Academy, the reputation of which Academy was dear to the 
 king above almost every thing else. An edition of the pamphlet 
 was printed in Holland, and copies were scattered all over Ber- 
 lin. Another edition was published in Paris, where thirty thou- 
 sand copies were eagerly purchased. 
 
 Frederick was in a towering passion. Voltaire was alarmed 
 at the commotion he had created. He wrote a letter to the king, 
 in which he declared most solemnly that he had not intended to 
 
392 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 have the pamphlet published ; that a copy had been obtained 
 by treachery, and had been printed without his consent or 
 knowledge. But the king wrote back : 
 
 "Your effrontery astonishes me. What you have done is clear 
 as the day ; and yet, instead of confessing your culpability, you 
 persist in denying it. Do you think you can make people be- 
 lieve that black is white ? All shall be made public, Then it 
 will be seen whether, if your words deserve statues, your con- 
 duct does not deserve chains." 
 
 The king, in his anger, ordered all the pamphlets in Berlin to 
 be collected and burned by the common hangman, in front of 
 Voltaire's windows. Three months passed away, during which 
 the parties remained in this deplorable state of antagonism. 
 Voltaire was wretched, often confined to his bed, and looked like 
 a skeleton. He was anxious to leave Berlin, but feared that the 
 king would not grant him leave. He wrote to Frederick, stating 
 that he was very sick, and wished to retire to the springs of 
 Plombieres for his health. The king curtly replied, 
 
 " There was no need of that pretext about the waters of Plom- 
 bieres in demanding your leave. You can quit my service when 
 you like. But, before going, be so good as to return me the key, 
 the cross, and the volume of verses which I confided to you. 
 
 " I wish that my works, and only they, had been what Konig 
 attacked. I could sacrifice them with a great deal of willingness 
 to persons who think of increasing their own reputation by less- 
 ening that of others. I have not the folly nor vanity of certain 
 authors. The cabals of literary people seem to me the disgrace 
 of literature. I do not the less esteem the honorable cultivators 
 of literature. It is the cabalers and their leaders that are de- 
 graded in my eyes." 
 
 For some unexplained reason, soon after this, the king partial- 
 ly relented, and invited Voltaire to Potsdam. He allowed him 
 to retain his cross and key, and said nothing about the return 
 of the volume of poetry. This was a volume of which twelve 
 copies only had been printed. On the 25th of March, 1753, Vol- 
 taire left Potsdam for Dresden. 
 
 In the following terms Thiebault describes their parting : The 
 final interview between Frederick and Voltaire took place on 
 the parade at Potsdam, where the king was then occupied with 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 393 
 
 his soldiers. One of the attendants announced Voltaire to his 
 majesty with these words : 
 
 " Sire, here is Monsieur De Voltaire, who is come to receive the 
 orders of your majesty." 
 
 Frederick turned to Voltaire and said, " Monsieur De Voltaire, 
 are you still determined upon going V 
 
 " Sire, affairs which I can not neglect, and, above all, the state 
 of my health, oblige me to it." 
 
 "In that case, sir," replied the king, "I wish you a good jour- 
 ney." 
 
 Thus parted these remarkable men, who were never destined 
 to meet again. 
 
 Voltaire, being safe out of Prussia, in the territory of the King 
 of Poland, instead of hastening to Plombieres, tarried in Dres- 
 den, and then in Leipsic. From those places he began shooting, 
 through magazines, newspapers, and various other instrumentali- 
 ties, his poisoned darts at M. Maupertuis. Though these malig- 
 nant assaults, rapidly following each other, were anonymous, no 
 one could doubt their authorship. M. Maupertuis, exasperated, 
 wrote to him from Berlin on the 7th of April : 
 
 " If it be true that you design to attack me again, I declare to 
 you that I have still health enough to find you, wherever you 
 are, and to take the most signal vengeance upon you. Thank 
 the respect and obedience which have hitherto restrained my 
 arm, and saved you from the worst adventure you have ever 
 had. Maupertuis." 
 
 Voltaire replied from Leipsic : 
 
 "M. le President, — I have had the honor to receive your let- 
 ter. You inform me that you are well, and that, if I publish La 
 Beaumelle's letter,* you will come and assassinate me. What in- 
 gratitude to your poor Doctor Akakia ! If you exalt your soul 
 so as to discern futurity, you will see that, if you come on that 
 errand to Leipsic, where you are no better liked than in other 
 places, you will run some risk of being hanged. Poor me, in- 
 deed, you will find in bed. But, as soon as I have gained a lit- 
 tle strength, I will have my pistols charged, and, multiplying the 
 
 * This was a private letter which reflected severely upon the character of Maupertuis. 
 
394 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 mass by the square of velocity, so as to reduce the action and 
 you to zero, I will put some lead into your head. It appears 
 that you have need of it. Adieu, my president. Akakia." 
 
 There were some gross vulgarities in Voltaire's letter which 
 we refrain from quoting. Both of these communications were 
 printed and widely circulated, exciting throughout Europe con- 
 tempt and derision. Voltaire had still the copy of the king's pri- 
 vate poems. Frederick, quite irritated, and not knowing what 
 infamous use Voltaire might make of the volume, which con- 
 tained some very severe satires against prominent persons, and 
 particularly against his uncle, the King of England, determined, 
 at all hazards, to recover the book. He knew it would be of no 
 avail to write to Voltaire to return it. 
 
 Voltaire, on his journey to Paris, would pass through Frank- 
 fort. Frederick secretly employed a Prussian officer to obtain 
 from the authorities there the necessary powers, and to arrest 
 him, and take from him the cross of Merit, the gold key of the 
 chamberlain, and especially the volume of poems. The officer, 
 M. Freytag, kept himself minutely informed of Voltaire's move- 
 ments. At eight o'clock in the evening of the 31st of May the il- 
 lustrious philosopher arrived, with a small suite, traveling in con- 
 siderable state, and stopped at the "Golden Lion." M. Freytag 
 was on the spot. He was a man of distinction. He called upon 
 Voltaire, and, after the interchange of the customary civilities, 
 informed the poet that he was under the necessity of arresting 
 him in the name of the King of Prussia, and detaining him until 
 he should surrender the cross, the key, and the volume of poems. 
 Voltaire was greatly annoyed. He professed warm friendship 
 for the King of Prussia. Very reluctantly, and not until after 
 several hours of altercation, he surrendered the key and the cross. 
 The volume of poems he was very anxious indeed to retain, and 
 affirmed that they were, he knew not where; with luggage he 
 had left behind him in Leipsic or Dresden. He was informed 
 that he would be detained as a prisoner until the volume was 
 produced. 
 
 In a state of great exasperation,Voltaire wrote for a large trunk 
 to be sent to him which contained the book. To save himself 
 from the humiliation of being guarded as a prisoner, he gave his 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 395 
 
 parole dlhonneur that he would not go beyond the garden of 
 the inn. After a delay of three weeks, Voltaire decided, notwith- 
 standing his parole, to attempt his escape. His reputation was 
 such that M. Freytag had no confidence in his word, and em- 
 ployed spies to watch his every movement. 
 
 On the 20th of June, Voltaire dressed himself in disguise, and, 
 with a companion, M. Coligny, entered a hackney-coach, and or- 
 dered the driver to leave the city by the main gate. M. Freytag 
 was immediately informed of this by his spies. With mounted 
 men he commenced the pursuit, overtook the carriage as it was 
 delayed a moment at the gate, and arrested the fugitive in the 
 king's name. Voltaire's eyes sparkled with fury, and he raved 
 insanely. The scene gathered a crowd, and Voltaire was taken 
 by a guard of soldiers to another inn, " The Billy-Goat," as the 
 landlord of the " Golden Lion 7 ' refused any longer to entertain so 
 troublesome a guest. 
 
 All Frankfort was excited by these events. The renown of 
 Voltaire as a philosopher, a poet, and as the friend of Frederick, 
 filled Europe. His eccentricities were the subject of general re- 
 mark. The most distinguished men, by birth and culture, had 
 paid him marked attention during his brief compulsory sojourn 
 in Frankfort. Having arrived at " The Billy-Goat," his conduct, 
 according to the report of M. Freytag, was that of a madman, in 
 which attempted flight, feigned vomitings, and a cocked pistol 
 took part. The account which Voltaire gave of these events is 
 now universally pronounced to be grossly inaccurate. 
 
 On the 6th of July, the trunk having arrived, the volume of 
 poems was recovered, and Voltaire was allowed to go on his way. 
 His pen, dipped in gall, was an instrument which even a monarch 
 might fear. It inflicted wounds upon the reputation of Freder- 
 ick which will probably never be healed. Four years passed 
 away, during which Voltaire and Frederick were almost entirely 
 strangers to each other. 
 
 The merciless satires of Voltaire, exposing Maupertuis to the 
 ridicule of all Europe, proved death-blows to the sensitive phi- 
 losopher. He was thrown into a state of great dejection, which 
 induced disease, of which he died in 1759. Maupertuis needed , 
 this discipline. In the proud days of prosperity he had rejected 
 Christianity. In these hours of adversity, oppressed by humilia- 
 
396 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 tion and pain, and with the grave opening before him, he felt the 
 need of the consolations of religion. Christian faith cheered the 
 sadness of his dying hours.* 
 
 The Marquis D'Argens, another of Frederick's infidel compan- 
 ions, one whom Voltaire described as " the most frank atheist in 
 Europe," after a very ignoble life of sin and shame, having quar- 
 reled with the king, found himself aged, poor, friendless, and in- 
 firm. He then, experiencing need of different support from any 
 which infidelity could give, became penitent and prayerful. Ee- 
 nouncing his unbelief, he became an openly avowed disciple of 
 Jesus.f 
 
 What effect was produced upon the mind of Frederick as he 
 saw one after another of his boon companions in infidelity,in their 
 hours of sickness and approaching death, seeking the consola- 
 tions of religion, we do not know. The proud king kept his lips 
 hermetically sealed upon that subject. Voltaire, describing the 
 suppers of the gay revelers at Sans Souci, writes : 
 
 " Never was there a place in the world where liberty of speech 
 was so fully indulged, or where the various superstitions of men 
 were treated with so much ridicule and contempt. God was re- 
 spected. But those who, in His name, had imposed on mankind, 
 were not spared. Neither women nor priests ever entered the 
 palace. In a word, Frederick lived without a court, without a 
 council, and without a religion." 
 
 Prussia had enjoyed eight years of peace. But Frederick was 
 not a popular man excepting with his own subjects. They idol- 
 ized him. Innumerable are the anecdotes related illustrative of 
 his kindness to them. He seemed to be earnestly seeking their 
 welfare. But foreign courts feared him. Many hated him. He 
 was unscrupulous and grasping, and had but very little sense of 
 moral integrity. He was ambitious of literary renown ; of rep- 
 utation as a keen satirist. With both pen and tongue he was 
 prone to lash without mercy his brother sovereigns, and even 
 the courtiers who surrounded him. There were no ties of friend- 
 ship which could exempt any one from his sarcasm. Other sov- 
 ereigns felt that he was continually on the watch to enlarge his 
 realms, by invading their territories, as he had robbed Maria 
 Theresa of the province of Silesia. 
 
 * Thiebault, Souvenirs de Vinyt Arts de. Sejour a Berlin. f Biographie Universelle. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 397 
 
 Some years before this time Frederick had taken possession 
 of East Friesland, and had made Emden a port of entry. It was 
 a very important acquisition, as it opened to Prussia a convenient 
 avenue for maritime commerce. With great vigor and sagacity 
 Frederick was encouraging this commerce, thus strengthening 
 his kingdom and enriching his subjects. England, mistress of 
 the seas, and then, as usual, at war with France, was covering all 
 the adjacent waters with her war-ships and privateers. Freder- 
 ick had inquired of the English court, through his embassador 
 at London, whether hemp, flax, or timber were deemed contra- 
 band. u No" was the official response. Freighted with such 
 merchandise, the Prussian ships freely sailed in all directions. 
 But soon an English privateer seized several of them, upon the 
 assumption that the planks with which they were loaded were 
 contraband. 
 
 It was an outrage to which Frederick was not disposed to sub- 
 mit. He entered his remonstrances. The question was referred 
 to the British Court of Admiralty. Month after month the de- 
 cision was delayed. Frederick lost all patience. English cap- 
 italists held Silesian bonds to the amount of about one million 
 two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
 
 "I must have my ships back again," said Frederick to the 
 British court. " The law's delay in England is, I perceive, very 
 considerable. My people, who have had their property thus 
 wrested from theni, can not conveniently wait. I shall indem- 
 nify them from the money due on the Silesian bonds, and shall 
 give England credit for the same. Until restitution is made, I 
 shall not pay either principle or interest on those bonds." 
 
 The British court was frantic with rage. Frederick had a 
 strong army on the frontiers of Hanover. The first hostile gun 
 fired would be the signal for the invasion of that province, and 
 ' it would inevitably be wrested from the British crown. The 
 lion roared, but did not venture to use either teeth or claws. 
 •England was promptly brought to terms. It was grandly done 
 of Frederick. There was something truly sublime in the quiet, 
 noiseless, apparently almost indifferent air with which Frederick 
 accomplished his purpose. 
 
 Maria Theresa was more and more unreconciled to the loss of 
 Silesia. Never for an hour did she relinquish the idea of event- 
 
398 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ually regaining the province. The various treaties into which 
 she had been compelled to enter she regarded as merely tempo- 
 rary arrangements. Between the years 1752 and 1755 the en- 
 ergetic and persistent queen was making secret arrangements for 
 the renewal of the Silesian war. 
 
 The King of Poland, who was also Elector of Saxony, had 
 strong feelings of personal hostility to Frederick. His prime 
 minister, Count Von Bruhl, even surpassed his royal master in 
 the bitter antagonism with which he regarded the Prussian 
 monarch. Frederick, whose eagle eye was ever open, and whose 
 restless mind was always on the alert, suspected that a coalition 
 was about to be formed against him. He had false keys made 
 to the royal archives at Dresden ; bribed one of the officials 
 there, M. Menzel, stealthily to enter the chamber of the archives, 
 and copy for him such extracts as would throw any light upon 
 the designs of the court. Among other items of intelligence, he 
 found that Austria, Russia, and Poland were deliberating upon 
 the terms of a coalition against him. 
 
 On the 15th of May, 1753, the Russian Senate had passed the 
 resolution that it should henceforth be the policy of Russia not 
 only to resist all further encroachments on the part of Prussia, 
 but to seize the first opportunity to force the Prussian monarch 
 back to the possession of simply his original boundary of Bran- 
 denburg. It was also agreed that, should Prussia attack any of 
 the allies of Russia, or be attacked by any of them, the armies 
 of the czar should immediately array themselves against the 
 armies of Frederick. There were many other papers, more or 
 less obscure, which rendered it very certain that Maria Theresa 
 would ere long make a new attempt to regain Silesia, and that 
 in that attempt she would be aided both by Russia and Poland. 
 Frederick also knew full well that nothing would better please 
 his uncle George II. of England than to see Prussia 7 crowded 
 back to her smallest limits. To add to Frederick's embarrass- 
 ment, France was hopelessly alienated from him. 
 
 Many bitter words had already passed between Louis XV. 
 and Frederick. But recently a new element of discord had ap- 
 peared. The Duchess of Pompadour, the guilty favorite of Louis 
 XV., beautiful, fascinating, and wicked, had become a power in 
 Europe, notwithstanding the ignoble position she occupied. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 399 
 
 This artful and enchanting woman, having the weak king com- 
 pletely under her control, was in reality the ruler of France. 
 The proudest nobles and the highest ecclesiastics bowed submis- 
 sively at her shrine. Even the immaculate Maria Theresa, con- 
 strained by state policy, wrote flattering notes to her, addressing 
 her as " my cousin," " princess and cousin," " maclame, my dear- 
 est sister." 
 
 The pampered duchess sent by the French minister to Berlin 
 a complimentary message to Frederick. He disdainfully replied : 
 " The Duchess of Pompadour ! who is she ? I do not know her." 
 This was an offense never to be forgiven. 
 
 Frederick was now in imminent danger of being assailed by a 
 coalition of Austria, Russia, Poland, and England. Indeed, it 
 was by no means certain that France might not also join the al- 
 liance. All this was the result of Frederick's great crime in 
 wresting Silesia from Austria. Such was the posture of affairs 
 when, in the summer of 1755, Frederick decided to take a trip 
 into Holland incognito. He disguised himself with a black wig, 
 and assumed the character of a musician of the King of Poland. 
 At Amsterdam he embarked for Utrecht in the common passage- 
 boat. The king mingled with the other passengers without any 
 one suspecting his rank. There chanced to be in the boat a 
 young Swiss gentleman, Henry de Catt, twenty-seven years of 
 age. He was a teacher, taking a short tour for recreation. He 
 gives the following account of his interview with the king, whom, 
 at the time, he had no reason to suppose was other than an or- 
 dinary passenger. We give the narrative in his own words : 
 
 " As I could not get into the cabin, because it was all engaged, 
 I staid with the other passengers in the steerage, and the weather 
 being fine, came upon deck. After some time there stepped out 
 of the cabin a man in cinnamon-colored coat with gold buttons ; 
 in black wig ; face and coat considerably dusted with Spanish 
 snuff. He looked at me fixedly for a while, and then said, 
 without farther preface, 'Who are you, sir?' This cavalier tone 
 from an unknown person, whose exterior indicated nothing very 
 important, did not please me, and I declined satisfying his curios- 
 ity. He was silent. But some time after he assumed a more 
 courteous tone, and said, c Come in here to me, sir. You will be 
 better here than in the steerage amidst the tobacco-smoke. 1 
 
400 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " This polite address put an end to all anger ; and, as the sin- 
 gular manner of the man excited my curiosity, I took advantage 
 of the invitation. We sat down and began to speak confiden- 
 tially with one another. 
 
 " i Do you see the man in the garden yonder, sitting, smoking 
 his pipe V said he to me. ' That man, you may depend upon it, 
 is not happy.' 
 
 "'I know not/ I answered ; 'but it seems to me, until one 
 knows a man, and is completely acquainted with his situation 
 and his way of thought, one can not possibly determine whether 
 he is happy or unhappy. 7 
 
 " My gentleman admitted this, and led the conversation on to 
 the Dutch government. He criticised it — probably to bring me 
 to speak. I did speak, and gave him frankly to know that he 
 was not perfectly instructed in the thing he was criticising. 
 
 " ' You are right,' answered he ; l one can only criticise what 
 one is thoroughly acquainted with.' 
 
 " He now began to speak of religion ; and, with eloquent 
 tongue, to recount what mischiefs scholastic philosophy had 
 brought upon the world ; then tried to prove that creation was 
 impossible. 
 
 " At this last point I stood out in opposition. ' But how can 
 one create something out of nothing V said he. 
 
 " ' That is not- the question,' I answered. ' The question is, 
 whether such a being as God can, or can not, give existence to 
 what, as yet, has none.' 
 
 " He seemed embarrassed, and added, ' But the universe is 
 eternal.' 
 
 " ' You are in a circle,' said I. ' How will you get out of it V 
 
 " ' I skip over it,' he replied, laughing ; and then began to talk 
 of other things. He inquired, 
 
 " f What form of government do you reckon the best V 
 
 " ' The monarchic, if the king is just and enlightened.' 
 
 " ' Very well,' said he ; l but where will you find kings of that 
 sort V And thereupon went into such a sally as. could not in 
 the least lead me to suppose that he was one. In the end, he 
 expressed pity for them, that they could not know the sweets of 
 friendship, and cited on the occasion these verses — his own, I 
 suppose : 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 401 
 
 " 'Amitie, plaisir des grandes ames ; 
 
 Amitie, que les rois, ces illustres ingrats 
 Sont assez malheureux de ne connaitre pas!' 
 
 " ' I have not the honor to be acquainted with kings/ said I ; 
 ' but, to judge from what one has read in history of several of 
 them, I should believe, sir, on the whole, that you are right. 7 
 
 " ' Ah ! yes, yes,' he added, ' I'm right. I know the gentlemen.' 
 
 " A droll incident happened during our dialogue. My gentle- 
 man wanted to let down a little sash window, and could not 
 manage it. ' You do not understand that,' said I ; ' let me do it.' 
 I tried to get it down, but succeeded no better than he. 
 
 " ' Sir,' said he, ' allow me to remark, on my side, that you un- 
 derstand as little of it as I.' 
 
 " ' That is true,' I replied, ' and I beg your pardon. I was too 
 rash in accusing you of a want of expertness.' 
 
 " ' Were you ever in Germany V he now asked me. 
 
 " 'No,' I answered; 'but I should like to make that journey. 
 I am very curious to see the Prussian states and their king, of 
 whom one hears so much.' And now I began to launch out on 
 Frederick's actions. 
 
 "But he interrupted me hastily with the word, 'Nothing more 
 of kings, sir — nothing more. What have we to do with them \ 
 We will spend the rest of our voyage on more agreeable and 
 cheering objects.' And now he spoke of the best of all possible 
 worlds, and maintained that in our planet, earth, there was more 
 evil than good. I maintained the contrary, and this discussion 
 brought us to the end of the voyage. 
 
 " On quitting me he said, ' I hope, sir, you will leave me your 
 name. I am very glad to have made your acquaintance. Per- 
 haps we shall see one another again.' I replied as was fitting to 
 the compliment,. and begged him to excuse me for having contra- 
 • dieted him a little. I then told him my name, and we parted." 
 
 How soon Henry learned that he had been conversing with 
 the King of Prussia we do not know. It is evident that Fred- 
 erick was pleased with the interview. He soon after invited 
 Henry de Catt to his court, and appointed him reader to the 
 king. In this capacity he served his Prussian majesty for about 
 twenty years. He left a note-book in the royal archives of Ber- 
 lin from which the above extracts are taken. 
 
 Cc 
 
402 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Secret Preparations for a Coalition. — Frederick's Embarrassments. — The uncertain Support of 
 England. — Causes of the War. — Commencement of Hostilities. — Letter from Frederick to his 
 Sister Amelia. — Letter to his Brother. — The Invasion of Saxony. — Misfortunes of the Royal 
 Family of Poland. — Battle of Lobositz. — Energetic Military Movements. — Prisoners of War 
 compelled to enlist in the Prussian Service. — Dispatches from Frederick. — Battle of Prague. 
 — Battle of Kolin. — Retreat of Frederick. — Death of Sophia Dorothea. 
 
 We now enter upon the third Silesian war, usually termed in 
 history The Seven Years 7 War. For four years Frederick had 
 been aware that a coalition was secretly forming against him. 
 Maria Theresa wished, with ardor which had never for one mo- 
 ment abated, to regain Silesia. All the other European powers, 
 without exception, desired to curb Frederick, whose ambition 
 they feared. They were well aware that he was taking advant- 
 age of a few years of peace to replenish his treasury, and to en- 
 large his army for new conquests. As we have before stated, 
 Frederick, by bribery, had fully informed himself of the secret 
 arrangements into which Austria, Russia, Poland, and other pow- 
 ers were entering for the dismemberment of his realms. It is in 
 vain to attempt to unravel the intricacies of the diplomacy which 
 ensued. 
 
 England, while endeavoring to subsidize Russia against Fred- 
 erick, entered secretly into a sort of alliance with Frederick, hop- 
 ing thus to save Hanover. The Empress Elizabeth, of Russia, 
 heartily united with Maria Theresa against Frederick, whom she 
 personally disliked, and whose encroachments she dreaded. His 
 Prussian majesty, proud of his powers of sarcasm, in his poems 
 spared neither friend nor foe. He had written some very severe 
 things against the Russian empress, which had reached her ears.* 
 
 * In a letter which the Prince of Prussia, Augustus William, wrote to the king, remonstrating 
 against those encroachments which were arraying all Europe against him,4ie says: "Russia is 
 persuaded that your designs upon her occasioned the applications which you have made to the 
 court of Vienna to substitute a truce of two years in room of a solemn treaty of peace. She be- 
 lieves that you wanted to tie up the hands of the empress queen so as to put it out of her power 
 to succor her ally ; that a war against Russia was the principal object of your intrigues in Swe- 
 den ; that you have designs upon Courland ; that Polish Prussia and Pomerania Avould be very 
 convenient to you ; and that you find Russia the greatest obstacle to this rounding of your do- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 403 
 
 Frederick was in great perplexity. To wait for his enemies 
 to complete their arrangements, and to commence the attack at 
 their leisure, placed him at great disadvantage. To begin the 
 attack himself, and thus to open anew the floodgates of war, 
 would increase the hostility with which the nations were re- 
 garding him. As the diplomacy of the foreign cabinets had been 
 secret, he would universally be regarded as the aggressor. En- 
 gland was Frederick's only ally — a treacherous ally, influenced 
 not by sympathy for Frederick, but by hatred of France, and by 
 fear of the loss of Hanover. The British cabinet would abandon 
 Prussia the first moment it should see it to be for its interest to 
 do so. 
 
 . The King of Prussia had an army of two hundred thousand 
 men under perfect discipline. The Old Dessauer was dead, but 
 many veteran generals were in command. It was manifest that 
 war would soon burst forth. In addition to the personal pique 
 of the Duchess of Pompadour, who really ruled France, Louis 
 XV. was greatly exasperated by the secret alliance into which 
 Frederick had entered with England. The brother of the Prus- 
 sian king, Augustus William, the heir-apparent to the throne, 
 disapproved of this alliance. He said to the French minister, 
 Valori, " I would give a finger from my hand had it never been 
 concluded." 
 
 In July, 1756, Frederick, for form's sake, inquired, through his 
 embassador at Vienna, why Maria Theresa was making such for- 
 midable military preparations. At the same time he conferred 
 with two of his leading generals, Schwerin and Ketzow, if it 
 would not be better, since it was certain that Austria and Rus- 
 sia would soon declare war, to anticipate them by an attack upon 
 Austria. .The opinion of both, which was in perfect accord with 
 that of the king, was that it was best immediately to seize upon 
 Saxony, and in that rich and fertile country to gather magazines, 
 and make it the base for operations in Bohemia. 
 
 A spy was sent to Saxony, who reported that there were but 
 twenty thousand troops there. All necessary information was 
 promptly and secretly obtained in reference to roads and for- 
 tresses. It required three weeks to receive an answer from Vi- 
 
 minions. In short, she believes that she has the same interest in your abasement as the house 
 of Austria,"— Vie de Frederic II., Roi de Prusse, t. ii., p. 318. 
 
404 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 enna. The reply was evasive, as Frederick knew that it would 
 be. In the mean time, his Prussian majesty, with characteristic 
 energy, had mustered on the frontier an army numbering in the 
 aggregate nearly one hundred and fifty thousand men. These 
 troops, in three divisions, with two thousand pieces of artillery, 
 were to make a rush upon Saxony. Among the directions given 
 by Frederick to the leaders of these divisions were the following : 
 
 "Each regiment shall take but one baggage-cart for a com- 
 pany. No officer, whoever he may be or whatever his title, shall 
 take with him the least of silver plate, not even a silver spoon. 
 Whoever wants to keep table, great or small, must manage the 
 same with tin utensils, without exception, be he who he will." 
 
 On the 25th of August, 1756, the king wrote from Potsdam to 
 his brother, the Prince of Prussia, and his sister Amelia, who 
 were at Berlin, as follows : 
 
 " My dear Brother, my dear Sister, — I write you both at 
 once for want of time. I have as yet received no answer from 
 Vienna. I shall not get it till to-morrow. But I count myself 
 surer of war than ever, as the Austrians have named their gen- 
 erals, and their army is ordered to march to Koniggratz. So 
 that, expecting nothing else but a haughty answer, or a very un- 
 certain one, on which there will be no reliance possible, I have 
 arranged every thing for setting out on Saturday next." 
 
 Upon the ensuing day, having received the answer from Vi- 
 enna, he wrote to his brother : 
 
 "You have seen the paper I have sent to Vienna. Their an- 
 swer is, that they have not made an offensive alliance with Rus- 
 sia against me. Of the assurance that I required there is not 
 one word, so that the sword alone can cut this Grordian knot. I 
 am innocent of this war. I have done what I could to* avoid it ; 
 but, whatever be one's love of peace, one can not, and one must 
 not, sacrifice to that safety and honor. At present our one 
 thought must be to wage war in such a way as may cure our en- 
 emies of their wish to break peace again too soon." 
 
 On Saturday morning, August 28, 1756, the Prussian army, 
 over one hundred thousand strong, entered Saxony at three dif- 
 ferent points on the northern frontier. Frederick, with about 
 sixty thousand troops, crossed the Elbe at Torgau, and seized 
 upon Leipsic. Duke Ferdinand, of Hanover, led his columns 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 405 
 
 ^mrrnhulh « 
 
 ^y^—\ ) lobau ' 
 
 Pi 
 
 ' ,.--' -_^C ^Bru? -IdbositS ( 
 -\» ^ '-— I XrclrJt' 
 
 1 We^r ff XLlf^^f^l £iCff fP 
 
 idtS¥~~ 
 
 \qkeUba 
 
 THE INVASION OF SAXONY. 
 
 across the frontier about eighty miles to the right. The Duke of 
 Brunswick-Bevern crossed about the same distance to the left. 
 Each column was stronger than the whole Saxon army. The 
 appointed place of rendezvous for the three divisions was the 
 city of Dresden, the capital of Saxony. By the route marked 
 out, each column had a distance of about one hundred and fifty 
 miles to traverse. 
 
 " Thus," writes Voltaire, " Frederick invaded Saxony under the 
 pretense of friendship, and that he might make war upon Maria 
 Theresa with the money of which he should rob the Saxons." 
 
 Not a soldier appeared to oppose the invaders. The Prussians 
 seized, in an unobstructed march, all the most important Saxon 
 towns and fortresses. The King of Poland and his court, with 
 less than twenty thousand troops, had fled from the capital up 
 the river, which here runs from the south to Pirna, where they 
 concentrated their feeble army, which numbered but eighteen 
 thousand men. Frederick, with his resistless column, entered 
 Dresden on the 9th of September. The queen had remained in 
 the palace. The keys of the archives were demanded of her. 
 She refused to surrender them. The officers proceeded to break 
 open the door. The queen placed herself before the door. The 
 officers, shrinking from using personal violence, sent to Frederick 
 for instructions. He ordered them to force the archives, what- 
 ever opposition the queen, in person, might present. The queen, 
 
406 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 to avoid a rude assault, withdrew. The door was forced, and 
 the archives seized. 
 
 "The king found, 7 ' writes Voltaire, "testimonies of the dread 
 which he had occasioned. The queen died soon after of grief. 
 All Europe pitied that unfortunate family. But in the course 
 of those public calamities millions of families experienced hard- 
 ships not less great, though more obscure."* 
 
 Thus was commenced the Seven Years' War. It proved one 
 of the most bloody and cruel strifes which man has ever waged 
 against his brother man. Through its terrible scenes of confla- 
 gration, blood, and despair, Frederick obtained the renown of be- 
 ; ing one of the ablest generals who ever marshaled armies upon 
 \ fields of blood. 
 
 His Polish majesty had placed his feeble band of troops in the 
 vicinity of Pirna, on the Elbe, amidst the defiles of a mountain- 
 ous country, where they could easily defend themselves against 
 superior numbers. Winter was rapidly approaching. In those 
 high latitudes and among those bleak hills the storms of winter 
 ever raged with terrible severity. The Austrians were energet- 
 ically accumulating their forces in Bohemia to act against the 
 Prussians. The invasion of Saxony by Frederick, without any 
 apparent provocation, roused all Europe to intensity of hatred 
 and of action. 
 
 His Prussian majesty carefully examined the position of the 
 Saxons. They were in a region of precipices and chasms, broken 
 into a labyrinth of sky-piercing and craggy rocks. The emi- 
 nences, in some cases, rose two thousand feet, and were covered 
 with pine forests. " There is no stronger position in the world," 
 Frederick writes. All these passes were fortified, mile after 
 mile, by batteries, ramparts, palisades, and abattis. But the 
 Saxon troops, taken unawares, had but a srnall supply of provis- 
 ions. Frederick decided to block every entrance to their en- 
 campment, and thus to starve them out. His Polish majesty 
 sent frantic cries to France and Austria for help. Frederick 
 was assailed with the title of the " Prussian robber." 
 
 The Dauphiness of France was daughter of the King of Po- 
 land. With tears she craved protection for her parents. The 
 Duchess of Pompadour was anxious to show her gratitude to 
 
 * Age of Louis XV. , chapter xxxii. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 407 
 
 Maria Theresa, who had condescended to address her as a " cous- 
 in and a dear sister." A French army of one hundred thousand 
 men was soon on the march to aid Austria in the liberation of 
 Saxony. At the same time, an Austrian army of sixty thousand 
 men, under Marshal Browne, was advancing rapidly from Bohe- 
 mia to penetrate the fastnesses of the mountains for the release 
 of the Polish king. 
 
 On Friday, the 1st of October, 1756, the Prussian army under 
 Frederick, leaving the Saxons besieged in their encampment, 
 marched up the river to meet the foe advancing to the aid of 
 the Saxons. They encountered the Austrians, under Marshal 
 Browne, at Lobositz, about thirty miles south of Pirna. A ter- 
 rible battle of seven hours' duration 
 ensued. The opposing generals were 
 of nearly equal ability. The soldiers 
 were equal in courage. The carnage 
 of the bloody conflict was almost 
 equal on either side. The desperation 
 of the Prussian assault was resistless. 
 Bayonet often crossed bayonet. The 
 Austrians were driven from their 
 strong position into the city. The 
 Prussians laid the city in ashes. As 
 the Austrians fled from the blazing streets, many, endeavoring to 
 swim across the Elbe, were drowned. At the close of this 
 bloody strife General Browne withdrew his army to the rear, 
 where he still presented a defiant front to the Prussians. He 
 had lost from his ranks, in killed and wounded, two thousand 
 nine hundred and eighty-four. The loss of Frederick was still 
 greater; it numbered three thousand three hundred and eight. 
 Neither party would confess to a defeat. 
 
 " Never have my troops," writes Frederick, " done such mira- 
 cles of valor, cavalry as well as infantry, since I had the honor 
 to command them. By this dead-lift achievement I have seen 
 what they can do." 
 
 The Prussians remained at Lobositz nearly a fortnight, to see 
 if Marshal Browne would again attempt to force the defiles. 
 The Saxon troops, for whose relief the Austrians were advan- 
 cing, were about thirty miles farther north, on the south, or left 
 
 BATTLE OF LOBOSITZ, OCT. 1, 1756. 
 
 a a. Prussian Infantry, b. Cavalry, c c. 
 Artillery, d d. Austrian Army. 
 
408 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 bank of the Elbe. The news of the repulse of Marshal Browne 
 at Lobositz fell disastrously upon their starving ranks. Maria 
 Theresa was much distressed. She sent a messenger to her Aus- 
 trian general to relieve the Saxons at whatever cost. A confi- 
 dential messenger was dispatched through the mountains to the 
 Saxon camp, which he reached in safety. He informed his Po- 
 lish majesty that Marshal Browne, with a picked force of eight 
 thousand, horse and foot, would march by a circuitous route of 
 sixty miles, so as to approach Pirna from the northeast, where 
 but a small Prussian force was stationed. He would be there 
 without fail on the 11th of August. 
 
 The Saxons were directed to cross the Elbe, by a sudden and 
 unexpected march at Konigstein, a few miles from Pirna. Im- 
 mediately upon effecting the passage of the river they were to 
 fire two cannon as a signal that the feat was accomplished. The 
 Saxon and Austrian troops were then to form a junction, and co- 
 operate in crushing the few Prussian bands which were left there 
 as a guard. The Saxon troops would thus be rescued from the 
 trap in which they were inclosed, and from the famine which 
 was devouring them. 
 
 Marshal Browne skillfully and successfully performed his part 
 of the adventure. But there was no efficient co-operation by the 
 Saxons. The men were weak, emaciate, and perishing from hun- 
 ger. Their sinews of exertion were paralyzed. The skeleton 
 horses could not draw the wagons or the guns. To add to their 
 embarrassment, a raging storm of wind and rain burst upon the 
 camp. The roads were converted into quagmires. The night 
 was pitch-dark as the Saxons, about fourteen thousand in num- 
 ber, drenched with rain and groping through the mud, abandon- 
 ed their camp and endeavored to steal their way across the river. 
 The watchful Prussians detected the movement. A scene of 
 confusion, terror, slaughter ensued, which it is in vain to endeav- 
 or to describe. The weeping skies and moaning winds indicated 
 nature's sympathy with these scenes of woe. Still the unhappy 
 Saxons struggled on heroically. After seventy hours of toilsome 
 marching and despairing conflict, these unhappy peasant-lads, the 
 victims of kingly pride, were compelled to surrender at discre- 
 tion. Marshal Browne, finding the enterprise an utter failure, 
 rapidly returned to the main body of his army. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 409 
 
 Frederick was much embarrassed in deciding what to do with 
 his captives. They numbered about fourteen thousand. To 
 guard and feed them was too troublesome and expensive. They 
 could not be exchanged, as the King of Poland had no Prussian 
 prisoners. To set them at liberty would speedily place them in 
 the Austrian ranks to fight against him. Under these circum- 
 stances, Frederick compelled them all to enlist as Prussian sol- 
 diers. He compelled them to do this voluntarily, for they had 
 their choice either to enlist under his banners or to starve. The 
 King of Poland was permitted to return to Warsaw. The elec- 
 torate of Saxony, nearly as large as the State of Massachusetts, 
 and containing a population of one and a half millions, was an- 
 nexed to Prussia. The captured soldiers, prisoners of war, were 
 dressed in Prussian uniform, commanded by Prussian officers, and 
 either placed in garrison or in the ranks of the army in the field. 
 The public voice of Europe condemned Frederick very severely 
 for so unprecedented an act. 
 
 " Think of the sounds," writes Carlyle, " uttered from human 
 windpipes, shrill with rage, some of them, hoarse others with 
 ditto ; of the vituperations, execrations, printed and vocal — grat- 
 ing harsh thunder upon Frederick and this new course of his. 
 Huge melody of discords, shrieking, groaning, grinding on that 
 topic through the afflicted universe in general." 
 
 Voltaire embraced the opportunity of giving vent to his mal- 
 ice in epigrams and lampoons. Frederick was by no means in- 
 sensible to public opinion, but he was ever willing to brave 
 that opinion if by so doing he could accomplish his ambitious 
 ends. 
 
 After this signal achievement his Prussian majesty establish- 
 ed his army in winter quarters along the banks of the Elbe. 
 He took up his abode in the palace of Dresden, awaiting the op- 
 ening of the spring campaign. Saxony was held with a tight 
 grasp, and taxes and recruits were gathered from the country as 
 if it had always belonged to Prussia. Frederick had hoped that 
 his sudden campaign would have led him into the heart of the 
 Austrian states. Instead of this, though he had wrested Saxony 
 from Poland, he had given Austria ample time to prepare her 
 armies for a long war, and had roused all Europe to intense hos- 
 tility against him. 
 
410 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 It became more and more manifest to Frederick that he must 
 encounter a terrible conflict upon the opening of the spring. 
 Early in January he took a short trip to Berlin, but soon return- 
 ed to Dresden. Though he avoided all appearance of anxiety, 
 and kept up a cheerful air, he was fully conscious of his peril. 
 This is evident from the secret instructions he left with his min- 
 ister, Count Finck, upon his departure from Berlin. The dis- 
 patch was dated January 10th, 1757 : 
 
 " Should it chance that my army in Saxony were beaten, or 
 that the French should get possession of Hanover, and threaten 
 us with invasion from that quarter, or that the Russians should 
 get through by Neumark, you are to save the royal family and 
 the archives. Should we be beaten in Saxony, remove the royal 
 family to Custrin. Should the Russians enter by Neumark, or 
 a misfortune befall us in the Lausitz, all must go to Magdeburg, 
 but not till the last extremity. The garrison, the royal family, 
 and the treasure must be kept together. In such a case, the sil- 
 ver plate and the gold plate must at once be coined into money. 
 
 "If I am killed, affairs must go on without alteration. If I 
 should be taken prisoner, I forbid you from paying the least re- 
 gard to my person, or paying the least heed to what I may write 
 from my place of detention. Should such misfortune happen to 
 me, I wish to sacrifice myself for the state. You must obey my 
 brother. He, as well as all my ministers and generals, shall an- 
 swer to me with their heads not to offer any province or ransom 
 for me, but to continue the war, pushing their advances as if I 
 had never existed in the world." 
 
 Two days after committing this important document to Count 
 Finck, Frederick took leave of his mother and his brother. His 
 mother he never saw again. We have no evidence that on this 
 visit he even called upon his irreproachable, amiable, neglected 
 wife. In preparation for the worst, Frederick had provided poi- 
 son for himself, and wore it constantly about his person. It 
 consisted of several small pills in a glass tube. This fact is fully 
 established. 
 
 All Europe, England alone excepted, was aroused against him. 
 Armies were every where being marshaled. The press of all 
 continental Europe was filled with denunciations of his crimes 
 and encroachments. Not all his efforts to assume a careless air 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 411 
 
 could efface from his countenance the impression left there by 
 the struggles of his soul. His features, as seen in a portrait 
 painted about this time, are expressive of the character of an 
 anxious and unhappy man. 
 
 Early in the spring of 1757, France, Russia, Austria, Poland, 
 and Sweden were combined against Frederick. These countries 
 represented a population of one hundred millions. Frederick's 
 domains contained but five millions. His annual revenue was 
 but about ten million dollars. He had an army in the field of 
 one hundred and fifty thousand of the best troops in the world. 
 His fortresses were garrisoned by about fifty thousand of inferi- 
 or quality. The armies of the allies numbered four hundred and 
 thirty thousand. Frederick was regarded as an outlaw. The 
 design of the allies was to crush him, and to divide his territory 
 between them. Austria was to retake Silesia. France was to 
 have the Wesel-Cleve country. Russia was to annex to her do- 
 mains Prussen, Konigsberg, etc. Poland, having regained Sax- 
 ony, was to add to her territory Magdeburg and Halle. Sweden 
 was to have Pomerania. Never before had there appeared such 
 a combination against any man. The situation of Frederick 
 seemed desperate. 
 
 France was first in the field with a superb host of one hun- 
 dred and ten thousand men. The other powers speedily fol- 
 lowed. In four great armies of invasion these hosts pressed upon 
 Prussia from the southeast and southwest, the northeast and 
 northwest. The Russian battalions were one hundred thousand 
 strong. The Austrian army was still more formidable. 
 
 It was supposed, that Frederick would remain in Saxony on 
 the defensive against the Austrians, who were rapidly gathering 
 their army at Prague, in Bohemia. The city was situated upon 
 the River Moldau, one of the tributaries of the Elbe, and was 
 about sixty miles south of Dresden. 
 
 On the 20th of April, Frederick, having secretly placed his 
 army in the best possible condition, commenced a rapid march 
 upon Prague, thus plunging into the very heart of Bohemia. He 
 advanced in three great columns up the valley of the Elbe and 
 the Moldau. His movements were so rapid and unexpected that 
 he seized several Austrian magazines which they had not even 
 time to burn. Three months' provisions were thus obtained for 
 
412 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 his whole array. The first column, under the king, was sixty 
 thousand strong. The second column, led by General Bevern, 
 numbered twenty -three thousand, horse and foot. The third, 
 under Marshal Schwerin, counted thirty-two thousand foot and 
 twelve thousand horse. On the 2d of May the banners of Fred- 
 erick were seen from the steeples of Prague. They appeared 
 floating from the heights of the Weissenberg, a few miles west of 
 the city. At the same time, the other two columns, which had 
 united under Marshal Schwerin, appeared on the east side of the 
 Moldau, upon both banks of which the city is built. 
 
 On the 5th of May, after careful reconnoissance, Frederick 
 crossed the Moldau several miles north of Prague. He went 
 over upon pontoons unopposed, and thus effected a junction with 
 his troops on the east side of the river. The Austrian army was 
 drawn up on some formidable heights but a short distance east 
 of the city. Their position was very strong, and they were thor- 
 oughly intrenched. On the 6th of May the dreadful battle of 
 Prague was fought. For many years, as not a few of our readers 
 
 
 THE BATTLE OE PRAGUE, MAY b, 1757. 
 
 a a a. First position of Austrian Army. bbb. Second position to meet tlie Prussian Attack, c. Prussians 
 under Keith, dd. First position of Prussian Army. ee. Second position of Prussian Army. f. Schwerin 1 s 
 Prussians. <j. Prussian Horse, h. Mannstein's Attack, i. Place of Schwerin 's Monument 
 
 will remember, it was fought over and over again upon all the 
 pianos in Christendom. They will remember the awe with which, 
 as children, they listened to the tumult of the battle, swelling 
 forth from the ivory keys, with the rattle of musketry, the boom- 
 ing of the cannon, and the groans of the dying — such groans as 
 even the field of battle itself could scarcely have rivaled. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 413 
 
 The final and decisive struggle took place on and around two 
 important eminences, called the Sterbohol Hill and the Homoly 
 Hill. Both of these heights the Prussians stormed. In the fol- 
 lowing glowing words Carlyle pictures the scene : 
 
 "Fearful tugging, swagging, and swaying is conceivable in 
 this Sterbohol problem ! And, after long scanning, I rather 
 judge that it was in the wake of that first repulse that the vet- 
 eran Schwerin himself got his death. No one times it for us ; 
 but the fact is unforgetable ; and in the dim whirl of sequences 
 dimly places itself there. Very certain it is ' at sight of his own 
 regiment in retreat,' Field-marshal Schwerin seized the colors, as 
 did other generals, who are not named, that day. Seizes the 
 colors, fiery old man : i This way, my sons !' and rides ahead along 
 the straight dam again ; his ' sons' all turning, and with hot re- 
 pentance following. ' On, my children, this way !' Five bits of 
 grape-shot, deadly each of them, at once hit the old man ; dead 
 he sinks there on his flag; and will never fight more. 
 
 " ' This way !' storm the others with hot tears ; Adjutant Von 
 Platen takes the flag : Platen too is instantly shot ; but another 
 takes it. 'This way, on !' in wild storm of rage and grief; in a 
 word, they managed to do the work at Sterbohol, they and the 
 rest. First line, second line, infantry, cavalry (and even the very 
 horses, I suppose), fighting inexpressibly ; conquering one of the 
 worst problems ever seen in war. For the Austrians too, espe- 
 cially their grenadiers there, stood to it toughly, and fought like 
 men ; and ' every grenadier that survived of them,' as I read aft- 
 erward, ' got double pay for life.' 
 
 " Done, that Sterbohol work ; those foot-chargings, horse-charg- 
 ings ; that battery of Homoly Hill ; and, hanging upon that, all 
 manner of redoubts and batteries to the rightward and rearward ; 
 but how it was- done no pen can describe, nor any intellect in 
 • clear sequence understand. An enormous melee there : new Prus- 
 sian battalions charging, and ever new, irrepressible by case-shot, 
 as they successively get up ; Marshal Browne, too, sending for 
 new battalions at double-quick from his left, disputing stiffly 
 every inch of his ground, till at length (hour not given), a can- 
 non shot tore away his foot, and he had to be carried into 
 Prague, mortally wounded. Which probably was a most im- 
 portant circumstance, or the most important of all." 
 
414 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 "This battle," writes Frederick, " which began toward nine in 
 the morning, was one of the bloodiest of the age. The enemy 
 lost twenty -four thousand men, of w T hom four thousand were 
 prisoners. The Prussian loss amounted to eighteen thousand 
 fighting men, without counting Marshal Schwerin, who was alone 
 worth above ten thousand. This day saw the pillars of the 
 Prussian infantry cut down." 
 
 Immediately after the battle, Frederick wrote rather a stately 
 letter to his mother, informing her of his victory, and that he was 
 about to pursue the foe with a hundred and fifty thousand men. 
 Fifty thousand of the defeated Austrians entered Prague, and 
 stood at bay behind its ramparts. Frederick seized all the av- 
 enues, that no provisions could enter the city, convinced that 
 starvation, combined with a vigorous assault, would soon compel 
 the garrison to surrender themselves, the city, and all its maga- 
 zines. On the 9th of May the bombardment with red-hot balls 
 commenced. The siege lasted six weeks, creating an amount of 
 misery over which angels might weep. The balls of fire were 
 constantly kindling wide and wasting conflagrations. Soon a 
 large portion of the city presented only a heap of smouldering 
 ruins. 
 
 Besides the garrison of fifty thousand there were eighty thou- 
 sand inhabitants in the city, men, women, and children. Large 
 numbers perished. Some died of starvation ; some were burned 
 to death in their blazing dwellings ; some were torn to pieces by 
 shot and shell ; some were buried beneath the ruins of their 
 houses. In the stillness of the night the wails and groans of the 
 sufferers were borne on the breeze to the ears of the Prussians 
 in their intrenched camp. Starvation brought pestilence, which 
 caused the death of thousands. The inhabitants, reduced to this 
 state of awful misery, entreated the Austrian general to surren- 
 der. He refused, but forced out of the gates twelve thousand 
 skeleton, starving people, who consumed the provisions, but could 
 not contribute to the defense. Frederick drove the poor creat- 
 ures back again at the point of the bayonet, threatening to shoot 
 them all. The cruel act was deemed a necessity of war. 
 
 Maria Theresa, anxious to save Prague, sent an army of sixty 
 thousand men under General Daun to its relief. This army, on 
 the rapid march, had reached Kolin, about fifty miles east of 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 415 
 
 Prague. Should General Daun, as was his plan, attack Freder- 
 ick in the rear, while the fifty thousand in Prague should sally 
 out and attack him in front, ruin would be almost inevitable. 
 Frederick, gathering thirty-four thousand men, marched rapidly 
 to Kolin and attacked the foe with the utmost possible fierce- 
 ness. The Austrians not only nearly twice outnumbered him, 
 but were also in a very commanding position, protected by earth- 
 works. Never did men fight more reckless of life than did the 
 Prussians upon this occasion. 
 
 " And so from right wing to left," writes Carlyle, " miles long 
 there is now universal storm of volleying, bayonet charging, 
 thunder of artillery, case-shot, cartridge-shot, and sulphurous de- 
 vouring whirlwind ; the wrestle very tough and furious, espe- 
 cially on the assaulting side. Here, as at Prague, the Prussian 
 troops were one and all in the fire, each doing strenuously his 
 utmost. There is no reserve left. All is gone up into one com- 
 bustion. To fan the fire, to be here, there, fanning the fire where 
 need shows, this is now Frederick's function. This death-wrestle 
 lasted, perhaps, four hours ; till seven, or perhaps eight o'clock, 
 of a June evening." 
 
 Frederick exposed himself like a common soldier. Indeed, it 
 sometimes seems that, in the desperate state of his affairs, he 
 sought the fatal bullet. All his efforts against the Austrians 
 were in vain. The Prussians were repulsed with dreadful 
 slaughter. After losing fourteen thousand men in killed, wound- 
 ed, and prisoners, forty-five cannon, and twenty-two flags, Freder- 
 ick was compelled to order a retreat. His magnificent regiment 
 of guards, one thousand in number, picked men, undoubtedly the 
 best body of troops in the world, was almost annihilated. The 
 loss of the Austrians was about nine thousand men. They were 
 so accustomed to be defeated by Frederick that they were equal- 
 ly surprised and delighted by this dearly-earned victory. The 
 following plan will give the military reader an idea of the posi- 
 tion of the hostile forces. 
 
 Still the conquerors had such dread of their foe that they 
 dared not emerge from their ramparts to pursue him. Had they 
 done so, they might easily have captured or slain his whole army. 
 Frederick bore adversity with great apparent equanimity. He 
 did not for a moment lose self-control, or manifest any agitation. 
 
416 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 With great skill he conducted his retreat. Immediately after 
 the battle he wrote to his friend Lord Marischall : 
 
 BATTLE OF KOLIN, JUNE 18, 1757. 
 
 a a. Austrian Army, b b. Prussian Army. c. Ziethen , s Hussars, d. Nadasti's 
 
 i. e. The Oak Wood. 
 
