History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 8 | Page 5

one:--
"In regard to Wilhelmina's marriage, and whether a Father cannot give
his daughter in wedlock to whom he pleases, there have been eight
Divines consulted, four Lutheran, four Reformed (Calvinist); who, all
but one [he of the Garrison Church, a rhadamanthine fellow in serge],
have answered, 'No, your Majesty!' It is remarkable that his Majesty
has not gone to bed sober for this month past." [Dickens, 9th and 19th
December, 1730.]
What Seckendorf and Grumkow thought of all these phenomena? They
have done their job too well. They are all for mercy; lean with their
whole weight that way,--in black qualms, one of them withal, thinking
tremulously to himself, "What if his now Majesty were to die upon us,
in the interim!"

Chapter II.
CROWN-PRINCE TO REPENT AND NOT PERISH.
In regard to Friedrich, the Court-Martial needs no amendment from the
King; the sentence on Friedrich, a Lieutenant-Colonel guilty of
desertion, is, from President and all members except two, Death as by
law. The two who dissented, invoking royal clemency and pardon, were
Major-Generals by rank,--Schwerin, as some write, one of them, or if
not Schwerin, then Linger; and for certain, Donhof,--two worthy
gentlemen not known to any of my readers, nor to me, except as names,
The rest are all coldly of opinion that the military code says Death.
Other codes and considerations may say this and that, which it is not in
their province to touch upon; this is what the military code says: and
they leave it there.
The Junius Brutus of a Royal Majesty had answered in his own heart
grimly, Well then! But his Councillors, Old Dessauer, Grumkow,
Seckendorf, one and all interpose vehemently. "Prince of the Empire,
your Majesty, not a Lieutenant-Colonel only! Must not, cannot;"--nay
good old Buddenbrock, in the fire of still unsuccessful pleading, tore
open his waistcoat: "If your Majesty requires blood, take mine; that
other you shall never get, so long as I can speak!" Foreign Courts
interpose; Sweden, the Dutch; the English in a circuitous way, round by
Vienna to wit; finally the Kaiser himself sends an Autograph; [Date,
11th October, 1730 (Forster, i. 380).] for poor Queen Sophie has
applied even to Seckendorf, will be friends with Grumkow himself, and
in her despair is knocking at every door. Junius Brutus is said to have
had paternal affections withal. Friedrich Wilhelm, alone against the
whispers of his own heart and the voices of all men, yields at last in this
cause. To Seckendorf, who has chalked out a milder didactic plan of
treatment, still rigorous enough, [His Letter to the King, 1st November,
1730 (in Forster, i. 375, 376).] he at last admits that such plan is
perhaps good; that the Kaiser's Letter has turned the scale with him;
and the didactic method, not the beheading one, shall be tried. That
Donhof and Schwerin, with their talk of mercy, with "their eyes upon

the Rising Sun," as is evident, have done themselves no good, and shall
perhaps find it so one day. But that, at any rate, Friedrich's life is spared;
Katte's execution shall suffice in that kind. Repentance, prostrate
submission and amendment,-- these may do yet more for the prodigal,
if he will in heart return. These points, some time before the 8th of
November, we find to be as good as settled.
The unhappy prodigal is in no condition to resist farther. Chaplain
Muller had introduced himself with Katte's dying admonition to the
Crown-Prince to repent and submit. Chaplain Muller, with his
wholesome cooling-powders, with his ghostly counsels, and
considerations of temporal and eternal nature,--we saw how he
prospered almost beyond hope. Even on Predestination, and the real
nature of Election by Free Grace, all is coming right, or come, reports
Muller. The Chaplain's Reports, Friedrich Wilhelm's grimly mollified
Responses on the same: they are written, and in confused form have
been printed; but shall be spared the English reader. And Grumkow has
been out at Custrin, preaching to the same purport from other texts:
Grumkow, with the thought ever present to him, "What if Friedrich
Wilhelm should die?" is naturally an eloquent preacher. Enough, it has
been settled (perhaps before the day of Katte's death, or at the latest
three days after it, as we can see), That if the Prince will, and can with
free conscience, take an Oath ("no mental reservation," mark you!) of
contrite repentance, of perfect prostrate submission, and purpose of
future entire obedience and conformity to the paternal mind in all
things, "GNADENWAHL" included,--the paternal mind may possibly
relax his durance a little, and put him gradually on proof again. [King's
Letter to Muller, 8th November (Forster, i. 379).]
Towards which issue, as Chaplain Muller reports, the Crown-Prince is
visibly gravitating, with all his weight and will. The very
GNADENWAHL is settled;