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History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 6
T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 6 Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Christmas came to Berlin, and the King with it; who did the
gayeties for a week or two, and spoke nothing about business to
his Female Parliament. Dubourgay saw him, at Parade, on New-Year's
morning; whither all manner of Foreign Dignitaries had come to pay
their respects: "Well," cried the King to Dubourgay, "we shall
have a War, then,"--universa1 deadly tug at those Italian
Apanages, for and against an insulted Kaiser,--"War; and then all
that is crooked will be pulled straight!" So spake Friedrich
Wilhelm on the New-Year's morning; War in Italy, universal spasm
of wrestle there, being now the expectation of foolish mankind:
Crooked will be pulled straight, thinks Friedrich Wilhelm;
and perhaps certain high Majesties, deaf to the voice of
Should-not, will understand that of Can-not, Excellenz!--
Crooked will become straight? "Indeed if so, your Majesty,
the sooner the better!" I ventured to answer. [Dubourgay,
8th January, 1730.]
New Year's day is not well in, and the ceremonial wishes over,
when Friedrich Wilhelm, his mind full of serious domestic and
foreign matter, withdraws to Potsdam again; and therefrom begins
fulminating in a terrible manner on his womankind at Berlin, what
we called his Female Parliament,--too much given to opposition
courses at present. Intends to have his measures passed there, in
defiance of opposition; straightway; and an end put to this
inexpressible Double-Marriage higgle-haggle. Speed to him! we will
say.--Three high Crises occur, three or even four, which can now
without much detail be made intelligible to the patient reader:
on the back of which we look for some catastrophe and finis to the
Business;--any catastrophe that will prove a finis, how welcome
will it be!
WILHELMINA TO BE MARRIED OUT OF HAND. CRISIS FIRST:
ENGLAND SHALL SAY YES OR SAY NO.
Still early in January, a few days after his Majesty's return to
Potsdam, three high Official gentlemen, Count Fink van
Finkenstein, old Tutor to the Prince, Grumkow and General Borck
announce themselves one morning; "Have a pressing message from the
King to her Majesty." [Wilhelmina, i. 180.] Queen is astonished;
expecting anything sooner.--"This regards me, I have a dreading!"
shuddered Wilhelmina to Mamma. "No matter," said the Queen,
shrugging her shoulders; "one must have firmness; and that is not
what I shall want;"--and her Majesty went into the
Audience-chamber, leaving Wilhelmina in such tremors.
Finkenstein, a friendly man, as Borck too is, explains to her
Majesty, "That they three have received each a Letter overnight,--
Letter from the King, enjoining in the FIRST place 'silence under
pain of death;' in the SECOND place, apprising them that he, the
King, will no longer endure her Majesty's disobedience in regard
to the marriage of his Daughter, but will banish Daughter and
Mother 'to Oranienburg,' quasi-divorce, and outer darkness, unless
there be compliance with his sovereign will; THIRDLY, that they
are accordingly to go, all three, to her Majesty, to deliver the
enclosed Royal Autograph [which Finkenstein presents], testifying
what said sovereign will is, and on the above terms expect her
Majesty's reply;"--as they have now sorrowfully done, Finkenstein
and Borck with real sorrow; Grumkow with the reverse of real.
Sovereign will is to the effect: "Write to England one other time,
Will you at once marry, or not at once; Yea or No? Answer can be
here within a fortnight; three weeks, even in case of bad winds.
If the answer be not Yea at once; then you, Madam, you at once
choose Weissenfels or Schwedt, one or the other,--under what
penalties you know; Oranienburg and worse!"
Here is a crisis. But her Majesty did not want firmness. "Write to
England? Yes, willingly. But as to Weissenfels and Schwedt,
whatever answer come from England,--Impossible!" steadily answers
her Majesty. There was much discourse, suasive, argumentative;
Grumkow "quoting Scripture on her Majesty, as the Devil can on
occasion," says Wilhelmina. Express Scriptures, Wives, be
obedient to your husbands, and the like texts:
but her Majesty, on the Scripture side too, gave him as good as he
brought. "Did not Bethuel the son of Milcah, [Genesis xxiv.
