At Berlin dark rumors of this intended flight, and actual Arrest of the
Crown-Prince, are agitating all the world; especially Lieutenant Katte,
and the Queen and Wilhelmina, as we may suppose. The first news of
it came tragically on the young Princess. [Apparently some rumor FROM
FRANKFURT, which she confuses in her after-memory with the specific news
FROM WESEL; for her dates here, as usual, are all awry (Wilhelmina, i.
246; Preuss, i. 42, iv. 473; Seckendorf, in Forster, iii. 6).]
"Mamma had given a ball in honor of Papa's Birthday,"--Tuesday, 15th
August, 1730;--and we were all dancing in the fine saloons of Monbijou,
with pretty intervals in the cool boscages and orangeries of the place:
all of us as happy as could be; Wilhelmina, in particular, dancing at an
unusual rate. "We recommenced the ball after supper. For six years I had
not danced before; it was new fruit, and I took my fill of it, without
heeding much what was passing. Madame Bulow, who with others of them had
worn long faces all night, pleading 'illness' when one noticed it, said
to me several times: 'It is late, I wish you had done,'--'EH, MON DIEU!'
I answered, 'let me have enough of dancing this one new time; it may be
long before it comes again.'--'That may well be!' said she. I paid no
regard, but continued to divert myself. She returned to the charge half
an hour after: 'Will you end, then!' said she with a vexed air: 'you are
so engaged, you have eyes for nothing.'--'You are in such a humor,'
I replied, 'that I know not what to make of it.'--'Look at the Queen,
then, Madam; and you will cease to reproach me!' A glance which I gave
that way filled me with terror. There sat the Queen, paler than death,
in a corner of the room, in low conference with Sonsfeld and Countess
Finkenstein. As my Brother was most in my anxieties, I asked, If it
concerned him? Bulow shrugged her shoulders, answering, 'I don't know
at all!' A moment after, the Queen gave Good-night; and got into her
carriage with me,--speaking no word all the way to the Schloss; so
that I thought my Brother must be dead, and I myself took violent
palpitations, and Sonsfeld, contrary to orders, had at last to tell
me in the course of the night." Poor Wilhelmina, and poor Mother of
Wilhelmina!
The fact, of Arrest, and unknown mischief to the Prince, is taken for
certain; but what may be the issues of it; who besides the Prince have
been involved in it, especially who will be found to have been involved,
is matter of dire guess to the three who are most interested here.
Lieutenant Katte finds he ought to dispose of the Prince's effects which
were intrusted to him; of the thousand gold Thalers in particular, and,
beyond and before all, of the locked Writing-desk, in which lies the
Prince's correspondence, the very Queen and Princess likely to be
concerned in it! Katte despatches these two objects, the Money and the
little Desk, in all secrecy, to Madam Finkenstein, as to the surest
hand, with a short Note shadowing out what he thinks they are: Countess
Finkenstein, old General von Finkenstein's Wife, and a second mother to
the Prince, she, like her Husband, a sworn partisan of the Prince and
his Mother, shall do with these precious and terrible objects what, to
her own wise judgment, seems best.
Madam Finkenstein carries them at once, in deep silence, to the Queen.
Huge dismay on the part of the Queen and Princess. They know too well
what Letters may be there: and there is a seal on the Desk, and no key
to it; neither must it, in time coming, seem to have been opened, even
if we could now open it. A desperate pinch, and it must be solved.
Female wit and Wilhelmina did solve it, by some pre-eminently acute
device of their despair; [Wilhelmina, i. 253-257.] and contrived to get
the Letters out: hundreds of Letters, enough to be our death if read,
says Wilhelmina. These Letters they burnt; and set to writing fast as
the pen would go, other letters in their stead. Fancy the mood of these
two Royal Women, and the black whirlwind they were in. Wilhelmina's
despatch was incredible; pen went at the gallop night and day: new
letters, of old dates and of no meaning, are got into the Desk again;
the Desk closed, without mark of injury, and shoved aside while it is
yet time.--Time presses; his Majesty too, and the events, go at gallop.
