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diff --git a/2114.txt b/2114.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d5ee6e --- /dev/null +++ b/2114.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5874 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. +XIV. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XIV. (of XXI.) + Frederick The Great--The Surrounding European War Does Not + End--August, 1742-July, 1744 + +Author: Thomas Carlyle + +Posting Date: June 13, 2008 [EBook #2114] +Release Date: March 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. *** + + + + +Produced by D.R. Thompson + + + + + +HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II OF PRUSSIA, Volume 14 + +by Thomas Carlyle + + + + +BOOK XIV.--THE SURROUNDING EUROPEAN WAR DOES NOT END.--August, +1742-July, 1744. + + + + +Chapter I.--FRIEDRICH RESUMES HIS PEACEABLE PURSUITS. + +Friedrich's own Peace being made on such terms, his wish and hope was, +that it might soon be followed by a general European one; that, the +live-coal, which had kindled this War, being quenched, the War itself +might go out. Silesia is his; farther interest in the Controversy, +except that it would end itself in some fair manner, he has none. +"Silesia being settled," think many, thinks Friedrich for one, "what +else of real and solid is there to settle?" + +The European Public, or benevolent individuals of it everywhere, +indulged also in this hope. "How glorious is my King, the youngest +of the Kings and the grandest!" exclaims Voltaire (in his Letters +to Friedrich, at this time), and re-exclaims, till Friedrich has to +interfere, and politely stop it: "A King who carries in the one hand an +all-conquering sword, but in the other a blessed olive-branch, and +is the Arbiter of Europe for Peace or War!" "Friedrich the THIRD [so +Voltaire calls him, counting ill, or misled by ignorance of German +nomenclature], Friedrich the Third, I mean Friedrich the Great (FREDERIC +LE GRAND)," will do this, and do that;--probably the first emergence of +that epithet in human speech, as yet in a quite private hypothetic way. +[Letters of Voltaire, in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxii. 100, &c.: this +last Letter is of date "July, 1742"--almost contemporary with the "Jauer +Transparency" noticed above.] Opinions about Friedrich's conduct, about +his talents, his moralities, there were many (all wide of the mark): but +this seemed clear, That the weight of such a sword as his, thrown into +either scale, would be decisive; and that he evidently now wished peace. +An unquestionable fact, that latter! Wished it, yes, right heartily; and +also strove to hope,--though with less confidence than the benevolent +outside Public, as knowing the interior of the elements better. + +These hopes, how fond they were, we now all know. True, my friends, +the live-coal which kindled this incendiary whirlpool (ONE of the +live-coals, first of them that spread actual flame in these European +parts, and first of them all except Jenkins's Ear) is out, fairly +withdrawn; but the fire, you perceive, rages not the less. The fire will +not quench itself, I doubt, till the bitumen, sulphur and other angry +fuel have run much lower! Austria has fighting men in abundance, England +behind it has guineas; Austria has got injuries, then successes:--there +is in Austria withal a dumb pride, quite equal in pretensions to the +vocal vanity of France, and far more stubborn of humor. The First Nation +of the Universe, rashly hurling its fine-throated hunting-pack, or +Army of the Oriflamme, into Austria,--see what a sort of badgers, and +gloomily indignant bears, it has awakened there! Friedrich had to take +arms again; and an unwelcome task it was to him, and a sore and costly. +We shall be obliged (what is our grand difficulty in this History) to +note, in their order, the series of European occurrences; and, tedious +as the matter now is, keep readers acquainted with the current of that +big War; in which, except Friedrich broad awake, and the Ear of Jenkins +in somnambulancy, there is now next to nothing to interest a human +creature. + +It is an error still prevalent in England, though long since exploded +everywhere else, that Friedrich wanted new wars, "new successful +robberies," as our Gazetteers called them; and did wilfully plunge +into this War again, in the hope of again doing a stroke in that kind. +English readers, on consulting the facts a little, will not hesitate to +sweep that notion altogether away. Shadow of basis, except in their own +angry uninformed imaginations, they will find it never had; and that +precisely the reverse is manifest in Friedrich's History. A perfectly +clear-sighted Friedrich; able to discriminate shine from substance; +and gravitating always towards the solid, the actual. That of "GLOIRE," +which he owns to at starting, we saw how soon it died out, choked in +the dire realities. That of Conquering Hero, in the Macedonia's-madman +style, was at all times far from him, if the reader knew it,--perhaps +never farther from any King who had such allurements to it, such +opportunities for it. This his First Expedition to Silesia--a rushing +out to seize your own stolen horse, while the occasion answered--was a +voluntary one; produced, we may say, by Friedrich's own thought and the +Invisible Powers. But the rest were all purely compulsory,--to defend +the horse he had seized. Clear necessities, and Powers very Visible, +were the origin of all his other Expeditions and Warlike Struggles, +which lasted to the end of his life. + +That recent "Moravian Foray;" the joint-stock principle in War matters; +and the terrible pass a man might reduce himself to, at that +enormous gaming-table of the gods, if he lingered there: think what +considerations these had been for him! So that "his look became +FAROUCHE," in the sight of Valori; and the spectre of Ruin kept him +company, and such hell-dogs were in chase of him;--till Czaslau, when +the dice fell kind again! All this had been didactic on a young docile +man. He was but thirty gone. And if readers mark such docility at those +years, they will find considerable meaning in it. Here are prudence, +moderation, clear discernment; very unusual VERACITY of intellect, as we +define it,--which quality, indeed, is the summary and victorious outcome +of all manner of good qualities, and faithful performances, in a man. +"Given up to strong delusions," in the tragical way many are, Friedrich +was not; and, in practical matters, very seldom indeed "believed a lie." + +Certain it is, he now resumes his old Reinsberg Program of Life; +probably with double relish, after such experiences the other way; and +prosecutes it with the old ardor; hoping much that his History will be +of halcyon pacific nature, after all. Would the mad War-whirlpool but +quench itself; dangerous for singeing a near neighbor, who is only just +got out of it! Fain would he be arbiter, and help to quench it; but it +will not quench. For a space of Two Years or more (till August, 1744, +Twenty-six Months in all), Friedrich, busy on his own affairs, with +carefully neutral aspect towards this War, yet with sword ready for +drawing in case of need, looks on with intense vigilance; using his +wisest interference, not too often either, in that sense and in that +only, "Be at Peace; oh, come to Peace!"--and finds that the benevolent +Public and he have been mistaken in their hopes. For the next Two Years, +we say:--for the first Year (or till about August, 1743), with hope +not much abated, and little actual interference needed; for the latter +Twelvemonth, with hope ever more abating; interference, warning, almost +threatening ever more needed, and yet of no avail, as if they had been +idle talking and gesticulation on his part:--till, in August, 1744, he +had to--But the reader shall gradually see it, if by any method we can +show it him, in something of its real sequence; and shall judge of it by +his own light. + +Friedrich's Domestic History was not of noisy nature, during this +interval:--and indeed in the bewildered Records given of it, there is +nothing visible, at first, but one wide vortex of simmering inanities; +leading to the desperate conclusion that Friedrich had no domestic +history at all. Which latter is by no means the fact! Your poor Prussian +Dryasdust (without even an Index to help you) being at least authentic, +if you look a long time intensely and on many sides, features do at last +dawn out of those sad vortexes; and you find the old Reinsberg Program +risen to activity again; and all manner of peaceable projects going on. +Friedrich visits the Baths of Aachen (what we call Aix-la-Chapelle); +has the usual Inspections, business activities, recreations, visits +of friends. He opens his Opera-House, this first winter. He enters +on Law-reform, strikes decisively into that grand problem; hoping to +perfect it. What is still more significant, he in private begins writing +his MEMOIRS. And furthermore, gradually determines on having a little +Country House, place of escape from his big Potsdam Palace; and gets +plans drawn for it,--place which became very famous, by the name of +SANS-SOUCI, in times coming. His thoughts are wholly pacific; of Life to +Minerva and the Arts, not to Bellona and the Battles:--and yet he knows +well, this latter too is an inexorable element. About his Army, he is +quietly busy; augmenting, improving it; the staff of life to Prussia and +him. + +Silesian Fortress-building, under ugly Walrave, goes on at a +steadily swift rate. Much Silesian settlement goes on; fixing of the +Prussian-Austrian Boundaries without; of the Catholic-Protestant limits +within: rapid, not too rough, remodelling of the Province from Austrian +into Prussian, in the Financial, Administrative and every other +respect:--in all which important operations the success was noiseless, +but is considered to have been perfect, or nearly so. Cannot we, from +these enormous Paper-masses, carefully riddled, afford the reader a +glimpse or two, to quicken his imagination of these things? + + + + +SETTLES THE SILESIAN BOUNDARIES, THE SILESIAN ARRANGEMENTS; WITH +MANIFEST PROFIT TO SILESIA AND HIMSELF. + +In regard to the Marches, Herr Nussler, as natural, was again the person +employed. Nussler, shifty soul, wide-awake at all times, has already +seen this Country; "noticed the Pass into Glatz with its block-house, +and perceived that his Majesty would want it." From September 22d to +December 12th, 1742, the actual Operation went on; ratified, completely +set at rest, 16th January following. [Busching, _Beitrage,_? Nussler: +and Busching's _Magazin,_ b. x. (Halle, 1776); where, pp. 475-538, is a +"GESCHICHTE DER &c. SHLESISCHEN GRANZSCHEIDUNG IM JAHR 1742," in great +amplitude and authenticity.] Nussler serves on three thalers (nine +shillings) a day. The Austrian Head-Commissioner has 5 pounds (thirty +thalers) a day; but he is an elderly fat gentleman, pursy, scant of +breath; cannot stand the rapid galloping about, and thousand-fold +inspecting and detailing; leaves it all to Nussler; who goes like the +wind. Thus, for example, Nussler dictates, at evening from his saddle, +the mutual Protocol of the day's doings; Old Pursy sitting by, impatient +for supper, and making no criticisms. Then at night, Nussler privately +mounts again; privately, by moonlight, gallops over the ground they are +to deal with next day, and takes notice of everything. No wonder the +boundary-pillars, set up in such manner, which stand to this day, bear +marks that Prussia here and there has had fair play!--Poor Nussler has +no fixed appointment yet, except one of about 100 pounds a year: in all +my travels I have seen no man of equal faculty at lower wages. Nor did +he ever get any signal promotion, or the least exuberance of wages, this +poor Nussler;--unless it be that he got trained to perfect veracity of +workmanship, and to be a man without dry-rot in the soul of him; which +indeed is incalculable wages. Income of 100 pounds a year, and no +dry-rot in the soul of you anywhere; income of 100,000 pounds a year, +and nothing but dry and wet rot in the soul of you (ugly appetites +unveracities, blusterous conceits,--and probably, as symbol of all +things, a pot-belly to your poor body itself): Oh, my friends! + +In settling the Spiritual or internal Catholic-Protestant limits of +Silesia, Friedrich did also a workmanlike thing. Perfect fairness +between Protestant and Catholic; to that he is bound, and never needed +binding. But it is withal his intention to be King in Catholic Silesia; +and that no Holy Father, or other extraneous individual, shall intrude +with inconvenient pretensions there. He accordingly nominates the +now Bishop of Neisse and natural Primate of Silesia,--Cardinal von +Sinzendorf, who has made submission for any late Austrian peccadilloes, +and thoroughly reconciled himself,--nominates Sinzendorf "Vicar-General" +of the Country; who is to relieve the Pope of Silesian trouble, and be +himself Quasi-Supreme of the Catholic Church there. "No offence, Holy +Papa of Christian Mankind! Your holy religion is, and shall be, intact +in these parts; but the palliums, bulls and other holy wares and +interferences are not needed here. On that footing, be pleased to rest +content." + +The Holy Father shrieked his loudest (which is now a quite calculable +loudness, nothing like so loud as it once was); declared he would +"himself join the Army of Martyrs sooner;" and summoned Sinzendorf to +Rome: "What kind of HINGE are you, CARDINALIS of the Gates of"--Husht! +Shrieked his loudest, we say; but, as nobody minded it, and as +Sinzendorf would not come, had to let the matter take its course. +[Adelung, iii. A. 197-200.] And, gradually noticing what correct +observance of essentials there was, he even came quite round, into a +high state of satisfaction with this Heretic King, in the course of +a few years. Friedrich and the Pope were very polite to each other +thenceforth; always ready to do little mutual favors. And it is to be +remarked, Friedrich's management of his Clergy, Protestant and Catholic, +was always excellent; true, in a considerable degree, to the real law of +things; gentle, but strict, and without shadow of hypocrisy,--in which +last fine particular he is singularly unique among Modern Sovereigns. + +He recognizes honestly the uses of Religion, though he himself has +little; takes a good deal of pains with his Preaching Clergy, from +the Army-Chaplain upwards,--will suggest texts to them, with scheme +of sermon, on occasion;--is always anxious to have, as Clerical +Functionary, the right man in the important place; and for the rest, +expects to be obeyed by them, as by his Sergeants and Corporals. Indeed, +the reverend men feel themselves to be a body of Spiritual Sergeants, +Corporals and Captains; to whom obedience is the rule, and discontent a +thing not to be indulged in by any means. And it is worth noticing, how +well they seem to thrive in this completely submissive posture; how much +real Christian worth is traceable in their labors and them; and what a +fund of piety and religious faith, in rugged effectual form, exists in +the Armies and Populations of such a King. ["In 1780, at Berlin, the +population being 140,000, there are of ECCLESIASTIC kind only 140; +that is 1 to the 1,000;--at Munchen there are thirty times as many +in proportion" (Mirabeau, _Monarchie Prussienne,_ viii. 342; quoting +NICOLAI).]... + +By degrees the Munchows and Official Persons intrusted with Silesia got +it wrought in all respects, financial, administrative, judicial, secular +and spiritual, into the Prussian model: a long tough job; but one that +proved well worth doing. [In Preuss (i. 197-200), the various steps +(from 1740 to 1806).] In this state, counts one authority, it was worth +to Prussia "about six times what it had been to Austria;"--from some +other forgotten source, I have seen the computation "eight times." In +money revenue, at the end of Friedrich's reign, it is a little more +than twice; the "eight times" and the "six times," which are but loose +multiples, refer, I suppose, to population, trade, increase of +national wealth, of new regiments yielded by new cantons, and the like. +[Westphalen, in _Feldzuge des Herzogs Ferdinand_ (printed, Berlin, 1859, +written 100 years before by that well-informed person), i. 65, says in +the rough "six times:" Preuss, iv. 292, gives, very indistinctly, the +ciphers of Revenue, in 1740 and SOME later Year: according to Friedrich +himself (_Oeuvres_, ii. 102), the Silesian Revenue at first was +"3,600,000 thalers" (540,000 pounds, little more than Half a Million); +Population, a Million-and-Half.] + +Six or eight times as useful to Prussia: and to the Inhabitants what +multiple of usefulness shall we give? To be governed on principles fair +and rational, that is to say, conformable to Nature's appointment in +that respect; and to be governed on principles which contradict the very +rules of Cocker, and with impious disbelief of the very Multiplication +Table: the one is a perpetual Gospel of Cosmos and Heaven to every unit +of the Population; the other a Gospel of Chaos and Beelzebub to every +unit of them: there is no multiple to be found in Arithmetic which will +express that!--Certain of these advantages, in the new Government, are +seen at once; others, the still more valuable, do not appear, except +gradually and after many days and years. With the one and the other, +Schlesien appears to have been tolerably content. From that Year 1742 +to this, Schlesien has expressed by word and symptom nothing but +thankfulness for the Transfer it underwent; and there is, for the +last Hundred Years, no part of the Prussian Dominion more loyal to the +Hohenzollerns (who are the Authors of Prussia, without whom Prussia had +never been), than this their latest acquisition, when once it too got +moulded into their own image. [Preuss, i. 193, and ib. 200 (Note from +Klein, a Silesian Jurist): "Favor not merit formerly;" "Magistracies +a regular branch of TRADE;"--"highway robbers on a strangely familiar +footing with the old Breslau magistrates;" &c. &c.] + + + + +OPENING OF THE OPERA-HOUSE AT BERLIN. + +... December 7th, this Winter, Carnival being come or just coming, +Friedrich opens his New Opera-House, for behoof of the cultivated Berlin +classes; a fine Edifice, which had been diligently built by Knobelsdorf, +while those Silesian battlings went on. "One of the largest and finest +Opera-houses in the whole world; like a sumptuous Palace rather. +Stands free on all sides, space for 1,000 Coaches round it; Five great +Entrances, five persons can walk abreast through each; and inside--you +should see, you should hear! Boxes more like rooms or boudoirs, free +view and perfect hearing of the stage from every point: air pure and +free everywhere; water aloft, not only for theatrical cascades, but +to drown out any fire or risk of fire." [Seyfarth, i. 234; Nicolai, +_Beschreibung von Berlin,_ i. 169.] This is Seyfarth's account, still +capable of confirmation by travelling readers of a musical turn. I +have seen Operas with much more brilliancy of gas and gilding; but none +nearly so convenient to the human mind and sense; or where the audience +(not now a gratis one) attended to the music in so meritorious a way. + +"Perhaps it will attract moneyed strangers to frequent our +Capital?"--some guess, that was Friedrich's thought. "At all events, it +is a handsome piece of equipage, for a musical King and People; not +to be neglected in the circumstances. Thalia, in general,--let us not +neglect Thalia, in such a dearth of worshipable objects." Nor did he +neglect Thalia. The trouble Friedrich took with his Opera, with his +Dancing-Apparatus, French Comedy, and the rest of that affair, was very +great. Much greater, surely, than this Editor would have thought of +taking; though, on reflection, he does not presume to blame. The world +is dreadfully scant of worshipable objects: and if your Theatre is your +own, to sweep away intrusive nonsense continually from the gates of it? +Friedrich's Opera costs him heavy sums (surely I once knew approximately +what, but the sibylline leaf is gone again upon the winds!)--and he +admits gratis a select public, and that only. [Preuss, i. 277; and +Preuss, _Buch fur Jedermann,_ i. 100.] "This Winter, 1742-43, was +unusually magnificent at Court: balls, WIRTHSCHAFTEN [kind of MIMIC +FAIRS], sledge-parties, masquerades, and theatricals of all sorts;--and +once even, December 2d, the new Golden Table-Service [cost of it 200,000 +pounds] was in action, when the two Queens [Queen Regnant and Queen +Mother] dined with his Majesty." + + + + +FRIEDRICH TAKES THE WATERS AT AACHEN, WHERE VOLTAIRE COMES TO SEE HIM. + +Months before that of the Opera-House or those Silesian settlements, +Friedrich, in the end of August, what is the first thing visible in +his Domestic History, makes a visit, for health's sake, to Aachen +(Aix-la-Chapelle so called), with a view to the waters there. Intends to +try for a little improvement in health, as the basis of ulterior things. +Health has naturally suffered a little in these War-hardships; and the +Doctors recommend Aix. After Wesel, and the Westphalian Inspections, +Friedrich, accordingly, proceeds to Aix; and for about a fortnight (23th +August-9th September) drinks the waters in that old resting-place of +Charlemagne;--particulars not given in the Books; except that "he lodged +with Baege" (if any mortal now knew Baege), and did an Audience or so to +select persons now unknown. He is not entirely incognito, but is without +royal state; the "guard of twenty men, the escort of 160 men," being no +men of his, but presumably mere Town-guard of Aix coming in an honorary +way. Aix is proud to see him; he himself is intent on the waters here at +old Aix:-- + + + Aquisgranum, urbs regalis, + Sedes Regni principalis:-- + + +My friend, this was Charlemagne's high place; and his dust lies here, +these thousand years last past. And there used to soar "a very large +Gilt Eagle," ten feet wide or so, aloft on the Cathedral-steeple there; +Eagle turned southward when the Kaiser was in Frankenland, eastward when +he was in Teutsch or Teuton-land; in fact, pointing out the Kaiser's +whereabouts to loyal mankind. [Kohler, _Reichs-Historie._] Eagle +which shines on me as a human fact; luminously gilt, through the dark +Dryasdustic Ages, gone all spectral under Dryasdust's sad handling. +Friedrich knows farther, that for many centuries after, the "Reich's +INSIGNIA (REICHS-KLEINODIEN)" used to be here,--though Maria Theresa +has them now, and will not give them up. The whole of which points are +indifferent to him. The practical, not the sentimental, is Friedrich's +interest;--not to say that WERTER and the sentimental were not yet born +into our afflicted Earth. A King thoroughly practical;--yet an exquisite +player on the flute withal, as we often notice; whose adagio could draw +tears from you. For in himself, too, there were floods of tears (as +when his Mother died); and he has been heard saying, not bragging but +lamenting, what was truly the fact, that "he had more feeling than other +men." But it was honest human feeling always; and was repressed, where +not irrepressible;--as it behooved to be. + +Friedrich's suite was not considerable, says the French spy at Aix on +this occasion; pomp of Entrance,--a thing to be mute upon! "Came +driving in with the common post-horses of the country; and such a set +of carriages as your Lordship, intent on the sublime, has no idea of." +[Spy-Letter, in _Campagnes des Trois Marechaux,_ i. 222.] Rumor was, His +Britannic Majesty was coming (also on pretext of the waters) to confer +with him; other rumor is, If King George came in at one gate, King +Friedrich would go out at the other. A dubious Friedrich, to the French +spy, at this moment; nothing like so admirable as he once was!-- + +The French emotions (of which we say little), on Friedrich's making +Peace for himself, had naturally been great. To the French Public it was +unexpected, somewhat SUDDEN even to the Court; and, sure enough, it was +of perilous importance in the circumstances. Few days ago, Broglio (by +order given him) "could not spare a man," for the Common Cause;--and now +the Common Cause has become entirely the Broglio one, and Broglio will +have the full use of all his men! "Defection [plainly treasonous to your +Liege Lord and Nation]! horrible to think of!" cried the French Public; +the Court outwardly taking a lofty tragic-elegiac tone, with some air +of hope that his Prussian Majesty would perhaps come round again, to +the side of his afflicted France! Of which, except in the way of helping +France and the other afflicted parties to a just Peace if he could, his +Prussian Majesty had small thought at this time. + +More affecting to Friedrich were the natural terrors of the poor Kaiser +on this event. The Kaiser has already had his Messenger at Berlin, +in consequence of it; with urgent inquiries, entreaties;--an expert +Messenger, who knows Berlin well. So other than our old friend, the +Ordnance-Master Seckendorf, now titular Feldmarschall,--whom one is +more surprised than delighted to meet again! Being out with Austria +(clamoring for great sums of "arrears," which they will not pay), he +has been hanging about this new Kaiser, ever since Election-time; and +is again getting into employment, Diplomatic, Strategic, for some +years,--though we hope mostly to ignore him and it. Friedrich's own +feeling at sight of him,--ask not about it, more than if there had been +none! Friedrich gave him "a distinguished reception;" Friedrich's answer +sent by him to the Kaiser was all kindness; emphatic assurance, "That, +not 'hostility' by any means, that loyalty, friendship, and aid wherever +possible within the limits, should always be his rule towards the +now Kaiser, lawful Head of the Reich, in difficult circumstances." +["Audience, 30th July" (Adelung, iii. A, 217).] Which was some +consolation to the poor man,--stript of his old revenues, old Bavarian +Dominions, and unprovided with new; this sublime Headship of the Reich +bring moneyless; and one's new "Kingdom of Bohemia" hanging in so +uncertain a state, with nothing but a Pharsalia-Sahay to show for +itself!-- + +Among Friedrich's "inconsiderable suite," at Aachen, was Prince Henri +(his youngest Brother, age now sixteen, a small, sensitive, shivering +creature, but of uncommon parts); and another young man, Prince +Ferdinand of Brunswick, his Wife's youngest Brother; a soldier, as all +the Brothers are; soldier in Friedrich's Army, this one; in whose +fine inarticulate eupeptic character are excellent dispositions and +capacities discernible. Ferdinand goes generally with the King; much +about him in these years. All the Brothers follow soldiering; it is +the one trade of German Princes. When at home, Friedrich is still +occasionally with his Queen; who lives at Schonhausen, in the environs +of Berlin, but goes with him to Charlottenburg, to old Reinsberg; and +has her share of galas in his company, with the Queen Mother and cognate +Highnesses. + +Another small fact, still more memorable at present, is, That Voltaire +now made him a Third Visit,--privately on Fleury's instance, as is +evident this time. Of which Voltaire Visit readers shall know duly, by +and by, what little is knowable. But, alas, there is first an immense +arrear of War-matters to bring up; to which, still more than to +Voltaire, the afflicted reader must address himself, if he would +understand at all what Friedrich's Environment, or circumambient +Life-element now was, and how Friedrich, well or ill, comported himself +in the same. Brevity, this Editor knows, is extremely desirable, +and that the scissors should be merciless on those sad Paper-Heaps, +intolerable to the modern mind; but, unless the modern mind chance to +prefer ease and darkness, what can an Editor do! + + + + +Chapter II.--AUSTRIAN AFFAIRS ARE ON THE MOUNTING HAND. + +Austrian affairs are not now in their nadir-point; a long while now +since they passed that. Austria, to all appearance dead, started up, and +began to strike for herself, with some success, the instant Walpole's +SOUP-ROYAL (that first 200,000 pounds, followed since by abundance more) +got to her lips. Touched her poor pale lips; and went tingling through +her, like life and fiery elasticity, out of death by inanition! Cardinal +moment, which History knows, but can never date, except vaguely, some +time in 1741; among the last acts of judicious Walpole. + +Austria, thanks to its own Khevenhullers and its English guineas, was +already rising in various quarters: and now when the Prussian Affair +is settled, Austria springs up everywhere like an elastic body with the +pressure taken from it; mounts steadily, month after month, in practical +success, and in height of humor in a still higher ratio. And in +the course of the next Two Years rises to a great height indeed. +Here--snatched, who knows with what difficulty, from that shoreless +bottomless slough of an Austrian-Succession War, deservedly forgotten, +and avoided by extant mankind--are some of the more essential phenomena, +which Friedrich had to witness in those months. To witness, to scan +with such intense interest,--rightly, at his peril;--and to interpret as +actual "Omens" for him, as monitions of a most indisputable nature! No +Haruspex, I suppose, with or without "white beard, and long staff for +cutting the Heavenly Vault into compartments from the zenith downwards," +could, in Etruria or elsewhere, "watch the flight of birds, now into +this compartment, now into that," with stricter scrutiny than, on the +new terms, did this young King from his Potsdam Observatory. + + + + +WAR-PHENOMENA IN THE WESTERN PARTS: KING GEORGE TRIES, A SECOND TIME, TO +DRAW HIS SWORD; TUGS AT IT VIOLENTLY, FOR SEVEN MONTHS (February- +October, 1742). + +"The first phenomenon, cheering to Austria, is that of the Britannic +Majesty again clutching sword, with evident intent to draw it on her +behalf. [Tindal, xx. 552; Old Newspapers; &c. &c.] Besides his potent +soup-royal of Half-Millions annually, the Britannic Majesty has a +considerable sword, say 40,000, of British and of subsidized;--sword +which costs him a great deal of money to keep by his side; and a great +deal of clamor and insolent gibing from the Gazetteer species, because +he is forced to keep it strictly in the scabbard hitherto. This Year, +we observe, he has determined again to draw it, in the Cause of Human +Liberty, whatever follow. From early Spring there were symptoms: Camps +on Lexden and other Heaths, much reviewing in Hyde-Park and elsewhere; +from all corners a universal marching towards the Kent Coast; the +aspects being favorable. 'We can besiege Dunkirk at any rate, cannot +we, your High Mightinesses? Dunkirk, which, by all the Treaties in +existence, ought to need no besieging; but which, in spite of treatyings +innumerable, always does?' The High Mightinesses answer nothing +articulate, languidly grumble something in OPTATIVE tone;--'meaning +assent,' thinks the sanguine mind. 'Dutch hoistable, after all!' thinks +he; 'Dutch will co-operate, if they saw example set!' And, in England, +the work of embarking actually begins. + +"Britannic Majesty's purpose, and even fixed resolve to this effect, had +preceded the Prussian-Austrian Settlement. May 20th, ["9th" by the Old +Newspapers; but we always TRANSLATE their o.s.] 'Two regiments of +Foot,' first poor instalment of British Troops, had actually landed +at Ostend;--news of the Battle of Chotusitz, much more, of the +Austrian-Prussian Settlement, or Peace of Breslau, would meet them +THERE. But after that latter auspicious event, things start into quick +and double-quick time; and the Gazetteers get vocal, almost lyrical: +About Howard's regiment, Ponsonby's regiment, all manner of regiments, +off to Flanders, for a stroke of work; how 'Ligonier's Dragoons [a set +of wild swearing fellows, whom Guildford is happy to be quit of] rode +through Bromley with their kettle-drums going, and are this day at +Gravesend to take ship;'"--or to give one other, more specific example: + +"Yesterday [3d July, 1742] General Campbell's Regiment of Scotch Greys +arrived in the Borough of Southwark, on their march to Dover, where they +are to embark for Flanders. They are fine hardy fellows, that want +no seasoning; and make an appearance agreeable to all but the +innkeepers,"--who have such billeting to do, of late. [_Daily Post,_ +June 23d (o.s.), 1742.] "Grey Dragoons," or Royal Scots-Greys, is the +title of this fine Regiment; and their Colonel is Lieutenant-General +John Campbell, afterwards Duke of Argyle (fourth Duke), Cousin of the +great second Duke of Argyle that now is. [Douglas, _Scotch Peerage_ +(Edinburgh, 1764), p. 44.] Visibly billeting there, in Southwark, with +such intentions:--and, by accident, this Editor knows Twenty of these +fine fellows! Twenty or so, who had gone in one batch as Greys; sons of +good Annandale yeomen, otherwise without a career open: some Two of whom +did get back, and lived to be old men; the rumor of whom, and of their +unheard-of adventures, was still lingering in the air, when this Editor +began existence. Pardon, O reader!-- + +"But, all through those hot days, it is a universal drumming, +kettle-drumming, coast-ward; preparation of transports at Gravesend, at +the top of one's velocity. 'All the coopers in London are in requisition +for water-casks, so that our very brewers have to pause astonished for +want of tubs.' There is pumping in of water day and night, Sunday not +excepted, then throwing of it out again [owing to new circumstances]: +250 saddle-horses, and 100 sumpter ditto, for his Majesty's own +use,--these need a deal of water, never to speak of Ligonier and the +Greys. 'For the honor of our Country, his Majesty will make a grander +appearance this Campaign than any of his Predecessors ever did; and +as to the magnificence of his equipage,'--besides the 350 quadrupeds, +'there are above 100 rich portmanteaus getting ready with all +expedition.' [_Daily Post,_ September 13th (I.E. 26th).] The Fat Boy +too [Royal Highness Duke of Cumberland, one should say] is to go; a most +brave-hearted, flaxen-florid, plump young creature; hopeful Son of Mars, +could he once get experience, which, alas, he never could, though trying +it for five-and-twenty years to come, under huge expense to this Nation! +There are to be 16,000 troops, perhaps more; '1,000 sandbags' (empty as +yet); demolition of Dunkirk the thing aimed at." If only the Dutch prove +hoistable!-- + +"And so, from May on to September, it noisily proceeds, at multiplex +rates? and often with more haste than speed: and in such five months +(seven, strictly counted) of clangorous movement and dead-lift +exertion, there were veritably got across, of Horse and Foot with their +equipments, the surprising number of '16,334 men.' [Adelung, iii. A, +201.] May 20th it began,--that is, the embarking began; the noise and +babble about it, which have been incessant ever since, had begun in +February before;--and on September 26th, Ostend, now almost weary of +huzzaing over British glory by instalment, had the joy of seeing our +final portions of Artillery arrive: Such a Park of Siege-and-Field +Artillery," exults the Gazetteer, "as"--as these poor creatures never +dreamt of before. + +"Magnanimous Lord Stair, already Plenipotentiary to the Dutch, is to be +King's General-in-Chief of this fine Enterprise; Carteret, another Lord +of some real brilliancy, and perhaps of still weightier metal, is head +of the Cabinet; hearty, both of them, for these Anti-French intentions: +and the Public cannot but think, Surely something will come of it this +time? More especially now that Maillebois, about the middle of August, +by a strange turn of fortune, is swept out of the way. Maillebois, lying +over in Westphalia with his 30 or 40,000, on 'Check to your King' this +year past, had, on sight of these Anti-Dunkirk movements, been ordered +to look Dunkirk way, and at length to move thitherward, for protection +of Dunkirk. So that Stair, before his Dunkirk business, will have to +fight Maillebois; which Stair doubts not may be satisfactorily done. +But behold, in August and earlier, come marvellous news from the Prag +quarter, tragical to France; and Maillebois is off, at his best speed, +in the reverse direction; on a far other errand!"--Of which readers +shall soon hear enough. + +"Dunkirk, therefore, is now open. With 16,000 British troops, +Hanoverians to the like number, and Hessians 6,000, together near +40,000, not to speak of Dutch at all, surely one might manage Dunkirk, +if not something still better? It is AFTER Maillebois's departure that +these dreadful exertions, coopering of water-casks, pumping all +Sunday, go on at Gravesend: 'Swift, oh, be swift, while time is!' And +Generalissimo-Plenipotentiary Stair, who has run over beforehand, +is ardent enough upon the Dutch; his eloquence fiery and incessant: +'Magnanimous High Mightinesses, was there, will there again be, such a +chance? The Cause of Human Liberty may be secured forever! Dunkirk--or +what is Dunkirk even? Between us and Paris, there is nothing, now that +Maillebois is off on such an errand! Why should not we play Marlborongh +again, and teach them a little what Invasion means? It is ourselves +alone that can hinder it! Now, I say, or never!' + +"Stair was a pupil of Marlborough's; is otherwise a shining kind of man; +and has immense things in his eye, at this time. They say, what is not +unlikely, he proposed an Interview with Friedrich now at Aachen; would +come privately, to 'take the waters' for a day or two,--while Maillebois +was on his new errand, and such a crisis had risen. But Friedrich, +anxious to be neutral and give no offence, politely waived such honor. +Lord Stair was thought to be something of a General, in fact as well as +in costume;--and perhaps he was so. And had there been a proper COUNTESS +of Stair, or new Sarah Jennings,--to cover gently, by art-magic, the +Britannic Majesty and Fat Boy under a tub; and to put Britain, +and British Parliament and resources, into Stair's hand for a few +years,--who knows what Stair too might have done! A Marlborough in the +War Arts,--perhaps still less in the Peace ones, if we knew the great +Marlborough,--he could not have been. But there is in him a recognizable +flash of magnanimity, of heroic enterprise and purpose; which is highly +peculiar in that sordid element. And it can be said of him, as of +lightning striking ineffectual on the Bog of Allen or the Stygian Fens, +that his strength was never tried."--For the upshot of him we will wait; +not very long. + +These are fine prospects, if only the Dutch prove hoistable. But these +are as nothing to what is passing, and has passed, in the Eastern Parts, +in the Bohemian-Bavarian quarter, since we were there. Poor Kaiser Karl, +what an outlook for him! His own real Bavaria, much more his imaginary +"Upper Austria" and "Conquests on the Donau," after that Segur +Adventure, are plunging headlong. As to his once "Kingdom of Bohemia," +it has already plunged; nay, the Army of the Oriflamme is itself near +plunging, in spite of that Pharsalia of a Sahay! Bavaria itself, we say, +is mostly gone to Khevenhuller; Segur with his French on march homeward, +and nothing but Bavarians left. The Belleisle-Broglio grand Budweis +Expedition is gone totally heels over head; Belleisle and Broglio +are getting, step by step, shut up in Prag and besieged there: while +Maillebois--Let us try whether, by snatching out here a fragment and +there a fragment, with chronological and other appliances, it be not +possible to give readers some conceivable notion of what Friedrich was +now looking at with such interest!-- + + + + +HOW DUC D'HARCOURT, ADVANCING TO REINFORCE THE ORIFLAMME, HAD TO SPLIT +HIMSELF IN TWO; AND BECOME AN "ARMY OF BAVARIA," TO LITTLE EFFECT. + +The poor Kaiser, who at one time counted "30,000 Bavarians of his own," +has all along been ill served by them and the bad Generals they had: two +Generals; both of whom, Minuzzi, and old Feldmarschall Thorring (Prime +Minister withal), came to a bad reputation in this War. Beaten nearly +always; Thorring quite always,--"like a DRUM, that Thorring; never +heard of except when beaten," said the wits! Of such let us not speak. +Understand only, FIRST, that the French, reasonably soon after that Linz +explosion, did, in such crisis, get reinforcements on the road; a Duc +d'Harcourt with some 25,000 faring forward, in an intermittent manner, +ever since "March 4th." And SECONDLY, that Khevenhuller has fast hold of +Passau, the Austrian-Bavarian Key-City; is master of nearly all Bavaria +(of Munchen, and all that lies south of the Donau); and is now across +on the north shore, wrenching and tugging upon Kelheim and the +Ingolstadt-Donauworth regions, with nothing but Thorring people and +small French Garrisons to hinder him;--where it will be fatal if he +quite prosper; Ingolstadt being our Place-of-Arms, and House on the +Highway, both for Bavaria and Bohemia! + +"For months past, there had been a gleam of hope for Kaiser Karl, and +his new 'Kingdom of Bohemia,' and old Electorate of Bavaria, from the +rumor of 'D'Harcourt's reinforcement,'--a 20 or 30,000 new Frenchmen +marching into those parts, in a very detached intermittent manner; +great in the Gazettes. But it proved a gleam only, and came to nothing +effectual. Poor D'Harcourt, owing to cross orders [Groglio clamorously +demanding that the new force should come to Prag; Karl Albert the +Kaiser, nominally General-in-Chief, demanding that it should go down the +Donau and sweep his Bavaria clear], was in difficulty. To do either of +these cross orders might have brought some result; but to half-do both +of them, as he was enjoined to attempt, was not wise! Some half of +his force he did detach towards Broglio; which got to actual junction, +partly before, partly after, that Pharsalia-Sahay Affair, and raised +Broglio to a strength of 24,000,--still inadequate against Prince Karl. +Which done, D'Harcourt himself went down the Donau, on his original +scheme, with the remainder of his forces,--now likewise become +inadequate. He is to join with Feldmarschall Thorring in the"--And does +it, as we shall see presently!... + +MUNCHEN, 5th MAY. "Rumor of D'Harcourt had somewhat cleared Bavaria +of Austrians; but the reality of him, in a divided state, by no means +corresponds. Thus Munchen City, in the last days of April,--D'Harcourt +advancing, terrible as a rumor,--rejoiced exceedingly to see the +Austrians march out, at their best pace. And the exultant populace even +massacred a loitering Tolpatch or two; who well deserve it, think the +populace, judging by their experience for the last three months, since +Barenklau and Mentzel became King here.