14-58.] when Abraham's servant asked his daughter in marriage for
young Isaac, answer, We will call the damsel and inquire
of her mouth. And they called Rebecca, and said unto her, Wilt
thou go with this man? And she said, I will go."
Scripture for Scripture, Herr von Grumkow! "Wives must obey their
husbands; surely yes. But the husbands are to command things just
and reasonable. The King's procedure is not accordant with that
law. He is for doing violence to my Daughter's inclination, and
rendering her unhappy for the rest of her days;--will give her a
brutal debauchee," fat Weissenfels, so describable in strong
language; "a younger brother, who is nothing but the King of
Poland's Officer; landless, and without means to live according to
his rank. Or can it be the State that will profit from such a
marriage? If they have a Household, the King will have to support
it.--Write to England; Yes; but whatever the answer of England,
Weissenfels never! A thousand times sooner see my child in her
grave than hopelessly miserable!" Here a qualm overtook her
Majesty; for in fact she is in an interesting state, third month
of her time: "I am not well; You should spare me, Gentlemen, in
the state I am in.--I do not accuse the King," concluded she:
"I know," hurling a glance at Grumkow, "to whom I owe all this;"--
and withdrew to her interior privacies; reading there with
Wilhelmina "the King's cruel Letter," and weeping largely, though
firm to the death. [Wilhelmina, i. 179-182. Dubourgay has
nothing,--probably had heard nothing, there being "silence under
pain of death" for the moment.]
What to do in such a crisis? Assemble the Female Parliament, for
one thing: good Madam Finkenstein (old Tutor's wife), good Mamsell
Bulow, Mamsell Sonsfeld (Wilhelmina's Governess), and other
faithful women:--well if we can keep away traitresses, female
spies that are prowling about; especially one "Ramen," a Queen's
soubrette, who gets trusted with everything, and betrays
everything; upon whom Wilhelmina is often eloquent. Never was such
a traitress; took Dubourgay's bribe, which the Queen had advised;
and, all the same, betrays everything,--bribe included. And the
Queen, so bewitched, can keep nothing from her. Female Parliament
must, take precautions about the Ramen!--For the rest, Female
Parliament advises two things: 1. Pressing Letter to England;
that of course, written with the eloquence of despair: and then
2. That in ease of utter extremity, her Majesty "pretend to fall
ill." That is Crisis First; and that is their expedient upon it.
Letter goes to England, therefore; setting forth the extremity of
strait, and pinch: "Now or never, O my Sister Caroline!" Many such
have gone, first and last; but this is the strongest of all.
Nay the Crown-Prince too shall write to his Aunt of England:
you, Wilhelmina, draw out, a fit brief Letter for him: send it to
Potsdam, he will copy it there! [Wilhelmina, i. 183.] So orders
the Mother: Wilhelmina does it, with a terrified heart;
Crown-Prince copies without scruple: "I have already given your
Majesty my word of honor never to wed any one but the Princess
Amelia your Daughter; I here reiterate that Promise, in case your
Majesty will consent to my Sister's Marriage,"--should that alone
prove possible in the present intricacies. "We are all reduced to
such a state that"--Wilhelmina gives the Letter in full; but as it
is professedly of her own composition, a loose vague piece, the
very date of which you have to grope out for yourself, it cannot
even count among the several Letters written by the Crown-Prince,
both before and after it, to the same effect, which are now
probably all of them lost, [TRACE of one, Copy of ANSWER from
Queen Caroline to what seems to have been one, Answer rather of
dissuasive tenor, is in State-Paper Office: Prussian
Despatches, vol. xl,--dateless; probably some months
later in 1780.] without regret to anybody; and we will not reckon
it worth transcribing farther. Such Missive, such two Missives
(not now found in any archive) speed to England by express;
may the winds be favorable. Her Majesty waits anxious at Berlin;
ready to take refuge in a bed of sickness, should bad come
to worse.
DUBOURGAY STRIKES A LIGHT FOR THE ENGLISH COURT.