Here is a Letter from his Majesty, to a trusty Mistress of the Robes,
or whatever she is; which, let it arrive through what softening media it
likes, will complete the poor Queen's despair:--
"MY DEAR FRAU VON KAMECKE,--Fritz has attempted to desert. I have been
under the necessity to have him arrested. I request you to tell my Wife
of it in some good way, that the news may not terrify her. And pity an
unhappy Father.
"FRIEDRICH WILHELM."
[No date: "ARRIVED" (from Wesel, we conclude), Sunday, "20th August," at
the Palace of Berlin (Preuss, i. 42).]
The same post brought an order to the Colonel of the Gerns-d'Armes to
put that Lieutenant Katte of his under close confinement:--we hope the
thoughtless young fellow has already got out of the way? He is getting
his saddle altered: fettling about this and that; does not consider what
danger he is in. This same Sunday, his Major met him on the street of
Berlin; said, in a significant tone, "You still HERE, Katte!"--"I go
this night," answered Katte; but he again put it off, did not go this
night; and the order for his arrest did come in. On the morrow
morning, Colonel Pannewitz, hoping now he was not there, went with the
rhadamanthine order; and finding the unlucky fellow, was obliged to
execute it. Katte lies in ward, awaiting what may be prepared for him.
Friedrich Wilhelm at Wesel has had rough passages with the Prince and
others. On the Saturday evening, 12th August 1730, [Preuss, iv. 473;
Seckendorf (Forster, iii. 6) says 13th, but WRONG.] his Majesty had the
Culprit brought on shore, to the Commandant's House, for an interview.
Culprit proving less remorseful than was expected, and evidently not
confessing everything, a loud terrible scene ensued; which Friedrich
Wilhelm, the unhappy Father, winded up by drawing his sword to run the
unnatural Son through the body. Old General Mosel, Commandant of Wesel,
sprang between them, "Sire, cut me to death, but spare your Son!" and
the sword was got back to its scabbard; and the Prince lodged in a
separate room, two sentries with fixed bayonets keeping watch over
him. Friedrich Wilhelm did not see his face again for twelve months to
come,--"twelve months and three days."
Military gentlemen of due grimness interrogated the Prince next evening,
[Seckendorf (in Forster, iii. 5).] from a Paper drawn up by his Majesty
in the interim. Prince confesses little: Did design to get across the
Rhine to Landau; thence to Strasburg, Paris, in the strictest incognito;
intended to volunteer there, thought he might take French service,
profoundly incognito, and signalize himself in the Italian War (just
expected to break out), which might have recovered him some favor
from his Majesty: does not tell clearly where his money came from; shy
extremely of elucidating Katte and Keith;--in fact, as we perceive,
struggles against mendacity, but will not tell the whole truth. "Let him
lie in ward, then; and take what doom the Laws have appointed for the
like of him!" Divine Laws, are they not? Well, yes, your Majesty, divine
and human;--or are there perhaps no laws but the human sort, completely
explicit in this case? "He is my Colonel at least," thinks Friedrich
Wilhelm, "and tried to desert and make others desert. If a rebellious
Crown-Prince, breaking his Father's heart, find the laws still
inarticulate; a deserting Colonel of the Potsdam Regiment finds them
speak plain enough. Let him take the answer they give him?"
Dumoulin, in the mean while, can make nothing of Keith, the runaway
Lieutenant. Dumoulin, with his sagacious organ, soon came upon the scent
of Keith; and has discovered these things about him: One evening, a week
before his Majesty arrived, Sunday evening, 6th August, 1730, [RELATIO
EX ACTIS: in Preuss, iv. 473.] Lieutenant Keith, doubtless smelling
something, saddled his horse as above mentioned, decided to have a ride
in the country this fine evening, and issued out at the Brunen Gate of
Wesel. He is on the right bank of the Rhine; pleasant yellow fields
on this hand and that. He ambles slowly, for a space; then gradually
awakens into speed, into full speed; arrives, within a couple of hours,
at Dingden, a Village in the Munster Territory, safe over the Prussian
Border, by the shortest line: and from Dingden rides at more leisure,
but without losing time, into the Dutch Overyssel region, straight
towards the Hague. He must be in the Hague? said Dumoulin to the
Official persons, on arriving there,--to Meinertshagen the Prussian
Ambassador there, [Seckendorf (Forster, iii. 7).] and to Keppel,
Dutch Official gentleman who was once Ambassador at Berlin. Prussian
Ambassador applies, and again applies, in the highest quarters; but we
fear they are slack. Dumoulin discovers that the man was certainly here;
Keppel readily admits, He had Keith to dinner a few days ago: but where
Keith now is, Keppel cannot form the least guess.
