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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol.
+XV. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XV. (of XXI.)
+       Frederick The Great--Second Silesian War, Important Episode
+       In The General European One--15th Aug. 1744-25th Dec. 1745
+
+Author: Thomas Carlyle
+
+Posting Date: June 13, 2008 [EBook #2115]
+Release Date: March 2000
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D.R. Thompson
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA
+
+FREDERICK THE GREAT
+
+By Thomas Carlyle
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK XV.--SECOND SILESIAN WAR, IMPORTANT EPISODE IN THE GENERAL EUROPEAN
+ONE.--15th Aug. 1744-25th Dec. 1745.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I.--PRELIMINARY: HOW THE MOMENT ARRIVED.
+
+Battle being once seen to be inevitable, it was Friedrich's plan not to
+wait for it, but to give it. Thanks to Friedrich Wilhelm and himself,
+there is no Army, nor ever was any, in such continual preparation.
+Military people say, "Some Countries take six months, some twelve, to
+get in motion for war: but in three weeks Prussia can be across
+the marches, and upon the throat of its enemy." Which is an immense
+advantage to little Prussia among its big neighbors. "Some Countries
+have a longer sword than Prussia; but none can unsheathe it so
+soon:"--we hope, too, it is moderately sharp, when wielded by a deft
+hand.
+
+The French, as was intimated, are in great vigor, this Year; thoroughly
+provoked; and especially since Friedrich sent his Rothenburg among
+them, have been doing their very utmost. Their main effort is in the
+Netherlands, at present;--and indeed, as happened, continues all
+through this War to be. They by no means intend, or ever did, to neglect
+Teutschland; yet it turns out, they have pretty much done with their
+fighting there. And next Year, driven or led by accidents of various
+kinds, they quit it altogether; and turning their whole strength upon
+the Netherlands and Italy, chiefly on the Netherlands, leave Friedrich,
+much to his astonishment, with the German War hanging wholly round
+HIS neck, and take no charge of it farther! In which, to Friedrich's
+Biographers, there is this inestimable benefit, if far the reverse to
+Friedrich's self: That we shall soon have done with the French, then;
+with them and with so much else; and may, in time coming, for most part,
+leave their huge Sorcerer's Sabbath of a European War to dance
+itself out, well in the distance, not encumbering us farther, like a
+circumambient Bedlam, as it has hitherto done. Courage, reader! Let us
+give, in a glance or two, some notion of the course things took, and
+what moment it was when Friedrich struck in;--whom alone, or almost
+alone, we hope to follow thenceforth; "Dismal Swamp" (so gracious was
+Heaven to us) lying now mostly to rearward, little as we hoped it!
+
+It was mere accident, a series of bad accidents, that led King Louis and
+his Ministers into gradually forsaking Friedrich. They were the
+farthest in the world from intending such a thing. Contrariwise, what
+brain-beating, diplomatic spider-weaving, practical contriving, now
+and afterwards, for that object; especially now! Rothenburg, Noailles,
+Belleisle, Cardinal Tencin, have been busy; not less the mistress
+Chateauroux, who admires Friedrich, being indeed a high-minded
+unfortunate female, as they say; and has thrown out Amelot, not
+for stammering alone. They are able, almost high people, this new
+Chateauroux Ministry, compared with some; and already show results.
+
+Nay, what is most important of all, France has (unconsciously, or by
+mere help of Noailles and luck) got a real General to her Armies: Comte
+de Saxe, now Marechal de Saxe; who will shine very splendent in these
+Netherland operations,--counter-shone by mere Wades, D'Ahrembergs,
+Cumberlands,--in this and the Four following Years. Noailles had
+always recognized Comte de Saxe; had long striven for him, in Official
+quarters; and here gets the light of him unveiled at last, and set on a
+high place: loyal Noailles.
+
+This was the Year, this 1744, when Louis XV., urged by his Chateauroux,
+the high-souled unfortunate female, appeared in person at the head
+of his troops: "Go, Sire, go, MON CHOU (and I will accompany); show
+yourself where a King should be, at the head of your troops; be a second
+Louis-le-Grand!" Which he did, his Chateauroux and he; actually went to
+the Netherlands, with baggage-train immeasurable, including not cooks
+only, but play-actors with their thunder-barrels (off from Paris, May
+3d), to the admiration of the Universe. [Adelung, iv. 113; Barbier,
+ii. 391, 394; Dulaure, _Hist. de Paris;_ &c.] Took the command,
+nominal-command, first days of June; and captured in no-time Menin,
+Ipres, Furnes, and the Fort of Knock, and as much of the Austrian
+Netherlands as he liked,--that is to say, saw Noailles and Saxe do
+it;--walking rapidly forward from Siege to Siege, with a most thundering
+artillery; old Marshal Wade and consorts dismally eating their victuals,
+and looking on from the distance, unable to attempt the least stroke in
+opposition. So that the Dutch Barrier, if anybody now cared for it,
+did go all flat; and the Balance of Power gets kicked out of its sacred
+pivot: to such purpose have the Dutch been hoisted! Terrible to think
+of;--had not there, from the opposite quarter, risen a surprising
+counterpoise; had not there been a Prince Karl, with his 70,000,
+pressing victoriously over the Rhine; which stayed the French in these
+sacrilegious procedures.
+
+
+
+
+PRINCE KARL GETS ACROSS THE RHINE (20 JUNE-2 JULY, 1744).
+
+Prince Karl, some weeks ago, at Heilbronn, joined his Rhine Army, which
+had gathered thither from the Austrian side, through Baiern, and from
+the Hither-Austrian or Swabian Winter-quarters; with full intent to be
+across the Rhine, and home upon Elsass and the Compensation Countries,
+this Summer, under what difficulties soever. Karl, or, as some whisper,
+old Marshal Traun, who is nominally second in command, do make a
+glorious campaign of it, this Year;--and lift the Cause of Liberty, at
+one time, to the highest pitch it ever reached. Here, in brief terms, is
+Prince Karl's Operation on the Rhine, much admired by military men:--
+
+"STOCKSTADT, JUNE 20th, 1744. Some thirty and odd miles north of
+Mannheim, the Rhine, before turning westward at Mainz, makes one other
+of its many Islands (of which there are hundreds since the leap at
+Schaffhausen): one other, and I think the biggest of them all; perhaps
+two miles by five; which the Germans call KUHKOPF (Cowhead), from the
+shape it has,--a narrow semi-ellipse; River there splitting in two, one
+split (the western) going straight, the other bending luxuriantly round:
+so that the HIND-head or straight end of the Island lies towards France,
+and the round end, or cow-LIPS (so to speak) towards native Teutschland,
+and the woody Hills of the Berg-Strasse thereabouts. Stockstadt, chief
+little Town looking over into this Cowhead Island, lies under the
+CHIN: understand only farther that the German branch carries more than
+two-thirds of the River; that on the Island itself there is no town,
+or post of defence; and that Stockstadt is the place for getting over.
+Coigny and the French, some 40,000, are guarding the River hereabouts,
+with lines, with batteries, cordons, the best they can; Seckendorf, with
+20,000 more ('Imperial' Old Bavarian Troops, revivified, recruited
+by French pay), is in his garrison of Philipsburg, ready to help when
+needed:"--not moulting now, at Wembdingen, in that dismal manner;
+new-feathered now into "Kaiser's Army;" waiting in his Philipsburg to
+guard the River there. "Coigny's French have ramparts, ditches, not
+quite unfurnished, on their own shore, opposite this Cowhead Island
+(ISLE DE HERON, as they call it); looking over to the hind-head, namely:
+but they have nothing considerable there; and in the Island itself,
+nothing whatever. 'If now Stockstadt were suddenly snatched by us,'
+thinks Karl;--'if a few pontoons were nimbly swung in?'
+
+"JUNE 20th,--Coigny's people all shooting FEU-DE-JOIE, for that never
+enough to be celebrated Capture of Menin and the Dutch Barrier
+a fortnight ago,--this is managed to be done. The active General
+Barenklau, active Brigadier Daun under him, pushes rapidly across into
+Kuhkopf; rapidly throws up intrenchments, ramparts, mounts cannon, digs
+himself in,--greatly to Coigny's astonishment; whose people hereabouts,
+and in all their lines and posts, are busy shooting FEU-DE-JOIE for
+those immortal Dutch victories, at the moment, and never dreaming of
+such a thing. Fresh force floods in, Prince Karl himself arrives next
+day, in support of Barenklau; Coigny (head-quarters at Speyer, forty
+miles south) need not attempt dislodging him; but must stand upon his
+guard, and prepare for worse. Which he does with diligence; shifting
+northward into those Stockstadt-Mainz parts; calling Seckendorf across
+the River, and otherwise doing his best,--for about ten days more, when
+worse, and almost worst, did verily befall him.
+
+"No attempt was made on Barenklau; nor, beyond the alarming of the
+Coigny-Seckendorf people, did anything occur in Cowhead Island,--unless
+it were the finis of an ugly bully and ruffian, who has more than once
+afflicted us: which may be worth one word. Colonel Mentzel [copper-faced
+Colonel, originally Play-actor, "Spy in Persia," and I know not what]
+had been at the seizure of Kuhkopf; a prominent man. Whom, on the fifth
+day after ('June 25th'), Prince Karl overwhelmed with joy, by handing
+him a Patent of Generalcy: 'Just received from Court, my Friend,
+on account of your merits old and late.'--'Aha,' said Barenklau,
+congratulating warmly: 'Dine with me, then, Herr General Mentzel,
+this very day. The Prince himself is to be there, Highness of
+Hessen-Darmstadt, and who not; all are impatient to drink your health!'
+Mentzel had a glorious dinner; still more glorious drink,--Prince
+Karl and the others, it is said, egging him into much wild bluster and
+gasconade, to season their much wine. Eminent swill of drinking, with
+the loud coarse talk supposable, on the part of Mentzel and consorts did
+go on, in this manner, all afternoon: in the evening, drunk Mentzel came
+out for air; went strutting and staggering about; emerging finally on
+the platform of some rampart, face of him huge and red as that of
+the foggiest rising Moon;--and stood, looking over into the Lorraine
+Country; belching out a storm of oaths, as to his taking it, as to
+his doing this and that; and was even flourishing his sword by way of
+accompaniment; when, lo, whistling slightly through the summer air, a
+rifle-ball from some sentry on the French side (writers say, it was a
+French drummer, grown impatient, and snatching a sentry's piece) took
+the brain of him, or the belly of him; and he rushed down at once, a
+totally collapsed monster, and mere heap of dead ruin, never to trouble
+mankind more." [_Guerre de Boheme,_ iii. 165.] For which my readers and
+I are rather thankful. Voltaire, and perhaps other memorable persons,
+sometimes mention this brute (miraculous to the Plebs and Gazetteers);
+otherwise eternal oblivion were the best we could do with him. Trenck
+also, readers will be glad to understand, ends in jail and bedlam by and
+by.
+
+"Prince Karl had not the least intention of crossing by this Cowhead
+Island. Nevertheless he set about two other Bridges in the neighborhood,
+nearer Mainz (few miles below that City); kept manoeuvring his Force,
+in huge half-moon, round that quarter, and mysteriously up and down;
+alarming Coigny wholly into the Mainz region. For the space of ten
+days; and then, stealing off to Schrock, a little Rhine Village above
+Philipsburg, many miles away from Coigny and his vigilantes, he--
+
+"NIGHT OF 30th JUNE-1st JULY, Suddenly shot Pandour Trenck, followed
+by Nadasti and 6,000, across at Schrock who scattered Seckendorf's poor
+outposts thereabouts to the winds; 'built a bridge before morning, and
+next day another.' Next day Prince Karl in person appeared; and on the
+3d of July, had his whole Army with its luggages across; and had seized
+the Lines of Lauterburg and Weissenburg (celebrated northern defence of
+Elsass),--much to Coigny's amazement; and remained inexpugnable there,
+with Elsass open to him, and to Coigny shut, for the present! [Adelung,
+iv. 139-141.] Coigny made bitter wail, accusation, blame of Seckendorf,
+blame of men and of things; even tried some fighting, Seckendorf too
+doing feats, to recover those Lines of Weissenburg: but could not do it.
+And, in fact, blazing to and fro in that excited rather than luminous
+condition, could not do anything; except retire into the strong posts
+of the background; and send express on express, swifter than the wind if
+you can, to a victorious King overturning the Dutch Barrier: 'Help, your
+Majesty, or we are lost; and France is--what shall I say!'"
+
+"Admirable feat of Strategy! What a General, this Prince Karl!"
+exclaimed mankind,--Cause-of-Liberty mankind with special enthusiasm;
+and took to writing LIVES of Prince Karl, [For instance, _The Life of
+his Highness Prince Charles of &c., with &c. &c._ (London, 1746); one
+of the most distracted Blotches ever published under the name of
+Book;--wakening thoughts of a public dimness very considerable indeed,
+to which this could offer itself as lamp!] as well as tar-burning and
+TE-DEUM-ing on an extensive scale. For it had sent the Cause of Liberty
+bounding up again to the top of things, this of crossing the Rhine,
+in such fashion. And, in effect, the Cause of Liberty, and Prince
+Karl himself, had risen hereby to their acme or culminating point in
+World-History; not to continue long at such height, little as they
+dreamt of that, among their tar-burnings. The feat itself--contrived
+by Nadasti, people say, and executed (what was the real difficulty) by
+Traun--brought Prince Karl very great renown, this Year; and is praised
+by Friedrich himself, now and afterwards, as masterly, as Julius
+Caesar's method, and the proper way of crossing rivers (when executable)
+in face of an enemy. And indeed Prince Karl, owing to Traun or not,
+is highly respectable in the way of Generalship at present; and did in
+these Five Months, from June onward, really considerable things. At his
+very acme of Life, as well as of Generalship; which, alas, soon changed,
+poor man; never to culminate again. He had got, at the beginning of the
+Year, the high Maria Theresa's one Sister, Archduchess Maria Anna, to
+Wife; [Age then twenty-five gone: "born 14th September, 1718; married to
+Prince Karl 7th January, 1744; died, of childbirth, 16th December same
+year" (Hormayr, _OEsterreichischer Plutarch,_ iv. erstes Baudchen, 54).]
+the crown of long mutual attachment; she safe now at Brussels,
+diligent Co-Regent, and in a promising family-way; he here walking on
+victorious:--need any man be happier? No man can be supremely happy
+long; and this General's strategic felicity and his domestic were
+fatally cut down almost together. The Cause of Liberty, too, now at the
+top of its orbit, was--But let us stick by our Excerpting:
+
+"DUNKIRK, 19th JULY, 1744 [Princess Ulrique's Wedding, just two days
+ago]. King Louis, on hearing of the Job's-news from Elsass, instantly
+suspended his Conquests in Flanders; detached Noailles, detached this
+one and that, double-quick, Division after Division (leaving Saxe, with
+45,000, to his own resources, and the fatuities of Marshal Wade);
+and, 19th July, himself hastens off from Dunkirk (leaving much of the
+luggage, but not the Chateauroux behind him), to save his Country, poor
+soul. But could not, in the least, save it; the reverse rather. August
+4th, he got to Metz, Belleisle's strong town, about 100 miles from the
+actual scene; his detached reinforcements, say 50,000 men or so, hanging
+out ahead like flame-clouds, but uncertain how to act;--Noailles being
+always cunctatious in time of crisis, and poor Louis himself nothing of
+a Cloud-Compeller;--and then,
+
+"METZ, AUGUST 8th, The Most Christian King fell ill; dangerously,
+dreadfully, just like to die. Which entirely paralyzed Noailles and
+Company, or reduced them to mere hysterics, and excitement of the
+unluminous kind. And filled France in general, Paris in particular,
+with terror, lamentation, prayers of forty hours; and such a paroxysm
+of hero-worship as was never seen for such an object before." [Espagnac,
+ii. 12; Adelung, iv. 180; _Fastes de Louis XV.,_ ii. 423; &c. &c.]
+
+For the Cause of Liberty here, we consider, was the culminating moment;
+Elsass, Lorraine and the Three Bishoprics lying in their quasi-moribund
+condition; Austrian claims of Compensation ceasing to be visions of the
+heated brain, and gaining some footing on the Earth as facts. Prince
+Karl is here actually in Elsass, master of the strong passes; elate in
+heart, he and his; France, again, as if fallen paralytic, into temporary
+distraction; offering for resistance nothing hitherto but that universal
+wailing of mankind, Hero-worship of a thrice-lamentable nature, and the
+Prayers of Forty-Hours! Most Christian Majesty, now IN EXTREMIS, centre
+of the basest hubbub that ever was, is dismissing Chateauroux. Noailles,
+Coigny and Company hang well back upon the Hill regions, and strong
+posts which are not yet menaced; or fly vaguely, more or less
+distractedly, hither and thither; not in the least like fighting Karl,
+much less like beating him. Karl has Germany free at his back (nay it is
+a German population round him here); neither haversack nor cartridge-box
+like to fail: before him are only a Noailles and consorts, flying
+vaguely about;--and there is in Karl, or under the same cloak with him
+at present, a talent of manoeuvring men, which even Friedrich finds
+masterly. If old Marshal Wade, at the other end of the line, should
+chance to awaken and press home on Saxe, and his remnant of French, with
+right vigor? In fact, there was not, that I can see, for centuries past,
+not even at the Siege of Lille in Marlborough's time, a more imminent
+peril for France.
+
+
+
+
+FRIEDRICH DECIDES TO INTERVENE.
+
+King Friedrich, on hearing of these Rhenish emergencies and of King
+Louis's heroic advance to the rescue, perceived that for himself too the
+moment was come; and hastened to inform heroic Louis, That though the
+terms of their Bargain were not yet completed, Sweden, Russia and other
+points being still in a pendent condition, he, Friedrich,--with an eye
+to success of their Joint Adventure, and to the indispensability of
+joint action, energy, and the top of one's speed now or never,--would,
+by the middle of this same August, be on the field with 100,000 men. "An
+invasion of Bohemia, will not that astonish Prince Karl; and bring him
+to his Rhine-Bridges again? Over which, if your Most Christian Majesty
+be active, he will not get, except in a half, or wholly ruined state.
+Follow him close; send the rest of your force to threaten Hanover; sit
+well on the skirts of Prince Karl. Him as he hurries homeward, ruined or
+half-ruined, him, or whatever Austrian will fight, I do my best to beat.
+We may have Bohemia, and a beaten Austria, this very Autumn: see,--and,
+in one Campaign, there is Peace ready for us!" This is Friedrich's
+scheme of action; success certain, thinks he, if only there be energy,
+activity, on your side, as there shall be on mine;--and has sent Count
+Schmettau, filled with fiery speed and determination, to keep the French
+full of the like, and concert mutual operations.
+
+"Magnanimous!" exclaim Noailles and the paralyzed French Gentlemen (King
+Louis, I think, now past speech, for Schmettau only came August 9th):
+"Most sublime behavior, on his Prussian Majesty's part!" own they. And
+truly it is a fine manful indifference (by no means so common as it
+should be) to all interests, to all considerations, but that of a Joint
+Enterprise one has engaged in. And truly, furthermore, it was immediate
+salvation to the paralyzed French Gentlemen, in that alarming crisis;
+though they did not much recognize it afterwards as such: and indeed
+were conspicuously forgetful of all parts of it, when their own danger
+was over.
+
+Maria Theresa's feelings may be conceived; George II's feelings; and
+what the Cause of Liberty in general felt, and furiously said and
+complained, when--suddenly as a DEUS EX MACHINA, or Supernal Genie
+in the Minor Theatres--Friedrich stept in. Precisely in this supreme
+crisis, 7th August, 1744, Friedrich's Minister, Graf von Dohna, at
+Vienna, has given notice of the Frankfurt Union, and solemn Engagement
+entered into: "Obliged in honor and conscience; will and must now step
+forth to right an injured Kaiser; cannot stand these high procedures
+against an Imperial Majesty chosen by all the Princes of the Reich, this
+unheard-of protest that the Kaiser is no Kaiser, as if all Germany were
+but Austria and the Queen of Hungary's. Prussian Majesty has not the
+least quarrel of his own with the Queen of Hungary, stands true, and
+will stand, by the Treaty of Berlin and Breslau;--only, with certain
+other German Princes, has done what all German Princes and peoples not
+Austrian are bound to do, on behalf of their down-trodden Kaiser,
+formed a Union of Frankfurt; and will, with armed hand if indispensable,
+endeavor to see right done in that matter." [In _Adelung,_ iv. 155, 156,
+the Declaration itself (Audience, "7th August, 1744." Dohna off homeward
+"on the second day after").]
+
+This is the astonishing fact for the Cause of Liberty; and no clamor and
+execration will avail anything. This man is prompt, too; does not
+linger in getting out his Sword, when he has talked of it. Prince
+Karl's Operation is likely to be marred amazingly. If this swift King
+(comparable to the old Serpent for devices) were to burst forth from
+his Silesian strengths; tread sharply on the TAIL of Prince Karl's
+Operation, and bring back the formidably fanged head of IT out of
+Alsace, five hundred miles all at once,--there would be a business!
+
+We will now quit the Rhine Operations, which indeed are not now of
+moment; Friedrich being suddenly the key of events again. I add only,
+what readers are vaguely aware of, that King Louis did not die; that he
+lay at death's door for precisely one week (8th-15th August), symptoms
+mending on the 15th. In the interim,--Grand-Almoner Fitz-James (Uncle
+of our Conte di Spinelli) insisting that a certain Cardinal, who had got
+the Sacraments in hand, should insist; and endless ministerial intrigue
+being busy,--moribund Louis had, when it came to the Sacramental
+point, been obliged to dismiss his Chateauroux. Poor Chateauroux; an
+unfortunate female; yet, one almost thinks, the best man among them:
+dismissed at Metz here, and like to be mobbed! That was the one issue
+of King Louis's death-sickness. Sublime sickness; during which all Paris
+wept aloud, in terror and sorrow, like a child that has lost its mother
+and sees a mastiff coming; wept sublimely, and did the Prayers
+of Forty-Hours; and called King Louis Le BIEN-AIME (The
+Well-beloved):--merely some obstruction in the royal bowels, it turned
+out;--a good cathartic, and the Prayers of Forty-Hours, quite reinstated
+matters. Nay reinstated even Chateauroux, some time after,--"the Devil
+being well again," and, as the Proverb says, quitting his monastic view.
+Reinstated Chateauroux: but this time, poor creature, she continued only
+about a day:--"Sudden fever, from excitement," said the Doctors: "Fever?
+Poison, you mean!" whispered others, and looked for changes in the
+Ministry. Enough, oh, enough!--
+
+Old Marshal Wade did not awaken, though bawled to by his Ligoniers and
+others, and much shaken about, poor old gentleman. "No artillery to
+speak of," murmured he; "want baggage-wagons, too!" and lay still. "Here
+is artillery!" answered the Official people; "With my own money I will
+buy you baggage-wagons!" answered the high Maria Anna, in her own name
+and her Prince Karl's, who are Joint-Governors there. Possibly he would
+have awakened, had they given him time. But time, in War especially, is
+the thing that is never given. Once Friedrich HAD struck in, the moment
+was gone by. Poor old Wade! Of him also enough.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II.--FRIEDRICH MARCHES UPON PRAG, CAPTURES PRAG.
+
+It was on Saturday, "early in the morning," 15th August, 1744, that
+Friedrich set out, attended by his two eldest Brothers, Prince of
+Prussia and Prince Henri, from Potsdam, towards this new Adventure,
+which proved so famous since. Sudden, swift, to the world's
+astonishment;--actually on march here, in three Columns (two through
+Saxony by various routes southeastward, one from Silesia through Glatz
+southwestward), to invade Bohemia: rumor says 100,000 strong, fact
+itself says upwards of 80,000, on their various routes, converging
+towards Prag. [--Helden-Geschichte,--ii. 1165. Orlich (ii. 25, 27)
+enumerates the various regiments.] His Columns, especially his Saxon
+Columns, are already on the road; he joins one Column, this night,
+at Wittenberg; and is bent, through Saxony, towards the frontiers of
+Bohemia, at the utmost military speed he has.
+
+Through Saxony about 60,000 go: he has got the Kaiser's Order to the
+Government of Saxony, "Our august Ally, requiring on our Imperial
+business a transit through you;"--and Winterfeld, an excellent soldier
+and negotiator, has gone forward to present said Order. A Document which
+flurries the Dresden Officials beyond measure. Their King is in Warsaw;
+their King, if here, could do little; and indeed has been inclining
+to Maria Theresa this long while. And Winterfeld insists on such
+despatch;--and not even the Duke of Weissenfels is in Town, Dresden
+Officials "send off five couriers and thirteen estafettes" to the poor
+old Duke; [_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 1163.] get him at last; and--The
+march is already taking effect; they may as well consent to it: what can
+they do but consent! In the uttermost flurry, they had set to fortifying
+Dresden; all hands driving palisades, picking, delving, making COUPURES
+(trenches, or sunk barricades) in the streets;--fatally aware that it
+can avail nothing. Is not this the Kaiser's Order? Prussians, to the
+amount of 60,000, are across our Frontiers, rapidly speeding on.
+
+"Friedrich's Manifesto--under the modest Title, 'ANZEIGE DER URSACHEN
+(Advertisement of the Causes which have induced his Prussian Majesty to
+send the Romish Kaiser's Majesty some Auxiliary Troops)'--had appeared
+in the Berlin Newspapers Thursday, 13th, only two days before. An
+astonishment to all mankind; which gave rise to endless misconceptions
+of Friedrich: but which, supporting itself on proofs, on punctually
+excerpted foot-notes, is intrinsically a modest, quiet Piece; and, what
+is singular in Manifestoes, has nothing, or almost nothing, in it that
+is not, so far as it goes, a perfect statement of the fact. 'Auxiliary
+troops, that is our essential character. No war with her Hungarian
+Majesty, or with any other, on our own score. But her Hungarian Majesty,
+how has she treated the Romish Kaiser, her and our and the Reich's
+Sovereign Head, and to what pass reduced him; refusing him Peace on any
+terms, except those of self-annihilation; denying that he is a Kaiser at
+all;'--and enumerates the various Imperial injuries, with proof given,
+quiet footnotes by way of proof; and concludes in these words: 'For
+himself his Majesty requires nothing. The question here is not of his
+Majesty's own interest at all [everything his Majesty required, or
+requires, is by the Treaty of Berlin solemnly his, if the Reich and its
+Laws endure]: and he has taken up arms simply and solely in the view of
+restoring to the Reich its freedom, to the Kaiser his Headship of the
+Reich, and to all Europe the Peace which is so desirable.' [Given in
+Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i. 121-136, with date "August, 1744."]
+
+"'Pretences, subterfuges, lies!' exclaimed the Austrian and Allied
+Public everywhere, or strove to exclaim; especially the English Public,
+which had no difficulty in so doing;--a Public comfortably blank as to
+German facts or non-facts; and finding with amazement only this a very
+certain fact, That hereby is their own Pragmatic thunder checked in
+mid-volley in a most surprising manner, and the triumphant Cause of
+Liberty brought to jeopardy again. 'Perfidious, ambitious, capricious!'
+exclaimed they: 'a Prince without honor, without truth, without
+constancy;'--and completed, for themselves, in hot rabid humor, that
+English Theory of Friedrich which has prevailed ever since. Perhaps the
+most surprising item of which is this latter, very prominent in
+those old times, That Friedrich has no 'constancy,' but follows his
+'caprices,' and accidental whirls of impulse:--item which has dropped
+away in our times, though the others stand as stable as ever. A monument
+of several things! Friedrich's suddenness is an essential part of what
+fighting talent he has: if the Public, thrown into flurry, cannot judge
+it well, they must even misjudge it: what help is there?
+
+"That the above were actually Friedrich's reasons for venturing into
+this Big Game again, is not now disputable. And as to the rumor, which
+rose afterwards (and was denied, and could only be denied diplomatically
+to the ear, if even to the ear), That Friedrich by Secret Article was
+'to have for himself the Three Bohemian Circles, Konigsgratz,
+Bunzlau, Leitmeritz, which lie between Schlesien and Sachsen,'
+[_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 1081; Scholl, ii. 349.]--there is not a doubt
+but Friedrich had so bargained, 'Very well, if we can get said Circles!'
+and would right cheerfully have kept and held them, had the big game
+gone in all points completely well (game, to reinstate the Kaiser BOTH
+in Bohemia and Bavaria) by Friedrich's fine playing. Not a doubt of all
+this:--nor of what an extremely hypothetic outlook it then and always
+was; greatly too weak for enticing such a man."
+
+Friedrich goes in Three Columns. One, on the south or left shore of the
+Elbe, coming in various branches under Friedrich himself; this alone
+will touch on Dresden, pass on the south side of Dresden; gather itself
+about Pirna (in the Saxon Switzerland so called, a notable locality);
+thence over the Metal Mountains into Bohmen, by Toplitz, by Lowositz,
+Leitmeritz, and the Highway called the Pascopol, famous in War. The
+Second Column, under Leopold the Young Dessauer, goes on the other or
+north side of the Elbe, at a fair distance; marching through the Lausitz
+(rendezvous or starting-point was Bautzen in the Lausitz) straight
+south, to meet the King at Leitmeritz, where the grand Magazine is to
+be; and thence, still south, straight upon Prag, in conjunction with his
+Majesty or parallel to him. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 1081.] These are
+the Two Saxon Columns. The Third Column, under Schwerin, collects itself
+in the interior of Silesia; is issuing, by Glatz Country, through the
+Giant Mountains, BOHMISCHE KAMME (Bohemian COMBS as they are called,
+which Tourists know), by the Pass of Braunau,--disturbing the dreams of
+Rubezahl, if Rubezahl happen to be there. This, say 20,000, will come
+down upon Prag from the eastern side; and be first on the ground (31st
+August),--first by one day. In the home parts of Silesia, well eastward
+of Glatz, there is left another Force of 20,000, which can go across the
+Austrian Border there, and hang upon the Hills, threatening Olmutz and
+the Moravian Countries, should need be.
+
+And so, in its Three Columns, from west, from north, from east, the
+march, with a steady swiftness, proceeds. Important especially those
+Two Saxon Columns from west and north: 60,000 of them, "with a frightful
+(ENTSETZLICH) quantity of big guns coming up the Elbe." Much is coming
+up the Elbe; indispensable Highway for this Enterprise. Three months'
+provisions, endless artillery and provender, is on the Elbe; 480 big
+boats, with immense VORSPANN (of trace-horses, dreadful swearing, too,
+as I have heard), will pass through the middle of Dresden: not landing
+by any means. "No, be assured of it, ye Dresdeners, all flurried,
+palisaded, barricaded; no hair of you shall be harmed." After a day or
+two, the flurry of Saxony subsided; Prussians, under strict discipline,
+molest no private person; pay their way; keep well aloof, to south and
+to north, of Dresden (all but the necessary ammunition-escorts do);--and
+require of the Official people nothing but what the Law of the
+Reich authorizes to "Imperial Auxiliaries" in such case. "The Saxons
+themselves," Friedrich observes, "had some 40,000, but scattered
+about; King in Warsaw:--dreadful terror; making COUPURES and
+TETES-DE-PONT;--could have made no defence." Had we diligently spent
+eight days on them! reflects he afterwards. "To seize Saxony [and hobble
+it with ropes, so that at any time you could pin it motionless, and
+even, if need were, milk the substance out of it], would not have
+detained us eight days." [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 53.] Which would
+have been the true plan, had we known what was getting ready there!
+Certain it is, Friedrich did no mischief, paid for everything; anxious
+to keep well with Saxony; hoping always they might join him again,
+in such a Cause. "Cause dear to every Patriot German Prince," urges
+Friedrich,--though Bruhl, and the Polish, once "Moravian," Majesty are
+of a very different opinion:--
+
+"Maria Theresa, her thoughts at hearing of it may be imagined: 'The Evil
+Genius of my House afoot again! My high projects on Elsass and Lorraine;
+Husband for Kaiser, Elsass for the Reich and him, Lorraine for myself
+and him; gone probably to water!' Nevertheless she said (an Official
+person heard her say), 'My right is known to God; God will protect me,
+as He has already done.' [ _Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 1024.] And rose very
+strong, and magnanimously defiant again; perhaps, at the bottom of her
+heart, almost glad withal that she would now have a stroke for her
+dear Silesia again, unhindered by Paladin George and his Treaties
+and notions. What measures, against this nefarious Prussian outbreak,
+hateful to gods and men, are possible, she rapidly takes: in Bohemia,
+in Bavaria and her other Countries, that are threatened or can help. And
+abates nothing of heart or hope;--praying withal, immensely, she and
+her People, according to the mode they have. Sending for Prince Karl, we
+need not say, double-quick, as the very first thing.
+
+"Of Maria Theresa in Hungary,--for she ran to Presburg again with her
+woes (August 16th, Diet just assembling there),--let us say only that
+Hungary was again chivalrous; that old Palfy and the general Hungarian
+Nation answered in the old tone,--VIVAT MARIA; AD ARMA, AD ARMA! with
+Tolpatches, Pandours, Warasdins;--and, in short, that great and small,
+in infinite 'Insurrection,' have still a stroke of battle in them
+PRO REGE NOSTRO. Scarcely above a District or two (as the JASZERS and
+KAUERS, in their over-cautious way) making the least difficulty. Much
+enthusiasm and unanimity in all the others; here and there a Hungarian
+gentleman complaining scornfully that their troops, known as among
+the best fighters in Nature, are called irregular troops,--irregular,
+forsooth! In one public consultation [District not important, not very
+spellable, though doubtless pronounceable by natives to it], a gentleman
+suggests that 'Winter is near; should not there be some slight provision
+of tents, of shelter in the frozen sleety Mountains, to our gallant
+fellows bound thither?' Upon which another starts up, 'When our
+Ancestors came out of Asia Minor, over the Palus Maeotis bound in winter
+ice; and, sabre in hand, cut their way into this fine Country which
+is still ours, what shelter had they? No talk of tents, of barracks or
+accommodation there; each, wrapt in his sheep skin, found it shelter
+sufficient. Tents!' [ _Helden-Geschichte,_  ii. 1030.] And the thing was
+carried by acclamation.
+
+"Wide wail in Bohemia that War is coming back. Nobility all making off,
+some to Vienna or the intermediate Towns lying thitherward, some to
+their Country-seats; all out of Prag. Willing mind on the part of the
+Common People; which the Government strains every nerve to make the most
+of. Here are fasts, processions, Prayers of Forty-Hours; here, as in
+Vienna and elsewhere. In Vienna was a Three Days' solemn Fast: the like
+in Prag, or better; with procession to the shrine of St. Vitus,--little
+likely to help, I should fear. 'Rise, all fencible men,' exclaims the
+Government,--'at least we will ballot, and make you rise:'--Militia
+people enter Prag to the extent of 10,000; like to avail little, one
+would fear. General Harsch, with reinforcement of real soldiers,
+is despatched from Vienna; Harsch, one of our ablest soldiers since
+Khevenhuller died, gets in still in time; and thus increases the
+Garrison of regulars to 4,000, with a vigorous Captain to guide it.
+Old Count Ogilvy, the same whom Saxe surprised two years ago in
+the moonlight, snatching ladders from the gallows,--Ogilvy is again
+Commandant; but this time nominal mainly, and with better outlooks,
+Harsch being under him. In relays, 3,000 of the Militia men dig and
+shovel night and day; repairing, perfecting the ramparts of the place.
+Then, as to provisions, endless corn is introduced,--farmers forced, the
+unwilling at the bayonet's point, to deliver in their corn; much of
+it in sheaf, so that we have to thrash it in the market-place, in the
+streets that are wide: and thus in Prag is heard the sound of flails,
+among the Militia-drums and so many other noises. With the great
+church-organs growling; and the bass and treble MISERERE of the poor
+superstitious People rising, to St. Vitus and others. In fact, it is a
+general Dance of St. Vitus,--except that of the flails, and Militia-men
+working at the ramparts,--mostly not leading any-whither." ["LETTER from
+a Citizen of Prag," date, 21st Sept. (in _Helden-Geschichte,_  ii. 1168),
+which gives several curious details.]
+
+Meanwhile Friedrich's march from west, from north, from east, is flowing
+on; diligent, swift; punctual to its times, its places; and meets no
+impediment to speak of. At Tetschen on the Saxon-Bohemian Frontier,--a
+pleasant Schloss perched on its crags, as Tourists know, where the
+Elbe sweeps into Saxon Switzerland and its long stone labyrinths,--at
+Tetschen the Austrians had taken post; had tried to block the River,
+driving piles into it, and tumbling boulders into it, with a view to
+stop the 480 Prussian Boats. These people needed to be torn out, their
+piles and they: which was done in two days, the soldier part of it;
+and occupied the boatmen above a week, before all was clear again.
+Prosperous, correct to program, all the rest; not needing mention from
+us;--here are the few sparks from it that dwell in one's memory:--
+
+"AUGUST 15th, 1744, King left Potsdam; joined his First Column that
+night, at Wittenberg. Through Mieissen, Torgau, Freyberg; is at
+Peterswalde, eastern slope of the Metal Mountains, August 25th; all the
+Columns now on Bohemian ground.
+
+"Friedrich had crossed Elbe by the Bridge of Meissen: on the
+southern shore, politely waiting to receive his Majesty, there stood
+Feldmarschall the Duke of Weissenfels; to whom the King gave his hand,"
+no doubt in friendly style, "and talked for above half an hour,"--with
+such success! thinks Friedrich by and by. We have heard of Weissenfels
+before; the same poor Weissenfels who was Wilhelmina's Wooer in old
+time, now on the verge of sixty; an extremely polite but weakish old
+gentleman; accidentally preserved in History. One of those conspicuous
+"Human Clothes-Horses" (phantasmal all but the digestive part), which
+abound in that Eighteenth Century and others like it; and distress
+your Historical studies. Poor old soul; now Feldmarschall and
+Commander-in-Chief here. Has been in Turk and other Wars; with little
+profit to himself or others. Used to like his glass, they say; is still
+very poor, though now Duke in reality as well as title (succeeded two
+egregious Brothers, some years since, who had been spendthrift): he has
+still one other beating to get in this world,--from Friedrich next year.
+Died altogether, two years hence; and Wilhelmina heard no more of him.
+
+"At Meissen Bridge, say some, was this Half-hour's Interview; at
+Pirna, the Bridge of Pirna, others say; [See Orlich, ii. 25;
+and _Helden-Geschichte,_  ii. 1166.]--quite indifferent to us which. At
+Pirna, and hither and thither in Saxon Switzerland, Friedrich certainly
+was. 'Who ever saw such positions, your Majesty?' For Friedrich is
+always looking out, were it even from the window of his carriage, and
+putting military problems to himself in all manner of scenery, 'What
+would a man do, in that kind of ground, if attacking, if attacked? with
+that hill, that brook, that bit of bog?' and advises every Officer to
+be continually doing the like. [MILITARY INSTRUCTIONS? RULES FOR A
+GOOD COMMANDER OF &c.?--I have, for certain, read this Passage; but the
+reference is gone again, like a sparrow from the house-top!] That is the
+value of picturesque or other scenery to Friedrich, and their effect on
+good Prussian Officers and him.
+
+"... At Tetschen, Colonel Kahlbutz," diligent Prussian Colonel, "plucks
+out those 100 Austrians from their rock nest there; makes them prisoners
+of war;--which detained the Leitmeritz branch of us two days. August
+28th, junction at Leitmeritz thereupon. Magazine established there.
+Boats coming on presently. Friedrich himself camped at Lobositz in this
+part,"--Lobositz, or Lowositz, which he will remember one day.
+
+"AUGUST 29th, March to Budin; that is, southward, across the Eger,
+arrive within forty miles of Prag. Austrian Bathyani, summoned hastily
+out of his Bavarian posts, to succor in this pressing emergency,
+has arrived in these neighborhoods,--some 12,000 regulars under him,
+preceded by clouds of hussars, whom Ziethen smites a little, by way of
+handsel;--no other Austrian force to speak of hereabouts; and we are now
+between Bathyani and Prag.
+
+"SEPTEMBER 1st, To Mickowitz, near Welwarn, twenty miles from Prag.
+September 2d, Camp on the Weissenberg there." [ _Helden-Geschichte,_  i.
+1080.]
+
+And so they are all assembled about Prag, begirdling the poor
+City,--third Siege it has stood within these three years (since that
+moonlight November night in 1741);--and are only waiting for their heavy
+artillery to begin battering. The poor inhabitants, in spite of three
+sieges; the 10,000 raw militia-men, mostly of Hungarian breed; the 4,000
+regulars, and Harsch and old Ogilvy, are all disposed to do their best.
+Friedrich is naturally in haste to get hold of Prag. But he finds, on
+taking survey: that the sword-in-hand method is not now, as in 1741,
+feasible at all; that the place is in good posture of strength; and
+will need a hot battering to tear it open. Owing to that accident at
+Tetschen, the siege-cannon are not yet come up: "Build your batteries,
+your Moldau-bridges, your communications, till the cannon come; and
+beware of Bathyani meddling with your cannon by the road!"
+
+"Bathyani is within twenty miles of us, at Beraun, a compact little Town
+to southwest; gathering a Magazine there; and ready for enterprises,--in
+more force than Friedrich guesses. 'Drive him out, seize that Magazine
+of his!' orders Friedrich (September 5th); and despatches General
+Hacke on it, a right man,"--at whose wedding we assisted (wedding to
+an heiress, long since, in Friedrich Wilhelm's time), if anybody now
+remembered. "And on the morrow there falls out a pretty little 'Action
+of Beraun,' about which great noise was made in the Gazettes PRO and
+CONTRA: which did not dislodge Bathyani by airy means; but which might
+easily have ruined the impetuous Hacke and his 6,000, getting into
+masked batteries, Pandour whirlwinds, charges of horses 'from
+front, from rear, and from both flanks,'--had not he, with masterly
+promptitude, whirled himself out of it, snatched instantly what best
+post there was, and defended himself inexpugnably there, for six
+hours, till relief came." [DIE BEY BERAUN VORGEFALLENE ACTION (in
+Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i. 136, 137).] Brilliant little action, well
+performed on both sides, but leading to nothing; and which shall not
+concern us farther. Except to say that Bathyani did now, more at his
+leisure, retire out of harm's way; and begin collecting Magazines at
+Pilsen far rearward, which may prove useful to Prince Karl, in the route
+Prince Karl is upon.
+
+Siege-cannon having at last come (September 8th), the batteries are all
+mounted:--on Wednesday, 9th, late at night, the Artillery, "in enormous
+quantity," opens its dread throat; poor Prag is startled from its bed
+by torrents of shot, solid and shell, from three different quarters; and
+makes haste to stand to its guns. From three different quarters;
+from Bubenetsch northward; from the Upland of St. Lawrence (famed
+WEISSENBERG, or White-Hill) westward; and from the Ziscaberg eastward
+(Hill of Zisca, where iron Zisca posted himself on a grand occasion
+once),--which latter is a broad long Hill, west end of it falling
+sheer over Prag; and on another point of it, highest point of all, the
+Praguers have a strong battery and works. The Prag guns otherwise are
+not too effectual; planted mostly on low ground. By much the best Prag
+battery is this of the Ziscaberg. And this, after two days' experience
+had of it, the Prussians determine to take on the morrow.
+
+SEPTEMBER 12th, Schwerin, who commands on that side, assaults
+accordingly; with the due steadfastness and stormfulness: throwing
+shells and balls by way of prelude. Friedrich, with some group of
+staff-officers and dignitaries, steps out on the Bubenetsch post, to see
+how this affair of the Ziscaberg will prosper: the Praguers thereabouts,
+seeing so many dignitaries, turn cannon on them. "Disperse, IHR HERREN;
+have a care!" cried Friedrich; not himself much minding, so intent upon
+the Ziscaberg. And could have skipt indifferently over your cannon-balls
+ploughing the ground,--had not one fateful ball shattered out the life
+of poor Prince Wilhelm; a good young Cousin of his, shot down here at
+his hand. Doubtless a sharp moment for the King. Prince Margraf Wilhelm
+and a poor young page, there they lie dead; indifferent to the Ziscaberg
+and all coming wars of mankind. Lamentation, naturally, for this young
+man,--Brother to the one who fell at Mollwitz, youngest Brother of the
+Margraf Karl, who commands in this Bubenetsch redoubt:--But we must lift
+our eye-glass again; see how Schwerin is prospering. Schwerin, with due
+steadfastness and stormfulness, after his prelude of bomb-shells, rushes
+on double-quick; cannot be withstood; hurls out the Praguers, and seizes
+their battery; a ruinous loss to them.
+
+Their grand Zisca redoubt is gone, then; and two subsidiary small
+redoubts behind it withal, which the French had built, and named "the
+magpie-nests (NIDS A PIE);" these also are ours. And we overhang, from
+our Zisca Hill, the very roofs, as it were; and there is nothing but a
+long bare curtain now in this quarter, ready to be battered in breach,
+and soon holed, if needful. It is not needful,--not quite. In the course
+of three days more, our Bubenetsch battery, of enormous power, has been
+so diligent, it has set fire to the Water-mill; burns irretrievably the
+Water-mill, and still worse, the wooden Sluice of the Moldau; so that
+the river falls to the everywhere wadable pitch. And Governor Harsch
+perceives that all this quarter of the Town is open to any comer;--and,
+in fact, that he will have to get away, the best he can.
+
+White flag accordingly (Tuesday, 15th): "Free withdrawal, to the
+Wischerad; won't you?" "By no manner of means!" answers Friedrich.
+Bids Schwerin from his Ziscaberg make a hole or two in that "curtain"
+opposite him; and gets ready for storm. Upon which Harsch, next morning,
+has to beat the chamade, and surrender Prisoner of War. And thus,
+Wednesday, 16th, it is done: a siege of one week, no more,--after
+all that thrashing of grain, drilling of militia, and other spirited
+preparation. Harsch could not help it; the Prussian cannonading was
+so furious. [Orlich, ii. 36-39; _Helden-Geschichte,_  i. 1082, and ii.
+1168; _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 56; &c. &c.]
+
+Prag has to swear fealty to the Kaiser; and "pay a ransom of 200,000
+pounds." Drilled militia, regulars, Hungarians, about 16,000,--only that
+many of the Tolpatches contrived to whisk loose,--are marched prisoners
+to Glatz and other strong places. Prag City, with plenty of provision in
+it, is ours. A brilliant beginning of a Campaign; the eyes of all Europe
+turned again, in very various humor, on this young King. If only the
+French do their duty, and hang well on the skirts of Marshal Traun (or
+of Prince Karl, the Cloak of Traun), who is hastening hitherward all he
+can.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III.--FRIEDRICH, DILIGENT IN HIS BOHEMIAN CONQUESTS,
+UNEXPECTEDLY COMES UPON PRINCE KARL, WITH NO FRENCH ATTENDING HIM.
+
+This electrically sudden operation on Prag was considered by astonished
+mankind, whatever else they might think about it, a decidedly brilliant
+feat of War: falling like a bolt out of the blue,--like three bolts,
+suddenly coalescing over Prag, and striking it down. Friedrich himself,
+though there is nothing of boast audible here or anywhere, was evidently
+very well satisfied; and thought the aspects good. There is Prince Karl
+whirling instantly back from his Strasburg Prospects; the general St.
+Vitus Dance of Austrian things rising higher and higher in these home
+parts:--reasonable hope that "in the course of one Campaign," proud
+obstinate Austria might feel itself so wrung and screwed as to be glad
+of Peace with neighbors not wishing War. That was the young
+King's calculation at this time. And, had France done at all as it
+promised,--or had the young King himself been considerably wiser than he
+was,--he had not been disappointed in the way we shall see!
+
+Friedrich admits he did not understand War at this period. His own
+scheme now was: To move towards the southwest, there to abolish Bathyani
+and his Tolpatches, who are busy gathering Magazines for Prince Karl's
+advent; to seize the said Magazines, which will be very useful to us;
+then advance straight towards the Passes of the Bohemian Mountains.
+Towns of Furth, Waldmunchen, unfortunate Town of Cham (burnt by Trenck,
+where masons are now busy); these stand successive in the grand Pass,
+through which the highway runs; some hundred miles or so from where
+we are: march, at one's swiftest, thitherward, Bathyani's Magazines to
+help; and there await Prince Karl? It was Friedrich's own notion; not a
+bad one, though not the best. The best, he admits, would have been:
+To stay pretty much where he was; abolish Bathyani's Tolpatch people,
+seizing their Magazines, and collecting others; in general, well rooting
+and fencing himself in Prag, and in the Circles that lie thereabouts
+upon the Elbe,--bounded to southward by the Sazawa (branch of the
+Moldau), which runs parallel to the Elbe;--but well refusing to stir
+much farther at such an advanced season of the year.
+
+That second plan would have been the wisest:--then why not, follow it?
+Too tame a plan for the youthful mind. Besides, we perceive, as indeed
+is intimated by himself, he dreaded the force of public opinion in
+France. "Aha, look at your King of Prussia again. Gone to conquer
+Bohemia; and, except the Three Circles he himself is to have of it,
+lets Bohemia go to the winds!" This sort of thing, Friedrich admits, he
+dreaded too much, at that young period; so loud had the criticisms
+been on him, in the time of the Breslau Treaty: "Out upon your King of
+Prussia; call you that an honorable Ally!" Undoubtedly a weakness in the
+young King; inasmuch, says he, as "every General [and every man, add we]
+should look to the fact, not to the rumor of the fact." Well; but, at
+least, he will adopt his own other notion; that of making for the Passes
+of the Bohemian Mountains; to abolish Bathyani at least, and lock the
+door upon Prince Karl's advent? That was his own plan; and, though
+second-best, that also would have done well, had there been no third.
+
+But there was, as we hinted, a third plan, ardently favored by
+Belleisle, whose war-talent Friedrich much respected at this time: plan
+built on Belleisle's reminiscences of the old Tabor-Budweis businesses,
+and totally inapplicable now. Belleisle said, "Go southeast, not
+southwest; right towards the Austrian Frontier itself; that will
+frighten Austria into a fine tremor. Shut up the roads from Austria:
+Budweis, Neuhaus; seize those two Highroad Towns, and keep them, if you
+would hold Bohemia; the want of them was our ruin there." Your ruin,
+yes: but your enemy was not coming from Alsace and the southwest then.
+He was coming from Austria; and your own home lay on the southwest: it
+is all different now! Friedrich might well think himself bewitched not
+to have gone for Cham and Furth, and the Passes of the Bohmer-Wald,
+according to his own notion. But so it was; he yielded to the big
+reputation of Belleisle, and to fear of what the world would say of him
+in France; a weakness which he will perhaps be taught not to repeat. In
+fact, he is now about to be taught several things;--and will have to pay
+his school-wages as he goes.
+
+
+
+
+FRIEDRICH, LEAVING SMALL GARRISON IN PRAG, RUSHES SWIFTLY UP THE MOLDAU
+VALLEY, UPON THE TABOR-BUDWEIS COUNTRY; TO PLEASE HIS FRENCH FRIENDS.
+
+Friedrich made no delay in Prag; in haste at this late time of year.
+September 17th, on the very morrow of the Siege, the Prussians get in
+motion southward; on the 19th, Friedrich, from his post to north of the
+City, defiles through Prag, on march to Kunraditz,--first stage on that
+questionable Expedition up the Moldau Valley, right bank; towards Tabor,
+Budweis, Neuhaus; to threaten Austria, and please Belleisle and the
+French.
+
+Prag is left under General Einsiedel with a small garrison of
+5,000;--Einsiedel, a steady elderly gentleman, favorite of Friedrich
+Wilhelm's, has brief order, or outline of order to be filled up by his
+own good sense. Posadowsky follows the march, with as many meal-wagons
+as possible,--draught-cattle in very ineffectual condition. Our main
+Magazine is at Leitmeritz (should have been brought on to Prag, thinks
+Friedrich); Commissariat very ill-managed in comparison to what it ought
+to be,--to what it shall be, if we ever live to make another Campaign.
+Heavy artillery is left in Prag (another fault); and from each regiment,
+one of its baggage-wagons. [ _Helden-Geschichte,_  i. 1083; Orlich, ii.
+41 et seqq.; _Frederic,_ iii. 59; &c.] "We rest a day here at Kunraditz:
+21st September, get to the Sazawa River;--22d, to Bistritz (rest a
+day);--26th, to Miltschin; and 27th, to Tabor:"--But the Diary would be
+tedious.
+
+Friedrich goes in two Columns; one along the great road towards Tabor,
+under Schwerin this, and Friedrich mainly with him; the other to the
+right, along the River's bank, under Leopold, Young Dessauer, which has
+to go by wild country roads, or now and then roads of its own making;
+and much needs the pioneer (a difficult march in the shortening days).
+Posadowsky follows with the proviant, drawn by cattle of the horse and
+ox species, daily falling down starved: great swearing there too,
+I doubt not! General Nassau is vanguard, and stretches forward
+successfully at a much lighter pace.
