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diff --git a/2112.txt b/2112.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9f6879 --- /dev/null +++ b/2112.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7539 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. +XII. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XII. (of XXI.) + Frederick The Great--First Silesian War, Awakening a General + European One, Begins--December, 1740-May, 1741 + +Author: Thomas Carlyle + +Posting Date: June 13, 2008 [EBook #2112] +Release Date: March 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. *** + + + + +Produced by D.R. Thompson + + + + + +HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II OF PRUSSIA + +FREDERICK THE GREAT + +By Thomas Carlyle + +Volume XII. + + + + + +BOOK XII. -- FIRST SILESIAN WAR, AWAKENING A GENERAL EUROPEAN ONE, +BEGINS. -- December, 1740-May, 1741. + + + + +Chapter I. -- OF SCHLESIEN, OR SILESIA. + +Schlesien, what we call Silesia, lies in elliptic shape, spread on the +top of Europe, partly girt with mountains, like the crown or crest +to that part of the Earth;--highest table-land of Germany or of the +Cisalpine Countries; and sending rivers into all the seas. The summit +or highest level of it is in the southwest; longest diameter is from +northwest to southeast. From Crossen, whither Friedrich is now driving, +to the Jablunka Pass, which issues upon Hungary, is above 250 miles; +the AXIS, therefore, or longest diameter, of our Ellipse we may call 230 +English miles;--its shortest or conjugate diameter, from Friedland in +Bohemia (Wallenstein's old Friedland), by Breslau across the Oder to the +Polish Frontier, is about 100. The total area of Schlesien is counted to +be some 20,000 square miles, nearly the third of England Proper. + +Schlesien--will the reader learn to call it by that name, on occasion? +for in these sad Manuscripts of ours the names alternate--is a fine, +fertile, useful and beautiful Country. It leans sloping, as we hinted, +to the East and to the North; a long curved buttress of Mountains +("RIESENGEBIRGE, Giant Mountains," is their best-known name in +foreign countries) holding it up on the South and West sides. +This Giant-Mountain Range,--which is a kind of continuation of the +Saxon-Bohemian "Metal Mountains (ERZGEBIRGE)" and of the straggling +Lausitz Mountains, to westward of these,--shapes itself like a bill-hook +(or elliptically, as was said): handle and hook together may be some +200 miles in length. The precipitous side of this is, in general, turned +outwards, towards Bohmen, Mahren, Ungarn (Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, +in our dialects); and Schlesien lies inside, irregularly sloping down, +towards the Baltic and towards the utmost East, From the Bohemian side +of these Mountains there rise two Rivers: Elbe, tending for the West; +Morawa for the South;--Morawa, crossing Moravia, gets into the Donau, +and thence into the Black-Sea; while Elbe, after intricate adventures +among the mountains, and then prosperously across the plains, is out, +with its many ships, into the Atlantic. Two rivers, we say, from the +Bohemian or steep side: and again, from the Silesian side, there rise +other two, the Oder and the Weichsel (VISTULA); which start pretty near +one another in the Southeast, and, after wide windings, get both into +the Baltic, at a good distance apart. + +For the first thirty, or in parts, fifty miles from the Mountains, +Silesia slopes somewhat rapidly; and is still to be called a +Hill-country, rugged extensive elevations diversifying it: but after +that, the slope is gentle, and at length insensible, or noticeable +only by the way the waters run. From the central part of it, Schlesien +pictures itself to you as a plain; growing ever flatter, ever sandier, +as it abuts on the monotonous endless sand-flats of Poland, and the +Brandenburg territories; nothing but Boundary Stones with their brass +inscriptions marking where the transition is; and only some Fortified +Town, not far off, keeping the door of the Country secure in that +quarter. + +On the other hand, the Mountain part of Schlesien is very picturesque; +not of Alpine height anywhere (the Schnee-Koppe itself is under 5,000 +feet), so that verdure and forest wood fail almost nowhere among the +Mountains; and multiplex industry, besung by rushing torrents and the +swift young rivers, nestles itself high up; and from wheat +husbandry, madder and maize husbandry, to damask-weaving, metallurgy, +charcoal-burning, tar-distillery, Schlesien has many trades, and has +long been expert and busy at them to a high degree. A very +pretty Ellipsis, or irregular Oval, on the summit of the European +Continent;--"like the palm of a left hand well stretched out, with the +Riesengebirge for thumb!" said a certain Herr to me, stretching out his +arm in that fashion towards the northwest. Palm, well stretched out, +measuring 250 miles; and the crossway 100. There are still beavers in +Schlesien; the Katzbach River has gold grains in it, a kind of Pactolus +not now worth working; and in the scraggy lonesome pine-woods, grimy +individuals, with kindled mounds of pine-branches and smoke carefully +kept down by sods, are sweating out a substance which they inform you is +to be tar. + + + + +HISTORICAL EPOCHS OF SCHLESIEN;--AFTER THE QUADS AND MARCHMEN. + +Who first lived in Schlesien, or lived long since in it, there is no use +in asking, nor in telling if one knew. "The QUADI and the Lygii," says +Dryasdust, in a groping manner: Quadi and consorts, in the fifth or +sixth Century, continues he with more confidence, shifted Rome-ward, +following the general track of contemporaneous mankind; weak remnant of +Quadi was thereupon overpowered by Slavic populations, and their Country +became Polish, which the eastern rim of it still essentially is. That +was the end of the Quadi in those parts, says History. But they cannot +speak nor appeal for themselves; History has them much at discretion. +Rude burial urns, with a handful of ashes in them, have been dug up in +different places; these are all the Archives and Histories the Quadi now +have. It appears their name signifies WICKED. They are those poor Quadi +(WICKED PEOPLE) who always go along with the Marcomanni (MARCHMEN), in +the bead-roll Histories one reads; and I almost guess they must have +been of the same stock: "Wickeds and Borderers;" considered, on both +sides of the Border, to belong to the Dangerous Classes in those times. +Two things are certain: First, QUAD and its derivatives have, to +this day, in the speech of rustic Germans, something of that +meaning,--"nefarious," at least "injurious," "hateful, and to be +avoided:" for example, QUADdel, "a nettle-burn;" QUETSchen, "to smash" +(say, your thumb while hammering); &c. &c. And then a second thing: +The Polish equivalent word is ZLE (Busching says ZLEXI); hence ZLEzien, +SCHLEsien, meaning merely BADland, QUADland, what we might called +DAMAGitia, or Country where you get into Trouble. That is the etymology, +or what passes for such. As to the History of Schlesien, hitherwards +of these burial urns dug up in different places, I notice, as not yet +entirely buriable, Three Epochs. + +FIRST EPOCH; CHRISTIANITY: A.D. 966. Introduction of Christianity; +to the length of founding a Bishopric that year, so hopeful were the +aspects; "Bishopric of Schmoger" (SchMAGram, dim little Village still +discoverable on the Polish frontier, not far from the Town of Namslau); +Bishopric which, after one removal farther inward, got across the +Oder, to "WRUTISLAV," which me now call Breslau; and sticks there, as +Bishopric of Breslau, to this day. Year 966: it was in Adalbert, our +Prussian Saint and Missionary's younger time. Preaching, by zealous +Polacks, must have been going on, while Adalbert, Bright in Nobleness, +was studying at Magdeburg, and ripening for high things in the general +estimation. This was a new gift from the Polacks, this of Christianity; +an infinitely more important one than that nickname of "ZLEZIEN," or +"DAMAGitia," stuck upon the poor Country, had been. + +SECOND EPOCH; GET GRADUALLY CUT LOOSE FROM POLAND: A.D. 1139-1159. +Twenty years of great trouble in Poland, which were of lasting benefit +to Schlesien. In 1139 the Polack King, a very potent Majesty whom we +could name but do not, died; and left his Dominions shared by punctual +bequest among his five sons. Punctual bequest did avail: but the eldest +Son (who was King, and had Schlesien with much else to his share) began +to encroach, to grasp; upon which the others rose upon him, flung him +out into exile; redivided; and hoped now they might have quiet. Hoped, +but were disappointed; and could come to no sure bargain for the next +twenty years,--not till "the eldest brother," first author of these +strifes, "died an exile in Holstein," or was just about dying, and had +agreed to take Schlesien for all claims, and be quiet thenceforth. + +His, this eldest's, three Sons did accordingly, in 1159, get Schlesien +instead of him; their uncles proving honorable. Schlesien thereby +was happy enough to get cut loose from Poland, and to continue loose; +steering a course of its own;--parting farther and farther from Poland +and its habits and fortunes. These three Sons, of the late Polish +Majesty who died in exile in Holstein, are the "Piast Dukes," much +talked of in Silesian Histories: of whose merits I specify this only, +That they so soon as possible strove to be German. They were Progenitors +of all the "Piast Dukes," Proprietors of Schlesien thenceforth, till the +last of them died out in 1675,--and a certain ERBVERBRUDERUNG they +had entered into could not take effect at that time. Their merits as +Sovereign Dukes seem to have been considerable; a certain piety, wisdom +and nobleness of mind not rare among them; and no doubt it was partly +their merit, if partly also their good luck, that they took to Germany, +and leant thitherward; steering looser and looser from Poland, in their +new circumstances. They themselves by degrees became altogether German; +their Countries, by silent immigration, introduction of the arts, the +composures and sobrieties, became essentially so. On the eastern +rim there is still a Polack remnant, its territories very sandy, its +condition very bad; remnant which surely ought to cease its Polack +jargon, and learn some dialect of intelligible Teutsch, as the first +condition of improvement. In all other parts Teutsch reigns; +and Schlesien is a green abundant Country; full of metallurgy, +damask-weaving, grain-husbandry.--instead of gasconade, gilt anarchy, +rags, dirt, and NIE POZWALAM. + +A.D. 1327; GET COMPLETELY CUT LOOSE. The Piast Dukes, who soon ceased to +be Polish, and hung rather upon Bohemia, and thereby upon Germany, made +a great step in that direction, when King Johann, old ICH-DIEN whom we +ought to recollect, persuaded most of them, all of them but two, "PRETIO +AC PRECE," to become Feudatories (Quasi-Feudatories, but of a sovereign +sort) to his Crown of Bohemia. The two who stood out, resisting +prayer and price, were the Duke of Jauer and the Duke of +Schweidnitz,--lofty-minded gentlemen, perhaps a thought too lofty. +But these also Johann's son, little Kaiser Karl IV., "marrying their +heiress," contrived to bring in;--one fruitful adventure of little +Karl's, among the many wasteful he made, in the German Reich. Schlesien +is henceforth a bit of the Kingdom of Bohemia; indissolubly hooked to +Germany; and its progress in the arts and composures, under wise +Piasts with immigrating Germans, we guess to have become doubly rapid. +[Busching, _Erdbeschreibung,_ viii. 725; Hubner, t. 94.] + +THIRD EPOCH; ADOPT THE REFORMATION: A.D. 1414-1517. Schlesien, hanging +to Bohemia in this manner, extensively adopted Huss's doctrines; still +more extensively Luther's; and that was a difficult element in its lot, +though, I believe, an unspeakably precious one. It cost above a Century +of sad tumults, Zisca Wars; nay above two Centuries, including the sad +Thirty-Years War;--which miseries, in Bohemia Proper, were sometimes +very sad and even horrible. But Schlesien, the outlying Country, did, +in all this, suffer less than Bohemia Proper; and did NOT lose its +Evangelical Doctrine in result, as unfortunate Bohemia did, and sink +into sluttish "fanatical torpor, and big Crucifixes of japanned Tin by +the wayside," though in the course of subsequent years, named of Peace, +it was near doing so. Here are the steps, or unavailing counter-steps, +in that latter direction:-- + +A.D. 1537. Occurred, as we know, the ERBVERBRUDERUNG; Duke of Liegnitz, +and of other extensive heritages, making Deed of Brotherhood with +Kur-Brandenburg;--Deed forbidden, and so far as might be, rubbed out and +annihilated by the then King of Bohemia, subsequently Kaiser Ferdinand +I., Karl V.'s Brother. Duke of Liegnitz had to give up his parchments, +and become zero in that matter: Kur-Brandenburg entirely refused to do +so; kept his parchments, to see if they would not turn to something. + +A.D. 1624. Schlesien, especially the then Duke of Liegnitz +(great-grandson of the ERBVERBRUDERUNG one), and poor Johann George, +Duke of Jagerndorf, cadet of the then Kur-Brandenburg, went warmly +ahead into the Winter-King project, first fire of the Thirty-Years +War; sufferings from Papal encroachment, in high quarters, being really +extreme. Warmly ahead; and had to smart sharply for it;--poor Johann +George with forfeiture of Jagerndorf, with REICHES-ACHT (Ban of the +Empire), and total ruin; fighting against which he soon died. Act of Ban +and Forfeiture was done tyrannously, said most men; and it was persisted +in equally so, till men ceased speaking of it;--Jagerndorf Duchy, fruit +of the Act, was held by Austria, ever after, in defiance of the Laws +of the Reich. Religious Oppression lay heavy on Protestant Schlesien +thenceforth; and many lukewarm individualities were brought back to +Orthodoxy by that method, successful in the diligent skilled hands of +Jesuit Reverend Fathers, with fiscals and soldiers in the rear of them. + +A.D. 1648. Treaty of Westphalia mended much of this, and set fair limits +to Papist encroachment;--had said Treaty been kept: but how could it? By +Orthodox Authority, anxious to recover lost souls, or at least to have +loyal subjects, it was publicly kept in name; and tacitly, in +substance, it was violated more and more. Of the "Blossoming of Silesian +Literature," spoken of in Books; of the Poet Opitz, Poets Logan, +Hoffmannswaldau, who burst into a kind of Song better or worse at this +Period, we will remember nothing; but request the reader to remember it, +if he is tunefully given, or thinks it a good symptom of Schlesien. + +A.D. 1707. Treaty of Altranstadt: between Kaiser Joseph I. and Karl XII. +Swedish Karl, marching through those parts,--out of Poland, in chase +of August the Physically Strong, towards Saxony, there to beat him +soft,--was waited upon by Silesian Deputations of a lamentable nature; +was entreated, for the love of Christ and His Evangel, to "Protect +us poor Protestants, and get the Treaty of Westphalia observed on our +behalf, and fair-play shown!" Which Karl did; Kaiser Joseph, with such +weight of French War lying on him, being much struck with the tone of +that dangerous Swede. The Pope rebuked Kaiser Joseph for such compliance +in the Silesian matter: "Holy Father," answered this Kaiser (not of +distinguished orthodoxy in the House), "I am too glad he did not ask me +to become Lutheran; I know not how I should have helped myself!" [Pauli, +_ Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Geschichte_ (viii. 298-592); Busching, +_Erdbeschreibung_ (viii. 700-739); &c.--Heinrich Wuttke, _Friedrichs +des Grossen Besitzergreifung von Schlesien_ (Seizure of Silesia by +Friedrich, 2 vols. Leipzig, 1843), I mention only lest ingenuous readers +should be tempted by the Title to buy it. Wuttke begins at the Creation +of the World; and having, in two heavy volumes, at last struggled down +close TO the BESITZERGREIFUNG or Seizure in question, calls halt; and +stands (at ease, we will hope) immovably there for the seventeen years +since.] + +These are the Three Epochs;--most things, in respect of this Third or +Reformation Epoch, stepping steadily downward hitherto. As to the Fourth +Epoch, dating "13th Dec. 1740," which continues, up to our day and +farther, and is the final and crowning Epoch of Silesian History,--read +in the following Chapters. + + + + +Chapter II. -- FRIEDRICH MARCHES ON GLOGAU. + +At what hour Friedrich ceased dancing on that famous Ball-night of +Bielfeld's, and how long he slept after, or whether at all, no Bielfeld +even mythically says: but next morning, as is patent to all the world, +Tuesday, 13th December, 1740, at the stroke of nine, he steps into his +carriage; and with small escort rolls away towards Frankfurt-on-Oder; +[_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 452; Preuss, _Thronbesteigung,_ p. 456.] out +upon an Enterprise which will have results for himself and others. + +Two youngish military men, Adjutant-Generals both, were with him, +Wartensleben, Borck; both once fellow Captains in the Potsdam Giants, +and much in his intimacy ever since. Wartensleben we once saw at +Brunswick, on a Masonic occasion; Borck, whom we here see for the first +time, is not the Colonel Borck (properly Major-General) who did the +Herstal Operation lately; still less is he the venerable old Minister, +Marlborough Veteran, and now Field-Marshal Borck, whom Hotham treated +with, on a certain occasion. There are numerous Borcks always in the +King's service; nor are these three, except by loose cousinry, related +to one another. The Borcks all come from Stettin quarter; a brave +kindred, and old enough,--"Old as the Devil, DAS IST SO OLD ALS +DE BORCKEN UND DE DUWEL," says the Pomeranian Proverb;--the +Adjutant-General, a junior member of the clan, chances to be the +notablest of them at this moment. Wartensleben, Borck, and a certain +Colonel von der Golz, whom also the King much esteems, these are his +company on this drive. For escort, or guard of honor out of Berlin to +the next stages, there is a small body of Hussars, Life-guard and other +Cavalry, "perhaps 500 horse in all." + +They drive rapidly, through the gray winter; reach Frankfurt-on-Oder, +sixty miles or more; where no doubt there is military business waiting. +They are forward, on the morrow, for dinner, forty miles farther, at a +small Town called Crossen, which looks over into Silesia; and is, for +the present, headquarters to a Prussian Army, standing ready there +and in the environs. Standing ready, or hourly marching in, and +rendezvousing; now about 28,000 strong, horse and foot. A Rearguard +of Ten or Twelve Thousand will march from Berlin in two days, pause +hereabouts, and follow according to circumstances: Prussian Army will +then be some 40,000 in all. Schwerin has been Commander, manager and +mainspring of the business hitherto: henceforth it is to be the King; +but Schwerin under him will still have a Division of his own. + +Among the Regiments, we notice "Schulenburg Horse-Grenadiers,"--come +along from Landsberg hither, these Horse-Grenadiers, with little +Schulenburg at the head of them;--"Dragoon Regiment Bayreuth," +"Lifeguard Carbineers," "Derschau of Foot;" and other Regiments and +figures slightly known to us, or that will be better known. [List in +_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 453.] Rearguard, just getting under +way at Berlin, has for leaders the Prince of Holstein-Beck +("Holstein-VAISSELLE," say wags, since the Principality went all to +SILVER-PLATE) and the Hereditary Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, whom we called +the Young Dessauer, on the Strasburg Journey lately: Rearguard, we say, +is of 12,000; main Army is 28,000; Horse and Foot are in the +proportion of about 1 to 3. Artillery "consists of 20 three-pounders; 4 +twelve-pounders; 4 howitzers (HAUBITZEN); 4 big mortars, calibre fifty +pounds; and of Artillerymen 166 in all." + +With this Force the young King has, on his own basis (pretty much in +spite of all the world, as we find now and afterwards), determined to +invade Silesia, and lay hold of the Property he has long had there;--not +computing, for none can compute, the sleeping whirlwinds he may chance +to awaken thereby. Thus lightly does a man enter upon Enterprises which +prove unexpectedly momentous, and shape the whole remainder of his days +for him; crossing the Rubicon as it were in his sleep. In Life, as on +Railways at certain points,--whether you know it or not, there is but an +inch, this way or that, into what tram you are shunted; but try to get +out of it again! "The man is mad, CET HOMME-LA EST FOL!" said Louis +XV. when he heard it. [Raumer, _Beitrage_ (English Translation, called +_Frederick II. and his Times; from British Museum and State-Paper +Office:_--a very indistinct poor Book, in comparison with whet it might +have been), p. 73 (24th Dec. 1740).] + + + + +FRIEDRICH AT CROSSEN, AND STILL IN HIS OWN TERRITORY, 14th-16th +DECEMBER;--STEPS INTO SCHLESIEN. + +At all events, the man means to try;--and is here dining at Crossen, +noon of Wednesday, the 14th; certain important persons,--especially two +Silesian Gentlemen, deputed from Grunberg, the nearest Silesian Town, +who have come across the border on business,--having the honor to dine +with him. To whom his manner is lively and affable; lively in mood, +as if there lay no load upon his spirits. The business of these two +Silesian Gentlemen, a Baron von Hocke one of them, a Baron von Kestlitz +the other, was To present, on the part of the Town and Amt of Grunberg, +a solemn Protest against this meditated entrance on the Territory of +Schlesien; Government itself, from Breslau, ordering them to do so. +Protest was duly presented; Friedrich, as his manner is, and continues +to be on his march, glances politely into or at the Protest; hands it, +in silence, to some page or secretary to deposit in the due pigeon-hole +or waste-basket; and invites the two Silesian Gentlemen to dine +with him; as, we see, they have the honor to do. "He (ER) lives near +Grunberg, then, Mein Herr von Hocke?" "Close to it, IHRO MAJESTAT. My +poor mansion, Schloss of Deutsch-Kessel, is some fifteen miles hence; +how infinitely at your Majesty's service, should the march prove +inevitable, and go that way!"--"Well, perhaps!" I find Friedrich did +dine, the second day hence, with one of these Gentlemen; and lodged with +the other. Government at Breslau has ordered such Protest, on the part +of the Frontier populations and Official persons: and this is all that +comes of it. + +During these hours, it chanced that the big Bell of Crossen dropped from +its steeple,--fulness of time, or entire rottenness of axle-tree, being +at last completed, at this fateful moment. Perhaps an ominous thing? +Friedrich, as Caesar and others have done, cheerfully interprets the +omen to his own advantage: "Sign that the High is to be brought low!" +says Friedrich. Were the march-routes, wagon-trains, and multifarious +adjustments perfect to the last item here at Crossen, he will with much +cheerfulness step into Silesia, independent of all Grunberg Protests and +fallen Bells. + +On the second day he does actually cross; "the regiments marching in, +at different points; some reaching as far as 25 miles in." It is Friday, +16th December, 1740; there has a game begun which will last long! They +went through the Village of Lasgen; that was the first point of Silesian +ground ("Circle of Schwiebus," our old friend, is on the left near by); +and "Schwerin's Regiment was the foremost." Others cross more to the +left or right; "marching through the Village of Lessen," and other dim +Villages and little Towns, round and beyond Grunberg; all regiments and +divisions bearing upon Grunberg and the Great Road; but artistically +portioned out,--several miles in breadth (for the sake of quarters), +and, as is generally the rule, about a day's march in length. This +evening nearly the whole Army was on Silesian ground. + +Printed "Patent" or Proclamation, briefly assuring all Silesians, of +whatever rank, condition or religion, "That we have come as friends to +them, and will protect all persons in their privileges, and molest +no peaceable mortal," is posted on Church-doors, and extensively +distributed by hand. Soldiers are forbidden, "under penalty of the +rods," Officers under that of "cassation with infamy," to take anything, +without first bargaining and paying ready money for it. On these +terms the Silesian villages cheerfully enough accept their new guests, +interesting to the rural mind; and though the billeting was rather +heavy, "as many as 24 soldiers to a common Farmer (GARTNER)," no +complaints were made. In one Schloss, where the owners had fled, and no +human response was to be had by the wayworn-soldiery, there did occur +some breakages and impatient kickings about; which it grieved his +Majesty to hear of, next morning;--in one, not in more. + +Official persons, we perceive, study to be absolutely passive. This was +the Burgermeister's course at Grunberg to-night; Grunberg, first Town +on the Frontier, sets an example of passivity which cannot be surpassed. +Prussian troops being at the Gate of Grunberg, Burgermeister and +adjuncts sitting in a tacit expectant condition in their Town-hall, +there arrives a Prussian Lieutenant requiring of the Burgermeister the +Key of said Gate. "To deliver such Key? Would to God I durst, Mein Herr +Lieutenant; but how dare I! There is the Key lying: but to GIVE +it--You are not the Queen of Hungary's Officer, I doubt?"--The Prussian +Lieutenant has to put out hand, and take the Key; which he readily does. +And on the morrow, in returning it, when the march recommences, there +are the same phenomena: Burgermeister or assistants dare not for the +life of them touch that Key: It lay on the table; and may again, in the +course of Providence, come to lie!--The Prussian Lieutenant lays it down +accordingly, and hurries out, with a grin on his face. There was much +small laughter over this transaction; Majesty himself laughing well at +it. Higher perfection of passivity no Burgermeister could show. + +The march, as readers understand, is towards Glogau; a strongish +Garrison Town, now some 40 miles ahead; the key of Northern Schlesien. +Grunberg (where my readers once slept for the night, in the late King's +time, though they have forgotten it) is the first and only considerable +Town on the hither side of Glogau. On to Glogau, I rather perceive, the +Army is in good part provisioned before starting: after Glogau,--we must +see. Bread-wagons, Baggage-wagons, Ammunition-and-Artillery wagons, all +is in order; Army artistically portioned out. That is the form of march; +with Glogau ahead. King, as we said above, dines with his Baron von +Hocke, at the Schloss of Deutsch-Kessel, short way beyond Grunberg, this +first day: but he by no means loiters there;--cuts across, a dozen miles +westward, through a country where his vanguard on its various lines +of march ought to be arriving;--and goes to lodge, at the Schloss of +Schweinitz, with his other Baron, the Von Kestlitz of Wednesday at +Crossen. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 459.] This is Friday, 16th December, +his first night on Silesian ground. + + + + +WHAT GLOGAU, AND THE GOVERNMENT AT BRESLAU, DID UPON IT. + +Silesia, in the way of resistance, is not in the least prepared for him. +A month ago, there were not above 3,000 Austrian Foot and 600 Horse in +the whole Province: neither the military Governor Count Wallis, nor +the Imperial Court, nor any Official Person near or far, had the least +anticipation of such a Visit. Count Wallis, who commands in Glogau, did +in person, nine or ten days ago, as the rumors rose ever higher, run +over to Crossen; saw with his eyes the undeniable there; and has been +zealously endeavoring ever since, what he could, to take measures. +Wallis is now shut in Glogau; his second, the now Acting Governor, +General Browne, a still more reflective man, is doing likewise his +utmost; but on forlorn terms, and without the least guidance from Court. +Browne has, by violent industry, raked together, from Mahren and the +neighboring countries, certain fractions which raise his Force to 7,000 +Foot: these he throws, in small parties, into the defensible points; or, +in larger, into the Chief Garrisons. New Cavalry he cannot get; the +old 600 Horse he keeps for himself, all the marching Army he has. +[Particulars in _Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 465; total of Austrian Force +seems to be 7,800 horse and foot.] + +Fain would he get possession of Breslau, and throw in some garrison +there; but cannot. Neither he nor Wallis could compass that. Breslau +is a City divided against itself, on this matter; full of emotions, of +expectations, apprehensions for and against. There is a Supreme Silesian +Government (OBER-AMT "Head-Office," kind of Austrian Vice-Royalty) in +Breslau; and there is, on Breslau's own score, a Town-Rath; strictly +Catholic both these, Vienna the breath of their nostrils. But then +also there are forty-four Incorporated Trades; Oppressed Protestant +in Majority; to whom Vienna is not breath, but rather the want of it. +Lastly, the City calls itself Free; and has crabbed privileges still +valid; a "JUS PROESIDII" (or right to be one's own garrison) one of +them, and the most inconvenient just now. Breslau is a REICH-STADT; in +theory, sovereign member of the Reich, and supreme over its own affairs, +even as Austria itself:--and the truth is, old Theory and new Fact, +resolved not to quarrel, have lapsed into one another's arms in a quite +inextricable way, in Breslau as elsewhere! With a Head Government which +can get no orders from Vienna, the very Town-Rath has little alacrity, +inclines rather to passivity like Grunberg; and a silent population +threatens to become vocal if you press upon it. + +Breslau, that is to say the OBER-AMT there, has sent courier on courier +to Vienna for weeks past: not even an answer;--what can Vienna answer, +with Kur-Baiern and others threatening war on it, and only 10,000 pounds +in its National Purse? Answer at last is, "Don't bother! Danger is +not so near. Why spend money on couriers, and get into such a taking?" +General Wallis came to Breslau, after what he had seen at Crossen; and +urged strongly, in the name of self-preservation, first law of Nature, +to get an Austrian real Garrison introduced; wished much (horrible to +think of!) "the suburbs should be burnt, and better ramparts raised:" +but could not succeed in any of these points, nor even mention some of +them in a public manner. "You shall have a Protestant for commandant," +suggested Wallis; "there is Count von Roth, Silesian-Lutheran, an +excellent Soldier!"--"Thanks," answered they, "we can defend ourselves; +we had rather not have any!" And the Breslau Burghers have, accordingly, +set to drill themselves; are bringing out old cannon in quantity; +repairing breaches; very strict in sentry-work: "Perfectly able to +defend our City,--so far as we see good!"--Tuesday last, December 13th +(the very day Friedrich left Berlin), as this matter of the Garrison, +long urged by the Ober-Amt, had at last been got agreed to by the +Town-Rath, "on proviso of consulting the Incorporated Trades", or +at least consulting their Guild-Masters, who are usually a silent +folk,--the Guild-Masters suddenly became in part vocal; and their +forty-four Guilds unusually so:--and there was tumult in Breslau, in +the Salz-Ring (big central Square or market-place, which they call RING) +such as had not been; idle population, and guild-brethren of suspicious +humor, gathering in multitudes into and round the fine old Town-hall +there; questioning, answering, in louder and louder key; at last +bellowing quite in alt; and on the edge of flaming into one knew not +what: [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 469.]--till the matter of Austrian +Garrison (much more, of burning the suburbs!) had to be dropt; settled +in what way we see. + +Head Government (OBER-AMT) has, through its Northern official people, +sent Protest, strict order to the Silesian Population to look sour on +the Prussians:--and we saw, in consequence, the two Silesian Gentlemen +did dine with Friedrich, and he has returned their visits; and the Mayor +of Grunberg would not touch his keys. Head Government is now redacting +a "Patent," or still more solemn Protest of its own; which likewise it +will affix in the Salz-Ring here, and present to King Friedrich: and +this--except "despatching by boat down the river a great deal of meal to +Glogau", which was an important quiet thing, of Wallis's enforcing--is +pretty much all it can do. No Austrian Garrison can be got in +("Perfectly able to defend ourselves!")--let Government and Wallis or +Browne contrive as they may. And as to burning the suburbs, better +not whisper of that again. Breslau feels, or would fain feel itself +"perfectly able;"--has at any rate no wish to be bombarded; and contains +privately a great deal of Protestant humor. Of all which, Friedrich, it +is not doubted, has notice more or less distinct; and quickens his march +the more. + +General Browne is at present in the Southern parts; an able active man +and soldier; but, with such a force what can he attempt to do? There are +three strong places in the Country, Glogau, then Brieg, both on the Oder +river; lastly Neisse, on the Neisse river, a branch of the Oder (one +of the FOUR Neisse rivers there are in Germany, mostly in Silesia,--not +handy to the accurate reader of German Books). Browne is in Neisse; +and will start into a strange stare when the flying post reaches him: +Prussians actually on march! Debate with them, if debate there is to +be, Browne himself must contrive to do; from Breslau, from Vienna, no +Government Supreme or Subordinate can yield his 8,000 and him the least +help. + +Glogau, as we saw, means to defend itself; at least, General Wallis the +Commandant, does, in spite of the Glogau public; and is, with his +whole might, digging, palisading, getting in meal, salt meat and other +provender;--likewise burning suburbs, uncontrollable he, in the small +place; and clearing down the outside edifices and shelters, at a +diligent rate. Yesterday, 15th December, he burnt down the "three +Oder-Mills, which lie outside the big suburban Tavern, also the +ZIEGEL-SCHEUNE (Tile-Manufactory)," and other valuable buildings, +careless of public lamentation,--fire catching the Town itself, and +needing to be quenched again. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 473-475.] Nay, +he was clear for burning down, or blowing up, the Protestant Church, +indispensable sacred edifice which stands outside the walls: "Prussians +will make a block-house of it!" said Wallis. A chief Protestant, Baron +von Something, begged passionately for only twelve hours of respite,--to +lay the case before his Prussian Majesty. Respite conceded, he and +another chief Protestant had posted off accordingly; and did the next +morning (Friday, 16th), short way from Crossen, meet his Majesty's +carriage; who graciously pulled up for a few instants, and listened to +their story. "MEINE HERREN, you are the first that ask a favor of me on +Silesian ground; it shall be done you!" said the King; and straightway +despatched, in polite style, his written request to Wallis, engaging +to make no military use whatever of said Church, "but to attack by the +other side, if attack were necessary." Thus his Majesty saved the Church +of Glogau; which of course was a popular act. Getting to see this Church +himself a few days hence, he said, "Why, it must come down at any rate, +and be rebuilt; so ugly a thing!" + +Wallis is making strenuous preparation; forces the inhabitants, even +the upper kinds of them, to labor day and night by relays, in his +rampartings, palisadings; is for burning all the adjacent Villages,--and +would have done it, had not the peasants themselves turned out in +a dangerous state of mind. He has got together about 1,000 men. His +powder, they say, is fifty years old; but he has eatable provender from +Breslau, and means to hold out to the utmost. Readers must admit that +the Austrian military, Graf von Wallis to begin with,--still +more, General Browne, who is a younger man and has now the head +charge,--behave well in their present forsaken condition. Wallis (Graf +FRANZ WENZEL this one, not to be confounded with an older Wallis heard +of in the late Turk War) is of Scotch descent,--as all these Wallises +are; "came to Austria long generations ago; REICHSGRAFS since +1612:"--Browne is of Irish; age now thirty-five, ten years younger than +Wallis. Read this Note on the distinguished Browne:-- + +"A German-Irish Gentleman, this General (ultimately Fieldmarshal) +Graf von Browne; one of those sad exiled Irish Jacobites, or sons of +Jacobites, who are fighting in foreign armies; able and notable men +several of them, and this Browne considerably the most so. We shall meet +him repeatedly within the next eighteen years. Maximilian-Ulysses +Graf von Browne: I said he was born German; Basel his birthplace (23d +October, 1705), Father also a soldier: he must not be confounded with +a contemporary Cousin of his, who is also 'Fieldmarshal Browne,' but +serves in Russia, Governor of Riga for a long time in the coming years. +This Austrian General, Fieldmarshal Browne, will by and by concern us +somewhat; and the reader may take note of him. + +"Who the Irish Brothers Browne, the Fathers of these Marshals Browne, +were? I have looked in what Irish Peerages and printed Records there +were, but without the least result. One big dropsical Book, of languid +quality, called _King James's Irish Army-List,_ has multitudes of +Brownes and others, in an indistinct form; but the one Browne wanted, +the one Lacy, almost the one Lally, like the part of HAMLET, are +omitted. There are so many Irish in the like case with these Brownes. +A Lacy we once slightly saw or heard of; busy in the Polish-Election +time,--besieging Dantzig (investing Dantzig, that Munnich might besiege +it);--that Lacy, 'Governor of Riga,' whom the RUSSIAN Browne will +succeed, is also Irish: a conspicuous Russian man; and will have a Son +Lacy, conspicuous among the Austrians. Maguires, Ogilvies (of the Irish +stock), Lieutenants 'Fitzgeral;' very many Irish; and there is not +the least distinct account to be had of any of them." [For Browne see +"Anonymous of Hamburg" (so I have had to label a J.F.S. _Geschichte des +&c._--in fact, History of Seven-Years War, in successive volumes, done +chiefly by the scissors; Leipzig and Frankfurt, 1759, et seqq.), i. +123-131 n.: elaborate Note of eight pages there; intimating withal that +he, J.F.S., wrote the _"Life of Browne,"_ a Book I had in vain sought +for; and can now guess to consist of those same elaborate eight pages, +PLUS water and lathering to the due amount. Anonymous "of Hamburg" I +call my J.F.S.,--having fished him out of the dust-abysses in that City: +a very poor take; yet worth citing sometimes, being authentic, as even +the darkest Germans generally are.--For a glimpse of LACY (the Elder +Lacy) see Busching, _Beitrage,_ vi. 162.--For WALLIS (tombstone Note on +Wallis) see (among others who are copious in that kind of article, +and keep large sacks of it, in admired disorder) Anonymous Seyfarth, +_Geschichte Friedrichs des Andern_ (Leipzig, 1784-1788), i. 112 n.; +and Anonymous, _Leben der &c. Marie Theresie_ (Leipzig, 1781), 27 n.: +laboriously authentic Books both; essentialy DICTIONARIES,--stuffed as +into a row of blind SACKS.] + +Let us attend his Majesty on the next few marches towards Glogau, to see +the manner of the thing a little; after which it will behoove us to be +much more summary, and stick by the main incidents. + + + + +MARCH TO WEICHAU (SATURDAY, 17th, AND STAY SUNDAY THERE); TO MILKAU +(MONDAY, 19th); GET TO HERRENDORF, WITHIN SIGHT OF GLOGAU, DECEMBER 22d. + +Friedrich's march proceeds with speed and regularity. Strict discipline +is maintained; all things paid for, damage carefully avoided: "We +come, not as invasive enemies of you or of the Queen of Hungary, but as +protective friends of Silesia and of her Majesty's rights there;--her +Majesty once allowing us (as it is presumable she will) our own rights +in this Province, no man shall meddle with hers, while we continue +here." To that effect runs the little "Patent," or initiatory +Proclamation, extensively handed out, and posted in public places, as +was said above; and the practice is conformable. To all men, coming with +Protests or otherwise, we perceive, the young King is politeness itself; +giving clear answer, and promise which will be kept, on the above +principle. Nothing angers him except that gentlemen should disbelieve, +and run away. That a mansion be found deserted by its owners, is the one +evil omen for such mansion. Thus, at the Schloss of Weichau (which is +still discoverable on the Map, across the "Black Ochel" and the "White," +muddy streams which saunter eastward towards, the Oder there, nothing +yet running westward for the Bober, our other limitary river), next +night after Schweinitz, second night in Silesia, there was no Owner +to be met with; and the look of his Majesty grew FINSTER (dark); +remembering what had passed yesternight, in like case, at that other +Schloss from which the owner with his best portable furniture had +vanished. At which Schloss, as above noticed, some disorders were +committed by angry parties of the march;--doors burst open (doors +standing impudently dumb to the rational proposals made them!), inferior +remainders of furniture smashed into firewood, and the like,--no doubt +to his Majesty's vexation. Here at Weichau stricter measures were taken: +and yet difficulties, risks were not wanting; and the AMTMANN (Steward +of the place) got pulled about, and once even a stroke or two. Happily +the young Herr of Weichau appeared in person on the morrow, hearing his +Majesty was still there: "Papa is old; lives at another Schloss; +could not wait upon your Majesty; nor, till now, could I have that +honor."--"Well; lucky that you have come: stay dinner!" Which the young +Count did, and drove home in the evening to reassure Papa; his Majesty +continuing there another night, and the risk over. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ +i. 459.] + +This day, Sunday, 18th, the Army rests; their first Sunday in Silesia, +while the young Count pays his devoir: and here in Weichau, as +elsewhere, it is in the Church, Catholic nearly always, that the Heretic +Army does its devotions, safe from weather at least: such the Royal +Order, they say; which is taken note of, by the Heterodox and by the +Orthodox. And ever henceforth, this is the example followed; and in all +places where there is no Protestant Church and the Catholics have one, +the Prussian Army-Chaplain assembles his buff-belted audience in the +latter: "No offence, Reverend Fathers, but there are hours for us, +and hours for you; and such is the King's Order." There is regular +divine-service in this Prussian Army; and even a good deal of +inarticulate religion, as one may see on examining. + +Country Gentlemen, Town Mayors and other civic Authorities, soon learn +that on these terms they are safe with his Majesty; march after march he +has interviews with such, to regulate the supplies, the necessities +and accidents of the quartering of his Troops. Clear, frank, open +to reasonable representation, correct to his promise; in fact, +industriously conciliatory and pacificatory: such is Friedrich to all +Silesian men. Provincial Authorities, who can get no instructions +from Head-quarters; Vienna saying nothing, Breslau nothing, and +Deputy-Governor Browne being far south in Neisse,--are naturally in +difficulties: How shall they act? Best not to act at all, if one can +help it; and follow the Mayor of Grunberg's unsurpassable pattern!-- + +"These Silesians," says an Excerpt I have made, "are still in majority +Protestant; especially in this Northern portion of the Province; they +have had to suffer much on that and other scores; and are secretly or +openly in favor of the Prussians. Official persons, all of the Catholic +creed, have leant heavy, not always conscious of doing it, against +Protestant rights. The Jesuits, consciously enough, have been and are +busy with them; intent to recall a Heretic Population by all +methods, fair and unfair. We heard of Charles XII.'s interference, +three-and-thirty years ago; and how the Kaiser, hard bested at that +time, had to profess repentance and engage for complete amendment. +Amendment did, for the moment, accordingly take place. Treaty of +Westphalia in all its stipulations, with precautionary improvements, was +re-enacted as Treaty of Altranstadt; with faithful intention of keeping +it too, on Kaiser Joseph's part, who was not a superstitious man: +'Holy Father, I was too glad he did not demand my own conversion to the +Protestant Heresy, bested as I am,--with Louis Quatorze and Company upon +the neck of me!' Some improvement of performance, very marked at first, +did ensue upon this Altranstadt Treaty. But the sternly accurate Karl +of Sweden soon disappeared from the scene; Kaiser Joseph of Austria soon +disappeared; and his Brother, Karl VI., was a much more orthodox person. + +"The Austrian Government, and Kaiser Karl's in particular, is not to be +called an intentionally unjust one; the contrary, I rather find; but it +is, beyond others, ponderous; based broad on such multiplex formalities, +old habitudes; and GRAVITATION has a great power over it. In brief, +Official human nature, with the best of Kaisers atop, flagitated +continually by Jesuit Confessors, does throw its weight on a certain +side: the sad fact is, in a few years the brightness of that Altranstadt +improvement began to wax dim; and now, under long Jesuit manipulation, +Silesian things are nearly at their old pass; and the patience of men +is heavily laden. To see your Chapel made a Soldiers' Barrack, your +Protestant School become a Jesuit one,--Men did not then think of +revolting under injuries; but the poor Silesian weaver, trudging twenty +miles for his Sunday sermon; and perceiving that, unless their Mother +could teach the art of reading, his boys, except under soul's +peril, would now never learn it: such a Silesian could not want for +reflections. Voiceless, hopeless, but heavy; and dwelling secretly, as +under nightmare, in a million hearts. Austrian Officiality, wilfully +unjust, or not wilfully so, is admitted to be in a most heavy-footed +condition; can administer nothing well. Good Government in any kind is +not known here: Possibly the Prussian will be better; who can say? + +"The secret joy of these populations, as Friedrich advances among them, +becomes more and more a manifest one. Catholic Officials do not venture +on any definite hope, or definite balance of hope and fear, but adopt +the Mayor of Grunberg's course, and study to be passive and silent. +The Jesuit-Priest kind are clear in their minds for Austria; but think, +Perhaps Prussia itself will not prove very tyrannous? At all events, +be silent; it is unsafe to stir. We notice generally, it is only in +the Southern or Mountain regions of Silesia, where the Catholics are +in majority, that the population is not ardently on the Prussian side. +Passive, if they are on the other side; accurately passive at lowest, +this it is prescribed all prudent men to be." + +On the 18th, while divine service went on at Weichau, there was at +Breslau another phenomenon observable. Provincial Government in Breslau +had, at length, after intense study, and across such difficulties as +we have no idea of, got its "Patent," or carefully worded Protestation +against Prussia, brought to paper; and does, this day, with considerable +solemnity, affix it to the Rathhaus door there, for the perusal of +mankind; despatching a Copy for his Prussian Majesty withal, by +two Messengers of dignity. It has needed courage screwed to the +sticking-place to venture on such a step, without instruction from +Head-quarters; and the utmost powers of the Official mind have been +taxed to couch this Document in language politely ambiguous, and yet +strong enough;--too strong, some of us now think it. In any case, here +it now is; Provincial Government's bolt, so to speak, is shot. The +affixing took place under dark weather-symptoms; actual outburst of +thunder and rain at the moment, not to speak of the other surer omens. +So that, to the common mind at Breslau, it did not seem there would +much fruit come of this difficult performance. Breslau is secretly a +much-agitated City; and Prussian Hussar Parties, shooting forth to great +distances ahead, were, this day for the first time, observed within +sight of it. + +And on the same Sunday we remark farther, what is still more important: +Herr von Gotter, Friedrich's special Envoy to Vienna, has his first +interview with the Queen of Hungary, or with Grand-Duke Franz the +Queen's Husband and Co-Regent; and presents there, from Friedrich's +own hand, written we remember when, brief distinct Note of his Prussian +Majesty's actual Proposals and real meaning in regard to this Silesian +Affair. Proposals anxiously conciliatory in tone, but the heavy purport +of which is known to us: Gotter had been despatched, time enough, with +these Proposals (written above a month ago); but was instructed not to +arrive with them, till after the actual entrance into Silesia. And now +the response to them is--? As good as nothing; perhaps worse. Let that +suffice us at present. Readers, on march for Glogau, would grudge +to pause over State-papers, though we shall have to read this of +Friedrich's at some freer moment. + +Monday, 19th, before daybreak, the Army is astir again, simultaneously +wending forward; spread over wide areas, like a vast cloud (potential +thunder in it) steadily advancing on the winds. Length of the Army, +artistically portioned out, may be ten or fifteen miles, breadth already +more, and growing more; Schwerin always on the right or western wing, +close by the Bober River as yet, through Naumburg and the Towns on that +side,--Liegnitz and other important Towns lying ahead for Schwerin, +still farther apart from the main Body, were Glogau once settled. + +So that the march is in two Columns; Schwerin, with the westernmost +small column, intending towards Liegnitz, and thence ever farther +southward, with his right leaning on the high lands which rise more and +more into mountains as you advance. Friedrich himself commands the other +column, has his left upon the Oder, in a country mounting continually +towards the South, but with less irregularity of level, and generally +flat as yet. From beginning to end, the entire field of march lies +between the Oder and its tributary the Bober; climbing slowly towards +the sources of both. Which two rivers, as the reader may observe, +form here a rectangular or trapezoidal space, ever widening as we go +southward. Both rivers, coming from the Giant Mountains, hasten directly +north; but Oder, bulging out easterly in his sandy course, is obliged +to turn fairly westward again; and at Glogau, and a good space farther, +flows in that direction;--till once Bober strikes in, almost at right +angles, carrying Oder with HIM, though he is but a branch, straight +northward again. Northward, but ever slower, to the swollen Pommern +regions, and sluggish exit into the Baltic there. + +One of the worst features is the state of the weather. On Sunday, at +Breslau, we noticed thunder bursting out on an important occasion; +"ominous," some men thought;--omen, for one thing, that the weather +was breaking. At Weichau, that same day, rain began,--the young Herr of +Weichau, driving home to Papa from dinner with Majesty, would get his +share of it;--and on Monday, 19th, there was such a pour of rain as kept +most wayfarers, though it could not the Prussian Army, within doors. +Rain in plunges, fallen and falling, through that blessed day; making +roads into mere rivers of mud. The Prussian hosts marched on, all the +same. Head-quarters, with the van of the wet Army, that night, were +at Milkau;--from which place we have a Note of Friedrich's for Friend +Jordan, perhaps producible by and by. His Majesty lodged in some opulent +Jesuit Establishment there. And indeed he continued there, not idle, +under shelter, for a couple of days. The Jesuits, by their two head men, +had welcomed him with their choicest smiles; to whom the King was very +gracious, asking the two to dinner as usual, and styling them "Your +Reverence." Willing to ingratiate himself with persons of interest in +this Country; and likes talk, even with Jesuits of discernment. + +On the morrow (20th), came to him, here at Milkau,--probably from some +near stage, for the rain was pouring worse than ever,--that Breslau +"Patent," or strongish Protestation, by its two Messengers of +dignity. The King looked over it "without visible anger" or change of +countenance; "handed it," we expressly see, "to a Page to reposit" in +the proper waste-basket;--spoke politely to the two gentlemen; asked +each or one of them, "Are you of the Ober-Amt at Breslau, then?"--using +the style of ER (He).--"No, your Majesty; we are only of the +Land-Stande" (Provincial Parliament, such as it is). "Upon which [do you +mark!] his Majesty became still more polite; asked them to dinner, +and used the style of SIE." For their PATENT, now lying safe in its +waste-basket, he gave them signed receipt; no other answer. + +Rain still heavier, rain as of Noah, continued through this Tuesday, and +for days afterwards: but the Prussian hosts, hastening towards Glogau, +marched still on. This Tuesday's march, for the rearward of the Army, +10,000 foot and 2,000 horse; march of ten hours long, from Weichau to +the hamlet Milkau (where his Majesty sits busy and affable),--is thought +to be the wettest on record. Waters all out, bridges down, the Country +one wild lake of eddying mud. Up to the knee for many miles together; up +to the middle for long spaces; sometimes even up to the chin or deeper, +where your bridge was washed away. The Prussians marched through it, as +if they had been slate or iron. Rank and file, nobody quitted his rank, +nobody looked sour in the face; they took the pouring of the skies, and +the red seas of terrestrial liquid, as matters that must be; cheered +one another with jocosities, with choral snatches (tobacco, I consider, +would not burn); and swashed unweariedly forward. Ten hours some of them +were out, their march being twenty or twenty-five miles; ten to fifteen +was the average distance come. Nor, singular to say, did any loss occur; +except of ALMOST one poor Army-Chaplain, and altogether of one poor +Soldier's Wife;--sank dangerously both of them, beyond redemption she, +taking the wrong side of some bridge-parapet. Poor Soldier's Wife, she +is not named to me at all; and has no history save this, and that "she +was of the regiment Bredow." But I perceive she washed herself away in +a World-Transaction; and there was one rough Bredower, who probably sat +sad that night on getting to quarters. His Majesty surveyed the damp +battalions on the morrow (21st), not without sympathy, not without +satisfaction; allowed them a rest-day here at Milkau, to get dry and +bright again; and gave them "fifteen thalers a company," which is about +ninepence apiece, with some words of praise. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ +i.482.] + +Next day, Thursday, 22d, his Majesty and they marched on to Herrendorf; +which is only five miles from Glogau, and near enough for Head-quarters, +in the now humor of the place. Wallis has his messenger at Herrendorf, +"Sorry to warn your Majesty, That if there be the least hostility +committed, I shall have to resist it to the utmost." Head-quarters +continue six days at Herrendorf, Army (main body, or left Column, of the +Army) cantoned all round, till we consider what to do. + +As to the right Column, or Schwerin's Division, that, after a rest-day +or two, gathers itself into more complete separation here, tucking in +its eastern skirts; and gets on march again, by its own route. Steadily +southward;--and from Liegnitz, and the upland Countries, there will be +news of Schwerin and it before long. Rain ending, there ensued a ringing +frost;--not favorable for Siege-operations on Glogau:--and Silesia +became all of flinty glass, with white peaks to the Southwest, whither +Schwerin is gone. + + + + +Chapter III. -- PROBLEM OF GLOGAU. + +Friedrich was over from Herrendorf with the first daylight, +"reconnoitring Glogau, and rode up to the very glacis;" scanning it +on all sides. [Ib. i. 484.] Since Wallis is so resolute, here is an +intricate little problem for Friedrich, with plenty of corollaries and +conditions hanging to it. Shall we besiege Glogau, then? We have no +siege-cannon here. Time presses, Breslau and all things in such +crisis; and it will take time. By what methods COULD Glogau be +besieged?--Readers can consider what a blind many-threaded coil of +things, heaping itself here in wide welters round Glogau, and straggling +to the world's end, Friedrich has on hand: probably those six days, of +Head-quarters at Herrendorf, were the busiest he had yet had. + +One thing is evident, there ought to be siege-cannon got straightway; +and, still more immediate, the right posts and battering-places +should be ready against its coming.--"Let the Young Dessauer with that +Rearguard, or Reserve of 10,000, which is now at Crossen, come up and +assist here," orders Friedrich; "and let him be swift, for the hours are +pregnant!" On farther reflection, perhaps on new rumors from Breslau, +Friedrich perceives that there can be no besieging of Glogau at this +point of time; that the Reserve, Half of the Reserve, must be left +to "mask" it; to hold it in strict blockade, with starvation daily +advancing as an ally to us, and with capture by bombarding possible when +we like. That is the ultimate decision;--arrived at through a welter +of dubieties, counterpoisings and perilous considerations, which we now +take no account of. A most busy week; Friedrich incessantly in motion, +now here now there; and a great deal of heavy work got well and rapidly +done. The details of which, in these exuberant Manuscripts, would but +weary the reader. Choosing of the proper posts and battering-places +(post "on the other side of the River," "on this side of it," "on the +Island in the middle of it"), and obstinate intrenching and preparing +of the same in spite of frost; "wooden bridge built" farther up; with +"regulation of the river-boats, the Polish Ferry," and much else: all +this we omit; and will glance only at one pregnant point, by way of +sample:-- + +... "Most indispensable of all, the King has to provide +Subsistences:--and enters now upon the new plan, which will have to +be followed henceforth. The Provincial Chief-men (LANDES-AELTESTEN, +Land's-ELDESTS, their title) are summoned, from nine or ten Circles +which are likely to be interested: they appear punctually, and in +numbers,--lest contumacy worsen the inevitable. King dines them, +to start with; as many as 'ninety-five covers,'--day not given, but +probably one of the first in Herrendorf: not Christmas itself, one +hopes! + +"Dinner done, the ninety-five Land's-Eldest are instructed by proper +parties, What the Infantry's ration is, in meat, in bread, exact to the +ounce; what the Cavalry's is, and that of the Cavalry's Horse. Tabular +statement, succinct, correct, clear to the simplest capacity, shows +what quanties of men on foot, and of men on horseback, or men +with draught-cattle, will march through their respective Circles; +Lands-Eldests conclude what amount of meal and butcher's-meat it will +be indispensable to have in readiness;--what Lands-Eldest can deny the +fact? These Papers still exist, at least the long-winded Summary of them +does: and I own the reading of it far less insupportable than that of +the mountains of Proclamatory, Manifesto and Diplomatic matter. Nay +it leaves a certain wholesome impression on the mind, as of business +thoroughly well done; and a matter, capable, if left in the chaotic +state, of running to all manner of depths and heights, compendiously +forced to become cosmic in this manner. + +"These Lands-Eldest undertake, in a mildly resigned or even hopeful +humor. They will manage as required, in their own Circles; will +communicate with the Circles farther on; and everywhere the due +proviants, prestations, furtherances, shall be got together by fair +apportionment on the Silesian Community, and be punctually ready as +the Army advances. Book-keeping there is to be, legible record of +everything; on all hands 'quittance' for everything furnished; and a +time is coming, when such quittance, presented by any Silesian man, +will be counted money paid by him, and remitted at the next tax-day, +or otherwise made good. Which promise also was accurately kept, +the hoped-for time having come. It must be owned the Prussian Army +understands business; and, with brevity, reduces to a minimum its own +trouble, and that of other people, non-fighters, who have to do with +it. Non-fighters, I say; to fighters we hope it will give a respectable +maximum of trouble when applied to!" [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 492-499.] + +The Gotter Negotiation at Vienna, which we saw begin there that wet +Sunday, is now fast ending, as good as ended; without result except of a +negative kind. Gotter's Proposals,--would the reader wish to hear these +Proposals, which were so intensely interesting at one time? They are +fivefold; given with great brevity by Friedrich, by us with still +greater:-- + +1. "Will fling myself heartily into the Austrian scale, and endeavor for +the interest of Austria in this Pragmatic matter, with my whole strength +against every comer. + +2. "Will make treaty with Vienna, with Russia and the Sea-Powers, to +that effect. + +3. "Will help by vote, and with whole amount of interest will endeavor, +to have Grand-Duke Franz, the Queen's Husband, chosen Kaiser; and to +maintain such choice against all and sundry. Feel myself strong enough +to accomplish this result; and may, without exaggeration, venture to say +it shall be done. + +4. "To help the Court of Vienna in getting its affairs into good order +and fencible condition,--will present to it, on the shortest notice, Two +Million Gulden (200,000 pounds) ready money."--Infinitely welcome this +Fourth Proposition; and indeed all the other Three are welcome: but they +are saddled with a final condition, which pulls down all again. This, +which is studiously worded, politely evasive in phrase, and would fain +keep old controversies asleep, though in substance it is so fatally +distinct,--we give in the King's own words: + +5. "For such essential services as those to which I bind myself by +the above very onerous conditions, I naturally require a proportionate +recompense; some suitable assurance, as indemnity for all the dangers +I risk, and for the part (ROLE) I am ready to play: in short, I require +hereby the entire and complete cession of all Silesia, as reward for +my labors and dangers which I take upon myself in this course now to +be entered upon for the preservation and renown of the House of +Austria;"--Silesia all and whole; and we say nothing of our "rights" to +it; politely evasive to her Hungarian Majesty, though in substance +we are so fatally distinct. [Preuss, _Thronbesteigung,_ p. 451; "from +Olenschlager, _Geschichte des Interegni_ [Frankfurt, 1746], i. 134."] + +These were Friedrich's Proposals; written down with his own hand at +Reinsberg, five or six weeks ago (November 17th is the date of it); in +what mood, and how wrought upon by Schwerin and Podewils, we saw above. +Gotter has fulfilled his instructions in regard to this important little +Document; and now the effect of it is--? Gotter can report no good +effect whatever. "Be cautious," Friedrich instructs him farther; "modify +that Fifth Proposal; I will take less than the whole, 'if attention is +paid to my just claims on Schlesien.'" To that effect writes Friedrich +once or twice. But it is to no purpose; nor can Gotter, with all his +industry, report other than worse and worse. Nay, he reports before +long, not refusal only, but refusal with mockery: "How strange that his +Prussian Majesty, whose official post in Germany, as Kur-Brandenburg and +Kaiser's Chamberlain, has been to present ewer and towel to the House of +Austria, should now set up for prescribing rules to it!" A piece of wit, +which could not but provoke Friedrich; and warn him that negotiation on +this matter might as well terminate. Such had been his own thought, from +the first; but in compliance with Schwerin and Podewils he was willing +to try. + +Better for Maria Theresa, and for all the world how much better, could +she have accepted this Fifth Proposition! But how could she,--the high +Imperial Lady, keystone of Europe, though by accident with only a few +pounds of ready money at present? Twenty years of bitter fighting, and +agony to herself and all the world, were necessary first; a new Fact of +Nature having turned up, a new European Kingdom with real King to it; +NOT recognizable as such, by the young Queen of Hungary or by any other +person, till it do its proofs. + + + + +WHAT BERLIN IS SAYING; WHAT FRIEDRICH IS THINKING. + +What Friedrich's own humor is, what Friedrich's own inner man is saying +to him, while all the world so babbles about his Silesian Adventure? +Of this too there are, though in diluted state, some glimmerings to be +had,--chiefly in the Correspondence with Jordan. + +Ingenious Jordan, Inspector of the Poor at Berlin,--his thousand old +women at their wheels humming pleasantly in the background of our +imaginations, though he says nothing of that,--writes twice a week to +his Majesty: pleasant gossipy Letters, with an easy respectfulness not +going into sycophancy anywhere; which keep the campaigning King well +abreast of the Berlin news and rumors: something like the essence of +an Old Newspaper; not without worth in our present Enterprise. One +specimen, if we had room! + + + + +JORDAN TO THE KING (successively from Berlin,--somewhat abridged.) + +No. 1. "BERLIN, 14th DECEMBER, 1740 [day after his Majesty left]. +Everybody here is on tiptoe for the Event; of which both origin and end +are a riddle to the most. I am charmed to see a part of your Majesty's +Dominions in a state of Pyrrhonism; the disease is epidemical here at +present. Those who, in the style of theologians, consider themselves +entitled to be certain, maintain That your Majesty is expected with +religious impatience by the Protestants, and that the Catholics hope to +see themselves delivered from a multitude of imposts which cruelly tear +up the beautiful bosom of their Church. You cannot but succeed in your +valiant and stoical Enterprise, since both religion and worldly interest +rank themselves under your flag. + +"Wallis," Austrian Commandant in Glogau, "they say, has punished a +Silesian Heretic of enthusiastic turn, as blasphemer, for announcing +that a new Messiah is just coming. I have a taste for that kind of +martyrdom. Critical persons consider the present step as directly +opposed to certain maxims in the ANTI-MACHIAVEL. + +"The word MANIFESTO--[your Majesty's little PATENT on entering Silesia, +which no reader shall be troubled with at present]--is the burden of +every conversation. There is a short Piece of the kind to come out +to-day, by way of preface to a large complete exposition, which a +certain Jurisconsult is now busy with. People crowd to the Bookshops +for it, as if looking out for a celestial phenomenon that had been +predicted.--This is the beginning of my Gazette; can only come out twice +a week, owing to the arrangement of the Posts. Friday, the day your +Majesty crosses into Silesia, I shall spend in prayer and devotional +exercises: Astronomers pretend that Mars will that day enter"--no matter +what. + +NOTE, The above Manifesto rumor is correct; Jurisconsult is ponderous +Herr Ludwig, Kanzler (Chancellor) of Halle University, monster of +law-learning,--who has money also, and had to help once with a House +in Berlin for one Nussler, a son-in-law of his, transiently known to +us;--ponderous Ludwig, matchless or difficult to match in learning of +this kind, will write ample enough Deductions (which lie in print still, +to the extent of tons' weight), and explain the ERBVERBRUDERUNG and +violence done upon it, so that he who runs may read. Postpone him to a +calmer time. + +No. 2. "BERLIN, SATURDAY, 17th DECEMBER. Manifesto has appeared,"--can +be seen, under thick strata of cobwebs, in many Books; [In +_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 448, 453 (what Jordan now alludes to); IB. +559-592 ["Deduction" itself, Ludwig in all his strength, some three +weeks hence; in OLENSCHLAGER (doubtless); in &c. &c.] is not worth +reading now: Incontestable rights which our House has for ages had on +Schlesien, and which doubtless the Hungarian Majesty will recognize; not +the slightest injury intended, far indeed from that; and so on!--"people +are surprised at its brevity; and, studying it as theologians do a +passage of Scripture, can make almost nothing of it. Clear as crystal, +says one; dexterously obscure by design, says another. + +"Rumor that the Grand-Duke of Lorraine," Maria Theresa's Husband, "was +at Reinsberg incognito lately," Grand-Duke a concerting party, think +people looking into the thing with strong spectacles on their nose! +"M. de Beauvau [French Ambassador Extraordinary, to whom the aces were +promised if they came] said one thing that surprised me: 'What put the +King on taking this step, I do not know; but perhaps it is not such a +bad one.' Surprising news that the Elector of Saxony, King of Poland, is +fallen into inconsolable remorse for changing his religion [to Papistry, +on Papa's hest, many long years ago] and that it is not to the Pope, but +to the King of Prussia, that he opens his heart to steady his staggering +orthodoxy." Very astonishing to Jordan. "One thing is certain, all Paris +rings with your Majesty's change of religion" (over to Catholicism, say +those astonishing people, first conjurers of the universe)! + +No. 3. "BERLIN, 20th DECEMBER. M. de Beauvau," French Ambassador, "is +gone. Ended, yesterday, his survey of the Cabinet of Medals; charmed +with the same: charmed too, as the public is, with the rich present he +has got from said Cabinet [coronation medal or medals in gold, I could +guess]: people say the King of France's Medal given to our M. de Camas +is nothing to it. + +"Rumor of alliance between your Majesty and France with +Sweden,"--premature rumor. Item, "Queen of Hungary dead in +child-birth;"--ditto with still more emphasis! "The day before yesterday, +in all churches, was prayer to Heaven for success to your Majesty's +arms; interest of the Protestant religion being the one cause of the +War, or the only one assigned by the reverend gentlemen. At sound of +these words, the zeal of the people kindles: 'Bless God for raising +such a Defender! Who dared suspect our King's indifference to +Protestantism?'" + +A right clever thing this last (O LE BEAU COUP D'ETAT)! exclaims +Jordan,--though it is not clever or the contrary, not being dramatically +prearranged, as Jordan exults to think. Jordan, though there are dregs +of old devotion lying asleep in him, which will start into new activity +when stirred again, is for the present a very unbelieving little +gentleman, I can perceive.--This is the substance of public rumor at +Berlin for one week. Friedrich answers:-- + +TO M. JORDAN, AT BERLIN. + +"QUARTER AT MILKAU, TOWARDS GLOGAU, 19th DECEMBER, 1740 [comfortable +Jesuit-Establishment at Milkau, Friedrich just got in, out of the +rain].--Seigneur Jordan, thy Letter has given me a deal of pleasure in +regard to all these talkings thou reportest. To-morrow [not to-morrow, +nor next day; wet troops need a rest] I arrive at our last station this +side Glogau, which place I hope to get in a few days. All favors my +designs: and I hope to return to Berlin, after executing them gloriously +and in a way to be content with. Let the ignorant and the envious talk; +it is not they that shall ever serve as loadstar to my designs; not +they, but Glory [LA GLOIRE; Fame, depending not on them]: with the love +of that I am penetrated more than ever; my troops have their hearts big +with it, and I answer to thee for success. Adieu, dear Jordan. Write me +all the ill that the public says of thy Friend, and be persuaded that I +love and will esteem thee always."--F. + +JORDAN TO THE KING. + +No. 4; "BERLIN, 24th DECEMBER. Your Majesty's Letter fills me with +joy and contentment. The Town declared your Majesty to be already in +Breslau; founding on some Letter to a Merchant here. Ever since they +think of your Majesty acting for Protestantism, they make you step along +with strides of Achilles to the ends of Silesia.--Foreign Courts are all +rating their Ambassadors here for not finding you out. + +"Wolf," his negotiations concluded at last, "has entered Halle almost +like the triumphant Entry to Jerusalem. A concourse of pedants escorted +him to his house. Lange [his old enemy, who accused him of Atheism and +other things] has called to see him, and loaded him with civilities, to +the astonishment of the old Orthodox." There let him rest, well buttoned +in gaiters, and avoiding to mount stairs.... "Madame de Roucoulles has +sent me the three objects adjoined, for your Majesty's behoof,"--woollen +achievements, done by the needle, good against the winter weather for +one she nursed. The good old soul. Enough now, of Jordan. [_OEuvres de +Frederic,_ xvii. 75-78.] + +Voltaire, who left Berlin 2d or 3d December, seems to have been stopt by +overflow of rivers about Cleve, then to have taken boat; and is, about +this very time, writing to Friedrich "from a vessel on the Coasts of +Zealand, where I am driven mad." (Intends, privately, for Paris before +long, to get his MAHOMET acted, if possible.) To Voltaire, here is a +Note coming: + +KING TO H. DE VOLTAIRE (at Brussels, if once got thither). + +"QUARTER OF HERRENDORF IN SILESIA, 23d December, 1740. + +"MY DEAR VOLTAIRE,--I have received two of your Letters; but could not +answer sooner; I am like Charles Twelfth's Chess-King, who was always +kept on the move. For a fortnight past, we have been continually afoot +and under way, in such weather as you never saw. + +"I am too tired to reply to your charming Verses; and shivering too +much with cold to taste all the charm of them: but that will come round +again. Do not ask poetry from a man who is actually doing the work of +a wagoner, and sometimes even of a wagoner stuck in the mud. Would you +like to know my way of life? We march from seven in the morning till +four in the afternoon. I dine then; afterwards I work, I receive +tiresome visits; with these comes a detail of insipid matters of +business. 'Tis wrong-headed men, punctiliously difficult, who are to +be set right; heads too hot which must be restrained, idle fellows that +must be urged, impatient men that must be rendered docile, plunderers +to restrain within the bounds of equity, babblers to hear babbling, dumb +people to keep in talk: in fine, one has to drink with those that like +it, to eat with those that are hungry; one has to become a Jew with +Jews, a Pagan with Pagans. + +"Such are my occupations;--which I would willingly make over to another, +if the Phantom they call Fame (GLOIRE) did not rise on me too often. In +truth, it is a great folly, but a folly difficult to cast away when +once you are smitten by it. [Phantom of GLOIRE somewhat rampant in +those first weeks; let us see whether it will not lay itself again, +forevermore, before long!] + +"Adieu, my dear Voltaire; may Heaven preserve from misfortune the man I +should so like to sup with at night, after fighting in the morning! +The Swan of Padua [Algarotti, with his big hook-nose and dusky solemnly +greedy countenance] is going, I think, to Paris, to profit by my +absence; the Philosopher Geometer [big Maupertuis, in red wig and yellow +frizzles, vainest of human kind] is squaring curves; poor little Jordan +[with the kindly hazel eyes, and pen that pleasantly gossips to us] +is doing nothing, or probably something near it. Adieu once more, dear +Voltaire; do not forget the absent who love you. FREDERIC." [_OEuvres de +Frederic,_ xxii. 57.] + + + + +SCHWERIN AT LIEGNITZ; FRIEDRICH HUSHES UP THE GLOGAU PROBLEM, AND STARTS +WITH HIS BEST SPEED FOR BRESLAU. + +Meanwhile, on the Western road, and along the foot of the snowy peaks +over yonder, Schwerin with the small Right column is going prosperously +forwards. Two columns always, as the reader recollects,--two parallel +military currents, flowing steadily on, shooting out estafettes, or +horse-parties, on the right and left; steadily submerging all Silesia as +they flow forward. Left column or current is in slight pause at Glogau +here; but will directly be abreast again. On Tuesday, 27th, Schwerin +is within wind of Liegnitz; on Wednesday morning, while the fires are +hardly lighted, or the smoke of Liegnitz risen among the Hills, Schwerin +has done his feat with the usual deftness: Prussian grenadiers came +softly on the sentry, softly as a dream; but with sudden levelling of +bayonets, sudden beckoning, "To your Guard-house!"--and there, turn the +key upon his poor company and him. Whereupon the whole Prussian column +marches in; tramp tramp, without music, through the streets: in the +Market-place they fold themselves into a ranked mass, and explode into +wind-harmony and rolling of drums. Liegnitz, mostly in nightcap, looks +cautiously out of window: it is a deed done, IHR HERREN; Liegnitz ours, +better late than never; and after so many years, the King has his own +again. Schwerin is sumptuously lodged in the Jesuits, Palace: Liegnitz, +essentially a Protestant Town, has many thoughts upon this event, but as +yet will be stingy of speaking them. + +Thus is Liegnitz managed. A pleasant Town, amid pleasant hills on the +rocky Katzbach; of which swift stream, and other towns and passes on it, +we shall yet hear more. Population, silently industrious in weaving and +otherwise, is now above 14,000; was then perhaps about half that number. +Patiently inarticulate, by no means bright in speech or sentiment; a +much-enduring, steady-going, frugal, pious and very desirable people. + +The situation of Breslau, all this while, is very critical. Much bottled +emotion in the place; no Austrian Garrison admissible; Authorities dare +not again propose such a thing, though Browne is turning every stone for +it,--lest the emotion burst bottle, and take fire. I have dim account +that Browne has been there, has got 300 Austrian dragoons into the Dom +Insel (CATHEDRAL ISLAND; "Not in the City, you perceive!" says General +Browne: "no, separated by the Oder, on both sides, from the rest of the +City; that stately mass of edifices, and good military post");--and had +hoped to get the suburbs burnt, after all. But the bottled emotion was +too dangerous. For, underground, there are ANTI-Brownes: one especially; +a certain busy Deblin, Shoemaker by craft, whom Friedrich speaks of, +but gives no name to; this zealous Cordwainer, Deblin, and he is not the +only individual of like humor, operates on the guild-brothers and lower +populations: [Preuss, _Thronbesteigung,_ p. 469; _OEuvres de +Frederic,_ ii. 61. ] things seem to be looking worse and worse for the +Authorities, in spite of General Browne and his activities and dragoons. + +What the issue will be? Judge if Friedrich wished the Young Dessauer +come! Friedrich's Hussar parties (or Schwerin's, instructed by +Friedrich) go to look if the Breslau suburbs are burnt. Far from it, if +Friedrich knew;--the suburbs merely sit quaking at such a proposal, +and wish the Prussians were here. "But there is time ahead of us," said +everybody at Breslau; "Glogau will take some sieging!" Browne, in the +course of a day or two,--guessing, I almost think, that Glogau was +not to be besieged,--ranked his 300 Austrian dragoons, and rode away; +sending the Austrian State-Papers, in half a score of wagons, ahead of +him. "Archives of Breslau!" cried the general population, at sight +of these wagons; and largely turned out, with emotion again like to +unbottle itself. "Mere Tax-Ledgers, and records of the Government +Offices; come and convince yourselves!" answered the Authorities. And +the ten wagons went on; calling at Ohlau and Brieg, for farther lading +of the like kind. Which wagons the Prussian light-horse chased, but +could not catch. On to Mahren went these Archive-wagons; to Brunn, far +over the Giant Mountains;--did not come back for a long while, nor +to their former Proprietor at all. Tuesday, 27th, Leopold the Young +Dessauer does finally arrive, with his Reserve, at Glogau: never +man more welcome; such a fermentation going on at Breslau,--known to +Friedrich, and what it will issue in, if he delay, not known. With +despatch, Leopold is put into his charge; posts all yielded to him; +orders given,--blockade to be strictness itself, but no fighting if +avoidable; "starvation will soon do it, two months at most," hopes +Friedrich, too sanguine as it proved:--and with earliest daylight on +the 28th, Friedrich's Army, Friedrich himself in the van as usual, is on +march again; at its best speed for Breslau. Read this Note for Jordan:-- + +FRIEDRICH TO M. JORDAN, AT BERLIN. + +"HERRENDORF, 27th Dec. 1740. + +"SIEUR JORDAN,--I march to-morrow for Breslau; and shall be there in +four days [three, it happened; there rising, as would seem, new reason +for haste]. You Berliners [of the 24th last] have a spirit of prophecy, +which goes beyond me. In fine, I go my road; and thou wilt shortly see +Silesia ranked in the list of our Provinces. Adieu; this is all I have +time to tell thee. Religion [Silesian Protestantism, and Breslau's +Cordwainer], religion and our brave soldiers will do the rest. + +"Tell Maupertuis I grant those Pensions he proposes for his +Academicians; and that I hope to find good subjects for that dignity in +the Country where I am, withal. Give him my compliments. + +"FREDERIC." + +The march was of the swiftest,--swifter even than had been +expected;--which, as Silesia is all ringing glass, becomes more +achievable than lately. But certain regiments outdid themselves in +marching; "in three marches, near upon seventy miles,"--with their +baggage jingling in due proximity. Through Glasersdorf, thence through +Parchwitz, Neumarkt, Lissa, places that will be better known to us;--on +Saturday, last night of the Year, his Majesty lodged at a Schloss called +Pilsnitz, five miles to west of Breslau; and van-ward regiments, a good +few, quartered in the Western and Southern suburbs of Breslau itself; +suburbs decidedly glad to see them, and escape conflagration. The +Town-gates are hermetically shut;--plenty of emotion bottled in the +100,000 hearts within. The sentries on the walls presented arms; nay, +it is affirmed, some could not help exclaiming, "WILKOMMEN, IHR LIEBEN +HERREN (Welcome, dear Sirs)!" [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 534.] + +Colonel Posadowsky (active Horse Colonel whom we have seen before, +who perhaps has been in Breslau before) left orders "at the Scultet +Garden-House," that all must be ready and the rooms warmed, his +Majesty intending to arrive here early on the morrow. Which happened +accordingly; Majesty alighting duly at said Garden-House, near by the +Schweidnitz Gate,--I fancy almost before break of day. + + + + +Chapter IV. -- BRESLAU UNDER SOFT PRESSURE. + +The issue of this Breslau transaction is known, or could be stated in +few words; nor is the manner of it such as would, for Breslau's sake, +deserve many. But we are looking into Friedrich, wish to know his +manners and aspects: and here, ready to our hand, a Paper turns up, +compiled by an exact person with better leisure than ours, minutely +detailing every part of the affair. This Paper, after the question, Burn +or insert? is to have the lot of appearing here, with what abridgments +are possible:-- + +"SUNDAY, 1st JANUARY, 1741. The King having established himself in Herrn +Scultet's Garden-House, not far from the Schweidnitz Gate, there began a +delicate and great operation. The Prussians, in a soft cautious manner, +in the gray of the morning, push out their sentries towards the three +Gates on this side of the Oder; seize any 'Excise House,' or the like, +that may be fit for a post; and softly put 'twenty grenadiers' in it. +All this before sunrise. Breslau is rigidly shut; Breslau thought +always it could stand upon its guard, if attacked;--is now, in Official +quarters, dismally uncertain if it can; general population becoming +certain that it cannot, and waiting anxious on the development of this +grand drama. + +"About 7 A.M. a Prussian subaltern advancing within cry of the +Schweidnitz Gate, requests of the Town-guard there, To send him out +a Town-Officer. Town-Officer appears; is informed, 'That Colonels +Posadowsky and Borck, Commissioners or plenipotentiary Messengers from +his Prussian Majesty, desire admittance to the Chief Magistrate of +Breslau, for the purpose of signifying what his Prussian Majesty's +instructions are.' Town-Officer bows, and goes upon his errand. +Town-Officer is some considerable time before he can return; City +Authorities being, as we know, various, partly Imperial, partly Civic; +elderly; and some of them gone to church,--for matins, or to be out of +the way. However, he does at last return; admits the two Colonels, and +escorts them honorably, to the Chief RATHS-SYNDIC (Lord-Mayor) old +Herr von Gutzmar's; where the poor old "President of the OBER AMT" (Von +Schaffgotsch the name of this latter) is likewise in attendance. + +"Prussian Majesty's proposals are of the mildest sort: 'Nothing demanded +of Breslau but the plainly indispensable and indisputable, That +Prussia be in it what Austria has been. In all else, STATUS QUO. Strict +neutrality to Breslau, respect for its privileges as a Free City of the +Reich; protection to all its rights and privileges whatsoever. Shall be +guarded by its own Garrison; no Prussian soldier to enter except with +sidearms; only 30 guards for the King's person, who will visit the City +for a few days;--intends to form a Magazine, with guard of 1,000 men, +but only outside the City: no requisitions; ready money for everything. +Chief Syndic Gutzmar and President Schaffgotsch shall consider these +points.' [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 537.] Syndic and President answer, +Surely! Cannot, however, decide till they have assembled the Town-Rath; +the two Herren Colonels will please to be guests of Breslau, and lodge +in the City till then. + +"And they lodged, accordingly, in the 'GROSSE RING' (called also +SALZ-RING, big Central Square, where the Rathhaus is); and they made and +received visits,--visited especially the Chief President's Office, the +Ober-Amt, and signified there, that his Prussian Majesty's expectation +was, They would give some account of that rather high Proclamation or +'Patent' they had published against him the other day, amid thunder and +lightning here, and what they now thought would be expedient upon +it? All in grave official terms, but of such a purport as was not +exhilarating to everybody in those Ober-Amt localities. + +"MONDAY MORNING, 2d JANUARY. The Rath is assembled; and +consults,--consults at great length. RATH-House and Syndic Gutzmar, +in such crisis, would fain have advice from AMT-House or President +Schaffgotsch; but can get none: considerable coming and going between +them: at length, about 3 in the afternoon, the Treaty is got drawn +up; is signed by the due Breslau hands, and by the two Prussian +Colonels,--which latter ride out with it, about 4 of the clock; +victorious after thirty hours. Straight towards the Scultet Garden ride +they; Town-guard presenting Arms, at the Schweidnitz Gate; nay Town-band +breaking out into music, which is never done but to Ambassadors and high +people. By thirty hours of steady soft pressure, they have brought it +thus far. + +"Friedrich had waited patiently all Sunday, keeping steady guard at the +Gates; but on Monday, naturally, the thirty hours began to hang +heavy: at all events, he perceived that it would be well to facilitate +conclusions a little from without. Breslau stands on the West, more +strictly speaking, on the South side of the Oder, which makes an elbow +here, and thus bounds it, or mostly bounds it, on two sides. The big +drab-colored River spreads out into Islands, of a confused sort, as +it passes; which are partly built upon, and constitute suburbs of the +Town,--stretching over, here and there, into straggles of farther suburb +beyond the River, where a road with its bridge happens to cross for the +Eastern parts. The principal of these Islands is the DOM INSEL,"--known +to General Browne and us,--"on which is the Cathedral, and the CLOSE +with rich Canons and their edifices; Island filled with strong high +architecture; and a superior military post. + +"Friedrich has already as good as possessed himself of the three +landward Gates, which look to the south and to the west; the riverward +gates, or those on the north and the east, he perceives that it were +good now also to have; these, and even perhaps something more? 'Gather +all the river-boats, make a bridge of them across the Oder; push across +400 men:' this is done on Monday morning, under the King's own eye. This +done, 'March up to that riverward Gate, and also to that other, in a +mild but dangerous-looking manner; hew the beams of said Gate in two; +start the big locks; fling wide open said Gate and Gates:' this too +is done; Town-guard looking mournfully on. This done, 'March forward +swiftly, in two halves, without beat of drum,--whitherward you know!' + +"Those three hundred Austrian Dragoons, we saw them leave the Dom +Island, three days ago; there are at present only Six Men, of the +BISHOP'S Guard, walking under arms there,--at the end of the chief +bridge, on the Townward side of their Dom Island. See, Prussian caps and +muskets, ye six men under arms! The six men clutch at their drawbridge, +and hastily set about hoisting:--alas, another Prussian corps, which +has come privately by the eastern (or Country-ward) Bridge, King himself +with it, taps them on the shoulder at this instant; mildly constrains +the six into their guard-house: the drawbridge falls; 400 Prussian +grenadiers take quiet possession of the Dom Island: King may return to +the Scultet Garden, having quickened the lazy hours in this manner. To +such of the Canons as he came upon, his Majesty was most polite; they +most submiss. The six soldiers of the drawbridge, having spoken a little +loud,--still more a too zealous beef-eater of old Schaffgotsch's found +here, who had been very loud,--were put under arrest; but more for +form's sake; and were let go, in a day or two." + +Nothing could be gentler on Friedrich's part, and on that of his two +Colonels, than this delicate operation throughout:--and at 4 P.M., +after thirty hours of waiting, it is done, and nobody's skin scratched. +Old Syndic Gutzmar, and the Town-Rath, urged by perils and a Town +Population who are Protestant, have signed the Surrender with good-will, +at least with resignation, and a feeling of relief. The Ober-Amt +Officials have likewise had to sign; full of all the silent spleen and +despondency which is natural to the situation: spleen which, in the case +of old Schaffgotsch, weak with age, becomes passionately audible here +and there. He will have to give account of that injurious Proclamation, +or Queen's "Patent," to this King that has now come. + + + + +KING ENTERS BRESLAW; STAYS THERE, GRACIOUS AND VIGILANT, FOUR DAYS (Jan. +2d-6th, 1741). + +In the Royal Entrance which took place next day, note these points. +Syndic Gutzmar and the Authorities came out, in grand coaches, at 8 in +the morning; had to wait awhile; the King, having ridden away to look +after his manifold affairs, did not get back till 10. Town Guard and +Garrison are all drawn out; Gates all flung open, Prussian sentries +withdrawn from them, and from the Excise-houses they had seized: King's +Kitchen-and-Proviant Carriages (four mules to each, with bells, with +uncommonly rich housings): King's Body-Coach very grand indeed, and +grandly escorted, the Thirty Body-guards riding ahead; but nothing in +it, only a most superfine cloak "lined wholly with ermine" flung +upon the seat. Other Coaches, more or less grandly escorted; Head +Cup-bearers, Seneschals, Princes, Margraves:--but where is the King? +King had ridden away, a second time, with chief Generals, taking survey +of the Town Walls, round as far as the ZIEGEL-THOR (Tile-Gate, extreme +southeast, by the river-edge): he has thus made the whole circuit of +Breslau;--unwearied in picking up useful knowledge, "though it was very +cold," while that Procession of Coaches went on. + +At noon, his Majesty, thrifty of time, did enter: on horseback, Schwerin +riding with him; behind him miscellaneous chief Officers; Borck and +Posadowsky among others; some miscellany of Page-people following. With +this natural escort, he rode in; Town-Major (Commandant of Town-guard), +with drawn sword going ahead;--King wore his usual Cocked Hat, and +practical Blue Cloak, both a little dimmed by service: but his gray +horse was admirable; and four scarlet Footmen, grand as galloon and +silver fringe could make them, did the due magnificence in dress. He +was very gracious; saluting to this side and to that, where he noticed +people of condition in the windows. "Along Schweidnitz Street, across +the Great Ring, down Albrecht Street." He alighted, to lodge, at the +Count-Schlegenberg House; which used to be the Austrian Cardinal von +Sinzendorf Primate of Silesia's hired lodging,--Sinzendorf's furniture +is put gently aside, on this new occasion. King came on the balcony; and +stood there for some minutes, that everybody might see him. The "immense +shoutings," Dryasdust assures me, have been exaggerated; and I am warned +not to believe the KRIEGS-FAMA such and such a Number, except after +comparing it with him.--That day there was dinner of more than thirty +covers, Chief Syndic Gutzmar and other such guests; but as to the +viands, says my friend, these, owing to the haste, were nothing to speak +of. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 545-548.] + +Dinner, better and better ordered, King more and more gracious, so it +continued all the four days of his Majesty's stay:--on the second day he +had to rise suddenly from table, and leave his guests with an apology; +something having gone awry, at one of the Gates. Awry there, between the +Town Authorities and a General Jeetz of his,--who is on march across +the River at this moment (on what errand we shall hear), and a little +mistakes the terms. His Majesty puts Jeetz right; and even waits, +till he sees his Brigade and him clear across. A junior Schaffgotsch, +[_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 159.] not the inconsolable Schaffgotsch +senior, but his Nephew, was one of the guests this second day; an +ecclesiastic, but of witty fashionable type, and I think a very +worthless fellow, though of a family important in the Province. Dinner +falls about noon; does not last above two hours or three, so that there +is space for a ride ("to the Dom," the first afternoon, "four runners" +always), and for much indoor work, before the supper-hour. + +As the Austrian Authorities sat silent in their place, and gave no +explanation of that "Patent," affixed amid thunder and lightning,--they +got orders from his Majesty to go their ways next day; and went. In +behalf of old President von Schaffgotsch, a chief of the Silesian +Nobility, and man much loved, the Breslau people, and men from every +guild and rank of society, made petition That, he should be allowed +to continue in his Town House here. Which "first request of yours" +his Majesty, with much grace, is sorry to be obliged to refuse. The +suppressed, and insuppressible, weak indignation of old Schaffgotsch is +visible on the occasion; nor, I think, does Friedrich take it ill; only +sends him out of the way with it, for the time. The Austrian Ober-Amt +vanished bodily from Breslau in this manner; and never returned. Proper +"War-Commission (FELD-KRIEGS-COMMISSARIAT)," with Munchow, one of those +skilful Custrin Munchows, at the top of it, organized itself instead; +which, almost of necessity, became Supreme Government in a City +ungoverned otherwise:--and truly there was little regret of the +Ober-Amt, in Breslau; and ever less, to a marked extent, as the years +went on. + +On the 5th of January (fourth and last night here), his Majesty gave a +grand Ball. Had hired, or Colonel Posadowsky instead of him had hired, +the Assembly Rooms (REDOUTEN-SAAL), for the purpose: "Invite all the +Nobility high and low;"--expense by estimate is a ducat (half-guinea) +each; do it well, and his Majesty will pay. About 6 in the evening, his +Majesty in person did us the honor to drive over; opened the Ball with +Madam the Countess von Schlegenberg (I should guess, a Dowager Lady), +in whose house he lodges. I am not aware that his Majesty danced much +farther; but he was very condescending, and spoke and smiled up and +down;--till, about 10 P.M., an Officer came in with a Letter. Which +Letter his Majesty having read, and seemingly asked a question or two in +regard to, put silently in his pocket, as if it were a finished thing. +Nevertheless, after a few minutes, his Majesty was found to have +silently withdrawn; and did not return, not even to supper. Perceiving +which, all the Prussian official people gradually withdrew; though +the dancing and supping continued not the less, to a late hour. +[_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 557.] + +"Open the Austrian Mail-bag (FELLEISEN); see a little what they are +saying over there!" Such order had evidently been given, this night. In +consequence of which, people wrote by Dresden, and not the direct way, +in future; wishing to avoid that openable FELLEISEN. Next morning, +January 6th, his Majesty had left for Ohlau,--early, I suppose; though +there proved to be nothing dangerous ahead there, after all. + + + + +Chapter V. -- FRIEDRICH PUSHES FORWARD TOWARDS BRIEG AND NEISSE. + +Ohlau is a pleasant little Town, two marches southeast of Breslau; with +the Ohlau River on one side, and the Oder on the other; capable of some +defence, were there a garrison. Brieg the important Fortress, still +on the Oder, is some fifteen miles beyond Ohlau; after which, bending +straight south and quitting Oder, Neisse the still more important may be +thirty miles:--from Breslau to Neisse, by this route (which is BOW, not +STRING), sixty-five or seventy miles. One of my Topographers yields this +Note, if readers care for it:-- + +"Ohlau River, an insignificant drab-colored stream, rises well south of +Breslau, about Strehlen; makes, at first, direct eastward towards the +Oder; and then, when almost close upon it, breaks off to north, and +saunters along, irregularly parallel to Oder, for twenty miles farther, +before it can fall fairly in. To this circumstance both Breslau and a +Town of Ohlau owe their existence; Towns, both of them, 'between the +waters,' and otherwise well seated; Ohlau sheltering itself in the +attempted outfall of its little river; Breslau clustering itself about +the actual outfall: both very defensible places in the old rude time, +and good for trade in all times. Both Oder and Ohlau Rivers have split +and spread themselves into islands and deltas a good deal, at their +place of meeting; and even have changed their courses, and cut out new +channels for themselves, in the sandy country; making a very intricate +watery network of a site for Breslau: and indeed the Ohlau River here, +for centuries back, has been compelled into wide meanderings, mere +filling of rampart-ditches, so that it issues quite obscurely, and in an +artificial engineered condition, at Breslau." + +Ohlau had been expected to make some defence; General Browne having +thrown 300 men into it, and done what he could for the works. And Ohlau +did at first threaten to make some; but thought better of it overnight, +and in effect made none; but was got (morning of January 9th) on +the common terms, by merely marching up to it in minatory posture. +"Prisoners of War, if you make resistance; Free Withdrawal [Liberty to +march away, arms shouldered, and not serve against us for a year], if +you have made none:" this is the common course, where there are Austrian +Soldiers at all; the course where none are, and only a few Syndics sit, +with their Town-Key laid on the table, a prey to the stronger hand, we +have already seen. + +From Ohlau, proper Detachment, under General Kleist, is pushed forward +to summon Brieg; Jeetz from the other side of the river (whom we saw +crossing at Breslau the other day, interrupting his Majesty's dinner) +is to co-operate with Kleist in that enterprise,--were the Country once +cleared on his, Jeetz's, east side of Oder; especially were Namslau once +had, a small Town and Castle over there, which commands the Polish +and Hungarian road. Friedrich's hopes are buoyant; Schwerin is swiftly +rolling forward to rightward, nothing resisting him; Detachment is +gone from Schwerin, over the Hills, to Glatz (the GRAFSCHAFT, or County +Glatz, an Appendage to Schlesien), under excellent guidance; under +guidance, namely, of Colonel Camas, who has just come home from his +Parisian Embassy, and got launched among the wintry mountains, on a +new operation,--which, however, proves of non-effect for the present. +[_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 678; Orlich, _Geschichte der beiden +Schlesischen Kriege,_ i. 49.] + +Indeed, it is observable that southward of Breslau, the dispute, what +dispute there can be, properly begins; and that General Browne is there, +and shows himself a shining man in this difficult position. It must be +owned, no General could have made his small means go farther. Effective +garrisons, 1,600 each, put into Brieg and Neisse; works repaired, +magazines collected, there and elsewhere; the rest of his poor 7,000 +thriftily sprinkled about, in what good posts there are, and "capable +of being got together in six hours:" a superior soldier, this Browne, +though with a very bad task; and seems to have inspired everybody with +something of his own temper. So that there is marching, detaching, +miscellaneous difficulty for Friedrich in this quarter, more than had +been expected. If the fate of Brieg and Neisse be inevitable, Browne +does wonders to delay it. + +Of the Prussian marches in these parts, recorded by intricate Dryasdust, +there was no point so notable to me as this unrecorded one: the Stone +Pillar which, I see, the Kleist Detachment was sure to find, just now, +on the march from Ohlau to Brieg; last portion of that march, between +the village of Briesen and Brieg. The Oder, flowing on your left hand, +is hereabouts agreeably clothed with woods: the country, originally +a swamp, has been drained, and given to the plough, in an +agreeable manner; and there is an excellent road paved with solid +whinstone,--quarried in Strehlen, twenty miles away, among the Hills to +the right yonder, as you may guess;--road very visible to the Prussian +soldier, though he does not ask where quarried. These beautiful +improvements, beautiful humanities,--were done by whom? "Done in 1584," +say the records, by "George the Pious;" Duke of Liegnitz, Brieg +and Wohlau; 156 years ago. "Pious" his contemporaries called this +George;--he was son of the ERBVERBRUDERUNG Duke, who is so important to +us; he was grandfather's grandfather of the last Duke of all; after whom +it was we that should have got these fine Territories; they should +all have fallen to the Great Elector, had not the Austrian strong hand +provided otherwise. George did these plantations, recoveries to the +plough; made this perennial whinstone road across the swamps; upon +which, notable to the roughest Prussian (being "twelve feet high by +eight feet square"), rises a Hewn Mass with this Inscription on it,--not +of the name or date of George; but of a thought of his, which is not +without a pious beauty to me:--_Straverunt alii nobis, nos Posteritati; +Omnibus at Christus stravit ad asra viam._ Others have made roads for +us; we make them for still others: Christ made a road to the stars for +us all. [Zollner, _Briefe uber Schlesien,_ i. 175; Hubner, i. t. 101.] + +I know not how many Brandenburgers of General Kleist's Detachment, or +whether any, read this Stone; but they do all rustle past it there, +claiming the Heritage of this Pious George; and their mute dim interview +with him, in this manner, is a thing slightly more memorable than orders +of the day, at this date. + +It was on the 11th, two days after Ohlau, that General Kleist summoned +Brieg; and Brieg answered resolutely, No. There is a garrison of 1,600 +here, and a proper magazine: nothing for it but to "mask" Brieg too; +Kleist on this side the River, Jeetz on that,--had Jeetz once done with +Namslau, which he has not by any means. Namslau's answer was likewise +stiffly in the negative; and Jeetz cannot do Namslau, at least not +the Castle, all at once; having no siege-cannon. Seeing such stiffness +everywhere, Friedrich writes to Glogau, to the Young Dessauer, +"Siege-artillery hither! Swift, by the Oder; you don't need it where you +are!" and wishes it were arrived, for behoof of Neisse and these stiff +humors. + + + + +FRIEDRICH COMES ACROSS TO OTTMACHAU; SITS THERE, IN SURVEY OF NEISSE, +TILL HIS CANNON COME. + +The Prussians met with serious resistance, for the first time (9th +January, same day when Ohlau yielded), at a place called Ottmachau; a +considerable little Town and Castle on the Neisse River, not far west of +Neisse Town, almost at the very south of Silesia. It lay on the route of +Schwerin's Column; long distances ahead of Liegnitz,--say, by straight +highway a hundred miles;--during which, to right and to left, there had +been nothing but submission hitherto. No resistance was expected here +either, for there was not hope in any; only that Browne had been here; +industrious to create delay till Neisse were got fully ready. He is, by +every means, girding up the loins of Neisse for a tight defence; has put +1,600 men into it, with proper stores for them, with a resolute skilful +Captain at the top of them: assiduous Browne had been at Ottmachau, +as the outpost of Neisse, a day or two before; and, they say, had +admonished them "Not to yield on any terms, for he would certainly come +to their relief." Which doubtless he would have done, had it been in his +power; but how, except by miracle, could it be? On the 9th of January, +when Schwerin comes up, Browne is again waiting hereabouts. Again in +defensive posture, but without force to undertake anything; stands on +the Southern Uplands, with Bohmen and Mahren and the Giant Mountains at +his back;--stands, so to speak, defensive at his own House-door, in this +manner; and will have, after SEEING Ottmachau's fate and Neisse's, to +duck in with a slam! At any rate, he had left these Towns in the +above firm humor, screwed to the sticking-place; and had then galloped +else-whither to screw and prepare. + +And so the Ottmachau Austrians, "260 picked grenadiers" (400 dragoons +there also at first were, who, after flourishing about on the outskirts +as if for fighting, rode away), fire "DESPERAT," says my intricate +friend; [_Helden-Geschichte_, i. 672-677; Orlich, i. 50.] entirely +refusing terms from Schwerin; kill twelve of his people (Major de Rege, +distinguished Engineer Major, one of them): so that Schwerin has to +bring petards upon them, four cannon upon them; and burst in their +Town Gate, almost their Castle Gate, and pretty much their Castle +itself;--wasting three days of his time upon this paltry matter. Upon +which they do signify a willingness for "Free Withdrawal." "No, IHR +HERREN" answers, Schwerin; "not now; after such mad explosion. His +Majesty will have to settle it." Majesty, who is by this time not far +off, comes over to Ottmachau (January 12th); gives words of rebuke, +rebuke not very inexorable; and admits them Prisoners of War. "The +officers were sent to Custrin, common men to Berlin;" the usual +arrangement in such case. Ottmachau Town belongs to the Right Reverend +von Sinzendorf, Bishop of Breslau, and Primate; whose especial Palace is +in Neisse; though he "commonly sends his refractory Priests to do their +penance in the Schloss at Ottmachau here,"--and, I should say, had +better himself make terms, and come out hitherward, under present +aspects. + +Friedrich continues at Ottmachau; head-quarters there thenceforth, till +he see Neisse settled. On the morrow, (13th) he learns that the Siege +Artillery is at Grotkau; well forward towards Neisse; halfway between +Brieg and it. Same day, Colonel Camas returns to him out of Glatz; five +of his men lost; and reports That Browne has had the roads torn up, that +Glatz is mere ice and obstruction, and that nothing can be made of it at +this season. Good news alternating with not so good. + +The truth is, Friedrich has got no Strong Place in Schlesien; all +strengths make unexpected defence; paltry little Namslan itself +cannot be quite taken, Castle cannot, till Jeetz gets his +siege-artillery,--which does not come along so fast as that to Neisse +does. Here is an Excerpt from my Dryasdust, exact though abridged, +concerning Jeetz:-- + +"JANUARY 24th, 1741. Prussians, masters of the Town for a couple of +weeks back, have got into the Church at Namslau, into the Cloister; are +preparing plank floors for batteries, cutting loop-holes; diligent as +possible,--siege-guns now at last just coming. The Castle fires fiercely +on them, makes furious sallies, steals six of our oxen,--makes insolent +gestures from the walls; at least one soldier does, this day. 'Sir, +may I give that fellow a shot?' asks the Prussian sentry. 'Do, then,' +answers his Major: 'too insolent that one!' And the sentry explodes on +him; brings him plunging down, head foremost (HERUNTER PURZELTE); the +too insolent mortal, silent enough thenceforth." [_Helden-Geschichte,_ +i. 703.]