Dumoulin suspects he is with Lord Chesterfield, the English Ambassador
here. A light was seen, for a night or two, in one of the garret-rooms
of Lord Chesterfield's house,--probably Keith reading?--but Keith is not
to be heard of, on inquiry there; and the very light has now gone out.
The Colonel at least, distinguished English Lord is gone to England
in these days; but his German Secretary is not gone: the House is
inviolable, impregnable to Prussia. Who knows, in spite of the light
going out, but Keith is still there, merely with a window shutter to
screen him? One morning, it becomes apparent Keith is not there. One
morning, a gentleman at the seaside is admiring Dutch fishing-skiffs,
and how they do sail, "Pooh, Sir, that is nothing!" answers a man in
multiplex breeches: "the other night I went across to England in one,
with an Excellency's Messenger who could not wait!"--Truth is, the
Chesterfield Secretary, who forbade lights, took the first good night
for conveying Keith to Scheveningen and the seaside; where a Fisher-boat
was provided for him; which carried him, frail craft as it was, safe
across to England. Once there, the Authorities took pity on the poor
fellow;--furnished the modicum of cash and help; sent him with Admiral
Norris to assist the Portuguese, menaced with Spanish war at this time;
among whom he gradually rose to be Major of Horse. Friedrich Wilhelm
cited him by tap of drum three times in Wesel, and also in the Gazettes,
native and Dutch; then, as he did not come, nailed an Effigy of him
(cut in four, if I remember) on the gallows there; and confiscated any
property he had. Keith had more pedigree than property; was of Poberow
in Pommern; son of poor gentlefolks there. He sent no word of himself to
Prussia, for the next ten years; so that he had become a kind of myth
to many people; to his poor Mother among the rest, who has her tragical
surmises about him. He will appear again; but not to much purpose. His
Brother, the Page Keith, is packed into the Fusileer Regiment, at Wesel
here; and there walks sentry, unheard of for the rest of his life.
So much for the Keiths. [Preuss: _Friedrich mit seinen Verwandten und
Freunden,_ pp. 330, 392.--See, on this and the other points, Pollnitz,
_Memoiren, _ ii. 352-374 (and correct his many blunders).]
Other difficulty there is as to the Prison of the Prince. Wesel is a
strong Town; but for obvious reasons one nearer Berlin, farther from
the frontier, would be preferable. Towards Berlin, however, there is no
route all on Prussian ground: from these divided Cleve Countries we have
to cross a bit of Hanover, a bit of Hessen-Cassel: suppose these Serene
Highnesses were to interfere? Not likely they will interfere, answer
ancient military men, of due grimness; at any rate, we can go a
roundabout road, and they need not know! That is the method settled on;
neighborhood of Berlin, clearly somewhere there, must be the place? Old
Castle of Mittenwalde, in the Wusterhausen environs, let that be
the first resting-point, then; Rochow, Waldau, and the Wesel
Fusileer-Colonel here, sure men, with a trooper or two for escort, shall
conduct the Prisoner. By Treuenbrietzen, by circuitous roads: swift,
silent, steady,--and with vigilance, as you shall answer!--These
preliminaries settled, Friedrich Wilhelm drives off homewards, black
Care riding behind him. He reaches Berlin, Sunday, 27th August; finds a
world gone all to a kind of doomsday with him there, poor gentleman.
SCENE AT BERLIN ON MAJESTY'S ARRIVAL.