 " Prosperity, my dear lord, often inspires a dangerous confi- 
 dence. Twenty-three battalions were not sufficient to drive 
 sixty thousand men from their intrench rnents. Another time 
 we will take our precautions better. Fortune has this day turn- 
 ed her back upon me. I ought to have expected it. She is a 
 female, and I am not gallant. What say you to this league 
 against the Margrave of Brandenburg ? How great would be 
 the astonishment of the great elector if he could see his great- 
 grandson at war at the same time with the Russians, the Aus- 
 trians, almost all Germany, and one hundred thousand French 
 auxiliaries ! I do not know whether it will be disgraceful in 
 me to be overcome, but I am sure there will be no great glory in 
 vanquishing me."* 
 
 Frederick retreated down the banks of the Elbe, and sent 
 couriers to the camp at Prague, ordering the siege immediately 
 to be raised, and the troops to retire down the Moldau to join 
 him at Leitmeritz. The news was received at the camp at two 
 o'clock on Sunday morning, June 19, creating amazement and 
 consternation. As Frederick was on his retreat with his broken 
 battalions from the field of battle, parched with thirst, burning 
 with heat, and smothered with dust, it is recorded that an old 
 dragoon brought to the king, in his steel cap, some water which 
 he had drawn from a well, saying to his sovereign, consolingly, 
 
 " Never mind, sire, God Almighty and we will mend this yet. 
 
 * Archenholtz, Histoire de la Guerre de cet Homme. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 417 
 
 The enemy may get a victory for once, but that does not send 
 us to the devil." 
 
 At Nimburg, about twenty miles from Kolin, where the retir- 
 ing Prussians were crossing the Elbe, Frederick sat upon a green 
 mound, lost in thought, as his troops defiled before him. He 
 was scratching figures upon the sand with his stick. 
 
 AFTER THE DEFEAT. 
 
 "Raising his eyes," says Archenholtz, "he surveyed, with 
 speechless emotion, the small remnant of his life-guard of foot, 
 his favorite battalion. It was one thousand strong yesterday 
 morning, hardly four hundred now. All the soldiers of this 
 chosen battalion were personally known to him — their names, 
 their age, their native place, their history. In one day death 
 had mowed them down. They had fought like heroes, and it 
 
 Dd 
 
418 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 was for him they had died. His eyes were visibly wet. Down 
 his face rolled silent tears." 
 
 Suddenly dashing the tears away, he issued his swift orders, 
 and, mounting his horse, galloped to Prague, where he arrived 
 Sunday evening. The next day the siege was raised, and the 
 besieging troops were on the retreat north into Saxony. The 
 whole army was soon rendezvoused at Leitmeritz, on the Elbe, 
 about thirty miles south of Dresden. Here Frederick awaited 
 the development of the next movement of his foes. 
 
 He had hardly arrived at Leitmeritz ere he received the tid- 
 ings of the death of Sophia Dorothea, his mother. She died at 
 Berlin on the 28th of June, 1757, in the seventy-first year of her 
 age. This grief, coming in the train of disasters which seemed 
 to be overwhelming his Prussian majesty, affected him very deep- 
 ly. Frederick was subdued and softened by sorrow. He re- 
 membered the time when a mother's love rocked his cradle, and 
 wrapped him around with tender care. The reader will be sur- 
 prised to learn that his grief — perhaps with some comminglings 
 of remorse — was so great that he shut himself in his closet, and 
 wept with sobbings like a child. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 DEFEATS AND PERILS. 
 
 Grief of the King over his Mother's Death. — Interesting Letters. — Eorces in the Field. — The 
 March upon Dresden. — Devotion ofWilhelmina. — Atheism of the King. — Wilhelmina to Vol- 
 taire. — Despair of Frederick. — Great Victory of Rossbach. — Description of the Battle. — Utter 
 Rout of the Allies. — Elation of Frederick. — His Poem on the Occasion. — Ravages of War. 
 
 The tidings of the death of the king's mother reached him on 
 the 2d of July, 1757. Sir Andrew Mitchell, the English embas- 
 sador in Berlin, gives the following account of an interview he 
 had with Frederick on that occasion : 
 
 "Yesterday, July 3d, the king sent for me, in the afternoon, 
 the first time he has seen any body since the news came. I had 
 the honor to remain with him in his closet. I must own I was 
 most sensibly affected to see him indulging his grief, and giving 
 way to the warmest filial affections ; recalling to mind the many 
 obligations he had to her late majesty; all she had suffered, and 
 how nobly she had borne it ; the good she did to every body ; 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 419 
 
 ssmm 
 
 SOPHIA DOROTHEA. 
 
 the one comfort he now had, that he tried to make her last years 
 more agreeable." 
 
 On the 1st of July, the day before the king heard of his moth- 
 er's death, he wrote to Wilhelmina, in reply to a letter from her 
 which expressed great anxiety on his account : 
 
 " Dear sister, fear nothing on my score. Men are always in 
 the hand of what we call destiny. Accidents will befall people 
 walking on the streets, sitting in their room, lying on their bed ; 
 and there are many who escape the perils of war." 
 
 Again, on the 5th of July, he wrote : " I write to apprise you, 
 "my dear sister, of the new grief that overwhelms us. We have 
 no longer a mother. This loss puts the crown on my sorrows. 
 I am obliged to act, and have not time to give free course to my 
 tears. Judge, I pray you, of the situation of a feeling heart put 
 to so severe a trial. All losses in the world are capable of being 
 remedied, but those which death causes are beyond the reach of 
 hope." 
 
 On the 7th of July he wrote again to Wilhelmina. The let- 
 
420 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ter reveals the anxiety of his heart, and his earnest desire to es- 
 cape, if possible, from his embarrassments. Wilhelmina had writ- 
 ten, offering her services to endeavor to secure peace. The king 
 replied : 
 
 "You are too good. I am ashamed to abuse your indulgence. 
 But do, since you are willing, try and sound the French, and learn 
 w^hat conditions of peace they would demand. Send that Mira- 
 beau* to France. Willingly will I pay the expense. He may 
 offer as much as five million thalers [$3,750,000] to the Favor- 
 itef for peace alone." 
 
 Soon after this, Frederick again wrote to his sister a letter 
 which throws so much light upon his character that we give it 
 almost entire : 
 
 " Leitmeritz, July 13, 1757. 
 
 "My dear Sister, — Your letter has arrived. I see in it your 
 regrets for the irreparable loss we have had of the best and 
 worthiest mother in this world. I am so overwhelmed by these 
 blows from within and without that I feel myself in a sort of 
 stupefaction. 
 
 "The French have seized upon Friesland, and are about to 
 pass the Weser. They have instigated the Swedes to declare 
 war against me. The Swedes are sending seventeen thousand 
 men into Pomerania. The Russians are besieging Memel. Gen- 
 eral Schwald has them on his front and in his rear. The troops 
 of the empire are also about to march. All this will force me to 
 evacuate Bohemia so soon as that crowd of enemies gets into 
 motion. 
 
 " I am firmly resolved on the utmost efforts to save my coun- 
 try. Happy the moment when I took to training myself in phi- 
 losophy. There is nothing else that can sustain a soul in a situ- 
 ation like mine. I spread out to you, my dear sister, the detail 
 of my sorrows. If these things regarded myself only, I could 
 stand it with composure. But I am the bound guardian of the 
 happiness of a people which has been put under my charge. 
 There lies the sting of it. And I shall have to reproach myself 
 with every fault if, by delay or by overhaste, I occasion the 
 smallest accident. 
 
 "I am in the condition of a traveler who sees himself surround-' 
 
 * An uncle of the great Mirabeau. t The Duchess of Pompadour. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 421 
 
 ed and ready to be assassinated "by a troop of cut-throats, who 
 intend to share his spoils. Since the league of Cainbrai* there 
 is no example of such a conspiracy as that infamous triumvirate, 
 Austria, France, Russia, now forms against me. Was it ever be- 
 fore seen that three great princes laid plot in concert to destroy 
 a fourth who had done nothing against them ? I have not had 
 the least quarrel either with France or with Russia, still less 
 with Sweden. 
 
 " Happy, my dear sister, is the obscure man whose good sense, 
 from youth upward, has renounced all sorts of glory ; who, in his 
 safe and humble place, has none to envy him, and whose fortune 
 does not excite the cupidity of scoundrels. But these reflections 
 are vain. We have to be what our birth, which decides, has 
 made us in entering upon this world. 
 
 " I beg a thousand pardons, my dear sister. In these three 
 long pages I talk to you of nothing but my troubles and affairs. 
 A strange abuse it would be of any other person's friendship. 
 But yours, my dear sister, is known to me ; and I am persuaded 
 that you are not impatient when I open to you my heart — a 
 heart which is yours altogether, being filled with sentiments of 
 the tenderest esteem, with which I am, my dearest sister, your 
 
 " Frederick." 
 
 At this time the whole disposable force of his Prussian maj- 
 esty did not exceed eighty thousand men. There were march- 
 ing against him combined armies of not less, in the aggregate, 
 than four hundred thousand. A part of the Prussian army, 
 about thirty thousand strong, under the king's eldest brother, 
 Augustus William, Prince of Prussia, was sent north, especial- 
 ly to protect Zittau, a very fine town of about ten thousand in- 
 habitants, where- Frederick had gathered his chief magazines. 
 ' Prince Charles, with seventy thousand Austrians, pursued this 
 division. He outgeneraled the Prince of Prussia, drove him into 
 wild country roads, took many prisoners, captured important 
 fortresses, and, opening a fire of red-hot shot upon Zittau, laid 
 the whole place, with its magazines, in ashes. The Prince of 
 
 * In the years 1508-1509 the celebrated league of Cambrai was formed by Louis XII. of 
 France, Maximilian, Emperor of Germany, Ferdinand, King of Spain, and Pope Julius II., 
 against- Venice. The league was called Holy because the pope took part in it. 
 
422 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Prussia, who witnessed the conflagration which he could not pre- 
 vent, retreated precipitately toward Lobau, and thence to Baut- 
 zen, with his army in a deplorable condition of exhaustion and 
 destitution. 
 
 Here Frederick, with the remainder of the army from Leit- 
 meritz, joined his brother, against whom he was greatly incensed, 
 attributing the disasters he had encountered to his incapacity. 
 At four o'clock of the 30th of July the king met the Prince of 
 Prussia and the other generals of the discomfited army. Both 
 parties approached the designated spot on horseback. The king, 
 who was accompanied by his suite, upon his arrival within about 
 two hundred feet of the place where his brother, with his officers, 
 was awaiting him, without saluting the prince or recognizing 
 him in the slightest degree, dismounted, and threw himself in a 
 reclining posture upon the greensward. General Goltz was then 
 sent with the following message to the prince : 
 
 "His majesty commands me to inform your royal highness that 
 he has cause to be greatly discontented with you; that you de- 
 serve to have a court-martial held over you, which would sen- 
 tence you and all your generals to death ; but that his majesty 
 will not carry the matter so far, being unable to forget that in 
 the chief general he has a brother." 
 
 Augustus William, overwhelmed by his disgrace, and yet an- 
 gered by the rebuke, coldly replied that he desired only that a 
 court-martial should investigate the case and pronounce judg- 
 ment. The king forbade that any intercourse whatever should 
 take place between his own troops, soldiers, or officers, and those 
 of his brother, who, he declared, had utterly degraded themselves 
 by the loss of all courage and ambition. The prince sent to the 
 king General Schultz to obtain the countersign for the army. 
 Frederick refused to receive him, saying " that he had no counter- 
 sign to send to cowards." Augustus William then went him- 
 selt to present his official report and a list of, his troops. Fred- 
 erick took the papers without saying a word, and then turned 
 his back upon his brother. This cruel treatment fell with crush- 
 ing force upon the unhappy prince. Conscious of military fail- 
 ure, disgraced in the eyes of his generals and soldiers, and aban- 
 doned by the king, his health and spirits alike failed him. The 
 next morning he wrote a sad, respectfully reproachful letter to 
 
EREDERICK THE GREAT. 423 
 
 Frederick, stating that his health rendered it necessary for him 
 to retire for a season from the army to recruit. The reply of the 
 king, which was dated Bautzen, July 30,1757, shows how des- 
 perate he, at that time, considered the state of his affairs. Hope- 
 less of victory, he seems to have sought only death. 
 
 " My dear Brother,— Your bad conduct has greatly injured 
 my affairs. It is not the enemy, but your ill-concerted measures, 
 which have done me this harm. My generals also are inexcus- 
 able, whether they gave you bad advice or only suffered you to 
 come 'to such injudicious resolutions. In this sad situation it 
 only remains for me to make a last attempt. I must hazard a 
 battle. If we can not conquer, we must all of us have ourselves 
 killed. 
 
 " I do not complain of your heart, but of your incapacity, and 
 of the little judgment you have shown in making your decisions. 
 A man who has but a few days to live need not dissemble. I 
 wish you better fortune than mine has been, and that all the 
 miseries and bad adventures you have had may teach you to 
 treat important matters with greater care, sense, and resolution 
 than you have hitherto done. The greatest part of the calami- 
 ties which I now apprehend comes only from you. You and 
 your children will suffer more from them than I shall. Be per- 
 suaded, nevertheless, that I have always loved you, and that with 
 these sentiments I shall die. Frederick." 
 
 Upon the reception of this letter, the prince, without replying 
 to it, verbally asked leave, through one of his officers, to throw 
 up his commission and retire to his family in Berlin. The king 
 scornfully replied, " Let him go ; he is fit for nothing else." In 
 the deepest dejection the prince returned to his home. Rapidly 
 -his health failed, and before the year had passed away, as we 
 shall have occasion hereafter to mention, he sank into the grave, 
 deploring his unhappy lot. 
 
 Frederick speedily concentrated all his strength at Bautzen, 
 and strove to draw the Austrians into a battle ; but in vain. ' 
 The heights upon which they were intrenched, bristling with 
 cannon, he could not venture to assail. After three weeks of 
 impatient manoeuvring, Frederick gathered his force of fifty thou- 
 
424 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 sand men close in hand, and made a sudden rush upon Bernstadt, 
 about fifty miles to the east of Bautzen. Here he surprised an 
 Austrian division, scattered it to the winds, seized all its bag- 
 gage, and took a number of prisoners. He also captured the 
 field equipage, coach, horses, etc., of General Nadasti, who nar- 
 rowly escaped. 
 
 The French, advancing from the Bhine on the west, were 
 sweeping all opposition before them. They had overrun Han- 
 over, and compelled the Duke of Brunswick, brother of George II., 
 to withdraw, with his Hanoverian troops, from the alliance with 
 the King of Prussia. This was a terrible blow to Frederick. 
 It left him entirely alone to encounter his swarming enemies. 
 
 The Prince of Soubise had rendezvoused fifty thousand French 
 and Saxon troops at Erfurt, about a hundred and seventy miles 
 west of Dresden. He had also, scattered around at different 
 posts, easily accessible, a hundred thousand more well-armed and 
 well-disciplined troops. Frederick took twenty-three thousand 
 men and marched to assail these foes in almost despairing battle. 
 To plunge with so feeble a band into such a mass of enemies 
 seemed to be the extreme of recklessness. 
 
 On the 30th of August Frederick commenced his march from 
 Dresden. Great caution was requisite, and great military skill, 
 in so bold an adventure. On the 13th of September he reached 
 Erfurt. The Prince of Soubise, aware of the prowess of his an- 
 tagonist, retired to the hills and intrenched himself, waiting un- 
 til he could accumulate forces which would render victory cer- 
 tain. Frederick had now with him his second brother, Henry, 
 who seems to have very fully secured his confidence. On the 
 16th of September the king wrote : 
 
 " My brother Henry has gone to see the Duchess of €rotha to- 
 day. I am so oppressed with grief that I would rather keep my 
 sadness to myself. I have reason to congratulate myself much 
 on account of my brother Ftenry. He has behaved like an an- 
 gel, as a soldier, and well toward me as a brother. I can not, 
 unfortunately, say the same of the elder. He sulks at me, and 
 has sulkily retired to Torgau, from which place he has gone to 
 Wittenberg. I shall leave him to his caprices and to his bad 
 conduct ; and I prophesy nothing for the future unless the 
 younger guide him." 
 
FKEDEKICK THE GREAT. 425 
 
 In these hours of trouble the noble Wilhelmina was as true 
 to her brother as the magnet to the pole. She was appalled by 
 no dangers, and roused all her energies to aid that brother, strug- 
 gling, with the world arrayed against him. The king apprecia- 
 ted his sister's love. In a poetic epistle addressed to her, com- 
 posed in these hours of adversity, he wrote : 
 
 " Oh sweet and dear hope of my remaining* days ! oh sister 
 whose friendship, so fertile in resources, shares all my sorrows, 
 and with a helpful arm assists me in the gulf! it is in vain 
 that the destinies have overwhelmed me with disasters. If the 
 crowd of kings have sworn my ruin, if the earth have opened to 
 swallow me, you still love me, noble and affectionate sister. 
 Loved by you, what is there of misfortune?" 
 
 In conclusion, he gives utterance to that gloomy creed of infi- 
 delity and atheism which he had adopted instead of the Chris- 
 tian faith. " Thus destiny with a deluge of torments fills the 
 poisoned remnants of my days. The present is hideous to me, 
 the future unknown. Do you say that I am the creature of a 
 beneficent being? I see that all men are the sport of destiny. 
 And if there do exist some gloomy and inexorable being who 
 allows a despised herd of creatures to go on multiplying here, 
 he values them as nothing. He looks down on our virtues, our 
 misdeeds, on the horrors of war, and on all the cruel plagues 
 which ravage earth, as a thing indifferent to him. Wherefore my 
 sole refuge and only haven, loved sister, is in the arms of death."* 
 
 Twenty years before this, Frederick, in a letter to his friend 
 Baron. Suhm, dated June 6, 1736, had expressed the belief that, 
 while the majority of the world perished at death, a few very 
 distinguished men might be immortal. 
 
 " The thought alone," he wrote, " of your death, my dear Suhm, 
 affords me an argument in proof of the immortality of the soul. 
 ■ For is it possible that the spirit which acts in you with so much 
 clearness, brightness, and intelligence, which is so different from 
 matter and from body — that fine soul endowed with so many 
 solid virtues and agreeable qualities — is it possible that this 
 should not be immortal ? No ! I would maintain in solid argu- 
 ment that, if the greatest part of the world were to be annihi- 
 
 * " Ainsi mon seul asile en rnon unique port 
 
 Se trouve, chere soeur, dans les bras de la mort." 
 
426 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 lated, you, Voltaire, Boileau, Newton, Wolfius, and some other 
 geniuses of this order must be immortal."* 
 
 Now, however, Frederick, in that downward path through 
 which the rejecters of Christianity invariably descend, had reach, 
 ed the point at which he renounced all belief in the immortality 
 of the soul and in the existence of God. In a poetic epistle ad- 
 dressed to Marshal Keith, he declares himself a materialist, and 
 affirms his unwavering conviction that the soul, which he says 
 is but the result of the bodily organization, perishes with that 
 body. He declares suicide to be the only remedy for man in his 
 hour of extremity. 
 
 Wilhelmina, in her distress in view of the peril of her broth- 
 er, wrote to Voltaire, hoping that he might be persuaded to ex- 
 ert an influence in his favor. 
 
 " The king, my brother," she wrote, " supports his misfortunes 
 with a courage and a firmness worthy of him. I am in a fright- 
 ful state, and will not survive the destruction of my house and 
 family. That is the one consolation that remains to me. I can 
 not write farther of it. My soul is so troubled that I know not 
 what I am doing. To me there remains nothing but to follow 
 his destiny if it is unfortunate. I have never piqued myself on 
 being a philosopher, though I have made many efforts to become 
 so. The small progress I made did teach me to despise grandeur 
 and riches. But I could never find in philosophy any cure for 
 the wounds of the heart, except that of getting done with our mis- 
 eries by ceasing to live. The state I am in is worse than death. 
 I see the greatest man of his age, my brother, my friend, reduced 
 to the most frightful extremity. I see my w^hole family exposed 
 to dangers and, perhaps, destruction. Would to Heaven I were 
 alone loaded with all the miseries I have described to you." 
 
 Five days after this letter was written to Voltaire by Wilhel- 
 mina from Baireuth, Frederick, on the 17th of September, 1757, 
 wrote his sister from near Erfurt. This letter, somewhat abbre- 
 viated, was as follows : 
 
 "My dearest Sister, — I find no other consolation but in your 
 precious letters. May Heavenf reward so much virtue and such 
 
 * Correspondance Familiere et Amicale, tome i., p. 31. 
 
 t " Heaven !" This was probably a slip of the pen. Frederick would have been perplexed 
 to explain who or what he meant by " Heaven." It would, however, subsequently appear that 
 he used the word as synonymous with fate or destiny. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 427 
 
 heroic sentiments ! Since I wrote you last my misfortunes have 
 but gone on accumulating. It seems as though destiny would 
 discharge all its wrath and fury upon the poor country which I 
 had to rule over. I have advanced this way to fall upon a corps 
 of the allied army, which has run off and intrenched itself among 
 hills, whither to follow, still more to attack them, all rules of war 
 forbid. The moment I retire toward Saxony this whole swarm 
 will be upon my heels. Happen what may, I am determined, 
 at all risks, to fall upon whatever corps of the enemy approaches 
 me nearest. I shall even bless Heaven for its mercy if it grant 
 me the favor to die sword in hand. 
 
 " Should this hope fail me, you will allow that it would be 
 too hard to crawl at the feet of a company of traitors to whom 
 successful crimes have given the advantage to prescribe the law 
 to me. If I had followed my own inclinations I should have 
 put an end to myself at once after that unfortunate battle which 
 I lost. But I felt that this would be weakness, and that it be- 
 hooved me to repair the evil which had happened. But no 
 sooner had I hastened this way to face new enemies than Win- 
 terfield was beaten and killed near Gorlitz ; than the French en- 
 tered the heart of my states ; than the Swedes blockaded Stet- 
 tin. Now there is nothing effective left for me to do. There 
 are too many enemies. Were I even to succeed in beating two 
 armies, the third would crush me. As for you, my incomparable 
 sister, I have not the heart to turn you from your resolves. We 
 think alike, and I can not condemn in you the sentiments which 
 I daily entertain. Life has been given us as a benefit. When 
 it ceases to be such— I have nobody left in this world to at- 
 tach me to it but you. My friends, the relations I loved most, 
 are in the grave. In short, I have lost every thing. If you take 
 the resolution which I have taken, we end together our misfor- 
 * tunes and our unhappiness. 
 
 " But it is time to end this long, dreary letter. I have had 
 some leisure, and have used it to open to you a heart filled with 
 admiration and gratitude toward you. Yes, my adorable sister, 
 if Providence troubled itself about human affairs, you ought to 
 be the happiest person in the universe. Your not being such 
 confirms me in the sentiments expressed in my epistle." 
 
 In his " epistle" Frederick had expressed the opinion that 
 
428 FEEDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 there was no God who took any interest in human affairs. He 
 had also repeatedly expressed the resolve to Wilhelmina, and to 
 Voltaire, to whom he had become partially reconciled, that he 
 was prepared to commit suicide should events prove as disas- 
 trous as he had every reason to expect they would prove. He 
 had also urged his sister to follow his example, and not to sur- 
 vive the ruin of the family. Such was the support which the 
 king, in hours of adversity, found in that philosophy for which 
 he had discarded the religion of Jesus Christ. 
 
 On the 15th of September, two days before Frederick had 
 written the despairing letter we have just given, Wilhelmina 
 wrote again to him, in response to previous letters, and to his 
 poetic epistle. 
 
 " My dearest Brother, — Your letter and the one you wrote 
 to Voltaire have nearly killed me. What fatal resolutions, great 
 God ! Ah ! my dear brother, you say you love me, and you drive 
 a dagger into my heart. Your epistle, which I did receive, made 
 me shed rivers of tears. I am now ashamed of such weakness. 
 My misfortune would be so great that I should find worthier re-- 
 sources than tears. Your lot shall be mine. I shall not survive 
 your misfortunes, or those of the house I belong to. You may 
 calculate that such is my firm resolution. 
 
 " But, after this avowal, allow me to entreat you to look back 
 at what was the pitiable state of your enemy when you lay be- 
 fore Prague. It is the sudden whirl of fortune for both parties. 
 The like can occur again when one is the least expecting it. 
 Caesar was the slave of pirates, and yet he became master of the 
 world. A great genius like yours finds resources even when all 
 is lost. 
 
 " I suffer a thousand times more than I can tell you. Never- 
 theless, hope does not abandon me. I am obliged to finish. 
 But I shall never cease to be, with the most profound respect^ 
 your Wilhelmina." 
 
 On the 11th of October an express courier reached Frederick's 
 camp with the alarming intelligence that an Austrian division 
 of fifteen thousand men was on the march for Berlin. The city 
 was but poorly fortified, and held a garrison of but four thou- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 429 
 
 sand troops. Frederick had no doubt that the Austrian army 
 was acting in co-operation with other forces of the allies, advan- 
 cing upon his metropolis from the east, north, and west. Imme- 
 diately he collected all his available troops and commenced a 
 rapid march for the protection of his capital. In the mean time 
 Wilhelmina had heard of this new peril. A rumor also had 
 reached her that there had been a battle, and that her brother 
 was wounded. The following letter reveals the anguish of her 
 heart : 
 
 "Baireuth, October 15, 1757. 
 
 "My dearest Brother, — Death and a thousand torments 
 could not equal the frightful state I am in. There run reports 
 that make me shudder. Some say that you are wounded, others 
 that you are dangerously ill. In vain have I tormented myself 
 to have news of you. I can get none. Oh, my dear brother, 
 come what may, I will not survive you. If I am to continue in 
 this frightful uncertainty, I can not stand it. In the name of 
 God, bid some one write to me. 
 
 " I know not what I have written. My heart is torn in pieces. 
 I feel that by dint of disquietude and alarms I am losing my 
 senses. Oh, my dear, adorable brother, have pity on me. The 
 least thing that concerns you pierces me to the heart. Might I 
 die a thousand deaths provided you lived and were happy ! I 
 can say no more. Grief chokes me. I can only repeat that 
 your fate shall be mine ; being, my dear brother, your 
 
 It turned out that the rumor of the march upon Berlin was 
 greatly exaggerated. General Haddick, with an Austrian force 
 of but four thousand men, by a sudden rush through the woods, 
 seized the suburbs of Berlin. The terrified garrison, supposing 
 that an overwhelming force of the allied army was upon them, 
 retreated, with the royal family and effects, to Spandau. Gen- 
 eral Haddick, having extorted a ransom of about one hundred 
 and forty thousand dollars from the city, and " two dozen pair of 
 gloves for the empress queen," and learning that a division of 
 Frederick's army was fast approaching, fled precipitately. Hear- 
 ing of this result, the king arrested his steps at Torgau, and re- 
 turned to Leipsic. The Berliners asserted that " the two dozen 
 pair of gloves were all gloves for the left hand." 
 
430 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Frederick reached Leipsic on the 26th of October. The allied 
 forces were rapidly concentrating in overwhelming numbers 
 around him. On the 30th the king marched to the vicinity of 
 Lutzen, where he encamped for the night. General Soubise, 
 though in command of a force outnumbering that of the Prus- 
 sians nearly three to one, retreated rapidly to the west before 
 Frederick, and crossed the River Saale. Frederick followed, and 
 effected the passage of the stream with but little opposition. 
 
 MAP OF THE CAMPAIGN OP ROSSBACH. 
 
 After some manoeuvring, the hostile forces met upon a wide, 
 dreary, undulating plain, with here and there a hillock, in the 
 vicinity of Rossbach. Frederick had twenty thousand men. The 
 French general, Prince Soubise, had sixty thousand. The allies 
 now felt sure of their prey. Their plan was to surround Fred- 
 erick, destroy his army, and take him a prisoner. On the morn- 
 ing of the 5th of November the two hostile armies were nearly 
 facing each other, a few miles west of the River Saale. A party 
 of Austrians was sent by the general of the allies to destroy the 
 bridges upon the river in the rear of the Prussians, that their 
 retreat might be cut off. Frederick, from a house-top, eagerly 
 watched the movement of his foes. To his surprise and great 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 431 
 
 satisfaction, he soon saw the whole allied army commencing a 
 circuitous march around his left to fall upon him in his rear. 
 
 Instantly, and " like a change of scene in the opera," the Prus- 
 sians were on the rapid march to the east in as perfect order as 
 if on parade. Taking advantage of an eminence called James 
 Hill, which concealed their movements from the allies, Frederick 
 hurled his whole concentrated force upon the flank of the van of 
 the army on the advance. He thus greatly outnumbered his 
 foes at the point of attack. The enemy, taken by surprise in 
 their long line of march, had no time to form. 
 
 " Compact as a wall, and with an incredible velocity, Seidlitz, 
 in the blaze of rapid steel, is in upon them." From the first it 
 was manifest that the destruction of the advance-guard was cer- 
 tain. The Prussian cavalry slashed through it again and again, 
 throwing it into inextricable disorder. In less than half an hour 
 this important portion of the allied troops was put to utter rout, 
 " tumbling off the ground, plunging down hill in full flight, across 
 its own infantry, or whatever obstacle, Seidlitz on the hips of it, 
 and galloping madly over the horizon." 
 
 BATTLE OF KOSSBACH, NOVEMBER 5, 1757. 
 
 a a. First Position of Combined Army. 6 6. First Position of Prussian Camp. cc. Advance of Prussian 
 Army. dd. Second Position of Combined Army. ee. Prussians retire to Rossbach. f. French Cavalry, 
 under St. Germain, gg. March of Combined Army to attack Prussian Rear. h. Prussian Attack led by 
 Seidlitz. i. Position of Prussian Guns. 
 
 And now the Prussian artillery, eighteen heavy guns, opened 
 ia rapid and murderous fire upon the disordered mass, struggling 
 in vain to deploy in line of battle. Infantry, artillery, cavalry, 
 
432 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 all were at work, straining every nerve, one mighty mind con- 
 trolling and guiding the terrible mechanism in its death-dealing 
 blows. The French regiments were jammed together. The Prus- 
 sians, at forty paces, opened a platoon fire of musketry, five shots 
 a minute. At the same moment the impetuous Seidlitz, with his 
 triumphant and resistless dragoons, plunged upon the rear. The 
 centre of the allied army was thus annihilated. It was no longer 
 a battle, but a rout and a massacre. In twenty minutes this sec- 
 ond astonishing feat was accomplished. 
 
 The whole allied army was now put wildly to flight, in one 
 of the most humiliating and disastrous retreats which has ever 
 occurred. There is generally some slight diversity of statement 
 in reference to the numbers engaged on such occasions. Freder- 
 ick gives sixty-three thousand as the allied force. The allies 
 lost, in killed, wounded, and missing, about ten thousand men. 
 The loss of the Prussians was but five hundred. The French, in 
 a tumultuous mass, fled to the west. Crossing the Unstrut Eiv- 
 er at Freiburg, they burned the bridge behind them. The Prus- 
 sians rebuilt the bridge, and vigorously pursued. The evening 
 after the battle the king wrote as follows to Wilhelmina. His 
 letter was dated " Near Weissenfels." 
 
 "At last, my dear sister, I can announce to you a bit of good 
 news. You were doubtless aware that the Cooj)ers with their 
 circles had a mind to take Leipsic. I ran up and drove them 
 beyond Saale. They called themselves 63,000 strong. Yester- 
 day I went to reconnoitre .them ; could not attack them in the 
 post they held. This rendered them rash. To-day they came 
 out to attack me. It was a battle after one's own heart. Thanks 
 to God,* I have not one hundred men killed. My brother Hen- 
 ry and General Seidlitz have slight hurts. We have all the en- 
 emy's cannon. I am in full march to drive them over the Un- 
 strut. You, my dear sister, my good, my divine, my affectionate 
 sister, who deign to interest yourself in the fate of a brother who 
 adores you, deign also to share my joy. The instant I have time 
 I will tell you more. I embrace you with my- whole heart. 
 Adieu. F." 
 
 Voltaire, speaking of this conflict, says, " It was the most in- 
 conceivable and complete rout and discomfiture of which history 
 
 * The atheistic pen of Frederick will sometimes slip. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 433 
 
 makes any mention. Thirty thousand French and twenty thou- 
 sand imperial troops were there seen making a disgraceful and 
 precipitate flight before five battalions and a few squadrons. 
 The defeats of Agincourt, Cressy, and Poitiers were not so hu- 
 miliating."* 
 
 As usual, Frederick wrote a poem upon the occasion. It was 
 vulgar and profane. Carlyle says of it, " The author, with a wild 
 burst of spiritual enthusiasm, sings the charms of the rearward 
 part of certain men. He rises to the height of anti-biblical pro- 
 fanity, quoting Moses on the Hill of Vision; sinks to the bot 
 tomless of human or ultra-human depravity, quoting King Nico 
 inedes's experience on Caesar, happily known only to the learned 
 A most cynical, profane affair ; yet we must say, by way of pa- 
 renthesis, one which gives no countenance to Voltaire's atrocities 
 of rumor about Frederick himself in the macter."f 
 
 The routed allies, exasperated and starving, and hating the 
 Protestant inhabitants of the region through which they retreat^ 
 ed, robbed and maltreated them without mercy. The woes which 
 the defenseless inhabitants endured from the routed army in its 
 flight no pen can adequately describe. 
 
 An eye-witness writes from near Weissenfels, in a report to 
 the King of Poland, whose allies the French were, and whose 
 territories they were ravaging : 
 
 " The French army so handled this place as not only to take 
 from its inhabitants, by open force, all bread and articles of food, 
 but likewise all clothes, bed-linens, and other portable goods. 
 They also broke open, split to pieces, and emptied out all chests,, 
 boxes, presses, drawers ; shot dead in the back-yards and on the 
 roofs all manner of feathered stock, as hens, geese, pigeons. They 
 carried off all swine, cows, sheep, and horses. They laid violent 
 hands on the inhabitants, clapped swords, guns, and pistols to 
 ' their breasts, threatening to kill them unless they brought out 
 whatever goods they had ; or hunted them out of their houses, 
 shooting at them, cutting, sticking, and at last driving them away, 
 thereby to have freer room to rob and plunder. They flung out 
 hay and other harvest stock into the mud, and had it trampled 
 to ruin under the horses' feet." 
 
 " For a hundred miles around," writes St. Germain, " the coun- 
 
 * Memoires jjour servir a la Vie de M. De Voltaire. f Carlyle, vol. v., p. 168. 
 
 Ee 
 
434: FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 try is plundered and harried as if fire from heaven had fallen on 
 it. Scarcely have our plunderers and marauders left the houses 
 standing." 
 
 This signal achievement raised the military fame of Frederick 
 higher than ever before. Still it did not perceptibly diminish 
 the enormous difficulties with which he was environed. Army 
 after army was marching upon him. Even by a series of suc- 
 cessful battles his forces might be annihilated. But the renown 
 of the great victory of Eossbach will ever reverberate through 
 the halls of history. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE LEUTHEN CAMPAIGN". 
 
 Results of the Battle of Rossbach. — The Attack upon Breslau. — Extraordinary Address of the 
 King to his Troops. — Confidence of the Prussians in their Commander. — Magnificent Array 
 of the Austrians at Leuthen. — Tactics of Frederick.— The Battle Hymn. — The Battle and 
 the Victory. — Scenes after the Battle. — Recapture of Breslau by Frederick. 
 
 The battle of Rossbach was fought on the 5th of November, 
 1?57. Frederick had but little time to rejoice over his victory. 
 The Austrians were overrunning Silesia. On the 14th of the 
 month, the important fortress of Schweidnitz, with all its mag- 
 azines, fell into their hands. Then Prince Charles, with sixty 
 thousand Austrian troops, marched upon Breslau, the principal 
 city of Silesia, situated on the Oder. The Prince of Bevern held 
 the place with a little over twenty thousand Prussian troops. 
 His army was strongly intrenched outside of the walls, under 
 the guns of the city. 
 
 On the 22d of November the Austrians commenced their at- 
 tack from five different points. It was a terrific conflict. Sixty 
 thousand men stormed ramparts defended by twenty thousand 
 as highly disciplined troops, and as desperate in valor, as ever 
 stood upon a battle-field. The struggle commenced at three 
 o'clock in the morning, and raged, over eight miles of country, 
 until nine o'clock at night. Darkness and utter exhaustion ter- 
 minated the conflict. The Austrians had lost, in killed and 
 wounded, six thousand men, the Prussians eight thousand. 
 
 Prince Bevern, aware that the battle would be renewed upon 
 the morrow, and conscious that he could not sustain another 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 435 
 
 such struggle, withdrew with his Prussian troops in the night, 
 through the silent streets of Breslau, to the other side of the 
 Oder, leaving eighty cannon behind him. The next morning, in 
 visiting one of the outposts, he was surprised by a party of the 
 Austrians and taken prisoner. It was reported that, fearing the 
 wrath of the king, he had voluntarily allowed himself to be cap- 
 tured. General Kyau, the next in rank, took the command. 
 He rapidly retreated. Breslau, thus left to its fate, surrendered, 
 with its garrison of four thousand men, ninety-eight pieces of 
 cannon, and vast magazines filled with stores of war. The next 
 day was Sunday. Te Deums were chanted by the triumphant 
 Austrians in the Catholic churches in Breslau, and thanks were 
 offered to God that Maria Theresa had reconquered Silesia, and 
 that " our ancient sovereigns are restored to us." 
 
 These were terrible tidings for Frederick. The news reached 
 him at Gorlitz when on the rapid march toward Silesia. Prince 
 Charles had between eighty and ninety thousand Austrian troops 
 in the reconquered province. Frederick seemed to be marching 
 to certain and utter destruction, as, with a feeble band of but 
 about twenty thousand men, he pressed forward, declaring, " I 
 will attack them if they stand on the steeples of Breslau." 
 
 On the evening of the 3d of December, 1757, the king arrived 
 at Parchwitz, in the heart of Silesia, about thirty miles from 
 Breslau. Here the wreck of Prince Bevern's army joined him. 
 Thus re-enforced, he could bring about thirty thousand men into 
 the field. He immediately, in the night, assembled his principal 
 officers, and thus addressed them ; the words were taken down 
 at the time. We give this characteristic address slightly abbre- 
 viated : 
 
 " My friends, the disasters which have befallen us here are not 
 unknown to you. Schweidnitz is lost. The Prince of Bevern is 
 ' beaten. Breslau is gone, and all our war-stores there. A large 
 part of Silesia is lost. Indeed, my embarrassments would be in- 
 superable were it not that I have boundless trust in you. There 
 is hardly one among you who has not distinguished himself by 
 some memorable action. All these services I well know, and 
 shall never forget. 
 
 " I flatter myself that now nothing will be wanting of that 
 valor which the state has a right to expect of you. The hour is 
 
436 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 at hand. I should feel that I had accomplished nothing were I 
 to leave Silesia in the hands of Austria. Let me then apprise 
 you that I intend to attack Prince Charles's army, which is near- 
 ly thrice the strength of our own, wherever I can find it. It 
 matters not what are his numbers, or what the strength of his 
 position. All this by courage and by skill we will try to over- 
 come. This step I must risk, or all is lost. We must beat the 
 enemy, or perish before his batteries. If there be any one who 
 shrinks from sharing these dangers with me, he can have his dis- 
 charge this evening." 
 
 The king paused. A general murmur of applause indicated 
 the united resolve to conquer or to die. Frederick immediately 
 added : 
 
 "Yes, Tknew it. Not one of you will forsake me. I rely 
 upon your help and upon victory as sure. The cavalry regiment 
 that does not, on the instant, on order given, dash full plunge 
 into the enemy, I will directly after the battle unhorse, and make 
 it a garrison regiment. The infantry battalion which, meet with 
 what it may, shows the least sign of hesitating, loses its colors 
 and its sabres, and I cut the trimmings from its uniform. 
 
 " I shall be in the front and in the rear of the army. I shall 
 fly from one wing to the other. No squadron and no company 
 will escape my observation. Those who act well I will reward, 
 and will never forget them. We shall soon either have beaten 
 the enemy or we shall see each other no more." 
 
 After this address to the assembled generals Frederick rode 
 out to the camp, and addressed each regiment in the most famil- 
 iar and fatherly, yet by no means exultant terms. It was night. 
 The glare of torches shed a lurid light upon the scene. t The first 
 regiment the king approached was composed of the cuirassiers 
 of the Life Guard. 
 
 "Well, my children," said Frederick, " how do you think that it 
 will be with us now? The Austrians are twice as strong as we." 
 
 "Never you mind that," they replied. "The Austrians are 
 not Prussians. You know what we can do." 
 
 " Indeed I do," the king responded. " Otherwise I durst not 
 risk a battle. And now, my children, a good night's sleep to 
 you. We shall soon attack the enemy ; and we shall beat him, 
 or we shall all die." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 437 
 
 " Yes, death or victory ," they shouted. Then from loving lips 
 the cheer ran along the line, " Good-night, Fritz." 
 
 And thus the king passed from regiment to regiment. Per- 
 haps no commander, excepting Napoleon, has ever secured to an 
 equal degree the love of his soldiers. It is said that a deserter 
 was brought before him. 
 
 " What induced you to desert me ?" inquired the king. 
 
 " Alas ! your majesty," the man replied, " we are so few, and 
 the Austrians are so many, that defeat is certain." 
 
 "Well," the king replied, kindly, " try it one day more. If we 
 do not mend matters, you and I will both desert together." 
 
 The Austrian army, which outnumbered the Prussian over 
 three to one, was in a camp, very strongly fortified, near Breslau. 
 A council of war was held. Some of the Austrian officers, dread- 
 ing the prowess of their redoubtable opponent, advised that they 
 should remain behind their intrenchments, and await an attack. 
 It would, of course, be impossible for less than thirty thousand 
 men to storm ramparts bristling with artillery, and defended by 
 nearly ninety thousand highly disciplined and veteran troops. 
 
 Others, however, urged that this was ignoble and cowardly ; 
 that it would expose them to the derision of the world if they, 
 with their overwhelming numbers, were to take shelter behind 
 their ramparts, fearing to attack so feeble a band. Prince 
 Charles, anxious to regain lost reputation, and elated by the re- 
 conquest of Silesia, adopted the more heroic resolve, and march- 
 ed out to meet the foe. 
 
 With great joy Frederick learned that the Austrians had left 
 their camp, and were on the advance to attack him. He imme- 
 diately put his little army in motion for the perilous and deci- 
 sive conflict. It was four o'clock Sunday morning, December 4, 
 1757, when Frederick left Parch witz on his march toward Bres- 
 lau. He was familiar with every square mile of the region. 
 The Austrians were so vastly superior in numbers that many of 
 them quite despised the weakness of the Prussian army. Many 
 jokes were tossed about in the Austrian camp respecting the 
 feeble band of Frederick, which they contemptuously called the 
 " Potsdam Guard." 
 
 The Austrians, on the careless and self-confident march toward 
 Parch witz, had crossed the Schweidnitz River, or Water, as it 
 
£38 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 was called, when they learned that Frederick, w^ith a tiger-like 
 spring, had leaped upon Neumarkt, an important town fourteen 
 miles from Parch witz. Here the Austrians had a bakery, pro- 
 tected by a guard of a thousand men. Seven hundred of the 
 guard were instantly sabred or taken prisoners. The rest fled 
 wildly. Frederick gathered up eighty thousand hot bread ra- 
 tions, with which he feasted his hungry troops. 
 
 MAP OF THE LEUTHEN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Early on Monday morning the Prussians advanced from Neu- 
 markt, eight miles, to Borne. Here they met the advance-guard 
 of the Austrian cavalry. It was a dark, foggy morning. Fred- 
 erick, as usual, was with his vanguard. Almost before the 
 Austrians were conscious of the presence of the foe, they were 
 assailed, with the utmost impetuosity, in front and on both their 
 flanks. Instantly they were thrown into utter confusion. The 
 ground was covered with their dead. Their general, Nostitz, 
 was fatally wounded, and died the next day. Five hundred and 
 forty were taken prisoners. The bleeding, breathless remnant 
 fled pell-mell back to the main body, a few miles in the rear. 
 
 Frederick, pressing forward directly east, toward Leuthen, as- 
 cended an eminence, the height of Scheuberg, whence he beheld, 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 439 
 
 directly before him, the whole majestic Austrian army. It ex- 
 tended for a distance of about five miles, drawn up in battle-ar- 
 ray across his path, from the village of Nypern on the north, 
 through Leuthen, to the village of Sagschlitz on the south. So 
 distinctly were their military lines spread out before the eye 
 that Frederick, with his glass, could count them, man by man. 
 Carefully the king studied the position of the enemy, and formed 
 his plan of attack. He designed, while bewildering the Aus- 
 trians by his manoeuvres, to direct the whole concentrated 
 strength of his army upon their extreme left wing. He hoped 
 thus, by the desperate impetuosity of his attack, to roll that 
 whole left wing together in utter ruin before the centre or the 
 right could come to its aid. He would then press on, with num- 
 bers ever overpowering the Austrians at the j)oint of attack, un- 
 til the whole line, five miles in length, was annihilated. 
 
 An eye-witness thus describes the tactics by which Frederick 
 executed his design : " It is a particular manoeuvre which, up to 
 the present time, none but Prussian troops can execute with the 
 precision and velocity indispensable to it. You divide your line 
 into many pieces. You can push these forward stair-wise, so 
 that they shall halt close to one another. Forming itself in this 
 way, a mass of troops takes up in proportion very little ground. 
 And it shows in the distance, by reason of the mixed uniforms 
 and standards, a totally chaotic mass of men, heaped one on an- 
 other. But it needs only that the commander lift his finger, and 
 instantly this living coil of knotted intricacies develops itself in 
 perfect order, and with a speed like that of mountain rivers."* 
 
 " It was a beautiful sight," writes Tempelhof. " The heads of 
 the columns were constantly on the same level, and at the dis- 
 tance necessary for forming. All flowed on exact as if in a re- 
 view. And you could read in the eyes of our brave troops the 
 ' temper they were in." 
 
 As they inarched their voices burst forth simultaneously in a 
 German hymn. The gush of their rude and many- voiced melody 
 was borne distinctly on the wind to the eminence where Freder- 
 ick stood, anxiously watching those movements which were to 
 decide his own fate, that of his family, and of his kingdom. The 
 following is a translation of one of the verses of this hymn : 
 
 * Arehenholtz, vol, i., p. 209. 
 
440 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " Grant that with zeal and skill, this day, I do 
 What me to do behooves, what Thou command'st me to ; 
 Grant that I do it sharp, at point of moment fit, 
 And when I do it, grant me good success in it. "* 
 
 These solemn tones of sacred psalmody fell impressively upon 
 the ear of the king when his earthly all was trembling in the 
 balance. Religionless and atheistic as he was, he could not re- 
 press some visible emotion. One of his officers, aware of the 
 king's avowed contempt for every thing of a religious nature, in- 
 quired, 
 
 "Shall we order that to cease, your majesty?" 
 
 "By no means," the king replied. "With men like these I 
 shall be sure of victory to-day !"f 
 
 BATTLE OF LEUTHEN, DECEMBER 
 
 a a. Austrian Army. 6 b. Position of Saxon Forepost, under Nostitz. c c. Advance of Prussian Army, 
 d. Lucchesfs Cavalry, re-enforced by Daun. e. Left Wing, under Nadasti. f. Frederick's Hill of Observation, 
 g g. Prussian Army about to attack, h. Ziethen's Cavalry, i i i. Retreat of Austrians. 
 
 The field of Leuthen — for so this battle-field was called — was 
 a vast undulating plain or rolling prairie, extending for miles in 
 all directions. One or two brooks flowed sluggishly through it. 
 Here and there were expanses of marsh which neither horse nor 
 foot could traverse. A few scraggy firs dotted the dreary land- 
 
 " Gieb dass ich thu' mit Fleiss was mir zu thun gebuhret, 
 Wozu mich dein Befehl in meinem Stande fuhret, _ 
 Gieb dass ich's thue bald, zu der Zeit da ich's soil ; 
 Und wenn ich's thu', so gieb dass es gerathe wohl. " 
 f "Indeed, there is in him, in those grim days, a tone as of trust in the Eternal, as of real re- 
 ligious piety and faith, scarcely noticeable elsewhere in his history. His religion, and he had, in 
 withered forms, a good deal of it, if we will look well, being almost always in a strictly voiceless 
 state — nay, ultra voiceless, or voiced the wrong way, as is too well known !" — Carlyle. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 441 
 
 scape, and there were also a few hamlets of peasants' huts scatter- 
 ed around. Frederick concealed his movements as much as pos- 
 sible behind the undulations, and succeeded in deceiving the 
 Austrians into the belief that he was to make an attack upon 
 their right wing. The Austrian officers, on windmills and in 
 church belfries, were eagerly scrutinizing his manoeuvres. De- 
 ceived into the conviction that their right wing was menaced, 
 they impetuously pushed forward large re-enforcements of horse 
 to the support of the presumed point of attack. Thus the left 
 wing was weakened. 
 
 Frederick, who had taken his position upon a windmill, saw, 
 with much satisfaction, the successful operation of his plan. 
 Suddenly, with almost miraculous swiftness of movement, his 
 perfectly drilled troops, horse, foot, and artillery, every man reck- 
 less of life, poured forth with a rush and a roar as of a lava-flood 
 upon the extreme left of the Austrians. It was one o'clock of 
 the day. There was neither brook, bush, fence, nor marsh to im- 
 pede the headlong impetuosity of the assault. At the point of 
 attack the Prussians were, of course, most numerous. There 
 were a few moments of terrible slaughter, and the left wing of 
 the Austrian army was annihilated. The ground was covered 
 with the wounded and the dead, and the fugitives, in dismay, 
 were fleeing across the fields. 
 
 The Austrian centre was pushed rapidly forward 'to the aid 
 of the discomfited left. It was too late. The soldiers arrived 
 upon the ground breathless and in disorder. Before they had 
 time to form, Frederick plowed their ranks with balls, swept 
 them with bullets, and fell upon them mercilessly with sabre 
 and bayonet. The carnage was awful. Division after division 
 melted away in the fire deluge which consumed them. Prince 
 Charles made the most desperate efforts to rally his dismayed 
 troops in and around the church-yard at Leu then. Here for an 
 hour they fought desperately. But it was all in vain. The left 
 wing was destroyed. The centre was destroyed. The right 
 wing was pushed forward only to be cut to pieces by the sabres, 
 and to be mown down by the terrific fire of the triumphant Prus- 
 sians. 
 
 Scarcely had the conflict upon the extreme left commenced ere 
 it was evident that by tLe military sagacity of Frederick the 
 
442 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 doom of the Austrian army was sealed. With thirty thousand 
 men he had attacked ninety thousand on the open field, and was 
 utterly overwhelming them. An Austrian officer, Prince De 
 Ligne, describing the battle, writes : 
 
 " Cry had risen for the reserve, and that it must come on as 
 fast as possible. We ran at our utmost speed. Our lieutenant 
 colonel fell, killed, at the first. Then we lost our major, and, in- 
 deed, all the officers but three. We had crossed two successive 
 ditches which lay in an orchard to the left of the first houses in 
 Leuthen, and were beginning to form in front of the village. But 
 there was no standing it. Besides a general cannonade, such as 
 can scarcely be imagined, there was a rain of case-shot upon this 
 battalion, of which I had to take command. A Prussian bat- 
 talion at the distance of eighty paces gave the liveliest fire upon 
 us. It stood as if on the parade-ground, and waited for us with- 
 out stirring. My soldiers, who were tired with running, and 
 had no cannon, soon became scattered. At last, when I had but 
 two hundred left, I drew back to the height where the wind- 
 mill is." 
 
 Before the sun went down the Austrian army was every where 
 flying from the field in hopeless confusion. Their rush was in 
 four torrents toward the east, to reach the bridges which crossed 
 the Schweidnitz Water. There were four of them. One was on 
 the main road at Lissa ; one a mile north at Stabelwitz ; and two 
 on the south, one at Goldschmieden, and the other at Hermanns- 
 dorf. The victory of Frederick was one of the most memorable 
 in the annals of war. The Austrians lost in killed and. wound- 
 ed ten thousand men. Twenty-one thousand were taken prison- 
 ers. This was a heavier loss in numbers than the whole army 
 of Frederick. The victors also took fifty-one flags, and a hun- 
 dred and sixteen cannon. 
 
 As the king cast his eye over the blood-stained field, covered 
 with the wounded and the dead, for a moment he seemed over- 
 come with the aspect of misery, and exclaimed, "When, oh when 
 will my woes cease ?" 
 
