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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol.
+XIII. (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. XIII. (of XXI.)
+       Frederick The Great--First Silesian War, Leaving the General
+       European One Ablaze All Round, Gets Ended--May, 1741-July,
+       1742.
+
+Author: Thomas Carlyle
+
+Posting Date: June 13, 2008 [EBook #2113]
+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 XIII.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK XIII. -- FIRST SILESIAN WAR, LEAVING THE GENERAL EUROPEAN ONE
+ABLAZE ALL ROUND, GETS ENDED. -- May, 1741-July, 1742.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I. -- BRITANNIC MAJESTY AS PALADIN OF THE PRAGMATIC.
+
+Part First of his Britannic Majesty's Sorrows, the Britannic or Domestic
+Part, is now perhaps conceivable to readers. But as to the Second,
+the Germanic or Pragmatic Part,--articulate History, after much
+consideration, is content to renounce attempting these; feels that these
+will remain forever inconceivable to mankind in the now altered times.
+So small a gentleman; and he feels, dismally though with heroism, that
+he has got the axis of the world on his shoulder. Poor Majesty! His
+eyes, proud as Jove's, are nothing like so perspicacious; a pair of the
+poorest eyes: and he has to scan with them, and unriddle under pain of
+death, such a waste of insoluble intricacies, troubles and world-perils
+as seldom was,--even in Dreams. In fact, it is of the nature of a long
+Nightmare Dream, all this of the Pragmatic, to his poor Majesty and
+Nation; and wakeful History must not spend herself upon it, beyond the
+essential.
+
+May 12th, betimes this Year, his Majesty got across to Hanover,
+Harrington with him; anxious to contemplate near at hand that Camp of
+the Old Dessauer's at Gottin, and the other fearful phenomena, French,
+Prussian and other, in that Country. His Majesty, as natural, was much
+in Germany in those Years; scanning the phenomena; a long while not
+knowing what in the world to make of them. Bully Belleisle having stept
+into the ring, it is evident, clear as the sun, that one must act, and
+act at once; but it is a perfect sphinx-enigma to say How. Seldom
+was Sovereign or man so spurred, and goaded on, by the highest
+considerations; and then so held down, and chained to his place, by an
+imbroglio of counter-considerations and sphinx-riddles! Thrice over, at
+different dates (which shall be given), the first of them this Year, he
+starts up as in spasm, determined to draw sword, and plunge in; twice
+he is crushed down again, with sword half drawn; and only the third time
+(in 1743) does he get sword out, and brandish it in a surprising though
+useless manner. After which he feels better. But up to that crisis, his
+case is really tragical,--had idle readers any bowels for him; which
+they have not! One or two Fractions, snatched from the circumambient
+Paper Vortex, must suffice us for the indispensable in this place:--
+
+
+
+
+CUNCTATIONS, YET INCESSANT AND UBIQUITOUS ENDEAVORINGS, OF HIS BRITANNIC
+MAJESTY (1741-1743).
+
+... After the wonderful Russian Partition-Treaty, which his English
+Walpoles would not hear of,--and which has produced the Camp of Gottin,
+see, your Majesty!--George does nothing rashly. Far from it: indeed,
+except it be paying money, he becomes again a miracle of cunctations;
+and staggers about for years to come, like the--Shall we say, like the
+White Hanover Horse amid half a dozen sieves of beans? Alas, no, like
+the Hanover Horse with the shadows of half a dozen Damocles'-swords
+dangling into the eyes of it;--enough to drive any Horse to its wit's
+end!--
+
+"To do, to dare," thinks the Britannic Majesty;--yes, and of daring
+there is a plenty: but, "In which direction? What, How?" these are
+questions for a fussy little gentleman called to take the world on
+his shoulders. We suppose it was by Walpole's advice that he gave her
+Hungarian Majesty that 200,000 pounds of Secret-Service Money;--advice
+sufficiently Walpolean: "Russian Partition-Treaties; horrible to think
+of;--beware of these again! Give her Majesty that cash; can be done;
+it will keep matters afloat, and spoil nothing!" That, till the late
+Subsidy payable within year and day hence, was all of tangible his
+Majesty had yet done;--truly that is all her Hungarian Majesty has yet
+got by hawking the world, Pragmatic Sanction in hand. And if that were
+the bit of generosity which enabled Neipperg to climb the Mountains and
+be beaten at Mollwitz, that has helped little! Very big generosities, to
+a frightful cipher of Millions Sterling through the coming years, will
+go the same road; and amount also to zero, even for the receiving party,
+not to speak of the giving! For men and kings are wise creatures.
+
+But wise or unwise, how great are his Britannic Majesty's activities
+in this Pragmatic Business! We may say, they are prodigious, incessant,
+ubiquitous. They are forgotten now, fallen wholly to the spiders and
+the dust-bins;--though Friedrich himself was not a busier King in those
+days, if perhaps a better directed. It is a thing wonderful to us, but
+sorrowful and undeniable. We perceive the Britannic Majesty's own little
+mind pulsing with this Pragmatic Matter, as the biggest volcano would
+do;--shooting forth dust and smoke (subsidies, diplomatic emissaries,
+treaties, offers of treaty, plans, foolish futile exertions), at an
+immense rate. When the Celestial Balances are canting, a man ought
+to exert himself. But as to this of saving the House of Austria from
+France,--surely, your Britannic Majesty, the shortest way to that, if
+that is so indispensable, were: That the House of Austria should consent
+to give up its stolen goods, better late than never; and to make this
+King of Prussia its friend, as he offers to be! Joined with this King,
+it would manage to give account of France and its balloon projects, by
+and by. Could your Britannic Majesty but take Mr. Viner's hint; and,
+in the interim, mind your OWN business!--His Britannic Majesty intends
+immediate fighting; and, both in England and Hanover, is making
+preparation loud and great. Nay, he will in his own person fight, if
+necessary, and rather likes the thought of it: he saw Oudenarde in his
+young days; and, I am told, traces in himself a talent for Generalship.
+Were the Britannic Majesty to draw his own puissant sword!-His own
+puissant purse he has already drawn; and is subsidizing to right and
+left; knocking at all doors with money in hand, and the question, "Any
+fighting done here?" In England itself there goes on much drilling,
+enlisting; camping, proposing to camp; which is noisy enough in the
+British Newspapers, much more in the Foreign. One actual Camp there was
+"on Lexden Heath near Colchester," from May till October of this 1741,
+[Manifold but insignificant details about it, in the old Newspapers of
+those Months.]--Camp waiting always to be shipped across to the scene
+of action, but never was:--this actual Camp, and several imaginary ones
+here, which were alarming to the Continental Gazetteer. In England his
+Majesty is busy that way; still more among his Hanoverians, now under
+his own royal eye; and among his Danes and Hessians, whom he has
+now brought over into Hanover, to combine with the others. Danes and
+Hessians, 6,000 of each kind, he for some time keeps back in stall, upon
+subsidy, ready for such an occasion. Their "Camp at Hameln," "Camp at
+Nienburg" (will, with the Hanoverians, be 30,000 odd); their swashing
+and blaring about, intending to encamp at Hameln, at Nienburg, and other
+places, but never doing it, or doing it with any result: this, with the
+alarming English Camps at Lexden and in Dreamland, which also were void
+of practical issue, filled Europe with rumor this Summer.--Eager enough
+to fight; a noble martial ardor in our little Hercules-Atlas! But there
+lie such enormous difficulties on the threshold; especially these Two,
+which are insuperable or nearly so.
+
+Difficulty FIRST, is that of the laggard Dutch; a People apt to be heavy
+in the stern-works. They are quite languid about Pragmatic Sanction,
+these Dutch; they answer his Britannic Majesty's enthusiasm with an
+obese torpidity; and hope always they will drift through, in some way;
+buoyant in their own fat, well ballasted astern; and not need such
+swimming for life. "What a laggard notion," thinks his Majesty; "notion
+in ten pair of breeches, so to speak!" This stirring up of the Dutch,
+which lasts year on year, and almost beats Lord Stair, Lord Carteret,
+and our chief Artists, is itself a thing like few! One of his Britannic
+Majesty's great difficulties;--insuperable he never could admit it to
+be. "Surely you are a Sea-Power, ye valiant Dutch; the OTHER Sea-Power?
+Bound by Barrier Treaty, Treaty of Vienna, and Law of Nature itself, to
+rise with us against the fatal designs of France; fatal to your Dutch
+Barrier, first of all; if the Liberties of Mankind were indifferent
+to you! How is it that you will not?" The Dutch cannot say how. France
+rocks them in security, by oily-mouthed Diplomatists, Fenelon and
+others: "Would not touch a stone of your Barrier, for the world, ye
+admirable Dutch neighbors: on our honor, thrice and four times, No!"
+They have an eloquent Van Hoey of their own at Paris; renowned in
+Newspapers: "Nothing but friendship here!" reports Van Hoey always;
+and the Dutch answer his Britannic Majesty: "Hm, rise? Well then, if we
+must!"--but sit always still.
+
+Nowhere in Political Mechanics have I seen such a Problem as this
+of hoisting to their feet the heavy-bottomed Dutch. The cunningest
+leverage, every sort of Diplomatic block-and-tackle, Carteret and Stair
+themselves running over to help in critical seasons, is applied; to
+almost no purpose. Pull long, pull strong, pull all together,--see, the
+heavy Dutch do stir; some four inches of daylight fairly visible below
+them: bear a hand, oh, bear a hand!--Pooh, the Dutch flap down again, as
+low as ever. As low,--unless (by Diplomatic art) you have WEDGED them at
+the four inches higher; which, after the first time or two, is generally
+done. At the long last, partially in 1743 (upon which his Britannic
+Majesty drew sword), completely in 1747, the Dutch were got to their
+feet;--unfortunately good for nothing when they were! Without them his
+Britannic Majesty durst not venture. Hidden in those dust-bins, there
+is nothing so absurd, or which would be so wearisome, did it not at last
+become slightly ludicrous, as this of hoisting the Dutch.
+
+Difficulty SECOND, which in enormity of magnitude might be reckoned
+first, as in order of time it ranks both first and last, is: The case
+of dear Hanover; case involved in mere insolubilities. Our own dear
+Hanover, which (were there nothing more in it) is liable, from that Camp
+at Gottin, to be slit in pieces at a moment's warning! No drawing sword
+against a nefarious Prussia, on those terms. The Camp at Gottin holds
+George in checkmate. And then finally, in this same Autumn, 1741, when
+a Maillebois with his 40 or 50,000 French (the Leftward or western of
+those Two Belleisle Armies), threatening our Hanover from another side,
+crossed the Lower Rhine--But let us not anticipate. The case of Hanover,
+which everybody saw to be his Majesty's vulnerable point, was the
+constant open door of France and her machinations, and a never-ending
+theme of angry eloquences in the English Parliament as well.
+
+So that the case of Hanover proved insoluble throughout, and was like
+a perpetual running sore. Oh the pamphleteerings, the denouncings,
+the complainings, satirical and elegiac, which grounded themselves
+on Hanover, the CASE OF THE HANOVER FORCES, and innumerable other
+Hanoverian cases, griefs and difficulties! So pungently vital to
+somnambulant mankind at that epoch; to us fallen dead as carrion, and
+unendurable to think of. My friends, if you send for Gentlemen from
+Hanover, you must take them with Hanover adhering more or less; and
+ought not to quarrel with your bargain, which you reckoned so divine!
+No doubt, it is singular to see a Britannic Majesty neglecting his own
+Spanish War, the one real business he has at present; and running about
+over all the world; busy, soul, body and breeches-pocket, in other
+people's wars; egging on other fighting, whispering every likely fellow
+he can meet, "Won't you perhaps fight? Here is for you, if so!"--hand to
+breeches-pocket accompanying the word. But it must be said, and ought to
+be better known than in our day it is, His Majesty's Ministers, and the
+English State-Doctors generally, were precisely of the same mind. TO
+them too the Austrian Quarrel was everything, their own poor Spanish
+Quarrel nothing; and the complaint they make of his Majesty is rather
+that he does not rush rapidly enough, with brandished sword, as well
+as with guineas raining from him, into this one indispensable business.
+"Owing to his fears for Hanover!" say they, with indignation, with no
+end of suspicion, angry pamphleteering and covert eloquence, "within
+those walls" and without.
+
+The suspicion of Hanover's checking his Majesty's Pragmatic velocity is
+altogether well founded; and there need no more be said on that Hanover
+score. Be it well understood and admitted, Hanover was the Britannic
+Majesty's beloved son; and the British Empire his opulent milk-cow.
+Richest of milk-cows; staff of one's life, for grand purposes and
+small; beautiful big animal, not to be provoked; but to be stroked and
+milked:--Friends, if you will do a Glorious Revolution of that kind, and
+burn such an amount of tar upon it, why eat sour herbs for an inevitable
+corollary therefrom! And let my present readers understand, at any
+rate, that,--except in Wapping, Bristol and among the simple
+instinctive classes (with whom, it is true, go Pitt and some illustrious
+figures),--political England generally, whatever of England had
+Parliamentary discourse of reason, and did Pamphlets, Despatches,
+Harangues, went greatly along with his Majesty in that Pragmatic
+Business. And be the blame of delirium laid on the right back, where it
+ought to lie, not on the wrong, which has enough to bear of its own. And
+go not into that dust-whirlwind of extinct stupidities, O reader:--what
+reader would, except for didactic objects? Know only that it does of a
+truth whirl there; and fancy always, if you can, that certain things and
+Human Figures, a Friedrich, a Chatham and some others, have it for their
+Life-Element. Which, I often think, is their principal misfortune
+with Posterity; said Life-Element having gone to such an unutterable
+condition for gods and men.
+
+"One other thing surprises us in those Old Pamphlets," says my
+Constitutional Friend: "How the phrase, 'Cause of Liberty' ever and anon
+turns up, with great though extinct emphasis, evidently sincere. After
+groping, one is astonished to find it means Support of the House of
+Austria; keeping of the Hapsburgs entire in their old Possessions
+among mankind! That, to our great-grandfathers, was the 'Cause of
+Liberty;'--said 'Cause' being, with us again, Electoral Suffrage and
+other things; a notably different definition, perhaps still wider of the
+mark.
+
+"Our great-grandfathers lived in perpetual terror that they would be
+devoured by France; that French ambition would overset the Celestial
+Balance, and proceed next to eat the British Nation. Stand upon your
+guard then, one would have said: Look to your ships, to your defences,
+to your industries; to your virtues first of all,--your VIRTUTES,
+manhoods, conformities to the Divine Law appointed you; which are
+the great and indeed sole strength to any Man or Nation! Discipline
+yourselves, wisely, in all kinds; more and more, till there be no
+anarchic fibre left in you. Unanarchic, disciplined at all points, you
+might then, I should say, with supreme composure, let France, and the
+whole World at its back, try what they could do upon you and the unique
+little Island you are so lucky as to live in?--Foolish mortals: what
+Potentiality of Battle, think you (not against France only, but against
+Satanas and the Ministers of Chaos generally), would a poor Friedrich
+Wilhelm, not to speak of better, have got out of such a Possession, had
+it been his to put in drill! And drill is not of soldiers only; though
+perhaps of soldiers first and most indispensably of all; since 'without
+Being,' as my Friend Oliver was wont to say, 'Well-being is not
+possible.' There is military drill; there is industrial, economic,
+spiritual; gradually there are all kinds of drill, of wise discipline,
+of peremptory mandate become effective everywhere, 'OBEY the Laws of
+Heaven, or else disappear from these latitudes!' Ah me, if one dealt in
+day-dreams, and prophecies of an England grown celestial,--celestial she
+should be, not in gold nuggets, continents all of beef, and seas all
+of beer, Abolition of Pain, and Paradise to All and Sundry, but in
+that quite different fashion; and there, I should say, THERE were the
+magnificent Hope to indulge in! That were to me the 'Cause of Liberty;'
+and any the smallest contribution towards that kind of 'Liberty' were a
+sacred thing!--
+
+"Belleisle again may, if he pleases, call his the Cause of Sovereignty.
+A Sovereign Louis, it would appear, has not governing enough to do
+within his own French borders, but feels called to undertake Germany as
+well;--a gentleman with an immense governing faculty, it would appear?
+Truly, good reader, I am sick of heart, contemplating those empty
+sovereign mountebanks, and empty antagonist ditto, with their Causes of
+Liberty and Causes of Anti-Liberty; and cannot but wish that we had got
+the ashes of that World-Explosion, of 1789, well riddled and smelted,
+and the poor World were quit of a great many things!"--
+
+My Constitutional Historian of England, musing on Belleisle and his
+Anti-Pragmatic industries and grandiosities,--"how Chief-Bully Belleisle
+stept down into the ring as a gay Volunteer, and foolish Chief-Defender
+George had to follow dismally heroic, as a Conscript of Fate,"--drops
+these words: in regard to the Wages they respectively had:--
+
+"Nations that go into War without business there, are sure of
+getting business as they proceed; and if the beginning were
+phantasms,--especially phantasms of the hoping, self-conceited
+kind,--the results for them are apt to be extremely real! As was the
+case with the French in this War, and those following, in which his
+Britannic Majesty played chief counter-tenor. From 1741, in King
+Friedrich's First War, onwards to Friedrich's Third War, 1756-1763,
+the volunteer French found a great deal of work lying ready for
+them,--gratuitous on their part, from the beginning. And the results to
+them came out, first completely visible, in the World-Miracles of 1789,
+and the years following!
+
+"Nations, again, may be driven upon War by phantasm TERRORS, and go into
+it, in sorrow of heart, not gayety of heart; and that is a shade
+better. And one always pities a poor Nation, in such case;--as the
+very Destinies rather do, and judge it more mercifully. Nay, the poor
+bewildered Nation may, among its brain-phantasms, have something of
+reality and sanity inarticulately stirring it withal. It may have a real
+ordinance of Heaven to accomplish on those terms:--and IF so, it will
+sometimes, in the most chaotic circuitous ways, through endless hazards,
+at a hundred or a hundred thousand times the natural expense, ultimately
+get it done! This was the case of the poor English in those Wars.
+
+"They were Wars extraneous to England little less than to France;
+neither Nation had real business in them; and they seem to us now a
+very mad object on the part of both. But they were not gratuitously gone
+into, on the part of England; far from that. England undertook them,
+with its big heart very sorrowful, strange spectralities bewildering
+it; and managed them (as men do sleep-walking) with a gloomy solidity of
+purpose, with a heavy-laden energy, and, on the whole, with a depth
+of stupidity, which were very great. Yet look at the respective net
+results. France lies down to rot into grand Spontaneous-Combustion,
+Apotheosis of Sansculottism, and much else; which still lasts, to her
+own great peril, and the great affliction of neighbors. Poor England,
+after such enormous stumbling among the chimney-pots, and somnambulism
+over all the world for twenty years, finds on awakening, that she is
+arrived, after all, where she wished to be, and a good deal farther!
+Finds that her own important little errand is somehow or other,
+done;--and, in short, that 'Jenkins's Ear [as she named the thing] HAS
+been avenged,' and the Ocean Highways 'opened' and a good deal more, in
+a most signal way! For the Eternal Providences--little as poor Dryasdust
+now knows of it, mumbling and maundering that sad stuff of his--do rule;
+and the great soul of the world, I assure you once more, is JUST. And
+always for a Nation, as for a man, it is very behooveful to be honest,
+to be modest, however stupid!"--
+
+By this time, however,--Mollwitz having fallen out, and Belleisle being
+evidently on the steps,--his Britannic Majesty recognizes clearly,
+and insists upon it, strengthened by his Harringtons and everybody of
+discernment, That, nefarious or not, this Friedrich will require to be
+bargained with. That, far from breaking in upon him, and partitioning
+him (how far from it!), there is no conceivable method of saving the
+Celestial Balances till HE be satisfied, in some way. This is the
+one step his Britannic Majesty has yet made, out of these his choking
+imbroglios; and truly this is one. Hyndford, his best negotiator, is on
+the road for Friedrich's Camp; Robinson at Vienna, has been directed to
+say and insist, "Bargain with that man; he must be bargained with, if
+our Cause of Liberty is to be saved at all?"--
+
+And now, having opened the dust-bin so far, that the reader's fancy
+might be stirred without affliction to his lungs and eyes, let us shut
+it down again,--might we but hope forever! That is too fond a hope. But
+the background or sustaining element made imaginable, the few events
+deserving memory may surely go on at a much swifter pace.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II. -- CAMP OF STREHLEN.
+
+Friedrich's Silesian Camps this Summer, Camp of Strehlen chiefly, were
+among the strangest places in the world. Friedrich, as we have often
+noticed, did not much pursue the defeated Austrians, at or near
+Mollwitz, or press them towards flat ruin in their Silesian business: it
+is clear he anxiously wished a bargain without farther exasperation; and
+hoped he might get it by judicious patience. Brieg he took, with that
+fine outburst of bombardment, which did not last a week: but Brieg
+once his, he fell quiet again; kept encamping, here there, in that
+Mollwitz-Neisse region, for above three months to come; not doing much,
+beyond the indispensable; negotiating much, or rather negotiated with,
+and waiting on events. [In Camp of Mollwitz (nearer Brieg than the
+Battle-field was) till 28th May (after the Battle seven weeks); then to
+Camp at Grotkau (28th May-9th June, twelve days); thence (9th June) to
+Friedewalde, Herrnsdorf; to Strehlen (21st June-20th August, nine or
+ten weeks in all). See _Helden-Geschichte_, i. 924, ii. 931; Rodenbeck,
+Orlich, &c.]
+
+Both Armies were reinforcing themselves; and Friedrich's, for obvious
+reasons, in the first weeks especially, became much the stronger. Once
+in May, and again afterwards, weary of the pace things went at, he had
+resolved on having Neisse at once; on attacking Neipperg in his strong
+camp there, and cutting short the tedious janglings and uncertainties.
+He advanced to Grotkau accordingly, some twelve or fifteen miles nearer
+Neisse (28th May,--stayed till 9th June), quite within wind of Neipperg
+and his outposts; but found still, on closer inspection, that he had
+better wait;--and do so withal at a greater distance from Neipperg and
+his Pandour Swarms. He drew back therefore to Strehlen, northwestward,
+rather farther from Neisse than before; and lay encamped there for nine
+or ten weeks to come. Not till the beginning of August did there fall
+out any military event (Pandour skirmishing in plenty, but nothing
+to call an event); and not till the end of August any that pointed to
+conclusive results. As it was at Strehlen where mostly these Diplomacies
+went on, and the Camp of Strehlen was the final and every way the main
+one, it may stand as the representative of these Diplomatizing Camps to
+us, and figure as the sole one which in fact it nearly was.
+
+Strehlen is a pleasant little Town, nestled prettily among its granite
+Hills, the steeple of it visible from Mollwitz; some twenty-five miles
+west of Brieg, some thirty south of Breslau, and about as far northwest
+of Neisse: there Friedrich and his Prussians lie, under canvas mainly,
+with outposts and detachments sprinkled about under roofs:--a Camp
+of Strehlen, more or less imaginable by the reader. And worth his
+imagining; such a Camp, if not for soldiering, yet for negotiating and
+wagging of diplomatic wigs, as there never was before. Here, strangely
+shifted hither, is the centre of European Politics all Summer. From the
+utmost ends of Europe come Ambassadors to Strehlen: from Spain, France,
+England, Denmark, Holland,--there are sometimes nine at once, how many
+successively and in total I never knew. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i.
+932.] They lodge generally in Breslau; but are always running over to
+Strehlen. There sits, properly speaking, the general Secret Parliament
+of Europe; and from most Countries, except Austria, representatives
+attend at Strehlen, or go and come between Breslau and Strehlen,
+submissive to the evils of field-life, when need is. A surprising thing
+enough to mankind, and big as the world in its own day; though gone
+now to small bulk,--one Human Figure pretty much all that is left of
+memorable in it to mankind and us.
+
+French Belleisle we have seen; who is gone again, long since, on his
+wide errands; fat Valori too we have seen, who is assiduously here. The
+other figures, except the English, can remain dark to us. Of Montijos,
+the eminent Spaniard, a brown little man, magnificent as the Kingdom of
+the Incas, with half a page of titles (half a peck, five-and-twenty or
+more, of handles to his little name, if you should ever require it);
+who, finding matters so backward at Frankfurt, and nothing to do there,
+has been out, in the interim, touring to while away the tedium; and
+is here only as sequel and corroboration of Belleisle,--say as
+bottle-holder, or as high-wrought peacock's-tail, to Belleisle:--of
+the eminent Montijos I have to record next to nothing in the shape of
+negotiation ("Treaty" with the Termagant was once proposed by him here,
+which Friedrich in his politest way declined); and shall mention only,
+That his domestic arrangements were sumptuous and commodious in the
+extreme. Let him arrive in the meanest village, destitute of
+human appliances, and be directed to the hut where he is to
+lodge,--straightway from the fourgons and baggage-chests of Montijos
+is produced, first of all, a round of arras hangings, portable tables,
+portable stove, gold plate and silver; thus, with wax-lights, wines
+of richest vintage, exquisite cookeries, Montijos lodges, a king
+everywhere, creating an Aladdin's palace everywhere; able to say, like
+the Sage Bias, OMNIA MEA NAECUM PORTO. These things are recorded of
+Montijos. What he did in the way of negotiation has escaped men's
+memory, as it could well afford to do.
+
+Of Hyndford's appurtenances for lodging we already had a glimpse,
+through Busching once;--pointing towards solid dinner-comforts rather
+than arras hangings; and justifying the English genius in that respect.
+The weight of the negotiations fell on Hyndford; it is between him and
+French Valori that the matter lies, Montijos and the others being mere
+satellites on their respective sides. Much battered upon, this Hyndford,
+by refractory Hanoverians pitting George as Elector against the same
+George as King, and egging these two identities to woful battle with
+each other,--"Lay me at his Majesty's feet" full length, and let his
+Majesty say which is which, then! A heavy, eating, haggling, unpleasant
+kind of mortal, this Hyndford; bites and grunts privately, in a stupid
+ferocious manner, against this young King: "One of the worst of men;
+who will not take up the Cause of Liberty at all, and is not made in
+the image of Hyndford at all." They are dreadfully stiff reading, those
+Despatches of Hyndford: but they have particles of current news in them;
+interesting glimpses of that same young King;--likewise of Hyndford,
+laid at his Majesty's feet, and begging for self and brothers any good
+benefice that may fall vacant. We can discern, too, a certain rough
+tenacity and horse-dealer finesse in the man; a broad-based, shrewdly
+practical Scotch Gentleman, wide awake; and can conjecture that the
+diplomatic function, in that element, might have been in worse hands. He
+is often laid metaphorically at the King's feet, King of England's; and
+haunts personally the King of Prussia's elbow at all times, watching
+every glance of him, like a British house-dog, that will not be taken
+in with suspicious travellers, if he can help it; and casting perpetual
+horoscopes in his dull mind.
+
+Of Friedrich and his demeanor in this strange scene, centre of a World
+all drawing sword, and jumbling in huge Diplomatic and other delirium
+about his ears, the reader will desire to see a direct glimpse or two.
+As to the sad general Imbroglio of Diplomacies which then weltered
+everywhere, readers can understand that, it has, at this day, fallen
+considerably obscure (as it deserved to do); and that even Friedrich's
+share of it is indistinct in parts. The game, wide as Europe, and one of
+the most intricate ever played by Diplomatic human creatures, was kept
+studiously dark while it went on; and it has not since been a
+pleasant object of study. Many of the Documents are still unpublished,
+inaccessible; so that the various moves in the game, especially what the
+exact dates and sequence of them were (upon which all would turn), are
+not completely ascertainable,--nor in truth are they much worth hunting
+after, through such an element. One thing we could wish to have out of
+it, the one thing of sane that was in it: the demeanor and physiognomy
+of Friedrich as there manifested; Friedrich alone, or pretty much alone
+of all these Diplomatic Conjurers, having a solid veritable object in
+hand. The rest--the spiders are very welcome to it: who of mortals would
+read it, were it made never so lucid to him? Such traits of Friedrich as
+can be sifted out into the conceivable and indubitable state, the reader
+shall have; the extinct Bedlam, that begirdled Friedrich far and
+wide, need not be resuscitated except for that object. Of Friedrich's
+fairness, or of Friedrich's "trickiness, machiavelism and attorneyism,"
+readers will form their own notion, as they proceed. On one point they
+will not be doubtful, That here is such a sharpness of steady eyesight
+(like the lynx's, like the eagle's), and, privately such a courage and
+fixity of resolution, as are highly uncommon.
+
+April 26th, 1741, in the same days while Belleisle arrived in the Camp
+at Mollwitz, and witnessed that fine opening of the cannonade upon
+Brieg, Excellency Hyndford got to Berlin; and on notifying the event,
+was invited by the King to come along to Breslau, and begin business.
+England has been profuse enough in offering her "good offices with
+Austria" towards making a bargain for his Prussian Majesty; but is
+busy also, at the Hague, concerting with the Dutch "some strong joint
+resolution,"--resolution, Openly to advise Friedrich to withdraw his
+troops from Silesia, by way of starting fair towards a bargain. A very
+strong resolution, they and the Gazetteers think it; and ask themselves,
+Is it not likely to have some effect? Their High Mightinesses have been
+screwing their courage, and under English urgency, have decided
+(April 24th), [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 964; the ADVICE itself, a very
+mild-spoken Piece, but of riskish nature think the Dutch, is given,
+ib. 965, 966.] "Yes, we will jointly so advise!" and Friedrich has
+got inkling of it from Rasfeld, his Minister there. Hyndford's first
+business (were the Dutch Excellency once come up, but those Dutch are
+always hanging astern!) is to present said "Advice," and try what
+will come of that, An "Advice" now fallen totally insignificant to the
+Universe and to us,--only that readers will wish to see how Friedrich
+takes it, and if any feature of Friedrich discloses itself in the
+affair.
+
+
+
+
+EXCELLENCY HYNDFORD HAS HIS FIRST AUDIENCE (Camp of Mollwitz, May 7th);
+AND FRIEDRICH MAKES A MOST IMPORTANT TREATY,--NOT WITH HYNDFORD.
+
+May 2d, Hyndford arrived in Breslau; and after some preliminary
+flourishings, and difficulties about post-horses and furnitures in a
+seat of War, got to Brieg; and thence, May 7th, "to the Camp [Camp
+of Mollwitz still], which is about an English mile off,"--Podewils
+escorting him from Brieg, and what we note farther, Pollnitz too;
+our poor old Pollnitz, some kind of Chief Goldstick, whom we did not
+otherwise know to be on active duty in those rude scenes. Belleisle had
+passed through Breslau while Hyndford was there:--"am unable to inform
+your Lordship what success he has had." Brieg Siege is done only three
+days ago; Castle all lying black; and the new trenching and fortifying
+hardly begun. In a word, May 7th, 1741, "about 11 A.M.," Excellency
+Hyndford is introduced to the King's Tent, and has his First Audience.
+Goldstick having done his motions, none but Podewils is left present;
+who sits at a table, taking notes of what is said. Podewils's Notes
+are invisible to me; but here, in authentic though carefully compressed
+state, is Hyndford's minute Narrative:--
+
+Excellency Hyndford mentioned the Instructions he had, as to "good
+offices," friendship and so forth. "But his Prussian Majesty had hardly
+patience to hear me out; and said in a passion [we rise, where possible,
+Hyndford's own wording; readers will allow for the leaden quality in
+some parts]:--KING (in a passion). 'How is it possible, my Lord, to
+believe things so contradictory? It is mighty fine all this that you now
+tell me, on the part of the King of England; but how does it correspond
+to his last Speech to his Parliament [19th April last, when Mr. Viner
+was in such minority of one] and to the doings of his Ministers at
+Petersburg [a pretty Partition-Treaty that; and the Excellency Finch
+still busy, as I know!] and at the Hague [Excellency Trevor there, and
+this beautiful Joint-Resolution and Advice which is coming!] to stir up
+allies against me? I have reason rather to doubt the sincerity of the
+King of England. They perhaps mean to amuse me. [That is Friedrich's
+real opinion. [His Letter to Podewils (Ranke, ii. 268).]] But, by God,
+they are mistaken! I will risk everything rather than abate the least of
+my pretensions.'"
+
+Poor Hyndford said and mumbled what he could; knew nothing what
+instructions Finch had, Trevor had, and--KING. "'My Lord, there seems
+to be a contradiction in all this. The King of England, in his Letter,
+tells me you are instructed as to everything; and yet you pretend
+ignorance! But I am perfectly informed of all. And I should not be
+surprised if, after all these fine words, you should receive some strong
+letter or resolution for me,'"--Joint-Resolution to Advise, for example?
+
+Hyndford, not in the strength of conscious innocence, stands silent; the
+King, "in his heat of passion," said to Podewils:--KING TO PODEWILS (on
+the sudden). "'Write down, that my Lord would be surprised [as he
+should be] to receive such Instructions!'" (A mischievous sparkle,
+half quizzical, half practical, considerably in the Friedrich
+style.)--Hyndford, "quite struck, my Lord, with this strange way of
+acting," and of poking into one, protests with angry grunt, and "was put
+extremely upon my guard." Of course Podewils did net write....
+
+HYNDFORD. "'Europe is under the necessity of taking some speedy
+resolution, things are in such a state of crisis. Like a fever in a
+human body, got to such a height that quinquina becomes necessary.' ...
+That expression made him smile, and he began to look a little cooler....
+'Shall we apply to Vienna, your Majesty?'
+
+FRIEDRICH. "'Follow your own will in that.'
+
+HYNDFORD. "'Would your Majesty consent now to stand by his Excellency
+Gotter's original Offer at Vienna on your part? Agree, namely, in
+consideration of Lower Silesia and Breslau, to assist the Queen with all
+your troops for maintenance of Pragmatic Sanction, and to vote for the
+Grand-Duke as Kaiser?'
+
+KING. "'Yes' [what the reader may take notice of, and date for himself].
+
+HYNDFORD. "'What was the sum of money then offered her Hungarian
+Majesty?'
+
+"King hesitated, as if he had forgotten; Podewils answered, 'Three
+million florins (300,000 pounds).'
+
+KING. "'I should not value the money; if money would content her
+Majesty, I would give more.'... Here was a long pause, which I did not
+break;"--nor would the King. Podewils reminded me of an idea we had been
+discoursing of together ("on his suggestion, my Lord, which I really
+think is of importance, and worth your Lordship's consideration");
+whereupon, on such hint,
+
+HYNDFORD. "'Would your Majesty consent to an Armistice?'
+
+FRIEDRICH. "'Yes; but [counts on his fingers, May, June, till he comes
+to December] not for less than six months,--till December 1st. By that
+time they could do nothing,'" the season out by that time.
+
+HYNDFORD. "'His Excellency Podewils has been taking notes; if I am to be
+bound by them, might I first see that he has mistaken nothing?'
+
+KING. "'Certainly!'"--Podewils's Note-protocol is found to be correct in
+every point; Hyndford, with some slight flourish of compliments on both
+sides, bows himself away (invited to dinner, which he accepts, "will
+surely have that honor before returning to Breslau");--and so the First
+Audience has ended. [Hyndford's Despatches, Breslau, 5th and 13th May,
+1741. Are in State-Paper Office, like the rest of Hyndford's; also
+in British Museum (Additional MSS. 11,365 &c.), the rough draughts of
+them.] Baronay and Pandours are about,--this is ten days before the
+Ziethen feat on Baronay;--but no Pandour, now or afterwards, will harm a
+British Excellency.
+
+These utterances of Friedrich's, the more we examine them by other
+lights that there are, become the more correctly expressive of what
+Friedrich's real feelings were on the occasion. Much contrary, perhaps,
+to expectation of some readers. And indeed we will here advise our
+readers to prepare for dismissing altogether that notion of Friedrich's
+duplicity, mendacity, finesse and the like, which was once widely
+current in the world; and to attend always strictly to what Friedrich
+says, if they wish to guess what he is thinking;--there being no such
+thing as "mendacity" discoverable in Friedrich, when you take the
+trouble to inform yourself. "Mendacity," my friends? How busy have
+the Owls been with Friedrich's memory, in different countries of the
+world;--perhaps even more than their sad wont is in such cases! For
+indeed he was apt to be of swift abrupt procedure, disregardful of
+Owleries; and gave scope for misunderstanding in the course of his life.
+But a veracious man he was, at all points; not even conscious of
+his veracity; but had it in the blood of him; and never looked upon
+"mendacity" but from a very great height indeed. He does not, except
+where suitable, at least he never should, express his whole meaning; but
+you will never find him expressing what is not his meaning. Reticence,
+not dissimulation. And as to "finesse,"--do not believe in that either,
+in the vulgar or bad sense. Truly you will find his finesse is a very
+fine thing; and that it consists, not in deceiving other people, but in
+being right himself; in well discerning, for his own behoof, what the
+facts before him are; and in steering, which he does steadily, in a most
+vigilant, nimble, decisive and intrepid manner, by monition of the
+same. No salvation but in the facts. Facts are a kind of divine thing
+to Friedrich; much more so than to common men: this is essentially what
+Religion I have found in Friedrich. And, let me assure you, it is an
+invaluable element in any man's Religion, and highly indispensable,
+though so often dispensed with! Readers, especially in our time English
+readers, who would gain the least knowledge about Friedrich, in the
+extinct Bedlam where his work now lay, have a great many things to
+forget, and sad strata of Owl-droppings, ancient and recent, to sweep
+away!--
+
+To Friedrich a bargain with Austria, which would be a getting into port,
+in comparison to going with the French in that distracted voyage of
+theirs, is highly desirable. "Shall I join with the English, in hope
+of some tolerable bargain from Austria? Shall I have to join with the
+French, in despair of any?" Readers may consider how stringent upon
+Friedrich that question now was, and how ticklish to solve. And it must
+be solved soon,--under penalty of "being left with no ally at all" (as
+Friedrich expresses himself), while the whole world is grouping itself
+into armed heaps for and against! If the English would but get me a
+bargain--? Friedrich dare not think they will. Nay, scanning these
+English incoherences, these contradictions between what they say here
+and what they do and say elsewhere, he begins to doubt if they zealously
+wish it,--and at last to believe that they sincerely do not wish it;
+that "they mean to amuse me" (as he said to Hyndford)--till my French
+chance too is over. "To amuse me: but, PAR DIEU--!" His Notes to
+Podewils, of which Ranke, who has seen them, gives us snatches, are
+vivid in that sense: "I should be ashamed if the cunningest Italian
+could dupe me; but that a lout of a Hanoverian should do it!"--and
+Podewils has great difficulty to keep him patient yet a little; Valori
+being so busy on the other side, and the time so pressing. Here are some
+dates and some comments, which the reader should take with him;--here is
+a very strange issue to the Joint-Resolution of a strong nature now on
+hand!
+
+A few days after that First Audience, Ginkel the Dutch Excellency, with
+the due Papers in his pocket, did arrive. Excellency Hyndford, who
+is not without rough insight into what lies under his nose, discovers
+clearly that the grand Dutch-English Resolution, or Joint-Exhortation
+to evacuate Silesia, will do nothing but mischief; and (at his own
+risk, persuading Ginkel also to delay) sends a Courier to England before
+presenting it. And from England, in about a fortnight, gets for answer,
+"Do harm, think you? Hm, ha!--Present it, all the same; and modify by
+assurances afterwards,"--as if these would much avail! This is not
+the only instance in which St. James's rejects good advice from its
+Hyndford; the pity would be greater, were not the Business what it
+is! Podewils has the greatest difficulty to keep Friedrich quiet till
+Hyndford's courier get back. And on his getting back with such answer,
+"Present it all the same," Friedrich will not wait for that ceremony,
+or delay a moment longer. Friedrich has had his Valori at work, all this
+while; Valori and Podewils, and endless correspondence and consultation
+going on; and things hypothetically almost quite ready; so that--
+
+June 5th, 1741, Friedrich, spurring Podewils to the utmost speed, and
+"ordering secrecy on pain of death," signs his Treaty with France! A
+kind of provisional off-and-on Treaty, I take it to be; which was
+never published, and is thought to have had many IFS in it: signs this
+Treaty;--and next day (June 6th, such is the impetuosity of haste)
+instructs his Rasfeld at the Hague, "You will beforehand inform the
+High Mightinesses, in regard to that Advice of April 24th, which they
+determined on giving me, through the Excellency Herr von Ginkel
+along with Excellency Hyndford, That such Advice can, by me, only be
+considered as a blind complaisance to the Court of Vienna's improper
+urgencies, improper in such a matter. That for certain I will not quit
+Silesia till my claims be satisfied. And the longer I am forced to
+continue warring for them here," wasting more resource and risk upon
+them, "the higher they will rise!" [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 963.]
+And this is what comes of that terribly courageous Dutch-English
+"Joint-Resolution of a strong nature;" it has literally cut before the
+point: the Exhortation is not yet presented, but the Treaty with France
+is signed in virtue of it!--
+
+Undoubtedly this of June 5th is the most important Treaty in the
+Austrian-Succession War, and the cardinal element of Friedrich's
+procedure in that Adventure. And it has never been published; nor, till
+Herr Professor Ranke got access to the Prussian Archives, has even the
+date of signing it been rightly known; but is given two or three ways
+in different express Collections of Treaties. [Scholl, ii. 297 (copying
+"Flassan, _Hist. de la Diplom. Franc._ v. 142"), gives "5th July" as
+the date; Adelung (ii. 357, 390, 441) guesses that it was "in August;"
+Valori (i. 108), who was himself in it, gives the correct date,--but
+then his Editor (thought inquiring readers) was such a sloven and
+ignoramus. See Stenzel, iv. 143; Ranke, ii. 274.] Herr Ranke knows this
+Treaty, and the correspondences, especially Friedrich's correspondence
+with Podewils preparatory to it; and speaks, as his wont is, several
+exact things about it; thanks to him, in the circumstances. I wish it
+could be made, even with his help, fully intelligible to the reader!
+For, were the Treaty never so express, surely the mode of keeping it, on
+both parts, was very strange; and that latter concerns us somewhat.
+
+A very fast-and-loose Treaty, to all appearance! Outwardly it is a mere
+Treaty of Alliance, each party guaranteeing the other for Fifteen Years;
+without mention made of the joint Belleisle Adventure now in the wind.
