History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 12
by
Thomas Carlyle
Part 1 out of 4
Prepared by D.R. Thompson
Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia"
Book XII
Processed by D.R. Thompson
drthom@ihug.co.nz
BOOK XII.
FIRST SILESIAN WAR, AWAKENING A GENERAL
EUROPEAN ONE, BEGINS.
December, 1740-May, 1741.
Chapter I.
OF SCHLESIEN, OR SILESIA.
Schlesien, what we call Silesia, lies in elliptic shape, spread on
the top of Europe, partly girt with mountains, like the crown or
crest to that part of the Earth;--highest table-land of Germany or
of the Cisalpine Countries; and sending rivers into all the seas.
The summit or highest level of it is in the southwest; longest
diameter is from northwest to southeast. From Crossen, whither
Friedrich is now driving, to the Jablunka Pass, which issues upon
Hungary, is above 250 miles; the AXIS, therefore, or longest
diameter, of our Ellipse we may call 230 English miles;--its
shortest or conjugate diameter, from Friedland in Bohemia
(Wallenstein's old Friedland), by Breslau across the Oder to the
Polish Frontier, is about 100. The total area of Schlesien is
counted to be some 20,000 square miles, nearly the third of
England Proper.
Schlesien--will the reader learn to call it by that name, on
occasion? for in these sad Manuscripts of ours the names alternate
--is a fine, fertile, useful and beautiful Country. It leans
sloping, as we hinted, to the East and to the North; a long curved
buttress of Mountains ("RIESENGEBIRGE, Giant Mountains," is their
best-known name in foreign countries) holding it up on the South
and West sides. This Giant-Mountain Range,--which is a kind of
continuation of the Saxon-Bohemian "Metal Mountains (ERZGEBIRGE)"
and of the straggling Lausitz Mountains, to westward of these,
--shapes itself like a bill-hook (or elliptically, as was said):
handle and hook together may be some 200 miles in length.
The precipitous side of this is, in general, turned outwards,
towards Bohmen, Mahren, Ungarn (Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, in our
dialects); and Schlesien lies inside, irregularly sloping down,
towards the Baltic and towards the utmost East, From the Bohemian
side of these Mountains there rise two Rivers: Elbe, tending for
the West; Morawa for the South;--Morawa, crossing Moravia, gets
into the Donau, and thence into the Black-Sea; while Elbe, after
intricate adventures among the mountains, and then prosperously
across the plains, is out, with its many ships, into the Atlantic.
Two rivers, we say, from the Bohemian or steep side: and again,
from the Silesian side, there rise other two, the Oder and the
Weichsel (VISTULA); which start pretty near one another in the
Southeast, and, after wide windings, get both into the Baltic, at a
good distance apart.
For the first thirty, or in parts, fifty miles from the Mountains,
Silesia slopes somewhat rapidly; and is still to be called a
Hill-country, rugged extensive elevations diversifying it: but
after that, the slope is gentle, and at length insensible, or
noticeable only by the way the waters run. From the central part of
it, Schlesien pictures itself to you as a plain; growing ever
flatter, ever sandier, as it abuts on the monotonous endless
sand-flats of Poland, and the Brandenburg territories; nothing but
Boundary Stones with their brass inscriptions marking where the
transition is; and only some Fortified Town, not far off, keeping
the door of the Country secure in that quarter.
On the other hand, the Mountain part of Schlesien is very
picturesque; not of Alpine height anywhere (the Schnee-Koppe itself
is under 5,000 feet), so that verdure and forest wood fail almost
nowhere among the Mountains; and multiplex industry, besung by
rushing torrents and the swift young rivers, nestles itself high
up; and from wheat husbandry, madder and maize husbandry, to
damask-weaving, metallurgy, charcoal-burning, tar-distillery,
Schlesien has many trades, and has long been expert and busy at
them to a high degree. A very pretty Ellipsis, or irregular Oval,
on the summit of the European Continent;--"like the palm of a left
hand well stretched out, with the Riesengebirge for thumb!" said a
certain Herr to me, stretching out his arm in that fashion towards
the northwest. Palm, well stretched out, measuring 250 miles; and
the crossway 100. There are still beavers in Schlesien; the
Katzbach River has gold grains in it, a kind of Pactolus not now
worth working; and in the scraggy lonesome pine-woods, grimy
individuals, with kindled mounds of pine-branches and smoke
carefully kept down by sods, are sweating out a substance which
they inform you is to be tar.
HISTORICAL EPOCHS OF SCHLESIEN;--AFTER THE QUADS AND MARCHMEN.
Who first lived in Schlesien, or lived long since in it, there is
no use in asking, nor in telling if one knew. "The QUADI and the
Lygii," says Dryasdust, in a groping manner: Quadi and consorts, in
the fifth or sixth Century, continues he with more confidence,
shifted Rome-ward, following the general track of contemporaneous
mankind; weak remnant of Quadi was thereupon overpowered by Slavic
populations, and their Country became Polish, which the eastern rim
of it still essentially is. That was the end of the Quadi in those
parts, says History. But they cannot speak nor appeal for
themselves; History has them much at discretion. Rude burial urns,
with a handful of ashes in them, have been dug up in different
places; these are all the Archives and Histories the Quadi now
have. It appears their name signifies WICKED. They are those poor
Quadi (WICKED PEOPLE) who always go along with the Marcomanni
(MARCHMEN), in the bead-roll Histories one reads; and I almost
guess they must have been of the same stock: "Wickeds and
Borderers;" considered, on both sides of the Border, to belong to
the Dangerous Classes in those times. Two things are certain:
First, QUAD and its derivatives have, to this day, in the speech of
rustic Germans, something of that meaning,--"nefarious," at least
"injurious," "hateful, and to be avoided:" for example, QUADdel, "a
nettle-burn;" QUETSchen, "to smash" (say, your thumb while
hammering); &c. &c. And then a second thing: The Polish equivalent
word is ZLE (Busching says ZLEXI); hence ZLEzien, SCHLEsien,
meaning merely BADland, QUADland, what we might called DAMAGitia,
or Country where you get into Trouble. That is the etymology, or
what passes for such. As to the History of Schlesien, hitherwards
of these burial urns dug up in different places, I notice, as not
yet entirely buriable, Three Epochs.
FIRST EPOCH; CHRISTIANITY: A.D. 966. Introduction of Christianity;
to the length of founding a Bishopric that year, so hopeful were
the aspects; "Bishopric of Schmoger" (SchMAGram, dim little Village
still discoverable on the Polish frontier, not far from the Town of
Namslau); Bishopric which, after one removal farther inward, got
across the Oder, to "WRUTISLAV," which me now call Breslau; and
sticks there, as Bishopric of Breslau, to this day. Year 966: it
was in Adalbert, our Prussian Saint and Missionary's younger time.
Preaching, by zealous Polacks, must have been going on, while
Adalbert, Bright in Nobleness, was studying at Magdeburg, and
ripening for high things in the general estimation. This was a new
gift from the Polacks, this of Christianity; an infinitely more
important one than that nickname of "ZLEZIEN," or "DAMAGitia,"
stuck upon the poor Country, had been.
SECOND EPOCH; GET GRADUALLY CUT LOOSE FROM POLAND: A.D. 1139-1159.
Twenty years of great trouble in Poland, which were of lasting
benefit to Schlesien. In 1139 the Polack King, a very potent
Majesty whom we could name but do not, died; and left his Dominions
shared by punctual bequest among his five sons. Punctual bequest
did avail: but the eldest Son (who was King, and had Schlesien with
much else to his share) began to encroach, to grasp; upon which the
others rose upon him, flung him out into exile; redivided;
and hoped now they might have quiet. Hoped, but were disappointed;
and could come to no sure bargain for the next twenty years,--not
till "the eldest brother," first author of these strifes, "died an
exile in Holstein," or was just about dying, and had agreed to take
Schlesien for all claims, and be quiet thenceforth.
His, this eldest's, three Sons did accordingly, in 1159, get
Schlesien instead of him; their uncles proving honorable. Schlesien
thereby was happy enough to get cut loose from Poland, and to
continue loose; steering a course of its own;--parting farther and
farther from Poland and its habits and fortunes. These three Sons,
of the late Polish Majesty who died in exile in Holstein, are the
"Piast Dukes," much talked of in Silesian Histories: of whose
merits I specify this only, That they so soon as possible strove to
be German. They were Progenitors of all the "Piast Dukes,"
Proprietors of Schlesien thenceforth, till the last of them died
out in 1675,--and a certain ERBVERBRUDERUNG they had entered into
could not take effect at that time. Their merits as Sovereign Dukes
seem to have been considerable; a certain piety, wisdom and
nobleness of mind not rare among them; and no doubt it was partly
their merit, if partly also their good luck, that they took to
Germany, and leant thitherward; steering looser and looser from
Poland, in their new circumstances. They themselves by degrees
became altogether German; their Countries, by silent immigration,
introduction of the arts, the composures and sobrieties, became
essentially so. On the eastern rim there is still a Polack remnant,
its territories very sandy, its condition very bad; remnant which
surely ought to cease its Polack jargon, and learn some dialect of
intelligible Teutsch, as the first condition of improvement. In all
other parts Teutsch reigns; and Schlesien is a green abundant
Country; full of metallurgy, damask-weaving, grain-husbandry.--
instead of gasconade, gilt anarchy, rags, dirt, and NIE POZWALAM.
A.D. 1327; GET COMPLETELY CUT LOOSE. The Piast Dukes, who soon
ceased to be Polish, and hung rather upon Bohemia, and thereby upon
Germany, made a great step in that direction, when King Johann, old
ICH-DIEN whom we ought to recollect, persuaded most of them, all of
them but two, "PRETIO AC PRECE," to become Feudatories (Quasi-
Feudatories, but of a sovereign sort) to his Crown of Bohemia.
The two who stood out, resisting prayer and price, were the Duke of
Jauer and the Duke of Schweidnitz,--lofty-minded gentlemen, perhaps
a thought too lofty. But these also Johann's son, little Kaiser
Karl IV., "marrying their heiress," contrived to bring in;--one
fruitful adventure of little Karl's, among the many wasteful he
made, in the German Reich. Schlesien is henceforth a bit of the
Kingdom of Bohemia; indissolubly hooked to Germany; and its
progress in the arts and composures, under wise Piasts with
immigrating Germans, we guess to have become doubly rapid.
[Busching, Erdbeschreibung, viii. 725;
Hubner, t. 94.]
THIRD EPOCH; ADOPT THE REFORMATION: A.D. 1414-1517. Schlesien,
hanging to Bohemia in this manner, extensively adopted Huss's
doctrines; still more extensively Luther's; and that was a
difficult element in its lot, though, I believe, an unspeakably
precious one. It cost above a Century of sad tumults, Zisca Wars;
nay above two Centuries, including the sad Thirty-Years War;--which
miseries, in Bohemia Proper, were sometimes very sad and even
horrible. But Schlesien, the outlying Country, did, in all this,
suffer less than Bohemia Proper; and did NOT lose its Evangelical
Doctrine in result, as unfortunate Bohemia did, and sink into
sluttish "fanatical torpor, and big Crucifixes of japanned Tin by
the wayside," though in the course of subsequent years, named of
Peace, it was near doing so. Here are the steps, or unavailing
counter-steps, in that latter direction:--
A.D. 1537. Occurred, as we know, the ERBVERBRUDERUNG; Duke of
Liegnitz, and of other extensive heritages, making Deed of
Brotherhood with Kur-Brandenburg;--Deed forbidden, and so far as
might be, rubbed out and annihilated by the then King of Bohemia,
subsequently Kaiser Ferdinand I., Karl V.'s Brother. Duke of
Liegnitz had to give up his parchments, and become zero in that
matter: Kur-Brandenburg entirely refused to do so; kept his
parchments, to see if they would not turn to something.
A.D. 1624. Schlesien, especially the then Duke of Liegnitz
(great-grandson of the ERBVERBRUDERUNG one), and poor Johann
George, Duke of Jagerndorf, cadet of the then Kur-Brandenburg, went
warmly ahead into the Winter-King project, first fire of the
Thirty-Years War; sufferings from Papal encroachment, in high
quarters, being really extreme. Warmly ahead; and had to smart
sharply for it;--poor Johann George with forfeiture of Jagerndorf,
with REICHES-ACHT (Ban of the Empire), and total ruin; fighting
against which he soon died. Act of Ban and Forfeiture was done
tyrannously, said most men; and it was persisted in equally so,
till men ceased speaking of it;--Jagerndorf Duchy, fruit of the
Act, was held by Austria, ever after, in defiance of the Laws of
the Reich. Religious Oppression lay heavy on Protestant Schlesien
thenceforth; and many lukewarm individualities were brought back to
Orthodoxy by that method, successful in the diligent skilled hands
of Jesuit Reverend Fathers, with fiscals and soldiers in the rear
of them.