 " My children, " said Frederick that night at parole, " after such 
 a day's work you deserve rest. This day will send the renown 
 of your name and that of the nation down to the latest pos- 
 terity." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. -443 
 
 He did not order the exhausted troops to pursue the foe. 
 Still, as he rode along the line after dark, he inquired, 
 
 " Is there any battalion which has a mind to follow ine to 
 Lissa?" 
 
 Three volunteered. It was so dark that the landlord of a lit- 
 tle country inn walked with a lantern by the side of Frederick's 
 horse. Lissa was on the main road to Breslau. The landlord 
 supposed that he was guiding one of Frederick's generals, and 
 was very communicative. 
 
 "Yesterday noon," said he, "I had Prince Charles in my par- 
 lor. His adjutants and people were all crowding about. Such 
 a questioning and bothering. Hundreds came dashing in, and 
 other hundreds were sent out. In and out they went all night. 
 No sooner was one gone than ten came. I had to keep a roar- 
 ing fire in the kitchen all night, so many officers were crowding 
 to it to warm themselves. They talked and babbled. One 
 would say that our king was marching upon them with his Pots- 
 dam parade guard. Another would say, ' No, he dare not come. 
 He will turn and run.' But my delight is that our king has 
 paid them for their fooleries so prettily this afternoon." 
 
 " When did you get rid of your guests ?" inquired the king. 
 
 "About nine this morning," was the reply, "the prince got to 
 horse. Not long after three he came back again with a swarm 
 of officers, all going full speed for Lissa. They were full of brag- 
 ging when they came ; now they were off wrong side foremost ! 
 I saw how it was. Close following after him the flood of them 
 ran. The high road was not broad enough. It was an hour 
 and more before it ended. Such a pell-mell, such a welter ! cav- 
 alry and infantry all jumbled together. Our king must have 
 given them a terrible flogging." 
 
 When the king- reached Lissa he found the village full of Aus- 
 'trian officers and soldiers in a state of utter disorganization and 
 confusion. Had the Austrians known their strength or the weak- 
 ness of the king, they might easily have taken him captive. 
 Frederick was somewhat alarmed. He, however, assumed a bold 
 front, and rode to the principal house in the town, which was a 
 little one side of the main street. The house was crowded with 
 Austrian officers, bustling about, seeking lodgings for the night. 
 The king stepped in with a slight escort, and said gayly, 
 
444 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " Good evening, gentlemen, good evening. Can you make room 
 for me here, do you think V 
 
 THE KING IN SEARCH OF" LODGINGS. 
 
 The astounded Austrians bowed to the dust before him, es- 
 corted him to the best room, and, stealing out into the darkness, 
 made their way as rapidly as possible to the bridge, which at 
 the east end of the street crossed the Schweidnitz Water. At 
 the farther end of the bridge Austrian cannon were planted to 
 arrest the pursuit. The officers hurried across, and vanished in 
 the gloom of night, followed by the river-guard. The Prussian 
 cannoneers steadily pursued, and kept up through the night an 
 incessant fire upon the rear of the foe. 
 
 The night was very dark and cold. A wintry wind swept the 
 bleak, frozen fields. Still the routed Austrians pressed on. Still 
 the tireless Prussians pursued. The Prussian soldiers were Prot- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 445 
 
 estants. Many of them were well instructed in religion. As 
 they pressed on through the gloom, sweeping the road before 
 them with artillery discharges, their voices simultaneously burst 
 forth into a well-known Church hymn, a sort of Protestant Te 
 Deum — 
 
 " Now thank God, one and all, 
 
 With heart, with voice, with hands, 
 Who wonders great hath done 
 To us and to all lands."* 
 
 Early in the morning Frederick's whole army was on the rapid 
 march for Breslau, which was scarcely twenty miles distant from 
 the battle-field. The Austrians had collected immense military 
 stores in the city. Prince Charles, as he fled through the place 
 with the wreck of his army, left a garrison of seventeen thousand 
 men for its defense. In a siege of twelve days, during which 
 there was an incessant bombardment and continual assaults, the 
 city was carried. A few days after this, Liegnitz, which the Aus- 
 trians had strongly fortified, was also surrendered to the victor. 
 Frederick had thus reconquered the whole of Silesia excepting 
 the single fortress of Schweidnitz. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 DOMESTIC GRIEFS AND MILITARY REVERSES. 
 
 Destruction of the Army of Prince Charles. — Dismay in Vienna. — Testimony of Napoleon I. — 
 Of Voltaire. — Wretchedness of the King. — Compromise rejected. — New Preparations for 
 War.— Treaty between England and Prussia.— Plan of the Campaign. — Siege of Olmiitz. — 
 Death of Prince Augustus William. — The Baggage Train. — The irreparable Disaster. — Anx- 
 iety of Frederick for Wilhelmina. — The March against the Russians. — The Battle of Zorn- 
 dorf. — Anecdotes of Frederick. 
 
 The army of Prince Charles was so utterly destroyed or dis- 
 persed by the battle of Leuthen that the morning after his ter- 
 rible defeat he could rally around his banners, by count, but fifty 
 thousand men. These were utterly disheartened. Stragglers 
 were wandering all over the country. A few thousand of these 
 again joined the ranks. Seventeen thousand men left in Breslau 
 were soon captured. Prince Charles, abandoning guns and wag- 
 
 * " Nun danket alle Gott 
 
 Mit Herzen, Mund unci Hiinden, 
 Der grosse Dinge thut, 
 An uns und alien Enclen." 
 
446 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ons, fled through rain, and mud, and sleet directly south toward 
 Koniggratz, in Bohemia. The sufferings of the troops were aw- 
 ful. Several hundred sentinels, in one night, were frozen stiff at 
 their posts. The dreadful retreat continued for ten days. 
 
 " The army," writes Prince Charles, mournfully, " was greatly 
 dilapidated. The soldiers were without clothes, and in a condi- 
 tion truly pitiable. So closely were we pursued by the enemy 
 that at night we were compelled to encamp without tents." 
 
 Having reached the shelter of Koniggratz, he counted his 
 troops, and found that he had in rank and file but thirty-seven 
 thousand men. Of these, twenty -two thousand, from sickness, 
 exhaustion, and wounds, were in hospital. Thus, out of the army 
 of ninety thousand men with which he had commenced the cam- 
 paign early in December, at the close of the month he could ar- 
 ray but fifteen thousand on any field of battle. 
 
 The astonishment and indignation in Vienna, in view of this 
 terrible defeat, were intense. Prince Charles was immediately 
 relieved of his command, and General Daun appointed in his 
 stead. It is the testimony of all military men that the battle of 
 Leuthen was one of the most extraordinary feats of war. Xa- 
 poleon, speaking of it at St. Helena, said, 
 
 " This battle is a masterpiece of movements, of manoeuvres, 
 and of resolution. It is enough to immortalize Frederick, and 
 to rank him among the greatest generals. It develops, in the 
 highest degree, both his moral and his military qualities." - 
 
 Voltaire, in summing up a sketch of this campaign of 1757, 
 writes in characteristic phrase : 
 
 " Even Gustavus Adolphus never did such great things. One 
 must, indeed, pardon Frederick his verses, his sarcasms, and his 
 little malices. All the faults of the man disappear before the 
 glory of the hero." 
 
 On the 19th of December, the day of the capitulation of Bres- 
 lau, Frederick wrote from that place to his friend D'Argens as 
 follows : 
 
 "Your friendship seduces you, mon clier. I am but a paltry 
 knave in comparison with Alexander, and not worthy to tie the 
 shoe-latchets of Caesar. Necessity, who is the mother of indus- 
 try, has made me act, and have recourse to desperate remedies in 
 evils of a like nature. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 447 
 
 "We have taken here from fourteen to fifteen thousand pris- 
 oners. In all, I have above twenty-three thousand of the queen's 
 troops in iny hands, fifteen generals, and above seven hundred 
 officers. It is a plaster on my wounds, but it is far enough from 
 healing them." 
 
 It was now midwinter. Frederick, having established his 
 troops in winter quarters, took up his residence in Breslau. His 
 troubles were by no means ended. Vastly outnumbering foes 
 still surrounded him. Very vigorous preparations were to be 
 made for the sanguinary conflicts which the spring would surely 
 introduce. Frederick did what he could to infuse gayety into 
 the society at Breslau, though he had but little heart to enter 
 into those gayeties himself. For a week he suffered severely 
 from colic pains, and could neither eat nor sleep. "Eight 
 months," he writes, " of anguish and agitation do wear one down." 
 
 His sister Amelia and several other friends visited him at 
 Breslau. Among others was his reader, Henry de Catt. 
 
 "Should you have known me?" the king inquired of De Catt. 
 
 " Hardly," he replied, " in that dress. Besides, your majesty 
 has grown thinner." 
 
 "That may well be," rejoined the king, "with the cursed life 
 I have been leading." 
 
 Frederick still sought recreation in writing verses which he 
 called poetry. To D Argens he wrote, " I have made a prodig- 
 ious quantity of verses. If I live I will show them to you. If 
 I perish they are bequeathed to you, and I have ordered that they 
 be put into your hand." 
 
 Again he wrote D' Argens on the 26 th of December, "What a 
 pleasure to hear that you are coming. I have sent a party of 
 light horse to conduct you. You can make short journeys. I 
 have directed that horses be ordered for you, that your rooms be 
 'warmed every where, and good fowls ready on all roads. Your 
 apartment in this house is carpeted, hermetically shut. You 
 shall suffer nothing from draughts or from noise." 
 
 Frederick, having regained Silesia, was anxious for peace. He 
 wrote a polite letter to Maria Theresa, adroitly worded, so as to 
 signify that desire without directly expressing it. The empress 
 queen, disheartened by the disasters of Kossbach and Leuthen, 
 was rather inclined to listen to such suggestions ; but the Duch- 
 
448 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ess of Pompadour verified the adage that " hell has no fury like 
 a woman scorned." She governed the wretched Louis XV., and 
 through him governed France. In her intense personal exaspera- 
 tion against Frederick she would heed no terms of compromise, 
 and infused new energy into all warlike operations. Large sub- 
 sidies were paid by France to Austria, Sweden, and Eussia, to 
 prepare for the campaign of 1758. 
 
 Frederick was soon aware that peace was out of the question 
 without farther fighting. Before the 1st of April he had one 
 hundred and forty-five thousand men ready for the field. Of 
 these, fifty-three thousand were in Silesia. Many of the Aus- 
 trian deserters were induced to join his standards. But the most 
 important event secured was forming a subsidy treaty with En- 
 gland. The British cabinet, alarmed in view of the power which 
 the successful prosecution of the war on the part of the allies 
 would give to France, after much hesitation, came to the aid of 
 Frederick, whom they hated as much as they feared France. On 
 the 11th of April, 1758, a treaty was signed between the English 
 court and Frederick, containing the following important item : 
 
 " That Frederick shall have six hundred and seventy thousand 
 pounds ($3,350,000), payable in London to his order, in October, 
 this year, which sum Frederick engages to spend wholly in the 
 maintenance and increase of his army for behoof of the common 
 object ; neither party to dream of making the least shadow of 
 peace or truce without the other." 
 
 Schweidnitz was strictly blockaded during the winter. On 
 the 15th of March, the weather being still cold, wet, and stormy, 
 Frederick marched from Br eslau to attack the place. His siege 
 artillery was soon in position. With his accustomed impetuosi- 
 ty he commenced the assault, and, after a terrific bombardment 
 of many days, on the night of the 15th of April took the works 
 by storm. The garrison, which had dwindled from eight thou- 
 sand to four thousand Hve hundred, was all captured, with fifty- 
 one guns, thirty-five thousand dollars of money, and a large 
 quantity of stores. Thus the whole of Silesia was again in the 
 hands of Frederick. 
 
 It was supposed that his Prussian majesty would now march 
 southwest for the invasion of Bohemia. Austria made vigorous 
 prejDarations to meet him there. Much to the surprise and be- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 449 
 
 wilderment of the Austrians, the latter part of April Frederick 
 directed his columns toward the southeast. His army, about 
 forty thousand strong, was in two divisions. By a rapid march 
 through Neisse and Jagerndorf he reached Troppau, on the ex- 
 treme southern frontier of Silesia. He then turned to the south- 
 west. It was again supposed that he intended to invade Bohe- 
 mia, but from the east instead of from the north. 
 
 General Daun, in command of the Austrian forces, rapidly 
 concentrated his troops around Leutomischel, where he had ex- 
 tensive magazines. But Frederick, leaving Leutomischel far 
 away on his right, pressed forward in a southerly direction, and 
 on the 12th of May appeared before Olrniitz. His march had 
 been rapidly and admirably conducted, dividing his troops into 
 columns for the convenience of road and subsistence. 
 
 Olmiitz was an ancient, strongly fortified city of Moravia, 
 pleasantly situated on the western banks of the Morawa River. 
 It had been the capital of Moravia, and contained about ten 
 thousand inhabitants. The place subsequently became renown- 
 ed from the imprisonment of Lafayette in its citadel for many 
 years. The city had become an arsenal, and one of the most im- 
 portant military store-houses of Austria. 
 
 Olmiitz was ninety miles from Troppau, in Silesia, where Fred- 
 erick had established his base of supplies. This was a long line 
 of communication to protect. General Daun, with a numerous 
 Austrian army, all whose movements were veiled by clouds of 
 those fleet and shaggy horsemen called Pandours, was forty miles 
 to the west, at Leutomischel. Cautious in the extreme, nothing 
 could draw him into a general battle. But he watched his foe 
 with an eagle eye, continually assailing his line of communica- 
 tion, and ever ready to strike his heaviest blows upon any ex- 
 posed point. 
 
 - The king's brother Henry was in command in Saxony, at the 
 head of thirty thousand troops. Frederick wrote to him the 
 characteristic and very judicious advice, " Do as energetically as 
 possible whatever seems wisest to you. But hold no councils 
 of war." 
 
 The plan of his Prussian majesty was bold and sagacious. 
 He supposed that he could easily take Olmiitz. Availing him- 
 self of the vast magazines to be found there, he would summon 
 
 Ff 
 
450 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 his brother Henry to join him by a rapid march through Bohe- 
 mia, and with their combined force of sixty thousand troops they 
 would make a rush upon Vienna. The Austrian capital was 
 distant but about one hundred miles, directly south. As the 
 Austrian army was widely dispersed, there were but few impedi- 
 ments to be encountered. The success of this plan would com- 
 pel the allies to withdraw their forces from the territories of the 
 King of Prussia, if it did not enable Frederick to dictate peace 
 in the palaces of Maria Theresa. 
 
 Olmiitz was found very strongly fortified. It was so situated 
 that, with the force Frederick had, it could not be entirely in- 
 vested. Baron Marshal, a very brave and energetic old man, 
 sixty-seven years of age, conducted the defense. 
 
 His garrison consisted of about fourteen thousand infantry 
 and six hundred dragoons. General Daun was at the distance 
 of but two marches, with a larger Austrian force than Frederick 
 commanded. Nothing can more clearly show the dread with 
 which the Austrians regarded their antagonist than the fact that 
 General Daun did not march immediately upon Olmiitz, and, 
 
 SIEGE OF OLMUTZ, MAY 12 — JULY 2, 1758. 
 
 i a. Stages of the Prussian March, b. Daun's Encampment, c. Prussian Batteries and Intrenchments. 
 ddd. Prussian Camps, e e. Loudon's March against MoseVs Convoy. //. MoseVs resting Quarters, g. Con- 
 voy attacked and ruined. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 451 
 
 with the aid of a sally from the garrison, overwhelm and crush 
 Frederick beneath their united assaults. 
 
 For seven weeks the siege of Olmiitz was prosecuted with 
 great vigor. With much skill Frederick protected his baggage 
 trains in their long and exposed route of ninety miles through 
 forests and mountain denies. General Keith was intrusted with 
 the details of the siege facing the town toward the east ; Freder- 
 ick, with a vigilant corps of horse and foot, was about twenty 
 miles to the west, watching every movement of General Daun, 
 so far as he was able through the thick cloud of Pandours, be- . 
 hind which the Austrian commander endeavored to conceal all 
 his manoeuvres. 
 
 While engaged in these labors the tidings reached him of the 
 death of his brother Augustus William. He was Prince of Prus- 
 sia, being, next to the childless Frederick, heir to the crown. 
 Frederick seems to have received the news very heartlessly. 
 
 " Of what did he die ?" he coldly inquired of the messenger. 
 
 " Of chagrin, your majesty," was the reply. 
 
 Frederick turned upon his heel, and made no answer. 
 
 The unhappy Prince of Prussia, on his dying bed, wrote a 
 very touching letter to his brother Frederick, remonstrating 
 against his conduct, which was not only filling Europe with 
 blood and misery, but which was also imperiling the existence 
 of the Prussian kingdom. 
 
 " The slow fever," he wrote, " which consumes me, has not 
 thrown any disorder into my understanding. Condescend to 
 listen to me, sire, now that I can not be suspected of any illusion 
 or deceit. There is an end to the house of Prussia if you con- 
 tinue to brave all Europe confederated against you. You force 
 all Europe to arm to repel your encroachments. The princes of 
 Europe are leagued against your majesty by justice and by in- 
 ' terest. Their subjects regard your ruin as essential to the re-es- 
 tablishment of peace and the safety of monarchical government. 
 They read in your success the slavery of the human race, the an- 
 nihilation of laws, the degradation of society." 
 
 In reference to the course which the king had allowed himself 
 to pursue in obtaining access to the archives of Saxony by brib- 
 ing an officer to betray his trust, Augustus William wrote : 
 
 " The more you have proved that you were acquainted with 
 
452 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 the intentions of Saxony, the more odious have you rendered its 
 invasion. In order to procure this knowledge, your minister has 
 degraded his character. By means proscribed in society, you 
 have discovered only that the King Elector of Saxony did not 
 love the power of Prussia, that he feared it, and that he even 
 dared to form projects to defend himself against it. Documents 
 which are stolen make against the accuser who produces them, 
 if they do not prove the crime which they impute."* 
 
 In conclusion, in most pathetic terms he entreated the king to 
 listen to terms of peace, and thus to prevent the ruin of himself, 
 of his people, and of his royal house. 
 
 At the same time that the tidings of the ^eath of Augustus 
 William were communicated to the king, he received also the 
 tidings, w T hich to him w 7 ere truly heart-rending, that Wilhelmina, 
 worn down with care and sorrow, was fast sinking into the grave. 
 
 Early in June, the cautious but ever- vigilant General Daun 
 succeeded in throwing into Olmiitz a re-enforcement of eleven 
 hundred Austrian troops. They were guided by peasants through 
 by-paths in the forests. Crossing the river some miles below 
 Olmiitz, they entered the city from the east. 
 
 Still, on the whole, the siege progressed favorably. Large sup- 
 plies of food and ammunition were indispensable to Frederick. 
 Thirty thousand hungry men were to be fed. A constant bom- 
 bardment rapidly exhausts even abundant stores of powder, 
 shot, and shell. 
 
 In the latter part of June a large train of over three thousand 
 four-horse wagons, laden with all necessary supplies, left Trop- 
 pau for Olmiitz. It is difficult for a reader unfamiliar with such 
 " scenes to form any conception of the magnitude of such an en- 
 terprise. There are twelve thousand horses to be shod, harness- 
 ed, and fed, and watered three or four times a day. There are 
 three thousand wagons to be kept in repair, rattling over the 
 stones and plowing through the mire. Six thousand teamsters 
 are required. There is invariably connected with such a move- 
 ment one or two thousand camp-followers, sutlers; women, vaga- 
 bonds. A large armed force is also needed to act as convoy. 
 
 This train filled the road for a distance of twenty miles. To 
 traverse the route of ninety miles required six days. The road 
 
 * Vie de Frederic II., Roi de Prusse, Strasbourg, 1788, t. ii., p. 317. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 453 
 
 led through forests and mountain defiles. A bold and vigorous 
 foe, well equipped and well mounted, watched the movement. 
 To protect such a train from assault is one of the most difficult 
 achievements of war. The enemy, suddenly emerging from 
 mountain fastnesses or gloomy forests, can select his point of at- 
 tack, and then sweep in either direction along the line, burning 
 and destroying. 
 
 On the 26th of June this vast train commenced its movement 
 from Troppau. A convoy of about seven thousand infantry and 
 eleven hundred cavalry guarded the wagons. They were in 
 three bodies, on the front, in the centre,. and on the rear. The 
 king also sent forward about six thousand horse and foot from 
 Olmutz to meet the train. 
 
 The wagons had accomplished about half the distance, when, 
 on Friday, the 30th of June, as they were emerging from wild 
 ravines among the mountains, they were simultaneously attacked 
 in front, centre, and rear by three divisions of the Austrians, each 
 about five thousand strong. Then ensued as terrible a scene of 
 panic and confusion as war has ever witnessed. The attack of 
 horsemen with their gleaming sabres, the storm of bullets, thick 
 as hailstones, the thunders of the cannon, as the ponderous balls 
 tore their way through wagons, and horses, and men, soon pre- 
 sented such a spectacle of devastation, ruin, and woe as mortal 
 eyes have seldom gazed upon. 
 
 " Among the tragic wrecks of this convoy there is one that still 
 goes to our heart. A longish, almost straight row of Prussian 
 recruits stretched among the slain, what are these \ These were 
 seven hundred recruits coming up from their cantons to the wars. 
 See how they have fought to the death, poor lads ! and have hon- 
 orably, on the sudden, got manumitted from the toils of life. 
 Seven hundred of them stood to arms this morning; some sixty- 
 * five will get back to Troppau ; that is the invoice account. There 
 they lie with their blonde young cheeks, beautiful in death."* 
 
 A large portion of the train was utterly destroyed. The re- 
 mainder was driven back to Troppau. The disaster was irrep- 
 arable. The tidings were conveyed to Frederick the next day, 
 July 1. They must have fallen upon him with crushing weight. 
 It was the annihilation of all his hopes for the campaign, and 
 
 * Carlvle. 
 
454: FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 rendered it necessary immediately to raise the siege and retreat. 
 This extraordinary man did not allow himself to manifest the 
 slightest despondency. He assembled his officers, and, with a 
 smiling face, and hopeful, cheering words, announced his decision. 
 
 All Saturday night the bombardment was continued with in- 
 creasing fury. In the mean time four thousand wagons were 
 packed, and, long before the dawn of Sunday morning, were on 
 the road. The retreat was so admirably conducted that General 
 Daun did not venture even to attempt to harass the retiring 
 columns. Instead of moving in a northerly direction to Silesia, 
 Frederick directed his march to the northwest, into Bohemia. 
 On the 8th of July his long column safely reached Leutomischel. 
 He there seized quite an amount of military stores, which Gen- 
 eral Daun, in his haste and bewilderment, had not been able to 
 remove or to destroy. Five more marches conducted him to 
 Koniggratz. 
 
 General Daun, with the utmost caution, followed the retreat- 
 ing army. Though his numbers were estimated at seventy-five 
 thousand, he did not dare to encounter Frederick with his thirty 
 thousand Prussians on the field of battle. With skill which has 
 elicited the applause of all military critics, Frederick, early in 
 August, continued his retreat till he reached, on the 8th of the 
 month, Griissau, on his own side of the mountains in Silesia. On 
 this march he wrote to his brother Henry from Skalitz : 
 
 " What you write to me of my sister of Baireuth makes me 
 tremble. Next to my mother, she is the one I have most ten- 
 derly loved in this world. She is a sister who has my heart and 
 all my confidence, and whose character is of a price beyond all 
 the crowns in the universe. From my tenderest years I was 
 brought up with her. You can conceive how there reigns be- 
 tween us that indissoluble bond of mutual affection and attach- 
 ment for life which in many cases were impossible. Would to 
 Heaven that I might die before her I" 
 
 On the 9th of August he wrote from Griissau to Wilhelmina 
 herself: " Oh, you, the dearest of my family, you whom I have 
 most at heart of all in this world, for the sake of whatever is 
 most precious to you, preserve yourself, and let me have at least 
 the consolation of shedding my tears in your bosom !" 
 
 Frederick had left Griissau on the 18th of April for his Mora- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 455 
 
 vian campaign. He returned on the 8th of August, after an ab- 
 sence of sixteen weeks. The campaign had proved an entire 
 failure. A Russian army, fifty thousand strong, under General 
 Fermor, had invaded Brandenburg, just beyond the extreme 
 northern frontier of Silesia. These semi-barbarian soldiers had 
 burned the town of Custrin, on the Oder, were besieging the 
 small garrison in its citadel, and were committing the most hor- 
 rid outrages upon the community around, not only plundering 
 and burning, but even consigning captives to the flames. 
 
 On Friday, the 11th of August, Frederick, leaving forty thou- 
 sand men to guard Silesia, took fifteen thousand troops, and com- 
 menced a very rapid march to attack the fifty thousand Russians. 
 Upon the eve of his departure he wrote to his brother Henry : 
 
 " I march to-morrow against the Russians. As the events of 
 war may lead to all sorts of accidents, and it may easily happen 
 to me to be killed, I have thought it my duty to let you know 
 what my plans were ; the rather, as you are the guardian of my 
 nephew,* with unlimited authority," 
 
 He then gave minute directions as to what he wished to have 
 done in case of his death. Marching rapidly through Liegnitz 
 and Hohenfriedberg, he reached Frankfort-on-the-Oder on Sun- 
 day, the 20th of August. He was now within twenty miles of 
 Custrin, and the bombardment by the heavy siege guns of the 
 Russians could be distinctly heard. Frederick took lodgings at 
 the house of a clergyman's widow. Frequently he arose and 
 went out of doors, listening impatiently to the cannonade. An 
 eye-witness writes : 
 
 " I observed that the king took a pinch of snuff as the sound 
 of each discharge reached him. And even through that air of 
 intrepidity, which never abandoned this prince, I could perceive 
 the sensations of pity toward that unfortunate town, and an 
 eager impatience to fly to its relief." 
 
 The next morning, taking with him a small escort, and leaving 
 his army to follow with as much speed as possible, he rode rap- 
 idly down the western bank of the Oder to Gorgast, where he 
 had an encampment of about fifteen thousand Prussian troops. 
 At five o'clock in the morning of Tuesday the two bands were 
 united. He now had at his command thirty thousand men. 
 
 * The son of the late Prince of Prussia. He was now heir to the crown. 
 
456 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Ciistrin was on the eastern bank of the Oder, near the confluence 
 of the Warta, A few miles below Ciistrin, at Schauniburg, there 
 were portions of a bridge across the Oder. Here the Russians 
 had erected a redoubt. Frederick ordered a violent attack upon 
 that redoubt. During the night, while the attention of the Rus- 
 sians was occupied by the assault, Frederick marched his army 
 twelve miles farther down the river, and crossed, without any 
 loss, at Giistebiese. His baggage train he left, carefully guarded, 
 on the western bank of the river. 
 
 Pressing straight forward, Wednesday morning, to the east, he 
 encamped that night about ten miles from Gnistebiese. He had 
 so successfully veiled his movements that the Russians knew not 
 where he was. On Thursday morning, August 24, at an early 
 hour, he resumed his march, and crossed the Mtitzel River at va- 
 rious points. His confidence of victory was so great that he de- 
 stroyed all the bridges behind him to prevent the retreat of the 
 Russians. 
 
 General Fermor was now informed, through his roving Cos- 
 sacks, of the position of Frederick. Immediately he raised the 
 siege of Ciistrin, hurried off his baggage train to Klein Kamin, 
 on the road to Landsberg, and retired with his army to a very 
 strong position near the village of Zorndorf. Here there was a 
 wild, bleak, undulating plain, interspersed with sluggish streams, 
 and fdrests, and impassable bogs. General Fermor massed the 
 Russian troops in a very irregular hollow square, with his staff 
 baggage in the centre, and awaited an attack. This huge quad- 
 rilateral of living lines, four men deep, with bristling bayonets, 
 prancing horses, and iron -lipped cannon, was about two miles 
 long by one mile broad. 
 
 At half past three o'clock on Friday morning, Frederick, with 
 his whole army, w^as again upon the march. He swept quite 
 around the eastern end of the Russian square, and approached 
 it from the south. By this sagacious movement he could, in case 
 of disaster, retreat to Ciistrin. 
 
 The morning of a hot August day dawned sultry, the wind 
 breathing gently from the south. Bands of Cossacks hovered 
 around upon the wings of the Prussian array, occasionally riding 
 up to the infantry ranks and discharging their pistols at them. 
 The Prussians were forbidden to make any reply. " The infantry 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 457 
 
 pours along like a plowman drawing his furrow, heedless of the 
 circling crows." The Cossacks set fire to Zorndorf. In a few 
 hours it was in ashes, while clouds of suffocating smoke were 
 swept through the Russian lines. 
 
 The attack was made about eight o'clock, with the whole con- 
 centrated force of the Prussians, upon the southwest wing of the 
 quadrilateral. The carnage produced by the Prussian batteries, 
 as their balls swept crosswise through the massed Russians, was 
 terrible.' One cannon-shot struck down forty -two men. For a 
 moment the Prussians were thrown into confusion by the de- 
 structive fire returned by the foe, and seemed discomfited. The 
 Russians plunged wildly forward, with loud huzzas. In the ea- 
 gerness of their onset their lines were broken. 
 
 General Seidlitz, with five thousand horsemen, immediately 
 dashed in among them. Almost in an instant the shouts of vic- 
 
 CHARGE OF GENERAL SEIDLITZ AT ZORNDORF. 
 
458 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 tory sank away in groans of death. It was an awful scene — a 
 maelstrom of chaotic tumult, shrieks, blood, and death. The 
 stolid Russians refused to fly. The Prussians sabred them and 
 trampled them beneath their horses' feet until their arms were 
 weary. This terrible massacre lasted until one o'clock. The 
 whole of the western portion of the quadrilateral was destroyed. 
 The Russian soldiers at a little distance from the scene of car- 
 nage, reckless and under poor discipline, broke open the sutlers' 
 brandy-casks, and were soon beastly drunk. The officers, endeav- 
 oring to restrain them, dashed in many of the casks. The sol- 
 diers, throwing themselves upon the ground, lapped the fiery 
 liquid from the puddles. They killed many of their own officers, 
 and became almost unresisting victims of the sabres and bayo- 
 nets of their assailants. The Prussians, exasperated by the aw- 
 ful acts of cruelty which had been perpetrated by the Russians, 
 showed no mercy. In the midst of the butchery, the word ran 
 along their lines, " No quarter." 
 
 The eastern half of the immense quadrangle endeavored to re- 
 form itself, so as to present a new front to the foe. But, before 
 this could be done, Frederick hurled his right wing, his centre, 
 and all that remained disposable of his left wing upon it. His 
 cavalry plunged into the disordered mass. His batteries, with 
 almost unprecedented rapidity of fire, tore the tumultuous and 
 panic-stricken ranks to shreds ; and his line of infantry, like a su- 
 pernatural wall of bristling steel, unwaveringly advanced, pour- 
 ing in upon the foe the most deadly volleys. 
 
 At one moment the Russian horse dashed against this line and 
 staggered it. Frederick immediately rushed into the vortex to 
 rally the broken battalions. At the same instant the magnifi- 
 cent squadrons of Seidlitz, five thousand strong, flushed with vic- 
 tory, swept like the storm -wind upon the Russian dragoons. 
 They were whirled back like autumn leaves before the gale. 
 About four o'clock the firing ceased. The ammunition on both 
 sides was nearly expended. For some time the Prussians had 
 been using the cartridge-boxes of the dead Russians. 
 
 And now ensued a conflict such as has seldom been witnessed 
 in modern times. The Russian soldiers would not run. Indeed, 
 the bridges over the Mutzel being broken down, they could only 
 plunge into the river and be drowned. Frenzied with brandy, 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 459 
 
 BATTLE OF ZORNDORF, AUGUST 25,1758. 
 
 a a. Prussian Army about to cross the Mutzel. bbb. Russian Army ranked for Battle, c. Russian Baggage, 
 d d. Pmssian Infantry, e e. Prussian Cavalry, f. Prussian Baggage. 
 
 they fought like tigers. " Then began a tug of deadly massacring 
 and wrestling, man to man, with bayonets, with butts of muskets, 
 with hands, even with teeth, such as was never seen before. The 
 shore of Mtitzel is thick with men and horses, who have tried to 
 cross, and lie swallowed in the ooze."* 
 
 This lasted till nightfall. As darkness veiled the awful scene 
 the exhausted soldiers dropped upon the ground, and, regardless 
 of the dead and of the groans of the wounded, borne heavily 
 upon the night air, slept almost side by side. It is appalling to 
 reflect upon what a fiend to humanity man has been, as revealed 
 in the history of the nations. All the woes of earth combined 
 are as nothing compared with the misery which man has inflict- 
 ed upon his brother. 
 
 During the night bands of barbarian, half-drunken Cossacks 
 ranged the field, plundering the wounded and the dead, friends 
 and foes alike, and thrusting their bayonets through those who 
 presented any remonstrance, or who might, by any possibility, 
 call them to account. Four hundred of these wretches the equal- 
 ly merciless Prussians drove into a barn, fastened them in, set 
 
 * Carlyle. 
 
460 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 fire to the building, and burned them all to ashes. During the 
 carnage of this bloody day the Russians lost, in killed, wounded, 
 and missing, 21,539. The Prussians lost 11,390, more than one 
 third of their number. 
 
 General Fermor availed himself of the darkness in withdraw- 
 ing his troops, now numbering but 28,000, a mile w T est from the 
 battle-field to a dense forest of firs, called Drewitz Heath. Fred- 
 erick arranged his little remaining band of but eighteen thou- 
 sand men in two lines, facing the foe. The next morning, Satur- 
 day, the 26th, General Fermor sent a request for a truce of three 
 days to bury the dead. The reply was, " Your proposal is en- 
 tirely inadmissible. The victor will bury the slain." There 
 was no serious resumption of the conflict on that day. Both 
 parties were alike exhausted, and had alike expended nearly all 
 their ammunition. Frederick's hussars had, however, found out 
 the position of the Russian baggage train, and had effectually 
 plundered a large portion of it. 
 
 Saturday night was very dark. A thick mist mantled the 
 landscape. About midnight, the Russians, feigning an artillery 
 attack upon a portion of the Prussian lines, commenced a retreat. 
 Groping their way through the woods south of Zorndorf, they 
 reached the great road to Landsberg, and retreated so rapidly 
 that Frederick could annoy them but little. 
 
 Several well-authenticated anecdotes are given respecting the 
 conduct of Frederick on this occasion, which illustrate the' vari- 
 ous phases in the character of this extraordinary man. The 
 evening before the battle of Zorndorf, the king, having completed 
 his arrangements for a conflict against vastly unequal numbers, 
 upon whose issue were dependent probably both his throne and 
 his life, sent for a member of his staff of some literary preten- 
 sions, and spent some time in criticising and amending one of the 
 poems of Rousseau. Was this an affected display of calmness, 
 the result of vanity? Was it an adroit measure to impress the 
 officers with a conviction of his own sense of security ? Was it 
 an effort to throw off the terrible pressure which was upon his 
 mind, as the noble Abraham Lincoln often found it to be a mor- 
 al necessity to indulge in a jest even amidst scenes of the great- 
 est anguish ? Whatever may have been the motive, the fact is 
 worthy of record. 
 
FREDERICK THE GEEAT. 461 
 
 Immediately after the battle Sir Andrew Mitchell called upon 
 the king to congratulate him upon his great victory. General 
 Seidlitz, who had led the two decisive cavalry charges, was in 
 the royal tent. The king, in reply to the congratulations of the 
 English minister, pointed to General Seidlitz and said, 
 
 " Had it not been for him, things would have had a bad look 
 by this time." 
 
 The town of Custrin, it will be remembered, was utterly con- 
 sumed, being set on fire by the shells of the Russians. The com- 
 mandant of the citadel was censured for not having prevented 
 the calamity. He immediately sought an interview with the 
 king, endeavoring to apologize for his conduct. The king, per- 
 haps justly, perhaps very unjustly, interrupted him, saying, 
 
 " I find no fault with you ; the blame is entirely my own in 
 having appointed you to such a post." 
 
 The utter ruin of the town of Custrin, and the misery of its 
 houseless and starving population, seemed to affect the king 
 deeply. To the inhabitants, who clustered around him, he said, 
 kindly, 
 
 " My children, I could not come to you sooner, or this calamity 
 should not have happened. Have a little patience, and I will 
 cause every thing to be rebuilt." 
 
 As has often been mentioned, the carnage of the battle-field 
 
 constitutes by no means the greater part of the miseries of war. 
 
 One of the sufferers from the conflagration of the city of Custrin 
 
 . gives the following graphic account of the scene. It was the 
 
 15th of August, 1758: 
 
 " The enemy threw, such a multitude of bombs and red-hot 
 balls into the city that by nine o'clock in the morning it burned, 
 with great fury, in three different places. The fire could not be 
 extinguished, as the houses were closely built, and the streets 
 harrow. The air appeared like a shower of fiery rain and hail. 
 The surprised inhabitants had not time to think of any thing 
 but of saving their lives by getting into the open fields. 
 
 " I, as well as many others, had hardly time to put on my 
 clothes. As I was leading my wife, with a young child in her 
 arms, and my other children and servants before me — who were 
 almost naked, having, ever since the first fright, run about as 
 they got out of bed — the bombs and reel-hot balls fell round 
 
462 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 about us. The bombs, in their bursting, dashed the houses to 
 pieces, and every thing that was in their way. Every body that 
 could got out of the town as fast as possible. The crowd of 
 naked and in the highest degree wretched people was vastly 
 great. 
 
 " Among the women were many of distinction, who had nei- 
 ther shoes nor stockings, nor hardly any thing else on, thinking 
 only of saving their lives. When I had seen my family in the 
 open field, I endeavored to return and save something, if possible, 
 but in vain. I could not force my way through the multitude 
 of people thronging out at the gate, some few with horses and 
 carriages, and others with the sick and bedridden on their backs. 
 The bombs and red-hot balls fell so thick that all thought them- 
 selves happy if they could but escape with their lives. 
 
 " Many thousands are made miserable, inhabitants as well as 
 strangers. Many from the open country and defenseless towns 
 in Prussia, Pomerania, and the New Marche had fled hither, with 
 their most valuable effects, in hopes of security when the Eus- 
 sians entered the Prussian territories ; so that a great many who, 
 a little while ago, were possessed of considerable fortunes, are 
 now reduced to beggary. On the roads nothing was to be seen 
 but misery, and nothing to be heard but such cries and lament- 
 ations as were enough to move even the stones. No one knew 
 where to get a morsel of bread, nor what to do for farther sub- 
 sistence. The fire was so furious that the cannon in the- store 
 and artillery houses were all melted. The loaded bombs and 
 cartridges for cannon and muskets, with a large quantity of gun- 
 powder, went off at once with a most horrible explosion. The 
 fury of the enemy fell almost entirely upon . the inhabitants. 
 They did not begin to batter the fortifications, except with a few 
 shot, till the 17th, after the rest was all destroyed."* 
 
 * London Magazine, vol. xxvii., p. 670. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 463 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Frederick's Attempt to Rescue his Brother. — Captured Dispatches. — Battle of Hochkirch. — 
 Defeat and Retreat of Frederick. — Death of Wilhelmina. — Letter to Voltaire. — Rejoicings at 
 Vienna. — The Siege of Neisse. — The Siege of Dresden. — Conflagrations and Terror. — The 
 Siege raised by Frederick. — Results of the Third Campaign. — Unavailing Efforts for Peace. 
 — Despair of Frederick. 
 
 The battle of Zorndorf was the most bloody of the Seven 
 Years' War. It is often considered the most furious battle which 
 was ever fought. While Frederick was engaged in this arduous 
 campaign in the extreme north, driving the Russians from the 
 Prussian territory, an Austrian army, ninety thousand strong, 
 under General Daun, was endeavoring to reconquer Saxony. 
 The Prussian king had left his brother Henry in defense of the 
 province, with a small force garrisoned in the city of Dresden. 
 
 On the 2d of September, 1758, Frederick, advancing from the 
 smouldering ruins of Custrin, pushed forward his columns by 
 forced marches for the rescue of his brother, who was nearly sur- 
 rounded by vastly outnumbering foes. While upon this rapid 
 march an Austrian courier was captured, with the following dis- 
 patch, which he was bearing from General Daun to General Fer- 
 mor, whose army of Russians had just been so terribly beaten 
 by Frederick upon the field of Zorndorf, but of which fact the 
 Austrian general had not yet been apprised : 
 
 "Your excellency does not know that wily enemy, the King 
 of Prussia, as well as Ldo. By no means get into a battle with 
 him. Cautiously manoeuvre about. Detain him there till I 
 have got my stroke in Saxony done. Don't try fighting him. 
 
 "Dau^." 
 
 Frederick, with grim humor characteristic of him, sent back 
 the courier with the following response, as if from the Russian 
 general, signed Fermor, but in the king's handwriting ; 
 
464 
 
 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 "Your excellency was right to warn me against a cunning en- 
 emy whom you know better than I. Here have I tried fighting 
 him, and have got beaten. Your unfortunate Fermoe." 
 
 On the 12th of September Frederick dined with his brother 
 Henry in Dresden. General Daun, as soon as he heard of the 
 approach of the foe whom he so much dreaded, rapidly retreated 
 
 eastward to Stolpen, on the road to Bautzen. Here he intrench- 
 ed himself in one of the strongest posts in Germany. As Fred- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 465 
 
 erick, at Dresden, received his supplies from Bautzen, he was 
 much embarrassed in having his line of communication thus cut. 
 Finding all his efforts vain to provoke Daun to a battle, after 
 four weeks of such endeavors, he loaded his baggage trains with 
 supplies for nine days, and by a rapid march, brushing away in 
 the movement Daun's right flank, and advancing through Baut- 
 zen, established himself among the hills of Hochkirch. He had 
 thus taken position thirty miles east of General Daun's encamp- 
 ment at Stolpen, cutting off his line of supply. 
 
 This movement of Frederick took place on the 1st of October, 
 1758. On the 5th, General Daun, who stood in great dread of 
 the military ability of his foe, after holding a council of war, 
 made a stealthy march, in a dark and rainy night, a little to the 
 south of Frederick's encampment, and took a strong position 
 about a mile east of him, at Kittlitz, near Lobau. With the ut- 
 most diligence he reared intrench inents and palisades to guard 
 himself from attack by a foe whom he outnumbered more than 
 two to one. He thus again blocked Frederick's direct commu- 
 nication with Silesia. 
 
 General Daun's army, numbering ninety thousand men, occu- 
 pied very strong positions in a line extending north and south 
 about iive miles. On the 10th, Frederick, having obtained the 
 needful supplies, resolutely, rashly — but, situated as he was, 
 what the world deemed rashness was prudence — advanced with 
 but twenty-eight thousand men to assail this foe of ninety thou- 
 sand behind his intrenchments. About five miles to the north, 
 in the rear of the heights of Weissenberg, Frederick had a re- 
 serve of ten or twelve thousand men under General Betzow. 
 
 As the Prussian king brought up his little army to within a 
 mile of the lines of General Daun, and ordered the troops to take 
 position there, his boldest generals were appalled. It seemed to 
 Be courting sure and utter destruction. The king's favorite ad- 
 jutant general, Marwitz, ventured to remonstrate against so fear- 
 ful a risk. He was immediately ordered under arrest. The line 
 was formed while the Austrian cannon were playing incessantly 
 upon it. General Betzow, who for some cause had failed to 
 seize the heights of Stromberg, was also placed under arrest. 
 Thus the king taught all that he would be obeyed implicitly 
 and without questioning. 
 
 Go 
 
4G6 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 General Keith, as he looked upon the long and compact lines 
 of General Daun, and saw how apparently easy it would be for 
 him, from his commanding position, to annihilate the Prussian 
 army, said to the king, sadly, 
 
 " If the Austrians do not attack us here they deserve to be 
 hanged." 
 
 The king coolly replied, " We must hope that they are more 
 afraid of us than even of the gallows." 
 
 On Friday, the 13th of October, the two hostile armies, sepa- 
 rated merely by a brook and a ravine, were within half a mile 
 of each other. Daun had manifested great timidity in not ven- 
 turing from behind his intrenchments to attack the little band 
 of Prussians. Frederick, emboldened by this cowardice on the 
 part of his opponent, made his arrangements to assail the Aus- 
 trians in a secret attack before the dawn of the morning of Sat- 
 urday, the 14th. In the mean time, Daun, probably a little 
 ashamed of being held at bay by so small a force, formed his 
 plan to surround and destroy the whole Prussian army. It is 
 generally conceded by military critics that the plan was admira- 
 bly conceived, and would have been triumphantly executed but 
 for the singular ability displayed by Frederick. 
 
 General Daun directed the energies of his ninety thousand 
 troops upon the right wing of the Prussians, which could not 
 number more than twenty thousand men. As soon as it was 
 dark on Friday night, the 13th, he sent thirty thousand men, un- 
 der guides familiar with every rod of the country, by a circui- 
 tous route, south of the Prussian lines, through forest roads, to 
 take position on the west of the Prussian right wing, just in its 
 rear. General Daun himself accompanied this band of picked 
 men. 
 
 At three o'clock of a dark and misty morning, the Austrians 
 from the west, the south, and the east rushed upon the sleeping 
 Prussians. At the same time, an attack was made upon the left 
 wing of the Prussians, which was a feint to bewilder them, and 
 to prevent re-enforcements from being sent to the right wing. 
 For five hours there was a scene of tumult, confusion, and horror 
 which can neither be described nor imagined. The morning 
 was dark, the fog dense, and the Prussians, though ever on the 
 alert, were taken by surprise. No one in the army of Frederick 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 467 
 
 thought either of running or of surrendering. It was a hand-to- 
 hand fight, with bayonets, and sabres, and butts of muskets. 
 Marshal Keith, after receiving two bullet- wounds which he did 
 not regard, was shot through the heart. 
 
 As the morning dawned it was manifest to Frederick that the 
 battle was lost, and that there was no salvation for the remnant 
 of his troops but in a precipitate retreat. He had lost a hun- 
 dred pieces of cannon, nearly all of his tents and camp furniture, 
 and over eight thousand of his brave troops were either dead or 
 
468 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 captive. Though the Austrians had lost about the same num- 
 ber of men, they had still over eighty thousand left. 
 
 With wonderful skill, Frederick conducted his retreat about 
 four miles to the northwest. Here lie took a strong position at 
 Doberschutz, and again bade defiance to the Austrians. Slowly, 
 proudly, and in perfect order he retired, as if merely shifting his 
 ground. His cavalry was drawn up as on parade, protecting his 
 baggage -wagons as they defiled through the pass of Drehsa. 
 The Austrians gazed quietly upon the movement, not venturing 
 to renew the attack by daylight upon suck desperate men. 
 
 Though, as we may see from Frederick's private correspond- 
 ence, he suffered terribly in these hours of adversity and peril, 
 he assumed in public a tranquil and even a jocose air. Meeting 
 De Catt upon the evening of that dreadful day, he approached 
 him, smiling, and with theatric voice and gesture declaimed a 
 passage from Kacine, the purport of which was, " Well, here you 
 see me not a conqueror, but vanquished." 
 
 While on the retreat, one of his aids approached him, and the 
 king, with a smile, said, " Daun has played me a slippery trick 
 to-day." 
 
 " I have seen it," was the reply ; " but it is only a scratch, 
 which your majesty will soon heal again." 
 
 " Do you think so ?" inquired the king. 
 
 " Not only I," the aid replied, " but the whole army, firmly be- 
 lieve it of your majesty." 
 
 "You are quite right," responded the king. "We will man- 
 age Daun. What I lament is the number of brave men who 
 have died this morning." 
 
 The next day he remarked, u Daun has let us out of check- 
 mate. The game is not lost yet. We will rest ourselves here 
 for a few days, then we will go to Silesia and deliver Neisse. 
 But where are all your guns V] he said, playfully, to an artillery- 
 man, who stood, vacant, on parade. 
 
 " Your majesty," replied the gunner, " the devil stole them all 
 last night." 
 
 " Ah !" said the king, gayly, " we must have them back from 
 him again." 
 
 The fourth day after this dreadful defeat the king received 
 the tidings of the death of Wilhelmina. It was apparently the 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 469 
 
 heaviest blow lie had ever encountered. The anguish which her 
 death caused him he did not attempt to conceal. In a business 
 letter to Prince Henry we find this burst of feeling : 
 
 " Great God ! my sister of Baireuth, my noble Wilhelmina, 
 dead ; died in the very hours while we were fighting here." 
 
 The king, in a letter to Voltaire upon this occasion, writes : 
 
 " It will have been easy for you to conceive my grief when 
 you reflect upon the loss I have had. There are some misfor- 
 tunes which are reparable by constancy and courage, but there 
 are others against which all the firmness with which one can arm 
 one's self, and all the reasonings of philosophers, are only vain 
 and useless attempts at consolation.* Of the latter kind is the 
 one with which my unhappy fate overwhelms me, at a moment 
 the most embarrassing and the most anxious of my whole life. I 
 have not been so sick as you have heard. My only complaints 
 are colics, sometimes hemorrhoidal, and sometimes nephritic. 
 
 "If it had depended upon me, I would willingly have devoted 
 myself to that death which those maladies sooner or later bring 
 upon one, in order to save and prolong the life of her whose eyes 
 are now closed. I beseech you never to forget her. Collect all 
 your powers to raise a monument to her honor. You need only 
 do her justice. Without any way abandoning the truth, she will 
 afford you an ample and beautiful subject. I wish you more re- 
 pose and happiness than falls to my lot. Frederick.'^ 
 
 The court at Vienna received with transports of joy the tid- 
 ings of the victory of Hochkirch. The pope was greatly elated. 
 He regarded the battle as one between the Catholic and Prot- 
 estant powers. The holy father, Clement XIIL, sent a letter of 
 congratulation to. Marshal Daun, together with a sword and hat, 
 both blessed by his holiness. The occurrence excited the deri- 
 sion of Frederick, who was afterward accustomed to designate 
 his opponent as " the blessed general with the papal hat." Fred- 
 erick remained at Doberschiitz ten days. During this time his 
 brother Henry joined him from Dresden with six thousand foot 
 
 * This confession of the king is worthy of notice. His philosophy afforded him no consolation 
 in these hours of anguish. It is faith in Christ alone which can " take from death its sting, and 
 from the grave its victory." t Correspondance de Voltaire avec le Roi de Prusse. 
 
470 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 and horse. This raised his force to a little above thirty thousand 
 men. General Finck was left in command of the few Prussian 
 troops who remained for the defense of the capital of Saxony. 
 
 The Austrian general, flushed with victory, at the head of 
 eighty thousand troops, encamped in strong positions a few miles 
 east of Frederick, on the road to Neisse, in Silesia. Narrowly he 
 watched the movements of his Prussian majesty, but he did not 
 venture to molest him. Neisse was at that time closely besieged 
 by the Austrians. It would inevitably soon fall into their hands 
 unless Frederick could march to its succor. The great strategic 
 object of the Austrian commander was so to block up the road 
 as to prevent the advance of the Prussian troops. Frederick, de- 
 spising the inactivity of his cautious foe, said to his brother, 
 
 " Daun has thrown up his cards, so the game is not yet lost. 
 Let us repose ourselves for some days, and then go to the assist- 
 ance of Neisse."* 
 
 In the mean while, Marshal Daun was so confident that Fred- 
 erick, with but thirty thousand men, could not drive him from 
 his intrenchments, guarded by eighty thousand veteran troops, 
 that he wrote to General Harsch, who was conducting the siege 
 of Neisse, 
 
 " Go on quietly with your siege. I have the king within my 
 grasp. He is cut off from Silesia except by attacking me. If he 
 does that, I hope to give you a good account of what happens."f 
 
 On Tuesday evening, October 24, 1758, Frederick, in a ra]}id 
 and secret march, protected by darkness, pushed his whole army 
 around the right wing of the Austrian encampment, and took a 
 very strong position at Reichenbach, in the rear of Marshal Daun, 
 and on the road to Neisse. The Austrian general, astonished at 
 this bold and successful manoeuvre, now found that the march 
 of Frederick to Neisse could by no possibility be prevented ex- 
 cept by attacking him on his own chosen ground. This he did 
 not dare to do. He therefore resolved to make a rush with his 
 whole army to the west for the capture of Dresden. Frederick, 
 in the mean time, by forced marches, was pressing forward to the 
 east for the relief of Neisse. Thus the two armies were flying 
 from each other in opposite directions. 
 
