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+Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 18
+#24 in our series by Thomas Carlyle
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+History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 18
+
+by Thomas Carlyle
+
+March, 2000  [Etext #2118]
+
+
+Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 18
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+Prepared by D.R. Thompson <drthom@ihug.co.nz>
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK XVIII.
+
+SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT.
+
+1757-1759.
+
+
+Chapter I.
+
+THE CAMPAIGN OPENS.
+
+
+
+
+Seldom was there seen such a combination against any man as this
+against Friedrich, after his Saxon performances in 1756. The extent
+of his sin, which is now ascertained to have been what we saw, was
+at that time considered to transcend all computation, and to mark
+him out for partition, for suppression and enchainment, as the
+general enemy of mankind. "Partition him, cut him down," said the
+Great Powers to one another; and are busy, as never before, in
+raising forces, inciting new alliances and calling out the general
+POSSE COMITATUS of mankind, for that salutary object.
+What tempestuous fulminations in the Reichstag, and over all
+Europe, England alone excepted, against this man!
+
+Latterly the Swedes, who at first had compunctions on the score of
+Protestantism, have agreed to join in the Partitioning adventure:
+"It brings us his Pommern, all Pommern ours!" cry the Swedish
+Parliamentary Eloquences (with French gold in their pocket):
+"At any rate," whisper they, "it spites the Queen his Sister!"--and
+drag the poor Swedish Nation into a series of disgraces and
+disastrous platitudes it was little anticipating. This precious
+French-Swedish Bargain ("Swedes to invade with 25,000; France to
+give fair subsidy," and bribe largely) was consummated in March;
+["21st March, 1757" (Stenzel, v. 38; &c.).] but did not become
+known to Friedrich for some months later; nor was it of the
+importance he then thought it, in the first moment of surprise and
+provocation. Not indeed of importance to anybody, except, in the
+reverse way, to poor Sweden itself, and to the French, who had
+spent a great deal of pains and money on it, and continued to
+spend, with as good as no result at all. For there never was such a
+War, before or since, not even by Sweden in the Captainless state!
+And the one profit the copartners reaped from it, was some
+discountenance it gave to the rumor which had risen, more
+extensively than we should now think, and even some nucleus of fact
+in it as appears, That Austria, France and the Catholic part of the
+Reich were combining to put down Protestantism. To which they could
+now answer, "See, Protestant Sweden is with us!"--and so weaken a
+little what was pretty much Friedrich's last hold on the public
+sympathies at this time.
+
+As to France itself,--to France, Austria, Russia,--bound by such
+earthly Treaties, and the call of very Heaven, shall they not, in
+united puissance and indignation, rise to the rescue?
+France, touched to the heart by such treatment of a Saxon Kurfurst,
+and bound by Treaty of Westphalia to protect all members of the
+Reich (which it has sometimes, to our own knowledge, so carefully
+done), is almost more ardent than Austria itself. France, Austria,
+Russia; to these add Polish Majesty himself; and latterly the very
+Swedes, by French bribery at Stockholm: these are the Partitioning
+Powers;--and their shares (let us spare one line for their shares)
+are as follows.
+
+The Swedes are to have Pommern in whole; Polish-Saxon Majesty gets
+Magdeburg, Halle, and opulent slices thereabouts; Austria's share,
+we need not say, is that jewel of a Silesia. Czarish Majesty, on
+the extreme East, takes Preussen, Konigsberg-Memel Country in
+whole; adds Preussen to her as yet too narrow Territories.
+Wesel-Cleve Country, from the other or Western extremity, France
+will take that clipping, and make much of it. These are quite
+serious business-engagements, engrossed on careful parchment, that
+Spring, 1757, and I suppose not yet boiled down into glue, but
+still to be found in dusty corners, with the tape much faded.
+The high heads, making preparation on the due scale, think them not
+only executable, but indubitable, and almost as good as done.
+Push home upon him, as united Posse Comitatus of Mankind; in a
+sacred cause of Polish Majesty and Public Justice, how can one
+malefactor resist? "AH, MA TRES-CHERE" and "Oh, my dearest Princess
+and Cousin," what a chance has turned up!
+
+It is computed that there are arrayed against this one King, under
+their respective Kings, Empress-Queens, Swedish Senates, Catins and
+Pompadours, populations to the amount of above 100 millions,--in
+after stages, I remember to have seen "150 millions" loosely given
+as the exaggerated cipher. Of armed soldiers actually in the field
+against him (against Hanover and him), in 1757, there are, by
+strict count, 430,000. Friedrich's own Dominions at this time
+contain about Five Millions of Population; of Revenue somewhat less
+than Two Millions sterling. New taxes he cannot legally, and will
+not, lay on his People. His SCHATZ (ready-money Treasure, or Hoard
+yearly accumulating for such end) is, I doubt not, well filled,--
+express amount not mentioned. Of drilled men he has, this Year,
+150,000 for the field; portioned out thriftily,--as well beseems,
+against Four Invasions coming on him from different points. In the
+field, 150,000 soldiers, probably the best that ever were; and in
+garrison, up and down (his Country being, by nature, the least
+defensible of all Countries), near 40,000, which he reckons of
+inferior quality. So stands the account. [Stenzel, iv. 308, 306,
+v. 39; Ranke, iii. 415; Preuss, ii, 389, 43, 124; &c. &c.;--
+substantially true, I doubt not; but little or nothing of it so
+definite and conclusively distinct as it ought, in all items, to
+have been by this time,--had poor Dryasdust known what he was
+doing.] These are, arithmetically precise, his resources,--PLUS
+only what may lie in his own head and heart, or funded in the other
+heads and hearts, especially in those 150,000, which he and his
+Fathers have been diligently disciplining, to good perfection, for
+four centuries come the time.
+
+France, urged by Pompadour and the enthusiasms, was first in the
+field. The French Army, in superb equipment, though privately in
+poorish state of discipline, took the road early in March;
+"March 26th and 27th," it crossed the German Border, Cleve Country
+and Koln Country; had been rumored of since January and February
+last, as terrifically grand; and here it now actually is, above
+100,000 strong,--110,405, as the Army-Lists, flaming through all
+the Newspapers, teach mankind. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> iv. 391; iii. 1073.] Bent mainly upon Prussia, it would
+seem; such the will of Pompadour. Mainly upon Prussia; Marechal
+d'Estrees, crossing at Koln, made offers even to his Britannic
+Majesty to be forgiven in comparison; "Yield us a road through your
+Hanover, merely a road to those Halberstadt-Magdeburg parts, your
+Hanover shall have neutrality!" "Neutrality to Hanover?" sighed
+Britannic Majesty: "Alas, am not I pledged by Treaty? And, alas,
+withal, how is it possible, with that America hanging over us?" and
+stood true. Nor is this all, on the part of magnanimous France:
+there is a Soubise getting under way withal, Soubise and 30,000,
+who will reinforce the Reich's Armament, were it on foot, and be
+heard of by and by! So high runs French enthusiasm at present.
+A new sting of provocation to Most Christian Majesty, it seems, has
+been Friedrich's conduct in that Damiens matter (miserable attempt,
+by a poor mad creature, to assassinate; or at least draw blood upon
+the Most Christian Majesty ["Evening of 5th January, 1757"
+(exuberantly plentiful details of it, and of the horrible Law-
+procedures which followed on it: In Adelung, viii. 197-220;
+Barbier, &c. &c.).]); about which Friedrich, busy and oblivious,
+had never, in common politeness, been at the pains to condole,
+compliment, or take any notice whatever. And will now take the
+consequences, as due!--
+
+The Wesel-Cleve Countries these French find abandoned: Friedrich's
+garrisons have had orders to bring off the artillery and stores,
+blow up what of the works are suitable for blowing up; and join the
+"Britannic Army of Observation" which is getting itself together in
+those regions. Considerable Army, Britannic wholly in the money
+part: new Hanoverians so many, Brunswickers, Buckeburgers, Sachsen-
+Gothaers so many; add those precious Hanoverian-Hessian 20,000,
+whom we have had in England guarding our liberties so long,--who
+are now shipped over in a lot; fair wind and full sea to them.
+Army of 60,000 on paper; of effective more than 50,000;
+Head-quarters now at Bielefeld on the Weser;--where, "April 16th,"
+or a few days later, Royal Highness of Cumberland comes to take
+command; likely to make a fine figure against Marechal d'Estrees
+and his 100,000 French! But there was no helping it.
+Friedrich, through Winter, has had Schmettau earnestly flagitating
+the Hanoverian Officialities: "The Weser is wadable in many places,
+you cannot defend the Weser!" and counselling and pleading to all
+lengths,--without the least effect. "Wants to save his own
+Halberstadt lands, at our expense!" Which was the idea in London,
+too: "Don't we, by Apocalyptic Newswriters and eyesight of our own,
+understand the man?" Pitt is by this time in Office, who perhaps
+might have judged a little otherwise. But Pitt's seat is altogether
+temporary, insecure; the ruling deities Newcastle and Royal
+Highness, who withal are in standing quarrel. So that Friedrich,
+Schmettau, Mitchell pleaded to the deaf. Nothing but "Defend the
+Weser," and ignorant Fatuity ready for the Impossible, is to be
+made out there. "Cannot help it, then," thinks Friedrich, often
+enough, in bad moments; "Army of Observation will have its fate.
+Happily there are only 5,000 Prussians in it, Wesel and the other
+garrisons given up!"
+
+Only 5,000 Prussians: by original Engagement, there should have
+been 25,000; and Friedrich's intention is even 45,000 if he prosper
+otherwise. For in January, 1757 (Anniversary, or nearly so, of that
+NEUTRALITY CONVENTION last year), there had been--encouraged by
+Pitt, as I could surmise, who always likes Friedrich--a definite,
+much closer TREATY OF ALLIANCE, with "Subsidy of a million
+sterling," Anti-Russian "Squadron of Observation in the Baltic,"
+"25,000 Prussians," and other items, which I forget. Forget the
+more readily, as, owing to the strange state of England (near
+suffocating in its Constitutional bedclothes), the Treaty could not
+be kept at all, or serve as rule to poor England's exertions for
+Friedrich this Year; exertions which were of the willing-minded but
+futile kind, going forward pell-mell, not by plan, and could reach
+Friedrich only in the lump,--had there been any "lump" of them to
+sum together. But Pitt had gone out;--we shall see what, in Pitt's
+absence, there was! So that this Treaty 1757 fell quite into the
+waste-basket (not to say, far deeper, by way of "pavement" we know
+where!),--and is not mentioned in any English Book; nor was known
+to exist, till some Collector of such things printed it, in
+comparatively recent times. ["M. Koch in 1802," not very perfectly
+(Scholl, iii. 30 n.; who copies what Koch has given).] A Treaty
+1757, which, except as emblem of the then quasi-enchanted condition
+of England, and as Foreshadow of Pitt's new Treaty in January,
+1758, and of three others that followed and were kept to the
+letter, is not of moment farther.
+
+
+REICH'S THUNDER, SLIGHT SURVEY OF IT; WITH QUESTION,
+WHITHERWARD, IF ANY-WHITHER.
+
+The thunderous fulminations in the Reich's-Diet--an injured Saxony
+complaining, an insulted Kaiser, after vain DEHORTATORIUMS,
+reporting and denouncing "Horrors such as these: What say you, O
+Reich?"--have been going on since September last; and amount to
+boundless masses of the liveliest Parliamentary Eloquence, now
+fallen extinct to all creatures. [Given, to great lengths, in
+<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iii. iv. (and other easily
+avoidable Books).] The Kaiser, otherwise a solid pacific gentleman,
+intent on commercial operations (furnishes a good deal of our meal,
+says Friedrich), is Officially extremely violent in behalf of
+injured Saxony,--that is to say, in fact, of injured Austria, which
+is one's own. Kur-Mainz, Chairman of the Diet (we remember how he
+was got, and a Battle of Dettingen fought in consequence, long
+since); Kur-Mainz is admitted to have the most decided Austrian
+leanings: Britannic George, Austria being now in the opposite
+scale, finds him an unhandy Kur-Mainz, and what profit it was to
+introduce false weights into the Reich's balance that time! Not for
+long generations before, had the poor old semi-imaginary Reich's-
+Diet risen into such paroxysms; nor did it ever again after.
+Never again, in its terrestrial History, was there such agonistic
+parliamentary struggle, and terrific noise of parliamentary
+palaver, witnessed in the poor Reich's-Diet. Noise and struggle
+rising ever higher, peal after peal, from September, 1756, when it
+started, till August, 1757, when it had reached its acme (as
+perhaps we shall see), though it was far from ending then, or for
+years to come.
+
+Contemporary by-standers remark, on the Austrian part,
+extraordinary rage and hatred against Prussia; which is now the one
+point memorable. Austria is used to speak loud in the Diet, as we
+have ourselves seen: and it is again (if you dive into those old
+AEolus'-Caves, at your peril) unpleasantly notable to what pitch of
+fixed rage, and hot sullen hatred Austria has now gone; and how the
+tone has in it a potency of world-wide squealing and droning, such
+as you nowhere heard before. Omnipotence of droning, edged with
+shrieky squealing, which fills the Universe, not at all in a
+melodious way. From the depths of the gamut to the shrieky top
+again,--a droning that has something of porcine or wild-boar
+character. Figure assembled the wild boars of the world, all or
+mostly all got together, and each with a knife just stuck into its
+side, by a felonious individual too well known,--you will have some
+notion of the sound of these things. Friedrich sometimes
+remonstrates: "Cannot you spare such phraseology, unseemly to
+Kings? The quarrels of Kings have to be decided by the sword;
+what profit in unseemly language, Madam?"--but, for the first year
+and more, there was no abatement on the Austrian part.
+
+Friedrich's own Delegate at Regensburg, a Baron von Plotho, come of
+old Brandenburg kindred, is a resolute, ready-tongued, very
+undaunted gentleman; learned in Diplomacies and Reich's Law;
+carries his head high, and always has his story at hand.
+Argument, grounded on Reich's Law and the nature of the case,
+Plotho never lacks, on spur of the hour: and is indeed a very
+commendable parliamentary mastiff; and honorable and melodious in
+the bark of him, compared with those infuriated porcine specimens.
+He has Kur-Hanover for ally on common occasions, and generally from
+most Protestant members individually, or from the CORPUS
+EVANGELICORUM in mass, some feeble whimper of support.
+Finds difficulty in getting his Reich's Pleadings printed;--
+dangerous, everywhere in those Southern Parts, to print anything
+whatever that is not Austrian: so that Plotho, at length, gets
+printers to himself, and sets up a Printing-Press in his own house
+at Regensburg. He did a great deal of sonorous pleading for
+Friedrich; proud, deep-voiced, ruggedly logical; fairly beyond the
+Austrian quality in many cases,--and always far briefer, which is
+another high merit. October coming, we purpose to look in upon
+Plotho for one minute; "October 14th, 1757;" which may be reckoned
+essentially the acme or tuming-point of these unpleasant
+thunderings. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv.
+745-749.]
+
+What good he did to Friedrich, or could have done with the tongue
+of angels in such an audience, we do not accurately know. Some good
+he would do even in the Reich's-Diet there; and out of doors, over
+a German public, still more; and is worth his frugal wages,--say
+1,000 pounds a year, printing and all other expense included!
+This is a mere guess of mine, Dryasdust having been incurious:
+but, to English readers it is incredible for what sums Friedrich
+got his work done, no work ever better. Which is itself an
+appreciable advantage, computable in pounds sterling; and is the
+parent of innumerable others which no Arithmetic or Book-keeping by
+Double Entry will take hold of, and which are indeed priceless for
+Nations and for persons. But this poor old bedridden Reich,
+starting in agonistic spasm at such rate: is it not touching, in a
+Corpus moribund for so many Centuries past! The Reich is something;
+though it is not much, nothing like so much as even Kaiser Franz
+supposes it. Much or not so much, Kaiser Franz wishes to secure it
+for himself; Friedrich to hinder him,--and it must be a poor
+something, if not worth Plotho's wages on Friedrich's part.
+
+It would insult the patience of every reader to go into these  
+spasmodic tossings of the poor paralytic Reich; or to mention the
+least item of them beyond what had some result, or fraction of
+result, on the world's real affairs. We shall say only, therefore,
+that after tempests not a few of porcine squealing, answered always
+by counter-latration on the vigilant Plotho's part;--squealing,
+chiefly, from the Reich's-Hofrath at Vienna, the Head Tribunal of
+Imperial Majesty, which sits judging and denouncing there, touched
+to the soul, as if by a knife driven into its side, by those
+unheard-of treatments of Saxony and disregard to our
+DEHORTATORIUMS, and which bursts out, peal after peal, filling the
+Universe, Plotho not unvigilant;--the poor old Reich's-Diet did at
+last get into an acting posture, and determine, by clear majority
+of 99 against 60, that there should be a "Reich's Execution Army"
+got on foot. Reich's Execution Army to coerce, by force of arms,
+this nefarious King of Prussia into making instant restitution to
+Saxony, with ample damages on the nail; that right be done to
+Kurfursts of this Reich. To such height of vigor has the Reich's-
+Diet gone;--and was voting it at Regensburg January 10th, 1757;
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 252, 302, 330;
+Stenzel, v. 32.] that very day when nefarious Friedrich at Berlin,
+case-hardened in iniquity to such a pitch, sat writing his
+INSTRUCTION TO COUNT FINCK, which we read not long since.
+Simultaneous movements, unknown to one another, in this
+big wrestle.
+
+Reich's-Diet perfected its Vote; had it quite through, and
+sanctioned by the Kaiser's Majesty, January 29th: "Arming to be a
+TRIPLUM" (triple contingent required of you this time);
+with Romish-months (ROMERMONATE) of cash contributions from all and
+sundry (rigorously gathered, I should hope, where Austria has
+power), so many as will cover the expense. Army to be got on actual
+foot hastily, instantly if possible: an "EILENDE REICHS-EXECUTIONS
+ARMEE;" so it ran, but the word EILENDE (speedy) had a mischance in
+printing, and was struck off into ELENDE (contemptibly wretched):
+so that on all Market-Squares and Public Places of poor
+Teutschland, you read flaming Placards summoning out, not a speedy
+or immediate, but "a MISERABLE Reich's Execution Army!" A word
+which, we need not say, was laughed at by the unfeeling part of the
+public; and was often called to mind by the Reich's Execution
+Army's performances, when said SPEEDY Army did at last take
+the field.
+
+For the Reich performed its Vote; actually had a Reich's Execution
+Army; the last it ever had in this world, not by any means the
+worst it ever had, for they used generally to be bad.
+Commanders, managers are named, Romermonate are gathered in, or the
+sure prospect of them; and, through May-June, 1757, there is busy
+stir, of drumming, preparing and enlisting, all over the Reich.
+End of July, we shall see the Reich's Army in Camp; end of August,
+actually in the field; and later on, a touch of its fighting
+withal. Many other things the Reich tried against unfortunate
+Friedrich,--gradual advance, in fact, to Ban of the Reich (or total
+anathema and cutting-off from fire and water): but in none of
+these, in Ban as little as any, did it come to practical result at
+all, or acquire the least title to be remembered at this day.
+Finis of Ban, some eight months hence, has something of attractive
+as futility, the curious Death of a Futility. Finis of Ban (October
+14th, already indicated) we may for one moment look in upon, if
+there be one moment to spare; the rest--readers may fancy it;
+and read only of the actuality and fighting part, which will itself
+be enough for them on such a matter.
+
+
+FRIEDRICH SUDDENLY MARCHES ON PRAG.
+
+Four Invasions, from their respective points of the compass,
+northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest: here is a formidable
+outlook for the one man against whom they are all advancing open-
+mouthed. The one man--with nothing but a Duke of Cumberland and his
+Observation Army for backing in such duel--had need to look to
+himself! Which, we well know, he does; wrapt in profoundly silent
+vigilance, with his plans all laid. Of the Four Invasions, three,
+the Russian, French, Austrian, are very large; and the two latter,
+especially the last, are abundantly formidable. The Swedish, of
+which there is rumoring, he hopes may come to little, or not come
+at all. Nor is Russia, though talking big, and actually getting
+ready above 100,000 men, so immediately alarming. Friedrich always
+hopes the English, with their guineas and their managements, will
+do something for him in that quarter; and he knows, at worst, that
+the Russian Hundred Thousand will be a very slow-moving entity.
+The Swedish Invasion Friedrich, for the present, leaves to chance:
+and against Russia, he has sent old Marshal Lehwald into those
+Baltic parts; far eastward, towards the utmost Memel Frontier, to
+put the Country upon its own defence, and make what he can of it
+with 30,000 men,--West-Prussian militias a good few of them.
+This is all he can spare on the Swedish-Russian side: Austria and
+France are the perilous pair of entities; not to be managed except
+by intense concentration of stroke; and by going on them in
+succession, if one have luck!--
+
+Friedrich's motions and procedures in canton-quarters, through
+Winter and in late months, have led to the belief that he means to
+stand on the defensive; that the scene of the Campaign will
+probably be Saxony; and that Austria, for recovering injured
+Saxony, for recovering dear Silesia, will have to take an invasive
+attitude. And Austria is busy everywhere preparing with that view.
+Has Tolpatcheries, and advanced Brigades, still harassing about in
+the Lausitz. A great Army assembling at Prag,--Browne forward
+towards the Metal Mountains securing posts, gathering magazines,
+for the crossing into Saxony there. There, it is thought, the tug
+of war will probably be. Furious, and strenuous, it is not doubted,
+on this Friedrich's part: but against such odds, what can he do?
+With Austrians in front, with Russians to left, with French to
+right and arear, not to mention Swedes and appendages: surely here,
+if ever, is a lost King!--
+
+It is by no means Friedrich's intention that Saxony itself shall
+need to be invaded. Friedrich's habit is, as his enemies might by
+this time be beginning to learn, not that of standing on the
+defensive, but that of GOING on it, as the preferable method
+wherever possible. March 24th, Friedrich had quitted Dresden City;
+and for a month after (head-quarters Lockwitz, edge of the Pirna
+Country), he had been shifting, redistributing, his cantoned Army,
+--privately into the due Divisions, due readiness for march.
+Which done, on fixed days, about the end of April, the whole Army,
+he himself from Lockwitz, April 20th,--to the surprise of Austria
+and the world, Friedrich in three grand Columns, Bevern out of the
+Lausitz, King himself over the Metal Mountains, Schwerin out of
+Schlesien, is marching with extraordinary rapidity direct for Prag;
+in the notion that a right plunge into the heart of Bohemia will be
+the best defence for Saxony and the other places under menace.
+
+This is a most unexpected movement; which greatly astonishes the
+world-theatre, pit, boxes and gallery alike (as Friedrich's sudden
+movements often do); and which is, above all, interesting on the
+stage itself, where the actors had been counting on a quite
+opposite set of entries and activities! Feldmarschall Browne and
+General Konigseck (not our old friend Konigseck, who used to dry-
+nurse in the Netherlands, but his nephew and heir) may cease
+gathering Magazines, in those Lausitz and Metal-Mountain parts:
+happy could they give wings to those already gathered!
+Magazines, for Austrian service, are clearly not the things wanted
+there. One does not burn one's Magazines till the last extremity;
+but wings they have none; and such is the enigmatic velocity of
+those Prussian movements, one seldom has time even to burn them, in
+the last crisis of catastrophe! Considerable portions of that
+provender fell into the Prussian throat; as much as "three months'
+provision for the whole Army," count they,--adding to those
+Frontier sundries the really important Magazine which they seized
+at Jung-Bunzlau farther in. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, iv. 6-13;
+&c.] It is one among their many greater advantages from this
+surprisal of the enemy, and sudden topsy-turvying of his plans.
+Browne and Konigseck have to retire on Prag at their swiftest;
+looking to more important results than Magazines.
+
+It is Friedrich's old plan. Long since, in 1744, we saw a march of
+this kind, Three Columns rushing with simultaneous rapidity on
+Prag; and need not repeat the particulars on this occasion.
+Here are some Notes on the subject, which will sufficiently bring
+it home to readers:--
+ 
+"The Three Columns were, for a part of the way, Four; the King's
+being, at first, in two branches, till they united again, on the
+other side of the Hills. For the King," what is to be noted, "had
+shot out, three weeks before, a small preliminary branch, under
+Moritz of Dessau; who marched, well westward, by Eger (starting
+from Chemnitz in Saxony); and had some tussling with our poor old
+friend Duke d'Ahremberg, Browne's subordinate in those parts.
+D'Ahremberg, having 20,000 under him, would not quit Eger for
+Moritz; but pushed out Croats upon him, and sat still. This, it was
+afterwards surmised, had been a feint on Friedrich's part; to give
+the Austrians pleasant thoughts: 'Invading us, is he? Would fain
+invade us, but cannot!' Moritz fell back from Eger; and was ready
+to join the King's march, (at Linay, April 23d' (third day from
+Lockwitz, on the King's part). Onwards from which point the Columns
+are specifically Three; in strength, and on routes, somewhat
+as follows:--
+
+1. "The FIRST Column, or King's,--which is 60,000 after this
+junction, 45,000 foot, 15,000 horse,--quitted Lockwitz (head-
+quarter for a month past), WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20TH. They go by the
+Pascopol and other roads; through Pirna, for one place:
+through Karbitz, Aussig, are at Linay on the 23d; where Moritz
+joins: 24th, in the united state, forward again (leave Lobositz two
+miles to left); to Trebnitz, 25th, and rest there one day.
+
+"At Aussig an unfortunate thing befell. Zastrow, respectable old
+General Zastrow, was to drive the Austrians out of Aussig:
+Zastrow does it, April 22d-23d, drives them well over the heights;
+April 25th, however, marching forward towards Lobositz, Zastrow is
+shot through both temples (Pandour hid among the bushes and cliffs,
+OTHER side of Elbe), and falls dead on the spot. Buried in
+GOTTLEUBE Kirk, 1st May."
+
+In these Aussig affairs, especially in recapturing the Castle of
+Tetschen near by, Colonel Mayer, father of the new "Free-Corps,"
+did shining service;--and was approved of, he and they. And, a day
+or two after, was detached with a Fifteen Hundred of that kind, on
+more important business: First, to pick up one or two Bohemian
+Magazines lying handy; after which, to pay a visit to the Reich and
+its bluster about Execution-Army, and teach certain persons who it
+is they are thundering against in that awkwardly truculent manner!
+Errand shiningly done by Mayer, as perhaps we may hear,--and
+certainly as all the Newspapers loudly heard,--in the course of the
+next two months.
+
+At crossing of the Eger, Friedrich's Column had some chasing of
+poor D'Ahremberg; attempting to cut him off from his Bridges,
+Bridge of Koschlitz, Bridge of Budin; but he made good despatch,
+Browne and he; and, except a few prisoners of Ziethen's gathering,
+and most of his Magazines unburnt, they did him no damage.
+The chase was close enough; more than once, the Austrian head-
+quarter of to-night was that of the Prussians to-morrow.
+Monday, May 2d, Friedrich's Column was on the Weissenberg of Prag;
+Browne, D'Ahremberg, and Prince Karl, who is now come up to take
+command, having hastily filed through the City, leaving a fit
+garrison, the day before. Except his Magazines, nothing the least
+essential went wrong with Browne; but Konigseck, who had not a
+Friedrich on his heels,--Konigseck, trying more, as his opportunities
+were more,--was not quite so lucky.
+
+2. "Column SECOND, to the King's left, comes from the Lausitz under
+Brunswick-Bevern,--18,000 foot, 5,000 horse. This is the Bevern who
+so distinguished himself at Lobositz last year; and he is now to
+culminate into a still brighter exploit,--the last of his very
+bright ones, as it proved. Bevern set out from about Zittau (from
+Grottau, few miles south of Zittau), the same day with Friedrich,
+that is April 20th;--and had not well started till he came upon
+formidable obstacles. Came upon General Konigseck, namely:
+a Konigseck manoeuvring ahead, in superior force; a Maguire, Irish
+subordinate of Konigseck's, coming from the right to cut off our
+baggage (against whom Bevern has to detach); a Lacy, coming from
+the left;--or indeed, Konigseck and Lacy in concert, intending to
+offer battle. Battle of Reichenberg, which accordingly ensued,
+April 21st,"--of which, though it was very famous for so small a
+Battle, there can be no account given here.
+
+The short truth is, Konigseck falling back, Parthian-like, with a
+force of 30,000 or more, has in front of him nothing but Bevern;
+who, as he issues from the Lausitz, and till he can unite with
+Schwerin farther southward, is but some 20,000 odd:
+cannot Konigseck call halt, and bid Bevern return, or do worse?
+Konigseck, a diligent enough soldier, determines to try; chooses an
+excellent position,--at or round Reichenberg, which is the first
+Bohemian Town, one march from Zittau in the Lausitz, and then one
+from Liebenau, which latter would be Bevern's SECOND Bohemian stage
+on the Prag road, if he continued prosperous. Reichenberg, standing
+nestled among hills in the Neisse Valley (one of those Four Neisses
+known to us, the Neisse where Prince Karl got exploded, in that
+signal manner, Winter, 1745, by a certain King), offers fine
+capabilities; which Konigseck has laid hold of. There is especially
+one excellent Hollow (on the left or western bank of Neisse River,
+that is, ACROSS from Reichenberg), backed by woody hills, nothing
+but hills, brooks, woods all round; Hollow scooped out as if for
+the purpose; and altogether of inviting character to Konigseck.
+There, "Wednesday, April 20th," Konigseck posts himself, plants
+batteries, fells abatis; plenty of cannon, of horse and foot, and,
+say all soldiers, one of the best positions possible.
+
+So that Bevern, approaching Reichenberg at evening, evening of his
+first march, Wednesday, April 20th, finds his way barred; and that
+the difficulties may be considerable. "Nothing to be made of it
+to-night," thinks Bevern; "but we must try to-morrow!" and has to
+take camp, "with a marshy brook in front of him," some way on the
+hither side of Reichenberg; and study overnight what method of
+unbarring there may be. Thursday morning early, Bevern, having well
+reconnoitred and studied, was at work unbarring. Bevern crossed his
+own marshy brook; courageously assaulted Konigseck's position, left
+wing of Konigseck; stormed the abatis, the batteries, plunged in
+upon Konigseck, man to man, horse to horse, and after some fierce
+enough but brief dispute, tumbled Konigseck out of the ground.
+Konigseck made some attempt to rally; attempted twice, but in vain;
+had fairly to roll away, and at length to run, leaving 1,000 dead
+upon the field, about 500 prisoners; one or two guns, and I forget
+how many standards, or whether any kettle-drums. This was thought
+to be a decidedly bright feat on Bevern's part (rather mismanaged
+latterly on Konigseck's); [Tempelhof, i. 100; <italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> iii. 1077 (Friedrich's own Account, "Linay in Bohmen, 24th April, 1757"); &c. &c. There is, in Busching's
+italic> Magazin <end italic> (xvi. 139 et seq.), an intelligible
+sketch of this Action of Reichenherg, with satirical criticisms,
+which have some basis, on Lacy, Maguire and others, by an Anonymous
+Military Cynic,--who gives many such in BUSCHING (that of Fontenoy,
+for example), not without force of judgment, and signs of wide
+study and experience in his trade.]--much approved by Friedrich, as
+he hears of it, at Linay, on his own prosperous march Prag-ward.
+A comfortable omen, were there nothing more.
+
+Konigseck and Company, torn out of Reichenberg, and set running,
+could not fairly halt again and face about till at Liebenau, twenty
+miles off, where they found some defile or difficult bit of ground
+fit for them; and this too proved capable of yielding pause for a
+few hours only. For Schwerin, with his Silesian Column, was coming
+up from the northeast, threatening Konigseck on flank and rear:
+Konigseck could only tighten his straps a little at this Liebenau,
+and again get under way; and making vain attempts to hinder the
+junction of Schwerin and Bevern, to defend the Jung-Bunzlau
+Magazine, or do any good in those parts, except to detain the
+Schwerin-Bevern people certain hours (I think, one day in all), had
+nothing for it but to gird himself together, and retreat on Prag
+and the Ziscaberg, where his friends now were.
+
+The Austrian force at Reichenberg was 20,000; would have been 30
+and odd thousands, had Maguire come up (as he might have done, had
+not the appearances alarmed him too much); Bevern, minus the
+Detachment sent against Maguire, was but 15,000 in fight; and he
+has quite burst the Austrians away, who had plugged his road for
+him in such force: is it not a comfortable little victory, glorious
+in its sort; and a good omen for the bigger things that are coming?
+Bevern marched composedly on, after this inspiriting tussle,
+through Liebenau and what defiles there were; April 24th, at
+Turnau, he falls into the Schwerin Column; incorporates himself
+therewith, and, as subordinate constituent part, accompanies
+Schwerin thenceforth.
+
+3. "Column THIRD was Schwerin's, out of Schlesien; counted to be
+32,000 foot, 12,000 horse. Schwerin, gathering himself, from Glatz
+and the northerly country, at Landshut,--very careless, he, of the
+pleasant Hills, and fine scattered peaks of the Giant Mountains
+thereabouts,--was completely gathered foremost of all the Columns,
+having farthest to go. And on Monday, 18th April, started from
+Landshut, Winterfeld leading one division. In our days, it is the
+finest of roads; high level Pass, of good width, across the Giant
+Range; pleasant painted hamlets sprinkling it, fine mountain ridges
+and distant peaks looking on; Schneekoppe (SNOWfell, its head
+bright-white till July come) attends you, far to the right, all the
+way:--probably Sprite Rubezahl inhabits there; and no doubt River
+Elbe begins his long journey there, trickling down in little
+threads over yonder, intending to float navies by and by:
+considerations infinitely indifferent to Schwerin. 'The road,' says
+my Tourist, (is not Alpine; it reminds you of Derbyshire-Peak
+country; more like the road from Castletown to Sheffield than any I
+could name;'--we have been in it before, my reader and I, about
+Schatzlar and other places. Trautenau, well down the Hills, with
+swift streams, more like torrents, bound Elbe-wards, watering it,
+is a considerable Austrian Town, and the Bohemian end of the Pass,
+--Sohr only a few miles from it: heartily indifferent to Schwerin
+at this moment; who was home from the Army, in a kind of disfavor,
+or mutual pet, at the time Sohr was done. Schwerin's March we shall
+not give; his junction with Bevern (at Turnau, on the Iser, April
+24th), then their capture of Jung-Bunzlau Magazine, and crossing of
+the Elbe at Melnick, these were the important points; and, in spite
+of Konigseck's tusslings, these all went well, and nothing was lost
+except one day of time."
+
+The Austrians, some days ago, as we observed, filed THROUGH Prag,--
+Sunday, May 1st, not a pleasant holiday-spectacle to the
+populations;--and are all encamped on the Ziscaberg high ground, on
+the other side of the City. Had they been alert, now was the time
+to attack Friedrich, who is weaker than they, while nobody has yet
+joined him. They did not think of it, under Prince Karl; and Browne
+and the Prince are said to be in bad agreement.
+
+
+
+Chapter II.
+
+BATTLE OF PRAG.
+
+Monday morning, 2d May, 1757, the Vanguard, or advanced troops of
+Friedrich's Column, had appeared upon the Weissenberg, northwest
+corner of Prag (ground known to them in 1744, and to the poor
+Winter-King in 1620): Vanguard in the morning; followed shortly by
+Friedrich himself; and, hour after hour, by all the others,
+marching in. So that, before sunset, the whole force lay posted
+there; and had the romantic City of Prag full in view at their
+feet. A most romantic, high-piled, many-towered, most unlevel old
+City; its skylights and gilt steeple-cocks glittering in the
+western sun,--Austrian Camp very visible close beyond it, spread
+out miles in extent on the Ziscaberg Heights, or eastern side;--
+Prag, no doubt, and the Austrian Garrison of Prag, taking intense
+survey of this Prussian phenomenon, with commentaries, with
+emotions, hidden now in eternal silence, as is fit enough.
+One thing we know, "Head-quarter was in Welleslawin:" there, in
+that small Hamlet, nearly to north, lodged Friedrich, the then
+busiest man of Europe; whom Posterity is still striving for a view
+of, as something memorable.
+
+Prince Karl, our old friend, is now in chief command yonder;
+Browne also is there, who was in chief command; their scheme of
+Campaign gone all awry. And to Friedrich, last night, at his
+quarters "in the Monastery of Tuchomirsitz," where these two
+Gentlemen had lodged the night before, it was reported that they
+had been heard in violent altercation; [<italic> Helden-Geschichte,
+<end italic> iv. 11 (exact "Diary of the march" given there).]--
+both of them, naturally, in ill-humor at the surprising turn things
+had taken; and Feldmarschall Browne firing up, belike, at some
+platitude past or coming, at some advice of his rejected, some
+imputation cast on him, or we know not what. Prince Karl is now
+chief; and indignant Browne, as may well be the case, dissents a
+good deal,--as he has often had to do. Patience, my friend, it is
+near ending now! Prince Karl means to lie quiet on the Ziscaberg,
+and hold Prag; does not think of molesting Friedrich in his
+solitary state; and will undertake nothing, "till Konigseck, from
+Jung-Bunzlau, come in," victorious or not; or till perhaps even
+Daun arrive (who is, rather slowly, gathering reinforcement in
+Maren): "What can the enemy attempt on us, in a Post of this
+strength?" thinks Prince Karl. And Browne, whatever his insight or
+convictions be, has to keep silence.
+
+"Weissenberg," let readers be reminded, "is on the hither or
+western side of Prag: the Hradschin [pronounce RadSHEEN, with
+accent on the last syllable, as in "SchwerIN" and other such
+cases], the Hradschin, which is the topmost summit of the City and
+of the Fashionable Quarter,--old Bohemian Palace, still
+occasionally habitable as such, and in constant use as a DOWNING
+STREET,--lies on the slope or shoulder of the Weissenberg, a good
+way from the top; and has a web of streets rushing down from it,
+steepest streets in the world; till they reach the Bridge, and
+broad-flowing Moldau (broad as Thames at half-flood, but nothing
+like so deep); after which the streets become level, and spread out
+in intricate plenty to right and to left, and ahead eastward,
+across the River, till the Ziscaberg, with frowning precipitous
+brow, suddenly puts a stop to them in that particular direction.
+From Ziscaberg top to Weissenberg top may be about five English
+miles; from the Hradschin to the foot of Ziscaberg, northwest to
+southeast, will be half that distance, the greatest length of Prag
+City. Which is rather rhomboidal in shape, its longer diagonal this
+that we mention. The shorter diagonal, from northmost base of
+Ziscaberg to southmost of Hradschin, is perhaps a couple of miles.
+Prag stands nestled in the lap of mountains; and is not in itself a
+strong place in war: but the country round it, Moldau ploughing his
+rugged chasm of a passage through the piled table-land, is
+difficult to manoeuvre in.
+
+"Moldau Valley comes straight from the south, crosses Prag;
+and--making, on its outgate at the northern end of Prag (end of
+'shortest diagonal' just spoken of), one big loop, or bend and
+counter-bend, of horse-shoe shape," which will be notable to us
+anon--"again proceeds straight northward and Elbe-ward. It is
+narrow everywhere, especially when once got fairly north of Prag;
+and runs along like a Quasi-Highland Strath, amid rocks and hills.
+Big Hill-ranges, not to be called barren, yet with rock enough on
+each hand, and fine side valleys opening here and there: the bottom
+of your Strath, which is green and fertile, with pleasant busy
+Villages (much intent on water-power and cotton-spinning in our
+time), is generally of few furlongs in breadth. And so it lasts,
+this pleasant Moldau Valley, mile after mile, on the northern or
+Lower Moldau, generally straight north, though with one big bend
+eastward just before ending; and not till near Melnick, or the
+mouth of Moldau, do we emerge on that grand Elbe Valley,--glanced
+at once already, from Pascopol or other Height, in the
+Lobositz times."
+
+Friedrich's first problem is the junction with Schwerin: junction
+not to be accomplished south of Ziscaberg in the present
+circumstances; and which Friedrich knows to be a ticklish
+operation, with those Austrians looking on from the high grounds
+there. Tuesday, 3d May, in the way of reconnoitring, and decisively
+on Wednesday, 4th, Friedrich is off northward, along the western
+heights of Lower Moldau, proper force following him, to seek a fit
+place for the pontoons, and get across in that northern quarter.
+"How dangerous that Schwerin is a day too late!" murmurs he;
+but hopes the Austrians will undertake nothing. Keith, with 30,000,
+he has left on the Weissenberg, to straiten Prag and the Austrian
+Garrison on that side: our wagon-trains arrive from Leitmeritz on
+that side, Elbe-boats bring them up to Leitmeritz; very
+indispensable to guard that side of Prag. Friedrich's fixed purpose
+also is to beat the Austrians, on the other side of it, and send
+them packing; but for that, there are steps needful!
+
+Up so far as Lissoley, the first day, Friedrich has found no fit
+place; but on the morrow, Thursday, 5th, farther up, at a place
+called Seltz, Friedrich finds his side of the Strath to be "a
+little higher than the other,"--proper, therefore, for cannonading
+the other, if need be;--and orders his pontoons to be built
+together there. He knows accurately of the Schwerin Column, of the
+comfortable Bevern Victory at Reichenberg, and how they have got
+the Jung-Bunzlau Magazine, and are across the Elbe, their bridges
+all secured, though with delay of one day; and do now wait only for
+the word,--for the three cannon-shot, in fact, which are to signify
+that Friedrich is actually crossing to their side of Lower Moldau.
+
+Friedrich's Bridge is speedily built (trained human hands can be no
+speedier), his batteries planted, his precautions taken: the three
+cannon-shot go off, audible to Schwerin; and Friedrich's troops
+stream speedily across, hardly a Pandour to meddle with them.
+Nay, before the passage was complete--what light-horse squadrons
+are these? Hussars, seen to be Seidlitz's (missioned by Schwerin),
+appear on the outskirts: a meeting worthy of three cheers, surely,
+after such a march on both sides! Friedrich lies on the eastern
+Hill-tops that night (Hamlet of Czimitz his Head-quarter,
+discoverable if you wish it, scarcely three miles north of Prag);
+and accurate appointment is made with Schwerin as to the
+meeting-place to-morrow morning. Meeting-place is to be the
+environs of Prossik Village, southeastward over yonder, short way
+north of the Prag-Konigsgratz Highway; and rather nearer Prag than
+we now are, in Czimitz here: time at Prossik to be 6 A.M. by the
+clock; and Winterfeld and Schwerin to come in person and speak with
+his Majesty. This is the program for Friday, May 6th, which proves
+to be so memorable a day.
+
+Schwerin is on foot by the stroke of midnight; comes along, "over
+the heights of Chaber," by half a dozen, or I know not how many
+roads; visible in due time to Friedrich's people, who are likewise
+punctually on the advance: in a word, the junction is accomplished
+with all correctness. And, while the Columns are marching up,
+Schwerin and Winterfeld ride about in personal conference with his
+Majesty; taking survey, through spy-glasses, of those Austrians
+encamped yonder on the broad back of their Zisca Hill, a couple of
+miles to southward. "What a set of Austrians," exclaim military
+critics, "to permit such junction, without effort to devour the one
+half or the other, in good time!" Friedrich himself, it is
+probable, might partly be of the same opinion; but he knew his
+Austrians, and had made bold to venture. Friedrich, we can observe,
+always got to know his man, after fighting him a month or two;
+and took liberties with him, or did not take, accordingly. And, for
+most part,--not quite always, as one signal exception will Show,--
+he does it with perfect accuracy; and often with vital profit to
+his measures. "If the Austrian cooking-tents are a-smoke before
+eight in the morning," notes he, "you may calculate, in such case,
+the Austrians will march that day." [MILITARY INSTRUCTIONS.] With a
+surprising vividness of eye and mind (beautiful to rival, if one
+could), he watches the signs of the times, of the hours and the
+days and the places; and prophesies from them; reads men and their
+procedures, as if they were mere handwriting, not too cramp for
+him.--The Austrians have, by this time, got their Konigseck home,
+very unvictorious, but still on foot, all but a thousand or two:
+they are already stronger than the Prussians by count of heads;
+and till even Daun come up, what hurry in a Post like this?
+The Austrians are viewing Friedrich, too, this morning; but in the
+blankest manner: their outposts fire a cannon-shot or two on his
+group of adjutants and him, without effect; and the Head people
+send their cavalry out to forage, so little prophecy have they from
+signs seen.
+
+Zisca Hill, where the Austrians now are, rises sheer up, of well-
+nigh precipitous steepness, though there are trees and grass on it,
+from the eastern side of Prag, say five or six hundred feet.
+A steep, picturesque, massive green Hill; Moldau River, turning
+suddenly to right, strikes the northwest corner of it (has flowed
+well to west of it, till then), and winds eastward round its
+northern base. As will be noticed presently. The ascent of
+Ziscaberg, by roads, is steep and tedious: but once at the top, you
+find that it is precipitous on two sides only, the City or westward
+side, and the Moldau or northward. Atop it spreads out, far and
+wide, into a waving upland level; bare of hedges; ploughable all of
+it, studded with littery hamlets and farmsteadings; far and wide, a
+kind of Plain, sloping with extreme gentleness, five or six miles
+to eastward, and as far to southward, before the level perceptibly
+rise again.
+
+Another feature of the Ziscaberg, already hinted at, is very
+notable: that of the Moldau skirting its northern base, and
+scarping the Hill, on that side too, into a precipitous, or very
+steep condition. Moldau having arrived from southward, fairly past
+the end of Ziscaberg, had, so to speak, made up his mind to go
+right eastward, quarrying his way through the lower uplands there,
+And he proceeds accordingly, hugging the northern base of
+Ziscaberg, and making it steep enough; but finds, in the course of
+a mile or so, that he can no more; upland being still rock-built,
+not underminable farther; and so is obliged to wind round again, to
+northward, and finally straight westward, the way he came, or
+parallel to the way he came; and has effected that great Horse-shoe
+Hollow we heard of lately. An extremely pretty Hollow, and curious
+to look upon; pretty villas, gardens, and a "Belvedere Park," laid
+out in the bottom part; with green mountain-walls rising all round
+it, and a silver ring of river at the base of them: length of
+Horse-shoe, from heel to toe, or from west to east, is perhaps a
+mile; breadth, from heel to heel, perhaps half as much.
+Having arrived at his old distance to west, Moldau, like a
+repentant prodigal, and as if ashamed of his frolic, just over
+against the old point he swerved from, takes straight to northward
+again. Straight northward; and quarries out that fine narrow
+valley, or Quasi-Highland Strath, with its pleasant busy villages,
+where he turns the overshot machinery, and where Friedrich and his
+men had their pontoons swimming yesterday.
+
+It is here, on this broad back of the Ziscaberg, that the Austrians
+now lie; looking northward over to the King, and trying cannon-
+shots upon him. There they have been encamping, and diligently
+intrenching themselves for four days past; diligent especially
+since yesterday, when they heard of Friedrich's crossing the River.
+Their groups of tents, and batteries at all the good points,
+stretch from near the crown of Ziscaberg, eastward to the Villages
+of Hlaupetin, Kyge, and their Lakes, near four miles; and rearward
+into the interior one knows not how far;--Prince Karl, hardly awake
+yet, lies at Nussel, near the Moldau, near the Wischerad or
+southeastmost point of Prag; six good miles west-by-south of Kyge,
+at the other end of the diagonal line. About the same distance,
+right east from Nussel, and a mile or more to south of Kyge, over
+yonder, is a littery Farmstead named Sterbohol, which is not yet
+occupied by the Austrians, but will become very famous in their
+War-Annals, this day!--
+
+Where the Austrian Camp or various Tent-groups were, at the time
+Friedrich first cast eye on them, is no great concern of his or
+ours; inasmuch as, in two or three hours hence, the Austrians were
+obliged, rather suddenly, to take Order of Battle; and that, and
+not their camping, is the thing we are curious upon. Let us step
+across, and take some survey of that Austrian ground, which
+Friedrich is now surveying from the distance, fully intending that
+it shall be a battle-ground in few hours; and try to explain how
+the Austrians drew up on it, when they noticed the Prussian
+symptoms to become serious more and more. By nine in the
+morning,--some two hours after Friedrich began his scanning, and
+the Austrian outposts their firing of stray cannon-shots on
+him,--it is Battle-lines, not empty Tents (which there was not time
+to strike), that salute the eye over yonder.
+
+From behind that verdant Horse-shoe Chasm we spoke of, buttressed
+by the inaccessible steeps, and the Moldau, double-folded in the
+form of Horse-shoe, all along the brow of that sloping expanse,
+stands (by 9 A.M. "foragers all suddenly called in") the Austrian
+front; the second line and the reserve, parallel to it, at good
+distances behind. Ranked there; say 65,000 regulars (Prussian force
+little short of the same), on the brow of Ziscaberg slope, some
+four miles long. Their right wing ends, in strong batteries, in
+intricate marshes, knolls, lakelets, between Hlaupetin and Kyge:
+the extreme of their left wing looks over on that Horse-shoe
+Hollow, where Moldau tried to dig his way, but could not and had to
+turn back. They have numerous redoubts, in front and in all the
+good places; and are busy with more, some of them just now getting
+finished, treble-quick, while the Prussians are seen under way.
+As many as sixty heavy cannon in battery up and down: of field-
+pieces they have a hundred and fifty. Excellent always with their
+Artillery, these Austrians; plenty of it, well-placed and well-
+served: thanks to Prince Lichtenstein's fine labors within these
+ten years past. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> (in
+several places); see Hormayr, ? Lichtenstein.] The villages, the
+farmsteads, are occupied; every rising ground especially has its
+battery,--Homoly Berg, Tabor Berg, "Mount of Tabor;" say KNOLL of
+Tabor (nothing like so high as Battersea Rise, hardly even as
+Constitution Hill), though scriptural Zisca would make a Mount of
+it;--these, and other BERGS of the like type.
+
+That is the Austrian Battle Order (as it stood about 9, though it
+had still to change a little, as we shall see): their first line,
+straight or nearly so, looking northward, stands on the brow of the
+Zisca Slope; their second and their third, singularly like it, at
+the due distances behind;--in the intervals, their tents, which
+stand scattered, in groups wide apart, in the ample interior to
+southward. The cavalry is on both wings; left wing, behind that
+Moldau Chasm, cannot attack nor be attacked,--except it were on
+hippogriffs, and its enemy on the like, capable of fighting in the
+air, overhead of these Belvedere Pleasure-grounds: perhaps Prince
+Karl will remedy this oversight; fruit of close following of the
+orthodox practice? Prince Karl, supreme Chief, commands on the left
+wing; Browne on the right, where he can attack or be attacked, NOT
+on hippogriffs. As we shall see, and others will! Light horse, in
+any quantity, hang scattered on all outskirts. With foot, with
+cannon batteries, with horse, light or heavy, they cover in long
+broad flood the whole of that Zisca Slope, to near where it ceases,
+and the ground to eastward begins perceptibly to rise again.
+
+In this latter quarter, Zisca Slope, now nearly ended, begins to
+get very swampy in parts; on the eastern border of the Austrian
+Camp, at Kyge, Hostawitz, and beyond it southward, about Sterbohol
+and Michelup, there are many little lakelets; artificial fish-
+ponds, several of them, with their sluices, dams and apparatus:
+a ragged broadish lacing of ponds and lakelets (all well dried in
+our day) straggles and zigzags along there, connected by the
+miserablest Brook in nature, which takes to oozing and serpentizing
+forward thereabouts, and does finally get emptied, now in a rather
+livelier condition, into the Moldau, about the TOE-part of that
+Horse-shoe or Belvedere region. It runs in sight of the King, I
+think, where he now is; this lower livelier part of it: little does
+the King know how important the upper oozing portion of it will be
+to him this day. Near Michelup are lakelets worth noticing;
+a little under Sterbohol, in the course of this miserable Brook, is
+a string of fish-ponds, with their sluices open at this time, the
+water out, and the mud bottom sown with herb-provender for the
+intended carps, which is coming on beautifully, green as leeks, and
+nearly ready for the fish getting to it again.
+
+Friedrich surveys diligently what he can of all this, from the
+northern verge. We will now return to Friedrich; and will stay on
+his side through the terrible Action that is coming. Battle of
+Prag, one of the furious Battles of the World; loud as Doomsday;--
+the very Emblem of which, done on the Piano by females of energy,
+scatters mankind to flight who love their ears! Of this great
+Action the Narratives old and modern are innumerable; false some of
+them, unintelligible well-nigh all. There are three in Lloyd, known
+probably to some of my readers. Tempelhof, with criticisms of these
+three, gives a fourth,--perhaps the one Narrative which human
+nature, after much study, can in some sort understand.
+Human readers, especially military, I refer to that as their
+finale. [In Lloyd, i. 38 et seq. (the Three): in Tempelhof, i. 123
+(the Fourth); ib. i. 144 (strength of each Army), 105-149 (remarks
+of Tempelhof).--The "HISTORY," or Series of Lectures on the Battles
+&c. of this War, "BY THE ROYAL STAFF-OFFICERS"--which, for the last
+thirty or forty years, is used as Text-Book, or Military EUCLID, in
+the Prussian Cadet-Schools,--appears to possess the fit
+professorial lucidity and amplitude; and, in regard to all Official
+details, enumerations and the like, is received as of CANONICAL
+authority: it is not accessible to the general Public,--though
+liberally enough conceded in special cases; whereby, in effect, the
+main results of it are now become current in modern Prussian Books.
+By favor in high quarters, I had once possession of a copy, for
+some months; but not, at that time, the possibility of thoroughly
+reading any part of it.] Other interest than military-scientific 
+the Action now has not much. The stormy fire of soul that blazed
+that day (higher in no ancient or modern Fight of men) is extinct,
+hopeless of resuscitation for English readers. Approximately what
+the thing to human eyes might be like; what Friedrich's procedure,
+humor and physiognomy of soul was in it: this, especially the
+latter head, is what we search for,--had lazy Dryasdust given us
+almost anything on this latter head! What little can be gleaned
+from him on both heads let us faithfully give, and finish our sad
+part of the combat.
+
+Friedrich, with his Schwerin and Winterfeld, surveying these things
+from the northern edge, admits that the Austrian position is
+extremely strong; but he has no doubt that it must be, by some good
+method, attacked straightway, and the Austrians got beaten.
+Indisputably the enterprise is difficult. Unattackable clearly, the
+Austrians, on that left wing of theirs; not in the centre well
+attackable, nor in the front at all, with that stiff ground, and
+such redoubts and points of strength: but round on their right
+yonder; take them in flank,--cannot we? On as far as Kyge, the
+Three have ridden reconnoitring; and found no possibility upon the
+front; nor at Kyge, where the front ends in batteries, pools and
+quagmires, is there any. "Difficult, not undoable," persists the
+King: "and it must be straightway set about and got done."
+Winterfeld, always for action, is of that opinion, too: and,
+examining farther down along their right flank, reports that there
+the thing is feasible.
+
+Feasible perhaps: "but straightway?" objects Schwerin. His men have
+been on foot since midnight, and on forced marches for days past:
+were it not better to rest for this one day? "Rest:--and Daun,
+coming on with 30,000 of reinforcement to them, might arrive this
+night? Never, my good Feldmarschall;"--and as the Feldmarschall was
+a man of stiff notions, and had a tongue of some emphasis, the
+Dialogue went on, probably with increasing emphasis on Friedrich's
+side too, till old Schwerin, with a quite emphatic flash of
+countenance, crushing the hat firm over his brow, exclaims: "Well,
+your Majesty: the fresher fish the better fish (FRISCHE FISCHE,
+GUTE FISCHE): straightway, then!" and springs off on the gallop
+southward, he too, seeking some likely point of attack. He too,--
+conjointly or not with Winterfeld, I do not know: Winterfeld
+himself does not say; whose own modest words on the subject readers
+shall see before we finish. But both are mentioned in the Books as
+searching, at hand-gallop, in this way: and both, once well round
+to south, by the Podschernitz ["Podschernitz" is pronounced
+PotSHERnitz (should we happen to mentionn it again); "Kyge,"
+KEEGA.] quarter, with the Austrian right flank full in view, were
+agreed that here the thing was possible. "Infantry to push from
+this quarter towards Sterbohol yonder, and then plunge into their
+redoubts and them! Cavalry may sweep still farther southward, if
+found convenient, and even take them in rear." Both agree that it
+will do in this way: ground tolerably good, slightly downwards for
+us, then slightly upwards again; tolerable for horse even:--the
+intermediate lacing of dirty lakelets, the fish-ponds with their
+sluices drawn, Schwerin and Winterfeld either did not notice at
+all, or thought them insiginificant, interspersed with such
+beautiful "pasture-ground,"--of unusual verdure at this early
+season of the year.
+
+The deployment, or "marching up (AUFMARSCHIREN)" of the Prussians
+was wonderful; in their squadrons, in their battalions, horse,
+foot, artillery, wheeling, closing, opening; strangely checkering a
+country-side,--in movements intricate, chaotic to all but the
+scientific eye. Conceive them, flowing along, from the Heights of
+Chaber, behind Prossik Hamlet (right wing of infantry plants itself
+at Prossik, horse westward of them); and ever onwards in broad
+many-checkered tide-stream, eastward, eastward, then southward
+("our artillery went through Podschernitz, the foot and horse a
+little on this westward side of it"): intricate, many-glancing tide
+of coming battle; which, swift, correct as clock-work, becomes two
+lines, from Prossik to near Chwala ("baggage well behind at
+Gbell"); thence round by Podschernitz quarter; and descends,
+steady, swift, tornado-storm so beautifully hidden in it, towards
+Sterbohol, there to grip to. Gradually, in stirring up those old
+dead pedantic record-books, the fact rises on us: silent whirlwinds
+of old Platt-Deutsch fire, beautifully held down, dwell in those
+mute masses; better human stuff there is not than that old Teutsch
+(Dutch, English, Platt-Deutsch and other varieties); and so
+disciplined as here it never was before or since. "In an hour and
+half," what military men may count almost incredible, they are
+fairly on their ground, motionless the most of them by 9 A.M.;
+the rest wheeling rightward, as they successively arrive in the
+Chwala-Podschernitz localities; and, descending diligently,
+Sterbohol way; and will be at their harvest-work anon.
+
+Meanwhile the Austrians, seeing, to their astonishment, these
+phenomena to the north, and that it is a quite serious thing, do
+also rapidly bestir themselves; swarming like bees;--bringing in
+their foraging Cavalry, "No time to change your jacket for a coat:"
+rank, double-quick! Browne is on that right wing of theirs:
+"Bring the left wing over hither," suggests Browne; "cavalry is
+useless yonder, unless they had hippogriffs!"--and (again Browne
+suggesting) the Austrians make a change in the position of their
+right wing, both horse and foot: change which is of vital
+importance, though unnoted in many Narratives of this Battle.
+Seeing, namely, what the Prussians intend, they wheel their right
+wing (say the last furlong or two of their long Line of Battle)
+half round to right; so that the last furlong or two stands at
+right angles ("EN POTENCE," gallows-wise, or joiner's-square-wise
+to the rest); and, in this way, make front to the Prussian
+onslaught,--front now, not flank, as the Prussians are
+anticipating. This is an important wheel to right, and formation in
+joiner's-square manner; and involves no end of interior wheeling,
+marching and deploying; which Austrians cannot manage with Prussian
+velocity. "Swift with it, here about Sterbohol at least, my men!
+For here are the Prussians within wind of us!" urges Browne. And
+here straightway the hurricane does break loose.
+
+Winterfeld, the van of Schwerin's infantry (Schwerin's own
+regiment, and some others, with him), is striding rapidly on
+Sterbohol; Winterfeld catches it before Browne can. But near by,
+behind that important post, on the Homely Hill (BERG or "Mountain,"
+nothing like so high as Constitution Mountain), are cannon-
+batteries of devouring quality; which awaken on Winterfeld, as he
+rushes out double-quick on the advancing Austrians; and are fatal
+to Winterfeld's attempt, and nearly to Winterfeld himself.
+Winterfeld, heavily wounded, sank in swoon from his horse;
+and awakening again in a pool of blood, found his men all off,
+rushing back upon the main Schwerin body; "Austrian grenadiers
+gazing on the thing, about eighty paces off, not venturing to
+follow." Winterfeld, half dead, scrambled across to Schwerin, who
+has now come up with the main body, his front line fronting the
+Austrians here. And there ensued, about Sterbohol and neighborhood,
+led on by Schwerin, such a death-wrestle as was seldom seen in the
+Annals of War. Winterfeld's miss of Sterbohol was the beginning of
+it: the exact course of sequel none can describe, though the end is
+well known.
+
+The Austrians now hold Sterbohol with firm grip, backed by those
+batteries from Homoly Hill. Redoubts, cannon-batteries, as we said,
+stud all the field; the Austrian stock of artillery is very great;
+arrangement of it cunning, practice excellent; does honor to Prince
+Lichtenstein, and indeed is the real force of the Austrians on this
+occasion. Schwerin must have Sterbohol, in spite of batteries and
+ranked Austrians, and Winterfeld's recoil tumbling round him:--and
+rarely had the oldest veteran such a problem. Old Schwerin (fiery
+as ever, at the age of 73) has been in many battles, from Blenheim
+onwards; and now has got to his hottest and his last.
+"Vanguard could not do it; main body, we hope, kindling all the
+hotter, perhaps may!" A most willing mind is in these Prussians of
+Schwerin's: fatigue of over-marching has tired the muscles of them;
+but their hearts,--all witnesses say, these (and through these,
+their very muscles, "always fresh again, after a few minutes of
+breathing-time") were beyond comparison, this day!
+
+Schwerin's Prussians, as they "march up" (that is, as they front
+and advance upon the Austrians), are everywhere saluted by case-
+shot, from Homoly Hill and the batteries northward of Homoly;
+but march on, this main line of them, finely regardless of it or of
+Winterfeld's disaster by it. The general Prussian Order this day
+is: "By push of bayonet; no firing, none, at any rate, till you see
+the whites of their eyes!" Swift, steady as on the parade-ground,
+swiftly making up their gaps again, the Prussians advance, on these
+terms; and are now near those "fine sleek pasture-grounds,
+unusually green for the season." Figure the actual stepping upon
+these "fine pasture-grounds:"--mud-tanks, verdant with mere
+"bearding oat-crop" sown there as carp-provender! Figure the
+sinking of whole regiments to the knee; to the middle, some of
+them; the steady march become a wild sprawl through viscous mud,
+mere case-shot singing round you, tearing you away at its ease!
+Even on those terrible terms, the Prussians, by dams, by footpaths,
+sometimes one man abreast, sprawl steadily forward, trailing their
+cannon with them; only a few regiments, in the footpath parts,
+cannot bring their cannon. Forward; rank again, when the ground
+will carry; ever forward, the case-shot getting ever more
+murderous! No human pen can describe the deadly chaos which ensued
+in that quarter. Which lasted, in desperate fury, issue dubious,
+for above three hours; and was the crisis, or essential agony, of
+the Battle. Foot-chargings, (once the mud-transit was
+accomplished), under storms of grape-shot from Homoly Hill; by and
+by, Horse-chargings, Prussian against Austrian, southward of Homoly
+and Sterbohol, still farther to the Prussian left; huge whirlpool
+of tumultuous death-wrestle, every species of spasmodic effort, on
+the one side and the other;--King himself present there, as I dimly
+discover; Feldmarschall Browne eminent, in the last of his fields;
+and, as the old NIEBELUNGEN has it, "a murder grim and great"
+going on.
+
+Schwerin's Prussians, in that preliminary struggle through the mud-
+tanks (which Winterfeld, I think, had happened to skirt, and
+avoid), were hard bested. This, so far as I can learn, was the
+worst of the chaos, this preliminary part. Intolerable to human
+nature, this, or nearly so; even to human nature of the Platt-
+Teutsch type, improved by Prussian drill. Winterfeld's repulse we
+saw; Schwerin's own Regiment in it. Various repulses, I perceive,
+there were,--"fresh regiments from our Second Line" storming in
+thereupon; till the poor repulsed people "took breath," repented,
+"and themselves stormed in again," say the Books. Fearful tugging,
+swagging and swaying is conceivable, in this Sterbohol problem!
+And after long scanning, I rather judge it was in the wake of that
+first repulse, and not of some other farther on, that the veteran
+Schwerin himself got his death. No one times it for us; but the
+fact is unforgettable; and in the dim whirl of sequences, dimly
+places itself there. Very certain it is, "at sight of his own
+regiment in retreat," Feldmarschall Schwerin seized the colors,--as
+did other Generals, who are not named, that day. Seizes the colors,
+fiery old man: "HERAN, MEINE KINDER (This way, my sons)!" and rides
+ahead, along the straight dam again; his "sons" all turning, and
+with hot repentance following. "On, my children, HERAN!" Five bits
+of grape-shot, deadly each of them, at once hit the old man;
+dead he sinks there on his flag; and will never fight more.
+"HERAN!" storm the others with hot tears; Adjutant von Platen takes
+the flag; Platen, too, is instantly shot; but another takes it.
+"HERAN, On!" in wild storm of rage and grief:--in a word, they
+manage to do the work at Sterbohol, they and the rest. First line,
+Second line, Infantry, Cavalry (and even the very Horses, I
+suppose), fighting inexpressibly; conquering one of the worst
+problems ever seen in War. For the Austrians too, especially their
+grenadiers there, stood to it toughly, and fought like men;--and
+"every grenadier that survived of them," as I read afterwards, "got
+double pay for life."
+
+Done, that Sterbohol work;--those Foot-chargings, Horse-chargings;
+that battery of Homoly Hill; and, hanging upon that, all manner of
+redoubts and batteries to the rightward and rearward:--but how it
+was done no pen can describe, nor any intellect in clear sequence
+understand. An enormous MELEE there: new Prussian battalions
+charging, and ever new, irrepressible by case-shot, as they
+successively get up; Marshal Browne too sending for new battalions
+at double-quick from his left, disputing stiffly every inch of his
+ground. Till at length (hour not given), a cannon-shot tore away
+his foot; and he had to be carried into Prag, mortally wounded.
+Which probably was a most important circumstance, or the most
+important of all.
+
+Important too, I gradually see, was that of the Prussian Horse of
+the Left Wing. Prussian Horse of the extreme left, as already
+noticed, had, in the mean while, fallen in, well southward, round
+by certain lakelets about Michelup, on Browne's extreme right;
+furiously charging the Austrian Horse, which stood ranked there in
+many lines; breaking it, then again half broken by it; but again
+rallying, charging it a second time, then a third time, "both to
+front and flank, amid whirlwinds of dust" (Ziethen busy there, not
+to mention indignant Warnery and others);--and at length, driving
+it wholly to the winds: "beyond Nussel, towards the Sazawa
+Country;" never seen again that day. Prince Karl (after Browne's
+death-wound, or before, I never know) came galloping to rally that
+important Right Wing of horse. Prince Karl did his very utmost
+there; obtesting, praying, raging, threatening:--but to no purpose;
+the Zietheners and others so heavy on the rear of them:--and at
+last there came a cramp, or intolerable twinge of spasm, through
+Prince Karl's own person (breast or heart), like to take the life
+of him: so that he too had to be carried into Prag to the doctors.
+And his Cavalry fled at discretion; chased by Ziethen, on
+Friedrich's express order, and sent quite over the horizon.
+Enough, "by about half-past one," Sterbohol work is thoroughly
+done: and the Austrian Battle, both its Commanders gone, has heeled
+fairly downwards, and is in an ominous way.
+
+The whole of this Austrian Right Wing, horse and foot, batteries
+and redoubts, which was put EN POTENCE, or square-wise, to the main
+battle, is become a ruin; gone to confusion; hovers in distracted
+clouds, seeking roads to run away by, which it ultimately found.
+Done all this surely was; and poor Browne, mortally wounded, is
+being carried off the ground; but in what sequence done, under what
+exact vicissitudes of aspect, special steps of cause and effect, no
+man can say; and only imagination, guided by these few data, can
+paint to itself. Such a chaotic whirlwind of blood, dust, mud,
+artillery-thunder, sulphurous rage, and human death and victory,--
+who shall pretend to describe it, or draw, except in the gross, the
+scientific plan of it?
+
+For, in the mean time,--I think while the dispute at Sterbohol, on
+the extreme of the Austrian right wing "in joiner's-square form,"
+was past the hottest (but nobody will give the hour),--there has
+occurred another thing, much calculated to settle that.
+And, indeed, to settle everything;--as it did. This was a volunteer
+exploit, upon the very elbow or angle of said "joiner's-square;" in
+the wet grounds between Hlaupetin and Kyge, a good way north of
+Sterbohol. Volunteer exploit; on the part of General Mannstein, our
+old Russian friend; which Friedrich, a long way off from it, blames
+as a rash fault of Mannstein's, made good by Prince Henri and
+Ferdinand of Brunswick running up to mend it; but which Winterfeld,
+and subsequent good judges, admit to have been highly salutary, and
+to have finished everything. It went, if I read right, somewhat
+as follows.
+
+In the Kyge-Hlaupetin quarter, at the corner of that Austrian right
+wing EN POTENCE, there had, much contrary to Browne's intention, a
+perceptible gap occurred; the corner is open there; nothing in it
+but batteries and swamps. The Austrian right wing, wheeling
+southward, there to form POTENCE; and scrambling and marching, then
+and subsequently, through such ground at double-quick, had gone too
+far (had thinned and lengthened itself, as is common, in such
+scrambling, and double-quick movement, thinks Tempelhof), and left
+a little gap at elbow; which always rather widened as the stress at
+Sterbohol went on. Certain enough, a gap there is, covered only by
+some half-moon battery in advance: into this, General Mannstein has
+been looking wistfully a long time: "Austrian Line fallen out at
+elbow yonder; clouted by some battery in advance?"--and at length
+cannot help dashing loose on it with his Division. A man liable to
+be rash, and always too impetuous in battle-time. 
+
+He would have fared ill, thinks Friedrich, had not Henri and
+Ferdinand, in pain for Mannstein (some think, privately in
+preconcert with him), hastened in to help; and done it altogether
+in a shining way; surmounting perilous difficulties not a few.
+Hard fighting in that corner, partly on the Sterbohol terms;
+batteries, mud-tanks; chargings, rechargings: "Comrades, you have
+got honor enough, KAMERADEN, IHR HABT EHRE GENUG [the second man of
+you lying dead]; let us now try!" said a certain Regiment to a
+certain other, in this business. [Archenholtz, i. 75; Tempelhof,
+&c.] Prince Henri shone especially, the gallant little gentleman:
+coming upon one of those mud-tanks with battery beyond, his men
+were spreading file-wise, to cross it on the dams; "BURSCHE, this
+way!" cried the Prince, and plunged in middle-deep, right upon the
+battery; and over it, and victoriously took possession of it. In a
+word, they all plunge forward, in a shining manner; rush on those
+half-moon batteries, regardless of results; rush over them, seize
+and secure them. Rush, in a word, fairly into that Austrian hole-
+at-elbow, torrents more following them,--and irretrievably ruin
+both fore-arm and shoulder-arm of the Austrians thereby.
+
+Fore-arm (Austrian right wing, if still struggling and wriggling
+about Sterbohol) is taken in flank; shoulder-arm, or main line, the
+like; we have them both in flank; with their own batteries to scour
+them to destruction here:--the Austrian Line, throughout, is become
+a ruin. Has to hurl itself rapidly to rightwards, to rearwards,
+says Tempelhof, behind what redoubts and strong points it may have
+in those parts; and then, by sure stages (Tempelhof guesses three,
+or perhaps four), as one redoubt after another is torn from the
+loose grasp of it, and the stand made becomes ever weaker, and the
+confusion worse,--to roll pell-mell into Prag, and hastily close
+the door behind it. The Prussians, Sterbohol people, Mannstein-
+Henri people, left wing and right, are quite across the Zisca Back,
+on by Nussel (Prince Earl's head-quarter that was), and at the
+Moldau Brink again, when the thing ends. Ziethen's Hussars have
+been at Nussel, very busy plundering there, ever since that final
+charge and chase from Sterbohol. Plundering; and, I am ashamed to
+say, mostly drunk: "Your Majesty, I cannot rank a hundred sober,"
+answered Ziethen (doubtless with a kind of blush), when the King
+applied for them. The King himself has got to Branik, farther up
+stream. Part of the Austrian foot fled, leftwards, southwards, as
+their right wing of horse had all done, up the Moldau. About 16,000
+Austrians are distractedly on flight that way. Towards, the Sazawa
+Country; to unite with Daun, as the now advisable thing.
+Near 40,000 of them are getting crammed into Prag; in spite of
+Prince Karl, now recovered of his cramp, and risen to the frantic
+pitch; who vainly struggles at the Gate against such inrush, and
+had even got through the Gate, conjuring and commauding, but was
+himself swum in again by those panic torrents of ebb-tide.
+
+Rallying within, he again attempted, twice over, at two different
+points, to get out, and up the Moldau, with his broken people;
+but the Prussians, Nussel-Branik way, were awake to him:
+"No retreat up the Moldau for you, Austrian gentlemen!" They tried
+by another Gate, on the other side of the River; but Keith was
+awake too: "In again, ye Austrian gentlemen! Closed gates here too.
+What else?" Browne, from his bed of pain (death-bed, as it proved),
+was for a much more determined outrush: "In the dead of night,
+rank, deliberately adjust yourselves; storm out, one and all, and
+cut your way, night favoring!" That was Browne's last counsel;
+but that also was not taken. A really noble Browne, say all judges;
+died here in about six weeks,--and got away from Kriegs-Hofraths
+and Prince Karls, and the stupidity of neighbors, and the other
+ills that flesh is heir to, altogether.
+
+At Branik the victorious King had one great disappointment:
+Prince Moritz of Dessau, who should have been here long hours ago,
+with Keith's right wing, a fresh 15,000, to fall upon the enemy's
+rear;--no Moritz visible; not even now, when the business is to
+chase! "How is this?" "Ill luck, your Majesty!" Moritz's Pontoon
+Bridge would not reach across, when he tried it. That is certain:
+"just three poor pontoons wanting," Rumor says:--three or more;
+spoiled, I am told, in some narrow road, some short-cut which
+Moritz had commanded for them: and now they are not; and it is as
+if three hundred had been spoiled. Moritz, would he die for it,
+cannot get his Bridge to reach: his fresh 15,000 stand futile
+there; not even Seidlitz with his light horse could really swim
+across, though he tried hard, and is fabled to have done so.
+Beware of short-cuts, my Prince: your Father that is gone, what
+would he say of you here! It was the worst mistake Prince Moritz
+ever made. The Austrian Army might have been annihilated, say
+judges (of a sanguine temper), had Moritz been ready, at his hour,
+to fall on from rearward;--and where had their retreat been? As it
+is, the Austrian Army is not annihilated; only bottled into Prag,
+and will need sieging. The brightest triumph has a bar of black in
+it, and might always have been brighter. Here is a flying Note,
+which I will subjoin:--
+
+Friedrich's dispositions for the Battle, this day, are allowed to
+have been masterly; but there was one signal fault, thinks Retzow:
+That he did not, as Schwerin counselled, wait till the morrow.
+Fault which brought many in the train of it; that of his "tired
+soldiers," says Retzow, being only a first item, and small in
+comparison. "Had he waited till the morrow, those fish-ponds of
+Sterbohol, examined in the interim, need not have been mistaken for
+green meadows; Prince Moritz, with his 15,000, would have been a
+fact, instead of a false hope; the King might have done his
+marching down upon Sterbohol in the night-time, and been ready for
+the Austrians, flank, or even rear, at daybreak: the King might"--
+In reality, this fault seems to have been considerable; to have
+made the victory far more costly to him, and far less complete.
+No doubt he had his reasons for making haste: Daun, advancing Prag-
+ward with 30,000, was within three marches of him; General Beck,
+Daun's vanguard, with a 10,000 of irregulars, did a kind of feat at
+Brandeis, on the Prussian post there (our Saxons deserting to him,
+in the heat of action), this very day, May 6th; and might, if
+lucky, have taken part at Ziscaberg next day. And besides these
+solid reasons, there was perhaps another. Retzow, who is secretly
+of the Opposition-party, and well worth hearing, knows personally a
+curious thing. He says:--
+
+"Being then [in March or April, weeks before we left Saxony]
+employed to translate the PLAN OF OPERATIONS into French, for
+Marshal Keith's use, who did not understand German, I well know
+that it contained the following three main objects: 1. 'All
+Regiments cantoning in Silesia as well as Saxony march for Bohemia
+on one and the same day. 2. Whole Army arrives at Prag May 4th
+[Schwerin was a day later, and got scolded in consequence]; if the
+Enemy stand, he is attacked May 6th, and beaten. 3. So soon as Prag
+is got, Schwerin, with the gross of the Army, pushes into Mahren,'
+and the heart of Austria itself; 'King hastens with 40,000 to help
+of the Allied Army,'"--Royal Highness of Cumberland's; who will
+much need it by that time! [Retzow, i. 84 n.]
+
+Here is a very curious fact and consideration. That the King had so
+prophesied and preordained: "May 4th, Four Columns arrive at Prag;
+May 6th, attack the Austrians, beat them,"--and now wished to keep
+his word! This is an aerial reason, which I can suspect to have had
+its weight among others. There were twirls of that kind in
+Friedrich; intricate weak places; knots in the sound straight-
+fibred mind he had (as in whose mind are they not?),--which now and
+then cost him dear! The Anecdote-Books say he was very ill of body,
+that day, May 6th; and called for something of drug nature, and
+swallowed it (drug not named), after getting on horseback.
+The Evening Anecdote is prettier: How, in the rushing about,
+Austrians now flying, he got eye on Brother Henri (clayey to a
+degree); and sat down with him, in the blessed sunset, for a minute
+or two, and bewailed his sad losses of Schwerin and others.
+
+Certain it is, the victory was bought by hard fighting; and but for
+the quality of his troops, had not been there. But the bravery of
+the Prussians was exemplary, and covered all mistakes that were
+made. Nobler fire, when did it burn in any Army? More perfect
+soldiers I have not read of. Platt-Teutsch fire--which I liken to
+anthracite, in contradistinction to Gaelic blaze of kindled straw--
+is thrice noble, when, by strict stern discipline, you are above it
+withal; and wield your fire-element, as Jove his thunder, by rule!
+Otherwise it is but half-admirable: Turk-Janissaries have it
+otherwise; and it comes to comparatively little.
+
+This is the famed Battle of Prag; fought May 6th, 1757;
+which sounded through all the world,--and used to deafen us in
+drawing-rooms within man's memory. Results of it were: On the
+Prussian side, killed, wounded and missing, 12,500 men; on the
+Austrian, 13,000 (prisoners included), with many flags, cannon,
+tents, much war-gear gone the wrong road;--and a very great
+humiliation and dispiritment; though they had fought well:
+"No longer the old Austrians, by any means," as Friedrich sees;
+but have iron ramrods, all manner of Prussian improvements, and are
+"learning to march," as he once says, with surprise not quite
+pleasant.
+
+Friedrich gives the cipher of loss, on both sides, much higher:
+"This Battle," says he, "which began towards nine in the morning,
+and lasted, chase included, till eight at night, was one of the
+bloodiest of the age. The Enemy lost 24,000 men, of whom were 5,000
+prisoners; the Prussian loss amounted to 18,000 fighting men,--
+without counting Marshal Schwerin, who alone was worth above
+10,000." "This day saw the pillars of the Prussian Infantry cut
+down," says he mournfully, seeming almost to think the "laurels of
+victory" were purchased too dear. His account of the Battle, as if
+it had been a painful object, rather avoided in his after-thoughts,
+is unusually indistinct;--and helps us little in the extreme
+confusion that reigns otherwise, both in the thing itself and in
+the reporters of the thing. Here is a word from Winterfeld, some
+private Letter, two days after; which is well worth reading for
+those who would understand this Battle.
+
+"The enemy had his Left Wing leaning on the City, close by the
+Moldau," at Nussel; "and stretched with his Right Wing across the
+high Hill [of Zisca] to the village of Lieben [so he HAD stood,
+looking into Prag; but faced about, on hearing that Friedrich was
+across the River]; having before him those terrible Defiles [DIE
+TERRIBLEN DEFILEES, "Horse-shoe of the Moldau," as we call it], and
+the village of Prossik, which was crammed with Pandours. It was
+about half-past six in the morning, when our Schwerin Army [myself
+part of it, at this time] joined with the twenty battalions and
+twenty squadrons, which the King had brought across to unite with
+us, and which formed our right wing of battle that day [our left
+wing were Schweriners, Sterbohol and the fighting done by
+Schweriners after their long march]. The King was at once
+determined to attack the Enemy; as also were Schwerin [say nothing
+of the arguing] and your humble servant (MEINE WENIGKEIT): but the
+first thing was, to find a hole whereby to get at him.
+
+"This too was selected, and decided on, my proposal being found
+good; and took effect in manner following: We [Schweriners] had
+marched off left-wise, foremost; and we now, without halt,
+continued marching so with the Left Wing" of horse, "which had the
+van (TETE); and moved on, keeping the road for Hlaupetin, and ever
+thence onwards along for Kyge, round the Ponds of Unter-
+Podschernitz, without needing to pass these, and so as to get them
+in our rear.
+
+"The Enemy, who at first had expected nothing bad, and never
+supposed that we would attack him at once, FLAGRANTE DELICTO, and
+least of all in this point; and did not believe it possible, as we
+should have to wade, breast-deep in part, through the ditches, and
+drag our cannon,--was at first quite tranquil. But as he began to
+perceive our real design (in which, they say, Prince Karl was the
+first to open Marshal Browne's eyes), he drew his whole Cavalry
+over towards us, as fast as it could be done, and stretched them
+out as Right Wing; to complete which, his Grenadiers and Hungarian
+Regulars of Foot ranked themselves as they got up [makes his
+POTENCE, HAKEN, or joiner's-square, outmost end of it Horse.]
+
+"The Enemy's intention was to hold with the Right Wing of his
+infantry on the Farmstead which they call Sterbaholy [Sterbohol, a
+very dirty Farmstead at this day]; I, however, had the good luck,
+plunging on, head foremost, with six battalions of our Left Wing
+and two of the Flank, to get to it before him. Although our Second
+Line was not yet come forward, yet, as the battalions of the First
+were tolerably well together, I decided, with General Fouquet, who
+had charge of the Flank, to begin at once; and, that the Enemy
+might not have time to post himself still better, I pushed forward,
+quick step, out of the Farmstead" of Sterbohol "to meet him,--so
+fast, that even our cannon had not time to follow. He did,
+accordingly, begin to waver; and I could observe that his people
+here, on this Wing, were making right-about.
+
+"Meanwhile, his fire of case-shot opened [from Homoly Hill, on our
+left], and we were still pushing on,--might now be about two
+hundred steps from the Enemy's Line, when I had the misfortune, at
+the head of Regiment Schwerin, to get wounded, and, swooning away
+(VOR TOD), fell from my horse to the ground. Awakening after some
+minutes, and raising my head to look about, I found nobody of our
+people now here beside or round me; but all were already behind, in
+full flood of retreat (HOCH ANSCHLAGEN). The Enemy's Grenadiers
+were perhaps eighty paces from me; but had halted, and had not the
+confidence to follow us. I struggled to my feet, as fast as, for
+weakness, I possibly could; and got up to our confused mass
+[CONFUSEN KLUMPEN,--exact place, where?]: but could not, by
+entreaties or by threats, persuade a single man of them to turn his
+face on the Enemy, much less to halt and try again.
+
+"In this embarrassment the deceased Feldmarschall found me, and
+noticed that the blood was flowing stream-wise from my neck. As I
+was on foot, and none of my people now near, he bade give me his
+led horse which he still had [and sent me home for surgery?
+Winterfeld, handsomely effacing himself when no longer good for
+anything, hurries on to the Catastrophe, leaving us to guess that
+he was NOT an eye-witness farther]--bade give me the led horse
+which he still had; AND [as if that had happened directly after,
+which surely it did not? AND] snatched the flag from Captain Rohr,
+who had taken it up to make the Bursche turn, and rode forward with
+it himself.' But before he could succeed in the attempt, this 
+excellent man, almost in a minute, was hit with five case-shot
+balls, and fell dead on the ground; as also his brave Adjutant von
+Platen was so wounded that he died next day.
+
+"During this confusion and repulse, by which, as already mentioned,
+the Enemy had not the heart to profit, not only was our Second Line
+come on, but those of the First, who had not suffered, went
+vigorously (FRISCH) at the Enemy,"--and in course of time (perhaps
+two hours yet), and by dint of effort, we did manage Sterbohol and
+its batteries:--"Like as [still in one sentence, and without the
+least punctuation; Winterfeld being little of a grammarian, and in
+haste for the close], Like as Prince Henri's Royal Highness with
+our Right Wing," Mannstein and he, "without waiting for order,
+attacked so PROMPT and with such FERMOTE," in that elbow-hole far
+north of US, "that everywhere the Enemy's Line began to give way;
+and instead of continuing as Line, sought corps-wise to gain the
+Heights, and there post itself. And as, without winning said
+Heights, we could not win the Battle, we had to storm them all, one
+after the other; and this it was that cost us the best, most and
+bravest people.
+
+"The late Colonel von Goltz [if we glance back to Sterbohol
+itself], who, with the regiment Fouquet, was advancing, right-hand
+of Schwerin regiment" and your servant, "had likewise got quite
+close to the Enemy; and had he not, at the very instant when he was
+levelling bayonets, been shot down, I think that he, with myself
+and the Schwerin regiment, would have got in,"--and perhaps have
+there done the job, special and general, with much less expense,
+and sooner! [Preuss, ii. 45-47 (in Winterfeld's hand; dated "Camp
+at Prag, 8th May, 1757:" addressed to one knows not whom;
+first printed by Preuss).]
+
+This is what we get from Winterfeld; a rugged, not much grammatical
+man, but (as I can perceive) with excellent eyes in his head, and
+interior talent for twenty grammatical people, had that been his
+line. These, faithfully rendered here, without change but of
+pointing, are the only words I ever saw of his: to my regret,--
+which surely the Prussian Dryasdust might still amend a little?--in
+respect of so distinguished a person, and chosen Peer of
+Friedrich's. This his brief theory of Prag Battle, if intensely
+read, I find to be of a piece with his practice there.
+
+Schwerin was much lamented in the Army; and has been duly honored
+ever since. His body lies in Schwerinsburg, at home, far away;
+his Monument, finale of a series of Monuments, stands, now under
+special guardianship, near Sterbohol on the spot where he fell.
+A late Tourist says:--
+
+"At first there was a monument of wood [TREE planted, I will hope],
+which is now all gone; round this Kaiser Joseph II. once, in the
+year 1776, holding some review there, made his grenadier battalions
+and artilleries form circle, fronting the sky all round, and give
+three volleys of great arms and small, Kaiser in the centre doffing
+hat at each volley, in honor of the hero. Which was thought a very
+pretty thing on the Kaiser's part. In 1824, the tree, I suppose,
+being gone to a stump, certain subscribing Prussian Officers had it
+rooted out, and a modest Pyramid of red-veined marble built in its
+room. Which latter the then King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm
+III., determined to improve upon; and so, in 1839, built a second
+Pyramid close by, bigger, finer, and of Prussian iron, this one;--
+purchasing also, from the Austrian Government, a rood or two of
+ground for site; and appointing some perpetual Peculium, or
+increase of Pension to an Austrian Veteran of merit for taking
+charge there. All which, perfectly in order, is in its place at
+this day. The actual Austrian Pensioner of merit is a loud-voiced,
+hard-faced, very limited, but honest little fellow; who has worked
+a little polygon ditch and miniature hedge round the two Monuments;
+keeps his own cottage, little garden, and self, respectably clean;
+and leads stoically a lone life,--no company, I should think, but
+the Sterbohol hinds, who probably are Czechs and cannot speak to
+him. He was once 'of the regiment Hohenlohe;' suffers somewhat from
+cold, in the winter-time, in those upland parts (the 'cords of
+wood' allowed him being limited); but complains of nothing else.
+Two English names were in his Album, a military two, and no more.
+'EHRET DEN HELD (Honor the Hero)!' we said to him, at parting.
+'Don't I?' answered he; glancing at his muddy bare legs and little
+spade, with which he had been working in the Polygon Ditch when we
+arrived. I could wish him an additional 'KLAFTER HOLZ' (cord more
+of firewood) now and then, in the cold months!--
+
+"Sterbohol Farmstead has been new built, in man's memory, but is
+dirty as ever. Agriculture, all over this table-land of the
+Ziscaberg, I should judge to be bad. Not so the prospect; which is
+cheerfully extensive, picturesque in parts, and to the student of
+Friedrich offers good commentary. Roads, mansions, villages:
+Prossik, Kyge, Podschernitz, from the Heights of Chaber round to
+Nussel and beyond: from any knoll, all Friedrich's Villages, and
+many more, lie round you as on a map,--their dirt all hidden,
+nothing wanting to the landscape, were it better carpeted with
+green (green instead of russet), and shaded here and there with
+wood. A small wild pink, bright-red, and of the size of a star,
+grows extensively about; of which you are tempted to pluck
+specimens, as memorial of a Field so famous in War." [Tourist's
+Note (September, 1858).]
