One of the most important adventures, for our young Crown-Prince, was
this visit of his, along with Papa, to Dresden in the Carnival of 1728.
Visit contrived by Seckendorf and Company, as we have seen, to divert
the King's melancholy, and without view to the Crown-Prince at all. The
Crown-Prince, now sixteen, and not in the best favor with his Father,
had not been intended to accompany; was to stay at Potsdam and
diligently drill: nevertheless an estafette came for him from the
gallant Polish Majesty;--Wilhelmina had spoken a word to good Suhm, who
wrote to his King, and the hospitable message came. Friedrich made no
loitering,--to Dresden is but a hundred miles, one good day;--he arrived
there on the morrow after his Father; King "on the 14th January, 1728,"
dates Fassmann; "Crown-Prince on the 15th," which I find was Thursday.
The Crown-Prince lodged with Fieldmarshal Flemming; Friedrich Wilhelm,
having come in no state, refused King August's pressings, and took up
his quarters with "the General Fieldmarshal Wackerbarth, Commandant in
Dresden,"--pleasant old military gentleman, who had besieged Stralsund
along with him in times gone. Except Grumkow, Derschau and one or two
of less importance, with the due minimum of Valetry, he had brought no
retinue; the Crown-Prince had Finkenstein and Kalkstein with him, Tutor
and Sub-Tutor, officially there. And he lodges with old Count Flemming
and his clever fashionable Madam,--the diligent but unsuccessful
Flemming, a courtier of the highest civility, though iracund, and "with
a passion for making Treaties," whom we know since Charles XII.'s time.
Amongst the round of splendors now set on foot, Friedrich Wilhelm had,
by accident of Nature, the spectacle of a house on fire,--rather a
symbolic one in those parts,--afforded him, almost to start with. Deep
in the first Saturday night, or rather about two in the morning of
Sunday, Wackerbarth's grand house, kindling by negligence somewhere
in the garrets, blazed up, irrepressible; and, with its endless
upholsteries, with a fine library even, went all into flame: so that
his Majesty, scarcely saving his CHATOULLE (box of preciosities), had to
hurry out in undress;--over to Flemming's where his Son was; where they
both continued thenceforth. This was the one touch of rough, amid
so much of dulcet that occurred: no evil, this touch, almost rather
otherwise, except to poor Wackerbarth, whose fine House lay wrecked by
it.
The visit lasted till February 12th, four weeks and a day. Never
was such thrice-magnificent Carnival amusements: illuminations,
cannon-salvoings and fire-works; operas, comedies, redoubts,
sow-baitings, fox and badger-baiting, reviewing, running at the
ring:--dinners of never-imagined quality, this, as a daily item, needs
no express mention.
To the young Soldier-Apprentice all this was, of course, in pleasant
contrast with the Potsdam Guard-house; and Friedrich Wilhelm himself is
understood to have liked at least the dinners, and the airy courteous
ways, light table-wit and extreme good humor of the host. A successful
visit; burns off like successful fire-works, piece after piece: and what
more is to be said? Of all this nothing;--nor, if we could help it,
of another little circumstance, not mentioned by the Newspapers or
Fassmann, which constitutes the meaning of this Visit for us now. It is
a matter difficult to handle in speech. An English Editor, chary of
such topics, will let two witnesses speak, credible both, though not
eye-witnesses; and leave it to the reader so. Babbling Pollnitz is the
first witness; he deposes, after alluding to the sumptuous dinings and
drinkings there:--
"One day the two Kings, after dinner, went in domino to the redoubt
[RIDOTTO, what we now call ROUT or evening party]. August had a mind to
take an opportunity, and try whether the reports of Friedrich Wilhelm's
indifference to the fair sex were correct or not. To this end, he had
had a young damsel (JUNGE PERSON) of extraordinary beauty introduced
into some side-room; where they now entered. She was lying on a bed, in
a loose gauzy undress; and though masked, showed so many charms to the
eye that the imagination could not but judge very favorably of the rest.
The King of Poland approached, in that gallant way of his, which had
gained him such favor with women. He begged her to unmask; she at first
affected reluctance, and would not. He then told her who he was; and
said, He hoped she would not refuse, when two Kings begged her to show
them this complaisance. She thereupon took off her mask, and showed them
one of the loveliest faces in the world. August seemed quite enchanted;
and said, as if it had been the first time he ever saw her, He could not
comprehend how so bewitching a beauty had hitherto remained unknown to
him.
