เ

25th-28th Aug. 1769.

' in his amiable character, gaiety and great vivacity were 'prominent features.' By accidental chinks, however, one saw an ambition beyond measure' burning in the interior of this young man,6-let an old King be wary. A three days, clearly, to be marked in chalk; radiant outwardly to both; to a certain depth, sincere; and uncommonly pleasant for the time. King and Kaiser were seen walking about arm in arm. At one of the Reviews a Note was brought to Friedrich: he read it, a Note from her Imperial Majesty; and handing it to Kaiser Joseph, kissed it first. At parting, he had given Joseph, by way of keepsake, a copy of Maréchal de Saxe's Reveries (a strange Military Farrago, dictated, I should think, under opium): this Book lay continually thereafter on the Kaiser's night-table; and was found there at his death, Twenty-one years hence,-not a page of it read, the leaves all sticking together under their bright gilding.8

It was long believed, by persons capable of seeing into millstones, that, under cover of this Neisse Interview, there were important Political negotiations and consultings carried on;-that here, and in a Second Interview or Return-Visit, of which presently, lay the real foundation of the Polish Catastrophe. What of Political passed at the Second Interview readers shall see for themselves, from an excellent Authority. As to what passed at the present ("mutual word-of-honour: should England and France quarrel, we will stand neutral"), it is too insignificant for being shown to readers. Dialogues there were, delicately holding wide of the

• Euvres de Frédéric (in Mémoires de 1763 jusqu'à 1775, a Chapter which yields the briefest, and the one completely intelligible account we yet have of those affairs), vi. 25.

7 'Mes Réveries; Ouvrage Posthume, par' &c. (2 voll. 4to: Amsterdam et Leipzig, 1757).

s Preuss, iv. 24 n.

Euvres de Frédéric, ubi suprà.

25th-28th Aug. 1769. mark, and at length coming close enough; but, at neither the one Interview nor the other, was Poland at all a party concerned,-though, beyond doubt, the Turk War was; silently this first time, and with clear vocality on the second occasion.

In spite of Galitzin's blunders, the Turk War is going on at a fine rate in these months; Turks, by the hundred thousand, getting scattered in panic rout:but we will say nothing of it just yet. Polish Confederation,―horror-struck, as may be imagined, at its auxiliary Brother of the Sun and Moon and his performances, is weltering in violently impotent spasms into deeper and ever deeper wretchedness, Friedrich sometimes thinking of a Burlesque Poem on the subject;-though the Russian successes, and the Austrian grudgings and gloomings, are rising on him as a very serious consideration. "Is there no method, then, of allowing Russia to prosecute its Turk War in spite of Austria and its umbrages?" thinks Friedrich sometimes, in his anxieties about Peace in Europe :-" If the Ukraine, and its meal for the Armies, were but Russia's! At present, Austria can strike in there, cut off the provisions, and at once put a spoke in Russia's wheel." Friedrich tells us 'he (on,' the King himself, what I do not find in any other Book) 'sent to Peters'burg, under the name of Count Lynar, the seraphic 'Danish Gentleman, who, in 1757, had brought about 'the Convention of Kloster-Zeven, a Project, or Sketch of Plan, for Partitioning certain Provinces of Poland, ' in that view;'-the Lynar opining, so far as I can see, somewhat as follows: "Russia to lay hold of the essential "bit of Polish Territory for provisioning itself against "the Turk, and allow to Austria and Prussia certain "other bits; which would content everybody, and en

6

25th-28th Aug. 1769.

"able Russia and Christendom to extrude and suppress "ad libitum that abominable mass of Mahometan Sen"sualism, Darkness and Fanaticism from the fairest part "of God's Creation." An excellent Project, though not successful! To which Petersburg, intoxicated with its own outlooks on Turkey, paid not the least attention,' says the King. 10 He gives no date to this curious statement; nor does anybody else mention it at all; but we may fancy it to have been of Winter 1769-1770,and leave it with the curious, or the idly curious, since nothing came of it now or afterwards.

Potsdam, 20th-29th October 1769. Only two months after Neisse, what kindles Potsdam into sudden splendour, Electress Marie-Antoine makes a Visit of nine days to the King. 'In 'July last,' says a certain Note of ours, 'the Electress was in'vited to Berlin, to a Wedding; "would have been delighted to 6 come, but letter of invitation arrived too late. Will, however, not give up the plan of seeing the great Friedrich." Comes to 'Potsdam, 20th-29th October. Stays nine days; much delighted, both, with the visit. "Magnificent palaces, pleasant gardens, ravishing concerts, charming Princes and Princesses: the plea'santest nine days I ever had in my life," says the Electress. 'Friedrich grants, to her intercession, pardon for some culprit. "Diva Antonia," he calls her henceforth for some time; she him, "Plus grand des mortels," "Salomon du Nord," and the like 'names.' Next year, too (September 26th-October 5th, 1770), the bright Lady made a second visit;12 no third, the times growing too political, perhaps; the times not suiting. The Correspondence continues to the end; and is really pretty. And would be instructive withal, were it well edited. For example,if we might look backwards, and shoot a momentary spark into the vacant darkness of the Past,-Friedrich wrote (the year before this):

Potsdam, 3d May 1768.

