History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 07Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 07
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
Accomplices of the Crown-Prince are two: FIRST, Lieutenant Keith, actual
deserter (who cannot be caught): To be hanged in effigy, cut in four
quarters, and nailed to the gallows at Wesel:--GOOD, says his Majesty.
SECONDLY, Lieutenant Katte of the Gens-d'Armes, intended deserter, not
actually deserting, and much tempted thereto: All things considered,
Perpetual Fortress Arrest to Lieutenant Katte:--NOT GOOD this; BAD this,
thinks Majesty; this provokes from his Majesty an angry rebuke to the
too lax Court-Martial. Rebuke which can still be read, in growling,
unlucid phraseology; but with a rhadamanthine idea clear enough in it,
and with a practical purport only too clear: That Katte was a sworn
soldier, of the Gens-d'Armes even, or Body-guard of the Prussian
Majesty; and did nevertheless, in the teeth of his oath, "worship the
Rising Sun" when minded to desert; did plot and colleague with foreign
Courts in aid of said Rising Sun, and of an intended high crime against
the Prussian Majesty itself on Rising Sun's part; far from at once
revealing the same, as duty ordered Lieutenant Katte to do. That Katte's
crime amounts to high-treason (CRIMEN LOESOE MAJESTATIS); that the rule
is, FIAT JUSTITIA, ET PEREAT MUNDUS;--and that, in brief, Katte's doom
is, and is hereby declared to be, Death. Death by the gallows and hot
pincers is the usual doom of Traitors; but his Majesty will say in this
case, Death by the sword and headsman simply; certain circumstances
moving the royal clemency to go so far, no farther. And the
Court-Martial has straightway to apprise Katte of this same: and so
doing, "shall say, That his Majesty is sorry for Katte: but that it is
better he die than that justice depart out of the world." [Preuss, i.
44.]
This is the iron doom of Katte; which no prayer or influence of mortal
will avail to alter,--lest justice depart out of the world. Katte's
Father is a General of rank, Commandant of Konigsberg at this moment;
Katte's Grandfather by the Mother's side, old Fieldmarshal Wartensleben,
is a man in good favor with Friedrich Wilhelm, and of high esteem and
mark in his country for half a century past. But all this can effect
nothing. Old Wartensleben thinks of the Daughter he lost; for happily
Katte's Mother is dead long since. Old Wartensleben writes to Friedrich
Wilhelm; his mournful Letter, and Friedrich Wilhelm's mournful but
inexorable answer, can be read in the Histories; but show only what we
already know.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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