ABSTRACT
Hard by the Usedom ferry. In the castle of the Dukes of Pomerania. Upon a black-draped bier, amid shimmer of candle-light, lies the body of Gustavus Adolphus. So far the poet in the long soliloquy he intended his hero, Frederick William, to speak beside the body of Gustavus Adolphus ere its conveyance back to Sweden. It is true that by contrast with the feeble personality and timid statesmanship of his father, George William, this Frederick William, first of several Hohenzollerns of the name, cut a strong, masterful figure. Though Frederick William I was only eighteen when his father recalled him from the Netherlands, it was doubtless there, and not least from the Prince of Orange, that he learned the reserve and cunning which were shortly to distinguish him. The Elector prospered a little better in a subsequent campaign in the North.
