d the curtain cord, and twisted it tightly around his
neck. Frederick had barely strength enough to grasp his father's hand
and scream for help. The old brute would probably have strangled him had
not a chamberlain rushed in and saved him from the madman's hands.

The boy, as he grew towards man's estate, developed tastes which added
to his father's severity. The French language and literature which he
hated were the youth's delight, and he took every opportunity to read
the works of French authors, and particularly those of Voltaire, who was
his favorite among writers. This predilection was not likely to
overcome the fierce temper of the king, who discovered his pursuits and
flogged him unmercifully, thinking to cane all love for such enervating
literature, as he deemed it, out of the boy's mind. In this he failed.
Germany in that day had little that deserved the name of literature, and
the expanding intellect of the active-minded youth turned irresistibly
towards the tabooed works of the French.

In truth, he needed some solace for his expanding tastes, for his
father's house and habits were far from satisfactory to one with any
refinement of nature. The palace of Frederick William was little more
attractive than the houses of the humbler citizens of Berlin. The floors
were carpetless, the rooms were furnished with common bare tables and
wooden chairs, art was conspicuously absent, luxury wanting, comfort
barely considered, even the table was very parsimoniously served.

The old king's favorite apartment in all his places of residence was his
smoking-room, which was furnished with a deal table covered with green
baize and surrounded by hard chairs. This was his audience-chamber, his
hall of state, the room in which the affairs of the kingdom were decided
in a cloud of smoke and amid the fumes of beer. Here sat generals in
uniform, ministers of state wearing their orders, ambassadors and noble
guests from foreign realms, all smoking short Dutch pipes and breathing
the vapors of tobacco. Before each was placed a great mug of beer, and
the beer-casks were kept freely on tap, for the old despot insisted that
all should drink or smoke whether or not they liked beer and tobacco,
and he was never more delighted than when he could make a guest drunk or
sicken him with smoke. For food, when they were in need of it, bread and
cheese and similar viands might be had.

A strange picture of palatial grandeur this. Fortune had mis