the succession. He refused to be superseded, and
had to endure much bullying and privation. The King was ever ready
with his stick, and punished his son by omitting to serve him at his
rather scanty table!

There was much talk of a double marriage between the English and the
Prussian courts, which were then related. Frederick was to marry
Amelia, daughter of George I while his sister, pretty pert Wilhelmina,
was destined for Frederick, Prince of Wales. The King of Prussia set
his heart on the plan, and was furious that George I did not forward
it. The whole household went in fear of him; he was stricken by gout
at the time, an affliction that made him particularly ill-tempered, and
Wilhelmina and Fritz were the objects of his wrath. They fled from his
presence together; the Prince was accused of a dissolute life, and
insulted by a beating in public.

He decided on flight to England. It was a desperate measure, and was
discovered and frustrated at the last moment. The King of Prussia laid
the blame on English diplomats, though they had done nothing to help
the Prince. There was talk of an Austro-English war at that time. "I
shall not desert the Emperor even if everything goes to the dogs,"
wrote the irate father. "I will joyfully use my army, my country, my
money and my blood for the downfall of England." He was so {149}
enraged by the attempted flight that he might have gone to the extreme
of putting his son to death, but an old general, hearing of the
probable fate of the Crown Prince, offered his own life for that of
Frederick, and raised so vehement a protest that the runaway was merely
put in prison.

His confinement was not as strict as it would have been, had the
gaolers followed the King's orders. He had to wear prison dress and
sit on a hard stool, but books and writing materials were brought to
him, and he saw his friends occasionally. Lieutenant von Katte, who
fled with him, was executed before the fortress, and the Prince was
compelled to witness the punishment of the companion with whom he had
practised music and other forbidden occupations.

By degrees, the animosity of Frederick William toward his eldest son
softened. He was allowed to visit Berlin when his sister Wilhelmina
was married to the Margrave of Baireuth, after four kings had applied
for her hand, among them the elderly Augustus of Poland and Charles XII
of Sweden. The Castle of Rheinsburg, near Neu-Ruppin, was given to the
P