+
+There are two Rivers, considerable branches of the Moldau, coming from
+eastward; which, and first of them the Sazawa, concern us here. After
+mounting the southern Uplands from Prag for a day or two, you then begin
+to drop again, into the hollow of a River called Sazawa, important in
+Bohemian Wars. It is of winding course, the first considerable branch
+of the Moldau, rising in Teutschbrod Country, seventy or eighty miles
+to east of us: in regard to Sazawa, there is, at present, no difficulty
+about crossing; the Country being all ours. After the Sazawa, mount
+again, long miles, day after day, through intricate stony desolation,
+rocks, bogs, untrimmed woods, you will get to Miltschin, thence to
+Tabor: Miltschin is the crown of that rough moor country; from Prag to
+Tabor is some sixty miles. After Miltschin the course of those brown
+mountain-brooks is all towards the Luschnitz, the next considerable
+branch of the Moldau; branch still longer and more winding than the
+Sazawa; Tabor towers up near this branch; Budweis, on the Moldau itself,
+is forty miles farther; and there at last you are out of the stony
+moors, and in a rich champaign comfortable to man and horse, were you
+but once there, after plodding through the desolations. But from that
+Sazawa by the Luschnitz on to Budweis, mounting and falling in such
+fashion, there must be ninety miles or thereby. Plod along; and keep
+a sharp eye on the whirling clouds of Pandours, for those too have got
+across upon us,--added to the other tempests of Autumn.
+
+On the ninth day of their march, the Prussians begin to descry on
+the horizon ahead the steeples and chimney-tops of Tabor, on its high
+scarped rock, or "Hill of Zisca,"--for it was Zisca and his Hussites
+that built themselves this Bit of Inexpugnability, and named it Tabor
+from their Bibles,--in those waste mountain regions. On the tenth day
+(27th September), the Prussians without difficulty took Tabor; walls
+being ruined, garrison small. We lie at Tabor till the 30th, last day
+of September. Thence, 2d October, part of us to Moldau-Tein rightwards;
+where cross the Moldau by a Bridge,--"Bridge" one has heard of, in old
+Broglio times;--cross there, with intent (easily successful) to snatch
+that "Castle of Frauenberg," darling of Broglio, for which he fought his
+Pharsalia of a Sahay to no purpose!
+
+Both Columns got united at Tabor; and paused for a day or two, to rest,
+and gather up their draggled skirts there. The Expedition does not
+improve in promise, as we advance in it; the march one of the
+most untowardly; and Posadowsky comes up with only half of his
+provision-carts,--half of his cattle having fallen down of bad weather,
+hill-roads and starvation; what could he do? That is an ominous
+circumstance, not the less.
+
+Three things are against the Prussians on this march; two of them
+accidental things. FIRST, there is, at this late season too, the
+intrinsic nature of the Country; which Friedrich with emphasis describes
+as boggy, stony, precipitous; a waste, hungry and altogether barren
+Country,--too emphatically so described. But then SECONDLY, what might
+have been otherwise, the Population, worked upon by Austrian officials,
+all fly from the sight of us; nothing but fireless deserted hamlets; and
+the corn, if they ever had any, all thrashed and hidden. No amount
+of money can purchase any service from them. Poor dark creatures; not
+loving Austria much, but loving some others even less, it would appear.
+Of Bigoted Papist Creed, for one thing; that is a great point. We do not
+meddle with their worship more or less; but we are Heretics, and they
+hate us as the Night. Which is a dreadful difficulty you always have
+in Bohemia: nowhere but in the Circle of Konigsgraz, where there
+are Hussites (far to the rear of us at this time), will you find it
+otherwise. This is difficulty second.
+
+Then, THIRDLY, what much aggravates it,--we neglected to abolish
+Bathyani! And here are Bathyani's Pandours come across the Moldau on
+us. Plenty of Pandours;--to whom "10,000 fresh Hungarians," of a new
+Insurrection which has been got up there, are daily speeding forward to
+add themselves:--such a swarm of hornets, as darkens the very daylight
+for you. Vain to scourge them down, to burn them off by blaze of
+gunpowder: they fly fast; but are straightway back again. They lurk in
+these bushy wildernesses, scraggy woods: no foraging possible, unless
+whole regiments are sent out to do it; you cannot get a letter safely
+carried for them. They are an unspeakable contemptible grief to the
+earnest leader of men.--Let us proceed, however; it will serve nothing
+to complain. Let us hope the French sit well on the skirts of Prince
+Karl: these sorrowful labors may all turn to good, in that case.
+
+Friedrich pushes on from Tabor; shoots partly (as we have seen) across
+the Moldau, to the left bank as well; captures romantic Frauenberg on
+its high rock, where Broglio got into such a fluster once. We could
+push to Pisek, too, and make a "Bivouac of Pisek," if we lost our wits!
+Nassau is in Budweis, in Neuhaus; and proper garrisons are gone thither:
+nothing wanting on our side of the business. But these Pandours, these
+10,000 Insurrection Hungarians, with their Trencks spurring them! A
+continual unblessed swarm of hornets, these; which shut out the very
+light of day from us. Too literally the light of day: we can get no
+free messaging from part to part of our own Army even. "As many as six
+Orderlies have been despatched to an outlying General; and not one of
+them could get through to him. They have snapt up three Letter-bags
+destined for the King himself. For four weeks he is absolutely shut out
+from the rest of Europe;" knows not in the least what the Kaiser, or the
+Most Christian or any other King, is doing; or whether the French are
+sitting well on Prince Karl's skirts, or not attempting that at all.
+This also is a thing to be amended, a thing you had to learn, your
+Majesty? An Army absolutely shut out from news, from letters, messages
+to or fro, and groping its way in darkness, owing to these circumambient
+thunder-clouds of Tolpatches, is not a well-situated Army! And alas,
+when at last the Letter-bag did get through, and--But let us not
+anticipate!
+
+At Tabor there arose two opinions; which, in spite of the King's
+presence, was a new difficulty. South from Tabor a day's march, the
+Highway splits; direct way for Vienna; left-hand goes to Neuhaus,
+right-hand, or straightforward rather, goes to Budweis, bearing upon
+Linz: which of these two? Nassau has already seized Budweis; and it is
+a habitable champaign country in comparison. Neuhaus, farther from the
+Moldau and its uses, but more imminent on Austria, would be easy to
+seize; and would frighten the Enemy more. Leopold the Young Dessauer is
+for Budweis; rapid Schwerin, a hardy outspoken man, is emphatic for the
+other place as Head-quarter. So emphatic are both, that the two Generals
+quarrel there; and Friedrich needs his authority to keep them from
+outbreaks, from open incompatibility henceforth, which would be
+destructive to the service. For the rest, Friedrich seizes both places;
+sends a detachment to Neuhaus as well; but holds by Budweis and the
+Moldau region with his main Army; which was not quite gratifying to the
+hardy Schwerin. On the opposite or left bank, holding Frauenberg, the
+renowned Hill-fortress there, we make inroads at discretion: but the
+country is woody, favorable to Pandours; and the right bank is our chief
+scene of action. How we are to maintain ourselves in this country? To
+winter in these towns between the Sazawa and the Luschnitz? Unless the
+French sit well on Prince Karl's skirts, it will not be possible.
+
+
+
+
+THE FRENCH ARE LITTLE GRATEFUL FOR THE PLEASURE DONE THEM AT SUCH
+RUINOUS EXPENSE.
+
+French sitting well on Prince Karl's skirts? They are not molesting
+Prince Karl in the smallest; never tried such a thing;--are turned away
+to the Brisgan, to the Upper Rhine Country; gone to besiege Freyburg
+there, and seize Towns; about the Lake of Constance, as if there were no
+Friedrich in the game! It must be owned the French do liberally pay off
+old scores against Friedrich,--if, except in their own imagination,
+they had old scores against him. No man ever delivered them from a more
+imminent peril; and they, the rope once cut that was strangling
+them, magnificently forget who cut it; and celebrate only their own
+distinguished conduct during and after the operation. To a degree truly
+wonderful.
+
+It was moonlight, clear as day that night, 23d August, when Prince Karl
+had to recross the Rhine, close in their neighborhood; [_Guerre de
+Boheme,_ iii. 196.]--and instead of harassing Prince Karl "to half or to
+whole ruin," as the bargain was, their distinguished conduct consisted
+in going quietly to their beds (old Marechal de Noailles even calling
+back some of his too forward subalterns), and joyfully leaving Prince
+Karl, then and afterwards, to cross the Rhine, and march for Bohmen, at
+his own perfect convenience.
+
+"Seckendorf will sit on Karl's skirts," they said: "too late for US,
+this season; next season, you shall see!" Such was their theory,
+after Louis got that cathartic, and rose from bed. Schmettau, with his
+importunities, which at last irritated everybody, could make nothing
+more of it. "Let the King of France crown his glories by the Siege of
+Freyburg, the conquest of Brisgau:--for behoof of the poor Kaiser, don't
+you observe? Hither Austria is the Kaiser's;--and furthermore, were
+Freyburg gone, there will be no invading of Elsass again" (which is
+another privately very interesting point)!
+
+And there, at Freyburg, the Most Christian King now is, and his Army up
+to the knees in mud, conquering Hither Austria; besieging Freyburg, with
+much difficulty owing to the wet,--besieging there with what energy;
+a spectacle to the world! And has, for the present, but one wife, no
+mistress either! With rapturous eyes France looks on; with admiration
+too big for words. Voltaire, I have heard, made pilgrimage to Freyburg,
+with rhymed Panegyric in his pocket; saw those miraculous operations
+of a Most Christian King miraculously awakened; and had the honor to
+present said Panegyric; and be seen, for the first time, by the royal
+eyes,--which did not seem to relish him much. [The Panegyric (EPITRE AU
+ROI DEVANT FRIBOURG) is in _OEuvres de Voltaire,_ xvii. 184.] Since the
+first days of October, Freyburg had been under constant assault; "amid
+rains, amid frosts; a siege long and murderous" (to the besieging
+party);--and was not got till November 5th; not quite entirely, the
+Citadels of it, till November 25th; Majesty gone home to Paris, to
+illuminations and triumphal arches, in the interim. [Adelung, iv. 266;
+Barbier, ii. 414 (13th November, &c.), for the illuminations, grand in
+the extreme, in spite of wild rains and winds.] It had been a difficult
+and bloody conquest to him, this of Freyburg and the Brisgau Country;
+and I never heard that either the Kaiser or he got sensible advantage by
+it,--though Prince Karl, on the present occasion, might be said to get a
+great deal.
+
+"Seckendorf will do your Prince Karl," they had cried always:
+"Seckendorf and his Prussian Majesty! Are not we conquering Hither
+Austria here, for the Kaiser's behoof?" Seckendorf they did officially
+appoint to pursue; appoint or allow;--and laid all the blame on
+Seckendorf; who perhaps deserved his share of it. Very certain it is,
+Seckendorf did little or nothing to Prince Karl; marched "leisurely
+behind him through the Ober-Pfalz,"--skirting Baireuth Country, Karl and
+he, to Wilhelmina's grief; [Her Letters ( _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii.
+i. 133, &c.).]--"leisurely behind him at a distance of four days," knew
+better than meddle with Prince Karl. So that Prince Karl, "in twenty-one
+marches," disturbed only by the elements and bad roads, reached
+Waldmunchen 26th September, in the Furth-Cham Country; [Ranke, iii.
+187.] and was heard to exclaim: "We are let off for the fright, then
+(NOUS VOILA QUITTES POUR LA PEUR)!"--Seckendorf, finding nothing to live
+upon in Ober-Pfalz, could not attend Prince Karl farther; but turned
+leftwards home to Bavaria; made a kind of Second "Reconquest of Bavaria"
+(on exactly the same terms as the First, Austrian occupants being all
+called off to assist in Bohmen again);--concerning which, here is an
+Excerpt:--
+
+"Seckendorf, following at his leisure, and joined by the Hessians and
+Pfalzers, so as now to exceed 30,000, leaves Prince Karl and the rest of
+the enterprise to do as it can; and applies himself, for his own share,
+as the needfulest thing, to getting hold of Bavaria again, that his poor
+Kaiser may have where to lay his head, and pay old servants their wages.
+Dreadfully exclaimed against, the old gentleman, especially by the
+French co-managers: 'Why did not the old traitor stick in the rear of
+Prince Karl, in the difficult passes, and drive him prone,--while we
+went besieging Freyburg, and poaching about, trying for a bit of the
+Brisgau while chance served!' A traitor beyond doubt; probably bought
+with money down: thinks Valori. But, after all, what could Seckendorf
+do? He is now of weight for Barenklau and Bavaria, not for much more. He
+does sweep Barenklau and his Austrians from Bavaria, clear out (in the
+course of this October), all but Ingolstadt and two or three strong
+towns,--Passau especially, 'which can be blockaded, and afterwards
+besieged if needful.' For the rest, he is dreadfully ill-off for
+provisions, incapable of the least, attempt on Passau (as Friedrich
+urged, on hearing of him again); and will have to canton himself in
+home-quarters, and live by his shifts till Spring.
+
+"The noise of French censure rises loud, against not themselves,
+but against Seckendorf:--Friedrich, before that Tolpatch eclipse of
+Correspondence [when three of his Letter-bags were seized, and he fell
+quite dark], had too well foreboded, and contemptuously expressed his
+astonishment at the blame BOTH were well earning: Passau, said he,
+cannot you go at least upon Passau; which might alarm the Enemy a
+little, and drag him homewards? 'Adieu, my dear Seckendorf, your Officer
+will tell you how we did the Siege of Prag. You and your French are
+wetted hens (POULES MOUILLEES),'--cowering about like drenched hens in a
+day of set rain. 'As I hear nothing of either of you, I must try to get
+out of this business without your help;'"--otherwise it will be ill for
+me indeed! [Excerpted Fragment of a Letter from Friedrich,--(exact
+date not given, date of EXCERPT is, Donanworth Country, 23d September,
+1744),--which the French Agent in Seckendorf's Army had a reading of
+(_Campagnes de Coigny,_ iv. 185-187; ib. 216-219: cited in Adelung, iv.
+225).] "Which latter expression alarmed the French, and set them upon
+writing and bustling, but not upon doing anything."
+
+"Prince Karl had crossed the Rhine unmolested, in the clearest
+moonlight, August 23d-24th; Seckendorf was not wholly got to Heilbronn,
+September 8th: a pretty way behind Prince Karl! The 6,000 Hessians,
+formerly in English pay, indignant Landgraf Wilhelm [who never could
+forgive that Machiavellian conduct of Carteret at Hanau, never till he
+found out what it really was] has, this year, put into French pay. And
+they have now joined Seckendorf; [Espagnac, ii. 13; Buchholz, ii. 123.]
+Prince Friedrich [Britannic Majesty's Son-in-law], not good fat Uncle
+George, commanding them henceforth:--with extreme lack of profit to
+Prince Friedrich, to the Hessians, and to the French, as will appear in
+time. These 6,000, and certain thousands of Pfalzers likewise in French
+pay, are now with Seckendorf, and have raised him to above 30,000;--it
+is the one fruit King Friedrich has got by that 'Union of Frankfurt,'
+and by all his long prospective haggling, and struggling for a 'Union
+of German Princes in general.' Two pears, after that long shaking of
+the tree; both pears rotten, or indeed falling into Seckendorf, who is
+a basket of such quality! 'Seckendorf, increased in this munificent
+manner, can he still do nothing?' cry the French: 'the old traitor!'--'I
+have no magazines,' said Seckendorf, 'nothing to live upon, to shoot
+with; no money!' And it is a mutual crescendo between the 'perfidious
+Seckendorf' and them; without work done. In the Nurnberg Country, some
+Hussars of his picked up Lord Holderness, an English Ambassador making
+for Venice by that bad route. 'Prisoner, are not you?' But they did not
+use him ill; on consideration, the Heads of Imperial Departments gave
+him a Pass, and he continued his Venetian Journey (result of it zero)
+without farther molestation that I heard of. [Adelung, iv. 222.]
+
+"These French-Seckendorf cunctations, recriminations and drenched-hen
+procedures are an endless sorrow to poor Kaiser Karl; who at length
+can stand it no longer; but resolves, since at least Bavaria, though
+moneyless and in ruins, is his, he will in person go thither; confident
+that there will be victual and equipment discoverable for self and Army
+were he there. Remonstrances avail not: 'Ask me to die with honor, ask
+me not to lie rotting here;' [Ib. iv. 241.]--and quits Frankfurt, and
+the Reich's-Diet and its babble, 17th October, 1744 (small sorrow, were
+it for the last time),--and enters his Munchen in the course of a week.
+[17th October, 1744, leaves Frankfurt; arrives in Munchen 23d (Adelung,
+iv. 241-244).] Munchen is transported with joy to see the Legitimate
+Sovereign again; and blazes into illuminations,--forgetful who caused
+its past wretchednesses, hoping only all wretchedness is now ended.
+Let ruined huts, and Cham and the burnt Towns, rebuild themselves; the
+wasted hedges make up their gaps again: here is the King come home!
+Here, sure enough, is an unfortunate Kaiser of the Holy Romish Reich,
+who can once more hope to pay his milk-scores, being a loved Kurfurst of
+Bavaria at least. Very dear to the hearts of these poor people;--and
+to their purses, interests and skins, has not he in another sense been
+dear? What a price the ambitions and cracked phantasms of that weak
+brain have cost the seemingly innocent population! Population harried,
+hungered down, dragged off to perish in Italian Wars; a Country burnt,
+tribulated, torn to ruin, under the harrow of Fate and ruffian Trenck
+and Company. Britannic George, rather a dear morsel too, has come
+much cheaper hitherto. England is not yet burnt; nothing burning
+there,--except the dull fire of deliriums; Natural Stupidities all set
+flaming, which (whatever it may BE in the way of loss) is not felt as a
+loss, but rather as a comfort for the time being;--and in fact there are
+only, say, a forty or fifty thousand armed Englishmen rotted down, and
+scarcely a Hundred Millions of money yet spent. Nothing to speak of,
+in the cause of Human Liberty. Why Populations suffer for their guilty
+Kings? My friend, it is the Populations too that are guilty in having
+such Kings. Reverence, sacred Respect for Human Worth, sacred Abhorrence
+of Human Unworth, have you considered what it means? These poor
+Populations have it not, or for long generations have had it less and
+less. Hence, by degrees, this sort of 'Kings' to them, and enormous
+consequences following!"--
+
+Karl VII. got back to Munchen 23d October, 1744; and the tar-barrels
+being once burnt, and indispensable sortings effected, he went to the
+field along with Seckendorf, to encourage his men under Seckendorf, and
+urge the French by all considerations to come on. And really did what
+he could, poor man. But the cordage of his life had been so strained and
+torn, he was not now good for much; alas, it had been but little he was
+ever good for. A couple of dear Kurfursts, his Father and he; have stood
+these Bavarian Countries very high, since the Battle of Blenheim and
+downwards!
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV.--FRIEDRICH REDUCED TO STRAITS; CANNOT MAINTAIN HIS MOLDAU
+CONQUESTS AGAINST PRICE KARL.
+
+One may fancy what were Friedrich's reflections when he heard that
+Prince Karl had, prosperously and unmolested, got across, by those
+Passes from the Ober-Pfalz, into Bohmen and the Circle of Pilsen, into
+junction with Bathyani and his magazines; ["At Mirotitz, October 2d"
+(Ranke, iii. 194); Orlich, ii. 49.] heard, moreover, that the Saxons,
+20,000 strong, under Weissenfels, crossing the Metal Mountains, coming
+on by Eger and Karlsbad regions, were about uniting with him (bound by
+Treaty to assist the Hungarian Majesty when invaded);--and had finally,
+what confirms everything, that the said Prince Karl in person (making
+for Budweis, "just seen his advanced guard," said rumor under mistake)
+was but few miles off. Few miles off, on the other side of the
+Moldau;--of unknown strength, hidden in the circumambient clouds of
+Pandours.
+
+Suppressing all the rages and natural reflections but those needful for
+the moment, Friedrich (October 4th, by Moldau-Tein) dashes across the
+Moldau, to seek Prince Karl, at the place indicated, and at once smite
+him down if possible;--that will be a remedy for all things. Prince Karl
+is not there, nor was; the indication had been false; Friedrich searches
+about, for four days, to no purpose. Prince Karl, he then learns for
+certain, has crossed the Moldau farther down, farther northward, between
+Prag and us. Means to cut us off from Prag, then, which is our fountain
+of life in these circumstances? That is his intention:--"Old Traun, who
+is with him, understands his trade!" thinks Friedrich. Traun, or the
+Prince, is diligently forming magazines, all the Country carrying to
+him, in the Town of Beneschau, hither side of the Sazawa, some seventy
+miles north of us, an important Town where roads meet:--unless we can
+get hold of Beneschau, it will be ill with us here! Across the River
+again, at any rate; and let us hasten thither. That is an affair which
+must be looked to; and speed is necessary!
+
+OCTOBER 8th, After four days' search ending in this manner, Friedrich
+swiftly crosses towards Tabor again, to Bechin (over on the Luschnitz,
+one march), there to collect himself for Beneschau and the other
+intricacies. Towards Tabor again, by his Bridge of Moldau-Tein;--clouds
+of Pandour people, larger clouds than usual, hanging round; hidden by
+the woods till Friedrich is gone. Friedrich being gone, there occurs the
+AFFAIR OF MOLDAU-TEIN, much talked of in Prussian Books. Of which, in
+extreme condensation, this is the essence:--
+
+"OCTOBER 9th. Friedrich once off to Bechin, the Pandour clouds gather
+on his rearguard next day at Tein Bridge here, to the number of about
+10,000 [rumor counts 14,000]; and with desperate intent, and more
+regularity than usual, attack the Tein-Bridge Party, which consists
+of perhaps 2,000 grenadiers and hussars, the whole under Ziethen's
+charge,--obliged to wait for a cargo of Bread-wagons here. 'Defend your
+Bridge, with cannon, with case-shot:' that is what the grenadiers do.
+The Pandour cloud, with horrid lanes cut in it, draws back out of this;
+then plunges at the River itself, which can be ridden above or below;
+rides it, furious, by the thousand: 'Off with your infantry; quit the
+Bridge!' cries Ziethen to his Captain there: 'Retire you, Parthian-like;
+thrice-steady,' orders Ziethen: 'It is to be hoped our hussars can deal
+with this mad-doggery!' And they do it; cutting in with iron discipline,
+with fierceness not undrilled; a wedge of iron hussars, with ditto
+grenadiers continually wheeling, like so many reapers steady among
+wind-tossed grain; and gradually give the Pandours enough. Seven hours
+of it, in all: 'of their sixty cartridges the grenadiers had fired
+fifty-four,' when it ended, about 7 P.M. The coming Bread-wagons,
+getting word, had to cast their loaves into the River (sad to think of);
+and make for Bechin at their swiftest. But the rearguard got off with
+its guns, in this victorious manner: thanks to Major-General Ziethen,
+Colonel Reusch and the others concerned. [_Feldzuge der Preussen,_  i.
+268; Orlich, ii. 55.]
+
+"Ziethen handsels his Major-Generalcy in this fine way: [Patent given
+him "3d October, 1744," only a week ago, "and ordered to be dated eight
+months back" (Rodenbeck, i. 109).] a man who has had promotion, and also
+has had none, and may again come to have none;--and is able to do either
+way. Never mind, my excellent tacit friend! Ziethen is five-and-forty
+gone; has a face which is beautiful to me, though one of the coarsest.
+Face thrice-honest, intricately ploughed with thoughts which are well
+kept silent (the thoughts, indeed, being themselves mostly inarticulate;
+thoughts of a simple-hearted, much-enduring, hot-tempered son of
+iron and oatmeal);--decidedly rather likable, with its lazily hanging
+under-lip, and respectable bearskin cylinder atop."
+
+
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TRIES TO HAVE BATTLE FROM PRINCE KARL, IN THE MOLDAU
+COUNTRIES; CANNOT, OWING TO THE SKILL OF PRINCE KARL OR OF OLD
+FELDMARSCHALL TRAUN;--HAS TO RETIRE BEHIND THE SAZAWA, AND ULTIMATELY
+BEHIND THE ELBE, WITH MUCH LABOR IN VAIN.
+
+OCTOBER 14th-18th: RETREAT FROM BECHIN-TABOR COUNTRY TO BENESCHAU. ...
+"These Pandours give us trouble enough; no Magazine here, no living to
+be had in this Country beside them. Unfortunate Colonel Jahnus went out
+from Tabor lately, to look after requisitioned grains: infinite Pandours
+set upon him [Muhlhausen is the memorable place]; Jahnus was obstinate
+(too obstinate, thinks Friedrich), and perished on the ground, he and
+200 of his. [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 61.] Nay, next, a swarm of
+them came to Tabor itself, Nadasti at their head; to try whether Tabor,
+with its small garrison, could not be escaladed, and perhaps Prince
+Henri, who lies sick there, be taken? Tabor taught them another lesson;
+sent them home with heads broken;--which Friedrich thinks was an
+extremely suitable thing. But so it stands: Here by the thousand and the
+ten thousand they hang round us; and Prince Karl--It is of all things
+necessary we get hold of that Beneschau, and the Magazine he is
+gathering there!
+
+"Rapidity is indispensable,--and yet how quit Tabor? We have detachments
+out at Neuhaus, at Budweis, and in Tabor 300 men in hospital, whom there
+are no means of carrying. To leave them to the Tolpaches? Friedrich
+confesses he was weak on this occasion; he could not leave these 300
+men, as was his clear duty, in this extremity of War. He ordered in his
+Neuhaus Detachment; not yet any of the others. He despatched Schmerin
+towards Beneschau with all his speed; Schwerin was lucky enough to
+take Beneschau and its provender,--a most blessed fortune,--and fences
+himself there. Hearing which, Friedrich, having now got the Neuhaus
+Detachment in hand, orders the other Three, the Budweis, the Tabor here,
+and the Frauenberg across the River, to maintain themselves; and
+then, leaving those southern regions to their chance, hastens towards
+Beneschau and Schwerin; encamps (October 18th) near Beneschau,--'Camp of
+Konopischt,' unattackable Camp, celebrated in the Prussian Books;--and
+there, for eight days, still on the south side of Sazawa, tries every
+shift to mend the bad posture of affairs in that Luschnitz-Sazawa
+Country. His Three Garrisons (3,000 men in them, besides the 300 sick)
+he now sees will not be able to maintain themselves; and he sends in
+succession 'eight messengers,' not one messenger of whom could get
+through, to bid them come away. His own hope now is for a Battle
+with Prince Karl; which might remedy all things. [_OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ iii. 62-64.]"
+
+That is Friedrich's wish; but it is by no means Traun's, who sees that
+hunger and wet weather will of themselves suffice for Friedrich. There
+ensues accordingly, for three weeks to come, in that confused Country,
+a series of swift shufflings, checkings and manoeuvrings between these
+two, which is gratifying and instructive to the strategic mind, but
+cannot be inflicted upon common readers. Two considerable chess-players,
+an old and a young; their chess-board a bushy, rocky, marshy
+parallelogram, running fifty miles straight east from Prag, and twenty
+or fewer south, of which Prag is the northwest angle, and Beneschau, or
+the impregnable Konopischt the southwest: the reader must conceive it;
+and how Traun will not fight Friedrich, yet makes him skip hither and
+thither, chiefly by threatening his victuals. Friedrich's main magazine
+is now at Pardubitz, the extreme northeast angle of the parallelogram.
+Parallelogram has one river in it, with the innumerable rocks and
+brooks and quagmires, the river Sazawa; and on the north side, where are
+Kuttenberg, Czaslau, Chotusitz, places again become important in
+this business, it is bounded by another river, the Elbe. Intricate
+manoeuvring there is here, for three weeks following: "old Traun an
+admirable man!" thinks Friedrich, who ever after recognized Traun as his
+Schoolmaster in the art of War. We mark here and there a date, and leave
+it to readers.
+
+"RADICZ, OCTOBER 21st-22d. At Radicz, a march to southwest of us, and on
+our side of the Moldau, the Saxons, under Weissenfels, 20,000 effective,
+join Prince Karl; which raises his force to 69,514 men, some 10,000 more
+than Friedrich is master of. [Orlich, ii. 66.] Prospect of wintering
+between the Luschnitz and the Sazawa there is now little; unless they
+will fight us, and be beaten. Friedrich, from his inaccessible Camp of
+Konopischt, manoeuvres, reconnoitres, in all directions, to produce
+this result; but to no purpose. An Austrian Detachment did come, to look
+after Beneschau and the Magazines there; but rapidly drew back again,
+finding Konopischt on their road, and how matters were. Friedrich
+will guard the door of this Sazawa-Elbe tract of Country; hope of the
+Sazawa-Luschnitz tract has, in few days, fallen extinct. Here is
+news come to Konopischt: our Three poor Garrisons, Budweis, Tabor,
+Frauenberg, already all lost; guns and men, after defence to the
+last cartridge,--in Frauenberg their water was cut off, it was
+eight-and-forty hours of thirst at Frauenberg:--one way or other, they
+are all Three gone; eight couriers galloping with message, 'Come away,'
+were all picked up by the Pandours; so they stood, and were lost. 'Three
+thousand fighting men gone, for the weak chance of saving three hundred
+who were in hospital!' thinks Friedrich: War is not a school of the
+weak pities. For the chance of ten, you lose a hundred and the ten too.
+Sazawa-Elbe tract of country, let us vigilantly keep the door of that!
+
+"SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24th, Friedrich out reconnoitring from Konopischt
+discovers of a certainty that the whole Austrian-Saxon force is
+now advaucing towards Beneschau, and will, this night, encamp at
+Marschowitz, to southwest, only one march from us! On the instant
+Friedrich hurries back; gets his Army on march thitherward, though the
+late October sun is now past noon; off instantly; a stroke yonder will
+perhaps be the cure of all. Such roads we had, says Friedrich, as never
+Army travelled before: long after nightfall, we arrive near the Austrian
+camp, bivouac as we can till daylight return. At the first streak of
+day, Friedrich and his chief generals are on the heights with their
+spy-glasses: Austrian Army sure enough; and there they have altered
+their posture overnight (for Traun too has been awake); they lie now
+opposite our RIGHT flank; 'on a scarped height, at the foot of which,
+through swamps and quagmires, runs a muddy stream.' Unattackable on this
+side: their right flank and foot are safe enough. Creep round and see
+their left:--Nothing but copses, swampy intricacies! We may shoulder
+arms again, and go back to Konopischt: no fight here! [_OEuvres
+de Frederic,_ iii. 63, 64; Orlich, ii. 69.] Speaking of defensive
+Campaigns, says Friedrich didactically, years afterwards, 'If such
+situations are to answer the purpose intended, the front and flanks must
+be equally strong, but the rear entirely open. Such, for instance,
+are those heights which have an extensive front, and whose flanks are
+covered by morasses:--as was Prince Karl's Camp at Marschowitz in the
+year 1744, with its front covered by a stream, and the wings by deep
+hollows; or that which we ourselves then occupied at Konopischt,--as you
+well remember. [_Military Instructions_ (above cited), p. 44.]
+
+"OCTOBER 26th-NOVEMBER 1st. The Sazawa-Luschnitz tract of Country is
+quite lost, then; lost with damages: the question now is, Can we keep
+the Sazawa-Elbe tract? For about three weeks more, Friedrich struggles
+for that object; cannot compass that either. Want of horse-provender is
+very great:--country entirely eaten, say the peasants, and not a truss
+remaining. October 26th, Friedrich has to cross the Sazawa; we must quit
+the door of that tract (hunger driving us), and fight for the interior
+in detail. Traun gets to Beneschau in that cheap way; and now, in behalf
+of Traun, the peasants find forage enough, being zealous for Queen and
+creed. Pandours spread themselves all over this Sazawa-Elbe country;
+endanger our subsistences, make our lives miserable. It is the old
+story: Friedrich, famine and mud and misery of Pandours compelling,
+has to retire northward, Elbe-ward, inch by inch; whither the Austrians
+follow at a safe distance, and, in spite of all manoeuvring, cannot be
+got to fight.
+
+"Brave General Nassau, who much distinguishes himself in these
+businesses, has (though Friedrich does not yet know it) dexterously
+seized Kolin, westward in those Elbe parts,--ground that will be notable
+in years coming. Important little feat of Nassau's; of which anon. On
+the other hand, our Magazine at Pardubitz, eastward on the Elbe, is
+not out of danger: Pandours and regulars 2,000 and odd, 'sixty of the
+Pandour kind disguised as peasants leading hay-carts,' made an attempt
+there lately; but were detected by the vigilant Colonel, and blown to
+pieces, in the nick of time, some of them actually within the gate.
+[ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 65.] Nay, a body of Austrian regulars were
+in full march for Kolin lately, intending to get hold of the Elbe
+itself at that point (midway between Prag and Pardubitz): but the prompt
+General Nassau, as we remarked, had struck in before them; and now holds
+Kolin;--though, for several days, Friedrich could not tell what had
+become of Nassau, owing to the swarms of Pandours.
+
+"Friedrich, standing with his back to Prag, which is fifty miles from
+him, and rather in need of his support than able to give him any; and
+drawing his meal from the uncertain distance, with Pandours hovering
+round,--is in difficult case. While old Traun is kept luminous as
+mid-day; the circumambient atmosphere of Pandours is tenebrific to
+Friedrich, keeps him in perpetual midnight. He has to read his position
+as with flashes of lightning, for most part. A heavy-laden, sorely
+exasperated man; and must keep his haggard miseries strictly secret;
+which I believe he does. Were Valori here, it is very possible he might
+find the countenance FAROUCHE again; eyes gloomy, on damp November
+mornings! Schwerin, in a huff, has gone home: Since your Majesty is
+pleased to prefer his young Durchlaucht of Anhalt's advice, what can
+an elderly servant (not without rheumatisms) do other?--'Well!' answers
+Friedrich, not with eyes cheered by the phenomenon. The Elbe-Sazawa
+tract, even this looks as if it would be hard to keep. A world very dark
+for Friedrich, enveloped so by the ill chances and the Pandours. But
+what help?
+
+"From the French Camp far away, there comes, dated 17th October
+(third week of their Siege of Freyburg), by way of help to Friedrich,
+magnanimous promise: 'So soon as this Siege is done, which will be
+speedily, though it is difficult, we propose to send fifty battalions
+and a hundred squadrons,'"--say only 60,000 horse and foot (not a hoof
+or toe of which ever got that length, on actually trying it),--"towards
+Westphalia, to bring the Elector of Koln to reason [poor Kaiser's lanky
+Brother, who cannot stand the French procedures, and has lately sold
+himself, that is sold his troops, to England], and keep the King of
+England and the Dutch in check,"--by way of solacement to your Majesty.
+Will you indeed, you magnanimous Allies?--This was picked up by the
+Pandours; and I know not but Friedrich was spared the useless pain of
+reading it. [Orlich, ii. 73.]
+
+"NOVEMBER 1st-9th: FRIEDRICH LOSES SAZAWA-ELBE COUNTRY TOO. On the first
+day of November, here is a lightning-flash which reveals strange things
+to Friedrich. Traun's late manoeuvrings, which have been so enigmatic,
+to right and to left, upon Prag and other points, issue now in an
+attempt towards Pardubitz; which reveals to Friedrich the intention
+Traun has formed, of forcing him to choose one of those two places, and
+let go the other. Formidable, fatal, thinks Friedrich; and yet admirable
+on the part of Traun: 'a design beautiful and worthy of admiration.' If
+we stay near Prag, what becomes of our communication with Silesia; what
+becomes of Silesia itself? If we go towards Pardubitz, Prag and Bohmen
+are lost! What to do? 'Despatch reinforcement to Pardubitz; thanks to
+Nassau, the Kolin-Pardubitz road is ours!' That is done, Pardubitz saved
+for the moment. Could we now get to Kuttenberg before the old Marshal,
+his design were overset altogether. Alas, we cannot march at once, have
+to wait a day for the bread. Forward, nevertheless; and again forward,
+and again; three heavy marches in November weather: let us make a fourth
+forced march, start to-morrow before dawn,--Kuttenberg above all things!
+In vain; to-morrow, 4th November, there is such a fog, dark as London
+itself, from six in the morning onwards, no starting till noon: and then
+impossible, with all our efforts, to reach Kuttenberg. We have to halt
+an eight miles short of it, in front of Kolin; and pitch tents there. On
+the morrow, 5th November, Traun is found encamped, unattackable, between
+us and our object; sits there, at his ease in a friendly Country, with
+Pandour whirlpools flowing out and in; an irreducible case to Friedrich.
+November 5th, and for three days more, Friedrich, to no purpose, tries
+his utmost;--finds he will have to give up the Elbe-Sazawa region, like
+the others. Monday, November 9th, Friedrich gathers himself at Kolin;
+crosses the Elbe by Kolin Bridge, that day. Point after point of the
+game going against him."
+
+Kolin was, of course, attacked, that Monday evening, so soon as the main
+Army crossed: but, so soon as the Army left, General Nassau had taken
+his measures; and, with his great guns and his small, handled the
+Pandours in a way that pleased us. [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 68.]
+Thursday night following, they came back, with regular grenadiers to
+support; under cloud of night, in great force, ruffian Trenck at the
+head of them: a frightful phenomenon to weak nerves. But this also
+Nassau treated in such a fiery fashion that it vanished without return;
+three hundred dead left on the ground, and ruffian Trenck riding off
+with his own crown broken,--beautiful indigo face streaking itself into
+GINGHAM-pattern, for the moment!
+
+Except Pardubitz, where also the due battalions are left, Friedrich now
+holds no post south of the Elbe in this quarter; Elbe-Sazawa Tract is
+gone like the others, to all appearance. And we must now say, Silesia
+or Prag? Prince Leopold, Council-of-War being held on the matter, is for
+keeping hold of Prag: "Pity to lose all the excellent siege-artillery we
+brought thither," says he. True, too true; an ill-managed business
+that of Prag! thinks Friedrich sadly to himself: but what is Prag and
+artillery, compared to Silesia? Parthian retreat into Silesia; and
+let Prag and the artillery go: that, to Friedrich, is clearly the sure
+course. Or perhaps the fatal alternative will not actually arrive? So
+long as Pardubitz and Kolin hold; and we have the Elbe for barrier?
+Truth is, Prince Karl has himself written to Court that, having now
+pushed his Enemy fairly over the Elbe, and winter being come with its
+sleets and slushes, ruinous to troops that have been so marched about,
+the Campaign ought to end;--nay, his own young Wife is in perilous
+interesting circumstances, and the poor Prince wishes to be home. To
+which, however, it is again understood, Maria Theresa has emphatically
+answered, "No,--finish first!"
+
+NOVEMBER 9th-19th: WE DEFEND THE ELBE RIVER. Friedrich has posted
+himself on the north shore of the Elbe, from Pardubitz to the other side
+of Kolin; means to defend that side of the River, where go the Silesian
+roads. At Bohdenetz, short way across from Pardubitz, he himself is;
+Prince Leopold is near Kolin: thirty miles of river-bank to dispute.
+The controversy lasts ten days; ends in ELBE-TEINITZ, a celebrated
+"passage," in Books and otherwise. Friedrich is in shaggy, intricate
+country; no want of dingles, woods and quagmires; now and then pleasant
+places too,--here is Kladrup for example, where our Father came three
+hundred miles to dine with the Kaiser once. The grooms and colts are
+all off at present; Father and Kaiser are off; and much is changed since
+then. Grim tussle of War now; sleety winter, and the Giant Mountains in
+the distance getting on their white hoods! Friedrich doubtless has
+his thoughts as he rides up and down, in sight of Kladrup, among other
+places, settling many things; but what his thoughts were, he is careful
+not to say except where necessary. Much is to be looked after, in this
+River controversy of thirty miles. Detachments lie, at intervals, all
+the way; and mounted sentries, a sentry every five miles, patrol the
+River-bank; vigilant, we hope, as lynxes. Nothing can cross but alarm
+will be given, and by degrees the whole Prussian force be upon it. This
+is the Circle of Konigsgratz, this that now lies to rear; and happily
+there are a few Hussites in it, not utterly indisposed to do a little
+spying for us, and bring a glimmering of intelligence, now and then.
+
+It is now the second week that Frietrich has lain so, with his mounted
+patrols in motion, with his Hussite spies; guarding Argus-like this
+thirty miles of River; and the Austrians attempt nothing, or nothing
+with effect. If the Austrians go home to their winter-quarters, he hopes
+to issue from Kolin again before Spring, and to sweep the Elbe-Sazawa
+Tract clear of them, after all. Maria Theresa having answered No, it is
+likely the Austrians will try to get across: Be vigilant therefore,
+ye mounted sentries. Or will they perhaps make an attempt on Prag?
+Einsiedel, who has no garrison of the least adequacy, apprises us That
+"in all the villages round Prag people are busy making ladders,"--what
+can that mean? Friedrich has learned, by intercepted letters, that
+something great is to be done on Wednesday, 18th: he sends Rothenburg
+with reinforcement to Einsiedel, lest a scalade of Prag should be on
+the cards. Rothenburg is right welcome in the lines of Prag, though with
+reinforcement still ineffectual; but it is not Prag that is meant, nor
+is Wednesday the day. Through Wednesday, Friedrich, all eye and ear,
+could observe nothing: much marching to and fro on the Austrian side of
+the River; but apparently it comes to nothing? The mounted patrols had
+better be vigilant, however.
+
+On the morrow, 5 A.M., what is this that is going on? Audible booming of
+cannon, of musketry and battle, echoing through the woods, penetrates to
+Friedrich's quarters at Bohdenetz in the Pardubitz region: Attack upon
+Kolin, Nassau defending himself there? Out swift scouts, and see! Many
+scouts gallop out; but none comes back. Friedrich, for hours, has to
+remain uncertain; can only hope Nassau will defend himself. Boom go the
+distant volleyings; no scout comes back. And it is not Nassau or Kolin;
+it is something worse: very glorious for Prussian valor, but ruinous to
+this Campaign.
+
+The Austrians, at 2 o'clock this morning, Austrians and Saxons, came in
+great force, in dead silence, to the south brink of the River, opposite
+a place called Teinitz (Elbe-Teinitz), ten miles east of Kolin; that
+was the fruit of their marching yesterday. They sat there forbidden to
+speak, to smoke tobacco or do anything but breathe, till all was ready;
+till pontoons, cannons had come up, and some gleam of dawn had broken.
+At the first gleam of dawn, as they are shoving down their pontoon
+boats, there comes a "WER-DA, Who goes?" from our Prussian patrol across
+the River. Receiving no answer, he fires; and is himself shot down. One
+Wedell, Wedell and Ziethen, who keep watch in this part, start instantly
+at sound of these shots; and make a dreadful day of it for these
+invasive Saxon and Austrian multitudes. Naturally, too, they send off
+scouts, galloping for more help, to the right and to the left. But that
+avails not. Wild doggery of Pandours, it would seem, have already swum
+or waded the River, above Teinitz and below:--"Want of vigilance!" barks
+Friedrich impatiently: but such a doggery is difficult to watch with
+effect. At any rate, to the right and to the left, the woods are already
+beset with Pandours; every scout sent out is killed: and to east or to
+west there comes no news but an echoing of musketry, a boom of distant
+cannon. [Orlich, ii. 82-85.] Saxon-Austrian battalions, four or five,
+with unlimited artillery going, VERSUS Wedell's one battalion, with
+musketry and Ziethen's hussars: it is fearful odds. The Prussians stand
+to it like heroes; doggedly, for four hours, continue the
+dispute,--till it is fairly desperate; "two bridges of the enemy's now
+finished;"--whereupon they manoeuvre off, with Parthian or Prussian
+countenance, into the woods, safe, towards Kolin; "despatching definite
+news to Friedrich, which does arrive about 11 A.M., and sets him at once
+on new measures."
+
+This is a great feat in the Prussian military annals; for which, sad
+as the news was, Wedell got the name of Leonidas attached to him by
+Friedrich himself. And indeed it is a gallant passage of war; "Forcing
+of the Elbe at Teinitz;" of which I could give two Narratives, one from
+the Prussian, and one from the Saxon side; [Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i.
+595-598; _Helden-Geschichte,_  ii. 1175-1181.] didactic, admonitory
+to the military mind, nay to the civic reader that has sympathy with
+heroisms, with work done manfully, and terror and danger and difficulty
+well trampled under foot. Leonidas Wedell has an admirable silence, too;
+and Ziethen's lazily hanging under-lip is in its old attitude again, now
+that the spasm is over. "WAS THUTS? They are across, without a doubt. We
+would have helped it, and could not. Steady!"--
+
+
+
+
+FRIEDRICH'S RETREAT; ESPECIALLY EINSIEDEL'S FROM PRAG.
+
+Seeing, then, that they are fairly over, Friedrich, with a creditable
+veracity of mind, sees also that the game is done; and that same
+night he begins manoeuvring towards Silesia, lest far more be lost by
+continuing the play. One column, under Leopold the Young Dessauer, goes
+through Glatz, takes the Magazine of Pardubitz along with it: good to go
+in several columns, the enemy will less know which to chase. Friedrich,
+with another column, will wait for Nassau about Konigsgratz, then go by
+the more westerly road, through Nachod and the Pass of Braunau. Nassau,
+who is to get across from Kolin, and join us northwards, has due
+rendezvous appointed him in the Konigsgratz region. Einsiedel, in Prag,
+is to spike his guns, since he cannot carry them; blow up his
+bastions, and the like; and get away with all discretion and all
+diligence,--northwestward first, to Leitmeritz, where our magazines are;
+there to leave his heavier goods, and make eastward towards Friedland,
+and across the "Silesian Combs" by what Passes he can. Will have
+a difficult operation; but must stand to it. And speed; steady,
+simultaneous, regular, unresting velocity; that is the word for all. And
+so it is done,--though with difficulty, on the part of poor Einsiedel
+for one. It was Thursday, 19th November, when the Austrians got across
+the Elbe: on Monday, 23d, the Prussian rendezvousings are completed; and
+Friedrich's column, and the Glatz one under Leopold, are both on march;
+infinite baggage-wagons groaning orderly along ("sick-wagons well
+ahead," and the like precautions and arrangements), on both these
+highways for Silesia: and before the week ends, Thursday, 26th, even
+Einsiedel is under way. Let us give something of poor Einsiedel,
+whose disasters made considerable noise in the world, that Winter and
+afterwards.
+
+"The two main columns were not much molested; that which went by Glatz,
+under Leopold, was not pursued at all. On the rear of Friedrich's own
+column, going towards Braunau, all the way to Nachod or beyond, there
+hung the usual doggery of Pandours, which required whipping off from
+time to time; but in the defiles and difficult places due precaution was
+taken, and they did little real damage. Truchsess von Waldburg [our old
+friend of the Spartan feat near Austerlitz in the MORAVIAN-FORAY time,
+whom we have known in London society as Prussian Envoy in bygone years]
+was in one of the divisions of this column; and one day, at a village
+where there was a little river to cross (river Mietau, Konigsgratz
+branch of the Elbe), got provoked injudiciously into fighting with
+a body of these people. Intent not on whipping them merely, but on
+whipping them to death, Truchsess had already lost some forty men, and
+the business with such crowds of them was getting hot; when, all at
+once a loud squeaking of pigs was heard in the village,"--apprehensive
+swineherd hastily penning his pigs belike, and some pig refractory;--"at
+sound of which, the Pandour multitude suddenly pauses, quits fighting,
+and, struck by a new enthusiasm, rushes wholly into the village; leaving
+Truchsess, in a tragi-comic humor, victorious, but half ashamed
+of himself. [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 73.] In the beginning of
+December, Friedrich's column reached home, by Braunau through the
+Mountains, the same way part of it had come in August; not quite so
+brilliant in equipment now as then.
+
+"It was upon Einsiedel's poor Garrison, leaving Prag in such haste, that
+the real stress of the retreat fell; its difficulties great indeed, and
+its losses great. Einsiedel did what was possible; but all things are
+not possible on a week's warning. He spiked great guns, shook endless
+hundredweights of powder, and 10,000 stand of arms, into the River;
+he requisitioned horses, oxen, without number; put mines under the
+bastions, almost none of which went off with effect. He kept Prag
+accurately shut, the Praguers accurately in the dark; took his measures
+prudently; and labored night and day. One measure I note of him:
+stringent Proclamation to the inhabitants of Prag, 'Provision yourselves
+for three months; nothing but starvation ahead otherwise.' Alas, we
+are to stand a fourth siege, then? say the Praguers. But where are
+provisions to be had? At such and such places; from the Royal Magazines
+only, if you bring a certificate and ready money! Whereby Einsiedel
+got delivered of his meal-magazine, for one thing. But his difficulties
+otherwise were immense.
+
+"On the Thursday morning, 26th November, 1744, he marched. His wagons
+had begun the night before; and went all night, rumbling continuous
+(Anonymous of Prag [Second "LETTER from a Citizen, &c." (date, 27th
+November, see supra, p. 348), in _Helden-Geschichte,_  ii. 1181-1188.]
+hearing them well), through the Karlthor, northwest gate of Prag, across
+the Moldau Rridge. All night across that bridge,--Leitmeritz road, great
+road to the northwest:--followed finally by the march of horse and foot.
+But news had already fled abroad. Five hundred Pandours were in the
+City, backed by the Butchers' lads and other riotous GESINDEL, before
+the rear-guard got away. Sad tugging and wriggling in consequence, much
+firing from windows, and uproarious chaos;--so that Rothenburg had at
+last to remount a couple of guns, and blow it off with case-shot. A
+drilled Prussian rear-guard struggling, with stern composure, through a
+real bit of burning chaos. With effect, though not without difficulty.
+Here is the scene on the Noldau Bridge, and past that high Hradschin
+[Old Palace of the Bohemian Kings (pronounce RADsheen); one of the
+steepest Royal Sites in the world.] mass of buildings; all Prag, not the
+Hradschin only, struggling to give us fatal farewell if it durst. River
+is covered with Pandours firing out of boats; Bridge encumbered to
+impassability by forsaken wagons, the drivers of which had cut traces
+and run; shot comes overhead from the Hradschin on our left, much shot,
+infinite tumult all round; thoroughfare impossible for two-wheeled
+vehicle, or men in rank. 'Halt!' cries Colonel Brandes, who has charge
+of the thing; divides them in three: 'First one party, deal with these
+river-boats, that Pandour doggery; second party, pull these stray wagons
+to right and left, making the way clear; third party, drag our
+own wagons forward, shoulder to shaft, and yoke them out of
+shot-range;--you, Captain Carlowitz,' and calls twenty volunteers to go
+with Carlowitz, and drag their own cannon, 'step you forward, keep the
+gate of that Hradschin till we all pass!' In this manner, rapid, hard of
+stroke, clear-headed and with stern regularity, drilled talent gets the
+burning Nessus'-shirt wriggled off; and tramps successfully forth with
+its baggages. About 11 A.M., this rearguard of Brandes's did; should
+have been at seven,--right well that it could be at all.
+
+"Einsiedel, after this, got tolerably well to Leitmeritz; left his heavy
+baggage there; then turned at an acute angle right eastward, towards the
+Silesian Combs, as ordered: still a good seventy miles to do, and the
+weather getting snowy and the days towards their shortest. Worse still;
+old Weissenfels, now in Prag with his Saxons, is aware that Einsiedel,
+before ending, will touch on a wild high-lying corner of the Lausitz
+which is Saxon Country; and thitherward Weissenfels has despatched
+Chevalier de Saxe (in plenty of time, November 29th), with horse and
+foot, to waylay Einsiedel, and block the entrance of the Silesian
+Mountains for him. Whereupon, in the latter end of his long march,
+and almost within sight of home, ensues the hardest brush of all for
+Einsiedel. And, in the desolation of that rugged Hill country of the
+Lausitz, 'HOCHWALD (Upper Weld),' twenty or more miles from Bohemian
+Friedland, from his entrance on the Mountain Barrier and Silesian Combs,
+there are scenes--which gave rise to a Court-Martial before long.
+For unexpectedly, on the winter afternoon (December 9th), Einsiedel,
+struggling among the snows and pathless Hills, comes upon Chevalier de
+Saxe and his Saxon Detachment,--intrenched with trees, snow-redoubts,
+and a hollow bog dividing us; plainly unassailable;--and stands there,
+without covering, without 'food, fire, or salt,' says one Eye-witness,
+'for the space of fourteen hours.' Gazing gloomily into it, exchanging a
+few shots, uncertain what more to do; the much-dubitating Einsiedel. 'At
+which the men were so disgusted and enraged, they deserted [the foreign
+part of them, I fancy] in groups at a time,' says the above
+Eye-witness. Not to think what became of the equipments, baggage-wagons,
+sick-wagons:--too evident Einsiedel's loss, in all kinds, was very
+considerable. Nassau, despatched by Leopold out of Glatz, from the other
+side of the Combs, is marching to help Einsiedel;--who knows, at this
+moment, where or whitherward? For the peasants are all against us;
+our very guides desert, and become spies. 'Push to the left, over the
+Hochwald top, must not we?' thinks Einsiedel: 'that is Lausitz, a Saxon
+Country; and Saxony, though the Saxons stand intrenched here, with the
+knife at our throat, are not at war with us, oh no, only allies of her
+Majesty of Hungary, and neutral otherwise!' And here, it is too clear,
+the Chevalier de Saxe stands intrenched behind his trees and snow; and
+it is the fourteenth hour, men deserting by the hundred, without fire
+and without salt; and Nassau is coming,--God knows by what road!
