The Good Queen Charlotte Author:Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: but we observed he was in much anxiety about the coat. In the evening he got a glass or two in his head, and grew extremely merry : said at last, he was sorry, b... more »ut for divers state reasons and businesses he must of necessity return home, which, however, he put off till about two in the morning. I think next day he would not remember very much of it." This sketch furnishes a good idea of the rude and coarse atmosphere of these courts, with their rustic figures on a background of extravagance. It is a good introduction to the young bride. The almost pastoral happiness of the little court at Strelitz had been rudely disturbed by the wars between the great Frederick and the Empress Maria Theresa, which was to prove disastrous for the small German territories, which he overran with his armies and pillaged and laid waste. His excuse was that they would not join him in the contest. The little Duchy of Mecklenburg- Strelitz suffered cruelly : contributions were levied, the young men were forced into the king's army, furniture and property plundered ; even the churches were despoiled. After the great defeat of Daun at Torgau in 1760 the whole of Germany seemed to be at the conqueror's mercy : so desperate was the outlook, that an extraordinary step was taken by the second of the young princesses then at Strelitz, and which was to determine her future destiny. As the victory seemed to portend a new series of horrors and despoilings, she addressed an earnest letter to Frederick, describing thesufferings of her country and appealing to his mercy and forbearance. This was an exceptional step in one so young—she was then only sixteen—and was as timely as it was efficacious. One might at first be inclined to doubt the truth of the story, for there is a melodramatic tone about it, and nothi...« less