"Friedrich Wilhelm could not help looking at her. He said to the King
of Poland, 'She is very beautiful, it must be owned;'--but at the
same instant turned his eyes away from her; and left the room, and the
ridotto altogether without delay; went home, and shut himself in his
room. He then sent for Herr von Grumkow, and bitterly complained that
the King of Poland wanted to tempt him. Herr von Grumkow, who was
neither so chaste nor so conscientious as the King, was for making a
jest of the matter; but the King took a very serious tone; and commanded
him to tell the King of Poland in his name, 'That he begged him very
much not to expose him again to accidents of that nature, unless he
wished to have him quit Dresden at once.' Herr von Grumkow did his
message. The King of Poland laughed heartily at it; went straight to
Friedrich Wilhelm, and excused himself. The King of Prussia, however,
kept his grim look; so that August ceased joking, and turned the
dialogue on some other subject." [Pollnitz, ii. 256.]
This is Pollnitz's testimony, gathered from the whispers of the Tabagie,
or rumors in the Court-circles, and may be taken as indisputable in the
main. Wilhelmina, deriving from similar sources, and equally uncertain
in details, paints more artistically; nor has she forgotten the sequel
for her Brother, which at present is the essential circumstance:--
"One evening, when the rites of Bacchus had been well attended to, the
King of Poland led the King [my Father], strolling about, by degrees,
into a room very richly ornamented, all the furniture and arrangements
of which were in a quite exquisite taste. The King, charmed with what he
saw, paused to contemplate the beauties of it a little; when, all on
a sudden, a curtain rose, and displayed to him one of the most
extraordinary sights. It was a girl in the condition of our First
Parents, carelessly lying on a bed. This creature was more beautiful
than they paint Venus and the Graces; she presented to view a form of
ivory whiter than snow, and more gracefully shaped than the Venus
de' Medici at Florence. The cabinet which contained this treasure was
lighted by so many wax-candles that their brilliancy dazzled you, and
gave a new splendor to the beauties of the goddess.
"The Authors of this fine comedy did not doubt but the object would make
an impression on the King's heart; but it was quite otherwise. No
sooner had he cast his eyes on the beauty than he whirled round with
indignation; and seeing my Brother behind him, he pushed him roughly out
of the room, and immediately quitted it himself; very angry at the scene
they had been giving him, He spoke of it, that same evening, to Grumkow,
in very strong terms; and declared with emphasis that if the like
frolics were tried on him again, he would at once quit Dresden.
"With my Brother it was otherwise. In spite of the King's care, he had
got a full view of that Cabinet Venus; and the sight of her did not
inspire in him so much horror as in his father." [Wilhelmina, i.
112.]--Very likely not!--And in fact, "he obtained her from the King
of Poland, in a rather singular way _(d'une facon assez
singuliere)"_--describable, in condensed terms, as follows:--
Wilhelmina says, her poor Brother had been already charmed over head and
ears by a gay young baggage of a Countess Orzelska; a very high and
airy Countess there; whose history is not to be touched, except upon
compulsion, and as if with a pair of tongs,--thrice famous as she once
was in this Saxon Court of Beelzebub. She was King August's natural
daughter; a French milliner in Warsaw had produced her for him there.
In due time, a male of the three hundred and fifty-four, one Rutowski,
soldier by profession, whom we shall again hear of, took her for
mistress; regardless of natural half-sisterhood, which perhaps he did
not know of. The admiring Rutowski, being of a participative turn,
introduced her, after a while, to his honored parent and hers; by whom
next--Heavens, human language is unequal to the history of such things!
And it is in this capacity she now shines supreme in the Saxon Court;
ogling poor young Fritz, and driving him distracted;--which phenomenon
the Beelzebub Parent-Lover noticed with pain and jealousy, it would
appear.
"His Polish Majesty distinguished her extremely," says Pollnitz,
[_Memoires,_ ii.261.] "and was continually visiting her; so that the
universal inference was"--to the above unspeakable effect. "She was
of fine figure; had something grand in her air and carriage, and the
prettiest humor in the world. She often appeared in men's clothes, which
became her very well. People said she was extremely open-handed;" as
indeed the Beelzebub Parent-Lover was of the like quality (when he had
cash about him), and to her, at this time, he was profuse beyond limit.
