History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Appendix · Thomas Carlyle
FRAU. "'JA, IHRO MAJESTAT.'
"They now talked, for a while, of the rye, in the carriage together. Presently his Majesty called to me from the carriage, 'Na, stand by the Holstein STAUDEN-rye, then; and give some to the tenants too.' ICH. "'Yes, your Majesty.' KING. "'But give me some idea: what kind of appearance had the Luch before it was drained?' ICH. "'It was mere high rough masses of hillocks (HULLEN); between them the water settled, and had no flow. In the driest years we couldn't cart the hay out, but had to put it up in big ricks. Only in winter, when the frost was sharp, could we get it home. But now we have cut away the hillocks; and the trenches that your Majesty got made for us take the water off. And now the Luch is as dry as your Majesty sees, and we can carry out our hay when we please.' KING. "'That is well. Have your tenants, too, more cattle than formerly?' ICH. "'Ja!' KING. "'How many more?' ICH. "'Many have one cow, many two, according as their means admit.' KING. "'But how many more have they in all? About how many, that is?' ICH. "'About 150 head.' "His Majesty must lately have asked the Herr General von Gortz, how I came to know him,--as I told his Majesty to ask General von Gortz about the Holstein rye;--and presumably the Herr General must have answered, what was the fact, That he had first known me in Holstein, where I dealt in horses, and that I had been at Potsdam with horses. Suddenly his Majesty said: 'Hear! I know you are fond of horses. But give up that, and prefer cows; you will find your account better there.'
ICH. "'Your Majesty, I no longer deal in horses. I merely rear a few foals every year.' KING. "'Rear calves instead; that will be better.' ICH. "'Oh, your Majesty, if one takes pains with it, there is no loss in breeding horses. I know a man who got, two years ago, 1,000 thalers for a stallion of his raising.' KING. "'He must have been a fool that gave it.' ICH. "'Your Majesty, he was a Mecklenburg nobleman.' KING. "'But nevertheless a fool.' "We now came upon the territory of the Amt Neustadt; and here the Amtsrath Klausius, who has the Amt in farm, was in waiting on the boundary, and let his Majesty drive past. But as I began to get tired of the speaking, and his Majesty went on always asking about villages, which stand hereabouts in great quantity, and I had always to name the owner, and say what sons he had in the Army,--I brought up Herr Amtsrath Klausius to the carriage, and said:-- ICH. "'Your Majesty, this is the Amtsrath Klausius, of the Amt Neustadt, in whose jurisdiction the Colonies are.' KING. "'So, so! that is very good (DAS IST MIR LIEB). Bring him up.' KING. "'What's your name?' (from this point the King spoke mostly with Amtsrath Klausius, and I only wrote down what I heard).
KL. "'Klausius.' KING. "'Klau-si-us. Na, have you many cattle here on the Colonies?' KL. "'1,887 head of cows, your Majesty. There would have been above 3,000, had it not been for the murrain that was here.' KING. "'Do the people too increase well? Are there jolly children?' KL. "'O ja, your Majesty; there are now 1,576 souls upon the Colonies.' KING. "'Are you married too?' KL. "'Ja, your Majesty.' KING. "'And have you children?' KL. "'Step-children, your Majesty.' KING. "'Why not of your own?' KL. "'Don't know that, your Majesty; as it happens.' KING. "'Hear: Is it far to the Mecklenburg border, here where we are?' KL. "'Only a short mile [5 miles English]. But there are some villages scattered still within the boundary which belong to Brandenburg. There are Stetzebart, Rosso and so on.' KING. "'Ja, ja, I know them. But I should not have thought we were so near upon the Mecklenburg country.' [TO THE HERR AMTSRATH KLAUSIUS] 'Where were you born?' KL. "'At Neustadt on the Dosse.' KING. "'What was your father?' KL. "'Clergyman.' KING. "'Are they good people, these Colonists? The first generation of them is n't usually good for much.' KL. "'They are getting on, better or worse.' KING. "'Do they manage their husbandry well?' KL. "'O ja, your Majesty. His Excellency the Minister von Derschau, too, has given me a Colony of 75 acres, to show the other Colonists a good example in management.'
