The Pfalz question being in such a predicament, and Luiscius
diplomatizing upon it in such heavy-footed manner, his Majesty thinks
a journey to Holland, to visit one's Kinsfolk there, and incidentally
speak a word with the High Mightinesses upon Pfalz, would not be amiss.
Such journey is decided on; Crown-Prince to accompany. Summer of 1738:
a short visit, quite without fuss; to last only three days;--mere sequel
to the Reviews held in those adjacent Cleve Countries; so that
the Gazetteers may take no notice. All which was done accordingly:
Crown-Prince's first sight of Holland; and one of the few reportable
points of his Reinsberg life, and not quite without memorability to him
and us.
On the 8th of July, 1738, the Review Party got upon the road for Wesel:
all through July, they did their reviewing in those Cleve Countries; and
then struck across for the Palace of Loo in Geldern, where a Prince of
Orange countable kinsman to his Prussian Majesty, and a Princess still
more nearly connected,--English George's Daughter, own niece to his
Prussian Majesty,--are in waiting for this distinguished honor. The
Prince of Orange we have already seen, for a moment once; at the siege
of Philipsburg four years ago, when the sale of Chasot's horses went
off so well. "Nothing like selling horses when your company have dined
well," whispered he to Chasot, at that time; since which date we have
heard nothing of his Highness.
He is not a beautiful man; he has a crooked back, and features
conformable; but is of prompt vivacious nature, and does not want for
sense and good-humor. Paternal George, the gossips say, warned his
Princess, when this marriage was talked of, "You will find him very
ill-looking, though!" "And if I found him a baboon--!" answered she;
being so heartily tired of St. James's. And in fact, for anything I
have heard, they do well enough together. She is George II.'s eldest
Princess;--next elder to our poor Amelia, who was once so interesting
to us! What the Crown-Prince now thought of all that, I do not know;
but the Books say, poor Amelia wore the willow, and specially wore the
Prince's miniature on her breast all her days after, which were many.
Grew corpulent, somewhat a huddle in appearance and equipment, "eyelids
like upper-LIPS," for one item: but when life itself fled, the miniature
was found in its old place, resting on the old heart after some sixty
years. O Time, O Sons and Daughters of Time!--
His Majesty's reception at Loo was of the kind he liked,--cordial,
honorable, unceremonious; and these were three pleasant days he had.
Pleasant for the Crown-Prince too; as the whole Journey had rather been;
Papa, with covert satisfaction, finding him a wise creature, after all,
and "more serious" than formerly. "Hm, you don't know what things are in
that Fritz!" his Majesty murmured sometimes, in these later years, with
a fine light in his eyes.
Loo itself is a beautiful Palace: "Loo, close by the Village Appeldoorn,
is a stately brick edifice, built with architectural regularity; has
finely decorated rooms, beautiful gardens, and round are superb alleys
of oak and linden." [Busching, _Erdbeschreibung,_ viii. 69.] There
saunters pleasantly our Crown-Prince, for these three days;--and one
glad incident I do perceive to have befallen him there: the arrival of a
Letter from Voltaire. Letter much expected, which had followed him from
Wesel; and which he answers here, in this brick Palace, among the superb
avenues and gardens. [_OEuvres,_ xxi. 203, the Letter, "Cirey, June,
1738;" Ib. 222, the Answer to it, "Loo, 6th August, 1738."]
