In the Autumn of 1717, Peter the Great, coming home from his celebrated
French journey, paid Friedrich Wilhelm a visit; and passed four days at
Berlin. Of which let us give one glimpse, if we can with brevity.
Friedrich Wilhelm and the Czar, like in several points, though so
dissimilar in others, had always a certain regard for one another; and
at this time, they had been brought into closer intercourse by their
common peril from Charles XII., ever since that Stralsund business. The
peril was real, especially with a Gortz and Alberoni putting hand to it;
and the alarm, the rumor, and uncertainty were great in those years. The
wounded Lion driven indignant into his lair, with Plotting Artists now
operating upon the rage of the noble animal: who knows what spring he
will next take? George I. had a fleet cruising in the Baltic Sounds,
and again a fleet;--paying, in that oblique way, for Bremen and Verden;
which were got, otherwise, such a bargain to his Hanover. Czar Peter
had marched an Army into Denmark; united Russians and Danes count fifty
thousand there; for a conjunct invasion, and probable destruction, of
Sweden: but that came to nothing; Charles looking across upon it too
dangerously, "visible in clear weather over from the Danish side."
[1716: Fassmann, p. 171.] So Peter's troops have gone home again;
Denmark too glad to get them away. Perhaps they would have stayed
in Denmark altogether; much liking the green pastures and convenient
situation,--had not Admiral Norris with his cannon been there! Perhaps?
And the Pretender is coming again, they say? And who knows what is
coming?--How Gortz, in about a year hence was laid hold of, and let
go, and then ultimately tried and beheaded (once his lion Master was
disposed of); [19th March, 1719: see Kohler (_Munzbelustiggungen,_ vi.
233-240, xvii. 297-304) for many curious details of Gortz and his end.]
how, Ambassador Cellamare, and the Spanish part of the Plot, having been
discovered in Paris, Cardinal Alberoni at Madrid was discovered, and
the whole mystery laid bare; all that mad business, of bringing the
Pretender into England, throwing out George I., throwing out the Regent
d'Orleans, and much more,--is now sunk silent enough, not worthy of
reawakening; but it was then a most loud matter; filling the European
Courts, and especially that of Berlin, with rumors and apprehensions. No
wonder Friedrich Wilhelm was grateful for that Swedish Peace of his,
and named his little daughter "Ulrique" in honor of it. Tumultuous
cloud-world of Lapland Witchcraft had ceased hereby, and daylight
had begun: old women (or old Cardinals) riding through the sky, on
broomsticks, to meet Satan, where now are they? The fact still dimly
perceptible is, Europe, thanks to that pair of Black-Artists, Gortz
and Alberoni, not to mention Law the Finance-Wizard and his French
incantations, had been kept generally, for these three or four years
past, in the state of a Haunted House; riotous Goblins, of unknown
dire intent, walking now in this apartment of it, now in that; no rest
anywhere for the perturbed inhabitants.