 * Archenholtz, Histoire de la Guerre de Sept Ans. 
 t Histoire de la Guerre de Sept Ans, par Frederic II. 
 
EEEDEEICK THE GEEAT. 471 
 
 When the Austrian general conducting the siege at Neisse 
 heard of the rapid approach of Frederick, he, in consternation, 
 blew up many of his works, abandoned several guns, and, on the 
 6th of November, fled with his army over the hills to the south, 
 to take shelter in Austria. Frederick triumphantly entered 
 Neisse, and, having driven the Austrians from every outpost, 
 commenced, with a recruited army, his return march to Dresden. 
 The more slow-footed Daun did not reach Dresden till the 8th 
 of the month. The city, outside of the walls, was crowded with 
 the dwellings of the more respectable citizens, and the beautiful 
 mansions of the wealthy. The King of Poland was Elector of 
 Saxony, and was in alliance with Austria. For the Austrian 
 commander to pursue any measure which should lead to the de- 
 struction, in whole or in part, of this beautiful capital, would in- 
 flict a terrible blow upon the subjects of the ally of Austria. 
 
 As General Daun approached the city, the Prussian general 
 who had been left in command of the small garrison there sent 
 word to him that, should he menace Dresden with his forces, the 
 Prussian commander would be under the necessity of setting fire 
 to the suburbs, as a measure of self-defense. Daun, expostulating 
 vehemently against so cruel an act, regardless of the menace, ap- 
 proached the city on the 9th of November, and at midnight com- 
 menced rearing his batteries for the bombardment. In the mean 
 time the Prussian general had filled many of the largest houses 
 with combustibles. As the clock struck three in the morning 
 the torch was applied. The unhappy inhabitants had but three 
 hours' notice that their houses were to be surrendered to destruc- 
 tion. Instantly the flames burst forth with terrific fury in all 
 directions. Sir Andrew Mitchel, who witnessed the conflagra- 
 tion, writes : 
 
 " The whole suburb seemed on a blaze. Nay, you would have 
 said the whole town 'was environed in flames. I will not de- 
 scribe to your lordship the horror, the terror, the confusion of 
 this night ; the wretched inhabitants running with their furni- 
 ture toward the great garden. All Dresden, in appearance, girt 
 with flames, ruin, and smoke." 
 
 The army of General Daun, with its re-enforcements, amounted 
 to one hundred thousand men. The Prussian garrison in the 
 city numbered but ten thousand. The Prussian officer then in 
 
472 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 command, General Schmettau, emboldened by the approach of 
 Frederick, repelled all proposals for capitulation. 
 
 "I will defend myself," he said, "by the known rules of war 
 and honor to the last possible moment." 
 
 On the 15th of November Frederick arrived at Lauban, with- 
 in a hundred miles of Dresden. General Daun immediately 
 raised the siege and. retired into Bohemia. Frederick marched 
 triumphantly into the city. Thus, as the extraordinary result of 
 the defeat at Hochkirch, Frederick, by the exhibition of military 
 ability which astonished Europe, regained Neisse, retained Dres- 
 den, and swept both Silesia and Saxony entirely free of his foes. 
 Frederick remained in Dresden about a month. He then retired 
 to Breslau, in Silesia, for winter quarters. The winter was a very 
 sad one to him. Private griefs and public calamities weighed 
 heavily upon his heart* Though during the year he had de- 
 stroyed a hundred thousand of his enemies, he had lost thirty 
 thousand of his own brave little band. It was almost impossi- 
 ble, by any energies of conscription, to replace this waste of war. 
 His treasury was exhausted. Though he wrenched from the 
 wretched Saxons every dollar which military rapacity and vio- 
 lence could extort from them, still they were so impoverished by 
 the long and desolating struggle that but little money could be 
 found in the almost empty purses of a beggared people. Anoth- 
 er campaign was soon to open, in which the allies, with almost 
 unlimited resources of men and treasure, would again come crowd- 
 ing upon him in all directions in overpowering numbers. 
 
 In a letter to his friend Lord Marischal, dated Dresden, No- 
 vember 23, 1758, just after the retreat of Daun into Bohemia 
 from Saxony, Frederick writes sadly, 
 
 " There is nothing left for us, my clear lord, but to mingle and 
 blend our weeping for the losses we have had. If my head were 
 a fountain of tears, it would not suffice for the grief I feel. 
 
 " Our campaign is over. And there is nothing come of it on 
 the one side or the other but the loss of a great many worthy 
 people, the misery of a great many poor soldiers crippled forever, 
 
 * "The loss of his Wilhelmina, had there heen no other grief, has darkened all his life to Fred- 
 erick. Readers are not prepared for the details of grief we could give, and the settled gloom of 
 mind they indicate. A loss irreparable and immeasurable ; the light of life, the one heart that 
 loved him, gone. All winter he dwells internally on the sad matter, though soon falling silent 
 on.it to others." — Carlyle, vol. v., p. 318. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 473 
 
 the ruin of some provinces, and the ravage, pillage, and confla- 
 gration of some flourishing towns. These are exploits which 
 make humanity suffer; sad fruits of the wickedness and ambi- 
 tion of certain people in power, who sacrifice every thing to their 
 unbridled passions. I w T ish you, mon cher milord, nothing that 
 has the least resemblance to my destiny, and every thing that is 
 wanting to it." 
 
 Thus ended in clouds, darkness, and woe the third campaign 
 of the Seven Years' War. The winter was employed by both 
 parties in preparing for a renewal of the struggle. As the spring 
 opened the allies had in the field such a military array as Eu- 
 rope had never seen before. Three hundred thousand men ex- 
 tended in a cordon of posts from the Giant Mountains, near the 
 borders of Silesia, to the ocean. In the north, also, Kussia had 
 accumulated her vast armies for vigorous co-operation with the 
 southern troops. All the leading Continental powers — France, 
 Austria, Russia, Sweden, and the states of the German Empire — 
 were combined against Prussia. England alone was the ineffi- 
 cient ally of Frederick. Small sums of money were loaned him 
 from the British cabinet; and the court of St. James, hostile in 
 heart to the Prussian king, co-operated w^ith him only so far as 
 was deemed essential for the promotion of British interests. 
 
 Perhaps never before was a monarch surrounded by difficul- 
 ties so great. The energy and sagacity Frederick displayed have 
 never been surpassed, if ever equaled. 
 
 It was a dreary winter to Frederick in Breslau. Sad, silent, 
 and often despairing, he was ever inflexibly resolved to struggle 
 till the last possible moment, and, if need be, to bury himself be- 
 neath the ruins of his kingdom. All his tireless energies he de- 
 voted to the Herculean work before him. No longer did he af- 
 fect gayety or seek recreations. Secluded, solitary, sombre, he 
 took counsel of no one. In the possession of absolute power, he 
 issued his commands as with the authority of a god. 
 
 Frederick made several unavailing efforts during the winter 
 to secure peace. He was weary of a Avar which threatened his ut- 
 ter destruction. The French were also weary of a struggle in 
 which they encountered but losses and disgraces. England had 
 but little to hope for from the conflict, and would gladly see the 
 exhaustive struggle brought to a close. 
 
474 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " Many men in all nations long for peace. But there are three 
 women at the top of the world who do not. Their wrath, vari- 
 ous in quality, is great in quantity, and disasters do the reverse 
 of appeasing it."* 
 
 Of these three women who then held the destinies of Europe 
 in their hands, one only, Maria Theresa, in the estimation of the 
 public, had good cause for war. Frederick was undeniably a 
 highway robber, seeking to plunder her. She was heroically, 
 nobly struggling in self-defense. The guilty Duchess of Pompa- 
 dour, who, having the entire control of the infamous king, Louis 
 XV., was virtually the Empress of France, stung by an insult 
 from Frederick, did not hesitate to deluge Europe in blood, that 
 she might take the vengeance of a " woman scorned" upon her 
 foe. Catharine II., Empress of Russia, who in moral pollution 
 rivaled the most profligate of kings — whom Carlyle satirizes as 
 " a kind of she Louis XIV." — also stung by one of Frederick's 
 witty and bitter epigrams, was mainly impelled by personal 
 pique to push forth her armies into the bloody field. 
 
 The impartial student of history must admit that, were the 
 government of the world taken from the hands of men, and 
 placed in the hands of women, still the anticipated millennium 
 of righteousness and peace might be far distant. 
 
 In the following letter, which Frederick wrote at this time 
 to his friend D'Argens, he unbosoms his sorrows with unusual 
 frankness. The letter was dated Breslau, March 1, 1759 : 
 
 "I have passed my winter like a Carthusian monk. I dine 
 alone. I spend my life in reading and writing, and I do not sup. 
 When one is sad, it becomes, at last, too burdensome to hide one's 
 grief continually. It is better to give way to it than to carry 
 one's gloom into society. Nothing solaces me but the vigorous 
 application required in steady and continuous labor. This dis- 
 traction does force one to put away painful ideas while it lasts. 
 But alas ! no sooner is the work done than these fatal compan- 
 ions present themselves again, as if livelier than ever. Mauper- 
 tuis was right ; the sum of evil does certainly surpass that of 
 good. But to me it is all one. I have almost nothing more to 
 lose; and my few remaining days — what matters it much of 
 what complexion they be ?" 
 
 * Carlyle, vol. v., p. 314. 
 
FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 475 
 
 During this dismal winter of incessant and almost despairing 
 labor the indefatigable king wrote several striking treatises on 
 military affairs. It is manifest that serious thoughts at times 
 occupied his mind. He doubtless reflected that if there were a 
 God who took any cognizance of human affairs, there must be 
 somewhere responsibility to Him for the woes with which these 
 wars were desolating humanity. To the surprise of De Catt, the 
 king presented him one evening with a sermon upon " The Last 
 Judgment," from his own pen. He also put upon paper his 
 thoughts " On the new kind of tactics necessary with the Aus- 
 trians and their allies." He seems himself to have been sur- 
 prised that he had been able so long to resist such overpowering 
 numbers. In allusion to the allies he writes : 
 
 " To whose continual sluggishness and strange want of con- 
 cert — to whose incoherency of movements, languor of execution, 
 and other enormous faults, we have owed, with some excuse for 
 our own faults, our escape from destruction hitherto."* 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 FOURTH CAMPAIGN OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 
 
 Desperate Exertions of Frederick. — Aid from England. — Limited Eesources. — Opening of the 
 Campaign. — Disgraceful Conduct of Voltaire. — Letter to Voltaire. — An Act of Desperation. 
 — Letter to Count Finckenstein. — Frankfort taken by the Prussians. — Terrible Battle of 
 Kunersdorf. — Anguish of Frederick. — The Disastrous Retreat. — Melancholy Dispatch. — 
 Contemplating Suicide. — Collecting the Wrecks of the Army. — Consternation in Berlin. — 
 Letters to D'Argens. — Wonderful Strategical Skill. — Literary Efforts of the King. 
 
 By the most extraordinary exertions, which must have almost 
 depopulated his realms of all the young men and those of mid- 
 dle age, Frederick succeeded in so filling up his depleted ranks 
 as to have in the opening spring of 1759 two hundred thousand 
 men in field and garrison. Indeed, regardless of all the laws of 
 nations, he often compelled the soldiers and other men of con- 
 quered provinces to enlist in his armies. How he, in his pover- 
 ty, obtained the pecuniary resources requisite to the carrying on 
 of such a war, is to the present day a matter of amazement. 
 
 England furnished him with a subsidy of about four million 
 dollars. He immediately melted this coin, gold and silver, and 
 adulterated it with about half copper, thus converting his four 
 
 * (Euvres de Frederic, t. xix. , p. 56. 
 
476 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 millions into nominally eight millions. But a few weeks of such 
 operations as he was engaged in would swallow up all this. 
 The merciless conscription, grasping nearly every able-bodied 
 man, destroyed nearly all the arts of industry. The Prussian 
 realms, thus impoverished by war's ravages and taxation, could 
 furnish the king with very meagre supplies. When the king 
 invaded any portion of the territory of the allies, he wrenched 
 from the beggared people every piece of money which violence 
 or terror could extort. Wealthy merchants were thrown into 
 prison, and fed upon bread and water until they yielded. The 
 most terrible severities were practiced to extort contributions 
 from towns which had been stripped and stripped again. Still 
 violence could wrench but little from the skinny hand of beg- 
 gary. These provinces, swept by war's surges year after year, 
 were in the most deplorable state of destitution and misery. 
 
 From the schedule which Frederick has given of his resources, 
 it seems impossible that he could have raised more than about 
 fifteen million dollars annually, even counting his adulterated 
 coin at the full value. How, with this sum, he could have suc- 
 cessfully confronted all combined Europe, is a mystery which 
 has never yet been solved. It was the great object of both par- 
 ties in this terrible conflict to destroy every thing in the enemy's 
 country which could by any possibility add to military power. 
 All the claims of humanity were ignored. The starvation of 
 hundreds of thousands of peasants — men, women, and children 
 — was a matter not to be taken into consideration. The French 
 minister, in Paris, wrote to Marshal De Contades on the 5th of 
 October, 1758, 
 
 "You must make a desert of Westphalia. With regard to the 
 countries ofLippe and Padeborn, as these are very fertile prov- 
 inces, you must take great care to destroy every thing in them 
 without exception." 
 
 Early in the spring of 1759 the Prussian king had gathered 
 the main body of his troops in fortresses and strong positions in 
 the vicinity of Landshut, on the southwestern frontier of Silesia. 
 The enemy, under General Daun, faced him, in longer and denser 
 lines, equally well intrenched. At the same time, powerful bands 
 of the allies were in various parts of Europe, menacing the do- 
 mains of Frederick at every vulnerable point. The allies dread- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 477 
 
 ed the prowess of their foe. Frederick was compelled to caution 
 by the exhaustless numbers of his opponents. Thus for many 
 weeks neither party entered upon any decisive action. There 
 was, however, an almost incessant series of fierce and bloody 
 skirmishes. 
 
 The ability which Frederick displayed in striking his enemies 
 where they would most keenly feel the infliction, and in ward- 
 ing off the blows they attempted in return, excited then the sur- 
 prise of Europe, and has continued to elicit the astonishment of 
 posterity. It would but weary the reader to attempt a descrip- 
 tion of these conflicts at the outposts, terrible as they often were. 
 
 During this time, in May, the king wrote a very bitter and sa- 
 tirical ode against Louis XV. — " the plaything of the Pompa- 
 dour," " polluted with his amours," " and disgracefully surrender- 
 ing the government of his realms to chance." The ode he sent 
 to Voltaire. The unprincipled poet, apprehending that the ode 
 might come to light, and that he might be implicated, treacher- 
 ously sent it to the prime minister, the Duke De Choiseul, to be 
 shown to the king. At the same time, he wrote to Frederick 
 that he had burned the ode. In the account which Voltaire 
 himself gives of this disgraceful transaction, he writes : 
 
 " The packet had been opened. The king would think I was 
 guilty of high treason, and I should be in disgrace with Madame 
 De Pompadour. I was obliged, in order to prevent my ruin, to 
 make known to the court the character and conduct of their en- 
 emy. 
 
 " I knew that the Duke De Choiseul would content himself 
 with persuading the. King of France that the King of Prussia 
 was an irreconcilable enemy, whom it was therefore necessary, if 
 possible, to annihilate. 
 
 "I wrote to Frederick that his ode was beautiful, but that he 
 had better not make it public, lest it should close all the avenues 
 to a reconciliation with the King of France, incense him irreme- 
 diably, and thus force him to strain every nerve in vengeance. 
 
 " I added that my niece had burned his ode from fear that it 
 should be imputed to me. He believed me and thanked me ; 
 not, however, without some reproaches for having burned the 
 best verses he had ever made."* 
 
 * Memoires pour servir a la Vie de M. De Voltaire, Ecrit par Lui-meme. 
 
478 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 The latter part of June, an army of a hundred thousand Bus- 
 sians, having crossed the Vistula, was concentrated, under Gen- 
 eral Soltikof, at Posen, on the Biver Warta, in Poland. They 
 were marching from the northeast to attack the Prussian forces 
 near Landshut in their rear. General Daun, with a still larger 
 force of Austrians, was confronting Frederick on the southwest. 
 The plan of the allies was to crush their foe between these two 
 armies. Frederick had lost the ablest of his generals. The 
 young men who were filling their places were untried. 
 
 The Eussians, triumphantly advancing, entered Silesia, and 
 reached Crossen, on the Oder, within a hundred miles of Fred- 
 erick's encampment. 
 
 Some trifling unavailing efforts had been made for peace. In 
 reply to a letter from Voltaire, alluding to this subject, Freder- 
 ick wrote, under date of 2d July, 1759 : 
 
 " Asking me for peace is indeed a bitter joke. It is to Louis 
 XV. you must address yourself, or to his Amboise in petticoats* 
 But these people have their heads filled with ambitious projects. 
 They wish to be the sovereign arbiters of sovereigns. That is 
 what persons of my way of thinking will by no means put up 
 with. I like peace as much as you could wish, but I want it 
 good, solid, and honorable. Socrates or Plato would have 
 thought as I do on this subject had they found themselves in 
 the accursed position which is mine in the world. 
 
 " Think you there is any pleasure in living this dog's life, in 
 seeing and causing the butchery of people you know nothing of, 
 in losing daily those you do know and love, in seeing perpetual- 
 ly your reputation exposed to the caprices of chance, passing 
 year after year in disquietudes and apprehensions, in risking 
 without end your life and your fortune % 
 
 " I know right well the value of tranquillity, the sweets of so- 
 ciety, the charms of life. I love to be happy as much as any one 
 whatever. But, much as I desire these blessings, I will not pur- 
 chase them by baseness and infamies. Philosophy enjoins us to 
 do our duty faithfully, to serve our country at the price of our 
 blood, of our repose, and of every sacrifice which can be required 
 of us."f 
 
 Soon after this Frederick dispatched a young and impetuous 
 
 * The Duchess of Pompadour. f GZuvres de Frederic, t. xxiii. , p. 53. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 479 
 
 officer, General Wedell, invested with dictatorial powers, at the 
 head of twenty-six thousand men, to attack the Russian army, 
 at every hazard, and arrest its march. The heroic little band of 
 Prussians met the Russians at Ztillichau. One of General We- 
 dell's officers remonstrated against the attack. 
 
 " The risk is too great," said he ; " Soltikof has seventy thou- 
 sand men, and no end of artillery. We have but twenty-six 
 thousand, and know not that we can bring a single gun to where 
 Soltikof is." 
 
 Still the order was given for the assault. The Prussians 
 plunged into the dense ranks of their foes^ regardless of being 
 outnumbered nearly three to one. A terrible battle was fought. 
 General Wedell was overpowered and beaten. He retreated 
 across the Oder, having lost six thousand men in killed, wound- 
 ed, and prisoners. The victorious Russians did not pursue him. 
 They marched down the river to Frankfort, where they effected 
 a junction with other troops, giving them an effective force of 
 ninety-six thousand fighting men. 
 
 Frederick received the disastrous news on the 24th of July, 
 the day after the calamity. In the exercise of an unusual spirit 
 of forbearance, he sent word to the defeated general, " It is not 
 your fault ; I dreaded something of the kind." The king's broth- 
 er Henry was in command of a few thousand men near Bautzen, 
 in Saxony. Frederick wrote to him to forward his troops im- 
 mediately, so as to form a union with the retreating army under 
 WedelL Henry himself was to repair to the vicinity of Land- 
 shut, and take command of the army which was to be left in that 
 vicinity confronting General Daun. The king took about thirty 
 thousand picked troops, and hurried to the north to gather up 
 by the way the troops of Henry and of Wedell, and with that 
 combined force of forty-eight thousand men make a new attack 
 upon the ninefcy-six thousand Russians.* 
 
 It was an act of desperation. The king fully appreciated its 
 peril. But the time had long since passed when he could rely 
 upon the ordinary measures of prudence. In despair was his 
 only hope. 
 
 On the 29th of July the king joined his brother Henry at Sa- 
 gan, on the Bober, about sixty miles above or south of Frankfort. 
 
 * Histoire de la Guerre de Sept Ans, par Frederic II. 
 
480 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 The marches which had been effected by the king and his broth- 
 er were the most rapid which had then ever been heard of. 
 Greatly perplexed by the inexplicable movements of the Rus- 
 sians, the king pressed on till he effected a junction w T ith the rem- 
 nant of Wedell's defeated army, near Mullrose, within twelve 
 miles of Frankfort. He reached this place on the 3d of August. 
 To Count Finckenstein he wrote : 
 
 " I am just arrived here after cruel and frightful marchings. 
 There is nothing desperate in all that. I believe the noise and 
 disquietude this hurly-burly has caused will be the worst of it. 
 Show this letter to every body, that it may be known that the 
 state is not undefended. I have made about one thousand pris- 
 oners from Haddick.* All his meal-wagons have been taken. 
 Finck,f I believe, will keep an eye on him. This is all I can say. 
 To-morrow I march to within two leagues of Frankfort. Katte 
 must instantly send me two hundred tons of meal and one hun- 
 dred bakers. I am very tired. For six nights I have not closed 
 an eye. Farewell. F." 
 
 The Russians, with empty meal-wagons and starving soldiers, 
 had taken possession of Frankfort-on-the-Oder on the 29th of 
 July. The city contained twelve thousand inhabitants. The 
 ransom which the Russian general demanded to save the city 
 from pillage by the Cossacks was four hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand dollars. Pillage by the Cossacks ! ~No imagination can 
 conceive the horrors of such an event. Nearly one hundred 
 thousand men, frenzied with intoxication, brutal in their habits, 
 restrained by no law, would inflict every outrage which fiends 
 could conceive of. Well might fathers and mothers, sons and 
 daughters, turn pale and feel the blood curdle in their veins at 
 the thought. Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars ransom ! 
 That was nearly forty dollars for each individual, man, woman, 
 and child ! Compliance with the demand was impossible. 
 Frankfort, in its impoverishment, could by no possibility raise 
 a tenth part of the sum. Dreadful was the consternation. There 
 was no relenting ; the money or the pillage ! 
 
 * General Haddick was in command of an Austrian force marching to join the Russians. 
 Frederick had surprised one of his detachments. 
 
 t General Finck, one of the most efficient of Frederick's generals, to whom we shall often 
 hereafter refer. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 481 
 
 With the utmost exertions, inspired by terror, thirty thousand 
 dollars were at length raised. The Russian general, Soltikof, 
 naturally a humane man, seeing, at the close of a week of frantic 
 exertions on the part of the magistrates of Frankfort, the impos- 
 sibility of extorting the required sum, took the thirty thousand 
 dollars, and kept his barbarian hordes encamped outside the gates. 
 
 Frankfort is on the west side of the Oder. The Russian army 
 was encamped on the eastern side of the river. The force col- 
 lected there consisted of about seventy-eight thousand Russians 
 and eighteen thousand Austrians. Frederick had, by great exer- 
 tions, gathered fifty thousand troops to attack them. He was 
 approaching Frankfort from the southwest. In a secret mid- 
 night march he crossed the river by bridges of boats some miles 
 north of the city, near Custrin. At four o'clock in the morning 
 of the 11th of August his troops had all accomplished the pas- 
 
 FREDERICK CKOSSING THE ODER. 
 
 Hh 
 
482 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 sage of the stream, and, to the surprise of the Russians, were 
 marching down upon them from the north. 
 
 Vastly superior as was the Russian army in numbers, General 
 Soltikof did not venture to advance to attack his terrible foe. 
 He had selected a very strong position on a range of eminences 
 about one hundred feet high, running for several miles in an east- 
 erly direction from the river. Upon this ridge, which was called 
 " the Heights of Kunersdorf," the Russian general had intrenched 
 himself with the utmost care. The surrounding country was 
 full of bogs, and sluggish streams, and a scraggy growth of tough 
 and thorny bushes, almost impenetrable. 
 
 Had the Prussian troops been placed on those heights, behind 
 that formidable array of ramparts, and palisades, and abatis, they 
 could with ease have repelled the assaults of three or four times 
 their number. But now they were to undertake the desperate 
 enterprise of advancing to the assault under the greatest disad- 
 vantages, with one to attack where there were two to defend. 
 Frederick rapidly advanced from crossing the stream, and the 
 same evening, Saturday, August 11th, encamped at Bischofsee, at 
 the distance of about two miles to the northeast of the intrenched 
 camp of his foes. The king, accompanied by a small escort, rode 
 forward to the knolls of Trettin, and anxiously surveyed with 
 his glass the fearful array of his foes in their long, compact, well- 
 defended lines, arranged in an elongated irregular parallelogram. 
 
 About three o'clock the next morning, Sunday, August 12th, 
 Frederick's army, in two columns, was again in motion. By a 
 slightly circuitous march through the dense forest the king placed 
 his troops in position to approach from the southeast, so as to 
 attack the left flank of the enemy, being the northern extremity 
 of the parallelogram. 
 
 I shall not attempt to describe the battle which ensued — so 
 bloody, so disastrous to the Prussians. It was, like all other des- 
 perate battles, a scene of inconceivable confusion, tumult, and 
 horror. At eight o'clock in the morning, General Finck (who 
 was in command of the right wing of the Prussians) was in po- 
 sition to move upon the extreme northern point of attack. It 
 was not until half past eleven that Frederick, in command of the 
 main body of the army, was ready to make a co-operative assault 
 from the east. At the point of attack the Russians had seventy- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 4$3 
 
 two cannons in battery. The Prussians opened ujDon them with 
 sixty guns. Teinpleton describes the cannonade as the loudest 
 w T hich he had yet ever heard. 
 
 After half an hour of rapid and terrific fire, the Prussian troops 
 were ordered to advance and storm the works of the foe on the 
 Miihlberg Hill. Like wolves in the chase, these men of iron 
 nerves rushed forward through torrents of grape-shot and mus- 
 ket-shot, which covered their path with the dead. In ten min- 
 utes they were in possession of the hill-top, with all its batteries. 
 The left wing of the Russian army was thrown into a maelstrom 
 whirl of disorder and destruction. One hundred and eighty of 
 the artillery pieces of the enemy fell into the hands of the victors. 
 
 Frederick was overjoyed. He regarded the day as his own, 
 and the Russian army as at his mercy. He sent a dispatch to 
 anxious Berlin, but sixty miles distant : " The Russians are beat- 
 en. Rejoice with me." It was one of the hottest of August 
 days, without a breath of wind. Nearly every soldier of the 
 Prussian army had been brought into action against the left wing 
 only of the foe. After a long march and an exhausting fight, 
 they were perishing with thirst. For twelve hours many of them 
 had been without water. Panting with heat, thirst, and exhaus- 
 tion, they were scarcely capable of any farther efforts. 
 
 Just then eighteen thousand fresh Russian troops advanced 
 upon them in solid phalanx from their centre and their right 
 wing. It was nearly three o'clock in the afternoon. The fugi- 
 tive Russians were rallied. With new impetuosity the re-en- 
 forced band hurled itself upon the Prussians. They speedily re- 
 gained their hundred and eighty guns, and ojiened upon the 
 ranks of Frederick such torrents of grape-shot as no flesh and 
 blood could endure. Huge gaps were torn through his lines. 
 His men recoiled, whirled round, and were driven pell-mell from 
 ' the hill. 
 
 Thrice Frederick in person led the charge against the advan- 
 cing foe. He had three horses shot under him. A gold snuff- 
 box in his pocket was flattened by a bullet. His friends en- 
 treated him not thus to peril a life upon which every thing de- 
 pended. He was deaf to all remonstrances. It is manifest that, 
 in his despair, he sought a soldiers grave. 
 
 On came the Russians in ever-increasing numbers. Freder- 
 
484 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ick's heavy artillery, each piece drawn by twelve horses, could 
 not be brought forward through the bogs, and the entangling 
 woods, and over the rugged heights. Though the Prussians 
 fought with all the energies mortal valor could inspire, and 
 though the king flew from post to post of peril and of death, an- 
 imating his troops by voice and gesture, and by his own reckless 
 courage, it was all in vain. Hope soon died in all hearts. The 
 king was heard despairingly to exclaim, " Is there not one bullet 
 which can reach me, then 3" 
 
 Frederick had seen many dark days before, but never one so 
 dark as this. In the frenzy of his exertions to retrieve the lost 
 battle, he cried out to his soldiers, his eyes being flooded with 
 tears, " Children, do not forsake me, your king, your father, in this 
 pinch !" The retreat became a flight. In endeavoring to cross 
 the little stream called the Hen-Floss, there was such crowding 
 and jamming at the bridges that the Prussians were compelled 
 to leave one hundred and sixty-five guns of various calibre be- 
 hind them. Had the Russians pursued with any vigor, scarcely 
 a man of the Prussian army could have escaped. But General 
 Soltikof stood in such fear of his opponent, who had often wrest- 
 ed victory out of defeat, that he attempted no pursuit. 
 
 In broken bands the Prussians retreated down by the way of 
 Oetscher to the bridges at Goritz, where they had crossed the 
 Oder, and where their heavy baggage was stationed. Frederick 
 was among the last to quit the fatal field. As a swarm of Cos- 
 sacks approached the spot where he stood, a party of his friends 
 charged them fiercely, cutting to the right and left, and held 
 them for a moment at bay. One of Frederick's adjutants seized 
 the bridle of his horse, and galloped off with the unresisting 
 monarch. 
 
 At the bridges Frederick found but three thousand men of 
 his late army. The huts around were filled with the wounded 
 and the dying, presenting an aspect of misery which, in these 
 hours of terrible defeat, appalled his majesty. In one of these 
 huts, surrounded by mutilated bodies, groans, and ^leath, Freder- 
 ick wrote the following dispatch to his minister (Finckenstein) 
 at Berlin. It was dated Oetscher, August 12, 1759 : 
 
 " I attacked the enemy this morning about eleven. We beat 
 
FEEDEEICK THE GEEAT. 
 
 485 
 
 BATTLE OF KUNERSDORF, AUGUST 12, 1759. 
 
 i a a, Russian Army. bb. Austrians, under Loudon, cc. Russian Abatis, d. Russian Wagenburg. ee. 
 Position of Prussian Army Evening of 11th. ff. Vanguard, under Finck. g. Prussian Heavy Baggage. 
 h. A ttack of Prussian Grenadiers, i i. Prussian main Army, k k. Finctfs Line of A ttack. 
 
 him back to the Jews' Church-yard, near Frankfort.* All my 
 troops came into action, and have done wonders. I reassembled 
 them three times. At length I was myself nearly taken prison- 
 er, and we had to quit the field. My coat is riddled with bul- 
 lets. Two horses were killed under me.f My misfortune is 
 that I am still alive. Our loss is very considerable. Of an army 
 of forty-eight thousand men, I have at this moment, while I write, 
 not more than three thousand together. I am no longer master 
 of my forces. 
 
 * This was a mistake. Frederick had probably been misinformed. 
 
 t There were three horses shot under Frederick ; but from the third the king dismounted be- 
 fore he fell. 
 
486 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " In Berlin you will do well to think of your safety. It is a 
 great calamity. I will not survive it. The consequences of this 
 battle will be worse than the battle itself. I have no resources 
 more ; and, to confess the truth, I hold all for lost. I will not sur- 
 vive the destruction of my country. Farewell forever. F." 
 
 Probably the reader will infer from the above letter that the 
 king felt that the hour had come for him to die, and that he in- 
 tended to resort to that most consummate act of folly and cow- 
 ardice — suicide. He had always avowed this to be his intention 
 in the last resort. He had urged his sister Wilhelmina to imitate 
 his example in this respect, and not to survive the destruction 
 of their house. Ruin now seemed inevitable. In the battle of 
 Kunersdorf Frederick had lost, in killed and wounded, nineteen 
 thousand men, including nearly all the officers of distinction, and 
 also one hundred and sixty pieces of artillery. The remainder 
 of his army was so dispersed that it could not be rallied to pre- 
 sent any opposition to the foe. 
 
 Though General Soltikof had lost an equal number of men, he 
 was still at the head of nearly eighty thousand troops flushed 
 with victory. He could summon to his standard any desirable 
 re - enforcements. An unobstructed march of but sixty miles 
 would lead his army into the streets of Berlin. The affairs of 
 Frederick were indeed desperate. There was not a gleam of 
 hope to cheer him. In preparation for his retirement from the 
 army, from the throne, and from life, he that evening drew up 
 the following paper, placing the fragments of the army which he 
 was about to abandon in the hands of General Finck. By the 
 death of the king, the orphan and infant child of his brother Au- 
 gustus William (who had died but a few months before) would 
 succeed to the throne. Frederick appointed his brother Henry 
 generalissimo of the Prussian army. 
 
 This notable paper, which reflects but little credit upon the 
 character of Frederick, was as follows : 
 
 " General Finck gets a difficult commission. The unlucky 
 army which I give up to him is no longer in a condition to make 
 head against the Russians. Haddick will now start for Berlin, 
 perhaps Loudon too* If General Finck go after these, the Rus- 
 
 * Haddick and Loudon were two of the most able generals in the army of Soltikof. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 487 
 
 sians will fall on his rear. If he continue on the Oder, he gets 
 Haddick on his flank. However, I believe, should Loudon go 
 for Berlin, he might attack Loudon and beat him. This, if it 
 succeeded, would be a stand against misfortune, and hold mat- 
 ters up. Time gained is much in these desperate circumstances. 
 Coper, my secretary, will send him the news from Torgau and 
 Dresden. You must inform my brother* of every thing, whom 
 I have declared generalissimo of the army. To repair this bad 
 luck altogether is not possible. But what my brother shall com- 
 mand must be done. The army swears to my nephew. This is 
 all the advice in these unhappy circumstances I am in a condi- 
 tion to give. If I had still had resources, I would have staid by 
 them. Frederick." 
 
 It will be perceived that this paper is slightly less despairing 
 than the preceding letter which he had written to Count Finck- 
 enstein. Frederick, having written the order to General Finck, 
 threw himself, in utter exhaustion, upon some straw in a corner 
 of the hut, and fell soundly asleep. The Prussian officers, pass- 
 ing by, gazed sadly through the open door upon the sleeping 
 monarch. A single sentinel guarded the entrance. 
 
 The next morning Frederick crossed the river to Reitwein, on 
 the western bank. Here, during the day, broken bands of his 
 army came in to the number of twenty-three thousand. It would 
 seem that a night of refreshing sleep had so far recruited the ex- 
 hausted energies of the king that he was enabled to look a little 
 more calmly upon the ruin which enveloped him. He that day 
 wrote as follows from Reitwein to General Schmettau, who was 
 in command of the Prussian garrison at Dresden : 
 
 " You will, perhaps, have heard of the check I have met with 
 from the Russian army on the 13thf of this month. Though at 
 bottom our affairs in regard to the enemy here are not desperate, 
 I find I shall not be able to make any detachment for your as- 
 sistance. Should the Austrians attempt any thing against Dres- 
 den, therefore, you will see if there are means of maintaining 
 yourself; failing which, it will behoove you to try and obtain a 
 favorable capitulation — to wit, liberty to withdraw, with the 
 
 * Prince Henry. f This was a slip of the pen. The battle of Kunersdorf was on the 12th. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 FREDERICK ASLEEP IN THE HUT AT OETSCHER. 
 
 whole garrison, moneys, magazines, hospital, and all that we have 
 at Dresden, either to Berlin or elsewhere, so as to join some corps 
 of my troops. 
 
 " As a fit of illness has come on me, which I do not think will 
 have dangerous results, I have, for the present, left the command 
 of my troops to Lieutenant General Von Finck, whose orders you 
 are to execute as if coming directly from myself. On this I pray 
 God* to have you in his holy and worthy keeping. F." 
 
 The consternation at Berlin, as contradictory reports of victory 
 and defeat reached the city, was indescribable. M. Sulzer, an 
 eye-witness of the scene, writes under date of Berlin, August 13 th, 
 1759: 
 
 * " I pray God !'" Even the heart of the atheist in hours of calamity yearns for a God. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 489 
 
 " Above fifty thousand human beings were on the palace es- 
 planade and the streets around, swaying hither and thither in 
 an agony of expectation, in alternate paroxysms of joy, of terror, 
 and of woe. Often enough the opposite paroxysms were simul- 
 taneous in the different groups. Men crushed down by despair 
 were met by men leaping into the air for very gladness." 
 
 As we have mentioned, the Russian general had such a dread 
 of Frederick that he did not dare to pursue him. In his report 
 of the victory to the Czarina Charlotte, speaking of his own 
 heavy loss of over eighteen thousand men, he writes, "Your maj- 
 esty is aware that the King of Prussia sells his victories at a 
 dear rate." To some who urged him to pursue Frederick, he re- 
 plied, " Let me gain but another such victory, and I may go to 
 Petersburg with the news of it myself alone, with my staff in 
 my hand." 
 
 Frederick remained at tleitwein four days. He was very un- 
 just to his army, and angrily reproached his soldiers for their 
 defeat. It is true that, had every soldier possessed his own spir- 
 it, his army would have conquered, or not a man would have left 
 the field alive. The Russians, with almost inconceivable inac- 
 tivity, retired to Lossow, ten miles south of Frankfort-on-the-Oder. 
 The king, having by great exertions collected thirty-two thou- 
 sand men, marched up the valley of the Spree, and placed him- 
 self on the road between the Russians and Berlin. 
 
 While on this march he wrote from Madlitz, under date of 
 August 16th, to Marquis D'Argens, at Berlin : 
 
 " We have been unfortunate, my dear marquis, but not by my 
 fault. The victory was ours, and would even have been a com- 
 plete one, when our infantry lost patience, and at the wrong mo- 
 ment abandoned the field of battle. The Russian infantry is al- 
 most totally destroyed. Of my own wrecks, all that I have been 
 able to assemble amounts to thirty-two thousand men. With 
 these I am pushing on to throw myself across the enemy's road, 
 and either perish or save the capital. This is not what you will 
 call a deficiency of resolution. 
 
 " For the event I can not answer. If I had more lives than 
 one, I would sacrifice them all to my country. But, if this stroke 
 fail, I think I am clear scores with her, and that it will be per- 
 missible to look a little to myself. There are limits to every 
 
490 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 thing. I support my misfortune. My courage is not abated by 
 it. But I am well resolved, after this stroke, if it fail, to open an 
 outgate to myself, and no longer be the sport of any chance."* 
 
 Four days after, in anticipation of an immediate attack from 
 the Kussians, he again wrote to the same address, " Remain at 
 Berlin, or retire to Potsdam. In a little while there will come 
 some catastrophe. It is not fit that you suffer by it. If things 
 take a good turn, you can be back to Berlin. If ill luck still 
 pursue us, go to Hanover, or to Zelle, where you can provide for 
 your safety." 
 
 The next day, the 21st of August, he wrote to D'Argens to 
 come and visit him, and bring his bed with him. " I will have 
 you a little chamber ready." But the next day lie wrote, 
 
 "Yesterday I wrote to you to come ; to-day I forbid it. Daun 
 is marching upon Berlin. Fly these unhappy countries. This 
 news obliges me again to attack the Russians between here and 
 Frankfort. You may imagine if this is a desperate resolution. 
 It is the sole hope that remains to me of not being cut off from 
 Berlin on the one side or the other. I will give these discour- 
 aged troops brandy, but I promise myself nothing of success. 
 My one consolation is that I shall die sword in hand." 
 
 Just after dispatching this letter he received one from D'Ar- 
 gens, to which he immediately, on the same day, returned the 
 following reply : 
 
 " Certainly I will fight. But do not flatter yourself about the 
 result. A happy chance alone can help us. Go, in God's name 
 to Tangermtinde. Wait there how destiny shall have disposed 
 of us. I will reconnoitre the enemy to-morrow. Next day, if 
 there is any thing to do, we will try it. If the enemy still holds 
 to the Wine Hills of Frankfort, I shall not dare to attack him. 
 
 " The torments of Tantalus, the pains of Prometheus, the doom 
 of Sisyphus, were nothing to the torments I have suffered for the 
 last ten days. Death is sweet in comparison with such a life. 
 Pity me, and believe that I still keep to myself a great many 
 evil things, not wishing to afflict or disquiet any body with them. 
 Believe me that I would not counsel you to fly these unlucky 
 countries if I had any ray of hope. Adieu, mon clier" 
 
 * The king here undoubtedly refers to the vial of poison which he invariably carried in his 
 waistcoat pocket. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 491 
 
 The rumor that Daun was marching upon Berlin proved a 
 false alarm. On the 4th of September the king again wrote 
 D'Argens from his encampment at Waldau, a few leagues south 
 of his last position, just over the border in Saxony : 
 
 " I think Berlin is now in safety. You may return thither. 
 The barbarians are in the Lausitz. I keep by the side of them, 
 between them and Berlin, so that there is nothing to fear for the 
 capital. The imminency of danger is passed. But there will be 
 still many bad moments to get through before reaching the end 
 of the campaign. These, however, only regard myself. Never 
 mind these. My martyrdom will last two months yet. Then 
 the snows and the ices will end it." 
 
 General Schinettau had in Dresden a garrison of but three 
 thousand seven hundred men. It will be remembered that he 
 would doubtless be compelled to capitulate, and to do so on the 
 best terms he could. But his Prussian majesty, being now a lit- 
 tle more hopeful, wrote to him again, urging him to hold out to 
 the last extremity, and informing him that he had dispatched to 
 his aid General Wunsch, with a re-enforcement of eight thousand 
 men, and General Finck with six thousand. The courier was 
 cut off. General Schmettau, entirely unconscious that relief was 
 coming, closely besieged, and threatened with the massacre of 
 his whole garrison should the place be taken by storm, on Tues- 
 day evening, the 4th of September, surrendered the city. 
 
 It was a sore calamity to Frederick. Had General Schmettau 
 held out only until the next day, which he could easily have done, 
 relief would have arrived, and the city would have been saved. 
 Frederick was in a great rage, and was not at all in the mood to 
 be merciful, or even just. He dismissed the unfortunate general 
 from his service, degraded him, and left him to die in poverty. 
 
 Frederick had now under his command twenty-four thousand 
 men. They were mostly on the road between Frankfort and 
 Berlin, for the protection of the capital. His brother Henry, in 
 the vicinity of Landshut, with his head-quarters at Schmottseifen, 
 was in command of thirty-eight thousand. The Russians and 
 Austrians numbered one hundred and twenty thousand. There 
 was, however, but little cordial co-operation among the allies. 
 Each was accused of endeavoring to crowd the other to the front 
 of the battle against the terrible Frederick. 
 
492 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 The Russians did not attempt to march upon Berlin. About 
 the middle of September General Soltikof gathered all his forces 
 in hand, and commenced a march into Silesia to effect a junction 
 with General Daun. Frederick followed, and, by a very rapid 
 march, took possession of Sagan, on the Bober, where he was in 
 direct communication with Henry. On the 24th of September 
 the king wrote to his younger brother Ferdinand, in Berlin : 
 
 " You may well suppose that, in the present posture of affairs, 
 I am not without cares, inquietudes, and anxieties. It is the 
 most frightful crisis I have had in my life. This is the moment 
 for dying, unless one conquer. Daun and my brother Henry 
 are marching side by side. It is possible enough all these armies 
 may assemble hereabouts, and that a general battle may decide 
 our fortune and the peace. Take care of your health, dear 
 brother. F." 
 
 There was much manoeuvring, in which Frederick displayed 
 his usual skill, quite circumventing his foes. Daily he became 
 less despairing. On the 25th of October he wrote to Fouquet : 
 
 " With twenty-one thousand your beaten and maltreated serv- 
 ant has hindered an army of fifty thousand from attacking him, 
 and has compelled them to retire to Neusatz." 
 
 On the 10th of October Frederick was attacked by the gout, 
 and for three weeks was confined to his room. This extraordi- 
 nary man, struggling, as it were, in the jaws of destruction, be- 
 guiled the weary hours of sickness and pain by writing a treat- 
 ise upon Charles XII and his Military Character. On the 24th 
 of October, the Russian commander, quarreling with General 
 Daun, set out, with his whole force, for home. On the 1st of 
 November the king was carried in a litter to Glogau. Cold 
 weather having now set in, General Daun commenced a march 
 for Bohemia, to seek winter quarters nearer his supplies. Fred- 
 erick, his health being restored, rejoined his troops under Henry, 
 which were near Dresden. The withdrawal of both the Rus- 
 sians and Austrians from Silesia greatly elated him. On the 
 15th of November he wrote to DArgens from Maxen, a village 
 a little south of Dresden : 
 
 "Yesterday I joined the army, and Daun decamped. I have 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 493 
 
 followed him thus far, and will continue it to the frontiers of 
 Bohemia. Our measures are so taken that he will not get out 
 of Saxony without considerable loss." 
 
 General Finck was stationed at Maxen, with about fifteen 
 thousand men, to cut the communications of Daun with Bohemia. 
 Frederick, in his undue elation, was quite sure of inflicting ter- 
 rible blows upon Daun. He issued imperative commands to 
 General Finck to fight the allies regardless of their numbers. 
 The Prussian general did not dare to disobey this command and 
 withdraw from his commanding position, even when he saw him- 
 self being surrounded with such superior forces as would almost 
 certainly crush him. 
 
 In a very triumphant mood, the king, on the 19th of Novem- 
 ber, wrote a boastful and irreverent " Ode to Fortune," in that 
 easy rhyme which he called poetry. The substance- of this ode, 
 translated into prose, was as follows : 
 
 " I am a poor heretic. I have never been blessed by the holy 
 father. I never attend church. I worship neither God nor the 
 devil. Often have those shaven scoundrels, the priests, declared 
 that I had become extinct. 
 
 " But behold the caprice of Fortune. After a hundred pref- 
 erences of my rivals, she smiles upon me, and packs off the hero 
 of the hat and sword, whom the pope had blessed, and who had 
 gone on pilgrimages. He skulks out of Saxony, panting like a 
 dog whom the cook has flogged out of the kitchen." 
 
 This ode, " an irrepressible extempore effusion," as he termed 
 it, the royal poet forwarded to D'Argens. The day but one after 
 writing this, General Daun, having effectually surrounded Gen- 
 eral Finck with nearly fifty thousand men of the allied troops 
 — nearly four to one — after a severe conflict, compelled the sur- 
 render of his whole army. The following plan of the battle of 
 Maxen will show how completely Finck was encircled. General 
 Daun claimed that he marched back into Dresden, as prisoners 
 of war, eight generals, five hundred and twenty-nine officers, and 
 fifteen thousand privates, with all their equipments and appur- 
 tenances.* The next day, the 2 2d, Frederick wrote to D'Argens : 
 
 "I am so stupefied with the misfortune which has befallen 
 
 * " Of the 14,000 men who had made the expedition with him, only 3000 remained unwound- 
 ed at the time of the capitulation." — Life of Frederick II., by Lord Dover, vol. ii., p. 134. 
 
494 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 g5w< 
 
 BATTLE OF MAXEN, NOVEMBER 20, 1759. 
 
 i a. Prussian Army. b. Prussian Detachment, under Wunsch. 
 c c. Austrian Attack, under Baun. d d. Attack of Brentano and 
 Sincere, eee. Reich's Army. 
 
 General Finck that I can 
 not recover from my as- 
 tonishment. It deranges 
 all my measures. It cuts 
 me to the quick. Ill luck, 
 which persecutes my old 
 age, has followed me from 
 Kunersdorf to Saxony. 
 I will still strive what 
 I can. The little ode I 
 sent you, addressed to 
 Fortune, was written too 
 soon. One should not 
 shout victory until the battle is over. I am so crushed by these 
 reverses and disasters that I wish a thousand times I were dead. 
 "From day to day I grow more weary of dwelling in a body 
 worn out and condemned to suffer. I am writing to you in the 
 first moment of my grief. Astonishment, sorrow, indignation, 
 and scorn, all blended together, lacerate my soul. Let us get to 
 the end, then, of this execrable campaign. I will then write to 
 you what is to become of me, and we will arrange the rest. Pity 
 me, and make no noise about me. Bad news goes fast enough 
 of itself. Adieu, dear marquis." 
 
 The king, as usual, was merciless to General Finck. As soon 
 as he returned from Austrian captivity he was tried by court- 
 martial, and condemned to a year's imprisonment in the fortress 
 of Spandau, and was expelled from the army. He afterward re- 
 tired to Denmark, where he was kindly received. 
 
 General Daun, elated by this victory, relinquished the plan of 
 retiring to Bohemia, and decided to remain in Saxony for the 
 winter. Frederick had but thirty-six thousand men in Saxony. 
 Daun commanded seventy-two thousand. 
 
 The Elbe was now frozen. The storms of winter covered the 
 icy fields with snow. Daun retired to Dresden. Frederick es- 
 tablished himself in the little town of Freiberg, ^bout thirty 
 miles southwest from Dresden. His troops were in cantonments 
 in the adjoining villages. Here he took up his abode in a hum- 
 ble cottage. Thus terminated the fourth campaign of the Seven 
 Years' War. 
 

 FREDEKICK THE GREAT. 495 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE STRUGGLE CONTINUED. 
 
 Winter Encampment. — Death of Maupertuis. — Infamous Conduct of Voltaire. — Reproof by the 
 King. — Voltaire's Insincerity. — Correspondence. — The King publishes his Poems. — Dishon- 
 orable Conduct of the King. — New Encampment near Dresden. — Destruction of Frederick's 
 Army in Silesia. — Atrocities perpetrated by the Austrians. — Astonishing March. — The Aus- 
 trians outwitted. — Dresden bombarded and almost destroyed by Frederick. — Battle of Leig- 
 nitz. — Utter Rout of the Austrians. — Undiminished Peril of Frederick. — Letter to D'Argens. 
 
 It was early in January, 1760, that the two hostile armies 
 went into winter quarters. General Daun, with his seventy-two 
 thousand triumphant troops, held Dresden. He encamped his 
 army in an arc of a circle, bending toward the southwest from 
 the city, and occupying a line about thirty miles in extent. 
 Frederick, with thirty- two thousand troops depressed by defeat, 
 defiantly faced his foe in a concave arc concentric to that of 
 Daun. The two antagonistic encampments were almost within 
 cannon-shot of each other. 
 
 Never were the prospects of Frederick more gloomy. He had 
 taken up his residence for the winter in a very humble cottage 
 near the hamlet of Freiberg. He must have been very unhappy. 
 Scenes of suffering were every where around him. It was terri- 
 bly cold. His troops were poorly clothed, and fed, and housed. 
 
 " It was one of the grimmest camps in nature ; the canvas 
 roofs grown mere ice-plates, the tents mere sanctuaries of frost. 
 Never did poor young Archenholtz see such industry in drag- 
 ging w^ood-fuel, such boiling of biscuits in broken ice, such crowd- 
 ing round the embers to roast one side of you while the other 
 was freezing. But Daun's people, on the opposite side of the 
 Plauen Dell, did the like. Their tents also were left standing 
 in the frozen state, guarded by alternating battalions no better 
 off than their Prussian neighbors.' 1 * 
 
 Thus affairs continued through the winter. There were two 
 frostbitten armies facing each other on the bleak plains. With 
 apparently not much to be gained in presenting this front of de- 
 
 ♦Carlyle, vol. v., p. 469. 
 
496 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 THE WINTER CAMP. 
 
 fiance, each party breasted the storms and the freezing gales, 
 alike refusing to yield one inch of ground. 
 
 During the previous summer, the philosopher Maupertuis, aft- 
 er weary wanderings in the languor of consumption, and in great 
 dejection of spirits, had been stricken by convulsions ' while in 
 his carriage at Basel. He had lost favor with the king, and was 
 poor, friendless, and dying. His latter years had been imbitter- 
 ed by the venomous assaults of Voltaire. 
 
 While in health and prosperity, quaffing the wines of Freder- 
 ick, he. was an avowed infidel, and eagerly joined the ribald com- 
 panions of the king in denouncing all religion as the fanaticism 
 of weak minds. But in these hours of pain, of loneliness, and 
 of approaching death he could find no consolation in the teach- 
 ings of philosophy. He sent for two Christian ministers to visit 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 497 
 
 him daily, and daily had the Bible read to him. It was a death- 
 bed repentance. Bitterly he deplored a wasted life. Sincerely 
 he seemed to embrace the doctrines of Christianity.* He died, 
 after a lingering sickness, far from home and friends, on the 27th 
 of July, 1759. 
 
