Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21

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




POTSDAM, 1st DECEMBER, 1766. "At present I have with me my Niece
[Sister's Daughter, of Schwedt], the Duchess of Wurtemberg;
who remembers with pleasure to have had the happiness of seeing
your Royal Highness in former times. She is very unhappy and much
to be pitied; her Husband [Eugen of Wurtemberg, whom we heard much
of, and last at Colberg] gives her a deal of trouble: he is a
violent man, from whom she has everything to fear; who gives her
chagrins, and makes her no allowances. I try my best to bring him
to reason;"--but am little successful. Three years after this, "May
3d, 1769," we find Eugen, who once talked of running his august
Reigning Brother through the body, has ended by returning to
Stuttgard and him; where, or at Mumpelgard, his Apanage, he
continued thenceforth. And was Reigning Duke himself, long
afterwards, for two years, at the very end of his life.
["Succeeded," on his Brother Karl's death, "20th May, 1795;
died 23d December, 1797, age 75."] At this date of 1766, "my poor
Niece and he" have been married thirteen years, and have half a
score of children;--the eldest of them Czar Paul's Second Wife that
is to be, and Mother of the now Czars.

DECEMBER 17th, 1765. ... "I have had 12,360 houses and barns to
rebuild, and am nearly through with that. But how many other wounds
remain yet to be healed!"

JULY 22d, 1766. ... "Wedding festivities of Prince of Prussia.
Duchess of Kingston tipsy on the occasion!"--But we must not be
tempted farther. [ OEuvres de Frederic,
xxiv. 90-155.]


NEXT YEAR THERE IS A SECOND INTERVIEW; FRIEDRICH MAKING A
RETURN-VISIT DURING THE KAISER'S MORAVIAN REVIEWS (Camp of
Mahrisch-Neustadt, 3d-7th September, 1770).

The Russian-Turk especially in Second Campaign of it, "Liberation
of Greece," or, failing that, total destruction of the Turk Fleet
in Greek waters; conquest of Wallachia, as of Moldavia; in a word,
imminency of total ruin to the Turk by land and sea,--all this is
blazing aloft at such a pitch, in Summer, 1770, that a new
Interview upon it may well, to neighbors so much interested, seem
more desirable than ever. Interview accordingly there is to be:
3d September, and for four days following.

Kaunitz himself attends, this time; something of real business
privately probable to Kaunitz. Prince Henri is not there;
Prince Henri is gone to Sweden; on visit to his Sister, whom he has
not seen since boyhood: of which Visit there will be farther
mention. Present with the King were: [Rodenbeck, iii. 21.] the
Prince of Prussia (luckier somewhat in his second wedlock, little
red-colored Son and Heir born to him just a month ago);
[Friedrich Wilhelm III., "born 3d August, 1770."] Prince Ferdinand;
two Brunswick Nephews, ERBPRINZ whom we used to hear of, and
Leopold a junior, of whom we shall once or so. No Seidlitz this
time. Except Lentulus, no General to name. But better for us than
all Generals, in the Kaiser's suite, besides Kaunitz, was Prince de
Ligne,--who holds a PEN, as will appear.

"Liberation of the Greeks" had kindled many people, Voltaire among
the number, who is still intermittently in correspondence with
Friedrich: "A magnificent Czarina about to revivify that true
Temple of Mankind, or at least to sweep the blockhead Turks out of
it; what a prospect!" Friedrich is quite cool on Greece; not too
hot on any part of this subject, though intensely concerned about
it. Besides his ingenious Count-Lynar Project, and many other
businesses, Friedrich has just been confuting Baron d'Holbach's
Systeme de la Nature; ["EXAMEN CRITIQUE DU
SYSTEME DE LA NATURE [in OEuvres de Frederic,
ix. 153 et seq.], finished July, 1770."]--writing to Voltaire,
POTSDAM, 18th AUGUST, 1770, on this subject among others, he adds:
"I am going for Silesia, on the Reviews. I am to see the Kaiser,
who has invited me to his Camp in Mahren. That is an amiable and
meritorious Prince; he values your Works, reads them as diligently
as he can; is anything but superstitious: in brief, a Kaiser such
as Germany has not for a great while had. Neither he nor I have any
love for the blockhead and barbaric sort;--but that is no reason
for extirpating them: if it were, your Turks [oppressors of Greece]
would not be the only victims!" [ OEuvres de Frederic, italic> xxiii. 165, 166.]

