about, with Austrian lip that said nothing at all. [_A Compleat History
of Germany,_ by Mr. Savage (8vo, London, 1702), p. 553. Who this Mr.
Savage was, we have no trace. Prefixed to the volume is the Portrait
of a solid Gentleman of forty: gloomily polite, with ample wig and
cravat,--in all likelihood some studious subaltern Diplomatist in the
Succession War. His little Book is very lean and barren: but faithfully
compiled,--and might have some illumination in it, where utter darkness
is so prevalent. Most likely, Addison picked his story of the _Siege of
Weinsberg_ ("Women carrying out their Husbands on their back,"--one
of his best SPECTATORS) out of this poor Book.] His 24,000 excellent
fighting-men, thrown in at the right time, were often a thing that could
turn the balance in great questions. They required to be allowed for at
a high rate,--which he well knew how to adjust himself for exacting and
securing always.

WHAT BECAME OF POMMERN AT THE PEACE; FINAL GLANCE INTO CLEVE-JULICH.

When the Peace of Westphalia (1648) concluded that Thirty-Years
Conflagration, and swept the ashes of it into order again, Friedrich
Wilhelm's right to Pommern was admitted by everybody: and well insisted
on by himself: but right had to yield to reason of state, and he could
not get it. The Swedes insisted on their expenses: the Swedes held
Pommern, had all along held it,--in pawn, they said, for their expenses.
Nothing for it but to give the Swedes the better half of Pommern.
FORE-Pommern (so they call it, "Swedish Pomerania" thenceforth), which
lies next the Sea: this, with some Towns and cuttings over and above,
was Sweden's share: Friedrich Wilhelm had to put up with HINDER-Pommern,
docked furthermore of the Town of Stettin, and of other valuable
cuttings, in favor of Sweden. Much to Friedrich Wilhelm's grief and just
anger, could he have helped it.

They gave him Three secularized Bishoprics, Magdeburg, Halberstadt,
Minden, with other small remnants, for compensation; and he had to be
content with these for the present. But he never gave up the idea
of Pommern: much of the effort of his life was spent upon recovering
Fore-Pommern: thrice-eager upon that, whenever lawful opportunity
offered. To no purpose then: he never could recover Swedish Pommern;
only his late descendants, and that by slowish degrees, could recover it
all. Readers remember that Burgermeister of Stettin, with the helmet and
sword flung into the grave and picked out again:--and can judge whether
Brandenburg got its good luck quite by lying in bed!--

Once, and once only, he had a voluntary purpose towards War, and
it remained a purpose only. Soon after the Peace of Westphalia,
old Pfalz-Neuburg, the same who got the slap on the face, went into
tyrannous proceedings against the Protestant part of his subjects
in Julich-Cleve: who called to Friedrich Wilhelm for help. Friedrich
Wilhelm, a zealous Protestant, made remonstrances, retaliations: ere
long the thought struck him, "Suppose, backed by the Dutch, we threw out
this fantastic old gentleman, his Papistries, and pretended claims and
self, clear out of it?" This was Friedrich Wilhelm's thought; and he
suddenly marched troops into the Territory, with that view. But Europe
was in alarm, the Dutch grew faint: Friedrich Wilhelm saw it would not
do. He had a conference with old Pfalz-Neuburg: "Young gentleman,
we remember how your Grandfather made free with us and our august
countenance! Nevertheless we--" In fine, the "statistic of Treaties" was
increased by One: and there the matter rested till calmer times.

In 1666, as already said, an effective Partition of these litigated
Territories was accomplished: Prussia to have the Duchy of Cleve-Proper,
the Counties of Mark and Ravensburg, with other Patches and Pertinents:
Neuburg, what was the better share, to have Julich Duchy and Berg Duchy.
Furthermore, if either of the Lines failed, in no sort was a collateral
to be admitted: but Brandenburg was to inherit Neuburg, or Neuburg
Brandenburg, as the case might be. [Pauli, v. 120-129.] A clear Bargain
this at last: and in the times that had come, it proved executable so
far. But if the reader fancies the Lawsuit was at last out in this way,
he will be a simple reader! In the days of our little Fritz, the Line
of Pfalz-Neuburg was evidently ending: but that Brandenburg and not a
collateral should succeed it, there lay the quarrel,--open still, as if
it had never been shut: and we shall hear enough about it!--

THE GREAT KURFURST'S WARS: WHAT HE ACHIEVED IN WAR AND PEACE.

Friedrich Wilhelm's first actual appearance in War, Polish-Swedish War
(1655-1660), was involuntary in the highest degree: forced upon him for
the sake of his Preussen, which bade fair to be lost or ruined, without
blame of his or its. Nevertheless, here too he made his benefit of
the affair. The big King of Sweden had a standing quarrel with his big
Cousin of Poland, which broke out into hot War; little Preussen lay
between them, and was like to be crushed in the collision. Swedish King
was Karl Gustav, Christina's Cousin, Charles Twelfth's Grandfather; a
great and mighty man, lion of the North in his time: Polish King was
one John Casimir; chivalrous enough, and with clouds of forward Polish
chivalry about him, glittering with barbaric gold. Frederick III.,
Danish King for the time being, he also was much involved in the thing.
Fain would Friedrich Wilhelm have kept out of it, but he could not. Karl
Gustav as good as forced him to join: he joined; fought along with
Karl Gustav an illustrious Battle; "Battle of Warsaw," three days long
(28-30th July, 1656), on the skirts of Warsaw,--crowds "looking from the
upper windows" there; Polish chivalry, broken at last, going like chaff
upon the winds, and John Casimir nearly ruined.

Shortly after which, Friedrich Wilhelm, who had shone much in the
Battle, changed sides. An inconsistent, treacherous man? Perhaps not,
O reader; perhaps a man advancing "in circuits," the only way he has;
spirally, face now to east, now to west, with his own reasonable private
aim sun-clear to him all the while?

John Casimir agreed to give up the "Homage of Preussen" for this
service; a grand prize for Friedrich Wilhelm. [Treaty of Labiau, 10th
November, 1656 (Pauli, v. 73-75); 20th November (Stenzel, iv. 128,--who
always uses NEW STYLE).] What the Teutsch Ritters strove for in vain,
and lost their existence in striving for, the shifty Kurfurst has now
got: Ducal Prussia, which is also called East Prussia, is now a free
sovereignty,--and will become as "Royal" as the other Polish part. Or
perhaps even more so, in the course of time!--Karl Gustav, in a high
frame of mind, informs the Kurfurst, that he has him on his books, and
will pay the debt one day!

A dangerous debtor in such matters, this Karl Gustav. In these same
months, busy with the Danish part of the Controversy, he was doing a
feat of war, which set all Europe in astonishment. In January, 1658,
Karl Gustav marches his Army, horse, foot and artillery, to the extent
of twenty thousand, across the Baltic ice, and takes an Island without
shipping,--Island of Funen, across the Little Belt; three miles of ice;
and a part of the sea open, which has to be crossed on planks. Nay,
forward from Funen, when once there, he achieves ten whole miles more
of ice; and takes Zealand itself, [Holberg's _Danemarkische
Reichs-Historie,_ pp. 406-409.]--to the wonder of all mankind. An
imperious, stern-browed, swift-striking man; who had dreamed of a new
Goth Empire: The mean Hypocrites and Fribbles of the South to be coerced
again by noble Norse valor, and taught a new lesson. Has been known
to lay his hand on his sword while apprising an Ambassador (Dutch
High-Mightiness) what his royal intentions were: "Not the sale or
purchase of groceries, observe you, Sir! My aims go higher!"--Charles
Twelfth's Grandfather, and somewhat the same type of man.