+But then, like the postscript to a lady's letter, there come "secret
+articles" bearing upon that essential item: How France, in the course
+of this current season 1741, is to bring an Army across the Rhine in
+support of its friend Kur-Baiern VERSUS Austria; is, in the same term of
+time, to make Sweden declare war on Russia (important for Friedrich, who
+is never sure a moment that those Russians will not break in upon
+him); and finally, most important of all, That France "guarantees Lower
+Silesia with Breslau to his Prussian Majesty." In return for which his
+Prussian Majesty--will do what? It is really difficult to say what: Be
+a true ally and second to France in its grand German Adventure? Not
+at all. Friedrich does not yet know, nor does Belleisle himself quite
+precisely, what the grand German Adventure is; and Friedrich's wishes
+never were, nor will be, for the prosperity of that. Support France,
+at least in its small Bavarian Anti-Austrian Adventure? By no means
+definitely even that. "Maintain myself in Lower Silesia with Breslau,
+and fight my best to such end:" really that, you might say, is in
+substance the most of what Friedrich undertakes; though inarticulately
+he finds himself bound to much more,--and will frankly go into it, IF
+you do as you have said; and unless you do, will not. Never was a more
+contingent Treaty: "unless you stir up Sweden, Messieurs; unless
+you produce that Rhine Army; unless--" such is steadily Friedrich's
+attitude; long after this, he refuses to say whom he will vote for as
+Kaiser: "Fortune of War will decide it," answers he, in regard to that
+and to many other things; and keeps himself to an incomprehensible
+extent loose; ready, for weeks and months after, to make bargain on his
+own Silesian Affair with anybody that can. [Ranke, ii. 271, 275, 280.]
+
+For indeed the French also are very contingent; Fleury hanging one way,
+Belleisle pushing another; and know not how far they will go on the
+grand German Adventure, nor conclusively whether at all. Here is an
+Anecdote by Friedrich himself. Valori was, one night, with him; and,
+on rising to take leave, the fat hand, sticking probably in the big
+waistcoat-pocket, twitched out a little diplomatic-looking Note; which
+Friedrich, with gentle adroitness (permissible in such circumstances),
+set his foot upon, till Valori had bowed himself out. The Note was
+from Amelot, French Minister of the Foreign Department: "Don't give
+his Prussian Majesty Glatz, if it can possibly be helped." Very well,
+thought Friedrich; and did not forget the fine little Note on burning
+it. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ ii. 90.] There went, in French couriers'
+bags, a great many such, to Austria some of them, of far more
+questionable tenor, within the next twelve months.
+
+Two things we have to remark: FIRST, That Friedrich, with an eye to real
+business on his part in the Bavarian Adventure, in which Kur-Pfalz is
+sure to accompany, volunteered (like a real man of business, and much to
+Belleisle's surprise) to renounce the Berg-Julich controversy, and let
+Kur-Pfalz have his way, that there might be no quarrelling among allies.
+This too is contingent; but was gladly accepted by Belleisle. SECOND,
+That Belleisle had instructed Valori, Not to insist on active help
+from Friedrich in the German Adventure, but merely to stipulate for
+his Neutrality throughout, in case they could get no more. How joyfully
+would Friedrich have accepted this,--had Valori volunteered with it,
+which he did not! [Ranke, ii. 280.] But, after all, in result it was the
+same; and had to be,--PLUS only a great deal of clamor by and by, from
+the French and the Gazetteers, about the Article in question.
+
+Was there ever so contingent a Treaty before? It is signed, Breslau,
+5th June, 1741, and both parties have their hands loose, and make use of
+their liberty for months to come; nay, in some sort, all along; feeling
+how contingent it was! Friedrich did not definitely tie himself till
+4th November next, five months after: when he signed the French-Bavarian
+Treaty, renounced Berg-Julich controversies, and fairly went into
+the French-Bavarian, smaller French Adventure; into the greater, or
+wide-winged Belleisle one, he never went nor intended to go,--perhaps
+even the contrary, if needful. Readers may try to remember these
+elucidative items, riddled from the immensities of Dryasdust: I have no
+more to give, nor can afford to return upon it. May not we well say, as
+above, "A Treaty thought to have many IFS in it!"--And now, 8th June,
+comes solemnly the Joint-Resolution itself; like mustard (under a
+flourish of trumpets) three days after dinner:--
+
+"CAMP OF GROTKAU, 8th JUNE. Hyndford and Ginkel [the same respectable
+old Ginkel whom we used to know in Friedrich Wilhelm's time], having,
+according to renewed order, got out from Breslau with that formidable
+Dutch-English 'Advice' or Joint-Exhortation in their pocket, did this
+day in the Camp at Grotkau present the same. A very mild-spoken Piece,
+though it had required such courage; and which is not now worth speaking
+of, things having gone as we see. Friedrich received it with a gracious
+mien: 'Infinitely sensible to the trouble his Britannic Majesty and
+their High Mightinesses took with his affairs; Document should receive
+his best consideration,'--which indeed it has already done, and its
+Answer withal: A FRENCH Treaty signed three days ago, in virtue of it!
+'Might I request a short Private Audience of your Majesty?' solicits
+Hyndford, intending to modify by new assurances, as bidden.--'Surely,'
+answers Friedrich.
+
+"The two Excellencies dine with the King, who is in high spirits. After
+dinner, Hyndford gets his Private Audience; does his best in the way of
+'new assurances;' which produce what effect we can fancy. Among other
+things, he appeals to the King's 'magnanimity, how grand and generous
+it will be to accept moderate terms from Austria, to--' KING
+(interrupting): 'My Lord, don't talk to me of magnanimity, a Prince
+[acting not for himself but for his Nation] ought to consult his
+interest in the first place. I am not against Peace: but I expect to
+have Four Duchies given me.'" [State-Paper Office (Hyndford, Breslau,
+12th June, 1741).]
+
+Hyndford and Ginkel slept that night in Grotkau Town: "at 4 next morning
+the King sent us word, That if we had a mind to see the Army on march,"
+just moving off, Strehlen way, "we might come out by the North Gate."
+We accordingly saw the whole Army leave Camp; and march in four columns
+towards Friedewald, where Marshal Neipperg is encamped. "Not a bit
+of it, your Excellency! Neipperg is safe at Neisse; amid inaccessible
+embankments and artificial mud: and these are mere Hussar-Pandour rabble
+out here; whom a push or two sends home again,--would it could keep them
+there! But they are of sylvan (or SALVAGE) nature, affecting the shade;
+and burst out, for theft and arson, sometimes at great distances, no
+calculating where. The King's Army lay all that night upon their arms,
+and encamped next morning, the 10th. I believe nothing happened that
+day, for we were obliged to stay at Grotkau, for want of post-horses, a
+good part of it."
+
+Hyndford hears (in secret Opposition Circles, and lays the flattering
+unction to his soul and your Lordship's): "The King of Prussia's Army,
+as I am informed, unless he will take counsel, another campaign will go
+near to ruin. Everything is in the greatest disorder; utmost dejection
+amongst the Officers from highest to lowest;"--fact being that the
+King has important improvements and new drillings in view (to go on
+at Strehlen), Cavalry improvements, Artillery improvements, unknown to
+Hyndford and the Opposition; and will not be ruined next campaign.
+"I hope the news we have here, of the taking of Carthagena, is true,"
+concludes he. Alas, your Excellency!
+
+By a different hand, from the southward Hungarian regions, far over the
+Hills, take this other entry; almost of enthusiastic style:--
+
+"PRESBURG, 25th JUNE. Maria Theresa, in high spirits about her English
+Subsidy and the bright aspects, left Vienna about a week ago for
+Presburg [a drive of fifty miles down the fine Donau country]; and is
+celebrating her Coronation there, as Queen of Hungary, in a very sublime
+manner. Sunday, 25th June, 1741, that is the day of putting on your
+Crown,--Iron Crown of St. Stephen, as readers know. The Chivalry of
+Hungary, from Palfy and Esterhazy downward, and all the world are there;
+shining in loyalty and barbaric gold and pearl. A truly beautiful
+Young Woman, beautiful to soul and eye, devout too and noble, though
+ill-informed in Political or other Science, is in the middle of it, and
+makes the scene still more noticeable to us. See, as the finish of
+the ceremonies, she has mounted a high swift horse, sword girt to her
+side,--a great rider always, this young Queen;--and gallops, Hungary
+following like a comet-tail, to the Konigsberg [KING'S-HILL so called;
+no great things of a Hill, O reader; made by barrow, you can see],
+to the top of the Konigsberg; there draws sword; and cuts, grandly
+flourishing, to the Four Quarters of the Heavens: 'Let any mortal, from
+whatever quarter coming, meddle with Hungary if he dare!' [Adelung, ii.
+293, 294.] Chivalrous Hungary bursts into passionate acclaim; old Palfy,
+I could fancy, into tears; and all the world murmurs to itself, with
+moist-gleaming eyes, 'REX NOSTER!' This is, in fact, the beautifulest
+King or Queen that now is, this radiant young woman; beautiful things
+have been, and are to be, reported of her; and she has a terrible voyage
+just ahead,--little dreaming of it at this grand moment. I wish his
+Britannic Majesty, or Robinson who has followed out hither, could
+persuade her to some compliance on the Silesian matter: what a thing
+were that, for herself, and for all mankind, just now! But she will not
+hear of that; and is very obstinate, and her stupid Hofraths equally
+and much more blamably so. Deaf to hard Facts knocking at their door;
+ignorant what Noah's-Deluges have broken out upon them, and are rushing
+on inevitable."
+
+By a notable coincidence, precisely while those sword-flourishings go
+on at Presburg, Marechal Excellency Belleisle is making his Public Entry
+into Frankfurt-on-Mayn: [25th June, 1741 (Adelung, ii. 399).] Frankfurt
+too is in cheery emotion; streets populous with Sunday gazers, and
+critics of the sublime in spectacle! This is not Belleisle's first
+entrance; he himself has been here some time, settling his Household,
+and a good many things: but today he solemnly leads in his Countess and
+Appendages (over from Metz, where Madame and he officially reside in
+common times, "Governor of Metz," one of his many offices);--leads in
+Madame, in suitably resplendent manner; to kindle household fire, as it
+were; and indicate that here is his place, till he have got a Kaiser
+to his mind. Twin Phenomena, these two; going on 500 miles apart;
+unconscious of one another, or of what kinship they happen to have!--
+
+
+
+
+EXCELLENCY ROBINSON BUSY IN THE VIENNA HOFRATH CIRCLES, TO PRODUCE A
+COMPLIANCE.
+
+Britannic George, both for Pragmatic's sake and for dear Hanover's,
+desires much there were a bargain made with Friedrich: How is the
+Pragmatic to be saved at all, if Friedrich join France in its Belleisle
+machinations, thinks George? And already here is that Camp of Gottin,
+glittering in view like a drawn sword pointed at one's throat or at
+one's Hanover. Nay, in a month or two hence, as the Belleisle schemes
+got above ground in the shape of facts, this desire became passionate,
+and a bargain with Prussia seemed the one thing needful. For, alas,
+the reader will see there comes, about that time, a second sword (the
+Maillebois Army, namely), pointed at one's throat from the French side
+of things: so that a Paladin of the Pragmatic, and Hanoverian King of
+England, knows not which way to turn! George's sincerity of wish is
+perhaps underrated by Friedrich; who indeed knows well enough on which
+side George's wishes would fall, if they had liberty (which they have
+not), but much overrates "the astucity" of poor George and his English;
+ascribing, as is often done, to fine-spun attorneyism what is mere
+cunctation, ignorance, negligence, and other forms of a stupidity
+perhaps the most honest in the world! By degrees Friedrich understood
+better; but he never much liked the English ways of doing business.
+George's desire is abundantly sincere, not wholly resting on sublime
+grounds; and grows more and more intense every day; but could not be
+gratified for a good while yet.
+
+Co-operating with Hyndford, from the Vienna side, is Excellency
+Robinson; who has a still harder job of it there. Pity poor Robinson,
+O English reader, if you can for indignation at the business he is in.
+Saving the Liberties of Europe! thinks Robinson confidently: Founding
+the English National Debt, answers Fact; and doing Bottom the Weaver,
+with long ears, in the miserablest Pickleherring Tragedy that ever
+was!--This is the same Robinson who immortalized himself, nine or ten
+years ago, by the First Treaty of Vienna; thrice-salutary Treaty, which
+DISJOINED Austria from Bourbon-Spanish Alliances, and brought her into
+the arms of the grateful Sea-Powers again. Imminent Downfall of the
+Universe was thus, glory to Robinson, arrested for that time. And now
+we have the same Robinson instructed to sharpen all his faculties to the
+cutting pitch, and do the impossible for this new and reverse face
+of matters. What a change from 1731 to 1741! Bugbear of dreadful
+Austrian-Spanish Alliance dissolves now into sunlit clouds, encircling
+a beautiful Austrian Andromeda, about to be devoured for us; and the
+Downfall of the Universe is again imminent, from Spain and others
+joining AGAINST Austria. Oh, ye wigs, and eximious wig-blocks, called
+right-honorable! If a man, sovereign or other, were to stay well at
+home, and mind his own visible affairs, trusting a good deal that
+the Universe would shift for itself, might it not be better for
+him? Robinson, who writes rather a heavy style, but is full of
+inextinguishable heavy zeal withal, will have a great deal to do in
+these coming years. Ancestor of certain valuable Earls that now are;
+author of immeasurable quantities of the Diplomatic cobwebs that then
+were.
+
+To a modern English reader it is very strange, that Austrian scene of
+things in which poor Robinson is puffing and laboring. The ineffable
+pride, the obstinacy, impotency, ponderous pedantry and helplessness of
+that dull old Court and its Hofraths, is nearly inconceivable to modern
+readers. Stupid dilapidation is in all departments, and has long been;
+all things lazily crumbling downwards, sometimes stumbling down
+with great plunges. Cash is done; the world rising, all round, with
+plunderous intentions; and hungry Ruin, you would say, coming visibly on
+with seven-league boots: here is little room for carrying your head
+high among mankind. High nevertheless they do carry it, with a grandly
+mournful though stolid insolent air, as if born superior to this
+Earth and its wisdoms and successes and multiplication-tables and iron
+ramrods,--really with "a certain greatness," says somebody, "greatness
+as of great blockheadism" in themselves and their neighbors;--and, like
+some absurd old Hindoo Idol (crockery Idol of Somnauth, for instance,
+with the belly of him smashed by battle-axes, and the cart-load of
+gold coin all run out), persuade mankind that they are a god, though in
+dilapidated condition. That is our first impression of the thing.
+
+But again, better seen into, there is not wanting a certain worthily
+steadfast, conservative and broad-based high air (reminding you of "Kill
+our own mutton, Sir!" and the ancient English Tory species), solid
+and loyal, though stolid Ancient Austrian Tories, that definition will
+suffice for us;--and Toryism too, the reader may rely on it, is much
+patronized by the Upper Powers, and goes a long way in this world. Nay,
+without a good solid substratum of that, what thing, with never so many
+ballot-boxes, stump-orators, and liberties of the subject, is capable of
+going at all, except swiftly to perdition? These Austrians have taken
+a great deal of ruining, first and last! Their relation to the then
+Sea-Powers, especially to England embarked on the Cause of Liberty,
+fills one with amazement, by no means of an idolatrous nature; and is
+difficult to understand at all, or to be patient with at all.
+
+Of disposition to comply with Prussia, Robinson finds, in spite of
+Mollwitz and the sad experiences, no trace at Vienna. The humor
+at Vienna is obstinately defiant; simply to regard Friedrich as a
+housebreaker or thief in the night; whom they will soon deal with, were
+they once on foot and implements in their hand: "Swift, ye Sea-Powers;
+where are the implements, the cash, that means implements?" The Young
+Hungarian Majesty herself is magnificently of that opinion, which
+is sanctioned by her Bartensteins and wisest Hofraths, with hardly a
+dissentient (old Sinzendorf almost alone in his contrary notion, and he
+soon dies). Robinson urges the dangers from France. No Hofrath here will
+allow himself to believe them; to believe them would be too horrible.
+"Depend upon it, France's intentions are not that way. And at the worst,
+if France do rise against us, it is but bargaining with France; better
+so than bargaining with Prussia, surely. France will be contentable with
+something in the Netherlands; what else can she want of us? Parings from
+that outskirt, what are these compared with Silesia, a horrid gash into
+the vital parts? And what is yielding to the King of France, compared
+with yielding to your Prussian King!"--
+
+It is true they have no money, these blind dull people; but are not
+the Sea-Powers, England especially, there, created by Nature to supply
+money? What else is their purpose in Creation? By Nature's law, as the
+Sun mounts in the Ecliptic and then falls, these Sea-Powers, in the
+Cause of Liberty, will furnish us money. No surrender; talk not to me of
+Silesia or surrender; I will die defending my inheritances: what are
+the Sea-Powers about, that they do not furnish more money in a prompt
+manner? These are the things poor Robinson has to listen to: Robinson
+and England, it is self-evident at Vienna, have one duty, that of
+furnishing money. And in a prompt manner, if you please, Sir; why not
+prompt and abundant?
+
+An English soul has small exhilaration, looking into those old
+expenditures, and bullyings for want of promptitude! But if English
+souls will solemnly, under high Heaven, constitute a Duke of Newcastle
+and a George II. their Captains of the march Heavenward, and say,
+without blushing for it, nay rejoicing at it, in the face of the
+sun, "You are the most godlike Two we could lay hold of for that
+object,"--what have English souls to expect? My consolation is, and,
+alas, it is a poor one, the money would have been mostly wasted any way.
+Buy men and gunpowder with your money, to be shot away in foreign parts,
+without renown or use: is that so much worse than buying ridiculous
+upholsteries, idle luxuries, frivolities, and in the end unbeautiful
+pot-bellies corporeal and spiritual with it, here at home? I am struck
+silent, looking at much that goes on under these stars;--and find that
+misappointment of your Captains, of your Exemplars and Guiding and
+Governing individuals, higher and lower, is a fatal business always; and
+that especially, as highest instance of it, which includes all the lower
+ones, this of solemnly calling Chief Captain, and King by the Grace of
+God, a gentleman who is NOT so (and SEEMS to be so mainly by Malice of
+the Devil, and by the very great and nearly unforgivable indifference
+of Mankind to resist the Devil in that particular province, for the
+present), is the deepest fountain of human wretchedness, and the head
+mendacity capable of being done!--
+
+As for the brave young Queen of Hungary, my admiration goes with that of
+all the world. Not in the language of flattery, but of evident fact, the
+royal qualities abound in that high young Lady; had they left the world,
+and grown to mere costume elsewhere, you might find certain of them
+again here. Most brave, high and pious-minded; beautiful too, and
+radiant with good-nature, though of temper that will easily catch fire:
+there is perhaps no nobler woman then living. And she fronts the roaring
+elements in a truly grand feminine manner; as if Heaven itself and the
+voice of Duty called her: "The Inheritances which my Fathers left me,
+we will not part with these. Death, if it so must be; but not
+dishonor:--Listen not to that thief in the night!" Maria Theresa has
+not studied, at all, the History of the Silesian Duchies; she knows only
+that her Father and Grandfather peaceably held them; it was not she
+that sent out Seckendorf to ride 25,000 miles, or broke the heart of
+Friedrich Wilhelm and his Household. Pity she had not complied with
+Friedrich, and saved such rivers of bitterness to herself and mankind!
+But how could she see to do it,--especially with little George at her
+back, and abundance of money? This, for the present, is her method
+of looking at the matter; this magnanimous, heroic, and occasionally
+somewhat female one.
+
+Her Husband, the Grand Duke, an inert, but good-tempered,
+well-conditioned Duke after his sort, goes with her. Him we shall see
+try various things; and at length take to banking and merchandise, and
+even meal-dealing on the great scale. "Our Armies had most part of their
+meal circuitously from him," says Friedrich, of times long subsequent.
+Now as always he follows loyally his Wife's lead, never she his: Wife
+being, intrinsically as well as extrinsically, the better man, what
+other can he do?--Of compliance with Friedrich in this Court, there is
+practically no hope till after a great deal of beating have enlightened
+it. Out of deference to George and his ardors, they pretend some
+intention that way; and are "willing to bargain, your Excellency;"--no
+doubt of it, provided only the price were next to nothing!
+
+And so, while the watchful edacious Hyndford is doing his best at
+Strehlen, poor Robinson, blown into triple activity, corresponds in
+a boundless zealous manner from Vienna; and at last takes to flying
+personally between Strehlen and Vienna; praying the inexorable young
+Queen to comply a little, and then the inexorable young King to be
+satisfied with imaginary compliance; and has a breathless time of it
+indeed. His Despatches, passionately long-winded, are exceedingly stiff
+reading to the like of us. O reader, what things have to be read and
+carefully forgotten; what mountains of dust and ashes are to be dug
+through, and tumbled down to Orcus, to disengage the smallest fraction
+of truly memorable! Well if, in ten cubic miles of dust and ashes, you
+discover the tongue of a shoe-buckle that has once belonged to a man
+in the least heroic; and wipe your brow, invoking the supernal and
+the infernal gods. My heart's desire is to compress these Strehlen
+Diplomatic horse-dealings into the smallest conceivable bulk. And yet
+how much that is not metal, that is merely cinders, has got through:
+impossible to prevent,--may the infernal gods deal with it, and reduce
+Dryasdust to limits, one day! Here, however, are important Public News
+transpiring through the old Gazetteers:--
+
+"MUNCHEN, JULY 1st [or in effect a few days later, when the Letters
+DATED July 1st had gone through their circuitous formalities], [Adelung,
+ii. 421.] Karl Albert Kur-Baiern publicly declares himself Candidate for
+the Kaisership; as, privately, he had long been rumored and believed to
+be. Kur-Baiern, they say, has of militias and regulars together about
+30,000 men on foot, all posted in good places along the Austrian
+Frontier; and it is commonly thought, though little credible at Vienna,
+that he intends invading Austria as well as contesting the Election. To
+which the Vienna Hofrath answers in the style of 'Pshaw!'
+
+"VERSAILLES, 11th JULY. Extraordinary Council of State; Belleisle being
+there, home from Frankfurt, to take final orders, and get official
+fiat put upon his schemes. 'All the Princes of the Blood and all the
+Marechals of France attend;' question is, How the War is to be, nay,
+Whether War is to be at all,--so contingent is the French-Prussian
+Bargain, signed five weeks ago. Old Fleury, to give freedom of
+consultation and vote, quits the room. Some are of opinion, one Prince
+of the Blood emphatically so, That Pragmatic Sanction should be kept, at
+least War AGAINST it be avoided. But the contrary opinion triumphs, King
+himself being strongly with it; Belleisle to be supreme in field and
+cabinet; shall execute, like a kind of Dictator or Vice-Majesty, by his
+own magnificent talent, those magnificent devisings of his, glorious to
+France and to the King. [Ib. 417, 418; see also Baumer, p. 104 (if you
+can for his date, which is given in OLD STYLE as if it were in New; a
+very eclipsing method!).] These many months, the French have been arming
+with their whole might. The Vienna people hear now, That an 'Army of
+40,000 is rumored to be coming,' or even two Armies, 40,000 each; but
+will not imagine that this is certain, or that it can be seriously meant
+against their high House, precious to gods and men. Belleisle having
+perfected the multiplex Army details, rushes back to Frankfurt and his
+endless Diplomatic businesses (July 25th): Armies to be on actual march
+by the 10th of August coming. 'During this Versailles visit, he had such
+a crowd of Officers and great people paying court to him as was like the
+King's Levee itself.' [Barbier, ii. 305.]
+
+"PASSAU, 31st JULY. Passau is the Frontier Austrian City on the
+Donau (meeting of the Inn and Donau Valleys); a place of considerable
+strength, and a key or great position for military purposes. Austrian,
+or Quasi-Austrian; for, like Salzburg, it has a Bishop claiming some
+imaginary sovereignties, but always holds with Austria. July 31st, early
+in the morning, a Bavarian Exciseman ('Salt-Inspector') applied at the
+gate of Passau for admission; gate was opened;--along with the Exciseman
+'certain peasants' (disguised Bavarian soldiers) pushed in; held the
+gate choked, till General Minuzzi, Karl Albert's General, with horse,
+foot, cannon, who had been lurking close by, likewise pushed in; and at
+once seized the Town. Town speedily secured, Minuzzi informs the Bishop,
+who lives in his Schloss of Oberhaus (strongish place on a Hill-top,
+other side the Donau), That he likewise, under pain of bombardment,
+must admit garrison. The poor Bishop hesitates; but, finding bombardment
+actually ready for him, yields in about two hours. Karl Albert publishes
+his Manifesto, 'in forty-five pages folio' [Adelung, ii. 426.] (to
+the effect, 'All Austria mine; or as good as all,--if I liked!'); and
+fortifies himself in Passau. 'Insidious, nefarious!' shrieks Austria,
+in Counter-Manifesto; calculates privately it will soon settle Karl
+Albert,--'Unless, O Heavens, France with Prussia did mean to back
+him!'--and begins to have misgivings, in spite of itself."
+
+Misgivings, which soon became fatal certainties. Robinson records,
+doubtless on sure basis, though not dating it, a curious piece of
+stage-effect in the form of reality; "On hearing, beyond possibility of
+doubt, that Prussia, France, and Bavaria had combined, the whole Aulic
+Council," Vienna Hofrath in a body, "fell back into their chairs [and
+metaphorically into Robinson's arms] like dead men!" [Raumer, p. 104.]
+Sat staring there;--the wind struck out of them, but not all the folly
+by a great deal. Now, however, is Robinson's time to ply them.
+
+
+
+
+EXCELLENCY ROBINSON HAS AUDIENCE OF FRIEDRICH (Camp of Strehlen, 7th
+August, 1741).
+
+By unheard-of entreaties and conjurations, aided by these strokes of
+fate, Robinson has at length extorted from his Queen of Hungary, and her
+wise Hofraths, something resembling a phantasm of compliance; with which
+he hurries to Breslau and Hyndford; hoping against hope that Friedrich
+will accept it as a reality. Gets to Breslau on the 3d of August; thence
+to Strehlen, consulting much with Hyndford upon this phantasm of a
+compliance. Hyndford looks but heavily upon it;--from us, in this place,
+far be it to look at all:--alas, this is the famed Scene they Two had at
+Strehlen with Friedrich, on Monday, August 7th; reported by the faithful
+pen of Robinson, and vividly significant of Friedrich, were it but
+compressed to the due pitch. We will give it in the form of Dialogue:
+the thing of itself falls naturally into the Dramatic, when the flabby
+parts are cut away;--and was perhaps worthier of a Shakspeare than of a
+Robinson, all facts of it considered, in the light they have since got.
+
+Scene is Friedrich's Tent, Prussian Camp in the neighborhood of the
+little Town of Strehlen: time 11 o'clock A.M. Personages of it, Two
+British subjects in the high Diplomatic line: ponderous Scotch Lord
+of an edacious gloomy countenance; florid Yorkshire Gentleman with
+important Proposals in his pocket. Costume, frizzled peruke powdered;
+frills, wrist-frills and other; shoe-buckles, flapped waistcoat,
+court-coat of antique cut and much trimming: all this shall be conceived
+by the reader. Tight young Gentleman in Prussian military uniform,
+blue coat, buff breeches, boots; with alert flashing eyes, and careless
+elegant bearing, salutes courteously, raising his plumed hat. Podewils
+in common dress, who has entered escorting the other Two, sits rather to
+rearward, taking refuge beside the writing apparatus.--First passages
+of the Dialogue I omit: mere pickeerings and beatings about the bush,
+before we come to close quarters. For Robinson, the florid Yorkshire
+Gentleman, is charged to offer,--what thinks the reader?--two million
+guilders, about 200,000 pounds, if that will satisfy this young military
+King with the alert Eyes!
+
+ROBINSON.... "'Two hundred thousand pounds sterling, if your Majesty
+will be pleased to retire out of Silesia, and renounce this enterprise!'
+
+KING. "'Retire out of Silesia? And for money? Do you take me for a
+beggar! Retire out of Silesia, which has cost me so much treasure and
+blood in the conquest of it? No, Monsieur, no; that is not to be thought
+of! If you have no better proposals to make, it is not worth while
+talking.' These words were accompanied with threatening gestures and
+marks of great anger;" considerably staggering to the Two Diplomatic
+British gentlemen, and of evil omen to Robinson's phantasm of a
+compliance. Robinson apologetically hums and hahs, flounders through the
+bad bit of road as he can; flounderingly indicates that he has more to
+offer.
+
+KING. "'Let us see then (VOYONS), what is there more?'
+
+ROBINSON (with preliminary flourishings and flounderings, yet
+confidently, as now tabling his best card).... "'Permitted to offer
+your Majesty the whole of Austrian Guelderland; lies contiguous to your
+Majesty's Possessions in the Rhine Country; important completion of
+these: I am permitted to say, the whole of Austrian Guelderland!'
+Important indeed: a dirty stripe of moorland (if you look in Busching),
+about equivalent to half a dozen parishes in Connemara.
+
+KING. "'What do you mean? [turning to Podewils]--QU'EST-CE QUE NOUS
+MANQUE DE TOUTE LA GUELDRE (How much of Guelderland is theirs, and not
+ours already)?'
+
+PODEWILS. "'Almost nothing (PRESQUE RIEN).
+
+KING (to Robinson). "'VOICI ENCORE DE GUEUSERIES (more rags and rubbish
+yet)! QUOI, such a paltry scraping (BICOQUE) as that, for all my just
+claims in Silesia? Monsieur--!' His Majesty's indignation increased
+here, all the more as I kept a profound silence during his hot
+expressions, and did not speak at all except to beg his Majesty's
+reflection upon what I had said.--'Reflection?'" asks the King, with
+eyes dangerous to behold;--"My Lord," continues Robinson, heavily
+narrative, "his contempt of what I had said was so great," kicking his
+boot through Guelderland and the guilders as the most contemptible of
+objects, "and was expressed in such violent terms, that now, if ever (as
+your Lordship perceives), it was time to make the last effort;" play our
+trump-card down at once; "a moment longer was not to be lost, to hinder
+the King from dismissing us;" which sad destiny is still too probable,
+after the trump-card. Trump-card is this:
+
+ROBINSON.... "'The whole Duchy of Limburg, your Majesty! It is a Duchy
+which--' I extolled the Duchy to the utmost, described it in the most
+favorable terms; and added, that 'the Elector Palatine [old Kur-Pfalz,
+on one occasion] had been willing to give the whole Duchy of Berg for
+it.'
+
+PODEWILS. "'Pardon, Monsieur: that is not so; the contrary of so;
+Kur-Pfalz was not ready to give Berg for it!'--[We are not deep in
+German History, we British Diplomatic gentlemen, who are squandering,
+now and of old, so much money on it! The Aulic Council, "falls into
+our arms like dead men;" but it is certain the Elector Palatine was not
+ready to give Berg in that kind of exchange.]
+
+KING. "'It is inconceivable to me how Austria should dare to think of
+such a thing. Limburg? Are there not solemn Engagements upon Austria,
+sanctioned and again sanctioned by all the world, which render every
+inch of ground in the Netherlands inalienable?'
+
+ROBINSON. "'Engagements good as against the French, your Majesty.
+Otherwise the Barrier Treaty, confirmed at Utrecht, was for our behoof
+and Holland's.'
+
+KING. "'That is your present interpretation, But the French pretend it
+was an arrangement more in their favor than against them.'
+
+ROBINSON. "'Your Majesty, by a little Engineer Art, could render Limburg
+impregnable to the French or others.'
+
+KING. "'Have not the least desire to aggrandize myself in those parts,
+or spend money fortifying there. Useless to me. Am not I fortifying
+Brieg and Glogau? These are enough: for one who intends to live well
+with his neighbors. Neither the Dutch nor the French have offended me;
+nor will I them by acquisitions in the Netherlands. Besides, who would
+guarantee them?'
+
+ROBINSON. "'The Proposal is to give guarantees at once.'
+
+KING. "'Guarantees! Who minds or keeps guarantees in this age? Has not
+France guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction; has not England? Why don't
+you all fly to the Queen's succor?'"--Robinson, inclined to pout, if he
+durst, intimates that perhaps there will be succorers one day yet.
+
+KING. "'And pray, Monsieur, who are they?'
+
+ROBINSON. "'Hm, hm, your Majesty.... Russia, for example, which Power
+with reference to Turkey--'
+
+KING. "'Good, Sir, good (BEAU, MONSIEUR, BEAU), the Russians! It is not
+proper to explain myself; but I have means for the Russians' [a Swedish
+War just coming upon Russia, to keep its hand in use; so diligent have
+the French been in that quarter!].
+
+ROBINSON (with some emphasis, as a Britannic gentleman). "'Russia is
+not the only Power that has engagements with Austria, and that must keep
+them too! So that, however averse to a breach--'
+
+KING ("laying his finger on his nose," mark him;--aloud, and with such
+eyes). "'No threats, Sir, if you please! No threats' ["in a loud voice,"
+finger to nose, and with such eyes looking in upon me].
+
+HYNDFORD (heavily coming to the rescue). "'Am sure his Excellency is
+far from such meaning, Sire. His Excellency will advance nothing so very
+contrary to his Instructions.'--Podewils too put in something proper" in
+the appeasing way.
+
+ROBINSON. "'Sire, I am not talking of what this Power or that means to
+do; but of what will come of itself. To prophesy is not to threaten,
+Sire! It is my zeal for the Public that brought me hither; and--'
+
+KING. "'The Public will be much obliged to you, Monsieur! But hear me.
+With respect to Russia, you know how matters stand. From the King of
+Poland I have nothing to fear. As for the King of England,--he is my
+relation [dear Uncle, in the Pawnbroker sense], he is my all: if he
+don't attack me, I won't him. And if he do, the Prince of Anhalt [Old
+Dessauer out at Gottin yonder] will take care of him.'
+
+ROBINSON. "'The common news now is [rumor in Diplomatic circles, rather
+below the truth this time], your Majesty, after the 12th of August, will
+join the French. [King looks fixedly at him in silence.] Sire, I venture
+to hope not! Austria prefers your friendship; but if your Majesty
+disdain Austria's advances, what is it to do? Austria must throw
+itself entirely into the hands of France,--and endeavor to outbid your
+Majesty.' [King quite silent.]
+
+"King was quite silent upon this head," says Robinson, reporting:
+silence, guesses Robinson, founded most probably upon his "consciousness
+of guilt"--what I, florid Yorkshire Gentleman, call GUILT, as being
+against the Cause of Liberty and us!"From time to time he threw out
+remarks on the advantageousness of his situation:--"
+
+KING.... "'At the head of such an Army, which the Enemy has already
+made experience of; and which is ready for the Enemy again, if he have
+appetite! With the Country which alone I am concerned with, conquered
+and secured behind me; a Country that alone lies convenient to me; which
+is all I want, which I now have; which I will and must keep! Shall I be
+bought out of this country? Never! I will sooner perish in it, with all
+my troops. With what face shall I meet my Ancestors, if I abandon my
+right, which they have transmitted to me? My first enterprise; and to
+be given up lightly?'"--With more of the like sort; which Friedrich,
+in writing of it long after, seems rather ashamed of; and would fain
+consider to have been mock fustian, provoked by the real fustian of Sir
+Thomas Robinson, "who negotiated in a wordy high-droning way, as if he
+were speaking in Parliament," says Friedrich (a Friedrich not taken
+with that style of eloquence, and hoping he rather quizzed it than was
+serious with it, [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ ii. 84.]--though Robinson and
+Hyndford found in him no want of vehement seriousness, but rather the
+reverse!)--He concludes: "Have I need of Peace? Let those who need it
+give me what I want; or let them fight me again, and be beaten again.
+Have not they given whole Kingdoms to Spain? [Naples, at one swoop, to
+the Termagant; as broken glass, in that Polish-Election freak!] And to
+me they cannot spare a few trifling Principalities? If the Queen does
+not now grant me all I require, I shall in four weeks demand Four
+Principalities more! [Nay, I now do it, being in sibylline tune.] I
+now demand the whole of Lower Silesia, Breslau included;--and with that
+Answer you can return to Vienna.'
+
+ROBINSON. "'With that Answer: is your Majesty serious?'
+
+KING. "'With that.'" A most vehement young King; no negotiating with
+him, Sir Thomas! It is like negotiating for the Sibyl's Books: the
+longer you bargain, the higher he will rise. In four weeks, time he will
+demand Four Principalities more; nay, already demands them, the whole of
+Lower Silesia and Breslau. A precious negotiation I have made of it! Sir
+Thomas, wide-eyed, asks a second time:--
+
+ROBINSON. "'Is that your Majesty's deliberate answer?'
+
+KING. "'Yes, I say! That is my Answer; and I will never give another.'
+
+HYNDFORD and ROBINSON (much flurried, to Podewils). "'Your Excellency,
+please to comprehend, the Proposals from Vienna were--'
+
+KING. "'Messieurs, Messieurs, it is of no use even to think of it.' And
+taking off his hat," slightly raising his hat, as salutation and finale,
+"he retired precipitately behind the curtain of the interior corner of
+the tent," says the reporter: EXIT King!
+
+ROBINSON (totally flurried, to Podewils). "'Your Excellency, France will
+abandon Prussia, will sacrifice Prussia to self-interest.'
+
+PODEWILS. "'No, no! France will not deceive us; we have not deceived
+France.'" (SCENE CLOSES; CURTAIN FALLS.) [State-Paper Office (Robinson
+to Harrington, Breslau, 9th August, 1741); Raumer, pp. 106-110. Compare
+_OEuvres de Frederic,_ ii. 84; and Valori, i. 119, 122.]
+
+The unsuccessfulest negotiation well imaginable by a public man.
+Strehlen, Monday, 7th August, 1741:--Friedrich has vanished into the
+interior of his tent; and the two Diplomatic gentlemen, the wind struck
+out of them in this manner, remain gazing at one another. Here truly is
+a young Royal gentleman that knows his own mind, while so many do not.
+Unspeakable imbroglio of negotiations, mostly insane, welters over all
+the Earth; the Belleisles, the Aulic Councils, the British Georges,
+heaping coil upon coil: and here, notably, in that now so extremely
+sordid murk of wiggeries, inane diplomacies and solemn deliriums, dark
+now and obsolete to all creatures, steps forth one little Human
+Figure, with something of sanity in it: like a star, like a gleam
+of steel,--shearing asunder your big balloons, and letting out their
+diplomatic hydrogen;--salutes with his hat, "Gentlemen, Gentlemen, it
+is of no use!" and vanishes into the interior of his tent. It is to
+Excellency Robinson, among all the sons of Adam then extant, that we owe
+this interesting Passage of History,--authentic glimpse, face to face,
+of the young Friedrich in those extraordinary circumstances: every
+feature substantially as above, and recognizable for true. Many
+Despatches his Excellency wrote in this world,--sixty or eighty volumes
+of them still left,--but among them is this One: the angriest of mankind
+cannot say that his Excellency lived and embassied quite in vain!
+
+The Two Britannic Gentlemen, both on that distressing Monday and the day
+following, had the honor to dine with the King: who seemed in exuberant
+spirits; cutting and bantering to right and left; upon the Court of
+Vienna, among other topics, in a way which I Robinson "will not repeat
+to your Lordship." Bade me, for example, "As you pass through Neisse,
+make my compliments to Marshal Neipperg; and you can say, Excellency
+Robinson, that I hope to have the pleasure of calling, one of these
+days!"--Podewils, who was civil, pressed us much to stay over Wednesday,
+the 9th. "On Thursday is to be a Grand Review, one of the finest
+military sights; to which the Excellencies from Breslau, one and all,
+are coming out." But we, having our Despatches and Expresses on hand,
+pleaded business, and declined, in spite of Podewils's urgencies. And
+set off for Breslau, Wednesday, morning,--meeting various Excellencies,
+by degrees all the Excellencies, on the road for that Review we had
+heard of.
+
+Readers must accept this Robinsoniad as the last of Friedrich's
+Diplomatic performances at Strehlen, which in effect it nearly was; and
+from these instances imagine his way in such things. Various Letters
+there are, to Jordan principally, some to Algarotti; both of whom he
+still keeps at Breslau, and sends for, if there is like to be an hour of
+leisure. The Letters indicate cheerfulness of humor, even levity, in the
+Writer; which is worth noting, in this wild clash of things now tumbling
+round him, and looking to him as its centre: but they otherwise, though
+heartily and frankly written, are, to Jordan and us, as if written
+from the teeth outward; and throw no light whatever either on things
+befalling, or on Friedrich's humor under them. Reading diligently, we do
+notice one thing, That the talk about "fame (GLOIRE)" has died out. Not
+the least mention now of GLOIRE;--perception now, most probably, that
+there are other things than "GLOIRE" to be had by taking arms; and that
+War is a terribly grave thing, lightly as one may go into it at
+first! This small inference we do negatively draw, from the Friedrich
+Correspondence of those months: and except this, and the levity of humor
+noticeable, we practically get no light whatever from it; the practical
+soul and soul's business of Friedrich being entirely kept veiled there,
+as usual.
+
+And veiled, too, in such a way that you do not notice any veil,--the
+young King being, as we often intimate, a master in this art. Which
+useful circumstance has done him much ill with readers and mankind. For
+if you intend to interest readers,--that is to say, idle neighbors, and
+fellow-creatures in need of gossip,--there is nothing like unveiling
+yourself: witness Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many other poor waste
+creatures, going off in self-conflagration, for amusement of the parish,
+in that manner. But may not a man have something other on hand with his
+Existence than that of "setting fire to it [such the process terribly
+IS], to show the people a fine play of colors, and get himself
+applauded, and pathetically blubbered over?" Alas, my friends!--
+
+It is certain there was seldom such a life-element as this of
+Friedrich's in Summer, 1741. Here is the enormous jumbling of a World
+broken loose; boiling as in very chaos; asking of him, him more than
+any other, "How? What?" Enough to put GLOIRE out of his head; and awaken
+thoughts,--terrors, if you were of apprehensive turn! Surely no young
+man of twenty-nine more needed all the human qualities than
+Friedrich now. The threatenings, the seductions, big Belleisle
+hallucinations,--the perils to you infinite, if you MISS the road.
+Friedrich did not miss it, as is well known; he managed to pick it out
+from that enormous jumble of the elements, and victoriously arrived by
+it, he alone of them all. Which is evidence of silent or latent faculty
+in him, still more wonderful than the loud-resounding ones of which the
+world has heard. Probably there was not, in his history, any chapter
+more significant of human faculty than this, which is not on record at
+all.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III. -- GRAND REVIEW AT STREHLEN: NEIPPERG TAKES AIM AT BRESLAU,
+BUT ANOTHER HITS IT.
+
+A day or two before that famous Audience of Hyndford and Robinson's,
+Neipperg had quitted his impregnable Camp at Neisse, and taken the
+field again; in the hope of perhaps helping Robinson's Negotiation by an
+inverse method. Should Robinson's offers not prove attractive enough,
+as is to be feared, a push from behind may have good effects.
+Neipperg intends to have a stroke on Breslau; to twitch Breslau out of
+Friedrich's hands, by a private manoeuvre on new resources that have
+offered themselves. [_ Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 982, and ii. 227.]
