Majesty seeing all these matters well in train,--Salzburgers under way,
Crown-Prince betrothed according to his Majesty's and the Kaiser's (not
to her Majesty's, and high-flying little George of England my Brother
the Comedian's) mind and will,--begins to think seriously of another
enterprise, half business, half pleasure, which has been hovering in
his mind for some time. "Visit to my Daughter at Baireuth," he calls it
publicly; but it means intrinsically Excursion into Bohmen, to have a
word with the Kaiser, and see his Imperial Majesty in the body for once.
Too remarkable a thing to be omitted by us here.
Crown-Prince does not accompany on this occasion; Crown-Prince is with
his Regiment all this while; busy minding his own affairs in the
Ruppin quarter;--only hears, with more or less interest, of these
Salzburg-Pilgrim movements, of this Excursion into Bohmen. Here are
certain scraps of Letters; which, if once made legible, will assist
readers to conceive his situation and employments there. Letters
otherwise of no importance; but worth reading on that score. The FIRST
(or rather first three, which we huddle into one) is from "Nauen," few
miles off Ruppin; where one of our Battalions lies; requiring frequent
visits there:--
1. TO GRUMKOW, AT BERLIN (from the Crown-Prince).
"NAUEN, 26th April, 1732.
"MONSIEUR MY DEAREST FRIEND,--I send you a big mass of papers, which a
certain gentleman named Plotz has transmitted me. In faith, I know not
in the least what it is: I pray you present it [to his Majesty, or in
the proper quarter], and make me rid of it.
"To-morrow I go to Potsdam [a drive of forty miles southward], to see
the exercise, and if we do it here according to pattern. NEUE BESEN
KEHREN GUT [New brooms sweep clean, IN GERMAN]; I shall have to
illustrate my new character" of Colonel; "and show that I am EIN
TUCHTIGER OFFICIER (a right Officer). Be what I may, I shall to you
always be", &c. &c.
NAUEN, 7th MAY, 1732. "... Thousand thanks for informing me how
everything goes on in the world. Things far from agreeable, those
leagues [imaginary, in Tobacco-Parliament] suspected to be forming
against our House! But if the Kaiser don't abandon us;... if God second
the valor of 80,000 men resolved to spend their life,... let us hope
there will nothing bad happen.
"Meanwhile, till events arrive, I make a pretty stir here (ME TREMOUSSE
ICI D'IMPORTANCE), to bring my Regiment to its requisite perfection,
and I hope I shall succeed. The other day I drank your dear health,
Monsieur; and I wait only the news from my Cattle-stall that the Calf
I am fattening there is ready for sending to you. I unite Mars and
Housekeeping, you see. Send me your Secretary's name, that I may address
your Letters that way,"--our Correspondence needing to be secret in
certain quarters.
... "With a" truly infinite esteem, "FREDERIC."
NAUEN, 10th MAY, 1732. "You will see by this that I am exact to follow
your instruction; and that the SCHULZ of Tremmen [Village in the
Brandenburg quarter, with a SCHULZ or Mayor to be depended on], becomes
for the present the mainspring of our correspondence. I return you all
the things (PIECES) you had the goodness to communicate to me,--except
_Charles Douze,_ [Voltaire's new Book; lately come out, "Bale, 1731."]
which attaches me infinitely. The particulars hitherto unknown which
he reports; the greatness of that Prince's actions, and the perverse
singularity (BIZARRERIE) of his fortune: all this, joined to the lively,
brilliant and charming way the Author has of telling it, renders this
Book interesting to the supreme degree.... I send you a fragment of my
correspondence with the most illustrious Sieur Crochet," some French
Envoy or Emissary, I conclude: "you perceive we go on very sweetly
together, and are in a high strain. I am sorry I burnt one of his
Letters, wherein he assured me he would in the Versailles Antechamber
itself speak of me to the King, and that my name had actually been
mentioned at the King's Levee. It certainly is not my ambition to choose
this illustrious mortal to publish my renown; on the contrary, I
should think it soiled by such a mouth, and prostituted if he were the
publisher. But enough of the Crochet: the kindest thing we can do for
so contemptible an object is to say nothing of him at all." [_OEuvres de
Frederic,_ xvi. 49, 51.]--...
Letter SECOND is to Jaagermeister Hacke, Captain of the Potsdam Guard;
who stands in great nearness to the King's Majesty; and, in fact,
is fast becoming his factotum in Army-details. We, with the Duke of
Lorraine and Majesty in person, saw his marriage to the Excellency
Creutz's Fraulein Daughter not long since; who we trust has made him
happy;--rich he is at any rate, and will be Adjutant-General before
long; powerful in such intricacies as this that the Prince has fallen
into.