But Karl Gustav died, short while after; [13th February, 1660, age 38.]
left his big wide-raging Northern Controversy to collapse in what way
it could. Sweden and the fighting-parties made their "Peace of Oliva"
(Abbey of Oliva, near Dantzig, 1st May, 1660); and this of Preussen was
ratified, in all form, among the other points. No homage more; nothing
now above Ducal Prussia but the Heavens; and great times coming for
it. This was one of the successfulest strokes of business ever done by
Friedrich Wilhelm; who had been forced, by sheer compulsion, to embark
in that big game.--"Royal Prussia," the Western or POLISH Prussia: this
too, as all Newspapers know, has, in our times, gone the same road as
the other. Which probably, after all, it may have had, in Nature, some
tendency to do? Cut away, for reasons, by the Polish sword, in that
Battle of Tannenberg, long since; and then, also for reasons, cut back
again! That is the fact;--not unexampled in human History.

Old Johann Casimir, not long after that Peace of Oliva, getting tired of
his unruly Polish chivalry and their ways, abdicated;--retired to Paris;
and "lived much with Ninon de l'Enclos and her circle," for the rest of
his life. He used to complain of his Polish chivalry, that there was no
solidity in them; nothing but outside glitter, with tumult and anarchic
noise; fatal want of one essential talent, the talent of Obeying; and
has been heard to prophesy that a glorious Republic, persisting in such
courses, would arrive at results which would surprise it.

Onward from this time, Friedrich Wilhelm figures in the world; public
men watching his procedure; Kings anxious to secure him,--Dutch
printsellers sticking up his Portraits for a hero-worshipping Public.
Fighting hero, had the Public known it, was not his essential character,
though he had to fight a great deal. He was essentially an Industrial
man; great in organizing, regulating, in constraining chaotic heaps
to become cosmic for him. He drains bogs, settles colonies in the
waste-places of his Dominions, cuts canals; unweariedly encourages trade
and work. The FRIEDRICH-WILHELM'S CANAL, which still carries tonnage
from the Oder to the Spree, [Executed, 1662-1668; fifteen English miles
long (Busching, ERDBESCHREIBUNG, vi, 2193).] is a monument of his zeal
in this way; creditable, with the means he had. To the poor French
Protestants, in the Edict-of-Nantes Affair, he was like an express
Benefit of Heaven: one Helper appointed, to whom the help itself was
profitable. He munificently welcomed them to Brandenburg; showed really
a noble piety and human pity, as well as judgment; nor did Brandenburg
and he want their reward. Some 20,000 nimble French souls, evidently of
the best French quality, found a home there;--made "waste sands about
Berlin into potherb gardens;" and in the spiritual Brandenburg, too,
did something of horticulture, which is still noticeable. [Erman (weak
Biographer of Queen Sophie-Charlotte, already cited), _Memoires pour
sevir a l'Histoire den Refugies Francais dans les Etats du Roi de
Prusse_ (Berlin, 1782-1794), 8 tt. 8vo.]

Certainly this Elector was one of the shiftiest of men. Not an unjust
man either. A pious, God-fearing man rather, stanch to his Protestantism
and his Bible; not unjust by any means,--nor, on the other hand, by any
means thick-skinned in his interpretings of justice: Fair-play to myself
always; or occasionally even the Height of Fair-play! On the whole, by
constant energy, vigilance, adroit activity, by an ever-ready insight
and audacity to seize the passing fact by its right handle, he fought
his way well in the world; left Brandenburg a flourishing and greatly
increased Country, and his own name famous enough.

A thick-set stalwart figure; with brisk eyes, and high strong
irregularly Roman nose. Good bronze Statue of him, by Schluter, once a
famed man, still rides on the LANGE-BRUCKE (Long-Bridge) at Berlin; and
his Portrait, in huge frizzled Louis-Quatorze wig, is frequently met
with in German Galleries. Collectors of Dutch Prints, too, know him:
here a gallant, eagle-featured little gentleman, brisk in the smiles of
youth, with plumes, with truncheon, caprioling on his war-charger, view
of tents in the distance;--there a sedate, ponderous, wrinkly old man,
eyes slightly puckered (eyes BUSIER than mouth); a face well-ploughed
by Time, and not found unfruitful; one of the largest, most laborious,
potent faces (in an ocean of circumambient periwig) to be met with
in that Century. [Both Prints are Dutch; the Younger, my copy of the
Younger, has lost the Engraver's Name (Kurfurst's age is twenty-seven);
the Elder is by MASSON, 1633, when Friedrich Wilhelm was sixty-three.]
There are many Histories about him, too; but they are not comfortable to
read. [G. D. Geyler, _Leben und Thaten Friedrich Wihelms des Grossen_
(Frankfort and Leipzig, 1703), folio. Franz Horn, _Das Leben Friedrich
Wilhelms des Grossen_ (Berlin, 1814). Pauli, _Staats-Geschichte,_ Band
v. (Halle, 1764). Pufendorf, _De rebus gestis Friderici Wilhelmi Magni
Electoris Brandenburgensis Commentaria_ (Lips. et Berol. 1733, fol.)] He
also has wanted a sacred Poet; and found only a bewildering Dryasdust.

His Two grand Feats that dwell in the Prussian memory are perhaps none
of his greatest, but were of a kind to strike the imagination. They both
relate to what was the central problem of his life,--the recovery
of Pommern from the Swedes. Exploit First is the famed "Battle
of FEHRBELLIN (Ferry of BellEEN)," fought on the 18th June, 1675.
Fehrbellin is an inconsiderable Town still standing in those peaty
regions, some five-and-thirty miles northwest of Berlin; and had for
ages plied its poor Ferry over the oily-looking, brown, sluggish stream
called Rhin, or Rhein in those parts, without the least notice from
mankind, till this fell out. It is a place of pilgrimage to patriotic
Prussians, ever since Friedrich Wilhelm's exploit there. The matter went
thus:--

Friedrich Wilhelm was fighting, far south in Alsace, on Kaiser Leopold's
side, in the Louis-Fourteenth War; that second one, which ended in the
treaty of Nimwegen. Doing his best there,--when the Swedes, egged on
by Louis XIV., made war upon him; crossed the Pomeranian marches, troop
after troop, and invaded his Brandenburg Territory with a force which
at length amounted to some 16,000 men. No help for the moment: Friedrich
Wilhelm could not be spared from his post. The Swedes, who had at first
professed well, gradually went into plunder, roving, harrying, at their
own will; and a melancholy time they made of it for Friedrich Wilhelm
and his People. Lucky if temporary harm were all the ill they were
likely to do; lucky if--! He stood steady, however; in his solid manner,
finishing the thing in hand first, since that was feasible. He then even
retired into winter-quarters, to rest his men; and seemed to have left
the Swedish 16,000 autocrats of the situation; who accordingly went
storming about at a great rate.

Not so, however; very far indeed from so. Having rested his men for
certain months, Friedrich Wilhelm silently in the first days of June
(1675) gets them under march again; marches, his Cavalry and he as first
instalment, with best speed from Schweinfurt, [Stenzel, ii. 347.] which
is on the river Main, to Magdeburg; a distance of two hundred miles. At
Magdeburg, where he rests three days, waiting for the first handful of
foot and a field-piece or two, he learns that the Swedes are in three
parties wide asunder; the middle party of them within forty miles of
him. Probably stronger, even this middle one, than his small body (of
"six thousand Horse, twelve hundred Foot and three guns");--stronger,
but capable perhaps of being surprised, of being cut in pieces, before
the others can come up? Rathenau is the nearest skirt of this middle
party: thither goes the Kurfurst, softly, swiftly, in the June night
(16-17th June, 1675); gets into Rathenau, by brisk stratagem; tumbles
out the Swedish Horse-regiment there, drives it back towards Fehrbellin.

