Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21

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




Except Mirabeau, about a year after this, Segur is the last
distinguished French visitor. French Correspondence the King has
now little or none. October gone a year, his D'Alembert, the last
intellectual Frenchman he had a real esteem for, died. Paris and
France seem to be sinking into strange depths; less and less worth
hearing of. Now and then a straggling Note from Condorcet, Grimm or
the like, are all he gets there.

That of the Furstenbund put a final check on Joseph's notions of
making the Reich a reality; his reforms and ambitions had
thenceforth to take other directions, and leave the poor old Reich
at peace. A mighty reformer he had been, the greatest of his day.
Broke violently in upon quiescent Austrian routine, on every side:
monkeries, school-pedantries, trade-monopolies, serfages,--all
things, military and civil, spiritual and temporal, he had resolved
to make perfect in a minimum of time. Austria gazed on him, its
admiration not unmixed with terror. He rushed incessantly about;
hardy as a Charles Twelfth; slept on his bearskin on the floor of
any inn or hut;--flew at the throat of every Absurdity, however
broad-based or dangerously armed, "Disappear, I say!" Will hurl you
an Official of Rank, where need is, into the Pillory; sets him, in
one actual instance, to permanent sweeping of the streets in
Vienna. A most prompt, severe, and yet beneficent and charitable
kind of man. Immensely ambitious, that must be said withal. A great
admirer of Friedrich; bent to imitate him with profit. "Very clever
indeed," says Friedrich; "but has the fault [a terribly grave one!]
of generally taking the second step without having taken
the first."

A troublesome neighbor he proved to everybody, not by his reforms
alone;--and ended, pretty much as here in the FURSTENBUND, by
having, in all matters, to give in and desist. In none of his
foreign Ambitions could he succeed; in none of his domestic
Reforms. In regard to these latter, somebody remarks: "No Austrian
man or thing articulately contradicted his fine efforts that way;
but, inarticulately, the whole weight of Austrian VIS INERTIAE bore
day and night against him;--whereby, as we now see, he bearing the
other way with the force of a steam-ram, a hundred tons to the
square inch, the one result was, To dislocate every joint in the
Austrian Edifice, and have it ready for the Napoleonic Earthquakes
that ensued." In regard to ambitions abroad it was no better.
The Dutch fired upon his Scheld Frigate: "War, if you will, you
most aggressive Kaiser; but this Toll is ours!" His Netherlands
revolted against him, "Can holy religion, and old use-and-wont be
tumbled about at this rate?" His Grand Russian Copartneries and
Turk War went to water and disaster. His reforms, one and all, had
to be revoked for the present. Poor Joseph, broken-hearted (for his
private griefs were many, too), lay down to die. "You may put for
epitaph," said he with a tone which is tragical and pathetic to us,
"Here lies Joseph," the grandly attempting Joseph, "who could
succeed in nothing." [Died, at Vienna, 20th February, 1790, still
under fifty;--born there 13th March, 1741. Hormayr,
OEsterreichischer Plutarch, iv. (2tes) 125-223 (and
five or six recent LIVES of Joseph, none of which, that I have
seen, was worth reading, in comparison).] A man of very high
qualities, and much too conscious of them. A man of an ambition
without bounds. One of those fatal men, fatal to themselves first
of all, who mistake half-genius for whole; and rush on the second
step without having made the first. Cannot trouble the old King or
us any more.



Chapter IX.

FRIEDRICH'S LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH.

To the present class of readers, Furstenbund is become a Nothing;
to all of us the grand Something now is, strangely enough, that
incidental item which directly followed, of Reviewing the Silesian
soldieries, who had so angered his Majesty last year. "If I be
alive next year!" said the King to Tauentzien. The King kept his
promise; and the Fates had appointed that, in doing so, he was to
find his-- But let us not yet pronounce the word.