No doubt a glad incident, irradiating, as with a sudden sunburst in gray
weather, the commonplace of things. Here is news worth listening to;
news as from the empyrean! Free interchange of poetries and proses,
of heroic sentiments and opinions, between the Unique of Sages and the
Paragon of Crown-Princes; how charming to both! Literary business, we
perceive, is brisk on both hands; at Cirey the _Discours sur l'Homme_
("Sixth DISCOURS" arrives in this packet at Loo, surely a deathless
piece of singing); nor is Reinsberg idle: Reinsberg is copiously doing
verse, such verse! and in prose, very earnestly, an "ANTI-MACHIAVEL;"
which soon afterwards filled all the then world, though it has now
fallen so silent again. And at Paris, as Voltaire announces with a
flourish, "M. de Maupertuis's excellent Book, _Figure de la T'erre,_
is out;" [Paris, 1738: Maupertuis's "measurement of a degree," in the
utmost North, 1736-1737 (to prove the Earth flattened there). Vivid
Narrative; somewhat gesticulative, but duly brief. The only Book of
that great Maupertuis which is now readable to human nature.] M. de
Maupertuis, home from the Polar regions and from measuring the Earth
there; the sublimest miracle in Paris society at present. Might build,
new-build, an ACADEMY OF SCIENCES at Berlin for your Royal Highness,
one day? suggests Voltaire, on this occasion: and Friedrich, as we shall
see, takes the hint. One passage of the Crown-Prince's Answer is in
these terms;--fixing this Loo visit to its date for us, at any rate:--
"LOO IN HOLLAND, 6th AUGUST, 1739.... I write from a place where there
lived once a great man [William III. of England, our Dutch William];
which is now the Prince of Orange's House. The demon of Ambition sheds
its unhappy poisons over his days. He might be the most fortunate of
men; and he is devoured by chagrins in his beautiful Palace here, in the
middle of his gardens and of a brilliant Court. It is pity in truth;
for he is a Prince with no end of wit (INFINIMENT D'ESPRIT), and has
respectable qualites." Not Stadtholder, unluckily; that is where the
shoe pinches; the Dutch are on the Republican tack, and will not have
a Stadtholder at present. No help for it in one's beautiful gardens and
avenues of oak and linden.
"I have talked a great deal about Newton with the Princess,"--about
Newton; never hinted at Amelia; not permissible!--"from Newton we passed
to Leibnitz; and from Leibnitz to the Late Queen of England," Caroline
lately gone, "who, the Prince told me, was of Clarke's sentiment" on
that important theological controversy now dead to mankind.--And of
Jenkins and his Ear did the Princess say nothing? That is now becoming a
high phenomenon in England! But readers must wait a little.
Pity that we cannot give these two Letters in full; that no reader,
almost, could be made to understand them, or to care for them when
understood. Such the cruelty of Time upon this Voltaire-Friedrich
Correspondence, and some others; which were once so rosy, sunny, and are
now fallen drearily extinct,--studiable by Editors only! In itself
the Friedrich-Voltaire Correspondence, we can see, was charming; very
blossomy at present: businesses increasing; mutual admiration now risen
to a great height,--admiration sincere on both sides, most so on
the Prince's, and extravagantly expressed on both sides, most so on
Voltaire's.
CROWN-PRINCE BECOMES A FREEMASON; AND IS HARANGUED BY MONSIEUR DE
BIELFELD.
His Majesty, we said, had three pleasant days at Loo; discoursing, as
with friends, on public matters, or even on more private matters, in
a frank unconstrained way. He is not to be called "Majesty" on this
occasion; but the fact, at Loo, and by the leading Mightinesses of
the Republic, who come copiously to compliment him there, is well
remembered. Talk there was, with such leading Mightinesses, about the
Julich-and-Berg question, aim of this Journey: earnest enough private
talk with some of them: but it availed nothing; and would not be worth
reporting now to any creature, if we even knew it. In fact, the Journey
itself remains mentionable chiefly by one very trifling circumstance;
and then by another, not important either, which followed out of that.
The trifling circumstance is,--That Friedrich, in the course of this
Journey, became a Freemason: and the unimportant sequel was, That he
made acquaintance with one Bielfeld, on the occasion; who afterwards
wrote a Book about him, which was once much read, though never much
worth reading, and is still citable, with precaution, now and then.
[Monsieur le Baron de Bielfeld, _Lettres Familieres et Autres,_
1763;--second edition, 2 vols. a Leide, 1767, is the one we use here.]
Trifling circumstance, of Freemasonry, as we read in Bielfeld and in
many Books after him, befell in manner following.
