esolved upon in some way! thinks the desperate
young man? [Nicolai, _Anekdoten,_ vi. 183-189.]

That scene of Katte's execution, and of the Prince's and other people's
position in regard to it, has never yet been humanly set forth,
otherwise the response had been different. Not humanly set forth,--and
so was only barked at, as by the infinitude of little dogs, in all
countries; and could never yet be responded to in austere VOX HUMANA,
deep as a DE PROFUNDIS, terrible as a Chorus of AEschylus,--for in
effect that is rather the character of it, had the barking once pleased
to cease. "King of Prussia cannot sleep," writes Dickens: "the officers
sit up with him every night, and in his slumbers he raves and talks
of spirits and apparitions." [Despatch, 3d October, 1730.] We saw him,
ghost-like, in the night-time, gliding about, seeking shelter with
Feekin against ghosts; Ginkel by daylight saw him, now clad in
thunderous tornado, and anon in sorrowful fog. Here, farther on, is a
new item,--and joined to it and the others, a remarkable old one:--

"In regard to Wilhelmina's marriage, and whether a Father cannot give
his daughter in wedlock to whom he pleases, there have been eight
Divines consulted, four Lutheran, four Reformed (Calvinist); who, all
but one [he of the Garrison Church, a rhadamanthine fellow in serge],
have answered, 'No, your Majesty!' It is remarkable that his Majesty
has not gone to bed sober for this month past." [Dickens, 9th and 19th
December, 1730.]

What Seckendorf and Grumkow thought of all these phenomena? They have
done their job too well. They are all for mercy; lean with their
whole weight that way,--in black qualms, one of them withal, thinking
tremulously to himself, "What if his now Majesty were to die upon us, in
the interim!"

Chapter II. -- CROWN-PRINCE TO REPENT AND NOT PERISH.

In regard to Friedrich, the Court-Martial needs no amendment from
the King; the sentence on Friedrich, a Lieutenant-Colonel guilty of
desertion, is, from President and all members except two, Death as by
law. The two who dissented, invoking royal clemency and pardon, were
Major-Generals by rank,--Schwerin, as some write, one of them, or if not
Schwerin, then Linger; and for certain, Donhof,--two worthy gentlemen
not known to any of my readers, nor to me, except as names, The rest are
all coldly of opinion that the military code says Death. Other codes and
considerations may say this and that, which it is