History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 2 | Page 5

mangy
hound: There is your black-mail, Sirs; make much of that!
"He had 'the image of St. Michael painted on his standard;' contrary to
wont. He makes, or RE-makes, Markgrafs (Wardens of the Marches),
to be under his Dukes,--and not too HEREDITARY. Who his
Markgraves were? Dim History counts them to the number of six;
[Kohler, Reich-Historie, p. 66. This is by no
means Kohler's chief Book; but this too is good, and does, in a solid
effective way, what it attempts. He seems to me by far the best
Historical Genius the Germans have yet, produced, though I do not find
much mention of him in their Literary Histories and Catalogues. A man
of ample learning, and also of strong cheerful human sense and human

honesty; whom it is thrice-pleasant, to meet with in those ghastly
solitudes, populous chiefly with doleful creatures.] which take in their
order:-- "1. SLESWIG, looking over into the Scandinavian countries,
and the Norse Sea-kings. This Markgraviate did not last long under that
title. I guess, it, became Stade-and-Ditmarsch
afterwards. "2. SOLTWEDEL,--which grows to be Markgraviate of
BRANDENBURG by and by. Soltwedel, now called Salzwedel, an old
Town still extant, sixty miles to west and north of Brandenburg, short
way south of the Elbe, was as yet headquarters of this second Markgraf;
and any Warden we have at Brandenburg is only a deputy of him or
some other. "3. MEISSEN (which we call Misnia), a country at that
time still full of Wends. "4. LAUSITZ, also a very Wendish country
(called in English maps LUSATIA,--which is its name in Monk-Latin,
not now a spoken language). Did not long continue a Markgraviate; fell
to Meissen (Saxony), fell to Brandenburg, Bohemia, Austria, and had
many tos and fros. Is now (since the Thirty-Years-War time) mostly
Saxon again. "5. AUSTRIA (OEsterreich, Eastern-Kingdom,
EASTERNREY as we might say); to look after the Hungarians, and
their valuable claims to black-mail. "6. ANTWERP ('At-the-Wharf,'
'On-t'-Wharf,' so to speak), against the French; which function soon fell
obsolete.
"These were Henry's six Markgraviates (as my best authority
enumerates them); and in this way he had militia captains ranked all
round his borders, against the intrusive Sclavic element. @@@@ "He
fortified Towns; all Towns are to be walled and warded,--to be BURGS
in fact; and the inhabitants BURGhers, or men capable of defending
Burgs. Everywhere the ninth man is to serve as soldier in his Town;
other eight in the country are to feed and support him:
Heergeruthe (War-tackle, what is called HERIOT in our
old Books) descends to the eldest son of a fighting man who had served,
as with us. 'All robbers are made soldiers' (unless they prefer hanging);
and WEAPON-SHOWS and drill are kept up. This is a man who will
make some impression upon Anarchy, and its Wends and Huns. His
standard was St. Michael, as we have seen,--WHOSE sword is derived
from a very high quarter! A pious man;--founded Quedlinburg Abbey,
and much else in that kind, having a pious Wife withal, Mechtildis,

who took the main hand in that of Quedlinburg; whose LIFE is in
Leibnitz, [Leibnitz, Scriptores Rerum Brunswicensium, italic> &c. (Hanover, 1707), i. 196.] not the legiblest of Books.--On the
whole, a right gallant King and 'Fowler.' Died, A.D. 936 (at
Memmleben, a Monastery on the Unstrut, not far from Schulpforte),
age sixty; had reigned only seventeen years, and done so much. Lies
buried in Quedlinburg Abbey:--any Tomb? I know no LIFE of him but
GUNDLING'S, which is an extremely inextricable Piece, and requires
mainly to be forgotten.--Hail, brave Henry: across the Nine dim
Centuries, we salute thee, still visible as a valiant Son of Cosmos and
Son of Heaven, beneficently sent us; as a man who did in grim earnest
'serve God' in his day, and whose works accordingly bear fruit to our
day, and to all days!"--
So far my rough Note-books; which require again to be shut for the
present, not to abuse the reader's patience, or lead him from his road.
This of Markgrafs (GRAFS of the Marches, MARKED Places, or
Boundaries) was a natural invention in that state of circumstances. It
did not quite originate with Henry; but was much perfected by him, he
first recognizing how essential it was. On all frontiers he had his GRAF
(Count, REEVE, G'REEVE, whom some think to be only GRAU, Gray,
or SENIOR, the hardiest, wisest steel-GRAY man he could discover)
stationed on the MARCK, strenuously doing watch and ward there: the
post of difficulty, of peril, and naturally of honor too, nothing of a
sinecure by any means. Which post, like every other, always had a
tendency to become hereditary, if the kindred did not fail in fit men.
And hence have come the