History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 13
by
Thomas Carlyle
Part 2 out of 4
Marechal de Belleisle, wrapt in Diplomatic and Electioneering
business, cannot personally take command for the present; but has
excellent lieutenants,--one of whom is Comte de Saxe, Moritz our
old friend, afterwards Marechal de Saxe. Among the finest French
Armies, this of Belleisle's is thought to be, that ever took the
field: so many of our Nobility in it, and what best Officers,
Segurs, Saxes, future Marechal's, we have. Army full of spirit and
splendor; come to cut Germany in four, and put France at last in
its place in the Universe. Here is courage, here is patriotism, of
a sort. And if this is not the good sort, the divinely pious, the
humanly noble,--Fashionable Society feels it to be so, and can hit
no nearer. New-fashioned "Army of the Oriflamme," one might call
this of Belleisle's; kind of Sham-Sacred French Army (quite in
earnest, as it thinks);--led on, not by St. Denis and the Virgin,
but by Sun-god Belleisle and the Chateauroux, under these sad new
conditions! Which did not prosper as expected.
"Let the Holy German Reich take no offence," said this Army, eager
to conciliate: "we come as friends merely; our intentions
charitable, and that only. Bavarian Treaty of Nymphenburg (18th May
last) binds us especially, this time; Treaty of Westphalia binds us
sacredly at all times. Peaceable to you, nay brotherly, if only you
will be peaceable!" Which the poor Reich, all but Austria and the
Sea-Powers, strove what it could to believe.
On reaching the German shore out of Elsass, "every Officer put, the
Bavarian Colors, cockade of blue-and-white, on his hat;" [Adelung,
ii. 431.] a mere "Bavarian Army," don't you see? And the 40,000
wend steadily forward throngh Schwaben eastward, till they can join
Karl Albert Kur-Baiern, who is Generalissimo, or has the name of
such. They march in Seven Divisions. Donauworth (a Town we used to
know, in Marlborough's time and earlier) is to be their first
resting-point; Ingolstadt their place-of-arms: will readers
recollect those two essential circumstances? To Donauworth is 250
miles; to Passau will be 180 more: five or six long weeks of
marching. But after Donauworth they are to go, the Infantry of them
are, in boats; Horse, under Saxe, marching parallel. Forward, ever
forward, to Passau (properly to Scharding, twelve miles up the Inn
Valley, where his Bavarian Highness is in Camp); and thence, under
his Bavarian Highness, and in concert with him, to pour forth,
deluge-like, upon Linz, probably upon Vienna itself, down the Donau
Valley,--why not to Vienna itself, and ruin Austria at one swoop?
[Espagnac, Histoire de Maurice Comte de Saxe
(German Translation, Leipzig, 1774), i. 83:--an excellent military
compend. Campagnes des Trois Marechaux
(Maillebois, Broglio, Belleisle: Armsterdam. 1773), ii. 53-56:--in
nine handy little volumes (or if we include the NOAILLES and the
COIGNY set, making "CING MARECHAUX," nineteen volumes in all, and a
twentieth for INDEX); consisting altogether of Official Letters
(brief, rapid, meant for business, NOT for printing in the
Newspapers); which are elucidative BEYOND bargain, and would even
be amusing to read,--were the topic itself worth one's time.]
The second or Maillebois French Army spreads itself, by degrees,
considerably over Westphalia;--straitened for forage, and otherwise
not the best of neighbors. But, in theory, in speech, this too was
abundantly conciliatory,--to the Dutch at least. "Nothing earthly
in view, nothing, ye magnanimous Dutch, except to lodge here in the
most peaceable manner, paying our way, and keep down disturbances
that might arise in these parts. That might arise; not from you, ye
magnanimous High Mightinesses, how far from it! Nor will we meddle
with one broken brick of your respectable Barrier, or Barrier
Treaty, which is sacred to us, or do you the shadow of an injury.
No; a thousand times, upon our honor, No!" For brevity's sake, I
lend them that locution, "No, a thousand times,"--and in actual
arithmetic, I should think there are at least four or five hundred
times of it,--in those extinct Diplomatic Eloquences of Excellency
Fenelon and the other French;--vaguely counting, in one's oppressed
imagination, during the Two Years that ensue. For the Dutch lazily
believed, or strove to believe, this No of Fenelon's; and took an
obstinate laggard sitting posture, in regard to Pragmatic Sanction;
whereby the task of "hoisting" them (as above hinted), which fell
upon a certain King, became so famous in Diplomatic History.
Imagination may faintly picture what a blow this advent of
Maillebois was to his Britannic Majesty, over in Herrenhausen
yonder! He has had of Danes six thousand, of Hessians six, of
Hanoverians sixteen,--in all some 30,000 men, on foot here since
Spring last, camping about (in two formidable Camps at this
moment); not to mention the 6,000 of English on Lexden Heath, eager
to be shipped across, would Parliament permit; and now--let him
stir in any direction if he dare. Camp of Gottin like a drawn sword
at one's throat (at one's Hanover) from the east; and lo, here a
twin fellow to it gleaming from the south side! Maillebois can walk
into the throat of Hanover at a day's warning. And such was
actually the course proposed by Maillebois's Government, more than
once, in these weeks, had not Friedrich dissuaded and forbidden.
It is a strangling crisis. What is his Britannic Majesty to do?
Send orders, "Double YOUR diligence, Excellency Robinson!" that is
one clear point; the others are fearfully insoluble, yet pressiug
for solution: in a six weeks hence (September 27th), we shall see
what they issue in!--
As for Robinson, he is duly with the Queen at Presburg; duly
conjuring incessantly, "Make your peace with Friedrich!" And her
Majesty will not, on the terms. Poor Robinson, urged two ways at
once, is flurried doubly and trebly; tossed about as Diplomatist
never was. King of Prussia flashes lightning-looks upon him,
clapping finger to nose; Maria Theresa, knowing he will demand
cession of Silesia, shudders at sight of him; and the Aulic Council
fall into his arms like dead men, murmuring, "Money; where is
your money?"
"AUGUST 29th. While Friedrich was pushing into Neipperg, in the
Baumgarten Country, and could get no battle out of him, Excellency
Robinson reappears at Breslau; Maria Theresa, after deadly efforts
on his part, has mended her offers, in these terrible
circumstances; and Robinson is here again. 'Half of Silesia, or
almost half, provided his Majesty will turn round, and help against
the French:' these, secretly, are Robinson's rich offers.
The Queen, on consenting to these new offers, had 'wrung her
hands,' like one in despair, and said passionately, 'Unless
accepted within a fortnight, I will not be bound by them!'
'Admit his Excellency to the honor of an interview,' solicits
Hyndford; 'his offers are much mended.' Notable to witness,
Friedrich will not see Robinson at all this time, nor even permit
Podewils to see him; signifies plainly that he wants to hear no
more of his offers, and that, in fact, the sooner he can take
himself away from Breslau, it will be the better. To that effect,
Robinson, rushing back in mortified astonished manner, reports
progress at Presburg; to that and no better. 'High Madam,' urges
Robinson, still indefatigable, 'the King of Prussia's help would be
life, his hostility is death at this crisis. Peace must be with
him, at any price!' 'Price?' answers her Majesty once: 'If Austria
must fall, it is indifferent to me whether it be by Kur-Baiern or
Kur-Brandenburg!' [Stenzel, iv. 156.] Nevertheless, in about a week
she again yields to intense conjuring, and the ever-tightening
pressure of events;--King George, except it be for counselling, is
become stock-still, with Maillebois's sword at his throat; and is,
without metaphor, sinking towards absolute neutrality: 'Cannot help
you, Madam, any farther; must not try it, or I perish, my Hanover
and I!'--So that Maria Theresa again mends her offers: 'Give him
all Lower Silesia, and he to join with me!' and Robinson post-haste
despatches a courier to Breslau with them. Notable again:
King Friedrich will not hear of them; answers by a 'No, I tell you!
Time was, time is not. I have now joined with France; and to join
against it in this manner? Talk to me no more!'" [Friedrich to
Hyndford: "Au Camp [de Neuendorf] 14me septembre," 1741.