+
+
+
+Chapter III.
+
+PRAG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE.
+
+What Friedrich's emotions after the Battle of Prag were, we do not
+much know. They are not inconceivable, if we read his situation
+well; but in the way of speech, there is, as usual, next to
+nothing. Here are two stray utterances, worth gathering from a man
+so uncommunicative in that form.
+
+FRIEDRICH A MONTH BEFORE PRAG (From Lockwitz, 25th March, to
+Princess Amelia, at Berlin).--"My dearest Sister, I give you a
+thousand thanks for the hints you have got me from Dr. Eller on the
+illness of our dear Mother. Thrice-welcome this; and reassures me
+[alas, not on good basis!] against a misfortune which I should have
+considered very great for me.
+
+"As to us and our posture of affairs, political and military,--
+place yourself, I conjure you, above every event. Think of our
+Country and remember that one's first duty is to defend it. If you
+learn that a misfortune happens to one of us, ask, 'Did he die
+fighting?' and if Yes, give thanks to God. Victory or else death,
+there is nothing else for us; one or the other we must have.
+All the world here is of that temper. What! you would everybody
+sacrifice his life for the State, and you would not have your
+Brothers give the example? Ah, my dear Sister, at this crisis,
+there is no room for bargaining. Either at the summit of glorious
+success, or else abolished altogether. This Campaign now coming is
+like that of Pharsalia for Rome, or that of Leuctra for the
+Greeks,"--a Campaign we verily shall have to win, or go to wreck
+upon! [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxvii. i. 391.]
+
+FRIEDERICH SHORTLY AFTER PRAG (To his Mother, Letter still extant
+in Autograph, without date).--"My Brothers and I are still well.
+The whole Campaign runs risk of being lost to the Austrians; and I
+find myself free, with 150,000 men. Add to this, that we are
+masters of a Kingdom [Bohemia here], which is obliged to furnish us
+with troops and money. The Austrians are dispersed like straw
+before the wind. I will send a part of my troops to compliment
+Messieurs the French; and am going [if I once had Prag!] to pursue
+the Austrians with the rest of my Army." [Ib. xxvi. 75.]
+
+Friedrich, who keeps his emotions generally to himself, does not,
+as will be seen, remain quite silent to us throughout this great
+Year; but, by accident, has left us some rather impressive
+gleanings in that kind;--and certainly in no year could such
+accident have been luckier to us; this of 1757 being, in several
+respects, the greatest of his Life. From nearly the topmost heights
+down to the lowest deeps, his fortunes oscillated this year;
+and probably, of all the sons of Adam, nobody's outlooks and
+reflections had in them, successive and simultaneous, more gigantic
+forms of fear and of hope. He is on a very high peak at this
+moment; suddenly emerging from his thick cloud, into thunderous
+victory of that kind; and warning all Pythons what they get by
+meddling with the Sun-god! Loud enough, far-clanging, is the sound
+of the silver bow; gazetteers and men all on pause at such new
+Phoebus Apollo risen in his wrath;--the Victory at Prag considered
+to be much more annihilative than it really was. At London, Lord
+Holderness had his Tower-guns in readiness, waiting for something
+of the kind; and "the joy of the people was frantic."
+[<italic> Mitchell Papers and Memoirs <end italic> (i. e the
+PRINTED Selection, 2 vols. London, 1850;--which will be the
+oftenest cited by us, "Papers AND MEMOIRS"), i. 249: "Holderness to
+Mitchell, 20th May, 1757." Mitchell is now attending Friedrich;
+his Letter from Keith's Camp, during the thunder of "Friday, May
+6th," is given, ib. i. 248.]
+
+Very dominant, our "Protestant Champion" yonder, on his Ziscaberg;
+bidding the enormous Pompadour-Theresa combinations, the French,
+Austrian, Swedish, Russian populations and dread sovereigns, check
+their proud waves, and hold at mid-flood. It is thought, had he in
+effect, "annihilated" the Austrian force at Prag, that day (Friday,
+6th May, as he might have done by waiting till Saturday, 7th), he
+could then, with the due rapidity, rapidity being indispensable in
+the affair, have become master of Prag, which meant of Bohemia
+altogether; and have stormed forward, as his program bore, into the
+heart, of an Austria still terror-stricken, unrallied;--in which
+case, it is calculated, the French, the Russians, Swedes, much more
+the Reich and such like, would all have drawn bridle; and Austria
+itself have condescended to make Peace with a Neighbor of such
+quality, and consent to his really modest desire of being let
+alone! Possible, all this,--think Retzow and others. [See RETZOW,
+i. 100-108; &c. ] But the King had not waited till to-morrow;
+no persuasion could make him wait: and it is idle speculating on
+the small turns which here, as everywhere, can produce such
+deflections of course.
+
+Beyond question, Prag is not captured, and may, as now garrisoned,
+require a great deal of capturing:--and perhaps it is but a PEAK,
+this high dominancy of Friedrich's, not a solid table-land, till
+much more have been done! Friedrich has nothing of the Gascon:
+but there may well be conceivable at this time a certain glow of
+internal pride, like that of Phoebus amid the piled tempests,--like
+that of the One Man prevailing, if but for a short season, against
+the Devil and All Men: "I have made good my bit, of resolution so
+far: here are the Austrians beaten at the set day, and Prag
+summoned to surrender, as per program!"--
+
+Intrinsically, Prag is not a strong City: we have seen it, taken in
+few days; in one night;--and again, as in Belleisle's time, we have
+seen it making tough defence for a series of weeks. It depends on
+the garrison, what extent of garrison (the circuit of it being so
+immense), and what height of humor. There are now 46,000 men caged
+in it, known to have considerable magazines; and Friedrich, aware
+that it will cost trouble, bends all his strength upon it, and from
+his two camps, Ziscaberg, Weissenberg, due Bridges uniting, Keith
+and he batter it, violently, aiming chiefly at the Magazines (which
+are not all bomb-proof); and hope they may succeed before it is
+too late.
+
+The Vienna people are in the depths of amazement and
+discouragement; almost of terror, had it not been for a few, or
+especially for one high heart among them. Feldmarschall Daun, on
+the news of May 6th, hastily fell back, joined by the wrecks of the
+right wing, which fled Sazawa way. Brunswick-Bevern, with a 20,000,
+is detached to look after Daun; finds Daun still on the retreat;
+greedily collecting reinforcements from the homeward quarter;
+and hanging back, though now double or so of Bevern's strength.
+Amazement and discouragement are the general feeling among
+Friedrich's enemies. Notable to see how the whole hostile world
+marching in upon him,--French, Russians, much more the Reich, poor
+faltering entity,--pauses, as with its breath taken away, at news
+of Prag; and, arrested on the sudden, with lifted foot, ceases to
+stride forward; and merely tramp-tramps on the same place (nay in
+part, in the Reich part, visibly tramps backward), for above a
+month ensuing! Who knows whether, practically, any of them will
+come on; [See CORRESPONDANCE DU COMTE DE SAINT-GERMAIN, an
+Eye-witness, i. 108 (cited in Preuss, ii. 50); &c. &c.] and not
+leave Austria by itself to do the duel with Friedrich? If Prag were
+but got, and the 46,000 well locked away, it would be very salutary
+for Friedrich's affairs!--Week after week, the City holds out;
+and there seems no hope of it, except by hunger, and burning their
+Magazines by red-hot balls.
+
+
+COLONEL MAYER WITH HIS "FREE-CORPS" PARTY MAKES A VISIT,
+OF DIDACTIC NATURE, TO THE REICH.
+
+Friedrich, as we saw, on entering Bohmen, had shot off a Light
+Detachment under Colonel Mayer, southward, to seize any Austrian
+Magazines there were, especially one big Magazine at Pilsen:--which
+Mayer has handsomely done, May 2d (Pilsen "a bigger Magazine than
+Jung-Bunzlau, even"); after which Mayer is now off westward, into
+the Ober-Pfalz, into the Nurnberg Countries; to teach the Reich a
+small lesson, since they will not listen to Plotho. Prag Battle, as
+happens, had already much chilled the ardor of the Reich! Mayer has
+two Free-Corps, his own and another; about 1,300 of foot; to which
+are added a 200 of hussars. They have 5 cannon, carry otherwise a
+minimum of baggage; are swift wild fellows, sharp of stroke;
+and do, for the time, prove didactic to the Reich; bringing home to
+its very bosom the late great lesson of the Ziscaberg, in an
+applied form. Mayer made a pretty course of it, into the Ober-Pfalz
+Countries; scattering the poor Execution Drill-Sergeants and
+incipiencies of preparation, the deliberative County Meetings,
+KREIS-Convents: ransoming Cities, Nurnberg for one city, whose
+cries went to Friedrich on the Ziscaberg, and wide over the world.
+[In <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 360-367, the
+Nurnberg Letter and Response (3lst May-5th June, 1757): in Pauli,
+<italic> Leben grosser Helden <end italic> (iii. 159 et seq.),
+Account of the Mayer Expedition; also in <italic> Militair-Lexikon,
+<end italic> iii. 29 (quoting from Pauli).] Nurnberg would have
+been but too happy to "refuse its contingent to the Reich's Army,"
+as many others would have been (poor Kur-Baiern hurrying off a kind
+of Embassy to Friedrich, great terror reigning among the wigs of
+Regensburg, and everybody drawing back that could),--had not
+Imperial menaces, and an Event that fell out by and by in Prag
+Country, forced compliance.
+
+Mayer's Expedition made a loud noise in the Newspapers; and was
+truly of a shining nature in its kind; very perfectly managed on
+Mayer's part, and has traits in it which are amusing to read, had
+one time. Take one small glance from Pauli:--
+
+"At Furth in Anspach, 1st June [after six days' screwing of
+Nurnberg from without, which we had no cannon to take], a Gratuity
+for the Prussian troops [amount not stated] was demanded and given:
+at Schwabach, farther up the Regnitz River, they took quarters;
+no exemption made, clergy and laity alike getting soldiers
+billeted. Meat and drink had to be given them: as also 100
+carolines [guineas and better], and twenty new uniforms.
+Upon which, next day, they marched to Zirndorf, and the Reichsgraf
+Puckler's Mansion, the Schloss of Farrenbach there. Mayer took
+quarter in the Schloss itself. Here the noble owners got up a ball
+for Mayer's entertainment; and did all they could contrive to
+induce a light treatment from him." Figure it, the neighboring
+nobility and gentry in gala; Mayer too in his best uniform, and
+smiling politely, with those "bright little black eyes" of his!
+For he was a brilliant airy kind of fellow, and had much of the
+chevalier, as well as of the partisan, when requisite!
+
+"Out of Farrenbach, the Mayer people circulated upon all the
+neighboring Lordships; at Wilhelmsdorf, the Reichs-Furst von
+Hohenlohe [a too busy Anti-Prussian] had the worst brunt to bear.
+The adjacent Baireuth lands [dear Wilhelmina, fancy her too in such
+neighborhood!] were to the utmost spared all billeting, and even
+all transit,"--though wandering sergeants of the Reich's Force,
+"one sergeant with the Wurzburg Herr Commissarius and eight common
+men, did get picked up on Baireuth ground: and this or the other
+Anspach Official (Anspach being disaffected), too busy on the wrong
+side, found himself suddenly Prisoner of War; but was given up, at
+Wilhelmina?s gracious request. On Bamberg he was sharp as flint;
+and had to be; the Bambergers, reinforced at last by 'Circle-
+Militias (KREIS-TRUPPEN)' in quantity, being called out in mass
+against him; and at Vach an actual Passage of Fight had occurred."
+
+Of the "Affair at Vach," pretty little Drawn-Battle (mostly an
+affair of art), Mayer VERSUS "Kreis-troops to the amount of 6,000,
+with twelve cannon, or some say twenty-four" (which they couldn't
+handle); and how Mayer cunningly took a position unassailable,
+"burnt Bridges of the Regnitz River," and, plying his five cannon
+against these ardent awkward people, stood cheerful on the other
+side; and then at last, in good time, whisked himself off to the
+Hill of Culmbach, with all his baggage, inexpugnable there for
+three days:--of all this, though it is set down at full length, we
+can say nothing. [Pauli, iii. 159, &c. (who gives Mayer's own
+LETTER, and others, upon Vach).] And will add only, that, having
+girt himself and made his packages, Mayer left the Hill of
+Culmbach; and deliberately wended home, by Coburg and other
+Countries where he had business, eating his way; and early in July
+was safe in the Metal Mountains again; having fluttered the
+Volscians in their Frankenland Corioli to an unexpected extent.
+It is one of five or six such sallies Friedrich made upon the
+Reich, sometimes upon the Austrians and Reich together, to tumble
+up their magazines and preparations. Rapid unexpected inroads, year
+after year; done chiefly by the Free-Corps; and famous enough to
+the then Gazetteers. Of which, or of their doers, as we can in time
+coming afford little or no notice, let us add this small Note on
+the Free-Corps topic, which is a large one in the Books, but must
+not interrupt us again:--
+
+"Before this War was done," say my Authorities, "there came
+gradually to be twenty-one Prussian Free-Corps,"--foot almost all;
+there being already Hussars in quantity, ever since the first
+Silesian experiences. "Notable Aggregates they were of loose
+wandering fellows, broken Saxons, Prussians, French; 'Hungarian-
+Protestant' some of them, 'Deserters from all the Armies' not a
+few; attracted by the fame of Friedrich,--as the Colonels enlisting
+them had been; Mayer himself, for instance, was by birth a Vienna
+man; and had been in many services and wars, from his fifteenth
+year and onwards. Most miscellaneous, these Prussian Free-Corps;
+a swift faculty the indispensable thing, by no means a particular
+character: but well-disciplined, well-captained; who generally
+managed their work well.
+
+"They were, by origin, of Anti-Tolpatch nature, got up on the
+diamond-cut-diamond principle; they stole a good deal, with order
+sometimes, and oftener without; but there was nothing of the old
+Mentzel-Trenck atrocity permitted them, or ever imputed to them;
+and they did, usually with good military talent, sometimes
+conspicuously good, what was required of them. Regular Generals, of
+a high merit, one or two of their Captains came to be: Wunsch, for
+example; Werner, in some sort; and, but for his sudden death, this
+Mayer himself. Others of them, as Von Hordt (Hard is his Swedish
+name); and 'Quintus Icilius' (by nature GUICHARD, of whom we shall
+hear a great deal in the Friedrich circle by and by), are
+distinguished as honorably intellectual and cultivated persons.
+[Count de Hordt's <italic> Memoirs <end italic> (autobiographical,
+or in the first person: English Translation, London, 1806;
+TWO French Originals, a worse in 1789, and a better now at last),
+Preface, i-xii. In <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
+v. 102-104, 93, a detailed "List of the Free-Corps in 1758" (twelve
+of foot, two of horse, at that time): see Preuss, ii. 372 n.;
+Pauli (ubi supra), <italic> Life of Mayer. <end italic>]
+
+"Poor Mayer died within two years hence (5th January, 1759); of
+fever, caught by unheard-of exertions and over fatigues; after many
+exploits, and with the highest prospect, opening on him. A man of
+many adventures, of many qualities; a wild dash of chivalry in him
+all along, and much military and other talent crossed in the
+growing. In the dull old Books I read one other fact which is vivid
+to me, That Wilhelmina, as sequel of those first Franconian
+exploits and procedures, 'had given him her Order of Knighthood,
+ORDER OF SINCERITY AND FIDELITY,'"--poor dear Princess, what an
+interest to Wilhelmina, this flash of her Brother's thunder thrown
+into those Franconian parts, and across her own pungent anxieties
+and sorrowfully affectionate thoughts, in these weeks!--
+
+Shortly after Mayer, about the time when Mayer was wending
+homeward, General von Oldenburg, a very valiant punctual old
+General, was pushed out westward upon Erfurt, a City of Kur-
+Mainz's, to give Kur-Mainz a similar monition. And did it
+handsomely, impressively upon the Gazetteer world at least and the
+Erfurt populations,--though we can afford it no room in this place.
+Oldenburg's force was but some 2,000; Pirna Saxons most of them:
+--such a winter Oldenburg has had with these Saxons; bursting out
+into actual musketry upon him once; Oldenburg, volcanically steady,
+summoning the Prussian part, "To me, true Prussian Bursche!"--and
+hanging nine of the mutinous Saxons. And has coerced and compesced
+them (all that did not contrive to desert) into soldierly
+obedience; and, 20th June, appears at the Gate of Erfurt with them,
+to do his delicate errand there. Sharply conclusive, though polite
+and punctual. "Send to Kur-Mainz say you? Well, as to your Citadel,
+and those 1,400 soldiers all moving peaceably off thither,--Yes.
+As to your City: within one hour, Gate open to us, or we open it!"
+[In <italic> Helden-Geschichte <end italic> (v. 371-384) copious
+Account, with the Missives to and from, the Reichs-Pleadings that
+followed, the &c. &c. <italic> Militair-Lexikon, <end italic> ?
+Oldenburg.] And Oldenburg marches in, as vice-sovereign for the
+time:--but, indeed, has soon to leave again; owing to what Event in
+the distance will be seen!
+
+If Prag Siege go well, these Mayer-Oldenburg expeditions will have
+an effect on the Reich: but if it go ill, what are they, against
+Austria with its force of steady pressure? All turns on the issue
+of Prag Siege:--a fact extremely evident to Friedrich too!
+But these are what in the interim can be done. One neglects no
+opportunity, tries by every method.
+ 
+
+OF THE SINGULAR QUASI-BEWITCHED CONDITION OF ENGLAND;
+AND WHAT IS TO BE HOPED FROM IT FOR THE COMMON CAUSE,
+IF PRAG GO AMISS.
+
+On the Britannic side, too, the outlooks are not good;--much need
+Friedrich were through his Prag affair, and "hastening with forty
+thousand to help his Allies,"--that is, Royal Highness of
+Cumberland and Britannic Purse, his only allies at this moment.
+Royal Highness and Army of Observation (should have been 67,000,
+are 50 to 60,000, hired Germans; troops good enough, were they
+tolerably led) finds the Hanover Program as bad as Schmettau and
+Friedrich ever represented it; and, already,--unless Prag go well,
+--wears, to the understanding eye, a very contingent aspect.
+D'Estrees outnumbers him; D'Estrees, too, is something of a
+soldier,--a very considerable advantage in affairs of war.
+
+D'Estrees, since April, is in Wesel; gathering in the revenues,
+changing the Officialities: much out of discipline, they
+say;--"hanging" gradually "1,000 marauders;" in round numbers 1,000
+this Year. [Stenzel, v. 65; Retzow, i. 173.] D'Estrees does not yet
+push forward, owing to Prag. If he do-- It is well known how Royal
+Highness fared when he did, and what a Campaign Royal Highness made
+of it this Year 1757! How the Weser did prove wadable, as Schmettau
+had said to no purpose; wadable, bridgable; and Royal Highness had
+to wriggle back, ever back; no stand to be made, or far worse than
+none: back, ever back, till he got into the Sea, for that matter,
+and to the END of more than one thing! Poor man, friends say he has
+an incurable Hanover Ministry, a Program that is inexecutable.
+As yet he has not lost head, any head he ever had: but he is
+wonderful, he;--and his England is! We shall have to look at him
+once again; and happily once only. Here, from my Constitutional
+Historian, are some Passages which we may as well read in the
+present interim of expectation. I label, and try to arrange:--
+
+1. ENGLAND IN CRISIS. "England is indignant with its Hero of
+Culloden and his Campaign 1757; but really has no business to
+complain. Royal Highness of Cumberland, wriggling helplessly in
+that manner, is a fair representative of the England that now is.
+For years back, there has been, in regard to all things Foreign or
+Domestic, in that Country, by way of National action, the
+miserablest haggling as to which of various little-competent
+persons shall act for the Nation. A melancholy condition indeed!--
+
+"But the fact is, his Grace of Newcastle, ever since his poor
+Brother Pelham died (who was always a solid, loyal kind of man,
+though a dull; and had always, with patient affection, furnished
+his Grace, much UNsupplied otherwise, with Common sense hitherto),
+is quite insecure in Parliament, and knows not what hand to turn
+to. Fox is contemptuous of him; Pitt entirely impatient of him;
+Duke of Cumberland (great in the glory of Culloden) is aiming to
+oust him, and bear rule with his Young Nephew, the new Rising Sun,
+as the poor Papa and Grandfather gets old. Even Carteret (Earl
+Granville as they now call him, a Carteret much changed since those
+high-soaring Worms-Hanau times!) was applied to. But the answer
+was--what could the answer be? High-soaring Carteret, scandalously
+overset and hurled out in that Hanau time, had already tried once
+(long ago, and with such result!) to spring in again, and 'deliver
+his Majesty from factions;' and actually had made a 'Granville
+Ministry;' Ministry which fell again in one day. ["11th February,
+1746" (Thackeray, <italic> Life of Chatham, <end italic> i. 146).]
+To the complete disgust of Carteret-Granville;--who, ever since,
+sits ponderously dormant (kind of Fixture in the Privy Council,
+this long while back); and is resigned, in a big contemptuous way,
+to have had his really considerable career closed upon him by the
+smallest of mankind; and, except occasional blurts of strong rugged
+speech which come from him, and a good deal of wine taken into him,
+disdains making farther debate with the world and its elect
+Newcastles. Carteret, at this crisis, was again applied to, 'Cannot
+you? In behalf of an afflicted old King?' But Carteret answered,
+No. [Ib. i. 464.]
+
+"In short, it is admitted and bewailed by everybody, seldom was
+there seen such a Government of England (and England has seen some
+strange Governments), as in these last Three Years.
+Chaotic Imbecility reigning pretty supreme. Ruler's Work,--policy,
+administration, governance, guidance, performance in any kind,--
+where is it to be found? For if even a Walpole, when his Talking-
+Apparatus gets out of gear upon him, is reduced to extremities,
+though the stoutest of men,--fancy what it will be, in like case,
+and how the Acting-Apparatuses and Affairs generally will go, with
+a poor hysterical Newcastle, now when his Common Sense is fatally
+withdrawn! The poor man has no resource but to shuffle about in
+aimless perpetual fidget; endeavoring vainly to say Yes and No to
+all questions, Foreign and Domestic, that may rise. Whereby, in the
+Affairs of England, there has, as it were, universal St.-Vitus's
+dance supervened, at an important crisis: and the Preparations for
+America, and for a downright Life-and-Death Wrestle with France on
+the JENKINS'S-EAR QUESTION, are quite in a bad way. In an ominously
+bad. Why cannot we draw a veil over these things!"--
+
+2. PITT, AND THE HOUR OF TIDE. "The fidgetings and shufflings, the
+subtleties, inane trickeries, and futile hitherings and thitherings
+of Newcastle may be imagined: a man not incapable of trick;
+but anxious to be well with everybody; and to answer Yes and No to
+almost everything,--and not a little puzzled, poor soul, to get
+through, in that impossible way! Such a paralysis of wriggling
+imbecility fallen over England, in this great crisis of its
+fortunes, as is still painful to contemplate: and indeed it has
+been mostly shaken out of mind by the modern Englishman; who tries
+to laugh at it, instead of weeping and considering, which would
+better beseem. Pitt speaks with a tragical vivacity, in all
+ingenious dialects, lively though serious; and with a depth of sad
+conviction, which is apt to be slurred over and missed altogether
+by a modern reader. Speaks as if this brave English Nation were
+about ended; little or no hope left for it; here a gleam of
+possibility, and there a gleam, which soon vanishes again in the
+fatal murk of impotencies, do-nothingisms. Very sad to the heart of
+Pitt. A once brave Nation arrived at its critical point, and doomed
+to higgle and puddle there till it drown in the gutters:
+considerably tragical to Pitt; who is lively, ingenious, and,
+though not quitting the Parliamentary tone for the Hebrew-
+Prophetic, far more serious than the modern reader thinks.
+
+"In Walpole's Book [<italic> Memoirs of the Last Ten Years of
+George II. <end italic>] there is the liveliest Picture of this
+dismal Parliamentary Hellbroth,--such a Mother of Dead Dogs as one
+has seldom looked into! For the Hour is great; and the Honorable
+Gentlemen, I must say, are small. The hour, little as you dream of
+it, my Honorable Friends, is pregnant with questions that are
+immense. Wide Continents, long Epochs and AEons hang on this poor
+jargoning of yours; the Eternal Destinies are asking their much-
+favored Nation, 'Will you, can you?'--much-favored Nation is
+answering in that manner. Astonished at its own stupidity, and
+taking refuge in laughter. The Eternal Destinies are very patient
+with some Nations; and can disregard their follies, for a long
+while; and have their Cromwell, have their Pitt, or what else is
+essential, ready for the poor Nation, in a grandly silent way!
+
+"Certain it is,--though how could poor Newcastle know it at all!--
+here is again the hour of tide for England. Tide is full again;
+has been flowing long hundreds of years, and is full: certain, too,
+that time and tide wait on no man or nation. In a dialect different
+from Cromwell's or Pitt's, but with a sense true to theirs, I call
+it the Eternal Destinies knocking at England's door again: 'Are you
+ready for the crisis, birth-point of long Ages to you, which is now
+come?' Greater question had not been, for centuries past. None to
+be named with it since that high Spiritual Question (truly a much
+higher, and which was in fact the PARENT of this and of all of high
+and great that lay ahead), which England and Oliver Cromwell were
+there to answer: 'Will you hold by Consecrated Formulas, then, you
+English, and expect salvation from traditions of the elders; or are
+you for Divine Realities, as the one sacred and indispensable
+thing?' Which they did answer, in what way we know. Truly the
+Highest Question; which if a Nation can answer WELL, it will grow
+in this world, and may come to be considerable, and to have many
+high Questions to answer,--this of Pitt's, for example. And the
+Answers given do always extend through coming ages; and do always
+bear harvests, accursed or else blessed, according as the Answers
+were. A thing awfully true, if you have eye for it;--a thing to
+make Honorable Gentlemen serious, even in the age of percussion-
+caps! No, my friend, Newcastleisms, impious Poltrooneries, in a
+Nation, do not die:--neither (thank God) do Cromwellisms and pious
+Heroisms; but are alive for the poor Nation, even in its
+somnambulancies, in its stupidest dreams. For Nations have their
+somnambulancies; and, at any rate, the questions put to Nations, in
+different ages, vary much. Not in any age, or turning-point in
+History, had England answered the Destinies in such a dialect as
+now under its Newcastle and National Palaver."
+
+3. OF WALPOLE, AS RECORDING ANGEL. "Walpole's <italic> George the
+Second <end italic> is a Book of far more worth than is commonly
+ascribed to it; almost the one original English Book yet written on
+those times,--which, by the accident of Pitt, are still memorable
+to us. But for Walpole,--burning like a small steady light there,
+shining faithfully, if stingily, on the evil and the good,--that
+sordid muddle of the Pelham Parliaments, which chanced to be the
+element of things now recognizable enough as great, would be
+forever unintelligible. He is unusually accurate, punctual, lucid;
+an irrefragable authority on English points. And if, in regard to
+Foreign, he cannot be called an understanding witness, he has read
+the best Documents accessible, has conversed with select
+Ambassadors (Mitchell and the like, as we can guess); and has
+informed himself to a degree far beyond most of his contemporaries.
+In regard to Pitt's Speeches, in particular, his brief jottings,
+done rapidly while the matter was still shining to him, are the
+only Reports that have the least human resemblance. We may thank
+Walpole that Pitt is not dumb to us, as well as dark. Very curious
+little scratchings and etchings, those of Walpole; frugal, swift,
+but punctual and exact; hasty pen-and-ink outlines; at first view,
+all barren; bald as an invoice, seemingly; but which yield you,
+after long study there and elsewhere, a conceivable notion of what
+and how excellent these Pitt Speeches may have been. Airy, winged,
+like arrow-flights of Phoebus Apollo; very superlative Speeches
+indeed. Walpole's Book is carefully printed,--few errors in it like
+that 'Chapeau' for CHASOT," which readers remember:--"but, in
+respect to editing, may be characterized as still wanting an
+Editor. A Book UNedited; little but lazy ignorance of a very
+hopeless type, thick contented darkness, traceable throughout in
+the marginal part. No attempt at an Index, or at any of the natural
+helps to a reader now at such distance from it. Nay, till you have
+at least marked, on the top of each page, what Month and Year it
+actually is, the Book cannot be read at all,--except by an idle
+creature, doing worse than nothing under the name of reading!"
+
+4. PITT'S SPEECHES, FORESHADOWING WHAT. "It is a kind of epoch in
+your studies of modern English History when you get to understand
+of Pitt's Speeches, that they are not Parliamentary Eloquences, but
+things which with his whole soul he means, and is intent to DO.
+This surprising circumstance, when at last become undeniable,
+makes, on the sudden, an immense difference for the Speeches and
+you! Speeches are not a thing of high moment to this Editor; it is
+the Thing spoken, and how far the speaker means to do it, that this
+Editor inquires for. Too many Speeches there are, which he hears
+admired all round, and has privately to entertain a very horrid
+notion of! Speeches, the finest in quality (were quality really
+'fine' conceivable in such case), which WANT a corresponding
+fineness of source and intention, corresponding nobleness of
+purport, conviction, tendency; these, if we will reflect, are
+frightful instead of beautiful. Yes;--and always the frightfuler,
+the 'finer' they are; and the faster and farther they go, sowing
+themselves in the dim vacancy of men's minds. For Speeches, like
+all human things, though the fact is now little remembered, do
+always rank themselves as forever blessed, or as forever unblessed.
+Sheep or goats; on the right hand of the Final Judge, or else on
+the left. There are Speeches which can be called true; and, again,
+Speeches which are not true:--Heavens, only think what these latter
+are! Sacked wind, which you are intended to SOW,--that you may reap
+the whirlwind! After long reading, I find Chatham's Speeches to be
+what he pretends they are: true, and worth speaking then and there.
+Noble indeed, I can call them with you: the highly noble
+Foreshadow, necessary preface and accompaniment of Actions which
+are still nobler. A very singular phenomenon within those walls,
+or without!
+
+"Pitt, though nobly eloquent, is a Man of Action, not of Speech;
+an authentically Royal kind of Man. And if there were a Plutarch in
+these times, with a good deal of leisure on his hands, he might run
+a Parallel between Friedrich and Chatham. Two radiant Kings: very
+shining Men of Action both; both of them hard bested, as the case
+often is. For your born King will generally have, if not "all
+Europe against him," at least pretty much all the Universe.
+Chatham's course to Kingship was not straight or smooth,--as
+Friedrich, too, had his well-nigh fatal difficulties on the road.
+Again, says the Plutarch, they are very brave men both; and of a
+clearness and veracity peculiar among their contemporaries.
+In Chatham, too, there is something of the flash of steel; a very
+sharp-cutting, penetrative, rapid individual, he too; and shaped
+for action, first of all, though he has to talk so much in the
+world. Fastidious, proud, no King could be prouder, though his
+element is that of Free-Senate and Democracy. And he has a
+beautiful poetic delicacy, withal; great tenderness in him,
+playfulness, grace; in all ways, an airy as well as a solid
+loftiness of mind. Not born a King,--alas, no, not officially so,
+only naturally so; has his kingdom to seek. The Conquering of
+Silesia, the Conquering of the Pelham Parliaments--But we will shut
+up the Plutarch with time on his hands.
+
+"Pitt's Speeches, as I spell them from Walpole and the other faint
+tracings left, are full of genius in the vocal kind, far beyond any
+Speeches delivered in Parliament: serious always, and the very
+truth, such as he has it; but going in many dialects and modes;
+full of airy flashings, twinkles and coruscations. Sport, as of
+sheet-lightning glancing about, the bolt lying under the horizon;
+bolt HIDDEN, as is fit, under such a horizon as he had.
+A singularly radiant man. Could have been a Poet, too, in some
+small measure, had he gone on that line. There are many touches of
+genius, comic, tragic, lyric, something of humor even, to be read
+in those Shadows of Speeches taken down for us by Walpole. ...
+
+"In one word, Pitt, shining like a gleam of sharp steel in that
+murk of contemptibilities, is carefully steering his way towards
+Kingship over it. Tragical it is (especially in Pitt's case, first
+and last) to see a Royal Man, or Born King, wading towards his
+throne in such an element. But, alas, the Born King (even when he
+tries, which I take to be the rarer case) so seldom can arrive
+there at all;--sinful Epochs there are, when Heaven's curse has
+been spoken, and it is that awful Being, the Born Sham-King, that
+arrives! Pitt, however, does it. Yes; and the more we study Pitt,
+the more we shall find he does it in a peculiarly high, manful and
+honorable as well as dexterous manner; and that English History has
+a right to call him 'the acme and highest man of Constitutional
+Parliaments; the like of whom was not in any Parliament called
+Constitutional, nor will again be.'"
+
+Well, probably enough; too probably! But what it more concerns us
+to remember here, is the fact, That in these dismal shufflings
+which have been, Pitt--in spite of Royal dislikes and Newcastle
+peddlings and chicaneries--has been actually in Office, in the due
+topmost place, the poor English Nation ardently demanding him, in
+what ways it could. Been in Office;--and is actually out again, in
+spite of the Nation. Was without real power in the Royal Councils;
+though of noble promise, and planting himself down, hero-like,
+evidently bent on work, and on ending that unutterable
+"St.-Vitus's-dance" that had gone so high all round him.
+Without real power, we say; and has had no permanency. Came in
+llth-19th November, 1756; thrown out 5th April, 1757. After six
+months' trial, the St. Vitus finds that it cannot do with him;
+and will prefer going on again. The last act his Royal Highness of
+Cumberland did in England was to displace Pitt: "Down you, I am the
+man!" said Royal Highness; and went to the Weser Countries on
+those terms.
+
+Would the reader wish to see, in summary, what Pitt's Offices have
+been, since he entered on this career about thirty years ago?
+Here, from our Historian, is the List of them in order of time;
+STAGES OF PITT'S COURSE, he calls it:--
+
+1. "DECEMBER, 1734, Comes into Parliament, age now twenty-six;
+Cornet in the Blues as well; being poor, and in absolute need of
+some career that will suit. APRIL, 1736, makes his First Speech:--
+Prince Frederick the subject,--who was much used as battering-ram
+by the Opposition; whom perhaps Pitt admired for his madrigals, for
+his Literary patronizings, and favor to the West-Wickham set.
+Speech, full of airy lightning, was much admired. Followed by many,
+with the lightning getting denser and denser; always on the
+Opposition side [once on the JENKINS'S-EAR QUESTION, as we saw,
+when the Gazetteer Editor spelt him Mr. Pitts]: so that Majesty was
+very angry, sulky Public much applausive; and Walpole was heard to
+say, 'We must muzzle, in some way, that terrible Cornet of Horse!'
+--but could not, on trial; this man's 'price,' as would seem, being
+awfully high! AUGUST-OCTOBER, 1744, Sarah Duchess of Marlborough
+bequeathed him 10,000 pounds as Commissariat equipment in this his
+Campaign against the Mud-gods, [Thackeray, i. 138.]--glory to the
+old Heroine for so doing! Which lifted Pitt out of the Cornetcy or
+Horse-guards element, I fancy; and was as the nailing of his
+Parliamentary colors to the mast.
+
+2. "FEBRUARY 14th, 1746, Vice-Treasurer for Ireland: on occasion of
+that Pelham-Granville 'As-you-were!' (Carteret Ministry, which
+lasted One Day), and the slight shufflings that were necessary.
+Now first in Office,--after such Ten Years of colliding and
+conflicting, and fine steering in difficult waters.
+Vice-Treasurer for Ireland: and 'soon after, on Lord Wilmington's
+death,' PAYMASTER OF THE FORCES. Continued Paymaster about nine
+years. Rejects, quietly and totally, the big income derivable from
+Interest of Government Moneys lying delayed in the Paymaster's hand
+('Dishonest, I tell you!')--and will none of it, though poor.
+Not yet high, still low over the horizon, but shining brighter and
+brighter. Greatly contemptuous of Newcastle and the Platitudes and
+Poltrooneries; and still a good deal in the Opposition strain, and
+NOT always tempering the wind to the shorn lamb. For example, Pitt
+(still Paymaster) to Newcastle on King of the Romans Question (1752
+or so): 'You engage for Subsidies, not knowing their extent;
+for Treaties, not knowing the terms!'--'What a bashaw!' moan
+Newcastle and the top Officials. 'Best way is, don't mind it,' said
+Mr. Stone [one of their terriers,--a hard-headed fellow, whose
+brother became Primate of Ireland by and by].
+
+3. "NOVEMBER 20th, 1755, Thrown out:--on Pelham's death, and the
+general hurly-burly in Official regions, and change of partners
+with no little difficulty, which had then ensued! Sir Thomas
+Robinson," our old friend, "made Secretary,--not found to answer.
+Pitt sulkily looking on America, on Minorca; on things German, on
+things in general; warily set on returning, as is thought; but How?
+FOX to Pitt: 'Will you join ME?'--PITT: 'No,'--with such
+politeness, but in an unmistakable way! Ten months of consummate
+steering on the part of Pitt; Chancellor Hardwicke coming as
+messenger, he among others; Pitt's answer to him dexterous,
+modestly royal. Pitt's bearing, in this grand juncture and crisis,
+is royal, his speakings and also his silences notably fine.
+OCTOBER 20th, 1756: to Newcastle face to face, 'I will accept no
+situation under your Grace!'--and, about that day month, comes IN,
+on his own footing. That is to say,
+
+"NOVEMBER 19th, 1756, to England's great comfort, Sees himself
+Secretary of State (age now just forty-eight). Has pretty much all
+England at his back; but has, in face of him, Fox, Newcastle and
+Company, offering mere impediment and discouragement;
+Royal Highness of Cumberland looking deadly sour. Till finally,
+
+"APRIL 5th, 1757, King bids him resign; Royal Highness setting off
+for Germany the second day after. Pitt had been IN rather more than
+Four months. England, at that time a silent Country in comparison,
+knew not well what to do; took to offering him Freedoms of
+Corporations in very great quantity. Town after Town, from all the
+four winds, sympathetically firing off, upon a misguided Sacred
+Majesty, its little Box, in this oblique way, with extraordinary
+diligence. Whereby, after six months bombardment by Boxes, and also
+by Events, JUNE 29th, 1757"-- We will expect June 29th.
+[Thackeray, i. 231, 264; Almon, <italic> Anecdotes of Pitt <end
+italic> (London, 1810), i. 151, 182, 218.]
+
+In these sad circumstances, Preparations so called have been making
+for Hanover, for America;--such preparations as were never seen
+before. Take only one instance; let one be enough:--
+
+"By the London Gazette, well on in February, 1756, we learn that
+Lord Loudon, a military gentleman of small faculty, but of good
+connections, has been nominated to command the Forces in America;
+and then, more obscurely, some days after, that another has been
+nominated:--one of them ought certainly to make haste out, if he
+could; the French, by account, have 25,000 men in those countries,
+with real officers to lead them! Haste out, however, is not what
+this Lord Loudon or his rival can make. In March, we learn that
+Lord Loudon has been again nominated; in an improved manner, this
+time;--and still does not look like going. 'Again nominated, why
+again?' Alas, reader, there have been hysterical fidgetings in a
+high quarter; internal shiftings and shufflings, contradictions,
+new proposals, one knows not what. [<italic> Gentleman's Magazine
+<end italic> for 1756, pp. 92, 150, 359, 450.] One asks only:
+How is the business ever to be done, if you cannot even settle what
+imbecile is to go and try it?
+
+"Seldom had Country more need of a Commander than America now.
+America itself is of willing mind; and surely has resources, in
+such a Cause; but is full of anarchies as well: the different
+States and sections of it, with their discrepant Legislatures,
+their half-drilled Militias, pulling each a different way, there
+is, as in the poor Mother Country, little result except of the
+St.-Vitus kind. In some Legislatures are anarchic Quakers, who
+think it unpermissible to fight with those hectoring French, and
+their tail of scalping Indians; and that the 'method of love' ought
+to be tried with them. What is to become of those poor people, if
+not even a Lord Loudon can get out?"
+
+The result was, Lord Loudon had not in his own poor person come to
+hand in America till August, 1756, Season now done; and could only
+write home, "All is St. Vitus out here! Must have reinforcement of
+10,000 men!" "Yes," answers Pitt, who is now in Office: "you shall
+have them; and we will take Cape Breton, please Heaven!"--but was
+thrown out; and by the wrigglings that ensued, nothing of the
+10,000 reached Lord Loudon till Season 1757 too was done. Nor did
+they then stead his Lordship much, then or afterwards; who never
+took Cape Breton, nor was like doing it;--but wriggled to and fro a
+good deal, and revolved on his axis, according to pattern given.
+And set (what chiefly induces us to name him here) his not reverent
+enough Subordinate, Lord Charles Hay, our old Fontenoy friend, into
+angry impatient quizzing of him;--and by and by into Court-Martial
+for such quizzing. [Peerage Books, ? Tweeddale.] Court-Martial,
+which was much puzzled by the case; and could decide nothing, but
+only adjourn and adjourn;--as we will now do, not mentioning Lord
+Loudon farther, or the numerous other instances at all. ["1st May,
+1760, Major-General Lord Charles Hay died" (<italic> Gentleman's
+Magazine <end italic> of Year); and his particular Court-Martial
+could adjourn for the last time.--"I wrote something for Lord
+Charles," said the great Johnson once, many years afterwards;
+"and I thought he had nothing to fear from a Court-Martial.
+I suffered a great loss when he died: he was a mighty pleasing man
+in conversation, and a reading man" (Boswell's <italic> Life of
+Johnson: <end italic> under date, "3d April, 1776").]
+
+Pitt, we just saw, far from being confirmed and furthered, has been
+thrown out by Royal Highness of Cumberland, the last thing before
+crossing to that exquisite Weser Problem. "Nothing now left at home
+to hinder us and our Hanover and Weser Problem!" thinks Royal
+Highness. No, indeed: a comfortable pacific No-government, or
+Battle of the Four Elements, left yonder; the Anarch Old waggling
+his addle head over it; ready to help everybody, and bring fire and
+water, and Yes and No, into holy matrimony, if he could!--Let us
+return to Prag. Only one remark more; upon "April 5th." That was
+the Day of Pitt's Dismissal at St. James's: and I find, at
+Schonbrunn it is likewise the day when REICHS-HOFRATH (Kaiser in
+Privy Council) decides, in respect to Friedrich, that Ban of the
+Reich must be proceeded with, and recommends Reich's Diet to get
+through with the same. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte <end italic>
+(Reichs-Procedures, UBI SUPRA).] Official England ordering its Pitt
+into private life, and Official Teutschland its Friedrich into
+outlawry ("Be quiet henceforth, both of YOU!")--are, by chance,
+synchronous phenomena.
+
+
+PHENOMENA OF PRAG SIEGE:--PRAG SIEGE IS INTERRUPTED.
+
+Friedrich's Siege of Prag proved tedious beyond expectation.
+In four days he had done that exploit in 1744; but now, to the
+world's disappointment, in as many weeks he cannot. Nothing was
+omitted on his part: he seized all egresses from Prag, rapidly
+enough; had beset them with batteries, on the very night or morrow
+of the Battle; every egress beset, cannon and ruin forbidding any
+issue there. On the 9th of May, cannonading began; proper siege-
+cannon and ammunition, coming up from Dresden, were completely come
+May 19th; after which the place is industriously battered,
+bombarded with red-hot balls; but except by hunger, it will not do.
+Prag as a fortress is weak, but as a breastwork for 50,000 men it
+is strong. The Austrians tried sallies; but these availed nothing,
+--very ill-conducted, say some. The Prussians, more than once, had
+nearly got into the place by surprisal; but, owing to mere luck of
+the Austrians, never could,--say the same parties. [Archenholtz, i.
+85, 87.]
+
+A DIARIUM of Prag Siege is still extant, Two DIARIUMS;
+punctual diurnal account, both Austrian and Prussian: [In <italic>
+Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 42-56, Prussian DIARIUM;
+ib. 73-86, Austrian.] which it is far from our intention to inflict
+on readers, in this haste. Siege lasted six weeks; four weeks
+extremely hot,--from May 19th, when the proper artilleries, in
+complete state, got up from Dresden. Line of siege-works, or
+intermittent series of batteries, is some twelve miles long;
+from Branik southward to beyond the Belvedere northward, on both
+sides of the Moldau. King's Camp is on the Ziscaberg; Keith's on
+the Lorenz Berg, embracing and commanding the Weissenberg;
+there are two Bridges of communication, Branik and Podoli:
+King lodges in the Parsonage of Michel,--the busiest of all the
+sons of Adam; what a set of meditations in that Parsonage!
+The Besieged, 46,000 by count, offer to surrender Prag on condition
+of "Free withdrawal:" "No; you shall engage, such of you as won't
+enlist with us, not to serve against me for six years." Here are
+some select Specimens; Prussian chiefly, in an abridged state:--
+
+"MAY 19th, No sooner was our artillery come (all the grounds and
+beds for it had been ready beforehand), than as evening fell, it
+began to play in terrific fashion."
+
+"NIGHT OF THE 23d-24th MAY, There broke out a furious sally;
+their first, and much their hottest, say the Prussians: a very
+serious affair;--which fell upon Keith's quarter, west side of the
+Moldau. Sally, say something like 10,000 strong; picked men all,
+and strengthened with half a pound of horse-flesh each" (unluckily
+without salt): judge what the common diet must have been, when that
+was generous! "No salt to it; but a fair supplement of brandy.
+Browne, from his bed of pain (died 26th June), had been strongly
+urgent. Aim is, To force the Prussian lines, by determination and
+the help of darkness, in some weak point: the whole Army, standing
+ranked on the walls, shall follow, if things go well; and storm
+itself through,--away Daun-wards, across the River by
+Podoli Bridge.
+
+"Sally broke out between 1 and 2 A.M.; but we had wind of it, and
+were on the alert. Sally tried on this place and on that;
+very furious in places, but could not anywhere prevail.
+The tussling lasted for near six hours (Prince Ferdinand" of
+Preussen, King's youngest Brother, "and others of us, getting hurts
+and doing exploits),--till, about 7 A.M., it was wholly swept in,
+with loss of 1,000 dead. Upon which, their whole Army retired to
+its quarters, in a hopeless condition. Escape impossible.
+Near 50,000 of them; but in such a posture. Provision of bread, the
+spies say, is not scarce, unless the Prussians can burn it, which
+they are industriously trying (diligent to learn where the
+Magazines are, and to fire incessantly upon the same): plenty of
+meal hitherto; but for butcher's-meat, only what we saw.
+Forage nearly done, and 12,000 horses standing in the squares and
+market-places,--not even stabling for them, not to speak of food or
+work,--slaughtering and salting [if one but had salt!] the one
+method. Horse-flesh two kreutzers a pound; rises gradually to
+double that value.
+
+"MAY 29th, About sunset there came a furious burst of weather:
+rain-torrents mixed with battering hail;--some flaw of water-spout
+among the Hills; for it lasted hour on hour, and Moldau came down
+roaring double-deep, above a hundred yards too wide each way;
+with cargoes of ruin, torn-up trees, drowned horses; which sorely
+tried our Bridge at Branik. Bridge, half of it, did break away
+(Friedrich's half, forty-four pontoons; Keith's people got their
+end of the Bridge doubled in and saved): the Austrians, in Prag,
+fished out twenty-four of Friedrich's pontoons; the other twenty we
+caught at our Bridge of Podoli, farther down. A most wild night for
+the Prussian Army in tents; and indeed for Prag itself, the low
+parts of which were all under water; unfortunate individuals
+getting drowned in the cellars; and, still more important, a great
+deal of Austrian meal, which had been carried thither, to be safe
+from the red-hot balls.
+
+"It was thought the Austrians, our Bridge being down, might try a
+sally again. To prevent which, hardly was the rain done, when, on
+our part, a rocket flew aloft; and there began on the City, from
+all sides, a deluge of bombs and red hot balls. So that the still-
+dripping City was set fire to, in various parts: and we could hear
+[what this Editor never can forget] the WEH-KLAGEN (wail) of the
+Townsfolk as they tried to quench it, and it always burst out
+again. The fire-deluge lasted for six hours."--Human WEH-KLAGEN,
+through the hollow of Night, audible to the Prussians and us:
+"Woe's me! water-deluges, then fire-deluges; death on every hand!" 
+According to the Austrian accounts, there perished, by bursting of
+bomb-shells, falling of walls, by hunger and other misery and
+hurts, "above 9,000 Townsfolk in this Siege." Yes, my Imperial
+friends; War is not a thing of streamering and ornamental
+trumpeting alone; War is an inexorable, dangerously incalculable
+thing. Is it not a terrible question, at whose door lies the
+beginning of a War!
+
+"JUNE 5th, 12,000 poor people of Prag were pushed out:
+'Useless mouths, will you contrive to disappear some way!'
+But, after haggling about all day, they had to be admitted in
+again, under penalty of being shot.
+
+"JUNE 8th, City looking black and ruinous, whole of the Neustadt in
+ashes; few houses left in the Jew Town; in the Altstadt the fire
+raged on (WUTHETE FORT). Nothing but ruin and confusion over there;
+population hiding in cellars, getting killed by falling buildings.
+Burgermeister and Townsfolk besiege Prince Karl, 'For the Virgin's
+sake, have pity on us, Your Serenity!' Poor Prince Karl has to be
+deaf, whatever his feelings.
+
+"He was diligent in attending mass, they say: he alone of the
+Princes, of whom there were several; two Saxon Princes among
+others, Prince Xavier the elder of them, who will be heard of
+again. A profane set, these, lodging in the CLEMENTINUM [vast
+Jesuit Edifice, which had been cleared out for them, and "the
+windows filled with dung outside," against balls]: there, with
+wines of fine vintage, and cookeries plentiful and exquisite, that
+know nothing of famine outside, they led an idle disorderly life,--
+ran races in the long corridors [not so bad a course], dressed
+themselves in Priests' vestures [which are abundant in such
+locality], and made travesties and mummeries of Holy Religion;
+the wretched creatures, defying despair, as buccaneers might when
+their ship is sinking. To surrender, everything forbids; of escape,
+there is no possibility. [Archenholtz i. 86; <italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 73-84.]
+
+"JUNE 9th, The bombardment abates; a LABORATORIUM of our own flew
+aloft by some spark or accident; and killed tbirteen men.
+
+"JUNE 15th, From the King's Camp a few bombs [King himself now
+gone] kindled the City in three places:"--but there is, by this
+time, new game afield; Prag Siege awaiting its decision not at
+Prag, but some way off.
+
+Friedrich has been doing his utmost; diligent, by all methods, to
+learn where the Austrian Magazines were, that is, on what special
+edifices and localities shot might be expended with advantage;
+and has fired into these "about 12,000 bombs." Here is a small
+thing still remembered:--
+
+"Spies being, above all, essential in this business, Friedrich had
+bethought him of one Kasebier, a supreme of House-breakers, whom he
+has, safe with a ball at his ankle, doing forced labor at Spandau
+[in Stettin, if it mattered]. Kasebier was actually sent for,
+pardon promised him if he could do the State a service.
+Kasebier smuggled himself twice, perhaps three times, into Prag;
+but the fourth time he did not come back." [Retzow, i. 108. n.]
+Another Note says: "Kasebier was a Tailor, and Son of a Tailor, in
+Halle; and the expertest of Thieves. Had been doing forced labor,
+in Stettin, since 1748; twice did get into Prag; third time,
+vanished. A highly celebrated Prussian thief; still a myth among
+the People, like Dick Turpin or Cartouche, except that his was
+always theft without violence." [Preuss, ii. 57 n.]
+
+We learn vaguely that the price of horse-flesh in Prag has risen to
+double; famine very sore: but still one hears nothing of surrender.
+And again there is vague rumor that the City may be as it will;
+but that the Garrison has meal, after all we have ruined, which
+will last till October. Such a Problem has this King:
+soluble within the time; or not soluble? Such a question for the
+whole world, and for himself more than any.
+
+
+
+MAP GOES IN HERE--fACING PAGE 446, BOOK xviii
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV.
+
+BATTLE OF KOLIN.
+
+On and after June 9th, the bombardment at Prag abated, and never
+rose to briskness again; the place of trial for decision of that
+Siege having flitted else-whither, as we said. About that time,
+rumors came in, not so favorable, from the Duke of Bevern;
+which Friedrich, strong in hope, strove visibly to disbelieve, but
+at last could not. Bevern reports that Daun is actually coming on,
+far too strong for his resisting;--in other terms, that the Siege
+of Prag will not decide itself by bombardment, but otherwise and
+elsewhere. Of which we must now give some account; brief as may be,
+especially in regard to the preliminary or marching part.
+
+Daun, whose light troops plundered Brandeis (almost within wind of
+the Prussian Rear) on the day while Prag Battle was fighting, had,
+on that fatal event, gradually drawn back to Czaslau, a place we
+used to know fifteen years ago; and there, or in those
+neighborhoods, defensively manoeuvring, and hanging upon
+Kuttenberg, Kolin, especially upon his Magazine of Suchdol, Daun,
+always rather drawing back, with Brunswick-Bevern vigilantly
+waiting on him, has continued ever since; diligently recruiting
+himself; ranking the remains of the right wing defeated at Prag;
+drawing regiments out of Mahren, or whencesoever to be had.
+Till, by these methods, he is grown 60,000 strong; nearly thrice
+superior to Bevern; though being a "Fabius Cunctator" (so called by
+and by), he as yet attempts nothing. Forty thousand in Prag, with
+Sixty here in the Czaslau Quarter, [Tempelhof, i. 196; Retzow (i.
+107, 109) counts 46,000+66,000.] that makes 100,000; say his
+Prussian Majesty has two-thirds of the number: can the Fabius
+Cunctator attempt nothing, before Prag utterly famish?
+
+Order comes to him from Vienna: "Rescue Prag; straightway go upon
+it, cost what it like!" Daun does go upon it; advances visibly
+towards Prag, Bevern obliged to fall back in front of him.
+Sunday, 12th June, Daun despatches several Officers to Prince Karl
+at Prag, with notice that, "On the 20th, Monday come a week, he
+will be in the neighborhood of Prag with this view:--they, of
+course, to sally out, and help from rearward." "Several Officers,
+under various disguises," go with that message, June 12th; but none
+of them could get into the City; and some of them, I judge, must
+have fallen into the Prussian Hussar Parties:--at any rate, the
+news they carried did get into the Prussian circuit, and produced
+an instant resolution there. Early next morning, Monday 13th, King
+Friedrich, with what disposable force is on the spot,--10,000
+capable of being spared from siege-work, and 4,000 more that will
+be capable of following, under Prince Moritz, in two days,--sets
+forth in all speed. Joins Bevern that same night; at Kaurzim,
+thirty-five miles off, which is about midway from Prag to Czaslau,
+and only three miles or so from Daun's quarters that night,--had
+the King known it, which he did not.
+
+Daun must be instantly gone into; and shall,--if he is there at
+all, and not fallen back at the first rumor of us, as Friedrich
+rather supposes. In any case, there are preliminaries
+indispensable: the 4,000 of Prince Moritz still to come up;
+secondly, bread to be had for us, which is baking at Nimburg,
+across the Elbe, twenty miles off; lastly (or rather firstly, and
+most indispensable of all), Daun to be reconnoitred.
+Friedrich reconnoitres Daun with all diligence; pushes on
+everything according to his wont; much obstructed in the
+reconnoitring by Pandour clouds, under which Daun has veiled
+himself, which far outnumber our small Hussar force. Daun, as
+usual,--showing always great skill in regard to camps and
+positions,--has planted himself in difficult country: a little
+river with its boggy pools in front; behind and around, an
+intricate broken country of knolls and swamps, one ridge in it
+which they even call a BERG or Hill, Kamhayek Berg; not much of a
+Hill after all, but forming a long backbone to the locality, west
+end of it straight behind Daun's centre, at present.
+Friedrich's position is from north to south; like Daun's, taking
+advantage of what heights and brooks there are; and edging
+northward to be near his bread-ovens: right wing still holds by
+Kaurzim, left wing looking down on Planian, a little Town on the
+High Road (KAISER-STRASSE) from Prag to Vienna. Little Town
+destined to get up its name in a day or two,--next little Town to
+which, twelve miles farther on, is Kolin, secretly destined to
+become and continue still more famous among mankind. Kolin is close
+to the Elbe, left or south bank; Elbe hereabouts strikes into his
+long northwestern course (to Wittenberg all the way; Pirna, say 150
+miles off, is his half-way house in that direction);--strikes off
+northward hereabouts, making for Nimburg, among other places:
+Planian, right south of Nimburg, is already fifteen good miles
+from Elbe.
+
+This is Friedrich's position, Wednesday, June 15th and the day
+following; somewhat nearer his ovens than yesterday. Daun is yet
+parallel to him, has his centre behind Swoyschitz, an insignificant
+Village at the foot of those Kamhayek Heights, which is, ever
+since, to be found in Maps. Friday, 17th, Friedrich's bread-wagons
+and 4,000 having come in, as doubtless the Pandours report in the
+proper place, Daun does not quite like his strong position any
+more, but would prefer a stronger. Friday about sunset, "great
+clouds of dust" rise from Daun: changing his position, the
+Prussians see, if for Pandours and gathering darkness they can at
+present see little else. Daun, truly, observing the King to have in
+that manner edged up, towards Planian, is afraid of his right wing
+from such a neighbor. So that the reader must take his Map again.
+Or, if he care not for such things, let him skip, and leave me
+solitary to my sad function; till we can meet on easier ground, and
+report the battle which ensued. Daun hustles his right wing back
+out of that dangerous proximity; wheels his whole right wing and
+centre ninety degrees round, so as to reach out now towards Kolin,
+and lie on the north slope of the Kamhayek ridge; places his left
+wing EN POTENCE (gibbet-wise), hanging round the western end of
+said Kamhayek, its southern extremity at Swoyschitz, its northern
+at Hradenin, where (not a mile from Planian) his right wing had
+formerly been;--with other intricate movements not worth following,
+under my questionable guidance, on a Map with unpronounceable
+names. Enough to say that Daun's right wing is now far east at
+Krzeczhorz, well beyond Chotzemitz, whereabouts his centre now
+comes to stand (and most of his horse THERE, both the wings being
+hilly and rough, unfit for horse);--and that, this being nearly the
+last of Daun's shiftings and hustlings for the present, or indeed
+in essential respects the very last, readers may as well note the
+above main points in it.
+
+Hustled into this still stronger place, with wheeling and shoving,
+which lasted to a late hour, Daun composes himself for the night.
+He lies now, with centre and right looking northward, pretty much
+parallel to the Planian-Kolin or Prag-Vienna Highway, and about a
+mile south of the same; extreme posts extending almost to Kolin on
+that side; left wing well planted EN POTENCE; Kamhayek ridge, north
+face and west end of it, completely his on both the exposed or
+Anti-Prussian faces. Friedrich feels uncertain whether he has not
+gone his ways altogether; but proposes to ascertain by break
+of day.
+
+By break of day Friedrich starts, having cleared off certain
+Pandour swarms visible in places of difficulty, who go on first
+notice, and without shot fired. [Lloyd, i. 61 et seq. (or
+Tempelhof's Translation, i. 151-164); Tempelhof's own Account is,
+i. 179-196; Retzow's, i. 120-149 (fewer errors of detail than
+usual); Kutzen, <italic> Der Tag von Kolin <end italic> (Breslau,
+1857), a useful little compilation from many sources. Very
+incorrect most of the common accounts are; Kausler's <italic>
+Schlachten, <end italic> Jomini, and the like.] Marches through
+Planian in two columns, along the Kolin Highway and to north of it;
+marches on, four or five miles farther, nothing visible but the
+skirts of retiring Pandours,--"Daun's rear-guard probably?"--
+Friedrich himself is with Ziethen, who has the vanguard, as
+Friedrich's wont is, eagerly enough looking out; reaches a certain
+Inn on the wayside (WIRTHSHAUS "of Slatislunz or GOLDEN-SUN," say
+the Modern Books,--though I am driven to think it Novomiesto,
+nearer Planian; but will not quarrel on the subject); Inn of good
+height for one thing; and there, mounting to the top-story or
+perhaps the leads, descries Daun, stretching far and wide, leant
+against the Kamhayek, in the summer morning. What a sight for
+Friedrich: "Big game SHALL be played, then; death sure, this day,
+to thousands of men: and to me--? Well!"
+
+Friedrich calls halt: rest here a little; to consider, examine,
+settle how. A hot close morning; rest for an hour or two, till our
+rear from Kaurzim come up: horses and men will be the better for
+it,--horses can have a mouthful of grass, mouthful of water;
+some of them "had no drink last night, so late in getting home."
+Poor quadrupeds, they also have to get into a blaze of battle-rage
+this day, and be blown to pieces a great many of them,--in a
+quarrel not of their seeking! Horse and rider are alike satisfied
+on that latter point; silently ready for the task THEY have;
+and deaf on questions that are bottomless.
+
+At this Hostelry of Novomiesto (not of Slatislunz or "GOLDEN-SUN"
+at all, which is a "Sun" fallen dismally eclipsed in other ways
+["The Inn of Slati-Slunz was burnt, about twenty years ago;
+nothing of it but the stone walls now dates from Friedrich's time.
+It is a biggish solid-looking House of two stories (whether ever of
+three, I could not learn); stands pleasantly, at the crown of a
+long rise from Kolin;--and inwardly, alas, in our day, offers
+little but bad smells and negative quantities! Only the ground-
+floor is now inhabited. From the front, your view northward,
+Nimburg way, across the Elbe Valley, is fertile, wide-waving,
+pretty: but rearward, upstairs,--having with difficulty got
+permission,--you find bare balks, tattered feathers, several
+hundredweight of pigeon's dung, and no outlook at all, except into
+walls of office-houses and the overhanging brow of Heights,--fatal,
+clearly, to any view of Daun, even from a third story!" (TOURIST'S
+NOTE, 1858.)--Tempelhof (UBI SUPRA) seems to have known the right,
+place; not, Retzow, or almost anybody since: and indeed the
+question, except for expressly Military people, is of no moment.]),
+Friedrich halted for three hours and more; saw Daun developing
+himself into new Order of Battle, "every part of his position
+visible;" considered with his whole might what was to be tried upon
+him;--and about noon, having made up his mind, called his Generals,
+in sight of the phenomenon itself there, to give them their various
+orders and injunctions in regard to the same. The Plan of Fight,
+which was thought then, and is still thought by everybody, an
+excellent one,--resting on the "oblique order of attack,"
+Friedrich's favorite mode,--was, if the reader will take his Map,
+conceivable as follows.
+
+Daun has by this time deployed himself; in three lines, or two
+lines and a reserve; on the high-lying Champaign south of the
+Planian-Kolin Great Road; south, say a mile, and over the crests of
+the rising ground, or Kamhayek ridge, so that from the Great Road
+you can see nothing of him. His line, swaying here and there a
+little, to take advantage of its ground, extends nearly five miles,
+from east to west; pointing towards Planian side, the left wing of
+it; from Planian, eastward, the way Friedrich has marched, Daun's
+left wing may be four miles distant. On the other side, Daun's
+right wing--main line always pretty parallel to the Highway, and
+pointing rather southward of Kolin--reaches to the small Hamlet of
+Krzeczhorz, which is two miles off Kolin. In front of his centre is
+a Village called Chotzemitz (from which for a while, in those
+months, the Battle gets its name, "Battle of Chotzemitz," by Daun's
+christening): in front of him, to right or to left of Chotzemitz,
+are some four or even six other Villages (dim rustic Hamlets,
+invisible from the High Road), every Village of which Daun has well
+beset with batteries, with good infantry, not to speak of Croat
+parties hovering about, or dismounted Pandours squatted in the
+corn. That easternmost Village of his is spelt "Krzeczhorz"
+(unpronounceable to mankind), a dirty little place; in and round
+which the Battle had its hinge or cardinal point: the others, as
+abstruse of spelling, all but equally impossible to the human
+organs, we will forbear to name, except in case of necessity.
+Half a mile behind Krzeczhorz (let us write it Kreczor, for the
+future: what can we do?), is a thin little Oak-wood, bushes mainly,
+but with sparse trees too, which is now quite stubbed out, though
+it was then important enough, and played a great part in the result
+of this day's work. Radowesnitz, a pronounceable little Village,
+half a mile farther or southward of the Oak-bush, is beyond the
+extremity of Daun's position; low down on a marshy little Brook,
+which oozes through lakes and swamps towards Kolin, in the
+northerly direction.
+
+Most or all of these Villages are on little Brooks (natural thirst
+so leading them): always some little runlet of water, not so swampy
+when there is any fall for it; in general lively when it gets over
+the ridge, and becomes visible from this Highway. And it is curious
+to see what a considerable dell, or green ascending chasm, this
+little thread of water, working at all moments for thousands of
+years, has hollowed out for itself in the sloping ground; making a
+great military obstacle, if you are mounting to attack there.
+Poor Czech Hamlets all of them, dirty, dark, mal-odorous, ignorant,
+abhorrent of German speech;--in what nook those inarticulate
+inhabitants, diving underground at a great rate this morning, have
+hidden themselves to-day, I know not. The country consists of
+knolls and slopes, with swamps intermediate; rises higher on the
+Planian side; but except the top of that Kamhayek ridge on the
+Planian side, and "Friedrich's-Berg" on the Kolin side, there is
+nothing that you could think of calling a Hill, though many Books
+(and even Friedrich's Book) rashly say otherwise. Friedrich's-Berg,
+now so called, is on the north side of the Highway: half a mile
+northeastward of Slatislunz, the mal-odorous Inn. A conical height
+of perhaps a hundred and fifty feet; rises rather suddenly from the
+still-sloping ground, checking the slope there; on which the
+Austrian populations have built some memorial lately, notable to
+Tourists. Here Friedrich "stood during the Battle," say they;
+and the Prussians "had a battery there." Which remains uncertain to
+me, at least the battery part of it: that Friedrich himself was
+there, now and then, can be believed; but not that he kept
+"standing there" for long together. Friedrich's-Berg does command
+some view of the Kreczor scene, which at times was cardinal, at
+others not: but Friedrich did not stand anywhere: "oftenest in the
+thick of the fire," say those who saw.
+
+Friedrich, from his Inn near Planian, seeing how Daun deploys
+himself, considers him impregnable on the left wing; impregnable,
+too, in front: not so on the Kreczor side, right flank and rear;
+but capable of being rolled together, if well struck at there.
+Thither therefore; that is his vulnerable point. March along his
+front: quietly parallel in due Order of Battle, till we can bend
+round, and plunge in upon that. The Van, which consists of
+Ziethen's Horse and Hulsen's Infantry; Van, having faced to right
+at the proper moment and so become Left Wing, will attack Kreczor;
+probably carry it; each Division following will in like manner face
+to right when it arrives there, and fall on in regular succession
+in support of Hulsen (at Hulsen's right flank, if Hulsen be found
+prospering): our Right Wing is to refuse itself, and be as a
+Reserve,--no fighting on the road, you others, but steady towards
+Hulsen, in continual succession, all you; no facing round, no
+fighting anywhere, till we get thither:--"March!"
+
+The word is given about 2 P.M.; and all, on the instant, is in
+motion; rolls steadily eastward, in two columns, which will become
+First Line and Second. One along the Highway, the second at due
+distance leftward on the green ground, no hedge or other obstacle
+obstructing in that part of the world. Daun's batteries, on the
+right, spit at them in passing, to no purpose; sputters of Pandour
+musketry, from coverts, there may be: Prussians finely
+disregarding, pass along; flowing tide-like towards THEIR goal and
+place of choice. An impressive phenomenon in the sunny afternoon;
+with Daun expectant of them, and the Czech populations well
+hidden underground!--
+
+Ziethen, vanmost of all, finds Nadasti and his Austrian squadrons
+drawn across the Highway, hitherward of the Kreczor latitude:
+Ziethen dashes on Nadasti; tumbles his squadrons and him away;
+clears the Road, and Kreczor neighborhood, of Nadasti: drives him
+quite into the hollow of Radowesnitz, where he stood inactive for
+the rest of the day. Hulsen now at the level of Kreczor (in the
+latitude of Kreczor, as we phrased it), halts, faces to right;
+stiffly presses up, opens his cannon-thunders, his bayonet-charges
+and platoon-fires upon Kreczor. Stiffly pressing up, in spite of
+the violent counter-thunders, Hulsen does manage Kreczor without
+very much delay, completely enough, and like a workman; takes the
+battery, two batteries; overturns the Infantry;--in a word, has
+seized Kreczor, and, as new tenant, swept the old, and their
+litter, quite out. Of all which Ziethen has now the chase, and by
+no means will neglect that duty. Ziethen, driving the rout before
+him, has driven it in some minutes past the little Oak-wood above
+mentioned; and, or rather BUT,--what is much to be noted,--is there
+taken in flank with cannon-shot and musketry, Daun having put
+batteries and Croat parties in the Oak-wood; and is forced to draw
+bridle, and get out of range again.
+
+Hulsen, advancing towards this little Oak-wood, is surprised to
+discover, not the wood alone, but a strong Austrian force, foot and
+horse, to rear of it;--such had been Daun's and Nadasti's
+precaution, on view of those Friedrich phenomena, flowing on from
+Planian, guessed to be hitherward. At sight of which Wood and foot-
+party, Hulsen, no new Battalion having yet arrived to second him,
+pauses, merely cannonading from the distance, till new Battalions
+shall arrive. Unhappily they did not arrive, or not in due quantity
+at the set time,--for what reason, by what strange mistake? men
+still ask themselves. Probably by more mistakes than one.
+Enough, Hulsen struggling here all day, with reinforcements never
+adequate, did take the Wood, and then lose it; did take and lose
+this and that;--but was unable to make more of it than keep his
+ground thereabouts. A resolute man, says Retzow, but without
+invention of his own, or head to mend the mistakes of others.
+In and about Kreczor, Hulsen did maintain himself with more and
+more tenacity, till the general avalanche, fruit of sad mistakes
+swept HIM, quite spasmodically struggling at that period, off to
+the edge of it, and all the others clean away! Mistakes have been
+to rightwards, one or even two, the fruit of which, small at first,
+suffices to turn the balance, and ends in an avalanche, or
+precipitous descent of ruin on the Prussian side
+
+One mistake there was, miles westward on the right wing; due to
+Mannstein, our too impetuous Russian friend, Mannstein well to
+right, while marching forward according to order, has Croat
+musketry spitting upon him from amid the high corn, to an
+inconvenient extent: such was the common lot, which others had
+borne and disregarded: perhaps it was beyond the average on
+Mannstein, or Mannstein's patience was less infinite; any way it
+provoked Mannstein to boil over; and in an evil moment he said,
+"Extinguish me that Croat canaille, then!" Regiment Bornstedt faced
+to right, accordingly; took to extinguishing the Croat canaille,
+which of course fled at once, or squatted closer, but came back
+with reinforcements; drew Mannstein deeper in, fatally delayed
+Bornstedt, and proved widely ruinous. For now he stopped the way to
+those following him: regiments marching on to rear of Mannstein see
+Mannstein halted, volleying with the Austrians; ask themselves
+"How? Is there new order come? Attack to be in this point?"
+And successively fall on to support Mannstein, as the one clear
+point in such dubiety. So that the whole right wing from Regiment
+Bornstedt westward is storming up the difficult steeps, in hot
+conflict with the Austrians there, where success against them had
+been judged impracticable;--and there is now no reserve force
+anywhere to be applied to in emergency, for Hulsen's behoof or
+another's; and the Plan of Battle from Mannstein westward has been
+fatally overturned. Poor Mannstein, there is no doubt, committed
+this error, being too fiery a man. Surely to him it was no luxury,
+and he paid the smart for it in skin and soul: "badly wounded in
+this business;" nay, in direct sequel, not many weeks after, killed
+by it, as we shall see!--
+
+To Mannstein's mistake, Friedrich himself, in his account of Kolin,
+mainly imputes the disaster that followed; and such, then and
+afterwards, was the universal judgment in military circles;
+loading the memory of too impetuous Mannstein with the whole.
+[See Retzow, i. 135; Templehof, i. 214, 220.] Much talk there was
+in Prussian military circles; but there must also have been an
+admirable silence on the part of some. To Three Persons it was
+known that another strange incident had happened far ahead, far
+eastward, of Mannstein's position: incident which did not by any
+means tend to alleviate, which could only strengthen and widen, the
+evil results of Mannstein; and which might have lifted part of the
+load from Mannstein's memory! Not till the present Century, after
+the lapse of almost fifty years, was this secret slowly dug out of
+silence, and submitted to modern curiosity.
+
+The incident is this;--never whispered of for near fifty years (so
+silent were the three); and endlessly tossed about since that;
+the sense of it not understood till almost now. [See Retzow, i.
+126; Berenhorst; &c. &c.;--then FINALLY Kutzen, pp. 99, 217.]
+The three parties were: King Friedrich; Moritz of Dessau, leading
+on the centre here; Moritz's young Nephew Franz, Heir of Dessau, a
+brisk lad of seventeen, learning War here as Aide-de-camp to
+Moritz: the exact spot is not known to me,--probably the ground
+near that Inn of Slatislunz, or Golden-Sun; between the foot of
+Friedrich's-Berg and that:--fact indubitable, though kept dark so
+long. Moritz is marching with the centre, or main battle, that way,
+intending to wheel and turn hillwards, Kreczor-wise, as per order,
+certain furlongs ahead; when Friedrich (having, so I can conceive
+it, seen from his Hill-top, how Hulsen had done Kreczor, altogether
+prosperous there; and what endless capability there was of
+prospering to all lengths and speeding the general winning, were
+Hulsen but supported soon enough, were there any safe short-cut to
+Hulsen) dashed from his Hill-top in hot haste towards Prince
+Moritz, General of the centre, intending to direct him upon such
+short-cut; and hastily said, with Olympian brevity and fire, "Face
+to right HERE!" With Jove-like brevity, and in such blaze of
+Olympian fire as we may imagine. Moritz himself is of brief,
+crabbed, fiery mind, brief in temper; and answers to the effect,
+"Impossible to attack the enemy here, your Majesty; postured as
+they are; and we with such orders gone abroad!"--"Face to right, I
+tell you!" said the King, still more Olympian, and too emphatic for
+explaining. Moritz, I hope, paused, but rather think he did not,
+before remonstrating the second time; neither perhaps was his voice
+so low as it should have been: it is certain Friedrich dashed quite
+up to Moritz at this second remonstrance, flashed out his sword
+(the only time he ever drew his sword in battle); and now, gone all
+to mere Olympian lightning and thundertone, asks in THIS attitude,
+"WILL ER (Will He) obey orders, then?"--Moritz, fallen silent of
+remonstrance, with gloomy rapidity obeys.
+
+Prince Franz, the young Nephew of Moritz, alone witnessed this
+scene; scene to be locked in threefold silence. In his old age,
+Franz had whispered it to Berenhorst, his bastard Half-Uncle, a
+famed military Critic,--who is still in the highest repute that way
+(Berenhorst's KRIEGSKUNST, and other deep Books), and is
+recognizable, to LAY readers, for an abstruse strong judgment;
+with equal strength of abstruse temper hidden behind it, and very
+privately a deep grudge towards Friedrich, scarcely repressible on
+opportunity. From Berenhorst it irrepressibly oozed out;
+["Heinrich van Berenhorst [a natural son of the Old Dessauer's], in
+his <italic> Betrachtungen uber die Kriegskunst, <end italic> is
+the first that alludes to it in print. (Leipzig, 1797,--page in
+SECOND edition, 1798, is i. 219)."] much more to Friedrich's
+disadvantage than it now looks when wholly seen into. Not change of
+plan, not ruinous caprice on Friedrich's part, as Berenhorst,
+Retzow and others would have it; only excess of brevity towards
+Moritz, and accident of the Olympian fire breaking out.
+Friedrich is chargeable with nothing, except perhaps (what Moritz
+knows the evil of) trying for a short-cut! Such is now the received
+interpretation. Prince Franz, to his last day, refused to speak
+again on the subject; judiciously repentant, we can fancy, of
+having spoken at all, and brought such a matter into the streets
+and their pie-powder adjudications. [In KUTZEN, pp. 217-237, a long
+dissertation on it.] For the present, he is Adjutant to Moritz,
+busy obeying to the letter.
+
+Friedrich, withdrawing to his Height again, and looking back on
+Moritz, finds that he is making right in upon the Austrian line;
+which was by no means Friedrich's meaning, had not he been so
+brief. Friedrich, doubtless with pain, remembers now that he had
+said only, "Face to right!" and had then got into Olympian tempest,
+which left things dark to Moritz. "HALB-LINKS, Half to left
+withal!" he despatches that new order to Moritz, with the utmost
+speed: "Face to right; THEN, forward half to left." Had Moritz, at
+the first, got that commentary to his order, there had probably
+been no remonstrance on Moritz's part, no Olympian scene to keep
+silent; and Moritz, taking that diagonal direction from the first,
+had hit in at or below Kreczor, at the very point where he was
+needed. Alas for overhaste; short-cuts, if they are to be good,
+ought at least to be made clear! Moritz, on the new order reaching
+him, does instantly steer half-left: but he arrives now above
+Kreczor, strikes the Austrian line on this side of Kreczor;
+disjoined from Hulsen, where he can do no good to Hulsen: in brief,
+Moritz, and now the whole line with him, have to do as Mannstein
+and sequel are doing, attack in face, not in flank; and try what,
+in the proportion of one to two, uphill, and against batteries,
+they can make of it in that fashion!
+
+And so, from right wing to left, miles long, there is now universal
+storm of volleying, bayonet-charging, thunder of artillery, case-
+shot, cartridge-shot, and sulphurous devouring whirlwind;
+the wrestle very tough and furious, especially on the assaulting
+side. Here, as at Prag, the Prussian troops were one and all in the
+fire; each doing strenuously his utmost, no complaint to be made of
+their performance. More perfect soldiers, I believe, were rarely or
+never seen on any field of war. But there is no reserve left:
+Mannstein and the rest, who should have been reserve, and at a
+General's disposal, we see what they are doing! In vain, or nearly
+so, is Friedrich's tactic or manoeuvring talent; what now is there
+to manoeuvre? All is now gone up into one combustion. To fan the
+fire, to be here, there, fanning the fire where need shows: this is
+now Friedrich's function; "everywhere in the hottest of the fight,"
+that is all we at present know of him, invisible to us otherwise.
+This death-wrestle lasted perhaps four hours; till seven or towards
+eight o'clock in the June evening; the sun verging downwards;
+issue still uncertain.
+
+And, in fact, at last the issue turned upon a hair;--such the
+empire of Chance in War matters. Cautious Daun, it is well known,
+did not like the aspect of the thing; cautious Daun thinks to
+himself, "If we get pushed back into that Camp of yesternight, down
+the Kamhayek Heights, and right into the impassable swamps;
+the reverse way, Heights now HIS, not ours, and impassable swamps
+waiting to swallow us? Wreck complete, and surrender at
+discretion--!" Daun writes in pencil: "The retreat is to Suchdol"
+(Kuttenberg way, southward, where we have heights again and
+magazines); Daun's Aide-de-camp is galloping every-whither with
+that important Document; and Generals are preparing for retreat
+accordingly,--one General on the right wing has, visibly to Hulsen
+and us, his cannon out of battery, and under way rearwards;
+a welcome sight to Hulsen, who, with imperfect reinforcement, is
+toughly maintaining himself there all day.
+
+And now the Daun Aide-de-camp, so Chance would have it, cannot find
+Nostitz the Saxon Commandant of Horse in that quarter; finds a
+"Saxon Lieutenant-Colonel B---" ("Benkendorf" all Books now write
+him plainly), who, by another little chance, had been still left
+there: "Can the Herr Lieutenant-Colonel tell me where General
+Nostitz is?" Benkendorf can tell;--will himself take the message:
+but Benkendorf looks into the important Pencil Document; thinks it
+premature, wasteful, and that the contrary is feasible! persuades
+Nostitz so to think; persuades this regiment and that (Saxon,
+Austrian, horse and foot); though the cannon in retreat go
+trundling past them: "Merely shifting their battery, don't you
+see:--Steady!" And, in fine, organizes, of Saxon and Austrian horse
+and foot in promising quantity (Saxons in great fury on the Pirna
+score, not to say the Striegau, and other old grudges), a new
+unanimous assault on Hulsen.
+
+The assault was furious, and became ever more so; at length
+irresistible to Hulsen. Hulsen's horse, pressing on as to victory,
+are at last hurled back; could not be rallied; [That of "RUCKER,
+WOLLT IHR EWIG LEBEN, Rascals, would you live forever?" with the
+"Fritz, for eight groschen, this day there has been enough!"--is to
+be counted pure myth; not unsuccessful, in its withered kind.]
+fairly fled (some of them); confusing Hulsen's foot,--foot is
+broken, instantly ranks itself, as the manner of Prussians is;
+ranks itself in impromptu squares, and stands fiercely defensive
+again, amid the slashing and careering: wrestle of extreme fury,
+say the witnesses. "This for Striegau!" cried the Saxon dragoons,
+furiously sabring. [Archenholtz, i. 100.] Yes; and is there nothing
+to account of Pirna, and the later scores? Scores unliquidated,
+very many still; but the end is, Hulsen is driven away;
+retreats, Parthian-like, down-hill, some space; whose sad example
+has to spread rightwards like a powder-train, till all are in
+retreat,--northward, towards Nimburg, is the road;--and the Battle
+of Kolin is finished.
+
+Friedrich made vehement effort to rally the Horse, to rally this
+and that; but to no purpose: one account says he did collect some
+small body, and marched forth at the head of it against a certain
+battery; but, in his rear, man after man fell away, till
+Lieutenant-Colonel Grant (not "Le Grand," as some call him, and
+indeed there is an ACCENT of Scotch in him, still audible to us
+here) had to remark, "Your Majesty and I cannot take the battery
+ourselves!" Upon which Friedrich turned round; and, finding nobody,
+looked at the Enemy through his glass, and slowly rode away
+[Retzow, i. 139.]--on a different errand.
+
+Seeing the Battle irretrievably lost, he now called Bevern and
+Moritz to him; gave them charge of the retreat--"To Nimburg;
+cross Elbe there [fifteen good miles away]; and in the defiles of
+Planian have especial care!" and himself rode off thitherward, his
+Garde-du-Corps escorting. Retzow says, "a swarm of fugitive horse-
+soldiers, baggage-people, grooms and led horses gathered in the
+train of him: these latter, at one point," Retzow has heard in
+Opposition circles, "rushed up, galloping: 'Enemy's hussars upon
+us!' and set the whole party to the gallop for some time, till they
+found the alarm was false." [Ib. i. 140.] Of Friedrich we see
+nothing, except as if by cloudy moonlight in an uncertain manner,
+through this and the other small Anecdote, perhaps semi-mythical,
+and true only in the essence of it.
+
+Daun gave no chase anywhere; on his extreme left he had, perhaps as
+preparative for chasing, ordered out the cavalry; "General Stampach
+and cavalry from the centre," with cannon, with infantry and
+appliances, to clear away the wrecks of Mannstein, and what still
+stands, to right of him, on the Planian Highway yonder.
+But Stampach found "obstacles of ground," wet obstacles and also
+dry,--Prussian posts, smaller and greater, who would not stir a
+hand-breadth: in fact, an altogether deadly storm of Negative,
+spontaneous on their part, from the indignant regiments
+thereabouts, King's First Battalion, and two others; who blazed out
+on Stampach in an extraordinary manner, tearing to shreds every
+attempt of his, themselves stiff as steel: "Die, all of us, rather
+than stir!" And, in fact, the second man of these poor fellows did
+die there? [Kutzen, p. 138 (from the canonical, or
+"STAFF-OFFICER'S" enumeration: see SUPRA, p. 403 n.).] So that
+Bevern, Commander in that part, who was absent speaking with the
+King, found on his return a new battle broken out; which he did not
+forbid but encourage; till Stampach had enough, and withdrew in
+rather torn condition. This, if this were some preparative for
+chasing, was what Daun did of it, in the cavalry way; and this was
+all. The infantry he strictly prohibited to stir from their
+position,--"No saying, if we come into the level ground, with such
+an enemy!"--and passed the night under arms. Far on our left, or
+what was once our left, Ziethen with all his squadrons, nay Hulsen
+with most of his battalions, continued steady on the ground;
+and marched away at their leisure, as rear-guard.
+
+"It seemed," says Tempelhof, in splenetic tone, "as if
+Feldmarschall Daun, like a good Christian, would not suffer the sun
+to go down on his wrath. This day, nearly the longest in the year,
+he allowed the Prussian cavalry, which had beaten Nadasti, to stand
+quiet on the field till ten at night [till nine]; he did not send a
+single hussar in chase of the infantry. He stood all night under
+arms; and next day returned to his old Camp, as if he had been
+afraid the King would come back. Arriving there himself, he could
+see, about ten in the morning, behind Kaurzim and Planian, the
+whole Prussian Baggage fallen into such a coil that the wagons were
+with difficulty got on way again; nevertheless he let it, under
+cover of the grenadier battalion Manteuffel, go in peace."
+[Tempelhof, i. 195.] A man that for caution and slowness could make
+no use of his victory!
+
+The Austrian force in the Field this day is counted to have been
+60,000; their losses in killed, wounded and missing, 8,114.
+The Prussians, who began 34,000 in strength, lost 13,773; of whom
+prisoners (including all the wounded), 5,380. Their baggage, we
+have seen, was not meddled with: they lost 45 cannon, 22 flags,--a
+loss not worth adding, in comparison to this sore havoc, for the
+second time, in the flower of the Prussian Infantry. [Retzow, i.
+141 (whose numbers are apt to be inaccurate); Kutzen, p. 144 (who
+depends on the Canonical STAFF-OFFICER Account).]
+
+The news reached Prag Camp at two in the morning (Sunday, 19th):
+to the sorrowful amazement of the Generals there; who "stood all
+silent; only the Prince of Prussia breaking out into loud
+lamentations and accusations," which even Retzow thinks unseemly.
+Friedrich arrived that Sunday evening: and the Siege was raised,
+next day; with next to no hindrance or injury. With none at all on
+the part of Daun; who was still standing among the heights and
+swamps of Planian,--busy singing, or shooting, universal TE-DEUM,
+with very great rolling fire and other pomp, that day while
+Friedrich gathered his Siege-goods and got on march.
+
+
+THE MARIA-THERESA ORDER, NEW KNIGHTHOOD FOR AUSTRIA.
+
+No tongue can express the joy of the Austrians over this victory,--
+vouchsafed them, in this manner, by Lieutenant-Colonel Benkendorf
+and the Powers above. Miraculously, behold, they are not upon the
+retreat to Suchdol, at double-quick, and in ragged ever-lengthening
+line; but stand here, keeping rank all night, on the Planian-Kolin
+upland of the Kamhayek:--behold, they have actually beaten
+Friedrich; for the first time, not been beaten by him.
+Clearly beaten that Friedrich, by some means or other. With such a
+result, too; consider it,--drawn sword was at our throat;
+and marvellously now it is turned round upon his (if Daun be
+alert), and we--let us rejoice to all lengths, and sing TE-DEUM and
+TE-DAUNUM with one throat, till the Heavens echo again.
+
+ There was quite a hurricane, or lengthened storm, of jubilation
+and tripudiation raised at Vienna on this victory: New ORDER OF
+MARIA THERESA, in suitable Olympian fashion, with no end of
+regulating and inaugurating,--with Daun the first Chief of it;
+and "Pensions to Merit" a conspicuous part of the plan, we are glad
+to see. It subsists to this day: the grandest Military Order the
+Austrians yet have. Which then deafened the world, with its
+infinite solemnities, patentings, discoursings, trumpetings, for a
+good while. As was natural, surely, to that high Imperial Lady with
+the magnanimous heart; to that loyal solid Austrian People with its
+pudding-head. Daun is at the top of the Theresa Order, and of
+military renown in Vienna circles;--of Lieutenant-Colonel
+Benkendorf I never heard that he got the least pension or
+recognition;--continued quietly a military lion to discerning men,
+for the rest of his days. ["Died at Dresden, General of Cavalry,"
+5th May, 1801 (Rodenbeck, i. 338, 339).]
+
+Nay once, on Dauu's TE-DEUM day, he had a kind of recognition;--and
+even, by good accident, can tell us of it in his own words:
+[Kutzen (citing some BIOGRAPHY of Benkendorf), p. 143.]--
+
+"I was sent for to head-quarters by a trumpeter,"--Benkendorf was,
+--"when all was ready for the TE-DEUM. Feldmarschall Daun was
+pleased to say at sight of me, 'That as I had had so much to do
+with the victory, it was but right I should thank our Herr Gott
+along with him.' Having no change of clothes,--as the servant, who
+was to have a uniform and some linens ready for me, had galloped
+off during the Fight, and our baggage was all gone to rearward,--
+I tried to hustle out of sight among the crowd of Imperial Officers
+all in gala: but the reigning Duke of Wurtemberg [Wilhelmina's
+Son-in-law, a perverse obstinate Herr, growing ever more perverse;
+one of Wilhelmina's sad afflictions in these days] called me to
+him, and said, 'He would give his whole wardrobe, could he wear
+that dusty coat with such honor as I!'"--yes; and tried hard, in
+his perverse way, for some such thing; but never could, as we
+shall see.