--Jeetz did get his cannon, though not till now, this very day +I think; and then, in a couple of days more, Jeetz finished off Namslau +("officers to Custrin, Common men to Berlin"); and thereupon blockades +the Eastern side of Brieg, joining hands with Kleist on the Western: +whereby Brieg, like Glogau, is completely masked,--till the season mend. + +Friedrich, now that his artillery is come, expects no difficulty with +Neisse. A "paltry hamlet (BICOQUE)" he playfully calls it; and, except +this, Silesia is now his. Neisse got (which would be the desirable +thing), or put under "mask" as Glogau is, and as Brieg is being, Austria +possesses not an inch of land within these borders. Here are some +Epistolary snatches; still in the light style, not to say the flimsy +and uplifted; but worth giving, so transparent are they; off hand, like +words we had heard his Majesty SPEAK, in his high mood:-- + +KING TO M. JORDAN, AT BERLIN (two successive Letters). + +1. "OTTMACHAU, 14th JANUARY, 1741 [second day after our arrival there]. +My dear Monsieur Jordan, my sweet Monsieur Jordan, my quiet Monsieur +Jordan, my good, my benign, my pacific, my humanest Monsieur Jordan,--I +announce to Thy Serenity the conquest of Silesia; I warn thee of the +bombardment of Neisse [just getting ready], and I prepare thee for still +more important projects; and instruct thee of the happiest successes +that the womb of Fortune ever bore. + +"This ought to suffice thee. Be my Cicero as to the justice of my +cause, and I will be thy Caesar as to the execution. Adieu: thou +knowest whether I am not, with the most cordial regard, thy faithful +friend.--F." + +2. "OTTMACHAU, 17th JANUARY, 1741. I have the honor to inform your +Humanity that we are christianly preparing to bombard Neisse; and that +if the place will not surrender of good-will, needs must that it be +beaten to powder (NECESSITE SERA DE L'ABIMER). For the rest, our affairs +go the best in the world; and soon thou wilt hear nothing more of us. +For in ten days it will all be over; and I shall have the pleasure of +seeing you and hearing you, in about a fortnight. + +"I have seen neither my Brother [August Wilhelm, not long ago at +Strasburg with us, and betrothed since then] nor Keyserling: I left them +at Breslau, not to expose them to the dangers of war. They perhaps will +be a little angry; but what can I do?--The rather as, on this occasion, +one cannot share in the glory, unless one is a mortar! + +"Adieu, M. le Conseiller [Poor's-RATH, so styled]. Go and amuse yourself +with Horace, study Pausanias, and be gay over Anacreon. As to me, who +for amusement have nothing but merlons, fascines and gabions, [Merlons +are mounds of earth placed behind the solid or blind parts of the +parapet (that is, between the embrasures) of a Fortification; fascines +are bundles of brushwood for filling up a ditch; gabions, baskets filled +with earth to be ranged in defence till you get trenches dug.] I pray +God to grant me soon a pleasanter and peacefuler occupation, and you +health, satisfaction and whatever your heart desires.--F." [_OEuvres de +Frederic,_ xvii. 84.] + +KING FRIEDRICH TO M. LE COMTE ALGAROTTI (gone on a journey). + +"OTTMACHAU, 17th JANUARY, 1741 [same day as the above to Jordan]. I +have begun to settle the Figure of Prussia: the outline will not be +altogether regular; for the whole of Silesia is taken, except one +miserable hamlet (BICOQUE), which perhaps I shall have to keep blockaded +till next spring. + +"Up to this time, the whole conquest has cost only Twenty Men, and +Two Officers, one of whom is the poor De Rege, whom you have seen +at Berlin,"--De Rege, Engineer Major, killed here at Ottmachau, in +Schwerin's late tussle. + +"You are greatly wanting to me here. So soon as you have talked that +business over, write to me about it. [What is the business? Whither is +the dusky Swan of Padua gone?] In all these three hundred miles I +have found no human creature comparable to the Swan of Padua. I would +willingly give ten cubic leagues of ground for a genius similar to +yours. But I perceive I was about entreating you to return fast, and +join me again,--while you are not yet arrived where your errand was. +Make haste to arrive, then; to execute your commission, and fly back to +me. I wish you had a Fortunatus Hat; it is the only thing defective in +your outfit. + +"Adieu, dear Swan of Padua: think, I pray you, sometimes of those who +are getting themselves cut in slices [ECHINER, chined] for the sake +of glory here, and above all do not forget your friends who think a +thousand times of you. + +"FREDERIC." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xviii. 28.] + +The object of the dear Swan's journey, or even the whereabouts of +it, cannot be discovered without difficulty; and is not much worth +discovering. "Gone to Turin," we at last make out, "with secret +commissions:" [Denina, _La Prusse Litteraire_ (Berlin, 1790), i. 198. A +poor vague Book; only worth consulting in case of extremity.] desirable +to sound the Sardinian Majesty a little, who is Doorkeeper of the Alps, +between France and Austria, and opens to the best bidder? No great +things of a meaning in this mission, we can guess, or Algarotti had not +gone upon it,--though he is handy, at least, for keeping it unnoticed by +the Gazetteer species. Nor was the Swan successful, it would seem; +the more the pity for our Swan! However, he comes back safe; attends +Friedrich in Silesia; and in the course of next month readers will see +him, if any reader wished it. + + + + +Chapter VI. -- NEISSE IS BOMBARDED. + +Neisse, which Friedrich calls a paltry hamlet (BICOQUE) is a pleasant +strongly fortified Town, then of perhaps 6 or 8,000 inhabitants, now of +double that number; stands on the right or south bank of the Neisse,--at +this day, on both banks. Pleasant broad streets, high strong houses, +mostly of stone. Pleasantly encircled by green Hills, northward +buttresses of the Giant Mountains; itself standing low and level, +on rich ground much inclined to be swampy. A lesser river, Biele, +or Bielau, coming from the South, flows leisurely enough into the +Neisse,--filling all the Fortress ditches, by the road. Orchard-growth +and meadow-growth are lordly (HERRLICH); a land rich in fruit, +and flowing with milk and honey. Much given to weaving, brewing, +stocking-making; and, moreover, trades greatly in these articles, and +above all in Wine. Yearly on St. Agnes Day, "21st January, if not a +Sunday," there is a Wine-fair here; Hungarian, of every quality from +Tokay downward, is gathered here for distribution into Germany and all +the Western Countries. While you drink your Tokay, know that it comes +through Neisse. St. Agnes Day falls but unhandily this year; and I think +the Fair will, as they say, AUSBLEIBEN, or not be held. + +Neisse is a Nest of Priests (PFAFFEN-NEST), says Friedrich once; which +came in this way. About 600 years ago, an ill-conditioned Heir-Apparent +of the Liegnitz Sovereign to whom it then belonged, quarrelled with his +Father, quarrelled slightly with the Universe; and, after moping about +for some time, went into the Church. Having Neisse for an apanage +already his own, he gave it to the Bishop of Breslau; whose, in spite +of the old Father's protestings, it continued, and continues. Bishops of +Breslau are made very grand by it; Bishops of Breslau have had their own +difficulties here. Thus once (in our Perkin-Warbeck time, A.D. 1497), a +Duke of Oppeln, sitting in some Official Conclave or meeting of magnates +here,--zealous for country privilege, and feeling himself insufferably +put upon,--started up, openly defiant of Official men; glaring +wrathfully into Duke Casimir of Teschen (Bohemian-Austrian Captain of +Silesia), and into the Bishop of Breslau himself; nay at last, flashed +out his sword upon those sublime dignitaries. For which, by and by, he +had to lay his head on the block, in the great square here; and died +penitent, we hope. + +This place, my Dryasdust informs me, had many accidents by floodage and +by fire; was seized and re-seized in the Thirty-Years War especially, at +a great rate: Saxon Arnheim, Austrian Holk, Swedish Torstenson; no end +to the battering and burning poor Neisse had, to the big ransoms "in new +Reichs-thalers and 300 casks of wine." But it always rebuilt itself, and +began business again. How happy when it could get under some effectual +Protector, of the Liegnitz line, of the Austrian-Bohemian line, and +this or the other battering, just suffered, was to be the last for some +time!--Here again is a battering coming on it; the first of a series +that are now imminent. + +The reader is requested to look at Neisse; for besides the Tokay wine, +there will things arrive there.--Neisse River, let us again mention, is +one of four bearing that name, and all belonging to the Oder:--could not +they be labelled, then, or NUMBERED, in some way? This Neisse, which we +could call Neisse the FIRST (and which careful readers may as well make +acquaintance with on their Map, where too they will find Neisse the +SECOND, "the WUTHENDE or Roaring Neisse," and two others which concern +us less), rises in the "Western Snow-Mountains (SCHNEEGEBIRGE)," +Southwestern or Glatz district of the Giant Mountains; drains Glatz +County and grows big there; washes the Town of Glatz; then eastward +by Ottmachau, by Neisse Town; whence turning rather abruptly north or +northeast, it gets into the Oder not far south of Brieg. + +Neisse as a Place of Arms, the chief Fortress of Silesia and the nearest +to Austria, is extremely desirable for Friedrich; but there is no hope +of it without some kind of Siege; and Friedrich determines to try in +that way. From Ottmachau, accordingly, and from the other sides, the +Siege-Artillery being now at hand, due force gathers itself round +Neisse, Schwerin taking charge; and for above a week there is +demonstrating and posting, summoning and parleying; and then, for three +days, with pauses intervening, there is extremely furious bombardment, +red-hot at times: "Will you yield, then?"--with steady negative from +Neisse. Friedrich's quarter is at Ottmachau, twelve miles off; from +which he can ride over, to see and superintend. The fury of his +bombardment, which naturally grieved him, testifies the intensity of his +wish. But it was to no purpose. The Commandant, Colonel von Roth (the +same who was proposed for Breslau lately, a wise head and a stout, famed +in defences) had "poured water on his ramparts," after well repairing +them,--made his ramparts all ice and glass;--and done much else. Would +the reader care to look for a moment? Here, from our waste Paper-masses, +is abundance, requiring only to be abridged:-- + +"JANUARY, 1741: MONDAY, 9th-WEDNESDAY, 11th. Monday, 9th, day when that +sputter at Ottmachau began,--Prussian light-troops appeared transiently +on the heights about Neisse, for the first time. Directly on sight of +whom, Commandant Roth assembled the Burghers of the place; took a new +Oath of Fidelity from one and all; admonished them to do their utmost, +as they should see him do. The able-bodied and likeliest of them (say +about 400) he has had arranged into Militia Companies, with what drill +there could be in the interim; and since his coming, has employed every +moment in making ready. Wednesday, 11th, he locks all the Gates, and +stands strictly on his guard. The inhabitants are mostly Catholic; with +sumptuous Bishops of Breslau, with KREUZHERREN (imaginary Teutsch or +other Ritters with some reality of money), with Jesuit Dignitaries, +Church and Quasi-Church Officialities, resident among them: population, +high and low, is inclined by creed to the Queen of Hungary. Commandant +Roth has only 1,200 regular soldiers; at the outside 1,600 men under +arms: but he has gunpowder, he has meal; experience also and courage; +and hopes these may suffice him for a time. One of the most determined +Commandants; expert in the defence of strong places. A born Silesian +(not Saxon, as some think),--and is of the Augsburg Confession; but that +circumstance is not important here, though at Breslau Browne thought it +was. + +"THURSDAY, 12th. The Prussians, in regular force, appear on the +Kaninchen Berg (Cony Hill, so called from its rabbits), south of the +River, evidently taking post there. Roth fires a signal shot; the +Southern Suburbs of Neisse, as preappointed, go up in flame; crackle +high and far; in a lamentable manner (ERBARMLICH), through the grim +winter air." This is the day Friedrich came over to Ottmachau, and +settled the sputter there. + +"Next day, and next again, the same phenomena at Neisse; the Prussians +edging ever nearer, building their batteries, preparing to open their +cannonade. Whereupon Roth burns the remaining Suburbs, with lamentable +crackle; on all sides now are mere ashes. Bishop's Mill, Franciscan +Cloister, Bishop's Pleasure-garden, with its summer-houses; Bishop's +Hospital, and several Churches: Roth can spare none of these things, +with the Prussians nestling there. Surely the Bishop himself, +respectable Cardinal Graf von Sinzendorf, had better get out of these +localities while time yet is?" "Saturday, 14th," that was the day +Friedrich, at Ottmachau, wrote as above to Jordan (Letter No. 1), while +the Neisse Suburbs crackled lamentably, twelve miles off, "Schwerin gets +order to break up, in person, from Ottmachan to-morrow, and begin actual +business on the Kaninchen Hill yonder. + +"SUNDAY, 15th. Schwerin does; marches across the River; takes post on +the south side of Neisse: notable to the Sunday rustics. Nothing but +burnt villages and black walls for Schwerin, in that Cony-Hill quarter, +and all round; and Roth salutes him with one twenty-four pounder, +which did no hurt. And so the cannonade begins, Sunday, 15th; and +intermittently, on both sides of the River, continues, always bursting +out again at intervals, till Wednesday; a mere preliminary cannonade +on Schwerin's part; making noise, doing little hurt: intended more to +terrify, but without effect that way on Roth or the Townsfolk. The poor +Bishop did, on the second day of it, come out, and make application to +Schwerin; was kindly conducted to his Majesty, who happened to be over +there; was kept to dinner; and easily had leave to retire to Freywalde, +a Country-House he has, in the safe distance. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. +683.] There let him be quiet, well out of these confused batterings and +burnings of property. + +"His Majesty's Head-quarter is at Ottmachau, but in two hours he can be +here any day; and looks into everything; sorry that the cannonade does +not yet answer. And remnants of suburbs are still crackling into +flame; high Country-Houses of Kreuzherren, of Jesuits; a fanatic people +seemingly all set against us. 'If Neisse will not yield of good-will, +needs is it must be beaten to powder,' wrote his Majesty to Jordan in +these circumstances, as we read above. Roth is sorry to observe, the +Prussians have still one good Bishop's-mansion, in a place called the +Karlau (Karl-Meadow), with the Bishop's winter fuel all ready stacked +there; but strives to take order about the same. + +"WEDNESDAY, 18th. This day two provocations happened. First, in the +morning by his Majesty's order, Colonel Borck (the same we saw at +Herstal) had gone with a Trumpeter towards Roth; intending to inform +Roth how mild the terms would be, how terrible the penalty of not +accepting them. But Roth or Roth's people singularly disregard Borck +and his Parley Trumpet; answer its blasts by musketry; fire upon it, nay +again fire worse when it advances a step farther; on these terms Borck +and Trumpet had to return. Which much angered his Majesty at Ottmachau +that evening; as was natural. Same evening, our fine quarters in the +Karlau crackled up in flame, the Bishop's winter firewood all along with +it: this was provocation second. Roth had taken order with the Karlau; +and got a resolute Butcher to do the feat, under pretext of bringing us +beef. It is piercing cold; only blackened walls for us now in the Karlau +or elsewhere. His Majesty, naturally much angered, orders for the morrow +a dose of bomb-shells and red-hot balls. Plant a few mortars on the +North side too, orders his Majesty. + +"THURSDAY, 19th. Accordingly, by 8 of the clock, cannon batteries +reawaken with a mighty noise, and red-hot balls are noticeable; and at +10 the actual bombarding bursts out, terrible to hear and see;--first +shell falling in Haubitz the Clothier's shop, but being happily got +under. Roth has his City Militia companies, organized with water-hose +for quenching of the red-hot balls: in which they became expert. So that +though the fire caught many houses, they always put it out. Late in the +night, hearing no word from Roth, the Prussians went to bed. + +"FRIDAY, 20th. Still no word; on which, about 4 P.M., the Prussian +batteries awaken again: volcanic torrent of red-hot shot and shells, +for seven hours; still no word from Roth. About 11 at night his Majesty +again sends a Drum (Parley Trumpet or whatever it is) to the Gate; +formally summons Roth; asks him, 'If he has well considered what this +can lead to? Especially what he, Roth, meant by firing on our first +Trumpet on Wednesday last?' Roth answered, 'That as to the Trumpet, he +had not heard of it before. On the other hand, that this mode of sieging +by red-hot balls seems a little unusual; for the rest, that he has +himself no order or intention but that of resisting to the last.' Some +say the Drum hereupon by order talked of 'pounding Neisse into powder, +mere child's-play hitherto;' to which Roth answered only by respectful +dumb-show. + +"SATURDAY, 21st-MONDAY, 23d. Midnight of Friday-Saturday, on this answer +coming, the fire-volcanoes open again;--nine hours long; shells, and +red-hot material, in terrible abundance. Which hit mostly the churches, +Jesuits' Seminariums and Collegiums; but produced no change in Roth. +From 9 A.M. the batteries are silent. Silent still, next morning: +Divine Service may proceed, if it like. But at 4 of the afternoon, the +batteries awaken worse than ever; from seven to nine bombs going at +once. Universal rage, of noise and horrid glare, making night hideous, +till 10 of the clock; Roth continuing inflexible. This is the last night +of the Siege." + +Friedrich perceived that Roth would not yield; that the utter +smashing-down of Neisse might more concern Friedrich than Roth;--that, +in fine, it would be better to desist till the weather altered. Next +day, "Monday, 23d, between noon and 1 o'clock," the Prussians drew +back;--converted the siege into a blockade. Neisse to be masked, like +Brieg and Glogau (Brieg only half done yet, Jeetz without cannon till +to-morrow, 24th, and little Namslau still gesticulating): "The +only thing one could try upon it was bombardment. A Nest of Priests +(PFAFFEN-NEST); not many troops in it: but it cannot well be forced +at present. If spring were here, it will cost a fortnight's work." +[FRIEDRICH TO THE OLD DESSAUER: Fraction of Letter (Ottmachau, 16th-21st +January, 1741) cited by Orlich, i. 51;--from the Dessau Archives, where +Herr Orlich has industriously been. To all but strictly military people +these pieces of Letters are the valuable feature of Orlich's Book; and +a general reader laments that it does not all consist of such, properly +elucidated and labelled into accessibility.] + +A noisy business; "King's high person much exposed: a bombardier and +then a sergeant were killed close by him, though in all he lost only +five men." [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 680-690.] + + + + +BROWNE VANISHES IN A SLIGHT FLASH OF FIRE. + +Browne all this while has hung on the Mountain-side, witnessing these +things; sending stores towards Glatz southwestward, and "ruining the +ways" behind them; waiting what would become of Neisse. Neisse done, +Schwerin is upon him; Browne makes off Southeastward, across the +Mountains, for Moravia and home; Schwerin following hard. At a little +place called Gratz, [The name, in old Slavic speech, signifies TOWN; and +there are many GRATZES: KONIGINgratz (QUEEN'S, which for brevity is +now generally called KONIGSgratz, in Bohemia); Gratz in Styria; +WINDISCHgratz (Wendish-town); &c.] on the Moravian border, Browne faced +round, tried to defend the Bridge of the Oppa, sharply though without +effect; and there came (January 25th) a hot sputter between them for +a few minutes:--after which Browne vanished into the interior, and we +hear, in these parts, comparatively little more of him during this War. +Friend and foe must admit that he has neglected nothing; and fairly made +the best of a bad business here. He is but an interim General, too; +his Successor just coming; and the Vienna Board of War is frequently +troublesome,--to whose windy speculations Browne replies with sagacious +scepticism, and here and there a touch of veiled sarcasm, which was not +likely to conciliate in high places. Had her Hungarian Majesty been +able to retain Browne in his post, instead of poor Neipperg who was sent +instead, there might have been a considerably different account to give +of the sequel. But Neipperg was Tutor (War-Tutor) to the Grand-Duke; +Browne is still of young standing (age only thirty-five), with a touch +of veiled sarcasm; and things must go their course. + +In Schlesien, Schwerin is now to command in chief; the King going off to +Berlin for a little, naturally with plenty of errand there. The Prussian +Troops go into Winter-quarters; spread themselves wide; beset the good +points, especially the Passes of the Hills,--from Jagerndorf, eastward +to the Jablunka leading towards Hungary;--nay they can, and before long +do, spread into the Moravian Territories, on the other side; and levy +contributions, the Queen proving unreasonable. + +It was Monday, 23d, when the Siege of Neisse was abandoned: on +Wednesday, Friedrich himself turns homeward; looks into Schweidnitz, +looks into Liegnitz; and arrives at Berlin as the week ends,--much +acclamation greeting him from the multitude. Except those three masked +Fortresses, capable of no defence to speak of, were Winter over, Silesia +is now all Friedrich's,--has fallen wholly to him in the space of about +Seven Weeks. The seizure has been easy; but the retaining of it, perhaps +he himself begins to see more clearly, will have difficulties! From this +point, the talk about GLOIRE nearly ceases in his Correspondence. In +those seven weeks he has, with GLOIRE or otherwise, cut out for himself +such a life of labor as no man of his Century had. + + + + +Chapter VII. -- AT VERSAILLES, THE MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY CHANGES HIS +SHIRT, AND BELLEISLE IS SEEN WITH PAPERS. + +While Friedrich was so busy in Silesia, the world was not asleep around +him; the world never is, though it often seems to be, round a man and +what action he does in it. That Sunday morning, First Day of the Year +1741, in those same hours while Friedrich, with energy, with caution, +was edging himself into Breslau, there went on in the Court of +Versailles an interior Phenomenon; of which, having by chance got access +to it face to face, we propose to make the reader participant before +going farther. + +Readers are languidly aware that phenomena do go on round their +Friedrich; that their busy Friedrich, with his few Voltaires and +renowned persons, are not the only population of their Century, by +any means. Everybody is aware of that fact; yet, in practice, almost +everybody is as good as not aware; and the World all round one's Hero +is a darkness, a dormant vacancy. How strange when, as here, some +Waste-paper spill (so to speak) turns up, which you can KINDLE; and, by +the brief flame of it, bid a reader look with his own eyes!--From +Herr Doctor Busching, who did the GEOGRAPHY and about a Hundred other +Books,--a man of great worth, almost of genius, could he have elaborated +his Hundred Books into Ten (or distilled, into flasks of aqua-vitae, +what otherwise lies tumbling as tanks of mash and wort, now run very +sour and mal-odorous);--it is from Herr Busching that we gain the +following rough Piece, illuminative if one can kindle it:-- + +The Titular-Herr Baron Anton von Geusau, a gentleman of good parts, +scholastic by profession, and of Protestant creed, was accompanying as +Travelling Tutor, in those years, a young Graf von Reuss. Graf von Beuss +is one of those indistinct Counts Reuss, who always call themselves +"Henry;" and, being now at the eightieth and farther, with uncountable +collateral Henrys intertwisted, are become in effect anonymous, or of +nomenclature inscrutable to mankind. Nor is the young one otherwise of +the least interest to us;--except that Herr Anton, the Travelling Tutor, +punctually kept a Journal of everything. Which Journal, long afterwards, +came into the hands of Busching, also a punctual man; and was by him +abridged, and set forth in print in his _Beitrage._ Offering at present +a singular daguerrotype glimpse of the then actual world, wherever Graf +von Reuss and his Geusau happened to be. Nine-tenths of it, even in +Busching's Abridgment, are now fallen useless and wearisome; but to +one studying the days that then were, even the effete commonplace of it +occasionally becomes alive again. And how interesting to catch, here and +there, a Historical Figure on these conditions; Historical Figure's very +self, in his work-day attitude; eating his victuals; writing, receiving +letters, talking to his fellow-creatures; unaware that Posterity, +miraculously through some chink of the Travelling Tutor's producing, has +got its eye upon him. + +"SUNDAY, 1st JANUARY, 1741, Geusau and his young Gentleman leave Paris, +at 5 in the morning, and drive out to Versailles; intending to see the +ceremonies of New-year's day there. Very wet weather it had been, all +Wednesday, and for days before; [See in _Barbier_ (ii. 283 et seqq.) +what terrible Noah-like weather it had been; big houses, long in soak, +tumbling down at last into the Seine; CHASSE of St. Genevieve brought +out (two days ago), December 30th, to try it by miracle; &c. &c.] but +on this Sunday, New-year's morning, all is ice and glass; and they slid +about painfully by lamplight,--with unroughened horses, and on the +Hilly or Meudon road, having chosen that as fittest, the waters being +out;--not arriving at Court till 9. Nor finding very much to +comfort them, except on the side of curiosity, when there. Ushers, +INTRODUCTEURS, Cabinet Secretaries, were indeed assiduous to oblige; and +the King's Levee will be: but if you follow it, to the Chapel Royal to +witness high mass, you must kneel at elevation of the host; and this, +as reformed Christians, Reuss and his Tutor cannot undertake to do. They +accept a dinner invitation (12 the hour) from some good Samaritan of +Quality; and, for sights, will content themselves with the King's +Levee itself, and generally with what the King's Antechamber and the +OEil-de-Boeuf can exhibit to them. The Most Christian King's Levee +[LEVER, literally here his Getting out of Bed] is a daily miracle of +these localities, only grander on New-year's day; and it is to the +following effect:-- + +"Till Majesty please to awaken, you saunter in the Salle des +Ambassadeurs; whole crowds jostling one another there; gossiping +together in a diligent, insipid manner;" gossip all reported; snatches +of which have acquired a certain flavor by long keeping;--which the +reader shall imagine. "Meanwhile you keep your eye on the Grate of the +Inner Court, which as yet is only ajar, Majesty inaccessible as yet. +Behold, at last, Grate opens itself wide; sign that Majesty is out of +bed; that the privileged of mankind may approach, and see the miracles." +Geusau continues, abridged by Busching and us:-- + +"The whole Assemblage passed now into the King's Anteroom; had to wait +there about half an hour more, before the King's bedroom was opened. +But then at last, lo you,--there is the King, visible to Geusau and +everybody, washing his hands. Which effected itself in this way: 'The +King was seated; a gentleman-in-waiting knelt, before him, and held +the Ewer, a square vessel silver-gilt, firm upon the King's breast; and +another gentleman-in-waiting poured water on the King's hands.' Merely +an official washing, we perceive; the real, it is to be hoped, had, in +a much more effectual way, been going on during the half-hour +just elapsed. After washing, the King rose for an instant; had his +dressing-gown, a grand yellow silky article with silver flowerings, +pulled off, and flung round his loins; upon which he sat down again, +and,"--observe it, ye privileged of mankind,--"the Change of Shirt took +place! 'They put the clean shirt down over his head,' says Anton, 'and +plucked up the dirty one from within, so that of the naked skin you saw +little or nothing.'" Here is a miracle worth getting out of bed to look +at! + +"His Majesty now quitted chair and dressing-gown; stood up before the +fire; and, after getting on the rest of his clothing, which, on account +of Czarina Anne's death [readers remember that], was of violet or +mourning color, he had the powder-mantle thrown round him, and sat down +at the Toilette to have his hair frizzled. The Toilette, a table with +white cover shoved into the middle of the room, had on it a mirror, a +powder-knife, and"--no mortal cares what. "The King," what all mortals +note, as they do the heavenly omens, "is somewhat talky; speaks +sometimes with the Dutch Ambassador, sometimes with the Pope's Nuncio, +who seems a jocose kind of gentleman; sometimes with different French +Lords, and at last with the Cardinal Fleury also,--to whom, however, he +does not look particularly gracious,"--not particularly this time. +These are the omens; happy who can read them!--Majesty then did +his morning-prayer, assisted only by the common Almoners-in-waiting +(Cardinal took no hand, much less any other); Majesty knelt before his +bed, and finished the business 'in less than six seconds.' After which +mankind can ebb out to the Anteroom again; pay their devoir to the +Queen's Majesty, which all do; or wait for the Transit to Morning +Chapel, and see Mesdames of France and the others flitting past in their +sedans. + +"Queen's Majesty was already altogether dressed," says Geusau, almost +as if with some disappointment; "all in black; a most affable courteous +Majesty; stands conversing with the Russian Ambassador, with the Dutch +ditto, with the Ladies about her, and at last, 'in a friendly and merry +tone,' with old Cardinal Fleury. Her Ladies, when the Queen spoke with +them, showed no constraint at all; leant loosely with their arms on +the fire-screens, and took things easy. Mesdames of France"--Geusau saw +Mesdames. Poor little souls, they are the LOQUE, the COCHON (Rag, Pig, +so Papa would call them, dear Papa), who become tragically visible again +in the Revolution time:--all blooming young children as yet (Queen's +Majesty some thirty-seven gone), and little dreaming what lies fifty +years ahead! King Louis's career of extraneous gallantries, which ended +in the Parc-aux-Cerfs, is now just beginning: think of that too; and of +her Majesty's fine behavior under it; so affable, so patient, silent, +now and always!--"In a little while, their Majesties go along the Great +Gallery to Chapel;" whither the Protestant mind cannot with comfort +accompany. [Busching, _Beitrage,_ ii. 59-78.] + +This is the daily miracle done at Versailles to the believing multitude; +only that on New-year's day, and certain supreme occasions, the shirt +is handed by a Prince of the Blood, and the towel for drying the royal +hands by a ditto, with other improvements; and the thing comes out in +its highest power of effulgence,--especially if you could see high mass +withal. In the Antechamber and (OEil-de-Boeuf, Geusau), among hundreds +of phenomena fallen dead to us, saw the Four following, which have +still some life:--1. Many Knights of the Holy Ghost (CHEVALIERS DU SAINT +ESPRIT) are about; magnificently piebald people, indistinct to us, and +fallen dead to us: but there, among the company, do not we indisputably +see, "in full Cardinal's costume," Fleury the ancient Prime Minister +talking to her Majesty? Blandly smiling; soft as milk, yet with a flavor +of alcoholic wit in him here and there. That is a man worth looking at, +had they painted him at all. Red hat, red stockings; a serenely +definite old gentleman, with something of prudent wisdom, and a touch +of imperceptible jocosity at times; mildly inexpugnable in manner: this +King, whose Tutor he was twenty years ago, still looks to him as +his father; Fleury is the real King of France at present. His age is +eighty-seven gone; the King's is thirty (seven years younger than his +Queen): and the Cardinal has red stockings and red hat; veritably there, +successively in both Antechambers, seen by Geusau, January 1st, 1741: +that is all I know. 2. The Prince de Clermont, a Prince of the Blood, +"handed the shirt," TESTE Geusau. Some other Prince, notable to Geusau, +and to us nameless, had the honor of the "towel:" but this Prince de +Clermont, a dissolute fellow of wasted parts, kind of Priest, kind of +Soldier too, is seen visibly handing the shirt there;--whom the reader +and I, if we cared about it, shall again see, getting beaten by Prince +Ferdinand, at Crefeld, within twenty years hence. These are points first +and second, slightly noticeable, slightly if at all. + +Of the actual transit to high mass, transit very visible in the Great +Gallery or OEil-de-Boeuf, why should a human being now say anything? +Queen, poor Stanislaus's Daughter, and her Ladies, in their sublime +sedans, one flood of jewels, sail first; next sails King Louis, shirt +warm on his back, with "thirty-four Chevaliers of the Holy Ghost" +escorting; next "the Dauphin" (Boy of eleven, Louis XVI.'s. Father), +and "Mesdames of France, with"--but even Geusau stops short. Protestants +cannot enter that Chapel, without peril of idolatry; wherefore Geusau +and Pupil kept strolling in the general (OEil-de-Boeuf),--and "the Dutch +Ambassador approved of it," he for one. And here now is another point, +slightly noticeable:--3. High mass over, his Majesty sails back from +Chapel, in the same magnificently piebald manner; and vanishes into +the interior; leaving his Knights of the Holy Ghost, and other Courtier +multitude, to simmer about, and ebb away as they found good. Geusau and +his young Reuss had now the honor of being introduced to various people; +among others "to the Prince de Soubise." Prince de Soubise: frivolous, +insignificant being; of whom I have no portrait that is not nearly +blank, and content to be so;--though Herr von Geusau would have one, +with features and costume to it, when he heard of the Beating at +Rossbach, long after! Prince de Soubise is pretty much a blank to +everybody:--and no sooner are we loose of him, than (what every reader +will do well to note) 4. Our Herren Travellers are introduced to a real +Notability: Monseigneur, soon to be Marechal, the Comte de Belleisle; +whom my readers and I are to be much concerned with, in time coming. +"A tall lean man (LANGER HAGERER MANN), without much air of quality," +thinks Geusau; but with much swift intellect and energy, and a +distinguished character, whatever Geusau might think. "Comte de +Belleisle was very civil; but apologized, in a courtly and kind way, for +the hurry he was in; regretting the impossibility of doing the honors +to the Comte de Reuss in this Country,--his, Belleisle's, Journey into +Germany, which was close at hand, overwhelming him with occupations and +engagements at present. And indeed, even while he spoke to us," says +Geusau, "all manner of Papers were put into his hand." [Busching, ii. +79; see Barbier, ii. 282, 287.] + +"Journey to Germany, Papers put into his hand:" there is perhaps no +Human Figure in the world, this Sunday (except the one Figure now in +those same moments over at Breslau, gently pressing upon the locked +Gates there), who is so momentous for our Silesian Operations; and +indeed he will kindle all Europe into delirium; and produce mere thunder +and lightning, for seven years to come,--with almost no result in it, +except Silesia! A tall lean man; there stands he, age now fifty-six, +just about setting out on such errand. Whom one is thankful to have seen +for a moment, even in that slight manner. + + + + +OF BELLEISLE AND HIS PLANS. + +Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, Comte de Belleisle, is Grandson of that +Intendant Fouquet, sumptuous Financier, whom Louis XIV. at last threw +out, and locked into the Fortress of Pignerol, amid the Savoy Alps, +there to meditate for life, which lasted thirty years longer. It was +never understood that the sumptuous Fouquet had altogether stolen public +moneys, nor indeed rightly what he had done to merit Pignerol; and +always, though fallen somehow into such dire disfavor, he was pitied and +respected by a good portion of the public. "Has angered Colbert," said +the public; "dangerous rivalry to Colbert; that is what has brought +Pignerol upon him." Out of Pignerol that Fouquet never came; but his +Family bloomed up into light again; had its adventures, sometimes its +troubles, in the Regency time, but was always in a rising way:--and +here, in this tall lean man getting papers put into his hand, it +has risen very high indeed. Going as Ambassador Extraordinary to +the Germanic Diet, "to assist good neighbors, as a neighbor and Most +Christian Majesty should, in choosing their new Kaiser to the best +advantage:" that is the official color his mission is to have. Surely a +proud mission;--and Belleisle intends to execute it in a way that will +surprise the Germanic Diet and mankind. Privately, Belleisle intends +that he, by his own industries, shall himself choose the right Kaiser, +such Kaiser as will suit the Most Christian Majesty and him; he intends +to make a new French thing of Germany in general; and carries in his +head plans of an amazing nature! He and a Brother he has, called the +Chevalier de Belleisle, who is also a distinguished man, and seconds +M. le Comte with eloquent fire and zeal in all things, are grandsons of +that old Fouquet, and the most shining men in France at present. France +little dreams how much better it perhaps were, had they also been kept +safe in Pignerol!-- + +The Count, lean and growing old, is not healthy; is ever and anon +tormented, and laid up for weeks, with rheumatisms, gouts and ailments: +but otherwise he is still a swift ardent elastic spirit; with grand +schemes, with fiery notions and convictions, which captivate and hurry +off men's minds more than eloquence could, so intensely true are they to +the Count himself;--and then his Brother the Chevalier is always there +to put them into the due language and logic, where needed. [Voltaire, +xxviii. 74; xxix. 392; &c.] A magnanimous high-flown spirit; thought to +be of supreme skill both in War and in Diplomacy; fit for many things; +and is still full of ambition to distinguish himself, and tell the world +at all moments, "ME VOILA; World, I too am here!"--His plans, just +now, which are dim even to himself, except on the hither skirt of them, +stretch out immeasurable, and lie piled up high as the skies. The hither +skirt of them, which will suffice the reader at present, is:-- + +That your Grand-Duke Franz, Maria Theresa's Husband, shall in no wise, +as the world and Duke Franz expect, be the Kaiser chosen. Not he, but +another who will suit France better: "Kur-Sachsen perhaps, the so-called +King of Poland? Or say it were Karl Albert Kur-Baiern, the hereditary +friend and dependent of France? We are not tied to a man: only, at any +and at all rates, not Grand-Duke Franz." This is the grand, essential +and indispensable point, alpha and omega of points; very clear this +one to Belleisle,--and towards this the first steps, if as yet only +the first, are also clear to him. Namely that "the 27th of February +next",--which is the time set by Kur-Mainz and the native Officials for +the actual meeting of their Reichstag to begin Election Business, will +be too early a time; and must be got postponed. [Adelung, ii. 185 ("27th +February-1st March, 1741, at Frankfurt-on-Mayn," appointed by Kur-Mainz +"Arch-Chancellor of the REICH," under date November 3d, 1740);--ib. +236 ("Delay for a month or two," suggests Kur-Pfalz, on January +12th, seconded by others in the French interest);--upon which the +appointment, after some arguing, collapsed into the vague, and there +ensued delay enough; actual Election not till January 24th, 1742.] +Postponed; which will be possible, perhaps for long; one knows not for +how long: that is a first step definitely clear to Belleisle. Towards +which, as preliminary to it and to all the others in a dimmer state, +there is a second thing clear, and has even been officially settled (all +but the day): That, in the mean while, and surely the sooner the better, +he, Belleisle, Most Christian Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary to the +Reichstag coming,--do, in his most dazzling and persuasive manner, make +a Tour among German Courts. Let us visit, in our highest and yet in our +softest splendor, the accessible German Courts, especially the likely +or well-disposed: Mainz, Koln, Trier, these, the three called Spiritual, +lie on our very route; then Pfalz, Baiern, Sachsen:--we will tour +diligently up and down; try whether, by optic machinery and art-magic of +the mind, one cannot bring them round. + +In all these preliminary steps and points, and even in that alpha and +omega of excluding Grand-Duke Franz, and getting a Kaiser of his own, +Belleisle succeeded. With painful results to himself and to millions +of his fellow-creatures, to readers of this History, among others. And +became in consequence the most famous of mankind; and filled the whole +world with rumor of Belleisle, in those years.--A man of such intrinsic +distinction as Belleisle, whom Friedrich afterwards deliberately called +a great Captain, and the only Frenchman with a genius for war; and who, +for some time, played in Europe at large a part like that of Warwick +the Kingmaker: how has he fallen into such oblivion? Many of my readers +never heard of him before; nor, in writing or otherwise, is there +symptom that any living memory now harbors him, or has the least +approach to an image of him! "For the times are babbly," says Goethe," +And then again the times are dumb:-- + + Denn geschwatzig sind die Zeiten, + Und sie sind auch wieder stumm." + + +Alas, if a man sow only chaff, in never so sublime a manner, with the +whole Earth and the long-eared populations looking on, and chorally +singing approval, rendering night hideous,--it will avail him nothing. +And that, to a lamentable extent, was Belleisle's case. His scheme of +action was in most felicitously just accordance with the national sense +of France, but by no means so with the Laws of Nature and of Fact; his +aim, grandiose, patriotic, what you will, was unluckily false and not +true. How could "the times" continue talking of him? They found they had +already talked too much. Not to say that the French Revolution has since +come; and has blown all that into the air, miles aloft,--where even +the solid part of it, which must be recovered one day, much more the +gaseous, which we trust is forever irrecoverable, now wanders and +whirls; and many things are abolished, for the present, of more value +than Belleisle!-- + +For my own share, being, as it were, forced accidentally to look at him +again, I find in Belleisle a really notable man; far superior to the +vulgar of noted men, in his time or ours. Sad destiny for such a man! +But when the general Life-element becomes so unspeakably phantasmal as +under Louis XV., it is difficult for any man to be real; to be other +than a play-actor, more or less eminent, and artistically dressed. Sad +enough, surely, when the truth of your relation to the Universe, and the +tragically earnest meaning of your Life, is quite lied out of you, by a +world sunk in lies; and you can, with effort, attain to nothing but to +be a more or less splendid lie along with it! Your very existence all +become a vesture, a hypocrisy, and hearsay; nothing left of you but this +sad faculty of sowing chaff in the fashionable manner! After Friedrich +and Voltaire, in both of whom, under the given circumstances, one finds +a perennial reality, more or less,--Belleisle is next; none FAILS to +escape the mournful common lot by a nearer miss than Belleisle. + +Beyond doubt, there are in this man the biggest projects any French head +has carried, since Louis XIV. with his sublime periwig first took to +striking the stars. How the indolent Louis XV. and the pacific Fleury +have been got into this sublimely adventurous mood? By Belleisle +chiefly, men say;--and by King Louis's first Mistresses, blown upon by +Belleisle; poor Louis having now, at length, left his poor Queen to +her reflections, and taken into that sad line, in which by degrees he +carried it so far. There are three of them, it seems;--the first female +souls that could ever manage to kindle, into flame or into smoke: +in this or any other kind, that poor torpid male soul: those Mailly +Sisters, three in number (I am shocked to hear), successive, nay in part +simultaneous! They are proud women, especially the two younger; with +ambition in them, with a bravura magnanimity, of the theatrical or +operatic kind; of whom Louis is very fond. "To raise France to its +place, your Majesty; the top of the Universe, namely!" "Well; if it +could be done,--and quite without trouble?" thinks Louis. Bravura +magnanimity, blown upon by Belleisle, prevails among these high Improper +Females, and generally in the Younger Circles of the Court; so that poor +old Fleury has had no choice but to obey it or retire. And so Belleisle +stalks across the OEil-de-Boeuf in that important manner, visibly to +Geusau; and is the shining object in Paris, and much the topic there at +present. + +A few weeks hence, he is farther--a little out of the common turn, but +not beyond his military merits or capabilities--made Marechal de France; +[_Fastes de Louis XV.,_ i. 356 (12th February, 1741).] by way of giving +him a new splendor in the German Political World, and assisting in his +operations there, which depend much upon the laws of vision. French +epigrams circulate in consequence, and there are witty criticisms; +to which Belleisle, such a dusky world of Possibility lying ahead, is +grandly indifferent. Marechal de France;--and Geusau hears (what is a +fact) that there are to be "thirty young French Lords in his suite;" his +very "Livery," or mere plush retinue, "to consist of 110 persons;" +such an outfit for magnificence as was never seen before. And in this +equipment, "early in March" (exact day not given), magnificence of +outside corresponding to grandiosity of faculty and idea, Belleisle, we +shall find, does practically set off towards Germany;--like a kind of +French Belus, or God of the Sun; capable to dazzle weak German Courts, +by optical machinery, and to set much rotten thatch on fire!-- + +"There are curious daguerrotype glimpses of old Paris to be found in +that Notebook of Geusau's", says another Excerpt; "which come strangely +home to us, like reality at first-hand;--and a rather unexpected Paris +it is, to most readers; many things then alive there, which are now deep +underground. Much Jansenist Theology afloat; grand French Ladies +piously eager to convert a young Protestant Nobleman like Reuss; sublime +Dorcases, who do not rouge, or dress high, but eschew the evil world, +and are thrifty for the Poor's sake, redeeming the time. There is +a Cardinal de Polignac, venerable sage and ex-political person, of +astonishing erudition, collector of Antiques (with whom we dined); there +is the Chevalier Ramsay, theological Scotch Jacobite, late Tutor of the +young Turenne. So many shining persons, now fallen indistinct again. +And then, besides gossip, which is of mild quality and in fair +proportion,--what talk, casuistic and other, about the Moral Duties, +the still feasible Pieties, the Constitution Unigenitus! All this alive, +resonant at dinner-tables of Conservative stamp; the Miracles of Abbe +Paris much a topic there:--and not a whisper of Infidel Philosophies; +the very name of Voltaire not once mentioned in the Reuss section of +Parisian things. + +"There is rumor now and then of a 'Comte de Rothenbourg,' conspicuous in +the Parisian circles; a shining military man, but seemingly in want +of employment; who has lost in gambling, within the last four years, +upwards of 50,000 pounds (1,300,000 livres, the exact cipher given). +This is the Graf von Rothenburg whom Friedrich made acquaintance with, +in the Rhine Campaign six years ago, and has ever since had in his +eye;--whom, in a few weeks hence, Friedrich beckons over to him into +the Prussian States: 'Hither, and you shall have work!' Which Rothenburg +accepts; with manifold advantage to both parties:--one of Friedrich's +most distinguished friends for the rest of his life. + +"Of Cardinal Polignac there is much said, and several dinners with +him are transacted, dialogue partly given: a pious wise old gentleman +really, in his kind (age now eighty-four); looking mildly forth upon +a world just about to overset itself and go topsy-turvy, as he sees it +will. His ANTI-LUCRETIUS was once such a Poem!--but we mention him +here because his fine Cabinet of Antiques came to Berlin on his death, +Friedrich purchasing; and one often hears of it (if one cared to +hear) from the Prussian Dryasdust in subsequent years. [Came to +Charlottenburg, August, 1742 (old Polignac had died November last, +ten months after those Geusau times): cost of the Polignac Cabinet +was 40,000 thalers (6,000 pounds) say some, 90,000 livres (under +4,000 pounds) say others; cheap at either price;--and, by chance, came +opportunely, "a fire having just burnt down the Academy Edifice," +and destroyed much ware of that kind. Rodenbeck, i. 73; Seyfarth +(Anonymous), _Geschichte Friedrichs des Andern,_ i. 236.] + +"Of Friedrich's unexpected Invasion of Silesia there are also talkings +and surmisings, but in a mild indifferent tone, and much in the vague. +And in the best-informed circles it is thought Belleisle will manage to +HAVE Grand-Duke Franz, the Queen of Hungary's Husband, chosen Kaiser, +and, in some mild good way, put an end to all that;"--which is far +indeed from Belleisle's intention! + + + + +Chapter VIII. -- PHENOMENA IN PETERSBURG. + +I know not whether Major Winterfeld, who was sent to Petersburg in +December last, had got back to Berlin in February, now while Friedrich +is there: but for certain the good news of him had, That he had been +completely successful, and was coming speedily, to resume his soldier +duties in right time. As Winterfeld is an important man (nearly buried +into darkness in the dull Prussian Books), let us pause for a moment +on this Negotiation of his;--and on the mad Russian vicissitudes +which preceded and followed, so far as they concern us. Russia, a big +demi-savage neighbor next door, with such caprices, such humors and +interests, is always an important, rather delicate object to Friedrich; +and Fortune's mad wheel is plunging and canting in a strange headlong +way there, of late. Czarina Anne, we know, is dead; the Autocrat of All +the Russias following the Kaiser of the Romans within eight days. Iwan, +her little Nephew, still in swaddling-clothes, is now Autocrat of All +the Russias if he knew it, poor little red-colored creature; and Anton +Ulrich and his Mecklenburg Russian Princess--But let us take up the +matter where our Notebooks left it, in Friedrich Wilhelm's time:-- + +"Czarina Anne with the big cheek," continues that Notebook, [Supra, p. +129.] "was extremely delighted to see little Iwan; but enjoyed him only +two months; being herself in dying circumstances. She appointed little +Iwan her Successor, his Mother and Father to be Guardians over him; +but one Bieren (who writes himself Biron, and "Duke of Courland,' being +Czarina's Quasi-Husband these many years) to be Guardian, as it were, +over both them and him. Such had been the truculent insatiable Bieren's +demand on his Czarina. 