able man, unwilling to awaken conflagrations for
a small matter, Friedrich Wilhelm had offered, through Kreutzen on
this occasion, to part with Herstal altogether; to sell it, for 100,000
thalers, say 16,000 pounds, to the high-flying Bishop, and honestly wash
his hands of it. But the high-flying Bishop did not consent, gave no
definite answer; and so the matter lay,--like an unsettled extremely
irritating paltry little matter,--at the time Friedrich Wilhelm died.

The Gazetteers and public knew little about these particulars, or had
forgotten them again; but at the Prussian Court they were in lively
remembrance. What the young Friedrich's opinion about them had been we
gather from this succinct notice of the thing, written seven or eight
years afterwards, exact in all points, and still carrying a breath of
the old humor in it. "A miserable Bishop of Liege thought it a proud
thing to insult the late King. Some subjects of Herstal, which belongs
to Prussia, had revolted; the Bishop gave them his protection. Colonel
Kreutzen was sent to Liege, to compose the thing by treaty; credentials
with him, full power, and all in order. Imagine it, the Bishop would not
receive him! Three days, day after day, he saw this Envoy apply at his
Palace, and always denied him entrance. These things had grown past
endurance." [Preuss, _OEuvres (Memoires de Brandebourg)_, end ii. 53.]
And Friedrich had taken note of Herstal along with him, on this Cleve
Journey; privately intending to put Herstal and the high-flying Bishop
on a suitabler footing, before his return from those countries.

For indeed, on Friedrich's Accession, matters had grown worse, not
better. Of course there was Fealty to be sworn; but the Herstal people,
abetted by the high-flying Bishop, have declined swearing it. Apology
for the past, prospect of amendment for the future, there is less than
ever. What is the young King to do with this paltry little Hamlet
of Herstal? He could, in theory, go into some Reichs-Hofrath,
some Reichs-Kammergericht (kind of treble and tenfold English
Court-of-Chancery, which has lawsuits 250 years old),--if he were
a theoretic German King. He can plead in the Diets, and the Wetzlar
Reichs-Kammergericht without end: "All German Sovereigns have power
to send their Ambassador thither, who is like a mastiff chained in the
back-yard [observes Friedrich elsewhere] with privilege of barking at
the Moon,"--unrestricted privilege of barking at the Moon,