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Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
amiability the love, of his pupil. Count Finkenstein, the second, was
a veteran general, sixty years old, who also secured the affections of
little Fritz. Colonel Kalkstein was twenty-eight years of age. He was a
thorough soldier and a man of honor. For forty years, until his death,
he retained the regards of his pupil, who was ever accustomed to
speak of him as “my master Kalkstein.” In the education of the
young prince every thing was conducted in accordance with the
most inflexible routine. From the minute directions given to the
teachers in a document drawn up by the father, bunglingly
expressed and wretchedly spelled, we cull out the following:
“My son must be impressed with love and fear of God, as the
foundation of our temporal and eternal welfare. No false religions or
sects of Atheist, Arian, Socinian, or whatever name the poisonous
things have, which can so easily corrupt a young mind, are to be
even named in his hearing. He is to be taught a proper abhorrence
of papistry, and to be shown its baselessness and nonsensicality.
Impress on him the true religion, which consists essentially in this,
that Christ died for all men. He is to learn no Latin, but French and
German, so as to speak and write with brevity and propriety.
“Let him learn arithmetic, mathematics, artillery, economy, to the
very bottom; history in particular; ancient history only slightly, but
the history of the last hundred and fifty years to the exactest pitch.
He must be completely master of geography, as also of whatever is
remarkable in each country. With increasing years you will more and
more, to an especial degree, go upon fortification, the formation of a
camp, and other war sciences, that the prince may, from youth
upward, be trained to act as officer and general, and to seek all his
glory in the soldier profession. You have, in the highest measure, to
make it your care to infuse into my son a true love for the soldier
business, and to impress on him that, as there is nothing in the
world which can bring a prince renown and honor like the sword, so
he would be a despised creature before all men if he did not love it
and seek his glory therein.”
 In October, 1723, when the prince was eleven years of age, his
grandfather, George I., came to Berlin to visit his daughter and his
son-in-law, the mother and father of Fritz. From the windows of his
apartment he looked out with much interest upon Fritz, drilling his
cadet company upon the esplanade in front of the palace. The clock-
work precision of the movements of the boy soldiers greatly
surprised him.
Every year Frederick William rigorously reviewed all his
garrisons. Though accompanied by a numerous staff, he traveled
with Spartan simplicity, regardless of exposure and fatigue. From an
early age he took Fritz with him on these annual reviews. A common
vehicle, called the sausage car, and which was the most primitive of
carriages, was often used by the king in his rough travels and
hunting excursions. This consisted of a mere stuffed pole, some ten
or twelve feet long, upon which one sits astride, as if riding a rail. It
rested upon wheels, probably with a sort of stirrup for the feet, and
the riders, ten or a dozen, were rattled along over the rough roads,
through dust or mud, alike regardless of winter’s frost or summer’s
rain. The cast-iron king, rejoicing in hardship and exposure, robbed
his delicate child even of needful sleep, saying, “Too much sleep
stupefies a fellow.”
 THE SAUSAGE CAR.

This rude, coarse discipline was thoroughly uncongenial to the

Crown Prince. He was a boy of delicate feelings and sensitive
temperament. The poetic nature very decidedly predominated in
him. He was fond of music, played the flute, wrote verses, and was
literary in his tastes. He simply hated chasing boars, riding on the
sausage car, and being drenched with rain and spattered with mud.
The old king, a mere animal with an active intellect, could not
appreciate, could not understand even, the delicate mental and
physical organization of his child. It is interesting to observe how
early in life these constitutional characteristics will develop
themselves, and how unavailing are all the efforts of education
entirely to obliterate them. When Frederick William was a boy, he
received, as a present, a truly magnificent dressing-gown, of
graceful French fashion, richly embroidered with gold. Indignantly he
thrust the robe into the fire, declaring that he would wear no such
finery, and demanded instead a jacket of wholesome homespun.