'You are running on your destruction,' said she, +with tears; but complied, as she had been wont. + +"Czarina Anne died 28th October, 1740; leaving a Czar in his cradle; +little Czar Ivan of two months, with Mother and Father to preside over +him, and to be themselves presided over by Bieren, in this manner. +[Mannstein, pp. 264-267 (28th October, by Russian or Old Style, is +"17th;" we TRANSLATE, in this and other cases, Russian or English, into +New Style, unless the contrary is indicated)]. This was the first great +change for Anton Ulrich; but others greater are coming. Little Anton, +readers know, is Friedrich's Brother-in-law, much patronized by Austria; +Anton's spouse is the Half-Russian Princess Catherine of Mecklenburg +(now wholly Russian, and called Princess Anne), whom Friedrich at one +time thought of applying for, in his distress about a Wife. These two, +will they side with Prussia, will they side with Austria? It was hardly +worth inquiry, had not Fortune's wheel made suddenly a great cant, and +pitched them to the top, for the time being. + +"Bieren lasted only twenty days. He was very high and arbitrary upon +everybody; Anne and Anton Ulrich suffering naturally most from him. They +took counsel with Feldmarschall Munnich on the matter; who, after study, +declared it a remediable case. Friday, 18th November, Munnich had, by +invitation, to dine with Duke Bieren; Munnich went accordingly that +day, and dined; Duke looking a little flurried, they say: and the same +evening, dinner being quite over, and midnight come, Munnich had his +measures all taken, soldiers ready, warrant in hand;--and arrested +Bieren in his bed; mere Siberia, before sunrise, looming upon Bieren. +Never was such a change as this from 18th day to 19th with a supreme +Bieren. Our friend Mannstein, excellent punctual Aide-de-Camp of +Munnich, was the executor of the feat; and has left punctual record of +it, as he does of everything,---what Bieren said, and what Madam Bieren, +who was a little obstreperous on the occasion. [Mannstein, p. 268.] What +side Anton Ulrich and Spouse will take in a quarrel between Prussia and +Austria, is now well worth asking. + +"Anton Ulrich and Wife Anne, that is to say, 'Regent Anne' and +'Generalissimo Anton Ulrich,' now ruled, with Munnich for right-hand +man; and these were high times for Anton Ulrich, Generalissimo and +Czar's-Father; who indeed was modest, and did not often interfere in +words, though grieved at the foolish ways his Wife had. An indolent +flabby kind of creature, she, unfit for an Autocrat; sat in her private +apartments, all in a huddle of undress; had foolish notions,--especially +had soubrettes who led her about by the ear. And then there was a +'Princess Elizabeth,' Cousin-german of Regent Anne,--daughter, that +is to say, last child there now was, of Peter the Great and his little +brown Catherine:--who should have been better seen to. Harmless foolish +Princess, not without cunning; young, plump, and following merely her +flirtations and her orthodox devotions; very orthodox and soft, but +capable of becoming dangerous, as a centre of the disaffected. As +'Czarina Elizabeth' before long, and ultimately as 'INFAME CATIN DU +NORD, she--" But let us not anticipate! + +It was in this posture of affairs, about a month after it had begun, +that Winterfeld arrived in Petersburg; and addressed himself to Munnich, +on the Prussian errand. Winterfeld was Munnich's Son-in-law (properly +stepson-in-law, having married Munnich's stepdaughter, a Fraulein von +Malzahn, of good Prussian kin); was acquainted with the latitudes and +longitudes here, and well equipped for the operation in hand. To Madam +Munnich, once Madam Malzahn, his Mother-in-law, he carried a diamond +ring of 1,200 pounds, "small testimony of his Prussian Majesty's regard +to so high a Prussian Lady;" to Munnich's Son and Madam's a present of +3,000 pounds on the like score: and the wheels being oiled in this way, +and the steam so strong (son Winterfeld an ardent man, father Munnich +the like, supreme in Russia, and the thing itself a salutary thing), +the diplomatic speed obtained was great. Winterfeld had arrived in +Petersburg December 19th: Treaty of Alliance to the effect, "Firm +friends and good neighbors, we Two, Majesties of Prussia and of All the +Russias; will help each the other, if attacked, with 12,000 men,"--was +signed on the 27th: whole Transaction, so important to Friedrich, +complete in eight days. Austrian Botta, directly on the heel of those +unsatisfactory Dialogues about Silesian roads, about troops that were +pretty, but had never looked the wolf in the face,--had rushed off, +full speed, for Petersburg, in hopes of running athwart such a Treaty +as Winterfeld's, and getting one for Austria instead. But he arrived +too late; and perhaps could have done nothing had he been in time. +Botta tried his utmost for years afterwards, above ground and below, to +obstruct and reverse this thing; but it was to no purpose, and even +to less; and only, in result, brought Botta himself into flagrant +diplomatic trouble and scandal; which made noise enough in the then +Gazetteer world, and was the finale of Botta's Russian efforts, +[Adelung, iii. ii. 289; Mannstein, p. 375 ("Lapuschin Plot," of Botta's +raising, found out "August, 1743;"--Botta put in arrest, &c.).] though +not worth mentioning now. + +The Russian Notebook continues:-- + +"Munnich, supreme in Russia since Bieren's removal, had wise counsels +for the Regent Anne and her Husband; though perhaps, being a high old +military gentleman, he might be somewhat abrupt in his ways. And there +were domestic Ostermanns, foreign Bottas, La Chetardies, and dangerous +Intriguers and Opposition figures, to improve any grudge that might +arise. Sure enough, in March, 1741, Feldmarschall Munnich was forbid +the Court (some Ostermann succeeding him there): 'Ever true to your Two +Highnesses, though no longer needed;'--and withdrew, in a lofty friendly +strain; his Son continuing at Court, though Papa had withdrawn. Supreme +Munnich had lasted about four months; Supreme Bieren hardly three +weeks;--and Siberia is still agape. + +"Munnich being gone to his own Town-Mansion, and Regent Anne sitting +in hers in a huddle of undress; little accessible to her long-headed +melancholic Ostermann, and too accessible to her Livonian maid: with +poor little Anton Ulrich pouting and remonstrating, but unable to +help,--this state of matters, with such intrigues undermining it, +could not last forever. And had not Princess Elizabeth been of indolent +luxurious nature, intent upon her prayers and flirtations, it would have +ended sooner even than it did. Princess Elizabeth had a Surgeon called +L'Estoc; a Marquis de la Chetardie, a high-flown French Excellency (who +used to be at Berlin, to our young Friedrich's delight), was her--What +shall I say? La Chetardie himself had no scruple to say it! These two +plotted for her; these were ready,--could she have been got ready; which +was not so easy. Regent Anne had her suspicions; but the Princess was so +indolent, so good: at last, when directly taxed with such a thing, the +Princess burst into ingenuous weeping; quite disarmed Regent Anne's +suspicions;--but found she had now better take L'Estoc's advice, and +proceed at once. Which she did. + +"And so, on the morrow morning, 5th December, 1741, by aid of the +Preobrazinsky Regiment, and the motions usual on such occasions,--in +fact by merely pulling out the props from an undermined state of +matters,--she reduced said state gently to ruin, ready for carting to +Siberia, like its foregoers; and was hereby Czarina of All the Russias, +prosperously enough for the rest of her life. Twenty years or rather +more. An indolent, orthodox, plump creature, disinclined to cruelty; +'not an ounce of nun's flesh in her composition,' said the wits. She +maintained the Friedrich Treaty, indignant at Botta and his plots; was +well with Friedrich, or might have been kept so by management, for there +was no cause of quarrel, but the reverse, between the Countries,--could +Friedrich have held his witty tongue, when eavesdroppers were by. But he +could not always; though he tried. And sarcastic quizzing (especially +if it be truth too), on certain female topics, what Improper Female, +Czarina of All the Russias, could stand it? The history is but a +distressing one, a disgusting one, in human affairs. Elizabeth was +orthodox, too, and Friedrich not, 'the horrid man!' The fact is,--fact +dismally indubitable, though it is huddled into discreet dimness, and +all details of it (as to what Friedrich's witticisms were, and the like) +are refused us in the Prussian Books,--indignation, owing to such dismal +cause, became fixed hate on the Czarina's part, and there followed +terrible results at last: A Czarina risen to the cannibal pitch upon +a man, in his extreme need;--'INFAME CATIN DU NORD,' thinks the man! +Friedrich's wit cost him dear; him, and half a million others still +dearer, twenty years hence."--Till which time we will gladly leave the +Czarina and it. + +Major von Winterfeld had been in Russia before this; and had wooed his +fair Malzahn there. He is the same Winterfeld whom we once saw dining by +the wayside with the late Friedrich Wilhelm, on that last Review-Journey +his Majesty made. A Captain in the Potsdam Giants at that time; always +in great favor with the late King; and in still greater with the +present,--who finds in him, we can dimly discover, and pretty much in +him alone, a soul somewhat like his own; the one real "peer" he had +about him. A man of little education; bred in camps; yet of a proud +natural eminency, and rugged nobleness of genius and mind. Let readers +mark this fiery hero-spirit, lying buried in those dull Books, +like lightning among clay. Here is another anecdote of his Russian +business:-- + +"Winterfeld had gone, in Friedrich Wilhelm's time, with a party of +Prussian drill-sergeants for Petersburg [year not given]; and duly +delivered them there. He naturally saw much of Feldmarschall Munnich, +naturally saw the Step-daughter of the Feldmarschall, a shining beauty +in Petersburg; Winterfeld himself a man of shining gifts, and character; +and one of the handsomest tall men in the world. Mutual love between +the Fraulein and him was the rapid result. But how to obtain marriage? +Winterfeld cannot marry, without leave had of his superiors: you, fair +Malzahn, are Hof-Dame of Princess Elizabeth, all your fortune the jewels +you wear; and it is too possible she will not let you go! + +"They agreed to be patient, to be silent; to watch warily till +Winterfeld got home to Prussia, till the Fraulein Malzahn could also +contrive to get home. Winterfeld once home, and the King's consent had, +the Fraulein applied to Princess Elizabeth for leave of absence: 'A +few months, to see my friends in Deutschland, your Highness!' Princess +Elizabeth looked hard at her; answered evasively this and that. At last, +being often importuned, she answered plainly, 'I almost feel convinced +thou wilt never come back!' Protestations from the Fraulein were not +wanting:--'Well then,' said Elizabeth, 'if thou art so sure of it, leave +me thy jewels in pledge. Why not?' The poor Fraulein could not say +why; had to leave her jewels, which were her whole fine fortune, +'worth 100,000 rubles' (20,000 pounds); and is now the brave Wife of +Winterfeld;--but could never, by direct entreaty or circuitous interest +and negotiation, get back the least item of her jewels. Elizabeth, +as Princess and as Czarina, was alike deaf on that subject. Now or +henceforth that proved an impossible private enterprise for Winterfeld, +though he had so easily succeeded in the public one." [Retzow, +_Charakteristik des siebenjahrigen Krieges_ (Berlin, 1802), i. 45 n.] + +The new Czarina was not unmerciful. Munnich and Company were tried +for life; were condemned to die, and did appear on the scaffold (29th +January, 1742), ready for that extreme penalty; but were there, on the +sudden, pardoned or half-pardoned by a merciful new Czarina, and sent to +Siberia and outer darkness. Whither Bieren had preceded them. To outer +darkness also, though a milder destiny had been intended them at first, +went Anton Ulrich and his Household. Towards native Germany at first; +they had got as far as Riga on the way to Germany, but were detained +there, for a long while (owing to suspicions, to Botta Plots, or I know +not what), till finally they were recalled into Russian exile. Strict +enough exile, seclusion about Archangel and elsewhere; in convents, in +obscure uncomfortable places:--little Iwan, after vicissitudes, even +went underground; grew to manhood, and got killed (partly by accident, +not quite by murder), some twenty-three years hence, in his dungeon +in the Fortress of Schlusselburg, below the level of the Ladoga waters +there. Unluckier Household, which once seemed the luckiest of the world, +was never known. Canted suddenly, in this way, from the very top of +Fortune's wheel to the very bottom; never to rise more;--and did not +even die, at least not all die, for thirty or forty years after. [Anton +Ulrich, not till 15th May, 1775 (two Daughters of his went, after this, +to "Horstens, a poor Country-House in Jutland," whither Catherine II. +had manumitted them, with pension;--she had wished Anton Ulrich to +go home, many years before; but he would not, from shame).--Iwan had +perished 5th August, 1764 (Catherine II. blamed for his death, but +without cause); Iwan's Mother, Princess Anne, (mercifully) 18th March, +1746. See Russian Histories, TOOKE, CASTERA, &c.,--none of which, except +MANNSTEIN, is good for much, or to be trusted without scrutiny.] + +This is the Chetardie-L'Estoc conspiracy, of 5th December, 1741; the +pitching up of Princess Elizabeth, and the pitching down of Anton Ulrich +and his Munnichs, who had before pitched Bieren down. After which, +matters remained more stationary at Petersburg: Czarina Elizabeth, fat +indolent soul, floated with a certain native buoyancy, with something of +bulky steadiness, in the turbid plunge of things, and did not sink. On +the contrary, her reign, so called, was prosperous, though stupid; her +big dark Countries, kindled already into growth, went on growing rather. +And, for certain, she herself went on growing, in orthodox devotions of +spiritual type (and in strangely heterodox ditto of NONspiritual!); in +indolent mansuetudes (fell rages, if you cut on the RAWS at all!); in +perpetual incongruity; and, alas, at last, in brandy-and-water,--till, +as "INFAME CATIN DU NORD," she became terribly important to some +persons! + +At her accession, and for two years following, Czarina Elizabeth, in +spite of real disinclination that way, had a War on her hands: the +Swedish War (August, 1741-August, 1743), which, after long threatening +on the Swedish side, had broken out into unwelcome actuality, in Anton +Ulrich's time; and which could not, with all the Czarina's industry, be +got rid of or staved off; Sweden being bent upon the thing, reason or +no reason. War not to be spoken of, except on compulsion, in the most +voluminous History! It was the unwisest of wars, we should say, and +in practice probably the contemptiblest; if there were not one other +Swedish War coming, which vies with it in these particulars, of which +we shall be obliged to speak, more or less, at a future stage. Of this +present Russian-Swedish war, having happily almost nothing to do +with it, we can, except in the way of transient chronology, refrain +altogether from speaking or thinking. + +Poor Sweden, since it shot Karl XII. in the trenches at Fredericshall, +could not get a King again; and is very anarchic under its Phantasm +King and free National Palaver,--Senate with subaltern Houses;--which +generally has French gold in its pocket, and noise instead of wisdom in +its head. Scandalous to think of or behold. The French, desirous to keep +Russia in play during these high Belleisle adventures now on foot, had, +after much egging, bribing, flattering, persuaded vain Sweden into this +War with Russia. "At Narva they were 80,000, we 8,000; and what became +of them!" cry the Swedes always. Yes, my friends, but you had a Captain +at Narva; you had not yet shot your Captain when you did Narva! "Faction +of Hats," "Faction of Caps" (that is, NIGHT-caps, as being somnolent and +disinclined to France and War): seldom did a once-valiant far-shining +Nation sink to such depths, since they shot their Captain, and said to +Anarchy, "THOU art Captaincy, we see, and the Divine thing!" Of the +Wars and businesses of such a set of mortals let us shun speaking, where +possible. + +Mannstein gives impartial account, pleasantly clear and compact, to such +as may be curious about this Swedish-Russian War; and, in the +didactic point of view, it is not without value. To us the interesting +circumstance is, that it does not interfere with our Silesian operations +at all; and may be figured as a mere accompaniment of rumbling discord, +or vacant far-off noise, going on in those Northern parts,--to which +therefore we hope to be strangers in time coming. Here are some dates, +which the reader may take with him, should they chance to illustrate +anything:-- + +"AUGUST 4th, 1741. The Swedes declare War: 'Will recover their lost +portions of Finland, will,' &c. &c. They had long been meditating it; +they had Turk negotiations going on, diligent emissaries to the Turk +(a certain Major Sinclair for one, whom the Russians waylaid and +assassinated to get sight of his Papers) during the late Turk-Russian +War; but could conclude nothing while that was in activity; concluded +only after that was done,--striking the iron when grown COLD. A chief +point in their Manifesto was the assassination of this Sinclair; scandal +and atrocity, of which there is no doubt now the Russians were guilty. +Various pretexts for the War:--prime movers to it, practically, were the +French, intent on keeping Russia employed while their Belleisle German +adventure went on, and who had even bargained with third parties to get +up a War there, as we shall see. + +"SEPTEMBER 3d, 1741. At Wilmanstrand,--key of Wyborg, their frontier +stronghold in Finland, which was under Siege,--the Swedes (about 5,000 +of them, for they had nothing to live upon, and lay scattered about in +fractions) made fight, or skirmish, against a Russian attacking party: +Swedes, rather victorious on their hill-top, rushed down; and totally +lost their bit of victory, their Wilmanstrand, their Wyborg, and even +the War itself;--for this was, in literal truth, the only fighting done +by them in the entire course of it, which lasted near two years more. +The rest of it was retreat, capitulation, loss on loss without stroke +struck; till they had lost all Finland, and were like to lose Sweden +itself,--Dalecarlian mutiny bursting out ('Ye traitors, misgovernors, +worthy of death!'), with invasive Danes to rear of it;--and had to call +in the very Russians to save them from worse. Czarina Elizabeth at the +time of her accession, six months after Wilmanstrand, had made truce, +was eager to make peace: 'By no means!' answered Sweden, taking arms +again, or rather taking legs again; and rushing ruin-ward, at the old +rate, still without stroke. + +"JUNE 28th, 1743. They did halt; made Peace of Abo (Truce and +Preliminaries signed there, that day: Peace itself, August 17th); +Czarina magnanimously restoring most of their Finland (thinking to +herself, 'Not done enough for me yet; cook it a little yet!');--and +settling who their next King was to be, among other friendly things. And +in November following, Keith, in his Russian galleys, with some 10,000 +Russians on board, arrived in Stockholm; protective against Danes +and mutinous Dalecarles: stayed there till June of next year, 1744." +[Adelung, ii. 445. Mannstein, pp. 297 (Wilmanstrand Affair, himself +present), 365 (Peace), 373 (Keith's RETURN with his galleys). Comte de +Hordt (present also, on the Swedish side, and subsequently a Soldier +of Friedrich's) _Memoires_ (Berlin, 1789), i. 18-88. The murder of +Sinclair (done by "four Russian subalterns, two miles from Naumberg +in Silesia, 17th June, 1739, about 7 P.M.") is amply detailed from +Documents, in a late Book: Weber, _Aus Vier Jahrhunderten_ (Leipzig, +1858), i. 274-279.] Is not this a War! + +On the Russian side, General Keith, under Field-marshal Lacy as chief in +command (the same Keith whom we saw at Oczakow under Munnich, some time +ago), had a great deal of the work and management; which was of a highly +miscellaneous kind, commanding fleets of gunboats, and much else; and +readers of MANNSTEIN can still judge,--much more could King Friedrich, +earnestly watching the affair itself as it went on,--whether Keith did +not do it in a solid and quietly eminent and valiant manner. Sagacious, +skilful, imperturbable, without fear and without noise; a man quietly +ever ready. He had quelled, once, walking direct into the heart of it, a +ferocious Russian mutiny, or uproar from below, which would have ruined +everything in few minutes more. (Mannstein, p. 130 (no date, April-May, +1742.) He suffered, with excellent silence, now and afterwards, much +ill-usage from above withal;--till Friedrich himself, in the third +year hence, was lucky enough to get him as General. Friedrich's Sister +Ulrique, the marriage of Princess Ulrique,--that also, as it chanced, +had something to do with this Peace of Abo. But we anticipate too far. + + + + +Chapter IX. -- FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. + +Friedrich stayed only three weeks at home; moving about, from Berlin to +Potsdam, to Reinsberg and back: all the gay world is in Berlin, at this +Carnival time; but Friedrich has more to do with business, of a manifold +and over-earnest nature, than with Carnival gayeties. French Valori +is here, "my fat Valori," who is beginning to be rather a favorite +of Friedrich's: with Excellency Valori, and with the other Foreign +Excellencies, there was diplomatic passaging in these weeks; and we +gather from Valori, in the inverse way (Valori fallen sulky), that it +was not ill done on Friedrich's part. He had some private consultation +with the Old Dessauer, too; "probably on military points," thinks +Valori. At least there was noticed more of the drill-sergeant than +before, in his handling of the Army, when he returned to Silesia, +continues the sulky one. "Troops and generals did not know him +again,"--so excessively strict was he grown, on the sudden. And truly +"he got into details which were beneath, not only a Prince who has +great views, but even a simple Captain of Infantry,"--according to my +(Valori's) military notions and experiences! [Valori, i. 99.]-- + +The truth is, Friedrich begins to see, more clearly than he did with +GLOIRE dazzling him, that his position is an exceedingly grave one, full +of risk, in the then mood and condition of the world; that he, in the +whole world, has no sure friend but his Army; and that in regard to IT +he cannot be too vigilant! The world is ominous to this youngest of the +Kings more than to another. Sounds as of general Political Earthquake +grumble audibly to him from the deeps: all Europe likely, in any event, +to get to loggerheads on this Austrian Pragmatic matter; the Nations +all watching HIM, to see what he will make of it:--fugleman he to the +European Nations, just about bursting up on such an adventure. It may +be a glorious position, or a not glorious; but, for certain, it is a +dangerous one, and awfully solitary!-- + +Fuglemen the world and its Nations always have, when simultaneously +bent any-whither, wisely or unwisely; and it is natural that the most +adventurous spirit take that post. Friedrich has not sought the post; +but following his own objects, has got it; and will be ignominiously +lost, and trampled to annihilation under the hoofs of the world, if he +do not mind! To keep well ahead;--to be rapid as possible; that were +good:--to step aside were still better! And Friedrich we find is very +anxious for that; "would be content with the Duchy of Glogau, and join +Austria;" but there is not the least chance that way. His Special Envoy +to Vienna, Gotter, and along with him Borck the regular Minister, are +come home; all negotiation hopeless at Vienna; and nothing but indignant +war-preparation going on there, with the most animated diligence, and +more success than had seemed possible. That is the law of Friedrich's +Silesian Adventure: "Forward, therefore, on these terms; others there +are not: waste no words!" Friedrich recognizes to himself what the +law is; pushes stiffly forward, with a fine silence on all that is not +practical, really with a fine steadiness of hope, and audacity against +discouragements. Of his anxieties, which could not well be wanting, but +which it is royal to keep strictly under lock and key, of these there is +no hint to Jordan or to anybody; and only through accidental chinks, on +close scrutiny, can we discover that they exist. Symptom of despondency, +of misgiving or repenting about his Enterprise, there is none anywhere, +Friedrich's fine gifts of SILENCE (which go deeper than the lips) are +noticeable here, as always; and highly they availed Friedrich in leading +his life, though now inconvenient to Biographers writing of the same!-- + +It was not on matters of drill, as Valori supposes, that Friedrich +had been consulting with the Old Dessauer: this time it was on another +matter. Friedrich has two next Neighbors greatly interested, none more +so, in the Pragmatic Question: Kur-Sachsen, Polish King, a foolish +greedy creature, who is extremely uncertain about his course in it (and +indeed always continued so, now against Friedrich, now for him, and +again against); and Kur-Hanover, our little George of England, whose +course is certain as that of the very stars, and direct against +Friedrich at this time, as indeed, at all times not exceptional, it is +apt to be. Both these Potentates must be attended to, in one's absence; +method to be gentle but effectual; the Old Dessauer to do it:--and +this is what these consultings had turned upon; and in a month or two, +readers, and an astonished Gazetteer world, will see what comes of them. + +It was February 19th when Friedrich left Berlin; the 21st he spends +at Glogau, inspecting the Blockade there, and not ill content with the +measures taken: "Press that Wallis all you can," enjoins he: "Hunger +seems to be slow about it! Summon him again, were your new Artillery +come up; threaten with bombardment; but spare the Town, if possible. +Artillery is coming: let us have done here, and soon!" Next day he +arrives, not at Breslau as some had expected, but at Schweidnitz +sidewards; a strong little Town, at least an elaborately fortified, of +which we shall hear much in time coming. It lies a day's ride west of +Breslau: and will be quieter for business than a big gazing Capital +would be,--were Breslau even one's own city; which it is not, though +perhaps tending to be. Breslau is in transition circumstances at +present; a little uncertain WHOSE it is, under its Munchows and +new managers: Breslau he did not visit at all on this occasion. To +Schweidnitz certain new regiments had been ordered, there to be +disposed of in reinforcing: there, "in the Count Hoberg's Mansion," +he principally lodges for six weeks to come; shooting out on continual +excursions; but always returning to Schweidnitz, as the centre, again. + +Algarotti, home from Turin (not much of a success there, but always +melodious for talk), had travelled with him; Algarotti, and not long +after, Jordan and Maupertuis, bear him company, that the vacant moments +too be beautiful. We can fancy he has a very busy, very anxious, but not +an unpleasant time. He goes rapidly about, visiting his posts,--chiefly +about the Neisse Valley; Neisse being the prime object, were the weather +once come for siege-work. He is in many Towns (specified in RODENBECK +and the Books, but which may be anonymous here); doubtless on many +Steeples and Hill-tops; questioning intelligent natives, diligently +using his own eyes: intent to make personal acquaintance with this new +Country,--where, little as he yet dreams of it, the deadly struggles +of his Life lie waiting him, and which he will know to great perfection +before all is done! + +Neisse lies deep enough in Prussian environment; like Brieg, like +Glogau, strictly blockaded; our posts thereabouts, among the Mountains, +thought to be impregnable. Nevertheless, what new thing is this? Here +are swarms of loose Hussar-Pandour people, wild Austrian Irregulars, who +come pouring out of Glatz Country; disturbing the Prussian posts towards +that quarter; and do not let us want for Small War (KLEINE KRIEG) so +called. General Browne, it appears, is got back to Glatz at this +early season, he and a General Lentulus busy there; and these are the +compliments they send! A very troublesome set of fellows, infesting +one's purlieus in winged predatory fashion; swooping down like a cloud +of vulturous harpies on the sudden; fierce enough, if the chance +favor; then to wing again, if it do not. Communication, especially +reconnoitring, is not safe in their neighborhood. Prussian Infantry, +even in small parties, generally beats them; Prussian Horse not, but is +oftener beaten,--not drilled for this rabble and their ways. In pitched +fight they are not dangerous, rather are despicable to the disciplined +man; but can, on occasion, do a great deal of mischief. + +Thus, it was not long after Friedrich's coming into these parts, when +he learnt with sorrow that a Body of "500 Horse and 500 Foot" (or say it +were only 300 of each kind, which is the fact [Orlich, i. 79; _OEuvres +de Frederic,_ ii. 68.]) had eluded our posts in the Mountains, and +actually got into Neisse. "The Foot will be of little consequence," +writes Friedrich; "but the Horse, which will disturb our communications, +are a considerable mischief." This was on the 5th of March. And about a +week before, on the 27th of February, there had well-nigh a far graver +thing befallen,--namely the capture of Friedrich himself, and the sudden +end of all these operations. + + + + +SKIRMISH OF BAUMGARTEN, 27th FEBRUARY, 1741. + +In most of the Anecdote-Books there used to figure, and still does, +insisting on some belief from simple persons, a wonderful Story in very +vague condition: How once "in the Silesian Wars," the King, in those +Upper Neisse regions, in the Wartha district between Glatz and Neisse, +was, one day, within an inch of being taken,--clouds of Hussars suddenly +rising round him, as he rode reconnoitring, with next to no escort, only +an adjutant or so in attendance. How he shot away, keeping well in the +shade; and erelong whisked into a Convent or Abbey, the beautiful Abbey +of Kamenz in those parts; and found Tobias Stusche, excellent Abbot +of the place, to whom he candidly disclosed his situation. How the +excellent Tobias thereupon instantly ordered the bells to be rung for +a mass extraordinary, Monks not knowing why; and, after bells, made +his appearance in high costume, much to the wonder of his Monks, with a +SECOND Abbot, also in high costume, but of shortish stature, whom +they never saw before or after. Which two Abbots, or at least Tobias, +proceeded to do the so-called divine office there and then; letting +loose the big chant especially, and the growl of organs, in a singularly +expressive manner. How the Pandours arrived in clouds meanwhile; +entered, in searching parties, more or less reverent of the mass; +searched high and low; but found nothing, and were obliged to take +Tobias's blessing at last, and go their ways. How the Second Abbot +thereupon swore eternal friendship with Tobias, in the private +apartments; and rode off as--as a rescued Majesty, determined to be more +cautious in Pandour Countries for the future! [Hildebrandt, _Anekdoten,_ +i. 1-7. Pandour proper is a FOOT-soldier (tall raw-boned ill-washed +biped, in copious Turk breeches, rather barish in the top parts of him; +carries a very long musket, and has several pistols and butcher's-knives +stuck in his girdle): specifically a footman; but readers will permit me +to use him withal, as here, in the generic sense.]--Which story, as to +the body of it, is all myth; though, as is oftenest the case, there +lies in it some soul of fact too. The History-Books, which had not much +heeded the little fact, would have nothing to do with this account of +it. Nevertheless the people stuck to their Myth; so that Dryasdust (in +punishment for his sinful blindness to the human and divine significance +of facts) was driven to investigate the business; and did at last +victoriously bring it home to the small occurrence now called SKIRMISH +OF BAUMGARTEN, which had nearly become so great in the History of the +World,--to the following effect. + +There are two Valleys with roads that lead from that Southwest quarter +of Silesia towards Glatz, each with a little Town at the end of it, +looking up into it: Wartha the name of the one: Silberberg that of the +other. Through the Wartha Valley, which is southernmost, young Neisse +River comes rushing down,--the blue mountains thereabouts very pretty, +on a clear spring day, says my touring friend. Both at Wartha, and +at Silberberg the little Town which looks into the mouth of the +northernmost Valley, the Prussians have a post. Old Derschau, Malplaquet +Derschau, with headquarters at Frankenstein, some seven or eight miles +nearer Schweidnitz, has not failed in that precaution. Friedrich wished +to visit Silberberg and Wartha; set out accordingly, 27th February, with +small escort, carelessly as usual: the Pandour people had wind of it; +knew his habits on such occasions; and, gliding through other roadless +valleys, under an adventurous Captain, had determined to whirl him +off. And they were in fact not far from succeeding, had not a mistake +happened. + +Silberberg, and Wartha the southernmost, which stands upon the Neisse +River (rushing out there into the plainer country), are each about +seven or eight miles from Frankenstein, the Head-quarters; and there +are relays of posts, capable of supporting one another, all the way from +Frankenstein to each. Friedrich rode to Silberberg first; examined the +post, found it right; then rode across to Wartha, seven or eight miles +southward; examined Wartha likewise; after which, he sat down to dinner +in that little Town, with an Officer or two for company,--having, I +suppose, found all right in both the posts. In the way hither, he had +made some change in the relay arrangements, which at first involved +some diminution of his own escort, and then some marching about and +redistributing: so that, externally, it seemed as if the Principal +Relay-party were now marching on Baumgarten, an intermediate +Village,--at least so the Pandour Captain understands the movements +going on; and crouches into the due thickets in consequence, not +doubting but the King himself is for Baumgarten, and will be at hand +presently. Principal relay-party, a squadron of Schulenburg's Dragoons, +with a stupid Major over them, is not quite got into Baumgarten, when +"with horrible cries the Pandour Captain with about 500 horse," plunges +out of cover, direct upon the throat of it: and Friedrich, at Wartha, +is but just begun dining when tumult of distant musketry breaks in upon +him. With Friedrich himself, at this time, as I count, there might be +150 Horse; in Wartha post itself are at least "forty hussars and fifty +foot." By no means "nothing but a single adjutant," as the Myth bears. + +The stupid Major ought to have beaten this rabble, though above two +to one of him. But he could not, though he tried considerably; on the +contrary, he was himself beaten; obliged to make off, leaving +"ten dragoons killed, sixteen prisoners, one standard and two +kettle-drums:"--victory and all this plunder, ye Pandour gentry; but +evidently no King. The Pandour gentry, on the instant, made off too, +alarm being abroad; got into some side-valley, with their prisoners and +drum-and-standard honors, and vanished from view of mankind. + +Friedrich had started from dinner; got his escort under way, with the +forty hussars and the fifty foot, and what small force was attainable; +and hurried towards the scene. He did see, by the road, another +strongish party of Pandours; dashed them across the Neisse River out of +sight;--but, getting to Baumgarten, found the field silent, and ten dead +men upon it. "I always told you those Schulenburg Dragoons were good +for nothing!" writes he to the Old Dessauer; but gradually withal, +on comparing notes, finds what a danger he had run, and how rash and +foolish he had been. "An ETOURDERIE (foolish trick)," he calls it, +writing to Jordan; "a black eye;" and will avoid the like. Vienna got +its two kettle-drums and flag; extremely glad to see them; and even sang +TE-DEUM upon them, to general edification. [Orlich, i. 62-64.] This is +the naked primordial substance out of which the above Myth grew to its +present luxuriance in the popular imagination. Place, the little Village +of Baumgarten; day, 27th February, 1741. Of Tobias Stusche or the +Convent of Kamenz, not one authentic word on this occasion. Tobias +did get promotions, favors in coming years: a worthy Abbot, deserving +promotion on general grounds; and master of a Convent very picturesque, +but twelve miles from the present scene of action. + + + + +ASPECTS OF BRESLAU. + +Friedrich avoided visiting Breslau, probably for the reasons above +given; though there are important interests of his there, especially his +chief Magazine; and issues of moment are silently working forward. Here +are contemporary Excerpts (in abridged form), which are authentic, and +of significance to a lively reader:-- + +"BRESLAU, MIDDLE OF JANUARY, 1741. The Prussian Envoy, Herr von Gotter, +had appeared here, returning from Vienna; Gotter, and then Borck, who +made no secret in Breslau society, That not the slightest hope of a +peaceable result existed, as society might have flattered itself; but +that war and battle would have to decide this matter. A Saxon +Ambassador was also here, waiting some time; message thought to +be insignificant:--probably some vague admonitory stuff again from +Kur-Sachsen (Polish King, son of August the Strong, a very insignificant +man), who acts as REICHS-VICARIUS in those Northern parts." For the +reader is to know, there are Reichs-Vicars more than one (nay more than +two on this occasion, with considerable jarring going on about them); +and I could say much about their dignities, limits, duties, [Adelung, +ii. 143, &c.; Kohler, _Reichs-Historie,_ pp. 585-589.]--if indeed +there were any duties, except dramatic ones! But the Reich itself, and +Vicarship along with it, are fallen into a nearly imaginary condition; +and the Regensburg Diet (not Princes now, but mere Delegates of Princes, +mostly Bombazine People), which, "ever since 1663," has sat continual, +instead of now and then, is become an Enchanted Piggery, strange to +look upon, under those earnest stars. "As King Friedrich did not call +at Greslau," after those Neisse bombardments, but rolled past, straight +homewards, the three Excellencies all departed,--Borck and Gotter to +Berlin, the Saxon home again with his insignificant message. + +"JANUARY 19th. Schwerin too was here in the course of the winter, to +see how the magazines and other war-preparations were going on: Breslau +outwardly and inwardly is whirling with business, and offers phenomena. +For instance, it is known that the Army-Chest, heaps of silver and gold +in it, lies in the Scultet Garden-House, where the King lodged; and that +only one sentry walks there, and that in the guard-house itself, which +is some way off, there are only thirty men. January 19th, about 9 of +the clock, [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 700.] alarm rises, That 2,000 +DIEBS-GESINDEL (Collective Thief-rabble of Breslau and dependencies) +are close by; intending a stroke upon said Garden-House and Army-Chest! +Perhaps this rumor sprang of its own accord;--or perhaps not quite? +It had been very rife; and ran high; not without remonstrances in +Town-Hall, and the like, which we can imagine. Issue was, The Officer on +post at Scultet's loaded his treasure in carts; conveyed it, that +same night, to the interior of the City, in fact to the OBERAMTS-HAUS +(Government-House that was);--which doubtless was a step in the right +direction. For now the Two Feld-Kriegs-Commissariat Gentlemen (one of +whom is the expert Munchow, son of our old Custrin friend), supreme +Prussian Authorities here, do likewise shift out of their inns; and +take old Schaffgotsch's apartments in the same Oberamts-Haus; mutely +symbolling that perhaps THEY are likely to become a kind of Government. +And the reader can conceive how, in such an element, the function of +governing would of itself fall more and more into their hands. They were +consummately polite, discreet, friendly towards all people; and did in +effect manage their business, tax-gatherings in money and in kind, with +a perfection and precision which made the evil a minimum. + +"FEBRUARY 17th.... This day also, there arrived at Breslau, by boat up +the Oder, ten heavy cannon, three mortars, and ammunition of powder, +bombshells, balls, as much as loaded fifty wagons; the whole of which +were, in like manner, forwarded to Ohlau. This day, as on other days +before and after. Great Magazines forming here; the Military chiefly at +Ohlau; at Breslau the Provender part,--and this latter under noteworthy +circumstances. In the Dom-Island, namely; which is definable (in a +case of such necessity) as being 'outside the walls.' Especially as the +Reverend Fathers have mostly glided into corners, and left the place +vacant. In the Dom-Island, it certainly is; and such a stock,--all +bought for money down, and spurred forward while the roads were under +frost,--'such a stock as was not thought to be in all Silesia,' says +exaggerative wonder. The vacant edifices in the Dom-Island are filled to +the neck with meal and corn; the Prussian brigade now quartering there +('without the walls,' in a sense) to guard the same. And in the Bishop's +Garden [poor Sinzendorf, far enough away and in no want of it just now] +are mere hay-mows, bigger than houses: who can object,--in a case +of necessity? No man, unless he politically meddle, is meddled +with; politically meddling, you are at once picked up; as one or two +are,--clapped into gentle arrest, or, like old Schaffgotsch, and even +Sinzendorf before long, requested to leave the Country till it get +settled. Rigor there is, but not intentional injustice on Munchow's +part, and there is a studious avoidance of harsh manner. + +"FEBRUARY-MARCH. Considerable recruiting in Schlesien: six hundred +recruits have enlisted in Breslau alone. Also his Prussian Majesty has +sent a supply of Protestant Preachers, ordained for the occasion, to +minister where needed;--which is piously acknowledged as a godsend +in various parts of Silesia. Twelve came first, all Berliners; soon +afterwards, others from different parts, till, in the end, there were +about Sixty in all. Rigorous, punctilious avoidance of offence to the +Catholic minorities, or of whatever least thing Silesian Law does not +permit, is enjoined upon them; 'to preach in barns or town-halls, where +by Law you have no Church.' Their salary is about 30 pounds a year; +they are all put under supervision of the Chaplain of Margraf Karl's +Regiment" (a judicious Chaplain, I have no doubt, and fit to be a +Bishop); and so far as appears, mere benefit is got of them by Schlesien +as well as by Friedrich, in this function. Friedrich is careful to keep +the balance level between Catholic and Protestant; but it has hung +at such an angle, for a long while past! In general, we observe +the Catholic Dignitaries, and the zealous or fanatic of that creed, +especially the Jesuits, are apt to be against him: as for the +non-fanatic, they expect better government, secular advantage; these +latter weigh doubtfully, and with less weight whichever way. In the +general population, who are Protestant, he recognizes friends;--and has +sent them Sixty Preachers, which by Law was their due long since. +Here follow two little traits, comic or tragi-comic, with which we can +conclude:-- + +"Detached Jesuit parties, here and there, seem to have mischief in hand +in a small way, encouraging deserters and the like;--and we keep an +eye on them. No discontent elsewhere, at least none audible; on the +contrary, much enlisting on the part of the Silesian youth, with other +good symptoms. But in the Dom, there is, singular to say, a Goblin found +walking, one night;--advancing, not with airs from Heaven, upon +the Prussian sentry there! The Prussian sentry handles arms; pokes +determinedly into the Goblin, and finding him solid, ever more +determinedly, till the Goblin shrieked 'Jesus Maria!' and was hauled +to the Guard-house for investigation." A weak Goblin; doubtless of the +valet kind; worth only a little whipping; but testifies what the spirit +is. + +"Another time, two deserter Frenchmen getting hanged [such the law in +aggravated cases], certain polite Jesuits, who had by permission been +praying and extreme-unctioning about them, came to thank the Colonel +after all was over. Colonel, a grave practical man, needs no 'thanks;' +would, however, 'advise your Reverences to teach your people that +perjury is not permissible, that an oath sworn ought to be kept;' and +in fine 'would advise you Holy Fathers hereabouts, and others, to have +a care lest you get into'--And twitching his reins, rode away without +saying into what." [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 723.] + + + + +AUSTRIA IS STANDING TO ARMS. + +Schwerin has been doing his best in this interim; collecting magazines +with double diligence while the roads are hard, taking up the +Key-positions far and wide, from the Jablunka round to the Frontier +Valleys of Glatz again. He was through Jablunka, at one time; on into +Mahren, as far as Olmutz; levying contributions, emitting patents: but +as to intimidating her Hungarian Majesty, if that was the intention, or +changing her mind at all, that is not the issue got. Austria has still +strength, and Pragmatic Sanction and the Laws of Nature have! Very +fixed is her Hungarian Majesty's determination, to part with no inch of +Territory, but to drive the intrusive Prussians home well punished. + +How she has got the funds is, to this day, a mystery;--unless George and +Walpole, from their Secret-Service Moneys, have smuggled her somewhat? +For the Parliament is not sitting, and there will be such jargonings, +such delays: a preliminary 100,000 pounds, say by degrees 200,000 +pounds,--we should not miss it, and in her Majesty's hands it would go +far! Hints in the English Dryasdust we have; but nothing definite; and +we are left to our guesses. [Tindal (XX. 497) says expressly 200,000 +pounds, but gives no date or other particular.] A romantic story, first +set current by Voltaire, has gone the round of the world, and still +appears in all Histories: How in England there was a Subscription set +on foot for her Hungarian Majesty; outcome of the enthusiasm of English +Ladies of quality,--old Sarah Duchess of Marlborough putting down her +name for 40,000 pounds, or indeed putting down the ready sum itself; +magnanimous veteran that she was. Voltaire says, omitting date and +circumstance, but speaking as if it were indubitable, and a thing you +could see with eyes: "The Duchess of Marlborough, widow of him who had +fought for Karl VI. [and with such signal returns of gratitude from the +said Karl VI.], assembled the principal Ladies of London; who engaged to +furnish 100,000 pounds among them; the Duchess herself putting down [EN +DEPOSA, tabling IN CORPORE] 40,000 pounds of it. The Queen of Hungary +had the greatness of soul to refuse this money;--needing only, as she +intimated, what the Nation in Parliament assembled might please to offer +her." [Voltaire, _OEuvres (Siecle de Louis XV.,_ c. 6), xxviii. 79.] + +One is sorry to run athwart such a piece of mutual magnanimity; but the +fact is, on considering a little and asking evidence, it turns out to +be mythical. One Dilworth, an innocent English soul (from whom our +grandfathers used to learn ARITHMETIC, I think), writing on the spot +some years after Voltaire, has this useful passage: "It is the great +failing of a strong imagination to catch greedily at wonders. Voltaire +was misinformed; and would perhaps learn, by a second inquiry, a truth +less splendid and amusing. A Contribution was, by News-writers upon +their own authority, fruitlessly proposed. It ended in nothing: the +Parliament voted a supply;"--that did it, Mr. Dilworth; supplies enough, +and many of them! "Fruitlessly, by News-writers on their own authority;" +that is the sad fact. [_The Life and Heroick Actions of Frederick III._ +(SIC, a common blunder), by W. H. Dilworth, M.A. (London, 1758), p. 25. +A poor little Book, one of many coming out on that subject just then +(for a reason we shall see on getting thither); which contains, of +available now, the above sentence and no more. Indeed its brethren, one +of them by Samnel Johnson (IMPRANSUS, the imprisoned giant), do not even +contain that, and have gone wholly to zero.--Neither little Dilworth +nor big Voltaire give the least shadow of specific date; but both +evidently mean Spring, 1742 (not 1741).] + +It is certain, little George, who considers Pragmatic Sanction as the +Keystone of Nature in a manner, has been venturing far deeper than +purse for that adorable object; and indeed has been diving, secretly, in +muddier waters than we expected, to a dangerous extent, on behalf of it, +at this very time. In the first days of March, Friedrich has heard +from his Minister at Petersburg of a DETESTABLE PROJECT, [Orlich, i. +83 (scrap of Note to Old Dessauer; no date allowed us; "early in +March").]--project for "Partitioning the Prussian Kingdom," no less; for +fairly cutting into Friedrich, and paring him down to the safe pitch, +as an enemy to Pragmatic and mankind. They say, a Treaty, Draught of a +Treaty, for that express object, is now ready; and lies at Petersburg, +only waiting signature. Here is a Project! Contracting parties (Russian +signature still wanting) are: Kur-Sachsen; her Hungarian Majesty; King +George; and that Regent Anne (MRS. Anton Ulrich, so to speak), who sits +in a huddle of undress, impatient of Political objects, but sensible to +the charms of handsome men. To the charms of Count Lynar, especially: +the handsomest of Danish noblemen (more an ancient Roman than a Dane), +whom the Polish Majesty, calculating cause and effect, had despatched to +her, with that view, in the dead of winter lately. To whom she has +given ear;--dismissing her Munnich, as we saw above;--and is ready +for signing, or perhaps has signed! [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ ii. 68.] +Friedrich's astonishment, on hearing of this "detestable Project," was +great. However, he takes his measures on it;--right lucky that he +has the Old Dessauer, and machinery for acting on Kur-Sachsen and the +Britannic Majesty. "Get your machinery in gear!" is naturally his first +order. And the Old Dessauer does it, with effect: of which by and by. + +Never did I hear, before or since, of such a plunge into the muddy +unfathomable, on the part of little George, who was an honorable +creature, and dubitative to excess: and truly this rash plunge might +have cost him dear, had not he directly scrambled out again. Or did +Friedrich exaggerate to himself his Uncle's real share in the matter? I +always guess, there had been more of loose talk, of hypothesis and fond +hope, in regard to George's share, than of determinate fact or procedure +on his own part. The transaction, having had to be dropped on the +sudden, remains somewhat dark; but, in substance, it is not doubtful; +[Tindal, xx. 497.] and Parliament itself took afterwards to poking into +it, though with little effect. Kur-Sachsen's objects in the adventure +were of the earth, earthy; but on George's part it was pure adoration of +Pragmatic Sanction, anxiety for the Keystone of Nature, and lest Chaos +come again. In comparison with such transcendent divings, what is a +little Secret-Service money!-- + +The Count Lynar of this adventure, who had well-nigh done such a feat +in Diplomacy, may turn up transiently again. A conspicuous, more or less +ridiculous person of those times. Busching (our Geographical friend) had +gone with him, as Excellency's Chaplain, in this Russian Journey; which +is a memorable one to Busching; and still presents vividly, through +his Book, those haggard Baltic Coasts in midwinter, to readers who have +business there. Such a journey for grimness of outlook, upon pine-tufts +and frozen sand; for cold (the Count's very tobacco-pipe freezing in +his mouth), for hardship, for bad lodging, and extremity of dirt in the +unfreezable kinds, as seldom was. They met, one day on the road, a Lord +Hyndford, English Ambassador just returning from Petersburg, with his +fourgons and vehicles, and arrangements for sleep and victual, in an +enviably luxurious condition,--whom we shall meet, to our cost. They +saw, in the body, old Field-marshal Lacy, and dined with him, at Riga; +who advised brandy schnapps; a recipe rejected by Busching. And other +memorabilia, which by accident hang about this Lynar. [Busching, +_Beitrage,_ vi. 132-164.]--All through Regent Anne's time he continued a +dangerous object to Friedrich; and it was a relief when Elizabeth CATIN +became Autocrat, instead of Deshabille Anne and her Lynar. Adieu to him, +for fifteen years or more. + +Of Friedrich's military operations, of his magazines, posts, diligent +plannings and gallopings about, in those weeks; of all this the reader +can form some notion by looking on the map and remembering what has gone +before: but that subterranean growling which attended him, prophetic +of Earthquake, that universal breaking forth of Bedlams, now fallen so +extinct, no reader can imagine. Bedlams totally extinct to everybody; +but which were then very real, and raged wide as the world, high as the +stars, to a hideous degree among the then sons of men;--unimaginable now +by any mortal. + +And, alas, this is one of the grand difficulties for my readers and me; +Friedrich's Life-element having fallen into such a dismal condition. +Most dismal, dark, ugly, that Austrian-Succession Business, and its +world-wide battlings, throttlings and intriguings: not Dismal Swamp, +under a coverlid of London Fog, could be uglier! A Section of "History" +so called, which human nature shrinks from; of which the extant +generation already knows nothing, and is impatient of hearing anything! +Truly, Oblivion is very due to such an Epoch: and from me far be it to +awaken, beyond need, its sordid Bedlams, happily extinct. But without +Life-element, no Life can be intelligible; and till Friedrich and one or +two others are extricated from it, Dismal Swamp cannot be quite filled +in. Courage, reader!--Our Constitutional Historian makes this farther +reflection:-- + +"English moneys, desperate Russian intrigues, Treaties made and +Treaties broken--If instead of Pragmatic Sanction with eleven Potentates +guaranteeing, Maria Theresa had at this time had 200,000 soldiers and +a full treasury (as Prince Eugene used to advise the late Kaiser), how +different might it have been with her, and with the whole world that +fell upon one another's throats in her quarrel! Some eight years of the +most disastrous War; and except the falling of Silesia to its new +place, no result gained by it. War at any rate inevitable, you object? +English-Spanish War having been obliged to kindle itself; French sure +to fall in, on the Spanish side; sure to fall upon Hanover, so soon as +beaten at sea, and thus to involve all Europe? Well, it is too likely. +But, even in that case, the poor English would have gone upon their +necessary Spanish War, by the direct road and with their eyes open, +instead of somnambulating and stumbling over the chimney-tops; and the +settlement might have come far sooner, and far cheaper to mankind.