As to Friedrich Wilhelm, his plan in 1717, as all along, in this
bewitched state of matters, was: To fortify his Frontier Towns; Memel,
Wesel, to the right and left, especially to fortify Stettin, his new
acquisition;--and to put his Army, and his Treasury (or Army-CHEST),
more and more in order. In that way we shall better meet whatever
goblins there may be, thinks Friedrich Wilhelm. Count Lottum, hero
of the Prussians at Malplaquet, is doing his scientific uttermost in
Stettin and those Frontier Towns. For the rest, his Majesty, invited by
the Czar and France, has been found willing to make paction with them,
as he is with all pacific neighbors. In fact, the Czar and he had their
private Conference, at Havelberg, last year,--Havelberg, some sixty
miles from Berlin, on the road towards Denmark, as Peter was passing
that way;--ample Conference of five days; [23d-28th November, 1716:
Fassmann, p. 172.]--privately agreeing there, about many points
conducive to tranquillity. And it was on that same errand, though
ostensibly to look after Art and the higher forms of Civilization so
called, that Peter had been to France on this celebrated occasion
of 1717. We know he saw much Art withal; saw Marly, Trianon and the
grandeurs and politenesses;--saw, among other things, "a Medal of
himself fall accidentally at his feet;" polite Medal "just getting
struck in the Mint, with a rising sun on it; and the motto, VIRES
ACQUIRIT EUNDO." [Voltaire, _OEuvres Completes (Histoire du Czar
Pierre),_ xxxi. 336.--Kohler in _Munzbelustigungen_, xvii. 386-392 (this
very MEDAL the subject), gives authentic account, day by day, of the
Czar's visit there.] Ostensibly it was to see CETTE BELLE FRANCE; but
privately withal the Czar wished to make his bargain, with the Regent
d'Orleans, as to these goblins walking in the Northern and Southern
parts, and what was to be done with them. And the result has been,
the Czar, Friedrich Wilhelm and the said Regent have just concluded an
Agreement; [4th August, 1717; Buchholz, i. 43.] undertaking in general,
that the goblins shall be well watched; that they Three will stand by
one another in watching them. And now the Czar will visit Berlin in
passing homewards again. That is the position of affairs, when he pays
this visit. Peter had been in Berlin more than once before; but almost
always in a succinct rapid condition; never with his "Court" about
him till now. This is his last, and by far his greatest, appearance in
Berlin.
Such a transit, of the Barbaric semi-fabulous Sovereignties, could not
but be wonderful to everybody there. It evidently struck Wilhelmina's
fancy, now in her ninth year, very much. What her little Brother did in
it, or thought of it, I nowhere find hinted; conclude only that it would
remain in his head too, visible occasionally to the end of his life.
Wilhelmina's Narrative, very loose, dateless or misdated, plainly wrong
in various particulars, has still its value for us: human eyes, even a
child's, are worth something, in comparison to human want-of-eyes,
which is too frequent in History-books and elsewhere!--Czar Peter is now
forty-five, his Czarina Catherine about thirty-one. It was in 1698
that he first passed this way, going towards Saardam and practical
Ship-building: within which twenty years what a spell of work done!
Victory of Pultawa is eight years behind him; [27th June, 1709.]
victories in many kinds are behind him: by this time he is to be
reckoned a triumphant Czar; and is certainly the strangest mixture of
heroic virtue and brutish Samoeidic savagery the world at any time had.
It was Sunday, 19th September, 1717, when the Czar arrived in Berlin.
Being already sated with scenic parades, he had begged to be spared
all ceremony; begged to be lodged in Monbijou, the Queen's little
Garden-Palace with river and trees round it, where he hoped to be
quietest. Monbijou has been set apart accordingly; the Queen, not in
the benignest humor, sweeping all her crystals and brittle things away;
knowing the manners of the Muscovites. Nor in the way of ceremony was
there much: King and Queen drove out to meet him; rampart-guns gave
three big salvos, as the Czarish Majesty stept forth. "I am glad to see
you, my Brother Friedrich," said Peter, in German, his only intelligible
language; shaking hands with the Brother Majesty, in a cordial human
manner. The Queen he, still more cordially, "would have kissed;"
but this she evaded, in some graceful effective way. As to the
Czarina,--who, for OBSTETRIC and other reasons, of no moment to us, had
stayed in Wesel all the time he was in France,--she followed him now at
two days' distance; not along with him, as Wilhelmina has it. Wilhelmina
says, she kissed the Queen's hand, and again and again kissed it; begged
to present her Ladies,--"about four hundred so-called Ladies, who
were of her Suite."--Surely not so many as four hundred, you too witty
Princess? "Mere German serving-maids for the most part," says the witty
Princess; "Ladies when there is occasion, then acting as chambermaids,
cooks, washerwomen, when that is over."
