But the good sense of the utterance, so rare in those dark days, electrified thousands of minds. It drew the attention of Europe to Frederick, and gave him wide-spread renown.
There is a furious discount to be deducted from said glory. Chance came in for almost the whole of it. I would far rather have written Racines Athalie than have performed all the achievements of this war.
FORE:I was sitting quiet in my apartment, busy with work, and some one reading to me, when the queens ladies rushed in, with a torrent of domestics in their rear, who all bawled out, putting one knee to the ground, that they were come to salute the Princess of Wales. I fairly believed these poor people had lost their wits. They would not cease overwhelming me with noise and tumult; their joy was so great they knew not what they did. When the farce had lasted some time, they told me what had occurred at the dinner.
Sunday next I shall be at a little place near Cleves, where I shall be able to possess you at my ease. If the sight of you dont cure me, I will send for a confessor at once. Adieu. You know my sentiments and my heart.It is evident that the king, thus surrounded with perils and threatened with utter destruction, was anxious for the termination of the war. But still this inflexible man would not listen to any suggestions for peace but on his own terms. He wrote to Voltaire, urging him to bring back peace. At the same time he said,Here his whole conversation consisted in quizzing whatever he saw, and repeating to me, above a hundred times over, the words little prince, little court. I was shocked, and could not understand how he had changed so suddenly toward me. The etiquette of all courts in the empire is, that nobody who has not at least the rank of captain can sit at a princes table. My brother put a lieutenant there who was in his suite, saying, A kings lieutenant is as good as a margrafs minister. I swallowed this incivility, and showed no sign.In the mean time, Wilhelmina, disappointed in not finding her brother, wrote to him the following account of her adventures:His companions had no heart to witness the bloody execution of their friend and brother-officer. The chaplain, Müller, who had accompanied the condemned to Cüstrin, and also Besserer, the chaplain of the garrison there, were either obliged by their official position, or were constrained by Christian sympathy, to ride by his side in the death-cart to the scaffold. Of the rest of his friends he took an affectionate leave, saying, Adieu, my brothers; may God be with you evermore! He was conveyed to the rampart of the castle dressed in coarse brown garments precisely like those worn by the prince.