"Milord j'ai recu les nouvelles propositions d'alliance que
l'infatigable Robinson vous envoie. Je les trouve aussi chimeriques
que les precedentes."--"Ces gens sont-ils fols, Milord, de
s'imaginer que je commisse la trahison de tourner en leur faveur
mes armes, et de"--? "Je vous prie de ne me plus fatiguer avec de
pareilles propositions, et de me croire assez honnete homme pour ne
point violer mes engagements.-- FREDERIC." (British
Museum: Hyndford Papers, fol. 133.)] ...
Here is a catastrophe for the Two Britannic Excellencies, and the
Cause of Freedom! Robinson, in dudgeon and amazement, has hurried
back to Presburg, has ceased sending even couriers; and, in a three
weeks hence (9th October, a day otherwise notable), wishes "to come
home," the game being up. [His Letter, "9th October, 1741" (in Lord
Mahon's History of England, iii. Appendix,
p. iii: edit. London, 1839). Such is Robinson's gloomy view:
finished, he, and the game lost,--unless perhaps Hyndford could
still do something? Of which what hope is there! Hyndford, who has
a rough sagacity in him, and manifests often a strong sense of the
practical and the practicable, strikes into--Readers, from the
following Fragments of Correspondence, now first made public, will
gather for themselves what new course, veiled in triple mystery,
Hyndford had struck into. Four bits of Notes, well worth reading,
under their respective dates:--
1. EXCELLENCY HYNDFORD TO SECRETARY HARRINGTON (Two Notes).
"BRESLAU, 2d SEPTEMBER, 1711 [on the heel of Robinson's second
miscarriage]. ... My Lord, all these contretemps are very unlucky
at present, when time is so precious; for France is pressing the
King of Prussia in the strongest manner to declare himself;
but whatever eventual preliminaries may be probably agreed between
them, I still doubt if they have any Treaty signed"--have had one,
any time these three months (since 5th June last); signed
sufficiently; but of a most fast-and-loose nature; neither party
intending to be rigorous in keeping it. "I wish to God the Court of
Vienna may be brought to think before it is too late." [HYNDFORD
PAPERS (Brit. Mus. Additional MSS. 11,366), ii. fol. 91.]
2. "BRESLAU, 6th SEPTEMBER. ... I am not without hopes of
succeeding in a project which has occurred to me on this occasion,
and which seems to be pretty well relished by some people [properly
by one individual, Goltz, the King's Adjutant and factotum], who
are in great confidence about the King of Prussia's person; and I
think it is the only thing that now remains to be tried; and as it
is the least of two evils, I hope I shall have the King my Master's
approbation in attempting it; and if the Court of Vienna will open
their eyes, they must see it is the only thing left to save them
from utter destruction;"--and, finally, here it is:--
"Since Mr. Robinson left this place,--["Sooner YOU go, the better,
Sir!"],--I have been sounding the people afore mentioned," the
individual afore hinted at, "Whether the King of Prussia would
hearken to a Neutrality with respect to the Queen of Hungary, and
at the same time fulfil his engagements to his Majesty with respect
to the defence of his Majesty's German Dominions, IF she would give
him the Lower Silesia with Breslau? At first they rejected it;
saying it was a thing they dared not propose. However, I have
reason to believe, by a Letter I saw this day, that it has been
proposed to the King, and that he is not absolutely averse to it.
I shall know more in a few days; but if it can be done at all, it
must be done in the very greatest secrecy, for neither the King nor
his Ministers wish to appear in it; and I question if his Minister
Podewils will be informed of it." [ Hyndford Papers,
italic> fol. 97, 98.]
3. EXCELLENCY ROBINSON (in a flutter of excitement, temporary
hope and excitement, about Goltz) TO HYNDFORD, AT BRESLAU.
"PRESBURG, 8th SEPTEMBER (N.S.), 1741. My Lord, I could desire your
Lordship to summon up, if it were necessary, the spirit of all your
Lordship's Instructions, and the sense of the King, of the
Parliament, and of the whole British Nation. It is upon this great
moment that depends the fate, not of the House of Austria, not of
the Empire, but of the House of Brunswick, of Great Britain, and of
all Europe. I verily believe the King of Prussia does not himself
know the extent of the present danger. With whatever motive he may
act, there is not one, not that of the mildest resentment, that can
blind him to this degree, of himself perishing in the ruin he is
bringing upon others. With his concurrence, the French will, in
less than six weeks, be masters of the German Empire. The weak
Elector of Bavaria is but their instrument: Prague and Vienna may,
and probably will, be taken in that short time. Will even the King
of Prussia himself be reserved to the last?
"Upon this single transaction [of your Lordship's affair with the
mysterious individual] depend the CITA MORS, or the VICTORIA LAETA
of all Europe. Nothing will equal the glory of your Lordship, in
the latter case, but that to be acquired by the King of Prussia in
his immediate imitation of the great Sobieski"--reputed "savior of
Vienna," O your Excellency! ... "Prince Lichtenstein will, if found
in time upon his estates in Bohemia, be, I believe, the person to
repair to the King of Prussia, the moment your Lordship shall have
signed the Preliminaries. Once again, give me leave, my Lord, to
express my most ardent wishes, my"--T. ROBINSON. [ Hyndford
Papers, fol. 102.]
4. EXCELLENCY HYNDFORD TO SECRETARY HARRINGTON.
"BRESLAU, 9th SEPTEMBER, ... Received a message to meet him,"--HIM,
for we now speak in the singular number, though still without
naming Goltz,--"one of the persons I mentioned in my former
Despatch: in a very unsuspected place; for we have agreed to avoid
all appearance of familiarity. He told me he had received a Letter
this morning from the Camp,"-- Prussian Majesty's Camp, or Bivouac
(in the Munsterberg Hill-Country), on that march towards Woitz, for
crossing the Neisse upon Neipperg, which proved impracticable,--
"and that he could with pleasure tell me that the King agreed to
this last trial, although he would not, nor could appear in it. ...
Then this person read to me a Paper, but I could not see whether it
was the King's hand or not; for when I desired to take a copy, he
said he could not show me the original; but dictated as follows:--
"'Toute la Basse Silesie, la riviere de Neisse pour limite, la
ville de Neisse a nous, aussi bien que Glatz; de l'autre cote de
l'Oder l'ancien limite entre les Duches de Brieg et d'Oppeln.
Namslau a nous. Les affaires de religion IN STATU QUO. Point de
dependance de la Boheme; cession eternelle. En echange nous n'irons
pas plus loin. Nous assiegerons Neisse PRO FORMA: le commandant se
rendra et sortira. Nous prendrons les quartiers tranquillement, et
ils pourront mener leur Armee oh ils voudront. Que tout cela soit
fini en douze jours.'" That is to say:--
"'The whole of Lower Silesia, Neisse Town included; Neisse River
for boundary:--Glatz withal. Beyond the Oder, for the Duchies of
Brieg and Oppeln the ancient limits. Namslau ours. Affairs of
Religion to continue IN STATU QUO. No dependence [feudal tie or
other, as there used to be] on Bohemia; cession of Silesia to be
absolute and forever.--We, in return, will proceed no farther.
We will besiege Neisse for form; the Commandant shall surrender and
depart. We will pass quietly into winter-quarters; and the Austrian
Army may go whither it will. Bargain to be concluded within twelve
days.'" [Coxe (iii. 272) gives this Translation, not saying whence
he had it.]--Can his Excellency Hyndford get Vienna, get
Feldmarschall Reipperg with power from Vienna, to accept: Yes or
No? Excellency Hyndford thinks, Yes; will try his very utmost!--
"He (Goltz) then tore the Paper in very small pieces; and he
repeated again, that if the affair should be discovered, both the
King and he were determined to deny it. ... 'But how about
engagements with regard to my Master's German Dominions; not a word
about that?' He answered, 'You have not the least to fear from
France;' protested the King of Prussia's great regard for his
Majesty of England, &c. I told him these fine words did not satisfy
me; and that if this affair should succeed, I expected there should
be some stipulation." [ Hyndford Papers,
fol. 115.] Yes; and came, about a fortnight hence, "waylaying his
Majesty" to get one,--as readers saw above.
Prussian Dryasdust (poor soul, to whom one is often cruel!) shall
glad himself with the following Two bits of Autography from Goltz,
who had instantly quitted Breslau again;--and, to us, they will
serve as date for the actual arrival of Excellency Hyndford in
those fighting regions, and commencement of his mysterious glidings
about between Camp and Camp.