He himself follows hard;--swift riding enough, in the summer night,
through those damp Havel lands, in the old Hohenzollern fashion: and
indeed old Freisack Castle, as it chances,--Freisack, scene of Dietrich
von Quitzow and LAZY PEG long since,--is close by! Follows hard, we
say: strikes in upon this midmost party (nearly twice his number, but
Infantry for the most part); and after fierce fight, done with good
talent on both sides, cuts it into utter ruin, as proposed. Thereby
he has left the Swedish Army as a mere head and tail WITHOUT body; has
entirely demolished the Swedish Army. [Stenzel, ii. 350-357.] Same feat
intrinsically as that done by Cromwell, on Hamilton and the Scots, in
1648. It was, so to speak, the last visit Sweden paid to Brandenburg, or
the last of any consequence; and ended the domination of the Swedes
in those quarters. A thing justly to be forever remembered by
Brandenburg;--on a smallish modern scale, the Bannockburn, Sempach,
Marathon, of Brandenburg. [See Pauli, v. 161-169; Stenzel, ii. 335,
340-347, 354; Kausler, _Atlas des plus memorables Batailles, Combats
et Sieges,_ or _Atlas der merkwurdigsten Schlachten, Treffen und
Belagerungen_ (German and French, Carlsruhe and Freiburg, 1831), p. 417,
Blatt 62.]

Exploit Second was four years later; in some sort a corollary to
this; and a winding-up of the Swedish business. The Swedes, in farther
prosecution of their Louis-Fourteenth speculation, had invaded Preussen
this time, and were doing sad havoc there. It was in the dead of winter,
Christmas, 1678, more than four hundred miles off; and the Swedes, to
say nothing of their other havoc, were in a case to take Konigsberg, and
ruin Prussia altogether, if not prevented. Friedrich Wilhelm starts
from Berlin, with the opening Year, on his long march; the Horse-troops
first, Foot to follow at their swiftest; he himself (his Wife, his
ever-true "Louisa," accompanying, as her wont was) travels, towards the
end, at the rate of "sixty miles a day." He gets in still in time, finds
Konigsberg unscathed. Nay it is even said, the Swedes are extensively
falling sick; having, after a long famine, found infinite "pigs, near
Insterburg," in those remote regions, and indulged in the fresh pork
overmuch.

I will not describe the subsequent manoeuvres, which would interest
nobody: enough if I say that on the 16th of January, 1679, it had become
of the highest moment for Friedrich Wilhelm to get from Carwe (Village
near Elbing) on the shore of the FRISCHE HAF, where he was, through
Konigsberg, to Gilge on the CURISCHE HAF, where the Swedes are,--in a
minimum of time. Distance, as the crow flies, is about a hundred
miles; road, which skirts the two HAFS [Pauli, v. 215-222; Stenzel, ii.
392-397.] (wide shallow WASHES, as we should name them), is of rough
quality, and naturally circuitous. It is ringing frost to-day, and for
days back:--Friedrich Wilhelm hastily gathers all the sledges, all
the horses of the district; mounts some four thousand men in sledges;
starts, with the speed of light, in that fashion. Scours along all
day, and after the intervening bit of land, again along; awakening
the ice-bound silences. Gloomy Frische Haf, wrapt in its Winter
cloud-coverlids, with its wastes of tumbled sand, its poor frost-bound
fishing-hamlets, pine-hillocks,--desolate-looking, stern as Greenland or
more so, says Busching, who travelled there in winter-time, [Busching's
_Beitrage_ (Halle, 1789), vi. 160.]--hears unexpected human noises,
and huge grinding and trampling; the four thousand, in long fleet
of sledges, scouring across it, in that manner. All day they rush
along,--out of the rimy hazes of morning into the olive-colored clouds
of evening again,--with huge loud-grinding rumble;--and do arrive in
time at Gilge. A notable streak of things, shooting across those frozen
solitudes, in the New-Year, 1679;--little short of Karl Gustav's feat,
which we heard of, in the other or Danish end of the Baltic, twenty
years ago, when he took Islands without ships.

This Second Exploit--suggested or not by that prior one of Karl Gustav
on the ice--is still a thing to be remembered by Hohenzollerns and
Prussians. The Swedes were beaten here, on Friedrich Wilhelm's rapid
arrival; were driven into disastrous rapid retreat Northward; which they
executed, in hunger and cold; fighting continually, like Northern bears,
under the grim sky; Friedrich Wilhelm sticking to their skirts,--holding
by their tail, like an angry bear-ward with steel whip in his hand. A
thing which, on the small scale, reminds one of Napoleon's experiences.
Not till Napoleon's huge fighting-flight, a hundred and thirty-four
years after, did I read of such a transaction in those parts. The
Swedish invasion of Preussen has gone utterly to ruin.

And this, then, is the end of Sweden, and its bad neighborhood on these
shores, where it has tyrannously sat on our skirts so long? Swedish
Pommern the Elector already had: last year, coming towards it ever since
the Exploit of Fehrbellin, he had invaded Swedish Pommern; had
besieged and taken Stettin, nay Stralsund too, where Wallenstein had
failed;--cleared Pommern altogether of its Swedish guests. Who had tried
next in Preussen, with what luck we see. Of Swedish Pommern the Elector
might now say: "Surely it is mine; again mine, as it long was; well won
a second time, since the first would not do!" But no:--Louis XIV. proved
a gentleman to his Swedes. Louis, now that the Peace of Nimwegen had
come, and only the Elector of Brandenburg was still in harness, said
steadily, though anxious enough to keep well with the Elector: "They are
my allies, these Swedes; it was on my bidding they invaded you: can I
leave them in such a pass? It must not be!" So Pommern had to be given
back. A miss which was infinitely grievous to Friedrich Wilhelm. The
most victorious Elector cannot hit always, were his right never so good.

Another miss which he had to put up with, in spite of his rights,
and his good services, was that of the Silesian Duchies. The
Heritage-Fraternity with Liegnitz had at length, in 1675, come to fruit.
The last Duke of Liegnitz was dead: Duchies of Liegnitz, of Brieg,
Wohlau, are Brandenburg's, if there were right done! But Kaiser
Leopold in the scarlet stockings will not hear of Heritage-Fraternity.
"Nonsense!" answers Kaiser Leopold: "A thing suppressed at once, ages
ago; by Imperial power: flat ZERO of a thing at this time;--and you, I
again bid you, return me your Papers upon it!" This latter act of duty
Friedrich Wilhelm would not do; but continued insisting. [Pauli,
v. 321.] "Jagerndorf at least, O Kaiser of the world," said he;
"Jagerndorf, there is no color for your keeping that!" To which the
Kaiser again answers, "Nonsense!"--and even falls upon astonishing
schemes about it, as we shall see;--but gives nothing. Ducal Preussen
is sovereign, Cleve is at Peace, Hinter-Pommern ours;--this Elector has
conquered much: but the Silesian Heritages and Vor-Pommern, and some
other things, he will have to do without. Louis XIV., it is thought,
once offered to get him made King; [Ib. vii. 215.] but that he declined
for the present.

His married and domestic life is very fine and human; especially with
that Oranien-Nassau Princess, who was his first Wife (1646-1667);
Princess Louisa of Nassau-Orange; Aunt to our own Dutch William, King
William III., in time coming. An excellent wise Princess; from whom
came the Orange Heritages, which afterwards proved difficult to
settle:--Orange was at last exchanged for the small Principality of
Neufchatel in Switzerland, which is Prussia's ever since. "Oranienburg
(ORANGE-BURG)," a Royal Country-house, still standing, some twenty miles
northwards from Berlin, was this Louisa's place: she had trimmed it
up into a little jewel, of the Dutch type,--potherb gardens,
training-schools for young girls, and the like;--a favorite abode of
hers, when she was at liberty for recreation. But her life was busy and
earnest: she was helpmate, not in name only, to an ever-busy man. They
were married young; a marriage of love withal. Young Friedrich Wilhelm's
courtship, wedding in Holland; the honest trustful walk and conversation
of the two Sovereign Spouses, their journeyings together, their mutual
hopes, fears and manifold vicissitudes; till Death, with stern beauty,
shut it in:--all is human, true and wholesome in it; interesting to look
upon, and rare among sovereign persons.

