[History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia<br> Vol. I. (of XXI.) by Thomas Carlyle]@TWC D-Link book
History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia
Vol. I. (of XXI.)

CHAPTER V
13/14

Friedrich had made two Bishops for the nonce.

Two of his natural Church-Superintendents made into Quasi-Bishops, on the Anglican model,--which was always a favorite with him, and a pious wish of his;--but they remained mere cut branches, these two, and did not, after their haranguing and anointing functions, take root in the country.

He himself put the crown on his head: "King here in my own right, after all!"-- and looked his royalest, we may fancy; the kind eyes of him almost partly fierce for moments, and "the cheerfulness of pride" well blending with something of awful.
In all which sublimities, the one thing that remains for human memory is not in these Folios at all, but is considered to be a fact not the less: Electress Charlotte's, now Queen Charlotte's, very strange conduct on the occasion.

For she cared not much about crowns, or upholstery magnificences of any kind; but had meditated from of old on the infinitely little; and under these genuflections, risings, sittings, shiftings, grimacings on all parts, and the endless droning eloquence of Bishops invoking Heaven, her ennui, not ill-humored or offensively ostensible, was heartfelt and transcendent.

At one turn of the proceedings, Bishop This and Chancellor That droning their empty grandiloquences at discretion, Sophie Charlotte was distinctly seen to smuggle out her snuff-box, being addicted to that rakish practice, and fairly solace herself with a delicate little pinch of snuff.


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