Truly a tempting aspect of the Devil, this expensive Orzelska: something
beautiful in her, if there are no Laws in this Universe; not so
beautiful, if there are! Enough to turn the head of a poor Crown-Prince,
if she like, for some time. He is just sixteen gone; one of the
prettiest lads and sprightliest; his homage, clearly enough, is
not disagreeable to the baggage. Wherefore jealous August, the
Beelzebub-Parent, takes his measures; signifies to Fritz, in direct
terms, or by discreet diplomatic hints and innuendoes, That he can have
the Cabinet Venus (Formera her name, of Opera-singer kind);--hoping
thereby that the Orzelska will be left alone in time coming. A _"facon
assez singuliere"_ for a Sovereign Majesty and Beelzebub Parent-Lover,
thinks Wilhelmina.
Thus has our poor Fritz fallen into the wake of Beelzebub; and is not in
a good way. Under such and no better guidance, in this illicit premature
manner, he gets his introduction to the paradise of the world. The
Formera, beautiful as painted Chaos; yes, her;--and why not, after a
while, the Orzelska too, all the same? A wonderful Armida-Garden, sure
enough. And cannot one adore the painted divine beauties there (lovely
as certain apples of the Dead Sea), for some time?--The miseries all
this brought into his existence,--into his relations with a Father very
rigorous in principle, and with a Universe still more so,--for years to
come, were neither few nor small. And that is the main outcome of the
Dresden visitings for him and us.--
Great pledges pass between the two Kings; Prussian Crown-Prince
decorated with the Order of the Saxon Eagle, or what supreme distinction
they had: Rutowski taken over to Berlin to learn war and drill, where
he did not remain long: in fact a certain liking seems to have risen
between the two heteroclite individualities, which is perhaps worth
remembering as a point in natural history, if not otherwise. One other
small result of the visit is of pictorial nature. In the famed Dresden
Gallery there is still a Picture, high up, visible if you have glasses,
where the Saxon Court-Painter, on Friedrich Wilhelm's bidding it is
said, soon after these auspicious occurrences, represents the two
Majesties as large as life, in their respective costumes and features
(short Potsdam Grenadier-Colonel and tall Saxon Darius or Sardanapalus),
in the act of shaking hands; symbolically burying past grudges, and
swearing eternal friendship, so to speak. [Forster, i. 226.] To this
Editor the Picture did not seem good for much; but Friedrich Wilhelm's
Portrait in it, none of the best, may be of use to travelling friends of
his who have no other.
The visit ended on the 12th of February, as the Newspapers testify. Long
before daybreak, at three in the morning, Friedrich Wilhelm, "who had
smoked after dinner till nine the night before," and taken leave of
everybody, was on the road; but was astonished to find King August and
the Electoral Prince or Heir-Apparent (who had privately sat up for the
purpose) insist on conducting him to his carriage. [Boyer, xxxv. 198.]
"Great tokens of affection," known to the Newspapers, there were; and
one token not yet known, a promise on King August's part that he would
return this ever-memorable compliment in person at Potsdam and Berlin in
a few months. Remember, then!--
As for the poor Crown-Prince, whom already his Father did not like, he
now fell into circumstances more abstruse than ever in that and other
respects. Bad health, a dangerous lingering fit of that, soon after his
return home, was one of the first consequences. Frequent fits of bad
health, for some years coming; with ominous rumors, consultations of
physicians, and reports to the paternal Majesty, which produced small
comfort in that quarter. 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 of 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 young rhinoceros in the mud-bath:--some say, it is wholesome for a
human soul; not we!
All this is too certain; rising to its height in the years we are now
got to, and not ending for four or five years to come: and the reader
can conceive all this, and whether its effects were good or not.
Friedrich Wilhelm's old-standing disfavor is converted into open
aversion and protest, many times into fits of sorrow, rage and despair,
on his luckless Son's behalf;--and it appears doubtful whether this
bright young human soul, comparable for the present to a rhinoceros
wallowing in the mud-bath, with nothing but its snout visible, and a
dirty gurgle all the sound it makes, will ever get out again or not.