On Sunday evening, 27th August, 1730, his Majesty, who had rested
overnight at Potsdam from his rapid journey, drove into Berlin between
four and five in the afternoon. Deserter Fritz is following, under
escort of his three military gentlemen, at a slower rate and by
circuitous routes, so as to avoid the territories of Hanover and
Hessen,--towards Mittenwalde in the Wusterhausen neighborhood. The
military gentlemen are vigilant as Argus, and, though pitying the poor
Prince, must be rigorous as Rhadamanthus. His attempts at escape, of
which tradition mentions more than one, they will not report to Papa,
nor even notice to the Prince himself; but will take care to render
futile, one and all: his Majesty may be secure on that score.
The scenes that follow are unusual in royal history; and having been
reported in the world with infinite noise and censure, made up of
laughter and horror, it will behoove us to be the more exact in relating
them as they actually befell. Very difficult to pull, out of that
ravelled cart-load of chaotic thrums, here a thread and there a thread,
capable of being brought to the straight state, and woven into legible
narrative! But perhaps, by that method the mingled laughter and horror
will modify itself a little. What we can well say is, that pity also
ought not to be wanting. The next six months were undoubtedly by far the
wretchedest of Friedrich Wilhelm's life. The poor King, except that he
was not conscious of intending wrong, but much the reverse, walked in
the hollow night of Gehenna, all that while, and was often like to be
driven mad by the turn things had taken.
Here is scene first: Wilhelmina reports his Majesty's arrival that
Sunday afternoon, to the following effect; she was present in the
adventure, and not a spectatress only:--
"The Queen was alone in his Majesty's Apartment, waiting for him as he
approached. At sight of her, in the distance, he called out: 'Your losel
of a Son (VOTRE INDIGNE FILS) has ended at last; you have done with
HIM,' or words to that effect. 'What,' cried the Queen, 'you have had
the barbarity to kill him?' 'Yes, I tell you,--but where is the sealed
Desk?' The Queen went to her own Apartment to fetch it; I ran in to her
there for a moment: she was out of herself, wringing her hands, crying
incessantly, and said without ceasing: 'MON DIEU, MON FILS (O God, my
Son)!' Breath failed me; I fell fainting into the arms of Madame de
Sonsfeld."--The Queen took away the Writing-case; King tore out the
letters, and went off; upon which the Queen came down again to us.
"We learned from some attendant that, at least, my Brother was not
dead. The King now came back. We all ran to kiss his hands; but me he
no sooner noticed than rage and fury took possession of him. He became
black in the face, his eyes sparkling fire, his mouth foaming. 'Infamous
CANAILLE,' said he; 'darest thou show thyself before me? Go, keep thy
scoundrel of a Brother company!' And so saying, he seized me with one
hand, slapping me on the face with the other,'--clenched as a fist
(POING),--'several blows; one of which struck me on the temple, so
that I fell back, and should have split my head against a corner of the
wainscot, had not Madame de Sonsfeld caught me by the head-dress and
broken the fall. I lay on the ground without consciousness. The King,
in a frenzy, was for striking me with his feet; had not the Queen, my
Sisters, and the rest, run between, and those who were present prevented
him. They all ranked themselves round me, which gave Mesdames de Kamecke
and Sonsfeld time to pick me up. They put me in a chair in the embrasure
of a window; threw water on my face to bring me to life: which care I
lamentably reproached them with, death being a thousand times better, in
the pass things had come to. The Queen kept shrieking, her firmness had
quite left her: she wrung her hands, and ran in despair up and down the
room. The King's face was so disfigured with rage, it was frightful
to look upon. The little ones were on their knees, begging for
me,"--[Wilhelmina, i. 265-267.]--poor little beings, what a group:
Amelia, the youngest girl, about six; Henri, in his bits of trousers,
hardly over four!--For the rest, I perceive, this room was on the first
or a lower floor, and such noises were very audible. The Guard had
turned out at the noise; and a crowd was collecting to see and hear:
"Move on! Move on!"