In a lengthy Letter, written by request, TO STANISLAUS, KING OF
POLAND, 1735, or at a distance of fifteen years from this Interview
at Neustadt, Prince de Ligne, who was present there, has left us
some record or loose lively reminiscence of it; [Prince de Ligne,
Memoires et Melanges Historiques (Par. 1827),
i. 3-21.]--sputtering, effervescing, epigrammatic creature, had he
confined himself to a faithful description, and burnt off for us,
not like a pretty fire-work, but like an innocent candle, or thing
for seeing by! But we must take what we have, and endeavor to be
thankful. By great luck, the one topic he insists on is Friedrich
and his aspect and behavior on the occasion: which is what, of all
else in it, we are most concerned with.

"You have ordered me, Sire [this was written for him in 1785], to
speak to you of one of the greatest men of this Age. You admire
him, though his neighborhood has done you mischief enough;
and, placing yourself at the impartial distance of History, feel a
noble curiosity on all that belongs to this extraordinary genius.
I will, therefore, give you an exact account of the smallest words
that I myself heard the great Friedrich speak. ... The I (LE JE) is
odious to me; but nothing is indifferent when"--Well, your account,
then, your account, without farther preambling, and in a more exact
way than you are wont!--

"By a singular chance, in 1770 [3d-7th September, if you would but
date], the Kaiser was [for the second time] enabled to deliver
himself to the personal admiration which he had conceived for the
King of Prussia; and these Two great Sovereigns were so well
together, that they could pay visits. The Kaiser permitted me to
accompany; and introduced me to the King: it was at Neustadt in
Moravia [MAHRISCH-NEUSTADT, short way from AUSTERLITZ, which is
since become a celebrated place]. I can't recollect if I had, or
had assumed, an air of embarrassment; but what I do well remember
is, that the Kaiser, who noticed my look, said to the King, 'He has
a timid expression, which I never observed in him before; he will
recover presently.' This he said in a graceful merry way; and the
two went out, to go, I believe, to the Play. On the way thither,
the King for an instant quitting his Imperial Friend, asked me if
my LETTER TO JEAN JACQUES [now an entirely forgotten Piece], which
had been printed in the Papers, was really by me? I answered,
'Sire, I am not famous enough to have my name forged' [as a certain
Other name has been, on this same unproductive topic]. He felt what
I meant. It is known that Horace Walpole took the King's name to
write his famous LETTRE A JEAN JACQUES [impossible to attend to the
like of it at present], which contributed the most to drive mad
that eloquent and unreasonable man of genius.

"Coming out of the Play, the Kaiser said to the King of Prussia:
'There is Noverre, the famous Composer of Ballets; he has been in
Berlin, I believe.' Noverre made thereupon a beautiful dancing-
master bow. 'Ah, I know him,' said the King: 'we saw him at Berlin;
he was very droll; mimicked all the world, especially our chief
Dancing Women, to make you split with laughing.' Noverre, ill
content with this way of remembering him, made another beautiful
third-position bow; and hoped possibly the King would say something
farther, and offer him the opportunity of a small revenge.
'Your Ballets are beautiful,' said the King to him; 'your Dancing
Girls have grace; but it is grace in a squattish form (DE LA GRACE
ENGONCEE). I think you make them raise their shoulders and their
arms too much. For, Monsieur Noverre, if you remember, our
principal Dancing Girl at Berlin wasn't so.' 'That is why she was
at Berlin, Sire,' replied Noverre [satirically, all he could].