--'Rumor of D'Harcourt?' answers +Khevenhuller from the Kelheim-Passau side of things: 'Let us wait for +sight of him, at least!' And orders Munchen to be reoccupied. So that, +alas, 'within a week,' on the 5th of May, Barenklau is back upon the +poor City; exacts severe vengeance for the Tolpatch business; and will +give them seven months more of his company, in spite of D'Harcourt, and +'the Army of Bavaria' as he now called himself:"--new "Army of Bavaria," +when once arrived in those Countries, and joined with poor Thorring and +the Kaiser's people there. Such an "Army of Bavaria," first and last, +as--as Khevenhuller could have wished it! Under D'Harcourt, joined with +old Feldmarschall Thorring (him whom men liken to a DRUM, "never heard +of except when beaten"), this is literally the sum of what fighting it +did: + +"HILGARTSBERG (Deggendorf Donau-Country), MAY 28th. D'Harcourt and +Thorring, after junction at Donauworth several weeks ago, and a good +deal of futile marching up and down in those Donau Countries,--on the +left bank, for most part; Khevenhuller holding stiffly, as usual, by the +Inn, the Iser, and the rivers and countries on the right,--did at last, +being now almost within sight of Passau and that important valley of the +Inn across yonder, seriously decide to have a stroke at Passau, and +to dislodge Khevenhuller, who is weak in force, though obstinate. They +perceive that there is, on this left bank, a post in the woods, Castle +of Hilgartsberg, none of the strongest Castles, rather a big Country +Mansion than a Castle, which it will be necessary first to take. They go +accordingly to take it (May 28th, having well laid their heads together +the day before); march through intricate wet forest country, peat above +all abundant; see the Castle of Hilgartsberg towering aloft, picturesque +object in the Donau Valley, left bank;--are met by cannon-shot, +case-shot, shot of every kind; likewise by Croats apparently +innumerable, by cavalry sabrings and levelled bayonets; do not behave +too well, being excessively astonished; and are glad to get off again, +leaving one of their guns lodged in the mud, and about a hundred +unfortunate men. [_Guerre de Boheme,_ ii. 146-148, 136, &c.] This +quite disgusted D'Harcourt with the Passau speculation and these grim +Khevenhuller outposts. He straightway took to collecting Magazines; +lodging himself in the attainable Towns thereabouts, Deggendorf the +chief strength for him; and gave up fighting till perhaps better +times might arrive." We will wish him good success in the victualling +department, hope to hear no more of him in this History;--and shall +say only that Comte de Saxe, before long, relieves him of this Bavarian +Army;--and will be seen at the head of it, on a most important business +that rises. + +Kaiser Karl begins to have real thoughts of recalling this Thorring, who +is grown so very AUDIBLE, altogether home; and of appointing Seckendorf +instead. A course which Belleisle has been strongly recommending for +some time. Seckendorf is at present "gathering meal in the Ober-Pfalz" +(Upper Palatinate, road from Ingolstadt to Eger, to Bohmen generally), +that is, forming Magazines, on the Kaiser's behalf there: "Surely a +likelier man than your Thorring!" urges Belleisle always. With whom the +Kaiser does finally comply; nominates Seckendorf commander,--recalls the +invaluable Thorring! "to his services in our Cabinet Council, which more +befit his great age." In which safe post poor Thorring, like a Drum NOT +beaten upon, has thenceforth a silent life of it; Seckendorf fighting in +his stead,--as we shall have to witness, more or less. + +Khevenhuller's is a changed posture, since he stood in Vienna, eight or +nine months ago; grimly resolute, drilling his "6,000 of garrison," with +the wheelbarrows all busy!--But her Hungarian Majesty's chief success, +which is now opening into outlooks of a quite triumphant nature, +has been that over the New Oriflamme itself, the Belleisle-Broglio +Army,--most sweet to her Majesty to triumph over! Shortly after +Chotusitz, shortly after that Pharsalia of a Sahay, readers remember +Belleisle's fine Project, "Conjoined attack on Budweis, and sweeping of +Bohemia clear;"--readers saw Belleisle, in the Schloss of Maleschau, +5th June last, rushing out (with violence to his own wig, says +rumor); hurrying off to Dresden for co-operation; equally in vain. +"Co-operation, M. le Marechal; attack on Budweis?"--Here is another +Fragment:-- + + + + +HOW BELLEISLE, RETURNING FROM DRESDEN WITHOUT CO-OPERATION FOUND THE +ATTACK HAD BEEN DONE,--IN A FATALLY REVERSE WAY. PRAG EXPECTING SIEGE. +COLLOQUY WITH BROGLIO ON THAT INTERESTING POINT. PRAG BESIEGED. + +BUDWEIS, JUNE 4th,-PRAG, JUNE 13th. "Broglio, ever since that Sahay +[which had been fought so gloriously on Frauenberg's account], lay in +the Castle of Frauenberg, in and around,--hither side of the Moldau +river, with his Pisek thirty miles to rear, and judicious outposts +all about. There lay Broglio, meditating the attack on Budweis [were +co-operation once here],--when, contrariwise, altogether on the sudden, +Budweis made attack on Broglio; tumbled him quite topsy-turvy, and sent +him home to Prag, uncertain which end uppermost; rolling like a heap of +mown stubble in the wind, rather than marching like an army!"... Take +one glance at him:-- + +"JUNE 4th, 1742 [day BEFORE that of Belleisle's "Wig" at Maleschau, had +Belleisle known it!]--Prince Karl, being now free of the Prussians, and +ready for new work, issued suddenly from Budweis; suddenly stept across +the Moldau,--by the Bridge of Moldau-Tein, sweeping away the French that +lay there. Prince Karl swept away this first French Post, by the mere +sight and sound of him; swept away, in like fashion, the second and all +following posts; swept Broglio himself, almost without shot fired, and +in huge flurry, home to Prag, double-quick, night and day,--with much +loss of baggage, artillery, prisoners, and total loss of one's presence +of mind. 'Poor man, he was born for surprises' [said Friedrich's +Doggerel long ago]! Manoeuvred consummately [he asserts] at different +points, behind rivers and the like; but nowhere could he call halt, and +resolutely stand still. Which undoubtedly he could and should have done, +say Valori and all judges;--nothing quite immediate being upon him, +except the waste-howling tagraggery of Croats, whom it had been good to +quench a little, before going farther. On the third night, June 7th, he +arrived at Pisek; marched again before daybreak, leaving a garrison of +1,200,--who surrendered to Prince Karl next day, without shot fired. +Broglio tumbling on ahead, double-quick, with the tagraggery of Croats +continually worrying at his heels, baggage-wagons sticking fast, country +people massacring all stragglers, panted home to Prag on the 13th; +with 'the Gross of the Army saved, don't you observe!' And thinks it an +excellent retreat, he if no one-else. [_Guerre de Boheme,_ ii. 122, &c.; +_ Campagnes,_ v. 167 (his own Despatch).] + +"At Pisek, Prince Karl has ceased chasing with his regulars, the pace +being so uncommonly swift. From Pisek, Prince Karl struck off towards +Pilsen, there to intercept a residue of Harcourt reinforcements who were +coming that way: from Broglio, who knew of it, but in such flurry +could not mind it, he had no hindrance; and it was by good luck, not +management of Broglio's, that these poor reinforcements did in part +get through to him, and in part seek refuge in Eger again. Broglio has +encamped under the walls of Prag; in a ruinous though still blusterous +condition; his positions all gone; except Prag and Eger, nothing in +Bohemia now his." + +PRAG, 17th JUNE-17th AUGUST. "It is in this condition that Belleisle, +returning from the Kuttenberg-Dresden mission (June 15th), finds his +Broglio. Most disastrous, Belleisle thinks it; and nothing but a +Siege in Prag lying ahead; though Broglio is of different opinion, or, +blustering about his late miraculous retreat, and other high merits too +little recognized, forms no opinion at all on such extraneous points.... +From Versailles, they had answered Belleisle: 'Nothing to be made of +Dresden either, say you? Then go you and take the command at Prag; send +Broglio to command the Bavarian Army. See, you, what can be done by +fighting.' On this errand Belleisle is come, the heavy-laden man, and +Valori with him,--if, in this black crisis, Valori could do anything. +Valori at least reports the colloquy the Two Marshals had [one bit of +colloquy, for they had more than one, though as few as possible; Broglio +being altogether blusterous, sulphurous, difficult to speak with on +polite terms]. [Valori, i. 162-166; _Campagnes, _ v. 170, 124, &c. &c.] +'Army of Bavaria?' answers Broglio; 'I will have those Ten Battalions of +the D'Harcourt reinforcement, then. I tell you, Yes! Prag? Prag may +go to the--What have I to do with Prag? The oldest Marechal of France, +superseded, after such merits, and on the very heel of such a retreat! +Nay, but where is YOUR commission to command in Prag, M. le Marechal?' +Belleisle, in the haste there was, has no Commission rightly drawn +out by the War-office; only an Order from Court. '_I_ have a regular +commission, Monseigneur: I want a Sign-manual before laying it down!' +The unreasonable Broglio. + +"Belleisle, tormented with rheumatic nerves, and of violent temper at +any rate, compresses the immense waste rage that is in him. His answers +to Broglio are calm and low-voiced; admirable to Valori. One thing he +wished to ascertain definitely: What M. de Broglio's intentions were; +and whether he would, or would not, go to Bavaria and take charge there? +If so, he shall have all the Cavalry for escort; Cavalry, unless it be +dragoons, will only eat victual in case of siege.--No, Broglio will not +go with Cavalry; must have those Ten Battalions, must have Sign-manual; +won't, in short!"--Will stay, then, thinks Belleisle; and one must try +to drive him, as men do pigs, covertly and by the rule of contraries, +while Prag falls under Siege. + +What an outlook for his Most Christian Majesty's service,--fatal +altogether, had not Belleisle been a high man, and willing to undertake +pig-driving!... "Discouragement in the Army is total, were it not +for Belleisle; anger against Broglio very great. The Officers declare +openly, 'We will quit, if Broglio continue General! Our commissions were +made out in the name of Marechal de Belleisle [in the spring of last +Year, when he had such levees, more crowded than the King's!]--we +are not bound to serve another General!'--'You recognize ME for your +General?' asks Belleisle. 'Yes!'--'Then, I bid you obey M. de Broglio, +so long as he is here.' [Valori, i. 166.]... + +"JUNE 27th. The Grand-Duke, Maria Theresa's Husband, come from Vienna +to take command-in-chief, joins the Austrian main Army and his Brother +Karl, this day: at Konigsaal, one march to the south of Prag. Friedrich +being now off their hands, why should not they besiege Prag, +capture Prag! Under Khevenhuller, with Barenklau, and the Mentzels, +Trencks,--poor D'Harcourt merely storing victual,--Bavaria lies safe +enough. And the Oriflamme caged in Prag:--Have at the Oriflamme! + +"Prag is begirdled, straitened more and more, from this day. Formal +Siege to begin, so soon [as the artillery can come up' which is not for +seven weeks yet]. And so, in fine, 'AUGUST 17th, all at once,' furious +bombardment bursts out, from 36 mortars and above 100 big guns, disposed +in batteries around. [_Guerre de Boheme,_ ii. 149, 170.] To which +the French, Belleisle's high soul animating everything, as furiously +responded; making continual sallies of a hot desperate nature; +especially, on the fifth day of the siege, one sally [to be mentioned by +and by] which was very famous at Prag and at Paris."... + + + + +CONCERNING THE ITALIAN WAR WHICH SIMULTANEOUSLY WENT ON, ALL ALONG. + +War in Italy--the Spanish Termagant very high in her Anti-Pragmatic +notions--there had been, for eight months past; and it went on, fiercely +enough, doggedly enough, on both sides for Six Years more, till 1748, +when the general Finis came. War of which we propose to say almost +nothing; but must request the reader to imagine it, all along, as +influential on our specific affairs. + +The Spanish Termagant wished ardently to have the Milanese and +pertinents, as an Apanage for her second Infant, Don Philip; a young +gentleman who now needs to be provided for, as Don Carlos had once done. +"Cannot get to be Pope this one, it appears," said the fond Mother +(who at one time looked that way for her Infant,): "Well, here is the +Milanese fallen loose!" Readers know her for a lady of many claims, +of illimitable aspirations; and she went very high on the Pragmatic +Question. "Headship of the Golden Fleece, Madam; YOU head of it? I +say all Austria, German and Italian, is mine!"--though she has now +magnanimously given up the German part to Kaiser Karl VII.; and will be +content with the Italian, as an Apanage for Don Philip. And so there is +War in Italy, and will be. To be imagined by us henceforth. + +A War in which these Three Elements are noticeable as the chief. FIRST, +the Sardinian Majesty, [Charles Emanuel, Victor Amadeus's Son (Hubner, +t. 293): born 27th April, 1701; lived and reigned till 19th February, +1773 (OErtel, t. 77).] who is very anxious himself for Milanese parings +and additaments; but, except by skilfully playing off-and-on between the +French side and the Austrian, has no chance of getting any. For Spain +he is able to fight; and also (on good British Subsidies) against Spain. +Element SECOND is the British Navy, cruising always between Spain +and the Seat of War; rendering supplies by sea impossible,--almost +impossible. THIRD, the Passes of Savoy; wild Alpine chasms, +stone-labyrinths; inexpugnable, with a Sardinian Majesty defending; +which are the one remaining road, for Armies and Supplies, out of Spain +or France. + +The Savoy Passes are, in fact, the gist of the War; the insoluble +problem for Don Philip and the French. By detours, by circuitous effort +and happy accident, your troops may occasionally squeeze through: but +without one secure road open behind them for supplies and recruitments, +what good is it? Battles there are, behind the Alps, on what we may +call the STAGE itself of this Italian War-theatre; but the grand steady +battle is that of France and Don Philip, struggling spasmodically, year +after year, to get a road through the COULISSES or side-scenes,--namely, +those Savoy Passes. They try it by this Pass and by that; Pass of +Demont, Pass of Villa-Franca or Montalban (glorious for France, but +futile), Pass of Exilles or Col d'Assiette (again glorious, again futile +and fatal); sometimes by the way of Nice itself, and rocky mule-tracks +overhanging the sea-edge (British Naval-cannon playing on them);--and +can by no way do it. + +There were fine fightings, in the interior too, under Generals of mark; +General Browne doing feats, excellent old General Feldmarschall Traun, +of whom we shall hear; Maillebois, Belleisle the Younger, of whom we +have heard. There was Battle of Campo-Santo, new battle there +(Traun's); there was Battle of Rottofreddo; of Piacenza (doleful to +Maillebois),--followed by Invasion of Provence, by Revolt of Genoa and +other things: which all readers have now forgotten. [Two elaborate works +on the subject are said to be instructive to military readers: Buonamici +(who was in it, for a while). _De Bello Italico Commentarii_ (in Works +of Buonamici, Lyon, 1750); and Pezay, _Campagnes de Maillebois_ (our +Westphalian friend again) _en Italie,_ 1745-1746 (Paris, 1775).] Readers +are to imagine this Italian War, all along, as a fact very loud and real +at that time, and continually pulsing over into our German Events (like +half-audible thunder below the horizon, into raging thunder above), +little as we can afford to say of it here. One small Scene from this +Italian War;--one, or with difficulty two;--and if possible be silent +about all the rest: + + + + +SCENE, ROADS OF CADIZ, October, 1741: BY WHAT ASTONISHING ARTIFICE THIS +ITALIAN WAR DID, AT LENGTH, GET BEGUN. + +... "The Spanish Court, that is, Termagant Elizabeth, who rules +everybody there, being in this humor, was passionate to begin; and +stood ready a good while, indignantly champing the bit, before the sad +preliminary obstacles could be got over. At Barcelona she had, in the +course of last summer, doubly busy ever since Mollwitz time, got +into equipment some 15,000 men; but could not by any method get them +across,--owing to the British Fleets, which hung blockading this place +and that; blockading Cadiz especially, where lay her Transport-ships +and War-ships, at this interesting juncture. Fleury's cunctations were +disgusting to the ardent mind; and here now, still more insuperable, are +the British Fleets; here--and a pest to him!--is your Admiral Haddock, +blockading Cadiz, with his Seventy-fours! + +"But again, on the other or Pragmatic side, there were cunctations. The +Sardinian Majesty, Charles Emanuel of Savoy, holding the door of +the Alps, was difficult to bargain with, in spite of British +Subsidies;--stood out for higher door-fees, a larger slice of the +Milanese than could be granted him; had always one ear open for France, +too; in short, was tedious and capricious, and there seemed no bringing +him to the point of drawing sword for her Hungarian Majesty. In the end, +he was brought to it, by a stroke of British Art,--such to the admiring +Gazetteer and Diplomatic mind it seemed;--equal to anything we have +since heard of, on the part of perfidious Albion. + +"One day, 'middle of October last,' the Seventy-fours of Haddock and +perfidious Albion,--Spanish official persons, looking out from Cadiz +Light-house, ask themselves, 'Where are they? Vanished from these +waters; not a Seventy-four of them to be seen!'--Have got foul in the +underworks, or otherwise some blunder has happened; and the blockading +Fleet of perfidious Albion has had to quit its post, and run to +Gibraltar to refit. That, I guess, was the Machiavellian stroke of Art +they had done; without investigating Haddock and Company [as indignant +Honorable Members did], I will wager, That and nothing more! + +"In any case, the Termagant, finding no Seventy-fours there, and the +wind good, despatches swiftly her Transports and War-ships to Barcelona; +swiftly embarks there her 15,000, France cautiously assisting; and lands +them complete, 'by the middle of December,' Haddock feebly opposing, on +the Genoa coast: 'Have at the Milanese, my men!' Which obliges Charles +Emanuel to end his cunctations, and rank at once in defence of that +Country, [Adelung, ii. 535, 538 (who believes in the "stroke of art"): +what kind of "art" it was, learn sufficiently in _Gentleman's Magazine,_ +&c. of those months.] lest he get no share of it whatever. And so the +game began. Europe admired, with a shudder, the refined stroke of art; +for in cunning they equal Beelzebub, those perfidious Islanders;--and +are always at it; hence their greatness in the world. Imitate them, ye +Peoples, if you also would grow great. That is our Gazetteer Evangel, in +this late epoch of Man's History."... + + + + +OTHER SCENE, BAY OF NAPLES, 19th-20th August, 1742: KING OF TWO SICILIES +(BABY CARLOS THAT WAS), HAVING BEEN ASSISTING MAMMA, IS OBLIGED TO +BECOME NEUTRAL IN THE ITALIAN WAR. + +Readers will transport themselves to the Bay of Naples, and beautiful +Vesuvian scenery seen from sea. The English-Spanish War, it would +appear, is not quite dead, nor carried on by Jenkins and the Wapping +people alone. Here in this Bay it blazes out into something of +memorability; and gives lively sign of its existence, among the other +troubles of the world. + +"SUNDAY, AUGUST 19th, Commodore Martin, who had arrived overnight, +appears in the Bay, with due modicum of seventy-fours, 'dursley +galleys,' bomb-vessels, on an errand from his Admiral [one Matthews] +and the Britannic Majesty, much to the astonishment of Naples. Commodore +Martin hovers about, all morning, and at 4 P.M. drops anchor,--within +shot of the place, fearfully near;--and therefrom sends ashore a +Message: 'That his Sicilian Majesty [Baby Carlos, our notable old +friend, who is said to be a sovereign of merit otherwise], has not been +neutral, in this Italian War, as his engagements bore; but has joined +his force to that of the Spaniards, declared enemies of his Britannic +Majesty; which rash step his Britannic Majesty hereby requires him to +retract, if painful consequences are not at once to ensue!' That is +Martin's message; to which he stands doggedly, without variation, in the +extreme flutter and multifarious reasoning of the poor Court of Naples: +'Recall your 20,000 men, and keep them recalled,' persists Martin; and +furthermore at last, as the reasoning threatens to get lengthy: +'Your answer is required within one hour,'--and lays his watch on the +Cabin-table. + +"The Court, thrown into transcendent tremor, with no resource but either +to be burnt or comply, answers within the hour: 'Yes: in all points.' +Some eight hours or so of reasoning: deep in the night of Sunday, it is +all over; everything preparing to get signed and sealed; ships making +ready to sail again;--and on Tuesday at sunrise, there is no Martin +there. Martin, to the last top-gallant, has vanished clean over the +horizon; never to be seen again, though long remembered. [Tindal's +_Rapin,_ xx. 572 (MISdates, and is altogether indistinct); _Gentleman's +Magazine,_ xii. 494:--CAME, "Sunday morning, 19th August, n.s.;" +"anchored about 4 p.m.;" "2 a.m. of 20th" all agreed; King Carlos's +LETTER is GOT, ships prepared for sailing;--sail that night, and +to-morrow, 21st, are out of sight.] One wonders, Were Pipes and Hatchway +perhaps there, in Martin's squadron? In what station Commodore Trunnion +did then serve in the British Navy? Vanished ghosts of grim mute +sea-kings, there is no record of them but what is itself a kind of +ghost! Ghost, or symbolical phantasm, from the brain of that Tobias +Smollett; an assistant Surgeon, who served in the body along with them, +his singular value altogether unknown."--King Carlos's Neutrality, +obtained in this manner, lasted for a year-and-half; a sensible +alleviation to her Hungarian Majesty for the time. We here quit the +Italian War; leaving it to the reader's fancy, on the above terms. +....... + + + + +THE SIEGE OF PRAG CONTIMES. A GRAND SALLY THERE. + +"PRAG, 22d AUGUST. In the same hours, while Martin lay coercing +Naples, the Army of the Oriflamme in Prag City was engaged in 'furious +sallies;'"--readers may divine what that means for Prag and the +Oriflamme! + +"Prag is begirdled, bombarded from all the Wischerads, Ziscabergs and +Hill environments; every avenue blocked, 'above 60,000 Austrians round +it, near 40,000 of them regulars:' a place difficult to defend; but with +excellent arrangements for defence on Belleisle's part, and the garrison +with its blood up. Garrison makes continual furious sallies,--which are +eminently successful, say the French Newspapers; but which end, as +all sallies do, in returning home again, without conquest, except of +honor;--and on this Wednesday, 22d August, comes out with the greatest +sally of all. [_Campagnes,_ vi. 5; _Guerre de Boheme,_ ii. 173.] While +Commodore Martin, many a Pipes and Hatchway standing grimly on the watch +unknown to us, is steering towards Matthews and the Toulon waters again. +The equal sun looking down on all. + +"It was about twelve o'clock, when this Prag sally, now all in order, +broke out, several thousand strong, and all at the white heat, now a +constant temperature. Sally almost equal to that Pharsalia of a Sahay, +it would seem;--concerning which we can spend no word in this brief +summary. Fierce fighting, fiery irresistible onslaught; but it went too +far, lost all its captured cannon again; and returned only with laurels +and a heavy account of killed and wounded,--the leader of it being +himself carried home in a very bleeding state. 'Oh, the incomparable +troops!' cried Paris;--cried Voltaire withal (as I gather), and in very +high company, in that Visit at Aachen. A sally glorious, but useless. + +"The Imperial Generals were just sitting down to dinner, when it broke +out; had intended a Council of War, over their wine, in the Grand-Duke's +tent: 'What, won't they let us have our dinner!' cried Prince Karl, in +petulant humor, struggling to be mirthful. He rather likes his dinner, +this Prince Karl, I am told, and does not object to his wine: otherwise +a hearty, talky, free-and-easy Prince,--'black shallow-set eyes, face +red, and much marked with small-pox.' Clapping on his hat, faculties +sharpened by hunger and impatience, let him do his best, for several +hours to come, till the sally abate and go its ways again. Leaving +its cannon, and trophies. No sally could hope to rout 60,000 men; this +furious sally, almost equal to Sahay, had to return home again, on the +above terms. Upon which Prince Karl and the others got some snatch of +dinner; and the inexorable pressure of Siege, tightening itself closer +and closer, went on as before. + +"The eyes of all Europe are turned towards Prag; a big crisis clearly +preparing itself there.... France, or aid in France, is some 500 miles +away. In D'Harcourt, merely gathering magazines, with his Khevenhuller +near, is no help; help, not the question there! The garrison of Eger, +100 miles to west of us, across the Mountains, barely mans its own +works. Other strong post, or support of any kind in these countries, +we have now none. We are 24,000; and of available resource have the +Magazines in Prag, and our own right hands. + +"The flower of the young Nobility had marched in that Oriflamme;--now +standing at bay, they and it, in Prag yonder: French honor itself seems +shut up there! The thought of it agitates bitterly the days and nights +of old Fleury, who is towards ninety now, and always disliked war. The +French public too,--we can fancy what a public! The young Nobility +in Prag has its spokes-men, and spokes-women, at Versailles, whose +complaint waxes louder, shriller; the whole world, excited by rumor of +those furious sallies, is getting shrill and loud. What can old +Fleury do but order Maillebois: 'Leave Dunkirk to its own luck; march +immediately for relief of Prag!' And Maillebois is already on march; his +various divisions (August 9th-20th) crossing the Rhine, in Dusseldorf +Country;"--of whom we shall hear. + +... "Some time before the actual Bombardment, Fleury, seeing it +inevitable, had ordered Belleisle to treat. Belleisle accordingly had +an interview, almost two interviews, with Konigseck. [_Guerre de Boheme_, +ii. 156 ("2d July" the actual interview); ib. 161 (the corollary to it, +confirmatory of it, which passed by letters).] 'Liberty to march home, +and equitable Peace-Negotiations in the rear?' proposed Belleisle. +'Absolute surrender; Prisoners of War!' answered Konigseck; 'such is her +Hungarian Majesty's positive order and ultimatum.' The high Belleisle +responded nothing unpolite; merely some, 'ALORS, MONSIEUR--!' And rode +back to Prag, with a spirit all in white heat;--gradually heating all +the 24,000 white, and keeping them so. + +"In fact, Belleisle, a high-flown lion reduced to silence and now +standing at bay, much distinguishes himself in this Siege; which, for +his sake, is still worth a moment's memory from mankind. He gathers +himself into iron stoicism, into concentration of endeavor; suffers all +things, Broglio's domineering in the first place; as if his own thin +skin were that of a rhinoceros; and is prepared to dare all things. Like +an excellent soldier, like an excellent citizen. He contrives, arranges; +leads, covertly drives the domineering Broglio, by rule of contraries or +otherwise, according to the nature of the beast; animates all men by +his laconic words; by his silences, which are still more emphatic.... +Sechelles, provident of the future, has laid in immense supplies of +indifferent biscuit; beef was not attainable: Belleisle dismounts his +4,000 cavalry, all but 400 dragoons; slaughters 160 horses per day, and +boils the same by way of butcher's-meat, to keep the soldier in heart. +It is his own fare, and Broglio's, to serve as example. At Broglio's +quarter, there is a kind of ordinary of horse-flesh: Officers come in, +silent speed looking through their eyes; cut a morsel of the boiled +provender, break a bad biscuit, pour one glass of indifferent wine; +and eat, hardly sitting the while, in such haste to be at the ramparts +again. The 80,000 Townsfolk, except some Jews, are against them to +a man. Belleisle cares for everything: there is strict charge on his +soldiers to observe discipline, observe civility to the Townsfolk; there +is occasional 'hanging of a Prag Butcher' or so, convicted of spyship, +but the minimum of that, we will hope." + + + + +MAILLEBOIS MARCHES, WITH AN "ARMY OF REDEMPTION" OR "OF MATHURINS" +(WITTILY SO CALLED), TO RELIEVE PRAG; REACHES THE BOHEMIAN FRONTIER, +JOINED BY THE COMTE DE SAXE; ABOVE 50,000 STRONG (August 9th-September +19th). + +Maillebois has some 40,000 men: ahead of him 600 miles of difficult +way; rainy season come, days shortening; uncertain staff of bread +("Seckendorf's meal," and what other commissariat there may be): a +difficult march, to Amberg Country and the top of the Ober-Pfalz. After +which are Mountain-passes; Bohemian Forest: and the Event--? "Cannot be +dubious!" thinks France, whatever Maillebois think. Witty Paris, +loving its timely joke, calls him Army of Redemption, "L'ARMEE DES +MATHURINS,"--a kind of Priests, whose business is commonly in Barbary, +about Christian bondage:--how sprightly! And yet the enthusiasm was +great: young Princes of the Blood longing to be off as volunteers, +needing strict prohibition by the King;--upon which, Prince de Conti, +gallant young fellow, leaving his wife, his mistress, and miraculously +borrowing 2,500 pounds for equipments, rushed off furtively by post; and +did join, and do his best. Was reprimanded, clapt in arrest for three +days; but afterwards promoted; and came to some distinction in these +Wars. [Barbier, ii. 326 (that of Conti, ib. 331); Adelung, &c.] + +The March goes continually southeast; by Frankfurt, thence towards +Nurnberg Country ("be at Furth, September 6th"), and the skirts of the +Pine-Mountains (FICHTEL-GEBIRGE),--Anspach and Baireuth well to your +left;--end, lastly, in the OBER-PFALZ (Upper Palatinate), Town of Amberg +there. Before trying the Bohemian Passes, you shall have reinforcement. +Best part of the "Bavarian Army," now under Comte de Saxe, not under +D'Harcourt farther, is to cease collecting victual in the Donau-Iser +Countries (Deggendorf, north bank of Donau, its head-quarter); and to +get on march,--circling very wide, not northward, but by the Donan, and +even by the SOUTH, bank of it mainly (to avoid the hungry Mountains and +their Tolpatcheries),--and, at Amberg, is to join Maillebois. This is a +wide-lying game. + +The great Marlborough used to play such, and win; making the wide +elements, the times and the spaces, hit with exactitude: but a +Maillebois?"He is called by the Parisians, 'VIEUX PETIT-MAITRE (dandy +of sixty,' so to speak); has a poor upturned nose, with baboon-face +to match, which he even helps by paint."... Here is one Scene; at +Frankfurt-on-Mayn; fact certain, day not given. + +FRANKFURT, "LATTER END OF AUGUST," 1742. "At Frankfurt, his Army having +got into the neighborhood,"--not into Frankfurt itself, which, as a +REICHS-STADT, is sacred from Armies and their marchings,--"Marechal +de Maillebois, as in duty bound, waited on the Kaiser to pay his +compliments there: on which occasion, we regret to say, Marechal de +Maillebois was not so reverent to the Imperial Majesty as he should have +been. Angry belike at the Adventure now forced on him, and harassed with +many things; seeing in the Imperial Majesty little but an unfortunate +Play-actor Majesty, who lives in furnished lodgings paid for by France, +and gives France and Maillebois an infinite deal of trouble to little +purpose. Certain it is, he addressed the Imperial Majesty in the most +free-and-easy manner; very much the reverse of being dashed by the +sacred Presence: and his Officers in the ante-chamber, crowding about, +all day, for presentation to the Imperial Majesty, made a noise, and +kept up a babble of talk and laughter, as if it had been a mess-room, +instead of the Forecourt of Imperial Majesty. So that Imperial Majesty, +barely master of its temper and able to finish without explosion, +signified to Maillebois on the morrow, That henceforth it would +dispense with such visits, Poor Imperial Majesty; a human creature +doing Play-actorisms of too high a flight. He had the finest Palace in +Germany; a wonder to the Great Gustavus long ago: and now he has it not; +mere Meutzels and horrent shaggy creatures rule in Munchen and it: and +the Imperial quasi-furnished lodgings are respected in this manner!" +[Van Loon, _Kleine Schriften,_ ii. 271 (cited in Buchholz, ii. 71). +CAMPAGNES is silent; usually suppressing scenes of that kind.]--The wits +say of him, "He would be Kaiser or Nothing: see you, he is Kaiser and +Nothing!" [_"Aut nihil aut Caesar, Bavarus Dux esse volebat; Et nihil et +Caesar factus utrumque simul."_ (Barbier, ii. 322.)]... + +AUGUST 19th-SEPTEMBER 14th. "Comte de Saxe is on march, from Deggendorf; +north bank of the Donau, by narrow mountain roads; then crosses the +Donau to south bank, and a plain country;--making large circuit, keeping +the River on his right,--to meet Maillebois at Amberg; his force, +some 10 or 12,000 men. Seckendorf, now Bavarian Commander-in-chief, +accompanies Saxe; with considerable Bavarian force, guess 20,000, +'marching always on the left.' Accompanies; but only to Regensburg, +to Stadt-am-Hof, a Suburb of Regensburg, where they cross the Donau +again."--SUBURB of Regensburg, mark that; Regensburg itself being a +Reichs-Stadt, very particularly sacred from War;--the very Reichs-DIET +commonly sitting here; though it has gone to Frankfurt lately, to be +with its Kaiser, and out of these continual trumpetings and tumults +close by. [Went 10th May, 1742,--after three months' arguing and +protesting on the Austrian part (Adelung, iii. A, 102, 138).]--"At +Regensburg, once across, Seckendorf with his Bavarians calls halt; +plants himself down in Kelheim, Ingolstadt, and the safe Garrisons +thereabouts,--calculates that, if Khevenhuller should be called away +Prag-ward, there may be a stroke do-able in these parts. Saxe marches +on; straight northward now, up the Valley of the Naab; obliged to be +a good deal on his guard. Mischievous Tolpatcheries and Trencks, ever +since he crossed the Donau again, have escorted him, to right, as close +as they durst; dashing out sometimes on the magazines." One of the +exploits they had done, take only one:--in their road TOWARDS Saxe, a +few days ago:-- + +... "SEPTEMBER 7th, Trenck with his Tolpatcheries had appeared at +Cham,--a fine trading Town on the hither or neutral side of the +mountains [not in Bohmen, but in Ober-Pfalz, old Kur-Pfalz's country, +whom the Austrians hate];--and summoning and assaulting Cham, over the +throat of all law, had by fire and by massacre annihilated the same. +[Adelung, iii A, 258; _Guerre de Boheme;_ &c.] Fact horrible, nearly +incredible; but true. The noise of which is now loud everywhere. Less +lovely individual than this Trenck [Pandour Trenck, Cousin of the +Prussian one,] there was not, since the days of Attila and Genghis, +in any War. Blusters abominably, too; has written [save the mark!] +an 'AUTOBIOGRAPHY,'--having happily afterwards, in Prison and even in +Bedlam, time for such a Work;--which is stuffed with sanguinary lies and +exaggerations: unbeautifulest of human souls. Has a face the color +of indigo, too;--got it, plundering in an Apothecary's [in this same +country, if I recollect]: 'ACH GOTT, your Grace, nothing of money here!' +said the poor Apothecary, accompanying Colonel Trenck with a lighted +candle over house and shop. Trenck, noticing one likely thing, snatched +the candle, held it nearer:--likely thing proved gunpowder; and Trenck, +till Doomsday, continues deep blue. [_Guerre de Boheme._] Soul more +worthy of damnation I have seldom known." + +"SEPTEMBER 19th (five days after dropping Seckendorf), Saxe actually +gets joined with Maillebois;--not quite at Amberg, but at Vohenstrauss, +in that same Sulzbach Country, a forty miles to eastward, or Prag-ward, +of Amberg. Maillebois and he conjoined are between 50 and 60,000. They +are got now to the Bohemian Boundary, edge of the Bohemian Forest (big +BOHMISCHE WALD, Mountainous woody Country, 70 miles long); they are +within 60 miles of Pilsen, within 100 of Prag itself,--if they can cross +the Forest. Which may be difficult." + + + + +PRINCE KARL AND THE GRAND-DUKE, HEARING OF MAILLEBOIS, GO TO MEET HIM +(September 14th); AND THE SIEGE OF PRAG IS RAISED. + +"SEPTEMBER llth, the Besieged at Prag notice that the Austrian fire +slackens; that the Enemy seems to be taking away his guns. Villages +and Farmsteads, far and wide all round, are going up in fire. A joyful +symptom:--since August 13th, Belleisle has known of Maillebois's advent; +guesses that the Austrians now know it.--SEPTEMBER 14th, their Firing +has quite ceased. Grand-Duke and Prince Karl are off to meet this +Maillebois, amid the intricate defiles, 'Better meet him there than +here:'--and on this fourth morning, Belleisle, looking out, perceives +that the Siege is raised. [Espagnac, i. 145; _Campagnes,_ v. 348.] + +"A blessed change indeed. No enemy here,--perhaps some Festititz, with +his canaille of Tolpatches, still lingering about,--no enemy worth +mention. Parties go out freely to investigate:--but as to forage? Alas, +a Country burnt, Villages black and silent for ten miles round;--you +pick up here and there a lean steer, welcome amid boiled horse-flesh; +you bundle a load or two of neglected grass together, for what cavalry +remains. The genius of Sechelles, and help from the Saxon side, will be +much useful! + +"Perhaps the undeniablest advantage of any is this, That Broglio, +not now so proud of the situation Prag is in, or led by the rule of +contraries, willingly quits Prag: Belleisle will not have to do +his function by the medium of pig-driving, but in the direct manner +henceforth. 'Give me 6 or 8,000 foot, and what of the cavalry have +horses still uneaten,' proposes Broglio; 'I will push obliquely towards +Eger,--which is towards Saxony withal, and opens our food-communications +there:--I will stretch out a hand to Maillebois, across the Mountain +Passes; and thus bring a victorious issue!' [Espagnac, i. 170.] +Belleisle consents: 'Well, since my Broglio will have it so!'--glad to +part with my Broglio at any rate,--'Adieu, then, M. le Marechal (and,' +SOTTO VOCE, 'may it be long before we meet again in partnership)!' +Broglio marches accordingly ('hand' beautifully held out to Maillebois, +but NOT within grasping distance); gets northwestward some 60 miles, as +far as Toplitz [sadly oblique for Eger],--never farther on that errand." + + + + +THE MAILLEBOIS ARMY OF REDEMPTION CANNOT REDEEM AT ALL;--HAS TO STAGGER +SOUTHWARD AGAIN; AND BECOMES AN "ARMY OF BAVARIA," UNDER BROGLIO. + +"SEPTEMBER 19th-OCTOBER 10th,,'--Scene is, the Eger-VohenStrauss +Country, in and about that Bohemian Forest of seventy miles.--"For three +weeks, Maillebois and the Comte de Saxe, trying their utmost, cannot, +or cannot to purpose, get through that Bohemian Wood. Only Three +practicable Passes in it; difficult each, and each conducting you +towards more new difficulties, on the farther side;--not surmountable +except by the determined mind. A gloomy business: a gloomy difficult +region, solitary, hungry; nothing in it but shaggy chasms (and perhaps +Tolpatchery lurking), wastes, mountain woodlands, dumb trees, damp brown +leaves. Maillebois and Saxe, after survey, shoot leftwards to Eger; draw +food and reinforcement from the Garrison there. They do get through the +Forest, at one Pass, the Pass nearest Eger;--but find Prince Karl and +the Grand-Duke ranked to receive them on the other side. 'Plunge home +upon Prince Karl and the Grand-Duke; beat them, with your Broglio to +help in the rear?' That possibly was Friedrich's thought as he watched +[now home at Berlin again] the contemporaneous Theatre of War. + +"But that was not the Maillebois-Broglio method;--nay, it is said +Maillebois was privately forbidden 'to run risks.' Broglio, with his +stretched-out hand (12,000 some count him, and indeed it is no matter), +sits quiet at Toplitz, far too oblique: 'Come then, come, O Maillebois!' +Maillebois,--manoeuvring Prince Karl aside, or Hunger doing it for +him,--did once push forward Prag-ward, by the Pass of Caaden; which is +very oblique to Toplitz. By the Pass of Caaden,--down the Eger River, +through those Mountains of the Circle of Saatz, past a Castle of +Ellenbogen, key of the same;--and 'Could have done it [he said always +after], had it not been for Comte de Saxe!' Undeniable it is, Saxe, as +vanguard, took that Castle of Ellenbogen; and, time being so precious, +gave the Tolpatchery dismissal on parole. Undeniable, too, the +Tolpatchery, careless of parole, beset Caaden Village thereupon, 4,000 +strong; cut off our foreposts, at Caaden Village; and--In short, we had +to retire from those parts; and prove an Army of Redemption that could +not redeem at all! + +"Maillebois and Saxe wend sulkily down the Naab Valley (having lost, say +15,000, not by fighting, but by mud and hardship); and the rapt European +Public (shilling-gallery especially) says, with a sneer on its face, +'Pooh; ended, then!' Sulkily wending, Maillebois and Saxe (October +30th-November 7th) get across the Donau, safe on the southern bank +again; march for the Iser Country and the D'Harcourt Magazines,--and +become 'Grand Bavarian Army,' usual refuge of the unlucky."