The Letter has its obscurities; turns earnestly on Recruits tall and
short; nor have idle Editors helped us, by the least hint towards
"reading" it with more than the EYES. Old Dessauer at this time is
Commandant at Magdeburg; Buddenbrock, perhaps now passing by Ruppin, we
know for a high old General, fit to carry messages from Majesty,--or,
likelier, it may be Lieutenant Buddenbrock, his Son, merely returning to
Ruppin? We can guess, that the flattering Dessauer has sent his Majesty
five gigantic men from the Magdeburg regiments, and that Friedrich is
ordered to hustle out thirty of insignificant stature from his own, by
way of counter-gift to the Dessauer;--which Friedrich does instantly,
but cannot, for his life, see how (being totally cashless) he is to
replace them with better, or replace them at all!
2. TO CAPTAIN HACKE, OF THE POTSDAM GUARD.
"RUPPIN, 15th July, 1732.
"MEIN GOTT, what a piece of news Buddenbrock has brought me! I am to get
nothing out of Brandenburg, my dear Hacke? Thirty men I had to shift out
of my company in consequence [of Buddenbrock's order]; and where am I
now to get other thirty? I would gladly give the King tall men, as the
Dessauer at Magdeburg does; but I have no money; and I don't get, or
set up for getting, six men for one [thirty short for five tall], as he
does. So true is that Scripture: To him that hath shall be given; and
from him that hath not shall be taken away even that he hath.
"Small art, that the Prince of Dessau's and the Magdeburg Regiments are
fine, when they have money at command, and thirty men GRATIS over
and above! I, poor devil, have nothing; nor shall have, all my days.
Prithee, dear Hacke (BITTE IHN, LIEBER HACKE), think of all that: and
if I have no money allowed, I must bring Asmus [Recruit unknown to
me] alone as Recruit next year; and my Regiment will to a certainty be
rubbish (KROOP). Once I had learned a German Proverb--
'VERSPRECHEN UND HALTEN (To promise and to keep)
ZIEMT WOHL JUNGEN UND ALTEN (Is pretty for young and for old)!'
"I depend alone on you (IHN), dear Hacke; unless you help, there is a
bad outlook. To-day I have knocked again [written to Papa for money];
and if that does not help, it is over. If I could get any money to
borrow, it would do; but I need not think of that. Help me, then, dear
Hacke! I assure you I will ever remember it; who, at all times, am my
dear Herr Captain's devoted (GANZ ERGEBENER) servant and friend,
"FRIDERICH."
[In German: _OEuvres,_ xxvii. part 3d, p. 177.]
To which add only this Note, two days later, to Seckendorf;
indicating that the process of "borrowing" has already, in some form,
begun,--process which will have to continue: and to develop itself;--and
that his Majesty, as Seckendorf well knows, is resolved upon his
Bohemian journey:--
3. TO THE GENERAL FELDZEUGMEISTER GRAF VON SECKENDORF.
"RUPPIN, 17th July, 1732.
"MY VERY DEAR GENERAL,--I have written to the King, that I owed you
2,125 THALERS for the Recruits; of which he says there are 600 paid:
there remain, therefore, 1,525, which he will pay you directly.
"The King is going to Prague: I shall not be of the party [as you will].
To say truth, I am not very sorry; for it would infallibly give rise to
foolish rumors in the world. At the same time, I should have much wished
to see the Emperor, Empress, and Prince of Lorraine, for whom I have a
quite particular esteem. I beg you, Monsieur, to assure him of it;--and
to assure yourself that I shall always be,--with a great deal of
consideration, MONSIEUR, MON TRES-CHER GENERAL, &c. FREDERIC."
And now--for the Bohemian Journey, "Visit at Kladrup" as they call
it;--Ruppin being left in this assiduous and wholesome, if rather
hampered condition.
Kaiser Karl and his Empress, in this summer of 1732, were at Karlsbad,
taking the waters for a few weeks. Friedrich Wilhelm, who had long, for
various reasons, wished to see his Kaiser face to face, thought this
would be a good opportunity. The Kaiser himself, knowing how it stood
with the Julich-and-Berg and other questions, was not anxious for such
an interview; still less were his official people; among whom the
very ceremonial for such a thing was matter of abstruse difficulty.
Seckendorf accordingly had been instructed to hunt wide, and throw in
discouragements, so far as possible;--which he did, but without effect.
Friedrich Wilhelm had set his heart upon the thing; wished to behold for
once a Head of the Holy Roman Empire, and Supreme of Christendom;--also
to see a little, with his own eyes, into certain matters Imperial.
And so, since an express visit to Karlsbad might give rise to newspaper
rumors, and will not suit, it is settled, there shall be an accidental
intersection of routes, as the Kaiser travels homeward,--say in some
quiet Bohemian Schloss or Hunting-seat of the Kaiser's own, whither
the King may come incognito; and thus, with a minimum of noise, may
the needful passage of hospitality be done. Easy all of this: only the
Vienna Ministers are dreadfully in doubt about the ceremonial,
Whether the Imperial hand can be given (I forget if for kissing or for
shaking)?--nay at last they manfully declare that it cannot be given;
and wish his Prussian Majesty to understand that it must be refused.