--Nay, +we are to admit that the new place for Silesia was, likewise, the place +appointed it by just Heaven; and Friedrich's too was a necessary War. +Heaven makes use of Shadow-hunting Kaisers too; and its ways in this mad +world are through the great Deep." + + + + +THE YOUNG DESSAUER CAPTURES GLOGAU (MARCH 9th); THE OLD DESSAUER, BY HIS +CAMP OF GOTTIN (APRIL 2d), CHECKMATES CERTAIN DESIGNING PERSONS. + +Money somewhere her Hungarian Majesty has got; that is one thing +evident. She has an actual Army on foot, "drawn out of Italy," or whence +she could; formidable Army, says rumor, and getting well equipped;--and +here are the Pandour Precursors of it, coming down like storm-clouds +through the Glatz valleys;--nearly finishing the War for her at +a stroke, the other day, had accident favored;--and have thrown +reinforcement of 600 into Neisse. Friedrich is not insensible to these +things; and amid such alarms from far and from near, is becoming eager +to have, at least, Glogau in his hand. Glogau, he is of opinion, could +now, and should, straightway be done. + +Glogau is not a strong place; after all the repairing, it could stand +little siege, were we careless of hurting it. But Wallis is obstinate; +refuses Free Withdrawal; will hold out to the uttermost, though his meal +is running low. He pretends there is relief coming; relief just at hand; +and once, in midnight time, "lets off a rocket and fires six guns," +alarming Prince Leopold as if relief were just in the neighborhood. A +tough industrious military man; stiff to his purpose, and not without +shift. + +Friedrich thinks the place might be had by assault: "Open trenches; set +your batteries going, which need not injure the Town; need only alarm +Wallis, and TERRIFY it; then, under cover of this noise and feint +of cannonading, storm with vigor." Leopold, the Young Dessauer, is +cautious; wants petards if he must storm, wants two new battalions if he +must open trenches;--he gets these requisites, and is still cunctatory. +Friedrich has himself got the notion, "from clear intelligence," true +or not, that relief to Glogau is actually on way; and under such +imminences, Russian and other, in so ticklish a state of the world, he +becomes more and more impatient that this thing were done. In the first +week of March, still hurrying about on inspection-business, he writes, +from four or five different places ("Mollwitz near Brieg" is one of +them, a Village we shall soon know better), Note after Note to Leopold; +who still makes difficulties, and is not yet perfect to the last finish +in his preparations. "Preparations!" answers Friedrich impatiently (date +MOLLWITZ, 5th MARCH, the third or fourth impatient Note he has sent); +and adds, just while quitting Mollwitz for Ohlau, this Postscript in his +own hand:-- + +P.S. "I am sorry you have not understood me! They have, in Bohmen, a +regular enterprise on hand for the rescue of Glogau. I have Infantry +enough to meet them; but Cavalry is quite wanting. You must therefore, +without delay, begin the siege. Let us finish there, I pray you!" +[Orlich, i. 70.] + +And next day, Monday 6th, to cut the matter short, he despatches his +General-Adjutant Goltz in person (the distance is above seventy miles), +with this Note wholly in autograph, which nothing vocal on Leopold's +part will answer:-- + +"OHLAU, 6th MARCH. As I am certainly informed that the Enemy will make +some attempt, I hereby with all distinctness command, That, so soon as +the petards are come [which they are], you attack Glogau. And you must +make your Arrangement (DISPOSITION) for more than one attack; so that if +one fail, the other shall certainly succeed. I hope you will put off no +longer;--otherwise the blame of all the mischief that might arise out of +longer delay must lie on you alone." [Ib. i. 71.] + +Goltz arrived with this emphatic Piece, Tuesday Evening, after his +course of seventy miles: this did at last rouse our cautious Young +Dessauer; and so there is next obtainable, on much compression, the +following authentic Excerpt:-- + +"GLOGAU, 8th MARCH, 1741. His Durchlaucht the Prince Leopold summoned +all the Generals at noon; and informed them That, this very night, +Glogau must be won. He gave them their Instructions in writing: where +each was to post himself; with what detachments; how to proceed. There +are to be three Attacks: one up stream, coming on with the River to its +right; one down stream, River to its left; and a third from the landward +side, perpendicular to the other two. The very captains that shall go +foremost are specified; at what hour each is to leave quarters, so that +all be ready simultaneously, waiting in the posts assigned;--against +what points to advance out of these, and storm Rampart and Wall. Places, +times, particulars, everything is fixed with mathematical exactitude: +'Be steady, be correct, especially be silent; and so far as Law of +Nature will permit, be simultaneous! When the big steeple of Glogau +peals Midnight,--Forward, with the first stroke; with the second, much +more with the twelfth stroke, be one and all of you, in the utmost +silence, advancing! And, under pain of death, two things: Not one shot +till you are in; No plundering when you are.'--In this manner is +the silent three-sided avalanche to be let go. Whereupon", says my +Dryasdust, "the Generals retired; and had, for one item, their fire-arms +all cleaned and new-loaded." [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 823; ii. 165.] + +Without plans of Glogau, and more detail and study than the reader would +consent to, there can no Narrative be given. Glogau has Ramparts, due +Ring-fence, palisaded and repaired by Wallis; inside of this is an old +Town-Wall, which will need petards: there are about 1,000 men under +Wallis, and altogether on the works, not to count a mortar or two, +fifty-eight big guns. The reader must conceive a poor Town under +blockade, in the wintry night-time, with its tough Count Wallis; ill-off +for the necessaries of life; Town shrouded in darkness, and creeping +quietly to its bed. This on the one hand: and on the other hand, +Prussian battalions marching up, at 10 o'clock or later, with the utmost +softness of step; "taking post behind the ordinary field-watches;" and +at length, all standing ranked, in the invisible dark; silent, like +machinery, like a sleeping avalanche: Husht!--No sentry from the walls +dreams of such a thing. "Twelve!" sings out the steeple of Glogau; and +in grim whisper the word is, "VORWARTS!" and the three-winged avalanche +is in motion. + +They reach their glacises, their ditches, covered ways, correct as +mathematics; tear out chevaux-de-frise, hew down palisades, in the given +number of minutes: Swift, ye Regiment's-carpenters; smite your best! +Four cannon-shot do now boom out upon them; which go high over their +heads, little dreaming how close at hand they are. The glacis is thirty +feet high, of stiff slope, and slippery with frost: no matter, the +avalanche, led on by Leopold in person, by Margraf Karl the King's +Cousin, by Adjutant Goltz and the chief personages, rushes up with +strange impetus; hews down a second palisade; surges in;--Wallis's +sentries extinct, or driven to their main guards. There is a singular +fire in the besieging party. For example, Four Grenadiers,--I think of +this First Column, which succeeded sooner, certainly of the Regiment +Glasenapp,--four grenadiers, owing to slippery or other accidents, in +climbing the glacis, had fallen a few steps behind the general body; and +on getting to the top, took the wrong course, and rushed along rightward +instead of leftward. Rightward, the first thing they come upon is a mass +of Austrians still ranked in arms; fifty-two men, as it turned out, with +their Captain over them. Slight stutter ensues on the part of the +Four Grenadiers; but they give one another the hint, and dash forward: +"Prisoners?" ask they sternly, as if all Prussia had been at their +rear. The fifty-two, in the darkness, in the danger and alarm, answer +"Yes."--"Pile arms, then!" Three of the grenadiers stand to see that +done; the fourth runs off for force, and happily gets back with it +before the comedy had become tragic for his comrades. "I must make +acquaintance with these four men," writes Friedrich, on hearing of +it; and he did reward them by present, by promotion to sergeantcy (to +ensigncy one of them), or what else they were fit for. Grenadiers of +Glasenapp: these are the men Friedrich heard swearing-in under his +window, one memorable morning when he burst into tears! At half-past +Twelve, the Ramparts, on all sides, are ours. + +The Gates of the Town, under axe and petard, can make little resistance, +to Leopold's Column or the other two. A hole is soon cut in the +Town-Gate, where Leopold is; and gallant Wallis, who had rallied behind +it, with his Artillery-General and what they could get together, fires +through the opening, kills four men; but is then (by order, and not till +then) fired upon, and obliged to draw back, with his Artillery-General +mortally hurt. Inside he attempts another rally, some 200 with him; and +here and there perhaps a house-window tries to give shot; but it is +to no purpose, not the least stand can be made. Poor Wallis is rapidly +swept back, into the Market-place, into the Main Guard-house; and there +piles arms: "Glogau yours, Ihr Herren, and we prisoners of War!" The +steeple had not yet quite struck One. Here has been a good hour's-work! + +Glogau, as in a dream, or half awake, and timidly peeping from behind +window-curtains, finds that it is a Town taken. Glogau easily consoles +itself, I hear, or even is generally glad; Prussian discipline being so +perfect, and ingress now free for the necessaries of life. There was +no plundering; not the least insult: no townsman was hurt; not even +in houses where soldiers had tried firing from windows. The Prussian +Battalions rendezvous in the Market-place, and go peaceably about their +patrolling, and other business; and meddle with nothing else. They +lost, in killed, ten men; had of killed and wounded, forty-eight; the +Austrians rather more. [Orlich, i. 75, 78; _Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 829; +irreconcilable otherwise, in some slight points.] Wallis was to have +been set free on parole; but was not,--in retaliation for some severity +of General Browne's in the interim (picking up of two Silesian Noblemen, +suspected of Prussian tendency, and locking them in Brunn over the +Hills),--and had to go to Berlin, till that was repaired. To the wounded +Artillery-General there was every tenderness shown, but he died in few +days.--The other Prisoners were marched to the Custrin-Stettin quarter; +"and many of them took Prussian service." + +And this is the Scalade of Glogau: a shining feat of those days; which +had great rumor in the Gazettes, and over all the then feverish Nations, +though it has now fallen dim again, as feats do. Its importance at that +time, its utility to Friedrich's affairs, was undeniable; and it +filled Friedrich with the highest satisfaction, and with admiration to +overflowing. Done 9th March, 1741; in one hour, the very earliest of the +day. + +Goltz posted back to Schweidnitz with the news; got thither about 5 +P.M.; and was received, naturally, with open arms. Friedrich in person +marched out, next morning, to make FEU-DE-JOIE and TE-DEUM-ing;--there +was Royal Letter to Leopold, which flamed through all the Newspapers, +and can still be read in innumerable Books; Letter omissible in this +place. We remark only how punctual the King is, to reward in money as +well as praise, and not the high only, but the low that had deserved: to +Prince Leopold he presents 2,000 pounds; to each private soldier who had +been of the storm, say half a guinea,--doubling and quadrupling, in the +special cases, to as high as twenty guineas, of our present money. To +the old Gazetteers, and their readers everywhere, this of Glogau is a +very effulgent business; bursting out on them, like sudden Bude-light, +in the uncertain stagnancy and expectancy of mankind. Friedrich himself +writes of it to the Old Dessauer:-- + +"The more I think of the Glogau business, the more important I find it. +Prince Leopold has achieved the prettiest military stroke (DIE SCHONSTE +ACTION) that has been done in this Century. From my heart I congratulate +you on having such a Son. In boldness of resolution, in plan, in +execution, it is alike admirable; and quite gives a turn to my affairs." +[Date, 13th March, 1741 (Orlich, i. 77).] + +And indeed, it is a perfect example of Prussian discipline, and military +quality in all kinds; such as it would be difficult to match elsewhere. +Most potently correct; coming out everywhere with the completeness and +exactitude of mathematics; and has in it such a fund of martial fire, +not only ready to blaze out (which can be exampled elsewhere), but +capable of bottling itself IN, and of lying silently ready. Which is +much rarer; and very essential in soldiering! Due a little to the OLD +Dessauer, may we not say, as well as to the Young? Friedrich Wilhelm is +fallen silent; but his heavy labors, and military and other drillings to +Prussian mankind, still speak with an audible voice. + +About three weeks after this of Glogau, Leopold the Old Dessauer, over +in Brandenburg, does another thing which is important to Friedrich, and +of great rumor in the world. Steps out, namely, with a force of 36,000 +men, horse, foot and artillery, completely equipped in all points; and +takes Camp, at this early season, at a place called Gottin, not far from +Magdeburg, handy at once for Saxony and for Hanover; and continues there +encamped,--"merely for review purposes." Readers can figure what an +astonishment it was to Kur-Sachsen and British George; and how it struck +the wind out of their Russian Partition-Dream, and awoke them to a sense +of the awful fact!--Capable of being slit in pieces, and themselves +partitioned, at a day's warning, as it were! It was on April 2d, that +Leopold, with the first division of the 36,000, planted his flag near +Gottin. No doubt it was the "detestable Project" that had brought him +out, at so early a season for tent-life, and nobody could then guess +why. He steadily paraded here, all summer; keeping his 36,000 well in +drill, since there was nothing else needed of him. + +The Camp at Gottin flamed greatly abroad through the timorous +imaginations of mankind, that Year; and in the Newspapers are many +details of it. And, besides the important general fact, there is still +one little point worth special mention: namely, that old Field-marshal +Katte (Father of poor Lieutenant Katte whom we knew) was of it; and +perhaps even got his death by it: "Chief Commander of the Cavalry here," +such honor had he; but died at his post, in a couple of months, "at +Rekahn, May 31st;" [_Militair-Lexikon,_ ii. 254.] poor old gentleman, +perhaps unequal to the hardships of field-life at so early a season of +the year. + + + + +FRIEDRICH TAKES THE FIELD, WITH SOME POMP; GOES INTO THE MOUNTAINS,--BUT +COMES FAST BACK. + +At Glogau there was Homaging, on the very morrow after the storm; on the +second day, the superfluous regiments marched off: no want of vigorous +activity to settle matters on their new footing there. General Kalkstein +(Friedrich's old Tutor, whom readers have forgotten again) is to be +Commandant of Glogau; an office of honor, which can be done by +deputy except in cases of real stress. The place is to be thoroughly +new-fortified,--which important point they commit to Engineer Wallrave, +a strong-headed heavy-built Dutch Officer, long since acquired to the +service, on account of his excellence in that line; who did, now and +afterwards, a great deal of excellent engineering for Friedrich; but for +himself (being of deep stomach withal, and of life too dissolute) made a +tragic thing of it ultimately. As will be seen, if we have leisure. + +In seven or eight days, Prince Leopold having wound up his Glogau +affairs, and completed the new preliminaries there, joins the King at +Schweidnitz. In the highest favor, as was natural. Kalkstein is to take +a main hand in the Siege of Neisse; for which operation it is hoped +there will soon be weather, if not favorable yet supportable. What +of the force was superfluous at Glogau had at once marched off, as we +observed; and is now getting re-distributed where needful. There is much +shifting about; strengthening of posts, giving up of posts: the whole of +which readers shall imagine for themselves,--except only two points that +are worth remembering: FIRST, that Kalkstein with about 12,000 takes +post at Grotkau, some twenty-five miles north of Neisse, ready to move +on, and open trenches, when required: and SECOND, that Holstein-Beck +gets posted at Frankenstein (chief place of that Baumgarten Skirmish), +say thirty-five miles west-by-north of Neisse; and has some 8 or 10,000 +Horse and Foot thereabouts, spread up and down,--who will be much +wanted, and not procurable, on an occasion that is coming. + +Friedrich has given up the Jablunka Pass; called in the Jablunka and +remoter posts; anxious to concentrate, before the Enemy get nigh. That +is the King's notion; and surely a reasonable one; the AREA of the +Prussian Army, as I guess it from the Maps, being above 2,000 square +miles, beginning at Breslau only, and leaving out Glogau. Schwerin +thinks differently, but without good basis. Both are agreed, "The +Austrian Army cannot take the field till the forage come," till the +new grass spring, which its cavalry find convenient. That is the fair +supposition; but in that both are mistaken, and Schwerin the more +dangerously of the two.--Meanwhile, the Pandour swarms are observably +getting rifer, and of stormier quality; and they seem to harbor farther +to the East than formerly, and not to come all out of Glatz. Which +perhaps are symptomatic circumstances? The worst effect of these +preliminary Pandour clouds is, Your scout-service cannot live among +them; they hinder reconnoitring, and keep the Enemy veiled from you. Of +that sore mischief Friedrich had, first and last, ample experience at +their hands! This is but the first instalment of Pandours to Friedrich; +and the mere foretaste of what they can do in the veiling way. + +Behind the Mountains, in this manner, all is inane darkness to Friedrich +and Schwerin. They know only that Neipperg is rendezvousing at Olmutz; +and judge that he will still spend many weeks upon it; the real facts +being: That Neipperg--"who arrived in Olmutz on the 10th of March," the +very day while Glogau was homaging--has been, he and those above him and +those under him, driving preparations forward at a furious rate. That +Neipperg held--I think at Steinberg his hithermost post, some twenty +miles hither of Olmutz--a Council of War, "all the Generals and even +Lentulus from Glatz, present at it," day not given; where the unanimous +decision was, "March straightway; save Neisse, since Glogau is +gone!"--and in fine, That on the 26th, Neipperg took the road +accordingly, "in spite of furious snow blowing in his face;" and is +ever since (30,000 strong, says rumor, but perhaps 10,000 of them mere +Pandours) unweariedly climbing the Mountains, laboriously jingling +forward with his heavy guns and ammunition-wagons; "contending with the +steep snowy icy roads;" intent upon saving Neisse. This is the +fact; profoundly unknown to Friedrich and Schwerin; who will be much +surprised, when it becomes patent to them at the wrong time. + +SCHWEIDNITZ, 27th MARCH. This day Friedrich, with considerable +apparatus, pomp and processional cymballing, greatly the reverse of +his ulterior use and wont in such cases, quitted Schweidnitz and his +Algarottis; solemnly opening Campaign in this manner; and drove off for +Ottmachau, having work there for to-morrow. + +The Siege of Neisse is now to proceed forthwith; trenches to be opened +April 4th. Friedrich is still of opinion, that his posts lie too wide +apart; that especially Schwerin, who is spread among the Hills in +Jagerndorf Country, ought to come down, and take closer order for +covering the siege. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ ii. 70.] Schwerin answers, +That if the King will spare him a reinforcement of eight squadrons and +nine battalions (say 1,200 Horse, 9,000 Foot), he will maintain himself +where he is, and no Enemy shall get across the Mountains at all. That +is Schwerin's notion; who surely is something of a judge. Friedrich +assents; will himself conduct the reinforcement to Schwerin, and survey +matters, with his own eyes, up yonder. Friedrich marches from Ottmachau, +accordingly, 29th March;--Kalkstein, Holstein-Beck, and others are to be +rendezvoused before Neisse, in the interim; trenches ready for opening +on the sixth day hence;--and in this manner, climbs these Mountains, and +sees Jagerndorf Country for the first time. + +Beautiful blue world of Hills, ridge piled on ridge behind that Neisse +region; fruitful valleys lapped in them, with grim stone Castles +and busy little Towns disclosing themselves as we advance: that is +Jagerndorf Country,--which Uncle George of Anspach, hundreds of years +ago, purchased with his own money; which we have now come to lay hold of +as his Heir! Friedrich, I believe, thinks little of all this, and +does not remember Uncle George at all. But such are the facts; and the +Country, regarded or not, is very blue and beautiful, with the Spring +sun shining on it; or with the sudden Spring storms gathering wildly +on the peaks, as if for permanent investiture, but vanishing again +straightway, leaving only a powdering of snow. + +He met Schwerin at Neustadt, half-way to Jagerndorf; whither they +proceeded next day. "What news have you of the Enemy?" was Friedrich's +first question. Schwerin has no news whatever; only that the Enemy is +far off, hanging in long thin straggle from Olmutz westward. "I have a +spy out," said Schwerin; "but he has not returned yet,"--nor ever will, +he might have added. If diligent readers will now take to their Map, +and attend day by day, an invincible Predecessor has compelled what next +follows into human intelligibility, and into the Diary Form, for +their behoof;--readers of an idler turn can skip: but this confused +hurry-scurry of marches issues in something which all will have to +attend to. + +"JAGERNDORF, 2d APRIL, 1741. This is the day when the Old Dessauer makes +appearance with the first brigades of his Camp at Gottin. Friedrich +is satisfied with what he has seen of Jagerndorf matters; and intends +returning towards Neisse, there to commence on the 4th. He is giving +his final orders, and on the point of setting off, when--Seven Austrian +Deserters, 'Dragoons of Lichtenstein,' come in; and report, That +Neipperg's Army is within a few miles! And scarcely had they done +answering and explaining, when sounds rise of musketry and cannon, +from our outposts on that side; intimating that here is Neipperg's Army +itself. Seldom in his life was Friedrich in an uglier situation. In +Jagerndorf, an open Town, are only some three or four thousand men, +'with three field-pieces, and as much powder as will charge them forty +times.' Happily these proved only the Pandour outskirts of Neipperg's +Army, scouring about to reconnoitre, and not difficult to beat; the +real body of it is ascertained to be at Freudenthal, fifteen miles to +westward, southwestward; making towards Neisse, it is guessed, by the +other or western road, which is the nearer to Glatz and to the Austrian +force there. + +"Had Neipperg known what was in Jagerndorf--! But he does not know. +He marches on, next morning, at his usual slow rate; wide clouds of +Pandours accompanying and preceding him; skirmishing in upon all places +[upon Jagerndorf, for instance, though fifteen miles wide of their +road], to ascertain if Prussians are there. One can judge whether +Friedrich and Schwerin were thankful when the huge alarm produced +nothing! 'The mountain,' as Friedrich says, 'gave birth to a +mouse;'--nay it was a 'mouse' of essential vital use to Friedrich and +Schwerin; a warning, That they must instantly collect themselves, men +and goods; and begone one and all out of these parts, double-quick +towards Neisse. Not now with the hope of besieging Neisse,--far from +that;--but of getting their wide-scattered posts together thereabouts, +and escaping destruction in detail! + +"APRIL 4th, HEAD-QUARTERS NEUSTADT. By violent exertion, with the +sacrifice only of some remote little storehouses, all is rendezvoused at +Jagerndorf, within two days; and this day they march; King and vanguard +reaching Neustadt, some twenty-five miles forward, some twenty still +from Neisse. At Neustadt, the posts that had stood in that neighborhood +are all assembled, and march with the King to-morrow. Of Neipperg, +except by transitory contact with his Pandour clouds, they have seen +nothing: his road is pretty much parallel to theirs, and some fifteen +miles leftward, Glatzward; goes through Zuckmantel, Ziegenhals, straight +upon Neisse. [Zuckmantel, "Twitch-Cloak," occurs more than once as a +Town's name in those regions: name which, says my Dryasdust without +smile visible, it got from robberies done on travellers, "twitchings of +your cloak," with stand-and-deliver, as you cross those wild mountain +spaces. (Zeiller, _Beschreibung des Konigreichs Boheim,_ Frankfurt, +1650;--a rather worthless old Book, like the rest of Zeiller's in that +kind.)] Neipperg's men are wearied with the long climb out of Mahren; +and he struggles towards Neisse as the first object;--holding upon Glatz +and Lentulus with his left. Numerous orders have been speeded from the +King's quarters, at Jagerndorf, and here at Neustadt; order especially +to Holstein-Beck at Frankenstein, and to Kalkstein at Grotkau, How they +are to unite, first with one another; and then to cross Neisse River, +and unite with the King,--to which end there is already a Bridge laid +for them, or about to be laid in good time. + +"APRIL 5th, HEAD-QUARTERS STEINAU. Steinau is a little Town twenty miles +east of Neisse, on the road to Kosel [strongish place, on the Oder, +some forty miles farther east]: here Friedrich, with the main body, +take their quarters; rearguard being still at Neustadt. Temporary Bridge +there is, ready or all but ready, at Sorgau [twelve miles to north of +us, on our left]: by this Kalkstein, with his 10,000, comes punctually +across; while other brigades from the Kosel side are also punctual in +getting in; which is a great comfort: but of Holstein-Beck there is +no vestige, nor did there ever appear any. Holstein, 'whom none of +the repeated orders sent him could reach,' says Friedrich, 'remained +comfortably in his quarters; and looked at the Enemy rushing past him +to right and left, without troubling his head with them.' [_OEuvres de +Frederic,_ ii. 70.] The too easy-minded Holstein! Austrian Deserters +inform us, That General Neipperg arrived to-day with his Army in Neisse; +and has there been joined by Lentulus with the Glatz force, chiefly +cavalry, a good many thousands. We may be attacked, then, this very +night, if they are diligent? Friedrich marks out ground and plan in such +case, and how and where each is to rank himself. There came nothing of +attack; but the poor little Village of Steinau, with so many troops in +it and baggage-drivers stumbling about, takes fire; burns to ashes; 'and +we had great difficulty in saving the artillery and powder through +the narrow streets, with the houses all burning on each hand.'" Fancy +it,--and the poor shrieking inhabitants; gone to silence long since +with their shrieks, not the least whisper left of them. "The Prussians +bivouac on the field, each in the place that has been marked out. Night +extremely cold." + +In this poor Steinau was a Schloss, which also went up in fire; +disclosing certain mysteries of an almost mythical nature to the German +Public. It was the Schloss of a Grafin von Callenberg, a dreadful old +Dowager of Medea-Messalina type, who "always wore pistols about +her;" pistols, and latterly, with more and more constancy, a +brandy-bottle;--who has been much on the tongues of men for a generation +back. Herr Nussler (readers recollect shifty Nussler) knew her, in the +way of business, at one time; with pity, if also with horror. Some weeks +ago, she was, by the Austrian Commandant at Neisse, summoned out of this +Schloss, as in correspondence with Prussian Officers: peasants breaking +in, tied her with ropes to the bed where she was; put bed and her into a +farm-cart, and in that scandalous manner delivered her at Neisse to the +Commandant; by which adventure, and its rages and unspeakabilities, the +poor old Callenberg is since dead. And now the very Schloss is dead; and +there is finis to a human dust-vortex, such as is sometimes noisy for +a time. Perhaps Nussler may again pass that way, if we wait. [Busching, +_Beitrage,_ ii.273 et seqq.] + +"APRIL 6th, HEAD-QUARTERS FRIEDLAND. To Friedland on the 6th.,--and do +not, as expected, get away next morning. Friedland is ten miles down the +Neisse, which makes a bend of near ninety degrees opposite Steinau; and +runs thence straight north for the Oder, which it reaches some dozen +miles or more above Brieg. Both Steinau and Friedland are a good +distance from the River; Friedland, the nearer of the two, with Sorgau +Bridge direct west of it, is perhaps eight miles from that important +structure. There, being now tolerably rendezvoused, and in strength +for action, Friedrich purposes to cross Neisse River to-morrow; hoping +perhaps to meet Holstein-Beck, and incorporate him; anxious, at any +rate, to get between the Austrians and Ohlau, where his heavy Artillery, +his Ammunition, not to mention other indispensables, are lying. The +peculiarity of Neipperg at this time is, that the ground he occupies +bears no proportion to the ground he commands. His regular Horse are +supposed to be the best in the world; and of the Pandour kind, who +live, horse and man, mainly upon nothing (which means upon theft), his +supplies are unlimited. He sits like a volcanic reservoir, therefore, +not like a common fire of such and such intensity and power to +burn;--casts the ashes of him, on all sides, to many miles distance. + +"FRIDAY 7th APRIL, FRIEDLAND (still Head-quarters). Unluckily, on +trying, there is no passage to be had at Sorgau. The Officer on charge +there still holds the Bridge, but has been obliged to break away the +farther end of it; 'Lentulus and Dragoons, several thousands strong' +(such is the report), having taken post there. Friedrich commands that +the Bridge be reinstated; field-pieces to defend it; Prince Leopold to +cross, and clear the ways. All Friday, Friedrich waiting at Friedland, +was spent in these details. Leopold in due force started for Sorgau, +himself with Cavalry in the van; Leopold did storm across, and go +charging and fencing, some space, on the other side; but, seeing that +it was in truth Lentulus, and Dragoons without limit, had to send report +accordingly; and then to wind himself to this side again, on new order +from the King. What is to be done, then? Here is no crossing. Friedrich +decides to go down the River; he himself to Lowen, perhaps near twenty +miles farther down, but where there is a Bridge and Highway leading +over; Prince Leopold, with the heavier divisions and baggages, to +Michelau, some miles nearer, and there to build his Pontoons and cross. +Which was effected, with success. And so, + +"SATURDAY, 8th APRIL, With great punctuality, the King and Leopold met +at Michelau, both well across the Neisse. Here on Pontoons, Leopold had +got across about noon; and precisely as he was finishing, the King's +Column, which had crossed at Lowen, and come up the left bank again, +arrived. The King, much content with Leopold's behavior, nominates him +General of Infantry, a stage higher in promotion, there and then. Brieg +Blockade is, as natural, given up; the Blockading Body joining with the +King, this morning, while he passed that way. From Holstein-Beck not the +least whisper,--nor to him, if we knew it. + +"Neipperg has quitted Neisse; but walks invisible within clouds of +Pandours; nothing but guessing as to Neipperg's motions. Rightly swift, +and awake to his business, Neipperg might have done, might still do, a +stroke upon us here. But he takes it easy; marches hardly five miles +a day, since he quitted Neisse again. From Michelau, Friedrich for his +part turns southwestward, in quest of Holstein and other interests; +marches towards Grotkau, not intending much farther that night. Thick +snow blowing in their faces, nothing to be seen ahead, the Prussian +column tramps along. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ ii. 156.] In Leipe, a +little Hamlet sidewards of the road, short way from Grotkau, our Hussar +Vanguard had found Austrian Hussars; captured forty, and from them +learned that the Austrian Army is in Grotkau; that they took Grotkau +half an hour before, and are there! A poor Lieutenant Mitschepfal (whom +I think Friedrich used to know in Reinsberg) lay in Grotkau, 'with +some sixty recruits and deserters,' says Friedrich,--and with several +hundreds of camp-laborers (intended for the trenches, which will not now +be opened):--Mitschepfal made a stout defence; but, after three hours of +it, had to give in: and there is nothing now for us at Grotkau. 'Halt,' +therefore! Neipperg is evidently pushing towards Ohlau, towards Breslau, +though in a leisurely way; there it will behoove us to get the start of +him, if humanly possible: To the right about, therefore, without delay! +The Prussians repass Leipe (much to the wonder of its simple people); +get along, some seven miles farther, on the road for Ohlau; and quarter, +that night, in what handy villages there are; the King's Corps in two +Villages, which he calls 'Pogrel and Alsen,'"--which are to be found +still on the Map as "Pogarell and Alzenau," on the road from Lowen +towards Ohlau. + +This is the end of that March into the Mountains, with Neisse Siege +hanging triumphant ahead. These are the King's quarters, this wintry +Spring night, Saturday, 8th April, 1741; and it is to be guessed there +is more of care than of sleep provided for him there. Seldom, in his +life, was Friedrich in a more critical position; and he well knows it, +none better. And could have his remorses upon it,--were these of the +least use in present circumstances. Here are two Letters which he +wrote that night; veiling, we perceive, a very grim world of thoughts; +betokening, however, a mind made up. Jordan, Prince August Wilhelm +Heir-Apparent, and other fine individuals who shone in the Schweidnitz +circle lately, are in Breslau, safe sheltered against this bad juncture; +Maupertuis was not so lucky as to go with them. + +THE KING TO PRINCE AUGUST WILHELM (in Breslau). + +"POGARELL, 8th April, 1741. + +"MY DEAREST BROTHER,--The Enemy has just got into Silesia; we are not +more than a mile (QUART DE MILLE) from them. To-morrow must decide our +fortune. + +"If I die, do not forget a Brother who has always loved you very +tenderly. I recommend to you my most dear Mother, my Domestics, and my +First Battalion [LIFEGUARD OF FOOT, men picked from his own old Ruppin +Regiment and from the disbanded Giants, star of all the Battalions]. +[See Preuss, i. 144, iv. 309; Nicolai, _Beschreibung von Berlin,_ iii, +1252.] Eichel and Schuhmacher [Two of the Three Clerks] are informed +of all my testamentary wishes. Remember me always, you; but console +yourself for my death: the glory of the Prussian Arms, and the honor of +the House have set me in action, and will guide me to my last moment. +You are my sole Heir: I recommend to you, in dying, those whom I have +the most loved during my life: Keyserling, Jordan, Wartensleben; Hacke, +who is a very honest man; Fredersdorf [Factotum], and Eichel, in whom +you may place entire confidence. I bequeath 8,000 crowns (1,200 pounds, +which I have with me), to my Domestics; but all that I have elsewhere +depends on you. To each of my Brothers and Sisters make a present in +my name; a thousand affectionate regards (AMITIES ET COMPLIMENTS) to my +Sister of Baireuth. You know what I think on their score; and you know +better than I could tell you, the tenderness and all the sentiments of +most inviolable friendship with which I am, dearest Brother, + +"Your faithful Brother and Servant till death, + +"FEDERIC." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvi. 85; List of Friedrich's +Testamentary arrangements in Note there,--Six in all, at different +times, besides this.] + +THE KING TO M. JORDAN (in Breslau). + +"POGARELL, 8th April, 1741. + +"My DEAR JORDAN,---We are going to fight to-morrow. Thou knowest the +chances of war; the life of Kings not more regarded than that of private +people. I know not what will happen to me. + +"If my destiny is finished, remember a friend, who loves thee always +tenderly: if Heaven prolong my days, I will write to thee after +to-morrow, and thou wilt hear of our victory. Adieu, dear friend; I +shall love thee till death. + +"FEDERIC." [Ib. xvii. 98.] + +The King, we incidentally discover somewhere, "had no sleep that night;" +none, "nor the next night either,"--such a crisis coming, still not +come. + + + + +Chapter X. -- BATTLE OF MOLLWITZ. + +"To-morrow," Sunday, did not prove the Day of Fight, after all. Being a +day of wild drifting snow, so that you could not see twenty paces, +there was nothing for it but to sit quiet. The King makes all his +dispositions; sketches out punctually, to the last item, where each is +to station himself, how the Army is to advance in Four Columns, ready +for Neipperg wherever he may be,--towards Ohlau at any rate, whither +it is not doubted Neipperg is bent. These snowy six-and-thirty hours +at Pogarell were probably, since the Custrin time, the most anxious of +Friedrich's life. + +Neipperg, for his part, struggles forward a few miles, this Sunday, +April 9th; the Prussians rest under shelter in the wild weather. +Neipperg's head-quarters, this night, are a small Village or Hamlet, +called Mollwitz: there and in the adjacent Hamlets, chiefly in Laugwitz +and Gruningen, his Army lodges itself:--he is now fairly got between us +and Ohlau,--if, in the blowing drift, we knew it, or he knew it. But, +in this confusion of the elements, neither party knows of the other: +Neipperg has appointed that to-morrow, Monday, 10th, shall be a +rest-day:--appointment which could by no means be kept, as it turned +out! + +Friedrich had despatched messengers to Ohlau, that the force there +should join him; messengers are all captured. The like message had +already gone to Brieg, some days before, and the Blockading Body, a +good few thousand strong, quitted Brieg, as we saw, and effected their +junction with him. All day, this Sunday, 9th, it still snows and blows; +you cannot see a yard before you. No hope now of Holstein-Beck. Not the +least news from any quarter; Ohlau uncertain, too likely the wrong +way: What is to be done? We are cut off from our Magazines, have only +provision for one other day. "Had this weather lasted," says an Austrian +reporter of these things, "his Majesty would have passed his time +very ill." [_Feldzuge der Preussen_ (the complete Title is, _Sammlung +ungedruckter Nachrichten so die Geschichte der Feldzuge der Preussen von +1740 bis 1779 erlautern,_ or in English words, _Collection of unprinted +Narratives which elucidate the Prussian Campaigns from 1740 to 1779:_ +5 vols. Dresden, 1782-1785), i. 33. Excellent Narratives, modest, brief, +effective (from Private Diaries and the like; many of them given also +in SEYFARTH); well worth perusal by the studious military man, and +creditably characteristic of the Prussian writers of them and actors in +them.] + +Of the Battle of Mollwitz, as indeed of all Friedrich's Battles, there +are ample accounts new and old, of perfect authenticity and scientific +exactitude; so that in regard to military points the due clearness is, +on study, completely attainable. But as to personal or human details, we +are driven back upon a miscellany of sources; most of which, indeed all +of which except Nicolai, when he sparingly gives us anything, are of +questionable nature; and, without intending to be dishonest, do run out +into the mythical, and require to be used with caution. The latest and +notablest of these, in regard to Mollwitz, is the pamphlet of a Dr. +Fuchs; from which, in spite of its amazing quality, we expect to glean +a serviceable item here and there. [_Jubelschrift zur Feier_ (Centenary) +_der Schlacht bei Mollwitz, 10 April, 1741,_ von Dr. Medicinae Fuchs +(Brieg, 10th April, 1841).] It is definable as probably the most chaotic +Pamphlet ever written; and in many places, by dint of uncorrected +printing, bad grammar, bad spelling, bad sense, and in short, of +intrinsic darkness in so vivacious a humor, it has become abstruse as +Sanscrit; and really is a sharp test of what knowledge you otherwise +have of the subject. Might perhaps be used in that way, by the Examining +Military Boards, in Prussia and elsewhere, if no other use lie in it? +Fuchs's own contributions, mere ignorance, folly and credulity, are not +worth interpreting: but he has printed, and in the same abstruse form, +one or two curious Parish Manuscripts, particularly a "HISTORY" of this +War, privately jotted down by the then Schoolmaster of Mollwitz, a good +simple accurate old fellow-creature; through whose eyes it is here and +there worth while to look. In regard to Fuchs himself, a late Tourist +says:-- + +"This 'Centenary-Celebration Pamphlet' (Celebration itself, so obtuse +was the Country, did not take effect) was by a zealous, noisy but not +wise, old Medical Gentleman of these parts, called Dr. Fuchs (FOX); +who had set his heart on raising, by subscription, a proper National +Monument on the Field of Mollwitz, and so closing his old career. +Subscriptions did not take, in that April, 1841, nor in the following +months or twelve-months: the zealous Doctor, therefore, indignantly drew +his own purse; got a big Obelisk of Granite hewn ready, with suitable +Inscription on it; carted his big Obelisk from the quarries of Strehlen; +assembled the Country round it, on Mollwitz Field; and passionately +discoursed and pleaded, That at least the Country should bring +block-and-tackle, with proper framework, and set up this Obelisk on the +pedestal he had there built for it. The Country listened cheerfully +(for the old Doctor was a popular man, clever though flighty); but the +Country was again obtuse in the way of active furtherance, and would not +even bring block-and-tackle. The old Doctor had to answer, 'Well, +then!' and go on his way on more serious errands. The cattle have much +undermined, and rubbed down, his poor Pedestal, which is of rubble-work; +his Obelisk still lies mournfully horizontal, uninjured;--and really +ought to be set up, by some parish-rate, or effort of the community +otherwise." [Tourist's Note (Brieg, 1858).] + +From the old Mollwitz Schoolmaster we distil the following:-- + +"MOLLWITZ, SUNDAY, 9th APRIL. Country for two days back: was in new +alarm by the Austrian Garrison of Brieg now left at liberty, who sallied +out upon the Villages about, and plundered black-cattle, sheep, grain, +and whatever they could come at. But this day (Sunday) in Mollwitz the +whole Austrian Army was upon us. First, there went 300 Hussars through +the Village to Gruningen, who quartered themselves there; and rushed +hither and thither into houses, robbing and plundering. From one they +took his best horses, from another they took linen, clothes, and other +furnitures and victual. General Neuburg [Neipperg] halted here at +Mollwitz, with the whole Army; before the Village, in mind to quarter. +And quarter was settled, so that a BAUER [Plough-Farmer] got four to +five companies to lodge, and a GARTNER [Spade-Farmer] two or three +hundred cavalry..The houses were full of Officers, the GARTE [Garths] +and the Fields full of horsemen and baggage; and all round, you saw +nothing but fires burning; the ZAUNE [wooden railings] were instantly +torn down for firewood; the hay, straw, barley and haver, were eaten +away, and brought to nothing; and everything from the barns was carried +out. And, as the whole Army could not lodge itself with us, 1,100 +Infantry quartered at Laugwitz; Barzdorf got 400 Cavalry; and this day, +nobody knew what would come of it." [Extract in FUCHS, p. 6.] + +Monday morning, the Prussians are up betimes; King Friedrich, as above +noted, had not, or had hardly at all, slept during those two nights, +such his anxieties. This morning, all is calm, sleeked out into spotless +white; Pogarell and the world are wrapt as in a winding-sheet, near two +feet of snow on the ground. Air hard and crisp; a hot sun possible +about noon season. "By daybreak" we are all astir, rendezvousing, +ranking,--into Four Columns; ready to advance in that fashion for +battle, or for deploying into battle, wherever the Enemy turn up. The +orders were all given overnight, two nights ago; were all understood, +too, and known to be rhadamanthine; and, down to the lowest pioneer, no +man is uncertain what to do. If we but knew where the Enemy is; on which +side of us; what doing, what intending? + +Scouts, General-Adjutants are out on the quest; to no purpose hitherto. +One young General-Adjutant, Saldern, whose name we shall know again, has +ridden northward, has pulled bridle some way north of Pogarell; hangs, +gazing diligently through his spy-glass, there;--can see nothing but +a Plain of silent snow, with sparse bearding of bushes (nothing like +a hedge in these countries), and here and there a tree, the miserable +skeleton of a poplar:--when happily, owing to an Austrian Dragoon--Be +pleased to accept (in abridged form) the poor old Schoolmaster's account +of a small thing:-- + +"Austrian Dragoon of the regiment Althan, native of Kriesewitz in this +neighborhood, who was billeted in Christopher Schonwitz's, had been +much in want of a clean shirt, and other interior outfit; and had, last +night, imperatively despatched the man Scholzke, a farm-servant of the +said Christopher's, off to his, the Dragoon's, Father in Kriesewitz, to +procure such shirt or outfit, and to return early with the same; under +penalty of--Scholzke and his master dare not think under what penalty. +Scholzke, floundering homewards with the outfit from Kriesewitz, +flounders at this moment into Saldern's sphere of vision: 'Whence, +whither?' asks Saldern: 'Dost thou know where the Austrians are?' +(RECHT GUT: in Mollwitz), whither I am going!' Saldern takes him to +the King,--and that was the first clear light his Majesty had on the +matter." [Fuchs, pp. 6, 7.] That or something equivalent, indisputably +was; Saldern and "a Peasant," the account of it in all the Books. + +The King says to this Peasant, "Thou shalt ride with me to-day!" And +Scholzke, Ploschke others call him,--heavy-footed rational biped knowing +the ground there practically, every yard of it,--did, as appears, attend +the King all morning; and do service, that was recognizable long years +afterwards. "For always," say the Books, "when the King held review +here, Ploschke failed not to make appearance on the field of Pogarell, +and get recognition and a gift from his Majesty." + +At break of day the ranking and arranging began. Pogarell clock is near +striking ten, when the last squadron or battalion quits Pogarell; and +the Four Columns, punctiliously correct, are all under way. Two on each +side of Ohlau Highway; steadily advancing, with pioneers ahead to clear +any obstacle there may be. Few obstacles; here and there a little ditch +(where Ploschke's advice may be good, under the sleek of the snow), no +fences, smooth wide Plain, nothing you would even call a knoll in it +for many miles ahead and around. Mollwitz is some seven miles north from +Pogarell; intermediate lie dusty fractions of Villages more than one; +two miles or more from Mollwitz we come to Pampitz on our left, the next +considerable, if any of them can be counted considerable. + +"All these Dorfs, and indeed most German ones," says my Tourist, "are +made on one type; an agglomerate of dusty farmyards, with their stalls +and barns; all the farmyards huddled together in two rows; a broad +negligent road between, seldom mended, never swept except by the +elements. Generally there is nothing to be seen, on each hand, but +thatched roofs, dead clay walls and rude wooden gates; sometimes a poor +public-house, with probable beer in it; never any shop, nowhere any +patch of swept pavement, or trim gathering-place for natives of a social +gossipy turn: the road lies sleepy, littery, good only for utilitarian +purposes. In the middle of the Village stands Church and Churchyard, +with probably some gnarled trees around it: Church often larger than you +expected; the Churchyard, always fenced with high stone-and-mortar wall, +is usually the principal military post of the place. Mollwitz, at the +present day, has something of whitewash here and there; one of the +farmer people, or more, wearing a civilized prosperous look. The belfry +offers you a pleasant view: the roofs and steeples of Brieg, pleasantly +visible to eastward; villages dotted about, Laugwitz, Barzdorf, +Hermsdorf, clear to your inquiring: and to westward, and to southward, +tops of Hill-country in the distance. Westward, twenty miles off, are +pleasant Hills; and among them, if you look well, shadowy Town-spires, +which you are assured are Strehlen, a place also of interest in +Friedrich's History.--Your belfry itself, in Mollwitz, is old, but not +unsound; and the big iron clock grunts heavily at your ear, or perhaps +bursts out in a too deafening manner, while you study the topographies. +Pampitz, too, seems prosperous, in its littery way; the Church is bigger +and newer,"--owing to an accident we shall hear of soon;--"Country +all about seems farmed with some industry, but with shallow ploughing; +liable to drought. It is very sandy in quality; shorn of umbrage; +painfully naked to an English eye." That is the big champaign, coated +with two feet of snow, where a great Action is now to go forward. + +Neipperg, all this while, is much at his ease on this white resting-day, +He is just sitting down to dinner at the Dorfschulze's (Village Provost, +or miniature Mayor of Mollwitz), a composed man; when--rockets or +projectiles, and successive anxious sputterings from the steeple-tops +of Brieg, are hastily reported: what can it mean? Means little +perhaps;--Neipperg sends out a Hussar party to ascertain, and composedly +sets himself to dine. In a little while his Hussar party will come +galloping back, faster than it went; faster and fewer;--and there will +be news for Neipperg during dinner! Better here looking out, though it +was a rest-day?-- + +The truth is, the Prussian advance goes on with punctilious exactitude, +by no means rapidly. Colonel Count van Rothenburg,--the same whom we +lately heard of in Paris as a miracle of gambling,--he now here, in a +new capacity, is warily leading the Vanguard of Dragoons; warily, with +the Four Columns well to rear of him: the Austrian Hussar party came +upon Rothenburg, not two miles from Mollwitz; and suddenly drew bridle. +Them Rothenburg tumbles to the right-about, and chases;--finds, on +advancing, the Austrian Army totally unaware. It is thought, had +Rothenburg dashed forward, and sent word to the rearward to dash forward +at their swiftest, the Austrian Army might have been cut in pieces here, +and never have got together to try battle at all. But Rothenburg had +no orders; nay, had orders Not to get into fighting;--nor had Friedrich +himself, in this his first Battle, learned that feline or leonine +promptitude of spring which he subsequently manifested. Far from it! +Indeed this punctilious deliberation, and slow exactitude as on the +review-ground, is wonderful and noteworthy at the first start of +Friedrich;--the faithful apprentice-hand still rigorous to the rules of +the old shop. Ten years hence, twenty years hence, had Friedrich found +Neipperg in this condition, Neipperg's account had been soon settled!-- +Rothenburg drove back the Hussars, all manner of successive Hussar +parties, and kept steadily ahead of the main battle, as he had been +bidden. + +Pampitz Village being now passed, and in rear of them to left, the +Prussian Columns halt for some instants; burst into field-music; take to +deploying themselves into line. There is solemn wheeling, shooting out +to right and left, done with spotless precision: once in line,--in two +lines, "each three men deep," lines many yards apart,--they will advance +on Mollwitz; still solemnly, field-music guiding, and banners spread. +Which will be a work of time. That the King's frugal field-dinner was +shot away, from its camp-table near Pampitz (as Fuchs has heard), is +evidently mythical; and even impossible, the Austrians having yet no +cannon within miles of him; and being intent on dining comfortably +themselves, not on firing at other people's dinners. + +Fancy Neipperg's state of mind, busy beginning dinner in the little +Schulze's, or Town-Provost's house, when the Hussars dashed in at full +gallop, shouting "DER FEIND, The Enemy! All in march there; vanguard +this side of Pampitz; killed forty of us!"--Quick, your Plan of Battle, +then? Whitherward; How; What? answer or perish! Neipperg was infinitely +struck; dropt knife and fork: "Send for Romer, General of the Horse!" +Romer did the indispensable: a swift man, not apt to lose head. Romer's +battle-plan, I should hope, is already made; or it will fare ill with +Neipperg and him. But beat, ye drummers; gallop, ye aides-de-camp as +for life! The first thing is to get our Force together; and it lies +scattered about in three other Villages besides Mollwitz, miles apart. +Neipperg's trumpets clangor, his aides-de-camp gallop: he has his left +wing formed, and the other parts in a state of rapid genesis, Horse and +Foot pouring in from Laugwitz, Barzdorf, Gruningen, before the Prussians +have quite done deploying themselves, and got well within shot of him. +Romer, by birth a Saxon gentleman, by all accounts a superior soldier +and excellent General of Horse, commands this Austrian left wing, +General Goldlein, [(Anonymous) MARIA THERESA (already cited), p. 8 n.] +a Swiss veteran of good parts, presiding over the Infantry in that +quarter. Neipperg himself, were he once complete, will command the right +wing. + +Neipperg is to be in two lines, as the Prussians are, with horse on each +wing, which is orthodox military order. His length of front, I should +guess, must have been something better than two English miles: a +sluggish Brook, called of Laugwitz, from the Village of that name which +lies some way across, is on his right hand; sluggish, boggy; stagnating +towards the Oder in those parts:--improved farming has, in our time, +mostly dried the strip of bog, and made it into coarse meadow, which is +rather a relief amid the dry sandy element. Neipperg's right is covered +by that. His left rests on the Hamlet of Gruningen, a mile-and-half +northeast of Mollwitz;--meant to have rested on Hermsdorf nearly east, +but the Prussians have already taken that up. The sun coming more and +more round to west of south (for it is now past noon) shines right +in Neipperg's face, and is against him: how the wind is, nobody +mentions,--probably there was no wind. His regular Cavalry, 8,600, +outnumbers twice or more that of the Prussians, not to mention their +quality; and he has fewer Infantry, somewhat in proportion;--the entire +force on each side is scarcely above 20,000, the Prussians slightly in +majority by count. In field-pieces Neipperg is greatly outnumbered; the +Prussians having about threescore, he only eighteen. [Kausler, _Atlas +der merkwurdigsten Schlachten,_ p. 232.] And now here ARE the Prussians, +close upon our left wing, not yet in contact with the right,--which in +fact is not yet got into existence;--thank Heaven they have not come +before our left got into existence, as our right (if you knew it) has +not yet quite finished doing!-- + +The Prussians, though so ready for deploying, have had their own +difficulties and delays. Between the boggy Brook of Laugwitz on their +left, and the Village of Hermsdorf, two miles distant, on which their +right wing is to lean, there proves not to be room enough; [_OEuvres de +Frederic,_ ii. 73.] and then, owing to mistake of Schulenburg (our old +pipe-clay friend, who commands the right wing of Horse here, and is +not up in time), there is too much room. Not room enough, for all the +Infantry, we say: the last three Battalions of the front line therefore, +the three on the utmost right, wheel round, and stand athwart; EN +POTENCE (as soldiers say), or at right angles to the first line; +hanging to it like a kind of lid in that part,--between Schulenburg and +them,--had Schulenburg come up. Thus are the three battalions got rid of +at least; "they cap the First Prussian line rectangularly, like a lid," +says my authority,--lid which does not reach to the Second Line by a +good way. This accidental arrangement had material effects on the right +wing. Unfortunate Schulenburg did at last come up:--had he miscalculated +the distances, then? Once on the ground, he will find he does not reach +to Hermsdorf after all, and that there is now too much room! What his +degree of fault was I know not; Friedrich has long been dissatisfied +with these Dragoons of Schulenburg; "good for nothing, I always told +you" (at that Skirmish of Baumgarten): and now here is the General +himself fallen blundering!