she was got as Wife, and came home to Berlin in all pomp;--but good came not with her to anybody there. Not only did she bring the poor old man no children, which was a fault to be overlooked, considering Sophie Dorothee's success; but she brought a querulous, weak and self-sufficient female humor; found his religion heterodox,--he being Calvinist, and perhaps even lax-Calvinist, she Lutheran as the Prussian Nation is, and strict to the bone:--heterodox wholly, to the length of no salvation possible; and times rose on the Berlin Court such as had never been seen before! "No salvation possible, says my Dearest? Hah!
And an innocent Court-Mask or Dancing Soiree is criminal in the sight of God and of the Queen? And we are children of wrath wholly, and a frivolous generation; and the Queen will see us all--!"The end was, his Majesty, through sad solitary days and nights, repented bitterly that he had wedded such a She-Dominic;grew quite estranged from her; the poor She-Dominic giving him due return in her way,--namely, living altogether in her own apartments, upon orthodoxy, jealousy and other bad nourishment.
Till at length she went quite mad; and, except the due medical and other attendants, nobody saw her, or spoke of her, at Berlin.
Was this a cheering issue of such an adventure to the poor old expensive Gentleman? He endeavored to digest in silence the bitter morsel he had cooked for himself; but reflected often, as an old King might, What dirt have I eaten!
In this way stands that matter in the Schloss of Berlin, when little Friedrich, who will one day be called the Great, is born.
Habits of the expensive King, hours of rising, modes of dressing, and so forth, are to be found in Pollnitz; [Pollnitz, <italic>
Memoiren zur Lebens- und Regierungs-Geschichte der Vier letzten Regenten des Preussischen Staats <end italic> (Berlin, 1791).
A vague, inexact, but not quite uninstructive or uninteresting Book: Printed also in FRENCH, which was the Original, same place and time.] but we charitably omit them all. Even from foolish Pollnitz a good eye will gather, what was above intimated, that this feeble-backed, heavy-laden old King was of humane and just disposition; had dignity in his demeanor; had reticence, patience;and, though hot-tempered like all the Hohenzollerns, that he bore himself like a perfect gentleman for one thing; and tottered along his high-lying lonesome road not in an unmanful manner at all.
Had not his nerves been damaged by that fall in infancy, who knows but we might have had something else to read of him than that he was regardless of expense in this world!
His last scene, of date February, 1713, is the tragical ultimatum of that fine Karlsbad adventure of the Second marriage,--Third marriage, in fact, though the First, anterior to "Serena," is apt to be forgotten, having lasted short while, and produced only a Daughter, not memorable except by accident. This Third marriage, which had brought so many sorrows to him, proved at length the death of the old man. For he sat one morning, in the chill February days of the Year 1713, in his Apartment, as usual;weak of nerves, but thinking no special evil; when, suddenly with huge jingle, the glass door of his room went to sherds; and there rushed in--bleeding and dishevelled, the fatal "White Lady"(WEISSE FRAU), who is understood to walk that Schloss at Berlin, and announce Death to the Boyal inhabitants. Majesty had fainted, or was fainting. "Weisse Frau? Oh no, your Majesty!"--not that;but indeed something almost worse.--Mad Queen, in her Apartments, had been seized, that day, when half or quarter dressed;with unusual orthodoxy or unusual jealousy. Watching her opportunity, she had whisked into the corridor, in extreme deshabille; and gone, like the wild roe, towards Majesty's Suite of Rooms; through Majesty's glass door, like a catapult;and emerged as we saw,--in petticoat and shift, with hair streaming, eyes glittering, arms cut, and the other sad trimmings.
O Heaven, who could laugh? There are tears due to Kings and to all men. It was deep misery; deep enough "SIN and misery," as Calvin well says, on the one side and the other! The poor old King was carried to bed; and never rose again, but died in a few days.
The date of the WEISSE FRAU'S death, one might have hoped, was not distant either; but she lasted, in her sad state, for above twenty years coming.
Old King Friedrich's death-day was 25th February, 1713;the unconscious little Grandson being then in his Fourteenth month. To whom, after this long, voyage round the world, we now gladly return.
* By way of reinforcement to any recollection the reader may have of these Twelve Hohenzollern Kurfursts, I will append a continuous list of them, with here and there an indication.
THE TWELVE HOHENZOLLERN ELECTORS.
1. FRIEDRICH I. (as Burggraf, was Friedrich VI.): born, it is inferred, 1372 (Rentsch, p. 350); accession, 18th April, 1417;died 21st September, 1440. Had come to Brandenburg, 1412, as Statthalter. The Quitzows and HEAVY PEG.
2. FRIEDRICH II.: 19th November, 1413; 21st September, 1440;10th February, 1472. Friedrich IRONTEETH; tames the Berlin Burghers. Spoke Polish, was to have been Polish King. Cannon-shot upon his dinner-table shatters his nerves so, that he abdicates, and soon dies. JOHANNES ALCHYMISTA his elder Brother; ALBERTACHILLES his younger.
3. ALBERT (Achilles): 24th November, 1414; 10th February, 1471;11th March, 1486. Third son of Friedrich I.; is lineal Progenitor of all the rest.
Eldest Son, JOHANN CICERO, follows as Kurfurst; a Younger Son, FRIEDRICH (by a different Mother), got Culmbach, and produced the Elder Line there. (See Genealogical Diagram.)4. JOHANN (Cicero): 2d August, 1455; 11th March, 1486; 9th January, 1499. Big John. Friedrich of Culmbach's elder (Half-)Brother.