He was met by George Wilhelm and his Council, "in the woods of Copenick," short way to the east of that City: there George Wilhelm and his Council wandered about, sending messages, hopelessly consulting; saying among each other, _"Que faire; ils ont des canons,_ what can one do; they have got cannon ?" [_OEvres de Frederic le Grand_ (Berlin, 1846-1856 et seqq.: _Memoires de Brandebourg_), i.38.For the rest, Friedrich's Account of the Transaction is very loose and scanty: see Pauli (iv.

568) and his minute details.] For many hours so; round the inflexible Gustav,--who was there like a fixed milestone, and to all questions and comers had only one answer!--_"Que faire; ils ont des canons ?"_ This was the 3d May, 1631.

This probably is about the nadir-point of the Brandenburg-Hohenzollern History.

The little Friedrich, who became Frederick the Great, in writing of it, has a certain grim banter in his tone; and looks rather with mockery on the perplexities of his poor Ancestor, so fatally ignorant of the time of day it had now become.
On the whole, George Wilhelm did what is to be called nothing, in the Thirty-Years War; his function was only that of suffering.

He followed always the bad lead of Johann George, Elector of Saxony; a man of no strength, devoutness or adequate human worth; who proved, on these negative grounds, and without flagrancy of positive badness, an unspeakable curse to Germany.