[Ib.

27th February, 1731.] A much-agitated royal Father.
The question what is to be done with this unhappy Crown-Prince, a Deserter from the army, a rebel against the paternal Majesty, and a believer in the doctrine of Election by Free Grace, or that a man's good or ill conduct is foredoomed upon him by decree of God,--becomes more intricate the longer one thinks of it.

Seckendorf and Grumkow, alarmed at being too victorious, are set against violent high methods; and suggest this and that consideration: "Who is it that can legally try, condemn, or summon to his bar, a Crown-Prince?
He is Prince of the Empire, as well as your Majesty's Son!"-- "Well, he is Heir of the Sovereign Majesty in Prussia, too; and Colonel in the Potsdam Guards!" answers Friedrich Wilhelm.
At length, after six or seven weeks of abstruse meditation, it is settled in Tobacco-Parliament and the royal breast, That Katte and the Crown-Prince, as Deserters from the Prussian Army, can and shall be tried by Court-Martial; to that no power, on the earth or out of it, can have any objection worth attending to.

Let a fair Court-Martial of our highest military characters be selected and got ready.

Let that, as a voice of Rhadamanthus, speak upon the two culprits; and tell us what is to be done.