Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21

T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21




EGO. "'But, Sire, the night?'

KING. "'Oh, you could not miss us even by grope. That big hollow
that goes from Burg, and even from Potschappel,--it would have
poured like a water-spout [or fire-spout] over us. You see, I am
not so brave as you think.'

"The Kaiser had set out for his Interview [First Interview, and
indeed it is now more than half done, a good six weeks of it gone]
with the Czarina of Russia. That Interview the King did not like
[no wonder]:--and, to undo the good it had done us, he directly,
and very unskilfully, sent the Prince Royal to Petersburg [who had
not the least success there, loutish fellow, and was openly snubbed
by a Czarina gone into new courses]. His Majesty already doubted
that the Court of Russia was about to escape him:--and I was dying
of fear lest, in the middle of all his kindnesses, he should
remember that I was an Austrian. 'What,' said I to myself, 'not a
single epigram on us, or on our Master? What a change!'

"One day, at dinner, babbling Pinto said to the person sitting next
him, 'This Kaiser is a great traveller; there never was one who
went so far.' 'I ask your pardon, Monsieur,' said the King;
'Charles Fifth went to Africa; he gained the Battle of Oran.'
And, turning towards me,--who couldn't guess whether it was banter
or only history,--'This time,' said he, 'the Kaiser is more
fortunate than Charles Twelfth; like Charles, he entered Russia by
Mohilow; but it appears to me he will arrive at Moscow.'

"The same Pinto, one day, understanding the King was at a loss whom
to send as Foreign Minister some-whither, said to him: 'Why does
not your Majesty think of sending Lucchesini, who is a man of much
brilliancy (HOMME D'ESPRIT)?' 'It is for that very reason,'
answered the King, 'that I want to keep him. I had rather send you
than him, or a dull fellow like Monsieur--' I forget whom, but
believe it is one whom he did appoint Minister somewhere.

"M. de Lucchesini, by the charm of his conversation, brought out
that of the King's. He knew what topics were agreeable to the King;
and then, he knew how to listen; which is not so easy as one
thinks, and which no stupid man was ever capable of. He was as
agreeable to everybody as to his Majesty, by his seductive manners
and by the graces of his mind. Pinto, who had nothing to risk,
permitted himself everything. Says he: 'Ask the Austrian General,
Sire, all he saw me do when in the service of the Kaiser.'

EGO. "'A fire-work at my Wedding, was n't that it, my dear Pinto?'

KING (interrupting). "'Do me the honor to say whether it was
successful?'

EGO. "'No, Sire; it even alarmed all my relations, who thought it a
bad omen. Monsieur the Major here had struck out the idea of
joining Two flaming Hearts, a very novel image of a married couple.
But the groove they were to slide on, and meet, gave way: my Wife's
heart went, and mine remained.'

KING. "'You see, Pinto, you were not good for much to those people,
any more than to me.'

EGO. "'Oh, Sire, your Majesty, since then, owes him some
compensation for the sabre-cuts he had on his head.'

KING. "'He gets but too much compensation. Pinto, did n't I send
you yesterday some of my good Preussen honey?'

PINTO. "'Oh, surely;--it was to make the thing known. If your
Majesty could bring that into vogue, and sell it all, you would be
the greatest King in the world. For your Kingdom produces only
that; but of that there is plenty.'

"'Do you know,' said the King, one day, to me,--'Do you know that
the first soldiering I did was for the House of Austria? MON DIEU,
how the time passes!'--He had a way of slowly bringing his hands
together, in ejaculating these MON-DIEUS, which gave him quite a
good-natured and extremely mild air.--(Do you know that I saw the
glittering of the last rays of Prince Eugen's genius?'

EGO. "'Perhaps it was at these rays that your Majesty's genius
lit itself.'

KING. "'EH, MON DIEU! who could equal the Prince Eugen?'

