teen of them as
family. Now, in old King Friedrich I.'s time, it became apparent, as the
then reigning Margraf of Baireuth's children all died soon after
birth, that one of these necessitous Fourteen was likely to succeed in
Baireuth, if they could hold out. Old King Friedrich thereupon said,
"You have chances of succession; true enough,--but nobody knows what
will become of that. Sell your chance to me, who am ultimate Heir of
all: I will give you a round sum,--the little 'Domain of Weverlingen' in
the Halberstadt Country, and say 'Half a Million Thalers;' there you can
live comfortably, and support your Fourteen Children,"--"Done," said the
necessitous Cousin; went to Weverlingen accordingly; and there lived the
rest of his days, till 1708; leaving his necessitous Fourteen, or
about Ten of them that were alive and growing up, still all minors, and
necessitous enough.

The young men, George Friedrich at the top of them, kept silence
in Weverlingen, and conformed to Papa; having nothing to live upon
elsewhere. But they had their own thoughts; especially as their Cousin
of Baireuth was more and more likely to die childless. And at length,
being in the Kaiser's service as soldiers some of them, and having made
what interest was feasible, they, early in Friedrich Wilhelm's reign,
burst out. That is to say, appealed to the REICHSHOFRATH (Imperial Aulic
Council at Vienna; chief Court of the Empire in such cases); openly
protesting there, That their Papa had no power to make such a bargain,
selling their birthright for immediate pottage; and that, in brief, they
would not stand by it at all;--and summoned Friedrich Wilhelm to show
cause why they should.

Long lawsuit, in consequence; lengthy law-pleadings, and much parchment
and wiggery, in that German Triple-Elixir of Chancery;--little to
the joy of Friedrich Wilhelm. Friedrich Wilhelm, from the first, was
fairness itself: "Pay me back the money; and let it be, in all points,
as you say!" answered Friedrich Wilhelm, from the first. Alas, the
money was eaten; how could the money be paid back? The Reichshofrath
dubitatively shook its wig, for years: "Bargain bad in Law; but Money
clearly repayable: the Money was and is good;--what shall be done about
the Money!" At length, in 1722, Friedrich Wilhelm, of himself, settled
with this present Margraf, then Heir-Presumptive, How, by steady slow
instalments, it could be possible, from the revenues of Baireuth,
thriftily administere