Fritz, on the contrary, could not endure the coarse homespun, but,
with almost girlish fondness, craved handsome dress. He had no
money allowance until he was seventeen years of age. A minute
account was kept of every penny expended for him, and the most
rigid economy was practiced in providing him with the mere
necessaries of life. When Fritz was in the tenth year of his age, his
father gave the following curious directions to the three teachers of
his son in reference to his daily mode of life. The document, an
abridgment of which we give, was dated Wusterhausen, September
3, 1721:
“On Sunday he is to rise at seven o’clock, and, as soon as he has
got his slippers on, shall kneel at his bedside and pray to God, so as
all in the room may hear, in these words:
“‘Lord God, blessed Father, I thank thee from my heart that thou
hast so graciously preserved me through this night. Fit me for what
thy holy will is, and grant that I do nothing this day, nor all the days
of my life, which can divide me from thee; for the Lord Jesus my
Redeemer’s sake. Amen.’
“After which the Lord’s Prayer; then rapidly and vigorously wash
himself clean; dress, and powder, and comb himself. While they are
combing and queuing him, he is to breakfast on tea. Prayer,
washing, breakfast, and the rest to be done pointedly within fifteen
minutes.
“This finished, his domestics and preceptor, Duhan, shall come in
and perform family worship. Prayer on their knees. Duhan to read a
chapter of the Bible, and sing some proper psalm or hymn. All the
domestics then withdraw, and Duhan reads my son the Gospel of
the Sunday, expounds it a little, adducing the main points of
Christianity, and questioning him from Noltenius’s Catechism. It will
then be nine o’clock.
“At nine o’clock he brings my son down to me, who goes to
church and dines with me at twelve o’clock. The rest of the day is
his own. At half past nine in the evening he shall come and bid me
good-night; shall then go directly to his room; very rapidly get off his
clothes, wash his hands, and, as soon as that is done, Duhan shall
make a prayer on his knees and sing a hymn, all the servants being
there again. Instantly after which my son shall get into bed; shall be
in bed at half past ten.
“On Monday, as on all week-days, he is to be called at six
o’clock, and so soon as he is called he is to rise. You are to stand by
him that he do not loiter or turn in bed, but briskly and at once get
up and say his prayers the same as on Sunday morning. This done,
he shall, as rapidly as he can, get on his shoes and spatterdashes,
also wash his face and hands, but not with soap; shall put on his
dressing-gown, have his hair combed and queued, but not
powdered. While being combed and queued, he shall, at the same
time, take breakfast of tea, so that both jobs go on at once; and all
this shall be ended before half past six. Preceptor and domestics
shall then come in with Bible and hymn-books, and have family
worship as on Sunday. This shall be done by seven o’clock.
“From seven till nine Duhan takes him on history; at nine o’clock
comes Noltenius” (a clergyman from Berlin) “with the Christian
religion till a quarter to eleven. Then Fritz rapidly washes his face
with water, his hands with soap and water; clean shirt; powders and
puts on his coat. At eleven o’clock he comes to the king, dines with
him at twelve, and stays till two.
“Directly at two he goes back to his room. Duhan is then ready;
takes him upon maps and geography from two to three o’clock,
giving account of all the European kingdoms, their strength and
weakness; the size, riches, and poverty of their towns. From three
o’clock till four Duhan shall treat of morality; from four till five shall
write German letters with him, and see that he gets a good style.
About five o’clock Fritz shall wash his hands and go to the king; ride
out, and divert himself in the air, and not in his room, and do what
he likes if it is not against God.”
Thus the employments of every hour were strictly specified for
every day in the week. On Wednesday he had a partial holiday. After
half past nine, having finished his history and “got something by
heart to strengthen the memory, Fritz shall rapidly dress himself and
come to the king, and the rest of the day belongs to little Fritz.” On
Saturday he was to be reviewed in all the studies of the week, “to
see whether he has profited. General Finkenstein and Colonel
Kalkstein shall be present during this. If Fritz has profited, the
afternoon shall be his own. If he has not profited, he shall from two
o’clock till six repeat and learn rightly what he has forgotten on the
past days. In undressing and dressing, you must accustom him to
get out of and into his clothes as fast as is humanly possible. You
will also look that he learn to put on and put off his clothes himself,
without help from others, and that he be clean, and neat, and not so
dirty.”
