e day.

Mittenwalde being finished, Friedrich, on Monday, 6th September, 1730,
is sent forward to Custrin, a strong little town in a quiet Country,
some sixty or seventy miles eastward of Berlin. On the evening of
the 5th he finds himself lodged in a strong room of the Fortress
there,--room consisting af bare walls lighted from far up; no furniture,
not even the needfulest; everything indicating that the proud spirit and
the iron laws shall here have their duel out at leisure, and see which
is stronger.

His sword was taken from him at Wesel; sword, uniform, every mark of
dignity, all are now gone: he is clad in brown prison-dress of the
plainest cut and cloth; his diet is fixed at tenpence a day ("to be
got from the cook's shop, six groschen for dinner, four for supper");
[Order, 14th September, 1730 (in Forster, i. 372).] food to be cut for
him, no knife allowed. Room is to be opened, morning, noon and evening,
"on the average not above four minutes each time;" lights, or single
tallow-light, to be extinguished at seven P.M. Absolute solitude; no
flute allowed, far from it; no books allowed, except the Bible and a
Prayer-Book,--or perhaps Noltenius's MANUAL, if he took a hankering for
it. There, shut out from the babble of fools, and conversing only with
the dumb Veracities, with the huge inarticulate meanings of Destiny,
Necessity and Eternity, let the fool of a Fritz bethink himself, if
there is any thought in him! There, among the Bogs of the Oder, the very
sedges getting brown all round him, and the very curlews flying off for
happier climes, let him wait, till the question of his doom, rather an
abstruse question, ripen in the royal breast.

As for Wilhelmina, she is close prisoner in her apartments in the
Berlin Palace, sentries pacing at every outlet, for many months to come.
Wilhelmina almost rather likes it, such a dog of an existence has
she had hitherto, for want of being well let alone. She plays, reads;
composes music; smuggles letters to and from Mamma,--one in Pencil, from
my Brother even, O Heavens! Wilhelmina weeps, now and then, with her
good Sonsfeld; hopes nevertheless there will be some dawn to this
RAGNAROK, or general "twilight of the gods." Friedrich Wilhelm,
convinced that England has had a hand in this treason, signifies
officially to his Excellency Captain Dickens, That the English
negotiations are concluded; that neither in the way of Single-Marriage
nor of Double-Marriage will he have a