GOLTZ TO THE EXCELLENCY HYNDFORD, AT BRESLAU (most Private).
"AU CAMP DE NEUENDORF, 16me septembre, a 9 heures du seir.
(1.) "MILORD,--Vons savez que je suis porte pour la bonne cause.
Sur ce pied je prends la liberte de vous conseiller en ami et
serviteur, de venir ici incessamment, et de presser votre voyage de
sorte que vous puissiez paraitre publiquement lundi [18th] vers
midi. Vous trouverez 6 (SIC) chevaux de postes a Olau et a Grottkau
tout prets. Hatez-vous, Milord, tout ce que vous pourrez au monde.
J'ai l'honneur de" Meaning, in brief English:--
"Be at Neundorf here, publicly, on Monday next, 18th, towards
noon." Things being ripe. "Haste, Milord, haste!"
"Ce 18me a 3 heures apres-midi.
(2). "Je suis an desespoir, Milord, de votre maladie. Voici le
courrier que vous attendiez. Venez le plutot que vous pourrez au
monde; si non, dites au General Marwitz de quoi il s'agit, afin
qu'il puisse me le faire savoir. ... Le courrier serait arrive
quatre heures plutot, si nous ne l'avions renvoye au Comte Neuberg
(SIC) a cause de votre maladie.--GOLTZ." [ Hyndford Papers,
fol. 150-152.]--That is to say:--
"Distressed inexpressibly by your Lordship's biliary condition.
One cannot travel under colic;--and things were so ripe!
Courier would have reached you four hours sooner, but we had to
send him over to Neipperg first. Come, oh come!"--Which Hyndford,
now himself again, at once does.
This is the Mystery, which, on September 22d, had arrived at that
stage, indicated above: "Tush! Follow me: Dinner is already falling
cold, and there are eyes upon us!" And in about another fortnight--
But we shall have to take the luggage with us, too, what minimum of
it is indispensable!
Chapter V.
KLEIN-SCHNELLENDORF: FRIEDRICH GETS NEISSE, IN A FASHION.
While these combined Mysteries and War-movements go on, in Neisse
and its Environs, the World-Phenomena continue,--in Upper Austria
and elsewhere. Of which take these select summits, or points
chiefly luminous in the dusk of the forgotten Past:--
LINZ, SEPTEMBER 14th. Karl Albert, being joined some days ago at
Scharding by the first three French Divisions, 15,000 men in all
(the other four Divisions of them are still in the Donauworth-
Ingolstadt quarter, making their manifold arrangements), has pushed
forward, sixty miles (land-marches, south side of the Donau, which
makes a bend here), and this day, September 14th, appears at Linz.
Pleasant City of Linz; where, as readers may remember, Mr. John
Kepler, long ago, busy discovering the System of the World
(grandest Conquest ever made, or to be made, by the Sons of Adam),
had his poor CAMERA OBSCURA set out, to get himself a livelihood in
the interim: here now is Karl Albert's flag on the winds, and, as
it were, the Oriflamme with it, on a singularly different
Adventure. "Open Gates!" demands Karl Albert with authority:
"Admit me to my Capital of Upper Austria!" Which cannot be denied
him, there being nothing but Town-guards in the place.
Karl Albert continued there some weeks, in a serenely victorious
posture; doing acts of authority; getting homaged by the STANDE;
pushing out his forces farther and farther down the Donau, post
after post,--victorious Oriflamme-Bavarian Army may be 40,000
strong or so, in those parts. Friedrich urged him much to push on
without pause, and take opportunity by the forelock; sent Schmettau
(elder of the two Schmettaus, who is much employed on such
business) to urge him; wrote an express Paper of Considerations
pressingly urgent: but he would not, and continued pausing.
Vienna, all in terror, is fortifying itself; citizens toiling at
the earthworks, resolute for making some defence; Constituted
Authorities, National Archives even, Court in a body, and all
manner of Noble and Official people, flying else-whither to covert:
chiefly to Presburg, where her Majesty already is. The Archives
were carried to Gratz; the two Dowager Empresses (for there are
two, Maria Theresa's Mother, and Maria Theresa's Aunt, Kaiser
Joseph's Widow) fled different ways,--I forget which. An agitated,
paralyzed population. Except the diligent wheelbarrows on the
ramparts, no vehicle is rolling in Vienna but furniture-wagons
loading for flight. General Khevenhuller with 6,000, who pesides
with fine scientific skill, and an iron calmness and clearness,
over these fortifyings, is the only force left. [Anonymous,
Histoire de la Derniere Guerre de Boheme
(a Francfort, 1745-1747, 4 tomes), i. 190. A lively succinct little
Book, vague not false; still readable, though not now, as then,
with complete intelligence, to the unprepared reader. Said, in
Dictionaries, to be by Mauvillon PERE, though it resembles nothing
else of his that is known to me.]' Neipperg's, our only Army in the
world, is hundreds of miles away, countermarching and manoeuvring
about Woitz, and Neisse Town and River,--pretty sure to be beaten
in the end,--and it is high time there were a Silesian bargain had,
if Hyndford can get us any.
DRESDEN, SEPTEMBER 19th (Excellency Hyndford just recovering from
his colic, in Breslau), Kur-Sachsen, after many waverings, signs
Treaty of Copartnery with France and Bavaria, seduced by "that
Moravia," and the ticklings of Belleisle acting on a weak mind.
[Adelung, ii. 469, 304, 503.] His troops are 20,000, or rather
more; said to be of good quality, and well equipped. In February
last we saw him engaged in Russian, Anti-Prussian Partition
schemes. In April, as these suddenly (on sight of the Camp of
Gottin) extinguished themselves, he agreed to go, in the pacific
way, with her Hungarian Majesty for friend (Treaty with her, signed
11th April); but never went (Treaty never ratified); kept his
20,000 lying about in Camp, in an enigmatic manner,--first about
Torgau, latterly in the Lausitz, much nearer to the ERZGEBIRGE
(Metal-Mountains), Frontier of Bohemia;--and now signs as above;
intent to march as soon as possible. Is to have Four Circles of
Bohemia, imaginary Kingships of Moravia, and other prizes.
Belleisle has tickled that big trout: Belleisle could now have the
Election as he wishes it, would the Electors but be speedy;
but they will not, and he is obliged to push continually.
"Moriamur pro Rege nostro Maria Theresia," IN THE POETIC,
AND THEN ALSO IN THE PROSE FORM.
PRESBURG, SEPTEMBER 21st. This is the date (or chief date, for,
alas, there turn out to be two!) of the world-famous "MORIAMUR PRO
REGE NOSTRO MARIA THERESIA;" of which there are now needed Two
Narratives; the generally received (in part mythical) going first,
in the following strain:--
"The Queen has been in Presburg mainly, where the Hungarian Diet is
sitting, ever since her Coronation-ceremony. On the 11th September
[or 11th and 21st together], the afflicted Lady makes an appearance
there, which, for theatrical reality, has become very celebrated.
Alas, it is but three months since she galloped to the top of the
Konigsberg, and cut defiantly with bright sabre towards the Four
Points of the Universe; and already it has come to this.
Hungarian Magnates in high session, the high Queen enters,
beautiful and sad,--and among her Ministers is noticeable a Nurse
with the young Archduke, some six months old, a fine thriving
child, perhaps too wise for his age, who became Kaiser Joseph II.
in after time.
