The Life of Frederic the Second, King of Prussia ... in Two Volumes...Harper & Brothers, 1859 |
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afterward answer appears army arrived Austrian battle battle of Chotusitz became Bohemia Brandenburgh Breslau brother cause command commenced conduct consequence Count court Custrin death Dresden Duke Elector emperor endeavoured enemies father favour France Frederic le Grand Frederic William Frederic's French Grossen Jugendjahre Grumkow Histoire honour house of Austria Ibid Katt King of England King of Poland King of Prussia king's letter Louis XV Madame majesty manner Margrave de Bareith marriage Marshal Maupertuis Mémoires pour servir ment minister monarch Moravia Müller never obliged occasion officer peace person possession Potsdam present Prince of Anhalt Prince of Lorraine prince royal Princess of Bareith Prus Queen of Hungary received regiment reign returned Rheinsberg Saxon Schwerin Seckendorff Séjour à Berlin sent Silesia soldiers Souvenirs de Vingt sovereign success Suhm Tableau talent Temps Thiebault thing throne tion took town treaty Trenck troops Vie de Frederic Vienna Voltaire wish wrote
Popular passages
Page 205 - With unexpected legions bursts away, And sees defenceless realms receive his sway ; Short sway ! fair Austria spreads her mournful charms, The queen, the beauty, sets the world in arms ; From hill to hill the...
Page 286 - It was subsequently much modified by succeeding chancellors; till at last, towards the end of the reign of Frederic, in 1781, M. de Crammer, the then chancellor, almost entirely remodelled it ; and gave to Prussia the body of laws, which is still acted upon in that .country. "At the same time that the new code was promulgated, great reforms were also made in the power and constitution of the different tribunals, which led to very beneficial effects, by purifying the source of justice. So anxious...
Page 162 - Far from being discouraged by such a sad spectacle, his compassion only became the more lively from it ; and he resolved to restore population, plenty, and commerce to this land, which had even lost the appearance of an inhabited country. Since this time he has spared no expenses for the furtherance of his salutary intentions. He first established wise regulations and laws; he rebuilt whatever had been allowed to go to ruin, in consequence of the plague ; he brought and established there thousands...
Page 368 - ... that the time was now come when the French ought to emancipate themselves from the influence of the Kings of Prussia and Sardinia, and a number of petty princes, who studiously sowed dissension between the great powers of Europe in order to benefit themselves. Excited by their artifices, the courts of Versailles and Vienna were continually contriving...
Page 50 - You shall have it for fifty," said the king, " because you are a good judge, and I am therefore anxious to do you a favour." The poor courtier, obliged to become the possessor of this miserable performance, and to pay so dear for it, determined for the future to be more circumspect in his admiration. On some of his pictures he wrote the following inscription, in commemoration of his state of bodily health when he painted them, " Fridericus Wilhelmus in tormentis pinxit." Thiebault relates that he...
Page 160 - Holstein : after this he does not appear to have taken any further interest in the proceedings of the society. In the summer of the following year Frederic again took a journey with his father, and together they visited Prussia. The king's mode of travelling does not appear to have been an agreeable one, if we may judge by a letter from Frederic to Jordan, in which he says, " We have now been travelling near three weeks. The heat is as great as if we were riding astride upon a ray of the sun ; and...
Page 58 - ... account to the queen, that I might not alarm her. As I was entering the room of the king in the morning, he instantly seized me by the hair and threw me on the ground, and after having tried the vigour of his arms upon my poor body, he dragged me, in spite of my resistance, to a window, and was going to perform the office of the mutes of the seraglio; for, seizing the cord with which the curtain is fastened, he drew it round my neck. Fortunately I had had time to get up from the ground ; I laid...
Page 240 - France, over which he had no control, was the event upon which the issue of the war really turned. The general opposed to the king, Marshal Traun, who in fact commanded the army of the Prince of Lorraine, was also, it must be confessed, a man of talent, and took advantage of whatever favourable circumstances presented themselves. " The conduct of Marshal Traun, in this campaign...
Page 150 - Wolden was a madman, who acted the buffoon to our society, and was my favourite. You know that the accusation of irreligion is the last refuge of calumniators, and that that once asserted, nothing more need be said. The king took fire ; but I remained tranquil and silent. My regiment did wonders ; and the manual exercise, a little flour sprinkled upon the heads of the soldiers, men above six feet high, and a good many recruits, have proved arguments stronger than those of my calumniators. All is...