"I was every day asked to sup with the King; too often the
conversation addressed itself to me. In spite of my attachment to
the Kaiser, whose General I like to be, but not whose D'Argens or
Algarotti, I had not beyond reason abandoned myself to that
feeling. When urged by the King's often speaking to me, I had to
answer, and go on talking. Besides, the Kaiser took a main share in
the conversation; and was perhaps more at his ease with the King
than the King with him. One day, they got talking of what one would
wish to be in this world; and they asked my opinion. I said, I
should like to be 'a Pretty Woman till thirty; then, till sixty, a
fortunate and skilful General;'--and not knowing what more to say,
but for the sake of adding something, whatever it might be, 'a
Cardinal till eighty.' The King, who likes to banter the Sacred
College, made himself merry on this; and the Kaiser gave him a
cheap bargain of Rome and its upholders (SUPPOTS). That supper was
one of the gayest and pleasantest I have ever seen. The Two
Sovereigns were without pretension and without reserve; what did
not always happen on other days; and the amiability of two men so
superior, and often so astonished to see themselves together, was
the agreeablest thing you can imagine. The King bade me come and
see him the first time he and I should have three or four hours to
ourselves.

"A storm such as there never was, a deluge compared with which that
of Deucalion was a summer shower, covered our Hills with water
[cannot say WHICH day of the four], and almost drowned our Army
while attempting to manoeuvre. The morrow was a rest-day for that
reason. At nine in the morning, I went to the King, and stayed till
one. He spoke to me of our Generals; I let him say, of his own
accord, the things I think of Marshals Lacy and Loudon; and I
hinted that, as to the others, it was better to speak of the dead
than of the living; and that one never can well judge of a General
who has not in his lifetime actually played high parts in War.
He spoke to me of Feldmarschall Daun: I said, 'that against the
French I believed he might have proved a great man; but that
against him [you], he had never quite been all he was; seeing
always his opponent as a Jupiter, thunder-bolt in hand, ready to
pulverize his Army.' That appeared to give the King pleasure:
he signified to me a feeling of esteem for Daun; he spoke favorably
of General Brentano [one of the Maxen gentlemen]. I asked his
reason for the praises I knew he had given to General Beck.
'Why (MAIS), I thought him a man of merit,' said the King. 'I do
not think so, Sire; he didn't do you much mischief.' 'He sometimes
took Magazines from me.' 'And sometimes let your Generals escape.'
(Bevern at REICHENBACH, for instance, do you reckon that his
blame?)--'I have never beaten him,' said the King. 'He never came
near enough for that: and I always thought your Majesty was only
appearing to respect him, in order that we might have more
confidence in him, and that you might give him the better slap some
day, with interest for all arrears.'

KING. "'Do you know who taught me the little I know? It was your
old Marshal Traun: that was a man, that one.--You spoke of the
French: do they make progress?'

EGO. "'They are capable of everything in time of war, Sire: but in
Peace,--their chiefs want them to be what they are not, what they
are not capable of being.'

KING. "'How, then; disciplined? They were so in the time of
M. de Turenne.'

EGO. "'Oh, it isn't that. They were not so in the time of M. de
Vendome, and they went on gaining battles. But it is now wished
that they become your Apes and ours; and that does n't suit them.'

KING. "'Perhaps so: I have said of their busy people (FAISEURS,'
St. Germains and Army-Reformers), 'that they would fain sing
without knowing music.'

EGO. "'Oh, that is true! But leave them their natural notes;
profit by their bravery, their alertness (LEGERETE), by their very
faults,--I believe their confusion might confuse their enemies
sometimes.'

KING. "'Well, yes, doubtless, if you have something to support
them with.'

EGO. "'Just so, Sire,--some Swiss and Germans.'