"The Hungarian Session is not on record for me, Hall of meeting,
Magyar Parliamentary eloquence unknown; nor is any point
conspicuously visible, exact and certain, except these [alas, not
even these]: That it was the 11th of September; that her Majesty
coming forward to speak, took the child in her arms, and there, in
a clear and melodiously piercing voice, sorrow and courage on her
noble face, beautiful as the Moon riding among wet stormy clouds,
spake, as the Hungarian Archives still have it, a short Latin
Harangue; in substance as follows: ... 'Hostile invasion of
Austria; imminent peril, to this Kingdom of Hungary, to our person,
to our children, to our crown. Forsaken by all,--AB OMNIBUS
DERELICTI [Britannic Majesty himself standing stock-still,--
blamably, one thinks, the two swords being only at HIS throat, and
a good way off!]--I have no resource but to throw myself on the
loyalty and help of Your renowned Body, and invoke the ancient
Hungarian virtue to rise swiftly and save me!' Whereat the
assembled Hungarian Synod, their wild Magyar hearts touched to the
core, start up in impetuous acclaim, flourish aloft their drawn
swords, and shout unanimously in passionate tenor-voice, 'MORIAMUR
(Let us die) for our Rex Maria Theresa!' [ Maria Theresiens
Leben (which speaks hypothetically), iv, 44; Coxe, iii. 270 (who is
positive, "after examining the Documents").] Which were not vain
words. For a general 'Insurrection' was thereupon decreed; what the
Magyars call their 'Insurrection,' which is by no means of
rebellious nature; and many noblemen, old Count Palfy himself a
chief among them, though past threescore and ten, took the field at
their own cost; and the noise of the Hungarian Insurrection spread
like a voice of hope over all Pragmatic countries."--
A very beautiful heroic scene; which has gone about the world,
circulating triumphantly through all hearts for above a Century
past; and has only of late acknowledged itself mythical,--not true,
except as toned down to the following stingy prose pitch:--
PRESBURG, SEPTEMBER 21st. Maria Theresa, since that fine
Coronation-scene, June 2Sth, has had a mixed time of it with her
Hungarian Diet; soft passages alternating with hard: a chivalrous
people, most consciously chivalrous; but a constitutional withal,
very stiff upon their Charter (PACTA CONVENTA, or whatever the name
is); who wrangle much upon privileges, upon taxes, and are
difficult to keep long in tune. Ten days ago (September 11th), her
Majesty tried them on a new tack; summoned them to her Palace;
threw herself upon their nobleness, "No allies but you in the
world" (and other fine things, authentically, as above, legible in
the Archives to this day):--so spake the beautiful young Queen, her
eyes filling with tears as she went on, and yet a noble fire
gleaming through them. Which melted the Hungarian heart a good
deal; and produced fine cheering, some persons even shedding tears,
and voices of "Life and Fortune to your Majesty!" being heard in
it. In which humor the Diet returned to its Session-House, and
voted the "Insurrection,"--or general Arming of Hungary, County by
County, each according to its own contingent;--with all speed, in
pursuance of her Majesty's implied desire. This was voted in rapid
manner; but again, in the detail of executing, it was liable to
haggles. From this day, however, matters did decidedly improve;
PACTA CONVENTA, or any remainder of them, are got adjusted,--the
good Queen yielding on many points. So that, September 20th,
Grand-Duke Franz is elected Co-regent,--let him start from Vienna
instantly, for Instalment;--and it is hoped the Insurrection will
go well, and not prove haggly, or hang fire in the details.
At any rate, next day, September 21st, Duke Franz, who arrived last
night,--and Baby with him, or in the train of him (to the joy of
Mamma!)--is in the Palace Audience-Hall, "at 8 A.M.;" ready for the
Diet, and what Homagings aud mutual Oath, as new Co-regent, are
necessary. Grand-Duke Franz, Mamma by his side, with the suitable
functionaries; and to rearward Nurse and Baby, not so conspicuous
till needed. Diet enters with the stroke of 8; solemnity proceeds.
At the height of the solemnity, when Duke Franz, who is really
risen now to something of a heroic mood, in these emergencies and
perils, has just taken his Oath, and will have to speak a fit word
or two,--the Nurse, doubtless on hint given, steps forward; holds
up Baby (a fine noticing fellow, I have no doubt,--"weighed sixteen
pounds avoirdupois when born"); as if Baby too, fine mutual product
of the Two Co-regents, were mutually swearing and appealing.
Enough to touch any heart. "Life and blood (VITAM ET SANGUINEM) for
our Queen and Kingdom.!" exclaims the Grand-Duke, among other
things. "Yes, VITAM ET SANGUINEM!" re-echoes the Diet, "our life
and our blood!" many-voiced, again and again;--and returns to its
own Place of Session, once more in a fine strain of loyal emotion.
And there, O reader, is the naked truth, neither more nor less. It
was some Vienna Pamphleteer of theatrical imaginative turn, finding
the thing apt, a year or two afterwards--who by kneading different
dates and objects into one, boldly annihilating time and space, and
adding a little paint,--gave it that seductive mythical form.
From whom Voltaire adopted it, with improvements, especially in the
little Harangue; and from Voltaire gratefully the rest of mankind.
[Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV., c. 6
( OEuvres, xxviii. 78); Coxe, House
of Austria, iii. 270; and innumerable others (who give
this Myth); Maria Theresiens Leben, p. 44 n.
(who cites the Vienna Pamphleteers, without much believing them);
Mailath (a Hungarian), Geschichte des OEsterrichischen
Kaiser-Staats (Hamburg, 1850), v. 11-13 (who explodes
the fable). Cut down to the practical, it stands as above:--by no
means a bad thing still. That of "bringing in Baby" was a pretty
touch in the domestic-royal way;--and surely very natural; and has
no "art" in it, or none to blame and not love rather, on the part
of the bright young Mother, now girdled in such tragic outlooks,
and so glad to have Baby back at least, and Papa with him! It is
certain the "Insurrection" was voted with enthusiasm; and even
became rapidly a fact. And there was, in few months hence, an
immense mounted force of Hungarians raised, which galloped and
plundered (having almost no pay), and occasionally fenced and
fought, very diligently during all these Wars. Hussars, Croats,
Pandours, Tolpatches, Warasdins, Uscocks, never heard of in war
before: who were found very terrible to look upon once, in the
imagination or with the naked eye; but whose fighting talent,
against regular troops, was next to worthless; and who gradually
became hateful rather than terrible in the military world.
HANOVER, SEPTEMBER 27th. Britannic Majesty, reduced to that
frightful pinch, has at last given way. Treaty of Neutrality for
Hanover; engagement again to stick one's puissant Pragmatic sword
into its scabbard, to be perfectly quiescent and contemplative in
these French-Bavarian Anti-Austrian undertakings, and digest one's
indignation as one can. For our Paladin of the Pragmatic what a
posture! This is the first of Three Attempts by our puissant little
Paladin to draw sword;--not till the third could he get his sword
out, or do the least fighting (even foolish fighting) with all the
40,000 he had kept on pay and subsidy for years back.
The Neutrality was for Hanover only, and had no specific limit as
to time. Opportunities did rise; but something always rose along
with them,--mainly the impossibility of hoisting those lazy Dutch,
--and checked one's noble rage. His Majesty has covenantad to vote
for Karl Albert as Kaiser; even he, and will make the thing
unanimous! A thoroughly check-mated Majesty. Passing home to
England, this time in a gloomy condition of mind, shortly after
these humiliations, he was just issuing from Osnabruck by the
Eastern Gate, when Maillebois's people entered by the Western,--
the ugly shoes of them insulting his kibes in this manner. And a
furious Anti-Walpole Parliament, most perturbed of National
Palavers, is waiting him at St. James's. Heavy-laden little
Hercules that he is!
Karl Albert lay at Linz for a month longer (till October 24th, six
weeks in all); pausing in uncertainties, in a pleasant dream of
victory and sovereignty; not pouncing on Vienna, as Friedrich urged
on the French and him, to cut the matter by the root. He does push
forward certain troops, Comte de Saxe with Three Horse Regiments as
vanguard, ever nearer to Vienna; at last to within forty miles of
it; nay, light-horse parties came within twenty-five miles.
And there was skirmishing with Mentzel, a sanguinary fellow, of
whom we shall hear more; who had got "1,000 Tolpatches" under him,
and stood ruggedly at bay.
Karl Albert has been sending out sovereign messages from Linz:
Letters to Vienna;--one letter addressed "To the Arch-duchess Maria
Theresa;" which came back unopened, "No such person known here."
October 2d, he is getting homaged at Linz, by the STANDE of the
Province,--on summons sent some time before,--many of whom attend,
with a willing enough appearance; Kur-Baiern rather a favorite in
Upper Austria, say some. Much fine processioning, melodious
haranguing, there now is for Karl Albert, and a pleasant dream of
Sovereignty at Linz: but if he do not pounce upon Vienna till
Khevenhuller get it fortified? Khevenhuller is drawing home Italian
Garrisons, gradually gathering something like an Army round him.
