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+Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 13
+#19 in our series by Thomas Carlyle
+V13 of 21
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+History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 13
+
+by Thomas Carlyle
+
+March, 2000  [Etext #2113]
+
+
+Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 13
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+Prepared by D.R. Thompson <drthom@ihug.co.nz>
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+
+Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia"
+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 <italic> 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,
+hut 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. [<italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> 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),
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> 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 comparisori 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: sigus 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!" [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> 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, <italic> Hist. de la Diplom.
+Franc. <end italic> 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. [<italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> 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 wantiug 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 mnch 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 nud 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 accompnnied 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, [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end
+italic> 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 <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic>
+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 aud 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. [<italic>
+Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> 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. [<italic> OEuvres,
+<end italic> 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 quotity 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. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte,
+<end italic> 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; <italic>
+Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> 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;
+[<italic> Fastes de Louis XV., <end italic> 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 throngh 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, <italic> Histoire de Maurice Comte de Saxe <end italic> 
+(German Translation, Leipzig, 1774), i. 83:--an excellent military
+compend. <italic> Campagnes des Trois Marechaux <end italic>
+(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 pressiug
+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: <italic> "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.--<end italic> 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 <italic> History of England, <end italic> 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." [<italic> Hyndford Papers, <end
+italic> 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. [<italic> Hyndford
+Papers, <end italic> 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." [<italic> Hyndford Papers, <end italic>
+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." [<italic> Hyndford Papers,
+<end italic> 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,
+<italic> Histoire de la Derniere Guerre de Boheme <end italic>
+(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!' [<italic> 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 2Sth, 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, <italic> Siecle de Louis XV., <end italic> c. 6
+(<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xxviii. 78); Coxe, <italic> House
+of Austria, <end italic> iii. 270; and innumerable others (who give
+this Myth); <italic> Maria Theresiens Leben, <end italic> p. 44 n.
+(who cites the Vienna Pamphleteers, without much believing them);
+Mailath (a Hungarian), <italic> Geschichte des OEsterrichischen
+Kaiser-Staats <end italic> (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 covenantad 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; <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
+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 bsen
+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 Bohewia, and carrying on sham-
+hostilities [to the satisfaction of the French], shall pay his own
+expenses, and do no mischief." [Given in <italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> 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 thraugh 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;" [<italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> 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. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> 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," Ottober 17th to October 3lst,
+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.
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> 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:--
+
+<italic>
+"Wer mir wird den Konig in Preussen verachten,
+Den will ich wie diesen Ochsen schlacten."
+<end italic>
+"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. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> 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 llth), 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
+ccncrete 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), <italic> Letters on
+Silesia <end italic> (London, 1804). "The wooden spouts are now
+gone" (<italic> Tourist's Note, of <end italic> 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
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> 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-Nerciful 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 litlle
+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!" [<italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> 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! [<italic> Campagnes <end italic> (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." [<italic> Derniere
+Guerre de Boheme, <end italic> 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. [<italic> Guerre de Boheme, <end italic> 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. [<italic> Guerre de Boheme, <end italic> 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, <italic> History of Seven-Years War, <end italic>
+&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,
+<italic> Beitrage, <end italic> 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 (Jannary 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. [<italic> 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);
+[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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), <italic>
+Campagnes du Roi de Prusse <end italic> (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." [<italic> Campagnes des Trois Marechaux, <end italic> 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. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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 Compauy, 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 be 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, <italic> Anemonen,
+<end italic> 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, [<italic> Militair-Lexikon, <end italic> iii. 23; and
+<italic> Preussische Adels-Lexikon, <end italic> 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,[<italic> Anemonen, <end italic> 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 witb 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, extremeIy 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, <italic> Campaigns of the King of Prussia,
+<end italic> i. 1-55; <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> ii.
+548-611; <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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 <italic> The
+Enchanted Island;" <end italic> [Stille, <italic> Campaigns, <end
+italic> 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 <italic>
+Guerre de Boheme, <end italic> 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
+(<italic> Guerre de Boheme, <end italic> 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 <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> 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,"
+[<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> 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 reinforcemmts 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; [<italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> 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 <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> 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, <italic> Beylage, <end italic> 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, <italic> Beylage, <end italic>
+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 <italic> Feldzuge der Preussen, <end
+italic> i. 176-184); especially his March, from Fulnek, homewards,
+part of Prince Dietrich's that way (in Seyfarth, <italic> Beylage,
+<end italic> 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 (<italic> OEuvres, <end
+italic> 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 hy an Officer"
+(London, 1762), pp. 171, 172. One of the best, or altogether tbe
+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 <italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> xxviii. (that is vol. i. of the <italic>
+"OEuvres Militaires," <end italic> 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,
+<italic> Beitrage, <end italic> 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, <italic> Beitrage, <end italic> 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 (<italic> Guerre de Boheme, <end
+italic> 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
+(<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> 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. [<italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> 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 1evelled 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; <italic>
+Feldzuge der Preussen, <end italic> p. 113; Stille, pp. 62-71;
+Friedrich himself, <italic> OEuvres, <end italic> 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;
+[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> 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, <italic>
+OEsterreichischer Plutarch, <end italic> 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----
+
+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; [<italic> Guerre de Boheme, <end
+italic> 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. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> ii. 633;
+Hormayr, <italic> Anemonen, <end italic> 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, <italic>
+Beylage, <end italic> 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 owm 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. <italic> Guerre de Boheme, <end
+italic> (silent about the wig) admits, as all Books do, the perfect
+clearness;--compare, however, <italic> OEuvres de Frederic; <end
+italic> and also Broglio's strange darkness, twelve days later, and
+Belleisle now beside him again (<italic> Campagnes des Trois
+Marechaux, <end italic> 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
+(<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> 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 <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
+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-major-ing, 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. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte
+<end italic> (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 Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 13
+
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