AUGUST 16th, 1785, some three weeks after finishing the
Furstenbund, Friedrich set out for Silesia: towards Strehlen long
known to him and us all;--at Gross-Tinz, a Village in that
neighborhood, the Camp and Review are to be. He goes by Crossen,
Glogau; in a circling direction: Glogau, Schweidnitz, Silberberg,
Glatz, all his Fortresses are to be inspected as well, and there is
much miscellaneous business by the road. At Hirschberg, not on the
military side, we have sight of him; the account of which is
strange to read:--

"THURSDAY, AUGUST 18th," says a private Letter from that little
Town, [Given IN EXTENSO, Rodenbeck, iii. 331-333.] "he passed
through here: concourse of many thousands, from all the Country
about, had been waiting for him several hours. Outriders came at
last; then he himself, the Unique; and, with the liveliest
expression of reverence and love, all eyes were directed on one
point. I cannot describe to you my feelings, which of course were
those of everybody, to see him, the aged King; in his weak hand the
hat; in those grand eyes such a fatherly benignity of look over the
vast crowd that encircled his Carriage, and rolled tide-like,
accompanying it. Looking round when he was past, I saw in various
eyes a tear trembling. ["Alas, we sha'n't have him long!"]

"His affability, his kindliness, to whoever had the honor of speech
with this great King, who shall describe it! After talking a good
while with the Merchants-Deputation from the Hill Country, he said,
'Is there anything more, then, from anybody?' Upon which, the
President (KAUFMANNSALTESTE," Merchants'-Eldest) "Lachmann, from
Greiffenberg," which had been burnt lately, and helped by the King
to rebuild itself, "stepped forward, and said, 'The burnt-out
Inhabitants of Greiffenberg had charged him to express once more
their most submissive gratitude for the gracious help in
rebuilding; their word of thanks, truly, was of no importance, but
they daily prayed God to reward such Royal beneficence.' The King
was visibly affected, and said, 'You don't need to thank me; when
my subjects fall into misfortune, it is my duty to help them up
again; for that reason am I here.'" ...

Saturday 20th, he arrived at Tinz; had a small Cavalry Manoeuvre,
next day; and on Monday the Review Proper began. Lasted four days,
--22d-25th August, Monday to Thursday, both inclusive.
"Head-quarter was in the DORF-SCHULZE'S (Village Mayor's) house;
and there were many Strangers of distinction quartered in the
Country Mansions round." Gross-Tinz is about 12 miles straight
north from Strehlen, and as far straight east from the Zobtenberg:
Gross-Tinz, and its Review of August, 1785, ought to be
long memorable.

How the Review turned out as to proficiency recovered, I have not
heard; and only infer, by symptoms, that it was not unsatisfactory.
The sure fact, and the forever memorable, is, That on Wednesday,
the third day of it, from 4 in the morning, when the Manoeuvres
began, till well after 10, when they ended, there was a rain like
Noah's; rain falling as from buckets and water-spouts; and that
Friedrich (and perhaps most others too), so intent upon his
business, paid not the least regard to it; but rode about,
intensely inspecting, in lynx-eyed watchfulness of everything, as
if no rain had been there. Was not at the pains even to put on his
cloak. Six hours of such down-pour; and a weakly old man of 73
past. Of course he was wetted to the bone. On returning to head-
quarters, his boots were found full of water; "when pulled off, it
came pouring from them like a pair of pails."

He got into dry clothes; presided in his usual way at dinner, which
soon followed; had many Generals and guests,--Lafayette, Lord
Cornwallis, Duke of York;--and, as might be expected, felt
unusually feverish afterwards. Hot, chill, quite poorly all
afternoon; glad to get to bed:--where he fell into deep sleep, into
profuse perspiration, as his wont was; and awoke, next morning,
greatly recovered; altogether well again, as he supposed.
Well enough to finish his Review comfortably; and start for home.
Went--round by Neisse, inspection not to be omitted there, though
it doubles the distance--to Brieg that day; a drive of 80 miles,
inspection-work included. Thence, at Breslan for three days more:
with dinners of state, balls, illuminations, in honor of the Duke
of York,--our as yet last Duke of York, then a brisk young fellow
of twenty-two; to whom, by accident, among his other distinctions,
may belong this of having (most involuntarily) helped to kill
Friedrich the Great!

