erdinand II. nor Kaiser Ferdinand III. nor any Kaiser would let
go the hold; but kept Jagerndorf fast clenched, deaf to all pleadings,
and monitions of gods or men. Till at length, in the fourth generation
afterwards, one "Friedrich the Second," not unknown to us,--a sharp
little man, little in stature, but large in faculty and renown, who is
now called "Frederick the Great,"--clutched hold of the Imperial fist
(so to speak), seizing his opportunity in 1740; and so wrenched and
twisted said close fist, that not only Jagerndorf dropped out of it,
but the whole of Silesia along with Jagerndorf, there being other claims
withal. And the account was at last settled, with compound interest,--as
in fact such accounts are sure to be, one way or other. And so we leave
Johann George among the dumb Giant-Mountains again.

Chapter XVIII. -- FRIEDRICH WILHELM, THE GREAT KURFURST, ELEVENTH OF THE
SERIES.

Brandenburg had again sunk very low under the Tenth Elector, in the
unutterable troubles of the times. But it was gloriously raised up again
by his Son Friedrich Wilhelm, who succeeded in 1640. This is he whom
they call the "Great Elector (GROSSE KURFURST);" of whom there is much
writing and celebrating in Prussian Books. As for the epithet, it is not
uncommon among petty German populations, and many times does not mean
too much: thus Max of Bavaria, with his Jesuit Lambkins and Hyacinths,
is, by Bavarians, called "Maximilian the Great." Friedrich Wilhelm,
both by his intrinsic qualities and the success he met with, deserves it
better than most. His success, if we look where he started and where he
ended, was beyond that of any other man in his day. He found Brandenburg
annihilated, and he left Brandenburg sound and flourishing; a great
country, or already on the way towards greatness. Undoubtedly a most
rapid, clear-eyed, active man. There was a stroke in him swift as
lightning, well-aimed mostly, and of a respectable weight, withal; which
shattered asunder a whole world of impediments for him, by assiduous
repetition of it for fifty years. [1620; 1640; 1688.]

There hardly ever came to sovereign power a young man of twenty under
more distressing, hopeless-looking circumstances. Political significance
Brandenburg had none; a mere Protestant appendage dragged about by a
Papist Kaiser. His Father's Prime-Minister, as we have seen, was in the
interest of his enemies; not Brandenburg's servant, but Austria's.
The very Commandan