+
+In Breslau, which is by great majority Protestant in creed and warmly
+Prussian in temper, there has been no oppression or unfair usage heard
+of to any class of persons; and certainly in the matter of Protestant
+and Catholic, there has been perfect equality observed. True, the change
+from favor and ascendency to mere equality, is not in itself welcome to
+human creatures:--one conceives, for various reasons of lower and higher
+nature, a minority of discontented individuals in Breslau, zealous for
+their creed and old perquisites sacred and profane; who long in secret,
+sometimes vocally to one another, for the good old times,--when souls
+were not liable to perish wholesale, and people guilty only of loyalty
+and orthodoxy to be turned out of their offices on suspicion. Friedrich
+says, it was mainly certain zealous Old Ladies of Quality who went into
+this adventure; and from whispering to one another, got into speaking,
+into meeting in one another's houses for the purpose of concerting
+and contriving. [_OEuvres,_ ii. 82, 83.] Zealous Old Ladies
+of Quality,--these we consider were the Talking-Apparatus or
+Secret-Parliament of the thing: but it is certain one or two Official
+Gentlemen (Syndic Guzmar for instance, and others NOT yet become
+Ex-Official) had active hand in it, and furnished the practical ideas.
+
+Continual Correspondence there was with Vienna, by those Old Ladies;
+Guzmar and the others shy of putting pen to paper, and only doing it
+where indispensable. Zealous Addresses go to her Hungarian Majesty, "Oh,
+may the Blessed Virgin assist your Majesty!"--accompanied, it is said,
+with Subscriptions of money (poor old souls); and what is much more
+dangerous and feasible, there goes prompt notice to Neipperg of
+everything the Prussian Army undertakes, and the Postscript always,
+"Come and deliver us, your Excellency." Of these latter Documents, I
+have heard of some with Syndic Guzmar's and other Official hands to
+them. Generally such things can, through accidental Pandour channels,
+were there no other, easily reach Neipperg; though they do not always.
+Enough, could Neipperg appear at the Gates of Breslau, in some concerted
+night-hour, or push out suitable Detachment on forced-march that
+way,--it is evident to him he would be let in; might smother the few
+Prussians that are in the Dom Island, and get possession of the Enemy's
+principal Magazine and the Metropolis of the Province. Might not the
+Enemy grow more tractable to Robinson's seductions in such case?
+
+Neipperg marches from Neisse (1st-6th August) with his whole Army; first
+some thirty miles westward up the right or southern bank of the
+Neisse; then crosses the Neisse, and circles round to northward, giving
+Friedrich wide room: [Orlich, i. 130, 133.] that night of Robinson's
+Audience, when Friedrich was so merry at dinner, Neipperg was engaged
+in crossing the River; the second night after, Neipperg lay encamped and
+intrenched at Baumgarten (old scene of Friedrich's Pandour Adventure),
+while Hyndford and Robinson had got back to Breslau. In another day
+or so, he may hope to be within forced-march of Breslau, to detach
+Feldmarschall Browne or some sharp head; and to do a highly considerable
+thing?
+
+Unluckily for Neipperg's Adventure, the Prussians had wind of it, some
+time ago. They have got "a false Sister smuggled into that Old-Ladies'
+Committee," who has duly reported progress; nay they have intercepted
+something in Syndic Guzmar's own hand: and everything is known to
+Friedrich. The Protestant population, and generally the practical quiet
+part of the Breslauers, are harassed with suspicion of some such thing,
+but can gain no certainty, nor understand what to do. Protestants
+especially, who have been so zealous, "who were seen dropping down on
+the streets to pray, while the muffled thunder came from Mollwitz that
+day," [Ranke, ii. 289.]--fancy how it would now be, were the tables
+suddenly turned, and indignant Orthodoxy made supreme again, with memory
+fresh! But, in fact, there is no danger whatever to them. Schwerin
+has orders about Breslau; Schwerin and the Young Dessauer are maturely
+considering how to manage.
+
+Readers recollect how Podewils pressed the Two Britannic Excellencies to
+stay in Strehlen a day or two longer: "Grand Review, with festivities,
+just on hand; whole of the Foreign Ministers in Breslau invited out to
+see it,"--though Hyndford and Robinson would not consent; but left on
+the 9th, meeting the others at different points of the road. Next
+day, Thursday, 10th August, was in fact a great day at Strehlen; grand
+muster, manoeuvring of cavalry above all, whom Friedrich is delighted to
+find so perfect in their new methods; riding as if they were centaurs,
+horse and man one entity; capable of plunging home, at full gallop, in
+coherent masses upon an enemy, and doing some good with him. "Neipperg's
+Croat-people, and out-pickets on the distant Hill-sides, witnessed
+these manoeuvres," [Ranke, ii. 288.] I know not with what criticism.
+Furthermore, about noon-time, there was heard (mark it, reader) a
+distant cannon-shot, one and no more, from the Northern side; which gave
+his Majesty a lively pleasure, though he treated it as nothing. All the
+Foreign Ministers were on the ground; doubtless with praises, so far as
+receivable; and in the afternoon came festivities not a few. A great day
+in Strehlen:--but in Breslau a much greater; which explained, to our Two
+Excellencies, why Podewils had been so pressing!
+
+August 10th, at six in the morning, Schwerin, and under him the Young
+Dessauer,--who had arrived in the Southwestern suburbs of Breslau
+overnight, with 8,000 foot and horse, and had posted themselves in a
+vigilant Anti-Neipperg manner there, and laid all their plans,--appear
+at the Nicolai Gate; and demand, in the common way, transit for their
+regiments and baggages: "bound Northward," as appears; "to Leubus,"
+where something of Pandour sort has fallen out. So many troops or
+companies at a time, that is the rule; one quantity of companies you
+admit; then close and bolt, till it have marched across and out at the
+opposite Gate; after which, open again for a second lot. But in this
+case,--owing to accident (very unusual) of a baggage-wagon breaking
+down, and people hurrying to help it forward,--the whole regiment gets
+in, escorted as usual by the Town-guard. Whole regiment; and marches,
+not straight through; but at a certain corner strikes off leftward to
+the Market-place; where, singular to say, it seems inclined to pause
+and rearrange itself a little. Nay, more singular still, other
+regiments (owing to like accidents), from other Gates, join it;--and--in
+fact--"Herr Major of the Town-guard, in the King's name, you are
+required to ground arms!" What can the Town Major do; Prussian
+grenadiers, cannoneers, gravely environing him? He sticks his sword into
+the scabbard, an Ex-Town Major; and Breslau City is become Friedrich's,
+softly like a movement during drill. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 982, n.
+227, 268; Adelung, ii. 439; Stenzel, iv. 152.]
+
+Not the least mistake occurred. Cannon with case-shot planted themselves
+in all the thoroughfares, Horse-patrols went circulating everywhere;
+Town-arsenal, gates, walls, are laid hold of; Town-guards all disarmed,
+rather "with laughter on their part" than otherwise: "Majesty perhaps
+will give us muskets of his own;--well!" The operation altogether
+did not last above an hour-and-half, and nobody's skin got scratched.
+Towards 9 A.M. Schwerin summoned the Town Dignitaries to their Rathhaus
+to swear fealty; who at once complied; and on his stepping out with
+proposal, to the general population, of "a cheer for King Friedrich,
+Duke of Lower Silesia," the poor people rent the skies with their
+"Friedrich and Silesia forever!" which they repeated, I think, seven
+times. Upon which Schwerin fired off his signal-cannon, pointing to the
+South; where other posts and cannons took up the sound, and pushed it
+forward, till, as we noticed, it got to Friedrich in few minutes, on the
+review-ground at Strehlen; right welcome to him, among the manoeuvrings
+there. Protestant Breslau or cordwainer Doblin cannot lament such a
+result; still less dare the devout Old Ladies of Quality openly lament,
+who are trembling to the heart, poor old creatures, though no evil came
+of it to them; penitent, let off for the fright; checking even their
+aspirations henceforth.
+
+Syndic Guzmar and the peccant Officials being summoned out to Strehlen,
+it had been asked of them, "Do you know this Letter?" Upon which
+they fell on their knees, "ACH IHRO MAJESTAT!" unable to deny their
+handwriting; yet anxious to avoid death on the scaffold, as Friedrich
+said was usual under such behavior; and were sent home, after a few
+hours of arrest. [Orlich, i. 134; _Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 228.]
+Schwerin (as King's substitute till the King himself one day arrive)
+continued to take the Homaging, and to make the many new arrangements
+needful. All which went off in a soft and pleasantly harmonious
+manner;--only the Jesuits scrupling a little to swear as yet; and
+getting gently sent their ways, with revenues stopt in consequence.
+Otherwise the swearing, which lasted for several days, was to appearance
+a joyful process, and on the part of the general population an
+enthusiastic one, "ES LEBE KONIG FRIEDRICH!" rising to the welkin
+with insatiable emphasis, seven times over, on the least signal given.
+Neipperg's Adventure, and Orthodox Female Parliament, have issued in
+this sadly reverse manner.
+
+Robinson and Hyndford have to witness these phenomena; Robinson to shoot
+off for Presburg again, with the worst news in the world. Queen and
+Hofraths have been waiting in agony of suspense, "Will Friedrich bargain
+on those gentle terms, and help us with 100,000 men?" Far from it, my
+friends; how far! "My most important intelligence," writes the Russian
+Envoy there, some days ago, ["5 August, 1741," not said to whom (in
+Ranke, ii. 324 n.).] "is, that a Bavarian War has broken out, that
+Kur-Baiern is in Passau. God grant that Monsieur Robinson may succeed in
+his negotiation! All here are in the completest irresolution, and total
+inactivity, till Monsieur Robinson return, or at least send news of
+himself."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV. -- FRIEDRICH TAKES THE FIELD AGAIN, INTENT ON HAVING NEISSE.
+
+This Breslau Adventure, which had yielded Friedrich so important
+an acquisition, was furthermore the cause of ending these Strehlen
+inactivities, and of recommencing field operations. August 11th,
+Neipperg, provoked by the grievous news just come from Breslau, pushes
+suddenly forward on Schweidnitz, by way of consolation; Schweidnitz,
+not so strong as it might be made, where the Prussians have a principal
+Magazine: "One might at least seize that?" thinks Neipperg, in his
+vexed humor. But here too Friedrich was beforehand with him; broke out,
+rapidly enough, to Reichenbach, westward, which bars the Neipperg
+road to Schweidnitz: upon which,--or even before which (on rumor of it
+coming, which was not YET true),--Neipperg, half done with his
+first day's march, called halt; prudently turned back, and hastened,
+Baumgarten way, to his strong Camp at Frankenstein again. His hope in
+the Schweidnitz direction had lasted only a few hours; a hope springing
+on the mere spur of pique, soon recognizable by him as futile; and now
+anxieties for self-preservation had succeeded it on Neipperg's part.
+For now Friedrich actually advances on him, in a menacing manner, hardly
+hoping Neipperg will fight; but determined to have done with the Neisse
+business, in spite of strong camps and cunctations, if it be possible.
+[Orlich, i. 137, 138.]
+
+It was August 16th, when Friedrich stirred out of Strehlen; August 21st,
+when he encamped at Reichenbach. Till September 7th, he kept manoeuvring
+upon Neipperg, who counter-manoeuvred with vigilance, good judgment,
+and would not come to action: September 7th, Friedrich, weary of these
+hagglings, dashed off for Neisse itself, hoped to be across Neisse
+River, and be between Neisse Town and Neipperg, before Neipperg could
+get up. There would then be no method of preventing the Siege of Neisse,
+except by a Battle: so Friedrich had hoped; but Neipperg again proved
+vigilant.
+
+Accordingly, September 11th, Friedrich's Vanguard was actually across
+the Neisse; had crossed at a place called Woitz, and had there got Two
+Pontoon Bridges ready, when Friedrich, in the evening, came up with
+the main Army, intending to cross;--and was astonished to find Neipperg
+taking up position, in intricate ground, near by, on the opposite side!
+Ground so intricate, hills, bogs, bushes of wood, and so close upon the
+River, there was no crossing possible; and Friedrich's Vanguard had
+to be recalled. Two days of waiting, of earnest ocular study; no
+possibility visible. On the third day, Friedrich, gathering in his
+pontoons overnight, marched off, down stream: Neisse-wards, but on the
+left or north bank of the River; passed Neisse Town (the River between
+him and it); and encamped at Gross Neundorf, several miles from Neipperg
+and the River. Neipperg, at an equal step, has been wending towards his
+old Camp, which lies behind Neisse, between Neisse and the Hills: there,
+a river in front, dams and muddy inundations all round him, begirt with
+plentiful Pandours, Neipperg waits what Friedrich will attempt from
+Gross Neundorf.
+
+From Gross Neundorf, Friedrich persists twelve days (13th-25th
+September), studying, endeavoring; mere impossibility ahead. And by this
+time (what is much worth noting), Hyndford, silently quitting Breslau,
+has got back to these scenes of war, occasionally visible in Friedrich's
+Camp again;--on important mysterious business; which will have results.
+Valori also is here in Camp; these two Excellencies jealously eying one
+another; both of them with teeth rather on edge,--Europe having suddenly
+got into such a plunge (as if the highest mountains were falling
+into the deepest seas) since Friedrich began this Neipperg problem of
+his;--in which, after twelve days, he sees mere impossibility ahead.
+
+On the twelfth day, Friedrich privately collects himself for a new
+method: marches, soon after midnight, [26th September, 2 A.M.: Orlich,
+i. 144.] fifteen miles down the River (which goes northward in this
+part, as the reader may remember); crosses, with all his appurtenances,
+unmolested; and takes camp a few miles inland, or on the right bank, and
+facing towards Neisse again. He intends to be in upon Neipperg front the
+rear quarter; and cut him off from Mahren and his daily convoys of food.
+"Daily food cut off,--the thickest-skinned rhinoceros, the wildest lion,
+cannot stand that: here, for Neipperg, is one point on which all his
+embankments and mud-dams will not suffice him!" thinks Friedrich.
+Certain preliminary operations, and military indispensabilities, there
+first are for Friedrich,--Town of Oppeln to be got, which commands the
+Oder, our rearward highway; Castle of Friedland, and the country between
+Oder and Neisse Rivers:--while these preliminary things are being
+done (September 28th-October 3d), Friedrich in person gradually pushes
+forward towards Neipperg, reconnoitring, bickering with Croats: October
+3d, preliminaries done, Neipperg's rear had better look to itself.
+
+Neipperg, well enough seeing what was meant, has by this time come out
+of his mud-dams and impregnabilities; and advanced a few miles towards
+Friedrich. Neipperg lies now encamped in the Hamlet of Griesau, a little
+way behind Steinau,--poor Steinau, which the reader saw on fire one
+night, when Friedrich and we were in those parts, in Spring last.
+Friedrich's Camp is about five miles from Neipperg's on the other side
+of Steinau. A tolerable champaign country; I should think, mostly in
+stubble at this season. Nearly midway between these two Camps is a
+pretty Schloss called Klein-Schnellendorf, occupied by Neipperg's Croats
+just now, of which Prince Lobkowitz (he, if I remember, but it
+matters nothing), an Austrian General of mark, far away at present, is
+proprietor.
+
+Friedrich's Oppeln preparations are about complete; and he intends to
+advance straightway. "Hold, for Heaven's sake, your Majesty!" exclaims
+Hyndford; getting hold of him one day (waylaying him, in fact; for it
+is difficult, owing to Valori); "Wait, wait; I have just been to the--to
+the Camp of Neipperg," silently gesticulates Hyndford: "Within a week
+all shall be right, and not a drop of blood shed!" Friedrich answers, by
+silence chiefly, to the effect, "Tush, tush;" but not quite negatively,
+and does in effect wait. We had better give the snatch of Dialogue in
+primitive authentic form; date is, Camp of Neundorf, September 22d:--
+
+FRIEDRICH (pausing impatiently, on the way towards his tent). "'MILORD,
+DE QUOI S'AGIT-IL A PRESENT (What is it now, then)?'
+
+HYNDFORD. "'Should much desire to have some assurance from your Majesty
+with regard to that neutrality of Hanover you were pleased to promise.'
+All else is coming right; hastening towards beautiful settlement, were
+that settled.
+
+FRIEDRICH. "'Have not I great reason to be dissatisfied with your Court?
+Britannic Majesty, as King of England and as Elector of Hanover, is
+wonderful! Milord, when you say a thing is white, Schweichelt, the
+Hanoverian Excellency, calls it black, and VICE VERSA. But I will do
+your King no harm; none, I say! Follow me to dinner; dinner is cold by
+this time; and we have made more than one person think of us. Swift!
+[and EXIT].'" [Hyndford's Despatch, Neisse, 4th October, 1741.]
+
+This is a strange motion on the part of Hyndford; but Friedrich,
+severely silent to it, understands it very well; as readers soon will,
+when they hear farther. But marvellous things have happened on the
+sudden! In these three weeks, since the Camp of Strehlen broke up, there
+have been such Events; strategic, diplomatic: a very avalanche of ruin,
+hurling Austria down to the Nadir; of which it is now fit that the
+reader have some faint conception, an adequate not being possible for
+him or me:--
+
+"AUGUST l5th, 1741. Robinson reappears in Presburg; and precious surely
+are the news he brings to an Aulic Council fallen back in its chairs,
+and staring with the wind struck out of it. Their expected Seizure
+of Breslau gone heels over head, in that way; Friedrich imperiously
+resolute, gleaming like the flash of steel amid these murky
+imbecilities, and without the Cession of Silesia no Peace to be made
+with him! And all this is as nothing, to news which arrives just on the
+back of Robinson, from another quarter.
+
+"AUGUST 15th-21st. French Army of 40,000 men, special Army of Belleisle,
+sedulously equipt and completed, visibly crosses the Rhine at Fort Louis
+(an Island Fortress in the Rhine, thirty miles below Strasburg; STONES
+of it are from the old Schloss of Hagenau);--steps over deliberately
+there; and on the sixth day is all on German ground. These troops, to
+be commanded by Belleisle, so soon as he can join them, are to be the
+Elector of Bavaria's troops, Kur-Baiern Generalissimo over Belleisle and
+them; [_Fastes de Louis XV.,_ ii. 264.] and they are on rapid march to
+join that ambitious Kurfurst, in his Passau Expedition; and probably
+submerge Vienna itself.
+
+"And what is this we hear farther, O Robinson, O Excellencies Hyndford,
+Schweichelt and Company: That another French Army, of the same strength,
+under Maillebois, has in the self-same days gone across the Lower Rhine
+(at Kaisersworth, an hour's ride below Dusseldorf)! At Kaisersworth;
+ostensibly for comforting and strengthening Kur-Koln (the lanky
+Ecclesiastical Gentleman, Kur-Baiern's Brother), their excellent ally,
+should anybody meddle with him. Ostensibly for this; but in reality to
+keep the Sea-Powers, and especially George of England quiet. It marches
+towards Osnabruck, this Maillebois Army; quarters itself up and down,
+looking over into Hanover,--able to eat Hanover, especially if joined by
+the Prussians and Old Leopold, at any moment.
+
+"These things happen in this month of August, close upon the rear of
+that steel-shiny scene in the Tent at Strehlen, where Friedrich lifted
+his hat, saying, ''T is of no use, Messieurs!'--which was followed by
+the seizure of Breslau the wrong way. Never came such a cataract of evil
+news on an Aulic Council before. The poor proud people, all these months
+they have been sitting torpid, helpless, loftily stupid, like dumb
+idols; 'in flat despair,' as Robinson says once, 'only without the
+strength to be desperate.'
+
+"Sure enough the Sea-Powers are checkmated now. Let them make the least
+attempt in favor of the Queen, if they dare. Holland can be overrun,
+from Osnabruck quarter, at a day's warning. Little George has his
+Hanoverians, his subsidized Hessians, Danes, in Hanover, his English on
+Lexden Heath: let him come one step over the marches, Maillebois and
+the Old Dessauer swallow him. It is a surprising stroke of
+theatrical-practical Art; brought about, to old Fleury's sorrow, by
+the genius of Belleisle, aud they say of Madame Chateauroux; enough to
+strike certain Governing Persons breathless, for some time; and denotes
+that the Universal Hurricane, or World-Tornado, has broken out. It is
+not recorded of little George that he fell back in his chair, or stared
+wider than usual with those fish-eyes: but he discerned well, glorious
+little man, that here is left no shadow of a chance by fighting; that he
+will have to sit stock-still, under awful penalties; and that if Maria
+Theresa will escape destruction, she must make her peace with Friedrich
+at any price."
+
+This fine event, 80,000 French actually across the Rhine, happened
+in the very days while Friedrich and Neipperg had got into wrestle
+again,--Neipperg just off from that rash march for Schweidnitz, and
+whirling back on rumor (15th August), while the first instalment of the
+French were getting over. Friedrich must admit that the French fulfil
+their promises so far. A week ago or more, they made the Swedes
+declare War against Russia, as covenanted. War is actually declared,
+at Stockholm, August 4th, the Faction of Hats prevailing over that of
+Nightcaps, after terrible debates and efforts about the mere declaring
+of it, as if that alone were the thing needed. We mentioned this War
+already, and would not willingly again. One of the most contemptible
+Wars ever declared or carried on; but useful to Friedrich, as keeping
+Russia off his hands, at a critical time, and conclusively forbidding
+help to Austria from that quarter.
+
+Marechal de Belleisle, wrapt in Diplomatic and Electioneering business,
+cannot personally take command for the present; but has excellent
+lieutenants,--one of whom is Comte de Saxe, Moritz our old friend,
+afterwards Marechal de Saxe. Among the finest French Armies, this of
+Belleisle's is thought to be, that ever took the field: so many of
+our Nobility in it, and what best Officers, Segurs, Saxes, future
+Marechal's, we have. Army full of spirit and splendor; come to cut
+Germany in four, and put France at last in its place in the Universe.
+Here is courage, here is patriotism, of a sort. And if this is not the
+good sort, the divinely pious, the humanly noble,--Fashionable Society
+feels it to be so, and can hit no nearer. New-fashioned "Army of the
+Oriflamme," one might call this of Belleisle's; kind of Sham-Sacred
+French Army (quite in earnest, as it thinks);--led on, not by St. Denis
+and the Virgin, but by Sun-god Belleisle and the Chateauroux, under
+these sad new conditions! Which did not prosper as expected.
+
+"Let the Holy German Reich take no offence," said this Army, eager to
+conciliate: "we come as friends merely; our intentions charitable,
+and that only. Bavarian Treaty of Nymphenburg (18th May last) binds us
+especially, this time; Treaty of Westphalia binds us sacredly at all
+times. Peaceable to you, nay brotherly, if only you will be peaceable!"
+Which the poor Reich, all but Austria and the Sea-Powers, strove what it
+could to believe.
+
+On reaching the German shore out of Elsass, "every Officer put, the
+Bavarian Colors, cockade of blue-and-white, on his hat;" [Adelung,
+ii. 431.] a mere "Bavarian Army," don't you see? And the 40,000 wend
+steadily forward through Schwaben eastward, till they can join Karl
+Albert Kur-Baiern, who is Generalissimo, or has the name of such.
+They march in Seven Divisions. Donauworth (a Town we used to know, in
+Marlborough's time and earlier) is to be their first resting-point;
+Ingolstadt their place-of-arms: will readers recollect those two
+essential circumstances? To Donauworth is 250 miles; to Passau will be
+180 more: five or six long weeks of marching. But after Donauworth
+they are to go, the Infantry of them are, in boats; Horse, under
+Saxe, marching parallel. Forward, ever forward, to Passau (properly to
+Scharding, twelve miles up the Inn Valley, where his Bavarian Highness
+is in Camp); and thence, under his Bavarian Highness, and in concert
+with him, to pour forth, deluge-like, upon Linz, probably upon Vienna
+itself, down the Donau Valley,--why not to Vienna itself, and ruin
+Austria at one swoop? [Espagnac, _Histoire de Maurice Comte de Saxe_
+(German Translation, Leipzig, 1774), i. 83:--an excellent military
+compend. _Campagnes des Trois Marechaux_ (Maillebois, Broglio,
+Belleisle: Armsterdam. 1773), ii. 53-56:--in nine handy little volumes
+(or if we include the NOAILLES and the COIGNY set, making "CING
+MARECHAUX," nineteen volumes in all, and a twentieth for INDEX);
+consisting altogether of Official Letters (brief, rapid, meant for
+business, NOT for printing in the Newspapers); which are elucidative
+BEYOND bargain, and would even be amusing to read,--were the topic
+itself worth one's time.]
+
+The second or Maillebois French Army spreads itself, by degrees,
+considerably over Westphalia;--straitened for forage, and otherwise
+not the best of neighbors. But, in theory, in speech, this too was
+abundantly conciliatory,--to the Dutch at least. "Nothing earthly in
+view, nothing, ye magnanimous Dutch, except to lodge here in the most
+peaceable manner, paying our way, and keep down disturbances that might
+arise in these parts. That might arise; not from you, ye magnanimous
+High Mightinesses, how far from it! Nor will we meddle with one broken
+brick of your respectable Barrier, or Barrier Treaty, which is sacred
+to us, or do you the shadow of an injury. No; a thousand times, upon
+our honor, No!" For brevity's sake, I lend them that locution, "No, a
+thousand times,"--and in actual arithmetic, I should think there are
+at least four or five hundred times of it,--in those extinct Diplomatic
+Eloquences of Excellency Fenelon and the other French;--vaguely
+counting, in one's oppressed imagination, during the Two Years that
+ensue. For the Dutch lazily believed, or strove to believe, this No of
+Fenelon's; and took an obstinate laggard sitting posture, in regard
+to Pragmatic Sanction; whereby the task of "hoisting" them (as above
+hinted), which fell upon a certain King, became so famous in Diplomatic
+History.
+
+Imagination may faintly picture what a blow this advent of Maillebois
+was to his Britannic Majesty, over in Herrenhausen yonder! He has had
+of Danes six thousand, of Hessians six, of Hanoverians sixteen,--in all
+some 30,000 men, on foot here since Spring last, camping about (in two
+formidable Camps at this moment); not to mention the 6,000 of English on
+Lexden Heath, eager to be shipped across, would Parliament permit; and
+now--let him stir in any direction if he dare. Camp of Gottin like a
+drawn sword at one's throat (at one's Hanover) from the east; and lo,
+here a twin fellow to it gleaming from the south side! Maillebois
+can walk into the throat of Hanover at a day's warning. And such was
+actually the course proposed by Maillebois's Government, more than
+once, in these weeks, had not Friedrich dissuaded and forbidden. It is
+a strangling crisis. What is his Britannic Majesty to do? Send orders,
+"Double YOUR diligence, Excellency Robinson!" that is one clear point;
+the others are fearfully insoluble, yet pressing for solution: in a six
+weeks hence (September 27th), we shall see what they issue in!--
+
+As for Robinson, he is duly with the Queen at Presburg; duly conjuring
+incessantly, "Make your peace with Friedrich!" And her Majesty will not,
+on the terms. Poor Robinson, urged two ways at once, is flurried doubly
+and trebly; tossed about as Diplomatist never was. King of Prussia
+flashes lightning-looks upon him, clapping finger to nose; Maria
+Theresa, knowing he will demand cession of Silesia, shudders at sight of
+him; and the Aulic Council fall into his arms like dead men, murmuring,
+"Money; where is your money?"
+
+"AUGUST 29th. While Friedrich was pushing into Neipperg, in the
+Baumgarten Country, and could get no battle out of him, Excellency
+Robinson reappears at Breslau; Maria Theresa, after deadly efforts on
+his part, has mended her offers, in these terrible circumstances; and
+Robinson is here again. 'Half of Silesia, or almost half, provided his
+Majesty will turn round, and help against the French:' these, secretly,
+are Robinson's rich offers. The Queen, on consenting to these
+new offers, had 'wrung her hands,' like one in despair, and said
+passionately, 'Unless accepted within a fortnight, I will not be bound
+by them!' 'Admit his Excellency to the honor of an interview,' solicits
+Hyndford; 'his offers are much mended.' Notable to witness, Friedrich
+will not see Robinson at all this time, nor even permit Podewils to see
+him; signifies plainly that he wants to hear no more of his offers, and
+that, in fact, the sooner he can take himself away from Breslau, it
+will be the better. To that effect, Robinson, rushing back in mortified
+astonished manner, reports progress at Presburg; to that and no
+better. 'High Madam,' urges Robinson, still indefatigable, 'the King
+of Prussia's help would be life, his hostility is death at this crisis.
+Peace must be with him, at any price!' 'Price?' answers her Majesty
+once: 'If Austria must fall, it is indifferent to me whether it be by
+Kur-Baiern or Kur-Brandenburg!' [Stenzel, iv. 156.] Nevertheless,
+in about a week she again yields to intense conjuring, and the
+ever-tightening pressure of events;--King George, except it be for
+counselling, is become stock-still, with Maillebois's sword at his
+throat; and is, without metaphor, sinking towards absolute neutrality:
+'Cannot help you, Madam, any farther; must not try it, or I perish, my
+Hanover and I!'--So that Maria Theresa again mends her offers: 'Give
+him all Lower Silesia, and he to join with me!' and Robinson post-haste
+despatches a courier to Breslau with them. Notable again: King Friedrich
+will not hear of them; answers by a 'No, I tell you! Time was, time
+is not. I have now joined with France; and to join against it in this
+manner? Talk to me no more!'" [Friedrich to Hyndford: _"Au Camp [de
+Neuendorf] 14me septembre," 1741. "Milord j'ai recu les nouvelles
+propositions d'alliance que l'infatigable Robinson vous envoie. Je les
+trouve aussi chimeriques que les precedentes."--"Ces gens sont-ils fols,
+Milord, de s'imaginer que je commisse la trahison de tourner en leur
+faveur mes armes, et de"--"Je vous prie de ne me plus fatiguer avec
+de pareilles propositions, et de me croire assez honnete homme pour ne
+point violer mes engagements.--_ FREDERIC." (British Museum: Hyndford
+Papers, fol. 133.)]...
+
+Here is a catastrophe for the Two Britannic Excellencies, and the Cause
+of Freedom! Robinson, in dudgeon and amazement, has hurried back to
+Presburg, has ceased sending even couriers; and, in a three weeks hence
+(9th October, a day otherwise notable), wishes "to come home," the game
+being up. [His Letter, "9th October, 1741" (in Lord Mahon's _History of
+England,_ iii. Appendix, p. iii: edit. London, 1839)]. Such is Robinson's
+gloomy view: finished, he, and the game lost,--unless perhaps Hyndford
+could still do something? Of which what hope is there! Hyndford, who
+has a rough sagacity in him, and manifests often a strong sense of the
+practical and the practicable, strikes into--Readers, from the following
+Fragments of Correspondence, now first made public, will gather for
+themselves what new course, veiled in triple mystery, Hyndford had
+struck into. Four bits of Notes, well worth reading, under their
+respective dates:--
+
+1. EXCELLENCY HYNDFORD TO SECRETARY HARRINGTON (Two Notes). "BRESLAU,
+2d SEPTEMBER, 1711 [on the heel of Robinson's second miscarriage].... My
+Lord, all these contretemps are very unlucky at present, when time is
+so precious; for France is pressing the King of Prussia in the strongest
+manner to declare himself; but whatever eventual preliminaries may be
+probably agreed between them, I still doubt if they have any Treaty
+signed"--have had one, any time these three months (since 5th June
+last); signed sufficiently; but of a most fast-and-loose nature; neither
+party intending to be rigorous in keeping it. "I wish to God the Court
+of Vienna may be brought to think before it is too late." [HYNDFORD
+PAPERS (Brit. Mus. Additional MSS. 11,366), ii. fol. 91.]
+
+2. "BRESLAU, 6th SEPTEMBER.... I am not without hopes of succeeding in a
+project which has occurred to me on this occasion, and which seems to be
+pretty well relished by some people [properly by one individual, Goltz,
+the King's Adjutant and factotum], who are in great confidence about
+the King of Prussia's person; and I think it is the only thing that now
+remains to be tried; and as it is the least of two evils, I hope I shall
+have the King my Master's approbation in attempting it; and if the Court
+of Vienna will open their eyes, they must see it is the only thing left
+to save them from utter destruction;"--and, finally, here it is:--
+
+"Since Mr. Robinson left this place,--["Sooner YOU go, the better,
+Sir!"],--"I have been sounding the people afore mentioned, the
+individual afore hinted at, 'Whether the King of Prussia would hearken
+to a Neutrality with respect to the Queen of Hungary, and at the same
+time fulfil his engagements to his Majesty with respect to the defence
+of his Majesty's German Dominions, IF she would give him the Lower
+Silesia with Breslau?' At first they rejected it; saying it was a thing
+they dared not propose. However, I have reason to believe, by a Letter I
+saw this day, that it has been proposed to the King, and that he is not
+absolutely averse to it. I shall know more in a few days; but if it
+can be done at all, it must be done in the very greatest secrecy, for
+neither the King nor his Ministers wish to appear in it; and I question
+if his Minister Podewils will be informed of it." [_Hyndford Papers,_
+fol. 97, 98.]
+
+3. EXCELLENCY ROBINSON (in a flutter of excitement, temporary hope and
+excitement, about Goltz) TO HYNDFORD, AT BRESLAU.
+
+"PRESBURG, 8th SEPTEMBER (N.S.), 1741. My Lord, I could desire your
+Lordship to summon up, if it were necessary, the spirit of all your
+Lordship's Instructions, and the sense of the King, of the Parliament,
+and of the whole British Nation. It is upon this great moment that
+depends the fate, not of the House of Austria, not of the Empire, but
+of the House of Brunswick, of Great Britain, and of all Europe. I verily
+believe the King of Prussia does not himself know the extent of the
+present danger. With whatever motive he may act, there is not one, not
+that of the mildest resentment, that can blind him to this degree,
+of himself perishing in the ruin he is bringing upon others. With his
+concurrence, the French will, in less than six weeks, be masters of
+the German Empire. The weak Elector of Bavaria is but their instrument:
+Prague and Vienna may, and probably will, be taken in that short time.
+Will even the King of Prussia himself be reserved to the last?
+
+"Upon this single transaction [of your Lordship's affair with the
+mysterious individual] depend the CITA MORS, or the VICTORIA LAETA of
+all Europe. Nothing will equal the glory of your Lordship, in the latter
+case, but that to be acquired by the King of Prussia in his immediate
+imitation of the great Sobieski"--reputed "savior of Vienna," O your
+Excellency!... "Prince Lichtenstein will, if found in time upon his
+estates in Bohemia, be, I believe, the person to repair to the King of
+Prussia, the moment your Lordship shall have signed the Preliminaries.
+Once again, give me leave, my Lord, to express my most ardent wishes,
+my"--T. ROBINSON. [_Hyndford Papers,_ fol. 102.]
+
+4. EXCELLENCY HYNDFORD TO SECRETARY HARRINGTON.
+
+"BRESLAU, 9th SEPTEMBER,... Received a message to meet him,"--HIM,
+for we now speak in the singular number, though still without naming
+Goltz,--"one of the persons I mentioned in my former Despatch: in a
+very unsuspected place; for we have agreed to avoid all appearance of
+familiarity. He told me he had received a Letter this morning from
+the Camp,"--Prussian Majesty's Camp, or Bivouac (in the Munsterberg
+Hill-Country), on that march towards Woitz, for crossing the Neisse upon
+Neipperg, which proved impracticable,--"and that he could with pleasure
+tell me that the King agreed to this last trial, although he would not,
+nor could appear in it.... Then this person read to me a Paper, but I
+could not see whether it was the King's hand or not; for when I desired
+to take a copy, he said he could not show me the original; but dictated
+as follows:--
+
+"'Toute la Basse Silesie, la riviere de Neisse pour limite, la ville de
+Neisse a nous, aussi bien que Glatz; de l'autre cote de l'Oder l'ancien
+limite entre les Duches de Brieg et d'Oppeln. Namslau a nous. Les
+affaires de religion IN STATU QUO. Point de dependance de la Boheme;
+cession eternelle. En echange nous n'irons pas plus loin. Nous
+assiegerons Neisse PRO FORMA: le commandant se rendra et sortira. Nous
+prendrons les quartiers tranquillement, et ils pourront mener leur Armee
+oh ils voudront. Que tout cela soit fini en douze jours.'" That is to
+say:--
+
+"'The whole of Lower Silesia, Neisse Town included; Neisse River for
+boundary:--Glatz withal. Beyond the Oder, for the Duchies of Brieg and
+Oppeln the ancient limits. Namslau ours. Affairs of Religion to continue
+IN STATU QUO. No dependence [feudal tie or other, as there used to
+be] on Bohemia; cession of Silesia to be absolute and forever.--We, in
+return, will proceed no farther. We will besiege Neisse for form;
+the Commandant shall surrender and depart. We will pass quietly into
+winter-quarters; and the Austrian Army may go whither it will. Bargain
+to be concluded within twelve days.'" [Coxe (iii. 272) gives this
+Translation, not saying whence he had it.]--Can his Excellency Hyndford
+get Vienna, get Feldmarschall Reipperg with power from Vienna, to
+accept: Yes or No? Excellency Hyndford thinks, Yes; will try his very
+utmost!--
+
+"He (Goltz) then tore the Paper in very small pieces; and he repeated
+again, that if the affair should be discovered, both the King and he
+were determined to deny it.... 'But how about engagements with regard to
+my Master's German Dominions; not a word about that?' He answered, 'You
+have not the least to fear from France;' protested the King of Prussia's
+great regard for his Majesty of England, &c. I told him these fine words
+did not satisfy me; and that if this affair should succeed, I expected
+there should be some stipulation." [_Hyndford Papers,_ fol. 115.]
+Yes; and came, about a fortnight hence, "waylaying his Majesty" to get
+one,--as readers saw above.
+
+Prussian Dryasdust (poor soul, to whom one is often cruel!) shall glad
+himself with the following Two bits of Autography from Goltz, who had
+instantly quitted Breslau again;--and, to us, they will serve as date
+for the actual arrival of Excellency Hyndford in those fighting regions,
+and commencement of his mysterious glidings about between Camp and Camp.
+
+GOLTZ TO THE EXCELLENCY HYNDFORD, AT BRESLAU (most Private).
+
+"AU CAMP DE NEUENDORF, 16me septembre, a 9 heures du seir. (1.)
+"MILORD,--Vons savez que je suis porte pour la bonne cause. Sur ce pied
+je prends la liberte de vous conseiller en ami et serviteur, de venir
+ici incessamment, et de presser votre voyage de sorte que vous puissiez
+paraitre publiquement lundi [18th] vers midi. Vous trouverez 6 (SIC)
+chevaux de postes a Olau et a Grottkau tout prets. Hatez-vous, Milord,
+tout ce que vous pourrez au monde. J'ai l'honneur de" Meaning, in brief
+English:--
+
+"Be at Neundorf here, publicly, on Monday next, 18th, towards noon."
+Things being ripe. "Haste, Milord, haste!"
+
+"Ce 18me a 3 heures apres-midi. (2). "Je suis an desespoir, Milord, de
+votre maladie. Voici le courrier que vous attendiez. Venez le plutot
+que vous pourrez au monde; si non, dites au General Marwitz de quoi
+il s'agit, afin qu'il puisse me le faire savoir.... Le courrier serait
+arrive quatre heures plutot, si nous ne l'avions renvoye au Comte
+Neuberg (SIC) a cause de votre maladie.--GOLTZ." [_Hyndford Papers,_
+fol. 150-152.]--That is to say:--
+
+"Distressed inexpressibly by your Lordship's biliary condition. One
+cannot travel under colic;--and things were so ripe! Courier would have
+reached you four hours sooner, but we had to send him over to Neipperg
+first. Come, oh come!"--Which Hyndford, now himself again, at once does.
+
+This is the Mystery, which, on September 22d, had arrived at that stage,
+indicated above: "Tush! Follow me: Dinner is already falling cold, and
+there are eyes upon us!" And in about another fortnight--But we
+shall have to take the luggage with us, too, what minimum of it is
+indispensable!
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V. -- KLEIN-SCHNELLENDORF: FRIEDRICH GETS NEISSE, IN A FASHION.
+
+While these combined Mysteries and War-movements go on, in Neisse
+and its Environs, the World-Phenomena continue,--in Upper Austria
+and elsewhere. Of which take these select summits, or points chiefly
+luminous in the dusk of the forgotten Past:--
+
+LINZ, SEPTEMBER 14th. Karl Albert, being joined some days ago at
+Scharding by the first three French Divisions, 15,000 men in all (the
+other four Divisions of them are still in the Donauworth-Ingolstadt
+quarter, making their manifold arrangements), has pushed forward, sixty
+miles (land-marches, south side of the Donau, which makes a bend here),
+and this day, September 14th, appears at Linz. Pleasant City of
+Linz; where, as readers may remember, Mr. John Kepler, long ago, busy
+discovering the System of the World (grandest Conquest ever made, or to
+be made, by the Sons of Adam), had his poor CAMERA OBSCURA set out, to
+get himself a livelihood in the interim: here now is Karl Albert's flag
+on the winds, and, as it were, the Oriflamme with it, on a singularly
+different Adventure. "Open Gates!" demands Karl Albert with authority:
+"Admit me to my Capital of Upper Austria!" Which cannot be denied him,
+there being nothing but Town-guards in the place.
+
+Karl Albert continued there some weeks, in a serenely victorious
+posture; doing acts of authority; getting homaged by the STANDE;
+pushing out his forces farther and farther down the Donau, post after
+post,--victorious Oriflamme-Bavarian Army may be 40,000 strong or so, in
+those parts. Friedrich urged him much to push on without pause, and
+take opportunity by the forelock; sent Schmettau (elder of the two
+Schmettaus, who is much employed on such business) to urge him; wrote an
+express Paper of Considerations pressingly urgent: but he would not, and
+continued pausing.
+
+Vienna, all in terror, is fortifying itself; citizens toiling at the
+earthworks, resolute for making some defence; Constituted Authorities,
+National Archives even, Court in a body, and all manner of Noble and
+Official people, flying else-whither to covert: chiefly to Presburg,
+where her Majesty already is. The Archives were carried to Gratz; the
+two Dowager Empresses (for there are two, Maria Theresa's Mother, and
+Maria Theresa's Aunt, Kaiser Joseph's Widow) fled different ways,--I
+forget which. An agitated, paralyzed population. Except the diligent
+wheelbarrows on the ramparts, no vehicle is rolling in Vienna but
+furniture-wagons loading for flight. General Khevenhuller with 6,000,
+who pesides with fine scientific skill, and an iron calmness and
+clearness, over these fortifyings, is the only force left. [Anonymous,
+_Histoire de la Derniere Guerre de Boheme_ (a Francfort, 1745-1747, 4
+tomes), i. 190. A lively succinct little Book, vague not false; still
+readable, though not now, as then, with complete intelligence, to the
+unprepared reader. Said, in Dictionaries, to be by Mauvillon PERE,
+though it resembles nothing else of his that is known to me.]'
+Neipperg's, our only Army in the world, is hundreds of miles away,
+countermarching and manoeuvring about Woitz, and Neisse Town and
+River,--pretty sure to be beaten in the end,--and it is high time there
+were a Silesian bargain had, if Hyndford can get us any.