10 Euvres de Frédéric, vi. 26.

串

"Jesuits have got all cut adrift:

11 Ibid. (Correspondance avec l'Electrice Marie-Antoine), xxiv. 179-186. 12 Rödenbeck, iii. 24.

25th-28th Aug. 1769. "A dim rumour spreads that his Holiness will not rest with that "first anathema, but that a fulminating Bull is coming out against "the Most Christian, the Most Catholic and the Most Faithful. "If that be so, my notion is, Madam, that the Holy Father, to "fill his table, will admit the Defender of the Faith" (poor George III.)" and your Servant; for it does not suit a Pope to "sit solitary."

*

"A pity for the human race, Madam, that men cannot be "tranquil,-but they never and nowhere can! Not even the little "Town of Neufchâtel but has had its troubles; your Royal High

66

ness will be astonished to learn how. A Parson there" (this was above seven years ago, in old Marischal's reign13) "had set forth “in a sermon, That considering the immense mercy of God, the "pains of Hell could not last forever. The Synod shouted mur"der at such scandal; and has been struggling, ever since, to get "the Parson exterminated. The affair was of my jurisdiction; "for your Royal Highness must know that I am Pope in that "Country;-here is my decision: Let the parsons, who make for "themselves a cruel and barbarous God, be eternally damned, as they desire, and deserve; and let those parsons, who conceive "God gentle and merciful, enjoy the plenitude of his mercy! "However, Madam, my sentence has failed to calm the minds; "the schism continues; and the number of the damnatory theo"logians prevails over the others."14—Or again :

Potsdam, 1st December 1766. "At present I have with me my "Niece" (Sister's Daughter, of Schwedt), "the Duchess of Wür"temberg; who remembers with pleasure to have had the happi"ness of seeing your Royal Highness in former times. She is "very unhappy and much to be pitied; her Husband" (Eugen of Würtemberg, whom we heard much of, and last at Colberg) "gives her a deal of trouble: he is a violent man, from whom "she has everything to fear; who gives her chagrins, and makes "her no allowances. I try my best to bring him to reason ;"—but am little successful. Three years after this, 'May 3d, 1769,' we

13 See Letters to Marischal, 'Leipzig, 9th March 1761,'' Breslau, 14th May 1762' in Euvres de Frédéric, xx. 282, 287.

14 April 2d, 1768' (a month before this Letter to Madam), there is 'riot at Neufchâtel; and Avocat Gardot' (heterodox Parson's Advocate) 'killed in it' (Rödenbeck, ii. 303).

3d-7th Sept. 1770.

find Eugen, who once talked of running his august Reigning Brother through the body, has ended by returning to Stuttgard and him; where, or at Mümpelgard, his Apanage, he continued thenceforth. And was Reigning Duke himself, long afterwards, for two years, at the very end of his life.15 At this date of 1766, 'my poor Niece and he' have been married thirteen years, and have half a score of children;-the eldest of them Czar Paul's Second Wife that is to be, and Mother of the now Czars. December 17th, 1765. "I have had 12,360 houses "and barns to rebuild, and am nearly through with that. But "how many other wounds remain yet to be healed!"

*

July 22d, 1765. "Wedding festivities of Prince of "Prussia. Duchess of Kingston tipsy on the occasion!"-But we must not be tempted farther."

16

Next Year, there is a Second Interview; Friedrich making a Return-Visit during the Kaiser's Moravian Reviews (Camp of Mährisch-Neustadt, 3d-7th September 1770).

The Russian-Turk War, especially in this Second Campaign of it," Liberation of Greece," or, failing that, total destruction of the Turk Fleet in Greek waters; conquest of Wallachia, as of Moldavia; in a word, imminency of total ruin to the Turk by land and sea, all this is blazing aloft at such a pitch, in Summer 1770, that a new Interview upon it may well, to neighbours so much interested, seem more desirable than ever. Interview accordingly there is to be: 3d September, and for four days following.

Kaunitz himself attends, this time; something of real business privately probable to Kaunitz. Prince Henri is not there; Prince Henri is gone to Sweden;

15 'Succeeded,' on his Brother Karl's death, '20th May 1795; died, 23d December 1797, age 75.'

16 Euvres de Frédéric, xxiv. 90-155.