In England, in the mean while, they have received a curious little
piece of secret information. One Reichenbach, Prussian Envoy at
London--Dubourgay has long marvelled at the man and at the news he
sends to Berlin. Here, of date 17th January, 1730, is a Letter on
that subject from Dubourgay, official but private as yet, for
"George Tilson, Esq.:"--Tilson is Under-Secretary in the Foreign
Office, whose name often turns up on such occasions in the
DUBOURGAY, the ROBINSON and other extinct Paper-heaps of that
time. Dubourgay dates doubly, by old and new style; in general we
print by the new only, unless the contrary be specified.
"TO GEORGE TILSON, ESQ. (Private.)
"BERLIN, 6th Jan. 1729 (by new style, 17th Jan. 1730).
"SIR,--I believe you may remember that we have for a long time
suspected that most of Reichenbach's Despatches were dictated by
some people here. About two days ago a Paper fell into my hands,"
realized quietly for a consideration, "containing an Account of
money charged to the 'Brothers Jourdan and Lautiers,' Merchants
here, by their Correspondent in London, for sending Letters from,"
properly in, or through, "your City to Reichenbach.
"Jourdan and Lautiers's London Correspondents are Mr. Thomas
Greenhill in Little Bell Alley and Mr. John Motteux in St. Mary
Axe. Mr. Guerin my Agent knows them very well; having paid them
several little bills on my account:"--Better ask Mr. Guerin.
"I know not through the hands of which of those Merchants the
above-mentioned Letters have passed; but you have ways enough to
find it out, if you think it worth while. I make no manner of
doubt but Grumkow and his party make use of this conveyance to
(SIC) their instructions to Reichenbach. In the Account which I
have seen, 'eighteen-pence' is charged for carrying each Letter to
Reichenbach: the charge in general is for 'Thirty-two Letters;'
and refers to a former Account." So that they must have been
long at it.
"I am, with the greatest truth,
"DUBOURGAY."
Here is a trail which Tilson will have no difficulty in running
down. I forget whether it was in Bell Alley or St. Mary Axe that
the nest was found; but found it soon was, and the due springes
were set; and game came steadily dropping in,--Letters to and
Letters from,--which, when once his Britannic Majesty had, with
reluctance, given warrant to open and decipher them, threw light
on Prussian Affairs, and yielded fine sport and speculation in the
Britannic Majesty's Apartment on an evening.
This is no other than the celebrated "Cipher Correspondence
between Grumkow and Reichenbach;" Grumkow covertly instructing his
slave Reichenbach what the London news shall be: Reichenbach
answering him, To hear is to obey! Correspondence much noised of
in the modern Prussian Books; and which was, no doubt, very
wonderful to Tilson and Company;--capable of being turned to uses,
they thought. The reader shall see specimens by and by; and he
will find it unimportant enough, and unspeakably stupid to him.
It does show Grumkow as the extreme of subtle fowlers, and how the
dirty-fingered Seckendorf and he cooked their birdlime: but to us
that is not new, though at St. James's it was. Perhaps uses may
lie in it there? At all events, it is a pretty topic in Queen
Caroline's apartment on an evening; and the little Majesty and
she, with various laughters and reflections, can discern, a
little, How a poor King of Prussia is befooled by his servants,
and in what way a fierce Bear is led about by the nose, and dances
to Grumkow's piping. Poor soul, much of his late raging and
growling, perhaps it was only Grumkow's and not his! Does not hate
us, he, perhaps; but only Grumkow through him? This doleful
enchantment, and that the Royal Wild Bear dances only to tunes,
ought to be held in mind, when we want anything with him.--
Those, amid the teheeings, are reflections that cannot escape
Queen Caroline and her little George, while the Prussian Express,
unknown to them, is on the road.
WILHELMINA TO BE MARRIED OUT OF HAND. CRISIS SECOND:
ENGLAND SHALL HAVE SAID NO.
The Prussian Express, Queen Sophie's Courier to England, made his
best speed: but he depends on the winds for even arriving there;
and then he depends on the chances for an answer there;
an uncertain Courier as to time: and it was not in the power of
speed to keep pace with Friedrich Wilhelm's impatience. "No answer
yet?" growls Friedrich Wilhelm before a fortnight is gone.