Not but that he had his troubles with his womankind. Even with this his
first Wife, whom he loved truly, and who truly loved him, there were
scenes; the Lady having a judgment of her own about everything that
passed, and the Man being choleric withal. Sometimes, I have heard, "he
would dash his hat at her feet," saying symbolically, "Govern you, then,
Madam! Not the Kurfurst-Hat; a Coif is my wear, it seems!" [Forster,
_Friedrich Wilhelm I. Konig von Preussen_ (Potsdam, 1834), i. 177.] Yet
her judgment was good; and he liked to have it on the weightiest things,
though her powers of silence might halt now and then. He has been known,
on occasion, to run from his Privy-Council to her apartment, while a
complex matter was debating, to ask her opinion, hers too, before it was
decided. Excellent Louisa; Princess full of beautiful piety, good-sense
and affection; a touch of the Nassau-Heroic in her. At the moment of her
death, it is said, when speech had fled, he felt, from her hand which
lay in his, three slight, slight pressures: "Farewell!" thrice mutely
spoken in that manner,--not easy to forget in this world. [Wegfuhrer,
_Leben der Kurfurstin Luise_ (Leipzig, 1838), p. 175.]

His second Wife, Dorothea,--who planted the Lindens in Berlin, and did
other husbandries, of whom we have heard, fell far short of Louisa
in many things; but not in tendency to advise, to remonstrate, and
plaintively reflect on the finished and unalterable. Dreadfully thrifty
lady, moreover; did much in dairy produce, farming of town-rates,
provision-taxes: not to speak again of that Tavern she was thought to
have in Berlin, and to draw custom to in an oblique manner! What scenes
she had with Friedrich her stepson, we have seen. "Ah, I have not my
Louisa now; to whom now shall I run for advice or help!" would the poor
Kurfurst at times exclaim.

He had some trouble, considerable trouble now and then, with mutinous
spirits in Preussen; men standing on antique Prussian franchises
and parchments; refusing to see that the same were now antiquated,
incompatible, not to say impossible, as the new Sovereign alleged; and
carrying themselves very stiffly at times. But the Hohenzollerns had
been used to such things; a Hohenzollern like this one would evidently
take his measures, soft but strong, and ever stronger to the needful
pitch, with mutinous spirits. One Burgermeister of Konigsberg, after
much stroking on the back, was at length seized in open Hall, by
Electoral writ,--soldiers having first gently barricaded the principal
streets, and brought cannon to bear upon them. This Burgermeister,
seized in such brief way, lay prisoner for life; refusing to ask his
liberty, though it was thought he might have had it on asking. [Horn,
_Das Leben Friedrich Wilhelms des Grossen_ (Berlin, 1814), p. 68.]

Another gentleman, a Baron von Kalkstein, of old Teutsch-Bitter kin, of
very high ways, in the Provincial Estates (STANDE) and elsewhere, got
into lofty almost solitary opposition, and at length into mutiny proper,
against the new "Non-Polish SOVEREIGN," and flatly refused to do homage
at his accession in that new capacity. [Supra, pp. 383, et seqq.]
Refused, Kalkstein did, for his share; fled to Warsaw; and very
fiercely, in a loud manner, carried on his mutinies in the Diets and
Court-Conclaves there; his plea being, or plea for the time, "Poland is
our liege lord [which it was not always], and we cannot be transferred
to you, except by our consent asked and given," which too had been a
little neglected on the former occasion of transfer. So that the Great
Elector knew not what to do with Kalkstein; and at length (as the case
was pressing) had him kidnapped by his Ambassador at Warsaw; had him
"rolled into a carpet" there, and carried swiftly in the Ambassador's
coach, in the form of luggage, over the frontier, into his native
Province, there to be judged, and, in the end (since nothing else would
serve him), to have the sentence executed, and his head cut off. For the
case was pressing! [Horn, pp. 80-82.]--These things, especially this of
Kalkstein, with a boisterous Polish Diet and parliamentary eloquence in
the rear of him, gave rise to criticism; and required management on the
part of the Great Elector.

Of all his Ancestors, our little Fritz, when he grew big, admired this
one. A man made like himself in many points. He seems really to have
loved and honored this one. In the year 1750 there had been a new
Cathedral got finished at Berlin; the ancestral bones had to be shifted
over from the vaults of the old one,--the burying-place ever since
Joachim II., that Joachim who drew his sword on Alba. "King Friedrich,
with some attendants, witnessed the operation, January, 1750. When the
Great Kurfurst's coffin came, he made them open it; gazed in silence on
the features for some time, which were perfectly recognizable; laid his
hand on the hand long dead, and said, _'Messieurs, celui-ci a fait de
grandes choses_ (This one did a great work)!'" [See Preuss, i. 270.]

He died 29th April, 1688;--looking with intense interest upon Dutch
William's preparations to produce a Glorious Revolution in this Island;
being always of an ardent Protestant feeling, and a sincerely religious
man. Friedrich, Crown-Prince, age then thirty-one, and already married
a second time, was of course left Chief Heir;--who, as we see, has not
declined the Kingship, when a chance for it offered. There were four
Half-brothers of Friedrich, too, who got apanages, appointments. They
had at one time confidently looked for much more, their Mother being
busy; but were obliged to be content, and conform to the GERA BOND and
fundamental Laws of the Country. They are entitled Margraves; two of
whom left children, Margraves of Brandenburg-Schwedt, HEERMEISTERS (Head
of the Malta-Knighthood) at Sonnenburg, Statthalters in Magdeburg, or
I know not what; whose names turn up confusedly in the Prussian Books;
and, except as temporary genealogical puzzles, are not of much moment to
the Foreign reader. Happily there is nothing else in the way of Princes
of the Blood, in our little Friedrich's time; and happily what concern
he had with these, or how he was related to them, will not be abstruse
to us, if occasion rise.

Chapter XIX. -- KING FRIEDRICH I. AGAIN.

We said the Great Elector never could work his Silesian Duchies out of
Kaiser Leopold's grip: to all his urgencies the little Kaiser in red
stockings answered only in evasions, refusals; and would quit nothing.
We noticed also what quarrels the young Electoral Prince, Friedrich,
afterwards King, had got into with his Stepmother; suddenly feeling
poisoned after dinner, running to his Aunt at Cassel, coming back on
treaty, and the like. These are two facts which the reader knows: and
out of these two grew a third, which it is fit he should know.

In his last years, the Great Elector, worn out with labor, and harassed
with such domestic troubles over and above, had evidently fallen much
under his Wife's management; cutting out large apanages (clear against
the GERA BOND) for her children;--longing probably for quiet in his
family at any price. As to the poor young Prince, negotiated back from
Cassel, he lived remote, and had fallen into open disfavor,--with a very
ill effect upon his funds, for one thing. His father kept him somewhat
tight on the money-side, it is alleged; and he had rather a turn for
spending money handsomely. He was also in some alarm about the proposed
apanages to his Half-brothers, the Margraves above mentioned, of which
there were rumors going.

HOW AUSTRIA SETTLED THE SILESIAN CLAIMS.