+
+How lucky that Polish Majesty had some remains of Cavalry still at
+Warsaw in the Pirna time; that they were made into a Saxon Brigade,
+and taken into the Austrian service; Brigade of three Regiments,
+Nostitz for Chief, and this Benkendorf a Lieutenant-Colonel, among
+them;--and that Polish Majesty, though himself lost, has been the
+saving of Austria twice within one year!
+
+
+
+Chapter V.
+
+FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ, HIS WORLD OF ENEMIES COMING ON.
+
+Of Friedrich's night-thoughts at Nimburg; how he slept, and what
+his dreams were, we have no account. Seldom did a wearied heart
+sink down into oblivion on such terms. By narrow miss, the game
+gone; and with such results ahead. It was a right valiant plunge
+this that he made, with all his strength and all his skill, home
+upon the heart of his chief enemy. To quench his chief enemy before
+another came up: it was a valiant plan, and valiantly executed;
+and it has failed. To dictate peace from the walls of Vienna:
+that lay on the cards for him this morning; and at night--?
+Kolin is lost, the fruit of Prag Victory too is lost; and Schwerin
+and new tens of thousands, unreplaceable for worth in this world,
+are lost; much is lost! Courage, your Majesty, all is not lost, you
+not, and honor not.
+
+To the young Graf von Anhalt, on the road to Nimburg, he is
+recorded to have said, "Don't you know, then, that every man must
+have his reverses (MAIS NE SAVEZ-VOUS DONC PAS QUE CHAQUE HOMME
+DOIT AVOIR SES REVERS)? It appears I am to have mine." [Rodenbeck,
+i. 309.] And more vaguely, in the Anecdote-Books, is mention of
+some stanch ruggedly pious old Dragoon, who brought, in his steel
+cap, from some fine-flowing well he had discovered, a draught of
+pure water to the King; old Mother Earth's own gift, through her
+rugged Dragoon, exquisite refection to the thirsty wearied soul;
+and spoke, in his Dragoon dialect,--"Never mind, your Majesty!
+DER ALLMACHTIGE and we; It shall be mended yet. 'The Kaiserin may
+get a victory for once; but does that send us to the Devil (DAVON
+HOLT UNS DER TEUFEL-NICHT)!'"--words of rough comfort, which were
+well taken.
+
+Next morning, several Books, and many Drawings and Sculptures of a
+dim unsuccessful nature, give us view of him, at Kimburg;
+sitting silent "on a BRUNNEN-ROHR" (Fountain Apparatus, waste-pipe
+or feeding-pipe, too high for convenient sitting): he is stooping
+forward there, his eyes fixed on the ground, and is scratching
+figures in the sand with his stick, as the broken troops reassemble
+round him. Archenholtz says: "He surveyed with speechless feeling
+the small remnant of his Life-guard of Foot, favorite First
+Battalion; 1,000 strong yesterday morning, hardly 400 now;"--gone
+the others, in that furious Anti-Stampach outburst which ended the
+day's work! "All soldiers of this chosen Battalion were personally
+known to him; their names, their age, native place, their history
+[the pick of his Ruppin regiment was the basis of it]: in one day,
+Death had mowed them down; they had fought like heroes, and it was
+for him that they had died. His eyes were visibly wet, down his
+face rolled silent tears." [Archenholtz, i. 104, 101; Kutzen,
+pp. 259, 138; Retzow, i. 142.]
+
+In public I never saw other tears from this King,--though in
+private I do not warrant him; his sensibilities, little as you
+would think it, being very lively and intense. "To work, however!"
+This King can shake away such things; and is not given overmuch to
+retrospection on the unalterable Past. "Like dewdrops from the
+lion's mane" (as is figuratively said); the lion swiftly rampant
+again! There was manifold swift ordering, considering and
+determining, at Nimburg, that day; and towards night Friedrich shot
+rapidly into Head-quarters at Prag, where, by order, there is, as
+the first thing of all, a very rapid business going on, well
+forward by the time he arrives.
+
+To fold one's Siege-gear and Army neatly together from those Two
+Hill-tops, and march away with them safe, in sight of so many
+enemies: this has to be the first and rapidest thing; if this be
+found possible, as one calculates it may. After which, the world of
+enemies, held in the slip so long, will rush in from all the four
+winds,--unknown whitherward; one must wait to see whitherward
+and how.
+
+Friedrich's History for the remaining six months of this Year
+falls, accordingly, into three Sections. Section FIRST: Waiting how
+and towards what objects his enemies, the Austrians first of all,
+will advance;--this lasts for about a month; Friedrich waiting
+mainly at Leitmeritz, on guard there both of Saxony and of Silesia,
+till this slowly declare itself. Slowly, perhaps almost stupidly,
+but by no means satisfactorily to Friedrich, as will be seen!
+After which, Section SECOND of his History lasts above two months;
+Friedrich's enemies being all got to the ground, and united in hope
+and resolution to overwhelm and abolish him; but their plans,
+positions, operations so extremely various that, for a long time
+(end of August to beginning of November), Friedrich cannot tell
+what to do with them; and has to scatter himself into thin threads,
+and roam about, chiefly in Thuringen and the West of Saxony,
+seeking something to fight with, and finding nothing; getting more
+and more impatient of such paltry misery; at times nigh desperate;
+and habitually drifting on desperation as on a lee shore in the
+night, despite all his efforts. Till, in Section THIRD, which goes
+from November 5th, through December 5th, and into the New Year, he
+does find what to do; and does it,--in a forever memorable way.
+
+Three Sections; of which the reader shall successively have some
+idea, if he exert himself; though it is only in snatches,
+suggestive to an active fancy, that we can promise to dwell on
+them, especially on the First Two, which lie pretty much
+unsurveyable in those chaotic records, like a world-wide coil of
+thrums. Let us be swift, in Friedrich's own manner; and try to
+disimprison the small portions of essential! Here, partly from
+Eye-witnesses, are some Notes in regard to Section First:
+[Westphalen, <italic> Geschichte der Feldzuge des Herzogs Ferdinand
+<end italic> (and a Private Journal of W.'s there), ii. 13-19;
+Retzow; &c.]-- 
+
+"SUNDAY, 19th JUNE, At 2 A.M., Major Grant arrives at Prag [must
+have started instantly after that of "We two cannot take the
+battery, your Majesty!"]--goes to Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick,
+interim Commander on the Ziscaberg, with order To raise Siege.
+Consternation on the part of some; worse, on the Prince of
+Prussia's part; the others kept silence at least,--and set
+instantly to work. On both Hills, the cannons are removed (across
+Moldau the Zisca-Hill ones), batteries destroyed, Siege-gear neatly
+gathered up, to go in wagons to Leitmeritz, thence by boat to
+Dresden; all this lies ready done, the dangerous part of it done,
+when Friedrich arrives.
+
+"MONDAY, 20th, before sunrise, Siege raised. At three in the
+morning Friedrich marches from the Ziscaberg; to eastward he, to
+Alt-Bunzlau, thence to Ah-Lissa,"--Nimburg way, with what objects
+we shall see. "Marshal Keith's fine performance. Keith, from the
+Weissenberg, does not march, such packing and loading still;
+all the baggages and artilleries being with Keith. Not till four in
+the afternoon did Keith march; but beautifully then; and folded
+himself away,--rear-guard under Schmettau 'retreating checkerwise,'
+nothing but Tolpatcheries attempting on him,--westward, Budin-ward,
+without loss of a linstock, not to speak of guns. Very prettily
+done on the part of Keith. By Budin, to Leitmeritz, he; where the
+King will join him shortly."
+
+Friedrich's errand in Alt-Lissa, eastward, while Keith went
+westward, was, To be within due arm's-length of the Moritz-Bevern,
+or beaten Kolin Army, which is coming up that way; intending to
+take post, and do its best, in those parts, with Zittau Magazine
+and the Lausitz to rear of it. One of our Eye-witnesses, a Herr
+Westphalen, Ferdinand of Brunswick's Secretary,--who, with his
+Chief, got into wider fields before long,--yields these additional
+particulars face to face:--
+
+"TUESDAY, 21st JUNE, 1757. King's Head-quarters in Lissa or
+neighborhood till Friday next; which is central for both these
+movements,--Thursday, orders seven regiments of horse to reinforce
+Keith. No symptom yet of pursuit anywhere.
+
+"FRIDAY, 24th. Prince Moritz with the Kolin Army made appearance,
+all safe, and is to command here; King intending for Keith.
+After dinner, and the due interchange of battalions to that end,
+King sets off, with Prince Henri, towards Keith; Head-quarter in
+Alt-Bunzlau again. SATURDAY NIGHT, at Melnick; SUNDAY, Gastorf:
+MONDAY NIGHT, 27th JUNE, Leitmeritz; King lodges in the Cathedral
+Close, in sight of Keith, who is on the opposite side of Elbe,--but
+the town has a Bridge for to-morrow. 'Never was a quieter march;
+not the shadow of a Pandour visible. The Duke [Ferdinand, my Chief,
+Chatham's jewel that is to be, and precious to England] has
+suffered much from a'--in fact, from a COURS DE VENTRE, temporary
+bowel-derangement, which was very troublesome, owing to the
+excessive heats by day, and coldness of the nights.
+
+"TUESDAY, 28th. Junction with Keith,--Bridge rightly secured, due
+party of dragoons and foot left on the right bank, to occupy a
+height which covers Leitmeritz. 'Clearing of the Pascopol' (that
+is, sweeping the Pandours out of it) is the first business;
+Colonel Loudon with his Pandours, a most swift sharpcutting man,
+being now here in those parts; doing a deal of mischief. Three days
+ago, Saturday, 25th, Keith had sent seven battalions, with the
+proper steel-besoms, on that Pascopol affair; Tuesday, on junction,
+Majesty sends three more: job done on Wednesday; reported 'done,'--
+though I should not be surprised," says Westphalen, "if some little
+highway robbery still went on among the Mountains up there."
+
+No;--and before quitting hold, what is this that Loudon (on the
+very day of the King's arrival, June 27th), on the old Field of
+Lobositz over yonder, has managed to do! General Mannstein, wounded
+at Kolin, happened, with others in like case, to be passing that
+way, towards Dresden and better surgery,--when Loudon's Croats set
+upon them, scattering their slight escort: "Quarter, on surrender!
+Prisoners?" "Never!" answered Mannstein; "Never!" that too
+impetuous man, starting out from his carriage, and snatching a
+musket: and was instantly cut down there. And so ends;--a man of
+strong head, and of heart only too strong. [Preuss, ii. 58;
+<italic> Militair-Lexikon, <end italic> iii. 10.]
+
+From Prag onwards, here has been a delicate set of operations;
+perfectly executed,--thanks to Friedrich's rapidity of shift, and
+also to the cautious slowly puzzling mind of Daun. Had Daun used
+any diligence, had Daun and Prince Karl been broad awake, together
+or even singly! But Friedrich guessed they seldom or never were;
+that they would spend some days in puzzling; and that, with
+despatch, he would have time for everything. Daun, we could
+observe, stood singing TE-DEUM, greatly at leisure, in his old
+Camp, 20th June, while Friedrich, from the first gray of morning,
+and diligently all day long, was withdrawing from the trenches of
+Prag,--Friedrich's people, self and goods getting folded out in the
+finest gradation, and with perfect success; no Daun to hinder him,
+--Daun leisurely doing TE-DEUM, forty miles off, helping on the
+WRONG side by that exertion! [Cogniazzo, ii. 367.]--"Poor Browne,
+he is dead of his wounds, in Prag yonder," writes Westphalen, in
+his Leitmeritz Journal, "news came to us July 1st: men said, 'Ah,
+that was why they lay asleep.'"
+
+Till June 26th, Daun and Karl had not united; nor, except sending
+out Loudon and Croats, done anything, either of them. Sunday, June
+26th, at Podschernitz on the old Field of Prag, a week and a day
+after Kolin, they did get together; still seemingly a little
+puzzled, "Shall we follow the King? Shall we follow Moritz and
+Bevern?"--nothing clear for some time, except to send out Pandour
+parties upon both. Moritz, since parting with the King in Alt-
+Bunzlau neighborhood, has gone northward some marches, thirty miles
+or so, to JUNG-Bunzlau,--meeting of Iser and Elbe, surely a good
+position:--Moritz, on receipt of these Pandour allowances of his,
+writes to the King, "Shall we retreat on Zittau, then, your
+Majesty? Straight upon Zittau?" Fancy Friedrich's astonishment;--
+who well intends to eat the Country first, perhaps to fight if
+there be chance, and at least to lie OUTSIDE the doors of Silesia
+and the Lausitz, as well as of Saxony here!--and answers, with his
+own hand, on the instant: "Your Dilection will not be so mad!"
+[In Preuss, ii. 58, the pungent little Autograph in full.] And at
+once recalls Moritz, and appoints the Prince of Prussia to go and
+take command. Who directly went;--a most important step for the
+King's interests and his own. Whose fortunes in that business we
+shall see before long!--
+
+At Leitmeritz the King continues four weeks, with his Army parted
+in this way; waiting how the endless hostile element, which
+begirdles his horizon all round, will shape itself into
+combinations, that he may set upon the likeliest or the needfulest
+of these, when once it has disclosed itself. Horizon all round is
+black enough: Austrians, French, Swedes, Russians, Reichs Army;
+closer upon him or not so close, all are rolling in: Saxony, the
+Lausitz and Silesia, Brandenburg itself, it is uncertain which of
+these may soonest require his active presence.
+
+The very day after his arrival in Leitmeritz,--Tuesday, 28th June,
+while that junction with Keith was going on, and the troops were
+defiling along the Bridge for junction with Keith,--a heavy sorrow
+had befallen him, which he yet knew not of. An irreparable Domestic
+loss; sad complement to these Military and other Public disasters.
+Queen Sophie Dorothee, about whose health he had been anxious, but
+had again been set quiet, died at Berlin that day. [Monbijou, 28th
+June, 1757; born at Hanover, 27th March, 1687.] In her seventy-
+first year: of no definite violent disease; worn down with chagrins
+and apprehensions, in this black whirlpool of Public troubles.
+So far as appears, the news came on Friedrich by surprise:--"bad
+cough," we hear of, and of his anxieties about it, in the Spring
+time; then again of "improvement, recovery, in the fine weather;"--
+no thought, just now, of such an event: and he took it with a depth
+of affliction, which my less informed readers are far from
+expecting of him.
+
+July 2d, the news came: King withdrew into privacy; to weep and
+bewail under this new pungency of grief, superadded to so many
+others. Mitchell says: "For two days he had no levee; only the
+Princes dined with him [Princes Henri and Ferdinand; Prince of
+Prussia is gone to Jung-Bunzlau, would get the sad message there,
+among his other troubles]: yesterday, July 3d, King sent for me in
+the afternoon,--the first time he has seen anybody since the news
+came:--I had the honor to remain with him some hours in his closet.
+I must own to your Lordship I was most sensibly afflicted to see
+him indulging his grief, and giving way to the warmest filial
+affections; recalling to mind the many obligations he had to her
+late Majesty; all she had suffered, and how nobly she bore it;
+the good she did to everybody; the one comfort he now had, to think
+of having tried to make her last years more agreeable."
+[<italic> Papers and Memoirs, <end italic> i. 253; Despatch to
+Holderness, 4th July (slightly abridged);--see ib. i. 357-359
+(Private Journal). Westphalen, ii. 14. See <italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> iv. 182.] In the thick of public business,
+this kind of mood to Mitchell seems to have lasted all the time of
+Leitmeritz, which is about three weeks yet: Mitchell's Note-books
+and Despatches, in that part, have a fine Biographic interest;
+the wholly human Friedrich wholly visible to us there as he seldom
+is. Going over his past Life to Mitchell; brief, candid, pious to
+both his Parents;--inexpressibly sad; like moonlight on the grave
+of one's Mother, silent that, while so much else is too noisy!
+
+This Friedrich, upon whom the whole world has risen like a mad
+Sorcerer's-Sabbath, how safe he once lay in his cradle, like the
+rest of us, mother's love wrapping him soft:--and now!
+These thoughts commingle in a very tragic way with the avalanche of
+public disasters which is thundering down on all sides. Warm tears
+the meed of this new sorrow; small in compass, but greater in
+poignancy than all the rest together. "My poor old Mother, oh, my
+Mother, that so loved me always, and would have given her own life
+to shelter mine!"--It was at Leitmeritz, as I guess, that Mitchell
+first made decisive acquaintance, what we may almost call intimacy,
+with the King: we already defined him as a sagacious, long-headed,
+loyal-hearted diplomatic gentleman, Scotch by birth and by turn of
+character; abundantly polite, vigilant, discreet, and with a fund
+of general sense and rugged veracity of mind; whom Friedrich at
+once recognized for what he was, and much took to, finding a hearty
+return withal; so that they were soon well with one another, and
+continued so. Mitchell, as orders were, "attended the King's
+person" all through this War, sometimes in the blaze of battle
+itself and nothing but cannon-shot going, if it so chanced; and has
+preserved, in his multifarious Papers, a great many traits of
+Friedrich not to be met with elsewhere.
+
+Mitchell's occasional society, conversation with a man of sense and
+manly character, which Friedrich always much loved, was, no doubt,
+a resource to Friedrich in his lonely roamings and vicissitudes in
+those dark years. No other British Ambassador ever had the luck to
+please him or be pleased by him,--most of them, as Ex-Exchequer
+Legge and the like Ex-Parliamentary people, he seems to have
+considered dull, obstinate, wooden fellows, of fantastic, abrupt
+rather abstruse kind of character, not worth deciphering;--some of
+them, as Hanbury Williams, with the mischievous tic (more like
+galvanism or St.-Vitus'-dance) which he called "wit," and the
+inconvenient turn for plotting and intriguing, Friedrich could not
+endure at all, but had them as soon as possible recalled,--of
+course, not without detestation on their part.
+
+At Leitmeritz, it appears, he kept withdrawn to his closet a good
+deal; gave himself up to his sorrows and his thoughts; would sit
+many hours drowned in tears, weeping bitterly like a child or a
+woman. This is strange to some readers; but it is true,--and ought
+to alter certain current notions. Friedrich, flashing like clear
+steel upon evildoers and mendacious unjust persons and their works,
+is not by nature a cruel man, then, or an unfeeling, as Rumor
+reports? Reader, no, far the reverse;--and public Rumor, as you may
+have remarked, is apt to be an extreme blockhead, full of fury and
+stupidity on such points, and had much better hold its tongue till
+it know in some measure. Extreme sensibility is not sure to be a
+merit; though it is sure to be reckoned one, by the greedy dim
+fellows looking idly on: but, in any case, the degree of it that
+dwelt (privately, for most part) in Friedrich was great; and to
+himself it seemed a sad rather than joyful fact. Speaking of this
+matter, long afterwards, to Garve, a Silesian Philosopher, with
+whom he used to converse at Breslau, he says;--or let dull Garve
+himself report it, in the literal third-person:--
+
+"And herein, I," the Herr Garve (venturing to dispute, or qualify,
+on one of his Majesty's favorite topics), "believe, lies the real
+ground of 'happiness:' it is the capacity and opportunity to
+accomplish great things. This the King would not allow; but said,
+That I did not sufficiently take into account the natural feelings,
+different in different people, which, when painful, imbittered the
+life of the highest as of the lowest. That, in his own life, he had
+experienced the deepest sufferings of this kind: 'And,' added he,
+with a touching tone of kindness and familiarity, which never
+occurred again in his interviews with me, 'if you (ER) knew, for
+instance, what I underwent on the death of my Mother, you would see
+that I have been as unhappy as any other, and unhappier than
+others, because of the greater sensibility I had (WEIL ICH MEHR
+EMPFINDLICHKEIT GEHABT HABE).'" [<italic> Fragmente zur Schilderung
+des Geistes, des Charakters und der Regierung Friedrichs des
+Zweiten, <end italic> von Christian Garve (Breslau, 1798), i.
+314-316. An unexpectedly dull Book (Garve having talent and
+reputation); kind of monotonous Preachment upon Friedrich's
+character: almost nothing but the above fraction now derivable
+from it.]
+
+There needed not this new calamity in Friedrich's lot just now!
+From all points of the compass, his enemies, held in check so long,
+are floating on: the confluence of disasters and ill-tidings, at
+this time, very great. From Jung-Bunzlau, close by, his Brother's
+accounts are bad; and grow ever worse,--as will be seen! On the
+extreme West, "July 3d," while Friedrich at Leitmeritz sat weeping
+for his Mother, the French take Embden from him; "July 5th," the
+Russians, Memel, on the utmost East. June 30th, six days before,
+the Russians, after as many months of haggling, did cross the
+Border; 37,000 of them on this point; and set to bombarding Memel
+from land and sea. Poor Memel (garrison only 700) answered very
+fiercely, "sank two of their gunboats" and the like; but the end
+was as we see,--Feldmarschall Lehwald able to give no relief.
+For there were above 70,000 other Russians (Feldmarschall Apraxin
+with these latter, and Cossacks and Calmucks more than enough)
+crossing elsewhere, south in Tilsit Country, upon old Lehwald.
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 407-413.]
+Lehwald, with 30,000, in such circumstances--what is to become of
+Preussen and him! Nearer hand, the Austrians, the French, the very
+Reichs Army, do now seem intent on business.
+
+The Reichs Execution Army, we saw how Mayer and the Battle of Prag
+had checked it in the birth-pangs; and given rise to pangs of
+another sort; the poor Reichs Circles generally exclaiming, "What!
+Bring the war into our own borders? Bring the King of Prussia on
+our own throats!"--and stopping short in their enlistments and
+preparations; in vain for Austrian Officials to urge them.
+Watching there, with awe-struck eye, while the 12,000 bombs flew
+into Prag.
+
+The Battle of Kolin has reversed all that; and the poor old Reich
+is again bent on business in the Execution way. Drumming,
+committeeing, projecting, and endeavoring, with all her might, in
+all quarters; and, from and after the event of Kolin, holding
+visible Encampment, in the Nurnberg Country; fractions of actual
+troops assembling there. "On the Plains of Furth, between Furth and
+Farrenbach, east side the River Regnitz, there was the Camp
+pitched," says my Anonymous Friend; who gives me a cheerful
+Copperplate of the thing: red pennons, blue, and bright mixed
+colors; generals, tents; order-of-battle, and respective rallying
+points: with Bamberg Country in front, and the peaks of the Pine
+Mountains lying pleasantly behind: a sight for the curious.
+[J.F.S. (whom I named ANONYMOUS OF HAMBURG long since; who has
+boiled down, with great diligence, the old Newspapers, and gives a
+great many dates, notes, &c., without Index), i. 211, 224 (the
+Copperplate).] It is the same ground where Mayer was careering
+lately; neighboring nobility and gentry glad to come in gala, and
+dance with Mayer. Hither, all through July, come contingents
+straggling in, thicker and thicker; "August 8th," things now about
+complete, the Bishop of Bamberg came to take survey of the Reichs-
+Heer (Bishop's remarks not given); August 10th, came the young
+reigning Duke of Hildburghausen (Duke's grand-uncle is to be
+Commander), on like errand; August 11th) the Reichs-Heer got on
+march. Westward ho!--readers will see towards what.
+
+A truly ELENDE, or miserable, Reichs Execution Army (as the
+MISprinter had made it); but giving loud voice in the Gazettes;
+and urged by every consideration to do something for itself.
+Prince of Hildburghausen--a general of small merit, though he has
+risen in the Austrian service, and we have seen him with Seckendorf
+in old Turk times--has, for his Kaiser's sake, taken the command;
+sensible perhaps that glory is not likely to be rife here;
+but willing to make himself useful. Kaiser and Austria urge,
+everywhere, with all their might: Prince of Hessen-Darmstadt, who
+lay on the Weissenberg lately, one of Keith's distinguished seconds
+there and a Prussian Officer of long standing, has, on Kaiser's
+order, quitted all that, and become Hildburghausen's second here,
+in the Camp of Furth; thinking the path of duty lay that way,--
+though his Wife, one of the noble women of her age, thought very
+differently. [Her Letter to Friedrich, "Berlin, 30th October,
+1757," <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxvii. ii. 135.]
+A similar Kaiser's order, backed by what Law-thunder lay in the
+Reich, had gone out against Friedrich's own Brothers, and against
+every Reichs Prince who was in Friedrich's service; but, except him
+of Hessen-Darmstadt, none of them had much minded. [In Orlich,
+<italic> Furst Moritz von Anhalt Dessau <end italic> (Berlin,
+1842), pp. 74, 75, Prince Moritz's rather mournful Letter on the
+subject, with Friedrich's sharp Answer.] I did not hear that his
+strategic talent was momentous: but Prussia had taught him the
+routine of right soldiering, surely to small purpose;
+and Friedrich, no doubt, glanced indignantly at this small thing,
+among the many big ones.
+
+From about the end of June, the Reichs Army kept dribbling in:
+the most inferior Army in the world; no part of it well drilled,
+most of it not drilled at all; and for variety in color, condition,
+method, and military and pecuniary and other outfit, beggaring
+description. Hildburghausen does his utmost; Kaiser the like.
+The number should have far exceeded 50,000; but was not, on the
+field, of above half that number: 25,000; add at least 8,000
+Austrian troops, two regiments of them cavalry; good these 8,000,
+the rest bad,--that was the Reichs Execution Army; most inferior
+among Armies; and considerable part of it, all the Protestant part,
+privately wishing well to Friedrich, they say. Drills itself
+multifariously in that Camp between Furth and Farrenbach, on the
+east side of Regnitz River. Fancy what a sight to Wilhelmina, if
+she ever drove that way; which I think she hardly would.
+The Baireuth contingent itself is there; the Margraf would have
+held out stiff on that point; but Friedrich himself advised
+compliance. Margraf of Anspach--perverse tippling creature, ill
+with his Wife, I doubt--has joyfully sent his legal hundreds;
+will vote for the Reichs Ban against this worst of Germans, whom he
+has for Brother-in-law. Dark days in the heart of Wilhelmina, those
+of the Camp at Furth. Days which grow ever darker, with strange
+flashings out of empyrean lightning from that shrill true heart;
+no peace more, till the noble heroine die!--
+
+This ELENDE Reichs-Heer, miserable "Army of the Circles," is
+mockingly called "the Hoopers, Coopers (TONNELIERS)," and gets
+quizzing enough, under that and other titles, from an Opposition
+Public. Far other from the French and Austrians; who are bent that
+it should do feats in the world, and prove impressive on a robber
+King. Thus too, "for Deliverance of Saxony," to co-operate with
+Reichs-Heer in that sacred object, thanks to the zeal of Pompadour,
+Prince de Soubise has got together, in Elsass, a supplementary
+30,000 (40,330 said Theory, but Fact never quite so many): and is
+passing them across the Rhine, in Frankfurt Country, all through
+July, while the drilling at Furth goes on. With these, Soubise,
+simultaneously getting under way, will steer northeastward;
+join the Reichs-Heer about Erfurt, before August end; and--and we
+shall see what becomes of the combined Soubise and Reichs Army
+after that!
+
+It must be owned, the French, Pompadour and love of glory urging,
+are diligent since the event of Kolin. In select Parisian circles,
+the Soubise Army, or even that of D'Estrees altogether,--produced
+by the tears of a filial Dauphiness,--is regarded as a quasi-
+sacred, or uncommonly noble thing; and is called by her name,
+"L'ARMEE DE LA DAUPHINE;" or for shortness "LA DAUPHINE" without
+adjunct. Thus, like a kind of chivalrous Bellona, vengeance in her
+right hand, tears and fire in her eyes, the DAUPHINESS advances;
+and will join Reichs-Heer at Erfurt before August end. Such the
+will of Pompadour; Richelieu encouraging, for reasons of his own.
+Soubise, I understand, is privately in pique against poor
+D'Estrees; ["Reappeared unexpectedly in Paris [from D'Estree's
+Army], 22d June" (four days after Kolin): got up this DAUPHINESS
+ARMY, by aid of Pompadour, with Richelieu, &c.: BARBIER, iv. 227,
+231. Richelieu "busy at Strasburg lately" (29th July: Collini's
+VOLTAIRE, p. 191).] and intends to eclipse him by a higher style of
+diligence; though D'Estrees too is doing his best.
+
+July 3d, we saw the D'Estrees people taking Embden; D'Estrees,
+quiet so long in his Camp at Bielefeld, had at once bestirred
+himself, Kolin being done;--shot out a detachment leftwards, and
+Embden had capitulated that day. Adieu to the Shipping Interests
+there, and to other pleasant things! "July 9th, after sunset,"
+D'Estrees himself got on march from Bielefeld; set forth, in the
+cool of night, 60,000 strong, and 10,000 more to join him by the
+road (the rest are left as garrisons, reserves,--1,000 marauders of
+them swing as monitory pendulums, on their various trees, for one
+item),--direct towards Hanover and Royal Highness of Cumberland;
+who retreats, and has retreated, behind the Ems, the Weser, back,
+ever back; and, to appearance, will make a bad finish yonder.
+
+To Friedrich, waiting at Leitmeritz, all these things are gloomily
+known; but the most pressing of them is that of the Austrians and
+Jung-Bunzlau close by. Let us give some utterances of his to
+Wilhelmina, nearly all we have of direct from him in that time;
+and then hasten to the Prince of Prussia there:--
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TO WILHELMINA (at Baireuth).
+
+LEITMERITZ, 1st JULY, 1757. ... "Sensible as heart can be to the
+tender interest you deign to take in what concerns me. Dear Sister,
+fear nothing on my score: men are always in the hand of what we
+call Fate" ("Predestination, GNADENWAHL,"--Pardon us, Papa!--"CE
+QU'ON NOMME LE DESTIN); accidents will befall people, walking on
+the streets, sitting in their room, lying in their bed; and there
+are many who escape the perils of war. ... I think, through Hessen
+will be the safest route for your Letters, till we see; and not to
+write just now except on occasions of importance. Here is a piece
+in cipher; anonymous,"--intended for the Newspapers, or some
+such road.
+
+JULY 5th. "By a Courier of Plotho's, returning to Regensburg [who
+passes near you], I write to apprise my dear Sister of the new
+misery which overwhelms us. We have no longer a Mother. This loss
+puts the crown on my sorrows. I am obliged to act; and have not
+time to give free course to my tears. Judge, I pray you, of the
+situation of a feeling heart put to so cruel a trial. All losses in
+the world are capable of being remedied; but those which Death
+causes are beyond the reach of hope."
+
+JULY 7th. "You are too good; I am ashamed to abuse your indulgence.
+But do, since you will, try to sound the French, what conditions of
+Peace they would demand; one might judge as to their intentions.
+Send that Mirabeau (CE M. DE MIRABEAU) to France. Willingly will I
+pay the expense. He may offer as much as five million thalers
+[750,000 pounds] to the Favorite [yes, even to the Pompadour] for
+Peace alone. Of course, his utmost discretion will be needed;"
+--should the English get the least wind of it! But if they
+are gone to St. Vitus, and fail in every point, what can one do?
+CE M. DE MIRABEAU, readers will be surprised to learn, is an Uncle
+of the great Mirabeau's; who has fallen into roving courses, gone
+abroad insolvent; and "directs the Opera at Baireuth," in these
+years!--One Letter we will give in full:--
+
+
+"LEITMERITZ, 13th Jnly, 1757. 
+
+"MY DEAREST SISTER,--Your Letter has arrived: I see in it your
+regrets for the irreparable loss we have had of the best and
+worthiest Mother in this world. I am so struck down with all these
+blows from within and without, that I feel myself in a sort
+of Stupefaction.
+
+"The French have just laid hold of Friesland [seized Embden, July
+3d]; are about to pass the Weser: they have instigated the Swedes
+to declare War against me; the Swedes are sending 17,000 men
+[rather more if anything; but they proved beautifully ineffectual]
+into Pommern,"--will be burdensome to Stralsund and the poor
+country people mainly; having no Captain over them but a hydra-
+headed National Palaver at home, and a Long-pole with Cocked-hat on
+it here at hand. "The Russians are besieging Memel [have taken it,
+ten days ago]: Lehwald has them on his front and in his rear.
+The Troops of the Reich," from your Plains of Furth yonder, "are
+also about to march. All this will force me to evacuate Bohemia, so
+soon as that crowd of Enemies gets into motion.
+
+"I am firmly resolved on the extremest efforts to save my Country.
+We shall see (QUITTE A VOIR) if Fortune will take a new thought, or
+if she will entirely turn her back upon me. Happy the moment when I
+took to training myself in philosophy! There is nothing else that
+can sustain the soul in a situation like mine. I spread out to you,
+dear Sister, the detail of my sorrows: if these things regarded
+only myself, I could stand it with composure; but I am bound
+Guardian of the safety and happiness of a People which has been put
+under my charge. There lies the sting of it: and I shall have to
+reproach myself with every fault, if, by delay or by over-haste, I
+occasion the smallest accident; all the more as, at present, any
+fault may be capital.
+
+"What a business! Here is the liberty of Germany, and that
+Protestant Cause for which so much blood has been shed; here are
+those Two great Interests again at stake; and the pinch of this
+huge game is such, that an unlucky quarter of an hour may establish
+over Germany the tyrannous domination of the House of Austria
+forever! I am in the case of a traveller who sees himself
+surrounded and ready to be assassinated by a troop of cut-throats,
+who intend to share his spoils. Since the League of Cambrai
+[1508-1510, with a Pope in it and a Kaiser and Most Christian King,
+iniquitously sworn against poor Venice;--to no purpose, as happily
+appears], there is no example of such a Conspiracy as that infamous
+Triumvirate [Austria, France, Russia] now forms against me. Was it
+ever seen before, that three great Princes laid plot in concert to
+destroy a Fourth, who had done nothing against them? I have not had
+the least quarrel either with France or with Russia, still less
+with Sweden. If, in common life, three citizens took it into their
+heads to fall upon their neighbor, and burn his house about him,
+they very certainly, by sentence of tribunal, would be broken on
+the wheel. What! and will Sovereigns, who maintain these tribunals
+and these laws in their States, give such example to their
+subjects? ... Happy, my dear Sister, is the obscure man, whose good
+sense from youth upwards, has renounced all sorts of glory;
+who, in his safe low place, has none to envy him, and whose fortune
+does not excite the cupidity of scoundrels!
+
+"But these reflections are vain. We have to be what our birth,
+which decides, has made us in entering upon this world. I reckoned
+that, being King, it beseemed me to think as a Sovereign; and I
+took for principle, that the reputation of a Prince ought to be
+dearer to him than life. They have plotted against me; the Court of
+Vienna has given itself the liberty of trying to maltreat me;
+my honor commanded me not to suffer it. We have come to War; a gang
+of robbers falls on me, pistol in hand: that is the adventure which
+has happened to me. The remedy is difficult: in desperate diseases
+there are no methods but desperate ones.
+
+"I beg a thousand pardons, dear Sister: in these three long pages I
+talk to you of nothing but my troubles and affairs. A strange abuse
+it would be of any other person's friendship. But yours, my dear
+Sister, yours is known to me; and I am persuaded you are not
+impatient when I open my heart to you:--a heart which is yours
+altogether; being filled with sentiments of the tenderest esteem,
+with which I am, my dearest Sister, your [in truth, affectionate
+Brother at all times]      F."
+[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxvii. i. 294, 295,
+296-298.] 
+
+
+PRINCE AUGUST WILHELM FINDS A BAD PROBLEM AT JUNG-BUNZLAU;
+AND DOES IT BADLY: FRIEDRICH THEREUPON HAS TO RISE FROM
+LEITMERITZ, AND TAKE THE FIELD ELSEWHERE, IN BITTER HASTE
+AND IMPATIENCE, WITH OUTLOOKS WORSE THAN EVER.
+
+The Prince of Prussia's Enterprise had its intricacies; but, by
+good management, was capable of being done. At least, so Friedrich
+thought;--though, in truth, it would have been better had Friedrich
+gone himself, since the chief pressure happened to fall there!
+The Prince has to retire, Parthian-like, as slowly as possible,
+with the late Kolin or Moritz-Bevern Army, towards the Lausitz,
+keeping his eye upon Silesia the while; of course securing the
+passes and strong places in his passage, for defence of his own
+rear at lowest; especially securing Zittau, a fine opulent Town,
+where his chief Magazine is, fed from Silesia now. The Army is in
+good strength (guess 30,000), with every equipment complete, in
+discipline, in health and in heart, such as beseems a Prussian
+Army,--probably longing rather, if it venture to long or wish for
+anything not yet commanded, to have a stroke at those Austrians
+again, and pay them something towards that late Kolin score.
+
+The Prince arrived at Jung-Bunzlau, June 30th; Winterfeld with him,
+and, at his own request, Schmettau. The Austrians have not yet
+stirred: if they do, it may be upon the King, it may be upon the
+Prince: in three or even in two marches, Prince and King can be
+together,--the King only too happy, in the present oppressive coil
+of doubts, to find the Austrians ready for a new passage of battle,
+and an immediate decision. The Austrians did, in fact, break out,--
+seemingly, at first, upon the King; but in reality upon the Prince,
+whom they judge safer game; and the matter became much more
+critical upon him than had been expected.
+
+The Prince was thought to have a good judgment (too much talk in
+it, we sometimes feared), and fair knowledge in military matters.
+The King, not quite by the Prince's choice, has given him
+Winterfeld for Mentor; Winterfeld, who has an excellent military
+head in such matters, and a heart firm as steel,--almost like a
+second self in the King's estimation. Excellent Winterfeld;--but
+then there are also Schmettau, Bevern and others, possibly in
+private not too well affected to this Winterfeld. In fact, there is
+rather a multitude of Counsellers;--and an ingenuous fine-spirited
+Prince, perhaps more capable of eloquence on the Opposition side,
+than of condensing into real wisdom a multitude of counsels, when
+the crisis rises, and the affair becomes really difficult.
+Crisis did rise: the victorious Austrians, after such delay, had
+finally made up their minds to press this one a little, this one
+rather than the King, and hang upon his skirts; Daun and Prince
+Karl set out after him, just about the time of his arrival,--
+"70,000 strong," the Prince hears; including plenty of Pandours.
+Certain it is, the poor Prince's mind did flounder a good deal;
+and his procedures succeeded extremely ill on this occasion.
+Certain, too, that they were extremely ill-taken at head-quarters:
+and that he even died soon after,--chiefly of broken heart, said
+the censorious world. It is well known how Europe rang with the
+matter for a long while; and Books were printed, and Documents, and
+COLLECTIONS BY A MASTER'S HAND. [<italic> Lettres Secretes touchant
+la Deniere Guerre; de Main de Maitre; divisees en deux parties <end
+italic> (Francfort et Amsterdam, 1772): this is the Prince's own
+Statement, Proof in hand. By far the clearest Account is in
+<italic> Schmettau's Leben <end italic> (by his Son), pp. 353-384.
+See also Preuss, ii. 57-61, and especially ii. 407.] We, who can
+spend but a page or two on it, must carefully stand by the
+essential part.
+
+"JUNE 30th-JULY 3d, Prince at Jung-Bunzlau, in chief command.
+Besides Winterfeld, the Generals under him are Ziethen, Schmettau,
+Fouquet, Retzow, Goltz, and two others who need not be of our
+acquaintance. Impossible to stay there, thinks the Prince, thinks
+everybody; and they shift to Neuschloss, westward thirty miles.
+July 1st, Daun had crossed the Elbe (Daun let us say for brevity,
+though it is Daun and Karl, or even Karl and Daun, Karl being
+chief, and capable of saying so at times, though Daun is very
+splendent since Kolin),--crossed the Elbe above Brandeis;
+Nadasti, with precursor Pandours, now within an hour's march of
+Jung-Bunzlau;--and it was time to go.
+
+"JULY 3d-6th, At Neuschloss, which is thought a strong position,
+key of the localities there, and nearer Friedrich too, the Prince
+stayed not quite four days; shifted to Bohm (BohmISCH) Leipa, JULY
+7th,--rather off from Leitmeritz, but a march towards Zittau, where
+the provisions are. 'A bad change,' said the Prince's friends
+afterwards; (change advised by Winterfeld,--who never mentioned
+that circumstance to his Majesty, many as he did mention, not in
+the best way!'--Prince gets to Bohm Leipa July 7th; stays there, in
+questionable circumstances, nine days.
+
+"Bohm Leipa is still not above thirty miles northeastward of the
+King; and it is about the same distance southwestward from Zittau,
+out of which fine Town, partly by cross-roads, the Prince gets his
+provisions on this march. From Zittau hitherward, as far as the
+little Town of Gabel, which lies about half way, there is broad
+High Road, the great Southern KAISER-STRASSE: from Gabel, for Bohm
+Leipa, you have to cross southwestward by country roads; the keys
+to which, especially Gabel, the Prince has not failed to secure by
+proper garrison parties. And so, for about a week, not quite
+uncomfortably, he continues at Bohm Leipa; getting in his convoys
+from Zittau. Diligently scanning the Pandour stragglings and
+sputterings round him, which are clearly on the increasing hand.
+Diligently corresponding with the King, meanwhile; who much
+discourages undue apprehension, or retreat movement till the last
+pinch. 'Edging backward, and again backward, you come bounce upon
+Berlin one day, and will then have to halt!'--which is not pleasant
+to the Prince. But, indisputably, the Pandour spurts on him do
+become Pandour gushings, with regulars also noticeable: it is
+certain the Austrians are out,--pretending first to mean the King
+and Leitmeritz; but knowing better, and meaning the Prince and Bohm
+Leipa all the while."--By way of supplement, take Daun's positions
+in the interim:--
+
+Daun and Karl were at Podschernitz 26th June; 1st July, cross the
+Elbe, above Brandeis (Nadasti now within an hour's march of Jung-
+Bunzlau); 7th July (day while the Prince is flitting to Bohm
+Leipa), Daun is through Jung-Bunzlau to Munchengratz; thence to
+Liebenau; 14th, to Niemes, not above four miles from the Prince's
+rightmost outpost (rightmost or eastmost, which looks away from his
+Brother); while a couple of advanced parties, Beck and Maguire,
+hover on his flank Zittau-ward, and Nadasti (if he knew it) is
+pushing on to rear.
+
+"THURSDAY, 14th JULY, About six in the evening, at Bohm Leipa,
+distinct cannon-thunder is heard from northeast: 'Evidently Gabel
+getting cannonaded, and our wagon convoy [empty, going to Zittau
+for meal, General Puttkammer escorting] is in a dangerous state!'
+And by and by hussar parties of ours come in, with articulate news
+to that bad effect: 'Gabel under hot attack of regulars;
+Puttkammer with his 3,000 vigorously defending, will expect to be
+relieved within not many hours!' Here has the crisis come.
+Crisis sure enough;--and the Prince, to meet it, summons that
+refuge of the irresolute, a Council of War.
+
+"Winterfeld, who is just come home in these moments, did not
+attend;--not, till three next morning. Winterfeld had gone to bed;
+fairly 'tired dead,' with long marching and hurrying about. To the
+poor Prince there are three courses visible. Course FIRST, That of
+joining the King at Leitmeritz. Gabel, Zittau lost in that case;
+game given up;--reception likely to be bad at Leitmeritz!
+Course SECOND,--the course Friedrich himself would at once have
+gone upon, and been already well ahead with,--That of instantly
+taking measures for the relief of Puttkammer. Dispute Gabel to the
+last; retreat, on loss of it, Parthian-like, to Zittau, by that
+broad Highway, short and broad, whole distance hence only thirty
+miles. 'Thirty miles,' say the multitude of Counsellors: 'Yes, but
+the first fifteen, TO Gabel, is cross-road, hilly, difficult;
+they have us in flank!' 'We are 25,000,' urges the Prince;
+'fifteen miles is not much!' The thing had its difficulties:
+the Prince himself, it appears, faintly thought it feasible:
+'25,000 we; 20,000 they; only fifteen miles,' said he. But the
+variety of Counsellors: 'Cross-roads, defiles, flank-march,
+dangerous,' said they. And so the third course, which was
+incomparably the worst, found favor in Council of War: That of
+leaving Gabel and Puttkammer to their fate; and of pushing off for
+Zittau leftwards through the safe Hills, by Kamnitz, Kreywitz,
+Rumburg;--which, if the reader look, is by a circuitous, nay quite
+parabolic course, twice or thrice as far:--'In that manner let us
+save Zittau and our Main Body!' said the Council of War. Yes, my
+friends: a cannon-ball, endeavoring to get into Zittau from the
+town-ditch, would have to take a parabolic course;--and the cannon-
+ball would be speedy upon it, and not have Hill roads to go by!
+This notable parabolic circuit of narrow steep roads may have its
+difficulties for an Army and its baggages!" Enough, the poor Prince
+adopted that worst third course; and even made no despatch in
+getting into it; and it proved ruinous to Zittau, and to much else,
+his own life partly included.
+
+"JULY 16th-22d. Thursday night, or Friday 3 A.M., that third and
+incomparably worst course was adopted: Gabel, Puttkammer with his
+wagons, ensigns, kettledrums, all this has to surrender in a day:
+High Road to Zittau, for the Austrians, is a smooth march, when
+they like to gather fully there, and start. And in the Hills, with
+their jolts and precipitous windings, infested too by Pandours, the
+poor Prussian Main Body, on its wide parabolic circuit, has a time
+of it! Loses its pontoons, loses most of its baggage; obliged to
+set fire, not to the Pandours, but to your own wagons, and
+necessaries of army life; encamps on bleak heights; no food, not
+even water; road quite lost, road to be rediscovered or invented;
+Pandours sputtering on you out of every bush and hollow, your
+peasant wagoners cutting traces and galloping off:--such are the
+phenomena of that march by circuit leftward, on the poor Prince's
+part. March began, soon after midnight, SATURDAY, 16th, Schmettau
+as vanguard; and"--
+
+And, in fine, by FRIDAY, 22d, after not quite a week of it, the
+Prince, curving from northward (in parabolic course, LESS speedy
+than the cannon-ball's would have been) into sight of Zittau,--
+behold, there are the Austrians far and wide to left of us,
+encamped impregnable behind the Neisse River there! They have got
+the Eckart's Hill, which commands Zittau:--and how to get into
+Zittau and our magazines, and how to subsist if we were in?
+The poor Prince takes post on what Heights there are, on his own
+side of the Neisse; looks wistfully down upon Zittau, asking How?
+
+About stroke of noon the Austrians, from their Eckartsberg, do a
+thing which was much talked of. They open battery of red-hot balls
+upon Zittau; kindle the roofs of it, shingle-roofs in dry July;
+set Zittau all on blaze, the 10,000 innocent souls shrieking in
+vain to Heaven and Earth; and before sunset, Zittau is ashes and
+red-hot walls, not Zittau but a cinder-heap,--Prussian Garrison not
+hurt, nor Magazine as yet; Garrison busy with buckets, I should
+guess, but beginning to find the air grow very hot. On the morrow
+morning, Zittau is a smouldering cinder-heap, hotter and hotter to
+the Prussian Garrison; and does not exist as a City.
+
+One of the most inhuman actions ever heard of in War, shrieks
+universal Germany; asks itself what could have set a chivalrous
+Karl upon this devil-like procedure? "Protestants these poor
+Zittauers were; shone in commerce; no such weaving, industrying, in
+all Teutschland elsewhere: Hah! An eye-sorrow, they, with their
+commerce, their weavings and industryings, to Austrian Papists, who
+cannot weave or trade?" that was finally the guess of some
+persons;--wide of the mark, we may well judge. Prince Xavier of
+Saxony, present in the Camp too, made no remonstrance, said others.
+Alas, my friends, what could Xavier probably avail, the foolish
+fellow, with only three regiments? Prince Karl, it was afterwards
+evident, could have got Zittau unburnt; and could even have kept
+the Prussians out of Zittau altogether. Zittau surely would have
+been very useful to Prince Karl. But overnight (let us try to fancy
+it so), not knowing the Prussian possibilities, Prince Karl,
+screwed to the devilish point, had got his furnaces lighted, his
+red-hot balls ready; and so, hurried on by his Pride and by his
+other Devils, had,--There are devilish things sometimes done in
+War. And whole cities are made ashes by them. For certain, here is 
+a strange way of commencing your "Deliverance of Saxony"!
+And Prince Karl carries, truly, a brand-mark from this
+conflagration, and will till all memory of him cease. As to Zittau,
+it rebuilt itself. Zittau is alive again; a strong stone city, in
+our day. On its new-built Town-house stands again "BENE FACERE ET
+MALE AUDIRE REGIUM EST, To do well, and be ill spoken of, is the
+part of kings" [A saying of Alexander the Great's (Plutarch, in
+ALEXANDRE).] (amazingly true of them,--when they are not shams).
+What times for Herrnhuth; preparing for its Christian Sabbath,
+under these omens near by!
+
+The Prince of Prussia tells us, he "early next morning (Saturday,
+23d July) had his tents pitched;" which was but an unavailing
+procedure, with poor Zittau gone such a road. "Bring us bread out
+of that ruined Zittau," ordered the Prince: his Detachment returns
+ineffectual, "So hot, we cannot march in." And the Garrison Colonel
+(one Dierecke and five battalions are garrison) sends out word:
+"So hot, we cannot stand it." "Stand it yet a very little; and--!"
+answers the Prince: but Dierecke and battalions cannot, or at least
+cannot long enough; and set to marching out. In firm order, I have
+no doubt, and with some modicum of bread: but the tumbling of
+certain burnt walls parted Colonel and men, in a sad way.
+Colonel himself, with the colors, with the honors (none of his
+people, it seems, though they were scattered loose), was picked up
+by an Austrian party, and made prisoner. A miserable business, this
+of Zittau!
+
+Next, evening, Sunday, after dark, Prince of Prussia strikes his
+tents again; rolls off in a very unsuccinct condition;
+happily unchased, for he admits that chase would have been ruinous.
+Off towards Lobau (what nights for Zinzendorf and Herrnhuth, as
+such things tumble past them!); thence towards Bautzen; and arrives
+in the most lugubrious torn condition any Prussian General ever
+stood in. Reaches Bautzen on those terms;--and is warned that his
+Brother will be there in a day or two.
+
+One may fancy Friedrich's indignation, astonishment and grief, when
+he heard of that march towards Zittau through the Hills by a
+parabolic course; the issue of which is too gnessable by Friedrich.
+He himself instantly rises from Leitmeritz; starts, in fit
+divisions, by the Pascopol, by the Elbe passes, for Pirna;
+and, leaving Moritz of Dessau with a 10,000 to secure the Passes
+about Pirna, and Keith to come on with the Magazines, hastens
+across for Bautzen, to look into these advancing triumphant
+Austrians, these strange Prussian proceedings. On first hearing of
+that side-march, his auguries had been bad enough; [Letter to
+Wilhelmina "Linay, 22d July" (second day of the march from
+Leitmeritz); <italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xxvii. i. 298.] but the
+event has far surpassed them. Zittau gone; the Army hurrying home,
+as if in flight, in that wrecked condition; the door of Saxony,
+door of Silesia left wide open,--Daun has only to choose! Day by
+day, as Friedrich advanced to repair that mischief, the news of it
+have grown worse on him. Days rife otherwise in mere bad news.
+The Russians in Memel, Preussen at their feet; Soubise's French and
+the Reich's Army pushing on for Erfurt, to "deliver Saxony,"
+on that western side: and from the French-English scene of
+operations-- In those same bad days Royal Highness of Cumberland
+has been doing a feat worth notice in the above connection! Read
+this, from an authentic source:--
+
+"HASTENBECK, 22d-26th JULY, 1757. Royal Highness, hitching back and
+back, had got to Hameln, a strong place of his on the safe side of
+the Weser; and did at last, Hanover itself being now nigh, call
+halt; and resolve to make a stand. July 22d [very day while the
+Prince of Prussia came in sight of Zittau, with the Austrians
+hanging over it], Royal Highness took post in that favorable
+vicinity of Hameln; at perfect leisure to select his ground:
+and there sat waiting D'Estrees,--swamps for our right wing, and
+the Weser not far off; small Hamlet of Hastenbeck in front, and a
+woody knoll for our left;--totally inactive for four days long;
+attempting nothing upon D'Estrees and his intricate shufflings, but
+looking idly noonward to the courses of the sun, till D'Estrees
+should come up. Royal Highness is much swollen into obesity, into
+flabby torpor; a changed man since Fontenoy times; shockingly
+inactive, they say, in this post at Hastenbeck. D'Estrees, too, is
+ridiculously cautious, 'has manoeuvred fifteen days in advancing
+about as many British miles.' D'Estrees did at last come up (July
+25th), nearly two to one of Royal Highness,--72,000 some count him,
+but considerably anarchic in parts, overwhelmed with Court Generals
+and Princes of the Blood, for one item;--and decides on attacking,
+next morning. D'Estrees duly went to reconnoitre, but unluckily
+'had mist suddenly falling.' 'Well; we must attack, all the same!'
+
+"And so, 26th JULY, Tuesday, there ensued a BATTLE OF HASTENBECK:
+the absurdest Battle in the world; and which ought, in fairness, to
+have been lost by BOTH, though Royal Highness alone had the ill
+luck. Both Captains behaved very poorly; and each of them had a
+subaltern who behaved well. D'Estrees, with his 70,000 VERSUS
+40,000 posted there, knows nothing of Royal Highness's position;
+sees only Royal Highness's left wing on that woody Height;
+and after hours of preliminary cannonading, sends out General
+Chevert upon that. Chevert, his subaltern [a bit of right soldier-
+stuff, the Chevert whom we knew at Prag, in old Belleisle times],
+goes upon it like fury; whom the Brunswick Grenadiers resist in
+like humor, hotter and hotter. Some hard fighting there, on Royal
+Highness's left; Chevert very fiery, Grenadiers very obstinate;
+till, on the centre, westward, in Royal Highness's chief battery
+there, some spark went the wrong way, and a powder-wagon shot
+itself aloft with hideous blaze and roar; and in the confusion, the
+French rushed in, and the battery was lost. Which discouraged the
+Grenadiers; so that Chevert made some progress upon them, on their
+woody Height, and began to have confident hope.
+
+"Had Chevert known, or had D'Estrees known, there was, close behind
+said Height, a Hollow, through which these Grenadiers might have
+been taken in rear. Dangerous Hollow, much neglected by Royal
+Highness, who has only General Breitenbach with a weak party there.
+This Breitenbach, happening to have a head of his own, and finding
+nothing to do in that Hollow or to rightward, bursts out, of his
+own accord, on Chevert's left flank; cannonading, volleying, horse-
+charging;--the sound of which ('Hah, French there too!') struck a
+damp through Royal Highness, who instantly ordered retreat, and
+took the road. What singular ill-luck that sound of Breitenbach to
+Royal Highness! For observe, the EFFECT of Breitenbach,--which was,
+to recover the lost battery (gallant young Prince of Brunswick,
+'Hereditary Prince,' or Duke that is to be, striking in upon it
+with bayonet-charge at the right moment), made D'Estrees to order
+retreat! 'Battle lost,' thinks D'Estrees;--and with good cause, had
+Breitenbach been supported at all. But no subaltern durst;
+and Royal Highness himself was not overtakable, so far on the road.
+Royal Highness wept on hearing; the Brunswick Grenadiers too are
+said to have wept (for rage); and probably Breitenbach and the
+Hereditary Prince." [Mauvillon, i. 228; Anonymous of Hamburg,
+i. 206 (who gives a Plan and all manner of details, if needed by
+anybody); Kausler; &c. &c.]
+
+This is the last of Royal Highness's exploits in War. The retreat
+had been ordered "To Hanover;" but the baggage by mistake took the
+road for Minden; and Royal Highness followed thither,--much the
+same what road he or it takes. Friedrich might still hope he would
+retreat on Magdeburg; 40,000 good soldiers might find a Captain
+there, and be valuable against a D'Estrees and Soubise in those
+parts. But no; it was through Bremen Country, to Stade, into the
+Sea, that Royal Highness, by ill luck, retreated! He has still one
+great vexation to give Friedrich,--to us almost a comfort, knowing
+what followed out of it;--and will have to be mentioned one other
+time in this History, and then go over our horizon altogether.
+
+Whether Friedrich had heard of Hastenbeck the day his Brother and
+he met (July 29th, at Bautzen), I do not know: but it is likely
+enough he may have got the news that very morning; which was not
+calculated to increase one's good humor! His meeting with the
+Prince is royal, not fraternal, as all men have heard. Let us give
+with brevity, from Schmettau Junior, the exact features of it;
+and leave the candid reader, who has formed to himself some notion
+of kingship and its sorrows and stern conditions (having perhaps
+himself some thing of kingly, in a small potential way), to
+interpret the matter, and make what he can of it:--
+
+"BAUTZEN, 29th JULY, 1757. The King with reinforcement is coming
+hither, from the Dresden side; to take up the reins of this
+dishevelled Zittau Army; to speed with it against the Austrians,
+and, if humanly possible, lock the doors of Silesia and Saxony
+again, and chase the intruders away. Prince of Prussia and the
+other Generals have notice, the night before: 'At 4 A.M. to-morrow
+(29th), wait his Majesty.' Prince and Generals wait accordingly,
+all there but Goltz and Winterfeld; they not, which is noted.
+
+"For above an hour, no King; Prince and Generals ride forward:--
+there is the King coming; Prince Henri, Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick
+and others in his train. King, noticing them, at about 300 paces
+distance, drew bridle; Prince of Prussia did the like, train and he
+saluting with their hats, as did the King's train in return.
+King did not salute;--on the contrary, he turned his horse round
+and dismounted, as did everybody else on such signal. King lay down
+on the ground, as if waiting the arrival of his Vanguard; and bade
+Winterfeld and Goltz sit by him." Poor Prince of Prussia, and
+battered heavy-laden Generals! "After a minute or two, Goltz came
+over and whispered to the Prince. 'Hither, MEINE HERREN, all of
+you; a message from his Majesty!' cried the Prince. Whereupon, to
+Generals and Prince, Goltz delivered, in equable official tone,
+these affecting words: 'His Majesty commands me to inform your
+Royal Highness, That he has cause to be greatly discontented with
+you; that you deserve to have a Court-martial held over you,
+which would sentence you and all your Generals to death; but that
+his Majesty will not carry the matter so far, being unable to
+forget that in the Chief General he has a Brother!'" [Schmettau,
+pp. 384, 385.]
+
+The Prince answered, He wanted only a Court-martial, and the like,
+in stiff tone. Here is the Letter he writes next day to his
+Brother, with the Answer:--
+
+
+PRINCE OF PRUSSIA TO THE KING.
+
+"BAUTERN, 30th July, 1757.
+
+"MY DEAR BROTHER,--The Letters you have written me, and the
+reception I yesterday met with, are sufficient proof that, in your
+opinion, I have ruined my honor and reputation. This grieves, but
+it does not crush me, as in my own mind I am not conscious of the
+least reproach. I am perfectly convinced that I did not act by
+caprice: I did not follow the counsels of people incapable of
+giving good ones; I have done what I thought to be suitablest for
+the Army. All your Generals will do me that justice.
+
+"I reckon it useless to beg of you to have my conduct investigated:
+this would be a favor you would do me; so I cannot expect it.
+My health has been weakened by these fatigues, still more by these
+chagrins. I have gone to lodge in the Town, to recruit myself.
+
+"I have requested the Duke of Bevern to present the Army Reports;
+he can give you explanation of everything. Be assured, my dear
+Brother, that in spite of the misfortunes which overwhelm me, and
+which I have not deserved, I shall never cease to be attached to
+the State; and as a faithful member of the same, my joy will be
+perfect when I learn the happy issue of your Enterprises. I have
+the honor to be"
+
+AUGUST WILHELM.
+<italic> Main de Maitre, <end italic> p. 21.]
+
+KING'S ANSWER, THE SAME DAY.
+
+"CAMP NEAR BAUTZEN, 30th July, 1757.
+"MY DEAR BROTHER,--Your bad guidance has greatly deranged my
+affairs. It is not the Enemy, it is your ill-judged measures that
+have done me all this mischief. My Generals are inexcusable;
+either for advising you so ill, or in permitting you to follow
+resolutions so unwise. Your ears are accustomed to listen to the
+talk of flatterers only. Daun has not flattered you;--behold the
+consequences. In this aad situation, nothing is left for me but
+trying the last extremity. I must go and give battle; and if we
+cannot conquer, we must all of us have ourselves killed.
+
+"I do not complain of your heart; but I do of your incapaciy, of
+your want of judgment in not choosing better methods. A man who
+[like me; mark the phrase, from such a quarter!] has but a few days
+to live need not dissemble. I wish you better fortune than mine has
+been: and that all the miseries and bad adventures you have had may
+teach you to treat important things with more of care, more of
+sense, and more of resolution. The greater part of the misfortunes
+which I now see to be near comes only from you. You and your
+Children will be more overwhelmed by them than I. Be persuaded
+nevertheless that I have always loved you, and that with these
+sentiments I shall die.              FRIEDRICH."
+[MAIN DE MAITRE, p. 22.]
+
+As the King went off to the Heights of Weissenberg, Zittau way, to
+encamp there against the Austrians, that same evening, the Prince
+did not answer this Letter,--except by asking verbally through
+Lieutenant-Colonel Lentulus (a mute Swiss figure, much about the
+King, who often turns up in these Histories), "for leave to return
+to Dresden by the first escort."--"Depends on himself;--an escort
+is going this night! answered Friedrich. And the Prince went
+accordingly; and, by two stages, got into Dresden with his escort
+on the morrow. And had, not yet conscious of it, quitted the Field
+of War altogether; and was soon about to quit the world, and die,
+poor Prince. Died within a year, 12th June, 1758, at Oranienburg,
+beside his Family, where he had latterly been. [Preuss, ii. 60
+(ib. 78).]--Winterfeld was already gone, six months before him;
+Goltz went, not long after him; the other Zittau Generals all
+survived this War.
+
+The poor Prince's fate, as natural, was much pitied; and Friedrich,
+to this day, is growled at for "inhuman treatment" and so on.
+Into which question we do not enter, except to say that Friedrich
+too had his sorrows; and that probably his concluding words, "with
+these sentiments I shall die," were perfectly true. MAIN DE MAITRE
+went widely abroad over the world. The poor Prince's words and
+procedures were eagerly caught up by a scrutinizing public,--and
+some of the former were not too guarded. At Dresden, he said, one
+morning, calling on a General Finck whom we shall hear of again:
+"Four such disagreeing, thin-skinned, high-pacing (UNEINIGE,
+PIQUIRTE) Generals as Fouquet, Schmettau, Winterfeld and Goltz,
+about you, what was to be done!" said the Prince to Finck.
+[Preuss, ii. 79 n.: see ib. 60, 78.]
+
+His Wife, when at last he came to Oranienburg, nursed him fondly;
+that is one comfortable fact. Prince Henri, to the last, had
+privately a grudge of peculiar intensity, on this score, against
+all the peccant parties, King not excepted. As indeed he was apt to
+have, on various scores, the jealous, too vehement little man.
+
+Friedrich's humor at this time I can guess to have been well-nigh
+desperate. He talks once of "a horse, on too much provocation,
+getting the bit between its teeth; regardless thenceforth of chasms
+and precipices:" [Letter to Wilhelmina, "Linay, 22d July" (cited
+above).]--though he himself never carries it to that length;
+and always has a watchful eye, when at his swiftest!
+From Weissenberg, that night, he drives in the Pandours on Zittau
+and the Eckartsberg--but the Austrians don't come out. And, for
+three weeks in this fierce necessity of being speedy, he cannot get
+one right stroke at the Austrians; who sit inexpugnable upon their
+Eckart's Hill, bristling with cannon; and can in no way be
+manoeuvred down, or forced or enticed into Battle. A baffling,
+bitterly impatient three weeks;--two of them the worst two, he
+spends at Weissenberg itself, chasing Pandours, and scuffling on
+the surface, till Keith and the Magazine-train come up;--
+even writing Verses now and then, when the hours get
+unendurable otherwise!
+
+The instant Keith and the Magazines are come he starts for
+Bernstadt; 56,000 strong after this junction:--and a Prussian
+Officer, dating "Bernstadtel [Bernstadt on the now Maps], 21st
+August, 1757," sends us this account; which also is but of
+preliminary nature:--
+
+"AUGUST 15th, Majesty left Weissenberg, and marched hither, much to
+the enemy's astonishment, who had lain perfectly quiet for a
+fortnight past, fancying they were a mastiff on the door-sill of
+Silesia: little thinking to be trampled on in this unceremonious
+way! General Beck, when our hussars of the vanguard made
+appearance, had to saddle and ride as for life, leaving every rag
+of baggage, and forty of his Pandours captive. Our hussars stuck to
+him, chasing him into Ostritz, where they surprised General Nadasti
+at dinner; and did a still better stroke of business:
+Nadasti himself could scarcely leap on horseback and get off;
+left all his field equipage, coaches, horses, kitchen-utensils,
+flunkies seventy-two in number,--and, what was worst of all, a
+secret box, in which were found certain Dresden Correspondences of
+a highly treasonous character, which now the writers there may
+quake to think of;"--if Friedrich, or we, could take much notiee of
+them, in this press of hurries! [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> iv. 595-599.]
+
+Next day, August 16th, Friedrich detached five battalions to
+Gorlitz;--Prince Karl (he calls it DAUN) still camping on the
+Eckartsberg;--and himself, about 4 P.M., with the main Army,
+marched up to those Austrians on their Hill, to see if they would
+fight. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> iv. 137.]
+No, they would n't: they merely hustled themselves round so as to
+face him; face him, and even flank him with cannon-batteries if he
+came too near. Steep ground, "precipitons front of rocks," in some
+places. "A hollow before their front; Village of Wittgenau there,
+and three roads through it, ONE of them with width for wheels;"
+Daun sitting inaccessible, in short. Next day, Winterfeld, with a
+detached Division, crossed the Neisse, tried Nadasti:
+"Attack Nadasti, on his woody knoll at Hirschfeld yonder; they will
+have to rise and save him!" In vain, that too; they let Nadasti
+take his own luck: for four days (16th-20th August) everything was
+tried, in vain.
+
+No Battle to be had from these Austrians. And it would have been so
+infinitely convenient to us: Reich's Army and Soubise's French are
+now in the actual precincts of Erfurt (August 25th, Soubise took
+quarter there); Royal Highness of Cumberland is staggering back
+into the Sea; Richelieu's French (not D'Estrees any more, D'Estrees
+being superseded in this strange way) are aiming, it is thought,
+towards Magdeburg, had they once done with Royal Highness;
+Swedes are getting hold of Pommern; Russians, in huge force, of
+Preussen: how comfortable to have had our Austrians finished before
+going upon the others! For four days more (August 20th-24th),
+Friedrich arranges his Army for watching the Austrians, and
+guarding Silesia;--Bevern and Winterfeld to take command in his
+absence:--and, August 25th, has to march; with a small Division,
+which, at Dresden, he will increase by Moritz's, now needless in
+the Pirna Country; towards Thuringen; to look into Soubise and the
+Reich's Army, as a thing that absolutely cannot wait. Arrives in
+Dresden, Monday, August 29th; and-- Or let the old Newspaper report
+it, with the features of life:--
+
+"DRESDEN, 29th AUGUST, 1757, This day, about noon, his Majesty,
+with a part of his Army from the Upper Lausitz, arrived at the
+Neustadt here. Though the kitchen had been appointed to be set up
+at what they call The Barns (DIE SCHEUNEN), his Majesty was pleased
+to alight in Konigsbruck Street, at the new House of Bruhl's
+Chamberlain, Haller; and there passed the night. Tuesday evening,
+30th, his Majesty the King, with his Lifeguards of Horse and of
+Foot, also with the Gens-d'Armes and other Battalions, marched
+through the City, about a mile out on the Freiberg road, and took
+quarter in Klein Hamberg. The 3lst, all the Army followed,"--a poor
+23,000, Moritz and he, that was all! ["22,360" (Templehof,
+i. 228).]--"the King's field-equipage, which had been taken from
+the Bruhl Palace and packed in twelve wagons, went with them."
+[Rodenbeck, p. 316; Preuss, ii. 84 n; Mitchell's Interview
+(<italic> Memoirs and Papers, <end italic> i. 270).]
+
+
+
+Chapter VI.
+
+DEATH OF WINTERFELD.
+
+Before going upon this forlorn march of Friedrich's, one of the
+forlornest a son of Adam ever had, we must speak of a thing which
+befell to rearward, while the march was only half done, and which
+greatly influenced it and all that followed. It was the seventh day
+of Friedrich's march, not above eighty miles of it yet done, when
+Winterfeld perished in fight. No Winterfeld now to occupy the
+Austrians in his absence; to stand between Silesia and them, or
+assist him farther in his lonesome struggle against the world.
+Let us spend a moment on the exit of that brave man: Bernstadt,
+Gorlitz Country, September 7th, 1757.
+
+The Bevern Army, 36,000 strong, is still there in its place in the
+Lausitz, near Gorlitz; Prince Karl lies quiet in his near Zittau,
+ever since he burnt that Town, and stood four days in arms
+unattackable by Friedrich with prospect of advantage. The Court of
+Vienna cannot comprehend this state of inactivity: "Two to one, and
+a mere Bevern against you, the King far away in Saxony upon his
+desperate Anti-French mission there: why not go in upon this
+Bevern? The French, whom we are by every courier passionately
+importuning to sweep Saxony clear, what will they say of this
+strange mode of sweeping Silesia clear?" Maria Theresa and her
+Kriegs-Hofrath are much exercised with these thoughts, and with
+French and other remonstrances that come. Maria Theresa and her
+Kriegs-Hofrath at length despatch their supreme Kaunitz, Graf
+Kaunitz in person, to stir up Prince Karl, and look into the matter
+with his own wise eyes and great heart: Prince Karl, by way of
+treat to this high gentleman, determines on doing something
+striking upon Bevern.
+
+Bevern lies with his main body about Gorlitz, in and to westward of
+Gorlitz, a pleasant Town on the left bank of the Neisse (readers
+know there are four Neisses, and which of them this is), with fine
+hilly country all round, bulky solitary Heights and Mountains
+rising out of fruitful plains,--two Hochkirchs (HIGH-KIRKS), for
+example, are in this region, one of which will become extremely
+notable next year:--Bevern has a strong camp leaning on the due
+Heights here, with Gorlitz in its lap; and beyond Gorlitz, on the
+right bank of the Neisse, united to him by a Bridge, he has placed
+Winterfeld with 10,000, who lies with his back to Gorlitz, proper
+brooks and fencible places flanking him, has a Dorf (THORP) called
+Moys in HIS lap; and, some short furlong beyond Moys, a 2,000 of
+his grenadiers planted on the top of a Hill called the Moysberg,
+called also the Holzberg (WOODHILL) and Jakelsberg, of which the
+reader is to take notice. Fine outpost, with proper batteries atop,
+with hussar squadrons and hussar pickets sprinkled about;
+which commands a far outlook towards Silesia, and in marching
+thither, or in continuing here, is useful to have in hand,--were it
+not a little too distant from the main body. It is this Jakelsberg,
+capable of being snatched if one is sudden enough, that Prince Karl
+decides on: it may be good for much or for little to Prince Karl;
+and, if even for nothing, it will be a brilliant affront upon
+Winterfeld and Bevern, and more or less charming to Kaunitz.
+
+Winterfeld, the ardent enterprising man, King's other self, is
+thought to be the mainspring of affairs here (small thanks to him
+privately from Bevern, add some): and is stationed in the extreme
+van, as we see; Winterfeld is engaged in many things besides the
+care of this post; and indeed where a critical thing is to be done,
+we can imagine Winterfeld goes upon it. "We must try to stay here
+till the King has finished in Saxony!" says Winterfeld always.
+To which Bevern replies, "Excellent, truly; but how?" Bevern has
+his provender at Dresden, sadly far off; has to hold Bautzen
+garrisoned, and gets much trouble with his convoys. Better in
+Silesia, with our magazines at hand, thinks Bevern, less mindful of
+other considerations.
+
+Tuesday, September 6th, Prince Karl sends Nadasti to the right bank
+of the River, forward upon Moys, to do the Jakelsberg before day
+to-morrow: only some 2,000 grenadiers on it; Nadasti has with him
+15,000, some count 20,000 of all arms, artillery in plenty;
+surely sufficient for the Jakelsberg; and Daun advances, with the
+main body, on the other side of the River, to be within reach,
+should Moys lead to more serious consequences. Nadasti diligently
+marches all day; posts himself at night within few miles of Moys;
+gets his cannon to the proper Hills (GALLOWS Hill and others), his
+Croats to the proper Woods; and, before daylight on the morrow,
+means to begin upon the Moys Hill and its 2,000 grenadiers.
+
+Wednesday morning, at the set hour, Nadasti, with artillery
+bursting out and quivering battle-lines, is at work accordingly;
+hurls up 1,000 Croats for one item, and regulars to the amount of
+"forty companies in three lines." The grenadiers, somewhat
+astonished, for the morning was misty and their hussar-posts had
+come hastily in, stood upon their guard, like Prussian men;
+hurled back the 1,000 Croats fast enough; stubbornly repulsed the
+regulars too, and tumbled them down hill with bullet-storm for
+accompaniment; gallantly foiling this first attempt of Nadasti's.
+Of course Nadasti will make another, will make ever others; capture
+of the Jakelsberg can hardly be doubtful to Nadasti.
+
+Winterfeld was not at Moys, he was at Gorlitz, just got in from
+escorting an important meal-convoy hither out of Bautzen; and was
+in conference with Bevern, when rumor of these Croat attacks came
+in at the gallop from Moys. Winterfeld made little of the rumors:
+he had heard of some attack intended, but it was to have been
+overnight, and has not been. "Mere foraging of Croat rabble, like
+yesterday's!" said Winterfeld, and continued his present business.
+In few minutes the sound of heavy cannonading convinced him.
+"Haha, there are my guests," said he; "we must see if we cannot
+entertain them right!" sprang to horseback, ordered on, double-
+quick, the three regiments nearest him, and was off at the gallop,
+--too late; or, alas, too EARLY we might rather say! Arriving at
+the gallop, Winterfeld found his grenadiers and their insufficient
+reinforcements rolling back, the Hill lost; Winterfeld "sprang to a
+fresh horse," shot his lightning glances and energies, to his hand
+and that; stormfully rallied the matter, recovered the Hill;
+and stormfully defended it, for, I should guess, an hour or more;
+and might still have done one knows not what, had not a bullet
+struck him through the breast, and suddenly ended all his doings in
+this world.
+
+Three other reasons the Prussians give for loss of their Hill,
+which are of no consequence to them or to us in comparison.
+First, that Bevern; on message after message, sent no
+reinforcement; that Winterfeld was left to his own 10,000, and what
+he and they could make of it. Bevern is jealous of Winterfeld, hint
+they, and willing to see his impetuous audacity checked.
+Perhaps only cautious of getting into a general action for what was
+intrinsically nothing? Second, that two regiments of Infantry, whom
+Winterfeld detached double-quick to seize a couple of villages
+(Leopoldshayn, Hermsdorf) on his right, and therefrom fusillade
+Nadasti on flank, found the villages already occupied by thousands
+of Croats, with regular foot and cannon-batteries, and could in
+nowise seize them. This was a great reverse of advantage.
+Third, that an Aide-de-Camp made a small misnomer, misreport of one
+word, which was terribly important: "Bring me hither Regiment
+Manteuffel!" Winterfeld had ordered. The Aide-de-Camp reported it
+"Grenadiers Manteuffel:" upon which, the grenadiers, who were
+posted in a walled garden, an important point to Winterfeld's
+right, came instantly to order; and Austrians instantly rushed in
+to the vacant post, and galled Winterfeld's other flank by their
+fire. [Abundant Accounts in Seyfarth, ii. (<italic> Beylagen),
+162-163; <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 615-633;
+Retzow, i. 216-221.]
+
+Enough, Winterfeld lay bleeding to death, the Hill was lost,
+Prussians drawing off slowly and back-foremost, about two in the
+afternoon; upon which the Austrians also drew off, leaving only a
+small party on the Hill, who voluntarily quitted it next morning.
+Next morning, likewise, Winterfeld had died. The Hill was, except
+as bravado, and by way of comfort to Kaunitz, nothing for the
+Austrians; but the death of Winterfeld, which had come by chance to
+them in the business, was probably a great thing. Better than two
+pitched battles gained: who shall say? He was a shining figure,
+this Winterfeld; dangerous to the Austrians. The most shining
+figure in the Prussian Army, except its Chief; and had great
+thoughts in his head. Prussia is not skilful to celebrate her
+Heroes,--the Prussian Muse of History, choked with dry military
+pipe-clay, or with husky cobwebbery and academic pedantry, how can
+she?--but if Prussia can produce heroes worth celebrating, that is
+the one important point. Apart from soldiership, and the outward
+features which are widely different, there is traceable in
+Winterfeld some kinship in soul to English Chatham his
+contemporary; though he has not had the fame of Chatham.
+
+Winterfeld was by no means universally liked; as what brave man is
+or can be? Too susceptible to flattery; too this, too that. He is,
+one feels always, except Friedrich only, the most shining figure in
+the Prussian Army: and it was not unnatural he should be
+Friedrich's one friend,--as seems to have been the case.
+Friedrich, when this Job's-message reached him (in Erfurt Country,
+eight days hence), was deeply affected by it. To tears, or beyond
+tears, as we can fancy. "Against my multitude of enemies I may
+contrive resources," he was heard to say; "but I shall find no
+Winterfeld again!" Adieu, my one friend, real Peer, sole companion
+to my lonely pilgrimage in these perilous high regions.
+
+"The Prince of Prussia, contrariwise," says a miserable little
+Note, which must not be withheld, "brightened up at the news:
+'I shall now die much more content, knowing that there is one so
+bad and dangerous man fewer in the Army!' And, six months after, in
+his actual death-moments, he exclaimed: 'I end my life, the last
+period of which has cost me so much sorrow; but Winterfeld is he
+who shortened my days!'" [Preuss, ii. 75; citing Retzow.]--Very
+bitter Opposition humors circulating, in their fashion, there as
+elsewhere in this world!
+
+Bevern, the millstone of Winterfeld being off his neck, has become
+a more responsible, though he feels himself a much-delivered man.
+Had not liked Winterfeld, they say; or had even hated him, since
+those bad Zittau times. Can now, at any rate, make for Schlesien
+and the meal-magazines, when he sees good. He will find meal
+readier there; may he find other things corresponding! Nobody now
+to keep him painfully manoeuvring in these parts; with the King's
+Army nearer to him, but meal not.
+
+On the third day after (September l0th), Bevern, having finished
+packing, took the road for Schlesien; Daun and Karl attending him;
+nothing left of Daun and Karl in those Saxon Countries,--except, at
+Stolpen, out Dresden-wards, some Reserve-Post or Rear-guard of
+15,000, should we chance to hear of that again. And from the end of
+September onwards, Bevern's star, once somewhat bright at
+Reichenberg, shot rapidly downwards, under the horizon altogether;
+and there came, post after post, such news out of Schlesien,--
+to say nothing of that Stolpen Party,--as Friedrich had never
+heard before.
+
+
+
+Chapter VII.
+
+FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN, HIS WORLD OF ENEMIES ALL COME.
+
+The Soubise-Hildburghausen people had got rendezvoused at Erfurt
+about August 25th; 50,000 by account, and no enemy within 200 miles
+of them; and in the Versailles circles it had been expected they
+would proceed to the "Deliverance of Saxony" straightway. What is
+to hinder?--Friedrich, haggling with the Austrians at Bernstadt,
+could muster but a poor 23,000, when he did march towards Erfurt.
+In those same neighborhoods, within reach of Soubise, is the
+Richelieu, late D'Estrees, Army; elated with Hastenbeck,
+comfortably pushing Royal Highness of Cumberland, who makes no
+resistance, step by step, into the sea; victoriously plundering,
+far and wide in those countries, Hanover itself the Head-quarter.
+In the Versailles circles, it is farther expected that Richelieu,
+"Conqueror of Minorca," will shortly besiege and conquer 
+Magdeburg, and so crown his glories. Why not; were the "Deliverance
+of Saxony" complete?
+
+The whole of which turned out greatly otherwise, and to the sad
+disappointment of Versailles. The Conqueror of Minorca is probably
+aware that the conquering of Magdeburg, against one whose platforms
+are not rotten, and who does not "lie always in his bed," as poor
+old Blakeney did, will be a very different matter. And the private
+truth is, Marrchal de Richelieu never turned his thoughts upon
+Magdeburg at all, nor upon any point of war that had difficulties,
+but solely upon collecting plunder for himself in those Countries.
+One of the most magnificent marauders on record; in no danger, he,
+of becoming monitory and a pendulum, like the 1,000 that already
+swing in that capacity to rear of him! And he did manage, in this
+Campaign, which was the last of his military services, so as to pay
+off at Paris "above 50,000 pounds of debts; and to build for
+himself a beautiful Garden Mansion there, which the mocking
+populations called 'Hanover Pavilion (PAVILION D'HANOVRE);'" a name
+still sticking to it, I believe. [Barbier, iii. 256, 271.]
+Of the Richelieu Campaign we are happily delivered from saying
+almost anything: and the main interest for us turns now on that
+Soubise-Hildburghausen wing of it,--which also is a sufficiently
+contemptible affair; not to be spoken of beyond the
+strictly unavoidable.
+
+Friedrich, with his 23,000 setting out from Dresden, August 30th,
+has a march of about 170 miles towards Erfurt. He may expect to
+find--counting Richelieu, if Royal Highness of Cumberland persist
+in acting ZERO as hitherto--a confused mass of about 150,000
+Enemies, of one sort and other, waiting him ahead; not to think of
+those he has just left behind;--and he cannot well be in a
+triumphant humor! Behind, before, around, it is one gathering of
+Enemies: one point only certain, that he must beat them, or else
+die. Readers would fain follow him in this forlorn march; him, the
+one point of interest now in it: and readers shall, if we can
+manage, though it is extremely difficult. For, on getting to
+Erfurt, he finds his Soubise-Hildburghausen Army off on retreat
+among the inaccessible Hills still farther westward; and has to
+linger painfully there, and to detach, and even to march personally
+against other Enemies; and then, these finished, to march back
+towards his Erfurt ones, who are taking heart in the interim:--and,
+in short, from September 1st to November 5th, there are two months
+of confused manoeuvring and marching to and fro in that West-Saxon
+region, which are very intricate to readers. November 5th is a day
+unforgettable: but anterior to that, what can we do? Here, dated,
+are the Three grand Epochs of the thing; which readers had better
+fix in mind as a preliminary:--
+
+  1. SEPTEMBER 13th, Friedrich has got to Erfurt neighborhood;
+but Soubise and Company are off westward to the Hills of Eisenach,
+won't come down; Friedrich obliged to linger thereabouts, painfully
+waiting almost a month, till
+  2. OCTOBER 11th, hearing that "15,000 Austrians" (that Stolpen
+Party, left as rear-guard at Stolpen; Croats mainly, under a
+General Haddick) are on march for Berlin, he rises in haste
+thitherward, through Leipzig, Torgau, say 100 miles; hears that
+Haddick HAS been in Berlin (16th-17th October) for one day, and
+that he is off again full speed with a ransom of 30,000 pounds,
+which they have had to pay him: upon which Friedrich calls halt in
+the Torgau country;--and would have been uncertain what to do,
+had not
+  3. Soubise and Company, extremely elated with this Haddick Feat,
+come out from their Hills, intent to deliver Saxony after all.
+So that Friedrich has to turn back (October 26th-30th) through
+Leipzig again; towards,--in fact towards ROSSBACH and NOVEMBER 5th,
+in his old Saale Country, which does not prove so wearisome
+as formerly!
+
+These are the cardinal dates; these let the reader recur to, if
+necessary, and keep steadily in mind: it will then perhaps be
+possible to intercalate, in a manner intelligible to him, what
+other lucent phenomena there are; and these dismal wanderings, and
+miserablest two months of Friedrich's life, will not be wholly a
+provoking blotch of enigmatic darkness, but in some sort a thing
+with features in the twilight of the Past.
+
+
+I. FRIEDRICH'S MARCH TO ERFURT FROM DRESDEN
+(31st August-13th September, 1757).
+
+The march to Erfurt was of twelve days, and without adventure to
+speak of. Mayer and Free-Battalion had the vanguard, Friedrich
+there as usual; main body, under Keith with Ferdinand and Moritz,
+following in several columns: straight towards their goal;
+with steady despatch; for twelve days;--weather often very wet.
+[Tempelhof, i. 229; Rodenbeck, i. 317 (not very correct):
+in Westphalen (ii. 20 &c.) a personal Diary of this March, and of
+what followed on Duke Ferdinand's part.] Seidlitz, with cavalry,
+had gone ahead, in search of one Turpin, a mighty hunter and Hussar
+among the French, who was threatening Leipzig, threatening Halle:
+but Turpin made off at sound of him, without trying fight; so that
+Seidlitz had only to halt, and rejoin, hoping better luck
+another time.
+
+A march altogether of the common type,--the stages of it not worth
+marking except for special readers;--and of memorable to us offers
+only this, if even this: at Rotha, in Leipzig Country, the eighth
+stage from Dresden, Friedrich writes, willing to try for Peace if
+it be possible,
+
+
+TO THE MARECHAL DUC DE RICHELIEU.
+
+"ROTHA, 7th September, 1757.
+
+"I feel, M. le Duc, that you have not been put in the post where
+you are for the purpose of Negotiating. I am persuaded, however,
+that the Nephew of the great Cardinal Richelieu is made for signing
+treaties no less than for gaining battles. I address myself to you
+from an effect of the esteem with which you inspire even those who
+do not intimately know you.
+
+"'T is a small matter, Monsieur (IL S'AGIT D'UNE BAGATELLE): only
+to make Peace, if people are pleased to wish it! I know not what
+your Instructions are: but, in the supposition that the King your
+Master, zow assured by your Successes, will have put it in your
+power to labor in the pacification of Germany, I address to you the
+Sieur d'Elcheset" (Sieur Balbi is the real name of him, an Italian
+Engineer of mine, who once served with you in the Fontenoy times,--
+and some say he has privately a 15,000 pounds for your Grace's
+acceptance,--"the Sieur d'Elcheset), in whom you may place
+complete confidence.
+
+"Though the events of this Year afford no hope that your Court
+still entertains a favorable disposition for my interests, I cannot
+persuade myself that a union which has lasted between us for
+sixteen years may not have left some trace in the mind. Perhaps I
+judge others by myself. But, however that may be, I, in short,
+prefer putting my interests into the King your Master's hands
+rather thau into any other's. If you have not, Monsieur, any
+Instructions as to the Proposal hereby made, I beg of you to ask
+such, and to inform me what the tenor of them is.
+
+"He who has merited statues at Genoa [ten years ago, in those ANTI-
+Austrian times, when Genoa burst up in revolt, and the French and
+Richelieu beautifully intervened against the oppressors]; he who
+conquered Minorca in spite of immense obstacles; he who is on the
+point of subjugating Lower Saxony,--can do nothing more glorious
+than to restore Peace to Europe. Of all your laurels, that will be
+the fairest. Work in this Cause, with the activity which has
+secured you such rapid progress otherwise; and be persuaded that
+nobody will feel more grateful to you than, Monsieur le Duc,--
+Your faithful Friend,--           FREDERIC."
+[Given in RODENBECK, i. 313 (doubtless from <italic> Memoires de
+Richelieu, <end italic> Paris, 1793, ix. 175, the one fountain-head
+in regard to this small affair): for "the 15,000 pounds" and other
+rumored particulars, sea Retzow, i. 197; Preuss, ii. 84; <italic>
+OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> iv. 145.]
+
+Richelieu, it appears by any evidence there is, went willingly into
+this scheme; and applied at Versailles, as desired; with a
+peremptory negative for result. Nothing came of the Richelieu
+attempt there; nor of "CE M. DE MIRABEAU," if he ever went; nor of
+any other on that errand. Needless to apply for Peace at Versailles
+(and a mere waste of your "sum of 15,000 pounds," which one hopes
+is fabulous in the present scarcity of money):--or should we
+perhaps have mentioned the thing at all, except for the sake of
+Wilhelmina, whose fond scheme it is in this extremity of fate;
+scheme which she tries in still other directions, as we shall see;
+her Brother willing too, but probably with much less hope. If a
+civil Letter and a bribe of Money will do it, these need not
+be spared.
