he establish'd an Academy, into which he gave Orders for our Entrance. The View of this Establishment was to educate the young Nobility of the Court, in a manner suitable to their Extraction. The King had the Nomination of those that were to be admitted into this Academy, and Care had been taken to furnish it with the best Masters in all the Arts and Sciences. The Expence of the Students there were very moderate, the King having taken upon him to pay the Extraordinaries. This illustrious School, which was then call'd, The Academy of Princes, has lost very much of its former Splendor.
I found the Court of Berlin in the same State as when I left it. The Count de Wartemberg was still in the highest Favor; and the Count de Barfous, the only Man who had presum'd for some time to make head against the Minister, had at length been oblig'd to retire to his Estate; but what made his Banishment from Court the more tolerable to him, was a Pension which the King allow'd him of 20,000 Crowns. His Post of Velt-Marshal was given to M. de Wartensleben, Lieutenant-General of the Emperor's Troops, and General of those of the Duke of Saxe Gotha. This was also a Creature of the Prime Minister; yet he had Honor and Honesty enough to oppose him on Occasions, where he thought the Welfare of the State was concern'd. The Count de Lottum, who had been involv'd in the Disgrace of my Father-in-law, and whose Office of Grand Marshal had been conferr'd on the Count de Witgenstein, retain'd a certain Air of Favor in his Disgrace, as did also the Count de Barfous. The King had given him the Government of Wesel, to which he retir'd; and as he could not avoid doing justice to his Merit and Fidelity, he gave
him the Command of the Troops design'd for the Netherlands. He was charg'd with the Blockade of Rhinberg, a Place in the Electorate of Cologn, which the French then possess'd, under color of being that Elector's auxiliary Forces. The Town surrendring in a little time, he undertook the Blockade of Guelders, which made a part of the Spanish Netherlands, and was yielded to us by the Peace of Utrecht. The taking of these two important Places in the midst of Winter, and the Behaviour of the Count de Lottum, who notwithstanding the Severity of the Season, and the Treatment he had received from Court, took all the Care possible for the Preservation of the King's Troops, made him so much extoll'd at Court, as was mortifying to the Prime Minister.
France endeavor'd to repair the Loss of these two Places by seizing the Principality of Orange, which we were not near enough to defend, and he put the Prince of Conti in immediate Possession of it, who had some claim to it through the Chalons Family, of which he call'd himself Heir. But he soon after yielded the said Principality and his Pretensions, to Lewis XIV. who likewise caus'd an Edict to be publish'd there, by which it was put to the choice of all the Inhabitants to turn Catholics, or to sell their Effects and retire out of the Kingdom within the space of three Months. The Generality of those who were not willing to change their Religion, retir'd to our Court, and among others, the Members of the Parliament. The King reliev'd them as far as he could, and caus'd Collections to be made in all the Churches of his Dominions, the Money of which was distributed to those who had the most pressing Occasion for it.
Soon after the Loss of Orange, the Margrave Albert married the Princess of Courland. That Prince in 1696, had succeeded the late Margrave Charles, his Father, in the Grand Mastership[7] of the Order of St. John. This Order is the same as that of Maltha, and is only separated from it since Luther. The Commanderies, subject to the Elector of Brandenburg, which became Protestant, put themselves under the Elector's Protection, and chose a Grand Master, or rather the Elector chose one for them. The Choice has always fallen upon a younger Prince of the Family, who is not engag'd by it to any Vow, more than the Knights, who are only obliged to prove their Nobility, to which the Sovereign very often objects.
The Princess of Courland was the eldest of the three Daughters that the Duke of Courland had by his first Lady. He married to his second Wife the King's Sister, and some time after he died. The Duchess his Widow, who had been oblig'd to abandon Courland, which the Swedes, the Poles and the Muscovites equally harass'd, came to Konigsberg, to be present at the Coronation of the King her Brother, who gave her that Protection she expected. Here it was, that the Year before she had married the Margrave of Brandenburg Bareith, the King's Cousin; and when she went with her Husband into his Dominions, she left the eldest of her Daughters-in-law with the Queen, in hopes of her marrying the Margrave Albert: And the Queen, who was fond of this Princess, ordered it so, that she obtain'd the King's Consent to the Marriage, which was celebrated some time after at Lutzelbourg.
Much about this time we had a new Ceremony in our Climates. This[8] was the Erection of a Statue which the King caus'd to be set up in honor of his Father Frederic-William the Great. 'Tis perfectly like that of Lewis XIV. in the Square of Vendôme at Paris. The Pedestal and Base are of white Marble. This Statue was set up July 12, 1703; and the King in order to do the more Honor to the Elector his Father, caus'd the Ceremony to be perform'd with a magnificent Apparatus, in presence of the whole Court, and all the Benches of Justice.
The following Year 1704 was happy to the Allies, by their Victories at Donawert and Hochstet. The Troops that the King had sent into Franconia and Bavaria, to the Emperor and the City of Nuremberg[9], which call'd for Help against the Bavarians, contributed not a little to the obtaining of those Victories. The King received the News of it by an Express that was dispatch'd to him from the Prince of Anhalt, under whose Command those Succours acted. This Express was follow'd some Days after by a second, charg'd with a Letter from Prince Eugene of Savoy, who therein gave a sublime Encomium on the Valor of the Prussian Troops. I have been an Eye-witness, said he in his Letter, particularly with regard to the Infantry of the Right Wing, that all the Officers as well as the common Soldiers fought with the most intrepid Courage, and for several Hours check'd the Efforts of the Enemy, who at length not being able to resist their Bravery, and the continual Fire which they made, were put into such a Confusion, that