+
+DRESDEN, SEPTEMBER 19th (Excellency Hyndford just recovering from his
+colic, in Breslau), Kur-Sachsen, after many waverings, signs Treaty of
+Copartnery with France and Bavaria, seduced by "that Moravia," and the
+ticklings of Belleisle acting on a weak mind. [Adelung, ii. 469, 304,
+503.] His troops are 20,000, or rather more; said to be of good quality,
+and well equipped. In February last we saw him engaged in Russian,
+Anti-Prussian Partition schemes. In April, as these suddenly (on sight
+of the Camp of Gottin) extinguished themselves, he agreed to go, in the
+pacific way, with her Hungarian Majesty for friend (Treaty with her,
+signed 11th April); but never went (Treaty never ratified); kept his
+20,000 lying about in Camp, in an enigmatic manner,--first about
+Torgau, latterly in the Lausitz, much nearer to the ERZGEBIRGE
+(Metal-Mountains), Frontier of Bohemia;--and now signs as above; intent
+to march as soon as possible. Is to have Four Circles of Bohemia,
+imaginary Kingships of Moravia, and other prizes. Belleisle has tickled
+that big trout: Belleisle could now have the Election as he wishes it,
+would the Electors but be speedy; but they will not, and he is obliged
+to push continually.
+
+
+"Moriamur pro Rege nostro Maria Theresia," IN THE POETIC, AND THEN ALSO
+IN THE PROSE FORM.
+
+PRESBURG, SEPTEMBER 21st. This is the date (or chief date, for, alas,
+there turn out to be two!) of the world-famous "MORIAMUR PRO REGE NOSTRO
+MARIA THERESIA;" of which there are now needed Two Narratives; the
+generally received (in part mythical) going first, in the following
+strain:--
+
+"The Queen has been in Presburg mainly, where the Hungarian Diet is
+sitting, ever since her Coronation-ceremony. On the 11th September [or
+11th and 21st together], the afflicted Lady makes an appearance there,
+which, for theatrical reality, has become very celebrated. Alas, it is
+but three months since she galloped to the top of the Konigsberg, and
+cut defiantly with bright sabre towards the Four Points of the Universe;
+and already it has come to this. Hungarian Magnates in high session,
+the high Queen enters, beautiful and sad,--and among her Ministers is
+noticeable a Nurse with the young Archduke, some six months old, a fine
+thriving child, perhaps too wise for his age, who became Kaiser Joseph
+II. in after time.
+
+"The Hungarian Session is not on record for me, Hall of meeting, Magyar
+Parliamentary eloquence unknown; nor is any point conspicuously visible,
+exact and certain, except these [alas, not even these]: That it was the
+11th of September; that her Majesty coming forward to speak, took the
+child in her arms, and there, in a clear and melodiously piercing voice,
+sorrow and courage on her noble face, beautiful as the Moon riding among
+wet stormy clouds, spake, as the Hungarian Archives still have it, a
+short Latin Harangue; in substance as follows:... 'Hostile invasion of
+Austria; imminent peril, to this Kingdom of Hungary, to our person,
+to our children, to our crown. Forsaken by all,--AB OMNIBUS DERELICTI
+[Britannic Majesty himself standing stock-still,--blamably, one thinks,
+the two swords being only at HIS throat, and a good way off!]--I have
+no resource but to throw myself on the loyalty and help of Your renowned
+Body, and invoke the ancient Hungarian virtue to rise swiftly and save
+me!' Whereat the assembled Hungarian Synod, their wild Magyar hearts
+touched to the core, start up in impetuous acclaim, flourish aloft their
+drawn swords, and shout unanimously in passionate tenor-voice, 'MORIAMUR
+(Let us die) for our Rex Maria Theresa!' [_Maria Theresiens Leben_ (which
+speaks hypothetically), iv, 44; Coxe, iii. 270 (who is positive, "after
+examining the Documents").] Which were not vain words. For a general
+'Insurrection' was thereupon decreed; what the Magyars call their
+'Insurrection,' which is by no means of rebellious nature; and many
+noblemen, old Count Palfy himself a chief among them, though past
+threescore and ten, took the field at their own cost; and the noise
+of the Hungarian Insurrection spread like a voice of hope over all
+Pragmatic countries."--
+
+A very beautiful heroic scene; which has gone about the world,
+circulating triumphantly through all hearts for above a Century past;
+and has only of late acknowledged itself mythical,--not true, except as
+toned down to the following stingy prose pitch:--
+
+PRESBURG, SEPTEMBER 21st. Maria Theresa, since that fine
+Coronation-scene, June 28th, has had a mixed time of it with her
+Hungarian Diet; soft passages alternating with hard: a chivalrous
+people, most consciously chivalrous; but a constitutional withal, very
+stiff upon their Charter (PACTA CONVENTA, or whatever the name is); who
+wrangle much upon privileges, upon taxes, and are difficult to keep long
+in tune. Ten days ago (September 11th), her Majesty tried them on a new
+tack; summoned them to her Palace; threw herself upon their nobleness,
+"No allies but you in the world" (and other fine things, authentically,
+as above, legible in the Archives to this day):--so spake the beautiful
+young Queen, her eyes filling with tears as she went on, and yet a noble
+fire gleaming through them. Which melted the Hungarian heart a good
+deal; and produced fine cheering, some persons even shedding tears,
+and voices of "Life and Fortune to your Majesty!" being heard in it.
+In which humor the Diet returned to its Session-House, and voted the
+"Insurrection,"--or general Arming of Hungary, County by County, each
+according to its own contingent;--with all speed, in pursuance of her
+Majesty's implied desire. This was voted in rapid manner; but again,
+in the detail of executing, it was liable to haggles. From this day,
+however, matters did decidedly improve; PACTA CONVENTA, or any remainder
+of them, are got adjusted,--the good Queen yielding on many points. So
+that, September 20th, Grand-Duke Franz is elected Co-regent,--let
+him start from Vienna instantly, for Instalment;--and it is hoped the
+Insurrection will go well, and not prove haggly, or hang fire in the
+details.
+
+At any rate, next day, September 21st, Duke Franz, who arrived last
+night,--and Baby with him, or in the train of him (to the joy of
+Mamma!)--is in the Palace Audience-Hall, "at 8 A.M.;" ready for
+the Diet, and what Homagings aud mutual Oath, as new Co-regent, are
+necessary. Grand-Duke Franz, Mamma by his side, with the suitable
+functionaries; and to rearward Nurse and Baby, not so conspicuous till
+needed. Diet enters with the stroke of 8; solemnity proceeds. At the
+height of the solemnity, when Duke Franz, who is really risen now to
+something of a heroic mood, in these emergencies and perils, has just
+taken his Oath, and will have to speak a fit word or two,--the Nurse,
+doubtless on hint given, steps forward; holds up Baby (a fine noticing
+fellow, I have no doubt,--"weighed sixteen pounds avoirdupois when
+born"); as if Baby too, fine mutual product of the Two Co-regents, were
+mutually swearing and appealing. Enough to touch any heart. "Life and
+blood (VITAM ET SANGUINEM) for our Queen and Kingdom!" exclaims the
+Grand-Duke, among other things. "Yes, VITAM ET SANGUINEM!" re-echoes
+the Diet, "our life and our blood!" many-voiced, again and again;--and
+returns to its own Place of Session, once more in a fine strain of loyal
+emotion.
+
+And there, O reader, is the naked truth, neither more nor less. It was
+some Vienna Pamphleteer of theatrical imaginative turn, finding the
+thing apt, a year or two afterwards--who by kneading different dates
+and objects into one, boldly annihilating time and space, and adding a
+little paint,--gave it that seductive mythical form. From whom Voltaire
+adopted it, with improvements, especially in the little Harangue; and
+from Voltaire gratefully the rest of mankind. [Voltaire, _Siecle de
+Louis XV.,_ c. 6 (_OEuvres,_ xxviii. 78); Coxe, _House of Austria,_
+iii. 270; and innumerable others (who give this Myth)]; _Maria Theresiens
+Leben,_ p. 44 n. (who cites the Vienna Pamphleteers, without much
+believing them); Mailath (a Hungarian), _Geschichte des OEsterrichischen
+Kaiser-Staats_ (Hamburg, 1850), v. 11-13 (who explodes the fable). Cut
+down to the practical, it stands as above:--by no means a bad
+thing still. That of "bringing in Baby" was a pretty touch in the
+domestic-royal way;--and surely very natural; and has no "art" in it,
+or none to blame and not love rather, on the part of the bright young
+Mother, now girdled in such tragic outlooks, and so glad to have Baby
+back at least, and Papa with him! It is certain the "Insurrection" was
+voted with enthusiasm; and even became rapidly a fact. And there was, in
+few months hence, an immense mounted force of Hungarians raised, which
+galloped and plundered (having almost no pay), and occasionally fenced
+and fought, very diligently during all these Wars. Hussars, Croats,
+Pandours, Tolpatches, Warasdins, Uscocks, never heard of in war before:
+who were found very terrible to look upon once, in the imagination or
+with the naked eye; but whose fighting talent, against regular troops,
+was next to worthless; and who gradually became hateful rather than
+terrible in the military world.
+
+HANOVER, SEPTEMBER 27th. Britannic Majesty, reduced to that frightful
+pinch, has at last given way. Treaty of Neutrality for Hanover;
+engagement again to stick one's puissant Pragmatic sword into its
+scabbard, to be perfectly quiescent and contemplative in these
+French-Bavarian Anti-Austrian undertakings, and digest one's indignation
+as one can. For our Paladin of the Pragmatic what a posture! This is
+the first of Three Attempts by our puissant little Paladin to draw
+sword;--not till the third could he get his sword out, or do the least
+fighting (even foolish fighting) with all the 40,000 he had kept on pay
+and subsidy for years back. The Neutrality was for Hanover only, and
+had no specific limit as to time. Opportunities did rise; but something
+always rose along with them,--mainly the impossibility of hoisting those
+lazy Dutch,--and checked one's noble rage. His Majesty has covenanted
+to vote for Karl Albert as Kaiser; even he, and will make the thing
+unanimous! A thoroughly check-mated Majesty. Passing home to
+England, this time in a gloomy condition of mind, shortly after these
+humiliations, he was just issuing from Osnabruck by the Eastern Gate,
+when Maillebois's people entered by the Western,--the ugly shoes of
+them insulting his kibes in this manner. And a furious Anti-Walpole
+Parliament, most perturbed of National Palavers, is waiting him at St.
+James's. Heavy-laden little Hercules that he is!
+
+Karl Albert lay at Linz for a month longer (till October 24th, six weeks
+in all); pausing in uncertainties, in a pleasant dream of victory and
+sovereignty; not pouncing on Vienna, as Friedrich urged on the French
+and him, to cut the matter by the root. He does push forward certain
+troops, Comte de Saxe with Three Horse Regiments as vanguard, ever
+nearer to Vienna; at last to within forty miles of it; nay, light-horse
+parties came within twenty-five miles. And there was skirmishing with
+Mentzel, a sanguinary fellow, of whom we shall hear more; who had got
+"1,000 Tolpatches" under him, and stood ruggedly at bay.
+
+Karl Albert has been sending out sovereign messages from Linz: Letters
+to Vienna;--one letter addressed "To the Arch-duchess Maria Theresa;"
+which came back unopened, "No such person known here." October 2d, he is
+getting homaged at Linz, by the STANDE of the Province,--on summons
+sent some time before,--many of whom attend, with a willing enough
+appearance; Kur-Baiern rather a favorite in Upper Austria, say some.
+Much fine processioning, melodious haranguing, there now is for Karl
+Albert, and a pleasant dream of Sovereignty at Linz: but if he do not
+pounce upon Vienna till Khevenhuller get it fortified? Khevenhuller is
+drawing home Italian Garrisons, gradually gathering something like an
+Army round him. In Khevenhuller's imperturbable military head, one of
+the clearest and hardest, there is some hope. Above all, if Neipperg's
+Army were to disengage itself, and be let loose into those parts?
+
+
+
+
+EXCELLENCY HYNDFORD BRINGS ABOUT A MEETING AT KLEIN-SCHNELLENDORF (9th
+October, 1741).
+
+It was the second day after that Homaging at Linz, when Hyndford (Sept.
+22d) with mysterious negotiations, now nearly ripe, for disengaging
+Neipperg, waylaid his Prussian Majesty; and was answered, as we saw,
+with "Tush, tush! Dinner is already cold!"
+
+It must be owned, these Friedrich-Hyndford Negotiations, following on
+an express French-Prussian Treaty of June 5th, which have to proceed
+in such threefold mystery now and afterwards, are of questionable
+distressing nature: nor can the fact that they are escorted copiously
+enough by a correspondent sort on the French side, and indeed on the
+Austrian and on all sides, be a complete consolation,--far otherwise, to
+the ingenuous reader. Smelfungus indignantly calls it an immorality and
+a dishonor, "a playing with loaded dice;" which in good part it surely
+was. Nor can even Friedrich, who has many pleas for himself, obtain
+spoken acquittal; unspoken, accompanied with regrets and pity, is all
+even Friedrich can aspire to. My own impression is, Smelfungus, if
+candid, would on clearer information and consideration have revoked much
+of what he says here in censure of Friedrich. At all events, if asked:
+Where then is the specifical not "superstitious" WANT of "veracity" you
+ever found in Friedrich? and How, OTHERWISE than even as Friedrich did,
+would you, most veracious Smelfungus, have plucked out your Silesia from
+such an Element and such a Time?--he would be puzzled to answer. I give
+his Fragment as I find it, with these deductions:--
+
+"What negotiating we have had, and shall have," exclaims Smelfungus, my
+sad foregoer,--"fit rather to be omitted from a serious History,
+which intends to be read by human creatures! Bargaining, Promising,
+Non-performing. False in general as dicers' oaths; false on this side
+and on that, from beginning to end. Intercepted Letters from Fleury;
+Letter dropping from Valori's waistcoat-pocket, upon which Friedrich
+claps his foot: alas, alas, we are in the middle of a whole world of
+that. Friedrich knows that the French are false to him; he by no means
+intends to be romantically true to them, and that also they know. What
+is the use to human creatures of recording all that melancholy stuff?
+If sovereign persons want their diplomacies NOT to be swept into the
+ash-pit, there are two conditions, especially one which is peremptory:
+FIRST, that they should not be lies;--SECOND, that they should be of
+some importance, some wisdom; which with known lies is not a possible
+condition. To unravel cobwebs, and register laboriously and date and
+sort in the sorrow of your soul the oaths of crowned dicers,--what use
+is it to gods or men? Having well dressed and sliced your cucumber,
+the next clear human duty is: Throw it out of window. In that foul
+Lapland-witch world, of seething Diplomacies and monstrous wigged
+mendacities, horribly wicked and despicably unwise, I find nothing
+notable, memorable even in a small degree, except this aspect of a
+young King who does know what he means in it. Clear as a star, sharp as
+cutting steel (very dangerous to hydrogen balloons), he stands in the
+middle of it, and means to extort his own from it by such methods as
+there are.
+
+"Magnanimous I can by no means call Friedrich to his allies and
+neighbors, nor even superstitiously veracious, in this business: but he
+thoroughly understands, he alone, what just thing he wants out of it,
+and what an enormous wigged mendacity it is he has got to deal with. For
+the rest, he is at the gaming-table with these sharpers; their dice all
+cogged;--and he knows it, and ought to profit by his knowledge of it.
+And in short, to win his stake out of that foul weltering mellay, and go
+home safe with it if he can."
+
+Very well, my friend! Let us keep to windward of the Diplomatic
+wizard's-caldron; let Hyndford, Valori and Company preside over it,
+throwing in their eye of newt and limb of toad, as occasion may be.
+Enough, if the reader can be brought to conceive it; and how the young
+King,--who perhaps alone had real business in this foul element, and
+did not volunteer into it like the others, though it now unexpectedly
+envelops him like a world-whirlwind (frightful enough, if one spoke of
+that to anybody), is struggling with his whole soul to get well out of
+it. As supremely adroit, all readers already know him; his appearance
+what we called starlike,--always something definite, fixed and lucid in
+it.
+
+He is dexterously holding aloof from Hyndford at present, clinging to
+French Valori as his chosen companion: we may fancy what a time he has
+of it, like a polygamist amid jealous wives. It will quicken Hyndford,
+he perceives, in these ulterior stages, to leave him well alone.
+Hyndford accordingly, as we have noticed, could not see the King at all;
+had to try every plan, to watch, waylay the King for a bit of interview,
+when indispensable. However, Hyndford, with his Neipperg in sight of
+the peril, manages better than Robinson with his Aulic Council at a
+distance: besides he is a long-headed dogged kind of man, with a surly
+edacious strength, not inexpert in negotiation, nor easily turned aside
+from any purpose he may have.
+
+Between the two Camps, nearly midway, lies a Hamlet called
+Klein-Schnellendorf, LITTLE Schnellendorf, to distinguish it
+from another Schnellendorf called GREAT, which is a mile or two
+northwestward, out of the straight line. Not far from the first of
+these poor Hamlets lies a Schloss or noble Mansion, likewise called
+Klein-Schnellendorf, belonging to a certain Count von Sternberg, who is
+not there at present, but whose servants are, and a party of Croats over
+them for some days back: a pleasant airy Mansion among pleasant gardens,
+well shut out from the intrusion of the world. Upon this Castle of
+Klein-Schnellendorf judicious Hyndford has cast his eye:--and Neipperg,
+now come to a state of readiness, approves the suggestion of Hyndford,
+and promptly at the due moment converts it into a fact. Arrests namely,
+on a given morning (the last act of his Croats there, who withdrew
+directly with their batch of prisoners), every living soul within or
+about the Mansion;--"suspected of treason;" only for one day;--and
+in this way, has it reduced to the comfortable furnished solitude of
+Sleeping Beauty's Castle; a place fit for high persons to hold a
+Meeting in, which shall remain secret as the grave. Such a thing was
+indispensable. For Friedrich, keeping shy of Hyndford, as he well may
+with a Valori watching every step, has, by words, by silences, when
+Hyndford could waylay him for a moment, sufficiently indicated what he
+will and what he will not; and, for one indispensable condition, in the
+present thrice-delicate Adventure, he will not sign anything; will give
+and take word of honor, and fully bind himself, but absolutely not put
+pen to paper at all. Neipperg being willing too, judicious Hyndford
+finds a medium. Let the parties meet at Klein-Schnellendorf, and
+judicious Hyndford be there with pen and paper. [Orlich, i. 146;
+_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 1009.]
+
+Monday, 9th October, 1741, accordingly, there is meeting to be held.
+Hyndford, Neipperg with his General Lentulus (a Swiss-Austrian General,
+whose Son served under Friedrich afterwards), these wait for Friedrich,
+on the one hand:--"to fix some cartel for exchange of prisoners," it
+is said;--in these precincts of Klein-Schnellendorf; which are silent,
+vacant, yet comfortably furnished, like Sleeping Beauty's Castle.
+And Friedrich, on the other hand, is actually riding that way, with
+Goltz;--visiting outposts, reconnoitring, so to speak. "Dine you with
+Prince Leopold (the Young Dessauer), my fine Valori; I fear I shan't
+be home to dinner!" he had said when going off; hoodwinking his
+fine Valori, who suspects nothing. At a due distance from
+Klein-Schnellendorf, the very groom is left behind; and Friedrich, with
+Goltz only, pushes on to the Schloss. All ready there; salutations soon
+done; business set about, perfected:--and Hyndford with pen and ink in
+his hand, he, by way of Protocol, or summary of what had been agreed
+on, on mutual word of honor, most brief but most clear on this occasion,
+writes a State Paper, which became rather famous afterwards. This is the
+Paper in condensed state; though clear, it is very dull!
+
+KLEIN-SCHNELLENDORF, 9th OCTOBER, 1741. Britannic Excellency Hyndford
+testifies, That, here and now, his Majesty of Prussia, and Neipperg on
+behalf of her Hungarian Majesty do, solemnly though only verbally, agree
+to the following Four Things:--
+
+"FIRST, That General Neipperg, on the 16th of the month [this day week]
+shall have liberty to retire through the Mountains, towards Moravia;
+unmolested, or with nothing but sham-attacks in the rear of him. SECOND,
+That, in consequence, his Prussian Majesty, on making sham-siege of
+Neisse, shall have the place surrendered to him on the fifteenth day.
+THIRD, That there shall be, nay in a sense, there hereby is, a Peace
+made; his Majesty retaining Neisse and Silesia [according to the limits
+known to us:--nothing said of Glatz]; and that a complete Treaty to that
+effect shall be perfected, signed and ratified, before the Year is out.
+FOURTH, That these sham-hostilities, but only sham, shall continue; and
+that his Majesty, wintering in Bohemia, and carrying on sham-hostilities
+[to the satisfaction of the French], shall pay his own expenses, and do
+no mischief." [Given in _Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 1009; in &c.]
+
+To these Four Things they pledge their word of honor; and Hyndford signs
+and delivers each a Copy. Unwritten a Fifth Thing is settled, That the
+present transaction in all parts of it shall be secret as death,--his
+Majesty expressly insisting that, if the least inkling of it ooze out,
+he shall have right to deny it, and refuse in any way to be bound by it.
+Which likewise is assented to.
+
+Here is a pretty piece of work done for ourself and our allies, while
+Valori is quietly dining with the Prince of Dessau! The King stayed
+about two hours; was extremely polite, and even frank and communicative.
+"A very high-spirited young King," thinks Neipperg, reporting of it;
+"will not stand contradiction; but a great deal can be made of him, if
+you go into his ideas, and humor him in a delicate dexterous way. He
+did not the least hide his engagements with France, Bavaria, Saxony; but
+would really, so far as I Neipperg could judge, prefer friendship with
+Austria, on the given terms; and seems to have secretly a kind of pique
+at Saxony, and no favor for the French and their plans." [Orlich, i. 149
+(in condensed state).]
+
+"Business being done [this is Hyndford's report], the King, who had been
+politeness itself, took Neipperg aside, beckoning Hyndford to be of
+the party, 'I wish you too, my Lord, to hear every word:--his Britannic
+Majesty knows or should know my intentions never were to do him hurt,
+but only to take care of myself; and pray inform him [what is the fact]
+that I have ordered my Army in Brandenburg to go into winter-quarters,
+and break up that Camp at Gottin.' Friedrich's talk to Neipperg is, How
+he may assault the French with advantage: 'Join Lobkowitz and what force
+he has in Bohmen; go right into your enemies, before they can unite
+there. If the Queen prosper, I shall--perhaps I shall have no objection
+to join her by and by? If her Majesty fail; well, every one must look
+to himself.'" These words Hyndford listened to with an edacious solid
+countenance, and greedily took them down. [Hyndford's Despatch, Breslau,
+14th October, 1741.]
+
+Once more, a curious glimpse (perhaps imprudently allowed us, in the
+circumstances) into the real inner man of Friedrich. He had, at this
+time, now that the Belleisle Adventure is left in such a state, no
+essential reason to wish the French ruined,--nor probably did he; but
+only stated both chances, as in the way of unguarded soliloquy; and
+was willing to leave Neipperg a sweet morsel to chew. Secret mode of
+corresponding with the Court of Austria is agreed upon; not direct, but
+through certain Commandants, till the Peace-Treaty be perfected,--at
+latest "by December 24th," we hope. And so, "BON VOYAGE, and well across
+the Mountains, M. LE MARECHAL; till we meet again! And you,
+Excellency Hyndford, be so good you as write to me,--for Valori's
+behoof,--complaining that I am deaf to all proposals, that nothing can
+be had of me. And other Letters, pray, of the like tenor, all round; to
+Presburg, to England, to Dresden:--if the Couriers are seized, it shall
+be well. 'Your Letter to myself, let a trumpet come with it while I am
+at dinner,' and Valori beside me!"--"Certainly, your Majesty," answers
+Hyndford; and does it, does all this; which produces a soothing effect
+on Valori, poor soul!
+
+
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TAKES NEISSE BY SHAM SIEGE (CAPTURE NOT SHAM); GETS HOMAGED IN
+BRESLAU; AND RETURNS TO BERLIN.
+
+Thus, if the Austrians hold to their bargain, has Friedrich, in a most
+compendious manner, got done with a Business which threatened to be
+infinite: by this short cut he, for his part, is quite out of the
+waste-howling jungle of Enchanted Forest, and his foot again on the firm
+free Earth. If only the Austrians hold to their bargain! But probably he
+doubts if they will. Well, even in that case, he has got Neisse; stands
+prepared for meeting them again; and, in the mean while, has freedom to
+deny that there ever was such a bargain.
+
+Of the Political morality of this game of fast-and-loose, what have we
+to say,--except, that the dice on both sides seem to be loaded; that
+logic might be chopped upon it forever; that a candid mind will settle
+what degree of wisdom (which is always essentially veracity), and what
+of folly (which is always falsity), there was in Friedrich and the
+others; whether, or to what degree, there was a better course open
+to Friedrich in the circumstances:--and, in fine, it will have to be
+granted that you cannot work in pitch and keep hands evidently clean.
+Friedrich has got into the Enchanted Wilderness, populous with devils
+and their works;--and, alas, it will be long before he get out of it
+again, HIS life waning towards night before he get victoriously out,
+and bequeath his conquest to luckier successors! It is one of the tragic
+elements of this King's life; little contemplated by him, when he went
+lightly into the Silesian Adventure, looking for honor bright, what he
+called "GLOIRE," as one principal consideration, hardly a year ago!--
+
+Neipperg, according to covenant, broke up punctually that day week,
+October 16th; and went over the Mountains, through Jagerndorf, Troppau,
+towards Mahren; Prussians hanging on his rear, and skirmishing about,
+but only for imaginary or ostensible purposes. After a three-weeks
+march, he gets to a place called Frating, [Espagnac, i. 104.]
+easternmost border of Mahren, on the slopes of the Mannhartsberg
+Hill-Country, which is within wind of Vienna itself; where, as we can
+fancy, his presence is welcome as morning-light in the present dark
+circumstances.
+
+Friedrich, on the morrow after Neipperg went, invested Neisse (October
+17th); set about the Siege of Neisse with all gravity, as if it had been
+the most earnest operation; which nobody of mankind, except three or
+four, doubted but it was. Before opening of the trenches, Leopold young
+Dessauer took the road for Glatz Country, and the adjoining Circles of
+Bohemia; there to canton himself, peaceably according to contract; and
+especially to have an eye upon Glatz, should the Klein-Schnellendorf
+engagement go awry in any point. The King in his Dialogue with Neipperg
+had said several things about Glatz, and what a sacrifice he made there
+for the sake of speedy pace, the French having guaranteed him Glatz,
+though he now forbore it. Leopold, who has with him some 15,000 horse
+and foot, cantons himself judiciously in those ultramontane parts,--"all
+the artillery in the Glatz Country;" [_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 431;
+Orlich, i. 174.]--and we shall hear of him again, by and by, in regard
+to other business that rises there.
+
+Neisse is a formidable Fortress, much strengthened since last year; but
+here is a Besieger with much better chance! He marked out parallels,
+sent summonses, reconnoitred, manoeuvred,--in a way more or less
+surprising to the eye of Valori, who is military, and knows about
+sieges. Rather singular, remarks Valori; good engineers much wanted
+here! But the bombardment did finally begin: night of October 26th-27th,
+the Prussiaus opened fire; and, at a terrible rate, cannonaded and
+bombarded without intermission. In point of fire and noise it is
+tremendous; Valori trusts it may be effective, in spite of faults; goes
+to Breslau in hope: "Yes, go to Breslau, MON CHER VALORI; wait for me
+there. Neipperg be chased, say you? Shall not he,--if we had got this
+place!" And so the fire continues night and day. [_Helden-Geschichte,_
+i. 1006.]
+
+Fantastic Bielfeld, in his semi-fabulous style, has a LETTER on this
+bombardment, attractive to Lovers of the Picturesque,--(written long
+afterwards, and dated &c. WRONG). As Bielfeld is a rapid clever creature
+of the coxcomb sort, and doubtless did see Neisse Siege, and entertained
+seemingly a blazing incorrect recollection of it, his Pseudo-Neisse
+Letter may be worth giving, to represent approximately what kind of
+scene it was there at Neisse in the October nights:--
+
+"Marechal Schwerin was lodged in a Village about three-quarters of a
+mile from Head-Quarters. One day he did me the honor to invite me to
+dinner; and even offered me a horse to ride thither with him. I found
+excellent company; a superb repast, and wine of the gods. Host and
+guests were in high spirits; and the pleasures of the table were kept up
+so late, that it was midnight when we rose. I was obliged to return
+to Head-Quarters, having still to wait upon the King, as usual. The
+Marechal was kind enough to lend me another horse; but the groom
+mischievously gave me the charger which the Marechal rode at the Battle
+of Mollwitz; a very powerful animal, and which, from that day, had grown
+very skittish.
+
+"I was made aware of this circumstance, before we were fairly out of the
+Village; and the night being of the darkest, I twenty times ran the
+risk of breaking my neck. We had to pass over a hill, to get to
+Head-Quarters. When I reached the top, a shudder came over me, and my
+hair stood on end. I had nobody with me but a strange groom. The country
+all around was infested with troops and marauders; I was mounted on an
+unmanageable horse. Under my feet, so to say, I saw the bombardment
+of the Town of Neisse. I heard the roar of cannon and doleful shrieks.
+Above our batteries the whole atmosphere was inflamed; and to complete
+the calamity, I missed the way, and got lost in the darkness. Finally,
+in descending the hill, my horse, frightened, made a terrible swerve or
+side-jump. I did not know the cause; but after having, with difficulty,
+got him into the road again, I found myself opposite to a deserter who
+had been hanged that day! I was horribly disgusted by the sight; the
+gallows being very low, and the head of the malefactor almost parallel
+with mine. I spurred on, and galloped away from such unpleasant
+night-company. At last I arrived at Head-Quarters, all in a
+perspiration. I sent my horse back; and went in to the King, who asked
+me at once, why I was so heated. I made his Majesty a faithful report of
+all my disasters. He laughed much; and advised me seriously not again
+to go out by night, and alone, beyond the circuit of Head-Quarters."
+[Bielfeld, ii. 31, 32.]
+
+After four days and nights of this sublime Playhouse thunder (with real
+bullets in it, which killed some men, and burnt considerable property),
+the Neisse Commandant (not Roth this time, Roth is now in Brunn),--his
+"fortnight of siege," October 17th to October 31st, being accomplished
+or nearly so,--beat chamade; and was, after grave enough treatying,
+allowed to march away. Marched, accordingly, on the correct
+Klein-Schnellendorf terms; most of his poor garrison deserting, and
+taking Prussian service. Ever since which moment, Neisse, captured in
+this curious manner, has been Friedrich's and his Prussia's.
+
+November 1st, the Prussian soldiers entered the place; and Friedrich,
+after diligent inspection and what orders were necessary, left for Brieg
+on the following day;--where general illuminating and demonstrating
+awaited him, amid more serious business. After strict examinations, and
+approval of Walrave and his works at Brieg, he again takes the road;
+enters Breslau, in considerable state (November 4th); where many Persons
+of Quality are waiting, and the general Homaging is straightway to
+be,--or indeed should have been some days ago, but has fallen behind by
+delays in the Neisse affair.
+
+The Breslau HULDIGUNG,--Friedrich sworn to and homaged with the due
+solemnities as "Sovereign Duke of Lower Silesia,"--was an event to throw
+into fine temporary frenzy the descriptive Gazetteers, and Breslau City,
+overflowing with Quality people come to act and to see on the occasion.
+Event which can be left to the reader's fancy, at this date. There
+were Corporations out in quantity, "all in cloaks" and with sublime
+Addresses, partly in poetry, happily rather brief. There were beautiful
+Prussian Life-guards "First Battalion," admirable to the softer sex,
+not to speak of the harder); much military resonance and splendor.
+Friedrich drove about in carriages-and-six, "nay carriage-and-eight,
+horses cream-color:" a very high King indeed; and a very busy one,
+for those four days (November 4th-8th) 1741), but full of grace and
+condescension. The HULDIGUNG itself took effect on the 7th; in the fine
+old Rathhaus, which Tourists still know,--the surrounding Apple-women
+sweeping themselves clear away for one day. Ancient Ducal throne and
+proper apparatus there was; state-sword unluckily wanting: Schwerin, who
+was to act Grand-Marshal, could find no state-sword, till Friedrich drew
+his own and gave it him. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 1022, 1025; ii. 349.]
+
+Podewils the Minister said something, not too much; to which one
+Prittwitz, head of a Silesian Family of which we shall know individuals,
+made pithy and pretty response, before swearing. "There were above Four
+Hundred of Quality present, all in gala." The customary Free-Gift of the
+STANDE Friedrich magnanimously refused: "Impossible to be a burden to
+our Silesia in such harassed war-circumstances, instead of benefactor
+and protector, as we intended and intend!" The Ceremony, swearing and
+all, was over in two hours; hundreds of silver medals, not to speak of
+the gold ones, flying about; and Breslau giving itself up joyfully
+to dinner and festivities. And, after dinner, that evening, to
+Illumination; followed by balls and jubilations for days after, in
+a highly harmonious key. Of the lamps-festoons, astonishing
+transparencies, and glad symbolic devices, I could say a great deal;
+but will mention only two, both of comfortably edible or quasi-edible
+tendency:--1. That of David Schulze, Flesher by profession; who had a
+Transparency large as life, representing his own fat Person in the act
+of felling a fat Ox; to which was appended this epigraph:--
+
+
+     "Wer mir wird den Konig in Preussen verachten,
+     Den will ich wie diesen Ochsen schlacten."
+
+     "Who dares me the King of Prussia insult,
+     Him I will serve like this fat head of nolt."
+
+          Signed "DAVID SCHULER, A BRANDENBURGER."--
+
+And then,
+
+2. How, in another quarter, there was set aloft IN RE, by some
+Pastry-cook of patriotic turn: "An actual Ox roasted whole; filled with
+pheasants, partridges, grouse, hares and geese; Prussian Eagle atop,
+made of roasted fowls, larks and the like,"--unattainable, I doubt,
+except for money down. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 359.]
+
+On the fifth morning, 9th November,--after much work done during this
+short visit, much ceremonial audiencing, latterly, and raising to the
+peerage,--Friedrich rolled on to Glogau. Took accurate survey of the
+engineering and other interests there, for a couple of days; thence to
+Berlin (noon of the 11th), joyfully received by Royal Family and all
+the world;--and, as we might fancy, asking himself: "Am I actually home,
+then; out of the enchanted jungles and their devilries; safe here, and
+listening, I alone in Peace, to the universal din of War?" Alas, no;
+that was a beautiful hypothesis; too beautiful to be long credible!
+Before reaching Berlin,--or even Breslau, as appears,--Friedrich,
+vigilantly scanning and discerning, had seen that fine hope as good as
+vanish; and was silently busy upon the opposite one.
+
+In a fortnight hence, Hyndford, who had followed to Berlin, got
+transient sight of the King one morning, hastening through some
+apartment or other: "'My Lord,' said the King, 'the Court of Vienna has
+entirely divulged our secret. Dowager Empress Amelia [Kaiser Joseph's
+widow, mother of Karl Albert's wife] has acquainted the Court of Bavaria
+with it; Wasner [Austrian Minister at Paris] has told Fleury; Sinzendorf
+[ditto at Petersburg] has told the Court of Russia; Robinson, through
+Mr. Villiers [your Saxon Minister], has told the Court of Dresden; and
+several members of your Government in England have talked publicly about
+it!' And, with a shrug of the shoulders, he left me,"--standing somewhat
+agape there. [Hyndford's Despatch, Berlin, 28th November, 1741; Ib.
+Breslau, 28th October (secret already known).]
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI. -- NEW MAYOR OF LANDSHUT MAKES AN INSTALLATION SPEECH.
+
+The late general Homaging at Breslau, and solemn Taking Possession
+of the Country by King Friedrich, under such peaceable omens, had
+straightway, as we gather, brought about, over Silesia at
+large, or at least where pressingly needful, various little
+alterations,--rectifications, by the Prussian model and new rule now
+introduced. Of which, as it is better that the reader have some dim
+notion, if easily procurable, than none at all, I will offer him one
+example;--itself dim enough, but coming at first-hand, in the actual or
+concrete form, and beyond disputing in whatever light or twilight it may
+yield us.
+
+At Landshut, a pleasant little Mountain Town, in the Principality of
+Schweidnitz, high up, on the infant River Bober, near the Bohemian
+Frontier--(English readers may see QUINCY ADAMS'S description of it, and
+of the long wooden spouts which throw cataracts on you, if walking the
+streets in rain [John Quincy Adams (afterwards President of the United
+States), _Letters on Silesia_ (London, 1804). "The wooden spouts are
+now gone" (_Tourist's Note, of_ 1858).]): at Landshut, as in some other
+Towns, it had been found good to remodel the Town Magistracy a little;
+to make it partly Protestant, for one thing, instead of Catholic
+(and Austrian), which it had formerly been. Details about the "high
+controversies and discrepancies" which had risen there, we have
+absolutely none; nor have the special functions of the Magistracy, what
+powers they had, what work they did, in the least become distinct to us:
+we gather only that a certain nameless Burgermeister (probably Austrian
+and Catholic) had, by "Most gracious Royal Special-Order," been
+at length relieved from his labors, and therewith "the much by him
+persecuted and afflicted Herr Theodorus Spener" been named Burgermeister
+instead. Which respectable Herr Theodorus Spener, and along with him
+Herr Johann David Fischer as RATHS-SENIOR, and Herr Johann Caspar
+Ruffer, and also Herr Johann Jacob Umminger, as new Raths (how many
+of the old being left I cannot say), were accordingly, on the 4th of
+December, 1741, publicly installed, and with proper solemnity took
+their places; all Landshut looking on, with the conceivable interest
+and astonishment, almost as at a change in the obliquity of the
+ecliptic,--change probably for the better.
+
+Respectable Herr Theodorus Spener (we hope it is SpeNer, for they print
+him SPEER in one of the two places, and we have to go by guess) is ready
+with an Installation Speech on the occasion; and his Speech was judged
+so excellent, that they have preserved it in print. Us it by no means
+strikes by its Demosthenic or other qualities: meanwhile we listen to
+it with the closest attention; hoping, in our great ignorance, to gather
+from it some glimmerings of instruction as to the affairs, humors,
+disposition and general outlook and condition of Landshut, and Silesia
+in that juncture;--and though a good deal disappointed, have made an
+Abstract of it in the English language, which perhaps the reader too, in
+his great ignorance, will accept, in defect of better. Scene is Landshut
+among the Giant Mountains on the Bohemian Border of Silesia: an old
+stone Town, where there is from of old a busy trade in thread and linen;
+Town consisting, as is common there, of various narrow winding
+streets comparable to spider-legs, and of a roomy central Market-place
+comparable to the body of the spider; wide irregular Market-place with
+the wooden spouts (dry for the moment) all projecting round it. Time,
+4th December, 1741 (doubtless in the forenoon); unusual crowd of
+population simmering about the Market-place, and full audience of
+the better sort gravely attentive in the interior of the Rathhaus;
+Burgermeister Spener LOQUITUR [_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 416.] (liable to
+abridgment here and there, on warning given):--
+
+"I enter, then, in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, upon an Office, to
+which Divine Providence has appointed, and the gracious and potent hand
+of a great King has raised me. Great as is the dignity [giddy height of
+Mayoralty in Landshut], though undeserved, which the Ever-Merciful has
+thus conferred upon me, equally great and much greater is the burden
+connected therewith. I confess"--He confesses, in high-stalking earnest
+wooden language very foreign to us in every way: (1.) That his shoulders
+are too weak; but that he trusts in God. For (2.) it is God's doing; and
+He that has called Spener, will give Spener strength, the essential work
+being to do God's will, to promote His honor, and the common weal. (3.)
+That he comes out of a smaller Office (Office not farther specified,
+probably exterior to the RATHS-COLLEGE, and subaltern to the late
+tyrannous Mayor and it), and has taken upon him the Mayoralty of this
+Town (an evident fact!); but that the labor and responsibility are
+dreadfully increased; and that the point is not increase of honor, of
+respectability or income, but of heavy duties. (A sonorous, pious-minded
+Spener; much more in earnest than readers now think!)
+
+It is easy, intimates he, to govern a Town, if, as some have perhaps
+done, you follow simply your own will, regardless of the sighs and
+complaints your subjects utter for injustice undergone,--indifferent to
+the thought that the caprice of one Town Sovereign is to be glorified by
+so many thousand tears (dim glance into the past history of Landshut!).
+Such Town Sovereign persecutes innocence, stops his ears to its cry;
+flourishes his sharp scourge;--no one shall complain: for is it not
+justice? thinks such a Town Sovereign. The reason is, He does not know
+himself, poor man; has had his eye always on the duties of his subjects
+towards him, and rarely or never on his towards them. A Sovereign Mayor
+that governs by fear,--he must live in continual fear of every one, and
+of himself withal. A weak basis: and capable of total overturn in one
+day. On the contrary, the love of your burgher subjects: that, if you
+can kindle it, will go on like a house on fire (AUSBRUCH EINES FEURES),
+and streams of water won't put it out.... "And [let us now take Spener's
+very words] if a man keep the fear of God before his eyes, there will be
+no need for any other kind of fear.
+
+"I will therefore, you especially High-honored Gentlemen, study to
+direct all my judicial endeavors to the honor of the great God, and to
+inviolable fidelity towards my most gracious King and Lord [Friedrich,
+by Decision of Providence--at Mollwitz and elsewhere].
+
+"To the Citizens of this Town, from of old so dear to me, and now by
+Royal grace committed to my charge, and therefore doubly and trebly
+to be held dear, I mean to devote myself altogether. I will, on every
+occasion and occurrence, still more expressly than aforetime, stand by
+them; and when need is, not fail to bring their case before the just
+Throne of our Anointed [Friedrich, by Decision of Providence]. Justice
+and fairness I will endeavor, under whatever complexities, to make
+my loadstar. Yes, I shall and will, by means of this my Office, equip
+myself with weapons whereby I may be capable to damp such humors
+(INTELLIGENTIEN), should such still be (but I believe there are now none
+such), as may repugn against the Royal interest, with possibility of
+being dangerous; and to put a bridle on mouths that are unruly. And, to
+say much in little compass, I will be faithful to God, to my King and to
+this Town.
