1766. "ici), neither priests nor attorneys shall meddle with you; you "shall live here in the bosom of friendship, liberty and philo"sophy." Come to me! *_F.32 Old Marischal did come; and before long. I know not the precise month but 'his Villa-Cottage was built for him,' the Books say, ' in 1764.' He had left D'Alembert just going; next year, he will find Helvetius coming. He lived here, a great treasure to Friedrich, till his death, 25th May 1778, age 92. The New Palace was not finished till 1770;--in which year, also, Friedrich reckons that the general Problem of Repairing Prussia was victoriously over. New Palace, growing or complete, looks down on all these operations and occurrences. In its cradle, it sees D'Alembert go, Lord Marischal go; Helvetius come, Lord Marischal come; in its boyhood or maturity, the Excise, and French Rats-de-Cave, spring up; Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm prick his hand for a fit kind of ink; Friedrich Wilhelm's Divorced Wife give her Douanier two slaps in the face, by way of payment. Nay, the same Friedrich Wilhelm, become "Friedrich Wilhelm II., or der Dicke," died in it,-his Lichtenau and his second Wife, jewel of women, nursing him in his last sickness there.33 The violent stress of effort for repairing Prussia, Friedrich intimates, was mostly over in 1766: till which date specifically, and in a looser sense till 1770, that may be considered as his main business. But it was not at any time his sole business; nor latterly at all equal in interest to some others that had risen on him, as the next Chapter will now show. Here, first, is a little Fraction of Necrology, which may be worth taking with us. Readers can spread these fateful specialities 1766. over the Period in question; and know that each of them came with a kind of knell upon Friedrich's heart, whatever he might be employed about. Hour striking after hour on the Horologe of Time; intimating how the Afternoon wore, and that Night was coming. Various meanings there would be to Friedrich, in these footfalls of departing guests, the dear, the less dear, and the indifferent or hostile; but each of them would mean: "Gone, then, gone; thus we all go!" 'Obituary in Friedrich's Circle till 1771.' Of Polish Majesty's death (5th October 1763), and then (2d December following) of his Kurprinz or Successor's, with whom we dined at Moritzburg so recently, there will be mention by and by. November 28th, 1763, in the interval between these two, the wretched Brühl had died. April 14th, 1764, died the wretched Pompadour;-"To us not known, Je ne la connais pas:"-hapless Butterfly, she had been twenty years in the winged condition; age now forty-four: dull Louis, they say, looked out of window as her hearse departed, "froidement," without emotion of any visible kind. These little concern Friedrich or us; we will restrict ourselves to Friends. 'Died in 1764. At Pisa, Algarotti (23d May 1764, age fiftytwo); with whom Friedrich has always had some correspondence hitherto (to himself interesting, though not to us), and 'will never henceforth have more. Friedrich raised a Monu'ment to him; Monument still to be seen in the Campo-Santo "of Pisa: "Hic jacet Ovidii amulus et Neutoni discipulus;" friends "have added "Fredericus Magnus poni fecit;" and on another 'part of the Monument, "Algarottus non omnis.”34 6. in 1765. At the age of eighty, November 18th, Gräfin "Camas, "Ma bonne Maman" (widow since 1741); excellent old 'Lady,—once brilliantly young, German by birth, her name 'Brandt;—to whom the King's Letters used to be so pretty.' This same year, too, Kaiser Franz died; but him we will reserve, as not belonging to this Select List. 34 Preuss, iv. 188. 1766. Died in 1766. At Nanci, 23d February, age eighty-six, 'King Stanislaus Leczinsky: "his clothes caught fire" (acci'dental spark or sputter on some damask dressing-gown or the 'like); and the much-enduring innocent old soul ended pain6 fully his Titular career. in 1767. October 22d, the Grand-Duchess of Sachsen'Gotha, age fifty-seven; a sad stroke this also, among one's 'narrowing List of Friends.