+
+"Einsiedel pushes to the left, the Hochwald way; finds, in the Hochwald
+too, a Saxon Commandant waiting him, with arms strictly shouldered.
+'And we cannot pass through this moor skirt of Lausitz, say you, then?'
+'Unarmed, yes; your muskets can come in wagons after you,' replies the
+Saxon Commandant of Lausitz. 'Thousand thanks, Herr Commandant; but we
+will not give you all that trouble,' answer Einsiedel and his Prussians;
+'and march on, overwhelming him with politenesses,' says Friedrich;--the
+approach of Nassau, above all, being a stringent civility. Of course,
+despatch is very requisite to Einsiedel; the Chevalier, with his force,
+being still within hail. The Prussians march all night, with pitch-links
+flaring,--nights (I think) of the 13th-15th December, 1744, up among the
+highlands there, rugged buttresses of the Silesian Combs: a sight enough
+to astonish Rubezahl, if he happened to be out! As good chance would
+have it, Nassau and Einsiedel, by preconcert, partly by lucky guess of
+their own, were hurrying by the same road: three heaven-rending cheers
+(December 16th) when we get sight of Nassau; and find that here is land!
+December 16th, we are across,--by Ruckersdorf, not far from Friedland
+(Bohmisch Friedland, not the Silesian town of that name, once
+Wallenstein's);--and rejoice now to look back on labor done."
+[ _Helden-Geschichte,_  ii. 1181-1190, 1191-1194;--Feldzuge,--i.
+278-280.]
+
+These were intricate strange scenes, much talked of at the time:
+Rothenburg, ugly Walrave, Hacke, and other known figures, concerned in
+them. Scenes in which Friedrich is not well informed; who much blames
+Einsiedel, as he is apt to do the unsuccessful. Accounts exist, both
+from the Prussian and from the Saxon side, decipherable with industry;
+not now worth deciphering to English readers. Only that final scene
+of the pitch-links, the night before meeting with Nassau, dwells
+voluntarily in one's memory. And is the farewell of Einsiedel withal.
+Friedrich blames him to the last: though a Court-Martial had sat on his
+case, some months after, and honorably acquitted him. Good solid, silent
+Einsiedel;--and in some months more, he went to a still higher court,
+got still stricter justice: I do not hear expressly that it was the
+winter marches, or strain of mind; but he died in 1745; and that
+flare of pitch-links in Rubezahl's country is the last scene of him
+to us,--and the end of Friedrich's unfortunate First Expedition in the
+Second Silesian War.
+
+"Foiled, ultimately, then, on every point; a totally ill-ordered game on
+our part! Evidently we, for our part, have been altogether in the wrong,
+in various essential particulars. Amendment, that and no other, is the
+word now. Let us take the scathe and the scorn candidly home to us;--and
+try to prepare for doing better. The world will crow over us. Well, the
+world knows little about it; the world, if it did know, would be partly
+in the right!"--Wise is he who, when beaten, learns the reasons of it,
+and alters these. This wisdom, it must be owned, is Friedrich's; and
+much distinguishes him among generals and men. Veracity of mind, as
+I say, loyal eyesight superior to sophistries; noble incapacity of
+self-delusion, the root of all good qualities in man. His epilogue to
+this Campaign is remarkable;--too long for quoting here, except the
+first word of it and the last:--
+
+"No General committed more faults than did the King in this Campaign....
+The conduct of M. de Traun is a model of perfection, which every soldier
+that loves his business ought to study, and try to imitate, if he have
+the talent. The king has himself admitted that he regarded this Campaign
+as his school in the Art of War, and M. de Traun as his teacher." But
+what shall we say? "Bad is often better for Princes than good;--and
+instead of intoxicating them with presumption, renders them circumspect
+and modest." [_OEuvres,_ iii.76, 77.] Let us still hope!--
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V.--FRIEDRICH, UNDER DIFFICULTIES, PREPARES FOR A NEW CAMPAIGN.
+
+To the Court of Vienna, especially to the Hungarian Majesty, this
+wonderful reconquest of Bohemia, without battle fought,--or any cause
+assignable but Traun's excellent manoeuvring and Friedrich's imprudences
+and trust in the French,--was a thing of heavenly miracle; blessed omen
+that Providence had vouchsafed to her prayers the recovery of Silesia
+itself. All the world was crowing over Friedrich: but her Majesty of
+Hungary's views had risen to a clearly higher pitch of exultation
+and triumphant hope, terrestrial and celestial, than any other living
+person's. "Silesia back again," that was now the hope and resolution of
+her Majesty's high heart: "My wicked neighbor shall be driven out, and
+smart dear for the ill he has done; Heaven so wills it!" "Very little
+uplifts the Austrians," says Valori; which is true, under such a Queen;
+"and yet there is nothing that can crush them altogether down," adds he.
+
+No sooner is Bohemia cleared of Friedrich, than Maria, winter as it is,
+orders that there be, through the Giant-Mountains, vigorous assault upon
+Silesia. Highland snows and ices, what are these to Pandour people,
+who, at their first entrance on the scene of History, "crossed the
+Palus-Maeotis itself [Father of Quagmires, so to speak] in a frozen
+state," and were sufficiently accommodated each in his own dirty
+sheepskin? "Prosecute the King of Prussia," ordered she; "take your
+winter-quarters in Silesia!"--and Traun, in spite of the advanced
+season, and prior labors and hardships, had to try, from the
+southwestern Bohemian side, what he could do; while a new Insurrection,
+coming through the Jablunka, spread itself over the southeast and east.
+Seriously invasive multitudes; which were an unpleasant surprise to
+Friedrich; and did, as we shall see, require to be smitten back again,
+and re-smitten; making a very troublesome winter to the Prussians and
+themselves; but by no means getting winter-quarters, as they once hoped.
+
+In a like sense, Maria Theresa had already (December 2d) sent forth
+her Manifesto or Patent, solemnly apprising her ever-faithful Silesian
+Populations, "That the Treaty of Breslau, not by her fault, is broken;
+palpably a Treaty no longer. That they, accordingly, are absolved
+from all oaths and allegiance to the King of Prussia; and shall hold
+themselves in readiness to swear anew to her Majesty, which will be
+a great comfort to such faithful creatures; suffering, as her Majesty
+explains to them that they have done, under Prussian tyranny for these
+two years past. Immediate dead-lift effort there shall be; that is
+certain: and 'the Almighty God assisting, who does not leave such
+injustices unpunished, We have the fixed Christian hope, Omnipotence
+blessing our arms, of almost immediately (EHESTENS) delivering you from
+this temporary Bondage (BISHERIGEN JOCH).' You can pray, in the mean
+while, for the success of her Majesty's arms; good fighting, aided by
+prayer, in a Cause clearly Heaven's, will now, to appearance, bring
+matters swiftly round again, to the astonishment and confusion of
+bad men." [In _Helden-Geschichte,_  ii. 1194-1198; Ib. 1201-1206, is
+Friedrich's Answer, "19th December, 1744."]
+
+These are her Majesty's views; intensely true, I doubt not, to her
+devout heart. Robinson and the English seem not to be enthusiastic in
+that direction; as indeed how can they? They would fain be tender of
+Silesia, which they have guaranteed; fain, now and afterwards, restrain
+her Majesty from driving at such a pace down hill: but the declivity is
+so encouraging, her Majesty is not to be restrained, and goes faster
+and faster for the time being. And indeed, under less devout forms, the
+general impression, among Pragmatic people, Saxon, Austrian, British
+even, was, That Friedrich had pretty much ruined himself, and deserved
+to do so; that this of his being mere "Auxiliary" to a Kaiser in
+distress was an untenable pretext, now justly fallen bankrupt upon him.
+The evident fact, That he had by his "Frankfurt Union," and struggles
+about "union," reopened the door for French tribulations and
+rough-ridings in the Reich, was universally distasteful; all chance of
+a "general union of German Princes, in aid of their Kaiser," was extinct
+for the present.
+
+Friedrich's rapidity had served him ill with the Public, in this as
+in some other instances! Friedrich, contemplating his situation, not
+self-delusively, but with the candor of real remorse, was by no means
+yet aware how very bad it was. For six months coming, partly as existing
+facts better disclosed themselves, as France, Saxony and others showed
+what spirit they were of; partly as new sinister events and facts
+arrived one after the other,--his outlook continued to darken and
+darken, till it had become very dark indeed. There is perennially the
+great comfort, immense if you can manage it, of making front against
+misfortune; of looking it frankly in the face, and doing with a
+resolution, hour by hour, your own utmost against it. Friedrich never
+lacked that comfort; and was not heard complaining. But from December
+13th, 1744, when he hastened home to Berlin, under such aspects, till
+June 4th, 1745, when aspects suddenly changed, are probably the worst
+six months Friedrich had yet had in the world. During which, his affairs
+all threatening to break down about him, he himself, behooving to stand
+firm if the worst was not to realize itself, had to draw largely on
+what silent courage, or private inexpugnability of mind, was in him,--a
+larger instalment of that royal quality (as I compute) than the Fates
+had ever hitherto demanded of him. Ever hitherto; though perhaps nothing
+like the largest of all, which they had upon their Books for him, at a
+farther stage! As will be seen. For he was greatly drawn upon in that
+way, in his time. And he paid always; no man in his Century so well; few
+men, in any Century, better. As perhaps readers may be led to guess or
+acknowledge, on surveying and considering. To see, and sympathetically
+recognize, cannot be expected of modern readers, in the present great
+distance, and changed conditions of men and things.
+
+Friedrich, after despatching Nassau to cut out Einsiedel, had delivered
+the Silesian Army to the Old Dessauer, who is to command in chief during
+Winter; and had then hastened to Berlin,--many things there urgently
+requiring his presence; preparations, reparations, not to speak of
+diplomacies, and what was the heaviest item of all, new finance for the
+coming exertions. In Schweidnitz, on Leopold's appearance, there had
+been an interview, due consultings, orderings; which done, Friedrich at
+once took the road; and was at Berlin, Monday, December 14th,--precisely
+in the time while Nassau and Einsiedel were marching with torchlights in
+Rubezahl's Country, and near ending their difficult enterprise better or
+worse.
+
+Friedrich, fastening eagerly on Home business, is astonished and
+provoked to learn that the Austrians, not content with pushing him
+out of Bohmen, are themselves pushing into Schlesien,--so Old Leopold
+reports, with increasing emphasis day by day; to whom Friedrich sends
+impatient order: Hurl them out again; gather what force you need, ten
+thousand, or were it twenty or thirty thousand, and be immediate about
+it; "I will as soon be pitched (HERAUSGESCHMISSEN) out of the Mark of
+Brandenburg as out of Schlesien:" no delay, I tell you! And as the Old
+Dessauer still explains that the ten or fifteen thousand he needs are
+actually assembling, and cannot be got on march quite in a moment,
+Friedrich dashes away his incipient Berlin Operations; will go himself
+and do it. Haggle no more, you tedious Old Dessauer:--
+
+BERLIN, "19th DECEMBER," 1744. "On the 21st [Monday, one week after
+my arriving], I leave Berlin, and mean to be at Neisse on the 24th at
+latest. Your Serenity will in the interim make out the Order-of-Battle
+[which is also Order-of-March] for what regiments are come in. For I
+will, on the 25th, without delay, cross the Neisse, and attack those
+people, cost what it may,--to chase them out of Schlesien and Glatz, and
+follow them so far as possible. Your Serenity will therefore take your
+measures, and provide everything, so far as in this short time you can,
+that the project may be executable the moment I arrive." [Friedrich to
+the Old Dessauer (_Orlich,_ ii. 356).]
+
+And rushed off accordingly, in a somewhat flamy humor; but at
+Schweidnitz, where the Old Dessauer met him again, became convinced that
+the matter was weightier than he thought; not one of Tolpatchery alone,
+but had Traun himself in it. Upon which Friedrich candidly drew bridle;
+hastened back, and, with a loss of four days, was at his Potsdam Affairs
+again. To which he stuck henceforth, ardently, and I think rather with
+increase of gloom, though without spurt of impatience farther, for three
+months to come. Before his return,--nay, had he known, it was the
+night before he went away,--a strange little thing had happened in the
+opposite or Western parts: surprising accident to Marechal de Belleisle;
+which now lies waiting his immediate consideration. But let us finish
+Silesia first.
+
+
+
+
+OLD DESSAUER REPELS THE SILESIAN INVASION (Winter, 1744-45).
+
+"This Silesian Affair includes due inroad of Pandours; or indeed
+two inroads, southwest and southeast; and in the southwest, or Traun
+quarter, regulars are the main element of it. Traun, 20,000 strong, PLUS
+stormy-enough Pandour ACCOMPANIMENT, is by this time through into Glatz;
+in three columns;--is master of all Glatz, except the Rock-Fortress
+itself; and has spread himself, right and left, along the Neisse River,
+and from the southwest northwards, in a skilful and dangerous manner. In
+concert with whom, far to the east, are Pandour whirlwinds on their own
+footing (brand-new 'Insurrection' of them, got thus far) starting from
+Olmutz and Brunn; scouring that eastern country, as far as Namslau
+northward [a place we were at the taking of, in old Brieg times]; much
+more, infesting the Mountains of the South. A rather serious thing; with
+Traun for general manager of it."
+
+With Traun, we say: poor Prince Karl is off, weeks ago; on the saddest
+of errands. His beautiful young Wife,--Hungarian Majesty's one Sister,
+Vice-Regents of the Netherlands he and she, conspicuous among the bright
+couples of the world,--she had a bad lying-in (child still-born), while
+those grand Moldau Operations went on; has been ill, poor lady, ever
+since; and, at Brussels, on December 16th, she herself lies dead, Prince
+Karl weeping over her and the days that will not return. Prince Karl's
+felicities, private and public, had been at their zenith lately, which
+was very high indeed; but go on declining from this day. Never more the
+Happiest of Husbands (did not wed again at all); still less the Greatest
+of Captains, equal or superior to Caesar in the Gazetteer judgment, with
+distracted EULOGIES, BIOGRAPHIES and such like filling the air: before
+long, a War-Captain of quite moderate renown; which we shall see
+sink gradually into no renown at all, and even (unjustly) into MINUS
+quantities, before all end. A mad world, my masters!
+
+"Between Traun on the southwest hand, and his Pandours on the southeast,
+the small Prussian posts have all been driven in upon Troppau-Jagerndorf
+region; more and more narrowed there;--and, in fine (two days before
+this new Interview of Leopold and the impatient King at Schweidnitz),
+have had to quit the Troppau-Jagerndorf position; to quit the Hills
+altogether, and are now in full march towards Brieg. Of which march I
+should say nothing, were it not that Marwitz, Father of Wilhelmina's
+giggling Marmitzes, commanded;--and came by his death in the course of
+it; though our Wilhelmina is not now there, pen in hand, to tell us
+what the effects at Baireuth were. Marwitz had been left for dead on
+the Field of Mollwitz; lay so all night, but was nursed to some kind
+of strength again by those giggling young women; and came back to
+Schlesien, to posts of chief trust, for the last year or two,--was
+guarding the Mountains, and even invading Mahren, during the late
+Campaign;--but saw himself reduced latterly to Jagerndorf and Troppau;
+and had even to retreat out of these. And in the whirlpool of hurries
+thereupon,--how is not very clear; by apoplexy, say some; by accidental
+pistol from a servant of his own; in actual skirmish with Pandours,--too
+certainly, one way or the other, on December 23d (just during that
+second Interview at Schweidnitz), brave old Marwitz did suddenly sink
+dead, and is ended. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 1201.] Even so, ye poor
+giggling creatures, and your loud weeping will not mend it at all!
+
+"Friedrich, looking candidly into these phenomena, could not but see
+that: what with Tolpatcheries, what with Traun's 20,000 regulars, and
+the whole Army at their back, his Silesian Border is girt in by a very
+considerable inroad of Austrians,--huge Chain of them, in horse-shoe
+form, 300 miles long, pressing in; from beyond Glatz and Landshut, round
+by the southern Mountains, and up eastward again as far as Namslau,
+nothing but war whirlwinds in regular or irregular form, in the centre
+of them Traun;--and that the Old Dessauer really must have time to gird
+himself for dealing with Traun and them.
+
+"It was not till January 9th that Old Leopold, 25,000 strong, equipped
+to his mind, which was a difficult matter, crossed the Neisse River;
+and marched direct upon Traun, with Ziethen charging ahead. Actually
+marched; after which the main wrestle was done in a week. January 16th,
+Old Leopold got to Jagerndorf; found the actual Traun concentrated at
+Jagerndorf; and drew up, to be ready for assault to-morrow morning,--had
+not Traun, candidly computing, judged it better to glide wholly away in
+the night-time, diligently towards Mahren, breaking the bridges behind
+him. And so, in effect, to give up the Silesian Invasion for this time.
+After which, though there remained a good deal of rough tussling with
+Pandour details, and some rugged exploits of fight, there is--except
+that of Lehwald in clearing of Glatz--nothing farther that we can afford
+to speak of. Lehwald's exploit, Lehwald VERSUS Wallis (same Wallis who
+defended Glogau long since), which came to be talked of, and got name
+and date, 'Action of Habelschwert, February 14th,' something almost like
+a pitched fight on the small scale, is to the following effect:--
+
+"PLOMNITZ, NEAR HABELSCHWERT, 14th FEBRUARY, 1745. Old General Lehwald,
+marching in the hollow ground near Habelschwert (hollow of the young
+Neisse River, twenty miles south of Glatz), with intent to cut that
+Country free; the Enemy, whom he is in search of, appears in great
+force,--posted on the uphill ground ahead, half-frozen difficult stream
+in front of them, cannon on flank, Pandour multitude in woods; all
+things betokening inexpugnability on the part of the Enemy. So that
+Lehwald has to take his measures; study well where the vital point is,
+the root of that extensive Austrian junglery, and cut in upon the same.
+By considerable fire of effort, the uphill ground, half-frozen stream,
+sylvan Pandours, cannon-batteries, and what inexpugnabilities there may
+be, are subdued; Austrian wide junglery, the root of it slit asunder
+rolls homeward simultaneously, not too fast: nay it halted, and
+re-ranked itself twice over, finding woods and quaggy runlets to its
+mind; but was always slit out again, disrooted, and finally tumbled
+home, having had enough. 'Wenzel Wallis,' Friedrich asserts with due
+scorn, 'was all this while in a Chapel; praying ardently,' to St.
+Vitus, or one knows not whom; 'without effect; till they shouted to him,
+"Beaten, Sir! Off, or you are lost!" upon which he sprang to saddle, and
+spurred with both heels (PIQUA DES DEUX).' [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii.
+79. 80.] That was the feat of Lehwald, clearing the Glatz Country with
+one good cut: a skilful Captain; now getting decidedly oldish, close on
+sixty; whom we shall meet again a dozen years hence, still in harness.
+
+"The old Serene Highness himself, face the color of gun-powder, and
+bluer in the winter frost, went rushing far and wide in an open vehicle,
+which he called his 'cart;' pushing out detachments, supervising
+everything; wheeling hither and thither as needful; sweeping out the
+Pandour world, and keeping it out: not much of fighting needed, but 'a
+great deal of marching [murmurs Friedrich], which in winter is as bad,
+and wears down the force of the battalions.' Of all which we give no
+detail: sufficient to fancy, in this manner, the Old Dessauer flapping
+his wide military wings in the faces of the Pandour hordes, with here
+and there a hard twitch from beak or claws; tolerably keeping down the
+Pandour interest all Winter. His sons, Leopold and Dietrich, were under
+him, occasionally beside him; the Junior Leopold so worn down with
+feverish gout he could hardly sit on horseback at all, while old
+Papa went tearing about in his cart at that rate." [_Unternehmung in
+Ober-Schlesien, unter dem Fursten Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau, im Januar
+und Februar,_ 1745 (Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i. 141-152); Stenzel, iv. 232;
+&c.]
+
+There was, on the 21st of February, TE-DEUM sung in the churches of
+Berlin "for the Deliverance of Silesia from Invasion." Not that even
+yet the Pandours would be quite quiet, or allow Old Leopold to quit his
+cart; far from it. And they returned in such increased and
+tempestuous state, as will again require mention, with the earliest
+Spring:--precursors to a second, far more serious and deadly "Invasion
+of Silesia;" for which it hangs yet on the balance whether there will be
+a TE-DEUM or a MISERERE to sing!
+
+Hungarian Majesty, disappointed of Silesia,--which, it seems, is not to
+be had "all at once (EHESTENS)," in the form of miracle,--makes amends
+by a rush upon Seckendorf and Bavaria; attacks Seckendorf furiously
+("Bathyani pressing up the Donau Valley, with Browne on one hand, and
+Barenklau on the other") in midwinter; and makes a terrible hand of him;
+reducing his "Reconquest of Bavaria" to nothing again, nay to less. Of
+which in due time.
+
+
+
+
+THE FRENCH FULLY INTEND TO BEHAVE BETTER NEXT SEASON TO FRIEDRICH AND
+THEIR GERMAN ALLIES;--BUT ARE PREVENTED BY VARIOUS ACCIDENTS (November,
+1744-April, 1745; April-August, 1745).
+
+It is not divine miracle, Friedrich knows well, that has lost him his
+late Bohemian Conquests without battle fought: it was rash choosing of
+a plan inexecutable without French co-operation,--culpable blindness to
+the chance that France would break its promises, and not co-operate. Had
+your Majesty forgotten the Joint-Stock Principle, then? His Majesty has
+sorrowful cause to remember it, from this time, on a still larger scale!
+
+Reflections, indignant or exculpatory, on the conduct of the French in
+this Business are useless to Friedrich, and to us. The performance, on
+their part, has been nearly the worst;--though their intentions,
+while the Austrian Dragon had them by the throat, were doubtless
+enthusiastically good! But, the big Austrian Dragon being jerked away
+from Elsass, by Friedrich's treading on his tail, 500 miles off, they
+were charmed, quite into new enthusiasm, to be rid of said Dragon: and,
+instead of chasing HIM according to bargain, took to destroying his DEN,
+that he might be harmless thenceforth. Freyburg is a captured Town, to
+the joy and glory of admiring France; and Friedrich's Campaign has gone
+the road we see! The Freyburg Illuminations having burnt out,
+there might rise, in the triumphant mind, some thought of Friedrich
+again,--perhaps almost of a remorseful nature? Certain it is, the French
+intentions are now again magnanimous, more so than ever; coupled now
+with some attempts at fulfilment, too; which obliges us to mention them
+here. They were still a matter of important hope to Friedrich; hope
+which did not quite go out till August coming. Though, alas, it did then
+go out, in gusts of indignation on Friedrich's part! And as the whole of
+these magnanimous French intentions, latter like former, again came to
+zero, we are interested only in rendering them conceivable to readers
+for Friedrich's sake,--with the more brevity, the better for everybody.
+Two grand French Attempts there were; listen, on the threshold, a
+little:--
+
+... "It is certain the French intend gloriously; regardless of expense.
+They are dismantling Freyburg, to render it harmless henceforth. But,
+withal, in answer to the poor Kaiser's shrieks, they have sent Segur
+[our old Linz friend], with 12,000, to assist Seckendorf; 'the
+bravest troops in the world,'"--who did bravely take one beating (at
+Pfaffenhofen, as will be seen), and go home again. ("They have Coigny
+guarding those fine Brisgau Conquests. And are furthermore diplomatizing
+diligently, not to say truculently, in the Rhine Countries; bullying
+poor little fat Kur-Trier, lean Kur-Koln and others, 'To join the
+Frankfurt Union' not one of whom would, under menace),--though 'it
+is the clear duty of all Reich's-Princes with a Kaiser under
+oppression:'--and have marched Maillebois, directly after Freyburg, into
+the Middle-Rhine Countries, to Koln Country, to Mainz Country, and to
+and fro, in support of said compulsory diplomacies;--but without the
+least effect."
+
+To the "Middle-Rhine Countries," observe, and under Maillebois, then
+under Conti, little matter under whom: only let readers recollect the
+name of it;--for it is the FIRST of the French Attempts to do something
+of a joint-stock nature; something for self AND Allies, instead of for
+self only. It caused great alarm in those months, to Britannic George
+and others; and brought out poor Duc d'Ahremberg with portions (no
+English included) of the poor Pragmatic Army, to go marching about in
+the winter slushes, instead of resting in bed, [Adelung, iv. 276, 420
+("December, 1744-June, 1745").]--and is indeed a very loud business in
+the old Gazettes and books, till August coming. Business which almost
+broke poor D'Ahremberg's heart, he says, "till once I got out of
+it" (was TURNED out, in fact): Business of Pragmatic Army, under
+D'Ahremberg, VERSUS Middle-Rhine Army under Maillebois, under Conti;
+Business now wholly of Zero VERSUS Zero to us,--except for a few dates
+and reflex glimmerings upon King Friedrich. Result otherwise--We shall
+see the Result!
+
+"Attempt SECOND was still more important to Friedrich; being directed
+upon the Kaiser and Bavaria. Belleisle is to go thither and take survey;
+Belleisle thither first: you may judge if the intention is sincere!
+Valori is quite eloquent upon it. Directly after Freyburg, says he,
+Sechelles, that first of Commissaries, was sent to Munchen. Sechelles
+cleared up the chaos of Accounts; which King Louis then instantly
+paid. 'Your Imperial Majesty shall have Magazines also,' said Louis,
+regardless of expense; 'and your Army, with auxiliaries (Segur and
+25,000 of them French), shall be raised to 60,000.' Belleisle then came:
+'We will have Ingolstadt, the first thing, in Spring.' Alas, Belleisle
+had his Accident in the Harz; and all went aback, from that time."
+[Valori, i. 322-329.] Aback, too indisputably, all!--"And Belleisle's
+Accident?" Patience, readers.
+
+"The truth is, Attempt SECOND, and chief, broke down at once [Bathyani
+beating it to pieces, as will be seen],--the ruins of it painfully
+reacting on Attempt FIRST; which had the like fate some months
+later;--and there was no THIRD made. And, in fact, from the date of that
+latter down-break, August, or end of July, 1745 [and quite especially
+from "September 13th," by which time several irrevocable things had
+happened, which we shall hear of], the French withdrew altogether out of
+German entanglements; and concentrated themselves upon the Netherlands,
+there to demolish his Britannic Majesty, as the likelier enterprise.
+This was a course to which, ever since the Exit of Broglio and the
+Oriflamme, they had been more and more tending and inclining, 'Nothing
+for us but loss on loss, to be had in Germany!' and so they at last
+frankly gave up that bad Country. They fought well in the Netherlands,
+with great splendor of success, under Saxe VERSUS Cumberland and
+Company. They did also some successful work in Italy;--and left
+Friedrich to bear the brunt in Germany; too glad if he or another
+were there to take Germany off their hand! Friedrich's feelings on his
+arriving at this consummation, and during his gradual advance towards
+it, which was pretty steady all along from those first 'drenched-hen
+(POULES MOUILLEES)' procedures, were amply known to Excellency Valori,
+and may be conceived by readers,"--who are slightly interested in the
+dates of them at farthest. And now for the Belleisle Accident, with
+these faint preliminary lights.
+
+
+
+
+STRANGE ACCIDENT TO MARECHAL DE BELLEISLE IN THE HARZ MOUNTAINS (20th
+December, 1744).
+
+Siege of Freyburg being completed, and the River and most other things
+(except always the bastions, which we blow up) being let into their old
+channels there, Marechal de Belleisle, who is to have a chief management
+henceforth,--the Most Christian King recognizing him again as his ablest
+man in war or peace,--sets forth on a long tour of supervision, of
+diplomacy and general arrangement, to prepare matters for the next
+Campaign. Need enough of a Belleisle: what a business we have made of
+it, since Friedrich trod on the serpent's tail for us.! Nothing but
+our own Freyburg to show for ourselves; elsewhere, mere down-rush of
+everything whitherward it liked;--and King Friedrich got into such a
+humor! Friedrich must be put in tune again; something real and good to
+be agreed on at Berlin: let that be the last thing, crown of the whole.
+The first thing is, look into Bavaria a little; and how the Kaiser,
+poor gentleman, in want of all requisites but good-will, can be put into
+something of fighting posture.
+
+"In the end of November, Marechal Duc de Belleisle, with his Brother the
+Chevalier (now properly the Count, there having been promotions), and
+a great retinue more, alights at Munchen; holds counsel with the poor
+Kaiser for certain days:--Money wanted; many things wanted; and all
+things, we need not doubt, much fallen out of square. 'Those Seckendorf
+troops in their winter-quarters,' say our French Inspectors and Segur
+people, as usual, 'do but look on it, your Excellency! Scattered, along
+the valleys, into the very edge of Austria; Austria will swallow them,
+the first thing, next year; they will never rendezvous again except in
+the Austrian prisons. Surely, Monseigneur, only a man ignorant of war,
+or with treasonous intention [or ill-off for victuals],--could post
+troops in that way? Seckendorf is not ignorant of war!' say they.
+[Valori, i. 206.] For, in fact, suspicion runs high; and there is no end
+to the accusations just and unjust; and Seckendorf is as ill treated as
+any of us could wish. Poor old soul. Probably nobody in all the Earth,
+but his old Wife in the Schloss of Altenburg, has any pity for him,--if
+even she, which I hope. He has fought and diplomatized and intrigued
+in many countries, very much; and in his old days is hard bested.
+Monseigueur, whose part is rather that of Jove the Cloud-compeller,
+is studious to be himself noiseless amid this noise; and makes no
+alteration in the Seckendorf troops; but it is certain he meant to do
+it, thinks Valori."
+
+And indeed Seckendorf, tired of the Bavarian bed-of-roses, had privately
+fixed with himself to quit the same;--and does so, inexorable to the
+very Kaiser, on New-Year arriving. [_Seckendorfs Leben,_ p. 365.]
+Succeeded by Thorring (our old friend DRUM Thorring), if that be an
+improvement. Marechal de Belleisle has still a long journey ahead,
+and infinitely harder problems than these,--assuagement of the King of
+Prussia, for example. Let us follow his remarkable steps.
+
+"WEDNESDAY, 9th DECEMBER, 1744, the Marechal leaves Munchen,
+northwards through OEttingen and the Bamberg-Anspach regions towards
+Cassel;--journey of some three hundred and fifty miles: with a great
+retinue of his own; with an escort of two hundred horse from the Kaiser;
+these latter to prevent any outfall or insult in the Ingolstadt quarter,
+where the Austrians have a garrison, not at all very tightly blocked by
+the Seckendorf people thereabouts. No insult or outfall occurring, the
+Marechal dismisses his escort at OEttingen; fares forward in his twenty
+coaches and fourgons, some score or so of vehicles:--mere neutral
+Imperial Countries henceforth, where the Kaiser's Agent, as Marechal
+de Belleisle can style himself, and Titular Prince of the German Empire
+withal, has only to pay his way. By Donauworth, by OEttingen; over
+the Donau acclivities, then down the pleasant Valley of the Mayn. [See
+REVIEW OF THE CASE OF MARSHAL BELLEISLE (or Abstract of it, _Gentleman's
+Magazine,_ 1745, pp. 366-373); &c. &c.]
+
+"SUNDAY, 13th DECEMBER, Marechal de Belleisle arrives at Hanau [where
+we have seen Conferences held before now, and Carteret, Prince Karl and
+great George our King very busy], there to confer with Marshals Coigny,
+Maillebois and other high men, Commanders in those Rhine parts. Who
+all come accordingly, except Marechal Maillebois, who is sorry that he
+absolutely cannot; but will surely do himself the honor as Monseigneur
+returns." As Monseigneur returns! "And so, on Monday, 14th, Monseigneur
+starts for Cassel; say a hundred miles right north; where we shall meet
+Prince Wilhelm of Hessen-Cassel, a zealous Ally; inform him how his
+Troops, under Seckendorf, are posted [at Vilshofen yonder; hiding how
+perilous their post is, or promising alterations]; perhaps rest a day or
+two, consulting as to the common weal: How the King of Prussia takes
+our treatment of him? How to smooth the King of Prussia, and turn him
+to harmony again? We are approaching the true nodus of our business,
+difficulty of difficulties; and Wilhelm, the wise Landgraf, may afford
+a hint or two. Thus travels magnanimous Belleisle in twenty vehicles, a
+man loaded with weighty matters, in these deep Winter months; suffering
+dreadfully from rheumatic neuralgic ailments, a Doctor one of his
+needfulest equipments; and has the hardest problem yet ahead of him.
+
+"Prince Wilhelm's consultations are happily lost altogether; buried from
+sight forever, to the last hint,--all except as to what road to Berlin
+would be the best from Cassel. By Leipzig, through low-lying country, is
+the great Highway, advisable in winter; but it runs a hundred and thirty
+miles to right, before ever starting northward; such a roundabout. Not
+to say that the Saxons are allies of Austria,--if there be anything in
+that. Enemies, they, to the Most Christian King: though surely, again,
+we are on Kaiser's business, nay we are titular 'Prince of the Reich,'
+for that matter, such the Kaiser's grace to us? Well; it is better
+perhaps to AVOID the Saxon Territory. And, of course, the Hanoverian
+much more; through which lies the other Great Road! 'Go by the Harz,'
+advises Landgraf Wilhelm: 'a rugged Hill Country; but it is your
+hypotenuse towards Berlin; passes at once, or nearly so, from Cassel
+Territory into Prussian: a rugged road, but a shorter and safer.' That
+is the road Belleisle resolves upon. Twenty carriages; his Brother the
+Chevalier and himself occupy one; and always the courier rides before,
+ordering forty post-horses to be ready harnessed.
+
+"SUNDAY, 20th DECEMBER, 1744. In this way they have climbed the eastern
+shin of the Harz Range, where the Harz is capable of wheel-carriages;
+and hope now to descend, this night, to Halberstadt; and thence rapidly
+by level roads to Berlin. It is sinking towards dark; the courier is
+forward to Elbingerode, ordering forty horses to be out. Roughish
+uphill road; winter in the sky and earth, winter vapors and tumbling
+wind-gusts: westward, in torn storm-cloak, the Bracken, with its
+witch-dances; highland Goslar, and ghost of Henry the Fowler, on the
+other side of it. A multifarious wizard Country, much overhung by goblin
+reminiscences, witch-dances, sorcerers'-sabbaths and the like,--if a
+rheumatic gentleman cared to look on it, in the cold twilight. Brrh!
+Waste chasmy uplands, snow-choked torrents; wild people, gloomy firs!
+Here at last, by one's watch 5 P.M., is Elbingerode, uncomfortable
+little Town; and it is to be hoped the forty post-horses are ready.
+
+"Behold, while the forty post-horses are getting ready, a thing takes
+place, most unexpected;--which made the name of Elbingerode famous for
+eight months to come. Of which let us hastily give the bare facts,
+Fancy making of them what she can. Was Monseigneur aware that this
+Elbingerode, with a patch of territory round it, is Hanoverian ground;
+one of those distracted patches or ragged outskirts frequent in the
+German map? Prussia is not yet, and Hessen-Cassel has ceased to be.
+Undoubtedly Hanoverian! Apparently the Landgraf and Monseigneur had not
+thought of that. But Munchhausen of Hanover, spies informing him,
+had. The Bailiff (Vogt, AdVOCATus) has gathered twenty JAGER [official
+Game-keepers] with their guns, and a select idle Sunday population of
+the place with or without guns: the Vogt steps forward, and inquires for
+Monseigneur's passport. 'No passport, no need of any!'--'Pardon!' and
+signifies to Monseigneur, on the part of George Elector of Hanover, King
+of Great Britain, France and Ireland, that Monseigneur is arrested!
+
+"Monseigneur, with compressed or incompressible feelings, indignantly
+complies,--what could he else, unfortunate rheumatic gentleman?--and is
+plucked away in such sudden manner, he for one, out of that big German
+game of his raising. The twenty vehicles are dragged different roads;
+towards Scharzfels, Osterode, or I know not where,--handiest roads to
+Hanover;--and Monseigneur himself has travelling treatment which might
+be complained of, did not one disdain complaint: 'my Brother parted from
+me, nay my Doctor, and my Interpreter;'"--not even speech possible to
+me. [Letter of Belleisle next morning, "Neuhof, 21st December, 9 A.M."
+(in _Valori,_ i. 204), to Munchhausen at Hanover,--by no possibility
+"to Valori," as the distracted French Editor has given it!] That was the
+Belleisle Accident in the Harz, Sunday Evening, 20th December, 1744.
+
+"Afflicted indignant Valori, soon enough apprised, runs to Friedrich
+with the news,--greets Friedrich with it just alighting from that
+Silesian run of his own. Friedrich, not without several other things to
+think of, is naturally sorry at such news; sorry for his own sake even;
+but not overmuch. Friedrich refuses 'to despatch a party of horse,' and
+cut out Marechal de Belleisle. "That will never do, MON CHER!'--and even
+gets into FROIDES PLAISANTERIES: 'Perhaps the Marechal did it
+himself? Tallard, prisoner after Blenheim, made PEACE, you know, in
+England?'--and the like; which grieved the soul of Valori, and convinced
+him of Friedrich's inhumanity, in a crying case.
+
+"Belleisle is lugged on to Hanover; his case not doubtful to
+Munchhausen, or the English Ministry,--though it raised great argument,
+(was the capture fair, was it unfair? Is he entitled to exchange by
+cartel, or not entitled?' and produced, in the next eight months, much
+angry animated pamphleteering and negotiation. For we hear by and by,
+he is to be forwarded to Stade, on the Hamburg sea-coast, where English
+Seventy-fours are waiting for him; his case still undecided;--and,
+in effect, it was not till after eight months that he got dismissal.
+'Lodged handsomely in Windsor Palace,' in the interim; free on his
+parole, people of rank very civil to him, though the Gazetteers were
+sometimes ill-tongued,--had he understood their PATOIS, or concerned
+himself about such things
+
+["TUESDAY, 18th FEBRUARY [1st March, 1745], Marshal Belleisle landed at
+Harwich; lay at Greenwich Palace, having crossed Thames at the Isle of
+Dogs: next morning, about 10, set out, in a coach-and-six, Colonel
+Douglas and two troops of horse escorting; arrived 3 P.M.,--by
+Camberwell, Clapham, Wandsworth, over Kingston and Staines Bridges,--at
+Windsor Castle, and the apartments ready for him." (_Gentleman's
+Magazine,_ 1745, p 107.) Was let go 13th (24th) August, again with great
+pomp and civilities (ib. p. 442). See Adelung, iv. 299, 346; v. 83, 84.]
+
+"It was a current notion among contemporary mankind, this of Friedrich,
+that Belleisle's capture might be a mere collusion, meant to bring about
+a Peace in that Tallard fashion,--wide of the truth as such a notion
+is, far as any Peace was from following. To Britannic George and his
+Hanoverians it had merely seemed, Here was a chief War-Captain and
+Diplomatist among the French; the pivot of all these world-wide
+movements, as Valori defines him; which pivot, a chance offering, it
+were well to twitch from its socket, and see what would follow. Perhaps
+nothing will follow; next to nothing? A world, all waltzing in mad war,
+is not to be stopped by acting on any pivot; your waltzing world will
+find new pivots, or do without any, and perhaps only waltz the more
+madly for wanting the principal one."
+
+This withdrawal of Belleisle, the one Frenchman respected by Friedrich,
+or much interested for his own sake in things German, is reckoned a main
+cause why the French Alliance turned out so ill for Friedrich; and why
+French effort took more and more a Netherlands direction thenceforth,
+and these new French magnanimities on Friedrich's behalf issued in
+futility again. Probably they never could have issued in very much: but
+it is certain that, from this point, they also do become zero; and that
+Friedrich, from his French alliance, reaped from first to last nothing
+at all, except a great deal of obloquy from German neighbors, and from
+the French side endless trouble, anger and disappointment in every
+particular. Which 'might be a joy (though not unmixed) to Britannic
+Majesty and the subtle followers who had ginned this fine Belleisle bird
+in its flight over the Harz Range? Though again, had they passively let
+him wing his way, and he had GOT "to be Commander and Manager," as was
+in agitation,--he, Belleisle and in Germany, instead of Marechal de Saxe
+with the Netherlands as chief scene,--what an advantage might that have
+been to them!
+
+
+
+
+THE KAISER KARL VII. GETS SECURED FROM OPPRESSIONS, IN A TRAGIC WAY.
+FRIEDRICH PROPOSES PEACE, BUT TO NO PURPOSE.
+
+A still sadder cross for Friedrich, in the current of foreign Accidents
+and Diplomacies, was the next that befell; exactly a month later,--at
+Munchen, 20th January, 1745. Hardly was Belleisle's back turned, when
+her Hungarian Majesty, by her Bathyani and Company, broke furiously in
+upon the poor Kaiser and his Seckendorf-Segur defences. Belleisle had
+not reached the Harz, when all was going topsy-turvy there again, and
+the Donau-Valley fast falling back into Austrian hands. Nor is that the
+worst, or nearly so.
+
+"MUNCHEN, 20th JANUARY, 1745. This day poor Kaiser Karl laid down his
+earthly burden here, and at length gave all his enemies the slip. He
+had been ill of gout for some time; a man of much malady always, with no
+want of vexations and apprehensions. Too likely the Austrians will drive
+him out of Munchen again; then nothing but furnished lodgings, and the
+French to depend upon. He had been much chagrined by some Election,
+just done, in the Chapter of Salzburg. [Adelung, iv. 249, 276, 313.]
+The Archbishop there--it was Firmian, he of the SALZBURG EMIGRATION,
+memorable to readers--had died, some while ago. And now, in flat
+contradiction to Imperial customs, prerogatives, these people had
+admitted an Austrian Garrison; and then, in the teeth of our express
+precept, had elected an Austrian to their benefice: what can one account
+it but an insult as well as an injury? And the neuralgic maladies press
+sore, and the gouty twinges; and Belleisle is seized, perhaps with
+important papers of ours; and the Seckendorf-Segur detachments were ill
+placed; nay here are the Austrians already on the throat of them, in
+midwinter! It is said, a babbling valet, or lord-in-waiting, happened to
+talk of some skirmish that had fallen out (called a battle, in the valet
+rumor), and how ill the French and Bavarians had fared in it, owing to
+their ill behavior. And this, add they, proved to be the ounce-weight
+too much for the so heavy-laden back.
+
+"The Kaiser took to bed, not much complaining; patient, mild, though
+the saddest of all mortals; and, in a day or two, died. Adieu, adieu,
+ye loved faithful ones; pity me, and pray for me! He gave his Wife, poor
+little fat devout creature, and his poor Children (eldest lad, his Heir,
+only seventeen), a tender blessing; solemnly exhorted them, To eschew
+ambition, and be warned by his example;--to make their peace with
+Austria; and never, like him, try COM' E DURO CALLE, and what the
+charity of Christian Kings amounts to. This counsel, it is thought, the
+Empress Dowager zealously accedes to, and will impress upon her Son.
+That is the Austrian and Cause-of-Liberty account: King Friedrich, from
+the other side, has heard a directly opposite one. How the Kaiser, at
+the point of death, exhorted his son, 'Never forget the services which
+the King of France and the King of Prussia have done us, and do not
+repay them with ingratitude.' [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 92;--and see
+(PER CONTRA) in Adelung, iv. 314 A; in Coxe, &c.] The reader can choose
+which he will, or reject both into the region of the uncertain. 'Karl
+Albert's pious and affectionate demeanor drew tears from all eyes,' say
+the by-standers: 'the manner in which he took leave of his Empress would
+have melted a heart of stone.' He was in his forty-eighth year; he had
+been, of all men in his generation, the most conspicuously unhappy."
+
+What a down-rush of confusion there ensued on this event, not to Bavaria
+alone, but to all the world, and to King Friedrich more than another,
+no reader can now take the pains of conceiving. The "Frankfurt Union,"
+then, has gone to air! Here is now no "Kaiser to be delivered from
+oppression:" here is a new Kaiser to be elected,--"Grand-Duke Franz the
+man," cry the Pragmatic Potentates with exultation, "no Belleisle to
+disturb!"--and questions arise innumerable thereupon, Will France go
+into electioneering again? The new Kur-Baiern, only seventeen, poor
+child, cannot be set up as candidate. What will France do with HIM;
+what he with France? Whom can the French try as Candidate against the
+Grand-Duke? Kur-Sachsen, the Polish Majesty again? Belleisle himself
+must have paused uncertain over such a welter,--and probably have done,
+like the others, little or nothing in it, but left it to collapse by
+natural gravitation.
+
+Hungarian Majesty checked her Bavarian Armaments a little: "If perhaps
+this young Kur-Baiern will detach himself from France, and on submissive
+terms come over to us?" Whereupon, at Munchen, and in the cognate
+quarters, such wriggling, dubitating and diplomatizing, as seldom
+was,--French, Anti-French (Seckendorf busiest of all), straining every
+nerve in that way, and for almost three months, nothing coming of
+it,--till Hungarian Majesty sent her Barenklaus and Bathyanis upon them
+again; and these rapidly solved the question, in what way we shall see!
+
+Friedrich has still his hopes of Bavaria, so grandiloquent are the
+French in regard to it; who but would hope? The French diplomatize to
+all lengths in Munchen, promising seas and mountains; but they perform
+little; in an effectual manner, nothing. Bavarian "Army raised to
+60,000;" counts in fact little above half that number; with no General
+to it but an imaginary one; Segur's actual French contingent, instead
+of 25,000, is perhaps 12,000;--and so of other things. Add to all which,
+Seckendorf is there, not now as War-General, but as extra-official
+"Adviser;" busier than ever,--"scandalous old traitor!" say the
+French;--and Friedrich may justly fear that Bavaria will go, by
+collapse, a bad road for him.
+
+Friedrich, a week or two after the Kaiser's death, seeing Bavarian and
+French things in such a hypothetic state, instructs his Ambassador
+at London to declare his, Friedrich's, perfect readiness and wish for
+Peace: "Old Treaty of Breslau and Berlin made indubitable to me; the
+rest of the quarrel has, by decease of the Kaiser, gone to air."
+To which the Britannic Majesty, rather elated at this time, as all
+Pragmatic people are, answers somewhat in a careless way, "Well, if
+the others like it!" and promises that he will propose it in the proper
+quarter. So that henceforth there is always a hope of Peace through
+England; as well as contrariwise, especially till Bavaria settle itself
+(in April next), a hope of great assistance from the French. Here are
+potentialities and counter-potentialities, which make the Bavarian
+Intricacy very agitating to the young King, while it lasts. And indeed
+his world is one huge imbroglio of Potentialities and Diplomatic
+Intricacies, agitating to behold. Concerning which we have again to
+remark how these huge Spectres of Diplomacy, now filling Friedrich's
+world, came mostly in result to Nothing;--shaping themselves wholly,
+for or against, in exact proportion, direct or inverse, to the actual
+Quantity of Battle and effective Performance that happened to be found
+in Friedrich himself. Diplomatic Spectralities, wide Fatamorganas of
+hope, and hideous big Bugbears blotting out the sun: of these, few
+men ever had more than Friedrich at this time. And he is careful, none
+carefuler, not to neglect his Diplomacies at any time;--though he
+knows, better than most, that good fighting of his own is what alone
+can determine the value of these contingent and aerial quantities,--mere
+Lapland witchcraft the greater part of them.
+
+A second grand Intricacy and difficulty, still more enigmatic, and
+pressing the tighter by its close neighborhood, was that with the
+Saxons. "Are the Saxons enemies; are they friends? Neutrals at lowest;
+bound by Treaty to lend Austria troops; but to lend for defence merely,
+not for offence! Could not one, by good methods, make friends with his
+Polish Majesty?" Friedrich was far from suspecting the rages that lurked
+in the Polish Majesty, and least of all owing to what. Owing to that old
+MORAVIAN-FORAY business; and to his, Friedrich's, behavior to the Saxons
+in it; excellent Saxons, who had behaved so beautifully to Friedrich!
+That is the sad fact, however. Stupid Polish Majesty has his natural
+envies, jealousies, of a Brandenburg waxing over his head at this rate.
+But it appears, the Moravian Foray entered for a great deal into the
+account, and was the final overwhelming item. Bruhl, by much descanting
+on that famous Expedition,--with such candid Eye-witnesses to appeal to,
+such corroborative Staff-officers and appliances, powerful on the idle
+heart and weak brain of a Polish Majesty,--has brought it so far. Fixed
+indignation, for intolerable usage, especially in that Moravian-Foray
+time: fixed; not very malignant, but altogether obstinate (as, I am
+told, that of the pacific sheep species usually is); which carried Bruhl
+and his Polish Majesty to extraordinary heights and depths in years
+coming! But that will deserve a section to itself by and by.
+
+A third difficulty, privately more stringent than any, is that of
+Finance. The expenses of the late Bohemian Expedition, "Friedrich's
+Army costing 75,000 pounds a month," have been excessive. For our
+next Campaign, if it is to be done in the way essential, there are, by
+rigorous arithmetic, "900,000 pounds" needed. A frugal Prussia raises
+no new taxes; pays its Wars from "the Treasure," from the Fund saved
+beforehand for emergencies of that kind; Fund which is running low,
+threatening to be at the lees if such drain on it continue. To fight
+with effect being the one sure hope, and salve for all sores, it is
+not in the Army, in the Fortresses, the Fighting Equipments, that there
+shall be any flaw left! Friedrich's budget is a sore problem upon him;
+needing endless shift and ingenuity, now and onwards, through this
+war:--already, during these months, in the Berlin Schloss, a great deal
+of those massive Friedrich-Wilhelm plate Sumptuosities, especially
+that unparalleled Music-Balcony up stairs, all silver, has been, under
+Fredersdorf's management, quietly taken away; "carried over, in the
+night-time, to the Mint." [Orlich, ii. 126-128.]
+
+And, in fact, no modern reader, not deeper in that distressing story
+of the Austrian-Succession War than readers are again like to be, can
+imagine to himself the difficulties of Friedrich at this time, as they
+already lay disclosed, and kept gradually disclosing themselves,
+for months coming; nor will ever know what perspicacity, patience
+of scanning, sharpness of discernment, dexterity of management, were
+required at Friedrich's hands;--and under what imminency of peril, too;
+victorious deliverance, or ruin and annihilation, wavering fearfully
+in the balance for him, more than once, or rather all along. But it
+is certain the deeper one goes into that hideous Medea's Caldron of
+stupidities, once so flamy, now fallen extinct, the more is one
+sensible of Friedrich's difficulties; and of the talent for all kinds
+of Captaincy,--by no means in the Field only, or perhaps even
+chiefly,--that was now required of him. Candid readers shall accept
+these hints, and do their best:--Friedrich himself made not the least
+complaint of men's then misunderstanding him; still less will he now!
+We, keeping henceforth the Diplomacies, the vaporous Foreshadows, and
+general Dance of Unclean Spirits with their intrigues and spectralities,
+well underground, so far as possible, will stick to what comes up as
+practical Performance on Friedrich's part, and try to give intelligible
+account of that.
+
+Valori says, he is greatly changed, and for the better, by these late
+reverses of fortune. All the world notices it, says Valori. No longer
+that brief infallibility of manner; that lofty light air, that politely
+disdainful view of Valori and mankind: he has now need of men. Complains
+of nothing, is cheerful, quizzical;--ardently busy to "grind out the
+notches," as our proverb is; has a mild humane aspect, something of
+modesty, almost of piety in him. Help me, thou Supreme Power, Maker of
+men, if my purposes are manlike! Though one does not go upon the Prayers
+of Forty-Hours, or apply through St. Vitus and such channels, there may
+be something of authentic petition to Heaven in the thoughts of that
+young man. He is grown very amiable; the handsomest young bit of Royalty
+now going. He must fight well next Summer, or it will go hard with him!
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI.--VALORI GOES ON AN ELECTIONEERING MISSION TO DRESDEN.
+
+Some time in January, a new Frenchman, a "Chevalier de Courten," if the
+name is known to anybody, was here at Berlin; consulting, settling about
+mutual interests and operations. Since Belleisle is snatched from us,
+it is necessary some Courten should come; and produce what he has got:
+little of settlement, I should fear, of definite program that will
+hold water; in regard to War operations chiefly a magazine of clouds.
+[Specimens of it, in Ranke, iii. 219.] For the rest, the Bavarian
+question; and very specially, Who the new Emperor is to be?"King of
+Poland, thinks your Majesty?"--"By all means," answers Friedrich, "if
+you can! Detach him from Austria; that will be well!" Which was reckoned
+magnanimous, at least public-spirited, in Friedrich; considering what
+Saxony's behavior to him had already been. "By all means, his Polish
+Majesty for Kaiser; do our utmost, Excellencies Valori, Courten and
+Company!" answers Friedrich,--and for his own part, I observe, is
+intensely busy upon Army matters, looking after the main chance.