KING. "''T is a brave and amiable nation, the French; one can't
help loving them:--but, MON DIEU, what have they made of their Men
of Letters; and what a tone has now come up among them!
Voltaire, for example, had an excellent tone. D'Alembert, whom I
esteem in many respects, is too noisy, and insists too much on
producing effect in society:--was it the Men of Letters that gave
the Court of Louis XIV. its grace, or did they themselves acquire
it from the many amiable persons they found there? He was the
Patriarch of Kings, that one [in a certain sense, your Majesty!].
In his lifetime a little too much good was said of him; but a great
deal too much ill after his death.'

EGO. "'A King of France, Sire, is always the Patriarch of Clever
People (PATRIARCHE DES GENS D'ESPRIT:' You do not much mean this,
Monsieur? You merely grin it from the teeth outward?)

KING. "'That is the bad Number to draw: they are n't worth a doit
(NE VALENT PAS LE DIABLE, these GENS D'ESPRIT) at Governing.
Better be Patriarch of the Greek Church, like my sister the Empress
of Russia! That brings her, and will bring, advantages. There's a
religion for you; comprehending many Countries and different
Nations! As to our poor Lutherans, they are so few, it is not worth
while being their Patriarch.'

EGO. "'Nevertheless, Sire, if one join to them the Calvinists, and
all the little bastard Sects, it would not be so bad a post.
[The King appeared to kindle at this; his eyes were full of
animation. But it did not last when I said:] If the Kaiser were
Patriarch of the Catholics, that too wouldn't be a bad place.'

KING. "'There, there: Europe divided into Three Patriarchates.
I was wrong to begin; you see where that leads us: Messieurs, our
dreams are not those of the just, as M. le Regent used to say.
If Louis XIV. were alive, he would thank us.'

"All these patriarchal ideas, possible and impossible to realize,
made him, for an instant, look thoughtful, almost moody.

KING. "'Louis XIV., possessing more judgment than cleverness
(ESPRIT), looked out more for the former quality than for the
latter. It was men of genius that he wanted, and found. It could
not be said that Corneille, Bossuet, Racine and Conde were people
of the clever sort (DES HOMMES D'ESPRIT).'

EGO. "'On the whole, there is that in the Country which really
deserves to be happy, It is asserted that your Majesty has said, If
one would have a fine dream, one must--'

KING. "'Yes, it is true,--be King of France.'

EGO. "'If Francis I. and Henri IV. had come into the world after
your Majesty, they would have said, "be King of Prussia."'

KING. "'Tell me, pray, is there no citable Writer left in France?'

"This made me laugh; the King asked the reason. I told him, He
reminded me of the RUSSE A PARIS, that charming little piece of
verse of M. de Voltaire's; and we remembered charming things out of
it, which made us both laugh. He said,

KING. "'I have sometimes heard the Prince de Conti spoken of: what
sort of man is he?'

EGO. "'He is a man composed of twenty or thirty men. He is proud,
he is affable,'"--he is fiddle, he is diddle (in the seesaw
epigrammatic way, for a page or more); and is not worth pen and ink
from us, since the time old Marshal Traun got us rid of him,--home
across the Rhine, full speed, with Croats sticking on his skirts.
[Supra, viii. 475.]

"This portrait seemed to amuse the King. One had to captivate him
by some piquant detail; without that, he would escape you, give you
no time to speak. The success generally began by the first words,
no matter how vague, of any conversation; these he found means to
make interesting; and what, generally, is mere talk about the
weather became at once sublime; and one never heard anything vulgar
from him. He ennobled everything; and the examples of Greeks and
Romans, or of modern Generals, soon dissipated everything of what,
with others, would have remained trivial and commonplace.

"'Have you ever,' said he, 'seen such a rain as yesterday's? Your
orthodox Catholics will say, "That comes of having a man without
religion among us: what are we to do with this cursed (MAUDIT)
King; a Protestant at lowest?" for I really think I brought you bad
luck. Your soldiers would be saying, "Peace we have; and still is
this devil of a man to trouble us!"'

EGO. "'Certainly, if your Majesty was the cause, it is very bad.
Such a thing is only permitted to Jupiter, who has always good
reasons for everything; and it would have been in his fashion,
after destroying the one set by fire, to set about destroying the
others by water. However, the fire is at an end; and I did not
expect to revert to it.'

