History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 4 | Page 7

heard, he expressly
did not teach to read or write, seeing no benefit in that effeminate art,
but left them to pick it up as they could. His Princess, all rightly
ennobled now, --whom he would not but marry, though sent on the
grand tour to avoid it,--was the daughter of one Fos an Apothecary at
Dessau; and is still a beautiful and prudent kind of woman, who seems
to suit him well enough, no worse than if she had been born a Princess.
Much talk has been of her, in princely and other circles; nor is his
marriage the only strange thing Leopold has done. He is a man to keep
the world's tongue wagging, not too musically always; though himself
of very unvocal nature. Perhaps the biggest mass of inarticulate human

vitality, certainly one of the biggest, then going about in the world. A
man of vast dumb faculty; dumb, but fertile, deep; no end of ingenuities
in the rough head of him:--as much mother-wit, there, I often guess, as
could be found in whole talking parliaments, spouting themselves away
in vocables and eloquent wind!
A man of dreadful impetuosity withal. Set upon his will as the one law
of Nature; storming forward with incontrollable violence: a very
whirlwind of a man. He was left a minor; his Mother guardian. Nothing
could prevent him from marrying this Fos the Apothecary's Daughter;
no tears nor contrivances of his Mother, whom he much loved, and who
took skilful measures. Fourteen months of travel in Italy; grand tour,
with eligible French Tutor,--whom he once drew sword upon, getting
some rebuke from him one night in Venice, and would have killed, had
not the man been nimble, at once dexterous and sublime:--it availed not.
The first thing he did, on re-entering Dessau, with his Tutor, was to call
at Apothecary Fos's, and see the charming Mamsell; to go and see his
Mother, wss the second thing. Mot even his grand passion for war
could eradicate Fos: he went to Dutoh William's wars; the wise mother
still counselling, who was own aunt to Dutoh William, and liked the
scheme. He besieged Namur; fought and besieged up and down,--with
insatiable appetite for fighting and sieging; with great honor, too, and
ambitions awakening in him;--campaign after campaign: but along with
the flamy-thundery ideal bride, figuratively called Bellona, there was
always a soft real one, Mamsell Fos of Dessau, to whom he continued
constant. The Government of his Dominions he left cheerfully to his
Mother, even when he came of age: "I am for learning War, as the one
right trade; do with all things as you please, Mamma,--only not with
Mamsell, not with her!"--
Readers may figure this scene too, and shudder over it. Some rather
handsome male Cousin of Mamsell, Medical Graduate or whatever he
was, had appeared in Dessau:--"Seems, to admire Mamsell much; of
course, in a Platonic way," said rumor:-- "He? Admire?" thinks
Leopold;--thinks a good deal of it, not in the philosophic mood. As he
was one day passing Fos's, Mamsell and the Medical Graduate are
visible, standing together at the window inside. Pleasantly looking out

upon Nature,--of course quite casually, say some Histories with a sneer.
In fact, it seems possible this Medical Graduate may have been set to
act shoeing- horn; but he had better not. Leopold storms into the House,
"Draw, scandalous canaille, and defend yourself!"--And in this, or
some such way, a confident tradition says, he killed the poor Medical
Graduate there and then. One tries always to hope not: but Varnhagen
is positive, though the other Histories say nothing of it. God knows.
The man was a Prince; no Reichshofrath, Speyer-Wetzlar KAMMER,
or other Supreme Court, would much trouble itself, except with formal
shakings of the wig, about such a peccadillo. In fine, it was better for
Leopold to marry the Miss Fos; which he actually did (1698, in his
twenty-second year), "with the left-hand,"--and then with the right and
both hands; having got her properly ennobled before long, by his
splendid military services. She made, as we have hinted, an excellent
Wife to him, for the fifty or sixty ensuing years.
This is a strange rugged specimen, this inarticulate Leopold; already
getting mythic, as we can perceive, to the polished vocal ages; which
mix all manner of fables with the considerable history he has. Readers
will see him turn up again in notable forms. A man hitherto unknown
except in his own country; and yet of very considerable significance to
all European countries whatsoever; the fruit of his activities, without
his name attached, being now manifest in all of them. He invented the
iron ramrod; he invented the equal step; in fact, he is the inventor of
modern military tactics. Even so, if we knew it: the