A.D. 1648. Treaty of Westphalia mended much of this, and set fair
limits to Papist encroachment;--had said Treaty been kept: but how
could it? By Orthodox Authority, auxious to recover lost souls, or
at least to have loyal subjects, it was publicly kept in name; and
tacitly, in substance, it was violated more and more. Of the
"Blossoming of Silesian Literature," spoken of in Books; of the
Poet Opitz, Poets Logan, Hoffmannswaldau, who burst into a kind of
Song better or worse at this Period, we will remember nothing; but
request the reader to remember it, if he is tunefully given, or
thinks it a good symptom of Schlesien.
A.D. 1707. Treaty of Altranstadt: between Kaiser Joseph I. and Karl
XII. Swedish Karl, marching through those parts,--out of Poland, in
chase of August the Physically Strong, towards Saxony, there to
beat him soft,--was waited upon by Silesian Deputations of a
lamentable nature; was entreated, for the love of Christ and His
Evangel, to "Protect us poor Protestants, and get the Treaty of
Westphalia observed on our behalf, and fair-play shown!" Which Karl
did; Kaiser Joseph, with such weight of French War lying on him,
being much struck with the tone of that dangerous Swede. The Pope
rebuked Kaiser Joseph for such compliance in the Silesian matter:
"Holy Father," answered this Kaiser (not of distinguished orthodoxy
in the House), "I am too glad he did not ask me to become Lutheran;
I know not how I should have helped myself!" [Pauli,
Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Geschichte (viii.
298-592); Busching, Erdbeschreibung (viii.
700-739); &c.--Heinrich Wuttke, Friedrichs des Grossen
Besitzergreifung von Schlesien (Seizure of Silesia by
Friedrich, 2 vols. Leipzig, 1843), I mention only lest ingenuous
readers should be tempted by the Title to buy it. Wuttke begins at
the Creation of the World; and having, in two heavy volumes, at
last struggled down close TO the BESITZERGREIFUNG or Seizure in
question, calls halt; and stands (at ease, we will hope) immovably
there for the seventeen years since.]
These are the Three Epochs;--most things, in respect of this Third
or Reformation Epoch, stepping steadily downward hitherto. As to
the Fourth Epoch, dating "13th Dec. 1740," which continues, up to
our day and farther, and is the final and crowning Epoch of
Silesian History,--read in the following Chapters.
Chapter II.
FRIEDRICH MARCHES ON GLOGAU.
At what hour Friedrich ceased dancing on that famous Ball-night of
Bielfeld's, and how long he slept after, or whether at all, no
Bielfeld even mythically says: but next morning, as is patent to
all the world, Tuesday, 13th December, 1740, at the stroke of nine,
he steps into his carriage; and with small escort rolls away
towards Frankfurt-on-Oder; [ Helden-Geschichte,
italic> i. 452; Preuss, Thronbesteigung,
p. 456.] out upon an Enterprise which will have results for himself
and others.
Two youngish military men, Adjutant-Generals both, were with him,
Wartensleben, Borck; both once fellow Captains in the Potsdam
Giants, and much in his intimacy ever since. Wartensleben we once
saw at Brunswick, on a Masonic occasion; Borck, whom we here see
for the first time, is not the Colonel Borck (properly
Major-General) who did the Herstal Operation lately; still less is
he the venerable old Minister, Marlborough Veteran, and now
Field-Marshal Borck, whom Hotham treated with, on a certain
occasion. There are numerous Borcks always in the King's service;
nor are these three, except by loose cousinry, related to one
another. The Borcks all come from Stettin quarter; a brave kindred,
and old enough,--"Old as the Devil, DAS IST SO OLD ALS DE BORCKEN
UND DE DUWEL," says the Pomeranian Proverb;-- the Adjutant-General,
a junior member of the clan, chances to be the notablest of them at
this moment. Wartensleben, Borck, and a certain Colonel von der
Golz, whom also the King much esteems, these are his company on
this drive. For escort, or guard of honor out of Berlin to the next
stages, there is a small body of Hussars, Life-guard and other
Cavalry, "perhaps 500 horse in all."
They drive rapidly, through the gray winter; reach Frankfurt-on-
Oder, sixty miles or more; where no doubt there is military
business waiting. They are forward, on the morrow, for dinner,
forty miles farther, at a small Town called Crossen, which looks
over into Silesia; and is, for the present, headquarters to a
Prussian Army, standing ready there and in the environs.
Standing ready, or hourly marching in, and rendezvousing; now about
28,000 strong, horse and foot. A Rearguard of Ten or Twelve
Thousand will march from Berlin in two days, pause hereabouts, and
follow according to circumstances: Prussian Army will then be some
40,000 in all. Schwerin has been Commander, manager and mainspring
of the business hitherto: henceforth it is to be the King;
but Schwerin under him will still have a Division of his own.
Among the Regiments, we notice "Schulenburg Horse-Grenadiers,"
--come along from Landsberg hither, these Horse-Grenadiers, with
little Schulenburg at the head of them;--"Dragoon Regiment
Bayreuth," "Lifeguard Carbineers," "Derschau of Foot;" and other
Regiments and figures slightly known to us, or that will be better
known. [List in Helden-Geschichte, i. 453.]
Rearguard, just getting under way at Berlin, has for leaders the
Prince of Holstein-Beck ("Holstein-VAISSELLE," say wags, since the
Principality went all to SILVER-PLATE) and the Hereditary Prince of
Anhalt-Dessau, whom we called the Young Dessauer, on the Strasburg
Journey lately: Rearguard, we say, is of 12,000; main Army is
28,000; Horse and Foot are in the proportion of about 1 to 3.
Artillery "consists of 20 three-pounders; 4 twelve-pounders;
4 howitzers (HAUBITZEN); 4 big mortars, calibre fifty pounds;
and of Artillerymen 166 in all."
With this Force the young King has, on his own basis (pretty much
in spite of all the world, as we find now and afterwards),
determined to invade Silesia, and lay hold of the Property he has
long had there;--not computing, for none can compute, the sleeping
whirlwinds he may chance to awaken thereby. Thus lightly does a man
enter upon Enterprises which prove unexpectedly momentous, and
shape the whole remainder of his days for him; crossing the Rubicon
as it were in his sleep. In Life, as on Railways at certain points,
--whether you know it or not, there is but an inch, this way or
that, into what tram you are shunted; but try to get out of it
again! "The man is mad, CET HOMME-LA EST FOL!" said Louis XV. when
he heard it. [Raumer, Beitrage (English
Translation, called Frederick II. and his Times; from
British Museum and State-Paper 0ffice: --a very
indistinct poor Book, in comparison with whet it might have been),
p. 73 (24th Dec. 1740).]
FRIEDRICH AT CROSSEN, AND STILL IN HIS OWN TERRITORY,
14th-16th DECEMBER;--STEPS INTO SCHLESIEN.
At all events, the man means to try;--and is here dining at
Crossen, noon of Wednesday, the 14th; certain important persons,
--especially two Silesian Gentlemen, deputed from Grunberg,
the nearest Silesian Town, who have come across the border on
business,--having the honor to dine with him. To whom his manner is
lively and affable; lively in mood, as if there lay no load upon
his spirits. The business of these two Silesian Gentlemen, a Baron
von Hocke one of them, a Baron von Kestlitz the other, was To
present, on the part of the Town and Amt of Grunberg, a solemn
Protest against this meditated entrance on the Territory of
Schlesien; Government itself, from Breslau, ordering them to do so.
Protest was duly presented; Friedrich, as his manner is, and
continues to be on his march, glances politely into or at the
Protest; hands it, in silence, to some page or secretary to deposit
in the due pigeon-hole or waste-basket; and invites the two
Silesian Gentlemen to dine with him; as, we see, they have the
honor to do. "He (ER) lives near Grunberg, then, Mein Herr von
Hocke?" "Close to it, IHRO MAJESTAT. My poor mansion, Schloss of
Deutsch-Kessel, is some fifteen miles hence; how infinitely at your
Majesty's service, should the march prove inevitable, and go that
way!"--"Well, perhaps!" I find Friedrich did dine, the second day
hence, with one of these Gentlemen; and lodged with the other.
Government at Breslau has ordered such Protest, on the part of the
Frontier populations and Official persons: and this is all that
comes of it.
During these hours, it chanced that the big Bell of Crossen dropped
from its steeple,--fulness of time, or entire rottenness of
axle-tree, being at last completed, at this fateful moment. Perhaps
an ominous thing? Friedrich, as Caesar and others have done,
cheerfully interprets the omen to his own advantage: "Sign that the
High is to be brought low!" says Friedrich. Were the march-routes,
wagon-trains, and multifarious adjustments perfect to the last item
here at Crossen, he will with much cheerfulness step into Silesia,
independent of all Grunberg Protests and fallen Bells.
On the second day he does actually cross; "the regiments marching
in, at different points; some reaching as far as 25 miles in."
It is Friday, 16th December, 1740; there has a game begun which
will last long! They went through the Village of Lasgen; that was
the first point of Silesian ground ("Circle of Schwiebus," our old
friend, is on the left near by); and "Schwerin's Regiment was the
foremost." Others cross more to the left or right; "marching
through the Village of Lessen," and other dim Villages and little
Towns, round and beyond Grunberg; all regiments and divisions
bearing upon Grunberg and the Great Road; but artistically
portioned out,--several miles in breadth (for the sake of
quarters), and, as is generally the rule, about a day's march in
length. This evening nearly the whole Army was on Silesian ground.
Printed "Patent" or Proclamation, briefly assuring all Silesians,
of whatever rank, condition or religion, "That we have come as
friends to them, and will protect all persons in their privileges,
and molest no peaceable mortal," is posted on Church-doors, and
extensively distributed by hand. Soldiers are forbidden, "under
penalty of the rods," Officers under that of "cassation with
infamy," to take anything, without first bargaining and paying
ready money for it. On these terms the Silesian villages cheerfully
enough accept their new guests, interesting to the rural mind; and
though the billeting was rather heavy, "as many as 24 soldiers to a
common Farmer (GARTNER)," no complaints were made. In one Schloss,
where the owners had fled, and no human response was to be had by
the wayworn-soldiery, there did occur some breakages and impatient
kickings about; which it grieved his Majesty to hear of, next
morning;--in one, not in more.
Official persons, we perceive, study to be absolutely passive.
This was the Burgermeister's course at Grunberg to-night; Grunberg,
first Town on the Frontier, sets an example of passivity which
cannot be surpassed. Prussian troops being at the Gate of Grunberg,
Burgermeister and adjuncts sitting in a tacit expectant condition
in their Town-hall, there arrives a Prussian Lieutenant requiring
of the Burgermeister the Key of said Gate. "To deliver such Key?
Would to God I durst, Mein Herr Lieutenant; but how dare I!
There is the Key lying: but to GIVE it--You are not the Queen of
Hungary's Officer, I doubt?"--The Prussian Lieutenant has to put
out hand, and take the Key; which he readily does. And on the
morrow, in returning it, when the march recommences, there are the
same phenomena: Burgermeister or assistants dare not for the life
of them touch that Key: It lay on the table; and may again, in the
course of Providence, come to lie!--The Prussian Lieutenant lays it
down accordingly, and hurries out, with a grin on his face.
There was much small laughter over this transaction; Majesty
himself laughing well at it. Higher perfection of passivity no
Burgermeister could show.
The march, as readers understand, is towards Glogau; a strongish
Garrison Town, now some 40 miles ahead; the key of Northern
Schlesien. Grunberg (where my readers once slept for the night, in
the late King's time, though they have forgotten it) is the first
and only considerable Town on the hither side of Glogau. On to
Glogau, I rather perceive, the Army is in good part provisioned
before starting: after Glogau,--we must see. Bread-wagons, Baggage-
wagons, Ammunition-and-Artillery wagons, all is in order; Army
artistically portioned out. That is the form of march; with Glogau
ahead. King, as we said above, dines with his Baron von Hocke, at
the Schloss of Deutsch-Kessel, short way beyond Grunberg, this
first day: but he by no means loiters there;--cuts across, a dozen
miles westward, through a country where his vanguard on its various
lines of march ought to be arriving;--and goes to lodge, at the
Schloss of Schweinitz, with his other Baron, the Von Kestlitz of
Wednesday at Crossen. [ Helden-Geschichte,
i. 459.] This is Friday, 16th December, his first night on
Silesian ground.
WHAT GLOGAU, AND THE GOVERNMENT AT BRESLAU, DID UPON IT.
Silesia, in the way of resistance, is not in the least prepared for
him. A month ago, there were not above 3,000 Austrian Foot and 600
Horse in the whole Province: neither the military Governor Count
Wallis, nor the Imperial Court, nor any Official Person near or
far, had the least anticipation of such a Visit. Count Wallis, who
commands in Glogau, did in person, nine or ten days ago, as the
rumors rose ever higher, run over to Crossen; saw with his eyes the
undeniable there; and has been zealously endeavoring ever since,
what he could, to take measures. Wallis is now shut in Glogau;
his second, the now Acting Governor, General Browne, a still more
reflective man, is doing likewise his utmost; but on forlorn terms,
and without the least guidance from Court. Browne has, by violent
industry, raked together, from Mahren and the neighboring
countries, certain fractions which raise his Force to 7,000 Foot:
these he throws, in small parties, into the defensible points;
or, in larger, into the Chief Garrisons. New Cavalry he cannot get;
the old 600 Horse he keeps for himself, all the marching Army he
has. [Particulars in Helden-Geschichte,
i. 465; total of Austrian Force seems to be 7,800 horse and foot.]
