ted there, and plenty of
intricacies existing. Crown-Prince Friedrich may now go to Ruppin and
the Regiment Goltz; his business and destinies being now all reduced
to a steady condition;--steady sky, rather leaden, instead of the
tempestuous thunder-and-lightning weather which there heretofore was.
Leaden sky, he, if left well to himself, will perhaps brighten a little.
Study will be possible to him; improvement of his own faculties, at
any rate. It is much his determination. Outwardly, besides drilling the
Regiment Goltz, he will have a steady correspondence to keep up with his
Brunswick Charmer;--let him see that he be not slack in that.

Chapter II. -- SMALL INCIDENTS AT RUPPIN.

Friedrich, after some farther pause in Berlin, till things were got
ready for him, went to Ruppin. This is in the Spring of 1732; [Still in
Berlin, 6th March; dates from NAUEN (in the Ruppin neighborhood) for
the first time, 25th April, 1732, among his LETTERS yet extant: Preuss,
_OEuvres de Frederic, _ xxvii. part lst, p. 4; xvi. 49.] and he contin
his residence there till August, 1736. Four important years of young
life; of which we must endeavor to give, in some intelligible condition,
what traces go hovering about in such records as there are.

Ruppin, where lies the main part of the Regiment Goltz, and where the
Crown-Prince Colonel of it dwells, is a quiet dull, little Town, in that
northwestern region; inhabitants, grown at this day to be 10,000, are
perhaps guessable then at 2,000. Regiment Goltz daily rolls its drums in
Ruppin: Town otherwise lifeless enough, except on market-days: and
the grandest event ever known in it, this removal of the Crown-Prince
thither,--which is doubtless much a theme, and proud temporary miracle,
to Ruppin at present. Of society there or in the neighborhood, for such
a resident, we hear nothing.

Quiet Ruppin stands in grassy flat country, much of which is natural
moor, and less of it reclaimed at that time than now. The environs,
except that they are a bit of the Earth, and have a bit of the sky over
them, do not set up for loveliness. Natural woods abound in that region,
also peat-bogs not yet drained; and fishy lakes and meres, of a dark
complexion: plenteous cattle there are, pigs among them;--thick-soled
husbandmen inarticulately toiling and moiling. Some glass-furnaces,
a royal establishment, are the only manufactures we hear of. Not a
picturesque country; but a quiet and innocent, where