KING. "'I ask your pardon for having plagued you so often with
that; I regret it for the sake of all mankind. But what a fine
Apprenticeship of War! I have committed errors enough to teach you
young people, all of you, to do better. MON DIEU, how I love your
grenadiers! How well they defiled in my presence! If the god Mars
were raising a body-guard for himself, I should advise him to take
them hand over head. Do you know I was well pleased (BIEN CONTENT)
with the Kaiser last night at supper? Did you hear what he said to
me about Liberty of the Press, and the Troubling of Consciences (LA
GENE DES CONSCIENCES)? There will be bits of difference between his
worthy Ancestors and him, on some points!'

EGO. "'I am persuaded, he will entertain no prejudices on anything;
and that your Majesty will be a great Book of Instruction to him.'

KING. "'How adroitly he disapproved, without appearing to mean
anything, the ridiculous Vienna Censorship; and the too great
fondness of his Mother (without naming her) for certain things
which only make hypocrites. By the by, she must detest you, that
High Lady?'

EGO. "'Well, then, not at all. She has sometimes lectured me about
my strayings, but very maternally: she is sorry for me, and quite
sure that I shall return to the right path. She said to me, some
time ago, "I don't know how you do, you are the intimate friend of
Father Griffet; the Bishop of Neustadt has always spoken well of
you; likewise the Archbishop of Malines; and the Cardinal [name
Sinzendorf, or else not known to me, dignity and red hat
sufficiently visible] loves you much."'

"Why cannot I remember the hundred luminous things which escaped
the King in this conversation! It lasted till the trumpet at Head-
quarters announced dinner. The King went to take his place; and I
think it was on this occasion that, some one having asked why M. de
Loudon had not come yet, he said, 'That is not his custom:
formerly he often arrived before me. Please let him take this place
next me; I would rather have him at my side than opposite.'"

That is very pretty. And a better authority gives it, The King said
to Loudon himself, on Loudon's entering, "Mettez-vous
aupres de moi, M. de Loudon; j'aime mieux vous avoir a cote de moi
que vis-a-vis." He was very kind to Loudon;
"constantly called him M. LE FELDMARECHAL [delicate hint of what
should have been, but WAS not for seven years yet]; and, at
parting, gave him [as he did to Lacy also] two superb horses,
magnificently equipped." [Pezzl, Vie de Loudon, italic> ii. 29.]

"Another day," continues Prince de Ligne, "the Manoeuvres being
over in good time, there was a Concert at the Kaiser's.
Notwithstanding the King's taste for music, he was pleased to give
me the preference; and came where I was, to enchant me with the
magic of his conversation, and the brilliant traits, gay and bold,
which characterize him. He asked me to name the general and
particular Officers who were present, and to tell him those who had
served under Marshal Traun: 'For, ENFIN,' he said, 'as I think I
have told you already, he is my Master; he corrected me in the
Schooling I was at.'

EGO. "'Your Majesty was very ungrateful, then; you never paid him
his lessons. If it was as your Majesty says, you should at least
have allowed him to beat you; and I do not remember that you
ever did.'

KING. "'I did not get beaten, because I did not fight.'

EGO. "'It is in this manner that the greatest Generals have often
conducted their wars against each other. One has only to look at
the two Campaigns of M. de Montecuculi and M. de Turenne, in the
Valley of the Rench [Strasburg Country, 1674 and 1675, two
celebrated Campaigns, Turenne killed by a cannon-shot in the last].

KING. "'Between Traun and the former there is not much difference;
but what a difference, BON DIEU, between the latter and me!'

"I named to him the Count d'Althan, who had been Adjutant-General,
and the Count de Pellegrini. He asked me twice which was which,
from the distance we were at; and said, He was so short-sighted, I
must excuse him.

EGO. "'Nevertheless, Sire, in the war your sight was good enough;
and, if I remember right, it reached very far!'