Fain would he get possession of Breslau, and throw in some garrison
there; but cannot. Neither he nor Wallis could compass that.
Breslau is a City divided against itself, on this matter; full of
emotions, of expectations, apprehensions for and against. There is
a Supreme Silesian Government (OBER-AMT "Head-Office," kind of
Austrian Vice-Royalty) in Breslau; and there is, on Breslau's own
score, a Town-Rath; strictly Catholic both these, Vienna the breath
of their nostrils. But then also there are forty-four Incorporated
Trades; Oppressed Protestant in Majority; to whom Vienna is not
breath, but rather the want of it. Lastly, the City calls itself
Free; and has crabbed privileges still valid; a "JUS PROESIDII" (or
right to be one's own garrison) one of them, and the most
inconvenient just now. Breslau is a REICH-STADT; in theory,
sovereign member of the Reich, and supreme over its own affairs,
even as Austria itself:--and the truth is, old Theory and new Fact,
resolved not to quarrel, have lapsed into one another's arms in a
quite inextricable way, in Breslau as elsewhere! With a Head
Government which can get no orders from Vienna, the very Town-Rath
has little alacrity, inclines rather to passivity like Grunberg;
and a silent population threatens to become vocal if you press
upon it.
Breslau, that is to say the OBER-AMT there, has sent courier on
courier to Vienna for weeks past: not even an answer;--what can
Vienna answer, with Kur-Baiern and others threatening war on it,
and only l0,000 pounds in its National Purse? Answer at last is,
"Don't bother! Danger is not so near. Why spend money on couriers,
and get into such a taking?" General Wallis came to Breslau, after
what he had seen at Crossen; and urged strongly, in the name of
self-preservation, first law of Nature, to get an Austrian real
Garrison introduced; wished much (horrible to think of!) "the
suburbs should be burnt, and better ramparts raised:" but could not
succeed in any of these points, nor even mention some of them in a
public manner. "You shall have a Protestant for commandant,"
suggested Wallis; "there is Count von Roth, Silesian-Lutheran, an
excellent Soldier!"--"Thanks," answered they, "we can defend
ourselves; we had rather not have any!" And the Breslau Burghers
have, accordingly, set to drill themselves; are bringing out old
cannon in quantity; repairing breaches; very strict in sentry-work:
"Perfectly able to defend our City,--so far as we see good!"--
Tuesday last, December 13th (the very day Friedrich left Berlin),
as this matter of the Garrison, long urged by the Ober-Amt, had at
last been got agreed to by the Town-Rath, "on proviso of consulting
the Incorporated Trades", or at least consulting their Guild-
Masters, who are usually a silent folk,--the Guild-Masters suddenly
became in part vocal; and their forty-four Guilds unusually
so:--and there was tumult in Breslau, in the Salz-Ring (big central
Square or market-place, which they call RING) such as had not been;
idle population, and guild-brethren of suspicious humor, gathering
in multitudes into and round the fine old Town-hall there;
questioning, answering, in louder and louder key; at last bellowing
quite in alt; and on the edge of flaming into one knew not what:
[ Helden-Geschichte, i. 469.]--till the matter
of Austrian Garrison (much more, of burning the suburbs!) had to be
dropt; settled in what way we see.
Head Government (OBER-AMT) has, through its Northern official
people, sent Protest, strict order to the Silesian Population to
look sour on the Prussians:--and we saw, in consequence, the two
Silesian Gentlemen did dine with Friedrich, and he has returned
their visits; and the Mayor of Grunberg would not touch his keys.
Head Government is now redacting a "Patent," or still more solemn
Protest of its own; which likewise it will affix in the Salz-Ring
here, and present to King Friedrich: and this--except "despatching
by boat down the river a great deal of meal to Glogau", which was
an important quiet thing, of Wallis's enforcing--is pretty much all
it can do. No Austrian Garrison can be got in ("Perfectly able to
defend ourselves!")--let Government and Wallis or Browne contrive
as they may. And as to burning the suburbs, better not whisper of
that again. Breslau feels, or would fain feel itself "perfectly
able;"--has at any rate no wish to be bombarded; and contains
privately a great deal of Protestant humor. Of all which,
Friedrich, it is not doubted, has notice more or less distinct;
and quickens his march the more.
General Browne is at present in the Southern parts; an able active
man and soldier; but, with such a force what can he attempt to do?
There are three strong places in the Country, Glogau, then Brieg,
both on the Oder river; lastly Neisse, on the Neisse river, a
branch of the Oder (one of the FOUR Neisse rivers there are in
Germany, mostly in Silesia,--not handy to the accurate reader of
German Books). Browne is in Neisse; and will start into a strange
stare when the flying post reaches him: Prussians actually on
march! Debate with them, if debate there is to be, Browne himself
must contrive to do; from Breslau, from Vienna, no Government
Supreme or Subordinate can yield his 8,000 and him the least help.
Glogau, as we saw, means to defend itself; at least, General Wallis
the Commandant, does, in spite of the Glogau public; and is, with
his whole might, digging, palisading, getting in meal, salt meat
and other provender;--likewise burning suburbs, uncontrollable he,
in the small place; and clearing down the outside edifices and
shelters, at a diligent rate. Yesterday, 15th December, he burnt
down the "three Oder-Mills, which lie outside the big suburban
Tavern, also the ZIEGEL-SCHEUNE (Tile-Manufactory)," and other
valuable buildings, careless of public lamentation,--fire catching
the Town itself, and needing to be quenched again.
[ Helden-Geschichte, i. 473-475.] Nay, he was
clear for burning down, or blowing up, the Protestant Church,
indispensable sacred edifice which stands outside the walls:
"Prussians will make a block-house of it!" said Wallis. A chief
Protestant, Baron von Something, begged passionately for only
twelve hours of respite,--to lay the case before his Prussian
Majesty. Respite conceded, he and another chief Protestant had
posted off accordingly; and did the next morning (Friday, 16th),
short way from Crossen, meet his Majesty's carriage; who graciously
pulled up for a few instants, and listened to their story. "MEINE
HERREN, you are the first that ask a favor of me on Silesian
ground; it shall be done you!" said the King; and straightway
despatched, in polite style, his written request to Wallis,
engaging to make no military use whatever of said Church, "but to
attack by the other side, if attack were necessary." Thus his
Majesty saved the Church of Glogau; which of course was a popular
act. Getting to see this Church himself a few days hence, he said,
"Why, it must come down at any rate, and be rebuilt; so ugly
a thing!"
Wallis is making strenuous preparation; forces the inhabitants,
even the upper kinds of them, to labor day and night by relays, in
his rampartings, palisadings; is for burning all the adjacent
Villages,--and would have done it, had not the peasants themselves
turned out in a dangerous state of mind. He has got together about
1,000 men. His powder, they say, is fifty years old; but he has
eatable provender from Breslau, and means to hold out to the
utmost. Readers must admit that the Austrian military, Graf von
Wallis to begin with,-- still more, General Browne, who is a
younger man and has now the head charge,--behave well in their
present forsaken condition. Wallis (Graf FRANZ WENZEL this one, not
to be confounded with an older Wallis heard of in the late Turk
War) is of Scotch descent,--as all these Wallises are; "came to
Austria long generations ago; REICHSGRAFS since 1612:"--Browne is
of Irish; age now thirty-five, ten years younger than Wallis.
Read this Note on the distinguished Browne:--
"A German-Irish Gentleman, this General (ultimately Fieldmarshal)
Graf von Browne; one of those sad exiled Irish Jacobites, or sons
of Jacobites, who are fighting in foreign armies; able and notable
men several of them, and this Browne considerably the most so.
We shall meet him repeatedly within the next eighteen years.
Maximilian-Ulysses Graf von Browne: I said he was born German;
Basel his birthplace (23d October, 1705), Father also a soldier:
he must not be confounded with a contemporary Cousin of his, who is
also 'Fieldmarshal Browne,' but serves in Russia, Governor of Riga
for a long time in the coming years. This Austrian General,
Fieldmarshal Browne, will by and by concern us somewhat; and the
reader may take note of him.
"Who the Irish Brothers Browne, the Fathers of these Marshals
Browne, were? I have looked in what Irish Peerages and printed
Records there were, but without the least result. One big dropsical
Book, of languid quality, called King James's Irish
Army-List, has multitudes of Brownes and others, in an
indistinct form; but the one Browne wanted, the one Lacy, almost
the one Lally, like the part of HAMLET, are omitted. There are so
many Irish in the like case with these Brownes. A Lacy we once
slightly saw or heard of; busy in the Polish-Election time,--
besieging Dantzig (investing Dantzig, that Munnich might besiege
it);--that Lacy, 'Governor of Riga,' whom the RUSSIAN Browne will
succeed, is also Irish: a conspicuous Russian man; and will have a
Son Lacy, conspicuous among the Austrians. Maguires, Ogilvies (of
the Irish stock), Lieutenants 'Fitzgeral;' very many Irish;
and there is not the least distinct account to be had of any of
them." [For Browne see "Anonymous of Hamburg" (so I have had to
label a J.F.S. Geschichte des &c. --in fact,
History of Seven-Years War, in successive volumes, done chiefly by
the scissors; Leipzig and Frankfurt, 1759, et seqq.), i. 123-131
n.: elaborate Note of eight pages there; intimating withal that he,
J.F.S., wrote the "Life of Browne," a Book I
had in vain sought for; and can now guess to consist of those same
elaborate eight pages, PLUS water and lathering to the due amount.
Anonymous "of Hamburg" I call my J.F.S.,--having fished him out of
the dust-abysses in that City: a very poor take; yet worth citing
sometimes, being authentic, as even the darkest Germans generally
are.--For a glimpse of LACY (the Elder Lacy) see Busching,
Beitrage, vi. 162.--For WALLIS (tombstone Note on
Wallis) see (among others who are copious in that kind of article,
and keep large sacks of it, in admired disorder) Anonymous
Seyfarth, Geschichte Friedrichs des Andern
(Leipzig, 1784-1788), i. 112 n.; and Anonymous, Leben der
&c. Marie Theresie (Leipzig, 1781), 27 n.: laboriously
authentic Books both; essentialy DICTIONARIES,--stuffed as into a
row of blind SACKS.]
Let us attend his Majesty on the next few marches towards Glogau,
to see the manner of the thing a little; after which it will
behoove us to be much more summary, and stick by the
main incidents.
MARCH TO WEICHAU (SATURDAY, 17th, AND STAY SUNDAY THERE);
TO MILKAU (MONDAY, 19th); GET TO HERRENDORF, WITHIN SIGHT OF
GLOGAU, DECEMBER 22d.
Friedrich's march proceeds with speed and regularity. Strict
discipline is maintained; all things paid for, damage carefully
avoided: "We come, not as invasive enemies of you or of the Queen
of Hungary, but as protective friends of Silesia and of her
Majesty's rights there;--her Majesty once allowing us (as it is
presumable she will) our own rights in this Province, no man shall
meddle with hers, while we continue here." To that effect runs the
little "Patent," or initiatory Proclamation, extensively handed
out, and posted in public places, as was said above; and the
practice is conformable. To all men, coming with Protests or
otherwise, we perceive, the young King is politeness itself;
giving clear answer, and promise which will be kept, on the above
principle. Nothing angers him except that gentlemen should
disbelieve, and run away. That a mansion be found deserted by its
owners, is the one evil omen for such mansion. Thus, at the Schloss
of Weichau (which is still discoverable on the Map, across the
"Black Ochel" and the "White," muddy streams which saunter eastward
towards, the Oder there, nothing yet running westward for the
Bober, our other limitary river), next night after Schweinitz,
second night in Silesia, there was no Owner to be met with; and the
look of his Majesty grew FINSTER (dark); remembering what had
passed yesternight, in like case, at that other Schloss from which
the owner with his best portable furniture had vanished. At which
Schloss, as above noticed, some disorders were committed by angry
parties of the march;--doors burst open (doors standing impudently
dumb to the rational proposals made them!), inferior remainders of
furniture smashed into firewood, and the like,--no doubt to his
Majesty's vexation. Here at Weichau stricter measures were taken:
and yet difficulties, risks were not wanting; and the AMTMANN
(Steward of the place) got pulled about, and once even a stroke or
two. Happily the young Herr of Weichau appeared in person on the
morrow, hearing his Majesty was still there: "Papa is old; lives at
another Schloss; could not wait upon your Majesty; nor, till now,
could I have that honor."--"Well; lucky that you have come:
stay dinner!" Which the young Count did, and drove home in the
evening to reassure Papa; his Majesty continuing there another
night, and the risk over. [ Helden-Geschichte,
i. 459.]