[Forster, i. 328.] "RES SUMMAE CONSEQUENTIAE," say they; and shake
solemnly their big wigs.--Nonsense (NARRENPOSSEN)! answers the Prussian
Majesty: You, Seckendorf, settle about quarters, reasonable food,
reasonable lodgings; and I will do the ceremonial.
Seckendorf--worth glancing into, for biographical purposes, in this
place--has written to his Court: That as to the victual department, his
Majesty goes upon good common meat; flesh, to which may be added all
manner of river-fish and crabs: sound old Rhenish is his drink, with
supplements of brown and of white beer. Dinner-table to be spread always
in some airy place, garden-house, tent, big clean barn,--Majesty likes
air, of all things;--will sleep, too, in a clean barn or garden-house:
better anything than being stifled, thinks his Majesty. Who, for the
rest, does not like mounting stairs. [Seckendorf's Report (in Forster,
i. 330).] These are the regulations; and we need not doubt they were
complied with.
Sunday, 27th July, 1732, accordingly, his Majesty, with five or six
carriages, quits Berlin, before the sun is up, as is his wont: eastward,
by the road for Frankfurt-on-Oder; "intends to look at Schulenburg's
regiment," which lies in those parts,--Schulenburg's regiment for
one thing: the rest is secret from the profane vulgar. Schulenburg's
regiment (drawn up for Church, I should suppose) is soon looked at;
Schulenburg himself, by preappointment, joins the travelling party,
which now consists of the King and Eight:--known figures, seven,
Buddenbrock, Schulenburg, Waldau, Derschau, Seckendorf; Grumkow, Captain
Hacke of the Potsdam Guard; and for eighth the Dutch Ambassador,
Ginkel, an accomplished knowing kind of man, whom also my readers have
occasionally seen. Their conversation, road-colloquy, could it interest
any modern reader? It has gone all to dusk; we can know only that it
was human, solid, for most part, and had much tobacco intermingled. They
were all of the Calvinistic persuasion, of the military profession;
knew that life is very serious, that speech without cause is much to be
avoided. They travelled swiftly, dined in airy places: they are a FACT,
they and their summer dust-cloud there, whirling through the vacancy of
that dim Time; and have an interest for us, though an unimportant one.
The first night they got to Grunberg; a pleasant Town, of vineyards
and of looms, across the Silesian frontier. They are now turning more
southeastward; they sleep here, in the Kaiser's territory, welcomed by
some Official persons; who signify that the overjoyed Imperial Majesty
has, as was extremely natural, paid the bill everywhere. On the morrow,
before the shuttles awaken, Friedrich Wilhelm is gone again; towards
the Glogau region, intending for Liegnitz that night. Coursing
rapidly through the green Silesian Lowlands, blue Giant Mountains
(RIESENGEBIRGE) beginning to rise on the southwestward far away. Dines,
at noon, under a splendid tent, in a country place called Polkwitz,
["Balkowitz," say Pollnitz (ii. 407) and Forster; which is not the
correct name.] with country Nobility (sorrow on them, and yet thanks to
them) come to do reverence. At night he gets to Liegnitz.
Here is Liegnitz, then. Here are the Katzbach and the Blackwater
(SCHWARZWASSER), famed in war, your Majesty; here they coalesce; gray
ashlar houses (not without inhabitants unknown to us) looking on. Here
are the venerable walls and streets of Liegnitz; and the Castle which
defied Baty Khan and his Tartars, five hundred years ago. [1241, the
Invasion, and Battle here, of this unexpected Barbarian.]--Oh, your
Majesty, this Liegnitz, with its princely Castle, and wide rich
Territory, the bulk of the Silesian Lowland, whose is it if right were
done? Hm, his Majesty knows full well; in Seckendorf's presence, and
going on such an errand, we must not speak of certain things. But the
undisputed truth is, Duke Friedrich II., come of the Sovereign Piasts,
made that ERBVERBRUDERUNG, and his Grandson's Grandson died childless:
so the heirship fell to us, as the biggest wig in the most benighted
Chancery would have to grant;--only the Kaiser will not, never would;
the Kaiser plants his armed self on Schlesien, and will hear no
pleading. Jagerndorf too, which we purchased with our own money---No
more of that; it is too miserable! Very impossible too, while we have
Berg and Julich in the wind!--
At Liegnitz, Friedrich Wilhelm "reviews the garrison, cavalry and
infantry," before starting; then off for Glatz, some sixty miles before
we can dine. The goal is towards Bohemia, all this while; and his
Majesty, had he liked the mountain-passes, and unlevel ways of the Giant
Mountains, might have found a shorter road and a much more picturesque
one. Road abounding in gloomy valleys, intricate rock-labyrinths, haunts
of Sprite RUBEZAHL, sources of the Elbe and I know not what. Majesty
likes level roads, and interesting rock-labyrinths built by man rather
than by Nature. Majesty makes a wide sweep round to the east of all
that; leaves the Giant Mountains, and their intricacies, as a blue
Sierra far on his right,--had rather see Glatz Fortress than the caverns
of the Elbe; and will cross into Bohemia, where the Hills are fallen
lowest. At Glatz during dinner, numerous Nobilities are again in
waiting. Glatz is in Jagerndorf region; Jagerndorf, which we purchased
with our own money, is and remains ours, in spite of the mishaps of the
Thirty-Years War;--OURS, the darkest Chancery would be obliged to
say, from under the immensest wig! Patience, your Majesty; Time brings
roses!--
From Glatz, after viewing the works, drilling the guard a little, not to
speak of dining, and despatching the Nobilities, his Majesty takes
the road again; turns now abruptly westward, across the Hills at their
lowest point; into Bohemia, which is close at hand. Lewin, Nachod,
these are the Bohemian villages, with their remnant of Czechs; not a
prosperous population to look upon: but it is the Kaiser's own
Kingdom: "King of Bohemia" one of his Titles ever since Sigismund
SUPER-GRAMMATICAM'S time. And here now, at the meeting of the waters
(Elbe one of them, a brawling mountain-stream) is Jaromierz, respectable
little Town, with an Imperial Officiality in it,--where the Official
Gentlemen meet us all in gala, "Thrice welcome to this Kingdom, your
Majesty!"--and signify that they are to wait upon us henceforth, while
we do the Kaiser's Kingdom of Bohemia that honor.