The rhinoceros soul got out; but not uninjured; alas, no; bitterly
polluted, tragically dimmed of its finest radiances for the remainder
of life. The distinguished Sauerteig, in his SPRINGWURZELN, has these
words: "To burn away, in mad waste, the divine aromas and plainly
celestial elements from our existence; to change our holy-of-holies into
a place of riot; to make the soul itself hard, impious, barren! Surely a
day is coming, when it will be known again what virtue is in purity and
continence of life; how divine is the blush of young human cheeks; how
high, beneficent, sternly inexorable if forgotten, is the duty laid, not
on women only, but on every creature, in regard to these particulars?
Well; if such a day never come again, then I perceive much else will
never come. Magnanimity and depth of insight will never come; heroic
purity of heart and of eye; noble pious valor, to amend us and the
age of bronze and lacquer, how can they ever come? The scandalous
bronze-lacquer age, of hungry animalisms, spiritual impotencies and
mendacities, will have to run its course, till the Pit swallow it."--
In the case of Friedrich, it is certain such a day never fully came. The
"age of bronze and lacquer," so as it then stood,--relieved truly by a
backbone of real Spartan IRON (of right battle STEEL when needed): this
was all the world he ever got to dream of. His ideal, compared to that
of some, was but low; his existence a hard and barren, though a genuine
one, and only worth much memory in the absence of better. Enough of all
that.
THE PHYSICALLY STRONG PAYS HIS COUNTER-VISIT.
August the Strong paid his Return-visit in May following. Of which
sublime transaction, stupendous as it then was to the Journalistic mind,
we should now make no mention, except for its connection with those
points,--and more especially for a foolish rumor, which now rose about
Prince Fred and the Double-Marriage, on occasion of it. The magnificence
of this visit and reception being so extreme,--King August, for one
item, sailing to it, with sound of trumpet and hautbois, in silken
flotillas gayer than Cleopatra's, down the Elbe,--there was a rush
towards Berlin of what we will not call the scum, but must call the foam
of mankind, rush of the idle moneyed populations from all countries;
and such a crowd there, for the three weeks, as was seldom seen. Foam
everywhere is stirred up, and encouraged to get under way.
Prince Frederick of Hanover and England, "Duke of Edinburgh" as they now
call him, "Duke of Gloucester" no longer, it would seem, nor "Prince of
Wales" as yet; he, foamy as another, had thoughts of coming; and rumor
of him rose very high in Berlin,--how high we have still singular proof.
Here is a myth, generated in the busy Court-Imagination of Berlin at
this time; written down by Pollnitz as plain fact afterwards; and from
him idly copied into COXE [Coxe's _Walpole_ (London, 1798), i. 520.] and
other English Books. We abridge from watery Pollnitz, taking care of any
sense he has. This is what ran in certain high-frizzled heads then
and there: and was dealt out in whispers to a privileged few, watery
Pollnitz's informers among them, till they got a myth made of it.
Frederick Duke of Edinburgh, second hope of England at this time, he is
the hero.
It appears, this loose young gentleman, standing in no favor with his
sovereign Father, had never yet been across to England, the royal Parent
preferring rather not to have him in sight; and was living idle at
Hanover; very eager to be wedded to Wilhelmina, as one grand and at
present grandest resource of his existence. It is now May, 1728; and
Frederick Duke of Edinburgh is twenty-one. He writes to his Aunt and
intended Mother-in-law, Queen Sophie (date not ascertainable to a
day, Note burnt as soon as read): "That he can endure this tantalizing
suspense no longer; such endless higgling about a supreme blessedness,
virtually agreed upon, may be sport to others, but is death to him. That
he will come privately at once, and wed his Wilhelmina; and so make
an end; the big-wigs to adjust it afterwards as they can and may."
Whereupon Sophie Dorothee, gladdest of women, sends for Dubourgay the
British Ambassador (Brigadier Dubourgay, the respectable old gentleman
who spells ill, who is strong for the Double-Marriage always), to tell
him what fine news there is, and what answer she has sent. Respectable
Dubourgay stands silent, with lengthening face: "Your Majesty, how
unfortunate that I of all men now hear it! I must instantly despatch
a courier with the news to London!" And the respectable man, stoically
deaf to her Majesty's entreaties, to all considerations but that of his
evident duty, "sends the courier" (thinks Pollnitz);--nips thereby that
fine Hanover speculation in the bud, sees Prince Fred at once summoned
over to England, and produces several effects. Nearly the whole of
which, on examining the Documents, [Dubourgay's Despatches (1728: 29
May, 1 June, 5 October), in the State-Paper Office here.] proves to be
myth.