Now in these circumstances the Austrian Court, who at this time (1685)
greatly needed the Elector's help against Turks and others, and found
him very urgent about these Silesian Duchies of his, fell upon what I
must call a very extraordinary shift for getting rid of the Silesian
question. "Serene Highness," said they, by their Ambassador at Berlin,
"to end these troublesome talks, and to liquidate all claims, admissible
and inadmissible, about Silesia, the Imperial Majesty will give you an
actual bit of Territory, valuable, though not so large as you expected!"
The Elector listens with both ears: What Territory, then? The "Circle of
Schwiebus," hanging on the northwestern edge of Silesia, contiguous to
the Elector's own Dominions in these Frankfurt-on-Oder regions: this the
generous Imperial Majesty proposes to give in fee-simple to Friedrich
Wilhelm, and so to end the matter. Truly a most small patch of Territory
in comparison; not bigger than an English Rutlandshire, to say nothing
of soil and climate! But then again it was an actual patch of territory;
not a mere parchment shadow of one: this last was a tempting point to
the old harassed Elector. Such friendly offer they made him, I think, in
1685, at the time they were getting 8,000 of his troops to march against
the Turks for them; a very needful service at the moment. "By the bye,
do not march through Silesia, you!--Or march faster!" said the cautious
Austrians on this occasion: "Other roads will answer better than
Silesia!" said they. [Pauli, v. 327, 332.] Baron Freytag, their
Ambassador at Berlin, had negotiated the affair so far: "Circle of
Schwiebus," said Freytag, "and let us have done with these thorny
talks!"

But Baron Freytag had been busy, in the mean while, with the young
Prince; secretly offering Sympathy, counsel, help; of all which the poor
Prince stood in need enough. "We will help you in that dangerous matter
of the Apanages," said Freytag; "Help you in all things,"--I suppose he
would say,--"necessary pocket-money is not a thing your Highness need
want!" And thus Baron Freytag, what is very curious, had managed to
bargain beforehand with the young Prince, That directly on coming to
power, he would give up Schwiebus again, SHOULD the offer of Schwiebus
be accepted by Papa. To which effect Baron Freytag held a signed Bond,
duly executed by the young man, before Papa had concluded at all. Which
is very curious indeed!--

Poor old Papa, worn out with troubles, accepted Schwiebus in liquidation
of all claims (8th April, 1686), and a few days after set his men on
march against the Turks:--and, exactly two months beforehand, on the
8th of February last, the Prince had signed HIS secret engagement, That
Schwiebus should be a mere phantasm to Papa; that he, the Prince, would
restore it on his accession. Both these singular Parchments, signed,
sealed and done in the due legal form, lay simultaneously in Freytag's
hand; and probably enough they exist yet, in some dusty corner, among
the solemn sheepskins of the world. This is literally the plan hit upon
by an Imperial Court, to assist a young Prince in his pecuniary and
other difficulties, and get rid of Silesian claims. Plan actually
not unlike that of swindling money-lenders to a young gentleman in
difficulties, and of manageable turn, who has got into their hands.

The Great Elector died two years after; Schwiebus then in his hand. The
new Elector, once instructed as to the nature of the affair, refused to
give up Schwiebus; [19th September, 1689 Pauli, vii. 74.] declared
the transaction a swindle:--and in fact, for seven years more, retained
possession of Schwiebus. But the Austrian Court insisted, with emphasis,
at length with threats (no insuperable pressure from Louis, or the
Turks, at this time); the poor cheated Elector had, at last, to give up
Schwiebus, in terms of his promise. [31st December, 1694.] He took act
that it had been a surreptitious transaction, palmed upon him while
ignorant, and while without the least authority or power to make such a
promise; that he was not bound by it, nor would be, except on compulsion
thus far: and as to binding Brandenburg by it, how could he, at that
period of his history, bind Brandenburg? Brandenburg was not then his to
bind, any more than China was.

His Raths had advised Friedrich against giving up Schwiebus in that
manner. But his answer is on record: "I must, I will and shall keep my
own word. But my rights on Silesia, which I could not, and do not in
these unjust circumstances, compromise, I leave intact for my posterity
to prosecute. If God and the course of events order it no otherwise than
now, we must be content. But if God shall one day send the opportunity,
those that come after me will know what they have to do in such case."
[Pauli, vii. 150.] And so Schwiebus was given up, the Austrians paying
back what Brandenburg had laid out in improving it, "250,000 GULDEN
(25,000 pounds);"--and the Hand of Power had in this way, finally as it
hoped, settled an old troublesome account of Brandenburg's. Settled
the Silesian-Duchies Claim, by the temporary Phantasm of a Gift of
Schwiebus. That is literally the Liegnitz-Jagerndorf case; and the
reader is to note it and remember it. For it will turn up again in
History. The Hand of Power is very strong: but a stronger may perhaps
get hold of its knuckles one day, at an advantageous time, and do a feat
upon it.

The "eventual succession to East Friesland," which had been promised by
the Reich, some ten years ago, to the Great Elector, "for what he had
done against the Turks, and what he had suffered from those Swedish
Invasions, in the Common Cause:" this shadow of Succession, the Kaiser
now said, should not be haggled with any more; but be actually realized,
and the Imperial sanction to it now given,--effect to follow IF the
Friesland Line died out. Let this be some consolation for the loss of
Schwiebus and your Silesian Duchies. Here in Friesland is the ghost of
a coming possession; there in Schwiebus was the ghost of a going one:
phantasms you shall not want for; but the Hand of Power parts not with
its realities, however come by.

HIS REAL CHARACTER.

Poor Friedrich led a conspicuous life as Elector and King; but no
public feat he did now concerns us like this private one of Schwiebus.
Historically important, this, and requiring to be remembered, while
so much else demands mere oblivion from us. He was a spirited man;
did soldierings, fine Siege of Bonn (July-October, 1689), sieges
and campaignings, in person,--valiant in action, royal especially
in patience there,--during that Third War of Louis-Fourteenth's,
the Treaty-of-Ryswick one. All through the Fourth, or Spanish
Succession-War, his Prussian Ten-Thousand, led by fit generals, showed
eminently what stuff they were made of. Witness Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau
(still a YOUNG Dessauer) on the field of Blenheim;--Leopold had the
right wing there, and saved Prince Eugene who was otherwise blown to
pieces, while Marlborough stormed and conquered on the left. Witness the
same Dessauer on the field of Hochstadt the year before, [Varnhagen von
Ense, _Biographische Denkmale_ (Berlin, 1845), ii, 155.] how he managed
the retreat there. Or see him at the Bridge of Cassano (1705); in
the Lines of Turin (1706); [_ Des weltheruhnden Furstens Leopoldi
von Anhult-Dessau Leben und Thaten_ (Leipzig, 1742, anonymous, by one
MICHAEL RANFFT), pp. 53, 61.] wherever hot service was on hand. At
Malplaquet, in those murderous inexpugnable French Lines, bloodiest of
obstinate Fights (upwards of thirty thousand left on the ground), the
Prussians brag that it was they who picked their way through a certain
peat-bog, reckoned impassable; and got fairly in upon the French
wing,--to the huge comfort of Marlborough, and little Eugene his brisk
comrade on that occasion. Marlborough knew well the worth of these
Prussian troops, and also how to stroke his Majesty into continuing them
in the field.

He was an expensive King, surrounded by cabals, by Wartenbergs male and
female, by whirlpools of intrigues, which, now that the game is over,
become very forgettable. But one finds he was a strictly honorable man;
with a certain height and generosity of mind, capable of other nobleness
than the upholstery kind. He had what we may call a hard life of it;
did and suffered a good deal in his day and generation, not at all in
a dishonest or unmanful manner. In fact, he is quite recognizably a
Hohenzollern,--with his back half broken. Readers recollect that sad
accident: how the Nurse, in one of those headlong journeys which his
Father and Mother were always making, let the poor child fall or jerk
backward; and spoiled him much, and indeed was thought to have killed
him, by that piece of inattention. He was not yet Hereditary Prince, he
was only second son: but the elder died; and he became Elector, King;
and had to go with his spine distorted,--distortion not glaringly
conspicuous, though undeniable;--and to act the Hohenzollern SO. Nay
who knows but it was this very jerk, and the half-ruin of his nervous
system,--this doubled wish to be beautiful, and this crooked back
capable of being hid or decorated into straightness,--that first set
the poor man on thinking of expensive ornamentalities, and Kingships in
particular? History will forgive the Nurse in that case.