Among the dinner-guests at Loo, one of those three days, was a Prince of
Lippe-Buckeburg,--Prince of small territory, but of great speculation;
whose territory lies on the Weser, leading to Dutch connections; and
whose speculations stretch over all the Universe, in a high fantastic
style:--he was a dinner-guest; and one of the topics that came up was
Freemasonry; a phantasmal kind of object, which had kindled itself, or
rekindled, in those years, in England first of all; and was now hovering
about, a good deal, in Germany and other countries; pretending to be
a new light of Heaven, and not a bog-meteor of phosphorated hydrogen,
conspicuous in the murk of things. Bog-meteor, foolish putrescent
will-o'-wisp, his Majesty promptly defined it to be: Tom-foolery and
KINDERSPIEL, what else? Whereupon ingenious Buckeburg, who was himself
a Mason, man of forty by this time, and had high things in him of the
Quixotic type, ventured on defence; and was so respectful, eloquent,
dexterous, ingenious, he quite captivated, if not his Majesty, at
least the Crown-Prince, who was more enthusiastic for high things.
Crown-Prince, after table, took his Durchlaucht of Buckeburg
aside; talked farther on the subject, expressed his admiration, his
conviction,--his wish to be admitted into such a Hero Fraternity.
Nothing could be welcomer to Durchlaucht. And so, in all privacy, it
was made up betweeen them, That Durchlaucht, summoning as many mystic
Brothers out of Hamburg as were needful, should be in waiting with them,
on the Crown-Prince's road homeward,--say at Brunswick, night before
the Fair, where we are to be,--and there make the Crown-Prince a Mason.
[Bielfeld, i. 14-16; Preuss, i. 111; Preuss, _Buch fur Jedermann,_ i.
41.]
This is Bielfeld's account, repeated ever since; substantially correct,
except that the scene was not Loo at all: dinner and dialogue, it now
appears, took place in Durchlaucht's own neighborhood, during the Cleve
Review time; "probably at Minden, 17th July;" and all was settled into
fixed program before Loo came in sight. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_
xvs. 201: Friedrich's Letter to this Durchlaucht, "Comte de
Schaumbourg-Lippe" he calls him; date, "Moyland, 26th July, 1738:
"Moyland, a certain SCHLOSS, or habitable Mansion, of his Majesty's,
few miles to north of Mors in the Cleve Country; where his Majesty
used often to pause;--and where (what will be much more remarkable to
readers) the Crown-Prince and Voltaire had their first meeting,
two years hence.] Bielfeld's report of the subsequent procedure at
Brunswick, as he saw it and was himself part of it, is liable to no
mistakes, at least of the involuntary kind; and may, for anything we
know, be correct in every particular.
He says (veiling it under discreet asterisks, which are now decipherable
enough), The Durchlaucht of Lippe-Buckeburg had summoned six Brethren of
the Hamburg Lodge; of whom we mention only a Graf von Kielmannsegge, a
Baron von Oberg, both from Hanover, and Bielfeld himself, a Merchant's
Son, of Hamburg; these, with "Kielmannsegge's Valet to act as Tiler,"
Valet being also a Mason, and the rule equality of mankind,--were to
have the honor of initiating the Crown-Prince. They arrived at the
Western Gate of Brunswick on the 11th of August, as prearranged;
Prussian Majesty not yet come, but coming punctually on the morrow. It
is Fair-time; all manner of traders, pedlers, showmen rendezvousing;
many neighboring Nobility too, as was still the habit. "Such a bulk
of light luggage?" said the Custom-house people at the Gate;--but were
pacified by slipping them a ducat. Upon which we drove to "Korn's Hotel"
(if anybody now knew it); and there patiently waited. No great things
of a Hotel, says Bielfeld; but can be put up with;--worst feature is, we
discover a Hanover acquaintance lodging close by, nothing but a wooden
partition between us: How if he should overhear!--
Prussian Majesty and suite, under universal cannon-salvos, arrived,
Sunday the 12th; to stay till Wednesday (three days) with his august
Son-in-law and Daughter here. Durchlaucht Lippe presents himself at
Court, the rest of us not; privately settles with the Prince: "Tuesday
night, eve of his Majesty's departure; that shall be the night: at
Korn's Hotel, late enough!" And there, accordingly, on the appointed
night, 14th-15th August, 1738, the light-luggage trunks have yielded
their stage-properties; Jachin and Boaz are set up, and all things are
ready; Tiler (Kielmannsegge's Valet) watching with drawn sword
against the profane. As to our Hanover neighbor, on the other side
the partition, says Bielfeld, we waited on him, this day after dinner,
successively paying our respects; successively pledged him in so
many bumpers, he is lying dead drunk hours ago, could not overhear a
cannon-battery, he. And soon after midnight, the Crown-Prince glides in,
a Captain Wartensleben accompanying, who is also a candidate; and the
mysterious rites are accomplished on both of them, on the Crown-Prince
first, without accident, and in the usual way.