Pollnitz himself adds two circumstances, in regard to it, which are
pretty impossible: as, first, that Friedrich Wilhelm had joyfully
consented to this clandestine marriage, and was eagerly waiting for it;
second, that George II. too had privately favored or even instigated the
adventure, being at heart willing to escape the trouble of Messages to
Parliament, to put his Son in the wrong, and I know not what. [Pollnitz,
ii. 272-274.] The particles of fact in the affair are likewise two:
First, that Queen Sophie, and from her the Courtier Public generally,
expected the Hanover Royal Highness, who probably had real thoughts
of seeing Berlin and his Intended, on this occasion; Dubourgay reports
daily rumors of the Royal Highness being actually "seen" there in an
evanescent manner; and Wilhelmina says, her Mother was so certain of
him, "she took every ass or mule for the Royal Highness,"--heartily
indifferent to Wilhelmina. This is the first particle of fact. The
Second is, that a subaltern Official about the Royal Highness, one
Lamothe of Hanover, who had appeared in Berlin about that time, was
thrown into prison not long after, for what misbehavior none knew,--for
encouraging dissolute Royal Highness in wild schemes, it was guessed.
And so the Myth grew, and was found ready for Pollnitz and his
followers. Royal Highness did come over to England; not then as the
Myth bears, but nine months afterwards in December next; and found
other means of irritating his imperative, flighty, irascible and rather
foolish little Father, in an ever-increasing degree. "Very coldly
received at Court," it is said: ill seen by Walpole and the Powers;
being too likely to become a focus of Opposition there.
The Visit, meanwhile, though there came no Duke of Edinburgh to see it,
was sublime in the extreme; Polish Majesty being magnificence itself;
and the frugal Friedrich Wilhelm lighting up his dim Court into
insurpassable brilliancy, regardless of expense; so that even the
Smoking Parliament (where August attended now and then) became luminous.
The Crown-Prince, who in late months had languished in a state of
miserable health, in a manner ominous to his physicians, confined mostly
to his room or his bed, was now happily on foot again;--and Wilhelmina
notes one circumstance which much contributed to his recovery: That the
fair Orzelska had attended her natural (or unnatural) Parent, on this
occasion; and seemed to be, as Wilhelmina thinks, uncommonly kind to
the Crown-Prince. The Heir-Apparent of Saxony, a taciturn, inoffensive,
rather opaque-looking gentleman, now turned of thirty, and gone over to
Papistry long since, with views to be King of Poland by and by, which
proved effectual as we shall find, was also here: Count Bruhl,
too, still in a very subaltern capacity, and others whom we and the
Crown-Prince shall have to know. The Heir-Apparent's Wife (actual
Kaiser's Niece, late Kaiser Joseph's Daughter, a severe Austrian lady,
haughtier than lovely) has stayed at home in Dresden.
But here, at first hand, is a slight view of that unique Polish Majesty,
the Saxon Man of Sin; which the reader may be pleased to accept out of
idle curiosity, if for no better reason. We abridge from Wilhelmina; [i.
124.] whom Fassmann, kindled to triple accuracy by this grand business,
is at hand to correct where needful: [_Des glorwurdigsten Fursten und
Herrn, Herrn Friedrich Augusti des Grossen Leben und Helden-Thaten_ (Of
that most glorious Prince and Lord, Lord Friedrich August the Great,
King of Poland, &c., the Life and Heroic Deeds), by D. F. (David
Fassmann), Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1734; 12mo, pp. 1040. A work written
with upturned eyes of prostrate admiration for "DERO MAJESTAT ('Theiro'
Majesty) AUGUST THE GREAT;" exact too, but dealing merely with the
CLOTHES of the matter, and such a matter: work unreadable, except on
compulsion, to the stupidest mortal. The same Fassmann, who was at the
Fair of St. Germain, who lodged sometimes with the Potsdam Giant, and
whose ways are all fallen dark to us.] "The King of Poland arrived upon
us at Berlin on the 29th of May," says Wilhelmina; had been at Potsdam,
under Friedrich Wilhelm's care, for three days past: Saturday afternoon,
29th May, 1728; that is with exactitude the ever-memorable date.