... + +OF SECKENDORF IN THE INTERIM. "For Belleisle and relief of Prag, +Maillebois in person had proved futile; but to Seckendorf, waiting with +his Bavarians, the shadow and rumor of Maillebois had brought famous +results,--famous for a few weeks. Khevenhuller being called north to +help in those Anti-Maillebois operations, and only Barenklau with about +10,000 Austrians now remaining in Baiern, Seckendorf, clearly superior +(not to speak of that remnant of D'Harcourt people, with their +magazines), promptly bestirred himself, in the Kelheim-Ingolstadt +Country; got on march; and drove the Austrians mostly out of Baiern. +Out mostly, and without stroke of sword, merely by marching; out for +the time. Munchen was evacuated, on rumor of Seckendorf (October 4th): +a glad City to see Barenklau march off. Much was evacuated,--the Iser +Valley, down partly to the Inn Valley,--much was cleared, by Seckendorf +in these happy circumstances. Who sees himself victorious, for once; +and has his fame in the Gazettes, if it would last. Pretty much without +stroke of sword, we say, and merely by marching: in one place, having +marched too close, the retreating Barenklau people turned on him, 'took +100 prisoners' before going; [Espagnac, i. 166.]--other fighting, in +this line 'Reconquest of Bavaria,' I do not recollect. Winter come, +he makes for Maillebois and the Iser Countries; cantons himself on +the Upper Inn itself, well in advance of the French [Braunau his chief +strong-place, if readers care to look on the Map]; and strives to expect +a combined seizure of Passau, and considerable things, were Spring +come."... + +AND OF BROGLIO IN THE INTERIM. "As for Broglio, left alone at Toplitz, +gazing after a futile Maillebois, he sends the better half of his +Force back to Prag; other half he establishes at Leitmeritz: good +halfway-house to Dresden. 'Will forward Saxon provender to you, M. de +Belleisle!' (never did, and were all taken prisoners some weeks hence). +Which settled, Broglio proceeded to the Saxon Court; who answered him: +'Provender? Alas, Monseigneur! We are (to confess it to you!) at Peace +with Austria: [Treatying ever since "July 17th;" Treaty actually done, +"11th September") (Adelung, iii. A, 201, 268).] not an ounce of provender +possible; how dare we?'--but were otherwise politeness itself to the +great Broglio. Great Broglio, after sumptuous entertainments there, +takes the road for Baiern; circling grandly ('through Nurnberg with +escort of 500 Horse') to Maillebois's new quarters;--takes command of +the 'Bavarian Army' (may it be lucky for him!); and sends Maillebois +home, in deep dudgeon, to the merciless criticisms of men. 'Could have +done it,' persists the VIEUX PETIT-MAITRE always, 'had not'--one knows +what, but cares not, at this date!-- + +"Broglio's quarters in the Iser Country, I am told, are fatally too +crowded, men perishing at a frightful rate per day. [Espagnac, i. 182.] +'Things all awry here,--thanks to that Maillebois and others!' And +Broglio's troubles and procedures, as is everywhere usual to Broglio, +run to a great height in this Bavarian Command. And poor Seckendorf, +in neighborhood of such a Broglio, has his adoes; eyes sparkling; face +blushing slate-color; at times nearly driven out of his wits;--but +strives to consume his own smoke, and to have hopes on Passau +notwithstanding."--And of Belleisle in Prag, and his meditations on the +Oriflamme?--Patience, reader. + +Meantime, what a relief to Kaiser Karl, in such wreck of Bohemian +Kingdoms and Castles in Spain, to have got his own Munchen and Country +in hand again; with the prospect of quitting furnished-lodgings, and +seeing the color of real money! April next, he actually goes to Munchen, +where we catch a glimpse of him. ["17th April, 1743," Montijos &c. +accompanying (Adelung, iii. B, 119, 120).] This same October, the Reich, +after endless debatings on the question, "Help our Kaiser, or not help?" +[Ib. iii A, 289.] has voted him fifty ROMER-MONATE ("Romish-months," +still so termed, though there is NOT now any marching of the Kaiser to +Rome on business); meaning fifty of the known QUOTAS, due from all and +sundry in such case,--which would amount to about 300,000 pounds (could +it, or the half of it, be collected from so wide a Parish), and would +prove a sensible relief to the poor man. + + + + +VOLTAIRE HAS BEEN ON VISIT AT AACHEN, IN THE INTERIM,--HIS THIRD VISIT +TO KING FRIEDRICH. + +King Friedrich had come to the Baths of Aachen, August 25th; the +Maillebois Army of Redemption being then, to the last man of it, five +days across the Rhine on its high errand, which has since proved futile. +Friedrich left Aachen, taking leave of his Voltaire, who had been +lodging with him for a week by special invitation, September 9th; and +witnessed the later struggles and final inability of Maillebois to +redeem, not at Aix, but at Berlin, amid the ordinary course of his +employments there. We promised something of Voltaire's new visit, his +Third to Friedrich. Here is what little we have,--if the lively reader +will exert his fancy on it. + +Voltaire and his Du Chatelet had been to Cirey, and thence been at Paris +through this Spring and Summer, 1742;--engaged in what to Voltaire and +Paris was a great thing, though a pacific one: The getting of MAHOMET +brought upon the boards. August 9th, precisely while the first vanguard +of the Army of Redemption got across the Rhine at Dusseldorf, Voltaire's +Tragedy of MAHOMET came on the stage. + +August 9th, llth, 13th, Paris City was in transports of various kinds; +never were such crowds of Audience, lifting a man to the immortal +gods,--though a part too, majority by count of heads, were dragging him +to Tartarus again. "Exquisite, unparalleled!" exclaimed good judges (as +Fleury himself had anticipated, on examining the Piece):--"Infamous, +irreligious, accursed!" vociferously exclaimed the bad judges; Reverend +Desfontaines (of Sodom, so Voltaire persists to define him), Reverend +Desfontaines and others giving cue; hugely vociferous, these latter, +hugely in majority by count of heads. And there was such a bellowing +and such a shrieking, judicious Fleury, or Maurepas under him, had +to suggest, "Let an actor fall sick; let M. de Voltaire volunteer to +withdraw his Piece; otherwise--!" And so it had to be: Actor fell sick +on the 14th (Playbills sorry to retract their MAHOMET on the 14th); +and--in fact, it was not for nine years coming, and after Dedication to +the Pope, and other exquisite manoeuvres and unexpected turns of fate, +that MAHOMET could be acted a fourth time in Paris, and thereafter AD +LIBITUM down to this day. [_OEuvres de Voltaire,_ ii. 137 n.; &c. &c.] + +Such tempest in a teapot is not unexampled, nay rather is very frequent, +in that Anarchic Republic called of Letters. Confess, reader, that you +too would have needed some patience in M. de Voltaire's place; with +such a Heaven's own Inspiration of a MAHOMET in your hands, and such a +terrestrial Doggery at your heels. Suppose the bitterest of your barking +curs were a Reverend Desfontaines of Sodom, whom you yourself had +saved from the gibbet once, and again and again from starving? It is +positively a great Anarchy, and Fountain of Anarchies, all that, if you +will consider; and it will have results under the sun. You cannot help +it, say you; there is no shutting up of a Reverend Desfontaines, which +would be so salutary to himself and to us all? No:--and when human +reverence (daily going, in such ways) is quite gone from the world; +and your lowest blockhead and scoundrel (usually one entity) shall have +perfect freedom to spit in the face of your highest sage and hero,--what +a remarkably Free World shall we be! + +Voltaire, keeping good silence as to all this, and minded for Brussels +again, receives the King of Prussia's invitation; lays it at his +Eminency Fleury's feet; will not accept, unless his Eminency and my own +King of France (possibly to their advantage, if one might hint such a +thing!) will permit it. [Ib. lxxii. 555 (Letter to Fleury, "Paris, Aug. +22d").] "By all means; go, and"--The rest is in dumb-show; meaning, "Try +to pump him for us!" Under such omens, Voltaire and his divine Emilie +return to their Honsbruck Lawsuit: "Silent Brussels, how preferable +to Paris and its mad cries!" Voltaire, leaving the divine Emilie at +Brussels, September 2d, sets out for Aix,--Aix attainable within the +day. He is back at Brussels late in the evening, September 9th:--how +he had fared, and what extent of pumping there was, learn from the +following Excerpts, which are all dated the morrow after his return:-- + + + + +THREE LETTERS OF VOLTAIRE, DATED BRUSSELS, 10th SEPT. 1742. + +1. TO CIDEVILLE (the Rouen Advocate, who has sometimes troubled us).... +"I have been to see the King of Prussia since I began this Letter +[beginning of it dates September 1st]. I have courageously resisted +his fine proposals. He offers me a beautiful House in Berlin, a pretty +Estate; but I prefer my second-floor in Madame du Chatelet's here. He +assures me of his favor, of the perfect freedom I should have;--and I am +running to Paris [did not just yet run] to my slavery and persecution. +I could fancy myself a small Athenian, refusing the bounties of the King +of Persia. With this difference, however, one had liberty [not slavery] +at Athens; and I am sure there were many Cidevilles there, instead of +one,"--HELAS, my Cideville! + +2. TO MARQUIS D'ARGENSON (worthy official Gentleman, not War-Minister +now or afterwards; War-Minister's senior brother,--Voltaire's old +school-fellows, both these brothers, in the College of Louis le +Grand).... "I have just been to see the King of Prussia in these late +days [in fact, quitted him only yesterday; both of us, after a week +together, leaving Aix yesterday]: I have seen him as one seldom sees +Kings,--much at my ease, in my own room, in the chimney-nook, whither +the same man who has gained two Battles would come and talk familiarly, +as Scipio did with Terence. You will tell me, I am not Terence; true, +but neither is he altogether Scipio. + +"I learned some extraordinary things,"--things not from Friedrich at +all: mere dinner-table rumors; about the 16,000 English landing here +("18,000" he calls them, and farther on, "20,000") with the other 16,000 +PLUS 6,000 of Hanoverian-Hessian sort, expecting 20,000 Dutch to join +them,--who perhaps will not? "M. de Neipperg [Governor of Luxemburg now] +is come hither to Brussels; but brings no Dutch troops with him, as +he had hoped,"--Dutch perhaps won't rise, after all this flogging and +hoisting?" Perhaps we may soon get a useful and glorious Peace, in +spite of my Lord Stair, and of M. van Haren, the Tyrtaeus of the +States-General [famed Van Haren, eyes in a fine Dutch frenzy rolling, +whose Cause-of-Liberty verses let no man inquire after]: Stair prints +Memoirs, Van Haren makes Odes; and with so much prose and so much verse, +perhaps their High and Slow Mightinesses [Excellency Fenelon sleeplessly +busy persuading them, and native Gravitation SLEEPILY ditto] will sit +quiet. God grant it! + +"The English want to attack us on our own soil [actually Stair's plan]; +and we cannot pay them in that kind. The match is too unfair! If we kill +the whole 20,000 of them, we merely send 20,000 Heretics to--What shall +I say?--A L'ENFER, and gain nothing; if they kill us, they even feed +at our expense in doing it. Better have no quarrels except on Locke and +Newton! The quarrel I have on MAHOMET is happily only ridiculous."... +Adieu, M. le Marquis. + +3. TO THE CARDINAL DE FLEURY. "Monseigneur,... to give your Eminency, as +I am bound, some account of my journey to Aix-la-Chapelle." Friedrich's +guest there; let us hear, let us look. + +"I could not get away from Brussels till the 2d of this month. On the +road, I met a courier from the King of Prussia, coming to reiterate his +Master's orders on me. The King had me lodged near his own Apartment; +and he passed, for two consecutive days, four hours at a time in my +room, with all that goodness and familiarity which forms, as you know, +part of his character, and which does not lower the King's dignity, +because one is duly careful not to abuse it [be careful!]. I had +abundant time to speak, with a great deal of freedom, on what your +Eminency had prescribed to me; and the King spoke to me with an equal +frankness. + +"First, he asked me, If it was true that the French Nation was +so angered against him; if the King was, and if you were? I +answered,"--mildly reprobatory, yet conciliative, "Hm, no, nothing +permanent, nothing to speak of." "He then deigned to speak to me, at +large, of the reasons which had induced him to be so hasty with the +Peace." "Extremely remarkable reasons;" "dare not trust them to this +Paper" (Broglio-Belleisle discrepancies, we guess, distracted +Broglio procedures);--they have no concern with that Pallandt-Letter +Story,--"they do not turn on the pretended Secret Negotiations at the +Court of Vienna [which are not pretended at all, as I among others +well know], in regard to which your Eminency has condescended to +clear yourself [by denying the truth, poor Eminency; there was no help +otherwise]. All I dare state is, that it seems to me easy to lead back +the mind of this Sovereign, whom the situation of his Territories, his +interest, and his taste would appear to mark as the natural ally of +France." + +"He said farther [what may be relied on as true by his Eminency Fleury, +and my readers here], That he passionately wished to see Bohemia in +the Emperor's hands [small chance for it, as things now go!]; that he +renounced, with the best faith in the world, all claim whatever on Berg +and Julich; and that, in spite of the advantageous proposals which Lord +Stair was making him, he thought only of keeping Silesia. That he knew +well enough the House of Austria would, one day, wish to recover that +fine Province, but that he trusted he could keep his conquest; that he +had at this time 130,000 soldiers always ready; that he would make of +Neisse, Glogau, Brieg, fortresses as strong as Wesel [which he is now +diligently doing, and will soon have done]; that besides he was well +informed the Queen of Hungary already owed 80,000,000 German crowns, +which is about 300 millions of our money [about 12 millions sterling]; +that her Provinces, exhausted, and lying wide apart, would not be able +to make long efforts; and that the Austrians, for a good while to come, +could not of themselves be formidable." Of themselves, no: but with +Britannic soup-royal in quantity?-- + +"My Lord Hyndford had spoken to him" as if France were entirely +discouraged and done for: How false, Monseigneur! "And Lord Stair in his +letters represented France, a month ago, as ready to give in. Lord Stair +has not ceased to press his Majesty during this Aix Excursion even:" +and, in spite of what your Eminency hears from the Hague, "there was, +on the 30th of August, an Englishman at Aix on the part of Milord Stair; +and he had speech with the King of Prussia [CROYEZ MOI!] in a little +Village called Boschet [Burtscheid, where are hot wells], a quarter of +a league from Aix. I have been assured, moreover, that the Englishman +returned in much discontent. On the other hand, General Schmettau, who +was with the King [elder Schmettau, Graf SAMUEL, who does a great deal +of envoying for his Majesty], sent, at that very time, to Brussels, +for Maps of the Moselle and of the Three Bishoprics, and purchased five +copies,"--means to examine Milord Stair's proposed Seat of War, at any +rate. (Here is a pleasant friend to have on visit to you, in the next +apartment, with such an eye and such a nose!)... + +"Monseigneur," finely insinuates Voltaire in conclusion, "is not there" +a certain Frenchman, true to his Country, to his King, and to your +Eminency, with perhaps peculiar facilities for being of use, in such +delicate case?--"JE SUIS," much your Eminency's. [_OEuvres,_ lxxii. p. +568 (to Cideville), p. 579 (D'Argenson), p. 574 (Fleury).] + +Friedrich, on the day while Voltaire at Brussels sat so busy writing of +him, was at Salzdahl, visiting his Brunswick kindred there, on the +road home to his usual affairs. Old Fleury, age ninety gone, died +29th January, 1743,--five months and nineteen days after this Letter. +War-Minister Breteuil had died January 1st. Here is room for new +Ministers and Ministries; for the two D'Argensons,--if it could avail +their old School-fellow, or France, or us; which it cannot much. + + + + +Chapter III.--CARNIVAL PHENOMENA IN WAR-TIME. + +Readers were anticipating it, readers have no sympathy; but the sad fact +is, Britannic Majesty has NOT got out his sword; this second paroxysm of +his proves vain as the first did! Those laggard Dutch, dead to the Cause +of Liberty, it is they again. Just as the hour was striking, they--plump +down, in spite of magnanimous Stair, into their mud again; cannot be +hoisted by engineering. And, after all that filling and emptying of +water-casks, and pumping and puffing, and straining of every fibre for a +twelvemonth past, Britannic Majesty had to sit down again, panting in an +Olympian manner, with that expensive long sword of his still sticking in +the scabbard. + +Tongue cannot tell what his poor little Majesty has suffered from those +Dutch,--checking one's noble rage, into mere zero, always; making of +one's own glorious Army a mere expensive Phantasm! Hanoverian, Hessian, +British: 40,000 fighters standing in harness, year after year, at +such cost; and not the killing of a French turkey to be had of them in +return. Patience, Olympian patience, withal! He cantons his troops in +the Netherlands Towns; many of the British about Ghent (who consider the +provisions, and customs, none of the best); [Letters of Officers, +from Ghent (_Westminster Journal,_ Oct. 23d, &c.).] his Hanoverians, +Hessians, farther northward, Hanover way;--and, greatly daring, +determines to try again, next Spring. Carteret himself shall go and +flagitate the Dutch. Patience; whip and hoist!--What a conclusion, +snorts the indignant British Public through its Gazetteers. + +"Next year, yes, exclaims one indignant Editor: 'if talking will do +business, we shall no doubt perform wonders; for we have had as much +talking and puffing since February last, as during any ten years of the +late Administration' [_The Daily Post,_ December 31st (o.s.), 1742.] +[under poor Walpole, whom you could not enough condemn]! The Dutch? +exclaims another: 'If WE were a Free People [F-- P-- he puts it, joining +caution with his rage], QUOERE, Whether Holland would not, at this +juncture, come cap in hand, to sue for our protection and alliance; +instead of making us dance attendance at the Hague?' Yes, indeed;--and +then the CASE OF THE HANOVER FORCES (fear not, reader; I understand your +terror of locked-jaw, and will never mention said CASE again); but it is +singular to the Gazetteer mind, That these Hanover Forces are to be paid +by England, as appears; Hanover, as if without interest in the matter, +paying nothing! Upon which, in covert form of symbolic adumbration, of +witty parable, what stinging commentaries, not the first, nor by many +thousands the last (very sad reading in our day) on this paltry Hanover +Connection altogether: What immensities it has cost poor England, and is +like to cost, 'the Lord of the Manor' (great George our King) being the +gentleman he is; and how England, or, as it is adumbratively called, +'the Manor of St. James's,' is become a mere 'fee-farm to Mumland.' +Unendurable to think of. 'Bob Monopoly, the late Tallyman [adumbrative +for Walpole, late Prime Minister], was much blamed on this account; and +John the Carter [John Lord Carteret], Clerk of the Vestry and present +favorite of his Lordship, is not behind Robin in his care for the Manor +of MUMLAND' [In _Westminster Journal_ (Feb. 12th, n.s., 1743), a long +Apologue in this strain.] (that contemptible Country, where their very +beer is called MUM),--and no remedy within view?" + + + + +RETREAT FROM PRAG; ARMY OF THE ORIFLAMME, BOHEMIAN SECTION BOHEMIAN +SECTION OF IT, MAKES EXIT. + +"And Belleisle in Prag, left solitary there, with his heroic +remnant,--gone now to 17,000, the fourth man of them in hospital, with +Festititz Tolpatchery hovering round, and Winter and Hunger drawing +nigh,--what is to become of Belleisle? Prince Karl and the Grand-Duke +had attended Maillebois to Bavaria; steadily to left of Maillebois +between Austria and him; and are now busy in the Passau Country, bent +on exploding those Seckendorf-Broglio operations and intentions, as the +chief thing now. Meanwhile they have detached Prince Lobkowitz to girdle +in Belleisle again; for which Lobkowitz (say, 20,000, with the Festititz +Tolpatchery included) will be easily able. On the march thither he +easily picked up (18th-25th November) that new French Post of Leitmeritz +(Broglio's fine 'Half-way House to Saxony and Provender'), with its +garrison of 2,000: the other posts and outposts, one and all, had to +hurry home, in fear of a like fate. Beyond the circuit of Prag, isolated +in ten miles of burnt country, Belleisle has no resource except what his +own head may furnish. The black landscape is getting powdered with snow; +one of the grimmest Winters, almost like that of 1740; Belleisle must +see what he will do. + +"Belleisle knows secretly what he will do. Belleisle has orders to come +away from Prag; bring his Army off, and the chivalry of France home to +their afflicted friends. [_Campagnes,_ vi. 244-251; Espagnac, i. 168.] A +thing that would have been so feasible two months ago, while Maillebois +was still wriggling in the Pass of Caaden; but which now borders on +impossibility, if not reaches into it. As a primary measure, Belleisle +keeps those orders of his rigorously secret. Within the Garrison, or +on the part of Lobkowitz, there is a far other theory of Belleisle's +intentions. Lobkowitz, unable to exist in the black circuit, has retired +beyond it, and taken the eastern side of the Moldau, as the least +ruined; leaving the Tolpatchery, under one Festititz, to caracole round +the black horizon on the west. Farther, as the Moldau is rolling ice, +and Lobkowitz is afraid of his pontoons, he drags them out high and +dry: 'Can be replaced in a day, when wanted.' In a day; yes, thinks +Belleisle, but not in less than a day;--and proceeds now to the +consummation. Detailed accounts exist, Belleisle's own Account (rapid, +exact, loftily modest); here, compressing to the utmost, let us snatch +hastily the main features. + +"On the 15th December, 1742, Prag Gates are all shut: Enter if you like; +but no outgate. Monseigneur le Marechal intends to have a grand foraging +to-morrow, on the southwestern side of Prag. Lobkowitz heard of it, in +spite of the shut gates; for all Prag is against Belleisle, and does +spy-work for Lobkowitz. 'Let him forage,' thought Lobkowitz; 'he will +not grow rich by what he gathers;' and sat still, leaving his +pontoons high and dry. So that Belleisle, on the afternoon of December +16th,--between 12 and 14,000 men, near 4,000 of them cavalry, with +cannon, with provision-wagons, baggage-wagons, goods and chattels in +mass,--has issued through the two Southwestern Gates; and finds himself +fairly out of Prag. On the Pilsen road; about nightfall of the +short winter day: earth all snow and 'VERGLAS,' iron glazed; huge +olive-colored curtains of the Dusk going down upon the Mountains +ahead of him; shutting in a scene wholly grim for Belleisle. Brigadier +Chevert, a distinguished and determined man, with some 4,000 sick, +convalescent and half able, is left in Prag to man the works; the +Marechal has taken hostages, twenty Notabilities of Prag; and neglected +no precaution. He means towards Eger; has, at least, got one march +ahead; and will do what is in him, he and every soul of those 14,000. +The officers have given their horses for the baggage-wagons, made every +sacrifice; the word Homewards kindles a strange fire in all hearts; and +the troops, say my French authorities, are unsurpassable. The Marechal +himself, victim of rheumatisms, cannot ride at all; but has his +light sledge always harnessed; and, at a moment's notice, is present +everywhere. Sleep, during these ten days and nights, he has little. + +"Eger is 100 miles off, by the shortest Highway: there are two bad +Highways, one by Pilsen southerly, one by Karlsbad northerly,--with +their bridges all broken, infested by Hussars:--we strike into a middle +combination of country roads, intricate parish lanes; and march zigzag +across these frozen wildernesses: we must dodge these Festititz Hussar +swarms; and cross the rivers near their springs. Forward! Perhaps some +readers, for the high Belleisle's sake, will look out these localities +subjoined in the Note, and reduced to spelling. [Tachlowitz, Lischon +(near Rakonitz); Jechnitz (as if you were for the Pilsen road; then turn +as if for the Karlsbad one); Steben (not discoverable, but a DESPATCH +from it,--_Campagnes,_ v. 280), Chisch, Luditz, Theysing (hereabouts you +break off into smaller columns, separate parties and patches, cavalry +all ahead, among the Hills): Schonthal AND Landeck (Belleisle passes +Christmas-day at Landeck,--_ Campagnes,_ vii. 10); Einsiedel (AND +by Petschau), Lauterbach, Konigswart, AND likewise by Topl, Sandau, +Treunitz (that is, into Eger from two sides).] Resting-places in this +grim wilderness of his: poor snow-clad Hamlets,--with their little hood +of human smoke rising through the snow; silent all of them, except for +the sound of here and there a flail, or crowing cock;--but have been +awakened from their torpor by this transit of Belleisle. Happily the +bogs themselves are iron; deepest bog will bear. + +"Festititz tries us twice,--very anxious to get Belleisle's Army-chest, +or money; we give him torrents of sharp shot instead. Festititz, these +two chief times, we pepper rapidly into the Hills again; he is reduced +to hang prancing on our flanks and rear. Men bivouac over fires of turf, +amid snow, amid frost; tear down, how greedily, any wood-work for fire. +Leave a trumpet to beg quarter for the frozen and speechless;--which is +little respected: they are lugged in carts, stript by the savageries, +and cruelly used. There were first extensive plains, then boggy passes, +intricate mountains; bog and rock; snow and VERGLAS.--On the 26th, after +indescribable endeavors, we got into Eger;--some 1,300 (about one in +ten) left frozen in the wilderness; and half the Army falling ill at +Eger, of swollen limbs, sore-throats, and other fataler diseases, fatal +then, or soon after. Chevert, at Prag, refused summons from Prince +Lobkowitz: 'No, MON PRINCE; not by any means! We will die, every man +of us, first; and we will burn Prag withal!'--So that Lobkowitz had to +consent to everything; and escort Chevert to Eger, with bag and baggage, +Lobkowitz furnishing the wagons. + +"Comparable to the Retreat of Xenophon! cry many. Every Retreat is +compared to that. A valiant feat, after all exaggerations. A thing well +done, say military men;--'nothing to object, except that the troops were +so ruined;'--and the most unmilitary may see, it is the work of a high +and gallant kind of man. One of the coldest expeditions ever known. +There have been three expeditions or retreats of this kind which were +very cold: that of those Swedes in the Great Elector's time (not to +mention that of Karl XII.'s Army out of Norway, after poor Karl XII. +got shot); that of Napoleon from Moscow; this of Belleisle, which is the +only one brilliantly conducted, and not ending in rout and annihilation. + +"The troops rest in Eger for a week or two; then homeward through the +Ober-Pfalz:--'go all across the Rhine at Speyer' (5th February next); +the Bohemian Section of the Oriflamme making exit in this manner. Not +quite the eighth man of them left; five-eighths are dead: and there are +about 12,000 prisoners, gone to Hungary,--who ran mostly to the Turks, +such treatment had they, and were not heard of again." [_Guerre de +Boheme,_ ii. 221 (for this last fact). IB. 204, and Espagnac, i. 176 +(for particulars of the Retreat); and still better, Belleisle's own +Despatch and Private Letter (Eger, 2d January and 5th January, 1743), in +_Campagnes,_ vii. 1-21.]--Ah, Belleisle, Belleisle! + +The Army of the Oriflamme gets home in this sad manner; Germany not +cut in Four at all. "Implacable Austrian badgers," as we call them, +"gloomily indignant bears," how have they served this fine French +hunting-pack; and from hunted are become hunters, very dangerous to +contemplate! At Frankfurt, Belleisle, for his own part, pauses; cannot, +in this entirely down-broken state of body, serve his Majesty farther in +the military business; will do some needful diplomatics with the Kaiser, +and retire home to government of Metz, till his worn-out health recover +itself a little. + + + + +A GLANCE AT VIENNA, AND THEN AT BERLIN. + +Prince Karl had been busy upon Braunau (the BAVARIAN Braunau, not the +BOHEMIAN or another, Seckendorf's chief post on the Inn); had furiously +bombarded Braunau, with red-hot balls, for some days; [2d-10th December +(Espagnac, i. 171).] intent to explode the Seckendorf-Broglio projects +before winter quite came. Seckendorf, in a fine frenzy, calls to +Broglio, "Help!" and again calls; both Kaiser and he, CRESCENDO to a +high pitch, before Broglio will come. "Relieve Braunau? Well;--but no +fighting farther, mark you!" answers Broglio. To the disgust of Kaiser +and Seckendorf; who were eager for a combined movement, and hearty +attack on Prince Karl, with perhaps capture of Passau itself. At sight +of Broglio and Seckendorf combined, Prince Karl did at once withdraw +from Braunau; but as to attacking him,--"NON; MILLE FOIS, NON!" answered +Broglio disdainfully bellowing. First grand quarrel of Broglio +and Seckendorf; by no means their last. Prince Karl put his men in +winter-quarters, in those Passau regions; postponing the explosion of +the Broglio-Seckendorf projects, till Spring; and returned to Vienna for +the Winter gayeties and businesses there. How the high Maria Theresa +is contented, I do not hear;--readers may take this Note, which is +authentic, though vague, and straggling over wide spaces of time still +future. + +"Does her Majesty still think of 'taking the command of her Armies +on herself,' high Amazon that she is!" Has not yet thought of that, I +should guess. "At one time she did seriously think of it, says a good +witness; which is noteworthy. [Podewils, _Der Wiener Hof _ (Court of +Vienna, in the years 1746, 1747 and 1748; a curious set of REPORTS for +Friedrich's information, by Podewils, his Minister there); printed under +that Title, "by the Imperial Academy of Sciences" (Wien, 1850);--may be +worth alluding to again, if chance offer.] Her Husband has been with the +Armies, once, twice; but never to much purpose (Brother Karl doing the +work, if work were done);--and this is about the last time, or the last +but one, this in Winter 1742. She loves her Husband thoroughly, all +along; but gives him no share in business, finding he understands +nothing except Banking. It is certain she chiefly was the reformer of +her Army," in years coming; "she, athwart many impediments. An ardent +rider, often on horseback, at paces furiously swift; her beautiful face +tanned by the weather. Very devout too; honest to the bone, athwart all +her prejudices. Since our own Elizabeth! no Woman, and hardly above one +Man, is worth being named beside her as a Sovereign Ruler;--she is 'a +living contradiction of the Salic Law,' say her admirers. Depends on +England for money, All hearts and right hands in Austria are hers. +The loss of Schlesien, pure highway robbery, thrice-doleful loss and +disgrace, rankles incurable in the noble heart, pious to its Fathers +withal, and to their Heritages in the world,--we shall see with what +issues, for the next twenty years, to that 'BOSE MANN,' unpardonably +'wicked man' of Brandenburg. And indeed, to the end of her life, she +never could get over it. To the last, they say, if a Stranger, getting +audience, were graciously asked, 'From what Country, then?' and +should answer, 'Schlesien, your Majesty!' she would burst into +tears.--'Patience, high Madam!' urges the Britannic Majesty: 'Patience; +may not there be compensation, if we hunt well?'" Austrian bears, +implacable badgers, with Britannic mastiffs helping, now that the +Belleisle Pack is down!-- + +At Berlin it was gay Carnival, while those tragedies went on: Friedrich +was opening his Opera-House, enjoying the first ballets, while Belleisle +filed out of Prag that gloomy evening. Our poor Kaiser will not "retain +Bohemia," then; how far from it! The thing is not comfortable to +Friedrich; but what help? + +This is the gayest Carnival yet seen in Berlin, this immediately +following the Peace; everybody saying to himself and others, "GAUDEAMUS, +What a Season!" Not that, in the present hurry of affairs, I can dwell +on operas, assemblies, balls, sledge-parties; or indeed have the least +word to say on such matters, beyond suggesting them to the imagination +of readers. The operas, the carnival gayeties, the intricate +considerations and diplomacies of this Winter, at Berlin and elsewhere, +may be figured: but here is one little speck, also from the Archives, +which is worth saving. Princess Ulrique is in her twenty-third year, +Princess Amelia in her twentieth; beautiful clever creatures, both; +Ulrique the more staid of the two. "Never saw so gay a Carnival," said +everybody; and in the height of it, with all manner of gayeties going +on,--think where the dainty little shoes have been pinching! + + +PRINCESSES ULRIQUE AND AMELIA TO THE KING. + +BERLIN, "1st March, 1743. "MY DEAREST BROTHER,--I know not if it is +not too bold to trouble your Majesty on private affairs: but the +great confidence which my Sister [Amelia] and I have in your kindness +encourages us to lay before you a sincere avowal as to the state of our +bits of finances (NOS PETITES FINANCES), which are a good deal deranged +just now; the revenues having, for two years and a half past, been +rather small; amounting to only 400 crowns (60 pounds) a year; which +could not be made to cover all the little expenses required in the +adjustments of ladies. This circumstance, added to our card-playing, +though small, which we could not dispense with, has led us into debts. +Mine amount to 225 pounds (1,500 crowns); my Sister's to 270 pounds +(1,800 crowns). + +"We have not spoken of it to the Queen-Mother, though we are well sure +she would have tried to assist us; but as that could not have been done +without some inconvenience to her, and she would have retrenched in some +of her own little entertainments, I thought we should do better to apply +direct to Your Majesty; being persuaded you would have taken it amiss, +had we deprived the Queen of her smallest pleasure;--and especially, as +we consider you, my dear Brother, the Father of the Family, and hope you +will be so gracious as help us. We shall never forget the kind acts of +Your Majesty; and we beg you to be persuaded of the perfect and tender +attachment with which we are proud to be all our lives,--Your Majesty's +most humble and most obedient Sisters and Servants, + +"LOUISE-ULRIQUE; ANNE-AMELIE [which latter adds anxiously as Postscript, +Ulrique having written hitherto], + +"P.S. I most humbly beg Your Majesty not to speak of this to the +Queen-Mother, as perhaps she would not approve of the step we are now +taking." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. i. 387.] + +Poor little souls; bankruptcy just imminent! I have no doubt Friedrich +came handsomely forward on this grave occasion, though Dryasdust has not +the grace to give me the least information.--"Frederic Baron Trenck," +loud-sounding Phantasm once famous in the world, now gone to the +Nurseries as mythical, was of this Carnival 1742-43; and of the next, +and NOT of the next again! A tall actuality in that time; swaggering +about in sumptuous Life-guard uniform, in his mess-rooms and +assembly-rooms; much in love with himself, the fool. And I rather think, +in spite of his dog insinuations, neither Princess had heard of him till +twenty years hence, in a very different phasis of his life! The empty, +noisy, quasi-tragic fellow;--sounds throughout quasi-tragically, like an +empty barrel; well-built, longing to be FILLED. And it is scandalously +false, what loud Trenck insinuates, what stupid Thiebault (always +stupid, incorrect, and the prey of stupidities) confirms, as to this +matter,--fit only for the Nurseries, till it cease altogether. + + + + +VOLTAIRE, AT PARIS, IS MADE IMMORTAL BY A KISS. + +Voltaire and the divine Emilie are home to Cirey again; that of +Brussels, with the Royal Aachen Excursion, has been only an interlude. +They returned, by slow stages, visit after visit, in October last,--some +slake occurring, I suppose, in that interminable Honsbruck Lawsuit; and +much business, not to speak of ennui, urging them back. They are now +latterly in Paris itself, safe in their own "little palace (PETIT +PALAIS) at the point of the Isle;" little jewel of a house on the Isle +St. Louis, which they are warming again, after long absence in Brussels +and the barbarous countries. They have returned hither, on sufferance, +on good behavior; multitudes of small interests, small to us, great to +them,--death of old Fleury, hopeful changes of Ministry, not to speak of +theatricals and the like,--giving opportunity and invitation. Madame, +we observe, is marrying her Daughter: the happy man a Duke of Montenero, +ill-built Neapolitan, complexion rhubarb, and face consisting much of +nose. [Letter of Voltaire, in _ OEuvres,_ lxxiii 24.] Madame never wants +for business; business enough, were it only in the way of shopping, +visiting, consulting lawyers, doing the Pure Sciences. + +As to Voltaire, he has, as usual, Plays to get acted,--if he can. +MAHOMET, no; MORT DE CESAR, yes OR no; for the Authorities are shy, +in spite of the Public. One Play Voltaire did get acted, with a +success,--think of it, reader! The exquisite Tragedy MEROPE, perhaps now +hardly known to you; of which you shall hear anon. + +But Plays are not all. Old Pleury being dead, there is again a Vacancy +in the Academy; place among the sacred Forty,--vacant for Voltaire, +if he can get it. Voltaire attaches endless importance to this place; +beautiful as a feather in one's cap; useful also to the solitary +Ishmael of Literature, who will now in a certain sense have Thirty-nine +Comrades, and at least one fixed House-of-Call in this world. In fine, +nothing can be more ardent than the wish of M. de Voltaire for these +supreme felicities. To be of the Forty, to get his Plays acted,--oh, +then were the Saturnian Kingdoms come; and a man might sing IO TRIUMPHE, +and take his ease in the Creation, more or less! Stealthily, as if +on shoes of felt,--as if on paws of velvet, with eyes luminous, tail +bushy,--he walks warily, all energies compressively summoned, towards +that high goal. Hush, steady! May you soon catch that bit of savory +red-herring, then; worthiest of the human feline tribe!--As to the Play +MEROPE, here is the notable passage: + +"PARIS, WEDNESDAY, 20th FEBRUARY, 1743. First night of MEROPE; which +raised the Paris Public into transports, so that they knew not what to +do, to express their feelings. 'Author! M. de Voltaire! Author!' shouted +they; summoning the Author, what is now so common, but was then +an unheard-of originality. 'Author! Author!' Author, poor blushing +creature, lay squatted somewhere, and durst not come; was ferreted out; +produced in the Lady Villars's Box,--Dowager MARECHALE DE VILLARS, +and her Son's Wife DUCHESSE DE VILLARS, being there; known friends +of Voltaire's. Between these Two he stands ducking some kind of bow; +uncertain, embarrassed what to do; with a Theatre all in rapturous +delirium round him,--uncertain it too, but not embarrassed. 'Kiss him! +MADAME LA DUCHESSE DE VILLARS, EMBRASSEZ VOLTAIRE!' Yes, kiss him, fair +Duchess, in the name of France! shout all mortals;--and the younger +Lady has to do it; does it with a charming grace; urged by Madame la +Marechale her mother-in-law. [Duvernet (T. J. D. V.), _Vie de Voltaire, +_ p. 128; Voltaire himself, _OEuvres,_ ii. 142; Barbier, ii. 358.] Ah, +and Madame la Marechale was herself an old love of Voltaire's; who had +been entirely unkind to him! + +"Thus are you made immortal by a Kiss;--and have not your choice of the +Kiss, Fate having chosen for you. The younger Lady was a Daughter of +Marechal de Noailles [our fine old Marechal, gone to the Wars +against his Britannic Majesty in those very weeks]: infinitely clever +(INFINIMENT D'ESPRIT); beautiful too, I understand, though towards +forty;--hangs to the human memory, slightly but indissolubly, ever since +that Wednesday Night of 1743." + +Old Marechal de Noailles is to the Wars, we said;--it is in a world +all twinkling with watch-fires, and raked coals of War, that these fine +Carnival things go on. Noailles is 70,000 strong; posted in the Rhine +Countries, middle and upper Rhine; vigilantly patrolling about, to +support those staggering Bavarian Affairs; especially to give account +of his Britannic Majesty. Brittanic Majesty is thought to have got the +Dutch hoisted, after all; to have his sword OUT;--and ere long does +actually get on march; up the Rhine hitherward, as is too evident, to +Noailles, to the Kaiser and everybody! + + + + +Chapter IV.