 CHAPTER II.
LIFE IN THE PALACE.

The Palace of Wusterhausen.—Wilhelmina and Fritz.—Education of the

Crown Prince.—Rising Dislike of the Father for his Son.—The Mother’s
Sympathy.—The double Marriage.—Character of George I.—The King of
England visits Berlin.—Wilhelmina’s Account of the Interview.—Sad
Fate of the Wife of George I.—The Giant Guard.—Despotism of
Frederick William.—The Tobacco Parliament.—A brutal Scene.—Death
of George I.—The Royal Family of Prussia.—Augustus, King of Poland.—
Corruption of his Court.—Cruel Treatment of Fritz.—Insane Conduct of
the King.

Wusterhausen, where the young Crown Prince spent many of

these early years of his life, was a rural retreat of the king about
twenty miles southeast from Berlin. The palace consisted of a plain,
unornamented, rectangular pile, surrounded by numerous
outbuildings, and rising from the midst of low and swampy grounds
tangled with thickets and interspersed with fish-pools. Game of all
kinds abounded in those lakelets, sluggish streams, and jungles.
In the court-yard there was a fountain with stone steps, where
Frederick William loved to sit on summer evenings and smoke his
pipe. He frequently took his frugal dinner here in the open air under
a lime-tree, with the additional protection of an awning. After dinner
he would throw himself down for a nap on a wooden bench,
apparently regardless of the flaming sun.
There seems to have been but little which was attractive about
this castle. It was surrounded by a moat, which Wilhelmina describes
as a “black, abominable ditch.” Its pets were shrieking eagles, and
two black bears ugly and vicious. Its interior accommodations were
at the farthest possible remove from luxurious indulgence. “It was a
dreadfully crowded place,” says Wilhelmina, “where you are stuffed
into garrets and have not room to turn.”
Still Wusterhausen was but a hunting-lodge, which was occupied
by the king only during a few weeks in the autumn. Fritz had many
playmates—his brothers and sisters, his cousins, and the children of
General Finkenstein. To most boys, the streams, and groves, and
ponds of Wusterhausen, abounding with fish and all kinds of game,
with ponies to drive and boats to row, with picturesque walks and
drives, would have been full of charms. But the tastes of Fritz did
not lie in that direction. He does not seem to have become strongly
attached to any of his young companions, except to his sister
Wilhelmina. The affection and confidence which united their hearts
were truly beautiful. They encountered together some of the
severest of life’s trials, but heartfelt sympathy united them. The
nickname which these children gave their unamiable father was
Stumpy.
There were other abodes of the king, the Berlin and Potsdam
palaces, which retained much of the splendor with which they had
been embellished by the splendor-loving monarch, Frederick I. There
were but few regal mansions in the world which then surpassed
them. And though the king furnished his own apartments with
Spartan simplicity and rudeness, there were other portions of these
royal residences, as also their surroundings in general, which were
magnificent in the highest degree. The health of little Fritz was
rather frail, and at times he found it hard to devote himself to his
sturdy tasks with the energy which his father required.
Though Fritz wrote a legible business hand, was well instructed
in most points of useful knowledge, and had a very decided taste for
elegant literature, he never attained correctness in spelling. The
father was bitterly opposed to Latin. Perhaps it was the prohibition
which inspired the son with an intense desire to learn that language.
He took secret lessons. His vigilant father caught him in the very act,
with dictionary and grammar, and a teacher by his side. The
infuriated king, volleying forth his rage, would have caned the
5
teacher had he not in terror fled.