"No answer?"--and January has not ended till a new Deputation of
the same Three Gentlemen, Finkenstein, Borck, Grumkow, again waits
on the Queen, for whom there is now this other message.
"Wednesday, 25th January, 1730," so Dubourgay dates it;
so likewise Wilhelmina, right for once: "a day I shall never
forget," adds she.
Finkenstein and Borck, merciful persons, and always of the English
party, were again profoundly sorry. Borck has a blaze of temper in
him withal; we hear he apprised Grumkow, at one point of the
dialogue, that he, Grumkow, was a "scoundrel," so Dubourgay calls
it,--which was one undeniable truth offered there that day.
But what can anything profit? The Message is: "Whatever the answer
now be from England, I will have nothing to do with it.
Negative, procrastinative, affirmative, to me it shall be zero.
You, Madam, have to choose, for Wilhelmina, between Weissenfels
and Schwedt; otherwise I myself will choose: and upon you and her
will alight Oranienburg, outer darkness, and just penalties of
mutiny against the Authority set over you by God and men.
Weissenfels or Schwedt: choose straightway." This is the King's
message by these Three.
"You can inform the King," replied her Majesty, [Wilhelmina,
i. 188.] "that he will never make me consent to render my Daughter
miserable; and that, so long as a breath of life (UN SOUFFLE DE
VIE) remains in me, I will not permit her to take either the one
or the other of those persons." Is that enough? "For you, Sir,"
added her Majesty, turning to Grumkow, "for you, Sir, who are the
author of my misfortunes, may my curse fall upon you and your
house! You have this day killed me. But I doubt not, Heaven will
hear my prayer, and avenge these wrongs." [Dubourgay, 28th
January, 1730; Wilhelmina, i. 188 (who suppresses the maledictory
part).]--And herewith to a bed of sickness, as the one
refuge left!
Her Majesty does now, in fact, take to bed at Berlin; "fallen very
ill," it would appear; which gives some pause to Friedrich Wilhelm
till he ascertain. "Poorly, for certain," report the Doctors, even
Friedrich Wilhelm's Doctor. The humane Doctors have silently given
one another the hint; for Berlin is one tempest of whispers about
her Majesty's domestic sorrows, "Poorly, for interesting reasons:
--perhaps be worse before she is better, your Majesty!"--"Hmph!"
thinks Friedrich Wilhelm out at Potsdam. And then the treacherous
Ramen reports that it is all shamming; and his Majesty, a Bear,
though a loving one, is driven into wrath again; and so wavers
from side to side.
It is certain the Queen held, faster or looser, by her bed of
sickness, as a main refuge in these emergencies: the last shift
of oppressed womankind;--sanctioned by Female Parliament, in this
instance. "Has had a miscarriage!" writes Dubourgay, from Berlin
gossip, at the beginning of the business. Nay at one time she
became really ill, to a dangerous length; and his Majesty did not
at first believe it; and then was like to break his heart, poor
Bear; aud pardoned Wilhelmina and even Fritz, at the Mother's
request,--till symptoms mended again. [Wilhelmina, i. 207.]
JARNI-BLEU, Herr Seckendorf, "Grumkow serves us honorably (DIENET
EHRLICH)"--does not he!--Ambiguous bed of sickness, a refuge in
time of trouble, did not quite terminate till May next, when her
Majesty's time came; a fine young Prince the result; [23d May,
1730, August Ferdinand; her last child.] and this mode of refuge
in trouble ceased to be necessary.
WILHELMINA TO BE MARRIED OUT OF HAND. CRISIS THIRD:
MAJESTY HIMSELF WILL CHOOSE, THEN.
Directly on the back of that peremptory act of disobedience by the
womankind on Wednesday last, Friedrich Wilhelm came to Berlin
himself. He stormfully reproached his Queen, regardless of the
sick-bed; intimated the infallible certainty, That Wilhelmina
nevertheless would wed without delay, and that either Weissenfels
or Schwedt would be the man. And this said, he straightway walked
out to put the same in execution.