+
+"Having now the honor and happiness to be put into Official friendship
+with those Gentlemen who, as Burgermeisters, and as old and as new
+Members of Council, have for long years made themselves renowned
+among us, I will entertain, in respect of the former [the old] a firm
+confidence That the zeal they have so strongly manifested for behoof of
+the most serene Archducal House of Austria will henceforth burn in them
+for our most Beloved Land's Prince whom God has now given us; that the
+fire of their lately plighted truth and devotion, towards his
+Royal Majesty, shall shine not in words only, but in works, and be
+extinguished only with their lives. [Can that be, O Spener or Speer? Are
+we alarm-clocks, that need only to be wound up, and told at what hour,
+and for whom?] God, who puts Kings in and casts them out, has given to
+us a no less potent Sovereign than supremely loving Land's-Father, who,
+by the renown of his more than royal virtues, had taken captive the
+hearts of his future subjects and children still sooner than even by his
+arms, familiar otherwise to victory, he did the Land. And who shall
+be puissant and mighty enough, now to lead men's minds in a contrary
+direction; to control the Most High Power, ruler over hearts and Lands,
+who had decreed it should be so; and again to change this change? [Hear
+Spener: he has taken great pains with his Discourse, and understands
+composition!]
+
+"This change, High-honored Gentlemen [of the Catholic persuasion], is
+also for you a not unhappy one. For our now as pious as wise King will,
+especially in one most vital point, take pattern by the King of all
+Kings; and means to be lord of his subjects only, not of the consciences
+of his subjects. He requires nothing from you but what you are already
+bound by God, by conscience, and duty, to render: to wit, obedience and
+inviolable unbroken fidelity. And by that, and without more asked than
+that, you will render yourselves worthy of his protection, and become
+partakers of the Royal favor. Nay you will render yourselves all the
+worthier in that high quarter, and the more meritorious towards our
+civic commonweal, the more you, High-honored Gentlemen [of the Catholic
+persuasion], accept, with all frankness of colleague-love and amity,
+me and the Evangelical brother Raths now introduced by Royal grace and
+power; and make the new position generously tenable and available to
+us;--and thereby bind with us the more firmly the band of peace and
+colleague-unity, for helping up this dear, and for some years greatly
+fallen, Town along with us.
+
+"We, for our poor part, will, one and all, strive only to surpass each
+other in obedience and faith to our Most Gracious King. We will, as
+Regents of the Citizenry committed to us, go before them with a good
+example; and prove to all and every one, That, little and in war
+untenable as our Landshut is, it shall, in extent and impregnability
+of faith towards its Most Dearest Land's-Prince, approve itself
+unconquerable. As well I as"--Professes now, in the most intricate
+phraseology, that he, and Fischer and Umminger (giving not only the
+titles, but a succinct history of all three, in a single sentence,
+before he comes to the verb!), bring a true heart, &c. &c.--Or would
+the reader perhaps like to see it IN NATURA, as a specimen of German
+human-nature, and the art these Silesian spinners have in drawing out
+their yarns?
+
+"As well I as [1.] The Titular Herr Johann David Fischer, distinguished
+trader and merchant of this Town, who, by his tradings in and beyond
+our Silesian Countries, has made himself renowned, and by his merit and
+address in particular instances [delicate instances known to Landshut,
+not to us] has made himself beloved, who has now been installed as
+Raths-Senior; and also as [2.] The Titular Herr Johann Caspar Ruffer,
+well-respected Citizen, and Revenue-office Manager here, who for many
+years has with much fidelity and vigilance managed the Revenue-office,
+and who for his experience in the economic constitution of this Town has
+been all-graciously nominated Raths-Herr;--and not less [3.] The Titular
+Johann Jacob Umminger, whilom Advocate at Law in Breslau, who, for his
+good studies in Law, and manifested skill in the practice of Law,
+has been an all-graciously nominated Supernumerary Councillor and
+Notary's-Adjunct among us:--As well I as these Three not only assure
+you, High-honored Gentlemen, of all imaginable estimation and return
+of love on our part; but do likewise assure all and sundry these
+respectable Herren Town-Jurats [specially present], representing here
+the universal well-beloved Citizenry of our Town,--that we bring a heart
+sincere, and intent only on aiming at the welfare of a Citizenry so
+loveworthy. We have the firm purpose by God's grace, so to order our
+walk, and so to conduct our government that we may, one day, when
+summoned from our judgment-seats to answer before the Universal
+Judgment-seat of Christ, be able to say, with that pious King and Judge
+of Israel: 'Lord, thou knowest if we have walked uprightly before thee.'
+And we hope to understand that the rewards of justice, in that Life,
+will be much more than those of injustice in this.
+
+"We believe that the Most High will, in so far, bless these our honest
+purposes and wholesome endeavors, as that the actual fruits thereof will
+in time coming, and when Peace now soon expected (which God grant) has
+returned to us, be manifest; and that if, in our Office, as is common,
+we should rather have thorns of persecution than roses of recompense to
+expect, yet to each of us there will at last accrue praise in the Earth
+and reward in Heaven. [Hear Spener!]
+
+"Meanwhile we will unite all our wishes, That the Almighty may vouchsafe
+to his Royal Majesty, our now All-dearest Duke and Land's-Father, many
+long years of life and of happy reign; and maintain this All-highest
+Royal-Prussian and Elector-Brandenburgic House in supremest splendor and
+prosperity, undisturbed to the end of all Days; and along with it,
+our Town-Council, and whole Merchantry and Citizenry, safe under this
+Prussian Sceptre, in perpetual blessing, peace and unity [what a
+modest prayer!]: to all which may Heaven speak its powerful Amen!"
+[_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 416-422.]--
+
+Whereupon solemn waving of hats; indistinct sough of loyal murmur from
+the universal Landshut Population; after which, continued to the due
+extent, they return to their spindles and shuttles again.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII.
+
+FRIEDRICH PURPOSES TO MEND THE KLEIN-SCHNELLENDORF FAILURE: FORTUNES OF
+THE BELLEISLE ARMAMENT.
+
+We shall not dwell upon the movements of the French into Germany for the
+purpose of overwhelming Austria, and setting up four subordinate little
+Sovereignties to take their orders from Louis XV. The plan was of the
+mad sort, not recognized by Nature at all; the diplomacy was wide,
+expensive, grandiose, but vain and baseless; nor did the soldiering that
+followed take permanent hold of men's memory. Human nature cannot afford
+to follow out these loud inanities; and, at a certain distance of time,
+is bound to forget them, as ephemera of no account in the general
+sum. Difficult to say what profit human nature could get out of such
+transaction. There was no good soldiering on the part of the French
+except by gleams here and there; bad soldiering for the most part, and
+the cause was radically bad. Let us be brief with it; try to snatch from
+it, huge rotten heap of old exuviae and forgotten noises and deliriums,
+what fractions of perennial may turn up for us, carefully forgetting the
+rest.
+
+Maillebois with his 40,000, we have seen how they got to Osnabruck, and
+effectually stilled the war-fervor of little George II.; sent him home,
+in fact, to England a checkmated man, he riding out of Osnabruck by one
+gate, the French at the same moment marching in by the other. There
+lies Maillebois ever since; and will lie, cantoned over Westphalia, "not
+nearer than three leagues to the boundary of Hanover," for a year and
+more. There let Maillebois lie, till we see him called away else-wither,
+upon which the gallant little George, check-mate being lifted, will
+get into notable military activity, and attempt to draw his sword
+again,--though without success, owing to the laggard Dutch. Which also,
+as British subjects, if not otherwise, the readers of this Book will
+wish to see something of. Maillebois did not quite keep his stipulated
+distance of "three leagues from the boundary" (being often short of
+victual), and was otherwise no good neighbor. Among his Field-Officers,
+there is visible (sometimes in trouble about quarters and the like)
+a Marquis du Chatelet,--who, I find, is Husband or Ex-Husband to the
+divine Emilie, if readers care to think of that! [_Campagnes_ (i. 45,
+193); and French Peerage-Books,? DU CHATELAT.] Other known face, or
+point of interest for or against, does not turn up in the Maillebois
+Operation in those parts.
+
+As for the other still grander Army, Army of the Oriflamme as we have
+called it,--which would be Belleisle's, were not he so overwhelmed with
+embassying, and persuading the Powers of Germany,--this, since we last
+saw it, has struck into a new course, which it is essential to indicate.
+The major part of it (Four rear Divisions! if readers recollect) lay at
+Ingolstadt, its place of arms; while the Vanward Three Divisions, under
+Maurice Comte de Saxe, flowed onward, joining with Bavaria at Passau;
+down the Donau Country, to Linz and farther, terrifying Vienna itself;
+and driving all the Court to Presburg, with (fabulous) "MORIAMUR PRO
+REGE NOSTRO MARIA THERESIA," but with actual armament of Tolpatches,
+Pandours, Warasdins, Uscocks and the like unsightly beings of a
+predatory centaur nature. Which fine Hungarian Armament, and others
+still more ominous, have been diligently going on, while Karl Albert sat
+enjoying his Homagings at Linz, his Pisgah-views Vienna-ward; and asking
+himself, "Shall we venture forward, and capture Vienna, then?"
+
+The question is intricate, and there are many secret biasings concerned
+in the solution of it. Friedrich, before Klein-Schnellendorf time, had
+written eagerly, had sent Schmettau with eager message, "Push forward;
+it is feasible, even easy: cut the matter by the root!" This, they say,
+was Karl Albert's own notion, had not the French overruled him;--not
+willing, some guess, he should get Austria, and become too independent
+of them all at once. Nay, it appears Karl Albert had inducements of his
+own towards Bohemia rather. The French have had Kur-Sachsen to manage
+withal; and there are interests in Bohemia of his and theirs,--clippings
+of Bohemia promised him as bribes, besides that "Kingdom of Moravia,"
+to get his 21,000 set on march. "Clippings of Bohemia? Interests of
+Kur-Sachsen's in that Country?" asks Karl Albert with alarm: and thinks
+it will be safer, were he himself present there, while Saxony and
+France do the clippings in question! Sure enough, he did not push on.
+Belleisle, from the distance, strongly opined otherwise; Karl Albert
+himself had jealous fears about Bohmen. Friedrich's importunities and
+urgencies were useless: and the one chance there ever was for Karl
+Albert, for Belleisle and the Ruin of Austria, vanished without return.
+
+Karl Albert has turned off, leftwards, towards his Bohemian Enterprises:
+French, Bavarians, Saxons, by their several routes, since the last days
+of October, are all on march that way. We will mark an exact date here
+and there, as fixed point for the reader's fancy. Poor Karl Albert, he
+had sat some six weeks at Linz,--about three weeks since that Homaging
+there (October 2d);--imaginary Sovereign of Upper Austria; looking over
+to Vienna and the Promised Land in general. And that fine Pisgah-view
+was all he ever had of it. Of Austrian or other Conquests earthly
+or heavenly, there came none to him in this Adventure;--mere MINUS
+quantities they all proved. For a few weeks more, there are, blended
+with awful portents, an imaginary gleam or two in other quarters; after
+which, nothing but black horror and disgrace, deepening downwards into
+utter darkness, for the poor man. Belleisle is an imaginary Sun-god; but
+the poor Icarus, tempted aloft in that manner into the earnest elements,
+and melting at once into quills and rags, is a tragic reality!--Let us
+to our dates:--
+
+"OCTOBER 24th, The Bavarian Troops, who had lain at Mautern on the Donau
+some time, forty miles from Vienna and the Promised Land, got under
+way again;--not FORWARD, but sharp to left, or northward, towards the
+Bohemian parts. Thither all the Belleisle Armaments are now bound; and a
+general rallying of them is to be at Prag; for conquest of that Country,
+as more inviting than Austria at present. Comte de Saxe, who had lain at
+St. Polten, a march to southward of Mautern, he with the Vanward of the
+great Belleisle Army, bestirred himself at the same time; and followed
+steadily (Karl Albert in person was with Saxe), at a handy distance by
+parallel roads. To Prag may be about 200 miles. Across the Mannhartsberg
+Country, clear out of Austria, into Bohmen, towards Prag. At Budweis,
+or between that and Tabor, Towns of our old friend Zisca's, of which
+we shall hear farther in these Wars; Towns important by their
+intricate environment of rock and bog, far up among the springs of
+the Moldau,--there can these Bavarians, and this French Vanward of
+Belleisle, halt a little, till the other parties, who are likewise on
+march, get within distance."
+
+For in these same days, as hinted above, the Rearward of the Belleisle
+Army (Four Divisions, strength not accurately given) pushes forward from
+Donauworth, well rested, through the Bavarian Passes, towards Bohemia
+and Prag: these have a longer march (say 250 miles)? to northeast; and
+the leader of them is one Polastron, destined unhappily to meet us on a
+future occasion. With them go certain other Bavarians; accompanying or
+preceding, as in the Vanward case. And then the Saxons (21,000 strong,
+a fine little Army, all that Saxony has) are, at the same time, come
+across the Metal Mountains (ERZGEBIRGE), in quest of those Bohemian
+clippings, of that Kingdom of Moravia: and march from the westward
+upon Prag,--Rutowsky leading them. Comte de Rutowsky, Comte de Saxe's
+Half-Brother, one of the Three Hundred and Fifty-four:--with whom is
+CHEVALIER de Saxe, a second younger ditto; and I think there is still a
+third, who shall go unnamed. In this grand Oriflamme Expedition, Four
+of the Royal-Saxon Bastards altogether." Who cost us more distinguishing
+than they are worth!
+
+Chief General of these Saxons, says an Authentic Author, is Rutowsky;
+got from a Polish mother, I should guess: he commands in chief
+here;--once had a regiment under Friedrich Wilhelm, for a while; but
+has not much head for strategy, it may be feared. But mark that Fourth
+individual of the Three Hundred and Fifty-four, who has a great deal.
+Fourth individual, called Comte de Saxe, who is now in that French
+Vanward a good way to east, was (must I again remind you!) the produce
+of the fair Aurora von Konigsmark, Sister of the Konigsmark who vanished
+instantaneously from the light of day at Hanover long since, and has
+never reappeared more. It was in search of him that Aurora, who was
+indeed a shining creature (terribly insolvent all her life, whose charms
+even Charles XII. durst not front), came to Dresden; and,--in this
+Comte de Saxe, men see the result. Tall enough, restless enough; most
+eupeptic, brisk, with a great deal of wild faculty,--running to
+waste, nearly all. There, with his black arched eyebrows, black swift
+physically smiling eyes, stands Monseigneur le Comte, one of the
+strongest-bodied and most dissolute-minded men now living on our Planet.
+He is now turned of forty: no man has been in such adventures, has swum
+through such seas of transcendent eupepticity determined to have its
+fill. In this new Quasi-sacred French Enterprise, under the Banner
+of Belleisle and the Chateauroux, he has at last, after many trials,
+unconsciously found his culmination: and will do exploits of a wonderful
+nature,--very worthy of said Banner and its patrons.
+
+"Here, then, are Three streams or Armaments pouring forward upon Prag;
+perhaps some 60,000 men in all:--a good deal uncertain what they are to
+do at Prag, except arrive simultaneously so far as possible. Belleisle,
+far off, has fallen sick in these critical days. Comte de Saxe cannot
+see his way in the matter at all: 'What are we to live upon,' asks Comte
+de Saxe, 'were there nothing more!'--For, simultaneously with these
+Three Armaments on march, there is an important Austrian one, likewise
+on the road for Prag: that of Grand-Duke Franz, who has left Presburg,
+with say 30,000 (including the Pandour element); and duly meets the
+Neipperg, or late Silesian Army;--well capable, now, to do a stroke
+upon the Three Armaments, if he be speedy? 'November 7th' it was when
+Grand-Duke Franz picked up Neipperg, 'at Frating' deep in Moravia
+(November 7th, the very day while Friedrich was getting homaged in
+Breslau), and turned him northwestward again. The Grand-Duke, in such
+strength, marches Rag-ward what he can; might be there before the
+French, were he swift; and is at any rate in disagreeable proximity to
+that Budmeis-Tabor Country, appointed as one's halting-place."
+
+And Belleisle, in these critical days, is--consider it!--"Poor
+Belleisle, he has all the Election Votes ready; he has done unspeakable
+labors in the diplomatic way; and leaves Europe in ebullition and
+conflagration behind him. He has all these Armies in motion, and has got
+rid of 'that Moravia,'--given it to Saxony, who adds the title 'King of
+Moravia' to his other dignities, and has set on march those 21,000 men.
+'Would he were ready with them!' Belleisle had been saying, ever since
+the Treaty for them,--Treaty was, September 19th. Belleisle, to expedite
+him, came to Dresden [what day is not said, but deep in October];
+intending next for the Prag Country, there to commence General, the
+diplomacies being satisfactorily done. Valori ran over from Berlin to
+wait upon him there. Alas, the Saxons are on march, or nearly so; but
+the great man himself, worn down with these Herculean labors, has fallen
+into rheumatic fever; is in bed, out at Hubertsburg (serene Country
+Palace of his Moravian Polish Majesty); and cannot get the least well,
+to march in person with the Three Armaments, with the flood of things he
+has set reeling and whirling at such rate.
+
+"The sympathies of Valori go deep at this spectacle. The Alcides, who
+was carrying the axis of the world, fallen down in physical rheumatism!
+But what can sympathies avail? The great man sees the Saxons march
+without him. The great man, getting no alleviation from physicians,
+determines, in his patriotic heroism, to surrender glory itself; writes
+home to Court, 'That he is lamed, disabled utterly; that they must
+nominate another General.' And they nominate another; nominate Broglio,
+the fat choleric Marshal, of Italian breed and physiognomy, whom we
+saw at Strasburg last year, when Friedrich was there. Broglio will quit
+Strasburg too soon, and come. A man fierce in fighting, skilled too in
+tactics; totally incompetent in strategy, or the art of LEADING armies,
+and managing campaigns;--defective in intelligence indeed, not wise to
+discern; dim of vision, violent of temper; subject to sudden cranks, a
+headlong, very positive, loud, dull and angry kind of man; with whose
+tumultuous imbecilities the great Belleisle will be sore tried by and
+by. 'I reckon this,' Valori says, 'the root of all our woes;' this
+Letter which the great Belleisle wrote home to Court. Let men mark it,
+therefore, as a cardinal point,--and snatch out the date, when they have
+opportunity upon the Archives of France. [See Valori, i. 131.]
+
+"Monseigneur the Comte de Saxe, before quitting the Vienna Countries,
+had left some 10,000 French and Bavarians, posted chiefly in Linz, under
+a Comte de Segur, to maintain those Donau Conquests, which have cost
+only the trouble of marching into them. Count Khevenhuller has ceased
+working at the ramparts of Vienna, nothing of siege to be apprehended
+now, civic terror joyfully vanishing again; and busies himself
+collecting an Army at Vienna, with intent of looking into those same
+French Segurs, before long. It is probable the so-called Conquests on
+the Donau will not be very permanent.
+
+"NOVEMBER 19th-21st, The Three Belleisle Armaments, Karl Albert's first,
+have, simultaneously enough for the case, arrived on three sides of
+Prag; and lie looking into it,--extremely uncertain what to do when
+there. To Comte de Saxe, to Schmettau, who is still here, the outlook
+of this grand Belleisle Army, standing shelterless, provisionless, grim
+winter at hand, long hundreds of miles from home or help, is in the
+highest degree questionable, though the others seem to make little of
+it: 'Fight the Grand-Duke when he comes,' say they; 'beat him, and--'
+'Or suppose, he won't fight? Or suppose, we are beaten by him?' answer
+Saxe and Schmettau, like men of knowledge, in the same boat with men of
+none. (We have no strong place, or footing in this Country: what are we
+to do? Take Prag!' advises Comte de Saxe, with earnestness, day after
+day. [His Letters on it to Karl Albert and others (in Espagnac, i.
+94-99).)] 'Take Prag: but how?' answer they. 'By escalade, by surprise,
+and sword in hand, answers he: 'Ogilvy their General has but 3,000, and
+is perhaps no wizard at his trade: we can do it, thus and thus, and
+then farther thus; and I perceive we are a lost Army if we don't!'
+So counsels Maurice Comte de Saxe, brilliant, fervent in his military
+views;--and, before it is quite too late, Schmettau and he persuade
+Karl Albert, persuade Rutowsky chief of the Saxons; and Count Polastron,
+Gaisson or whatever subaltern Counts there are, of French type, have to
+accede, and be saved in spite of themselves. And so,
+
+"SATURDAY NIGHT, 25th NOVEMBER, 1741, brightest of moonshiny nights, our
+dispositions are all made: Several attacks, three if I remember; one of
+them false, under some Polastron, Gaisson, from the south side; a couple
+of them true, from the northwest and the southeast sides, under Maurice
+with his French, and Rutowsky with his Saxons, these two. And there
+is great marching 'on the side of the Karl-Thor (Charles-Gate),' where
+Rutowsky is; and by Count Maurice 'behind the Wischerad;'--and shortly
+after midnight the grand game begins. That French-Polastron attack,
+false, though with dreadful cannonade from the south, attracts poor
+Ogilvy with almost all his forces to that quarter; while the couple of
+Saxon Captains (Rutowsky not at once successful, Maurice with his French
+completely so) break in upon Ogilvy from rearward, on the right flank
+and on the left; and ruin the poor man. Military readers will find the
+whole detail of it well given in Espagnac. Looser account is to be had
+in the Book they call Mauvillon's." [_Derniere Guerre de Boheme,_
+i. 252-264. Saxe's own Account (Letter to Chevalier de Folard) is in
+Espagnac, i. 89 et seqq.]
+
+One thing I remember always: the bright moonlight; steeples of Prag
+towering serene in silvery silence, and on a sudden the wreaths of
+volcanic fire breaking out all round them. The opposition was but
+trifling, null in some places, poor Ogilvy being nothing of a wizard,
+and his garrison very small. It fell chiefly on Rutowsky; who met it
+with creditable vigor, till relieved by the others. Comte Maurice, too,
+did a shifty thing. Circling round by the outside of the Wischerad, by
+rural roads in the bright moonshine, he had got to the Wall at
+last, hollow slope and sheer wall; and was putting-to his
+scaling-ladders,--when, by ill luck, they proved too short! Ten feet or
+so; hopelessly too short. Casting his head round, Maurice notices the
+Gallows hard by: "There, see you, are a few short ladders: MES ENFANS,
+bring me these, and we will splice with rope!" Supplemented by the
+gallows, Maurice soon gets in, cuts down the one poor sentry; rushes
+to the Market-place, finds all his Brothers rushing, embraces them with
+"VICTOIRE!" and "You see I am eldest; bound to be foremost of you!"
+
+"No point in all the War made a finer blaze in the French imagination,
+or figured better in the French gazettes, than this of the Scalade of
+Prag, 25th November, 1741. And surely it was important to get hold of
+Prag; nevertheless, intrinsically it is no great thing, but an opportune
+small thing, done by the Comte de Saxe, in spite of such contradiction
+as we saw."
+
+It was while news of this exploit was posting towards Berlin, but
+not yet arrived there, that Friedrich, passing through the apartment,
+intimated to Hyndford, "Milord, all is divulged, our Klein-Schnellendorf
+mystery public as the house-tops;" and vanished with a shrug of the
+shoulders,--thinking doubtless to himself, "What is OUR next move to be,
+in consequence?" Treaty with Kur-Baiern (November 4th) he had already
+signed in consequence, expressly declaring for Kur-Baiern, and the
+French intentions towards him. This news from Prag--Prag handsomely
+captured, if Vienna had been foolishly neglected--put him upon a new
+Adventure, of which in following Chapters we shall hear more.
+
+
+
+
+THE FRENCH SAFE IN PRAG; KAISERWAHL JUST COMING ON.
+
+Grand-Duke Franz, with that respectable amount of Army under him, ought
+surely to have advanced on Prag, and done some stroke of war for relief
+of it, while time yet was. Grand-Duke Franz, his Brother Karl with him
+and his old Tutor Neipperg, both of whom are thought to have some skill
+in war, did advance accordingly. But then withal there was risk at Prag;
+and he always paused again, and waited to consider. From Frating, on the
+16th, [Espagnac, i. 87.] he had got to Neuhaus, quite across Mahren into
+Bohemian ground, and there joined with Lobkowitz and what Bohemian
+force there was; by this time an Army which you would have called much
+stronger than the French. Forward, therefore! Yes; but with pauses, with
+considerations. Pause of two days at Neuhaus; thence to Tabor (famed
+Zisca's Tabor), a safe post, where again pause three days. From Tabor
+is broad highway to Prag, only sixty miles off now:--screwing their
+resolution to the sticking-point, Grand-Duke and Consorts advance at
+length with fixed determination, all Friday, all Saturday (November
+24th, 25th), part of Sunday too, not thinking it shall be only PART;
+and their light troops are almost within sight of Prag, when--they learn
+that Prag is scaladed the night before, and quite settled; that there
+is nothing except destruction to be looked for in Prag! Back again,
+therefore, to the Tabor-and-Budweis land. They strike into that boggy
+broken country about Budweis, some 120 miles south of Prag; and will
+there wait the signs of the times.
+
+Grand-Duke Franz had seen war, under Seckendorf, under Wallis and
+otherwise, in the disastrous Turk Countries; but, though willing
+enough, was never much of a soldier: as to Neipperg, among his own men
+especially, the one cry is, He ought to go about his business out of
+Austrian Armies, as an imbecile and even a traitor. "Is it conceivable
+that Friedrich could have beaten us, in that manner, except by buying
+Neipperg in the first place? Neipperg and the generality of them, in
+that luckless Silesian Business? Glogau scaladed with the loss of half
+a dozen men; Brieg gone within a week; Neisse ditto: and Mollwitz, above
+all, where, in spite of Romer and such Horse-charging as was never seen,
+we had to melt, dissolve, and roll away in the glitter of the evening
+sun!" The common notion is, they are traitors, partial-traitors, one
+and all. [_Guerre de Boheme,_ saepius.] Poor Neipperg he has seen hard
+service, had ugly work to do: it was he that gave away Belgrade to the
+Turks (so interpreting his orders), and the Grand Vizier, calling him
+Dog of a Giaour: spat in his face, not far from hanging him; and the
+Kaiser and Vienna people, on his coming home, threw him into prison, and
+were near cutting off his head. And again, after such sleety marchings
+through the Mountains, he has had to dissolve at Mollwitz; float away in
+military deluge in the manner we saw. And now, next winter, here is he
+lodged among the upland bogs at Budweis, escorted by mere curses. What
+a life is the soldier's, like other men's; what a master is the world!
+Aulic Cabinet is not all-wise; but may readily be wiser than the vulgar,
+and, with a Maria Theresa at his head, it is incapable of truculent
+impiety like that. Neipperg, guilty of not being a Eugene, is not hanged
+as a traitor; but placed quietly as Commandant in Luxemburg, spends
+there the afternoon of his life, in a more commodious manner. Friedrich
+had, of late, rather admired his movements on the Neisse River; and
+found him a stiff article to deal with.
+
+The French, now with Prag for their place of arms, stretched themselves
+as far as Pisek, some seventy miles southwestward; occupied Pisek,
+Pilsen and other Towns and posts, on the southwest side, some seventy
+miles from Prag; looking towards the Bavarian Passes and homeward
+succors that might come: the Saxons, a while after, got as far as
+Teutschbrod, eighty miles on the southeastward or Moravian hand. Behind
+these outposts, Prag may be considered to hang on Silesia, and have
+Friedrich for security. This, in front or as forecourt of Friedrich's
+Silesia, this inconsiderable section, was all of Bohemian Country the
+French and Confederates ever held, and they did not hold this long. As
+for Karl Albert, he had his new pleasant Dream of Sovereignty at Prag;
+Titular of Upper Austria, and now of Bohmen as well; and enjoyed his
+Feast of the Barmecide, and glorious repose in the captured Metropolis,
+after difficulty overcome. December 7th, he was homaged (a good few of
+the Nobility attending, for which they smarted afterwards), with much
+processioning, blaring and TE-DEUM-ing: on the 19th he rolled off, home
+to Munchen; there to await still higher Romish-Imperial glories, which
+it is hoped are now at hand.
+
+A day or two after the Capture of Prag, Marechal de Belleisle, partially
+cured of his rheumatisms, had hastened to appear in that City; and for
+above four weeks he continued there, settling, arranging, ordering all
+things, in the most consummate manner, with that fine military head of
+his. About Christmas time, arrived Marechal de Broglio, his unfortunate
+successor or substitute; to whom he made everything over; and hastened
+off for Frankfurt, where the final crisis of KAISERWAHL is now at
+hand, and the topstone of his work is to be brought out with shouting.
+Marechal de Broglio had an unquiet Winter of it in his new command; and
+did not extend his quarters, but the contrary.
+
+
+
+
+BROGLIO HAS A BIVOUAC OF PISEK; KHEVENHULLER LOOKS IN UPON THE DONAU
+CONQUESTS.
+
+Grand-Duke Franz edged himself at last a little out of that
+Tabor-Budweis region, and began looking Prag-ward again;--hung about,
+for some time, with his Hungarian light-troops scouring the country;
+but still keeping Prag respectfully to right, at seventy miles distance.
+December 28th, to Broglio's alarm, he tried a night-attack on Pisek, the
+chief French outpost, which lies France-ward too, and might be vital.
+But he found the French (Broglio having got warning) unexpectedly ready
+for him at Pisek,--drawn up in the dark streets there, with torrents of
+musketry ready for his Pandours and him;--and entirely failed of Pisek.
+Upon which he turned eastward to the Budweis-Tabor fastnesses again;
+left Brother Karl as Commander in those parts (who soon leaves Lobkowitz
+as Substitute, Vienna in the idle winter-time being preferable);--left
+Brother Karl, and proceeded in person, south, towards the Donau
+Countries, to see how Khevenhuller might be prospering, who is in the
+field there, as we shall hear.
+
+Of Pisek and the night-skirmish at Pisek, glorious to France, think
+all the Gazettes, I should have said nothing, were it not that
+Marechal Broglio, finding what a narrow miss he had made, established a
+night-watch there, or bivouac, for six weeks to come; such as never was
+before or since: Cavalry and Infantry, in quantity, bivouacking there,
+in the environs of Pisek, on the grim Bohemian snow or snow-slush, in
+the depth of winter, nightly for six weeks, without whisper of an enemy
+at any time; whereby the Marechal did save Pisek (if Pisek was ever
+again in danger), but froze horse and man to the edge of destruction
+or into it; so that the "Bivouac of Pisek" became proverbial in French
+Messrooms, for a generation coming. [_Guerre de Boheme,_ ii. 23, &c.]
+And one hears in the mind a clangorous nasal eloquence from antique
+gesticulative mustachio-figures, witty and indignant,--who are now gone
+to silence again, and their fruitless bivouacs, and frosty and fiery
+toils, tumbling pell-mell after them. This of Pisek was but one of
+the many unwise hysterical things poor Broglio did, in that difficult
+position; which, indeed, was too difficult for any mortal, and for
+Broglio beyond the average.
+
+One other thing we note: Graf von Khevenhuller, solid Austrian man,
+issued from Vienna, December 31st, last day of the Year, with an Army
+of only some 15,000, but with an excellent military head of his own, to
+look into those Conquests on the Donau. Which he finds, as he expected,
+to be mere conquests of stubble, capable of being swept home again at
+a very rapid rate. "Khevenhuller, here as always, was consummate in his
+choice of posts," says Lloyd; [General Lloyd, _History of Seven-Years
+War,_ &c. (incidentally, somewhere).]--discovered where the ARTERIES
+of the business lay, and how to handle the same. By choice of posts, by
+silent energy and military skill, Khevenhuller very rapidly sweeps Segur
+back; and shuts him up in Linz. There Segur, since the first days of
+January, is strenuously barricading himself; "wedging beams from house
+to house, across the streets;"--and hopes to get provision, the Donau
+and the Bavarian streams being still open behind him; and to hold out a
+little. It will be better if he do,--especially for poor Karl Albert
+and his poor Bavaria! Khevenhuller has also detached through the Tyrol
+a General von Barenklau (BEAR'S-CLAW, much heard of henceforth in
+these Wars), who has 12,000 regulars; and much Hussar-folk under bloody
+Mentzel:-across the Tyrol, we say; to fall in upon Bavaria and Munchen
+itself; which they are too like doing with effect. Ought not Karl Albert
+to be upon the road again? What a thing, were the Kaiser Elect taken
+prisoner by Pandours!
+
+In fine, within a short two weeks or so, Karl Albert quits Munchen, as
+no safe place for him; comes across to Mannheim to his Cousin Philip,
+old Kur-Pfalz, whom we used to know, now extremely old, but who has
+marriages of Grand-daughters, and other gayeties, on hand; which a
+Cousin and prospective Kaiser--especially if in peril of his life--might
+as well come and witness. This is the excuse Karl Albert makes to an
+indulgent Public; and would fain make to himself, but cannot. Barenklau
+and Khevenhuller are too indisputable. Nay this rumor of Friedrich's
+"Peace with Austria," divulged Bargain of Klein-Schnellendorf, if this
+also (horrible to think) were true--! Which Friedrich assures him it is
+not. Karl Albert writes to Friedrich, and again writes; conjuring him,
+for the love of God, To make some thrust, then, some inroad or other,
+on those man-devouring Khevenhullers; and take them from his, Karl
+Albert's, throat and his poor Country's. Which Friedrich, on his own
+score, is already purposing to do.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII. -- FRIEDRICH STARTS FOR MORAVIA, ON A NEW SCHEME HE HAS.
+
+The Austrian Court had not kept Friedrich's secret of
+Klein-Schnellendorf, hardly even for a day. It was whispered to the
+Dowager Empress, or Empresses; who whispered it, or wrote it, to some
+other high party; by whom again as usual:--in fact, the Austrian Court,
+having once got their Neipperg safe to hand, took no pains to keep the
+secret; but had probably an interest rather in letting it filter out, to
+set Friedrich and his Allies at variance. At all events, in the space of
+a few weeks, as we have seen, the rumor of a Treaty between Austria and
+Friedrich was everywhere rife; Friedrich, as he had engaged, everywhere
+denying it, and indeed clearly perceiving that there was like to be no
+ground for acknowledging it. The Austrian Court, instead of "completing
+the Treaty before Newyear's-day," had broken the previous bargain;
+evidently not meaning to complete; intent rather to wait upon their
+Hungarian Insurrection, and the luck of War.
+
+There is now, therefore, a new turn in the game. And for this also
+Friedrich has been getting the fit card ready; and is not slow to play
+it. Some time ago, November 4th,--properly November 1st, hardly three
+weeks since that of Klein-Schnellendorf,--finding the secret already out
+("whispered of at Breslau, 28th October," casually testifies Hyndford),
+he had tightened his bands with France; had, on November 4th, formally
+acceded to Karl Albert's Treaty with France. [Accession agreed to,
+"Frankfurt, Nov. 1st," 1741; ratified "Nov. 4th."] Glatz to be his:
+he will not hear of wanting Glatz; nor of wanting elsewhere the proper
+Boundary for Schlesien, "Neisse River both banks" (which Neipperg
+had agreed to, in his late Sham-Bargain);--quite strict on these
+preliminaries.
+
+And furthermore, Kur-Sachsen being now a Partner in that French-Bavarian
+Treaty,--and a highly active one (with 21,000 in the field for him), who
+is "King of Moravia" withal, and has some considerable northern Paring
+of Bohemia thrown in, by way of "Road to Moravia,"--Friedrich made, at
+the same time, special Treaty with Kur-Sachsen, on the points specially
+mutual to them; on the Boundary point, first of all. Which latter treaty
+is dated also November 1st, and was "ratified November 8th."
+
+Treaty otherwise not worth reading; except perhaps as it shows us
+Friedrich putting, in his brief direct way, Kur-Sachsen at once into
+Austria's place, in regard to Ober-Schlesien. "Boundary between
+your Polish Majesty and me to be the River Neisse PLUS a full German
+mile;"--which (to Belleisle's surprise) the Polish Majesty is willing
+to accept; and consents, farther, Friedrich being of succinct turn, That
+Commissioners go directly and put down the boundary-stones, and so an
+end. "Let the Silesian matter stand where it stood," thinks Friedrich:
+"since Austria will not, will you? Put down the boundary-pillars,
+then!"--an interesting little glance into Friedrich's inner man. And
+a Prussian Boundary Commissioner, our friend Nussler the man, did duly
+appear;--whom perhaps we shall meet,--though no Saxon one quite did.
+[Busching, _Beitrage,_ i. 339 (? NUSSLER).] It is this boundary clause,
+it is Friedrich's little decision, "Put down the pillars, then," that
+alone can now interest any mortal in this Saxon Bargain; the clause
+itself, and the bargain itself, having quite broken down on the Saxon
+side, and proved imaginary as a covenant made in dreams. Could not be
+helped, in the sequel!--
+
+Meanwhile, the preliminary diplomacies being done in this manner,
+Friedrich had ordered certain of his own Forces to get in motion a
+little; ordered Leopold, who has had endless nicety of management, since
+the French and Saxons came into those Bohemian Circles of his, to
+go upon Glatz; to lay fast hold of Glatz, for one thing. And farther
+eastward, Schwerin, by order, has lately gone across the Mountains;
+seized Troppau, Friedenthal; nay Olmutz itself, the Capital of
+Mahren,--in one day (December 27th), garrison of Olmutz being too weak
+to resist, and the works in disrepair. "In Heaven's name, what are
+your intentions, then?" asked the Austrians there. "Peaceable in the
+extreme," answered Schwerin, "if only yours are. And if they are
+NOT--!" There sits Schwerin ever since, busy strengthening himself, and
+maintains the best discipline; waiting farther orders.
+
+"The Austrians will not complete their bargain of Klein-Schnellendorf?"
+thinks this young King; "Very well; we will not press them to
+completion. We will not ourselves complete, should they now press.
+We will try another method, and that without loss of time."--It was
+a pungent reflection with Friedrich that Karl Albert had not pushed
+forward on Vienna, from Linz that time, but had blindly turned off to
+the left, and thrown away his one chance. "Cannot one still mend it;
+cannot one still do something of the like?" thinks Friedrich now:
+"Schwerin in Olmutz; Prussian Troops cantoned in the Highlands of
+Silesia, or over in Bohemia itself, near the scene of action; the Saxons
+eastward as far as Teutschbrod, still nearer; the French triumphant at
+Prag, and reinforcement on the road for them: a combined movement on
+Vienna, done instantly and with an impetus!" That is the thing Friedrich
+is now bent upon; nor will he, like Karl Albert, be apt to neglect the
+hour of tide, which is so inexorable in such operations.
+
+At Berlin, accordingly, he has been hurrying on his work, inspection,
+preparation of many kinds,--Marriage of his Brother August Wilhelm,
+for one business; [6th January, 1742 (in Bielfeld, ii. 55-69, exuberant
+account of the Ceremony, and of B.'s part in it).]--and (January 18th),
+after a stay of two months, is off fieldward again, on this new project.
+To Dresden, first of all; Saxony being an essential element; and Valori
+being appointed to meet him there on the French side. It is January
+20th, 1742, when Friedrich arrives; due Opera festivities, "triple
+salute of all the guns," fail not at Dresden; but his object was not
+these at all. Polish Majesty is here, and certain of the warlike Bastard
+Brothers home from Winter-quarters, Comte de Saxe for one; Valori also,
+punctually as due; and little Graf von Bruhl, highest-dressed of human
+creatures, who is factotum in this Court.
+
+"Your Polish Majesty, by treaty and title you are King of Moravia
+withal: now is the time, now or never, to become so in fact! Forward
+with your Saxons:" urges Friedrich: "The Austrians and their Lobkowitz
+are weak in that Country: at Iglau, just over the Moravian border, they
+have formed a Magazine; seize that, snatch it from Lobkowitz: that gives
+us footing and basis there. Forward with your Saxons; Valori gives us
+so-many French; I myself will join with 20,000: swift, steady, all at
+once; we can seize Moravia, who knows if not Vienna itself, and for
+certain drive a stroke right home into the very bowels of the Enemy!"
+That is Friedrich's theme from the first hour of his arrival, and during
+all the four-and-twenty that he stayed.
+
+In one hour, Polish Majesty, who is fonder of tobacco and pastimes than
+of business, declared himself convinced;--and declared also that
+the time of Opera was come; whither the two Majesties had to proceed
+together, and suspend business for a while. Polish Majesty himself was
+very easily satisfied; but with the others, as Valori reports it, the
+argument was various, long and difficult. "Winter time; so dangerous, so
+precarious," answer Bruhl and Comte de Saxe: There is this danger, this
+uncertainty, and then that other;--which the King and Valori, with all
+their eloquence, confute. "Impossible, for want of victual," answers
+Maurice at last, driven into a corner: "Iglau, suppose we get it, will
+soon be eaten; then where is our provision?"--"Provision?" answers
+Valori: "There is M. de Sechelles, Head of our Commissariat in Prag;
+such a Commissary never was before." "And you consent, if I take that in
+hand?" urges Friedrich upon them. They are obliged to consent, on that
+proviso. Friedrich undertakes Sechelles: the Enterprise cannot now
+be refused. [_OEuvres de Frederic_, ii. 170; Valori, i. 139; &c. &c.]
+"Alert, then; not a moment to be lost! Good-night; AU REVOIR, my noble
+friends!"--and to-morrow many hours before daybreak, Friedrich is off
+for Prag, leaving Dresden to awaken when it can.
+
+At Prag he renews acquaintance with his old maladroit Strasburg friend,
+Marechal de Broglio, not with increase of admiration, as would seem;
+declines the demonstrations and civilities of Broglio, business being
+urgent: finds M. de Sechelles to be in truth the supreme of living
+Commissaries (ready, in words which Friedrich calls golden, "to make
+the impossible possible"): "Only march, then, noble Saxons: swift!"--and
+dashes off again, next morning, to northeastward, through Leopold's
+Bohemian cantonments, Glatz-ward by degrees, to be ready with his own
+share of the affair; no delay in him, for one. January 24th, after
+Konigsgratz and other Prussian posts,--January 24th, which is elsewhere
+so notable a day,--his route goes northeast, to Glatz, a hundred miles
+away, among the intricacies of the Giant Mountains, hither side of the
+Silesian Highlands; wild route for winter season, if the young King
+feared any route. From Berlin, hither and farther, he may have
+gone well-nigh his seven hundred miles within the week; rushing on
+continually (starts, at say four in the winter morning); doing endless
+business, of the ordering sort, as he speeds along.
+
+Glatz, a southwestern mountainous Appendage to Silesia, abutting on
+Moravia and Bohemia, is a small strong Country; upon which, ever since
+the first Friedrich times, we have seen him fixed; claiming it too, as
+expenses from the Austrians, since they will not bargain. For he rises
+Sibyl-like: a year ago, you might have had him with his 100,000 to boot,
+for the one Duchy of Glogau; and now--! At Glatz or in these adjacent
+Bohemian parts, the Young Dessauer has been on duty, busy enough, ever
+since the late Siege of Neisse: Glatz Town the Young Dessauer soon got,
+when ordered; Town, Population, Territory, all is his,--all but the high
+mountain Fortress (centre of the Town of Glatzj), with its stiff-necked
+Austrian Garrison shut up there, which he is wearing out by hunger. We
+remember the little Note from Valori's waistcoat-pocket, "Don't give
+him Glatz, if you can possibly help it!" In his latest treaties with the
+French and their Allies, Friedrich has very expressly bargained for the
+Country (will even pay money for it); [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ ii.