The king soon learned, to his inexpressible displeasure and
mortification, that his boy was not soldierly in his tastes; that he did
not love the rude adventures of the chase, or the exposure and
hardships which a martial life demands. He had caught Fritz playing
the flute, and even writing verses. He saw that he was fond of
graceful attire, and that he was disposed to dress his hair in the
French fashion. He was a remarkably handsome boy, of fine figure,
with a lady’s hand and foot, and soft blonde locks carefully combed.
All this the king despised. Scornfully and indignantly he exclaimed,
“My son is a flute-player and a poet!” In his vexation he summoned
Fritz to his presence, called in the barber, and ordered his flowing
locks to be cut off, cropped, and soaped in the most rigid style of
military cut.
The father was now rapidly forming a strong dislike to the
character of his son. In nothing were they in harmony. Five
princesses had been born, sisters of Fritz. At last another son was
born, Augustus William, ten years younger than Frederick. The king
turned his eyes to him, hoping that he would be more in sympathy
with the paternal heart. His dislike for Fritz grew continually more
implacable, until it assumed the aspect of bitter hatred.
Sophie Dorothee tenderly loved her little Fritz, and, with a
mother’s fondness, endeavored to shield him, in every way in her
power, from his father’s brutality. Wilhelmina also clung to her
brother with devotion which nothing could disturb. Thus both mother
and daughter incurred in some degree the hatred with which the
father regarded his son. It will be remembered that the mother of
Fritz was daughter of George I. of England. Her brother
subsequently became George II. He had a son, Fred, about the age
of Wilhelmina, and a daughter, Amelia, six months older than Fritz.
The mother, Sophie Dorothee, had set her heart upon a double
marriage—of Wilhelmina with Fred, and of Fritz with Amelia. But
many obstacles arose in the way of these nuptials.

MAKING A SOLDIER OF HIM.

George was a taciturn, jealous, sullen old man, who quarreled

with his son, who was then Prince of Wales. The other powers of
Europe were decidedly opposed to this double marriage, as it would,
in their view, create too intimate a union between Prussia and
England, making them virtually one. Frederick William also
vexatiously threw hinderances in the way. But the heart of the loving
mother, Sophie Dorothee, was fixed upon these nuptials. For years
she left no efforts of diplomacy or intrigue untried to accomplish her
end. George I. is represented by Horace Walpole as a stolid,
stubborn old German, living in a cloud of tobacco-smoke, and
stupefying his faculties with beer. He had in some way formed a very
unfavorable opinion of Wilhelmina, considering her, very falsely,
ungainly in person and fretful in disposition. But at last the tact of
Sophie Dorothee so far prevailed over her father, the British king,
that he gave his somewhat reluctant but positive consent to the
double matrimonial alliance. This was in 1723. Wilhelmina was then
fourteen years of age. Fritz, but eleven years old, was too young to
think very deeply upon the subject of his marriage. The young
English Fred bore at that time the title of the Duke of Gloucester. He
soon sent an envoy to Prussia, probably to convey to his intended
bride presents and messages of love. The interview took place in the
palace of Charlottenburg, a few miles out from Berlin. The vivacious
Wilhelmina, in the following terms, describes the interview in her
journal:
“There came, in those weeks, one of the Duke of Gloucester’s
gentlemen to Berlin. The queen had a soiree. He was presented to
her as well as to me. He made a very obliging compliment on his
master’s part. I blushed and answered only by a courtesy. The
queen, who had her eye on me, was very angry that I had answered
the duke’s compliments in mere silence, and rated me sharply for it,
and ordered me, under pain of her indignation, to repair that fault
to-morrow. I retired all in tears to my room, exasperated against the
queen and against the duke. I vowed I would never marry him.
“Meanwhile the King of England’s time of arrival was drawing
nigh. We repaired on the 6th of October to Charlottenburg to receive
him. My heart kept beating. I was in cruel agitations. King George
arrived on the 8th about seven in the evening. The King of Prussia,
the queen, and all their suite received him in the court of the palace,
the apartments being on the ground floor. So soon as he had saluted
the king and queen I was presented to him. He embraced me, and,
turning to the queen, said, ‘Your daughter is very large of her age.’