It is Tuesday night, 29th July, this first night in Bohemia. The
Official Gentlemen lead his Majesty to superb rooms, new-hung with
crimson velvet, and the due gold fringes and tresses,--very grand
indeed; but probably not so airy as we wish. "This is the way the Kaiser
lodges in his journeys; and your Majesty is to be served like him." The
goal of our journey is now within few miles. Wednesday, 30th July, 1732,
his Majesty awakens again, within these crimson-velvet hangings with
the gold tresses and fringes, not so airy as he could wish; despatches
Grumkow to the Kaiser, who is not many miles off, to signify what honor
we would do ourselves.
It was on Saturday last that the Kaiser and Kaiserinn, returning
from Karlsbad, illuminated Prag with their serene presence; "attended
high-mass, vespers," and a good deal of other worship, as the meagre old
Newspapers report for us, on that and the Sunday following. And then,
"on Monday, at six in the morning," both the Majesties left Prag, for
a place called Chlumetz, southwestward thirty miles off, in the Elbe
region, where they have a pretty Hunting Castle; Kaiser intending
"sylvan sport for a few days," says the old rag of a Newspaper, "and
then to return to Prag." It is here that Grumkow, after a pleasant
morning's drive of thirty miles with the sun on his back, finds Kaiser
Karl VI.; and makes his announcements, and diplomatic inquiries what
next.
Had Friedrich Wilhelm been in Potsdam or Wusterhausen, and heard that
Kaiser Karl was within thirty miles of him, Friedrich Wilhelm would have
cried, with open arms, Come, come! But the Imperial Majesty is otherwise
hampered; has his rhadamanthine Aulic Councillors, in vast amplitude of
wig, sternly engaged in study of the etiquettes: they have settled
that the meeting cannot be in Chlumetz; lest it might lead to
night's lodgings, and to intricacies. "Let it be at Kladrup," say the
Ample-wigged; Kladrup, an Imperial Stud, or Horse-Farm, half a dozen
miles from this; where there is room for nothing more than dinner. There
let the meeting be, to-morrow at a set hour; and, in the mean time, we
will take precautions for the etiquettes. So it is settled, and Grumkow
returns with the decision in a complimentary form.
Through Konigsgratz, down the right bank of the Upper Elbe, on the
morrow morning, Thursday, 31st July, 1732, Friedrich Wilhelm rushes on
towards Kladrup; finds that little village, with the Horse-edifices,
looking snug enough in the valley of Elbe;--alights, welcomed by Prince
Eugenio von Savoye, with word that the Kaiser is not come, but steadily
expected soon. Prinoe Eugenio von Savoye: ACH GOTT, it is another thing,
your Highness, than when we met in the Flanders Wars, long since;--at
Malplaquet that morning, when your Highness had been to Brussels,
visiting your Lady Mother in case of the worst! Slightly grayer your
Highness is grown; I too am nothing like so nimble; the great Duke, poor
man, is dead!--Prince Eugenio von Savoye, we need not doubt, took snuff,
and answered in a sprightly appropriate manner.