Walked, namely, to the Mother Margravine of Schwedt, the lady in
high colors, Old Dessauer's Sister; and proposed to her that
Wilhelmina should marry her Son.--"The supreme wish of my life,
your Majesty," replied she of the high colors: "But, against the
Princess's own will, how can I accept such happiness? Alas, your
Majesty, I never can!"--and flatly refused his Majesty on those
terms: a thing Wilhelmina will ever gratefully remember of her.
[Wilhelmina, i. 197.]
So that the King is now reduced to Weissenfels; and returns still
more indignant to her Majesty's apartment. Weissenfels, however,
it shall be; and frightful rumors go that he is written to, that
he is privately coming, and that there will be no remedy.
[Wilhelmina, i. 197.] Wilhelmina, formerly almost too florid, is
gone to a shadow; "her waist hardly half an ell;" worn down by
these agitations. The Prince and she, if the King see either of
them,--it is safer to run, or squat behind screens.
HOW FRIEDRICH PRINCE OF BAIREUTH CAME TO BE THE MAN, AFTER ALL.
In this high wind of extremity, the King now on the spot and in
such temper, Borck privately advises, "That her Majesty bend a
little,--pretend to give up the English connection, and propose a
third party, to get rid of Weissenfels."--"What third party,
then?"--"Well, there is young Brandenburg-Culmbach, for example,
Heir-Apparent of Baireuth; Friedrich, a handsome enough young
Prince, just coming home from the Grand Tour, we hear; will have a
fine Territory when his Father dies: age is suitable; old kinship
with the House, all money-quarrels settled eight or ten years ago:
why not him?"--"Excellent!" said her Majesty; and does suggest him
to the King, in the next Schwedt-Weissenfels onslaught.
Friedrich Wilhelm grumbles an assent, "Well, then:--but I will be
passive, observe; not a GROSCHEN of Dowry, for one thing!"--
And this is the first appearance of the young Margraf Friedrich,
Heir-Apparent of Baireuth; who comes in as a hypothetic figure, at
this late stage;--and will carry off the fair prize, as is well
known. Still only doing the Grand Tour; little dreaming of the
high fortune about to drop into his mouth. So many wooers, "four
Kings" among them, suing in vain; him, without suing, the Fates
appoint to be the man.
Not a bad young fellow at all, though no King. Wilhelmina, we
shall find, takes charmingly to him, like a good female soul;
regretless of the Four Kings;--finds her own safe little island
there the prettiest in the world, after such perils of drowning
in stormy seas.--Of his Brandenburg genealogy, degree of
cousinship to Queen Caroline of England, and to the lately wedded
young gentleman of Anspach Queen Caroline's Nephew, we shall say
nothing farther, having already spoken of it, and even drawn an
abstruse Diagram of it, [Antea, vol. v. p. 309c.] sufficient for
the most genealogical reader. But in regard to that of the
peremptory "Not a GROSCHEN of Dowry" from Friedrich Wilhelm (which
was but a bark, after all, and proved the reverse of a bite, from
his Majesty), there may a word of explanation be permissible.
The Ancestor of this Baireuth Prince Friedrich,--as readers knew
once, but doubtless have forgotten again,--was a Younger Son;
and for six generations so it stood: not till the Father of this
Friedrich was of good age, and only within these few years, did
the Elder branch die out, and the Younger, in the person of said
Father, succeed to Baireuth. Friedrich's Grandfather, as all these
progenitors had done, lived poorly, like Cadets, on apanages
and makeshifts.
So that the Young Prince's Father, George Friedrich, present
incumbent, as we may call him, of Baireuth, found himself--with a
couple of Brothers he has, whom also we may transiently see by and
by--in very straitened circumstances in their young years.