Perhaps History has dwelt too much on the blind side of this expensive
King. Toland, on entering his country, was struck rather with the
signs of good administration everywhere. No sooner have you crossed the
Prussian Border, out of Westphalia, says Toland, than smooth highways,
well-tilled fields, and a general air of industry and regularity, are
evident: solid milestones, brass-bound, and with brass inscription, tell
the traveller where he is; who finds due guidance of finger-posts, too,
and the blessing of habitable inns. The people seem all to be busy,
diligently occupied; villages reasonably swept and whitewashed;--never
was a better set of Parish Churches; whether new-built or old, they are
all in brand-new repair. The contrast with Westphalia is immediate
and great; but indeed that was a sad country, to anybody but a patient
Toland, who knows the causes of phenomena. No inns there, except of the
naturally savage sort. "A man is very happy if he finds clean straw
to sleep on, without expecting sheets or coverings; let him readily
dispense with plates, forks and napkins, if he can get anything to
eat.... He must be content to have the cows, swine and poultry for his
fellow-lodgers, and to go in at the same passage that the smoke comes
out at, for there's no other vent for it but the door; which makes
foreigners commonly say that the people of Westphalia enter their houses
by the chimney." And observe withal: "This is the reason why their beef
and hams are so finely prepared and ripened; for the fireplace being
backwards, the smoke must spread over all the house before it gets to
the door; which makes everything within of a russet or sable color, not
excepting the hands and faces of the meaner sort." [_An Account of the
Courts of Prussia and Hanover,_ by Mr. Toland (cited already), p. 4.]
If Prussia yield to Westphalia in ham, in all else she is strikingly
superior.

He founded Universities, this poor King; University of Halle; Royal
Academy of Berlin, Leibnitz presiding: he fought for Protestantism;--did
what he could for the cause of Cosmos VERSUS Chaos, after his fashion.
The magnificences of his Charlottenburgs, Oranienburgs and numerous
Country-houses make Toland almost poetic. An affable kindly man withal,
though quick of temper; his word sacred to him. A man of many troubles,
and acquainted with "the infinitely little (L'INFINIMENT PETIT)," as his
Queen termed it.

Chapter XX. -- DEATH OF KING FRIEDRICH I.

Old King Friedrich I. had not much more to do in the world, after
witnessing the christening of his Grandson of like name. His leading
forth or sending forth of troops, his multiplex negotiations, solemn
ceremonials, sad changes of ministry, sometimes transacted "with tears,"
are mostly ended; the ever-whirling dust-vortex of intrigues, of which
he has been the centre for a five-and-twenty years, is settling down
finally towards everlasting rest. No more will Marlborough come and
dexterously talk him over,--proud to "serve as cupbearer," on occasion,
to so high a King--for new bodies of men to help in the next
campaign: we have ceased to be a King worthy of such a cupbearer, and
Marlborough's campaigns too are all ended.

Much is ended. They are doing the sorrowful Treaty of Utrecht; Louis
XIV. himself is ending; mournfully shrunk into the corner, with his
Missal and his Maintenon; looking back with just horror on Europe four
times set ablaze for the sake of one poor mortal in big periwig, to
no purpose. Lucky if perhaps Missal-work, orthodox litanies, and even
Protestant Dragonnades, can have virtue to wipe out such a score against
a man! Unhappy Louis: the sun-bright gold has become dim as copper; we
rose in storms, and we are setting in watery clouds. The Kaiser himself
(Karl VI., Leopold's Son, Joseph I.'s younger Brother) will have to
conform to this Treaty of Utrecht: what other possibility for him?

The English, always a wonderful Nation, fought and subsidied from side
to side of Europe for this Spanish-Succession business; fought ten
years, such fighting as they never did before or since, under "John Duke
of Marlborough," who, as is well known, "beat the French thorough and
thorough." French entirely beaten at last, not without heroic difficulty
and as noble talent as was ever shown in diplomacy and war, are ready
to do your will in all things; in this of giving up Spain, among
others:--whereupon the English turn round, with a sudden new thought,
"No, we will not have our WILL done; it shall be the other way, the way
it WAS,--now that we bethink ourselves, after all this fighting for our
will!" And make Peace on those terms, as if no war had been; and accuse
the great Marlborough of many things, of theft for one. A wonderful
People; and in their Continental Politics (which indeed consist chiefly
of Subsidies) thrice wonderful. So the Treaty of Utrecht is transacting
itself; which that of Rastadt, on the part of Kaiser and Empire,
unable to get on without Subsidies, will have to follow: and after
such quantities of powder burnt, and courageous lives wasted, general
AS-YOU-WERE is the result arrived at.

Old Friedrich's Ambassadors are present at Utrecht, jangling and
pleading among the rest; at Berlin too the despatch of business goes
lumbering on; but what thing, in the shape of business, at Utrecht or at
Berlin, is of much importance to the old man? Seems as if Europe itself
were waxing dim, and sinking to stupid sleep,--as we, in our poor royal
person, full surely are. A Crown has been achieved, and diamond buttons
worth 1,500 pounds apiece; but what is a Crown, and what are buttons,
after all?--I suppose the tattle and SINGERIES of little Wilhelmina,
whom he would spend whole days with; this and occasional visits to a
young Fritzchen's cradle, who is thriving moderately, and will speak
and do aperies one day,--are his main solacements in the days that are
passing. Much of this Friedrich's life has gone off like the smoke of
fire-works, has faded sorrowfully, and proved phantasmal. Here is an old
Autograph Note, written by him at the side of that Cradle, and
touching on a slight event there; which, as it connects two venerable
Correspondents and their Seventeenth Century with a grand Phenomenon of
the Eighteenth, we will insert here. The old King addresses his older
Mother-in-law, famed Electress Sophie of Hanover, in these terms
(spelling corrected):--

"CHARLOTTENBURG, den 30 August, 1712.

  "Ew. Churf. Durchlaucht werden sich zweifelsohne mit uns
erfreuen, dass der kleine Printz (PRINZ) Fritz nuhnmero (NUNMEHR) 6
Zehne (ZAHNE) hat und ohne die geringste incommoditet (-TAT). Daraus
kann man auch die PREDESTINATION sehen, dass alle seine Bruder haben
daran sterben mussen, dieser aber bekommt sie ohne Muhe wie seine
Schwester. Gott erhalte ihn uns noch lange zum trohst (TROST), in dessen
Schutz ich dieselbe ergebe und lebenslang verbleibe,

  "Ew. Churf. Durchl. gehorsamster Diener und treuer Sohn,

"FRIEDRICH R."

[Preuss, _Friedrich der Grosse (Historische Skizze,_ Berlin, 1838), p.
380.]

Of which this is the literal English:--"Your Electoral Serenity will
doubtless rejoice with us that the little Prince Fritz has now got his
sixth tooth without the least INCOMMODITE. And therein we may trace
a pre-destination, inasmuch as his Brothers died of teething [_Not of
cannon-sound and weight of head-gear, then, your Majesty thinks? That
were a painful thought?_]; and this one, as his Sister [WILHELMINA]
did, gets them [THE TEETH] without trouble. God preserve him long for a
comfort to us:--to whose protection I commit DIESELBE [_Your Electoral
Highness, in the third person_], and remain lifelong,

  "Your Electoral Highness's most obedient Servant and true Son,

"FRIEDRICH REX."