EGO. "'He who excels him;--for instance, he who could win Twelve
Battles!'--He put on his modest air. I have always said, it is easy
to be modest, if you are in funds. He seemed as though he had not
understood me, and said:--

KING. "'When the cabal which, during forty years, the Prince had
always had to struggle with in his Army, were plotting mischief on
him, they used to take advantage of the evening time, when his
spirits, brisk enough in the morning, were jaded by the fatigues of
the day. It was thus they persuaded him to undertake his bad March
on Mainz' [March not known to me].

EGO. "'Regarding yourself, Sire, and the Rhine Campaign, you teach
me nothing. I know everything your Majesty did, and even what you
said. I could relate to you your Journeys to Strasburg, to Holland,
and what passed in a certain Boat. Apropos of this Rhine Campaign,
one of our old Generals, whom I often set talking, as one reads an
old Manuscript, has told me how astonished he was to see a young
Prussian Officer, whom he did not know, answering a General of the
late King, who had given out the order, Not to go a-foraging:
"And I, Sir, I order you to go; our Army needs it; in short, I will
have it so (JE LE VEUX)!--"'

KING. "'You look at me too much from the favorable side! Ask these
Gentlemen about my humors and my caprices; they will tell you fine
things of me.'

"We got talking of some Anecdotes which are consigned to, or
concealed in, certain obscure Books. 'I have been much amused, said
I to the King, (with the big cargo of Books, true or false, written
by French Refugees, which perhaps are unknown in France itself.'
[Discourses a little on this subject.]

KING. "'Where did you pick up all these fine old Pieces?
These would amuse me on an evening; better than the conversation of
my Doctor of the Sorbonne [one Peyrau, a wandering creature, not
otherwise of the least interest to us], [Nicolai,
Anekdoten, ii. 133 n.] whom I have here, and whom I am
trying to convert.'

EGO. "'I found them all in a Bohemian Library, where I sat
diverting myself for two Winters.'

KING. "'How, then? Two Winters in Bohemia? What the devil were you
doing there! Is it long since?'

EGO. "'No, Sire; only a year or two [Potato-War time]! I had
retired thither to read at my ease.'--He smiled, and seemed to
appreciate my not mentioning the little War of 1778, and saving him
any speech about it. He saw well enough that my Winter-quarters had
been in Bohemia on that occasion; and was satisfied with my
reticence. Being an old sorcerer, who guessed everything, and whose
tact was the finest ever known, he discovered that I did not wish
to tell him I found Berlin changed since I had last been there.
I took care not to remind him that I was at the capturing of it in
1760, under M. de Lacy's orders [M. de Lacy's indeed!].--It was for
having spoken of the first capture of Berlin, by Marshal Haddick
[highly temporary as it was, and followed by Rossbach], that the
King had taken a dislike to M. de Ried.

"Apropos of the Doctor of the Sorbonne [uninteresting Peyrau] with
whom he daily disputed, the King said to me once, 'Get me a
Bishopric for him.' 'I don't think,' answered I, (that my
recommendation, or that of your Majesty, could be useful to him
with us.' 'Ah, truly no!' said the King: 'Well, I will write to the
Czarina of Russia for this poor devil; he does begin to bore me.
He holds out as Jansenist, forsooth. MON DIEU, what blockheads the
present Jansenists are! But France should not have extinguished
that nursery (FOYER) of their genius, that Port Royal, extravagant
as it was. Indeed, one ought to destroy nothing! Why have they
destroyed, too, the Depositaries of the graces of Rome and of
Athens, those excellent Professors of the Humanities, and perhaps
of Humanity, the Ex-Jesuit Fathers? Education will be the loser by
it. But as my Brothers the Kings, most Catholic, most Christian,
most Faithful and Apostolic, have tumbled them out, I, most
Heretical, pick up as many as I can; and perhaps, one day, I shall
be courted for the sake of them by those who want some. I preserve
the breed: I said, counting my stock the other day, "A Rector like
you, my Father, I could easily sell for 300 thalers; you, Reverend
Father Provincial, for 600; and so the rest, in proportion." When
one is not rich, one makes speculations.'