Kladrup is a Country House as well as a Horse-Farm: a square court is
the interior, as I gather; the Horse-buildings at a reverent distance
forming the fourth side. In the centre of this court,--see what a
contrivance the Aulic Councillors have hit upon,--there is a wooden
stand built, with three staircases leading up to it, one for each
person, and three galleries leading off from it into suites of rooms: no
question of precedence here, where each of you has his own staircase
and own gallery to his apartment! Friedrich Wilhelm looks down like
a rhinoceros on all those cobwebberies. No sooner are the Kaiser's
carriage-wheels heard within the court, than Friedrich Wilhelm rushes
down, by what staircase is readiest; forward to the very carriage-door;
and flings his arms about the Kaiser, embracing and embraced, like mere
human friends glad to see one another. On these terms, they mount the
wooden stand, Majesty of Prussia, Kaiser, Kaiserinn, each by his own
staircase; see, for a space of two hours, the Kaiser's foals and horses
led about,--which at least fills up any gap in conversation that may
threaten to occur. The Kaiser, a little man of high and humane air, is
not bright in talk; the Empress, a Brunswick Princess of fine carriage,
Grand-daughter of old Anton Ulrich who wrote the Novels, is likewise
of mute humor in public life; but old Nord-Teutschland, cradle of one's
existence; Brunswick reminiscences; news of your Imperial Majesty's
serene Father, serene Sister, Brother-in-law the Feldmarschall
and Insipid Niece whom we have had the satisfaction to betroth
lately,--furnish small-talk where needful.
Dinner being near, you go by your own gallery to dress. From the
drawing-room, Friedrich Wilhelm leads out the Kaiserinn; the Kaiser, as
Head of the world, walks first, though without any lady. How they drank
the healths, gave and received the ewers and towels, is written duly in
the old Books, but was as indifferent to Friedrich Wilhelm as it is to
us; what their conversation was, let no man presume to ask. Dullish, we
should apprehend,--and perhaps BETTER lost to us? But where there are
tongues, there are topics: the Loom of Time wags always, and with it the
tongues of men. Kaiser and Kaiserinn have both been in Karlsbad lately;
Kaiser and Kaiserinn both have sailed to Spain, in old days, and been in
sieges and things memorable: Friedrich Wilhelm, solid Squire Western
of the North, does not want for topics, and talks as a solid rustic
gentleman will. Native politeness he knows on occasion; to etiquette, so
far as concerns his own pretensions, he feels callous altogether,--dimly
sensible that the Eighteenth Century is setting in, and that solid
musketeers and not goldsticks are now the important thing. "I felt mad
to see him so humiliate himself," said Grumkow afterwards to Wilhelmina,
"J'ENRAGEAIS DANS MA PEAU:" why not?
Dinner lasted two hours; the Empress rising, Friedrich Wilhelm leads her
to her room; then retires to his own, and "in a quarter of an hour"
is visited there by the Kaiser; "who conducts him," in so many minutes
exact by the watch, "back to the Empress,"--for a sip of coffee, as one
hopes; which may wind up the Interview well. The sun is still a good
space from setting, when Friedrich Wilhelm, after cordial adieus,
neglectful of etiquette, is rolling rapidly towards Nimburg, thirty
miles off on the Prag Highway; and Kaiser Karl with his Spouse move
deliberately towards Chlumetz to hunt again. In Nimburg Friedrich
Wilhelm sleeps, that night;--Imperial Majesties, in a much-tumbled
world, of wild horses, ceremonial ewers, and Eugenios of Savoy and
Malplaquet, probably peopling his dreams. If it please Heaven, there may
be another private meeting, a day or two hence.
Nimburg, ah your Majesty, Son Fritz will have a night in Nimburg
too;--riding slowly thither amid the wrecks of Kolin Battle, not to
sleep well;--but that happily is hidden from your Majesty. Kolin,
Czaslau (Chotusitz), Elbe Teinitz,--here in this Kladrup region, your
Majesty is driving amid poor Villages which will be very famous by and
by. And Prag itself will be doubly famed in war, if your Majesty
knew it, and the Ziscaberg be of bloodier memory than the Weissenberg
itself!--His Majesty, the morrow's sun having risen upon Nimburg, rolls
into Prag successfully about eleven A.M., Hill of Zisca not disturbing
him; goes to the Klein-Seite Quarter, where an Aulic Councillor with
fine Palace is ready; all the cannon thundering from the walls at his
Majesty's advent; and Prince Eugenio, the ever-present, being there to
receive his Majesty,--and in fact to invite him to dinner this day at
half-past twelve. It is Friday, 1st of August, 1732.
By a singular chance, there is preserved for us in Fassmann's Book, what
we may call an Excerpt from the old _Morning Post_ of Prag, bringing
that extinct Day into clear light again; recalling the vanished
Dinner-Party from the realms of Hades, as a thing that once actually
WAS. The List of the Dinner-guests is given complete; vanished ghosts,
whom, in studying the old History-Books, you can, with a kind of
interest, fish up into visibility at will. There is Prince Eugenio von
Savoye at the bottom of the table, in the Count-Thun Palace where he
lodges; there bodily, the little man, in gold-laced coat of unknown cut;
the eyes and the tempers bright and rapid, as usual, or more; nose not
unprovided with snuff, and lips in consequence rather open. Be seated,
your Majesty, high gentlemen all.