"The King had now changed his tune: he admitted that my Brother was
still alive; but vowed horribly he would put him to death, and lay me
fast within four walls for the rest of my life. He accused me of being
the Prince's accomplice, whose crime was high treason;--also of having
an intrigue of love with Katte, to whom, he said, I had borne several
children." The timid Gouvernante flamed up at this unheard-of insult:
"'That is not true,' said she, fiercely; 'whoever has told your Majesty
such a thing has told a lie!' 'Oh, spare my Brother, and I will marry
the Duke of Weissenfels,' whimpered I; but in the great noise he did
not hear; and while I strove to repeat it louder, Sonsfeld clapt her
handkerchief on my face.
"Hustling aside to get rid of the handkerchief, I saw Katte crossing
the Square. Four soldiers were conducting him to the King; trunks, my
Brother's and his own, sealed, were coming on in the rear. Pale and
downcast, he took off his hat to salute me,"--poor Katte, to me always
so prostrate in silent respect, and now so unhappy! A moment after, the
King, hearing he was come, went out exclaiming, 'Now I shall have proof
about the scoundrel Fritz and the offscouring (CANAILLE) Wilhelmina;
clear proofs to cut the heads off them.'"--The two Hofdames again
interfered; and one of them, Kamecke it was, rebuked him; told him,
in the tone of a prophetess, To take care what he was doing. Whom his
Majesty gazed into with astonishment, but rather with respect than with
anger, saying, "Your intentions are good!"
And so his Majesty flung out, seeking Katte; and vanished: Wilhelmina
saw no more of him for about a year after; being ordered to her room,
and kept prisoner there on low diet, with sentries guarding her doors,
and no outlook but the worst horror her imagination pleased to paint.
This is the celebrated assault of paternal Majesty on Wilhelmina; the
rumor of which has gone into all lands, exciting wonder and horror, but
could not be so exact as this account at first hand. Naturally the crowd
of street-passengers, once dispersed by the Guard, carried the matter
abroad, and there was no end of sympathetic exaggerations. Report ran
in Berlin, for example, that the poor Princess was killed, beaten or
trampled to death; which we clearly see she was not. Voltaire, in that
mass of angry calumnies, very mendacious indeed, which he calls VIE
PRIVEE DU ROI DE PRUSSE, mentions the matter with emphasis; and says
farther, The Princess once did him (Voltaire) the "honor to show him a
black mark she carried on her breast ever after;"--which is likelier to
be false than true. Captain Guy Dickens, the Legationary Captain, who
seems a clear, ingenuous and ingenious man, and of course had access to
the highest circles of refined rumor, reports the matter about ten days
after, with several errors, in this manner:--
"BERLIN, 5th SEPTEMBER, 1730. Four or five days ago [by the Almanac
nine, and directly on his Majesty's return, which Dickens had announced
a week ago without that fact attached], the King dreadfully ill-treated
Wilhelmina in bed [not in bed at all]; whole Castle (SCHLOSS or
Palace) was alarmed; Guard turned out,"--to clear away the crowd, as we
perceive. Not properly a crowd, such was not permissible there: but a
stagnation of the passers-by would naturally ensue on that esplanade;
till the Guard turned out, and indicated with emphasis, "Move on!"
Dickens hears farther that "the Queen fares no better;"--such is the
state of rumor in Berlin at present.
Poor Katte had a hard audience of it too. He fell at Friedrich Wilhelm's
feet; and was spurned and caned;--for the rest, beyond what was already
evident, had little or nothing to confess: Intention of flight and
of accompanying in flight very undeniable; although preliminaries and
ulterior conditions of said flight not perfectly known to Katte; known
only that the thought of raising trouble in foreign Courts, or the least
vestige of treason against his Majesty, had not entered even into their
dreams. A name or two of persons who had known, or guessed, of these
operations, is wrung from Katte;--name of a Lieutenant Spaen, for one;
who, being on guard, had admitted Katte into Potsdam once or twice
in disguise:--for him and for the like of him, of whatever rank
or whichever sex, let arrests be made out, and the scent as with
sleuth-hounds be diligently followed on all sides; and Katte, stript of
his uniform, be locked up in the grimmest manner. Berlin, with the rumor
of these things, is a much-agitated city.