He paid his respects in her Majesty's apartment, for an instant, that
evening; but made his formal visit next day. Very grand indeed. Carried
by two shining parti-colored creatures, heyducs so-called, through
double rows of mere peerages and sublimities, in a sublime sedan (being
lame of a foot, foot lately amputated of two toes, sore still open): "in
a sedan covered with red velvet gallooned with gold," says the devout
Fassmann, tremblingly exact, "up the grand staircase along the grand
Gallery;" in which supreme region (Apartments of the late King Friedrich
of gorgeous memory) her Majesty now is for the occasion. "The Queen
received him at the door of her third Antechamber," says Wilhelmina;
third or outmost Antechamber, end of that grand Gallery and its peerages
and shining creatures: "he gave the Queen his hand, and led her in." We
Princesses were there, at least the grown ones of us were. All standing,
except the Queen only. "He refused to sit, and again refused;" stoically
talked graciosities, disregarding the pain of his foot; and did not,
till refusal threatened to become uncivil, comply with her Majesty's
entreaties. "How unpolite!" smiled he to us young ones. "He had a
majestic port and physiognomy; an affable polite air accompanied all
his movements, all his actions." Kind of stereotyped smile on his face;
nothing of the inner gloom visible on our Charles II. and similar men
of sin. He looked often at Wilhelmina, and was complimentary to a
degree,--for reasons undivinable to Wilhelmina. For the rest, "much
broken for his age;" the terrible debaucheries (LES DEBAUCHES TERRIBLES)
having had their effect on him. He has fallen Widower last year. His
poor Wife was a Brandenburg-Baireuth Princess; a devout kind of woman;
austerely witnessing the irremediable in her lot. He has got far on with
his three hundred and fifty-four; is now going fifty-five;--lame of a
foot, as we see, which the great Petit of Paris cannot cure, neither he
nor any Surgeon, but can only alleviate by cutting off two toes. Pink of
politeness, no doubt of it; but otherwise the strangest dilapidated hulk
of a two-legged animal without feathers; probably, in fact, the chief
Natural Solecism under the Sun at that epoch;--extremely complimentary
to us Princesses, to me especially. "He quitted her Majesty's Apartment
after an hour's conversation: she rose to reconduct him, but he would by
no manner of means permit that,"--and so vanished, carried off doubtless
by the shining creatures again. The "Electoral Prince" Heir-Apparent,
next made his visit; but he was a dry subject in comparison, of whom no
Princess can say much. Prince Friedrich will know him better by and by.
Young Maurice, "Count of Saxony," famed afterwards as MARECHAL DE SAXE,
he also is here with his Half-Sister Orzelska and the others, in the
train of the paternal Man of Sin; and makes acquaintance with Friedrich.
He is son of the female Konigsmark called Aurora ("who alone of mortals
could make Charles Twelfth fly his ground"); nephew, therefore, of the
male Konigsmark who was cut down long ago at Hanover, and buried in
the fireplace. He resembles his Father in strength, vivacity, above all
things in debauchery, and disregard of finance. They married him at the
due years to some poor rich woman; but with her he has already ended;
with her and with many others. Courland, Adrienne Lecouvreur, Anne
Iwanowna with the big cheek:--the reader has perhaps searched out these
things for himself from the dull History-Books;--or perhaps it was
better for him if he never sought them? Dukedom of Courland, connected
with Polish sovereignty, and now about to fall vacant, was one of Count
Maurice's grand sallies in the world. Adrienne Lecouvreur, foolish
French Actress, lent him all the 30,000 pounds she had gathered by
holding the mirror up to Nature and otherwise, to prosecute this
Courland business; which proved impossible for him. He was adventurous
enough, audacious enough; fought well; but the problem was, To fall
in love with the Dowager Anne Iwanowna, Cousin of Czar Peter II.; big
brazen Russian woman (such a cheek the Pictures give her, in size and
somewhat in expression like a Westphalia ham!), who was Widow of the
last active Duke:--and this, with all his adventurous audacity, Count
Maurice could not do. The big Widow discovered that he did not like
Westphalia hams in that particular form; that he only pretended to like
them; upon which, in just indignation, she disowned and dismissed him;
and falling herself to be Czarina not long afterwards, and taking Bieren
the Courlander for her beloved, she made Bieren Duke, and Courland
became impossible for Count Maurice.
