y marriage. And yet the relation was not always so cold as
has sometimes been assumed. For six years the kindness of heart and
tact of the Princess succeeded time after time in reconciling the
crown prince to her. In the retirement of Rheinsberg she was really
his helpmeet and an amiable hostess for his guests, and it was
reported by the Austrian agents to the Court of Vienna that her
influence was increasing. But her modest, clinging nature had too
little of the qualities which can permanently hold an intellectual
man. The wide-awake members of the Brandenburg line felt the need of
giving quick and pointed expression to every easily aroused feeling.
When the Princess was excited, she grew quiet as if paralyzed; she
also lacked the easy graces of society. The two natures did not agree.
Then, too, her manner of showing affection toward her husband, always
dutiful, and subordinating herself as if under a spell and overwhelmed
by his great mind, was not very interesting for the Prince, who had
acquired, with the French intellectual culture, no little of the
frivolity of French society.

When Frederick became King, the Princess soon lost even the slight
part which she had won in her husband's affections. His long absence
in the first Silesian War gave the finishing stroke to their
estrangement. The relations of husband and wife became more and more
distant. Years passed when they did not see each other, and icy
brevity and coolness can be perceived in his letters to her. Still the
fact that the King was obliged to esteem her character so highly
maintained her in her outward position. Later, his relations with
women influenced his emotions very slightly. Even his sister at
Bayreuth, sickly, nervous, embittered by jealousy of an unfaithful
husband, was estranged from her brother for years; and not until she
had given up all hope of life did this proud member of the House of
Brandenburg, aging and unhappy, seek again the heart of the brother
whose little hand she had once held as they stood before their stern
father. His mother also, to whom King Frederick always showed
excellent filial devotion, was not able to occupy a large place in his
heart. His other brothers and sisters were younger, and were only too
much disposed to hatch obscure domestic conspiracies against him. If
the King ever condescended to show any attentions to a lady of the
court or of the stage, these were in general as disturbing as they
were flattering fo