12. His education was principally military; his very
toys were miniature implements of war suited to his age; and no sooner
was he able to handle a musket than he was sent to drill, and forced,
like all the Prussian officers of the period, to perform the duties
and submit to the privations of a private soldier,--obliged even to
stand sentinel before the palace in all the severities of a northern
winter. Though rather feeble of constitution, he soon became a
proficient in martial exercises. The different branches of science
bearing on the art of war he was forced to study; but his leisure
hours were devoted to reading French verses, and playing on the
flute--pursuits that greatly displeased his royal father, who
frequently threw the books into the fire, and the flutes out of the
window.

Frederick William,--the original founder of the pipe-clay science of
tactics, and the stick-and-starvation system of organization,--the
first inventor of pauper armies, dressed in martial uniforms,--became
gradually estranged from his poetical son; and often declared that the
dandy, "_Der Stutzer_" as he styled him, "would ruin everything." He
consequently treated him with so much severity, that the young prince
attempted to escape, intending to fly to England. The tragical result
of the adventure is well known. Frederick was thrown into prison; and
his friend and adviser, Katt, beheaded under his window, while
soldiers held the prince's head toward the scaffold on which the deed
of death was acting. What impression this dreadful scene made on his
mind is not known; but it ought to have been a deep and a lasting one.

It was the king's wish to follow up this execution by the trial of his
own son; but the remonstrances of the cabinet of Vienna, of his own
council, and, above all, of the upright and honest chaplain, Dr.
Reinbeck, reluctantly induced him to forego the intention. It is not
probable that he actually intended to put the prince to death, but
only to force him to resign his right to the throne in favor of his
second brother, William; a proposal to which Frederick constantly
refused to assent.

But though not tried, Frederick was severely punished, for he was
confined to the fortress of Kuestrin, where he was obliged to perform
the duties of a commissary of finance, and write the reports, and make
out the returns with his own hand. All this was, no doubt, of
advantage to the future sovereign. On condition of marrying the
Prin