KING. "'It was not I; it was my glass.'

EGO. "'Ha, I should have liked to find that glass;--but, I fear it
would have suited my eyes as little as Scanderbeg's sword my arm.'

"I forget how the conversation changed; but I know it grew so free
that, seeing somebody coming to join in it, the King warned him to
take care; that it was n't safe to converse with a man doomed by
the theologians to Everlasting Fire. I felt as if he somewhat
overdid this of his 'being doomed,' and that he boasted too much of
it. Not to hint at the dishonesty of these free-thinking gentlemen
(MESSIEURS LES ESPRITS FORTS), who very often are thoroughly afraid
of the Devil, it is, at least, bad taste to make display of such
things: and it was with the people of bad taste whom he has had
about him, such as a Jordan, a D'Argens, Maupertuis, La Beaumelle,
La Mettrie, Abbe de Prades, and some dull sceptics of his own
Academy, that he had acquired the habit of mocking at Religion; and
of talking (DE PARLER) Dogma, Spinoism, Court of Rome and the like.
In the end, I did n't always answer when he touched upon it. I now
seized a moment's interval, while he was using his handkerchief, to
speak to him about some business, in connection with the Circle of
Westphalia, and a little COMTE IMMEDIAT [County holding direct, of
the Reich] which I have there. The King answered me: 'I, for my
part, will do anything you wish; but what thinks the other
Director, my comrade, the Elector of Cologne, about it?'

EGO. "'I was not aware, Sire, that you were an Ecclesiastical
Elector.'

KING. "'I am so; at least on my Protestant account.'

EGO. "'That is not to OUR account's advantage! Those good people of
mine believe your Majesty to be their protector.'

"He continued asking me the names of persons he saw. I was telling
him those of a number of young Princes who had lately entered the
Service, and some of whom gave hopes. 'That may be,' said he;
'but I think the breed of the governing races ought to be crossed.
I like the children of love: look at the Marechal de Saxe, and my
own Anhalt [severe Adjutant von Anhalt, a bastard of Prinz Gustav,
the Old Dessauer's Heir-Apparent, who begot a good many bastards,
but died before inheriting: bastards were brought up, all of them
to soldiering, by their Uncles,---this one by Uncle Moritz;
was thrown from his horse eight years HENCE, to the great joy of
many]; though I am afraid that SINCE [mark this SINCE, alas!] his
fall on his head, that latter is not so good as formerly. I should
be grieved at it, [Not for eight years yet, MON PRINCE, I am sorry
to say! Adjutant von Anhalt did, in reality, get this fall, and
damaging hurt on the head, in the "Bavarian War" (nicknamed
KARTOFFEL-KRIEG, "Potato-War"), 1778-1779. Militair-
Lexikon, i. 69: see Preuss, ii. 356, iv. 578; &c.]
both for his sake and for mine; he is a man full of talents.'

"I am glad to remember this; for I have heard it said by silly
slanderous people (SOTS DENIGRANTS), who accuse the King of Prussia
of insensibility, that he was not touched by the accident which
happened to the man he seemed to love most. Too happy if one had
only said that of him! He was supposed to be jealous of the merit
of Schwerin and of Keith, and delighted to have got them killed.
It is thus that mediocre people seek to lower great men, to
diminish the immense space that lies between themselves and such.

"Out of politeness, the King, and his Suite as well, had put on
white [Austrian] Uniforms, not to bring back on us that blue which
we had so often seen in war. He looked as though he belonged to our
Army and to the Kaiser's suite. There was, in this Visit, I
believe, on both sides, a little personality, some distrust, and
perhaps a beginning of bitterness;--as always happens, says
Philippe de Comines, when Sovereigns meet. The King took Spanish
snuff, and brushing it off with his hand from his coat as well as
he could, he said, 'I am not clean enough for you, Messieurs; I am
not worthy to wear your colors.' The air with which he said this,
made me think he would yet soil them with powder, if the
opportunity arose.

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