Back to Potsdam, Friedrich pushed on with business; and complained
of nothing. Was at Berlin in about ten days (September 9th), for an
Artillery Review; saw his Sister Amelia; saw various public works
in a state of progress,--but what perhaps is medically significant,
went in the afternoon to a kind of Spa Well they have at Berlin;
and slept, not at the Palace, but at this Spa, in the hostelry or
lodging-house attached. [Rodenbeck, IN DIE.] Next day (September
10th), the Artillery Manoeuvre was done; and the King left Berlin,
--little guessing he had seen Berlin for the last time.

The truth is, his health, unknown to him (though that of taking a
Night at the Spa Well probably denotes some guess or feeling of the
kind on his part), must have been in a dangerous or almost ruinous
state. Accordingly, soon afterwards, September 18th-19th, in the
night-time, he was suddenly aroused by a Fit of Suffocation (what
they call STICKFLUSS); and, for some hours, till relief was got,
everybody feared he would perish. Next day, there came gout;
which perhaps he regarded almost as a friend: but it did not prove
such; it proved the captain of a chaotic company of enemies;
and Friedrich's end, I suppose, was already inexorably near. At the
Grand Potsdam Review [22d-23d September), chief Review of all, and
with such an affluence of Strangers to it this Autumn, he was quite
unable to appear; prescribed the Manoeuvres and Procedures, and
sorrowfully kept his room. [This of 23d September, 1785, is what
Print-Collectors know loosely as "FRIEDRICH'S LAST REVIEW;"--one
Cunningham, an English Painter (son of a Jacobite ditto, and
himself of wandering habitat), and Clemens, a Prussian Engraver,
having done a very large and highly superior Print of it, by way of
speculation in Military Portraits (Berlin, 1787); in which, among
many others, there figures the crediblest Likeness known to me of
FRIEDRICH IN OLD AGE, though Friedrich himself was not there.
(See PREUSS, iv. 242; especially see RODENBECK, iii. 337 n.)--As
Crown-Prince, Friedrich had SAT to Pesne: never afterwards to
any Artist.]

Friedrich was always something of a Doctor himself: he had little
faith in professional Doctors, though he liked to speak with the
intelligent sort, and was curious about their science, And it is
agreed he really had good notions in regard to it; in particular,
that he very well understood his own constitution of body; knew the
effects of causes there, at any rate, and the fit regimens and
methods:--as an old man of sense will usually do. The complaint is,
that he was not always faithful to regimen; that, in his old days
at least, he loved strong soups, hot spicy meats;--finding, I
suppose, a kind of stimulant in them, as others do in wine;
a sudden renewal of strength, which might be very tempting to him.
There has been a great deal of unwise babble on this subject, which
I find no reason to believe, except as just said: In the fall of
this year, as usual, perhaps rather later than usual,--not till
November 8th (for what reason so delaying, Marwitz told us
already),--he withdrew from Sans-Souci, his Summer-Cottage;
shut himself up in Potsdam Palace (Old Palace) for the winter.
It was known he was very ailing; and that he never stirred out,--
but this was not quite unusual in late winters; and the rumors
about his health were vague and various. Now, as always, he
himself, except to his Doctors, was silent on that subject.
Various military Doctors, Theden, Frese and others of eminence,
were within reach; but it is not known to me that he consulted any
of them.

