g forced a wife upon him.
Heartrending is the woe with which he strove to escape the bride chosen
for him. "I do not care how frivolous she may be, as long as she is not
a simpleton, that, I cannot bear." It was all in vain. With bitterness
and indignation did he regard this marriage shortly before it took
place. Never did he overcome the effect of this sorrow, by which his
father ruined his inward life. His most susceptible feelings, and his
loving heart, were sold in the roughest way. Not only was he made
unhappy by it, but also an excellent woman who was deserving of a
better fate. The Princess Elizabeth of Bevern had many noble qualities
of heart; she was not a simpleton, she was not ugly, and might have
passed well through the bitter criticisms of the princesses of the
royal house. But we fear that, if she had been an angel, the pride of
the son, who was subjected to the useless barbarity of compulsion,
would still have protested against her. And yet this union was not
always so cold as has been supposed. For six years did the goodness of
heart and tact of the Princess succeed in reconciling the Crown Prince
to her. In the retirement of Rheinsberg she was in fact the lady of his
house and the amiable hostess of his guests, and it was reported by the
Austrian agents that her influence was on the ascendant. But her modest
clinging nature was too deficient in the qualities calculated to fix
the attachment of an intellectual man. It was necessary for the
sprightly children of the house of Brandenburg to give vent to their
excitable natures by ready and pointed humour. The Princess, when she
was excited, was as quiet as if paralysed, and she was wanting in the
easy grace of society. This did not suit. Even the way in which she
loved her husband, dutifully and submissively, as if repelled and
overwhelmed by the greatness of his mind, was little interesting to the
Prince, who had adopted, together with French intellectual culture, not
a little of the frivolity of French society.

When Frederic became King, the Princess soon lost the very small share
she had gained in her husband's affections. His long absence during the
Silesian War finally alienated him from her. More and more distant
became their mutual intercourse; years passed without their seeing one
another; an icy brevity and coldness are perceptible in his letters;
but the high esteem in which the King held her character maintained her
outward position. His relati