--In respect of Horse, the Austrians are +more than two to one; to make out our deficiency, the King, imitating +something he had read about Gustavus Adolphus, intercalates the +Horse-Squadrons, on each wing, with two Battalions of Grenadiers, and +SO lengthens them;--"a manoeuvre not likely to be again imitated," he +admits. + +All these movements and arrangements are effected above a mile from +Mollwitz, no enemy yet visible. Once effected, we advance again with +music sounding, sixty pieces of artillery well in front,--steady, +steady!--across the floor of snow which is soon beaten smooth enough, +the stage, this day, of a great adventure. And now there is the Enemy's +left wing, Romer and his Horse; their right wing wider away, and not +yet, by a good space, within cannon-range of us. It is towards Two of +the afternoon; Schulenburg now on his ground, laments that he will not +reach to Hermsdorf;--but it may be dangerous now to attempt repairing +that error? At Two of the clock, being now fairly within distance, we +salute Romer and the Austrian left, with all our sixty cannon; and the +sound of drums and clarinets is drowned in universal artillery thunder. +Incessant, for they take (by order) to "swift-shooting," which is almost +of the swiftness of musketry in our Prussian practice; and from sixty +cannon, going at that rate, we may fancy some effect. The Austrian Horse +of the left wing do not like it; all the less as the Austrians, rather +short of artillery, have nothing yet to reply with. + +No Cavalry can stand long there, getting shivered in that way; in such +a noise, were there nothing more. "Are we to stand here like milestones, +then, and be all shot without a stroke struck?" "Steady!" answers Romer. +But nothing can keep them steady: "To be shot like dogs (WIE HUNDE)! For +God's sake (URN GOTTES WILLEN), lead us forward, then, to have a stroke +at them!"--in tones ever more plangent, plaintively indignant; growing +ungovernable. And Romer can get no orders; Neipperg is on the extreme +right, many things still to settle there; and here is the cannon-thunder +going, and soon their very musketry will open. And--and there +is Schulenburg, for one thing, stretching himself out eastwards +(rightwards) to get hold of Hermsdorf; thinking this an opportunity for +the manoeuvre. "Forward!" cries Romer; and his thirty Squadrons, like +bottled whirlwind now at last let loose, dash upon Schulenburg's +poor ten (five of them of Schulenburg's own regiment),--who are turned +sideways too, trotting towards Hermsdorf, at the wrong moment,--and +dash them into wild ruin. That must have been a charge! That was the +beginning of hours of chaos, seemingly irretrievable, in that Prussian +right wing. + +For the Prussian Horse fly wildly; and it is in vain to rally. The King +is among them; has come in hot haste, conjuring and commanding: poor +Schulenburg addresses his own regiment, "Oh, shame, shame! shall it be +told, then?" rallies his own regiment, and some others; charges fiercely +in with them again; gets a sabre-slash across the face,--does not mind +the sabre-slash, small bandaging will do;--gets a bullet through the +head (or through the heart, it is not said which); [_Helden-Geschichte, +_ i. 899.] and falls down dead; his regiment going to the winds again, +and HIS care of it and of other things concluding in this honorable +manner. Nothing can rally that right wing; or the more you rally, the +worse it fares: they are clearly no match for Romer, these Prussian +Horse. They fly along the front of their own First Line of Infantry, +they fly between the two Lines; Romer chasing,--till the fire of the +Infantry (intolerable to our enemies, and hitting some even of our +fugitive friends) repels him. For the notable point in all this was +the conduct of the Infantry; and how it stood in these wild vortexes +of ruin; impregnable, immovable, as if every man of it were stone; +and steadily poured out deluges of fire,--"five Prussian shots for two +Austrian:"--such is perfect discipline against imperfect; and the iron +ramrod against the wooden. + +The intolerable fire repels Romer, when he trenches on the Infantry: +however, he captures nine of the Prussian sixty guns; has scattered +their Horse to the winds; and charges again and again, hoping to break +the Infantry too,--till a bullet kills him, the gallant Romer; and +some other has to charge and try. It was thought, had Goldlein with his +Austrian Infantry advanced to support Romer at this juncture, the Battle +had been gained. Five times, before Romer fell and after, the Austrians +charged here; tried the Second Line too; tried once to take Prince +Leopold in rear there. But Prince Leopold faced round, gave intolerable +fire; on one face as on the other, he, or the Prussian Infantry +anywhere, is not to be broken. "Prince Friedrich", one of the Margraves +of Schwedt, King's Cousin, whom we did not know before, fell in these +wild rallyings and wrestlings; "by a cannon-ball, at the King's hand," +not said otherwise where. He had come as Volunteer, few weeks ago, +out of Holland, where he was a rising General: he has met his fate +here,--and Margraf Karl, his Brother, who also gets wounded, will be a +mournful man to-night. + +The Prussian Horse, this right wing of it, is a ruined body; boiling in +wild disorder, flooding rapidly away to rearward,--which is the safest +direction to retreat upon. They "sweep away the King's person with +them," say some cautious people; others say, what is the fact, that +Schwerin entreated, and as it were commanded, the King to go; the Battle +being, to all appearance, irretrievable. Go he did, with small escort, +and on a long ride,--to Oppeln, a Prussian post, thirty-five miles +rearward, where there is a Bridge over the Oder and a safe country +beyond. So much is indubitable; and that he despatched an Aide-de-camp +to gallop into Brandenburg, and tell the Old Dessauer, "Bestir yourself! +Here all seems lost!"--and vanished from the Field, doubtless in very +desperate humor. Upon which the extraneous world has babbled a good +deal, "Cowardice! Wanted courage: Haha!" in its usual foolish way; not +worth answer from him or from us. Friedrich's demeanor, in that disaster +of his right wing, was furious despair rather; and neither Schulenburg +nor Margraf Friedrich, nor any of the captains, killed or left living, +was supposed to have sinned by "cowardice" in a visible degree!-- + +Indisputable it is, though there is deep mystery upon it, the King +vanishes from Mollwitz Field at this point for sixteen hours, into the +regions of Myth, "into Fairyland," as would once have been said; but +reappears unharmed in to-morrow's daylight: at which time, not sooner, +readers shall hear what little is to be said of this obscure and +much-disfigured small affair. For the present we hasten back to +Mollwitz,--where the murderous thunder rages unabated all this while; +the very noise of it alarming mankind for thirty miles round. At +Breslau, which is thirty good miles off, horrible dull grumble was heard +from the southern quarter ("still better, if you put a staff in the +ground, and set your ear to it"); and from the steeple-tops, there was +dim cloudland of powder-smoke discernible in the horizon there. "At +Liegnitz," which is twice the distance, "the earth sensibly shook," +[_Helden-Geschichte;_ and Jordan's Letter, infra.]--at least the air +did, and the nerves of men. + +"Had Goldlein but advanced with his Foot, in support of gallant Romer!" +say the Austrian Books. But Goldlein did not advance; nor is it certain +he would have found advantage in so doing: Goldlein, where he stands, +has difficulty enough to hold his own. For the notable circumstance, +miraculous to military men, still is, How the Prussian Foot (men who had +never been in fire, but whom Friedrich Wilhelm had drilled for twenty +years) stand their ground, in this distraction of the Horse. Not +even the two outlying Grenadier Battalions will give way: those poor +intercalated Grenadiers, when their Horse fled on the right and on the +left, they stand there, like a fixed stone-dam in that wild whirlpool +of ruin. They fix bayonets, "bring their two field-pieces to flank" +(Winterfeld was Captain there), and, from small arms and big, deliver +such a fire as was very unexpected. Nothing to be made of Winterfeld and +them. They invincibly hurl back charge after charge; and, with dogged +steadiness, manoeuvre themselves into the general Line again; or into +contact with the three superfluous Battalions, arranged EN POTENCE, whom +we heard of. Those three, ranked athwart in this right wing ("like a +lid," between First Line and second), maintained themselves in like +impregnable fashion,--Winterfeld commanding;--and proved unexpectedly, +thinks Friedrich, the saving of the whole. For they also stood their +ground immovable, like rocks; steadily spouting fire-torrents. Five +successive charges storm upon them, fruitless: "Steady, MEINE KINDER; +fix bayonets, handle ramrods! There is the Horse-deluge thundering in +upon you; reserve your fire, till you see the whites of their eyes, and +get the word; then give it them, and again give it them: see whether any +man or any horse can stand it!" + +Neipperg, soon after Romer fell, had ordered Goldlein forward: Goldlein +with his Infantry did advance, gallantly enough; but to no purpose. +Goldlein was soon shot dead; and his Infantry had to fall back again, +ineffectual or worse. Iron ramrods against wooden; five shots to two: +what is there but falling back? Neipperg sent fresh Horse from his +right wing, with Berlichingen, a new famed General of Horse; Neipperg is +furiously bent to improve his advantage, to break those Prussians, who +are mere musketeers left bare, and thinks that will settle the account: +but it could in no wise be done. The Austrian Horse, after their fifth +trial, renounce charging; fairly refuse to charge any more; and withdraw +dispirited out of ball-range, or in search of things not impracticable. +The Hussar part of them did something of plunder to rearward;--and, +besides poor Maupertuis's adventure (of which by and by), and an attempt +on the Prussian baggage and knapsacks, which proved to be "too well +guarded,"--"burnt the Church of Pampitz," as some small consolation. +The Prussians had stript their knapsacks, and left them in Pampitz: the +Austrians, it was noticed, stript theirs in the Field; built walls of +them, and fired behind, the same, in a kneeling, more or less protected +posture,--which did not avail them much. + +In fact, the Austrian Infantry too, all Austrians, hour after hour, +are getting wearier of it: neither Infantry nor Cavalry can stand being +riddled by swift shot in that manner. In spite of their knapsack walls, +various regiments have shrunk out of ball-range; and several cannot, by +any persuasion, be got to come into it again. Others, who do reluctantly +advance,--see what a figure they make; man after man edging away as he +can, so that the regiment "stands forty to eighty men deep, with lanes +through it every two or three yards;" permeable everywhere to Cavalry, +if we had them; and turning nothing to the Enemy but color-sergeants +and bare poles of a regiment! And Romer is dead, and Goldlein of the +Infantry is dead. And on their right wing, skirted by that marshy Brook +of Laugwitz,--Austrian right wing had been weakened by detachments, when +Berlichingen rode off to succeed Romer,--the Austrians are suffering: +Posadowsky's Horse (among whom is Rothenburg, once vanguard), +strengthened by remnants who have rallied here, are at last prospering, +after reverses. And the Prussian fire of small arms, at such rate, has +lasted now for five hours. The Austrian Army, becoming instead of a web +a mere series of flying tatters, forming into stripes or lanes in the +way we see, appears to have had about enough. + +These symptoms are not hidden from Schwerin. His own ammunition, too, he +knows is running scarce, and fighters here and there are searching the +slain for cartridges:--Schwerin closes his ranks, trims and tightens +himself a little; breaks forth into universal field-music, and with +banners spread, starts in mass wholly, "Forwards!" Forwards towards +these Austrians and the setting sun. + +An intelligent Austrian Officer, writing next week from Neisse, +[_Feldzuge der Preussen_ (above cited), i. 38.]' confesses he never +saw anything more beautiful. "I can well say, I never in my life saw +anything more beautiful. They marched with the greatest steadiness, +arrow-straight, and their front like a line (SCHNURGLEICH), as if they +had been upon parade. The glitter of their clear arms shone strangely +in the setting sun, and the fire from them went on no otherwise than a +continued peal of thunder." Grand picture indeed; but not to be enjoyed +as a Work of Art, for it is coming upon us! "The spirits of our Army sank +altogether", continues he; "the Foot plainly giving way, Horse refusing +to come forward, all things wavering towards dissolution:"--so that +Neipperg, to avoid worse, gives the word to go;--and they roll off at +double-quick time, through Mollwitz, over Laugwitz Bridge and Brook, +towards Grotkau by what routes they can. The sun is just sunk; a quarter +to eight, says the intelligent Austrian Officer,--while the Austrian +Army, much to its amazement, tumbles forth in this bad fashion. + +They had lost nine of their own cannon, and all of those Prussian nine +which they once had, except one: eight cannon MINUS, in all. Prisoners +of them were few, and none of much mark: two Field-marshals, Romer and +Goldlein, lie among the dead; four more of that rank are wounded. Four +standards too are gone; certain kettle-drums and the like trophies, +not in great number. Lieutenant-General Browne was of these retreating +Austrians; a little fact worth noting: of his actions this day, or of +his thoughts (which latter surely must have been considerable), no hint +anywhere. The Austrians were not much chased; though they might have +been,--fresh Cavalry (two Ohlau regiments, drawn hither by the sound +[Interesting correct account of their movements and adventures this day +and some previous days, in Nicolai, _Anekdoten,_ ii. 142-148.]) having +hung about to rear of them, for some time past; unable to get into the +Fight, or to do any good till now. Schwerin, they say, though he had +two wounds, was for pursuing vigorously: but Leopold of Anhalt +over-persuaded him; urged the darkness, the uncertainty. Berlichingen, +with their own Horse, still partly covered their rear; and the +Prussians, Ohlauers included, were but weak in that branch of the +service. Pursuit lasted little more than two miles, and was never hot. +The loss of men, on both sides, was not far from equal, and rather in +favor of the Austrian side:--Austrians counted in killed, wounded and +missing, 4,410 men; Prussians 4,613; [Orlich, i. 108; Kansler, p. 235, +correct; _Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 895, incorrect.]--but the Prussians +bivouacked on the ground, or quartered in these Villages, with victory +to crown them, and the thought that their hard day's work had been well +done. Besides Margraf Friedrich, Volunteer from Holland, there lay among +the slain Colonel Count von Finkenstein (Old Tutor's Son), King's friend +from boyhood, and much loved. He was of the six whom we saw consulting +at the door at Reinsberg, during a certain ague-fit; and he now rests +silent here, while the matter has only come thus far. + +Such was Mollwitz, the first Battle for Silesia; which had to cost +many Battles first and last. Silesia will be gained, we can expect, by +fighting of this kind in an honest cause. But here is something already +gained, which is considerable, and about which there is no doubt. A +new Military Power, it would appear, has come upon the scene; the +Gazetteer-and-Diplomatic world will have to make itself familiar with a +name not much heard of hitherto among the Nations. "A Nation which can +fight," think the Gazetteers; "fight almost as the very Swedes did; and +is led on by its King too,--who may prove, in his way, a very Charles +XII., or small Macedonia's Madman, for aught one knows?" In which latter +branch of their prognostic the Gazetteers were much out.-- + +The Fame of this Battle, which is now so sunk out of memory, was great +in Europe; and struck, like a huge war-gong, with long resonance, +through the general ear. M. de Voltaire had run across to Lille in those +Spring days: there is a good Troop of Players in Lille; a Niece, Madame +Denis, wife of some Military Commissariat Denis, important in those +parts, can lodge the divine Emilie and me;--and one could at last see +MAHOMET, after five years of struggling, get upon the boards, if not yet +in Paris by a great way, yet in Lille, which is something. MAHOMET is +getting upon the boards on those terms; and has proceeded, not amiss, +through an Act or two, when a Note from the King of Prussia was handed +to Voltaire, announcing the victory of Mollwitz. Which delightful +Note Voltaire stopt the performance till he read to the Audience: +"Bravissimo!" answered the Audience. "You will see," said M. de Voltaire +to the friends about him, "this Piece at Mollwitz will make mine +succeed:" which proved to be the fact. [Voltaire, _OEuvres (Vie +Privee),_ ii. 74.] For the French are Anti-Austrian; and smell great +things in the wind. "That man is mad, your Most Christian Majesty?" "Not +quite; or at any rate not mad only!" think Louis and his Belleisles now. + +Dimly poring in those old Books, and squeezing one's way into +face-to-face view of the extinct Time, we begin to notice what +a clangorous rumor was in Mollwitz to the then generation of +mankind;--betokening many things; universal European War, as the first +thing. Which duly came to pass; as did, at a slower rate, the ulterior +thing, not yet so apparent, that indeed a new hour had struck on the +Time Horologe, that a New Epoch had risen. Yes, my friends. New Charles +XII. or not, here truly has a new Man and King come upon the scene: +capable perhaps of doing something? Slumberous Europe, rotting amid its +blind pedantries, its lazy hypocrisies, conscious and unconscious: this +man is capable of shaking it a little out of its stupid refuges of +lies, and ignominious wrappages and bed-clothes, which will be its +grave-clothes otherwise; and of intimating to it, afar off, that there +is still a Veracity in Things, and a Mendacity in Sham-Things, and +that the difference of the two is infinitely more considerable than was +supposed. + +This Mollwitz is a most deliberate, regulated, ponderously impressive +(GRAVITATISCH) Feat of Arms, as the reader sees; done all by Regulation +methods, with orthodox exactitude; in a slow, weighty, almost +pedantic, but highly irrefragable manner. It is the triumph of Prussian +Discipline; of military orthodoxy well put in practice: the honest +outcome of good natural stuff in those Brandenburgers, and of the +supreme virtues of Drill. Neipperg and his Austrians had much despised +Prussian soldiering: "Keep our soup hot," cried they, on running out +this day to rank themselves; "hot a little, till we drive these fellows +to the Devil!" That was their opinion, about noon this day: but that is +an opinion they have renounced for all remaining days and years.--It is +a Victory due properly to Friedrich Wilhelm and the Old Dessauer, who +are far away from it. Friedrich Wilhelm, though dead, fights here, and +the others only do his bidding on this occasion. His Son, as yet, +adds nothing of his own; though he will ever henceforth begin largely +adding,--right careful withal to lose nothing, for the Friedrich Wilhelm +contribution is invaluable, and the basis of everything;--but it is +curious to see in what contrast this first Battle of Friedrich's is with +his latter and last ones. + +Considering the Battle of Mollwitz, and then, in contrast, the +intricate Pragmatic Sanction, and what their consequences were and their +antecedents, it is curious once more! This, then, is what the Pragmatic +Sanction has come to? Twenty years of world-wide diplomacy, cunningly +devised spider-threads overnetting all the world, have issued here. +Your Congresses of Cambray, of Soissons, your Grumkow-Seckendorf +Machiavelisms, all these might as well have lain in their bed. Real +Pragmatic Sanction would have been, A well-trained Army and your +Treasury full. Your Treasury is empty (nothing in it but those foolish +200,000 English guineas, and the passionate cry for more): and your Army +is not trained as this Prussian one; cannot keep its ground against this +one. Of all those long-headed Potentates, simple Friedrich Wilhelm, son +of Nature, who had the honesty to do what Nature taught him, has come +out, gainer. You all laughed at him as a fool: do you begin to see +now who was wise, who fool? He has an Army that "advances on you with +glittering musketry, steady as on the parade-ground, and pours out fire +like one continuous thunder-peal;" so that, strange as it seems, you +find there will actually be nothing for you but--taking to your heels, +shall we say?--rolling off with despatch, as second-best! These things +are of singular omen. Here stands one that will avenge Friedrich +Wilhelm,--if Friedrich Wilhelm were not already sufficiently avenged by +the mere verdict of facts, which is palpably coming out, as Time peels +the wiggeries away from them more and more. Mollwitz and such places +are full of veracity; and no head is so thick as to resist conviction in +that kind. + + + + +OF FRIEDRICH'S DISAPPEARANCE INTO FAIRYLAND, IN THE INTERIM; AND OF +MAUPERTUIS'S SIMILAR ADVENTURE. + +Of the King's Flight, or sudden disappearance into Fairyland, during +this first Battle, the King himself, who alone could have told us fully, +maintained always rigorous silence, and nowhere drops the least hint. +So that the small fact has come down to us involved in a great bulk +of fabulous cobwebs, mostly of an ill-natured character, set agoing by +Voltaire, Valori and others (which fabulous process, in the good-natured +form, still continues itself); and, except for Nicolai's good industry +(in his ANEKDOTEN-Book), we should have difficulty even in guessing, +not to say understanding, as is now partly possible. The few real +particulars--and those do verify themselves, and hang perfectly +together, when the big globe of fable is burnt off from them--are to the +following effect. + +"Battle lost," said Schwerin: "but what is the loss of a Battle to that +of your Majesty's own Person? For Heaven's sake, go; get across the +Oder; be you safe, till this decide itself!" That was reasonable +counsel. If defeated, Schwerin can hope to retreat upon Ohlau, upon +Breslau, and save the Magazines. This side the Oder, all will be +movements, a whirlpool of Hussars; but beyond the Oder, all is quiet, +open. To Ohlau, to Glogau, nay home to Brandenburg and the Old Dessauer +with his Camp at Gottin, the road is free, by the other side of the +Oder.--Schwerin and Prince Leopold urging him, the King did ride away; +at what hour, with what suite, or with what adventures (not mostly +fabulous) is not known:--but it was towards Lowen, fifteen miles off +(where he crossed Neisse River, the other day); and thence towards +Oppeln, on the Oder, eighteen miles farther; and the pace was swift. +Leopold, on reflection, ordered off a Squadron of Gens-d'Armes to +overtake his Majesty, at Lowen or sooner; which they never did. Passing +Pampitz, the King threw Fredersdorf a word, who was among the baggage +there: "To Oppeln; bring the Purse, the Privy Writings!" Which +Fredersdorf, and the Clerks (and another Herr, who became Nicolai's +Father-in-law in after years) did; and joined the King at Lowen; but I +hope stopped there. + +The King's suite was small, names not given; but by the time he got to +Lowen, being joined by cavalry fugitives and the like, it had got to +be seventy persons: too many for the King. He selected what was his of +them; ordered the gates to be shut behind him on all others, and again +rode away. The Leopold Squadron of Gens-d'Armes did not arrive till +after his departure; and having here lost trace of him, called halt, +and billeted for the night. The King speeds silently to Oppeln on his +excellent bay horse, the worse-mounted gradually giving in. At Oppeln +is a Bridge over the Oder, a free Country beyond: Regiment La Motte +lay, and as the King thinks, still lies in Oppeln;--but in that he is +mistaken. Regiment La Motte is with the baggage at Pampitz, all this +day; and a wandering Hussar Party, some sixty Austrians, have taken +possession of Oppeln. The King, and the few who had not yet broken down, +arrive at the Gate of Oppeln, late, under cloud of night: "Who goes?" +cried the sentry from within. "Prussians! A Prussian Courier!" answer +they;--and are fired upon through the gratings; and immediately draw +back, and vanish unhurt into Night again. "Had those Hussars only let +him in!" said Austria afterwards: but they had not such luck. It was at +this point, according to Valori, that the King burst forth into audible +ejaculations of a lamentable nature. There is no getting over, then, +even to Brandenburg, and in an insolvent condition. Not open insolvency +and bankrupt disgrace; no, ruin, and an Austrian jail, is the one +outlook. "O MON DIEU, O God, it is too much (C'EN EST TROP)!" with +other the like snatches of lamentation; [Valori, i. 104.] which are not +inconceivable in a young man, sleepless for the third night, in these +circumstances; but which Valori knows nothing of, except by malicious +rumor from the valet class,--who have misinformed Valori about several +other points. + +The King riding diligently, with or without ejaculations, back towards +Lowen, comes at an early hour to the Mill of Hilbersdorf, within a +mile-and-half of that place. He alights at the Mill; sends one of his +attendants, almost the only one now left, to inquire what is in Lowen. +The answer, we know, is: "A squadron of Gens-d'Armes there; furthermore, +a Prussian Adjutant come to say, Victory at Mollwitz!" Upon which the +King mounts again;--issues into daylight, and concludes these +mythical adventures. That "in Lowen, in the shop at the corner of the +Market-place, Widow Panzern, subsequently Wife Something-else, made his +Majesty a cup of coffee, and served a roast fowl along with it," cannot +but be welcome news, if true; and that his Majesty got to Mollwitz +again before dark that same "day," [Fuchs, p. 11.] is liable to no +controversy. + +In this way was Friedrich snatched by Morgante into Fairyland, carried +by Diana to the top of Pindus (or even by Proserpine to Tartarus, +through a bad sixteen hours), till the Battle whirlwind subsided. +Friendly imaginative spirits would, in the antique time, have so +construed it: but these moderns were malicious-valetish, not friendly; +and wrapped the matter in mere stupid worlds of cobweb, which require +burning. Friedrich himself was stone-silent on this matter, all his life +after; but is understood never quite to have pardoned Schwerin for the +ill-luck of giving him such advice. [Nicolai, ii. 180-195 (the one true +account); Laveaux, i. 194; Valori, i. 104; &c., &c. (the myth in various +stages). Most distractedly mythical of all, with the truth clear before +it, is the latest version, just come out, in _Was sich die Schlesier vom +alten Fritz erzahlen_ (Brieg, 1860), pp. 113-125.] + +Friedrich's adventure is not the only one of that kind at Mollwitz; +there is another equally indubitable,--which will remain obscure, +half-mythical to the end of the world. The truth is, that Right Wing of +the Prussian Army was fallen chaotic, ruined; and no man, not even +one who had seen it, can give account of what went on there. The +sage Maupertuis, for example, had climbed some tree or place of +impregnability ("tree" Voltaire calls it, though that is hardly +probable), hoping to see the Battle there. And he did see it, much too +clearly at last! In such a tide of charging and chasing, on that +Right Wing and round all the Field in the Prussian rear; in such wide +bickering and boiling of Horse-currents,--which fling out, round all +the Prussian rear quarters, such a spray of Austrian Hussars for one +element,--Maupertuis, I have no doubt, wishes much he were at home, +doing his sines and tangents. An Austrian Hussar-party gets sight of +him, on his tree or other standpoint (Voltaire says elsewhere he was +mounted on an ass, the malicious spirit!)--too certain, the Austrian +Hussars got sight of him: his purse, gold watch, all he has of movable +is given frankly; all will not do. There are frills about the man, +fine laces, cloth; a goodish yellow wig on him, for one thing:--their +Slavonic dialect, too fatally intelligible by the pantomime accompanying +it, forces sage Maupertuis from his tree or standpoint; the big red face +flurried into scarlet, I can fancy; or scarlet and ashy-white mixed; +and--Let us draw a veil over it! He is next seen shirtless, the once +very haughty, blustery, and now much-humiliated man; still conscious +of supreme acumen, insight and pure science; and, though an Austrian +prisoner and a monster of rags, struggling to believe that he is +a genius and the Trismegistus of mankind. What a pickle! The sage +Maupertuis, as was natural, keeps passionately asking, of gods and men, +for an Officer with some tincture of philosophy, or even who could speak +French. Such Officer is at last found; humanely advances him money, a +shirt and suit of clothes; but can in nowise dispense with his going +to Vienna as prisoner. Thither he went accordingly; still in a mythical +condition. Of Voltaire's laughing, there is no end; and he changes the +myth from time to time, on new rumors coming; and there is no truth to +be had from him. [Voltaire, _OEuvres (Vie Prive),_ ii. 33-34; and see +his LETTERS for some were after the event.] + +This much is certain: at Vienna, Maupertuis, prisoner on parole, glided +about for some time in deep eclipse, till the Newspapers began babbling +of him. He confessed then that he was Maupertuis, Flattener of the +Earth; but for the rest, "told rather a blind story about himself," says +Robinson; spoke as if he had been of the King's suite, "riding with the +King," when that Hussar accident befell;--rather a blind story, true +story being too sad. The Vienna Sovereignties, in the turn things had +taken, were extremely kind; Grand-Duke Franz handsomely pulled out his +own watch, hearing what road the Maupertuis one had gone; dismissed +the Maupertuis, with that and other gifts, home:--to Brittany (not +to Prussia), till times calmed for engrafting the Sciences. +[_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 902; Robinson's Despatch (Vienna, 22d April, +1741, n.s.); Voltaire, ubi supra.] + +On Wednesday, Friedrich writes this Note to his Sister; the first +utterance we have from him since those wild roamings about Oppeln and +Hilbersdorf Mill:-- + +KING TO WILHELMINA (at Baireuth; two days after Mollwitz). + +"OHLAU, 12th April, 1741. + +"MY DEAREST SISTER,--I have the satisfaction to inform you that we +have yesterday [day before yesterday; but some of us have only had one +sleep!] totally beaten the Austrians. They have lost more than 5,000 +men, killed, wounded and prisoners. We have lost Prince Friedrich, +Brother of Margraf Karl; General Schulenburg, Wartensleben of the +Carabineers, and many other Officers. Our troops did miracles; and the +result shows as much. It was one of the rudest Battles fought within +memory of man. + +"I am sure you will take part in this happiness; and that you will +not doubt of the tenderness with which I am, my dearest Sister,--Yours +wholly, FEDERIC." [_OEuvres,_ xxvii. i. 101.] + +And on the same day there comes, from Breslau, Jordan's Answer to the +late anxious little Note from Pogarell; anxieties now gone, and smoky +misery changed into splendor of flame: + +JORDAN TO THE KING (finds him at Ohlau). + +"BRESLAU, 11th April, 1741. "SIRE,--Yesterday I was in terrible alarms. +The sound of the cannon heard, the smoke of powder visible from the +steeple-tops here; all led us to suspect that there was a Battle going +on. Glorious confirmation of it this morning! Nothing but rejoicing +among all the Protestant inhabitants; who had begun to be in +apprehension, from the rumors which the other party took pleasure in +spreading. Persons who were in the Battle cannot enough celebrate +the coolness and bravery of your Majesty. For myself, I am at the +overflowing point. I have run about all day, announcing this glorious +news to the Berliners who are here. In my life I have never felt a more +perfect satisfaction. + +"M. de Camas is here, very ill for the last two days; attack of +fever--the Doctor hopes to bring him through,"--which proved beyond the +Doctor: the good Camas died here three days hence (age sixty-three); an +excellent German-Frenchman, of much sense, dignity and honesty; familiar +to Friedrich from infancy onwards, and no doubt regretted by him as +deserved. The Widow Camas, a fine old Lady, German by birth, will again +come in view. Jordan continues:-- + +"One finds, at the corner of every street, an orator of the Plebs +celebrating the warlike feats of your Majesty's troops. I have often, +in my idleness, assisted at these discourses: not artistic eloquence, it +must be owned, but spurting rude from the heart...." + +Jordan adds in his next Note: "This morning (14th) I quitted M. de +Camas; who, it is thought, cannot last the day. I have hardly left him +during his illness:" [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xvii. 99.]--and so let +that scene close. + +Neipperg, meanwhile, had fallen back on Neisse; taken up a strong +encampment in that neighborhood; he lies thereabouts all summer; +stretched out, as it were, in a kind of vigilant dog-sleep on the +threshold, keeping watch over Neisse, and tries fighting no more at +this time, or indeed ever after, to speak of. And always, I think, with +disadvantage, when he does try a little. He had been Grand-Duke Franz's +Tutor in War-matters; had got into trouble at Belgrade once before, and +was almost hanged by the Turks. George II. had occasionally the benefit +of him, in coming years. Be not too severe on the poor man, as the +Vienna public was; he had some faculty, though not enough. "Governor of +Luxemburg," before long: there, for most part, let him peacefully +drill, and spend the remainder of his poor life. Friedrich says, neither +Neipperg nor himself, at this time, knew the least of War; and that it +would be hard to settle which of them made the more blunders in their +Silesian tussle. + +Friedrich, in about three weeks hence, was fully ready for opening +trenches upon Brieg; did open trenches, accordingly, by moonlight, in +a grand nocturnal manner (as readers shall see anon); and, by vigorous +cannonading,--Marechal de Belleisle having come, by this time, to +enjoy the fine spectacle,--soon got possession of Brieg, and held +it thenceforth. Neisse now alone remained, with Neipperg vigilantly +stretched upon the threshold of it. But the Marechal de Belleisle, we +say, had come; that was the weighty circumstance. And before Neisse can +be thought of, there is a whole Europe, bickering aloft into conflict; +embattling itself from end to end, in sequel of Mollwitz Battle; +and such a preliminary sea of negotiating, diplomatic finessing, +pulse-feeling, projecting and palavering, with Friedrich for centre all +summer, as--as I wish readers could imagine without my speaking of it +farther! But they cannot. + +[MAP ON PAGE 75 GOES HEREABOUTS--missing] + + + + +Chapter XI. -- THE BURSTING FORTH OF BEDLAMS: BELLEISLE AND THE BREAKERS +OF PRAGMATIC SANCTION. + +The Battle of Mollwitz went off like a signal-shot among the Nations; +intimating that they were, one and all, to go battling. Which they did, +with a witness; making a terrible thing of it, over all the world, +for above seven years to come. Foolish Nations; doomed to settle their +jarring accounts in that terrible manner! Nay, the fewest of them had +any accounts, except imaginary ones, to settle there at all; and they +went into the adventure GRATIS, spurred on by spectralities of the sick +brain, by phantasms of hope, phantasms of terror; and had, strictly +speaking, no actual business in it whatever. + +Not that Mollwitz kindled Europe; Europe was already kindled for +some two years past;--especially since the late Kaiser died, and his +Pragmatic Sanction was superadded to the other troubles afoot. But ever +since that Image of JENKINS'S EAR had at last blazed up in the slow +English brain, like a fiery constellation or Sign in the Heavens, +symbolic of such injustices and unendurabilities, and had lighted the +Spanish-English War, Europe was slowly but pretty surely taking fire. +France "could not see Spain humbled," she said: England (in its own dim +feeling, and also in the fact of things) could not do at all without +considerably humbling Spain. France, endlessly interested in that +Spanish-English matter, was already sending out fleets, firing +shots,--almost, or altogether, putting forth her hand in it. "In which +case, will not, must not, Austria help us?" thought England,--and was +asking, daily, at Vienna (with intense earnestness, but without the +least result), through Excellency Robinson there, when the late Kaiser +died. Died, poor gentleman;--and left his big Austrian Heritages lying, +as it were, in the open market-place; elaborately tied by diplomatic +packthread and Pragmatic Sanction; but not otherwise protected against +the assembled cupidities of mankind! Independently of Mollwitz, or of +Silesia altogether, it was next to impossible that Europe could long +avoid blazing out; especially unless the Spanish-English quarrel got +quenched, of which there was no likelihood. + +But if not as cause, then as signal, or as signal and cause together +(which it properly was), the Battle of Mollwitz gave the finishing +stroke, and set all in motion. This was "the little stone broken loose +from the mountain;" this, rather than the late Kaiser's Death, which +Friedrich defined in that manner. Or at least, this was the first LEAP +it took; hitting other stones big and little, which again hit others +with their leaping and rolling,--till the whole mountain-side is in +motion under law of gravity, and you behold one wide stone-torrent +thundering towards the valleys; shivering woods, farms, habitations +clean away with it: fatal to any Image of composite Clay and Brass which +it may meet! + +There is, accordingly, from this point, a change in Friedrich's Silesian +Adventure; which becomes infinitely more complicated for him,--and for +those that write of him, no less! Friedrich's business henceforth is not +to be done by direct fighting, but rather by waiting to see how, and +on what side, others will fight: nor can we describe or understand +Friedrich's business, except as in connection with the immense, +obsolete, and indeed delirious Phenomenon called Austrian-Succession +War, upon which it is difficult to say any human word. If History, +driven upon Dismal Swamp with its horrors and perils, can get across +unsunk, she will be lucky! + +For, directly on the back of Mollwitz, there ensued, first, an explosion +of Diplomatic activity such as was never seen before; Excellencies +from the four winds taking wing towards Friedrich; and talking and +insinuating, and fencing and fugling, after their sort, in that +Silesian Camp of his, the centre being there. A universal rookery of +Diplomatists;--whose loud cackle and cawing is now as if gone mad to +us; their work wholly fallen putrescent and avoidable, dead to all +creatures. And secondly, in the train of that, there ensued a universal +European War, the French and the English being chief parties in it; +which abounds in battles and feats of arms, spirited but delirious, and +cannot be got stilled for seven or eight years to come; and in which +Friedrich and his War swim only as an intermittent Episode henceforth. +What to do with such a War; how extricate the Episode, and leave the +War lying? The War was at first a good deal mad; and is now, to men's +imagination, fallen wholly so; who indeed have managed mostly to forget +it; only the Episode (reduced thereby to an UNintelligible state) +retaining still some claims on them. + +It is singular into what oblivion the huge Phenomenon called +Austrian-Succession War has fallen; which, within a hundred years ago +or little more, filled all mortal hearts! The English were principals +on one side; did themselves fight in it, with their customary fire, and +their customary guidance ("courageous Wooden Pole with Cocked Hat," as +our friend called it); and paid all the expenses, which were extremely +considerable, and are felt in men's pockets to this day: but the English +have more completely forgotten it than any other People. "Battle of +Dettingen, Battle of Fontenay,--what, in the Devil's name, were we ever +doing there?" the impatient Englishman asks; and can give no answer, +except the general one: "Fit of insanity; DELIRIUM TREMENS, perhaps +FURENS;--don't think of it!" Of Philippi and Arbela educated Englishmen +can render account; and I am told young gentlemen entering the Army are +pointedly required to say who commanded at Aigos-Potamos and wrecked the +Peloponnesian War: but of Dettingen and Fontenoy, where is the +living Englishman that has the least notion, or seeks for any? The +Austrian-Succession War did veritably rage for eight years, at a +terrific rate, deforming the face of Earth and Heaven; the English +paying the piper always, and founding their National Debt thereby:--but +not even that could prove mnemonic to them; and they have dropped the +Austrian-Succession War, with one accord, into the general dustbin, and +are content it should lie there. They have not, in their language, +the least approach to an intelligible account of it: How it went on, +whitherward, whence; why it was there at all,--are points dark to the +English, and on which they do not wish to be informed. They have quitted +the matter, as an unintelligible huge English-and-Foreign Delirium +(which in good part it was); Delirium unintelligible to them; tedious, +not to say in parts, as those of the Austrian Subsidies, hideous and +disgusting to them; happily now fallen extinct; and capable of being +skipped, in one's inquiries into the wonders of this England and this +World. Which, in fact, is a practical conclusion not so unwise as it +looks. + +"Wars are not memorable," says Sauerteig, "however big they may have +been, whatever rages and miseries they may have occasioned, or however +many hundreds of thousands they may have been the death of,--except when +they have something of World-History in them withal. If they are found +to have been the travail-throes of great or considerable changes, +which continue permanent in the world, men of some curiosity cannot but +inquire into them, keep memory of them. But if they were travail-throes +that had no birth, who of mortals would remember them? Unless +perhaps the feats of prowess, virtue, valor and endurance, they might +accidentally give rise to, were very great indeed. Much greater than +the most were, which came out in that Austrian-Succession case! Wars +otherwise are mere futile transitory dust-whirlwinds stilled in blood; +extensive fits of human insanity, such as we know are too apt to break +out;--such as it rather beseems a faithful Son of the House of Adam NOT +to speak about again; as in houses where the grandfather was hanged, the +topic of ropes is fitly avoided. + +"Never again will that War, with its deliriums, mad outlays of blood, +treasure, and of hope and terror, and far-spread human destruction, +rise into visual life in any imagination of living man. In vain shall +Dryasdust strive: things mad, chaotic and without ascertainable purpose +or result, cannot be fixed into human memories. Fix them there by never +so many Documentary Histories, elaborate long-eared Pedantries, and +cunning threads, the poor human memory has an alchemy against such ill +usage;--it forgets them again; grows to know them as a mere torpor, a +stupidity and horror, and instinctively flies from Dryasdust and them." + +Alive to any considerable degree, in the poor human imagination, this +Editor does not expect or even wish the Austrian-Succession War to be. +Enough for him if it could be understood sufficiently to render his +poor History of Friedrich intelligible. For it enwraps Friedrich like +a world-vortex henceforth; modifies every step of his existence +henceforth; and apart from it, there is no understanding of his business +or him. "So much as sticks to Friedrich:" that was our original bargain! +Assist loyally, O reader, and we will try to make the indispensable a +minimum for you. + + + + +WHO WAS TO BLAME FOR THE AUSTRIAN-SUCCESSION WAR? + +The first point to be noted is, Where did it originate? To which the +answer mainly is, With that lean Gentleman whom we saw with Papers in +the OEil-de-Boeuf on New-year's day last. With Monseigneur the Marechal +de Belleisle principally; with the ambitious cupidities and baseless +vanities of the French Court and Nation, as represented by Belleisle. +George II.'s Spanish War, if you will examine, had a real necessity in +it. Jenkins's Ear was the ridiculous outside figure this matter had: +Jenkins's Ear was one final item of it; but the poor English People, +in their wrath and bellowings about that small item, were intrinsically +meaning: "Settle the account; let us have that account cleared up and +liquidated; it has lain too long!" And seldom were a People more in the +right, as readers shall yet see. + +The English-Spanish War had a basis to stand on in this Universe. The +like had the Prussian-Austrian one; so all men now admit. If Friedrich +had not business there, what man ever had in an enterprise he ventured +on? Friedrich, after such trial and proof as has seldom been, got +his claims on Schlesien allowed by the Destinies. His claims on +Schlesien;--and on infinitely higher things; which were found to be his +and his Nation's, though he had not been consciously thinking of them +in making that adventure. For, as my poor Friend insists, there ARE Laws +valid in Earth and in Heaven; and the great soul of the world is just. +Friedrich had business in this War; and Maria Theresa VERSUS Friedrich +had likewise cause to appear in court, and do her utmost pleading +against him. + +But if we ask, What Belleisle or France and Louis XV. had to do there? +the answer is rigorously, Nothing. Their own windy vanities, ambitions, +sanctioned not by fact and the Almighty Powers, but by phantasm and the +babble of Versailles; transcendent self-conceit, intrinsically insane; +pretensions over their fellow-creatures which were without basis +anywhere in Nature, except in the French brain alone: it was this that +brought Belleisle and France into a German War. And Belleisle and France +having gone into an Anti-Pragmatic War, the unlucky George and his +England were dragged into a Pragmatic one,--quitting their own business, +on the Spanish Main, and hurrying to Germany,--in terror as at Doomsday, +and zeal to save the Keystone of Nature these. That is the notable point +in regard to this War: That France is to be called the author of it, +who, alone of all the parties, had no business there whatever. And the +wages due to France for such a piece of industry,--the reader will yet +see what wages France and the other parties got, at the tail of the +affair. For that too is apparent in our day. + +We have often said, the Spanish-English War was itself likely to +have kindled Europe; and again Friedrich's Silesian War was itself +likely,--France being nearly sure to interfere. But if both these Wars +were necessary ones, and if France interfered in either of them on the +wrong side, the blame will be to France, not to the necessary Wars. +France could, in no way, have interfered in a more barefacedly unjust +and gratuitous manner than she now did; nor, on any terms, have so +palpably made herself the author of the conflagration of deliriums +that ensued for above Seven years henceforth. Nay for above Twenty +years,--the settlement of this Silesian Pragmatic-Antipragmatic matter +(and of Jenkins's Ear, incidentally, ALONG with this!) not having fairly +completed itself till 1763. + + + + +HOW BELLEISLE MADE VISIT TO TEUTSCHLAND; AND THERE WAS NO FIT HENRY THE +FOWLER TO WELCOME HIM. + +It is very wrong to keep Enchanted Wiggeries sitting in this world, as +if they were things still alive! By a species of "conservatism," which +gets praised in our Time, but which is only a slothful cowardice, base +indifference to truth, and hatred to trouble in comparison with +lies that sit quiet, men now extensively practise this method of +procedure;--little dreaming how bad and fatal it at all times is. When +the brains are out, things really ought to die;--no matter what lovely +things they were, and still affect to be, the brains being out, they +actually ought in all cases to die, and with their best speed get +buried. Men had noses, at one time; and smelt the horror of a deceased +reality fallen putrid, of a once dear verity become mendacious, +phantasmal; but they have, to an immense degree, lost that organ since, +and are now living comfortably cheek-by-jowl with lies. Lies of that sad +"conservative" kind,--and indeed of all kinds whatsoever: for that kind +is a general mother; and BREEDS, with a fecundity that is appalling, did +you heed it much!-- + +It was pity that the "Holy Romish Reich, Teutsch by Nation," had not +got itself buried some ages before. Once it had brains and life, but now +they were out. Under the sway of Barbarossa, under our old anti-chaotic +friend Henry the Fowler, how different had it been! No field for a +Belleisle to come and sow tares in; no rotten thatch for a French +Sun-god to go sailing about in the middle of, and set fire to! Henry, +when the Hungarian Pan-Slavonic Savagery came upon him, had got ready in +the interim; and a mangy dog was the "tribute" he gave them; followed +by the due extent of broken crowns, since they would not be content with +that. That was the due of Belleisle too,--had there been a Henry to meet +him with it, on his crossing the marches, in Trier Country, in Spring, +1741: "There, you anarchic Upholstery-Belus, fancying yourself God of +the Sun; there is what Teutschland owes you. Go home with that; and mind +your own business, which I am told is plentiful, if you had eye for it!" + +But the sad truth is, for above Four Centuries now,--and especially for +Three, since little Kaiser Karl IV. "gave away all the moneys of it," in +his pressing occasions, this Holy Romish Reich, Teutsch by Nation, has +been more and ever more becoming an imaginary quantity; the Kaisership +of it not capable of being worn by anybody, except a Hapsburger who +had resources otherwise his own. The fact is palpable. And Austria, and +Anti-Reformation Entity, "conservative" in that bad sense, of slothfully +abhorring trouble in comparison with lies, had not found the poison more +mal-odorous in this particular than in many others. And had cherished +its "Holy Romish Reich" grown UNholy, phantasmal, like so much else +in Austrian things; and had held firm grip of it, these Three Hundred +years; and found it a furthersome and suitable thing, though sensible +it was more and more becoming an Enchanted Wiggery pure and simple. +Nor have the consequences failed; they never do. Belleisle, Louis XIV., +Henri II., Francois I.: it is long since the French have known this +state of matters; and been in the habit of breaking in upon it, +fomenting internal discontents, getting up unjust Wars,--with or +without advantage to France, but with endless disadvantage to Germany. +Schmalkaldic War; Thirty-Years War; Louis XIV.'s Wars, which brought +Alsace and the other fine cuttings; late Polish-Election War, and its +Lorraine; Austrian-Succession War: many are the wars kindled on poor +Teutschland by neighbor France; and large is the sum of woes to Europe +and to it, chargeable to that score. Which appears even yet not to be +completed?--Perhaps not, even yet. For it is the penalty of being loyal +to Enchanted Wiggeries; of living cheek-by-jowl with lies of a peaceable +quality, and stuffing your nostrils, and searing your soul, against the +accursed odor they all have!--For I can assure you the curse of Heaven +does dwell in one and all of them; and the son of Adam cannot too soon +get quit of their bad partnership, cost him what it may. + +Belleisle's Journey as Sun-god began in March,--"end of March, 1741," no +date of a day to be had for that memorable thing:--and he went gyrating +about, through the German Courts, for almost a year afterwards; his +course rather erratic, but always in a splendor as of Belus, with +those hundred and thirty French Lords and Valets, and the glory of Most +Christian King irradiating him. Very diligent for the first six months, +till September or October next, which we may call his SEED-TIME; and by +no means resting after nine or twelve months, while the harrowing and +hoeing went on. In January, 1742, he had the great satisfaction to see a +Bavarian Kaiser got, instead of an Austrian; and everywhere the fruit of +his diligent husbandry begin to BEARD fairly above ground, into a crop +of facts (like armed men from dragon's teeth), and "the pleasure of +the"--WHOM was it the pleasure of?--"prosper in his hands." Belleisle +was a pretty man; but I doubt it was not "the Lord" he was doing the +pleasure of, on this occasion, but a very Different Personage, disguised +to resemble him in poor Belleisle's eyes!