Frederick Moreau

“ As soon as they had got out into the garden, Madame Dambreuse, taking Cisy aside, chided him for his awkwardness. When she caught sight of Martinon, she sent him away, and then tried to learn from her future nephew the cause of his witticisms at the Vicomte's expense.
"There's nothing of the kind."
"And all this, as it were, for the glory of M. Moreau. What is the object of it?"
"There's no object. Frederick is a charming fellow. I am very fond of him." ”

“ The diligence was rolling along the road, and, wrapped up in the shawl, no doubt, she was leaning against the cloth of the coupé, her beautiful head nodding asleep.
He and his mother were just going up to their apartments when a waiter from the Swan of the Cross brought him a note.
"What is that, pray?"
"It is Deslauriers, who wants me," said he.
"Ha! your chum!" said Madame Moreau, with a contemptuous sneer. "Certainly it is a nice hour to select!"
Frederick hesitated. But friendship was stronger. He got his hat. ”

“ Madame Moreau, indeed, was not on visiting terms with him. Père Roque lived in peculiar relations with his servant-girl, and was held in very slight esteem, although he was the vice-president at elections, and M. Dambreuse's manager.
"The banker who resides in the Rue d'Anjou," observed Deslauriers. "Do you know what you ought to do, my fine fellow?"
Isidore once more interrupted. His orders were positive not to go back without Frederick. Madame would be getting uneasy at his absence.
"Well, well, he will go back," said Deslauriers. "He's not going to stay out all night." ”

“ He told him about the coal-mine speculation and M. Dambreuse's proposal. The advocate grew thoughtful.
"That's queer! For such a post a man with a good knowledge of law would be required!"
"But you could assist me," returned Frederick.
"Yes!—hold on! faith, yes! certainly."
During the same week Frederick showed Dussardier a letter from his mother.
Madame Moreau accused herself of having misjudged M. Roque, who had given a satisfactory explanation of his conduct. Then she spoke of his means, and of the possibility, later, of a marriage with Louise. ”

“ Frederick Morel had so strong an attachment to study, that when he was informed of his wife's being at the point of death, he would not lay down his pen, till he had finished what he was upon, and when she was dead, as she was before they could prevail on him to stir, he was only heard to reply coldly, "I am very sorry, she was a good woman." ”

“ In the following letter, which Frederick wrote at this time to his friend D’Argens, he unbosoms his sorrows with unusual frankness. The letter was dated Breslau, March 1, 1759:
“I have passed my winter like a Carthusian monk. I dine alone. I spend my life in reading and writing, and I do not sup. When one is sad, it becomes, at last, too burdensome to hide one’s grief continually. It is better to give way to it than to carry one’s gloom into society. ”

“ Frederick's history of his times is, like Cæsar's Commentaries, one of the most important documents of historical literature. True, like the Roman general, like all practical statesmen, he stated facts as they are reflected in the soul of a participant. He does not give due value to everything or full justice to everybody, but he knows infinitely more than is revealed to one at a distance, and he wrote of some of the motives underlying the great events, not without prejudice, yet with magnanimity toward his opponents. ”

“ It was in Germany that he conceived the idea of his treatise on "The Reform of the Jews," which is acknowledged to be one of his best works.
Frederick the Great died on August 17, 1786. Feeling that he could do nothing useful, Mirabeau resolved at the close of 1786 to quit Berlin. He was urged also by a special motive in which he took pride, and which he thus described in a letter: "My heart has not grown old, and if my enthusiasm is damped, it is not extinguished. ”

“ In a letter to M. Jordan, under date of Chrudim, May 5th, 1742, Frederick expresses his views of this profitless campaign in the following terms:
MAP ILLUSTRATING THE CAMPAIGN IN MORAVIA.
“Moravia, which is a very bad country, could not be held, owing to want of provisions. The town of Brünn could not be taken because the Saxons had no cannon. When you wish to enter a town, you must first make a hole to get in by. Besides, the country has been reduced to such a state that the enemy can not subsist in it, and you will soon see him leave it. There is your little military lesson. ”