This day, Sunday, 18th, the Army rests; their first Sunday in
Silesia, while the young Count pays his devoir: and here in
Weichau, as elsewhere, it is in the Church, Catholic nearly always,
that the Heretic Army does its devotions, safe from weather at
least: such the Royal Order, they say; which is taken note of, by
the Heterodox and by the Orthodox. And ever henceforth, this is the
example followed; and in all places where there is no Protestant
Church and the Catholics have one, the Prussian Army-Chaplain
assembles his buff-belted audience in the latter: "No offence,
Reverend Fathers, but there are hours for us, and hours for you;
and such is the King's Order." There is regular divine-service in
this Prussian Army; and even a good deal of inarticulate religion,
as one may see on examining.
Country Gentlemen, Town Mayors and other civic Authorities, soon
learn that on these terms they are safe with his Majesty; march
after march he has interviews with such, to regulate the supplies,
the necessities and accidents of the quartering of his Troops.
Clear, frank, open to reasonable representation, correct to his
promise; in fact, industriously conciliatory and pacificatory:
such is Friedrich to all Silesian men. Provincial Authorities, who
can get no instructions from Head-quarters; Vienna saying nothing,
Breslau nothing, and Deputy-Governor Browne being far south in
Neisse,--are naturally in difficulties: How shall they act?
Best not to act at all, if one can help it; and follow the Mayor of
Grunberg's unsurpassable pattern!--
"These Silesians," says an Excerpt I have made, "are still in
majority Protestant; especially in this Northern portion of the
Province; they have had to suffer much on that and other scores;
and are secretly or openly in favor of the Prussians.
Official persons, all of the Catholic creed, have leant heavy, not
always conscious of doing it, against Protestant rights. The
Jesuits, consciously enough, have been and are busy with them;
intent to recall a Heretic Population by all methods, fair and
unfair. We heard of Charles XII.'s interference, three-and-thirty
years ago; and how the Kaiser, hard bested at that time, had to
profess repentance and engage for complete amendment. Amendment
did, for the moment, accordingly take place. Treaty of Westphalia
in all its stipulations, with precautionary improvements, was
re-enacted as Treaty of Altranstadt; with faithful intention of
keeping it too, on Kaiser Joseph's part, who was not a
superstitious man: 'Holy Father, I was too glad he did not demand
my own conversion to the Protestant Heresy, bested as I am,--with
Louis Quatorze and Company upon the neck of me!' Some improvement
of performance, very marked at first, did ensue upon this
Altranstadt Treaty. But the sternly accurate Karl of Sweden soon
disappeared from the scene; Kaiser Joseph of Austria soon
disappeared; and his Brother, Karl VI., was a much more
orthodox person.
"The Austrian Government, and Kaiser Karl's in particular, is not
to be called an intentionally unjust one; the contrary, I rather
find; but it is, beyond others, ponderous; based broad on such
multiplex formalities, old habitudes; and GRAVITATION has a great
power over it. In brief, Official human nature, with the best of
Kaisers atop, flagitated continually by Jesuit Confessors, does
throw its weight on a certain side: the sad fact is, in a few years
the brightness of that Altranstadt improvement began to wax dim;
and now, under long Jesuit manipulation, Silesian things are nearly
at their old pass; and the patience of men is heavily laden. To see
your Chapel made a Soldiers' Barrack, your Protestant School become
a Jesuit one,--Men did not then think of revolting under injuries;
but the poor Silesian weaver, trudging twenty miles for his Sunday
sermon; and perceiving that, unless their Mother could teach the
art of reading, his boys, except under soul's peril, would now
never learn it: such a Silesian could not want for reflections.
Voiceless, hopeless, but heavy; and dwelling secretly, as under
nightmare, in a million hearts. Austrian Officiality, wilfully
unjust, or not wilfully so, is admitted to be in a most heavy-
footed condition; can administer nothing well. Good Government in
any kind is not known here: Possibly the Prussian will be better;
who can say?
"The secret joy of these populations, as Friedrich advances among
them, becomes more and more a manifest one. Catholic Officials do
not venture on any definite hope, or definite balance of hope and
fear, but adopt the Mayor of Grunberg's course, and study to be
passive and silent. The Jesuit-Priest kind are clear in their minds
for Austria; but think, Perhaps Prussia itself will not prove very
tyrannous? At all events, be silent; it is unsafe to stir.
We notice generally, it is only in the Southern or Mountain regions
of Silesia, where the Catholics are in majority, that the
population is not ardently on the Prussian side. Passive, if they
are on the other side; accurately passive at lowest, this it is
prescribed all prudent men to be."
On the 18th, while divine service went on at Weichau, there was at
Breslau another phenomenon observable. Provincial Government in
Breslau had, at length, after intense study, and across such
difficulties as we have no idea of, got its "Patent," or carefully
worded Protestation against Prussia, brought to paper; and does,
this day, with considerable solemnity, affix it to the Rathhaus
door there, for the perusal of mankind; despatching a Copy for his
Prussian Majesty withal, by two Messengers of dignity. It has
needed courage screwed to the sticking-place to venture on such a
step, without instruction from Head-quarters; and the utmost powers
of the Official mind have been taxed to couch this Document in
language politely ambiguous, and yet strong enough;--too strong,
some of us now think it. In any case, here it now is; Provincial
Government's bolt, so to speak, is shot. The affixing took place
under dark weather-symptoms; actual outburst of thunder and rain at
the moment, not to speak of the other surer omens. So that, to the
common mind at Breslau, it did not seem there would much fruit come
of this difficult performance. Breslau is secretly a much-agitated
City; and Prussian Hussar Parties, shooting forth to great
distances ahead, were, this day for the first time, observed within
sight of it.
And on the same Sunday we remark farther, what is still more
important: Herr von Gotter, Friedrich's special Envoy to Vienna,
has his first interview with the Queen of Hungary, or with Grand-
Duke Franz the Queen's Husband and Co-Regent; and presents there,
from Friedrich's own hand, written we remember when, brief distinct
Note of his Prussian Majesty's actual Proposals and real meaning in
regard to this Silesian Affair. Proposals anxiously conciliatory in
tone, but the heavy purport of which is known to us: Gotter had
been despatched, time enough, with these Proposals (written above a
month ago); but was instructed not to arrive with them, till after
the actual entrance into Silesia. And now the response to them
is--? As good as nothing; perhaps worse. Let that suffice us at
present. Readers, on march for Glogau, would grudge to pause over
State-papers, though we shall have to read this of Friedrich's at
some freer moment.
Monday, 19th, before daybreak, the Army is astir again,
simultaneously wending forward; spread over wide areas, like a vast
cloud (potential thunder in it) steadily advancing on the winds.
Length of the Army, artistically portioned out, may be ten or
fifteen miles, breadth already more, and growing more; Schwerin
always on the right or western wing, close by the Bober River as
yet, through Naumburg and the Towns on that side,--Liegnitz and
other important Towns lying ahead for Schwerin, still farther apart
from the main Body, were Glogau once settled.
So that the march is in two Columns; Schwerin, with the westernmost
small column, intending towards Liegnitz, and thence ever farther
southward, with his right leaning on the high lands which rise more
and more into mountains as you advance. Friedrich himself commands
the other column, has his left upon the Oder, in a country mounting
continually towards the South, but with less irregularity of level,
and generally flat as yet. From beginning to end, the entire field
of march lies between the Oder and its tributary the Bober;
climbing slowly towards the sources of both. Which two rivers, as
the reader may observe, form here a rectangular or trapezoidal
space, ever widening as we go southward. Both rivers, coming from
the Giant Mountains, hasten directly north; but Oder, bulging out
easterly in his sandy course, is obliged to turn fairly westward
again; and at Glogau, and a good space farther, flows in that
direction;--till once Bober strikes in, almost at right angles,
carrying Oder with HIM, though he is but a branch, straight
northward again. Northward, but ever slower, to the swollen Pommern
regions, and sluggish exit into the Baltic there.
One of the worst features is the state of the weather. On Sunday,
at Breslau, we noticed thunder bursting out on an important
occasion; "ominous," some men thought;--omen, for one thing, that
the weather was breaking. At Weichau, that same day, rain began,
--the young Herr of Weichau, driving home to Papa from dinner with
Majesty, would get his share of it;--and on Monday, 19th, there was
such a pour of rain as kept most wayfarers, though it could not the
Prussian Army, within doors. Rain in plunges, fallen and falling,
through that blessed day; making roads into mere rivers of mud.
The Prussian hosts marched on, all the same. Head-quarters, with
the van of the wet Army, that night, were at Milkau;--from which
place we have a Note of Friedrich's for Friend Jordan, perhaps
producible by and by. His Majesty lodged in some opulent Jesuit
Establishment there. And indeed he continued there, not idle, under
shelter, for a couple of days. The Jesuits, by their two head men,
had welcomed him with their choicest smiles; to whom the King was
very gracious, asking the two to dinner as usual, and styling them
"Your Reverence." Willing to ingratiate himself with persons of
interest in this Country; and likes talk, even with Jesuits
of discernment.
On the morrow (20th), came to him, here at Milkau,-- probably from
some near stage, for the rain was pouriug worse than ever,--that
Breslau "Patent," or strongish Protestation, by its two Messengers
of dignity. The King looked over it "without visible anger" or
change of countenance; "handed it," we expressly see, "to a Page to
reposit" in the proper waste-basket;--spoke politely to the two
gentlemen; asked each or one of them, "Are you of the Ober-Amt at
Breslau, then?"--using the style of ER (He).--"No, your Majesty;
we are only of the Land-Stande" (Provincial Parliament, such as it
is). "Upon which [do you mark!] his Majesty became still more
polite; asked them to dinner, and used the style of SIE." For their
PATENT, now lying safe in its waste-basket, he gave them signed
receipt; no other answer.
Rain still heavier, rain as of Noah, continued through this
Tuesday, and for days afterwards: but the Prussian hosts, hastening
towards Glogau, marched still on. This Tuesday's march, for the
rearward of the Army, 10,000 foot and 2,000 horse; march of ten
hours long, from Weichau to the hamlet Milkau (where his Majesty
sits busy and affable),--is thought to be the wettest on record.
Waters all out, bridges down, the Country one wild lake of eddying
mud. Up to the knee for many miles together; up to the middle for
long spaces; sometimes even up to the chin or deeper, where your
bridge was washed away. The Prussians marched through it, as if
they had been slate or iron. Rank and file, nobody quitted his
rank, nobody looked sour in the face; they took the pouring of the
skies, and the red seas of terrestrial liquid, as matters that must
be; cheered one another with jocosities, with choral snatches
(tobacco, I consider, would not burn); and swashed unweariedly
forward. Ten hours some of them were out, their march being twenty
or twenty-five miles; ten to fifteen was the average distance come.
Nor, singular to say, did any loss occur; except of ALMOST one poor
Army-Chaplain, and altogether of one poor Soldier's Wife;--sank
dangerously both of them, beyond redemption she, taking the wrong
side of some bridge-parapet. Poor Soldier's Wife, she is not named
to me at all; and has no history save this, and that "she was of
the regiment Bredow." But I perceive she washed herself away in a
World-Transaction; and there was one rough Bredower, who probably
sat sad that night on getting to quarters. His Majesty surveyed the
damp battalions on the morrow (21st), not without sympathy, not
without satisfaction; allowed them a rest-day here at Milkau, to
get dry and bright again; and gave them "fifteen thalers a
company," which is about ninepence apiece, with some words of
praise. [ Helden-Geschichte, i.482.]
Next day, Thursday, 22d, his Majesty and they marched on to
Herrendorf; which is only five miles from Glogau, and near enough
for Head-quarters, in the now humor of the place. Wallis has his
messenger at Herrendorf, "Sorry to warn your Majesty, That if there
be the least hostility committed, I shall have to resist it to the
utmost." Head-quarters continue six days at Herrendorf, Army (main
body, or left Column, of the Army) cantoned all round, till we
consider what to do.
As to the right Column, or Schwerin's Division, that, after a
rest-day or two, gathers itself into more complete separation here,
tucking in its eastern skirts; and gets on march again, by its own
route. Steadily southward;--and from Liegnitz, and the upland
Countries, there will be news of Schwerin and it before long.
Rain ending, there ensued a ringing frost;--not favorable for
Siege-operations on Glogau:--and Silesia became all of flinty
glass, with white peaks to the Southwest, whither Schwerin is gone.
Chapter III.
PROBLEM OF GLOGAU.