A big chair-of-state stands for his Majesty at the upper end of the
table: his Majesty will none of it; sits down close by Prince Eugene at
the very bottom, and opposite Prince Alexander of Wurtemberg, whom we
had at Berlin lately, a General of note in the Turkish and other wars:
here probably there will be better talk; and the big chair may preside
over us in vacancy. Which it does. Prince Alexander, Imperial General
against the Turks, and Heir-Apparent of Wurtemberg withal, can speak of
many things,--hardly much of his serene Cousin the reigning Duke; whose
health is in a too interesting state, the good though unlucky man.
Of the Gravenitz sitting now in limbo, or travelling about disowned,
TOUJOURS UN LAVEMENT SES TROUSSES, let there be deep silence. But the
Prince Alexander can answer abundantly on other heads. He comes to his
inheritance a few months hence; actual reigning Duke, the poor serene
Cousin having died: and perhaps we shall meet, him transiently again.
He is Ancestor of the Czars of Russia, this Prince Alexander, who is now
dining here in the body, along with Friedrich Wilhelm and Prince
Eugene: Paul of Russia, unbeautiful Paul, married the second time, from
Mumpelgard (what the French call Montbeillard, in Alsace), a serene
Grand-daughter of his, from whom come the Czars,--thanks to her or
not. Prince Alexander is Ancestor withal of our present "Kings of
Wurtemberg," if that mean anything: Father (what will mean something) to
the serene Duke, still in swaddling-clothes, [Born 21st January,
1732; Carl Eugen the name of him (Michaelis, iii. 450).] who will
be son-in-law to Princess Wilhelmina of Baireuth (could your Majesty
foresee it); and will do strange pranks in the world, upon poet Schiller
and others. Him too, and Brothers of his, were they born and become
of size, we shall meet. A noticeable man, and not without sense, this
Prince Alexander; who is now of a surety eating with us,--as we find by
the extinct _Morning Post_ in Fassmann's old Book.
Of the others eating figures, Stahrembergs, Sternbergs, Kinsky
Ambassador to England, Kinsky Ambassador to France, high Austrian
dignitaries, we shall say nothing;--who would listen to us? Hardly can
the Hof-Kanzler Count von Sinzendorf, supreme of Aulic men, who holds
the rudder of Austrian State-Policy, and probably feels himself loaded
with importance beyond most mortals now eating here or elsewhere,--gain
the smallest recognition from oblivious English readers of our time. It
is certain he eats here on this occasion; and to his Majesty he does not
want for importance. His Majesty, intent on Julich and Berg and other
high matters, spends many hours next day, in earnest private dialogue
with him. We mention farther, with satisfaction, that Grumkow and
Ordnance-Master Seckendorf are both on the list, and all our Prussian
party, down to Hacke of the Potsdam grenadiers, friend Schulenburg
visibly eating among the others. Also that the dinner was glorious
(HERRLICH), and ended about five. [Fassmann, p. 474.] After which his
Majesty went to two evening parties, of a high order, in the Hradschin
Quarter or elsewhere; cards in the one (unless you liked to dance, or
grin idle talk from you), and supper in the other.
His Majesty amused himself for four other days in Prag, interspersing
long earnest dialogues with Sinzendorf, with whom he spent the greater
part of Saturday, [Pollnitz, ii. 411.]--results as to Julion and Berg of
a rather cloudy nature. On Saturday came the Kaiser, too, and Kaiserinn,
to their high Nouse, the Schloss in Prag; and there occurred, in the
incognito form, "as if by accident," three visits or counter-visits, two
of them of some length. The King went dashing about; saw, deliberately
or in glimpses, all manner of things,--from "the Military Hospital" to
"the Tongue of St. Nepomuk" again. Nepomuk, an imaginary Saint of those
parts; pitched into the Moldau, as is fancied and fabled, by wicked King
Wenzel (King and Deposed-Kaiser, whom we have heard of), for speaking
and refusing to speak; Nepomuk is now become the Patron of Bridges, in
consequence; stands there in bronze on the Bridge of Prag; and still
shows a dried Tongue in the world: [_Die Legende vom heiligen Johann von
Nepomuk, _von D. Otto Abel (Berlin, 1855); an acute bit of
Historical Criticism.] this latter, we expressly find, his Majesty saw.
On Sunday, his Majesty, nothing of a strait-laced man, attended divine
or quasi-divine worship in the Cathedral Church,--where high Prince
Bishops delivered PALLIUMS, did histrionisms; "manifested the ABSURDITAT
of Papistry" more or less. Coming out of the Church, he was induced to
step in and see the rooms of the Schloss, or Imperial Palace. In one of
the rooms, as if by accident, the Kaiser was found lounging:--"Extremely
delighted to see your Majesty!"--and they had the first of their long or
considerable dialogues together; purport has not transpired. The second
considerable dialogue was on the morrow, when Imperial Majesty, as if
by accident, found himself in the Count-Nostitz Palace, where Friedrich
Wilhelm lodges. Delighted to be so fortunate again! Hope your Majesty
likes Prag? Eternal friendship, OH JA:--and as to Julich and Berg?