THEIR Father, son of younger sons as we saw, was himself poor, and
he had Fourteen of them as family. Now, in old King Friedrich I.'s
time, it became apparent, as the then reigning Margraf of
Baireuth's children all died soon after birth, that one of these
necessitous Fourteen was likely to succeed in Baireuth, if they
could hold out. Old King Friedrich thereupon said, "You have
chances of succession; true enough,--but nobody knows what will
become of that. Sell your chance to me, who am ultimate Heir of
all: I will give you a round sum,--the little 'Domain of
Weverlingen' in the Halberstadt Country, and say 'Half a Million
Thalers;' there you can live comfortably, and support your
Fourteen Children,"--"Done," said the necessitous Cousin; went to
Weverlingen accordingly; and there lived the rest of his days,
till 1708; leaving his necessitous Fourteen, or about Ten of
them that were alive and growing up, still all minors, and
necessitous enough.
The young men, George Friedrich at the top of them, kept silence
in Weverlingen, and conformed to Papa; having nothing to live upon
elsewhere. But they had their own thoughts; especially as their
Cousin of Baireuth was more and more likely to die childless.
And at length, being in the Kaiser's service as soldiers some of
them, and having made what interest was feasible, they, early in
Friedrich Wilhelm's reign, burst out. That is to say, appealed to
the REICHSHOFRATH (Imperial Aulic Council at Vienna; chief Court
of the Empire in such cases); openly protesting there, That their
Papa had no power to make such a bargain, selling their birthright
for immediate pottage; and that, in brief, they would not stand by
it at all;--and summoned Friedrich Wilhelm to show cause why
they should.
Long lawsuit, in consequence; lengthy law-pleadings, and much
parchment and wiggery, in that German Triple-Elixir of Chancery;--
little to the joy of Friedrich Wilhelm. Friedrich Wilhelm, from
the first, was fairness itself: "Pay me back the money; and let it
be, in all points, as you say!" answered Friedrich Wilhelm, from
the first. Alas, the money was eaten; how could the money be paid
back? The Reichshofrath dubitatively shook its wig, for years:
"Bargain bad in Law; but Money clearly repayable: the Money was
and is good;--what shall be done about the Money!" At length,
in 1722, Friedrich Wilhelm, of himself, settled with this present
Margraf, then Heir-Presumptive, How, by steady slow instalments,
it could be possible, from the revenues of Baireuth, thriftily
administered, to pay back that Half-Million and odd Thalers;
and the now Margraf, ever since his accession in 1726, has been
annually doing it. So that there is, at this time, nothing but
composed kinship and friendship between the two Courts, the little
and the big: only Friedrich Wilhelm, especially with his will
crossed in this matter of the Baireuth Marriage, thinks to
himself, "Throw more money into such a gulf? The 600,000 Thalers
had better be got out first!" and says, he will give no Dowry at
all, nor take any charge, not so much as give away the Bride, but
be passive in the matter.
Queen Sophie, delighted to conquer Grumkow at any rate, is charmed
with this notion of Baireuth; and for a moment forgets all other
considerations: Should England prove slack and fail, what a
resource will Baireuth be, compared with Weissenfels!
And Wilhelmina entering, her Majesty breaks forth into admiration
over the victory, or half-victory, just gained: What a husband for
you this, my dear, in comparison! And as Wilhelmina cannot quite
join in the rapture on a sudden; and cannot even consent, unless
Papa too give his real countenance to the match, Mamma flies out
upon the poor young Lady: [Wilhelmina, i. 201.] "Take the Grand
Turk or the Great Mogul, then," said the Queen, "and follow your
own caprice! I should not have brought so many sorrows on myself,
had I known you better. Follow the King's bidding, then; it is
your own affair. I will no longer trouble myself about your
concerns;--and spare me, please, the sorrow of your odious
presence, for I cannot stand it!" Wilhelmina wished to reply, but
the answer was, "Silence! Go, I tell you!" "And I retired all
in tears."
"All in tears." The Double-Marriage drifting furiously this long
while, in such a sea as never was; and breakers now Close a-lee,--
have the desperate crew fallen to staving-in the liquor-casks, and
quarrelling with one another?--Evident one thing is, her Majesty
cannot be considered a perfectly wise Mother! We shall see what
her behavior is, when Wilhelmina actually weds this respectable
young Prince. Ungrateful creature, to wish Papa's consent as well
as mine! that is the maternal feeling at this moment;
and Wilhelmina weeps bitterly, as one of the unluckiest of
young Ladies.
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