The next day Frederick was brought before his father, who was in a raging passion.
"Why did you try to run away?" he furiously asked.
"Because," said Frederick, firmly, "you have not treated me like your son, but like a base slave."
"You are an infamous deserter, and have no honor."
"I have as much as you," retorted the prince. "I have done no more than I have heard you say a hundred times that you would do if you were in my place."
This answer so incensed the old tyrant that he drew his sword in fury from its scabbard, and would have run the boy through had not General Mosel hastily stepped between, and seized the king's arm.
"If you must have blood, stab me," he said; "my old carcass is not good for much; but spare your son."
These words checked the king's brutal fury. He ordered them to take the boy away, and listened with more composure to the general, who entreated him not to condemn the prince without a hearing, and not to commit the unpardonable crime of becoming his son's executioner.
Events followed rapidly upon this discovery. Frederick contrived to despatch a line in pencil to Keith. "Save yourself," he wrote; "all is discovered." Keith at once fled, reached the Hague, where he was concealed in the house of Lord Chesterfield, the English ambassador, and when searched for there, succeeded in escaping to England in a fishing-boat. He was hung in effigy in Prussia, but became a major of cavalry in the service of Portugal.
Katte was less fortunate. He was warned in time to escape, and the marshal who was sent to arrest him purposely delayed, but he lost precious time in preparation, and was seized while mounting his horse.