-- + +Austria was not dangerous to France in late times, and now least of all; +how far from it,--humbled by the loss of Lorraine; and now as it were +bankrupt, itself in danger from all the world. And France, so far as +express Treaties could bind a Nation, was bound to maintain Austria in +its present possessions. The bitter loss of Lorraine had been sweetened +to the late Kaiser by that solitary drop of consolation;--as his Failure +of a Life had been, poor man: "Failure the most of me has been; but +I have got Pragmatic Sanction, thanks to Heaven, and even France +has signed it!" Loss of Lorraine, loss of Elsass, loss of the Three +Bishoprics; since Karl V.'s times, not to speak of earlier, there has +been mere loss on loss:--and now is the time to consummate it, think +Belleisle and France, in spite of Treaties. + +Towards humbling or extinguishing Austria, Belleisle has two preliminary +things to do: FIRST, Break the Pragmatic Sanction, and get everybody to +break it; SECOND, Guide the KAISERWAHL (Election of a Kaiser), so that +it issue, not in Grand-Duke Franz, Maria Theresa's Husband, as all +expect it will, but in another party friendly to France:--say in Karl +Albert of Bavaria, whose Family have long been good clients of ours, +dependent on us for a living in the Political World. Belleisle, there +is little doubt, had from the first cast his eye on this unlucky Karl +Albert for Kaiser; but is uncertain as to carrying him. Belleisle will +take another if he must; Kur-Sachsen, for example;--any other, and all +others, only not the Grand-Duke: that is a point already fixed with +Belleisle, though he keeps it well in the background, and is careful not +to hint it till the time come. + +In regard to Pragmatic Sanction, Belleisle and France found no +difficulty,--or the difficulty only (which we hope must have been +considerable) of eating their own Covenant in behalf of Pragmatic +Sanction; and declaring, which they did without visible blush, That it +was a Covenant including, if not expressly, then tacitly, as all human +covenants do, this clause, "SALVO JURE TERTII (Saving the rights of +Third Parties),"--that is, of Electors of Bavaria, and others who may +object, against it! O soul of honor, O first Nation of the Universe, +was there ever such a subterfuge? Here is a field of flowering corn, the +biggest in the world, begirt with elaborate ring-fence, many miles of +firm oak-paling pitched and buttressed;--the poor gentleman now dead +gave you his Lorraine, and almost his life, for swearing to keep up said +paling. And you do keep it up,--all except six yards; through which the +biggest team on the highway can drive freely, and the paltriest cadger's +ass can step in for a bellyful! + +It appears, the first Nation of the Universe had, at an early period of +their consultations, hit upon this of SALVO JURE TERTII, as the method +of eating their Covenant, before an enlightened public. [20th January, +1741, in their Note of Ceremony, recognizing Maria Theresa as Queen of +Hungary, Note which had been due so very long (ADELUNG, ii. 206), there +is ominous silence on Pragmatic Sanction; "beginning of March," there +is virtual avowal of SALVO JURE (ib. 279);--open avowal on Belleisle's +advent (ib. 305).] And they persisted in it, there being no other for +them. An enlightened public grinned sardonically, and was not taken in; +but, as so many others were eating their Covenants, under equally +poor subterfuges, the enlightened public could not grin long on any +individual,--could only gape mutely, with astonishment, on all. A +glorious example of veracity and human nobleness, set by the gods of +this lower world to their gazing populations, who could read in the +Gazettes! What is truth, falsity, human Kingship, human Swindlership? +Are the Ten Commandments only a figure of speech, then? And it was +some beggarly Attorney-Devil that built this sublunary world and us? +Questions might rise; had long been rising;--but now there was about +enough, and the response to them was falling due; and Belleisle himself, +what is very notable, had been appointed to get ready the response. +Belleisle (little as Belleisle dreamt of it, in these high Enterprises) +was ushering in, by way of response, a RAGNAROK, or Twilight of the +Gods, which, as "French Revolution, or Apotheosis of SANSCULOTTISM," is +now well known;--and that is something to consider of! + + + + +DOWNBREAK OF PRAGMATIC SANCTION; MANNER OF THE CHIEF ARTISTS IN HANDLING +THEIR COVENANTS. + +The operation once accomplished on its own Pragmatic Covenant, France +found no difficulty with the others. Everybody was disposed to eat his +Covenant, who could see advantage in so doing, after that admirable +example. The difficulty of France and Belleisle rather was, to keep +the hungry parties back: "Don't eat your Covenant TILL the proper time; +patience, we say!" A most sad Miscellany of Royalties, coming all to +the point, "Will you eat your Covenant, Will you keep it?"--and eating, +nearly all; in fact, wholly all that needed to eat. + +On the first Invasion of Silesia, Maria Theresa had indignantly +complained in every Court; and pointing to Pragmatic Sanction, had +demanded that such Law of Nature be complied with, according to +covenant. What Maria Theresa got by this circuit of the Courts, +everybody still knows. Except England, which was willing, and Holland, +which was unwilling, all Courts had answered, more or less uneasily: +"Law of Nature,--humph: yes!"--and, far from doing anything, not one of +them would with certainty promise to do anything. From England alone and +her little King (to whom Pragmatic Sanction is the Palladium of Human +Freedoms and the Keystone of Nature) could she get the least help. The +rest hung back; would not open heart or pocket; waited till they +saw. They do now see; now that Belleisle has done his feat of +Covenant-eating!-- + +Eleven great Powers, some count Thirteen, some Twelve, [Scholl, ii. 286; +Adelung, LIST, ii. 127.]--but no two agree, and hardly one agrees with +himself;--enough, the Powers of Europe, from Naples and Madrid to Russia +and Sweden, have all signed it, let us say a Dozen or a Baker's-Dozen +of them. And except our little English Paladin alone, whose interest +and indeed salvation seemed to him to lie that way, and who needed no +Pragmatic Covenant to guide him, nobody whatever distinguished himself +by keeping it. Between December, 1740, when Maria Theresa set up her +cries in all Courts, on to April, 1741, England, painfully dragging +Holland with her, had alone of the Baker's-Dozen spoken word of +disapproval; much less done act of hindrance. Two especially (France and +Bavaria, not to mention Spain) had done the reverse, and disowned, and +declared against, Pragmatic Sanction. And after the Battle of Mollwitz, +when the "little stone" took its first leap, and set all thundering, +then came, like the inrush of a fashion, throughout that high Miscellany +or Baker's-Dozen, the general eating of Covenants (which was again +quickened in August, for a reason we shall see): and before November +of that Year, there was no Covenant left to eat. Of the Baker's-Dozen +nobody remained but little George the Paladin, dragging Holland +painfully along with him;--and Pragmatic Sanction had gone to water, +like ice in a June day, and its beautiful crystalline qualities and +prismatic colors were forever vanished from the world. Will the reader +note a point or two, a personage or two, in this sordid process,--not +for the process's sake, which is very sordid and smells badly, but for +his own sake, to elucidate his own course a little in the intricacies +now coming or come upon him and me? + +1. ELECTOR OF BAVARIA.--Karl Albert of Baiern is by some counted as a +Signer of the Pragmatic Sanction, and by others not; which occasions +that discrepancy of sum-total in the Books. And he did once, in a sense, +sign it, he and his Brother of Koln; but, before the late Kaiser's +death, he had openly drawn back from it again; and counted himself a +Non-signer. Signer or not, he, for his part, lost no moment (but rather +the contrary) in openly protesting against it, and signifying that he +never would acknowledge it. Of this the reader saw something, at the +time of her Hungarian Majesty's Accession. Date and circumstances of it, +which deserve remembering, are more precisely these: October 20th, 1740, +Karl Albert's Ambassador, Perusa by name, wrote to Karl from Vienna, +announcing that the Kaiser was just dead. From Munchen, on the 21st, +Karl Albert, anticipating such an event, but not yet knowing it, orders +Perusa, in CASE of the Kaiser's decease, which was considered probable +at Munchen, to demand instant audience of the proper party (Kanzler +Sinzendorf), and there openly lodge his Protest. Which Perusa did, +punctually in all points,--no moment LOST, but rather the contrary, as +we said! Let poor Karl Albert have what benefit there is in that fact. +He was, of all the Anti-Pragmatic Covenant-Breakers (if he ever fairly +were such), the only one that proceeded honorably, openly and at once, +in the matter; and he was, of them all, by far the most unfortunate. + +This is the poor gentleman whom Belleisle had settled on for being +Kaiser. And Kaiser he became; to his frightful sorrow, as it proved: his +crown like a crown of burning iron, or little better! There is little of +him in the Books, nor does one desire much: a tall aquiline type of +man; much the gentleman in aspect; and in reality, of decorous serious +deportment, and the wish to be high and dignified. He had a kind of +right, too, in the Anti-Pragmatic sense; and was come of Imperial +kindred,--Kaiser Ludwig the Bavarian, and Kaiser Rupert of the Pfalz, +called Rupert KLEMM, or Rupert Smith's-vice, if any reader now remember +him, were both of his ancestors. He might fairly pretend to Kaisership +and to Austrian ownership,--had he otherwise been equal to such +enterprises. But, in all ambitions and attempts, howsoever grounded +otherwise, there is this strict question on the threshold: "Are you of +weight for the adventure; are not you far too light for it?" Ambitious +persons often slur this question; and get squelched to pieces, by +bringing the Twelve Labors of Hercules on Unherculean backs! Not every +one is so lucky as our Friedrich in that particular,--whose back, though +with difficulty, held out. Which poor Karl Albert's never had much +likelihood to do. Few mortals in any age have offered such an example of +the tragedies which Ambition has in store for her votaries; and what a +matter Hope FULFILLED may be to the unreflecting Son of Adam. + +We said, he had a kind of right to Austria, withal. He descended by the +female line from Kaiser Ferdinand I. (as did Kur-Sachsen, though by +a younger Daughter than Karl Albert's Ancestress); and he appealed to +Kaiser Ferdinand's Settlement of the Succession, as a higher than any +subsequent Pragmatic could be. Upon which there hangs an incident; still +famous to German readers. Karl Albert, getting into Public Argument +in this way, naturally instructed Perusa to demand sight of Kaiser +Ferdinand's Last Will, the tenor of which was known by authentic Copy +in Munchen, if not elsewhere among the kindred. After some delay, Perusa +(4th November, 1740), summoning the other excellencies to witness, got +sight of the Will: to his horror, there stood, in the cardinal passage, +instead of "MUNNLICHE" (male descendants), "EHELICHE" (lawfully begotten +descendants),--fatal to Karl Albert's claim! Nor could he PROVE that +the Parchment had been scraped or altered, though he kept trying and +examining for some days. He withdrew thereupon, by order, straightway +from Vienna; testifying in dumb-show what he thought. "It is your Copy +that is false," cried the Vienna people: "it has been foisted on +you, with this wrong word in it; done by somebody (your friend, the +Excellency Herr von Hartmann, shall we guess?), wishing to curry favor +with ambitious foolish persons!" Such was the Austrian story. Perhaps in +Munchen itself their Copyist was not known;--for aught I learn, the Copy +was made long since, and the Copyist dead. Hartmann, named as Copyist by +the Vienna people, made emphatic public answer: "Never did I copy it, or +see it!" And there rose great argument, which is not yet quite ended, +as to the question, "Original falsified, or Copy falsified?"--and the +modern vote, I believe, rather clearly is, That the Austrian Officials +had done it--in a case of necessity. [Adelung, ii. 150-154 (14th-20th +November, 1740), gives the public facts, without commentary. Hormayr +(_Anemonen aus dem Tagebuch eines alten Pilgersmannes,_ Jena, 1845, i. +162-169,--our old Hormayr of the AUSTRIAN PLUTARCH, but now Anonymous, +and in Opposition humor) considers the case nearly proved against +Austria, and that Bartenstein and one Bessel, a pillar of the Church, +were concerned in it.] Possible? "But you will lose your soul!" said the +Parson once to a poor old Gentlewoman, English by Nation, who refused, +in dying, to contradict some domestic fiction, to give up some domestic +secret: "But you will lose your soul, Madam!"--"Tush, what signifies my +poor silly soul compared with the honor of the family?"-- + +2. KING FRIEDRICH;--King Friedrich may be taken as the Anti-Pragmatic +next in order of time. He too lost not a moment, and proceeded openly; +no quirking to be charged upon him. His account of himself in this +matter always was: "By the Treaty of Wusterhausen, 1726, unquestionably +Prussia undertook to guarantee Pragmatic Sanction; the late Kaiser +undertaking in return, by the same Treaty, to secure Berg and Julich +to Prussia, and to have some progress made in it within six months from +signing. And unquestionably also, the late Kaiser did thereupon, or even +had already done, precisely the reverse; namely, secured, so far as in +him was possible, Berg and Julich to Kur-Pfalz. Such Treaty, having +in this way done suicide, is dead and become zero: and I am free, in +respect of Pragmatic Sanction, to do whatever shall seem good to me. My +wish was, and would still be, To maintain Pragmatic Sanction, and even +to support it by 100,000 men, and secure the Election of the Grand-Duke +to the Kaisership,--were my claims on Silesia once liquidated. But these +have no concern with Pragmatic Sanction, for or against: these are good +against whoever may fall Heir to the House of Austria, or to Silesia: +and my intention is, that the strong hand, so long clenched upon my +rights, shall open itself by this favorable opportunity, and give them +out." That is Friedrich's case. And in truth the jury everywhere has to +find,--so soon as instructed, which is a long process in some sections +of it (in England, for example),--That Pragmatic Sanction has not, +except helpless lamentations, "Alas that YOU should be here to insist +upon your rights, and to open fists long closed!"--the least, word to +say to Friedrich. + +3. TERMAGANT OF SPAIN.--Perhaps the most distracted of the +Anti-Pragmatic subterfuges was that used by Spain, when the She-dragon +or Termagant saw good to eat her Covenant; which was at a very early +stage. The Termagant's poor Husband is a Bourbon, not a Hapsburg at all: +"But has not he fallen heir to the Spanish Hapsburgs; become all one +as they, an ALTER-EGO of the Spanish Hapsburgs?" asks she. "And the +Austrian Hapsburgs being out, do not the Spanish Hapsburgs come in? +He, I say, this BOURBON-Hapsburg, he is the real Hapsburg, now that +the Austrian Branch is gone; President he of the Golden Fleece [which +a certain "Archduchess," Maria Theresa, had been meddling with]; +Proprietor, he, of Austrian Italy, and of all or most things +Austrian!"--and produces Documentary Covenants of Philip II. with his +Austrian Cousins; "to which Philip," said the Termagant, "we Bourbons +surely, if you consider it, are Heir and Alter-Ego!" Is not, this a +curious case of testamentary right; human greed obliterating personal +identity itself? + +Belleisle had a great deal of difficulty, keeping the Termagant back +till things were ripe. Her hope practically was, Baby Carlos being +prosperous King of Naples this long while, to get the Milanese for +another Baby she has,--Baby Philip, whom she once thought of making +Pope;--and she is eager beyond measure to have a stroke at the Milanese. +"Wait!" hoarsely whispers Belleisle to her; and she can scarcely wait. +Maria Theresa's Note of Announcement "New Queen of Hungary, may it +please you!" the French, as we saw, were very long in answering. The +Termagant did not answer it at all; complained on the contrary, "What is +this, Madam! Golden Fleece, you?"--and, early in March, informed +mankind that she was Spanish Hapsburg, the genuine article; and sent +off Excellency Montijos, a little man of great expense, to assist at +the Election of a proper Kaiser, and be useful to Belleisle in the great +things now ahead. [Spain's Golden-Fleece pretensions, 17th January, 1741 +(Adelung, ii. 233, 234); "Publishes at Paris," in March (ib. 293); and +on the 23d March accredits Montijos (ib. 293): Italian War, held back +by Belleisle and the English Fleets, cannot get begun till October +following.] + +4. KING OF POLAND.--The most ticklish card in Belleisle's game, +and probably the greatest fool of these Anti-Pragmatic Dozen, was +Kur-Sachsen, King of Poland. He, like Karl Albert Kur-Baiern, derives +from Kaiser Ferdinand, though by a YOUNGER Daughter, and has a like +claim on the Austrian Succession; claim nullified, however, by that +small circumstance itself, but which he would fain mend by one makeshift +or another; and thinks always it must surely be good for something. This +is August III., this King of Poland, as readers know; son of August the +Strong: Papa made him change to the Catholic religion so called,--for +the sake of getting Poland, which proves a very poor possession to +him. Who knows what damage the poor creature may have got by that sad +operation;--which all Saxony sighed to the heart on hearing of; for it +was always hoped he had some real religion, and would deliver them +from that Babylonish Captivity again! He married Kaiser Joseph I.'s +Daughter,--Maria Theresa's Cousin, and by an Elder Brother;--this, too, +ought surely to be something in the Anti-Pragmatic line? It is true, +Kur-Baiern has to Wife another Daughter of Kaiser Joseph's; but she is +the younger: "I am senior THERE, at least!" thinks the foolish man. + +Too true, he had finally, in past years, to sign Pragmatic Sanction; no +help for it, no hope without it, in that Polish-Election time. He +will have to eat his Covenant, therefore, as the first step in +Anti-Pragmatism; and he is extremely in doubt as to the How, sometimes +as to the Whether. And shifts and whirls, accordingly, at a great rate, +in these months and years; now on Maria Theresa's side, deluded by +shadows from Vienna, and getting into Russian Partition-Treaties; anon +tickled by Belleisle into the reverse posture; then again reversing. +An idle, easy-tempered, yet greedy creature, who, what with religious +apostasy in early manhood, what with flaccid ambitions since, and idle +gapings after shadows, has lost helm in this world; and will make a very +bad voyage for self and country. + +His Palinurus and chief Counsellor, at present and afterwards, is a +Count von Bruhl, once page to August the Strong; now risen to such +height: Bruhl of the three hundred and sixty-five suits of clothes; whom +it has grown wearisome even to laugh at. A cunning little wretch, they +say, and of deft tongue; but surely among the unwisest of all the Sons +of Adam in that day, and such a Palinurus as seldom steered before. +Kur-Sachsen, being Reichs-Vicar in the Northern Parts,--(Kur-Baiern and +Kur-Pfalz, as friends and good Wittelsbacher Cousins surely ought, in a +crisis like this, have agreed to be JOINT-Vicars in the Southern Parts, +and no longer quarrel upon it),--Kur-Sachsen has a good deal to do +in the Election preludings, formalities and prearrangements; and is +capable, as Kur-Pfalz and Cousin always are, of serving as chisel to +Belleisle's mallet, in such points, which will plentifully turn up. + +5. KING OF SARDINIA.--Reichs-Vicar in the Italian Parts is Charles +Amadeus King of Sardinia (tough old Victor's Son, whom we have heard +of): an office mostly honorary; suitable to the important individual +who keeps the Door of the Alps. Charles Amadeus had signed the Pragmatic +Sanction; but eats his Covenant, like the others, on example of +France;--having, as he now bethinks himself, claims on the Milanese. +There are two claimants on the Milanese, then; the Spanish Termagant, +and he? Yes; and they will have their difficulties, their extensive +tusslings in Italian War and otherwise, to make an adjustment of it; +and will give Belleisle (at least the Doorkeeper will) an immensity of +trouble, in years coming. + +In this way do the Pragmatic people eat their own Covenant, one after +the other, and are not ashamed;--till all have eaten, or as good as +eaten; and, almost within year and day, Pragmatic Sanction is a vanished +quantity; and poor Kaiser Karl's life-labor is not worth the sheepskin +and stationery it cost him. History reports in sum, That "nobody kept +the Pragmatic Sanction; that the few [strictly speaking, the one] who +acted by it, would have done precisely the same, though there had never +been such a Document in existence." To George II., it is, was and will +be, the Keystone of Nature, the true Anti-French palladium of mankind; +and he, dragging the unwilling Dutch after him, will do great things for +it: but nobody else does anything at all. Might we hope to bid adieu to +it, in this manner, and never to mention it again!-- + +Document more futile there had not been in Nature, nor will be. +Friedrich had not yet fought at Mollwitz in assertion of his Silesian +claim, when the poor Pope--poor soul, who had no Covenant to eat, +but took pattern by others--claimed, in solemn Allocution, Parma and +Piacenza for the Holy See. [Adelung, ii. 376 (5th April, 1741)] All the +world is claiming. Of the Court of Wurtemberg and its Protestings, and +"extensive Deduction" about nothing at all, we do not speak; [Ib. ii. +195, 403.] nor of Montmorency claiming Luxemburg, of which he is Titular +"Duke;" nor of Monsignore di Guastalla claiming Mantua; nor of--In +brief, the fences are now down; a broad French gap in those miles of +elaborate paling, which are good only as firewood henceforth, and +any ass may rush in and claim a bellyful. Great are the works of +Belleisle!-- + + + + +CONCERNING THE IMPERIAL ELECTION (Kaiserwahl) THAT IS TO BE: CANDIDATES +FOR KAISERSHIP. + +At equal step with the ruining of Pragmatic Sanction goes on that +spoiling of Grand-Duke Franz's Election to the Kaisership: these two +operations run parallel; or rather, under different forms, they are one +and the same operation. "To assist, as a Most Christian neighbor ought, +in picking out the fit Kaiser," was Belleisle's ostensible mission; and +indeed this does include virtually his whole errand. Till three months +after Belleisle's appearance in the business, Grand-Duke Franz never +doubted but he should be Kaiser; Friedrich's offers to, help him in it +he had scorned, as the offer of a fifth wheel to his chariot, already +rushing on with four. "Here is Kur-Bohmen, Austria's own vote," counts +the Grand-Duke; "Kur-Sachsen, doing Prussian-Partition Treaties for us; +Kur-Trier, our fat little Schonborn, Austrian to the bone; Kur-Mainz, +important chairman, regulator of the Conclave; here are Four Electors +for us: then also Kur-Pfalz, he surely, in return for the Berg-Julich +service; finally, and liable to no question Kur-Hanover, little +George of England with his endless guineas and resources, a little +Jack-the-Giantkiller, greater than all Giants, Paladin of the Pragmatic +and us: here are Six Electors of the Nine. Let Brandenburg and the +Bavarian Couple, Kur-Baiern and Kur-Koln, do their pleasure!" This was +Grand-Duke Franz's calculation. + +By the time Belleisle had been three months in Germany, the Grand-Duke's +notion had changed; and he began "applying to the Sea-Powers," "to +Russia," and all round. In Belleisle's sixth month, the Grand-Duke, +after such demolition of Pragmatic, and such disasters and +contradictions as had been, saw his case to be desperate; though he +still stuck to it, Austrian-like,--or rather, Austria for him stuck +to it, the Grand-Duke being careless of such things;--and indeed, +privately, never did give in, even AFTER the Election, as we shall have +to note. + +The Reich itself being mainly a Phantasm or Enchanted Wiggery, its +"Kaiser-Choosing" (KAISERWAHL),--now getting under way at Frankfurt, +with preliminary outskirts at Regensburg, and in the Chancery of +Mainz--is very phantasmal, not to say ghastly; and forbidding, not +inviting, to the human eye. Nine Kurfursts, Choosers of Teutschland's +real Captain, in none of whom is there much thought for Teutschland or +its interests,--and indeed in hardly more than One of whom (Prussian +Friedrich, if readers will know it) is there the least thought that way; +but, in general, much indifference to things divine or diabolic, and +thought for one's own paltry profits and losses only! So it has long +been; and so it now is, more than usual.--Consider again, are Enchanted +Wiggeries a beautiful thing, in this extremely earnest World?-- + +The Kaiserwahl is an affair depending much on processions, +proclamations, on delusions optical, acoustic; on palaverings, +manoeuvrings, holdings back, then hasty pushings forward; and indeed +is mainly, in more senses than one, under guidance of the Prince of the +Power of the Air. Unbeautiful, like a World-Parliament of Nightmares +(if the reader could conceive such a thing); huge formless, tongueless +monsters of that species, doing their "three readings,"--under +Presidency or chief-pipership as above! Belleisle, for his part, is +consummately skilful, and manages as only himself could. Keeps his game +well hidden, not a hint or whisper of it except in studied proportions; +spreads out his lines, his birdlime; tickles, entices, astonishes; goes +his rounds, like a subtle Fowler, taking captive the minds of men; +a Phoebus-Apollo, god of melody and of the sun, filling his net with +birds. + +I believe, old Kur-Pfalz, for the sake of French neighborhood, and +Berg-and-Julich, were there nothing more, was very helpful to him;--in +March past, when the Election was to have been, when it would have +gone at once in favor of the Grand-Duke, Kur-Pfalz got the Election +"postponed a little." Postponing, procrastinating; then again pushing +violently on, when things are ripe: Belleisle has only to give signal +to a fit Kur-Pfalz. In all Kurfurst Courts, the French Ambassadors sing +diligently to the tune Belleisle sets them; and Courts give ear, or will +do, when the charmer himself arrives. + +Kur-Sachsen, as above hinted, was his most delicate operation, in the +charming or trout-tickling way. And Kur-Sachsen--and poor Saxony, ever +since--knows if he did not do it well! "Deduct this Kur-Sachsen from the +Austrian side," calculates Belleisle; "add him to ours, it is almost an +equality of votes. Kur-Baiern, our own Imperial Candidate; Kur-Koln, his +Brother; Kur-Pfalz, by genealogy his Cousin (not to mention Berg-Julich +matters); here are three Wittelsbachers, knit together; three sure +votes; King Friedrich, Kur-Brandenburg, there is a fourth; and if +Kur-Sachsen would join?" But who knows if Kur-Sachsen will! The poor +soul has himself thoughts of being Kaiser; then no thoughts, and again +some: thoughts which Belleisle knows how to handle. "Yes, Kaiser you, +your Majesty; excellent!" And sets to consider the methods: "Hm, ha, hm! +Think, your Majesty: ought not that Bohemian Vote to be excluded, for +one thing? Kur-Bohmen is fallen into the distaff, Maria Theresa herself +cannot vote. Surely question will rise, Whether distaff can, validly, +hand it over to distaff's husband, as they are about doing? Whether, +in fact, Kur-Bohmen is not in abeyance for this time?" "So!" answered +Kur-Sachsen, Reichs-Vicarius. And thereupon meetings were summoned; +Nightmare Committees sat on this matter under the Reichs-Vicar, slowly +hatching it; and at length brought out, "Kur-Bohmen NOT transferable by +the distaff; Kur-Bohmen in abeyance for this time." Greatly to the joy +of Belleisle; infinitely to the chagrin of her Hungarian Majesty,--who +declared it a crying injustice (though I believe legally done in every +point); and by and by, even made it a plea of Nullity, destructive to +the Election altogether, when her Hungarian Majesty's affairs looked +up again, and the world would listen to Austrian sophistries and +obstinacies. This was an essential service from Kur-Sachsen. [Began, +indistinctly, "in March" (1741); languid "for some months" (Adelung, ii. +292); "November 4th," was settled in the negative, "Kur-Bohmen not to +have a vote" (_Maria Theresiens Leben,_ p. 47 n.)]. + +After which Kur-Sachsen's own poor Kaisership died away into "Hm, ha, +hm!" again, with a grateful Belleisle. Who nevertheless dexterously +retained Kur-Sachsen as ally; tickling the poor wretch with other baits. +Of the Kaiser he had really meant all along, there was dead silence, +except between the parties; no whisper heard, for six months after it +had been agreed upon; none, for two or near three months after formal +settlement, and signing and sealing. Karl Albert's Treaty with Belleisle +was 18th May, 1741; and he did not declare himself a Candidate till +1st-4th July following. [Adelung, ii. 357, 421.] Belleisle understands +the Nightmare Parliaments, the electioneering art, and how to deal +with Enchanted Wiggeries. More perfect master, in that sad art, has not +turned up on record to one's afflicted mind. Such a Sun-god, and doing +such a Scavengerism! Belleisle, in the sixth month (end of August, +1741), feels sure of a majority. How Belleisle managed, after that, to +checkmate George of England, and make even George vote for him, and the +Kaiserwahl to be unanimous against Grand-Duke Franz, will be seen. Great +are Belleisle's doings in this world, if they were useful either to God +or man, or to Belleisle himself first of all!-- + + + + +TEUTSCHLAND TO BE CARVED INTO SOMETHING OF SYMMETRY, SHOULD THE +BELLEISLE ENTERPRISES SUCCEED. + +Belleisle's schemes, in the rear of all this labor, are grandiose to a +degree. Men wonder at the First Napoleon's mad notions in that kind. But +no Napoleon, in the fire of the revolutionary element; no Sham-Napoleon, +in the ashes of it: hardly a Parisian Journalist of imaginative turn, +speculating on the First Nation of the Universe and what its place +is,--could go higher than did this grandiose Belleisle; a man with +clear thoughts in his head, under a torpid Louis XV. Let me see, thinks +Belleisle. Germany with our Bavarian for Kaiser; Germany to be cut +into, say, Four little Kingdoms: 1. Bavaria with the lean Kaiserhood; +2. Saxony, fattened by its share of Austria; 3. Prussia the like; +4. Austria itself, shorn down as above, and shoved out to the remote +Hungarian parts: VOILA. These, not reckoning Hanover, which perhaps we +cannot get just yet, are Four pretty Sovereignties. Three, or Two, of +these hireable by gold, it is to be hoped. And will not France have +a glorious time of it; playing master of the revels there, egging one +against the other! Yes, Germany is then, what Nature designed it, a +Province of France: little George of Hanover himself, and who knows +but England after him, may one day find their fate inevitable, like the +others. O Louis, O my King, is not this an outlook? Louis le Grand was +great; but you are likely to be Louis the Grandest; and here is a World +shaped, at last, after the real pattern! + +Such are, in sad truth, Belleisle's schemes; not yet entirely hatched +into daylight or articulation; but becoming articulate, to himself and +others, more and more. Reader, keep them well in mind: I had rather +not speak of them again. They are essential to our Story; but they +are afflictively vain, contrary to the Laws of Fact; and can, now +or henceforth, in nowise be. My friend, it was not Beelzebub, nor +Mephistopheles, nor Autolyeus-Apollo that built this world and us; it +was Another. And you will get your crown well rapped, M. le Marechal, +for so forgetting that fact! France is an extremely pretty creature; +but this of making France the supreme Governor and God's-Vicegerent of +Nations, is, was, and remains, one of the maddest notions. France at its +ideal BEST, and with a demi-god for King over it, were by no means fit +for such function; nay of many Nations is eminently the unfittest for +it. And France at its WORST or nearly so, with a Louis XV. over it by +way of demi-god--O Belleisle, what kind of France is this; shining in +your grandiose imagination, in such contrast to the stingy fact: like +a creature consisting of two enormous wings, five hundred yards in +potential extent, and no body bigger than that of a common cock, +weighing three pounds avoirdupois. Cock with his own gizzard much out of +sorts, too! + +It was "early in March" [Adelung, ii. 305.] when Belleisle, the +Artificial Sun-god, quitted Paris on this errand. He came by the Moselle +road; called on the Rhine Kurfursts, Koln, Trier, Mainz; dazzling them, +so far as possible, with his splendor for the mind and for the eye. +He proceeded next to Dresden, which is a main card: and where there is +immense manipulation needed, and the most delicate trout-tickling; this +being a skittish fish, and an important, though a foolish. Belleisle was +at Dresden when the Battle of Mollwitz fell out: what a windfall +into Belleisle's game! He ran across to Friedrich at Mollwitz, to +congratulate, to consult,--as we shall see anon. + +Belleisle, I am informed, in this preliminary Tour of his, speaks only, +or hints only (except in the proper quarters), of Election Business; +of the need there perhaps is, on the part of an Age growing in liberal +ideas, to exclude the Austrian Grand-Duke; to curb that ponderous, +harsh, ungenerous House of Austria, too long lording it over generous +Germany; and to set up some better House,--Bavaria, for example; Saxony, +for example? Of his plans in the rear of this he is silent; speaks only +by hints, by innuendoes, to the proper parties. But ripening or ripe, +plans do lie to rear; far-stretching, high-soaring; in part, dark even +at Versailles; darkly fermenting, not yet developed, in Belleisle's +own head; only the Future Kaiser a luminous fixed point, shooting beams +across the grandiose Creation-Process going on there. + +By the end of August, 1741, Belleisle had become certain of his game; +24th January, 1742, he saw himself as if winner. Before August, 1741, +he had got his Electors manipulated, tickled to his purpose, by the +witchery of a Phoebus-Autolycus or Diplomatic Sun-god; majority secured +for a Bavarian Kaiser, and against an Austrian one. And in the course +of that month,--what was still more considerable!--he was getting, under +mild pretexts, about a hundred thousand armed Frenchmen gently wafted +over upon the soil of Germany. Two complete French Armies, 40,000 each +(PLUS their Reserves), one over the Upper Rhine, one over the Lower; +about which we shall hear a great deal in time coming! Under mild +pretexts: "Peaceable as lambs, don't you observe? Merely to protect +Freedom of Election, in this fine neighbor country; and as allies to our +Friend of Bavaria, should he chance to be new Kaiser, and to persist +in his modest claims otherwise." This was his crowning stroke. Which +finished straightway the remnants of Pragmatic Sanction and of every +obstacle; and in a shining manner swept the roads clear. And so, on +January 24th following, the Election, long held back by Belleisle's +manoeuvrings, actually takes effect,--in favor of Karl Albert, our +invaluable Bavarian Friend. Austria is left solitary in the Reich; +Pragmatic Sanction, Keystone of Nature, which Belleisle and France had +sworn to keep in, is openly torn out by Belleisle and by France and +the majority of mankind; and Belleisle sees himself, to all appearance, +winner. + +This was the harvest reaped by Belleisle, within year and day; after +endless manoeuvring, such as only a Belleisle in the character of +Diplomatic Sun-god could do. Beyond question, the distracted ambitions +of several German Princes have been kindled by Belleisle; what we called +the rotten thatch of Germany is well on fire. This diligent sowing in +the Reich--to judge by the 100,000, armed men here, and the counter +hundreds of thousands arming--has been a pretty stroke of dragon's-teeth +husbandry on Belleisle's part. + + + + +BELLEISLE ON VISIT TO FRIEDRICH; SEES FRIEDRICH BESIEGE BRIEG, WITH +EFFECT. + +It was April 26th when Marechal de Belleisle, with his Brother the +Chevalier, with Valori and other bright accompaniment, arrived in +Friedrich's Camp. "Camp of Mollwitz" so named; between Mollwitz and +Brieg; where Friedrich is still resting, in a vigilant expectant +condition; and, except it be the taking of Brieg, has nothing military +on hand. Wednesday, 26th April, the distinguished Excellency--escorted +for the last three miles by 120 Horse, and the other customary +ceremonies--makes his appearance: no doubt an interesting one to +Friedrich, for this and the days next following. Their talk is not +reported anywhere: nor is it said with exactitude how far, whether +wholly now, or only in part now, Belleisle expounded his sublime ideas +to Friedrich; or what precise reception they got. Friedrich himself +writes long afterwards of the event; but, as usual, without precision, +except in general effect. Now, or some time after, Friedrich says he +found Belleisle, one morning, with brow clouded, knit into intense +meditation: "Have you had bad news, M. le Marechal?" asks +Friedrich. "No, oh no! I am considering what we shall make of that +Moravia?"--"Moravia; Hm!" Friedrich suppresses the glance that is rising +to his eyes: "Can't you give it to Saxony, then? Buy Saxony into the +Plan with it!" "Excellent," answers Belleisle, and unpuckers his stern +brow again. + +Friedrich thinks highly, and about this time often says so, of the man +Belleisle: but as to the man's effulgencies, and wide-winged Plans, none +is less seduced by them than Friedrich: "Your chickens are not hatched, +M. le Marechal; some of us hope they never will be,--though the +incubation-process may have uses for some of us!" Friedrich knows that +the Kaisership given to any other than Grand-Duke Franz will be mostly +an imaginary quantity. "A grand Symbolic Cloak in the eyes of the +vulgar; but empty of all things, empty even of cash, for the last Two +Hundred Years: Austria can wear it to advantage; no other mortal. +Hang it on Austria, which is a solid human figure,--so." And Friedrich +wishes, and hopes always, Maria Theresa will agree with him, and get it +for her Husband. "But to hang it on Bavaria, which is a lean bare pole? +Oh, M. le Marechal!--And those Four Kingdoms of yours: what a brood of +poultry, those! Chickens happily yet UNhatched;--eggs addle, I should +venture to hope:--only do go on incubating, M. le Marechal!" That is +Friedrich's notion of the thing. Belleisle stayed with Friedrich "a +few days," say the Books. After which, Friedrich, finding Belleisle too +winged a creature, corresponded, in preference, with Fleury and the Head +Sources;--who are always intensely enough concerned about those "aces" +falling to him, and how the same are to be "shared." [Details in +_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 912, 962, 916; in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ ii. 79, +80; &c.] + +Instead of parade or review in honor of Belleisle, there happened to be +a far grander military show, of the practical kind. The Siege of Brieg, +the Opening of the Trenches before Brieg, chanced to be just ready, on +Belleisle's arrival:--and would have taken effect, we find, that very +night, April 26th, had not a sudden wintry outburst, or "tempest of +extraordinary violence," prevented. Next night, night of the 27th-28th, +under shine of the full Moon, in the open champaign country, on both +sides of the River, it did take effect. An uncommonly fine thing of its +sort; as one can still see by reading Friedrich's strict Program for +it,--a most minute, precise and all-anticipating Program, which still +interests military men, as Friedrich's first Piece in that kind,--and +comparing therewith the Narratives of the performance which ensued. +[_Ordre und Dispositiones (SIC), wornach sich der General-Lieutenant von +Kalckstein bei Eroffnung der Trancheen, &c. (Oeuvres de Frederic,_ xxx. +39-44): the Program. _Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 916-928: the Narrative.] + +Kalkstein, Friedrich's old Tutor, is Captain of the Siege; under him +Jeetz, long used to blockading about Brieg. The silvery Oder has its due +bridges for communication; all is in readiness, and waiting manifold as +in the slip,--and there is Engineer Walrave, our Glogau Dutch friend, +who shall, at the right instant, "with his straw-rope (STROHSEIL) mark +out the first parallel," and be swift about it! There are 2,000 diggers, +with the due implements, fascines, equipments; duly divided, into Twelve +equal Parties, and "always two spademen to one pickman" (which indicates +soft sandy ground): these, with the escorting or covering battalions, +Twelve Parties they also, on both sides of the River, are to be in their +several stations at the fixed moments; man, musket, mattock, strictly +exact. They are to advance at Midnight; the covering battalions so many +yards ahead: no speaking is permissible, nor the least tobacco-smoking; +no drum to be allowed for fear of accident; no firing, unless you are +fired on. The covering battalions are all to "lie flat, so soon as they +get to their ground, all but the Officers and sentries." To rear +of these stand Walrave and assistants, silent, with their +straw-rope;--silent, then anon swift, and in whisper or almost by +dumb-show, "Now, then!" After whom the diggers, fascine-men, workers, +each in his kind, shall fall to, silently, and dig and work as for life. + +All which is done; exact as clock-work: beautiful to see, or half see, +and speak of to your Belleisle, in the serene moonlight! Half an hour's +marching, half an hour's swift digging: the Town-clock of Brieg was +hardly striking One, when "they had dug themselves in." And, before +daybreak, they had, in two batteries, fifty cannon in position, with +a proper set of mortars (other side the River),--ready to astonish +Piccolomini and his Austrians; who had not had the least whisper of +them, all night, though it was full moon. Graf von Piccolomini, an +active gallant person, had refused terms, some time before; and was +hopefully intent on doing his best. And now, suddenly, there rose round +Piccolomini such a tornado of cannonading and bombardment, day after +day, always "three guns of ours playing against one of theirs," that his +guns got ruined; that "his hay-magazines took fire,"--and the Schloss +itself, which was adjacent to them, took fire (a sad thing to Friedrich, +who commanded pause, that they might try quenching, but in vain):--and +that, in short, Piccolomini could not stand it; but on the 4th of May, +precisely after one week's experience, hung out the white flag, and +"beat chamade at 3 of the afternoon." He was allowed to march out next +morning, with escort to Neisse; parole pledged, Not to serve against us +for two years coming. + +Friedrich in person (I rather guess, Belleisle not now at his side) +saw the Garrison march out;--kept Piccolomini to dinner; a gallant +Piccolomini, who had hoped to do better, but could not. This was a +pretty enough piece of Siege-practice. Torstenson, with his Swedes, +had furiously besieged Brieg in 1642, a hundred years ago; and could do +nothing to it. Nothing, but withdraw again, futile; leaving 1,400 of his +people dead. Friedrich, the Austrian Garrison once out, set instantly +about repairing the works, and improving them into impregnability,--our +ugly friend Walrave presiding over that operation too. + +Belleisle, we may believe, so long as he continued, was full of polite +wonder over these things; perhaps had critical advices here and there, +which would be politely received. It is certain he came out extremely +brilliant, gifted and agreeable, in the eyes of Friedrich; who often +afterwards, not in the very strictest language, calls him a great man, +great soldier, and by far the considerablest person you French have. +It is no less certain, Belleisle displayed, so far as displayable, +his magnificent Diplomatic Ware to the best advantage. To which, we +perceive, the young King answered, "Magnificent, indeed!" but would not +bite all at once; and rather preferred corresponding with Fleury, +on business points, keeping the matter dexterously hanging, in an +illuminated element of hope and contingency, for the present. + +Belleisle, after we know not how many days, returned to Dresden; +perfected his work at Dresden, or shoved it well forward, with "that +Moravia" as bait. "Yes, King of Moravia, you, your Polish Majesty, shall +be!"--and it is said the simple creature did so style himself, by and +by, in certain rare Manifestoes, which still exist in the cabinets of +the curious. Belleisle next, after only a few days, went to Munchen; +to operate on Karl Albert Kur-Baiern, a willing subject. And, in short, +Belleisle whirled along incessantly, torch in hand; making his "circuit +of the German Courts,"--details of said circuit not to be followed by us +farther. One small thing only I have found rememberable; probably +true, though vague. At Munchen, still more out at Nymphenburg, the fine +Country-Palace not far off, there was of course long conferencing, long +consulting, secret and intense, between Belleisle with his people and +Karl Albert with his. Karl Albert, as we know, was himself willing. But +a certain Baron von Unertl--heavy-built Bavarian of the old type, an +old stager in the Bavarian Ministries--was of far other disposition. One +day, out at Nymphenburg, Unertl got to the Council-room, while Belleisle +and Company were there: Unertl found the apartment locked, absolutely no +admittance; and heard voices, the Kurfurst's and French voices, eagerly +at work inside. "Admit me, Gracious Herr; UM GOTTES WILLEN, me!" No +admission. Unertl, in despair, rushed round to the garden side of the +Apartment; desperately snatched a ladder, set it up to the window, +and conjured the Gracious Highness: "For the love of Heaven, my +ALLERGNADIGSTER, don't! Have no trade with those French! Remember your +illustrious Father, Kurfurst Max, in the Eugene-Marlborough time, what +a job he made of it, building actual architecture on THEIR big promises, +which proved mere acres of gilt balloon!" [Hormayr, _Anemonen_ (cited +above), ii. 152.] Words terribly prophetic; but they were without effect +on Karl Albert. + +The rest of Belleisle's inflammatory circuitings and extensive +travellings, for he had many first and last in this matter, shall be +left to the fancy of the reader. May 18th, he made formal Treaty with +Karl Albert: Treaty of Nymphenburg, "Karl Albert to be Kaiser; Bavaria, +with Austria Proper added to it, a Kingdom; French armies, French +moneys, and other fine items." [Given in Adelung, ii. 359.] Treaty to +be kept dead secret; King Friedrich, for the present, would not accede. +[Given in Adelung, ii. 421.] June 25th, after some preliminary survey of +the place, Belleisle made his Entry into Frankfurt: magnificent in the +extreme. And still did not rest there; but had to rush about, back to +Versailles, to Dresden, hither, thither: it was not till the last day +of July that he fairly took up his abode in Frankfurt; and--the Election +eggs, so to speak, being now all laid--set himself to hatch the same. +A process which lasted him six months longer, with curious phenomena to +mankind. Not till the middle of August did he bring those 80,000 Armed +Frenchmen across the Rhine, "to secure peace in those parts, and freedom +of voting." Not till November 4th had Kur-Sachsen, with the Nightmares, +finished that important problem of the Bohemian Vote, "Bohemian Vote +EXCLUDED for this time;"--after which all was ready, though still not +in the least hurry. November 20th, came the first actual +"Election-Conference (WAHL-CONFERENZ)" in the Romer at Frankfurt; to +which succeeded Two Months more of conferrings (upon almost nothing at +all): and finally, 24th January, 1742, came the Election itself, Karl +Albert the man; poor wretch, who never saw another good day in this +world. + +Belleisle during those six months was rather high and airy, extremely +magnificent; but did not want discretion: "more like a Kurfurst than an +Ambassador;" capable of "visiting Kur-Mainz, with servants purposely +in OLD liveries,"--where the case needed old, where Kur-Mainz needed +snubbing; not otherwise. [Buchholz, ii. 57 n.] "The Marechal de +Belleisle," says an Eye-witness, of some fame in those days, "comes out +in a variety of parts, among us here; plays now the General, now the +Philosopher, now the Minister of State, now the French Marquis;--and +does them all to perfection. Surely a master in his art. His Brother the +Chevalier is one of the sensiblest and best-trained persons you can see. +He has a penetrating intellect; is always occupied, and full of great +schemes; and has nevertheless a staid kind of manner. He is one of the +most important Personages here; and in all things his Brother's right +hand." [Von Loen, _Kleine Schriften_ (cited in Adelung, ii. 400).] +In Frankfurt, both Belleisle and his Brother were much respected, the +Brother especially, as men of dignified behavior and shining qualities; +but as to their hundred and thirty French Lords and other Valetry, these +by their extravagances and excesses (AUSSCHWEIFUNGEN) made themselves +extremely detestable, it would appear. [Buchholz, ii. 54; in Adelung, +ii. 398 n., a French BROCARD on the subject, of sufficient emphasis.] + + + + +Chapter XII. -- SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. + +George II. did not hear of Mollwitz for above a fortnight after it fell +out; but he had no need of Mollwitz to kindle his wrath or his activity +in that matter. [Mollwitz first heard of in London, April 25th (14th); +Subsidy of 300,000 pounds voted same day. _London Gazette_ (April +11th-14th, 1741); _Commons Journals,_ xxiii. 705.] George II. had seen, +all along, with natural manifold aversion and indignation, these high +attempts of his Nephew. "Who is this new little King, that will not let +himself be snubbed, and laughed at, and led by the nose, as his Father +did; but seems to be taking a road of his own, and tacitly defying us +all? A very high conduct indeed, for a Sovereign of that magnitude. +Aspires seemingly to be the leader among German Princes; to +reduce Hanover and us,--us, with the gold of England in our +breeches-pocket,--to the second place? A reverend old Bishop of Liege, +twitched by the rochet, and shaken hither and thither, like a reverend +old clothes-screen, till he agree to stand still and conform. And now a +Silesia seized upon; a Pragmatic Sanction kicked to the winds: the +whole world to be turned topsy-turvy, and Hanover and us, with our +breeches-pocket, reduced to--?" + +The emotions, the prognosticatings, and distracted procedures of his +Britannic Majesty, of which we have ourselves seen somewhat, in this +fermentation of the elements, are copiously set down for us by the +English Dryasdust (mostly in unintelligible form): but, except for sane +purposes, one must be careful not to dwell on them, to the sorrow of +readers. Seldom was there such a feat of Somnambulism, as that by the +English and their King in the next twenty Years. To extract the particle +of sanity from it, and see how the poor English did get their own errand +done withal, and Jenkins's Ear avenged,--that is the one interesting +point; Dryasdust and the Nightmares shall, to all time, be welcome to +the others. Here are some Excerpts, a select few; which will perhaps +be our readiest expedient. These do, under certain main aspects, +shadow forth the intricate posture of King George and his Nation, when +Belleisle, as Protagonistes or Chief Bully, stept down into the ring, +in that manner; asking, "Is there an Antagonistes, then, or Chief +Defender?" I will label them, number them; and, with the minimum of +needful commentary, leave them to imaginative readers. + + + + +No. 1. SNATCH OF PARLIAMENTARY ELOQUENCE BY MR. VINER (19th April, +1741). + +The fuliginous explosions, more or less volcanic, which went on +in Parliament and in English society, against Friedrich's Silesian +Enterprise, for long years from this date, are now all dead and +avoidable,--though they have left their effects among us to this day. +Perhaps readers would like to see the one reasonable word I have fallen +in with, of opposite tendency; Mr. Viner's word, at the first starting +of that question: plainly sensible word, which, had it been attended to +(as it was not), might have saved us so much nonsense, not of idle talk +only, but of extremely serious deed which ensued thereupon! + +"LONDON, 19th APRIL, 1741. This day [Mollwitz not yet known, Camp of +Gottin too well known!] King George, in his own high person, comes down +to the House of Lords,--which, like the Other House, is sunk painfully +in Walpole Controversies, Spanish-War Controversies, of a merely +domestic nature;--and informs both Honorable Houses, with extreme +caution, naming nobody, That he much wishes they would think of helping +him in these alarming circumstances of the Celestial Balance, ready +apparently to go heels uppermost. To which the general answer is, 'Yes, +surely!'--with a vote of 300,000 pounds for her Hungarian Majesty, a few +days hence. From those continents of Parliamentary tufa, now fallen +so waste and mournful, here is one little piece which ought to be +extricated into daylight:-- + +"MR. VINER (on his legs):... 'If I mistake not the true intention of the +Address proposed,' in answer to his Majesty's most gracious Speech from +the Throne, 'we are invited to declare that we will oppose the King of +Prussia in his attempts upon Silesia: a declaration in which I see +not how any man can concur who KNOWS NOT the nature of his Prussian +Majesty's Claim, and the Laws of the German Empire [NOR DO I, MR. V.]! +It ought therefore, Sir, to have been the first endeavor of those by +whom this Address has been so zealously supported, to show that his +Prussian Majesty's Claim, so publicly explained [BY KAUZLER LUDWIG, OF +HALLE, WHO, IT SEEMS, HAS STAGGERED OR CONVINCED MR. VINER], so firmly +urged and so strongly supported, is without foundation and reason, and +is only one of those imaginary titles which Ambition may always find to +the dominions of another.' (HEAR MR VINER!)" [Tindal, xx. 491, gives the +Royal Speech (DATE in a very slobbery condition); see also Coxe, _House +of Austria,_ iii. 365. Viner's Fragment of a Speech is in Thackeray, +_Life of Chatham,_ i. 87.]... + +A most indispensable thing, surely. Which was never done, nor can ever +be done; but was assumed as either unnecessary or else done of its own +accord, by that Collective Wisdom of England (with a sage George II. +at the head of it); who plunged into Dettingen, Fontenoy, Austrian +Subsidies, Aix-la-Chapelle, and foundation of the English National Debt, +among other strange things, in consequence!-- + +Upon that of Kanzler Ludwig, and the "so public Explanation" (which we +slightly heard of long since), here is another Note,--unless readers +prefer to skip it:-- + +"That the Diplomatic and Political world is universally in travail at +this time, no reader need be told; Europe everywhere in dim anxiety, +heavy-laden expectation (which to us has fallen so vacant); looking +towards inevitable changes and the huge inane. All in travail;--and +already uttering printed Manifestoes, Patents, Deductions, and other +public travail-SHRIEKS of that kind. Printed; not to speak of the +unprinted, of the oral which vanished on the spot; or even of the +written which were shot forth by breathless estafettes, and unhappily +did not vanish, but lie in archives, still humming upon us, "Won't you +read me, then?"--Alas, except on compulsion, No! Life being precious +(and time, which is the stuff of life), No!