+
+And so Valori is to go to Dresden, and manage this cloud or cobwebbery
+department of the thing; namely, persuade his Polish Majesty to stand
+for the Kaisership: "Baiern, Pfalz, Koln, Brandenburg, there are four
+votes, Sire; your own is five: sure of carrying it, your Polish Majesty;
+backed by the Most Christian King, and his Allies and resources!" And
+Polish Majesty does, for his own share, very much desire to be Kaiser.
+But none of us yet knows how he is tied up by Austria, Anti-Friedrich,
+Anti-French considerations; and can only "accept if it is offered me:"
+thrice-willing to accept, if it will fall into my mouth; which, on those
+terms, it has so little chance of doing!--Saxony and its mysterious
+affairs and intentions having been, to Friedrich, a riddle and trouble
+and astonishment, during all this Campaign, readers ought to know the
+fact well;--and no reader could stand the details of such a fact. Here,
+in condensed form, are some scraps of Excerpt; which enable us to go
+with Valori on this Dresden Mission, and look for ourselves:--
+
+
+
+
+1. FRIEDRICH'S POSITION TOWARDS SAXONY.
+
+"... By known Treaty, the Polish Majesty is bound to assist the
+Hungarian with 12,000 men, 'whenever invaded in her own dominions.'
+Polish Majesty had 20,000 in the field for that object lately,--part
+of them, 8,000 of them, hired by Britannic subsidy, as he alleges. The
+question now is, Will Saxony assist Austria in invading Silesia, with
+or without Britannic subsidy? Friedrich hopes that this is impossible!
+Friedrich is deeply unaware of the humor he has raised against himself
+in the Saxon Court-circles; how the Polish Majesty regards that Moravian
+Foray; with what a perfect hatred little Bruhl regards him, Friedrich;
+and to what pitch of humor, owing to those Moravian-Foray starvings,
+marchings about and inhuman treatment of the poor Saxon Army, not to
+mention other offences and afflictive considerations, Bruhl has raised
+the simple Polish Majesty against Friedrich. These things, as they
+gradually unfolded themselves to Friedrich, were very surprising. And
+proved very disadvantageous at the present juncture and for a long time
+afterwards. To Friedrich disadvantageous and surprising; and to Saxony,
+in the end, ruinous; poor Saxony having got its back broken by them, and
+never stood up in the world since! Ruined by this wretched little Bruhl;
+and reduced, from the first place in Northern Teutschland, to a second
+or third, or no real place at all."
+
+
+
+
+2. THERE IS A, "UNION OF WARSAW" (8th January, 1745); AND STILL MORE
+SPECIALLY A "TREATY OF WARSAW" (8th January-18th May, 1745).
+
+"January 8th, 1745, before the Old Dessauer got ranked in Schlesien
+against Traun, there had concluded itself at Warsaw, by way of
+counterpoise to the 'Frankfurt Union,' a 'Union of Warsaw,' called
+also 'Quadruple Alliance of Warsaw;' the Parties to which were Polish
+Majesty, Hungarian ditto, Prime-Movers, and the two Sea-Powers as
+Purseholders; stipulating, to the effect: 'We Four will hold together in
+affairs of the Reich VERSUS that dangerous Frankfurt Union; we will'--do
+a variety of salutary things; and as one practical thing, 'There shall
+be, this Season, 30,000 Saxons conjoined to the Austrian Force, for
+which we Sea-Powers will furnish subsidy.'--This was the one practical
+point stipulated, January 8th; and farther than this the Sea-Powers did
+not go, now or afterwards, in that affair.
+
+"But there was then proposed by the Polish and Hungarian Majesties,
+in the form of Secret Articles, an ulterior Project; with which the
+Sea-Powers, expressing mere disbelief and even abhorrence of it, refused
+to have any concern now or henceforth. Polish Majesty, in hopes it
+would have been better taken, had given his 30,000 soldiers at a rate
+of subsidy miraculously low, only 150,000 pounds for the whole: but the
+Sea-Powers were inexorable, perhaps almost repented of their 150,000
+pounds; and would hear nothing farther of secret Articles and delirious
+Projects.
+
+"So that the 'Union of Warsaw' had to retire to its pigeon-hole, content
+with producing those 30,000 Saxons for the immediate occasion; and
+there had to be concocted between the Polish and Hungarian Majesties
+themselves what is now, in the modern Pamphlets, called a 'TREATY of
+Warsaw,'--much different from the innocent, 'UNION of Warsaw;' though it
+is merely the specifying and fixing down of what had been shadowed
+out as secret codicils in said 'Union,' when the Sea-Power parties
+obstinately recoiled. Treaty of Warsaw let us continue to call it;
+though its actual birth-place was Leipzig (in the profoundest secrecy,
+18th May, 1745), above four months after it had tried to be born at
+Warsaw, and failed as aforesaid. Warsaw Union is not worth speaking
+of; but this other is a Treaty highly remarkable to the reader,--and to
+Friedrich was almost infinitely so, when he came to get wind of it long
+after.
+
+"Treaty which, though it proved abortional, and never came to fulfilment
+in any part of it, is at this day one of the remarkablest bits of
+sheepskin extant in the world. It was signed 18th May, 1745; [Scholl,
+ii. 350.] and had cost a great deal of painful contriving, capable still
+of new altering and retouching, to hit mutual views: Treaty not only for
+reconquering Silesia (which to the Two Majesties, though it did not
+to the Sea-Powers, seems infallible, in Friedrich's now ruined
+circumstances), but for cutting down that bad Neighbor to something like
+the dimensions proper for a Brandenburg Vassal;--in fact, quite the old
+'Detestable Project' of Spring, 1741, only more elaborated into detail
+(in which Britannic George knows better than to meddle!)--Saxony to have
+share of the parings, when we get them. 'What share?' asked Saxony, and
+long keeps asking. 'A road to Warsaw; Strip of Country carrying us from
+the end of the Lausitz, which is ours, into Poland, which we trust will
+continue ours, would be very handy! Duchy of Glogau; some small paring
+of Silesia, won't your Majesty?' 'Of my Silesia not one hand-breadth,'
+answered the Queen impatiently (though she did at last concede
+some outlying hand-breadths, famed old 'Circle of Schwiebus,' if I
+recollect); and they have had to think of other equivalent parings for
+Saxony's behoof (Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Saale-Circle, or one knows
+not what); and have had, and will have, their adoes to get it fixed.
+Excellent bearskin to be slit into straps; only the bear is still on his
+feet!--Polish Majesty and Hungarian, Polish with especial vigor, Bruhl
+quite restless upon it, are--little as Valori or any mortal could dream
+of it--engaged in this partition of the bearskin, when Valori arrives.
+Of their innocent Union of Warsaw, there was, from the first, no secret
+made; but the Document now called 'TREATY of Warsaw' needs to lie secret
+and thrice-secret; and it was not till 1756 that Friedrich, having
+unearthed it by industries of his own, and studied it with great
+intensity for some years, made it known to the world." [Adelung, v. 308.
+397; Ranke, iii. 231 (who, for some reason of his own, dates "3d May"
+instead of 18th].
+
+Treaties, vaporous Foreshadows of Events, have oftenest something of the
+ghost in them; and are importune to human nature, longing for the Events
+themselves; all the more if they have proved abortional Treaties, and
+become doubly ghost-like or ghastly. Nevertheless the reader is to
+note well this Treaty of Warsaw, as important to Friedrich and him; and
+indeed it is perhaps the remarkablest Treaty, abortional or realized,
+which got to parchment in that Century. For though it proved abortional,
+and no part of it, now or afterwards, could be executed, and even the
+subsidy and 30,000 Saxons (stipulated in the "UNION of Warsaw") became
+crow's-meat in a manner,--this preternatural "Treaty of Warsaw," trodden
+down never so much by the heel of Destiny, and by the weight of
+new Treaties, superseding it or presupposing its impossibility or
+inconceivability, would by no means die (such the humor of Bruhl, of
+the Two Majesties and others); but lay alive under the ashes, carefully
+tended, for Ten or Twenty Years to come;--and had got all Europe kindled
+again, for destruction of that bad Neighbor, before it would itself
+consent to go out! And did succeed in getting Saxony's back broken,
+if not the bad Neighbor's,--in answer to the humor of little Bruhl;
+unfortunate Saxony to possess such a Bruhl!
+
+In those beautiful Saxon-Austrian developments of the Treaty of
+Warsaw, Czarina Elizabeth, bobbing about in that unlovely whirlpool of
+intrigues, amours, devotions and strong liquor, which her History is,
+took (ask not for what reason) a lively part:--and already in this
+Spring of 1745, they hope she could, by "a gift of two millions for
+her pleasures" (gift so easy to you Sea-Powers), be stirred up to anger
+against Friedrich. And she did, in effect, from this time, hover about
+in a manner questionable to Friedrich; though not yet in anger, but
+only with the wish to be important, and to make herself felt in Foreign
+affairs. Whether the Sea-Powers gave her that trifle of pocket-money
+("for her pleasures"), I never knew; but it is certain they spent, first
+and last, very large amounts that way, upon her and hers; especially the
+English did, with what result may be considered questionable.
+
+As for Graf von Bruhl, most rising man of Saxony, once a page; now by
+industry King August III.'s first favorite and factotum; the fact that
+he cordially hates Friedrich is too evident; but the why is not known to
+me. Except indeed, That no man--especially no man with three hundred
+and sixty-five fashionable suits of clothes usually about him, different
+suit each day of the year--can be comfortable in the evident contempt of
+another man. Other man of sarcastic bantering turn, too; tongue sharp
+as needles; whose sayings many birds of the air are busy to carry about.
+Year after year, Bruhl (doubtless with help enough that way, if there
+had needed such) hates him more and more; as the too jovial Czarina
+herself comes to do, wounded by things that birds have carried. And now
+we will go with Valori,--seeing better into some things than Valori yet
+can.
+
+
+
+
+3. VALORI'S ACCOUNT OF HIS MISSION (in compressed form). [Valori, i.
+211-219.]
+
+"Valori [I could guess about the 10th of February, but there is no date
+at all] was despatched to Dresden with that fine project, Polish Majesty
+for Kaiser: is authorized to offer 60,000 men, with money corresponding,
+and no end of brilliant outlooks;--must keep back his offers, however,
+if he find the people indisposed. Which he did, to an extreme degree;
+nothing but vague talk, procrastination, hesitation on the part of
+Bruhl. This wretched little Bruhl has twelve tailors always sewing for
+him, and three hundred and sixty-five suits of clothes: so many suits,
+all pictured in a Book; a valet enters every morning, proposes a suit,
+which, after deliberation, with perhaps amendments, is acceded to, and
+worn at dinner. Vainest of human clothes-horses; foolishest coxcomb
+Valori has seen: it is visibly his notion that it was he, Bruhl, by his
+Saxon auxiliaries, by his masterly strokes of policy, that checkmated
+Friedrich, and drove him from Bohemia last Year; and, for the rest, that
+Friedrich is ruined, and will either shirk out of Silesia, or be cut to
+ribbons there by the Austrian force this Summer. To which Valori hints
+dissent; but it is ill received. Valori sees the King; finds him, as
+expected, the fac-simile of Bruhl in this matter; Jesuit Guarini the
+like: how otherwise? They have his Majesty in their leash, and lead him
+as they please.
+
+"At four every morning, this Guarini, Jesuit Confessor to the King and
+Queen, comes to Bruhl; Bruhl settles with him what his Majesty shall
+think, in reference to current business, this day; Guarini then goes,
+confesses both Majesties; confesses, absolves, turns in the due way
+to secular matters. At nine, Bruhl himself arrives, for Privy Council:
+'What is your Majesty pleased to think on these points of current
+business?' Majesty serenely issues his thoughts, in the form of orders;
+which are found correct to pattern. This is the process with his
+Majesty. A poor Majesty, taking deeply into tobacco; this is the way
+they have him benetted, as in a dark cocoon of cobwebs, rendering the
+whole world invisible to him. Which cunning arrangement is more and more
+perfected every year; so that on all roads he travels, be it to mass,
+to hunt, to dinner, any-whither in his Palace or out of it, there are
+faithful creatures keeping eye, who admit no unsafe man to the least
+glimpse of him by night or by day. In this manner he goes on; and before
+the end of him, twenty years hence, has carried it far. Nothing but
+disgust to be had out of business;--mutinous Polish Diets too, some
+forty of them, in his time, not one of which did any business at all,
+but ended in LIBERUM VETO, and Billingsgate conflagration, perhaps
+with swords drawn: [See Buchholz, 154; &c.]--business more and more
+disagreeable to him. What can Valori expect, on this heroic occasion,
+from such a King?
+
+"The Queen herself, Maria Theresa's Cousin, an ambitious hard-favored
+Majesty,--who had sense once to dislike Bruhl, but has been quite
+reconciled to him by her Jesuit Messenger of Heaven (which latter is an
+oily, rather stupid creature, who really wishes well to her, and loves
+a peaceable life at any price),--even she will not take the bait. Valori
+was in Dresden nine days (middle part of February, it is likely); never
+produced his big bait, his 60,000 men and other brilliancies, at all.
+He saw old Feldmarschall Konigseck passing from Vienna towards the
+Netherlands Camp; where he is to dry-nurse (so they irreverently call
+it, in time coming) his Royal Highness of Cumberland, that magnificent
+English Babe of War, and do feats with him this Summer." Konigseck,
+though Valori did not know it, has endless diplomacies to do withal;
+inspections of troops, advisings, in Hanover, in Holland, in Dresden
+here; [Anonymous,--Duke of Cumberland,--p. 186.]--and secures the Saxon
+Electoral-Vote for his Grand-Duke in passing. "The welcome given to
+Konigseck disgusted Valori; on the ninth day he left; said adieu, seeing
+them blind to their interest; and took post for Berlin,"--where he finds
+Friedrich much out of humor at the Saxon reception of his magnanimities.
+[Valori, i. 211-219; _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 81-85. For details
+on Bruhl, see _Graf von Bruhl, Leben und Charakter_ (1760, No Place):
+Anonymous, by one Justi, a noted Pamphleteer of the time: exists in
+English too, or partly exists; but is unreadable, except on compulsion;
+and totally unintelligible till after very much inquiry elsewhere.]
+
+This Saxon intricacy, indecipherable, formidable, contemptible, was the
+plague of Friedrich's life, one considerable plague, all through this
+Campaign. Perhaps nothing in the Diplomatic sphere of things caused
+him such perplexity, vexation, indignation. An insoluble riddle to
+him; extremely contemptible, yet,--with a huge Russia tacked to it, and
+looming minatory in the distance,--from time to time, formidable enough.
+Let readers keep it in mind, and try to imagine it. It cost Friedrich
+such guessing, computing, arranging, rearranging, as would weary the
+toughest reader to hear of in detail. How Friedrich did at last solve it
+(in December coming), all readers will see with eyes!--
+
+
+
+
+MIDDLE-RHINE ARMY IN A STAGGERING STATE; THE BAVARIAN INTRICACY SETTLES
+ITSELF, THE WRONG WAY.
+
+Early in March it becomes surmisable that Maillebois's Middle-Rhine Army
+will not go a good road. Maillebois has been busy in those countries,
+working extensive discontent; bullying mankind "to join the Frankfurt
+Union," to join France at any rate, which nobody would consent to; and
+exacting merciless contributions, which everybody had to consent to and
+pay.--And now, on D'Ahremberg's mere advance, with that poor Fraction
+of Pragmatic Army, roused from its winter sleep, Maillebois, without
+waiting for D'Ahremberg's attack, rapidly calls in his truculent
+detachments, and rolls confusedly back into the Frankfurt regions.
+[Adelung, iv. 276-352 (December, 1744-March, 1745).] Upon which
+D'Ahremberg--if by no means going upon Maillebois's throat--sets, at
+least, to coercing Wilhelm of Hessen, our only friend in those parts;
+who is already a good deal disgusted with the Maillebois procedures,
+and at a loss what to do on the Kaiser's death, which has killed the
+Frankfurt Union too. Wise Wilhelm consents, under D'Ahremberg's menaces,
+to become Neutral; and recall his 6,000 out of Baiern,--wishes he had
+them home beside him even now!
+
+With an Election in the wind, it is doubly necessary for the French, who
+have not even a Candidate as yet, to stand supreme and minatory in the
+Frankfurt Country; and to King Friedrich it is painfully questionable,
+whether Maillebois can do it. "Do it we will; doubt not that, your
+Majesty!" answer Valori and the French;--and study to make improvements,
+reinforcements, in their Rhine Army. And they do, at least, change the
+General of their Middle-Rhine Army,--that is to say, recall Prince Conti
+out of Italy, where he has distinguished himself, and send Maillebois
+thither in his stead,--who likewise distinguishes himself THERE, if that
+could be a comfort to us! Whether the distinguished Conti will maintain
+that Frankfurt Country in spite of the Austrians and their Election
+movements, is still a question with Friedrich, though Valori continued
+assuring him (always till July came) that, it was beyond question.
+"Siege of Tournay, vigorous Campaign in the Netherlands (for behoof of
+Britannic George)!" this is the grand French program for the Year. This
+good intention was achieved, on the French part; but this, like Aaron's
+rod among the serpents, proved to have EATEN the others as it wriggled
+along!--
+
+Those Maillebois-D'Ahremberg affairs throw a damp on the Bavarian
+Question withal;--in fact, settle the Bavarian Question; her Hungarian
+Majesty, tired of the delays, having ordered Bathyani to shoulder arms
+again, and bring a decision. Bathyani, with Barenklau to right of him,
+and Browne (our old Silesian friend) to left, goes sweeping across those
+Seckendorf-Segur posts, and without difficulty tumbles everything to
+ruin, at a grand rate. The traitor Seckendorf had made such a choice of
+posts,--left unaltered by Drum Thorring;--what could French valor do?
+Nothing; neither French valor, nor Bavarian want of valor, could
+do anything but whirl to the right-about, at sight of the Austrian
+Sweeping-Apparatus; and go off explosively, as in former instances, at
+a rate almost unique in military annals. Finished within three weeks or
+so!--We glance only at two points of it. March 21st, Bathyani stood to
+arms (to BESOMS we might call it), Browne on the left, Barenklau on the
+right: it was March 21st when Bathyani started from Passau, up the Donau
+Countries;--and within the week coming, see:--
+
+"VILSHOFEN, 28th MARCH, 1745. Here, at the mouth of the Vils River
+(between Inn and Iser), is the first considerable Post; garrison some
+4,000; Hessians and Prince Friedrich the main part,--who have their
+share of valor, I dare say; but with such news out of Hessen, not to
+speak of the prospects in this Country, are probably in poorish spirits
+for acting. General Browne summons them in Vilshofen, this day; and, on
+their negative, storms in upon them, bursts them to pieces; upon which
+they beat chamade. But the Croats, who are foremost, care nothing for
+chamade: go plundering, slaughtering; burn the poor Town; butcher [in
+round numbers] 3,000 of the poor Hessians; and wound General Browne
+himself, while he too vehemently interferes." [Adelung, iv. 356, and the
+half-intelligible Foot-note in Ranke, iii. 220.] This was the finale
+of those 6,000 Hessians, and indeed their principal function, while in
+French pay;--and must have been, we can Judge how surprising to Prince
+Friedrich, and to his Papa on hearing of it! Note another point.
+
+Precisely about this time twelvemonth, "March 16th, 1746," the same
+Prince Friedrich, with remainder of those Hessians, now again completed
+to 6,000, and come back with emphasis to the Britannic side of
+things, was--marching out of Edinburgh, in much state, with streamers,
+kettle-drums, Highness's coaches, horses, led-horses, on an unexpected
+errand. [Henderson (Whig Eye-witness). _History of the Rebellion,_ 1745
+and 1746 (London, 1748, reprint from the Edinburgh edition), pp. 104,
+106, 107.] Toward Stirling, Perth; towards Killiecrankie, and raising of
+what is called "the Siege of Blair in Athol" (most minute of "sieges,"
+but subtending a great angle there and then);--much of unexpected, and
+nearer home than "Tournay and the Netherlands Campaign," having happened
+to Britannic George in the course of this year, 1746! "Really very fine
+troops, those Hessians [observes my orthodox Whig friend]: they carry
+swords as well as guns and bayonets; their uniform is blue turned up
+with white: the Hussar part of them, about 500, have scimitars of
+a great length; small horses, mostly black, of Swedish breed; swift
+durable little creatures, with long tails." Honors, dinners, to his
+Serene Highness had been numerous, during the three weeks we had him
+in Edinburgh; "especially that Ball, February 21st (o.s.), eve of his
+Consort the Princess Mary's Birthday [EVE of birthday, "let us dance the
+auspicious morning IN] was, for affluence of Nobility and Gentry of both
+sexes," a sublime thing...."
+
+PFAFFENHOFEN, APRIL 15th. "Unfortunate Segur, the Segur of Linz three
+years ago,--whose conduct was great, according to Valori, but powerless
+against traitors and fate!--was again, once more, unfortunate in those
+parts. Unfortunate Segur drew up at Pfaffenhofen (centre of the Country,
+many miles from Vilshofen) to defend himself, when fallen upon by
+Barenklau, in that manner; but could not, though with masterly demeanor;
+and had to retreat three days, with his face to the enemy, so to speak,
+fighting and manoeuvring all the way: no shelter for him either but
+Munchen, and that, a most temporary one. Instead of taking Straubingen,
+taking Passau, perhaps of pushing on to Vienna itself, this is what
+we have already come to. No Rhine Army, Middle-Rhine Army, Coigny,
+Maillebois, Conti, whoever it was, should send us the least
+reinforcement, when shrieked to. No outlook whatever but rapid
+withdrawal, retreat to the Rhine Army, since it will not stir to help
+us." [Adelung, iv. 360.]
+
+"The young Kur-Baiern is still polite, grateful [to us French],
+overwhelms us with politeness; but flies to Augsburg, as his Father used
+to do. Notable, however, his poor fat little Mother won't, this time:
+'No, I will stay here, I for one, and have done with flying and running;
+we have had enough of that!' Seckendorf, quite gone from Court in this
+crisis, reappears, about the middle of April, in questionable capacity;
+at a place called Fussen, not far off, at the foot of the Tyrol
+Hills;--where certain Austrian Dignitaries seem also to be enjoying a
+picturesque Easter! Yes indeed: and, on APRIL 22d, there is signed a
+'PEACE OF FUSSEN' there; general amicable AS-YOU-WERE, between Austria
+and Bavaria ('Renounce your Anti-Pragmatic moonshine forevermore, vote
+for our Grand-Duke; there is your Bavaria back, poor wretches!')--and
+Seckendorf, it is presumable, will get his Turkish arrears liquidated.
+
+"The Bavarian Intricacy, which once excelled human power, is settled,
+then. Carteret and Haslang tried it in vain [dreadful heterodox
+intentions of secularizing Salzburg, secularizing Passau, Regensburg,
+and loud tremulous denial of such];--Carteret and Wilhelm of Hesseu
+[Conferences of Hanau, which ruined Carteret], in vain; King Friedrich,
+and many Kings, in vain: a thing nobody could settle;--and it has at
+last settled itself, as the generality of ill-guided and unlucky things
+do, by collapse. Delirium once out, the law of gravity acts; and there
+the mad matter lies."
+
+"Bought by Austria, that old villain!" cry the French. Friedrich does
+not think the Austrians bought Seckendorf, having no money at present;
+but guesses they may have given him to understand that a certain large
+arrear of payment due ever since those Turkish Wars,--when Seckendorf,
+instead of payment, was lodged in the Fortress of Gratz, and almost
+got his head cut off,--should now be paid down in cash, or authentic
+Paper-money, if matters become amicable. [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii.
+22; _Seckendorfs Leben,_ pp. 367-376.] As they have done, in Friedrich's
+despite;--who seems angrier at the old stager for this particular
+ill-turn than for all the other many; and long remembers it, as will
+appear.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII.--FRIEDRICH IN SILESIA; UNUSUALLY BUSY.
+
+Here, sure enough, are sad new intricacies in the Diplomatic, hypothetic
+sphere of things; and clouds piling themselves ahead, in a very minatory
+manner to King Friedrich. Let King Friedrich, all the more, get his
+Fighting Arrangements made perfect. Diplomacy is clouds; beating of
+your enemies is sea and land. Austria and the Gazetteer world consider
+Friedrich to be as good as finished: but that is privately far from
+being Friedrich's own opinion;--though these occurrences are heavy and
+dismal to him, as none of us can now fancy.
+
+Herr Ranke has got access, in the Archives, to a series of private
+utterances by Friedrich,--Letters from him, of a franker nature than
+usual, and letting us far deeper into his mind;--which must have been
+well worth reading in the original, in their fully dated and developed
+condition. From Herr Ranke's Fragmentary Excerpts, let us, thankful
+for what we have got, select one or two. The Letters are to Minister
+Podewils at Berlin; written from Silesia (Neisse and neighborhood),
+where, since the middle of March, Friedrich has been, personally pushing
+on his Army Preparations, while the above sinister things befell.
+
+
+
+
+KING FRIEDRICH TO PODEWILS, IN BERLIN (under various dates, March-April,
+1745).
+
+NEISSE, 29th MARCH.... "We find ourselves in a great crisis. If we
+don't, by mediation of England, get Peace, our enemies from different
+sides [Saxony, Austria, who knows if not Russia withal!] will come
+plunging in against me. Peace I cannot force them to. But if they
+must have War, we will either beat them, or none of us will see Berlin
+again." [Ranke, iii. 236 et seqq.]
+
+APRIL (no day given).... "In any case, I have my troops well together.
+The sicknesses are ceasing; the recruitments are coming in: shortly all
+will be complete. That does not hinder us from making Peace, if it will
+only come; but, in the contrary case, nobody can accuse me of neglecting
+what was necessary."
+
+APRIL 17th (still from Neisse).... "I toil day and night to improve our
+situation. The soldiers will do their duty. There is none among us who
+will not rather have his backbone broken than give up one foot-breadth
+of ground. They must either grant us a good Peace, or we will surpass
+ourselves by miracles of daring; and force the enemy to accept it from
+us."
+
+APRIL 20th. "Our situation is disagreeable; constrained, a kind of
+spasm: but my determination is taken. If we needs must fight, we will do
+it like men driven desperate. Never was there a greater peril than
+that I am now in. Time, at its own pleasure, will untie this knot; or
+Destiny, if there is one, determine the event. The game I play is so
+high, one cannot contemplate the issue with cold blood. Pray for the
+return of my good luck."--Two days hence, the poor young Kur-Baiern,
+deaf to the French seductions and exertions, which were intense, had
+signed his "Peace of Fussen" (22d April 1745),--a finale to France on
+the German Field, as may be feared! The other Fragments we will give a
+little farther on.
+
+Friedrich had left Berlin for Silesia March 15th; rather sooner than he
+counted on,--Old Leopold pleading to be let home. At Glogau, at Breslau,
+there had been the due inspecting: Friedrich got to Neisse on the 23d
+(Bathyani just stirring in that Bavarian Business, Vilshofen and the
+Hessians close ahead); and on the 27th, had dismissed Old Leopold,
+with thanks and sympathies,--sent him home, "to recover his health."
+Leopold's health is probably suffering; but his heart and spirits still
+more. Poor old man, he has just lost--the other week, "5th February"
+last--his poor old Wife, at Dessau; and is broken down with grief. The
+soft silk lining of his hard Existence, in all parts of it, is torn
+away. Apothecary Fos's Daughter, Reich's Princess, Princess of Dessau,
+called by whatever name, she had been the truest of Wives; "used to
+attend him in all his Campaigns, for above fifty years back." "Gone,
+now, forever gone!"--Old Leopold had wells of strange sorrow in the
+rugged heart of him,--sorrow, and still better things,--which he does
+not wear on his sleeve. Here is an incident I never can forget;--dating
+twelve or thirteen years ago (as is computable), middle of July, 1732.
+
+"Louisa, Leopold's eldest Daughter, Wife of Victor Leopold, reigning
+Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg, lay dying of a decline." Still only
+twenty-three, poor Lady, though married seven years ago;--the end now
+evidently drawing nigh. "A few days before her death,--perhaps some
+attendant sorrowfully asking, 'Can we do nothing, then?'--she was heard
+to say, 'If I could see my Father at the head of his Regiment, yet
+once!'"--Halle, where the Regiment lies, is some thirty or more miles
+off; and King Friedrioh Wilhelm, I suppose, would have to be written
+to:--Leopold was ready the soonest possible; and, "at a set hour,
+marched, in all pomp, with banner flying, music playing, into the
+SCHLOSS-HOF (Palace Court) of Bernburg; and did the due salutations
+and manoeuvrings,--his poor Daughter sitting at her window, till they
+ended;"--figure them, the last glitter of those muskets, the last wail
+of that band-music!--"The Regiment was then marched to the Waisenhaus
+(ORPHAN-HOUSE), where the common men were treated with bread and beer;
+all the Officers dining at the Prince's Table. All the Officers, except
+Leopold alone, who stole away out of the crowd; sat himself upon the
+balustrade of the Saale Bridge, and wept into the river." [LEBEN (12mo;
+not Rannft's, but Anonymous like his), p. 234 n.]--Leopold is now on the
+edge of seventy; ready to think all is finished with him. Perhaps not
+quite, my tough old friend; recover yourself a little, and we shall see!
+
+Old Leopold is hardly home at Dessau, when new Pandour Tempests, tides
+of ravaging War, again come beating against the Giant Mountains, pouring
+through all passes; from utmost Jablunka, westward by Jagerndorf to
+Glatz, huge influx of wild riding hordes, each with some support of
+Austrian grenadiers, cannoniers; threatening to submerge Silesia.
+Precursors, Friedrich need not doubt, of a strenuous regular attempt
+that way, Hungarian Majesty's fixed intention, hope and determination
+is, To expel him straightway from Silesia. Her Patent circulates,
+these three months; calling on all men to take note of that fixed
+fact, especially on all Silesian men to note it well, and shift their
+allegiance accordingly. Silesian men, in great majority,--our friend
+the Mayor of Landshut, for example?--are believed to have no inclination
+towards change: and whoever has, had clearly better not show any till he
+see! [In Ranke (iii. 234), there is vestige of some intended
+"voluntary subscription by the common people of Glatz," for Friedrich's
+behoof;--contrariwise, in Orlich (ii. 380, "6th February, 1745," from
+the Dessau Archives), notice of one individual, suspected of stirring
+for Austria, whom "you are to put under lock and key;"--but he runs off,
+and has no successor, that I hear of.]--
+
+Friedrich's thousand-fold preliminary orderings, movements, rearrangings
+in his Army matters, must not detain us here;--still less his dealings
+with the Pandour element, which is troublesome, rather than dangerous.
+Vigilance, wise swift determination, valor drilled to its work, can deal
+with phenomena of that nature, though never so furious and innumerable.
+Not a cheering service for drilled valor, but a very needful one.
+Continual bickerings and skirmishings fell out, sometimes rising to
+sharp fight on the small scale:--Austrian grenadiers with cannon are on
+that Height to left, and also on this to right, meaning to cut off our
+march; the difficult landscape furnished out, far and wide, with Pandour
+companies in position: you must clash in, my Burschen; seize me that
+cannon-battery yonder; master such and such a post,--there is the heart
+of all that network of armed doggery; slit asunder that, the network
+wholly will tumble over the Hills again. Which is always done, on
+the part of the Prussian Burschen; though sometimes not, without
+difficulty.--His Majesty is forming Magazines at Neisse, Brieg, and
+the principal Fortresses in those parts; driving on all manner of
+preparations at the rapidest rate of speed, and looking with his own
+eyes into everything. The regiments are about what we may call complete,
+arithmetically and otherwise; the cavalry show good perfection in their
+new mode of manoeuvring;--it is to be hoped the Fighting Apparatus
+generally will give fair account of itself when the time comes. Our one
+anchor of hope, as now more and more appears.
+
+On the Pandour element he first tried (under General Hautcharmoi, with
+Winterfeld as chief active hand) a direct outburst or two, with a view
+to slash them home at once. But finding that it was of no use, as they
+always reappeared in new multitudes, he renounced that; took to calling
+in his remoter outposts; and, except where Magazines or the like
+remained to be cared for, let the Pandours baffle about, checked only by
+the fortified Towns, and more and more submerge the Hill Country. Prince
+Karl, to be expected in the form of lion, mysteriously uncertain on
+which side coming to invade us,--he, and not the innumerable weasel
+kind, is our important matter! By the end of April (news of the PEACE
+OF FUSSEN coming withal), Friedrich had quitted Neisse; lay cantoned, in
+Neisse Valley (between Frankenstein and Patschkau, "able to assemble in
+forty-eight hours"); studying, with his whole strength, to be ready
+for the mysterious Prince Karl, on whatever side he might arrive;--and
+disregarding the Pandours in comparison.
+
+The points of inrush, the tideways of these Pandour Deluges seem to be
+mainly three. Direct through the Jablunka, upon Ratibor Country, is
+the first and chief; less direct (partly supplied by REFLUENCES from
+Ratibor, when Ratibor is found not to answer), a second disembogues by
+Jagerndorf; a third, the westernmost, by Landshut. Three main ingresses:
+at each of which there fall out little Fights; which are still
+celebrated in the Prussian Books, and indeed well deserve reading by
+soldiers that would know their trade. In the Ratibor parts, the invasive
+leader is a General Karoly, with 12,000 under him, who are the wildest
+horde of all: "Karoly lodges in a wood: for himself there is a tent;
+his companions sleep under trees, or under the open sky, by the edge of
+morasses." [Ranke, iii. 244.] It was against this Karoly and his horde
+that Hautcharmoi's little expedition, or express attacking party to
+drive them home again, was shot out (8th-2lst April). Which did its work
+very prettily; Winterfeld, chief hand in it, crowning the matter by a
+"Fight of Wurbitz," [Orlich, ii. 136 (21st April).]--where Winterfeld,
+cutting the taproot, in his usual electric way, tumbles Karoly quite
+INTO the morasses, and clears the country of him for a time. For a time;
+though for a time only;--Karoly or others returning in a week or two,
+to a still higher extent of thousands; mischievous as ever in those
+Ratibor-Namslau countries. Upon which, Friedrich, finding this an
+endless business, and nothing like the most important, gives it up for
+the present; calls in his remoter detachments; has his Magazines carted
+home to the Fortress Towns,--Karoly trying, once or so, to hinder in
+that operation, but only again getting his crown broken. ["Fight of
+Mocker," May 4th (Orlich, ii. 141).] Or if carting be too difficult,
+still do not waste your Magazine:--Margraf Karl, for instance, is
+ordered to Jagerndorf with his Detachment, "to eat the Magazine;" hungry
+Pandours looking on, till he finish. On which occasion a renowned little
+Fight took place (Fight of Neustadt, or of Jagerndorf-Neustadt), as
+shall be mentioned farther on.
+
+So that, for certain weeks to come, the Tolpatcheries had free course,
+in those Frontier parts; and were left to rove about, under check only
+of the Garrison Towns; Friedrich being obliged to look elsewhere
+after higher perils, which were now coming in view. In which favorable
+circumstances, Karoly and Consorts did, at last, make one stroke in
+those Ratibor countries; that of Kosel, which was greatly consolatory.
+[26th May, 1743 (Orlich, ii. 156-158).] "By treachery of an Ensign
+who had deserted to them [provoked by rigor of discipline, or some
+intolerable thing], they glided stealthily, one night, across the
+ditches, into Kosel" (a half-fortified place, Prussian works only
+half finished): which, being the Key of the Oder in those parts, they
+reckoned a glorious conquest; of good omen and worthy of TE-DEUMS at
+Vienna. And they did eagerly, without the least molestation, labor
+to complete the Prussian works at Kosel: "One garrison already
+ours!"--which was not had from them without battering (and I believe,
+burning), when General von Nassau came to inquire after it; in Autumn
+next.
+
+Friedrich had always hoped that the Saxons, who are not yet in declared
+War with him, though bound by Treaty to assist the Queen of Hungary
+under certain conditions, would not venture on actual Invasion of his
+Territories; but in this, as readers anticipate, Friedrich finds himself
+mistaken. Weissenfels is hastening from the Leitmeritz northwestern
+quarter, where he has wintered, to join Prince Karl, who is gathering
+himself from Olmutz and his southeastern home region; their full
+intention is to invade Silesia together, and they hope now at length to
+make an end of Friedrich and it. These Pandour hordes, supported by the
+necessary grenadiers and cannoniers, are sent as vanguard; these cannot
+themselves beat him; but they may induce him (which they do not) to
+divide his Force; they may, in part, burn him away as by slow fire,
+after which he will be the easier to beat. Instead of which, Friedrich,
+leaving the Pandours to their luck, lies concentrated in Neisse Valley;
+watching, with all his faculties, Prince Karl's own advent (coming on
+like Fate, indubitable, yet involved in mysteries hitherto); and is
+perilously sensible that only in giving that a good reception is there
+any hope left him.
+
+Prince Karl "who arrived in Olmutz April 30th," commands in chief
+again,--saddened, poor man, by the loss of his young Wife, in December
+last; willing to still his grief in action for the cause SHE loved;--but
+old Traun is not with him this year: which is a still more material
+circumstance. Traun is to go this year, under cloak not of Prince Karl,
+but of Grand-Duke Franz, to clear those Frankfurt Countries for
+the KAISERWAHL and him. Prince Conti lies there, with his famous
+"Middle-Rhine Army" (D'Ahremberg, from the western parts, not nearly so
+diligent upon him as one could wish); and must, at all rates, be cleared
+away. Traun, taking command of Bathyani's Army (now that it has finished
+the Bavarian job), is preparing to push down upon Conti, while Bathyani
+(who is to supersede the laggard D'Ahremberg) shall push vigorously
+up;--and before summer is over, we shall hear of Traun again, and Conti
+will have heard!--
+
+Friedrich's indignation, on learning that the Saxons were actually on
+march, and gradually that they intended to invade him, was great; and
+the whole matter is portentously enigmatic to him, as he lies vigilant
+in Neisse Valley, waiting on the When and the How. Indignation;--and
+yet there is need of caution withal. To be ready for events, the Old
+Dessauer has, as one sure measure, been requested to take charge, once
+more, of a "Camp of Observation" on the Saxon Frontier (as of old, in
+1741); and has given his consent: ["April 25th" consents (Orlich, ii.
+130).] "Camp of Magdeburg," "Camp of Dieskau;" for it had various names
+and figures; checkings of your hand, then layings of it on, heavier,
+lighter and again heavier, according to one's various READINGS of the
+Saxon Mystery; and we shall hear enough about it, intermittently, till
+December coming: when it ended in a way we shall not forget!--On which
+take this Note:--
+
+"The Camp of Observation was to have begun May 1st; did begin somewhat
+later, 'near Magdeburg,' not too close on the Frontier, nor in too
+alarming strength; was reinforced to about 30,000; in which state
+[middle of August] it stept forward to Wieskau, then to Dieskau,
+close on the Saxon Border; and became,--with a Saxon Camp lying close
+opposite, and War formally threatened, or almost declared, on Saxony
+by Friedrich,--an alarmingly serious matter. Friedrich, however, again
+checked his hand; and did not consummate till November-December. But
+did then consummate; greatly against his will; and in a way
+flamingly visible to all men!" [Orlich, ii. 130, 209, 210:
+_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 1224-1226; i. 1117.]
+
+Friedrich's own incidental utterances (what more we have of Fractions
+from the Podewils Letters), in such portentous aspect of affairs, may
+now be worth giving. It is not now to Jordan that he writes, gayly
+unbosoming himself, as in the First War,--poor Jordan lies languishing,
+these many months; consumptive, too evidently dying:--Not to Jordan,
+this time; nor is the theme "GLOIRE" now, but a far different!
+
+
+
+
+FRIEDRICH TO PODEWILS (as before, April-May, 1745).
+
+April 20th or so, Orders are come to Berlin (orders, to Podewils's
+horror at such a thought), Whitherward, should Berlin be assaulted,
+the Official Boards, the Preciosities and household gods are to betake
+themselves:--to Magdeburg, all these, which is an impregnable place;
+to Stettin, the Two Queens and Royal Family, if they like it better.
+Podewils in horror, "hair standing on end," writes thereupon to Eichel,
+That he hopes the management, "in a certain contingency," will be given
+to Minister Boden; he Podewils, with his hair in that posture, being
+quite unequal to it. Friedrich answers:--
+
+"APRIL 26th.... 'I can understand how you are getting uneasy, you
+Berliners. I have the most to lose of you all; but I am quiet, and
+prepared for events. If the Saxons take part,' as they surely will, 'in
+the Invasion of Silesia, and we beat them, I am determined to plunge
+into Saxony. For great maladies, there need great remedies. Either
+I will maintain my all, or else lose my all. [Hear it, friend; and
+understand it,--with hair lying flat!] It is true, the disaffection of
+the Russian Court, on such trifling grounds, was not to be expected; and
+great misfortune can befall us. Well; a year or two sooner, a year or
+two later,--it is not worth one's while to bother about the very worst.
+If things take the better turn, our condition will be surer and firmer
+than it was before. If we have nothing to reproach ourselves with,
+neither need we fret and plague ourselves about bad events, which can
+happen to any man.'--'I am causing despatch a secret Order for Boden [on
+YOU know what], which you will not deliver him till I give sign.'"--On
+hearing of the Peace of Fussen, perhaps a day or so later, Friedrich
+again writes:--
+
+"APRIL [no distinct date; Neisse still? QUITS Neisse, April 28th].
+... Peace of Fussen, Bavaria turned against me? 'I can say nothing to
+it,--except, There has come what had to come. To me remains only
+to possess myself in patience. If all alliances, resources, and
+negotiations fail, and all conjunctures go against me, I prefer to
+perish with honor, rather than lead an inglorious life deprived of all
+dignity. My ambition whispers me that I have done more than another to
+the building up of my House, and have played a distinguished part among
+the crowned heads of Europe. To maintain myself there, has become as it
+were a personal duty; which I will fulfil at the expense of my happiness
+and my life. I have no choice left: I will maintain my power, or it
+may go to ruin, and the Prussian name be buried under it. If the enemy
+attempt anything upon us, we will either beat him, or we will all
+be hewed to pieces, for the sake of our Country, and the renown of
+Brandenburg. No other counsel can I listen to.'"
+
+SAME LETTER, OR ANOTHER? (Herr Ranke having his caprices!)... "You are a
+good man, my Podewils, and do what can be expected of you" (Podewils
+has been apologizing for his terrors; and referring hopefully "to
+Providence"): "Perform faithfully the given work on your side, as I on
+mine; for the rest, let what you call 'Providence' decide as it
+likes [UNE PROVIDENCE AVEUGLE? Ranke, who alone knows, gives "BLINDE
+VORSEHUNG." What an utterance, on the part of this little Titan!
+Consider it as exceptional with him, unusual, accidental to the hard
+moment, and perhaps not so impious as it looks!]--Neither our prudence
+nor our courage shall be liable to blame; but only circumstances that
+would not favor us....
+
+"I prepare myself for every event. Fortune may be kind or be unkind, it
+shall neither dishearten me nor uplift me. If I am to perish, let it
+be with honor, and sword in hand. What the issue is to be--Well, what
+pleases Heaven, or the Other Party (J'AI JETE LE BONNET PAR DESSUS LES
+MOULINS)! Adieu, my dear Podewils; become as good a philosopher as
+you are a politician; and learn from a man who does not go to Elsner's
+Preaching [fashionable at the time], that one must oppose to ill fortune
+a brow of iron; and, during this life, renounce all happiness, all
+acquisitions, possessions and lying shows, none of which will follow us
+beyond the grave." [Ranke, iii. pp. 238-241.]
+
+"By what points the Austrian-Saxon Armament will come through upon us?
+Together will it be, or separately? Saxons from the Lausitz, Austrians
+from Bohmen, enclosing us between two fires?"--were enigmatic questions
+with Friedrich; and the Saxons especially are an enigma. But that come
+they will, that these Pandours are their preliminary veiling-apparatus
+as usual, is evident to him; and that he must not spend himself upon
+Pandours; but coalesce, and lie ready for the main wrestle. So that from
+April 28th, as above noticed, Friedrich has gone into cantonments, some
+way up the Neisse Valley, westward of Neisse Town; and is calling in his
+outposts, his detachments; emptying his Frontier Magazines;--abandoning
+his Upper-Silesian Frontier more and more, and in the end altogether, to
+the Pandour hordes; a small matter they, compared to the grand Invasion
+which is coming on. Here, with shiftings up the Neisse Valley, he
+lies till the end of May; watching Argus-like, and scanning with every
+faculty the Austrian-Saxon motions and intentions, until at length they
+become clear to him, and we shall see how he deals with them.
+
+His own lodging, or head-quarter, most of this time (4th May-27th
+May), is in the pleasant Abbey of Camenz (mythic scene of that
+BAUMGARTEN-SKIRMISH business, in the First Silesian War). He has
+excellent Tobias Stusche for company in leisure hours; and the outlook
+of bright Spring all round him, flowering into gorgeous Summer, as he
+hurries about on his many occasions, not of an idyllic nature. [Orlich,
+ii. 139; Ranke, iii. 242-249.] But his Army is getting into excellent
+completeness of number, health, equipment, and altogether such a spirit
+as he could wish. May 22d, here is another snatch from some Note to
+Podewils, from this balmy Locality, potential with such explosions of
+another kind. CAMENZ, MAY 22d.... "The Enemies are making movements; but
+nothing like enough as yet for our guessing their designs. Till we see,
+therefore, the thunder lies quiet in us (LA FOUDRE REPOSE EN MES MAINS).
+Ah, could we but have a Day like that May Eleventh!" [Ranke, iii. 248
+n.]
+
+What "that May Eleventh" is or was? Readers are curious to know;
+especially English readers, who guess FONTENOY. And Historic Art, if she
+were strict, would decline to inform them at any length; for really
+the thing is no better than a "Victory on the Scamander, and a Siege of
+Pekin" (as a certain observer did afterwards define it), in reference
+to the matter now on hand! Well, Pharsalia, Arbela, the Scamander,
+Armageddon, and so many Battles and Victories being luminous, by study,
+to cultivated Englishmen, and one's own Fontenoy such a mystery and
+riddle,--Art, after consideration, reluctantly consents to be indulgent;
+will produce from her Paper Imbroglios a slight Piece on the subject,
+and print instead of burning.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII.--THE MARTIAL BOY AND HIS ENGLISH versus THE LAWS OF
+NATURE.
+
+"Glorious Campaign in the Netherlands, Siege of Tournay, final ruin
+of the Dutch Barrier!" this is the French program for Season 1745,--no
+Belleisle to contradict it; Belleisle secure at Windsor, who might have
+leant more towards German enterprises. And to this his Britannic Majesty
+(small gain to him from that adroitness in the Harz, last winter!) has
+to make front. And is strenuously doing so, by all methods; especially
+by heroic expenditure of money, and ditto exposure of his Martial Boy.
+Poor old Wade, last year,--perhaps Wade did suffer, as he alleged,
+from "want of sufficient authority in that mixed Army"? Well, here is a
+Prince of the Blood, Royal Highness of Cumberland, to command in
+chief. With a Konigseck to dry-nurse him, may not Royal Highness, luck
+favoring, do very well? Luck did not favor; Britannic Majesty, neither
+in the Netherlands over seas, nor at home (strange new domestic wool, of
+a tarry HIGHLAND nature, being thrown him to card, on the sudden!), made
+a good Campaign, but a bad. And again a bad (1746) and again (1747),
+ever again, till he pleased to cease altogether. Of which distressing
+objects we propose that the following one glimpse be our last.
+
+
+
+
+BATTLE OF FONTENOY (11th May, 1745).
+
+... "In the end of April, Marechal de Saxe, now become very famous for
+his sieges in the Netherlands, opened trenches before Tournay; King
+Louis, with his Dauphin, not to speak of mistresses, play-actors and
+cookery apparatus (in wagons innumerable), hastens to be there. A
+fighting Army, say of 70,000, besides the garrisons; and great things,
+it is expected, will be done; Tournay, in spite of strong works and
+Dutch garrison of 9,000, to be taken in the first place.
+
+"Of the Siege, which was difficult and ardent, we will remember nothing,
+except the mischance that befell a certain 'Marquis de Talleyrand'
+and his men, in the trenches, one night. Night of the 8th-9th May, by
+carelessness of somebody, a spark got into the Marquis's powder, two
+powder-barrels that there were; and, with horrible crash, sent eighty
+men, Marquis Talleyrand and Engineer Du Mazis among them, aloft into the
+other world; raining down their limbs into the covered way, where
+the Dutch were very inhuman to them, and provoked us to retaliate.
+[Espagnac, ii. 27.] Du Mazis I do not know; but Marquis de Talleyrand
+turns out, on study of the French Peerages, to be Uncle of a lame little
+Boy, who became Right Reverend Tallyrand under singular conditions, and
+has made the name very current in after-times!--
+
+"Hearing of this Siege, the Duke of Cumberland hastened over from
+England, with intent to raise the same. Mustered his 'Allied Army' (once
+called 'Pragmatic'),--self at the head of it; old Count Konigseck,
+who was NOT burnt at Chotusitz, commanding the small Austrian quota
+[Austrians mainly are gone laggarding with D'Ahremberg up the Rhine];
+and a Prince of Waldeck the Dutch,--on the plain of Anderlecht near
+Brussels, May 4th; [Anonymous, _Life of Cumberland,_ p. 180; Espagnac,
+ii. 26.] and found all things tolerably complete. Upon which,
+straightway, his Royal Highness, 60,000 strong let us say, set forth; by
+slowish marches, and a route somewhat leftward of the great Tournay Road
+[no place on it, except perhaps STEENKERKE, ever heard of by an English
+reader]; and on Sunday, 9th May, [Espagnac, ii. 27.] precisely on the
+morrow after poor Talleyrand had gone aloft, reached certain final
+Villages: Vezon, Maubray, where he encamps, Briffoeil to rear; Camp
+looking towards Tournay and the setting sun,--with Fontenoy short
+way ahead, and Antoine to left of it, and Barry with its Woods to
+right:--small peaceable Villages, which become famous in the Newspapers
+shortly after. [Patch of Map at p. 440.] Royal Highness, resting here
+at Vezon, is but some six or seven miles from Tournay; in low undulating
+Country, woody here and there, not without threads of running water,
+and with frequent Villages and their adjuncts: the part of it now
+interesting to us lies all between the Brussels-Tournay Road and
+the Scheld River,--all in immediate front of his Royal Highness,--to
+southeastward from beleaguered Tournay, where said Road and River
+intersect. How shall he make some impression on the Siege of Tournay?
+That is now the question; and his Royal Highness struggles to manoeuvre
+accordingly.
+
+"Marechal de Saxe, whose habit is much that of vigilance, forethought,
+sagacious precaution, singular in so dissolute a man, has neglected
+nothing on this occasion. He knows every foot of the ground, having
+sieged here, in his boyhood, once before. Leaving the siege-trenches at
+Tournay, under charge of a ten or fifteen thousand, he has taken camp
+here; still with superior force (56,000 as they count, Royal Highness
+being only 50,000 ranked), barring Royal Highness's way. Tournay, or
+at least the Marechal's trenches there, are on the right bank of the
+Scheld; which flows from southeast, securing all on that hand. The broad
+Brussels Highway comes in to him from the east;--north of that he has
+nothing to fear, the ground being cut with bogs; no getting through
+upon him, that way, to Tournay and what he calls the 'Under Scheld.' The
+'Upper Scheld' too, avail them nothing. There is only that triangle
+to the southeast, between Road and River, where the Enemy is now
+manoeuvring in front of him, from which damage can well come; and he has
+done his best to be secure there. Four villages or hamlets, close to
+the Scheld and onwards to the Great Road,--Antoine, Fontenoy, Barry,
+Ramecroix, with their lanes and boscages,--make a kind of circular base
+to his triangle; base of some six or eight miles; with hollows in it,
+brooks, and northward a considerable Wood [BOIS DE BARRY, enveloping
+Barry and Ramecroix, which do not prove of much interest to us, though
+the BOIS does of a good deal]. In and before each of those villages
+are posts and defences; in Antoine and Fontenoy elaborate redoubts,
+batteries, redans connecting: in the Wood (BOIS DE BARRY), an abattis,
+or wall of felled trees, as well as cannon; and at the point of the
+Wood, well within double range of Fontenoy, is a Redoubt, called of Eu
+(REDOUTE D'EU, from the regiment occupying it), which will much concern
+his Royal Highness and us. Saxe has a hundred pieces of cannon [say the
+English, which is correct], consummately disposed along this space; no
+ingress possible anywhere, except through the cannon's throat; torrents
+of fire and cross-fire playing on you. He is armed to the teeth, as they
+say; and has his 56,000 arranged according to the best rules of tactics,
+behind this murderous line of works. If his Royal Highness think of
+breaking in, he may count on a very warm reception indeed.