One of Friedrich Rex's worst adventures was his latest; commenced some
five or six years ago (1708), and now not far from terminating. He was a
Widower, of weakly constitution, towards fifty: his beautiful ingenious
"Serena," with all her Theologies, pinch-of-snuff Coronations and other
earthly troubles, was dead; and the task of continuing the Hohenzollern
progeny, given over to Friedrich Wilhelm the Prince Royal, was thought
to be in good hands. Majesty Friedrich with the weak back had retired,
in 1708, to Karlsbad, to rest from his cares; to take the salutary
waters, and recruit his weak nerves a little. Here, in the course of
confidential promenadings, it was hinted, it was represented to him
by some pickthank of a courtier, That the task of continuing the
Hohenzollern progeny did not seem to prosper in the present good hands;
that Sophie Dorothee, Princess Royal, had already borne two royal
infants which had speedily died: that in fact it was to be gathered
from the medical men, if not from their words, then from their looks and
cautious innuendoes, that Sophie Dorothee, Princess Royal, would
never produce a Prince or even Princess that would live; which task,
therefore, did now again seem to devolve upon his Majesty, if his
Majesty had not insuperable objections? Majesty had no insuperable
objections; old Majesty listened to the flattering tale; and, sure
enough, he smarted for it in a signal manner.

By due industry, a Princess was fixed upon for Bride, Princess Sophie
Louisa of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, age now twenty-four: she was got as
Wife, and came home to Berlin in all pomp;--but good came not with her
to anybody there. Not only did she bring the poor old man no children,
which was a fault to be overlooked, considering Sophie Dorothee's
success; but she brought a querulous, weak and self-sufficient female
humor; found his religion heterodox,--he being Calvinist, and perhaps
even lax-Calvinist, she Lutheran as the Prussian Nation is, and strict
to the bone:--heterodox wholly, to the length of no salvation possible;
and times rose on the Berlin Court such as had never been seen
before! "No salvation possible, says my Dearest? Hah! And an innocent
Court-Mask or Dancing Soiree is criminal in the sight of God and of the
Queen? And we are children of wrath wholly, and a frivolous generation;
and the Queen will see us all--!"

The end was, his Majesty, through sad solitary days and nights, repented
bitterly that he had wedded such a She-Dominic; grew quite estranged
from her; the poor She-Dominic giving him due return in her
way,--namely, living altogether in her own apartments, upon orthodoxy,
jealousy and other bad nourishment. Till at length she went quite mad;
and, except the due medical and other attendants, nobody saw her, or
spoke of her, at Berlin. Was this a cheering issue of such an adventure
to the poor old expensive Gentleman? He endeavored to digest in silence
the bitter morsel he had cooked for himself; but reflected often, as an
old King might, What dirt have I eaten!

In this way stands that matter in the Schloss of Berlin, when little
Friedrich, who will one day be called the Great, is born. Habits of the
expensive King, hours of rising, modes of dressing, and so forth, are
to be found in Pollnitz; [Pollnitz, _Memoiren zur Lebens-und
Regierungs-Geschichte der Vier letzten Regenten des Preussischen
Staats_ (Berlin, 1791). A vague, inexact, but not quite uninstructive or
uninteresting Book: Printed also in FRENCH, which was the Original,
same place and time.] but we charitably omit them all. Even from foolish
Pollnitz a good eye will gather, what was above intimated, that this
feeble-backed, heavy-laden old King was of humane and just disposition;
had dignity in his demeanor; had reticence, patience; and, though
hot-tempered like all the Hohenzollerns, that he bore himself like
a perfect gentleman for one thing; and tottered along his high-lying
lonesome road not in an unmanful manner at all. Had not his nerves
been damaged by that fall in infancy, who knows but we might have had
something else to read of him than that he was regardless of expense in
this world!

His last scene, of date February, 1713, is the tragical ultimatum of
that fine Karlsbad adventure of the Second marriage,--Third marriage,
in fact, though the First, anterior to "Serena," is apt to be forgotten,
having lasted short while, and produced only a Daughter, not memorable
except by accident. This Third marriage, which had brought so many
sorrows to him, proved at length the death of the old man. For he
sat one morning, in the chill February days of the Year 1713, in his
Apartment, as usual; weak of nerves, but thinking no special evil; when,
suddenly with huge jingle, the glass door of his room went to sherds;
and there rushed in--bleeding and dishevelled, the fatal "White Lady"
(WEISSE FRAU), who is understood to walk that Schloss at Berlin, and
announce Death to the Royal inhabitants. Majesty had fainted, or was
fainting. "Weisse Frau? Oh no, your Majesty!"--not that; but indeed
something almost worse.--Mad Queen, in her Apartments, had been seized,
that day, when half or quarter dressed; with unusual orthodoxy or
unusual jealousy. Watching her opportunity, she had whisked into the
corridor, in extreme deshabille; and gone, like the wild roe, towards
Majesty's Suite of Rooms; through Majesty's glass door, like a catapult;
and emerged as we saw,--in petticoat and shift, with hair streaming,
eyes glittering, arms cut, and the other sad trimmings. O Heaven, who
could laugh? There are tears due to Kings and to all men. It was deep
misery; deep enough "SIN and misery," as Calvin well says, on the one
side and the other! The poor old King was carried to bed; and never rose
again, but died in a few days. The date of the WEISSE FRAU'S death, one
might have hoped, was not distant either; but she lasted, in her sad
state, for above twenty years coming.

Old King Friedrich's death-day was 25th February, 1713; the unconscious
little Grandson being then in his Fourteenth month. To whom, after this
long, voyage round the world, we now gladly return.

By way of reinforcement to any recollection the reader may have of these
Twelve Hohenzollern Kurfursts, I will append a continuous list of them,
with here and there an indication.

THE TWELVE HOHENZOLLERN ELECTORS.

1. FRIEDRICH I. (as Burggraf, was Friedrich VI.): born, it is inferred,
1372 (Rentsch, p. 350); accession, 18th April, 1417; died 21st
September, 1440. Had come to Brandenburg, 1412, as Statthalter. The
Quitzows and HEAVY PEG.

2. FRIEDRICH II.: 19th November, 1413; 21st September, 1440; 10th
February, 1472. Friedrich IRONTEETH; tames the Berlin Burghers. Spoke
Polish, was to have been Polish King. Cannon-shot upon his dinner-table
shatters his nerves so, that he abdicates, and soon dies. JOHANNES
ALCHYMISTA his elder Brother; ALBERT ACHILLES his younger.

3. ALBERT (Achilles): 24th November, 1414; 10th February, 1471; 11th
March, 1486. Third son of Friedrich I.; is lineal Progenitor of all the
rest.  Eldest Son, JOHANN CICERO, follows as Kurfurst; a Younger Son,
FRIEDRICH (by a different Mother), got Culmbach, and produced the Elder
Line there. (See Genealogical Diagram.)

4. JOHANN (Cicero): 2d August, 1455; 11th March, 1486; 9th January,
1499. Big John. Friedrich of Culmbach's elder (Half-) Brother.

5. JOACHIM I.: 21st February, 1484; 9th January, 1499; 11th July, 1535.
Loud in the Reformation times; finally declares peremptorily for the
Conservative side. Wife (Sister of Christian II. of Denmark) runs away.

Younger Brother Albert Kur-Mainz, whom Hutten celebrated; born 1490;
Archbishop of Magdeburg and Halberstadt 1513, of Maim 1514; died 1545:
set Tetzel, and the Indulgence, on foot.

6. JOACHIM II. (Hector): 9th January, 1505; 11th July, 1535; 3d January,
1571. Sword drawn on Alba once. ERBVERBRUDERUNG with Liegnitz. Staircase
at Grimnitz. A weighty industrious Kurfurst.

Declared himself Protestant, 1539. First Wife (mother of his Successor)
was Daughter to Duke George of Saxony, Luther's "If it rained Duke
Georges."--Johann of Custrin was a younger Brother of his: died ten days
after Joachim; left no Son.

7. JOHANN GEORGE: 11th September, 1525; 3d January, 1571; 8th January,
1598. Cannon-shot, at Siege of Wittenberg, upon Kaiser Karl and him.
Gera Bond.