--AUSTRIAN AFFAIRS MOUNT TO A DANGEROUS HEIGHT. + +Led by fond hopes,--and driven also by that sad fear, of a Visit from +his Britannic Majesty,--the poor Kaiser, in the rear of those late +Seckendorf successes, quitted Frankfurt, April 17th; and the second day +after, got to Munchen. Saw himself in Munchen again, after a space of +more than two years; "all ranks of people crowding out to welcome him;" +the joy of all people, for themselves and for him, being very great. +Next day he drove out to Nymphenburg; saw the Pandour devastations +there,--might have seen the window where the rugged old Unertl set up +his ladder, "For God's sake, your Serenity, have nothing to do with +those French!"--and did not want for sorrowful comparisons of past and +present. + +It was remarked, he quitted Munchen in a day or two; preferring Country +Palaces still unruined,--for example, Wolnzach, a Schloss he has, some +fifty miles off, down the Iser Valley, not far from the little Town of +Mosburg; which, at any rate, is among the Broglio-Seckendorf posts, and +convenient for business. Broglio and Seckendorf lie dotted all about, +from Braunau up to Ingolstadt and farther; chiefly in the Iser and Inn +Valleys, but on the north side of the Donau too; over an area, say of +2,000 square miles; Seckendorf preaching incessantly to Broglio, what +is sun-clear to all eyes but Broglio's, "Let us concentrate, M. le +Marechal; let us march and attack! If Prince Karl come upon us in this +scattered posture, what are we to do?" Broglio continuing deaf; Broglio +answering--in a way to drive one frantic. + +The Kaiser himself takes Broglio in hand; has a scene with Broglio; +which, to readers that study it, may be symbolical of much that is gone +and that is coming. It fell "about the middle of May" (prior to May +17th, as readers will guess before long); and here, according to report, +was the somewhat explosive finale it had. Prince Conti, the same who ran +to join Maillebois, and has proved a gallant fellow and got command of a +Division, attends Broglio in this important interview at Wolnzach:-- + +SCHLOSS OF WOLNZACH, MAY, 1743.... "The Kaiser pressed, in the most +emphatic manner, That the Two Armies [French and Bavarian] should +collect and unite for immediate action. To which Broglio declared he +could by no means assent, not having any order from Paris of that +tenor. The Kaiser thereupon: 'I give you my order for it; I, by the Most +Christian King's appointment, am Commander-in-Chief of your Army, as of +my own; and I now order you!'--taking out his Patent, and spreading it +before Broglio with the sign-manual visible, Broglio knew the Patent +very well; but answered, 'That he could not, for all that, follow the +wish of his Imperial Majesty; that he, Broglio, had later orders, and +must obey them!' Upon which the Imperial Majesty, nature irrepressibly +asserting itself, towered into Olympian height; flung his Patent on the +table, telling Conti and Broglio, 'You can send that back, then; Patents +like that are of no service to me!' and quitted them in a blaze." +[Adelung, iii. B, 150; cites ETTAT POLITIQUE (Annual Register of +those times), xiii. 16. Nothing of this scene in _Campagnes,_ which is +officially careful to suppress the like of this.] + +The indisputable fact is, Prince Karl is at the door; nay he has beaten +in the door in a frightful manner; and has Braunau, key of the Inn, +again under siege. Not we getting Passau; it is he getting Braunau! A +week ago (9th May) his vanguard, on the sudden, cut to pieces our poor +Bavarian 8,000, and their poor Minuzzi, who were covering Braunau, and +has ended him and them;--Minuzzi himself prisoner, not to be heard of or +beaten more;--and is battering Braunau ever since. That is the sad fact, +whatever the theory may have been. Prince Karl is rolling in from +the east; Lobkowitz (Prag now ended) is advancing from the northward, +Khevenhuller from the Salzburg southern quarter: Is it in a sprinkle of +disconnected fractions that you will wait Prince Karl? The question of +uniting, and advancing, ought to be a simple one for Broglio. Take +this other symbolic passage, of nearly the same date;--posterior, as we +guessed, to that Interview at Wolnzach. + +"DINGELFINGEN, 17th MAY, 1743. At Dingelfingen on the Iser, a strongish +central post of the French, about fifty miles farther down than that +Schloss of Wolnzach, there is a second argument,--much corroborative +of the Kaiser's reasoning. About sunrise of the 17th, the Austrians, in +sufficient force, chiefly of Pandours, appeared on the heights to the +south: they had been foreseen the night before; but the French covering +General, luckier than Minuzzi, did not wait for them; only warned +Dingelfingen, and withdrew across the River, to wait there on the safe +left bank. Leader of the Austrians was one Leopold Graf von Daun, active +man of thirty-five, already of good rank, who will be much heard of +afterwards; Commandant in Dingelfingen is a Brigadier du Chatelet, +Marquis du Chatelet-Lamont; whom--after search (in the interest of some +idle readers)--I discover to be no other than the Husband of a certain +Algebraic Lady! Identity made out, mark what a pass he is at. Count +Daun comes on in a tempest of furious fire; 'very heavy,' they say, +from great guns and small; till close upon the place, when he summons +Du Chatelet: 'No;' and thereupon attempts scalade. Cannot scalade, Du +Chatelet and his people being mettlesome; takes then to flinging +shells, to burning the suburbs; Town itself catches fire,--Town plainly +indefensible. 'Truce for one hour' proposes Du Chatelet (wishful to +consult the covering General across the River): 'No,' answers Daun. So +that Du Chatelet has to jumble and wriggle himself out of the place; +courageous to the last; but not in a very Parthian fashion,--great +difficulty to get his bridge ruined (very partially ruined), behind +him;--and joins the covering General, in a flustery singed condition! +Were not pursued farther by Daun:--and Prince Conti, Head General in +those parts, called it a fine defence, on examining." [_Campagnes,_ +viii. 239; Espagnac, i. 187; Hormayr, iv. 82, 85.] Espagnac continues:-- + +"On the 19th," after one rest-day, "Graf von Daun set out for Landau +[still on the Iser, farther down; Baiern has ITS "Landau" too, and +its "Landshut," both on this River], to seize Landau; which is another +French place of strength. The Garrison defended themselves for some +time; after which they retired over the River [left bank, or wrong side +of the Iser, they too]; and set fire to the Bridge behind them. The fire +of the Bridge caught the Town; Pandours helping it, as our people said; +and Landau also was reduced to ashes."--Poor Landau, poor Dingelfingen, +they cannot have the benefit of Louis XV.'s talent for governing +Germany, quite gratis, it would appear! + +But where are the divine Emilie and Voltaire, that morning, while the +Brigadier is in such taking? Sitting safe in "that dainty little palace +of Madame's (PETIT PALAIS) at the point of the Isle de St. Louis," +intent on quite other adventures; disgusted with the slavish Forty and +their methods of Election (of which by and by); and little thinking of +M. le Brigadier and the dangers of war.--Prince de Conti praised the +Brigadier's defence: but very soon, alas,-- + +DEGGENDORF, 27th MAY. "Prince de Conti, at Deggendorf [other or north +bank of the Donau, Head-quarters of Conti, which was thought to be well +secured by batteries and defences on the steep heights to landward], was +himself suddenly attacked, the tenth day hence, 'May 27th, at daybreak,' +in a still more furious manner; and was tumbled out of Deggendorf amid +whirlwinds of fire, in very flamy condition indeed. The Austrians, +playing on us from the uplands with their heavy artillery, made a breach +in our outmost battery: 'Not tenable!' exclaimed the Captain there: +'This way, my men!'--and withdrew, like a shot, he and party; sliding +down the steep face of the mountain [feet foremost, I hope], home to +Deggendorf in this peculiar manner; leaving the AUSTRIANS to manage his +guns. Our two lower batteries, ruled by this upper one, had now to be +abandoned; and Conti ran, Bridge of the Town-ditch breaking under +him; baggages, even to his own portmanteaus, all lost; and had a +neck-and-neck race of it in getting to his Donau-Bridge, and across to +the safe side. With loss of everything, we say,--personal baggage all +included; which latter item, Prince Karl politely returned him next +day." [Espagnac, p. 188.] + +Broglio, with Prince Karl in his bowels going at such a rate, may judge +now whether it was wise to lie in that loose posture, scattered over two +thousand square miles, and snort on his judicious Seckendorf's advices +and urgencies as he did! Readers anticipate the issue; and shall not +be wearied farther with detail. There are, as we said, Three Austrian +Armies pressing on this luckless Bavaria and its French Protectors: +Khevenhuller, from Salzburg and the southern quarter, pushing in his +Dauns; Lobkowitz, hanging over us from the Ober-Pfalz (Naab-River +Country) on the north; and Prince Karl, on one or sometimes on both +sides of the Donau, pricking sharply into the rear of us; saying, by +bayonets, burnt bridges, bomb-shells, "Off; swift; it will be better for +you!" And Broglio has lost head, a mere whirlwind of flaming gases; +and your ablest Comte de Saxe in such position, what can he do? Broglio +writes to Versailles, That there will be no continuing in Bavaria; that +he recommends an order to march homewards;--much to the surprise of +Versailles. + +"The Court of Versailles was much astonished at the message it got from +Broglio; Court of Versailles had always calculated that Broglio could +keep Bavaria; and had gone into extensive measures for maintaining +him there. Experienced old Marechal de Noailles has a new French Army, +70,000 or more, assembled in the Upper Rhine for that and the cognate +objects [of whom, more specially, anon]: Noailles, by order from Court, +has detached 12,000, who are now marching their best, to reinforce +Broglio;--and indeed the Court 'had already appointed the Generals and +Staff-Officers for Broglio's Bavarian Army,' and gratified many men by +promotions, which now went to smoke! [Espagnac, i. 190.] + +"Versailles, however, has to expedite the order: 'Come home, then.' +Order or no order, Broglio's posts are all crackling off again, bursting +aloft like a chain of powder-mines; Broglio is plunging head foremost, +towards Donauworth, towards Ingolstadt, his place of arms; Seckendorf +now welcome to join him, but unable to do anything when joined. +Blustering Broglio has no steadfastness of mind; explodes like an +inflammable body, in this crackling off of the posts, and becomes a +mere whirlwind of flaming gases. Old snuffling Seckendorf, born to ill +success in his old days, strong only in caution, how is he to quench or +stay this crackling of the posts? Broglio blusters, reproaches, bullies; +Seckendorf quarrels with him outright, as he may well do: 'JARNI-BLEU, +such a delirious whirlwind of a Marechal; mere bickering flames and +soot!'--and looks out chiefly to keep his own skin and that of his poor +Bavarians whole. + +"The unhappy Kaiser has run from Munchen again, to Augsburg for some +brief shelter; cannot stay there either, in the circumstances. Will +he have to hurry back to Frankfurt, to bankruptcy and furnished +lodgings,--nay to the Britannic Majesty's tender mercies, whose Army +is now actually there? Those indignant prophesyings to Broglio, at the +Schloss of Wolnzach, have so soon come true! And Broglio and the French +are--what a staff to lean upon! Enough, the poor Kaiser, after doleful +'Council of War held at Augsburg, June 25th,' does on the morrow make +off for Frankfurt again:--whither else? Britannic Majesty's intentions, +friends tell him, friend Wilhelm of Hessen tells him, are magnanimous; +eager for Peace to Teutschland; hostile only to the French. Poor Karl +took the road, June 26th;--and will find news on his arrival, or before +it. + +"On which same day, 26th of June, as it chances, Broglio too has made +his packages; left a garrison in Ingolstadt, garrison in Eger; and is +ferrying across at Donauworth,--will see the Marlborough Schellenberg as +he passes,--in full speed for the Rhine Countries, and the finis of +this bad Business. [Adelung, iii. B. 152.] On the road, I believe at +Donauworth itself, Noailles's 12,000, little foreseeing these retrograde +events, met Broglio: 'Right about, you too!' orders Broglio; and speeds +Rhineward not the less. And the same day of that ferrying at Donauworth, +and of the Kaiser's setting out for Frankfurt, Seckendorf,--at +Nieder-Schonfeld [an old Monastery near the Town of Rain, in those +parts], the Kaiser being now safe away,--is making terms for himself +with Khevenhuller and Prince Karl: 'Will lie quiet as mere REICHS-Army, +almost as Troops of the Swabian Circle, over at Wembdingen there, in +said circle, and be strictly neutral, if we can but get lived at all!' +[Ib. iii. B, 153.] Seckendorf concludes on the morrow, 27th June;--which +is elsewhere a memorable Day of Battle, as will be seen. + +"Broglio marched in Five Divisions [Du Chatelet in the Second Division, +poor soul, which was led by Comte de Saxe]: [Espagnac, i. 198.] always +in Five Divisions, swiftly, half a march apart; through the Wurtemberg +Country;--lost much baggage, many stragglers; Tolpatcheries in multitude +continually pricking at the skirts of him; Prince Karl following +steadily, Rhine-wards also, a few marches behind. Here are omens to +return with! 'But have you seen a retreat better managed?' thinks +Broglio to himself:" that is one consoling circumstance. + +In this manner, then, has the Problem of Bavaria solved itself. +Hungarian Majesty, in these weeks, was getting crowned in Prag; "Queen +of Bohemia, I, not you; in the sight of Heaven and of Earth!" [Crowned +12th May, 1743 (Adelung, iii. B, 128); "news of Prince Karl's having +taken Braunau [incipiency of all these successes] had reached her that +very morning."]--and was purifying her Bohemia: with some rigor (it is +said), from foreign defacements, treasonous compliances and the like, +which there had been. To see your Bavarian Kaiser, false King of +Bohemia, your Broglio with his French, and the Bohemian-Bavarian +Question in whole, all rolling Rhine-wards at their swiftest, with +Prince Karl sticking in the skirts of them:--what a satisfaction to that +high Lady! + + + + +BRITANNIC MAJESTY, WITH SWORD ACTUALLY DRAWN, HAS MARCHED MEANWHILE +TO THE FRANKFURT COUNTRIES, AS "PRAGMATIC ARMY;" READY FOR BATTLE AND +TREATY ALIKE. + +Add to which fine set of results, simultaneously with them: His +Britannic Majesty, third effort successful, has got his sword drawn, +fairly out at last; and in the air is making horrid circles with +it, ever since March last; nay does, he flatters himself, a very +considerable slash with it, in this current month of June. Of which, +though loath, we must now take some notice. + +The fact is, though Stair could not hoist the Dutch, and our +double-quick Britannic heroism had to drop dead in consequence, Carteret +has done it: Carteret himself rushed over in that crisis, a fiery +emphatic man and chief minister, [Arrived at the Hague "5th October, +1742" (Adelung, iii. A, 294).]--"eager to please his Master's humor!" +said enemies. Yes, doubtless; but acting on his own turbid belief withal +(says fact); and revolving big thoughts in his head, about bringing +Friedrich over to the Cause of Liberty, giving French Ambition a +lesson for once, and the like. Carteret strongly pulleying, "All hands, +heave-oh!"--and, no doubt, those Maillebois-Broglio events from Prag +assisting him,--did bring the High Mightinesses to their legs; still in +a staggering splay-footed posture, but trying to steady themselves. That +is to say, the High Mightinesses did agree to go with us in the Cause of +Liberty; will now pay actual Subsidies to her Hungarian Majesty (at the +rate of two for our three); and will add, so soon as humanly possible, +20,000 men to those wind-bound 40,000 of ours;--which latter shall now +therefore, at once, as "Pragmatic Army" (that is the term fixed on), +get on march, Frankfurt way; and strike home upon the French and other +enemies of Pragmatic Sanction. This is what Noailles has been looking +for, this good while, and diligently adjusting himself, in those +Middle-Rhine Countries, to give account of. + +Pragmatic Army lifted itself accordingly,--Stair, and the most of +his English, from Ghent, where the wearisome Head-quarters had been; +Hanoverians, Hessians, from we will forget where;--and in various +streaks and streams, certain Austrians from Luxemburg (with our old +friend Neipperg in company) having joined them, are flowing Rhine-ward +ever since March 1st. ["February 18th," o.s. (Old Newspapers).] They +cross the Rhine at three suitable points; whence, by the north bank, +home upon Frankfurt Country, and the Noailles-Broglio operations in +those parts. The English crossed "at Neuwied, in the end of April" (if +anybody is curious); "Lord Stair in person superintending them." Lord +Stair has been much about, and a most busy person; General-in-Chief of +the Pragmatic Army till his Britannic Majesty arrive. Generalissimo Lord +Stair; and there is General Clayton, General Ligonier, "General Heywood +left with the Reserve at Brussels:"--and, from the ashes of the +Old Newspapers, the main stages and particulars of this surprising +Expedition (England marching as Pragmatic Army into distant parts) +can be riddled out; though they require mostly to be flung in again. +Shocking weather on the march, mere Boreas and icy tempests; snow in +some places two feet deep; Rhine much swollen, when we come to it. + +The Austrian Chief General--who lies about Wiesbaden, and consults with +Stair, while the English are crossing--is Duke d'Ahremberg (Father of +the Prince de Ligne, or "Prince of Coxcombs" as some call him): little +or nothing of military skill in D'Ahremberg; but Neipperg is thought +to have given much counsel, such as it was. With the Hessians there was +some difficulty; hesitation on Landgraf Wilhelm's part; who pities the +poor Kaiser, and would fain see him back at Frankfurt, and awaken the +Britannic magnanimities for him. "To Frankfurt, say you? We cannot fight +against the Kaiser!"--and they had to be left behind, for some time; but +at length did come on, though late for business, as it chanced. General +of these Hessians is Prince George of Hessen, worthy stout gentleman, +whom Wilhelmina met at the Frankfurt Gayeties lately. George's elder +Brother Wilhelm is Manager or Vice-Landgraf, this long while back; +and in seven or eight years hence became, as had been expected, actual +Landgraf (old King of Sweden dying childless);--of which Wilhelm we +shall have to hear, at Hanau (a Town of his in those parts), and perhaps +slightly elsewhere, in the course of this business. A fat, just man, he +too; probably somewhat iracund; not without troubles in his House. +His eldest Son, Heir-Apparent of Hessen, let me remind readers, has an +English Princess to Wife; Princess Mary, King George's Daughter, wedded +two years ago. That, added to the Subsidies, is surely a point of +union;--though again there may such discrepancies rise! A good while +after this, the eldest Son becoming Catholic (foolish wretch), to the +horror of Papa,--there rose still other noises in the world, about +Hessen and its Landgraves. Of good Prince George, who doubtless attended +in War Councils, but probably said little, we hope to hear nothing more +whatever. + +From Neuwied to Frankfurt is but a few days' march for the Pragmatic +Army; in a direct line, not sixty miles. Frankfurt itself, which is a +REICHS-STADT (Imperial City), they must not enter: "Fear not, City or +Country!" writes Stair to it: "We come as saviors, pacificators, hostile +to your enemies and disturbers only; we understand discipline and the +Laws of the Reich, and will pay for everything." [Letter itself, of +brief magnanimous strain, in _Campagnes de Noailles,_ i. 127; date +"Neuwied, 26th April, 1743" (Adelung, iii. B, 114).] For the rest, they +are in no hurry. They linger in that Frankfurt-Mainz region, all through +the month of May; not unobservant of Noailles and his movements, if he +made any; but occupied chiefly with gathering provisions; forming, with +difficulty, a Magazine in Hanau. "What they intended: or intend, by +coming hither?" asks the Public everywhere: "To go into the Donau +Countries, and enclose Broglio between two fires?" That had been, +and was still, Stair's fine idea; but D'Ahremberg had disapproved the +methods. D'Ahremberg, it seems, is rather given to opposing Stair;--and +there rise uncertainties, in this Pragmatic Army: certain only hitherto +the Magazine in Hanau. And in secret, it afterwards appeared, the +immediate real errand of this Pragmatic Army had lain--in the Chapter of +Mainz Cathedral, and an Election that was going on there. + +The old Kur-Mainz, namely, had just died; and there was a new "Chief +Spiritual Kurfurst" to be elected by the Canons there. Kur-Mainz is +Chairman of the Reich, an important personage, analogous to Speaker of +the House of Commons; and ought to be,--by no means the Kaiser's young +Brother, as the French and Kaiser are proposing; but a man with Austrian +leanings;--say, Graf von Ostein, titular DOM-CUSTOS (Cathedral Keeper) +here; lately Ambassador in London, and known in select society for what +he is. Not much of an Archbishop, of a Spiritual or Chief Spiritual Herr +hitherto; but capable of being made one,--were the Pragmatic Army at his +elbow! It was on this errand that the Pragmatic Army had come hither, +or come so early, and with their plans still unripe. And truly they +succeeded; got their Ostein chosen to their mind: ["21st March, 1743," +Mainz vacant; "22d April," Ostein elected (Adelung, iii. B, 113, 121).] +a new Kur-Mainz,--whose leanings and procedures were very manifest in +the sequel, and some of them important before long. This was always +reckoned one result of his Britannic Majesty's Pragmatic Campaign;--and +truly some think it was, in strict arithmetic, the only one, though that +is far from his Majesty's own opinion. + + + + +FRIEDRICH HAS OBJECTIONS TO THE PRAGMATIC ARMY; BUT IN VAIN. OF +FRIEDRICH'S MANY ENDEAVORS TO QUENCH THIS WAR, BY "UNION OF INDEPENDENT +GERMAN PRINCES," BY "MEDIATION OF THE REICH," AND OTHERWISE; ALL IN +VAIN. + +Friedrich, at an early stage, had inquired of his Britannic Majesty, +politely but with emphasis, "What in the world he meant, then, by +invading the German Reich; leading foreign Armies into the Reich: in +this unauthorized manner?" To which the Britannic Majesty had answered, +with what vague argument of words we will not ask, but with a look +that we can fancy,--look that would split a pitcher, as the Irish say! +Friedrich persisted to call it an Invasion of the German Reich; and +spoke, at first, of flatly opposing it by a Reich's Army (30,000, or +even 50,000, for Brandenburg's contingent, in such case); but as the +poor Reich took no notice, and the Britannic Majesty was positive, +Friedrich had to content himself with protest for the present. +[Friedrich's Remonstrance and George's Response are in _Adelung,_ iii. +B, 132 (date, "March, 1743"); date of Friedrich's first stirring in the +matter is "January, 1743," and earlier (ib. p. 37, p. 8, &c.).] + +The exertions of Friedrich to bring about a Peace, or at least to +diminish, not increase, the disturbance, are forgotten now; wearisome +to think of, as they did not produce the smallest result; but they have +been incessant and zealous, as those of a man to quench the fire which +is still raging in his street, and from which he himself is just saved. +"Cannot the Reich be roused for settlement of this Bavarian-Austrian +quarrel?" thought Friedrich always. And spent a great deal of earnest +endeavor in that direction; wished a Reich's ARMY OF MEDIATION; "to +which I will myself furnish 30,000; 50,000, if needed." Reich, alas! The +Reich is a horse fallen down to die,--no use spurring at the Reich; it +cannot, for many months, on Friedrich's Proposal (though the question +was far from new, and "had been two years on hand"), come to the +decision, "Well then, yes; the Reich WILL try to moderate and mediate:" +and as for a Reich's Mediation-ARMY, or any practical step at all [The +question had been started, "in August, 1741," by the Kaiser himself; +"11th March, 1743," again urged by him, after Friedrich's offer; "10th +May, 1743," "Yes, then, we will try; but--" and the result continued +zero.]--! + +"Is not Germany, are not all the German Princes, interested to have +Peace?" thinks Friedrich. "A union of the independent German Princes to +recommend Peace, and even with hand on sword-hilt to command it; that +would be the method of producing Treaty of Peace!" thinks he always. And +is greatly set on that method; which, we find, has been, and continues +to be, the soul of his many efforts in this matter. A fact to be +noted. Long poring in those mournful imbroglios of Dryasdust, where the +fraction of living and important welters overwhelmed by wildernesses of +the dead and nugatory, one at length disengages this fact; and readers +may take it along with them, for it proves illuminative of Friedrich's +procedures now and afterwards. A fixed notion of Friedrich's, this of +German Princes "uniting," when the common dangers become flagrant; a +very lively notion with him at present. He will himself cheerfully take +the lead in such Union, but he must not venture alone. [See Adelung, +iii. A and B, passim; Valori, i. 178; &c. &c.] + +The Reich, when appealed to, with such degree of emphasis, in this +matter,--we see how the Reich has responded! Later on, Friedrich tried +"the Swabian Circle" (chief scene of these Austrian-Bavarian tusslings); +which has, like the other Circles, a kind of parliament, and pretends +to be a political unity of some sort. "Cannot the Swabian Circle, +or Swabian and Frankish joined (to which one might declare oneself +PROTECTOR, in such case), order their own Captains, with military force +of their own, say 20,000 men, to rank on the Frontier; and to inform +peremptorily all belligerents and tumultuous persons, French, Bavarian, +English, Austrian: 'No thoroughfare; we tell you, No admittance here!'" +Friedrich, disappointed of the Reich, had taken up that smaller notion: +and he spent a good deal of endeavor on that too,--of which we may +see some glimpse, as we proceed. But it proves all futile. The Swabian +Circle too is a moribund horse; all these horses dead or moribund. + +Friedrich, of course, has thought much what kind of Peace could be +offered by a mediating party. The Kaiser has lost his Bavaria: yet he is +the Kaiser, and must have a living granted him as such. Compensations, +aspirations, claims of territory; these will be manifold! These are a +world of floating vapor, of greed, of anger, idle pretension: but within +all these there are the real necessities; what the case does require, +if it is ever to be settled! Friedrich discerns this Austrian-Bavarian +necessity of compensation; of new land to cut upon. And where is that to +come from! + +In January last, Friedrich, intensely meditating this business, had +in private a bright-enough idea: That of secularizing those so-called +Sovereign Bishoprics, Austrian-Bavarian by locality and nature, Passau, +Salzburg, Regensburg, idle opulent territories, with functions absurd +not useful;--and of therefrom cutting compensation to right and to left. +This notion he, by obscure channels, put into the head of Baron von +Haslang, Bavarian Ambassador at London; where it germinated rapidly, +and came to fruit;--was officially submitted to Lord Carteret in his +own house, in two highly artistic forms, one evening;--and sets +the Diplomatic Heads all wagging upon it. [Adelung, iii. B, 84, 90, +"January-March, 1743."] With great hope, at one time; till rumor of it +got abroad into the Orthodox imagination, into the Gazetteer world; and +raised such a clamor, in those months, as seldom was. "Secularize, Hah! +One sees the devilish heathen spirit of you; and what kind of Kaiser, on +the religious side, we now have the happiness of having!" So that +Kaiser Karl had to deny utterly, "Never heard of such a thing!" Carteret +himself had, in politeness, to deny; much more, and for dire cause, had +Haslang himself, over the belly of facts, "Never in my dreams, I tell +you!"--and to get ambiguous certificate from Carteret, which the simple +could interpret to that effect. [Carteret's Letter (ibid. iii, B, 190).] + +It was only in whispers that the name of Friedrich was connected with +this fine scheme; and all parties were glad to get it soon buried again. +A bright idea; but had come a century too soon. Of another Carteret +Negotiation with Kaiser Karl, famed as "Conferences of Hanau," which had +almost come to be a Treaty, but did not; and then, failing that, of +a famous Carteret "Treaty of Worms," which did come to perfection, in +these same localities shortly afterwards; and which were infinitely +interesting to our Friedrich, both the Treaty and the Failure of the +Treaty,--we propose to speak elsewhere, in due time. + +As to Friedrich's own endeavors and industries, at Regensburg and +elsewhere, for effective mediation of Peace; for the Reich to mediate, +and have "Army of Mediation;" for a "Union of Swabian Circles" to do it; +for this and then for that to do it;--as to Friedrich's own efforts and +strugglings that way, in all likely and in some unlikely quarters,--they +were, and continued to be, earnest, incessant; but without result. Like +the spurring of horses really DEAD some time ago! Of which no reader +wishes the details, though the fact has to be remembered. And so, with +slight indication for Friedrich's sake,--being intent on the stage of +events,--we must leave that shadowy hypothetic region, as a wood in +the background; the much foliage and many twigs and boughs of which do +authentically TAKE the trouble to be there, though we have to paint it +in this summary manner. + + + + +Chapter V.--BRITANNIC MAJESTY FIGHTS HIS BATTLE OF DETTINGEN; AND +BECOMES SUPREME JOVE OF GERMANY, IN A MANNER. + +Brittanic Majesty with his Yarmouth, and martial Prince of Cumberland, +arrived at Hanover May 15th; soon followed by Carteret from the Hague: +[_Biographia Britannica_ (Kippin's,? Carteret), iii. 277.] a Majesty +prepared now for battle and for treaty alike; kind of earthly Jove, +Arbiter of Nations, or victorious Hercules of the Pragmatic, the sublime +little man. At Herrenhausen he has a fine time; grandly fugling about; +negotiating with Wilhelm of Hessen and others; commanding his Pragmatic +Army from the distance: and then at last, dashing off rather in haste, +he--It is well known what enigmatic Exploit he did, at least the Name of +it is well known! Here, from the Imbroglios, is a rough Account; parts +of which are introducible for the sake of English readers. + + + + +BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. + +"After some five leisurely weeks in Herrenhausen, George II. (now an old +gentleman of sixty), with his martial Fat Boy the Duke of Cumberland, +and Lord Carteret his Diplomatist-in-Chief, quitted that pleasant +sojourn, rather on a sudden, for the actual Seat of War. By speedy +journeys they got to Frankfurt Country; to Hanau, June 19th; +whence, still up the Mayn, twenty or thirty miles farther up, to +Aschaffenburg,--where the Pragmatic Army, after some dangerous +manoeuvring on the opposite or south bank of the River, has lain +encamped some days, and is in questionable posture. Whither his Majesty +in person has hastened up. And truly, if his Majesty's head contain any +good counsel, there is great need of it here just now. + +"Captains and men were impatient of that long loitering, hanging idle +about Frankfurt all through May; and they have at length started real +business,--with more valor than discretion, it is feared. They are some +40 or 44,000 strong: English 16,000; Hanoverians the like number; and of +Austrians [by theory 20,000], say, in effect, 12,000 or even 8,000: all +paid by England. They have Hanau for Magazine; they have rearguard of +12,000 [the 6,000 Hessians, and 6,000 new Hanoverians], who at last +are actually on march thither, near arriving there: 'Forward!' said the +Captaincy [said Stair, chiefly, it was thought]: 'Shall the whole summer +waste itself to no purpose?'--and are up the River thus far, not on the +most considerate terms. + +"What this Pragmatic Army means to do? That is, and has been, a great +question for all the world; especially for Noailles and the French,--not +to say, for the Pragmatic itself! 'Get into Lorraine?' think the French: +'Get into Alsace, and wrest it from us, for behoof of her Hungarian +Majesty,'--plundered goods, which indeed belong to the Reich and her, +in a sense! ELS-SASS (Alsace, OUTER-seat), with its ROAD-Fortress +(STRASburg) plundered from the Holy Romish Reich by Louis XIV., in a way +no one can forget; actually plundered, as if by highway robbery, or +by highway robbery and attorneyism combined, on the part of that +great Sovereign. 'To Strasburg? To Lorraine perhaps? Or to the Three +Bishoprics'" (Metz, Toul, Verdun:--readers recollect that Siege of +Metz, which broke the great heart of Karl V.? Who raged and fired as man +seldom did, with 50,000 men, against Guise and the intrusive French, for +six weeks; sound of his cannon heard at Strasburg on winter nights, 300 +years ago: to no purpose; for his Captains of the Siege, after trial and +second trial, solemnly shook their heads; and the great Kaiser, breaking +into tears, had to raise the Siege of Metz; and went his way, never to +smile more in this world: and Metz, and Toul, and Verdun, remain with +the French ever since):--"To the Three Bishoprics, possibly enough!" + +"'Or they may purpose for the Donau Countries, where Broglio is +crackling off like trains of gunpowder; and lend hand to Prince Karl, +thereby enclosing Broglio fires?' This, according to present aspects, is +between two the likeliest. And perhaps, had provenders and arrangements +been made beforehand for such a march, this had been the feasiblest: +and, to my own notion, it was some wild hope of doing this without +provenders or prearrangements that had brought the Pragmatic into its +present quarters at Aschaffenburg, which are for the military mind a +mystery to this day. + +"Early in the Spring, the French Government had equipped Noailles +with 70,000 men, to keep watch, and patrol about, in the Rhine-Mayn +Countries, and look into those points. Which he has been vigilantly +doing,--posted of late on the south or left bank of the Mayn;--and is +especially vigilant, since June 14th, when the Pragmatic Army got on +march, across the Mayn at Hochst; and took to offering him battle, +on his own south side of the River. Noailles--though his Force [still +58,000, after that Broglio Detachment of 12,000] was greatly the +stronger--would not fight; preferred cutting off the Enemy's supplies, +capturing his river-boats, provision-convoys from Hanau, and settling +him by hunger, as the cheaper method. Impetuous Stair was thwarted, by +flat protest of his German colleagues, especially by D'Ahremberg, in +FORCING battle on those rash terms: 'We Austrians absolutely will not!' +said D'Ahremberg at last, and withdrew, or was withdrawing, he for his +part, across the River again. So that Stair also was obliged to recross +the River, in indignant humor; and now lies at Aschaffenburg, suffering +the sad alternative, short diet namely, which will end in famine soon, +if these counsels prevail. + +"Stair and D'Ahremberg do not well accord in their opinions; nor, it +seems, is anybody in particular absolute Chief; there are likewise heats +and jealousies between the Hanoverian and the English troops ('Are not +we come for all your goods?' 'Yes, damn you, and for all our chattels +too!')--and withal it is frightfully uncertain whether a high degree of +intellect presides over these 44,000 fighting men, which may lead them +to something, or a low degree, which can only lead them to nothing!--The +blame is all laid on Stair; 'too rash,' they say. Possibly enough, too +rash. And possibly enough withal, even to a sound military judgment, in +such unutterable puddle of jarring imbecilities, 'rashness,' headlong +courage, offered the one chance there was of success? Who knows, had all +the 44,000 been as rash as Stair and his English, but luck, and sheer +hard fighting, might have favored him, as skill could not, in those +sad circumstances! Stair's plan was, 'Beat Noailles, and you have done +everything: provisions, opulent new regions, and all else shall be added +to you!' Stair's plan might have answered,--had Stair been the master to +execute it; which he was not. D'Ahremberg's also, who protested, 'Wait +till your 12,000 join, and you have your provisions,' was the orthodox +plan, and might have much to say for itself. But the two plans +collapsing into one,--that was the clearly fatal method! Magnanimous +Stair never made the least explanation, to an undiscerning Public or +Parliament; wrapt himself in strict silence, and accepted in a grand way +what had come to him. [His Papers, to voluminous extent, are still in +the Family Archives;--not inaccessible, I think, were the right student +of them (who would be a rare article among us!) to turn up.] Clear it +is, the Pragmatic Army had come across again, at Aschaffenburg, +Sunday, June 16th; and was found there by his Majesty on the Wednesday +following, with its two internecine plans fallen into mutual death; a +Pragmatic Army in truly dangerous circumstances. + +"The English who were in and round Aschaffenburg itself, Hanoverians +and Austrians encamping farther down, had put a battery on the Bridge of +Aschaffenburg; hoping to be able to forage thereby on the other side of +the Mayn. Whereupon Noailles had instantly clapt a redoubt, under +due cover of a Wood, at his end of the Bridge, 'No passage this way, +gentlemen, except into the cannon's throat!'--so that Marshal Stair, +reconnoitring that way, 'had his hat shot off,' and rapidly drew back +again. Nay, before long, Noailles, at the Village of Seligenstadt, some +eight miles farther down, throws two wooden or pontoon bridges +over; [Sketch of Plan at p. 257.] can bring his whole Army across at +Seligenstadt; prohibits all manner of supply to us from Hanau or our +Magazines by his arrangement there:"--(Notable little Seligenstadt, +"City of the Blessed;" where Eginhart and Emma, ever since Charlemagne's +time, lie waiting the Resurrection; that is the place of these Noailles +contrivances!)