+
+"Saxe is only afraid his Royal Highness will not. Outside of these
+lines, with a 50,000 dashing fiercely round us, under any kind of
+leading; pouncing on our convoys; harassing and sieging US,--our siege
+of Toumay were a sad outlook. And this is old Austrian Konigseck's
+opinion, too; though, they say, Waldeck and the Dutch (impetuous in
+theory at least) opined otherwise, and strengthened Royal Highness's
+view. Two young men against one old: 'Be it so, then!' His Royal
+Highness, resolute for getting in, manoeuvres and investigates,
+all Monday 10th; his cannon is not to arrive completely till night;
+otherwise he would be for breaking in at once: a fearless young man,
+fearless as ever his poor Father was; certainly a man SANS PEUY, this
+one too; whether of much AVIS, we shall see anon.
+
+"Tuesday morning early, 11th May, 1745, cannon being up, and
+dispositions made, his Royal Highness sallies out; sees his men taking
+their ground: Dutch and Austrians to the left, chiefly opposite Antoine;
+English, with some Hanoverians, in the centre and to the right;
+infantry in front, facing Fontenoy, cavalry to rear flanking the Wood
+of Barry,--Konigseck, Ligonier and others able, assisting to plant
+them advantageously; cannon going, on both sides, the while; radiant
+enthusiasm, SANS PEUR ET SANS AVIS, looking from his Royal Highness's
+face. He has been on horseback since two in the morning; cannon started
+thundering between five and six,--has killed chivalrous Grammont over
+yonder (the Grammont of Dettingen), almost at the first volley. And
+now about the time when ploughers breakfast (eight A.M., no ploughing
+hereabouts to-day!), begins the attack, simultaneously or in swift
+succession, on the various batteries which it will be necessary to
+attack and storm.
+
+"The attacks took place; but none of them succeeded. Dutch and
+Austrians, on the extreme left, were to have stormed Antoine by the edge
+of the River; that was their main task; right skirt of them to help US
+meanwhile with Fontenoy. And they advanced, accordingly; but found
+the shot from Antoine too fierce: especially when a subsidiary battery
+opened from across the River, and took them in flank, the Dutch and
+Austrians felt astonished; and hastily drew aside, under some sheltering
+mound or earthwork they had found for themselves, or prudently thrown
+up the night before. There, under their earthwork, stood the Dutch
+and Austrians; patiently expecting a fitter time,--which indeed never
+occurred; for always, the instant they drew out, the batteries from
+Antoine, and from across the River, instantly opened upon them, and they
+had to draw in again. So that they stood there, in a manner, all day;
+and so to speak did nothing but patiently expect when it should be time
+to run. For which they were loudly censured, and deservedly. Antoine is
+and remains a total failure on the part of the Dutch and Austrians.
+
+"Royal Highness in person, with his English, was to attack
+Fontenoy;--and is doing so, by battery and storm, at various points;
+with emphasis, though without result. As preliminary, at an early stage
+he had sent forward on the right, by the Wood of Barry, a Brigadier
+Ingoldsby 'with Semple's Highlanders' and other force, to silence 'that
+redoubt yonder at the point of the Wood,'--redoubt, fort, or whatever it
+be (famous REDOUTE D'EU, as it turned out!),--which guards Fontenoy to
+north, and will take us in flank, nay in rear, as we storm the cannon of
+the Village. Ingoldsby, speed imperative on him, pushed into the Wood;
+found French light-troops ('God knows how many of them!') prowling
+about there; found the Redoubt a terribly strong thing, with ditch,
+drawbridge, what not; spent thirty or forty of his Highlanders, in
+some frantic attempt on it by rule of thumb;--and found 'He would need
+artillery' and other things. In short, Ingoldsby, hasten what he might,
+could not perfect the preparations to his mind, had to wait for this and
+for that; and did not storm the Redoubt d'Eu at all; but hung fire, in
+an unaccountable manner. For which he had to answer (to Court-Martial,
+still more to the Newspapers) afterwards; and prove that it was
+misfortune merely, or misfortune and stupidity combined. Too evident,
+the REDOUTE D'EU was not taken, then or thenceforth; which might have
+proved the saving of the whole affair, could Ingoldsby have managed it.
+Royal Highness attacked Fontenoy, and re-attacked, furiously, thrice
+over; and had to desist, and find Fontenoy impossible on those terms.
+
+"Here is a piece of work. Repulsed at all those points; and on the left
+and on the right, no spirit visible but what deserves repulse! His Royal
+Highness blazes into resplendent PLATT-DEUTSCH rage, what we may call
+spiritual white-heat, a man SANS PEUR at any rate, and pretty much SANS
+AVIS; decides that he must and will be through those lines, if it please
+God; that he will not be repulsed at his part of the attack, not he for
+one; but will plunge through, by what gap there is [900 yards Voltaire
+measures it (_OEuvres,_ xxviii. 150 (SIECLE DE LOUIS QUINZE, c. xv.
+"BATAILLE DE FONTENOI,"--elaborately exact on all such points).)]
+between Fontenoy and that Redoubt with its laggard Ingoldsby; and see
+what the French interior is like! He rallies rapidly, rearranges;
+forms himself in thin column or columns [three of them, I think,--which
+gradually got crushed into one, as they advanced, under cannon-shot on
+both hands),--wheeling his left round, to be rear, his right to be head
+of said column or columns. In column, the cannon-shot from Fontenoy
+on the left, and Redoubt d'Eu on our right, will tell less on us; and
+between these two death-dealing localities, by the hollowest, least
+shelterless way discoverable, we mean to penetrate: (Forward, my men,
+steady and swift, till we are through the shot-range, and find men to
+grapple with, instead of case-shot and projectile iron!' Marechal de
+Saxe owned afterwards, 'He should have put an additional redoubt in that
+place, but he did not think any Army would try such a thing' (cannon
+batteries playing on each hand at 400 yards distance);--nor has any Army
+since or before!
+
+"These columns advance, however; through bushy hollows, water-courses,
+through what defiles or hollowest grounds there are; endure the
+cannon-shot, while they must; trailing their own heavy guns by hand, and
+occasionally blasting out of them where the ground favors;--and do, with
+indignant patience, wind themselves through, pretty much beyond direct
+shot-range of either d'Eu or Fontenoy. And have actually got into the
+interior mystery of the French Line of Battle,--which is not a little
+astonished to see them there! It is over a kind of blunt ridge, or
+rising ground, that they are coming: on the crown of this rising ground,
+the French regiment fronting it (GARDES FRANCAISES as it chanced to
+be) notices, with surprise, field-cannon pointed the wrong way; actual
+British artillery unaccountably showing itself there. Regiment of GARDES
+rushes up to seize said field-pieces: but, on the summit, perceives with
+amazement that it cannot; that a heavy volley of musketry blazes into
+it (killing sixty men); that it will have to rush back again, and report
+progress: Huge British force, of unknown extent, is readjusting itself
+into column there, and will be upon us on the instant. Here is news!
+
+"News true enough. The head of the English column comes to sight, over
+the rising ground, close by: their officers doff their hats, politely
+saluting ours, who return the civility: was ever such politeness seen
+before? It is a fact; and among the memorablest of this Battle. Nay
+a certain English Officer of mark--Lord Charles Hay the name of him,
+valued surely in the annals of the Hay and Tweeddale House--steps
+forward from the ranks, as if wishing something. Towards whom [says the
+accurate Espagnac] Marquis d'Auteroche, grenadier-lieutenant, with air
+of polite interrogation, not knowing what he meant, made a step or two:
+'Monsieur,' said Lord Charles (LORD CHARLES-HAY), 'bid your people fire
+(FAITES TIRER VOS GENS)!' 'NON, MONSIEUR, NOUS NE TIRONS JAMAIS LES
+PREMIERS (We never fire first).' [Espagnac, ii. 60 (of the ORIGINAL,
+Toulouse, 1789); ii. 48 of the German Translation (Leipzig, 1774), our
+usual reference. Voltaire, endlessly informed upon details this time,
+is equally express: "MILORD CHARLES HAY, CAPITAINE AUX GARDES ANGLAISES,
+CRIA: 'MESSIEURS DES GARDES FRANCAISES, TIREZ!' To which Count
+d'Auteroche with a loud voice answered" &c. (_OEuvres,_ vol. xxviii.
+p. 155.) See also _Souvenirs du Marquis de Valfons_ (edited by a
+Grand-Nephew, Paris, 1860), p. 151;--a poor, considerably noisy and
+unclean little Book; which proves unexpectedly worth looking at, in
+regard to some of those poor Battles and personages and occurrences: the
+Bohemian Belleisle-Broglio part, to my regret, if to no other person's,
+has been omitted, as extinct, or undecipherable by the Grand-Nephew.]
+After YOU, Sirs! Is not this a bit of modern chivalry? A supreme
+politeness in that sniffing pococurante kind; probably the highest point
+(or lowest) it ever went to. Which I have often thought of."
+
+It is almost pity to disturb an elegant Historical Passage of this kind,
+circulating round the world, in some glory, for a century past: but
+there has a small irrefragable Document come to me, which modifies it a
+good deal, and reduces matters to the business form. Lord Charles
+Hay, "Lieutenant-Colonel," practical Head, "of the First Regiment
+of Foot-guards," wrote, about three weeks after (or dictated in sad
+spelling, not himself able to write for wounds), a Letter to his
+Brother, of which here is an Excerpt at first hand, with only the
+spelling altered:... "It was our Regiment that attacked the French
+Guards: and when we came within twenty or thirty paces of them, I
+advanced before our Regiment; drank to them [to the French, from the
+pocket-pistol one carries on such occasions], and told them that we were
+the English Guards, and hoped that they would stand till we came quite
+up to them, and not swim the Scheld as they did the Mayn at Dettingen
+[shameful THIRD-BRIDGE, not of wood, though carpeted with blue cloth
+there]! Upon which I immediately turned about to our own Regiment;
+speeched them, and made them huzza,"--I hope with a will. "An Officer
+[d'Auteroche] came out of the ranks, and tried to make his men huzza;
+however, there were not above three or four in their Brigade that did."
+["Ath, May ye 20th, o.s." (to John, Fourth Marquis of Tweeddale, last
+"Secretary of State for Scotland," and a man of figure in his day):
+Letter is at Yester House, East Lothian; Excerpt PENES ME.]...
+
+Very poor counter-huzza. And not the least whisper of that sublime
+"After you, Sirs!" but rather, in confused form, of quite the reverse;
+Hay having been himself fired into ("fire had begun on my left;" Hay
+totally ignorant on which side first),--fired into, rather feebly, and
+wounded by those D'Auteroche people, while he was still advancing with
+shouldered arms;--upon which, and not till which, he did give it them:
+in liberal dose; and quite blew them off the ground, for that day.
+From all which, one has to infer, That the mutual salutation by hat was
+probably a fact; that, for certain, there was some slight preliminary
+talk and gesticulation, but in the Homeric style, by no means in the
+Espagnac-French,--not chivalrous epigram at all, mere rough banter, and
+what is called "chaffing;"--and in short, that the French Mess-rooms
+(with their eloquent talent that way) had rounded off the thing into the
+current epigrammatic redaction; the authentic business-form of it being
+ruggedly what is now given. Let our Manuscript proceed.
+
+"D'Auteroche declining the first fire,"--or accepting it, if ever
+offered, nobody can say,--"the three Guards Regiments, Lord Charles's on
+the right, give it him hot and heavy, 'tremendous rolling fire;' so that
+D'Auteroche, responding more or less, cannot stand it; but has at once
+to rustle into discontinuity, he and his, and roll rapidly out of the
+way. And the British Column advances, steadily, terribly, hurling back
+all opposition from it; deeper and deeper into the interior mysteries
+of the French Host; blasting its way with gunpowder;--in a magnificent
+manner. A compact Column, slowly advancing,--apparently of some 16,000
+foot. Pauses, readjusts itself a little, when not meddled with; when
+meddled with, has cannon, has rolling fire,--delivers from it, in fact,
+on both hands such a torrent of deadly continuous fire as was rarely
+seen before or since. 'FEU INFERNAL,' the French call it. The French
+make vehement resistance. Battalions, squadrons, regiment after
+regiment, charge madly on this terrible Column; but rush only on
+destruction thereby. Regiment This storms in from the right, regiment
+That from the left; have their colonels shot, 'lose the half of their
+people;' and hastily draw back again, in a wrecked condition. The
+cavalry-horses cannot stand such smoke and blazing; nor indeed, I think,
+can the cavaliers. REGIMENT DU ROI rushing on, full gallop, to charge
+this Column, got one volley from it [says Espagnac] which brought to the
+ground 460 men. Natural enough that horses take the bit between
+their teeth; likewise that men take it, and career very madly in such
+circumstances!
+
+MAP Chap. VIII, Book 15, PAGE 440 GOES ABOUT HERE--------
+
+"The terrible Column with slow inflexibility advances; cannon (now in
+reversed position) from that Redoubt d'Eu ('Shame on you, Ingoldsby!'),
+and irregular musketry from Fontenoy side, playing upon it; defeated
+regiments making barriers of their dead men and firing there; Column
+always closing its gapped ranks, and girdled with insupportable fire.
+It ought to have taken Fontenoy and Redoubt d'Eu, say military men; it
+ought to have done several things! It has now cut the French fairly in
+two;--and Saxe, who is earnestly surveying it a hundred paces ahead,
+sends word, conjuring the King to retire instantly,--across the Scheld,
+by Calonne Bridge and the strong rear-guard there,--who, however, will
+not. King and Dauphin, on horseback both, have stood 'at the Justice
+(GALLOWS, in fact) of our Lady of the Woods,' not stirring much,
+occasionally shifting to a windmill which is still higher,--ye Heavens,
+with what intrepidity, all day!--'a good many country-folk in trees
+close behind them.' Country-folk, I suppose, have by this time seen
+enough, and are copiously making off: but the King will not, though
+things do look dubious.
+
+"In fact, the Battle hangs now upon a hair; the Battle is as good as
+lost, thinks Marechal de Saxe. His battle-lines torn in two in that
+manner, hovering in ragged clouds over the field, what hope is there in
+the Battle? Fontenoy is firing blank, this some time; its cannon-balls
+done. Officers, in Antoine, are about withdrawing the artillery,--then
+again (on new order) replacing it awhile. All are looking towards the
+Scheld Bridge; earnestly entreating his Majesty to withdraw. Had the
+Dutch, at this point of time, broken heartily in, as Waldeck was urging
+them to do, upon the redoubts of Antoine; or had his Royal Highness the
+Duke, for his own behoof, possessed due cavalry or artillery to act upon
+these ragged clouds, which hang broken there, very fit for being swept,
+were there an artillery-and-horse besom to do it,--in either of these
+cases the Battle was the Duke's. And a right fiery victory it would
+have been; to make his name famous; and confirm the English in their mad
+method of fighting, like Baresarks or Janizaries rather than strategic
+human creatures. [See, in Busching's _Magazin,_ xvi. 169 ("Your
+illustrious 'Column,' at Fontenoy? It was fortuitous, I say; done like
+janizaries;" and so forth), a Criticism worth reading by soldiers.]
+
+"But neither of these contingencies had befallen. The Dutch-Austrian
+wing did evince some wish to get possession of Antoine; and drew out a
+little; but the guns also awoke upon them; whereupon the Dutch-Austrians
+drew in again, thinking the time not come. As for the Duke, he had taken
+with him of cannon a good few; but of horse none at all (impossible for
+horse, unless Fontenoy and the Redoubt d'Eu were ours!)--and his horse
+have been hanging about, in the Wood of Barry all this while, uncertain
+what to do; their old Commander being killed withal, and their new a
+dubitative person, and no orders left. The Duke had left no orders;
+having indeed broken in here, in what we called a spiritual white-heat,
+without asking himself much what he would do when in: 'Beat the French,
+knock them to powder if I can!'--Meanwhile the French clouds are
+reassembling a little: Royal Highness too is readjusting himself, now
+got '300 yards ahead of Fontenoy,'--pauses there about half an hour, not
+seeing his way farther.
+
+"During which pause, Duc de Richelieu, famous blackguard man, gallops
+up to the Marechal, gallops rapidly from Marechal to King; suggesting,
+'were cannon brought AHEAD of this close deep Column, might not they
+shear it into beautiful destruction; and then a general charge be made?'
+So counselled Richelieu: it is said, the Jacobite Irishman, Count Lally
+of the Irish Brigade, was prime author of this notion,--a man of tragic
+notoriety in time coming. ["Thomas Arthur Lally Comte de Tollendal,"
+patronymically "O'MULALLY of TULLINDALLY" (a place somewhere in
+Connaught, undiscoverable where, not material where): see our
+dropsical friend (in one of his wheeziest states), _King James's Irish
+Army-List_ (Dublin, 1855), pp. 594-600.] Whoever was author of it,
+Marechal de Saxe adopts it eagerly, King Louis eagerly: swift it becomes
+a fact. Universal rally, universal simultaneous charge on both flanks
+of the terrible Column: this it might resist, as it has done these two
+hours past; but cannon ahead, shearing gaps through it from end to end,
+this is what no column can resist;--and only perhaps one of Friedrich's
+columns (if even that) with Friedrich's eye upon it, could make its
+half-right-about (QUART DE CONVERSION), turn its side to it, and
+manoeuvre out of it, in such circumstances. The wrathful English
+column, slit into ribbons, can do nothing at manoeuvring; blazes and
+rages,--more and more clearly in vain; collapses by degrees, rolls into
+ribbon-coils, and winds itself out of the field. Not much chased,--its
+cavalry now seeing a job, and issuing from the Wood of Barry to cover
+the retreat. Not much chased;--yet with a loss, they say, in all, of
+7,000 killed and wounded, and about 2,000 prisoners; French loss being
+under 5,000.
+
+"The Dutch and Austrians had found that the fit time was now come, or
+taken time by the forelock,--their part of the loss, they said, was a
+thousand and odd hundreds. The Battle ended about two o'clock of the
+day; had begun about eight. Tuesday, 11th May, 1745: one of the hottest
+half-day's works I have known. A thing much to be meditated by the
+English mind.--King Louis stept down from the Gallows-Hill of Our Lady;
+and KISSED Marechal de Saxe. Saxe was nearly dead of dropsy; could not
+sit on horseback, except for minutes; was carried about in a wicker bed;
+has had a lead bullet in his mouth, all day, to mitigate the intolerable
+thirst. Tournay was soon taken; the Dutch garrison, though strong, and
+in a strong place, making no due debate.
+
+"Royal Highness retired upon Ath and Brussels; hovered about, nothing
+daunted, he or his: 'Dastard fellows, they would not come out into the
+open ground, and try us fairly!' snort indignantly the Gazetteers and
+enlightened Public. [Old Newspapers.] Nothing daunted;--but, as it
+were, did not do anything farther, this Campaign; except lose Gand, by
+negligence VERSUS vigilance, and eat his victuals,--till called home
+by the Rebellion Business, in an unexpected manner! Fontenoy was the
+nearest approach he ever made to getting victory in a battle; but a
+miss too, as they all were. He was nothing like so rash, on subsequent
+occasions; but had no better luck; and was beaten in all his
+battles--except the immortal Victory of Culloden alone. Which latter
+indeed, was it not itself (in the Gazetteer mind) a kind of apotheosis,
+or lifting of a man to the immortal gods,--by endless tar-barrels and
+beer, for the time being?
+
+"Old Marechal de Noailles was in this Battle; busy about the redans, and
+proud to see his Saxe do well. Chivalrous Grammont, too, as we saw,
+was there,---killed at the first discharge. Prince de Soubise too (not
+killed); a certain Lord George Sackville (hurt slightly,--perhaps had
+BETTER have been killed!)--and others known to us, or that will
+be known. Army-Surgeon La Mettrie, of busy brain, expert with his
+tourniquets and scalpels, but of wildly blusterous heterodox tongue and
+ways, is thrice-busy in Hospital this night,--'English and French all
+one to you, nay, if anything, the English better!' those are the Royal
+orders:--La Mettrie will turn up, in new capacity, still blusterous, at
+Berlin, by and by.
+
+"The French made immense explosions of rejoicing over this Victory of
+Fontenoy; Voltaire (now a man well at Court) celebrating it in prose and
+verse, to an amazing degree (21,000 copies sold in one day); the whole
+Nation blazing out over it into illuminations, arcs of triumph and
+universal three-times-three:--in short, I think, nearly the heartiest
+National Huzza, loud, deep, long-drawn, that the Nation ever gave in
+like case. Now rather curious to consider, at this distance of time.
+Miraculous Anecdotes, true and not true, are many. Not to mention again
+that surprising offer of the first fire to us, what shall we say of the
+'two camp-sutlers whom I noticed,' English females of the lowest degree;
+'one of whom was busy slitting the gold-lace from a dead Officer, when a
+cannon-ball came whistling, and shore her head away. Upon which, without
+sound uttered, her neighbor snatched the scissors, and deliberately
+proceeded.' [De Hordt, _Memoires,_ i. 108. A FRENCH OFFICER'S ACCOUNT
+(translated in _Gentleman's Magazine,_ 1745; where, pp. 246, 250, 291,
+313, &c., are many confused details and speculations on this subject).]
+A deliberate gloomy people;--unconquerable except by French prowess,
+glory to that same!"
+
+Britannic Majesty is not successful this season; Highland Rebellions
+rising on him, and much going awry. He is founding his National Debt,
+poor Majesty; nothing else to speak of. His poor Army, fighting never so
+well in Foreign quarrels,--and generally itself standing the brunt, with
+the co-partners looking on till it is time to run (as at Roucoux again
+next season, and at Lauffeld next),--can win nothing but hard knocks and
+losses. And is defined by mankind,--in phraseology which we have heard
+again since then!--as having "the heart of a Lion and the head of an
+Ass." [Old Pamphlets, SOEPIUS.] Portentous to contemplate!--
+
+Cape Breton was besieged this Summer, in a creditable manner; and taken.
+The one real stroke done upon France this Year, or indeed (except at
+sea) throughout the War. "Ruin to their Fisheries, and a clear loss of
+1,400,000 pounds a year." Compared with which all these fine "Victories
+in Flanders" are a bottle of moonshine. This was actually a kind of
+stroke;--and this, one finds, was accomplished, under presidency of a
+small squadron of King's ships, by ('New-England Volunteers," on funds
+raised by subscription, in the way of joint-stock. A shining Colonial
+feat; said to be very perfectly done, both scrip part of it, and
+fighting part;) [Adelung, v. 32-35 ("27th June, 1745, after a siege of
+forty-nine days"): see "Gibson, _Journal of the Siege;"_ "Mr. Prince
+(of the South Church, Boston), THANKSGIVING SERMON (price fourpence);"
+&c. &c.: in the Old Newspapers, 1745, 1748, multifarious Notices about
+it, and then about the "repayment" of those excellent "joint-stock"
+people.]--and might have yielded, what incalculable dividends in
+the Fishery way! But had to be given up again, in exchange for the
+Netherlands, when Peace came. Alas, your Majesty! Would it be
+quite impossible, then, to go direct upon your own sole errand,
+the JENKINS'S-EAR one, instead of stumbling about among the Foreign
+chimney-pots, far and wide, under nightmares, in this terrible
+manner?--Let us to Silesia again.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX.--THE AUSTRIAN-SAXON ARMY INVADES SILESIA, ACROSS THE
+MOUNTAINS.
+
+Valori, who is to be of Friedrich's Campaign this Year, came posting off
+directly in rear of the glorious news of Fontenoy; found Friedrich at
+Camenz, rather in spirits than otherwise; and lodged pleasantly with
+Abbot Tobias and him, till the Campaign should begin. Two things
+surprise Valori: first, the great strength, impregnable as it were,
+to which Neisse has been brought since he saw it last,--superlative
+condition of that Fortress, and of the Army itself, as it gathers
+daily more and more about Frankenstein here:--and then secondly, and
+contrariwise, the strangely neglected posture of mountainous or Upper
+Silesia, given up to Pandours. Quite submerged, in a manner: Margraf
+Karl lies quiet among them at Jagerndorf, "eating his magazine;" General
+Hautcharmoi (Winterfeld's late chief in that Wurben affair), with his
+small Detachment, still hovers about in those Ratibor parts, "with
+the Strong Towns to fall-back upon," or has in effect fallen back
+accordingly; and nothing done to coerce the Pandours at all. While
+Prince Karl and Weissenfels are daily coming on, in force 100,000, their
+intention certain; force, say, about 100,000 regular! Very singular to
+Valori.
+
+"Sire, will not you dispute the Passes, then?" asks Valori, amazed: "Not
+defend your Mountain rampart, then?" "MON CHER; the Mountain rampart is
+three or four hundred miles long; there are twelve or twenty practicable
+roads through it. One is kept in darkness, too; endless Pandour doggery
+shutting out your daylight:--ill defending such a rampart," answers
+Friedrich. "But how, then," persists Valori; "but--?" "One day the King
+answered me," says Valori, "'MON AMI, if you want to get the mouse,
+don't shut, the trap; leave the trap open (ON LAISSE LA SOURICIERE
+OUVERTE)!'" Which was a beam of light to the inquiring thought of
+Valori, a military man of some intelligence. [See VALORI, i. 222, 224,
+228.]
+
+That, in fact, is Friedrich's purpose privately formed. He means that
+the Austrians shall consider him cowed into nothing, as he understands
+they already do; that they shall enter Silesia in the notion of chasing
+him; and shall, if need be, have the pleasure of chasing him,--till
+perhaps a right moment arrive. For he is full of silent finesse, this
+young King; soon sees into his man, and can lead him strange dances on
+occasion. In no man is there a plentifuler vein of cunning, nor of a
+finer kind. Lynx-eyed perspicacity, inexhaustible contrivance, prompt
+ingenuity,--a man very dangerous to play with at games of skill. And
+it is cunning regulated always by a noble sense of honor, too;
+instinctively abhorrent of attorneyism and the swindler element: a
+cunning, sharp as the vulpine, yet always strictly human, which is
+rather beautiful to see. This is one of Friedrich's marked endowments.
+Intellect sun-clear, wholly practical (need not be specially deep),
+and entirely loyal to the fact before it; this--if you add rapidity
+and energy, prompt weight of stroke, such as was seldom met with--will
+render a man very dangerous to his adversary in the game of war.--Here
+is the last of our Pandour Adventures for the present:--
+
+"From May 12th, Friedrich had been gathering closer and closer about
+Frankenstein; by the end of the month (28th, as it proved) he intends
+that all Detachments shall be home, and the Army take Camp there. The
+most are home; Margraf Karl, at Jagerndorf, has not yet done eating his
+magazine; but he too must come home. Summon the Margraf home:--it is not
+doubted he will cut himself through, he and his 12,000; but such is
+the swarm of Pandours hovering between him and us, no estafette, or
+cleverest letter-bearer, can hope to get across to him. Ziethen with 500
+Hussars, he must take the Letter; there is no other way. Ziethen mounts;
+fares swiftly forth, towards Neustadt, with his Letter; lodges in
+woods; dodges the thick-crowding Tolpatcheries (passes himself off for a
+Tolpatchery, say some, and captures Hungarian Staff-Officers who come to
+give him orders [Frau van Blumenthal, _Life of De Ziethen,_ pp. 171-181
+(extremely romantic; now given up as mythical, for most part): see
+Orlich (ii. 150); but also Ranke (iii. 245), Preuss, &c.]); is at
+length found out, and furiously set upon, 'Ziethen, Hah!'--but gets
+to Jagerndorf, Margraf Karl coming out to the rescue, and delivers his
+Letter. 'Home, then, all of us to-morrow!' And so, Saturday, 22d May,
+before we get to Neustadt on the way home, there is an authentic passage
+of arms, done very brilliantly by Margraf Karl against Pandours and
+others.
+
+"To right of us, to left, barring our road, the enemy, 20,000 of
+them, stand ranked on heights, in chosen positions; cannon-batteries,
+grenadiers, dragoons of Gotha and infinite Pandours: military jungle
+bristling far and wide. And you must push it heartily, and likewise
+cut the tap-root of it (seize its big guns), or it will not roll away.
+Margraf Karl shoots forth his steady infantry ('Silent till you see
+the whites of their eyes!'),--his cavalry with new manoeuvres; whose
+behavior is worthy of Ziethen himself:--in brief, the jungle is struck
+as by a whirlwind, the tap-root of it cut, and rolls simultaneously out
+of range, leaving only the Regiment of Gotha, Regiment of Ogilvy and
+some Regulars, who also get torn to shreds, and utterly ruined. Seeing
+which, the Pandour jungle plunges wholly into the woods, uttering
+horrible cries (EN POUSSANT DES CRIS TERRIBLES), says Friedrich.
+[ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 106. More specially BERICHTE VON DER AM
+22 MAI, 1745 BEY NEUSTADT IN OBER-SCHLESIEN VORGEFALLENER ACTION
+(Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i. 159-166).] Our new cavalry-manoeuvres deserve
+praise. Margraf Karl had the honor to gain his Cousin's approbation this
+day; and to prove himself, says the Cousin, (worthy of the
+grandfather he came from,'--my own great-grandfather; Great Elector,
+Friedrich-Wilhelm; whose style of motion at Fehrbellin, or on the ice
+of the Frische Haf (soldiers all in sledges, tearing along to be at the
+Swedes), was probably somewhat of this kind."...
+
+"Some days ago, Winterfeld had been pushed out to Landshut, with
+Detachment of 2,000, to judge a little for himself which way the
+Austrians were coming, and to scare off certain Uhlans (the SAXON
+species of Tolpatchery), who were threatening to be mischievous
+thereabouts. The Uhlans, at sound of Winterfeld, jingled away at once:
+but, in a day or two, there came upon him, on the sudden, Pandour
+outburst in quite other force;--and in the very hours while Ziethen was
+struggling into Jagerndorf, and still more emphatically next day, while
+Margraf Karl was handling his Pandours,--Colonel Winterfeld, a hundred
+miles to westward lapped among the Mountains, chanced to be dealing
+again with the same article. Very busy with it, from 4 o'clock this
+morning; likely to give a good account of the job. Steadily defending
+Landshut and himself, against the grenadier battalions, cannon and
+furious overplus of Pandours (8,000 or 9,000, it is said, six to one
+or so in the article of cavalry), which General Nadasti, a scientific
+leader of men or Pandours, skilfully and furiously hurls upon Landshut
+and him, in an unexpected manner. Colonel Winterfeld had need of all his
+heart and energy, in the intricate ground; against the furious overplus
+well manoeuvred: but in him too there are manoeuvres; if he fall
+back here, it is to rush on double strong there; hour after hour he
+inexpugnably defends himself,--till General Stille, Friedrich's old
+Tutor, our worthy writing friend, whom we occasionally quote, comes up
+with help; and Nadasti is at once brushed home again, with sore smart of
+failure, and 'the loss of 600 killed,' among other items. [_Bericht von
+der am 21 Mai, 1745 bey Landshut rorgefallener Action, in Feldzuge,_ i.
+302-305 (or in Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i. 155-158); _OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ iii. 105; Stille, pp. 120-124 (who misdates, "23d May" for
+22d).] Colonel Winterfeld was made Major-General next day, for this
+action. Colonel Winterfeld is cutting out a high course for himself,
+by his conduct in these employments; solidity, brilliant effectuality,
+shining through all he does; his valor and value, his rapid just
+insight, fiery energy and nobleness of mind more and more disclosing
+themselves,--to one who is a judge of men, and greatly needs for his own
+use the first-rate quality in that article."
+
+Friedrich has left the mouse-trap open;--and latterly has been baiting
+it with a pleasant spicing of toasted cheese. One of his Spies,
+reporting from Prince Karl's quarters, Friedrich has at this time
+discovered to be a Double-Spy, reporting thither as well. Double-Spy,
+there is an ugly fact;--perhaps not quite convenient to abolish it
+by hemp and gibbet; perhaps it could be turned to use, as most facts
+can? "Very good, my expert Herr von Schonfeld [that was the
+knave's name]; and now of all things, whenever the Prince does get
+across,--instant word to us of that! Nothing so important to us. If
+he should get BETWEEN us and Breslau, for example, what would the
+consequence be!" To this purport Friedrich instructs his Double-Spy;
+sends him off, unhanged, to Prince Karl's Camp, to blab this fresh bit
+of knowledge. "We likewise," says Friedrich, "ordered some repairs on
+the roads leading to Breslau;"--last turn of the hand to our bit of
+toasted fragrancy. And Prince Karl is actually striding forward, at
+an eager pace:--and Nadasti VERSUS Winterfeld, the other day, could
+Winterfeld have guessed it, was the actual vanguard of the march; and
+will be up again straightway! Whereupon Winterfeld too is called home;
+and all eyes are bent on the Landshut side.
+
+Prince Karl, under these fine omens, had been urgent on the Saxons to be
+swift; Saxons under Weissenfels did at last "get their cannon up,"
+and we hear of them for certain, in junction with the Austrians, at
+Schatzlar, on the Bohemian side of the Giant-Mountains; climbing with
+diligence those wizard solitudes and highland wastes. In a word, they
+roll across into Silesia, to Landshut (29th May); nothing doubting but
+Friedrich has cowered into what retreats he has, as good as desperate of
+Silesia, and will probably be first heard of in Breslau, when they get
+thither with their sieging guns. No cautious sagacious old Feldmarschall
+Traun is in that Host at present; nothing but a Prince Karl, and a
+poor Duke of Weissenfels; who are too certain of several things;--very
+capable of certainty, and also of doubt, the wrong way of the facts.
+Their force is, by strict count, 75,000; and they march from Landshut,
+detained a little by provender concerns, on the last day of May.
+[Orlich, ii. 146; Ranke, iii. 247; Stenzel, iv. 245.]
+
+May 28th, Friedrich had encamped at Frankenstein; May 30th, he sets
+forth northwestward, to be nearer the new scene; encamps at Reichenbach,
+that night; pushes forward again, next day, for Schweidnitz, for
+Striegau (in all, a shift northwest of some forty miles);--and from June
+1st, lies stretched out between Schweidnitz and Striegau, nine miles
+long; well hidden in the hollows of the little Rivers thereabouts
+(Schweidnitz Water, Striegau Water), with their little knolls and
+hills; watching Prince Karl's probable place of egress from the Mountain
+Country opposite. His main Camp is from Schweidnitz to Jauernik, some
+five miles long; but he has his vanguard up as far as Striegau, Dumoulin
+and Winterfeld as vanguard, in good strength, a little way behind or
+westward of that Town and Stream; Nassau and his Division are screened
+in the Wood called Nonnenbusch (NUN'S BUSH), and there are outposts
+sprinkled all about, and vedettes watching from the hill-tops, from
+the Stanowitz Foxhill; the Zedlitz "Cowhill," "Winchill:" an Army not
+courting observation, but intent very much to observe. Nadasti has
+appeared again; at Freyburg, few miles off, on this side of the
+Mountains; goes out scouting, reconnoitring; but is "fired at from the
+growing corn," and otherwise hoodwinked by false symptoms, and makes
+little of that business. Friedrich's Army we will compute at 70,000.
+[General-Lieutenant Freiherr Leo von Lutzow, _Die Schlacht von
+Hohenfriedbeg_ (Potsdam, 1845), pp. 18, 21.] Not quite equal in number
+to Prince Karl's; and, in other particulars, willing and longing that
+Prince Karl would arrive, and try its quality.
+
+Friedrich's head-quarter is at Jauernik: he goes daily riding hither,
+thither; to the top of the Fuchsberg (FOXHILL at Stanowitz) with eager
+spy-glass; daily many times looks with his spy-glass to the ragged peaks
+about Bolkenhayn, Kauder, Rohnstock; expecting the throw of the dice
+from that part. On Thursday, 3d June: Do you notice that cloud of dust
+rising among the peaks over yonder? Dust-cloud mounting higher and
+higher. There comes the big crisis, then! There are the combined
+Weissenfels and Karl with their Austrian Saxons, issuing proudly from
+their stone labyrinth; guns, equipments, baggages, all perfectly brought
+through; rich Silesian plain country now fairly at their feet, Breslau
+itself but a few marches off:--at sight of all which, the Austrian big
+host bursts forth into universal field-music, and shakes out its banners
+to the wind. Thursday, 3d June, 1745; a dramatic Entry of something
+quite considerable on the Stage of History.
+
+Friedrich, with Nassau and generals round, stands upon the
+Fuchsberg,--his remarks not given, his looks or emotions not described
+to us, his thought well known,--and looks at it through his TUBUS (or
+spy-glass): There they are, then, and the big moment is come! Friedrich
+had seen the dust and the manoeuvring of them, deeper in the Hills, from
+this same Fuchsberg yesterday, and inferred what was coming; calculated
+by what roads or hill-tracks they could issue: and how he, in each case,
+was to deal with them; his march-routes are all settled, plank-bridges
+repaired, all privately is ready for these proud Austrian musical
+gentlemen, here in the hollow. Friedrich has been upon this Fuchsberg
+with his TUBUS daily, many times since Monday last: it is our general
+observatorium, says Stille, and commands a fine view into the interior
+of these Hills. A Fuchsberg which has become notable in the Prussian
+maps: "the Stanowitz Fuchsberg," east side of Striegau Water,--let
+no tourist mistake himself; for there are two or even three other
+Fuchsbergs, a mile or so northward on the western side of that Stream,
+which need to be distinguished by epithets, as the Striegau Fuchsberg,
+the Graben Fuchsberg, and perhaps still others: comparable to the FOUR
+Neisse rivers, three besides the one we know, which occur in this piece
+of Country! Our German cousins, I have often sorrowed to find, have
+practically a most poor talent for GIVING NAMES; and indeed much,
+for ages back, is lying in a sad state of confusion among them. Many
+confused things, rotting far and wide, in contradiction to the plainest
+laws of Nature; things as well as names! All the welcomer this Prussian
+Army, this young Friedrich leading it; they, beyond all earthly entities
+of their epoch, are not in a state of confusion, but of most strict
+conformity to the laws of Arithmetic and facts of Nature: perhaps a very
+blessed phenomenon for Germany in the long-run.
+
+Prince Karl with Weissenfels, General Berlichingen and many plumed
+dignitaries, are dining on the Hill-top near Hohenfriedberg: after
+having given order about everything, they witness there, over their
+wine, the issue of their Columns from the Mountains; which goes on all
+afternoon, with field-music, spread banners; and the oldest General
+admits he never saw a finer review-manoeuvre, or one better done, if
+so well. Thus sit they on the Hill-top (GALGENBERG, not far from the
+gallows of the place, says Friedrich), in the beautiful June afternoon.
+Silesia lying beautifully azure at their feet; the Zobtenberg, enchanted
+Mountain, blue and high on one's eastern horizon; Prussians noticeable
+only in weak hussar parties four or five miles off, which vanish in the
+hollow grounds again. All intending for Breslau, they, it is
+like;--and here, red wine and the excellent manoeuvre going on. "The
+Austrian-and-Saxon Army streamed out all afternoon," says a Country
+Schoolmaster of those parts, whose Day-book has been preserved, [In
+Lutzow, pp. 123-132.] "each regiment or division taking the place
+appointed it; all afternoon, till late in the night, submerging the
+Country as in a deluge," five miles long of them; taking post at the
+foot of the Hills there, from Hohenfriedberg round upon Striegau,
+looking towards the morrow's sunrise. To us poor country-folk not a
+beautiful sight; their light troops flying ahead, and doing theft and
+other mischief at a sad rate.
+
+On the other hand, the Austrian and Saxon gentlemen, from their
+Gallows-Hill at Hohenfriedberg, notice, four or five miles in the
+distance, opposite them, or a little to the left of opposite, a Body
+of Prussian horse and foot, visibly wending northward; like a long
+glittering serpent, the glitter of their muskets flashing back yonder
+on the afternoon sun and us, as they mount from hollow to height. Ten or
+twelve thousand of them; making for Striegau, to appearance. Intending
+to bivouac or billet there, and keep some kind of watch over us;
+belike with an eye to being rear-guard, on the retreat towards Breslau
+to-morrow? Or will they retreat without attempting mischief? Serenity of
+Weissenfels engages to seize the heights and proper posts, over
+yonder, this night yet; and will take Striegau itself, the first thing,
+to-morrow morning.
+
+Yes, your Serenities, those are Prussians in movement: Vanguard Corps of
+Dumoulin, Winterfeld;--Rittmeister Seydlitz rides yonder:--and it is not
+their notion to retreat without mischief. For there stands, not so far
+off, on the Stanowitz Fuchsberg, a brisk little Gentleman, if you could
+notice him; with his eyes fixed on you, and plans in the head of him
+now getting nearly mature. For certain, he is pushing out that column of
+men; and all manner of other columns are getting order to push out,
+and take their ground; and to-morrow morning--you will not find him in
+retreat! Such are the phenomena in that Striegau-Hohenfriedberg region,
+while the sun is bending westward, on Thursday, 3d June, 1745.
+
+"From Hohenfriedberg, which leans against the higher Mountains, there
+may be, across to Striegau northeast, which stands well apart from them,
+among lower Hills of its own, a distance of about five English miles.
+The intervening country is of flat, though upland nature: the first
+broad stage, or STAIR-STEP, so to speak, leading down into the general
+interior levels of Silesia in those parts. A tract which is now
+tolerably dried by draining, but was then marshy as well as bushy:--flat
+to the eye, yet must be imperceptibly convexed a little, for the line of
+watershed is hereabouts: walk from Hohenfriedberg to Striegau, the
+water on your left hand flows, though mainly in ditches or imperceptible
+oozings, to the north and west,--there to fall into an eastern fork of
+the Roaring Neisse [one of our three new Neisses, which is a very quiet
+stream here; runs close by the Mountain base, fed by many torrents,
+and must get its name, WUTHENDE or Roaring, from the suddenness of its
+floods]: into this, bound northward and westward, run or ooze all waters
+on your left hand, as you go to Striegau. Right hand, again, or to
+eastward, you will find all sauntering, or running in visible brooks
+into Striegau Water [little River notable to us], which comes circling
+from the Mountains, past Hohenfriedberg, farther south; and has got to
+some force as a stream before it reaches Striegau, and turns abruptly
+eastward;--eastward, to join Schweidnitz Water, and form with it the
+SECOND stair-step downwards to the Plain Country. Has its Fuchsbergs,
+Kuhbergs and little knolls and heights interspersed, on both sides of
+it, in the conceivable way.
+
+"So that, looking eastward from the heights of Hohenfriedberg, our broad
+stage or stair-step has nothing of the nature of a valley, but rather is
+a kind of insensibly swelling plain between two valleys, or hollows,
+of small depth; and slopes both ways. Both ways; but MORE towards the
+Striegau-Water valley or hollow; and thence, in a lazily undulating
+manner, to other hollows and waters farther down. Friedrich's Camp lies
+in the next, the Schweidnitz-Water hollow; and is five, or even
+nine miles long, from Schweidnitz northward;--much hidden from the
+Austrian-Saxon gentlemen at present. No hills farther, mere flat
+country, to eastward of that. But to the north, again, about Striegau,
+the hollow deepens, narrows; and certain Hills," much notable at
+present, "rise to west of Striegau, definite peaked Hills, with granite
+quarries in them and basalt blocks atop:--Striegau, it appears, is, in
+old Czech dialect, TRZIZA, which means TRIPLE HILL, the 'Town of the
+Three Hills.' [Lutzow, p. 28.] An ancient quaint little Town, of perhaps
+2,000 souls: brown-gray, the stones of it venerably weathered; has its
+wide big market-place, piazza, plain-stones, silent enough except on
+market-days: nestles itself compactly in the shelter of its Three Hills,
+which screen it from the northwest; and has a picturesque appearance,
+its Hills and it, projected against the big Mountain range beyond, as
+you approach it from the Plain Country.
+
+"Hohenfriedberg, at the other corner of our battle-stage, on the road
+to Landshut, is a Village of no great compass; but sticks pleasantly
+together, does not straggle in the usual way; climbs steep against its
+Gallows-Hill (now called 'SIEGESBERG, Victory Hill,' with some tower or
+steeple-monument on it, built by subscription); and would look better,
+if trimmed a little and habitually well swept. The higher Mountain
+summits, Landshut way, or still more if you look southeastward,
+Glatz-ward, rise blue and huge, remote on your right; to left, the
+Roaring Neisse range close at hand, is also picturesque, though less
+Alpine in type." [Tourist's Note (1858).]... And of all Hills, the
+notablest, just now to us, are those "Three" at Striegau.
+
+Those Three Hills of Striegau his Serenity of Weissenfels is to lay hold
+of, this night, with his extreme left, were it once got deployed and
+bivouacked. Those Hills, if he can: but Prussian Dumoulin is already
+on march thither; and privately has his eye upon them, on Friedrich's
+part!--For the rest, this upland platform, insensibly sloping two ways,
+and as yet undrained, is of scraggy boggy nature in many places; much
+of it damp ground, or sheer morass; better parts of it covered, at this
+season, with rank June grass, or greener luxuriance of oats and barley.
+A humble peaceable scene; peaceable till this afternoon; dotted, too,
+with six or seven poor Hamlets, with scraggy woods, where they have
+their fuel; most sleepy littery ploughman Hamlets, sometimes with a
+SCHLOSS or Mansion for the owner of the soil (who has absconded in the
+present crisis of things), their evening smoke rising rather fainter
+than usual; much cookery is not advisable with Uhlans and Tolpatchcs
+flying about. Northward between Striegau and the higher Mountains there
+is an extensive TEICHWIRTHSCHAFT, or "Pond-Husbandry" (gleaming visible
+from Hohenfriedberg Gallows-Hill just now); a combination of stagnant
+pools and carp-ponds, the ground much occupied hereabouts with what
+they name Carp-Husbandry. Which is all drained away in our time, yet
+traceable by the studious:--quaggy congeries of sluices and fish-ponds,
+no road through them except on intricate dams; have scrubby thickets
+about the border;--this also is very strong ground, if Weissenfels
+thought of defence there.
+
+Which Weissenfels does not, but only of attack. He occupies the ground
+nevertheless, rearward of this Carp-Husbandry, as becomes a strategic
+man; gradually bivouacking all round there, to end on the Three Hills,
+were his last regiments got up. The Carp-Husbandry is mainly about
+Eisdorf Hamlet:--in Pilgramshayn, where Weissenfels once thought of
+lodging, lives our Writing Schoolmaster. The Mountains lie to westward;
+flinging longer shadows, as the invasive troops continually deploy, in
+that beautiful manner; and coil themselves strategically on the ground,
+a bent rope, cordon, or line (THREE lines in depth), reaching from the
+front skirts of Hohenfriedberg to the Hills at Striegau again,--terrible
+to behold.
+
+In front of Hohenfriedberg, we say, is the extremity or right wing of
+the Austrian-Saxon bivouac, or will be when the process is complete;
+five miles to northeast, sweeping round upon Striegau region, will be
+their left, where mainly are the Saxons,--to nestle upon those Three
+Hills of Striegau: whitherward however, Dumoulin, on Friedrich's behalf,
+is already on march. Austrian-Saxon bivouac, as is the way in regulated
+hosts, can at once become Austrian-Saxon order-of-battle: and then,
+probably, on the Chord of that Arc of five miles, the big Fight will
+roll to-morrow; Striegau one end of it, Hohenfriedbcrg the other.
+Flattish, somewhat elliptic upland, stair-step from the Mountains, as
+we called it; tract considerably cut with ditches, carp-husbandries, and
+their tufts of wood; line from Striegau to Hohenfriedberg being axis
+or main diameter of it, and in general the line of watershed: there,
+probably, will the tug of war be. Friedrich, on his Fuchsberg, knows
+this; the Austrian-Saxon gentlemen, over their wine on the Gallows-Hill,
+do not yet know it, but will know.
+
+It was about four in the afternoon, when Valori, with a companion,
+waiting a good while in the King's Tent at Jauernik, at last saw his
+Majesty return from the Fuchsberg observatory. Valori and friend have
+great news: "Tournay fallen; siege done, your Majesty!" Valori's friend
+is one De Latour; who had brought word of Fontenoy ("important victory
+on the Scamander," as Friedrich indignantly defined it to himself); and
+was bid wait here till this Siege-of-Tournay consummation ("as helpful
+to me as the Siege of Pekin!") should supervene. They hasten to salute
+his Majesty with the glorious tidings, Hmph! thinks Friedrich: and
+we are at death-grips here, little to be helped by your taking Pekin!
+However, he lets wit of nothing. "I make my compliments; mean to
+fight to-morrow." [Valori, i. 228.] Valori, as old soldier and friend,
+volunteers to be there and assist:--Good.
+
+Friedrich, I presume, at this late hour of four, may bc snatching a
+morsel of dinner; his orderlies are silently speeding, plans taken,
+orders given: To start all, at eight in the evening, for the Bridge
+of Striegau; there to cross, and spread to the right and to the left.
+Silent, not a word spoken, not a pipe lighted: silently across the
+Striegau Water there. A march of three miles for the nearest, who are
+here at Jauernik; of nine miles for the farthest about Schweidnitz; at
+Schweidnitz leave all your baggage, safe under the guns there. To
+the Bridge of Striegau, diligently, silently march along; Bridge of
+Striegau, there cross Striegau Water, and deploy to right and to left,
+in the way each of you knows. These are Friedrich's orders.
+
+Late in the dusk, Dumoulin and Winterfeld, whom we saw silently on march
+some hours ago, have silently glided past Striegau, and got into the
+Three-Hill region, which is some furlong or so farther north:--to his
+surprise, Dumoulin finds Saxon parties posting themselves thereabouts.
+He attacks said Saxon parties; and after some slight tussle, drives them
+mostly from their Three Hills; mostly, not altogether; one Saxon Hill
+is precipitous on our hither side of it, and we must leave that till the
+dawn break. Of the other Heights Dumoulin takes good possession, with
+cannon too, to be ready against dawn;--and ranks himself out to leftward
+withal, along the plain ground; for he is to be right wing, had the
+other troops come up. These are now all under way; astir from Jauernik
+and Schweidnitz, silently streaming along; and Dumoulin bivouacs
+here,--very silent he: not so silent the Saxons; who are still marching
+in, over yonder, to westward of Dumoulin, their rear-guard groping out
+its posts as it best can in the dark. Elsewhere, miles and miles along
+the foot of the Mountains, Austrian-Saxon watch-fires flame through the
+ambrosial night; and it is an impressive sight for Dumoulin,--still more
+for the poor Schoolmaster at Pilgramshayn and others, less concerned
+than Dumoulin. "It was beautiful," says Stille, who was there, "to see
+how the plain about Rohnstock, and all over that way, was ablaze with
+thousands of watch-fires (TAUSEND UND ABER TAUSEND); by the light of
+these, we could clearly perceive the enemy's troops continually defile
+from the Hills the whole night through." [Cited in Seyfarth, i. 630.]
+
+Serenity of Weissenfels, after all, does not lodge at Pilgramshayn; far
+in the night, he goes to sleep at Rohnstock, a Schloss and Hamlet on
+that fork of Roaring Neisse, by the foot of the Mountains; three or
+four miles off, yet handy enough for picking up Striegau the first
+thing to-morrow. His Highness Prince Karl lies in Hausdorf, tolerable
+quarters, pretty much in the centre of his long bivouac; day's business
+well done, and bottle (as one's wont rather is) well enjoyed. Nadasti
+has been out scouting; but was pricked into by hussar parties, fired
+into from the growing corn; and could make out little, but the image
+of his own ideas. Nadasti's ultimate report is, That the Prussians are
+perfectly quiet in their camp; from Jauernik to Schweidnitz, watch-fires
+all alight, sentries going their rounds. And so they are, in fact;
+sentries and watch-fires,--but now nothing else there, a mere shell of
+a camp; the men of it streaming steadily along, without speech, without
+tobacco; and many of them are across Striegau Bridge by this time!--
+
+It was past eleven, so close and continuous went this march, before
+Valori and his Latour, with their carriages and furnitures, could
+find an interval, and get well into it. Never will Valori forget the
+discipline of these Prussians, and how they marched. Difficult ways; the
+hard road is for their artillery; the men march on each side, sometimes
+to mid-leg in water,--never mind. Wholly in order, wholly silent; Valori
+followed them three leagues close, and there was not one straggler.
+Every private man, much more every officer, knows well what grim errand
+they are on; and they make no remarks. Steady as Time; and, except that
+their shoes are not of felt, silent as he. The Austrian watch-fires glow
+silent manifold to leftward yonder; silent overhead are the stars:--the
+path of all duty, too, is silent (not about Striegau alone) for every
+well-drilled man. To-morrow;--well, to-morrow?
+
+A grimmish feeling against the Saxons is understood to be prevalent
+among these men. Bruhl, Weissenfels himself, have been reported talking
+high,--"Reduce our King to the size of an Elector again," and other
+foolish things;--indeed, grudges have been accumulating for some time.