+
+This at Rotha is the day while Winterfeld, on Moys Hill, is meeting
+his death. To-day at Pegau, in this neighborhood, Seidlitz, who
+could not fall in with Turpin, has given the Hussars of Loudon a
+beautiful slap; the first enemy we have seen on this march; and the
+last,--nothing but Loudon and Hussars visibly about, the rest of
+those Soubise-Reichs people dormant, as would seem. "D'Elcheset,"
+Balbi, or whoever he was, would not find Richelieu at Hanover;
+but at a place called Kloster-Zeven, in Bremen Country, fifty or
+sixty miles farther on. There, this day, are Richelieu with one
+Sporcken a Hanoverian, and one Lynar a Dane, rapidly finishing a
+thing they were pleased to call "Convention of Kloster-Zeven;"
+which Friedrich regarded as another huge misfortune fallen on him,
+--though it proved to have been far the reverse a while after.
+Concerning which take this brief Note; cannot be too brief on such
+a topic:--
+
+"Never was there a more futile Convention than that of Kloster-
+Zeven; which filled all Europe with lamentable noises, indignations
+and anxieties, during the remainder of that Year; and is now
+reduced, for Europe and the Universe, to a silent mathematical
+point, or mere mark of position, requiring still to be attended to
+in that character, though itself zero in any other. Here are the
+main particulars, in their sequence.
+
+"August 3d, towards midnight, '11 P.M.' say the Books, Marechal de
+Richelieu arrives in the D'Estrees Camp ('Camp of Oldendorf,' still
+only one march west of Hastenbeck); to whom D'Estrees on the
+instant loftily delivers up his Army; explains with loyalty, for a
+few days more, all things needful to the new Commander; declines to
+be himself Second; and loftily withdraws to the Baths of Aachen
+'for his health.'
+
+"Royal Highness of Cumberland is, by this time, well on Elbe-ward,
+Ocean-ward. Till August 1st; for one week, Royal Highness of
+Cumberland lay at Minden, some thirty odd miles from Hastenbeck;
+deploring that sad mistake; but unpersuadable to stand, and try
+amendment of it: August lst, the French advancing on him again, he
+moved off northward, seaward. By Nienburg, Verden, Rothenburg,
+Zeven, Bremenvorde, Stade;--arrived at Stade, on the tidal Waters
+of the Elbe, August 5th; and by necessity did halt there.
+From Minden onwards, Richelieu, not D'Estrees, has had the chasing
+of Royal Highness: one of the simplest functions; only that the
+country is getting muddy, difficult for artillery-carriage (thinks
+Richelieu), with an Army so dilapidated, hungry, short of pay;
+and that Royal Highness, a very furious person to our former
+knowledge, might turn on us like a boar at bay, endangering
+everything; and finally, that one's desire is not for battle, but
+for a fair chance of plunder to pay one's debts.
+
+"Britannic Majesty, in this awful state of his Hanover Armaments,
+has been applying at the Danish Court; Richelieu too sends off an
+application thither: 'Mediate between us, spare useless bloodshed!'
+[Valfons, p. 291.]--Whereupon Danish Majesty (Britannic's son-in-
+law) cheerfully undertakes it; bids one Lynar bestir himself upon
+it. Count Lynar, an esteemed Official of his, who lives in those
+neighborhoods; Danish Viceroy in Oldenburg,--much concerned with
+the Scriptures, the Sacred Languages and other seraphic studies,--
+and a changed man since we saw him last in the Petersburg regions,
+making love to Mrs. Anton Ulrich long ago! Lynar, feeling the axis
+of the world laid on his shoulder in this manner, loses not a
+moment; invokes the Heavenly Powers; goes on it with an alacrity
+and a despatch beyond praise. Runs to the Duke of Cumberland at
+Stade; thence to Richelieu at Zeven; back to the Duke, back to
+Zeven: 'Won't you; and won't YOU?' and in four short days has the
+once world-famed 'Convention of Kloster-Zeven' standing on
+parchment,--signed, ready for ratifying: 'Royal Highness's Army to
+go home to their countries again [routes, methods, times:
+when, how, and what next, all left unsettled], and noise of War to
+cease in those parts.' Signed cheerfully on both sides 9th
+September, 1757; and Lynar striking the stars with his sublime
+head. [Busching (who alone is exact in the matter), <italic>
+Beitrage, <end italic> iv. 167, 168, ? Lynar: see Scholl, iii. 49;
+Valfons, pp. 202, 203; <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic>
+iv. 143 (with correction of Preuss's Note there).]
+
+"Unaccountable how Lynar had managed such a difficulty. He says
+seraphically, in a Letter to a friend, which the Prussian hussars
+got hold of, 'The idea of it was inspired by the Holy Ghost:'
+at which the whole world haha'd again. For it was a Convention
+vague, absurd, not capable of being executed; ratification of it
+refused by both Courts, by the French Court first, if that was any
+matter:--and the only thing now memorable of it is, that IT was a
+total Futility; but, that there ensued from it a Fact still of
+importance; namely:--
+
+"That on the 5th of October following, Royal Highness quitted
+Stade, and his wrecked Army hanging sorrowful there, like a flight
+of plucked cranes in mid-air;--arrived at Kensington, October 12th;
+heard the paternal Majesty say, that evening, 'Here is my son who
+has ruined me, and disgraced himself!'--and thereupon indignantly
+laid down his military offices, all and sundry; and ceased
+altogether to command Armies, English or other, in this world.
+[In WALPOLE (iii. 59-64) the amplest minuteness of detail.]
+Whereby, in the then and now diagram of things, Kloster-Zeven, as a
+mathematical point, continues memorable in History, though shrunk
+otherwise to zero!
+
+"Pitt's magnanimity to Royal Highness was conspicuous.
+Royal Highness, it is said, had been very badly used in this matter
+by his poor peddling Father and the Hanover Ministers; the matter
+being one puddle of imbecilities from beginning to end. He was the
+soul of honor; brave as a Welf lion; but, of dim poor head; and had
+not the faintest vestige [ALLERGERINGSTE says Mauvillon] of
+military skill: awful in the extreme to see in command of British
+Armies! Adieu to him, forever and a day."
+
+Ever since July 29th, three days after Hastenbeck, Pitt had been in
+Office again; such the bombardment by Corporation-Boxes and Events
+impinging on Britannic Majesty: but not till now, as I fancy, had
+Pitt's way, in regard to those German matters, been clear to him.
+The question of a German Army, if you must, have a No-General at
+the top of it, might well be problematical to Pitt. To equip your
+strong fighting man, and send him on your errand, regardless of
+expense; and, by way of preliminary, cut the head off him, before
+saying "Good-speed to you, strong man!" But with a General, Pitt
+sees that it can be different; that perhaps "America can be
+conquered in Germany," and that, with a Britannic Majesty so
+disposed, there is no other way of trying it. To this course Pitt
+stands henceforth, heedless of the gazetteer cackle, "Hah, our Pitt
+too become German, after all his talking!"--like a seventy-four
+under full sail, with sea, wind, pilot all of one mind, and only
+certain water-fowl objecting. And is King of England for the next
+Four Years; the one King poor England has had this long while;--his
+hand felt shortly at the ends of the Earth. And proves such a
+blessing to Friedrich, among others, as nothing else in this War;
+pretty much his one blessing, little as he expected it.
+Before long, Excellency Mitchell begins consulting about a General,
+--and Friedrich dimly sees better things in the distance, and that
+Kloster-Zeven had not been the misfortune he imagined, but only
+"The darkest hour," which, it is said, lies "nearest to the dawn."
+
+
+II. THE SOUBISE HILDBURGHAUSEN PEOPLE TAKE INTO THE HILLS;
+FRIEDRICH IN ERFURT NEIGHBORHOOD, HANGING ON, WEEK AFTER
+WEEK, IN AN AGONY OF INACTION (13th September-10th October).
+
+Friedrich's march has gone by Dobeln, Grimma, to Pegau and Rotha,
+Leipzig way, but, with Leipzig well to right: it just brushes
+Weissenfels to rightward, next day after Rotha; crosses Saale River
+near Naumburg, whence straight through Weimar Country, Weimar City
+on your left, to Erfurt on the northern side;--and,
+
+"ERFURT, TUESDAY 13th SEPTEMBER, 1757, About 10 in the morning
+[listen to a faithful Witness], there appeared Hussars on the
+heights to northward:--'Vanguard of his Prussian Majesty!' said
+Erfurt with alarm, and our French guests with alarm. And scarcely
+were the words uttered, when said Vanguard, and gradually the whole
+Prussian Army [only some 9,000, though we all thought it the
+whole], came to sight; posting itself in half-moon shape round us
+there; French and Reichs folk hurrying off what they could from the
+Cyriaksberg and Petersberg, by the opposite gates,"--towards Gotha,
+and the Hills of Eisenach.
+
+"Think what a dilemma for Erfurt, jammed between two horns in this
+way, should one horn enter before the other got out! Much parleying
+and supplicating on the part of Erfurt: Till at last, about 4 P.M.,
+French being all off, Erfurt flung its gates open; and the new
+Power did enter, with some due state: Prussian Majesty in Person
+(who could have hoped it!) and Prince Henri beside him;
+Cavalry with drawn swords; Infantry with field-pieces, and the band
+playing"--Prussian grenadier march, I should hope, or something
+equally cheering. "The rest of the Vanguard, and, in succession,
+the Army altogether, had taken Camp outside, looking down on the
+Northern Gate, over at Ilgertshofen, a village in the neighborhood,
+about two miles off." [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv.
+636, 637.]
+
+That is the first sight Friedrich has of "LA DAUPHINE," as the
+Versailles people call this Bellona, come to "deliver Saxony;"
+and she is considerably coyer than had been expected. Many sad
+days, and ardent vain vows of Friedrich, before he could see the
+skirt of her again! From Ilgertshofen, northwestward to
+Dittelstadt, Gamstadt, and other poor specks of villages in Gotha
+Territory, is ten or fifteen miles; from Dittelstadt eastward to
+Buttstadt and Buttelstadt, in Weimar Country, may be twenty-five:
+in this area, Friedrich, shifting about, chiefly for convenience of
+quarters,--head-quarter Kirschleben for a while, Buttelstadt
+finally and longest,--had to wander impatiently to and fro for four
+weeks and more; no work procurable, or none worth mentioning:--in
+the humor of a man whose House is on fire, flaming out of every
+window, front and rear; who has run up with quenching apparatus;
+and cannot, being spell-bound, get the least bucket of it applied.
+And is by nature the rapidest soul now alive. Figure his situation
+there, as it gradually becomes manifest to him!
+
+For the present, DAUPHINESS Bellona, hurrying to the Hills, has
+left some tagrag of remnant in Gotha. Whereupon, the second day,
+here is an "Own Correspondent" again,--not coming by electric
+telegraph, but (what is a sensible advantage) credible in every
+point, when he does come:--
+
+"GOTHA, THURSDAY, 15th SEPTEMBER. Grand-Duke and Duchess, like
+everybody else, have been much occupied all morning with the fact,
+that the Prussian Army [Seidlitz and a regiment or two, nothing
+more] is actually here; took possession of the Town-Gates and Main
+Guard this morning,--certain Hungarian-French hussar rabble,
+hateful to every one in Gotha, having made off in time, rapidly
+towards Eisenach and the Hills.
+
+"Towards noon, his Royal Majesty in highest person, with his Lord
+Brother the Prince Henri's Royal Highness, arrived in Gotha;
+sent straightway, by one of his Officers, a compliment to the
+Grand-Duke; and 'would have the pleasure to come and dine, if his
+Serene Highness permitted.' Serene Highness, self and Household
+always cordially Friedrich's, was just about sitting down to
+dinner; and answered with exuberantly glad surprise,--or was
+answering, when Royal Majesty himself stept in with smiling face;
+and embracing the Duke, said: 'I timed myself to arrive at this
+moment, thinking your Durchlaucht would be at dinner, that I might
+be received without ceremony, and dine like a neighbor among you.'
+Unexpected as this visit was, the joy of Duke and Duchess," always
+fast friends to Friedrich, and the latter ever afterwards his
+correspondent, "may be conceived, but not adequately expressed;
+as both the Serenities were touched, in the most affecting manner,
+by the honor of so great a King's sudden presence among them.
+
+"His Majesty requested that the Frau von Buchwald, our Most
+Gracious Duchess's Hof-Dame, whose qualities he much valued, might
+dine with them,"--being always fond of sensible people, especially
+sensible women. "The whole Highest and High company [Royal, that
+is, and Ducal] was, during table, uncommonly merry. The King showed
+himself altogether content; and his bright clever talk and
+sprightly sallies, awakening everybody to the like, left not the
+least trace visible of the weighty toils he was then engaged in;--
+as if the weightier these were, the less should they fetter the
+noble openness (FREYMUTHIGKEIT) of this high soul, which is not to
+be cast down by the heaviest burden.
+
+"His Majesty having taken leave of Duke and Duchess, and graciously
+permitted the chiefest persons of the Gotha Court to pay their
+respects, withdrew to his Army." [Letter in <italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 638, 639.] Slept, I find elsewhere,
+"at Gamstadt, on the floor of a little Inn;" meaning to examine
+Posts in that part, next morning.
+
+Here has been a cheerful little scene for Friedrich; the last he
+has in these black weeks. A laborious Predecessor, striving to
+elucidate, leaves me this Note:--
+
+"What a pity one knows nothing, nor can know, about this Duke and
+Duchess, though their names, especially the latter's name, are much
+tossed to and fro in the Books! We heard of them, favorably, in
+Voltaire's time; and may again, at least of the Lady, who is
+henceforth a Correspondent of Friedrich's. The above is a dim
+direct view of them, probably our last as well as first. Duke's
+name is Friedrich III.; I do believe, a man of solidity, honor and
+polite dignified sense, a highly respectable Duke of Sachsen-Gotha,
+contented to be obscure, and quietly do what was still do-able in
+that enigmatic situation. He is Uncle to our George III.;--his
+Sister is the now Princess-Dowager of Wales, with a Lord Bute, and
+I know not what questionable figures and intrigues, or suspicions
+of intrigue, much about her. His Duchess, Louisa Dorothee, is a
+Princess of distinguished qualities, literary tastes,--Voltaire's
+Hostess, Friedrich's Correspondent: a bright and quietly shining
+illumination to the circle she inhabits. Duke is now fifty-eight,
+Duchess forty-seven; and they lost their eldest Son last year.
+There has been lately a considerable private brabble as to Tutorage
+of the Duke of Weimar (Wilhelmina's maddish Duke, who is dead
+lately; and a Prince left, who soon died also, but left a Son, who
+grew to be Goethe's friend); Tutorage claimed by various Cousins,
+has been adjudged to this one, King Friedrich co-operating in
+such result.
+
+"As to the famed Grand-Duchess, she is a Sachsen-Meiningen
+Princess, come of Ernst the Pious, of Johann the Magnanimous, as
+her Husband and all these Sachsens are: when Voltaire went
+precipitant, with such velocity, from the Potsdam Heaven, she
+received him at Gotha; set him on writing his HISTORY OF THE
+EMPIRE, and endeavored to break his fall. She was noble to
+Voltaire, and well honored by that uncertain Spirit. There is a
+fine Library at Gotha; and the Lady bright loves Books, and those
+that can write them;--a friend of the Light, a Daughter of the Sun
+and the Empyrean, not of Darkness and the Stygian Fens."
+[Michaelis, i. 517; &c. &c.]
+
+Friedrich's first Letter to her Highness was one of thanks, above a
+year ago, for an act of kindness, act of justice withal, which she
+did to one of his Official people. Here, on the morrow of that
+dinner, is the second Letter, much more aerial and cordial, in
+which style they all continue, now that he has seen the
+admired Princess.
+
+
+TO THE MOST SERENE GRAND-DUCHESS OF SACHSEN-GOTHA.
+
+DITTELSTADT, "16th September, 1757.
+
+"MADAM,--Yesterday was a Day I shall never forget; which satisfied
+a just desire I have had, this long while, to see and hear a
+Princess whom all Europe admires. I am not surprised, Madam, that
+you subdue people's hearts; you are made to attract the esteem and
+the homage of all who have the happiness to know you. But it is
+incomprehensible to me how you can have enemies; and how men
+representing Countries that by no means wish to pass for barbarous,
+can have been so basely (INDIGNEMENT) wanting in the respect they
+owe you, and in the consideration which is due to all sovereigns
+[French not famous for their refined demeanor in Saxony this time].
+Why could not I fly to prevent such disorders, such indecency!
+I can only offer you a great deal of good-will; but I feel well
+that, in present circumstances, the thing wanted is effective
+results and reality. May I, Madam, be so happy as to render you
+some service! May your fortune be equal to your virtues! I am with
+the highest consideration, Madam, your Highness's faithful Cousin,
+--F." [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xvii. 166.]
+
+To Wilhelmina he says of it, next day, still gratified, though sad
+news have come in the interim;--death of Winterfeld, for one
+black item:--
+
+... "The day before yesterday I was in Gotha. It was a touching
+scene to see the partners of one's misfortunes, with like griefs
+and like complaints. The Duchess is a woman of real merit, whose
+firmness puts many a man to shame. Madam de Buchwald appears to me
+a very estimable person, and one who would suit you much:
+intelligent, accomplished, without pretensions, and good-humored.
+My Brother Henri is gone to see them to-day. I am so oppressed with
+grief, that I would rather keep my sadness to myself. I have reason
+to congratulate myself much on account of my Brother Henri; he has
+behaved like an angel, as a soldier, and well towards me as a
+Brother. I cannot, unfortunately, say the same of the elder.
+He sulks at me (IL ME BODE), and has sulkily retired to Torgau,
+from whence, I hear, he is gone to Wittenberg. I shall leave him to
+his caprices and to his bad conduct; and I prophesy nothing good
+for the future, unless the younger guide him." ["Kirschleben, near
+Erfurt, 17th September, 1757" (<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end
+italic> xxvii. i. 306).] ...
+
+This is part of a long sad Letter to Wilhelmina; parts of which we
+may recur to, as otherwise illustrative. But before going into that
+tragic budget of bad news, let us give the finale of Gotha, which
+occurred the next day,--tragi-comic in part,--and is the last bit
+of action in those dreary four weeks.
+
+GOTHA, 18th SEPTEMBER. "Since Thursday 15th, Major-General
+Seidlitz," youngest Major-General of the Army, but a rapidly rising
+man, "has been Commandant in Gotha, under flourishing
+circumstances; popular and supreme, though only with a force of
+1,500, dragoons and hussars. Monday morning early, Seidlitz's
+scouts bring word that the Soubise-Hildburghausen people are in
+motion hitherward; French hussars and Austrian, Turpin's, Loudon's,
+all that are; grenadiers in mass;--total, say, 8,000 horse and
+foot, with abundance of artillery;--have been on march all night,
+to retake Gotha; with all the Chief Generals and Dignitaries of the
+Army following in their carriages, for some hours past, to see it
+done. Seidlitz, ascertaining these things, has but one course
+left,--that of clearing himself out, which he does with orderly
+velocity: and at 9 A.M. the Dignitaries and their 8,000 find open
+gates, Seidlitz clean off; occupy the posts, with due emphasis and
+flourish; and proceed to the Schloss in a grand triumphant way,--
+where privately they are not very welcome, though one puts the best
+face on it, and a dinner of importance is the first thing
+imperative to be set in progress. A flurried Court, that of Gotha,
+and much swashing of French plumes through it, all this morning,
+since Seidlitz had to flit.
+
+"Seidlitz has not flitted very far. Seidlitz has ranked his small
+dragoon-hussar force in a hollow, two miles off; has got warning
+sent to a third regiment within reach of him, 'Come towards me, and
+in a certain defile, visible from Gotha eastward, spread yourselves
+so and so!'--and judges by the swashing he hears of up yonder, that
+perhaps something may still be done. Dinner, up in the Schloss, is
+just being taken from the spit, and the swashing at its height,
+when--'Hah what is that, though?' and all plumes pause. For it is
+Seidlitz, artistically spread into single files, on the prominent
+points of vision; advancing again, more like 15,000 than 1,500:
+'And in the Defile yonder, that regiment, do you mark it; the
+King's vanguard, I should say?--To horse!'
+
+"That is Seidlitz's fine Bit of Painting, hung out yonder, hooked
+on the sky itself, as temporary background to Gotha, to be judged
+of by the connoisseurs. For pictorial effect, breadth of touch,
+truth to Nature and real power on the connoisseur, I have heard of
+nothing equal by any artist. The high Generalcy, Soubise,
+Hildburghausen, Darmstadt, mount in the highest haste; everybody
+mounts, happy he who has anything to mount; the grenadiers tumble
+out of the Schloss; dragoons, artillery tumble out; Dauphiness
+takes wholly to her heels, at an extraordinary pace: so that
+Seidlitz's hussars could hardly get a stroke at her; caught sixty
+and odd, nine of them Officers not of mark; did kill thirty; and
+had such a haul of equipages and valuable effects, cosmetic a good
+few of them, habilatory, artistic, as caused the hussar heart to
+sing for joy. Among other plunder, was Loudon's Commission of
+Major-General, just on its road from Vienna [poor Mannstein's death
+the suggesting cause, say some];--undoubtedly a shining Loudon;
+to whom Friedrich, next day, forwarded the Document with a polite
+Note." [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 640;
+Westphalen, ii. 37; <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic>
+iv, 147.]'
+
+The day after this bright feat of Seidlitz's, which was a slight
+consolation to Friedrich, there came a Letter from the Duchess, not
+of compliment only; the Letter itself had to be burnt on the spot,
+being, as would seem, dangerous for the High Lady, who was much a
+friend of Friedrich's. Their Correspondence, very polite and
+graceful, but for most part gone to the unintelligible state, and
+become vacant and spectral, figures considerably in the Books, and
+was, no doubt, a considerable fact to Friedrich. His Answer on this
+occasion may be given, since we have it,--lest there should not
+elsewhere be opportunity for a second specimen.
+
+FRIEDRICH TO THE GRAND-DUCHESS OF SACHSEN-GOTHA.
+
+"KIRSCHLEBEN, NEAB ERFURT, 20th September, 1757.
+
+"MADAM,--Nothing could happen more glorious to my troops than that
+of fighting, Madam, under your eyes and for your defence. I wish
+their help could be useful to you; but I foresee the reverse. If I
+were obstinately to insist on maintaining the post of Gotha with
+Infantry, I should ruin your City for you, Madam, by attracting
+thither and fixing there the theatre of the War; whereas, by the
+present course, you will only have to suffer little rubs
+(PASSADES), which will not last long.
+
+"A thousand thanks that you could, in a day like yesterday, find
+the moment to think of your Friends, and to employ yourself for
+them. [Seidlitz's attack was brisk, quite sudden, with an effect
+like Harlequin's sword in Pantomimes; and Gotha in every corner,
+especially in the Schloss below and ahove stairs,--dinner cooked
+for A, and eaten by B, in that manner,--must have been the most
+agitated of little Cities.] I will neglect nothing of what you have
+the goodness to tell me; I shall profit by these notices.
+Heaven grant it might be for the deliverance and the security
+of Germany!
+
+"The most signal mark of obedience I can give you consists
+unquestionably in doing your bidding with this Letter. [Burn it, so
+soon as read.] I should have kept it as a monument of your
+generosity and courage: but, Madam, since you dispose of it
+otherwise, your orders shall be executed; persuaded that if one
+cannot serve one's friends, one must at least avoid hurting them;
+that one may be less circumspect for one's own interest, but that
+one must be prudent and even timid for theirs. I am, with the
+highest esteem and the most perfect consideration, Madam, your
+Highness's most faithful and affectionate Cousin,--F."
+[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xvii. 167.]
+
+From Erfurt, on the night of his arrival, finding the Dauphiness in
+such humor, Friedrich had ordered Ferdinand of Brunswick with his
+Division and Prince Moritz with his, both of whom were still at
+Naumburg, to go on different errands,--Ferdinand out Halberstadt-
+Magdeburg way, whither Richelieu, vulture-like, if not eagle-like,
+is on wing; Moritz to Torgau, to secure our magazine and be on the
+outlook there. Both of them marched on the morrow (November 14th):
+and are sending him news,--seldom comfortable news; mainly that, in
+spite of all one can do (and it is not little on Ferdinand's part,
+the Richelieu vultures, 80,000 of them, floating onward, leagues
+broad, are not to be kept out of Halberstadt, well if out of
+Magdeburg itself;--and that, in short, the general conflagration,
+in those parts too, is progressive. [In Orlich's <italic> First
+Moritz, <end italic> pp. 71-89; and in <italic> Westphalen, <end
+italic> ii. 23-143 (about Ferdinand): interesting Documentary
+details, Autographs of Friedrich, &c., in regard to both these
+Expeditions.] Moritz, peaceable for some weeks in Torgau Country,
+was to have an eye on Brandenburg withal, on Berlin itself; and
+before long Moritz will see something noticeable there!
+
+From Preussen, Friedrich hears of mere ravagings and horrid
+cruelties, Cossack-Calmuck atrocities, which make human nature
+shudder: [In <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 427-437,
+the hideous details.] "Fight those monsters; go into them at all
+hazards!" he writes to Lehwald peremptorily. Lehwald, 25,000
+against 80,000, does so; draws up, in front of Wehlau, not far east
+of Konigsberg, among woody swamps, AUGUST 30th, at a Hamlet called
+GROSS-JAGERSDORF, with his best skill; fights well, though not
+without mistakes; and is beaten by cannon and numbers.
+[Tempelhof, i. 299; Retzow, i. 212; &c. &c. ("Russians lost about
+9,000," by their own tale 5,000; "the Prussians 3,000" and the
+Field).] Preussen now lies at Apraxin's discretion. This bit of
+news too is on the road for Erfurt Country. Such a six weeks for
+the swift man, obliged to stand spell-bound,--idle posterity never
+will conceive it; and description is useless.
+
+Let us add here, that Apraxin did not advance on Konigsberg, or
+farther into Preussen at all; but, after some loitering, turned, to
+everybody's surprise, and wended slowly home. "Could get no
+provision," said Apraxin for himself. "Thought the Czarina was
+dying," said the world; "and that Peter her successor would take it
+well!" Plodded slowly home, for certain; Lehwald following him, not
+too close, till over the border. Nothing left of Apraxin, and his
+huge Expedition, but Memel alone; Memel, and a great many graves
+and ruins. So that Lehwald could be recalled, to attend on the
+Swedes, before Winter came. And Friedrich's worst forebodings did
+not take effect in this case;--nor in some others, as we shall see!
+
+
+LAMENTATION-PSALMS OF FRIEDRICH.
+
+Meanwhile, is it not remarkable that Friedrich wrote more Verses,
+this Autumn, than almost in any other three months of his life?
+Singular, yes; though perhaps not inexplicable. And if readers
+could fairly understand that fact, instead of running away with the
+shell of it, and leaving the essence, it would throw a great light
+on Friedrich. He is not a brooding inarticulate man, then; but a
+bright-glancing, articulate; not to be struck dumb by the face of
+Death itself. Flashes clear-eyed into the physiognomy of Death, and
+Ruin, and the Abysmal Horrors opening; and has a sharp word to say
+to them. The explanation of his large cargo of Verses this Autumn
+is, That always, alternating with such fiery velocity, he had
+intolerable periods of waiting till things were ready. And took to
+verses, by way of expectorating himself, and keeping down his
+devils. Not a bad plan, in the circumstances,--especially if you
+have so wonderful a turn for expectoration by speech. "All bad as
+Poetry, those Verses?" asks the reader. Well, some of them are not
+of first-rate goodness. Should have been burnt; or the time marked
+which they took up, and whether it was good time wasted (which I
+suppose it almost never was), or bad time skilfully got over.
+Time, that is the great point; and the heart-truth of them, or mere
+lip-truth, another. We must give some specimens, at any rate.
+
+Especially that notable Specimen from the Zittau Countries:
+the "Epistle to Wilhelmina (EPITRE A MA SOEUR [<italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> xii. 36-42.];" which is the key-note, as it
+were; the fountain-head of much other verse, and of much prose
+withal, and Correspondencing not with Wilhelmina alone, of which
+also some taste must be given. Primary EPITRE; written, I perceive,
+in that interval of waiting for Keith and the magazines,--though
+the final date is "Bernstadt, August 24th." Concerning which,
+Smelfungus takes, over-hastily, the liberty to say: "Strange, is it
+not, to be on the point of fighting for one's existence;
+overwhelmed with so many businesses; and disposed to go into verse
+in addition! CONCEIVE that form of mind; it would illuminate
+something of Friedrich's character: I cannot yet rightly understand
+such an aspect of structure, and know not what to say of it,
+except 'Strange!'"--
+
+Understand it or not, we do gather by means of it some indisputable
+glimpses, nearly all the direct insight allowed us out of any
+source, into Friedrich's inner man; what his thoughts were, what
+his humor was in that unique crisis; and to readers in quest of
+that, these Pieces, fallen obsolete and frosty to all other kinds
+of readers, are well worth perusing, and again perusing.
+Most veracious Documents, we can observe; nothing could be truer;
+Confessions they are, in the most emphatic sense; no truer ever
+made to a Priest in the name of the Most High. Like a soliloquy of
+Night-Thoughts, accidentally becoming audible to us. Mahomet, I
+find, wrote the Koran in this manner. From these poor Poems, which
+are voices DE PROFUNDIS, there might, by proper care and selection,
+be constructed a Friedrich's Koran; and, with commentary and
+elucidation, it would be pleasant to read. The Koran of Friedrich,
+or the Lamentation-Psalms of Friedrich! But it would need an
+Editor,--other than Dryasdust! Mahomet's Koran, treated by the Arab
+Dryasdust (merely turning up the bottom of that Box of Shoulder-
+blades, and printing them), has become dreadfully tough reading, on
+this side of the Globe; and has given rise to the impossiblest
+notions about Mahomet! Indisputable it is, Heroes, in their
+affliction, Mahomet and David, have solaced themselves by snatches
+of Psalms, by Suras, bursts of Utterance rising into Song;--and if
+Friedrich, on far other conditions, did the like, what has History
+to say of blame to him?
+
+Wilhelmina comes out very strong, in this season of trouble;
+almost the last we see of our excellent Wilhelmina. Like a lioness;
+like a shrill mother when her children are in peril. A noble
+sisterly affection is in Wilhelmina; shrill Pythian vehemence
+trying the impossible. That a Brother, and such a Brother, the most
+heroic now breathing, brave and true, and the soul of honor in all
+things, should have the whole world rise round him, like a
+delirious Sorcerer's-Sabbath, intent to hurl the mountains on him,
+--seems such a horror and a madness to Wilhelmina. Like the brood-
+hen flying in the face of wild dogs, and packs of hounds in full
+trail! Most Christian Pompadour Kings, enraged Czarinas, implacable
+Empress-Queens; a whole world in armed delirium rushes on,
+regardless of Wilhelmina. Never mind, my noble one; your Brother
+will perhaps manage to come up with this leviathan or that among
+the heap of them, at a good time, and smite into the fifth rib of
+him. Your Brother does not the least shape towards giving in;
+thank the Heavens, he will stand to himself at least; his own poor
+strength will all be on his own side.
+
+Wilhelmina's hopes of a Peace with France; mission of her Mirabeau,
+missions and schemes not a few, we have heard of on Wilhelmina's
+part with this view; but the notablest is still to mention: that of
+stirring up, by Voltaire's means, an important-looking Cardinal de
+Tencin to labor in the business. Eminency Tencin lives in Lyon,
+known to the Princess on her Italian Tour;--shy of asking Voltaire
+to dinner on that fine occasion,--but, except Officially, is not
+otherwise than well-affected to Voltaire. Was once Chief Minister
+of France, and would fain again be; does not like these Bernis
+novelties and Austrian Alliances, had he now any power to overset
+them. Let him correspond with Most Christian Majesty, at least;
+plead for a Peace with Prussia, Prussia being so ready that way.
+Eminency Tencin, on Voltaire's suggestion, did so, perhaps is even
+now doing so; till ordered to hold HIS peace on such subjects.
+This is certain and well known; but nothing else is known, or to us
+knowable, about it; Voltaire, in vague form, being our one
+authority, through whom it is vain to hunt, and again hunt.
+[<italic> OEuvres (Memoires), <end italic> ii. 92, 93; IB. i. 143;
+Preuss, ii. 84.] The Dates, much more the features and
+circumstances, all lie buried from us, and--till perhaps the
+Lamentation-Psalms are well edited--must continue lying. As a fact
+certain, but undeniably vague.
+
+Voltaire's procedure, one can gather, is polite, but two-faced;
+not sublime on this occasion. In fact, is intended to serve
+himself. To the high Princess he writes devotionally, ready to obey
+in all things; and then to his Eminency Cardinal Tencin, it rather
+seems as if the tone were: "Pooh! yes, your Eminency; such are the
+poor Lady's notions. But does your Eminency take notice how high my
+connections are; what service a poor obscure creature might perhaps
+do the State some day?" Friedrich himself is, in these ways,
+brought into correspondence with Voltaire again; and occasionally
+writes to him in this War, and ever afterwards: Voltaire responds
+with fine sympathy, always prettily, in the enthusiasm of the
+moment;--and at other times he writes a good deal about Friedrich,
+oftenest in rather a mischievous dialect. "The traitor!" exclaim
+some Prussian writers, not many or important, in our time. In fact,
+there is a considerable touch of grinning malice (as of Monkey
+VERSUS Cat, who had once burnt HIS paw, instead of getting his own
+burnt), in those utterances of Voltaire; some of which the reader
+will grin over too, without much tragic feeling,--the rather as
+they did our Felis Leo no manner of ill, and show our incomparable
+SINGE with a sparkle of the TIGRE in him; theoretic sparkle merely
+and for moments, which makes him all the more entertaining and
+interesting at the domestic hearth.
+
+Of Friedrich's Lamentation-Psalms we propose to give the First and
+the Last: these, with certain Prose Pieces, intermediate and
+connecting, may perhaps be made intelligible to readers, and throw
+some light on these tragic weeks of the King's History:--
+
+1. EPITRE A MA SOEUR (First of the Lamentation-Psalms).--This is
+the famed "Epistle to Wilhelmina," already spoken of; which the
+King despatched from Bernstadt "August 24th," just while quitting
+those parts, on the Erfurt Errand;--though written before, in the
+tedium of waiting for Keith. The Piece is long, vehement,
+altogether sincere; lyrically sings aloud, or declaims in rhyme,
+what one's indignant thought really is on the surrounding woes and
+atrocities. We faithfully abridge, and condense into our briefest
+Prose;--readers can add water and the jingle of French rhymes AD
+LIBITUM. It starts thus:--
+
+"O sweet and dear hope of my remaining days; O Sister, whose
+friendship, so fertile in resources, shares all my sorrows, and
+with a helpful arm assists me in the gulf! It is in vain that the
+Destinies have overwhelmed me with disasters: if the crowd of Kings
+have sworn my ruin; if the Earth have opened to swallow me,--
+you still love me, noble and affectionate Sister: loved by you,
+what is there of misfortune? [Branches off into some survey of
+it, nevertheless.]
+
+"Huge continents of thunder-cloud, plots thickening against me [in
+those Menzel Documents], I watched with terror; the sky getting
+blacker, no covert for me visible: on a sudden, from the deeps of
+Hell, starts forth Discord [with capital letter], and the
+tempest broke.
+
+<italic> Ce fut dans ton Senat, O fouqueuse Angleterre!
+         Ou ce monstre inhumain fit eclater la guerre: <end italic> 
+
+It was from thy Senate, stormful England, that she first launched
+out War. In remote climates first; in America, far away;--between
+France and thee. Old Ocean shook with it; Neptune, in the depths of
+his caves (SES GROTTES PROFONDES), saw the English subjecting his
+waves (SES ONDES): the wild Iroquois, prize of these crimes
+(FORFAITS), bursts out; detesting the tyrants who disturb his
+Forests,"--and scalping Braddock's people, and the like.
+
+"Discord, charmed to see such an America, and feeble mortals
+crossing the Ocean to exterminate one another, addresses the
+European Kings: 'How long will you be slaves to what are called
+laws? Is it for you to bend under worn-out notions of justice,
+right? Mars is the one God: Might is Right. A King's business is to
+do something famous in this world.'
+
+"O daughter of the Caesars," Maria Theresa, "how, at these words,
+ambition, burning in thy soul, breaks out uncontrollable!
+Probity, honor, treaties, duty: feeble considerations these, to a
+heart letting loose its flamy passions; determining to rob the
+generous Germans of their liberties; to degrade thy equals;
+to extinguish 'Schism' (so called), and set up despotism on the
+wrecks of all."
+
+"Huge project"--"FIER TRIUMVIRAT,"--what not: "From Roussillon and
+the sunny Pyrenees to frozen Russia, all arm for Austria, and march
+at her bidding. They concert my downfall, trample on my rights.
+
+"The Daughter of the Caesars, proudly certain of victory,--'t is
+the way of the Great, whose commonplace virtue, pusillanimous in
+reverses, overbearing in success, cannot bridle their cupidity,--
+designates to the Triumvirate what Kings are to be proscribed
+[Britannic George and me, Reich busy on us both even now], and
+those ungrateful tyrants, by united crime, immolate to each other,
+without remorse, their dearest allies." For instance:--
+
+<italic> "O jour digne d'oubli! Quelle atroce imprudence!
+          Therese, c'est l'Anglais que tu vends a la France:
+<end italic> 
+
+Theresa! it is England thou art selling to France;"--Yes, a thing
+worth noting. "Thy generous support in thy first adversities;
+thy one friend then, when a world had risen to devour thee.
+Thou reignest now:--but it was England alone that saved thee
+anything to reign over!
+
+<italic> Tu regnes, mats lui seul a sauve tes etats:
+         Les bienfaits chez les rois ne font que des ingrats.
+<end italic> 
+
+"And thou, lazy Monarch,"--stupid Louis, let us omit him:--
+"Pompadour, selling her lover to the highest bidder, makes France,
+in our day, Austria's slave!" We omit Kolin Battle, too, spoken of
+with a proud modesty (Prag is not spoken of at all); and how the
+neighboring ravenous Powers, on-lookers hitherto, have opened their
+throats with one accord to swallow Prussia, thinking its downfall
+certain: "Poor mercenary Sweden, once so famous under its soldier
+Kings, now debased by a venal Senate;"--Sweden, "what say I? my own
+kindred [foolish Anspach and others], driven by perverse motives,
+join in the plot of horrors, and become satellites of the
+prospering Triumvirs.
+
+"And thou, loved People [my own Prussians], whose happiness is my
+charge [notable how often he repeats this] it is thy lamentable
+destiny, it is the danger which hangs over thee, that pierces my
+soul. The pomps of my rank I could resign without regret. But to
+rescue thee, in this black crisis, I will spend my heart's blood.
+Whose IS that blood but thine? With joy will I rally my warriors to
+avenge thy affront; defy death at the foot of the ramparts [of Daun
+and his Eckartsberg, ahead yonder], and either conquer, or be
+buried under thy ruins." Very well; but ah,--
+
+"Preparing with such purpose, ye Heavens, what mournful cries are
+those that reach us: 'Death haa laid low thy Mother!'--Hah, that
+was the last stroke, then, which angry Fate had reserved for me.--
+O Mother, Death flies my misfortunes, and spreads his livid horrors
+over thee! [Very tender, very sad, what he says of his Mother;
+but must be omitted and imagined. General finale is:]
+
+"Thus Destiny with a deluge of torments fills the poisoned remnant
+of my days. The present is hideous to me, the future unknown:
+what, you say I am the creature of a BENEficent Being?--
+
+<italic> Quoi serais-fe forme par un Dieu bienfaisati?
+         Ah! s'il etait si bon, tendre pour son ouvrage"--
+<end italic> 
+
+--Husht, my little Titan!
+
+"And now, ye promoters of sacred lies, go on leading cowards by the
+nose, in the dark windings of your labyrinth:--to me the
+enchantment is ended, the charm disappears. I see that all men are
+but the sport of Destiny. And that, if there do exist some Gloomy
+and Inexorable Being, who allows a despised herd of creatures to go
+on multiplying here, he values them as nothing; looks down on a
+Phalaris crowned, on a Socrates in chains; on our virtues, our
+misdeeds, on the horrors of war, and all the cruel plagues which
+ravage Earth, as a thing indifferent to him. Wherefore, my sole
+refuge and only haven, loved Sister, is in the arms of Death:--
+
+<italic> Ainsi mon seul asile et mon unique port
+         Se trouve, chere soeur, dans les bras de la mort." 
+<end italic> [<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xii. 36-42; is sent
+off to Wilhelmina 24th August.]
+
+2. WILHELMINA TO VOLTAIRE, WITH SOMETHING OF ANSWER (First of
+certain intercalary Prose Pieces).--Wilhelmina has been writing to
+Voltaire before, and getting consolations since Kolin; but her
+Letters are lost, till this the earliest that is left us:--
+
+BAIREUTH, 19th AUGUST, 1757 (TO VOLTAIRE).--"One first knows one's
+friends when misfortunes arrive. The Letter you have written does
+honor to your way of thinking. I cannot tell you how much I am
+sensible to what you have done [set Cardinal Tencin astir, with
+result we will hope]. The King, my Brother, is as much so as I.
+You will find a Note here, which he bids me transmit to you [Note
+lost]. That great man is still the same. He supports his
+misfortunes with a courage and a firmness worthy of him. He could
+not get the Note transcribed. It began by verses. Instead of
+throwing sand on it, he took the ink-bottle; that is the reason why
+it is cut in two."
+
+--This Note, we say, is lost to us;--all but accidentally thus:
+Voltaire, 12th September, writes twice to friends. Writing to his
+D'Argentals, he says: "The affairs of this King [Friedrich] go from
+bad to worse. I know not if I told you of the Letter he wrote to me
+about three weeks ago [say August 17th-18th: this same Note through
+Wilhelmina, evidently]: 'I have learned,' says he, 'that you had
+interested yourself in my successes and misfortunes. There remains
+to me nothing but to sell my life dear,' &c. His Sister writes me
+one much more lamentable;" the one we are now reading:--
+
+"I am in a frightful state; and will not survive the destruction of
+my House and Family. That is the one consolation that remains to
+me. You will have fine subjects for making Tragedies of. O times!
+O manners! You will, by the illusory representation, perhaps draw
+tears; while all contemplate with dry eyes the reality of these
+miseries: the downfall of a whole House, against which, if the
+truth were known, there is no solid complaint. I cannot write
+farther of it: my soul is so troubled that I know not what I am
+doing. But whatever happen, be persuaded that I am more than ever
+your friend,--WILHELMINA." [In <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end
+italic> lxxvii. 30.]
+
+Friedrich, while Wilhelmina writes so, is at the foot of the
+Eckartsberg, eagerly manoeuvring with the Austrians, in hopes of
+getting battle out of them,--which he cannot. Friedrich, while he
+wrote that Note to Voltaire, and instead of sand-box shook the
+ink-bottle over it, was just going out on that errand.
+
+VOLTAIRE, 12th SEPTEMBER (to a Lady whose Son is in the D'Estrees
+wars). [Ib. lxxii. 55. 56.]--"Here are mighty revolutions, Madame;
+and we are not at the end yet. They say there have 18,000
+Hanoverians been disposed of at Stade [Convention of Kloster-
+Zeven]. That is no small matter. I can hope M. Richelieu [who is
+"MON HEROS," when I write to himself] will adorn his head with the
+laurels they have stuck in his pocket. I wish Monsieur your Son
+abundance of honor and glory without wounds, and to you, Madame,
+unalterable health. The King of Prussia has written me a very
+touching Letter [one line of which we have read]; but I have always
+Madame Denis's adventure on my heart," at Frankfurt yonder. "If I
+were well, I would take a run to Frankfurt myself on the business,"
+--now that Soubise's reserves are in those parts, and could give
+Freytag and Schmidt such a dusting for me, if they liked! Shall I
+write to Collini on it? Does write, and again write, the second
+year hence, as still better chances rise. [Collini, pp. 208-211
+("January-May, 1759").]
+
+3. WILHELMINA TO VOLTAIRE AGAIN, WITH ANSWER (Second of the Prose
+Pieces).--Not a very zealous friend of Friedrich's, after all, this
+Voltaire! Poor Wilhelmina, terrified by that EPITRE of her
+Brother's, and his fixed purpose of seeking Death, has, in her
+despair (though her Letter is lost), been urging Voltaire to write
+dissuading him;--as Voltaire does. Of which presently. Her Letter
+to Voltaire on this thrice-important subject is lost. But in the
+very hours while Voltaire sat writing what we have just read,
+"always with Madame Denis's adventure on my heart," Wilhelmina, at
+Baireuth, is again writing to him as follows:--
+
+BAIREUTH, 12th SEPTEMBER, 1757 (TO VOLTAIRE).--"Your Letter has
+sensibly touched me; that which you addressed to me for the King
+[both Letters lost to us] has produced the same effect on him.
+I hope you will be satisfied with his Answer as to what concerns
+yourself; but you will be as little so as I am with the resolutions
+he has formed. I had flattered myself that your reflections would
+make some impression on his mind. You will see the contrary by the
+Letter adjoined. "To me there remains nothing but to follow his
+destiny if it is unfortunate. I have never piqued myself on being a
+philosopher; though I have made my efforts to become so. The small
+progress I made did teach me to despise grandeurs and riches: but I
+could never find in philosophy any cure for the wounds of the
+heart, except that of getting done with our miseries by ceasing to
+live. The state I am in is worse than death. I see the greatest man
+of his age, my Brother, my friend, reduced to the frightfulest
+extremity. I see my whole Family exposed to dangers and perhaps
+destruction; my native Country torn by pitiless enemies; the
+Country where I am [Reichs Army, Anspach, what not] menaced by
+perhaps similar misfortune. Would to Heaven I were alone loaded
+with all the miseries I have described to you! I would suffer them,
+and with firmness.
+
+"Pardon these details. You invite me, by the part you take in what
+regards me, to open my heart to you. Alas, hope is well-nigh
+banished from it. Fortune, when she changes, is as constant in her
+persecutions as in her favors. History is full of those examples:--
+but I have found none equal to the one we now see; nor any War as
+inhuman and as cruel among civilized nations. You would sigh if you
+knew the sad situation of Germany and Preussen. The cruelties which
+the Russians commit in that latter Country make nature shudder.
+[Details, horrible but authentic, in <italic> Helden-Geschichte,
+<end italic> already cited.] How happy you in your Hermitage;
+where you repose on your laurels, and can philosophize with a calm
+mind on the deliriums of men! I wish you all the happiness
+imaginable. If Fortune ever favor us again, count on all my
+gratitude. I will never forget the marks of attachment which you
+have given; my sensibility is your warrant; I am never half-and-
+half a friend, and I shall always be wholly so of Brother
+Voltaire.--WILHELMINA.
+
+"Many compliments to Madame Denis. Continue, I pray you, to write
+to the King." [In <italic> Voltaire, <end italic> ii. 197-199;
+lxxvii. 57.]
+
+VOLTAIRE TO WILHELMINA (Day uncertain: THE DELICES, SEPTEMBER,
+1757).--"Madam, my heart is touched more than ever by the goodness
+and the confidence your Royal Highness deigns to show me. How can I
+be but melted by emotion! I see that it is solely your nobleness of
+soul that renders you unhappy. I feel myself born to be attached
+with idolatry to superior and sympathetic minds, who think like
+you. "You know how much I have always, essentially and at heart,
+been attached to the King your Brother. The more my old age is
+tranquil, and come to renounce everything, and make my retreat here
+a home and country, the more am I devoted to that Philosopher-King.
+I write nothing to him but what I think from the bottom of my
+heart, nothing that I do not think most true; and if my Letter
+[dissuasive of seeking Death; wait, reader] appears to your Royal
+Highness to be suitable, I beg you to protect it with him, as you
+have done the foregoing." [In <italic> Voltaire, <end italic>
+lxxvii. 37, 39.]
+
+4. FRIEDRICH TO WILHELMINA, AND, BY ANTICIPATION, HER ANSWER (Third
+of the Prose Pieces).--"KIRSCHLEBEN, NEAR ERFURT, 17th SEPTEMBER,
+1757.--My dearest Sister, I find no other consolation but in your
+precious Letters. May Heaven reward so much virtue and such
+heroic sentiments!
+
+"Since I wrote last to you, my misfortunes have but gone on
+accumulating. It seems as though Destiny would discharge all its
+wrath and fury upon the poor Country which I had to rule over.
+The Swedes have entered Pommern. The French, after having concluded
+a Neutrality humiliating to the King of England and themselves
+[Kloster-Zeven, which we know], are in full march upon Halberstadt
+and Magdeburg. From Preussen I am in daily expectation of hearing
+of a battle having been fought: the proportion of combatants being
+25,000 against 80,000 [was fought, Gross-Jagersdorf, 30th August,
+and lost accordingly]. The Austrians have marched into Silesia,
+whither the Prince of Bevern follows them. I have advanced this way
+to fall upon the corps of the allied Army; which has run off, and
+intrenched itself, behind Eisenach, amongst hills, whither to
+follow, still more to attack them, all rules of war forbid.
+The moment I retire towards Saxony, this whole swarm will be upon
+my heels. Happen what may, I am determined, at all risks, to fall
+upon whatever corps of the enemy approaches me nearest. I shall
+even bless Heaven for its mercy, if it grant me the favor to die
+sword in hand.
+
+"Should this hope fail me, you will allow that it would be too hard
+to crawl at the feet of a company of traitors, to whom successful
+crimes have given the advantage to prescribe the law to me. How, my
+dear, my incomparable Sister, how could I repress feelings of
+vengeance and of resentment against all my neighbors, of whom there
+is not one who did not accelerate my downfall, and will not, share
+in our spoils? How can a Prince survive his State, the glory of his
+Country, his own reputation? A Bavarian Elector, in his nonage [Son
+of the late poor Kaiser, and left, shipwrecked in his seventeenth
+year], or rather in a sort of subjection to his Ministers, and dull
+to the biddings of honor, may give himself up as a slave to the
+imperious domination of the House of Austria, and kiss the hand
+which oppressed his Father: I pardon it to his youth and his
+ineptitude. But is that the example for me to follow? No, dear
+Sister, you think too nobly to give me such mean (LACHE) advice.
+Is Liberty, that precious prerogative, to be less dear to a
+Sovereign in the eighteenth century than it was to Roman Patricians
+of old? And where is it said, that Brutus and Cato should carry
+magnanimity farther than Princes and Kings? Firmness consists in
+resisting misfortune: but only cowards submit to the yoke, bear
+patiently their chains, and support oppression tranquilly.
+Never, my dear Sister, could I resolve upon such ignominy. ...
+
+"If I had followed only my own inclinations, I should have ended it
+(JE ME SERAIS DEPECHE) at once, after that unfortunate Battle which
+I lost. But I felt that this would be weakness, and that it
+behooved me to repair the evil which had happened. My attachment to
+the State awoke; I said to myself, It is not in seasons of
+prosperity that it is rare to find defenders, but in adversity.
+I made it a point of honor with myself to redress all that had got
+out of square; in which I was not unsuccessful; not even in the
+Lausitz [after those Zittau disasters] last of all. But no sooner
+had I hastened this way to face new enemies, than Winterfeld was
+beaten and killed near Gorlitz, than the French entered the heart,
+of my States, than the Swedes blockaded Stettin. Now there is
+nothing effective left for me to do: there are too many enemies.
+Were I even to succeed in beating two armies, the third would crush
+me. The enclosed Note [in cipher] will show you what I am still
+about to try: it is the last attempt.
+
+"The gratitude, the tender affection, which I feel towards you,
+that friendship, true as the hills, constrains me to deal openly
+with you. No, my divine Sister, I shall conceal nothing from you
+that I intend to do; all my thoughts, all my resolutions shall be
+open and known to you in time. I will precipitate nothing: but also
+it will be impossible for me to change my sentiments. ...
+
+"As for you, my incomparable Sister, I have not the heart to turn
+you from your resolves. We think alike, and I cannot condemn in you
+the sentiments which I daily entertain (EPROUVE). Life has been
+given to us as a benefit: when it ceases to be such"--! "I have
+nobody left in this world, to attach me to it, but you. My friends,
+the relations I loved most, are in the grave; in short, I have
+lost, everything. If you take the resolution which I have taken, we
+end together our misfortunes and our unhappiness; and it will be
+the turn of them who remain in this world, to provide for the
+concerns falling to their charge, and to bear the weight, which has
+lain on us so long. These, my adorable Sister, are sad reflections,
+but suitable to my present condition.
+
+"The day before yesterday I was at Gotha [yes, see above;--and
+to-morrow, if I knew it, Seidlitz with pictorial effects will
+be there]. ...
+
+"But, it is time to end this long, dreary Letter; which treats
+almost of nothing but my own affairs. I have had some leisure, and
+have used it to open on you a heart filled with admiration and
+gratitude towards you. Yes, my adorable Sister, if Providence
+troubled itself about human affairs, you ought to be the happiest
+person in the Universe. Your not being such, confirms me in the
+sentiments expressed at the end of my EPITRE. In conclusion,
+believe that I adore you, and that I would give my life a thousand
+times to serve you. These are the sentiments which will animate me
+to the last breath of my life; being, my beloved Sister, ever"--
+Your--F. [<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xxvii. i, 303-307.]
+
+WILHELMINA'S ANSWER,--by anticipation, as we said: written "15th
+September," while Friedrich was dining at Gotha, in quest
+of Soubise.
+
+"BAIREUTH, 15th SEPTEMBER, 1757. My dearest Brother, your Letter
+and the one you wrote to Voltaire, my dear Brother, have almost
+killed me. What fatal resolutions, great God! Ah, my dear Brother,
+you say you love me; and you drive a dagger into my heart.
+Your EPITRE, which I did receive, made me shed rivers of tears.
+I am now ashamed of such weakness. My misfortune would be so great"
+in the issue there alluded to, "that I should find worthier
+resources than tears. Your lot shall be mine: I will not survive
+either your misfortunes or those of the House I belong to. You may
+calculate that such is my firm resolution.
+
+"But, after this avowal, allow me to entreat you to look back at
+what was the pitiable state of your Enemy when you lay before Prag!
+ It is the sudden whirl of Fortune for both parties. The like can
+occur again, when one is least expecting it, Caesar was the slave
+of Pirates; and he became the master of the world. A great genius
+like yours finds resources even when all is lost; and it is
+impossible this frenzy can continue. My heart bleeds to think of
+the poor souls in Preussen [Apraxin and his Christian Cossacks
+there,--who, it is noted, far excel the Calmuck worshippers of the
+Dalai-Lama]. What horrid barbarity, the detail of cruelties that go
+on there! I feel all that you feel on it, my dear Brother. I know
+your heart, and your sensibility for your subjects.
+
+"I suffer a thousand times more than I can tell you; nevertheless
+hope does not abandon me. I received your Letter of the 14th by W.
+[who W. is, no mortal knows]. What kindness to think of me, who
+have nothing to give you but a useless affection, which is so
+richly repaid by yours! I am obliged to finish; but I shall never
+cease to be, with the most profound respect (TRES-PROFOND RESPECT,"
+--that, and something still better, if my poor pen were not
+embarrassed), "your"--          WILHELMINA.
+
+5. FRIEDRICH'S RESPONSE TO THE DISSUASIVES OF VOLTAIRE (Last of the
+Lamentation-Psalms: "Buttstadt, October 9th").--Voltaire's
+Dissuasive Letter is a poor Piece; [<italic> OEuvres de Voltaire,
+<end italic> lxxvii. 80-85 (LES DELICES, early in September, 1757:
+no date given).] not worth giving here. Remarkable only by
+Friedrich's quiet reception of it; which readers shall now see, as
+Finis to those Lamentation-Psalms. There is another of them, widely
+known, which we will omit: the EPITRE TO D'ARGENS; [In <italic>
+OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xii. 50-56 ("Erfurt, 23d
+September, 1757 ").] passionate enough, wandering wildly over human
+life, and sincere almost to shrillness, in parts; which Voltaire
+has also got hold of. Omissible here; the fixity of purpose being
+plain otherwise to Voltaire and us. Voltaire's counter-arguments
+are weak, or worse: "That Roman death is not now expected of the
+Philosopher; that your Majesty will, in the worst event, still have
+considerable Dominions left, all that your Great-Grandfather had;
+still plenty of resources; that, in Paris Society, an estimable
+minority even now thinks highly of you; that in Paris itself your
+Majesty [does not say expressly, as dethroned and going on your
+travels] would have resources!" To which beautiful considerations
+Friedrich answers, not with fire and brimstone, as one might have
+dreaded, but in this quiet manner (REPONSE AU SIEUR VOLTAIRE):--
+
+<italic> "Je suis homme, il suffit, et ne pour la souffrance;
+          Aux rigueurs du destin j'oppose ma constance.
+<end italic> ["I am a man, and therefore born to suffer; to
+destiny's rigors my steadfastness must correspond."--Quotation from
+I know not whom.]
+
+But with these sentiments, I am far from condemning Cato and Otho.
+The latter had no fine moment in his life, except that of his
+death. [Breaks off into Verse:]
+
+<italic> "Croyez que si j'etais Voltaire,
+          Et particulier comme lui,
+          Me contentant du necessaire,
+          Je verrais voltiger la fortune legere," <end italic>--Or,
+
+to wring the water and the jingle out of it, and give the substance
+in Prose:--
+
+"Yes, if I were Voltaire and a private man, I could with much
+composure leave Fortune to her whirlings and her plungings; to me,
+contented with the needful, her mad caprices and sudden topsy-
+turvyings would be amusing rather than tremendous.
+
+"I know the ennui attending on honors, the burdensome duties, the
+jargon of grinning flatterers, those pitiabilities of every kind,
+those details of littleness, with which you have to occupy yourself
+if set on high on the stage of things. Foolish glory has no charm
+for me, though a Poet and King: when once Atropos has ended me
+forever, what will the uncertain honor of living in the Temple of
+Memory avail? One moment of practical happiness is worth a thousand
+years of imaginary in such Temple.--Is the lot of high people so
+very sweet, then? Pleasure, gentle ease, true and hearty mirth,
+have always fled from the great and their peculiar pomps
+and labors.
+
+"No, it is not fickle Fortune that has ever caused my sorrows;
+let her smile her blandest, let her frown her fiercest on me, I
+should sleep every night, refusing her the least worship. But our
+respective conditions are our law; we are bound and commanded to
+shape our temper to the employment we have undertaken. Voltaire in
+his hermitage, in a Country where is honesty and safety, can devote
+himself in peace to the life of the Philosopher, as Plato has
+described it. But as to me, threatened with shipwreck, I must
+consider how, looking the tempest in the face, I can think, can
+live and can die as a King:--
+
+<italic> Pour moi, menace du naufrage,
+         Je dois, en affrontant l'orage,
+         Penser, vivre et mourir en roi." <end italic>
+[<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xxiii. 14.]
+
+This is of October 9th; this ends, worthily, the Lamentation-
+Psalms; work having now turned up, which is a favorable change.
+Friedrich's notion of suicide, we perceive, is by no means that of
+puking up one's existence, in the weak sick way of FELO DE SE;
+but, far different, that of dying, if he needs must, as seems too
+likely, in uttermost spasm of battle for self and rights to the
+last. From which latter notion nobody can turn him. A valiantly
+definite, lucid and shiningly practical soul,--with such a power of
+always expectorating himself into clearness again. If he do frankly
+wager his life in that manner, beware, ye Soubises, Karls and
+flaccid trivial persons, of the stroke that may chance to lie
+in him!--
+
+
+III. RUMOR OF AN INROAD ON BERLIN SUDDENLY SETS FRIEDRICH
+ON MARCH THITHER: INROAD TAKES EFECT,--WITH IMPORTANT RESULTS,
+CHIEFLY IN A LEFT-HAND FORM.
+
+October llth, express arrived, important express from General Finck
+(who is in Dresden, convalescent from Kolin, and is even Commandant
+there, of anything there is to command), "That the considerable
+Austrian Brigade or Outpost, which was left at Stolpen when the
+others went for Silesia, is all on march for Berlin." Here is news!
+"The whole 15,000 of them," report adds;--though it proved to be
+only a Detachment, picked Tolpatches mostly, and of nothing like
+that strength; shot off, under a swift General Haddick, on this
+errand. Between them and Berlin is not a vestige of force;
+and Berlin itself has nothing but palisades, and perhaps a poor
+4,000 of garrison. "March instantly, you Moritz, who lie nearest;
+cross Elbe at Torgau; I follow instantly!" orders Friedrich;
+[His Message to Moritz, ORLICH, p. 73; Rodenbeck, p. 322 (dubious,
+or wrong).]--and that same night is on march, or has cavalry pushed
+ahead for reinforcement of Moritz.
+
+Friedrich, not doubting but there would be captaincy and scheme
+among his Enemies, considered that the Swedes, and perhaps the
+Richelieu French, were in concert with this Austrian movement,--
+from east, from north, from west, three Invasions coming on the
+core of his Dominions;--and that here at last was work ahead, and
+plenty of it! That was Friedrich's opinion, and most other
+people's, when the Austrian inroad was first heard of: "mere triple
+ruin coming to this King," as the Gazetteers judged;--great alarm
+prevailing among the King's friends; in Berlin, very great.
+Friedrich, glad, at any rate, to have done with that dismal
+lingering at Buttelstadt, hastens to arrange himself for the new
+contingencies; to post his Keiths, his Ferdinands, with their
+handfuls of force, to best advantage; and push ahead after Moritz,
+by Leipzig, Torgau, Berlin-wards, with all his might. At Leipzig,
+in such press of business and interest,--judge by the following
+phenomenon, what a clear-going soul this is, and how completely on
+a level with whatever it may be that he is marching towards:--
+
+"LEIPZIG, 15th OCTOBER, 1757 (Interview with Gottsched).--At 11
+this morning, Majesty came marching into Leipzig; multitudes of
+things to settle there; things ready, things not yet ready, in view
+of the great events ahead. Seeing that he would have time after
+dinner, he at once sent for Professor Gottsched, a gigantic
+gentleman, Reigning King of German Literature for the time being,
+to come to him at 3 P.M. Reigning King at that time; since gone
+wholly to the Dustbins,--'Popular Delusion,' as old Samuel defines
+it, having since awakened to itself, with scornful hahas upon its
+poor Gottsched, and rushed into other roads worse and better;
+its poor Gottsched become a name now signifying Pedantry,
+Stupidity, learned Inanity and the Worship of Colored Water, to
+every German mind.
+
+"At 3 precise, the portly old gentleman (towards sixty now, huge of
+stature, with a shrieky voice, and speaks uncommonly fast) bowed
+himself in; and a Colloquy ensued, on Literature and so forth, of
+the kind we may conceive. Colloquy which had great fame in the
+world; Gottsched himself having--such the inaccuracy of rumor and
+Dutch Newspapers, on the matter--published authentic Report of it;
+[Next Year, in a principal Leipzig Magazine, with name signed:
+given in <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 728-739 (with
+multifarious commentaries and flourishings, denoting an attentive
+world). Nicolai, <italic> Anekdoten, <end italic> iii. 286-290.]
+now one of the dullest bits of reading, and worth no man's bit of
+time. Colloquy which lasted three hours, with the greatest vivacity
+on both sides; King impugning, for one principal thing, the
+roughness of German speech; Gottsched, in swift torrents (far too
+copious in such company), ready to defend. 'Those consonants of
+ours,' said the King, 'they afflict one's ear: what Names we have;
+all in mere K's and P's: KNAP-, KNIP-, KLOP-, KROTZ-, KROK--;
+--your own Name, for example!'"--Yes, his own Name, unmusical
+GottSCHED, and signifying God's-Damage (God's-SKAITH) withal.
+"Husht, don't take a Holy Name in vain; call the man SCHED
+('Damage' by itself), can't we!" said a wit once. [Nicolai,
+<italic> Anekdoten, <end italic> iii. 287.]--"'Five consonants
+together, TTSCH, TTSCH, what a tone!' continued the King. 'Hear, in
+contrast, the music of this Stanza of Rousseau's [Repeats a
+stanza]. Who could express that in German with such melody?' And so
+on; branching through a great many provinces; King's knowledge of
+all Literature, new and ancient, 'perfectly astonishing to me;'
+and I myself, the swift-speaking Gottsched, rather copious than
+otherwise. Catastrophe, and summary of the whole, was: Gottsched
+undertook to translate the Rousseau Stanza into German of moderate
+softness; and by the aid of water did so, that very night;
+[Copied duly in <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 726.]
+sent it next day, and had 'within an hour' a gracious Royal Answer
+in verse; calling one, incidentally, 'Saxon Swan, CYGNE SAXON,'
+though one is such a Goose! 'Majesty to march at 7 to-morrow
+morning,' said a Postscript,--no Interviewing more, at present.
+
+"About ten days after [not to let this thing interrupt us again],
+Friedrich, on his return to Leipzig, had another Interview with
+Gottsched; of only one hour, this time;--but with many topics:
+Reading of some Gottsched Ode (ODE, very tedious, frothy, watery,
+of THANKS to Majesty for such goodness to the Saxon Swan; reading,
+too, of 'some of Madam Gottsched's Pieces'). Majesty confessed
+afterwards, Every hour from the very first had lowered his opinion
+of the Saxon Swan, till at length Goosehood became too apparent.
+Friedrich sent him a gold snuffbox by and by, but had no
+farther dialoguing.
+
+"A saying of Excellency Mitchell's to Gottsched--for Gottsched, on
+that second Leipzig opportunity, went swashing about among the
+King's Suite as well--is still remembered. They were talking of
+Shakspeare: 'Genial, if you will,' said Gottsched, 'but the Laws of
+Aristotle; Five Acts, unities strict!'--'Aristotle? What is to
+hinder a man from making his Tragedy in Ten acts, if it suit him
+better?' 'Impossible, your Excellency!'--'Pooh,' said his
+Excellency; 'suppose Aristotle, and general Fashion too, had
+ordered that the clothes of every man were to be cut from five ells
+of cloth: how would the Herr Professor like [with these huge limbs
+of his] if he found there were no breeches for him, on Aristotle's
+account?' Adieu to Gottsched; most voluminous of men;--who wrote a
+Grammar of the German Language, which, they say, did good.
+I remember always his poor Wife with some pathos; who was a fine,
+graceful, loyal creature, of ten times his intelligence; and did no
+end of writing and translating and compiling (Addison's CATO,
+Addison's SPECTATOR, thousands of things from all languages), on
+order of her Gottsched, till life itself sank in such enterprises;
+never doubting, tragically faithful soul, but her Gottsched was an
+authentic Seneschal of Phoebus and the Nine." [Her LETTERS,
+collected by a surviving Lady-Friend, "BRIEFE DER FRAU LUISE
+ADELGUNDE VIKTORIE GOTTSCHED, born KULMUS (Dresden, 1771-1772,
+3 vols. 8vo)," are, I should suppose, the only Gottsched Piece
+which anybody would now think of reading.]--
+
+Monday, 17th, at seven, his Majesty pushed off accordingly;
+cheery he in the prospect of work, whatever his friends in the
+distance be. Here, from Eilenburg, his first stage Torgau-way, are
+a Pair of Letters in notable contrast.
+
+WILHELMINA TO THE KING (on rumor of Haddick, swoln into
+a Triple Invasion, Austrian, Swedish, French).
+
+BAIREUTH, "15th October, 1757.
+
+"MY DEAREST BROTHER,--Death and a thousand torments could not equal
+the frightful state I am in. There run reports that make me
+shudder. Some say you are wounded; others, dangerously ill. In vain
+have I tormented myself to have news of you; I can get none. Oh, my
+dear Brother, come what may, I will not survive you. If I am to
+continue in this frightful uncertainty, I cannot stand it; I shall
+sink under it, and then I shall be happy. I have been on the point
+of sending you a courier; but [environed as we are] I durst not.
+In the name of God, bid somebody write me one word.
+
+"I know not what I have written; my heart is torn in pieces; I feel
+that by dint of disquietude and alarms I am losing my wits. Oh, my
+dear, adorable Brother, have pity on me. Heaven grant I be
+mistaken, and that you may scold me; but the least thing that
+concerns you pierces me to the heart, and alarms my affection too
+much. Might I die a thousand times, provided you lived and
+were happy!
+
+"I can say no more. Grief chokes me; and I can only repeat that
+your fate shall be mine; being, my dear Brother, your
+
+"WILHELMINA."
+
+What a shrill penetrating tone, like the wildly weeping voice of
+Rachel; tragical, painful, gone quite to falsetto and above pitch;
+but with a melody in its dissonance like the singing of the stars.
+My poor shrill Wilhelmina!--
+
+
+KING TO WILHELMINA (has not yet received the Above).
+
+"EILENBURG, 17th October, 1757.
+
+"MY DEAREST SISTER,--What is the good of philosophy unless one
+employ it in the disagreeable moments of life? It is then, my dear
+Sister, that courage and firmness avail us.
+
+"I am now in motion; and having once got into that, you may
+calculate I shall not think of sitting down again, except under
+improved omens. If outrage irritates even cowards, what will it do
+to hearts that have courage?
+
+"I foresee I shall not be able to write again for perhaps six
+weeks: which fails not to be a sorrow to me: but I entreat you to
+be calm during these turbulent affairs, and to wait with patience
+the month of December; paying no regard to the Nurnberg Newspapers
+nor to those of the Reich, which are totally Austrian.
+
+"I am tired as a dog (COMME UN CHIEN). I embrace you with my whole
+heart; being with the most perfect affection (TENDRESSE), my
+dearest Sister, your"--           FRIEDRICH.
+
+... (AT SOME OTHER HOUR, SAME PLACE AND DAY.) "'No possibility of
+Peace,' say your accounts [Letter lost]; 'the French won't hear my
+name mentioned.' Well; from me they shall not farther. The way will
+be, to speak to them by action, so that they may repent their
+impertinences and pride." [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end
+italic> xxvii. i. 308, 309, 310.]'
+
+The Haddick affair, after all the rumor about it, proved to be a
+very small matter. No Swede or Richelieu had dreamt of
+co-operating; Haddick, in the end, was scarce 4,000 with four
+cannon; General Rochow, Commandant of Berlin, with his small
+garrison, had not Haddick skilfully slidden through woods, and been
+so magnified by rumor, might have marched out, and beaten a couple
+of Haddicks. As it was, Haddick skilfully emerging, at the Silesian
+Gate of Berlin, 16th October, about eleven in the morning, demanded
+ransom of 300,000 thalers (45,000 pounds); was refused;
+began shooting on the poor palisades, on the poor drawbridge there;
+"at the third shot brought down the drawbridge;" rushed into the
+suburb; and was not to be pushed out again by the weak party Rochow
+sent to try it. Rochow, ignorant of Haddick's force, marched off
+thereupon for Spandau with the Royal Family and effects; leaving
+Haddick master of the suburb, and Berlin to make its own bargain
+with him. Haddick, his Croats not to be quite kept from mischief,
+remained master of the suburb, minatory upon Berlin, for twelve
+hours or more: and after a good deal of bargaining,--ransom of
+45,000 pounds, of 90,000 pounds, finally of 27,000 pounds and "two
+dozen pair of gloves to the Empress Queen,"--made off about five in
+the morning; wind of Moritz's advance adding wings to the speed of
+Haddick. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 715-723
+(Haddick's own Account, and the Berlin one).]
+
+Moritz did arrive next evening (18th); but with his tired troops
+there was no catching of Haddick, now three marches ahead.
+Royal Family and effects returned from Spandau the day following;
+but in a day or two more, removed to Magdeburg till the Capital
+were safe from such affronts. Much grumbling against Rochow.
+"What could I do? How could I know?" answered Rochow, whose
+eyesight indeed had been none of the best. Berlin smarts to the
+length of 27,000 pounds and an alarm; but asserts (not quite
+mythically, thinks Retzow), that "the two dozen pair of gloves were
+all gloves for the left hand,"--Berlin having wit, and a touch of
+ABSINTHE in it, capable of such things! Friedrich heard the news at
+Annaburg, a march beyond Torgau; and there paused, again uncertain,
+for about a week coming; after which, he discovered that Leipzig
+would be the place; and returned thither, appointing a general
+rendezvous and concentration there.
+
+
+SCENE AT REGENSBURG IN THE INTERIM.
+
+Just while Haddick was sliding swiftly through the woods, Berlin
+now nigh, there occurred a thing at Regensburg; tragic thing, but
+ending in farce,--Finale of REICHS-ACHT, in short;--about which all
+Regensburg was loud, wailing or haha-ing according to humor;
+while Berlin was paying its ransom and left-hand gloves.
+One moment's pause upon this, though our haste is great.
+
+"Reichs Diet had got its Ban of the Reich ready for Friedrich;
+CITATIO (solemn Summons) and all else complete; nothing now wanted
+but to serve Citatio on him, or 'insinuate' it into him, as their
+phrase is;--which latter essential point occasions some shaking of
+wigs. Dangerous, serving Citatio in that quarter: and by what art
+try to smuggle it into the hands of such a one? 'Insinuate it here
+into his, Plotho's, hand; that is the method, and that will
+suffice!' say the wigs, and choose an unfortunate Reichs Notary,
+Dr. Aprill, to do it; who, in ponderous Chancery-style, gives the
+following affecting report,--wonderful, but intelligible
+(when abridged):--
+
+"Citatio" to come and receive your Ban,--a very solemn-sounding
+Document, commencing (or perhaps it is Aprill himself that so
+commences, no matter which), "'In the Name of the Most High God,
+the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Amen,'--was given, Wednesday, 12th
+October, in the Year after Christ our dear Lord and Saviour's
+Birth, 1757 Years, To me Georgius Mathias Josephus Aprill, sworn
+Kaiserlich Notarius Publicus; In my Lodging, first-floor fronting
+south, in Jacob Virnrohr the Innkeeper's House here at Regensburg,
+called the Red-Star," for insinuation into Plotho:
+
+With which solemn Piece, Aprill proceeded next day, Thursday,
+half-past 2 P.M., to Plotho's dwelling-place, described with equal
+irrefragability; and, continues Aprill, "did there, by a servant of
+the Herr Ambassador von Plotho's, announce myself; adding that I
+had something to say to his Excellency, if he would please to admit
+me. To which the Herr Ambassador by the same servant sent answer,
+that he was ill with a cold, and that I might speak to his
+Secretarius what I had to say. But, as I replied that my message
+was to his Excellenz in person, the same servant came back with
+intimation that I might call again to-morrow at noon."
+
+To-morrow, at the stroke of noon, Friday, 14th October, Aprill
+punctually appears again, with recapitulation of the pledge given
+him yesterday; and is informed that he can walk up-stairs.
+"I proceeded thereupon, the servant going before, up one pair of
+stairs, or with the appurtenances (GEZEUGEN) rather more than one
+pair, into the Herr Ambassador Freiherr von Plotho's Anteroom;
+who, just as we were entering, stept in himself, through a side-
+door; in his dressing-gown, and with the words, 'Speak now what you
+have to say.'
+
+"I thereupon slipt into his hand CITATIO FISCALIS, and said"--said
+at first nothing, Plotho avers; merely mumbled, looked like some
+poor caitiff, come with Law-papers on a trifling Suit we happen to
+have in the Courts here;--and only by degrees said (let us abridge;
+SCENE, Aprill and Plotho, Anteroom in Regensburg, first-floor and
+rather higher):--
+
+APTILL. "'I have to give your Excellenz this Writing,--[which
+privately, could your Excellenz guess it, is] CITATIO FISCALIS from
+the Reichstag, summoning his Majesty to show cause why Ban of the
+Reich should not pass upon him!' His Excellenz at first took the
+CITATIO and adjuncts from me; and looking into them to see what
+they were, his Excellenz's face began to color, and soon after to
+color a little more; and on his looking attentively at CITATIO
+FISCALIS, he broke into violent anger and rage, so that he could
+not stand still any longer; but with burning face, and both arms
+held aloft, rushed close to me, CITATIO and adjuncts in his right
+hand, and broke out in this form:--
+
+PLOTHO. "'What; insinuate (INSINUIEREN), you scoundrel!'
+
+APRILL. "'It is my Notarial Office; I must do it.' In spite of
+which the Freiherr von Plotho fell on me with all rage; grasped me
+by the front of the cloak, and said:--
+
+PLOTHO. "'Take it back, wilt thou!' And as I resisted doing so, he
+stuck it in upon me, and shoved it down with all violence between
+my coat and waistcoat; and, still holding me by the cloak, called
+to the two servants who had been there, 'Fling him down stairs!'--
+which they, being discreet fellows, and in no flurry, did not
+quite, nor needed quite to do ('Must, sir, you see, unless!'), and
+so forced me out of the house; Excellenz Plotho retiring through
+his Anteroom, and his Body-servant, who at first had been on the
+stairs, likewise disappearing as I got under way,"--and have to
+report, in such manner, to the Universe and Reichs Diet, with tears
+in my eyes. [Preuss, ii. 397-401; in <italic> Helden-Geschichte,
+<end italic> iv. 745-749, Plotho's Account.]
+
+What became of Reichs Ban after this, ask not. It fell dead by
+Friedrich's victories now at hand; rose again into life on
+Friedrich's misfortunes (August, 1758), threatening to include
+George Second in it; upon which the CORPUS EVANGELICORUM made some
+counter-mumblement;--and, I have heard, the French privately
+advised: "Better drop it; these two Kings are capable of walking
+out of you, and dangerously kicking the table over as they go!"--
+Whereby it again fell dead, positively for the last time, and, in
+short, is worth no mention or remembrance more.
+
+CORPUS EVANGELICORUM had always been against Reichs Ban: a few
+Dissentients, or Half-Dissentients excepted,--as Mecklenburg wholly
+and with a will; foolish Anspach wholly; and the Anhalts haggling
+some dissent, and retracting it (why, I never knew);--for which
+Mecklenburg and the Anhalts, lying within clutch of one, had to
+repent bitterly in the years coming! Enough of all that.
+
+The Haddick invasion,,which had got its gloves, left-hand or not,
+and part of its road-expenses, brought another consequence much
+more important on the PER-CONTRA side. The triumphing, TE-DEUM-ing
+and jubilation over it,--"His Metropolis captured; Royal Family in
+flight!"--raised the Dauphiness Army, and especially Versailles,
+into such enthusiasm, that Dauphiness came bodily out (on order
+from Versailles); spread over the Country, plundering and insulting
+beyond example; got herself reinforced by a 15,000 from the
+Richelieu Army; crossed the Saale; determined on taking Leipzig,
+beating Friedrich, and I know not what. Keith, in Leipzig with a
+small Party, had summons from Soubise's vanguard (October 24th):
+Keith answered, He would burn the suburbs;--upon which, said
+vanguard, hearing of Friedrich's advent withal, took itself rapidly
+away. And Soubise and it would fain have recrossed Saale, I have
+understood, had not Versailles been peremptory.
+
+In a word, Friedrioh arrived at Leipzig October 26th; Ferdinand,
+Moritz and all the others coming or already come: and there is
+something great just at hand. Friedrich's stay in Leipzig was only
+four days. Cheering prospect of work now ahead here;--add to this,
+assurance from Preussen that Apraxin is fairly going home, and
+Lehwald coming to look after the Swedes. Were it not that there is
+bad news from Silesia, things generally are beginning to look up.
+Of the hour spent on Gottsched, in these four days, we expressly
+take no notice farther; but there was another visit much less
+conspicuous, and infinitely more important: that of a certain
+Hanoverian Graf von Schulenburg, not in red or with plumes, like a
+Major-General as he was, but "in the black suit of a Country
+Parson,"--coming, in that unnoticeable guise, to inform Friedrich
+officially, "That the Hanoverians and Majesty of England have
+resolved to renounce the Convention of Kloster-Zeven; to bring
+their poor Stade Army into the field again; and do now request him,
+King Friedrich, to grant them Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick to he
+General of the same." [Mauvillon, i. 256; Westphalen, i. 315:
+indistinct both, and with slight variations. Mitchell Papers (in
+British Museum), likewise indistinct: Additional MSS. 6815, pp. 96
+and 108 ("Lord Holderness to Mitchell," doubtless on Pitt's
+instigation, "10th October, 1757," is the beginning of it,--two
+days before Royal Highness got home from Stade); see ib. 6806,
+pp. 241-252.]
+
+Here is an unnoticeable message, of very high moment indeed.
+To which Friedrich, already prepared, gives his cheerful consent;
+nominations and practicalities to follow, the instant these present
+hurries are over. Who it was that had prepared all this, whose
+suggestion it first was, Friedrich's, Mitchell's, George's, Pitt's,
+I do not know,--I cannot help suspecting Pitt; Pitt and Friedrich
+together. And certainly of all living men, Ferdinand--related to
+the English and Prussian royalties, a soldier of approved
+excellence, and likewise a noble-minded, prudent, patient and
+invincibly valiant and steadfast man--was, beyond comparison, the
+fittest for this office. Pitt is now fairly in power; and
+perceives,--such Pitt's originality of view,--that an Army with a
+Captain to it may differ beautifully from one without. And in fact
+we may take this as the first twitch at the reins, on Pitt's part;
+whose delicate strong hand, all England running to it with one
+heart, will be felt at the ends of the earth before many months go.
+To the great and unexpected joy of Friedrich, for one. "England has
+taken long to produce a great man," he said to Mitchell; "but here
+is one at last!"
+
+
+
+BOOK XVIII (CONTINUED)
+
+
+SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT.
+
+1757-1759.
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII.
+
+BATTLE OF ROSSBACH.
+
+Friedrich left Leipzig Sunday, October 30th; encamped, that night,
+on the famous Field of Lutzen, with the vanguard, he (as usual, and
+Mayer with him, who did some brisk smiting home of what French
+there were); Keith and Duke Ferdinand following, with main body
+and rear.
+
+Movements on the Soubise-Hildburghausen part are all retrograde
+again;--can Dauphiness Bellona do nothing, then, except shuttle
+forwards and then backwards according to Friedrich's absence or
+presence? The Soubise-Hildburghausen Army does immediately withdraw
+on this occasion, as on the former; and makes for the safe side of
+the Saale again, rapidly retreating before Friedrich, who is not
+above one to two of them,--more like one to three, now that
+Broglio's Detachment is come to hand. Broglio got to Merseburg
+October 26th,--guess 15,000 strong;--considerably out of repair,
+and glad to have done with such a march, and be within reach of
+Soubise. This is the Second Son of our old Blusterous Friend; a man
+who came to some mark, and to a great deal of trouble, in this War;
+and ended, readers know how, at the Siege of the Bastille thirty-
+two years afterwards!
+
+So soon as rested, Broglio, by order, moves leftwards to Halle, to
+guard Saale Bridge there; Soubise himself edging after him to
+Merseburg, on a similar errand; and leaving Hildburghausen to take
+charge of Weissenfels and the Third Saale Bridge. That is
+Dauphiness's posture while Friedrich encamps at Lutzen:--let
+impatient human nature fix these three places for itself, and
+hasten to the catastrophe of wretched Dauphiness. Soubise, it ought
+to be remembered, is not in the highest spirits; but his Officers
+in over-high, "Doing this PETIT MARQUIS DE BRANDEBOURG the honor to
+have a kind of War with him (DE LUI FAIRE UNE ESPECE DE GUERRE),"
+as they term it. Being puffed up with general vanity, and the
+newspaper rumor about Haddick's feat,--which, like the gloves it
+got, is going all to left-hand in this way. Hildburghausen and the
+others overrule Soubise; and indeed there is no remedy;
+"Provision almost out;--how retreat to our magazines and our
+fastnesses, with Friedrich once across Saale, and sticking to the
+skirts of us?" Here, from eye-witnesses where possible, are the
+successive steps of Dauphiness towards her doom, which is famous in
+the world ever since.
+
+"Monday, 31st October, 1757," as the Town-Syndic of Weissenfels
+records, "about eight in the morning, [Muller, SCHLACHT BEI
+ROSSBACH ("a Centenary Piece," Berlin, 1857,--containing several
+curious Extracts), p. 44, <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
+iv. 643, 651-668.] the King of Prussia, with his whole Army" (or
+what seemed to us the whole, though it was but a half; Keith with
+the other half being within reach to northward, marching Merseburg
+way), "came before this Town." Has been here before; as Keith has,
+as Soubise and others have: a town much agitated lately by transit
+of troops. It was from the eastern, or high landward side, where
+the so-called Castle is, that Friedrich came: Castle built
+originally on some "White Crag (WEISSE FELS" not now conspicuous),
+from which the town and whilom Duchy take their name.
+
+"We have often heard of Weissenfels, while the poor old drunken
+Duke lived, who used to be a Suitor of Wilhelmina's, liable to hard
+usage; and have marched through it, with the Salzburgers, in
+peaceable times. A solid pleasant-enough little place (6,000 souls
+or so); lies leant against high ground (White Crags, or whatever it
+once was) on the eastern or right bank of the Saale; a Town in part
+flat, in part very steep; the streets of it, or main street and
+secondaries, running off level enough from the River and Bridge;
+rising by slow degrees, but at last rapidly against the high ground
+or cliffs, just mentioned; a stiff acclivity of streets, till
+crowned by the so-called Castle, the 'Augustus Burg' in those days,
+the 'Friedrich-Wilhelm Barrack' in ours. It was on this crown of
+the cliffs that his Prussian Majesty appeared.
+
+"Saale is of good breadth here; has done perhaps two hundred miles,
+since he started, in the Fichtelgebirge (PINE MOUNTAINS), on his
+long course Elbe-ward; received, only ten miles ago, his last big
+branch, the wide-wandering Unstrut, coming in with much drainage
+from the northern parts:--in breadth, Saale may be compared to
+Thames, to Tay or Beauley; his depth not fordable, though nothing
+like so deep as Thames's; main cargo visible is rafts of timber:
+banks green, definite, scant of wood; river of rather dark
+complexion, mainly noiseless, but of useful pleasant
+qualities otherwise."
+
+From this Castle or landward side come Friedrich and his Prussians,
+on Monday morning about eight. "The garrison, some 4,000 Reichs
+folk and a French Battalion or two, shut the Gates, and assembled
+in the Market-place,"--a big square, close at the foot of the
+Heights; "on the other hand, from the top of the Heights [KLAMMERK
+the particular spot], the Prussians cannonaded Town and Gates;
+to speedy bursting open of the same; and rushed in over the walls
+of the Castle-court, and by other openings into the Town: so that
+the garrison above said had to quit, and roll with all speed across
+the Saale Bridge, and set the same on fire behind them." This was
+their remedy for all the Three Bridges, when attacked; but it
+succeeded nowhere so well as here.
+
+"The fire was of extreme rapidity; prepared beforehand:" Bridge all
+of dry wood coated with pitch;--"fire reinforced too, in view of
+such event, by all the suet, lard and oleaginous matter the
+Garrison could find in Weissenfels; some hundredweights of tallow-
+dips, for one item, going up on this occasion." Bridge, "worth
+100,000 thalers," is instantly ablaze: some 400 finding the bridge
+so flamy, and the Prussians at their skirts, were obliged to
+surrender;--Feldmarschall Hildburghausen, sleeping about two miles
+off, gets himself awakened in this unpleasant manner.
+Flying garrison halt on the other side of the River, where the rest
+of their Army is; plant cannon there against quenching of the
+Bridge; and so keep firing, answered by the Prussians, with much
+noise and no great mischief, till 3 P.M., when the Bridge is quite
+gone (Toll-keeper's Lodge and all), and the enterprise of crossing
+there had plainly become impossible.
+
+Friedrich quickly, about a mile farther down the River, has picked
+out another crossing-place, in the interim, and founded some new
+adequate plank or raft bridge there; which, by diligence all night,
+will be crossable to-morrow. So that, except for amusing the enemy,
+the cannonading may cease at Weissenfels. A certain Duc de Crillon,
+in command at this Weissenfels Bridge-burning and cannonade, has a
+chivalrous Anecdote (amounting nearly to zero when well examined)
+about saving or sparing Friedrich's life on this interesting
+occasion: How, being now on the safe side of the River, he Crillon
+with his staff taking some refection of breakfast after the furious
+flurry there had been; there came to him one of his Artillery
+Captains, stationed in an Island in the River, asking, "Shall I
+shoot the King of Prussia, Monseigneur? He is down reconnoitring
+his end of the Bridge: sha'n't I, then?" To whom Crillon gives a
+glass of wine and smilingly magnanimous answer to a negative
+effect. [<italic> "Memoires militaires de Louis &c. Duc de Crillon
+<end italic> (Paris, 1791), p. 166;"--as cited by Preuss, ii. 88.]
+Concerning which, one has to remark, Not only, FIRST, that the
+Artillery Captain's power of seeing Friedrich (which is itself
+uncertain) would indeed mean the power of aiming at him, but
+differs immensely from that of hitting him with shot; so that this
+"Shall I kill the King?" was mainly thrasonic wind from Captain
+Bertin. But SECONDLY, that there is no "Island" in the River
+thereabouts, for Captain Bertin to fire from! So that probably the
+whole story is wind or little more: dreamlike, or at best some idle
+thrasonic-theoretic question, on the part of Bertin; proper answer
+thereto (consisting mainly in a glass of wine) from Monseigneur:--
+all which, on retrospection, Monseigneur feels, or would fain feel,
+to have been not theoretic-thrasonic but practical, and of a rather
+godlike nature. Zero mainly, as we said; Friedrich thanks you for
+zero, Monseigneur.