He gave the queen his hand and led her into her apartment, whither
every body followed them. As soon as I came in he took a light from
the table and surveyed me from head to foot. I stood motionless as
a statue, and was much put out of countenance. All this went on
without his uttering the least word. Having thus passed me in
review, he addressed himself to my brother, whom he caressed
much and amused himself with for a good while.
“The queen made me a sign to follow her, and passed into a
neighboring apartment, where she had the English and Germans of
King George’s suite successively presented to her. After some talk
with these gentlemen she withdrew, leaving me to entertain them,
and saying, ‘Speak English to my daughter; you will find she speaks
it very well.’ I felt much less embarrassed when the queen was gone,
and, picking up a little courage, entered into conversation with these
English. As I spoke their language like my mother tongue I got
pretty well out of the affair, and every body seemed charmed with
me. They made my eulogy to the queen; told her I had quite the
English air, and was made to be their sovereign one day. It was
saying a great deal on their part; for these English think themselves
so much above all other people that they imagine that they are
paying a high compliment when they tell any one he has got English
manners.
“Their king” (Wilhelmina’s grandfather) “was of extreme gravity,
and hardly spoke a word to any body. He saluted Madam Sonsfeld,
my governess, very coldly, and asked if I was always so serious, and
if my humor was of a melancholy turn. ‘Any thing but that, sire,’
answered Madam Sonsfeld; ‘but the respect she has for your
majesty prevents her from being as sprightly as she commonly is.’
He shook his head and said nothing. The reception he had given me,
and this question, gave me such a chill that I never had the courage
to speak to him.”
The wife of George I., the mother of Sophie Dorothee, was the
subject of one of the saddest of earthly tragedies. Her case is still
involved in some obscurity. She was a beautiful, haughty, passionate
princess of Zelle when she married her cousin George, Elector of
Hanover. George became jealous of Count Königsmark, a very
handsome courtier of commanding address. In an angry altercation
with his wife, it is said that the infuriate husband boxed her ears.
Suddenly, on the 1st of July, 1694, Count Königsmark disappeared.
Mysteriously he vanished from earth, and was heard of no more.
The unhappy wife, who had given birth to the daughter Sophie
Dorothee, bearing her mother’s name, and to a son, afterward
George II., almost frenzied with rage, was divorced from her
husband, and was locked up in the gloomy castle of Ahlden, situated
in the solitary moors of Luneburg heath. Here she was held in
captivity for thirty years, until she died. In the mean time, George,
ascending the throne of England, solaced himself in the society of
female favorites, none of whom he honored with the title of wife.
The raging captive of Ahlden, who seems never to have become
submissive to her lot, could, of course, exert no influence in the
marriage of her grandchildren.
Wilhelmina says that her grandpapa George was intolerably
proud after he had attained the dignity of King of England, and that
he was much disposed to look down upon her father, the King of
Prussia, as occupying a very inferior position. Vexatiously he delayed
signing the marriage treaty, to which he had given a verbal assent,
evading the subject and presenting frivolous excuses. The reputation
of the English Fred was far from good. He had attained eighteen
years of age, was very unattractive in personal appearance, and
extremely dissolute. George I., morose and moody, was only
rendered more obstinate by being pressed. These delays
exasperated Frederick William, who was far from being the meekest
of men. Poor Sophie Dorothee was annoyed almost beyond
endurance. Wilhelmina took the matter very coolly, for she declared
that she cared nothing about her cousin Fred, and that she had no
wish to marry him.
The months rolled rapidly on, and Fritz, having entered his
fourteenth year, was appointed by his father, in May, 1725, captain in
the Potsdam Grenadier Guard. This giant regiment has attained
world-wide renown, solely from the peculiarity of its organization.