“ Mery was the only man who kept his heart. He was born in the island of Martinique, 13th January, 1750. When he was only three years old he lost his father, and his mother would not let him go to France to be educated. His grandfather was a judge or magistrate, and young Moreau de St. Mery was when a boy always interceding for some unfortunate prisoner. At his grandfather's death he inherited a sum of money, destined to defray the cost of his legal education in France, but he used the money to pay the old man's debts. At the age of nineteen he came to Paris, and studied hard. ”

“ Frederick was not long in calling Mersburg to him.
"My friend," he said to him, "my resolutions are going to surprise you. I can no longer exist without my wife. I want to find her and see her again, no matter what it may cost me. Prepare yourself to follow me, my dear count. I am going to travel over my states, Germany, all of Europe if it is necessary. I don't want to reappear in my court until I have righted the wrong which I have done. Perhaps we will find her and I am sure that my love will help me in my search. You only have to want a thing very much to get it. ”

“ In the grossest terms the king insulted his physicians, attributing all his sufferings to their wickedness or their ignorance. Fortunately the miserable old man was too weak to attempt to cane them. A celebrated physician, by the name of Hoffman, was sent for to prescribe for the king. He was a man of much intellectual distinction, and occupied an important position in the university. As his prescriptions failed to give relief to his majesty, he was assailed, like the rest, in the vilest language of vituperation. ”

“ Frederick hoped to join the Marquis de Pont Brillant; he earnestly longed to press the hand of the man whom he had so long pursued with bitter hatred; it seemed to him that this frank expression ought to efface from his mind the last memory of the dreadful deed he had contemplated; but he could not find the marquis, whose carriage had also disappeared.
After the departure of the valley people, Frederick, entering the house with his mother and David, found Marguerite, who proudly handed him a letter. ”

“ You will meet no one, unless it be the people of the house. You may take my word for that! Just put yourself in my hands and I will manage everything for us both.’
Frederick was only too thankful to be relieved of all responsibility, for he was utterly worn-out with grief, and incapable of thinking or acting for himself, so he clung to the arm of his cousin, who hurried him into the carriage and off to the railway station before he hardly knew where they were going. ”

“ They entered a small room in the middle of which was a large mirror. Next to it was a table which held three or four large books.
"Gentlemen," said the master of the apartment turning towards those whom he had brought there, "you are in the home of the greatest necromancer in Europe, and if this gentleman," he continued, pointing out Frederick, "wishes to know things, I can make him see in this mirror all the events which will come to him for the rest of his days."
"We are at the home of a crazy man," said Mersburg to the prince. ”

“ The small company penetrated into the town by the backways and narrow alleys. Daunay going on ahead, Patinot the last by some thirty yards, and Moreau keeping upon the opposite side of the street. Once they had left behind them the lights of the station square, they walked amongst closed doors and the blind faces of unlit houses. Frobisher's heart raced within his bosom. He strained his eyes and ears for some evidence of spies upon their heels. But no one was concealed in any porch, and not the stealthiest sound of a pursuit was borne to their hearing. ”

“ Frederick found that his new acquaintance was an American, whose name is equally well known in the highest social circles both of New York and New Orleans, and whose mature age and sedate appearance does not prevent him from burning the candle at both ends, in Europe as well as in the States. The lady by whom he was accompanied was a Mme. Varlay, who had deserted her husband some three months previous to this date, and had adopted the “nom de guerre” of Eugenie Forestier. ”

“ Mersburg opposed this project immediately.
"You have no idea whatsoever about whether this is your wife or not."
"No, I admit, I have only a suspicion."
"In that case, what can you accomplish with the margrave? You will only dishonor her and yourself by your suspicions."
"No, at least I will calm myself. Let's go to Baden and find out all we can. It may be that we can find the thread which will lead us to her."
"That is a possibility, but I think that it will be a useless trip."
Nothing could calm the jealousy of Frederick and all through the trip to Baden, he was raging in his heart. ”

