By his various processes of force, fraud, and stratagem he collected three battalions of tall show soldiers, comprising at one time several thousand men.  Not content with the unaided work of nature in providing giants, he attempted to raise a gigantic race in his own dominions, marrying his grenadiers to the tallest women he could find.  There is nothing to show that the result of his efforts was successful.

The king’s giants found life by no means a burden.  They enjoyed the highest consideration in Berlin, were loaded with favors, and presented with houses, lands, and other evidences of royal grace, while their only duties were show drills and ostentatious parades.  They were too costly and precious to expose to the dangers of actual war.  When Frederick William’s son came to the throne the military career of the giants suddenly ended.  They were disbanded, pensioned off, or sent to invalid institutions, with secret instructions to the officers that if any of them tried to run away no hinderance should be placed in their path to freedom.

It is, however, with Frederick William’s treatment of his son that we are principally concerned.  As the boy grew older his predilection for the culture and literature of France increased, and under the influence of his favorite associates, two young men named Katte and Keith, a degree of licentiousness was developed in his habits.  To please his father he accepted a position in the army, but took every opportunity to throw aside the hated uniform, dress in luxurious garments, solace himself with the flute, bury himself among his books, and enjoy the society of the women he admired and the friends he loved.  He was frequently forced to attend the king’s smoking-parties, where he seems to have avoided smoking and drinking as much as possible, escaping from the scene before it degenerated into an orgy of excess, in which it was apt to terminate.

These tastes and tendencies were not calculated to increase the love of the brutal old monarch for his son, and the life of the boy became harder to bear as he grew older.  His sister Wilhelmina was equally detested by the harsh old king, who treated them both with shameful brutality, knocking them down and using his cane upon them on the slightest provocation, confining them and sending them food unfit to eat, omitting to serve them at table, and using disgusting means to render their food unpalatable.

“The king almost starved my brother and me,” says the princess.  “He performed the office of carver, and helped everybody excepting us two, and when there happened to be something left in a dish, he would spit upon it to prevent us from eating it.  On the other hand, I was treated with abundance of abuse and invectives, being called all day long by all sorts of names, no matter who was present.  The king’s anger was sometimes so violent that he drove my brother and me away, and forbade us to appear in his presence except at meal-times.”