History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 8 | Page 4

this adventure, much the
grandest of his life. In Muller Junior's Letter of Reminiscences to
Nicolai we find some details, got from his Father, which are worth
gleaning:--
"When my Father first attempted, by royal order, to bring the
Crown-Prince to acknowledgment and repentance of the fault
committed, Crown-Prince gave this excuse or explanation: 'As his
Father could not endure the sight of him, he had meant to get out of the
way of his displeasure, and go to a Court with which his Father was in
friendship and relationship,'"--clearly indicating England, think the
Mullers Junior and Senior.
"For proof that the intention was towards England this other
circumstance serves, that the one confidant--Herr van Keith, if I
mistake not [no, you don't mistake], had already bespoken a ship for
passage out."--Here is something still more unexpected:--
"My Father used to say, he found an excellent knowledge and

conviction of the truths of religion in the Crown-Prince. By the Prince's
arrangement, my Father, who at first lodged with the Commandant, had
to take up his quarters in the room right above the Prince; who daily,
often as early as six in the morning, rapped on the ceiling for him to
come down; and then they would dispute and discuss, sometimes
half-days long, about the different tenets of the Christian Sects;--and
my Father said, the Prince was perfectly at home in the Polemic
Doctrines of the Reformed (Calvinistic) Church, even to the minutest
points. As my Father brought him proofs from Scripture, the Prince
asked him one time, How he could keep chapter and verse so exactly in
his memory? Father drew from his pocket a little Hand-Concordance,
and showed it him as one help. This he had to leave with the Prince for
some days. On getting it back, he found inside on the fly-leaf, sketched
in pencil,"--what is rather notable to History,--"the figure of a man on
his knees, with two swords hanging crosswise over his head; and at the
bottom these words of Psalm Seventy-third (verses 25, 26),
Whom have I in Heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I
desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart fainteth and faileth; but God
is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever." -- Poor
Friedrich, this is a very unexpected pen-sketch on his part; but an
undeniable one; betokening abstruse night-thoughts and forebodings in
the present juncture!--
"Whoever considers this fine knowledge of religion, and reflects on the
peculiar character and genius of the young Herr, which was ever
struggling towards light and clearness (for at that time he had not
become indifferent to religion, he often prayed with my Father on his
knees),--will find that it was morally impossible this young Prince
could have thought [as some foolish persons have asserted] of throwing
himself into the arms of Papal Superstition [seeking help at Vienna,
marrying an Austrian Archduchess, and I know not what] or allow the
intrigues of Catholic Priests to"-- Oh no, Herr Muller, nobody but very
foolish persons could imagine such a thing of this young Herr.
"When my Father, Herr von Katte's execution being ended, hastened to
the Crown-Prince; he finds him miserably ill (SEHR ALTERIRT);
advises him to take a cooling-powder in water, both which materials

were ready on the table. This he presses on him: but the Prince always
shakes his head." Suspects poison, you think? "Hereupon my Father
takes from his pocket a paper, in which he carried cooling-powder for
his own use; shakes out a portion of it into his hand, and so into his
mouth; and now the Crown-Prince grips at my Father's powder, and
takes that." Privately to be made away with; death resolved upon in
some way! thinks the desperate young man? [Nicolai,
Anekdoten, vi. 183-189.]
That scene of Katte's execution, and of the Prince's and other people's
position in regard to it, has never yet been humanly set forth, otherwise
the response had been different. Not humanly set forth,--and so was
only barked at, as by the infinitude of little dogs, in all countries; and
could never yet be responded to in austere VOX HUMANA, deep as a
DE PROFUNDIS, terrible as a Chorus of AEschylus,--for in effect that
is rather the character of it, had the barking once pleased to cease.
"King of Prussia cannot sleep," writes Dickens: "the officers sit up with
him every night, and in his slumbers he raves and talks of spirits and
apparitions." [Despatch, 3d October, 1730.] We saw him, ghost-like, in
the night-time, gliding about, seeking shelter with Feekin against
ghosts; Ginkel by daylight saw him, now clad in thunderous tornado,
and anon in sorrowful fog. Here, farther on, is a new item,--and joined
to it and the others, a remarkable old