And the Court-Martial has straightway to apprise Katte of this same: and so doing, "shall say, That his Majesty is sorry for Katte: but that it is better he die than that justice depart out of the world." [Preuss, i.
44.] This is the iron doom of Katte; which no prayer or influence of mortal will avail to alter,--lest justice depart out of the world.

Katte's Father is a General of rank, Commandant of Konigsberg at this moment; Katte's Grandfather by the Mother's side, old Fieldmarshal Wartensleben, is a man in good favor with Friedrich Wilhelm, and of high esteem and mark in his country for half a century past.

But all this can effect nothing.

Old Wartensleben thinks of the Daughter he lost; for happily Katte's Mother is dead long since.

Old Wartensleben writes to Friedrich Wilhelm; his mournful Letter, and Friedrich Wilhelm's mournful but inexorable answer, can be read in the Histories; but show only what we already know.
Katte's Mother, Fieldmarshal Wartensleben's Daughter, died in 1706; leaving Katte only two years old.