+
+"The Prussians were billeted in the Town that night," says our
+Syndic; "and in many a house there came to be twenty men, and even
+thirty and above it, lodged. All was quiet through the night;
+the French and the Reichs folk were drawn back upon the higher
+grounds, about Burgwerben and on to Tagwerben; and we saw their
+watch-fires burning." Friedrich's Bridge meanwhile, unmolested by
+the enemy, is getting ready.
+
+Keith, looking across to Merseburg on the morrow morning (Tuesday,
+Nov. 1st), whither he had marched direct with the other Half of the
+Army, finds Merseburg Bridge destroyed, or broken; and Soubise with
+batteries on the farther side, intending to dispute the passage.
+Keith despatches Duke Ferdinand to Halle, another twelve miles
+down, who finds Halle Bridge destroyed in like manner, and Broglio
+intending to dispute; which, however, on second thoughts, neither
+of them I did. Friedrich's new Bridge at Herren-Muhle (LORDSHIPS'
+MILL) is of course an important point to them; Friedrich's passage
+now past dispute! "Let us fall back," say they, "and rank ourselves
+a little; we are 50 or 60,000 strong; ill off for provisions;
+but well able to retreat; and have permission to fight on this side
+of the River."
+
+The combined Army, "Dauphiness," or whatever we are to call it,
+does on Wednesday morning (November 2d) gather in its cannon and
+outskirts, and give up the Saale question; retire landwards to the
+higher grounds some miles; and diligently get itself united, and
+into order of battle better or worse, near the Village of Mucheln
+(which means Kirk MICHAEL, and is still written "SANCT MICHEL" by
+some on this occasion). There Dauphiness takes post, leaning on the
+heights, not in a very scientific way; leaving Keith and Ferdinand
+to rebuild their Bridges unmolested, and all Prussians to come
+across at discretion. Which they have diligently done (2d-3d
+November), by their respective Bridges; and on Thursday afternoon
+are all across, encamped at Bedra, in close neighborhood to
+Mucheln; which Friedrich has been out reconnoitring and finds that
+he can attack next morning very early.
+
+Next morning, accordingly, "by 2 o'clock, with a bright moon
+shining," Friedrich is on horseback, his Army following. But on
+examining by moonlight, the enemy have shifted their position;
+turned on their axis, more or less, into new wood-patches, new
+batteries and bogs; which has greatly mended their affair. No good
+attacking them so, thinks Friedrich; and returns to his Camp;
+slightly cannonaded, one wing of him, from some battery of the
+enemy; and immoderately crowed over by them: "Dare not, you see!
+Tried, and was defeated!" cry their newspapers and they,--for one
+day. Friedrich lodges again in Bedra this night, others say in
+Rossbach; shifts his own Camp a little; left wing of it now at
+Rossbach (HOME-BROOK, or BECK, soon to be a world-famous Hamlet):
+the effects of hunger on the Dauphiness, so far from her supplies,
+will, he calculates, be stronger than on him, and will bring her to
+better terms shortly. Dauphiness needs bread; one may have fine
+clipping at the skirts of her, if she try retreat. That Dauphiness
+would play the prank she did next morning, Friedrich had not
+ventured to calculate.
+
+
+    CATASTROPHE OF DAUPHINESS (Saturday, 5th November, 1757).
+
+Meandering Saale is on one of his big turns, as he passes
+Weissenfels; turning, pretty rapidly here, from southeastward,
+which he was a dozen miles ago, round to northeastward again or
+northward altogether, which he gets to be at Merseburg, a dozen
+farther down. Right across from Weissenfels, lapped in this crook
+of the Saale, or washed by it on south side and on east, rises,
+with extreme laziness, a dull circular lump of country, six or
+eight miles in diameter; with Rossbach and half a dozen other
+scraggy sleepy Hamlets scattered on it;--which, till the morning of
+Saturday, 5th November, 1757, had not been notable to any visitor.
+The topmost point or points, for there are two (not discoverable
+except by tradition and guess), the country people do call Hills,
+JANUS-HUGEL, POLZEN-HUGEL--Hill sensible to wagon-horses in those
+bad loose tracks of sandy mud, but unimpressive on the Tourist, who
+has to admit that there seldom was so flat a Hill. Rising, let us
+guess, forty yards in the three or four miles it has had. Might be
+called a perceptibly pot-bellied plain, with more propriety;
+flat country, slightly puffed up;--in shape not steeper than the
+mould of an immense tea-saucer would be. Tea-saucer 6 miles in
+diameter, 100 feet in depth, and of irregular contour, which indeed
+will sufficiently represent it to the reader's mind.
+
+Saale, at four or five miles distance, bounds this scraggy lump on
+the east and on the south. Westward and northward, springing about
+Mucheln on each hand, and setting off to right and to left Saale-
+ward, are what we take to be two brooks; at least are two hollows:
+and behind these, the country rises higher; undulating still on
+lazy terms, but now painted azure by the distance, not unpleasant
+to behold, with its litter all lapped out of sight, and its poor
+brooks tinkling forward (as we judge) into the Saale, Merseburg
+way, or reverse-wise into the Unstrut, the last big branch of
+Saale. Southward from our Janus Height, eight or nine miles off,
+may be seen some vestige of Freiburg; steeple or gilt weathercock
+faintly visible, on the Unstrut yonder;--which I take to be
+Soubise's bread-basket at present. And farther off, and opposite
+the MOUTH of the Unstrut, well across the Saale, lies another
+namable Town (visible in clear weather, as a smoke-cloud at certain
+hours, about meal-time, when the kettles are on boil), the Town of
+Naumburg,--one of several German Naumburgs,--the Naumburg of Gustaf
+Adolf; where his slain body lay, on the night of Lutzen Battle,
+with his poor Queen and others weeping over it. Naumburg is on the
+other side of Saale, not of importance to Soubise in such posture.
+
+This is the circular block or lump of country, on the north or
+northwest side of which Friedrich now lies, and which will become,
+he little thinks how memorable on the morrow. Over the heights,
+immediately eastward of Friedrich, there is a kind of hollow, or
+scooped-out place; shallow valley of some extent, which deserves
+notice against to-morrow: but in general the ground is lazily
+spherical, and without noticeable hollows or valleys when fairly
+away from the River. A dull blunt lump of country; made of sand and
+mud,--may have been grassy once, with broom on it, in the pastoral
+times; is now under poor plough-husbandry, arable or scratchable in
+all parts, and looks rather miserable in winter-time. No vestige of
+hedge on it, of shrub or bush; one tree, ugly but big, which may
+have been alive in Friedrich's time, stands not far from Rossbach
+Hamlet; one, and no more, discoverable in these areas.
+
+Various Hamlets lie sprinkled about: very sleepy, rusty, irregular
+little places; huts and cattle-stalls huddled down, as if shaken
+from a bag; much straw, thick thatch and crumbly mud-brick;
+but looking warm and peaceable, for the Four-footed and the Two-
+footed; which latter, if you speak to them, are solid reasonable
+people, with energetic German eyes and hearts, though so ill-
+lodged. These Hamlets, needing shelter and spring-water, stand
+generally in some slight hollow, if well up the Height, as Rorschach
+is; sometimes, if near the bottom, they are nestled in a sudden
+dell or gash,--work of the primeval rains, accumulating from above,
+and ploughing out their way. The rains, we can see, have been busy;
+but there is seldom the least stream visible, bottom being too
+sandy and porous. On the western slope, there is in our time a kind
+of coal, or coal-dust, dug up; in the way of quarrying, not of
+mining; and one or two big chasms of this sort are confusedly busy:
+the natives mix this valuable coal-dust with water, mould it into
+bricks, and so use as fuel: one of the features of these hamlets is
+the strange black bricks, standing on edge about the cottage-doors,
+to drip, and dry in the sun. For this or for other reasons, the
+westward slope appears to be the best; and has a major share of
+hamlets on it: Rossbach is high up, and looks over upon Mucheln,
+and its dim belfry and appurtenances, which lie safe across the
+hollow, perhaps two miles off,--safe from Friedrich, if there were
+eatables and lodging to be had in such a place. Friedrich's left
+wing is in Rossbach. Bedra where Friedrich's right wing is;
+Branderode where the Soubise right is; then Grost; Schevenroda,
+Zeuchfeld, Pettstadt, Lunstadt,--especially Reichartswerben, where
+Soubise's right will come to be: these the reader may take note of
+in his Map. Several of them lie in ashes just then; plundered,
+replundered, and at last set fire to; so busy have Soubise's hungry
+people been, of late, in the Country they came to "deliver."
+The Freiburg road, the Naumburg road, both towards Merseburg, cross
+this Height; straight like the string, Saale by Weissenfels being
+the bow.
+
+The HERRENHAUS (Squire's Mansion) still stands in Rossbach, with
+the littery Hamlet at its flank: a high, pavilion-roofed, and
+though dilapidated, pretentious kind of House; some kind of court
+round it, some kind of hedge or screen of brushwood and brick-wall:
+terribly in need of the besom, it and its environment throughout.
+King, I suppose, did lodge there overnight: certain it is the
+Squire was absent; and the Squire's Man, three days afterwards,
+reported to him as follows: ... "Saturday, the 5th, about 8 A.M.,
+his Majesty mounted to the roof of the Herrenhaus here, some tiles
+having been removed [for that end, or by accident, is not said],
+and saw how the French and Reichs Army were getting in movement"--
+wriggling out of their Camp leftwards, evidently aiming towards
+Grost. "In about an hour, near half their Army was through Grost,
+and had turned southward, rather southeastward, from Grost, out in
+the Rossbach and Almsdorf region, and proceeding still towards
+Pettstadt,"--towards Schevenroda more precisely, not towards
+Pettstadt yet. "His Majesty looked always through the perspective:
+and to me was the grace done to be ever at his side, and to name
+for him the roads the French and Reichs Army was marching."
+[Muller, p. 50; Rodenbeck, p. 326.]
+
+The King had heard of this phenomenon hours before, and had sent
+out Hussars and scouts upon it; but now sees it with his eyes:--
+"Going for Freiburg, and their bread-cupboard," thinks the King;
+who does not as yet make much of the movement; but will watch it
+well, and calculates to have a stroke at the rear end of it, in due
+season. With which view, the cavalry, Seidlitz and Mayer, are
+ordered to saddle; foot regiments, and all else, to be in
+readiness. This French-Reichs Dauphiness is not rapid in her field-
+exercise; and has a great deal of wriggling and unwinding before
+she can fairly pick herself out, and get forward towards
+Schevenroda on the Freiburg road. In three or in two parallel
+columns, artillery between them, horse ahead, horse arear;
+haggling along there;--making for their bread-baskets, thinks the
+King. A body of French, horse chiefly, under St. Germain, come out,
+in the Schortau-Almsdorf part, with some salvoing and prancing, as
+if intending to attack about Rossbach, where our left wing is:
+but his Majesty sees it to be a pretence merely; and St. Germain,
+motionless, and doing nothing but cannonade a little, seems to
+agree that it is so. Dauphiness continues her slow movements;
+King, in this Squire's Mansion of Rossbach, sits down to dinner,
+dinner with Officers at the usual hour of noon,--little dreaming
+what the Dauphiness has in her head.
+
+Truth is, the Dauphiness is in exultant spirits, this morning;
+intending great things against a certain "little Marquis of
+Brandenburg," to whom one does so much honor. Generals looking down
+yesterday on the King of Prussia's Camp, able to count every man in
+it (and half the men being invisible, owing to bends of the
+ground), counted him to 10,000 or so; and had said, "Pshaw, are not
+we above 50,000; let us end it! Take him on his left. Round yonder,
+till we get upon his left, and even upon his rear withal, St.
+Germain co-operating on the other side of him: on left, on rear, on
+front, at the same moment, is not that a sure game?" A very
+ticklish game, answers surly sagacious Lloyd: "No general will
+permit himself to be taken in flank with his eyes open; and the
+King of Prussia is the unlikeliest you could try it with!"
+
+Trying it meanwhile they are; marching along by the low grounds
+here, intending to sweep gradually leftwards towards Janus-Hill
+quarter; there to sweep home upon him, coil him up, left and rear
+and front, in their boa-constrictor folds, and end his trifle of an
+Army and him. "Why not, if we do our duty at all, annihilate his
+trifle of an Army; take himself prisoner, and so end it?"
+Report says, Soubise had really, in some moment of enthusiasm
+lately, warned the Versailles populations to expect such a thing;
+and that the Duchess of Orleans, forgetful of poor King Louis's
+presence, had in HER enthusiasm, exclaimed: "TANT MIEUX, I shall at
+last see a King, then!" But perhaps it is a mere French epigram,
+such as the winds often generate there, and put down for fact.--
+Friedrich's retreat to Weissenfels is cut off for Friedrich:
+an Austrian party has been at the Herren-Muhle Bridge this morning,
+has torn it up and pitched it into the river; planks far on to
+Merseburg by this time. And, in fact, unless Friedrich be nimble--
+But that he usually is.
+
+Friedrich's dinner had gone on with deliberation for about two
+hours, Friedrich's intentions not yet known to any, but everybody,
+great and small, waiting eagerly for them, like greyhounds on the
+slip,--when Adjutant Gaudi, who had been on the House-top the
+while, rushes into the Dining-room faster than he ought, and, with
+some tremor in his voice and eyes, reports hastily:
+"At Schevenroda, at Pettstadt yonder! Enemy has turned to left.
+Clearly for the left."--"Well, and if he do? No flurry needed,
+Captain!" answered Friedrich,--(NOT in these precise words;
+but rebuking Gaudi, with a look not of laughter wholly, and with a
+certain question, as to the state of Gaudi's stomachic part, which
+is still known in traditionary circles, but is not mentionable
+here);--and went, with due gravity, himself to the roof, with his
+Officers. "To the left, sure enough; meaning to attack us there:"
+the thing Friedrich had despaired of is voluntarily coming, then;--
+and it is a thing of stern qualities withal; a wager of life, with
+glorious possibilities behind.
+
+Friedrich earnestly surveys the phenomenon for some minutes;
+in some minutes, Friedrich sees his way through it, at least into
+it, and how he will do it. Off, eastward; march! Swift are his
+orders; almost still swifter the fulfillment of them. Prussian Army
+is a nimble article in comparison with Dauphiness! In half an
+hour's time, all is packed and to the road; and, except Mayer and
+certain Free-Corps or Light-Horse, to amuse St. Germain and his
+Almsdorf people, there is not a Prussian visible in these
+localities to French eyes. "At half-past two," says the Squire's
+Man,--or let us take him a sentence earlier, to lose nothing of
+such a Document: "At noon his Majesty took dinner; sat till about
+two o'clock; then again went to the roof; and perceived that the
+Enemy's Army at Pettstadt were turning about the little Wood there
+northeastward, as if for Lunstadt [into the Lunstadt road];--such
+cannonading too," from those Almsdorf people, "that the balls flew
+over our heads,"--or I tremulously thought so. "At half-past two,
+the word was given, March! And good speed they made about it, in
+this Herrenhaus, and out of doors too, striking their tents, and
+cording up and trimly shouldering everything with incredible
+brevity," as if machinery were doing it; "and at three, on the
+Prussian part, all was packed and out into the court for being
+carried off; and, in fact, the Prussian Army was on march at
+three." Seidlitz, with all his Horse, vanishing round the corner of
+the Height; speeding along, invisible on his northern slope there,
+straight for the Janus-Polzen Hill part; the Infantry following,
+double-quick;--well knowing, each, what he has got to do.
+
+But at this interesting point, the Editors--small thanks to them,
+authentic but thrice-stupid mortals--cut short our Eye-witness, not
+so much as telling us his name, some of them not even his date or
+whereabouts; and so the curtain tumbles down (as if its string had
+been cut, or suddenly eaten by unwise animals), and we are left to
+gray hubbub, and our own resources at second-hand. Except only that
+a French Officer--one of those cannonading from Almsdorf, no doubt
+--declares that "it was like a change of scene in the Opera
+(DECORATION D'OPERA)," [Letter in MULLER: p. 60. In WESTPHALEN
+(ii. 128-133) is a much superior French Letter, intercepted
+somewhere, and fallen to Duke Ferdinand; well worth reading, on
+Rossbach and the previous Affairs.] so very rapid; and that "they
+all rolled off eastward at quick time." At extremely quick time;
+--and soon, in the slight hollow behind Janus Hugel, vanished from
+sight of these Almsdorf French, and of the Soubise-Hildburghausen
+Army in general. Which latter is agreeably surprised at the
+phenomenon; and draws a highly flattering conclusion from it.
+"Gone, then; off at double-quick for Merseburg; aha!" think the
+Soubise-Hildburghausen people: "Double-quick you too, my pretty
+men, lest they do whisk away, and we never get a stroke
+at them,!"--
+
+Seidlitz meanwhile, with his cavalry (thirty-eight squadrons, about
+4,000 horse), is rapidly doing the order he has had. Seidlitz at a
+sharp military trot, and the infantry at doublequick to keep up
+near him, which they cannot quite do, are, as we have said, making
+right across for the Polzen-Hill and Janus-Hill quarter;
+their route the string, French route the bow; and are invisible to
+the French, owing to the heights between. Seidlitz, when he gets to
+the proper point eastward, will wheel about, front to southward,
+and be our left wing; infantry, as centre and right, will appear in
+like manner; and--we shall see!
+
+The exultant Dauphiness, or Soubise-Hildburghausen Army (let us
+call it, for brevity's sake, Dauphiness or French, which it mainly
+was), on that rapid disappearance of the Prussians, never doubted
+but the Prussians were off on flight for Merseburg, to get across
+by the Bridge there. Whereat Dauphiness, doubly exultant, mended
+her own pace, cavalry at a sharp trot, infantry double-quick, but
+unable to keep up,--for the purpose of capturing or intercepting
+the runaway Prussians. Speed, my friends,--if you would do a stroke
+upon Friedrich, and show the Versailles people a King at last!
+Thus they, hurrying on, in two parallel columns,--infantry, long
+floods of it, coming double-quick but somewhat fallen behind;
+cavalry 7,000 or so, as vanguard,--faster and faster;
+sweeping forward on their southern side of the Janus-and-Polzen
+slope, and now rather climbing the same.
+
+Seidlitz has his hussar pickets on the top, to keep him informed as
+to their motions, and how far they are got. Seidlitz, invisible on
+the south slope of the Polzen Hugel, finds about half-past three
+P.M. that he is now fairly ahead of Dauphiness; Seidlitz halts,
+wheels, comes to the top, "Got the flank of them, sure enough!"--
+and without waiting signal or farther orders, every instant being
+precious, rapidly forms himself; and plunges down on these poor
+people. "Compact as a wall, and with an incredible velocity (D'UNE
+VITESSE INCROYABLE)," says one of them. Figure the astonishment of
+Dauphiness; of poor Broglio, who commands the horse here. Taken in
+flank, instead of taking other people; intercepted, not in the
+least needing to intercept! Has no time to form, though he tried
+what he could. Only the two Austrian regiments got completely
+formed; the rest very incompletely; and Seidlitz, in the blaze of
+rapid steel, is in upon them. The two Austrian regiments, and two
+French that are named, made what debate was feasible;--courage
+nowise wanting, in such sad want of captaincy; nay Soubise in
+person galloped into it, if that could have helped. But from the
+first, the matter was hopeless; Seidlitz slashing it at such a
+rate, and plunging through it and again through it, thrice, some
+say four times: so that, in the space of half an hour, this
+luckless cavalry was all tumbling off the ground; plunging down-
+hill, in full flight, across its own infantry or whatever obstacle,
+Seidlitz on the hips of it; and galloping madly over the horizon,
+towards Freiburg as it proved; and was not again heard of that day.
+
+In about half an hour that bit of work was over; and Seidlitz, with
+his ranks trimmed again, had drawn himself southward a little, into
+the Hollow of Tageswerben, there to wait impending phenomena.
+For Friedrich with the Infantry is now emerging over Janus Hill, in
+a highly thunderous manner,--eighteen pieces of artillery going,
+and "four big guns taken from the walls of Leipzig;" and there will
+be events anon. It is said, Hildburghausen, at the first glimpse of
+Friedrich over the hill-top, whispered to Soubise, "We are lost,
+Royal Highness!"--"Courage!" Soubise would answer; and both, let us
+hope, did their utmost in this extremely bad predicament they had
+got into.
+
+Friedrich's artillery goes at a murderous rate; had come in view,
+over the hill-top, before Seidlitz ended,--"nothing but, the
+muzzles of it visible" (and the fire-torrents from it) to us poor
+French below. Friedrich's lines; or rather his one line, mere tip
+of his left wing,--only seven battalions in it, five of them under
+Keith from the second or reserve line; whole centre and right wing
+standing "refused" in oblique rank, invisible, BEHIND the Hill,--
+Friedrich's line, we say, the artillery to its right, shoots out in
+mysterious Prussian rhythm, in echelons, in potences, obliquely
+down the Janus-Hill side; straight, rigid, regular as iron clock-
+work; and strides towards us, silent, with the lightning sleeping
+in it:--Friedrich has got the flank of Dauphiness, and means to
+keep it. Once and again and a third time, poor Soubise, with his
+poor regiments much in an imbroglio, here heaped on one another,
+there with wide gaps, halt being so sudden,--attempts to recover
+the flank, and pushes out this regiment and the other, rightward,
+to be even with Friedrich. But sees with despair that it cannot be;
+that Friedrich with his echelons, potences and mysterious Prussian
+resources, pulls himself out like the pieces of a prospect-glass,
+piece after piece, hopelessly fast and seemingly no end to them;
+and that the flank is lost, and that--Unhappy Generals of
+Dauphiness, what a phenomenon for them! A terrible Friedrich, not
+fled to Merseburg at all; but mounted there on the Janus Hill, as
+on his saddle-horse, with face quite the other way;--and for
+holster-pistol, has plucked out twenty-two cannon. Clad verily in
+fire; Chimera-like, RIDING the Janus Hill, in that manner; left leg
+(or wing) of him spurning us into the abysses, right one ready to
+help at discretion!
+
+Hildburghausen, I will hope, does his utmost; Soubise, Broglio, for
+certain do. The French line is in front, next the Prussians:
+poor Generals of Dauphiness are panting to retrieve themselves.
+But with regiments jammed in this astonishing way, and got
+collectively into the lion's throat, what can be done?
+Steady, rigid as iron clock-work, the Prussian line strides
+forward; at forty paces' distance delivers its first shock of
+lightning, bursts into platoon fire; and so continues, steady at
+the rate of five shots a minute,--hard to endure by poor masses all
+in a coil. "The artillery tore down whole ranks of us," says the
+Wutenberg Dragoon; [His Letter in MULLER, p. 83.] "the Prussian
+musketry did terrible execution."
+
+Things began %o waver very soon, French reeling back from the
+Prussian fire, Reichs troops rocking very uneasy, torn by such
+artillery; when, to crown the matter, Seidlitz, seeing all things
+rock to the due extent, bursts out of Tageswerben Hollow, terribly
+compact and furious, upon the rear of them. Which sets all things
+into inextricable tumble; and the Battle is become a rout and a
+riding into ruin, no Battle ever more. Lasted twenty-five minutes,
+this second act of it, or till half-past four: after which, the
+curtains rapidly descending (Night's curtain, were there no other)
+cover the remainder; the only stage-direction, EXEUNT OMNES.
+Which for a 50 or 60,000, ridden over by Seidlitz Horse, was not
+quite an easy matter! They left, of killed and wounded, near 3,000;
+of prisoners, 5,000 (Generals among them 8, Officers 300): in sum,
+about 8,000; not to mention cannon, 67 or 72; with standards,
+flags, kettle-drums and meaner baggages AD LIBITUM in a manner.
+The Prussian loss was, 165 killed, 376 wounded;--between a
+sixteenth and a fifteenth part of theirs: in number the Prussians
+had been little more than one to three; 22,000 of all arms,--not
+above half of whom ever came into the fire; Seidlitz and seven
+battalions doing all the fighting that was needed, St. Germain
+tried to cover the retreat; but "got broken," he says,--Mayer
+bursting in on him,--and soon went to slush like the others.
+
+Seldom, almost never, not even at Crecy or Poictiers, was any Army
+better beaten. And truly, we must say, seldom did any better
+deserve it, so far as the Chief Parties went. Yes, Messieurs, this
+is the PETIT MARQUIS DE BRANDEBOURG; you will know this one, when
+you meet him again! The flight, the French part of it, was towards
+Freiburg Bridge; in full gallop, long after the chase had ceased;
+crossing of the Unstrut there, hoarse, many-voiced, all night;
+burning of the Bridge; found burnt, when Friedrich arrived next
+morning. He had encamped at Obschutz, short way from the field
+itself. French Army, Reichs Army, all was gone to staves, to utter
+chaotic wreck. Hildburghausen went by Naumburg; crossed the Saale
+there; bent homewards through the Weimar Country; one wild flood of
+ruin, swift as it could go; at Erfurt "only one regiment was in
+rank, and marched through with drums beating." His Army, which had
+been disgustingly unhappy from the first, and was now fallen fluid
+on these mad terms, flowed all away in different rills, each by the
+course straightest home; and Hildburghausen arriving at Bamberg,
+with hardly the ghost or mutilated skeleton of an Army, flung down
+his truncheon,--"A murrain on your Reichs Armies and regimental
+chaoses!"--and went indignantly home. Reichs Army had to begin at
+the beginning again; and did not reappear on the scene till
+late next Year, under a new Commander, and with slightly
+improved conditions.
+
+Dauphiness Proper was in no better case; and would have flowed home
+in like manner, had not home been so far, and the way unknown.
+Twelve thousand of them rushed straggling through the Eichsfeld;
+plundering and harrying, like Cossacks or Calmucks: "Army blown
+asunder, over a circle of forty miles' radius," writes St. Germain:
+"had the Enemy pursued us, after I got broken [burst in upon by
+Mayer and his Free-Corps people] we had been annihilated.
+Never did Army behave worse; the first cannon-salvo decided our
+rout and our shame." [St. Germain to Verney: different Excerpts of
+Letters in the two weeks after Rossbach and before (given in
+Preuss, ii. 97).]
+
+In two days' time (November 7th), the French had got to
+Langensalza, fifty-five miles from the Battle-field of Rossbach;
+plundering, running, SACRE-DIEU-ing; a wild deluge of molten wreck,
+filling the Eichsfeld with its waste noises, making night hideous
+and day too;--in the villages Placards were stuck up, appointing
+Nordhausen and Heiligenstadt for rallying place. [Muller, p. 73.]
+
+Soubise rode, with few attendants, all night towards Nordhausen,--
+eighty miles off, foot of the Bracken Country, where the Richelieu
+resources are;--Soubise with few attendants, face set towards the
+Brocken; himself, it is like, in a somewhat hag-ridden condition.
+
+"The joy of poor Teutschland at large," says one of my Notes, "and
+how all Germans, Prussian and Anti-Prussian alike, flung up their
+caps, with unanimous LEBE-HOCH, at the news of Rossbach, has often
+been remarked; and indeed is still almost touching to see.
+The perhaps bravest Nation in the world, though the least braggart,
+very certainly EIN TAPFERES VOLK (as their Goethe calls them);
+so long insulted, snubbed and trampled on, by a luckier, not a
+braver:--has not your exultant Dauphiness got a beautiful little
+dose administered her; and is gone off in foul shrieks, and pangs
+of the interior,--let no man ask whitherward! 'SI UN ALLEMAND PEUT
+AVOIR DE L'ESPRIT (Can a German possibly have sharpness of wits)?'
+Well, yes, it would seem: here is one German graduate who
+understands his medicine-chest, and the quality of patients!--
+Dauphiness got no pity anywhere; plenty of epigrams, and mostly
+nothing but laughter even in Paris itself. Napoleon long after, who
+much admires Friedrich, finds that this Victory of Rossbach was
+inevitable; 'but what fills me with astonishment and shame,' adds
+he, 'is that it was gained by six battalions and thirty squadrons
+[seven properly, and thirty-eight] over such a multitude!'
+[Montholon, MEMOIRES &C. DE NAPOLEON (Napoleon's <italic> Precis
+des Guerres de Frrederic II., <end italic> vii. 210).]--It is well
+known, Napoleon, after Jena, as if Jena had not been enough for
+him, tore down the first Monument of Rossbach, some poor ashlar
+Pyramid or Pillar, raised by the neighborhood, with nothing more
+afflictive inscribed on it than a date; and sent it off in carts
+for Paris (where no stone of it ever arrived, the Thuringen carmen
+slinking off, and leaving it scattered in different places over the
+face of Thuringen in general); so that they had the trouble of a
+new one lately." [Rodenbeck, <italic> Beitrage, <end italic> i.
+299; ib. p. 385, Lithograph of the poor extinct Monument itself.]
+
+From Friedrich the "Army of the Circles," that is, Dauphiness and
+Company,--called HOOPERS or "Coopers" (TONNELIERS), with a
+desperate attempt at wit by pun,--get their Adieu in words withal.
+This is the famed CONGE DE L'ARMEE DES CERCLES ET DES TONNELIERS;
+a short metrical Piece; called by Editors the most profane, most
+indecent, most &c.; and printed with asterisk veils thrown over the
+worst passages. Who shall dare, searching and rummaging for insight
+into Friedrich, and complaining that there is none, to lift any
+portion of the veil; and say, "See--Faugh!" The cynicism, truly,
+but also the irrepressible honest exultation, has a kind of epic
+completeness, and fulness of sincerity; and, at bottom, the thing
+is nothing like so wicked as careless commentators have given out.
+Dare to look a little: -
+
+"ADIEU, GRANDS ERASEURS DE ROIS," so it starts: "Adieu, grand
+crushers of Kings; arrogant wind-bags, Turpin, Broglio, Soubise,--
+Hildburghausen with the gray beard, foolish still as when your
+beard was black in the Turk-War time:--brisk journey to you all!"
+That is the first stanza; unexceptionable, had we room. The second
+stanza is,--with the veils partially lifted; with probably "MOISE"
+put into the first blank, and into the third something of or
+belonging to "CESAR,"--
+
+<italic> "Je vows ai vu comme ...
+          Dans des ronces en certain lieu
+          Eut l'honneur de voir ...
+          Ou comme au gre de sa luxure
+          Le bon Nicomede a l'ecart
+          Aiguillonnait sa flamme impure
+          Des ..." <end italic> 
+
+Enough to say, the Author, with a wild burst of spiritual
+enthusiasm, sings the charms of the rearward part of certain men;
+and what a royal ecstatic felicity there sometimes is in
+indisputable survey of the same. He rises to the heights of Anti-
+Biblical profanity, quoting Moses on the Hill of Vision; sinks to
+the bottomless of human or ultra-human depravity, quoting King
+Nicomedes's experiences on Caesar (happily known only to the
+learned); and, in brief, recognizes that there is, on occasion,
+considerable beauty in that quarter of the human figure, when it
+turns on you opportunely. A most cynical profane affair: yet, we
+must say by way of parenthesis, one which gives no countenance to
+Voltaire's atrocities of rumor about Friedrich himself in this
+matter; the reverse rather, if well read; being altogether
+theoretic, scientific; sings with gusto the glow of beauty you find
+in that unexpected quarter,--while KICKING it deservedly and with
+enthusiasm. "To see the"--what shall we call it: seat of honor, in
+fact, "of your enemy:" has it not an undeniable charm? "I own to
+you in confidence, O Soubise and Company, this fine laurel I have
+got, and was so in need of, is nothing more or other than the sight
+of your"--FOUR ASTERISKS. "Oblige me, whenever clandestine Fate
+brings us together, by showing me that"--always that, if you would
+give me pleasure when we meet. "And oh," next stanza says, "to
+think what our glory is founded on,"--on view of that unmentionable
+object, I declare to you!--And through other stanzas, getting
+smutty enough (though in theory only), which we need not prosecute
+farther. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xii. 70-73
+(WRITTEN at Freiburg, 6th November, when his Majesty got thither,
+and found the Bridge burnt).] A certain heartiness and epic
+greatness of cynicism, life's nakedness grown almost as if innocent
+again; an immense suppressed insuppressible Haha, on the part of
+this King. Strange TE-DEUM indeed. Coming from the very heart,
+truly, as few of them do; but not, in other points, recommendable
+at all!--Here, of the night before, is something better:--
+
+
+TO WILHELMINA.
+
+"NEAR WEISSENFELS [OBSCHUTZ, in fact; does not know yet
+what the Battle will be CALLED], 5th November, 1757.
+
+"At last, my dear Sister, I can announce you a bit of good news.
+You were doubtless aware that the Coopers with their circles had a
+mind to take Leipzig. I ran up, and hove them beyond Saale. The Duc
+de Richelieu sent them a reinforcement of twenty battalions and
+fourteen squadrons [say 15,000 horse and foot]; they then called
+themselves 63,000 strong. Yesterday I went to reconnoitre them;
+could not attack them in the post they held. This had rendered them
+rash. Today they came out with the intention of attacking me; but I
+took the start of them (LES AI PREVENU). It was a Battle EN DOUCEUR
+(soft to one's wish). Thanks to God I have not a hundred men
+killed; the only General ill wounded is Meinecke. My Brother Henri
+and General Seidlitz have slight hurts [gun-shots, not so slight,
+that of Seidlitz] in the arm. We have all the Enemy's cannon, all
+the ... I am in full march to drive them over the Unstrut [already
+driven, your Majesty; bridge burning].
+
+"You, my dear Sister, my good, my divine and affectionate Sister
+[faithful to the bone, in good truth, poor Wilhelmina], who deign
+to interest yourself in the fate of a Brother who adores you, deign
+also to share in my joy. The instant I have time, I will tell you
+more. I embrace you with my whole heart; Adieu. F."
+[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxvii. i. 310.]
+
+
+ULTERIOR FATE OF DAUPHINESS; FLIES OVER THE RHINE IN BAD FASHION:
+DAUPHINESS'S WAYS WITH THE SAXON POPULATION IN HER DELIVERANCE-WORK.
+
+Friedrich had no more fighting with the French. November 9th, at
+Merseburg, in all stillness, Duke Ferdinand got his Britannic
+Commission, his full Powers, from Friedrich and the parties
+interested; in all stillness made his arrangements, as if for
+Magdeburg and his Governorship there,--Friedrich hastening off for
+Silesia the while. Duke Ferdinand did stay six days in Magdeburg,
+inspecting or pretending to inspect; very pleasant with his Sister
+and the Royalties that, are now there; but, at midnight of day
+sixth shot off silently on wider errand. And, in sum, on Thursday,
+24th November, 1757, appeared in Stade, on horseback at morning
+parade there; intimating, to what joy of the poor Brunswick
+Grenadiers and others, That he was come to take command;
+that Kloster-Zeven is abolished; that we are not an "Observation
+Army," rotting here in the parish pound, any longer, but an "Allied
+Army" (such now our title), intending to strike for ourselves, and
+get out of pound straightway!--
+
+"THURSDAY, 24th NOVEMBER-TUESDAY, 29th. Duke Ferdinand did
+accordingly pick up the reins of this distracted Affair; and, in a
+way wonderful to see, shot sanity into every fibre of it; and kept
+it sane and road-worthy for the Five Years coming. With a silent
+velocity, an energy, an imperturbable steadfastness and clear
+insight into cause and effect; which were creditable to the school
+he came from; and were a very joyful sight to Pitt and others
+concerned. So that from next Tuesday, 'November 29th, before
+daylight,' when Ferdinand's batteries began playing upon Harburg
+(French Fortress nearest to Stade), the reign of the French ceased
+in those Countries; and an astonished Richelieu and his French,
+lying scattered over all the West of Germany, in readiness for
+nothing but plunder, had to fall more or less distracted in their
+turn; and do a number of astonishing things. To try this and that,
+of futile, more or less frantic nature; be driven from post after
+post; be driven across the Aller first of all;--Richelieu to go
+home thereupon, and be succeeded by one still more incompetent.
+
+"DECEMBER 13th, a fortnight after Ferdinand's appearance, Richelieu
+had got to the safe side of the Aller (burning of Zelle Bridge and
+Zelle Town there, his last act in Germany); Ferdinand's quarters
+now wide enough; and vigorous speed of preparation going on for
+farther chase, were the weather mended. FEBRUARY 17th, 1758,
+Ferdinand was on foot again; Prince de Clermont, the still more
+incompetent successor of Richelieu, gazing wide-eyed upon him, but
+doing nothing else: and for the next six weeks there was seen a
+once triumphant Richelieu-D'Estrees French Army, much in rags, much
+in disorder, in terror, and here and there almost in despair,--
+winging their way; like clouds of draggled poultry caught by a
+mastiff in the corn. Across Weser, across Ems, finally across the
+Rhine itself, every feather of them,--their long-drawn cackle, of a
+shrieky type, filling all Nature in those months; the mastiff
+steadily following. [Mauvillon, i. 252-284 ("9th November, 1757-1st
+April, 1758"); Westphalen, i. 316-503 (abundantly explicit,
+authentic and even entertaining,--with the ample Correspondences,
+ib. ii. 147-350); Schaper, <italic> Vie militaire du Marechal
+Prince Ferdinand <end italic> (2 tomes, 8vo, Magdebourg, 1796,
+1799), i. 7-100 (a careful Book; of an official exactitude, like
+Westphalen's,--and appears to be left incomplete like his).] To the
+astonishment of Pitt and mankind. Can this be the same Army that
+Royal Highness led to the Sea and the Parish Pound? The same
+identically, wasted to about two-thirds by Royal Highness; not a
+drum in it changed otherwise, only One Man different,--and he is
+the important one!
+
+"Pitt, when the news of Rossbach came, awakening the bonfires and
+steeple-bells of England to such a pitch, had resolved on an
+emphatic measure: that of sending English Troops to reinforce our
+Allied Army, and its new General;--such an Ally as that Rossbach
+one being rare in the eyes of Pitt. 'Postpone the meeting of
+Parliament, yet a few days, your Majesty,' said Pitt, 'till I get
+the estimates ready!' [Thackeray, i. 310.] To which Majesty
+assented, and all England with him: 'England's own Cause,' thinks
+Pitt, with confidence: 'our way of Conquering America,--and, in the
+circumstances, our one way!' English did land, accordingly; first
+instalment of them, a 12,000 (in August next), increased gradually
+to 20,000; with no end of furnishings to them and everybody;
+with results again satisfactory to Pitt; and very famous in the
+England that then was, dim as they are now grown."
+
+The effect of all which was, that Pitt, with his Ferdinands and
+reinforcements, found work for the French ever onwards from
+Rossbach; French also turning as if exclusively upon perfidious
+Albion: and the thing became, in Teutschland, as elsewhere, a duel
+of life and death between these natural enemies,--Teutschland the
+centre of it,--Teutschland and the accessible French Sea-Towns,--
+but the circumference of it going round from Manilla and Madras to
+Havana and Quebec again. Wide-spread furious duel; prize, America
+and life. By land and sea; handsomely done by Pitt on both
+elements. Land part, we say, was always mainly in Germany, under
+Ferdinand,--in Hessen and the Westphalian Countries, as far west as
+Minden, as far east as Frankfurt-on-Mayn, generally well north of
+Rhine, well south of Elbe: that was, for five years coming, the
+cockpit or place of deadly fence between France and England.
+Friedrich's arena lies eastward of that, occasionally playing into
+it a little, and played into by it, and always in lively sympathy
+and consultation with it: but, except the French subsidizings,
+diplomatizings. and great diligenae against him in foreign Courts,
+Friedrich is, in practical respects, free of the French; and ever
+after Rossbach, Ferdinand and the English keep them in full work,--
+growing yearly too full. A heavy Business for England and
+Ferdinand; which is happily kept extraneous to Friedrich
+thenceforth; to him and us; which is not on the stage of his
+affairs and ours, but is to be conceived always as vigorously
+proceeding alongside of it, close beyond the scenes, and liable at
+any time to make tragic entry on him again:--of which we shall have
+to notice the louder occurrences and cardinal phases, but, for the
+future, nothing more.
+
+Soubise, who had crept into the skirts of the Richelieu Army in
+Hanover or Hessen Country, had of course to take wing in that
+general fright before the mastiff. Soubise did not cross the Rhine
+with it; Soubise made off eastward; [Westphalen, i. 501 ("end of
+March, 1758"].]--found new roost in Hanau-Frankfurt Country;
+and had thoughts of joining the Austrians in Bohemia next Campaign;
+but got new order,--such the pinches of a winged Clermont with a
+mastiff Ferdinand at his poor draggled tail;--and came back to the
+Ferdinand scene, to help there; and never saw Friedrich again.
+Both Broglio and he had a good deal of fighting (mostly beating)
+from Ferdinand; and a great deal of trouble and sorrow in the
+course of this War; but after Rossbach it is not Friedrich or we,
+it is Ferdinand and the Destinies that have to do with them.
+Poor Soubise, except that he was the creature of Generalissima
+Pompadour, which had something radically absurd in it, did not
+deserve all the laughter he got: a man of some chivalry, some
+qualities. As for Broglio, I remember always, not without human
+emotion, the two extreme points of his career as a soldier:
+Rossbach and the Fall of the Bastille. He was towards forty,
+when Friedrich bestrode the Janus Hill in that fiery manner;
+he was turned of seventy when, from the pavements of Paris, the
+Chimera of Democracy rose on him, in fire of a still more
+horrible description.
+
+Dauphiness-Bellona, in her special and in her widest sense, has
+made exit, then. Gone, like clouds of draggled poultry home across
+the Rhine. She was the most marauding Army lately seen, also the
+most gasconading, and had the least capacity for fighting:
+three worse qualities no army could have. How she fought, we have
+seen sufficiently. Before taking leave of her forever, readers, as
+she is a paragon in her kind, would perhaps take a glance or two at
+her marauding qualities,--by a good opportunity that offers.
+Plotho at Regensburg, that a supreme Reichs Diet may know what a
+"deliverance of Saxony" this has been, submits one day the
+following irrefragable Documents, "which have happened," not
+without good industry of my own, "to fall into my [Plotho's]
+hands." They are Documents partly of epistolary, partly of a
+Petitionary form, presented to Polish Majesty, out of that Saxon
+Country; and have an AFFIDAVIT quality about them, one and all.
+
+1. BIG DAUPHINESS (that is, D'Estrees) IN THE WESEL COUNTRIES, AT
+AN EARLY STAGE,--WHILE STILL ENDEAVORING WHAT SHE COULD TO BEHAVE
+WELL, HANGING 1,000 MARAUDERS AND THE LIKE (A private Letter):--
+
+"COUNTY MARK, 20th JUNE, 1757. The French troops are going on here
+in a way to utterly ruin us. Schmidt, their President of Justice,
+whom they set up in Cleve, has got orders to change all the
+Magistracies of the Country [Protestant by nature], so as that half
+the members shall be Catholic. Bielefeld was openly plundered by
+the French for three hours long. You cannot by possibility
+represent to yourself what the actual state of misery in these
+Countries is. A SCHEFFEL of rye costs three thalers sixteen
+groschen [who knows how many times its natural price!]. And now we
+are to be forced to eat the spoiled meal those French troops
+brought with them; which is gone to such a state no animal would
+have it. This poisoned meal we are to buy from them, ready money,
+at the price they fix; and that famine may induce us, they are
+about to stop the mills, and forcibly take away what little bread-
+corn we have left. God have pity on us, and deliver us soon! 
+Next week we are to have a transit of 6,000 Pfalzers [Kur-Pfalz,
+foolish idle fellow, and Kur-Baiern too, are both in subsidy of
+France, as usual; 6,000 Pfalzers just due here]; these, I suppose,
+will sweep us clean bare." [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> iv. 399.]:
+
+Wesel Fortress, Gate of the Rhine, could not be defended by
+Friedrich: and the Hanover Incapables, and England still all in
+St. Vitus, would not hear of undertaking it; left it wide open for
+the French; never could recover it, or get the Rhine-Gate barred
+again, during the whole War. One hopes they repented;--but perhaps
+it was only Pitt and Duke Ferdinand that did so, instead! The Wesel
+Countries were at once occupied by the French; "a conquest of her
+Imperial Majesty's;" continued to be administered in Imperial
+Majesty's name,--and are thriving as above.
+
+2. DAUPHINESS PROPER (that is, Soubise) IN THURINGEN, AT A LATE STAGE:--
+
+"LETTER FROM FREIBURG, SHORTLY AFTER ROSSBACH.--It was on the 23d
+October, a Sunday, that we of Freiburg had our first billeting of
+French; a body of Cavalry from different regiments [going to take
+Leipzig, take Torgau, what not]: and from that day Freiburg never
+emptied of French, who kept marching through it in extraordinary
+quantities. The marching lasted fourteen days, namely, till the 6th
+November [day AFTER Rossbach; when they burnt our poor Bridge, and
+marched for the last time]; and often the billeting was so heavy,
+that in a single house there were forty or fifty men. Who at all
+times had to be lodged and dieted gratis; nay many householders,
+over and above the ordinary meal, were obliged to give them money
+too; and many poor people, who can scarcely get their own bit of
+bread, had to run and bring at once their sixteen or eighteen
+groschen [pence] worth of wine, not to speak of coffee and sugar.
+And a great increase of the mischief it was always, that the
+soldiers and common people did not understand one another's
+language."--Heavy billeting; but what was that? ... "Vast, nearly
+impossible, quantities of forage and provision," were wrung from
+us, as from all the other Towns and Villages about, "under
+continual threatening to burn and raze us from the earth. Often did
+our French Colonel threaten, 'He would have the cannon opened on
+Freiburg straightway.' Nay, had it stood by foraging, we might have
+reckoned ourselves lucky. But our straits increased day by day;
+and sheer plundering became more and more excessive.
+
+"The robbing and torturing of travellers, the plundering and
+burning of Saxon Villages ... Almost all the Towns and Villages
+hereabouts are so plundered out, that many a one now has nothing
+but what he carries on his body. Plundering was universal: and no
+sooner was one party away, than another came, and still another;
+and often the same house was three or four times plundered.
+Branderode, a Village two leagues from this [stands on the Field of
+Rossbach, if we look], is so ruined out, that nobody almost has
+anything left: Chief Inspector Baron von Bose's Schloss there, with
+its splendid appointments, they ruined utterly; took all money,
+victuals, valuables, furniture, clothes, linen and beds, all they
+could carry; what could not be carried away, they cut, hewed and
+smashed to pieces; broke the wine-casks; and even tore up the
+documents and letters they found lying in the place.
+Branderode Dorf was twice set fire to by them; and was, at last,
+with Zeuchfeld, which is an Amtsdorf,--after both had been
+plundered,--reduced to ashes. The Churches of Branderode and
+Zeuchfeld, with several other Churches, were plundered; the altars
+broken, the altar-cloths and other vestures cut to pieces, and the
+sacred vessels and cups carried away,--except [for we have a
+notarial exactness, and will exaggerate nothing] that in the case
+of Branderode they sent the cup back. Of the pollution of the
+altars, and of the blasphemous songs these people sang in the
+churches, one cannot think without horror.
+
+"And it was merely our pretended Allies and Protectors that have
+desecrated our divine service, utterly wasted our Country, reduced
+the inhabitants to want and desperation, and, in short, have so
+behaved that you would not know this region again. Truly these
+troops have realized for us most of the infamies we heard reported
+of the Cossacks, and their ravagings in Preussen lately. 
+
+"It is one of their smallest doings that they robbed a Saxon
+Clergyman [name and circumstances can be given if required), three
+times over, on the public Highway; shot at him, tied him to a
+horse's tail and dragged him along with them; so that he is now
+lying ill, in danger of his life. On the whole, it is our beloved
+Pastors, Clergymen most of all, that have been plundered of
+everything they had.
+
+"Balgart and Zschieplitz, both Villages half a league from this,
+have likewise been heavily plundered; they have even left the
+Parson nothing but what he wore on his back. Grost," another
+Rossbach place, "which belongs to the Kammerjunker Heldorf, has
+likewise" ... OHE, SATIS!--"All this happened between the 23d and
+3lst October; consequently before the Battle. ... In many Villages
+you see the trees and fields sprinkled with feathers from the beds
+that have been slit up.
+
+"In several Villages belonging to the Royal Electoral privy
+Councillor von Bruhl [who is properly the fountain of all this and
+of much other misery to us, if we knew it!] the plundering likewise
+had begun; and a quantity of about a hundred swine [so ho!] had
+been cut in pieces: but in the midst of their work, the Allies
+heard that these were Bruhl estates, and ceased their havoc of
+them. These accordingly are the only lands in all this region whose
+fate has been tolerable.
+
+"The appellation, every moment renewed, of 'Heretic!' was the
+courteous address from these people to our fellow-Christians;
+'heretic dogs (KETZERISCHE HUNDE)' was a PRADICAT always in
+their mouth.
+
+"In Weischutz," a mile or two from us, up the Unstrut, "a French
+Colonel who wanted to ride out upon the works, made the there
+Pastor, Magister Schren, stoop down by way of horse-block, and
+mounted into the saddle from his back. [Messieurs, you will kindle
+the wrath of mankind some day, and get a terrible plucking, with
+those high ways of yours!]
+
+"Churches are all smashed; obscene songs were sung, in form of
+litany, from the pulpits and altars; what was done with the
+communion-vessels, when they were not worth stealing,"--is hideous
+to the religious sense, and shall not be mentioned in human speech. 
+
+  3. THE BROGLIO REINFORCEMENT COMING ACROSS TO JOIN SOUBISE, AND
+    PERFORM AT ROSSBACH (Humble Petition from the Magistrates of
+      Sangerhausen, To the King of Poland's Majesty):--
+
+SANGERHAUSEN, 23d OCTOBER, 1757.--"Scarcely had we, with profound
+submission (ALLERUNTERTHANIGST), under date of the 13th current,
+represented to your Royal Majesty and Electoral Translucency how
+heavily we were pressed down by the forage requisitions and
+transits of troops, and the consequent, expenditure in food,
+drinking, in oats and hay, which no one pays,--when directly
+thereafter, on the 14th of October, a new French party, of the
+Fischer Corps,"--Fischer is a mighty Hussar, scarcely inferior to
+Turpin;, and stands in astonishing authority with Richelieu, and an
+Army whose object is plunder, [Ferdinand's Correspondente, SOEPIUS
+(<italic> Westphalen, <end italic> i. 40-127); &c. &c.]--"new party
+of the Fischer Corps, of some sixty men and horse, arrived in the
+Town; demanded meat, drink, oats aud hay, and all things necessary;
+which they received from us;--and not only paid not one farthing
+for all this, but furthermore some of them, instead of thanks to
+their Landlord, Rossold, forcibly broke up his press, drank his
+brandy, and carried off a TOUTE (gather-all) with money in it.
+From a Tanner, Lindauer by name, they bargained for a buckskin;
+and having taken, would not pay it. In the RATHSKELLER (Town
+Public-house) they drank much wine, and gave nothing for it: nay on
+marching off,--because no mounted guide (REITENDER BOTE) was at
+hand, and though they had before expressly said none such would be
+needed,--they rushed about like distracted persons (WIE RASENDE
+LEUTE) in the market-place and in the streets; beat the people,
+tumbled them about, and lugged them along, in a violent manner;
+using abusive language to a frightful extent, and threatening
+every misfortune.
+
+"Hardly were we rid of this confusion and astonishment when, on
+October 21st, a whole swarm of horses, men, women, children and
+wagons, which likewise all belonged to the Fischer Corps, and were
+commanded by First-Lieutenant Schmidt, came into our Town.
+This troop consisted of 80 men, part infantry, part cavalry;
+with some 80 work-horses, 10 baggage-wagons, and about 100 persons,
+women, sick people and the like. They stayed the whole night here;
+made meat, drink, corn, hay and whatever they needed be brought
+them; and went off next day without paying anything.
+
+"Our Inns were now almost quite exhausted of forage in corn or hay;
+and we knew not how we were to pay what had been spent,--when the
+thirty French Light Cavalry, of whom we, with profound submission,
+on the 13th HUJUS gave your Royal Majesty and Electoral
+Translucency account, renewed their visit upon us; came, under the
+command of Rittmeister de Mocu, on the 22d of October [while the
+baggage-wagons, work-horses, women, sick, and so forth, were hardly
+gone], towards evening, into the Town; consumed in meat and drink,
+oats and hay, and the like, what they could lay hold of; and next
+morning early marched away, paying, as their custom is, nothing. 
+
+"Not enough that,--besides the great forage-contribution
+(LIEFERUNG), which we already, with profound submission, notified
+to your Royal Majesty and Electoral Translucency as having been
+laid upon us; and that, by order of the Duc de Broglio, a new
+requisition is now laid on us, and we have had to engage for sixty-
+four more sacks of wheat, and thirty-two of rye (as is noted under
+head A, in the enclosed copy),--there has farther come on us, on
+the part of the Reichs Army, from Kreis-Commissarius Heldorf [whose
+Schloss of Grost, we perceive, they have since burnt, by way of
+thanks to him [Supra, No. 2.]], the simultaneous Order for instant
+delivery of Forage (as under head B, here enclosed)! Thus are we,
+at the appointed places, all at once to furnish such quantities,
+more than we can raise; and know not when or where we shall, either
+for what has been already furnished, or for what is still to be,
+receive one penny of money: nay, over and above, we are to sustain
+the many marchings of troops, and provide to the same what meat,
+drink, oats, hay and so on, they require, without the least return
+of payment!
+
+"So unendurable, and, taken all together, so hard (SIC) begins the
+conduct of these troops, that profess being come as friends and
+helpers, to appear to us. And Heaven alone knows how long, under a
+continuance of such things, the subjects (whom the Hail-storm of
+last year had at any rate impoverished) shall be able to support
+the same. We would, were a reasonable delivery of forage laid upon
+us even at a low price, and the board and billet of the marching
+troops paid to us even in part, lay out our whole strength in
+helping to bear the burdens of the Fatherland; but if such things
+go on, which will soon leave us only bare life and empty huts, we
+can look forward to nothing but our ruin and destruction. But, as
+it is not your Royal Majesty's and Electoral Translucency's most
+gracious will that we, your Most Supreme Self's most faithful
+subjects, should entirely perish, therefore we repeat our former
+most submissive prayer once again with hot (SIC) sorrow of mind to
+Highest-the-Same; and sob most submissively for that help which
+your Most Supreme Self, through most gracious mediation with the
+Duc de Richelieu, with the Reichs Army or wherever else, might
+perhaps most graciously procure for us. Who, in deepest longing
+thitherwards, with the most deepest devotion, remain--" [<italic>
+Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 688-691.] (NAMES,
+unfortunately, not given).
+
+How many Saxons and Germans generally--alas, how many men
+universally--cry towards celestial luminaries of the governing kind
+with the most deepest devotion, in their extreme need, under their
+unsufferable injuries; and are truly like dogs in the backyard
+barking at the Moon. The Moon won't come down to them, and be eaten
+as green cheese; the Moon can't!
+
+4. DAUPHINESS AFTER ROSSBACH. "Excise-Inspector Neitsche, at Bebra,
+ near Weissenfels [Bebra is well ahead from Freiburg and the burnt
+ Bridge, and a good twenty-five miles west of Weissenfels], writes
+   To the King of Poland's Majesty, 9th NOVEMBER, 1757:--
+
+"May it please your Royal Majesty and Electoral Translucency, out
+of your highest grace, to take knowledge, from the accompanying
+Registers SUB SIGNO MARTIS [sign unknown to readers here], of the
+things which, in the name of this Township of Bebra, the
+Burgermeister Johann Adam, with the Raths and others concerned,
+have laid before the Excise-Inspection here. As follows:--
+
+"It will be already well known to the Excise-Inspection that on the
+7th of November (A. C.) of the current year [day before yesterday,
+in fact!], the French Army so handled this place as to have not
+only taken from the inhabitants, by open force, all bread and
+articles of food, but likewise all clothes, beds, linens (WASCHE),
+and other portable goods; that it has broken, split to pieces, and
+emptied out, all chests, boxes, presses, drawers; has shot dead, in
+the backyards and on the thatch-roofs, all manner of feathered-
+stock, as hens, geese, pigeons; also carried forth with it all
+swine, cow, sheep and horse cattle; laid violent hands on the
+inhabitants, clapped guns, swords, pistols to their breast, and
+threatened to kill them unless they showed and brought out whatever
+goods they had; or else has hunted them wholly out of their houses,
+shooting at them, cutting, sticking and at last driving them away,
+thereby to have the freer room to rob and plunder: flung out hay
+and other harvest-stock from the barns into the mud and dung, and
+had it trampled to ruin under the horses, feet; nay, in fact, has
+dealt with this place in so unpermitted a way as even to the most
+hard-hearted man must seem compassionable."--Poor fellows: CETERA
+DESUNT; but that is enough! What can a Polish Majesty and Electoral
+Translucency do? Here too is a sorrowful howling to the Moon.
+[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 692.]
+
+... "For a hundred miles round," writes St. Germain, "the Country
+is plundered and harried as if fire from Heaven had fallen on it;
+scarcely have our plunderers and marauders left the houses
+standing. ... I lead a band of robbers, of assassins, fit for
+breaking on the wheel; they would turn tail at the first gunshot,
+and are always ready to mutiny. If the Government (LA COUR," with
+its Pompadour presiding, very unlikely for such an enterprise!)
+"cannot lay the knife to the root of all this, we may give up the
+notion of War." [St. Germain, after Rossbach and before (in Preuss,
+UBI SUPRA).] ...
+
+Such a pitch have French Armies sunk to. When was there seen such a
+Bellona as Dauphiness before? Nay, in fact, she is the same devil-
+serving Army that Marechal de Saxe commanded with such triumph,--
+Marechal de Saxe in better luck for opponents; Army then in a
+younger stage of its development. Foaming then as sweet must, as
+new wine, in the hands of a skilful vintner, poisonous but brisk;
+not run, as now, to the vinegar state, intolerable to all mortals.
+She can now announce from her camp-theatres the reverse of the
+Roucoux program, "To-morrow, Messieurs, you are going to fight;
+our Manager foresees"--you will be beaten; and we cannot say what
+or where the next Piece will be! Impious, licentious, high-flaring
+efflorescence of all the Vices is not to be redeemed by the one
+Quasi-Virtue of readiness to be shot;--sweet of that kind, and sour
+of this, are the same substance, if you only wait. How kind was the
+Devil to his Saxe; and flew away with him in rose-pink, while it
+was still time!
+
+
+
+Chapter IX.
+
+FRIEDRICH MARCHES FOR SILESIA.
+
+The fame of Friedrich is high enough again in the Gazetteer world;
+all people, and the French themselves, laughing at their
+grandiloquent Dauphiness-Bellona, and writing epigrams on Soubise.
+But Friedrich's difficulties are still enormous. One enemy coming
+with open mouth, you plunge in upon, and ruin, on this hand; and it
+only gives you room to attempt upon another bigger one on that.
+Soubise he has finished handsomely, for this season; but now he
+must try conclusions with Prince Karl. Quick, towards Silesia,
+after this glorious Victory which the Gazetteers are celebrating.
+
+The news out of Silesia are ominously doubtful, bad at the best.
+Duke Bevern, once Winterfeld was gone, had, as we observed, felt
+himself free to act; unchecked, but also unsupported, by counsel of
+the due heroism; and had acted unwisely. Made direct for Silesia,
+namely, where are meal-magazines and strong places. Prince Karl,
+they say, was also unwise; took no thought beforehand, or he might
+have gained marches, disputed rivers, Bober, Queiss, with Bevern,
+and as good as hindered him from ever getting to Silesia. So say
+critics, Retzow and others; perhaps looking too fixedly on one side
+of the question. Certain it is, Bevern marched in peace to Silesia;
+found it by no means the better place it had promised to be.
+
+Prince Karl--Daun there as second, but Karl now the dominant hand--
+was on the heels of Bevern, march after march. Prince Karl cut
+athwart him by one cunning march, in Liegnitz Country; barring him
+from Schweidnitz, the chief stronghold of Silesia, and to
+appearance from Breslau, the chief city, too. Bevern, who did not
+want for soldiership, when reduced to his shifts, now made a
+beautiful manoeuvre, say the critics; struck out leftwards, namely,
+and crossed the Oder, as if making for Glogau, quite beyond Prince
+Karl's sphere of possibility,--but turned to right, not to left,
+when across, and got in upon Breslau from the other or east side of
+the River. Cunning manoeuvre, if you will, and followed by cunning
+manoeuvres: but the result is, Prince Karl has got Schweidnitz to
+rear, stands between Breslau and it; can besiege Schweidnitz when
+he likes, and no relief to it possible that will not cost a battle.
+A battle, thinks Friedrich, is what Bevern ought to have tried at
+first; a well-fought battle might have settled everything, and
+there was no other good likelihood in such an expedition: but now,
+by detaching reinforcements to this garrison and that, he has
+weakened himself beyond right power of fighting. [<italic> OEuvres
+de Frederic, <end italic> iv. 141, 159.] Schweidnitz is liable to
+siege; Breslau, with its poor walls and multitudinous population,
+can stand no siege worth mentioning; the Silesian strong places,
+not to speak of meal-magazines, are like to go a bad road.
+Quite dominant, this Prince Karl; placarding and proclaiming in all
+places, according to the new "Imperial Patent," [In <italic>
+Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> (iv. 832, 833), Copy of it:
+"Absolved from all prior Treaties by Prussian Majesty's attack on
+us, We" &c. &c. ("21st Sept. 1757").] That Silesia is her Imperial
+Majesty's again! Which seems to be fast becoming the fact;--unless
+contradicted better. Quick!
+
+Bevern has now, October 1st, no manoeuvre left but to draw out of
+Breslau; post himself on the southern side of it, in a safe angle
+there, marshy Lohe in front, broad Oder to rear, Breslau at his
+right-hand with bread; and there intrenching himself by the best
+methods, wait slowly, in a sitting posture, events which are
+extensively on the gallop at present. One fancies, Had Winterfeld
+been still there! It is as brave an Army, 30,000, or more, as ever
+wore steel. Surely something could have been done with it;--
+something better than sit watching the events on full gallop all
+round! Bevern was a loyal, considerably skilful and valiant man;
+in the Battle of Lobositz, and elsewhere, we have seen him brave as
+a lion: but perhaps in the other kind of bravery wanted here, he--
+Well, his case was horribly difficult; full of intricacy. And he
+sat, no doubt in a very wretched state, consulting the oracles,
+with events (which are themselves oracular) going at such a pace.
+
+Schweidnitz was besieged October 26th. Nadasti, with 20,000, was
+set to do it; Prince Karl, with 60,000, ready to protect him;
+Prince Bevern asking the oracles:--what a bit of news for
+Friedrich; breaking suddenly the effulgency of Rossbach with a bar
+of ominous black! Friedrich, still in the thick of pure Saxon
+business, makes instant arrangement for Silesia as well: Prince
+Henri, with such and such corps, to maintain the Saale, and guard
+Saxony; Marshal Keith, with such and such, to step over into
+Bohemia, and raise contributions at least, and tread on the tail of
+the big Silesian snake: all this Friedrich settles within a week;
+takes certain corps of his own, effective about 13,000; and on
+November 13th marches from Leipzig. Round by Torgau, by Muhlberg,
+Grossenhayn; by Bautzen, Weissenberg, across the Queiss, across the
+Bober; and so, with long marches, strides continually forward, all
+hearts willing, and all limbs, though in this sad winter weather,
+towards relief of Schweidnitz.
+
+At Grossenhayn, fifth day of the march, Friedrich learns that
+Schweidnitz is gone. November 12th-14th, Schweidnitz went by
+capitulation; contrary to everybody's hope or fear; certainly a
+very short defence for such a fortress. Fault of the Commandant,
+was everybody's first thought. Not probably the best of
+Commandants, said others gradually; but his garrison had Saxons in
+it;--one day "180 of them in a lump threw down their arms, in the
+trenches, and went over to the Enemy." Owing to whatsoever, the
+place is gone. Such towers, such curtains, star-ramparts; such an
+opulence of cannons, stores, munitions, a 30,000 pounds of hard
+cash, one item. All is gone, after a fortnight's siege. What a
+piece of news, as heard by Friedrich, coming at his utmost towards
+the scene itself! As seen by Bevern, too, in his questioning mood,
+it was an event of very oracular nature.
+
+On Monday, 14th, Schweidnitz fell; Karl, with Nadasti reunited to
+him, was now 80,000 odd; and lost no time. On Tuesday next,
+NOVEMBER 22d, 1757, "at three in the morning," long hours before
+daybreak, Karl, with his 60,000, all learnedly arranged, comes
+rolling over upon hapless Bevern: with no end of cannonading and
+storm of war: BATTLE OF BRESLAU, they call it; ruinous to Bevern.
+Of which we shall attempt no description: except to say, that Karl
+had five bridges on the Lohe, came across the Lohe by five Bridges;
+and that Bevern stood to his arms, steady as the rocks, to prevent
+his getting over, and to entertain him when over; that there were
+five principal attacks, renewed and re-renewed as long as needful,
+with torrents of shot, of death and tumult; over six or eight miles
+of country, for the space of fifteen hours. Battle comparable only
+to Malplaquet, said the Austrians; such a hurricane of artillery,
+strongly intrenched enemy and loud doomsday of war. Did not end
+till nine at night; Austrians victorious, more or less, in four of
+their attacks or separate enterprises: that is to say, masters of
+the Lohe, and of the outmost Prussian villages and posts in front
+of the Prussian centre and right wing; victorious in that northern
+part;--but plainly unvictorious in the southeast or Prussian left
+wing,--farthest off from Breslau, and under Ziethen's command,--
+where they were driven across the Lohe again, and lost prisoners
+and cannons, or a cannon. [In Seyfarth, Three Accounts; <italic>
+Beylagan, <end italic> ii. 198, 221, 234 et seq.]
+
+Some of Bevern's people, grounding on this latter circumstance, and
+that they still held the Battle-field, or most part of it, wrote
+themselves victorious;--though in a dim brief manner, as if
+conscious of the contrary. Which indeed was the fact. At the
+council of war, which he summoned that evening, there were
+proposals of night-attack, and other fierce measures; but Bevern,
+rejecting the plan for a night attack on the Austrian camp as too
+dubious, did, in the dark hours, through the silent streets of
+Breslau, withdraw himself across the Oder, instead; leaving 80
+cannon, and 5,000 killed and wounded; an evidently beaten man and
+Army. And indeed did straightway disappear personally altogether,
+as no longer equal to events. Rode out, namely, to reconnoitre in
+the gray of his second sad morning, on this new Bank of the Oder;
+saw little except gray mist; but rode into a Croat outpost, only
+one poor groom attending him; and was there made prisoner:--
+intentionally, thought mankind; intentionally, thinks Friedrich, who was very angry with the poor man. [Preuss, ii. 102. More exact in Kutzen, DER TAG VON LEUTHEN (Breslau, 1857,--an excellent exact little Compilation, from manifold sources well studied),
+pp. 166-169, date "24th November."]
+
+The poor man was carried to Vienna, if readers care to know;
+but being a near Cousin there (second-cousin, no less, to the late
+Empress-Mother), was by the high now-reigning Empress-Queen
+received in a charmingly gracious manner, and sent home again
+without ransom. "To Stettin!" beckoned Friedrich sternly from the
+distance, and would not see him at all: "To Stettin, I say, your
+official post in time of peace! Command me the invalid Garrison
+there; you are fit for nothing better!"--I will add one other
+thing, which unhappily will seem strange to readers: that there
+came no whisper of complaint from Bevern; mere silence, and loyal
+industry with his poor means, from Bevern; and that he proved
+heroically useful in Stettin two years hence, against the Swedes,
+against the Russians in the Siege-of-Colberg time; and gained
+Friedrich's favor again, with other good results. Which I observe
+was a common method with Prussian Generals and soldiers, when,
+unjustly or justly, they fell into trouble of this kind; and a much
+better one than that of complaining in the Newspapers, and
+demanding Commissions of Inquiry, presided over by Chaos and the
+Fourth-Estate, now is.
+
+Bevern being with the Croats, the Prussian Army falls to General
+Kyau, as next in rank; who (directly in the teeth of fierce orders
+that are speeding hither for Bevern and him) marches away, leaving
+Breslau to its fate; and making towards Glogau, as the one sure
+point in this wreck of things. And Prince Karl, that same day, goes
+upon Breslau; which is in no case to resist and be bombarded:
+so that poor old General Lestwitz, the Prussian Commandant,--always
+thought to be a valiant old gentleman, but who had been wounded in
+the late Action, and was blamably discouraged,--took the terms
+offered, and surrendered without firing a gun. Garrison and he to
+march out, in "Free Withdrawal;" these are the terms: Garrison was
+4,000 and odd, mostly Silesian recruits; but there marched hardly
+500 out with poor Lestwitz; the Silesian recruits--persuaded by
+conceivable methods, that they were to be prisoners of war, and
+that, in short, Austria was now come to be King again, and might
+make inquiry into men's conduct--found it safer to take service
+with Austria, to vanish into holes in Breslau or where they could;
+and, for instance, one regiment (or battalion, let us hide the name
+of it), on marching through the Gate, consisted only of nine chief
+officers and four men. [Muller, SCHLACHT BEI LEUTHEN (Berlin,
+1857,--professedly a mere abridgment and shadow of Kutzen:
+unindexed like it), p. 12 (with name and particulars).]
+
+There were lost 98 pieces of cannon; endless magazines and stores
+of war. A Breslau scandalously gone;--a Breslau preaching day after
+next (27th, which was Sunday), in certain of its churches,
+especially Cardinal Schaffgotsch in the Dom Insel doing it,
+Thanksgiving Sermons, as per order, with unction real or official,
+"That our ancient sovereigns are restored to us:" which Sermons--
+except in the Schaffgotsch case, Prince Karl and the high Catholic
+world all there in gala--were "sparsely attended," say my authors.
+The Austrians are at the top of their pride; and consider full
+surely that Silesia is theirs, though Friedrich were here twice
+over. "What is Friedrich? We beat him at Kolin. His Prussians at
+Zittau, at Moys, at Breslau in the new Malplaquet, were we beaten
+by them? Hnh!"--and snort (in the Austrian mess-rooms), and snap
+their fingers at Friedrich and his coming.
+
+It was at Gorlitz (scene of poor Winterfeld's death) that
+Friedrich, "on November 23d, the tenth day of his march," first got
+rumor of the Breslau Malplaquet: "endless cannonading heard
+thereabouts all yesterday!" said rumor from the east,--more and
+more steadily, as Friedrich hastened forward;--and that it was "a
+victory for Bevern." Till, at Naumburg on the Queiss, he gets the
+actual tidings: Bevern gone to the Croats, Breslau going, Kyau
+marching vague; and what kind of victory it was.
+
+Ever from Grossenhayn onwards there had been message on message,
+more and more rigorous, precise and indignant, "Do this, do that;
+your Dilection shall answer it with your head!"--not one message of
+which reached his Dilection, till Dilection and Fate (such the
+gallop of events) had done the contrary: and now Dilection and his
+head have made a finish of it. "No," answers Friedrich to himself;
+"not till we are all finished!"--and pushes on, he too, like a kind
+of Fate. "What does or can he mean, then?" say the Austrians, with
+scornful astonishment, and think his head must be turning: "Will he
+beat us out of Silesia with his Potsdam Guard-Parade then?"
+"POTSDAMSCHE WACHT-PARADE:"--so they denominate his small Army;
+and are very mirthful in their mess-rooms. "I will attack them, if
+they stood on the Zobtenberg, if they stood on the steeples of
+Breslau!" said Friedrich; and tramped diligently forward. Day after
+day, as the real tidings arrive, his outlook in Silesia is becoming
+darker and darker: a sternly dark march this altogether.
+Prince Karl has thrown a garrison into Liegnitz on Friedrich's
+road; Prince Karl lies encamped with Breslau at his back; has above
+80,000 when fully gathered; and reigns supreme in those parts.
+Darker march there seldom was: all black save a light that burns in
+one heart, refusing to be quenched till death. 
+
+Friedrich sends orders that Kyau shall be put in arrest;
+that Ziethen shall be general of the Bevern wreck, shall bring it
+round by Glogau, and rendezvous with Friedrich at a place and day,
+--Parchwitz, 2d of December coming;--and be steady, my old Ziethen.
+Friedrich brushes past the Liegnitz Garrison, leaves Liegnitz and
+it a trifle to the right; arrives at Parchwitz November 28th; and
+there rests, or at least his weary troops do, till Ziethen come up;
+the King not very restful, with so many things to prearrange;
+a life or death crisis now nigh. Well, it is but death; and death
+has been fronted before now! We who are after the event, on the
+safe sunny side of it, can form small image of the horrors and the
+inward dubieties to him who is passing through it;--and how Hope is
+needed to shine heroically eternal in some hearts. Fire of Hope,
+that does not issue in mere blazings, mad audacities and chaotic
+despair, but advances with its eyes open, measuredly, counting its
+steps, to the wrestling-place,--this is a godlike thing;
+much available to mankind in all the battles they have;
+battles with steel, or of whatever sort.
+
+Friedrich, at Parchwitz, assembled his Captains, and spoke to them;
+it was the night after Ziethen came in, night of December 3d, 1757;
+and Ziethen, no doubt, was there: for it is an authentic meeting,
+this at Parchwitz, and the words were taken down.
+
+
+FRIEDRICH'S SPEECH TO HIS GENERALS (Parchwitz,
+3d December, 1757).
+[From RETZOW, i. 240-242 (slightly abridged).]
+
+"It is not unknown to you, MEINE HERREN, what disasters have
+befallen here, while we were busy with the French and Reichs Army.
+Schweidnitz is gone; Duke of Bevern beaten; Breslau gone, and all
+our war-stores there; good part of Silesia gone: and, in fact, my
+embarrassments would be at the insuperable pitch, had not I
+boundless trust in you, and your qualities, which have been so
+often manifested, as soldiers and sons of your Country. Hardly one
+among you but has distinguished himself by some nobly memorable
+action: all these services to the State and me I know well, and
+will never forget.
+
+"I flatter myself, therefore, that in this case too nothing will be
+wanting which the State has a right to expect of your valor.
+The hour is at hand. I should think I had done nothing, if I left
+the Austrians in possession of Silesia. Let me apprise you, then:
+I intend, in spite of the Rules of Art, to attack Prince Karl's
+Army, which is nearly thrice our strength, wherever I find it.
+The question is not of his numbers, or the strength of his
+position: all this, by courage, by the skill of our methods, we
+will try to make good. This step I must risk, or everything is
+lost. We must beat the enemy, or perish all of us before his
+batteries. So I read the case; so I will act in it.
+
+"Make this my determination known to all Officers of the Army;
+prepare the men for what work is now to ensue, and say that I hold
+myself entitled to demand exact fulfilment of orders. For you, when
+I reflect that you are Prussians, can I think that you will act
+unworthily? But if there should be one or another who dreads to
+share all dangers with me, he,"--continued his Majesty, with an
+interrogative look, and then pausing for answer,--"can have his
+Discharge this evening, and shall not suffer the least reproach
+from me."--Modest strong bass murmur; meaning "No, by the Eternal!"
+if you looked into the eyes and faces of the group. Never will
+Retzow Junior forget that scene, and how effulgently eloquent the
+veteran physiognomies were.
+
+"Hah, I knew it," said the King, with his most radiant smile, "none
+of you would desert me! I depend on your help, then; and on victory
+as sure."--The speech winds up with a specific passage:
+"The Cavalry regiment that does not on the instant, on order given,
+dash full plunge into the enemy, I will, directly after the Battle,
+unhorse, and make it a Garrison regiment. The Infantry battalion
+which, meet with what it may, shows the least sign of hesitating,
+loses its colors and its sabres, and I cut the trimmings from its
+uniform! Now good-night, Gentlemen: shortly we have either beaten
+the Enemy, or we never see one another again."
+
+An excellent temper in this Army; a rough vein of heroism in it,
+steady to the death;--and plenty of hope in it too, hope in Vater
+Fritz. "Never mind," the soldiers used to say, in John Duke of
+Marlborough's time, "Corporal John will get us through it!"--That
+same evening Friedrich rode into the Camp, where the regiments he
+had were now all gathered, out of their cantonments, to march on
+the morrow. First regiment he came upon was the Life-Guard
+Cuirassiers: the men, in their accustomed way, gave him good-
+evening, which he cheerily returned. Some of the more veteran sort
+asked, ruggedly confidential, as well as loyal: "What is thy news,
+then, so late?" "Good news, children (KINDER): to-morrow you will
+beat the Austrians tightly!" "That we will, by--!" answered they.--
+"But think only where they stand yonder, and how they have
+intrenched themselves?" said Friedrich. "And if they had the Devil
+in front and all round them, we will knock them out; only thou lead
+us on!"--"Well, I will see what you can do: now lay you down, and
+sleep sound; and good sleep to you!" "Good-night, Fritz!" answer
+all; [Muller, p. 21 (from Kaltenhorn, of whom INFRA); Preuss, &c.
+&c.] as Fritz ambles on to the next regiment, to which, as to every
+one, he will have some word.
+
+Was it the famous Pommern regiment, this that he next spoke to,--
+who answered Loudon's summons to them once (as shall be noticed by
+and by) in a way ineffable, though unforgettable? Manteuffel of
+Foot; yes, no other! [Archenholtz, ii. 61; and Kutzen, p. 35.]
+They have their own opinion of their capacities against an enemy,
+and do not want for a good conceit of themselves. "Well, children,
+how think you it will be to-morrow? They are twice as strong as
+we." "Never thou mind that; there are no Pommerners among them;
+thou knowest what the Pommerners can do!"--FRIEDRICH: "Yea, truly,
+that do I; otherwise I durst not risk the battle. Now good sleep to
+you! to-morrow, then, we shall either have beaten the Enemy or else
+be all dead." "Yea," answered the whole regiment; "dead, or else
+the Enemy beaten:" and so went to deep sleep, preface to a deeper
+for many of them,--as beseems brave men. In this world it much
+beseems the brave man, uncertain about so many things, to be
+certain of himself for one thing.
+
+These snatches of Camp Dialogue, much more the Speech preserved to
+us by Retzow Junior, appear to be true; though as to the dates, the
+circumstances, there has been debating. [Kutzen, pp. 175-181.]
+Other Anecdotes, dubious or more, still float about in quantity;--
+of which let us give only one; that of the Deserter (which has
+merit as a myth). "What made thee desert, then?" "Hm, alas, your
+Majesty, we were got so down in the world, and had such a time of
+it!"--"Well, try it one day more; and if we cannot mend matters,
+thou and I will both desert."
+
+A learned Doctor, one of the most recent on these matters, is
+astonished why the Histories of Friedrich should be such dreary
+reading, and Friedrich himself so prosaic, barren an object;
+and lays the blame upon the Age, insensible to real greatness;
+led away by clap-trap Napoleonisms, regardless of expense.
+Upon which Smelfungus takes him up, with a twitch:--
+
+"To my sad mind, Herr Doctor, it seems ascribable rather to the
+Dryasdust of these Ages, especially to the Prussian Dryasdust,
+sitting comfortable in his Academies, waving sublimely his long
+ears as he tramples human Heroisms into unintelligible pipe-clay
+and dreary continents of sand and cinders, with the Doctors
+all applauding.
+
+"Had the sacred Poet, or man of real Human Genius, been at his
+work, for the thousand years last past, instead of idly fiddling
+far away from his work,--which surely is definable as being very
+mainly, That of INTERPRETING human Heroisms; of painfully
+extricating, and extorting from the circumambient chaos of muddy
+babble, rumor and mendacity, some not inconceivable human and
+divine Image of them, more and more clear, complete and credible
+for mankind (poor mankind dumbly looking up to him for guidance, as
+to what it shall think of God and of Men in this Scene of Things),
+--I calculate, we should by this time have had a different 
+Friedrich of it; O Heavens, a different world of it, in so
+many respects!
+
+"My esteemed Herr Doctor, it is too painful a subject.
+Godlike fabulous Achilles, and the old Greek Kings of men, one
+perceives, after study, to be dim enough Grazier Sovereigns,
+'living among infinite dung,' till their sacred Poet extricated
+them. And our UNsacred all-desecrating Dryasdust,--Herr Doctor, I
+must say, it fills me with despair! Authentic human Heroisms, not
+fabulous a whit, but true to the bone, and by all appearance very
+much nobler than those of godlike Achilles and pious AEneas ever
+could have been,--left in this manner, trodden under foot of man
+and beast; man and beast alike insensible that there is anything
+but common mud under foot, and grateful to anybody that will assure
+them there is nothing. Oh, Doctor, oh, Doctor! And the results of
+it--You need not go exclusively 'to France' to look at them.
+They are too visible in the so-called 'Social Hierarchies,' and
+sublime gilt Doggeries, sltcred and secular, of all Modern
+Countries! Let us be silent, my friend."--
+
+"Prussian Dryasdust," he says elsewhere, "does make a terrible job
+of it; especially when he attempts to weep through his pipe-clay,
+or rise with his long ears into the moral sublime. As to the German
+People, I find that they dimly have not wanted sensibility to
+Friedrich; that their multitudes of Anecdotes, still circulating
+among them in print and VIVA VOCE, are proof of this. Thereby they
+have at least made a MYTH of Friedrich's History, and given some
+rhythmus, life and cheerful human substantiality to his work and
+him. Accept these Anecdotes as the Epic THEY could not write of
+him, but were longing to hear from somebody who could. Who has not
+yet appeared among mankind, nor will for some time. Alas, my
+friend, on piercing through the bewildering nimbus of babble,
+malignity, mendacity, which veils seven-fold the Face of Friedrich
+from us, and getting to see some glimpses of the Face itself, one
+is sorrowfully struck dumb once more. What a suicidal set of
+creatures; commanding as with one voice, That there shall be no
+Heroism more among them; that all shall be Doggery and Common-
+place henceforth. 'ACH, MEIN LIEBER SULZER, you don't know that
+damned brood!'--Well, well. 'Solomon's Temple,' the Moslems say,
+'had to be built under the chirping of ten thousand Sparrows.'
+Ten thousand of them; committee of the whole house, unanimously of
+the opposite view;--and could not quite hinder it. That too
+is something!"--
+
+More to our immediate purpose is this other thing: That the
+Austrians have been in Council of War; and, on deliberation, have
+decided to come out of their defences; to quit their strong Camp,
+which lies so eligibly, ahead of Breslau and arear of Lissa and of
+Schweidnitz Water yonder; to cross Schweidnitz Water, leave Lissa
+behind them; and meet this offensively aggressive Friedrich in
+pitched fight. Several had voted, No, why stir?--Daun especially,
+and others with emphasis. "No need of fighting at all," said Daun:
+"we can defend Schweidnitz Water; ruin him before he ever get
+across." "Defend? Be assaulted by an Army like his?" urges
+Lucchesi, the other Chief General: "It is totally unworthy of us!
+We have gained the game; all the honors ours; let us have done with
+it. Give him battle, since he fortunately wishes it; we finish him,
+and gloriously finish the War too!" So argued Lucchesi, with
+vivacity, persistency,--to his own ill luck, but evidently with
+approval from Prince Karl. Everybody sees, this is the way to
+Prince Karl's favor at present. "Have not I reconquered Silesia?"
+thinks Prince Karl to himself; and beams applause on the high
+course, not the low prudent one. [Kutzen, pp. 45-48.] In a word,
+the Austrians decide on stepping out to meet Friedrich in open
+battle: it was the first time they ever did so; and it was likewise
+the last.
+
+Sunday, December 4th, at four in the morning, Friedrich has marched
+from Parchwitz, straight towards the Austrian Camp; [Muller,
+p. 26.] he hears, one can fancy with what pleasure, that the
+Austrians are advancing towards him, and will not need to be forced
+in their strong position. His march is in four columns, Friedrich
+in the vanguard; quarters to be Neumarkt, a little Town about
+fourteen miles off. Within some miles of Neumarkt, early in the
+afternoon, he learns that there are a thousand Croats in the place,
+the Austrian Bakery at work there, and engineer people marking out
+an Austrian Camp. "On the Height beyond Neumarkt, that will be?"
+thinks Friedrich; for he knows this ground, having often done
+reviews here; to Breslau all the way on both hands, not a rood of
+it but is familiar to him. Which was a singular advantage, say the
+critics; and a point the Austrian Council of War should have taken
+more thought of.
+
+Friedrich, before entering Neumarkt, sends a regiment to ride
+quietly round it on both sides, and to seize that Height he knows
+of. Height once seized, or ready for seizing, he bursts the barrier
+of Neumarkt; dashes in upon the thousand Croats; flings out the
+Croats in extreme hurry, musketry and sabre acting on them;
+they find their Height beset, their retreat cut off, and that they
+must vanish. Of the 1,000 Croats, "569 were taken prisoners, and
+120 slain," in this unexpected sweeping out of Neumarkt.
+Better still, in Neumarkt is found the Austrian Bakery, set up and
+in full work;--delivers you 80,000 bread-rations hot-and-hot, which
+little expected to go such a road. On the Height, the Austrian
+stakes and engineer-tools were found sticking in the ground;
+so hasty had the flight been.
+
+How Prince Karl came to expose his Bakery, his staff of life so far
+ahead of him? Prince Karl, it is clear, was a little puffed up with
+high thoughts at this time. The capture of Schweidnitz, the late
+"Malplaquet" (poorish Anti-Bevern Malplaquet), capture of Breslau,
+and the low and lost condition of Friedrich's Silesian affairs, had
+more or less turned everybody's head,--everybody's except
+Feldmarschall Daun's alone:--and witty mess-tables, we already
+said, were in the daily habit of mocking at Friedrich's march
+towards them with aggressive views, and called his insignificant
+little Army the "Potsdam Guard-Parade." [Cogniazzo, ii. 417-422.]
+That was the common triumphant humor; naturally shared in by Prince
+Karl; the ready way to flatter him being to sing in that tune.
+Nobody otherwise can explain, and nobody in any wise can justify,
+Prince Karl's ignorance of Friedrich's advance, his almost
+voluntary losing of his staff-of-life in that manner.
+
+
+MAP TO GO HERE--FACING PAGE 48, BOOK 18 continuation----
+
+
+Prince Karl's soldiers have each (in the cold form) three days,
+provision in their haversacks: they have come across the Weistritz
+River (more commonly called Schweidnitz Water), which was also the
+height of contemptuous imprudence; and lie encamped, this night,--
+in long line, not ill-chosen (once the River IS behind),--
+perpendicular to Friedrich's march, some ten miles ahead of him.
+Since crossing, they had learned with surprise, How their Bakery
+and Croats had been snapt up; that Friedrich was not at a distance,
+but near;--and that arrangements could not be made too soon!
+Their position intersects the Great Road at right angles, as we
+hint; and has villages, swamps, woody knolls; especially, on each
+wing, good defences. Their right wing leans on Nypern and its
+impassable peat-bogs, a Village two or three miles north from the
+Great Road; their centre is close behind another Village called
+Leuthen, about as far south from it: length of their bivouac is
+about five miles; which will become six or so, had Nadasti once
+taken post, who is to form the left wing, and go down as far as
+Sagschutz, southward of Leuthen. Seven battalions are in this
+Village of Leuthen, eight in Nypern, all the Villages secured;
+woods, scraggy abatis, redoubts, not forgotten: their cannon are
+numerous, though of light calibre. Friedrich has at least 71 heavy
+pieces; and 10 of them are formidably heavy,--brought from the
+walls of Glogau, with terrible labor to Ziethen; but with excellent
+effect, on this occasion and henceforth. They got the name of
+"Boomers, Bellowers (DIE BRUMMER)," those Ten. Friedrich was in
+great straits about artillery; and Retzow Senior recommended this
+hauling up of the Ten Bellowers, which became celebrated in the
+years coming. And now we are on the Battle-ground, and must look
+into the Battle itself, if we can.
+
+
+
+Chapter X.
+
+BATTLE OF LEUTHEN.
+
+From Neumarkt, on Monday, long before day, the Prussians, all but a
+small party left there to guard the Bakery and Army Properties, are
+out again; in four columns; towards what may lie ahead.
+Friedrich, as usual in such cases, for obvious reasons, rides with
+the vanguard. To Borne, the first Village on the Highway, is some
+seven or eight miles. The air is damp, the dim incipiences of dawn
+struggling among haze; a little way on this side Borne, we come on
+ranks of cavalry drawn across the Highway, stretching right and
+left into the dim void: Austrian Army this, then? Push up to it;
+see what it is, at least.
+
+It proves to be poor General Nostitz, with his three Saxon
+regiments of dragoons, famous since Kolin-day, and a couple of
+Hussar regiments, standing here as outpost;--who ought to have been
+more alert; but they could not see through the dark, and so,
+instead of catching, are caught. The Prussians fall upon them,
+front and flank, tumble them into immediate wreck; drive the whole
+outpost at full gallop home, through Borne, upon Nypern and the
+right wing,--without news except of this symbolical sort.
+Saxon regiments are quite ruined, "540 of them prisoners" (poor
+Nostitz himself not prisoner, but wounded to death [Died in
+Breslau, the twelfth day after (Seyfarth, ii. 362).]); and the
+ground clear in this quarter.
