History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 11 [57]
by Editor Formey, though the rule about them here is
silence except on cause.
No doubt the ague is itself privately a point of moment. Such a
vexatious paltry little thing, in this bright whirl of Activities,
Public and other, which he continues managing in spite of it;
impatient to be rid of it. But it will not go: there IT reappears
always, punctual to its "fourth day,"--like a snarling street-dog,
in the high Ball-room and Work-room. "He is drinking Pyrmont
water;" has himself proposed Quinquina, a remedy just come up, but
the Doctors shook their heads; has tried snatches of Reinsberg,
too short; he intends soon to be out there for a right spell of
country, there to be "happy," and get quit of his ague. The ague
went,--and by a remedy which surprised the whole world, as will
be seen!
WILHELMINA'S RETURN-VISIT.
Monday, 17th October, came the Baireuth Visitors; Wilhelmina all
in a flutter, and tremor of joy and sorrow, to see her Brother
again, her old kindred and the altered scene of things. Poor Lady,
she is perceptibly more tremulous than usual; and her Narrative,
not in dates only, but in more memorable points, dances about at a
sad rate; interior agitations and tremulous shrill feelings
shivering her this way and that, and throwing things topsy-turvy
in one's recollection. Like the magnetic needle, shaky but
steadfast (AGITEE MAI CONSTANTE). Truer nothing can be, points
forever to the Pole; but also what obliquities it makes;
will shiver aside in mad escapades, if you hold the paltriest bit
of old iron near it,--paltriest clack of gossip about this loved
Brother of mine! Brother, we will hope, silently continues to be
Pole, so that the needle always comes back again; otherwise all
would go to wreck. Here, in abridged and partly rectified form,
are the phenomena witnessed:--
"We arrived at Berlin the end of October [Monday, 17th, as
above said]. My younger Brothers, followed by the Princes of the
Blood and by all the Court, received us at the bottom of the
stairs. I was led to my apartment, where I found the Reigning
Queen, my Sisters [Ulrique, Amelia], and the Princesses [of the
Blood, as above, Schwedt and the rest]. I learned with much
chagrin that the King was ill of tertian ague [quartan; but that
is no matter]. He sent me word that, being in his fit, he could
not see me; but that he depended on having that pleasure
to-morrow. The Queen Mother, to whom I went without delay, was in
a dark condition; rooms all hung with their lugubrious drapery;
everything yet in the depth of mourning for my Father. What a
scene for me! Nature has her rights; I can say with truth, I have
almost never in my life been so moved as on this occasion."
Interview with Mamma--we can fancy it--"was of the most touching."
Wilhelmina had been absent eight years. She scarcely knows the
young ones again, all so grown;--finds change on change: and that
Time, as he always is, has been busy. That night the Supper-Party
was exclusively a Family one.
Her Brother's welcome to her on the morrow, though ardent enough,
she found deficient in sincerity, deficient in several points;
as indeed a Brother up to the neck in business, and just come out
of an ague-fit, does not appear to the best advantage.
Wilhelmina noticed how ill he looked, so lean and broken-down
(MAIGRE ET DEFAIT) within the last two months; but seems to have
taken no account of it farther, in striking her balances with
Friedrich. And indeed in her Narrative of this Visit, not, we will
hope, in the Visit itself, she must have been in a high state of
magnetic deflection,--pretty nearly her maximum of such,
discoverable in those famous MEMOIRS,--such a tumult is there in
her statements, all gone to ground-and-lofty tumbling in this
place; so discrepant are the still ascertainable facts from this
topsy-turvy picture of them, sketched by her four years hence (in
1744). The truest of magnetic needles; but so sensitive, if you
bring foreign iron near it!
Wilhelmina was loaded with honors by an impartial Berlin Public
silence except on cause.
No doubt the ague is itself privately a point of moment. Such a
vexatious paltry little thing, in this bright whirl of Activities,
Public and other, which he continues managing in spite of it;
impatient to be rid of it. But it will not go: there IT reappears
always, punctual to its "fourth day,"--like a snarling street-dog,
in the high Ball-room and Work-room. "He is drinking Pyrmont
water;" has himself proposed Quinquina, a remedy just come up, but
the Doctors shook their heads; has tried snatches of Reinsberg,
too short; he intends soon to be out there for a right spell of
country, there to be "happy," and get quit of his ague. The ague
went,--and by a remedy which surprised the whole world, as will
be seen!
WILHELMINA'S RETURN-VISIT.
Monday, 17th October, came the Baireuth Visitors; Wilhelmina all
in a flutter, and tremor of joy and sorrow, to see her Brother
again, her old kindred and the altered scene of things. Poor Lady,
she is perceptibly more tremulous than usual; and her Narrative,
not in dates only, but in more memorable points, dances about at a
sad rate; interior agitations and tremulous shrill feelings
shivering her this way and that, and throwing things topsy-turvy
in one's recollection. Like the magnetic needle, shaky but
steadfast (AGITEE MAI CONSTANTE). Truer nothing can be, points
forever to the Pole; but also what obliquities it makes;
will shiver aside in mad escapades, if you hold the paltriest bit
of old iron near it,--paltriest clack of gossip about this loved
Brother of mine! Brother, we will hope, silently continues to be
Pole, so that the needle always comes back again; otherwise all
would go to wreck. Here, in abridged and partly rectified form,
are the phenomena witnessed:--
"We arrived at Berlin the end of October [Monday, 17th, as
above said]. My younger Brothers, followed by the Princes of the
Blood and by all the Court, received us at the bottom of the
stairs. I was led to my apartment, where I found the Reigning
Queen, my Sisters [Ulrique, Amelia], and the Princesses [of the
Blood, as above, Schwedt and the rest]. I learned with much
chagrin that the King was ill of tertian ague [quartan; but that
is no matter]. He sent me word that, being in his fit, he could
not see me; but that he depended on having that pleasure
to-morrow. The Queen Mother, to whom I went without delay, was in
a dark condition; rooms all hung with their lugubrious drapery;
everything yet in the depth of mourning for my Father. What a
scene for me! Nature has her rights; I can say with truth, I have
almost never in my life been so moved as on this occasion."
Interview with Mamma--we can fancy it--"was of the most touching."
Wilhelmina had been absent eight years. She scarcely knows the
young ones again, all so grown;--finds change on change: and that
Time, as he always is, has been busy. That night the Supper-Party
was exclusively a Family one.
Her Brother's welcome to her on the morrow, though ardent enough,
she found deficient in sincerity, deficient in several points;
as indeed a Brother up to the neck in business, and just come out
of an ague-fit, does not appear to the best advantage.
Wilhelmina noticed how ill he looked, so lean and broken-down
(MAIGRE ET DEFAIT) within the last two months; but seems to have
taken no account of it farther, in striking her balances with
Friedrich. And indeed in her Narrative of this Visit, not, we will
hope, in the Visit itself, she must have been in a high state of
magnetic deflection,--pretty nearly her maximum of such,
discoverable in those famous MEMOIRS,--such a tumult is there in
her statements, all gone to ground-and-lofty tumbling in this
place; so discrepant are the still ascertainable facts from this
topsy-turvy picture of them, sketched by her four years hence (in
1744). The truest of magnetic needles; but so sensitive, if you
bring foreign iron near it!
Wilhelmina was loaded with honors by an impartial Berlin Public