Queen Sophie was averse to salute these creatures; but the Czarina
Catherine making reprisals upon our Margravines, and the King looking
painfully earnest in it, she prevailed upon herself. Was there ever seen
such a travelling tagraggery of a Sovereign Court before? "Several of
these creatures [PRESQUE TOUTES, says the exaggerative Princess] had,
in their arms, a baby in rich dress; and if you asked, 'Is that yours,
then?' they answered, making salaams in Russian style, 'The Czar did me
the honor (_m'a fait l'honneur de me faire cet enfant_ )!'"--
Which statement, if we deduct the due 25 per cent, is probably not
mythic, after all. A day or two ago, the Czar had been at Magdeburg, on
his way hither, intent upon inspecting matters there; and the Official
Gentlemen,--President Cocceji (afterwards a very celebrated man) at the
head of them,--waited on the Czar, to do what was needful. On entering,
with the proper Address or complimentary Harangue, they found his
Czarish Majesty "standing between two Russian Ladies," clearly Ladies of
the above sort; for they stood close by him, one of his arms was round
the neck of each, and his hands amused themselves by taking liberties in
that posture, all the time Cocceji spoke. Nay, even this was as nothing
among the Magdeburg phenomena. Next day, for instance, there appeared in
the audience-chamber a certain Serene high-pacing Duke of Mecklenburg,
with his Duchess;--thrice-unfortunate Duke, of whom we shall too often
hear again; who, after some adventures, under Charles XII. first of
all, and then under the enemies of Charles, had, about a year ago, after
divorcing his first Wife, married a Niece of Peter's:--Duke and Duchess
arrive now, by order or gracious invitation of their Sovereign Uncle, to
accompany him in those parts; and are announced to an eager Czar,
giving audience to his select Magdeburg public. At sight of which
most desirable Duchess and Brother's Daughter, how Peter started up,
satyr-like, clasping her in his arms, and snatching her into an inner
room, with the door left ajar, and there--It is too Samoeidic for
human speech! and would excel belief, were not the testimony so strong.
[Pollnitz (_Memoiren,_ ii. 95) gives Friedrich Wilhelm as voucher,
"who used to relate it as from eye-and-ear witnesses."] A Duke of
Mecklenburg, it would appear, who may count himself the NON-PLUS-ULTRA
of husbands in that epoch;--as among Sovereign Rulers, too, in a small
or great way, he seeks his fellow for ill-luck!
Duke and Duchess accompanied the Czar to Berlin, where Wilhelmina
mentions them, as presentees; part of those "four hundred" anomalies.
They took the Czar home with them to Mecklenburg: where indeed some
Russian Regiments of his, left here on their return from Denmark, had
been very useful in coercing the rebellious Ritterschaft (KNIGHTAGE,
or Landed-Gentry) of this Duke,--till at length the general outcry,
and voice of the Reich itself, had ordered the said Regiments to get on
march again, and take themselves away. [The LAST of them, "July, 1717;"
two months ago. (Michaelis, ii. 418.)] For all is rebellion, passive
rebellion, in Mecklenburg; taxes being so indispensable; and the Knights
so disinclined; and this Duke a Sovereign,--such as we may construe from
his quarrelling with almost everybody, and his NOT quarrelling with
an Uncle Peter of that kind. [One poor hint, on his behalf, let us
not omit: "WIFE quitted him in 1719, and lived at Moscow afterwards!"
(General Mannstein, _Memoirs of Russia,_ London, 1770, p. 27 n.)] His
troubles as Sovereign Duke, his flights to Dantzig, oustings, returns,
law-pleadings and foolish confusions, lasted all his life, thirty years
to come; and were bequeathed as a sorrowful legacy to Posterity and the
neighboring Countries. Voltaire says, the Czar wished to buy his Duchy
from him. [Ubi supra, xxxi. 414.] And truly, for this wretched Duke, it
would have been good to sell it at any price: but there were other words
than his to such a bargain, had it ever been seriously meditated. By
this extraordinary Duchess he becomes Father (real or putative) of
a certain Princess, whom we may hear of; and through her again is
Grandfather of an unfortunate Russian Prince, much bruited about, as
"the murdered Iwan," in subsequent times. With such a Duke and Duchess
let our acquaintance be the MINIMUM of what necessity compels.