+"KEIN PARDON (No quarter)!" we hear has been a word among the Saxons,
+as they came along; the Prussians growl to one another, "Very well then,
+None!" Nay Friedrich's general order is, "No prisoners, you cavalry, in
+the heat of fight; cavalry, strike at the faces of them: you infantry,
+keep your fire till within fifty steps; bayonet withal is to be relied
+on." These were Friedrich's last general orders, given in the hollow of
+the night, near the foot of that Fuchsberg where he had been so busy all
+day; a widish plain space hereabouts, Striegau Bridge now near: he had
+lain snme time in his cloak, waiting till the chief generals, with
+the heads of their columns, could rendezvous here. He then sprang
+on horseback; spoke briefly the essential things (one of them the
+above);--"Had meant to be more minute, in regard to positions and the
+like; but all is so in darkness, embroiled by the flare of the Austrian
+watch-fires, we can make nothing farther of localities at present:
+Striegau for right wing, left wing opposite to Hohenfriedberg,--so, and
+Striegau Water well to rear of us. Be diligent, exact, all faculties
+awake: your own sense, and the Order of Battle which you know, must do
+the rest. Forward; steady: can I doubt but you will acquit yourselves
+like Prussian men?" And so they march, across the Bridge at Striegau,
+south outskirt of the Town,--plank Bridge, I am afraid;--and pour
+themselves, to right and to left, continually the livelong night.
+
+To describe the Battle which ensued, Battle named of Striegau or
+Hohenfriedberg, excels the power of human talent,--if human talent had
+leisure for such employment. It is the huge shock and clash of 70,000
+against 70,000, placed in the way we said. An enormous furious SIMALTAS
+(or "both-at-once," as the Latins phrase it), spreading over ten square
+miles. Rather say, a wide congeries of electric simultaneities; all
+ELECTRIC, playing madly into one another; most loud, most mad: the
+aspect of which is smoky, thunderous, abstruse; the true SEQUENCES of
+which, who shall unravel? There are five accounts of it, all modestly
+written, each true-looking from its own place: and a thrice-diligent
+Prussian Officer, stationed on the spot in late years, has striven well
+to harmonize them all. [Five Accounts: 1. The Prussian Official Account,
+in _Helden-Geschichte,_  i. 1098-1102. 2. The Saxon, ib. 1103-1108.
+3. The Austrian, ib. 1109-1115. 4. Stille's (ii. 125-133, of English
+Translation). 5. Friedrich's own, _OEuvres,_ iii. 108-118. Lutzow, above
+cited, is the harmonizer. Besides which, two of value, in _Feldzuge,_ i.
+310-323, 328-336; not to mention Cogniazzo, _Confessions of an Austrian
+Veeran_ (Breslau, 1788-1791: strictly Anonymous at that time, and
+candid, or almost more, to Prussian merit;--still worth reading, here
+and throughout), ii. 123-135; &c. &c.] Well worth the study of
+military men;--who might make tours towards this and the other great
+battle-field, and read such things, were they wise. For us, a feature
+or two, in the huge general explosion, to assist the reader's fancy in
+conceiving it a little, is all that can be pretended to.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X.--BATTLE OF HOHENFRIEDBERG.
+
+With the first streak of dawn, the dispute renewed itself between those
+Prussians and Saxons who are on the Heights of Striegau. The two Armies
+are in contact here; they lie wide apart as yet at the other end.
+Cannonading rises here, on both sides, in the dim gray of the morning,
+for the possession of these Heights. The Saxons are out-cannonaded and
+dislodged, other Saxons start to arms in support: the cry "To arms!"
+spreads everywhere, rouses Weissenfels to horseback; and by sunrise a
+furious storm of battle has begun, in this part. Hot and fierce on both
+sides; charges of horse, shock after shock, bayonet-charges of foot; the
+great guns going like Jove's thunder, and the continuous tearing storm
+of small guns, very loud indeed: such a noise, as our poor Schoolmaster,
+who lives on this spot, thinks he will hear only once again, when
+the Last Trumpet sounds! It did indeed, he informs us, resemble the
+dissolution of Nature: "For all fell dark too;" a general element
+of sulphurous powder-smoke, streaked with dull blazes; and death
+and destruction very nigh. What will become of poor pacific mortals
+hereabouts? Rittmeister Seydlitz, Winterfeld his patron ride, with
+knit brows, in these horse-charges; fiery Rothenburg too; Truchsess von
+Waldburg, at the head of his Division,--poor Truchsess known in London
+society, a cannon-ball smites the life out of him, and he ended here.
+
+At the first clash of horse and foot, the Saxons fancied they rather
+had it; at the second, their horse became distressed; at the third,
+they rolled into disorderly heaps. The foot also, stubborn as they
+were, could not stand that swift firing, followed by the bayonet and the
+sabre; and were forced to give ground. The morning sun shone into their
+eyes, too, they say; and there had risen a breath of easterly wind,
+which hurled the smoke upon them, so that they could not see. Decidedly
+staggering backwards; getting to be taken in flank and ruined, though
+poor Weissenfels does his best. About five in the morning, Friedrich
+came galloping hitherward; Valori with him: "MON AMI, this is looking
+well! This will do, won't it?" The Saxons are fast sinking in the scale;
+and did nothing thenceforth but sink ever faster; though they made a
+stiff defence, fierce exasperation on both sides; and disputed every
+inch. Their position, in these scraggy Woods and Villages, in these
+Morasses and Carp-Husbandries, is very strong.
+
+It had proved to be farther north, too, than was expected; so that the
+Prussians had to wheel round a little (right wing as a centre, fighting
+army as radius) before they could come parallel, and get to work: a
+delicate manoeuvre, which they executed to Valori's admiration, here in
+the storm of battle; tramp, tramp, velocity increasing from your centre
+outwards, till at the end of the radius, the troops are at treble-quick,
+fairly running forward, and the line straight all the while. Admirable
+to Valori, in the hot whirlwind of battle here. For the great guns go,
+in horrid salvos, unabated, and the crackling thunder of the small guns;
+"terrible tussling about those Carp-ponds, that quaggy Carp-husbandry,"
+says the Schoolmaster, "and the Heavens blotted out in sulphurous
+fire-streaked smoke. What had become of us pacific? Some had run in
+time, and they were the wisest; others had squatted, who could find a
+nook suitable. Most of us had gathered into the Nursery-garden at
+the foot of our Village; we sat quaking there,--our prayers grown
+tremulously vocal;--in tears and wail, at least the women part. Enemies
+made reconcilement with each other," says he, "and dear friends took
+farewell." [His Narrative, in Lutzow, UBI SUPRA.] One general Alleleu;
+the Last Day, to all appearance, having come. Friedrich, seeing things
+in this good posture, gallops to the left again, where much urgently
+requires attention from him.
+
+On the Austrian side, Prince Karl, through his morning sleep at
+Hausdorf, had heard the cannonading: "Saxons taking Striegau!" thinks
+he; a pleasant lullaby enough; and continues to sleep and dream.
+Agitated messengers rush in, at last; draw his curtains: "Prussians
+all in rank, this side Striegau Water; Saxons beaten, or nearly so, at
+Striegau: we must stand to arms, your Highness!"--"To arms, of course,"
+answers Karl; and hurries now, what he can, to get everything in motion.
+The bivouac itself had been in order of battle; but naturally there is
+much to adjust, to put in trim; and the Austrians are not distinguished
+for celerity of movement. All the worse for them just now.
+
+On Friedrich's side, so far as I can gather, there have happened two
+cross accidents. First, by that wheeling movement, done to Valori's
+admiration in the Striegau quarter, the Prussian line has hitched itself
+up towards Striegau, has got curved inward, and covers less ground than
+was counted on; so that there is like to be some gap in the central
+part of;--as in fact there was, in spite of Friedrich's efforts, and
+hitchings of battalions and squadrons: an indisputable gap, though it
+turned to rich profit for Friedrich; Prince Karl paying no attention to
+it. Upon such indisputable gap a wakeful enemy might have done Friedrich
+some perilous freak; but Karl was in his bed, as we say;--in a terrible
+flurry, too, when out of bed. Nothing was done upon the gap; and
+Friedrich had his unexpected profit by it before long.
+
+The second accident is almost worse. Striegau Bridge (of planks, as
+I feared), creaking under such a heavy stream of feet and wheels all
+night, did at last break, in some degree, and needed to be mended; so
+that the rearward regiments, who are to form Friedrich's left wing,
+are in painful retard;--and are becoming frightfully necessary, the
+Austrians as yet far outflanking us, capable of taking us in flank
+with that right wing of theirs! The moment was agitating to a
+General-in-chief: Valori will own this young King's bearing was perfect;
+not the least flurry, though under such a strain. He has aides-de-camp,
+dashing out every-whither with orders, with expedients; Prince Henri,
+his younger Brother: galloping the fastest; nay, at last, he begs Valori
+himself to gallop, with orders to a certain General Gessler, in whose
+Brigade are Dragoons. Which Valori does,--happily without effect on
+Gessler; who knows no Valori for an aide-de-camp, and keeps the ground
+appointed him; rearward of that gap we talked of.
+
+Happily the Austrian right wing is in no haste to charge. Happily
+Ziethen, blocked by that incumbrance of the Bridge mending, "finds a
+ford higher up," the assiduous Ziethen; splashes across, other regiments
+following; forms in line well leftward; and instead of waiting for the
+Austrian charge, charges home upon them, fiercely through the difficult
+grounds, No danger of the Austrians outflanking us now; they are
+themselves likely to get hard measure on their flank. By the ford and
+by the Bridge, all regiments, some of them at treble-quick, get to their
+posts still in time. Accident second has passed without damage.
+Forward, then; rapid, steady; and reserve your fire till within fifty
+paces!--Prinoe Ferdinand of Brunswick (Friedrich's Brother-in-law, a
+bright-eyed steady young man, of great heart for fight) tramps forth
+with his Division:--steady!--all manner of Divisions tramp forth; and
+the hot storm, Ziethen and cavalry dashing upon that right wing of
+theirs, kindles here also far and wide.
+
+The Austrian cavalry on this wing and elsewhere, it is clear, were
+ill off. "We could not charge the Prussian left wing, say they, partly
+because of the morasses that lay between us; and partly [which is
+remarkable] because they rushed across and charged us." [Austrian
+report, _Helden-Geschichte,_  i. 1113.] Prince Karl is sorry to report
+such things of his cavalry; but their behavior was bad and not good.
+The first shock threw them wavering; the second,--nothing would persuade
+them to dash forth and meet it. High officers commanded, obtested, drew
+out pistols, Prince Karl himself shot a fugitive or two,--it was to no
+purpose; they wavered worse at every new shock; and at length a shock
+came (sixth it was, as the reporter counts) which shook them all into
+the wind. Decidedly shy of the Prussians with their new manoeuvres, and
+terrible way of coming on, as if sure of beating. In the Saxon quarter,
+certain Austrian regiments of horse would not charge at all; merely kept
+firing from their carbines, and when the time came ran.
+
+As for the Saxons, they have been beaten these two hours; that is to
+say, hopeless these two hours, and getting beaten worse and worse. The
+Saxons cannot stand, but neither generally will they run; they dispute
+every ditch, morass and tuft of wood, especially every village. Wrecks
+of the muddy desperate business last, hour after hour. "I gave my men a
+little rest under the garden walls," says one Saxon Gentleman, "or they
+would have died, in the heat and thirst and extreme fatigue: I would
+have given 100 gulden [10 pounds Sterling] for a glass of water."
+[ _Helden-Geschichte,_  ubi supra.] The Prussians push them on, bayonet
+in back; inexorable, not to be resisted; slit off whole battalions of
+them (prisoners now, and quarter given); take all their guns, or all
+that are not sunk in the quagmires;--in fine, drive them, part into the
+Mountains direct, part by circuit thither, down upon the rear of the
+Austrian fight: through Hausdorf, Seifersdorf and other Mountain gorges,
+where we hear no more of them, and shall say no more of them. A sore
+stroke for poor old Weissenfels; the last public one he has to take, in
+this world, for the poor man died before long. Nobody's blame, he says;
+every Saxon man did well; only some Austrian horse-regiments, that we
+had among us, were too shy. Adieu to poor old Weissenfels. Luck of war,
+what else,--thereby is he in this pass.
+
+And now new Prussian force, its Saxons being well abolished, is pressing
+down upon Prince Karl's naked left flank. Yes;--Prince Karl too will
+have to go. His cavalry is, for most part, shaken into ragged clouds;
+infantry, steady enough men, cannot stand everything. "I have observed,"
+says Friedrich, "if you step sharply up to an Austrian battalion [within
+fifty paces or so], and pour in your fire well, in about a quarter of
+an hour you see the ranks beginning to shake, and jumble towards
+indistinctness;" [_Military Instructions._ ] a very hopeful symptom to
+you!
+
+It was at this moment that Lieutenant-General Gessler, under whom is the
+Dragoon regiment Baireuth, who had kept his place in spite of Valori's
+message, determined on a thing,--advised to it by General Schmettau
+(younger Schmettau), who was near. Gessler, as we saw, stood in the rear
+line, behind that gap (most likely one of several gaps, or wide spaces,
+left too wide, as we explained); Gessler, noticing the jumbly condition
+of those Austrian battalions, heaped now one upon another in this
+part,--motions to the Prussian Infantry to make what farther room
+is needful; then dashes through, in two columns (self and
+the Dragoon-Colonel heading the one, French Chasot, who is
+Lieutenant-Colonel, heading the other), sabre in hand, with
+extraordinary impetus and fire, into the belly of these jumbly
+Austrians; and slashes them to rags, "twenty battalions of them," in an
+altogether unexampled manner. Takes "several thousand prisoners," and
+such a haul of standards, kettle-drums and insignia of honor, as was
+never got before at one charge. Sixty-seven standards by the tale, for
+the regiment (by most All-Gracious Permission) wears, ever after, "67"
+upon its cartridge-box, and is allowed to beat the grenadier
+march; [Orlich, ii. 179 (173 n., 179 n., slightly wrong);
+_Militair-Lexikon,_ ii. 9, iv. 465, 468. See Preuss, i. 212; _OEuvres de
+Frederic;_ &c. &c.]--how many kettle-drums memory does not say.
+
+Prince Karl beats retreat, about 8 in the morning; is through
+Hohenfriedberg about 10 (cannon covering there, and Nadasti as
+rear-guard): back into the Mountains; a thoroughly well-beaten man.
+Towards Bolkenhayn, the Saxons and he; their heavy artillery and baggage
+had been left safe there. Not much pursued, and gradually rearranging
+himself; with thoughts,--no want of thoughts! Came pouring down,
+triumphantly invasive, yesterday; returns, on these terms, in about
+fifteen hours. Not marching with displayed banners and field-music, this
+time; this is a far other march. The mouse-trap had been left open, and
+we rashly went in!--Prince Karl's loss, including that of the Saxons
+(which is almost equal, though their number in the field was but HALF),
+is 9,000 dead and wounded, 7,000 prisoners, 66 cannon, 73 flags and
+standards; the Prussian is about 5,000 dead and wounded. [In Orlich (ii.
+182) all the details.] Friedrich, at sight of Valori, embraces his GROS
+VALORI; says, with a pious emotion in voice and look, "My friend, God
+has helped me wonderfully this day!" Actually there was a kind of devout
+feeling visible in him, thinks Valori: "A singular mixture, this
+Prince, of good qualities and of bad; I never know which preponderates."
+[Valori, SOEPIUS.] As is the way with fat Valoris, when they come into
+such company.
+
+Friedrich is blamed by some military men, and perhaps himself thought it
+questionable, that he did not pursue Prince Karl more sharply. He says
+his troops could not; they were worn out with the night's marching and
+the day's fighting. He himself may well be worn out. I suppose, for the
+last four-and-twenty hours he, of all the contemporary sons of Adam,
+has probably been the busiest. Let us rest this day; rest till to-morrow
+morning, and be thankful. "So decisive a defeat," writes he to his
+Mother (hastily, misdating "6th" June for 4th), "has not been since
+Blenheim" [Letter in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvi. 71.] (which is
+tolerably true); and "I have made the Princes sign their names," to give
+the good Mother assurance of her children in these perils of war. Seldom
+has such a deliverance come to a man.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XI.--CAMP OF CHLUM: FRIEDRICH CANNOT ACHIEVE PEACE.
+
+Friedrich marched, on the morrow, likewise to Bolkenhayn; which the
+enemy have just left; our hussars hanging on their rear, and bickering
+with Nadasti. Then again on the morrow, Sunday,--"twelve hours of
+continuous rain," writes Valori; but there is no down-pour, or distress,
+or disturbance that will shake these men from their ranks, writes
+Valori. And so it goes on, march after march, the Austrians ahead,
+Dumoulin and our hussars infesting their rear, which skilfully defended
+itself: through Landshut down into Bohemia; where are new successive
+marches, the Prussian quarterstaff stuck into the back of defeated
+Austria, "Home with you; farther home!"--and shogging it on,--without
+pause, for about a fortnight to come. And then only with temporary
+pause; that is to say, with intricate manoeuvrings of a month long,
+which shove it to Konigsgratz, its ultimatum, beyond which there is no
+getting it. The stages and successive campings, to be found punctually
+in the old Books and new, can interest only military readers. Here is a
+small theological thing at Landshut, from first hand:--
+
+JUNE 8th, 1745. "The Army followed Dumoulin's Corps, and marched upon
+Landshut. On arriving in that neighborhood, the King was surrounded by
+a troop of 2,000 Peasants,"--of Protestant persuasion very evidently!
+(which is much the prevailing thereabouts),--"who begged permission of
+him 'to massacre the Catholics of these parts, and clear the country of
+them altogether.' This animosity arose from the persecutions which the
+Protestants had suffered during the Austrian domination, when
+their churches used to be taken from them and given to the Popish
+priests,"--churches and almost their children, such was the anxiety to
+make them orthodox. The patience of these peasants had run over; and
+now, in the hour of hope, they proposed the above sweeping measure. "The
+King was very far from granting them so barbarous a permission. He told
+them, 'They ought rather to conform to the Scripture precept, to bless
+those that cursed them, and pray for those that despitefully used them;
+such was the way to gain the Kingdom of Heaven.' The peasants," rolling
+dubious eyes for a moment, "answered, His Majesty was right; and
+desisted from their cruel pretension." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_
+ii.218.]...--"On Hohenfriedberg Day," says another Witness, "as far as
+the sound of the cannon was heard, all round, the Protestants fell on
+their knees, praying for victory to the Prussians;" [In Ranke, iii.
+259.] and at Breslau that evening, when the "Thirteen trumpeting
+Postilions" came tearing in with the news, what an enthusiasm without
+limit!
+
+Prince Karl has skill in choosing camps and positions: his Austrians are
+much cowed; that is the grievous loss in his late fight. So, from June
+8th, when they quit Silesia,--by two roads to go more readily,--all
+through that month and the next, Friedrich spread to the due width,
+duly pricking into the rear of them, drives the beaten hosts onward and
+onward. They do not think of fighting; their one thought is to get into
+positions where they can have living conveyed to them, and cannot be
+attacked; for the former of which objects, the farther homewards they
+go, it is the better. The main pursuit, as I gather, goes leftward from
+Landshut, by Friedland,--the Silesian Friedland, once Wallenstein's.
+Through rough wild country, the southern slope of the Giant Mountains,
+goes that slow pursuit, or the main stream of it, where Friedrich
+in person is; intricate savage regions, cut by precipitous rocks and
+soaking quagmires, shaggy with woods: watershed between the Upper Elbe
+and Middle Oder; Glatz on our left,--with the rain of its mountains
+gathering to a Neisse River, eastward, which we know; and on their west
+or hither side, to a Mietau, Adler, Aupa and other many-branched feeders
+of the Elbe. Most complex military ground, the manoeuvrings on it
+endless,--which must be left to the reader's fancy here.
+
+About the end of June, Karl and his Austrians find a place suitable to
+their objects: Konigsgratz, a compact little Town, in the nook between
+the Elbe and Adler; covered to west and to south by these two streams;
+strong enough to east withal; and sure and convenient to the southern
+roads and victual. Against which Friedrich's manoeuvres avail nothing;
+so that he at last (20th July) crosses Elbe River; takes, he likewise,
+an inexpugnable Camp on the opposite shore, at a Village called Chlum;
+and lies there, making a mutual dead-lock of it, for six weeks or
+more. Of the prior Camps, with their abundance of strategic shufflings,
+wheelings, pushings, all issuing in this of Chlum, we say nothing: none
+of them,--except the immediately preceding one, called of Nahorzan,
+called also of Drewitz (for it was in parts a shifting entity, and flung
+the LIMBS of it about, strategically clutching at Konigsgratz),--had any
+permanency: let us take Chlum (the longest, and essentially the last in
+those parts) as the general summary of them, and alone rememberable by
+us. ["Camp of Gross-Parzitz [across the Mietau, to dislodge Prince Karl
+from his shelter behind that stream], June 14th:" "Camp of Nahorzan,
+June 18th [and abstruse manoeuvrings, of a month, for Konigsgratz]: 20th
+July," cross Elbe for Chlum; and lie, yourself also inexpugnable, there.
+See _OEuvres de Frederic,_ (iii. 120 et seq.); especially see Orlich
+(ii. pp. 193, 194, 203, &c. &c.),--with an amplitude of inorganic
+details, sufficient to astonish the robustest memory!]
+
+Friedrich's purposes, at Chlum or previously, are not towards conquests
+in Bohemia, nor of fighting farther, if he can help it. But, in the mean
+while, he is eating out these Bohemian vicinages; no invasion of Silesia
+possible from that quarter soon again. That is one benefit: and he hopes
+always his enemies, under screw of military pressure with the one hand,
+and offer of the olive-branch with the other, will be induced to grant
+him Peace. Britannic Majesty, after Fontenoy and Hohenfriedberg, not to
+mention the first rumors of a Jacobite Rebellion, with France to rear of
+it, is getting eager to have Friedrich settled with, and withdrawn from
+the game again;--the rather, as Friedrich, knowing his man, has ceased
+latterly to urge him on the subject. Peace with George the Purseholder,
+does not that mean Peace with all the others? Friedrich knows the high
+Queen's indignation; but he little guesses, at this time, the humor of
+Bruhl and the Polish Majesty. He has never yet sent the Old Dessauer in
+upon them; always only keeps him on the slip, at Magdeburg; still
+hoping actualities may not be needed. He hopes too, in spite of her
+indignation, the Hungarian Majesty, with an Election on hand, with the
+Netherlands at such a pass, not to speak of Italy and the Middle Rhine,
+will come to moderate views again. On which latter points, his reckoning
+was far from correct! Within three months, Britannic Majesty and he did
+get to explicit Agreement (CONVENTION OF HANOVER, 26th August): but in
+regard to the Polish Majesty and the Hungarian there proved to be no
+such result attainable, and quite other methods necessary first!
+
+"Of military transactions in this Camp of Chlum, or in all these
+Bohemian-Silesian Camps, for near four months, there is nothing, or as
+good as nothing: Chlum has no events; Chlum vigilantly guards itself;
+and expects, as the really decisive to it, events that will happen far
+away. We are to conceive this military business as a dead-lock;
+attended with hussar skirmishes; attacks, defences, of outposts, of
+provision-wagons from Moravia or Silesia:--Friedrich has his food from
+Silesia chiefly, by several routes, 'convoys come once in the five
+days.' His horse-provender he forages; with Tolpatches watching him, and
+continual scufflings of fight: 'for hay and glory,' writes one
+Prussian Officer, 'I assure you we fight well!' Endless enterprising,
+manoeuvring, counter-manoeuvring there at first was; and still is, if
+either party stir: but here, in their mutually fixed camps, tacit
+mutual observances establish themselves; and amid the rigorous armed
+vigilantes, there are traits of human neighborship. As usual in such
+cases. The guard-parties do not fire on one another, within certain
+limits: a signal that there are dead to bury, or the like, is strictly
+respected. On one such occasion it was (June 30th, Camp-of-Nahorzan
+time) that Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick--Prince Ferdinand, with a young
+Brother Albert volunteering and learning his business here, who are both
+Prussian--had a snatch of interview with a third much-loved Brother,
+Ludwig, who is in the Austrian service. A Prussian officer, venturing
+beyond the limits, had been shot; Ferdinand's message, 'Grant us burial
+of him!' found, by chance, Brother Ludwig in command of that Austrian
+outpost; who answers: 'Surely;--and beg that I may embrace my Brothers!'
+And they rode out, those three, to the space intermediate; talked there
+for half an hour, till the burial was done. [Mauvillon, _Geschichte
+Ferdinands von Braunschweig-Luneburg,_ i. 118.] Fancy such an interview
+between the poor young fellows, the soul of honor each, and tied in that
+manner!
+
+"Trenck of the Life-guard was not quite the soul of honor. It was in the
+Nahorzan time too that Trenck, who had, in spite of express order to the
+contrary, been writing to his Cousin the indigo Pandour, was put under
+arrest when found out. 'Wrote merely about horses: purchase of horses,
+so help me God!' protests the blusterous Life-guardsman, loud as lungs
+will,--whether with truth in them, nobody can say. 'Arrest for breaking
+orders!' answers Friedrich, doubting or disbelieving the horses; and
+loud Trenck is packed over the Hills to Glatz; to Governor Fouquet, or
+Substitute;--where, by not submitting and repenting, by resisting and
+rebelling, and ever again doing it, he makes out for himself, with
+Fouquet and his other Governors, what kind of life we know! 'GARDEZ
+E'TROITEMENT CE DROLE-LA, IL A VOULU DEVENIR PANDOUR AUPRES DE SON ONCLE
+(Keep a tight hold of this fine fellow; he wanted to become Pandour
+beside his Uncle)!' writes Friedrich:--'Uncle' instead of 'Cousin,' all
+one to Friedrich. This he writes with his own hand, on the margin: 28th
+June, 1745; the inexorable Records fix that date. [Rodenbeck. iii. 381.
+Copy of the Warrant, once PENES ME.] Which I should not mention, except
+for another inexorable date (30th September), that is coming; and
+the perceptible slight comfort there will be in fixing down a
+loud-blustering, extensively fabulous blockhead, still fit for the
+Nurseries, to one undeniable premeditated lie, and tar-marking him
+therewith, for benefit of more serious readers." As shall be done, were
+the 30th of September come!
+
+Here is still something,--if it be not rather nothing, by a great
+hand! Date uncertain; Camp-of-Chlum time, pretty far on:... "There are
+continual foragings, on both sides; with parties mutually dashing out to
+hinder the same. The Prussians have a detached post at Smirzitz; which
+is much harassed by Hungarians lurking about, shooting our sentry and
+the like. An inventive head contrives this expedient. Stuff a Prussian
+uniform with straw; fix it up, by aid of ropes and check-strings, to
+stand with musket shouldered, and even to glide about to right and left,
+on judicious pulling. So it is done: straw man is made; set upon his
+ropes, when the Tolpatches approach; and pensively saunters to and
+fro,--his living comrades crouching in the bushes near by. Tolpatches
+fire on the walking straw sentry; straw sentry falls flat; Tolpatches
+rush in, esurient, triumphant; are exploded in a sharp blast of musketry
+from the bushes all round, every wounded man made prisoner;--and come
+no more back to that post." Friedrich himself records this little fact:
+"slight pleasantry to relieve the reader's mind," says he, in narrating
+it. [_OEuvres,_ iii. 123.]--Enough of those small matters, while so
+many large are waiting.
+
+June 26th, a month before Chlum, General Nassau had been detached, with
+some 8 or 10,000, across Glatz Country, into Upper Silesia, to sweep
+that clear again. Hautcharmoi, quitting the Frontier Towns, has joined,
+raising him to 15,000; and Nassau is giving excellent account of the
+multitudinous Pandour doggeries there; and will retake Kosel, and
+have Upper Silesia swept before very long. [Kosel, "September 5th:"
+Excellent, lucid and even entertaining Account of Nassau's Expedition,
+in the form of DIARY (a model, of its kind), in _Feldzuge,_ iv. 257,
+371, 532.] On the other hand, the Election matter (KAISERWAHL, a most
+important point) is obviously in threatening, or even in desperate
+state! That famed Middle-Rhine Army has gone to the--what shall we say?
+
+JULY 5th-19th, MIDDLE-RHINE COUNTRY. "The first Election-news that
+reaches Friedrich is from the Middle-Rhine Country, and of very
+bad complexion. Readers remember Traun, and his Bathyanis, and his
+intentions upon Conti there. In the end of May, old Traun, things being
+all completed in Bavaria, had got on march with his Bavarian Army,
+say 40,000, to look into Prince Conti down in those parts; a fact very
+interesting to the Prince. Traun held leftward, westward, as if for the
+Neckar Valley,--'Perhaps intending to be through upon Elsass, in those
+southern undefended portions of the Rhine?' Conti, and his Segur, and
+Middle-Rhine Army stood diligently on their guard; got their forces,
+defences, apparatuses, hurried southward, from Frankfurt quarter where
+they lay on watch, into those Neckar regions. Which seen to be done,
+Traun whirled rapidly to rightward, to northward; crossed the Mayn
+at Wertheim, wholly leaving the Neckar and its Conti; having weighty
+business quite in the other direction,--on the north side of the Mayn,
+namely; on the Kinzig River, where Bathyani (who has taken D'Ahremberg's
+command below Frankfurt, and means to bestir himself in another than the
+D'Ahremberg fashion) is to meet him on a set day. Traun having thus,
+by strategic suction, pulled the Middle-Rhine Army out of his and
+Bathyani's way, hopes they two will manage a junction on the Kinzig;
+after junction they will be a little stronger than Conti, though
+decidedly weaker taken one by one. Traun, in the long June days, had
+such a march, through the Spessart Forest (Mayn River to his left, with
+our old friends Dettingen, Aschaffenburg, far down in the plain), as
+was hardly ever known before: pathless wildernesses, rocky steeps and
+chasms; the sweltering June sun sending down the upper snows upon him in
+the form of muddy slush; so that 'the infantry had to wade haunch-deep
+in many of the hollow parts, and nearly all the cavalry lost its
+horse-shoes.' A strenuous march; and a well-schemed. For at the Kinzig
+River (Conti still far off in the Neckar country), Bathyani punctually
+appeared, on the opposite shore; and Traun and he took camp together;
+July 5th, at Langen-Selbord (few miles north of Hanau, which we
+know);--and rest there; calculating that Conti is now a manageable
+quantity;--and comfortably wait till the Grand-Duke arrives. [Adelung,
+iv. 421; v. 36.] For this is, theoretically, HIS Army; Grand-Duke Franz
+being the Commander's Cloak, this season; as Karl was last,--a right
+lucky Cloak he, while Traun lurked under him, not so lucky since! July
+13th, Franz arrived; and Traun, under Franz, instantly went into Conti
+(now again in those Frankfurt parts); clutched at Conti, Briareus-like,
+in a multiform alarming manner: so that Conti lost head; took to mere
+retreating, rushing about, burning bridges;--and in fine, July 19th, had
+flung himself bodily across the Rhine (clouds of Tolpatches sticking to
+him), and left old Traun and his Grand-Duke supreme lord in those parts.
+Who did NOT invade Elsass, as was now expected; but lay at Heidelberg,
+intending to play pacifically a surer card. All French are out of
+Teutschland again; and the game given up. In what a premature and
+shameful manner! thinks Friedrich.
+
+"Nominally it was the Grand-Duke that flung Conti over the Rhine; and
+delivered Teutschland from its plagues. After which fine feat, salvatory
+to the Cause of Liberty, and destructive to French influence, what is
+to prevent his election to the Kaisership? Friedrich complains aloud:
+'Conti has given it up; you drafted 15,000 from him (for imaginary uses
+in the Netherlands),--you have given it up, then! Was that our bargain?'
+'We have given it up,' answers D'Argenson the War-minister, writing to
+Valori; 'but,'--And supplies, instead of performance according to the
+laws of fact, eloquent logic; very superfluous to Friedrich and the said
+laws!--Valori, and the French Minister at Dresden, had again been trying
+to stir up the Polish Majesty to stand for Kaiser; but of course that
+enterprise, eager as the Polish Majesty might be for such a dignity, had
+now to collapse, and become totally hopeless. A new offer of
+Friedrich's to co-operate had been refused by Bruhl, with a brevity, a
+decisiveness--'Thinks me finished (AUX ABOIS),' says Friedrich; 'and not
+worth giving terms to, on surrendering!' The foolish little creature;
+insolent in the wrong quarter!" [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 128.]
+
+'The German Burden, then,--which surely was mutual, at lowest, and
+lately was French altogether,--the French have thrown it off; the French
+have dropped their end of the BEARING-POLES (so to speak), and left
+Friedrich by himself, to stand or stagger, under the beweltered broken
+harness-gear and intolerable weight! That is one's payment for cutting
+the rope from their neck last year!--Long since, while the present
+Campaign was being prepared for, under such financial pressures,
+Friedrich had bethought him, "The French might, at least give me money,
+if they can nothing else?"--and he had one day penned a Letter with that
+object; but had thrown it into his desk again, "No; not till the very
+last extremity, that!" Friedrich did at last despatch the unpleasant
+missive: "Service done you in Elsass, let us say little of it; but the
+repayment has been zero hitherto: your Bavarian expenses (poor Kaiser
+gone, and Peace of Fussen come!) are now ended:--A round sum, say of
+600,000 pounds, is becoming indispensable here, if we are to keep on
+our feet at all!" Herr Ranke, who has seen the Most Christian King's
+response (though in a capricious way), finds "three or four successive
+redactions" of the difficult passage; all painfully meaning,
+"Impossible, alas!"--painfully adding, "We will try, however!" And,
+after due cunctations, Friedrich waiting silent the while,--Louis, Most
+Christian King, who had failed in so many things towards Friedrich, does
+empower Valori To offer him a subsidy of 600,000 livres a month, till we
+see farther. Twenty thousand pounds a month; he hopes this will suffice,
+being himself run terribly low. Friedrich's feeling is to be guessed:
+"Such a dole might answer to a Landgraf of Hessen-Darmstadt; but to me
+is not in the least suitable;"--and flatly refuses it; FIEREMENT, says
+Valori. [Ranke, iii. 235, 299 n. (not the least of DATE allowed us in
+either case); Valori. i. 240.]
+
+MON GROS VALORI, who could not himself help all this, poor soul, "falls
+now into complete disgrace;" waits daily upon Friedrich at the giving
+out of the parole, "but frequently his Majesty does not speak to me at
+all." Hardly looks at me, or only looks as if I had suddenly become Zero
+Incarnate. It is now in these days, I suppose, that Friedrich writes
+about the "Scamander Battle" (of Fontenoy), and "Capture of Pekin," by
+way of helping one to fight the Austrians according to Treaty. And has
+a touch of bitter sarcasm in uttering his complaints against, such
+treatment,--the heart of him, I suppose, bitter enough. Most Christian
+King has felt this of the Scamander, Friedrich perceives; Louis's next
+letter testifies pique;--and of course we are farther from help, on
+that side, than ever. "From the STANDE of the Kur-Mark [Brandenburg]
+Friedrich was offered a considerable subsidy instead; and joyfully
+accepted the same, 'as a loan:'"--paid it punctually back, too; and
+never, all his days, forgot it of those STANDE. [Stenzel, iv. 255;
+Ranke, &c.]
+
+
+
+
+CAMP OF DIESKAU: BRITANNIC MAJESTY MAKES PEACE, FOR HIMSELF, WITH
+FRIEDRICH; BUT CANNOT FOR AUSTRIA OR SAXONY.
+
+About the middle of August, there are certain Saxon phenomena which
+awaken dread expectation in the world. Friedrich, watching, Argus-like,
+near and far, in his Chlum observatory, has noticed that Prince Karl
+is getting reinforced in Konigsgratz; 10,000 lately, 7,000 more
+coming;--and contrariwise that the Saxons seem to be straggling off from
+him; ebbing away, corps after corps,--towards Saxony, can it be? There
+are whispers of "Bavarian auxiliaries" being hired for them, too. And
+little Bruhl's late insolence; Bruhl's evident belief that "we are
+finished (AUX ABOIS)"? Putting all this together, Friedrich judges--with
+an indignation very natural--that there is again some insidious Saxon
+mischief, most likely an attack on Brandenburg, in the wind. Friedrich
+orders the Old Dessauer, "March into them, delay no longer!" and
+publishes a clangorously indignant Manifesto (evidently his own writing,
+and coming from the heart): [In Adelung, v. 64-71 (no date; "middle of
+August," say the Books).] "How they have, not bound by their Austrian
+Treaty, wantonly invaded our Silesia; have, since and before, in spite
+of our forbearance, done so many things:--and, in fact, have finally
+exhausted our patience; and are forcing us to seek redress and safety by
+the natural methods," which they will see how they like!--
+
+Old Leopold advances straightway, as bidden, direct for the Saxon
+frontier. To whom Friedrich shoots off detachments,--Prince Dietrich,
+with so many thousands, to reinforce Papa; then General Gessler with
+so many,--till Papa is 30,000 odd; and could eat Saxony at a mouthful;
+nothing whatever being yet ready there on Bruhl's part, though he has
+such immense things in the wind!--Nevertheless Friedrich again paused;
+did not yet strike. The Saxon question has Russian bug-bears, no end of
+complications. His Britannic Majesty, now at Hanover, and his prudent
+Harrington with him, are in the act of laboring, with all earnestness,
+for a general Agreement with Friedrich. Without farther bitterness,
+embroilment and bloodshed: how much preferable for Friedrich! Old
+Dessauer, therefore, pauses: "Camp of Dieskau," which we have often
+heard of, close on the Saxon Border; stands there, looking over, as with
+sword drawn, 30,000 good swords,--but no stroke, not for almost three
+months more. In three months, wretched Bruhl had not repented; but, on
+the contrary, had completed his preparations, and gone to work;--and the
+stroke did fall, as will be seen. That is Bruhl's posture in the matter.
+[Ranke, iii. 231, 314.]
+
+To Britannic George, for a good while past, it has been manifest that
+the Pragmatic Sanction, in its original form, is an extinct object; that
+reconquest of Silesia, and such like, is melancholy moonshine; and that,
+in fact, towards fighting the French with effect, it is highly necessary
+to make peace with Friedrich of Prussia again. This once more is
+George's and his Harrington's fixed view. Friedrich's own wishes are
+known, or used to be, ever since the late Kaiser's death,--though
+latterly he has fallen silent, and even avoids the topic when offered
+(knowing his man)! Herrington has to apply formally to Friedrich's
+Minister at Hanover. "Very well, if they are in earnest this time," so
+Friedrich instructs his Minister: "My terms are known to you; no change
+admissible in the terms;--do not speak with me on it farther: and,
+observe, within four weeks, the thing finished, or else broken off!"
+[Ranke, iii. 277-281.] And in this sense they are laboring incessantly,
+with Austria, with Saxony,--without the least success;--and Excellency
+Robinson has again a panting uncomfortable time. Here is a scene
+Robinson transacts at Vienna, which gives us a curious face-to-face
+glimpse of her Hungarian Majesty, while Friedrich is in his Camp at
+Chlum.
+
+
+
+
+SCHONBRUNN, 2d AUGUST, 1745, ROBINSON HAS AUDIENCE OF HER HUNGARIAN
+MAJESTY.
+
+Robinson, in a copious sonorous speech (rather apt to be copious, and to
+fall into the Parliamentary CANTO-FERMO), sets forth how extremely
+ill we Allies are faring on the French hand; nothing done upon Silesia
+either; a hopeless matter that,--is it not, your Majesty? And your
+Majesty's forces all lying there, in mere dead-lock; and we in such need
+of them! "Peace with Prussia is indispensable."--To which her Majesty
+listened, in statuesque silence mostly; "never saw her so reserved
+before, my Lord."...
+
+ROBINSON.... "'Madam, the Dutch will be obliged to accept Neutrality'
+[and plump down again, after such hoisting]!
+
+QUEEN. "'Well, and if they did, they? It would be easier to accommodate
+with France itself, and so finish the whole matter, than with Prussia."
+My Army could not get to the Netherlands this season. No General of
+mine would undertake conducting it at this day of the year. Peace with
+Prussia, what good could it do at present?'
+
+ROBINSON. "'England has already found, for subsidies, this year,
+1,178,753 pounds. Cannot go on at that rate. Peace with Prussia is one
+of the returns the English Nation expects for all it has done.'
+
+QUEEN. "'I must have Silesia again: without Silesia the Kaiserhood were
+an empty title. "Or would you have us administer it under the guardiancy
+of Prussia!"'...
+
+ROBINSON. "'In Bohemia itself things don't look well; nothing done on
+Friedrich: your Saxons seem to be qnarrelling with you, and going home.'
+
+QUEEN. "'Prince Karl is himself capable of fighting the Prussians again.
+Till that, do not speak to me of Peace! Grant me only till October!'
+
+ROBINSON. "'Prussia will help the Grand-Duke to Kaisership.'
+
+QUEEN. "'The Grand-Duke is not so ambitions of an empty honor as to
+engage in it under the tutelage of Prussia. Consider farther: the
+Imperial dignity, is it compatible with the fatal deprivation of
+Silesia? "One other battle, I say! Good God, give me only till the month
+of October!"'
+
+ROBINSON. "'A battle, Madam, if won, won't reconquer Silesia; if lost,
+your Majesty is ruined at home.'
+
+QUEEN. "'DUSSE'JE CONCLURE AVEC LUI LE LENDEMAIN, JE LUI LIVRERAIS
+BATAILLE CE SOIR (Had I to agree with him to-morrow, I would try him in
+a battle this evening)!'" [Robinson's Despatch, 4th August, 1745. Ranke,
+iii. 287; Raumer, pp. 161, 162.]
+
+Her Majesty is not to be hindered; deaf to Robinson, to her Britannic
+George who pays the money. "Cruel man, is that what you call keeping the
+Pragmatic Sanction; dismembering me of Province after Province, now in
+Germany, then in Italy, on pretext of necessity? Has not England money,
+then? Does not England love the Cause of Liberty? Give me till October!"
+Her Majesty did take till October, and later, as we shall see; poor
+George not able to hinder, by power of the purse or otherwise: who can
+hinder high females, or low, when they get into their humors? Much of
+this Austrian obstinacy, think impartial persons, was of female nature.
+We shall see what profit her Majesty made by taking till October.
+
+As for George, the time being run, and her Majesty and Saxony
+unpersuadable, he determined to accept Friedrich's terms himself, in
+hope of gradually bringing the others to do it. August 26th, at Hanover,
+there is signed a CONVENTION OF HANOVER between Friedrich and him:
+"Peace on the old Breslau-Berlin terms,--precisely the same terms, but
+Britannic Majesty to have them guaranteed by All the Powers, on the
+General Peace coming,--so that there be no snake-procedure henceforth."
+Silesia Friedrich's without fail, dear Hanover unmolested even by a
+thought of Friedrich's;--and her Hungarian Majesty to be invited, nay
+urged by every feasible method, to accede. [Adelung, v. 75; is "in
+Rousset, xix. 441;" in &c. &c.] Which done, Britannic Majesty--for
+there has hung itself out, in the Scotch Highlands, the other day
+("Glenfinlas, August 12th"), a certain Standard "TANDEM TRIUMPHANS," and
+unpleasant things are imminent!--hurries home at his best pace, and has
+his hands full there, for some time. On Austria, on Saxony, he could
+not prevail: "By no manner of means!" answered they; and went their own
+road,--jingling his Britannic subsidies in their pocket; regardless of
+the once Supreme Jove, who is sunk now to a very different figure on the
+German boards.
+
+Friedrich's outlook is very bad: such a War to go on, and not even
+finance to do it with. His intimates, his Rothenburg one time, have
+"found him sunk in gloomy thought." But he wears a bright face usually.
+No wavering or doubting in him, his mind made up; which is a great help
+that way. Friedrich indicates, and has indicated everywhere, for many
+months, that Peace, precisely on the old footing, is all he wants: "The
+Kaiser being dead, whom I took up arms to defend, what farther object is
+there?" says he. "Renounce Silesia, more honestly than last time; engage
+to have it guaranteed by everybody at the General Peace (or perhaps
+Hohenfriedberg will help to guarantee it),--and I march home!" My money
+is running down, privately thinks he; guarantee Silesia, and I shall
+be glad to go. If not, I must raise money somehow; melt the big silver
+balustrades at Berlin, borrow from the STANDE, or do something; and, in
+fact, must stand here, unless Silesia is guaranteed, and struggle till I
+die.
+
+That latter withal is still privately Friedrich's thought. Under his
+light air, he carries unspoken that grimly clear determination, at all
+times, now and henceforth; and it is an immense help to the guidance
+of him. An indispensable, indeed. No king or man, attempting anything
+considerable in this world, need expect to achieve it except, tacitly,
+on those same terms, "I will achieve it or die!" For the world, in spite
+of rumors to the contrary, is always much of a bedlam to the sanity
+(so far as he may have any) of every individual man. A strict place,
+moreover; its very bedlamisms flowing by law, as do alike the sudden
+mud-deluges, and the steady Atlantic tides, and all things whatsoever: a
+world inexorable, truly, as gravitation itself;--and it will behoove
+you to front it in a similar humor, as the tacit basis for whatever wise
+plans you lay. In Friedrich, from the first entrance of him on the stage
+of things, we have had to recognize this prime quality, in a fine tacit
+form, to a complete degree; and till his last exit, we shall never find
+it wanting. Tacit enough, unconscious almost, not given to articulate
+itself at all;--and if there be less of piety than we could wish in the
+silence of it, there is at least no play-actor mendacity, or cant of
+devoutness, to poison the high worth of it. No braver little figure
+stands on the Earth at that epoch. Ready, at the due season, with
+his mind silently made up;--able to answer diplomatic Robinsons,
+Bartensteins and the very Destinies when they apply. If you will
+withdraw your snakish notions, will guarantee Silesia, will give him
+back his old Treaty of Berlin in an irrefragable shape, he will march
+home; if not, he will never march home, but be carried thither dead
+rather. That is his intention, if the gods permit.
+
+
+
+
+GRAND-DUKE FRANZ IS ELECTED KAISER (13TH SEPTEMBER, 1745); FRIEDRICH,
+THE SEASON AND FORAGE BEING DONE, MAKES FOR SILESIA.
+
+There occurred at Frankfurt--the clear majority, seven of the nine
+Electors, Bavaria itself (nay Bohemia this time, "distaff" or not),
+and all the others but Friedrich and Kur-Pfalz, being so disposed or
+so disposable, Traun being master of the ground--no difficulty about
+electing Grand-Duke Franz Stephan of Tuscany? Joint-King of Bohemia, to
+be Kaiser of the Holy Romish Reich. Friedrich's envoy protested;--as did
+Kur-Pfalz's, with still more vehemence, and then withdrew to Hanau: the
+other Seven voted September 13th 1745: and it was done. A new Kaiser,
+Franz Stephan, or Franz I.,--with our blessing on him, if that can
+avail much. But I fear it cannot. Upon such mendacious Empty-Case
+of Kaiserhood, without even money to feed itself, not to speak of
+governing, of defending and coercing; upon such entities the blessings
+of man avail little; the gods, having warned them to go, do not bless
+them for staying!--However, tar-barrels burn, the fountains play (wine
+in some of them, I hope); Franz is to be crowned in a fortnight hence,
+with extraordinary magnificence. At this last part of it Maria Theresa
+will, in her own high person, attend; and proceeds accordingly towards
+Frankfurt, in the end of September (say the old Books), so soon as the
+Election is over.
+
+Hungarian Majesty's bearing was not popular there, according to
+Friedrich,--who always admires her after a sort, and always speaks of
+her like a king and gentleman:--but the High Lady, it is intimated, felt
+somewhat too well that she was high. Not sorry to have it known, under
+the due veils, that her Kaiser-Husband is but of a mimetic nature; that
+it is she who has the real power; and that indeed she is in a victorious
+posture at present. Very high in her carriage towards the Princes of the
+Reich, and their privileges:--poor Kur-Pfalz's notary, or herald, coming
+to protest (I think, it was the second time) about something, she quite
+disregarded his tabards, pasteboards, or whatever they were, and clapt
+him in prison. The thing was commented upon; but Kur-Pfalz got no
+redress. Need we repeat,--lazy readers having so often met him, and
+forgotten him again,--this is a new younger Kur-Pfalz: Karl Theodor,
+this one; not Friedrich Wilhelm's old Friend, but his Successor, of the
+Sulzbach line; of whom, after thirty years or so, we may again hear. He
+can complain about his violated tabard; will get his notary out of jail
+again, but no redress.
+
+Highish even towards her friends, this "Empress-Queen"
+(KAISERIN-KONIGIN, such her new title), and has a kind of
+"Thank-you-for-Nothing" air towards them. Prussian Majesty, she said,
+had unquestionable talents; but, oh, what a character! Too much levity,
+she said, by far; heterodox too, in the extreme; a BOSER MANN;--and what
+a neighbor has he been! As to Silesia, she was heard to say, she
+would as soon part with her petticoat as part with it. [_OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ iii. 126, 128.]--So that there is not the least prospect of
+peace here? "None," answer Friedrich's emissaries, whom he had empowered
+to hint the thing. Which is heavy news to Friedrich.
+
+Early in August, not long after that Audience of Robinson's, her
+Majesty, after repeated written messages to Prince Karl, urging him to
+go into fight again or attempt something, had sent two high messengers:
+Prince Lobkowitz, Duke d'Ahremberg, high dignitaries from Court, have
+come to Konigsgratz with the latest urgencies, the newest ideas; and
+would fain help Prince Karl to attempt something. Daily they used to
+come out upon a little height, in view of Friedrich's tent, and gaze in
+upon him, and round all Nature, "with big tubes," he says, "as if
+they had been astronomers;" but never attempted anything. We remember
+D'Ahremberg, and what part he has played, from the Dettingen times and
+onward. "A debauched old fellow," says Friedrich; "gone all to hebetude
+by his labors in that line; agrees always with the last speaker." Prince
+Karl seems to have little stomach himself; and does not see his way into
+(or across) another Battle. Lobkowitz, again, is always saying: "Try
+something! We are now stronger than they, by their detachings, by our
+reinforcings" (indeed, about twice their number, regular and irregular),
+though most of the Saxons are gone home. After much gazing through
+their tubes, the Austrians (August 23d) do make a small shift of place,
+insignificant otherwise; the Prussians, next day, do the like, in
+consequence; quit Chlum, burning their huts; post themselves a little
+farther up the Elbe,--their left at a place called Jaromirz, embouchure
+of the Aupa into Elbe, [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 129.]--and are
+again unattackable.
+
+The worst fact is the multitude of Pandours, more and more infesting our
+provision-roads; and that horse-forage itself is, at last, running
+low. Detachments lie all duly round to right and left, to secure our
+communications with Silesia, especially to left, out of Glatz, where
+runs one of the chief roads we have. But the service is becoming daily
+more difficult. For example:--
+
+"NEUSTADT, 8th SEPTEMBER. In that left-hand quarter, coming out of
+Glatz at a little Bohemian Town called Neustadt, the Prussian Commander,
+Tauenzien by name, was repeatedly assaulted; and from September 8th, had
+to stand actual siege, gallantly repulsing a full 10,000 with their big
+artillery, though his walls were all breached, for about a week, till
+Friedrich sent him relief. Prince Lobkowitz, our old anti-Belleisle
+friend, who is always of forward fiery humor, had set them on this
+enterprise; which has turned out fruitless. The King is much satisfied
+with Tauenzien; [Ib. 132.] of whom we shall hear again. Who indeed
+becomes notable to us, were it only for getting one Lessing as
+secretary, by and by: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, whose fame has since
+gone into all countries; the man having been appointed a 'Secretary'
+to the very Destinies, in some sort; that is to say, a Writer of Books
+which have turned out to have truth in them! Tauenzien, a grimmish
+aquiline kind of man, of no superfluous words, has distinguished himself
+for the present by defending Neustadt, which the Austrians fully counted
+to get hold of."
+
+Let us give another little scene; preparatory to quitting this Country,
+as it is evident the King and we will soon have to do; Country being
+quite eaten out, Pandours getting ever rifer, and the Season done:--
+
+JAROMIRZ, "EARLY IN SEPTEMBER," 1745. "Jaromirz is a little Bohemian
+Town on the Aupa, or between the Aupa and Metau branches of the Upper
+Elbe; four or five miles north of Semonitz, where Friedrich's quarter
+now is. Valori, so seldom spoken to, is lodged in a suburb there: 'Had
+not you better go into the town itself?' his Majesty did once say; but
+Valori, dreading nothing, lodged on,--'Landlord a Burgher whom I thought
+respectable.' Respectable, yes he; but his son had been dealing with
+Franquini the Pandour, and had sold Valori,--night appointed, measures
+all taken; a miracle if Valori escape. Franquini, chief of 30,000
+Pandours, has come in person to superintend this important capture; and
+lies hidden, with a strong party, in the woods to rearward. Prussians
+about 200, scattered in posts, occupy the hedges in front, for guard of
+the ovens; to rear, Jaromirz being wholly ours, there is no suspicion.