Particulars have not transpired.
Prag is a place full of sights: his Majesty, dashing about in
all quarters, has a busy time; affairs of state (Julich and Berg
principally) alternating with what we now call the LIONS. Zisca's
drum, for instance, in the Arsenal here? Would your Majesty wish to see
Zisca's own skin, which he bequeathed to be a drum when HE had done
with it?"NARRENPOSSEN!"--for indeed the thing is fabulous, though in
character with Zisca. Or the Council-Chamber window, out of which "the
Three Prag Projectiles fell into the Night of things," as a modern
Historian expresses it? Three Official Gentlemen, flung out one
morning, [13th (23d) May, 1618 (Kohler, p. 507).] 70 feet, but fell on
"sewerage," and did not die, but set the whole world on fire? That is
too certain, as his Majesty knows: that brought the crowning of the
Winter-King, Battle of the Weissenberg, Thirty-Years War; and lost us
Jagerndorf and much else.
Or Wallenstein's Palace,--did your Majesty look at that? A thing worth
glancing at, on the score of History and even of Natural-History. That
rugged son of steel and gunpowder could not endure the least noise in
his sleeping-room or even sitting-room,--a difficulty in the soldiering
way of life;--and had, if I remember, one hundred and thirty houses torn
away in Prag, and sentries posted all round in the distance, to secure
silence for his much-meditating indignant soul. And yonder is the
Weissenberg, conspicuous in the western suburban region: and here in the
eastern, close by, is the Ziscaberg;--O Heaven, your Majesty, on
this Zisca-Hill will be a new "Battle of Prag," which will throw the
Weissenberg into eclipse; and there is awful fighting coming on in these
parts again!
The THIRD of the considerable dialogues in Prag was on this same Monday
night; when his Majesty went to wait upon the Kaiserinn, and the Kaiser
soon accidentally joined them. Precious gracious words passed;--on Berg
and Julich nothing particular, that we hear;--and the High Personages,
with assurances of everlasting friendship, said adieu; and met no
more in this world. On his toilet-table Friedrich Wilhelm found a gold
Tobacco-box, sent by the highest Lady extant; gold Tobacco-box, item
gold Tobacco-stopper or Pipe-picker: such the parting gifts of her
Imperial Majesty. Very precious indeed, and grateful to the honest
heart;--yet testifying too (as was afterwards suggested to the royal
mind) what these high people think of a rustic Orson King; and how they
fling their nose into the air over his Tabagies and him.
On the morrow morning early, Friedrich Wilhelm rolls away again
homewards, by Karlsbad, by Baireuth; all the cannon of Prag saying
thrice, Good speed to him. "He has had a glorious time," said the Berlin
Court-lady to Queen Sophie one evening, "no end of kindness from
the Imperial Majesties: but has he brought Berg and Julich in his
pocket?"--Alas, not a fragment of them; nor of any solid thing whatever,
except it be the gold Tobacco-box; and the confirmation of our claims
on East-Friesland (cheap liberty to let us vindicate them if we can),
if you reckon that a solid thing. These two Imperial gifts, such as they
are, he has consciously brought back with him;--and perhaps, though as
yet unconsciously, a third gift of much more value, once it is developed
into clearness: some dim trace of insight into the no-meaning of these
high people; and how they consider US as mere Orsons and wild Bisons,
whom they will do the honor to consume as provision, if we behave well!
The great King Friedrich, now Crown-Prince at Ruppin, writing of this
Journey long afterwards,--hastily, incorrectly, as his wont is, in
regard to all manner of minute outward particulars; and somewhat
maltreating, or at least misplacing, even the inward meaning, which was
well known to him WITHOUT investigation, but which he is at no trouble
to DATE for himself, and has dated at random,--says, in his thin rapid
way, with much polished bitterness:--
"His [King Friedrich Wilhelm's] experience on this occasion served to
prove that good-faith and the virtues, so contrary to the corruption of
the age, do not succeed in it. Politicians have banished sincerity (LA
CANDEUR) into private life: they look upon themselves as raised quite
above the laws which they enjoin on other people; and give way without
reserve to the dictates of their own depraved mind.
"The guaranty of Julich and Berg, which Seckendorf had formally
promised in the name of the Emperor, went off in smoke; and the Imperial
Ministers were in a disposition so opposed to Prussia, the King saw
clearly [not for some years yet] that if there was a Court in Europe
intending to cross his interests, it was certainly that of Vienna. This
Visit of his to the Emperor was like that of Solon to Croesus [Solon not
I recognizable, in the grenadier costume, amid the tobacco-smoke, and
dim accompaniments?]--and he returned to Berlin, rich still in his own
virtue. The most punctilious censors could find no fault in his conduct,
except a probity carried to excess. The Interview ended as those of
Kings often do: it cooled [not for some time yet], or, to say better,
it extinguished the friendship there had been between the two Courts.