Bielfeld could not enough admire the demeanor of this Prince, his
clearness, sense, quiet brilliancy; and how he was so "intrepid,"
and "possessed himself so gracefully in the most critical instants."
Extremely genial air, and so young, looks younger even than his years:
handsome to a degree, though of short stature. Physiognomy, features,
quite charming; fine auburn hair (BEAU BRUN), a negligent plenty of it;
"his large blue eyes have something at once severe, sweet and gracious."
Eligible Mason indeed. Had better make despatch at present, lest Papa
be getting on the road before him!--Bielfeld delivered a small address,
composed beforehand; with which the Prince seemed to be content. And
so, with masonic grip, they made their adieus for the present; and the
Crown-Prince and Wartensleben were back at their posts, ready for the
road along with his Majesty.
His Majesty came on Sunday; goes on Wednesday, home now at a stretch;
and, we hope, has had a good time of it here, these three days. Daughter
Charlotte and her Serene Husband, well with their subjects, well with
one another, are doing well; have already two little Children; a Boy
the elder, of whom we have heard: Boy's name is Karl, age now three;
sprightly, reckoned very clever, by the fond parents;--who has many
things to do in the world, by and by; to attack the French Revolution,
and be blown to pieces by it on the Field of Jena, for final thing!
That is the fate of little Karl, who frolics about here, so sunshiny and
ingenuous at present.
Karl's Grandmother, the Serene Dowager Duchess, Friedrich's own
Mother-in-law, his Majesty and Friedrich would also of course see
here. Fine Younger Sons of hers are coming forward; the reigning Duke
beautifully careful about the furtherance of these Cadets of the House.
Here is Prince Ferdinand, for instance; just getting ready for the Grand
Tour; goes in a month hence: [Mauvillon (FILS, son of him whom we cite
otherwise), _Geschichte Ferdinands Herzogs von Braunschweig-Luneburg_
(Leipzig, 1794), i. 17-25.] a fine eupeptic loyal young fellow; who,
in a twenty years more, will be Chatham's Generalissimo, and fight
the French to some purpose. A Brother of his, the next elder, is now
fighting the Turks for his Kaiser; does not like it at all, under such
Seckendorfs and War-Ministries as there are. Then, elder still, eldest
of all the Cadets, there is Anton Ulrich, over at Petersburg for some
years past, with outlooks high enough: To wed the Mecklenburg Princess
there (Daughter of the unutterable Duke), and be as good as Czar of
all the Russias one day. Little to his profit, poor soul!--These,
historically ascertainable, are the aspects of the Brunswick Court
during those three days of Royal Visit, in Fair-time; and may serve to
date the Masonic Transaction for us, which the Crown-Prince has just
accomplished over at Korn's.
As for the Transaction itself, there is intrinsically no harm in this
initiation, we will hope: but it behooves to be kept well hidden from
Papa. Papa's good opinion of the Prince has sensibly risen, in the
course of this Journey, "so rational, serious, not dangling about among
the women as formerly;"--and what a shock would this of Korn's Hotel be,
should Papa hear of it! Poor Papa, from officious tale-bearers he hears
many things: is in distress about Voltaire, about Heterodoxies;--and
summoned the Crown-Prince, by express, from Reinsberg, on one occasion
lately, over to Potsdam, "to take the Communion" there, by way of
case-hardening against Voltaire and Heterodoxies! Think of it, human
readers!--We will add the following stray particulars, more or less
illustrative of the Masonic Transaction; and so end that trifling
affair.
