knows but we might have had
something else to read of him than that he was regardless of expense in
this world!

His last scene, of date February, 1713, is the tragical ultimatum of
that fine Karlsbad adventure of the Second marriage,--Third marriage,
in fact, though the First, anterior to "Serena," is apt to be forgotten,
having lasted short while, and produced only a Daughter, not memorable
except by accident. This Third marriage, which had brought so many
sorrows to him, proved at length the death of the old man. For he
sat one morning, in the chill February days of the Year 1713, in his
Apartment, as usual; weak of nerves, but thinking no special evil; when,
suddenly with huge jingle, the glass door of his room went to sherds;
and there rushed in--bleeding and dishevelled, the fatal "White Lady"
(WEISSE FRAU), who is understood to walk that Schloss at Berlin, and
announce Death to the Royal inhabitants. Majesty had fainted, or was
fainting. "Weisse Frau? Oh no, your Majesty!"--not that; but indeed
something almost worse.--Mad Queen, in her Apartments, had been seized,
that day, when half or quarter dressed; with unusual orthodoxy or
unusual jealousy. Watching her opportunity, she had whisked into the
corridor, in extreme deshabille; and gone, like the wild roe, towards
Majesty's Suite of Rooms; through Majesty's glass door, like a catapult;
and emerged as we saw,--in petticoat and shift, with hair streaming,
eyes glittering, arms cut, and the other sad trimmings. O Heaven, who
could laugh? There are tears due to Kings and to all men. It was deep
misery; deep enough "SIN and misery," as Calvin well says, on the one
side and the other! The poor old King was carried to bed; and never rose
again, but died in a few days. The date of the WEISSE FRAU'S death, one
might have hoped, was not distant either; but she lasted, in her sad
state, for above twenty years coming.

Old King Friedrich's death-day was 25th February, 1713; the unconscious
little Grandson being then in his Fourteenth month. To whom, after this
long, voyage round the world, we now gladly return.

By way of reinforcement to any recollection the reader may have of these
Twelve Hohenzollern Kurfursts, I will append a continuous list of them,
with here and there an indication.

THE TWELVE HOHENZOLLERN ELECTORS.

1. FRIEDRICH I. (as Burggraf, was Friedrich VI.): born, it is inferred,
1372 (Rentsch, p. 350); accession, 18th April, 1417; died 21st
S