"From want of memory, and of opportunities to see oftener and
longer the Greatest Man that ever existed [Oh, MON PRINCE!], I am
obliged to stop. There is not a word in all this but was his own;
and those who have seen him will recognize his manner. All I want
is, to make him known to those who have not had the happiness to
see him. His eyes are too hard in the Portraits: by work in the
Cabinet, and the hardships of War, they had become intense, and of
piercing quality; but they softened finely in hearing, or telling,
some trait of nobleness or sensibility. Till his death, and but
quite shortly before it,--notwithstanding many levities which he
knew I had allowed myself, both in speaking and writing, and which
he surely attributed only to my duty as opposed to my interest,--he
deigned to honor me with marks of his remembrance; and has often
commissioned his Ministers, at Paris and at Vienna, to assure me of
his good-will.

"I no longer believe in earthquakes and eclipses at Caesar's death,
since there has been nothing of such at that of Friedrich the
Great. I know not, Sire, whether great phenomena of Nature will
announce the day when you shall cease to reign [great phenomena
must be very idle if they do, your Highness!]--but it is a
phenomenon in the world, that of a King who rules a Republic by
making himself obeyed and respected for his own sake, as much as by
his rights" (Hear, hear). [Prince de Ligne, Memoires et
Melanges, i. 22-40.]

Prince de Ligne thereupon hurries off for Petersburg, and the final
Section of his Kaiser's Visit. An errand of his own, too, the
Prince had,--about his new Daughter-in-law Massalska, and claims of
extensive Polish Properties belonging to her. He was the charm of
Petersburg and the Czarina; but of the Massalska Properties could
retrieve nothing whatever. The munificent Czarina gave him "a
beautiful Territory in the Crim," instead; and invited him to come
and see it with her, on his Kaiser's next Visit (1787, the aquatic
Visit and the highly scenic). Which it is well known the Prince
did; and has put on record, in his pleasant, not untrue, though
vague, high-colored and fantastic way,--if it or he at all
concerned us farther.


HOW GENERAL VON DER MARWITZ, IN EARLY BOYHOOD, SAW
FRIEDRICH THE GREAT THREE TIMES (1782-1785).

General von der Marwitz, who died not many years ago, is of the old
Marwitz kindred, several of whom we have known for their rugged
honesties, genialities and peculiar ways. This General, it appears,
had left a kind of Autobiography; which friends of his thought
might be useful to the Prussian Public, after those Radical
distractions which burst out in 1848 and onwards; and a first
Volume of the MARWITZ POSTHUMOUS PAPERS was printed accordingly,
[NACHLASS DES GENERAL VON DER MARWITZ (Berlin, 1852), 1 vol. 8vo.]
--whether any more I have not heard; though I found this first
Volume an excellent substantial bit of reading; and the Author a
fine old Prussian Gentleman, very analogous in his structure to the
fine old English ditto; who showed me the PER-CONTRA side of this
and the other much-celebrated modern Prussian person and thing,
Prince Hardenberg, Johannes von Muller and the like;--and yielded
more especially the following Three Reminiscences of Friedrich,
beautiful little Pictures, bathed in morning light, and evidently
true to the life:--

1. JUNE, 1782 OR 1783. "The first time I saw him was in 1782 (or it
might be 1783, in my sixth year)," middle of June, whichever year,
"as he was returning from his Annual Review in Preussen [WEST-
Preussen, never revisits the Konigsberg region], and stopped to
change horses at Dolgelin." Dolgelin is in Mullrose Country,
westward of Frankfurt-on-Oder; our Marwitz Schloss not far from it.
"I had been sent with Mamsell Benezet," my French Governess;
"and, along with the Clergyman of Dolgelin, we waited for the King.