+
+"In the dead of the night, Franquini emerges from the woods; sends
+forward a party of sixty, under the young Judas; who, by methods
+suitable, gets them stealthily conducted into Papa's Barn, which looks
+across a courtyard into Valori's very windows. From the Barn it is easy,
+on paws of velvet, to get into the House, if you have a Judas to open
+it. Which you have:--bolts all drawn for you, and even beams ready for
+barricading if you be meddled with. 'Upstairs is his Excellency asleep;
+Excellency's room is--to right, do you remember; or to left'--'Pshaw, we
+shall find it!' The Pandours mount; find a bedroom, break it open,--some
+fifteen or sixteen of them, and one who knows a little French;--come
+crowding forward: to the horror and terror of the poor inhabitant.' 'QUE
+VOULEZ-VOUS DONC?' 'His Excellency Valori!' 'Well, no violence; I am
+your prisoner: let me dress!' answers the supposed Excellency,--and
+contrives to secrete portfolios, and tear or make away with papers.
+And is marched off, under a select guard, who leave the rest to do the
+pillage. And was not Valori at all; was Valori's Secretary, one D'Arget,
+who had called himself Valori on this dangerous occasion! Valori sat
+quaking behind his partition; not till the Pandours began plundering the
+stables did the Prussian sentry catch sound of them, and plunge in."
+
+Friedrich had his amusement out of this adventure; liked D'Arget,
+the clever Secretary; got D'Arget to himself before long, as will be
+seen;--and, in quieter times, dashed off a considerable Explosion of
+Rhyme, called LE PALLADION (Valori as Prussia's "Palladium," with
+Devils attempting to steal him, and the like), which was once thought an
+exquisite Burlesque,--Kings coveting a sight of it, in vain,--but is
+now wearisome enough to every reader. [Valori, i. 242; _OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ iii. 130: for the Fact. Exquisite Burlesque, PALLADION
+itself, is in _OEuvres,_ xi. 192-271 (see IB. 139): a bad copy of
+that very bad Original, JEANNE D'ARC,--the only thing now good in it,
+Friedrich's polite yet positive refusal to gratify King Louis and his
+Pompdour with a sight of it (see IB. PREFACE, x-xiv, Friedrich's Letter
+to Louis; date of request and of refusal, March, 1750).]--Let us attend
+his Majesty's exit from Bohemia.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII.--BATTLE OF SOHR.
+
+The famed beautiful Elbe River rises in romantic chasms, terrible to the
+picturesque beholder, at the roots of the Riesengebirge; overlooked
+by the Hohe-Kamms, and highest summits of that chain. "Out of eleven
+wells," says gentle Dulness, "EILF or ELF QUELLEN, whence its name, Elbe
+for ELF." Sure enough, it starts out of various wells; [Description, in
+Zollner, _Briefe uber Schlesien,_ ii. 305; in &c. &c.] rushes out, like
+a great peacock's or pasha's tail, from the roots of the Giant Mountains
+thereabouts; and hurries southward,--or even rather eastward, at first;
+for (except the Iser to westward, which does not fall in for a great
+while) its chief branches come from the eastern side: Aupa, Metau,
+Adler, the drainings of Glatz, and of that rugged Country where
+Friedrich has been camping and manoeuvring all summer. On the whole,
+its course is southward for the first seventy or eighty miles, washing
+Jaromirz, Konigshof, Konigsgratz, down to Pardubitz: at Pardubitz it
+turns abruptly westward, and holds on so, bending even northward, by
+hill and plain, through the rest of its five or six hundred miles.
+
+Its first considerable branch, on that eastern or left bank, is the
+Aupa, which rises in the Pass of Schatzlar (great struggling there, for
+convoys, just now); goes next by Trautenau, which has lately been burnt;
+and joins the Elbe at Jaromirz, where Valori was stolen, or nearly so,
+from under the Prussian left wing. The Aupa runs nearly straight south;
+the Elbe, till meeting it, has run rather southeast; but after joining
+they go south together, augmented by the Metau, by the Adler, down to
+Pardubitz, where the final turn to west occurs. Jaromirz, which lies in
+the very angle of Elbe and Aupa, is the left wing of Friedrich's Camp;
+main body of the Camp lies on the other side of the Elbe, but of course
+has bridges (as at Smirzitz, where that straw sentry did his pranks
+lately); bridges are indispensable, part of our provision coming always
+by that BOHEMIAN Neustadt, from the northeast quarter out of Silesia;
+though the main course of our meal (and much fighting for it) is direct
+from the north, by the Pass of Schatzlar,--"Chaslard," as poor Valori
+calls it.
+
+Thus Friedrich lay, when Valori escaped being stolen; when Tauenzien
+was assailed by the 10,000 Pandours with siege artillery, and stood
+inexpugnable in the breach till Friedrich relieved him. Those Pandours
+"had cut away his water, for the last two days;" so that, except
+for speedy relief, all valor had been in vain. Water being gone, not
+recoverable without difficulties, Neustadt was abandoned (September
+16th, as I guess);--one of our main Silesian roads for meal has ceased.
+We have now only Schatzlar to depend on; where Franquini--lying westward
+among the glens of the Upper Elbe, and possessed of abundant talent in
+the Tolpatch way (witness Valori's narrow miss lately)--gives us trouble
+enough. Friedrich determines to move towards Schatzlar. Homewards, in
+fact; eating the Country well as he goes.
+
+Saturday, 18th September, Friedrich crosses the Elbe at Jaromirz.
+Entirely unopposed; the Austrians were all busy firing FEU-DE-JOIE
+for the Election of their Grand-Duke: Election done five days ago at
+Frankfurt, and the news just come. So they crackle about, and deliver
+rolling fire, at a great rate; proud to be "IMPERIAL Army" henceforth,
+as if that could do much for them. There was also vast dining, for
+three days, among the high heads, and a great deal of wine spent. That
+probably would have been the chance to undertake something upon them,
+better than crossing the Elbe, says Friedrich looking back. But he did
+not think of it in time; took second-best in place of best.
+
+He is now, therefore, over into that Triangular piece of Country between
+Elbe and Aupa (if readers will consult their Map); in that triangle,
+his subsequent notable operations all lie. He here proposes to move
+northward, by degrees,--through Trautenau, Schatzlar, and home; well
+eating this bit of Country too, the last uneaten bit, as he goes. This
+well eaten, there will be no harbor anywhere for Invasion, through the
+Winter coming. One of my old Notes says of it, in the topographic point
+of view:--
+
+"It is a triangular patch of Country, which has lain asleep since the
+Creation of the World; traversed only by Boii (BOI-HEIM-ERS, Bohemians),
+Czechs and other such populations, in Human History; but which Friedrich
+has been fated to make rather notable to the Moderns henceforth. Let me
+recommend it to the picturesque tourist, especially to the military
+one. Lovers of rocky precipices, quagmires, brawling torrents and the
+unadulterated ruggedness of Nature, will find scope there; and it was
+the scene of a distinguished passage of arms, with notable display of
+human dexterity and swift presence of mind. For the rest, one of the
+wildest, and perhaps (except to the picturesque tourist) most unpleasant
+regions in the world. Wild stony upland; topmost Upland, we may say,
+of Europe in general, or portion of such Upland; for the rainstorms
+hereabouts run several roads,--into the German Ocean and Atlantic by the
+Elbe, into the Baltic by the Oder, into the Black Sea by the Donau;--and
+it is the waste Outfield whither you rise, by long weeks-journeys, from
+many sides.
+
+"Much of it, towards the angle of Elbe and Aupa, is occupied by a huge
+waste Wood, called 'Kingdom Forest' (KONIGREICH SYLVA or WALD, peculium
+of Old Czech Majesties, I fancy); may be sixty square miles in area, the
+longer side of which lies along the Elbe. A Country of rocky defiles;
+lowish hills chaotically shoved together, not wanting their brooks and
+quagmires, straight labyrinthic passages; shaggy with wild wood. Some
+poor Hamlets here and there, probably the sleepiest in Nature, are
+scattered about; there may be patches ploughable for rye [modern Tourist
+says snappishly, There are many such; whole region now drained; reminded
+me of Yorkshire Highlands, with the Western Sun gilding it, that fine
+afternoon!]--ploughable for rye, buckwheat; boggy grass to be gathered
+in summer; charcoaling to do; pigs at least are presumable, among
+these straggling outposts of humanity in their obscure Hamlets: poor
+ploughing, moiling creatures, they little thought of becoming notable so
+soon! None of the Books (all intent on mere soldiering) take the least
+notice of them; not at the pains to spell their Hamlets right: no
+more notice than if they also had been stocks and moss-grown stones.
+Nevertheless, there they did evidently live, for thousands of years
+past, in a dim manner;--and are much terrified to have become the seat
+of war, all on a sudden. Their poor Hamlets, Sohr, Staudentz, Prausnitz,
+Burgersdorf and others still send up a faint smoke; and have in them,
+languidly, the live-coal of mysterious human existence, in those
+woods,--to judge by the last maps that have come out. A thing worth
+considering by the passing tourist, military or other."
+
+It is in this Kingdom Forest (which he calls ROYAUME DE SILVA, instead
+of SYLVA DE ROYAUME) that Friedrich now marches; keeping the body of the
+Forest well on his left, and skirting the southern and eastern sides
+of it. Rough marching for his Majesty; painfully infested by Nadastian
+Tolpatches; who run out on him from ambushes, and need to be scourged;
+one ambush in particular, at a place called Liebenthal (second day's
+march, and near the end of it),--where our Prussian Hussars, winding
+like fiery dragons on the dangerous precipices, gave them better than
+they brought, and completely quenched their appetite for that day. After
+Liebenthal, the march soon ends; three miles farther on, at the dim
+wold-hamlet of Staudentz: here a camp is pitched; here, till the Country
+is well eaten out, or till something else occur, we propose to tarry for
+a time.
+
+Horse-forage abounds here; but there is no getting of it without
+disturbance from those dogs; you must fight for every truss of grass:
+if a meal-train is coming, as there does every five days, you have
+to detach 8,000 foot and 3,000 horse to help it safe in. A fretting
+fatiguing time for regular troops. Our bakery is at Trautenau,--where
+Valori is now lodging. The Tolpatchery, unable to take Trautenau, set
+fire to it, though it is their own town, their own Queen's town; thatchy
+Trautenau, wooden too in the upper stories of it, takes greedily to
+the fire; goes all aloft in flame, and then lies black. A scandalous
+transaction, thinks Friedrich. The Prussian corn lay nearly all in
+cellars; little got, even of the Prussians, by such an atrocity: and
+your own poor fellow-subjects, where are they? Valori was burnt out
+here; again exploded from his quarters, poor man;--seems to have thought
+it a mere fire in his own lodging, and that he was an unfortunate
+diplomatist. Happily he got notice (PRIVATISSIME, for no officer dare
+whisper in such cases) that there is an armed party setting out for
+Silesia, to guard meal that is coming: Valori yokes himself to this
+armed party, and gets safe over the Hills with it,--then swift, by extra
+post, to Breslau and to civilized (partially civilized) accommodation,
+for a little rest after these hustlings and tossings.
+
+Friedrich had lain at Staudentz, in this manner, bickering continually
+for his forage, and eating the Country, for about ten days: and now,
+as the latter process is well on, and the season drawing to a close:
+he determines on a shift northward. Thursday, 30th September next, let
+there be one other grand forage, the final one in this eaten tract, then
+northward to fresh grounds. That, it appears, was the design. But,
+on Wednesday, there came in an Austrian deserter; who informs us that
+Prince Karl is not now in Konigsgratz, but in motion up the Elbe;
+already some fifty miles up; past Jaromirz: his rear at Konigshof, his
+van at Arnau,--on a level with burnt Trautenau, and farther north than
+we ourselves are. This is important news. "Intending to block us out
+from Schatzlar? Hmh!" Single scouts, or small parties, cannot live in
+this Kingdom Wood, swarming with Pandours: Friedrich sends out a Colonel
+Katzler, with 500 light horse, to investigate a little. Katzler
+pushes forward, on such lane or forest road-track as there is, towards
+Konigshof; beats back small hussar parties;--comes, in about an hour's
+space, not upon hussars merely, but upon dense masses of heavy horse
+winding through the forest lanes; and, with that imperfect intelligence,
+is obliged to return. The deserter spake truth, apparently; and that
+is all we can know. Forage scheme is given up; the order is, "Baggage
+packed, and MARCH to-morrow morning at ten." Long before ten, there
+had great things befallen on the morrow!--Try to understand this Note a
+little:--
+
+"The Camp of Staudentz-which two persons (the King, and General Stille,
+a more careful reporter, who also was an eye-witness) have done their
+best to describe--will, after all efforts, and an Ordnance Map to help,
+remain considerably unintelligible to the reader; as is too usual
+in such cases. A block of high-lying ground; Friedrich's Camp on it,
+perhaps two miles long, looks to the south; small Village of Staudentz
+in front; hollow beyond that, and second small Village, Deutsch
+Prausnitz, hanging on the opposite slope, with shaggy heights beyond,
+and the Kingdom Forest there beginning: on the left, defiles, brooks
+and strait country, leading towards the small town of Eypel: that is our
+left and front aspect, a hollow well isolating us on those sides. Hollow
+continues all along the front; hollow definite on our side of it, and
+forming a tolerable defence:--though again, I perceive, to rightward at
+no great distance, there rise High Grounds which considerably overhang
+us." A thing to be marked! "These we could not occupy, for want of men;
+but only maintain vedettes upon them. Over these Heights, a mile or
+two westward of this hollow of ours, runs the big winding hollow called
+Georgengrund (GEORGE'S BOTTOM), which winds up and down in that Kingdom
+Forest, and offers a road from Konigshof to Trautenau, among other
+courses it takes.
+
+"From the crown of those Heights on our right flank here, looking to
+the west, you might discern (perhaps three miles off, from one of
+the sheltering nooks in the hither side of that Georgengrund), rising
+faintly visible over knolls and dingles, the smoke of a little Forest
+Village. That Village is Sohr; notable ever since, beyond others, in
+the Kingdom Wood. Sohr, like the other Villages, has its lane-roads; its
+road to Trautenau, to Konigshof, no doubt; but much nearer you, on our
+eastern slope of the Heights, and far hitherward of Sohr, which is on
+the western, goes the great road [what is now the great road], from
+Konigshof to Trautenau, well visible from Friedrich's Camp, though still
+at some distance from it. Could these Heights between us and Sohr, which
+lie beyond the great road, be occupied, we were well secured; isolated
+on the right too, as on the other sides, from Kingdom Forest and its
+ambushes. 'Should have been done,' admits Friedrich; 'but then, as
+it is, there are not troops enough:' with 18,000 men you cannot do
+everything!"
+
+Here, however, is the important point. In Sohr, this night, 29th
+September, in a most private manner, the Austrians, 30,000 of them and
+more, have come gliding through the woods, without even their pipe lit,
+and with thick veil of hussars ahead! Outposts of theirs lie squatted in
+the bushes behind Deutsch Prausnitz, hardly 500 yards from Friedrich's
+Camp. And eastward, leftward of him, in the defiles about Eypel, lie
+Nadasti and Ruffian Trenck, with ten or twelve thousand, who are to take
+him in rear. His "Camp of Staudentz" will be at a fine pass to-morrow
+morning. The Austrian Gentlemen had found, last week, a certain bare
+Height in the Forest (Height still known), from which they could use
+their astronomer tubes day after day; [Orlich, ii. 225.] and now they
+are about attempting something!
+
+Thursday morning, very early, 30th September, 1745, Friedrich was in his
+tent, busy with generals and march-routes,--when a rapid orderly comes
+in, from that Vedette, or strong Piquet, on the Heights to our right:
+"Austrians visibly moving, in quantity, near by!" and before he has done
+answering, the officer himself arrives: "Regular Cavalry in great force;
+long dust-cloud in Kingdom Forest, in the gray dawn; and, so far as we
+can judge, it is their Army coming on." Here is news for a poor man, in
+the raw of a September morning, by way of breakfast to him! "To arms!"
+is, of course, Friedrich's instant order; and he himself gallops to the
+Piquet on the Heights, glass in hand. "Austrian Army sure enough,
+thirty to thirty-five thousand of them, we only eighteen. [_OEuvres
+de Frederic,_ iii. 139.] Coming to take us on the right flank here;
+to attack our Camp by surprise: will crush us northward through the
+defiles, and trample us down in detail? Hmh! To run for it, will never
+do. We must fight for it, and even attack THEM, as our way is, though on
+such terms. Quick, a plan!" The head of Friedrich is a bank you cannot
+easily break by coming on it for plans: such a creature for impromptu
+plans, and unexpected dashes swift as the panther's, I have hardly
+known,--especially when you squeeze him into a corner, and fancy he is
+over with it! Friedrich gallops down, with his plan clear enough; and
+already the Austrians, horse and foot, are deploying upon those Heights
+he has quitted; Fifty Squadrons of Horse for left wing to them, and
+a battery of Twenty-eight big Guns is establishing itself where
+Friedrich's Piquet lately stood.
+
+Friedrich's right flank has to become his front, and face those
+formidable Austrian Heights and Batteries; and this with more than
+Prussian velocity, and under the play of those twenty-eight big guns,
+throwing case-shot (GRENADES ROYALES) and so forth, all the while.
+To Valori, when he heard of the thing, it is inconceivable how mortal
+troops could accomplish such a movement; Friedrich himself praises
+it, as a thing honorably well done. Took about half an hour; case-shot
+raining all the while; soldier honorably never-minding: no flurry,
+though a speed like that of spinning-tops. And here we at length are,
+Staudentz now to rear of us, behind our centre a good space; Burgersdorf
+in front of us to right, our left reaching to Prausnitz: Austrian lines,
+three deep of them, on the opposite Height; we one line only, which
+matches them in length.
+
+They, that left wing of horse, should have thundered down on us,
+attacking us, not waiting our attack, thinks Friedrich; but they
+have not done it. They stand on their height there, will perhaps fire
+carbines, as their wont is. "You, Buddenbrock, go into them with your
+Cuirassiers!" Buddenbrock and the Cuirassiers, though it is uphill,
+go into them at a furious rate; meet no countercharge, mere sputter of
+carbines;--tumble them to mad wreck, back upon their second line, back
+upon their third: absurdly crowded there on their narrow height, no room
+to manoeuvre; so that they plunge, fifty squadrons of them, wholly into
+the Georgengrund rearward, into the Kingdom Wood, and never come on
+again at all. Buddenbrock has done his job right well.
+
+Seeing which, our Infantry of the right wing, which stood next to
+Buddenbrock, made impetuous charge uphill, emulous to capture that
+Battery of Twenty-eight; but found it, for some time, a terrible
+attempt. These Heights are not to be called "hills," still less
+"mountains" (as in some careless Books); but it is a stiff climb at
+double-quick, with twenty-eight big guns playing in the face of you.
+Storms of case-shot shear away this Infantry, are quenching its noble
+fury in despair; Infantry visibly recoiling, when our sole Three
+Regiments of Reserve hurry up to support. Round these all rallies;
+rushes desperately on, and takes the Battery,--of course, sending the
+Austrian left wing rapidly adrift, on loss of the same.
+
+This, I consider, is the crisis of the Fight; the back of the Austrian
+enterprise is already broken, by this sad winging of it on the left. But
+it resists still; comes down again,--the reserve of their left wing
+seen rapidly making for Burgersdorf, intending an attack there; which we
+oppose with vigor, setting Burgersdorf on fire for temporary screen; and
+drive the Austrian reserve rapidly to rearward again. But there is rally
+after rally of them. They rank again on every new height, and dispute
+there; loath to be driven into Kingdom Wood, after such a flourish of
+arms. One height, "bushy steep height," the light-limbed valiant Prince,
+little Ferdinand of Brunswick, had the charge of attacking; and he did
+it with his usual impetus and irresistibility:--and, strangely enough,
+the defender of it chanced to be that Brother of his, Prince Ludwig,
+with whom he had the little Interview lately. Prince Ludwig got a wound,
+as well as lost his height. The third Brother, poor Prince Albrecht,
+who is also here, as volunteer apprentice, on the Prussian side, gets
+killed. There will never be another Interview, for all three, between
+the Camps! Strange times for those poor Princes, who have to seek
+soldiering for their existence.
+
+Meanwhile the Cavalry of Buddenbrock, that is to say of the right wing,
+having now no work in that quarter, is despatched to reinforce the left
+wing, which has stood hitherto apart on its own ground; not attacked or
+attacking,--a left wing REFUSED, as the soldiers style it. Reinforced by
+Buddenbrock, this left wing of horse does now also storm forward;--"near
+the Village of Prausnitz" (Prausnitz a little way to rear of it),
+thereabouts, is the scene of its feat. Feat done in such fashion that
+the Austrians opposite will not stand the charge at all; but gurgle
+about in a chaotic manner; then gallop fairly into Kingdom Wood, without
+stroke struck; and disappear, as their fellows had done. Whereupon
+the Prussian horse breaks in upon the adjoining Infantry of that flank
+(Austrian right flank, left bare in this manner); champs it also into
+chaotic whirlpools; cuts away an outskirt of near 2,000 prisoners,
+and sets the rest running. This seems to have been pretty much the
+COUP-DE-GRACE of the Fight; and to have brought the Austrian dispute to
+finis. From the first, they had rallied on the heights; had struggled
+and disputed. Two general rallies they made, and various partial, but
+none had any success. They were driven on, bayonet in back, as the
+phrase is: with this sad slap on their right, added to that old one on
+their left, what can they now do but ebb rapidly; pour in cataracts
+into Kingdom Wood, and disappear there? [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii.
+135-143; Stille, pp. 144-163; Orlich, ii. 227-243; _Feldzuge,_ i. 357,
+363, 374.]
+
+Prince Karl's scheme was good, says Friedrich; but it was ill executed.
+He never should have let us form; his first grand fault was that he
+waited to be attacked, instead of attacking. Parts of his scheme were
+never executed at all. Duke d'Ahremberg, for instance, it is said, had
+so dim a notion of the ground, that he drew up some miles off, with
+his back to the Prussians. Such is the rumor,--perhaps only a rumor,
+in mockery of the hebetated old gentleman fallen unlucky? On the
+other hand, that Nadasti made a failure which proved important, is
+indubitable. Nadasti, with some thousands of Tolpatchery, was at
+Liebenthal, four miles to southeast of the action; Ruffian Trenck lay
+behind Eypel, perhaps as far to east, of it: Trenck and Nadasti were to
+rendezvous, to unite, and attack the Prussian Camp on its rear,--"Camp,"
+so ran the order, for it was understood the Prussians would all be
+there, we others attacking it in front and both flanks;--which turned
+out otherwise, not for Nadasti alone!
+
+Nadasti came to his rendezvous in time; Ruffian Trenck did not:
+Nadasti grew tired of waiting for Trenck, and attacked the Camp by
+himself:--Camp, but not any men; Camp being now empty, and the men all
+fighting, ranked at right angles to it, furlongs and miles away. Nadasti
+made a rare hand of the Camp; plundered everything, took all the King's
+Camp-furniture, ready money, favorite dog Biche,--likewise poor
+Eichel his Secretary, who, however, tore the papers first. Tolpatchery
+exultingly gutted the Camp; and at last set fire to it,--burnt even some
+eight or ten poor Prussian sick, and also "some women whom they caught.
+We found the limbs of these poor men and women lying about," reports
+old General Lehwald; who knew about it. A doggery well worthy of the
+gallows, think Lehwald and I. "Could n't help it; ferocity of wild men,"
+says Nadasti. "Well; but why not attack, then, with your ferocity?"
+Confused Court-martial put these questions, at Vienna subsequently; and
+Ruffian Trenck, some say, got injustice, Nadasti shuffling things upon
+him; for which one cares almost nothing. Lehwald, lying at Trautenau,
+had heard the firing at sunrise; and instantly marched to help: he only
+arrived to give Nadasti a slash or two, and was too late for the Fight.
+One Schlichtling, on guard with a weak party, saved what was in the
+right wing of the Camp,--small thanks to him, the Main Fight being so
+near: Friedrich's opinion is, an Officer, in Schlichtling's place, ought
+to have done more, and not have been so helpless.
+
+This was the Battle of Sohr; so called because the Austrians had begun
+there, and the Prussians ended there. The Prussian pursuit drew bridle
+at that Village; unsafe to prosecute Austrians farther, now in the deeps
+of Kingdom Forest. The Battle has lasted five hours. It must be now
+getting towards noon; and time for breakfast, if indeed any were to be
+had; but that is next to impossible, Nadasti having been so busy. Not
+without extreme difficulty is a manchet of bread, with or without a drop
+of wine, procured for the King's Majesty this day. Many a tired hero
+will have nothing but tobacco, with spring-water, to fall back upon.
+Never mind! says the King, says everybody. After all, it is a cheap
+price to pay for missing an attack from Pandours in the rear, while such
+crisis went on ahead.
+
+Lying COUSIN Trenck, of the Life-guard, who is now in Glatz, gives vivid
+eye-witness particulars of these things, time of the morning and so on;
+says expressly he was there, and what he did there, [Frederic Baron de
+Trenck, _Memoires, traduits par lui-meme_ (Strasburg and Paris, 1789),
+i. 74-78, 79.]--though in Glatz under lock and key, three good months
+before. "How could I help mistakes," said he afterwards, when people
+objected to this and that in his blusterous mendacity of a Book: "I had
+nothing but my poor agitated memory to trust to!" A man's memory, when
+it gets the length of remembering that he was in the Battle of Sohr
+while bodily absent, ought it not to--in fact, to strike work; to still
+its agitations altogether, and call halt? Trenck, some months after,
+got clambered out of Glatz, by sewers, or I forget how; and leaped, or
+dropped, from some parapet into the River Neisse,--sinking to the loins
+in tough mud, so that he could not stir.
+
+MAP TO GO HERE----BOOK 15--page 499----
+
+"Fouquet let me stand there half a day, before he would pick me
+out again." Rigorous Bouquet, human mercy forbidding, could not let
+him stand there in permanence,--as we, better circumstanced, may with
+advantage try to do, in time coming!
+
+Friedrich lay at Sohr five days; partly for the honor of the thing,
+partly to eat out the Country to perfection. Prince Karl, from
+Konigshof, soon fell back to Konigsgratz; and lay motionless there,
+nothing but his Tolpatcheries astir, Sohr Country all eaten, Friedrich,
+in the due Divisions, marched northward. Through Trautenau, Schatzlar,
+his own Division, which was the main one;--and, fencing off the
+Tolpatches successfully with trouble, brings all his men into Silesia
+again. A good job of work behind them, surely! Cantons them to right and
+left of Landshut, about Rohnstock and Hohenfriedberg, hamlets known so
+well; and leaving the Young Dessauer to command, drives for Berlin (30th
+October),--rapidly, as his wont is. Prince Karl has split up his force
+at Konigsgratz; means, one cannot doubt, to go into winter-quarters.
+If he think of invading, across that eaten Country and those bad
+Mountains,--well, our troops can all be got together in six hours' time.
+
+At Trautenau, a week after Sohr, Friedrich had at last received the
+English ratification of that Convention of Hanover, signed 26th August,
+almost a month ago; not ratified till September 22d. About which there
+had latterly been some anxiety, lest his Britannic Majesty himself might
+have broken off from it. With Austria, with Saxony, Britannic Majesty
+has been entirely unsuccessful:--"May not Sohr, perhaps, be a fresh
+persuasive?" hopes Friedrich;--but as to Britannic Majesty's breaking
+off, his thoughts are far from that, if we knew! Poor Majesty: not long
+since, Supreme Jove of Germany; and now--is like to be swallowed
+in ragamuffin street-riots; not a thunder-bolt within clutch of him
+(thunder-bolts all sticking in the mud of the Netherlands, far off), and
+not a constable's staff of the least efficacy! Consider these dates in
+combination. Battle of Sohr was on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th:--
+
+"SUNDAY preceding, SEPTEMBER 26th, was such a Lord's-Day in the City of
+Edinburgh, as had not been seen there,--not since Jenny Geddes's stool
+went flying at the Bishop's head, above a hundred years before. Big
+alarm-bell bursting out in the middle of divine service; emptying all
+the Churches ('Highland rebels just at hand!')--into General Meeting of
+the Inhabitants, into Chaos come again, for the next forty hours.
+Till, in the gaunt midnight, Tuesday, 2 A.M., Lochiel with about 1,000
+Camerons, waiting slight opportunity, crushed in through the Netherbow
+Port; and"--And, about noon of that day, a poor friend of ours,
+loitering expectant in the road that leads by St. Anthony's Well, saw
+making entry into paternal Holyrood,--the Young Pretender, in person,
+who is just being proclaimed Prince of Wales, up in the High-street
+yonder! "A tall slender young man, about five feet ten inches high; of
+a ruddy complexion, high-nosed, large rolling brown eyes; long-visaged,
+red-haired, but at that time wore a pale periwig. He was in a Highland
+habit [coat]; over the shoulder a blue sash wrought with gold; red
+velvet breeches; a green velvet bonnet, with white cockade on it and
+a gold lace. His speech seemed very like that of an Irishman; very sly
+[how did you know, my poor friend?];--spoke often to O'Sullivan [thought
+to be a person of some counsel; had been Tutor to Maillebois's Boys, had
+even tried some irregular fighting under Maillebois]--to O'Sullivan and"
+[Henderson, _Highland Rebellion,_ p. 14.]... And on Saturday, in short,
+came PRESTONPANS. Enough of such a Supreme Jove; good for us here as a
+timetable chiefly, or marker of dates!
+
+Sunday, 3d October, King's Adjutant, Captain Mollendorf, a young Officer
+deservedly in favor, arrives at Berlin with the joyful tidings of
+this Sohr business ("Prausnitz" we then called it): to the joy of all
+Prussians, especially of a Queen Mother, for whom there is a Letter in
+pencil. After brief congratulation, Mollendorf rushes on; having next to
+give the Old Dessauer notice of it in his Camp at Dieskau, in the Halle
+neighborhood. Mollendorf appears in Halle suddenly next morning, Monday,
+about ten o'clock, sixteen postilions trumpeting, and at their swiftest
+trot, in front of him;--shooting, like a melodious morning-star, across
+the rusty old city, in this manner,--to Dieskau Camp, where he gives the
+Old Dessauer his good news. Excellent Victory indeed; sharp striking,
+swift self-help on our part. Halle and the Camp have enough to think
+of, for this day and the next. Whither Mollendorf went next, we will not
+ask: perhaps to Brunswick and other consanguineous places?--Certain it
+is,
+
+"On Wednesday, the 6th, about two in the afternoon, the Old Dessauer
+has his whole Army drawn out there, with green sprigs in their hats,
+at Dieskau, close upon the Saxon Frontier; and, after swashing and
+manoeuvring about in the highest military style of art, ranks them
+all in line, or two suitable lines, 30,000 of them; and then,
+with clangorous outburst of trumpet, kettle-drum and all manner of
+field-music, fires off his united artillery a first time; almost shaking
+the very hills by such a thunderous peal, in the still afternoon. And
+mark, close fitted into the artillery peal, commences a rolling fire,
+like a peal spread out in threads, sparkling strangely to eye and ear;
+from right to left, long spears of fire and sharp strokes of sound,
+darting aloft, successive simultaneous, winding for the space of miles,
+then back by the rear line, and home to the starting-point: very
+grand indeed. Again, and also again, the artillery peal, and rolling
+small-arms fitted into it, is repeated; a second and a third time,
+kettle-drums and trumpets doing what they can. That was the Old
+Dessauer's bonfiring (what is called FEU-DE-JOIE), for the Victory of
+Sohr; audible almost at Leipzig, if the wind were westerly. Overpowering
+to the human mind; at least, to the old Newspaper reporter of that day.
+But what was strangest in the business," continues he "(DAS CURIEUSESTE
+DABEY), was that the Saxon Uhlans, lying about in the villages across
+the Border, were out in the fields, watching the sight, hardly 300 yards
+off, from beginning to end; and little dreamed that his High Princely
+Serenity," blue of face and dreadful in war, "was quite close to them,
+on the Height called Bornhock; condescending to 'take all this into
+High-Serene Eye-shine there; and, by having a white flag waved,
+deigning to give signal for the discharges of the artillery.'"
+[_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 1124.]
+
+By this the reader may know that the Old Dessauer is alive, ready for
+action if called on; and Bruhl ought to comprehend better how riskish
+his game with edge-tools is. Bruhl is not now in an unprepared
+state:--here are Uhlans at one's elbow looking on. Rutowski's Uhlans;
+who lies encamped, not far off, in good force, posted among morasses;
+strongly entrenched, and with schemes in his head, and in Bruhl's, of
+an aggressive, thrice-secret and very surprising nature! I remark only
+that, in Heidelberg Country, victorious old Traun is putting his people
+into winter-quarters; himself about to vanish from this History, [Went
+to SIEBENBURGEN (Transylvania) as Governor; died there February,
+1748, age seventy-one (_Maria Theresiens Leben,_ p. 56 n.).]--and has
+detached General Grune with 10,000 men; who left Heidelberg October 9th,
+on a mysterious errand, heeded by nobody; and will turn up in the next
+Chapter.
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII.--SAXONY AND AUSTRIA MAKE A SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT.
+
+After this strenuous and victorious Campaign, which has astonished all
+public men, especially all Pragmatic Gazetteers, and with which all
+Europe is disharmoniously ringing, Friedrich is hopeful there will be
+Peace, through England;--cannot doubt, at least, but the Austrians have
+had enough for one year;--and looks forward to certain months, if not
+of rest, yet of another kind of activity. Negotiation, Peace through
+England, if possible; that is the high prize: and in the other case,
+or in any case, readiness for next Campaign;--which with the treasury
+exhausted, and no honorable subsidy from France, is a difficult problem.
+
+That was Friedrich's, and everybody's, program of affairs for the months
+coming: but in that Friedrich and everybody found themselves greatly
+mistaken. Bruhl and the Austrians had decided otherwise. "Open
+mouse-trap," at Striegau; claws of the sleeping cat, at Sohr: these were
+sad experiences; ill to bear, with the Sea-Powers grumbling on you, and
+the world sniffing its pity on you;--but are not conclusive, are only
+provoking and even maddening, to the sanguine mind. Two sad failures;
+but let us try another time. "A tricky man; cunning enough, your King of
+Prussia!" thinks Bruhl, with a fellness of humor against Friedrich which
+is little conceivable to us now: "Cunning enough. But it is possible
+cunning may be surpassed by deeper cunning!"--and decides, Bartenstein
+and an indignant Empress-Queen assenting eagerly, That there shall, in
+the profoundest secrecy till it break out, be a third, and much fiercer
+trial, this Winter yet. The Bruhl-Bartenstein plan (owing mainly to the
+Russian Bugbear which hung over it, protective, but with whims of its
+own) underwent changes, successive redactions or editions; which the
+reader would grudge to hear explained to him. [Account of them in
+Orlich, ii. 273-278 (from various RUTOWSKI Papers; and from the
+contemporary satirical Pamphlet, "MONDSCHEINWURFE, Mirror-castings of
+Moonshine, by ZEBEDAUS Cuckoo,) beaten Captain of a beaten Army."] Of the
+final or acted edition, some loose notion, sufficient for our purpose,
+may be collected from the following fractions of Notes:--
+
+NOVEMBER 17th (INTERIOR OF GERMANY).... "Feldmarschall-Lieutenant von
+Grune, a General of mark, detached by Traun not long since, from the
+Rhine Country, with a force of 10,000 men, why is he marching about:
+first to Baireuth Country, 'at Hof, November 9th,' as if for Bohemia;
+then north, to Gera ('lies at Gera till the 17th'), as if for
+Saxony Proper? Prince Karl, you would certainly say, has gone into
+winter-quarters; about Konigsgratz, and farther on? Gone or going,
+sure enough, is Prince Karl, into the convenient Bohemian
+districts,--uncertain which particular districts; at least the Young
+Dessauer, watching him from the Silesian side, is uncertain which.
+Better be vigilant, Prince Leopold!--Grune, lying at Gera yonder, is not
+intending for Prince Karl, then? No, not thither. Then perhaps
+towards Saxony, to reinforce the Saxons? Or some-whither to find fat
+winter-quarters: who knows? Indeed, who cares particularly, for such
+inconsiderable Grune and his 10,000!--
+
+"The Saxons quitted their inexpugnable Camp towards Halle, some time
+ago; went into cantonments farther inland;--the Old Dessauer (middle
+of October) having done the like, and gone home: his force lies rather
+scattered, for convenience of food and forage. From the Silesian
+side, again, Prince Leopold, whose head-quarters are about Striegau,
+intimates, That he cannot yet say, with certainty, what districts Prince
+Karl will occupy for winter-quarters in Bohemia. Prince Karl is vaguely
+roving about; detaching Pandours to the Silesian Mountains, as if for
+checking our victorious Nassau there;--always rather creeping northward;
+skirting Western Silesia with his main force; 30,000 or better, with
+Lobkowitz and Nadasti ahead. Meaning what? Be vigilant, my young friend.
+
+"The private fact is, Prince Karl does not mean to go into
+winter-quarters at all. In private fact, Prince Karl is one of Three
+mysterious Elements or Currents, sent on a far errand: Grune is another:
+Rutowski's Saxon Camp (now become Cantonment) is a third. Three Currents
+instinct with fire and destruction, but as yet quite opaque; which have
+been launched,--whitherward thinks the reader? On Berlin itself, and
+the Mark of Brandenburg; there to collide, and ignite in a marvellous
+manner. There is their meeting-point: there shall they, on a sudden,
+smite one another into flame; and the destruction blaze, fiery enough,
+round Friedrich and his own Brandenburg homesteads there!--
+
+"It is a grand scheme; scheme at least on a grand scale. For the LEGS of
+it, Grune's march and Prince Karl's, are about 600 miles long! Plan due
+chiefly, they say, to the yellow rage of Bruhl; aided by the contrivance
+of Rutowski, and the counsel of Austrian military men. For there is much
+consulting about it, and redacting of it; Polish Majesty himself
+very busy. To Bruhl's yellow rage it is highly solacing and hopeful.
+'Rutowski, lying close in his Cantonments, and then suddenly springing
+out, will overwhelm the Old Dessauer, who lies wide;--can do it, surely;
+and Grune is there to help if necessary. Dessauer blown to pieces,
+Grune, with Rutowski combined, push in upon Brandenburg,--Grune himself
+upon Berlin,--from the west and south, nobody expecting him. Prince
+Karl, not taking into winter-quarters in Bohemia, as they idly think;
+but falling down the Valley of the Bober, or Bober and Queiss, into the
+Lausitz (to Gorlitz, Guben, where we have Magazines for him), comes upon
+it from the southeast,--nobody expecting any of them. Three simultaneous
+Armies hurled on the head of your Friedrich; combustible deluges flowing
+towards him, as from the ends of Germany; so opaque, silent, yet of fire
+wholly: will not that surprise him!' thinks Bruhl. These are the schemes
+of the little man."
+
+Bruhl, having constituted himself rival to Friedrich, and fallen into
+pale or yellow rage by the course things took, this Plan is naturally
+his chief joy, or crown of joys; a bubbling well of solace to him in
+his parched condition. He should, obviously, have kept it secret;
+thrice-secret, the little fool;--but a poor parched man is not always
+master of his private bubbling wells in that kind! Wolfstierna is
+Swedish Envoy at Dresden; Rudenskjold, Swedish Envoy at Berlin, has
+run over to see him in the dim November days. Swedes, since Ulrique's
+marriage, are friendly to Prussia. Bruhl has these two men to dinner;
+talks with them, over his wine, about Friedrich's insulting usage
+of him, among other topics. "Insulting; how, your Excellency?" asks
+Rudenskjold, privately a friend of Friedrich. Bruhl explains, with voice
+quivering, those cuts in the Friedrich manifesto of August last, and
+other griefs suffered; the two Swedes soothing him with what oil they
+have ready. "No matter!" hints Bruhl; and proceeds from hint to hint,
+till the two Swedes are fully aware of the grand scheme: Grune, Prince
+Karl; and how Destruction, with legs 500 miles long, is steadily
+advancing to assuage one with just revenge. "Right, your
+Excellency!"--only that Rudenskjold proceeds to Berlin; and there
+straightway ("8th November") punctually makes Friedrich also aware.
+[Stenzel, iv. 262; Ranke, iii. 317-323; Friedrich's own narrative of
+it, _OEuvres,_ iii. 148.] Foolish Bruhl: a man that has a secret should
+not only hide it, but hide that he has it to hide.
+
+
+
+
+FRIEDRICH GOES OUT TO MEET HIS THREE-LEGGED MONSTER; CUTS ONE LEG OF IT
+IN TWO (Fight of Hennersdorf, 23d November, 1745).
+
+Friedrich, having heard the secret, gazes into it with horror and
+astonishment: "What a time I have! This is not living; this is being
+killed a thousand times a day!" [Ranke (iii. 321 n.): TO whom said, we
+are not told.]--with horror and astonishment; but also with what most
+luminous flash of eyesight is in him; compares it with Prince Karl's
+enigmatic motions, Grune's open ones and the other phenomena;--perceives
+that it is an indisputable fact, and a thrice-formidable; requiring to
+be instantly dealt with by the party interested! Whereupon, after hearty
+thanks to Rudenskjold, there occur these rapidly successive phases of
+activity, which we study to take up in a curt form.
+
+FIRST (probably 9th or 10th November), there is Council held with
+Minister Podewils and the Old Dessauer; Council from which comes little
+benefit, or none. Podewils and Old Leopold stare incredulous; cannot
+be made to believe such a thing. "Impossible any Saxon minister or man
+would voluntarily bring the theatre of war into his own Country, in
+this manner!" thinks the Old Dessauer, and persists to think,--on what
+obstinate ground Friedrich never knew. To which Podewils, "who
+has properties in the Lausitz, and would so fain think them safe,"
+obstinately, though more covertly, adheres. "Impossible!" urge both
+these Councillors; and Friedrich cannot even make them believe it.
+Believe it; and, alas, believing it is not the whole problem!
+
+Happily Friedrich has the privilege of ordering, with or without their
+belief. "You, Podewils, announce the matter to foreign Courts. You,
+Serene Highness of Anhalt, at your swiftest, collect yonder, and encamp
+again. Your eye well on Grune and Rutowski; and the instant I give you
+signal--! I am for Silesia, to look after Prince Karl, the other long
+leg of this Business." Old Leopold, according to Friedrich's account, is
+visibly glad of such opportunity to fight again before he die: and yet,
+for no reason except some senile jealousy, is not content with these
+arrangements; perversely objects to this and that. At length the
+King says,--think of this hard word, and of the eyes that accompany
+it!--"When your Highness gets Armies of your own, you will order them
+according to your mind; at present, it must be according to mine." On,
+then; and not a moment lost: for of all things we must be swift!
+
+Old Leopold goes accordingly. Friedrich himself goes in a week hence.
+Orders, correspondences from Podewils and the rest, are flying right and
+left;--to Young Leopold in Silesia, first of all. Young Leopold draws
+out his forces towards the Silesian-Lausitz border, where Prince Karl's
+intentions are now becoming visible. And,--here is the second phase
+notable,--
+
+"On Monday, 15th, ["18th," _Feldzuge,_ i. 402 (see Rodenbeck, i. 122).]
+at 7 A.M.," Friedrich rushes off, by Crossen, full speed for Liegnitz;
+"with Rothenburg, with the Prince of Prussia and Ferdinand of Brunswick
+accompanying." With what thoughts,--though, in his face, you can read
+nothing; all Berlin being already in such tremor! Friedrich is in
+Liegnitz next day; and after needful preliminaries there, does, on the
+Thursday following, "at Nieder-Adelsdorf," not far off, take actual
+command of Prince Leopold's Army, which had lain encamped for some days,
+waiting him. And now with such force in hand,--35,000, soldiers every
+man of them, and freshened by a month's rest,--one will endeavor to do
+some good upon Prince Karl. Probably sooner than Prince Karl supposes.
+For there is great velocity in this young King; a panther-like
+suddenness of spring in him: cunning, too, as any Felis of them; and
+with claws like the Felis Leo on occasion. Here follows the brief
+Campaign that ensued, which I strive greatly to abridge.
+
+Prince Karl's intentions towards Frankfurt-on-Oder Country, through the
+Lausitz, are now becoming practically manifest. There is a Magazine for
+him at Guben, within thirty miles of Frankfurt; arrangements getting
+ready all the way. A winter march of 150 miles;--but what, say the
+spies, is to hinder? Prince Karl dreams not that Friedrich is on the
+ground, or that anybody is aware. Which notion Friedrich finds that it
+will be extremely suitable to maintain in Prince Karl. Friedrich is now
+at Adelsdorf, some thirty miles eastward of the Lausitz Border, perhaps
+forty or more from the route Prince Karl will follow through that
+Province.
+
+"It is a high-lying irregularly hilly Country; hilly, not mountainous.
+Various streams rise out of it that have a long course,--among others,
+the Spree, which washes Berlin;--especially three Valleys cross it,
+three Rivers with their Valleys: Bober, Queiss, Neisse (the THIRD Neisse
+we have come upon); all running northward, pretty much parallel, though
+all are branches of the Oder. This is Neisse THIRD, we say; not the
+Neisse of Neisse City, which we used to know at the north base of
+the Giant Mountains, nor the Roaring Neisse, which we have seen at
+Hohenfriedberg; but a third [and the FOURTH and last, "Black Neisse,"
+thank Heaven, is an upper branch of this, and we have, and shall have,
+nothing to do with it!]--third Neisse, which we may call the Lausitz
+Neisse. On which, near the head of it, there is a fine old spinning,
+linen-weaving Town called Zittau,--where, to make it memorable, one
+Tourist has read, on the Town-house, an Inscription worth repeating:
+'BENE FACERE ET MALE AUDIRE REGIUM EST, To do good and have evil said
+of you, is a kingly thing.' Other Towns, as Gorlitz, and seventy miles
+farther the above-said Guben, lie on this same Neisse,--shall we
+add that Herrnhuth stands near the head of it? The wondrous Town of
+Herrnhuth (LORD'S-KEEPING), founded by Count Zinzendorf, twenty
+years before those dates; ["In 1722, the first tree felled" (LIVES of
+Zinzendorf).] where are a kind of German Methodist-Quakers to this day,
+who have become very celebrated in the interim. An opulent enough, most
+silent, strictly regular, strange little Town. The women are in uniform;
+wives, maids, widows, each their form of dress. Missionaries, speaking
+flabby English, who have been in the West Indies or are going thither,
+seem to abound in the place; male population otherwise, I should think,
+must be mainly doing trade elsewhere; nothing but prayers, preachings,
+charitable boarding-schooling and the like, appeared to be going on.
+Herrnhuth is 'a Sabbath Petrified; Calvinistic Sabbath done into Stone,'
+as one of my companions called it." [Tourist's Note (Autumn, 1852).]
+
+Herrnhuth, of which all Englishmen have heard, stands near the head of
+this our third Neisse; as does Zittau, a few miles higher up. I can do
+nothing more to give it mark for them. Bober Valley, then Queiss Valley,
+which run parallel though they join at last, and become Bober wholly
+before getting into the Oder,--these two Valleys and Rivers lie in
+Friedrich's own Territory; and are between him and the Lausitz, Queiss
+River being the boundary of Silesia and the Lausitz here. It is down
+the Neisse that Prince Karl means to march. There are Saxons already
+gathering about Zittau; and down as far as Guben they are making
+Magazines and arrangements,--for it is all their own Country in those
+years, though most of it is Prussia's now. Prince Karl's march will go
+parallel to the Bober and the Queiss; separated from the Queiss in this
+part by an undulating Hill-tract of twenty miles or more.
+
+Friedrich has had somewhat to settle for the Southern Frontier of
+Silesia withal, which new doggeries of Pandours are invading,--to lie
+ready for Prince Karl on his return thither, whose grand meaning all
+this while (as Friedrich well knows), is "Silesia in the lump" again,
+had he once cut us off from Brandenburg and our supplies! General
+Nassau, far eastward, who is doing exploits in Moravia itself,--him
+Friedrich has ordered homeward, westward to his own side of the
+Mountains, to attend these new Pandour gentlemen; Winterfeld he has
+called home, out of those Southern mountains, as likely to be usefuler
+here on this Western frontier. Winterfeld arrived in Camp the same day
+with Friedrich; and is sent forward with a body of 3,000 light troops,
+to keep watch about the Lausitz Frontier and the River Queiss; "careful
+not to quit our own side of that stream,"--as we mean to hoodwink Prince
+Karl, if we can!
+
+Friedrich lies strictly within his own borders, for a day or two; till
+Prince Karl march, till his own arrangements are complete. Friedrich
+himself keeps the Bober, Winterfeld the Queiss; "all pass freely out of
+the Lausitz; none are allowed to cross into it: thereby we hear notice
+of Prince Karl, he none of us." Perfectly quiescent, we, poor creatures,
+and aware of nothing! Thus, too, Friedrich--in spite of his warlike
+Manifesto, which the Saxons are on the eve of answering with a formal
+Declaration of War--affects great rigor in considering the Saxons as not
+yet at war with him: respects their frontier, Winterfeld even punishes
+hussars "for trespassing on Lausitz ground." Friedrich also affects to
+have roads repaired, which he by no means intends to travel:--the whole
+with a view of lulling Prince Karl; of keeping the mouse-trap open,
+as he had done in the Striegau case. It succeeded again, quite as
+conspicuously, and at less expense.
+
+Prince Karl--whose Tolpatch doggery Winterfeld will not allow to pass
+the Queiss, and to whom no traveller or tidings can come from beyond
+that River--discerns only, on the farther shore of it, Winterfeld with
+his 3,000 light troops. Behind these, he discerns either nothing, or
+nothing immediately momentous; but contentedly supposes that this, the
+superficies of things, is all the solid-content they have. Prince
+Karl gets under way, therefore, nothing doubting; with his Saxons as
+vanguard. Down the Neisse Valley, on the right or Queiss-ward side of
+it: Saturday, 20th November, is his first march in Lusatian territory.
+He lies that night spread out in three Villages, Schonberg, Schonbrunn,
+Kieslingswalde; [_Feldzuge,_ i. 407 (Bericht von der Action bey
+Katholisch-Hennersdorf, &c.).] some ten miles long; parallel to the
+Neisse River, and about four miles from it, east or Queiss-ward of it.
+Karl himself is rear, at Schonberg; fierce Lobkowitz is centre; the
+Saxons are vanguard, 6,000 in all, posted in Villages, which again are
+some ten or twelve miles ahead of Prince Karl's forces; the Queiss on
+their right hand, and the Naumburg Bridge of Queiss, where Winterfeld
+now is, about fifteen miles to east. Their Uhlans circulate through
+the intervening space (were much patrolling needed, in such quiet
+circumstances), and maintain the due communication. There lies Prince
+Karl, on Saturday night, 20th November, 1745; an Army of perhaps 40,000,
+dnngerously straggling out above twenty miles long; and appears to see
+no difficulty ahead. The Saxons, I think, are to continue where they
+are; guarding the flank, while the Prince and Lobkowitz push
+forward, closer by Neisse River. In four marches more, they can be in
+Brandenburg, with Guben and their Magazines at hand.
+
+Seeing which state of matters, Winterfeld gives Friedrich notice of
+it; and that he, Winterfeld, thinks the moment is come. "Pontoons to
+Naumburg, then!" orders Friedrich. Winterfeld, at the proper moment, is
+to form a Bridge there. One permanent Bridge there already is; and two
+fords, one above it, one below: with a second Bridge, there will be
+roadway for four columns, and a swift transit when needful. Sunday,
+21st, Friedrich quits the Bober, diligently towards Naumburg; marches
+Sunday, Monday; Tuesday, 23d, about eleven A.M., begins to arrive there;
+Winterfeld and passages all ready. Forward, then, and let us drive in
+upon Prince Karl; and either cut him in two, or force him to fight us;
+he little thinks where or on what terms. Sure enough, in the worst place
+we can choose for him! Friedrich begins crossing in four columns at
+one P.M.; crosses continuously for four hours; unopposed, except some
+skirmishing of Uhlans, while his Cavalry is riding the Fords to right
+and left; Uhlans were driven back swiftly, so soon as the Cavalry got
+over. At five in the evening, he has got entirely across, 35,000 horse
+and foot: Ziethen is chasing the Uhlans at full speed; who at least will
+show us the way,--for by this time a mist has begun falling, and the
+brief daylight is done.