KING (smiling). "'Ha, ha! good example! But tell me, I see no wood here: where do the Colonists get their timber?' KL. "'From the Ruppin district.' KING. "'How far is that?' KL. "'3 miles' [15 English]. KING. "'Well, that's a great way. It should have been contrived that they could have it nearer hand.' [TO ME] 'What man is that to the right there?' ICH. "'Bauinspector [Buildings-Inspector] Menzelius, who has charge of the buildings in these parts.' KING. "'Am I in Rome? They are mere Latin names!--Why is that hedged in so high?' ICH. "'That is the mule-stud.' KING. "'What is the name of this Colony?' ICH. "'Klausiushof.' KL. "'Your Majesty, it should be called Klaushof.' KING. "'Its name is Klausiushof. What is the other Colony called?' ICH. "'Brenkenhof.' KING. "'That is not its name.' ICH. "'Ja, your Majesty, I know it by no other!' KING. "'Its name is Brenken-hosius-hof!--Are these the Stollen hills that lie before us?' ICH. "'Ja, your Majesty.' KING. "'Have I to drive through the village?' ICH. "'It is not indispensable; but the change of horses is there. If your Majesty give order, I will ride forward, send the fresh horses out of the village, and have them stationed to wait at the foot of the hills.' KING. "'O ja, do so! Take one of my pages with you.'
ICH. "'Does your Majesty command that I should yet accompany farther' ["BEFEHLEN, command," in the plural is polite, "your Majesty, that I yet farther shall WITH"]? KING. "'No, my son; ride, in God's name, home.'-- "The Herr Amtsrath [Klau-si-us] then accompanied his Majesty to Rathenow, where he [THEY: His Majesty is plural] lodged in the Post-house. At Rathenow, during dinner, his Majesty was uncommonly cheerful: he dined with Herr Lieutenant-Colonel von Backhof of the Carabineers, and the Herr Lieutenant-Colonel von Backhof himself has related that his Majesty said:-- "'My good Von Backhof (MEIN LIEBER VON BACKHOF): if He [you] have not for a long time been in the Fehrbellin neighborhood, go there.'" Fehrbellin, the Prussian BANNOCKBURN; where the Great Elector cut the hitherto invincible Swedes IN TWO, among the DAMS and intricate moory quagmires, with a vastly inferior force, nearly all of cavalry (led by one DERFLINGER, who in his apprentice time had been a TAILOR); beat one end of them all to rags, then galloped off and beat the other into ditto; quite taking the conceit out of the Swedes, or at least clearing Prussia of them forever and a day: a feat much admired by Friedrich: "'Go there,' he says. 'That region is uncommonly improved [as I saw to-day]! I have not for a long time had such a pleasant drive. I decided on this journey because I had no REVIEW on hand; and it has given me such pleasure that I shall certainly have another by and by.'
"Of the Battle of Fehrbellin I know everything, almost as if I myself had been there! While I was Crown-Prince, and lay in Ruppin, there was an old townsman, the man was even then very old: he could describe the whole Battle, and knew the scene of it extremely well. Once I got into a carriage, took my old genius with me, who showed me all over the ground, and described everything so distinctly, I was much contented with him. As we were coming back, I thought: Come, let me have a little fun with the old blade;--so I asked him: 'Father, don't you know, then, why the two Sovereigns came to quarrel with one another?'--'O ja, your Royal HighnessES [from this point we have Platt-Deutsch, PRUSSIAN dialect, for the old man's speech; barely intelligible, as Scotch is to an ingenious Englishman], DAT WILL ICK SE WOHL SEGGEN, I can easily tell you that. When our Chorforste [Kurfursts, Great Elector] was young, he studied in Utrecht; and there the King of Sweden happened to be too. And now the two young lords picked some quarrel, got to pulling caps [fell into one another's hair], AND DIT IS NU DE PICKE DAVON, and this now was the upshot of it.'--His Majesty spoke this in Platt-Deutsch, as here given;--but grew at table so weary that he (they) fell asleep." So far Backhof;--and now again Fromme by way of finish:-- "Of his Majesty's journey I can give no farther description. For though his Majesty spoke and asked many things else; it would be difficult to bring them all to paper." And so ends the DAY WITH FRIEDRICH THE GREAT; very flat, but I dare say very TRUE:--a Daguerrotype of one of his Days.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.