"The King, on his journeys, generally preferred, whether at midday
or for the night, to halt in some Country place, and at the
Parsonages most of all; probably because he was quieter there than
in the Towns. To the Clergyman this was always a piece of luck;
not only because, if he pleased the King, he might chance to get
promoted; but because he was sure of profitable payment, at any
rate; the King always ordering 50 thalers [say 10 guineas] for his
noon halt, and for his night's lodging 100. The little that the
King ate was paid for over and above. It is true, his Suite
expected to be well treated; but this consisted only of one or two
individuals. Now, the King had been wont almost always, on these
journeys homewards, to pass the last night of his expedition with
the Clergyman of Dolgelin; and had done so last year, with this
present one who was then just installed; with him, as with his
predecessor, the King had talked kindly, and the 100 thalers were
duly remembered. Our good Parson flattered himself, therefore, that
this time too the same would happen; and he had made all
preparations accordingly.

"So we waited there, and a crowd of people with us. The team of
horses stood all ready (peasants' horses, poor little cats of
things, but the best that could be picked, for there were then no
post-horses THAT COULD RUN FAST);--the country-fellows that were to
ride postilion all decked, and ten head of horses for the King's
coach: wheelers, four, which the coachman drove from his box;
then two successive pairs before, on each pair a postilion-peasant;
and upon the third pair, foremost of all, the King's outriders were
to go.

"And now, at last, came the FELDJAGER [Chacer, Hunting-groom], with
his big whip, on a peasant's, horse, a peasant with him as
attendant. All blazing with heat, he dismounted; said, The King
would be here in five minutes; looked at the relays, and the
fellows with the water-buckets, who were to splash the wheels;
gulped down a quart of beer; and so, his saddle in the interim
having been fixed on another horse, sprang up again, and off at a
gallop. The King, then, was NOT to stay in Dolgelin! Soon came the
Page, mounted in like style; a youth of 17 or 18;
utterly exhausted; had to be lifted down from his horse, and again
helped upon the fresh one, being scarcely able to stand;--and close
on the rear of him arrived the King. He was sitting alone in an
old-fashioned glass-coach, what they call a VIS-A-VIS (a narrow
carriage, two seats fore and aft, and on each of them room for only
one person). The coach was very long, like all the old carriages of
that time; between the driver's box and the body of the coach was a
space of at least four feet; the body itself was of pear-shape,
peaked below and bellied out above; hung on straps, with rolled
knuckles [WINDEN], did not rest on springs; two beams, connecting
fore wheels and hind, ran not UNDER the body of the coach, but
along the sides of it, the hind-wheels following with a
goodly interval.

"The carriage drew up; and the King said to his coachman [the far-
famed Pfund]: 'Is this Dolgelin?' 'Yes, your Majesty!'--'I stay
here.' 'No,' said Pfund; 'The sun is not down yet. We can get on
very well to Muncheberg to-night [ten miles ahead, and a Town too,
perfidious Pfund!]--and then to-morrow we are much earlier in
Potsdam.' 'NA, HM,--well, if it must be so!'--

"And therewith they set to changing horses. The peasants who were
standing far off, quite silent, with reverently bared heads, came
softly nearer, and looked eagerly at the King. An old Gingerbread-
woman (SOMMELFRAU) of Lebbenichen [always knew her afterwards] took
me in her arm, and held me aloft close to the coach-window. I was
now at farthest an ell from the King; and I felt as if I were
looking in the face of God Almighty (ES WAR MIR ALS OB ICH DEN
LIEBEN GOTT ANSAHE). He was gazing steadily out before him," into
the glowing West, "through the front window. He had on an old
three-cornered regimental hat, and had put the hindward straight
flap of it foremost, undoing the loop, so that this flap hung down
in front, and screened him from the sun. The hat-strings (HUT-
CORDONS," trimmings of silver or gold cord) "had got torn loose,
and were fluttering about on this down-hanging front flap;
the white feather in the hat was tattered and dirty; the plain blue
uniform, with red cuffs, red collar and gold shoulder-bands
[epaulettes WITHOUT bush at the end], was old and dusty, the yellow
waistcoat covered with snuff;--for the rest, he had black-velvet
breeches [and, of course, the perpetual BOOTS, of which he would
allow no polishing or blacking, still less any change for new ones
while they would hang together]. I thought always he would speak to
me. The old woman could not long hold me up; and so she set me down
again. Then the King looked at the Clergyman, beckoned him near,
and asked, Whose child it was? (Herr von Marwitz of
Friedersdorf's.'--'Is that the General?' 'No, the Chamberlain.'
The King made no answer: he could not bear Chamberlains, whom he
considered as idle fellows. The new horses were yoked; away they
went. All day the peasants had been talking of the King, how he
would bring this and that into order, and pull everybody over the
coals who was not agreeable to them.