Friedrich was over from Herrendorf with the first daylight,
"reconnoitring Glogau, and rode up to the very glacis;" scanning it
on all sides. [Ib. i. 484.] Since Wallis is so resolute, here is an
intricate little problem for Friedrich, with plenty of corollaries
and conditions hanging to it. Shall we besiege Glogau, then? We
have no siege-cannon here. Time presses, Breslau and all things in
such crisis; and it will take time. By what methods COULD Glogau be
besieged?--Readers can consider what a blind many-threaded coil of
things, heaping itself here in wide welters round Glogau, and
straggling to the world's end, Friedrich has on hand: probably
those six days, of Head-quarters at Herrendorf, were the busiest he
had yet had.
One thing is evident, there ought to be siege-cannon got
straightway; and, still more immediate, the right posts and
battering-places should be ready against its coming.--"Let the
Young Dessauer with that Rearguard, or Reserve of 10,000, which is
now at Crossen, come up and assist here," orders Friedrich; "and
let him be swift, for the hours are pregnant!" On farther
reflection, perhaps on new rumors from Breslau, Friedrich perceives
that there can be no besieging of Glogau at this point of time;
that the Reserve, Half of the Reserve, must be left to "mask" it;
to hold it in strict blockade, with starvation daily advancing as
an alIy to us, and with capture by bombarding possible when we
like. That is the ultimate decision;--arrived at through a welter
of dubieties, counterpoisings and perilous considerations, which we
now take no account of. A most busy week; Friedrich incessantly in
motion, now here now there; and a great deal of heavy work got well
and rapidly done. The details of which, in these exuberant
Manuscripts, would but weary the reader. Choosing of the proper
posts and battering-places (post "on the other side of the River,"
"on this side of it," "on the Island in the middle of it"), and
obstinate intrenching and preparing of the same in spite of frost;
"wooden bridge built" farther up; with "regulation of the river-
boats, the Polish Ferry," and much else: all this we omit; and will
glance only at one pregnant point, by way of sample:--
... "Most indispensable of all, the King has to provide
Subsistences:--and enters now upon the new plan, which will have to
be followed henceforth. The Provincial Chief-men (LANDES-AELTESTEN,
Land's-ELDESTS, their title) are summoned, from nine or ten
Circles which are likely to be interested: they appear punctually,
and in numbers,--lest contumacy worsen the inevitable. King dines
them, to start with; as many as 'ninety-five covers,'--day not
given, but probably one of the first in Herrendorf: not Christmas
itself, one hopes!
"Dinner done, the ninety-five Land's-Eldest are instructed by
proper parties, What the Infantry's ration is, in meat, in bread,
exact to the ounce; what the Cavalry's is, and that of the
Cavalry's Horse. Tabular statement, succinct, correct, clear to the
simplest capacity, shows what quotities of men on foot, and of men
on horseback, or men with draught-cattle, will march through their
respective Circles; Lands-Eldests conclude what amount of meal and
butcher's-meat it will be indispensable to have in readiness;--what
Lands-Eldest can deny the fact? These Papers still exist, at least
the long-winded Summary of them does: and I own the reading of it
far less insupportable than that of the mountains of Proclamatory,
Manifesto and Diplomatic matter. Nay it leaves a certain wholesome
impression on the mind, as of business thoroughly well done; and a
matter, capable, if left in the chaotic state, of running to all
manner of depths and heights, compendiously forced to become cosmic
in this manner.
"These Lands-Eldest undertake, in a mildly resigned or even hopeful
humor. They will manage as required, in their own Circles; will
communicate with the Circles farther on; and everywhere the due
proviants, prestations, furtherances, shall be got together by fair
apportionment on the Silesian Community, and be punctually ready
a,s the Army advances. Book-keeping there is to be, legible record
of everything; on all hands 'quittance' for everything furnished;
and a time is coming, when such quittance, presented by any
Silesian man, will be counted money paid by him, and remitted at
the next tax-day, or otherwise made good. Which promise also was
accurately kept, the hoped-for time having come. It must be owned
the Prussian Army understands business; and, with brevity, reduces
to a minimum its own trouble, and that of other people, non-
fighters, who have to do with it. Non-fighters, I say; to fighters
we hope it will give a respectable maximum of trouble when applied
to!" [ Helden-Geschichte, i. 492-499.]
The Gotter Negotiation at Vienna, which we saw begin there that wet
Sunday, is now fast ending, as good as ended; without result except
of a negative kind. Gotter's Proposals,--would the reader wish to
hear these Proposals, which were so intensely interesting at one
time? They are fivefold; given with great brevity by Friedrich, by
us with still greater:--
1. "Will fling myself heartily into the Austrian scale, and
endeavor for the interest of Austria in this Pragmatic matter, with
my whole strength against every comer.
2. "Will make treaty with Vienna, with Russia and the Sea-Powers,
to that effect.
3. "Will help by vote, and with whole amount of interest will
endeavor, to have Grand-Duke Franz, the Queen's Husband, chosen
Kaiser; and to maintain such choice against all and sundry.
Feel myself strong enough to accomplish this result; and may,
without exaggeration, venture to say it shall be done.
4. "To help the Court of Vienna in getting its affairs into good
order and fencible condition,--will present to it, on the shortest
notice, Two Million Gulden (200,000 pounds) ready money."--
Infinitely welcome this Fourth Proposition; and indeed all the
other Three are welcome: but they are saddled with a final
condition, which pulls down all again. This, which is studiously
worded, politely evasive in phrase, and would fain keep old
controversies asleep, though in substance it is so fatally
distinct,--we give in the King's own words:
5. "For such essential services as those to which I bind myself by
the above very onerous conditions, I naturally require a
proportionate recompense; some suitable assurance, as indemnity for
all the dangers I risk, and for the part (ROLE) I am ready to play:
in short, I require hereby the entire and complete cession of all
Silesia, as reward for my labors and dangers which I take upon
myself in this course now to be entered upon for the preservation
and renown of the House of Austria;"--Silesia all and whole; and we
say nothing of our "rights" to it; politely evasive to her
Hungarian Majesty, though in substance we are so fatally distinct.
[Preuss, Thronbesteigung, p. 451;
"from Olenschlager, Geschichte des Interegni
[Frankfurt, 1746], i. 134."]
These were Friedrich's Proposals; written down with his own hand at
Reinsberg, five or six weeks ago (November 17th is the date of it);
in what mood, and how wrought upon by Schwerin and Podewils, we saw
above. Gotter has fulfilled his instructions in regard to this
important little Document; and now the effect of it is--?
Gotter can report no good effect whatever. "Be cautious," Friedrich
instructs him farther; "modify that Fifth Proposal; I will take
less than the whole, 'if attention is paid to my just claims on
Schlesien.'" To that effect writes Friedrich once or twice. But it
is to no purpose; nor can Gotter, with all his industry, report
other than worse and worse. Nay, he reports before long, not
refusal only, but refusal with mockery: "How strange that his
Prussian Majesty, whose official post in Germany, as Kur-
Brandenburg and Kaiser's Chamberlain, has been to present ewer and
towel to the House of Austria, should now set up for prescribing
rules to it!" A piece of wit, which could not but provoke
Friedrich; and warn him that negotiation on this matter might as
well terminate. Such had been his own thought, from the first; but
in compliance with Schwerin and Podewils he was willing to try.
Better for Maria Theresa, and for all the world how much better,
could she have accepted this Fifth Proposition! But how could she,
--the high Imperial Lady, keystone of Europe, though by accident
with only a few pounds of ready money at present? Twenty years of
bitter fighting, and agony to herself and all the world, were
necessary first; a new Fact of Nature having turned up, a new
European Kingdom with real King to it; NOT recognizable as such,
by the young Queen of Hungary or by any other person, till it do
its proofs.
WHAT BERLIN IS SAYING; WHAT FRIEDRICH IS THINKING.
What Friedrich's own humor is, what Friedrich's own inner man is
saying to him, while all the world so babbles about his Silesian
Adventure? Of this too there are, though in diluted state, some
glimmerings to be had,--chiefly in the Correspondence with Jordan.
Ingenious Jordan, Inspector of the Poor at Berlin,--his thousand
old women at their wheels humming pleasantly in the background of
our imaginations, though he says nothing of that,--writes twice a
week to his Majesty: pleasant gossipy Letters, with an easy
respectfulness not going into sycophancy anywhere; which keep the
campaigning King well abreast of the Berlin news and rumors:
something like the essence of an Old Newspaper; not without worth
in our present Enterprise. One specimen, if we had room!
JORDAN TO THE KING (successively from Berlin,--somewhat abridged.)
No. 1. "BERLIN, 14th DECEMBER, 1740 [day after his Majesty left].
Everybody here is on tiptoe for the Event; of which both origin and
end are a riddle to the most. I am charmed to see a part of your
Majesty's Dominions in a state of Pyrrhonism; the disease is
epidemical here at present. Those who, in the style of theologians,
consider themselves entitled to be certain, maintain That your
Majesty is expected with religious impatience by the Protestants,
and that the Catholics hope to see themselves delivered from a
multitude of imposts which cruelly tear up the beautiful bosom of
their Church. You cannot but succeed in your valiant and stoical
Enterprise, since both religion and worldly interest rank
themselves under your flag.
"Wallis," Austrian Commandant in Glogau, "they say, has punished a
Silesian Heretic of enthusiastic turn, as blasphemer, for
announcing that a new Messiah is just coming. I have a taste for
that kind of martyrdom. Critical persons consider the present step
as directly opposed to certain maxims in the ANTI-MACHIAVEL.
"The word MANIFESTO--[your Majesty's little PATENT on entering
Silesia, which no reader shall be troubled with at present]--is the
burden of every conversation. there is a short Piece of the kind to
come out to-day, by way of preface to a large complete exposition,
which a certain Jurisconsult is now busy with. People crowd to the
Bookshops for it, as if looking out for a celestial phenomenon that
had been predicted.--This is the beginning of my Gazette; can only
come out twice a week, owing to the arrangement of the Posts.
Friday, the day your Majesty crosses into Silesia, I shall spend in
prayer and devotional exercises: Astronomers pretend that Mars will
that day enter"--no matter what.
NOTE, The above Manifesto rumor is correct; Jurisconsult is
ponderous Herr Ludwig, Kanzler (Chancellor) of Halle University,
monster of law-learning,--who has money also, and had to help once
with a House in Berlin for one Nussler, a son-in-law of his,
transiently known to us;--ponderous Ludwig, matchless or difficult
to match in learning of this kind, will write ample enough
Deductions (which lie in print still, to the extent of tons'
weight), and explain the ERBVERBRUDERUNG and violence done upon it,
so that he who runs may read. Postpone him to a calmer time.
No. 2. "BERLIN, SATURDAY, 17th DECEMBER. Manifesto has appeared,"
--can be seen, under thick strata of cobwebs, in many Books;
[In Helden-Geschichte, i. 448, 453 (what
Jordan now alludes to); IB. 559-592 ("Deduction" itself, Ludwig in
all his strength, some three weeks hence; in OLENSCHLAGER
(doubtless); in &c. &c.] is not worth reading now: Incontestable
rights which our House has for ages had on Schlesien, and which
doubtless the Hungarian Majesty will recognize; not the slightest
injury intended, far indeed from that; and so on!--"people are
surprised at its brevity; and, studying it as theologians do a
passage of Scripture, can make almost nothing of it. Clear as
crystal, says one; dexterously obscure by design, says another.
"Rumor that the Grand-Duke of Lorraine," Maria Theresa's Husband,
"was at Reinsberg incognito lately," Grand-Duke a concerting party,
think people looking into the thing with strong spectacles on their
nose! "M. de Beauvau [French Ambassador Extraordinary, to whom the
aces were promised if they came] said one thing that surprised me:
'What put the King on taking this step, I do not know; but perhaps
it is not such a bad one.' Surprising news that the Elector of
Saxony, King of Poland, is fallen into inconsolable remorse for
changing his religion [to Papistry, on Papa's hest, many long years
ago] and that it is not to the Pope, but to the King of Prussia,
that he opens his heart to steady his staggering orthodoxy."
Very astonishing to Jordan. "One thing is certain, all Paris rings
with your Majesty's change of religion" (over to Catholicism, say
those astonishing people, first conjurers of the universe)!
No. 3. "BERLIN, 20th DECEMBER. M. de Beauvau," French Ambassador,
"is gone. Ended, yesterday, his survey of the Cabinet of Medals;
charmed with the same: charmed too, as the public is, with the rich
present he has got from said Cabinet [coronation medal or medals in
gold, I could guess]: people say the King of France's Medal given
to our M. de Camas is nothing to it.
"Rumor of alliance between your Majesty and France with Sweden,"
--premature rumor. Item, "Queen of Hungary dead in child-birth;"
--ditto with still more emphasis! "The day before yesterday, in all
churches, was prayer to Heaven for success to your Majesty's arms;
interest of the Protestant religion being the one cause of the War,
or the only one assigned by the reverend gentlemen. At sound of
these words, the zeal of the people kindles: 'Bless God for raising
such a Defender! Who dared suspect our King's indifference
to Protestantism?'"
