of Stettin, when the coffin was lowered into its place, the
Stettin Burgermeister, Albrecht Glinde, took sword and helmet, and
threw the same into the grave, in token that the Line was extinct.
But Franz von Eichsted," apparently another Burgher instructed for
the nonce, "jumped into the grave, and picked them out again;
alleging, No, the Dukes of WOLGAST-Pommern were of kin; these
tokens we must send to his Grace at Wolgast, with offer of our
homage, said Franz von Eichsted." [Rentsch, p. 110 (whose printer
has put his date awry); Stenzel (i. 233) calls the man "LORENZ
Eikstetten, a resolute Gentleman."]--And sent they were, and
accepted by his Grace. And perhaps half-a-score of bargains, with
bloody crowns to some of them; and yet other chances, and
centuries, with the extinction of new Lines,--had to supervene,
before even Stettin-Pommern, and that in no complete state, could
be got. [1648, by Treaty of Westphalia.] As to Pommern at large,
Pommern not denied to be due, after such extinction and
re-extinction of native Ducal Lines, did not fall home for
centuries more; and what struggles and inextricable armed-
litigations there were for it, readers of Brandenburg-History too
wearisomely know. The process of assimilation not the least of an
easy one!--

This Friedrich was second son: his Father's outlook for him had,
at first, been towards a Polish Princess and the crown of Poland,
which was not then so elective as afterwards: and with such view
his early breeding had been chiefly in Poland; Johann, the eldest
son and heir-apparent, helping his Father at home in the mean
while. But these Polish outlooks went to nothing, the young
Princess having died; so that Friedrich came home; possessed
merely of the Polish language, and of what talents the gods had