 Voltaire made himself very merry over the dying scene of 
 Maupertuis. There was never another man who could throw so 
 much poison into a sneer as Voltaire. It is probable that the 
 conversion of Maupertuis somewhat troubled his conscience as 
 the unhappy scorner looked forward to his own dying hour, 
 which could not be far distant. He never alluded to Mauper- 
 tuis without indulging in a strain of bitter mockery in view of 
 his death as a penitent. Even the king, unbeliever as he was in 
 religion or in the existence of a God, was disgusted with the ma- 
 lignity displayed by Voltaire. In reply to one of Voltaire's en- 
 venomed assaults the king wrote : 
 
 " You speak of MaujDertuis. Do not trouble the ashes of the 
 dead. Let the grave, at least, put an end to your unjust hatreds. 
 Reflect that even kings make peace after long battling. Can 
 not you ever make it ? I think you would be capable, like Or- 
 pheus, of descending to hell, not to soften Pluto, and bring back 
 your beautiful Emilie, but to pursue into that abode of woe an 
 enemy whom your wrath has only too much persecuted in this 
 world. For shame !"f 
 
 Soon after Frederick wrote to Voltaire upon this subject again, 
 still more severely, but in verse. The following is almost a lit- 
 eral translation of this poetic epistle : 
 
 " Leave the cold ashes of Maupertuis in peace. He was noble 
 and faithful. He pardoned you that vile libel of Doctor Akakia 
 which your criminal fury scribbled against him. And what re- 
 turn are you making \ Shame on such delirious ravings as those 
 'of Voltaire ! Shall this grand genius, whom I have admired, soil 
 himself with calumny, and be ferocious on the dead ? Shall he, 
 like a vile raven, pounce upon the sepulchre, and make prey 
 upon its corpses V 
 
 The friendship of these two remarkable men must have been 
 of a singular character. Voltaire thus maliciously wrote of the 
 king: 
 
 * Biograpkie Universelle. t CEuvres de Frederic, t. xxii., p. 61. 
 
 Ii 
 
498 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " He is as potent and as malignant as the devil. He is also 
 as unhappy, not knowing friendship." 
 
 Voltaire had, as a pet, a very vicious ape, treacherous, spiteful, 
 who pelted passers-by with stones, and, when provoked, would 
 bite terribly. The name of this hateful beast was Luc. Vol- 
 taire gave his friend Frederick the nickname of Luc. He corre- 
 sponded freely with the enemies of his Prussian majesty. A few 
 extracts will reveal the character of the friendship of the philos- 
 opher. Some days after the battle of Kunersdorf Voltaire wrote 
 to D'Argental : 
 
 " I do not love Luc ; far from it. I never will pardon him his 
 infamous procedure with my niece,* nor the face he has to write 
 me flattering things twice a month without having ever repaired 
 his wrongs. I desire much his entire humiliation, the chastise- 
 ment of the sinner ; whether his eternal damnation I do not 
 quite know." 
 
 Again he wrote, a few months after, to the Duke of Choiseul : 
 "He has been a bad man, this Luc. And now, if one were to 
 bet by the law of probability, it would be three to one that Luc 
 would go to pot [sera perdu], with his rhymings and his banter- 
 ings, and his injustices and politics, all as bad as himself."f 
 
 Frederick affected great contempt for public opinion. He 
 wrote to Voltaire : 
 
 " I have the lot of all actors who play in public — applauded 
 by some, despised by others. One must prepare one's self for 
 satires, for calumnies, for a multitude of lies, which will be sent 
 abroad into currency against one. But need that trouble my 
 tranquillity ? I go my road. I do nothing against the interior 
 voice of my conscience. And I concern myself very little in 
 what way my actions paint themselves in the brain of beings not 
 always very thinking, with two legs, and without feathers." 
 
 It is evident that the king, thus surrounded with perils and 
 threatened with utter destruction, was anxious for the termina- 
 tion of the war. But still this inflexible man would not listen 
 to any suggestions for peace but on his own terms. He wrote 
 to Voltaire, urging him " to bring back peace." At the same 
 time he said, 
 
 * Voltaire's niece, Madame Denis, was with him when he was arrested at Frankfort, and she 
 was terribly frightened. f (Euvres de Voltaire, t. lxxx., p. 313. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 499 
 
 " In spite of all your efforts, you will not get a peace signed 
 by my hands except on conditions honorable to my nation. 
 Your people, blown up with self-conceit and folly, may depend 
 on these words." 
 
 But that he was fully awake to his perils, and keenly felt his 
 sufferings, is manifest from the following extract from another 
 of his letters : 
 
 " The sword and death have made frightful ravages among us. 
 And the worst is that we are not yet at the end of the tragedy. 
 You may judge what effect these cruel shocks make on me. I 
 wrap myself in my stoicism the best I can. Flesh and blood re- 
 volt against such tyrannous command, but it must be followed. 
 If you saw me you would scarcely know me again. I am old, 
 broken, gray-headed, wrinkled. I am losing my teeth and my 
 gayety. If this go on, there will be nothing of me left but the 
 mania of making verses, and an inviolable attachment to my du- 
 ties, and to the few virtuous men whom I know." 
 
 In the above letter the king alludes to the " mania of making 
 verses." Strange as it may seem, he this winter, when appar- 
 ently almost crushed beneath the weight of cares and sorrows, 
 when every energy of mind and body seemed called into requisi- 
 tion in preparation for a new campaign, published an edition of 
 his poems. 
 
 The allies represented a population of ninety millions. The 
 realms of Frederick embraced scarcely five millions of inhabit- 
 ants. The allies decided that they would no longer make an 
 exchange of prisoners. It was manifest that, by merely protract- 
 ing the war, even without any signal successes on the part of the 
 allies, Frederick would find all his resources of men exhausted. 
 Frederick, who was never very scrupulous with regard to the 
 means which he employed for the promotion of his ends, imme- 
 diately compelled his prisoners of war, of whatever nationality, 
 to enlist in his service. 
 
 " Prisoners, captive soldiers, if at all likely fellows," writes Ar- 
 chenholtz, " were by every means persuaded and even compelled 
 to take Prussian service. Compelled, cudgel in hand, not asked 
 if they wished to serve, but dragged to the Prussian colors, 
 obliged to swear there, and fight against their countrymen."* 
 
 * Archenkoltz, vol. ii., p. 53. 
 
500 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 Frederick also seized money wherever lie could find it, wheth- 
 er in the hands of friend or foe. His contributions levied upon 
 the Saxons were terrible. The cold and dreary winter passed 
 rapidly away. The spring was late in that northern clime. It 
 was not until the middle of June that either party was prepared 
 vigorously to take the field. It was generally considered by the 
 European world that Frederick was irretrievably ruined. In 
 the last campaign he had lost sixty thousand men. Universal 
 gloom and discouragement pervaded his kingdom. Still Fred- 
 erick, by his almost superhuman exertions, had marshaled anoth- 
 er army of one hundred thousand men. But the allies had two 
 hundred and eighty thousand to oppose to them. Though Fred- 
 erick in public assumed a cheerful and self-confident air, as if as- 
 sured of victory, his private correspondence proves that he was, 
 in heart, despondent in the extreme, and that scarcely a ray of 
 hope visited his mind. To his friend D'Argens he wrote : 
 
 " I am unfortunate and old, dear marquis. That is why they 
 persecute me. God knows what my future is to be this year. 
 I grieve to resemble Cassandra with my prophecies. But how 
 augur well of the desperate situation we are in, and which goes 
 on growing worse ? I am so gloomy to-day I will cut short. 
 
 "Write to me when you have nothing better to do. And 
 don't forget a poor philosopher who, perhaps to expiate his in- 
 credulity, is doomed to find his purgatory in this world." 
 
 Again, and at the same time, he wrote to another friend v 
 
 "The difficulties I had last campaign were almost infinite, 
 there were such a multitude of enemies acting against me. Pom- 
 erania, Brandenburg, Saxony, frontiers of Silesia, were alike in 
 danger, and often all at one time. If I escaped absolute destruc- 
 tion, I inust impute it chiefly to the misconduct of my enemies, 
 who gained such advantages, but had not the sense to follow 
 them up. Experience often corrects people of their blunders. 
 I can not expect to profit by any thing of that kind on their 
 part in the course of this campaign."* 
 
 Four campaigns of the Seven Years' War have passed. We 
 are now entering upon the fifth, that of 1760. The latter part 
 
 * "The symptoms we decipher in these letters, and otherwise, are those of a man drenched in 
 misery ; but used to his black element, unaffectedly defiant of it, or not at the pains to defy it ; 
 occupied only to do his very utmost in it, with or without success, till the end come." — Carltle. 
 
FREDERICK THE GEEAT. 501 
 
 of April Frederick broke up his encampment at Freiberg, and 
 moved his troops about twenty miles north of Dresden. Here 
 he formed a new encampment, facing the south. His left wdng 
 was at Meissen, resting on the Elbe. His right wing was at the 
 little village of Katzenhauser, about ten miles to the southwest. 
 Frederick established his head-quarters at Schlettau, midway of 
 his lines. The position thus selected was, in a military point of 
 view^, deemed admirable. General Daun remained in Dresden 
 " astride" the Elbe. Half of his forces were on one side and half 
 on the other of the river. 
 
 The stunning news soon reached Frederick that General Fou- 
 quet, whom he had left in Silesia with twelve thousand men, had 
 been attacked by a vastly superior force of Austrians. The as- 
 sault was furious in the extreme. Thirty-one thousand Austri- 
 ans commenced the assault at two o'clock in the morning. By 
 eight o'clock the bloody deed was done. Ten thousand of the 
 Prussians strewed the field with their gory corpses. Two thou- 
 sand only escaped. General Fouquet himself was wounded and 
 taken prisoner. To add to the anguish of the king, this disaster 
 was to be attributed to the king himself. He had angrily or- 
 dered General Fouquet to adopt a measure which that general, 
 better acquainted with the position and forces of the foe, saw to 
 be fatal. Heroically he obeyed orders, though he knew that it 
 would prove the destruction of his army. 
 
 Silesia was at the mercy of the foe. Frederick regarded the 
 calamity as irreparable. Still in a few hours he recovered his 
 equanimity, and in public manifested his accustomed stoicism. 
 The victorious Austrian soldiers in Silesia conducted themselves 
 like fiends. Their plunderings and outrages were too shocking 
 to be recited. " Nothing was spared by them," writes Frederick, 
 " but misery and ugliness." 
 
 There was a small garrison at Glatz, at Silesia, which, though 
 closely besieged, still held out against the Austrians. Frederick 
 thought that if he could by any stratagem draw General Daun 
 from Dresden, he could, by a sudden rush, break down its walls 
 and seize the city. He moved with celerity which completely 
 deceived the Austrian commander. At two o'clock in the morn- 
 ing of Wednesday, July 2d, his whole army was almost on the 
 run toward Silesia. They marched as troops never marched be- 
 
502 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 fore. For twelve hours their speed was unintermitted. The 
 next day, in utter exhaustion, they rested. But on Friday, as 
 the village clocks were tolling the hour of midnight, all were 
 again on the move, the king himself in front. Again it was a 
 run rather than a march through a dreary realm of bogs, wild 
 ravines, and tangled thickets. At three o'clock on Saturday 
 morning the march was resumed. 
 
 General Daun was soon informed of this energetic movement. 
 He instantly placed himself at the head of sixty thousand troops, 
 and also set out, at his highest possible speed, for Glatz. 
 
 Sunday, July 6th, was a day of terrible heat. At three o'clock 
 in the morning the Prussian troops were again in motion. There 
 was not a breath of wind. The blazing sun grew hotter and 
 hotter. There was no shade. The soldiers were perishing of 
 thirst. Still the command was " onward," " onward." In that 
 day's march one hundred and five Prussian soldiers dropped 
 dead in their tracks. 
 
 General Daun thought that such energy as this could not be 
 a feint. He was much nearer to Glatz than was Frederick. Mon- 
 day, July 7th, the Prussian troops rested. General Daun press- 
 ed on. Tuesday night he was two days' march ahead of Fred- 
 erick. In the mean time, the Prussian king, who had made this 
 tremendous march simply to draw the foe from Dresden, sud- 
 denly turned, and with the utmost velocity directed his troops 
 back toward the city. 
 
 General Maguire had been left in Dresden with but about 
 fourteen thousand men for its defense. On Saturday, July 13th, 
 the Prussian army appeared before the city. All the night they 
 were erecting their batteries. Early Sunday morning the can- 
 nonade began. As Daun might speedily arrive at the* head of 
 sixty thousand troops for the relief of the garrison, the bombard- 
 ment was conducted with the utmost possible energy. Day and 
 night the horrible tempest fell upon the doomed city. Advers- 
 ity had soured the king's disposition, and rendered him merciless. 
 He had no compassion upon the innocent inhabitants. It was 
 his aim, at whatever cost, to secure the immediate surrender of 
 the place. He cruelly directed his terrific fire upon the thronged 
 dwellings rather than upon the massive fortifications. Street 
 after street blazed up in flames. It was Frederick's relentless 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 503 
 
 plan by " fire torture" to force the citizens to compel Maguire to 
 the surrender. But the Austrian commander hardened his heart 
 against the misery of the Saxon people, and held the place. 
 
 General Daun was proverbially slow-footed. For thirteen days 
 the wretched city burned and bled. In a memorial to the world, 
 which the King of Poland, as Elector of Saxony, published on 
 the occasion, he said, 
 
 " Had the enemy attacked Dresden according to the rules and 
 the customs of war, had they directed their efforts against the 
 ramparts, the king would, without doubt, have lamented the evils 
 which would have resulted from it to his people, but he would 
 have lamented them without complaining. But the Prussians 
 made war on the innocent townsmen. Their fire was wholly di- 
 rected against the houses. They endeavored to destroy a town 
 which they could not take." 
 
 In truth, when General Daun approached, and Frederick saw 
 that there was no possibility of his taking the city, he, in the 
 wantonness of his rage, set fire to upward of a hundred houses 
 in the suburbs which had hitherto escaped the flames. Three 
 hundred and fifty houses were destroyed within the walls. More 
 than that number were half destroyed, shattered by bombs, and 
 scorched with flames. These were terrible calamities falling upon 
 a city already exhausted by four years of the most desolating 
 war. The King of Poland closed his appeal by saying, 
 
 "The king thinks it scarcely worth while to mention his pal- 
 aces and his gardens sacked and ruined, in contempt of the re- 
 gard usually paid from one sovereign to another. Is there a 
 man in all Europe who does not see in these terrible effects an 
 implacable hatred and a destructive fury which all nations ought 
 to concur in repressing ?".* 
 
 Frederick, being constrained by the approach of General Daun 
 ' to raise the siege of Dresden, retired to his intrenched camp at 
 Schlettau. Leaving fifteen thousand men to guard the camp, he, 
 on the 1st of August, before the dawn, crossed the Elbe, and was 
 again on the rapid march toward Silesia. His army consisted 
 of thirty thousand men, and was accompanied by two thousand 
 heavy baggage- wagons. In five clays the king marched over one 
 hundred miles, crossing five rivers. Armies of the allies, amount- 
 
 * Annual Register, vol. iii. , p. 209. 
 
504: FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 ing to one hundred and seventy-five thousand Austrians and 
 Russians, were around him — some in front, some in his rear, some 
 on his flanks.* 
 
 On the 14th of August Frederick had reached Liegnitz. His 
 foes surrounded him in such numbers that escape seemed impos- 
 sible, and destruction sure. General Loudon, with thirty -five 
 thousand allies, was scarcely a mile east of him. General Lacy, 
 with an immense swarm of cavalry, was at the distance of but a 
 few thousand yards on the west. General Daun, with his im- 
 mense army, approaching from the southwest, had taken posses- 
 sion of Liegnitz. Frederick was encamped upon some heights a 
 few miles east of the city. To human view, the position of his 
 Prussian majesty was desperate. 
 
 " He was clinging on the head of slippery abysses, his path 
 hardly a foot's breadth, mere enemies and avalanches hanging 
 round on every side ; ruin likelier at no moment of his life." 
 
 On the night of the 14th Frederick had stationed his lines 
 with the greatest care to guard against surprise. At midnight, 
 wrapped in his cloak, and seated on a drum by a watch-fire, he 
 had just fallen asleep. An Irish officer, a deserter from the Aus- 
 .trians, came blustering and fuming into the camp with the an- 
 nouncement that General Lacy's army was on the march to at- 
 tack Frederick by surprise. Frederick sprang to his horse. His 
 perfectly drilled troops were instantly in motion. By a rapid 
 movement his troops were speedily placed in battle array upon 
 the heights of the Wolfsberg. They would thus intercept the 
 enemy's line of march, would take him by surprise, and were in 
 the most admirable position to encounter superior numbers. To 
 deceive the foe, all the Prussian camp-fires were left burning. 
 General Loudon had resorted to the same stratagem to deceive 
 Frederick. 
 
 To the surprise of General Loudon, there was opened upon 
 his advance-guard of five thousand men, as it was pressing for- 
 ward on its stealthy march, in the darkness ascending an emi- 
 nence, the most destructive discharge of artillery and musketry. 
 The division was hurled back with great slaughter. Gathering 
 re-enforcements, it advanced the second and the third time with 
 the same results. Cavalry, infantry, artillery, were brought for- 
 
 * Life of Frederick II., by Lord Dover, vol. ii., p. 152. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 505 
 
 BATTLE OF LIEGNITZ, AUGUST 16, 1760. 
 a a. Prussian Camp, left with fires burning. bbb. Prussian Main Army, c c. Ziciheri's Division, d d. Lou~ 
 don's Camp, also left with fires burning, eee. Loudon's Army attacked by the Prussians, fff. Approach 
 of Daun. g g. Lacifs Cavalry. 
 
 ward, but all in vain. Frederick brought into action but fifteen 
 thousand men. He utterly routed the hostile army of thirty-five 
 thousand men, tilling four thousand, and taking six thousand 
 prisoners. He also captured eighty-two cannon, twenty-eight 
 flags, and five thousand muskets. His own loss was eighteen 
 hundred men. The battle commenced at three o'clock in the 
 morning, and was over at live o'clock. 
 
 Frederick remained upon the field of battle four hours gather- 
 ing up the spoils. The dead were left unburied. The wound- 
 ed were placed in empty meal-wagons. General Loudon fled 
 precipitately across the Katzbach River. To deceive the Aus- 
 trians in reference to his movements, Frederick wrote a false dis- 
 patch to his brother Henry, which he placed in the hands of a 
 trusty peasant. The peasant was directed to allow himself to 
 be taken. The plan worked to a charm. The other portions of 
 the allied army, deceived by the dispatch, retreated as Frederick 
 wished to have them. He soon formed a junction with his 
 brother Henry, and being astonished himself at his almost mi- 
 
506 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 raculous escape, marched to the strong fortress of Breslau, which 
 was still held by a small Prussian garrison, and where he had 
 lar^e magazines. 
 
 But, notwithstanding this wonderful victory and narrow es- 
 cape, it still seemed that Frederick's destruction was only post- 
 poned for a short time. He was in the heart of Silesia, and was 
 surrounded by hostile armies three times more numerous than 
 his own. 
 
 Twelve days after the battle of Liegnitz Frederick wrote as 
 follows to his friend, the Marquis D'Argens, who was at Berlin. 
 The letter was dated Hermannsclorf, near Breslau, 27th of Au- 
 gust, 1760 : 
 
 "Formerly, my dear marquis, the affair of the loth would have 
 decided the campaign. At present it is but a scratch. A great 
 battle must determine our fate. Such we shall soon have. Then, 
 should the event prove favorable to us, you may, with good rea- 
 son, rejoice. I thank you for your sympathy. It has cost much 
 scheming, striving, and address to bring matters to this point. 
 Do not speak to me of dangers. The last action cost me only a 
 coat and a horse. That is buying victory cheap.* 
 
 " I never in my life was in so bad a posture as in this cam- 
 paign. Miracles are still needed to overcome the difficulties 
 which I foresee. I do my duty as well as I can. But remember, 
 my dear marquis, that I can not command good fortune. J am 
 obliged to leave too much to chance, as I have not the means to 
 render my plans more certain. 
 
 " I have the labors of Hercules to perform, at an age, too, when 
 my strength is leaving me, when my infirmities increase, and, to 
 speak the truth, when hope, the only consolation of the unhap- 
 py, begins to desert me. You are not sufficiently acquainted 
 with the posture of affairs to know the dangers which threaten 
 the state. I know them, but conceal them. I keep all my fears 
 to myself, and communicate to the public only my hopes and the 
 trifle of good news I may now and then have. -If the blow I 
 now meditate succeeds, then, my dear marquis, will be the time 
 to express our joy. But, till then, do not let us flatter ourselves, 
 lest unexpected bad news deject us too much. 
 
 * The king had a coat torn from him by a rebounding cannon ball, and a horse shot under him. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 507 
 
 " I live here the life of a literary monk. I have much to think 
 of about my affairs. The rest of my time I give to literature, 
 which is my consolation. I know not if I shall survive this war. 
 Should it so happen, I am resolved to pass the rest of my days 
 in retirement, in the bosom of philosophy and friendship. 
 
 " As soon as the roads are surer I hope you will write more 
 frequently. I do not know where we shall have our winter 
 quarters. Our houses at Breslau have been destroyed in the 
 late bombardment. - Our enemies envy us every thing, even the 
 air we breathe. They must, however, leave us some place. If 
 it be a safe one, I shall be delighted to receive you there. 
 
 "Here is business which I must attend to. I was in a writing 
 vein, but I believe it is better to conclude, lest I should tire you 
 and neglect my own duties. Adieu, my dear marquis. I em- 
 brace you. Frederick."* 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE END OF THE FIFTH CAMPAIGN". 
 
 Incessant Marches and Battles. — Letter from Frederick to D'Argens. — Letter to his Brother 
 Henry. — Berlin summoned to Surrender. — Sacking of the City. — Letter to D'Argens. — Des- 
 perate Resolves of Frederick. — The Resort of Suicide. — Remarkable Address of Frederick 
 to his Generals. — Bloody Battle of Torgau. — Dismal Night-scene. — Familiarity of the King 
 with the Soldiers. — Winter Quarters at Freiberg. — Singular Letter to the Countess of Camas. 
 — Death of the Princess Amelia. — Anecdotes of the King. — His domestic Habits. — His un- 
 scrupulous Measures to obtain Men, and Money. — Letter of Charlotte of Mecklenburg. 
 
 Sieges, skirmishes, battles innumerable ensued. The Russians 
 and the Austrians, in superior numbers and with able leaders, 
 were unwearied in their endeavors to annihilate their formidable 
 foe. The conflict was somewhat analogous to that which takes 
 place between the lion at bay in the jungle and a pack of dogs. 
 The details could scarcely be made intelligible to the reader, and 
 would certainly prove tedious, f 
 
 Frederick so concentrated his forces as, ere long, to have about 
 fifty thousand troops with him at Breslau. Weary weeks of 
 marchings and fightings, blood and woe, passed on. Painful 
 
 * CEuvres Posthumes de Frederic II. 
 
 t "No human intellect in our day could busy itself with understanding these thousandfold 
 marchings, manoeuvrings, assaults, surprisals, sudden facings about (retreat changed to advance) ; 
 nor could the powerfulest human memory, not exclusively devoted to study the art military 
 under Frederick, remember them when understood." — Carlyle, vol. vi.,p. o9. 
 
508 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 blows were struck upon both sides, but nothing decisive w r as ac- 
 complished. In the midst of these harassments, perils, and toils, 
 the king wrote to D'Argens, on the 18th of September, from 
 Keisendorf: 
 
 " I will not sing jeremiades to you, nor speak of my fears or 
 anxieties ; but I can assure you that they are great. The crisis 
 I am in changes in appearance, but nothing decisive happens. I 
 am consumed by a slow fire ; I am like a living body losing limb 
 after limb. May Heaven assist us, for we have much need 
 of it. 
 
 " You speak of my personal safety. You ought to know, as I 
 do, that it is not necessary for me to live. But while I do live 
 I must fight for my country, and save it if it be possible. In 
 many little things I have had luck ; I think of taking for my 
 motto, Maximus in minimis, et minimus in maximis* 
 
 "It is impossible for you to imagine the horrible fatigues 
 which we undergo. This campaign is worse than any of the 
 others. I sometimes know not which way to turn. But w r hy 
 weary you with these details of my toils and miseries ? My spir- 
 its have forsaken me. All my gayety is buried with those dear 
 and noble ones to whom my heart w r as bound. The end- of my 
 life is melancholy and sad ; but do not, therefore, my dear mar- 
 quis, forget your old friend."f 
 
 To his brother Henry he wrote, " I have had a bad time of it, 
 my dear brother; our means are so eaten away; far too short 
 for opposing the prodigious number of our enemies set against 
 us. If we must fall, let us date our destruction from the infa- 
 mous day of Maxen. My health is a little better, but I have 
 still hemorro'ides aveugles. That were nothing, however, w r ere it 
 not for the disquietudes I feel. For these three days I have had 
 so terrible a cramp in continuance that I thought it would choke 
 me. It is now a little gone. No wonder that the chagrins and 
 continual disquietudes I live in should undermine, and at length 
 overturn, the most robust constitution." 
 
 Early in October the allies planned an expedition for the cap- 
 ture of Berlin. The city had no defenses but weak palisades, 
 which were garrisoned by but twelve hundred men. General 
 Czernichef led a column of twenty thousand Kussians, General 
 
 * Great in small things, small in great things. t (Euvres de Frederic, t. xix. , p. 139. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 509 
 
 Lacy another of fifteen thousand Austrians, and General Solti- 
 kof a third column of twenty thousand more. 
 
 On the 3d of October the vanguard of this army, three thou- 
 sand strong, was seen in the distance from the steeples of Berlin. 
 The queen and royal family fled with the archives to Magdeburg. 
 The city was summoned to an immediate surrender, and to pay 
 a ransom of about four million dollars to rescue it from the 
 flames. The summons was rejected. General Tottleben, in com- 
 mand of the advance, erected his batteries, and at five o'clock in 
 the afternoon commenced his bombardment with red-hot balls. 
 In the night a re-enforcement of five thousand Prussians, under 
 Prince Eugene of Wurteinberg, who had marched forty miles 
 that day, entered the city, guided by the blaze of the bombard- 
 ment, to strengthen the garrison. Tottleben retired to await the 
 allied troops, which were rapidly on the march. In the mean 
 time, on the 8th, General Hiilsen arrived with nine thousand 
 Prussian troops, increasing the garrison in Berlin to fifteen thou- 
 sand. Frederick was also on the march, to rescue his capital, 
 with all the troops he could muster. But the Russians had now 
 arrived to the number of thirty-five thousand. The defenses 
 were so weak that they could easily take or destroy the place. 
 
 The garrison retired to avoid capture. Berlin surrendered on 
 the morning of October 9th. For three days the enemy held 
 the city. The semi- barbaric soldiers committed fearful outrages. 
 The soldiers sacked the king's palaces at Potsdam and Charlot- 
 tenburg, smashing furniture, doors, windows, mirrors, statuary, 
 cutting the pictures, and maltreating the inmates. 
 
 On the 11th it was -announced that Frederick, with nearly the 
 whole Prussian army, was within five days' march of Berlin. 
 The allies held him in such dread, when he had any thing like 
 an equality of numbers with them, that they fled from him at 
 the rate of thirty miles a day. But terrible were the ravages 
 which they inflicted on the Prussian people during this retreat. 
 
 The Russians marched to Poland. The Austrians returned to 
 Saxony. As soon as Frederick heard of their retreat, instead of 
 continuing his march to Berlin, he also turned his columns south- 
 ward. On the 27th of October he crossed the Elbe, about sixty 
 miles above Dresden, and found himself in the vicinity of Gen- 
 eral Daun, whose army outnumbered that of Frederick two to 
 
510 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 SACKING THE PALACE. 
 
 one. The situation of Frederick was extremely critical. Under 
 these circumstances, he wrote to D'Argens on the 28th :. 
 
 " You, as a follower of Epicurus, put a value upon life. As 
 for me, I regard death from the Stoic point of view. Never shall 
 I see the moment which will oblige me to make a disadvantage- 
 ous peace. No persuasion, no eloquence, shall ever induce me to 
 sign my own dishonor. Either I will bury myself under the 
 ruins of my country, or, if that consolation appears too great to 
 the Destiny which persecutes me, I shall know how to put an 
 end to my misfortunes when it is no longer possible to bear 
 them. I have acted, and continue to act, in pursuance of this 
 conviction, and according to the dictates of honor, which have 
 always directed my steps. My conduct shall continue, at all 
 times, to be conformable to these principles. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 511 
 
 " After having sacrificed my youth to my father, and my ma- 
 turer age to my country, I think that I have acquired the right 
 to dispose of my old age as I please. I have told you, and I re- 
 peat it, my hand shall never sign a disgraceful peace. I shall 
 continue this campaign with the resolution to dare all, and to 
 try the most desperate things, either to succeed or to find a glo- 
 rious end. 
 
 " Indeed, how many reasons has one at fifty years of age to 
 despise life ! The prospect which remains to me is an old age 
 of infirmity and pain, with disappointments, regrets, ignominies, 
 and outrages to endure. In truth, if you really consider my sit- 
 uation, you ought to blame my intentions less than you do. I 
 have lost all my friends. I am unfortunate in all the ways in 
 which it is possible to be so. I have nothing to hope for. I 
 see my enemies treat me with derision, while their insolence pre- 
 pares to trample me under foot. Alas ! 
 
 " ' Quand on a tout perdu, quand on n'a plus d'espoir, 
 La vie est un opprobre, et la mort un devoir. '* 
 
 " I have nothing to add to this. I will only inform your curi- 
 osity that we passed the Elbe the day before yesterday; that 
 to-morrow we march toward Leipsic, where I hope to be on the 
 31st, where I hope we shall have a battle, and whence you shall 
 receive news of us as it occurs." 
 
 It is not strange that Frederick, being destitute of religious 
 principle, should have ever contemplated suicide as his last re- 
 sort. On the 2d of November the king came in sight of the en- 
 campment of General Daun at Torgau, on the Elbe, some score 
 of leagues north of Dresden. The king was at the head of forty- 
 four thousand troops. Marshal Daun had eighty thousand, 
 strongly intrenched upon heights west of the city, in the midst 
 of a labyrinth of ponds, hills, ravines, and forests. We shall not 
 ' attempt to enter into a detail of the battle. The following plan 
 of the battle will give the military reader an idea of the disposal 
 of the forces. 
 
 The position of the Austrians on the heights of Siptitz, an 
 eminence which rose two hundred feet above the bed of the riv- 
 er, seemed impregnable. Sixty-five thousand Austrians stood 
 
 * When one has lost every thing, when one has no longer hope, 
 Life is a disgrace, and death a duty. 
 
512 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 BATTLE OF TORGATJ, NOVEMBER 3, 1760. 
 
 a a. Prussian Camp at Schilda. bbb. Austrian Army, ccc. Rear-guard, under Lacy. d. Prussian Detach- 
 ment, under Ziethen. e. Frederick's Division beginning the Attack, f. Hulseri's Infantry, g. Holsteiri's 
 Cavalry. 
 
 upon those heights, protected by earth-works and a formidable 
 abatis. They had four hundred guns in battery, a larger num- 
 ber than had ever before been brought upon a battle-field. To 
 attack then and there was an act of desperation. On the even- 
 ing of the 2d the king assembled his generals and said to them, 
 
 " I have called you together, not to ask your advice, but to in- 
 form you that to-morrow I shall attack Marshal Daun. I am 
 aware that he occupies a strong position, but it is one from which 
 he can not escape. If I beat him, all his army must* be taken 
 prisoners or drowned in the Elbe. If we are beaten, we must 
 all perish. This war is become tedious. You must all find it 
 so. We will, if we can, finish it to-morrow. General Ziethen, I 
 confide to you the right wing of the army. Your object must 
 be, in marching straight to Torgau, to cut off the- retreat of the 
 Austrians when I shall have beaten them, and driven them from 
 the heights of Siptitz." 
 
 At an early hour on the morning of the 3d Frederick broke 
 up his camp south of the foe, and, by a circuitous route of four- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 513 
 
 teen miles, came clown upon the Austrians from the north. 
 General Ziethen marched in almost a straight line for Torgau, to 
 cut off the retreat. It was two o'clock in the afternoon when 
 Frederick, emerging from the forest, ordered his men to charge. 
 The assault was as impetuous and reckless as mortal men could 
 possibly make. Instantly four hundred pieces of artillery open- 
 ed fire upon them. 
 
 "Archenholtz describes it as a thing surpassabie only by 
 doomsday; clangorous rage of noise risen to the infinite; the 
 boughs of the trees raining down upon you with horrid crash ; 
 the forest, with its echoes, bellowing far and near, and reverbera- 
 ting in universal death-peal, comparable to the trump of doom."* 
 
 Frederick exclaimed, in astonishment, "What an infernal fire! 
 Did you ever hear such a cannonade before ? I never did." 
 
 The first assault was made by six thousand grenadiers upon 
 the extreme western wing of the Austrian army. The terrible 
 conflict lasted nearly an hour. The Prussians were driven back, 
 leaving nine out of ten of the assailing force dead or wounded 
 behind them. The Austrians pursued, and encountered slaugh- 
 ter equal to that which they had inflicted. 
 
 New columns were formed. Soon after three another charge 
 was ordered. It was sanguinary and unsuccessful as the first. 
 Frederick himself was wounded by a nearly spent case-shot which 
 struck him on the breast. The blow was severe and painful. 
 Had the ball retained a little more impetus it would have pass- 
 ed through his body. It is said that the ball struck him to the 
 earth, and that for some time he was void of consciousness. 
 Upon reviving, his first words to his adjutant, a son of Old Des- 
 sauer, who was sorrowfully bending over him, were, " What are 
 you doing here % Go and stop the runaways." 
 
 It was now half past four o'clock. The sun of the short No- 
 vember day was rapidly sinking. Hasty preparations were 
 made for another charge, aided by a body of Prussian cavalry 
 which had just reached the ground. The gathering twilight 
 was darkening hill and valley as the third assault was made. 
 It was somewhat successful. By this time the two armies were 
 quite intermingled. Marshal Daun was severely wounded, and 
 was taken into Torgau to have his wounds dressed. The hour 
 
 * Carlvle. 
 
 Kk 
 
514 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 of six had now arrived. It was a damp, cloudy, dark night. 
 The combatants were guided mainly by the flash of the muskets 
 and the guns. "The night was so dark," says Archenholtz, 
 " that you could not see your hand before you." Still for two 
 hours the battle raged. 
 
 Marshal Daun, as he retired with a shattered leg to have his 
 wound dressed, resigned the command to General Buccow. In 
 a few moments his arm was shot off, and General O'Donnell took 
 the command. He ordered a retreat. The Austrian army, at 
 nine o'clock in the evening, in much disorder, were crossing the 
 Elbe by three bridges which had been thrown across the stream 
 in preparation for a possible disaster. The king, disappointed in 
 a victory which did not promise great results, passed the night 
 conversing with the soldiers at their watch-fires. He had ever 
 indulged them in addressing him with much familiarity, calling 
 him Fritz, which was a diminutive of Frederick, and expressive 
 of affection. " I suppose, Fritz," said one of the soldiers, " after 
 this, you will give us good winter quarters." 
 
 " By all the devils," exclaimed the king, " I shall not till we 
 have taken Dresden. Then I will provide for you to your heart's 
 content." 
 
 The king was not a man of refined sensibilities. Not unfre- 
 quently his letters contained coarse and indelicate expressions. 
 He was very profane. Voltaire says of him, " He has a pleasing 
 tone of voice even in swearing, which is as familiar to him. as to 
 a grenadier." 
 
 The battle of Torgau is to be numbered among the most 
 bloody of the Seven Years' War. The Austrians lost twelve 
 thousand in killed and wounded, eight thousand prisoners, forty- 
 five cannon, and twenty-nine flags. The Prussian loss was also 
 very heavy. There were fourteen thousand killed or wounded, 
 and four thousand taken prisoners. 
 
 The Austrians retired to Dresden for winter quarters. Fred- 
 erick was left in the field which he had won. Gradually he 
 withdrew to his old camping-ground at Freiberg, where his troops 
 had been cantoned the previous winter. On the 10th of No- 
 vember, 1760, he wrote from Meissen to the Marquis D'Argens 
 at Berlin : 
 
 " I drove the enemy to the gates of Dresden. They occupy 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 515 
 
 their camp of last year. All ray skill is not enough to dislodge 
 them. We have saved our reputation by the day of Torgau. 
 But do not imagine that our enemies are so disheartened as to 
 desire peace. I fear that the French will preserve through the 
 winter the advantages they have gained during the campaign. 
 
 " In a word, I see all black, as if I were at the bottom of a 
 tomb. Have some compassion on the situation I am in. Con- 
 ceive that I disguise nothing from you, and yet that I do not 
 detail to you all my embarrassments, my apprehensions, and 
 troubles. Adieu, my dear marquis. Write to me sometimes. 
 Do not forget a poor devil who curses ten times a day his fatal 
 existence, and could wish he already were in those silent coun- 
 tries from which nobody returns with news." 
 
 The next day, the 11th, Frederick wrote from Neustadt to the 
 Countess of Camas, who at Berlin was the grand mistress of the 
 queen's household. The trifling tone of this letter, which was 
 penned in the midst of a struggle so awful, is quite characteristic 
 of the writer : 
 
 " I am punctual in answering, and eager to satisfy you. You 
 shall have a breakfast- set, my good mamma ; six coffee-cups, very 
 pretty, well diapered, and tricked out with all the little embel- 
 lishments which increase their value. On account of some pieces 
 which they are adding to the set, you will have to wait a few 
 days. But I flatter myself this delay will contribute to your 
 satisfaction, and produce for you a toy that will give you pleas- 
 ure, and make you remember your old adorer. 
 
 u It is curious how old people's habits agree. For four years 
 past I have given up suppers as incompatible with the trade I 
 am obliged to follow. On marching days my dinner consists of 
 a cup of chocolate. 
 
 " We have been running about like fools, quite inflated with 
 • our victory, to see if we could not chase the Austrians out of 
 Dresden. But they made mockery of us from the tops of their 
 mountains. So I have withdrawn, like a naughty little boy, to 
 hide myself, out of spite, in one of the most cursed villages of 
 Saxony. We must now drive these gentlemen of the imperial 
 army out of Freiberg in order to get something to eat and a place 
 to sleep in."" 
 
 CEuvres de Frederic, t. xix. , p. 204. 
 
516 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 "This is, I swear to you, such a dog's life \chienne de vie] as 
 no one but Don Quixote ever led before me. All this tumbling, 
 toiling, bother, and' confusion have made me such an old fellow 
 that you would scarcely know me again. The hair on the right 
 side of my head has grown quite gray. My teeth break and fall 
 out. My face is as full of wrinkles as the furbelow of a petti- 
 coat. My back is bent like a fiddle-bow, and my spirit is sad 
 and downcast, like a monk of La Trappe. 
 
 " I forewarn you of this, that, if we should meet again in flesh 
 and bone, you might not feel yourself too violently shocked by 
 my appearance. There remains nothing to me unaltered but my 
 heart, which, as long as I breathe, will retain sentiments of es- 
 teem and tender friendship for my good mamma. Adieu."* 
 
 On Saturday, the 25th of October of this year, George II., King 
 of England, died. The poor old gentleman, who had been en- 
 dowed with but a very ordinary share of intelligence, was sev- 
 enty-seven years of age. On Monday he had presided at a re- 
 view of troops in Hyde Park. On Thursday he stood upon the 
 portico of his rural palace in Kensington to see his Guards march 
 by for foreign service. Saturday morning he rose at an early 
 hour, took his cup of chocolate as usual, and, opening his win- 
 dows, said the morning was so fine he would take a walk in his 
 garden. It was then eight o'clock. His valet withdrew with 
 the cup and saucer. He had hardly shut the door when he 
 heard a groan and a fall. Hurrying back, he found the king 
 upon the floor. Faintly the death-stricken monarch exclaimed, 
 " Call Amelia," and instantly died. 
 
 " Poor deaf Amelia (Frederick's old love, now grown old and 
 deaf) listened wildly for some faint sound from those lips now 
 mute forever. George II. was no more. His grandson, George 
 III, was now king."f 
 
 George II. had always hated his nephew Frederick. His only 
 object in sustaining the war was to protect his native electorate 
 of Hanover and to abase France. £ The new sovereign, in his 
 first speech to Parliament, said : 
 
 " I rely upon your zeal and hearty concurrence to support the 
 King of Prussia and the rest of my allies, and to make ample 
 
 * Correspondance Familiere et Amicale de Frederic, Roi de Prusse, t. ii., p. 140. 
 
 f Carlyle. X Life of Frederick II., by Lord Dover, vol. ii., p. 170. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 517 
 
 provision for carrying on the war, as the only means of bringing 
 our enemies to equitable terms of accommodation." 
 
 It seems that in England there were two parties in reference 
 to the war. Sir Horace Walpole, in a letter under date of De- 
 cember 5th, 1760, wrote to Sir Horace Mann, at Florence : 
 
 " I shall send you a curious pamphlet, the only work I almost 
 ever knew that changed the opinions of many. It is called ' Con- 
 siderations on the present German War.' The confirmation of 
 the King of Prussia's victory near Torgau does not prevent the 
 disciples of the pamphlet from thinking that the best thing which 
 could happen for us would be to have that monarch's head shot 
 off."* 
 
 Notwithstanding the opposition, Parliament voted to continue 
 the subsidy to Frederick of about three million four hundred 
 thousand dollars (£670,000). This sum was equal to twice or 
 three times that amount at the present day. 
 
 Frederick, having cantoned his troops at Freiberg and its vi- 
 cinity, on the 27th of November wrote again to the Countess of 
 Camas : 
 
 "We have settled our winter quarters. I have yet a little 
 round to take, and afterward I shall seek for tranquillity at Leip- 
 sic, if it be to be found there. But, indeed, for me tranquillity 
 is only a metaphysical word which has no reality." 
 
 Frederick was so busy cantoning his troops that he did not 
 take possession of his head-quarters in Leipsic until the 8th of 
 December. He occupied the Apel House, No. 16 Neumarkt 
 Street, the same which he had occupied before the battle of Koss- 
 bach. The same mistress kept the house as before. Upon see- 
 ing the king, the good woman exclaimed, in astonishment, "How 
 lean your majesty has grown !" 
 
 "Lean indeed I' am," the king replied. "And what wonder, 
 with three women f hanging on the throat of me all this while !" 
 
 Thus ended the fifth campaign of the Seven Years' War. 
 Though the king had thus far averted the destruction which 
 seemed every hour to be impending, his strength and resources 
 were so rapidly failing that it seemed impossible that he could 
 
 * Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, vol. i., p. 6, 7. 
 
 t Maria Theresa of Austria, Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, and the Marchioness of Pompa- 
 dour, who was virtually Queen of France. 
 
518 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 much longer continue the struggle. Under these despairing cir- 
 cumstances, the king, with an indomitable spirit, engaged vigor- 
 ously in gathering his strength for a renewal of the fight in the 
 spring. 
 
 " In the midst of these preparations for a new campaign against 
 a veteran army of two hundred and eighty thousand enemies, 
 Frederick yet found sufficient leisure for peaceable occupations. 
 He consecrated some hours every day to reading, to music, and 
 to the conversation of men of letters."* 
 
 D'Argens spent the winter with the king at Leipsic. He 
 gives the following incident : " One day I entered the king 1 s 
 apartment, and found him sitting on the floor with a platter of 
 fried meat, from which he was feeding his dogs. He had a little 
 rod, with which he kept order among them, and shoved the best 
 bits to his favorites." 
 
 The marquis looked for a moment upon the singular spectacle 
 with astonishment. Then raising his hands, he exclaimed, 
 
 " The five great powers of Europe, who have sworn alliance, 
 and conspired to ruin the Marquis of Brandenburg, how might 
 they puzzle their heads to guess what he is now doing ! Schem- 
 ing some dangerous plan, think they, for the next campaign, col- 
 lecting funds, studying about magazines for man and horse ; or 
 is he deep in negotiations to divide his enemies, and get new al- 
 lies for himself? Not a bit of it. He is sitting peaceably in 
 his room feeding his dogs."f 
 
 The king was quite unscrupulous in the measures to which he 
 resorted to recruit his army. Deserters, prisoners, peasants, were 
 alike forced into the ranks. Even boys but thirteen and four- 
 teen years of age were seized by the press-gangs. The countries 
 swept by the armies were so devastated and laid waste that it 
 was almost an impossibility to obtain provisions for the troops. 
 It will be remembered that upon the capture of Berlin several 
 of the king's palaces had been sacked by the Russian and Aus- 
 trian troops. The king, being in great want of money, looked 
 around for some opportunity to retaliate. There was within his 
 cantonments a very splendidly furnished palace, called the Hu- 
 bertsburg Schloss, belonging to the King of Poland. On the 
 21st of January, 1761, Frederick summoned to his audience-room 
 
 * Vie de Frederic II, Roi de Prusse, t. ii. , p. 141. t Prusse, t. ii., p. 282. . 
 
FREDERICK THE GEEAT. 519 
 
 General Saldern. This officer cherished a very high sense of 
 honor. The bravest of the brave on the field of battle, he re- 
 coiled from the idea of performing the exploits of a burglar. 
 The following conversation took place between the king and his 
 scrupulous general. In very slow, deliberate tones, the king 
 said: 
 
 " General Saldern, to-morrow morning I wish you to go with 
 a detachment of infantry and cavalry to Hubertsburg. Take 
 possession of the palace, and pack up all the furniture. The 
 money they bring I mean to bestow on our field hospitals. I 
 will not forget you in disposing of it." 
 
 "Forgive me, your majesty," General Saldern replied, "but 
 this is contrary to my honor and my oath." 
 
 The king, in still very calm and measured words, rejoined, 
 "You would be right if I did not intend this desperate method 
 for a good object. Listen to me. Great lords don't feel it in 
 their scalp when their subjects are torn by the hair. One has 
 to grip their own locks as the only way to give them pain." 
 
 "Order me, your majesty," said General Saldern, "to attack 
 the enemy and his batteries, and I will cheerfully, on the instant, 
 obey ; but I can not, I dare not, act against honor, oath, and 
 duty. For this commission your majesty will easily find anoth- 
 er person in my stead." 
 
 The king turned upon his heel, and, with angry voice and ges- 
 ture, said, " Saldern, you refuse to become rich." 
 
 In a pet Frederick left the room. The heroic general, who 
 had flatly refused to obey a positive command, found it necessa- 
 ry to resign his commission. The next day another officer plun- 
 dered the castle. Seventy-five thousand dollars of the proceeds 
 of the sale were appropriated to the field hospitals. The re- 
 mainder, which proved to be a large sum, was the reward of the 
 plundering general. 
 
 " The case was much canvassed in the army. It was the topic 
 in every tent among officers and men. And among us army 
 chaplains, too, the question of conflicting duties arose. Your 
 kino; ordering; one thing-, and your conscience another, what ought 
 a man to do ? And what ought an army chaplain to preach or 
 advise ? 
 
 " Our general conclusion was that neither the king nor Gener- 
 
520 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 al Saldern could well be called in the wrong. General Saldern, 
 in obeying the inner voice, did certainly right. But the king, 
 also, in his place, might judge such a measure expedient. Per- 
 haps General Saldern himself would have done so had he been 
 King of Prussia."* 
 
 The Duke of Mecklenburg had a sister, Charlotte, a bright 
 and beautiful young girl of seventeen. Her heart was so moved 
 by the scenes of misery which she witnessed every where around 
 her that she ventured to write a very earnest appeal to Freder- 
 ick for peace. 
 
 " It was but a few years ago," she wrote, " that this territory 
 wore the most pleasing appearance. The country was cultivated. 
 The peasants looked cheerful. The towns abounded with riches 
 and festivity. What an alteration at present from such a charm- 
 ing scene ! I am not expert at description, neither can my fancy 
 add any horrors to the picture. But sure even conquerors them- 
 selves would weep at the hideous prospect now before me. 
 
 " The whole country, my dear country, lies one frightful waste, 
 presenting only objects to excite terror, pity, and despair. The 
 business of the husbandman and the shepherd are quite discon- 
 tinued. The husbandman and shepherd are become soldiers 
 themselves, and help to ravage the soil they formerly occupied. 
 The towns are inhabited by old men, women, and children. Per- 
 haps here and there a warrior, rendered unfit for service- by 
 wounds and want of limbs, is left at his door. His little chil- 
 dren hang round him, ask a history of every wound, and grow 
 themselves soldiers before they find strength for the field. 
 
 " But this were nothing did we not feel the alternate insolence 
 of either army as it happens to advance or retreat. It is impos- 
 sible to express the confusion which even those create who call 
 themselves our friends. Even those from whom we might ex- 
 pect redress oppress us with new calamities. From you, there- 
 fore, it is that we expect relief. To you even women and chil- 
 dren may complain, for your humanity stoops to the most hum- 
 ble petition, and your power is capable of repressing the great- 
 est injustice. I am, sire, etc., 
 
 " Charlotte Sophia, of Mecklenburg-Strelitz." 
 
 * Ktister, Cltarakterziige des General Lieutenant v. Saldern, p. 40 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 521 
 
 This letter was extensively circulated in England. It was 
 greatly admired. It so happened that the court was then look- 
 ing around for a bride for their young king. The result was 
 that in the course of a few months Charlotte became Queen of 
 England, as the wife of George III. 
 
 It is not known that Frederick paid any attention to this ap- 
 \peal. Impoverished as his realms were, large sums of money 
 were absolutely necessary for the conduct of a new campaign. 
 The king levied a contribution upon Leipsic of nearly a million 
 of dollars. The leading citizens said that in their extreme des- 
 titution it was impossible to raise that sum. The king threat- 
 ened to burn down the city over their heads. The combustibles 
 were gathered. The soldiers stood with the torches in their 
 hands to kindle the conflagration. But then the king, apparent- 
 ly reflecting that from the smouldering ashes of the city he could 
 glean no gold, ordered the city to be saved, but arrested a hun- 
 dred of the chief merchants and threw them into prison. 
 
 These men, of the highest distinction, were treated with every 
 indignity to extort the money from them. They were incarcer- 
 ated in gloomy dungeons, with straw only for their beds, and 
 with bread and water only for their food. But even this sever- 
 ity was unavailing. Seventeen were then selected from their 
 number, and were informed that they were to be forced into the 
 ranks as common soldiers. Their muskets and their knapsacks 
 were given to them, and they were ordered to Magdeburg to be 
 drilled. By this application of torture the money was obtained. 
 And now, while the storms of winter were sweeping the frozen 
 fields, both parties were gathering their strength anew for the 
 struggle of the sixth campaign. 
 
522 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 THE END OF THE SEVEN TEAKS' WAR. 
 
 Commencement of the Sixth Campaign. — The Fortified Camp at Bunzelwitz. — Skillful En- 
 gineering. — Unintermitted Toil of the Soldiers. — Retreat of the Russians. — Loss of Schweid- 
 nitz. — Peculiar Treatment of General Zastrow. — Close of the Sixth Campaign. — The King 
 at Breslau. — Desponding Letter to DArgens. — Death of Elizabeth of Russia. — Accession of 
 Peter III. — His Marriage with the Daughter of a Prussian General. — Takes the Baptismal 
 Name of Catharine. — Assassination of Peter III. — Curious Proclamation by the Empress. — 
 Commencement of the Seventh Campaign. — Alliance of Russia with Prussia. — Withdrawal 
 from the Alliance. — Termination of the War. 
 
 The fifth campaign of the Seven Years' War closed with the 
 year 1760. By exertions snch as mortal man perhaps never 
 made before, Frederick succeeded, during the winteiyin raising 
 an army of ninety-six thousand men. In the mean time the al- 
 lies had concentrated in Bohemia, to crush him, seventy-two thou- 
 sand Austrians and sixty thousand Russians. The capture of 
 four fortresses would drive Frederick hopelessly out of Silesia. 
 Early in May, Frederick, leaving his brother Henry with about 
 forty thousand men to protect Saxony, set out with fifty thou- 
 sand for the relief of Neisse, which was then besieged. General 
 Goltz, probably the most able of the Prussian commanders, was 
 detached to the fortified camp at Glogau. 
 
