Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia" BOOK VIII.
Page: 5

pardon, were Major-Generals by rank,--Schwerin, as some write, one
of them, or if not Schwerin, then Linger; and for certain,
Donhof,--two worthy gentlemen not known to any of my readers, nor
to me, except as names, The rest are all coldly of opinion that
the military code says Death. Other codes and considerations may
say this and that, which it is not in their province to touch
upon; this is what the military code says: and they leave
it there.

The Junius Brutus of a Royal Majesty had answered in his own heart
grimly, Well then! But his Councillors, Old Dessauer, Grumkow,
Seckendorf, one and all interpose vehemently. "Prince of the
Empire, your Majesty, not a Lieutenant-Colonel only! Must not,
cannot;"--nay good old Buddenbrock, in the fire of still
unsuccessful pleading, tore open his waistcoat: "If your Majesty
requires blood, take mine; that other you shall never get, so long
as I can speak!" Foreign Courts interpose; Sweden, the Dutch;
the English in a circuitous way, round by Vienna to wit;
finally the Kaiser himself sends an Autograph; [Date, 11th
October, 1730 (Forster, i. 380).] for poor Queen Sophie has
applied even to Seckendorf, will be friends with Grumkow himself,
and in her despair is knocking at every door. Junius Brutus is
said to have had paternal affections withal. Friedrich Wilhelm,
alone against the whispers of his own heart and the voices of all
men, yields at last in this cause. To Seckendorf, who has chalked
out a milder didactic plan of treatment, still rigorous enough,
[His Letter to the King, 1st November, 1730 (in Forster, i. 375,
376).] he at last admits that such plan is perhaps good; that the
Kaiser's Letter has turned the scale with him; and the didactic
method, not the beheading one, shall be tried. That Donhof and
Schwerin, with their talk of mercy, with "their eyes upon the
Rising Sun," as is evident, have done themselves no good, and
shall perhaps find it so one day. But that, at any rate,
Friedrich's life is spared; Katte's execution shall suffice in
that kind. Repentance, prostrate submission and amendment,--
these may do yet more for the prodigal, if he will in heart