Such a body of men never existed before, never will again. It was
one of the singular freaks of the Prussian king to form a grenadier
guard of men of gigantic stature. In the prosecution of this senseless
aim not only his own realms were ransacked, but Europe and even
Asia was explored in search of giants. The army was with Frederick
William the great object of life, and the giant guard was the soul of
the army. This guard consisted of three battalions, 800 in each, 2400
in all. The shortest of the men were nearly seven feet high. The
tallest were almost nine feet in height. They had been gathered, at
an enormous expense, out of every country where they could be
found. No greater favor could be conferred upon the king than to
obtain for him a giant. Many amusing anecdotes are related of the
stratagems to which the king resorted to obtain these mammoth
soldiers. Portraits were painted of all of them. Frederick William paid
very little regard to individual rights or to the law of nations if any
chance presented itself by which he could seize upon one of these
monster men. Reigning in absolutism, compared with which the
despotism of Turkey is mild, if he found in his domains any young
woman of remarkable stature, he would compel her to marry one of
his giants. It does not, however, appear that he thus succeeded in
perpetuating a gigantic race.
 CAPTAIN OF THE GIANT GUARDS.

Prussian recruiters were sent in all directions to search with

eagle eyes for candidates for the Potsdam Guard. Their pay was
higher than that of any other troops, and they enjoyed unusual
privileges. Their drill and discipline were as perfect as could by any
possibility be achieved. The following stories are apparently well-
authenticated, describing the means to which the king often resorted
to obtain these men.
In the town of Zulich there was a very tall young carpenter by
the name of Zimmerman. A Prussian recruiting officer, in disguise,
Baron von Hompesch, entered the shop and ordered a stout chest to
be made, “six feet six inches in length, at least—at all events, longer
than yourself, Mr. Zimmerman. Mind you,” he added, “if too short it
will be of no service to me.” At the appointed time he called for the
chest. Looking at it, he exclaimed, in apparent disappointment, “Too
short, as I dreaded!” “I am certain it is over six feet six,” said the
carpenter, taking out his rule. “But I said that it was to be longer
than yourself,” was the reply. “Well, it is,” rejoined the carpenter. To
prove it, he jumped into the chest. Hompesch slammed down the
lid, locked it, whistled, and three stout fellows came in, who
shouldered the chest and carried it through the streets to a remote
place outside of the town. Here the chest was opened, and poor
Zimmerman was found dead, stifled to death.
On another occasion, an Austrian gentleman, M. Von
Bentenrieder, who was exceedingly tall, was journeying from Vienna
to Berlin as the embassador from the Emperor Charles VI. to the
Congress of Cambrai. When near Halberstadt some part of his
carriage broke. While the smith was repairing it, M. Bentenrieder
walked on. He passed a Prussian guard-house, alone, in plain
clothes, on foot, an immensely tall, well-formed man. It was too rich
a prize to be lost. The officials seized him, and hurried him into the
guard-house. But soon his carriage came along with his suite. He
was obsequiously hailed as “Your Excellency.” The recruiting officers
of Frederick William, mortified and chagrined, with many apologies
released the embassador of the emperor.
As we have mentioned, the agents of the King of Prussia were
eager to kidnap tall men, in whatever country they could find them.
This greatly exasperated the rulers of the various realms of all sizes
and conditions which surrounded the Prussian territory. Frederick
William was always ready to apologize, and to aver that each
individual act was done without his orders or knowledge. Still, there
was no abatement of this nuisance. Several seizures had been made
in Hanover, which was the hereditary domain of George I., King of
England. George was very angry. He was increasingly obstinate in
withholding his assent to the double marriage, and even, by way of
reprisal, seized several of the subjects of Frederick William, whom he
caught in Hanover.
Sophie Dorothee seemed to have but one thought—the double
marriage. This would make Wilhelmina queen of England, and would
give her dear son Frederick an English princess for his bride. Her
efforts, embarrassments, disappointments, were endless. Frederick
William began to be regarded by the other powers as a very
formidable man, whose alliance was exceedingly desirable. His army,
of sixty thousand men, rapidly increasing, was as perfect in drill and
discipline as ever existed. It was thoroughly furnished with all the
appliances of war. The king himself, living in Spartan simplicity, and
cutting down the expenses of his court to the lowest possible figure,
was consecrating the resources of his realm to the promotion of its
physical strength, and was accumulating iron-bound casks of gold
and silver coin in the cellars of his palace. It became a matter of
much moment to every court in Europe whether such a monarch
should be its enemy or its ally.