-- + +"At Reinsberg as elsewhere, at Reinsberg first of all, it had been felt, +in October last, that there would be Manifestoes needed; learned Proof, +the more irrefragable the better, of our Right to Silesia. It was +settled there, Let Ludwig, Kanzler of the University of Halle, do it. +[Herr Kanzler Ludwig, monster of Antiquarian, Legal and other Learning +there: wealthy, too, and close-fisted; whom we have seen obliged to open +his closed fist, and to do building in the Friedrich Strasse, before +now; Nussler, his son-in-law, having no money:--as careless readers +have perhaps forgotten?] Ludwig set about his new task with a proud +joy. Ludwig knows that story, if he know anything. Long years ago he +put forth a Chapter upon it; weighty Chapter; in a Book of weight, said +Judges;--Book weighing, in pounds avoirdupois and otherwise, none of +us now knows what: [Title of this weighty Performance (see Preuss, +_Thronbesteigung,_ p. 432) is, or was (size not given), _Germania +Princeps_ (Halae, 1702). Preuss says farther, "That Book ii. c. 3 +handles the Prussian claims: Jagerndorf being? 13; Liegnitz,? 14; Oppeln +and Ratibor,? 16;--and that Ludwig had sent a Copy of this Argument +[weighty Performance altogether? Or Book ii. c. 3 of it, which would +have had a better chance?] to King Friedrich, on the death of Kaiser +Karl VI."]--but, in after years, it used to be said by flatterers of the +Kanzler, 'Herr Kanzler, see the effect of Learning. It was you, it was +your weighty Book, that caused all this World-tumult, and flung the +Nations into one another's hair!' Upon which the old Kanzler would +blush: 'You do me too much honor!' + +"Ludwig, directly on order given, gathered out his documents again, in +the King's name this time; and promised something weighty by New-year's +day at latest." Doubtless to the joy of Nussler, who has still no +regular appointment, though well deserving one. "And sure enough, on +January 7th, at Berlin, 'in three languages,' Ludwig's DEDUCTION had +come out; an eager Public waiting for it: [Title is, _Rechtsgegrundetes +Eigenthum_ (in the Latin copies, _Patrimonium,_ and _Propriete fondee en +Droit_ in the French copies) _des &c.,_--that is to say, _Legal Right of +Property in the Royal-Electoral House of Brandenburg to the Duchies +and Principalities of Jagerndorf, Liegnitz, Brieg, Wohlau_ (Berlin, +7th January, 1741).]--and at Berlin it was generally thought to be +conclusive. I have looked into Ludwig's Deduction, stern duty urging, +in this instance for one: such portions as I read are nothing like so +stupid as was expected; and, in fact, are not to be called stupid at +all, but fit for their purpose, and moderately intelligible to those who +need them,"--which happily we do not in this place. + +Judicious Mr. Viner availed nothing against the Proposed Address; any +more than he would against the Atlantic Tide, coming in unanimous, +under influence of the Moon itself,--as indeed this Address, and the +triumphant Subsidy which was voted in the rear of it, may be said to +have done. [Coxe, iii. 265.] Subsidy of 300,000 pounds to her Hungarian +Majesty; which, with the 200,000 pounds already gone that road, makes +a handsome Half-million for the present Year. The first gush of the +Britannia Fountain,--which flowed like an Amalthea's Horn for seven +years to come; refreshing Austria, and all thirsty Pragmatic Nations, to +defend the Keystone of this Universe. Unluckily every guinea of it went, +at the same time, to encourage Austria in scorning King Friedrich's +offers to it; which perhaps are just offers, thinks Mr. Viner; which +once listened to, Pragmatic Sanction would be safe. [Mr. Viner was of +Pupham, or Pupholm, in Lincolnshire, for which County he sat then, and +for many years before and after,--from about 1713 till 1761, when he +died. A solid, instructed man, say his contemporaries. "He was a friend +of Bolingbroke's, and had a house near Bolingbroke's Battersea one." He +is Great great-grandfather to the present Mr. Viner, and to the Countess +de Grey and Ripon; which is an interesting little fact.] + +This Parliament is strong for Pragmatic Sanction, and has high +resentments against Walpole; in both which points the New Parliament, +just getting elected, will rival and surpass it,--especially in the +latter point, that of uprooting Walpole, which the Nation is bent on, +with a singular fury. Pragmatic Sanction like to be ruined; and Walpole +furiously thrown out: what a pair of sorrows for poor George! During his +late Caroline's time, all went peaceably, and that of "governing" was +a mere pleasure; Walpole and Caroline cunningly doing that for him, and +making him believe he was doing it. But now has come the crisis, the +collapse; and his poor Majesty left alone to deal with it!-- + + + + +No. 2. CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORIAN ON THE PHENOMENON OF WALPOLE IN ENGLAND. + +"For above Ten Years, Walpole himself", says my Constitutional Historian +(unpublished), "for almost Twenty Years, Walpole virtually and through +others, has what they call 'governed' England; that is to say, has +adjusted the conflicting Parliamentary Chaos into counterpoise, by +what methods he had; and allowed England, with Walpole atop, to jumble +whither it would and could. Of crooked things made straight by Walpole, +of heroic performance or intention, legislative or administrative, by +Walpole, nobody ever heard; never of the least hand-breadth gained from +the Night-realm in England, on Walpole's part: enough if he could manage +to keep the Parish Constable walking, and himself float atop. Which task +(though intrinsically zero for the Community, but all-important to +the Walpole, of Constitutional Countries) is a task almost beyond the +faculty of man, if the careless reader knew it! + +"This task Walpole did,--in a sturdy, deep-bellied, long-headed, +John-Bull fashion, not unworthy of recognition. A man of very forcible +natural eyesight, strong natural heart,--courage in him to all lengths; +a very block of oak, or of oakroot, for natural strength. He was always +very quiet with it, too; given to digest his victuals, and be peaceable +with everybody. He had one rule, that stood in place of many: To keep +out of every business which it was possible for human wisdom to stave +aside. 'What good will you get of going into that? Parliamentary +criticism, argument and botheration? Leave well alone. And even leave +ill alone:--are you the tradesman to tinker leaky vessels in England? +You will not want for work. Mind your pudding, and say little!' At home +and abroad, that was the safe secret. For, in Foreign Politics, his rule +was analogous: 'Mind your own affairs. You are an Island, you can do +without Foreign Politics; Peace, keep Peace with everybody: what, in the +Devil's name, have you to do with those dog-worryings over Seas? Once +more, mind your pudding!' Not so bad a rule; indeed it is the better +part of an extremely good one;--and you might reckon it the real rule +for a pious Rritannic Island (reverent of God, and contemptuous of the +Devil) in times of general Down-break and Spiritual Bankruptcy, when +quarrellings of Sovereigns are apt to be mere dog-worryings and Devil's +work, not good to interfere in. + +"In this manner, Walpole, by solid John-Bull faculty (and methods of +his own), had balanced the Parliamentary swaggings and clashings, for +a great while; and England had jumbled whither it could, always in a +stupid, but also in a peaceable way. As to those same 'methods of his +own' they were--in fact they were Bribery. Actual purchase of votes by +money slipt into the hand. Go straight to the point. 'The direct +real method this,' thinks Walpole: 'is there in reality any other?' A +terrible question to Constitutional Countries; which, I hear, has never +been resolved in the negative, by the modern improvements of science. +Changes of form have introduced themselves; the outward process, I +hear, is now quite different. According as the fashions and conditions +alter,--according as you have a Fourth Estate developed, or a Fourth +Estate still in the grub stage and only developing,--much variation of +outward process is conceivable. + +"But Votes, under pain of Death Official, are necessary to your poor +Walpole: and votes, I hear, are still bidden for, and bought. You may +buy them by money down (which is felony, and theft simple, against the +poor Nation); or by preferments and appointments of the unmeritorious +man,--which is felony double-distilled (far deadlier, though more +refined), and theft most compound; theft, not of the poor Nation's +money, but of its soul and body so far, and of ALL its moneys and +temporal and spiritual interests whatsoever; theft, you may say, of +collops cut from its side, and poison put into its heart, poor Nation! +Or again, you may buy, not of the Third Estate in such ways, but of +the Fourth, or of the Fourth and Third together, in other still more +felonious and deadly, though refined ways. By doing clap-traps, namely; +letting off Parliamentary blue-lights, to awaken the Sleeping Swineries, +and charm them into diapason for you,--what a music! Or, without +clap-trap or previous felony of your own, you may feloniously, in the +pinch of things, make truce with the evident Demagogos, and Son of Nox +and of Perdition, who has got 'within those walls' of yours, and is +grown important to you by the Awakened Swineries, risen into alt, that +follow him. Him you may, in your dire hunger of votes, consent to +comply with; his Anarchies you will pass for him into 'Laws,' as you are +pleased to term them;--instead of pointing to the whipping-post, and +to his wicked long ears, which are so fit to be nailed there, and of +sternly recommending silence, which were the salutary thing.--Buying may +be done in a great variety of ways. The question, How you buy? is not, +on the moral side, an important one. Nay, as there is a beauty in going +straight to the point, and by that course there is likely to be the +minimum of mendacity for you, perhaps the direct money-method is a shade +less damnable than any of the others since discovered;--while, in +regard to practical damage resulting, it is of childlike harmlessness in +comparison! + +"That was Walpole's method; with this to aid his great natural faculty, +long-headed, deep-bellied, suitable to the English Parliament and +Nation, he went along with perfect success for ten or twenty years. And +it might have been for longer,--had not the English Nation accidentally +come to wish, that it should CEASE jumbling NO-whither; and try to +jumble SOME-whither, at least for a little while, on important business +that had risen for England in a certain quarter. Had it not been for +Jenkins's Ear blazing out in the dark English brain, Walpole might have +lasted still a long while. But his fate lay there:--the first Business +vital to England which might turn up; and this chanced to be the Spanish +War. How vital, readers shall see anon. Walpole, knowing well enough in +what state his War-apparatus was, and that of all his Apparatuses there +was none in a working state, but the Parliamentary one,--resisted +the Spanish War; stood in the door against it, with a rhinoceros +determination, nay almost something of a mastiff's; resolute not to +admit it, to admit death as soon. Doubtless he had a feeling it would +be death, the sagacious man;--and such it is now proving; the Walpole +Ministry dying by inches from it; dying hard, but irremediably. + +"The English Nation was immensely astonished, which Walpole was not, any +more than at the other Laws of Nature, to find Walpole's War-apparatus +in such a condition. All his Apparatuses, Walpole guesses, are in +no better, if it be not the Parliamentary one. The English Nation is +immensely astonished, which Walpole again is not, to find that his +Parliamentary Apparatus has been kept in gear and smooth-going by the +use of OIL: 'Miraculous Scandal of Scandals!' thinks the English Nation. +'Miracle? Law of Nature, you fools!' thinks Walpole. And in fact there +is such a storm roaring in England, in those and in the late and the +coming months, as threatens to be dangerous to high roofs,--dangerous +to Walpole's head at one time. Storm such as had not been witnessed in +men's memory; all manner of Counties and Constituencies, with solemn +indignation, charging their representatives to search into that +miraculous Scandal of Scandals, Law of Nature, or whatever it may be; +and abate the same, at their peril. + +"To the now reader there is something almost pathetic in these solemn +indignations, and high resolves to have Purity of Parliament +and thorough Administrative Reform, in spite of Nature and the +Constitutional Stars;--and nothing I have met with, not even the +Prussian Dryasdust, is so unsufferably wearisome, or can pretend to +equal in depth of dull inanity, to ingenuous living readers, our poor +English Dryasdust's interminable, often-repeated Narratives, volume +after volume, of the debatings and colleaguings, the tossings and +tumults, fruitless and endless, in Nation and National Palaver, which +ensued thereupon. Walpole (in about a year hence), [February 13th (2d), +1742, quitting the House after bad usage there, said he would never +enter it again; nor did: February 22d, resigned in favor of Pulteney and +Company (Tindal, xx. 530; Thackeray, i. 45).] though he struck to the +ground like a rhinoceros, was got rolled out. And a Successor, and +series of Successors, in the bright brand-new state, was got rolled +in; with immense shouting from mankind:--but up to this date we have +no reason to believe that the Laws of Nature were got abrogated on +that occasion, or that the constitutional stars have much altered their +courses since." + +That Walpole will probably be lost, goes much home to the Royal bosom, +in these troublous Spring months of 1741, as it has done and will do. +And here, emerging from the Spanish Main just now, is a second sorrow, +which might quite transfix the Royal bosom, and drive Majesty itself +to despair; awakening such insoluble questions,--furnishing such proof, +that Walpole and a good few other persons (persons, and also things, and +ideas and practices, deep-rooted in the Country) stand much in need of +being lost, if England is to go a good road! + +The Spanish War being of moment to us here, we will let our +Constitutional Historian explain, in his own dialect, How it was so +vital to England; and shall even subjoin what he gives as History of it, +such being so admirably succinct, for one quality. + + + + +No. 3. OF THE SPANISH WAR, OR THE JENKINS'S-EAR QUESTION. + +"There was real cause for a War with Spain. It is one of the few cases, +this, of a war from necessity. Spain, by Decree of the Pope,--some Pope +long ago, whose name we will not remember, in solemn Conclave, drawing +accurately 'his Meridian Line,' on I know not what Telluric or +Uranic principles, no doubt with great accuracy 'between Portugal +and Spain,'--was proprietor of all those Seas and Continents. And now +England, in the interim, by Decree of the Eternal Destinies, had clearly +come to have property there, too; and to be practically much concerned +in that theoretic question of the Pope's Meridian. There was no +reconciling of theory with fact. 'Ours indisputably,' said Spain, with +loud articulate voice; 'Holiness the Pope made it ours!'--while fact +and the English, by Decree of the Eternal Destinies, had been grumbling +inarticulately the other way, for almost two hundred years past, and no +result had. + +"In Oliver Cromwell's time, it used to be said, 'With Spain, in Europe, +there may be peace or war; but between the Tropics it is always war.' +A state of things well recognized by Oliver, and acted on, according +to his opportunities. No settlement was had in Oliver's brief time; +nor could any be got since, when it was becoming yearly more pressing. +Bucaniers, desperate naval gentlemen living on BOUCAN, or hung beef; +who are also called Flibustiers (FLIBUTIERS, 'Freebooters,' in French +pronunciation, which is since grown strangely into FILIBUSTERS, +Fillibustiers, and other mad forms, in the Yankee Newspapers now +current): readers have heard of those dumb methods of protest. Dumb and +furious; which could bring no settlement; but which did astonish the +Pope's Decree, slashing it with cutlasses and sea-cannon, in that +manner, and circuitously forwarded a settlement. Settlement was becoming +yearly more needful: and, ever since the Treaty of Utrecht especially, +there had been an incessant haggle going on, to produce one; without the +least effect hitherto. What embassyings, bargainings, bargain-breakings; +what galloping of estafettes; acres of diplomatic paper, now fallen +to the spiders, who always privately were the real owners! Not in +the Treaty of Utrecht, not in the Congresses of Cambray, of Soissons, +Convention of Pardo, by Ripperda, Horace Walpole, or the wagging of +wigs, could this matter be settled at all. Near two hundred years of +chronic misery;--and had there been, under any of those wigs, a +Head capable of reading the Heavenly Mandates, with heart capable of +following them, the misery might have been briefly ended, by a direct +method. With what immense saving in all kinds, compared with the oblique +method gone upon! In quantity of bloodshed needed, of money, of idle +talk and estafettes, not to speak of higher considerations, the saving +had been incalculable. For it was England's one Cause of War during the +Century we are now upon; and poor England's course, when at last driven +into it, went ambiguously circling round the whole Universe, instead of +straight to the mark. Had Oliver Cromwell lived ten years longer;--but +Oliver Cromwell did not live; and, instead of Heroic Heads, there came +in Constitutional Wigs, which makes a great difference. + +"The pretensions of Spain to keep Half the World locked up in embargo +were entirely chimerical; plainly contradictory to the Laws of Nature; +and no amount of Pope's Donation Acts, or Ceremonial in Rota or +Propaganda, could redeem them from untenability, in the modern days. To +lie like a dog in the manger over South America, and say snarling, 'None +of you shall trade here, though I cannot!'--what Pope or body of Popes +can sanction such a procedure? Had England had a Head, instead of Wigs, +amid its diplomatists, England, as the chief party interested, would +have long since intimated gently to such dog in the manger: 'Dog, will +you be so obliging as rise! I am grieved to say, we shall have to do +unpleasant things otherwise. Dogs have doors for their hutches: but to +pretend barring the Tropic of Cancer,--that is too big a door for +any dog. Can nobody but you have business here, then, which is not +displeasing to the gods? We bid you rise!' And in this mode there is no +doubt the dog, bark and bite as he might, would have ended by +rising; not only England, but all the Universe being against him. And +furthermore, I compute with certainty, the quantity of fighting needed +to obtain such result would, by this mode, have been a minimum. The +clear right being there, and now also the clear might, why take refuge +in diplomatic wiggeries, in Assiento Treaties, and Arrangements which +are NOT analogous to the facts; which are but wigged mendacities, +therefore; and will but aggravate in quantity and in quality the +fighting yet needed? Fighting is but (as has been well said) a battering +out of the mendacities, pretences, and imaginary elements: well +battered-out, these, like dust and chaff, fly torrent-wise along the +winds, and darken all the sky; but these once gone, there remain the +facts and their visible relation to one another, and peace is sure. + +"The Assiento Treaty being fixed upon, the English ought to have kept +it. But the English did not, in any measure; nor could pretend to have +done. They were entitled to supply Negroes, in such and such number, +annually to the Spanish Plantations; and besides this delightful branch +of trade, to have the privilege of selling certain quantities of their +manufactured articles on those coasts; quantities regulated briefly by +this stipulation, That their Assiento Ship was to be of 600 tons burden, +so many and no more. The Assiento Ship was duly of 600 tons accordingly, +promise kept faithfully to the eye; but the Assiento Ship was attended +and escorted by provision-sloops, small craft said to be of the most +indispensable nature to it. Which provision-sloops, and indispensable +small craft, not only carried merchandise as well, but went and came +to Jamaica and back, under various pretexts, with ever new supplies of +merchandise; converting the Assiento Ship into a Floating Shop, the Tons +burden and Tons sale of which set arithmetic at defiance. This was the +fact, perfectly well known in England, veiled over by mere smuggler +pretences, and obstinately persisted in, so profitable was it. +Perfectly well known in Spain also, and to the Spanish Guarda-Costas +and Sea-Captains in those parts; who were naturally kept in a perennial +state of rage by it,--and disposed to fly out into flame upon it, when a +bad case turned up! Such a case that of Jenkins had seemed to them; and +their mode of treating it, by tearing off Mr. Jenkins's Ear, proved to +be--bad shall we say, or good?--intolerable to England's thick skin; and +brought matters to a crisis, in the ways we saw."... + +The Jenkins's-Ear Question, which then looked so mad to everybody, how +sane has it now grown to my Constitutional Friend! In abstruse ludicrous +form there lay immense questions involved in it; which were serious +enough, certain enough, though invisible to everybody. Half the World +lay hidden in embryo under it. Colonial-Empire, whose is it to be? Shall +Half the World be England's, for industrial purposes; which is innocent, +laudable, conformable to the Multiplication-table at least, and other +plain Laws? Or shall it be Spain's for arrogant-torpid sham-devotional +purposes, contradictory to every Law? The incalculable Yankee Nation +itself, biggest Phenomenon (once thought beautifulest) of these +Ages,--this too, little as careless readers on either side of the sea +now know it, lay involved. Shall there be a Yankee Nation, shall there +not be; shall the New World be of Spanish type, shall it be of English? +Issues which we may call immense. Among the then extant Sons of Adam, +where was he who could in the faintest degree surmise what issues lay in +the Jenkins's-Ear Question? And it is curious to consider now, with what +fierce deep-breathed doggedness the poor English Nation, drawn by their +instincts, held fast upon it, and would take no denial, as if THEY had +surmised and seen. For the instincts of simple guileless persons (liable +to be counted STUPID, by the unwary) are sometimes of prophetic nature, +and spring from the deep places of this Universe!--My Constitutional +Friend entitles his next Section CARTHAGENA; but might more fitly have +headed it (for such in reality it is, Carthagena proving the evanescent +point of that sad business), + + + + +SUCCINCT HISTORY OF THE SPANISH WAR, WHICH BEGAN IN 1739; AND +ENDED--WHEN DID IT END? + +1. WAR, AND PORTO-BELLO (NOVEMBER, 1739-MARCH, 1740).--"November +4th, 1739, War was at length (after above four months' obscure +quasi-declaring of it, in the shape of Orders in Council, Letters of +Marque, and so on) got openly declared; 'Heralds at Arms at the usual +places' blowing trumpets upon it, and reading the royal Manifesto, date +of which is five days earlier, 'Kensington, October 30th (19th).' The +principal Events that ensue, arrange themselves under Three Heads, this +of Porto-Bello being the FIRST; and (by intense smelting) are datable +as follows:--[_Gentleman's Magazine,_ ix. 551, x. 124, 142, 144, 350; +Tindal, xx. 430-433, 442; &c.] + +"Tuesday Evening, 1st December, 1739, Admiral Vernon, our chosen +Anti-Spaniard, finding, a while ago, that he had missed the Azogue Ships +on the Coast of Spain, and must try America and the Spanish Main, in +that view arrives at Porto-Bello. Next day, December 2d, Vernon +attacks Porto-Bello; attacks certain Castles so called, with furious +broadsiding, followed by scalading; gets surrender (on the 3d);--seamen +have allowance instead of plunder;--blows up what Castles there are; and +returns to Port Royal in Jamaica. + +"Never-imagined joy in England, and fame to Vernon, when the news came: +'Took it with Six Ships,' cry they; 'the scurvy Ministry, who had heard +him, in the fire of Parliamentary debate, say Six, would grant him no +more: invincible Vernon!' Nay, next Year, I see, 'London was illuminated +on the Anniversary of Porto-Bello:'--day settled in permanence as one of +the High-tides of the Calendar, it would appear. And 'Vernon's Birthday' +withal--how touching is stupidity when loyal!--was celebrated amazingly +in all the chief Towns, like a kind of Christmas, when it came round; +Nature having deigned to produce such a man, for a poor Nation in +difficulties. Invincible Vernon, it is thought by Gazetteers, 'will look +in at Carthagena shortly;' much more important Place, where a certain +Governor Don Blas has been insolent withal, and written Vernon letters. + +"2. PRELIMINARIES TO CARTHAGENA (MARCH-NOVEMBER, 1740).--Monday, +14th March, 1740, Vernon did, accordingly, look in on Carthagena; +[_Gentleman's Magazine,_ x. 350.] cast anchor in the shallow waste of +surfs there, that Monday; and tried some bombarding, with bomb-ketches +and the like, from Thursday till Saturday following. Vernon hopes he +did hit the Jesuits' College, South Bastion, Custom-house and other +principal edifices; but found that there was no getting near enough on +that seaward side. Found that you must force the Interior Harbor,--a +big Inland Gulf or Lake, which gushes in by what they call LITTLE-MOUTH +(Boca-Chica), and has its Booms, Castles and Defences, which are +numerous and strongish;--and that, for this end, you must have seven or +eight thousand Land Forces, as well as an addition of Ships. On Saturday +Evening, therefore, Vernon calls in his bomb-ketches; sails past, +examining these things; and goes forth on other small adventures. For +example,-- + +"Sunday, 3d April, 1740, 'about 10 at night' opens cannonade on Chagres +(place often enough taken, by cutlass and pistol, in the Bucanier +times); and, on Tuesday, 5th, gets surrender of Chagres: 'Custom-house +crammed with goods, which we set fire to.' On news of which, there is +again, in England, joy over the day of small things. The poor English +People are set on this business of avenging Jenkins's Ear, and of +having the Ocean Highway unbarred; and hope always it can be done by the +Walpole Apparatuses, which ought to be in working order, and are not. +'Support this hero, you Walpole and Company, in his Carthagena views: it +will be better for you!" + +"Walpole and Company, aware of that fact, do take some trouble about it; +and now, may not we say, PAULLO MAJORA CANAMUS? All through that Summer, +1740,"--while King Friedrich went rushing about, to Strasburg, to Wesel; +doing his Herstals and Practicalities, with a light high hand, in almost +an entertaining manner; and intent, still more, on his Voltaires and +a Life to the Muses,--"there was, in England, serious heavy tumult of +activity, secret and public. In the Dockyards, on the Drill-grounds, +what a stir: Camp in the Isle of Wight, not to mention Portsmouth and +the Sea-Industries; 6,000 Marines are to be embarked, as well as Land +Regiments,--can anybody guess whither? America itself is to furnish 'one +Regiment, with Scotch Officers to discipline it,' if they can. + +"Here is real haste and effort; but by no means such speed as could be +wished; multiplex confusions and contradictions occurring, as is usual, +when your machinery runs foul. Nor are the Gazetteers without +their guesses, though they study to be discreet. 'Here is something +considerable in the wind; a grand idea, for certain;'--and to men of +discernment it points surely towards Carthagena and heroic Vernon out +yonder? Government is dumb altogether; and lays occasional embargo; +trying hard (without success), in the delays that occurred, to keep it +secret from Don Blas and others. The outcome of all which was, + +"3. CARTHAGENA ITSELF (NOVEMBER, 1740--APRIL, 1741).--On November +6th,--by no means 'July 3d,' as your first fond program bore; which +delay was itself likely to be fatal, unless the Almanac, and course of +the Tropical Seasons would delay along with you!--we say, On Sunday, +6th November, 1740 [Kaiser Karl's Funeral just over, and great thoughts +going on at Reinsberg], Rear-Admiral Sir Chaloner Ogle,--so many weeks +and months after the set time,--does sail from St. Helen's (guessed, +for Carthagena); all people sending blessings with him. Twenty-five +big Ships of the Line, with three Half-Regiments on board; fireships, +bomb-ketches, in abundance; and eighty Transports, with 6,000 drilled +Marines: a Sea-and-Land Force fit to strengthen Hero Vernon with +a witness, and realize his Carthagena views. A very great day at +Portsmouth and St. Helen's for these Sunday folk. [Tindal, xx. +463 (LISTS, &c. there; date wrong, "31st October," instead of 26th +(o.s.),--many things wrong, and all things left loose and flabby, and +not right! As is poor Tindal's way).] + +"Most obscure among the other items in that Armada of Sir Chaloner's, +just taking leave of England; most obscure of the items then, but +now most noticeable, or almost alone noticeable, is a young +Surgeon's-Mate,--one Tobias Smollett; looking over the waters there and +the fading coasts, not without thoughts. A proud, soft-hearted, though +somewhat stern-visaged, caustic and indignant young gentleman. Apt to be +caustic in speech, having sorrows of his own under lock and key, on this +and subsequent occasions. Excellent Tobias; he has, little as he hopes +it, something considerable by way of mission in this Expedition, and +in this Universe generally. Mission to take Portraiture of English +Seamanhood, with the due grimness, due fidelity; and convey the same to +remote generations, before it vanish. Courage, my brave young Tobias; +through endless sorrows, contradictions, toils and confusions, you will +do your errand in some measure; and that will be something!-- + +"Five weeks before (29th September, 1740, which was also several months +beyond time set), there had sailed, strictly hidden by embargoes which +were little effectual, another Expedition, all Naval; intended to be +subsidiary to this one: Commodore Anson's, of three inconsiderable +Ships; who is to go round Cape Horn, if he can; to bombard Spanish +America from the other side; and stretch out a hand to Vernon in his +grand Carthagena or ulterior views. Together they may do some execution, +if we judge by the old Bucanier and Queen-Elizabeth experiences? Anson's +Expedition has become famous in the world, though Vernon got no good of +it." + +Well! Here truly was a business; not so ill-contrived. Somebody of head +must have been at the centre of this: and it might, in result, have +astonished the Spaniard, and tumbled him much topsy-turvy in those +latitudes,--had the machinery for executing it been well in gear. Under +Friedrich Wilhelm's captaincy and management, every person, every item, +correct to its time, to its place, to its function, what a thing! +But with mere Walpole Machinery: alas, it was far too wide a Plan for +Machinery of that kind, habitually out of order, and only used to be as +correct as--as it could. Those DELAYS themselves, first to Anson, then +to Ogle, since the Tropical Almanac would not delay along with them, had +thrown both Enterprises into weather such as all but meant impossibility +in those latitudes! This was irremediable;--had not been remediable, by +efforts and pushings here and there. The best of management, as under +Anson, could not get the better of this; worst of management, as in the +other case, was likely to make a fine thing of it! Let us hasten on:-- + +"January 20th, 1741, We arrive, through much rough weather and other +confused hardships, at Port Royal in Jamaica; find Vernon waiting on +the slip; the American Regiment, tolerably drilled by the Scotch +Lieutenants, in full readiness and equipment; a body of Negroes +superadded, by way of pioneer laborers fit for those hot climates. One +sad loss there had been on the voyage hither: Land forces had lost +their Commander, and did not find another. General Cathcart had died of +sickness on the voyage; a Charles Lord Cathcart, who was understood +to possess some knowledge of his business; and his Successor, one +Wentworth, did not happen to have any. Which was reckoned unlucky, by +the more observant. Vernon, though in haste for Carthagena, is in some +anxiety about a powerful French Fleet which has been manoeuvring in +those waters for some time; intent on no good that Vernon can imagine. +The first thing now is, See into that French Fleet. French Fleet, on our +going to look in the proper Island, is found to be all off for home; +men 'mostly starved or otherwise dead,' we hear; so that now, after this +last short delay,--To Carthagena with all sail. + +"Wednesday Evening, 15th March, 1741, We anchor in the Playa Grande, the +waste surfy Shallow which washes Carthagena seaward: 124 sail of us, big +and little. We find Don Blas in a very prepared posture. Don Blas has +been doing his best, this twelvemonth past; plugging up that Boca-Chica +(LITTLE MOUTH) Ingate, with batteries, booms, great ships; and has +castles not a few thereabouts and in the Interior Lake or Harbor; all +which he has put in tolerable defence, so far as can be judged: not an +inactive, if an insolent Don. We spend the next five days in considering +and surveying these Performances of his: What is to be done with them; +how, in the first place, we may force Boca-Chica; and get in upon his +Interior Castles and him. After consideration, and plan fixed: + +"Monday, 20th March, Sir Chaloner, with broadsides, sweeps away +some small defences which lie to left of Boca-Chica [to our LEFT, to +Boca-Chica's RIGHT, if anybody cares to be particular]. Whereupon the +Troops land, some of them that same evening; and, within the next +two days, are all ashore, implements, Negroes and the rest; building +batteries, felling wood; intent to capture Boca-Chica Castle, and +demolish the War-Ships, Booms, and fry of Fascine and other Batteries; +and thereby to get in upon Don Blas, and have a stroke at his Interior +Castles and Carthagena itself. Till April 5th, here are sixteen days of +furious intricate work; not ill done:--the physical labor itself, the +building of batteries, with Boca-Chica firing on you over the woods, is +scarcely do-able by Europeans in that season; and the Negroes who are +able for it, 'fling down their burdens, and scamper, whenever a gun goes +off.' Furious fighting, too, there was, by seamen and landsmen; not ill +done, considering circumstances. + +"On the sixteenth day, April 5th [King Friedrich hurrying from the +Mountains that same day, towards Steinau, which took fire with him +at night], Boca-Chica Castle and the intricate War-Ships, Booms, and +Castles thereabouts (Don Blas running off when the push became intense), +are at last got. So that now, through Boca-Chica, we enter the Interior +Harbor or Harbors. 'Harbors' which are of wide extent, and deep enough: +being in fact a Lake, or rather Pair of Lakes, with Castles (CASTILLO +GRANDE, 'Castle Grand,' the chief of them), with War-Ships sunk or +afloat, and miscellaneous obstructions: beyond all which, at the +farther shore, some five miles off, Carthagena itself does at last lie +potentially accessible; and we hope to get in upon Don Blas and it. +There ensue five days of intricate sea-work; not much of broadsiding, +mainly tugging out of sunk War-Ships, and the like, to get alongside of +Castle Grand, which is the chief obstruction. + +"April 10, Castle Grand itself is got; nobody found in it when we storm. +Don Blas and the Spaniards seem much in terror; burning any Ships they +still have, near Carthagena; as if there were no chance now left." This +is the very day of Mollwitz Battle; near about the hour when Schwerin +broke into field-music, and advanced with thunderous glitter against the +evening sun! Carthagena Expedition is, at length, fairly in contact with +its Problem,--the question rising, 'Do you understand it, then?' + +"Up to this point, mistakes of management had been made good by +obstinate energy of execution; clear victory had gone on so far, the +Capture of Carthagena now seemingly at hand. One thing was unfortunate: +'the able Mr. Moor [meritorious Captain of Foot, who, by accident, had +spent some study on his business], the one real Engineer we had,' got +killed in that Boca-Chica struggle: an end to poor Moor! So that +the Siege of Carthagena will have to go on WITHOUT Engineer science +henceforth. May be important, that,--who knows? Another thing was still +more palpably important: Sea-General Vernon had an undisguised contempt +for Land-General Wentworth. 'A mere blockhead, whose Brother has a +Borough,' thinks Vernon (himself an Opposition Member, of high-sniffing, +angry, not too magnanimous turn);--and withdraws now to his Ships; +intimating: 'Do your Problem, then; I have set you down beside it, which +was my part of the affair!'--Let us give the attack of Fort Lazar, and +end this sad business. + +"Sunday, 16th April, Wentworth, once master of the Uppermost Lake or +Harbor (what the Natives call the SURGIDERO, or Anchorage Proper), +had disembarked, high up to the right, a good way south of Carthagena; +meaning to attack there-from a certain Fort Lazar, which stands on a +Hill between Carthagena and him: this Hill and Fort once his, he has +Carthagena under his cannon; Carthagena in his pocket, as it were. 'Fort +not to be had without batteries,' thinks Wentworth; though the sickly +rainy season has set in. 'Batteries? Scaling-ladders, you mean!' answers +Vernon, with undisguised contempt. For the two are, by this time, almost +in open quarrel. Wentworth starts building batteries, in spite of the +rain-deluges; then stops building;--decides to do it by scalade, after +all. And, at two in the morning of this Sunday, April 16th, sets forth, +in certain columns,--by roads ill-known, with arrangements that do NOT +fit like clock-work,--to storm said Hill and Fort. The English are an +obstinate people; and strenuous execution will sometimes amend defects +of plan,--sometimes not. + +"The obstinate English, nothing in them but sullen fire of valor, which +has to burn UNluminous, did, after mistake on mistake, climb the +rocks or heights of Lazar Hill, in spite of the world and Don Blas's +cannonading; but found, when atop, That Fort Lazar, raining cannon-shot, +was still divided from them by chasms; that the scaling-ladders had +not come (never did come, owing to indiscipline somewhere),--and that, +without wings as of eagles, they could not reach Fort Lazar at all! +For about four hours, they struggled with a desperate doggedness, +to overcome the chasms, to wrench aside the Laws of Nature, and do +something useful for themselves; patiently, though sulkily; regardless +of the storm of shot which killed 600 of them, the while. At length, +finding the Laws of Nature too strong for them, they descended gloomily: +'in gloomy silence' marched home to their tents again,--in a humor too +deep for words. + +"Yes; and we find they fell sick in multitudes, that night; and, 'in two +days more, were reduced from 6,645 to 3,200 effective;' Vernon, from +the sea, looking disdainfully on:--and it became evident that the big +Project had gone to water; and that nothing would remain but to return +straightway to Jamaica, in bankrupt condition. Which accordingly was set +about. And ten days hence (April 26th)) the final party of them did +get on board,--punctual to take 'three tents,' their last rag of +Siege-furniture, along with them; 'lest Don Blas have trophies,' thinks +poor Wentworth. And sailed away, with their sad Siege finished in such +fashion. Strenuous Siege; which, had the War-Sciences been foolishness, +and the Laws of Nature and the rigors of Arithmetic and Geometry been +stretchable entities, might have succeeded better!" [Smollett's Account, +_Miscellaneous Works_ (Edinburgh, 1806), iv. 445-469, is that of a +highly intelligent Eye-witness, credible and intelligible in every +particular.] + +"Evening of April 26th:"--I perceive it was in the very hours while +Belleisle arrived in Friedrich's Camp at Mollwitz; eve of that Siege of +Brieg, which we saw performing itself with punctual regard to said +Laws and rigors, and issuing in so different a manner! Nothing that +my Constitutional Historian has said equals in pungent enormity the +matter-of-fact Picture, left by Tobias Smollett, of the sick and +wounded, in the interim which follow&d that attempt on Fort Lazar and +the Laws of Nature:-- + +"As for the sick and wounded", says Tobias, "they were, next day, sent +on board of the transports and vessels called hospital-ships; where they +languished in want of every necessary comfort and accommodation. They +were destitute of surgeons, nurses, cooks and proper provision; they +were pent up between decks in small vessels, where they had not room to +sit upright; they wallowed in filth; myriads of maggots were hatched in +the putrefaction of their sores, which had no other dressing than that +of being washed by themselves with their own allowance of brandy; and +nothing was heard but groans, lamentations and the language of despair, +invoking death to deliver them from their miseries. What served to +encourage this despondence, was the prospect of those poor wretches who +had strength and opportunity to look around them; for there they beheld +the naked bodies of their fellow-soldiers and comrades floating up and +down the harbor, affording prey to the carrion-crows and sharks, which +tore them in pieces without interruption, and contributing by their +stench to the mortality that prevailed. + +"This picture cannot fail to be shocking to the humane reader, +especially when he is informed, that while those miserable objects +cried in vain for assistance, and actually perished for want of proper +attendance, every ship of war in the fleet could have spared a couple of +surgeons for their relief; and many young gentlemen of that profession +solicited their captains in pain for leave to go and administer help +to the sick and wounded. The necessities of the poor people were well +known; the remedy was easy and apparent; but the discord between the +chiefs was inflamed to such a degree of diabolical rancor, that the +one chose rather to see his men perish than ask help of the other, who +disdained to offer his assistance unasked, though it might have +saved the lives of his fellow-subjects." [Smollett, IBID. (Anderson's +Edition), iv. 466.] + +In such an amazing condition is the English Fighting Apparatus under +Walpole, being important for England's self only; while the Talking +Apparatus, important for Walpole, is in such excellent gearing, so well +kept in repair and oil! By Wentworth's blame, who had no knowledge of +war; by Vernon's, who sat famous on the Opposition side, yet wanted +loyalty of mind; by one's blame and another's, WHOSE it is idle arguing, +here is how your Fighting Apparatus performs in the hour when needed. +Unfortunate General, or General's Cocked-Hat (a brave heart too, they +say, though of brain too vacant, too opaque); unfortunate Admiral +(much blown away by vanity, in-nature and Parliamentary wind);--doubly +unfortunate Nation, that employs such to lead its armaments! How the +English Nation took it? The English Nation has had much of this kind to +take, first and last; and apparently will yet have. "Gloomy silence," +like that of the poor men going home to their tents, is our only dialect +towards it. + +This is a dreadful business, this of the wrecked Carthagena Expedition; +such a force of war-munitions in every kind,--including the rare kind, +human Courage and force of heart, only not human Captaincy, the rarest +kind,--as could have swallowed South America at discretion, had there +been Captains over it. Has gone blundering down into Orcus and the +shark's belly, in that unutterable manner. Might have been didactic +to England, more than it was; England's skin being very thick against +lessons of that nature. Might have broken the heart of a little +Sovereign Gentleman Curator of England, had he gone hypochondriacally +into it; which he was far from doing, brisk little Gentleman; looking +out else-whither, with those eyes A FLEUR DE TETE, and nothing of +insoluble admitted into the brain that dwelt inside. + +What became subsequently of the Spanish War, we in vain inquire of +History-Books. The War did not die for many years to come, but neither +did it publicly live; it disappears at this point: a River Niger, seen +once flowing broad enough; but issuing--Does it issue nowhere, then? +Where does it issue? Except for my Constitutional Historian, still +unpublished, I should never have known where.--By the time these +disastrous Carthagena tidings reached England, his Britannic Majesty +was in Hanover; involved, he, and all his State doctors, English and +Hanoverian, in awful contemplation on Pragmatic Sanction, Kaiserwahl, +Celestial Balance, and the saving of Nature's Keystone, should this +still prove possible to human effort and contrivance. In which Imminency +of Doomsday itself, the small English-Spanish matter, which the Official +people, and his Majesty as much as any, had bitterly disliked, was quite +let go, and dropped out of view. Forgotten by Official people; left +to the dumb English Nation, whose concern it was, to administer as IT +could. + +Anson--with his three ships gone to two, gone ultimately to one--is +henceforth what Spanish War there officially is. Anson could not meet +those Vernon-Wentworth gentlemen "from the other side of the Isthmus of +Darien," the gentlemen, with their Enterprise, being already bankrupt +and away. Anson, with three inconsiderable ships, which rotted gradually +into one, could not himself settle the Spanish War: but he did, on his +own score, a series of things, ending in beautiful finis of the Acapulco +Ship, which were of considerable detriment, and of highly considerable +disgrace, to Spain;--and were, and are long likely to be, memorable +among the Sea-heroisms of the world. Giving proof that real Captains, +taciturn Sons of Anak, are still born in England; and Sea-kings, equal +to any that were. Luckily, too, he had some chaplain or ship's-surgeon +on board, who saw good to write account of that memorable VOYAGE of his; +and did it, in brief, perspicuous terms, wise and credible: a real Poem +in its kind, or Romance all Fact; one of the pleasantest little Books +in the World's Library at this date. Anson sheds some tincture of heroic +beauty over that otherwise altogether hideous puddle of mismanagement, +platitude, disaster; and vindicates, in a pathetically potential way, +the honor of his poor Nation a little. + +Apart from Official Anson, the Spanish War fell mainly, we may say, +into the hands of--of Mr. Jenkins himself, and such Friends of his, +at Wapping, Bristol and the Seaports, as might be disposed to go +privateering. In which course, after some crosses at first, and great +complaints of losses to Spanish Privateers, Wapping and Bristol did at +length eminently get the upper hand; and thus carried on this Spanish +War (or Spanish-French, Spain and France having got into one boat), for +long years coming; in an entirely inarticulate, but by no means quite +ineffectual manner,--indeed, to the ultimate clearance of the Seas from +both French and Spaniard, within the next twenty years. Readers shall +take this little Excerpt, dated Three Years hence, and set it twinkling +in the night of their imaginations:-- + +BRISTOL, MONDAY, 21st (10th) SEPTEMBER, 1744.... "Nothing is to be seen +here but rejoicings for the number of French prizes brought into this +port. Our Sailors are in high spirits, and full of money; and while on +shore, spend their whole time in carousing, visiting their mistresses, +going to plays, serenading, &c., dressed out with laced hats, tossels +(SIC), swords with sword-knots, and every other way of spending their +money." [Extract of a Letter from Bristol, in _Gentleman's Magazine,_ +xiv. 504.] + +Carthagena, Walpole, Viners: here are Sorrows for a Britannic +Majesty;--and these are nothing like all. But poor readers should +have some respite; brief breathing-time, were it only to use their +pocket-handkerchiefs, and summon new courage! + + + + +Chapter XIII. -- SMALL-WAR: FIRST EMERGENCE OF ZIETHEN THE HUSSAR +GENERAL INTO NOTICE. + +After Brieg, Friedrich undertook nothing military, except strict +vigilance of Neipperg, for a couple of months or more. Military, +especially offensive operations, are not the methods just now. Rest on +your oars; see how this seething Ocean of European Politics, and Peace +or War, will settle itself into currents, into set winds; by which +of them a man may steer, who happens to have a fixed port in view. +Neipperg, too, is glad to be quiescent; "my Infantry hopelessly +inferior," he writes to head-quarters: "Could not one hire 10,000 +Saxons, think you,"--or do several other chimerical things, for help? +Except with his Pandour people, working what mischief they can, Neipperg +does nothing. But this Hungarian rabble is extensively industrious, +scouring the country far and wide; and gives a great deal of trouble +both to Friedrich and the peaceable inhabitants. So that there is plenty +of Small War always going on:--not mentionable here, any passage of +it, except perhaps one, at a place called Rothschloss; which concerns +a remarkable Prussian Hussar Major, their famed Ziethen, and is still +remembered by the Prussian public. + +We have heard of Captain, now Major Ziethen, how Friedrich Wilhelm sent +him to the Rhine Campaign, six years ago, to learn the Hussar Art from +the Austrians there. One Baronay (BARONIAY, or even BARANYAI, as others +write him), an excellent hand, taught him the Art;--and how well he has +learned, Baronay now sadly experiences. The affair of Rothschloss (in +abridged form) befell as follows:-- + +"In these Small-War businesses, Baronay, Austrian Major-General of +Hussars, had been exceedingly mischievous hitherto. It was but the other +day, a Prussian regular party had to go out upon him, just in time; and +to RE-wrench 'sixty cart-loads of meal,' wrenched by him from suffering +individuals; with which he was making off to Neisse, when the Prussians +[from their Camp of Mollwitz, where they still are] came in sight. + +"And now again (May 16th) news is, That Baronay, and 1,400 Hussars with +him, has another considerable set of meal-carts,--in the Village of +Rothschloss, about twenty miles southward, Frankenstein way; and means +to march with them Neisse-ward to-morrow. Two marches or so will bring +him home; if Prussian diligence prevent not. 'Go instantly,' orders +Friedrich,--appointing Winterfeld to do it: Winterfeld with 300 +dragoons, with Ziethen and Hussars to the amount of 600; which is more +than one to two of Austrians. + +"Winterfeld and Ziethen march that same day; are in the neighborhood of +Rothschloss by nightfall; and take their measures,--block the road +to Neisse, and do other necessary things. And go in upon Baronay next +morning, at the due rate, fiery men both of them; sweep poor Baronay +away, MINUS the meal; who finds even his road blocked (bridge bursting +into cannon-shot upon him, at one point), instead of bridge, a stream, +or slow current of quagmire for him,--and is in imminent hazard. +Ziethen's behavior was superlative (details of it unintelligible off the +ground); and Baronay fled totally in wreck;--his own horse shot, and at +the moment no other to be had; swam the quagmire, or swashed through it, +'by help of a tree;' and had a near miss of capture. Recovering himself +on the other side, Baronay, we can fancy, gave a grin of various +expression, as he got into saddle again: 'The arrow so near killing was +feathered from one's own wing, too!'--And indeed, a day or two after, he +wrote Ziethen a handsome Letter to that effect." [_Helden-Geschichte,_ +i. 927; Orlich, i. 120. _The Life of General de Zieten_ (English +Translation, very ill printed, Berlin, 1803), BY FRAU VON BLUMENTHAL +(a vaguish eloquent Lady, but with access to information, being a +connection of Z.'s), p. 84.] + +Ziethen, for minor good feats, had been made Lieutenant-Colonel, the +very day he marched; his Commission dates May 16th, 1741; and on the +morrow he handsels it in this pretty manner. He is now forty-two; much +held down hitherto; being a man of inarticulate turn, hot and abrupt +in his ways,--liable always to multifarious obstruction, and unjust +contradiction from his fellow-creatures. But Winterfeld's report on this +occasion was emphatic; and Ziethen shoots rapidly up henceforth; +Colonel within the year, General in 1744; and more and more esteemed by +Friedrich during their subsequent long life together. + +Though perhaps the two most opposite men in Nature, and standing so far +apart, they fully recognized one another in their several spheres. For +Ziethen too had good eyesight, though in abstruse sort:--rugged simple +son of the moorlands; nourished, body and soul, on orthodox frugal +oatmeal (so to speak), with a large sprinkling of fire and iron +thrown in! A man born poor: son of some poor Squirelet in the Ruppin +Country;--"used to walk five miles into Ruppin on Saturday nights," in +early life, "and have his hair done into club, which had to last him +till the week following." [_Militair-Lexikon,_ iv. 310.] A big-headed, +thick-lipped, decidedly ugly little man. And yet so beautiful in his +ugliness: wise, resolute, true, with a dash of high uncomplaining sorrow +in him;--not the "bleached nigger" at all, as Print-Collectors sometimes +call him! No; but (on those oatmeal terms) the Socrates-Odysseus, the +valiant pious Stoic, and much-enduring man. One of the best Hussar +Captains ever built. By degrees King Friedrich and he grew to +be,--with considerable tiffs now and then, and intervals of gloom and +eclipse,--what we might call sworn friends. On which and on general +grounds, Ziethen has become, like Friedrich himself, a kind of mythical +person with the soldiery and common people; more of a demi-god than any +other of Friedrich's Captains. + +Friedrich is always eagerly in quest of men like Ziethen; specially so +at this time. He has meditated much on the bad figure his Cavalry made +at Mollwitz; and is already drilling them anew in multiplex ways, during +those leisure days he now has,--with evident success on the next trial, +this very Summer. And, as his wont is, will not rest satisfied there. +But strives incessantly, for a series of summers and years to come, +till he bring them to perfection; or to the likeness of his own thought, +which probably was not far from that. Till at length it can be said his +success became world-famous; and he had such Seidlitzes and Ziethens as +were not seen before or since. + +[MAP FOR THE FIRST AND SECOND SILESIAN WAR HERE--missing] + +END OF BOOK 12 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, +Vol. XII. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. *** + +***** This file should be named 2112.txt or 2112.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/1/2112/ + +Produced by D.R. Thompson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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