+85.] and is determined to have it, when the Austrians next take to
+bargaining. Of Glatz Fortress, now getting hungered out by Leopold's
+Prussian Detachment, I will say farther, though Friedrich heeds these
+circumstances little at present, that it stands on a scarped rock, girt
+by the grim intricate Hills; and that in the Arsenal, in dusty fabulous
+condition, lies a certain Drum, which readers may have heard of. Drum
+is not a fable, but an antique reality fallen flaccid; made, by express
+bequest, as is mythically said, from the skin of Zisca, above 300
+years ago: altogether mythic that latter clause. Drum, Fortress, Town,
+Villages and Territory, all shall be Friedrich's, had hunger done its
+work. [Town already, after short scuffle, 14th January, 1742; Fortress,
+by hunger (no firing nor being fired on, in the interim), 25th April
+following,--when the once 2,000 of garrison, worn to about 200, pale
+as shadows, marched away to Brunn; "only ten of them able for duty on
+arriving." (Orlich, i. 174.)]
+
+Friedrich, while at Glatz this time, gave a new Dress to the Virgin, say
+all the Biographers; of which the story is this. Holy Virgin stood in
+the main Convent of Glatz, in rather a threadbare condition, when the
+Prussians first approached; the Jesuits, and ardently Orthodox of both
+sexes, flagitating Heaven and her with their prayers, that she would
+vouchsafe to keep the Prussians out. In which case pious Madame
+Something, wife of the Austrian Commandant, vowed her a new suit of
+clothes. Holy Virgin did not vouchsafe; on the Contrary, here the
+Prussians are, and Starvation with them. "Courage, nevertheless, my new
+friends!" intimates Friedrich: "The Prussians are not bugaboos, as you
+imagined: Holy Virgin shall have a new coat, all the same!" and was at
+the expense of the bit of broadcloth with trimmings. He was in the way
+of making such investments, in his light sceptical humor; and found
+them answer to him. At Glatz, and through those Bohemian and Silesian
+Cantonments, he sets his people in motion for the Moravian Expedition;
+rapidly stirs up the due Prussian detachments from their Christmas rest
+among the Mountains; and has work enough in these regions, now here now
+there. Schwerin is already in Olmutz, for a month past; and towards him,
+or his neighborhood, the march is to be.
+
+January 26th, Friedrich, now with considerable retinue about him, gets
+from Glatz to Landskron, some fifty miles Olmutz-ward; such a march as
+General Stille never saw,--"through the ice and through the snow, which
+covered that dreadful Chain of Mountains between Bohmen and Mahren: we
+did not arrive till very late; many of our carriages broken down, and
+others overturned more than once." [Stille (Anonymous, Friedrich's
+Old-Tutor Stille), _Campagnes du Roi de Prusse_ (English Translation,
+12mo, London, 1763), p. 5. An intelligent, desirable little
+Volume,--many misprints in the English form of it.] At Landskron next
+day, Friedrich, as appointed, met the Chevalier de Saxe (CHEVALIER, by
+no means Comte, but a younger Bastard, General of the Saxon Horse); and
+endeavored to concert everything: Prussian rendezvous to be at Wischau,
+on the 5th next; thence straightway to meet the Saxons at Trebitsch
+(convenient for that Iglau),--if only the Saxons will keep bargain.
+
+January 28th, past midnight, after another sore march, Friedrich arrived
+at Olmutz; a pretty Town,--with an excellent old Bishop, "a Graf von
+Lichtenstein, a little gouty man about fifty-two years of age, with
+a countenance open and full of candor; [Stille, p. 8.] in whose fine
+Palace, most courteously welcomed, the King lodged till near the day
+of rendezvousing. We will leave him there, and look westward a little;
+before going farther into the Moravian Expedition. Friedrich himself is
+evidently much bent on this Expedition; has set his heart on paying the
+Austrians for their trickery at Klein-Schnellendorf, in this handsome
+way, and still picking up the chance against them which Karl Albert
+squandered. If only the French and Saxons would go well abreast with
+Friedrich, and thrust home! But will they? Here is a surprising bit of
+news; not of good omen, when it reaches one at Olmutz!
+
+"LINZ, 24th JANUARY, 1742 [day otherwise remarkable]. After the much
+barricading, and considerable defiance and bravadoing, by Comte de Segur
+and his 10,000, he has lost this City in a scandalous manner [not quite
+scandalous, but reckoned so by outside observers]; and Linz City is not
+now Segur's, but Khevenhuller's. To Khevenhuller's first summons M. de
+Segur had answered, 'I will hang on the highest gallows the next man
+that comes to propose such a thing!'--and within a week [Khevenhuller
+having seized the Donau River to rear of Linz, and blasted off the
+Bavarian party there], M. de Segur did himself propose it ('Free
+withdrawal: Not serve against you for a year'); and is this day
+beginning to march out of Linz." [_Campagnes des Trois Marechaux,_ iii.
+280, &c.; Adelung, iii. A, p. 12, and p. 15 (a Paris street-song on
+it).] Here is an example of defending Key-Positions! If Segur's be the
+pattern followed, those Conquests on the Donau are like to go a fine
+road!--There came to Friedrich, in all privacy, during his stay
+in Olmutz at this Bishop's, a Diplomatic emissary from Vienna,
+one Pfitzner; charged with apologies, with important offers
+probably;--important; but not important enough. Friedrich blames himself
+for being too abrupt on the man; might perhaps have learned something
+from him by softer treatment. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ ii. 109.] After
+three days, Pfitzner had to go his ways again, having accomplished
+nothing of change upon Friedrich.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX. -- WILHELMINA GOES TO SEE THE GAYETIES AT FRANKFURT.
+
+On the day when Friedrich, overhung by the grim winter Mountains, was
+approaching Glatz, same day when Segur was evacuating Linz on those sad
+terms, that is, on the 24th day of January, 1742,--two Gentlemen were
+galloping their best in the Frankfurt-Mannheim regions; bearing what
+they reckoned glad tidings towards Mannheim and Karl Albert; who is
+there "on a visit" (for good reasons), after his triumphs at Prag and
+elsewhere. The hindmost of the two Gentlemen is an Official of rank
+(little conscious that he is preceded by a rival in message-bearing);
+Official Gentleman, despatched by the Diet of Frankfurt to inform Karl
+Albert, That he now is actually Kaiser of the Holy Romish Empire; votes,
+by aid of Heaven and Belleisle, having all fallen in his favor.
+Gallop, therefore, my Official Gentleman:--alas, another Gentleman,
+Non-official, knowing how it would turn, already sat booted and saddled,
+a good space beyond the walls of Frankfurt, waiting till the cannon
+should fire; at the first burst of cannon, he (cunning dog) gives his
+horse the spur; and is miles ahead of the toiling Official Gentleman,
+all the way. [Adelung, iii. A, 52.]
+
+In the dreary mass of long-winded ceremonial nothingnesses, and
+intricate Belleisle cobwebberies, we seize this one poor speck of
+human foolery in the native state, as almost the memorablest in that
+stupendous business. Stupendous indeed; with which all Germany has been
+in travail these sixteen months, on such terms! And in verity has got
+the thing called "German Kaiser" constituted, better or worse. Heavens,
+was a Nation ever so bespun by gossamer; enchanted into paralysis, by
+mountains of extinct tradition, and the want of power to annihilate
+rubbish! There are glittering threads of the finest Belleisle
+diplomacy, which seem to go beyond the Dog-star, and to be radiant, and
+irradiative, like paths of the gods: and they are, seem what they might,
+poor threads of idle gossamer, sunk already to dusty cobweb, unpleasant
+to poor human nature; poor human nature concerned only to get them
+well swept into the fire. The quantities of which sad litter, in this
+Universe, are very great!--
+
+Karl Albert, now at the top-gallant of his hopes: homaged Archduke of
+Upper Austria, homaged King of Bohemia, declared Kaiser of the German
+Nation,--is the highest-titled mortal going: and, poor soul, it is
+tragical, once more, to think what the reality of it was for him.
+Ejection from house and home; into difficulty, poverty, despair; life in
+furnished lodgings, which he could not pay;--and at last heart-break,
+no refuge for him but in the grave. All which is mercifully hidden at
+present; so that he seems to himself a man at the top-gallant of his
+wishes; and lives pleasantly, among his friends, with a halo round his
+head to his own foolish sense and theirs.
+
+"Karl Albert, Kurfurst of Baiern [lazy readers ought to be reminded],
+whose achievements will concern us to an unpleasant extent, for some
+years, is now a lean man of forty-five; lean, erect, and of middle
+stature; a Prince of distinguished look, they say; of elegant manners,
+and of fair extent of accomplishment, as Princes go. His experiences in
+this world, and sudden ups and downs, have been and will be many. Note a
+few particulars of them; the minimum of what are indispensable here.
+
+"English readers know a Maximilian Kurfurst of Baiern, who took into
+French courses in the great Spanish-Succession War; the Anti-Marlborough
+Maximilian, who was quite ruined out by the Battle of Blenheim; put
+under Ban of the Empire, and reduced to depend on Louis XIV. for a
+living,--till times mended with him again; till, after the Peace of
+Utrecht, he got reinstated in his Territories; and lived a dozen years
+more, in some comparative comfort, though much sunk in debt. Well, our
+Karl Albert is the son of that Anti-Marlborough Kurfurst Maximilian;
+eldest surviving son; a daughter of the great Sobieski of Poland was his
+mother. Nay, he is great-grandson of another still more distinguished
+Maximilian, him of the Thirty-Years War,--(who took the Jesuits to his
+very heart, and let loose Ate on his poor Country for the sake of them,
+in a determined manner; and was the First of all the Bavarian KURFURSTS,
+mere Dukes till then; having got for himself the poor Winter-King's
+Electorship, or split it into two as ultimately settled, out of that bad
+Business),--great-grandson, we say, of that forcible questionable First
+Kurfurst Max; and descends from Kaiser Ludwig, 'Ludwig the BAIER,' if
+that is much advantage to him.
+
+"In his young time he had a hard upcoming; seven years old at the Battle
+of Blenheim, and Papa living abroad under Louis XIV.'s shelter, the poor
+Boy was taken charge of by the victorious Austrian Kaisers, and brought
+up in remote Austrian Towns, as a young 'Graf von Wittelsbach'
+(nothing but his family name left him), mere Graf and private nobleman
+henceforth. However, fortune took the turn we know, and he became Prince
+again; nothing the worse for this Spartan part of his breeding. He made
+the Grand Tour, Italy, France, perhaps more than once; saw, felt, and
+tasted; served slightly, at a Siege of Belgrade (one of the many Sieges
+of Belgrade);--wedded, in 1722, a Daughter of the late Kaiser Joseph's,
+niece of the late Kaiser Karl's, cousin of Maria Theresa's; making the
+due 'renunciations,' as was thought; and has been Kurfurst himself
+for the last fourteen Years, ever since 1726, when his Father died. A
+thrifty Kurfurst, they say, or at least has occasionally tried to be
+so, conscious of the load of debts left on him; fond of pomps withal,
+extremely polite, given to Devotion and to BILLETS-DOUX; of gracious
+address, generous temper (if he had the means), and great skill in
+speaking languages. Likes hunting a little,--likes several things, we
+see!--has lived tolerably with his Wife and children; tolerably with
+his Neighbors (though sour upon the late Kaiser now and then); and is
+an ornament to Munchen, and well liked by the population there. A
+lean, elegaut, middle-sized gentleman; descended direct from Ludwig the
+ancient Kaiser; from Maximilian the First Kurfurst, who walked by the
+light of Father Lammerlein (LAMBKIN) and Company, thinking IT light from
+Heaven; and lastly is son of Maximilian the Third Kurfurst, whom learned
+English readers know as the Anti-Marlborough one, ruined out by the
+Battle of Blenheim.
+
+"His most important transaction hitherto has been the marriage with
+Kaiser Joseph's Daughter;--of which, in Pollnitz somewhere, there is
+sublime account; forgettable, all except the date (Vienna, 5th October,
+1722), if by chance that should concern anybody. Karl Albert (KURPRINZ,
+Electoral Prince or Heir-Apparent, at that time) made free renunciation
+of all right to Austrian Inheritances, in such terms as pleased Karl
+VI., the then Kaiser; the due complete 'renunciations' of inheriting in
+Austria; and it was hoped he would at once sign the Pragmatic Sanction,
+when published; but he has steadily refused to do so; 'I renounced for
+my Wife,' says Kurfurst Karl, 'and will never claim an inch of Austrian
+land on her account; but my own right, derived from Kaiser Ferdinand of
+blessed memory, who was Father of my Great-grandmother, I did not, do
+not, never will renounce; and I appeal to HIS Pragmatic Sanction, the
+much older and alone valid one, according to which, it is not you, it is
+I that am the real and sole Heir of Austria.'
+
+"This he says, and has steadily said or meant: 'It is I that am to be
+King of Bohemia; I that shall and will inherit all your Austrias, Upper,
+Under, your Swabian Brisgau or Hither Austria, and what of the Tyrol
+remained wanting to me. Your Archduchess will have Hungary, the
+Styrian-Carinthian Territories; Florence, I suppose, and the Italian
+ones. What is hers by right I will be one of those that defend for her;
+what is not hers, but mine, I will defend against her, to the best of
+my ability!' This was privately, what it is now publicly, his argument;
+from which he never would depart; refusing always to accept Kaiser
+Karl's new Pragmatic Sanction; getting Saxony (who likewise had a
+Ferdinand great-grandmother) to refuse,--till Polish Election compelled
+poor Saxony, for a time. Karl Albert had likewise secretly, in past
+years, got his abstruse old Cousin of the Pfalz (who mended the
+Heidelberg Tun) to back him in a Treaty; nay, still better, still more
+secretly, had got France itself to promise eventual hacking:--and, on
+the whole, lived generally on rather bad terms with the late Kaiser
+Karl, his Wife's Uncle; any reconciliation they had proving always
+of temporary nature. In the Rhenish War (1734), Karl Albert, far from
+assisting the Kaiser, raised large forces of his own; kept drilling
+them, in four or three camps, in an alarming manner; and would not even
+send his Reich's Contingent (small body of 3,000 he is by law bound
+to send), till he perceived the War was just expiring. He was in angry
+controversy with the Kaiser, claiming debts,--debts contracted in the
+last generation, and debts going back to the Thirty-Years War, amounting
+to hundreds of millions,--when the poor Kaiser died; refusing payment to
+the last, nay claiming lands left HIM, he says, by Margaret Mouthpoke:
+[Michaelis, ii. 260; Buchholz, ii. 9; Hormayr, _Anemonen,_ ii. 182;
+&c.] 'Cannot pay your Serene Highness (having no money); and would not,
+if I could!' Leaving Karl Albert to protest to the uttermost;"--which,
+as we ourselves saw in Vienna, he at once honorably did.
+
+Karl Albert's subsequent history is known to readers; except the
+following small circumstance, which occurred in his late transit,
+flight, or whatever we may call it, to Mannheim, and is pleasantly made
+notable to us by Wilhelmina. "His Highness on the way from Munchen,"
+intimates our Princess, "passed through Baireuth in a very bad
+post-chaise." This, as we elsewhere pick out, was on January 16th; Karl
+Albert in post-haste for the marriage-ceremony, which takes place at
+Mannheim to-morrow. [Adelung, iii. A, 51.] "My Margraf, accidentally
+hearing, galloped after him, came up with him about fifteen miles away:
+they embraced, talked half an hour; very content, both." [Wilhelmina,
+ii. 334.]
+
+And eight days afterwards, 24th January, 1742, busy Belleisle (how busy
+for this year past, since we saw him in the OEil-de-Boeuf!) gets him
+elected Kaiser;--and Segur, in the self-same hours, is packing out
+of Linz; and one's Donau "Conquests," not to say one's Munchen, one's
+Baiern itself, are in a fine way! The marriage-ceremony, witnessed on
+the 17th, was one of the sublimest for Kur-Pfalz and kindred; and it too
+had secretly a touch of tragedy in it for the Poor Karl Albert. A double
+marriage: Two young Princesses, Grand-daughters, priceless Heiresses,
+to old Kur-Pfalz; married, one of them to Duke Clement of Baiern, Karl
+Albert's nephew, which is well enough: but married, the other and elder
+of them, to Theodor of Deux-Ponts, who will one day--could we pierce the
+merciful veil--be Kurfurst of Baiern, and succeed our own childless Son!
+[Michaelis, ii. 265.]
+
+"Kaiser Karl VII.," such the style he took, is to be crowned February
+12th; makes sublime Public Entry into Frankfurt, with that view,
+January 31st;--both ceremonies splendid to a wonder, in spite of finance
+considerations. Which circumstance should little concern us, were it
+not that Wilhelmina, hearing the great news (though in a dim ill-dated
+state), decided to be there and see; did go;--and has recorded her
+experiences there, in a shrill human manner. Wishful to see our
+fellow-creatures (especially if bound to look at them), even when they
+are fallen phantasmal, and to make persons of them again, we will give
+this Piece; sorry that it is the last we have of that fine hand. How
+welcome, in the murky puddle of Dryasdust, is any glimpse by a lively
+glib Wilhelmina, which we can discern to be human! Hear what Wilhelmina
+says (in a very condensed form):--
+
+
+
+
+WILHELMINA AT THE CORONATION.
+
+Wilhelmina, in the end of January, 1742,--Karl Albert having shot
+past, one day lately, in a bad post-chaise, and kindled the thought
+in her,--resolved to go and see him crowned at Frankfurt, by way of
+pleasure-excursion. We will, struggling to be briefer, speak in her
+person; and indicate withal where the very words are hers, and where
+ours.
+
+The Marwitz, elder Marwitz, her poor father being wounded at Mollwitz,
+[_Militair-Lexikon,_ iii. 23; and _Preussische Adels-Lexikon,_ iii.
+365.] had gone to Berlin to nurse him; but she returned just now,--not
+much to my joy; I being, with some cause, jealous of that foolish minx.
+The Duchess Dowager of Wurtemberg also came, sorrow on her; a foolish
+talking woman, always cutting jokes, making eyes, giggling and
+coquetting; "HAS some wit and manner, but wearies you at last: her
+charms, now on the decline, were never so considerable as rumor said; in
+the long-run she bores you with her French gayeties and sprightliness:
+her character for gallantry is too notorious. She quite corrupted
+Marwitz, in this and a subsequent visit; turned the poor girl's head
+into a French whirligig, and undermined any little moral principle she
+had. She was on the road to Berlin,"--of which anon, for it is not quite
+nothing to us;--"but she was in no hurry, and would right willingly have
+gone with us." And it required all our female diplomacy to get her
+under way again, and fairly out of our course. January 28th, SHE off to
+Berlin; WE, same day, to Frankfurt-on-Mayn. [Wilhelmina, ii. 334; see
+pp. 335, 338, 347, &c. for the other salient points that follow.]
+
+Coronation was to have been (or we Country-folk thought it was), January
+31st: Let us be there INCOGNITO, the night before; see it, and return
+the day after. That was our plan. Bad roads, waters all out; we had to
+go night and day;--reached the gates of Frankfurt, 30th January late.
+Berghover, our Legationsrath there, says we are known everywhere;
+Coronation is not to be till February 12th! I was fatigued to death, a
+bad cold on me, too: we turned back to the last Village; stayed there
+overnight. Back again to Berghover, in secret (A LA SOURDINE), next
+night; will see the Public Entry of Karl Albert, which is to be
+to-morrow (not quite, my Princess; January 31st for certain, [Adelung,
+iii. A, 63; &c. &c.] did one the least care). "It was a very grand thing
+indeed (DES PLUS SUPERBES); but I will not stop describing it. Masked
+ball that night; where I had much amusement, tormenting the masks; not
+being known to anybody. We next day retired to a small private
+House, which Berghover had got for us, out of Town, for fear of
+being discovered; and lodged there, waiting February 12th, under
+difficulties."
+
+The weather was bitterly cold; we had brought no clothes; my dames and
+I nothing earthly but a black ANDRIENNE each (whatever that may be),
+to spare bulk of luggage: strictest incognito was indispensable.
+The Marwitzes, for giggling, raillery, French airs, and absolute
+impertinence, were intolerable, in that solitary place. We return to
+Frankfurt again; have balls and theatres, at least: "of these latter I
+missed none. One evening, my head-dress got accidentally shoved awry,
+and exposed my face for a moment; Prince George of Hessen-Cassel,
+who was looking that way, recognized me; told the Prince of Orange of
+it;--they are in our box, next minute!"
+
+Prince George of Hessen-Cassel, did readers ever hear of him before?
+Transiently perhaps, in Friedrich's LETTERS TO HIS FATHER; but have
+forgotten him again; can know him only as the outline of a shadow. A
+fat solid military man of fifty; junior Brother of that solid WILHELM,
+Vice-regent and virtual "Landgraf of Hessen"--(VICE an elder and eldest
+Brother, FRIEDRICH, the now Majesty of Sweden, who is actual Hereditary
+Landgraf, but being old, childless, idle, takes no hold of it, and quite
+leaves it to Wilhelm),--of whom English readers may have heard, and will
+hear. For it is Wilhelm that hires us those "subsidized 6,000," who go
+blaring about on English pay (Prince George merely Commandant of them);
+and Wilhelm, furthermore, has wedded his Heir-Apparent to an English
+Princess lately; [Princess Mary (age only about seventeen), 28th June,
+1740; Prince's name was Friedrich (became Catholic, 1749; WIFE made
+family-manager in Consequence, &c. &c.).] which also (as the poor young
+fellow became Papist by and by) costs certain English people, among
+others, a good deal of trouble. Uncle George, we say, is merely
+Commandant of those blaring 6,000; has had his own real soldierings
+before this; his own labors, contradictions, in his time; but has borne
+all patiently, and grown fat upon it, not quarrelling with his burdens
+or his nourishments. Perhaps we may transiently meet him again.
+
+As to the Prince of Orange, him we have seen more than once in times
+past: a young fellow in comparison, sprightly, reckoned clever, but
+somewhat humpbacked; married an English Princess, years ago ("Papa, if
+he were as ugly as a baboon!")--which fine Princess, we find, has stopt
+short at Cassel, too fatigued on the present occasion. "His ESPRIT,"
+continues Wilhelmina, "and his conversation, delighted me. His Wife,
+he said, was at Cassel; he would persuade her to come and make my
+acquaintance;"--could not; too far, in this cold season. "These two
+Serene Highnesses would needs take me home in their carriage; they asked
+the Margraf to let them stay supper: from that hour they were never out
+of our house. Next morning, by means of them, the secret had got abroad.
+Kur-Koln [lanky hook-nosed gentleman, richest Pluralist in the Church]
+had set spies on us; next evening he came up to me, and said, 'Madam,
+I know your Highness; you must dance a measure with me!' That comes of
+one's head-gear getting awry! We had nothing for it but to give up the
+incognito, and take our fate!"
+
+This dancing Elector of Koln, a man still only entering his forties, is
+the new Emperor's Brother: [Clement August (Hubner, t. 134).] do readers
+wonder to see him dance, being an Archbishop? The fact is certain,--let
+the Three Kings and the Eleven Thousand Virgins say to it what they
+will. "He talked a long time with me; presented to me the Princess
+Clemence his Niece [that is to say, Wife of his Nephew ClemENT; one
+of the Two whom his now Imperial Majesty saw married the other
+day], [Michaelis, ii. 256, 123; Hubner, tt. 141, 134.] and then the
+Princess"--in fact, presented all the three Sulzbach Princesses (for
+there is a youngest, still to wed),--"and then Prince Theodor [happy
+Husband of the eldest], and Prince Clement [ditto of the younger];" and
+was very polite indeed. How keep our incognito, with all these people
+heaping civilities upon us? Let us send to Baireuth for clothes,
+equipages; and retire to our country concealment till they arrive.
+
+"Just as we were about setting off thither, I waiting till the Margraf
+were ready, the Xargraf entered, and a Lady with him; who, he informed
+me, was Madame de Belleisle, the French Ambassador's Wife:"--Wife of
+the great Belleisle, the soul of all these high congregatings,
+consultations, coronations, who is not Kaiser but maker of Kaisers: what
+is to be done!--"I had carefully avoided her; reckoning she would have
+pretensions I should not be in the humor to grant. I took my resolution
+at the moment [being a swift decisive creature]; and received her like
+any other Lady that might have come to me. Her visit was not long. The
+conversation turned altogether upon praises of the King [my Brother]. I
+found Madame de Belleisle very different from the notion I had formed
+of her. You could see she had moved in high company (SENTAIT SON MONDE);
+but her air appeared to me that of a waiting-maid (SOUBRETTE), and her
+manners insignificant." Let Madame take that.
+
+"Monseigneur himself," when our equipages had come, "waited on me
+several times,"--Monseigueur the grand Marechal de Belleisle, among the
+other Principalities and Lordships: but of this lean man in black (who
+has done such famous things, and will have to do the Retreat of Prag
+within year and day), there is not a word farther said. Old Seckendorf
+too is here; "Reich's-Governor of Philipsburg;" very ill with Austria,
+no wonder; and striving to be well with the new Kaiser. Doubtless
+old Seckendorf made his visit too (being of Baireuth kin withal),
+and snuffled his respects: much unworthy of mention; not lovely to
+Wilhelmina. Prince of Orange, hunchbacked, but sprightly and much the
+Prince, bore me faithful company all the Coronation time; nor was George
+of Hessen-Cassel wanting, good fat man.
+
+Of the Coronation itself, though it was truly grand, and even of an
+Oriental splendor,[_Anemonen,_ ubi supra.] I will say nothing. The poor
+Kaiser could not enjoy it much. He was dying of gout and gravel, and
+could scarcely stand on his feet. Poor gentleman; and the French are
+driven dismally out of Linz; and the Austrians are spreading like a
+lava-flood or general conflagration over Baiern--Demon Mentzel, whom
+they call Colonel Mentzel, he (if we knew it) is in Munchen itself,
+just as we are getting crowned here! And unless King Friedrich, who is
+falling into Mahren, in the flank of them, call back this Infernal Chase
+a little, what hope is there in those parts!--The poor Kaiser, oftenest
+in his bed, is courting all manner of German Princes,--consulting with
+Seckendorfs, with cunning old stagers. He has managed to lead my Margraf
+into a foolish bargain, about raising men for him. Which bargain I, on
+fairly getting sight of it, persuade my Margraf to back out of; and,
+in the end, he does so. Meanwhile, it detains us some time longer in
+Frankfurt, which is still full of Principalities, busy with visitings
+and ceremonials.
+
+Among other things, by way of forwarding that Bargain I was so averse
+to, our Official People had settled that I could not well go without
+having seen the Empress, after her crowning. Foolish people; entangling
+me in new intricacies! For if she is a Kaiser's Daughter and Kaiser's
+Spouse, am not I somewhat too? "How a King's Daughter and an Empress are
+to meet, was probably never settled by example: what number of steps
+down stairs does she come? The arm-chair (FAUTEUIL), is that to
+be denied me?" And numerous other questions. The official people,
+Baireuthers especially, are in despair; and, in fact, there were scenes.
+But I held firm; and the Berlin ambassadors tempering, a medium was
+struck: steps of stairs, to the due number, are conceded me; arm-chair
+no, but the Empress to "take a very small arm-chair," and I to have a
+big common chair (GRAND DOSSIER). So we meet, and I have sight of this
+Princess, next day.
+
+In her place, I confess I would have invented all manner of etiquettes,
+or any sort of contrivance, to save myself from showing face. "Heavens!
+The Empress is below middle size, and so corpulent (PUISSANTE), she
+looks like a ball; she is ugly to the utmost (LAIDE AU POSSIBLE), and
+without air or grace." Kaiser Joseph's youngest Daughter,--the gods,
+it seems, have not been kind to her in figure or feature! And her mind
+corresponds to her appearance: she is bigoted to excess; passes
+her nights and days in her oratory, with mere rosaries and gaunt
+superstitious platitudes of that nature; a dark fat dreary little
+Empress. "She was all in a tremble in receiving me; and had so
+discountenanced an air, she could n't speak a word. We took seats. After
+a little silence, I began the conversation, in French. She answered me
+in her Austrian jargon, That she did not well understand that language,
+and begged I would speak to her in German. Our conversation was not
+long. Her Austrian dialect and my Lower-Saxon are so different that,
+till you have practised, you are not mutually intelligible in them.
+Accordingly we were not. A by-stander would have split with laughing at
+the Babel we made of it; each catching only a word here and there, and
+guessing the rest. This Princess was so tied to her etiquette, she would
+have reckoned it a crime against the Reich to speak to me in a foreign
+language; for she knew French well enough.
+
+"The Kaiser was to have been of this visit; but he had fallen so ill, he
+was considered even in danger of his life. Poor Prince, what a lot had
+he achieved for himself!" reflects Wilhelmina, as we often do. He was
+soft, humane, affable; had the gift of captivating hearts. Not without
+talent either; but then of an ambition far disproportionate to it.
+"Would have shone in the second rank, but in the first went sorrowfully
+eclipsed," as they say! He could not be a great man, nor had about him
+any one that could; and he needed now to be so. This is the service a
+Belleisle can do; inflating a poor man to Kaisership, beyond his natural
+size! Crowned Kaiser, and Mentzel just entering his Munchen the while;
+a Kaiser bedrid, stranded; lying ill there of gout and gravel, with
+the Demon Mentzels eating him:--well may his poor little bullet of a
+Kaiserinn pray for him night and day, if that will avail!--
+
+
+
+
+THE DUCHESS DOWAGER OF WURTEMBERG, RETURNING FROM BERLIN FAVORS US WITH
+ANOTHER VISIT.
+
+I am sorry to say this is almost the last scene we shall get out of
+Wilhelmina. She returns to Baireuth; breaks there conclusively that
+unwise Frankfurt bargain; receives by and by (after several months,
+when much has come and gone in the world) the returning Duchess of
+Wurtemberg, effulgent Dowager "spoken of only as a Lais:" and has other
+adventures, alluded to up and down, but not put in record by herself any
+farther.--Sorrowfully let us hear Wilhelmina yet a little, on this Lais
+Duchess, who will concern us somewhat. Dowager, much too effulgent, of
+the late Karl Alexander, a Reichs-Feldmarschall (or FOURTH-PART of one,
+if readers could remember) and Duke of Wurtemberg,--whom we once dined
+with at Prag, in old Friedrich-Wilhelm and Prince-Eugene times:--
+
+"This Princess, very famous on the bad side, had been at Berlin to see
+her three Boys settled there, whose education she [and the STANDE of
+Wurtemberg, she being Regent] had committed to the King. These Princes
+had been with us on their road thither, just before their Mamma last
+time. The Eldest, age fourteen, had gone quite agog (S'ETOIT AMOURACHE)
+about my little Girl, age only nine; and had greatly diverted us by his
+little gallantries [mark that, with an Alas!]. The Duchess, following
+somewhat at leisure, had missed the King that time; who was gone for
+Mahren, January 18th. ... I found this Princess wearing pretty well. Her
+features are beautiful, but her complexion is faded and very yellow. Her
+voice is so high and screechy, it cuts your ears; she does not want for
+wit, and expresses herself well. Her manners are engaging for those whom
+she wishes to gain; and with men are very free. Her way of thinking and
+acting offers a strange contrast of pride and meanness. Her gallantries
+had brought her into such repute that I had no pleasure in her visits."
+[Wilhelmina, ii. 335.] No pleasure; though she often came; and her
+Eldest Prince, and my little Girl--Well, who knows!
+
+Besides her three Boys (one of whom, as Reigning Duke, will become
+notorious enough to Wilhelmina and mankind), the Lais Duchess has left
+at Berlin--at least, I guess she has now left him, in exchange perhaps
+for some other--a certain very gallant, vagabond young Marquis d'Argens,
+"from Constantinople" last; originally from the Provence countries;
+extremely dissolute creature, still young (whom Papa has had to
+disinherit), but full of good-humor, of gesticulative loyal talk, and
+frothy speculation of an Anti-Jesuit turn (has written many frothy
+Books, too, in that strain, which are now forgotten): who became a very
+great favorite with Friedrich, and will be much mentioned in subsequent
+times.
+
+"In the end of July," continues Wilhelmina, "we went to Stouccard
+[Stuttgard, capital of Wurtemberg, O beautiful glib tongue!], whither
+the Duchess had invited us: but--" And there we are on blank paper;
+our dear Wilhelmina has ceased speaking to us: her MEMOIRS end; and
+oblivious silence wraps the remainder!--
+
+Concerning this effulgent Dowager of Wurtemberg, and her late ways at
+Berlin, here, from Bielfeld, is another snatch, which we will excerpt,
+under the usual conditions:
+
+"BERLIN, FEBRUARY, 1742 [real date of all that is not fabulous in
+Bielfeld, who chaotically dates it "6th December" of that Year]. ... A
+day or two after this [no matter WHAT] I went to the German Play, the
+only spectacle which is yet fairly afoot in Berlin. In passing in, I
+noticed the Duchess Dowager of Wurtemberg, who had arrived, during my
+absence, with a numerous and brilliant suite, as well to salute the King
+and the Queens [King off, on his Moravian Business, before she came],
+and to unite herself more intimately with our Court, as to see the Three
+Princes her Children settled in their new place, where, by consent of
+the States of Wurtemberg, they are to be educated henceforth.
+
+"As I had not yet had myself presented to the Duchess, I did not presume
+to approach too near, and passed up into the Theatre. But she noticed
+me in the side-scenes; asked who I was [such a handsome fashionable
+fellow], and sent me order to come immediately and pay my respects. To
+be sure, I did so; was most graciously received; and, of course, called
+early next day at her Palace. Her Grand-Chamberlain had appointed me the
+hour of noon. He now introduced me accordingly: but what was my surprise
+to find the Princess in bed; in a negligee all new from the laundress,
+and the gallantest that art could imagine! On a table, ready to her
+hand, at the DOSSIER or bed-bead, stood a little Basin silver-gilt,
+filled with Holy Water: the rest was decorated with extremely precious
+Relics, with a Crucifix, and a Rosary of rock-crystal. Her dress, the
+cushions, quilt, all was of Marseilles stuff, in the finest series of
+colors, garnished with superb lace. Her cap was of Alencon lace, knotted
+with a ribbon of green and gold. Figure to yourself, in this gallant
+deshabille, a charming Princess, who has all the wit, perfection of
+manner--and is still only thirty-seven, with a beauty that was once so
+brilliant! Round the celestial bed were courtiers, doctors, almoners,
+mostly in devotional postures; the three young Princes; and a Dame
+d'Atours, who seemed to look slightly ENNUYEE or bored." I had the honor
+to kiss her Serene Highness's hand, and to talk a great many peppered
+insipidities suitable to the occasion.
+
+Dinner followed, more properly supper, with lights kindled: "Only I
+cannot dress, you know," her Highness had said; "I never do, except for
+the Queen-Mother's parties;"--and rang for her maids. So that you are
+led out to the Anteroom, and go grinning about, till a new and still
+more charming deshabille be completed, and her Most Serene Highness
+can receive you again: "Now Messieurs! Pshaw, one is always stupid,
+no ESPRIT at all except by candlelight!"--After which, such a dinner,
+unmatchable for elegance, for exquisite gastronomy, for Attic-Paphian
+brilliancy and charm! And indeed there followed hereupon, for weeks on
+weeks, a series of such unmatchable little dinners; chief parts, under
+that charming Presidency, being done by "Grand-Chamberlain Baron de"
+Something-or-other, "by your humble servant Bielfeld, M. Jordan, and
+a Marquis d'Argens, famous Provencal gentleman now in the suite of her
+Highness:" [Bielfeld, ii. 74-78.]--feasts of the Barmecide I much doubt,
+poor Bielfeld being in this Chapter very fantastic, MISDATEful to a mad
+extent; and otherwise, except as to general effect, worth little serious
+belief.
+
+We shall meet this Paphian Dowager again (Crucifix and Myrtle joined):
+meet especially her D'Argens, and her Three little Princes more or
+less;--wherefore, mark slightly (besides the D'Argens as above):--
+
+"1. The Eldest little Prince, Karl Eugen; made 'Reigning Duke' within
+three years hence [Mamma falling into trouble with the STANDE]: a man
+still gloomily famous in Germany [Poet Schiller's Duke of Wurtemberg],
+of inarticulate, extremely arbitrary turn,--married Wilhelmina's
+Daughter by and by [with horrible usage of her]; and otherwise gave
+Friedrich and the world cause to think of him.
+
+"2. The Second little Prince, Friedrich Eugen, Prussian General of some
+mark, who will incidentally turn up again, He was afterwards Successor
+to the Dukedom [Karl Eugen dying childless]; and married his Daughter to
+Paul of Russia, from whom descend the Autocrats there to this day.
+
+"3. Youngest little Prince, Ludwig Eugen, a respectable Prussian
+Officer, and later a French one: he is that 'Duc de Wirtemberg' who
+corresponds with Voltaire [inscrutable to readers, in most of the
+Editions]; and need not be mentioned farther." [See Michaelis, iii. 449;
+Preuss, i. 476; &c. &c.]
+
+But enough of all this. It is time we were in Mahren, where the
+Expedition must be blazing well ahead, if things have gone as expected.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X. -- FRIEDRICH DOES HIS MORAVIAN EXPEDITION WHICH PROVES A MERE
+MORAVIAN FORAY.
+
+
+While these Coronation splendors had been going on, Friedrich, in the
+Moravian regions, was making experiences of a rather painful kind; his
+Expedition prospering there far otherwise than he had expected. This
+winter Expedition to Mahren was one of the first Friedrich had ever
+undertaken on the Joint-stock Principle; and it proved of a kind rather
+to disgust him with that method in affairs of war.
+
+A deeply disappointing Expedition. The country hereabouts was in bad
+posture of defence; nothing between us and Vienna itself, in a manner.
+Rushing briskly forward, living on the country where needful, on that
+Iglau Magazine, on one's own Sechelles resources; rushing on, with
+the Saxons, with the French, emulous on the right hand and the left,
+a Captain like Friedrich might have gone far; Vienna itself--who
+knows!--not yet quite beyond the reach of him. Here was a way to
+check Khevenhuller in his Bavarian Operations, and whirl him back,
+double-quick, for another object nearer home!--But, alas, neither the
+Saxons nor the French would rush on, in the least emulous. The Saxons
+dragged heavily arear; the French Detachment (a poor 5,000 under
+Polastron, all that a captious Broglio could be persuaded to grant)
+would not rush at all, but paused on the very frontier of Moravia,
+Broglio so ordering, and there hung supine, or indeed went home.
+
+Friedrich remonstrated, argued, turned back to encourage; but it was
+in vain. The Saxon Bastard Princes "lived for days in any Schloss they
+found comfortable;" complaining always that there was no victual for
+their Troops; that the Prussians, always ahead, had eaten the country.
+No end to haggling; and, except on Friedrich's part, no hearty beginning
+to real business. "If you wish at all to be 'King of Moravia,' what is
+this!" thinks Friedrich justly. Broglio, too, was unmanageable,--piqued
+that Valori, not Broglio, had started the thing;--showed himself
+captious, dark, hysterically effervescent, now over-cautious, and again
+capable of rushing blindly headlong.
+
+To Broglio the fact at Linz, which everybody saw to be momentous, was
+overwhelming. Magnanimous Segur, and his Linz "all wedged with beams,"
+what a road have they gone! Said so valiantly they would make defence;
+and did it, scarcely for four days: January 24th; before this Expedition
+could begin! True, M. le Marechal, too true:--and is that a reason
+for hanging back in this Mahren business; or for pushing on in it,
+double-quick, with all one's strength? "But our Conquests on the Donau,"
+thinks Broglio, "what will become of them,--and of us!" To Broglio,
+justly apprehensive about his own posture at Prag and on the Donau,
+there never was such a chance of at once raking back all Austrians
+homewards, post-haste out of those countries. But Broglio could by no
+means see it so,--headstrong, blusterous, over-cautious and hysterically
+headlong old gentleman; whose conduct at Prag here brought Strasburg
+vividly to Friedrich's memory. Upon which, as upon the ghost of
+Broglio's Breeches, Valori had to hear "incessant sarcasms" at this
+time.
+
+In a word, from February 5th, when Friedrich, according to bargain,
+rendezvoused his Prussians at Wischau to begin this Expedition, till
+April 5th, when he re-rendezvoused them (at the same Wischau, as
+chanced) for the purpose of ending it and going home,--Friedrich,
+wrestling his utmost with Human Stupidity, "MIT DER DUMMHEIT
+[as Schiller sonorously says], against which the very gods are
+unvictorious," had probably two of the most provoking months of his
+Life, or of this First Silesian War, which was fruitful in such to him.
+For the common cause he accomplished nearly nothing by this Moravian
+Expedition. But, to his own mind, it was rich in experiences, as to the
+Joint-Stock Principle, as to the Partners he now had. And it doubtless
+quickened his steps towards getting personally out of this imbroglio of
+big French-German Wars,--home to Berlin, with Peace and Silesia in his
+pocket,--which had all along been the goal of his endeavors. As a
+feat of war it is by no means worth detailing, in this place,--though
+succinct Stille, and bulkier German Books give lucid account, should
+anybody chance to be curious. [Stille, _Campaigns of the King of
+Prussia,_ i. 1-55; _Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 548-611; _OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ ii. 110-114; Orlich, ii.; &c. &c.] Only under the other
+aspect, as Friedrich's experience of Partnership, and especially of his
+now Partners, are present readers concerned to have, in brief form, some
+intelligible notion of it.
+
+
+
+
+IGLAU IS GOT, BUT NOT THE MAGAZINE AT IGLAU.
+
+Friedrich was punctual at Wischau; Head-quarters there (midway between
+Olmutz and Brunn), Prussians all assembled, 5th February, 1742. Wischau
+is some eighty miles EAST or inward of Iglau; the French and Saxons are
+to meet us about Trebitsch, a couple of marches from that Teutschbrod
+of theirs, and well within one march of Iglau, on our route thither.
+The French and Saxons are at Trebitsch, accordingly; but their minds
+and wills seem to be far elsewhere. Rutowsky and the Chevalier de Saxe
+command the Saxons (20,000 strong on paper, 16,000 in reality); Comte
+de Polastron the French, who are 5,000, all Horse. Along with whom,
+professedly as French Volunteer, has come the Comte de Saxe, capricious
+Maurice (Marechal de Saxe that will be), who has always viewed
+this Expedition with disfavor. Excellency Valori is with the French
+Detachment, or rather poor Valori is everywhere; running about, from
+quarter to quarter, sometimes to Prag itself; assiduous to heal rents
+everywhere; clapping cement into manifold cracks, from day to day.
+Through Valori we get some interesting glimpses into the secret humors
+and manoeuvres of Comte Maurice. It is known otherwise Comte Maurice was
+no friend to Belleisle, but looked for his promotion from the opposite
+or Noailles party, in the French Court: at present, as Valori perceives,
+he has got the ear of Broglio, and put much sad stuff into the loud
+foolish mind of him.