Not till January, 1786, when symptoms worse than ever, of asthma,
of dropsy, began to manifest themselves, did he call in Selle, the
chief Berlin Doctor, and a man of real sagacity, as is still
evident; who from the first concluded the disease to be desperate;
but of course began some alleviatory treatment, the skilfulest
possible to him. [Christian Gottlieb Selle, KRANKHEITSGESCHICHTE
DES HOCHSTSEELIGEN KONIGS VAN PREUSSEN FRIEDRICHS DES ZWEYTEN
MAJESTAT (Berlin, 1786); a very small Pamphlet, now very rare;--
giving in the most distinct, intelligent, modest and conclusive
way, an account of everything pertinent, and rigorously of nothing
else.] Selle, when questioned, kept his worst fears carefully to
himself: but the King noticed Selle's real opinion,--which,
probably, was the King's own too;--and finding little actual
alleviation, a good deal of trouble, and no possibility of a
victorious result by this warfare on the outworks, began to be
weary of Selle; and to turn his hopes--what hopes he yet had--on
the fine weather soon due. He had a continual short small cough,
which much troubled him; there was fear of new Suffocation-Fit;
the breathing always difficult.

But Spring came, unusually mild; the King sat on the southern
balconies in the genial sun and air, looking over the bright sky
and earth, and new birth of things: "Were I at Sans-Souci, amid the
Gardens!" thought he. APRIL 17th, he shifted thither: not in a
sedan, as Marwitz told us of the former journey; but "in his
carriage, very early in the morning, making a long roundabout
through various Villages, with new relays,"--probably with the
motive Marwitz assigns. Here are two contemporaneous Excerpts:--

1. MIRABEAU AT SANS-SOUCI. "This same day," April 17th, it appears,
[Preuss: in OEuvres de Frederic, xxv. 328 n.]
"the King saw Mirabeau, for the second and last time. Mirabeau had
come to Berlin 19th January last; his errand not very precise,--
except that he infinitely wanted employment, and that at Paris the
Controller-General Calonne, since so famous among mankind, had
evidently none to offer him there. He seems to have intended
Russia, and employment with the Czarina,--after viewing Berlin a
little, with the great flashy eyesight he had. He first saw
Friedrich January 25th. There pass in all, between Friedrich and
him, seven Letters or Notes, two of them by the King; and on poor
Mirabeau's side, it must be owned, there is a massively respectful,
truthful and manly physiognomy, which probably has mended
Friedrich's first opinion of him. [... "Is coming to me to-day;
one of those loose-tongued fellows, I suppose, who write for and
against all the world." (Friedrich to Prince Henri, "25 January,
1786:" OEuvres de Frederic, xxvi. 522.)]
This day, April 17th, 1786, he is at Potsdam; so far on the road to
France again,--Mirabeau Senior being reported dangerously ill.
'My Dialogue with the King,' say the Mirabeau Papers, 'was very
lively; but the King was in such suffering, and so straitened for
breath, I was myself anxious to shorten it: that same evening I
travelled on.'

"Mirabeau Senior did not die at this time: and Controller-General
Calonne, now again eager to shake off an importunate and far too
clear-sighted Mirabeau Junior, said to the latter: 'Back to Berlin,
could n't you? Their King is dying, a new King coming;
highly important to us!'--and poor Mirabeau went. Left Paris again,
in May; with money furnished, but, no other outfit, and more in the
character of Newspaper Vulture than of Diplomatic Envoy,"
[Rodenbeck, iii. 343. Fils Adoptif, Memoires de Mirabeau
(Paris, 1834), iv. 288-292, 296.] as perhaps we may
transiently see.

2. MARIE ANTOINETTE AT VERSAILLES; TO HER SISTER CHRISTINE AT
BRUSSELS (Husband and she, Duke and Duchess of Sachsen-Teschen, are
Governors of the Netherlands):--

MARCH 20th, 1786. ... "There has been arrested at Geneva one
Villette, who played a great part in that abominable Affair [of the
Diamond Necklace, now emerging on an astonished Queen and world].
[Carlyle's Miscellanies (Library Edition),
v. 3-96, ? DIAMOND NECKLACE. The wretched Cardinal de Rohan was
arrested at Versailles, and put in the Bastille, "August 15th,
1785," the day before Friedrich set out for his Silesian Review;
ever since which, the arrestments and judicial investigations have
continued,--continue till "May 10th, 1786," when Sentence was
given.] M. Target", Advocate of the enchanted Cardinal, "is coming
out with his MEMOIR: he does his function; and God knows what are
the lies he will produce upon us. There is a MEMOIR by that Quack
of a Cagliostro, too: these are at this moment the theme of
all talk."