+
+Friedrich himself, without waiting for the rear of his force, and some
+while before this mist fell (as I judge), is pushing forward, "a miller
+lad for his guide," across to Hennersdorf,--Katholisch-Hennersdorf, a
+long straggling Village, eight or ten miles off, and itself two miles
+long,--where he understands the Saxons are. Miller lad guides us, over
+height and hollow, with his best skill, at a brisk pace;--through one
+hollow, where he has known the cattle pasture in summer time; but which
+proves impassable, and mere quagmire, at this season. No getting through
+it, you unfortunate miller lad (GARCON DE MEUNIER). Nevertheless, we did
+find passage through the skirts of it: nay this quagmire proved the
+luck of us; for the enemy, trusting to it, had no outguard there, never
+expecting us on that side. So that the vanguard, Ziethen and rapid
+Hussars, made an excellent thing of it. Ziethen sends us word, That he
+has got into the body of Hennersdorf,--"found the Saxon Quartermaster
+quietly paying his men;"--that he, Ziethen, is tolerably master of
+Hennersdorf, and will amuse the enemy till the other force come up.
+
+Of course Friedrich now pushes on, double speed; detaches other force,
+horse and foot: which was lucky, says my informant; for the Ziethen
+Hussars, getting good plunder, had by no means demolished the Saxons;
+but had left them time to draw up in firm order, with a hedge in front,
+a little west of the Village;--from which post, unassailable by Ziethen,
+they would have got safe off to the main body, with little but an
+affront and some loss of goods. The new force--a rapid Katzler
+with light horse in the van, cuirassiers and foot rapidly following
+him--sweeps past the long Village, "through a thin wood and a defile;"
+finds the enemy firmly ranked as above said; cavalry their left,
+infantry on right, flanked by an impenetrable hedge; and at once strikes
+in. At once, Katzler does, on order given; but is far too weak. Charges,
+he; but is counter-charged, tumbled back; the Saxons, horse and foot,
+showing excellent fight. At length, more Prussian force coming up,
+cuirassiers charge them in front, dragoons in flank, hussars in rear;
+all attacking at once, and with a will; and the poor Saxon Cavalry is
+entirely cut to shreds.
+
+And now there remains only the Infantry, perhaps about 1,000 men (if one
+must guess); who form a square; ply vigorously their field-pieces and
+their fire-arms; and cannot be broken by horse-charges. In fact, these
+Saxons made a fierce resistance;--till, before long, Prussian Infantry
+came up; and, with counter field-pieces and musketries, blasted gaps
+in them; upon which the Cavalry got admittance, and reduced the gallant
+fellows nearly wholly to annihilation either by death or capture. There
+are 914 Prisoners in this Action, 4 big guns, and I know not how many
+kettle-drums, standards and the like,--all that were there, I suppose.
+The number of dead not given. [Orlich, ii. 291; _Feldzuge,_i. 400-413.]
+But, in brief, this Saxon Force is utterly cut to pieces; and only
+scattered twos and threes of it rush through the dark mist; scattering
+terror to this hand and that. The Prussians take their post at and round
+Hennersdorf that night;--bivouacking, though only in sack trousers, a
+blanket each man:--"We work hard, my men, and suffer all things for a
+day or two, that it may save much work afterwards," said the King to
+them; and they cheerfully bivouacked.
+
+This was the Action of Katholisch-Hennersdorf, fought on Tuesday,
+23d November, 1745; and still celebrated in the Prussian Annals, and
+reckoned a brilliant passage of war. KATHOLISCH-Hennersdorf, some
+ten miles southwest of Naumburg ON THE QUEISS (for there are, to my
+knowledge, Twenty-five other Villages called Hennersdorf, and Three
+several Towns of Naumburg, and many Castles and Hamlets so named in dear
+Germany of the Nomenclatures):--Katholisch-Hennersdorf is the place,
+and Tuesday about dusk the time. A sharp brush of fighting; not great in
+quantity, but laid in at the right moment, in the right place. Like
+the prick of a needle, duly sharp, into the spinal marrow of a gigantic
+object; totally ruinous to such object. Never, or rarely, in the Annals
+of War, was as much good got of so little fighting. You may, with labor
+and peril, plunge a hundred dirks into your boaconstrictor; hack him
+with axes, bray him with sledge-hammers; that is not uncommon: but the
+one true prick in the spinal marrow, and the Artist that can guide you
+well to that, he and it are the notable and beneficent phenomena.
+
+
+
+
+PRINCE KARL, CUT IN TWO, TUMBLES HOME AGAIN DOUBLE-QUICK.
+
+Next morning, Wednesday, 24th, the Prussians are early astir again;
+groping, on all manner of roads, to find what Prince Karl is doing, in
+a world all covered in thick mist. They can find nothing of him, but
+broken tumbrils, left baggage-wagons, rumor of universal marching hither
+and marching thither;--evidences of an Army fallen into universal St.
+Vitus's-Dance; distractedly hurrying to and fro, not knowing whitherward
+for the moment, except that it must be homewards, homewards with
+velocity.
+
+Prince Karl's farther movements are not worth particularizing. Ordering
+and cross-ordering; march this way; no, back again: such a scene in that
+mist. Prince Karl is flowing homeward; confusedly deluging and gurgling
+southward, the best he can. Next afternoon, near Gorlitz, and again one
+other time, he appears drawn up, as if for fighting; but has himself no
+such thought; flies again, without a shot; leaves Gorlitz to capitulate,
+that afternoon; all places to capitulate, or be evacuated. We hear he is
+for Zittau; Winterfeld with light horse hastens after him, gets sight of
+him on the Heights at Zittau yonder, [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 157;
+Orlich, ii. 296.] "about two in the morning:" but the Prince has not
+the least notion to fight. Prince leaves Zittau to capitulate,--quits
+silently the Heights of Zittau at two A.M. (Winterfeld, very lively in
+the rear of him, cutting off his baggage);--and so tumbles, pell-mell,
+through the Passes of Gabel, home to Bohemia again. Let us save this
+poor Note from the fire:
+
+"On Saturday night, November 27th, the Prussians, pursuing Prince Karl,
+were cantoned in the Herrnhuth neighborhood,--my informant's regiment
+in the Town of Herrnhuth itself. [_Feldzuge,_ i. ubi supra.] Yes, there
+lay the Prussians over Sunday; and might hear some weighty expounder,
+if they liked. Considerably theological, many of these poor Prussian
+soldiers; carrying a Bible in their knapsack, and devout Psalms in the
+heart of them. Two-thirds of every regiment are LANDESKINDER, native
+Prussians; each regiment from a special canton,--generally rather
+religious men. The other third are recruits, gathered in the Free Towns
+of the Reich, or where they can be got; not distinguished by devotion
+these, we may fancy, only trained to the uttermost by Spartan drill."
+
+Before the week is done, that "first leg" of the grand Enterprise (the
+Prince-Karl leg) is such a leg as we see. "Silesia in the lump,"--fond
+dream again, what a dream! Old Dessauer getting signal, where now, too
+probably, is Saxony itself?--Ranking again at Aussig in Bohemia, Prince
+Karl--5,000 of his men lost, and all impetus and fire gone--falls gently
+down the Elbe, to join Rutowski at least; and will reappear within four
+weeks, out of Saxon Switzerland, still rather in dismal humor.
+
+The Prussian Troops, in four great Divisions, are cantoned in that
+Lausitz Country, now so quiet; in and about Bautzen and three other
+Towns of the neighborhood; to rest and be ready for the old Dessauer,
+when we hear of him. The "Magazine at Guben in 138 wagons," the Gorlitz
+and other Magazines of Prince Karl in the due number of wagons, supply
+them with comfortable unexpected provender. Thus they lie cantoned;
+and have with despatch effectually settled their part of the problem.
+Question now is, How will it stand with the Old Dessauer and his part?
+Or, better still, Would not perhaps the Saxons, in this humiliated
+state, accept Peace, and finish the matter?
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV.--BATTLE OF KESSELSDORF.
+
+A "Correspondence" of a certain Excellency Villiers, English Minister
+at Dresden,--Sir Thomas Villiers, Grandfather of the present Earl of
+Clarendon,--was very famous in those weeks; and is still worth mention,
+as a trait of Friedrich's procedure in this crisis. Friedrich, not
+intoxicated with his swift triumph over Prince Karl, but calculating
+the perils and the chances still ahead,--miserably off for money
+too,--admits to himself that not revenge or triumph, that Peace is the
+one thing needful to him. November 29th, Old Leopold is entering Saxony;
+and in the same hours, Podewils at Berlin, by order of Friedrich, writes
+to Villiers who is in Dresden, about Peace, about mediating for Peace:
+"My King ready and desirous, now as at all times, for Peace; the terms
+of it known; terms not altered, not alterable, no bargaining or higgling
+needed or allowable. CONVENTION OF HANOVER, let his Polish Majesty
+accede honestly to that, and all these miseries are ended."
+["CORRESPONDANCE DU ROI AVEC SIR THOMAS VILLIERS;" commences, on
+Podewils's part, 28th November; on Friedrich's, 4th December; ends,
+on Villier's, 18th December; fourteen Pieces in all, four of them
+Friedrich's: Given in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 183-216 (see IB, 158),
+and in many other Books.]
+
+Villiers starts instantly on this beneficent business; "goes to Court,
+on it, that very night;" Villiers shows himself really diligent,
+reasonable, loyal; doing his very best now and afterwards; but has no
+success at all. Polish Majesty is obstinate,--I always think, in the way
+sheep are, when they feel themselves too much put upon;--and is deaf
+to everybody but Bruhl. Bruhl answers: "Let his Prussian Majesty retire
+from our Territory;--what is he doing in the Lausitz just now! Retire
+from our Territory; THEN we will treat!" Bruhl still refuses to be
+desperate of his bad game;--at any rate, Bruhl's rage is yellower
+than ever. That, very evening, while talking to Villiers, he has had
+preparations going on;--and next morning takes his Master, Polish
+Majesty August III., with some comfortable minimum of apparatus
+(cigar-boxes not forgotten), off to Prag, where they can be out of
+danger till the thing decide itself. Villiers follows to Prag; desists
+not from his eloquent Letters, and earnest persuasions at Prag; but
+begins to perceive that the means of persuading Bruhl will be a much
+heavier kind of artillery.
+
+On the whole, negotiations have yet done little. Britannic George,
+though Purseholder, what is his success here? As little is the Russian
+Bugbear persuasive on Friedrich himself. The Czarina of the Russias, a
+luxurious lady, of far more weight than insight, has just notified to
+him, with more emphasis than ever, That he shall not attack Saxony; that
+if he do, she with considerable vigor will attack him! That has always
+been a formidable puzzle for Friedrich: however, he reflects that the
+Russians never could draw sword, or be ready with their Army, in less
+than six months, probably not in twelve; and has answered, translating
+it into polite official terms: "Fee-faw-fum, your Czarish Majesty!
+Question is not now of attacking, but of being myself attacked!"--and so
+is now running his risks with the Czarina.
+
+Still worse was the result he got from Louis XV. Lately, "for form's
+sake," as he tells us, "and not expecting anything," he had (November
+15th) made a new appeal to France: "Ruin menacing your Most Christian
+Majesty's Ally, in this huge sudden crisis of invasive Austrian-Saxons;
+and for your Majesty's sake, may I not in some measure say?" To which
+Louis's Answer is also given. A very sickly, unpleasant Document;
+testifying to considerable pique against Friedrich;--Ranke says, it was
+a joint production, all the Ministers gradually contributing each his
+little pinch of irony to make it spicier, and Louis signing when it was
+enough;--very considerable pique against Friedrich; and something of the
+stupid sulkiness as of a fat bad boy, almost glad that the house is on
+fire, because it will burn his nimble younger brother, whom everybody
+calls so clever: "Sorry indeed, Sir my Brother, most sorry:--and so
+you have actually signed that HANOVER CONVENTION with our worst Enemy?
+France is far from having done so; France has done, and will do, great
+things. Our Royal heart grieves much at your situation; but is not
+alarmed; no, Your Majesty has such invention, vigor and ability,
+superior to any crisis, our clever younger Brother! And herewith we
+pray God to have you in his holy keeping." This is the purport of King
+Louis's Letter;--which Friedrich folds together again, looking up from
+perusal of it, we may fancy with what a glance of those eyes. [Louis's
+Original, in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 173, 174 (with a much
+more satirical paraphrase than the above), and Friedrich's Answer
+adjoined,--after the events had come.]
+
+He is getting instructed, this young King, as to alliances, grand
+combinations, French and other. His third Note to Villiers intimates,
+"It being evident that his Polish Majesty will have nothing from us
+but fighting, we must try to give it him of the best kind we have."
+["Bautzen, 11th December, 1745" (UBI SUPRA).] Yes truly; it is the
+ULTIMATE persuasive, that. Here, in condensed form, are the essential
+details of the course it went, in this instance:--General Grune, on
+the road to Berlin, hearing of the rout at Hennersdorf, halted
+instantly,--hastened back to Saxony, to join Rutowski there, and stand
+on the defensive. Not now in that Halle-Frontier region (Rutowski has
+quitted that, and all the intrenchments and marshy impregnabilities
+there); not on that Halle-Frontier, but hovering about in the
+interior, Rutowski and Grune are in junction; gravitating towards
+Dresden;--expecting Prince Karl's advent; who ought to emerge from the
+Saxon Switzerland in few days, were he sharp; and again enable us to
+make a formidable figure. Be speedy, Old Dessauer: you must settle the
+Grune-Rutowski account before that junction, not after it!
+
+The Old Dessauer has been tolerably successful, and by no means thinks
+he has been losing time. November 29th, "at three in the morning," he
+stept over into Saxony with its impregnable camps; drove Rutowski's
+rear-guard, or remnant, out of the quagmires, canals and intrenchments,
+before daylight; drove it, that same evening, or before dawn of the
+morrow, out of Leipzig: has seized that Town,--lays heavy contribution
+on it, nearly 50,000 pounds (such our strait for finance), "and be sure
+you take only substantial men as sureties!" [Orlich, ii. 308.]--and
+will, and does after a two days' rest, advance with decent celerity
+inwards; though "One must first know exactly whither; one must have
+bread, and preparations and precautions; do all things solidly and in
+order," thinks the Old Dessauer. Friedrich well knows the whither; and
+that Dresden itself is, or may be made, the place for falling in with
+Rutowski. Friedrich is now himself ready to join, from the Bautzen
+region; the days and hours precious to him; and spurs the Old Dessauer
+with the sharpest remonstrances. "All solidly and in order, your
+Majesty!" answers the Old Dessauer: solid strong-boned old coach-horse,
+who has his own modes of trotting, having done many a heavy mile of it
+in his time; and whose skin, one hopes, is of the due thickness against
+undue spurring.
+
+Old Dessauer wishes two things: bread to live upon; and a sure Bridge
+over the Elbe whereby Friedrich may join him. Old Dessauer makes for
+Torgau, far north, where is both an Elbe Bridge and a Magazine; which he
+takes; Torgau and pertinents now his. But it is far down the Elbe, far
+off from Bautzen and Friedrich: "A nearer Bridge and rendezvous, your
+Highness! Meissen [where they make the china, only fifty miles from me,
+and twenty from Dresden], let that be the Bridge, now that you have got
+victual. And speedy; for Heaven's sake, speedy!" Friedrich pushes out
+General Lehwald from Bautzen, with 4,000 men, towards Meissen Bridge;
+Lehwald does not himself meddle with the Bridge, only fires shot across
+upon the Saxon party, till the Old Dessauer, on the other bank, come
+up;--and the Old Dessauer, impatience thinks, will never come. "Three
+days in Torgau, yes, Your Majesty: I had bread to bake, and the very
+ovens had to be built." A solid old roadster, with his own modes of
+trotting; needs thickness of skin. [Friedrich's Letters to Leopold, in
+Orlich, ii. 431, 435 (6th-10th December, 1745).]
+
+At long last, on Sunday, 12th December, about two P.M., the Old Dessauer
+does appear; or General Gessler, his vanguard, does appear,--Gessler of
+the sixty-seven standards,--"always about an hour ahead." Gessler has
+summoned Meissen; has not got it, is haggling with it about terms, when,
+towards sunset of the short day, Old Dessauer himself arrives. Whereupon
+the Saxon Commandant quits the Bridge (not much breaking it); and glides
+off in the dark, clear out of Meissen, towards Dresden,--chased, but
+successfully defending himself. [See Plan, p. 10.] "Had he but stood out
+for two days!" say the Saxons,--"Prince Karl had then been up, and much
+might have been different." Well, Friedrich too would have been up,
+and it had most likely been the same on a larger scale. But the Saxon
+Commandant did not stand out; he glided off, safe; joined Rutowski and
+Grune, who are lying about Wilsdruf, six or seven miles on the hither
+side of Dresden, and eagerly waiting for Prince Karl. "Bridge and Town
+of Meissen are your Majesty's," reports the Old Dessauer that night:
+upon which Friedrich instantly rises, hastening thitherward. Lehwald
+comes across Meissen Bridge, effects the desired junction; and all
+Monday the Old Dessauer defiles through Meissen town and territory;
+continually advances towards Dresden, the Saxons harassing the flanks
+of him a little,--nay in one defile, being sharp strenuous fellows, they
+threw his rear into some confusion; cut off certain carts and prisoners,
+and the life of one brave General, Lieutenant-General Roel, who had
+charge there. "Spurring one's trot into a gallop! This comes of your
+fast marching, of your spurring beyond the rules of war!" thinks Old
+Leopold; and Friedrich, who knows otherwise, is very angry for a moment.
+
+But indeed the crisis is pressing. Prince Karl is across the Metal
+Mountains, nearing Dresden from the east; Friedrich strikes into march
+for the same point by Meissen, so soon as the Bridge is his. Old Leopold
+is advancing thither from the westward,--steadily hour by hour; Dresden
+City the fateful goal. There,--in these middle days of December, 1745
+(Highland Rebellion just whirling back from Derby again, "the London
+shops shut for one day"),--it is clear there will be a big and bloody
+game played before we are much older. Very sad indeed: but Count Bruhl
+is not persuadable otherwise. By slumbering and sluggarding, over their
+money-tills and flesh-pots; trying to take evil for good, and to say,
+"It will do," when it will not do, respectable Nations come at last
+to be governed by Bruhls; cannot help themselves;--and get their backs
+broken in consequence. Why not? Would you have a Nation live forever
+that is content to be governed by Bruhls? The gods are wiser!--It is now
+the 13th; Old Dessauer tramping forward, hour by hour, towards Dresden
+and some field of Fate.
+
+On Tuesday, 14th, by break of day, Old Dessauer gets on march again;
+in four columns, in battle order; steady all day,--hard winter weather,
+ground crisp, and flecked with snow. The Pass at Neustadt, "his cavalry
+went into it at full gallop;" but found nobody there. That night
+he encamps at a place called Rohrsdorf; which may be eight miles
+west-by-north from Dresden, as the crow flies; and ten or more, if you
+follow the highway round by Wilsdruf on your right. The real direct
+Highway from Meissen to Dresden is on the other side of the Elbe, and
+keeps by the River-bank, a fine level road; but on this western side,
+where Leopold now is, the road is inland, and goes with a bend. Leopold,
+of course, keeps command of this road; his columns are on both sides of
+it, River on their left at some miles distance; and incessantly expect
+to find Rutowski, drawn out on favorable ground somewhere. The country
+is of fertile, but very broken character; intersected by many
+brooks, making obliquely towards the Elbe (obliquely, with a leaning
+Meissen-wards); country always mounting, till here about Rohrsdorf we
+seem to have almost reached the watershed, and the brooks make for the
+Elbe, leaning Dresden way. Good posts abound in such broken country,
+with its villages and brooks, with its thickets, hedges and patches of
+swamp. But Rutowski has not appeared anywhere, during this Tuesday.
+
+Our four columns, therefore, lie all night, under arms, about Rohrsdorf:
+and again by morrow's dawn are astir in the old order, crunching far
+and wide the frozen ground; and advance, charged to the muzzle with
+potential battle. Slightly upwards always, to the actual watershed
+of the country; leaving Wilsdruf a little to their right. Wilsdruf is
+hardly past, when see, from this broad table-land, top of the country:
+"Yonder is Rutowski, at last;--and this new Wednesday will be a day!"
+Yonder, sure enough: drawn out three or four miles long; with his
+right to the Elbe, his left to that intricate Village of Kesselsdorf;
+bristling with cannon; deep gullet and swampy brook in front of him: the
+strongest post a man could have chosen in those parts.
+
+The Village of Kesselsdorf itself lies rather in a hollow; in the slight
+beginning, or uppermost extremity, of a little Valley or Dell, called
+the Tschonengrund,--which, with its quaggy brook of a Tschone, wends
+northeastward into the Elbe, a course of four or five miles: a little
+Valley very deep for its length, and getting altogether chasmy and
+precipitous towards the Elbe-ward or lower end. Kesselsdorf itself,
+as we said, is mainly in a kind of hollow: between Old Leopold and
+Kesselsdorf the ground rather mounts; and there is perceptibly a flat
+knoll or rise at the head of it, where the Village begins. Some trees
+there, and abundance of cannon and grenadiers at this moment. It is the
+southwestern or left-most point of Rutowski's line; impregnable with
+its cannon-batteries and grenadiers. Rightward Rutowski extends in long
+lines, with the quaggy-dell of Tschonengrund in front of him, parallel
+to him; Dell ever deepening as it goes. Northeastward, at the extreme
+right, or Elbe point of it, where Grune and the Austrians stand, it has
+grown so chasmy, we judge that Grune can neither advance nor be
+
+MAP/PLAN GOES HERE--book 15 continuation --page 10--
+
+advanced upon:e,--which he did all day,
+in a purely meditative posture. Rutowski numbers 35,000, now on this
+ground, with immensity of cannon; 32,000 we, with only the usual
+field-artillery, and such a Tschonengrund, with its half-frozen
+quagmires ahead. A ticklish case for the old man, as he grimly
+reconnoitres it, in the winter morning.
+
+Grim Old Dessauer having reconnoitred, and rapidly considered, decides
+to try it,--what else?--will range himself on the west side of that
+Tschonengrund, horse and foot; two lines, wide as Rutowski opposite him;
+but means to direct his main and prime effort against Kesselsdorf, which
+is clearly the key of the position, if it can be taken. For which end
+the Old Dessauer lengthens himself out to rightward, so as to outflank
+Kesselsdorf;--neglecting Grune (refusing Grune, as the soldiers
+say):--"our horse of the right wing reached from the Wood called
+Lerchenbusoh (LARCH-BUSH) rightward as far as Freyberg road; foot
+all between that Lerchenbusch and the big Birch-tree on the road to
+Wilsdruf; horse of the left wing, from there to Roitsch." [Stille (p.
+181), who was present. See Plan.] It was about two P.M. before the old
+man got all his deployments completed; what corps of his, deploying this
+way or that, came within wind of Kesselsdorf, were saluted with cannon,
+thirty pieces or more, which are in battery, in three batteries, on the
+knoll there; but otherwise no fighting as yet. At two, the Old Dessauer
+is complete; he reverently doffs his hat, as had always been his wont,
+in prayer to God, before going in. A grim fervor of prayer is in his
+heart, doubtless; though the words as reported are not very regular or
+orthodox: "O HERR GOTT, help me yet this once; let me not be disgraced
+in my old days! Or if thou wilt not help me, don't help those HUNDSVOGTE
+[damned Scoundrels, so to speak], but leave us to try it ourselves!"
+That is the Old Scandinavian of a Dessauer's prayer; a kind of GODUR
+he too, Priest as well as Captain: Prayer mythically true as given;
+mythically, not otherwise. [Ranke, iii. 334 n.] Which done, he waves his
+hat once, "On, in God's name!" and the storm is loose. Prussian right
+wing pushing grandly forward, bent in that manner, to take Kesselsdorf
+and its fire-throats in flank.
+
+The Prussians tramp on with the usual grim-browed resolution, foot
+in front, horse in rear; but they have a terrible problem at that
+Kesselsdorf, with its retrenched batteries, and numerous grenadiers
+fighting under cover. The very ground is sore against them; uphill, and
+the trampled snow wearing into a slide, so that you sprawl and stagger
+sadly. Thirty-one big guns, and about 9,000 small, pouring out mere
+death on you, from that knoll-head. The Prussians stagger; cannot stand
+it; bend to rightwards, and get out of shot-range; cannot manage it
+this bout. Rally, reinforce; try it again. Again, with a will; but again
+there is not a way. The Prussians are again repulsed; fall back, down
+this slippery course, in more disorder than the first time. Had the
+Saxons stood still, steadily handling arms, how, on such terms, could
+the Prussians ever have managed it?
+
+But at sight of this second repulse, the Saxon grenadiers, and
+especially one battalion of Austrians who were there (the only Austrians
+who fought this day), gave a shout "Victory!"--and in the height of
+their enthusiasm, rushed out, this Austrian battalion first and the
+Saxons after them, to charge these Prussians, and sweep the world clear
+of them. It was the ruin of their battle; a fatal hollaing before you
+are out of the woods. Old Leopold, quick as thought, noticing the thing,
+hurls cavalry on these victorious down-plunging grenadiers; slashes them
+asunder, into mere recoiling whirlpools of ruin; so that "few of
+them got back unwounded;" and the Prussians storming in along with
+them,--aided by ever new Prussians, from beyond the Tschonengrund
+even,--the place was at length carried; and the Saxon battle became
+hopeless.
+
+For, their right being in such hurricane, the Prussians from the
+centre, as we hint, storm forward withal; will not be held back by the
+Tschonengrund. They find the Tschonengrund quaggy in the extreme, "brook
+frozen at the sides, but waist-deep of liquid mud in the centre;" cross
+it, nevertheless, towards the upper part of it,--young Moritz of Dessau
+leading the way, to help his old Father in extremity. They climb the
+opposite side,--quite slippery in places, but "helping one another
+up;"--no Saxons there till you get fairly atop, which was an oversight
+on the Saxon part. Fairly atop, Moritz is saluted by the Saxons with
+diligent musket-volleys; but Moritz also has musket-volleys in him,
+bayonet-charges in him; eager to help his old Papa at this hard pinch.
+Old Papa has the Saxons in flank; sends more and ever more other cavalry
+in on them; and in fact, the right wing altogether storms violently
+through Kesselsdorf, and sweeps it clean. Whole regiments of the Saxons
+are made prisoners; Roel's Light Horse we see there, taking standards;
+cutting violently in to avenge Roel's death, and the affront they had
+at Meissen lately. Furious Moritz on their front, from across the
+Tschonengrund; furious Roel (GHOST of Roel) and others in their flank,
+through Kesselsdorf: no standing for the Saxons longer.
+
+About nightfall,--their horse having made poorish fight, though the foot
+had stood to it like men,--they roll universally away. The Prussian left
+wing of horse are summoned through the Tschonengrund to chase: had there
+remained another hour of daylight, the Saxon Army had been one wide
+ruin. Hidden in darkness, the Saxon Army ebbed confusedly towards
+Dresden: with the loss of 6,000 prisoners and 3,000 killed and wounded:
+a completely beaten Army. It is the last battle the Saxons fought as
+a Nation,--or probably will fight. Battle called of Kesselsdorf:
+Wednesday, 15th December, 1745.
+
+Prince Karl had arrived at Dresden the night before; heard all this
+volleying and cannonading, from the distance; but did not see good to
+interfere at all. Too wide apart, some say; quartered at unreasonably
+distant villages, by some irrefragable ignorant War-clerk of Bruhl's
+appointing,--fatal Bruhl. Others say, his Highness had himself no mind;
+and made excuses that his troops were tired, disheartened by the two
+beatings lately,--what will become of us in case of a third or fourth!
+It is certain, Prince Karl did nothing. Nor has Grime's corps, the
+right wing, done anything except meditate:--it stood there unattacked,
+unattacking; till deep in the dark night, when Rutowski remembered
+it, and sent it order to come home. One Austrian battalion, that of
+grenadiers on the knoll at Kesselsdorf, did actually fight;--and did
+begin that fatal outbreak, and quitting of the post there; "which lost
+the Battle to us!" say the Saxons.
+
+Had those grenadiers stood in their place, there is no Prussian but
+admits that it would have been a terrible business to take Kesselsdorf
+and its batteries. But they did not stand; they rushed out, shouting
+"Victory;" and lost us the battle. And that is the good we have got of
+the sublime Austrian Alliance; and that is the pass our grand scheme
+of Partitioning Prussia has come to? Fatal little Bruhl of the three
+hundred and sixty-five clothes-suits; Valet fatally become divine in
+Valet-hood,--are not you costing your Country dear!
+
+Old Dessauer, glorious in the last of his fields, lay on his arms all
+night in the posts about; three bullets through his roquelaure, no
+scratch of wound upon the old man. Young Moritz too "had a bullet
+through his coat-skirt, and three horses shot under him; but no hurt,
+the Almighty's grace preserving him." [_Feldzuge,_i. 434.] This Moritz
+is the Third of the Brothers, age now thirty-three; and we shall hear
+considerably about him in times coming. A lean, tall, austere man; and,
+"of all the Brothers, most resembled his Father in his ways." Prince
+Dietrich is in Leipzig at present; looking to that contribution of
+50,000 pounds; to that, and to other contributions and necessary
+matters;--and has done all his fighting (as it chanced), though he
+survived his Brothers many years. Old Papa will now get his discharge
+before long (quite suddenly, one morning, by paralytic stroke, 7th
+April, 1747); and rest honorably with the Sons of Thor. [Young Leopold,
+the successor, died 16th December, 1751, age fifty-two; Dietrich (who
+had thereupon quitted soldiering, to take charge of his Nephew left
+minor, and did not resume it), died 2d December, 1769; Moritz (soldier
+to the last), 11th April, 1760. See _Militair-Lexikon,_i. 43, 34,
+38,47.]
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XV.--PEACE OF DRESDEN: FRIEDRICH DOES MARCH HOME.
+
+Friedrich himself had got to Meissen, Tuesday, 14th; no enemy on his
+road, or none to speak of: Friedrich was there, or not yet far across,
+all Wednesday; collecting himself, waiting, on the slip, for a signal
+from Old Leopold. Sound of cannon, up the Elbe Dresden-ward, is
+reported there to Friedrich, that afternoon: cannon, sure enough, notes
+Friedrich; and deep dim-rolling peals, as of volleying small-arms;
+"the sky all on fire over there," as the hoar-frosty evening fell. Old
+Leopold busy at it, seemingly. That is the glare of the Old Dessauer's
+countenance; who is giving voice, in that manner, to the earthly and the
+heavenly powers; conquering Peace for us, let us hope!
+
+Friedrich, as may be supposed, made his best speed next morning: "All
+well!" say the messengers; all well, says Old Leopold, whom he meets
+at Wilsdruf, and welcomes with a joyful embrace; "dismounting from his
+horse, at sight of Leopold, and advancing to meet him with doffed hat
+and open arms,"--and such words and treatments, that day, as made the
+old man's face visibly shine. "Your Highness shall conduct me!" And the
+two made survey together of the actual Field of Kesselsdorf; strewn with
+the ghastly wrecks of battle,--many citizens of Dresden strolling about,
+or sorrowfully seeking for their lost ones among the wounded and dead.
+No hurt to these poor citizens, who dread none; help to them rather:
+such is Friedrich's mind,--concerning which, in the Anecdote-Books,
+there are Narratives (not worth giving) of a vapidly romantic character,
+credible though inexact. [For the indisputable pa so we leave him
+standing therrt, see Orlich, ii. 343, 344; and _OEuvres de
+Frederic,_ iii. 170.] Friedrich, who may well be profuse of thanks and
+praises, charms the Old Dessauer while they walk together; brave old man
+with his holed roquelaure. For certain, he has done the work there,--a
+great deal of work in his time! Joy looks through his old rough face, of
+gunpowder color: the Herr Gott has not delivered him to those damned
+Scoundrels in the end of his days.--On the morrow, Friday, Leopold
+rolled grandly forward upon Dresden; Rutowski and Prince Karl vanishing
+into the Metal Mountains, by Pirna, for Bohemia, at sound of him,--as he
+had scarcely hoped they would.
+
+On the Saturday evening, Dresden, capable of not the least defence, has
+opened all its gates, and Friedrich and the Prussians are in Dresden;
+Austrians and wrecked Saxons falling back diligently towards the Metal
+Mountains for Bohemia, diligent to clear the road for him. Queen and
+Junior Princes are here; to whom, as to all men, Friedrich is courtesy
+itself; making personal visit to the Royalties, appointing guards of
+honor, sacred respect to the Royal Houses; himself will lodge at the
+Princess Lubomirski's, a private mansion.
+
+"That ferocious, false, ambitious King of Prussia"--Well, he is not to
+be ruined in open fight, on the contrary is ruinous there; nor by the
+cunningest ambuscades, and secret combinations, in field or cabinet: our
+overwhelming Winter Invasion of him--see where it has ended! Bruhl and
+Polish Majesty--the nocturnal sky all on fire in those parts, and loud
+general doomsday come--are a much-illuminated pair of gentlemen.
+
+From the time Meissen Bridge was lost, Prince Karl too showing himself
+so languid, even Bruhl had discerned that the case was desperate. On the
+very day of Kesselsdorf,--not the day BEFORE, which would have been
+such a thrift to Bruhl and others!--Friedrich had a Note from Villiers,
+signifying joyfully that his Polish Majesty would accept Peace. Thanks
+to his Polish Majesty:--and after Kesselsdorf, perhaps the Empress-Queen
+too will! Friedrich's offers are precisely what they were, what they
+have always been: "Convention of Hanover; that, in all its parts; old
+treaty of Breslau, to be guaranteed, to be actually kept. To me Silesia
+sure;--from you, Polish Majesty, one million crowns as damages for
+the trouble and cost this Triple Ambuscade of yours has given me; one
+million crowns, 150,000 pounds we will say; and all other requisitions
+to cease on the day of signature. These are my terms: accept these; then
+wholly, As you were, Empress-Queen and you, and all surviving creatures:
+and I march home within a week." Villiers speeds rapidly from Prag, with
+the due olive-branch; with Count Harrach, experienced Austrian, and full
+powers. Harrach cannot believe his senses: "Such the terms to be still
+granted, after all these beatings and rebeatings!"--then at last does
+believe, with stiff thankfulness and Austrian bows. The Negotiation need
+not occupy many hours.
+
+"His Majesty of Prussia was far too hasty with this Peace," says Valori:
+"he had taken a threap that he would have it finished before the Year
+was done:"--in fact, he knows his own mind, MON GROS VALORI, and that
+is what few do. You shear through no end of cobwebs with that fine
+implement, a wisely fixed resolution of your own. A Peace slow enough
+for Valori and the French: where could that be looked for?--Valori is at
+Berlin, in complete disgrace; his Most Christian King having behaved so
+like a Turk of late. Valori, horror-struck at such Peace, what shall
+he do to prevent it, to retard it? One effort at least. D'Arget his
+Secretary, stolen at Jaromirz, is safe back to him; ingenious, ingenuous
+D'Arget was always a favorite with Friedrich: despatch D'Arget to
+him. D'Arget is despatched; with reasons, with remonstrances, with
+considerations. D'Arget's Narrative is given: an ingenuous off-hand
+Piece;--poor little crevice, through which there is still to be had,
+singularly clear, and credible in every point, a direct glimpse of
+Friedrich's own thoughts, in that many-sounding Dresden,--so loud,
+that week, with dinner-parties, with operas, balls, Prussian war-drums,
+grand-parades and Peace-negotiations.
+
+
+        THE SIEUR D'ARGET TO EXCELLENCY VALORI (at Berlin).
+
+                     "DRESDEN, 1745" (dateless otherwise, must be
+                           December, between 18th and 25th).
+"MONSEIGNEUR,--I arrived yesterday at 7 P.M.; as I had the honor of
+forewarning you, by the word I wrote to the Abbe [never mind what Abbe;
+another Valori-Clerk] from Sonnenwalde [my half-way house between Berlin
+and this City]. I went, first of all, to M. de Vaugrenand," our Envoy
+here; "who had the goodness to open himself to me on the Business now
+on hand. In my opinion, nothing can be added to the excellent
+considerations he has been urging on the King of Prussia and the Count
+de Podewils.
+
+"At half-past 8, I went to his Prussian Majesty's; I found he was
+engaged with his Concert,"--lodges in the Lubomirski Palace, has his
+snatch of melody in the evening of such discordant days,--"and I could
+not see him till after half-past 9. I announced myself to M. Eichel; he
+was too overwhelmed with affairs to give me audience. I asked for Count
+Rothenburg; he was at cards with the Princess Lubomirski. At last, I did
+get to the King: who received me in the most agreeable way; but was just
+going to Supper; said he must put off answering till to-morrow morning,
+morning of this day. M. de Vaugrenand had been so good as prepare me on
+the rumors of a Peace with Saxony and the Queen of Hungary. I went to M.
+Podewils; who said a great many kind things to me for you. I could only
+sketch out the matter, at that time; and represented to Podewils the
+brilliant position of his Master, who had become Arbiter of the Peace
+of Europe; that the moment was come for making this Peace a General One,
+and that perhaps there would be room for repentance afterwards, if the
+opportunity were slighted. He said, his Master's object was that same;
+and thus closed the conversation by general questions.
+
+"This morning, I again presented myself at the King of Prussia's. I had
+to wait, and wait; in fine, it was not till half-past 5 in the evening
+that he returned, or gave me admittance; and I stayed with him till
+after 7,"--when Concert-time was at hand again. Listen to a remarkable
+Dialogue, of the Conquering Hero with a humble Friend whom he likes.
+"His Majesty condescended (A DAIGNE) to enter with me into all manner of
+details; and began by telling me,
+
+"That M. de Valori had done admirably not to come, himself, with that
+Letter from the King [Most Christian, OUR King; Letter, the sickly
+Document above spoken of]; that there could not have been an Answer
+expected,--the Letter being almost of ironical strain; his Majesty [Most
+Christian] not giving him the least hope, but merely talking of his fine
+genius, and how that would extricate him from the perilous entanglement,
+and inspire him with a wise resolution in the matter! That he had, in
+effect, taken a resolution the wisest he could; and was making his Peace
+with Saxony and the Queen of Hungary. That he had felt all the dangers
+of the difficult situations he had been in,"--sheer destruction
+yawning all round him, in huge imminency, more than once, and no
+friend heeding;--"that, weary of playing always double-or-quits, he had
+determined to end it, and get into a state of tranquillity, which both
+himself and his People had such need of. That France could not, without
+difficulty, have remedied his mishaps; and that he saw by the King's
+Letter, there was not even the wish to do it. That his, Friedrich's,
+military career was completed,"--so far as HE could foresee or
+decide! "That he would not again expose his Country to the Caprices of
+Fortune, whose past constancy to him was sufficiently astonishing to
+raise fears of a reverse (HEAR!). That his ambitions were fulfilled, in
+having compelled his Enemies to ask Peace from him in their own Capital,
+with the Chancellor of Bohemia [Harrach, typifying fallen Austrian
+pride] obliged to co-operate.
+
+"That he would always be attached to our King's interests, and set
+all the value in the world on his friendship; but that he had not been
+sufficiently assisted to be content. That, observing henceforth an
+exact neutrality, he might be enabled to do offices of mediation; and to
+carry, to the one side and to the other, words of peace. That he offered
+himself for that object, and would be charmed to help in it; but that he
+was fixed to stop there. That in regard to the basis of General Peace,
+he had Two Ideas [which the reader can attend to, and see where they
+differed from the Event, and where not]:--One was, That France should
+keep Ypres, Furnes, Tournay [which France did not], giving up the
+Netherlands otherwise, with Ostend, to the English [to the English!]
+in exchange for Cape Breton. The other was, To give up more of our
+Conquests [we gave them all up, and got only the glory, and our
+Cod-fishery, Cape Breton, back, the English being equally generous], and
+bargain for liberty to re-establish Dunkirk in its old condition [not
+a word of your Dunkirk; there is your Cape Breton, and we also will go
+home with what glory there is,--not difficult to carry!]. But that it
+was by England we must make the overtures, without addressing ourselves
+to the Court of Vienna; and put it in his, Friedrich's, power to propose
+a receivable Project of Peace. That he well conceived the great point
+was the Queen of Spain [Termagant and Jenkins's Ear; Termagant's
+Husband, still living, is a lappet of Termagant's self]: but that she
+must content herself with Parma and Piacenza for the Infant, Don Philip
+[which the Termagant did]; and give back her hold of Savoy [partial
+hold, of no use to her without the Passes] to the King of Sardinia." And
+of the JENKINS'S-EAR question, generous England will say nothing? Next
+to nothing; hopes a modicum of putty and diplomatic varnish may close
+that troublesome question,--which springs, meanwhile, in the centre of
+the world!--
+
+"These kind condescensions of his Majesty emboldened me to represent to
+him the brilliant position he now held; and how noble it would be,
+after having been the Hero of Germany, to become, instead of one's own
+pacificator, the Pacificator of Europe. 'I grant you,' said he, (MON
+CHER D'Arget; but it is too dangerous a part for playing. A reverse
+brings me to the edge of ruin: I know too well the mood of mind I
+was in, last time I left Berlin with that Three-legged Immensity of
+Atropos, NOT yet mown down at Hennersdorf by a lucky cut), ever to
+expose myself to it again! If luck had been against me there, I saw
+myself a Monarch without throne; and my subjects in the cruelest
+oppression. A bad game that: always, mere CHECK TO YOUR KING; no other
+move;--I refer it to you, friend D'Arget:--in fine, I wish to be at
+peace.'
+
+"I represented to him that the House of Austria would never, with a
+tranquil eye, see his House in possession of Silesia. 'Those that come
+after me,' said he, 'will do as they like; the Future is beyond man's
+reach. Those that come after will do as they can. I have acquired; it is
+theirs to preserve. I am not in alarm about the Austrians;--and this
+is my answer to what you have been saying about the weakness of my
+guarantees. They dread my Army; the luck that I have. I am sure of
+their sitting quiet for the dozen years or so which may remain to me of
+life;--quiet till I have, most likely, done with it. What! Are we never
+to have any good of our life, then (NE DOIS-JE DONC JAMAIS JOUIR)? There
+is more for me in the true greatness of laboring for the happiness of
+my subjects, than in the repose of Europe. I have put Saxony out of a
+condition to do hurt. She owes 14,775,000 crowns of debt [two millions
+and a quarter sterling]; and by the Defensive Alliance which I form with
+her, I provide myself [but ask Bruhl withal!] a help against Austria. I
+would not henceforth attack a cat, except to defend myself.' ["These
+are his very words," adds D'Arget;--and well worth noting.] (Ambition
+(GLOIRE) and my interests were the occasion of my first Campaigns.
+The late Kaiser's situation, and my zeal for France [not to mention
+interests again], gave rise to these second: and I have been fighting
+always since for my own hearths,--for my very existence, I might say!
+Once more, I know the state I had got into:--if I saw Prince Karl at
+the gates of Paris, I would not stir.'--'And us at the gates of Vienna,'
+answered I promptly, 'with the same indifference?'--'Yes; and I swear
+it to you, D'Arget. In a word, I want to have some good of my life (VEUX
+JOUIR). What are we, poor human atoms, to get up projects that cost so
+much blood? Let us live, and help to live.'
+
+"The rest of the conversation passed in general talk, about Literature,
+Theatres and such objects. My reasonings and objectings, on the great
+matter, I need not farther detail: by the frank discourse his Prussian
+Majesty was kind enough to go into, you may gather perhaps that my
+arguments were various, and not ill-chosen;--and it is too evident they
+have all been in vain."--Your Excellency's (really in a very faithful
+way)-- D'ARGET. [Valori, i. 290-294 (no date, except "Dresden,
+1745,"--sleepy Editor feeling no want of any).]
+
+D'Arget, about a month after this, was taken into Friedrich's service;
+Valori consenting, whose occupation was now gone;--and we shall hear of
+D'Arget again. Take this small Note, as summary of him: "D'Arget (18th
+January, 1746) had some title, 'Secretary at Orders (SECRETAIRE DES
+COMMANDEMENTS),' bit of pension; and continued in the character of
+reader, or miscellaneous literary attendant and agent, very much liked
+by his Master, for six years coming. A man much heard of, during those
+years of office. March, 1752, having lost his dear little Prussian Wife,
+and got into ill health and spirits, he retired on leave to Paris; and
+next year had to give up the thought of returning;--though he still, and
+to the end, continued loyally attached to his old Master, and more
+or less in correspondence with him. Had got, before long, not through
+Friedrich's influence at Paris, some small Appointment in the ECOLE
+MILITAIRE there. He is, of all the Frenchmen Friedrich had about him,
+with the exception of D'Argens alone, the most honest-hearted. The above
+Letter, lucid, innocent, modest, altogether rational and practical, is
+a fair specimen of D'Arget: add to it the prompt self-sacrifice (and in
+that fine silent way) at Jaromirz for Valori, and readers may conceive
+the man. He lived at Paris, in meagre but contented fashion, RUE
+DE L'ECOLE MILITAIRE, till 1778; and seems, of all the Ex-Prussian
+Frenchmen, to have known most about Friedrich; and to have never spoken
+any falsity against him. Duvernet, the 'M----' Biographer of VOLTAIRE,
+frequented him a good deal; and any true notions, or glimmerings of
+such, that he has about Prussia, are probably ascribable to D'Arget."
+[See _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xx. (p. xii of PREFACE to the D'ARGET
+CORRESPONDENCE there).]
+
+The Treaty of Dresden can be read in Scholl, Flassan, Rousset, Adelung;
+but, except on compulsion, no creature will now read it,--nor did this
+Editor, even he, find it pay. Peace is made. Peace of Dresden is signed,
+Christmas Day, 1745: "To me Silesia, without farther treachery or trick;
+you, wholly as you were." Europe at large, as Friedrich had done, sees
+"the sky all on fire about Dresden." The fierce big battles done against
+this man have, one and all of them, become big defeats. The strenuous
+machinations, high-built plans cunningly devised,--the utmost sum-total
+of what the Imperial and Royal Potencies can, for the life of them, do:
+behold, it has all tumbled down here, in loud crash; the final peal of
+it at Kesselsdorf; and the consummation is flame and smoke, conspicuous
+over all the Nations. You will let him keep his own henceforth, then,
+will you? Silesia, which was NOT yours nor ever shall be? Silesia and
+no afterthought? The Saxons sign, the high Plenipotentiaries all; in the
+eyes of Villiers, I am told, were seen sublimely pious tears.
+Harrach, bowing with stiff, almost incredulous, gratitude, swears and
+signs;--hurries home to his Sovereign Lady, with Peace, and such a smile
+on his face; and on her Imperial Majesty's such a smile!--readers shall
+conceive it.
+
+There are but Two new points in the Treaty of Dresden,--nay properly
+there is but One point, about which posterity can have the least care
+or interest; for that other, concerning "The Toll of Schidlo," and
+settlement of haggles on the Navigation of the Elbe there, was not
+kept by the Saxons, but continued a haggle still: this One point is
+the Eleventh Article. Inconceivably small; but liable to turn up on
+us again, in a memorable manner. That let us translate,--for M.
+de Voltaire's sake, and time coming! STEUER means Land-Tax;
+OBER-STEUER-EINNAHME will be something like Royal Exchequer, therefore;
+and STEUER-SCHEIN will be approximately equivalent to Exchequer Bill.
+Article Eleventh stipulates:
+
+"All subjects and servants of his Majesty the King of Prussia who hold
+bonds of the Saxon OBER-STEUER-EINNAHME shall be paid in full, capital
+and interest, at the times, and to the amount, specified in said
+STEUER-SCHEINE or Bonds." That is Article Eleventh.--"The Saxon
+Exchequer," says an old Note on it, "thanks to Bruhl's extravagance, has
+been as good as bankrupt, paying with inconvertible paper, with SCHEINE
+(Things to be SHOWN), for some time past; which paper has accordingly
+sunk, let us say, 25 per cent below its nominal amount in gold. All
+Prussian subjects, who hold these Bonds, are to be paid in gold; Saxons,
+and others, will have to be content with paper till things come round
+again, if things ever do." Yes;--and, by ill chance, the matter will
+attract M. de Voltaire's keen eye in the interim!
+
+Friedrich stayed eight days in Dresden, the loud theme of Gazetteers and
+rumors; the admired of two classes, in all Countries: of the many who
+admire success, and also of the few who can understand what it is to
+deserve success. Among his own Countrymen, this last Winter has kindled
+all their admirations to the flaming pitch. Saved by him from imminent
+destruction; their enemies swept home as if by one invincible; nay, sent
+home in a kind of noble shame, conquered by generosity. These feelings,
+though not encouraged to speak, run very high. The Dresdeners in private
+society found him delightful; the high ladies especially: "Could you
+have thought it; terrific Mars to become radiant Apollo in this manner!"
+From considerable Collections of Anecdotes illustrating this fact, in a
+way now fallen vapid to us,--I select only the Introduction:--
+
+"Do readers recollect Friedrich's first visit to Dresden [in 1728],
+seventeen years ago; and a certain charming young Countess Flemming,
+at that time only fourteen; who, like a Hebe as she was, contrived
+beautiful surprises for him, and among other things presented him, so
+gracefully, on the part of August the Strong, with his first flute?"--No
+reader of this History can recollect it; nor indeed, except in a
+mythic sense, believe it! A young Countess Flemming (daughter of old
+Feldmarschall Flemming) doubtless there might be, who presented him a
+flute; but as to HIS FIRST flute--? "That same charming young Countess
+Flemming is still here, age now thirty-one; charming, more than ever,
+though now under a changed name; having wedded a Von Racknitz (Supreme
+Gentleman-Usher, or some such thing) a few years ago, and brought him
+children and the usual felicities. How much is changed! August the
+Strong, where is he; and his famous Three Hundred and Fifty-four,
+Enchantress Orzelska and the others, where are they? Enchantress
+Orzelska wedded, quarrelled, and is in a convent: her charming destiny
+concluded. Rutowski is not now in the Prussian Army: he got beaten,
+Wednesday last, at Kesselsdorf, fighting against that Army. And the
+Chevalier de Saxe, he too was beaten there;--clambering now across the
+Metal Mountains, ask not of him. And the Marechal de Saxe, he takes
+Cities, fights Battles of Fontenoy, 'mumbling a lead bullet all day;'
+being dropsical, nearly dead of debaucheries; the most dissolute (or
+probably so) of all the Sons of Adam in his day. August the Physically
+Strong is dead. August the Spiritually Weak is fled to Prag with his
+Bruhl. And we do not come, this time, to get a flute; but to settle
+the account of Victories, and give Peace to Nations. Strange, here as
+always, to look back,--to look round or forward,--in the mad huge whirl
+of that loud-roaring Loom of Time!--One of Countess Racknitz's
+Sons happened to leave MANUSCRIPT DIARIES [rather feeble, not too
+exact-looking], and gives us, from Mamma's reminiscences"... Not a word
+more. [Rodenbeck, _Beitrage,_ i. 440, et seq.]
+
+The Peace, we said, was signed on Christmas-day. Next day, Sunday,
+Friedrich attended Sermon in the Kreuzkirche (Protestant High-Church of
+Dresden), attended Opera withal; and on Monday morning had vanished
+out of Dresden, as all his people had done, or were diligently doing.
+Tuesday, he dined briefly at Wusterhausen (a place we once knew well),
+with the Prince of Prussia, whose it now is; got into his open carriage
+again, with the said Prince and his other Brother Ferdinand; and drove
+swiftly homeward. Berlin, drunk with joy, was all out on the streets,
+waiting. On the Heath of Britz, four or five miles hitherward of Berlin,
+a body of young gentlemen ("Merchants mostly, who had ridden out so
+far") saluted him with "VIVAT FRIEDRICH DER GROSSE (Long live Friedrich
+THE GREAT)!" thrice over;--as did, in a less articulate manner, Berlin
+with one voice, on his arrival there; Burgher Companies lining the
+streets; Population vigorously shouting; Pupils of the Koln Gymnasium,
+with Clerical and School Functionaries in mass, breaking out into Latin
+Song:--
+
+     "VIVAT, VIVAT FRIDERICUS REX;
+     VIVAT AUGUSTUS, MAGNUS, FELIX, PATER, PATRI-AE--!"
+
+--and what not. [Preuss, i. 220; who cites _Beschreibung_ ("Description
+of his Majesty's Triumphant Entry, on the" &c.) and other Contemporary
+Pamphlets. Rodenbeck, i. 124.] On reaching the Portal of the Palace,
+his Majesty stept down; and, glancing round the Schloss-Platz and the
+crowded windows and simmering multitudes, saluted, taking off his hat;
+which produced such a shout,--naturally the loudest of all. And so EXIT
+King, into his interior. Tuesday, 2-3 P.M., 28th December, 1745: a King
+new-christened in the above manner, so far as people could.
+
+Illuminated Berlin shone like noon, all that night (the beginning of a
+GAUDEAMUS which lasted miscellaneously for weeks):--but the King stole
+away to see a friend who was dying; that poor Duhan de Jaudun, his early
+Schoolmaster, who had suffered much for him, and whom he always much
+loved. Duhan died, in a day or two. Poor Jordan, poor Keyserling (the
+"Cesarion" of young days): them also he has lost; and often laments, in
+this otherwise bright time. (In _OEuvres,_ xvii. 288; xviii. 141; IB.
+142--painfully tender Letters to Frau von Camas and others, on these
+events).
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia,
+Vol. XV. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle
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