--"Furthermore, we learn, Noailles has seized a post +twenty miles farther up the river (Miltenberg the name of it); and will +prevent supplies from coming down to us out of Branken or the Neckar +Country. We had forgotten, or our COLLAPSE of plans had done it, that +'an army moves on its stomach' (as the King of Prussia says), and that +we have nothing to live upon in these parts! + +"Such has the unfortunate fact turned out to be, when Britannic Majesty +arrives; and it can now be discovered clearly, by any eyes, however flat +to the head. And a terrible fact it is. Discordant Generals accuse one +another; hungry soldiers cannot be kept from plundering: for the horses +there is unripe rye in quantity; but what is there for the men? My poor +traditionary friends, of the Grey Dragoons, were wont (I have heard) +to be heart-rending on this point, in after years! Famine being urgent, +discipline is not possible, nor existence itself. For a week longer, +George, rather in obstinate hope than with any reasonable plan or +exertion, still tries it; finds, after repeated Councils of War, that +he will have to give it up, and go back to Hanau where his living +is. Wednesday night, 26th June, 1743, that is the final resolution, +inevitably come upon, without argument: and about one on Thursday +morning, the Army (in two columns, Austrians to vanward well away from +the River, English as rear-guard close on it) gets in motion to execute +said resolution,--if the Army can. + +"If the Army can: but that is like to be a formidably difficult +business; with a Noailles watching every step of you, to-day and for +ten days back, in these sad circumstances. Eyes in him like a lynx, they +say; and great skill in war, only too cautious. Hardly is the Army gone +from Aschaffenburg, when Noailles, pushing across by the Bridge, seizes +that post,--no retreat now for us thitherward. His Majesty, who marches +in the rear division, has happily some artillery with him; repels the +assaults from behind, which might have been more serious otherwise. As +it is, there play cannon across the River upon him:--Why not bend to +right, and get out of range, asks the reader? The Spessart Hills rise, +high and woody, on the right; and there is in many places no marching +except within range. Noailles has Five effective Batteries, at the +various good points, on his side of the River:--and that is nothing to +what he has got ready for us, were we once at Dettingen, within wind +of his Two Bridges a little beyond! Noailles has us in a perfect +mouse-trap, SOURICIERE as he felinely calls it; and calculates on having +annihilation ready for us at Dettingen. + +"Dettingen, short way above those Pontoons at Seligenstadt, is near +eight miles westward [NORTHwestward, but let us use the briefer term] +from Aschaffenburg: Dettingen is a poor peasant Village, of some size, +close on the Mayn, and on our side of it. A Brook, coming down from the +Spessart Mountains, falls into the Mayn there; having formed for itself, +there and upwards, a considerable dell or hollow way; chiefly on the +western or right bank of which stands the Village with its barnyards and +piggeries: on both sides of the great High-road, which here crosses +the Brook, and will lead you to Hanau twenty miles off,--or back to +Aschaffenburg, and even to Nurnberg and the Donau Countries, if you +persevere. Except that of the high-road, Dettingen Brook has no bridge. +Above the Village, after coming from the Mountains, the banks of it are +boggy; especially the western bank, which spreads out into a scrubby +waste of moor, for some good space. In which scrubby moor, as elsewhere +in this dell or hollow way itself, where the Village hangs, with its +hedges, piggeries, colegarths,--there is like to be bad enough marching +for a column of men! Noailles, as we said, has Two Bridges thrown across +the Mayn, just below; and the last of his Five Batteries, from the other +side, will command Dettingen. His plan of operation is this:-- + +"By these Bridges he has passed 24,000 horse and foot across the River, +under his Nephew the chivalrous Duke of Grammont: these, with due +artillery and equipment, are to occupy the Village; and to rank +themselves in battle-order to leftward of it, on the moor just +mentioned,--well behind that hollow way, with its brook and bogs;--and, +one thing they must note well, Not to stir from that position, till +the English columns have got fairly into said hollow way and brook +of Dettingen, and are plunging more or less distractedly across the +entanglements there. With cannon on their left flank, and such a gullet +to pass through, one may hope they will be in rather an attackable +condition. Across that gullet it is our intention they shall never get. +How can they, if Grammont do his duty? + +"This is Noailles's plan; one of the prettiest imaginable, say +military men,--had the execution but corresponded. Noailles had seized +Aschaffenburg, so soon as the English were out of it; Noailles, from his +batteries beyond the River, salutes the English march with continuous +shot and thunder, which is very discomposing: he sees confidently +a really fair likelihood of capturing the Britannic Majesty and his +Pragmatic Army, unless they prefer to die on the ground. Seldom, since +that of the Caudine Forks, did any Army, by ill-luck and ill-guidance, +get into such a pinfold,--death or flat surrender seemingly their one +alternative. + +"Thus march these English, that dewy morning, Thursday, June 27th, 1743, +with cannon playing on their left flank; and such a fate ahead of them, +had they known it;--very short of breakfast, too, for most part. But +they have one fine quality, and Britannic George, like all his Welf race +from Henry the Lion down to these days, has it in an eminent degree: +they are not easily put into flurry, into fear. In all Welf Sovereigns, +and generally in Teuton Populations, on that side of the Channel or +on this, there is the requisite unconscious substratum of taciturn +inexpugnability, with depths of potential rage almost unquenchable, to +be found when you apply for it. Which quality will much stead them on +the present occasion: and, indeed, it is perhaps strengthened by their +'stupidity' itself, what neighbors call their 'stupidity;'--want of idle +imagining, idle flurrying, nay want even of knowing, is not one of the +worst qualities just now! They tramp on, paying a minimum of attention +to the cannon; ignorant of what is ahead; hoping only it may be +breakfast, in some form, before the day quite terminate. The day +is still young, hardly 8 o'clock, when their advanced parties find +Dettingen beset; find a whole French Army drawn up, on the scrubby moor +there; and come galloping back with this interesting bit of news! Pause +hereupon; much consulting; in fact, endless hithering and thithering, +the affair being knotty: 'Fight, YES, now at last! But how?' Impetuous +Stair was not wanting to himself; Neipperg too, they say, was useful +with advice; D'Ahremberg, I should imagine, good for little. + +"Some six hours followed of thrice-intricate deploying, planting of +field-pieces, counter-batteries; ranking, re-ranking, shuffling hither +and then thither of horse and foot; Noailles's cannonade proceeding all +the while; the English, still considerably exposed to it, and standing +it like stones; chivalrous Grammont, and with better reason the English, +much wishing these preliminaries were done. A difficult business, that +of deploying here. The Pragmatic had no room, jammed so against the +Spessart Hills, and obliged to lean FROM the River and Noailles's +cannon; had to rank itself in six, some say in eight lines; horse behind +foot, as well as on flank; unsatisfactory to the military mind: and I +think had not done shuffling and re-shuffling at 2 P.M.,--when the +Enemy came bursting on, with a peremptory finish to it, 'Enough of +that, MESSIEUR'S LES ANGLAIS!' 'Too much of it, a great deal!' thought +Messieurs grimly, in response. And there ensued a really furious +clash of host against host; French chivalry (MAISON DU ROI, Black +Mousquetaires, the Flower of their Horse regiments) dashing, in right +Gallic frenzy, on their natural enemies,--on the English, that is; who, +I find, were mainly on the left wing there, horse and foot; and had +mainly (the Austrians and they, very mainly) the work to do;--and did, +with an effort, and luck helping, manage to do it. + +"'Grammont breaks orders! Thrice-blamable Grammont!' exclaim Noailles +and others, sorrowfully wringing their hands. Even so! Grammont had +waited seven mortal hours; one's courage burning all the while, courage +perhaps rather burning down,--and not the least use coming of if. +Grammont had, in natural impatience, gradually edged forward; and, in +the end, was being cannonaded and pricked into by the Enemy;--and did at +last, with his MAISON-DU-ROI, dash across that essential Hollow Way, and +plunge in upon them on their own side of it. And 'the, English foot gave +their volley too soon;' ad Grammont did, in effect, partly repulse and +disorder the front ranks of them; and, blazing up uncontrollable, at +sight of those first ranks in disorder, did press home upon them more +and more; get wholly into the affair, bringing on his Infantry as well: +'Let us finish it wholly, now that our hand is in!'--and took one cannon +from the Enemy; and did other feats. + +"So furious was that first charge of his; 'MAISON-DU-ROI covering itself +with glory,'--for a short while. MAISON-DU-ROI broke three lines of the +Enemy [three, not "Five"]; did in some places actually break through; in +others 'could not, but galloped along the front.' Three of their lines: +but the fourth line would not break; much the contrary, it advanced +(Austrians and English) with steady fire, hotter and hotter: upon this +fourth line MAISON-DU-ROI had, itself, to break, pretty much altogether, +and rush home again, in ruinous condition. 'Our front lines made lanes +for them; terribly maltreating them with musketry on right and left, as +they galloped through.' And this was the end of Grammont's successes, +this charge of horse; for his infantry had no luck anywhere; and the +essential crisis of the Battle had been here. It continued still a good +while; plenty of cannonading, fusillading, but in sporadic detached +form; a confused series of small shocks and knocks; which were mostly, +or all, unfortunate for Grammont; and which at length knocked him quite +off the field. 'He was now interlaced with the English,' moans Noailles; +'so that my cannon, not to shoot Grammont as well as the English, had to +cease firing!' Well, yes, that is true, M. le Marechal; but that is not +so important as you would have it. The English had stood nine hours in +this fire of yours; by degrees, leaning well away from it; answering +it with counter-batteries;--and were not yet ruined by it, when the +Grammont crisis came! Noailles should have dashed fresh troops across +his Bridges, and tried to handle them well. Noailles did not do that; or +do anything but wring his hands. + +"The Fight lasted four hours; ever hotter on the English part, ever less +hot on the French [fire of anthracite-coal VERSUS flame of dry wood, +which latter at last sinks ASHY!]--and ended in total defeat of the +French. The French Infantry by no means behaved as their Cavalry had +done. The GARDES FRANCAISES [fire burning ashy, after seven hours of +flaming], when Grammont ordered them up to take the English in flank, +would hardly come on at all, or stand one push. They threw away their +arms, and plunged into the River, like a drove of swimmers; getting +drowned in great numbers. So that their comrades nicknamed them 'CANARDS +DU MEIN (Ducks of the Mayn):' and in English mess-rooms, there went +afterwards a saying: 'The French had, in reality, Three Bridges; one of +them NOT wooden, and carpeted with blue cloth!' Such the wit of military +mankind. + +"... The English, it appears, did something by mere shouting. Partial +huzzas and counter-huzzas between the Infantries were going on at one +time, when Stair happened to gallop up: 'Stop that,' said Stair; 'let +us do it right. Silence; then, One and all, when I give you signal!' +And Stair, at the right moment, lifting his hat, there burst out such +a thunder-growl, edged with melodious ire in alt, as quite seemed +to strike a damp into the French, says my authority, 'and they never +shouted more.... Our ground in many parts was under rye,' hedgeless +fields of rye, chief grain-crop of that sandy country. 'We had already +wasted above 120,000 acres of it,' still in the unripe state, so hungry +were we, man and horse, 'since crossing to Aschaffenburg;'--fighting for +your Cause of Liberty, ye benighted ones! + +"King Friedrich's private accounts, deformed by ridicule, are, That the +Britannic Majesty, his respectable old Uncle, finding the French there +barring his way to breakfast, understood simply that there must and +should be fighting, of the toughest; but had no plan or counsel farther: +that he did at first ride up, to see what was what with his own eyes; +but that his horse ran away with him, frightened at the cannon; upon +which he hastily got down; drew sword; put himself at the head of his +Hanoverian Infantry [on the right wing], and stood,--left foot +drawn back, sword pushed out, in the form of a fencing-master doing +lunge,--steadily in that defensive attitude, inexpugnable like the +rocks, till all was over, and victory gained. This is defaced by the +spirit of ridicule, and not quite correct. Britannic Majesty's horse +[one of those 500 fine animals] did, it is certain, at last dangerously +run away with him; upon which he took to his feet and his Hanoverians. +But he had been repeatedly on horseback, in the earlier stages; +galloping about, to look with his own eyes, could they have availed him; +and was heard encouraging his people, and speaking even in the English +language, 'Steady, my boys; fire, my brave boys, give them fire; they +will soon run!' [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ (iii. 14): compare Anonymous, +_Life of the Duke of Cumberland_ (p. 64 n.); Henderson's LIFE of ditto; +&c.] Latterly, there can be no doubt, he stands [and to our imagination, +he may fitly stand throughout] in the above attitude of lunge; no fear +in him, and no plan; 'SANS PEUR ET SANS AVIS,' as me might term it. Like +a real Hanoverian Sovereign of England; like England itself, and its +ways in those German Wars. A typical epitome of long sections of English +History, that attitude of lunge!-- + +"The English Officers also, it is evident, behaved in their usual +way:--without knowledge of war, without fear of death, or regard to +utmost peril or difficulty; cheering their men, and keeping them steady +upon the throats of the French, so far as might be. And always, after +that first stumble with the French Horse was mended, they kept gaining +ground, thrusting back the Enemy, not over the Dettingen Brook and +Moor-ground only, but, knock after knock, out of his woody or other +coverts, back and ever back, towards Welzheim, Kahl, and those Two +Bridges of his. The flamy French [ligneous fire burning lower and lower, +VERSUS anthracitic glowing brighter and brighter] found that they had +a bad time of it;--found, in fact, that they could not stand it; and +tumbled finally, in great torrents, across their Bridges on the Mayn, +many leaping into the River, the English sitting dreadfully on the +skirts of them. So that had the English had their Cavalry in readiness +to pursue, Noailles's Army, in the humor it had sunk to, was ruined, and +the Victory would have been conspicuously great. But they had, as too +common, nothing ready. Impetuous Stair strove to get ready; "pushed out +the Grey Dragoons" for one item. But the Authorities refused Stair's +counsel, as rash again; and made no effectual pursuit at all;--too glad +that they had brushed their Battle-field triumphantly clear, and got out +of that fatal pinfold in an honorable manner. + +MAP: BOOK XIV, Chap V, page 257 GOES HERE-------------------------- + +"They stayed on the ground till 10 at night; settling, or trying to +settle, many things. The Surgeons were busy as bees, but able for +Officers only;--'Dress HIM first!' said the glorious Duke of Cumberland, +pointing to a young Frenchman [Excellency Fenelon's Son, grand-nephew +of TELEMAQUE] who was worse wounded than his Highness. Quite in the +Philip-Sydney fashion; which was much taken notice of. 'All this while, +we had next to nothing to eat' (says one informant).--Ten P.M.: after +which, leaving a polite Letter to Noailles, 'That he would take care of +our Wounded, and bury our Slain as well as his own,' we march [through a +pour of rain] to Hanau, where our victuals are, and 12,000 new Hessians +and Hanoverians by this time. + +"Noailles politely bandaged the Wounded, buried the Dead. Noailles, +gathering his scattered battalions, found that he had lost 2,659 men; +no ruinous loss to him,--the Enemy's being at least equal, and all his +Wounded fallen Prisoners of War. No ruinous loss to Noailles, had it not +been the loss of Victory,--which was a sore blow to French feeling; and, +adding itself to those Broglio disgraces, a new discouragement to Most +Christian Majesty. Victory indisputably lost:--but is it not Grammont's +blame altogether? Grammont bears it, as we saw; and it is heavily laid +on him. But my own conjecture is, forty thousand enraged people, of +English and other Platt-Teutsch type, would have been very difficult to +pin up, into captivity or death instead of breakfast, in that manner: +and it is possible if poor Grammont had not mistaken, some other would +have done so, and the hungry Baresarks (their blood fairly up, as +is evident) would have ended in getting through." [Espagnac, i. 193; +_Guerre de Boheme,_ i. 231.]--_Gentleman's Magazine,_ vol. xiii. (for +1743), pp. 328-481;--containing Carteret's Despatch from the field; +followed by many other Letters and indistinct Narrations from Officers +present (p. 434, "Plan of the Battle," blotchy, indecipherable in +parts, but essentially rather true),--is worth examining. See likewise +Anonymous, _Memoirs of the late Duke of Cumberland_ (Lond. 1767; the +Author an ignorant, much-adoring military-man, who has made some study, +and is not so stupid as he looks), pp. 56-78; and Henderson (ignorant he +too, much-adoring, and not military), _Life of the Duke of Cumberland_ +(Lond. 1766), pp. 32-48. Noailles's Official Account (ingenuously at a +loss what to say), in _ Campagnes,_ ii. B, 242-253, 306-310. _OEuvres de +Frederic,_ iii. 11-14 (incorrect in many of the DETAILS). + +This was all the Fighting that King George got of his Pragmatic Army; +the gain from conquest made by it was, That it victoriously struggled +back to its bread-cupboard. Stair, about two months hence, in the +mere loitering and higgling that there was, quitted the Pragmatic; +magnanimously silent on his many wrongs and disgusts, desirous only +of "returning to the plough," as he expressed himself. The lofty man; +wanted several requisites for being a Marlborough; wanted a Sarah +Jennings, as the preliminary of all!--We will not attend the lazy +movements and procedures of the Pragmatic Army farther; which were of +altogether futile character, even in the temporary Gazetteer estimate; +and are to be valued at zero, and left charitably in oblivion by a pious +posterity. Stair, the one brightish-looking man in it, being gone, there +remain Majesty with his D'Ahrembergs, Neippergs, and the Martial Boy; +Generals Cope, Hawley, Wade, and many of leaden character, remain:--let +the leaden be wrapped in lead. + +It was not a successful Army, this Pragmatic. Dettingen itself, in +spite of the rumoring of Gazetteers and temporary persons, had no +result,--except the extremely bad one, That it inflated to an alarming +height the pride and belligerent humor of his Britannic, especially of +her Hungarian Majesty; and made Peace more difficult than ever. That of +getting Ostein, with his Austrian leanings, chosen Kur-Mainz,--that too +turned out ill: and perhaps, in the course of the next few months, we +shall judge that, had Ostein leant AGAINST Austria, it had been better +for Austria and Ostein. Of the Pragmatic Army, silence henceforth, +rather than speech!-- + +One thing we have to mark, his Britannic Majesty, commander of such an +Army,--and of such a Purse, which is still more stupendous,--has risen, +in the Gazetteer estimate and his own, to a high pitch of importance. To +be Supreme Jove of Teutschland, in a manner; and acts, for the present +Summer, in that sublime capacity. Two Diplomatic feats of his,--one +a Treaty done and tumbled down again, the other a Treaty done and +let stand ("Treaty of Worms," and "Conferences," or NON-Treaty "of +Hanau"),--are of moment in this History and that of the then World. +Of these two Transactions, due both of them to such an Army and such +a Purse, we shall have to take some notice by and by; the rest shall +belong to Night and her leaden sceptre--much good may they do her! + +Some ten days after Dettingen, Broglio (who was crackling off from +Donauwurth, in view of the Lines of Schellenberg, that very 27th of +June) ended his retreat to the Rhine Countries; "glorious," though +rather swift, and eaten into by the Tolpatcheries of Prince Karl. "July +8th, at Wimpfen" (in the Neckar Region, some way South of Dettingen), +Broglio delivers his troops to Marechal de Noailles's care; and, next +morning, rushes off towards Strasburg, and quiet Official life, as +Governor there. + +"The day after his arrival," says Friedrich, "he gave a grand ball in +Strasburg:" [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 10.] "Behold your conquering +hero safe again, my friends!" An ungrateful Court judged otherwise of +the hero. Took his Strasburg Government from him, gave it to Marechal de +Coigny; ordered the hero to his Estates in the Country, Normandy, if I +remember;--where he soon died of apoplexy, poor man; and will trouble +none of us again. "A man born for surprises," said Friedrich long since, +in the Strasburg Doggerel. Lost his indispensable garnitures, at +the Ford of Secchia once; and now, in these last twelve months, is +considered to have done a series of blustery explosions, derogatory to +the glory of France, and ruinous to that sublime Belleisle Enterprise +for oue thing. + +A ruined Enterprise that, at any rate; seldom was Enterprise better +ruined. Here, under Broglio, amid the titterings of mankind, has the +tail of the Oriflamme gone the same bad road as its head did;--into zero +and outer darkness; leaving the expenses to pay. Like a mad tavern-brawl +of one's own raising, the biggest that ever was. Has cost already, I +should guess, some 80,000 French drilled Men, paid down, on the nail, to +the inexorable Fates: and of coined Millions,--how many? In subsidies, +in equipments, in waste, in loss and wreck: Dryasdust could not have +told me, had he tried. And then the breakages, damages still chargeable; +the probable afterclap? For you cannot quite gratuitously tweak people +by the nose, in your wanton humor, over your wine!--One willing man, or +Most Christian Majesty, can at any time begin a quarrel; but there need +always two or more to end it again. + +Most Christian Majesty is not so sensible of this fact as he afterwards +became; but what with Broglio and the extinct Oriflamme, what with +Dettingen and the incipient Pragmatic, he is heartily disgusted and +discouraged; and wishes he had not thought of cutting Germany in Four. +July 26th, Most Christian Majesty applies to the German Diet; signifying +"That he did indeed undertake to help the Kaiser, according to treaties; +but was the farthest in the world from meaning to invade Germany, on +his own score. That he had and has no quarrel, except with Austria as +Kaiser's enemy; and is ready to be friends even with Austria. And now +indeed intends to withdraw his troops wholly from the German territory. +And can therefore hope that all unpleasantness will cease, between the +German Nation and him; and that perhaps the Kaiser will be able to +make peace with her Majesty of Hungary on softer terms than at one +time seemed likely. If only the animosities of sovereign persons would +assuage themselves, and each of us would look without passion at the +issue really desirable for him!" [Espagnac, i. 200. Adelung, iii. B, 199 +(26th July); Ib. 201 (the Answer to it, 16th August).] + +That is now, 26th July, 1743, King Louis's story for himself to the Diet +of the Holy Roman Empire, Teutsch by Nation, sitting at Frankfurt in +rather disconsolate circumstances. The Diet naturally answered, "JA +WOHL, JA WOHL," in intricate official language,--nobody need know what +the Diet answered. But what the Hungarian Majesty answered, strong and +high in such Britannic backing,--this was of such unexpected tone, that +it fixed everybody's attention; and will very specially require to be +noted by us, in the course of a week or two. + +We said, her Hungarian Majesty was getting crowned in Bohemia, getting +personally homaged in Upper Austria, about to get vice-homaged in +Bavaria itself,--nothing but glorious pomp, but loyalty loudly vocal, in +Prag, in Linz and the once-afflicted Countries; at her return to Vienna, +she has met the news of Dettingen; and is ready to strike the stars with +her sublime head. "My little Paladin become Supreme Jove, too: aha!" + + + + +BRITANNIC MAJESTY HOLDS HIS CONFERENCES OF HANAU. + +Britannic Majesty stayed two whole months in Hanau, brushing himself +up again after that fierce bout; and considering, with much dubitation, +What is the next thing?"Go in upon Noailles [who is still hanging about +here, with Broglio coming on in the exploded state]; wreck Broglio and +him! Go in upon the French!" so urges Stair always: rash Stair, urgent +to the edge of importunity; English Officers and Martial Boy urgently +backing Stair; while the Hanoverian Officers and Martial Parent are +steady to the other view. So that, in respect of War, the next thing, +for two months coming, was absolutely nothing, and to the end of +the Campaign was nothing worth a moment's notice from us. But on the +Diplomatic side, there were two somethings, CONFERENCES AT HANAU +with poor Kaiser Karl, and TREATY AT WORMS with the King of Sardinia; +which--as minus quantities, or things less than nothing--turned out to +be highly considerable for his Britannic Majesty and us. + +HANAU, 7th July-1st AUGUST, 1743. "Poor Kaiser Karl had left Augsburg +June 26th,--while his Broglio was ferrying at Donauworth, and his +Seckendorf treatying for Armistice at Nieder-Schonfeld,--the very day +before Dettingen. What a piece of news to him, that Dettingen, on his +return to Frankfurt! + +"A few days after Dettingen, July 3d, Noailles, who is still within +call, came across to see this poor stepson of Fortune; gives piteous +account of him, if any one were now curious on that head: How he +bitterly complains of Broglio, of the no-subsidies sent, and is driven +nearly desperate;--not a penny in his pocket, beyond all. Upon which +latter clause Noailles munificently advanced him a $6,000. 'Draught +of 40,000 crowns, in my own name; which doubtless the King, in his +compassion, will see good to sanction.' [_Campagnes de Noailles_ +(Amsterdam, 1760: this is a Sequel, or rather VICE VERSA, to that which +we have called DES TROIS MARECHAUX, being of the same Collection), i. +316-328.] His feelings on the loss of Dettingen may be pictured. But he +had laid his account with such things;--prepared for the worst, since +that Interview with Broglio and Conti; one plan now left, 'Peace, cost +what it will!' + +"The poor Kaiser had already, as we saw, got into hopes of bargaining +with his Britannic Majesty; and now he instantly sets about it, while +Hanau is victorious head-quarters. Britannic Majesty is not himself very +forward; but Carteret, I rather judge, had taken up the notion; and +on his Majesty's and Carteret's part, there is actually the wish and +attempt to pacificate the Reich; to do something tolerable for the poor +Kaiser, as well as satisfactory to the Hungarian Majesty,--satisfactory, +or capable of being (by the Purse-holder) insisted on as such. + +"And so the Landgraf of Hessen, excellent Wilhelm, King George's friend +and gossip, is come over to that little Town of Hanau, which is his +own, in the Schloss of which King George is lodged: and there, between +Carteret and our Landgraf,--the King of Prussia's Ambassador (Herr +Klinggraf), and one or two selectly zealous Official persons, assisting +or watching,--we have 'Conferences of Hanau' going on; in a zealous +fashion; all parties eager for Peace to Kaiser and Reich, and in good +hope of bringing it about. The wish, ardent to a degree, had been the +Kaiser's first of all. The scheme, I guess, was chiefly of Carteret's +devising; who, in his magnificent mind, regardless of expense, thinks +it may be possible, and discerns well what a stroke it will be for the +Cause of Liberty, and how glorious for a Britannic Majesty's Adviser in +such circumstances. July 7th, the Conferences began; and, so frank and +loyal were the parties, in a week's time matters were advanced almost +to completion, the fundamental outlines of a bargain settled, and almost +ready for signing. + +"'Give me my Bavaria again!' the Kaiser had always said: 'I am Head of +the Reich, and have nothing to live upon!' On one preliminary, Carteret +had always been inexorable: 'Have done with your French auxiliaries; +send every soul of them home; the German soil once cleared of them, much +will be possible; till then nothing.' KAISER: 'Well, give me back my +Bavaria; my Bavaria, and something suitable to live upon, as Head of +the Reich: some decent Annual Pension, till Bavaria come into paying +condition,--cannot you, who are so wealthy? And Bavaria might be made +a Kingdom, if you wished to do the handsome thing. I will renounce my +Austrian Pretensions, quit utterly my French Alliances; consent to have +her Hungarian Majesty's august Consort made King of the Romans [which +means Kaiser after me], and in fact be very safe to the House of Austria +and the Cause of Liberty.' To all this the thrice-unfortunate gentleman, +titular Emperor of the World, and unable now to pay his milk-scores, is +eager to consent. To continue crossing the Abysses on bridges of French +rainbow? Nothing but French subsidies to subsist on; and these how +paid,--Noailles's private pocket knows how! 'I consent,' said the +Kaiser; 'will forgive and forget, and bygones shall be bygones all +round!' 'Fair on his Imperial Majesty's part,' admits Carteret; 'we will +try to be persuasive at Vienna. Difficult, but we will try.' In a meek +matters had come to this point; and the morrow, July 15th, was appointed +for signing. Most important of Protocols, foundation-stone of Peace to +Teutschland; King Friedrich and the impartial Powers approving, with +Britannic George and drawn sword presiding. + +"King Friedrich approves heartily; and hopes it will do. Landgraf +Wilhelm is proud to have saved his Kaiser,--who so glad as the Landgraf +and his Kaiser? Carteret, too, is very glad; exulting, as he well +may, to have composed these world-deliriums, or concentrated them upon +peccant France, he with his single head, and to have got a value out of +that absurd Pragmatic Army, after all. A man of magnificent ideas; who +hopes 'to bring Friedrich over to his mind;' to unite poor Teutschland +against such Oriflamme Invasions and intolerable interferences, and to +settle the account of France for a long while. He is the only English +Minister who speaks German, knows German situations, interests, ways; or +has the least real understanding of this huge German Imbroglio in which +England is voluntarily weltering. And truly, had Carteret been King +of England, which he was not,--nay, had King Friedrich ever got to +understand, instead of misunderstand, what Carteret WAS,--here might +have been a considerable affair! + +"But it now, at the eleventh hour, came upon magnificent Carteret, now +seemingly for the first time in its full force, That he Carteret was +not the master; that there was a bewildered Parliament at home, a poor +peddling Duke of Newcastle leader of the same, with his Lords of the +Regency, who could fatally put a negative on all this, unless they +were first gained over. On the morrow, July 15th, Carteret, instead +of signing, as expected, has to--purpose a fortnight's delay till he +consult in England! Absolutely would not and could not sign, till +a Courier to England went and returned. To Landgraf Wilhelm's, to +Klinggraf's and the Kaiser's very great surprise, disappointment and +suspicion. But Carteret was inflexible: 'will only take a fortnight,' +said he; 'and I can hope all will yet be well!' + +"The Courier came back punctually in a fortnight. His Message was +presented at Hanau, August 1st,--and ran conclusively to the effect: +'No! We, Noodle of Newcastle, and my other Lords of Regency, do +not consent; much less, will undertake to carry the thing through +Parliament: By no manner of means!' So that Carteret's lately towering +Affair had to collapse ignominiously, in that manner; poor Carteret +protesting his sorrow, his unalterable individual wishes and future +endeavors, not to speak of his Britannic Majesty's,--and politely +pressing on the poor Kaiser a gift of 15,000 pounds (first weekly +instalment of the 'Annual Pension' that HAD, in theory, been set apart +for him); which the Kaiser, though indigent, declined. [Adelung, iii. +B, 206, 209-212; see Coxe, _Memoirs of Pelham_ (London, 1829), i. 75, +469.]' + +"The disgust of Landgraf Wilhelm was infinite; who, honest man, saw in +all this merely an artifice of Carteret's, To undo the Kaiser with his +French Allies, to quirk him out of his poor help from the French, and +have him at their mercy. 'Shame on it!' cried Landgraf Wilhelm aloud, +and many others less aloud, Klinggraf and King Friedrich among them: +'What a Carteret!' The Landgraf turned away with indignation from +perfidious England; and began forming quite opposite connections. 'You +shall not even have my hired 6,000, you perfidious! Thing done with such +dexterity of art, too!' thought the Landgraf,--and continued to think, +till evidence turned up, after many months. [CARTERET PAPERS (in British +Museum), Additional MSS. No. 22,529 (May, 1743-January, 1745); in No. +22,527 (January-September, 1742) are other Landgraf-Wilhelm pieces +of Correspondence.] This was Friedrich's opinion too,--permanently, I +believe;--and that of nearly all the world, till the thing and the Doer +of the thing were contemptuously forgotten. A piece of Machiavelism on +the part of Carteret and perfidious Albion,--equal in refined cunning to +that of the Ships with foul bottom, which vanished from Cadiz two years +ago, and were admired with a shudder by Continental mankind who could +see into millstones! + +"This is the second stroke of Machiavellian Art by those Islanders, in +their truly vulpine method. Stroke of Art important for this History; +and worth the attention of English readers,--being almost of pathetic +nature, when one comes to understand it! Carteret, for this Hanau +business, had clangor enough to undergo, poor man, from Germans and from +English; which was wholly unjust. 'His trade,' say the English--(or used +to say, till they forgot their considerable Carteret altogether)--'was +that of rising in the world by feeding the mad German humors of little +George; a miserable trade.' Yes, my friends;--but it was not quite +Carteret's, if you will please to examine! And none say, Carteret did +not do his trade, whatever it was, with a certain greatness,--at least +till habits of drinking rather took him, Poor man: impatient, probably, +of such fortune long continued! For he was thrown out, next Session of +Parliament, by Noodle of Newcastle, on those strange terms; and never +could get in again, and is now forgotten; and there succeeded him still +more mournful phenomena,--said Noodle or the poor Pelhams, namely,--of +whom, as of strange minus quantities set to manage our affairs, there is +still some dreary remembrance in England. Well!"-- + +Carteret, though there had been no Duke of Newcastle to run athwart this +fine scheme, would have had his difficulties in making her Hungarian +Majesty comply. Her Majesty's great heart, incurably grieved about +Silesia, is bent on having, if not restoration one day, which is a hope +she never quits, at any rate some ample (cannot be too ample) equivalent +elsewhere. On the Hanau scheme, united Teutschland, with England for +soul to it, would have fallen vigorously on the throat of France, and +made France disgorge: Lorraine, Elsass, the Three Bishoprics,--not to +think of Burgundy, and earlier plunders from the Reich,--here would have +been "cut and come again" for her Hungarian Majesty and everybody!--But +Diana, in the shape of his Grace of Newcastle, intervenes; and all this +has become chimerical and worse. + +It was while Carteret's courier was gone to England and not come +back, that King Louis made the above-mentioned mild, almost penitent, +Declaration to the Reich, "Good people, let us have Peace; and all be as +we were! I, for my share, wish to be out of it; I am for home!" And, in +effect, was already home; every Frenchman in arms being, by this time, +on his own side of the Rhine, as we shall presently observe. + +For, the same day, July 26th, while that was going on at Frankfurt, and +Carteret's return-courier was due in five days, his Britannic Majesty at +Hanau had a splendid visit,--tending not towards Peace with France, but +quite the opposite way. Visit from Prince Karl, with Khevenhuller and +other dignitaries; doing us that honor "till the evening of the 28th." +Quitting their Army,--which is now in these neighborhoods (Broglio well +gone to air ahead of it; Noailles too, at the first sure sniff of it, +having rushed double-quick across the Rhine),--these high Gentlemen have +run over to us, for a couple of days, to "congratulate on Dettingen;" +or, better still, to consult, face to face, about ulterior movements. +"Follow Noailles; transfer the seat of war to France itself? These are +my orders, your Majesty. Combined Invasion of Elsass: what a slash may +be made into France [right handselling of your Carteret Scheme] this +very year!" "Proper, in every case!" answers the Britannic Majesty; and +engages to co-operate. Upon which Prince Karl--after the due reviewing, +dinnering, ceremonial blaring, which was splendid to witness [Anonymous, +_Duke of Cumberland,_ pp. 65, 86.]--hastens back to his Army (now lying +about Baden Durlach, 70,000 strong); and ought to be swift, while the +chance lasts. + + + + +HUNGARIAN MAJESTY ANSWERS, IN THE DIET, THAT FRENCH DECLARATION, "MAKE +PEACE, GOOD PEOPLE; I WISH TO BE OUT OF IT!"--IN AN OMINOUS MANNER. + +These are fine prospects, in the French quarter, of an equivalent for +Schlesien;--very fine, unless Diana intervene! Diana or not, French +prospects or not, her Hungarian Majesty fastens on Bavaria with uncommon +tightness of fist, now that Bavaria is swept clear; well resolved to +keep Bavaria for equivalent, till better come. Exacts, by her deputy, +Homage from the Population there; strict Oath of Fealty to HER; poor +Kaiser protesting his uttermost, to no purpose; Kaiser's poor Printer +(at Regensburg, which is in Bavaria) getting "tried and hanged" for +printing such Protest! "She draughts forcibly the Bavarian militias +into her Italian Army;" is high and merciless on all hands;--in a word, +throttles poor Bavaria, as if to the choking of it outright. So that +the very Gazetteers in foreign places gave voice, though Bavaria itself, +such a grasp on the throat of it, was voiceless. Seckendorf's poor +Bargain for neutrality as a Bavarian Reich-Army, her Hungarian Majesty +disdains to confirm; to confirm, or even to reject; treats Seckendorf +and his Bavarian Army little otherwise than as a stray dog which she +has not yet shot. And truly the old Feldmarschall lies at Wembdingen, +in most disconsolate moulting condition; little or nothing to live +upon;--the English, generous creatures, had at one time flung him +something, fancying the Armistice might be useful; but now it must be +the French that do it, if anybody! [Adelung, iii. B, 204 ("22d August"), +206, &c.] + +Hanau Conferences having failed, these things do not fail. Kaiser Karl +is become tragical to think of. A spectacle of pity to Landgraf Wilhelm, +to King Friedrich, and serious on-lookers;--and perhaps not of pity +only, but of "pity and fear" to some of them!--sullen Austria taking +its sweet revenges, in this fashion. Readers who will look through these +small chinks, may guess what a world-welter this was; and how Friedrich, +gazing into phase on phase of it, as into Oracles of Fate, which to him +they were, had a History, in these months, that will now never be known. + +August 16th came out her Hungarian Majesty's Response to that mild +quasi-penitent Declaration of King Louis to the Reich; and much +astonished King Louis and others, and the very Reich itself. "Out of +it?" says her Hungarian Majesty (whom we with regret, for brevity's +sake, translate from Official into vulgate): "His Most Christian Majesty +wishes to be out of it:--Does not he, the (what shall I call him) +Crowned Housebreaker taken in the fact? You shall get out of it, please +Heaven, when you have made compensation for the damage done; and till +then not, if it please Heaven!" And in this strain (lengthily Official, +though indignant to a degree) enumerates the wanton unspeakable +mischiefs and outrages which Austria, a kind of sacred entity guaranteed +by Law of Nature and Eleven Signatures of Potentates, has suffered from +the Most Christian Majesty,--and will have compensation for, Heaven now +pointing the way! [IN EXTENSO in Adelung, iii. B, 201 et seqq.] + +A most portentous Document; full of sombre emphasis, in sonorous +snuffling tone of voice; enunciating, with inflexible purpose, a number +of unexpected things: very portentous to his Prussian Majesty among +others. Forms a turning-point or crisis both in the French War, and in +his Prussian Majesty's History; and ought to be particularly noted and +dated by the careful reader. It is here that we first publicly hear +tell of Compensation, the necessity Austria will have of +Compensation,--Austria does not say expressly for Silesia, but she says +and means for loss of territory, and for all other losses whatsoever: +"Compensation for the past, and security for the future; that is my +full intention," snuffles she, in that slow metallic tone of hers, +irrevocable except by the gods. + +"Compensation for the past, Security for the future:" Compensation? what +does her Hungarian Majesty mean? asked all the world; asked Friedrich, +the now Proprietor of Silesia, with peculiar curiosity! It is the +first time her Hungarian Majesty steps articulately forward with +such extraordinary Claim of Damages, as if she alone had suffered +damage;--but it is a fixed point at Vienna, and is an agitating topic +to mankind in the coming months and years. Lorraine and the Three +Bishoprics; there would be a fine compensation. Then again, what say you +to Bavaria, in lieu of the Silesia lost? You have Bavaria by the throat; +keep Bavaria, you. Give "Kur-Baiern, Kaiser as they call him," +something in the Netherlands to live upon? Will be better out of Germany +altogether, with his French leanings. Or, give him the Kingdom of +Naples,--if once we had conquered it again? These were actual schemes, +successive, simultaneous, much occupying Carteret and the high Heads at +Vienna now and afterwards; which came all to nothing; but should were it +not impossible, be held in some remembrance by readers. + +Another still more unexpected point comes out here, in this singular +Document, publicly for the first time: Austria's feelings in regard to +the Imperial Election itself. Namely, That Austria, considers, and has +all along considered, the said Election to be fatally vitiated by that +Exclusion of the Bohemian Vote; to be in fact nullified thereby; and +that, to her clear view, the present so-called Kaiser is an imaginary +quantity, and a mere Kaiser of French shreds and patches! "DER +SEYN-SOLLENDE KAISER," snuffles Austria in one passage, "Your Kaiser as +you call him;" and in another passage, instead of "Kaiser," puts flatly +"Kur-Baiern." This is a most extraordinary doctrine to an Electoral +Romish Reich! Is the Holy Romish Reich to DECLARE itself an "Enchanted +Wiggery," then, and do suicide, for behoof of Austria?