By his various processes of force, fraud, and stratagem he collected
three battalions of tall show soldiers, comprising at one time several
thousand men. Not content with the unaided work of nature in providing
giants, he attempted to raise a gigantic race in his own dominions,
marrying his grenadiers to the tallest women he could find. There is
nothing to show that the result of his efforts was successful.
The king's giants found life by no means a burden. They enjoyed the
highest consideration in Berlin, were loaded with favors, and presented
with houses, lands, and other evidences of royal grace, while their only
duties were show drills and ostentatious parades. They were too costly
and precious to expose to the dangers of actual war. When Frederick
William's son came to the throne the military career of the giants
suddenly ended. They were disbanded, pensioned off, or sent to invalid
institutions, with secret instructions to the officers that if any of
them tried to run away no hinderance should be placed in their path to
freedom.
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