History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 10 — John Shaqi
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 10Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 10
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
On the whole, we conceive to ourselves the abundant nature of
Friedrich's Correspondence, literary and other; and what kind of event
the transit of that Post functionary "from Fehrbellin northwards," with
his leathern bags, "twice a week," may have been at Reinsberg, in those
years.
Chapter III. -- CROWN-PRINCE MAKES A MORNING CALL.
Thursday, 25th October, 1736, the Crown-Prince, with Lieutenant
Buddenbrock and an attendant or two, drove over into Mecklenburg, to
a Village and serene Schloss called Mirow, intending a small act of
neighborly civility there; on which perhaps an English reader of our
time will consent to accompany him. It is but some ten or twelve miles
off, in a northerly direction; Reinsberg being close on the frontier
there. A pleasant enough morning's-drive, with the October sun shining
on the silent heaths, on the many-colored woods and you.
Mirow is an Apanage for one of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz junior
branches: Mecklenburg-Strelitz being itself a junior compared to the
Mecklenburg-Schwerin of which, and its infatuated Duke, we have heard so
much in times past. Mirow and even Strelitz are not in--a very shining
state,--but indeed, we shall see them, as it were, with eyes. And the
English reader is to note especially those Mirow people, as perhaps of
some small interest to him, if he knew it. The Crown-Prince reports to
papa, in a satirical vein, not ungenially, and with much more freedom
than is usual in those Reinsberg letters of his:--
"TO HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY (from the Crown-Prince).
"REINSBERG, 26th October, 1736.
... "Yesterday I went across to Mirow. To give my Most All-gracious
Father an idea of the place, I cannot liken it to anything higher than
Gross-Kreutz [term of comparison lost upon us; say GARRAT, at a venture,
or the CLACHAN OF ABERFOYLE]: the one house in it, that can be called
a house, is not so good as the Parson's there. I made straight for the
Schloss; which is pretty much like the Garden-house in Bornim: only
there is a rampart round it; and an old Tower, considerably in ruins,
serves as a Gateway to the House.
"Coming on the Drawbridge, I perceived an old stocking-knitter disguised
as Grenadier, with his cap, cartridge-box and musket laid to a side,
that they might not hinder him in his knitting-work. As I advanced, he
asked, 'Whence I came, and whitherward I was going?' I answered, that 'I
came from the Post-house, and was going over this Bridge:' whereupon the
Grenadier, quite in a passion, ran to the Tower; where he opened a door,
and called out the Corporal. The Corporal seemed to have hardly been out
of bed; and in his great haste, had not taken time to put on his shoes,
nor quite button his breeches; with much flurry he asked us, 'Where we
were for, and how we came to treat the Sentry in that manner?' Without
answering him at all, we went our way towards the Schloss.
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