nt it
appeared easier to blame than to praise, one may perceive how much the
amiability of the highly gifted boy worked upon his _entourage_;
whether he secretly read French stories with his sister, and applied
the comical characters of the novel to the whole court, or, contrary to
the most positive order, played upon the flute and lute, or visited his
sister in disguise, when they recited the _roles_ of the French comedy
together. But even for these harmless pleasures Frederic was obliged to
have recourse to lies, deceit, and dissimulation. He was proud,
high-minded, magnanimous, with an uncompromising love of truth.
Dissimulation was so repugnant to his nature that where it was required
he would not condescend to it; and if he was compelled to an unskilful
hypocrisy, his position with his father became more difficult, the
distrust of the King greater, and the wounded self-respect of the son
was always breaking out in defiance.

Thus he grew up surrounded by spies, who conveyed his every word to the
King. With a richly gifted mind and refined intellectual yearnings, he
needed that manly society which would have been suitable for him. No
wonder that the youth went astray. The Prussian passed for a very
virtuous court in comparison with the other courts of Germany; but the
tone towards women, and the carelessness with which the most doubtful
connexions were treated, were there also very great. After a visit to
the profligate court of Dresden, Prince Frederic began to behave like
other princes of his time, and he found good comrades among his
father's young officers. We know little of him at this time, but we may
conclude that he was undoubtedly in some danger, not of being ruined,
but of passing the best years of his life amidst debts and worthless
connexions. It certainly was not the increasing displeasure of his
father that unhinged his mind at this period, so much as an inward
dissatisfaction that drove the immature youth more wildly into error.

He determined to escape to England; how his flight miscarried, and how
great was the anger of Colonel Frederic William against the deserter,
are well known. With the days of his imprisonment in Kuestrin, and his
residence at Ruppin, his education began in earnest. The horrors he had
experienced had called forth in him new powers. He had borne all the
terrors of death, and the most bitter humiliation of princely pride. In
the solitude of his prison he had reflected on the gre