+
+To these Saxon gentlemen, being Bastard-Royal and important to
+conciliate, Friedrich has in a high-flown way assigned the Schloss of
+Budischau for quarters, an excellent superbly magnificent mansion in
+the neighborhood of Trebitsch, "nothing like it to be seen except
+in theatres, on the Drop-scene of _The Enchanted Island;"_ [Stille,
+_Campaigns,_ p. 14.] where they make themselves so comfortable, says
+Friedrich, there is no getting them roused to do anything for three days
+to come. And yet the work is urgent, and plenty of it. "Iglau, first of
+all," urges Friedrich, "where the Austrians, 10,000 or so, under Prince
+Lobkowitz, have posted themselves [right flank of that long straggle of
+Winter Cantonments, which goes leftwards to Budweis and farther], and
+made Magazines: possession of Iglau is the foundation-stone of our
+affairs. And if we would have Iglau WITH the Magazines and not without,
+surely there is not a moment to be wasted!" In vain; the Saxon Bastard
+Princes feel themselves very comfortable. It was Sunday the 11th of
+February, when our junction with them was completed: and, instead of
+next morning early, it is Wednesday afternoon before Prince Dietrich
+of Anhalt-Dessau, with the Saxon and French party roused to join his
+Prussians and him, can at last take the road for Iglau. Prince Dietrich
+makes now the reverse of delay; marches all night, "bivouacs in woods
+near Iglau," warming himself at stick-fires till the day break; takes
+Iglau by merely marching into it and scattering 2,000 Pandours, so soon
+as day has broken; but finds the Magazines not there. Lobkowitz carted
+off what he could, then burnt "Seventeen Barns yesterday;" and is
+himself off towards Budweis Head-quarters and the Bohemian bogs again.
+This comes of lodging Saxon royal gentlemen too well.
+
+
+
+
+THE SAXONS THINK IGLAU ENOUGH; THE FRENCH GO HOME.
+
+Nay, Iglau taken, the affair grows worse than ever. Our Saxons now
+declare that they understand their orders to be completed; that their
+Court did not mean them to march farther, but only to hold by Iglau,
+a solid footing in Moravia, which will suffice for the present. Fancy
+Friedrich; fancy Valori, and the cracks he will have to fill! Friedrich,
+in astonishment and indignation, sends a messenger to Dresden: "Would
+the Polish Majesty BE 'King of Moravia,' then, or not be?" Remonstrances
+at Budischau rise higher and higher; Valori, to prevent total explosion,
+flies over once, in the dead of the night, to deal with Rutowsky and
+Brothers. Rutowsky himself seems partly persuadable, though dreadfully
+ill of rheumatism. They rouse Comte Maurice; and Valori, by this
+Comte's caprices, is driven out of patience. "He talked with a flippant
+sophistry, almost with an insolence" says Valori; "nay, at last, he made
+me a gesture in speaking,"--what gesture, thumb to nose, or what, the
+shuddering imagination dare not guess! But Valori, nettled to the quick,
+"repeated it," and otherwise gave him as good as he brought. "He ended
+by a gesture which displeased me"--"and went to bed." [Valori, i. 148,
+149.] This is the night of February 18th; third night after Iglau was
+had, and the Magazines in it gone to ashes. Which the Saxons think is
+conquest enough.
+
+Poor Polish Majesty, poor Karl Albert, above all, now "Kaiser Karl
+VII.," with nothing but those French for breath to his nostrils! With
+his fine French Army of the Oriflamme, Karl Albert should have pushed
+along last Autumn; and not merely "read the Paper" which Friedrich
+sent him to that effect, "and then laid it aside." They will never have
+another chance, his French and he,--unless we call this again a chance;
+which they are again squandering! Linz went by capitulation; January
+24th, the very day of one's "Election" as they called it: and ever
+since that day of Linz, the series of disasters has continued rapid and
+uniform in those parts. Linz gone, the rest of the French posts did not
+even wait to capitulate; but crackled all off, they and our Conquests
+on the Donau, like a train of gunpowder, and left the ground bare. And
+General von Barenklau (BEAR'S-CLAW), with the hideous fellow called
+Mentzel, Colonel of Pandours, they have broken through into Bavaria
+itself, from the Tyrol; climbing by Berchtesgaden and the wild Salzburg
+Mountains, regardless of Winter, and of poor Bavarian militia-folk;--and
+have taken Munchen, one's very Capital, one's very House and Home!--Poor
+Karl Albert,--and, what is again remarkable, it was the very day while
+he was getting "crowned" at Frankfurt, "with Oriental pomp," that
+Mentzel was about entering Munchen with his Pandours. [Coronation was
+February 12th; Capitulation to Mentzel, "Munchen, February 13th," is in
+_ Guerre de Boheme,_ ii. 56-59.] And this poor Archduke of the Austrian,
+King of Bohemia, Kaiser of the Holy Romish Reich Teutsch by Nation, is
+becoming Titular merely, and owns next to nothing in these extensive
+Sovereignties. Judge if there is not call for despatch on all
+sides!--The Polish Majesty sent instant rather angry order to his
+Saxons, "Forward, with you; what else! We would be King in Mahren!"
+
+The Saxons then have to march forward; but we can fancy with what a
+will. Rutowsky flings up his command on this Order (let us hope, from
+rheumatism partly), and goes home; leaving the Chevalier de Saxe
+to preside in room of him. As for Polastron, he produces Order from
+Broglio, "Iglau got, return straightway;" must and will cross over into
+Bohemia again; and does. Nay, the Comte de Saxe had, privately in his
+pocket, a Commission to supersede Polastron, and take command himself,
+should Polastron make difficulties about turning back. Poor Polastron
+made no difficulties: Maurice and he vanish accordingly from this
+Adventure, and only the unwilling Saxons remain with Friedrich. Poor
+Polastron ("a poor weak creature," says Friedrich, "fitter for
+his breviary than anything else") fell sick, from the hardships of
+campaigning; and soon died, in those Bohemian parts. Maurice is heard
+of, some weeks hence, besieging Eger;--very handsomely capturing Eger:
+[19th April, 1742 (_Guerre de Boheme,_ ii. 78-65).]--on which service
+Broglio had ordered him after his return. The former Commandant of the
+Siege, not very progressive, had just died; and Broglio, with reason
+(all the more for his late Moravian procedures) was passionate to have
+done there. One of the first auspicious exploits of Maurice, that of
+Eger; which paved the way to his French fortunes, and more or less
+sublime glories, in this War. Friedrich recognizes his ingenuities,
+impetuosities, and superior talent in war; wrote high-flown Letters of
+praises, now and then, in years coming; but, we may guess, would hardly
+wish to meet Maurice in the way of joint-stock business again.
+
+
+
+
+FRIEDRICH SUBMERGES THE MORAVIAN COUNTRIES; BUT CANNOT BRUNN, WHICH IS
+THE INDISPENSABLE POINT.
+
+February 19th, these sad Iglau matters once settled, Friedrich, followed
+by the Saxons, plunges forward into Moravia; spreads himself over
+the country, levying heavy contributions, with strict discipline
+nevertheless; intent to get hold of Brunn and its Spielberg, if he
+could. Brunn is the strong place of Moravia; has a garrison of 6 or
+7,000; still better, has the valiant Roth, whom we knew in Neisse once,
+for Commandant: Brunn will not be had gratis.
+
+Schwerin, with a Detachment of 6,000 horse and foot, Posadowsky,
+Ziethen, Schmettau Junior commanding under him, has dashed along far in
+the van; towards Upper Austria, through the Town of Horn, towards Vienna
+itself; levying, he also, heavy contributions,--with a hand of iron,
+and not much of a glove on it, as we judge. There is a grim enough
+Proclamation (in the name of a "frightfully injured Kaiser," as well as
+Kaiser's Ally), still extant, bearing Schwerin's signature, and the date
+"STEIN, 26th Feb. 1742." [In _Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 556.] Stein is
+on the Donau, a mile or two from Krems, and twice as far from Mautern,
+where the now Kaiser was in Autumn last. Forty and odd miles short of
+Vienna: this proved the Pisgah of Schwerin in that direction, as it had
+done of Karl Albert. Ziethen, with his Hussars coursed some 20 miles
+farther, on the Vienna Highway; and got the length of Stockerau; a small
+Town, notable slightly, ever since, as the Prussian NON-PLUS-ULTRA in
+that line.
+
+Meanwhile, Prince Lobkowitz is rallying; has quitted Budweis and the
+Bohemian Bogs, for some check of these insolences. Lobkowitz, rallying
+to himself what Vienna force there is, comes, now in good strength, to
+Waidhofen (rearward of Horn, far rearward of Stein and Stockerau),
+so that Ziethen and Schwerin have to draw homeward again. Lobkowitz
+fortifies himself in Waidhofen; gathers Magazines there, as if towards
+weightier enterprises. For indeed much is rallying, in a dangerous
+manner; and Moravia is now far other than when Friedrich planned this
+Expedition. And at Vienna, 25th February last, there was held Secret
+Council, and (much to Robinson's regret) a quite high Resolution come
+to,--which Friedrich gets to know of, and does not forget again.
+
+
+
+
+THE SAXONS HAVE NO CANNON FOR BRUNN, CANNOT AFFORD ANY; THERE IS A HIGH
+RESOLUTION TAKEN AT VIENNA (February 25th): FRIEDRICH QUITS THE MORAVIAN
+ENTERPRISE.
+
+Friedrich keeps his Head-quarter, all this while, closer and closer
+upon Brunn. First, chiefly at a Town called Znaim, on the River Taya;
+many-branched river, draining all those Northwestern parts; which sends
+its widening waters down to Presburg,--latterly in junction with those
+of the Morawa from North, which washes Olmutz, drains the Northern and
+Eastern parts, and gives the Country its name of "Moravia." Brunn lies
+northeast of Friedrich, while in Znaim, some fifty miles; the Saxon
+head-quarter is at Kromau, midway towards that City. After Znaim, he
+shifts inward, to Selowitz, still in the same Taya Valley, but much
+nearer Brunn; and there continues. [At Znaim, 19th February-9th March;
+at Selowitz, 13th March-5th April (Rodenbeck, i. 65).]
+
+Striving hard for Brunn; striving hard, under difficulties, for so
+many things distant and near; we may fancy him busy enough;--and are
+surprised at the fractions of light Jordan Correspondence which he still
+finds time for. Pretty bits of Letters, in prose and doggerel, from and
+to those Moravian Villages; Jordan, "twice a week," bearing the main
+weight; Friedrich, oftener than one could hope, flinging some word of
+answer,--very intent on Berlin gossip, we can notice. "Vattel is
+still here, your Majesty," [_OEuvres,_ xvii. 163, &c.] insinuates
+Jordan:--young Vattel, afterwards of the DROIT DES GENS, whom his
+Majesty might have kept, but did not.--What more of your D'Argens, then;
+anything in your D'Argens? Friedrich will ask. "For certain, D'Argens
+is full of ESPRIT," answers Jordan, in a dexterous way; and How the
+Effulgent of Wurtemberg" has quarrelled outright with her D'Argens,
+and will not eat off silver (D'ARGENT), lest she have to name him by
+accident!"--with other gossip, in a fine brief airy form, at which
+Jordan excels. Cheering the rare leisure hour, in one's Tent at
+Selowitz, Pohrlitz, Irrlitz, far away!--There are also orders about
+CICERO and Books. Of Business for most part, or of private feelings,
+nothing: Berlin gossip, and Books for one's reading, are the staple. But
+to return.
+
+Out from Head-quarters, diligent operations shoot forth, far enough,
+along those Taya-Morawa Valleys, where Hungarian "Insurgents" are
+beginning to be dangerous. South of Brunn, all round Brunn, are
+diligent operations, frequent skirmishings, constant strict levyings of
+contributions. The saving operation, Friedrich well sees, would be
+to get hold of Brunn: but, unluckily, How? Vigilant Roth scorns all
+summoning; sallies continually in a dangerous manner; and at length,
+when closer pressed, burns all the Villages round him: "we counted as
+many as sixteen villages laid in ashes," says Friedrich. Here is small
+comfort of outlook.
+
+And then the Saxons, at Kromau or wherever they may be: no end of
+trouble and vexation with these Saxons. Their quarters are not fairly
+allotted, they say; we make exchange of quarters, without improvement
+noticeable. "One fine day, on some slight alarm, they came rushing
+over to us, all in panic; ruined, merely by Pandour noises, had not we
+marched them back, and reinstated them." Friedrich sends to Silesia for
+reinforcements of his own, which he can depend upon. Sends to Silesia, to
+Glatz and the Young Dessauer;--nay to Brandenburg and the Old Dessauer?
+ultimately. Finding Roth would not yield, he has sent to Dresden for
+Siege-Artillery: Polish Majesty there, titular "King of Moravia,"
+answers that he cannot meet the expense of carriage. "He had just
+purchased a green diamond which would have carried them thither and back
+again:" What can be done with such a man?--And by this time, early in
+March, Hungarian "MORIAMUR PRO REGE" begins to show itself. Clouds of
+Hungarian Insurgents, of the Tolpatch, Pandour sort, mount over the
+Carpathians on us, all round the east, from south to north; and threaten
+to penetrate Silesia itself. So that we have to sweep laboriously the
+Morawa-Taya Valleys; and undertake first one and then another outroad,
+or sharp swift sally, against those troublesome barbarians.
+
+And more serious still, Prince Karl and the regular Army, quickened
+by such Khevenhuller-Barenklau successes in the Donau Countries,
+are beginning to stir. Prince Karl, returning from Vienna and its
+consultations, took command, 4th March; [_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 557.]
+with whom has come old Graf von Konigseck, an experienced head to advise
+with; Prince Karl is in motion, skirting us southward, about Waidhofen,
+where Lobkowitz lay waiting him with Magazines ready. Rumor says, the
+force in those parts is already 40,000, with more daily coming in.
+Friedrich has of his own, apart from the Saxons, some 24,000. Prince
+Karl, with so many heavy troops, and with unlimited supply of light, is
+very capable of doing mischief: he has orders (and Friedrich now knows
+of it) To go in upon us;--such their decision in Secret Council
+at Vienna, on the 25th of February last, That he must go and fight
+us:--"Better we met him with fewer thrums on our hands!" thinks
+Friedrich; and beckons the Old Dessauer out of Brandenburg withal.
+"Swift, your Serenity; hitherward with 20,000!" Which the Old Dessauer
+(having 30,000 to pick from, late Camp-of-Gottin people) at once sets
+about. Will be a security, in any event! [Orlich, i. 221: Date of the
+Order, "13th March, 1742."] To finish with Brunn, Friedrich has sent for
+Siege-Artillery of his own; he urges Chevalier de Saxe to close with him
+round Brunn, and batter it energetically into swift surrender. Is it not
+the one thing needful? Chevalier de Saxe admits, half promises; does
+not perform. Being again urged, Why have not you performed? he answers,
+"Alas, your Majesty, here are Orders for me to join Marshal Broglio at
+Prag, and retire altogether out of this!"
+
+"Altogether out of it," thinks Friedrich to himself: "may all the Powers
+be thanked! Then I too, without disgrace, can go altogether out of
+it;--and it shall be a sharp eye that sees me in joint-stock with you
+again, M. le Chevalier." Friedrich has written in his HISTORY, and
+Valori used to hear him often say in words, Never were tidings welcomer
+than these, that the Saxons were about to desert him in this manner. Go:
+and may all the Devils--But we will not fall into profane swearing. It
+is proper to get out of this Enterprise at one's best speed, and
+never get into the like of it again! Friedrich (on this strange Saxon
+revelation, 30th March) takes instant order for assembling at Wischau
+again, for departing towards Olmutz; thence homewards, with deliberate
+celerity, by the Landskron mountain-country, Tribau, Zwittau,
+Leutomischl, and the way he came. He has countermanded his Silesian
+reinforcements; these and the rest shall rendezvous at Chrudim in
+Bohemia; whitherwards the two Dessauers are bound:--in Brunn, with its
+wrecked environs, famed Spielberg looking down from its conical height,
+and sixteen villages in ashes, Roth shall do his own way henceforth.
+
+The Saxons pushed straight homewards; did not "rejoin Broglio," rejoin
+anybody,--had, in fact, done with this First Silesian War, as it proved;
+and were ready for the OPPOSITE side, on a Second falling out! Their
+march, this time, was long and harassing,--sad bloody passage in it,
+from Pandours and hostile Village-people, almost at starting, "four
+Companies of our Rear-guard cut down to nine men; Village burnt, and
+Villagers exterminated (SIC), by the rescuing party." [Details in
+_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 606; in &c. &c.] They arrived at Leitmeritz
+and their own Border, "hardly above 8,000 effective." Naturally, in a
+highly indignant humor; and much disposed to blame somebody. To the
+poor Polish NON-Moravian Majesty, enlightened by his Bruhls and
+Staff-Officers, it became a fixed truth that the blame was all
+Friedrich's,--"starving us, marching us about!"--that Friedrich's
+conduct to us was abominable, and deserved fixed resentment. Which
+accordingly it got, from the simple Polish Majesty, otherwise a
+good-natured creature;--got, and kept. To Friedrich's very great
+astonishment, and to his considerable disadvantage, long after!
+
+Friedrich's look, when Valori met him again coming home from this
+Moravian Futility, was "FAROUCHE," fierce and dark; his laugh bitter,
+sardonic; harsh mockery, contempt and suppressed rage, looking through
+all he said. A proud young King, getting instructed in several things,
+by the stripes of experience. Look in that young Portrait by Pesne, the
+full cheeks, and fine mouth capable of truculence withal, the brow
+not unused to knit itself, and the eyes flashing out in sharp diligent
+inspection, of a somewhat commanding nature. We can fancy the face
+very impressive upon Valori in these circumstances. Poor Valori has
+had dreadful work; running to and fro, with his equipages breaking,
+his servants falling all sick, his invaluable D'Arget (Valori's chief
+Secretary, whom mark) quite disabled; and Valori's troubles are not
+done. He has been to Prag lately; is returning futile, as usual. Driving
+through the Mountains to rejoin Friedrich, he meets the Prussians in
+retreat; learns that the Pandours, extremely voracious, are ahead; that
+he had better turn, and wait for his Majesty about Chrudim in the Elbe
+region, upon highways, and within reach of Prag.
+
+Friedrich, on the 5th of April, is in full march out of the Moravian
+Countries,--which are now getting submerged in deluges of Pandours;
+towards the above-said Chrudim, whereabouts his Magazines lie, where
+privately he intends to wait for Prince Karl, and that Vienna Order
+of the 25th February, with hands clearer of thrums. The march goes in
+proper columns, dislocations; Prince Dietrich, on the right, with
+a separate Corps, bent else-whither than to Chrudim, keeps off the
+Pandours. A march laborious, mountainous, on roads of such quality; but,
+except baggage-difficulties and the like, nothing material going wrong.
+"On the 13th [April], we marched to Zwittau, over the Mountain of
+Schonhengst. The passage over this Mountain is very steep; but not so
+impracticable as it had been represented; because the cannon and wagons
+can be drawn round the sides of it." [Stille, p. 86.] Yes;--and readers
+may (in fancy) look about them from the top; for we shall go this road
+again, sixteen years hence; hardly in happier circumstances!
+
+Friedrich gets to Chrudim, April 17th; there meets the Young Dessauer
+with his forces: by and by the Old Dessauer, too, comes to an Interview
+there (of which shortly). The Old Dessauer--his 20,000 not with him,
+at the moment, but resting some way behind, till he return--is to go
+eastward with part of them; eastward, Troppau-Jablunka way, and drive
+those Pandour Insurgencies to their own side of the Mountains: a job Old
+Leopold likes better than that of the Gottin Camp of last year. Other
+part of the 20,000 is to reinforce Young Leopold and the King, and
+go into cantonments and "refreshment-quarters" here at Chrudim. Here,
+living on Bohemia, with Silesia at their back, shall the Troops repose
+a little; and be ready for Prince Karl, if he will come on. That is what
+Friedrich looks to, as the main Consolation left.
+
+In Moravia, now overrun with Pandours, precursors of Prince Karl, he
+has left Prince Dietrich of Anhalt, able still to maintain himself, with
+Olmutz as Head-quarters, for a calculated term of days: Dietrich is,
+with all diligence, to collect Magazines for that Jablunka-Troppau
+Service, and march thither to his Father with the same (cutting his way
+through those Pandour swarms); and leaving Mahren as bare as possible,
+for Prince Karl's behoof. All which Prince Dietrich does, in a gallant,
+soldier-like, prudent and valiant manner,--with details of danger well
+fronted, of prompt dexterity, of difficulty overcome; which might
+be interesting to soldier students, if there were among us any such
+species; but cannot be dwelt upon here. It is a march of 60 or 70 miles
+(northeast, not northwest as Friedrich's had been), through continual
+Pandours, perils and difficulties:--met in the due way by Prince
+Dietrich, whose toils and valors had been of distinguished quality in
+this Moravian Business. Take one example, not of very serious nature (in
+the present March to Troppau):--
+
+"OLISCHAU, EVENING OF APRIL 21st. Just as we were getting into Olischau
+[still only in the environs of Olmutz], the Vanguard of Prince Karl's
+Army appeared on the Heights. It did not attack; but retired, Olmutz
+way, for the night. Prince Dietrich, not doubting but it would return
+next day, made the necessary preparations overnight. Nothing of it
+returned next day; Prince Dietrich, therefore, in the night of April
+22d, pushed forward his sick-wagons, meal-wagons, heavy baggage,
+peaceably to Sternberg; and, at dawn on the morrow, followed with
+his army, Cavalry ahead, Infantry to rear;" nothing whatever
+happening,--unless this be a kind of thing:--"Our Infantry had scarcely
+got the last bridge broken down after passing it, when the roofs of
+Olischau seemed as it were to blow up; the Inhabitants simultaneously
+seizing that moment, and firing, with violent diligence, a prodigious
+number of shot at us,--no one of which, owing to their hurry and the
+distance, took any effect;" [Stille, p. 50.] but only testified what
+their valedictory humor was.
+
+Or again--(Place, this time, is UNGARISCH-BROD, near Goding on the
+Moravian-Hungarian Frontier, date MARCH 13th; one of those swift
+Outroads, against Insurgents or "Hungarian Militias" threatening to
+gather):--... "Godinq on our Moravian side of the Border, and
+then Skalitz on their Hungarian, being thus finished, we make for
+Ungarisch-Brod," the next nucleus of Insurgency. And there is the
+following minute phenomenon,--fit for a picturesque human memory: "As
+this, from Skalitz to Ungarisch-Brod, is a long march, and the roads
+were almost impassable, Prince Dietrich with his Corps did not arrive
+till after dark. So that, having sufficiently blocked the place with
+parties of horse and foot, he had, in spite of thick-falling snow, to
+wait under the open sky for daylight. In which circumstances, all that
+were not on sentry lay down on their arms;" slept heartily, we hope;
+"and there was half an ell of snow on them, when day broke." [BERICHT
+VON DER UNTERNEHMUNG DES &c. (in Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i. p. 508).]
+When day broke, and they shook themselves to their feet again,--to the
+astonishment of Ungarisch-Brod!...
+
+There had been fine passages of arms, throughout, in this Business,
+round Brunn, in the March home, and elsewhere; and Friedrich is
+well contented with the conduct of his men and generals,--and dwells
+afterwards with evident satisfaction on some of the feats they did. [For
+instance, TRUCHSESS VON WALDBURG'S fine bit of Spartanism (14th
+March, at Lesch, near Brunn, near AUSTERLITZ withal), which was
+much celebrated; King himself, from Selowitz, heard the cannonading
+(Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i. 518-520). Selchow's feat (ib. 521). Fouquet's
+(this is the CAPTAIN Fonquet, with "MY two candles, Sir," of the old
+Custrin-Prison time; who is dear to Friedrich ever since, and to the
+end): "Account of Fouquet's Grenadier Battalion, to and at Fulnek,
+January-April, 1742 (is in _Feldzuge der Preussen,_ i. 176-184);
+especially his March, from Fulnek, homewards, part of Prince Dietrich's
+that way (in Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i. 510-515). With various others (in
+SEYFARTH and FELDZUGE): well worth reading till you understand them.] I
+am sorry to say, General Schwerin has taken pique at this preference of
+the Old Dessauer for the Troppau Anti-Pandour Operation; and is home
+in a huff: not to reappear in active life for some years to come. "The
+Little Marlborough,"--so they call him (for he was at Blenheim, and has
+abrupt hot ways),--will not participate in Prince Karl's consolatory
+Visit, then! Better so, thinks Friedrich perhaps (remembering Mollwitz):
+"This is the freak of an imitation ANGLAIS!" sneers he, in mentioning
+it to Jordan.--Friedrich's Synopsis of this Moravian Failure of an
+Expedition, in answer to Jordan's curiosity about it,--curiosity
+implied, not expressed by the modest Jordan, is characteristic:--
+
+"Moravia, which is a very bad Country, could not be held, owing to want
+of victual; and the Town of Brunn could not be taken, because the Saxons
+had no cannon; and when you wish to enter a Town, you must first make
+a hole to get in by. Besides, the Country has been reduced to such a
+state: that the Enemy cannot subsist in it, and you will soon see him
+leave it. There is your little military lesson; I would not have you
+at a loss what to think of our Operations; or what to say, should other
+people talk of them in your presence!" [Friedrich to Jordan (_OEuvres,_
+xvii. 196), Chrudim, 5th May, 1742.]
+
+"Winter Campaigns," says Friedrich elsewhere, much in earnest, and
+looking back on this thing long afterwards, "Winter Campaigns are bad,
+and should always be avoided, except in cases of necessity. The best
+Army in the world is liable to be ruined by them. I myself have made
+more Winter Campaigns than any General of this Age; but there were
+reasons. Thus:--
+
+"In 1740," Winter Campaign which we saw, "there were hardly above two
+Austrian regiments in Silesia, at Karl VI.'s death. Being determined to
+assert my right to that Duchy, I had to try it at once, in winter, and
+carry the war, if possible, to the Banks of the Neisse. Had I waited
+till spring, we must have begun the war between Crossen and Glogau; what
+was now to be gained by one march would then have cost us three or four
+campaigns. A sufficient reason, this, for campaigning in winter.
+
+"If I did not succeed in the Winter Campaign of 1742," Campaign which we
+have just got out of, "which I made with a design to deliver the Elector
+of Bavaria's Country, then overrun by Austria, it was because the French
+acted like fools, and the Saxons like traitors." Mark that deliberate
+opinion.
+
+"In 1745-46," Winter Campaign which we expect to see, "the Austrians
+having got Silesia, it was necessary to drive them out. The Saxons and
+they had formed a design to enter my Hereditary Dominions, to destroy
+them with fire and sword. I was beforehand with them. I carried the
+War into the heart of Saxony." [MILITARY INSTRUCTIONS WRITTEN BY &c.
+"translated by an Officer" (London, 1762), pp. 171, 172. One of the
+best, or altogether the best, of Friedrich's excellent little Books
+written successively (thrice-PRIVATE, could they have been kept so)
+for the instruction of his Officers. Is to be found now in _OEuvres
+de Frederic,_ xxviii. (that is vol. i. of the _"OEuvres Militaires,"_
+which occupy 3 vols.) pp. 4 et seqq.]
+
+Digesting many bitter-enough thoughts, Friedrich has cantoned about
+Chrudim; expecting, in grim composed humor, the one Consolation there
+can now be. February 25th, as readers well know, the Majesty of Hungary
+and her Aulic Council had decided, "One stroke more, O Excellency
+Robinson; one Battle more for our Silesian jewel of the crown! If
+beaten, we will then give it up; oh, not till then!" Robinson and
+Hyndford,--imagination may faintly represent their feelings, on the
+wilful downbreak of Klein-Schnellendorf; or what clamor and urgency the
+Majesty of Britain and they have been making ever since. But they could
+carry it no further: "One stroke more!"
+
+At Chrudim, and to the right and the left of it, sprinkled about in
+long, very thin, elliptic shape (thirty or forty miles long, but capable
+of coalescing "within eight-and-forty hours"), there lies Friedrich: the
+Elbe River is behind him; beyond Elbe are his Magazines, at Konigsgratz,
+Nimburg, Podiebrad, Pardubitz; the Giant Mountains, and world of
+Bohemian Hills, closing-in the background, far off: that is his
+position, if readers will consult their Map. The consolatory Visit, he
+privately thinks, cannot be till the grass come; that is, not till June,
+two months hence; but there also he was a little mistaken.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XI. --NUSSLER IN NEISSE, WITH THE OLD DESSAUER AND WALRAVE.
+
+The Old Dessauer with part of his 20,000,--aided by Boy Dietrich
+(KNABE, "Knave Dietrich," as one might fondly call him) and the Moravian
+Meal-wagons,--accomplished his Troppau-Jablunka Problem perfectly well;
+cleaning the Mountains, and keeping them clean, of that Pandour rabble,
+as he was the man to do. Nor would his Expedition require mentioning
+farther,--were it not for some slight passages of a purely Biographical
+character; first of all, for certain rubs which befell between his
+Majesty and him. For example, once, before that Interview at Chrudim,
+just on entering Bohemia thitherward, Old Leopold had seen good to alter
+his march-route; and--on better information, as he thought it, which
+proved to be worse--had taken a road not prescribed to him. Hearing
+of which, Friedrich reins him up into the right course, in this sharp
+manner:--
+
+"CHRUDIM, 21st APRIL. I am greatly surprised that your Serenity, as an
+old Officer, does not more accurately follow my orders which I give
+you. If you were skilfuler than Caesar, and did not with strict accuracy
+observe my orders, all else were of no help to me. I hope this notice,
+once for all, will be enough; and that in time coming you will give
+no farther causes to complain." [King to Furst Leopold (Orlich, i.
+219-221).]
+
+Friedrich, on their meeting at Chrudim, was the same man as ever. But
+the old Son of Gunpowder stood taciturn, rigorous, in military business
+attitude, in the King's presence; had not forgotten the passage; and
+indeed he kept it in mind for long months after. And during all this
+Ober-Schlesien time, had the hidden grudge in his heart;--doing his
+day's work with scrupulous punctuality; all the more scrupulous, they
+say. Friedrich tried, privately through Leopold Junior, some slight
+touches of assuagement; but without effect; and left the Senior to Time,
+and to his own methods of cooling again.
+
+Besides that of keeping down Hungarian Enterprises in the Mountains, Old
+Leopold had, as would appear, to take some general superintendence in
+Ober-Schlesien; and especially looks after the new Fortification-work
+going on in those parts. Which latter function brought him often to
+Neisse, and into contact with the ugly Walrave, Engineer-in-Chief
+there. A much older and much worthier acquaintance of ours, Herr
+Boundary-Commissioner Nussler, happens also to be in Neisse;--waiting
+for those Saxon Gentlemen; who are unpunctual to a degree, and never
+come (nor in fact ever will, if Nussler knew it). Luckily Nussler kept
+a Notebook; and Busching ultimately got it, condensed it, printed
+it;--whereby (what is rare, in these Dryasdust labyrinths, inane
+spectralities and cinder-mountains) there is sudden eyesight vouchsafed;
+and we discern veritably, far off, brought face to face for an
+instant, this and that! I must translate some passages,--still farther
+condensed:--
+
+
+
+
+HOW NUSSLER HAPPENED TO BE IN NEISSE, MAY, 1742.
+
+Nussler had been in this Country, off and on, almost since Christmas
+last; ready here, if the Saxons had been ready. As the Saxons were not
+ready, and always broke their appointment, Nussler had gone into the
+Mountains, to pass time usefully, and take preliminary view of the
+ground.
+
+... "From Berlin, 20th December, 1741; by Breslau,"--where some pause
+and correspondence;--"thence on, Neisse way, as far as Lowen [so well
+known to Friedrich, that Mollwitz night!]. From Berlin to Lowen, Nussler
+had come in a carriage: but as there was much snow falling, he here took
+a couple of sledges; in which, along with his attendants, he proceeded
+some fifty miles, to Jauernik, a stage beyond Neisse, to the southwest.
+Jauernik is a little Town lying at the foot of a Hill, on the top of
+which is the Schloss of Johannisberg. Here it began to rain; and the
+getting up the Hill, on sledges, was a difficult matter. The DROST
+[Steward] of this Castle was a Nobleman from Brunswick-Luneburg; who,
+for the sake of a marriage and this Drostship for dowry, had changed
+from Protestant to Roman Catholic,"--poor soul! "His wife and he were
+very polite, and showed Nussler a great deal of kindness. Nussler
+remarked on the left side of this Johannisberg," western side a good
+few miles off, "the pass which leads from Glatz to Upper and Lower
+Schlesien,"--where the reader too has been, in that BAUMGARTEN SKIRMISH,
+if he could remember it,--"with a little Block-house in the bottom," and
+no doubt Prussian soldiers in it at the moment. "Nussler, intent always
+on the useful, did not institute picturesque reflections; but considered
+that his King would wish to have this Pass and Block-house; and
+determined privately, though it perhaps lay rather beyond the
+boundary-mark, that his Master must have it when the bargaining should
+come....
+
+"On the homeward survey of these Borders, Nussler arrived at Steinau
+[little Village with Schloss, which we saw once, on the march to
+Mollwitz, and how accident of fire devoured it that night], and at sight
+of the burnt Schloss standing black there, he remembered with great
+emotion the Story of Grafin von Callenberg [dead since, with her pistols
+and brandy-bottle] and of the Grafin's Daughter, in which he had been
+concerned as a much-interested witness, in old times.... For the rest,
+the journey, amid ice and snow, was not only troublesome in the extreme,
+but he got a life-long gout by it [and no profit to speak of]; having
+sunk, once, on thin ice, sledge and he, into a half-frozen stream, and
+got wetted to the loins, splashing about in such cold manner,--happily
+not quite drowned." The indefatigable Nussler; working still, like a
+very artist, wherever bidden, on wages miraculously low.
+
+The Saxon Gentlemen never came;--privately the Saxons were quite off
+from the Silesian bargain, and from Friedrich altogether;--so that this
+border survey of Nussler's came to nothing, on the present occasion. But
+it served him and Friedrich well, on a new boundary-settling, which
+did take effect, and which holds to this day. Nussler, during
+these operations, and vain waitings for the Saxons, had Neisse for
+head-quarters; and, going and returning, was much about Neisse; Walrave,
+Marwitz (Father of Wilhelmina's baggage Marwitz), Feldmarschall Schwerin
+(in earlier stages), and other high figures, being prominent in his
+circle there.
+
+"The old Prince of Dessau came thither: for some days. [Busching,
+_Beitrage,_ i. 347 (beginning of May as we guess, but there is no date
+given).] He was very gracious to Nussler, who had been at his Court,
+and known him before this. The Old Dessauer made use of Walrave's Plate;
+usually had Walrave, Nussler, and other principal figures to dinner.
+Walrave's Plate, every piece of it, was carefully marked with a RAVEN on
+the rim,--that being his crest ["Wall-raven" his name]: Old Dessauer,
+at sight of so many images of that bird, threw out the observation, loud
+enough, from the top of the table, 'Hah, Walrave, I see you are making
+yourself acquainted with the RAVENS in time, that they may not be
+strange to you at last,'"--when they come to eat you on the gibbet! (not
+a soft tongue, the Old Dessauer's). "Another day, seeing Walrave seated
+between two Jesuit Guests, the Prince said: 'Ah, there you are right,
+Walrave; there you sit safe; the Devil can't get you there!' As the
+Prince kept continually bantering him in this strain, Walrave determined
+not to come; sulkily absented himself one day: but the Prince sent the
+ORDINANZ (Soldier in waiting) to fetch him; no refuge in sulks.
+
+"They had Roman-Catholic victual for Walrave and others of that faith,
+on the meagre-days; but Walrave eat right before him,--evidently nothing
+but the name of Catholic. Indeed, he was a man hated by the Catholics,
+for his special rapacity on them. 'He is of no religion at all,' said
+the Catholic Prelate of Neisse, one day, to Nussler; (greedy to plunder
+the Monasteries here; has wrung gold, silver aud jewels from them,--nay
+from the Pope himself,--by threatening to turn Protestant, and use the
+Monasteries still worse. And the Pope, hearing of this, had to send him
+a valuable Gift, which you may see some day.' Nussler did, one day, see
+this preciosity: a Crucifix, ebony bordered with gold, and the Body all
+of that metal, on the smallest of altars,--in Walrave's bedroom. But it
+was the bedroom itself which Nussler looked at with a shudder," Nussler
+and we: "in the middle of it stood Walrave's own bed, on his right hand
+that of his Wife, and on his left that of his Mistress:"--a brutish
+polygamous Walrave! "This Mistress was a certain Quarter-Master's
+Wife,"--Quarter-Master willing, it is probable, to get rid of such an
+article gratis, much more on terms of profit. "Walrave had begged for
+him the Title of Hofrath from King Friedrich,"--which, though it was
+but a clipping of ribbon contemptible to Friedrich, and the brute of an
+Engineer had excellent talents in his business, I rather wish Friedrich
+had refused in this instance. But he did not; "he answered in gibing
+tone, 'I grant you the Hofrath Title for your Quarter-Master; thinking
+it but fit that a General's'--What shall we call her? (Friedrich uses
+the direct word)--'should have some handle to her name.'" [Busching,
+_Beitrage,_ i. 343-348.]
+
+It was this Mistress, one is happy to know, that ultimately betrayed the
+unbeautiful Walrave, and brought him to Magdeburg for the rest of his
+life.--And now let us over the Mountains, to Chrudim again; a hundred
+and fifty miles at one step.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII. -- PRINCE KARL DOES COME ON.
+
+It was before the middle of May, not of June as Friedrich had expected,
+that serious news reached Chrudim. May 11th, from that place, there is
+a Letter to Jordan, which for once has no verse, no bantering in it:
+Prince Karl actually coming on; Hussar precursors, in quantity, stealing
+across to attack our Magazines beyond Elbe;--and in consequence, Orders
+are out this very day: "Cantonments, cease; immediate rendezvous, and
+Encampment at Chrudim here!" Which takes effect two days hence, Monday,
+13th May: one of the finest sights Stille ever saw. "His Majesty rode to
+a height; you never beheld such a scene: bright columns, foot and
+horse, streaming in from every point of the compass, their clear arms
+glittering in the sun; lost now in some hollow, then emerging, winding
+out with long-drawn glitter again; till at length their blue uniforms
+and actual faces come home to you. Near upon 30,000 of all arms; trim
+exact, of stout and silently good-humored aspect; well rested, by this
+time;--likely fellows for their work, who will do it with a will. The
+King seemed to be affected by so glorious a spectacle; and, what I
+admired, his Majesty, though fatigued, would not rest satisfied with
+reports or distant view, but personally made the tour of the whole Camp,
+to see that everything was right, and posted the pickets himself before
+retiring." [Stille, p. 57 (or Letter X.).]
+
+Prince Karl, since we last heard of him, had hung about in the Brunn and
+other Moravian regions, rallying his forces, pushing out Croat parties
+upon Prince Dietrich's home-march, and the like; very ill off for food,
+for draught-cattle, in a wasted Country. So that he had soon quitted
+Mahren; made for Budweis and neighborhood:--dangerous to Broglio's
+outposts there? To a "Castle of Frauenberg," across the Moldau from
+Budweis; which is Broglio's bulwark there, and has cost Broglio much
+revictualling, reinforcing, and flurry for the last two months. Prince
+Karl did not meddle with Brauenberg, or Broglio, on this occasion;
+leaves Lobkowitz, with some Reserve-party, hovering about in those
+parts;--and himself advances, by Teutschbrod (well known to the poor
+retreating Saxons latcey!) towards Chrudim, on his grand Problem, that
+of 25th February last. Cautiously, not too willingly, old Konigseck and
+he. But they were inflexibly urged to it by the Heads at Vienna; who,
+what with their Bavarian successes, what with their Moravian and other,
+had got into a high key;--and scorned the notion of "Peace," when
+Hyndford (getting Friedrich's permission, in the late Chrudim interval)
+had urged it again. [Orlich, i. 226.]
+
+Broglio is in boundless flurry; nothing but spectres of attack looming
+in from Karl, from Khevenhuller, from everybody; and Eger hardly yet
+got. [19th April (_Guerre de Boheme,_ ii. 77-81.) Fine reinforcement,
+25,000 under a Due d'Harcourt; this and other good outlooks there are;
+but it is the terrible alone that occupy Broglio. And indeed the poor
+man--especially ever since that Moravian Business would not thrive in
+spite of him--is not to be called well off! Friedrich and he are in
+correspondence, by no means mutually pleasant, on the Prince-Karl
+phenomenon. "Evidently intending towards Prag, your Majesty perceives!"
+thinks Broglio. "If not towards Chrudim, first of all, which is 80 miles
+nearer him, on his rode to Prag!" urges Friedrich, at this stage: "Help
+me with a few regiments in this Chrudim Circle, lest I prove too weak
+here. Is not this the bulwark of your Prag just now?" In vain; Broglio
+(who indeed has orders that way) cannot spare a man. "Very well,"
+thinks Friedrich; and has girded up his own strength for the Chrudim
+phenomenon; but does not forget this new illustration of the Joint-Stock
+Principle, and the advantages of Broglio Partnership.
+
+Friedrich's beautiful Encampment at Chrudim lasted only two days.
+Precursor Tolpatcheries (and, in fact, Prince Karl's Vanguard, if we
+knew it) come storming about, rifer and rifer; attempting the Bridge of
+Kolin (road to our Magazines); attempting this and that; meaning to
+get between us and Prag; and, what is worse, to seize the Magazines,
+Podiebrad, Nimburg, which we have in that quarter! Tuesday, May 15th,
+accordingly, Friedrich himself gets on march, with a strong
+swift Vanguard, horse and foot (grenadiers, hussars, dragoons),
+Prag-ward,--probably as far as Kuttenberg, a fine high-lying post, which
+commands those Kodin parts;--will march with despatch, and see how that
+matter is. The main Army is to follow under Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau
+to-morrow, Wednesday," so soon as their loaves have come from
+Konigsgratz,"--for "an Army goes on its belly," says Friedrich often.
+Loaves do not come, owing to evil chance, on this occasion: Leopold's
+people "take meal instead;" but will follow, next morning, all the same,
+according to bidding. Readers may as well take their Map, and accompany
+in these movements; which issue in a notable conclusive thing.
