Friedrich's feelings at this juncture are not made known to us by
himself in the least; or credibly by others in any considerable degree.
As indeed in these confused Prussian History-Books, copulent in
nugatory pedantisms and learned marine-stores, all that is human remains
distressingly obscure to us; so seldom, and then only as through endless
clouds of ever-whirling idle dust, can we catch the smallest direct
feature of the young man, and of his real demeanor or meaning, on the
present or other occasions! But it is evident this last phenomenon
fell upon him like an overwhelming cataract; crushed him down under the
immensity of sorrow, confusion and despair; his own death not a theory
now, but probably a near fact,--a welcome one in wild moments, and then
anon so unwelcome. Frustrate, bankrupt, chargeable with a friend's lost
life, sure enough he, for one, is: what is to become of him? Whither
is he to turn, thoroughly beaten, foiled in all his enterprises? Proud
young soul as he was: the ruling Powers, be they just, be they unjust,
have proved too hard for him! We hear of tragic vestiges still traceable
of Friedrich, belonging to this time: texts of Scripture quoted by
him, pencil-sketches of his drawing; expressive of a mind dwelling
in Golgothas, and pathetically, not defiantly, contemplating the very
worst.
Chaplain Muller of the Gens-d'Armes, being found a pious and intelligent
man, has his orders not to return at once from Custrin; but to stay
there, and deal with the Prince, on that horrible Predestination topic
and his other unexampled backslidings which have ended so. Muller stayed
accordingly, for a couple of weeks, intensely busy on the Predestination
topic, and generally in assuaging, and mutually mollifying, paternal
Majesty and afflicted Son. In all which he had good success; and
especially on the Predestination point was triumphantly successful.
Muller left a little Book in record of his procedures there; which,
had it not been bound over to the official tone, might have told us
something. His Correspondence with the King, during those two weeks, has
likewise been mostly printed; [Forster, i. 376-379.] and is of course
still more official,--teaching us next to nothing, except poor Friedrich
Wilhelm's profoundly devotional mood, anxieties about "the claws of
Satan" and the like, which we were glad to hear of above. In Muller
otherwise is small help for us.
But, fifty years afterwards, there was alive a Son of this Muller's; an
innocent Country Parson, not wanting in sense, and with much simplicity
and veracity; who was fished out by Nicolai, and set to recalling what
his Father used to say of this adventure, much the grandest of his
life. In Muller Junior's Letter of Reminiscences to Nicolai we find some
details, got from his Father, which are worth gleaning:--
"When my Father first attempted, by royal order, to bring the
Crown-Prince to acknowledgment and repentance of the fault committed,
Crown-Prince gave this excuse or explanation: 'As his Father could
not endure the sight of him, he had meant to get out of the way of his
displeasure, and go to a Court with which his Father was in friendship
and relationship,'"--clearly indicating England, think the Mullers
Junior and Senior.
"For proof that the intention was towards England this other
circumstance serves, that the one confidant--Herr van Keith, if I
mistake not [no, you don't mistake], had already bespoken a ship for
passage out."--Here is something still more unexpected:--
"My Father used to say, he found an excellent knowledge and conviction
of the truths of religion in the Crown-Prince. By the Prince's
arrangement, my Father, who at first lodged with the Commandant, had
to take up his quarters in the room right above the Prince; who daily,
often as early as six in the morning, rapped on the ceiling for him to
come down; and then they would dispute and discuss, sometimes half-days
long, about the different tenets of the Christian Sects;--and my Father
said, the Prince was perfectly at home in the Polemic Doctrines of the
Reformed (Calvinistic) Church, even to the minutest points. As my Father
brought him proofs from Scripture, the Prince asked him one time, How he
could keep chapter and verse so exactly in his memory? Father drew from
his pocket a little Hand-Concordance, and showed it him as one help.
This he had to leave with the Prince for some days. On getting it back,
he found inside on the fly-leaf, sketched in pencil,"--what is rather
notable to History,--"the figure of a man on his knees, with two swords
hanging crosswise over his head; and at the bottom these words of Psalm
Seventy-third (verses 25, 26), _Whom have I in Heaven but thee? And
there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my
heart fainteth and faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my
portion forever."_--Poor Friedrich, this is a very unexpected pen-sketch
on his part; but an undeniable one; betokening abstruse night-thoughts
and forebodings in the present juncture!--
"Whoever considers this fine knowledge of religion, and reflects on
the peculiar character and genius of the young Herr, which was ever
struggling towards light and clearness (for at that time he had not
become indifferent to religion, he often prayed with my Father on his
knees),--will find that it was morally impossible this young Prince
could have thought [as some foolish persons have asserted] of throwing
himself into the arms of Papal Superstition [seeking help at Vienna,
marrying an Austrian Archduchess, and I know not what] or allow the
intrigues of Catholic Priests to"--Oh no, Herr Muller, nobody but very
foolish persons could imagine such a thing of this young Herr.
"When my Father, Herr von Katte's execution being ended, hastened to the
Crown-Prince; he finds him miserably ill (SEHR ALTERIRT); advises him to
take a cooling-powder in water, both which materials were ready on the
table. This he presses on him: but the Prince always shakes his head."
Suspects poison, you think? "Hereupon my Father takes from his pocket a
paper, in which he carried cooling-powder for his own use; shakes out
a portion of it into his hand, and so into his mouth; and now the
Crown-Prince grips at my Father's powder, and takes that." Privately to
be made away with; death resolved upon in some way! thinks the desperate
young man? [Nicolai, _Anekdoten,_ vi. 183-189.]
That scene of Katte's execution, and of the Prince's and other people's
position in regard to it, has never yet been humanly set forth,
otherwise the response had been different. Not humanly set forth,--and
so was only barked at, as by the infinitude of little dogs, in all
countries; and could never yet be responded to in austere VOX HUMANA,
deep as a DE PROFUNDIS, terrible as a Chorus of AEschylus,--for in
effect that is rather the character of it, had the barking once pleased
to cease. "King of Prussia cannot sleep," writes Dickens: "the officers
sit up with him every night, and in his slumbers he raves and talks
of spirits and apparitions." [Despatch, 3d October, 1730.] We saw him,
ghost-like, in the night-time, gliding about, seeking shelter with
Feekin against ghosts; Ginkel by daylight saw him, now clad in
thunderous tornado, and anon in sorrowful fog. Here, farther on, is a
new item,--and joined to it and the others, a remarkable old one:--
"In regard to Wilhelmina's marriage, and whether a Father cannot give
his daughter in wedlock to whom he pleases, there have been eight
Divines consulted, four Lutheran, four Reformed (Calvinist); who, all
but one [he of the Garrison Church, a rhadamanthine fellow in serge],
have answered, 'No, your Majesty!' It is remarkable that his Majesty
has not gone to bed sober for this month past." [Dickens, 9th and 19th
December, 1730.]
What Seckendorf and Grumkow thought of all these phenomena? They have
done their job too well. They are all for mercy; lean with their
whole weight that way,--in black qualms, one of them withal, thinking
tremulously to himself, "What if his now Majesty were to die upon us, in
the interim!"