about, he did
get sight of his beloved Jonathan," Royal Highness the Crown-Prince, "at
a window in the Castle; from whom he, with the politest and most tender
expression, spoken in French, took leave, with no little emotion of
sorrow." [Letter to Katte's Father (Extract, in Preuss, _Friedrich mit
Freunden und Verwandten,_ p. 7).]

President Munchow and the Commandant were with the Prince; whose
emotions one may fancy; but not describe. Seldom did any Prince or man
stand in such a predicament. Vain to say, and again say: "In the name of
God, I ask you, stop the execution till I write to the King!" Impossible
that; as easily stop the course of the stars. And so here Katte
comes; cheerful loyalty still beaming on his face, death now nigh.
"PARDONNEZ-MOI, MON CHER KATTE!" cried Priedrich in a tone: Pardon me,
dear Katte; oh, that this should be what I have done for you!--"Death is
sweet for a Prince I love so well," said Katte, "LA MORT EST DOUCE POUR
UN SI AIMABLE PRINCE;" [Wilhelmina, i. 307; Preuss, i. 45.] and fared
on,--round some angle of the Fortress, it appears; not in sight of
Friedrich; who sank into a faint, and had seen his last glimpse of Katte
in this world.

The body lay all day upon the scaffold, by royal order; and was buried
at night obscurely in the common churchyard; friends, in silence, took
mark of the place against better times,--and Katte's dust now lies
elsewhere, among that of his own kindred.

"Never was such a transaction before or since, in Modern History,"
cries the angry reader: "cruel, like the grinding of human hearts under
millstones, like--" Or indeed like the doings of the gods, which are
cruel, though not that alone? This is what, after much sorting and
sifting, I could get to know about the definite facts of it. Commentary,
not likely to be very final at this epoch, the reader himself shall
supply at discretion.

END OF BOOK 7

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia,
Vol. VII. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle

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