The Electress outlived both her husband and her rival. Soon after this letter, by the mediation of the Brandenburg court a contract of separation was concluded by the married couple, which assured to the Electress a yearly income of eight thousand thalers, with the right of spending it where she pleased. She resided afterwards at Cassel, and lived to see her rival give birth to fourteen children. Later she took the most benevolent interest in these children; and her own daughter, the celebrated Charlotte Elizabeth Duchess of Orleans, mother of the Regent of France, was bound by ties of the most intimate friendship with one of the young Raugravines. We may thank this female friendship for the beautiful letters of the Princess Charlotte Elizabeth, which are not only important for the history of that period, but also valuable, as showing how a prudent, intellectual and honourable German lady remained uncorrupted in the impure atmosphere of a Parisian court. The mother of the profligate Regent of France was all her life long a true German. She speaks with warm affection of her father, and with filial respect of her mother.
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE HOMES OF GERMAN CITIZENS.
(1675-1681-1683.)
While foreign guests, courtesy and ceremonial were doing their best to restrain the aftergrowth of a lawless time in the upper classes, the German citizen was aided by the innate character of his nation, its need of order and discipline, its industry and feeling of duty. The marriage tie and family life, his home and his employment were restored to him as of old. The wooing still proceeded after the old German fashion, the matrimonial agent still played his part, and the betrothal presents of the bride and bridegroom were still recorded with their accurate worth in money. Nay, the wooing had become still more formal, even the mode of expression was prescribed. The lover had to think over his address to the maiden carefully; where his own inventive powers were deficient, he was assisted by the indispensable compliment book, the treasured morsel of the library. The same style was adopted by the modest young lady; even where the marriage had been settled for her, it was considered desirable that she should not at once consent; nay, the strictest decorum required that she should at first refuse, or at least ask time for consideration. Then the lover made his addresses a little more ardent, in rather a higher strain, and then the interdict was withdrawn, and she was permitted to say, Yes. But they were not pedants, they felt that long speeches in these cases were pedantic, and that both parties who were contemplating matrimony, should express themselves in few words; the lover had to introduce his proposal somewhat thus: "Mademoiselle! Forgive me kindly, I pray you, for taking a liberty of which I myself am ashamed; yet my confidence in your kindness emboldens me so much, that I cannot refrain from acquainting you with the resolution I have taken, of changing my present condition," &c. Then the well-conducted young lady had to answer after this fashion: "Monsieur! I can hardly believe that what it has pleased you to propose to me is spoken in earnest, for I well know how little charm I possess to please so agreeable a person," &c. It had all been previously arranged by the matrimonial agent, they both knew what would be the result, but decorum required of the citizen, as courtesy did of the noble, that he should openly express his wishes by a proceeding which should make his resolution irrevocable. Of the agitation of the man, or the heart-beating of the maiden, we find nothing recorded; we hope that both were happy, when they had gone through the trying scene, he without faltering, she without an outburst of tears.
In the year 1644, Friedrich Lucä, son of a professor at the Gymnasium, was born in the capital of the Silesian principality of Brieg. He studied as a Calvinist, first in Heidelberg, then in the Netherlands and Frankfort on the Oder, returned after many travels and adventures to his native city, became the court preacher at Brieg, and, after the death of the last Piasten Duke at Liegnitz, and the occupation of the country by the Austrians, was appointed pastor and court preacher at Cassel. He died after an active life, rich in honours, in 1708. As a copious historical writer, he was appreciated, but also severely criticised by his contemporaries. He corresponded with Leibnitz, and some interesting letters to him from that great man are still preserved to us. He wrote also an autobiography, which has been piously preserved in his family for five generations, and was published by one of his descendants. ('The Chronicle of Friedrich Lucä. A picture of the time, and its manners,' published by Dr. Friedrich Lucä. Frankfort a. M. Brönner, 1854.) We will here give Friedrich Lucä's account of his wooing. This event, so replete with excitement, took place the year he was preacher at Liegnitz.
"Meanwhile, when my mind was least intent on thoughts of matrimony, and the other proposals made to me had been unheeded, a foreign lady, Elizabeth Mercer, whom I had never seen or heard of all my life long, made known to me her intention of receiving the holy sacrament from me privately, as she could not wait till it was again publicly given, it having been so only a short time before. The said lady had come hither with the noble General Schlepusch and his most dear wife, from Bremen, and resided at their noble country mansion Klein-Polewitz, a mile and a half from Liegnitz.