+
+Friedrich, on the farther side of Borne, calls halt, till the main
+body arrive; rides forward, himself and staff, to the highest of a
+range or suite of knolls, some furlongs ahead; sees there in full
+view, far and wide, the Austrians drawn up before him. From Nypern
+to Sagschuitz yonder; miles in length; and so distinct, while the
+light mended and the hazes faded, "that you could have counted them
+[through your glasses], man by man." A highly interesting sight to
+Friedrich; who continues there in the profoundest study, and calls
+up some horse regiments of the vanguard to maintain this Height and
+the range of Heights running south from it. And there, I think, the
+King is mainly to be found, looking now at the Austrians, now at
+his own people, for some three hours to come. His plan of Battle is
+soon clear to him: Nypern, with its bogs and scrags, on the
+Austrian right wing, is tortuous impossible ground, as he well
+remembers, no good prospect for us there: better ground for us on
+their left yonder, at Leuthen, even at Sagschutz farther south,
+whither they are stretching themselves. Attempt their left wing;
+try our "Oblique Order" upon that, with all the skill that is in
+us; perhaps we can do it rightly this time, and prosper
+accordingly! That is Friedrich's plan of action. The four columns
+once got to Borne shall fall into two; turn to the right, and go
+southward, ever southward:--they are to become our two Lines of
+Battle, were they once got to the right point southward.
+Well opposite Sagschutz, that will be the point for facing to left,
+and marching up,--in "Oblique Order," with the utmost faculty
+they have!
+
+"The Oblique Order, SCHRAGE STELLUNG," let the hasty reader pause
+to understand, "is an old plan practised by Epaminondas, and
+revived by Friedrich,--who has tried it in almost all his Battles
+more or less, from Hohenfriedberg forward to Prag, Kolin, Rossbach;
+but never could, in all points, get it rightly done till now, at
+Leuthen, in the highest time of need. "It is a particular
+manoeuvre," says Archenholtz, rather sergeant-wise, "which indeed
+other troops are now [1793] in the habit of imitating; but which,
+up to this present time, none but Prussian troops can execute with
+the precision and velocity indispensable to it. You divide your
+line into many pieces; you can push these forward stairwise, so
+that they shall halt close to one another," obliquely, to either
+hand; and so, on a minimum of ground, bring your mass of men to the
+required point at the required angle. Friedrich invented this mode
+of getting into position; by its close ranking, by its depth, and
+the manner of movement used, it had some resemblance to the
+"Macedonian Phalanx,"--chiefly in the latter point, I should guess;
+for when arrived at its place, it is no deeper than common.
+"Forming itself in this way, a mass of troops takes up in
+proportion very little ground; and it shows in the distance, by
+reason of the mixed uniforms and standards, a totally chaotic mass
+of men heaped on one another," going in rapid mazes this way and
+that. "But it needs only that the Commander lift his finger;
+instantly this living coil of knotted intricacies develops itself
+in perfect order, and with a speed like that of mountain rivers
+when the ice breaks,"--is upon its Enemy. [Archenholtz, i. 209.]
+
+"Your Enemy is ranked as here, in long line, three or two to one.
+You march towards him, but keep him uncertain as to how you will
+attack; then do on a sudden march up, not parallel to him, but
+oblique, at an angle of 45 degrees,--swift, vehement, in
+overpowering numbers, on the wing you have chosen. Roll that wing
+together, ruined, in upon its own line, you may roll the whole five
+miles of line into disorder and ruin, and always be in overpowering
+number at the point of dispute. Provided, only, you are swift
+enough about it, sharp enough! But extraordinary swiftness,
+sharpness, precision is the indispensable condition;--by no means
+try it otherwise; none but Prussians, drilled by an Old Dessauer,
+capable of doing it. This is the SCHRAGE ORDNUNG, about which there
+has been such commentating and controversying among military
+people: whether Friedrich invented it, whether Caesar did it, how
+Epaminondas, how Alexander at Arbela; how"--Which shall not in the
+least concern us on this occasion.
+
+The four columns rustled themselves into two, and turned southward
+on the two sides of Borne;--southward henceforth, for about two
+hours; as if straight towards the Magic Mountain, the Zobtenberg,
+far off, which is conspicuous over all that region.
+Their steadiness, their swiftness and exactitude were
+unsurpassable. "It was a beautiful sight," says Tempelhof, an eye-
+witness: "The heads of the columns were constantly on the same
+level, and at the distance necessary for forming; all flowed on
+exact, as if in a review. And you could read in the eyes of our
+brave troops the noble temper they were in." [Tempelhof, i. 288,
+287.] I know not at what point of their course, or for how long,
+but it was from the column nearest him, which is to be first line,
+that the King heard, borne on the winds amid their field-music, as
+they marched there, the sound of Psalms,--many-voiced melody of a
+Church Hymn, well known to him; which had broken out, band
+accompanying, among those otherwise silent men. The fact is very
+certain, very strange to me: details not very precise, except that
+here, as specimen, is a verse of their Hymn:--
+
+     "Grant that with zeal and skill, this day, I do
+      What me to do behooves, what thou command'st me to;
+      Grant that I do it sharp, at point of moment fit,
+      And when I do it, grant me good success in it."
+<italic> 
+     "Gieb dass ich thu' mit Fleiss was mir zu thun gebuhret,
+      Wozu mich dein Befehl in meinem Stande fuhret,
+      Gieb dass ich's thue bald, zu der Zeit da ich's soll;
+      Und wenn ich's thu', so gieb dass es gerathe wohl." 
+<end italic> ["HYMN-BOOK of Porst" (Prussian Sternhold-and-
+Hopkins), "p. 689:" cited in Preuss, ii. 107.]
+
+One has heard the voice of waters, one has paused in the mountains
+at the voice of far-off Covenanter psalms; but a voice like this,
+breaking the commanded silences, one has not heard. "Shall we order
+that to cease, your Majesty?" "By no means," said the King;
+whose hard heart seems to have been touched by it, as might well
+be. Indeed there is in him, in those grim days, a tone as of trust
+in the Eternal, as of real religious piety and faith, scarcely
+noticeable elsewhere in his History. His religion, and he had in
+withered forms a good deal of it, if we will look well, beiug
+almost always in a strictly voiceless state,--nay, ultra-voiceless,
+or voiced the wrong way, as is too well known. "By no means!"
+answered he: and a moment after, said to some one, Ziethen
+probably: "With men like these, don't you think I shall have
+victory this day!"
+
+The loss of their Saxon Forepost proved more important to the
+Austrians than it seemed;--not computable in prisoners, or killed
+and wounded. The Height named Scheuberg,--"Borne Rise" (so we might
+call it, which has got its Pillar of memorial since, with gilt
+Victory atop [Not till 1854 (Kutzen, pp. 194, 195).];--where
+Friedrich now is and where the Austrians are not, is at once a
+screen and a point of vision to Friedrich. By loss of their Nostitz
+Forepost, they had lost view of Friedrich, and never could recover
+view of him; could not for hours learn distinctly what he was
+about; and when he did come in sight again, it was in a most
+unexpected place! On the farther side of Borne, edge of the big
+expanse of open country there, Friedrich has halted; ridden with
+his adjutants to the top of "the Scheuberg (Shy-HILL)," as the
+Books call it, though it is more properly a blunt Knoll or "Rise,"
+--the nearest of a Chain of Knolls, or swells in the ground, which
+runs from north to south on that part.
+
+Except the Zobtenberg, rising blue and massive, on the southern
+horizon (famous mythologic Mountain, reminding you of an ARTHUR'S
+SEAT in shape too, only bigger and solitary), this Country, for
+many miles round, has nothing that could be called a Hill; it is
+definable as a bare wide-waving champaign, with slight bumps on it,
+or slow heavings and sinkings. Country mostly under culture, though
+it is of sandy quality; one or two sluggish brooks in it; and reedy
+meres or mires, drained in our day. It is dotted with Hamlets of
+the usual kind; and has patches of scraggy fir. Your horizon, even
+where bare, is limited, owing to the wavy heavings of the ground;
+windmills and church-belfries are your only resource, and even
+these, from about Leuthen and the Austrian position, leave the
+Borne quarter mostly invisible to you. Leuthen Belfry, the same
+which may have stood a hundred years before this Battle, ends in a
+small tile-roof, open only at the gables:--"Leuthen Belfry," says a
+recent Tourist, "is of small resource for a view. To south you can
+see some distance, Sagschutz, Lobetintz and other Hamlets, amid
+scraggy fir-patches, and meadows, once miry pools; but to north you
+are soon shut in by a swell or slow rise, with two windmills upon
+it [important to readers at present]; and to eastward [Breslau side
+and Lissa side], or to westward [Friedrich's side], one has no
+view, except of the old warped rafters and their old mouldy tiles
+within few inches; or, if by audacious efforts at each end, to the
+risk of your neck, you get a transient peep, it is stopt, far short
+of Borne, by the slow irregular heavings, with or without fir about
+them." [Tourist's Note, PENES ME.]
+
+In short, Friedrich keeps possession of that Borne ridge of Knolls,
+escorted by Cavalry in good numbers; twinkling about in an
+enigmatic way:--"Prussian right wing yonder," think the Austrians--
+"whitherward, or what can they mean?"--and keeps his own columns
+and the Austrian lines in view; himself and his movements
+invisible, or worse, to the Austrian Generals from any spy-glass or
+conjecture they can employ.
+
+The Austrian Generals are in windmills, on church-belfries, here,
+there; diligently scanning the abstruse phenomenon, of which so
+little can be seen. Daun, who had always been against this
+adventure, thinks it probable the vanished Prussians are retiring
+southward: for Bohemia and our Magazines probably. "These good
+people are smuggling off (DIE GUTEN LEUTE PASCHEN AB)," said he:
+"let them go in peace." [Muller, p. 36.] Daun, that morning, in his
+reconnoitrings, had asked of a peasant, "What is that, then?"
+(meaning the top of a Village-steeple in the distance, but thought
+by the peasant to be meaning something nearer hand). "That is the
+Hill our King chases the Austrians over, when he is reviewing
+here!" Which Daun reported at head-quarters with a grin.
+[Nicolai, <italic> Anekdoten, <end italic> iv. 34.]
+
+Lucchesi, on the other hand, scanning those Borne Hills, and the
+cavalry of Friedrich's escort twinkling hither and thither on them,
+becomes convinced to a moral certainty, That yonder is the Prussian
+Vanguard, probable extremity of left wing; and that he, Lucchesi,
+here at Nypern, is to be attacked. "Attacked, you?" said one
+Montazet, French Agent or Emissary here: "unless they were snipes,
+it is impossible!" But Lucchesi saw it too well.
+
+He sends to say that such is the evident fact, and that he,
+Lucchesi, is not equal to it, but must have large reinforcement of
+Horse to his right wing. "Tush!" answer Prince Karl and Daun; and
+return only argument, verbal consolation, to distressed Lucchesi.
+Lucchesi sends a second message, more passionately pressing, to the
+like effect; also with the like return. Upon which he sends a third
+message, quite passionate: "If Cavalry do not come, I will not be
+responsible for the issue!" And now Daun does collect the required
+reinforcement; "all the reserve of Horse, and a great many from the
+left wing;"--and, Daun himself heading them, goes off at a swift
+trot; to look into Lucchesi and his distresses, three or four miles
+to right, five or six from where the danger lies. Now is
+Friedrich's golden moment.
+
+Wending always south, on their western or invisible side of those
+Knolls, Friedrich's people have got to about the level, or LATITUDE
+as we might call it, of Nadasti's left. To Radaxdorf, namely, to
+Lobetintz, or still farther south, and perhaps a mile to west of
+Nadasti. Friedrich has mounted to Lobetintz Windmill; and judges
+that the time is come. Daun and Cavalry once got to support their
+right wing, and our south latitude being now sufficient, Friedrich,
+swift as Prussian manoeuvring can do it, falls with all his
+strength upon their left wing. Forms in oblique order,--horse,
+foot, artillery, all perfect in their paces; and comes streaming
+over the Knolls at Sagschutz, suddenly like a fire-deluge on
+Nadasti, who had charge there, and was expecting no such adventure!
+How Friedrich did the forming in oblique order was at that time a
+mystery known only to Friedrich and his Prussians: but soldiers of
+all countries, gathering the secret from him, now understand it,
+and can learnedly explain it to such as are curious. Will readers
+take a touch more of the DRILL-SERGEANT?
+
+"You go stairwise (EN ECHELON)," says he: "first battalion starts,
+second stands immovable till the first have done fifty steps;
+at the fifty-first, second battalion also steps along;
+third waiting for ITS fifty-first step. First battalion [rightmost
+battalion or leftmost, as the case may be; rightmost in this
+Leuthen case] doing fifty steps before the next stirs, and each
+battalion in succession punctually doing the same:" march along on
+these terms,--or halt at either end, while you advance at the
+other,--it is evident you will swing yourself out of the parallel
+position into any degree of obliquity. And furthermore, merely by
+halting and facing half round at the due intervals, you shove
+yourself to right or to left as required (always to right in this
+Leuthen case): and so--provided you CAN march as a pair of
+compasses would--you will, in the given number of minutes, impinge
+upon your Enemy's extremity at the required angle, and overlap him
+to the required length: whereupon, At him, in flank, in front, and
+rear, and see if he can stand it! "A beautiful manoeuvre" says
+Captain Archenholtz; "devised by Friedrich," by Friedrich
+inheriting Epaminondas and the Old Dessauer; "and which perhaps
+only Friedrich's men, to this day, could do with the
+requisite perfection."
+
+Nadasti, a skilful War-Captain, especially with Horse, was
+beautifully posted about Sagschutz; his extreme left folded up EN
+POTENCE there (elbow of it at Sagschutz, forearm of it running to
+Gohlau eastward); POTENCE ending in firwood Knolls with Croat
+musketeers, in ditches, ponds, difficult ground, especially towards
+Gohlau. He has a strong battery, 14 pieces, on the Height to rear
+of him, at the angle or elbow of his POTENCE; strong abatis, well
+manned in front to rightwards: upon this, and upon the Croats in
+the firwood, the Prussians intend their attack. General Wedell is
+there, Prince Moritz as chief, with six battalions, and their
+batteries, battery of 10 Brummers and another; Ziethen also and
+Horse: coming on, in swift fire-flood, and at an angle of forty-
+five degrees. Most unexpected, strange to behold! From southwest
+yonder; about one o'clock of the day.
+
+Nadasti, though astonished at the Prussian fire-deluge, stands to
+his arms; makes, in front, vigorous defence; and even takes, in
+some sort, the initiative,--that is, dashes out his Cavalry on
+Ziethen, before Ziethen has charged. Ziethen's Horse, who are
+rightmost of the Prussians: and are bare to the right,--ground
+offering no bush, no brook there (though Ziethen, foreseeing such
+defect, has a clump of infantry near by to mend it),--reel back
+under this first shock, coming downhill upon them; and would have
+fared badly, had not the clump of infantry instantly opened fire on
+the Nadasti visitors, and poured it in such floods upon them, that
+they, in their turn, had to reel back. Back they, well out of
+range;--and leave Ziethen free for a counter-attack shortly, on
+easier terms, which was successful to him. For, during that first
+tussle of his, the Prussian Infantry, to left of Ziethen, has
+attacked the Sagschutz Firwood; clears that of Croats;
+attacks Nadasti's line, breaks it, their Brummer battery potently
+assisting, and the rage of Wedell and everybody being extreme.
+So that, in spite of the fine ground, Nadasti is in a bad way, on
+the extreme left or outmost point of his POTENCE, or tactical KNEE.
+Round the knee-pan or angle of his POTENCE, where is the abatis, he
+fares still worse. Abatis, beswept by those ten Brummers and other
+Batteries, till bullet and bayonet can act on it, speedily gives
+way. "They were mere Wurtembergers, these; and could not stand!"
+cried the Austrians apologetically, at a great rate, afterwards;
+as if anybody could well have stood.
+
+Indisputably the Wurtembergers and the abatis are gone; and the
+Brandenburgers, storming after them, storm Nadasti's interior
+battery of 14 pieces; and Nadasti's affairs are rapidly getting
+desperate in this quarter. Figure Prince Karl's scouts, galloping
+madly to recall that Daun Cavalry! Austrian Battalions, plenty of
+them, rush down to help Nadasti; but they are met by the crowding
+fugitives, the chasing Prussians; are themselves thrown into
+disorder, and can do no good whatever. They arrive on the ground
+flurried, blown; have not the least time to take breath and order:
+the fewest of them ever got fairly ranked, none of them ever stood
+above one push: all goes rolling wildly back upon the centre about
+Leuthen. Chaos come on us;--and all for mere lack of time:
+could Nadasti but once stretch out one minute into twenty! But he
+cannot. Nadasti does not himself lose head; skilfully covers the
+retreat, trying to rally once and again. Not for the first few
+furlongs, till the ditches, till the firwood, quagmires are all
+done, could Ziethen, now on the open ground, fairly hew in;
+"take whole battalions prisoners;" drive the crowd in an altogether
+stormy manner; and wholly confound the matter in this part.
+
+Prince Karl, his messengers flying madly, has struggled as man
+seldom did to put himself in some posture about Leuthen, to get up
+some defences there. Leuthen itself, the churchyard of it
+especially, is on the defensive. Men are bringing cannon to the
+windmills, to the swelling ground on the north side of Leuthen;
+they dig ditches, build batteries,--could they but make Time halt,
+and Friedrich with him, for one quarter of an hour. But they
+cannot. By the extreme of diligence, the Austrians have in some
+measure swung themselves into a new position, or imperfect Line
+round Leuthen as a centre,--Lucchesi, voluntarily or by order,
+swinging southwards on the one hand; Nadasti swinging northwards by
+compulsion;--new Line at an angle say of 75 degrees to the old one.
+And here, for an hour more, there was stiff fighting, the stiffest
+of the day;--of which, take one direct glimpse, from the Austrian
+side, furnished by a Young Gentleman famous afterwards:--
+
+Leuthen, let us premise, is a long Hamlet of the usual littery
+sort; with two rows, in some parts three, of farm-houses, barns,
+cattle-stalls; with Church, or even with two Churches, a Protestant
+and a Catholic; goes from east to west above a mile in length. With
+the wrecks of Nadasti tumbling into it pell-mell from the
+southeast, and Lucchesi desperately endeavoring to swing round from
+the northwest, not quite incoherently, and the Prussian fire-storm
+for accompaniment, Leuthen is probably the most chaotic place in
+the Planet Earth during that hour or so (from half-past two to
+half-past three) while the agony lasted. At one o'clock Nadasti was
+attacked; at two he is tumbling in mid-career towards Leuthen:
+I guess the date of this Excerpt, or testimony by a Notable Eye-
+witness, may be half-past two; crisis of the agony just about to
+begin: and before four it was all finished again. Eye-witness is
+the young Prince de Ligne, now Captain in an Austrian Regiment of
+Foot; and standing here in this perilous posture, having been
+called in as part of the Reserve. He says:--
+
+"Cry had risen for the Reserve," in which was my regiment, "and
+that it must come on as fast as possible,"--to Leuthen, west of us
+yonder. "We ran what we could run. Our Lieutenant-Colonel fell
+killed almost at the first; beyond this we lost our Major, and
+indeed all the Officers but three,--three only, and about eleven or
+twelve of the Voluuteer or Cadet kind. We had crossed two
+successive ditches, which lay in an orchard to left of the first
+houses in Leuthen; and were beginning to form in front of the
+Village. But there was no standing of it. Besides a general
+cannonade such as can hardly be imagined, there was a rain of case-
+shot upon this Battalion, of which I, as there was no Colonel left,
+had to take command; and a third Battalion of the Royal Prussian
+Foot-guards, which had already made several of our regiments pass
+that kind of muster, gave, at a distance of eighty paces, the
+liveliest fire on us. It stood as if on the parade-ground, that
+third Battalion, and waited for us, without stirring.
+
+"The Austrian regiment Andlau, at our right hand, could not get
+itself formed properly by reason of the houses; it was standing
+thirty deep, and sometimes its shot hit us on the back. On my left
+the Austrian regiment Merci ran its ways; and I was glad of that,
+in comparison. By no method or effort could I get the dragoons of
+Bathyani, who stood fifty yards in rear of me, to cut in a little,
+and help me out,"--no good cutting hereabouts, think the dragoons
+of Bathyani. "My soldiers, who were still tired with running, and
+had no cannon (these either from necessity or choice they had left
+behind), were got scattered, fewer in number, and were fighting
+mainly out of sullenness. More our honor, than the notion of doing
+good in the affair, prevented us from running off. An Ensign of the
+regiment Arberg helped me awhile to form, from his and my own
+fragments, a kind of line; but he was shot down. Two Officers of
+the Grenadiers brought me what they still had. Some Hungarians,
+too, were luckily got together. But at last, as, with all helps
+and the remnants of my own brave Battalion, I had come down to at
+most 200, I drew back to the Height where the Windmill is,"
+[Kutzen p. 103 (from "Prince de Ligne's DIARY, i. 63, German
+Translation").]--where many have drawn back, and are standing in
+sheltered places, a hundred deep, say our Books.
+
+Stiff fighting at Leuthen; especially furious till Leuthen
+Churchyard, a place with high stone walls, was got. Leuthen
+Village, we observe, was crammed with Austrians spitting fire from
+every coign of vantage; Church and Churchyard especially are a
+citadel of death. Cannon playing from the Windmill Heights, too;--
+moments are inestimable. The Prussian Commander (name charitably
+hidden) at Leuthen Churchyard seems to hesitate in the murderous
+fire-deluge: Major Mollendorf, namable from that day forward,
+growling, "No time this for study," dashes out himself, "EIN ANDRER
+MANN (Follow me, whoever is a man)!"--smashes in the Church-Gate of
+the place, nine muskets blazing on him through it; smashes, after a
+desperate struggle, the Austrians clean out of it, and conquers the
+citadel. [Muller, p. 42.]
+
+The Austrians, on confused terms, made stiff dispute in this second
+position for about an hour. The Prussian Reserve was ordered up by
+Friedrich; the Prussian left wing, which had stood "refused," about
+Radaxdorf, till now: at one time nearly all the Prussians were in
+fire. Friedrich is here, is there, wherever the press was greatest;
+"Prince Ferdinand," whom we now and then find named, as a diligent
+little fellow, and ascertain to be here in this and other Battles
+of Friedrich's,--"Prince Ferdinand at one time pointed his cannon
+on the Bush or Fir-Clump of Radaxdorf;--an aide-de-camp came to him
+with message: "You are firing on the King; the King is yonder!"
+At which Ferdinand [his dear little Brother] ERSCHRACK," or almost
+fainted with terror. [Kutzen, p. 110.]
+
+Stiff dispute; and had the Austrians possessed the Prussian
+dexterity in manoeuvring, and a Friedrich been among them,--
+perhaps? But on their own terms, there was from the first little
+hope in it. "Behind the Windmills they are a hundred men deep;"
+by and by, your Windmills, riddled to pieces, have to be abandoned;
+the Prussian left wing rushing on with bayonets, will not all of
+you have to go? Lucchesi, with his abundant Cavalry, seeing this
+latter movement and the Prussian flank bare in that part, will do a
+stroke upon them;--and this proved properly the finale of the
+matter, finale to both Lucchesi and it.
+
+The Prussian flank was to appearance bare in that leftward quarter;
+but only to appearance: Driesen with the left wing of Horse is in a
+Hollow hard by; strictly charged by Friedrich to protect said
+flank, and take nothing else in hand. Driesen lets Lucchesi gallop
+by, in this career of his; then emerges, ranked, and comes storming
+in upon Lucchesi's back,--entirely confounding his astonished
+Cavalry and their career. Astonished Cavalry, bullet-storm on this
+side of them, edge of sword on that, take wing in all directions
+(or all except to west and south) quite over the horizon;
+Lucchesi himself gets killed,--crosses a still wider horizon, poor
+man. He began the ruin, and he ends it. For now Driesen takes the
+bared Austrians in flank, in rear; and all goes tumbling here too,
+and in few minutes is a general deluge rearward towards Saara and
+Lissa side.
+
+At Saara the Austrians, sun just sinking, made a third attempt to
+stand; but it was hopelessly faint this time; went all asunder at
+the first push; and flowed then, torrent-wise, towards all its
+Bridges over the Schweidnitz Water, towards Breslau by every
+method. There are four Bridges, Stabelwitz below Lissa;
+Goldschmieden, Hermannsdorf, above; and the main one at Lissa
+itself, a standing Bridge on the Highroad (also of wood); and by
+this the chief torrent flows; Prussian horse pursuing vigorously;
+Prussian Infantry drawn up at Saara, resting some minutes, after
+such a day's work. [Archenholtz, i. 209; Seyfarth, <italic>
+Beylagen, <end italic> ii. 243-252 (by an eye-witness, intelligent
+succinct Account of the Battle and previous March; ib. 252-272,
+of the Sieges &c. following); Preuss, ii. 112, &c.; Tempelhof,
+i. 276.]
+
+Truly a memorable bit of work; no finer done for a hundred years,
+or for hundreds of years; and the results of it manifold, immediate
+and remote. About 10,000 Austrians are left on the field, 3,000 of
+them slain; prisoners already 12,000, in a short time 21,000;
+flags 51, cannon 116;--"Conquest of Silesia" gone to water;
+Prince Karl and Austria fallen from their high hopes in one day.
+The Prussians lost in killed 1,141, in wounded 5,118; 85 had been
+taken prisoners about Sagschutz and Gohlau, in the first struggle
+there. [Kutzen, pp. 118, 125.] There and at Leuthen Village had
+been the two tough passages; about an hour each; in three hours the
+Battle was done. "MEINE HERREN," said Friedrich that night at
+parole, "after such a spell of work, you deserve rest. This day
+will bring the renown of your name, and of the Nation's, to the
+latest posterity."
+
+High and low had shone this day; especially these four:
+Ziethen, Driesen, Retzow,--and above all Moritz of Dessau.
+Riding up the line, as night fell, Friedrich, in passing Moritz and
+the right wing, drew bridle for an instant: "I congratulate you on
+the Victory, Herr Feldmarschall!" cried he cheerily, and with
+emphasis on the last word. Moritz, still very busy, answered
+slightly; and Friedrich repeated louder, "Don't you hear that I
+congratulate you, Herr FELDMARSCHALL!"--a glad sound to Moritz, who
+ever since Kolin had stood rather in the shadow. "You have helped
+me, and performed every order, as none ever did before in any
+battle," added the grateful King.
+
+Riding up the line, all now grown dusky, Friedrich asks, "Any
+battalion a mind to follow me to Lissa?" Three battalions
+volunteering, follow him; three are plenty. At Saara, on the Great
+Road, things are fallen utterly dark. "Landlord, bring a lantern,
+and escort." Landlord of the poor Tavern at Saara escorts
+obediently; lantern in his right hand, left hand holding by the
+King's stirrup-leather,--King (Excellency or General, as the
+Landlord thinks him) wishing to speak with the man. Will the reader
+consent to their Dialogue, which is dullish, but singular to have
+in an authentic form, with Nicolai as voucher? [<italic> Anekdoten,
+iii. 231-235.] Like some poor old horse-shoe, ploughed up on the
+field. Two farthings worth of rusty old iron; now little other than
+a curve of brown rust: but it galloped at the Battle of Leuthen;
+that is something!--
+
+KING. "Come near; catch me by the stirrup-leather [Landlord with
+lantern does so]. We are on the Breslau Great Road, that goes
+through Lissa, are n't we?"
+LANDLORD. "Yea, Excellenz."
+KING. "Who are you?"
+LANDLORD. "Your Excellenz, I am the KRATSCHMER [Silesian for
+Landlord] at Saara."
+KING. "You have had a great deal to suffer, I suppose."
+LANDLORD. "ACH, your Excellenz, had not I! For the last eight-and-
+forty hours, since the Austrians came across Schweidnitz Water, my
+poor house has been crammed to the door with them, so many servants
+they have; and such a bullying and tumbling:--they have driven me
+half mad; and I am clean plundered out."
+KING. "I am sorry indeed to hear that!--Were there Generals too in
+your house? What said they? Tell me, then."
+LANDLORD. "With pleasure, your Excellenz. Well; yesterday noon, I
+had Prince Karl in my parlor, aud his Adjutants and people all
+crowding about. Such a questioning aud bothering! Hundreds came
+dashing in, and other hundreds were sent out: in and out they went
+all night; no sooner was one gone, than ten came. I had to keep a
+roaring fire in the kitchen all night; so many Officers crowding to
+it to warm themselves. And they talked and babbled this and that.
+One would say, That our King was coming on, then, 'with his Potsdam
+Guard-Parade.' Another answers, 'OACH, he dare n't come! He will
+run for it; we will let him run.' But now my delight is, our King
+has paid them their fooleries so prettily this afternoon!"
+KING. "When got you rid of your high guests?"
+LANDLORD. "About nine this morning the Prince got to horse; and not
+long after three, he came past again, with a swarm of Officers;
+all going full speed for Lissa. So full of bragging when they came;
+and now they were off, wrong side foremost! I saw how it was.
+And ever after him, the flood of them ran, Highroad not broad
+enough,--an hour and more before it ended. Such a pell-mell, such a
+welter, cavalry and musketeers all jumbled: our King must have
+given them a dreadful lathering. That is what they have got by
+their bragging and their lying,--for, your Excellenz, these people
+said too, 'Our King was forsaken by his own Generals, all his
+first people had gone and left him:' what I never in this world
+will believe."
+KING (not liking even rumor of that kind). "There you are right;
+never can such a thing be believed of my Army."
+LANDLORD (whom this "MY" has transfixed). "MEIN GOTT, you are our
+GNADIGSTER KONIG (most gracious King) yourself! Pardon, pardon, if,
+in my stupidity, I have--"
+KING. "No, you are an honest man:--probably a Protestant?"
+LANDLORD. "JOA, JOA, IHR MAJESTAT, I am of your Majesty's creed!"
+
+Crack-crack! At this point the Dialogue is cut short by sudden
+musket-shots from the woody fields to right; crackle of about
+twelve shots in all; which hurt nothing but some horse's feet,--had
+been aimed at the light, and too low. Instantly the light is blown
+out, and there is a hunting out of Croats; Lissa or environs not
+evacuated yet, it seems; and the King's Entrance takes place under
+volleyings and cannonadings.
+
+King rides directly to the Schloss, which is still a fine handsome
+house, off the one street of that poor Village,--north side of
+street; well railed off, and its old ditches aud defences now
+trimmed into flower-plots. The Schloss is full of Austrian
+Officers, bustling about, intending to quarter, when the King
+enters. They, and the force they still had in Lissa, could easily
+have taken him: but how could they know? Friedrich was surprised;
+but had to put the best face on it. [In Kutzen (pp. 121, 209 et
+seq.) explanation of the true circumstances, and source of the
+mistake.] "BON SOIR, MESSIEURS!" said he, with a gay tone, stepping
+in: "Is there still room left, think you?" The Austrians, bowing to
+the dust, make way reverently to the divinity that hedges a King of
+this sort; mutely escort him to the best room (such the popular
+account); and for certain make off, they and theirs, towards the
+Bridge, which lies a little farther east, at the end of
+the Village.
+
+Weistritz or Schweidnitz Water is a biggish muddy stream in that
+part; gushing and eddying; not voiceless, vexed by mills and their
+weirs. Some firing there was from Croats in the lower houses of the
+Village, and they had a cannon at the farther bridge-end; but they
+were glad to get away, and vanish in the night; muddy Weistritz
+singing hoarse adieu to their cannon and them. Prussian grenadiers
+plunged indignant into the houses; made short work of the
+musketries there. In few minutes every Croat and Austrian was
+across, or silenced otherwise too well; Prussian cannon now going
+in the rear of them, and continuing to go,--such had been the
+order, "till the powder you have is done." Fire of musketry and
+occasional cannon lasts all night, from the Lissa or Prussian side
+of the River,--"lest they burn this Bridge, or attempt some
+mischief." A thing far from their thoughts, in present
+circumstances.
+
+The Prussian host at Saara, hearing these noises, took to its arms
+again; and marched after the King. Thick darkness; silence;
+tramp, tramp:--a Prussian grenadier broke out, with solemn tenor
+voice again, into Church-Music; a known Church-Hymn, of the homely
+TE-DEUM kind; in which five-and-twenty thousand other voices, and
+all the regimental bands, soon join:--
+
+<italic> "Nun dunket alle Gott
+          Mit Herzen, Mund und Handen,
+          Der grosse Dinge thut
+          An uns und allen Enden." <end italic> [Muller, p. 48.]
+
+         "Now thank God, one and all,
+          With heart, with voice, with hands-a,
+          Who wonders great hath done
+          To us and to all lands-a."
+
+And thus they advance; melodious, far-sounding, through the hollow
+Night, once more in a highly remarkable manner. A pious people, of
+right Teutsch stuff, tender though stout; and, except perhaps
+Oliver Cromwell's handful of Ironsides, probably the most perfect
+soldiers ever seen hitherto. Arriving at the end of Lissa, and
+finding all safe as it should be there, they make their bivouac,
+their parallelogram of two lines, miles long across the fields,
+left wing resting on Lissa, right on Guckerwitz; and--having, I
+should think, at least tobacco to depend on, with abundant stick-
+fires, and healthy joyful hearts--pass the night in a thankful,
+comfortable manner.
+
+Leuthen was the most complete of all Friedrich's victories;
+two hours more of daylight, as Friedrich himself says, and it would
+have been the most decisive of this century. [<italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> iv. 167.] As it was, the ruin of this big
+Army, 80,000 against 30,000, ["89,200 was the Austrian strength
+before the Battle" (deduct the Garrisons of Schweidnitz and
+Liegnitz): Preuss, ii. 109 (from the STAFF-OFFICERS).] was as good
+as total; and a world of Austrian hopes suddenly collapsed; and all
+their Silesian Apparatus, making sure of Silesia beyond an IF, was
+tumbled into wreck,--by this one stroke it had got, smiting the
+corner-stone of it as if with unexpected lightning. On the morrow
+after Leuthen, Friedrich laid siege to Breslau; Karl had left a
+garrison of 17,000 in it, and a stout Captain, one Sprecher,
+determined on defence: such interests hung on Breslau, such
+immensities of stores were in it, had there been nothing else.
+Friedrich, pushing with all his strength, in spite of bad weather
+and of Sprecher's industrious defence, got it in twelve days.
+[7th-19th December: DIARIUM, &c. of it in <italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 955-961.] Sprecher had posted placards
+on the gallows and up and down, terrifically proclaiming that any
+man convicted of mentioning surrender should be instantly hanged:
+but Friedrich's bombardment was strong, his assaults continual;
+and the ditches were threatening to freeze. On the seventh day of
+the siege, a Laboratorium blew up; on the ninth, a Powder-Magazine,
+carrying a lump of the rampart away with it. Sprecher had to
+capitulate: Prisoners of War, we 17,000; our cannons, ammunitions
+(most opulent, including what we took from Bevern lately);
+these, we and Breslau altogether, alas, it is all yours again.
+Liegnitz Garrison, seeing no hope, consented to withdraw on leave.
+[26th December: <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 1016.]
+Schweidnitz cannot be besieged till Spring come: except
+Schweidnitz, Maria Theresa, the high Kaiserinn, has no foot of
+ground in Silesia, which she thought to be hers again.
+Gone utterly, Patents and all; Schweidnitz alone waiting till
+spring. To the lively joy of Silesia in general; to the thrice-
+lively sorrow and alarm of certain individuals, leading Catholic
+Ecclesiastics mainly, who had misread the signs of the times in
+late months! There is one Schaffgotsch, Archbishop or head-man of
+them, especially, who is now in a bad way. Never was such royal
+favor; never such ingratitude, say the Books at wearisome length.
+Schaffgotsch was a showy man of quality, nephew of the quondam
+Austrian Governor, whom Friedrich, across a good deal of Papal and
+other opposition, got pushed into the Catholic Primacy, and took
+some pains to make comfortable there,--Order of the Black Eagle,
+guest at Potsdam, and the like;--having a kind of fancy for the
+airy Schaffgotsch, as well as judging him suitable for this
+Silesian High-Priesthood, with his moderate ideas and quality
+ways,--which I have heard were a little dissolute withal. To the
+whole of which Schaffgotsch proved signally traitorous and ingrate;
+and had plucked off the Black Eagle (say the Books, nearly
+breathless over such a sacrilege) on some public occasion, prior to
+Leuthen, and trampled it under his feet, the unworthy fellow.
+Schaffgotsch's pathetic Letter to Friedrich, in the new days
+posterior to Leuthen, and Friedrich's contemptuous inexorable
+answer, we could give, but do not: why should we? O King, I know
+your difficulties, and what epoch it is. But, of a truth, your airy
+dissolute Schaffgotsch, as a grateful "Archbishop and Grand-Vicar,"
+is almost uglier to me than as a Traitor ungrateful for it;
+and shall go to the Devil in his own way! They would not have him
+in Austria; he was not well received at Rome; happily died before
+long. [Preuss, ii. 113, 114; Kutzen, pp. 12, 155-160, for the real
+particculars.] Friedrich was not cruel to Schaffgotsch or the
+others, contemptuously mild rather; but he knew henceforth what to
+expect of them, and slightly changed this and that in his Silesian
+methods in consequence.
+
+Of Prince Karl let us add a word. On the morrow after Leuthen,
+Captain Prince de Ligne and old Papa D'Ahremberg could find little
+or no Army; they stept across to Grabschen, a village on the safe
+side of the Lohe, and there found Karl and Daun: "rather silent,
+both; one of them looking, 'Who would have thought it!' the other,
+'Did n't I tell you?'"--and knowing nothing, they either, where the
+Army was. Army was, in fact, as yet nowhere. "Croat fellows, in
+this Farmstead of ours," says De Ligne, "had fallen to shooting
+pigeons." The night had been unusually dark; the Austrian Army had
+squatted into woods, into office-houses, farm-villages, over a wide
+space of country; and only as the day rose, began to dribble in.
+By count, they are still 50,000; but heart-broken, beaten as men
+seldom were. "What sound is that?" men asked yesterday at Brieg,
+forty miles off; and nobody could say, except that it was some huge
+Battle, fateful of Silesia and the world. Breslau had it louder;
+Breslau was still more anxious. "What IS all that?" asked somebody
+(might be Deblin the Shoemaker, for anything I know) of an Austrian
+sentry there: "That? That is the Prussians giving us such a beating
+as we never had." What news for Deblin the Shoemaker, if he is
+still above ground!--
+
+"Prince Karl, gathering his distracted fragments, put 17,000 into
+Breslau by way of ample garrison there; and with the rest made off
+circuitously for Schweidnitz; thence for Landshut, and down the
+Mountains, home to Konigsgratz,--self and Army in the most wrecked
+condition. Chased by Ziethen; Ziethen (sticking always to the hocks
+of them,' as Friedrich eagerly enjoins on him; or sometimes it is,
+'sitting on the breeches of them:' for about a fortnight to come.
+[Eleven Royal Autographs: in Blumenthal, <italic> Life of De
+Ziethen <end italic> (ii. 94-111), a feeble incorrect Translation
+of them.] Ziethen took 2,000 prisoners; no end of baggages, of
+wagons left in the difficult places: wild weather even for Ziethen,
+still more for Karl, among the Silesian-Bohemian Hill-roads:
+heavy rains, deep muds, then sudden glass, with cutting snow-
+blasts: 'An Army not a little dilapidated,' writes Prince Karl,
+almost with tears in his eyes; (Army without linens, without
+clothes; in condition truly sad and pitiable; and has always, so
+close are the enemy, to encamp, though without tents.'
+[Kutzen, p. 134 ("Prince Karl to the Kaiser, December 14th").].
+Did not get to Konigsgratz, and safe shelter, for ten days more.
+Counted, at Konigsgratz in the Christmas time, 37,000 rank and
+file,--'22,000 of whom are gone to hospital,' by the
+Doctor's report.
+
+"Universal astonishment, indignation, even incredulity, is the
+humor at Vienna: the high Kaiserinn herself, kept in the dark for
+some time, becomes dimly aware; and by Kaiser Franz's own advice
+she relieves Prince Karl from his military employments, and
+appoints Daun instead. Prince Karl withdrew to his Government of
+the Netherlands; and with the aid of generous liquors, and what
+natural magnanimity he had, spent a noiseless life thenceforth;
+Sword laid entirely on the shelf; and immortal Glory, as of
+Alexander and the like, quite making its exit from the scene,
+convivial or other. 'The first General in the world,' so he used to
+be ten years ago, in Austria, in England, Holland, the thrice-
+greatest of Generals: but now he has tried Friedrich in Five
+pitched Battles (Czaslau, Hohenfriedberg, Sohr, then Prag, then
+Leuthen);--been beaten every time, under every form of
+circumstance; and now, at Leuthen, the fifth beating is such, no
+public, however ignorant, can stand it farther. The ignorant public
+changes its long-eared eulogies into contumeliously horrid shrieks
+of condemnation; in which one is still farther from joining.
+'That crossing of the Rhine,' says Friedrich, 'was a BELLE CHOSE;
+but flatterers blew him into dangerous self-conceit; besides, he
+was ill-obeyed, as others of us have been.' ["Prince de Ligne,
+<italic> Memoires snr Frederic (Berlin, 1789), p. 38 " (Preuss, ii.
+112).] Adieu to him, poor red-faced soul;--and good liquor to him,
+--at least if he can take it in moderation!"
+
+The astonishment of all men, wise and simple, at this sudden
+oversetting of the scene of things, and turning of the gazetteer-
+diplomatic theatre bottom uppermost, was naturally extreme,
+especially in gazetteer and diplomatic circles; and the admiration,
+willing or unwilling, of Friedrich, in some most essential points
+of him, rose to a high pitch. Better soldier, it is clear, has not
+been heard of in the modern ages. Heroic constancy, courage
+superior to fate: several clear features of a hero;--pity he were
+such a liar withal, and ignorant of common honesty; thought the
+simple sort, in a bewildered manner, endeavoring to forget the
+latter features, or think them not irreconcilable. Military judges
+of most various quality, down to this day, pronounce Leuthen to be
+essentially the finest Battle of the century; and indeed one of the
+prettiest feats ever done by man in his Fighting Capacity.
+Napoleon, for instance, who had run over these Battles of Friedrich
+(apparently somewhat in haste, but always with a word upon them
+which is worth gathering from such a source), speaks thus of
+Leuthen: "This Battle is a masterpiece of movements, of manoeuvres,
+and of resolution; enough to immortalize Friedrich, and rank him
+among the greatest Generals. Manifests, in the highest degree, both
+his moral qualities and his military." [Montholon, <italic>
+Memoires &c., de Napoleon, <end italic> vii. 211. This Napoleon
+SUMMARY OF FRIEDRICH'S CAMPAIGNS, and these brief Bits of
+Criticism, are pleasant reading, though the fruit evidently of
+slight study, and do credit to Napoleon perhaps still more than
+to Friedrich.]
+
+How the English Walpoles, in Parliament and out of it; how the
+Prussian Sulzers, D'Argenses, the Gazetteer and vague public, may
+have spoken and written at that time, when the matter was fresh and
+on everybody's tongue,--judge still by two small symptoms which we
+have to show:--
+
+1. A LETTER OF FRIEDRICH'S TO D'ARGENS (Durgoy, near Breslau, 19th
+December, 1757).--"Your friendship seduces you, MON CHER; I am but
+a paltry knave (POLISSON) in comparison with 'Alexander,' and not
+worthy to tie the shoe-latchets of 'Caesar'! Necessity, who is the
+mother of industry, has made me act, and have recourse to desperate
+remedies in evils of a like nature.
+
+"We have got here [this day, by capitulation of Breslau] from
+fourteen to fifteen thousand prisoners: so that, in all, I have
+above twenty-three thousand of the Queen's troops in my hands,
+fifteen Generals, and above seven hundred Officers. 'T is a plaster
+on my wounds, but it is far enough from healing them.
+
+"I am now about marching to the Mountain region, to settle the
+chain of quarters there; and if you will come, you will find the
+roads free and safe. I was sorry at the Abbe's treason,"--paltry De
+Prades, of whom we heard enough already. [<italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> xix. 47.]
+
+2. A POTTERY-APOTHEOSIS OF FRIEDRICH.--"There stands on this
+mantel-piece," says one of my Correspondents, the amiable
+Smelfungus, in short, whom readers are acquainted with, "a small
+China Mug, not of bad shape; declaring itself, in one obscure
+corner, to be made at Worcester, 'R. I., Worcester, 1757' (late in
+the season, I presume, demand being brisk); which exhibits, all
+round it, a diligent Potter's-Apotheosis of Friedrich, hastily got
+up to meet the general enthusiasm of English mankind. Worth, while
+it lasts unbroken, a moment's inspection from you in
+hurrying along.
+
+"Front side, when you take our Mug by the handle for drinking from
+it, offers a poor well-meant China Portrait, labelled KING OF
+PRUSSIA: Copy of Friedrich's Portrait by Pesne, twenty years too
+young for the time, smiling out nobly upon you; upon whom there
+descends with rapidity a small Genius (more like a Cupid who had
+hastily forgotten his bow, and goes headforemost on another errand)
+to drop a wreath on this deserving head;--wreath far too small for
+ever getting on (owing to distance, let us hope), though the
+artless Painter makes no sign; and indeed both Genius and wreath,
+as he gives them, look almost like a big insect, which the King
+will be apt to treat harshly if he notice it. On the opposite side,
+again, separated from Friedrich's back by the handle, is an
+enormous image of Fame, with wings filling half the Mug, with two
+trumpets going at once (a bass, probably, and a treble), who flies
+with great ease; and between her eager face end the unexpectant one
+of Friedrich (who is 180 degrees off, and knows nothing of it)
+stands a circular Trophy, or Imbroglio of drums, pikes, muskets,
+cannons, field-flags and the like; very slightly tied together,--
+the knot, if there is one, being hidden by some fantastic bit of
+scroll or escutcheon, with a Fame and ONE trumpet scratched on it;
+--and high out of the Imbroglio rise three standards inscribed with
+Names, which we perceive are intended to be names of Friedrich's
+Victories; standards notable at this day, with Names which I will
+punctually give you.
+
+"Standard first, which flies to the westward or leftward, has
+'Reisberg' (no such place on this distracted globe, but meaning
+Bevern's REICHENBERG, perhaps),--'Reisberg,' 'Prague,' 'Collin.'
+Middle standard curves beautifully round its staff, and gives us to
+read, 'Welham' (non-extant, too; may mean WELMINA or Lobositz),
+'Rossbach' (very good), 'Breslau' (poor Bevern's, thought a VICTORY
+in Worcester at this time!). Standard third, which flies to
+eastward or right hand, has 'Neumark' (that is, NEUMARKT and the
+Austrian Bread-ovens, 4th December); 'Lissa' (not yet LEUTHEN in
+English nomenclature); and 'Breslau' again, which means the capture
+of Breslau CITY this time, and is a real success, 7th-19th
+December;--giving us the approximate date, Christmas, 1757, to this
+hasty Mug. A Mug got up for temporary English enthusiasm, and the
+accidental instruction of posterity. It is of tolerable China;
+holds a good pint, 'To the Protestant Hero, with all the honors;'--
+and offers, in little, a curious eyehole into the then England,
+with its then lights and notions, which is now so deep-hidden from
+us, under volcanic ashes, French Revolutions, and the wrecks of a
+Hundred very decadent Years."
+
+
+
+Chapter XI.
+
+WINTER IN BRESLAU: THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS.
+
+Friedrich, during those grand victories, is suffering sadly in
+health, "COLIQUE DEPUIS HUIT JOURS, neither sleep nor appetite;"
+"eight months of mere anguishes and agitations do wear one down."
+He is tired too, he says, of the mere business-talk, coarse and
+rugged, which has been his allotment lately; longs for some humanly
+roofed kind of lodging, and a little talk that shall have flavor in
+it. [Letters of his to Prince Henri (December 26th, &c.: <italic>
+OEuvres, <end italic> xxvi. 167, 169; Stenzel, v: 123).] The troops
+once all in their Winter-quarters, he sits down in Breslau as his
+own wintering-place: place of relaxation,--of rest, or at least of
+changed labor,--no man needing it more. There for some three months
+he had a tolerable time; perhaps, by contrast, almost a delightful.
+Readers must imagine it; we have no details allowed us, nor any
+time for them even if we had.
+
+There come various visitors, various gayeties,--King's Birthday
+(January 24th); quality Balls, "at which Royal Majesty sometimes
+deigned to show himself." A lively Breslau, in comparison.
+Sister Amelia paid a beautiful visit of a fortnight or more:
+Sister Amelia, and along with her, two married Cousins (once
+Margravines of Schwedt), whose Husbands, little Brother Ferdinand,
+and Eugen of Wurtemberg, are wintering here. The Marquis d'Argens,
+how exquisitely treated we shall see, is a principal figure;
+Excellency Mitchell, deep in very important business just now, is
+another. Reader de Catt (he who once, in a Dutch River-Boat, got
+into conversation with the snuffy gentleman in black wig) made his
+new appearance, this Winter,--needed now, since De Prades is off.
+"Should you have known me again?" asked Friedrich. "Hardly, in that
+dress; besides, your Majesty looks thinner." "That I can believe,
+with the cursed life I have been leading!" [Rodenbeck, i. 285.]
+There came also, day not given, a Captain Guichard ("Major Quintus
+Icilius" that is to be) with his new Book on the Art Military of
+the Ancients, MEMOIRES MILITAIRES SUR LES GRECS ET LES ROMAINS;
+[a La Haye, 2 tomes, 4to, 1757 (Nicolai, <italic> Anekdoten, <end
+italic> vi. 134)] which cannot but be welcome to Friedrich. A solid
+account of that matter, by the first man who ever understood both
+War and Greek. Far preferable to Folard's, a man without Greek at
+all, and with military ideas not a little fantastic here and there.
+Of Captain Guichard, were his Book once read, and himself a little
+known, there will be more to say. For the present, fancy him
+retained as supernumerary:--and in regard to Friedrich's Winter
+generally, accept the following small hints, small but direct:--
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TO D'ARGENS (three different times).
+
+1. ON THE ROAD TO LEUTHEN "(Torgau, 15th November 1757). ... I have
+been obliged to have the Abbe arrested [De Prades, of whom enough,
+long since]; he has been playing the spy, and I have many evident
+proofs of it. That is very infamous and very ungrateful.--I have
+made a prodigious quantity of verses (PRODIGIEUSEMENT DE VERS).
+If I live, I will show them you in Winter-quarters: if I perish,
+they are bequeathed to you, and I have ordered that they be put
+into your hand. ...
+
+"Adieu, my dear Marquis. I fancy you to be in bed: don't rot
+there;--and remember you have promised to join me in
+Winter-quarters;"--on this latter point Friedrich is very urgent,
+amiably eager; prepared to wrap the poor Marquis in cotton, and
+carry him and lodge him, like glass with care. [<italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic>] xix, 43.] For example:--
+
+2. WHILE SETTLING THE WINTER-QUARTERS ("Striegau, 26th December,
+1757:" Siege of Breslau done ten days ago). ... "What a pleasure to
+hear you are coming! Your travelling you can do in your own way.
+I have chosen a party of Light Horse (JAGER), who will appear at
+Berlin to conduct you. You can make short journeys: the first to
+Frankfurt, the second to Crossen, the third to Grunberg, fourth to
+Glogau, fifth to Parchwitz, sixth to Breslau. I have directed that
+horses be ordered for you, that your rooms be warmed everywhere,
+and good fowls ready on all roads. Your apartment in this House
+[Royal House in Breslau, which the King has built for himself years
+ago] is carpeted, hermetically shut. You shall suffer nothing from
+draughts or from noise." [Ib. xix. 48.]--Lucky Marquis; what a
+Landlord! Came accordingly; stayed till deep in April,--waiting
+latterly for weather, I perceive; long after the King himself was
+off. Thus:--
+
+3. FRIEDRICH ON THE FIELD AGAIN FOR FIVE WEEKS PAST ("Munsterberg,
+23d April, 1758"). "Adieu, dear Marquis; I fancy you are now in
+Berlin again. Go to Charlottenburg whenever and how you like; take
+care of yourself; and be ready for the beginning of October next!--
+As to me, MON CHER, I am off to fight windmills and ostriches
+(AUTRUCHES), that is, Russians and Austrians (AUTRICHIENS). Adieu,
+MON CHER."  [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xix. 49.]
+
+There circulated in the Newspapers, this Winter, something of what
+was called a LETTER from Friedrich to Maria Theresa, formally
+proposing Peace, after these magnificent successes. And certainly,
+of all things in the Earth, Friedrich would have best liked Peace,
+this year, last year, and for the next five years: "Go home, then,
+good neighbors; don't break into my house, don't cut my poor
+throat, and we will be friends again!" Friedrich, it appears, had
+actually, finding or making opportunity, sent some polite Letter,
+of pacific tenor, in his light clever way, to that address;--not
+without momentary hopes of perhaps getting good from it.
+[In PREUSS, ii. 130 (Friedrich's Letter mostly given;--bearer a
+Prince van Lobkowitz, prisoner at Leuthen, now going home on
+handsome terms) Stenzel, v. 124 (for the PER-CONTRA feeling).]
+And the Kaiserinn herself, Austria's high Mother, did, they say,
+after such a Leuthen coming on the back of such a Rossbach, feel
+discouraged; but the Pompadour (not France's Mother, whatever she
+might be to France) was of far other mind: "Do not speak of it, MA
+REINE! Double or quits, that is our game: can we yield for a little
+ill-luck? Never!"
+
+France dismisses its D'Argenson, "What Armies are these of his;
+flying home on us, like draggled poultry, across the Rhine!"--
+summons the famed Belleisle to be War-Minister, and give things an
+eagle-quality: ["26th February, 1758" (BARBIER, iv. 258).]
+France engages to pay its subsidies better (France now the general
+paying party, Austria, Sweden, Russia itself, all looking to
+France,--would she were as punctual as England used to be!),--in a
+word, engages to be magnanimous extremely, and will hear of nothing
+but persistence. "Shall not we reap, then, where there is such a
+harvest standing white to us?" Kaunitz admits that there never will
+again be such a chance.--Peace, it is clear enough, will not be got
+of these people by any Letter, or human device whatever, except
+simply by uttermost, more or less miraculous fighting for it.
+Friedrich is profoundly aware of this fact;--is busy completing his
+Army: 145,000 for the field, this Year, 53,000 the Silesian part,
+"a good many of them Austrian deserters;" [Stenzel, v. 155.] and is
+closing an important Subsidy Treaty with England,--of which
+more anon.
+
+And if this is the mood in France and Austria, think what Russia's
+will be! The Czarina is not dead of dropsy, as some had expected,
+but, on the contrary, alive, and fiercer than ever; furious against
+Apraxin, and determined that Fermor, his successor, shall defy
+Winter, and begin work at once. She has indignantly dismissed
+Apraxin (to be tried by Court-Martial, he); dismisses Bestuchef the
+Chancellor; appoints a new General, Fermor by name; orders Fermor
+to go and lose not a moment, now in the depth of Winter since it
+was not done in the crown of Summer, and take possession of East
+Preussen in her name.
+
+Which Fermor does; 16th January, crosses the border again, 31,000
+in all, without opposition except from the frost; plants himself up
+and down,--only two poor Prussian battalions there; who retire,
+with their effects, especially "with seven wagons of money."
+January 22d, Fermor enters Konigsberg; publishes no end of
+proclamations, manifestoes, rescripts, to inform the poor people,
+trembling at the Cossack atrocities of last Year, "That his august
+Sovereign Elizabeth of All the Russias has now become Proprietress
+of East Preussen, which shall be perfectly protected and
+exquisitely well-governed henceforth; and that all men of official
+or social position have, accordingly, to come and take the oath to
+her, with the due alacrity and punctuality, at their peril."
+
+No man is willing for the operation, most men shudder at it;
+but who can help them? Surely it was an unblessed operation.
+Poor souls, one pities them; for at heart they were, and continued,
+loyal to their own King; thoroughly abhorrent of becoming Russian,
+as Czarish Majesty has thoroughly resolved they shall. Some few
+absconded, leaving their property as spoil; the rest swore, with
+mental reservation, with shifts, such as they could devise:--for
+example, some were observed to swear with gloves on; the right
+hand, which they held up, was a mere right FIST with a stuffed
+glove at the end of it,--SO help me Beelzebub (or whoever is the
+recording Angel here)! [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> v.
+141-149: Preuss, ii. 145, iii. 578, iv. 477, &c.] And thus does
+Preussen, with astonishment, as by the spell of a Czarina Circe,
+find itself changed suddenly to Russian: and does not recover the
+old human form till four years hence,--when, again suddenly, as we
+shall see, the Circe and her wand chance to get broken.
+
+Friedrich could not mend or prevent this bad Business; but was so
+disgusted with it, he never set foot in East Preussen again,--never
+could bear to behold it, after such a transformation into temporary
+Russian shape. I cannot say he abhorred this constrained Oath as I
+should have done: on the contrary, in the first spurt of
+indignation, he not only protested aloud, but made reprisals,--
+"Swear ME those Saxons, then!" said he; and some poor magistrates
+of towns, and official people, had to make a figure of swearing (if
+not allegiance altogether, allegiance for the time being), in the
+same sad fashion, till one's humor cooled again. [Preuss, ii. 163:
+Oath given in <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> v. 631.]
+East Preussen, lost in this way, held by its King as before, or
+more passionately now than ever; still loved Friedrich, say the
+Books; but it is Russia's for the present, and the mischief is
+done. East Preussen itself, Circe Czarina cherishing it as her own,
+had a much peaceabler time: in secret it even sent moneys,
+recruits, numerous young volunteers to Friedrich; much more, hopes
+and prayers. But his disgust with the late transformation by
+enchantment was inexpiable.
+
+It was May or June, as had been anticipated, before the Russian
+main Army made its practical appearance in those parts. Fermor had,
+in the interim, seized Thorn, seized Elbing ("No offence,
+magnanimous Polacks, it is only for a time!"),--and would fain have
+had Dantzig too, but Dantzig would n't. Not till June 16th did the
+unwieldy mass (on paper 104,000, and in effect, and exclusive of
+Cossack rabble, about 75,000) get on way; and begin slowly
+staggering westward. Very slowly, and amid incendiary fire and
+horrid cruelty, as heretofore;--and in August coming we shall be
+sure to hear of it.
+
+Lehwald was just finishing with the Swedes,--had got them all
+bottled up in Stralsund again, about New-Year's time, when these
+Russians crossed into Preussen. We said nothing of the Swedish
+so-called Campaign of last Year;--and indeed are bound to be nearly
+silent of that and of all the others. Five Campaigns of them, or at
+least Four and a half; such Campaigns as were never made before or
+since. Of Campaign 1757, the memorable feature is, that of the
+whole "Swedish Division," as the laughing Newspapers called it,
+which was "put to flight by five Berlin Postilions;"--substantially
+a truth, as follows:--
+
+"Night of September 12th-13th, 1757, the Swedes, 22,000 strong, did
+at last begin business; crossed Peene River, the boundary between
+their Pommern and ours; and, having nothing but some fractions of
+Militia to oppose them, soon captured the Redoubts there;
+spread over Prussian Pommern, and on into the Uckermark;
+diligently raising contributions, to a heavy amount. No less than
+90,000 pounds in all for this poor Province; though, by a strange
+accident, 60,000 pounds proved to be the actual sum.
+
+"Towards the end of October they had got as much as 60,000 pounds
+from the northern parts of Uckermark, Prentzlow being their head-
+quarter during that operation; and they now sent out a Detachment
+of 200 grenadiers and 100 dragoons towards Zehdenick, another
+little Town, some forty miles farther south, there to wring out the
+remaining sum. The Detachment marched by night, not courting
+notice; but people had heard of its coming; and five Prussian
+Postilions,--shifty fellows, old hussars it may be, at any rate
+skilful on the trumpet, and furnished with hussar jackets and an
+old pistol each, determined to do something for their Country.
+The Swedish Detachment had not marched many miles, when,--after or
+before some flourishes of martial trumpeting,--there verily fell on
+the Swedish flank, out of a clump of dark wood, five shots, and
+wounded one man. To the astonishment and panic of the other two
+hundred and ninety-nine; who made instant retreat, under new shots
+and trumpet-tones, as if it were from five whole hussar regiments;
+retreat double-quick, to Prentzlow; alarm waxing by the speed;
+alarm spreading at Prentzlow itself: so that the whole Division got
+to its feet, recrossed the Peene; and Uckermark had nothing more to
+pay, for that bout! This is not a fable, such as go in the
+Newspapers," adds my Authority, "but an accurate fact:" [<italic>
+Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 764, 807; Archenholtz, i.
+160.]--probably, in our day, the alone memorable one of that
+"Swedish War."
+
+"The French," says another of my Notes, "who did the subsidying all
+round (who paid even the Russian Subsidy, though in Austria's
+name), had always an idea that the Swedes--22,000 stout men, this
+year, 4,000 of them cavalry--might be made to co-operate with the
+Russians; with them or with somebody; and do something effective in
+the way of destroying Friedrich. And besides their subsidies and
+bribings, the French took incredible pains with this view;
+incessantly contriving, correspondencing, and running to and fro
+between the parties: [For example: M. le Marquis de Montalembert,
+CORRESPONDANCE AVEC &c., ETANT EMPLOYE PAR LE ROI DE FRANCE A
+L'ARMEE SUEDOISE, 1757-1761 ("with the Swedish Army," yes, and
+sometimes with the Russian,--and sometimes on the French Coasts,
+ardently fortifying against Pitt and his Descents there:--a very
+intelligent, industrious, observant man; still amusing to read, if
+one were idler), A LONDRES (evidently Paris), 1777, 3 vols. small
+8vo. Then, likewise very intelligent, there is a Montazet, a
+Mortaigne, a Caulaiucourt; a CAMPAGNE DES RUSSES EN 1757; &c. &c.,
+--in short, a great deal of fine faculty employed there in spinning
+ropes from sand.] but had not, even from the Russians and Czarish
+Majesty, much of a result, and from the Swedes had absolutely none
+at all. By French industry and flagitation, the Swedish Army was
+generally kept up to about 20,000: the soldiers were expert with
+their fighting-tools, knew their field-exercise well; had fine
+artillery, and were stout hardy fellows: but the guidance of them
+was wonderful. 'They had no field-commissariat,' says one Observer,
+'no field-bakery, no magazines, no pontoons, no light troops; and,'
+among the Higher Officers, 'no subordination.' [Archenholtz, i.
+158.] Were, in short, commanded by nobody in particular. Commanded
+by Senator Committee-men in Stockholm; and, on the field, by
+Generals anxious to avoid responsibility; who, instead of acting,
+held continual Councils of War. The history of their Campaigns,
+year after year, is, in summary, this:--
+
+"Late in the season (always late, War-Offices at home, and
+Captaincies here, being in such a state), they emerged from
+Stralsund, an impregnable place of their own,--where the men, I
+observe, have had to live on dried fishy substances, instead of
+natural boiled oatmeal; [Montalembert, i. 32-37, 335. 394, &c.
+(that of the demand for Neise PORRIDGE, which interested me, I
+cannot find again).] and have died extensively in consequence:--
+they march from Stralsund, a forty or thirty miles, till they reach
+the Swedish-Pommern boundary, Peene River; a muddy sullen stream,
+flowing through quagmire meadows, which are miles broad, on each
+shore. River unfordable everywhere; only to be crossed in four or
+five places, where paved causeways are. The Swedes, with
+deliberation, cross Peene; after some time, capture the bits of
+Redoubts, and the one or two poor Prussian Towns upon it;
+Anklam Redoubt, PEENE-MUNDE (Peene-mouth) Redoubt; and rove forward
+into Prussian Pommern, or over into the Uckermark, for fifty, for a
+hundred miles; exacting contributions; foraging what they can;
+making the poor country-people very miserable, and themselves not
+happy,--their soldiers 'growing yearly more plunderous,' says
+Archenholtz, 'till at length they got, though much shyer of murder,
+to resemble Cossacks,' in regard to other pleas of the crown.
+
+"There is generally some fractional regiment or two of Prussian
+force, left under some select General Manteuffel, Colonel Belling;
+who hangs diligently on the skirts of them, exploding by all
+opportunities. There have been Country Militias voluntarily got on
+foot, for the occasion; five or six small regiments of them;
+officered by Prussian Veterans of the Squirearchy in those parts;
+who do excellent service. The Governor of Stettin, Bevern, our old
+Silesian friend, strikes out now and then, always vigilant, prompt
+and effective, on a chance offering. This, through Summer, is what
+opposition can be made: and the Swedes, without magazines, scout-
+service, or the like military appliances, but willing enough to
+fight [when they can see], and living on their shifts, will rove
+inward, perhaps 100 miles; say southwestward, say southeastward
+[towards Ruppin, which we used to know],--they love to keep
+Mecklenburg usually on their flank, which is a friendly Country.
+Small fights befall them, usually beatings; never anything
+considerable. That is their success through Summer.
+
+"Then, in Autumn, some remnant more of Prussian regulars arrive,
+disposable now for that service; upon which the Swedes are driven
+over Peene again (quite sure to be driven, when the River with its
+quagmires freezes); lose Anklam Redoubt, Peene-munde Redoubt;
+lose Demmin, Wollin; are followed into Swedish Pommern, oftenest to
+the gates of Stralsund, and are locked up there, there and in Rugen
+adjoining, till a new season arrive."--This year (1757-1758),
+Lehwald, on turning the key of Stralsund, might have done a fine
+feat; frost having come suddenly, and welded Rugen to mainland.
+"What is to hinder you from starving them into surrender?"
+signifies Friedrich, hastily: "Besiege me Stralsund!" Which Lehwald
+did; but should have been quicker about it; or the thaw came too
+soon, and admitted ships with provision again. Upon which Lehwald
+resigned, to a General Graf von Dohna; and went home, as grown too
+old: and Dohna kept them bottled there till the usual Russian
+Advent (deep in June); by which time, what with limited stockfish
+diet, what with sore labor (breaking of the ice, whenever frost
+reappeared) and other hardship, more than half of them had died.--
+"Every new season there was a new General tried; but without the
+least improvement. There was mockery enough, complaint enough;
+indignant laughter in Stockholm itself; and the Dalecarlians
+thought of revolting: but the Senator Committee-men held firm,
+ballasted by French gold, for four years.
+
+"The Prussian Militias are a fine trait of the matter; about
+fifteen regiments in different parts;--about five in Pommern, which
+set the example; which were suddenly raised last Autumn by the
+STANDE themselves, drilled in Stettin continually, while the Swedes
+were under way, and which stood ready for some action, under
+veterans of the squirearchy, when the Swedes arrived. They were
+kept up through the War. The STANDE even raised a little fleet,
+[Archenholtz, i. 110.] river fleet and coast fleet, twelve
+gunboats, with a powerful carronade in each, and effective men and
+captain; a great check on plundering and coast mischief, till the
+Swedes, who are naval, at last made an effort and destroyed
+them all."
+
+Friedrich was very sensible of these procedures on the part of his
+STANDE; and perhaps readers are not prepared for such, or for
+others of the like, which we could produce elsewhere, in a Country
+without Constitution to speak of. Friedrich raises no new taxes,--
+except upon himself exclusively, and these to the very blood:--
+Friedrich gets no Life-and-Fortune Addresses of the vocal or
+printed sort, but only of the acted. Very much the preferable kind,
+where possible, to all parties concerned. These poor militias and
+flotillas one cheerfully puts on record; cheerfully nothing else,
+in regard to such a Swedish War;--nor shall we henceforth insult
+the human memory by another word upon it that is not indispensable. 
+
+
+OF THE ENGLISH SUBSIDY.
+
+One of Friedrich's most important affairs, at present,--vitally
+connected with his Army and its furnishings, which is the all-
+important,--was his Subsidy Treaty with England. It is the third
+treaty he has signed with England in regard to this War; the second
+in regard to subsidy for it; and it is the first that takes real
+practical effect. It had cost difficulty in adjusting, not a little
+correspondence and management from Mitchell; for the King is very
+shy about subsidy, though grim necessity prescribes it as
+inevitable; and his pride, and his reflections on the last Subsidy
+Treaty, "One Million sterling, Army of Observation, and Fleet in
+the Baltic," instead of which came Zero and Kloster-Zeven, have
+made him very sensitive. However, all difficulties are got over;
+Plenipotentiary Knyphausen, Pitt, Britannic Majesty and everybody
+striving to be rational and practical; and at London, 11th April,
+1758, Subsidy Treaty, admirably brief and to the point, is
+finished: [In four short Articles; given in <italic>
+Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> v. 16, 17.] "That Friedrich shall
+have Four Million Thalers, that is, 670,000 pounds; payable in
+London to his order, in October, this Year; which sum Friedrich
+engages to spend wholly in maintenance and increase of his Army for
+behoof of the common object;--neither party to dream of making the
+least shadow of peace or truce without the other." Of Baltic Fleet,
+there is nothing said; nor, in regard to that, was anything done,
+this year or afterwards; highly important as it would have been to
+Friedrich, with the Navies so called of both Sweden and Russia
+doing their worst upon him. "Why not spare me a small English
+squadron, and blow these away?" Nor was the why ever made clear to
+him; the private why being, that Czarish Majesty had, last year,
+intimated to Britannic, "Any such step on your part will annihilate
+the now old friendship of Russia and England, and be taken as a
+direct declaration of War!"--which Britannic Majesty, for
+commercial and miscellaneous reasons, hoped always might be
+avoided. Be silent, therefore, on that of Baltic Fleet.
+
+In all the spoken or covenanted points the Treaty was accurately
+kept: 670,000 pounds, two-thirds of a million very nearly, will, in
+punctual promptitude, come to Friedrich's hand, were October here.
+And in regard to Ferdinand (a point left silent, this too),
+Friedrich's expectations were exceeded, not the contrary, so long
+as Pitt endured. This is the Third English-Prussian Treaty of the
+Seven-Years War, as we said above; and it is the First that took
+practical effect: this was followed by three others, year after
+year, of precisely the same tenor, which were likewise practical
+and punctually kept,--the last of them, "12th December, 1760," had
+reference to Subsidy for 1761:--and before another came, Pitt was
+out. So that, in all, Friedrich had Four Subsidies; 670,000 pounds
+x4=2,680,000 pounds of English money altogether:--and it is
+computed by some, there was never as much good fighting otherwise
+had out of all the 800,000,000 pounds we have funded in that
+peculiar line of enterprise. [First Treaty, 16th January, 1756 (is
+in <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iii. 681), "We will
+oppose by arms any foreign Armament entering Germany;"
+Second Treaty, 11th January, 1757 (never published till 1802), is
+in Scholl, iii. 30-32: "one million subsidy, a Fleet &c." (not KEPT
+at all); after which,
+Third Treaty (the FIRST really issuing in subsidy and performance)
+is 11th April, 1758 (given in <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> v. 17); Fourth (really SECOND), 7th December, 1758 (Ib. v.
+752); Fifth (THIRD), 9th November, 1759; Sixth (FOURTH), 12th
+December, 1760. See PREUSS, ii. 124 n.]
+
+Pitt had no difficulty with his Parliament, or with his Public, in
+regard to this Subsidy; the contrary rather. Seldom, if ever, was
+England in such a heat of enthusiasm about any Foreign Man as about
+Friedrich in these months since Rossbach and what had followed.
+Celebrating this "Protestant Hero," authentic new Champion of
+Christendom; toasting him, with all the honors, out of its
+Worcester and other Mugs, very high indeed. Take these Three
+Clippings from the old Newspapers, omitting all else; and rekindle
+these, by good inspection and consideration, into feeble symbolic
+lamps of an old illumination, now fallen so extinct.
+
+No. 1. REVEREND MR. WHITFIELD AND THE PROTESTANT HERO. "Monday,
+January 2d," 1758, "was observed as a Day of Thanksgiving, at the
+Chapel in Tottenham-Court Road [brand-new Chapel, still standing
+and acting, though now in a dingier manner], by Mr. Whitfield's
+people, for the signal Victories gained by the King of Prussia over
+his Enemies. [<italic> Gentleman's Magazine, <end italic> xxviii.
+(for 1758), p. 41.]--'Why rage the Heathen; why do the people
+imagine a vain thing? Sinful beings we, perilously sunk in sin
+against the Most High:--but they, do they think that, by earthly
+propping and hoisting, their unblessed Chimera, with his Three
+Hats, can sweep away the Eternal Stars!'"--In this strain, I
+suppose: Protestant Hero and Heaven's long-suffering Patiences and
+Mercies in raising up such a one for a backsliding generation;
+doubtless with much unction by Mr. Whitfield.
+
+No. 2. KING OF PRUSSIA'S BIRTHDAY (Tuesday, January 24th).
+"This being the Birthday of the King of Prussia, who then entered
+into the forty-seventh year of his age, the same was observed with
+illuminations and other demonstrations of joy;"--throughout the
+Cities of London and Westminster, "great rejoicings and
+illuminations," it appears, [<italic> Gentleman's Magazine, <end
+italic> xxviii. (for 1758), p. 43; and vol. xxix. p. 42, for next
+year's birthday, and p. 81 for another kind of celebration.]--now
+shining so feebly at a century's distance!--No. 3 is still more
+curious; and has deserved from us a little special inquiring into.
+
+No. 3. MISS BARBARA WYNDHAM'S SUBSIDY. "March 13th, 1758,"--while
+Pitt and Knyphausen are busy on the Subsidy Treaty, still not out
+with it, the Newspapers suddenly announce,--
+
+"Miss Bab. Wyndham, of Salisbury, sister of Henry Wyndham, Esq., of
+that City, a maiden lady of ample fortune, has ordered her banker
+to prepare the sum of 1,000 pounds to be immediately remitted, in
+her own name, as a present to the King of Prussia." [<italic>
+London Chronicle, <end italic> March 14th-16th, 1758; <italic>
+Lloyd's Evening Post; <end italic> &c. &c.] Doubtless to the King
+of Prussia's surprise, and that of London Society, which would not
+want for commentaries on such a thing!
+
+Before long, the Subsidy Treaty being now out, and the Wyndham
+topic new again, London Society reads, in the same Newspaper, a
+Documentary Piece, calculated to help in its commentaries. There is
+good likelihood of guess, though no certainty now attainable, that
+the "English Lady" referred to may be Miss Bab. herself;--of whose
+long-vanished biography, and brisk, airy, nomadic ways, we catch
+hereby a faint shadow, momentary, but conceivable, and sufficient
+for us:--
+
+
+"TO THE AUTHORS OF THE LONDON CHRONICLE.
+<italic> London Chronicle, <end italic> of 13th-15th April, 1758.
+
+"The following Account, which is a real fact, will serve to show
+with what punctuality and exactness the King of Prussia attends to
+the most minute affairs, and how open he is to applications from
+all persons.
+
+"An English Lady being possessed of actions [shares] in the Embden
+Company, and having occasion to raise money on them, repaired to
+Antwerp [some two years ago, as will be seen], and made application
+for that purpose to a Director of the Company, established there by
+the King of Prussia for the managing all affairs relative thereto.
+This person," Van Erthorn the name of him, "very willingly entered
+into treaty with her; but the sum he offered to lend being far
+short of what the actions would bring, and he also insisting on
+forfeiture of her right in them, if not redeemed in twelve months,
+--she broke off with him, and had recourse to some merchants at
+Antwerp, who were inclinable to treat with her on much more
+equitable terms. The proceeding necessarily brought the parties
+before this Director for receiving his sanction, which was
+essential to the solidity of the agreement; and he, finding he was
+like to lose the advantage he had flattered himself with, disputed
+the authenticity of the actions, and thereby threw her into such
+discredit, as to render all attempts to raise money on them
+ineffectual. Upon this the Lady wrote a Letter by the common post
+to his Majesty of Prussia, accompanied with a Memorial complaining
+of the treatment she had received from the Director; and she
+likewise enclosed the actions themselves in another letter to a
+friend at Berlin. By the return of the post, his Majesty
+condescended to answer her Letter; and the actions were returned
+authenticated; which so restored her credit, that in a few hours
+all difficulties were removed relating to the transaction she had
+in hand; and it is more than probable the Director has felt his
+Majesty's resentment for his ill-behavior.--The Lady's Letter was
+as follows:--
+
+"'ANTWERP, 19th February, 1756.
+
+"'SIR,--Having had the happiness to pay my court to your Majesty
+during a pretty long residence at Berlin [say in Voltaire's time;
+Miss Barbara's "Embden Company," I observe, was the first of the
+two, date 1750; that of 1753 is not hers], and to receive such
+marks of favor from their Majesties the Queens [a Barbara capable
+of shining in the Royal soirees at Monbijou, of talking to, or of,
+your Voltaires and lions, and investing moneys in the new Embden
+Company] as I shall ever retain a grateful sense of,--I presume to
+flatter myself that your Majesty will not be offended at the
+respectful liberty I have taken in laying before you my complaints
+against one Van Erthorn, a Director of the Embden China Company,
+whose bad behavior to me, as set forth in my Memorial, hath forced
+me to make a very long and expensive stay at this place; and, as
+the considerable interest I have in that Company may farther
+subject me to his caprices, I cannot forbear laying my grievances
+at the foot of your Majesty's throne; most respectfully
+supplicating your Majesty that you would be graciously pleased to
+give orders that this Director shall not act towards me for the
+future as he hath done hitherto.
+
+"'I hope for this favor from your Majesty's sovereign equity; and I
+shall never cease offering up my ardent prayers for the prosperity
+of your glorious reign; having the honor to be, with the most
+respectful zeal, Sir, your Majesty's most humble, most obedient,
+and most devoted servant,              * * *'
+
+
+"THE KING OF PRUSSIA'S ANSWER.
+
+"'POTSDAM, 26th February, 1756.
+
+"'MADAM,--I received the Letter of the 19th instant, which you
+thought proper to write to me; and was not a little displeased to
+hear of the bad behavior of one of the Directors of the Asiatic
+Company of Embden towards you, of which you were forced to
+complain. I shall direct your grievances to be examined, and have
+just now despatched my orders for that purpose to Lenz, my
+President of the Chamber of East Friesland,' Chief Judge in those
+parts. [Seyfarth, ii. 139.] 'You may assure yourself the strictest
+justice shall be done you that the case will admit. God keep you in
+his holy protection.              FRIEDRICH.'"
+
+Whether this refers to Miss Barbara or not, there is no affirming.
+But the interesting point is, Friedrich did receive and accept Miss
+Barbara's 1,000 pounds. The Prussian account, which calls her "an
+English JUNGFRAU, LADY SALISBURY, who actually sent a sum of
+money," [Preuss, ii. 124, whose reference is merely <italic>
+"Gentleman's Magazine <end italic> for 1758." Both in the ANNUAL
+REGISTER of that Year (i. 86),and in the <italic> Gentleman's
+Magazine, <end italic> pp. 142, 177, the above Paragraph and
+Letters are copied from the Newspapers, but without the smallest
+commentary (there or elsewhere), or any mention of a "Lady
+Salisbury."] would not itself be satisfactory: but, by good chance,
+there is still living, in Salisbury City, a very aged Gentleman,
+well known for his worth, and intelligence on such matters, who,
+being inquired of, makes reply at once: That the First Earl of
+Malmesbury (who was of his acquaintance, and had many anecdotes and
+reminiscences of Friedrich, all noted down, it was understood, with
+diplomatic exactitude, but never yet published or become
+accessible) did, as "I well remember, among other things, mention
+the King's telling him that he," the King, "had received a Thousand
+Pounds from Miss Wyndham; with a part of which he had bought the
+Flute then in his hand." [Letter from John Fowler, Esq.,
+"Salisbury, 2d April, 1860," to a Friend of mine (PENES ME):
+of Barbara's identity, or otherwise, with the Antwerp Embden Lady,
+Mr. F. can say nothing.] Which latter circumstance, too, is
+curious. For, at all times, however straitened Friedrich's
+Exchequer might be, it was his known habit, during this War, to
+have always, before the current year ended, the ways and means
+completely settled and provided for the year coming; so that
+everything could be at once paid in money (good money or bad,--good
+still up to this date);--And nothing was observed to fall short, so
+much as the customary liberality of his gifts to those about him.
+I infer, therefore: Friedrich had decided to lay out this 1,000
+pounds in what he would call luxuries, chiefly gifts,--and, among
+other things, had said to himself, "I will have a new flute, too!"
+Probably one of his last; for I understand he had, by this time
+(Malmesbury's time, 1772), ceased much playing, and ceased
+altogether not long after. [Preuss, i. 371-373.]
+
+James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury, was Resident at Berlin,
+1772: that is all the date we have for the King's saying, "And with
+part of it I bought this Flute!" Date of Lord Malmesbury's mention
+of it at Salisbury, we have none,--likeliest there might be various
+dates; a thing mentioned more than once, and not improvable by
+dating. The Wyndhams still live in the Close of Salisbury;
+a respected and well-known Family; record of them (none of Barbara
+there, or elsewhere except here) to be found in the County
+Histories. [Britton's <italic> Beauties of England and Wales, <end
+italic> xv. part ii. p. 118; Hoare's <italic> Salisbury <end
+italic> (mistaken, p. 815); &c.] I only know farther, Barbara died
+May, 1765, "aged and wealthy," and "with the bulk of her fortune
+endowed a Charity, to be called 'Wyndham College,'" [ANNUAL
+REGISTER (for 1765), viii. 86.]--which I hope still flourishes.
+Enough on this small Wyndham matter; which is nearly altogether
+English, but in which Friedrich too has his indefeasible property.
+
+
+FRIEDRICH, AS INDEED PITT'S PEOPLE AND OTHERS HAVE DONE,
+TAKES THE FIELD UNCOMMONLY EARLY: FRIEDRICH GOES UPON SCHWEIDNITZ,
+SCHWEIDNITZ, AS THE PREFACE TO WHATEVER HIS CAMPAIGN MAY BE.
+
+While this Subsidy Treaty is getting settled in England, Duke
+Ferdinand has his French in full cackle of universal flight;
+and before the signing of it (April 11th), every feather of them is
+over the Rhine; Duke Ferdinand busy preparing to follow. Glorious
+news, day after day, coming in, for Pitt, for Miss Barbara and for
+all English souls, Royal Highness of Cumberland hardly excepted!
+The "Descent on Rochefort," last Autumn, had a good deal
+disappointed Pitt and England;--an expensively elaborate
+Expedition, military and naval; which could not "descend" at all,
+when it got to the point; but merely went groping about, on the
+muddy shores of the Charente, holding councils of war yonder;
+"cannonaded the Isle of Aix for two hours;" and returned home
+without result of any kind, Courts-martial following on it, as too
+usual. This was an unsuccessful first-stroke for Pitt. Indeed, he
+never did much succeed in those Descents on the French Coast,
+though never again so ill as this time. Those are a kind of things
+that require an exactitude as of clockwork, in all their parts:
+and Pitt's Generalcies and War-Offices,--we know whether they were
+of the Prussian type or of the Swedish! A very grievous hindrance
+to Pitt;--which he will not believe to be quite incurable.
+Against which he, for his part, stands up, in grim earnest, and
+with his whole strength; and is now, and at all times, doing what
+in him lies to abate or remedy it:--successfully, to an unexpected
+degree, within the next four years. From America, he has decided to
+recall Lord Loudon, as a cunctatory haggling mortal, the reverse of
+a General; how very different from his Austrian Cousin!
+[Cousins certainly enough; their Progenitors were Brothers, of that
+House, about 1568,--when Matthew, the cadet, went "into Livonia,"
+into foreign Soldiering (Papa having fallen Prisoner "at the Battle
+of Langside," 1568, and the Family prospects being low); from this
+Matthew comes, through a scrips of Livonian Soldiers, the famed
+Austrian Loudon. Douglas, <italic> Peerage of Scotland, <end
+italic> p. 425; &c. &c. VIE DE LOUDON (ill-informed on that point
+and some others) says, the first Livonian Loudon came from
+Ayrshire, "in the fourteenth century".] "Abercrombie may be
+better," hopes he;--was better, still not good. But already in the
+gloomy imbroglio over yonder, Pitt discerns that one Amherst (the
+son of people unimportant at the hustings) has military talent:
+and in this puddle of a Rochefort Futility, he has got his eye on a
+young Officer named Wolfe, who was Quartermaster of the Expedition;
+a young man likewise destitute of Parliamentary connection, but who
+may be worth something. Both of whom will be heard of! In a four
+years' determined effort of this kind, things do improve: and it
+was wonderful, to what amount,--out of these chaotic War-Offices
+little better than the Swedish, and ignorant Generalcies fully
+worse than the Swedish,--Pitt got heroic successes and work
+really done.
+
+On Pitt, amid confused clouds, there is bright dawn rising;
+and Friedrich too, for the last month, in Breslau, has a cheerful
+prospect on that Western side of his horizon. Here is one of his
+Postscripts, thrown off in Autograph, which Duke Ferdinand will
+read with pleasure: "I congratulate you, MON CHER, with my whole
+heart! May you FLEUR-DE-LYS every French skin of them; cutting out
+on their"--what shall we say (LEUR IMPRIMANT SUR LE CUE)!--"the
+Initials of the Peace of Westphalia, and packing them across the
+Rhine," tattooed in that latest extremity of fashion! [Friedrich to
+Duke Ferdinand, "Grussau, 19th March, 1758:" in Knesebeck, <italic>
+Herzog Ferdinand, <end italic> i. 64. <italic> Herzog Ferdinand
+wahrend des 7-jahrigen Krieges <end italic> ("from the English aud
+Prussian Archives") is the full Title of Knesebeck's Book:
+LETTERS altogether; not very intelligently edited, but well worth
+reading by every student, military and civil: 2 vols. 8vo.
+Hannover, 1857.]
+
+Friedrich, grounding partly on those Rhine aspects, has his own
+scheme laid for Campaign 1758. It is the old scheme tried twice
+already: to go home upon your Enemy swiftly, with your utmost
+collective strength, and try to strike into the heart of him before
+he is aware. Friedrich has twice tried this; the second time with
+success, respectable though far short of complete. Weakened as now,
+but with Ferdinand likely to find the French in employment, he
+means to try it again; and is busy preparing at Neisse and
+elsewhere, though keeping it a dead secret for the time. There is,
+in fact, no other hopeful plan for him, if this prove feasible at
+all. Double your velocity, you double your momentum. One's weight
+is given,--weight growing less and less;--but not, or not in the
+same way and degree, one's velocity, one's rightness of aim.
+Weight given: it is only by doubling or trebling his velocity that
+a man can make his momentum double or treble, as needed!
+Friedrich means to try it, readers will see how,--were the Fort of
+Schweidnitz once had; for which object Friedrich watches the
+weather like a very D'Argens, eager that the frost would go.
+Recapture of Schweidnitz, the last speck of Austrianism wiped away
+there; that is evidently the preface to whatsoever day's-work may
+be ahead.
+
+March 15th, frost being now off, Friedrich quits Breslau and
+D'Argens,--his Head-quarter thenceforth Kloster-Grussau, near
+Landshut, troops all getting cantoned thereabout, to keep Bohemia
+quiet,--and goes at once upon Schweidnitz. With the top of the
+morning, so to speak; means to have Schweidnitz before campaigning
+usually can begin, or common laborers take their tools in this
+trade. The Austrian Commandant has been greatly strengthening the
+works; he had, at first, some 8,000 of garrison; but the three
+months' blockade has been tight upon him and them; and it is hoped
+the thing can be done.
+
+APRIL 1st-2d,--Siege-material being got to the ground, and Siege
+Division and Covering Army all in their places,--in spite of the
+heavy rains, we open our first parallel, Austrian Commandant not
+noticing till it is nearly done. April 8th, we have our batteries
+built; and burst out, at our best rate, into cannonade; aiming a
+good deal at "Fort No. 1," called also "GALGEN or Gallows Fort,"
+which we esteem the principal. Cannonade continues day after day,
+prospers tolerably on Gallows Fort,"--though the wet weather, and
+hardship to the troops, are grievous circumstances, and make
+Friedrich doubly urgent. "Try it by storm!" counsels Balbi, who is
+Engineer. Night of APRIL 15th-16th storm takes place; with such
+vigor and such cunning, that the Gallows Fort is got for almost
+nothing (loss of ten men);-and few hours after, Austria beat the
+chamade. [Tempelhof, ii. 21-25; <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> v. 109-123: above all, Tielcke, <italic> Beytrage zur
+Kriegs-Kunst und zur Geschichte des Krieges von 1756 bis 1763 <end
+italic> (6 vols. 4to, Freyberg, 1775-1786), iv. 43-76. Volume iv.
+is wholly devoted to Schweidnitz and its successive Sieges.]
+Fifty-one new Austrian guns, for one item, and about 7,000 pounds
+of money. Prisoners of War the Garrison, 8,000 gone to 4,900;
+with such stores as we can guess, of ours and theirs added:
+Balbi was Prussian Engineer-in-Chief, Treskau Captain of the
+Siege;--other particulars I spare the reader.