+
+Tuesday morning, 15th May, Friedrich marches from Chrudim; on which same
+morning of the 15th, Prince Karl, steadily on the advance he too, is
+starting,--and towards the same point,--from a place called Chotieborz,
+only fifteen miles to southward of Chrudim. In this way, mutually
+unaware, but Prince Karl getting soonest aware, the Vanguards of the
+Two Armies (Prince Karl's Vanguard being in many branches, of Tolpatch
+nature) are cast athwart each other; and make, both to Friedrich and
+Prince Karl, an enigmatic business of it for the next two days. Tuesday,
+15th, Friedrich marching along, vigilantly observant on both hands, some
+fifteen miles space, came that evening to a Village called Podhorzan,
+with Height near by; [Stille, pp. 60, 61.] Height which he
+judged unattackable, and on the side of which he pitches his camp
+accordingly,--himself mounting the Height to look for news. News sure
+enough: there, south of us on the heights of Ronnow, three or four miles
+off, are the Enemy, camped or pickeering about, 7 or 8,000 as we judge.
+Lobkowitz, surely not Lobkowitz? He has been gliding about, on the
+French outskirts, far in the southwest lately: can this be Lobkowitz,
+about to join Prince Karl in these parts?--Truly, your Majesty, this is
+not Lobkowitz at all; this is Prince Karl's Vanguard, and Prince Karl
+himself actually in it for the moment,--anxiously taking view of your
+Vanguard; recognizing, and admitting to himself, "Pooh, they will be
+at Kuttenberg before us; no use in hastening. Head-quarters at Willimow
+to-night; here at Ronnow to-morrow: that is all we can do!" [Orlich, i.
+233.]
+
+To-morrow, 16th May, before sunrise at Podhorzan, the supposed Lobkowitz
+is clean vanished: there is no Enemy visible to Friedrich, at Ronnow
+or elsewhere. Leaving Friedrich in considerable uncertainty: clear only
+that there are Enemies copiously about; that he himself will hold on for
+Kuttenberg; that young Leopold must get hitherward, with steady
+celerity at the top of his effort,--parts of the ground being difficult;
+especially a muddy Stream, called Dobrowa, which has only one Bridge
+on it fit for artillery, the Bridge of Sbislau, a mile or two ahead of
+this. Instructions are sent Leopold to that effect; and farther that
+Leopold must quarter in Czaslau (a substantial little Town, with bogs
+about it, and military virtues); and, on the whole, keep close to heel
+of us, the Enemy in force being near, Upon which, his Majesty pushes on
+for Kuttenberg; Prince Leopold following with best diligence, according
+to Program. His Majesty passed a little place called Neuhof that
+afternoon (Wednesday, 16th May); and encamped a short way from
+Kuttenberg, behind or north of that Town,--out of which, on his
+approach, there fled a considerable cloud of Austrian Irregulars, and
+"left a large baking of bread." Bread just about ready to their order,
+and coming hot out of the ovens; which was very welcome to his Majesty
+that night; and will yield refreshment, partial refreshment, next
+morning, to Prince Leopold, not too comfortable on his meal-diet just
+now.
+
+Poor Prince Leopold had his own difficulties this day; rough ground,
+very difficult to pass; and coming on the Height of Podhorzan where
+his Majesty was yesterday, Leopold sees crowds of Hussars, needing a
+cannon-shot or two; sees evident symptoms, to southward, that the whole
+Force of the Enemy is advancing upon him! "Speed, then, for Sbislau
+Bridge yonder; across the Dobrowa, with our Artillery-wagons, or we are
+lost!" Prince Karl, with Hussar-parties all about, is fully aware of
+Prince Leopold and his movements, and is rolling on, Ronnow-ward all
+day, to cut him off, in his detached state, if possible. Prince Karl
+might, with ease, have broken this Dobrowa Bridge; and Leopold and
+military men recognize it as a capital neglect that he did not.
+
+Leopold, overloaded with such intricacies and anxieties, sends off three
+messengers, Officers of mark (Schmettau Junior one of them), to apprise
+the King: the Officers return, unable to get across to his Majesty;
+Leopold sends proper detachment of horse with them,--uncertain still
+whether they will get through. And night is falling; we shall evidently
+be too late for getting Czaslau: well if we can occupy Chotusitz and the
+environs; a small clay Hamlet, three miles nearer us. It was 11 at night
+before the rear-guard got into Chotusitz: Czaslau, three miles south of
+us, we cannot attend to till to-morrow morning. [Orlich, pp. 236-239.]
+And the three messengers, despatched with escort, send back no word.
+Have they ever got to his Majesty? Leopold sends off a fourth. This
+fourth one does get through; reports to his Majesty, That, by all
+appearance, there will be Battle on the morrow early; that not Czaslau,
+but only Chotusitz is ours; and that Instructions are wanted. Deep in
+the night, this fourth messenger returns; a welcome awakening for Prince
+Leopold; who studies his Majesty's Instructions, and will make his
+dispositions accordingly.
+
+It is 2 or 3 in the morning, [Ib. p. 238.] in Leopold's Camp,--Bivouac
+rather, with its face to the south, and Chotusitz ahead. Thursday, 17th
+May, 1742; a furiously important Day about to dawn. High Problem of the
+23th February last; Britannic Majesty and his Hyndfords and Robinsons
+vainly protesting:--it had to be tried; Hungarian Majesty having got,
+from Britannic, the sinews for trying it: and this is to be the Day.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII. --BATTLE OF CHOTUSITZ.
+
+Kuttenberg, Czaslau, Chotusitz and all these other places lie in what
+is called the Valley of the Elbe, but what to the eye has not the least
+appearance of a hollow, but of an extensive plain rather, dimpled here
+and there; and, if anything, rather sloping FROM the Elbe,--were it
+not that dull bushless brooks, one or two, sauntering to NORTHward, not
+southward, warn you of the contrary. Conceive a flat tract of this kind,
+some three or four miles square, with Czaslau on its southern border,
+Chotusitz on its northern; flanked, on the west, by a straggle of
+Lakelets, ponds and quagmires (which in our time are drained away,
+all but a tenth part or so of remainder); flanked, on the east, by
+a considerable puddle of a Stream called the Dobrowa; and cut in the
+middle by a nameless poor Brook ("BRTLINKA" some write it, if anybody
+could pronounce), running parallel and independent,--which latter, of
+more concernment to us here, springs beyond Czaslau, and is got to be of
+some size, and more intricate than usual, with "islands" and the like,
+as it passes Chotusitz (a little to east of Chotusitz);--this is our
+Field of Battle. Sixty or more miles to eastward of Prag, eight miles or
+more to southward of Elbe River and the Ford of Elbe-Teinitz (which we
+shall hear of, in years coming). A scene worth visiting by the curious,
+though it is by no means of picturesque character.
+
+Uncomfortably bare, like most German plains; mean little hamlets, which
+are full of litter when you enter them, lie sprinkled about; little
+church-spires (like suffragans to Chotusitz spire, which is near you); a
+ragged untrimmed country: beyond the Brook, towards the Dobrowa, two
+or more miles from Chotusitz, is still noticeable: something like a
+Deer-park, with umbrageous features, bushy clumps, and shadowy vestiges
+of a Mansion, the one regular edifice within your horizon. Schuschitz is
+the name of this Mansion and Deer-park; farther on lies Sbislau, where
+Leopold happily found his Bridge unbroken yesterday.
+
+The general landscape is scrubby, littery; ill-tilled, scratched rather
+than ploughed; physiognomic of Czech Populations, who are seldom trim at
+elbows: any beauty it has is on the farther side of the Dobrowa, which
+does not concern Prince Leopold, Prince Karl, or us at present. Prince
+Leopold's camp lies east and west, short way to north of Chotusitz.
+Schuschitz Hamlet (a good mile northward of Sbislau) covers his left,
+the chain of Lakelets covers his right: and Chotusitz, one of his
+outposts, lies centrally in front. Prince Karl is coming on, in four
+columns, from the Hills and intricacies south of Czaslau,--has been on
+march all night, intending a night-attack or camisado if he could;
+but could not in the least, owing to the intricate roadways, and the
+discrepancies of pace between his four columns. The sun was up before
+anything of him appeared:--drawing out, visibly yonder, by the east
+side of Czaslau; 30,000 strong, they say. Friedrich's united force, were
+Friedrich himself on the ground, will be about 28,000.
+
+Friedrich's Orders, which Leopold is studying, were: "Hold by Chotusitz
+for Centre; your left wing, see you lean it on something, towards
+Dobrowa side,--on that intricate Brook (Brtlinka) or Park-wall of
+Schuschitz, [SBISLAU, Friedrich hastily calls it (_OEuvres,_ ii.
+121-126); Stille (p. 63) is more exact.] which I think is there; then
+your right wing westwards, till you lean again on something: two lines,
+leave room for me and my force, on the corner nearest here. I will
+start at four; be with you between seven and eight,--and even bring a
+proportion of Austrian bread (hot from these ovens of Kuttenberg) to
+refresh part of you." Leopold of Anhalt, a much-comforted man, waits
+only for the earliest gray of the morning, to be up and doing.
+From Chotusitz he spreads out leftwards towards the Brtlinka
+Brook,--difficult ground that, unfit for cavalry, with its bog-holes,
+islands, gullies and broken surface; better have gone across the
+Brtlinka with mere infantry, and leant on the wall of that Deer-park of
+Schuschitz with perhaps only 1,000 horse to support, well rearward of
+the infantry and this difficult ground? So men think,--after the action
+is over. [Stille, pp. 63, 67.] And indeed there was certainly some
+misarrangement there (done by Leopold's subordinates), which had its
+effects shortly.
+
+Leopold was not there in person, arranging that left wing; Leopold is
+looking after centre and right. He perceives, the right wing will be his
+best chance; knows that, in general, cavalry must be on both wings. On
+a little eminence in front of his right, he sees how the Enemy comes
+on; Czaslau, lately on their left, is now getting to rear of them:--"And
+you, stout old General Buddenbrock, spread yourself out to right a
+little, hidden behind this rising ground; I think we may outflank their
+left wing by a few squadrons, which will be an advantage."
+
+Buddenbrock spreads himself out, as bidden: had Buddenbrock been
+reinforced by most of the horse that could do no good on our LEFT wing,
+it is thought the Battle had gone better. Buddenbrock in this way,
+secretly, outflanks the Austrians; to HIS right all forward, he has that
+string of marshy pools (Lakes of Czirkwitz so called, outflowings from
+the Brook of Neuhof), and cannot be taken in flank by any means. Brook
+of Neuhof, which his Majesty crossed yesterday, farther north;--and
+ought to have recrossed by this time?--said Brook, hereabouts a mere
+fringe of quagmires and marshy pools, is our extreme boundary on the
+west or right; Brook of Brtlinka (unluckily NOT wall of the Deer-park)
+bounds us eastward, or on our left, Prince Karl, drawn up by this time,
+is in two lines, cavalry on right and left, but rather in bent order;
+bent towards us at both ends (being dainty of his ground, I suppose);
+and comes on in hollow-crescent form;--which is not reckoned orthodox by
+military men. What all these Villages, human individuals and terrified
+deer, are thinking, I never can conjecture! Thick-soled peasants,
+terrified nursing-mothers: Better to run and hide, I should say; mount
+your garron plough-horses, hide your butter-pots, meal-barrels; run at
+least ten miles or so!--
+
+It is now past seven, a hot May morning, the Austrians very near;--and
+yonder, of a surety, is his Majesty coming. Majesty has marched since
+four; and is here at his time, loaves and all. His men rank at once in
+the corner left for them; one of his horse-generals, Lehwald, is sent to
+the left, to put straight what my be awry there (cannot quite do it, he
+either);--and the attack by Buddenhrock, who secretly outflanks here on
+the right, this shall at once take effect. No sooner has his Majesty
+got upon the little eminence or rising ground, and scanned the Austrian
+lines for an instant or two, than his cannon-batteries awaken here;
+give the Austrian horse a good blast, by way of morning salutation and
+overture to the concert of the day. And Buddenbrock, deploying under
+cover of that, charges, "first at a trot, then at a gallop," to see what
+can be done upon them with the white weapon. Old Uuddenbrock, surely,
+did not himself RIDE in the charge? He is an old man of seventy; has
+fought at Oudenarde, Malplaquet, nay at Steenkirk, and been run through
+the body, under Dutch William; is an old acquaintance of Charles XII.s
+even; and sat solemnly by Friedrich Wilhelm's coffin, after so much
+attendance during life. The special leader of the charge was Bredow;
+also a veteran gentleman, but still only in the fifties; he, I conclude,
+made the charge; first at a trot, then at a gallop,--with swords
+flashing hideous, and eyebrows knit.
+
+"The dust was prodigious," says Friedrich, weather being dry and ground
+sandy; for a space of time you could see nothing but one huge whirlpool
+of dust, with the gleam of steel flickering madly in it: however,
+Buddenbrock, outflanking the Austrian first line of horse, did hurl
+them from their place; by and by you see the dust-tempest running south,
+faster and faster south,--that is to say, the Austrian horse in flight;
+for Buddenbrock, outflanking them by three squadrons, has tumbled their
+first line topsy-turvy, and they rush to rearward, he following away and
+away. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ ii. 123.] Now were the time for a fresh
+force of Prussian cavalry,--for example, those you have standing useless
+behind the gullies and quagmires on your left wing (says Stille, after
+the event);--due support to Buddenbrock, and all that Austrian cavalry
+were gone, and their infantry left bare.
+
+But now again, see, do not the dust-clouds pause? They pause, mounting
+higher and higher; they dance wildly, then roll back towards us; too
+evidently back. Buddenbrock has come upon the secoud line of Austrian
+horse; in too loose order Buddenbrock, by this time, and they have
+broken him:--and it is a mutual defeat of horse on this wing, the
+Prussian rather the worse of the two. And might have been serious,--had
+not Rothenburg plunged furiously in, at this crisis, quite through to
+the Austrian infantry, and restored matters, or more. Making a confused
+result of it in this quarter. Austrian horse-regiments there now were
+that fled quite away; as did even one or two foot-regiments, while the
+Prussian infantry dashed forward on them, escorted by Rothenburg in this
+manner,--who got badly wounded in the business; and was long an object
+of solicitude to Friedrich. And contrariwise certain Prussian horse
+also, it was too visible, did not compose themselves till fairly arear
+of our foot. This is Shock First in the Battle; there are Three Shocks
+in all.
+
+Partial charging, fencing and flourishing went on; but nothing very
+effectual was done by the horse in this quarter farther. Nor did
+the fire or effort of the Prussian Infantry in this their right wing
+continue; Austrian fury and chief effort having, by this time, broken
+out in an opposite quarter. So that the strain of the Fight lies now in
+the other wing over about Chotusitz and the Brtlinka Brook; and thither
+I perceive his Majesty has galloped, being "always in the thickest
+of the danger" this day. Shock Second is now on. The Austrians have
+attacked at Chotusitz; and are threatening to do wonders there.
+
+Prince Leopold's Left Wing, as we said, was entirely defective in the
+eye of tacticians (after the event). Far from leaning on the wall of the
+Deer-park, he did not even reach the Brook,--or had to weaken his force
+in Chotusitz Village for that object. So that when the Austrian foot
+comes storming upon Chotusitz, there is but "half a regiment" to defend
+it. And as for cavalry, what is to become of cavalry, slowly threading,
+under cannon-shot and musketry, these intricate quagmires and gullies,
+and dangerously breaking into files and strings, before ever it can find
+ground to charge? Accordingly, the Austrian foot took Chotusitz, after
+obstinate resistance; and old Konigseck, very ill of gout, got seated
+in one of the huts there; and the Prussian cavalry, embarrassed to get
+through the gullies, could not charge except piecemeal, and then though
+in some cases with desperate valor, yet in all without effectual result.
+Konigseck sits in Chotusitz;--and yet withal the Russians are not out of
+it, will not be driven out of it, but cling obstinately; whereupon the
+Austrians set fire to the place; its dry thatch goes up in flame, and
+poor old Konigseck, quite lame of gout, narrowly escaped burning, they
+say.
+
+And, see, the Austrian horse have got across the Brtlinka, are spread
+almost to the Deer-park, and strive hard to take us in flank,--did not
+the Brook, the bad ground and the platoon-firing (fearfully swift, from
+discipline and the iron ramrods) hold them back in some measure. They
+make a violent attempt or two; but the problem is very rugged. Nor can
+the Austrian infantry, behind or to the west of burning Chotusitz, make
+an impression, though they try it, with levelled bayonets and deadly
+energy, again and again: the Prussian ranks are as if built of rock,
+and their fire is so sure and swift. Here is one Austrian regiment, came
+rushing on like lions; would not let go, death or no-death:--and here it
+lies, shot down in ranks; whole swaths of dead men, and their muskets by
+them,--as if they had got the word to take that posture, and had done it
+hurriedly! A small transitory gleam of proud rage is visible, deep down,
+in the soul of Friedrich as he records this fact. Shock Second was very
+violent.
+
+The Austrian horse, after such experimenting in the Brtlinka quarter,
+gallop off to try to charge the Prussians in the rear;--"pleasanter by
+far," judge many of them, "to plunder the Prussian Camp," which they
+descry in those regions; whither accordingly they rush. Too many of
+them; and the Hussars as one man. To the sorrowful indignation of Prince
+Karl, whose right arm (or wing) is fallen paralytic in this manner.
+After the Fight, they repented in dust and ashes; and went to say so, as
+if with the rope about their neck; upon which he pardoned them.
+
+Nor is Prince Karl's left wing gaining garlands just at this moment.
+Shock Third is awakening;--and will be decisive on Prince Karl.
+Chotusitz, set on fire an hour since (about 9 A.M.), still burns;
+cutting him in two, as it were, or disjoining his left wing from his
+right: and it is on his right wing that Prince Karl is depending for
+victory, at present; his left wing, ruffled by those first Prussian
+charges of horse, with occasional Prussian swift musketry ever since,
+being left to its own inferior luck, which is beginning to produce
+impression on it. And, lo, on the sudden (what brought finis to the
+business), Friedrich, seizing the moment, commands a united charge
+on this left wing: Friedrich's right wing dashes forward on it,
+double-quick, takes it furiously, on front and flank; fifteen
+field-pieces preceding, and intolerable musketry behind them. So that
+the Austrian left wing cannot stand it at all.
+
+The Austrian left wing, stormed in upon in this manner, swags and sways,
+threatening to tumble pell-mell upon the right wing; which latter has
+its own hands full. No Chotusitz or point of defence to hold by, Prince
+Karl is eminently ill off, and will be hurled wholly into the Brtlinka,
+and the islands and gullies, unless he mind! Prince Karl,--what a moment
+for him!--noticing this undeniable phenomenon, rapidly gives the word
+for retreat, to avoid worse. It is near upon Noon; four hours of battle;
+very fierce on both the wings, together or alternately; in the centre
+(westward of Chotusitz) mostly insignificant: "more than half the
+Prussians" standing with arms shouldered. Prince Karl rolls rapidly
+away, through Czaslau towards southwest again; loses guns in Czaslau;
+goes, not quite broken, but at double-quick time for five miles;
+cavalry, Prussian and Austrian, bickering in the rear of him; and
+vanishes over the horizon towards Willimow and Haber that night, the way
+he had come.
+
+This is the battle of Chotusitz, called also of Czaslau: Thursday, 17th
+May, 1742. Vehemently fought on both sides;--calculated, one may hope,
+to end this Silesian matter? The results, in killed and wounded,
+were not very far from equal. Nay, in killed the Prussians suffered
+considerably the worse; the exact Austrian cipher of killed being 1,052,
+while that of the Prussians was 1,905,--owing chiefly to those fierce
+ineffectual horse-charges and bickerings, on the right wing and left;
+"above 1,200 Prussian cavalry were destroyed in these." But, in fine,
+the general loss, including wounded and missing, amounted on the
+Austrian side (prisoners being many, and deserters very many) to near
+seven thousand, and on the Prussian to between four and five. [Orlich,
+i. 255; _Feldzuge der Preussen,_ p. 113; Stille, pp. 62-71; Friedrich
+himself, _OEuvres,_ ii. 121-126; and (ib. pp. 145-150) the Newspaper
+"RELATION," written also by him.] Two Generals Friedrich had lost, who
+are not specially of our acquaintance; and several younger friends
+whom he loved. Rothenburg, who was in that first charge of horse with
+Buddenbrock, or in rescue of Buddenbrock, and did exploits, got badly
+hurt, as we saw,--badly, not fatally, as Friedrich's first terror
+was,--and wore his arm in a sling for a long while afterwards.
+
+Buddenbrock's charge, I since hear, was ruined by the DUST; [_OEuvres
+de Frederic,_ ii. 121.] the King's vanguard, under Rothenburg, a
+"new-raised regiment of Hussars in green," coming to the rescue, were
+mistaken for Austrians, and the cry rose, "Enemy to rear!" which brought
+Rothenburg his disaster. Friedrich much loved and valued the man;
+employed him afterwards as Ambassador to France and in places of trust.
+Friedrich's Ambassadors are oftenest soldiers as well: bred soldiers, he
+finds, if they chance to have natural intelligence, are fittest for all
+kinds of work.--Some eighteen Austrian cannon were got; no standards,
+because, said the Prussians, they took the precaution of bringing none
+to the field, but had beforehand rolled them all up, out of harm's
+way.--Let us close with this Fraction of topography old aud new:--
+
+"King Friedrich purchased Nine Acres of Ground, near Chotusitz, to
+bury the slain; rented it from the proprietor for twenty-five years.
+[_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 634.] I asked, Where are those nine acres;
+what crop is now upon them? but could learn nothing. A dim people, those
+poor Czech natives; stupid, dirty-skinned, ill-given; not one in twenty
+of them speaking any German;--and our dragoman a fortuitous Jew Pedler;
+with the mournfulest of human faces, though a head worth twenty of those
+Czech ones, poor oppressed soul! The Battle-plain bears rye, barley,
+miscellaneous pulse, potatoes, mostly insignificant crops;--the nine
+hero-acres in question, perhaps still of slightly richer quality, lie
+indiscriminate among the others; their very fence, if they ever had one,
+now torn away.
+
+"The Country, as you descend by dusty intricate lanes from Kuttenberg,
+with your left hand to the Elbe, and at length with your back to it,
+would be rather pretty, were it well cultivated, the scraggy litter
+swept off, and replaced by verdure and reasonable umbrage here and
+there. The Field of Chotusitz, where you emerge on it, is a wide wavy
+plain; the steeple of Chotusitz, and, three or four miles farther,
+that of Czaslau (pronounce 'KOTusitz,' 'CHASlau'), are the conspicuous
+objects in it. The Lakes Friedrich speaks of, which covered his right,
+and should cover ours, are not now there,--'all, or mostly all, drained
+away, eighty years ago,' answered the Czechs; answered one wiser Czech,
+when pressed upon, and guessed upon; thereby solving the enigma which
+was distressful to us. Between those Lakes and the Brtlinka Brook may
+be some two miles; Chotusitz is on the crown of the space, if it have a
+crown. But there is no 'height' on it, worth calling a height except by
+the military man; no tree or bush; no fence among the scrubby ryes and
+pulses: no obstacle but that Brook, which, or the hollow of which, you
+see sauntering steadily northward or Elbe-ward, a good distance on your
+left, as you drive for Chotusitz and steeple. Schuschitz, a peaked brown
+edifice, is visible everywhere, well ahead and leftwards, well beyond
+said hollow; something of wood and 'deer-park' still noticeable or
+imaginable yonder.
+
+"Chotusitz itself is a poor littery place; standing white-washed,
+but much unswept: in two straggling rows, now wide enough apart (no
+Konigseck need now get burnt there): utterly silent under the hot sun;
+not a child looked out on us, and I think the very dogs lay wisely
+asleep. Church and steeple are at the farther or south end of the
+Village, and have an older date than 1742. High up on the steeple,
+mending the clock-hands or I know not what, hung in mid-air one
+Czech; the only living thing we saw. Population may be three or four
+hundred,--all busy with their teams or otherwise, we will hope. Czaslau,
+which you approach by something of avenues, of human roads (dust and
+litter still abounding), is a much grander place; say of 2,000 or more:
+shiny, white, but also somnolent; vast market-place, or central square,
+sloping against you: two shiny Hotels on it, with Austrian uniforms
+loitering about;--and otherwise great emptiness and silence. The shiny
+Hotels (shine due to paint mainly) offer little of humanly edible; and,
+in the interior, smells strike you as--as the OLDEST you have ever met
+before. A people not given to washing, to ventilating! Many gospels have
+been preached in those parts, aud abstruse Orthodoxies, sometimes with
+fire and sword, and no end of emphasis; but that of Soap-and-Water
+(which surely is as Catholic as any, and the plainest of all) has not
+yet got introduced there!" [Tourist's Note (13th September, 1858).]
+
+Czaslau hangs upon the English mind (were not the ignorance so total) by
+another tie: it is the resting-place of Zisca, whose drum, or the fable
+of whose drum, we saw in the citadel of Glatz. Zisca was buried IN his
+skin, at Czaslau finally: in the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul there;
+with due epitaph; and his big mace or battle-club, mostly iron, hung
+honorable on the wall close by. Kaiser Ferdinand, Karl V.'s brother, on
+a Progress to Prag, came to lodge at Czaslau, one afternoon: "What is
+that?" said the Kaiser, strolling over this Peter-and-Paul's Church, and
+noticing the mace. "Ugh! Faugh!" growled he angrily, on hearing what;
+and would not lodge in the Town, but harnessed again, and drove farther
+that same night. The club is now gone; but Zisca's dust lies there
+irremovable till Doomsday, in the land where his limbs were made. A
+great behemoth of a war-captain; one of the fiercest, inflexiblest,
+ruggedest creatures ever made in the form of man. Devoured Priests, with
+appetite, wherever discoverable: Dishonorers of his Sister; murderers of
+the God's-witness John Huss; them may all the Devils help! Beat Kaiser
+Sigismund SUPRA-GRAMMATICAM again and ever again, scattering the Kitter
+hosts in an extraordinary manner;--a Zisca conquerable only by Death,
+and the Pest-Fever passing that way.
+
+His birthplace, Troznow, is a village in the Budweis neighborhood, 100
+miles to south. There, for three centuries after him, stood "Zisca's
+Oak" (under shade of which, his mother, taken suddenly on the
+harvest-field, had borne Zisca): a weird object, gate of Heaven and
+of Orcus to the superstitious populations about. At midnight on the
+Hallow-Eve, dark smiths would repair thither, to cut a twig of the Zisca
+Oak: twig of it put, at the right moment, under your stithy, insures
+good luck, lends pith to arm and heart, which is already good luck. So
+that a Bishop of those parts, being of some culture, had to cut it down,
+above a hundred years ago,--and build some Chapel in its stead; no Oak
+there now, but an orthodox Inscription, not dated that I could see.
+[Hormayr, _OEsterreichischer Plutarch,_ iii. (3tes), 110-145.]
+
+Friedrich did not much pursue the Austrians after this Victory; having
+cleared the Czaslau region of them, he continued there (at Kuttenberg
+mainly); and directed all his industry to getting Peace made. His
+experiences of Broglio, and of what help was likely to be had from
+Broglio,--whom his Court, as Friedrich chanced to know, had ordered
+"to keep well clear of the King of Prussia,"--had not been flattering.
+Beaten in this Battle, Broglio's charity would have been a weak reed to
+lean upon: he is happy to inform Broglio, that though kept well clear
+of, he is not beaten.
+
+[MAP GOES HERE---Book xiii, page 164----missing]
+
+Blustering Broglio might have guessed that HE now would have to look to
+himself. But he did not; his eyes naturally dim and bad, being dazzled
+at this time, by "an ever-glorious victory" (so Broglio thinks it)
+of his own achieving. Broglio, some couple of days after Czaslau, had
+marched hastily out of Prag for Budweis quarter, where Lobkowitz and the
+Austrians were unexpectedly bestirring themselves, and threatening
+to capture that "Castle of Frauenberg" (mythic old Hill-castle among
+woods), Broglio's chief post in those regions. Broglio, May 24th, has
+fought a handsome skirmish (thanks partly to Belleisle, who chanced to
+arrive from Frankfurt just in the nick of time, and joined Broglio):
+Skirmish of Sahay; magnified in all the French gazettes into a Victory
+of Sahay, victory little short of Pharsalia, says Friedrich;--the
+complete account of which, forgotten now by all creatures, is to be read
+in him they call Mauvillon; [_Guerre de Boheme,_ ii. 204.] and makes a
+pretty enough piece of fence, on the small scale. Lobkowitz had to give
+up the Frauenberg enterprise; and cross to Budweis again, till new force
+should come.
+
+"Why not drive him out of Budweis," think the Two French Marshals, "him
+and whatever force can come? If those lucky Prussians would co-operate,
+and those unlucky Saxons, how easy were it!"--Belleisle sets off to
+persuade Friedrich, to persuade Saxony (and we shall see him on the
+route); Broglio waiting sublime, on the hither side of the Moldau, well
+within wind of Budweis, till Belleisle prevail, and return with said
+co-operation, What became of Broglio, waiting in this sublime manner,
+we shall also have to see; but perhaps not for a great while yet (cannot
+pause on such absurd phenomena yet),--though Broglio's catastrophe is
+itself a thing imminent; and, within some ten days of that astonishing
+Victory of Sahay, astonishes poor Broglio the reverse way. A man born
+for surprises!
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV. -- PEACE OF BRESLAU.
+
+In actual loss of men or of ground, the results of that Chotusitz Affair
+were not of decisive nature. But it had been fought with obstinacy; with
+great fury on the Austrian side (who, as it were, had a bet upon it ever
+since February 25th), Britannic George, and all the world, looking on:
+and, in dispiritment and discredit to the beaten party, its results
+were considerable. The voice of all the world, declaring through its
+Gazetteer Editors, "You cannot beat those Prussians!" voice confirmed by
+one's own sad thoughts:--in such sounding of the rams horns round one's
+Jericho, there is always a strange influence (what is called panic, as
+if Pan or some god were in it), and one's Jericho is the apter to fall!
+
+Among the Austrian Prisoners, there was a General Pallandt, mortally
+wounded too; whom Friedrich, according to custom, treated with his best
+humanity, though all help was hopeless to poor Pallandt. Calling one
+day at Pallandt's sick-couch, Friedrich was so sympathetic, humane and
+noble, that Pallandt was touched by it; and said, "What a pity your
+noble Majesty and my noble Queen should ruin one another, for a set
+of French intruders, who play false even to your Majesty!" "False?"
+Friedrich inquires farther: Pallandt, a man familiar at Court, has seen
+a Letter from Fleury to the Queen of Hungary, conclusive as to Fleury's
+good faith; will undertake, if permitted, to get his Majesty a sight
+of it. Friedrich permits; the Fleury letter comes; to the effect: "Make
+peace with us, O Queen; with your Prussian neighbor you shall make--what
+suits you!" Friedrich read; learned conclusively, what perhaps he
+had already as good as known otherwise; and drew the inference.
+[_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 633; Hormayr, _Anemonen,_ ii. 186; Adelung,
+iii. A, 149 n.] Actual copy of this letter the most ardent Gazetteer
+curiosity could not attain to, at that epoch; but the Pallandt
+story seems to have been true;--and as to the Fleury letter in such
+circumstances, copies of various Fleury letters to the like purport are
+still public enough; and Fleury's private intentions, already guessed
+at by Friedrich, are in our time a secret to nobody that inquires about
+them.
+
+Certain enough, Peace with Friedrich is now on the way; and cannot well
+linger:--what prospect has Austria otherwise? Its very supplies from
+England will be stopped. Hyndford redoubles his diligence; Britannic
+Majesty reiterates at Vienna: "Did not I tell you, Madam; there is no
+hope or possibility till these Prussians are off our hands!" To which
+her Hungarian Majesty, as the bargain was, now sorrowfully assents;
+sorrowfully, unwillingly,--and always lays the blame on his Britannic
+Majesty afterwards, and brings it up again as a great favor she had done
+HIM. "Did not I give up my invaluable Silesia, the jewel of my crown,
+for you, cruel Britannic Majesty with the big purse, and no heart
+to speak of?" This she urges always, on subsequent occasions; the
+high-souled Lady; reproachful of the patient, big-pursed little
+Gentleman, who never answers as he might, "For ME, Madam? Well--!" In
+short, Hyndford, Podewils and the Vienna Excellencies are busy.
+
+Of these negotiations which go on at Breslau, and of the acres of
+despatchcs, English, Austrian, and other, let us not say one word.
+Enough that the Treaty is getting made, and rapidly,--though military
+offences do not quite cease; clouds of Austrian Pandours hovering about
+everywhere in Prince Karl's rear; pouncing down upon Prussian outposts,
+convoys, mostly to little purpose; hoping (what proves quite futile)
+they may even burn a Prussian magazine here or there. Contemptible to
+the Prussian soldier, though very troublesome to him. Friedrich regards
+the Pandour sort, with their jingling savagery, as a kind of military
+vermin; not conceivable a Prussian formed corps should yield to any odds
+of Pandour Tolpatch tagraggery. Nor does the Prussian soldier yield;
+though sometimes, like the mastiff galled by inroad of distracted
+weasels in too great quantity, he may have his own difficulties. Witness
+Colonel Retzow and the Magazine at Pardubitz ("daybreak, May 24th")
+VERSUS the infinitude of sudden Tolpatchery, bursting from the woods;
+rabid enough for many hours, but ineffectual, upon Pardubitz and Retzow.
+A distinguished Colonel this; of whom we shall hear again. Whose style
+of Narrative (modest, clear, grave, brief), much more, whose vigilant
+inexpugnable procedure on the occasion, is much to be commended to
+the military man. [Given in Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i. 548 et seqq.]
+Friedrich, the better to cover his Magazines, and be out of such
+annoyances, fell back a little; gradually to Kuttenberg again
+(Tolpatchery vanishing, of its own accord); and lay encamped there,
+head-quarters in the Schloss of Maleschau near by,--till the Breslau
+Negotiations completed themselves.
+
+Prince Karl, fringed with Tolpatchery in this manner, but with much
+desertion, much dispiritment, in his main body,--the HOOPS upon him
+all loose, so to speak,--staggers zigzag back towards Budweis, and
+the Lobkowitz Party there; intending nothing more upon the
+Prussians;--capable now, think some NON-Prussians, of being well swept
+out of Budweis, and over the horizon altogether. If only his Prussian
+Majesty will co-operate! thinks Belleisle. "Your King of Prussia will
+not, M. le Marechal!" answers Broglio:--No, indeed; he has tried that
+trade already, M. le Marechal! think Broglio and we. The suspicions that
+Friedrich, so quiescent after his Chotusitz, is making Peace, are
+rife everywhere; especially in Broglio's head and old Fleury's; though
+Belleisle persists with emphasis, officially and privately, in the
+opposite opinion, "Husht, Messieurs!" Better go and see, however.
+
+Belleisle does go; starts for Kuttenberg, for Dresden; his beautiful
+Budweis project now ready, French reinforcements streaming towards us,
+heart high again,--if only Friedrich and the Saxons will co-operate.
+Belleisle, the Two Belleisles, with Valori and Company, arrived June
+2d at Kuttenberg, at the Schloss of Maleschau;--"spoke little of
+Chotusitz," says Stille; "and were none of them at the pains to ride to
+the ground." Marechal Belleisle, for the next three days, had otherwise
+speech of Friedrich; especially, on June 5th, a remarkable Dialogue.
+"Won't your Majesty co-operate?" "Alas, Monseigneur de Belleisle--" How
+gladly would we give this last Dialogue of Friedrich's and Belleisle's,
+one of the most ticklish conceivable: but there is not anywhere the
+least record of it that can be called authentic;--and we learn only that
+Friedrich, with considerable distinctness, gave him to know, "clearly"
+(say all the Books, except Friedrich's own), that co-operation was
+henceforth a thing of the preter-pluperfect tense. "All that I ever
+wanted, more than I ever demanded, Austria now offers; can any one blame
+me that I close such a business as ours has all along been, on such
+terms as these now offered me are?"
+
+It is said, and is likely enough, the Pallandt-Fleury Letter came up; as
+probably the MORAVIAN FORAY, and various Broglio passages, would, in
+the train of said Letter. To all which, and to the inexorable painful
+corollary, Belleisle, in his high lean way, would listen with a
+stern grandiose composure. But the rumors add, On coming out into the
+Anteroom, dialogue and sentence now done, Monseigneur de Belleisle
+tore the peruke from his head; and stamping on it, was heard to say
+volcanically, "That cursed parson,--CE MAUDIT CALOTTE [old Fleury],--has
+ruined everything!" Perhaps it is not true? If true,--the prompt valets
+would quickly replace Monseigneur's wig; chasing his long strides; and
+silence, in so dignified a man, would cloak whatever emotions there
+were. [Adelung, iii. A, 154; &c. &c. _Guerre de Boheme,_ (silent about
+the wig) admits, as all Books do, the perfect clearness;--compare,
+however, _OEuvres de Frederic;_ and also Broglio's strange darkness,
+twelve days later, and Belleisle now beside him again (_Campagnes des
+Trois Marechaux,_ v. 190, 191, of date 17th June);--darkness due perhaps
+to the strange humor Broglio was then in?] He rolled off, he and his,
+straightway to Dresden, there to invite co-operation in the Budweis
+Project; there also in vain.--"CO-operation," M. le Marechal? Alas,
+it has already come to operation, if you knew it! Aud your Broglio
+is--Better hurry back to Prag, where you will find phenomena!
+
+June 15th, Friedrich has a grand dinner of Generals at Maleschau; and
+says, in proposing the first bumper, "Gentlemen, I announce to you,
+that, as I never wished to oppress the Queen of Hungary, I have formed
+the resolution of agreeing with that Princess, and accepting the
+Proposals she has made me in satisfaction of my rights,"--telling them
+withal what the chief terms were, and praising my Lord Hyndford for his
+great services. Upon which was congratulation, cordial, universal; and,
+with full rummers, "Health to the Queen of Hungary!" followed by others
+of the like type, "Grand-Duke of Lorraine!" and "The brave Prince Karl!"
+especially.
+
+Brevity being incumbent on us, we shall say only that the
+Hyndford-Podewils operations had been speeded, day and night; brought to
+finis, in the form of Signed Preliminaries, as "Treaty of Breslau,
+11th June, 1742;" and had gone to Friedrich's satisfaction in every
+particular. Thanks to the useful Hyndford,--to the willing mind of his
+Britannic Majesty, once so indignant, but made willing, nay passionately
+eager, by his love of Human Liberty and the pressure of events! To
+Hyndford, some weeks hence, [2d August (_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii.
+729).]--I conclude, on Friedrich's request,--there was Order of the
+Thistle sent; and grandest investiture ever seen almost, done by
+Friedrich upon Hyndford (Jordan, Keyserling, Schwerin, and the Sword of
+State busy in it; Two Queens and all the Berlin firmament looking on);
+and, perhaps better still, on Friedrich's part there was gift of a
+Silver Dinner-Service; gift of the Royal Prussian Arms (which do enrich
+ever since the Shield of those Scottish Carmichaels, as doubtless the
+Dinner-Service does their Plate-chest); and abundant praise and honor to
+the useful Hyndford, heavy of foot, but sure, who had reached the goal.
+
+This welcome Treaty, signed at Breslau, June 11th, and confirmed by
+"Treaty of Berlin, July 28th," in more explicit solemn manner, to the
+self-same effect, can be read by him that runs (if compelled to read
+Treaties); [In _Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 1061-1064 (Treaty of Breslau),
+ib. 1065-1070 (that of Berlin); to be found also in Wenck, Rousset,
+Scholl, Adeluug, &c.] the terms, in compressed form, are:--
+
+1. "Silesia, Lower and Upper, to beyond the watershed and the
+Oppa-stream,--reserving only the Principality of Teschen, with
+pertinents, which used to be reckoned Silesian, and the ulterior
+Mountain-tops [Mountain-tops good for what? thought Friedrich, a year or
+two afterwards!]--Silesia wholly, within those limits, and furthermore
+the County Glatz and its dependencies, are and remain the property of
+Friedrich and of his Heirs male or female; given up, and made his, to
+all intents and purposes, forevermore. With which Friedrich, to the
+like long date, engages to rest satisfied, and claim nothing farther
+anywhere.
+
+2. "Silesian Dutch-English Debt [Loan of about Two Millions, better half
+of it English, contracted by the late Kaiser, on Silesian security,
+in that dreadful Polish-Election crisis, when the Sea-Powers would not
+help, but left it to their Stockbrokers] is undertaken by Friedrich, who
+will pay interest on the same till liquidated.
+
+3. "Religion to stand where it is. Prussian Majesty not to meddle in
+this present or in other Wars of her Hungarian Majesty, except with his
+ardent wishes that General Peace would ensue, and that all his friends,
+Hungarian Majesty among others, were living in good agreement around
+him."
+
+This is the Treaty of Breslau (June 11th, 1742), or, in second more
+solemn edition, Treaty of Berlin (July 28th following); signed,
+ratified, guaranteed by his Britannic Majesty for one, [Treaty of
+Westminster, between Friedrich aud George, 29th (18th) November, 1842
+(Scholl, ii. 313).] and firmly planted on the Diplomatic adamant (at
+least on the Diplomatic parchment) of this world. And now: Homewards,
+then; march!--
+
+Huge huzzaing, herald-trumpeting, bob-majoring, bursts forth from all
+Prussian Towns, especially from all Silesian ones, in those June days,
+as the drums beat homewards; elaborate Illuminations, in the short
+nights; with bonfires, with transparencies,--Transparency inscribed
+"FREDERICO MAGNO (To Friedrich THE GREAT)," in one small instance, still
+of premature nature. [_Helden-Geschichte_ (ii. 702-729) is endless
+on these Illuminations; the Jauer case, of FREDERICO MAGNO (Jauer in
+Silesia), is of June 15th (ib. 712).]
+
+Omitting very many things, about Silesian Fortresses, Army-Cantons,
+Silesian settlements, military and civil, which would but weary the
+reader, we add only this from Bielfeld: dusty Transit of a victorious
+Majesty, now on the threshold of home. Precise date (which Bielfeld
+prudently avoids guessing at) is July 11th, 1742; "M. de Pollnitz and I
+are in the suite of the King:--
+
+"We never stopped on the road, except some hours at Frankfurt-on-Oder,
+where the Fair was just going on. On approaching the Town, we found the
+highway lined on both sides with crowds of traders, and other strangers
+of all nations; who had come out, attracted by curiosity to see the
+conqueror of Silesia, and had ranged themselves in two rows there. His
+Majesty's entry into Frankfurt, although a very triumphant one, was far
+from being ostentatious. We passed like lightning before the eyes of the
+spectators, and we were so covered with dust, that it was difficult to
+distinguish the color of our coats and the features of our faces. We
+made some purchases at Frankfurt; and arrived safely in the Capital
+[next day], where the King was received amidst the acclamations of his
+People." [Bielfeld, ii. 51.]
+
+Here is a successful young King; is not he? Has plunged into the
+Mahlstrom for his jewelled gold Cup, and comes up with it, alive,
+unlamed. Will he, like that DIVER of Schiller's, have to try the feat a
+second time? Perhaps a second time, and even a third!--
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia,
+Vol. XIII. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle
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