However, he too is a dashing young fellow; "circular black eyebrows,
eyes glittering bright, partly with animal vivacity, partly with
spiritual;" stands six feet in his stockings, breaks horse-shoes with
his hands; full of irregular ingenuity and audacity; has been soldiering
about, ever since birth almost; and understands many a thing, though the
worst SPELLER ever known. With him too young Fritz is much charmed:
the flower, he, of the illegitimate three hundred and fifty-four, and
probably the chief achievement of the Saxon Man of Sin in this world,
where he took such trouble. Friedrich and he maintained some occasional
correspondence afterwards; but, to judge by Friedrich's part of it (mere
polite congratulations on Fontenoy, and the like), it must have been
of the last vacuity; and to us it is now absolute zero, however clearly
spelt and printed. [Given altogether in _OEuvres de Frederic le Grand,_
xvii. 300-309. See farther, whoever has curiosity, Preuss, _Friedrichs
Lebensgeschichte,_ iii. 167-169; Espagnac, _Vie du Comte de Saxe_ (a
good little military Book, done into German, Leipzig, 1774, 2 vols.);
Cramer, _Denkwurdigkeiten der Grafin Aurora von Konigsmark_ (Leipzig,
1836); &c. &c.]
The Physically Strong, in some three weeks, after kindling such an
effulgence about Berlin as was never seen before or since in Friedrich
Wilhelm's reign, went his way again,--"towards Poland for the Diet," or
none of us cares whither or for what. Here at Berlin he has been sublime
enough. Some of the phenomena surpassed anything Wilhelmina ever saw:
such floods and rows of resplendent people crowding in to dinner; and
she could not but contrast the splendor of the Polish retinues and their
plumages and draperies, with the strait-buttoned Prussian dignitaries,
all in mere soldier uniform, succinct "blue coat, white linen gaiters,"
and no superfluity even in the epaulettes and red facings. At table, she
says, they drank much, talked little, and bored one another a great deal
(S'ENNUYOIENT BEAUCOUP).
OF PRINCESS WHILHELMINA'S FOUR KINGS AND OTHER INEFFECTUAL SUITORS.
Dilapidated Polish Majesty, we observed, was extremely attentive to
Wilhelmina; nor could she ascertain, for long after, what the particular
reason was. Long after, Wilhelmina ascertained that there had been
the wonderfulest scheme concocting, or as good as concocted, in these
swearings of eternal friendship: no other than that of marrying her,
Wilhelmina, now a slim maiden coming nineteen, to this dilapidated
Saxon Man of Sin going (or limping) fifty-five, and broken by DEBAUCHES
TERRIBLES (rivers of champagne and tokay, for one item), who had
fallen a Widower last year! They had schemed it all out, Wilhelmina
understands: Friedrich Wilhelm to advance such and such moneys as dowry,
and others furthermore as loan, for the occasions of his Polish Majesty,
which are manifold; Wilhelmina to have The Lausitz (LUSATIA) for
jointure, Lausitz to be Friedrich Wilhelm's pledge withal; and other
intricate conditions; [Wilhelmina, i. 114.] what would Wilhelmina have
thought? One shudders to contemplate;--hopes it might mostly be loose
brain-web and courtier speculation, never settled towards fact.
It is certain, the dilapidated Polish Majesty having become a Widower,
questions would rise, Will not he marry again? And with whom? Certain
also, he wants Friedrich Wilhelm's alliance; having great schemes on
the anvil, which are like to be delicate and perilous,--schemes
of "partitioning Poland," no less; that is to say, cutting off the
outskirts of Poland, flinging them to neighboring Sovereigns as
propitiation, or price of good-will, and rendering the rest hereditary
in his family. Pragmatic Sanction once acceded to, would probably
propitiate the Kaiser? For which, and other reasons, Polish Majesty
still keeps that card in his hand. Friedrich Wilhelm's alliance, with
such an army and such a treasury, the uses of that are evident to the
Polish Majesty.--By the blessing of Heaven, however, his marriage with
Wilhelmina never came to anything: his Electoral Prince, Heir-Apparent,
objected to the jointures and alienations, softly, steadily; and the
project had to drop before Wilhelmina ever knew of it.
And this man is probably one of the "Four Kings" she was to be asked by?