+
+Unfortunate Schweidnitz underwent four Sieges, four captures or
+recaptures, in this War;--upon all of which we must be quite
+summary, only the results of them important to us. For the curious
+in sieges, especiaIly for the scientifically curious, there is, by
+a Captain Tielcke, excellent account of all these Schweidnitz
+Sieges, and of others;--Artillery-Captain Tielcke, in the Saxon or
+Saxon-Russian service; whom perhaps we shall transiently fall in
+with, on a different field, in the course of this Year.
+
+
+
+Chapter XII.
+
+SIEGE OF OLMUTZ.
+
+Fouquet, on the first movement towards Schweidnitz, had been
+detached from Landshut to sweep certain Croat Parties out of Glatz;
+Ziethen, with a similar view, into Troppau Country; both which
+errands were at once perfectly done. Daun lies behind the Bohemian
+Frontier (betimes in the field he too, "arrived at Konigsgratz,
+March 13th"); and is, with all diligence, perfecting his new
+levies; intrenching himself on all points, as man seldom did;
+"felling whole forests," they say, building abatis within abatis;
+--not doubting, especially on these Ziethen-Fouquet symptoms, but
+Friedrich's Campaign is to be an Invasion of Bohemia again.
+"Which he shall not do gratis!" hopes Daun; and, indeed, judges say
+the entrance would hardly have been possible on that side, had
+Friedrich tried it; which he did not.
+
+Schweidnitz being done, and Daun deep in the Bohemian problem,--
+Friedrich, in an unintelligible manner, breaks out from Grussau and
+the Landshut region (April 19th-25th), not straight southward, as
+Daun had been expecting, but straight southeastward through Neisse,
+Jagerndorf: all gone, or all but Ziethen and Fouquet gone, that
+way;--meaning who shall say what, when news of it comes to Daun?
+In two divisions, from 30 to 40,000 strong; through Jagerndorf,
+ever onward through Troppau, and not till THEN turning southward:
+indubitable march of that cunning Enemy; rapidly proceeding, his
+40,000 and he, along those elevated upland countries, watershed of
+the Black Sea and the Baltic, bleakly illumined by the April sun;
+a march into the mists of the future tense, which do not yet clear
+themselves to Daun. Seeing the march turn southward at Troppau, a
+light breaks on Daun: "Ha! coming round upon Bohemia from the east,
+then?" That is Daun's opinion, for some time yet; and he
+immediately starts that way, to save a fine magazine he has at
+Leutomischl over there. Daun, from Skalitz near Konigsgratz where
+he is, has but some eighty miles to march, for the King's hundred
+and fifty; and arrives in those parts few days after the King;
+posts himself at Leutomischl, veiled in Pandours. Not for two weeks
+more does he ascertain it to have been a march upon the Olmutz
+Country, and the intricate forks of the Morawa River; with a view
+to besieging Olmutz, by this wily Enemy! Upon which Daun did strive
+to bestir himself thitherward, at last; and, though very slow and
+hesitative, his measures otherwise were unexceptionable, and turned
+out luckier than had been expected by some people.
+
+Olmutz is an ancient pleasant little City, in the Plains of Mahren,
+romantic, indistinct to the English mind; with Domes, with Steeples
+eminent beyond its size,--population little above 10,000 souls;--
+has its Prince-Archbishop and ecclesiastic outfittings, with whom
+Friedrich has lodged in his time. City which trades in leather, and
+Russian and Moldavian droves of oxen. Memorable to the Slavic
+populations for its grand Czech Library, which was carried away by
+the Swedes, happily into thick night; [To Stralsund (1645), "and
+has not since been heard of."] also for that poor little Wenzel of
+theirs (last heir of the Bohemian Czech royalties, whom no reader
+has the least memory of) being killed on the streets here;--
+uncertain, to this day, by whom, though for whose benefit that
+dagger-stroke ended is certain enough; [Supra, vol. v. p. 118.]--
+poor little Wenzel's dust lies under that highest Dome, of the old
+Cathedral yonder, if anybody thought of such a thing in hot
+practical times. Poor Lafayette, too, lodged here in prison, when
+the Austrians seized him. City trades in leather and live stock, we
+said; has much to do with artillery, much with ecclesiastry;--and
+Friedrich besieged it, for seven weeks, in the hot summer days of
+1758, to no purpose. Friedrich has been in Olmiitz more than once
+before; his Schwerin once took it in a single day, and it was his
+for months, in the old Moravian-Foray time: but the place is
+changed now; become an arsenal or military storehouse of Austria;
+strongly fortified, and with a Captain in it, who distinguishes
+himself by valiant skill and activity on this occasion.
+
+Friedrich's Olmutz Enterprise, the rather as it was unsuccessful,
+has not wanted critics. And certainly, according to the ordinary
+rules of cautious prudence, could these have been Friedrich's in
+his present situation, it was not to be called a prudent
+Enterprise. But had Friedrich's arrangements been punctually
+fulfilled, and Olmutz been got in fair time, as was possible or
+probable, the thing might have been done very well. Duke Ferdinand,
+in these early May days, is practically making preparations to
+follow the French across the Rhine; no fear of French Armies
+interfering with us this year. Dohna has the Swedes locked in
+Stralsund (capable of being starved, had not the thaw come); and in
+Hinter-Pommern he has General Platen, with a tolerable Detachment,
+watching Fermor and his Russians; Dohna, with Platen, may entertain
+the Russians for a little, when they get on way,--which we know
+will be at a slow pace, and late in the season. Prince Henri
+commands in Saxony, say with 30,000;--King's vicegerent and other
+self there, "Do YOUR wisest and promptest; hold no councils of
+war!" Prince Henri, altogether on the aggressive as yet, is waiting
+what Reichs Army there may be;--has already had Mayer and Free
+Corps careering about in Franken Country once and again, tearing up
+the incipiencies and preparations, with the usual emphasis; and is
+himself intending to follow thither, in a still more impressive
+manner. Friedrich's calculation is, Prince Henri will have his
+hands free for a good few weeks yet. Which proved true enough, so
+far as that went.
+
+And now, supposing Olmutz ours, and Vienna itself open to our
+insults, does not, by rapid suction, every armed Austrian flow
+thitherward; Germany all drained of them: in which case, what is to
+hinder Prince Henri from stepping into Bohmen, by the Metal
+Mountains; capturing Prag; getting into junction with us here, and
+tumbling Austria at a rate that will astonish her! Her, and her
+miscellaneous tagraggery of Confederates, one and all.
+Konigsberg, Stralsund, Bamberg; Russians, Swedes, Reichsfolk,--
+here, in Mahren, will be the crown of the game for all these.
+Prosper in Mahren, all these are lamed; one right stroke at the
+heart, the limbs become manageable quantities! This was Friedrich's
+program; and had not imperfections of execution, beyond what was
+looked for, and also a good deal of plain ill-luck, intervened,
+this bold stroke for Mahren might have turned out far otherwise
+than it did.
+
+The march thither (started from Neisse April 27th) was beautiful:
+Friedrich with vanguard and first division; Keith with rear-guard
+and second, always at a day's distance; split into proper columns,
+for convenience of road and quarter in the hungry countries;
+threading those silent mountain villages, and upper streamlets of
+Oder and Morawa: Ziethen waving intrusive Croateries far off;
+Fouquet, in thousands of wagons, shoving on from Neisse, "in four
+sections," with the due intervals, under the due escorts, the
+immensity of stores and siege-furniture, through Jagerndorf,
+through Troppau, and onwards; [Table of his routes and stages in
+TEMPELHOF, ii. 46.]--punctual everybody; besiegers and siege
+materials ready on their ground by the set day. Daun too had made
+speed to save his Magazine. Daun was at Leutomischl, May 5th,--a
+forty miles to west of the Morawa,--few days after Friedrich had
+arrived in those countries by the eastern or left bank, by Troppau,
+Gibau, Littau, Aschmeritz, Prossnitz; and a week before Friedrich
+had finished his reconnoitrings, campings, and taken position to
+his mind. Camps, four or more (shrank in the end to three), on both
+banks of the River; a matter of abstruse study; so that it was May
+12th before Friedrich first took view of Olmutz itself, and could
+fairly begin his Problem,--Daun, with his best Tolpatcheries, still
+unable to guess what it was.
+
+Of the Siege I propose to say little, though the accounts of it are
+ample, useful to the Artillerist and Engineer. If the reader can be
+made to conceive it as a blazing loud-sounding fact, on which, and
+on Friedrich in it, the eyes of all Europe were fixed for some
+weeks, it may rest now in impressive indistinctness to us. Keith is
+Captain of the Siege, whom all praise for his punctual firmness of
+progress; Balbi as before, is Engineer, against whom goes the
+criticism, Keith's first of all, that he "opened his first parallel
+800 yards too far off,"--which much increased the labor, and the
+expenditure of useless gunpowder, shot having no effect at such a
+distance. There were various criticisms: some real, as this; some
+imaginary, as that Friedrich grudged gunpowder, the fact being that
+he had it not, except after carriage from Neisse, say a hundred and
+twenty miles off,--Troppau, his last Silesian Town, or safe place
+(his for the moment), is eighty miles;--and was obliged to waste
+none of it.
+
+Friedrich is not thought to shine in the sieging line as he does in
+the fighting; which has some truth in it, though not very much.
+When Friedrich laid himself to engineering, I observe, he did it
+well: see Neisse, Graudenz, Magdeburg. His Balbi went wrong with
+the parallels, on this occasion; many things went wrong: but the
+truly grievous thing was his distance from Silesia and the
+supplies. A hundred and twenty miles of hill-carriage, eighty of
+them disputable, for every shot of ammunition and for every loaf of
+bread; this was hard to stand:--and perhaps no War-apparatus but a
+Prussian, with a Friedrich for sole chief-manager, could have stood
+it so long. Friedrich did stand it, in a wonderfully tolerable
+manner; and was continuing to stand it, and make fair progress;
+and it is not doubted he would have got Olmutz, had not there
+another fact come on him, which proved to be of unmanageable
+nature. The actual loss, namely, of one Convoy, after so many had
+come safe, and when, as appears, there was now only one wanted and
+no more!--Let us attend to this a little.
+
+Had Daun, at Olmutz, been as a Duke of Cumberland relieving
+Tournay, rushing into fight at Fontenoy, like a Hanover White-
+Horse, neck clothed with thunder, and head destitute of knowledge,
+--how lucky had it been for Friedrich! But Daun knows his trade
+better. Daun, though superior in strength, sits on his Magazine,
+clear not to fight. By no art of manoeuvring, had Friedrich much
+tried it, or hoped it, this time, could Daun have been brought to
+give battle. As Fabins Cunctator he is here in his right place;
+taking impregnable positions, no man with better skill in that
+branch of business; pushing out parties on the Troppau road;
+and patiently waiting till this dangerous Enemy, with such endless
+shifts in him, come in sight perhaps of his last cartridge, or
+perhaps make some stumble on the way towards that consummation.
+Daun is aware of Friedrich's surprising qualities. Bos against Leo,
+Daun feels these procedures to be altogether feline (FELIS-
+LEONINE); such stealthy glidings about, deceptive motions,
+appearances; then such a rapidity of spring upon you, and with such
+a set of claws,--destructive to bovine or rhinoceros nature:
+in regard to all which, Bos, if he will prosper, surely cannot be
+too cautious. It was remarked of Daun, that he was scrupulously
+careful; never, in the most impregnable situations, neglecting the
+least precaution, but punctiliously fortifying himself to the last
+item, even to a ridiculous extent, say Retzow and the critics.
+It was the one resource of Daun: truly a solid stubborn patience is
+in the man; stubborn courage too, of bovine-rhinoceros type;--
+stupid, if you will, but doing at all times honestly his best and
+his wisest without flurry; which character is often of surprising
+value in War; capable of much mischief, now and then, to quicker
+people. Rhinoceros Daun did play his Leo a bad prank more than
+once; and this of barring him out from Olmutz was one of them,
+perhaps the worst after Kolin.
+
+Daun's management of this Olmutz business is by no means reckoned
+brilliant, even in the Fabius line; but, on the contrary, inert,
+dim-minded, inconclusive; and in reality, till almost the very
+last, he had been of little help to the besieged. For near three
+weeks (till May 23d) Daun sat at Leutomischl, immovable on his
+bread-basket there, forty or more miles from Olmutz; and did not
+see that a Siege was meant. May 27th-28th, Balbi opened his first
+parallel, in that mistaken way; four days before which, Daun does
+move inwards a march or so, to Zwittau, to Gewitsch (still thirty
+miles to west of Olmutz); still thinking of Bohemia, not of any
+siege; still hanging by the mountains and the bread-basket.
+And there,--about Gewitsch, siege or no siege, Daun sits down
+again; pretty much immovable, through the five weeks of
+bombardment; and,--except that Loudon and the Light Horse are very
+diligent to do a mischief, "attempting our convoys, more than once,
+to no purpose, and alarming some of our outposts almost every
+night, but every night beaten off,"--does, in a manner, nothing;
+sits quiet, behind his impenetrable veil of Pandours, and lets the
+bombardment take its course. Had not express Order come from Vienna
+on him, it is thought Daun would have sat till Olmutz was taken;
+and would then have gone back to Leutomischl and impregnable posts
+in the Hills. On express order, he-- But gather, first, these poor
+sparks in elucidation:--
+
+"The 'destructive sallies' and the like, at Olmutz, were
+principally an affair of the gazetteers and the imagination: but it
+is certain, Olmutz this time was excellently well defended;
+the Commandant, a vigorous skilful man, prompt to seize advantages;
+and Garrison and Townsfolk zealously helping: so that Friedrich's
+progress was unusually slow. Friedrich's feelings, all this while,
+and Balbi's (who 'spent his first 1,220 shots entirely in vain,'
+beginning so far off), may be judged of,--the sound of him to Balbi
+sometimes stern enough! As when (June 9th) he personally visits
+Balbi's parallels (top of the Tafelberg yonder); and inquires,
+'When do you calculate to get done, then?' West side of Olmutz and
+of the River (east side lies mostly under water), there is the
+bombarding; seventy-one heavy guns; Keith, in his expertest manner,
+doing all the captaincies: Keith has about 8,000 of foot and horse,
+busy and vigilant, with their faces to the east. In a ring of four
+camps, or principally three (Prossnitz, Littau, and Neustadt, which
+is across the River), all looking westward or northwestward, some,
+ten or twenty miles from Keith, Friedrich (head-quarters oftenest
+Prossnitz, the chief camp) stands facing Daun; who lies concentric
+to him, at the distance of another ten or twenty miles, in good
+part still thirty or forty miles from Olmutz, veiled mostly under a
+cloud of Pandours.
+
+"Of Friedrich's impatiences we hear little, though they must have
+been great. Prince Henri is ready for Prag; many things are ready,
+were Olmutz but done! May 22d, Prince Henri had followed Mayer in
+person, with a stronger corps, to root out the Reichsfolk,--and is
+now in Bamberg City and Country. And is even in Baireuth itself,
+where was lately the Camp of the new Reichs General, Serene
+Highness of Zweibruck, and his nascent Reichs Army; who are off
+bodily to Bohemia, 'to Eger and the Circle of Saatz,' a week
+before. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> v. 206-209.
+Wilhelmina's pretty Letter to Friedrich ("Baireuth, 10th May");
+Friedrich's Answer ("Olmutz, June, 1758"); in <italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> xxvii. i. 313-315.] Fancy that visit of
+Henri's to a poor Wilhelmina; the last sight she ever had of a
+Brother, or of the old Prussian uniforms, clearing her of
+Zweibrucks and sorrowful guests! Our poor Wilhelmina, alas she is
+sunk in sickness this year more than ever; journeying towards
+death, in fact; and is probably the most pungent, sacredly tragic,
+of Friedrich's sorrows, now and onwards. June 12th, Friedrich's
+pouting Brother, the Prince of Prussia, died; this also he had to
+hear in Camp at Olmutz. 'What did he die of?' said Friedrich to the
+Messenger, a Major Something. 'Of chagrin,' said the Major, 'AUS
+GRAM.' Friedrich made no answer.--
+
+"On the last night of May, by beautiful management, military and
+other, Duke Ferdinand is across the Rhine; again chasing the French
+before him; who, as they are far more numerous, cannot surely but
+make some stand: so that a Battle there may be expected soon,--let
+us hope, a Victory; as indeed it beautifully proved to be, three
+weeks after. [Battle of Crefeld, 23d June.] On the other hand,
+Fermor and his Russians are astir; continually wending towards
+Brandenburg, in their voluminous manner, since June 16th, though at
+a slow rate. How desirable the Siege of Olmutz were done!"
+
+On express from Vienna, Daun did bestir himself; cautiously got on
+foot again; detached, across the River, an expert Hussar General
+("Be busy all ye Loudons, St. Ignons, Ziskowitzes, doubly now!"),--
+expert Hussar General, one item of whose force is 1,100 chosen
+grenadiers;--and himself cautiously stept southward and eastward,
+nearer the Siege Lines. The Hussar General's meaning seemed to be
+some mischief on our Camp of Neustadt and the outposts there;
+but in reality it was to throw his 1,100 into Olmutz (useful to the
+Commandant); which--by ingenious manoeuvring, and guidance from the
+peasants "through bushy woods aud by-paths" on that east side of
+the River--the expert Hussar General, though Ziethen was sent over
+to handle him, did perfectly manage, and would not quit for Ziethen
+till he saw it finished. Which done, Daun keeps stepping still
+farther southward, nearer the Siege Lines; and, at Prossnitz,
+morning of June 22d, Friedrich, with his own eyes, sees Daun taking
+post on the opposite heights; says to somebody near him, "VOILA LES
+AUTRICHIENS, ILS APPRENNENT A MARCHER, There are the Austrians;
+they are learning to march, though!"--getting on their feet, like
+infants in a certain stage ("MARCHER" having that meaning too,
+though I know not that the King intended it);--they have learned a
+great many things, since your Majesty first met them.
+Friedrich took Daun to be, now at last, meaning Battle for Olmutz,
+and made some slight arrangements accordingly; but that is not
+Daun's intention at all; as Friedrich will find to his cost, in few
+days. That very day, Daun has vanished again, still in the
+southerly direction, again under veil of Pandours.
+
+Meanwhile, in spite of all things, the Siege makes progress;
+"June 22d, Balbi's sap had got to their glacis, and was pushing
+forward there,"--June 22d, day when Daun made momentary appearance,
+and the reinforcement stole in:--within a fortnight more, Balbi
+promises the thing shall be done. But supplies are indispensable:
+one other convoy from Troppau, and let it be a big one, "between 3
+and 4,000 wagons," meal, money, iron, powder; Friedrich hopes this
+one, if he can get it home, will suffice. Colonel Mosel is to bring
+this Convoy; a resolute expert Officer, with perhaps 7,000 foot and
+horse: surely sufficient escort: but, as Daun is astir, and his
+Loudons, Ziskowitzes and light people are gliding about, Friedrich
+orders Ziethen to meet this important Convoy, with some thousands
+of new force, and take charge of bringing it in. Mosel was to leave
+Troppau June 26th; Ziethen pushes out to meet him from the Olmutz
+end, on the second day after; and, one hopes, all is now safe on
+that head.
+
+The driving of 3,000 four-horse wagons, under escort, ninety miles
+of road, is such an enterprise as cannot readily be conceived by
+sedentary pacific readers;--much more the attack of such!
+Military science, constraining chaos into the cosmic state, has
+nowhere such a problem. There are twelve thousand horses, for one
+thing, to be shod, geared, kept roadworthy and regular; say six
+thousand country wagoners, thick-soled peasants: then, hanging to
+the skirts of these, in miscellaneous crazy vehicles and weak
+teams, equine and asinine, are one or two thousand sutler people,
+male and female, not of select quality, though on them, too, we
+keep a sharp eye. The series covers many miles, as many as twenty
+English miles (says Tempelhof), unless in favorable points you
+compress them into five, going four wagons abreast for defence's
+sake. Defence, or escort, goes in three bulks or brigades;
+vanguard, middle, rear-guard, with sparse pickets intervening;--
+wider than five miles, you cannot get the parts to support one
+another. An enemy breaking in upon you, at some difficult point of
+road, woody hollow or the like, and opening cannon, musketry and
+hussar exercise on such an object, must make a confused transaction
+of it! Some commanders, for the road has hitherto been mainly
+pacific, divide their train into parts, say four parts; moving with
+their partial escorts, with an interval of one day between each
+two: this has its obvious advantages, but depends, of course, on
+the road being little infested, so that your partial escort will
+suffice to repel attacks. Toiling forward, at their diligent slow
+rate, I find these trains from Troppau take about six days (from
+Neisse to Olmutz they take eleven, but the first five are peaceable
+[Tempelhof, ii. 48.]);--can't be hurried beyond that pace, if you
+would save your laggards, your irregulars, and prevent what we may
+call RAGGERY in your rearward parts; the skirts of your procession
+get torn by the bushes if you go faster. This time Colonel Mosel
+will have to mend his pace, however, and to go in the lump withal;
+the case being critical, as Mosel knows, and MORE than he yet knows.
+
+Daun, who has friends everywhere, and no lack of spies in this
+country, generally hears of the convoys. He has heard, in
+particular, of this important one, in good time. Hitherto Daun had
+not attempted much upon convoys, nor anything with success:
+King's posted corps and other precautions are of such a kind, not
+even Loudon, when he tried his best, could do any good; and common
+wandering hussar parties are as likely to get a mischief as to do
+one, on such service. Cautious Daun had been busy enough keeping
+his own Camp safe, and flinging a word of news or encouragement, at
+the most a trifle of reinforcement, into Olmutz. when possible.
+But now it becomes evident there must be one of two things:
+this convoy seized, or else a battle risked;--and that in defect of
+both these, the inevitable third thing is, Olmutz will
+straightway go.
+
+Major-General Loudon, the best partisan soldier extant, and
+ripening for better things, has usually a force of perhaps 10,000
+under him, four regiments of them regular grenadiers; and has been
+active on the convoys, though hitherto unsuccessful. Let an active
+Loudon, with increased force, try this, their vitally important
+convoy, from the west side of the River; an active Ziskowitz
+co-operating on the east side, where the road itself is; and do
+their uttermost! That is Daun's plan,--now in course of execution.
+Daun, instead of meaning battle, that day when Friedrich saw him,
+was cautiously stealing past, intending to cross the River farther
+down; and himself support the operation. Daun has crossed
+accordingly, and has doubled up northward again to the fit point;
+Ziskowitz is in the fit point, in the due force, on this east side
+too. Loudon, on the west side, goes by Muglitz, Hof; making a long
+deep bend far to westward and hillward of all the Prussian posted
+corps and precautions, and altogether hidden from them; Loudon aims
+to be in Troppau neighborhood, "Guntersdorf, near Bautsch," by the
+proper day, and pay Mosel an unexpected visit in the passage there.
+
+Colonel Mosel, marshalling his endless Trains with every excellent
+precaution, and the cleverest dispositions (say the Books), against
+the known and the unknown, had got upon the road, and creaked
+forward, many-wheeled, out of Troppau, Monday, 26th June.
+[Tempelhof, ii. 89-94.] The roads, worn by the much travelling and
+wet weather, were utterly bad; the pace was perhaps quicker than
+usual; the much-jolting Train got greatly into a jumble:--Mosel, to
+bring up the laggards, made the morrow a rest-day; did get about
+two-thirds of his laggards marshalled again; ordered the others to
+return, as impossible. They say, had it not been for this rest-day,
+which seemed of no consequence, Loudon would not have been at
+Guntersdorf in time, nor have attempted as he did at Guntersdorf
+and afterwards. At break of day (Wednesday, 28th), Mosel is again
+on the road; heavily jumbling forward from his quarters in Bautsch.
+Few miles on, towards Guntersdorf, he discovers Loudon posted ahead
+in the defiles. What a sight for Mosel, in his character of Wagoner
+up with the dawn! But Mosel managed the defiles and Loudon this
+time; halted his train, dashed up into the woody heights and
+difficult grounds; stormed Loudon's cannon from him, smote Loudon
+in a valiant tempestuous manner; and sent him travelling again for
+the present.
+
+Loudon, I conjecture, would have struggled farther, had not he
+known that there would be a better chance again not very many miles
+ahead. London has studied this Convoy; knows of Ziethen coming to
+it with so many; of Ziskowitz coming to him, Loudon, with so many;
+that Ziethen cannot send for more (roads being all beset by our
+industry yesterday), that Ziskowitz can, should it be needful;--and
+that at Domstadtl there is a defile, or confused woody hollow, of
+unequalled quality! Mosel jumbles on all day with his Train, none
+molesting; at night gets to his appointed quarters, Village of
+Neudorfl; [The L, or EL, is a diminutive in these Names:
+(NEUDORFL) "New-ThorpLET," (DOMSTADTL) "Cathedral-TownLET," and the
+like.] and there finds Ziethen: a glad meeting, we may fancy, but
+an anxious one, with Domstadtl ahead on the morrow. Loudon concerts
+with Ziskowitz this day; calls in all reinforcements possible, and
+takes his measures. Thursday morning, Ziethen finds the Train in
+such a state, hardly half of it come up, he has to spend the whole
+day, Mosel and he, in rearranging it: Friday morning, June 30th,
+they get under way again;--Friday, the catastrophe is waiting them.
+
+The Pass of Domstadtl, lapped in the dim Moravian distance, is not
+known to me or to my readers; nor indeed could the human pen or
+intellect, aided by ocular inspection or whatever helps, give the
+least image of what now took place there, rendering Domstadtl a
+memorable locality ever since. Understand that Ziethen and Mosel,
+with their waste slow deluge of wagons, come jumbling in, with
+anxiety, with precautions,--precautions doubled, now that the woody
+intricacies about Domstadtl rise in sight. "Pooh, it is as we
+thought: there go Austrian cannon-salvos, horse-charges, volleying
+musketries, as our first wagons enter the Pass;--and there will be
+a job!" Indecipherable to mankind far off, or even near. Of which
+only this feature and that can be laid hold of, as discernible, by
+the most industrious man. Escort, in three main bodies, vanguard,
+middle, rear-guard, marches on each side; infantry on the left,
+cavalry on the right, as the ground is leveller there. Length of
+the Train in statute miles, as it jumbles along at this point, is
+not given; but we know it was many miles; that horses and wagoners
+were in panic hardly restrainable; and we dimly descry, here
+especially, human drill-sergeantcy doing the impossible to keep
+chaos plugged down. The poor wagoner, cannon playing ahead, whirls
+homeward with his vehicle, if your eye quit him,--still better, and
+handier, cuts his traces, mounts in a good moment, and is off at
+heavy-footed gallop, leaving his wagon. Seldom had human drill-
+sergeantcy such a problem.
+
+The Prussian Vanguard, one Krockow its commander, repulsed that
+first Austrian attack; swept the Bass clear for some minutes; got
+their section of the carriages, or some part of it, 250 in all,
+hurried through; then halted on the safe side, to wait what Ziethen
+would do with the remainder. Ziethen does his best and bravest, as
+everybody does; keeps his wagon-chaos plugged down; ranks it in
+square mass, as a wagon fortress (WAGENBURG); ranks himself and
+everybody, his cannon, his platoon musketry, to the best advantage
+round it; furiously shoots out in all manner of ways, against the
+furious Loudon on this flank, and the furious Ziskowitz on that;
+takes hills, loses them; repels and is repelled (wagon-chaos ever
+harder to keep plugged); finally perceives himself to be beaten;
+that the wagon-chaos has got unplugged (fancy it!)--and that he,
+Ziethen, must retreat; back foremost if possible. He did retreat,
+fighting all the way to Troppau; and the Convoy is a ruin and
+a prey.
+
+Krockow, with the 250, has got under way again; hearing the powder-
+wagons start into the air (fired by the enemy), and hearing the
+cannon and musketry take a northerly course, and die away in that
+ominous direction. These 250 were all the carriages that came in:--
+happily, by Ziethen's prudence, the money, a large sum, had been
+lodged in the vanmost of these. The rest of the Convoy, ball,
+powder, bread, was of little value to Loudon, but beyond value to
+Friedrich at this moment; and it has gone to annihilation and the
+belly of Chaos and the Croats. Among the tragic wrecks of this
+Convoy there is one that still goes to our heart. A longish, almost
+straight row of young Prussian recruits stretched among the slain,
+what are these? These were 700 recruits coming up from their
+cantons to the Wars; hardly yet six months in training: see how
+they have fought to the death, poor lads, and have honorably, on
+the sudden, got manumitted from the toils of life. Seven hundred of
+them stood to arms, this morning; some sixty-five will get back to
+Troppau; that is the invoice account. They lie there, with their
+blond young cheeks and light hair; beautiful in death;--could not
+have done better, though the sacred poet has said nothing of them
+hitherto,--nor need, till times mend with us and him. Adieu, my
+noble young Brothers; so brave, so modest, no Spartan nor no Roman
+more; may the silence be blessed to you!
+
+Contrary to some current notions, it is comfortably evident that
+there was a considerable fire of loyalty in the Prussians towards
+their King, during this War; loyalty kept well under cover, not
+wasting itself in harangues or noisy froth; but coming out, among
+all ranks of men, in practical attempts to be of help in this high
+struggle, which was their own as well as his. The STANDE, landed
+Gentry, of Pommern and other places, we heard of their poor little
+Navy of twelve gunboats, which were all taken by the Swedes.
+Militia Regiments too, which did good service at Colberg, as may
+transiently appear by and by:--in the gentry or upper classes, a
+respectable zeal for their King. Then, among the peasantry or lower
+class--Here are Seven Hundred who stood well where he planted them.
+And their Mothers-- Be Spartan also, ye Mothers! In peaceable
+times, Tempelhof tells us the Prussian Mother is usually proud of
+having her son in this King's service: a country wife will say to
+you: "I have three of them, all in the regiment," Billerbeck,
+Itzenplitz, or whatever be the Canton regiment; "the eldest is ten
+inches [stands five feet ten], the second is eleven, the third
+eight, for indeed he is yet young."
+
+Daun, on the day of this Domstadtl business, and by way of masking
+it, feeling how vital it was, made various extensive movements,
+across the River by several Bridges; then hither, thither, on the
+farther side of Olmutz, mazing up and down: Friedrich observing
+him, till he should ripen to something definite, followed his
+bombarding the while; perhaps having hopes of wager of battle
+ensuing. Of the disaster at Domstadtl Friedrich could know nothing,
+Loudon having closed the roads. Daun by no means ripens into
+battle: news of the disaster reached Friedrich next day (Saturday,
+July 1st),--who "immediately assembled his Generals, and spoke a
+few inspiring words to them," such as we may fancy. Friedrich
+perceives that Olmutz is over; that his Third Campaign, third lunge
+upon the Enemy's heart, has prospered worse, thus far, than either
+of the others; that he must straightway end this of Olmutz, without
+any success whatever, and try the remaining methods and resources.
+No word of complaint, they say, is heard from Friedrich in such
+cases; face always hopeful, tone cheery. A man in Friedrich's
+position needs a good deal of Stoicism, Greek or other.
+
+That Saturday night the Prussian bombardment is quite uncommonly
+furious, long continuing; no night yet like it:--the Prussians are
+shooting off their superfluous ammunition this night; do not quite
+end till Sunday is in. On Sunday itself, packings, preparations,
+all completed; and, "Keith, with above 4,000 wagons, safe on the
+road since 2 A.M."--the Prussians softly vanish in long smooth
+streams, with music playing, unmolested by Daun; and leaving
+nothing, it is boasted, but five or three mortars, which kept
+playing to the last, and one cannon, to which something
+had happened.
+
+Of the retreat there could be much said, instructive to military
+men who were studious; extremely fine retreat, say all judges;--of
+which my readers crave only the outlines, the results. Daun, it was
+thought, should have ruined Friedrich in this retreat; but he did
+nothing of harm to him. In fact, for a week he could not comprehend
+the phenomenon at all, and did not stir from his place,--which was
+on the other, or wrong, side of the River. Daun had never doubted
+but the retreat would be to Silesia; and he had made his
+detachments, and laid himself out for doing something upon it, in
+that direction: but, lo, what roads are these, what motions
+whitherward? In about a week it becomes manifest that the retreat,
+which goes on various roads, sometimes three at once, has converged
+on Leutomischl; straight for Bohemia instead of Silesia; and that
+Daun is fallen seven days behind it; incapable now to do anything.
+Not even the Magazine at Leutomischl could be got away, nor could
+even the whole of it be burnt.
+
+Keith and the baggage once safe in Leutomischl (July 8th), all goes
+in deliberate long column; Friedrich ahead to open the passages.
+July 14th, after five more marches, Friedrioh bursts up
+Konigsgratz; scattering any opposition there is; and sits down
+there, in a position considered, he knows well how inexpugnable;
+to live on the Country, and survey events. The 4,000 baggage-wagons
+came in about entire. Fouquet had the first division of them, and a
+secondary charge of the whole; an extremely strict, almost pedantic
+man, and of very fiery temper: "HE, D'OU VENEZ-VOUS?" asked he
+sharply of Retzow senior, who had broken through his order, one
+day, to avert great mischief: "How come you here, MON GENERAL?"
+"By the Highway, your Excellency!" answered Retzow in a grave
+stiff tone. [Retzow, i. 302.]
+
+Keith himself takes the rear-guard, the most ticklish post of all,
+and manages it well, and with success, as his wont is.
+Under sickness at the time, but with his usual vigilance, prudence,
+energy; qualities apt to be successful in War. Some brushes of
+Croat fighting he had from Loudon; but they did not amount to
+anything. It was at Holitz, within a march of Konigsgratz, that
+Loudon made his chief attempt; a vehement, well-intended thing;
+which looked well at one time. But Keith heard the cannonading
+ahead; hurried up with new cavalry, new sagacity and fire of
+energy; dashed out horse-charges, seized hill-tops, of a vital
+nature; and quickly ended the affair. A man fiery enough, and
+prompt with his stroke when wanted, though commonly so quiet.
+"Tell Monsieur,"--some General who seemed too stupid or too languid
+on this occasion,--"Tell Monsieur from me," said Keith to his Aide-
+de-camp, "he may be a very pretty thing, but he is not a man (QU'IL
+PEUT ETRE UNE BONNE CHOSE, MAIS QU'IL N'EST PAS UN HOMME)!"
+[Varnhagen, <italic> Leben des &c. Jakob von Keith, <end italic>
+p. 227.] The excellent vernacular Keith;--still a fine breadth of
+accent in him, one perceives! He is now past sixty; troubled with
+asthma; and I doubt not may be, occasionally, thinking it near time
+to end his campaigns. And in fact, he is about ending them;
+sooner than he or anybody had expected. 
+
+Daun, picking his steps and positions, latterly with threefold
+precaution, got into Konigsgratz neighborhood, a week after
+Friedrich; and looked down with enigmatic wonder upon Friedrich's
+new settlement there. Forage abundant all round, and the corn-
+harvest growing white;--here, strange to say, has Friedrich got
+planted in the inside of those innumerable Daun redoubts, and
+"woods of abatis;" and might make a very pretty "Bohemian Campaign"
+of it, after all, were Daun the only adversary he had! Judges are
+of opinion, that Daun, with all his superiority of number, could
+not have disrooted Friedrich this season. [Tempelhof, ii. 170-176,
+185;--who, unluckily, in soldier fashion, here as too often
+elsewhere, does not give us the Arithmetical Numbers of each, but
+counts by "Battalions" and " Squadrons," which, except in time of
+Peace, are a totally uncertain quantity:--guess vaguely, 75,000
+against 30,000.] Daun did try him by the Pandour methods, "1,000
+Croats stealing in upon Konigsgratz at one in the morning," and the
+like; but these availed nothing. By the one effectual method, that
+of beating him in battle, Daun never would have tried. What did
+disroot Friedrich, then?--Take the following dates, and small hints
+of phenomena in other parts of the big Theatre of War.
+"Konitz" is a little Polish Town, midway between Dantzig and
+Friedrich's Dominions:--
+
+"KONITZ, 16th JUNE, 1758. This day Feldmarschall Fermor arrives in
+his principal Camp here. For many weeks past he has been dribbling
+across the Weichsel hitherward, into various small camps, with
+Cossack Parties flying about, under check of General Platen.
+But now, being all across, and reunited, Fermor shoots out Cossack
+Parties of quite other weight and atrocity; and is ready to begin
+business,--still a little uncertain how. His Cossacks, under their
+Demikows, Romanzows; capable of no good fighting, but of endless
+incendiary mischief in the neighborhood;--shoot far ahead into
+Prussian territory: Platen, Hordt with his Free-Corps, are
+beautifully sharp upon them; but many beatings avail little.
+'They burn the town of Driesen [Hordt having been hard upon them
+there]; town of Ratzebuhr, and nineteen villages around;'--burn
+poor old women and men, one poor old clergyman especially, wind him
+well in straw-roping, then set fire, and leave him;--and are worse
+than fiends or hyenas. Not to be checked by Platen's best
+diligence; not, in the end, by Platen and Dohna together. Dohna
+(18th June) has risen from Stralsund in check of them,--leaving the
+unfortunate Swedes to come out [shrunk to about 7,000, so
+unsalutary their stockfish diet there],--these hyena-Cossacks being
+the far more pressing thing. Dohna is diligent, gives them many
+slaps and checks; Dohna cannot cut the tap-root of them in two;
+that is to say, fight Fermor and beat him: other effectual check
+there can be none. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> v. 149
+et seq.; Tempelhof, ii. 135 &c.]
+
+"TSCHOPAU (in Saxony), 21st JUNE. Prince Henri has quitted Bamberg
+Country; and is home again, carefully posted, at Tschopau and up
+and down, on the southern side of Saxony; with his eye well on the
+Passes of the Metal Mountains,--where now, in the turn things at
+Olmutz have taken, his clear fate is to be invaded, NOT to invade.
+The Reichs Army, fairly afoot in the Circle of Saatz, counts itself
+35,000; add 15,000 Austrians of a solid quality, there is a Reichs
+Army of 50,000 in all, this Year. And will certainly invade
+Saxony,--though it is in no hurry; does not stir till August come,
+and will find Prince Henri elaborately on his guard, and little to
+be made of him, though he is as one to two.
+
+"CREFELD (Rhine Country), 23d JUNE. Duke Ferdinand, after skilful
+shoving and advancing, some forty or fifty miles, on his new or
+French side of the Rhine, finds the French drawn up at Crefeld
+(June 23d); 47,000 of them VERSUS 33,000: in altogether intricate
+ground; canal-ditches, osier-thickets, farm-villages, peat-bogs.
+Ground defensible against the world, had the 47,000 had a Captain;
+but reasonably safe to attack, with nothing but a Clermont acting
+that character. Ferdinand, I can perceive, knew his Clermont;
+and took liberties with him. Divided himself into three attacks:
+one in front; one on Clermont's right flank, both of which
+cannonaded, as if in earnest, but did not prevent Clermont going to
+dinner. One attack on front, one on right flank; then there was a
+third, seemingly on left flank, but which winded itself round
+(perilously imprudent, had there been a Captain, instead of a
+Clermont deepish in wine by this time), and burst in upon
+Clermont's rear; jingling his wine-glasses and decanters, think at
+what a rate;--scattering his 47,000 and him to the road again, with
+a loss of men, which was counted to 4,000 (4,000 against 1,700),
+and of honor--whatever was still to lose!" [Mauvillon, i. 297-309;
+Westphalen, i. 588-604; Tempelhof; &c. &c.]
+
+Ferdinand, it was hoped, would now be able to maintain himself, and
+push forward, on this French side of the Rhine: and had Wesel been
+his (as some of us know it is not!), perhaps. he might. At any
+rate, veteran Belleisle took his measures:--dismissal of Clermont
+Prince of the Blood, and appointment of Contades, a man of some
+skill; recall of Soubise and his 24,000 from their Austrian
+intentions; these and other strenuous measures,--and prevented such
+consummation. A gallant young Comte de Gisors, only son of
+Belleisle, perished in that disgraceful Crefeld:--unfortunate old
+man, what a business that of "cutting Germany in four" has been to
+you, first and last!
+
+"LOUISBURG (North America), JULY 8th. Landing of General Amherst's
+people at Louisburg in Cape Breton; with a view of besieging that
+important place. Which has now become extremely difficult;
+the garrison, and their defences, military, naval, being in full
+readiness for such an event. Landing was done by Brigadier Wolfe;
+under the eye of Amherst and Admiral Boscawen from rearward, and
+under abundant fire of batteries and musketries playing on it
+ahead: in one of the surfiest seas (but we have waited four days,
+and it hardly mends), tossing us about like corks;--so that 'many
+of the boats were broken;' and Wolfe and people 'had to leap out,
+breast-deep,' and make fight for themselves, the faster the better,
+under very intricate circumstances! Which was victoriously done, by
+Wolfe and his people; really in a rather handsome manner, that
+morning. As were all the subsequent Siege-operations, on land and
+on water, by them and the others:--till (August 8th) the Siege
+ended: in complete surrender,--positively for the last time (Pitt
+fully intends); no Austrian Netherlands now to put one on revoking
+it! [General Amherst's DIARY OF THE SIEGE (in <italic> Gentleman's
+Magazine, <end italic> xxviii. 384-389).]
+
+"These are pretty victories, cheering to Pitt and Friedrich;
+but the difficult point still is that of Fermor. Whose Cossacks,
+and their devil-like ravagings, are hideous to think of:--
+unrestrainable by Dohna, unless he could cut the root of them;
+which he cannot. JUNE 27th [while Colonel Mosel, with his 3,000
+wagons, still only one stage from Troppau, was so busy], slow
+Fermor rose from Konitz; began hitching southward, southward
+gradually to Posen,--a considerably stronger Polish Town; on the
+edge both of Brandenburg and of Silesia;--and has been sitting
+there, almost ever since our entrance into Bohemia; his Cossacks
+burning and wasting to great distances in both Countries;
+no deciding which of them he meant to invade with his main Army.
+Sits there almost a month, enigmatic to Dohna, enigmatic to
+Friedrich: till Friedrich decides at last that he cannot be
+suffered longer, whichever of them he mean; and rises for Silesia
+(August 2d). Precisely about which day Fermor had decided for
+Brandenburg, and rolled over thither, towards Custrin and the
+Frankfurt-on-Oder Country, heralded by fire and murder, as usual."
+
+Friedrich's march to Landshut is, again, much admired. Daun had
+beset the three great roads, the two likeliest especially, with
+abundant Pandours, and his best Loudons and St. Ignons:
+Friedrich, making himself enigmatic to Daun, struck into the third
+road by Skalitz, Nachod; circuitous, steep, but lying Glatz-ward,
+handy for support of various kinds. He was attempted, once or more,
+by Pandours, but used them badly; fell in with Daun's old abatis
+(well wind-dried now), in different places, and burnt them in
+passing. And in five days was in Kloster-Grussau, safe on his own
+side of the Mountains again. One point only we will note, in these
+Pandour turmoilings. From Skalitz, the first stage of his march, he
+answers a Letter of Brother Henri's:--
+
+TO PRINCE HENRI (at Tachopau in Saxony). "What you write to me of
+my Sister of Baireuth [that she has been in extremity, cannot yet
+write, and must not be told of the Prince of Prussia's death lest
+it kill her] makes me tremble! Next to our Mother, she is what I
+have the most tenderly loved in this world. She is a Sister who has
+my heart and all my confidence; and whose character is of price
+beyond all the crowns in this universe. From my tenderest years, I
+was brought up with her: you can conceive how there reigns between
+us that indissoluble bond of mutual affection and attachment for
+life, which in all other cases, were it only from disparity of
+ages, is impossible. Would to Heaven I might die before her;--and
+that this terror itself don't take away my life without my actually
+losing her!" [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxvi. 179,
+"Klenny, near Skalitz, 3d August, 1758;" Henri's Letter is dated
+"Camp of Tschopau, 28th July" (ib. 277).] ...
+
+At Grussau (August 9th) he writes to his dear Wilhelmina herself:
+"O you, the dearest of my family, you whom I have most at heart of
+all in this world,--for the sake of whatever is most precious to
+you, preserve yourself, and let me have at least the consolation of
+shedding my tears in your bosom! Fear nothing for US, and"--
+O King, she is dying, and I believe knows it, though you will hope
+to the last! There is something piercingly tragical in those final
+Letters of Friedrich to his Wilhelmina, written from such scenes of
+wreck and storm, and in Wilhelmina's beautiful ever-loving quiet
+Answers, dictated when she could no longer write. ["July 18th" is
+the last by her hand, and "almost illegible;"--still extant, it
+seems, though withheld from us. Was received at Grussau here, and
+answered at some length (<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xxvii.
+i. 316), according to the specimen just given. Two more of hers
+follow, and four of the King's (ib. 317-322). Nearly meaningless,
+as printed there, without commentary for the unprepared reader.]
+
+Friedrich had last left Grussau April 18th; he has returned to it
+August 8th: after sixteen weeks of a very eventful absence.
+In Grussau he stayed two whole days;--busy enough he, probably,
+though his people were resting! August 10th he draws up, for Prince
+Henri, "under seal of the most absolute secrecy," and with
+admirable business-like strictness, brevity and clearness,
+forgetting nothing useful, remembering nothing useless, a Paper of
+Directions in case of a certain event: "I march to-morrow against
+the Russians: as the events of War may lead to all sorts of
+accidents, and it may easily happen to me to be killed, I have
+thought it my duty to let you know what my plans were," and what
+you are to do in that event,--"the rather as you are Guardian of
+our Nephew [late Prince of Prussia's Son] with an unlimited
+authority." Oath from all the armies the instant I am killed:
+rapid, active, as ever; the enemy not to notice that there is any
+change in the command. I intend to "beat the Russians utterly
+[A PLATE COUTURE, splay-seam], if it be possible;" then to &c.:--
+gives you his "itinerary," too, or probable address, till "the
+25th" (notably enough); in short, forgets nothing useful, nor
+remembers anything that is not, in spite of his hurry.
+["DISPOSITION TESTAMENTAIRE" (so they have labelled it); given in
+<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> iv. (APPENDICE) 261, 262.
+Friedrich's TESTAMENT proper is already made, and all in order,
+years ago ("11th January 1752"): of this there followed Two new
+Redactions (new EDITIONS with slight improvements, "7th November,
+1768," and "8th January, 1769" the FINALLY valid one); and various
+Supplements, or summary Enforcements (as here), at different times
+of crisis. see PREUSS, iv. 277, 401, and <italic> OEuvres de
+Frederic, <end italic> vi. p. 13 (of Preface), for some confused
+account of that matter.] For Mlnlster Finck also there went a
+Paper; seal lzot needing to be opened for the moment.
+
+With Margraf Karl, and Fouquet under him, who are to guard Silesia,
+he leaves in two Divisions about Half the late Olmutz Army:--added
+to the other force, this will make about 40,000 for that service.
+[Stenzel, v. 163.] Keith has the chief command here; but is ordered
+to Breslau, in the mean time, for a little rest and recovery of
+health. Friday, 11th August, Friedrich himself, with the other
+Half, pushes off towards Fermor and the Cossack demons;
+through Liegnitz, through Hohenfriedberg Country, straight for
+Frankfurt, with his best speed.
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII.
+
+BATTLE OF ZORNDORF.
+
+Sunday, 20th August, Friedrich, with his small Army, hardly above
+15,000 I should guess, arrived at Frankfurt-on-Oder: "his Majesty,"
+it seems, "lodged in the Lebus Suburb, in the house of a
+Clergyman's Widow; and was observed to go often out of doors, and
+listen to the cannonading, which was going on at Custrin."
+[Rodenbeck, i. 347.] From Landshut hither, he has come in nine
+days; the swiftest marching; a fiery spur of indignation being upon
+all his men and him, for the last two days fierier than ever,--
+longing all to have a blow at those incendiary Russian gentlemen.
+Five days ago, the Russians, attempting blindly on the Garrison of
+Custrin, had burnt,--nothing of the Garrison at all,--but the poor
+little Town altogether. Which has filled everybody with lamentation
+and horror. And, listen yonder, they are still busy on the solitary
+Garrison of Custrin;--audible enough to Friedrich from his northern
+or Lebus Suburb, which lies nearest the place, at a distance of
+some twenty miles.
+
+Of Fermor's red-hot savagery on Custrin, it is lamentably necessary
+we should say something: to say much would he a waste of record;
+as the thing itself was a waste of powder. A thing hideous to think
+of; without the least profit to Fermor, but with total ruin to all
+the inhabitants, and to the many strangers who had sought refuge
+there. One interior circumstance is memorable and lucky to us.
+Artillery-Captain Tielcke happened to be with these people;
+had come in the train of "two Saxon Princes, serving as
+volunteers;" and, with a singular lucidity, and faithful good
+sense, not scientific alone, he illuminates these biack Russian
+matters for such as have to do with them.
+
+Tielcke's Book of <italic> Contributions to the Art of War <end
+italic> [<italic> Beytrage zur Kriege-Kunst und (ZUR) Geschichte
+des Krieges von 1756 bis 1763 <end italic> (six thin vols. 4to,
+with many Plates); cited above.] is still in repute with Soldiers,
+especially in the Artillery line; and indeed shows a sound
+geometrical head, and contains bits of excellent Historical reading
+interspersed among the scientific parts. This Tielcke, it appears,
+was a common foot-soldier, one of those Pirna 14,000 made Prussian
+against their will; but Tielcke had a milkmaid for sweetheart in
+those regions, who, good soul, gave him her generous farewell, a
+suit of her clothes, perhaps a pair of her pails; and in that guise
+he walked out of bondage. Clear away; to Warsaw, to favor with the
+King and others (being of real merit, an excellent, studious,
+modest little man); and here he now reappears, in a higher
+capacity; as articulate Eye-witness of the Custrin Business and the
+Zorndorf, among much other Russian darkness, which shall remain
+comfortably blank to us.
+
+Up to Custrin, the Journal of the Operations of the Russian Army,
+which I could give from day to day, ["TAGEBUCH BEYDER &c. (Diary of
+both Armies from the beginning of the Campaign till Zorndorf"), in
+Tielcke, ii. 1-75; Tempelhof, ii. 136, 216-224; <italic> Helden-
+Geschichte, <end italic> v.; &c. &c.] is of no interest except to
+the Nether Powers of this Universe; the Russian Operations hitherto
+having consisted in slow marches, sluttish cookeries, cantonings,
+bivouackings, with destruction of a poor innocent Country, and
+arson, theft and murder done on the great scale by inhuman
+vagabonds, Cossacks so called, not tempered on this occasion by the
+mercy of Calmucks. The regular Russian Army, it appears,
+participates in the common horror of mankind against such a method
+of making war; but neither Feldmarschall Fermor, nor General
+Demikof (properly THEMICOUD, a Swiss, deserving little thanks from
+us, who has taken in hand to command these Missionaries of the
+Pit), can help the results above described. Which are justly
+characterized as abominable, to gods and men; and not fit to be
+recorded in human Annals; execration, and, if it were possible,
+oblivion, being the human resource with them., The Russian
+Officers, it seems, despise tbis Cossack rabble incredibly;
+for their fighting qualities withal are close on zero, though their
+talent for arson and murder is so considerable. And contrariwise,
+the Cossacks, for their part, have no objection to plunder, or
+even, if obstreperous, to kill, any regular Officer they may meet
+unescorted in a good place. Their talent for arson is great.
+They do uncountable damage to the Army itself; provoking all the
+Country people to destroy by fire what could be eaten or used, the
+foraging, food and equipments of horse and man; so that horse and
+man have to be fed by victual carted hundreds of miles out of
+Poland; and the Russian Army sticks, as it were, tethered with a
+welter of broken porridge-pots and rent meal-bags hung to every
+foot it has.
+
+East Preussen is quiet from the storms of War; holds its tongue
+well, and hopes better days: but the Russians themselves are little
+the better for it, a country so lately burned bare; they are merely
+flung so many scores of miles forward, farther from home and their
+real resources, before they can begin work, They have no port on
+the Baltic: poor blockheads, they are aware how desirable, for
+instance, Dantzig would be; to help feeding them out of ships;
+but the Dantzigers won't. Colberg, a poor little place, with only
+700 militia people in it, would be of immense service to them as a
+sea-haven: but even this they have not yet tried to get; and after
+trying, they will find it a job. "Why not unite with the Swedes and
+take Stettin (the finest harbor in the Baltic), which would bring
+Russia, by ships, to your very hand?" This is what Montalembert is
+urgent upon, year after year, to the point of wearying everybody;
+but he can get no official soul to pay heed to him,--the
+difficulties are so considerable. "Swedes, what are they?" say the
+Russians: "Russians what?" say the Swedes. "Sweden would be so
+handy for the Artilleries," urges Montalembert; "Russians for the
+Soldiery, or covering and fighting part."--"Can't be done!"
+Officiality shakes its head: and Montalembert is obliged to
+be silent.
+
+The Russians have got into the Neumark of Brandenburg, on those bad
+terms; and are clearly aware that, without some Fortress as a Place
+of Arms, they are an overgrown Incompetency and Monstrosity in the
+field of War; doing much destruction, most of which proves self-
+destructive before long. But how help it? If the carrying of meal
+so far be difficult what will the carrying of siege-furniture be?
+A flat impossibility. Fermor, aware of these facts, remembers what
+happened at Oczakow,--long ago, in our presence, and Keith's and
+Munnich's, if the reader have not quite forgot. Munnich, on that
+occasion, took Oczakow without any siege-furniture whatever, by
+boldly marching up to it; nothing but audacity and good luck on his
+side. Fermor determines to try Custrin in the like way,--if
+peradventure Prussian soldiery be like Turk?--
+
+Fermor rose from Posen August 2d, almost three weeks ago;
+making daily for the Neumark and those unfortunate Oder Countries;
+nobody but Dohna to oppose him,--Dohna in the ratio of perhaps one
+against four. Dohna naturally laid hold of Frankfurt and the Oder
+Bridge, so that Fermor could not cross there; whereupon Fermor, as
+the next best thing, struck northward for the Warta (black Polish
+stream, last big branch of Oder); crossed this, at his ease, by
+Landsberg Bridge, August 10th [Tempelhof, ii. 216.] and after a day
+or two of readjustment in Landsberg, made for Custrin Country (his
+next head-quarter is at Gross Kamin); hoping in some accidental or
+miraculous way to cross Oder thereabouts, or even get hold of
+Custrin as a Place of Arms. If peradventure he can take Custrin
+without proper siege-artillery, in the Oczakow or Anti-Turk way?
+Fermor has been busy upon Custrin since August 15th;--in what
+fashion we partly heard, and will now, from authentic sources, see
+a little for ourselves.
+
+The Castle of Custrin, built by good Johann of Custrin, and "roofed
+with copper," in the Reformation times,--we know it from of old,
+and Friedrich has since had some knowledge of it. Custrin itself is
+a rugged little Town, with some moorland traffic, and is still a
+place of great military strength, the garrison of those parts.
+Its rough pavements, its heavy stone battlements and barriers, give
+it a guarled obstinate aspect,--stern enough place of exile for a
+Crown-Prince fallen into such disfavor with Papa! A rugged,
+compact, by no means handsome little Town, at the meeting of the
+Warta and the Oder; stands naturally among sedges, willows and
+drained mire, except that human industry is pleasantly busy upon
+it, and has long been. So that the neighborhood is populous beyond
+expectation; studded with rough cottages in white-wash; hamlets in
+a paved condition; and comfortable signs of labor victoriously
+wrestling with the wilderness. Custrin, an arsenal and garrison,
+begirt with two rivers, and with awful bulwarks, and bastions cased
+in stone,--"perhaps too high," say the learned,--is likely to be
+impregnable to Russian engineering on those terms. Here, with
+brevity, is the catastrophe of Custrin.
+
+TUESDAY, 15th AUGUST, 1758. At two in the morning, several thousand
+Russians, grenadiers, under Quartermaster General Stoffeln, whom
+the readers of Mannstein know from old Oczakow times, are astir;
+pushing along from Gross Kamin, through the scraggy firwoods, and
+flat peat countries; intending a stroke on Custrin, if perhaps they
+can get it: [Tempelhof, ii. 217; but Tielcke, ii. 69 et seq., the
+real source.]--not the slightest chance to get Custrin;
+Prussian soldiership and Turkish being two quite different things!
+The pickeering and manoeuvring of Stoffeln shall not detain us.
+Stoffeln came along by the Landsberg road (course of the now
+Konigsberg-Custrin Railway); and drove in the Prussian out-parties,
+who at first took him for Cossacks. Stoffeln set himself down on
+the north side of the place; planted cannon in certain clay-pits
+thereabouts, and about nine o'clock began firing shells and
+incendiary grenadoes at a great rate. Tielcke saw everything,--and
+had the honor to take luncheon, that evening, with certain chief
+Officers, sitting on the ground, after all was over, and only a few
+shots from the Garrison still dropping. [Tielcke, ii. 75 n.]
+
+At the third grenade, which, it seems, fell into a straw magazine,
+Custrin took fire; could not be quenched again, so much dry wood in
+it, so much disorder too, the very soldiers some of them disorderly
+(a bad deserter set); so that it soon flamed aloft,--from side to
+side one sea of flame: and man, woman and child, every soul (except
+the Garrison, which sat enclosed in strong stone), had to fly
+across the River, under penalty of death by fire. Of Custrin, by
+five in the evening, there was nothing left but the black ashes;
+the Garrison standing unharmed, and the Church, School-house and
+some stone edifices in a charred skeleton condition. "No life was
+lost, except that of one child in arms." All Neumark had lodged its
+valuables in this place of strength; all are fled now in horror and
+terror across the Oder, by the Bridge, before it also unquenchably
+takes fire, at the western or non-Russian end of the place. Such a
+day as was seldom seen in human experience;--Fermor responsible for
+it, happily not we.
+
+Fermor, in the evening, said to his Artillery People: "Why have you
+ceased to fire grenadoes?" "Excellency, the Town is out;
+nothing now but ashes and stone." "Never mind; give them the rest,
+one every quarter of an hour. We shall not need the grenadoes
+again. The cannon-balls we shall; them, therefore, do not waste."
+On the morrow morning, after this performance on the Town, Fermor
+sends a Trumpeter: "Surrender or else--!" rather in the tremendous
+style. "Or else?" answers the Commandant, pointing to the ashes, to
+the black inconsumable stones; and is deaf to this EX-POST-FACTO
+Trumpeter. The Russians say they sent one yesterday morning, not
+EX-POST-FACTO, but he was killed in the pickeerings, and never
+heard of again. A mile or so to rear of Custrin, on the westward or
+Berlin side of the River, lies Dohna for the last four days;
+expecting that the Laws of Nature will hold good, and Custrin prove
+tenable against such sieging. So stands it on Friedrich's arrival.
+
+We left Friedrich in the Lebus Suburb of Frankfurt, Sunday, August
+20th, listening to the distant cannonade. Next morning, he is here
+himself; at Dohna's Camp of Gorgast, taking survey of affairs;
+came early, under rapid small escort, leaving his Army to follow;
+scorn and contemptuous indignation the humor of him, they say;
+resolution to be swiftly home upon that surprising Russian
+armament, and teach it new manners. The black skeleton of Custrin
+stares hideously across the River; "Custrin Siege" so called still
+going on;--had better make despatch now, and take itself away!
+He greatly despises Russian soldiership: "Pooh, pooh," he would
+answer, if Keith from experience said, "Your Majesty does not do it
+justice;"--and Keith has been known to hint, "If the trial ever
+come, your Majesty will alter that opinion." A day or two hence,
+amid these hideous Russian fire-traceries, the Hussars bring him a
+dozen of Cossacks they have made prisoners: Friedrich looks at the
+dirty green vagabonds; says to one of his Staff: "And this is the
+kind of Doggery I have to bother with!"--The sight of the poor
+country-people, and their tears of joy and of sorrow on his
+reappearance among them, much affected him. Taking inspection of
+Dohna, he finds Dohna wonderfully clean, pipe-clayed, complete:
+"You are very fine indeed, you;--I bring you a set of fellows,
+rough as GRASTEUFELN ["grass-devils," I never know whether insects
+or birds]; but they can bite,"--hope you can!
+
+Tuesday, August 32d, at five in the morning our Army has all
+arrived, the Frankfurt people just come in; 30,000 of us now in
+Camp at Gorgast. Friedrich orders straightway that a certain
+Russian Redoubt on the other side of the River, at Schaumburg, a
+mile or two down stream, be well cannonaded into ruin,--as if he
+took it for some incipiency of a Russian Bridge, or were himself
+minded to cross here, under cover of Custrin. Friedrich's intention
+very certainly is to cross,--here or not just here;--and that same
+night, after some hours of rest to the Frankfurt people,--night of
+Tuesday-Wednesday, Friedrich, having persuaded the Russians that
+his crossing-place will be their Redoubt at Schaumburg, marches ten
+or twelve miles down the River, silently his 30,000 and he, till
+opposite the Village of Gustebiese; rapidly makes his Bridges
+there, unmolested: Fermor, with his eye on the cannonaded Redoubt
+only, has expected no such matter; and is much astonished when he
+hears of it, twenty hours after. Friedrich, across with the
+vanguard, at an early hour of Wednesday, gets upon the knoll at
+Gustebiese for a view; and all Gustebiese, hearing of him, hurries
+out, with low-voiced tremulous blessings, irrepressible tears:
+"God reward your Majesty, that have come to us!"--and there is a
+hustling and a struggling, among the women especially, to kiss the
+skirts of his coat. Poor souls: one could have stood tremendous
+cheers; but this is a thing I forgive Friedrich for being visibly
+affected with.
+
+Friedrich leaves his baggage on the other side of the Oder, and the
+Bridge guarded; our friend Hordt, with his Free-Corps, doing it,
+Friedrich marches forward some ten miles that night;
+eastward, straight for Gross Kamin, as if to take the Russians in
+rear; encamps at a place called Klossow, spreading himself
+obliquely towards the Mutzel (black sluggish tributary of the Oder
+in those parts), meaning to reach Neu Damm on the Mutzel to-morrow,
+there almost within wind of the Russians, and be ready for crossing
+on them. It was at Klossow (23d August, evening), that the Hussars
+brought in their dozen or two of Cossacks, and he had his first
+sight of Russian soldiery; by no means a favorable one, "Ugh, only
+look!"--As we are now approaching Zorndorf, and the monstrous tug
+of Battle which fell out there, readers will be glad of
+the following:--
+
+"From Damm on the Mutzel, where Friedrich intends crossing it
+to-morrow night, south to Gross Kamin, not far from the Warta,
+where Fermor's head-quarter lately was, may be about five miles.
+From Custrin, Kamin lies northeast about eight or ten miles:
+Zorndorf, the most considerable Village in this tract, lies--little
+dreaming of the sad glory coming to it--pretty much in the centre
+between big Warta and smaller Mutzel. The Country is by nature a
+peat wilderness, far and wide; but it has been tamed extensively;
+grows crops, green pastures; is elsewhere covered with wood (Scotch
+fir, scraggy in size, but evidently under forest management);
+perhaps half the country is in Fir tracts, what they call HEIDEN
+(Heaths); the cultivated spaces lying like light-green islands with
+black-green channels and expanses of circumambient Fir. The Drewitz
+Heath, the Massin or Zither Heath, and others about Zorndorf, will
+become notable to us. The Country is now much drier than in
+Friedrich's time; the human spade doing its duty everywhere:
+so that much of the Battle-ground has become irrecognizable, when
+compared with the old marshy descriptions given of it. Zorndorf, a
+rough substantial Hamlet, has nothing of boggy now visible near by;
+lies east to west, a firm broad highway leading through: a sea of
+forest before it, to south; to north, good dry barley-grounds or
+rye-grounds, sensibly rising for half a mile, then waving about in
+various slow slight changes of level towards Quartschen, Zicher,
+&c.: forming an irregular cleared 'island,' altogether of perhaps
+four miles by three, with unlimited circumambiencies of wood.
+It was here, on this island as we call it, that the Battle, which
+has made Zorndorf famous, was fought.
+
+"Zorndorf (or even the open ground half a mile to north of it,
+which will be more important to us) is probably not 50 feet above
+the level of the Mutzel, nor 100 above Warta and Oder, six miles
+off; but it is the crown of the Country;--the ground dropping
+therefrom every way, in lazy dull waves or swells; towards Tamsel
+and Gross Kamin on southeast; towards Birken-Busch, Quartschen,
+Darmutzel [DAR of the Mutzel, whatever "DAR" may be.] on northwest;
+as well as towards Damm and its Bridge northeast, where Friedrich
+will soon be, and towards Custrin southwest, where he lately was,
+each a five or six miles from Zorndorf.
+
+"Such is the poor moorland tract of Country; Zorndorf the centre of
+it,--where the battle is likely to be:--Zorndorf and environs a
+bare quasi-island among these woods; extensive bald crown of the
+landscape, girt with a frizzle of firwoods all round. Boggy pools
+there are, especially on the western side (all drained in our
+time). Mutzel, or north side, is of course the lowest in level:
+and accordingly," what is much to be marked by readers here, "from
+the south, or Zorndorf side, at wide intervals, there saunter
+along, in a slow obscure manner, Three miserable continuous
+Leakages, or oozy Threads of Water, all making for Quartschen, to
+north or northwest, there to disembogue into the Mutzel. Each of
+these has its little Hollow; of which the westernmost, called
+Zabern Hollow (ZABERNGRUND), is the most considerable, and the most
+important to us here: GALGENGRUND (Gallows-Hollow) is also worth
+naming in this Battle; the third Leakage, though without
+importance, invites us to name it, HOSEBRUCH, quasi STOCKING-
+quagmire,--because you can use no stockings there, except with
+manifest disadvantage."--Take this other concluding trait:--
+
+... "Inexpressible fringe of marsh, two or three miles broad,
+mostly bottomless, woven with sluggish creeks and stagnant pools,
+borders the Warta for many miles towards Landsberg;
+Custrin-Landsberg Causeway the alone sure footing in it; after
+which, the country rises insensibly, but most beneficially, and is
+mainly drier till you get to the Mutzel again, and find the same
+fringe of mud lace-work again, Zorndorf we called the crown of it.
+Tamsel, Wilkersdorf, Klein Kamin, Gross Kamin, and other places
+known to us, lie on the dry turf-fuel country, but looking over
+close upon the hem of that marsh-fringe, and no doubt getting
+peats, wild ducks, pike-fishes, eels, and snatches of summer
+pasture and cow-hay out of it."
+
+Thursday, August 24th, Friedrich is again speeding on;
+occupying Darmutzel and other crossing-places of the Mutzel;
+[Mitchell to Holderness, "DErmItzel, 24th August, 1758" (MEMOIRS
+AND PAPERS, i. 425; Ib. ii. 40-47, Mitchell's Private Journal).]--
+by no means himself crossing there; on the contrary, carefully
+breaking all the Bridges before he go ("No retreat for those
+Russian vagabonds, only death or surrender for them!")--himself not
+intending to cross till he be up at Damm, Neu Damm, well eastward
+of his Russians, and have got them all pinfolded between Mutzel and
+Oder in that way. In the evening, he reaches Damm and the Mill of
+Damm, some three or four miles higher up the Mutzel;--and there
+pushes partly across at once. That is to say, his vanguard at once,
+and takes a defensive position; his Artillery and other Divisions
+by degrees, in the silent night hours; and, before daybreak
+to-morrow, every soul will be across, and the Bridge broken again;
+--and Fermor had better have his accounts settled.
+
+Fermor's roving Cossack clouds seldom bring him in intelligence;
+but only return stained with charcoal grime and red murder: up to
+late last night, he had not known where Friedrich was at all;
+had idly thought him busy with the Schaumburg Redoubt, on the other
+side of Oder, fencing and precautioning: but now (night of the
+23d), these Cossacks do come in with news, "Indisputable to our
+poor minds, the Prussians are at Klossow yonder,--captured a dozen
+green vagabonds of us, and have sent us galloping!"--which news,
+with the night closing in on him, was astonishing, thrice and four
+times important to Fermor.
+
+Instantly he raises the siege of Custrin, any siege there was;
+gets his immense baggage-train shoved off that night to Klein
+Kamin, Landsberg way; summons the force from Landsberg to join him
+without loss of a moment;--and in the meanwhile pitches himself in
+long bivouac in the Drewitz Wood or Fir-Heath, with the quaggy
+Zaberngrund in front. Quaggy Zaberngrund,--do readers remember it;
+one of those "Three continuous Leakages," very important, to Fermor
+and us at present? This is the safest place Fermor can find for
+himself; scraggy firs around, good quagmires and Zabern Hollow in
+front; looking to the east, waiting what a new day will bring.
+That was Fermor's posture, while Friedrich quitted Klossow in the
+dawn of the 24th. Be busy, ye Cossack doggeries; return with news,
+not with mere grime and marks of blood on your mouths!
+
+Evening of the 24th, Cossacks report that Friedrich has got to Damm
+Mill; has hold of the Bridge there; and may be looked for, sure as
+the daylight, to-morrow. Fermor is 50,000 odd, his Landsberg forces
+all coming in; one Detachment out Stettin way, which cannot come
+in; Fermor finds that his baggage-train is fairly on the road to
+Klein Kamin;--and that he will have to quit this bosky bivouac, and
+fight for himself in the open ground, or do worse.
+
+
+THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR OVER AGAIN,--THAT IS TO SAY,
+FRIEDRICH AT HAND-GRIPS WITH FERMOR AND HIS RUSSIANS
+(25TH AUGUST, 1758).
+
+Artless Fermor draws out to the open ground, north of Zorndorf,
+south of Quartschen; arranges himself in huge quadrilateral mass,
+with his "staff-baggage" (lighter baggage) in the centre, and his
+front, so to speak, everywhere. [Excellent Plan of him, or rather
+Plans, in his successive shapes, in Tielcke, ii. (PLATES 4, 5, 6,
+7, 8).] Mass, say two miles long by one mile broad; but it is by no
+means regular, and has many zigzags according to the ground, and
+narrows and droops southward on the eastern end: one of the most
+artless arrangements; but known to Fermor, and the readiest on this
+pinch of time. Munnich devised this quadrilateral mode; and found
+it good against the Turks, and their deluges of raging horse and
+foot: Fermor could perhaps do better; but there is such a press of
+hurry. Fermor's western flank, or biggest breadth of quadrilateral,
+leans on that Zabern Hollow, with its fine quagmires; his eastern,
+narrowest part, droops down on certain mud-pools and conveniences
+towards Zicher. Gallows Hollow, a slighter than the Zabern, runs
+through the centre of him; and with his best people he fronts
+towards the Mutzel Bridges, especially towards Damm-Mill Bridge
+whence Friedrich will emerge, sure as the sunrise, one knows not
+with what issue. Artless Fermor is nothing daunted; nor are his
+people; but stand patiently under arms, regardless of future and
+present, to a degree not common in soldiering.
+
+Friday, August 25th, by half-past three in the morning, Friedrich
+is across the Mutzel; self and Infantry by Damm-Mutzel Bridge,
+cavalry by another Bridge (KERSTEN-BRUGGE, means "Christian
+Bridge," in the dialect of Charlemagne's time, a very old
+arrangement of Successive Logs up there!) some furlongs higher up.
+The Bridge at Damm is perhaps some three miles from the nearest
+Russians about Zicher; but Friedrich has no thought of attacking
+Fermor there; he has a quite other program laid, and will attack
+Fermor precisely on the side opposite to there.
+Friedrich's intention is to sweep quite round this monstrous
+Russian quadrilateral; to break in upon it on the western flank,
+and hurl it back upon Mutzel and its quagmires. He has broken his
+two bridges after passing, all bridges are gone there, and the
+country is bottomless: surrender at discretion if once you are
+driven thither! And Friedrich's own retreat, if he fail, is short
+and open to Custrin. "Admirable," say the Critics, "and altogether
+in Friedrich's style!"--Friedrich, adds one Critic, was not aware
+that the Russian Heavy-Baggage Train, which is their powder-flask
+and bread-basket and staff of life, lies at Klein Kamin, within few
+miles on his left just now, Russians themselves on his right;
+that the Russians could have been abolished from those countries
+without fighting at all! [Retzow, i. 305-329.] This is very true.
+Friedrich's haste is great, his humor hot; and he has not heard of
+this Klein-Kamin fact, which in common times he would have done,
+and of which in a calmer mood he would, with a fine scientific
+gusto, have taken his advantage.
+
+Friedrich pours incessant southward; cavalry parallel to infantry
+and a certain distance beyond it, eastward of it; and they have
+burnt the Bridges; which is a curious fact! Continually southward,
+as if for Tamsel:--poor old Tamsel, do readers recollect it at all,
+does Friedrich at all? No pleasant dinner, or lily-and-rose
+complexions, there for one to-day!--Some distance short of Tamsel,
+Friedrich, emerging, turns westward;--intending what on earth?
+thinks Fermor. Friedrich has been mostly hidden by the woods all
+this while, and enigmatic to Fermor. Fermor does now at last see
+the color of the facts;--and that one's chief front must change
+itself to southward, one's best leg and arm be foremost, or towards
+Zorndorf, not towards the Mutzel as hitherto. Fermor stirs up his
+Quadrilateral, makes the required change, "You, best or northern
+line, step across, and front southward; across to southward, I say;
+second-best go northward in their stead:" and so, with some other
+slight polishings, suggested by the ground and phenomena, we anew
+await this Prussian Enigma with our best leg foremost. The march or
+circular sweep of these Prussian lines, from Damm Bridge through
+the woods and champaign to their appointed place of action, is
+seven or eight miles; lines when halted in battle-order will be two
+miles long or more.
+
+Friedrich pours steadily along, horse and foot, by the rear cf
+Wilkersdorf, of Zorndorf,--Russian Minotaur scrutinizing him in
+that manner with dull bloodshot eyes, uncertain what he will do.
+It is eight in the morning, hot August; wind a mere lull, but
+southernly if any. Small Hussar pickets ride to right of the main
+Army March; to keep the Cossacks in check: who are roving about,
+all on wing; and pert enough, in spite of the Hussar pickets,
+Desperado individuals of them gallop up to the Infantry ranks, and
+fire off their pistols there,--without reply; reply or firing, till
+the word come, is strictly forbidden. Infantry pours along, like a
+ploughman drawing his furrow, heedless of the circling crows.
+Crows or Cossacks, finding they are not regarded, set fire to
+Zorndorf, and gallop off. Zorndorf goes up readily, mainly wood and
+straw; rolls in big clouds of smoke far northward in upon the 
+Russian Minotaur, making him still blinder in the important moments
+now coming.
+
+Friedrich rides up to view the Zabern Hollow: "Beyond expectation
+deep; very boggy too, with its foul leakage or brook: no attacking
+of their western flank through this Zaberngrund;--attack the corner
+of them, then; here on the southwest!" That is Friedrich's rapid
+resource. The lines halt, accordingly; make ready. Behind flaming
+Zorndorf stands his extreme left, which is to make the attack;
+infantry in front; horse to rear and farther leftwards,--and under
+the command of Seidlitz in this quarter, which is an important
+circumstance. Right wing, reaching to behind Wilkersdorf, is to
+refuse itself; whole force of centre is to push upon that Russian
+corner, to support the left in doing it;--according to the Leuthen
+or LEUCTRA principle, once more. May no mistakes occur in executing
+it this day!--
+
+The first division of the Prussian Infantry, or extreme Left,
+marches forward by the west end of flaming Zorndorf; next division,
+which should stand close to right of it, or even behind it in
+action, and follow it close into the Russian fire, has to march by
+the east end of Zorndorf; this is a farther road, owing to the
+flames; and not a lucky one. Second division could never get into
+fair contact with that first division again: that was the mistake:
+and it might have been fatal, but was not, as we shall see.
+First division has got clear of Zorndorf, in advancing towards its
+Russian business;--is striding forward, its left flank safe against
+the Zaberngrund; steadily by fixed stages, against the fated
+Russian Corner, which is its point of attack. First division,
+second division, are clear of Zorndorf, though with a wide gap
+between them; are steadily striding forward towards the Russian
+Corner. Two strong batteries, wide apart, have planted themselves
+ahead; and are playing upon the Russian Quadrilateral, their fires
+crossing at the due Corner yonder, with terrible effect;
+Russian artillery, which are multitudinous and all gathered down to
+this southwestern corner, are responding, though with their fire
+spread, and far less effectual. The Prussian line steps on, extreme
+left perhaps in too animated a manner; their cannon batteries
+enfilade the thick mass of Russians at a frightful rate ("forty-
+two men of a certain regiment blown away by a single ball," in one
+instance [Tielcke.]), drive the interior baggage-horses to despair:
+a very agitated Quadrilateral, under its grim canopy of cannon
+smoke, and of straw smoke, heaped on it from the Zorndorf side
+here. Manteuffel, leader of that first or leftmost division, sees
+the internal simmering; steps forward still more briskly, to firing
+distance; begins his platoon thunder, with the due steady fury,--
+had the second division but got up to support Manteuffel!
+The second division is in fire too; but not close to Manteuffel,
+where it should be.
+
+Fermor notices the gap, the wavering of Manteuffel unsupported;
+plunges out in immense torrent, horse and foot, into the gap, into
+Manteuffel's flank and front; hurls Manteuffel back, who has no
+support at hand: "ARAH, ARAH (Hurrah, Hurrah)! Victory, Victory!"
+shout the Russians, plunging wildly forward, sweeping all before
+them, capturing twenty-six pieces of cannon, for one item. What a
+moment for Friedrich; looking on it from some knoll somewhere near
+Zorndorf, I suppose; hastily bidding Seidlitz strike in:
+"Seidlitz, now!" The hurrahing Russians cannot keep rank at that
+rate of going. like a buffalo stampede; but fall into heaps and
+gaps: Seidlitz, with a swiftness, with a dexterity beyond praise,
+has picked his way across that quaggy Zabern Hollow; falls, with
+say 5,000 horse, on the flank of this big buffalo stampede;
+tumbles it into instant ruin;--which proves irretrievable, as the
+Prussian Infantry come on again, and back Seidlitz.
+
+In fifteen minutes more (I guess it now to be ten o'clock), the
+Russian Minotaur, this end of it, on to the Gallows Ground, is one
+wild mass. Seldom was there seen such a charge; issuiug in such
+deluges of wreck, of chaotic flight, or chaotic refusal to fly.
+The Seidlitz cavalry went sabring till, for very fatigue, they gave
+it up, and could no more. The Russian horse fled to Kutzdorf,--
+Fermor with them, who saw no more of this Fight, and did not get
+back till dark;--had not the Bridges been burnt, and no crossing of
+the Mutzel possible, Fermor never would have come back, and here
+had been the end of Zorndorf. Luckier if it had! But there is no
+crossing of the Mutzel, there is only drowning in the quagmires
+there:--death any way; what can be done but die?
+
+The Russian infantry stand to be sabred, in the above manner, as if
+they had been dead oxen. More remote from Seidlitz, they break open
+the sutlers' brandy-casks, and in few minutes get roaring drunk.
+Their officers, desperate, split the brandy-casks; soldiers flap
+down to drink it from the puddles; furiously remonstrate with their
+officers, and "kill a good many of them" (VIELE, says Tielcke),
+especially the foreign sort. "A frightful blood-bath," by all the
+Accounts: blood-bath, brandy-bath, and chief Nucleus of Chaos then
+extant aboveground. Fermor is swept away: this chaos, the very
+Prussians drawing back from it, wearied with massacring, lasts till
+about one o'clock. Up to the Gallows-ground the Minotaur is mere
+wreck and delirium: but beyond the Gallows-ground, the other half
+forms a new front to itself; becomes a new Minotaur, though in
+reduced shape. This is Part First of the Battle of Zorndorf;
+Friedrich--on the edge of great disaster at one moment, but
+miraculously saved--has still the other half to do (unlucky that he
+left no Bridges on the Mutzel), and must again change his program.
+
+Half of the Minotaur is gone to shreds in this manner; but the
+attack upon it, too, is spent: what is to be done with the other
+half of the monster, which is again alive; which still stands, and
+polypus-like has arranged a new life for itself, a new front
+against the Galgengrund yonder? Friedrich brings his right wing
+into action. Rapidly arranges right wing, centre, all of the left
+that is disposable, with batteries, with cavalry; for an attack on
+the opposite or southeastern end of his monster. If your monster,
+polypus-like, come alive again in the tail-part, you must fell that
+other head of him. Batteries, well in advance, begin work upon the
+new head of the monster, which was once his tail; fresh troops,
+long lines of them, pushing forward to begin platoon-volleying:--
+time now, I should guess, about half-past two. Our infantry has not
+yet got within musket-range,--when torrents of Russian Horse, Foot
+too following, plunge out; wide-flowing, stormfully swift; and dash
+against the coming attack. Dash against it; stagger it; actually
+tumble it back, in the centre part; take one of the batteries, and
+a whole battalion prisoners. Here again is a moment! Friedrich,
+they say, rushed personally into this vortex; rallied these broken
+battalions, again rallied and led them up; but it was to no
+purpose: they could not be made to stand, these centre battalions;
+--"some sudden panic in them, a thing unaccountable," says
+Tempelhof; "they are Dohna's people, who fought perfectly at
+Jagersdorf, and often elsewhere" (they were all in such a finely
+burnished state the other day; but have not biting talent, like the
+grass-devils): enough, they fairly scour away, certain disgraceful
+battalions, and are not got ranked again till below Wilkersdorf,
+above a mile off; though the grass-devils, on both hands of them,
+stand grimly steady, left in this ominous manner.
+
+What would have become of the affair one knows not, if it had not
+been that Seidlitz once more made his appearance. On Friedrich's
+order, or on his own, I do not know; but sure it is, Seidlitz, with
+sixty-one squadrons, arriving from some distance, breaks in like a
+DEUS EX MACHINA, swift as the storm-wind, upon this Russian Horse-
+torrent; drives it again before him like a mere torrent of chaff,
+back, ever back, to the shore of Acheron and the Stygian quagmires
+(of the Mutzel, namely); so that it did not return again; and the
+Prussian infantry had free field for their platoon exercise.
+Their rage against the Russians was extreme; and that of the
+Russians corresponded. Three of these grass-devil battalions, who
+stood nearest to Dohna's runaways, were natives of this same burnt-
+out Zorndorf Country; we may fancy the Platt-Teutsch hearts of
+them, and the sacred lightning, with a moisture to it, that was in
+their eyes. Platt-Teutsch platooning, bayonet-charging,--on such
+terms no Russian or mortal Quadrilateral can stand it. The Russian
+Minotaur goes all to shreds a second time; but will not run.
+"No quarter!"--"Well, then, none!"
+
+"Shortly after four o'clock," say my Accounts, "the firing,"
+regular firing, "altogether ceased; ammunition nearly spent, on
+both sides; Prussians snatching cartridge-boxes of Russian dead;"
+and then began a tug of deadly massacring and wrestling man to man,
+"with bayonets, with butts of muskets, with hands, even with teeth
+[in some Russian instances], such as was never seen before."
+The Russians, beaten to fragments, would not run: whither run?
+Behind is Mutzel and the bog of Acheron;--on Mutzel is no bridge
+left; "the shore of Mutzel is thick with men and horses, who have
+tried to cross, and lie there swallowed in the ooze"--"like a
+pavement," says Tielcke. The Russians,--never was such VIS INERTIAE
+as theirs now. They stood like sacks of clay, like oxen already
+dead; not even if you shot a bullet through them, would they fall
+at once, says Archenholtz, but seem to be deliberate about it.
+
+Complete disorder reigned on both sides; except that the Prussians
+could always form again when bidden, the Russians not. This lasted
+till nightfall,--Russians getting themselves shoved away on these
+horrid terms, and obstinate to take no other. Towards dark, there
+appeared, on a distant knoll, something like a ranked body of them
+again,--some 2,000 foot and half as many horse; whom Themicoud
+(superlative Swiss Cossack, usually written Demikof or Demikow) had
+picked up, and persuaded from the shore of Acheron, back to this
+knoll of vantage, and some cannon with them. Friedrich orders these
+to be dispersed again: General Forcade, with two battalions, taking
+the front of them, shall attack there; you, General Rauter, bring
+up those Dohna fellows again, and take them in flank.
+Forcade pushes on, Rauter too,--but at the first taste of cannon-
+shot, these poor Dohna-people (such their now flurried, disgraced
+state of mind) take to flight again, worse than before; rush quite
+through Wilkersdorf this time, into the woods, and can hardly be
+got together at all. Scandalous to think of. No wonder Friedrich
+"looked always askance on those regiments that had been beaten at
+Gross Jagersdorf, and to the end of his life gave them proofs of
+it:" [Retzow;--and still more emphatically, <italic> Briefe eines
+alten Preussischen Officiers <end italic> (Hohenzollern, 1790),
+i. 34, ii. 52, &c.] very natural, if the rest were like these!
+
+Of poor General Rauter, Tempelhof and the others, that can help it,
+are politely silent; only Saxon Tielcke tells us, that Friedrich
+dismissed him, "Go, you, to some other trade!"--which, on Prussian
+evidence too, expressed in veiled terms, I find to be the fact:
+<italic> Militair-Lexikon, <end italic> obliged to have an article
+on Rauter, is very brief about it; hints nothing unkind;
+records his personal intrepidity; and says, "in 1758 he, on his
+request, had leave to withdraw,"--poor soul, leave and more!
+
+Forcade, left to himself, kept cannonading Themicoud;
+Themicoud responding, would not go; stood on his knoll of vantage,
+but gathered no strength: "Let him stand," said Friedrich, after
+some time; and Themicoud melted in the shades of night, gradually
+towards the hither shore of Acheron,--that is, of Acheron-Mutzel,
+none now attempting to PAVE it farther, but simmering about at
+their sad leisure there. Feldmarschall Fermor is now got to his
+people again, or his people to him; reunited in place and luck:
+such a chaos as Fermor never saw before or after. No regiment or
+battalion now is; mere simmering monads, this fine Army;
+officers doing their utmost to cobble it into something of rank,
+without regard to regiments or qualities. Darkness seldom sank on
+such a scene.
+
+Wild Cossack parties are scouring over all parts of the field;
+robbing the dead, murdering the wounded; doing arson, too, wherever
+possible; and even snatching at the Prussian cannon left rearwards,
+so that the Hussars have to go upon them again. One large mass of
+them plundering in the Hamlet of Zicher, the Hussars surrounded:
+the Cossacks took to the outhouses; squatted, ran, called in the
+aid of fire, their constant friend: above 400 of them were in some
+big barn, or range of straw houses; and set fire to it,--but could
+not get out for Hussars; the Hussars were at the outgate: Not a
+devil of you! said the Hussars; and the whole four hundred perished
+there, choked, burnt, or slain by the Hussars,--and this poor
+Planet was at length rid of them. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> v. 166.]
+
+Friedrich sends for his tent-equipages; and the Army pitches its
+camp in two big lines, running north and south, looking towards the
+Russian side of things; Friedrich's tent in front of the first
+line; a warrior King among his people, who have had a day's work of
+it. The Russian loss turns out, when counted, to have been 21,529
+killed, wounded and missing, 7,990 of them killed; the Prussian
+sum-total is 11,390 (above the Prussian third man), of whom 3,680
+slain. And on the shores of Acheron northward yonder, there still
+is a simmering. And far and wide the country is alight with
+incendiary fires,--many devils still abroad. Excellency Mitchell,
+about eight in the evening, is sent for by the King; finds various
+chief Generals, Seidlitz among them, on their various businesses
+there; congratulates "on the noble victory [not so conclusive
+hitherto] which Heaven has granted your Majesty." "Had it not been
+for him," said Friedrich,--"Had it not been for him, things would
+have had a bad look by this time!" and turned his sun-eyes upon
+Seidlitz, with a fine expression in them. [Preuss, ii. 153.
+Mitchell (ii. 432) mentions the Interview, nothing of Seidlitz.]
+To which Seidlitz's reply, I find, was an embarrassed blush and of
+articulate only, "Hm, no, ha, it was your Majesty's Cavalry that
+did their duty,--but Wakenitz [my second] does deserve promotion!"
+--which Wakenitz, not in a too overflowing measure, got.
+
+Fermor, during the night-watches, having cobbled himself into some
+kind of ranks or rows, moves down well westward of Zabern Hollow;
+to the Drewitz Heath, where he once before lay, and there makes his
+bivouac in the wood, safe under the fir-trees, with the Zabern
+ground to front of him. By the above reckoning, 28 or 29,000 still
+hang to Fermor, or float vaporously round him; with Friedrich, in
+his two lines, are some 18,000:--in whole, 46,000 tired mortals
+sleeping thereabouts; near 12,000 others have fallen into a deeper
+sleep, not liable to be disturbed;--and of the wounded on the
+field, one shudders to imagine.