 "But, alas! poor Goltz, just when ready to march, was taken 
 with sudden, violent fever, the fruit probably of overwork ; and 
 in that sad flame blazed away his valiant existence in three or 
 four days; gone forever, June 30, 1761, to the regret of Freder- 
 ick and of many."* 
 
 The Russians were entering Silesia from the northeast by 
 the way of Poland. Frederick, by one of his incredibly rapid 
 marches, for a time prevented the junction of the two hostile 
 armies. After innumerable marchings and manceuvrings, during 
 which Frederick displayed military ability which commanded 
 the admiration even of his foes, the Prussian king found himself, 
 on the 16th of August, at Nicolstadt, in the very heart of Silesia, 
 at the head of fifty-seven thousand men. In front of him, ob- 
 structing his advance, there were sixty thousand Russians. In 
 
 * Carlvle. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 523 
 
 his rear, cutting off his retreat, there were seventy-two thousand 
 Austrians. From a commanding eminence Frederick could watch 
 the movements of both of these hostile bands. Both Russians 
 and Austrians stood in such awe of the prowess of their redoubt- 
 able antagonist that they moved cautiously, like hounds sur- 
 rounding the lion at bay. 
 
 At three o'clock in the morning of the 20th of August, and 
 after the march of a few hours, the little army of Frederick com- 
 menced constructing a fortified camp near the poor little village 
 of Bunzelwitz, about half way between the Silesian fortresses of 
 Schweidnitz and Striegau. Spades were provided. Fifty thou- 
 sand men were instantly employed, according to a well-matured 
 plan, in digging and trenching. The extraordinary energies of 
 Frederick seemed to nerve every arm. Here there was speedily 
 reared the camp of Bunzelwitz, which has attained world-wide 
 renown. 
 
 An ordinary eye would not have seen in the position any pe- 
 culiar military strength. It was an undulating plain about eight 
 miles long and broad, without any abrupt eminences. A small 
 river bordered it on the west, beyond which rose green hills. On 
 the east was the almost impregnable fortress of Schweidnitz, with 
 its abundant stores. Farm-houses were scattered about, with 
 occasional groves and morasses. There were also sundry villages 
 in the distance. 
 
 Frederick himself was chief engineer. The army was divided 
 into two forces of twenty-five thousand each. Carlyle gives a 
 graphic description of this enterprise. 
 
 " And twenty -five .thousand spades and picks are at work, un- 
 der such a field engineer as there is not in the world when he 
 takes to that employment. At all hours, night and day, twen- 
 ty-five thousand of them : half the army asleep, other half dig- 
 ging, wheeling, shoveling ; plying their utmost, and constant as 
 Time himself: these, in three days, will do a great deal of spade- 
 work. Batteries, redoubts, big and little ; spare not for digging. 
 Here is ground for cavalry, too. Post them here, there, to biv- 
 ouac in readiness, should our batteries be unfortunate. Long 
 trenches are there, and also short; batteries commanding every 
 ingate, and under them are mines. 1 ' 
 
 Many of the trenches were sixteen feet broad by sixteen feet 
 
524 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 deep. Under each battery there were two mines. In case of 
 capture, the mines and the victors could be blown high into the 
 air. Knowing that the batteries were all mined, the Russian 
 and Austrian soldiers would be slow to make charges in which 
 victory would be certain death. The small villages around were 
 all strongly fortified. 
 
 " Wiirben, in the centre, is like a citadel looking down upon 
 Striegau Water. Heavy cannon, plenty of them, we have brought 
 from Schweidnitz. We have four hundred and eighty cannon 
 in all, and one hundred and eighty-two mines. Wiirben, our 
 citadel and centre, is about five miles from Schweidnitz. Before 
 our lines are palisades and chevaux-de-frise. Woods we have in 
 abundance in our circuit, and axes for carpentries of that kind. 
 There are four intrenched knolls ; twenty-four big batteries ca- 
 pable of playing beautifully, all like pieces in a concert."* 
 
 Frederick had been three days and nights at work upon his 
 fortress before the allies ventured forward to look into it. It 
 was then a Gibraltar. Still for eight clays more the spade was 
 not intermitted. Co.gniazo, an Austrian, writes : " It is a master- 
 piece of art, in which the principles of tactics are combined with 
 those of field fortifications as never before." 
 
 The Austrians took position upon the south, at the distance 
 of about six miles. The Russians were at the same distance on 
 the west, with their head-quarters at Hohenfriedberg. 
 
 It would seem that Frederick's troops must have had iron 
 sinews, and that they needed as little repose as did their master. 
 Those not at work with the spade were under arms to. repel an 
 assault. Two or three times there was an alarm, when the whole 
 fifty thousand, in an hour, were in battle-array. Frederick was 
 fully aware of the crisis he had encountered. To be beaten 
 there was irretrievable ruin. No one in the army performed 
 more exhausting labor than the king himself. He seemed to 
 be omnipresent, by day and by night. Near the chief battery, 
 in a clump of trees, there was a small tent, and a bundle of straw 
 in the corner. Here the king occasionally sought a few mo- 
 ments of repose. But his nervous excitement rendered him so 
 restless, that most of the time he was strolling about among the 
 guard parties, and warming himself by their fires. 
 
 * Archenholtz, vol. ii., p. 262. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 525 
 
 THE KING S BIVOUAC. 
 
 " One evening," writes Carlyle, " among the orders is heard 
 this item : i And remember a lock of straw, will you, that I may 
 not have to sleep upon the ground, as last night I' Many anec- 
 dotes are current to this day about his pleasant, homely ways, 
 and affabilities with the sentry people, and the rugged hospital- 
 ities they would show him at their watch-fires. l Good evening, 
 children.' ' The same to thee, Fritz.' 'What is that you are 
 cooking V — and would try a spoonful of it, in such company ; 
 while the rough fellows would forbid smoking. ' Don't you 
 know he dislikes it V t No ! smoke away,' the king would in- 
 sist." 
 
 General Loudon was in command of the Austrians, and Gen- 
 eral Butturlin of the Russians, who were arrayed against Fred- 
 erick. They could not agree upon a plan of attack. Neither 
 commander was willing to expose his troops to the brunt of a 
 battle in which the carnage would necessarily be dreadful. 
 Thus the weeks wore away. Frederick could not be safely at- 
 tacked, and winter was approaching. 
 
 At ten o'clock at night on the 9th of September, the Russian 
 camp went up in flame. The next morning not a Russian was 
 
526 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 to be seen. The whole army had disappeared over the hills far 
 away to the north. Frederick immediately dispatched eight 
 thousand men under General Platen to attack the flank of the 
 retreating foe, and destroy his baggage-wagons. The feat was 
 brilliantly accomplished. On the loth of September, before the 
 dawn of the morning, General Platen fell upon the long train, 
 took nearly two thousand prisoners, seven cannon, and destroy- 
 ed five thousand heavily-laden wagons. 
 
 Frederick remained at Bunzelwitz a fortnight after the retreat 
 of the Russians. In the mean time the French and English were 
 fighting each other with varying success upon the banks of the 
 Rhine. It is not necessary to enter into the details of their 
 struggles. Frederick's magazines at Schweidnitz were getting 
 low. On the 26th of September he broke up his camp at Bun- 
 zelwitz, and in a three days' march to the southeast reached 
 Neisse. The Austrians did not venture to annoy him. Freder- 
 ick had scarcely reached Neisse when he learned, to his amaze- 
 ment and horror, that General Loudon, with a panther-like spring, 
 had captured Schweidnitz, with its garrison and all its supplies. 
 It was a terrible blow to the king. The Austrians could now 
 winter in Silesia. The anguish of Frederick must have been 
 great. But he gave no utterance to his gloomy forebodings. 
 
 "The king," writes Ktister, "fell ill of the gout, saw almost 
 nobody, never came out. It was whispered that his inflexible 
 heart was at last breaking. And for certain there never was in 
 his camp and over his dominions such a gloom as in this Octo- 
 ber, 1761, till at length he appeared on horseback again, with a 
 cheerful face ; and every body thought to himself, ' Ha! the world 
 will still roll on, then.' " 
 
 Frederick's treatment of the unfortunate General Zastrow, who 
 w T as in command at Schweidnitz, was quite peculiar. Very gen- 
 erously he wrote to him : 
 
 " My dear General Von Zastrow, — The misfortune which 
 has befallen me is very grievous. But what consoles me in it is 
 to see by your letter that you have behaved like a brave officer, 
 and that neither you nor your garrison have brought disgrace 
 or reproach upon yourselves. I am your well-affectioned king. 
 
 " Frederick. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 527 
 
 " P.S. — You may, in this occurrence, say what Francis I., after 
 the battle of Pavia, wrote to his mother : ' All is lost except 
 honor.' As I do not yet completely understand the affair, I for- 
 bear to judge of it, for it is altogether extraordinary." 
 
 Notwithstanding this letter, Frederick refused to give Gener- 
 al Zastrow any further employment, but left him to neglect, ob- 
 scurity, and poverty. Zastrow wrote to the king imploring a 
 court-martial. He received the following laconic reply : 
 
 " It is of no use. I impute nothing of crime to you. But aft- 
 er such a mishap it would be dangerous to trust you with any 
 post or command." 
 
 The freezing gales of winter soon came, when neither army 
 could keep the open field. Frederick established his winter 
 quarters at Breslau. General Loudon, with his Austrians, was 
 about thirty miles southwest of him at Kunzendorf. Thus end- 
 ed the sixth campaign. 
 
 The. winter was long, cold, and dreary. Fierce storms swept 
 the fields, piling up the snow in enormous drifts. But for this 
 cruel war, the Prussian, Russian, and Austrian peasants, who had 
 been dragged into the armies to slaughter each other, might 
 have been in their humble but pleasant homes, by the bright 
 fireside, in the enjoyment of all comforts. 
 
 "The snow lies ell-deep," writes Archenholtz ; " snow-tempests, 
 sleet, frost. The soldiers' bread is a block of ice, impracticable 
 to human teeth till you thaw it." 
 
 It was on the 9th of December that the king, after incredible 
 exposure to hunger, and cold, and night-marchings, established 
 himself for the winter in the shattered apartments of his ruined 
 palace at Breslau. He tried to assume a cheerful aspect in pub- 
 lic, but spent most of his hours alone, brooding over the ruin 
 which now seemed inevitable. He withdrew from all society, 
 scarcely spoke to any body except upon business. One day 
 General Lentulus dined with him, and not one word was spoken 
 at the table. On the 18th of January, 1762, the king wrote in 
 the following desponding tones to D'Argens : 
 
 "The school of patience I am at is hard, long-continued, cruel, 
 nay, barbarous. I have not been able to escape my lot. All 
 that human foresight could suggest has been employed, and 
 
528 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 nothing has succeeded. If Fortune continues to pursue me, 
 doubtless I shall sink. It is only she that can extricate me from 
 the situation I am in. I escape out of it by looking at the uni- 
 verse on the great scale, like an observer from some distant plan- 
 et. All then seems to me so infinitely small ; and I could al- 
 most pity my enemies for giving themselves such trouble about 
 so very little. 
 
 " What would become of us without philosophy, without this 
 reasonable contempt of things frivolous, transient, and fugitive, 
 about which the greedy and ambitious make such a pother, fan- 
 cying them to be solid ! This is to become wise by stripes, you 
 will tell me. Well, if one do become wise, what matters it how \ 
 I read a great deal. I devour my books, and that brings me 
 useful alleviation. But for my books, I think hypochondria 
 would have had me in Bedlam before now. In fine, dear mar- 
 quis, we live in troublous times and in desperate situations. I 
 have all the properties of a stage hero — always in danger, always 
 on the point of perishing. One must hope that the conclusion 
 will come, and if the end of the piece be lucky, we will forget 
 the rest."* 
 
 " The darkest hour is often nearest the dawn." The next day 
 after Frederick had written the above letter he received news 
 of the death of his most inveterate enemy, Elizabeth, the Em- 
 press of Russia. As we have mentioned, she was intensely ex- 
 asperated against him in consequence of some sarcasms in which 
 he had indulged in reference to her private life. Elizabeth was 
 the daughter of Peter the Great, and had inherited many of her 
 father's imperial traits of character. She was a very formidable 
 foe. 
 
 " Russia may be counted as the bigger half of all he- had to 
 strive with ; the bigger, or at least the far uglier, more ruinous, 
 and incendiary ; and, if this were at once taken away, think what 
 a daybreak when the night was at the blackest."f 
 
 The nephew of Elizabeth, and her successor, Peter III., was a 
 very warm admirer of Frederick. One of his first ^acts was to 
 send to the Prussian king the assurance of his esteem and friend : 
 ship. Peter immediately released all the Prussian prisoners in 
 his dominions, entered into an armistice with Frederick, which 
 
 * (Euvres de Frederic, t. xix., p. 281. t Carlyle. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 529 
 
 was. soon followed by a treaty of alliance. The two sovereigns 
 commenced a very friendly correspondence. Frederick returned 
 all the Russian prisoners, well clothed and fed, to their homes. 
 The change was almost as sudden and striking as the transfor- 
 mations in the. kaleidoscope. On the 23d Peter issued a decree 
 that there was peace with Prussia, that he had surrendered to 
 his Prussian majesty all the territorial conquests thus far made, 
 and had recalled the Russian armies. ^. 
 
 Peter III. had been left an orphan, and titular Duke of Sckles- 
 wig-Holstein, when eleven years of age. His mother was a daugh- 
 ter of Peter the Great. His aunt, the Czarina Elizabeth, who 
 had determined not to marry, adopted the child, and pronounced 
 him to be her heir to the throne. Being at that time on friend- 
 ly terms with Frederick, the Empress Elizabeth had consulted 
 him in reference to a wife for the future czar. It will be remem- 
 bered that the king effected a marriage between Peter and So- 
 phia, the beautiful daughter of a Prussian general, Prince of An- 
 halt-Zerbst, and at that time commandant of Stettin. His wife 
 was sister to the heir-apparent of Sweden. Carlyle, speaking of 
 this couple, says : 
 
 "They have a daughter, Sophie-Frederike, now near fifteen, 
 and very forward for her age ; comely to look upon, wise to list- 
 en to. l Is not she the suitable one V thinks Frederick in regard 
 to this matter. ' Her kindred is of the oldest — old as Albert 
 the Bear. She has been frugally brought up, Spartan-like, though 
 as a princess by birth. Let her cease skipping ropes on the ram- 
 parts yonder with her young Stettin playmates, and prepare for 
 being a czarina of the Russias,' thinks he. And communicates 
 his mind to the czarina, who answers, i Excellent ! How did I 
 never think of that myself!' " 
 
 This was in January, 1744. The young lady, with her moth- 
 ' er, by express invitation, and with this object in view, visited the 
 Russian court. Sophia embraced the Greek religion, received 
 in baptism the new name of Catharine, and on the 1st of Sep- 
 tember, 1745, was married to her second cousin Peter. "And 
 with invocation of the Russian heaven and Russian earth they 
 were declared to be one flesh, though at last they turned out to 
 be two fleslies, as my reader well knows."* 
 
 * Carlyle. 
 
 Ll 
 
530 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 THE EMPRESS CATHARINE. 
 
 About a year before this, on 
 the 17th of. July, 1744, Freder- 
 ick's sister Ulrique had been 
 married to Adolf Frederick, the 
 heir-apparent to the throne of 
 Sweden. Eighteen years of this 
 weary world's history, with its 
 wars and its woes, had since 
 passed away. On the 5th of 
 April, 1751, the old king of Swe- 
 den died. Thus Adolf became 
 king, and Frederick's sister Ul- 
 rique Queen of Sweden. And 
 now, on the 5th of January, 1762, 
 the Empress of Russia died, and 
 Peter III., with his wife Catha- 
 rine, ascended the throne of that majestic empire. 
 
 The withdrawal of Russia from the alliance against Frederick, 
 though hailed by him with great joy, still left him, with wasted 
 armies and exhausted finances, to struggle single-handed against 
 Austria and France united, each of which kingdoms was far 
 more powerful than Prussia. The winter passed rapidly away 
 without any marked events, each party preparing for the open- 
 ing of the campaign in the ensuing spring. On the 8th of June, 
 1762, Frederick wrote to D'Argens: 
 
 " In fine, my dear marquis, the job ahead of me is hard and 
 difficult, and nobody can say positively how it will all go. Pray 
 for us ; and don't forget a poor devil who kicks about strangely 
 in his harness, who leads the life of one damned." 
 
 Peter III. was a drunken, brutal, half-crazed debauchee. Cath- 
 arine was a beautiful, graceful, intellectual, and dissolute woman. 
 They hated each other. They did not even pretend to be faith- 
 ful to each other. Catharine formed a successful conspiracy, de- 
 throned her husband, and was proclaimed by the army sole em- 
 press. After a series of the wildest scenes of intrigue, corrup- 
 tion, and crime, the imbecile Peter III., who had fled to the re- 
 mote palace of Ropscha, was murdered, being first compelled to 
 drink of poison, and then, while writhing in pain, he was stran- 
 gled with a napkin. Whether Catharine were a party to this 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 531 
 
 assassination is a question which can now probably never be de- 
 cided. It is certain that she must have rejoiced over the event, 
 and that she richly rewarded the murderers. 
 
 ASSASSINATION OF PETER III. 
 
 In the following curious proclamation, the Empress Catharine 
 II. announced to her subjects the death of her husband : 
 
 " The seventh day after our accession to the throne of all the 
 Russias we received information that the late emperor, Peter III., 
 was attacked with a violent colic. That we might not be want- 
 ing in Christian duty, or disobedient to the divine command by 
 which we are enjoined to preserve the life of our neighbor, we 
 immediately ordered that the said Peter should be furnished 
 ' with every thing that might be judged necessary to restore his 
 health by the aids of medicine. But, to our great regret and af- 
 , friction, we were yesterday evening apprized that, by permission 
 of the Almighty, the late emperor departed this life." 
 
 The seventh campaign of the Seven Years' War commenced 
 on the 1st of July, 1762. Peter III. had sent an army of twenty 
 thousand men to the support of Frederick. Aided by these 
 troops, united with his own army, Frederick had emerged from 
 
532 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 his winter quarters, and was just about to attack the Austrian 
 army, which was intrenched upon the heights of Burkersdorf, a 
 little south of Sckweidnitz, which fortress the Austrians then 
 held. The evening before the contemplated attack the Russian 
 General Czernichef entered the tent of Frederick with the fol- 
 lowing appalling tidings:. 
 
 " There has been a revolution in St. Petersburg. The Czar 
 Peter III., your majesty's devoted friend, has been deposed, and 
 probably assassinated. The Czarina Catharine, influenced by 
 the enemies of your majesty, and unwilling to become embroiled 
 in a conflict with Austria and France, has ordered me to return 
 instantly homeward with the twenty thousand troops under my 
 command." 
 
 For a moment the king was quite stunned by the blow. The 
 withdrawal of these troops would expose him to be speedily 
 overwhelmed by the Austrians. By earnest entreaty, Frederick 
 persuaded Czernichef to remain with him three days longer. " I 
 will require of you no service whatever. The Austrians know 
 nothing of this change. They will think that you are still my 
 ally. Your presence simply will thus aid me greatly in the bat- 
 tle." 
 
 General Czernichef, though at the risk of his head from the 
 displeasure of Catharine, generously consented so far to disobey 
 the orders of his empress. The next day, July 2, 1762, Freder- 
 ick, with his remaining troops, attacked the foe, under General 
 Daun, at Burkersdorf. From four o'clock in the morning until 
 five in the afternoon the antagonistic hosts hurled themselves 
 against each other. Frederick was the victor. " On fall of 
 night, Daun, every body having had his orders, and been mak- 
 ing his preparations for six hours past, ebbed totally away, in 
 perfect order, bag and baggage; well away to southward, and 
 left Frederick quit of him."* 
 
 Early the next morning, Czernichef, greatly admiring the ex- 
 ploit Frederick had performed, commenced his march home. 
 Just before this there was a change in the British ministry, and 
 the new cabinet clamored for peace. England entered into a 
 treaty with France, and retired from the conflict. Frederick, ve- 
 hemently upbraiding the English with treachery — the same kind 
 
 * Carlyle. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 533 
 
 of treachery of which he had repeatedly been guilty — marched 
 upon Schweidnitz. After a vigorous siege of two months he 
 captured the place. 
 
 Nearly all of Silesia was again in the hands of Frederick. He 
 seems to have paid no regard to the ordinary principles of honor 
 in the accomplishment of his plans. Indeed, he seems to have 
 had no delicate perceptions of right and wrong, no instinctive 
 appreciation of what was honorable or dishonorable in human 
 conduct. He coined adulterated money, which he compelled the 
 people to take, but which he refused to receive in taxes. In his 
 Military Instructions, drawn up by his own hand, he writes : 
 
 "When you find it very necessary, yet very difficult, to gain 
 any intelligence of the enemy, there is another expedient, though 
 a cruel one. You take a rich burgher, possessed of rich lands, a 
 wife, and children. You oblige him to go to the enemy's camp, 
 as if to complain of hard treatment, and to take along with him, 
 as his servant, a spy who speaks the language of the country ; 
 assuring him at the same time that, in case he does not bring the 
 spy back with him, after having remained a sufficient time in the 
 enemy's camp, you will set fire to his house, and massacre his 
 wife and children. I was forced to have recourse to this cruel 
 expedient. It answered my purpose."* 
 
 A man's moral nature must be indeed obtuse who could thus 
 recommend the compulsion of a peaceable citizen to act the part 
 of a traitor to his own country, under the alternative of having 
 his house fired and his wife and children massacred. 
 
 Winter was now approaching. The Austrians in Saxony 
 made a desperate attack upon Prince Henry, and were routed 
 with much loss. The shattered Austrian army retired to Bohe- 
 mia for winter quarters. Under the circumstances, it was a vic- 
 tory of immense importance to Frederick. Upon receiving the 
 glad tidings, he wrote to Henry : 
 
 " Your letter, my dear brother, has made me twenty years 
 younger. Yesterday I was sixty, to-day hardly eighteen. I bless 
 Heaven for preserving your health, and that things have passed 
 so happily. It is a service so important rendered by you to the 
 state that I can not enough express my gratitude, and will wait 
 to do it in person." 
 
 * Military Instructions, written by the King of Prussia, p. 1 76. 
 
534: FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 On the 24th of November the belligerents entered into an ar- 
 mistice until the 1st of March. All were exhausted. It was 
 manifest that peace would soon be declared. Commissioners to 
 arrange the terms of peace met at the castle of Hubertsburg, near 
 Dresden. On the 15th of February, 1763, peace w^as concluded. 
 Frederick retained Silesia. That was the result of the war. 
 
 According to Frederick's computation, he had succeeded in 
 wresting this province from Maria Theresa at an expense of eight 
 hundred and fifty-three thousand lives, actual fighters, who had 
 perished upon the field of battle. Of these, one hundred and 
 eighty thousand were Prussians. Of the hundreds of thousands 
 of men, women, and children who, in consequence of the war, had 
 perished of exposure, famine, and pestilence, no note is taken. 
 The population of Prussia had diminished, during the seven 
 years, five hundred thousand. 
 
 The day in which the treaty was signed Frederick wrote to 
 the Marquis D'Argens as follows : " The best thing I have now 
 to tell you of, my dear marquis, is the peace. And it is right 
 that the good citizens and the public should rejoice at it. For 
 me, poor old man that I am, I return to a town where I know 
 nothing but the walls, where I find no longer any of my friends, 
 where great and laborious duties await me, and where I shall 
 soon lay my old bones in an asylum which can neither be troub- 
 led by war, by calamities, nor by the wickedness of men." 
 
 Archenholtz, who was an eye-witness of the miseries which he 
 describes, gives the following account of the state of Germany at 
 the close of the conflict : 
 
 " Whole provinces had been laid waste. Even in those which 
 had not been thus destroyed, internal commerce and industry 
 were almost at an end. A great part of Pomerania and Bran- 
 denburg was changed into a desert. There were provinces 
 where hardly any men were to be found, and where the women 
 were therefore obliged to guide the plow. In others women 
 were as much wanting as men. The most fertile plains of Ger- 
 many, on the banks of the Oder and the Wesel, presented only 
 the arid and sterile appearance of a desert. An officer has stated 
 that he had passed through seven villages without meeting a 
 single person excepting a curate.''* 
 
 * Archenholtz, Histoire de la Guerre de Sept Ans. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 535 
 
 THE OFFICER AND THE CURATE. 
 
 On the loth of March, 1763, Frederick left Leipsic, and on the 
 30th entered his capital of Berlin, from which he had been ab- 
 sent six years. It was nine o'clock in the evening when his car- 
 riage drove through the dark and silent streets to his palace. 
 His arrival at that hour had not been anticipated. It is said 
 that he repaired" immediately to the queen's apartment, where 
 he met the several members of the royal family. As soon as it 
 was known that the king had arrived, Berlin blazed with illu- 
 minations and rang with rejoicings. 
 
536 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXIV. 
 
 THE PARTITION OF POLAND. 
 
 The King patronizes literary and scientific Men. — Anecdotes. — The Family Quarrel. — Birth of 
 Frederick William III. — Rapid Recuperation of Prussia. — The King's Tour of Observation. — 
 Desolate Aspect of the Country. — Absolutism of Frederick. — Interview between Frederick 
 and D'Alembert. — Unpopularity of Frederick. — Death of the King of Poland. — Plans for the 
 Partition of Poland. — Intrigues of Catharine. — Interview between Frederick and the Emperor 
 Joseph. — Poland seized by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. — The Division of the Spoil. — Re- 
 morse of Maria Theresa. — Indifference of Frederick to public Opinion. 
 
 There still remained to Frederick twenty-three years of life. 
 He now engaged very vigorously in the endeavor to repair the 
 terrible ravages of war by encouraging agriculture, commerce, 
 and all useful arts. He invited the distinguished French phi- 
 losophers Helvetius and D'Alembert to visit his court, and en- 
 deavored, though unavailingly, to induce them to take up their 
 residence in Berlin. They were both in sympathy with the king 
 in their renunciation of Christianity. 
 
 There are many anecdotes of Frederick floating about in the 
 journals whose authenticity can not be vouched for. The two 
 following are doubtless authentic. Frederick, as he was riding 
 through the streets of Berlin, saw a crowd looking upon a pic- 
 ture which was posted high up on a wall. He requested -his 
 groom to see what it was. The servant returned with the reply, 
 
 " It is a caricature of your majesty, seated on a stool, with a 
 coffee-mill between your knees, grinding with one hand, and pick- 
 ing up the beans wdiich have fallen with the other." 
 
 " Take it down," said the king, " and hang it lower, that the 
 people may not hurt their necks in looking at it." 
 
 The crowd heard what he said. With bursts of laughter they 
 tore the caricature in pieces, scattered it to the winds, and greet- 
 ed the king, as he rode away, with enthusiastic shouts of "Our 
 Fritz forever." 
 
 The Crown Prince Frederick had married the daughter of the 
 Duke of Brunswick. She was a very beautiful, proud, high-spir- 
 ited woman. Her husband was a worthless fellow, dissolute in 
 the extreme. She, stung to madness, and unrestrained by Chris- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 537 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT, MT. 59. 
 
 tian principle, retaliated in kind. A divorce was the result. The 
 discarded princess retired to the castle of Stettin, where she lived 
 in comparative seclusion, though surrounded with elegance. 
 
 Upon one occasion she ordered a very rich silk dress directly 
 from Lyons. The custom-house dues were heavy. The custom- 
 house officer detained the dress until the dues should be paid. 
 The haughty princess, exceedingly indignant, sent an order to 
 him to bring the dress instantly to her, and she would pay the 
 
538 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 demand. As soon as he entered her apartment, she snatched 
 the dress from his hands, and with her open palm gave him two 
 slaps in the face, ordering Him immediately to leave the house * 
 
 The officer drew up a statement of the facts, and sent it to the 
 king, with the complaint that he had been dishonored in dis- 
 charging the duties intrusted to him by his majesty. The king 
 sent the following reply : 
 
 " To the custom-house officer at Stettin. The loss of the ex- 
 cise dues shall fall to my score. The dress shall remain with 
 the princess ; the slaps to him who received them. As to the 
 pretended dishonor, I entirely relieve the complainant from that. 
 Never can the appliance of a beautiful hand dishonor the face of 
 an officer of customs." 
 
 Frederick, with his own pen, gives the following account of 
 this family quarrel, which resulted in the divorce of the Crown 
 Prince and Elizabeth : 
 
 " Not long ago we mentioned the Prince of Prussia's marriage 
 with Elizabeth of Brunswick. The husband, young and disso- 
 lute, given up to a profligate life, from which his relatives could 
 not correct him, was continually committing infidelities to his 
 wife. The princess, who was in the flower of her beauty, felt 
 outraged by such neglect of her charms. Her vivacity and the 
 good opinion she had of herself brought her upon the thought 
 of avenging her wrongs by retaliation. Speedily she gave into 
 excesses scarcely inferior to those of her husband. Family quar- 
 rels broke out, and were soon publicly known. The antipathy 
 which ensued took away all hope of succession. The brothers 
 of the king, Henry and Ferdinand, avowed frankly that they 
 would never consent to have, by some accidental birth, their 
 rights of succession to the crown carried off. In the eiid, there 
 was nothing for it but proceeding to a divorce."f 
 
 Within three months after the divorce, the Crown Prince, anx- 
 ious for an heir, married, on the 18th of April, 1769, the Princess 
 Frederica Louisa, of Hesse-Darmstadt. A son was born to them, 
 who became Frederick William III. 
 
 * "Northern tourists, Wraxall and others, passing that way, speak of this princess down to 
 recent times as a phenomenon of the place. Apparently a high and peremptory kind of lady, 
 disdaining to be bowed too low by her disgraces. She survived all her generation, and the 
 next and the next, and, indeed, into our own. Died 18th February, 1840, at the age of ninety- 
 six." — Carlyle. t (Euvres de Frederic, t. vi., p. 23. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 539 
 
 Under the energetic administration of Frederick, Prussia be- 
 gan, very rapidly, to recover from the desolation which had over- 
 whelmed it. The coin, in a little more than a year, was restored 
 to its purity. In the course of two years Frederick rebuilt, in 
 different parts of his realms, fourteen thousand five hundred 
 houses. The army horses were distributed among the impover- 
 ished farmers for plow teams. Early in June, 1763, the king set 
 out on a general tour of inspection. 
 
 s "To form an idea," he writes, "of the general subversion, and 
 how great were the desolation and discouragement, you must 
 represent to yourself countries entirely ravaged, the very traces 
 of the old habitations hardly discoverable. Of the towns some 
 were ruined from top to bottom ; others half destroyed by fire. 
 Of thirteen thousand houses the very vestiges were gone. There 
 was no field in seed, no grain for the food of the inhabitants. 
 Sixty thousand horses were needed if there were to be plowing 
 carried on. In the provinces generally there were half a million 
 population less than in 1756; that is to say, upon four millions 
 and a half the ninth man was wanting. Noble and peasant had 
 been pillaged, ransomed, foraged, eaten out by so many different 
 armies ; nothing now left them but life and miserable rags. 
 
 " There was no credit by trading people even for the necessa- 
 ries of life. There was no police in the towns. To habits of 
 equity and order there had succeeded a vile greed of gain and 
 an anarchic disorder. The silence of the laws had produced in 
 the people a taste for license. Boundless appetite for gain was 
 their main rule of action. The noble, the merchant, the farmer, 
 the laborer, raising emulously each the price of his commodity, 
 seemed to endeavor only for their mutual ruin. Such, when the 
 war ended, was the fatal spectacle over these provinces, which 
 had once been so flourishing. However pathetic the description 
 may be, it will never approach the touching and sorrowful im- 
 pression which the sight of it produced." 
 
 The absolutism of Frederick placed all legislative, judicial, and 
 executive powers in his hands. He was law-maker, judge, and 
 executioner. The liberty, property, and lives of his subjects 
 were at his disposal. He could call others to assist him in the 
 government, but they were merely servants to do his bidding. 
 
 " During the war," writes Frederick, " the councilors and min- 
 
540 FKEDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 isters had successively died. In such time of trouble it had been 
 impossible to replace them. The embarrassment was to find per- 
 sons capable of filling these different employments. We search- 
 ed the provinces, where good heads were found as rare as in the 
 capital. At length iive chief ministers were pitched upon." 
 
 The rich abbeys of the Roman Catholics were compelled to 
 establish manufactures for weaving damasks and table-cloths. 
 Some were converted into oil-mills, or " workers in copper, wire- 
 drawers, the flaxes and metals, with water-power, markets, and 
 so on." 
 
 While on this tour of inspection, the celebrated French philos- 
 opher D'Alembert, by appointment, met the king at Geldern, 
 and accompanied him to Potsdam. D'Aleinbeit was in entire 
 sympathy with the king in his renunciation of Christianity. In 
 1755 D'Alembert had, by invitation, met Frederick at Wesel, on 
 the Rhine. In a letter to Madame Du Deffand, at Paris, elated 
 Potsdam, June 25, 1763, D'Alembert wrote : 
 
 " I will not go into the praises of King Frederick, now my 
 host. I will merely send you two traits of him, which will in- 
 dicate his way of thinking and feeling. When I spoke to him 
 of the glory which he had acquired, he answered, with the great- 
 est simplicity, 
 
 "'There is a furious discount to be' deducted from said glory. 
 Chance came in for almost the whole of it. I would far rather 
 have written Racine's Atlialie than have performed all- the 
 achievements of this war.' 
 
 "The other trait I have to give you is this. On the 15th of 
 February last, the day of concluding this peace, which is so glo- 
 rious to him, some one said to him, ' It is the finest day of your 
 majesty's life.' The king replied, 
 
 " 'The finest day of life is the day on which one quits it.' "* 
 
 Helvetius, another of the distinguished French deistical philos- 
 ophers, was invited to Berlin to assist the king in his financial 
 operations. To aid the mechanics in Berlin, and to show to the 
 world that the king was not so utterly impoverished as many 
 imagined, Frederick, on the 11th of June, 1763, laid the founda- 
 tion of the sumptuous edifice called " The New Palace of Sans 
 Souci." 
 
 * (Euvres Posthumes de D'Alembert, t. i., p. 197, cited by Carlyle, vol. vi., p 283. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 541 
 
 Frederick, though now at peace with, all the world, found no 
 nation in cordial alliance with him. He had always disliked 
 England, and England returned the dislike with interest. The 
 Duchess of Pompadour, who controlled France, hated him. Ma- 
 ria Theresa regarded him as a highway robber who had snatched 
 Silesia from her and escaped with it. Frederick, thus left with- 
 out an ally, turned to his former subject, now Catharine II., 
 whom he had placed on the throne of Russia. On the 11th of 
 April, 1764, one year after the close of the Seven Years' War, he 
 entered into a treaty of alliance with the Czarina Catharine. 
 The treaty was to continue eight years. In case either of the 
 parties became involved in war, the other party was to furnish 
 a contingent of twelve thousand men, or an equivalent in money. 
 
 On the 5th of October, 1763, Augustus, the unhappy King of 
 Poland, had died at Dresden, after a troubled reign of thirty 
 years. The crown was elective. The turbulent nobles, broken 
 up into antagonistic and envenomed cliques, were to choose a 
 successor. Catharine, as ambitious as she was able and unprin- 
 cipled, resolved to place one of her creatures upon the throne, 
 that Poland, a realm spreading over a territory of 284,000 square 
 miles, and containing a population of 20,000,000, might be vir- 
 tually added to her dominions. Carlyle writes : 
 
 " My own private conjecture, I confess, has rather grown to be, 
 on much reading of those Sulhieres and distracted books, that 
 the czarina — who was a grandiose creature, with considerable 
 magnanimities, natural and acquired; with many ostentations, 
 some really great qualities and talents ; in effect, a kind of she 
 Louis Quatorze (if the reader will reflect on that royal gentle- 
 man, and put him into petticoats in Russia, and change his im- 
 proper females for improper males) — that the czarina, very clear- 
 ly resolute to keep Poland hers, had determined with herself to 
 do something very handsome in regard to Poland ; and to gain 
 glory, both with the enlightened philosophe classes and with her 
 own proud heart, by her treatment of that intricate matter." 
 
 In the court of the czarina there was a very handsome young 
 Pole, Stanislaus Poniatowski, who had been an acknowledged 
 lover of Catharine. Though Catharine had laid him aside for 
 other favorites, she still regarded him with tender feelings. He 
 was just the man to do her bidding. .By skillful diplomacy she 
 
542 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 caused him to be elected King of Poland. That kingdom was 
 now entirely in her hands, so far as it was in the power of its 
 monarch to place it there. 
 
 This, however, stirred up great strife in Poland. The nobles 
 were roused. Scenes of confusion ensued. The realm was 
 plunged into a state of anarchy. Frederick, being in cordial co- 
 operation with the czarina in all her measures, instructed his 
 minister in Warsaw to follow her policy in every particular. It 
 has generally been supposed that Frederick was the first to pro- 
 pose the banditti division of the kingdom of Poland between 
 Prussia, Russia, and Austria by means of their united armies. 
 This is not certain. But, whoever may have at first made the 
 suggestion, it is very certain that Frederick cordially and effi- 
 ciently embarked in the. enterprise.* 
 
 Poniatowski was elected King of Poland on the 7th of Sep- 
 tember, 1764, and crowned on the 25th of November. He was 
 then thirty-two years of age, and the scarcely disguised agent of 
 Catharine. Two or three years passed of wars and rebellions, 
 and all the usual tumult of this tumultuous world. In August, 
 1765, the Emperor Francis died. He was at Innspriick, attend- 
 ing the marriage festivities of his second son Leopold. About 
 nine o'clock in the evening of the 18th, while sauntering through 
 the rooms in the midst of the brilliant gala, he was struck with 
 apoplexy. He staggered for a moment, fell into the hands of his 
 son Joseph, and instantly died. 
 
 Joseph, the oldest son of Maria Theresa and Francis, by the 
 will of his mother became emperor. But Maria Theresa still 
 swayed the sceptre of imperial power, through the hands of her 
 son, as she had formerly done through the hands of her amiable 
 and pliant husband. The young emperor was fond of traveling. 
 He visited all the battle-fields of the Seven Years' War, and put 
 up many monuments. Through his minister at Berlin, he ex- 
 pressed his particular desire to make the acquaintance of Freder- 
 ick. The interview took place at Neisse on the 25th of August, 
 1769. His majesty received the young emperor on the grand 
 staircase of the palace, where they cordially embraced each other. 
 
 " Now are my wishes fulfilled," said the emperor, " since I have 
 the honor to embrace the greatest of kings and soldiers." 
 
 * Histoire ou Anecdotes sur la Revolution de Russie en lannee 1762, par M. Rulhiere. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 543 
 
 " I look upon this day," the king replied, " as the fairest of my 
 life ; for it will become the epoch of uniting two houses which 
 have been enemies too long, and whose mutual interests require 
 that they should strengthen, not weaken, one another." 
 
 There were dinner-parties, and military reviews, and operas to 
 beguile the time. The interview lasted three days. The king 
 and the emperor often walked out arm in arm. Frederick wrote : 
 
 "The emperor has a frankness of manner which seems natural 
 to him. In his amiable character, gayety and great vivacity are 
 prominent features." 
 
 Under cover of these festivities important political matters 
 were discussed. The question of the partition of Poland arose, 
 and arrangements were made for another interview. Soon after 
 this, Frederick sent to Catharine a sketch of a plan for partition- 
 ing several provinces in Poland — Russia, Prussia, and Austria 
 each taking a share. " To which Petersburg, intoxicated with 
 its own outlooks on Turkey, paid not the least attention."* The 
 second interview, of five days, commenced on the 3d of Septem- 
 ber, 1770, at Neustadt, near Austerlitz, which has since become 
 so famous. 
 
 The Prince De Ligne, in a long letter to Stanislaus, King of 
 Poland, gives an interesting account of several conversations 
 which ensued. In this narrative he writes : 
 
 " I forget how the conversation changed. But I know that it 
 grew so free that, seeing somebody coming to join in it, the king 
 warned him to take care, saying that it was not safe to converse 
 with a man doomed by the theologians to everlasting fire. I felt 
 as if he somewhat overdid this of his ' being doomed,' and that 
 he boasted too much of it. Not to hint at the dishonesty of 
 these free-thinking gentlemen, who very often are thoroughly 
 afraid of the devil, it is at least bad taste to make display of such 
 things. And it was with the people of bad taste whom he had 
 about him, and some dull skeptics of his own academy, that he 
 had acquired the habit of mocking at religion." 
 
 The king was not a little vain of the keen thrusts he could 
 occasionally give the clergy. In a letter to Marie- An toine, Elect- 
 ress of Saxony, dated Potsdam, May 3, 1768, he, with much ap- 
 parent complacency, records the following witty achievement : 
 
 * (Euvres de Frederic, t. vi., p. 26. 
 
544 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " It is a pity for the human race, madam, that men never can 
 be tranquil. But they never can be any where. Even the lit- 
 tle town of Neufchatel has had its troubles. Your royal high- 
 ness will be astonished to learn how. A parson there had set 
 forth in a sermon that, considering the immense mercy of God, 
 the pains of hell could not last forever. The synod shouted 
 murder at such scandal, and has been struggling ever since to 
 get the parson exterminated. The affair was of my jurisdiction, 
 for your royal highness must know that I am pope in that coun- 
 try. Here is my decision : 
 
 "'Let the parsons who make for themselves a cruel and bar- 
 barous God be eternally damned, as they desire and deserve; 
 and let those parsons who conceive God gentle and merciful en- 
 joy the plenitude of his mercy. 7 
 
 " However, madam, my sentence has failed to calm the minds. 
 The schism continues, and the number of damnatory theologians 
 prevail over the others."* 
 
 The king could be very courteous. He gave a dinner-party, 
 at which General Loudon, one of the most efficient of the Aus- 
 trian generals, and who had often been successfully opposed to 
 Frederick, was a guest. As he entered the king said, 
 
 " General Loudon, take a seat by my side. I had much rather 
 have you with me than opposite me." Mettez vous aupres de 
 moi. J^aiine mieux vous avoir a cote de moi que vis-a-vis. f 
 
 Catharine was at this time engaged vigorously in a war with 
 the Turks. Frederick, by his treaty with the czarina, was com- 
 pelled to assist her. This ambitious woman, endowed with ex- 
 traordinary powers, was pushing her conquests toward Constan- 
 tinople, having formed the resolve to annex that imperial city to 
 the empire, and thus to open through the Straits of the'Bospho- 
 rus and the Dardanelles new avenues for Russian commerce. 
 
 Count Von Kaunitz, an able but proud and self-conceited man, 
 was prime minister of the Emperor of Germany. His command- 
 ing mind exerted quite a controlling influence over his imperial 
 master. Kaunitz records the following conversation as having 
 taken place at this interview between himself and Frederick: J 
 
 * Correspondance avec VElectrice Marie- Antoine. f Pezzl, Vie de Loudon, vol. ii., p. 29. 
 
 % " Kaunitz," writes Frederick, "had a clear intellect, greatly twisted by perversities of tem- 
 per, especially by a self-conceit and arrogance which were boundless. He did not talkj but 
 preach. At the smallest interruption he would stop short in indignant surprise. It has hap- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 545 
 
 " These Russian encroachments upon the Turk," said Kaunitz, 
 " are dangerous to the repose of Europe. His imperial majesty 
 can never consent that Russia should possess the provinces of 
 Moldavia and Wallachia. He will much rather go to war. 
 These views of Russia are infinitely dangerous to every body. 
 They are as dangerous to your majesty as to others. I can con- 
 ceive of no remedy against them but this. Prussia and Austria 
 must join frankly in protest and absolute prohibition of them." 
 
 "I have nothing more at heart," Frederick replied," than to 
 stand well with Austria. I wish always to be her ally, never 
 her enemy. But the prince sees how I am situated. Bound by 
 express treaty with her czarish majesty, I must go with Russia in 
 any war. I will do every thing in my power to conciliate her 
 majesty with the emperor — to secure such a peace at St. Peters- 
 burg as may meet the wishes of Vienna."* 
 
 Singularly enough, the very next day Frederick received an 
 express from the Divan requesting him, with the aid of Austria, 
 to mediate peace with Russia. The Turks had encountered such 
 reverses that they were anxious to sheathe the sword. Freder- 
 ick with great joy undertook the mediation. But he found the 
 mediation far more difficult than he had imagined. Catharine 
 and Maria Theresa, so totally different in character, entertained 
 a rooted aversion to each other. The complications were so great 
 that month after month the deliberations were continued un- 
 availingly. Maria Theresa was unrelentingly opposed to the ad- 
 vance of Russia upon Constantinople. 
 
 Thus, originated with the Empress Catharine, one hundred 
 years ago, the idea of driving the Turks out of Europe, and of 
 annexing Constantinople to her majestic empire. From that 
 time until now the question has been increasingly agitating the 
 courts of Europe. Every day, now, the " Eastern Question" is 
 assuming greater importance. The following map very clear- 
 ly shows the commanding position of Constantinople, and the 
 immense strength, both in a military and a commercial point of 
 view, it would give to the Russian empire. 
 
 Meneval, private secretary of Napoleon I., records that, in one 
 
 pened that at the council-board in Schonbrunn, when her imperial majesty has asked some ex- 
 planation of a word or thing not understood by her, Kaunitz made his bow and quitted the room." 
 * (Euvres de Frederic, t. xxvi., p. 30. 
 
 Mm 
 
546 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 of the interviews of the emperor with Alexander, the czar offered 
 to co-operate with Napoleon in all his plans if the emperor would 
 consent that Russia should take Constantinople. The French 
 emperor replied, after a moment's hesitation, 
 
 " Constantinople ! never. It is the empire of the world." 
 There can be but little doubt, however, that the Bosphorus 
 and the Dardanelles will ere long be in the hands of Russia. 
 " I know that I or my successors," said the Czar Nicholas, " must 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 547 
 
 have Constantinople. You might as well arrest a stream in its 
 descent from a mountain as the Russians in their advance to the 
 Hellespont."* 
 
 There was a famine in Poland, and the famine was followed 
 by pestilence. A general state of tumult and discord ensued. 
 Maria Theresa had gathered a large army on the frontiers of 
 Hungary to watch the designs of Russia upon Turkey. Avail- 
 ing herself of this disturbed state of Poland, Maria Theresa 
 marched her troops into one of its provinces called Zips, which 
 had once belonged to Hungary, and quietly extended her bound- 
 aries around the acquisition. Catharine was much exasperated 
 by the measure. 
 
 The czarina had, about that time, invited Prince Henry, the 
 warlike brother of Frederick, to visit her. They had met as chil- 
 dren when the czarina w^as daughter of the commandant at Stet- 
 tin. Henry was received with an extraordinary display of im- 
 perial magnificence. In the midst of this routine of feasting, 
 balls, and masquerades, Catharine one day said to Henry, with 
 much pique, referring to these encroachments on the part of Ma- 
 ria Theresa, 
 
 "It seems that in Poland the Austrian s have only to stoop 
 and pick up what they like. If the court of Vienna has the in- 
 tention to dismember that kingdom, its neighbors will have the 
 right to take their share."f 
 
 Frederick caught eagerly at the suggestion, as the remark was 
 reported to him by his brother. He drew up a new plan of par- 
 tition, which he urged with all his powers of address upon both 
 Russia and Austria. The conscience of Maria Theresa was strong- 
 ly opposed to the deed. Catharine and Kaunitz were very greedy 
 in their demands. Circumstances assumed such an aspect that 
 it was very difficult for Maria Theresa to oppose the measure. 
 At length, through the extraordinary efforts of Frederick, on the 
 5th of August, 1772, the following agreement was adopted: 
 
 Russia took 87,500 square miles. Austria received 62,500. 
 The share which fell to Frederick was but 9456 square miles. 
 Small in respect to territory as was Frederick's share, it was re- 
 garded, in consequence of its position and the nature of the coun- 
 try, equally valuable with the other portions. 
 
 * Schnitzler, vol. ii. , p. 247. t CEuvres de Frederic, t. xxvi. , p. 345. 
 
548 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " Frederick's share," writes Mr. Carlyle, " as an anciently Teu- 
 tonic country, and as filling up the always dangerous gap be- 
 tween his Ost Prussen and him, has, under Prussian administra- 
 tion, proved much the most valuable of the three, and, next to 
 Silesia, is Frederick's most important acquisition." 
 
 In carrying out these measures of partition, which the world 
 has usually regarded as one of the most atrocious acts of robbery 
 on record, resort was had both to bribery and force. The King 
 of Poland was the obsequious servant of Catharine. A common 
 fund was raised by the three powers to bribe the members of 
 the Polish diet. Each of the confederate powers also sent an 
 army to the Polish frontiers, ready to unite and crush the dis- 
 tracted people should there be any forcible resistance. Thus 
 the deed was accomplished. 
 
 Maria Theresa was a devout woman, governed by stern con- 
 victions of duty. Her moral nature recoiled from this atrocious 
 act. But she felt driven to it by the pressure brought upon her 
 by her own cabinet, her powerful and arrogant prime minister, 
 and by the courts of Prussia and Russia. While, therefore, very 
 reluctantly giving her assent to the measure, she issued the fol- 
 lowing extraordinary document : 
 
 "When all my lands were invaded, and I knew not where in 
 the world to be brought to bed in, I relied on my good right 
 and the help of God. But in this thing, where not only public 
 law cries to Heaven against us, but also all natural justice, and 
 sound reason, I must confess never in my life to have been in 
 such trouble, and I am ashamed to show my face. Let the 
 prince (Kaunitz) consider what an example we are giving to all 
 the world, if, for a miserable piece of Poland, or of Moldavia, or 
 Wallachia, we throw our honor and reputation to the winds. I 
 see well that I am alone, and no more in vigor. Therefore I 
 must, though to my very great sorrow, let things take their 
 course."* 
 
 A few days afterward, in an official document, she writes : " I 
 consent, since so many great and learned men will have it so. 
 But long after I am dead, it will be known what this violating 
 of all that was hitherto held sacred and just will give rise to."f 
 
 * Hormayr, Taschenbuch, 1831, S. 66, cited by Dr. J. D. E. Preuss, Historiographer of Bran- 
 denburg, in his life of Friedrich der Grosse, vol. iv., p. 38. f Preuss, vol. iv., p. 39. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 549 
 
 Frederick had cultivated a supreme indifference to public 
 opinion. Not believing in any God, in any future retribution, 
 or in any immortality, and regarding men merely as the insects 
 of an hour, like the myriad polyps which, beneath the ocean, rear 
 their stupendous structures and perish, his sense of right and 
 wrong must necessarily have been very different from that which 
 a believer in the Christian faith is accustomed to cherish. In 
 allusion to this subject, he writes : 
 
 " A new career came to open itself to me. And one must 
 have been either without address or buried in stupidity not to 
 have profited by an opportunity so advantageous. I seized this 
 unexpected opportunity by the forelock. By dint of negotiating 
 and intriguing, I succeeded in indemnifying our monarchy for its 
 past losses by incorporating Polish Prussia with my old prov- 
 inces. This acquisition was one of the most important we could 
 make, because it joined Pommern to East Prussia, and because, 
 rendering us masters of the Weichsel River, we gained the 
 double advantage of being able to defend that kingdom (East 
 Prussia), and to draw considerable tolls from the Weichsel, as 
 all the trade of Poland goes by that river." 
 
 The region thus annexed to Prussia was in a deplorable state 
 of destitution and wretchedness. Most of the towns were in 
 ruins. War had so desolated the land that thousands of the 
 people were living in the cellars of their demolished houses. 
 
 "The country people hardly knew such a thing as bread. 
 Many had never tasted such a delicacy. Few villages possessed 
 an oven. A weaving-loom was rare ; a spinning-wheel unknown. 
 The main article of furniture in this bare scene of squalor was 
 a crucifix, and a vessel of holy water under it. It was a desolate 
 land, without discipline, without law, without a master. On 
 nine thousand English square miles lived five hundred thousand 
 souls — not fifty-five to the square mile."* 
 
 With extraordinary energy and sagacity Frederick set about 
 developing the resources of his new acquisition. Houses were 
 built. Villages rose as by magic. Marshes were drained. Em- 
 igrants, in large numbers, mechanics and farmers, were transport- 
 ed to the new lands. Canals were dug. Roads were improved, 
 and new ones opened. One hundred and eighty-seven school- 
 
 * G. Freytag, Neue Bilder aus dem Leben des deutschenVolkes, cited by Carlyle, vol. vi., p. S78. 
 