A right clever thing this last (O LE BEAU COUP D'ETAT)! exclaims
Jordan,--though it is not clever or the contrary, not being
dramatically prearranged, as Jordan exults to think. Jordan, though
there are dregs of old devotion lying asleep in him, which will
start into new activity when stirred again, is for the present a
very unbelieving little gentleman, I can perceive.--This is the
substance of public rumor at Berlin for one week.
Friedrich answers:--
TO M. JORDAN, AT BERLIN.
"QUARTER AT MILKAU, TOWARDS GLOGAU, 19th DECEMBER, 1740
[comfortable Jesuit-Establishment at Milkau, Friedrich just got in,
out of the rain].--Seigneur Jordan, thy Letter has given me a deal
of pleasure in regard to all these talkings thou reportest.
To-morrow [not to-morrow, nor next day; wet troops need a rest] I
arrive at our last station this side Glogau, which place I hope to
get in a few days. All favors my designs: and I hope to return to
Berlin, after executing them gloriously and in a way to be content
with. Let the ignorant and the envious talk; it is not they that
shall ever serve as loadstar to my designs; not they, but Glory
[LA GLOIRE; Fame, depending not on them]: with the love of that I
am penetrated more than ever; my troops have their hearts big with
it, and I answer to thee for success. Adieu, dear Jordan. Write me
all the ill that the public says of thy Friend, and be persuaded
that I love and will esteem thee always."--F.
JORDAN TO THE KING.
No. 4; "BERLIN, 24th DECEMBER. Your Majesty's Letter fills me with
joy and contentment. The Town declared your Majesty to be already
in Breslau; founding on some Letter to a Merchant here. Ever since
they think of your Majesty acting for Protestantism, they make you
step along with strides of Achilles to the ends of Silesia.--
Foreign Courts are all rating their Ambassadors here for not
finding you out.
"Wolf," his negotiations concluded at last, "has entered Halle
almost like the triumphant Entry to Jerusalem. A concourse of
pedants escorted him to his house. Lange [his old enemy, who
accused him of Atheism and other things] has called to see him, and
loaded him with civilities, to the astonishment of the old
Orthodox." There let him rest, well buttoned in gaiters, and
avoiding to mount stairs. ... "Madame de Roucoulles has sent me the
three objects adjoined, for your Majesty's behoof,"--woollen
achievements, done by the needle, good against the winter weather
for one she nursed. The good old soul. Enough now, of Jordan.
[ OEuvres de Frederic, xvii. 75-78.]
Voltaire, who left Berlin 2d or 3d December, seems to have been
stopt by overflow of rivers about Cleve, then to have taken boat;
and is, about this very time, writing to Friedrich "from a vessel
on the Coasts of Zealand, where I am driven mad." (Intends,
privately, for Paris before long, to get his MAHOMET acted, if
possible.) To Voltaire, here is a Note coming:
KING TO H. DE VOLTAIRE (at Brussels, if once got thither).
"QUARTER OF HERRENDORF IN SILESIA,
23d December, 1740.
"MY DEAR VOLTAIRE,--I have received two of your Letters; but could
not answer sooner; I am like Charles Twelfth's Chess-King, who was
always kept on the move. For a fortnight past, we have been
continually afoot and under way, in such weather as you never saw.
"I am too tired to reply to your charming Verses; and shivering too
much with cold to taste all the charm of them: but that will come
round again. Do not ask poetry from a man who is actually doing the
work of a wagoner, and sometimes even of a wagoner stuck in the
mud. Would you like to know my way of life? We march from seven in
the morning till four in the afternoon. I dine then; afterwards I
work, I receive tiresome visits; with these comes a detail of
insipid matters of business. 'Tis wrong-headed men, punctiliously
difficult, who are to be set right; heads too hot which must be
restrained, idle fellows that must be urged, impatient men that
must be rendered docile, plunderers to restrain within the bounds
of equity, babblers to hear babbling, dumb people to keep in talk:
in fine, one has to drink with those that like it, to eat with
those that are hungry; one has to become a Jew with Jews, a Pagan
with Pagans.
"Such are my occupations;--which I would willingly make over to
another, if the Phantom they call Fame (GLOIRE) did not rise on me
too often. In truth, it is a great folly, but a folly difficult to
cast away when once you are smitten by it. [Phantom of GLOIRE
somewhat rampant in those first weeks; let us see whether it will
not lay itself again, forevermore, before long!]
"Adieu, my dear Voltaire; may Heaven preserve from misfortune the
man I should so like to sup with at night, after fighting in the
morning! The Swan of Padua [Algarotti, with his big hook-nose and
dusky solemnly greedy countenance] is going, I think, to Paris, to
profit by my absence; the Philosopher Geometer [big Maupertuis, in
red wig and yellow frizzles, vainest of human kind] is squaring
curves; poor little Jordan [with the kindly hazel eyes, and pen
that pleasantly gossips to us] is doing nothing, or probably
something near it. Adieu once more, dear Voltaire; do not forget
the absent who love you. FREDERIC."
[ OEuvres de Frederic, xxii. 57.]
SCHWERIN AT LIEGNITZ; FRIEDRICH HUSHES UP THE GLOGAU PROBLEM,
AND STARTS WITH HIS BEST SPEED FOR BRESLAU.
Meanwhile, on the Western road, and along the foot of the snowy
peaks over yonder, Schwerin with the small Right column is going
prosperously forwards. Two columns always, as the reader
recollects,--two parallel military currents, flowing steadily on,
shooting out estafettes, or horse-parties, on the right and left;
steadily submerging all Silesia as they flow forward. Left column
or current is in slight pause at Glogau here; but will directly be
abreast again. On Tuesday, 27th, Schwerin is within wind of
Liegnitz; on Wednesday morning, while the fires are hardly lighted,
or the smoke of Liegnitz risen among the Hills, Schwerin has done
his feat with the usual deftness: Prussian grenadiers came softly
on the sentry, softly as a dream; but with sudden levelling of
bayonets, sudden beckoning, "To your Guard-house!"--and there, turn
the key upon his poor company and him. Whereupon the whole Prussian
column marches in; tramp tramp, without music, through the streets:
in the Market-place they fold themselves into a ranked mass, and
explode into wind-harmony and rolling of drums. Liegnitz, mostly in
nightcap, looks cautiously out of window: it is a deed done, IHR
HERREN; Liegnitz ours, better late than never; and after so many
years, the King has his own again. Schwerin is sumptuously lodged
in the Jesuits, Palace: Liegnitz, essentially a Protestant Town,
has many thoughts upon this event, but as yet will be stingy of
speaking them.
Thus is Liegnitz managed. A pleasant Town, amid pleasant hills on
the rocky Katzbach; of which swift stream, and other towns and
passes on it, we shall yet hear more. Population, silently
industrious in weaving and otherwise, is now above 14,000; was then
perhaps about half that number. Patiently inarticulate, by no means
bright in speech or sentiment; a much-enduring, steady-going,
frugal, pious and very desirable people.
The situation of Breslau, all this while, is very critical.
Much bottled emotion in the place; no Austrian Garrison admissible;
Authorities dare not again propose such a thing, though Browne is
turning every stone for it,--lest the emotion burst bottle, and
take fire. I have dim account that Browne has been there, has got
300 Austrian dragoons into the Dom Insel (CATHEDRAL ISLAND; "Not in
the City, you perceive!" says General Browne: "no, separated by the
Oder, on both sides, from the rest of the City; that stately mass
of edifices, and good military post");--and had hoped to get the
suburbs burnt, after all. But the bottled emotion was too
dangerous. For, underground, there are ANTI-Brownes: one
especially; a certain busy Deblin, Shoemaker by craft, whom
Friedrich speaks of, but gives no name to; this zealous Cordwainer,
Deblin, and he is not the only individual of like humor, operates
on the guild-brothers and lower populations: [Preuss,
Thronbesteigung, p. 469; OEuvres de Frederic,
ii. 61. ] things seem to be looking worse and worse
for the Authorities, in spite of General Browne and his activities
and dragoons.
What the issue will be? Judge if Friedrich wished the Young
Dessauer come! Friedrich's Hussar parties (or Schwerin's,
instructed by Friedrich) go to look if the Breslau suburbs are
burnt. Far from it, if Friedrich knew;--the suburbs merely sit
quaking at such a proposal, and wish the Prussians were here.
"But there is time ahead of us," said everybody at Breslau;
"Glogau will take some sieging!" Browne, in the course of a day or
two,--guessing, I almost think, that Glogau was not to be
besieged,--ranked his 300 Austrian dragoons, and rode away;
sending the Austrian State-Papers, in half a score of wagons, ahead
of him. "Archives of Breslau!" cried the general population, at
sight of these wagons; and largely turned out, with emotion again
like to unbottle itself. "Mere Tax-Ledgers, and records of the
Government Offices; come and convince yourselves!" answered the
Authorities. And the ten wagons went on; calling at Ohlau and
Brieg, for farther lading of the like kind. Which wagons the
Prussian light-horse chased, but could not catch. On to Mahren went
these Archive-wagons; to Brunn, far over the Giant Mountains;--did
not come back for a long while, nor to their former Proprietor at
all. Tuesday, 27th, Leopold the Young Dessauer does finally arrive,
with his Reserve, at Glogau: never man more welcome; such a
fermentation going on at Breslau,--known to Friedrich, and what it
will issue in, if he delay, not known. With despatch, Leopold is
put into his charge; posts all yielded to him; orders given,--
blockade to be strictness itself, but no fighting if avoidable;
"starvation will soon do it, two months at most," hopes Friedrich,
too sanguine as it proved:--and with earliest daylight on the 28th,
Friedrich's Army, Friedrich himself in the van as usual, is on
march again; at its best speed for Breslau. Read this Note for
Jordan:--
FRIEDRICH TO M. JORDAN, AT BERLIN.
"HERRENDORF, 27th Dec. 1740.
"SIEUR JORDAN,--I march to-morrow for Breslau; and shall be there
in four days [three, it happened; there rising, as would seem, new
reason for haste]. You Berliners [of the 24th last] have a spirit
of prophecy, which goes beyond me. In fine, I go my road; and thou
wilt shortly see Silesia ranked in the list of our Provinces.
Adieu; this is all I have time to tell thee. Religion [Silesian
Protestantism, and Breslau's Cordwainer], religion and our brave
soldiers will do the rest.
"Tell Maupertuis I grant those Pensions he proposes for his
Academicians; and that I hope to find good subjects for that
dignity in the Country where I am, withal. Give him my compliments.
FREDERIC."
The march was of the swiftest,--swifter even than had been
expected;--which, as Silesia is all ringing glass, becomes more
achievable than lately. But certain regiments outdid themselves in
marching; "in three marches, near upon seventy miles,"--with their
baggage jingling in due proximity. Through Glasersdorf, thence
through Parchwitz, Neumarkt, Lissa, places that will be better
known to us;--on Saturday, last night of the Year, his Majesty
lodged at a Schloss called Pilsnitz, five miles to west of Breslau;
and van-ward regiments, a good few, quartered in the Western and
Southern suburbs of Breslau itself; suburbs decidedly glad to see
them, and escape conflagration. The Town-gates are hermetically
shut;--plenty of emotion bottled in the 100,000 hearts within.
The sentries on the walls presented arms; nay, it is affirmed, some
could not help exclaiming, "WILKOMMEN, IHR LIEBEN HERREN (Welcome,
dear Sirs)!" [ Helden-Geschichte, i. 534.]
Colonel Posadowsky (active Horse Colonel whom we have seen before,
who perhaps has been in Breslau before) left orders "at the Scultet
Garden-House," that all must be ready and the rooms warmed, his
Majesty intending to arrive here early on the morrow. Which
happened accordingly; Majesty alighting duly at said Garden-House,
near by the Schweidnitz Gate,--I fancy almost before break of day.
Chapter IV.
BRESLAU UNDER SOFT PRESSURE.
The issue of this Breslau transaction is known, or could be stated
in few words; nor is the manner of it such as would, for Breslau's
sake, deserve many. But we are looking into Friedrich, wish to know
his manners and aspects: and here, ready to our hand, a Paper turns
up, compiled by an exact person with better leisure than ours,
minutely detailing every part of the affair. This Paper, after the
question, Burn or insert? is to have the lot of appearing here,
with what abridgments are possible:--
"SUNDAY, 1st JANUARY, 1741. The King having established himself in
Herrn Scultet's Garden-House, not far from the Schweidnitz Gate,
there began a delicate and great operation. The Prussians, in a
soft cautious manner, in the gray of the morning, push out their
sentries towards the three Gates on this side of the Oder; seize
any 'Excise House,' or the like, that may be fit for a post; and
softly put 'twenty grenadiers' in it. All this before sunrise.
Breslau is rigidly shut; Breslau thought always it could stand upon
its guard, if attacked;--is now, in Official quarters, dismally
uncertain if it can; general population becoming certain that it
cannot, and waiting anxious on the development of this grand drama.