-- + +"August 16th, this extraordinary Document was delivered to the Chancery +of Mainz; and September 23d, it was, contrary to expectation, brought +to DICTATUR by said Chancery,"--of which latter phrase, and phenomenon, +here is the explanation to English readers. + +Had the late Kur-Mainz (general Arch-Chairman, Speaker of the Diet) +been still in office and existence, certainly so shocking a Document had +never been allowed "to come to DICTATUR,"--to be dictated to the Reich's +Clerks; to have a first reading, as we should call it; or even to lie on +the table, with a theoretic chance that way. But Austria, thanks to our +little George and his Pragmatic Armament, had got a new Kur-Mainz;--by +whom, in open contempt of impartiality, and in open leaning for Austria +with all his weight, it was duly forwarded to Dictature; brought before +an astonished Diet (REICHSTAG), and endlessly argued of in Reichstag +and Reich,--with small benefit to Austria, or the new Kur-Mainz. Wise +kindness to Austria had been suppression of this Piece, not bringing +of it to Dictature at all: but the new Kur-Mainz, called upon, and +conscious of face sufficient, had not scrupled. "Shame on you, partial +Arch-Chancellor!" exclaims all the world.--"Revoke such shamefully +partial Dictature?" this was the next question brought before the +Reich. In which, Kur-Hanover (Britannic George) was the one Elector +that opined, No. Majority conclusive; though, as usual, no settlement +attainable. This is the famous "DICTATUR-SACHE (Dictature Question)," +which rages on us, for about eleven months to come, in those distracted +old Books; and seems as if it would never end. Nor is there any saying +when it would have ended;--had not, in August, 1744, something else +ended, the King of Prussia's patience, namely; which enabled it to end, +on the Kaiser's then order! [Adelung, iii. B, 201, iv. 198, &c.] + +It must be owned, in general, the conduct of Maria Theresa to the Reich, +ever since the Reich had ventured to reject her Husband as Kaiser, and +prefer another, was all along of a high nature; till now it has grown +into absolute contumacy, and a treating of the Reich's elected Kaiser +as a merely chimerical personage. No law of the Reich had been violated +against her Hungarian Majesty or Husband: "What law?" asked all judges. +Vicarius Kur-Sachsen sat, in committee, hatching for many months that +Question of the Kur-Bohmen Vote; and by the prescribed methods, brought +it out in the negative,--every formality and regularity observed, and +nobody but your Austrian Deputy protesting upon it, when requested to +go home. But, the high Maria had a notion that the Reich belonged to her +august Family and her; and that all Elections to the contrary were an +inconclusive thing, fundamentally void every one of them. + +Thus too, long before this, in regard to the REICHS-ARCHIV Question. +The Archives and indispensablest Official Records and Papers of the +Reich,--these had lain so long at Vienna, the high Maria could not think +of giving them up. "So difficult to extricate what Papers are Austrian +specially, from what are Austrian-Imperial;--must have time!" answered +she always. And neither the Kaiser's more and more pressing demands, nor +those of the late Kur-Mainz, backed by the Reich, and reiterated month +after month and year after year, could avail in the matter. Mere angry +correspondences, growing ever angrier;--the Archives of the Reich lay +irrecoverable at Vienna, detained on this pretext and on that: nor were +they ever given up; but lay there till the Reich itself had ended, much +more the Kaiser Karl VII.! These are high procedures. + +As if the Reich had been one's own chattel; as if a Non-Austrian Kaiser +mere impossible, and the Reich and its laws had, even Officially, become +phantasmal! That, in fact, was Maria Theresa's inarticulate inborn +notion; and gradually, as her successes on the field rose higher, it +became ever more articulate: till this of "the SEYN-SOLLENDE Kaiser" put +a crown on it. Justifiable, if the Reich with its Laws were a chattel, +or rebellious vassal, of Austria; not justifiable otherwise. "Hear ye?" +answered almost all the Reich (eight Kurfursts, with the one exception +of Kur-Hanover: as we observed): "Our solemnly elected Kaiser, Karl +VII., is a thing of quirks and quiddities, of French shreds and patches; +at present, it seems, the Reich has no Kaiser at all; and will go ever +deeper into anarchies and unnamabilities, till it proceed anew to get +one,--of the right Austrian type!"--The Reich is a talking entity: King +Friedrich is bound rather to silence, so long as possible. His thoughts +on these matters are not given; but sure enough they were continual, +too intense they could hardly be. "Compensation;" "The Reich as good +as mine:" Whither is all this tending? Walrave and those Silesian +Fortifyings,--let Walrave mind his work, and get it perfected! + + + + +BRITANNIC MAJESTY GOES HOME. + +The "Combined Invasion of Elsass"--let us say briefly, overstepping +the order of date, and still for a moment leaving Friedrich--came to +nothing, this year. Prince Karl was 70,000; Britannic George (when +once those Dutch, crawling on all summer, had actually come up) was +66,000,--nay 70,000; Karl having lent him that beautiful cannibal +gentleman, "Colonel Mentzel and 4,000 Tolpatches," by way of +edge-trimming. Karl was to cross in Upper Elsass, in the Strasburg +parts; Karl once across, Britannic Majesty was to cross about Mainz, and +co-operate from Lower Elsass. And they should have been swift about +it; and were not! All the world expected a severe slash to France; and +France itself had the due apprehension of it: but France and all the +world were mistaken, this time. + +Prince Karl was slow with his preparations; Noailles and Coigny +(Broglio's successor) were not slow; "raising batteries everywhere," +raising lines, "10,000 Elsass Peasants," and what not;--so that, by the +time Prince Karl was ready (middle of August), they lay intrenched +and minatory at all passable points; and Karl could nowhere, in that +Upper-Rhine Country, by any method, get across. Nothing got across; +except once or twice for perhaps a day, Butcher Trenck and his loose +kennel of Pandours; who went about, plundering and rioting, with loud +rodomontade, to the admiration of the Gazetteers, if of no one else. + +Nor was George's seconding of important nature; most dubitative, wholly +passive, you would rather say, though the River, in his quarter, lay +undefended. He did, at last, cross the Rhine about Mainz; went languidly +to Worms,--did an ever-memorable TREATY OF WORMS there, if no fighting +there or elsewhere. Went to Speyer, where the Dutch joined him (sadly +short of numbers stipulated, had it been the least matter);--was at +Germersheim, at what other places I forget; manoeuvring about in a +languid and as if in an aimless manner, at least it was in a perfectly +ineffectual one. Mentzel rode gloriously to Trarbach, into Lorraine; +stuck up Proclamation, "Hungarian Majesty come, by God's help, for her +own again," and the like;--of which Document, now fallen rare, we give +textually the last line: "And if any of you DON'T [don't sit quiet at +least], I will," to be brief, "first cut off your ears and noses, and +then hang you out of hand." The singular Champion of Christendom, famous +to the then Gazetteers! [In Adelung (iii. B, 193) the Proclamation +at large. I have, or once had, a _Life of Mentzel_ (Dublin, I think, +1744), "price twopence,"--dear at the money.] Nothing farther could +George, with his Dutch now adjoined, do in those parts, but wriggle +slightly to and fro without aim; or stand absolutely still, and eat +provision (great uncertainty and discrepancy among the Generals, and +Stair gone in a huff [Went, "August 27th, by Worms" (Henderson, +_Life of Cumberlund,_ p. 48), just while his Majesty was beginning to +cross.]),--till at length the "Combined Pragmatic Troops" returned to +Mainz (October 11th); and thence, dreadfully in ill-humor with each +other, separated into their winter-quarters in the Netherlands and +adjacent regions. + +Prince Karl tried hard in several places; hardest at, Alt-Breisach, far +up the River, with Swabian Freiburg for his place of arms;--an +Austrian Country all that, "Hither Austria," Swabian Austria. There, +at Alt-Breisach, lay Prince Karl (24th August-3d September), his left +leaning on that venerable sugar-loaf Hill, with the towers and ramparts +on the top of it; looking wistfully into Alsace, if there were no way +of getting at it. He did get once half-way across the River, lodging +himself in an Island called Rheinmark; but could get no farther, owing +to the Noailles-Coigny preparations for him. Called a Council of War; +decided that he had not Magazines, that it was too late in the season; +and marched home again (October 12th) through the Schwabenland; leaving, +besides the strong Garrison of Freiburg, only Trenck with 12,000 +Pandours to keep the Country open for us, against next year. Britannic +Majesty, as we observed, did then, almost simultaneously, in like manner +march home; [Adelung, iii. B, 192, 215; Anonymous, _Cumberland,_ p. +121.]--one goal is always clear when the day sinks: Make for your +quarters, for your bed. + +Prince Karl was gloriously wedded, this Winter, to her Hungarian +Majesty's young Sister;--glorious meed of War; and, they say, a union +of hearts withal;--Wife and he to have Brussels for residence, and be +"Joint-Governors of the Netherlands" henceforth. Stout Khevenhuller, +almost during the rejoicings, took fever, and suddenly died; to the +great sorrow of her Majesty, for loss of such a soldier and man. +[_Maria Theresiens Leben,_ pp. 94, 45.] Britannic Majesty has not been +successful with his Pragmatic Army. He did get his new Kur-Mainz, +who has brought the Austrian Exorbitancy to a first reading, and into +general view. He did get out of the Dettingen mouse-trap; and, to the +admiration of the Gazetteer mind, and (we hope) envy of Most Christian +Majesty, he has, regardless of expense, played Supreme Jove on the +German boards for above three months running. But as to Settlement of +the German Quarrel, he has done nothing at all, and even a good deal +less! Let me commend to readers this little scrap of Note; headed, +"METHODS OF PACIFICATING GERMANY:-- 1. There is one ready method of +pacificating Germany: That his Britannic Majesty should firmly button +his breeches-pocket, 'Not one sixpence more, Madam!'--and go home to his +bed, if he find no business waiting him at home. Has not he always the +EAR-OF-JENKINS Question, and the Cause of Liberty in that succinct form. +But, in Germany, sinews of war being cut, law of gravitation would at +once act; and exorbitant Hungarian Majesty, tired France, and all else, +would in a brief space of time lapse into equilibrium, probably of the +more stable kind. 2. Or, if you want to save the Cause of Liberty on + there are those HANAU CONFERENCES,--Carteret's magnificent scheme: +A united Teutschland (England inspiring it), to rush on the throat of +France, for 'Compensation,' for universal salving of sores. This second +method, Diana having intervened, is gone to water, and even to poisoned +water. So that, 3". There was nothing left for poor Carteret but a TR + WORMS (concerning which, something more explicit by and by): A +Teutschland (the English, doubly and trebly inspiring it, as surely they +will now need!) to rush as aforesaid, in the DISunited and indeed nearly +internecine state. Which third method--unless Carteret can conquer +Naples for the Kaiser, stuff the Kaiser into some satisfactory +'Netherlands' or the like, and miraculously do the unfeasible (Fortune +perhaps favoring the brave)--may be called the unlikely one! As poor +Carteret probably guesses, or dreads;--had he now any choice left. But +it was love's last shift! And, by aid of Diana and otherwise, that is +the posture in which, at Mainz, 11th October, 1743, we leave the German +Question." + +"Compensation," from France in particular, is not to be had gratis, it +appears. Somewhere or other it must be had! Complaining once, as she +very often does, to her Supreme Jove, Hungarian Majesty had written: +"Why, oh, why did you force me to give up Silesia!"--Supreme Jove +answers (at what date I never knew, though Friedrich knows it, and "has +copy of the Letter"): "Madam, what was good to give is good to take back +(CC QUI EST BON A PRENDRE EST BON A RENDRE)!" [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ +iii. 27.] + + + + +Chapter VI.--VOLTAIRE VISITS FRIEDRICH FOR THE FOURTH TIME. + +In the last days of August, there appears at Berlin M. de Voltaire, +on his Fourth Visit:--thrice and four times welcome; though this time, +privately, in a somewhat unexpected capacity. Come to try his hand +in the diplomatic line; to sound Friedrich a little, on behalf of the +distressed French Ministry. That, very privately indeed, is Voltaire's +errand at present; and great hopes hang by it for Voltaire, if he prove +adroit enough. + +Poor man, it had turned out he could not get his Academy Diploma, after +all,--owing again to intricacies and heterodoxies. King Louis was +at first willing, indifferent; nay the Chateauroux was willing: but +orthodox parties persuaded his Majesty; wicked Maurepas (the same who +lasted till the Revolution time) set his face against it; Maurepas, and +ANC. de Mirepoix (whom they wittily call "ANE" or Ass of Mirepoix, that +sour opaque creature, lately monk), were industrious exceedingly; and +put veto on Voltaire. A stupid Bishop was preferred to him for filling +up the Forty. Two Bishops magnanimously refused; but one was found with +ambitious stupidity enough: Voltaire, for the third time, failed in this +small matter, to him great. Nay, in spite of that kiss in MEROPE, he +could not get his MORT DE CESAR acted; cabals rising; ANCIEN de Mirepoix +rising; Orthodoxy, sour Opacity prevailing again. To Madame and him +(though finely caressed in the Parisian circles) these were provoking +months;--enough to make a man forswear Literature, and try some other +Jacob's-Ladder in this world. Which Voltaire had actual thoughts of, now +and then. We may ask, Are these things of a nature to create love of the +Hierarchy in M. de Voltaire? "Your Academy is going to be a Seminary +of Priests," says Friedrich. The lynx-eyed animal,--anxiously asking +itself, "Whitherward, then, out of such a mess?"--walks warily about, +with its paws of velvet; but has, IN POSSE, claws under them, for +certain individuals and fraternities. + +Nor, alas, is the Du Chatelet relation itself so celestial as it once +was. Madame has discovered, think only with what feelings, that this +great man does not love her as formerly! The great man denies, ready to +deny on the Gospels, to her and to himself; and yet, at bottom, if we +read with the microscope, there are symptoms, and it is not deniable. +How should it? Leafy May, hot June, by degrees comes October, sere, +yellow; and at last, a quite leafless condition,--not Favonius, but gray +Northeast, with its hail-storms (jealousies, barren cankered gusts), +your main wind blowing. "EMILIE FAIT DE L'ALGEBRE," sneers he once, in +an inadvertent moment, to some Lady-friend: "Emilie doing? Emilie is +doing Algebra; that is Emilie's employment,--which will be of great use +to her in the affairs of Life, and of great charm in Society." [Letter +of Voltaire "To Madame Chambonin," end of 1742 (_OEuvres,_ Edition in +40 vols., Paris, 1818, xxxii. 148);--is MISSED in the later Edition (97 +vols., Paris, 1837), to which our habitual reference is.] Voltaire (if +you read with the microscope) has, on this side also, thoughts of being +off. "Off on this side?" Madame flies mad, becomes Megaera, at the +mention or suspicion of it! A jealous, high-tempered Algebraic Lady. +They have had to tell her of this secret Mission to Berlin; and she +insists on being the conduit, all the papers to pass through her hands +here at Paris, during the great man's absence. Fixed northeast; that is, +to appearance, the domestic wind blowing! And I rather judge, the great +man is glad to get away for a time. + +This Quasi-Diplomatic Speculation, one perceives, is much more serious, +on the part both of Voltaire and of the Ministry, than any of the former +had been. And, on Voltaire's part, there glitter prospects now and then +of something positively Diplomatic, of a real career in that kind, lying +ahead for him. Fond hopes these! But among the new Ministers, since +Fleury's death, are Amelot, the D'Argensons, personal friends, old +school-fellows of the poor hunted man, who are willing he should have +shelter from such a pack; and all French Ministers, clutching at every +floating spar, in this their general shipwreck in Germany, are aware of +the uses there might be in him, in such crisis. "Knows Friedrich; might +perhaps have some power in persuading him,--power in spying him at +any rate. Unless Friedrich do step forward again, what is to become of +us!"--The mutual hintings, negotiatings, express interviews, bargainings +and secret-instructions, dimly traceable in Voltaire's LETTERS, had +been going on perhaps since May last, time of those ACADEMY failures, +of those Broglio Despatches from the Donau Countries, "No staying here, +your Majesty!"--and I think it was, in fact, about the time when Broglio +blew up like gunpowder and tumbled home on the winds, that Voltaire set +out on his mission. "Visit to Friedrich," they call it;--"invitation" +from Friedrich there is, or can, on the first hint, at any point of the +Journey be. + +Voltaire has lingered long on the road; left Paris, middle of June; [His +Letters (_OEuvres,_ lxxiii. 42, 48).] but has been exceedingly exerting +himself, in the Hague, at Brussels, and wherever else present, in +the way of forwarding his errand, Spying, contriving, persuading; +corresponding to right and left,--corresponding, especially much, with +the King of Prussia himself, and then with "M. Amelot, Secretary of +State," to report progress to the best advantage. There are curious +elucidative sparks, in those Voltaire Letters, chaotic as they are; +small sparks, elucidative, confirmatory of your dull History Books, and +adding traits, here and there, to the Image you have formed from them. +Yielding you a poor momentary comfort; like reading some riddle of +no use; like light got incidentally, by rubbing dark upon dark +(say Voltaire flint upon Dryasdust gritstone), in those labyrinthic +catacombs, if you are doomed to travel there. A mere weariness, +otherwise, to the outside reader, hurrying forward,--to the light French +Editor, who can pass comfortably on wings or balloons! [_OEuvres,_ +lxxiii. pp. 40-138. Clogenson, a Dane (whose Notes, signed "Clog.," are +in all tolerable recent Editions), has, alone among the Commentators of +Voltaire's LETTERS, made some real attempt towards explaining the many +passages that are fallen unintelligible. "Clog.," travelling on +foot, with his eyes open, is--especially on German-History +points--incomparable and unique, among his French comrades going by +balloon; and drops a rational or half-rational hint now and then, which +is meritoriously helpful. Unhappily he is by no means well-read in that +German matter, by no means always exact; nor indeed ever quite to be +trusted without trial had.] Voltaire's assiduous finessings with the +Hague Diplomatist People, or with their Secretaries if bribable; +nay, with the Dutch Government itself ("through channels which I have +opened,"--with infinitesimally small result); his spyings ("young +Podewils," Minister here, Nephew of the Podewils we have known, "young +Podewils in intrigue with a Dutch Lady of rank:" think of that, your +Excellency); his preparatory subtle correspondings with Friedrich: +his exquisite manoeuvrings, and really great industries in the small +way:--all this, and much else, we will omit. Impatient of these +preludings, which have been many! Thus, at one point, Voltaire "took +a FLUXION" (catarrhal, from the nose only), when Friedrich was quite +ready; then, again, when Voltaire was ready, and the fluxion off, +Friedrich had gone upon his Silesian Reviews: in short, there had +been such cross-purposes, tedious delays, as are distressing to think +of;--and we will say only, that M. de Voltaire did actually, after +the conceivable adventures, alight in the Berlin Schloss (last day of +August, as I count); welcomed, like no other man, by the Royal Landlord +there;--and that this is the Fourth Visit; and has (in strict privacy) +weightier intentions than any of the foregoing, on M. de Voltaire's +part. + +Voltaire had a glorious reception; apartment near the King's; King +gliding in, at odd moments, in the beautifulest way; and for seven or +eight days, there was, at Berlin and then at Potsdam, a fine awakening +of the sphere-harmonies between them, with touches of practicality +thrown in as suited. Of course it was not long till, on some touch of +that latter kind, Friedrich discerned what the celestial messenger had +come upon withal;--a dangerous moment for M. de Voltaire, "King visibly +irritated," admits he, with the aquiline glance transfixing him!" Alas, +your Majesty, mere excess of loyalty, submission, devotion, on my poor +part! Deign to think, may not this too,--in the present state of my +King, of my Two Kings, and of all Europe,--be itself a kind of spheral +thing?" So that the aquiline lightning was but momentary; and abated to +lambent twinklings, with something even of comic in them, as we +shall gather. Voltaire had his difficulties with Valori, too; "What +interloping fellow is this?" gloomed Valori, "A devoted secretary of +your Excellency's; on his honor, nothing more!" answered Voltaire, +bowing to the ground:--and strives to behave as such; giving Valori +"these poor Reports of mine to put in cipher," and the like. Very +slippery ice hereabouts for the adroit man! His reports to Amelot are +of sanguine tone; but indicate, to the by-stander, small progress; ice +slippery, and a twinkle of the comic. Many of them are lost (or lie +hidden in the French Archives, and are not worth disinterring): but here +is one, saved by Beaumarchais and published long afterwards, which will +sufficiently bring home the old scene to us. In the Palace of Berlin or +else of Potsdam (date must be, 6th-8th September, 1743), Voltaire from +his Apartment hands in a "Memorial" to Friedrich; and gets it back with +Marginalia,--as follows: + +"Would your Majesty be pleased to have the kind condescension (ASSEZ DE +BONTE) to put on the margin your reflections and orders." + +MEMORIAL BY VOLTAIRE. "1. Your Majesty is to know that the Sieur +Bassecour [signifies BACKYARD], chief Burghermaster of Amsterdam, +has come lately to beg M. de la Ville, French Minister there, to make +Proposals of Peace. La Ville answered, If the Dutch had offers to make, +the King his master could hear them. + +MARGINALIA BY FRIEDRICH. "1. This Bassecour, or Backyard, seems to be +the gentleman that has charge of fattening the capons and turkeys for +their High Mightinesses? + +MEMORIAL BY VOLTAIRE. "2. Is it not clear that the Peace Party will +infallibly carry it, in Holland,--since Bassecour, one of the most +determined for War, begins to speak of Peace? Is it not clear that +France shows vigor and wisdom? + +MARGINALIA BY FRIEDRICH. "2. I admire the wisdom of France; but God +preserve me from ever imitating it! + +MEMORIAL BY VOLTAIRE. "3. In these circumstances, if your Majesty took +the tone of a Master, gave example to the Princes of the Empire in +assembling an Army of Neutrality,--would not you snatch the sceptre of +Europe from the hands of the English, who now brave you, and speak in an +insolent revolting manner of your Majesty, as do, in Holland also, the +party of the Bentincks, the Fagels, the Opdams? I have myself heard +them, and am reporting nothing but what is very true. + +MARGINALIA BY FRIEDRICH. "3. This would be finer in an ode than in +actual reality. I disturb myself very little about what the Dutch +and English say, the rather as I understand nothing of those dialects +(PATOIS) of theirs. + +MEMORIAL BY VOLTAIRE. "4. Do not you cover yourself with an immortal +glory in declaring yourself, with effect, the protector of the Empire? +And is it not of most pressing interest to your Majesty, to hinder the +English from making your Enemy the Grand-Duke [Maria Theresa's Husband] +King of the Romans? + +MARGINALIA BY FRIEDRICH. "4. France has more interest than Prussia +to hinder that. Besides, on this point, dear Voltaire, you are ill +informed. For there can be no Election of a King of the Romans without +the unanimous consent of the Empire;--so you perceive, that always +depends on me. + +MEMORIAL BY VOLTAIRE. "5. Whoever has spoken but a quarter of an hour +to the Duke d'Ahremberg [who spilt Lord Stair's fine enterprises lately, +and reduced them to a DETTINGEN, or a getting into the mouse-trap and a +getting out], to the Count Harrach [important Austrian Official], Lord +Stair, or any of the partisans of Austria, even for a quarter of an hour +[as I have often done], has beard them say, That they burn with desire +to open the campaign in Silesia again. Have you in that case, Sire, any +ally but France? And, however potent you are, is an ally useless to you? +You know the resources of the House of Austria, and how many Princes +are united to it. But will they resist your power, joined to that of the +House of Bourbon? + +MARGINALIA BY FRIEDRICH. "5. _On les y recevra, Biribi, A la facon de +Barbari, Mon ami._ We will receive them, Twiddledee, In the mode of +Barbary, Don't you see? [Form of Song, very fashionable at Paris (see +Barbier soepius) in those years: "BIRIBI," I believe, is a kind of +lottery-game.] + +MEMORIAL BY VOLTAIRE. "6. If you were but to march a body of troops to +Cleves, do not you awaken terror and respect, without apprehension that +any one dare make war on you? Is it not, on the contrary, the one method +of forcing the Dutch to concur, under your orders, in the pacification +of the Empire, and re-establishment of the Emperor, who will thus a +second time he indebted to you for his throne, and will aid in the +splendor of yours? + +MARGINALIA BY FRIEDRICH. "6. _Vous voulez qu'en vrai dieu de la +machine,_ "You will have me as theatre-god, then, _"J'arrive pour te +denouement?_ "Swoop in, and produce the catastrophe? _"Qu'aux Anglais, +aux Pandours, a ce peuple insolent, "J'aille donner la discipline?--_ +"Tame to sobriety those English, those Pandours, and obstreperous +people? _"Mais examinez mieux ma mine;_ "Examine the look of me better; +_"Je ne suis pas assez mechant!_ "I have not surliness euough. + +MEMORIAL BY VOLTAIRE. "7. Whatever resolution may be come to, will +your Majesty deign to confide it to me, and impart the result,--to your +servant, to him who desires to pass his life at your Court? May I have +the honor to accompany your Majesty to Baireuth; and if your goodness go +so far, would you please to declare it, that I may have time to prepare +for the journey? One favorable word written to me in the Letter on that +occasion [word favorable to France, ostensible to M. Amelot and the most +Christian Majesty], one word would suffice to procure me the happiness +I have, for six years, been aspiring to, of living beside you." Oh, send +it! + +MARGINALIA BY FRIEDRICH. "7. If you like to come to Baireuth, I shall be +glad to see you there, provided the journey don't derange your health. +It will depend on yourself, then, to take what measures you please. [And +about the ostensible WORD,--Nothing!] + +MEMORIAL BY VOLTAIRE. "8. During the short stay I am now to make, if +I could be made the bearer of some news agreeable to my Court, I would +supplicate your Majesty to honor me with such a commission. [This does +not want for impudence, Monsieur! Friedrich answers, from aloft!] + +MARGINALIA BY FRIEDRICH. "8. I am not in any connection with France; I +have nothing to fear nor to hope from France. If you would like, I will +make a Panegyric on Louis XV. without a word of truth in it: but as to +political business, there is, at present, none to bring us together; and +neither is it I that am to speak first. When they put a question to me, +it will be time to reply: but you, who are so much a man of sense, you +see well what a ridiculous business it would be if, without ground given +me, I set to prescribing projects of policy to France, and even put them +on paper with my own hand! + +MEMORIAL BY VOLTAIRE. "9. Do whatsoever you may please, I shall always +love your Majesty with my whole heart." + +MARGINALIA BY FRIEDRICH. "9. I love you with all my heart; I esteem you: +I will do all to have you, except follies, and things which would make +me forever ridiculous over Europe, and at bottom would be contrary to my +interests and my glory. The only commission I can give you for France, +is to advise them to behave with more wisdom than they have done +hitherto. That Monarchy is a body with much strength, but without, soul +or energy (NERF)." + +And so you may give it to Valori to put in cipher, my illustrious +Messenger from the Spheres. [_OEuvres de Voltaire,_ lxxiii. 101-105 (see +Ib. ii. 55); _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxii. 141-144.] + +Worth reading, this, rather well. Very kingly, and characteristic of +the young Friedrich. Saved by Beaumarchais, who did not give it in his +famous Kehl Edition of VOLTAIRE, but "had it in Autograph ever after, +and printed it in his DECADE PHILOSOPHIQUE, 10 Messidor, An vii. +[Summer, 1799]: Beaumarchais had several other Pieces of the same sort;" +which, as bits of contemporary photographing, one would have liked to +see. + + + + +FRIEDRICH VISITS BAIREUTH: ON A PARTICULAR ERRAND;--VOLTAIRE ATTENDING, +AND PRIVATELY REPORTING. + +This "BIRIBI" Document, I suppose to have been delivered perhaps on the +7th; and that Friedrich HAD it, but had not yet answered it, when he +wrote the following Letter:-- + +"POTSDAM, 8th SEPTEMBER, 1743 [Friedrich to Voltaire].--I dare not speak +to a son of Apollo about horses and carriages, relays and such things; +these are details with which the gods do not concern themselves, and +which we mortals take upon us. You will set out on Monday afternoon, +if you like the journey, for Baireuth, and you will dine with me in +passing, if you please [at Potsdam here]. + +"The rest of my MEMOIRE [Paper before given?] is so blurred and in so +bad a state, I cannot yet send it you.--I am getting Cantos 8 and 9 of +LA PUCELLE copied; I at present have Cantos 1, 2, 4, 5, 8 and 9: I keep +them under three keys, that the eye of mortal may not see them. + +"I hear you supped yesternight in good company [great gathering in some +high house, gone all asunder now]; + +"The finest wits of the Canton All collected in your name, People all +who could not but be pleased with you, All devout believers in Voltaire, +Unanimously took you For the god of their Paradise. + +"'Paradise,' that you may not be scandalized, is taken here in a general +sense for a place of pleasure and joy. See the 'remark' on the last +verse of the MONDAIN." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxii. 144; Voltaire, +lxxiii. 100] (scandalously MISdated in Edition 1818, xxxix. 466). As to +MONDAIN, and "remark" upon it,--the ghost of what was once a sparkle of +successful coterie-speech and epistolary allusion,--take this: "In the +MONDAIN Voltaire had written, 'LE PARADIS TERRESTRE EST OU JE SUIS;' +and as the Priests made outcry, had with airs of orthodoxy explained the +phrase away,"--as Friedrich now affects to do; obliquely quizzing, in +the Friedrich manner. + +Voltaire is to go upon the Baireuth Journey, then, according to prayer. +Whether Voltaire ever got that all-important "word which he could show," +I cannot say: though there is some appearance that Friedrich may have +dashed off for him the Panegyric of Louis, in these very hours, to serve +his turn, and have done with him. Under date 7th September, day before +the Letter just read, here are snatches from another to the same +address:-- + +"POTSDAM, 7th SEPTEMBER, 1743 [Friedrich to Voltaire].--You tell me so +much good of France and of its King, it were to be wished all Sovereigns +had subjects like you, and all Commonwealths such citizens,--[you +can show that, I suppose?] What a pity France and Sweden had not had +Military Chiefs of your way of thinking! But it is very certain, say +what you will, that the feebleness of their Generals, and the timidity +of their counsels, have almost ruined in public repute two Nations +which, not half a century ago, inspired terror over Europe."--... +"Scandalous Peace, that of Fleury, in 1735; abandoning King Stanislaus, +cheating Spain, cheating Sardinia, to get Lorraine! And now this manner +of abandoning the Emperor [respectable Karl VII. of your making]; +sacrificing Bavaria; and reducing that worthy Prince to the lowest +poverty,--poverty, I say not, of a Prince, but into the frightfulest +state for a private man!" Ah, Monsieur. + +"And yet your France is the most charming of Nations; and if it is not +feared, it deserves well to be loved. A King worthy to command it, +who governs sagely, and acquires for himself the esteem of all +Europe,--[there, won't that do!] may restore its ancient splendor, +which the Broglios, and so many others even more inept, have a little +eclipsed. That is assuredly a work worthy of a Prince endowed with +such gifts! To reverse the sad posture of affairs, nobly repairing what +others have spoiled; to defend his country against furious enemies, +reducing them to beg Peace, instead of scornfully rejecting it when +offered: never was more glory acquirable by any King! I shall admire +whatsoever this great man [CE GRAND HOMME, Louis XV., not yet visibly +tending to the dung-heap, let us hope better things!] may achieve in +that way; and of all the Sovereigns of Europe none will be less jealous +of his success than I:"--there, my spheral friend, show that! [_OEuvres +de Frederic,_ xxii. 139: see, for what followed, _OEuvres de Voltaire,_ +lxxiii. 129 (report to Amelot, 27th October).] + +Which the spheral friend does. Nor was it "irony," as the new +Commentators think; not at all; sincere enough, what you call +sincere;--Voltaire himself had a nose for "irony"! This was what you +call sincere Panegyric in liberal measure; why be stingy with your +measure? It costs half an hour: it will end Voltaire's importunities; +and so may, if anything, oil the business-wheels withal. For Friedrich +foresees business enough with Louis and the French Ministries, though +he will not enter on it with Voltaire. This Journey to Baireuth and +Anspach, for example, this is not for a visit to his Sisters, as +Friedrich labels it; but has extensive purposes hidden under that +title,--meetings with Franconian Potentates, earnest survey, earnest +consultation on a state of things altogether grave for Germany and +Friedrich; though he understands whom to treat with about it, whom +to answer with a "BIRIBIRI, MON AMI." That Austrian Exorbitancy of a +message to the Diet has come out (August 16th, and is struggling +to DICTATUR); the Austrian procedures in Baiern are in their full +flagrancy: Friedrich intends trying once more, Whether, in such crisis, +there be absolutely no "Union of German Princes" possible; nor even of +any two or three of them, in the "Swabian and Franconian Circles," which +he always thought the likeliest? + +The Journey took effect, Tuesday, 10th September [Rodenbeck, i. 93.] +(not the day before, as Friedrich had been projecting); went by Halle, +straight upon Baireuth; and ended there on Thursday. As usual, Prince +August Wilhelm, and Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, were of it; Voltaire +failed not to accompany. What the complexion of it was, especially what +Friedrich had meant by it, and how ill he succeeded, will perhaps be +most directly visible through the following compressed Excerpts from +Voltaire's long LETTER to Secretary Amelot on the subject,--if readers +will be diligent with them. Friedrich, after four days, ran across to +Anspach on important business; came back with mere failure, and was +provokingly quite silent on it; stayed at Baireuth some three days more; +thence home by Gotha (still on "Union" business, still mere failure), +by Leipzig, and arrived at Potsdam, September 25th;--leaving Voltaire +in Wilhelmina's charmed circle (of which unhappily there is not a word +said), for about a week more. Voltaire, directly on getting back to +Berlin, "resumes the thread of his journal" to Secretary Amelot; that +is, writes him another long Letter:-- + +VOLTAIRE (from Berlin, 3d October, 1743) TO SECRETARY AMELOT. + +"... The King of Prussia told me at Baireuth, on the 13th or 14th of +last month, He was glad our King had sent the Kaiser money;"--useful +that, at any rate; Noailles's 6,000 pounds would not go far. "That he +thought M. le Marechal de Noailles's explanation [of a certain small +rumor, to the disadvantage of Noailles in reference to the Kaiser] was +satisfactory: 'but,' added he, 'it results from all your secret motions +that you are begging Peace from everybody, and there may have been +something in this rumor, after all.' + +"He then told me he was going over to Anspach, to see what could be done +for the Common Cause [Kaiser's and Ours]; that he expected to meet the +Bishop of Wurzburg there; and would try to stir the Frankish and Swabian +Circles into some kind of Union. And, at setting off [from Baireuth, +September 16th, on this errand], he promised his Brother-in-law the +Margraf, He would return with great schemes afoot, and even with great +success;" which proved otherwise, to a disappointing degree. + +"... The Margraf of Anspach did say he would join a Union of Princes +in favor of the Kaiser, if Prussia gave example. But that was all. The +Bishop of Wurzburg," a feeble old creature, "never appeared at +Anspach, nor even sent an apology; and Seckendorf, with the Imperial +Army"--Seckendorf, caged up at Wembdingen (whom Friedrich drove off +from Anspach, twenty miles, to see and consult), was in a disconsolate +moulting condition, and could promise or advise nothing satisfactory, +during the dinner one took with him. [September 19th, "under a shady +tree, after muster of the troops" (Rodenbeck, p. 93).] Four days running +about on those errands had yielded his Prussian Majesty nothing. "Whilst +he (Prussian Majesty) was on this Anspach excursion, the Margraf of +Baireuth, who is lately made Field-marshal of his Circle, spoke much to +me of present affairs: a young Prince, full of worth and courage, who +loves the French, hates the Austrians,"--and would fain make himself +generally useful. "To whom I suggested this and that" (does your +Lordship observe?), if it could ever come to anything. + +"The King of Prussia, on returning to Baireuth [guess, 20th September], +did not speak the least word of business to the Margraf: which much +surprised the latter! He surprised him still more by indicating some +intention to retain forcibly at Berlin the young Duke of Wurtemberg, +under pretext, 'that Madam his Mother intended to have him taken to +Vienna,' for education. To anger this young Duke, and drive his Mother +to despair, was not the method for acquiring credit in the Circle of +Swabia, and getting the Princes brought to unite! + +"The Duchess of Wurtemberg, who was there at Baireuth, by appointment, +to confer with the King of Prussia, sent to seek me. I found her all +dissolved in tears. 'Ah!' said she,--[But why is our dear Wilhelmina +left saying nothing; invisible, behind the curtains of envious Chance, +and only a skirt of them lifted to show us this Improper Duchess once +more!]--'Ah!' said she (the Improper Duchess, at sight of me), 'will the +King of Prussia be a tyrant, then? To pay me for intrusting my Boys to +him, and giving him two Regiments [for money down], will he force me to +implore justice against him from the whole world? I must have my Child! +He shall not go to Vienna; it is in his own Country that I will have him +brought up beside me. To put my Son in Austrian hands? [unless, indeed, +your Highness were driven into Financial or other straits?] You know if +I love France;--if my design is not to pass the rest of my days there, +so soon as my Son comes to majority!' Ohone, ohoo! + +"In fine, the quarrel was appeased. The King of Prussia told me he would +be gentler with the Mother; would restore the Son if they absolutely +wished it; but that he hoped the young Prince would of himself like +better to stay where he was."...--"I trust your Lordship will allow me +to draw for those 300 ducats, for a new carriage. I have spent all I +had, running about these four months. I leave this for Brunswick and +homewards, on the evening of the 12th." [Voltaire, lxxiii. 105-109.]... + +And so the curtain drops on the Baireuth Journey, on the Berlin Visit; +and indeed, if that were anything, on Voltaire's Diplomatic career +altogether. The insignificant Accidents, the dull Powers that be, say +No. Curious to reflect, had they happened to say Yes:--"Go into the +Diplomatic line, then, you sharp climbing creature, and become great by +that method; WRITE no more, you; write only Despatches and Spy-Letters +henceforth!"--how different a world for us, and for all mortals that +read and that do not read, there had now been! + +Voltaire fancies he has done his Diplomacy well, not without fruit; +and, at Brunswick,--cheered by the grand welcome he found there,--has +delightful outlooks (might I dare to suggest them, Monseigneur?) of +touring about in the German Courts, with some Circular HORTATORIUM, or +sublime Begging-Letter from the Kaiser, in his hand; and, by witchery +of tongue, urging Wurtemberg, Brunswick, Baireuth, Anspach, Berlin, +to compliance with the Imperial Majesty and France. [Ib. lxxiii. 