APRIL 6th. "The MEMOIRS, the lies, succeed each other; and the
Business grows darker, not clearer. Such a Cardinal of the Church!
He brazenly maintains his distracted story about the Bosquet
[Interview with me in person, in that Hornbeam Arbor at Versailles;
to me inconceivable, not yet knowing of a Demoiselle d'0liva from
the streets, who had acted my part there], and my Assent [to
purchase the Necklace for me]. His impudence and his audacity
surpass belief. O Sister, I need all my strength to support such
cruel assaults. ... The King of Prussia's condition much engages
attention (PREOCCUPE) here, and must do at Vienna too: his death is
considered imminent. I am sure you have your eyes open on
that side." ...

APRIL 17th (just while the Mirabeau Interview at Potsdam is going
on). ... "King of Prussia thought to be dying: I am weary of the
political discussions on this subject, as to what effects his death
must produce. He is better at this moment; but so weak he cannot
resist long. Physique is gone; but his force and energy of soul,
they say, have often supported him, and in desperate crises have
even seemed to increase. Liking to him I never had:
his ostentatious immorality (IMMORALITE AFFICHEE," ah, Madame!)
"has much hurt public virtue [public orthodoxy, I mean], and there
have been related to me [by mendacious or ill-informed persons]
barbarities which excite horror. He has done us all a great deal of
ill. He has been a King for his own Country; but a Trouble-feast
for those about him;--setting up to be the arbiter of Europe;
always undertaking on his neighbors, and making them pay the
expense. As Daughters of Maria Theresa, it is impossible we can
regret him, nor is it the Court of France that will make his
funeral oration." [Comte de Hunolstein, Correspondance
inedite de Marie Antoinette (Paris, 1864), pp. 136,
137, 149.--Hunolstein's Book, I since find, is mainly or wholly a
Forgery! (NOTE of 1868.)]

From Sans-Souci the King did appear again on horseback; rode out
several times ("Conde," a fine English horse, one of his favorites,
carrying him,--the Conde who had many years of sinecure afterwards,
and was well known to Touring people): the rides were short;
once to the New Palace to look at some new Vinery there, thence to
the Gate of Potsdam, which he was for entering; but finding masons
at work, and the street encumbered, did not, and rode home instead:
this, of not above two miles, was his longest ride of all.
Selle's attendance, less and less in esteem with the King, and less
and less followed by him, did not quite cease till June 4th;
that day the King had said to Selle, or to himself, "It is enough."
That longest of his rides was in the third week after; June 22d,
Midsummer-Day. July 4th, he rode again; and it was for the last
time. About two weeks after, Conde was again brought out; but it
would not do: Adieu, my Conde; not possible, as things are!--

During all this while, and to the very end, Friedrich's Affairs,
great and small, were, in every branch and item, guided on by him,
with a perfection not surpassed in his palmiest days: he saw his
Ministers, saw all who had business with him, many who had little;
and in the sore coil of bodily miseries, as Hertzberg observed with
wonder, never was the King's intellect clearer, or his judgment
more just and decisive. Of his disease, except to the Doctors, he
spoke no word to anybody. The body of Friedrich is a ruin, but his
soul is still here; and receives his friends and his tasks as
formerly. Asthma, dropsy, erysipelas, continual want of sleep; for
many months past he has not been in bed, but sits day and night in
an easy-chair, unable to get breath except in that posture. He said
one morning, to somebody entering, "If you happened to want a
night-watcher, I could suit you well."