550 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 masters were sent into the country. Every where there was 
 plowing, ditching, building. 
 
 " As Frederick's seven years' struggle of war may be called 
 superhuman, so was there also, in his present labor of peace, 
 something enormous, which appeared to his contemporaries al- 
 most preternatural, at times inhuman. It was grand, but also 
 terrible, that the success of the whole was to him, at all mo- 
 ments, the one thing to be striven after. The comfort of the in- 
 dividual was of no concern at all."* 
 
 The weal or woe of a single human polyp was, in the view of 
 Frederick, entirely unimportant in comparison with the great 
 enterprises he was ambitious of achieving. For this dismember- 
 ment of Poland Frederick was severely assailed in a book enti- 
 tled " Polish Dialogues." In answer to a letter from Voltaire, 
 he wrote, under date of March 2, 1775 : 
 
 "The f Polish Dialogues' you speak of are not known to me. 
 I think of such satires with Epictetus, ' If they tell any truth of 
 thee, correct thyself. If they are lies, laugh at them.' I have 
 learned, with years, to become a steady coach-horse. I do my 
 stage like a diligent roadster, and pay no heed to the little dogs 
 .that will bark by the way." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 LIFE'S CLOSING SCENES. 
 
 Character of the Crown Prince. — Stratagem of the Emperor Joseph II. — Death of the Empress 
 Catharine of Russia. — Matrimonial Alliance of Russia and Prussia. — Death of the King of 
 Bavaria. — Attempt to Annex Bavaria to Austria.— Unexpected Energy of Frederick. — Court 
 Intrigues. — Preparations for War. — Address to the Troops. — Declaration of War. — Terror 
 in Vienna. — Irritability of Frederick. — Death of Voltaire. — Unjust Condemnation of the 
 Judges. — Death of Maria Theresa. — Anecdote. — The King's Fondness for Children. — His 
 Fault-finding Spirit. — The King's Appearance. — The Last Review. — Statement of Mirabeau. 
 — Anecdote related by Dr. Moore.— Frederick's Fondness for Dogs. — Increasing Weakness. 
 — Unchanging Obduracy toward the Queen. — The Dying Scene. 
 
 Toward the end of the year 1775 the king had an unusually 
 severe attack of the gout. It was erroneously reported that it 
 was a dangerous attack of the dropsy, and that he was manifest- 
 ly drawing near to his end. The Crown Prince, who was to 
 succeed him, was a man of very little character. The Emperor 
 
 * Freytag, p. 397. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 551 
 
 of Germany, Joseph IX* thought the death of Frederick would 
 present him an opportunity of regaining Silesia for Austria. 
 The Austrian army was immediately put in motion and hurried 
 to the frontiers of Silesia, to seize the province the moment the 
 king should expire. This was openly done, and noised abroad. 
 Much to the disappointment of the emperor, the king got well. 
 Amidst much ridicule, the troops returned to their old quarters.* 
 
 Frederick was probably not surprised at this act on the part 
 of the emperor. He undoubtedly had sufficient candor to admit 
 that it was exactly what he should have done under similar cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 Catharine of Russia had a son, Paul, her heir to the throne. 
 It so chanced that she died just at the time Prince Henry of 
 Prussia was visiting St. Petersburg. Through his agency Paul 
 was induced to take as a second wife a niece of Frederick's, the 
 eldest daughter of Eugene of Wlirtemberg. Thus the ties be- 
 tween Russia and Prussia were still more strengthened, so far as 
 matrimonial alliances could strengthen them. The wedding 
 took place in Berlin on the 18th of October, 1776. 
 
 Several years now passed away with nothing specially worthy 
 of record. Frederick did not grow more amiable as he advanced 
 in years. Though Frederick was often unreasonable, petulant, 
 and unjust, and would seldom admit that he had been in the 
 wrong, however clear the case, it can not be doubted that it was 
 his general and earnest desire that justice should be exercised 
 in all his courts. 
 
 In September, 1777, the King of Bavaria died. The emperor 
 thought it a good opportunity to annex Bavaria to Austria. 
 "Do but look on the map," says Carlyle, in his peculiar style of 
 thought and expression: "you would say, Austria without Ba- 
 varia is like a human figure with its belly belonging to some- 
 body else. Bavaria is the trunk or belly of the Austrian domin- 
 ions, shutting off all the limbs of them each from the other; 
 making for central part a huge chasm." 
 
 France would hardly object, since she was exhausted with 
 long wars. England was busy in the struggle with her North 
 American colonies. Russia was at war with the Turks. There 
 was no power to be feared but Prussia. 
 
 * (Euvres de Frederic, t. vi., p. 124. 
 
552 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 " Frederick," said Kaunitz, " is old and broken. He can not 
 live long. Having suffered so much, he has an absolute horror 
 of war. We need not fear that he will again put his armies in 
 motion." 
 
 But no sooner did Frederick get an intimation that Austria 
 was contemplating this enlargement of her domains than he 
 roused himself to prevent it with, all the vigor of his earlier 
 years. It was a very delicate matter ; for Charles Theodore, the 
 elector, and his nephew August Christian, heir to the electorate, 
 a young gentleman of very illustrious pedigree, but of a very 
 slender purse, had both been bribed by Austria secretly to co- 
 operate in the movement. The reader will be interested in Car- 
 lyle's account, slightly abbreviated, of Frederick's skill in di- 
 plomacy : 
 
 "Heir is a gallant enough young gentleman. Frederick judges 
 that he probably will have haggled to sign any Austrian con- 
 vention for dismemberment of Baiern, and that he will start into 
 life upon it so soon as he sees hope. 
 
 " ' A messenger to him,' thinks Frederick ; ' a messenger in- 
 stantly ; and who V For that clearly is the first thing. And a 
 delicate thing it is ; requiring to be done in profoundest secrecy, 
 by hint and innuendo rather than speech — by somebody in a 
 cloak of darkness, who is of adroit quality, and was never heard 
 of in diplomatic circles before, not to be suspected of having 
 business of mine on hand. 
 
 "Frederick bethinks him that in a late visit to Weimar he 
 had. noticed, for his fine qualities, a young gentleman named 
 Gortz, late tutor to the young Duke Karl August, a wise, firm, 
 adroit-looking young gentleman, who was farther interesting as 
 brother to Lieutenant General Von Gortz, a respectable 'soldier 
 of Frederick's. Ex-tutor at Weimar, we say, and idle for the 
 moment ; hanging about court there, till he should find a new 
 function. 
 
 " Of this ex-tutor Frederick bethinks him ; and in the course 
 of that same day— for there is no delay — Frederick, who is at 
 Berlin, beckons General Gortz to come over to him from Pots- 
 dam instantly. 
 
 " ' Hither this evening, and in all privacy meet me in the pal- 
 ace at such an hour' (hour of midnight or thereby) ; which of 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 553 
 
 course Gortz, duly invisible to mankind, does. Frederick ex- 
 plains: an errand to Mtinchen; perfectly secret, for the moment, 
 and requiring great delicacy and address ; perhaps not without 
 risk, a timorous man might say: will your brother go for me, 
 think you ? Gortz thinks he will. 
 
 " ' Here is his instruction, if so,' adds the king, handing him an 
 autograph of the necessary outline of procedure — not signed, nor 
 with any credential, or even specific address, lest accident hap- 
 pen. ' Adieu, then, herr general lieutenant ; rule is, shoes of 
 swiftness, cloak of darkness : adieu !■' 
 
 "And Gortz senior is off on the instant, careering toward 
 Weimar, where he finds Gortz junior, and makes known his er- 
 rand. Gortz junior stares in the natural astonishment; but, aft. 
 er some intense brief deliberation, becomes affirmative, and in a 
 minimum of time is ready and on the road. 
 
 "Gortz junior proved to have been an excellent choice on the 
 king's part, and came to good promotion afterward by his con- 
 duct in this affair. Gortz junior started for Miinchen on the in- 
 stant, masked utterly, or his business masked, from profane eyes ; 
 saw this person, saw that, and glided swiftly about, swiftly and 
 with sure aim ; and speedily kindled the matter, and had smoke 
 rising in various points. And before January was out, saw the 
 Reisch-Diet, at Regensburg, much more the general gazetteerage 
 every where, seized of this affair, and thrown into paroxysms at 
 the size and complexion of it : saw, in fact, a world getting into 
 flame- — kindled by whom or what nobody could guess for a long 
 time to come. Gortz had great running about in his cloak of 
 darkness, and showed abundant talent of the kind needed. A 
 pushing, clear-eyed, stout-hearted man; much cleverness and 
 sureness in what he did and forebore to do. His adventures 
 were manifold ; he had much traveling about : was at Regens- 
 burg, at Mannheim ; saw many persons whom he had to judge 
 of on the instant, and speak frankly to, or speak darkly, or speak 
 nothing ; and he made no mistake. 
 
 "We can not afford the least narrative of Gortz and his courses: 
 imagination, from a few traits, will sufficiently conceive them. 
 He had gone first to Karl Theodor's minister: 'Dead to it, I fear ; 
 has alread}^signed V Alas ! yes. Upon which to Zweibriick, the 
 heir's minister, whom his master had distinctly ordered to sign, 
 
554 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 but who, "at his own peril, gallant man, delayed, remonstrated, 
 had not yet done it ; and was able to answer : 
 
 " 'Alive to it, he ? Yes, with a witness, were there hope in the 
 world I! which threw Gortz upon instant gallop toward Zvvei- 
 briick Schloss in search of said heir, the young Duke August 
 Christian ; who, however, had left in the interim (summoned by 
 his uncle, on Austrian urgency, to consent along with him), but 
 whom Gortz, by dexterity and intuition of symptoms, caught up 
 by the road, with what a mutual joy ! As had been expected, 
 August Christian, on sight of Gortz, with an armed Frederick 
 looming in the distance, took at once into new courses and ac- 
 tivities. From him no consent now ; far other : treaty with Fred- 
 erick ; flat refusal ever to consent : application to the Reich, ap- 
 plication even to France, and whatever a gallant young fellow 
 could do. 
 
 "Frederick was in very weak health in these months; still 
 considered by the gazetteers to be dying. But it appears he is 
 not yet too weak for taking, on the instant necessary, a world- 
 important resolution; and of being on the road with it, to this 
 issue or to that, at full speed before the day closed. ' Desist, 
 good neighbor, I beseech you. You must desist, and even you 
 shall :' this resolution was entirely his own, as were the equally 
 prompt arrangements he contrived for executing it, should hard 
 come to hard, and Austria prefer war to doing justice."* 
 
 While pushing these intrigues of diplomacy, Frederick was 
 equally busy in marshaling his armies, that the sword might con- 
 tribute its energies to the enforcement of his demands. One 
 hundred thousand troops were assembled in Berlin, in the high- 
 est state of discipline and equipment, ready to march at a mo- 
 ment's warning. 
 
 On Sunday, April 5, 1778, Frederick reviewed these troops, 
 and addressed his officers in a speech, which was published in 
 the newspapers to inform Austria what she had to expect. Ea- 
 ger as Frederick was to enlarge his own dominions, he was by 
 no means disposed to grant the same privilege to otlier and rival 
 nations. The address of Frederick to his officers was in reality 
 a declaration to the Austrian court. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Frederick," I have assembled you here for a 
 
 * Carlyle, vol. vi., p. 446-449. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 555 
 
 public object. Most of you, like myself, have often been in amis 
 with one another, and are grown gray in the service of our coun- 
 try. To all of us is well known in what dangers, toils, and re- 
 nown we have been fellow-sharers. I doubt not in the least that 
 all of you, as myself, have a horror of bloodshed ; but the dan- 
 ger which now threatens our countries not only renders it a duty, 
 but puts us in the absolute necessity, to adopt the quickest and 
 most effectual means for dissipating at the right time the storm 
 which threatens to break out upon us. 
 
 " I depend with complete confidence on your soldierly and pa- 
 triotic zeal, which is already well and gloriously known to me, 
 and which, while I live, I will acknowledge with the heartiest 
 satisfaction. Before all things I recommend to you, and prescribe 
 as your most sacred duty, that in every situation you exercise 
 humanity on unarmed enemies. In this respect, let there be the 
 strictest discipline kept among those under you. 
 
 " To travel with the pomp of a king is not among my wishes, 
 and all of you are aware that I have no pleasure in rich field- 
 furniture ; but my increasing age, and the weakness it brings, 
 render me incapable of riding as I did in my youth. I shall, 
 therefore, be obliged to make use of a post-chaise in times of 
 marching, and all of you have liberty to do the same. But on 
 the day of battle you shall see me on horseback ; and there, also, 
 I hope my generals will follow that example." 
 
 Kaunitz, the Austrian prime minister, was by no means pre- 
 pared for this decisive action. In less than a week Frederick 
 had one hundred thousand soldiers on the frontiers. Austria 
 had not ten thousand. there to meet them. Kaunitz, quite alarm- 
 ed, assumed a supplicatory tone, and called for negotiation. 
 
 "Must there be war?" he said. "I am your majesty's friend. 
 Can we not, in mutual concession, find agreement V 
 
 The result was a congress of three persons, two Prussians and 
 one Austrian, which congress met at Berlin on the 24th of May, 
 1778. For two months they deliberated. The Austrians im- 
 proved the delay in making very vigorous preparations for war. 
 Frederick really wished to avoid the war, for he had seen enough 
 of the woes of battle. They could come to no agreement. 
 
 On the 3d of July Frederick issued his declaration of war. 
 On that very day his solid battalions, one hundred thousand 
 
556 EKEDEKICK THE GREAT. 
 
 strong, with menacing banners and defiant bugle - notes, crossed 
 the border, and encamped on Bohemian ground. At the same 
 moment, the king's brother, Prince Henry, with another army of 
 one hundred thousand men, commenced a march from the west 
 to co-operate in an impetuous rush upon Vienna. These tidings 
 caused the utmost consternation in the Austrian capital. An 
 eye-witness writes : 
 
 " The terror in Vienna was dreadful. I will not attempt to 
 describe the dismay the tidings excited among all ranks of peo- 
 ple. Maria Theresa, trembling for her two sons who were in the 
 army, immediately dispatched an autograph letter to Frederick 
 with new proposals for a negotiation." 
 
 Frederick had not grown old gracefully. He was domineer- 
 ing, soured, and irritable, finding fault with every body and ev- 
 ery thing. As his troops were getting into camp at Jaromirtz 
 on the 8th of July, the king, weary with riding, threw himself 
 upon the ground for a little rest, his adjutants being near him. 
 A young officer was riding by. Frederick beckoned to him, and 
 wrote, with his pencil, an order of not the slightest importance, 
 and said to the officer, aloud, in the hearing of all, purposely to 
 wound their feelings, 
 
 " Here, take that order to General Lossow, and tell him that 
 he is not to take it ill that I trouble him, as I have none in my 
 suite that can do any thing." It often seemed to give Frederick 
 pleasure, and never pain, to wound the feelings of others. 
 
 " On arriving with his column," writes General Schmettau, 
 "where the officer — a perfectly skillfulman — had marked out 
 the camp, the king would lift his spy-glass, gaze to right and 
 left, riding round the place at perhaps a hundred yards distance, 
 and begin, 'Look here, sir, what a botching you have made of it 
 again !' 
 
 " And then, grumbling and blaming, would alter the camp till 
 it was all out of rule, and then say, 
 
 " ' See there ; that is the way to mark out camps.' "* 
 
 Through the efforts of Maria Theresa there was another brief 
 conference, but it amounted to nothing. Neither party wished 
 for war. But Austria craved the annexation of Bavaria, and 
 Frederick was determined that Austria should not thus be en- 
 
 * Schmettau, vol. xxv. , p. 30. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 557 
 
 larged. Thus the summer passed away in unavailing diploma- 
 cy and in equally unavailing military manceuvrings. While 
 engaged in these adventures, Frederick received the tidings of 
 the death of Voltaire, who breathed his last on the 20th of May, 
 1778. The soul of Frederick was too much seared by life's stern 
 conflicts to allow him to manifest, or probably to feel, any emo- 
 tion on the occasion. He, however, wrote a eulogy upon the re- 
 nowned litterateur, which, though written by a royal pen, attract- 
 ed but little attention. 
 
 During the winter Russia and France interposed in behalf of 
 peace. The belligerents agreed to submit the question to their 
 decision. Austria was permitted to take a small slice of Bava- 
 ria, and for a time the horrors of war were averted. 
 
 Soon after this an event occurred very characteristic of the 
 king — an event which conspicuously displayed both his good 
 and bad qualities. A miller was engaged in a lawsuit against 
 a nobleman. The decree of the court, after a very careful exam- 
 ination, was unanimously in favor of the nobleman ; the king, 
 who had impulsively formed a different opinion of the case, was 
 greatly exasperated. He summoned the four judges before him, 
 denounced them in the severest terms of vituperation, would list- 
 en to no defense, and dismissed them angrily from office. 
 
 " May a miller," he exclaimed, fiercely, " who has no water, and 
 consequently can not grind, have his mill taken from him ? Is 
 that just ? Here is a nobleman wishing to make a fish-pond. 
 To get more water for his pond, he has a ditch dug to draw into 
 it a small stream which drives a water-mill. Thereby the miller 
 loses his water, and. can not grind. Yet, in spite of this, it is 
 pretended that the miller shall pay his rent, quite the same as 
 at the time when he had full water for his mill Of course he 
 can not pay his rent. His incomings are gone. 
 
 "And what does the court of Custrin do % It orders the mill 
 to be sold, that the nobleman may have his rent ! Go you, sir," 
 addressing the grand chancellor, " about your business, this in- 
 stant. Your successor is appointed ; with you I have nothing 
 more to do." The other three were assailed in the same way, 
 but still more vehemently, as the king's wrath flamed higher 
 and higher. " Out of my sight," he exclaimed at last ; " I will 
 make an example of you which shall be remembered." 
 
558 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 CONDEMNATION OF THE JUDGES. 
 
 The next day, December 11, 1779, the king issued the follow- 
 ing protocol in the newspapers : 
 
 " The king's desire always was and is that every body, be he 
 high or low, rich or poor, get prompt justice. Wherefore, in re- 
 spect to this most unjust sentence against the miller Arnold, 
 pronounced in the Neumark, and confirmed here in Berlin, his 
 majesty will establish an emphatic example, to the end that all 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 559 
 
 the courts of justice in the king's provinces may take warning 
 thereby, and not commit the like glaring unjust acts. For let 
 them bear in mind that the least peasant, yea, what is still more, 
 that even a beggar, is, no less than his majesty, a human being, 
 and one to whom due justice must be meted out. All men be- 
 ing equal before the law, if it is a prince complaining against a 
 peasant, or vice versa, the prince is the same as the peasant be- 
 fore the law. 
 
 " Let the courts take this for their rule ; and whenever they 
 do not carry out justice in a straightforward manner, without 
 any regard of person and rank, they shall have to answer to his 
 majesty for it." 
 
 The discarded judges were arrested, imprisoned for a year, and 
 fined a sum of money equal to the supposed loss of the miller. 
 In this case the judges had heard both sides of the question, and 
 the king but one side. The question had been justly decided. 
 The case was so clear that the new judges appointed by the king, 
 being conscientious men, could not refrain from sustaining the 
 verdict. Still the king, who would never admit that he was in 
 the wrong, ordered no redress for those who had thus suffered 
 for righteousness sake. After Frederick's death the court com- 
 pelled the miller to refund the money which had been so unjust- 
 ly extorted for damages. 
 
 On the 29th of November, 1780, Maria Theresa died. The 
 extraordinary character which she had developed through life 
 was equally manifested in the hour of death. She died of con- 
 gestion of the lungs, which created a painful and suffocating dif- 
 ficulty of breathing. Her struggles for breath rendered it im- 
 possible for her to lie upon the bed. Bolstered in her chair, she 
 leaned her head back as if inclined to sleep. 
 
 "Will your majesty sleep, then?" inquired an attendant. 
 
 " No," the empress replied ; " I could sleep, but I must not. 
 Death is too near. He must not steal upon me. These fifteen 
 years I have been making ready for him; I will meet him 
 awake." 
 
 For fifteen years she had been a mourning widow. Her hus- 
 band had died on the 18th of August. The 18th day of every 
 month had since then been a day of solitary prayer. On the 
 18th of every August she descended into the tomb, and sat for 
 
560 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 a season engaged in prayer by the side of the mouldering re- 
 mains of her spouse. 
 
 MARIA THERESA AT THE TOMB OF HER HUSBAND. 
 
 The Emperor Joseph had been embarrassed in his ambitious 
 plans by the conscientious scruples of his mother. He now en- 
 tered into a secret alliance with the Czarina Catharine, by which 
 he engaged to assist her in her advance to Constantinople, while 
 she, in her turn, was to aid him in his encroachments and annex- 
 ations to establish an empire in the West as magnificent as the 
 czarina hoped to establish in the East. 
 
 Delighted with this plan, and sanguine in the hope of its suc- 
 cessful accomplishment, the czarina named her next grandson 
 Constantine. Austria and Russia thus became allied, with all 
 their sympathies hostile to Frederick. Old age and infirmities 
 were stealing upon the king apace. Among the well-authen- 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 561 
 
 ticated anecdotes related of him, the following is given by Car- 
 lyle: 
 
 " Loss of time was one of the losses Frederick could least stand. 
 In visits, even from his brothers and sisters, which were always 
 by his own express invitation, he would say some morning (call 
 it Tuesday morning), ' You are going on Wednesday, I am sorry 
 to hear' (what you never heard before). ' Alas ! your majesty, 
 we must.' ' Well, I am sorry; but I will lay no constraint on 
 you. Pleasant moments can not last forever.' This trait is in 
 the anecdote-books; but its authenticity does not rest on that 
 uncertain basis. Singularly enough, it comes to me individually, 
 by two clear stages, from Frederick's sister, the Duchess of Bruns- 
 wick, who, if any body, would know it well." 
 
 We have often spoken of the entire neglect with which the 
 king treated his virtuous and amiable queen. Preuss relates 
 the following incident : 
 
 " When the king, after the Seven Years' War, now and then 
 in carnival season dined with the queen in her apartments, he 
 usually said not a word to her. He merely, on entering, on sit- 
 ting down at table, and leaving it, made the customary bows, 
 and sat opposite to her. Once the queen was ill of gout. The 
 table was in her apartments, but she was not there. She sat in 
 an easy-chair in the drawing-room. On this occasion the king 
 stepped up to the queen and inquired about her health. The 
 circumstance occasioned among the company present, and all 
 over the town, as the news spread, great wonder and sympathy. 
 This is probably the last time he ever spoke to her."* 
 
 " The king was fond of children ; he liked to have his grand- 
 nephews about him. One day, while the king sat at work in 
 his cabinet, the younger of the two, a boy of eight or nine, was 
 playing ball about the room, and knocked it once and again into 
 the king's writing operation, who twice or oftener flung it back 
 to him, but next time put it in his pocket, and went on. ' Please 
 your majesty, give it me back,' begged the boy, and again beg- 
 ged: majesty took no notice; continued writing. Till at length 
 came, in the tone of indignation, ' Will your majesty give me my 
 ball, then V The king looked up ; found the little Hohenzollern 
 planted firm, hands on haunches, and wearing quite a peremptory 
 
 * Preuss, t. iv.,p. 187. 
 
 Nn 
 
562 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 air. 'Thou art a brave little fellow. They won't get Silesia 
 out of thee V cried he, laughing, and flinging him his ball."* 
 
 The fault-finding character of the king, and his intense devo- 
 tion to perfecting his army, both increased with his advancing 
 years. After one of his reviews of the troops in Silesia, in the 
 year 1784, he wrote in the following severe strain to the com- 
 manding general : 
 
 " Potsdam, September 7, 1784. 
 
 " My dear General,— While in Silesia I mentioned to you, 
 and will now repeat in writing, that my army in Silesia was at 
 no time so bad as at present. Were I to make shoemakers or 
 tailors into generals, the regiments could not be worse. Regi- 
 ment Thadden is not fit to be the most insignificant militia bat- 
 talion of a Prussian army. Of the regiment Erlach, the men are 
 so spoiled by smuggling they have no resemblance to soldiers ; 
 Keller is like a heap of undrilled boors ; Hager has a miserable 
 commander; and your own regiment is very mediocre. Only 
 with Graf Von Anhalt, with Wendessen, and Markgraf Heinrich 
 ■ could I be content. See you, that is the state I found the regi- 
 ments in, one after one. I will now speak of their manoeuvring. 
 
 " Schwartz, at Neisse, made the unpardonable mistake of not 
 sufficiently besetting the height on the left wing ; had it been 
 serious, the battle had been lost. At Breslau, Erlach, instead of 
 covering the army by seizing the heights, marched off with his 
 division straight as a row of cabbages into that defile ; whereby, 
 had it been earnest, the enemy's cavalry would have cut down 
 our infantry, and the fight was gone. 
 
 " It is not my purpose to lose battles by the base conduct of 
 my generals ; wherefore I hereby appoint that you, next' year, 
 if I be alive, assemble the army between Breslau and Ohlau ; 
 for four days before I arrive in your camp, carefully manoeuvre 
 with the ignorant generals, and teach them what their duty is. 
 Regiment Von Arnim and regiment Von Kanitz are to act the 
 enemy ; and whoever does not then fulfill his duty ^shall go to 
 court-martial ; for I should think it a shame of any country to 
 keep such people, who trouble themselves so little about their 
 business." 
 
 * Fischer, vol. ii. , p. 445, as cited by Carlyle. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT, 563 
 
 The king seemed to think it- effeminate and a disgrace to him 
 as a soldier ever to appear in a carriage. He never drove, but 
 constantly rode from Berlin to Potsdam. In the winter of 1785, 
 when he was quite feeble, he wished to go from Sans Souci, 
 which was exposed to bleak winds, and where they had only 
 hearth fires, to more comfortable winter quarters in the new pal- 
 ace. The weather was stormy. After waiting a few days for 
 such a change as would enable him to go on horseback, and the 
 cold and wind increasing, he was taken over in a sedan-chair in 
 the night, when no one could see him. 
 
 In August, 1785, the king again visited Silesia to review his 
 troops. A private letter, quoted by Carlyle, gives an interesting 
 view of his appearance at the time : m 
 
 "He passed through Hirschberg on the 18 th of August. A 
 concourse of many thousands had been waiting for him several 
 hours. Outriders came at last ; then he himself, the unique ; 
 and, with the liveliest expression of reverence and love, all eyes 
 were directed on one point. I can not describe to you my feel- 
 ings, which, of course, were those of every body, to see him, the 
 aged king; in his weak hand the hat; in those grand eyes such 
 a fatherly benignity of look over the vast crowd that encircled 
 his carriage, and rolled tide -like, accompanying it. Looking 
 round, I saw in various eyes a tear trembling. 
 
 " His affability, his kindliness, to whoever had the honor of 
 speech with this great king, who shall describe it ! After talk- 
 ing a good while with the merchants' deputation from the hill 
 country, he said, Ms there any thing more, then, from any body V 
 Upon which the president stepped forward and said, ' The burn- 
 ed-out inhabitants of Grreiffenberg have charged me to express 
 once more their most submissive gratitude for the gracious help 
 in rebuilding; their word of thanks is indeed of no importance; 
 but they daily pray Grod to reward such royal beneficence.' The 
 king was visibly affected, and said, 'You don't need to thank 
 me ; when my subjects fall into misfortune, it is my duty to help 
 them up again ; for that reason am I here.' " 
 
 On Monday, the 22d of August, the great review commenced 
 near Strehlen. It lasted four days. All the country mansions 
 around were filled with strangers who had come to witness the 
 spectacle. 
 
564 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 "The sure fact, and the forever memorable, is that on Wednes- 
 day, the third day of it, from four in the morning, when the ma- 
 noeuvres began, till well after ten o'clock, when they ended, there 
 was rain like Noah's ; rain falling as from buckets and water- 
 spouts ; and that Frederick, so intent upon his business, paid not 
 the slightest regard to it, but rode about, intensely inspecting, in 
 lynx-eyed watchfulness of every thing, as if no rain had been 
 there. Was not at the pains even to put on his cloak. Six 
 hours of such down-pour; and a weakly old man of seventy-three 
 past ! Of course he was wetted to the bone. On returning to 
 head-quarters, his boots were found fall of water ; ' when pulled 
 off, it came pouring from them like a pair of pails.' "* 
 
 THE LAST REVIEW. 
 
 Lafayette, Lord Cornwallis, and the Duke of York were his 
 
 * Carl vie, vol. vi.,p. 529. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 565 
 
 guests at the dinner-table that day. The king suffered from his 
 exposure, was very feverish, and at an early hour went to bed. 
 The next day he completed his review ; and the next day " went 
 — round by Neisse, inspection not to be omitted there, though it 
 doubles the distance — to Brieg, a drive of eighty miles, inspec- 
 tion work included."* 
 
 From this exhausting journey for so old a man the king re- 
 turned to Potsdam through a series of state dinners, balls, and 
 illuminations. On the night of the 18th of September he was 
 awoke by a very severe fit of suffocation. It was some time be- 
 fore he could get any relief, and it was thought that he was dy- 
 ing. The next day gout set in severely. This was followed by 
 dropsy. The king suffered severely through the winter. There 
 is no royal road through the sick-chamber to the tomb. The 
 weary months of pain and languor came and went. The re- 
 nowned Mirabeau visited the king in his sick-chamber on the 
 17th of April, 1786. He writes : 
 
 "My dialogue with the king was very lively; but the king 
 was in such suffering, and so straitened for breath, I was myself 
 anxious to shorten it. That same evening I traveled on." 
 
 That same evening Marie Antoinette wrote from Versailles to 
 her sister Christine at Brussels : 
 
 " The King of Prussia is thought to be dying. I am weary 
 of the political discussions on this subject as to what effects his 
 death must produce. He is better at this moment, but so weak 
 he can not resist long. Physique is gone. But his force and 
 energy of soul, they say, have often supported him, and in des- 
 perate crises have even seemed to increase. Liking to him I 
 never had. His ostentatious immorality has much hurt public 
 virtue, and there have been related to me barbarities which ex- 
 cite horror. 
 
 " He has done us all a great deal of ill. He has been king for 
 his own country, but a trouble-feast for those about him — setting 
 up to be the arbiter of Europe, always assailing his neighbors, 
 and making them pay the expense. As daughters of Maria 
 Theresa, it is impossible we can regret him ; nor is it the court 
 of France that will make his funeral oration."f 
 
 The Prince of Ligne, a very accomplished courtier, about this 
 
 * Carlyle. t Correspondance Inedite de Marie Antoinette, p. 137. 
 
566 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 time visited the sick and dying king. During his brief stay he 
 dined daily with the king, and spent his evenings with him. In 
 an interesting account which he gives of these interviews, he 
 writes : 
 
 " Daily for five hours the universality of his conversation com- 
 pleted my enchantment at his powers. The arts, war, medicine, 
 literature, religion, philosophy, morality, history, and legislation 
 passed in review by turns. The great times of Augustus and 
 Louis XIV. ; the good society among the Romans, the Greeks, 
 and the French ; the chivalry of Francis I. ; the valor of Henry 
 IV.; the revival of letters, and their changes since Leo X.; an- 
 ecdotes of men of talent of former days, and their errors ; the ec- 
 centricities of Voltaire; the sensitive vanity of Maupertuis ; the 
 agreeableness of Algarotti ; the wit of Jordan ; the hypochon- 
 driacism of the Marquis D' Argens, whom the king used to induce 
 to keep his bed for four-and-twenty hours by merely telling him 
 he looked ill — and what not besides ? All that could be said of 
 the most varied and agreeable kind was what came from him, in 
 a gentle tone of voice, rather low, and very agreeable from his 
 manner of moving his lips, which possessed an inexpressible 
 grace."* 
 
 Dr. Moore gives the following account of a surprising scene, 
 considering that the king was an infirm and suffering man sev- 
 enty-three years of age : 
 
 " A few days ago I happened to take a very early walk about 
 a mile from Potsdam, and seeing some soldiers under arms in a 
 field at a small distance from the road, I went toward them. An 
 officer on horseback, whom I took to be the major, for he gave 
 the word of command, was uncommonly active, and often rode 
 among the ranks to reprimand or instruct the common men. 
 When I came nearer I was much surprised to find that this was 
 the king himself. 
 
 " He had his sword drawn, and continued to exercise the corps 
 for an hour after. He made them wheel, march, form the square, 
 and fire by divisions and in platoons, observing all their motions 
 with infinite attention ; and, on account of some blunder, put 
 two officers of the Prince of Prussia's regiment in arrest. In short, 
 he seemed to exert himself with all the spirit of a young officer 
 
 * Mcmoires et Melanges Historiques et Litter aires, par le Prince de Ligny. 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 507 
 
 eager to attract the notice of his general by uncommon alert- 
 ness."* 
 
 Frederick was very fond of dogs. This was one of his earliest 
 passions, and it continued until the end of his life. He almost 
 invariably had five or six Italian greyhounds about him, leajDing 
 upon the chairs, and sleeping upon the sofas in his room. Dr. 
 Zimmermann describes them as placed on blue satin chairs and 
 couches near the king's arm-chair, and says that when Frederick, 
 during his last illness, used to sit on his terrace at Sans Souci in 
 order to enjoy the sun, a chair was always placed by his side, 
 which was occupied by one of his dogs. He fed them himself, 
 took the greatest possible care of them when they were sick, and 
 when they died buried them in the gardens of Sans Souci. The 
 
 FREDERICK AND HIS DOGS. 
 
 * Dr. Moore, View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany. 
 
568 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 traveler may still see their tombs — flat stones with the names of 
 the dogs beneath engraved upon them — at each end of the ter- 
 race of Sans Souci, in front of the palace. 
 
 "The king was accustomed to pass his leisure moments in 
 playing with them, and the room where he sat was strewed with 
 leather balls with which they amused themselves. As they were 
 all much indulged, though there was always one especial favor- 
 ite, they used to tear the damask covers of the chairs in the king's 
 apartment, and gnaw and otherwise injure the furniture. This 
 he permitted without rebuke, and used only to say, 
 
 " ' My dogs destroy my chairs ; but how can I help it ? And if 
 I were to have them mended to-day, they would be torn again 
 to-morrow.- So I suppose I must bear with the inconvenience. 
 After all, a Marquise De Pompadour would cost me a great deal 
 more, and would neither be as attached nor as faithful.' " 
 
 One of Frederick's dogs, Biche, has attained almost historic 
 celebrity. We can not vouch for the authenticity of the anecdote, 
 but it is stated that the king took Biche with him on the cam- 
 paign of 1745. One day the king, advancing on a reconnoissance, 
 was surprised and pursued by a large number of Austrians. He 
 - took refuge under a bridge, and, wrapping Biche in his cloak, 
 held him close to his breast. The sagacious animal seemed fully 
 conscious of the peril of his master. Though of a very nervous 
 temperament, and generally noisy and disposed to bark at the 
 slightest disturbance, he remained perfectly quiet until the Aus- 
 trians had passed. 
 
 At the battle of Sohr, Biche was taken captive with the king's 
 baggage. The animal manifested so much joy upon being re- 
 stored to its master that the king's eyes were flooded with tears. 
 
 On the 4th of July the king rode out for the last time. ' Not 
 long after, the horse was again brought to the door, but the king 
 found himself too weak to mount. Still, while in this state of ex- 
 treme debility and pain, he conducted the affairs of state with 
 the most extraordinary energy and precision. The minutest 
 questions received his attention, and every branch of business 
 was prosecuted with as much care and perfection as in his best 
 days. 
 
 " He saw his ministers, saw all who had business with him, 
 many who had little ; and in the sore coil of bodily miseries, as 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 569 
 
 Hertzberg observed with wonder, never was the king's intellect 
 clearer, or his judgment more just and decisive. Of his disease, 
 except to the doctors, he spoke no word to any body. 
 
 " The body of Frederick is a ruin, but his soul is still here, 
 and receives his friends and his tasks as formerly. Asthma, 
 dropsy, erysipelas, continual want of sleep; for many months 
 past he has not been in bed, but sits day and night in an easy- 
 chair, unable to get breath except in that posture. He said one 
 morning to somebody entering, ' If you happened to want a night- 
 watcher, I could suit you well.' "* 
 
 There is something truly sublime in the devotion with which 
 he, in disregard of sleeplessness, exhaustion, and pain, gave him- 
 self to work. His three clerks were summoned to his room each 
 morning at four o'clock. 
 
 " My situation forces me," he said, " to give them this trouble, 
 which they will not have to suffer long. My life is on the de- 
 cline. The time which I still have belongs not to me, but to the 
 state." 
 
 He conversed cheerfully upon literature, history, and the com- 
 mon topics of the day. But he seemed studiously to avoid any 
 allusion to God, to the subject of religion, or to death. He had 
 from his early days very emphatically expressed his disbelief in 
 any God who took an interest in the affairs of men. Through- 
 out his whole life he had abstained from any recognition of such 
 a God by any known acts of prayer or worship. Still Mr. Car- 
 lyle writes : 
 
 "From of old, life has been infinitely contemptible to him. In 
 death, I think, he has -neither fear nor hope. Atheism, truly, he 
 never could abide : to him, as to all of us, it was flatly inconceiv- 
 able that intellect, moral emotion, could have been put into Mm 
 by an Entity that had none of its own. But there, pretty much, 
 his Theism seems to have stopped. Instinctively; too, he believed, 
 no man more firmly, that Right alone has ultimately any strength 
 in this world : ultimately, yes ; but for him and his poor brief 
 interests, what good was it ? Hope for himself in divine Justice, 
 in divine Providence, I think he had not practically any : that 
 the unfathomable Demiurgus should concern himself with such 
 a set of paltry, ill-given animalcules as one's self and mankind 
 
 * Carlyle, vol. vi., p. 535. 
 
570 EREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 are, this also, as we have often noticed, is in the main incredible 
 to him. 
 
 " Inarticulate notions, fancies, transient aspirations, he might 
 have, in the background of his mind. One day, sitting for a while 
 out of doors, gazing into the sun, he was heard to murmur, ' Per- 
 haps I shall be nearer thee soon ;' and, indeed, nobody knows 
 what his thoughts were in these final months. There is trace- 
 able only a complete superiority to fear and hope ; in parts, too, 
 are half glimpses of a great motionless interior lake of sorrow, 
 sadder than any tears or complainings, which are altogether 
 wanting to it." 
 
 Dr. Zimmermann, whose work on Solitude had given him some 
 renown, had been sent for to administer to the illustrious pa- 
 tient. His prescriptions were of no avail. On the 10th of Au- 
 gust, 1786, Frederick wrote to his sister, the Duchess Dowager 
 of Brunswick : 
 
 " My adorable Sister, — The Hanover doctor has wished to 
 make himself important with you, my good sister ; but the truth 
 is, he has been of no use to me. The old must give place to the 
 young, that each generation may find room clear for it ; and life, 
 if we examine strictly what its course is, consists in seeing one's 
 fellow-creatures die and be born. In the mean while, I have felt 
 myself a little easier for the last day or two. My heart remains 
 inviolably attached to you, my good sister. With the highest 
 consideration, my adorable sister, your faithful brother and serv- 
 ant, Frederick." 
 
 The last letter which it is supposed that he wrote was the fol- 
 lowing cold epistle to his excellent wife, whom, through' a long 
 life, he had treated with such cruel neglect : , 
 
 " Madam, — I am much obliged by the wishes you deign to 
 form ; but a heavy fever I have taken hinders' me from answer- 
 ing you." 
 
 Scarcely any thing can be more sad than the record of the last 
 days and hours of this extraordinary man. Few of the children 
 of Adam have passed a more joyless life. Few have gone down 
 to a grave shrouded with deeper gloom. None of those Chris- 
 tian hopes which so often alleviate pain, and take from death its 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 571 
 
 sting, cheered his dying chamber. To him the grave was but 
 the portal to the abyss of annihilation. 
 
 Days of pain and nights of sleeplessness were his portion. A 
 hard cough racked his frame. His strength failed him. Ulcer- 
 ous sores broke out upon various parts of his body. A constant 
 oppression at his chest rendered it impossible for him to lie 
 down. Gout tortured him. His passage to the grave led 
 through eighteen months of constant suffering. Dr. Ziromer- 
 mann, in his diary of the 2d of August, writes : 
 
 " The king is very chilly, and is always enveloped in pelisses, 
 and covered with feather-beds. He has not been in bed for six 
 weeks, but sleeps in his chair for a considerable time together, 
 and always turned to the right side. The dropsical swelling 
 augments. He sees it, but will not perceive what it is, or at 
 least will not appear to do so, but talks as if it were a swelling 
 accompanying convalescence, and proceeding from previous weak- 
 ness. He is determined not to die if violent remedies can save 
 him, but to submit to punctures and incisions to draw off the 
 water." 
 
 Again, on the 8th, Dr. Zimmermann wrote: "The king is ex- 
 traordinarily ill. On the 4th erysipelas appeared on the leg. 
 This announces bursting and mortification. He has much op- 
 pression, and the smell of the wound is very bad." 
 
 On the loth, after a restless night, he did not wake until eleven 
 o'clock in the morning. For a short time he seemed confused. 
 He then summoned his generals and secretaries, and gave his or- 
 ders with all his wonted precision. He then called in his three 
 clerks and dictated to them upon various subjects. His directions 
 to an embassador, who was about leaving, filled four quarto pages. 
 
 As night came on he fell into what may be called the death- 
 sleep. His breathing was painful and stertorous ; his mind was 
 wandering in delirious dreams; his voice became inarticulate. 
 At a moment of returning consciousness he tried several times 
 in vain to give some utterance to his thoughts. Then, with a 
 despairing expression of countenance, he sank back upon his pil- 
 low. Fever flushed his cheeks, and his eyes assumed some of 
 their wonted fire. Thus the dying hours were prolonged, as the 
 friendless monarch, surrounded by respectful attendants, slowly 
 descended to the grave. 
 
572 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 His feet and legs became cold. Death was stealing its way 
 toward the vitals. About nine o'clock Wednesday evening a 
 painful cough commenced, with difficulty of breathing, and an 
 ominous rattle in the throat. One of his dogs sat by his bed- 
 side, and shivered with cold ; the king made a sign for them to 
 throw a quilt over it. 
 
 Another severe fit of coughing ensued, and the king, having 
 with difficulty got rid of the phlegm, said, " The mountain is 
 passed ; we shall be better now." These were his last words. 
 The expiring monarch sat in his chair, but in a state of such ex- 
 treme weakness that he was continually sinking down, with his 
 chest and neck so bent forward that breathing was almost im- 
 possible. One of his faithful valets took the king upon his knee 
 and placed his left arm around his waist, while the king threw 
 his right arm around the valet's neck. 
 
 It was midnight. " Within doors all is silence ; around it the 
 dark earth is silent, above it the silent stars." Thus for two 
 hours the attendant sat motionless, holding the dying king. 
 Not a word was spoken ; no sound could be heard but the pain- 
 ful breathing which precedes death. 
 
 At just twenty minutes past two o'clock the breathing ceased, 
 the spirit took its flight, and the lifeless body alone remained. 
 Life's great battle was ended, and the soul of the monarch as- 
 cended to that dread tribunal where prince and peasant must 
 alike answer for all the deeds done in the body. It was the 
 17th of August, 1786. The king had reigned forty-six years, 
 and had lived seventy -six years, six months, and twenty -four 
 days. 
 
 One clause in the king's will was judiciously disregarded, 
 As a last mark of his contempt for his own species, Frederick 
 had directed that he should be buried at Sans Souci by the side 
 of his clogs. 
 
 In the king's will, the only reference to any future which might 
 be before him was the following: 
 
 " After having restored peace to my kingdom ; after having 
 conquered countries, raised a victorious army, and filled my treas- 
 ury ; after having established a good administration throughout 
 my dominions ; after having made my enemies tremble, I resign, 
 without regret, this breath of life to Nature." 
 
FREDERICK THE GREAT. 573 
 
 He left a small sum for the support of his amiable, blameless, 
 and neglected queen, saying, " She never gave me the least un- 
 easiness during my whole reign, and she merits every attention 
 and respect for her many and unshaken virtues." 
 
 " All next day the body lay in state in the palace ; thousands 
 crowding, from Berlin and the other environs, to see that face for 
 the last time. Wasted, worn, but beautiful in death, with the 
 thin gray hair parted into locks, and slightly powdered."* 
 
 At eight o'clock in the evening his body was borne, accompa- 
 nied by a battalion of the Guards, to Potsdam ; eight horses 
 drew the hearse. An immense concourse, in silence and sadness, 
 filled the streets. He was buried in a small chaj)el in the church 
 of the garrison at Potsdam. There the remains of Frederick 
 and his father repose side by side. 
 
 " Life's labor done, securely laid 
 In this, their last retreat : 
 Unheeded o'er their silent dust 
 The storms of life shall beat." 
 
 * Rodenbeck, vol. iii., p. 3G5. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Abdication of Frederick William contempla- 
 ted, page 50. 
 
 Absolutism of Frederick William (note), 43. 
 
 Academy of Sciences established in Berlin, 191 ; 
 Frederick's interest in the, 390. 
 
 Adelbert, Bishop of Prag, his missionary spirit, 
 18. 
 
 Adolph Frederick of Sweden marries Freder- 
 ick's sister Ulrique, 323. 
 
 Alarm of the monarchies of Europe at the suc- 
 cesses of Frederick the Great, 267 ; of the 
 British Cabinet, 286. 
 
 Alembert, D', a French Philosopher and friend 
 of Frederick, 510. 
 
 Algarotti, Count, Italian, at Eeinsberg, 171 ; 
 Note, 233 ; describes a Review of the Guards, 
 379. 
 
 Alliance of European Powers against Frederick 
 threatened, 238. 
 
 Amelia, Princess, of England, her constancy to 
 Frederick, 150. 
 
 Anecdote of Frederick William, 20 ; of the Ber- 
 lin Student, 27; of Frederick William, 38 ; of 
 M. Von Bentenreider, 44 ; of Scenes in the 
 Tobacco Parliament, 48 ; of Frederica Louisa, 
 56 ; of Frederick William and his Courtier, 
 58 ; of Frederick William in the Music- 
 room, 67 ; of Wilhelmina and Fritz, 78 ; of 
 a Raven, 115; of Frederick William, 161 ; of 
 the French Minister (note), 192; of Freder- 
 ick the Great and Voltaire (note), 199 ; of 
 Count Dufour, 200 ; of Frederick the Great, 
 272, 300 ; of the Old Dessauer, 346 ; of Fred- 
 erick and the Protestant Peasants, 353 ; of the 
 Hungarian Count, 378 ; of Colonel Chasot 
 and an Austrian Officer, 380 ; of Freder- 
 ick, 399 ; of the Prussian Dragoon, 416 ; of 
 Frederick and the Austrians, 443 ; of Fred- 
 erick before the Battle of Zorndorf, 460 ; of 
 Frederick, 517, 518, 525, 536 ; of Elizabeth 
 of Brunswick, wife of the Crown Prince, 537; 
 of Frederick, 556, 557, 561 ; of one of Fred- 
 erick's Dogs, 568. 
 
 Animosity between Frederick William and 
 George II. of England (note), 55. 
 
 Announcement of Prussian Victory at Moll wit z 
 — Frederick's Chagrin, 259. 
 
 Anspach, Marquis of, marries a sister of Fred- 
 erick, 66. 
 
 Anti-Machiavel, Frederick's protestations in, 
 217. 
 
 Archenholtz : he writes of Frederick after Ko- 
 lin, 417; of Frederick's treatment of his 
 Captives, 499. 
 
 Argens, Marquis D', his character, 396. 
 
 Attack upon Frederick's Supply- train from 
 Troppau described, 453. 
 
 Augustus William, brother of Frederick, be- 
 trothed, 210; his Grief and Death, 451. 
 
 Augustus III., King of Poland, Frederick's 
 counsels to him, 298 ; his Exasperation 
 against Frederick, 305. 
 
 Aulic Council held at Presburg, 284. 
 
 Austria favors Catholicism, 224. 
 
 Austrian Envoy, the, his suspicions of Freder- 
 ick, 219. 
 
 Austrian Retreat after Leuthen, 442 ; after 
 Torgau, 514. 
 
 Austrians, Cruelty of the, 364 ; defeated by 
 Prince Henry, 533. 
 
 B. 
 
 Baireuth, Frederick, Duke of, 76 ; he visits 
 Berlin, 120; received with favor by Wilhel- 
 mina, 121 ; Character of the old Marquis of, 
 147; Frederick the Great visits Wilhelmina 
 in her home at, 161. 
 
 Barberina, Senora, her Adventures, 318, 319. 
 
 Bathyani, General, and his Pandours, 332. 
 
 Baumgarten, Conflict at, 241 ; Neipperg at, 283. 
 
 Belgard, Frederick William reviews a Regiment 
 at, 179. 
 
 Belleisle, Lord, commands French troops, 284; 
 his Interview with Frederick, 315. 
 
 Berlin, Palace of, its Splendor, 37 ; Frederick 
 William arrives at, 97; Grand Review at, 
 119; Description of the Palace of, 129; Wil- 
 helmina writes of, 134; Grand Entree of 
 Frederick with his Bride, 151 ; the Princess 
 Royal resides at, 154 ; Frederick William re- 
 turns from Lithuania to, 180 ; he bids a final 
 farewell to, 180; Wilhelmina visits, 210; 
 Frederick the Great returns from Silesia to, 
 236 ; Frederick again returns to, 29 7 ; the 
 Gayety of, 322 ; Alarm in, 348 ; Carousal at, 
 
576 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 385 ; an Austrian Division on the march to 
 attack, 428 ; Terror at, 488 ; besieged by the 
 Allies, 508 ; the Garrison retires, and the City 
 surrenders, 509 ; Illuminations in, after the 
 Treaty of Peace, 535 ; Congress at, 555. 
 
 Berneck, Wilhelmina writes Frederick of, 156. 
 
 Bernstadt, Frederick surprises and scatters an 
 Austrian Division at, 424. 
 
 Besserer, M., Chaplain of the Garrison at Cus- 
 trin, 107. 
 
 Bevern, Prince, holds Breslau, 434. 
 
 Bielfeld, Baron, describes the Princess Eliza- 
 beth Christina, 144 ; his Account of a Ca- 
 rousal at Eeinsberg, 1 69 ; an Accident to, 
 171 ; his Account of the Crown Prince, 171, 
 172; of Frederick William (wofe), 181 ; he re- 
 lates a Dialogue (note), 187 ; his Conversation 
 with Frederick after the Death of his Father, 
 189 ; he writes (note), 212 ; of Frederick, 
 268 ; he describes Frederick's Manner at the 
 Marriage of his Brother, 297; he relates 
 Frederick's Passage through Frankfort, 314 ; 
 he describes the Leave-taking of Ulrique, 
 and the Berlin Court, 324. 
 
 Bohemia, Prussian Forces enter, 330. 
 
 Borck, Baron von, counsels Frederick William, 
 61 ; his proposal to Sophie Dorothee, 76; he 
 commands at Maaseyk, 208 ; he is charged 
 with proposals to General Roth, the Austrian 
 Commander, 234. 
 
 Borne, short but bloody Conflict at, 438. 
 
 Botta, Marquis of, the Austrian Envoy, 220. 
 
 Brandenburg, the Duchy of, 1 8 ; its Capital, 1 9. 
 
 Breslau, Capital of Silesia, 228 ; Terms of Sur- 
 render offered, 229 ; terms of its surrender to 
 Frederick, 281 ; Frederick crowned Sovei*- 
 eign Duke of Silesia at, 294 ; afterward re- 
 taken by Austria, 435 ; Frederick concen- 
 trates troops at, 507 ; he establishes Winter 
 Quarters at, 527. 
 
 Brieg, Siege of, raised, 250; Frederick en- 
 camped around, 265. 
 
 Britz, immense Concourse at, to meet Freder- 
 ick on his return to Berlin, 373. 
 