"About 7 A.M. a Prussian subaltern advancing within cry of the
Schweidnitz Gate, requests of the Town-guard there, To send him out
a Town-Officer. Town-Officer appears; is informed, 'That Colonels
Posadowsky and Borck, Commissioners or plenipotentiary Messengers
from his Prussian Majesty, desire admittance to the Chief
Magistrate of Breslau, for the purpose of signifying what his
Prussian Majesty's instructions are.' Town-Officer bows, and goes
upon his errand. Town-Officer is some considerable time before he
can return; City Authorities being, as we know, various, partly
Imperial, partly Civic; elderly; and some of them gone to church,--
for matins, or to be out of the way. However, he does at last
return; admits the two Colonels, and escorts them honorably, to the
Chief RATHS-SYNDIC (Lord-Mayor) old Herr von Gutzmar's; where the
poor old "President of the OBER AMT" (Von Schaffgotsch the name of
this latter) is likewise in attendance.
"Prussian Majesty's proposals are of the mildest sort: 'Nothing
demanded of Breslau but the plainly indispensable and indisputable,
That Prussia be in it what Austria has been. In all else, STATUS
QUO. Strict neutrality to Breslau, respect for its privileges as a
Free City of the Reich; protection to all its rights and privileges
whatsoever. Shall be guarded by its own Garrison; no Prussian
soldier to enter except with sidearms; only 30 guards for the
King's person, who will visit the City for a few days;--intends to
form a Magazine, with guard of 1,000 men, but only outside the
City: no requisitions; ready money for everything. Chief Syndic
Gutzmar and President Schaffgotsch shall consider these points.'
[ Helden-Geschichte, i. 537.] Syndic and
President answer, Surely! Cannot, however, decide till they have
assembled the Town-Rath; the two Herren Colonels will please to be
guests of Breslau, and lodge in the City till then.
"And they lodged, accordingly, in the 'GROSSE RING' (called also
SALZ-RING, big Central Square, where the Rathhaus is); and they
made and received visits,--visited especially the Chief President's
Office, the Ober-Amt, and signified there, that his Prussian
Majesty's expectation was, They would give some account of that
rather high Proclamation or 'Patent' they had published against him
the other day, amid thunder and lightning here, and what they now
thought would be expedient upon it? All in grave official terms,
but of such a purport as was not exhilarating to everybody in those
Ober-Amt localities.
"MONDAY MORNING, 2d JANUARY. The Rath is assembled; and consults,--
consults at great length. RATH-House and Syndic Gutzmar, in such
crisis, would fain have advice from AMT-House or President
Schaffgotsch; but can get none: considerable coming and going
between them: at length, about 3 in the afternoon, the Treaty is
got drawn up; is signed by the due Breslau hands, and by the two
Prussian Colonels,--which latter ride out with it, about 4 of the
clock; victorious after thirty hours. Straight towards the Scultet
Garden ride they; Town-guard presenting Arms, at the Schweidnitz
Gate; nay Town-band breaking out into music, which is never done
but to Ambassadors and high people. By thirty hours of steady soft
pressure, they have brought it thus far.
"Friedrich had waited patiently all Sunday, keeping steady guard at
the Gates; but on Monday, naturally, the thirty hours began to hang
heavy: at all events, he perceived that it would be well to
facilitate conclusions a little from without. Breslau stands on the
West, more strictly speaking, on the South side of the Oder, which
makes an elbow here, and thus bounds it, or mostly bounds it, on
two sides. The big drab-colored River spreads out into Islands, of
a confused sort, as it passes; which are partly built upon, and
constitute suburbs of the Town,--stretching over, here and there,
into straggles of farther suburb beyond the River, where a road
with its bridge happens to cross for the Eastern parts.
The principal of these Islands is the DOM INSEL,"--known to General
Browne and us,--"on which is the Cathedral, and the CLOSE with rich
Canons and their edifices; Island filled with strong high
architecture; and a superior military post.
"Friedrich has already as good as possessed himself of the three
landward Gates, which look to the south and to the west; the
riverward gates, or those on the north and the east, he perceives
that it were good now also to have; these, and even perhaps
something more? 'Gather all the river-boats, make a bridge of them
across the Oder; push across 400 men:' this is done on Monday
morning, under the King's own eye. This done, 'March up to that
riverward Gate, and also to that other, in a mild but dangerous-
looking manner; hew the beams of said Gate in two; start the big
locks; fling wide open said Gate and Gates:' this too is done;
Town-guard looking mournfully on. This done, 'March forward
swiftly, in two halves, without beat of drum,--whitherward
you know!'
"Those three hundred Austrian Dragoons, we saw them leave the Dom
Island, three days ago; there are at present only Six Men, of the
BISHOP'S Guard, walking under arms there,--at the end of the chief
bridge, on the Townward side of their Dom Island. See, Prussian
caps and muskets, ye six men under arms! The six men clutch at
their drawbridge, and hastily set about hoisting:--alas, another
Prussian corps, which has come privately by the eastern (or
Country-ward) Bridge, King himself with it, taps them on the
shoulder at this instant; mildly constrains the six into their
guard-house: the drawbridge falls; 400 Prussian grenadiers take
quiet possession of the Dom Island: King may return to the Scultet
Garden, having quickened the lazy hours in this manner. To such of
the Canons as he came upon, his Majesty was most polite; they most
submiss. The six soldiers of the drawbridge, having spoken a little
loud,--still more a too zealous beef-eater of old Schaffgotsch's
found here, who had been very loud,--were put under arrest; but
more for form's sake; and were let go, in a day or two."
Nothing could be gentler on Friedrich's part, and on that of his
two Colonels, than this delicate operation throughout:-- and at
4 P.M., after thirty hours of waiting, it is done, and nobody's
skin scratched. Old Syndic Gutzmar, and the Town-Rath, urged by
perils and a Town Population who are Protestant, have signed the
Surrender with good-will, at least with resignation, and a feeling
of relief. The Ober-Amt Officials have likewise had to sign;
full of all the silent spleen and despondency which is natural to
the situation: spleen which, in the case of old Schaffgotsch, weak
with age, becomes passionately audible here and there. He will have
to give account of that injurious Proclamation, or Queen's
"Patent," to this King that has now come.
KING ENTERS BRESLAW; STAYS THERE, GRACIOUS AND VIGILANT,
FOUR DAYS (Jan. 2d-6th, 1741).
In the Royal Entrance which took place next day, note these points.
Syndic Gutzmar and the Authorities came out, in grand coaches, at 8
in the morning; had to wait awhile; the King, having ridden away to
look after his manifold affairs, did not get back till 10. Town
Guard and Garrison are all drawn out; Gates all flung open,
Prussian sentries withdrawn from them, and from the Excise-houses
they had seized: King's Kitchen-and-Proviant Carriages (four mules
to each, with bells, with uncommonly rich housings): King's Body-
Coach very grand indeed, and grandly escorted, the Thirty Body-
guards riding ahead; but nothing in it, only a most superfine cloak
"lined wholly with ermine" flung upon the seat. Other Coaches, more
or less grandly escorted; Head Cup-bearers, Seneschals, Princes,
Margraves:--but where is the King? King had ridden away, a second
time, with chief Generals, taking survey of the Town Walls, round
as far as the ZIEGEL-THOR (Tile-Gate, extreme southeast, by the
river-edge): he has thus made the whole circuit of Breslau;--
unwearied in picking up useful knowledge, "though it was very
cold," while that Procession of Coaches went on.
At noon, his Majesty, thrifty of time, did enter: on horseback,
Schwerin riding with him; behind him miscellaneous chief Officers;
Borck and Posadowsky among others; some miscellany of Page-people
following. With this natural escort, he rode in; Town-Major
(Commandant of Town-guard), with drawn sword going ahead;--King
wore his usual Cocked Hat, and practical Blue Cloak, both a little
dimmed by service: but his gray horse was admirable; and four
scarlet Footmen, grand as galloon and silver fringe could make
them, did the due magnificence in dress. He was very gracious;
saluting to this side and to that, where he noticed people of
condition in the windows. "Along Schweidnitz Street, across the
Great Ring, down Albrecht Street." He alighted, to lodge, at the
Count-Schlegenberg House; which used to be the Austrian Cardinal
von Sinzendorf Primate of Silesia's hired lodging,-- Sinzendorf's
furniture is put gently aside, on this new occasion. King came on
the balcony; and stood there for some minutes, that everybody might
see him. The "immense shoutings," Dryasdust assures me, have been
exaggerated; and I am warned not to believe the KRIEGS-FAMA such
and such a Number, except after comparing it with him.--That day
there was dinner of more than thirty covers, Chief Syndic Gutzmar
and other such guests; but as to the viands, says my friend, these,
owing to the haste, were nothing to speak of. [Helden-
Geschichte, i. 545-548.]
Dinner, better and better ordered, King more and more gracious, so
it continued all the four days of his Majesty's stay:--on the
second day be had to rise suddenly from table, and leave his guests
with an apology; something having gone awry, at one of the Gates.
Awry there, between the Town Authorities and a General Jeetz of
his,--who is on march across the River at this moment (on what
errand we shall hear), and a little mistakes the terms. His Majesty
puts Jeetz right; and even waits, till he sees his Brigade and him
clear across. A junior Schaffgotsch, [ Helden-Geschichte,
ii. 159.] not the inconsolable Schaffgotsch senior,
but his Nephew, was one of the guests this second day; an
ecclesiastic, but of witty fashionable type, and I think a very
worthless fellow, though of a family important in the Province.
Dinner falls about noon; does not last above two hours or three, so
that there is space for a ride ("to the Dom," the first afternoon,
"four runners" always), and for much indoor work, before the
supper-hour.
As the Austrian Authorities sat silent in their place, and gave no
explanation of that "Patent," affixed amid thunder and lightning,
--they got orders from his Majesty to go their ways next day;
and went. In behalf of old President von Schaffgotsch, a chief of
the Silesian Nobility, and man much loved, the Breslau people,
and men from every guild and rank of society, made petition That,
he should be allowed to continue in his Town House here. Which
"first request of yours" his Majesty, with much grace, is sorry to
be obliged to refuse. The suppressed, and insuppressible, weak
indignation of old Schaffgotsch is visible on the occasion; nor, I
think, does Friedrich take it ill; only sends him out of the way
with it, for the time. The Austrian Ober-Amt vanished bodily from
Breslau in this manner; and never returned. Proper "War-Commission
(FELD-KRIEGS-COMMISSARIAT)," with Munchow, one of those skilful
Custrin Munchows, at the top of it, organized itself instead;
which, almost of necessity, became Supreme Government in a City
ungoverned otherwise:--and truly there was little regret of the
Ober-Amt, in Breslau; and ever less, to a marked extent, as the
years went on.
On the 5th of January (fourth and last night here), his Majesty
gave a grand Ball. Had hired, or Colonel Posadowsky instead of him
had hired, the Assembly Rooms (REDOUTEN-SAAL), for the purpose:
"Invite all the Nobility high and low;"-- expense by estimate is a
ducat (half-guinea) each; do it well, and his Majesty will pay.
About 6 in the evening, his Majesty in person did us the honor to
drive over; opened the Ball with Madam the Countess von
Schlegenberg (I should guess, a Dowager Lady), in whose house he
lodges. I am not aware that his Majesty danced much farther; but he
was very condescending, and spoke and smiled up and down;--till,
about l0 P.M., an Officer came in with a Letter. Which Letter his
Majesty having read, and seemingly asked a question or two in
regard to, put silently in his pocket, as if it were a finished
thing. Nevertheless, after a few minutes, his Majesty was found to
have silently withdrawn; and did not return, not even to supper.
Perceiving which, all the Prussian official people gradually
withdrew; though the dancing and supping continued not the less, to
a late hour. [ Helden-Geschichte, i. 557.]
"Open the Austrian Mail-bag (FELLEISEN); see a little what they are
saying over there!" Such order had evidently been given, this
night. In consequence of which, people wrote by Dresden, and not
the direct way, in future; wishing to avoid that openable
FELLEISEN. Next morning, January 6th, his Majesty had left for
Ohlau,--early, I suppose; though there proved to be nothing
dangerous ahead there, after all.
Chapter V.
FRIEDRICH PUSHES FORWARD TOWARDS BRIEG AND NEISSE.
Ohlau is a pleasant little Town, two marches southeast of Breslau;
with the Ohlau River on one side, and the Oder on the other;
capable of some defence, were there a garrison. Brieg the important
Fortress, still on the Oder, is some fifteen miles beyond Ohlau;
after which, bending straight south and quitting Oder, Neisse the
still more important may be thirty miles:--from Breslau to Neisse,
by this route (which is BOW, not STRING), sixty-five or seventy
miles. One of my Topographers yields this Note, if readers care
for it:--
"Ohlau River, an insignificant drab-colored stream, rises well
south of Breslau, about Strehlen; makes, at first, direct eastward
towards the Oder; and then, when almost close upon it, breaks off
to north, and saunters along, irregularly parallel to Oder, for
twenty miles farther, before it can fall fairly in. To this
circumstance both Breslau and a Town of Ohlau owe their existence;
Towns, both of them, 'between the waters,' and otherwise well
seated; Ohlau sheltering itself in the attempted outfall of its
little river; Breslau clustering itself about the actual outfall:
both very defensible places in the old rude time, and good for
trade in all times. Both Oder and Ohlau Rivers have split and
spread themselves into islands and deltas a good deal, at their
place of meeting; and even have changed their courses, and cut out
new channels for themselves, in the sandy country; making a very
intricate watery network of a site for Breslau: and indeed the
Ohlau River here, for centuries back, has been compelled into wide
meanderings, mere filling of rampart-ditches, so that it issues
quite obscurely, and in an artificial engineered condition,
at Breslau."
