History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 11 [27]
creature Marwitz, who is always coquetting.
Friedrich's conversation, especially to me Wilhelmina, seems
"GUINDE, set on stilts," likewise there are frequent cuts of
banter in him; and it is painfully evident he distinguishes my
Sister of Anspach and her foolish Husband, whom he has invited
over hither in a most eager manner, beyond what a poor Wilhelmina
with her old love can pretend to. Patience, my shrill Princess,
Beauty of Baireuth and the world; let us hope all will come right
again! My shrill Princess--who has a melodious strength like that
of war-fifes, too--knows how to be patient; and veils many things,
though of a highly unhypocritical nature.
These were Three great Days at Baireuth; Wilhelmina is to come
soon, and return the visit at Berlin. To wait upon the King, known
though incognito, "the Bishop of Bamberg" came driving over:
[ Helden-Geschichte, i. 419.] Schonborn,
Austrian Kanzler, or who? His old City we once saw (and plenty of
hanged malefactors swinging round it, during that JOURNEY TO THE
REICH);--but the Bishop himself never to our knowledge, Bishop
being absent then, I hope it is the same Bishop of Bamberg, whom
a Friend of Busching's, touring there about that same time, saw
dining in a very extraordinary manner, with medieval trumpeters,
"with waiters in spurs and buff-belts;" [Busching's
Beitrage;--Schlosser ( History of the
Eighteenth Century) also quotes the scene.] if it is
not, I have not the slightest shadow of acquaintance with him,--
there have been so many Bishops of Bamberg with whom one wishes to
have none! On the third day Friedrich and his company went away,
towards Wurzburg; and Wilhelmina was left alone with her
reflections. "I had had so much to say to him; I had got nothing
said at all:" alas, it is ever so. "The King was so changed, grown
so much bigger (GRANDI), you could not have known him again;"
stands finely erect and at full breadth, every inch a King;
his very stature, you would say, increased.--Adieu, my Princess,
pearl of Princesses; all readers will expect your return-visit at
Berlin, which is to be soon.
FRIEDRICH STRIKES OFF TO THE LEFT, AND HAS A VIEW OF
STRASBURG FOR TWO DAYS.
Through Wurzburg, Frankfurt-on-Mayn, speeds Friedrich;--
Wilhelmina and mankind understand that it is homewards and to
Cleve; but at Frankfurt, in deepest privacy, there occurs a sudden
whirl southward,--up the Rhine-Valley; direct towards Strasburg,
for a sight of France in that quarter! So has Friedrich decided,--
not quite suddenly, on new Letters here, or new computations about
Cleve; but by forethought taken at Baireuth, as rather appears.
From Frankfurt to Strasburg, say 150 miles; from Strasburg home,
is not much farther than from Frankfurt home: it can be done,
then; husht!
The incognito is to be rigorous: Friedrich becomes COMTE DUFOUR, a
Prussian-French gentleman; Prince August Wilhelm is Graf von
Schaffgotsch, Algarotti is Graf von Pfuhl, Germans these two;
what Leopold, the Young Dessauer, called himself,--still less what
the others, or whether the others were there at all, and not
shoved on, direct towards Wesel, out of the way as is likelier,--
can remain uncertain to readers and me. From Frankfurt, then, on
Monday morning, 22d August, 1740, as I compute, through old known
Philipsburg Campaign country, and the lines of Ettlingen and
Stollhofen; there the Royal Party speeds eagerly (weather very
bad, as appears): and it is certain they are at Kehl on Tuesday
evening; looking across the long Rhine Bridge, Strasburg and its
steeples now close at hand.
This looks to be a romantic fine passage in the History of the
young King;--though in truth it is not, and proves but a feeble
story either to him or us. Concerning which, however, the reader,
especially if he should hear that there exists precise Account of
it, Two Accounts indeed, one from the King's own hand, will not
fail of a certain craving to become acquainted with details.
This craving,
Friedrich's conversation, especially to me Wilhelmina, seems
"GUINDE, set on stilts," likewise there are frequent cuts of
banter in him; and it is painfully evident he distinguishes my
Sister of Anspach and her foolish Husband, whom he has invited
over hither in a most eager manner, beyond what a poor Wilhelmina
with her old love can pretend to. Patience, my shrill Princess,
Beauty of Baireuth and the world; let us hope all will come right
again! My shrill Princess--who has a melodious strength like that
of war-fifes, too--knows how to be patient; and veils many things,
though of a highly unhypocritical nature.
These were Three great Days at Baireuth; Wilhelmina is to come
soon, and return the visit at Berlin. To wait upon the King, known
though incognito, "the Bishop of Bamberg" came driving over:
[
Austrian Kanzler, or who? His old City we once saw (and plenty of
hanged malefactors swinging round it, during that JOURNEY TO THE
REICH);--but the Bishop himself never to our knowledge, Bishop
being absent then, I hope it is the same Bishop of Bamberg, whom
a Friend of Busching's, touring there about that same time, saw
dining in a very extraordinary manner, with medieval trumpeters,
"with waiters in spurs and buff-belts;" [Busching's
Beitrage;
Eighteenth Century
not, I have not the slightest shadow of acquaintance with him,--
there have been so many Bishops of Bamberg with whom one wishes to
have none! On the third day Friedrich and his company went away,
towards Wurzburg; and Wilhelmina was left alone with her
reflections. "I had had so much to say to him; I had got nothing
said at all:" alas, it is ever so. "The King was so changed, grown
so much bigger (GRANDI), you could not have known him again;"
stands finely erect and at full breadth, every inch a King;
his very stature, you would say, increased.--Adieu, my Princess,
pearl of Princesses; all readers will expect your return-visit at
Berlin, which is to be soon.
FRIEDRICH STRIKES OFF TO THE LEFT, AND HAS A VIEW OF
STRASBURG FOR TWO DAYS.
Through Wurzburg, Frankfurt-on-Mayn, speeds Friedrich;--
Wilhelmina and mankind understand that it is homewards and to
Cleve; but at Frankfurt, in deepest privacy, there occurs a sudden
whirl southward,--up the Rhine-Valley; direct towards Strasburg,
for a sight of France in that quarter! So has Friedrich decided,--
not quite suddenly, on new Letters here, or new computations about
Cleve; but by forethought taken at Baireuth, as rather appears.
From Frankfurt to Strasburg, say 150 miles; from Strasburg home,
is not much farther than from Frankfurt home: it can be done,
then; husht!
The incognito is to be rigorous: Friedrich becomes COMTE DUFOUR, a
Prussian-French gentleman; Prince August Wilhelm is Graf von
Schaffgotsch, Algarotti is Graf von Pfuhl, Germans these two;
what Leopold, the Young Dessauer, called himself,--still less what
the others, or whether the others were there at all, and not
shoved on, direct towards Wesel, out of the way as is likelier,--
can remain uncertain to readers and me. From Frankfurt, then, on
Monday morning, 22d August, 1740, as I compute, through old known
Philipsburg Campaign country, and the lines of Ettlingen and
Stollhofen; there the Royal Party speeds eagerly (weather very
bad, as appears): and it is certain they are at Kehl on Tuesday
evening; looking across the long Rhine Bridge, Strasburg and its
steeples now close at hand.
This looks to be a romantic fine passage in the History of the
young King;--though in truth it is not, and proves but a feeble
story either to him or us. Concerning which, however, the reader,
especially if he should hear that there exists precise Account of
it, Two Accounts indeed, one from the King's own hand, will not
fail of a certain craving to become acquainted with details.
This craving,