The Captain Wartensleben, fellow-recipient of the mysteries at
Brunswick, is youngest son, by a second marriage, of old Feldmarschall
Wartensleben, now deceased; and is consequently Uncle, Half-Uncle, of
poor Lieutenant Katte, though some years younger than Katte would now
have been. Tender memories hang by Wartensleben, in a silent way! He
is Captain in the Potsdam Giants; somewhat an intimate, and not
undeservedly so, of the Crown-Prince;--succeeds Wolden as Hofmarschall
at Reinsberg, not many months after this; Wolden having died of an
apoplectic stroke. Of Bielfeld comes a Book, slightly citable; from
no other of the Brethren, or their Feat at Kern's, comes (we may say)
anything whatever. The Crown-Prince prosecuted his Masonry, at Reinsberg
or elsewhere, occasionally, for a year or two; but was never ardent
in it; and very soon after his Accession, left off altogether:
"Child's-play and IGNIS FATUUS mainly!" A Royal Lodge was established at
Berlin, of which the new King consented to be patron; but he never once
entered the place; and only his Portrait (a welcomely good one, still
to be found there) presided over the mysteries in that Establishment.
Harmless "fire," but too "fatuous;" mere flame-circles cut in the air,
for infants, we know how!--
With Lippe-Buckeburg there ensued some Correspondence, high enough on
his Serenity's side; but it soon languished on the Prince's side; and
in private Poetry, within a two years of this Brunswick scene, we find
Lippe used proverbially for a type-specimen of Fools. ["Taciturne,
Caton, avec mes bons parents, Aussi fou que la Lippe met les jeunes
gens." _OEuvres,_ xi. 80 (_Discours sur la Faussete,_ written 1740).]
A windy fantastic individual;--overwhelmed in finance-difficulties too!
Lippe continued writing; but "only Secretaries now answered him" from
Berlin. A son of his, son and successor, something of a Quixote too, but
notable in Artillery-practice and otherwise, will turn up at a future
stage.
Nor is Bielfeld with his Book a thing of much moment to Friedrich or to
us. Bielfeld too has a light airy vein of talk; loves Voltaire and the
Philosophies in a light way;--knows the arts of Society, especially
the art of flattering; and would fain make himself agreeable to the
Crown-Prince, being anxious to rise in the world. His Father is a
Hamburg Merchant, Hamburg "Sealing-wax Manufacturer," not ill off
for money: Son has been at schools, high schools, under tutors,
posture-masters; swashes about on those terms, with French ESPRIT in his
mouth, and lace ruffles at his wrists; still under thirty; showy enough,
sharp enough; considerably a coxcomb, as is still evident. He did
transiently get about Friedrich, as we shall see; and hoped to have sold
his heart to good purpose there;--was, by and by, employed in slight
functions; not found fit for grave ones. In the course of some years,
he got a title of Baron; and sold his heart more advantageously, to some
rich Widow or Fraulein; with whom he retired to Saxony, and there lived
on an Estate he had purchased, a stranger to Prussia thenceforth.
His Book (_Lettres Familieres et Autres,_ all turning on Friedrich),
which came out in 1763, at the height of Friedrich's fame, and was
much read, is still freely cited by Historians as an Authority. But the
reading of a few pages sufficiently intimates that these "Letters"
never can have gone through a terrestrial Post-office; that they are an
afterthought, composed from vague memory and imagination, in that fine
Saxon retreat;--a sorrowful ghost-like "TRAVELS OF ANACHARSIS," instead
of living words by an eye-witness! Not to be cited "freely" at all,
but sparingly and under conditions. They abound in small errors,
in misdates, mistakes; small fictions even, and impossible
pretensions:--foolish mortal, to write down his bit of knowledge in that
form! For the man, in spite of his lace ruffles and gesticulations, has
brisk eyesight of a superficial kind: he COULD have done us this little
service (apparently his one mission in the world, for which Nature gave
him bed and board here); and he, the lace ruffles having gone into his
soul, has been tempted into misdoing it!--Bielfeld and Bielfeld's
Book, such as they are, appear to be the one conquest Friedrich got of
Freemasonry; no other result now traceable to us of that adventure in
Korn's Hotel, crowning event of the Journey to Loo.
SECKENDORF GETS LODGED IN GRATZ.
Feldmarschall Seckendorf, after unheard-of wrestlings with the Turk
War, and the Vienna War-Office (HOFKRIEGSRATH), is sitting, for the last
three weeks,--where thinks the reader?--in the Fortress of Gratz among
the Hills of Styria; a State-Prisoner, not likely to get out soon!
