History of Friedrich II of Prussia, appendix | Page 7

your Majesty. Here lies the Kemmensee [Kemmen-lake]: if
that were drained out, your Majesty would gain some 1,800 acres
[MORGEN, three-fifths English acre] of pasture-land, where colonists
could be settled; and then the whole country would have navigation too,
which would help the village of Fehrbellin and the town of Ruppin to
an uncommon degree.'

KING. "'I suppose so! Be a great help to you, won't it; and many will
be ruined by the job, especially the proprietors of the ground NICHT
WAHR?' [Ha?]
ICH. "'Your Majesty's gracious pardon [EW. MAJESTAT HALTEN
ZU GNADEN,--hold me to grace]: the ground belongs to the Royal
Forest, and there grows nothing but birches on it.'
KING. "'Oh, if birchwood is all it produces, then we may see! But you
must not make your reckoning without your host either, that the cost
may not outrun the use.'
ICH. "'The cost will certainly not outrun the use. For, first, your
Majesty may securely reckon that eighteen hundred acres will be won
from the water; that will be six-and-thirty colonists, allowing each 50
acres. And now if there were a small light toll put upon the raft-timber
and the ships that will frequent the new canal, there would be ample
interest for the outlay.'
KING. "'Na, tell my Geheimer-Rath Michaelis of it. The man
understands that kind of matters; and I will advise you to apply to the
man in every particular of such things, and wherever you know that
colonists can be settled. I don't want whole colonies at once; but
wherever there are two or three families of them, I say apply to that
man about it.'
ICH. "'It shall he done, your Majesty.'
KING. "'Can't I see Wusterau,' where old Ajax Ziethen lives, 'from
here?'
ICH. "'Yes, your Majesty; there to the right, that is it.' It BELONGS to
General von Ziethen; and terrible BUILDING he has had here,--almost
all his life!
KING. "'Is the General at home?'
ICH. "'Ja.'
KING. "'How do you know?'
ICH. "'Your Majesty, the Rittmeister von Lestock lies in my village on
GRAZING service; and last night the Herr General sent a letter over to
him by a groom. In that way I know it.'
KING. "'Did General von Ziethen gain, among others, by the draining
of the Luch?'
ICH. "'O ja; the Farm-stead there to the right he built in consequence,
and has made a dairy there, which he could not have done, had not the

Luch been drained.'
KING. "'That I am glad of!--What is the Beamte's name in Alt-
Ruppin?' [Old Ruppin, I suppose, or part of its endless "RUPPIN or
RHYN MERE," catches the King's eye.]
ICH. "'Honig.'
KING. "'How long has he been there?'
ICH. "'Since Trinity-term.'
KING. "'Since Trinity-term! What was he before?'
ICH. "'Kanonious' [a canon].
KING. "'Kanonicus? Kanonicus? How the Devil comes a Kanonicus to
be a Beamte?'
ICH. "'Your Majesty, he is a young man who has money, and wanted to
have the honor of being a Beamte of your Majesty.'
KING. "'Why did n't the old one stay?'
ICH. "'Is dead.'
KING. "'Well, the widow might have kept his AMT, then!'
ICH. "'Is fallen into poverty.'
KING. "'By woman husbandry!'
ICH. "'Your Majesty's pardon! She cultivated well, but a heap of
mischances brought her down: those may happen to the best
husbandman. I myself, two years ago, lost so many cattle by the
murrain, and got no remission: since that, I never can get on again
either.'
KING. "'My son, to-day I have some disorder in my left ear, and cannot
hear rightly on that side of my head' (!).
ICH. "'It is a pity that Geheimer-Rath Michaelis has got the very same
disorder!'--I now retired a little back from the carriage; I fancied his
Majesty might take this answer ill.
KING. "'Na, Amtmann, forward! Stay by the carriage; but TAKE
CARE OF YOURSELF, THAT YOU DON'T GET HURT. SPEAK
LOUD, I UNDERSTAND VERY WELL.' These words marked in
Italics [capitals] his Majesty repeated at least ten times in the course of
the journey. 'Tell me now, what is that village over on the right
yonder?'
ICH. "'Langen.'
KING. "'To whom does it belong?'
ICH. "'A third part of it to your Majesty, under the AMT of Alt-

Ruppin; a third to Herr von Hagen; and then the High Church (DOHM)
of Berlin has also tenants in it.'
KING. "'You are mistaken, the High Church of Magdeburg.'
ICH. "'Your Majesty's gracious pardon, the High Church of Berlin.'
KING. "'But it is not so; the High Church of Berlin has no tenants!'
ICH. "'Your Majesty's gracious pardon, the High Church of Berlin has
three tenants in the village Karvesen in my own AMT.'
KING. "'You mistake, it is the High Church of Magdeburg.'
ICH. "'Your Majesty, I must be a bad Beamte,