t
heart but rough and violent, who wished to compel love and confidence,
with a keen understanding, but so unwary that he was always in danger
of being the victim of rogues, and from the gloomy knowledge of his
weakness became suspicious, stubborn, and violent; the Queen, on the
other hand, an insignificant woman, with a cold heart, a strong feeling
of her princely dignity, and much inclination to intrigue, neither
cautious nor taciturn. Both had the best intentions, and exerted
themselves honourably to make their children good and capable men, but
both injudiciously disturbed the sound development of the childish
soul. The mother had so little tact as to make her children, even in
their tender youth, the confidants of her chagrins and intrigues; for
in her chambers there was no end of complaints, rancour, and derision,
over the undue parsimony of the King, the blows which he so abundantly
distributed in his apartments, and the monotony of the daily
regulations which he enforced. The Crown Prince, Frederic, grew up as
the playfellow of his elder sister, a delicate child with brilliant
eyes and wonderfully beautiful blond hair. Punctiliously was he taught
just as much as the King wished, and that was little enough; scarcely
anything of the Latin declensions--the great King never overcame the
difficulties of the genitive and dative--French, some history, and
the necessary accomplishments of a soldier. The ladies inspired the
boy--who was giddy, and in presence of the King looked shy and
defiant--with the first interest in French literature; he himself
afterwards gave the praise to his sister, but his governess also was a
clever Frenchwoman. That this foreign acquisition was hateful to the
King, gave it additional value to the son; for, in the apartments of
the Queen, that was most certain to be praised which was most
displeasing to the strict master of the family. And when the King
delivered to his family his blustering pious speeches, then the
Princess Wilhelmine and the young Frederic looked so significantly at
one another that, at last, the faces made by one of the children
excited a childish desire to laugh, and produced an outburst of fury in
the King! Owing to this the son became, in his early years, an object
of irritation to his father. He called him an effeminate fellow, who
did not keep himself clean, and took an unmanly pleasure in dress and
games.

But from the account of his sister, in whose unsparing judgme