ary of
Justice; and have a heavy responsibility lying on me,"--as will you
in this new Office. Friedrich at no moment neglected this part of his
functions; and his procedure in it throughout, one cannot but admit
to have been faithful, beautiful, human. Very impatient indeed when he
comes upon Imbecility and Pedantry threatening to extinguish Essence
and Fact, among his Law People! This is one MARGINALE of his, among many
such, some of them still more stinging, which are comfortable to every
reader. The Case is that of a murderer,--murder indisputable; "but may
not insanity be suspected, your Majesty, such the absence of motive,
such the--?" Majesty answers: "That is nothing but inanity and stupid
pleading against right. The fellow put a child to death; if he were a
soldier, you would execute him without priest; and because this CANAILLE
is a citizen, you make him 'melancholic' to get him off. Beautiful
justice!" [Preuss, iii. 375.]

Friedrich has to sign all Death-Sentences; and he does it, wherever I
have noticed, rigorously well. For the rest, his Criminal Calendar
seems to be lighter than any other of his time; "in a population of
5,200,000," says he once, "14 to 15 are annually condemned to death."

Chapter VIII.--THE FURSTENBUND: FRIEDRICH'S LAST YEARS.

At Vienna, on November 29th, 1780, the noble Kaiserinn Maria Theresa,
after a short illness, died. Her end was beautiful and exemplary, as
her course had been. The disease, which seemed at first only a bad
cold, proved to have been induration of the lungs; the chief symptom
throughout, a more and more suffocating difficulty to breathe. On the
edge of death, the Kaiserinn, sitting in a chair (bed impossible in such
struggle for breath), leant her head back as if inclined to sleep.
One of her women arranged the cushions, asked in a whisper, "Will your
Majesty sleep, then?" "No," answered the dying Kaiserinn; "I could
sleep, but I must not; Death is too near. He must not steal upon me.
These fifteen years I have been making ready for him; I will meet him
awake." Fifteen years ago her beloved Franz was snatched from her, in
such sudden manner: and ever since, she has gone in Widow's dress; and
has looked upon herself as one who had done with the world. The 18th
of every month has been for her a day of solitary prayer; 18th of every
August (Franz's death-day) she has gone down punctually to the vaults
in the Stephans-Kirche, and sat by his coffin there;--last A