After a long series of intrigues, a narrative of which would not
interest the reader, Frederick William was induced to enter into an
alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Emperor Charles VI. of
Germany. This was renouncing the alliance with England, and threw
an additional obstacle in the way of the double marriage. Sophie
Dorothee was bitterly disappointed, and yet pertinaciously struggled
on to accomplish her end.
There was an institution, if we may so call it, in the palace of the
King of Prussia which became greatly renowned, and which was
denominated “The Tobacco College,” or “Tobacco Parliament.” It
consisted simply of a smoking-room very plainly furnished, where
the king and about a dozen of his confidential advisers met to smoke
and to talk over, with perfect freedom and informality, affairs of
state. Carlyle thus quaintly describes this Tabagie:
 THE TOBACCO PARLIAMENT.

“Any room that was large enough, and had height of ceiling and
air circulation, and no cloth furniture, would do. And in each palace
is one, or more than one, that has been fixed upon and fitted out for
that object. A high room, as the engravings give it us; contented,
saturnine human figures, a dozen or so of them, sitting around a
large, long table furnished for the occasion; a long Dutch pipe in the
mouth of each man; supplies of knaster easily accessible; small pan
of burning peat, in the Dutch fashion (sandy native charcoal, which
burns slowly without smoke), is at your left hand; at your right a
jug, which I find to consist of excellent, thin, bitter beer; other
costlier materials for drinking, if you want such, are not beyond
reach. On side-tables stand wholesome cold meats, royal rounds of
beef not wanting, with bread thinly sliced and buttered; in a rustic,
but neat and abundant way, such innocent accommodations,
narcotic or nutritious, gaseous, fluid, and solid, as human nature can
require. Perfect equality is the rule; no rising or no notice taken
when any body enters or leaves. Let the entering man take his place
and pipe without obligatory remarks. If he can not smoke, let him at
least affect to do so, and not ruffle the established stream of things.
And so puff, slowly puff! and any comfortable speech that is in you,
or none, if you authentically have not any.”
Distinguished strangers were often admitted to the Tabagie. The
Crown Prince Fritz was occasionally present, though always
reluctantly. The other children of this numerous family not
unfrequently came in to bid papa good-night. Here every thing was
talked of, with entire freedom, all court gossip, the adventures of the
chase, diplomacy, and the administrative measures of the
government. Frederick William had but very little respect for
academic culture. He had scarcely the slightest acquaintance with
books, and gathered around him mainly men whose knowledge was
gained in the practical employments of life. It would seem, from
many well-authenticated anecdotes, which have come down to us
from the Tabagie, that these smoking companions of the king, like
Frederick William himself, must have been generally a coarse set of
men.
One of this smoking cabinet was a celebrated adventurer named
Gundling, endowed with wonderful encyclopedian knowledge, and
an incorrigible drunkard. He had been every where, seen every
thing, and remembered all which he had either heard or seen.
Frederick William had accidentally picked him up, and, taking a fancy
to him, had clothed him, pensioned him, and introduced him to his
Tabagie, where his peculiar character often made him the butt of
ridicule. He was excessively vain, wore a scarlet coat, and all manner
of pranks were cut up by these boon companions, in the midst of
their cups, at his expense.
