Blood and Iron Part 10

-- The pressure on the king was found in this: that under duress he had promised a written const.i.tution.

-- And behold Frederick in these troublous times! For eleven long years, off and on, he tries to find a common ground of religious formulas for the united Lutheran and Reformed churches. He even attacks Rome on the question of mixed marriages. Of course, he failed utterly, this n.o.ble-minded Hohenzollern who believed too implicitly in the inherent goodness of mankind.

-- Repair then to your church windows and read your blackletter Bible, you dreaming Frederick; such is your story, in a few words.

Gabble about your Gothic restorations as you will, and your correct revisions of the liturgy, Frederick, it remains for your Louise to do a man's work against French foes, and thus hasten the slow-coming of United Germany.

-- In the meantime, Prussia is falling to pieces for lack of the mailed fist. Everything is going to rack and ruin; beloved Prussia repeatedly humiliated by French invaders; and had it not been for n.o.ble Queen Louise there might well be no Prussian glory at this hour to record.

-- Her lovely countenance, wreathed in smiles, is immortalized for us through the art of Joseph Gra.s.si; and is to be seen in the Hohenzollern Museum.

The artist depicts her with youthful charm, her fair brow adorned by her slender crown, whose weight, alas, although slight, gave her no rest till death.

Her eyes are gentle, and about her face and form is the indefinable touch of ever-present girlishness, never to fade, even in the woman-grown.

-- It were nearer the truth to say Louise personifies Prussia's ambition to power.

-- This beautiful woman bore indeed a heavy burden; well she knew the dread and fear of kings and kingly office.

-- On the one side was the tyrant Napoleon, on the other Fr: Wilhelm, her kingly husband, without an idea outside of cathedral architecture and bishoprics in Jerusalem; yet Louise willed that Prussia should seize the reins of power, shake off the French yoke, and mount the heights of glory.

-- As a foil to the ferocious Bismarck--himself a majestic king-maker--here we reveal to you a true creator of National honor, in the form of a frail, fair woman; showing thus how far the pendulum of Time and Chance often rocks in bringing about political changes.

Though poles apart, the brutal Bismarck stands side by side with the lovely Louise; the blood and iron of the man were of no avail without the finesse of the woman.

Thus this singular cross-fertilization, compounded of smiles and frowns--the kiss and the lash--the white jeweled hand and the mailed fist in the end makes it possible for humiliated Prussia to rise again--the late harvest of the years bringing the reality of our United Germany.

-- Bismarck's amazing story we spread before you in detail, but beside that frowning rock we stoop for a moment to pluck the modest violets clinging all un.o.bserved in a gloomy place where the sun seldom comes; these flowers are Louise and their subtle perfume symbolizes the penetrating yet delicate incense of her pathetic life.

-- Without Louise, our story were soon ended. Otherwise Bismarck himself could not have come into the ill.u.s.trious pages of history.

n.o.ble Prussian queen, heroine of Prussian glory, mother-consoler in the twilight, your gentle spirit hovers like some evening-star, luminous with hope.

17

Napoleon's hated Continental system of domination causes Prussian downfall--The Queen decides to fight back.

-- The treaty of Luneville, February, 1801, now seemed to lend color to Napoleon's greatest delusion of grandeur; he would restore the ancient domain of Charlemagne, comprising France, Germany and Italy! Signing with Prussia and Bavaria, Napoleon confiscated broad Papal domains along the Rhine, lands that had been in possession of the church since Roman times. With this bribe for secular princes, as the price of the readjustment, exactly 112 Teutonic domains, petty in size but all-powerful with the prestige of centuries, vanished from the map.

The holy Electors of Treves and Cologne, those empire-makers of ancient days, were stripped of their worldly possessions, and expelled from the Papal lands.

-- There were even rumors of a French-supported Emperor of Prussia--think of that!

Francis of Austria, for reasons of policy, gave up the high-swelling t.i.tle, "Holy Roman Emperor," and more modestly contented himself with "Emperor of Austria."