133.] +Would not that be sublime! But that, like the rest, in spite of one's +talent, came to nothing. Talent? Success? Madame de Chateauroux had, +in the interim, taken a dislike to M. Amelot; "could not bear +his stammering," the fastidious Improper Female; flung Amelot +overboard,--Amelot, and his luggage after him, Voltaire's diplomatic +hopes included; and there was an end. + +How ravishing the thing had been while it lasted, judge by these +other stray symptoms; hastily picked up, partly at Berlin, partly at +Brunswick; which show us the bright meridian, and also the blaze, almost +still more radiant, which proved to be sunset. Readers have heard of +Voltaire's Madrigals to certain Princesses; and must read these Three +again,--which are really incomparable in their kind; not equalled in +graceful felicity even by Goethe, and by him alone of Poets approached +in that respect. At Berlin, Autumn 1743, Three consummate Madrigals:-- + + 1. TO PRINCESS ULRIQUE. + + "Souvent un peu de verite + Se mele au plus grossier mensonge: + Cette nuit, dans l'erreur d'un songe, + Au rang des rois j'etais monte. + Je vous aimais, Princesse, et j'osais vous le dire! + Les dieux a mon reveil ne m'ont pas tout ote, + Je n'ai perdu que mon empire." + + 2. TO PRINCESSES ULRIQUE AND AMELIA. + + "Si Paris venait sur la terre + Pour juger entre vos beaux yeux, + Il couperait la pomme en deux, + Et ne produirait pas de guerre." + + 3. TO PRINCESSES ULRIQUE, AMELIA AND WILHELMINA. + + "Pardon, charmante Ulrique; pardon, belle Amelie; + J'ai cru n'aimer que vous la reste de ma vie, + Et ne servir que sous vos lois; + Mais enfin j'entends et je vois + Cette adorable Soeur dont l'Amour suit les traces: + Ah, ce n'est pas outrager les Trois Graces + Que de les aimer toutes trois!" + +[1. "A grain of truth is often mingled with the stupidest delusion. +Yesternight, in the error of a dream, I had risen to the rank of king; +I loved you, Princess, and had the audacity to say so! The gods, at my +awakening, did not strip me wholly; my kingdom was all they took from +me." 2. "If Paris [of Troy] came back to decide on the charms of you +Two, he would halve the Apple, and produce no War." 3. "Pardon, charming +Ulrique; beautiful Amelia, pardon: I thought I should love only you for +the rest of my life, and serve under your laws only: but at last I hear +and see this adorable Sister, whom Love follows as Page:--Ah, it is not +offending the Three Graces to love them all three!" --In _Oeuvres de +Voltaire,_ xviii.: No. 1 is, p. 292 (in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xiv. +90-92, the ANSWERS to it); No. 2 is, p. 320; No. 3, p. 321.] + + +BRUNSWICK, 16th October (blazing sunset, as it proved, but brighter +almost than meridian), a LETTER FROM VOLTAIRE TO MAUPERTUIS (still in +France since that horrible Mollwitz-Pandour Business). + +"In my wanderings I received the Letter where my dear Flattener of this +Globe deigns to remember me with so much friendship. Is it possible +that--... I made your compliments to all your friends at Berlin; that +is, to all the Court." "Saw Dr. Eller decomposing water into elastic +air [or thinking he did so, 1743]; saw the Opera of TITUS, which is a +masterpiece of music [by Friedrich himself, with the important aid of +Graun]: it was, without vanity, a treat the King gave me, or rather gave +himself; he wished I should see him in his glory. + +"His Opera-House is the finest in Europe. Charlottenburg is a delicious +abode: Friedrich does the honors there, the King knowing nothing of +it.... One lives at Potsdam as in the Chateau of a French Seigneur who +had culture and genius,--in spite of that big Battalion of Guards, which +seems to me the terriblest Battalion in this world. + +"Jordan is still the same,--BON GARCON ET DISCRET; has his oddities, his +1,600 crowns (240 pounds) of pension. D'Argens is Chamberlain, with a +gold key at his breast-pocket, and 100 louis inside, payable monthly. +Chasot [whom readers made acquaintance with at Philipsburg long since], +instead of cursing his destiny, must have taken to bless it: he is Major +of Horse, with income enough. And he has well earned it, having saved +the King's Baggage at the last Battle of Chotusitz,"--what we did not +notice, in the horse-charges and grand tumults of that scene. + +"I passed some days [a fortnight in all] at Baireuth. Her Royal +Highness, of course, spoke to me of you. Baireuth is a delightful +retreat, where one enjoys whatever there is agreeable in a Court, +without the bother of grandeur. Brunswick, where I am, has another +species of charm. 'Tis a celestial Voyage this of mine, where I pass +from Planet to Planet,"--to tumultuous Paris; and, I do hope, to +my unique Maupertuis awaiting me there at last. [Voltaire, lxxiii. +122-125.]' + +We have only to remark farther, that Friedrich had again pressed +Voltaire to come and live with him, and choose his own terms; and that +Voltaire (as a second string to his bow, should this fine Diplomatic +one fail) had provisionally accepted. Provisionally; and with one most +remarkable clause: that of leaving out Madame,--"imagining it would be +less agreeable to you if I came with others (AVEC D'AUTRES); and I own, +that belonging to your Majesty alone, I should have my mind more at +ease:" [_OEuvres de Voltaire, _ lxxiii. 112,116 (Proposal and Response, +both of them "7th October," five days before leaving Berlin).]--whew! +And then to add a third thing: That Madame, driven half delirious, by +these delays, and gyratings from Planet to Planet, especially by that +last Fortnight at Baireuth, had rushed off from Paris, to seek her +vagabond, and see into him with her own eyes: "Could n't help it, my +angels!" writes she to the D'Argentals (excellent guardian angels, +Monsieur and Madame; and, I am sure, PATIENT both of them, as only +MONSIEUR Job was, in the old case): "A whole fortnight [perhaps with +madrigals to Princesses], and only four lines to me!"--and is now in +bed, or lately was, at Lille, ill of slow fever (PETITE FIEVRE); panting +to be upon the road again. [_Lettres inedites de Madame du Chastelet a +M. le Comte d'Argental_ (Paris, 1806) p. 253. A curiously elucidative +Letter this ("Brussels, 15th October, 1743"); a curious little Book +altogether.] + +Fancy what a greeting for M. de Voltaire, from those eyes HAGARDES ET +LOUCHES; and whether he mentioned that pretty little clause of going to +Berlin "WITHOUT others," or durst for the life of him whisper of going +at all! After pause in the Brussels region, they came back to Paris +"in December;" resigned, I hope, to inexorable Fate,--though with such +Diplomatic and other fine prospects flung to the fishes, and little but +GREDINS and confusions waiting you, as formerly. + + + + +Chapter VII.--FRIEDRICH MAKES TREATY WITH FRANCE; AND SILENTLY GETS +READY. + +Though Friedrich went upon the bantering tone with Voltaire, his private +thoughts in regard to the surrounding scene of things were extremely +serious; and already it had begun to be apparent, from those +Britannic-Austrian procedures, that some new alliance with France might +well lie ahead for him. During Voltaire's visit, that extraordinary +Paper from Vienna, that the Kaiser was no Kaiser, and that there must be +"compensation" and satisfactory "assurance," had come into full glare of +first-reading; and the DICTATUR-SACHE, and denunciation of an evidently +partial Kur-Mainz, was awakening everywhere. Voltaire had not gone, +when,--through Podewils Junior (probably with help of the improper +Dutch female of rank),--Friedrich got to wit of another thing, not less +momentous to him; and throwing fearful light on that of "compensation" +and "assurance." This was the Treaty of Worms,--done by Carteret and +George, September 13th, during those languid Rhine operations; Treaty +itself not languid, but a very lively thing, to Friedrich and to all the +world! Concerning which a few words now. + +We have said, according to promise, and will say, next to nothing of +Maria Theresa's Italian War; but hope always the reader keeps it in +mind. Big war-clouds waltzing hither and thither, occasionally +clashing into bloody conflict; Sardinian Majesty and Infant Philip both +personally in the field, fierce men both: Traun, Browne, Lobkowitz, +Lichtenstein, Austrians of mark, successively distinguishing themselves; +Spain, too, and France very diligent;--Conti off thither, then in their +turns Maillebois, Noailles:--high military figures, but remote; shadowy, +thundering INaudibly on this side and that; whom we must not mention +farther. + +"The notable figure to us," says one of my Notes, "is Charles Emanuel, +second King of Sardinia; who is at the old trade of his Family, and +shifts from side to side, making the war-balance vibrate at a great +rate, now this scale now that kicking the beam. For he holds the door of +the Alps, Bully Bourbon on one side of it, Bully Hapsburg on the other; +and inquires sharply, "You, what will you give me? And you?" To Maria +Theresa's affairs he has been superlatively useful, for these Two Years +past; and truly she is not too punctual in the returns covenanted for. +It appears to Charles Emanuel that the Queen of Hungary, elated in her +high thought, under-rates his services, of late; that she practically +means to give him very little of those promised slices from the Lombard +parts; and that, in the mean while, much too big a share of the War has +fallen upon his poor hands, who should be doorholder only. + +"Accordingly he grumbles, threatens: he has been listening to France, +'Bourbon, how much will you give me, then?' and the answer is such +that he informs the Queen of Hungary and the Britannic Majesty, of +his intention to close with Bourbon, since they on their side will +do nothing considerable. George and his Carteret, not to mention the +Hungarian Majesty at all, are thunder-struck at such a prospect; bend +all their energies towards this essential point of retaining Charles +Emanuel, which is more urgent even than getting Elsass. 'Madam,' they +say to her Majesty, (we cannot save Italy for you on other terms: +Vigevanesco, Finale [which is Genoa's], part of Piacenza [when once +got]: there must be some slice of the Lombard parts to this Charles +Emanuel justly angry!) Whereat the high Queen storms, and in her +high manner scolds little George, as if he were the blamable +party,--pretending friendship, and yet abetting mere highway robbery +or little better. And his cash paid Madam, and his Dettingen mouse-trap +fought? 'Well, he has plenty of cash:--is it my Cause, then, or his +Majesty's and Liberty's?' Posterity, in modern England, vainly endeavors +to conceive this phenomenon; yet sees it to be undeniable. + +"And so there is a Treaty of Worms got concocted, after infinite effort +on the part of Carteret, Robinson too laboring and steaming in Vienna +with boilers like to burst; and George gets it signed 13th September +[already signed while Friedrich was looking into Seckendorf and +Wembdingen, if Friedrich had known it]: to this effect, That Charles +Emanuel should have annually, down on the nail, a handsome increase of +Subsidy (200,000 pounds instead of 150,000 pounds) from England, and +ultimately beyond doubt some thinnish specified slices from the Lombard +parts; and shall proceed fighting for, not against; English Fleet +co-operating, English Purse ditto, regardless of expense; with other +fit particulars, as formerly. [Scholl, ii. 330-335; Adelung, iii. B, +222-226; Coxe, iii. 296.] Maria Theresa, very angry, looks upon herself +as a martyr, nobly complying to suffer for the whim of England; and +Robinson has had such labors and endurances, a steam-engine on the point +of bursting is but an emblem of him. It was a necessary Treaty for the +Cause of Liberty, as George and Carteret, and all English Ministries +and Ministers (Diana of Newcastle very specially, in spite of Pitt and +a junior Opposition Party) viewed Liberty. It was Love's last +shift,--Diana having intervened upon those magnificent 'Conferences +of Hanau' lately! Nevertheless Carteret was thrown out, next year, on +account of it. And Posterity is unable to conceive it; and asks always +of little George, What, in the name of wonder, had he to do there, +fighting for or against, and hiring everybody he met to fight against +everybody? A King with eyes somewhat A FLEUR-DE-TETE: yes; and let us +say, his Nation, too,--which has sat down quietly, for almost a century +back, under mountains of nonsense, inwardly nothing but dim Scepticism +[except in the stomachic regions], and outwardly such a Trinacria of +Hypocrisy [unconscious, for most part] as never lay on an honest giant +Nation before, was itself grown much of a fool, and could expect no +other kind of Kings. + +"But the point intensely interesting to Friedrich in this Treaty of +Worms was, That, in enumerating punctually the other Treaties, old and +recent, which it is to guarantee, and stand upon the basis of, there +is nowhere the least mention of Friedrich's BRESLAU-AND-BERLIN TREATY; +thrice-important Treaty with her Hungarian Majesty on the Silesian +matter! In settling all manner of adjoining and preceding matters, there +is nothing said of Silesia at all. Singular indeed. Treaties enough, +from that of Utrecht downward, are wearisomely mentioned here; but of +the Berlin Treaty, Breslau Treaty, or any Treaty settling Silesia,--much +less, of any Westminster Treaty, guaranteeing it to the King of +Prussia,--there is not the faintest mention! Silesia, then, is not +considered settled, by the high contracting parties? Little George +himself, who guaranteed it, in the hour of need, little more than a year +ago, considers it fallen loose again in the new whirl of contingencies? +'Patience, Madam: what was good to give is good to take!' On what +precise day or month Friedrich got notice of this expressive silence in +the Treaty of Worms, we do not know; but from that day--!" + +Friedrich recollects another thing, one of many others: that of those +"ulterior mountains," which Austria had bargained for as Boundary to +Schlesien. Wild bare mountains; good for what? For invading Schlesien +from the Austrian side; if for nothing else conceivable! The small +riddle reads itself to him so, with a painful flash of light. [_OEuvres +de Frederic,_ iii. 34.] Looking intensely into this matter, and putting +things together, Friedrich gets more and more the alarming assurance of +the fate intended him; and that he will verily have to draw sword again, +and fight for Silesia, and as if for life. From about the end of 1743 +(as I strive to compute), there was in Friedrich himself no doubt +left of it; though his Ministers, when he consulted them a good while +afterwards, were quite incredulous, and spent all their strength in +dissuading a new War; now when the only question was, How to do said +War? "How to do it, to make ready for doing it? We must silently select +the ways, the methods: silent, wary,--then at last swift; and the more +like a lion-spring, like a bolt from the blue, it will be the better!" +That is Friedrich's fixed thought. + +The Problem was complicated, almost beyond example. The Reich, with +a Kaiser reduced to such a pass, has its potentialities of help or of +hindrance,--its thousand-fold formulas, inane mostly, yet not inane +wholly, which interlace this matter everywhere, as with real threads, +and with gossamer or apparent threads,--which it is essential to attend +to. Wise head, that could discriminate the dead Formulas of such an +imbroglio, from the not-dead; and plant himself upon the Living Facts +that do lie in the centre there! "We cannot have a Reichs Mediation-Army, +then? Nor a Swabian-Franconian Army, to defend their own frontier?" +No; it is evident, none. "And there is no Union of Princes possible; no +Party, anywhere, that will rise to support the Kaiser whom all Germany +elected; whom Austria and foreign England have insulted, ruined and +officially designated as non-extant?" Well, not quite No, none; YES +perhaps, in some small degree,--if Prussia will step out, with drawn +sword, and give signal. The Reich has its potentialities, its formulas +not quite dead; but is a sad imbroglio. + +Definite facts again are mainly twofold, and of a much more central +nature. Fact FIRST: A France which sees itself lamentably trodden into +the mud by such disappointments and disgraces; which, on proposing +peace, has met insult and invasion;--France will be under the necessity +of getting to its feet, and striking for itself; and indeed is visibly +rising into something of determination to do it:--there, if Prussia and +the Kaiser are to be helped at all, there lies the one real help. Fact +SECOND: Friedrich's feelings for the poor Kaiser and the poor insulted +Reich, of which Friedrich is a member. Feelings, these, which are not +"feigned" (as the English say), but real, and even indignant; and +about these he can speak and plead freely. For himself and his Silesia, +THROUGH the Kaiser, Friedrich's feelings are pungently real;--and they +are withal completely adjunct to the other set of feelings, and go +wholly to intensifying of them; the evident truth being, That neither he +nor his Silesia would be in danger, were the Kaiser safe. + +Friedrich's abstruse diplomacies, and delicate motions and handlings +with the Reich, that is to say, with the Kaiser and the Kaiser's few +friends in the Reich, and then again with the French,--which lasted for +eight or nine months before closure (October, 1743 to June, 1744),--are +considered to have been a fine piece of steering in difficult waters; +but would only weary the reader, who is impatient for results and +arrivals. Ingenious Herr Professor Ranke,--whose HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH +consists mainly of such matter excellently done, and offers mankind a +wondrously distilled "ASTRAL SPIRIT," or ghost-like fac-simile (elegant +gray ghost, with stars dim-twinkling through), of Friedrich's and other +people's Diplomatizings in this World,--will satisfy the strongest +diplomatic appetite; and to him we refer such as are given that way. +[Ranke, _Neun Bucher Preussischer Geschichte,_ iii. 74-137.]' "France +and oneself, as SUBSTANCE of help; but, for many reasons, give it +carefully a legal German FORM or coat:" that is Friedrich's method as +to finding help. And he diligently prosecutes it;--and, what is still +luckier, strives to be himself at all points ready, and capable of doing +with a minimum of help from others. + +Before the Year 1743 was out, Friedrich had got into serious Diplomatic +Colloquy with France; suggesting, urging, proposing, hypothetically +promising. "February 21st, 1744," he secretly despatched Rothenburg to +Paris; who, in a shining manner, consults not only with the Amelots, +Belleisles, but with the Chateauroux herself (who always liked +Friedrich), and with Louis XV. in person: and triumphantly brings +matters to a bearing. Ready here, on the French side; so soon as your +Reich Interests are made the most of; so soon as your Patriotic "Union +of Reich's Princes" is ready! In March, 1744, the Reich side of the +Affair was likewise getting well forward ("we keep it mostly secret from +the poor Kaiser, who is apt to blab"):--and on May 22d, 1744, Friedrich, +with the Kaiser and Two other well-affected Parties (only two as yet, +but we hope for more, and invite all and sundry), sign solemnly +their "UNION OF FRANKFURT;" famous little Fourfold outcome of so much +diplomatizing. [Ranke, ubi supra (Treaty is in Adelung, iv. 103-105).] +For the well-affected Parties, besides Friedrich, and the Kaiser +himself, were as yet Two only: Landgraf Wilhelm of Hessen-Cassel, +disgusted with the late Carteret astucities at Hanau, he is one (and +hires, by and by, his poor 6,000 Hessians to the French and Kaiser, +instead of to the English; which is all the help HE can give); Landgraf +Wilhelm, and for sole second to him the new Kur-Pfalz, who also has men +to hire. New Kur-Pfalz: our poor OLD friend is dead; but here is a +new one, Karl Philip Theodor by name, of whom we shall hear again long +afterwards; who was wedded (in the Frankfurt-Coronation time, as readers +might have noted) to a Grand-daughter of the old, and who is, like the +old, a Hereditary Cousin of the Kaiser's, and already helps him all he +can. + +Only these Two as yet, though the whole Reich is invited to join; these, +along with Friedrich and the Kaiser himself, do now, in their general +Patriotic "Union," which as yet consists only of Four, covenant, in Six +Articles, To,--in brief, to support Teutschland's oppressed Kaiser in +his just rights and dignities; and to do, with the House of Austria, +"all imaginable good offices" (not the least whisper of fighting) +towards inducing said high House to restore to the Kaiser his +Reichs-Archives, his Hereditary Countries, his necessary Imperial +Furnishings, called for by every law human and divine:--in which +endeavor, or innocently otherwise, if any of the contracting parties +be attacked, the others will guarantee him, and strenuously help. "All +imaginable good offices;" nothing about fighting anywhere,--still less +is there the least mention of France; total silence on that head, by +Friedrich's express desire. But in a Secret Article (to which France, +you may be sure, will accede), it is intimated, "That the way of good +offices having some unlikelihoods, it MAY become necessary to take arms. +In which tragic case, they will, besides Hereditary Baiern (which is +INalienable, fixed as the rocks, by Reichs-Law), endeavor to conquer, +to reconquer for the Kaiser, his Kingdom of Bohmen withal, as a proper +Outfit for Teutschland's Chief: and that, if so, his Prussian Majesty +(who will have to do said conquest) shall, in addition to his Schlesien, +have from it the Circles of Konigsgratz, Bunzlau and Leitmeritz for his +trouble." This is the Treaty of Union, Secret-Article and all; done at +Frankfurt-on-Mayn, 22d May, 1744. + +Done then and there; but no part of it made public, till August +following, ["22d August 1744, by the Kaiser" (Adelung, iv. 154.)] (when +the upshot had come); and the Secret Bohemian Article NOT then made +public, nor ever afterwards,--much the contrary; though it was true +enough, but inconvenient to confess, especially as it came to nothing. +"A hypothetical thing, that," says Friedrich carelessly; "wages moderate +enough, and proper to be settled beforehand, though the work was never +done." To reach down quite over the Mountains, and have the Elbe for +Silesian Frontier: this, as an occasional vague thought, or day-dream +in high moments, was probably not new to Friedrich; and would have been +very welcome to him,--had it proved realizable, which it did not. That +this was "Friedrich's real end in going to War again," was at one time +the opinion loudly current in England and other uninformed quarters; +"but it is not now credible to anybody," says Herr Ranke; nor indeed +worth talking of, except as a memento of the angry eclipses, and +temporary dust-clouds, which rise between Nations, in an irritated +uninformed condition. + +Rapidly progressive in the rear of all this, which was its legalizing +German COAT, the French Treaty, which was the interior SUBSTANCE, or +muscular tissue, perfected itself under Rothenburg; and was signed June +5th, 1774 (anniversary, by accident, of that First Treaty of all, +"June 5th, 1741");--sanctioning, by France, that Bohemian Adventure, if +needful; minutely setting forth How, and under what contingencies, what +efforts made and what successes arrived at, on the part of France, his +Prussian Majesty shall take the field; and try Austria, not "with all +imaginable good offices" longer, but with harder medicine. Of which +Treaty we shall only say farther, commiserating our poor readers, That +Friedrich considerably MORE than kept his side of it; and France very +considerably LESS than hers. So that, had not there been punctual +preparation at all points, and good self-help in Friedrich, Friedrich +had come out of this new Adventure worse than he did! + +Long months ago, the French--as preliminary and rigorous SINE QUA NON to +these Friedrich Negotiations--had actually started work, by "declaring +War on Austria, and declaring War on England:"--Not yet at War, then, +after so much killing? Oh no, reader; mere "Allies" of Belligerents, +hitherto. These "Declarations" the French had made; [War on England, +15th March, 1744; on Austria, 27th April (Adelung, iv. 78, 90).] and the +French were really pushing forward, in an attitude of indignant +energy, to execute the same. As shall be noticed by and by. And +through Rothenburg, through Schmettau, by many channels, Friedrich is +assiduously in communication with them; encouraging, advising, urging; +their affairs being in a sort his, ever since the signing of those +mutual Engagements, May 22d, June 5th. And now enough of that hypothetic +Diplomatic stuff. + +War lies ahead, inevitable to Friedrich. He has gradually increased his +Army by 18,000; inspection more minute and diligent than ever, has been +quietly customary of late; Walrave's fortification works, impregnable or +nearly so, the work at Neisse most of all, Friedrich had resolved to SEE +completed,--before that French Treaty were signed. A cautious young man, +though a rapid; vividly awake on all sides. And so the French-Austrian, +French-English game shall go on; the big bowls bounding and rolling +(with velocities, on courses, partly computable to a quick eye);--and at +the right instant, and juncture of hits, not till that nor after that, a +quick hand shall bowl in; with effect, as he ventures to hope. He +knows well, it is a terrible game. But it is a necessary one, not to +be despaired of; it is to be waited for with closed lips, and played to +one's utmost!-- + + + + +Chapter VIII.--PERFECT PEACE AT BERLIN, WAR ALL ROUND. + +Friedrich, with the Spectre of inevitable War daily advancing on him, to +him privately evident and certain if as yet to him only, neglects in no +sort the Arts and business of Peace, but is present, always with vivid +activity, in the common movement, serious or gay and festive, as the day +brings it. During these Winter months of 1743, and still more through +Summer 1744, there are important War-movements going on,--the French +vehemently active again, the Austrians nothing behindhand,--which will +require some slight notice from us soon. But in Berlin, alongside of +all this, it is mere common business, diligent as ever, alternating with +Carnival gayeties, with marryings, givings in marriage; in Berlin there +goes on, under halcyon weather, the peaceable tide of things, sometimes +in a high fashion, as if Berlin and its King had no concern with the +foreign War. + +The Plauen Canal, an important navigation-work, canal of some thirty +miles, joining Havel to Elbe in a convenient manner, or even joining +Oder to Elbe, is at its busiest:--"it was begun June 1st, 1743 [all +hands diligently digging there, June 27th, while some others of us were +employed at Dettingen,--think of it!], and was finished June 5th, 1745." +[Busching, _Erdbeschreibung,_ vi. 2192.] This is one of several such +works now afoot. Take another miscellaneous item or two. + +January, 1744, Friedrich appoints, and briefly informs all his People of +it, That any Prussian subject who thinks himself aggrieved, may come and +tell his story to the King's own self: ["January, 1744" (Rodenbeck, i. +98).]--better have his story in firm succinct state, I should imagine, +and such that it will hold water, in telling it to the King! But the +King is ready to hear him; heartily eager to get justice done him. A +suitable boon, such Permission, till Law-Reform take effect. And after +Law-Reform had finished, it was a thing found suitable; and continued to +the end,--curious to a British reader to consider! + +Again: on Friedrich's birthday, 24th January, 1744, the new Academy +of Sciences had, in the Schloss of Berlin, its first Session. But of +this,--in the absence of Maupertuis, Flattener of the Earth, who is +still in France, since that Mollwitz adventure; by and for behoof of +whom, when he did return, and become "Perpetual First President," many +changes were made,--I will not speak at present. Nor indeed afterwards, +except on good chance rising;--the new Academy, with its Perpetual First +President, being nothing like so sublime an object now, to readers and +me, as it then was to itself and Perpetual President and Royal Patron! +Vapid Formey is Perpetual Secretary; more power to him, as the Irish +say. Poor Goldstick Pollnitz is an Honorary Member;--absent at this time +in Baireuth, where those giggling Marwitzes of Wilhelmina's have been +contriving a marriage for the old fool. Of which another word soon: if +we have time. Time cannot be spent on those dim small objects: but there +are two Marriages of a high order, of purport somewhat Historical; there +is Barberina the Dancer, throwing a flash through the Operatic and some +other provinces: let us restrict ourselves to these, and the like of +these, and be brief upon them. + + + +THE SUCCESSION IN RUSSIA, AND ALSO IN SWEDEN, SHALL NOT BE HOSTILE TO +US: TWO ROYAL MARRIAGES, A RUSSIAN AND A SWEDISH, ARE ACCOMPLISHED AT +BERLIN, WITH SUCH VIEW. + +Marriage First, of an eminently Historical nature, is altogether +Russian, or German become Russian, though Friedrich is much concerned in +it. We heard of the mad Swedish-Russian War; and how Czarina Elizabeth +was kind enough to choose a Successor to the old childless Swedish +King,--Landgraf of Hessen-Cassel by nature; who has had a sorry time in +Sweden, but kept merry and did not mind it much, poor old soul. Czarina +Elizabeth's one care was, That the Prince of Denmark should not be +chosen to succeed, as there was talk of his being: Sweden, Denmark, +Norway, all grasped in one firm hand (as in the old "Union-of-Calmar" +times, only with better management), might be dangerous to Russia. +"Don't choose him of Denmark!" said Elizabeth, the victorious Czarina; +and made it a condition of granting Peace, and mostly restoring Finland, +to the infatuated Swedes. The person they did choose,--satisfactory +to the Czarina, and who ultimately did become King of Sweden,--was +one Adolf Friedrich; a Holstein-Gottorp Prince, come of Royal kin, and +cousinry to Karl XII.: he is "Bishop of Lubeck" or of Eutin, so styled; +now in his thirty-third year; and at least drawing the revenues of that +See, though I think, not ecclesiastically given, but living oftener in +Hamburg, the then fashionable resort of those Northern Grandees. On the +whole, a likely young gentleman; accepted by parties concerned;--and +surely good enough for the Office as it now is. Of whom, for a reason +coming, let readers take note, in this place. + +Above a year before this time, Czarina Elizabeth, a provident female, +and determined not to wed, had pitched upon her own Successor: [7th +November, 1742 (Michaelis, ii. 627).] one Karl Peter Ulrich; who was +also of the same Holstein-Gottorp set, though with Russian blood in him. +His Grandfather was full cousin, and chosen comrade, to Karl XII.; got +killed in Karl's Russian Wars; and left a poor Son dependent on Russian +Peter the Great,--who gave him one of his Daughters; whence this Karl +Peter Ulrich, an orphan, dear to his Aunt the Czarina. A Karl Peter +Ulrich, who became tragically famous as Czar Peter Federowitz, or Czar +Peter III., in the course of twenty years! His Father and Mother +are both dead; loving Aunt has snatched the poor boy out of +Holstein-Gottorp, which is a narrow sphere, into Russia, which is wide +enough; she has had him converted to the Greek Church, named him Peter +Federowitz, Heir and Successor;--and now, wishing to see him married, +has earnestly consulted Friedrich upon it. + +Friedrich is decidedly interested; would grudge much to see an +Anti-Prussian Princess, for instance a Saxon Princess (one of whom is +said to Be trying), put into this important station! After a little +thought, he fixes,--does the reader know upon whom? Readers perhaps, +here and there, have some recollection of a Prussian General, who +is Titular Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst on his own score; and is actual +Commandant of Stettin in Friedrich's service, and has done a great deal +of good fortification there and other good work. Instead of Titular, +he has now lately, by decease of an Elder Brother, become Actual or +Semi-Actual (a Brother joined with him in the poor Heirship); lives +occasionally in the Schloss of Zerbst; but is glad to retain Stettin as +a solid supplement. His Wife, let the reader note farther, is Sister +to the above-mentioned Adolf Friedrich, "Bishop of Lubeck," now +Heir-Apparent to Sweden,--in whom, as will soon appear, we are otherwise +interested. Wife seems to me an airy flighty kind of lady, high-paced, +not too sure-paced,--weak evidently in French grammar, and perhaps in +human sense withal:--but they have a Daughter, Sophie-Frederike, now +near fifteen, and very forward for her age; comely to look upon, wise to +listen to: "Is not she the suitable one?" thinks Friedrich, in regard to +this matter. "Her kindred is of the oldest, old as Albert the Bear; +she has been frugally brought up, Spartan-like, though as a Princess +by birth: let her cease skipping ropes on the ramparts yonder, with +her young Stettin playmates; and prepare for being a Czarina of the +Russias," thinks he. And communicates his mind to the Czarina; who +answers, "Excellent! How did I never think of that myself?" + +And so, on or about New-year's day, 1744, while the Commandant of +Stettin and his airy Spouse are doing Christmas at their old Schloss +of Zerbst, there suddenly come Estafettes; Expresses from Petersburg, +heralded by Express from Friedrich:--with the astonishing proposal, +"Czarina wishing the honor of a visit from Madam and Daughter; no doubt, +with such and such intentions in the rear." [Friedrich's Letters to +Madam of Zerbst (date of the first of them, 30th December, 1743), in +_OEuvres,_ xxv. 579-589.] Madam, nor Daughter, is nothing loath;--the +old Commandant grumbles in his beard, not positively forbidding: and +in this manner, after a Letter or two in imperfect grammar, Madam and +Daughter appear in Carnival society at Berlin, charming objects +both; but do not stay long; in fact, stay only till their moneys and +arrangements are furnished them. Upon which, in all silence, they make +for Petersburg, for Moscow; travel rapidly, arrive successfully, in +spite of the grim season. ["At Moscow, 7th (18th) February, 1744."] +Conversion to the Greek Religion, change of name from Sophie-Frederike +to Catherine-Alexiewna ("Let it be Catherine," said Elizabeth, "my dear +mother's name!"--little brown Czarina's, whom we have seen):--all this +was completed by the 12th of July following. And, in fine, next +year (September 1st, 1745), Peter Federowitz and this same +Catherine-Alexiewna, second-cousins by blood, were vouchsafed the +Nuptial Benediction, and, with invocation of the Russian Heaven +and Russian Earth, were declared to be one flesh, [Ranke, iii. 129; +_Memoires de Catherine II._ (Catherine's own very curious bit +of Autobiography;--published by Mr. Herzen, London, 1859), pp. +7-46.]--though at last they turned out to be TWO FLESHES, as my reader +well knows! Some eighteen or nineteen years hence, we may look in upon +them again, if there be a moment to spare. This is Marriage first; a +purely Russian one; built together and launched on its course, so to +say, by Friedrich at Berlin, who had his own interest in it. + +Marriage Second, done at Berlin in the same months, was of still more +interesting sort to Friedrich and us: that of Princess Ulrique to the +above-named Adolf Friedrich, future King of Sweden. Marriage which went +on preparing itself by the side of the other; and was of twin importance +with it in regard to the Russian Question. The Swedish Marriage was not +heard of, except in important whispers, during the Carnival time; but a +Swedish Minister had already come to Berlin on it, and was busy first in +a silent and examining, then in a speaking and proposing way. It seems, +the Czarina herself had suggested the thing, as a counter-politeness +to Friedrich; so content with him at this time. A thing welcome to +Friedrich. And, in due course ("June, 1744"), there comes express +Swedish Embassy, some Rodenskjold or Tessin, with a very shining train +of Swedes, "To demand Princess Ulrique in marriage for our Future King." + +To which there is assent, by no means denial, in the proper quarter. +Whereupon, after the wide-spread necessary fuglings and preliminaries, +there occurs (all by Procuration, Brother August Wilhelm doing the +Bridegroom's part), "July 17th, 1744," the Marriage itself: all done, +this last act, and the foregoing ones and the following, with a grandeur +and a splendor--unspeakable, we may say, in short. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ +ii. 1045-1051.] Fantastic Bielfeld taxes his poor rouged Muse to the +utmost, on this occasion; and becomes positively wearisome, chanting +the upholsteries of life;--foolish fellow, spoiling his bits of facts +withal, by misrecollections, and even by express fictions thrown in as +garnish. So that, beyond the general impression, given in a high-rouged +state, there is nothing to be depended on. One Scene out of his many, +which represents to us on those terms the finale, or actual Departure +of Princess Ulrique, we shall offer,--with corrections (a few, not +ALL);--having nothing better or other on the subject:-- + +"But, in fine, the day of departure did arrive,"--eve of it did: 25th +July, 1744; hour of starting to be 2 A.M. to-morrow. "The King had +nominated Grand-Marshal Graf van Gotter [same Gotter whom we saw at +Vienna once: King had appointed Gotter and two others; not to say +that two of the Princess's Brothers, with her Sister the Margravine of +Schwedt, were to accompany as far as Schwedt: six in all; though one's +poor memory fails one on some occasions!]--to escort the Princess to +Stralsund, where two Swedish Senators and different high Lords and +Ladies awaited her. Her Majesty the Queen-Mother, judging by the +movements of her own heart that the moment of separation would produce +a scene difficult to bear, had ordered an Opera to divert our +chagrin; and, instead of supper, a superb collation EN AMBIGU [kind +of supper-breakfast, I suppose], in the great Hall of the Palace. Her +Majesty's plan was, The Princess, on coming from the Opera, should, +almost on flight, taste a morsel; take her travelling equipment, embrace +her kinsfolk, dash into her carriage, and go off like lightning. +Herr Graf von Gotter was charged with executing this design, and with +hurrying the departure. + +"But all these precautions were vain. The incomparable Ulrique was +too dear to her Family and to her Country, to be parted with forever, +without her meed of tears from them in those cruel instants. On entering +the Opera-Hall, I noticed everywhere prevalent an air of sorrow, of +sombre melancholy. The Princess appeared in Amazon-dress [riding-habit, +say], of rose-color trimmed with silver; the little vest, turned up with +green-blue (CELADON), and collar of the same; a little bonnet, English +fashion, of black velvet, with a white plume to it; her hair floating, +and tied with a rose-colored ribbon. She was beautiful as Love: but this +dress, so elegant, and so well setting off her charms, only the more +sensibly awakened our regrets to lose her; and announced that the hour +was come, in which all this appeared among us for the last time. At the +second act, young Prince Ferdinand [Youngest Brother, Father of the JENA +Ferdinand] entered the Royal Box; and flinging himself on the Princess's +neck with a burst of tears, said, 'Ah, my dear Ulrique, it is over, +then; and I shall never see you more!' These words were a signal given +to the grief which was shut in all hearts, to burst forth with the +greatest vehemence. The Princess replied only with sobs; holding her +Brother in her arms. The Two Queens could not restrain their tears; the +Princes and Princesses followed the example: grief is epidemical; it +gained directly all the Boxes of the first rank, where the Court and +Nobility were. Each had his own causes of regret, and each melted into +tears. Nobody paid the least attention farther to the Opera; and for my +own share, I was glad to see it end. + +"An involuntary movement took me towards the Palace. I entered the +King's Apartments, and found the Royal Family and part of the Court +assembled. Grief had reached its height; everybody had his handkerchief +out; and I witnessed emotions quite otherwise affecting than those that +Theatric Art can produce. The King had composed an Ode on the Princess's +departure; bidding her his last adieus in the most tender and touching +manner. It begins with these words:-- + + 'Partez, ma Soeur, partez; + La Suede vous attend, la Suede + vous desire,' + 'Go, my Sister, go; + + Sweden waits you, Sweden + wishes you. + [Does not now exist (see OEuvres de Frederic, + xiv. 88, and ib. PREFACE p. xv).] + +His Majesty gave it her at the moment when she was about to take leave +of the Two Queens. [No, Monsieur, not then; it came to her hand the +second evening hence, at Schwedt; [Her own Letter to Friedrich (_OEuvres +de Frederic,_ xxvii. 372; "Schwedt, 28th July, 1744").] most likely not +yet written at the time you fabulously give;--you foolish fantast, and +"artist" of the SHAM-kind!]