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Thompson <drthom@ihug.co.nz> + + + + + +History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 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 <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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of them that spread actual flame in these +European parts, and first of them all except Jenkins's Ear) is out, +fairly withdrawn; but the fire, you perceive, rages not the less.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, <italic> Beitrage, <end italic> ? Nussler: and +Busching's <italic> Magazin, <end italic> 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, <italic> Monarchie Prussienne, <end italic> +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 <italic> Feldzuge des Herzogs Ferdinand <end +italic> (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 +(<italic> 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, <italic> +Beschreibung von Berlin, <end italic> 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, <italic> Buch fur Jedermann, <end +italic> 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:-- + +<italic> +Aquisgranum, urbs regalis, +Sedes Regni principalis:-- +<end italic>) + +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, <italic> Reichs-Historie. <end italic>] 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 <italic> Campagnes des +Trois Marechaux, <end italic> 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. +[<italic> Daily Post, <end italic> 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, <italic> Scotch Peerage <end +italic> (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.' +[<italic> Daily Post, <end italic> 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 strrngth 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. Thz 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. [<italic> Guerre de Boheme, <end +italic> 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 abead, 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. +[<italic> Guerre de Boheme, <end italic> ii. 122, &c.; <italic> +Campagnes, <end italic> 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 auswered 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; <italic> Campagnes, +<end italic> 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 Khevenhullcr, 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. [<italic> Guerre de +Boheme, <end italic> 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). <italic> De Bello Italico Commentarii <end italic> (in +Works of Buonamici, Lyon, 1750); and Pezay, <italic> Campagnes de +Maillebois <end italic> (our Westphalian friend again) <italic> en +Italie, <end italic> 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 <italic> Gentleman's Magazine, <end italic> +&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 <italic> Rapin, <end italic> xx. 572 +(MISdates, and is altogether indistinct); <italic> Gentleman's +Magazine, <end italic> xii. 494:--CAME, "Sunday morning, 19th +August, n.s.;" "anchored abont 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. [<italic> Campagnes, <end italic> vi. 5; +<italic> Guerre de Boheme, <end italic> 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. +[<italic> 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, +<italic> Kleine Schriften, <end italic> 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!" [<italic> "Aut nihil aut Caesar, +Bavarus Dux esse volebat; Et nihil et Caesar factus utrumque +simul." <end italic> (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; <italic> Guerre de +Boheme; <end italic> &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. [<italic> Guerre de Boheme. <end italic>] +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 diflicult." + + +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; <italic> Campagnes, <end italic> +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 Priedrich 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. +[<italic> OEuvres de Voltaire, <end italic> 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. +[<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> 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 +eugineering. 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 +(<italic> Westminster Journal, <end italic> 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' [<italic> The Daily Post, <end +italic> 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 <italic> Westminster Journal <end italic> +(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. [<italic> Campagnes, <end italic> +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,--<italic> Campagnes, <end italic> 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,--<italic> +Campagnes, <end italic> 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 mouutains; 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." [<italic> Guerre de Boheme, <end italic> 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 <italic> Campagnes, <end italic> 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, <italic> Der Wiener +Hof <end italic> (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." [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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 <italic> +OEuvres, <end italic> 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.), <italic> Vie de Voltaire, +<end italic> p. 128; Voltaire himself, <italic> OEuvres, <end +italic> 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 +<italic> Campagnes, <end italic> 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." +[<italic> Campagnes, <end italic> 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 bauk, 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 +<italic> Campagnes de Noailles, <end italic> i. 127; date "Neuwied, +26th April, 1743" (Adelung, iii. B, 114).] For the rest, they are +in no hurry. They linger in that Frankfurt-Nainz 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 <italic> Adelung, <end +italic> 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: [<italic> Biographia Britannica <end italic> +(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 Governmeut 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!' [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> (iii. 14): +compare Anonymous, <italic> Life of the Duke of Cumberland <end +italic> (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; <italic> Guerre de Boheme, <end +italic> i. 231.