-- And now, when Napoleon's delusion--Charlemagne--seemed on the very point of realization, there came the third Coalition against him; Prussia joined against France; but Napoleon soon gained the most noted of his victories, Austerlitz; 15,000 prisoners, 12,000 dead on the field, represented Austria's loss alone, but this was not all.

The victorious French pressed on to Vienna. By the treaty of Pressburg, Austria was excluded from Germany; Wuertemberg, Bavaria and the Rhinelands went over to the French, Napoleon setting himself up as Protector of the Rhine country, with his representative President Karl von Dalberg, former archbishop of Mainz.

-- Louise was high-spirited, impulsive, courageous, imaginative--the very foil of her slow-going Frederick, with his church restorations forevermore. The Queen, always for an aggressive policy, by her sympathy encouraged the Prussian war party; patriots, restive under the indecision of Frederick, were eager to shake off French domination. The appeal was to Militarism, but what would you? The Hun was not only "at the gate," but was inside the walls; and if a man will not fight for his fireside, then he must remain a slave. It was a virtuous cause.

-- The cabal at the Prussian court, secretly in opposition to the easy-going King, was aided by Louise. There were the King's brothers, the ambitious Hardenburg, the King's cousin, Ferdinand, the gifted Rahel Levin--and many others.

These plots within the palace gave to Louise's life strange political aspects.

-- The Queen desired to strike.

-- By 1805 Austria, Russia and Great Britain were united, but Russia still wavered.

-- Louise's secret influence became a watchword for Prussian patriots, who despised French rule.

-- After Austerlitz, Napoleon read Prussia his ultimatum: Shall it be war or peace? Peace and Hanover, or war with me?

-- A treaty was drawn giving to Napoleon control over Prussia; and this doc.u.ment Fr: William weakly signed. After that Napoleon simply ignored Prussia; made it so hot for Prussian ministers that they resigned when Paris frowned, or danced when Paris smiled. Napoleon set up his new Rhein Confederation without consulting Prussia; and Prussian patriots felt themselves mortified beyond endurance.

-- Young men in Berlin, by way of protest, made a demonstration. Going to the doorsteps of the French minister, they there sharpened their swords! Napoleon was furious; he sought out the bookseller circulating an anti-French pamphlet, "The Deepest Humiliation of Prussia," lured him across the frontier, and had him a.s.sa.s.sinated.

-- The Prussian patriotic party, begun as a court cabal secretly headed by Louise, decided on war.

-- The troops were drilled night and day in preparation for the great war of liberation. Never before had a downtrodden nation worked harder to win liberty through liberation from the French yoke. However, the immediate results were to be disastrous.

-- The Queen's dragoons went to the front; the Queen rode near by in her carriage; she wore a smart military coat, colors of her crack regiment; and General Kalkreuth, in a burst of enthusiasm, vowed that the Queen could herself win the war should she remain with the troops.

-- Yes, Louise was actually going out to fight Napoleon's veterans, Napoleon's famous marshals, Berthier, Murat and the others; and even the great Napoleon himself.

The decisive struggle took place at Jena, October 16, 1806; Prussian forces were annihilated.

-- Napoleon came on to Berlin and housed himself in the Prussian palace. From here he now issued bulletins denouncing Louise as the cause of the war; he attacked her character, accusing her of a liaison with the handsome Alexander of Russia, and of still other intrigues with high army officers; he presented her as a compound of shameless camp-follower and dangerous woman, plotting against her own husband, thus bringing ruin to her native land.

Napoleon even had Louise's apartments broken into and the Queen's papers seized, to see if incriminating evidence could not be uncovered. Ah, he knew all the tricks of love as well as of war!

-- But Napoleon went too far. His cruel persecution caused Prussians to sympathize with their Queen, instead of reviling her.

18

Years before the great question is settled Prussia indeed becomes Germany--in moody thoughtfulness--in stubborn determination--in unflinching courage.

-- Louise now reveals herself a glorious National heroine. In spite of her animosity toward Napoleon for his atrocious slanders, the Queen decided to arrange an interview with the conqueror and beg favorable terms for her beloved Prussia.