History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 9 | Page 6

Karl the Heir (to marry our Friedrich's Sister). 1714,
Anton Ulrich (Russia; tragedy of Czar Iwan). 1715, 8th November,
Elizabeth Christina (Crown Prince's). 1718, Ludwig Ernst (Holland,
1787). 1721, Ferdinand (Chatham's and England's) of the Seven Years
War. 1722, 1724, 1725, 1732, Four others; Boys the youngest Two,
who were both killed in Friedrich's Wars.]
Father Bevern her Husband, Ferdinand Albert the name of him, is now
just fifty, only ten years younger than his serene Father-in- law,
Ludwig Rudolf:--whom, I may as well say here, he does at last succeed,
three years hence (1735) and becomes Duke of Brunswick in General,

according to hope; but only for a few months, having himself died that
same year. Poor Duke; rather a good man, by all the accounts I could
hear; though not of qualities that shone. He is at present "Duke of
Brunswick-Bevern,"--such his actual nomenclature in those
ever-fluctuating Sibyl's-leaves of German History-Books, Wilhelmina's
and the others;--expectant Duke of Brunswick in General; much a
friend of Friedrich Wilhelm. A kind of Austrian soldier he was
formerly, and will again be for brief times; General-Feldmarschall so
styled; but is not notable in War, nor otherwise at all, except for the
offspring he had by this serene Spouse of his. Insipid offspring, the
impatient reader says; but permits me to enumerate one or two of
them:--
1. Karl, eldest Son; who is sure to be Brunswick in General; who is
betrothed to Princess Charlotte of Prussia,--"a satirical creature, she,
fonder of my Prince than of him," Wilhelmina thinks. The wedding
nevertheless took effect. Brunswick in General duly fell in, first to the
Father; then, in a few months more, to Karl with his Charlotte: and
from them proceeded, in due time, another Karl, of whom we shall hear
in this History;--and of whom all the world heard much in the French
Revolution Wars; in 1792, and still more tragically afterwards. Shot, to
death or worse, at the Battle of Jena, October, 1806; "battle lost before
it was begun,"--such the strategic history they give of it. He
peremptorily ordered the French Revolution to suppress itself; and that
was the answer the French Revolution made him. From this Karl, what
NEW Queens Caroline of England and portentous Dukes of Brunswick,
sent upon their travels through the anarchic world, profitable only to
Newspapers, we need not say!-- 2. Anton Ulrich; named after his
august Great-Grandfather; does not write novels like him. At present a
young gentleman of eighteen; goes into Russia before long, hoping to
beget Czars; which issues dreadfully for himself and the potential Czars
he begot. The reader has heard of a potential "Czar Iwan," violently
done to death in his room, one dim moonlight night of 1764, in the
Fortress of Schlusselburg, middle of Lake Ladoga; misty moon looking
down on the stone battlements, on the melancholy waters, aud saying
nothing.--But let us not anticipate. 3. Elizabeth Christina; to us more
important than any of them. Namesake of the Kaiserinn, her august

Aunt; age now seventeen; insipid fine-complexioned young lady, who
is talked of for the Bride of our Crown-Prince. Of whom the reader will
hear more. Crown-Prince fears she is "too religious,"--and will have
"CAGOTS" about her (solemn persons in black, highly unconscious
how little wisdom they have), who may be troublesome. 4. A merry
young Boy, now ten, called Ferdinand; with whom England within the
next thirty years will ring, for some time, loud enough: the great
"Prince Ferdinand" himself,--under whom the Marquis of Granby and
others became great; Chatham superintending it. This really was a
respectable gentleman, and did considerable things,--a Trismegistus in
comparison with the Duke of Cnmberland whom he succeeded. A
cheerful, singularly polite, modest, well-conditioned man withal. To be
slightly better known to us, if we live. He at present is a Boy of ten,
chasing the thistle's beard. 5. Three other sons, all soldiers, two of them
younger than Ferdinand; whose names were in the gazettes down to a
late period;--whom we shall ignore in this place. The last of them was
marched out of Holland, where he had long been Commander-in-chief
on rather Tory principles, in the troubles of 1787. Others of them we
shall see storming forward on occasion, valiantly meeting death in the
field of fight, all conspicuously brave of character; but this shall be
enough of them at present.
It is of these that Ludwig Rudolf's youngest daughter, the serene
Ferdinand Albert's wife, is Mother in Germany; highly conspicuous in
their day. If the question is put, it must be owned they are all rather of
the insipid type. Nothing but a kind of albuminous simplicity
noticeable in them; no wit, originality, brightness in the way of uttered
intellect. If it is asked, How came they to the least distinction in this
world?--the