In Khevenhuller's imperturbable military head, one of the clearest
and hardest, there is some hope. Above all, if Neipperg's Army were
to disengage itself, and be let loose into those parts?
EXCELLENCY HYNDFORD BRINGS ABOUT A MEETING AT
KLEIN-SCHNELLENDORF (9th October, 1741).
It was the second day after that Homaging at Linz, when Hyndford
(Sept. 22d) with mysterious negotiations, now nearly ripe, for
disengaging Neipperg, waylaid his Prussian Majesty; and was
answered, as we saw, with "Tush, tush! Dinner is already cold!"
It must be owned, these Friedrich-Hyndford Negotiations, following
on an express French-Prussian Treaty of June 5th, which have to
proceed in such threefold mystery now and afterwards, are of
questionable distressing nature: nor can the fact that they are
escorted copiously enough by a correspondent sort on the French
side, and indeed on the Austrian and on all sides, be a complete
consolation,--far otherwise, to the ingenuous reader.
Smelfungus indignantly calls it an immorality and a dishonor,
"a playing with loaded dice;" which in good part it surely was.
Nor can even Friedrich, who has many pleas for himself, obtain
spoken acquittal; unspoken, accompanied with regrets and pity, is
all even Friedrich can aspire to. My own impression is, Smelfungus,
if candid, would on clearer information and consideration have
revoked much of what he says here in censure of Friedrich. At all
events, if asked: Where then is the specifical not "superstitious"
WANT of "veracity" you ever found in Friedrich? and How, OTHERWISE
than even as Friedrich did, would you, most veracious Smelfungus,
have plucked out your Silesia from such an Element and such a
Time?--he would be puzzled to answer. I give his Fragment as I find
it, with these deductions:--
"What negotiating we have had, and shall have," exclaims
Smelfungus, my sad foregoer,--"fit rather to be omitted from a
serious History, which intends to be read by human creatures!
Bargaining, Promising, Non-performing. False in general as dicers'
oaths; false on this side and on that, from beginning to end.
Intercepted Letters from Fleury; Letter dropping from Valori's
waistcoat-pocket, upon which Friedrich claps his foot: alas, alas,
we are in the middle of a whole world of that. Friedrich knows that
the French are false to him; he by no means intends to be
romantically true to them, and that also they know. What is the use
to human creatures of recording all that melancholy stuff?
If sovereign persons want their diplomacies NOT to be swept into
the ash-pit, there are two conditions, especially one which is
peremptory: FIRST, that they should not be lies;--SECOND, that they
should be of some importance, some wisdom; which with known lies is
not a possible condition. To unravel cobwebs, and register
laboriously and date and sort in the sorrow of your soul the oaths
of crowned dicers,--what use is it to gods or men? Having well
dressed and sliced your cucumber, the next clear human duty is:
Throw it out of window. In that foul Lapland-witch world, of
seething Diplomacies and monstrous wigged mendacities, horribly
wicked and despicably unwise, I find nothing notable, memorable
even in a small degree, except this aspect of a young King who does
know what he means in it. Clear as a star, sharp as cutting steel
(very dangerous to hydrogen balloons), he stands in the middle of
it, and means to extort his own from it by such methods as
there are.
"Magnanimous I can by no means call Friedrich to his allies and
neighbors, nor even superstitiously veracious, in this business:
but he thoroughly understands, he alone, what just thing he wants
out of it, and what an enormous wigged mendacity it is he has got
to deal with. For the rest, he is at the gaming-table with these
sharpers; their dice all cogged;--and he knows it, and ought to
profit by his knowledge of it. And in short, to win his stake out
of that foul weltering mellay, and go home safe with it if he can."
Very well, my friend! Let us keep to windward of the Diplomatic
wizard's-caldron; let Hyndford, Valori and Company preside over it,
throwing in their eye of newt and limb of toad, as occasion may be.
Enough, if the reader can be brought to conceive it; and how the
young King,--who perhaps alone had real business in this foul
element, and did not volunteer into it like the others, though it
now unexpectedly envelops him like a world-whirlwind (frightful
enough, if one spoke of that to anybody), is struggling with his
whole soul to get well out of it. As supremely adroit, all readers
already know him; his appearance what we called starlike,--always
something definite, fixed and lucid in it.
He is dexterously holding aloof from Hyndford at present, clinging
to French Valori as his chosen companion: we may fancy what a time
he has of it, like a polygamist amid jealous wives. It will quicken
Hyndford, he perceives, in these ulterior stages, to leave him well
alone. Hyndford accordingly, as we have noticed, could not see the
King at all; had to try every plan, to watch, waylay the King for a
bit of interview, when indispensable. However, Hyndford, with his
Neipperg in sight of the peril, manages better than Robinson with
his Aulic Council at a distance: besides he is a long-headed dogged
kind of man, with a surly edacious strength, not inexpert in
negotiation, nor easily turned aside from any purpose he may have.
Between the two Camps, nearly midway, lies a Hamlet called Klein-
Schnellendorf, LITTLE Schnellendorf, to distinguish it from another
Schnellendorf called GREAT, which is a mile or two northwestward,
out of the straight line. Not far from the first of these poor
Hamlets lies a Schloss or noble Mansion, likewise called Klein-
Schnellendorf, belonging to a certain Count von Sternberg, who is
not there at present, but whose servants are, and a party of Croats
over them for some days back: a pleasant airy Mansion among
pleasant gardens, well shut out from the intrusion of the world.
Upon this Castle of Klein-Schnellendorf judicious Hyndford has cast
his eye:--and Neipperg, now come to a state of readiness, approves
the suggestion of Hyndford, and promptly at the due moment converts
it into a fact. Arrests namely, on a given morning (the last act of
his Croats there, who withdrew directly with their batch of
prisoners), every living soul within or about the Mansion;--
"suspected of treason;" only for one day;--and in this way, has it
reduced to the comfortable furnished solitude of Sleeping Beauty's
Castle; a place fit for high persons to hold a Meeting in, which
shall remain secret as the grave. Such a thing was indispensable.
For Friedrich, keeping shy of Hyndford, as he well may with a
Valori watching every step, has, by words, by silences, when
Hyndford could waylay him for a moment, sufficiently indicated what
he will and what he will not; and, for one indispensable condition,
in the present thrice-delicate Adventure, he will not sign
anything; will give and take word of honor, and fully bind himself,
but absolutely not put pen to paper at all. Neipperg being willing
too, judicious Hyndford finds a medium. Let the parties meet at
Klein-Schnellendorf, and judicious Hyndford be there with pen and
paper. [Orlich, i. 146; Helden-Geschichte,
i. 1009.]
Monday, 9th October, 1741, accordingly, there is meeting to be
held. Hyndford, Neipperg with his General Lentulus (a
Swiss-Austrian General, whose Son served under Friedrich
afterwards), these wait for Friedrich, on the one hand:--"to fix
some cartel for exchange of prisoners," it is said;--in these
precincts of Klein-
Schnellendorf; which are silent, vacant, yet comfortably furnished,
like Sleeping Beauty's Castle. And Friedrich, on the other hand, is
actually riding that way, with Goltz;--visiting outposts,
reconnoitring, so to speak. "Dine you with Prince Leopold (the
Young Dessauer), my fine Valori; I fear I shan't be home to
dinner!" he had said when going off; hoodwinking his fine Valori,
who suspects nothing. At a due distance from Klein-Schnellendorf,
the very groom is left behind; and Friedrich, with Goltz only,
pushes on to the Schloss. All ready there; salutations soon done;
business set about, perfected:--and Hyndford with pen and ink in
his hand, he, by way of Protocol, or summary of what had bsen
agreed on, on mutual word of honor, most brief but most clear on
this occasion, writes a State Paper, which became rather famous
afterwards. This is the Paper in condensed state; though clear, it
is very dull!