Friedrich Wilhelm left Prag full of contempt [dimly, altogether
unconsciously, tending to have some contempt, and in the end to be full
of it] for the deceitfulness and pride of the Imperial Court: and the
Emperor's Ministers disdained a Sovereign who looked without interest on
frivolous ceremonials and precedences. Him they considered too ambitious
in aiming at the Berg-and-Julich succession: them he regarded [came to
regard] as a pack of knaves, who had broken their word, and were not
punished for it."
Very bitter, your Majesty; and, in all but the dates, true enough.
But what a drop of concentrated absinthe follows next, by way of
finish,--which might itself have corrected the dating!
"In spite of so many subjects of discontent, the King wedded his Eldest
Son [my not too fortunate self], out of complaisance to the
Vienna Court, with a Princess of Brunswick-Bevern, Niece to the
Empress:"--bitter fact; necessitating change of date in the paragraphs
just written. [_OEuvres de Frederic (Memoires de Brandenbourg),_ i. 162,
163.]
Friedrich Wilhelm, good soul, cherishes the Imperial gifts, Tobacco-box
included;--claps the Arms of East-Friesland on his escutcheon; will take
possession of Friesland, if the present Duke die heirless, let George of
England say what he will. And so he rolls homeward, by way of Baireuth.
He stayed but a short while in Karlsbad; has warned his Wilhelmina that
he will be at Baireuth on the 9th of the month. [Wilhelmina, ii. 55.]
Wilhelmina is very poorly; "near her time," as wives say; rusticating
in "the Hermitage," a Country-House in the vicinity of Baireuth; Husband
and Father-in-law gone away, towards the Bohemian frontier, to hunt
boars. Oh, the bustle and the bother that high Lady had; getting her
little Country House stretched out to the due pitch to accommodate
everybody,--especially her foolish Sister of Anspach and foolish
Brother-in-law and suite,--with whom, by negligence of servants and
otherwise, there had like to have risen incurable quarrel on the matter.
But the dexterous young Wife, gladdest; busiest and weakliest of hopeful
creatures, contrived to manage everything, like a Female Fieldmarshal,
as she was. Papa was delighted; bullied the foolish Anspach people,--or
would have done so, had not I intervened, that the matter might die.
Papa was gracious, happy; very anxious about me in my interesting state.
"Thou hast lodged me to perfection, good Wilhelmina. Here I find my
wooden stools, tubs to wash in; all things as if I were at Potsdam:--a
good girl; and thou must take care of thyself, my child (MEIN KIND)."
At dinner, his Majesty, dreading no ill, but intent only on the
practical, got into a quiet, but to me most dreadful, lecture to the old
Margraf (my Father-in-law) upon debt and money and arrears: How he, the
Margraf, was cheated at every turn, and led about by the nose, and
kept weltering in debt: how he should let the young Margraf go into the
Offices, to supervise, and withal to learn tax-matters and economics
betimes. How he (Friedrich Wilhelm) would send him a fellow from Berlin
who understood such things, and would drill his scoundrels for him!
To which the old Margraf, somewhat flushed in the face, made some
embarrassed assent, knowing it in fact to be true; and accepted the
Berlin man:--but he made me (his poor Daughter-in-law) smart for
it afterwards: "Not quite dead YET, Madam; you will have to wait a
little!"--and other foolish speech; which required to be tempered down
again by a judicious female mind.
Grumkow himself was pleasant on this occasion; told us of Kladrup, the
Prag etiquettes; and how he was like to go mad seeing his Majesty so
humiliate himself. Fraulein Grumkow, a niece of his, belonging to the
Austrian court, who is over here with the rest, a satirical intriguing
baggage, she, I privately perceive, has made a conquest of my foolish
Brother-in-law, the Anspach Margraf here;--and there will be jealousies,
and a cat-and-dog life over yonder, worse than ever! Tush, why should
we talk?--These are the phenomena at Baireuth; Husband and Father-in-law
having quitted their boar-hunt and hurried home.
After three days, Friedrich Wilhelm rolled away again; lodged, once
more, at Meuselwitz, with abstruse Seckendorf, and his good old Wife,
who do the hospitalities well when they must, in spite of the single
candle once visible. On the morrow after which, 14th August, 1732,
his Majesty is off again, "at four in the morning," towards Leipzig,
intending to be home that night, though it is a long drive. At Leipzig,
not to waste time, he declines entering the Town; positively will not,
though the cannon-salvos are booming all round;--"breakfasts in the
suburbs, with a certain Horse-dealer (ROSS-HANDLER) now deceased:" a
respectable Centaur, capable, no doubt, of bargaining a little about
cavalry mountings, while one eats, with appetite and at one's ease.
Which done, Majesty darts off again, the cannon-salvos booming out a
second time;--and by assiduous driving gets home to Potsdam about eight
at night. And so has happily ENDED this Journey to Kladrup: [Fassmann,
pp. 474-479; Wilhelmina, ii. 46-55; Pollnitz, ii. 407-412; Forster, i.
328-334.]