Seckendorf led forth, in 1737, "such an Army, for number, spirit and
equipment," say the Vienna people, "as never marched against the Turk
before;" and it must be owned, his ill success has been unparalleled.
The blame was not altogether his; not chiefly his, except for his rash
undertaking of the thing, on such terms as there were. But the truth
is, that first scene we saw of him,--an Army all gone out trumpeting and
drumming into the woods to FIND its Commander-in-Chief,--was an emblem
of the Campaign in general. Excellent Army; but commanded by nobody in
particular; commanded by a HOFKRIEGSRATH at Vienna, by a Franz Duke
of Tuscany, by Feldmarschall Seckendorf, and by subordinates who were
disobedient to him: which accordingly, almost without help of the Turk
and his disorderly ferocity, rubbed itself to pieces before long. Roamed
about, now hither now thither, with plans laid and then with plans
suddenly altered, Captain being Chaos mainly; in swampy countries, by
overflowing rivers, in hunger, hot weather, forced marches; till it was
marched gradually off its feet; and the clouds of chaotic Turks, who
did finally show face, had a cheap pennyworth of it. Never was such a
campaign seen as this of Seckendorf in 1737, said mankind. Except
indeed that the present one, Campaign of 1738, in those parts, under a
different hand, is still worse; and the Campaign of 1739, under still a
different, will be worst of all!--Kaiser Karl and his Austrians do not
prosper in this Turk War, as the Russians do,--who indeed have got
a General equal to his task: Munnich, a famed master in the art of
handling Turks and War-Ministries: real father of Russian Soldiering,
say the Russians still. [See MANNSTEIN for Munnich's plans with the
Turk (methods and devices of steady Discipline in small numbers VERSUS
impetuous Ferocity in great); and Berenhorst (_Betrachtungen uber die
Kriegskunst,_ Leipzig, 1796), a first-rate Authority, for examples and
eulogies of them.]
Campaign 1737, with clouds of chaotic Turks now sabring on the skirts of
it, had not yet ended, when Seckendorf was called out of it; on polite
pretexts, home to Vienna; and the command given to another. At the
gates of Vienna, in the last days of October, 1737, an Official Person,
waiting for the Feldmarschall, was sorry to inform him, That he,
Feldmarschall Seckendorf, was under arrest; arrest in his own house,
in the KOHLMARKT (Cabbage-market so called), a captain and twelve
musketeers to watch over him with fixed bayonets there; strictly
private, till the HOFKRIEGSRATH had satisfied themselves in a point
or two. "Hmph!" snuffled he; with brow blushing slate-color, I should
think, and gray eyes much alight. And ever since, for ten months or so,
Seckendorf, sealed up in the Cabbage-market, has been fencing for
life with the HOFKRIEGSRATH; who want satisfaction upon "eighty-six"
different "points;" and make no end of chicaning to one's clear answers.
And the Jesuits preach, too: "A Heretic, born enemy of Christ and his
Kaiser; what is the use of questioning!" And the Heathen rage, and all
men gnash their teeth, in this uncomfortable manner.
Answering done, there comes no verdict, much less any acquittal; the
captain and twelve musketeers, three of them with fixed bayonets in
one's very bedroom, continue. One evening, 21st July, 1738, glorious
news from the seat of War--not TILL evening, as the Imperial Majesty
was out hunting--enters Vienna; blowing trumpets; shaking flags: "Grand
Victory over the Turks!" so we call some poor skirmish there has been;
and Vienna bursting all into three-times-three, the populace get very
high. Populace rush to the Kohlmarkt: break the Seckendorf windows;
intent to massacre the Seckendorf; had not fresh military come, who were
obliged to fire and kill one or two. "The house captain and his twelve
musketeers, of themselves, did wonders; Seckendorf and all his domestics
were in arms:" "JARNI-BLEU" for the last time!--This is while the
Crown-Prince is at Wesel; sound asleep, most likely; Loo, and the
Masonic adventure, perhaps twinkling prophetically in his dreams.
