"The king almost starved my brother and me," says the princess. "He
performed the office of carver, and helped everybody excepting us two,
and when there happened to be something left in a dish, he would spit
upon it to prevent us from eating it. On the other hand, I was treated
with abundance of abuse and invectives, being called all day long by all
sorts of names, no matter who was present. The king's anger was
sometimes so violent that he drove my brother and me away, and forbade
us to appear in his presence except at meal-times."
This represented the state of affairs when they were almost grown up,
and is a remarkable picture of court habits and manners in Germany in
the early part of the eighteenth century. The scene we have already
described, in which the king attempted to strangle his son with the
curtain cord, occurred when Frederick was in his nineteenth year, and
was one of the acts which gave rise to his resolution to run away, the
source of so many sorrows.
Poor Frederick's lot had become too hard to bear. He was bent on flight.
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