"Afterwards it turned out that all Clergymen were in the habit of
giving 10 thalers to the coachman Pfund, when the King lodged with
them: the former Clergyman of Dolgelin had regularly done it;
but the new one, knowing nothing of the custom, had omitted it last
year;--and that was the reason why the fellow had so pushed along
all day that he could pass Dolgelin before sunset, and get his 10
thalers in Muncheberg from the Burgermeister there."

2. JANUARY, 1785. "The second time I saw the King was at the
Carnival of Berlin in 1785. I had gone with my Tutor to a Cousin of
mine who was a Hofdame (DAME DE COUR) to the Princess Henri, and
lived accordingly in the Prince-Henri Palace,--which is now, in our
days, become the University;--her Apartments were in the third
story, and looked out into the garden. As we were ascending the
great stairs, there came dashing past us a little old man with
staring eyes, jumping down three steps at a time. My Tutor said, in
astonishment, 'That is Prince Henri!' We now stept into a window of
the first story, and looked out to see what the little man had
meant by those swift boundings of his. And lo, there came the King
in his carriage to visit him.

"Friedrich the Second NEVER drove in Potsdam, except when on
journeys, but constantly rode. He seemed to think it a disgrace,
and unworthy of a Soldier, to go in a carriage: thus, when in the
last Autumn of his life (this very 1785) he was so unwell in the
windy Sans-Souci (where there were no stoves, but only hearth-
fires), that it became necessary to remove to the Schloss in
Potsdam, he could not determine to DRIVE thither, but kept hoping
from day to day for so much improvement as might allow him to ride.
As no improvement came, and the weather grew ever colder, he at
length decided to go over under cloud of darkness, in a sedan-
chair, that nobody might notice him.--So likewise during the
Reviews at Berlin or Charlottenburg he appeared always on
horseback: but during the Carnival in Berlin, where he usually
stayed four weeks, he DROVE, and this always in Royal
pomp,--thus:--

"Ahead went eight runners with their staves, plumed caps and
runner-aprons [LAUFER-SCHURZE, whatever these are], in two rows.
As these runners were never used for anything except this show, the
office was a kind of post for Invalids of the Life-guard.
A consequence of which was, that the King always had to go at a
slow pace. His courses, however, were no other than from the
Schloss to the Opera twice a week; and during his whole residence,
one or two times to Prince Henri and the Princess Amelia [once
always, too, to dine with his Wife, to whom he did not speak one
word, but merely bowed at beginning and ending!]. After this the
runners rested again for a year. Behind them came the Royal
Carriage, with a team of eight; eight windows round it; the horses
with old-fashioned harness, and plumes on their heads. Coachman and
outriders all in the then Royal livery,--blue; the collar, cuffs,
pockets, and all seams, trimmed with a stripe of red cloth, and
this bound on both sides with small gold-cord; the general effect
of which was very good. In the four boots (NEBENTRITTEN) of the
coach stood four Pages, red with gold, in silk stockings, feather-
hats (crown all covered with feathers), but not having plumes;--the
valet's boot behind, empty; and to the rear of it, down below,
where one mounts to the valet's boot [BEDIENTEN-TRITT, what is now
become FOOT-BOARD], stood a groom (STALLKNECHT). Thus came the
King, moving slowly along; and entered through the portal of the
Palace. We looked down from the window in the stairs. Prince Henri
stood at the carriage-door; the pages opened it, the King stepped
out, saluted his Brother, took him by the hand, walked upstairs
with him, and thus the two passed near us (we retiring upstairs to
the second story), and went into the Apartment, where now Students
run leaping about."

