Frederick the Great his court and times Author:Thomas Campbell 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: CHAPTER IV. Frederick's Attempt At Escape. On the 15th of July the king set out with the prince for Anspach. Frederick had another meeting in Potsdam with Ka... more »tte, who could not obtain the leave of absence which he solicited, and who advised him not to be precipitate, and to make no attempt till he reached Wesel, whence he might most expeditiously proceed to England by way of Holland. The prince agreed to follow this advice, but next day he wrote to Katte, intimating that he should not accompany the king to Wesel, and would wait for him at Cannstadt. Frederick, it appears, intended to give his father the slip at Anspach ; but his indiscretion in betraying his dissatisfaction with the king to the margrave excited in the latter some suspicion of his design, and he refused him horses, which he asked for upon pretext of taking a ride. The king had thrown off all restraint in regard to him, and ill used him publicly in the presence of several strangers, before whom he had even repeated what he had often said before : " If my father had treated me so, I would soon have run away; but you have no heart; you are a coward." Unable to execute his design at Anspach, the prince was obliged to wait for another opportunity. A few miles from that town he was overtaken by a courier, bringing a letter from Katte in answer to his, stating that he had not yet obtained leave of absence, and therefore again entreated the prince to defer his flight till he should reach WeseL The prince replied that he was determined to escape from Sinzheim ; that he would find him at the Hague underthe name of count cTAlberville; and that he might follow as soon as he heard of his flight. If his plan miscarried, he would seek refuge in a convent, where they would not think of seeking the arch-heretic under the cowl...« less