23fe SOLDIERS AND SAILORS 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 Kiistrin, where he was obliged to perform the duties of a com- missary 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 condi- tion of marrying the Princess Elizabeth of Brunswick-Bevern, he was, at the end of eighteen months, released from confinement, and allowed to reside in the small town of Rheinsberg, where he resumed his flute and his Frerich poets, to which the study of French philosophers and French translations from the classics was added. It was during his stay at Rheinsberg that his correspondence with foreign men of letters commenced ; and it was here also that, with a party of friends, he formed an order of chivalry termed the " Order of Bayard," the motto of the knights being, "Without fear, and without reproach." But these were vain attempts at knighthood, for there was nothing chivalrous in the character of Frederick. Two short journeys performed with his father, and a visit to the army which Prince Eugene commanded on the Rhine in 1 734, formed the only interruption to the tranquil and philosophical life of Rheinsberg. The first appearance in the field of the army bequeathed by Frederick William to his son, forms an era in modern history ; for a belief in its efficiency was the mainspring that urged on the young king to attack the Austrians ; and its excel- lence became the lever with which he ultimately raised his poor and secondary kingdom to the rank of a first-rate European power. The history of the rise and formation of this army, though a very curious one, would necessarily exceed our limits ; but no one will be able to write the life of Frederick, and do full justice to the subject, without giving the reader a proper idea of the nature and origin of the engine which helped so mainly to render him great and famous. He had, no doubt, other claims to greatness besides those which his military actions con-