3. MAY 23d, 1785. "The third time I saw him was that same year, at
Berlin still, as he returned home from the Review. ["May 21st-
23d" (Rodenbeck, iii. 327).] My Tutor had gone with me for that end
to the Halle Gate, for we already knew that on that day he always
visited his Sister, Princess Amelia. He came riding on a big white
horse,--no doubt old CONDE, who, twenty years after this, still got
his FREE-BOARD in the ECOLE VETERINAIRE; for since the Bavarian War
(1778), Friedrich hardly ever rode any other horse. His dress was
the same as formerly at Dolgelin, on the journey; only that the hat
was in a little better condition, properly looped up, and with the
peak (but not with the LONG peak, as is now the fashion) set in
front, in due military style. Behind him were a guard of Generals,
then the Adjutants, and finally the grooms of the party. The whole
'Rondeel' (now Belle-Alliance Platz) and the Wilhelms-Strasse were
crammed full of people; all windows crowded, all heads bare,
everywhere the deepest silence; and on all countenances an
expression of reverence and confidence, as towards the just
steersman of all our destinies. The King rode quite alone in front,
and saluted people, CONTINUALLY taking off his hat. In doing which
he observed a very marked gradation, according as the on-lookers
bowing to him from the windows seemed to deserve. At one time he
lifted the hat a very little; at another he took it from his head,
and held it an instant beside the same; at another he sunk it as
far as the elbow. But these motions lasted continually; and no
sooner had he put on his hat, than he saw other people, and again
took it off. From the Halle Gate to the Koch-Strasse he certainly
took off his hat 200 times.

"Through this reverent silence there sounded only the trampling of
the horses, and the shouting of the Berlin street-boys, who went
jumping before him, capering with joy, and flung up their hats into
the air, or skipped along close by him, wiping the dust from his
boots. I and my Tutor had gained so much room that we could run
alongside of him, hat in hand, among the boys.--You see the
difference between then and now. Who was it that then made the
noise? Who maintained a dignified demeanor?--Who is it that bawls
and bellows now? [Nobilities ought to be noble, thinks this old
Marwitz, in their reverence to Nobleness. If Nobilities themselves
become Washed Populaces in a manner, what are we to say?] And what
value can you put on such bellowing?

"Arrived at the Princess Amelia's Palace (which, lying in the
Wilhelms-Strasse, fronts also into the Koch-Strasse), the crowd
grew still denser, for they expected him there: the forecourt was
jammed full; yet in the middle, without the presence of any police,
there was open space left for him and his attendants. He turned
into the Court; the gate-leaves went back; and the aged lame
Princess, leaning on two Ladies, the OBERHOFMEISTERINN (Chief Lady)
behind her, came hitching down the flat steps to meet him. So soon
as he perceived her, he put his horse to the gallop, pulled up,
sprang rapidly down, took off his hat (which he now, however, held
quite low at the full length of his arm), embraced her, gave her
his arm, and again led her up the steps. The gate-leaves went to;
all had vanished, and the multitude still stood, with bared head,
in silence, all eyes turned to the spot where he had disappeared;
and so it lasted a while, till each gathered himself and peacefully
went his way.

"And yet there had nothing happened! No pomp, no fireworks, no
cannon-shot, no drumming and fifing, no music, no event that had
occurred! No, nothing but an old man of 73, ill-dressed, all dusty,
was returning from his day's work. But everybody knew that this old
man was toiling also for him; that he had set his whole life on
that labor, and for five-and-forty years had not given it the slip
one day! Every one saw, moreover, the fruits of this old man's
labor, near and far, and everywhere around; and to look on the old
man himself awakened reverence, admiration, pride, confidence,--in
short all the nobler feelings of man." [ Nachlass des
General von der Marwitz, i. 15-20.]

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