A Swedish Officer, with some skill in palmistry, many years ago, looked
into her innocent little hand, and prophesied, "She was to be in terms
of courtship, engagement or as good as engagement, with Four Kings, and
to wed none of them." Wilhelmina counts them in her mature days. The
FIRST will surprise everybody,--Charles XII. of Sweden;--who never can
have been much of a suitor, the rather as the young Lady was then
only six gone; but who, might, like enough, be talked of, by transient
third-parties, in those old Stralsund times. The SECOND,--cannot WE
guess who the second is? The THIRD is this August the dilapidated
Strong. As to the SECOND, Wilhelmina sees already, in credulous moments,
that it may be Hanover Fred, whom she will never marry either;--and does
not see (nor did, at the time of writing her _Memoires,_ "in 1744"
say the Books) that Fred never would come to Kingship, and that the
Palmistry was incomplete in that point. The FOURTH, again, is clearly
young Czar Peter II.; of whom there was transient talk or project, some
short time after this of the dilapidated THIRD. But that too came to
nothing; the poor young lad died while only fifteen; nay he had already
"fallen in love with his Aunt Elizabeth" (INFAME CATIN DU NORD in time
coming), and given up the Prussian prospect. [He was the Great Peter's
Grandson (Son having gone a tragical road )]; Czar, May, 1727--January,
1730: Anne Iwanowna (Great Peter's Niece, elder Brother's Daughter), our
Courland friend with the big cheek, succeeded; till her death, October,
1740: then, after some slight shock of revolution, the Elizabeth just
mentioned, who was Daughter of the Great Peter by his little brown
Czarina Catherine whom we once met. See Mannstein, _Memoirs of Russia_
(London, 1770), pp. 1-23, for some account of Peter II.; and the rest
of the Volume for a really intelligent History of this Anne, at least of
her Wars, where Mannstein himself usually had part.
All which would be nothing, or almost less, to Wilhelmina, walking
fancy-free there,--were it not for Papa and Mamma, and the importunate
insidious by-standers. Who do make a thing of it, first and last! Never
in any romance or stage-play was young Lady, without blame, without
furtherance and without hindrance 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 goodness
only to leave her alone!--
Thus too, among the train of King August in this Berlin visit, a certain
Soldier Official of his, Duke of Sachsen Weissenfels, Johann Adolf by
name, a poor Cadet Cousin of the Saxon House,--another elderly
Royal Highness of small possibility,--was particularly attentive
to Wilhelmina; now and on subsequent occasions. Titular Duke of
Weissenfels, Brother of the real Duke, and not even sure of the
succession as yet; but living on King August's pay; not without
capacity of drink and the like, some allege:--otherwise a mere betitled,
betasselled elderly military gentleman, of no special qualities, evil or
good;--who will often turn up again in this History; but fails always
to make any impression on us except that of a Serene Highness in the
abstract; unexceptionable Human Mask, of polite turn, behung with
titles, and no doubt a stomach in the inside of it: he now, and
afterwards, by all opportunities, diligently continued his attentions
in the Wilhelmina quarter. For a good while it was never guessed what
he could be driving at; till at last Queen Sophie, becoming aware of it,
took him to task; with cold severity, reminded him that some things
are on one's level, and some things not. To which humbly bowing, in
unfeigned penitence, he retired from the audacity, back foremost:
Would never even in dreams have presumed, had not his Prussian Majesty
authorized; would now, since HER Prussian Majesty had that feeling,
withdraw silently, and live forgotten, as an obscure Royal Highness in
the abstract (though fallen Widower lately) ought to do. And so at least
there was an end of that matter, one might hope,--though in effect it
still abortively started up now and then, on Papa's part, in his frantic
humors, for years to come.
Then there is the Margraf of Schwedt, Friedrich Wilhelm by name, chief
Prince of the Blood, his Majesty's Cousin, and the Old Dessauer's
Nephew; none of the likeliest of men, intrinsically taken: he and his
Dowager Mother--the Dessauer's Sister, a high-going, tacitly obstinate
old Dowager (who dresses, if I recollect, in flagrant colors)--are
very troublesome to Wilhelmina. The flagrant Dame--she might have been
"Queen-Mother" once forsooth, had Papa and my Brother but been made away
with!--watches her time, and is diligent by all opportunities.