Ohlau had been expected to make some defence; General Browne having
thrown 300 men into it, and done what he could for the works.
And Ohlau did at first threaten to make some; but thought better of
it overnight, and in effect made none; but was got (morning of
January 9th) on the common terms, by merely marching up to it in
minatory posture. "Prisoners of War, if you make resistance;
Free Withdrawal [Liberty to march away, arms shouldered, and not
serve against us for a year], if you have made none:" this is the
common course, where there are Austrian Soldiers at all; the course
where none are, and only a few Syndics sit, with their Town-Key
laid on the table, a prey to the stronger hand, we have
already seen.
From Ohlau, proper Detachment, under General Kleist, is pushed
forward to summon Brieg; Jeetz from the other side of the river
(whom we saw crossing at Breslau the other day, interrupting his
Majesty's dinner) is to co-operate with Kleist in that enterprise,
--were the Country once cleared on his, Jeetz's, east side of Oder;
especially were Namslau once had, a small Town and Castle over
there, which commands the Polish and Hungarian road. Friedrich's
hopes are buoyant; Schwerin is swiftly rolling forward to
rightward, nothing resisting him; Detachment is gone from Schwerin,
over the Hills, to Glatz (the GRAFSCHAFT, or County Glatz, an
Appendage to Schlesien), under excellent guidance; under guidance,
namely, of Colonel Camas, who has just come home from his Parisian
Embassy, and got launched among the wintry mountains, on a new
operation,--which, however, proves of non-effect for the present.
[ Helden-Geschichte, i. 678; Orlich,
Geschichte der beiden Schlesischen Kriege, i. 49.]
Indeed, it is observable that southward of Breslau, the dispute,
what dispute there can be, properly begins; and that General Browne
is there, and shows himself a shining man in this difficult
position. It must be owned, no General could have made his small
means go farther. Effective garrisons, 1,600 each, put into Brieg
and Neisse; works repaired, magazines collected, there and
elsewhere; the rest of his poor 7,000 thriftily sprinkled about, in
what good posts there are, and "capable of being got together in
six hours:" a superior soldier, this Browne, though with a very bad
task; and seems to have inspired everybody with something of his
own temper. So that there is marching, detaching, miscellaneous
difficulty for Friedrich in this quarter, more than had been
expected. If the fate of Brieg and Neisse be inevitable, Browne
does wonders to delay it.
Of the Prussian marches in these parts, recorded by intricate
Dryasdust, there was no point so notable to me as this unrecorded
one: the Stone Pillar which, I see, the Kleist Detachment was sure
to find, just now, on the march from Ohlau to Brieg; last portion
of that march, between the village of Briesen and Brieg. The Oder,
flowing on your left hand, is hereabouts agreeably clothed with
woods: the country, originally a swamp, has been drained, and given
to the plough, in an agreeable manner; and there is an excellent
road paved with solid whinstone,--quarried in Strehlen, twenty
miles away, among the Hills to the right yonder, as you may guess;
--road very visible to the Prussian soldier, though he does not ask
where quarried. These beautiful improvements, beautiful humanities,
--were done by whom? "Done in 1584," say the records, by "George
the Pious;" Duke of Liegnitz, Brieg and Wohlau; 156 years ago.
"Pious" his contemporaries called this George;--he was son of the
ERBVERBRUDERUNG Duke, who is so important to us; he was
grandfather's grandfather of the last Duke of all; after whom it
was we that should have got these fine Territories; they should all
have fallen to the Great Elector, had not the Austrian strong hand
provided otherwise. George did these plantations, recoveries to the
plough; made this perennial whinstone road across the swamps; upon
which, notable to the roughest Prussian (being "twelve feet high by
eight feet square"), rises a Hewn Mass with this Inscription on
it,--not of the name or date of George; but of a thought of his,
which is not without a pious beauty to me:--
Straverunt alii nobis, nos Posteritati;
Omnibus at Christus stravit ad asra viam.
Others have made roads for us; we make them for still others:
Christ made a road to the stars for us all.
[Zollner, Briefe uber Schlesien, i. 175;
Hubner, i. t. 101.]
I know not how many Brandenburgers of General Kleist's Detachment,
or whether any, read this Stone; but they do all rustle past it
there, claiming the Heritage of this Pious George; and their mute
dim interview with him, in this manner, is a thing slightly more
memorable than orders of the day, at this date.
It was on the 11th, two days after Ohlau, that General Kleist
summoned Brieg; and Brieg answered resolutely, No. There is a
garrison of 1,600 here, and a proper magazine: nothing for it but
to "mask" Brieg too; Kleist on this side the River, Jeetz on that,
--had Jeetz once done with Namslau, which he has not by any means.
Namslau's answer was likewise stiffly in the negative; and Jeetz
cannot do Namslau, at least not the Castle, all at once; having no
siege-cannon. Seeing such stiffness everywhere, Friedrich writes to
Glogau, to the Young Dessauer, "Siege-artillery hither! Swift, by
the Oder; you don't need it where you are!" and wishes it were
arrived, for behoof of Neisse and these stiff humors.
FRIEDRICH COMES ACROSS TO OTTMACHAU; SITS THERE, IN SURVEY OF
NEISSE, TILL HIS CANNON COME.
The Prussians met with serious resistance, for the first time (9th
January, same day when Ohlau yielded), at a place called Ottmachau;
a considerable little Town and Castle on the Neisse River, not far
west of Neisse Town, almost at the very south of Silesia. It lay on
the route of Schwerin's Column; long distances ahead of Liegnitz,
--say, by straight highway a hundred miles;--during which, to right
and to left, there had been nothing but submission hitherto.
No resistance was expected here either, for there was not hope in
any; only that Browne had been here; industrious to create delay
till Neisse were got fully ready. He is, by every means, girding up
the loins of Neisse for a tight defence; has put 1,600 men into it,
with proper stores for them, with a resolute skilful Captain at the
top of them: assiduous Browne had been at Ottmachau, as the outpost
of Neisse, a day or two before; and, they say, had admonished them
"Not to yield on any terms, for he would certainly come to their
relief." Which doubtless he would have done, had it been in his
power; but how, except by miracle, could it be? On the 9th of
January, when Schwerin comes up, Browne is again waiting
hereabouts. Again in defensive posture, but without force to
undertake anything; stands on the Southern Uplands, with Bohmen and
Mahren and the Giant Mountains at his back;--stands, so to speak,
defensive at his own House-door, in this manner; and will have,
after SEEING Ottmachau's fate and Neisse's, to duck in with a slam!
At any rate, he had left these Towns in the above firm humor,
screwed to the sticking-place; and had then galloped else-whither
to screw and prepare.
And so the Ottmachau Austrians, "260 picked grenadiers" (400
dragoons there also at first were, who, after flourishing about on
the outskirts as if for fighting, rode away), fire "DESPERAT," says
my intricate friend; [ Helden-Geschichte, i. 672-677;
Orlich, i. 50.] entirely refusing terms from Schwerin; kill twelve
of his people (Major de Rege, distinguished Engineer Major, one of
them): so that Schwerin has to bring petards upon them, four cannon
upon them; and burst in their Town Gate, almost their Castle Gate,
and pretty much their Castle itself;--wasting three days of his
time upon this paltry matter. Upon which they do signify a
willingness for "Free Withdrawal." "No, IHR HERREN" answers,
Schwerin; "not now; after such mad explosion. His Majesty will have
to settle it." Majesty, who is by this time not far off, comes over
to Ottmachau (January 12th); gives words of rebuke, rebuke not very
inexorable; and admits them Prisoners of War. "The officers were
sent to Custrin, common men to Berlin;" the usual arrangement in
such case. Ottmachau Town belongs to the Right Reverend von
Sinzendorf, Bishop of Breslau, and Primate; whose especial Palace
is in Neisse; though he "commonly sends his refractory Priests to
do their penance in the Schloss at Ottmachau here,"--and, I should
say, had better himself make terms, and come out hitherward, under
present aspects.
Friedrich continues at Ottmachau; head-quarters there thenceforth,
till he see Neisse settled. On the morrow, 13th) he learns that the
Siege Artillery is at Grotkau; well forward towards Neisse;
halfway between Brieg and it. Same day, Colonel Camas returns to
him out of Glatz; five of his men lost; and reports That Browne has
had the roads torn up, that Glatz is mere ice and obstruction, and
that nothing can be made of it at this season. Good news
alternating with not so good.
The truth is, Friedrich has got no Strong Place in Schlesien;
all strengths make unexpected defence; paltry little Namslan itself
cannot be quite taken, Castle cannot, till Jeetz gets his siege-
artillery,--which does not come along so fast as that to Neisse
does. Here is an Excerpt from my Dryasdust, exact though abridged,
concerning Jeetz:--
"JANUARY 24th, 1741. Prussians, masters of the Town for a couple of
weeks back, have got into the Church at Namslau, into the Cloister;
are preparing plank floors for batteries, cutting loop-holes;
diligent as possible,--siege-guns now at last just coming.
The Castle fires fiercely on them, makes furious sallies, steals
six of our oxen,--makes insolent gestures from the walls; at least
one soldier does, this day. 'Sir, may I give that fellow a shot?'
asks the Prussian sentry. 'Do, then,' answers his Major: 'too
insolent that one!' And the sentry explodes on him; brings him
plunging down, head foremost (HERUNTER PURZELTE); the too insolent
mortal, silent enough thenceforth." [ Helden-Geschichte,
i. 703.]--Jeetz did get his cannon, though not till
now, this very day I think; and then, in a couple of days more,
Jeetz finished off Namslau ("officers to Custrin, Common men to
Berlin"); and thereupon blockades the Eastern side of Brieg,
joining hands with Kleist on the Western: whereby Brieg, like
Glogau, is completely masked,--till the season mend.
Friedrich, now that his artillery is come, expects no difficulty
with Neisse. A "paltry hamlet (BICOQUE)" he playfully calls it;
and, except this, Silesia is now his. Neisse got (which would be
the desirable thing), or put under "mask" as Glogau is, and as
Brieg is being, Austria possesses not an inch of land within these
borders. Here are some Epistolary snatches; still in the light
style, not to say the flimsy and uplifted; but worth giving, so
transparent are they; off hand, like words we had heard his Majesty
SPEAK, in his high mood:--
KING TO M. JORDAN, AT BERLIN (two successive Letters).
1. "OTTMACHAU, 14th JANUARY, 1741 [second day after our arrival
there]. My dear Monsieur Jordan, my sweet Monsieur Jordan, my quiet
Monsieur Jordan, my good, my benign, my pacific, my humanest
Monsieur Jordan,--I announce to Thy Serenity the conquest of
Silesia; I warn thee of the bombardment of Neisse [just getting
ready], and I prepare thee for still more important projects;
and instruct thee of the happiest successes that the womb of
Fortune ever bore.
"This ought to suffice thee. Be my Cicero as to the justice of my
cause, and I will be thy Caesar as to the execution. Adieu: thou
knowest whether I am not, with the most cordial regard, thy
faithful friend.--F."
2. "OTTMACHAU, 17th JANUARY, 1741. I have the honor to inform your
Humanity that we are christianly preparing to bombard Neisse;
and that if the place will not surrender of good-will, needs must
that it be beaten to powder (NECESSITE SERA DE L'ABIMER). For the
rest, our affairs go the best in the world; and soon thou wilt hear
nothing more of us. For in ten days it will all be over; and I
shall have the pleasure of seeing you and hearing you, in about
a fortnight.
"I have seen neither my Brother [August Wilhelm, not long ago at
Strasburg with us, and betrothed since then] nor Keyserling:
I left them at Breslau, not to expose them to the dangers of war.
They perhaps will be a little angry; but what can I do?--The rather
as, on this occasion, one cannot share in the glory, unless one is
a mortar!
"Adieu, M. le Conseiller [Poor's-RATH, so styled]. Go and amuse
yourself with Horace, study Pausanias, and be gay over Anacreon.
As to me, who for amusement have nothing but merlons, fascines and
gabions, [Merlons are mounds of earth placed behind the solid or
blind parts of the parapet (that is, between the embrasures) of a
Fortification; fascines are bundles of brushwood for filling up a
ditch; gabions, baskets filled with earth to be ranged in defence
till you get trenches dug.] I pray God to grant me soon a
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