Wilhelmina goes by hearsay hitherto; and, it is to be hoped, had
heard nothing of these Magdeburg-Mecklenburg phenomena; but after the
Czarina's arrival, the little creature saw with her own eyes:--
"Next day," that is, Wednesday, 22d "the Czar and his Spouse came
to return the Queen's visit; and I saw the Court myself." Palace
Grand-Apartments; Queen advancing a due length, even to the outer
guard-room; giving the Czarina her right hand, and leading her into her
audience-chamber in that distinguished manner: King and Czar followed
close;--and here it was that Wilhelmina's personal experiences began.
"The Czar at once recognized me, having seen me before, five years ago
[March, 1713]. He caught me in his arms; fell to kissing me, like to
flay the skin off my face. I boxed his ears, sprawled, and struggled
with all my strength; saying I would not allow such familiarities, and
that he was dishonoring me. He laughed greatly at this idea; made peace,
and talked a long time with me. I had got my lesson: I spoke of his
fleet and his conquests;--which charmed him so much, that he said more
than once to the Czarina, 'If he could have a child like me, he would
willingly give one of his Provinces in exchange.' The Czarina also
caressed me a good deal. The Queen [Mamma] and she placed themselves
under the dais, each in an arm-chair" of proper dignity; "I was at the
Queen's side, and the Princesses of the Blood," Margravines above spoken
of, "were opposite to her,"--all in a standing posture, as is proper.
"The Czarina was a little stumpy body, very brown, and had neither air
nor grace: you needed only look at her, to guess her low extraction."
It is no secret, she had been a kitchen-wench in her Lithuanian native
country; afterwards a female of the kind called unfortunate, under
several figures: however, she saved the Czar once, by her ready-wit and
courage, from a devouring Turkish Difficulty, and he made her fortunate
and a Czarina, to sit under the dais as now. "With her huddle of
clothes, she looked for all the world like a German Play-actress; her
dress, you would have said, had been bought at a second-hand shop; all
was out of fashion, all was loaded with silver and greasy dirt. The
front of her bodice she had ornamented with jewels in a very singular
pattern: A double-eagle in embroidery, and the plumes of it set with
poor little diamonds, of the smallest possible carat, and very ill
mounted. All along the facing of her gown were Orders and little things
of metal; a dozen Orders, and as many Portraits of saints, of relics
and the like; so that when she walked, it was with a jingling, as if you
heard a mule with bells to its harness."--Poor little Czarina; shifty
nutbrown fellow-creature, strangely chased about from the bottom to the
top of this world; it is evident she does not succeed at Queen Sophie
Dorothee's Court!--
"The Czar, on the other hand, was very tall, and might be called
handsome," continues Wilhelmina: "his countenance was beautiful, but
had something of savage in it which put you in fear." Partly a kind of
Milton's-Devil physiognomy? The Portraits give it rather so. Archangel
not quite ruined, yet in sadly ruinous condition; its heroism so
bemired,--with a turn for strong drink, too, at times! A physiognomy
to make one reflect. "His dress was of sailor fashion, coat, altogether
plain."
"The Czarina, who spoke German very ill herself, and did not understand
well what the Queen said, beckoned to her Fool to come near,"--a poor
female creature, who had once been a Princess Galitzin, but having got
into mischief, had been excused to the Czar by her high relations as
mad, and saved from death or Siberia, into her present strange harbor of
refuge. With her the Czarina talked in unknown Russ, evidently "laughing
much and loud," till Supper was announced.
"At table," continues Wilhelmina, "the Czar placed himself beside the
Queen. It is understood this Prince was attempted with poison in his
youth, and that something of it had settled on his nerves ever after.
One thing is certain, there took him very often a sort of convulsion,
like Tic or St.-Vitus, which it was beyond his power to control. That
happened at table now. He got into contortions, gesticulations; and as
the knife was in his hand, and went dancing about within arm's-length
of the Queen, it frightened her, and she motioned several times to rise.
The Czar begged her not to mind, for he would do her no ill; at the same
time he took her by the hand, which he grasped with such violence that
the Queen was forced to shriek out. This set him heartily laughing;
saying she had not bones of so hard a texture as his Catherine's. Supper
done, a grand Ball had been got ready; but the Czar escaped at once, and
walked home by himself to Monbijou, leaving the others to dance."
