Of that strange king and his strange court there is no light to be had except from the book written by Frederick’s little sister, Wilhelmina, when she grew to size and knowledge of good and evil—­a flickery wax taper held over Frederick’s childhood.  In the breeding of him there are two elements noticeable, widely diverse—­the French and the German.  Of his infantine history the course was in general smooth.  The boy, it was said, was of extraordinary vivacity; only he takes less to soldiering than the paternal heart could wish.  The French element is in his governesses—­good Edict-of-Nantes ladies.

For the boy’s teachers, Friedrich Wilhelm has rules for guidance strict enough.  He is to be taught useful knowledge—­history of the last hundred and fifty years, arithmetic, fortification; but nothing useless of Latin and the like.  Spartan training, too, which shall make a soldier of him.  Whereas young Fritz has vivacities, a taste for music, finery, and excursions into forbidden realms distasteful and incomprehensible to Friedrich Wilhelm.  We perceive the first small cracks of incurable division in the royal household, traceable from Fritz’s sixth or seventh year; a divulsion splitting ever wider, new offences super-adding themselves.  This Fritz ought to fashion himself according to his father’s pattern, and he does not.  These things make life all bitter for son and for father, necessitating the proud son to hypocrisies very foreign to him had there been other resource.

The boy in due time we find (at fifteen) attached to the amazing regiment of giants, drilling at Potsdam; on very ill terms with his father, however, who sees in him mainly wilful disobedience and frivolity.  Once, when Prussia and Hanover seem on the verge of war over an utterly trivial matter, our crown prince acquires momentary favour.  The Potsdam Guards are ordered to the front, and the prince handles them with great credit.  But the favour is transitory, seeing that he is caught reading French books, and arrayed in a fashion not at all pleasing to the Spartan parent.

II.—­The Crown Prince Leaves Kingship

The life is indeed so intolerable that Fritz is with difficulty dissuaded from running away.  The time comes when he will not be dissuaded, resolves that he will endure no longer.  There were only three definite accomplices in the wild scheme, which had a very tragical ending.  Of the three, Lieutenant Keith, scenting discovery, slipped over the border and so to England; his brother, Page Keith, feeling discovery certain, made confession, after vigilance had actually stopped the prince when he was dressed for the flight.  There was terrible wrath of the father over the would-be “deserter and traitor,” and not less over the other accomplice, Lieutenant Katte, who had dallied too long.  The crown prince himself was imprisoned; court-martial held on the offenders; a too-lenient sentence was overruled by the king, and Katte was executed.  The king was near frenzied, but beyond doubt thought honestly that he was doing no more than justice demanded.