 Broglio, Marshal, commandant in Strasbourg, 
 200. 
 
 Browne, General, an Austrian commander in 
 Silesia, 223 ; his skillful Manoeuvre to relieve 
 the Saxons, 408. 
 
 Briihl, Count, Prime Minister of Augustus III., 
 299 ; his Character (note), 299. 
 
 Briinn, Frederick besieges, 304. 
 
 Brunswick, secret Conclave, and Initiation of 
 the Crown Prince into the Order of Freema- 
 sons at, 1 76. 
 
 Buddenbrock, General, his mean office, 91. 
 
 Budischau, Castle of, used as Saxon Barracks, 
 302. 
 
 Budweis, Frederick takes possession of, 333. 
 
 Bunzelwitz, Camp of, celebrated in history, 523. 
 
 C. 
 
 Captain of Giant Guards, 43. 
 
 Caroline, Queen of England, Sophie Dorothee 
 writes to, 74. 
 
 Carlyle, Quotations from and Opinions of (note), 
 20, 21 ; his Opinion of Frederick William, 
 24 ; his Description of the Tabagie, 46 ; of 
 Frederick William, 48 ; he describes the Com- 
 panions of the Crown Prince (note), 71 ; Com- 
 ments on Wilhelmina (note), 73 ; Extract 
 from, 97 ; on Predestination, 110 ; translates 
 a Letter of Frederick to his Father, 113 ; he 
 writes of Voltaire, 173 ; of Frederick, 217 ; 
 he describes a March in December, 225 ; on 
 France, 239 ; he desciibes M. Maupertuis, 
 264 ; Maria Theresa, 273 ; his graphic Ac- 
 count of Frederick and the English Ministers, 
 280 ; his View of the Offer of Frederick to 
 Austria, 287 ; of Frederick's political Moral- 
 ity, 293 ; his Description of the Pandours, 
 333; he writes of Frederick, 339 ; of Leopold, 
 343 ; of the French Victory at Fontenoy, 358 ; 
 describes the Storming of Sterbohol and Ho- 
 moly Hills, 413 ; on Frederick's poetic Effu- 
 sion, 433 ; on the Battle of Zorndorf, 459 ; on 
 the Armies at Freiburg, 495 ; on Frederick's 
 Manceuvrings (note), 507 ; on the Camp at 
 Bunzelwitz, 523 ; on the Czarina, 541 ; on 
 Bavaria, 551 ; onFrederick's diplomatic Skill, 
 552 ; his Rendering of Frederick's religious 
 Creed, 569. 
 
 Catharine II. conspires against Peter III., and 
 dethrones him, 530 ; her Proclamation after 
 the Death of Peter III., 531 ; Frederick the 
 Great enters into an alliance with her, 541 ; 
 goes to War with Turkey, 544 ; her Death, 55 1 . 
 
 Catt, Henry de, his Narrative, 399, 400, 401 , he 
 visits Frederick at Breslau, 447. 
 
 Charles, Duke of Brunswick, 151. 
 
 Charles VI. of Germany, his Alliance with Fred- 
 erick William, 45 ; he intercedes for the 
 Crown Prince, 111 ; his Death, 212 ; the dy- 
 ing Scene, 213. 
 
 Charles Albert, Emperor of Germany, 301 ; his 
 Death, 344. 
 
 Charles, Prince, of Austria advances against 
 Frederick, 307; his Aim, 309; bereaved and 
 crushed, 342. 
 
 Charlotte, Sister of Frederick the Great, slan- 
 ders his Bride, 148 ; her Marriage, 152. 
 
 Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg, the Bride of 
 George III. of England, 521. 
 
 Chasot, Lieutenant, fights a Duel, 1 68. 
 
 Chatelet, Madame Du, her Character, 173 ; her 
 Death, 379. 
 
 Children of Frederick William, 50. 
 
 Chotusitz, Battle of, 310; Cavalry Charge at, 
 led by General Bredow, 311. 
 
 Chrudim, Frederick's Head-quarters at, 307; 
 he concentrates his Army at, 308. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 577 
 
 Cirey, Chateau of, the Residence of Voltaire, 
 173. 
 
 Cleves, Voltaire visits Frederick at, 203. 
 
 Coalition against Frederick, 402. 
 
 Cochius, M., a clerical Adviser of Frederick 
 William, 187. 
 
 Combination against Frederick, 411. 
 
 Cossacks hover around the Prussian Army, 456 ; 
 their Mercilessness, 459. 
 
 Court-martial convened, 105. 
 
 Court Intrigues, 148. 
 
 Crown Prince of Prussia, 20. 
 
 Crown Prince Cadets, 30. 
 
 Custrin, Frederick, the Crown Prince of Prus- 
 sia, a Prisoner at, 101 ; his Privations, 114 ; 
 his Life at, 122 ; he returns after the Mar- 
 riage of his Sister, 135 ; Conflagration of, 461, 
 
 462 ; in a midnight March Frederick crosses 
 the Oder near, 481. 
 
 Czaslau, Prince Charles, rendezvouses at, 310. 
 
 Czernichef, General, communicates to Freder- 
 ick the News of the Death of Peter III. ; its 
 Effect, 532. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dance of Torches, 131. 
 
 Daun, General, an Austrian Officer, re-enforces 
 Olmutz, 452; he dares not attack Frederick, 
 454; his Endeavors to reconquer Saxony, 
 
 463 ; his Plans successful, 466 ; he over- 
 whelms the Forces of General Finck, 493 ; is 
 astride the Elbe at Dresden, 501 ; severely 
 wounded at Torgau, 513. 
 
 Delay of the Courier sent to England respecting 
 the double Marriages ; the Consequences, 75. 
 
 Despotic Conduct of Frederick William, 43, 68. 
 
 Dessauer, the Old, alienated from Frederick, 
 340 ; his military Skill and Character, 345 ; 
 Frederick directs him to watch the Saxons, 
 347 ; he enters Saxony, 367 ; his brave Re- 
 solve, 368 ; his Prayer before commencing 
 Battle, 369. 
 
 Dialogue of Sophie Dorothee with Grumkow, 
 74 ; of Frederick with Count Von Kaunitz, 
 545. 
 
 Dickens, Sir Guy, an English Embassador, 86 ; 
 he conveys letters to the Crown Prince from 
 George II. of England, 87 ; his Testimony 
 respecting Frederick William, 112 ; he is baf- 
 fled in his attempts to discover the Plans of 
 Frederick, 220. 
 
 Discipline in the Prussian Army, 378. 
 
 Doberschiitz, Frederick at, after the Victory of 
 Hochkirch, 469. 
 
 Double Marriages, the, relinquished, 61. 
 
 Dover, Lord, on the Marriage of Frederica Lou- 
 isa (note), 66 ; Extract from the Writings of, 
 104, (note) 105. 
 
 Dresden, Frederick William contemplates a Vis- 
 it to, 78 ; Frederick the Great visits, 298 ; 
 Treaty of Peace signed at, 372 ; Frederick 
 
 o 
 
 enters, 405 ; his Winter Quarters at, 409 ; 
 the Prussian Commander fires the Suburbs 
 of, 471 ; surrendered by General Schmettau, 
 491 ; cruelly bombarded by Frederick, 502. 
 
 Dubourgay, British Embassador at Berlin, 79. 
 
 Duhan, M., Frederick's Visit to, 373. 
 
 Duke of Gloucester, the, sends Envoy to Ber- 
 lin, 40. 
 
 Duplicity of Frederick, 291. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eastern Question, the, its Antiquity, 545. 
 
 Economy of Frederick William, 45. 
 
 Einsiedel, General,holds the Garrison at Prague, 
 331 ; his heroic but awful Retreat from Prague, 
 338. 
 
 Elizabeth Christina, Princess of Bevern, 141 ; 
 betrothed to Frederick, 142 ; her Marriage, 
 149; her cruel Treatment at Berlin, 151 ; 
 Carlyle's Testimony to her Character,' 165 ; 
 Frederick's Treatment of her, 197 ; his cut- 
 ting Neglect of her, 252 ; her Reputation, 
 and Frederick's Opinion of her, 389; his 
 Testimony, 573. 
 
 Elizabeth of Russia, her Character and Death, 
 528. 
 
 Ellert, M., Physician to Frederick William 
 (?iote), 187. 
 
 Emperor of Germany, the, protests against the 
 double Marriages, 48. 
 
 England replenishes the Coffers of Maria The- 
 resa, 238 ; Checkmated by the Skill of Belle- 
 isle, 284; the growing Power of France 
 alarms her, 312 ; endeavors to break the Al- 
 liance between France and Prussia, 359; 
 makes a Treaty with Frederick, 448; her 
 Treaty with France, 532. 
 
 English, the, their Unpopularity at Berlin, 82. 
 
 Erfurt, the Prince of Soubise intrenched at, 424. 
 
 Eugene, Prince, a renowned Prussian Officer, 
 160 ; he re-enforces the Garrison at Berlin, 
 509. 
 
 Europe, a general Upturning of the States of, 
 239; she censures Frederick for his cruel 
 Treatment of Prisoners of War, 409. 
 
 Fassmann, his outrageous Conduct in the Taba- 
 gie, 47. 
 
 Finck, Count, Frederick's secret Instructions to, 
 410 ; his cruel Treatment of, 494. 
 
 Fouque, Captain, with the Crown Prince at Cus- 
 trin (note), 102. 
 
 Fouquet, General, overwhelmed and captured, 
 501. 
 
 France and Germany unite against Austria, 284. 
 
 Francis of Lorraine elected Emperor of Germa- 
 ny, 360. 
 
 Frankenstein, General Neipperg retreats to, 
 283 ; Frederick's head- quarters at, 349. 
 
 O 
 
578 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Frankfort on the Oder, Frederick's Entrance 
 into, 314 ; exorbitant Demands of the Rus- 
 sians upon the People of, 480. 
 
 Frederica Louisa, Description of, 55. 
 
 Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg, 18 ; crown- 
 ed Frederick I., 20 ; his Sorrows and Death, 
 23. 
 
 Frederick William, 20; his Marriage, 21 ; his 
 Economy and Reforms, 24, 25 ; his Idea of 
 War, 26 ; his ill Manners, 27 ; his Plans for 
 his Son, 28 ; his Notions of Education, 32, 34 ; 
 Directions for Fritz, 35, 36 ; his Efforts for the 
 Giant Guard, 43 ; exasperates neighboring 
 magnates, 45 ; his lack of intellectual Cult- 
 ure, 47 ; his Illness, 55 ; an Artist, 58 ; his 
 Inhumanity, 59 ; his Anger with George II. 
 of England, 60 ; his strange Conscientious- 
 ness, 63 ; effects of his Rage, 68 ; his demo- 
 niac Conduct, 69, 70 ; brutally threatens his 
 Queen, 73 ; ends the Plan for the double Mar- 
 riages, 75 ; sullenly consents to Wilhelmina's 
 Marriage with the Duke of Baireuth, 77; his 
 Suspicions of his Son, 78 ; his Opinion of the 
 Princess Amelia, 82 ; Ultimatum concerning 
 the double Marriages, 84 ; he publicly canes 
 his Son, 85 ; he ill-treats Wilhelmina, 88 ; he 
 assaults his Son in the Yacht, 91 ; he arraigns 
 and tries Fritz, 93 ; his cruel Dispatch to his 
 Queen, 95 ; his Rage with the friends of Fritz, 
 103 ; his Inconsistency, 109 ; he excites the 
 indignation of all European Powers against 
 him, 111 ; his inflexibility, 114; his insulting 
 Reply to Wilhelmina, 115; renewed ill treat- 
 ment of his Daughter, 122 ; he interviews 
 his Son, 123 ; his bitter Altercation with the 
 Judges, 127; his Store of Silver, 130; he 
 writes his Son, 137 ; he allows Fritz a mea- 
 gre Income, 146 ; his reception of Wilhelmi- 
 na, 147; his displeasure with his Son, 154; 
 his Health impaired, 161 ; his Sufferings and 
 Petulance, 1 64 ; he dislikes his Son's Occupa- 
 tions, 167; he visits Holland, 175; he passes 
 through Prussian Lithuania, 177; his efforts 
 for the Province, 178; he bestows a Gift 
 upon the Crown Prince, 179 ; his Health fails, 
 180; his Anger with the Tobacco Parliament, 
 1 83 ; his Directions for his Funeral, 185, 186 ; 
 his last Hours, 187 ; his dying Words, 188 ; his 
 Funeral, 189; his Restrictions upon his Son, 
 197; his authority over Herstal denied, 206. 
 Frederick the Great : his Tutors, 31 ; his liter- 
 ary Acquirements, 37 ; his refined Tastes, 38 ; 
 his Character at fifteen, 49 ; his Illness, 52 ; 
 writes his Father, 53; contemplates fleeing 
 from Home, 61 ; his Passion for Music, 66 ; 
 his Falsehood and Debts, 77 ; his Resolve, 78 ; 
 his Interview with his Sister, 79 ; he is held 
 under Surveillance, 87; he attempts escape, 
 and is arrested. 89 ; he is tried and condemn- 
 ed, 93 ; he refuses to implicate his friends, 
 
 94 ; he is deprived of necessaries, 101 ; his 
 crushing Sorrow, 107; he abandons Chris- 
 tianity, 110; his Oath of Obedience, 113; his 
 popularity at Custrin, 122 ; his Interview with 
 Frederick William, 123, 124; he is allowed 
 more Freedom, 127; his lax ideas of Mar- 
 riage, 128; his coldness toward Wilhelmina, 
 134; he is restored to his Command atRup- 
 pin, 1 36 ; his Betrothal, 142 ; his Occupation 
 at Ruppin, 145; his choice of Reading, 1 46 ; 
 his Marriage, 149 ; his treatment of his Bride, 
 150, 151 ; he goes to Holland with Frederick 
 William, 175; his Masonic Initiation, 176; 
 he extols his Father's ability, 1 78 ; his sym- 
 pathy for his Father in his illness, 181; he 
 enters the Tobacco Parliament, 182 ; at 
 Reinsberg Frederick hears of his Father's 
 sudden Illness, 185; he is King of Prussia, 
 188; his noble Words, 189; his generous 
 Deeds, 191; his toleration, 192; his caustic 
 Replies, 193; his division of Time, 194; his 
 dutiful Conduct toward his Mother, 197; he 
 visits Strasbourg incognito, 199; his Opinion 
 of Voltaire, 205; he writes the Prince-bishop 
 of Liege, 207; he issues a Manifesto, 208; he 
 slights George II. of England, 210; his un- 
 popularity, 211; his striking Words, 214; he 
 gives Reasons for War, 216; his deceptive 
 Measures, 218; his insolent Demand upon 
 Maria Theresa, 221 ; his Speech to his sol- 
 diers, 222 ; his Proclamation, 223 ; his poli- 
 tic Conduct, 224, 230; he writes M.Jordan, 
 226, 228, 232; his Entrance into Breslau, 
 229 ; he writes M. Algarotti, 233 ; he fails to 
 secure Allies, 237; his narrow Escape, 240; he 
 writes Leopold, 244 ; he writes the Old Des- 
 sauer, 246; he mistakes General Neipperg's 
 Plans, 248 ; his Dilemma, 249 ; he endeavors 
 to cross the Neisse, 250 ; his want of milita- 
 ry Skill, 255 ; he flees for Life, 257; his Mor- 
 tification, 259, 261 ; he writes Wilhelmina, 
 262 ; his successful Strategy, 265 ; his grow- 
 ing Importance, 268 ; he signs a secret Trea- 
 ty with France, 270; his Physique, 275; his 
 Dialogue with Robinson and Hyndford, 279; 
 his trifling Manner, 280 ; his brusque Reply 
 to the Embassador, 285 ; repulses the Aus- 
 trian Envoy, 286; his mean Proposition pre- 
 sented by Goltz, 287; his Caution, 290; his 
 Perfidy, 291 ; his sham Siege of Neisse, 293 ; 
 he denies the secret Treaty with Austria, 295 ; 
 his mean Subterfuges, 297; he is annoyed by 
 the want of Zeal in his Allies, 302 ; he re- 
 joices in the withdrawal of Saxony from the 
 Alliance, 305; diis Views of Winter Cam- 
 paigns, 307; his attention to Minutiae in his 
 Camp, 309; his Treachery to France, 313; 
 on his Silesian Campaigns, 315 ; his Endeav- 
 ors to render Berlin attractive, 318; he writes 
 an Ode to Ulrique, his Sifter, 324; he writes 
 
INDEX. 
 
 579 
 
 cruelly to Baron Pollnitz, 325 ; he fears Aus- 
 trian Successes, 329; his sad March from 
 Prague, 331,332; his Perplexities, 335 ; his 
 narrow escape from Capture at Collin, 338 ; 
 his Orders to Leopold, 341; his Peril, 347; 
 his Kesolve, 348 ; his Endeavor, 355 ; his In- 
 dignation against Louis XV., 359 ; in his re- 
 treat to Silesia, surprised by Austria, 362 ; 
 his Perplexities, 366 ; his Suavity toward the 
 People of Berlin, 373; his Industry, 377 ; his 
 Kindness to the old Schoolmaster, Linsen- 
 barth, 383 ; writes of Voltaire to Wilhelmina, 
 388 ; excludes Ladies from his Court, 390 ; 
 Resume of his Character, 396 ; his mean Con- 
 duct at Dresden, 398 ; his terrible Perplexity, 
 403 ; his treatment of Saxon troops, 409 ; he 
 writes concerning the Battle of Prague, 414; 
 he retreats from Kolin, 415 ; his Grief at the 
 Death of his Mother, 41 8 ; his Anger with, 
 and cruel Treatment of Augustus William, 
 422; his infidel Creed, 425; his Support in 
 Sorrow, 428 ; defeats the Allies at Rossbach, 
 430; his Address to Officers and Soldiers 
 after Leuthen, 435, 436 ; he writes to the 
 Marquis DArgens, 446,447; his grim Hu- 
 mor, 463; his Daring, 465; his Losses, 467; 
 *he derides General Daun, 469 ; his Winter at 
 Breslau, 473; his Expedient for the increase 
 of Funds, 475; he joins his Brother Henry 
 at Sagan, 479 ; defeated at Muhlberg Hill, 
 483; his Injustice to his Soldiers, 489; his 
 Illness, 492 ; his reckless Directions to his 
 Generals, 493 ; his strategic Deception, 505 ; 
 he dictates to his Generals the Plan of Oper- 
 ations at Torgau, 513; assails the Austrians, 
 513; his unwearying Energy, 518; his cruel 
 Extortions, 521 ; his Military Instructions, 
 533 ; he returns to Berlin, 535 ; his Account 
 of the Ravages of the Seven Years' War, 539 ; 
 vain of his Wit, 543 ; endeavors to mediate 
 between Russia and Turkey, 545; his Share 
 of Poland, 548 ; his Opinion on the Partition 
 of Poland, 549; his Diplomacy, 552 ; his res- 
 olute Movement, 554, 555 ; his Character in 
 old age, 556 ; his Protocol regarding the Mill- 
 er, 559 ; his Neglect of his Wife, 561 ; his Ill- 
 ness, 565 ; his last Sickness and Death, 569, 
 571,572; his Burial, 573. * 
 
 Frederick, Prince of Wales, Son of George II. 
 of England : his Schemes for the Hand of 
 Wilhelmina, 52 ; an ardent Lover, 82. 
 
 French, the, compel the Duke of Brunswick to 
 withdraw his Alliance from Frederick, 424 ; 
 their Atrocities near Weissenfels, 433. 
 
 Freudenthal, General Neipperg at, 249; Fred- 
 erick obtains Possession of, 283. 
 
 Freytag, M., arrests Voltaire at Frankfort, 394 ; 
 his Opinion of Frederick's Share of Poland, 
 549 ; his Testimony to Frederick's Energy in 
 time of Peace, 550. 
 
 Friedenthal occupied by Frederick, 298. 
 Friedland, Frederick retreats to, 250; he ob- 
 tains Possession of, 283. 
 
 George I. , Elector of Hanover, 20 ; he visits 
 Berlin, 32 ; his Character, 39 ; his Treatment 
 of his Wife, 41 ; the Death of his unhappy 
 Wife, 48 ; his own sudden Death, 49. 
 
 George II., his Character, 41 ; on the British 
 Throne, 52 ; he quarrels with Frederick Wil- 
 liam, 59 ; Weakness of his Army, 65 ; his 
 Reasons for objecting to the "double Mar- 
 riages," 83; his Reply containing the Ulti- 
 matum, 84 ; he accedes too late to the Over- 
 tures of Frederick William, 122; he assists 
 Maria Theresa, 316 ; his sudden Death, 516. 
 
 George III., his Character wh'en Prince of 
 Wales, 83 ; his Marriage, 521. 
 
 George the Pious, Duke of Brieg, 231. 
 
 Giant Guards, Cost of, 61 ; one of them robs a 
 House, 126; Frederick abolishes the Regi- 
 ment after he becomes King of Prussia, 192. 
 
 Ginckel, General, Dutch Embassador to Prus- 
 sia ; his Account of an Interview with Fred- 
 erick William (note), 109 ; demands, in the 
 Name of the Dutch Court, the Evacuation of 
 Silesia, 270. 
 
 Glatz seized by Frederick, 299 ; Austrians drive 
 out the Old Dessauer, and retake, 340 ; Fred- 
 erick, to deceive General Daun, rushes to- 
 wards, 501. 
 
 Glogau, a fortified town in Silesia, 223 ; Fred- 
 erick invests it, 228 ; assaulted and captured 
 by Leopold, 245. 
 
 Goltz, Colonel, carries a Proposition to Lord 
 Hyndford from Frederick, 286 ; his import- 
 ant Appointment and sudden Death, 522. 
 
 Gortz, M. , employed on Bavarian Business, 552. 
 
 Gotten, a Hanoverian Town, 243 ; the Old Des- 
 sauer, with thirty-six Thousand Men, station- 
 ed there, 258 ; the Troops there menace En- 
 gland, 284. 
 
 Grottkau, Frederick advances towards, to join 
 the Prince of Holstein Beck, 250 ; finds Aus- 
 trians in Possession, 251 ; after Mollwitz Aus- 
 trians again retreat to, 262. 
 
 Grumkow, Baron, Bearer of a Letter to Sophie 
 Dorothee, 75 ; his Insolence to the Crown 
 Prince, 101 ; his Conference with Wilhelmi- 
 na, 117; he describes an Interview of Fred- 
 erick William with the Crown Prince, 125. 
 
 Gundling, a boon Companion of Frederick Wil- 
 liam, 47. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hadpick, General, his peculiar Ransom from 
 Berlin, 429. 
 
 HartorF, M., Prussian Minister to the Hanove- 
 rian Court, G'5. 
 
580 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Helvetius invited to visit Berlin, 540. 
 
 Henry, Prince, commands at Saxony, 449 ; 
 joins Frederick at Doberschiitz, 469. 
 
 Hennersdorf, Frederick attacks the Austrians 
 at, 366. 
 
 Herstal Castle transferred to Frederick William, 
 206 ; Bishop of Liege purchases of Frederick 
 the Great, 209. 
 
 Hilbersdorf, Frederick at the Mill of, 259. 
 
 Historical Record of the State of Prussia before 
 the Birth of Christ, 17. 
 
 Hoffman, Professor, his dignified Reply to 
 Frederick William, 181. 
 
 Hohenfriedburg, Austrian Officers at, 349 ; Bat- 
 tle at, 351. 
 
 Hope renewed regarding the double Marriages, 
 75. 
 
 Hotham, Colonel, English Envoy to Prussia, 80; 
 describes a Dinner with Frederick William, 
 80 ; his Endeavors to promote the Marriage 
 of the Prince of Wales and Wilhelmina, 82. 
 
 Hunting Expeditions of Frederick William, 55. 
 
 Hyndford, Lord, an English Embassador to 
 Frederick ; his Conference with him, 268, 269, 
 273 ; his Conference with Frederick at Ber- 
 lin, 295. 
 
 I. 
 
 Iglatj, Frederick intends marching to, 301 ; 
 his Chagrin on reaching it, 304. 
 
 Incident at Kehl, 199 ; at Lissa, 443 ; at Fred- 
 erick's Death-bed, the faithful Valet, 572. 
 
 Intrigues of Voltaire, 327. 
 
 Iron Crown — why so called ? (note), 274. 
 
 J. 
 
 Jagerndorf, Frederick's Peril at, 248. 
 
 Jordan, M. , a Companion of Frederick at Reins- 
 berg, 167 ; he writes of Frederick, 168, (note) 
 232 ; he writes Frederick, 263. 
 
 Joseph II., Interview of Frederick with, 542; 
 he allies himself with Russia, 560. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kalkstein, Colonel, Tutor for Frederick, 31. 
 
 Kannegiesser, M. , Embassador of George II. at 
 Hanover, 63. 
 
 Katte, Lieutenant, his kindly Offices, 67 ; he is 
 in an unpleasant Dilemma, 69 ; is a danger- 
 ous Friend for the Crown Prince, 71 ; he 
 sends Frederick's Desk and Papers to the 
 Queen, 96 ; is arrested and abused by the 
 King, 99 ; imprisoned, 100 ; sentenced to die, 
 105 ; his Letter, 106 ; his Execution, 107. 
 
 Kaunitz, Count Von, his Conceit, 544 ; he sup- 
 plicates Frederick, 555. 
 
 Keith, Lieutenant, stationed at Wesel, 71 ; he 
 escapes to the Hague, 92 ; Frederick's Treat- 
 ment of him, 193, 194. 
 
 Keith, Marshal, killed at the Battle of Hocli 
 kirch, 467. 
 
 Kesselsdorf, battle of, described by Carlyle, 369. 
 
 Keyserling, Major, an early Friend of Freder- 
 ick, 167 ; his Character (note), 233. 
 
 Knobelsdorf, Captain, a distinguished Musician 
 and Architect, 168. 
 
 Kolin, Frederick attacks the Austrians at, 415. 
 
 Konig, M., quarrels with Maupertuis, and is ex- 
 pelled from the Academy, 390. 
 
 Konigsberg, the Capital of the Prussian Duchy, 
 19. 
 
 Konigsgraft, Prince Charles intrenches at, 354. 
 
 Konigsgratz, Prince Charles retreats to, 446. 
 
 Konigsmark, Count, mysterious Disappearance 
 of, 41. 
 
 Kreutzen, Colonel, sent to Liege, 210.' 
 
 L. 
 
 Landskron, General Stille gives Account of 
 the Expedition against, 300. 
 
 Landshut, Frederick's Forces at, 476. 
 
 Lake House, Meeting of Frederick and Wilhel- 
 mina at the, 158. 
 
 Leipe, Skirmish at, 250. 
 
 Leipsic, Frederick seizes, 404. 
 
 Leitmeritz, Prussian Army rendezvoused at, 
 418. 
 
 Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau, 243; at Schweid- 
 nitz, 247 ; crosses the Neisse, 250 ; alienated 
 from Frederick, 340 ; his Inventions, 345 ; 
 Carlyle writes of, 369. 
 
 Leopold, the Young Dessauer, takes Glogau, 
 245 ; he commands at Chotusitz, 310. 
 
 Letter of Baron Pollnitz, 25; of Frederick Wil- 
 liam, 26 ; of Wilhelmina, 40 ; of Frederick 
 William to his Son, 54 ; of Dubourgay, the 
 British Minister at Berlin, 60, 62; of Wilhel- 
 mina, 69 ; of the Crown Prince, 70, 75 ; of 
 Wilhelmina, 81; of the Crown Prince to 
 George II. of England, 84; of Carlyle,' 88 ; 
 of Frederick William to Wilhelmina, 1 19 ; of 
 the Crown Prince to Frederick Willi am, 127; 
 of General Schulenburg, 128; of Frederick 
 to Baron Grumkow, 138, 139, 140, 141; to 
 Wilhelmina, 141, 142, 149, 156; of Count Al- 
 garotti, 171 ; of Frederick to Voltaire, 173 ; 
 of Voltaire in reply, 174; of Bielfeld (note), 
 177; of Frederick to Voltaire, 178; of Baron 
 Pollnitz, 1 79 ; of Frederick to Baron Suhm, 
 181 ; to M. Maupertuis, 191 ; of the Danish 
 Envoy, 197; of Frederick to Voltaire, 201, 
 202; to M. Jordan, 204, 219; of M.Jordan, 
 226; ofFredericktoVoltaire,227,242; toM. 
 Jordan, 228, 252 ; to Wilhelmina, 252 ; of a 
 Mollwitz Gentleman, 253; of an Austrian Of- 
 ficer, 262; of Sir Thomas Robinson, 286; of 
 Frederick to M. Jordan, 306, 312; of the 
 young Sisters of Frederick to him, 322; of 
 Frederick to Voltaire, 327; to Podewils, 347, 
 348 ; of Field Marshal Keith, 377; of Freder- 
 ick to D'Arget, 387; to Voltaire, 388; of the 
 
INDEX. 
 
 581 
 
 Prince of Prussia, Augustus William, to 
 Frederick, 402 ; of Frederick in reply, 404 ; 
 of Frederick to Lord Marischall, 416 ; to 
 Wilhelmina, 419, 420; to Augustus William, 
 423; to Wilhelmina, 425 ; of Wilhelmina to 
 Voltaire, 426 ; of Frederick to Wilhelmina, 
 427,432; of Wilhelmina to Frederick, 428, 
 429 ; of the King of Prussia to his Brother 
 Henry, 449 ; of the Prince of Prussia to Fred- 
 erick, 451 ; to his Sister, 454 ; of Frederick 
 to Voltaire, 469 ; of Marshal Daun, 470 ; of 
 Sir Andrew Mitchel, 471 ; of Frederick to 
 Lord Marischall, 472 ; to D'Argens, 474 ; of 
 the French Minister in Paris to Marshal De 
 Contades, 476 ; of Frederick to Voltaire, 478 ; 
 to Count Finck, 480; to Colonel Fincken- 
 stein, 485 ; to General Schmettau, 487 ; to 
 Marquis D'Argens, 489, 506, 508, 510, 514 ; 
 to Voltaire, 497, 499 ; to the Countess of 
 Camas, 515, 517 ; of Charlotte Sophia, Meck- 
 lenburg, 520 ; of Frederick to General Von 
 Zastrow, 526 ; to D'Argens, 527, 530, 534 ; 
 of D'Alembert, 540 ; of the Prince De Ligne 
 to Stanislaus, King of Poland, 543 ; of Fred- 
 erick to Marie- Antoine, 544 ; to Voltaire, 
 550; to his Wife, 570. 
 
 Leuthen, Battle of, 441 ; Napoleon I. on, 446. 
 
 Leutomischel, General Daun at, 449. 
 
 Liegnitz captured by General Schwerin, 228 ; 
 Frederick visits the Army at, 366 ; he reach- 
 es Liegnitz surrounded by Austrians, 504. 
 
 Ligne, the Prince De, describes the Battle of 
 Leuthen, 442. 
 
 Linsenbarth, M. : his Adventures and Death, 
 383,384. 
 
 Lobositz, Battle of, 407. 
 
 Loo, a beautiful Palace in Geldern, Eesidence 
 of the Prince of Orange, 176. 
 
 Louis XV. alienated from Frederick, 358. 
 
 Loudon, General, an Austrian Officer, and his 
 forces routed by Frederick, 504. 
 
 Lowen, Frederick escapes across a Bridge at, 
 258; his Breakfast at, 261. ■ 
 
 Ludvvig, George, Count of Berg, Bishop of 
 Liege, 207; his Efforts against Frederick, 
 209. 
 
 M. 
 
 Macatjxat, Lord, describes Frederick William 
 (note), 27; Note, 218; he writes of Freder- 
 ick, 297; of Voltaire (note), 321. 
 
 Magdeburg, troops rendezvoused at, 65. 
 
 Magyar Warriors, the, swear fealty to the 
 Queen of Austria, 288. 
 
 Mahren, Review of Austrian troops at, 380. 
 
 Manifesto of Frederick, 330. 
 
 Map of Silesia, 217; illustrating the Mollwitz 
 Campaign, 247; the battle of Mollwitz, 261 ; 
 of the second Silesian Campaign, 294; illus- 
 trating the Campaign in Moravia, 306; of 
 the Battle of Chotusitz, 310; Battle of Ho- 
 
 henfriedburg, 350 ; the Invasion of Saxony, 
 405; Battle of Lobositz, 407; the Battle of 
 Prague, 412; Battle of Kolin, 416; Cam- 
 paign of Rossbach, 430 ; Battle of Rossbach, 
 431; Leuthen Campaign, 438; Battle of 
 Leuthen, 440; Siege of Olmutz, 450 ; Battle 
 of Zorndorf, 459 ; Campaign of Hochkirch. 
 464; Battle of Hochkirch, 467; Battle of 
 Kunersdorf, 485 ; Battle of Maxen, 494 ; 
 Battle of Liegnitz, 505 ; Battle of Torgau, 512. 
 
 Maria Theresa, Queen of Austria, 215 ; scorn- 
 ful Sentence in her Reply to Frederick's De- 
 mand for Silesia, 222; Combinations against 
 her, 271 ; she is crowned Queen of Hungary, 
 274; she consents to compromise with Fred- 
 erick, 275; her Anguish in view of Freder- 
 ick's Terms, 285 ; her Address to the Hun- 
 garian Parliament, 288 ; her Character, 316; 
 her Determination, 323 ; her Energy and 
 Manifesto, 340; her diplomatic Skill, 359, 
 360; her resolute Plans, 365; she prepares 
 for War, 398; her Energy, 408; she sends 
 General Daun to the relief of Prague, 414; 
 her moral and religious Character, 548 ; she 
 sends Proposals of Peace to Frederick, 556; 
 her constancy to the Memory of her Hus- 
 band, 559 ; her Death, 559. 
 
 Marriage of Frederick the Great proposed, 136, 
 137. 
 
 Marwitz, General, put under arrest for a Re- 
 monstrance, 465. 
 
 Maupertuis, M., a French Philosopher, 191 ; he 
 witnesses the Battle of Mollwitz with keen 
 suffering, 264 ; his bitter Quarrel with Vol- 
 taire, 390; his last Hours and Death, 395. 
 
 Maxen, General Finck worsted at the Battle of, 
 493. 
 
 Maximilian Joseph adheres to the Queen of 
 Hungary, 344. 
 
 Mirabeau writes of a Visit to Frederick, 565, 
 566. 
 
 Mittenwalde, the Castle of, the Crown Prince 
 sent to, 97. 
 
 Mitchel, Sir Andrew, writes of Frederick, 418. 
 
 Mollwitz, General Neipperg at, 253 ; Battle at, 
 256. 
 
 Montbail, Madame, Governess of Frederick, 20. 
 
 Montbijou, Festivities at, 95 ; the Palace of, as- 
 signed to the Queen Mother, 197. 
 
 Montholieu, Count, a French gentleman, friend 
 of the Crown Prince, 103. 
 
 Moore, Rev. Dr., mentions a remarkable feat 
 concerning Frederick the Great, 566. 
 
 Moravia to be wrested from Maria Theresa, 
 298. 
 
 Mosheim, Rev. Johan Lorenz, a distinguished 
 Writer, 149. 
 
 Moyland, Frederick ill at the Chateau of, 202. 
 
 Muhlberg Hill, the Prussians storm and carry 
 the Works on, 483. 
 
582 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Miiller, M., the faithful Chaplain of Frederick 
 
 William, 107, 110, 112. 
 Myssen, the Old Dessauer marches to, 368. 
 
 N. 
 
 Neipperg, General, hastens to Neisse, 247; he 
 retreats from Mollwitz, 262 ; his Account of 
 an Interview with Frederick, 292 ; he breaks 
 camp at Neisse, 293. 
 
 Neisse, a small Town in Southern Silesia, 232; 
 stormed by Prussia, 234 ; secretly re-enforced, 
 240 ; Neipperg enters, 249 ; he intrenches 
 himself, 265 ; Frederick invests and bom- 
 bards, 293 ; collects his forces at, 348 ; final- 
 ly abandoned by Austria, 471. 
 
 Neustadt, Prussian Army at, 249. 
 
 Neumarkt, Frederick seizes a bakery at, 438. 
 
 Nicholas, Czar, a Prediction credited to him, 
 546. 
 
 Nicholstadt, Frederick at, 522. 
 
 O. 
 
 Oath of Allegiance exacted by Frederick from 
 all his Subjects, 197. 
 
 Ohlau, Frederick summons it to surrender, 230 ; 
 Prussians retreat from Grottkau to, 251, 254. 
 
 Olmutz, Austrian forces at, 347; Frederick be- 
 fore, 449 ; he retreats from, 454. 
 
 Oppeln, Incident at, 258 ; Frederick gains Pos- 
 session of, 286. 
 
 Oranienberg, Frederick William threatens his 
 Queen with divorce and banishment to the 
 Palace of, 73. 
 
 Ottmachau, a Town on the Eiver Neisse, 231. 
 
 P. 
 
 Pallant, General, an Austrian Officer, reveals 
 a French Plot, 314. 
 
 Pandours, the, sadly annoy the Prussian Army, 
 361. 
 
 Paul, Czar, his second Marriage, 551. 
 
 Peace, Reasons for not attaining it, 474 ; at 
 length concluded, 534. 
 
 Peasantry, Sufferings of the, 364. 
 
 Philipsburg besieged, 155; it surrenders to the 
 French, 161. 
 
 Pilsnitz, a Palace in Breslau, 229. 
 
 Pirna, Saxons concentrated at, 405 ; their Po- 
 sition at, 406. 
 
 Pitsch, M., Physician to Frederick William, 
 188. 
 
 Platen, General, attacks the retreating Russians, 
 526. 
 
 Poland, Frederick William visits, with the 
 Crown Prince, 51 ; his Polish Majesty re- 
 turns the Visit, 52 ; he intercedes for the 
 Crown Prince, 112; his Alliance with Aus- 
 tria, 340 ; Frederick's Treatment of the 
 Queen of, 370 ; the King of, sues for Peace, 
 371 ; the Queen tries to defend the Archives, 
 
 405 ; the King appeals to France and Austria, 
 406; Memorial of the King of, 503; Death of 
 the King of, 541 ; its Partition proposed by 
 Frederick, 543. 
 
 Polluitz, M. , his Account of the Journey from 
 Lithuania, 179. 
 
 Pompadour, Duchess of, her Character and In- 
 fluence, 399 ; her Letter to Maria Theresa, 
 407 ; her Bitterness toward Frederick, 448. 
 
 Poniatowski, Stanislaus, elected King of Po- 
 land, 542. 
 
 Posen, Eussians under Soltikof at, 478. 
 
 Potsdam, the Palace of, 37; the Captain of 
 the Grenadier Guard of, 42 ; Frederick re- 
 turns to, from his first military Expedition, 
 65 ; Marriage of Frederica Louisa at, 66 ; 
 Frederick William and Sophie Dorothee re- 
 turn from the Marriage of the Crown Prince 
 to, 150; the King being ill, the Crown Prince 
 visits him at, 1 64 ; Frederick William retires 
 to die at, 183 ; its Palace sacked by Austrian 
 Soldiers, 509. 
 
 Prague surrenders to Prussia, 331 ; is abandon- 
 ed, 336 ; the Battle of, 412 ; Siege of, 414. 
 
 Pragmatic Sanction, 213. 
 
 Pratorius, the Danish Minister writes, 220. 
 
 Predestination, Frederick's Views respecting, 
 110. 
 
 Press, freedom of the, proclaimed in Berlin, 192. 
 
 Presburg, Maria Theresa at, 284. 
 
 Prince of Wales proposes for the Hand of Wil- 
 helmina, 54. 
 
 Prince Charles en route for Berlin, 366 ; goes 
 to Dresden, 368 ; his culpable Delay at Dres- 
 den, 370. 
 
 Prince of Russia ; Frederick concerns himself 
 in his matrimonial Schemes, 323. 
 
 Protestantism, Frederick's Efforts in behalf of, 
 243. 
 
 Prussia, the Transfer of the Duchy of, 18; its 
 Capital, 19. 
 
 Prussian Kingdom, Extent and Resources of 
 the, 188. 
 
 Prussians, the, in distress, 253 ; retreat to Sile- 
 sia, 336 ; their Losses (note), 339 ; they enter 
 Saxonv, 405. 
 
 Q. 
 
 Qcantz, M. , Music - teacher of the Crown 
 Prince, 66; his narrow Escape, 69. 
 
 R. 
 
 Racoule, Madame, a Governess of Frederick 
 in his childhood, 30. 
 
 Ranke, Professor, writes of the Cruelty of Fred- 
 erick William to Frederick, 85. 
 
 Rasfeld, M., Prussian Envoy at the Hague: 
 Frederick writes him, 270. 
 
 Reformation, the, of the sixteenth Century : its 
 Influence in Prussia, 18. 
 
 Reichenbach, Frederick sends Columns to, in 
 
INDEX. 
 
 583 
 
 order to save his Magazine at Schweidnitz, 
 283. 
 
 Reinsberg, Castle of, 152; Apartments of Eliz- 
 abeth Christina at, 1 53 ; Visitors at, 172; its 
 distance from Potsdam, 185 ; Frederick in- 
 vites his sister to visit him — Wilhelmina re- 
 pairs thither with the neglected Wife, 212. 
 
 Ketzow, General, placed under Arrest for fail- 
 ure in Battle, 465. 
 
 Kitter, Doris : her unjust Accusation, 103; the 
 cruel Punishment inflicted upon her, 104 ; 
 Frederick's Meanness toward her, 193. 
 
 Robinson, Sir Thomas, Earl of Grantham : his 
 Interview with Frederick, 276, 277, 278; he 
 returns with sad Tidings to the Court of Aus- 
 tria, 284 ; his earnest Entreaty to the young 
 Queen, 285. 
 
 Rochow, Lieutenant Colonel, arrests the Flight 
 of the Crown Prince, 89. 
 
 Roloff, M. , a Clergyman of Frederick William's 
 Court : his Faithfulness to the Monarch, 184. 
 
 Romer, General, an Austrian Commander at 
 Mollwitz, 256. 
 
 Roth, General, commands Austrian forces at 
 Neisse, 234 ; his pitiless Expedient, 235 ; 
 commands the Fortress at Briinn, 304. 
 
 Rothenburg, Count, leads Austrian Scouts near 
 Mollwitz, 255. 
 
 Ruppin, the Crown Prince commissioned Colo- 
 nel Commandant at, 136 ; the dull Life of 
 Frederick at, 145. 
 
 Russia meditates joining a Coalition against 
 Frederick, 298 ; with France, intervenes for 
 Peace, 557. 
 
 Russians, the, after Zorndorf — their Retreat, 
 460; after the Surrender of Berlin, they flee 
 to Poland, fearing Frederick, 509 ; they scat- 
 ter near Hohenfriedburg, 524. 
 
 S. 
 
 Saldern, General, his moral heroism, 519. 
 
 Salzdahlum, a ducal Palace in the Duchy of 
 Brunswick, 149. 
 
 Saxe, Chevalier De, General of Saxon Horse, 
 announces the breaking of the Alliance be- 
 tween Saxony and Prussia, 305. 
 
 Saxon troops : Character of their Leaders, 302 ; 
 their Sufferings in the Retreat from Moravia, 
 305 ; their strong Position near Pirna, 406 ; 
 besieged in their Encampment, 407 ; they 
 surrender at discretion, 408. 
 
 Schonbrunn, England sends Sir Thomas Robin- 
 son to, 360. 
 
 Schlettau, Frederick raises the Siege of Dresden 
 and retires to, 503. 
 
 Schlubhut hung by order of Frederick William, 
 125. 
 
 Schmettau, General, declines General Daun's 
 Proposals, 472 ; he is unjustly degraded by 
 Frederick the Great, 491. 
 
 Schnellendorf : its Treaty disclosed — the Rea- 
 sons for this Measure, 298. 
 
 Schnellendorf, Little, secret Conclave proposed 
 at, 289. 
 
 Schulenburg, Field Marshal, Lieutenant General 
 at Ciistrin : his Portraiture of Frederick, 128 ; 
 his heroism, 256. 
 
 Schwedt, the Marquis of, Frederick William, 
 sues for the Hand of Wilhelmina, 74; his 
 Rage at the failure of his Suit, 120. 
 
 Schweidnitz, a fortified Town in Silesia, 238 ; 
 its Fortress recaptured by the Austrians, 434 ; 
 besieged and again captured by Frederick, 
 533. 
 
 Schwerin, General, he commands a Division 
 against Liegnitz, 228 ; his Decision wins the 
 Day at Mollwitz, 262 ; his Stratagem at Bres- 
 lau, 282 ; he urges Frederick to attack Sax- 
 ony, 403; his Death at Sterbohol Hill, 413. 
 
 Seckendorf, Count, assists at the arrest of the 
 Crown Prince, 90 ; appealed to by Frederick, 
 92 ; he presents to Frederick William a Re- 
 monstrance from Charles VI. in behalf of 
 Fritz, 111; he counsels the King on the Mar- 
 riage of Frederick, 148; he contrives to send 
 Money to the Crown Prince, 154. 
 
 Silesia, Territory of, 21 4 ; division of Feeling in, 
 223 ; Frederick's Reasons for war with, 295 ; 
 its Cost to Prussia, 534. 
 
 Smirzitz, Incident at, 356. 
 
 Sohr, Battle of, 362, 363. 
 
 Soltikof, a Russian General : his Humanitv, 
 481; he intrenches at Kunersdorf, 482; he 
 writes on the Victoiy at Kunersdorf, 489. 
 
 Sonsfeld, Madam, Governess of Wilhelmina, 
 78; at the Ball, 95; her Care of Wilhelmina, 
 98; Threats of Frederick William against 
 her, 116. 
 
 Sophie Dorothee, Daughter of George I. of En- 
 gland: her Marriage with Frederick Wil- 
 liam, 21 ; her Intrigues and Plans, 38, 39 ; 
 her Love for her Son Frederick, 67; she re- 
 ceives the King's Messengers, 72 ; she replies 
 to Frederick William, 75 ; she scathes Grum- 
 kow, 76 ; she becomes angry with Wilhelmi- 
 na, 77 ; her Interview with Frederick Wil- 
 liam, 97 ; her firm Resolve, 114 ; her Letters 
 to Wilhelmina, 115, 119; a strange Mother. 
 121; her Anger and Illness, 122; dislikes 
 Wilhelmina's Marriage, 130, 131; her Ma- 
 noeuvres, 145 ; her cool Treatment of her 
 Daughter, 147; she ill treats Elizabeth Chris- 
 tina, 150. 
 
 Spanish Minister, the : his luxurious Ease, 267. 
 
 Steinau, Frederick's Head-quarters at. 249 ; 
 Neipperg encamps near, 283. 
 
 Stille', Baron, describes the Scene at Chrudim. 
 308, 309. 
 
 Stolpen, General Daun retreats to the Strong- 
 hold at, 464. 
 
584 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Strasbourg, Frederick and Suite at, incognito, 
 200. 
 
 Strehlin, Envoys from various European Na- 
 tions visit Frederick at his Encampment at, 
 267 ; a Eeview of Prussian troops at, 282 ; 
 Frederick's last grand Review, consuming 
 four Days, at, 563. 
 
 Sulzer, M., writes from Berlin, 488. 
 
 Suhm, Baron Von, a constant Friend and Cor- 
 respondent of Frederick, 166, 168. 
 
 Sweden, the King of, intercedes for the Crown 
 Prince, 112 ; declares war against Russia, 
 284. 
 
 T. 
 
 Tobacco Parliament, 46 ; they discuss the Ques- 
 tion of a Duel between Frederick William 
 and George II. of England, 61 : the entrance 
 of the Crown Prince disturbs the Sitting of 
 the Members, 182. 
 
 Tottleben, General, bombards Berlin, 509. 
 
 Traun, Marshal, his military Ability, 334. 
 
 Trebitsch, Frederick to concentrate his forces 
 at, 300. 
 
 Trench, Baron, Narrative by, 336 ; he describes 
 the Hardships of the Prussian Guards, 379. 
 
 Troppau occupied by Frederick, 298. 
 
 Tulmier, M., persuades Wilbelmina to accede 
 to her Father's wishes, 117. 
 
 U. 
 
 Ulejqtte, Princess, takes leave of the Prussian 
 Court, 324. 
 
 V. 
 
 Valoei, M. De, French Embassador at Berlin, 
 .272; he watches Frederick anxiously, 289; 
 he is hoodwinked, 292 ; his Comment on 
 Frederick, 351; the Prussian King ill treats 
 him, 359. 
 
 Vienna, Frederick suggests a Compromise to 
 the Court of, 287 ; Alarm at, 288; not need 
 less Terror in, 556. 
 
 Villa, Rev. Dr. , sent to England to negotiate 
 the double Marriages, 78. 
 
 Voltaire, the French infidel Philosopher : the 
 Influence of his Writings, 49 ; Note, 108 ; he 
 compliments Frederick, 198 ; he counsels the 
 Suppression of the Anti-Machiavel, 209 ; he 
 announces the Victory of Mollwitz, 263 ; 
 panegyrizes Frederick, 316; details Conver- 
 sations with Frederick, 320, 321; describes 
 Frederick's Life, 328; his Views on the Vic- 
 tory at Kesselsdorf (note), 370; at the Ca- 
 rousal, 385 ; enters into Speculation with a 
 Jew, and what came of it, 387 ; quarrels with 
 Maupertuis, and lampoons him, 391 ; de- 
 scribes the Suppers at Sans Souci, 396 ; writes 
 on the Battle of Rossbach, 432 ; on the Bat- 
 
 tle of Leuthen,446; his mean Transactions, 
 477; his Death, 557. 
 
 W. 
 
 Wagon Train, Description of, 452. 
 
 Waldau, Colonel, one of the Jailers of the Crown 
 Prince, 91. 
 
 Wallis, Count, an Austrian Officer, 223 ; he de- 
 fends Glogau, 244. 
 
 War, Frederick William's Opinion of, 26 ; Prep- 
 arations for, 65 ; Remarks upon, by Sherman, 
 Wellington, and Napoleon I., 355 ; good Ob- 
 jects sometimes attainable by, 355. 
 
 Wartensleben, Field Marshal, Grandfather of 
 Lieutenant Katte, 105. 
 
 W T edell, General, his Defeat at Zullichau, 479. 
 
 Weichau, a Silesian Town, 223. 
 
 Weisenthal, the Camp of the Crown Prince at, 
 160. 
 
 Wesel, the Fortress of, Prison of Frederick, 
 97. 
 
 W T ilhelmina : her Birth, 21 ; her Love for Fritz, 
 37; her Cousin proposes for her Hand, 52; 
 prematurely saluted as Princess of Wales, 
 81 ; describes a Ball, 95 ; abused by her Fa- 
 ther, 98 ; imprisoned, 100 ; her Captivity, 
 114,115; her deep Sorrows, 117; writes her 
 Mother, 118; meets the Prince ofBaireuth, 
 121; is betrothed, 122; her Marriage, 129 ; 
 her Annoyances, 130 ; her Wedding-dress, 
 131; the Wedding Ball, 132 ; gives her Opin- 
 ion of Sophie Dorothee, 133; takes leave of 
 her Father, 135 ; visits Berlin after Years, 
 147; questions Frederick, 148 ; her Interview 
 with Elizabeth Christina, 151 ; her Poverty, 
 154 ; her Interview with Frederick, 158, 161 ; 
 her Grief, 1 63 ; receives a Visit from her 
 Brother, 199 ; she visits Berlin, 211 ; she de- 
 scribes the Coronation of the Emperor of 
 Germany, 301 ; again visits Berlin, 385 ; her 
 Sickness and Death, 468. 
 
 William Augustus, Crown Prince, younger 
 Brother of Frederick the Great, 199 ; his 
 Marriage, 296. 
 
 Wilsdruf, Interview of Frederick the Great and 
 the Old Dessauer at, 370. 
 
 Wischau, Prussian troops at, 300. 
 
 Wolfenbuttel, Mansion of, 149. 
 
 Wusterhausen, the Palace of, described, 37. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zimmerman, a Carpenter in Zulich : his cruel 
 Death, 44. 
 
 Zimmerman, Dr., prescribes in vain for Freder- 
 ick the Great, 570, 571. 
 
 Zittau, the Prince of Prussia defeated at, 421. 
 
 Zorndorf, fierce Contests at, 457, 458, 463. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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