His multifarious Military businesses come first; then his three
Clerks, with the Civil and Political. These three he latterly,
instead of calling about 6 or 7 o'clock, has had to appoint for 4
each morning: "My situation forces me," his message said, "to give
them this trouble, which they will not have to suffer long. My life
is on the decline; the time which I still have I must employ. It
belongs not to me, but to the State." [Preuss, iv. 257 n.] About
11, business, followed by short surgical details or dressings
(sadly insisted on in those Books, and in themselves sufficiently
sad), being all done,--his friends or daily company are admitted:
five chiefly, or (NOT counting Minister Hertzberg) four,
Lucchesini, Schwerin, Pinto, Gortz; who sit with him about one hour
now, and two hours in the evening again:--dreary company to our
minds, perhaps not quite so dreary to the King's; but they are all
he has left. And he talks cheerfully with them "on Literature,
History, on the topics of the day, or whatever topic rises, as if
there were no sickness here." A man adjusted to his hard
circumstances; and bearing himself manlike and kinglike among them.

He well knew himself to be dying; but some think, expected that the
end might be a little farther off. There is a grand simplicity of
stoicism in him; coming as if by nature, or by long SECOND-nature;
finely unconscious of itself, and finding nothing of peculiar in
this new trial laid on it. From of old, Life has been infinitely
contemptible to him. In death, I think, he has neither fear nor
hope. Atheism, truly, he never could abide: to him, as to all of
us, it was flatly inconceivable that intellect, moral emotion,
could have been put into HIM by an Entity that had none of its own.
But there, pretty much, his Theism seems to have stopped.
Instinctively, too, he believed, no man more firmly, that Right
alone has ultimately any strength in this world: ultimately, yes;--
but for him and his poor brief interests, what good was it?
Hope for himself in Divine Justice, in Divine Providence, I think
he had not practically any; that the unfathomable Demiurgus should
concern himself with such a set of paltry ill-given animalcules as
oneself and mankind are, this also, as we have often noticed, is in
the main incredible to him.

A sad Creed, this of the King's;--he had to do his duty without fee
or reward. Yes, reader;--and what is well worth your attention, you
will have difficulty to find, in the annals of any Creed, a King or
man who stood more faithfully to his duty; and, till the last hour,
alone concerned himself with doing that. To poor Friedrich that was
all the Law and all the Prophets: and I much recommend you to
surpass him, if you, by good luck, have a better Copy of those
inestimable Documents!--Inarticulate notions, fancies, transient
aspirations, he might have, in the background of his mind. One day,
sitting for a while out of doors, gazing into the Sun, he was heard
to murmur, "Perhaps I shall be nearer thee soon:"--and indeed
nobody knows what his thoughts were in these final months. There is
traceable only a complete superiority to Fear and Hope; in parts,
too, are half-glimpses of a great motionless interior lake of
Sorrow, sadder than any tears or complainings, which are altogether
wanting to it.

Friedrich's dismissal of Selle, June 4th, by no means meant that he
had given up hope from medicine; on the contrary, two days after,
he had a Letter on the road for Zimmermann at Hanover; whom he
always remembers favorably since that DIALOGUE we read fifteen
years ago. His first Note to Zimmermann is of June 6th, "Would you
consent to come for a fortnight, and try upon me?"
Zimmermann's overjoyed Answer, "Yes, thrice surely yes," is of June
10th; Friedrich's second is of June 16th, "Come, then!"
And Zimmermann came accordingly,--as is still too well known.
Arrived 23d June; stayed till 10th July; had Thirty-three
Interviews or DIALOGUES with him; one visit the last day;
two, morning and evening, every preceding day;--and published a
Book about them, which made immense noise in the world, and is
still read, with little profit or none, by inquirers into
Friedrich. [Ritter von Zimmermann, Uber Friedrich den
Grossen und meine Unterredungen mit Ihm kurz von seinem Tode italic> (1 vol. 8vo: Leipzig, 1788);--followed by
Fragmente uber Friedrich den Grossen (3 vols. 12mo:
Leipzig, 1790); and by &c. &c.] Thirty-three Dialogues, throwing no
new light on Friedrich, none of them equal in interest to the old
specimen known to us.

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