History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 09
- Pages
- about 205
- Category
- History
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3.8 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
BOOK IX. -- LAST STAGE OF FRIEDRICH'S APPRENTICESHIP: LIFE IN RUPPIN. --
1732-1736.
We described the Crown-Prince as intent to comply, especially in
all visible external particulars, with Papa's will and pleasure;--to
distinguish himself by real excellence in Commandantship of the Regiment
Goltz, first of all. But before ever getting into that, there has
another point risen, on which obedience, equally essential, may be still
more difficult.
Ever since the grand Catastrophe went off WITHOUT taking Friedrich's
head along with it, and there began to be hopes of a pacific settlement,
question has been, Whom shall the Crown-Prince marry? And the debates
about it in the Royal breast and in Tobacco-Parliament, and rumors
about it in the world at large, have been manifold and continual. In the
Schulenburg Letters we saw the Crown-Prince himself much interested, and
eagerly inquisitive on that head. As was natural: but it is not in the
Crown-Prince's mind, it is in the Tobacco-Parliament, and the Royal
breast as influenced there, that the thing must be decided. Who in the
world will it be, then? Crown-Prince himself hears now of this party,
now of that. England is quite over, and the Princess Amelia sunk below
the horizon. Friedrich himself appears a little piqued that Hotham
carried his nose so high; that the English would not, in those
life-and-death circumstances, abate the least from their "Both marriages
or none,"--thinks they should have saved Wilhelmina, and taken his word
of honor for the rest. England is now out of his head;--all romance
is too sorrowfully swept out: and instead of the "sacred air-cities of
hope" in this high section of his history, the young man is looking into
the "mean clay hamlets of reality," with an eye well recognizing them
for real. With an eye and heart already tempered to the due hardness for
them. Not a fortunate result, though it was an inevitable one.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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