tored to him; and has not the least
intention, or indeed ability, to pay money. Vain to answer:
"Stettin, for the present, is not a Swedish Town; it is a Prussian
Pawn-ticket!"--There was much negotiation, correspondence; Louis XIV.
and the Kaiser stepping in again to produce settlement. To no purpose.
Louis, gallant old Bankrupt, tried hard to take Charles's part with
effect. But he had, himself, no money now; could only try finessing by
ambassadors, try a little menacing by them; neither of which profited.
Friedrich Wilhelm, wanting only peace on his borders, after fifteen
years of extraneous uproar there, has paid 60,000 pounds in hard cash
to have it: repay him that sum, with promise of peace on his borders,
he will then quit Stettin; till then not. Big words from a French
Ambassador in big wig, will not suffice: "Bullying goes for nothing
(_Bange machen gilt nicht_),"--the thing covenanted for will need to
be done! Poor Louis the Great, whom we now call "BANKRUPT-Great," died
while these affairs were pending; while Charles, his ally, was arguing
and battling against all the world, with only a grandiloquent Ambassador
to help him from Louis. _"J'ai trop aime la guerre,"_ said Louis at his
death, addressing a new small Louis (five years old), his great-grandson
and successor: "I have been too fond of war; do not imitate me in that,
_ne m'imitez pas en cela."_ [1st September, 1715.] Which counsel also,
as we shall see, was considerably lost in air.

Friedrich Wilhelm had a true personal regard for Charles XII., a man
made in many respects after his own heart; and would fain have persuaded
him into softer behavior. But it was to no purpose. Charles would not
listen to reasons of policy; or believe that his estate was bankrupt,
or that his towns could be put in pawn. Danes, Saxons, Russians, even
George I. of England (George-having just bought, of the Danish King, who
had got hold of it, a great Hanover bargain, Bremen and Verden, on cheap
terms, from the quasi-bankrupt estate of poor Charles),--have to combine
against him, and see to put him down. Among whom Prussia, at length
actually attacked by Charles in the Stettin regions, has reluctantly to
take the lead in that repressive movement. On the 28th of April, 1715,
Friedrich Wilhelm declares war against Charles; is already on march,
with a great force, towards Stettin, to coerce and repress said Charles.
No help for it, so sore as it goes against us: "Why will the ver