+
+Next day, Saturday, 26th, Fermor, again brought into some kind of
+rank, and safe beyond the quaggy Zabern ground, sent out a
+proposal, "That there be Truce of Three Days for burying the
+dead!"--Dohna, who happened to be General in command there,
+answers, "That it is customary for the Victor to take charge of
+burying the slain; that such proposal is surprising, and quite
+inadmissible, in present circumstances." Fermor, in the mean while,
+had drawn himself out, fronting his late battle-field and the
+morning sun; and began cannonading across the Zabern ground;
+too far off for hitting, but as if still intending fight: to which
+the Prussians replied with cannon, and drew out before their tents
+in fighting order. In both armies there was question, or talk, of 
+attacking anew; but in both "there was want of ammunition," want of
+real likelihood. On Fermor's side, that of "attacking" could be
+talk only, and on Friedrich's, besides the scarcity of ammunition,
+all creatures, foot and especially horse, were so worn out with
+yesterday's work, it was not judged practically expedient. A while
+before noon, the Prussians retired to their Camp again;
+leaving only the artillery to respond, so far as needful, and
+bow-wow across the Zabern ground, till the Russians lay down again.
+
+Friedrich's Hussars knew of the Russian WAGENBURG, or general
+baggage reservoirs, at Klein Kamin, by this time. The Hussars had
+been in it, last night; rummaging extensively, at discretion for
+some time; and had brought away much money and portable plunder.
+Why Friedrich, who lay direct between Fermor and his Wagenburg, did
+not, this day, extinguish said Wagenburg, I do not know; but guess
+it may have been a fault of omission, in the great welter this was
+now grown to be to the weary mind. Beyond question, if one had
+blown up Fermor's remaining gunpowder, and carried off or burnt his
+meal-sacks, he must have cowered away all the faster towards
+Landsberg to seek more. Or perhaps Friedrich now judged it
+immaterial, and a question only of hours?
+
+About midnight of Saturday-Sunday, there again rose bow-wowing,
+bellowing of Russian cannon; not from beyond the Zabern ground this
+time, nor stationary anywhere, but from the south some transient
+part of it, and not far off;--one ball struck a carriage near the
+King's tent, and shattered it. Thick mist mantles everything, and
+it is difficult to know what the Russians have on hand in their
+sylvan seclusions. After a time, it becomes manifest the Russians
+are on retreat; winding round, through the southern woods, behind
+Zorndorf and the charred Villages, to Klein Kamin, Landsberg way.
+Friedrich, following now on the heel of them, finds all got to
+Klein Kamin, to breakfast there in their Wagenburg refectory,--
+sharply vigilant, many FLECHES (little arrow-shaped redoubts, so
+named) and much artillery round them. Nothing considerable to be
+done upon them, now or afterwards, except pick up stragglers, and
+distress their rear a little. The King himself, in the first
+movement, was thought to be in alarming peril, such a blaze of
+case-shot rose upon him, as he went reconnoitring foremost of all.
+[Tempelhof, ii. 216-238; Tielcke, ii. 79-154; Archenholtz, i.
+253-264; <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> v. 156-179 (with
+many LISTS, private LETTERS and the like details); &c. &c.]
+
+And this was, at last, the end of Zorndorf Battle; on the third day
+this. Was there ever seen such a fight of Theseus and the Minotaur!
+Theseus, rapid, dexterous, with Heaven's lightning in his eyes,
+seizing the Minotaur; lassoing him by the hinder foot, then by the
+right horn; pouring steel and destruction into him, the very dust
+darkening all the air. Minotaur refusing to die when killed;
+tumbling to and fro upon its Theseus; the two lugging and tugging,
+flinging one another about, and describing figures of 8 round each
+other for three days before it ended. Minotaur walking off on his
+own feet, after all. It was the bloodiest battle of the Seven-Years
+War; one of the most furious ever fought; such rage possessing the
+individual elements; rage unusual in modern wars. Must have altered
+Friedrich's notion of the Russians, when he next comes to speak
+with Keith. It was not till the fourth day hence (August 31st), so
+unattackably strong was this position at Klein Kamin, that the
+Russian Minotaur would fairly get to its feet a second time, and
+slowly stagger off, in real earnest, Landsberg way and Konigsberg
+way;--Friedrich right glad to leave Dohna in attendance on it;
+and hasten off (September 2d) towards Saxony and Prince Henri,
+where his presence is now become very needful.
+
+ 
+MAP GOES HERE	FACING PAGE 138, BOOK XVIII---------
+
+
+Fermor, walking off in this manner,--not till the third day, nay
+not conclusively till the seventh day, after Zorndorf,--strove at
+first to consider himself victorious. "I passed the night on the
+field of battle [or NOT far from it, for good reasons, Mutzel being
+bridgeless]: may not I, in the language of enthusiasm, be
+considered conqueror? Here are 26 of their cannon, got when I cried
+'Arah' prematurely. (Where the 103 pieces of my own are, and my 27
+flags, and my Army-chest and sundries? Dropped somewhere; they will
+probably turn up again!)" thinks Fermor,--or strives to think, and
+says. So that, at Petersburg, at Paris and Vienna, in the next
+three weeks, there were TE-DEUMS, Ambrosian chantings, fires-of-
+joy; and considerable arguing among the Gazetteers on both parts,--
+till the dust settled, and facts appeared as they were. To the
+effect: "TE DEUM non LAUDAMUS; alas no, we must retract; and it was
+good gunpowder thrown after bad!"
+
+On always homewards, but at its own pace, waited on by Dohna, goes
+the Russian Monster: violently case-shotting if you prick into its
+rearward parts. One Palmbach,--under Romanzow, I think, who had not
+taken part in the Battle, being out Stettin way, and unable to join
+till now,--Palmbach, with a Detachment of 15,000, which was thought
+sufficient for the object, did try to make a dash on Colberg,--how
+happy had we any port on the Baltic, to feed us in this Country!
+But though Colberg is the paltriest crow's-nest (BICOQUE),
+according to all engineers, and is defended only by 700 militia
+(the Colonel of them, one Heyde, a gray old Half-pay, not yet
+renowned in the soldier world, as he here came to be), Palmbach,
+with his best diligence, could make nothing of it; but, after
+battering, bombarding, even scalading, and in all ways blurting and
+blazing at a mighty rate for four weeks, and wasting a great deal
+of gunpowder and 2,000 Russian lives, withdrew on those remarkable
+terms. [In <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> v. 349-365
+("3d-3lst October, 1758"), a complete and minute JOURNAL of this
+First Siege of Colberg, which is interesting to read of, as all the
+Three of them are.] And did then, as tail of Fermor, what Fermor
+and the Russian Monster was universally doing, make off at a good
+pace,--having nothing to live upon farther,--and vanish from those
+Countries, to the relief of Dohna and mankind.
+
+September 2d, Friedrich, leaving all that, had marched for Saxony;
+his presence urgently required there. Daun ought to be far on with
+the conquest of that Country? Might have had it, say judges, if he
+had been as swift as some.--At Zorndorf, among the Russian
+Prisoners were certain Generals, Soltikof, Czernichef, Sulkowski
+the Pole, proud people in their own eyes: no lodging for them but
+the cellars of Custrin. Russian Generals complained, "Is this a
+lodging for Field-Officers of rank!" Friedrich was not used to
+profane swearing, or vituperative outbursts; but he answered to the
+effect: "Silence, ye incendiary individuals. Is there a choice left
+of lodgings, and for you above others!" Upon which they lay silent
+for some days, till better suited; in fact, till exchanged,--and
+perhaps will soon turn up on us again.
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV.
+
+BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH.
+
+So soon as Friedrich quitted Bohemia and Silesia for his Russian
+Enterprise, there rose high question at Vienna, "To what shall our
+Daun now turn himself?" A Daun, a Reichs Army, free for new
+employment; in Saxony not much to oppose them, in Silesia almost
+nothing in comparison. "Recapture of Silesia?" Yes truly; that is
+the steady pole-star at Vienna. But they have no Magazines in
+Silesia, no Siege-furnitures; and the season is far spent. They
+decide that there shall be a stroke upon Dresden, and recovery of
+Saxony, in Friedrich's absence. Nothing there at present but a
+Prince Henri, weak in numbers, say one to two of the Reichs Army by
+itself. Let the Reichs Army rise now, and advance through the Metal
+Mountains from southeast on Prince Henri; let Daun circle round on
+him, through the Lausitz from northeast: cannot they extinguish
+Henri between them; snatch Dresden, a weak ill-fortified place, by
+sudden onslaught, and recapture Saxony? That will be magnanimous to
+our august Allies;--and that will be an excellent scaffolding for
+recapture of Silesia next year. And cannot Daun leave a Force in
+the Silesian vicinities,--Deville with so many thousands, Harsch
+with so many,--to besiege one of their Frontier Places; Neisse, for
+example? Siege-furnitures to come from Mahren: Neisse is not
+farther from Olmutz than Olmutz was from it.
+
+That was the scheme fallen upon; now getting executed while
+Friedrich is at Zorndorf well away. And that, if readers fix it
+intelligently in their memory, will suffice to introduce to them
+the few words more that can be allowed us here upon it. A very few
+words, compressed to the utmost,--merely as preface to Hochkirch,
+whither we must hasten; Hochkirch being the one incident which,
+except to studious soldiers, has now and here any interest, out of
+the very many incidents which, then and there, were so intensely
+interesting to all mankind. To readers who are curious, and will
+take with them any poorest authentic Outline of the Localities
+concerned, the following condensed Note will not be unintelligible.
+
+
+DAUN AND THE REICHS ARMY INVADE SAXONY, IN FRIEDRICH'S ABSENCE.
+
+"Daun, pushing out with his best speed, along the Bohemian-Silesian
+border, had got to Zittau AUGUST 17th; which poor City is to be his
+basis and storehouse; the greatest activity and wagoning now
+visible there,"--among the burnt walls getting rebuilt. And in the
+same days, Zweibruck and his Reichs Army are vigorously afoot;
+Zweibruck pushing across the Metal Mountains, the fastest he can;
+intending to plant himself in Pirna Country. Not to mention General
+Dombale, Zweibruck's Austrian Second; who has the Austrian 15,000
+with him; and, by way of preface, has emerged to westward, in
+Zwickau-Tschopau Country; calculating that Prince Henri will not be
+able to attend to him just now. And in effect Prince Henri, intent
+upon Zweibruck and the Pirna Country, takes position in the old
+Prussian ground there ('head-quarter Gross Seidlitz,' as in 1756);
+and can only leave a Detachment in Tschopau Country to wait upon
+Dombale; who does at least shoot out Croat parties, 'quite across
+Saxony, to Halle all the way,' and entertain the Gazetteers, if he
+can do little real mischief.
+
+"AUGUST 19th, from Zittau, Daun, after short pause, again pushes
+forward,--nothing but Ziethen attending him in the distance, till
+we see whitherward;--Margraf Karl waiting impatient, at Grussau,
+till Ziethen see. [Tempelhof, ii. 258, 260 et seq.] Daun, soon
+after Zittau, shoots out Loudon, Brandenburg way, as if
+magnanimously intending 'co-operation with the Russians;' which
+would give Daun pleasure, could it be done without cost.
+Loudon does despatch a 500 hussars to Frankfurt [Friedrich now gone
+for Custrin], who, I think, carry a Letter for Fermor there;
+but lose it by the way,"--for the benefit of readers, if they will
+wait. "Loudon captures a poor little place in Brandenburg itself;
+bullies it into surrender, after a day (the very day of Zorndorf
+Battle, 'August 25th'):--place called Peitz, garrisoned by forty-
+five invalids; who go on 'free withdrawal,' poor old souls, and
+leave their exiguous stock of salt-victual and military furnitures
+to Loudon. [In <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> v. 229-232,
+the "Capitulation" IN EXTENSO.] Upon which Loudon whirls back out
+of those Countries; finding his skirts trodden on by Ziethen,--who
+now sees what Daun and he are at; and warns Margraf Karl [properly
+Keith, who has now joined again, as real president or chief] That
+HITHER is the way. Margraf Karl, on the slip for some time past,
+starts from Grussau instantly (I should guess, not above 25,000 of
+all arms); leaving Fouquet with perhaps 10,000 to do his utmost,
+when Generals Harsch and Deville with their 20 or 30,000 come upon
+Silesia and him,--as indeed they are already doing;
+already blockading Neisse, more or less, with an eye to besieging
+it so soon as possible.
+
+"Meanwhile, Serene Highness of Zweibruck, the Reichsfolk and some
+Austrians with him, prefaced by Dombale more to westward, is
+wending into Pirna Country; and, in spite of what Prince Henri can
+do (Mayor and the Free Corps shining diligent, and Henri one of the
+watchfulest of men), Zweibruck does get in; sets Maguire with
+Austrians upon besieging Pirna, that is to say, the Sonnenstein of
+Pirna; 3d-5th SEPTEMBER, gets the Sonnenstein, a thought sooner
+than was counted on; [In <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
+v. 223-228, account of this poor Siege, and of the movements before
+and after.] and roots himself there,--'head-quarters in Struppen'
+again, 'bridge at Ober-Raden' again, all as in 1756; which, if
+nothing else can well do it, may give his Highness a momentary
+interest with some readers here. Prince Henri is at Gross Seidlitz,
+alive every fibre of him: but with Daun circling round to northward
+on his left, intending evidently to take him in flank or rear;
+with Dombale already to rear, in the above circumstances, on his
+right; and Zweibruck himself lying here in front free to act, and
+impregnable if acted upon: what is Prince Henri to do? It is for
+Henri's rear, not his flank, that Daun aims: AUGUST 26th, Daun, who
+had got to Gorlitz, a march or two from Zittau, started again at
+his best step by the Bautzen Highway towards Meissen Bridge, a 70
+or 80 miles down the Elbe: there Daun intends to cross, and to
+double back upon Dresden and Prince Henri; who will thus find
+himself enclosed between THREE fires,--if two were not enough, or
+even if one (the Daun one itself, or the Zweibruck itself, not to
+count the Dombale), in such strength as Prince Henri has!
+
+"A lost Prince Henri,--if there be not shift in him, if there be
+not help coming to him! Prince Henri, seeing how it was, drew back
+from Gross Seidlitz; with beautiful suddenness, one night;
+unmolested: in the morning, Zweibruch's hussars find him posted
+----------------------------------  ^ (sic) ?k ------------
+
+
+inexpugnable on the Heights of Gahmig,--which is nearer Dresden a
+good step; nearer Dombale; and not so ready to be enclosed by Daun,
+without enclosure of Dresden too. Prince Henri's manoeuvring, in
+this difficult situation, is the admiration of military men: how he
+stuck by Gahmig; but threw out, in the vital points, little camps,
+--'camp of Kesselsdorf' (a place memorable), on the west of
+Dresden; and on the east, in the north suburb of Dresden itself
+across the River (should we have to go across the River for Daun's
+sake), a 'strong abatis;' and neglected nothing; self and everybody
+under him, lively as eagles to make themselves dangerous, Mayer in
+particular distinguishing himself much. Prince Henri would have
+been a hard morsel for Daun. But beyond that, there is help on
+the road."
+
+
+FRIEDRICH INTERVENING, DAUN DRAWS BACK; INTRENCHES HIMSELF IN
+NEIGHBORHOOD TO DRESDEN AND PIRNA; FRIEDRICH FOLLOWING HIM.
+FOUR ARMIES STANDING THERE, IN DEAD-LOCK, FOR A MONTH;
+WITH ISSUE, A FLANK-MARCH ON THE PART OF FRIEDRICH'S ARMY,
+WHICH HALTS AT HOCHKIRCH (September 12th-October 10th, 1758).
+
+Daun, since August 26th, is striding towards Meissen Bridge;
+without rest, day after day, at the very top of his speed,--which I
+find is "nine miles a day;" [Tempelhof, ii. 261.] Bos being heavy
+of foot, at his best. September 1st, Daun has got within ten miles
+of Meissen Bridge, when--Here is news, my friends; King of Prussia
+has beaten our poor Russians; will soon be in full march this way!
+King of Prussia and Margraf Karl both bending hitherward; at the
+rate, say, of "nineteen miles a day," instead of nine:--Meissen
+Bridge is not the thing we shall want! Daun instantly calls halt,
+at this news; waits, intrenches; and, in a day or two, finding the
+news true, hurries to rearward all he can. From the Russian side
+too, Daun has heard of Zorndorf, and the grand "Victory" of Fermor
+there; but knows well, by this sudden re-emergence of the Anti-
+Fermor, what kind of Victory it is.
+
+Was it here while waiting about Meissen, or where was it, that Daun
+got his Letter to Fermor answered in that singular way? The Letter
+of two weeks ago,--carried by Loudon's Hussars, or by whomsoever,--
+for certain, it was retorted or returned upon Daun; not as if from
+the Dead-Letter Office, but with an Answer he little expected!
+Here is what record I have; very vague for a well-known little fact
+of sparkling nature:--
+
+"A curious Letter fell into Friedrich's hands [Bearer, I always
+guess, the Loudon Hussar-Captain with his 500, pretending to form
+junction with Fermor], Prussian Hussars picking it up somewhere,--
+date, place, circumstances, blurred into oblivion in those poor
+Books; Letter itself indisputable enough, and Answer following on
+it; Letter and Answer substantially to this effect:--
+
+    "DAUN TO FERMOR [Probably from Zittau, by Loudon's Hussars].
+
+"Your Excellenz does not know that wily Enemy as I do. By no means
+get into battle with such a one. Cautiously manoeuvre about;
+detain him there, till I have got my stroke in Saxony done:
+don't try fighting him.           DAUN."
+
+  "ANSWER AS FROM FERMOR (Zorndorf once done, Daun by the first
+      opportunity got his Answer, duly signed 'Fermor,' but
+           evidently in a certain King's handwriting):--
+
+"Your Excellenz was in the right to warn me against a cunning
+Enemy, whom you knew better than I. Here have I tried fighting him,
+and got beaten. Your unfortunate                      "FERMOR." 
+[Muller, <italic> Kurzgefasste Beschreibung der drei Schlesischen
+Kriege <end italic> (Berlin, 1755); in whom, alone of all the
+reporters, is the story given in an intelligible form. This
+Muller's Book is a meritoriously brief Summary, incorrect in no
+essential particular, and with all the Battle-Plans on one
+copperplate: LIEUTENANT Muller, this one; not PROFESSOR Muller,
+ALIAS Schottmuller by any means!]
+
+September 9th, Friedrich and Margraf Karl, correct to their
+appointment, meet at Grossenhayn, some miles north of Meissen and
+its Bridge; by which time Daun is clean gone again, back well above
+Dresden again, strongly posted at Stolpen (a place we once heard
+of, in General Haddick's time, last Year), well in contact with
+Daun's Pirna friends across the River, and out of dangerous
+neighborhoods. Friedrich and the Margraf have followed Daun at
+quick step; but Daun would pause nowhere, till he got to Stolpen,
+among the bushy gullets and chasms. September 12th, Friedrich had
+speech of Henri, and the pleasure of dining with him in Dresden.
+Glad to meet again, under fortunate management on both parts;
+and with much to speak and consult about.
+
+A day or two before, there had lain (or is said to have lain) a
+grand scheme in Daun: Zweibruck to burst out from Pirna by
+daybreak, and attack the Camp of Gahmig in front (35,000 against
+20,000); Daun to cross the River on pontoons, some hours before,
+under cloud of night, and be ready on rear and left flank of Gahmig
+(with as many supplemental thousands as you like): what can save
+Prince Henri? Beautiful plan; on which there were personal meetings
+and dinings together by Zweibruck and Daun; but nothing done.
+[Tempelhof, ii. 262-265.] At the eleventh hour, say the Austrian
+accounts, Zweibruck sent word, "Impossible to-morrow; cannot get in
+my Out-Parties in time!"--and next day, here is Friedrich come, and
+a collapse of everything. Or perhaps there never seriously was such
+a plan? Certain it is, Daun takes camp at Stolpen, a place known to
+him, one of the strongest posts in Germany; intrenches himself to
+the teeth,--good rear-guard towards Zittau and the Magazines;
+River and Pirna on our left flank; Loudon strong and busy on our
+right flank, barring the road to Bautzen;-- and obstinately sits
+there, a very bad tooth in the jaw of a certain King; not to be
+extracted by the best kinds of forceps and the skilfulest art, for
+nearly a month to come. Four Armies, Friedrich's, Henri's, Daun's,
+Zweibruck's, all within sword-stroke of each other,--the universal
+Gazetteer world is on tiptoe. But except Friedrich's eager
+shiftings and rubbings upon Stolpen (west side, north, and at
+length northeast side), all is dead-lock, and nothing comes of it.
+
+Friedrich has his food convenient from Dresden; but a road to
+Bautzen withal is what he cannot do without;--and there lies the
+sorrow, and the ACHING, as this tooth knows well, and this jaw
+well! Harsch and Deville are busy upon Neisse, have Neisse under
+blockade, perhaps upon Kosel too, for some time past, [Neisse
+"blockaded more and more" since August 4th (Kosel still earlier,
+but only by Pandour people); not completely so till September 30th,
+or even till October 26th: <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
+v. 268-270.] and are carting the siege-stock to begin bombardment:
+a road to Silesia, before very long, Friedrich must and will have.
+Friedrich's operations on Daun in this post are patiently artful,
+and curious to look upon, but beyond description here: enough to
+say, that in the second week he makes his people hut themselves
+(weather wet and bad); and in the fourth week, finding that nothing
+contrivable would provoke Daun into fighting,--he loads at Dresden
+provisions for I think nine days; makes, from two or from three
+sides, a sudden spurt upon Loudon, who is Daun's northern outpost;
+brushes Loudon hastily away; and himself takes the road for
+Bautzen, by Daun's right flank, thrown bare in this manner.
+[Tempelhof, ii. 278.]
+
+Road for Bautzen; which is the road for Zittau withal, for Daun's
+bread-basket, as well as for Neisse and Harsch! Nine days'
+provision; that is our small outfit, that and our own right-hands;
+and the waste world lies all ahead. OCTOBER 1st, Retzow, as
+vanguard, sweeps out the few Croats from Bautzen, deposits his
+meal-wagons there; occupies Hochkirch, and the hilly environs to
+east; is to take possession of Weissenberg especially, and of the
+Stromberg Hill and other strong points: which Retzow punctually
+does, forgetting nothing,--except perhaps the Stromberg, not quite
+remembered in time; a thing of small consequence in Retzow's view,
+since all else had gone right.
+
+Hearing of which, Daun, with astonishment, finds that he must quit
+those beautifully chasmy fastnesses of Stolpen, and look to his
+bread; which is getting to lie under the enemy's feet, if Zittau
+road be left yonder as it is. OCTOBER 5th, after councils of war
+and deliberation enough, Daun gets under way; [Ib. ii. 279.]
+cautiously, favored by a night very dark and wet, glides through to
+right of Friedrich's people, softly along between Bautzen and the
+Pirna Country; nobody molesting him, so dark and wet: and after one
+other march in those bosky solitudes, sits down at Kittlitz,--ahead
+or to east of Bautzen, of Hochkirch, of Retzow and all Friedrich's
+people;--and again sets to palisading and intrenching there.
+Kittlitz, near Lobau, there is Daun's new head-quarter;
+Lobau Water, with its intricate hollows, his line of defence:
+his posts going out a mile to north and to south of Kittlitz.
+And so sits; once more blocking Zittau road, and quietly waiting
+what Friedrich will do.
+
+Friedrich is at Bautzen since the 7th; impatient enough to be
+forward, but must not till a second larger provision-convoy from
+Dresden come in. Convoy once in, Friedrich hastens off, Tuesday,
+10th October, towards Weissenberg Country, where Retzow is;
+some ten or twelve miles to eastward,--Zittau-ward, if that chance
+to suit us; Silesia-ward, as is sure to suit. At the "Pass of
+Jenkowitz," short way from Bautzen, Pandours attempt our baggage;
+need to be battered off, and again off: which apprises Friedrich
+that Daun's whole Army is ahead in the neighborhood somewhere.
+Marching on, Friedrich, from the knoll of Hochkirch, shoulder of
+the southern Hills, gets complete view of Daun,--stretching north
+and south, at right angles to the Zittau roads and to Friedrich, in
+the way we described;--and is a little surprised, and I could guess
+piqued, at seeing Daun in such a state of forwardness.
+"Encamp here, then!" he says,--here, on this row of Heights
+parallel to Daun, within a mile of Daun: just here, I tell you!
+under the very nose of Daun, who is above two to one of us; and see
+what Daun will do. Marwitz, his favorite Adjutant, one of those
+free-spoken Marwitzes, loyal, skilful, but liable to stiff fits,
+takes the liberty to remonstrate, argue; says at length, He,
+Marwitz, dare not be concerned in marking out such an encampment;
+not he, for his poor part! And is put under arrest; and another
+Adjutant does it; cannon playing on his people and him while
+engaged in the operation.
+
+Friedrich's obstinate rashness, this Tuesday Evening, has not
+wanted its abundant meed of blame,--rendered so emphatic by what
+befell on Saturday morning next. His somewhat too authoritative
+fixity; a certain radiancy of self-confidence, dangerous to a man;
+his sovereign contempt of Daun, as an inert dark mass, who durst
+undertake nothing: all this is undeniable, and worth our
+recognition in estimating Friedrich. One considerably extenuating
+circumstance does at last turn up,--in the shape of a new piece of
+blame to the erring Friedrich; his sudden anger, namely, against
+the meritorious General Retzow; his putting Retzow under arrest
+that Tuesday Evening: "How, General Retzow? You have not taken hold
+of the Stromberg for me!" That is the secret of Retzow: and on
+studying the ground you will find that the Stromberg, a blunt
+tabular Hill, of good height, detached, and towering well up over
+all that region, might have rendered Friedrich's position perfectly
+safe. "Seize me the Stromberg to-morrow morning, the first thing!"
+ordered Friedrich. And a Detachment went accordingly; but found
+Daun's people already there,--indisposed to go; nay determined not
+to go, and getting reinforced to unlimited amounts. So that the
+Stromberg was left standing, and remained Daun's; furnished with
+plenty of cannon by Daun. Retzow's arrest, Retzow being a steady
+favorite of Friedrich's, was only of a few hours: "pardonable that
+oversight," thinks Friedrich, though it came to cost him dear.
+For the rest, I find, Friedrich's keeping of this Camp, without the
+Stromberg, was intended to end, the third day hence:
+"Saturday, 14th, then, since Friday proves impossible!" Friedrich
+had settled. And it did end Saturday, 14th, though at an earlier
+HOUR, and with other results than had been expected. Keith said,
+"The Austrians deserve to be hanged if they don't attack us here."
+"We must hope they are more afraid of us than even of the gallows,"
+answered Friedrich. A very dangerous Camp; untenable without the
+Stromberg. Let us try to understand it, and Daun's position to it,
+in some slight degree.
+
+"Hochkirch (HIGHkirk) is an old Wendish-Saxon Village, standing
+pleasantly on its Hill-top, conspicuous for miles round on all
+sides, or on all but the south side, where it abuts upon other
+Heights, which gradually rise into Hills a good deal higher than
+it. The Village hangs confusedly, a jumble of cottages and
+colegarths, on the crown and north slope of the Height;
+thatched, in part tiled, and built mostly of rough stone blocks, in
+our time,--not of wood, as probably in Friedrich's. A solid,
+sluttishly comfortable-looking Village; with pleasant hay-fields,
+or long narrow hay-stripes (each villager has his stripe), reaching
+down to the northern levels. The Church is near the top;
+Churchyard, and some little space farther, are nearly horizontal
+ground, till the next Height begins sloping up again towards the
+woody Hills southward. The view from this little esplanade atop,
+still better from the Church belfry, is wide and pretty. Free on
+all sides except the south: pleasant Heights and Hollows, of
+arable, of wood, or pasture; well watered by rushing Brooks, all
+making northward, direct for Spree (the Berlin Spree), or else into
+the Lobau Water, which is the first big branch of Spree.
+
+"The place is still partly of Wendish speech; the Parson has to
+preach one half of the Sunday in Wend, the other in German.
+Among the Hills to south," well worth noting at present, "is one
+called CZARNABOG, or 'Devil's Hill;' where the Wendish Devil and
+his Witches (equal to any German on his Blocksberg, or
+preternatural Bracken of the Harz) hold their annual WITCHES'-
+SABBATH,--a thing not to be contemplated without a shudder by the
+Wendish mind. Thereabouts, and close from Hochkirch southward, all
+is shadowy intricacy of thicket and wild wood. Northward too from
+Hochkirch, and all about, I perceive the scene was woodier then
+than now;--and must have looked picturesque enough (had anybody
+been in quest of that), with the multifarious uniforms, and tented
+people sprinkled far and wide among the leafy red-and-yellow of
+October, 1758." [Tourist's Note, September, 1858.]
+
+In the Village of Wuischke, precisely at the northern base of that
+shaggy Czarnabog or Devil's Hill, stand Loudon and 3,000 Croats and
+grenadiers, as the extreme left of Daun's position. Wuischke is
+nearly straight south of Hochkirch; so far westward has Loudon
+pushed forward with his Croats, hidden among the Hills;
+though Daun's general position lies a good mile to east of
+Friedrich's:--irregularly north and south, both Friedrich and Daun;
+the former ignorant what Croats and Loudonries, there may be among
+those Devil's Hills to his right; the latter not ignorant.
+Friedrich's right wing, Keith in command of it, stretches to
+Hochkirch and a little farther: beyond Hochkirch, it has Four flank
+Battalions in potence form, with proper vedettes and pickets;
+and above all, with a strong Battery of Twenty Guns, which it
+maintains on the next Height immediately adjoining Hochkirch, and
+perceptibly higher than Hochkirch. This is the finis of Keith on
+his right; and--except those vedettes, and pickets of Free-corps
+people, thrown out a little way ahead into the bushes, on that
+side--Friedrich's right wing knows nothing of the shaggy elevations
+horrent with wood, which lie to southward; and merely intends to
+play its Twenty Cannon upon them, should they give birth to
+anything. This is Friedrich's posture on his right or south wing.
+
+From Hochkirch northward or nearly so, but sprinkled about in all
+the villages and points of strength, as far up as Drehsa and beyond
+Drehsa, to near Kotitz, a less important village, Friedrich extends
+about four miles; centre at Rodewitz, where his own head-quarter
+is, above two miles north of Hochkirch. Not far from Rodewitz, but
+a little to left and ahead, stands his second and best Battery, of
+Thirty Guns; ready to play upon Lauska, a poor village, and its
+roadway, should the Austrians try anything there, or from their
+Stromberg post, which is a good mile behind Lauska. His strength,
+in these lines, some count to be only 28,000, or less. Four or five
+miles to northeast, in and behind Weissenberg (which we used to
+know last summer), lies Retzow, with perhaps 10 or 12,000, which
+will bring him up to 40,000, were they properly joined with him as
+a left wing. Daun's force counts 90,000; with Friedrich lying under
+his nose in this insolent manner.
+
+Daun's head-quarter, as we said, is Kittlitz; a Village some two
+miles short of Lobau, in the direction southeast of Friedrich;
+perhaps five miles to southeast of Rodewitz, Friedrich's lodging.
+It is close upon the Bautzen-Zittau Highway; Zittau some twenty
+miles to south of it, Herrnhuth and the pacific Brethren about
+half-way thither. Kittlitz lies more to south than Hochkirch
+itself; and Daun's outposts, as we saw, circle quite round among
+those Devil's Hills, and envelop Friedrich's right flank.
+But Daun's main force lies chiefly northward, and well to west, of
+Kittlitz; parallel to Friedrich, and eastward of him;
+with elaborate intrenchments; every village, brook, bridge, height
+and bit of good ground, Stromberg to end with, punctually secured.
+Obliquely over the Stromberg, holding the Stromberg and certain
+Villages to southeast and to northwest of it, lies D'Ahremberg, as
+right wing: about 20,000 he, put into oblique potence; looking into
+Kotitz, which is Friedrich's extreme left; and in a good measure
+dividing Friedrich from the Retzow 10,000. And lastly, as reserve,
+in front of Reichenbach, eight or nine miles to east of all that,
+lies the Prince of Baden-Durlach, 25,000 or so; barring Retzow on
+that side, and all attempts on the Silesian Road there.
+Daun's lines, not counting in the southern outposts or Devil's-Hill
+parties, are considerably longer than Friedrich's, and also
+considerably deeper. The two head-quarters are about five miles
+apart: but the two fronts--divided by a brook and good hollow
+running here (one of many such, making all for Lobau Water)--are
+not half a mile apart. Towards Hochkirch and the top of this brook,
+the opposing posts are quite crammed close on one another;
+divided only by their hollow. Many brooks, each with a definite
+hollow, run tinkling about here, swift but straitened to get out;
+especially Lobau Water, which receives them all, has to take a
+quite meandering circling course (through Daun's quarters and
+beyond them) before it can disembogue in Spree, and decidedly set
+out for Berlin under that new name. The Landscape--seen from
+Hochkirch Village, still better from the Church-steeple which lifts
+you high above it, and commands all round except to the south,
+where Friedrich's battery-height quite shuts you in, and hides even
+those Devil's Hills beyond--is cheerful and pretty.
+Village belfries, steeples and towers; airy green ridges of
+heights, and intricate greener valleys: now rather barer than you
+like. The Tourist tells me, in Friedrich's time there must have
+been a great deal more of wood than now.
+
+
+WHAT ACTUALLY BEFELL AT HOCHKIRCH
+(Saturday, 14th October, 1758).
+
+Friedrich, for some time,--probably ever since Wednesday morning,
+when he found the Stromberg was not to be his,--had decided to be
+out of this bad post. In which, clearly enough, nothing was to be
+done, unless Daun would attempt something else than more and more
+intrenching and palisading himself. Friedrich on the second day
+(Thursday, 12th) rode across to Weissenberg, to give Retzow his
+directions, and take view of the ground: "Saturday night, Herr
+Retzow, sooner it cannot be [Friedrich had aimed at Friday night,
+but finds the Provision-convoy cannot possibly be up];
+Saturday night, in all silence, we sweep round out of this,--we and
+you;--hurl Baden-Durlach about his business; and are at Schops and
+Reichenbach, and the Silesian Highway open, next morning, to us!"
+[Tempelhof, ii. 320.] Quietly everything is speeding on towards
+this consummation, on Friedrich's part. But on Daun's part there
+is--started, I should guess, on the very same Thursday--another
+consummation getting ready, which is to fall out on Saturday
+MORNING, fifteen hours before that other, and entirely supersede
+that other!--
+
+Keith's opinion, that the Austrians deserve to be hanged if they
+don't attack us here, is also Loudon's opinion and Lacy's, and
+indeed everybody's,--and at length Daun's own; who determines to
+try something here, if never before or after. This plan, all judges
+admit, was elaborate and good; and was well executed too,--Daun
+himself presiding over the most critical part of the execution.
+A plan to have ruined almost any Army, except this Prussian one and
+the Captain it chanced to have. A universal camisado, or surprisal
+of Friedrich in his Camp, before daylight: everybody knows that it
+took effect (Hochkirch, Saturday, 14th October, 1758, 5 A.M. of a
+misty morning); nobody expects of an unassisted fellow-creature
+much light on so doubly dark a thing. But the truth is, there are
+ample accounts, exact, though very chaotic; and the thing, steadily
+examined, till its essential features extricate themselves from the
+unessential, proves to be not quite so unintelligible, and nothing
+like so destructive, overwhelming and ruinous as was supposed.
+
+Daun's plan is very elaborate, and includes a great many
+combinations; all his 90,000 to come into it, simultaneously or in
+succession. But the first and grandly vital part, mainspring and
+father to all the rest, is this: That Daun, in person, after
+nightfall of Friday, shall, with the pick of his force, say 30,000
+horse and foot, with all their artilleries and tools, silently quit
+his now position in front of Hochkirch, Friedrich's right wing.
+Shall sweep off, silently to southward and leftward, by Wuischke;
+thence westward and northward, by the northern base of those Devil
+Mountains, through the shaggy hollows and thick woods there,
+hitherto inhabited by Croats only, and unknown to the Prussians:
+forward, ever forward, through the night-watches that way; till he
+has fairly got to the flank of Hochkirch and Friedrich: Daun to be
+standing there, all round from the southern environs of Hochkirch,
+westward through the Woods, by Meschwitz, Steindorfel, and even
+north to Waditz (if readers will consult their Map), silently
+enclosing Friedrich, as in the bag of a net, in this manner;--ready
+every man and gun by about four on Saturday morning. Are to wait
+for the stroke of five in Hochkirch steeple; and there and then to
+begin business,--there first; but, on success THERE, the whole
+90,000 everywhere,--and to draw the strings on Friedrich, and bag
+and strangle his astonished people and him.
+
+The difficulty has been to keep it perfectly secret from so
+vigilant a man as Friedrich: but Daun has completely succeeded.
+Perhaps Friedrich's eyes have been a little dimmed by contempt of
+Daun: Daun, for the last two days especially, has been more
+diligent than ever to palisade himself on every point;
+nothing, seemingly, on hand but felling woods, building abatis,
+against some dangerous Lion's-spring. They say also, he detected a
+traitor in his camp; traitor carrying Letters to Friedrich under
+pretence of fresh eggs,--one of the eggs blown, and a Note of
+Daun's Procedures substituted as yolk. "You are dead, sirrah," said
+Daun; "hoisted to the highest gallows: Are not you? But put in a
+Note of my dictating, and your beggarly life is saved."
+Retzow Junior, though there is no evidence except of the
+circumstantial kind, thinks this current story may be true.
+[Retzow, i. 347.] Certain it is, neither Friedrich nor any of his
+people had the least suspicion of Daun's project, till the moment
+it exploded on them, when the clock at Hochkirch struck five.
+Daun, in the last two days, had been felling even more trees than
+they are aware of,--thousands of trees in those Devil's
+wildernesses to Friedrich's right; and has secretly hewn himself
+roads, passable by night for men and ammunition-wagons there:--and
+in front of Friedrich, especially Hochkirch way, Daun seems busier
+than ever felling wood, this Friday night; numbers of people
+running about with axes, with lanterns over there, as if in the
+push of hurry, and making a great deal of noise. "Intending retreat
+for Zittau to-morrow!" thinks Friedrich, as the false egg-yolk had
+taught him; or merely, "That poor precautionary fellow!" supposing
+the false yolk a myth. In short, Daun has got through his nocturnal
+wildernesses with perfect success. And stands, dreamt of by no
+enemy, in the places appointed for his 30,000 and him; and that
+poor old clock of Hochkirch, unweariedly grunting forward to the
+stroke of five, will strike up something it is little expecting!--
+
+The Prussians have vedettes, pickets and small outposts of Free-
+corps people scattered about within their border of that Austrian
+Wood, the body of which, about Hochkirch as everywhere else,
+belongs wholly to Croats. Of course there are guard-parties,
+sentries duly vigilant, in the big Battery to southeast of
+Hochkirch,--and along southwestward in that POTENCE, or fore-arm of
+Four Battalions, which are stationed there. Four good Battalions
+looking southward there, with Cavalry to right; Ziethen's Cavalry,
+--whose horses stand saddled through the night, ready always for
+the nocturnal "Pandourade," which seldom fails them. There, as
+elsewhere, are the due vigilances, watchmen, watch-fires. The rest
+of the Prussian Army is in its blankets, wholly asleep, while Daun
+stands waiting for the stroke of five.
+
+That Daun, bursting in with his chosen 30,000, will trample down
+the sleeping Prussian POTENCE at Hochkirch; capture its big Battery
+to left, its Village of Hochkirch to rear, and do extensive ruin on
+the whole right wing of Friedrich; rendering Friedrich everywhere
+an easy conquest to the rest of Daun's people, who stand, far and
+wide, duly posted and prepared, waiting only their signal from
+Hochkirch: much of this, all of it that had regard to Hochkirch
+Battery and Village, and the Prussians stationed there, Daun did
+execute. And readers, from the data they have got, must conceive
+the manner of it,--human description of the next Two Hours, about
+Hochkirch, in the thick darkness there, and stormful sudden inroad,
+and stormful resistance made, being manifestly an impossible thing.
+Nobody was "massacred in his bed" as the sympathetic gazetteers
+fancied; nobody was killed, that I hear of, without arms, in his
+hand: but plenty of people perished, fierce of humor, on both
+sides; and from half-past five till towards eight, there was a
+general blaze of fiery chaos pushing out ever and anon, swallowed
+in the belly of Night again, such as was seldom seen in this world.
+Instead of confused details, and wearisome enumeration of
+particulars, which nobody would listen to or understand, we will
+give one intelligent young gentleman's experience, our friend
+Tempelhof's, who stood in this part of the Prussian Line;
+experience distinct and indubitable to us; and which was pretty
+accurately symbolical, I otherwise see, of what befell on all
+points thereabouts. Faithfully copied, and in the essential parts
+not even abridged, here it is:--
+
+Tempelhof, at that time a subaltern of artillery, was stationed
+with a couple of 24-pounders in attendance on the Battalion
+Plothow, which with three others and some cavalry lay to the south
+side of Hochkirch, forming a kind of fore-arm or POTENCE there to
+right of the big Battery, with their rear to Hochkirch; and keeping
+vedettes and Free-corps parties spread out into the woods and
+Devil's Hills ahead. Tempelhof had risen about three, as usual;
+had his guns and gunners ready; and was standing by the watch-fire,
+"expecting the customary Pandourade," and what form it would take
+this morning. "Close on five o'clock; and not a mouse stirring!
+We are not to have our Pandourade, then?" On a sudden, noise bursts
+out; noise enough, sharp fire among the Free-corps people;
+fire growing ever sharper, noisier, for the next half-hour, but
+nothing whatever to be seen. "Battalion Plothow had soon got its
+clothes on, all to the spatterdashes; and took rank to right and
+left of the FLECHE, and of my two guns, in front of its post:
+but on account of the thick fog everything was totally dark.
+I fired off my cannons [shall we say straight southward?] to learn
+whether there was anything in front of us. No answer: 'Nothing
+there--Pshaw, a mere crackery (GEKNACKER) of Pandours and our Free-
+corps people, after all!' But the noise grew louder, and came ever
+nearer; I turned my guns towards it [southward, southeastward, or
+perhaps a gun each way?]--and here we had a salvo in response, from
+some battalions who seemed to be two hundred yards or so ahead.
+The Battalion Plothow hereupon gave fire; I too plied my cannons
+what I could,--and had perhaps delivered fifteen double shots from
+them, when at once I tumbled to the ground, and lost all
+consciousness" for some minutes or moments.
+
+Awakening with the blood running down his face, poor Tempelhof
+concluded it had been a musket-shot in the head; but on getting to
+his hands and knees, he found the place "full of Austrian
+grenadiers, who had crept in through our tents to rear; and that it
+had been a knock with the butt of the musket from one of those
+fellows, and not a bullet" that had struck him down.
+Battalion Plothow, assailed on all sides, resisted on all sides;
+and Tempelhof saw from the ground,--I suppose, by the embers of
+watch-fires, and by rare flashes of musketry, for they did not fire
+much, having no room, but smashed and stabbed and cut,--"an
+infantry fight which in murderous intensity surpasses imagination.
+I was taken prisoner at this turn; but soon after got delivered by
+our cavalry again." [Tempelhof, ii. 324 n.] 
+
+This latter circumstance, of being delivered by the Cavalry, I find
+to be of frequent occurrence in that first act of the business
+there: the Prussian Battalion, surprised on front and rear, always
+makes murderous fight for itself: is at last overwhelmed, obliged
+to retire, perhaps opening its way by bayonet charge;--upon which
+our Cavalry (Ziethen's, and others that gathered to him) cutting in
+upon the disordered surprisers, cut them into flight, rescue the
+prisoners, and for a time reinstate matters. The Prussian
+battalions do not run (nobody runs); but when repulsed by the
+endless odds, rally again. The big Battery is not to be had of them
+without fierce and dogged struggle; and is retaken more than once
+or twice. Still fiercer, more dogged, was the struggle in Hochkirch
+Village; especially in Hochkirch Church and Churchyard,--whither
+the Battalion Margraf-Karl had flung themselves; the poor Village
+soon taking fire about them. Soon taking fire, and continuing to be
+a scene of capture and recapture, by the flame-light;
+while Battalion Margraf-Karl stood with invincible stubbornness,
+pouring death from it; not to be compulsed by the raging tide of
+Austrian grenadiers; not by "six Austrian battalions," by "eight,"
+or by never so many. Stood at bay there; levelling whole masses of
+them,--till its cartridges were spent, all to one or two per man;
+and Major Lange, the heroic Captain of it, said, "We shall have to
+go, then, my men; let us cut ourselves through!"--and did so, in an
+honorably invincible manner; some brave remnant actually getting
+through, with Lange himself wounded to death.
+
+I think it was not till towards six o'clock that the right wing
+generally became aware what the case was: "More than a Pandourade,
+yes;"--though what it might be, in the thick fog which had fallen,
+blotting out all vestiges of daylight, nobody could well say.
+Rallied Battalions, reinforced by this or the other Battalion
+hurrying up from leftward, always charge in upon the enemy, in
+Hochkirch or wherever he is busy; generally push him back into the
+Night; but are then fallen upon on both flanks by endless new
+strength, and obliged to draw back in turn. And Ziethen's Horse, in
+the mean while, do execution; breaking in on the tumultuous
+victors; new Cuirassiers, Gens-d'Armes dashing up to help, so soon
+as saddled, and charging with a will: so that, on the whole, the
+enemy, variously attempting, could make nothing of us on that
+western, or rearward side,--thanks mainly to Ziethen and the Horse.
+"Had we but waited till three or four of our Battalions had got
+up!" say the Prussian narrators. But it is thick mist; few yards
+ahead you cannot see at all, unless it be flame; and close at hand,
+all things and figures waver indistinct,--hairy outlines of blacker
+shadows on a ground of black.
+
+It must have been while Lange was still fighting, perhaps before
+Lange took to the Church of Hochkirch, scarcely later than half-
+past six (but nobody thought of pulling out his watch in such a
+business!)--about six, or half-past six, when Keith, who has charge
+of this wing, and lodges somewhere below or north of Hochkirch,
+came to understand that his big Battery was taken; that here was
+such a Pandourade as had not been before; and that, of a surety,
+said Battery must be retaken. Keith springs on horseback; hastily
+takes "Battalion Kannacker" and several remnants of others;
+rushes upwards, "leaving Hochkirch a little to right; direct upon
+the big Battery." Recaptures the big Battery. But is set upon by
+overwhelming multitudes, bent to have it back;--is passionate for
+new assistance in this vital point; but can get none: had been
+"DISARTED by both his Aide-de-camps," says poor John Tebay, a
+wandering English horse-soldier, who attends him as mounted groom;
+"asked twenty times, and twenty more, 'Where are my Aide-de-
+camps!'" ["Captens Cockcey and Goudy" he calls them--(COCCEJI whose
+Father the Kanzler we have seen, and GAUDI whose self),--who both
+had, in succession, struck into Hochkirch as the less desperate
+place, according to Tebay: see TEBAY'S LETTER to Mitchell,
+"Crossen, October 29th" (in MEMOIRS AND PAPERS, ii. 501-505);--
+which is probably true every word, allowing for Tebay's temper;
+but is highly indecipherable, though not entirely so after many
+readings and researehings.]--but could get no response or
+reinforcement; and at length, quite surrounded and overwhelmed, had
+to retire; opening his way by the bayonet; and before long,
+suddenly stopping short,--falling dead into Tebay's arms;
+shot through the heart. Two shots on the right side he had not
+regarded; but this on the left side was final: Keith's fightings
+are suddenly all done. Tebay, in distraction, tried much to bring
+away the body; but could by no present means; distractedly "rid for
+a coach;" found, on return, that the Austrians had the ground, and
+the body of his master; Hochkirch, Church and all, now
+undisputedly theirs.
+
+To appearance, it was this news of Keith's repulse (I know not
+whether of Keith's DEATH as yet) that first roused Friedrich to a
+full sense of what was now going on, two miles to south of him.
+Friedrich, according to his habits, must have been awake and afoot
+when the Business first broke out; though, for some considerable
+time, treating it as nothing but a common crackery of Pandours.
+Already, finding the Pandourade louder than usual, he had ordered
+out to it one battalion and the other that lay handy: but now he
+pushes forward several battalions under Franz of Brunswick (his
+youngest Brother-in-law), with Margraf Karl and Prince Moritz:
+"Swift you, to Hochkirch yonder!"--and himself springs on horseback
+to deal with the affair. Prince Franz of Brunswick, poor young
+fellow, cheerily coming on, near Hochkirch had his head shorn off
+by a cannon-ball. Moritz of Dessau, too, "riding within twenty
+yards of the Austrians," so dark was it, he so near-sighted, got
+badly hit,--and soon after, driving to Bautzen for surgery, was
+made prisoner by Pandours; [In ARCHENHOLTZ (i. 289, 290) his
+dangerous adventures on the road to Bautzen, in this wounded
+condition.] never fought again, "died next year of cancer in the
+lip." Nothing but triumphant Austrian shot and cannon-shot going
+yonder; these battalions too have to fall back with sore loss.
+
+Friedrich himself, by this time, is forward in the thick of the
+tumult, with another body of battalions; storming furiously along,
+has his horse shot under him; storms through, "successfully, by the
+other side of Hochkirch" (Hochkirch to his left):--but finds, as
+the mist gradually sinks, a ring of Austrians massed ahead, on the
+
+
+--MAP GOES HERE, FACING PAGE 160, BOOK XVIII------
+
+
+Heights; as far as Steindorfel and farther, a general continent of
+Austrians enclosing all the south and southwest; and, in fact, that
+here is now nothing to be done. That the question of his flank is
+settled; that the question now is of his front, which the appointed
+Austrian parties are now upon attacking. Question especially of the
+Heights of Drehsa, and of the Pass and Brook of Drehsa (rearward of
+his centre part), where his one retreat will lie, Steindorfel being
+now lost. Part first of the Affair is ended; Part second of
+it begins.
+
+Rapidly enough Friedrich takes his new measures. Seizes Drehsa
+Height, which will now be key of the field; despatches Mollendorf
+thither (Mollendorf our courageous Leuthen friend); who vigorously
+bestirs himself; gets hold of Drehsa Height before the enemy can;
+Ziethen co-operating on the Heights of Kumschutz, Canitz and other
+points of vantage. And thus, in effect, Friedrich pulls up his torn
+right skirt (as he is doing all his other skirts) into new compact
+front against the Austrians: so that, in that southwestern part
+especially; the Austrians do not try it farther; but "retire at
+full gallop," on sight of this swift seizure of the Keys by
+Mollendorf and Ziethen. Friedrich also despatches instant order to
+Retzow, to join him at his speediest. Friedrich everywhere
+rearranges himself, hither, thither, with skilful rapidity, in new
+Line of Battle; still hopeful to dispute what is left of the
+field;--longing much that Retzow could come on wings.
+
+By this time (towards eight, if I might guess) Day has got the
+upper hand; the Daun Austrians stand visible on their Ring of
+Heights all round, behind Hochkirch and our late Battery, on to
+westward and northward, as far as Steindorfel and Waditz;--
+extremely busy rearranging themselves into something of line;
+there being much confusion, much simmering about in clumps and
+gaps, after such a tussle. In front of us, to eastward, the
+appointed Austrian parties are proceeding to attack: but in
+daylight, and with our eyes open, it is a thing of difficulty, and
+does not prosper as Hochkirch did. Duke D'Ahremberg, on their
+extreme right, had in charge to burst in upon our left, so soon as
+he saw Hochkirch done: D'Ahremberg does try; as do others in their
+places, near Daun; but with comparatively little success.
+D'Ahremberg, meeting something of check or hindrance where he
+tried, pauses, for a good while, till he see how others prosper.
+Their grand chance is their superiority of number; and the fact
+that Friedrich can try nothing upon THEM, but must stand painfully
+on the defensive till Retzow come. To Friedrich, Retzow seems
+hugely slow about it. But the truth is, Baden-Durlach, with his
+20,000 of Reserve, has, as per order, made attack on Retzow, 20,000
+against 12: one of the feeblest attacks conceivable; but sufficient
+to detain Retzow till he get it repulsed. Retzow is diligent as
+Time, and will be here.
+
+Meanwhile, the Austrians on front do, in a sporadic way, attack and
+again attack our batteries and posts; especially that big Battery
+of Thirty Guns, which we have to north of Rodewitz. The Austrians
+do take that Battery at last; and are beginning again to be
+dangerous,--the rather as D'Ahremberg seems again to be thinking of
+business. It is high time Retzow were here! Few sights could be
+gladder to Friedrich, than the first glitter of Retzow's vanguard,
+--horse, under Prince Eugen of Wurtemberg,--beautifully wending
+down from Weissenberg yonder; skilfully posting themselves, at
+Belgern and elsewhere, as thorns in the sides of D'Ahremberg (sharp
+enough, on trial by D'Ahremberg). Followed, before long, by Retzow
+himself; serenely crossing Lobau Water; and, with great celerity,
+and the best of skill, likewise posting himself,--hopelessly to
+D'Ahremberg, who tries nothing farther. The sun is now shining;
+it is now ten of the day. Had Retzow come an hour sooner;--
+efore we lost that big Battery and other things! But he could
+come no sooner; be thankful he is here at last, in such an
+overawing manner.
+
+Friedrich, judging that nothing now can be made of the affair,
+orders retreat. Retreat, which had been getting schemed, I suppose,
+and planned in the gloom of the royal mind, ever since loss of that
+big Battery at Rodewitz. Little to occupy him, in this interim;
+except indignant waiting, rigorously steady, and some languid
+interchange of cannon-shot between the parties. Retreat is to
+Klein-Bautzen neighborhood (new head-quarter Doberschutz, outposts
+Kreckwitz and Purschwitz); four miles or so to northwest. Rather a
+shifting of your ground, which astonishes the military reader ever
+since, than a retreating such as the common run of us expected.
+Done in the usual masterly manner; part after part mending off,
+Retzow standing minatory here, Mollendorf minatory there, in the
+softest quasi-rhythmic sequence; Cavalry all drawn out between
+Belgern and Kreckwitz, baggage-wagons filing through the Pass of
+Drehsa;--not an Austrian meddling with it, less or more; Daun and
+his Austrians standing in their ring of five miles, gazing into it
+like stone statues; their regiments being still in a confused
+state,--and their Daun an extremely slow gentleman. [Tempelhof, ii.
+319-336; Seyfarth, <italic> Beylagen, <end italic> i. 432-453;
+<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> v. 241-257; Archenholtz,
+&c. &c.]
+
+And in this manner Friedrich, like a careless swimmer caught in the
+Mahlstrom, has not got swallowed in it; but has made such a
+buffeting of it, he is here out of it again, without bone broken,--
+not, we hope, without instruction from the adventure. He has lost
+101 pieces of cannon, most of his tents and camp-furniture;
+and, what is more irreparable, above 8,000 of his brave people,
+5,381 of them and 119 Officers (Keith and Moritz for two) either
+dead or captive. In men the Austrian loss, it seems, is not much
+lower, some say is rather a shade higher; by their own account, 325
+Officers, 5,614 rank and file, killed and wounded,--not reckoning
+1,000 prisoners they lost to us, and "at least 2,000" who took that
+chance of deserting in the intricate dark woods. [Tempelhof, ii.
+336; but see Kausler, p. 576.]
+
+Friedrich, all say, took his punishment in a wonderfully cheerful
+manner. De Catt the Reader, entering to him that evening as usual,
+the King advanced, in a tragic declamatory attitude; and gave him,
+with proper voice and gesture, an appropriate passage of Racine:--
+
+<italic> "Enfin apres un an, tu me revois, Arbate,
+          Non plus comme autrefois cet heureux Mithridate,
+          Qui, de Rome toujours balancant le destin,
+          Tenait entre elle et moi l'univers incertain.
+          Je suis vaincu; Pompee a saisi l'avantage
+          D'une nuit qui laissait peu de place au courage;
+          Mes soldats presque nus, dans"-- ... <end italic> 
+
+Not a little to De Catt's comfort. [Rodenbeck, i. 354.] During the
+retreat itself, Retzow Junior had come, as Papa's Aide-de-Camp,
+with a message to the King; found him on the heights of Klein
+Bautzen, watching the movements. Message done with, the King said,
+in a smiling tone, "Daun has played me a slippery trick to-day!"
+"I have seen it," answered Retzow; "but it is only a scratch, which
+your Majesty will soon manage to heal again."--"GLAUBT ER DIES, Do
+you think so?" "Not only I, but the whole Army firmly believe it of
+your Majesty."--"You are quite right," added the King, in a
+confidentially candid way: "We will manage Daun. What I lament is,
+the number of brave men that have died this morning." [Retzow, i.
+359 n.] On the morrow, he was heard to say publicly: "Daun has let
+us out of check-mate; the game is not lost yet. We will rest
+ourselves here, a few days; then go for Silesia, and deliver
+Neisse." The Anecdote-Books (perhaps not mythicalIy) add this:
+"Where are all your guns, though?" said the King to an
+Artilleryman, standing vacant on parade, next day. "IHRO MAJESTAT,
+the Devil stole them all, last night!"--"Hm, well, we must have
+them back from him." [Archenholtz, i. 299.]
+
+Nothing immoderately depressive in Hochkirch, it appears;--though,
+alas, on the fourth day after, there came a message from Baireuth;
+which did strike one down: "My noble Wilhelmina dead; died in the
+very hours while we were fighting here!" [On a common Business-
+Letter to Prince Henri, "Doberschutz, 18th October, 1758," is this
+sudden bit of Autograph: "GRAND DIEU, MA SOEUR DE BAREITH!"--
+(Schoning, <italic> Der siebenjahrige Krieg, nach der Original-
+Correspondens &c. aus den Staats-Archiven: <end italic> Potsdam,
+1851: i. 287.)] Readers must conceive it: coming unexpected more or
+less, black as sudden universal hurricane, on the heart of the
+man; a sorrow sacred, yet immeasurable, irremediable to him; as if
+the sky too were falling on his head, in aid of the mean earth and
+its ravenings:--of all this there can nothing be said at present.
+Friedrich's one relief seems to have been the necessity laid on him
+of perpetual battling with outward business;--we may fancy, in the
+rapid weeks following, how much was lying at all times in the
+background of his mind suppressed into its caves.
+
+Daun, it appears, was considerably elated; spent a great deal of
+his time, so precious just at present, in writing despatches, in
+congratulating and being congratulated;--did an elaborate TE-DEUM,
+or Ambrosian Song, in Artillery and VOX HUMANA,--which with the
+adjuncts, say splenetic people, as at Kolin, sensibly assisted
+Friedrich's affairs. Daun was by no means of braggart turn; but the
+recognition of his matchless achievement by the gazetteer public,
+whether in exultation or in lamentation, was loud and universal;
+and the joy, in Vienna and the cognate quarters, knew no bounds for
+the time being. Thus, among other tokens, the Holiness of our Lord
+the Pope, blessing Heaven for such success against the Heretic, was
+pleased to send him "a Consecrated Hat and Sword,"--such as the old
+Popes were wont, very long ago, to bestow on distinguished
+Champions against the Heathen,--(much jeered at, and crowed over,
+by a profane Friedrich [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic>
+xv. 122, 124, 126, &c. &c.: in PREUSS, ii. 196, compiete List of
+these poor Pieces; which are hearty, not hypocritical, in their
+contemptuons hilarity, but have little other metit.]): "the effect
+of which miraculous furnishings," says Tempelhof, "turned out to be
+that the Feldmarschall never gained any success more;" in fact,
+except that small thing on Finck next Year, never any, as it
+chanced. Daun had withdrawn to his old Camp, on the day of
+Hochkirch; leaving only a detachment on the field there: it was not
+for six or seven days more that he stept out to the Kreckwitz and
+Purschwitz neighborhood; more within sight of his vanquished
+enemy,--but nothing like vigilant enough of what might still be in
+him, after such vanquishing!--We must spare this Note, for the sake
+of a heroic kind of man, who had not too much of reward in
+the world:--
+
+"Tebay could not recover Keith's body: Croats had the plundering of
+Keith; other Austrians, not of Croat kind, carried the dead General
+into Hochkirch Church: Lacy's emotion on recognizing him there,--
+like a tragic gleam of his own youth suddenly brought back to him,
+as in starlight, piercing and sad, from twenty years distance,--is
+well known in Books. On the morrow, Sunday, October 15th, Keith had
+honorable soldier's-burial there,--'twelve cannon' salvoing thrice,
+and 'the whole Corps of Colloredo' with their muskets thrice;
+Lacy as chief mourner, not without tears. Four months after, by
+royal order, Keith's body was conveyed to Berlin; reinterred in
+Berlin, in a still more solemn public manner, with all the honors,
+all the regrets; and Keith sleeps now in the Garnison-Kirche:--far
+from bonnie Inverugie; the hoarse sea-winds and caverns of Dunottar
+singing vague requiem to his honorable line and him, in the
+imaginations of some few. 'My Brother leaves me a noble legacy,'
+said the old Lord Marischal: 'last year he had Bohemia under
+ransom; and his personal estate is 70 ducats, (about 25 pounds).
+[Varnhagen, p. 261.]
+
+"In Hochkirch Church there is still, not in the Churchyard as
+formerly, a fine, modestly impressive Monument to Keith; modest Urn
+of black marble on a Pedestal of gray,--and, in gold letters, an
+Inscription not easily surpassable in the lapidary way: ... 'DUM IN
+PRAELIO NON PROCUL HINC INCLINATAM SUORUM ACIEM MENTE MANU V0CE ET
+EXEMPLO RESTITUERAT PUGNANS UT HEROAS DECET OCCUBUIT. D. XIV.
+OCTOBRIS' These words go through you like the clang of steel.
+[In RODENBECK, i. 149. Given also (very nearly correct) in
+CORRESPONDEENCE OF SIR ROBERT MURRAY KEITH (London, 1849), i. 151.
+This is the junior of the two Diplomatic Roberts, genealogical
+cousins of Keith; by this one (in 1771, not 1776 as German Guide-
+books have it) the Hochkirch Monument was set up. A very
+interesting Collection of LETTERS those of his;--edited with the
+usual darkness, or rather more.] Friedrich's sorrow over him
+('tears,' high eulogies, 'LOUA EXTREMEMENT') is itself a monument.
+Twenty years after, Keith had from his Master a Statue, in Berlin.
+One of Four; to the Four most deserving: Schwerin (1771),
+Winterfeld (1777), Seidlitz (1779, Keith (when?), [Nicolai <italic>
+(Beschreibung der Residenzstadte, <end italic> i. 193, 194) gives
+these dates for the Three, and for Keith's no date.]--which still
+stand in the Wilhelm Platz there.
+
+"Hochkirch Church has beeu rebuilt in late years: a spapious airy
+Church, with galleries, and requisites, especially with free air,
+light and cleanliness. Capable perhaps of 1,500 sitters: half of
+them Wends. 'Above 700 skeletons, in one heap, were dug out, in
+cutting the new foundations. The strong outer Door of the old
+Church, red oak, I should think, is still retained in that
+capacity; still shows perhaps half a dozen rough big quasi-
+KEYHOLES, torn through it in different parts, and daylight shining
+in, where the old bullets passed. The Keith Monument, perhaps four
+feet high, is on the flagged floor, left side of the pulpit, close
+by the wall,--'the bench where Keith's body lay has had to be
+cased in new plank [zinc would be better] against the knives
+of tourists.'"
+
+Old Lord Marischal--George, "MARECHAL D'ECOSSE" as he always signs
+himself--was by this time seventy-two; King's Governor of
+Neufchatel, for a good while past and to come (1754-1763).
+In "James," the junior, but much the stronger and more solid, he
+has lost, as it were, a FATHER and younger brother at once;
+father, uuder beautiful conditions; and the tears of the old man
+are natural and affecting. Ten years older than his Brother;
+and survived him still twenty years. An excellent cheery old soul,
+he too; honest as the sunlight, with a fine small vein of gayety,
+and "pleasant wit," in him: what a treasure to Friedrich at
+Potsdam, in the coming years; and how much loved by him (almost as
+one BOY loves another), all readers would be surprised to discover.
+Some hints of him will perhaps be allowed us farther on.
+
+
+SEQUEL OF HOCHKIRCH; THE CAMPAIGN ENDS IN A WAY
+SURPRISING TO AN ATTENTIVE PUBLIC
+(22d October-20th November, 1758).
+
+There followed upon Hochkirch five weeks of rapid events; such as
+nobody had been calculating on. To the reader, so weary of
+marchings, manoeuvrings, surprisals, campings and details of war,
+not many words, we hope, may render these results conceivable.
+
+Friedrich stayed ten days, refitting himself, in that Camp of
+Klein-Bautzen, on one of the branches of the Spree. Daun, who had
+retired to his old strong place, on the 14th, scarcely occupying
+Hochkirch Field at all, came out in about a week; and took a strong
+post near Friedrich; not attempting anything upon him, but watching
+him, now better within sight. Friedrich's fixed intention is, to
+march to Neisse all the same; what probably Daun, under the shadow
+of his laurels and his new Papal Hat, may not have considered
+possible, with the road to Neisse blocked by 80,000 men.
+Friedrich has refitted himself with the requisite new cannon and
+furnitures, from Dresden; especially with Prince Henri and 6,000
+foot and horse,--led by Prince Henri in person; so Prince Henri
+would have it, the capricious little man; and that Finck should be
+left in Saxony instead of him. All which weakens Saxony not a
+little. But Friedrich hopes the Reichs Army is a feeble article;
+ill off for provision in those parts, and not likely to attempt
+very much on the sudden. Accordingly:--
+
+
+FRIEDRICH MARCHES, ENIGMATICALLY, NOT ON GLOGAU, BUT ON
+REICHENBACH AND GORLITZ; TO DAUN'S ASTONISHMENT.
+
+SUNDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 22d, Convoy of many wagons quit Bautzen
+(Bautzen Proper, not the Village, but the Town), laden with all the
+wounded of Hochkirch; above 3,000 by count, to carry them to
+Dresden for deliberate surgery. Keith's Tebay, I perceive, is in
+this Convoy; not ill hurt, but willing to lie in Hospital a little,
+and consider. These poor fellows cannot get to Dresden: on the
+second day, a Daun Detachment, hussaring about in those parts, is
+announced ahead; and (by new order from head-quarters) the Convoy
+turns northwards for Hoyerswerda,--(to Tebay's disgust with the
+Commandant; "shied off," says Tebay, "for twelve hussars!" [Second
+LETTER from Tebay, in Mitchell, ubi supra.])--and, I think, in the
+end, went on to Glogau instead of Dresden. Which was very fortunate
+for Tebay and the others. The poor wounded being thus disposed of,
+Friedrich next night, at 10 o'clock, Monday, 23d, in the softest
+manner, pushes off his Bakery and Army Stores a little way,
+northward down the Spree Valley, on the western fork of the Spree
+(fork farthest from Daun); follows, himself, with the rest of the
+Army, next evening, down the eastern fork, also northward.
+"Going for Glogau," thinks Daun, when the hussars report about it
+(late on Tuesday night): "Let him go, if he fancy that a road TO
+Neisse! But, indeed, what other shift has he," considers Daun, "but
+to try rallying at Glogau yonder, safe under the guns?"--and is not
+in the slightest haste about this new matter. [Tempelhof, ii.
+341-347.]
+
+United with his baggage-column, Friedrich proceeds northeastward;
+crosses Spree still northward or northeastward; encamps there, in
+the dark hours of Tuesday; no Daun heeding him. Before daylight,
+however, Friedrich is again on foot; in several columns now, for
+the bad country-roads ahead;--and has struck straight
+SOUTHeastward, if Daun were noting him. And, in the afternoon of
+Wednesday, Daun is astonished to learn that this wily Enemy is
+arrived in Reichenbach vicinity; sweeping in our poor posts
+thereabouts; immovably astride of the Silesian Highway, after all!
+An astonished Daun hastens out, what he can, to take survey of the
+sudden Phenomenon. Tries it, next day and next, with his best
+Loudons and appliances; finds that this Phenomenon can actually
+march to Neisse ahead of him, indifferent to Pandours, or giving
+them as good as they bring;--and that nothing but a battle and
+beating (could we rashly dream of such a thing, which we cannot)
+will prevent it. "Very well, then!" Daun strives to say. And lets
+the Phenomenon march (FROM Gorlitz, OCTOBER 30th); Loudon harassing
+the rear of it, for some days; not without counter harassment, much
+waste of cannonading, and ruin to several poor Lausitz Villages by
+fire,--"Prussians scandalously burn them, when we attack!" says
+Loudon. Till, at last, finding this march impregnably arranged,
+"split into two routes," and ready for all chances, Loudon also
+withdraws to more promising business. Poor General Retzow Senior
+was of this march; absolutely could not be excused, though fallen
+ill of dysentery, like to die;--and did die, the day after he got
+to Schweidnitz, when the difficulties and excitement were over.
+[Retzow, i. 372.]
+
+Of Friedrich's march, onward from Gorlitz, we shall say nothing
+farther, except that the very wind of it was salvatory to his
+Silesian Fortresses and interests. That at Neisse, on and after
+November 1st,--which is the third or second day of Friedrich's
+march,--General Treskow, Commandant of Neisse, found the
+bombardment slacken more and more ("King of Prussia coming," said
+the Austrian deserters to us); and that, on November 6th, Treskow,
+looking out from Neisse, found the Austrian trenches empty,
+Generals Harsch and Deville hurrying over the Hills homewards,--
+pickings to be had of them by Treskow,--and Neisse Siege a thing
+finished. [TAGEBUCH, &c. ("Diary of the Siege of Neisse," 4th
+August, 26th October, 6th November, 1758, "1 A.M. suddenly"), in
+Seyfarth, <italic> Beylagen, <end italic> ii. 468-472: of Treskow's
+own writing; brief and clear. <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
+italic> v. 268-270.] It had lasted, in the way of blockade and
+half-blockade, for about three months; Deville, for near one month,
+half-blockading, then Harsch (since September 30th) wholly
+blockading, with Deville under him, and an army of 20,000;
+though the actual cannonade, very fierce, but of no effect, could
+not begin till little more than a week ago,--so difficult the
+getting up of siege-material in those parts. Kosel, under
+Commandant Lattorf, whose praises, like Treskow's, were great,--had
+stood four months of Pandour blockading and assaulting, which also
+had to take itself away on advent of Friedrich. Of Friedrich, on
+his return-journey, we shall hear again before long; but in the
+mean while must industriously follow Daun.
+
+
+FELDMARSCHALL DAUN AND THE REICHS ARMY TRY SOME SIEGE OF DRESDEN
+(9th-16th November).
+
+OCTOBER 30th, Daun, seeing Neisse Siege as good as gone to water,
+decided with himself that he could still do a far more important
+stroke: capture Dresden, get hold of Saxony in Friedrich's absence.
+Daun turned round from Reichenbach, accordingly; and, at his slow-
+footed pace, addressed himself to that new errand. Had he made
+better despatch, or even been in better luck, it is very possible
+he might have done something there. In Dresden, and in Governor
+Schmettau with his small garrison, there is no strength for a
+siege; in Saxony is nothing but some poor remnant under Finck, much
+of it Free-corps and light people: capable of being swallowed by
+the Reichs Army itself,--were the Reichs Army enterprising, or in
+good circumstances otherwise. It is true the Russians have quitted
+Colberg as impossible; and are flowing homewards dragged by hunger:
+the little Dohna Army will, therefore, march for Saxony; the little
+Anti-Swedish Army, under Wedell, has likewise been mostly ordered
+thither; both at their quickest. For Daun, all turns on despatch;
+loiter a little, and Friedrich himself will be here again!
+
+Daun, I have no doubt, stirred his slow feet the fastest he could.
+NOVEMBER 7th, Daun was in the neighborhood of Pirna Country again,
+had his Bridge at Pirna, for communication; urged the Reichs Army
+to bestir itself, Now or never. Reichs Army did push out a little
+against Finck; made him leave that perpetual Camp of Gahmig, take
+new camps, Kesselsdorf and elsewhere; and at length made him shoot
+across Elbe, to the northwest, on a pontoon bridge below Dresden,
+with retreating room to northward, and shelter under the guns of
+that City. Reichs Army has likewise made powerful detachments for
+capture of Leipzig and the northwestern towns; capture of Torgau,
+the Magazine town, first of all: summon them, with force evidently
+overpowering, "Free withdrawal, if you don't resist; and if you
+do--!" At Torgau there was actual attempt made (November 12th),
+rather elaborate and dangerous looking; under Haddick, with near
+10,000 of the "Austrian-auxiliary" sort: to whom the old Commandant
+--judging Wedell, the late Anti-Swedish Wedell, to be now near--
+rushed out with "300 men and one big gun;" and made such a firing
+and gesticulation as was quite extraordinary, as if Wedell were
+here already: till Wedell's self did come in sight; and the
+overpowering Reichs Detachment made its best speed else-whither.
+[Tempelhof, &c.; "Letter from a Prussian Officer," in <italic>
+Helden-Geschichte, v. 286.] The other Sieges remained things of
+theory; the other Reichs Detachments hurried home, I think, without
+summoning anybody.
+
+Meanwhile, Daun, with the proper Artilleries at last ready, comes
+flowing forward (NOVEMBER 8th-9th); and takes post in the Great
+Garden, or south side of Dresden; minatory to Schmettau and that
+City. The walls, or works, are weak; outside there is nothing but
+Mayer and the Free Corps to resist, who indeed has surpassed
+himself this season, and been extraordinarily diligent upon that
+lazy Reichs Army. Commandant Schmettau signifies to Daun, the day
+Daun came in sight, "If your Excellenz advance farther on me, the
+grim Rules of War in besieged places will order That I burn the
+Suburbs, which are your defences in attacking me,"--and actually
+fills the fine houses on the Southern Suburb with combustible
+matter, making due announcements, to Court and population, as well
+as to Dann. "Burn the Suburbs?" answers Daun: "In the name of
+civilized humanity, you will never think of such thing!" "That will
+I, your Excellenz, of a surety, and do it!" answers Schmettau.
+So that Dresden is full of pity, terror and speculation. The common
+rumor is, says Excellency Mitchell, who is sojourning there for the
+present, "That Bruhl [nefarious Bruhl, born to be the death of us!]
+has persuaded Polish Majesty to sanction this enterprise of
+Daun's,"--very careless, Bruhl, what become of Dresden or us, so
+the King of Prussia be well hurt or spited!
+
+Certain enough, NOVEMBER 9th, Daun does come on, regardless of
+Schmettau's assurances; so that, "about midnight:" Mayer, who "can
+hear the enemy busily building four big batteries" withal, has to
+report himself driven to the edge of those high Houses (which are
+filled with combustibles), and that some Croats are got into the
+upper windows. "Burn them, then!" answers Schmettasu (such the dire
+necessity of sieged places): and, "at 3 A.M." (three hours' notice
+to the poor inmates), Mayer does so; hideous flames bursting out,
+punctually at the stroke of 3: "whole Suburb seemed on blaze [about
+a sixth part of it actually so], nay you would have said the whole
+Town was environed in flames." Excellency Mitchell climbed a
+steeple: "will not describe to your Lordship the horror, the terror
+and confusion of this night; wretched inhabitants running with
+their furniture [what of it they had got flung out, between 12
+o'clock and 3] towards the Great Garden; all Dresden, to
+appearance, girt in flames, ruins and smoke." Such a night in
+Dresden, especially in the Pirna Suburb, as was never seen before.
+[Mitchell, <italic> Memoirs and Papers, <end italic> i. 459.
+In <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> v. 295-302, minute
+account (corresponding well with Mitchell's); ib. 303-333, the
+certified details of the damage done: "280 houses lost;" "4 human
+lives."] This was the sad beginning, or attempt at beginning, of
+Dresden Siege; and this also was the end of it, on Daun's part at
+present. For four days more, he hung about the place, minatory,
+hesitative; but attempted nothing feasible; and on the fifth day,--
+"for a certain weighty reason," as the Austrian Gazettes express
+it,--he saw good to vanish into the Pirna Rock-Country, and be out
+of harm's way in the mean while!
+
+The Truth is, Daun's was an intricate case just now; needing, above
+all things, swiftness of treatment; what, of all things, it could
+not get from Daun. His denunciations on that burnt Suburb were
+again loud; but Schmettau continues deaf to all that,--means "to
+defend himself by the known rules of war and of honor;" declares,
+he "will dispute from street to street, and only finish in the
+middle of Polish Majesty's Royal Palace." Denunciation will do
+nothing! Daun had above 100,000 men in those parts. Rushing forward
+with sharp shot and bayonet storm, instead of logical denunciation,
+it is probable Daun might have settled his Schmettau. But the hour
+of tide was rigorous, withal;--and such an ebb, if you missed it in
+hesitating! NOVEMBER 15th, Daun withdrew; the ebbing come.
+That same day, Friedrich was at Lauban in the Lausitz, within a
+hundred miles again; speeding hitherward; behind him a Silesia
+brushed clear, before him a Saxony to be brushed. "Reason weighty"
+enough, think Daun and the Austrian Gazettes! But such, since you
+have missed the tide-hour, is the inexorable fact of ebb,--going at
+that frightful rate. Daun never was the man to dispute facts.
+
+November 20th, Friedrich arrived in Dresden; heard, next day, that
+Daun had wheeled decisively homeward from Pirna Country; that the
+Reichs Army and he are diligently climbing the Metal Mountains;
+and that there is not in Saxony, more than in Silesia, an enemy
+left. What a Sequel to Hochkirch! "Neisse and Dresden both!" we had
+hoped as sequel, if lucky: "Neisse OR Dresden" seemed infallible.
+And we are climbing the Metal Mountains, under facts superior
+to us.
+
+And Campaign Third has closed in this manner;--leaving things much
+as it found them. Essentially a drawn match; Contending Parties
+little altered in relative strength;--both of them, it may be
+presumed, considerably weaker. Friedrich is not triumphant, or
+shining in the light of bonfires, as last Year; but, in the mind
+of judges, stands higher than ever (if that could help him much);
+--and is not "annihilated" in the least, which is the
+surprising circumstance.
+
+Friedrich's marches, especially, have been wonderful, this Year.
+In the spring-time, old Marechal de Belleisle, French Minister of
+War, consulting officially about future operations, heard it
+objected once: "But if the King of Prussia were to burst in upon us
+there?" "The King of Prussia is a great soldier," answered M. de
+Belleisle; "but his Army is not a shuttle (NAVETTE),"--to be shot
+about, in that way, from side to side of the world! No surely;
+not altogether. But the King of Prussia has, among other arts, an
+art of marching Armies, which by degrees astonishes the old
+Marechal. To "come upon us EN NAVETTE," suddenly "like a shuttle"
+from the other side of the web, became an established phrase among
+the French concerned in these unfortunate matters. [Archenholtz, i.
+316; Montalembert, SAEPIUS, for the phrase "EN NAVETTE."]
+
+"The Pitt-and-Ferdinand Campaign of 1758," says a Note, which I
+would fain abridge, "is more palpably victorious than Friedrich's,
+much more an affair of bonfires than his; though it too has had its
+rubs. Loss of honor at Crefeld; loss of Louisburg and Codfishery:
+these are serious blows our enemy has had. But then, to temper the
+joy over Louisburg, there was, at Ticonderoga, by Abercrombie, on
+the small scale (all the extent of scale he had), a melancholy
+Platitude committed: that of walking into an enemy without the
+least reconnoitring of him, who proves to be chin-deep in abatis
+and field-works; and kills, much at his ease, about 2,000 brave
+fellows, brought 5,000 miles for that object. And obliges you to
+walk away on the instant, and quit Ticonderoga, like a--surely like
+a very tragic Dignitary in Cocked-hat! To be cashiered, we will
+hope; at least to be laid on the shelf, and replaced by some Wolfe
+or some Amherst, fitter for the business! Nor were the Descents on
+the French Coast much to speak of: 'Great Guns got at Cherbourg,'
+these truly, as exhibited in Hyde-Park, were a comfortable sight,
+especially to the simpler sort: but on the other hand, at Morlaix,
+on the part of poor old General Bligh and Company, there had been a
+Platitude equal or superior to that of Abercrombie, though not so
+tragical in loss of men. 'What of that?' said an enthusiastic
+Public, striking their balance, and joyfully illuminating.--
+Here is a Clipping from Ohio Country, 'LETTER of an Officer
+[distilled essence of Two Letters], dated, FORT-DUQUESNE, 28th
+NOVEMBER, 1758:--
+
+"'Our small Corps under General Forbes, after much sore scrambling
+through the Wildernesses, and contending with enemies wild and
+tame, is, since the last four days, in possession of Fort Duquesne
+[PITTSBURG henceforth]: Friday, 24th, the French garrison, on our
+appearance, made off without fighting; took to boats down the Ohio,
+and vanished out of those Countries,'--forever and a day, we will
+hope. 'Their Louisiana-Canada communication is lost; and all that
+prodigious tract of rich country,'--which Mr. Washington fixed upon
+long ago, is ours again, if we can turn it to use. 'This day a
+detachment of us goes to Braddock's field of battle [poor
+Braddock!], to bury the bones of our slaughtered countrymen;
+many of whom the French butchered in cold blood, and, to their own
+eternal shame and infamy, have left lying above ground ever since.
+As indeed they have done with all those slain round the Fort in
+late weeks;'--calling themselves a civilized Nation too!"
+[Old Newspapers (in <italic> Gentleman's Magazine <end italic> for
+1759, pp. 41, 39).]
+
+LOWER RHINE, JULY-NOVEMBER, 1758. "Ferdinand's manoeuvres, after
+Crefeld, on the France-ward side of Rhine, were very pretty:
+but, without Wesel, and versus a Belleisle as War-Minister, and a
+Contades who was something of a General, it would not do.
+Belleisle made uncommon exertions, diligent to get his broken
+people drilled again; Contades was wary, and counter-manoeuvred
+rather well. Finally, Soubise" (readers recollect him and his 24 or
+30,000, who stood in Frankfurt Country, on the hither or north side
+of Rhine), famed Rossbach Soubise,--"pushing out, at Belleisle's
+bidding, towards Hanover, in a region vacant otherwise of troops,--
+became dangerous to Ferdinand. 'Making for Hanover?' thought
+Ferdinand: 'Or perhaps meaning to attack my 12,000 English that are
+just landed? Nay, perhaps my Rhine-Bridge itself, and the small
+Party left there?' Ferdinand found he would have to return, and
+look after Soubise. Crossed, accordingly (August 8th), by his old
+Bridge at Rees,--which he found safe, in spite of attempts there
+had been; ["Fight of Meer" (Chevert, with 10,000, beaten off, and
+the Bridge saved, by Imhof, with 3,000;--both clever soldiers;
+Imhof in better luck, and favored by the ground: "5th August,
+1758"): MAUVILLON, i. 315.]--and never recrossed during this War.
+Judges even say his first crossing had never much solidity of
+outlook in it; and though so delightful to the public, was his
+questionablest step.
+
+"On the 12,000 English, Soubise had attempted nothing.
+Ferdinand joined his English at Soest (August 20th); to their great
+joy and his; [Duke of Marlborough's heavy-laden LETTER to Pitt,
+"Koesfeld, August 15th:" "Nothing but rains and uncertainties;"
+"marching, latterly, up to our middles in water;" have come from
+Embden, straight south towards Wesel Country, almost 150 miles
+(Soest still a good sixty miles to southeast of us).
+CHATHAM CORRESPONDENCE (London, 1838), i. 334, 337. The poor Duke
+died in two months hence; and the command devolved on Lord George
+Sackville, as is too well known.] 10 to 12,000 as a first
+instalment:--Grand-looking fellows, said the Germans. And did you
+ever see such horses, such splendor of equipment, regardless of
+expense? Not to mention those BERGSCHOTTEN (Scotch Highlanders),
+with their bagpipes, sporrans, kilts, and exotic costumes and ways;
+astonishing to the German mind. [Romantic view of the BERGSCHOTTEN
+(2,000 of them, led by the Junior of the Robert Keiths above
+mentioned, who is a soldier as yet), in ARCHENHOLTZ, i. 351-353:
+IB. and in PREUSS, ii. 136, of the "uniforms with gold and silver
+lace," of the superb horses, "one regiment all roan horses, another
+all black, another all" &c.] Out of all whom (BERGSCHOTTEN
+included), Ferdinand, by management,--and management was needed,--
+got a great deal of first-rate fighting, in the next Four Years.
+
+"Nor, in regard to Hanover, could Soubise make anything of it;
+though he did (owing to a couple of stupid fellows, General Prince
+von Ysenburg and General Oberg, detached by Ferdinand on that
+service) escape the lively treatment Ferdinand had prepared for
+him; and even gave a kind of Beating to each of those stupid
+fellows, [1. "Fight of Sandershausen" (Broglio, as Soubise's
+vanguard, 12,000; VERSUS Ysenburg, 7,000, who stupidly would not
+withdraw TILL beaten: "23d July, 1758," BEFORE Ferdinand had come
+across again). 2. Fight of Lutternberg (Soubise, 30,000;
+VERSUS Oberg, about 18,000, who stupidly hung back till Soubise was
+all gathered, and THEN &c., still more stupidly: "10th October,
+1758"). See MAUVILLON, i. 312 (or better, ARCHENHOLTZ, i. 345);
+and MAUVILLON, i. 327. Both Lutternberg and Sandershausen are in
+the neighborhood of Cassel;--as many of those Ferdinand fights
+were.]--one of which, Oberg's one, might have ruined Oberg and his
+Detachment altogether, had Soubise been alert, which he by no means
+was! 'Paris made such jeering about Rossbach and the Prince de
+Soubise,' says Voltaire, [<italic> Histoire de Louis XV. <end
+italic>] 'and nobody said a word about these two Victories of his,
+next Year!' For which there might be two reasons: one, according to
+Tempelhof, that 'the Victories were of the so-so kind (SIC WAREN
+AUCH DARNACH);' and another, that they were ascribed to Broglio, on
+both occasions,--how justly, nobody will now argue!
+
+"Contades had not failed, in the mean while, to follow with the
+main Army; and was now elaborately manoeuvring about; intent to
+have Lippstadt, or some Fortress in those Rhine-Weser Countries.
+On the tail of that second so-so Victory by Soubise, Contades
+thought, Now would be the chance. And did try hard, but without
+effect. Ferdinand was himself attending Contades; and mistakes were
+not likely. Ferdinand, in the thick of the game (October 21st-
+30th), 'made a masterly movement'--that is to say, cut Contades and
+his Soubise irretrievably asunder: no junction now possible to
+them; the weaker of them liable to ruin,--unless Contades, the
+stronger, would give battle; which, though greatly outnumbering
+Ferdinand, he was cautious not to do. A melancholic cautious man,
+apt to be over-cautious,--nicknamed 'L'APOTHECAIRE' by the
+Parisians, from his down looks,--but had good soldier qualities
+withal. Soubise and he haggled about, a short while,--not a long,
+in these dangerous circumstances; and then had to go home again,
+without result, each the way he came; Contades himself repassing
+through Wesel, and wintering on his own side of the Rhine."
+
+How Pitt is succeeding, and aiming to succeed, on the French
+Foreign Settlements: on the Guinea Coast, on the High Seas
+everywhere; in the West Indies; still more in the East,--where
+General Lally (that fiery O'MulLALLY, famous since Fontenoy),
+missioned with "full-powers," as they call them, is raging up and
+down, about Madras and neighborhood, in a violent, impetuous, more
+and more bankrupt manner:--Of all this we can say nothing for the
+present, little at any time. Here are two facts of the financial
+sort, sufficiently illuminative. The much-expending, much-
+subsidying Government of France cannot now borrow except at 7 per
+cent Interest; and the rate of Marine Insurance has risen to 70 per
+cent. [Retzow, ii. 5.] One way and other, here is a Pitt clearly
+progressive; and a long-pending JENKINS'S-EAR QUESTION in a fair
+way to be settled!
+
+Friedrich stays in Saxony about a month, inspecting and adjusting;
+thence to Breslau, for Winter-quarters. His Winter is like to be a
+sad and silent one, this time; with none of the gayeties of last
+Year; the royal heart heavy enough with many private sorrows, were
+there none of public at all! This is a word from him, two days
+after finishing Daun for the season:--
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TO MYLORD MARISCHAL (at Colombier in Neufchatel). 
+
+"DRESDEN, 23d November, 1758.
+
+"There is nothing left for us, MON CHER MYLORD, but to mingle and
+blend our weeping for the losses we have had. If my head were a
+fountain of tears, it would not suffice for the grief I feel.
+
+"Our Campaign is over; and there has nothing come of it, on one
+side or the other, but the loss of a great many worthy people, the
+misery of a great many poor soldiers crippled forever, the ruin of
+some Provinces, the ravage, pillage and conflagration of some
+flourishing Towns. Exploits these which make humanity shudder:
+sad fruits of the wickedness and ambition of certain People in
+Power, who sacrifice everything to their unbridled passions! I wish
+you, MON CHER MYLORD, nothing that has the least resemblance to mv
+destiny; and everything that is wanting to it. Your old friend,
+till death."--F. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic>
+xx. 273.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 18
+
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