[22]A ducat was the equivalent at that time of seven thalers.
[23]“In Charlottenburg, certain Saxon-Bruhl dragoons, who by their conduct, might have been the dragoons of Attila, smashed the furniture and the doors, cut the pictures, much maltreated the poor people, and what was reckoned still more tragical, overset the poor Polignac Collection of Antiques and Classicalities; not only knocking off noses and arms, but beating them small, lest reparation by cement should be possible, their officers, Pirna people, looking quietly on. A scandalous proceeding, thought everybody, friend or foe,—especially thought Frederick; whose indignation at the ruin of Charlottenburg came out in way of reprisal by and by.”—Carlyle’s “Life of Frederick the Great.”
[24]Elizabeth Petrovna, born December 29, 1709, Empress of Russia from 1741 to 1762, was the daughter of Peter the Great and Catharine I. She was the founder of the Moscow University and St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts.
[25]Peter III was born in Holstein in 1728. He was the son of Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein, and Anna, daughter of Peter the Great. He was assassinated, and his wife, who was an accomplice, succeeded him.
[26]This castle is near Wermadorf, Saxony, twenty-five miles east of Leipsic.
[27]An ecclesiastical officer.
[28]The translator has taken the liberty to omit a few paragraphs in this connection, setting forth some of Frederick’s financial and economical methods for the restoration of prosperity. They have only a local interest, and would hardly be entertaining for young people.
LIFE STORIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Translated from the German by
GEORGE P. UPTON
8 Vols. Ready