-I doubt if Friedrich ever saw this high Lady after the Visit we lately witnessed. His Letters to 'her are still in the Archives of Gotha: not hers to him; all 'lost, these latter, but an accidental Two, which are still beau'tiful in their kind.35 6 '-in 1770. Bielfeld, the fantastic individual of old days. 'Had long been out of Friedrich's circle,-in Altenburg Coun❝ try, I think;—without importance to Friedrich or us: the year ' of him will do, without search for day or month. in 1771. Two heavy deaths come this year. January 28th, 1771, at Berlin, dies our valuable old friend Excellency 'Mitchell,—still here on the part of England, in cordial esteem ' as a man and companion; though as Minister, I suppose, with 'function more and more imaginary. This painfully ushers in the year. To usher it out, there is still worse: faithful D'Argens dies, 26th December 1771, on a visit in his native Pro'vence, leaving, as is still visible,36 a big and sad blank behind 'him at Potsdam.' But we need not continue; at least not at present. Long before all these Friedrich had lost friends; with a sad but quiet emotion he often alludes to this tragic fact, that all the souls he loved most are gone. His Winterfelds, his Keiths, many loved faces, the War has snatched: at Monbijou, at Baireuth, it was not War; but they too are gone. Is the world becoming all a Mausoleum, then; nothing of divine in it but the Tombs of vanished loved ones? Friedrich makes no noise on such subjects: loved and unloved alike must go. We have still to mark Kaiser Franz's sudden death; a thing politically interesting, if not otherwise. August 1765, at 35 Given in Œuvres de Frédéric, xviii. 165, 256. 36 Friedrich's two Letters to the Widow (Ibid. xix. 427-429). 1766. Innspruck, during the Marriage-festivities of his Second Son, Leopold (Duke of Florence, who afterwards, on Joseph's death, was Kaiser),-Kaiser Franz, sauntering about in the evening gala, 18th August, about 9 P.M.,' suddenly tottered, staggered as falling; fell into Son Joseph's arms; and was dead. Above a year before, this same Joseph, his Eldest Son, had been made King of the Romans: 'elected, 26th March; crowned, 3d April 1764;'-Friedrich furthering it, wishful to be friendly with his late enemies.37 On this Innspruck Tragedy, Joseph naturally became Kaiser, -Part-Kaiser; his Dowager-Mother, on whom alone it depends, having decided that way. The poor Lady was at first quite overwhelmed with her grief. She had the death-room of her Husband made into a Chapel; she founded furthermore a Monastery in Innspruck, 'Twelve Canonesses to pray there for the repose of Franz;' was herself about to become Abbess there, and quit the secular world; but in the end was got persuaded to continue, and take Son Joseph as Coadjutor.38 In which capacity we shall meet the young man again. 37 Rödenbeck, ii. 234. ss Hormayr, Oesterreichischer Plutarch (§ Maria Theresa), iv. (2tes Bändchen) 6-124; Maria Theresiens Leben, p. 30. CHAPTER III. TROUBLES IN POLAND. APRIL 11th, 1764, one year after his Seven-Years labour of Hercules, Friedrich made Treaty of Alliance with the new Czarina Catharine. England had deserted him; France was his enemy, especially Pompadour and Choiseul, and refused reconcilement, though privately solicited: he was without an Ally anywhere. The Russians had done him frightful damage in the last War, and were most of all to be dreaded in the case of any new one. The Treaty was a matter of necessity as well as choice. Agreement for mutual good neighbourhood and friendly offices; guarantee of each other against intrusive third parties: should either get engaged in war with any neighbour, practical aid to the length of 12,000 men, or else money in lieu. Treaty was for eight years, from day of date. As Friedrich did not get into war, and Catharine did, with the Turks and certain loose Polacks, the burden of fulfilment happened to fall wholly on Friedrich; and he was extremely punctual in performance, -eager now, and all his life after, to keep well with such a Country under such a Czarina. Which proved to be the whole rule of his policy on that Russian side. "Good that Country cannot bring me by any quarrel with it; evil it can, to a frightful extent, in case of my quarrelling with others! Be wary, be punctual, mag |