"On Sunday, the maiden presented herself at divine service, and after the performance of the same, came from the church to my house, and the holy communion being devoutly concluded, I took occasion to discourse with her concerning the condition of the Church at Bremen, as also to thank her for two capons which she had sent me for my kitchen, and then I dismissed her with the Lord's blessing. In this my first interview however with the maiden, I had not only perceived in her a refined and seemly demeanour towards me, and discovered a beautiful conformity of mind with mine, but I found in the effervescence of my feelings, and emotions of my heart, an evident token that the spirit of love had been somehow remarkably busy with me, for during my whole life I had never experienced such an ardent affection for any maiden.
"This my heartfelt but chaste love, I concealed firmly within my breast, and let no living soul know aught concerning it. The thought of this maiden accompanied me every evening to my rest, and rose up with me in the morning. Sometimes I spoke of her to my housekeeper, who was a well-bred and discreet woman, and she, without adverting to the motive of my discourse, extolled the maiden highly to me, and the like did also my sexton. I tormented myself now with secret love thoughts for a length of time, but at last spoke out my mind, thinking to myself: 'Why should thy soul afflict itself fruitlessly concerning a stranger maiden, who will again leave the country, and who will never fall to thy lot?'
"Half a year after, the good maiden Mercer had entirely passed from my remembrance, but the already forgotten maiden sent me an amiable greeting through the page of the Lord Baron Schlepusch, and signified to me that she was minded to communicate again. This message renewed the old wounds of my heart, and therefore I made inquiries of the page at some length concerning the maiden, with respect to one thing and another; but could learn little or nothing from him. I then sent an invitation to dinner on the Sunday through my sexton, to the Mistress Mercer, but this she did not accept, excusing herself by saying that she was accustomed to fast the whole of the day on which she communicated. Thus on Sunday, the maiden, all unconscious of my loving thoughts, came after church to my house. I gave her then, as before, the communion, and discoursed with her to the same effect on all kinds of subjects, to give her thereby some diversion. I would gladly in such discourse have learnt some particulars as to whether she were noble, and would like to remain in Silesia, but I could not ask such things this time. After a while the maiden rose to leave my house; and as she imagined I had a spouse, commended herself to her. I explained to her forthwith that I was a bachelor, having no wife. During this discourse, my sexton as well as my housekeeper were present, and to them, as to myself, the demeanour of the maiden had always given the greatest contentment, yet they did not fathom my intent.
"Now did my trouble begin again. After maturely reflecting upon the matter, I could think of no means whereby I might learn the lineage and circumstances of the maiden, whom I always looked upon as a noble person, for I did not deem it expedient to open myself to any one. Meanwhile, I met one day, Herr Tobias Pirner, the pastor at Nickelstadt, a pious, honourable, and upright man, although of the Lutheran confession. Now as I knew that the wife of General Schlepusch, whose husband had lately died and been buried with great pomp in the church at Liegnitz, went every Sunday, together with the maiden, to attend divine service in the Lutheran church at Nickelstadt, I begged of this Herr Pirner, in a way that made it in no wise remarkable on my part, to inquire concerning the lineage and other circumstances of the Mistress Mercer. He undertook this, and promised me the following week a report thereupon. Herr Pirner faithfully fulfilled his engagement, and at the end of the week reported to me in optima forma, what he had learnt from the Frau Generalin. Mistress Mercer was the daughter of Mr. Balthaser Mercer, formerly parliamentary assessor at Edinburgh, in Scotland, who had many times been sent to England by King Charles I. on weighty commissions, and once on a mission to Hamburg, where he was decorated with a golden medal of honour. Her mother, also called Elizabeth, was of noble lineage, born a Kennewy of Scotland. When in 1644 perilous troubles broke forth in England, her honoured father and also her brother, the court preacher Robert Mercer, as they had been favourites of the decapitated King, fled the kingdom with the whole family, from fear of Cromwell and his party; he went with all belonging to him to Bremen, where he lived on his own means, which were pretty considerable, till his happy end in 1650, leaving his widow, a pious, godly matron, with three sons and three daughters. The sons had gone forth into the world, one to India, another to the Canary Islands; of the daughters the eldest was married in London to a nephew of Cromwell, of the noble family of Cleipold, and the youngest to a merchant named Uckermann at Wanfried in Hess, the second was my love. In the year 1660 her lady mother also died in Bremen, and was laid beside her honoured father in the church of St. Stephen, after which Mistress Elizabeth had lived for a while with the widow of Herr Doctor Schnellen. Meanwhile she became acquainted with the Frau Schlepusch, who lived at her property Schönbeck, near Bremen, and when soon after, the General Schlepusch and his wife departed for Silesia, they took her with them as a playfellow for their young daughter, to Klein-Polewitz, where she was always held in good esteem.