Wilhelmina's story of the Cabinet of Antiques; of the Indecent little
Statue there, and of the orders Catherine got to kiss it, with a "KOPF
AB (Head off, if you won't)!" from the bantering Czar, whom she had to
obey,--is not incredible, after what we have seen. It seems, he begged
this bit of Antique Indecency from Friedrich Wilhelm; who, we may fancy,
would give him such an article with especial readiness. That same day,
fourth of the Visit, Thursday, 23d of the month, the august Party went
its ways again; Friedrich Wilhelm convoying "as far as Potsdam;" Czar
and Suite taking that route towards Mecklenburg, where he still intends
some little pause before proceeding homeward. Friedrich Wilhelm took
farewell; and never saw the Czar again.
It was on this Journey, best part of which is now done, that the famous
Order bore, "Do it for six thousand thalers; won't allow you one other
penny (_nit einen Pfennig gebe mehr dazu _); but give out to the world
that it costs me thirty or forty thousand!" Nay, it is on record that
the sum proved abundant, and even superabundant, near half of it being
left as overplus. [Forster, i. 215.] The hospitalities of Berlin,
Friedrich Wilhelm took upon himself, and he has done them as we see.
You shall defray his Czarish Majesty, to the last Prussian milestone;
punctually, properly, though with thrift!
Peter's, VIATICUM, the Antique Indecency, Friedrich Wilhelm did not
grudge to part with; glad to purchase the Czar's good-will by coin of
that kind. Last year, at Havelberg, he had given the Czar an entire
Cabinet of Amber Articles, belonging to his late Father. Amber Cabinet,
in the lump; and likewise such a Yacht, for shape, splendor and outfit,
as probably Holland never launched before;--Yacht also belonging to his
late Father, and without value to Friedrich Wilhelm. The old King had
got it built in Holland, regardless of expense,--15,000 pounds, they
say, perhaps as good as 50,000 pounds now;--and it lay at Potsdam: good
for what? Friedrich Wilhelm sent it down the Havel, down the Elbe, silk
sailors and all, towards Hamburg and Petersburg, with a great deal of
pleasure. For the Czar, and peace and good-will with the Czar, was of
essential value to him. Neither, at any rate, is the Czar a man to take
gifts without return. Tall fellows for soldiers: that is always one
prime object with Friedrich Wilhelm; for already these Potsdam Guards of
his are getting ever more gigantic. Not less an object, though less an
ideal or POETIC one (as we once defined), was this other, to find buyers
for the Manufactures, new and old, which he was so bent on encouraging.
"It is astonishing, what quantities of cloth, of hardware, salt, and all
kinds of manufactured articles the Russians buy from us," say the
old Books;--"see how our 'Russian Company' flourishes!" In both these
objects, not to speak of peace and good-will in general, the Czar is our
man.
Thus, this very Autumn, there arrive, astonished and astonishing, no
fewer than a hundred and fifty human figures (one half MORE than were
promised), probably from seven to eight feet high; the tallest the Czar
could riddle out from his Dominions: what a windfall to the Potsdam
Guard and its Colonel-King! And all succeeding Autumns the like, so long
as Friedrich Wilhelm lived; every Autumn, out of Russia a hundred of the
tallest mortals living. Invaluable,--to a "man of genius" mounted on his
hobby! One's "stanza" can be polished at this rate.
In return for these Russian sons of Anak, Friedrich Wilhelm grudged
not to send German smiths, millwrights, drill-sergeants, cannoneers,
engineers; having plenty of them. By whom, as Peter well calculated, the
inert opaque Russian mass might be kindled into luminosity and vitality;
and drilled to know the Art of War, for one thing. Which followed
accordingly. And it is observable, ever since, that the Russian Art of
War has a tincture of GERMAN in it (solid German, as contradistinguished
from unsolid Revolutionary-French); and hints to us of Friedrich
Wilhelm and the Old Dessauer, to this hour.--EXEANT now the Barbaric
semi-fabulous Sovereignties, till wanted again.