--The Princess threw her eyes on it, and fell +into a faint [No, you Sham, not for IT]: the King had almost done the +like. His tears flowed abundantly. The Princes and Princesses were +overcome with sorrow. At last, Gotter judged it time to put an end to +this tragic scene. He entered the Hall, almost like Boreas in the +Ballet of THE ROSE; that is to say, with a crash. He made one or two +whirlwinds; clove the press, and snatched away the Princess from the +arms of the Queen-Mother, took her in his own, and whisked her out of +the Hall. All the world followed; the carriages were waiting in the +court; and the Princess in a moment found herself in hers. I was in such +a state, I know not how we got down stairs; I remember only that it was +in a concert of lamentable sobbings. Madam the Margrafin von Schwedt, +who had been named to attend the Princess to Stralsund [read Schwedt] on +the Swedish frontier, this high Lady and the two Dames d'Atours who were +for Sweden itself, having sprung into the same carriage, the door of +it was shut with a slam; the postillions cracked, the carriage shot +away,--and hid the adorable Ulrique from the eyes of King and Court, +who remained motionless for some minutes, overcome by their feelings." +[Bielfeld, ii. 107-110.] + +We said this Marriage was like the other, important for Public Affairs. +In fact, security on the Russian and Swedish side is always an object +with Friedrich when undertaking war. "That the French bring about, help +me to bring about, a Triple Alliance of Prussia, Russia, Sweden:" this +was a thing Friedrich had bargained to see done, before joining in the +War ahead: but by these Two Espousals Friedrich hopes he has himself as +good as done it. Of poor Princess Ulrique and her glorious reception +in Sweden (after near miss of shipwreck, in the Swedish Frigate from +Stralsund), we shall say nothing more at present: except that her +glories, all along, were much dashed by chagrins, and dangerous +imminencies of shipwreck,--which latter did not quite overtake HER, +but did her sons and grandsons, being inevitable or nearly so, in that +element, in the course of time. + +Sister Amelia, whom some thought disappointed, as perhaps, in her +foolish thought, she might a little be, was made Abbess of Quedlinburg, +which opulent benefice had fallen vacant; and, there or at Berlin, lived +a respectable Spinster-life, doubtless on easier terms than Ulrique's. +Always much loved by her Brother, and loving him (and "taking care of +his shirts," in the final times); noted in society, for her sharp tongue +and ways. Concerning whom Thiebault and his Trenck romances are worth +no notice,--if it be not with horsewhips on opportunity. SCANDALUM +MAGNATUM, where your Magnates are NOT fallen quite counterfeit, was and +is always (though few now reflect on it) a most punishable crime. + + + + +GLANCE AT THE BELLIGERENT POWERS; BRITANNIC MAJESTY NARROWLY MISSES AN +INVASION THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN DANGEROUS + +Princess Ulrique was hardly yet home in Sweden, when her Brother had +actually gone forth upon the Wars again! So different is outside from +interior, now and then. "While the dancing and the marriage-festivities +went on at Court, we, in private, were busily completing the +preparations for a Campaign," dreamed of by no mortal, "which was on the +point of being opened." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 41.] July 2d, three +weeks before Princess Ulrique left, a certain Adventure of Prince +Karl's in the Rhine Countries had accomplished itself (of which in the +following Book); and Friedrich could discern clearly that the moment +drew rapidly nigh. + +On the French side of the War, there has been visible--since those high +attempts of Britannic George and the Hungarian Majesty, contumeliously +spurning the Peace offered them, and grasping evidently at one's +Lorraines, Alsaces, and Three Bishoprics--a marked change; comfortable +to look at from Friedrich's side. Most Christian Majesty, from the +sad bent attitude of insulted repentance, has started up into the +perpendicular one of indignation: "Come on, then!"--and really makes +efforts, this Year, quite beyond expectation. "Oriflamme enterprises, +private intentions of cutting Germany in Four; well, have not I smarted +for them; as good as owned they were rather mad? But to have my apology +spit upon; but to be myself publicly cut in pieces for them?" + +March 15th, 1744, Most Christian Majesty did, as we saw, duly declare War +against England; against Austria, April 26th: "England," he says, "broke +its Convention of Neutrality (signed 27th September, 1741); broke said +Convention [as was very natural, no term being set] directly after +Maillebois was gone; England, by its Mediterranean Admirals and the +like, has, to a degree beyond enduring, insulted the French coasts, +harbors and royal Navy: We declare War on England." And then, six weeks +hence, in regard to Austria: "Austria, refusing to make Peace with +a virtuous Kaiser, whom we, for the sake of peace, had magnanimously +helped, and then magnanimously ceased to help;--Austria refuses peace +with him or us; on the contrary, Austria attempts, and has attempted, +to invade France itself: We therefore, on and from this 26th of April, +1744, let the world note it, are at War with Austria." [In _Adelung,_ +iv. 78, 90, the two Manifestoes given.] Both these promises to Friedrich +are punctually performed. + +Nor, what is far more important, have the necessary preparations +been neglected; but are on a quite unheard-of scale. Such taxing and +financiering there has been, last Winter:--tax on your street-lamp, on +your fire-wood, increased excise on meat and eatables of all kinds: Be +patient, ye poor; consider GLOIRE, and an ORIFLAMME so trampled on by +the Austrian Heathen! Eatables, street-lamps, do I say? There is 36,000 +pounds, raised by a tax on--well, on GARDEROBES (not translated)! +A small help, but a help: NON OLET, NON OLEAT. To what depths has +Oriflamme come down!--The result is, this Spring of 1744, indignant +France does, by land, and even by sea, make an appearance calculated +to astonish Gazetteers and men. Land-forces 160,000 actually on foot: +80,000 (grows at last into 100,000, for a little while) as "Army of the +Netherlands,"--to prick into Austria, and astonish England and the Dutch +Barrier, in that quarter. Of the rest, 20,000 under Conti are for +Italy; 60,000 (by degrees 40,000) under Coigny for defence of the Rhine +Countries, should Prince Karl, as is surmisable, make new attempts +there. [Adelung, iv. 78; Espagnac, ii. 3.] + +And besides all this, there are Two strong Fleets, got actually +launched, not yet into the deep sea, but ready for it: one in Toulon +Harbor, to avenge those Mediterranean insults; and burst out, in concert +with an impatient Spanish Fleet (which has lain blockaded here for a +year past), on the insolent blockading English: which was in some sort +done. ["19th February, 1744," French and Spanish Fleets run out; 22d +Feb. are attacked by Matthews and Lestock; are rather beaten, not beaten +nearly enough (Matthews and Lestock blaming one another, Spaniards and +French ditto, ditto: Adelung, iv. 32-35); with the endless janglings, +correspondings, court-martialings that ensue (Beatson, _Naval and +Military Memoirs,_ i. 197 et seqq.; _Gentleman's Magazine,_ and Old +Newspapers, for 1744; &c. &c.).] The other strong Fleet, twenty sail of +the line, under Admiral Roquefeuille, is in Brest Harbor,--intended for +a still more delicate operation; of which anon. Surely King Friedrich +ought to admit that these are fine symptoms? King Friedrich has freely +done so, all along; intending to strike in at the right moment. Let us +see, a little, how things have gone; and how the right moment has been +advancing in late months. + +JANUARY 17th, 1744, There landed at Antibes on French soil a young +gentleman, by name "Conte di Spinelli," direct from Genoa, from Rome; +young gentleman seemingly of small importance, but intrinsically +of considerable; who hastened off for Paris, and there disappeared. +Disappeared into subterranean consultations with the highest Official +people; intending reappearance with emphasis at Dunkirk, a few weeks +hence, in much more emphatic posture. And all through February there +is observable a brisk diligence of War-preparation, at Dunkirk: +transport-ships in quantity, finally four war-ships; 15,000 chosen +troops, gradually marching in; nearly all on board, with their +equipments, by the end of the month. + +Clearly an Invading Army intended somewhither, England judges too well +whither. Anti-English Armament; to be led by, whom thinks the reader? +That same "Conte di Spinelli," who is Charles Edward the Young +Pretender,--Comte de Saxe commanding under him! This is no fable; it is +a fact, somewhat formidable; brought about, they say, by one Cardinal +Tencin, an Official Person of celebrity in the then Versailles world; +who owes his red hat (whatever such debt really be) to old Jacobite +influence, exerted for him at Rome; and takes this method of paying +his debt and his court at once. Gets, namely, his proposal, of a +Charles-Edward Invasion of England, to dovetail in with the other wide +artilleries now bent on little George in the way we see. Had not little +George better have stayed at home out of these Pragmatic Wars? Fifteen +thousand, aided by the native Jacobite hosts, under command of Saxe,--a +Saxe against a Wade is fearful odds,--may make some figure in England! +We hope always they will not be able to land. Imagination may conceive +the flurry, if not of Britannic mankind, at least of Britannic Majesty +and his Official People, and what a stir and din they made:--of which +this is the compressed upshot. + +"SATURDAY, 1st MARCH, 1744. For nearly a week past, there has been seen +hanging about in the Channel, and dangerously hovering to and fro [had +entered by the Land's-End, was first noticed on Sunday last "nigh the +Eddistone"] a considerable French Fleet, sixteen great ships; with four +or five more, probably belonging to it, which now lie off Dunkirk: the +intention of which is too well known in high quarters. This is the grand +Brest Fleet, Admiral Roquefeuille's; which believes it can command the +Channel, in present circumstances, the English Channel-Fleets being in +a disjoined condition,--till Comte de Saxe, with his Charles-Edward +and 15,000, do ship themselves across! Great alarm in consequence; our +War-forces, 40,000 of them, all in Germany; not the least preparation +to receive an Invasive Armament. Comte de Saxe is veritably at Dunkirk, +since Saturday, March 1st: busy shipping his 15,000; equipments +mostly shipped, and about 10,000 of the men: all is activity there; +Roquefeuille hanging about Dungeness, with four of his twenty great +ships detached for more immediate protection of Saxe and those Dunkirk +industries. To meet which, old Admiral Norris, off and on towards the +Nore and the Forelands, has been doing his best to rally force about +him; hopes he will now be match for Roquefeuille:--but if he should not? + +"THURSDAY, 6th MARCH. Afternoon of March 5th, old Admiral Norris, hoping +he was at length in something like equality, 'tided it round the +South Foreland;' saw Roquefeuille hanging, in full tale, within few +miles;--and at once plunged into him? No, reader; not at once, nor +indeed at all. A great sea-fight was expected; but our old Norris +thought it late in the day;--and, in effect, no fight proved needful. +Daylight was not yet sunk, when there rose from the north-eastward a +heavy gale; blew all night, and by six next morning was a raging storm; +had blown Roquefeuille quite away out of those waters (fractions of +him upon the rocks of Guernsey); had tumbled Comte de Saxe's Transports +bottom uppermost (so to speak), in Dunkirk Roads;--and, in fact, +had blown the Enterprise over the horizon, and relieved the Official +Britannic mind in the usual miraculous manner. + +"M. le Comte de Saxe--who had, by superhuman activity, saved nearly +all his men, in that hideous topsy-turvy of the Transports and +munitions--returned straightway, and much more M. le Comte de Spinelli +with him, to Paris. Comte de Saxe was directly thereupon made Marechal +de France; appointed to be Colleague of Noailles in the ensuing +Netherlands Campaign. 'Comte de Spinelli went to lodge with his +Uncle, the Cardinal Grand-Almoner Fitz-James' [a zealous gentleman, +of influence with the Holy Father], and there in privacy to wait other +chances that might rise. 'The 1,500 silver medals, that had been struck +for distribution in Great Britain,' fell, for this time, into the +melting-pot again. [Tindal, xxi. 22 (mostly a puddle of inaccuracies, +as usual); Espagnac, i. 213; _ Gentleman's Magazine,_ xiv. 106, &c.; +Barbier, ii. 382, 385, 388.] + +"Great stir, in British Parliament and Public, there had latterly been +on this matter: Arrestment of suspected persons, banishment of all +Catholics ten miles from London; likewise registering of horses (to +gallop with cannon whither wanted); likewise improvising of cavalry +regiments by persons of condition, 'Set our plush people on our +coach-horses; there!' [Yes, THERE will be a Cavalry,--inferior to +General Ziethen's!]; and were actually drilling them in several places, +when that fortunate blast of storm (March 6th) blew everything to +quiet again. Field-marshal Earl of Stair, in regard to the Scottish +populations, had shown a noble magnanimity; which was recognized: and a +General Sir John Cope rode off, post-haste, to take the chief command +in that Country;--where, in about eighteen months hence, he made a +very shining thing of it!"--Take this other Cutting from the Old +Newspapers:-- + +"FRIDAY, 31st (20th) MARCH, 1744, A general press began for recruiting +his Majesty's regiments, and manning the Fleet; when upwards of 1,000 +men were secured in the jails of London and Westminster; being allowed +sixpence a head per diem, by the Commissioners of the Land-tax, who +examine them, and send those away that are found fit for his Majesty's +service. The same method was taken in each County." Press ceases; +enough being got,--press no more till farther order: 5th (16th) June. +[_Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1744, pp. 226, 333.] + +Britannic Majesty shaken by such omens, does not in person visit Germany +at all this Year; nor, by his Deputies, at all shine on the fields of +War as lately. He, his English and he, did indeed come down with their +cash in a prompt and manful manner, but showed little other activity +this year. Their troops were already in the Netherlands, since Winter +last; led now by a Field-marshal Wade, of whom one has heard; to whom +joined themselves certain Austrians, under Duc d'Ahremberg, and certain +Dutch, under some other man in cocked-hat: the whole of whom, under +Marshal Wade's chief guidance, did as good as nothing whatever. +"Inferior in force!" cried Marshal Wade; an indolent incompetent old +gentleman, frightful to see in command of troops: "inferior in force!" +cried he, which was not at first quite the case. And when, by additions +to himself, and deductions (of a most unexpected nature) from his Enemy, +he had become nearly double in force, it was all the same: Marshal Wade +(against whom indeed was Marechal de Saxe, now in sole command, as we +shall see) took shelter in safe places, witnessing therefrom the swift +destruction of the Netherlands, and would attempt nothing. Which indeed +was perhaps prudent on the Marshal's part. Much money was spent, and men +enough did puddle themselves to death on the clay roads, or bivouacking +in the safe swamps; but not the least stroke of battle was got out of +them under this old Marshal. Had perhaps "a divided command, though +nominal Chief," poor old gentleman;--yes, and a head that understood +nothing of his business withal. One of those same astonishing "Generals" +of the English, now becoming known in Natural History; the like of whom, +till within these hundred and fifty years, were not heard of among sane +Nations. Saxe VERSUS Wade is fearful odds. To judge by the way Saxe +has of handling Wade, may not we thank Heaven that it was not HERE +in England the trial came on! Lift up both your hands, and bless--not +General Wade, quite yet. + + + + +THE YOUNG DUKE OF WURTEMBERG GETS A VALEDICTORY ADVICE; AND POLLNITZ A +DITTO TESTIMONIAL (February 6th; April 1st, 1744). + +February 7th, 1744, Karl Eugen, the young Duke of Wurtemberg,--Friedrich +having got, from the Kaiser, due Dispensation (VENIA AETATIS) for +the young gentleman, and had him declared Duke Regnant, though only +sixteen,--quitted Berlin with great pomp, for his own Country, on that +errand. Friedrich had hoped hereby to settle the Wurtemberg matters on +a good footing, and be sure of a friend in Wurtemberg to the Kaiser and +himself. Which hope, like everybody's hopes about this young gentleman, +was entirely disappointed; said young gentleman having got into +perverse, haughty, sulky, ill-conditioned ways, and made a bad Life and +Reign of it,--better to lie mostly hidden from us henceforth, at least +for many years to come. The excellent Parting Letter which Friedrich +gave him got abroad into the world; was christened the MIRROR OF +PRINCES, and greatly admired by mankind. It is indeed an almost +faultless Piece of its kind; comprising, in a flowing yet precise way, +with admirable frankness, sincerity, sagacity, succinctness, a Whole +Duty of Regnant Man; [In _OEuvres de Frederic,_ ix. 4-7.]--but I fear it +would only weary the reader; perfect ADVICE having become so plentiful +in our Epoch, with little but "pavement" to a certain Locality the +consequence!--There is, of the same months, a TESTIMONIAL TO POLLNITZ, +which also got abroad and had its celebrity: this, as specimen of +Friedrich on the comic side, will perhaps be less afflicting; and it +will rid us of Pollnitz, poor soul, on handsome terms. + +Goldstick Pollnitz is at Baireuth in these months; fallen quite +disconsolate since we last heard of him. His fine marriage went +awry,--rich lady, very wisely, drawing back;--and the foolish old +creature has decided on REchanging his religion; which he has changed +already thrice or so, in his vagabond straits; for the purpose of +"retiring to a convent" this time. Friedrich, in candid brief manner, +rough but wise, and not without some kindness for an old dog one is +used to, has answered, "Nonsense; that will never do!" But Pollnitz +persisting; formally demanding leave to demit, and lay down the +goldstick, with that view,--Friedrich does at length send him +Certificate of Leave; "which is drawn out with all the forms, and was +despatched through Eichel to the proper Board;" but which bears +date APRIL FIRST, and though officially valid, is of quizzical +nature:---perhaps already known to some readers; having got into the +Newspapers, and widely abroad, at a subsequent time. As authentic sample +of Friedrich in that kind, here it accurately is, with only one or two +slight abridgments, which are indicated:-- + +"Whereas the Baron de Pollnitz, born at Berlin [at Koln, if it made any +matter], of honest parents so far as We know,--after having served +Our Grandfather as Gentleman of the Chamber, Madam d'Orleans [wicked +Regent's Mother, a famed German Lady] in the same rank, the King of +Spain in quality of Colonel, the deceased Kaiser in that of Captain of +Horse, the Pope as Chamberlain, the Duke of Brunswick as Chamberlain, +Duke of Weimar as Ensign, our Father as Chamberlain, and, in fine, Us as +Grand Master of the Ceremonies,"--has, in spite of such accumulation +of honors, become disgusted with the world; and requests a Parting +Testimony, to support his good reputation,-- + +"We, remembering his important services to the House, in diverting for +nine years long the late King our Father, and doing the honors of our +Court during the now Reign, cannot refuse such request; but do hereby +certify, That the said Baron has never assassinated, robbed on the +highway, poisoned, forcibly cut purses, or done other atrocity or legal +crime at our Court; but has always maintained gentlemanly behavior, +making not more than honest use of the industry and talents he has +been endowed with at birth; imitating the object of the Drama, that +is, correcting mankind by gentle quizzing; following, in the matter +of sobriety, Boerhaave's counsels; pushing Christian charity so far as +often to make the rich understand that it is more blessed to give than +to receive;--possessing perfectly the anecdotes of our various Mansions, +especially of our worn-out Furnitures; rendering himself, by his merits, +necessary to those who know him; and, with a very bad head, having a +very good heart. + +"Our anger the said Baron never kindled but once,"--in atrociously +violating the grave of an Ancestress (or Step Ancestress) of ours. +[Step-Ancestress was Dorothea, the Great Elector's second Wife; of whom +Pollnitz, in his _Memoirs and Letters,_ repeats the rumor that once she, +perhaps, tried to poison her Stepson Friedrich, First King. (See supra, +vol. v. p. 47).] "But as the loveliest countries have their barren +spots, the beautifulest forms their imperfections, pictures by the +greatest masters their faults, We are willing to cover with the veil of +oblivion those of the said Baron; do hereby grant him, with regret, the +Congee he requires;--and abolish his Office altogether, to blot it +from men's memory, not judging that anybody after the said Baron can be +worthy to fill it." "Done at Potsdam, this 1st of April, 1744. FREDERIC." +[_OEuvres,_ xv. 193.] + +The Office of Grand Master of the Ceremonies was, accordingly, abolished +altogether. But Pollnitz, left loose in this manner, did not gallop +direct, or go at all, into monkhood, as he had expected; but, in fact, +by degrees, crept home to Berlin again; took the subaltern post of +Chamberlain; and there, in the old fashion (straitened in finance, +making loans, retailing anecdotes, not witty but the cause of wit), wore +out life's gray evening; till, about thirty years hence, he died; "died +as he had lived, swindling the very night before his decease," +writes Friedrich; [Letter to Voltaire, 13th August, 1775 (_OEuvres de +Frederic,_ xxiii. 344). See Preuss, v. 241 (URKUNDENBUCH), the Letters +of Friedrich to Pollnitz.] who was always rather kind to the poor old +dog, though bantering him a good deal. + + + + +TWO CONQUESTS FOR PRUSSIA, A GASEOUS AND A SOLID: CONQUEST FIRST, +BARBERINA THE DANCER. + +Early in May, the Berlin public first saw its Barberina dance, and +wrote ecstatic Latin Epigrams about that miracle of nature and art; +[Rodenbeck, pp. 111, 190.]--miracle, alas, not entirely omissible by us. +Here is her Story, as the Books give it; slightly mythical, I judge, in +some of its non-essential parts; but good enough for the subject:-- + +Barberina the Dancer had cost Friedrich some trouble; the pains he took +with her elegant pirouettings and poussettings, and the heavy salary he +gave her, are an unexpected item in his history. He wished to favor the +Arts, yes; but did he reckon Opera-dancing a chief one among them? He +had indeed built an Opera-House, and gave free admissions, supporting +the cost himself; and among his other governings, governed the dancer +and singer troops of that establishment. Took no little trouble about +his Opera:--yet perhaps he privately knew its place, after all. "Wished +to encourage strangers of opulent condition to visit his Capital," say +the cunning ones. It may be so; and, at any rate, he probably wished to +act the King in such matters, and not grudge a little money. He really +loved music, even opera music, and knew that his people loved it; to +the rough natural man, all rhythm, even of a Barberina's feet, may be +didactic, beneficial: do not higgle, let us do what is to be done in a +liberal style. His agent at Venice--for he has agents everywhere on +the outlook for him--reports that here is a Female Dancer of the first +quality, who has shone in London, Paris and the Capital Cities, and +might answer well, but whose terms will probably be dear. "Engage her," +answers Friedrich. And she is engaged on pretty terms; she will be +free in a month or two, and then start. [Zimmermann, _Fragmente uber +Friedrich den Grossen_ (Leipzig, 1790), i. 88-92; Collini, ubi infra; +Denina; &c.: compare Rodenbeck, p. 191.] + +Well;--but Barberina had, as is usual, subsidiary trades to her dancing: +in particular, a young English Gentleman had followed her up and down, +says Zimmermann, and was still here in Venice passionately attached to +her. Which fact, especially which young English gentleman, should have +been extremely indifferent to me, but for a circumstance soon to be +mentioned. The young English gentleman, clear against Barberina's +Prussian scheme, passionately opposes the same, passionately renews his +own offers;--induces Barberina to inform the Prussian agent that she +renounces her engagement in that quarter. Prussian agent answers that it +is not renounceable; that he has legal writing on it, and that it must +be kept. Barberina rises into contumacy, will laugh at all writing and +compulsion. Prussian agent applies to Doge and Senate on the subject, +in his King's name; who answer politely, but do nothing: "How happy +to oblige so great a King; but--" And so it lasts for certain months; +Barberina and the young English gentleman contumacious in Venice, and +Doge and Senate merely wishing we may get her. + +Meanwhile a Venetian Ambassador happens to be passing through Berlin, +in his way to or from some Hyperborean State; arrives at some hotel, +in Berlin;--finds, on the morrow, that his luggage is arrested by Royal +Order; that he, or at least IT, cannot get farther, neither advance +nor return, till Barberina do come. "Impossible, Signor: a bargain is +a bargain; and States ought to have law-courts that enforce contracts +entered into in their territories." The Venetian Doge and Senate do now +lay hold of Barberina; pack her into post-chaises, off towards Berlin, +under the charge of armed men, with the proper transit-papers,--as +it were under the address, "For his Majesty of Prussia, this side +uppermost,"--and thus she actually is conveyed, date or month uncertain, +by Innspruck or the Splugen, I cannot say which, over mountain, over +valley, from country to country, and from stage to stage, till she +arrives at Berlin; Ambassador with baggage having been let go, so soon +as the affair was seen to be safe. + +As for the young English gentleman passionately attached, he followed, +it is understood; faithful, constant as shadow to the sun, always a +stage behind; arrived in Berlin two hours after his Barberina, still +passionately attached; and now, as the rumor goes, was threatening +even to marry her, and so save the matter. Supremely indifferent to +my readers and me. But here now is the circumstance that makes it +mentionable. The young English is properly a young Scotch gentleman; +James Mackenzie the name of him,--a grandson of the celebrated Advocate, +Sir George Mackenzie; and younger Brother of a personage who, as Earl of +Bute, became extremely conspicuous in this Kingdom in after years. That +makes it mentionable,--if only in the shape of MYTH. For Friedrich, +according to rumor, being still like to lose his Dancer in that manner, +warned the young gentleman's friends; and had him peremptorily summoned +home, and the light fantastic toe left free in that respect. Which +procedure the indignant young gentleman (thinks my Author) never +forgave; continuing a hater of Friedrich all his days; and instilling +the same sentiment into the Earl of Bute at a period which was very +critical, as we shall see. This is my Author's, the often fallacious +though not mendacious Dr. Zimmermann's, rather deliberate account; a +man not given to mendacity, though filled with much vague wind, which +renders him fallacious in historical points. + +Readers of Walpole's _George the Third_ know enough of this Mackenzie, +"Earl's Brother, MACKINSY," and the sorrowful difficulties about his +Scotch law-office or benefice; in which matter "Mackinsy" behaves +always in a high way, and only the Ministerial Outs and Inns higgle +pedler-like, vigilant of the Liberties of England, as they call them. In +the end, Mackinsy kept his law-office or got it restored to him; +3,000 pounds a year without excess of work; a man much the gentleman, +according to the rule then current: in contemplative rare moments, the +man, looking back through the dim posterns of the mind, might see afar +off a certain pirouetting Figure, once far from indifferent, and not yet +quite melted into cheerless gray smoke, as so much of the rest is--to +Mr. Mackinsy and us. I have made, in the Scotch Mackenzie circles, what +inquiry was due; find no evidence, but various likelihoods, that this of +the Barberina and him is fact, and a piece of his biography. As to the +inference deduced from it, in regard to Friedrich and the Earl of Bute, +on a critical occasion,--that rests entirely with Zimmermann; and +the candid mind inclines to admit that, probably, it is but rumor and +conjecture; street-dust sticking to the Doctor's shoes, and demanding +merely to be well swept out again. Heigho!-- + +Barberina, though a dancer, did not want for more essential graces. +Very sprightly, very pretty and intelligent; not without piquancy and +pungency: the King himself has been known to take tea with her in mixed +society, though nothing more; and with passionate young gentlemen she +was very successful. Not long after her coming to Berlin, she made +conquest of Cocceji, the celebrated Chancellor's Son; who finding no +other resource, at length privately married her. Voltaire's Collini, +when he came to Berlin, in 1750, recommended by a Signora Sister of the +Barberina's, found the Barberina and her Mother dining daily with this +Cocceji as their guest: [Collini, _Mon Sejour aupres de Voltaire_ (a +Paris, 1807), pp. 13-19.] Signora Barberina privately informed Collini +how the matter was; Signorina still dancing all the same,--though +she had money in the English funds withal; and Friedrich had been so +generous as give her the fixing of her own salary, when she came to +him, this-side-uppermost, in the way we described. She had fixed, too +modestly thinks Collini, on 5,000 thalers (about 750 pounds) a year; +having heart and head as well as heels, poor little soul. Perhaps her +notablest feat in History, after all, was her leading this Collini, as +she now did, into the service of Voltaire, to be Voltaire's Secretary. +As will be seen. Whereby we have obtained a loyal little Book, more +credible than most others, about that notable man. + +At a subsequent period, Barberina decided on declaring her marriage with +Cocceji; she drew her money from the English funds, purchased a fine +mansion, and went to live with the said Cocceji there, giving up the +Opera and public pirouettes. But this did not answer either. Cocceji's +Mother scorned irreconcilably the Opera alliance; Friedrich, who did not +himself like it in his Chancellor's Son, promoted the young man to +some higher post in the distant Silesian region. But there, alas, they +themselves quarrelled; divorced one another; and rumor again was busy. +"You, Cocceji yourself, are but a schoolmaster's grandson [Barberina, +one easily supposes, might have a temper withal]; and it is I, if you +will recollect, that drew money from the English funds!" Barberina +married again; and to a nobleman of sixteen quarters this time, and +with whom at least there was no divorce. Successful with passionate +gentlemen; having money from the English funds. Her last name was +Grafinn--I really know not what. Her descendants probably still +live, with sixteen quarters, in those parts. It was thus she did her +life-journey, waltzing and walking; successfully holding her own against +the world. History declares itself ashamed of spending so many words on +such a subject. But the Dancer of Friedrich, and the authoress, prime +or proximate, of _Collini's Voltaire,_ claims a passing remembrance. Let +us, if we can easily help it, never speak of her more. + + + + +CONQUEST SECOND IS OST-FRIESLAND, OF A SOLID NATURE. + +May 25th, 1744, just while Barberina began her pirouettings at Berlin, +poor Karl Edzard, Prince of East Friesland, long a weak malingering +creature, died, rather suddenly; childless, and the last of his House, +which had endured there about 300 years. Our clever Wilhelmina at +Baireuth, though readers have forgotten the small circumstance, had +married a superfluous Sister-in-law of hers to this Karl Edward; +and, they say, it was some fond hope of progeny, suddenly dashed into +nothingness, that finished the poor man, that night of May 25th. In +any case, his Territory falls to Prussia, by Reich's Settlement of long +standing (1683-1694); which had been confirmed anew to the late King, +Friedrich Wilhelm:--we remember how he returned with it, honest man, +from that KLADRUP JOURNEY in 1732, and was sniffed at for bringing +nothing better. And in the interim, his royal Hanover Cousins, coveting +East Friesland, had clapt up an ERBVERBRUDERUNG with the poor Prince +there (Father, I think, of the one just dead): "A thing ULTRA VIRES," +argued Lawyers; "private, quasi-clandestine; and posterior (in a sense) +to Reich's CONCLUSUM, 1694." + +On which ground, however, George II. now sued Fricdrich at Reich's +Law,--Friedrich, we need not say, having instantly taken possession of +Ost-Friesland. And there ensued arguing enough between them, for years +coming; very great expenditure of parchment, and of mutual barking +at the moon (done always by proxy, and easy to do); which doubtless +increased the mutual ill-feeling, but had no other effect. Friedrich, +who had been well awake to Ost-Friesland for some time back, and had +given his Official people (Cocceji his Minister of Justice, Chancellor +by and by, and one or two subordinates) their precise Instructions, laid +hold of it, with a maximum of promptitude; thereby quashing a great deal +of much more dangerous litigation than Uncle George's. + +"In all Germany, not excepting even Mecklenburg, there had been no more +anarchic spot than Ost-Friesland for the last sixty or seventy years. A +Country with parliamentary-life in extraordinary vivacity (rising indeed +to the suicidal or internecine pitch, in two or three directions), and +next to no regent-life at all. A Country that had loved Freedom, not +wisely but too well! Ritter Party, Prince's Party, Towns' Party;--always +two or more internecine Parties: 'False Parliament you: traitors!' 'We? +False YOU, traitors!'--The Parish Constable, by general consent, +kept walking; but for Government there was this of the Parliamentary +Eloquences (three at once), and Freedom's battle, fancy it, bequeathed +from sire to son! 'The late Karl Edzard never once was in Embden, his +chief Town, though he lived within a dozen miles of it.'--And then, +still more questionable, all these energetic little Parties had +applied to the Neighboring Governments, and had each its small +Foreign Battalion, 'To protect US and our just franchises!' +Imperial Reich's-Safeguard Battalion, Dutch Battalion, Danish +Battalion,--Prussian, it first of all was (year 1683, Town of Embden +inviting the Great Elector), but it is not so now. The Prussians had +needed to be quietly swift, on that 25th day of May, 1744. + +"And truly they were so; Cocceji having all things ready; leading +party-men already secured to him, troops within call, and the like. +The Prussians--Embden Town-Councils inviting their astonished Dutch +Battalion not to be at home--marched quietly into Embden 'next day,' and +took possession of the guns. Marched to Aurich (official metropolis), +Danes and Imperial Safeguard saying nothing; and, in short, within +a week had, in their usual exact fashion, got firm hold of chaotic +Ost-Friesland. And proceeded to manage it, in like sort,--with effects +soon sensible, and steadily continuing. Their Parliamentary-life +Friedrich left in its full vigor: 'Tax yourselves; what revenue you +like; and see to the outlay of it yourselves. Allow me, as LANDES-HERR, +some trifle of overplus: how much, then? Furthermore a few recruits,--or +recruit-money in lieu, if you like better!' And it was astonishing how +the Parliamentary vitality, not shortened of its least franchise, or +coerced in any particular, but merely stroked the right way of the +hair, by a gently formidable hand, with good head guiding, sank almost +straightway into dove-life, and never gave Friedrich any trouble, +whatever else it might do. The management was good; the opportunity +also was good. 'In one sitting, the Prussian Agent, arbitrating between +Embden and the Ritters, settled their controversy, which had lasted +fifty years.' The poor Country felt grateful, which it might well do; +as if for the laying of goblins, for the ending of long-continued local +typhoon! Friedrich's first Visit, in 1751, was welcomed with universal +jubilation; and poor Ost-Friesland thanked him in still more solid ways, +when occasion rose. [Ranke, iii. 370-382.] + +"It is not an important Country:--only about the size of Cheshire; wet +like it, and much inferior to it in cheese, in resources for leather +and live-stock, though it perhaps excels, again, in clover-seeds, +rape-seeds, Flanders horses, and the flax products. The 'clear overplus' +it yielded to Friedrich, as Sovereign Administrator and Defender, was +only 3,200 pounds; for recruit-MONEY, 6,000 pounds (no recruits in +CORPORE); in all, little more than 9,000 pounds a year. But it had its +uses too. Embden, bigger than Chester, and with a better harbor, was +a place of good trade; and brought Friedrich into contact with +sea-matters; in which, as we shall find, he did make some creditable +incipiencies, raising expectations in the world; and might have +carried it farther, had not new Wars, far worse than this now at hand, +interrupted him." + +Friedrich was at Pyrmont, taking the waters, while this of Friesland +fell out; he had gone thither May 20th; was just arrived there, +four days before the death of Karl Edzard. [Rodenbeck, p. 102.] His +Officials, well pre-instructed, managed the Ost-Friesland Question +mainly themselves. Friedrich was taking the waters; ostensibly nothing +more. But he was withal, and still more earnestly, consulting with a +French Excellency (who also had felt a need of the waters), about the +French Campaign for this Season: Whether Coigny was strong enough in the +Middle-Rhine Countries; how their Grand Army of the Netherlands shaped +to prosper; and other the like interesting points. [Ranke, iii. 165, +166.] Frankfurt Union is just signed (May 22d). Most Christian Majesty +is himself under way to the Netherlands, himself going to command there, +as we shall see. "Good!" answers Friedrich: "But don't weaken Coigny, +think of Prince Karl on that side; don't detach from Coigny, and reduce +his 60,000 to 40,000!" + +Plenty of mutual consulting, as they walk in the woods there. And how +profoundly obscure, to certain Official parties much concerned, judge +from the following small Document, preserved by accident:-- + +LYTTELTON (our old Soissons Friend, now an Official in Prince Fred's +Household, friend of Pitt, and much else) TO HIS FATHER AT HAGLEY. + +ARGYLE STREET, LONDON, "May 5th [16th], 1744. "DEAR SIR,--Mr. West +[Gilbert West, of whom there is still some memory] comes with us to +Hagley; and, if you give me leave, I will bring our friend Thomson +too"--oh Jamie Thamson, Jamie Thamson, oh! "His SEASONS will be +published in about a week's time, and a most noble work they will be. + +"I have no public news to tell you, which you have not had in the +Gazettes, except what is said in Private Letters from Germany, of the +King of Prussia's having drunk himself into direct madness, and being +confined on that account; which, if true, may have a great effect upon +the fate of Europe at this critical time." Yes indeed, if true. "Those +Letters say, that, at a review, he caused two men to be taken out of the +line, and shot, without any cause assigned for it, and ordered a +third to be murdered in the same manner; but the Major of the regiment +venturing to intercede for him, his Majesty drew his sword, and would +have killed the Officer too, if he, perceiving his madness, had not +taken the liberty to save himself, by disarming the King; who was +immediately shut up; and the Queen, his Mother, has taken the Regency +upon herself till his recovery." PAPAE! I do not give you this news for +certain; but it is generally believed in town. Lord Chesterfield says, +'He is only thought to be MAD in Germany, because he has MORE WIT than +other Germans.' + +"The King of Sardinia's Retreat from his lines at Villa Franca, and the +loss of that Town [20th April, one of those furious tussles, French and +Spaniard VERSUS Sardinian Majesty, in the COULISSES or side-scenes of +the Italian War-Theatre, neither stage nor side-scenes of which shall +concern us in this place], certainly bear a very ill aspect; but it is +not considered as"--anything to speak of; nor was it. "We expect with +impatience to know what will be the effect of the Dutch Ambassador +to Paris,--[to Valenciennes, as it turns out, King Louis, on his high +errand to the Netherlands, being got so far; and the "effect" was no +effect at all, except good words on his part, and persistence in the +battering down of Menin and the Dutch Barrier, of which we shall hear +ere long]. + +"I pray God the Summer may be happy to us, by being more easy than usual +to you,"--dear Father, much suffering by incurable ailments. "It is the +only thing wanting to make Hagley Park a Paradise. + +"Poor Pope is, I am afraid, going to resign all that can die of him to +death;"--did actually die, 30th May (10th June): a world-tragedy +that too, though in small compass, and acting itself next door, +at Twickenham, without noise; a star of the firmament going +out;--twin-star, Swift (Carteret's old friend), likewise going out, +sunk in the socket, "a driveller and a show."... "I am, with the truest +respect and affection, dear Sir, your most dutiful Son,-- + +"GEORGE LYTTELTON." [Ayscough, _Lord Lyttelton's Miscellaneous Works,_ +(Lond., 1776), iii. 318.] + +Friedrich returned from Pyrmont, 11th June; saw, with a grief of his +own, with many thoughts well hidden, his Sister Ulrique whirled away +from him, 26th July, in the gray of the summer dawn. In Berlin, in +Prussia, nobody but one is aware of worse just coming. And now the +War-drums suddenly awaken again; and poor readers--not to speak of poor +Prussia and its King!--must return to that uncomfortable sphere, till +things mend. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, +Vol. XIV. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. *** + +***** This file should be named 2114.txt or 2114.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/1/2114/ + +Produced by D.R. Thompson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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