KLEIN-SCHNELLENDORF, 9th OCTOBER, 1741. Britannic Excellency
Hyndford testifies, That, here and now, his Majesty of Prussia, and
Neipperg on behalf of her Hungarian Majesty do, solemnly though
only verbally, agree to the following Four Things:--
"FIRST, That General Neipperg, on the 16th of the month [this day
week] shall have liberty to retire through the Mountains, towards
Moravia; unmolested, or with nothing but sham-attacks in the rear
of him. SECOND, That, in consequence, his Prussian Majesty, on
making sham-siege of Neisse, shall have the place surrendered to
him on the fifteenth day. THIRD, That there shall be, nay in a
sense, there hereby is, a Peace made; his Majesty retaining Neisse
and Silesia [according to the limits known to us:--nothing said of
Glatz]; and that a complete Treaty to that effect shall be
perfected, signed and ratified, before the Year is out. FOURTH,
That these sham-hostilities, but only sham, shall continue; and
that his Majesty, wintering in Bohewia, and carrying on sham-
hostilities [to the satisfaction of the French], shall pay his own
expenses, and do no mischief." [Given in Helden-
Geschichte, i. 1009; in &c.]
To these Four Things they pledge their word of honor; and Hyndford
signs and delivers each a Copy. Unwritten a Fifth Thing is settled,
That the present transaction in all parts of it shall be secret as
death,--his Majesty expressly insisting that, if the least inkling
of it ooze out, he shall have right to deny it, and refuse in any
way to be bound by it. Which likewise is assented to.
Here is a pretty piece of work done for ourself and our allies,
while Valori is quietly dining with the Prince of Dessau! The King
stayed about two hours; was extremely polite, and even frank and
communicative. "A very high-spirited young King," thinks Neipperg,
reporting of it; "will not stand contradiction; but a great deal
can be made of him, if you go into his ideas, and humor him in a
delicate dexterous way. He did not the least hide his engagements
with France, Bavaria, Saxony; but would really, so far as I
Neipperg could judge, prefer friendship with Austria, on the given
terms; and seems to have secretly a kind of pique at Saxony, and no
favor for the French and their plans." [Orlich, i. 149 (in
condensed state).]
"Business being done [this is Hyndford's report], the King, who had
been politeness itself, took Neipperg aside, beckoning Hyndford to
be of the party, 'I wish you too, my Lord, to hear every word:--his
Britannic Majesty knows or should know my intentions never were to
do him hurt, but only to take care of myself; and pray inform him
[what is the fact] that I have ordered my Army in Brandenburg to go
into winter-quarters, and break up that Camp at Gottin.'
Friedrich's talk to Neipperg is, How he may assault the French with
advantage: 'Join Lobkowitz and what force he has in Bohmen;
go right into your enemies, before they can unite there. If the
Queen prosper, I shall--perhaps I shall have no objection to join
her by and by? If her Majesty fail; well, every one must look to
himself.'" These words Hyndford listened to with an edacious solid
countenance, and greedily took them down. [Hyndford's Despatch,
Breslau, 14th October, 1741.]
Once more, a curious glimpse (perhaps imprudently allowed us, in
the circumstances) into the real inner man of Friedrich. He had, at
this time, now that the Belleisle Adventure is left in such a
state, no essential reason to wish the French ruined,--nor probably
did he; but only stated both chances, as in the way of unguarded
soliloquy; and was willing to leave Neipperg a sweet morsel to
chew. Secret mode of corresponding with the Court of Austria is
agreed upon; not direct, but thraugh certain Commandants, till the
Peace-Treaty be perfected,--at latest "by December 24th," we hope.
And so, "BON VOYAGE, and well across the Mountains, M. LE MARECHAL;
till we meet again! And you, Excellency Hyndford, be so good you as
write to me,--for Valori's behoof,--complaining that I am deaf to
all proposals, that nothing can be had of me. And other Letters,
pray, of the like tenor, all round; to Presburg, to England, to
Dresden:--if the Couriers are seized, it shall be well. 'Your
Letter to myself, let a trumpet come with it while I am at dinner,'
and Valori beside me!"--"Certainly, your Majesty," answers
Hyndford; and does it, does all this; which produces a soothing
effect on Valori, poor soul!
FRIEDRICH TAKES NEISSE BY SHAM SIEGE (CAPTURE NOT SHAM);
GETS HOMAGED IN BRESLAU; AND RETURNS TO BERLIN.
Thus, if the Austrians hold to their bargain, has Friedrich, in a
most compendious manner, got done with a Business which threatened
to be infinite: by this short cut he, for his part, is quite out of
the waste-howling jungle of Enchanted Forest, and his foot again on
the firm free Earth. If only the Austrians hold to their bargain!
But probably he doubts if they will. Well, even in that case, he
has got Neisse; stands prepared for meeting them again; and, in the
mean while, has freedom to deny that there ever was such a bargain.
Of the Political morality of this game of fast-and-loose, what have
we to say,--except, that the dice on both sides seem to be loaded;
that logic might be chopped upon it forever; that a candid mind
will settle what degree of wisdom (which is always essentially
veracity), and what of folly (which is always falsity), there was
in Friedrich and the others; whether, or to what degree, there was
a better course open to Friedrich in the circumstances:--and, in
fine, it will have to be granted that you cannot work in pitch and
keep hands evidently clean. Friedrich has got into the Enchanted
Wilderness, populous with devils and their works;--and, alas, it
will be long before he get out of it again, HIS life waning towards
night before he get victoriously out, and bequeath his conquest to
luckier successors! It is one of the tragic elements of this King's
life; little contemplated by him, when he went lightly into the
Silesian Adventure, looking for honor bright, what he called
"GLOIRE," as one principal consideration, hardly a year ago!--
Neipperg, according to covenant, broke up punctually that day week,
October 16th; and went over the Mountains, through Jagerndorf,
Troppau, towards Mahren; Prussians hanging on his rear, and
skirmishing about, but only for imaginary or ostensible purposes.
After a three-weeks march, he gets to a place called Frating,
[Espagnac, i. 104.] easternmost border of Mahren, on the slopes of
the Mannhartsberg Hill-Country, which is within wind of Vienna
itself; where, as we can fancy, his presence is welcome as morning-
light in the present dark circumstances.
Friedrich, on the morrow after Neipperg went, invested Neisse
(October 17th); set about the Siege of Neisse with all gravity, as
if it had been the most earnest operation; which nobody of mankind,
except three or four, doubted but it was. Before opening of the
trenches, Leopold young Dessauer took the road for Glatz Country,
and the adjoining Circles of Bohemia; there to canton himself,
peaceably according to contract; and especially to have an eye upon
Glatz, should the Klein-Schnellendorf engagement go awry in any
point. The King in his Dialogue with Neipperg had said several
things about Glatz, and what a sacrifice he made there for the sake
of speedy pace, the French having guaranteed him Glatz, though he
now forbore it. Leopold, who has with him some 15,000 horse and
foot, cantons himself judiciously in those ultramontane parts,--
"all the artillery in the Glatz Country;" [ Helden-
Geschichte, ii. 431; Orlich, i. 174.]--and we shall
hear of him again, by and by, in regard to other business that
rises there.
Neisse is a formidable Fortress, much strengthened since last year;
but here is a Besieger with much better chance! He marked out
parallels, sent summonses, reconnoitred, manoeuvred,--in a way more
or less surprising to the eye of Valori, who is military, and knows
about sieges. Rather singular, remarks Valori; good engineers much
wanted here! But the bombardment did finally begin: night of
October 26th-27th, the Prussiaus opened fire; and, at a terrible
rate, cannonaded and bombarded without intermission. In point of
fire and noise it is tremendous; Valori trusts it may be effective,
in spite of faults; goes to Breslau in hope: "Yes, go to Breslau,
MON CHER VALORI; wait for me there. Neipperg be chased, say you?
Shall not he,--if we had got this place!" And so the fire continues
night and day. [ Helden-Geschichte, i. 1006.]
Fantastic Bielfeld, in his semi-fabulous style, has a LETTER on
this bombardment, attractive to Lovers of the Picturesque,--
(written long afterwards, and dated &c. WRONG). As Bielfeld is a
rapid clever creature of the coxcomb sort, and doubtless did see
Neisse Siege, and entertained seemingly a blazing incorrect
recollection of it, his Pseudo-Neisse Letter may be worth giving,
to represent approximately what kind of scene it was there at
Neisse in the October nights:--
"Marechal Schwerin was lodged in a Village about three-quarters of
a mile from Head-Quarters. One day he did me the honor to invite me
to dinner; and even offered me a horse to ride thither with him.
I found excellent company; a superb repast, and wine of the gods.