“ Prince Charles had between eighty and ninety thousand Austrian troops in the reconquered province. Frederick seemed to be marching to certain and utter destruction, as, with a feeble band of but about twenty thousand men, he pressed forward, declaring, “I will attack them if they stand on the steeples of Breslau.”
On the evening of the 3d of December, 1757, the king arrived at Parchwitz, in the heart of Silesia, about thirty miles from Breslau. Here the wreck of Prince Bevern’s army joined him. Thus re-enforced, he could bring about thirty thousand men into the field. ”

“ Heavy, as he knew the awakening must be, Frederick needed strength above all other things, in order to bear what lay before him. Physically he had never been a very strong man, and his dissipated life had further tended to undermine his constitution, so that his cousin had feared for the effect of so violent a [Pg 29] grief upon his health. When he descended to his family again he found the party augmented by the arrival of Father Tasker, who had come to hear what news Marion had received from Dover. Philip welcomed him warmly. ”

“ Bad news goes fast enough of itself. Adieu, dear marquis.”
The king, as usual, was merciless to General Finck. As soon as he returned from Austrian captivity he was tried by court-martial, and condemned to a year’s imprisonment in the fortress of Spandau, and was expelled from the army. He afterward retired to Denmark, where he was kindly received.
General Daun, elated by this victory, relinquished the plan of retiring to Bohemia, and decided to remain in Saxony for the winter. Frederick had but thirty-six thousand men in Saxony. Daun commanded seventy-two thousand. ”

“ He is of a great mind who knows, can anticipate, and provide against the special or possible weaknesses of his bodily nature. And so Frederick, dreading what impatience for liberty or personal suffering might possibly force from him in such circumstances, lays upon his servants, while free, his heaviest commands to regard him no more than one dead, should he happen to become a prisoner, and to consider not his state or condition or written orders then, but solely the tenor and substance of what he now writes, viewed in connection with the interests of his people and his country. ”

“ His fame spread rapidly. Friends multiplied. He was invited to sup with the officers in the evening, and accepted the invitation. Marshal Broglio, a very stately gentleman of seventy years, was military governor at Strasbourg. The count and one of his companions, the distinguished philosopher Count Algarotti, were invited to dine with the marshal. The supper given in the evening by the officers was brilliant. They then repaired to the opera. A poor little girl came to the box with a couple of lottery tickets for sale. Frederick gave her four ducats ($25) , and tore up the tickets. ”

“ THE SECOND STRUGGLE FOR SILESIA, 1742–1745 After following Frederick’s career through many phases in a dozen years, we observe him with interest as he quits the whirlpool of foreign adventure for the calm of government at home. We may well enquire how far three crowded and strenuous campaigns have transformed our hero. It is impossible that the deeds done at Breslau, Mollwitz, Klein Schnellendorf, Olmütz, and Chotusitz and the strenuous toil of twenty months in departments new to him should have left no mark upon himself. ”

“ While Frederick was reading this fatal note, the two gondolas separated and each was soon out of sight of the other.
It took all of Mersburg's strength to prevent Frederick from throwing himself into the sea. He wanted to expire, he said, on the coffin of the only being he adored in the world.
"Let's flee, Prince," cried the count, "it is the only thing left for us to do. Think about your people and do not expose yourself to danger. Posterity would not pardon you the weakness of dying for a woman who has given you so much cause to hate her." ”

“ Frederick gave a ball to the aristocracy of Breslau, and all the most distinguished and noble families, who had been before closely bound to the house of Austria, eagerly accepted the invitation; they wished to behold the man who was a hero and a poet, a cavalier and a warrior, a youth and a philosopher; who was young and handsome, and full of life; who did not wrap himself in stiff, ceremonious forms, and appeared in the presence of ladies to forget that he was a king. He worshipped the ladies as a cavalier, and when they accepted the invitation to dance, considered it a flattering favor. ”