Married a Silesian Duke of Liegnitz's Daughter (result of the
ERBVERBRUDERUNG there,--Antea, p. 231). Had twenty-three children. It
was to him that Baireuth and Anspach fell home: he settled them on his
second and his third sons, Christian and Joachim Ernst; founders of the
New Line of Baireuth and Anspach. (See Genealogical Diagram.)

8. JOACHIM FRIEDRICH: 27th January, 1546; 8th January, 1598; 18th July,
1608. Archbishop of Magdeburg first of all,--to keep the place filled.
Joachimsthal School at old Castle of Grimnitz. Very vigilant for
Preussen; which was near falling due.

Two of his Younger Sons, Johann George (1577-1624) to whom he gave
JAGERNDORF, and that Archbishop of Magdeburg, who was present in Tilly's
storm, got both wrecked in the Thirty-Years War;--not without results,
in the Jagerndorf case.

9. JOHANN SIGISMUND: 8th November, 1572; 18th July, 1608; 23d December,
1619. Preussen: Cleve; Slap on the face to Neuburg.

10. GEORGE WILHELM: 3d November, 1595; 22d November, 1619; 21st
November, 1640. The unfortunate of the Thirty-Years War. _"Que faire;
ils ont des canons!"_

11. FRIEDRICH WILHELM: 6th February, 1620; 21st November, 1640; 29th
April, 1688. The Great Elector.

12. FRIEDRICH III.: 1st July, 1657; 29th April, 1688; 25th February,
1713. First King (18th January, 1701).

GENEALOGICAL DIAGRAM: THE TWO CULMBACH LINES.

3d KURFURST (1471-1486) ALBERT ACHILLES.         ELDER CULMBACH LINE.

FRIEDRICH, second son of Kurfurst Albert Achilles, younger Brother of
Johannes Cicero, got CULMBACH: Anspach first, then Baireuth on the
death of a younger Brother. Born 1460; got Anspach 1486; Baireuth 1495;
followed Max in his VENETIAN CAMPAIGN, 1508; fell IMBECILE 1515; died
1536. Had a Polish Wife; from whom came interests in Hungary as well as
Poland to his children. Friedrich had Three notable Sons,

1. CASIMIR, who got BAIREUTH (1515): born 1481; died 1527. Very
truculent in the Peasants' War.  ALBERT ALEIBIADES: a man of great mark
in his day (1522-1557); never married. Two Sisters, with one of whom he
took shelter at last; no Brother.

2. GEORGE THE PIOUS, who got ANSPACH (1515): born 1484; died 1543; got
Jagerndorf, by purchase, from his Mother's Hungarian connection, 1524.
Protestant declared, 1528; and makes honorable figure in the Histories
thenceforth. The George of Kaiser Karl's _"Nit-Kop-ab."_ One Son,
GEORGE FRIEDRICH; born 1539; went to administer Preussen when Cousin
became incompetent; died 1603. Heir to his Father in ANSPACH and
JAGERNDORF; also to his Cousin Alcibiades in BAIREUTH. Had been left a
minor (boy of 4, as the reader sees); Alcibiades his Guardian for a
little while: from which came great difficulties, and unjust ruin would
have come, had not Kurfurst Joachim I. been helpful and vigorous in his
behalf. George Friedrich got at length most of his Territories into
hand: Anspach and Baireuth unimpaired, Jagerndorf too, except that
Ratibor and Oppeln were much eaten into by the Imperial chicaneries in
that quarter. Died 1603, without children;--upon which his Territories
all reverted to the main Brandenburg line, namely, to Johann George
Seventh Kurfurst, or his representatives, according to the GERA BOND;
and the "Elder Culmbach Line" had ended in this manner.

3. ALBERT; born 1490; Hochmeister of the Teutsch Ritters, 1511; declares
himself Protestant, and Duke of Prussia, 1525; died 1568.  One Son, ALB
declared MELANCHOLIC 1573; died 1618. His Cousin George Friedrich
administered for him till 1603; after which Joachim Friedrich; and then,
lastly, Joachim Friedrich's Son, Johann Sigismund the Ninth Kurfurst.
Had married the Heiress of Cleve (whence came a celebrated Cleve
Controversy in after-times). No son; a good many daughters; eldest
of whom was married to Kurfurst Johann Sigismund; from her came the
controverted Cleve Property.

7th KURFURST (1571-1598), JOHANN GEORGE.     YOUNGER CULMBACH LINE.

Kurfurst Johann George settled Baireuth and Anspach on Two of his
Younger Sons, who are Founders of the "Younger Culmbach Line" (SPLIT
Line or Pair of LINES). Jagerndorf the new Kurfurst, Joachim Friedrich,
kept; settled it on one of his younger sons. Here are the two new
Founders in Baireuth and Anspach, and some indication of their "Lines,"
so far as important to us at present:

                            BAIREUTH.

(1.) CHRISTIAN, second son of Kurfurst Johann George: born 1581; got
Baireuth 1603; died 1655. A distinguished Governor in his sphere. Had
two sons; the elder died before him, but left a son, Christian Ernst;
who (2.) succeeded, and (3.) whose son, George Wilhelm: 1644, 1655,
1712; 1678, 1712, 1726 (are BIRTH, ACCESSION, END of these two); the
latter of whom had no son that lived.  Upon which the posterity of
Christian's second son succeeded. Second son of Christian notable to us
in two little ways: FIRST, That HE, George Albert, Margraf of CULMbach,
is the inscrutable "Marquis de LULENbach" of _Bromley's Letters_ (antea
p. 184, let the Commentators take comfort!); SECOND and better, That
from him came our little Wilhelmina's Husband,--as will be afterwards
explained. It was his grandson (4.) that succeeded in Baireuth, George
Friedrich Karl (1688, 1726, 1735); Father of Wilhelmina's Husband. After
whom (5.) his Son Friedrich (1711, 1735, 1763), Wilhelmina's Husband;
who leaving (1763) nothing hut a daughter, Baireuth fell to Anspach,
1769, after an old Uncle (6.), childless, had also died. SIX Baireuth
Margraves of this Line; FIVE generations; and then to Anspach, in 1769.

                             ANSPACH.

(1.) JOACHIM ERNST, third son of Kurfurst Johann George: born 1583; got
Anspach 1603; died 1625. Had military tendencies, experiences; did not
thrive as Captain of the EVANGELICAL UNION (1619-1620) when WINTER-KING
came up and THIRTY-YEARS WAR along with him. Left two sons; elder of
whom, (2.) Friedrich, nominally Sovereign, age still only eighteen,
fell in the Battle of Nordlingen (worst battle of the Thirty-Years War,
1634); and the younger of whom, (3.) Albert, succeeded (1620, 1634,
1667), and his son, (4.) Johann Friedrich (1654, 1667, 1686); and (5,
6, 7.) no fewer than three grandsons,--children mostly, though entitled
"sovereign"--in a PARALLEL way (Christian Albert, 1675, 1686, 1692;
George Friedrich, 1678, 1692, 1703; Wilhelm Friedrich, 1685, 1703,
1723). Two little points notable here also, and no third:

FIRST, That one of the grand-DAUGHTERS, full-sister of the last of
these three parallel figures, half-sister of the two former, was--Queen
Caroline, George II.'s wife, who has still some fame with us.

SECOND, That the youngest of said three grandsons, Queen Caroline's
full-brother, left a son then minor, who became major, (8.) and wedded
a Sister of our dear little Wilhelmina's, of whom we shall hear (Karl
Wilhelm Friedrich, 1712, 1723, 1757); unmomentous Margraf otherwise. His
and her one son it was, (9.) Christian Friedrich Karl Alexander (1736,
1757, 1806), who inherited Baireuth, inherited Actress Clairon, Lady
Craven, and at Hammersmith (House once Bubb Doddington's, if that has
any charm) ended the affair.

NINE Anspach Margraves; in FIVE generations: end, 1806.

END OF BOOK III