Host and guests were in high spirits; and the pleasures of the
table were kept up so late, that it was midnight when we rose.
I was obliged to return to Head-Quarters, having still to wait upon
the King, as usual. The Marechal was kind enough to lend me another
horse; but the groom mischievously gave me the charger which the
Marechal rode at the Battle of Mollwitz; a very powerful animal,
and which, from that day, had grown very skittish.
"I was made aware of this circumstance, before we were fairly out
of the Village; and the night being of the darkest, I twenty times
ran the risk of breaking my neck. We had to pass over a hill, to
get to Head-Quarters. When I reached the top, a shudder came over
me, and my hair stood on end. I had nobody with me but a strange
groom. The country all around was infested with troops and
marauders; I was mounted on an unmanageable horse. Under my feet,
so to say, I saw the bombardment of the Town of Neisse. I heard the
roar of cannon and doleful shrieks. Above our batteries the whole
atmosphere was inflamed; and to complete the calamity, I missed the
way, and got lost in the darkness. Finally, in descending the hill,
my horse, frightened, made a terrible swerve or side-jump. I did
not know the cause; but after having, with difficulty, got him into
the road again, I found myself opposite to a deserter who had been
hanged that day! I was horribly disgusted by the sight; the gallows
being very low, and the head of the malefactor almost parallel with
mine. I spurred on, and galloped away from such unpleasant night-
company. At last I arrived at Head-Quarters, all in a perspiration.
I sent my horse back; and went in to the King, who asked me at
once, why I was so heated. I made his Majesty a faithful report of
all my disasters. He laughed much; and advised me seriously not
again to go out by night, and alone, beyond the circuit of
Head-Quarters." [Bielfeld, ii. 31, 32.]
After four days and nights of this sublime Playhouse thunder (with
real bullets in it, which killed some men, and burnt considerable
property), the Neisse Commandant (not Roth this time, Roth is now
in Brunn),--his "fortnight of siege," Ottober 17th to October 3lst,
being accomplished or nearly so,--beat chamade; and was, after
grave enough treatying, allowed to march away. Marched,
accordingly, on the correct Klein-Schnellendorf terms; most of his
poor garrison deserting, and taking Prussian service. Ever since
which moment, Neisse, captured in this curious manner, has been
Friedrich's and his Prussia's.
November 1st, the Prussian soldiers entered the place; and
Friedrich, after diligent inspection and what orders were
necessary, left for Brieg on the following day;--where general
illuminating and demonstrating awaited him, amid more serious
business. After strict examinations, and approval of Walrave and
his works at Brieg, he again takes the road; enters Breslau, in
considerable state (November 4th); where many Persons of Quality
are waiting, and the general Homaging is straightway to be,--or
indeed should have been some days ago, but has fallen behind by
delays in the Neisse affair.
The Breslau HULDIGUNG,--Friedrich sworn to and homaged with the due
solemnities as "Sovereign Duke of Lower Silesia,"--was an event to
throw into fine temporary frenzy the descriptive Gazetteers, and
Breslau City, overflowing with Quality people come to act and to
see on the occasion. Event which can be left to the reader's fancy,
at this date. There were Corporations out in quantity, "all in
cloaks" and with sublime Addresses, partly in poetry, happily
rather brief. There were beautiful Prussian Life-guards ("First
Battalion," admirable to the softer sex, not to speak of the
harder); much military resonance and splendor. Friedrich drove
about in carriages-and-six, "nay carriage-and-eight, horses cream-
color:" a very high King indeed; and a very busy one, for those
four days (November 4th-8th) 1741), but full of grace and
condescension. The HULDIGUNG itself took effect on the 7th; in the
fine old Rathhaus, which Tourists still know,--the surrounding
Apple-women sweeping themselves clear away for one day. Ancient
Ducal throne and proper apparatus there was; state-sword unluckily
wanting: Schwerin, who was to act Grand-Marshal, could find no
state-sword, till Friedrich drew his own and gave it him.
[ Helden-Geschichte, i. 1022, 1025; ii. 349.]
Podewils the Minister said something, not too much; to which one
Prittwitz, head of a Silesian Family of which we shall know
individuals, made pithy and pretty response, before swearing.
"There were above Four Hundred of Quality present, all in gala."
The customary Free-Gift of the STANDE Friedrich magnanimously
refused: "Impossible to be a burden to our Silesia in such harassed
war-circumstances, instead of benefactor and protector, as we
intended and intend!" The Ceremony, swearing and all, was over in
two hours; hundreds of silver medals, not to speak of the gold
ones, flying about; and Breslau giving itself up joyfully to dinner
and festivities. And, after dinner, that evening, to Illumination;
followed by balls and jubilations for days after, in a highly
harmonious key. Of the lamps-festoons, astonishing transparencies,
and glad symbolic devices, I could say a great deal; but will
mention only two, both of comfortably edible or quasi-edible
tendency:--
1. That of David Schulze, Flesher by profession; who had a
Transparency large as life, representing his own fat Person in the
act of felling a fat Ox; to which was appended this epigraph:--
"Wer mir wird den Konig in Preussen verachten,
Den will ich wie diesen Ochsen schlacten."
"Who dares me the King of Prussia insult,
Him I will serve like this fat head of nolt."
Signed "DAVID SCHULER, A BRANDENBURGER."--
And then,
2. How, in another quarter, there was set aloft IN RE, by some
Pastry-cook of patriotic turn: "An actual Ox roasted whole; filled
with pheasants, partridges, grouse, hares and geese; Prussian Eagle
atop, made of roasted fowls, larks and the like,"--unattainable, I
doubt, except for money down. [ Helden-Geschichte,
italic> ii. 359.]
On the fifth morning, 9th November,--after much work done during
this short visit, much ceremonial audiencing, latterly, and raising
to the peerage,--Friedrich rolled on to Glogau. Took accurate
survey of the engineering and other interests there, for a couple
of days; thence to Berlin (noon of the llth), joyfully received by
Royal Family and all the world;--and, as we might fancy, asking
himself: "Am I actually home, then; out of the enchanted jungles
and their devilries; safe here, and listening, I alone in Peace, to
the universal din of War?" Alas, no; that was a beautiful
hypothesis; too beautiful to be long credible! Before reaching
Berlin,--or even Breslau, as appears,--Friedrich, vigilantly
scanning and discerning, had seen that fine hope as good as vanish;
and was silently busy upon the opposite one.
In a fortnight hence, Hyndford, who had followed to Berlin, got
transient sight of the King one morning, hastening through some
apartment or other: "'My Lord,' said the King, (the Court of Vienna
has entirely divulged our secret. Dowager Empress Amelia [Kaiser
Joseph's widow, mother of Karl Albert's wife] has acquainted the
Court of Bavaria with it; Wasner [Austrian Minister at Paris] has
told Fleury; Sinzendorf [ditto at Petersburg] has told the Court of
Russia; Robinson, through Mr. Villiers [your Saxon Minister], has
told the Court of Dresden; and several members of your Government
in England have talked publicly about it!' And, with a shrug of the
shoulders, he left me,"--standing somewhat agape there. [Hyndford's
Despatch, Berlin, 28th November, 1741; Ib. Breslau, 28th October
(secret already known).]
Chapter VI.
NEW MAYOR OF LANDSHUT MAKES AN INSTALLATION SPEECH.
The late general Homaging at Breslau, and solemn Taking Possession
of the Country by King Friedrich, under such peaceable omens, had
straightway, as we gather, brought about, over Silesia at large, or
at least where pressingly needful, various little alterations,--
rectifications, by the Prussian model and new rule now introduced.
Of which, as it is better that the reader have some dim notion, if
easily procurable, than none at all, I will offer him one example;
--itself dim enough, but coming at first-hand, in the actual or
ccncrete form, and beyond disputing in whatever light or twilight
it may yield us.