--<italic> Gentleman's Magazine, <end italic> 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, <italic> Memoirs of the late +Duke of Cumberland <end italic> (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), <italic> Life of the Duke +of Cumberland <end italic> (Lond. 1766), pp. 32-48. Noailles's +Official Account (ingenuously at a loss what to say), in <italic> +Campagnes, <end italic> ii. B, 242-253, 306-310. <italic> OEuvres +de Frederic, <end italic> 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:" [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> +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.' +[<italic> Campagnes de Noailles <end italic> (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, <italic> Memoirs of Pelham <end italic> (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 strauge 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, <italic> Duke of Cumberland, <end +italic> 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 Angust"), 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 settle- ment 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 <italic> +Life of Mentzel <end italic> (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, <italic> +Life of Cumberlund, <end italic> 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, "Hithcr 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, <italic> Cumberland, <end italic> +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. [<italic> Maria Theresiens Leben, <end italic> +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 a grand scale, +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 TREATY OF +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)!" [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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 +(<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> 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 (<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> 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! +[<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> 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. <italic> On les y recevra, Biribi, +A la facon de Barbari, Mon ami. <end italic> +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. <italic> Vous voulez qu'en vrai dieu de la machine, <end italic> +"You will have me as theatre-god, then, +<italic> "J'arrive pour te denouement? <end italic> +"Swoop in, and produce the catastrophe? +<italic> "Qu'aux Anglais, aux Pandours, a ce peuple insolent, +"J'aille donner la discipline?-- <end italic> +"Tame to sobriety those English, those Pandours, and obstreperous +people? +<italic> "Mais examinez mieux ma mine; <end italic> +"Examine the look of me better; +<italic> "Je ne suis pas assez mechant! <end italic> +"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 he time to reply: but you, who are so much +a man of sense, you see well what a ridiculous business it would he +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 he 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. [<italic> OEuvres de Voltaire, <end +italic> lxxiii. 101-105 (see Ib. ii. 55); <italic> OEuvres de +Frederic, <end italic> 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, 1799j: Beaumarchais had several other +Pieces of the same sort;" which, as bits of contemporary +photographing, one would have liked to see. + + +FRIEDRIC 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." [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end +italic> 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! +[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxii. 139: see, for +what followed, <italic> OEuvres de Voltaire, <end italic> 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 <italic> Oeuvres de Voltaire, <end italic> xviii.: No. 1 is, +p. 292 (in <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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:" [<italic> OEuvres de Voltaire, +<end italic> 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. +[<italic> Lettres inedites de Madame du Chastelet a M. le Comte +d'Argental <end italic> (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. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> +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, <italic> Neun Bucher Preussischer Geschichte, <end +italic> 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 mininum +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, <italic> Erdbeschreibung, <end +italic> 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 skippiug 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 <italic> OEuvres, <end italic> +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; <italic> Memoires de Catherine +II. <end italic> (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. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> 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:-- +<italic> +'Partez, ma Soeur, partez; +La Suede vous attend, la Suede + vous desire,' <end italic> +'Go, my Sister, go; +Sweden waits you, Sweden + wishes you. +[Does not now exist (see <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> +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 (<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> 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." [<italic> OEuvres +de Frederic, <end italic> 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 15h, 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 <italic> +Adelung, <end italic> 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, <italic> +Naval and Military Memoirs, <end italic> i. 197 et seqq.; +<italic> Gentleman's Magazine, <end italic> 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; <italic> +Gentleman's Magazine, <end italic> 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. [<italic> Gentleman's +Magazine <end italic> 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 <italic> OEuvres de +Frederic, <end italic> 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 <italic> Memoirs and Letters, <end italic> +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." +[<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> 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 (<italic> OEuvres de +Frederic, <end italic> 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, <italic> Fragmente uber Friedrich +den Grossen <end italic> (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 <italic> George the Third <end italic> 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, <italic> Mon Sejour aupres de Voltaire <end +italic> (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 <italic> Collini's Voltaire, <end italic> +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, <italic> Lord Lyttelton's Miscellaneous Works, <end +italic> (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 Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 14 + |