argains, some with bloody crowns, it had been settled, If
the Wendish Dukes died out, the country was to fall to Brandenburg;--and
here they were dead. "At Duke Otto's burial, accordingly, in the High
Church of Stettin, when the coffin was lowered into its place, the
Stettin Burgermeister, Albrecht Glinde, took sword and helmet, and threw
the same into the grave, in token that the Line was extinct. But Franz
von Eichsted," apparently another Burgher instructed for the nonce,
"jumped into the grave, and picked them out again; alleging, No, the
Dukes of WOLGAST-Pommern were of kin; these tokens we must send to his
Grace at Wolgast, with offer of our homage, said Franz von Eichsted."
[Rentsch, p. 110 (whose printer has put his date awry); Stenzel (i. 233)
calls the man "LORENZ Eikstetten, a resolute Gentleman."]--And sent they
were, and accepted by his Grace. And perhaps half-a-score of bargains,
with bloody crowns to some of them; and yet other chances, and
centuries, with the extinction of new Lines,--had to supervene, before
even Stettin-Pommern, and that in no complete state, could be got.
[1648, by Treaty of Westphalia.] As to Pommern at large, Pommern not
denied to be due, after such extinction and re-extinction of native
Ducal Lines, did not fall home for centuries more; and what struggles
and inextricable armed-litigations there were for it, readers of
Brandenburg-History too wearisomely know. The process of assimilation
not the least of an easy one!--

This Friedrich was second son: his Father's outlook for him had, at
first, been towards a Polish Princess and the crown of Poland, which
was not then so elective as afterwards: and with such view his early
breeding had been chiefly in Poland; Johann, the eldest son and
heir-apparent, helping his Father at home in the mean while. But these
Polish outlooks went to nothing, the young Princess having died; so that
Friedrich came home; possessed merely of the Polish language, and of
what talents the gods had given him, which were considerable. And now,
in the mean while, Johann, who at one time promised well in
practical life, had taken to Alchemy; and was busy with crucibles and
speculations, to a degree that seemed questionable. Father Friedrich,
therefore, had to interfere, and deal with this "Johann the Alchemist"
(JOHANNES ALCHEMISTA, so the Books still name him); who loyally
renounced the Electorship, at his Father's bidding, in favor of
Friedrich; accepted Baireut