Another adventurer, by the name of Fassman, who had written
books, and who made much literary pretension, had come to Berlin
and also got introduced to the Tabagie. He was in character very like
Gundling, and the two could never agree. Fassman could be very
sarcastic and bitter in his speech. One evening, as the king and his
smoking cabinet were sitting enveloped in the clouds which they
were breathing forth, and were all muddled with tobacco and beer—
for the king himself was a hard drinker—Fassman so enraged
Gundling by some cutting remarks, that the latter seized his pan of
burning peat and red-hot sand and dashed it into the face of his
antagonist. Fassman, who was much the more powerful of the two,
was seriously burned. He instantly grasped his antagonist, dragged
him down, and beat him savagely with his hot pan, amidst roars of
laughter from the beer-stupefied bacchanals.
The half-intoxicated king gravely suggests that such conduct is
hardly seemly among gentlemen; that the duel is the more chivalric
way of settling such difficulties. Fassman challenges Gundling. They
meet with pistols. It is understood by the seconds that it is to be
rather a Pickwickian encounter. The trembling Gundling, when he
sees his antagonist before him, with the deadly weapon in his hand,
throws his pistol away, which his considerate friends had harmlessly
loaded with powder only, declaring that he would not shoot any
man, or have any man shoot him. Fassman sternly advances with his
harmless pistol, and shoots the powder into Gundling’s wig. It blazes
into a flame. With a shriek Gundling falls to the ground as if dead. A
bucket of water extinguishes the flames, and roars of laughter echo
over the chivalric field of combat.
Such was the Tobacco Parliament in its trivial aspects. But it had
also its serious functions. Many questions were discussed there
which stirred men’s souls, and which roused the ambition or the
wrath of the stern old king to the utmost pitch.
We have now reached the year 1726. The Emperor of Germany
declares that he can never give his consent to the double marriage
with the English princes. Frederick William, who is not at all fond of
his wife’s relatives, and is annoyed by the hesitancy which his father-
in-law has manifested in reference to it, is also turning his obstinate
will against the nuptial alliance. A more imperative and inflexible
man never breathed. This year the unhappy wife of George I. died,
unreconciled, wretched, exasperated, after thirty years’ captivity in
the castle of Ahlden. Darker and darker seemed the gloom which
enveloped the path of Sophie Dorothee. She still clung to the
marriages as the dearest hope of her heart. It was with her an ever-
present thought. But Frederick William was the most obdurate and
obstinate of mortals.
“The wide, overarching sky,” writes Carlyle, “looks down on no
more inflexible sovereign man than him, in the red-collared blue coat
and white leggins, with the bamboo in his hand; a peaceable,
capacious, not ill-given sovereign man, if you will let him have his
way; but to bar his way, to tweak the nose of his sovereign royalty,
and ignominiously force him into another way, that is an enterprise
no man or devil, or body of men or devils, need attempt. The first
step in such an attempt will require to be the assassination of
Frederick Wilhelm, for you may depend upon it, royal Sophie, so
long as he is alive the feat can not be done.”
While these scenes were transpiring the Crown Prince was
habitually residing at Potsdam, a favorite royal residence about
seventeen miles west from Berlin. Here he was rigidly attending to
his duties in the giant regiment. We have now, in our narrative,
reached the year 1727. Fritz is fifteen years of age. He is attracting
attention by his vivacity, his ingenuous, agreeable manners, and his
fondness for polite literature. He occasionally is summoned by his
father to the Smoking Cabinet. But the delicacy of his physical
organization is such that he loathes tobacco, and only pretends to
smoke, with mock gravity puffing from his empty, white clay pipe.
Neither has he any relish for the society which he meets there.
Though faithful to the mechanical duties of the drill, they were very
irksome to him. His books and his flute were his chief joy. Voltaire
was just then rising to celebrity in France. His writings began to
attract the attention of literary men throughout Europe. Fritz, in his
youthful enthusiasm, was charmed by them. In the latter part of
June, 1729, a courier brought the intelligence to Berlin that George
I. had suddenly died of apoplexy. He was on a journey to Hanover
when he was struck down on the road. Almost insensible, he was
conveyed, on the full gallop, to Osnabrück, where his brother, who
was a bishop, resided, and where medical aid could be obtained. But
the shaft was fatal. At midnight his carriage reached Osnabrück. The
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