576 
This Monarch was a man of harsh un- 
pleasant manners, an enemy to literature, 
whose sole glory and pride consisted in 
having in his) area y the tallest and hand- 
somest soldiers in Vpeage, and immense 
_ treasures in his coffers. 
‘¢ Frederic William,” says Voltaire, 
‘was a complete Vandal, who, during 
the whole course of his reign, had no 
other object 1 in view than amassing sums, 
and supporting at the least possible ex- 
pense the finest troopsin Furope. Never 
were subjects poorer than his; never wasa 
King richer. Turkey 1 isa republic i in com-~ 
parison with the despotism which Frede- 
‘ric William exercised. It was by this 
he succeeded in collecting in the cellars 
of his palace a sum exceeding eighty 
millions,. contained in barrels hooped 
with iron. 
“‘ This King usually went from his pa- 
lace on foot, in a shabby old blue coat 
with copper buttons, which reached half 
way down his thighs ; and whenever he 
ordered a new one, he had his old but- 
tons put on it: in this dress his Majesty, 
with a large serjeant’ S cane, every 
day inspected his regiment of giants. 
This regiment was ‘his hobby horse, and 
his greatest expense. The front rank 
was composed of men of seven feet high: 
he had them collected from all parts of 
Europe, and of Asia. I saw several of 
them even after his death, 
** When Frederic William finished his 
review, he usually took a walk through 
the city ; every person fled at his ap- 
proach: if he happened to meet a wo- 
man, he asked her why she wasted her 
time in the streets‘ Go home, go 
home, you lazy beggar; an honest wo- 
man should be employed about her 
house.’ 
advice with a good slap on the face, a 
kick, or else a blow of his cane. In the 
same manner he treated the ministers of 
the gospel, when he happened occa. 
sionally to see them on the parade. 
“ One may easily judge,” continues 
Voltaire, “ that a savave like this. would 
be both astonished and chagrined, at 
having ason possessed of strong under- 
standing, a bright genius, politeness, and 
a desire to please, and who sought to 
injprove his mind, and study music and 
poetry. If he saw a book in the hands 
of the Hereditary Prince, he threw it in 
the fire: if the Prince amused himself 
with his flute, the father broke it; and 
sometimes treated his Royal Highness 
as he did the Jadies, and the clergymen 
on arade. ; 
P 3 
Whee 
ie | 
Memoir of the late Marquis D’ Argens. 
difficulty held her by her cloaths. 
He generally accompanied his 
[July 1, 
“The Prince, completely sick-of his 
father’s treatment, resolved one day in | 
the year,1730 to leave him, uncertain 
whether he should go to France or Eng- 
land. The rigid economy of the father 
would not allow him to travel otherwise 
than as the son of a Farmer-general, or 
an English merchant—he borrowed a few 
hendred ducats. Two young men of 
amiable character were to be his com- 
panions—Kat was the only son of a brave 
General Officer, and Keil was a near re= 
lation of a Baroness Kniphausen, whom 
Frederic William condemied in a fine of 
thirty thousand francs, for haying a child 
when a widow. The ‘day and hour of 
their departure were fixed—the father was 
informed of every circumstance—the 
Prince and his two companions were ar- 
rested. At first the father took it into 
his head, that his daughter Wilhelmina, 
who afterwards married the Margrave of 
Bareith, was privy to the plot; and, as 
his justice was executed in a very sum- 
mary way, he kicked her through a win- 
dow which opened down to the floor. 
The Queen Mother, who came into the 
room just as her” daughter Wilhelmina - 
was on the point of falling out, with much 
The 
Princess receivéd a contusion just above 
the left breast, the mark of which she 
carried to her grave.” 
The Prince had a sort. of mistress, 
daughter of a school-master of the town 
of Brandenburg, settled in Potzdam : 
she played a little on the harpsichord— 
the Prince Royal accompanied her on the 
flute—he fancied himself in love with’ 
her; however, fancy or not, the father 
hhad her led round the streets of Potadam, 
followed by two common executioners, 
who flogged her before his son’s eyes. 
After he had regaled himself with this 
spectacle, he had her conveyed to the 
citadel of Custrin, situated in the mids 
die of a morass: there she was, shut up 
in a sort of dungeon for six months, with= 
out any attendant, and at the expiration 
of that time, they gave her a. soldier to 
wait upon her. 
The Prince had been some weeks con- 
fined in this same castle of Custrin, 
when one day an old officer, followed by 
four grenadiers, entered the room; his 
eyes filled with tears. Frederic had no 
doubt but, they came to put an end 
to him; but the officer, still weeping, 
made a sign, 0 on which the four grena- 
diers placed him at a window, and 
held his head to it, while he saw that of 
his friend Kat taken off, upon a scaffold 
erecte 