At two next morning, an Official Gentleman informs Seckendorf, That
he, for his part, must awaken, and go to Gratz. And in one hour more (3
A.M.), the Official Gentleman rolls off with him; drives all day; and
delivers his Prisoner at Gratz:--"Not so much as a room ready there;
Prisoner had to wait an hour in the carriage," till some summary
preparation were made. Wall-neighbors of the poor Feldmarschall, in his
Fortress here, were "a GOLD-COOK (swindling Alchemist), who had gone
crazy; and an Irish Lieutenant, confined thirty-two years for some
love-adventure, likewise pretty crazy; their noises in the night-time
much disturbed the Feldmarschall." [_Seckendorfs Leben,_ ii. 170-277
pp. 27-59.] One human thing there still is in his lot, the
Feldmarschall's old Grafinn. True old Dame, she, both in the Kohlmarkt
and at Gratz, stands by him, "imprisoned along with him" if it must be
so; ministering, comforting, as only a true Wife can;--and hope has not
quite taken wing.
Rough old Feldmarschall; now turned of sixty: never made such a Campaign
before, as this of 1737 followed by 1738! There sits he; and will not
trouble us any more during the present Kaiser's lifetime. Friedrich
Wilhelm is amazed at these sudden cantings of Fortune's wheel, and
grieves honestly as for an old friend: even the Crown-Prince finds
Seckendorf punished unjustly; and is almost, sorry for him, after all
that has come and gone.
THE EAR OF JENKINS RE-EMERGES.
We must add the following, distilled from the English Newspapers, though
it is now almost four months after date:--
"LONDON, 1st APRIL, 1738. In the English House of Commons, much more
in the English Public, there has been furious debating for a fortnight
past: Committee of the whole House, examining witnesses, hearing
counsel; subject, the Termagant of Spain, and her West-Indian
procedures;--she, by her procedures somewhere, is always cutting out
work for mankind! How English and other strangers, fallen-in with in
those seas, are treated by the Spaniards, readers have heard, nay have
chanced to see; and it is a fact painfully known to all nations. Fact
which England, for one nation, can no longer put up with. Walpole and
the Official Persons would fain smooth the matter; but the West-India
Interest, the City, all Mercantile and Navigation Interests are in dead
earnest: Committee of the whole House, 'Presided by Alderman Perry,' has
not ears enough to hear the immensities of evidence offered; slow Public
is gradually kindling to some sense of it. This had gone on for two
weeks, when--what shall we say?--the EAR OF JENKINS re-emerged for the
second time; and produced important effects!
"Where Jenkins had been all this while,--steadfastly navigating to and
fro, steadfastly eating tough junk with a wetting of rum; not thinking
too much of past labors, yet privately 'always keeping his lost Ear in
cotton' (with a kind of ursine piety, or other dumb feeling),--no mortal
now knows. But to all mortals it is evident he was home in London at
this time; no doubt a noted member of Wapping society, the much-enduring
Jenkins. And witnesses, probably not one but many, had mentioned him to
this Committee, as a case eminently in point. Committee, as can still
be read in its Rhadamanthine Journals, orders: 'DIE JOVIS, 16*
MARTII 1737-1738, That Captain Robert Jenkins do attend this House
immediately;' and then more specially, '17* MARTII' captious objections
having risen in Official quarters, as we guess,--'That Captain Robert
Jenkins do attend upon Tuesday morning next.' [_Commons Journals,_
xxiii. (in diebus).] Tuesday next is 21st March,--1st of April, 1738, by
our modern Calendar;--and on that day, not a doubt, Jenkins does attend;
narrates that tremendous passage we already heard of, seven years ago,
in the entrance of the Gulf of Florida; and produces his Ear wrapt in
cotton:--setting all on flame (except the Official persons) at sight of
it."
Official persons, as their wont is in the pressure of debate, endeavored
to deny, to insinuate in their vile Newspapers, That Jenkins lost his
Ear nearer home and not for nothing; as one still reads in the History
Books. [Tindal (xx. 372). Coxe, &c.] Sheer calumnies, we now find.
Jenkins's account was doubtless abundantly emphatic; but there is no
ground to question the substantial truth of him and it. And so, after
seven years of unnoticeable burning upon the thick skin of the English
Public, the case of Jenkins accidentally burns through, and sets England
bellowing; such a smart is there of it,--not to be soothed by Official
wet-cloths; but getting worse and worse, for the nineteen months
ensuing. And in short--But we will not anticipate!