At Landshut, a pleasant little Mountain Town, in the Principality
of Schweidnitz, high up, on the infant River Bober, near the
Bohemian Frontier--(English readers may see QUINCY ADAMS'S
description of it, and of the long wooden spouts which throw
cataracts on you, if walking the streets in rain [John Quincy Adams
(afterwards President of the United States), Letters on
Silesia (London, 1804). "The wooden spouts are now
gone" ( Tourist's Note, of 1858).]): at
Landshut, as in some other Towns, it had been found good to remodel
the Town Magistracy a little; to make it partly Protestant, for one
thing, instead of Catholic (and Austrian), which it had formerly
been. Details about the "high controversies and discrepancies"
which had risen there, we have absolutely none; nor have the
special functions of the Magistracy, what powers they had, what
work they did, in the least become distinct to us: we gather only
that a certain nameless Burgermeister (probably Austrian and
Catholic) had, by "Most gracious Royal Special-Order," been at
length relieved from his labors, and therewith "the much by him
persecuted and afflicted Herr Theodorus Spener" been named
Burgermeister instead. Which respectable Herr Theodorus Spener, and
along with him Herr Johann David Fischer as RATHS-SENIOR, and Herr
Johann Caspar Ruffer, and also Herr Johann Jacob Umminger, as new
Raths (how many of the old being left I cannot say), were
accordingly, on the 4th of December, 1741, publicly installed, and
with proper solemnity took their places; all Landshut looking on,
with the conceivable interest and astonishment, almost as at a
change in the obliquity of the ecliptic,--change probably for
the better.
Respectable Herr Theodorus Spener (we hope it is SpeNer, for they
print him SPEER in one of the two places, and we have to go by
guess) is ready with an Installation Speech on the occasion;
and his Speech was judged so excellent, that they have preserved it
in print. Us it by no means strikes by its Demosthenic or other
qualities: meanwhile we listen to it with the closest attention;
hoping, in our great ignorance, to gather from it some glimmerings
of instruction as to the affairs, humors, disposition and general
outlook and condition of Landshut, and Silesia in that juncture;--
and though a good deal disappointed, have made an Abstract of it in
the English language, which perhaps the reader too, in his great
ignorance, will accept, in defect of better. Scene is Landshut
among the Giant Mountains on the Bohemian Border of Silesia: an old
stone Town, where there is from of old a busy trade in thread and
linen; Town consisting, as is common there, of various narrow
winding streets comparable to spider-legs, and of a roomy central
Market-place comparable to the body of the spider; wide irregular
Market-place with the wooden spouts (dry for the moment) all
projecting round it. Time, 4th December, 1741 (doubtless in the
forenoon); unusual crowd of population simmering about the Market-
place, and full audience of the better sort gravely attentive in
the interior of the Rathhaus; Burgermeister Spener LOQUITUR
[ Helden-Geschichte, ii. 416.] (liable to
abridgment here and there, on warning given):--
"I enter, then, in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, upon an
Office, to which Divine Providence has appointed, and the gracious
and potent hand of a great King has raised me. Great as is the
dignity [giddy height of Mayoralty in Landshut], though undeserved,
which the Ever-Nerciful has thus conferred upon me, equally great
and much greater is the burden connected therewith. I confess"--
He confesses, in high-stalking earnest wooden language very foreign
to us in every way: (1.) That his shoulders are too weak; but that
he trusts in God. For (2.) it is God's doing; and He that has
called Spener, will give Spener strength, the essential work being
to do God's will, to promote His honor, and the common weal.
(3.) That he comes out of a smaller Office (Office not farther
specified, probably exterior to the RATHS-COLLEGE, and subaltern to
the late tyrannous Mayor and it), and has taken upon him the
Mayoralty of this Town (an evident fact!); but that the labor and
responsibility are dreadfully increased; and that the point is not
increase of honor, of respectability or income, but of heavy
duties. (A sonorous, pious-minded Spener; much more in earnest than
readers now think!)
It is easy, intimates he, to govern a Town, if, as some have
perhaps done, you follow simply your own will, regardless of the
sighs and complaints your subjects utter for injustice undergone,--
indifferent to the thought that the caprice of one Town Sovereign
is to be glorified by so many thousand tears (dim glance into the
past history of Landshut!). Such Town Sovereign persecutes
innocence, stops his ears to its cry; flourishes his sharp scourge;
--no one shall complain: for is it not justice? thinks such a Town
Sovereign. The reason is, He does not know himself, poor man;
has had his eye always on the duties of his subjects towards him,
and rarely or never on his towards them. A Sovereign Mayor that
governs by fear,--he must live in continual fear of every one, and
of himself withal. A weak basis: and capable of total overturn in
one day. On the contrary, the love of your burgher subjects: that,
if you can kindle it, will go on like a house on fire (AUSBRUCH
EINES FEURES), and streams of water won't put it out. ... "And [let
us now take Spener's very words] if a man keep the fear of God
before his eyes, there will be no need for any other kind of fear.
"I will therefore, you especially High-honored Gentlemen, study to
direct all my judicial endeavors to the honor of the great God, and
to inviolable fidelity towards my most gracious King and Lord
[Friedrich, by Decision of Providence--at Mollwitz and elsewhere].
"To the Citizens of this Town, from of old so dear to me, and now
by Royal grace committed to my charge, and therefore doubly and
trebly to be held dear, I mean to devote myself altogether. I will,
on every occasion and occurrence, still more expressly than
aforetime, stand by them; and when need is, not fail to bring their
case before the just Throne of our Anointed [Friedrich, by Decision
of Providence]. Justice and fairness I will endeavor, under
whatever complexities, to make my loadstar. Yes, I shall and will,
by means of this my Office, equip myself with weapons whereby I may
be capable to damp such humors (INTELLIGENTIEN), should such still
be (but I believe there are now none such), as may repugn against
the Royal interest, with possibility of being dangerous; and to put
a bridle on mouths that are unruly. And, to say much in litlle
compass, I will be faithful to God, to my King and to this Town.
"Having now the honor and happiness to be put into Official
friendship with those Gentlemen who, as Burgermeisters, and as old
and as new Members of Council, have for long years made themselves
renowned among us, I will entertain, in respect of the former [the
old] a firm confidence That the zeal they have so strongly
manifested for behoof of the most serene Archducal House of Austria
will henceforth burn in them for our most Beloved Land's Prince
whom God has now given us; that the fire of their lately plighted
truth and devotion, towards his Royal Majesty, shall shine not in
words only, but in works, and be extinguished only with their
lives. [Can that be, O Spener or Speer? Are we alarm-clocks, that
need only to be wound up, and told at what hour, and for whom?]
God, who puts Kings in and casts them out, has given to us a no
less potent Sovereign than supremely loving Land's-Father, who, by
the renown of his more than royal virtues, had taken captive the
hearts of his future subjects and children still sooner than even
by his arms, familiar otherwise to victory, he did the Land.
And who shall be puissant and mighty enough, now to lead men's
minds in a contrary direction; to control the Most High Power,
ruler over hearts and Lands, who had decreed it should be so;
and again to change this change? [Hear Spener: he has taken great
pains with his Discourse, and understands composition!]
"This change, High-honored Gentlemen [of the Catholic persuasion],
is also for you a not unhappy one. For our now as pious as wise
King will, especially in one most vital point, take pattern by the
King of all Kings; and means to be lord of his subjects only, not
of the consciences of his subjects. He requires nothing from you
but what you are already bound by God, by conscience, and duty, to
render: to wit, obedience and inviolable unbroken fidelity. And by
that, and without more asked than that, you will render yourselves
worthy of his protection, and become partakers of the Royal favor.
Nay you will render yourselves all the worthier in that high
quarter, and the more meritorious towards our civic commonweal, the
more you, High-honored Gentlemen [of the Catholic persuasion],
accept, with all frankness of colleague-love and amity, me and the
Evangelical brother Raths now introduced by Royal grace and power;
and make the new position generously tenable and available to us;
--and thereby bind with us the more firmly the band of peace and
colleague-unity, for helping up this dear, and for some years
greatly fallen, Town along with us.
"We, for our poor part, will, one and all, strive only to surpass
each other in obedience and faith to our Most Gracious King.
We will, as Regents of the Citizenry committed to us, go before
them with a good example; and prove to all and every one, That,
little and in war untenable as our Landshut is, it shall, in extent
and impregnability of faith towards its Most Dearest Land's-Prince,
approve itself unconquerable. As well I as"--Professes now, in the
most intricate phraseology, that he, and Fischer and Umminger
(giving not only the titles, but a succinct history of all three,
in a single sentence, before he comes to the verb!), bring a true
heart, &c. &c.--Or would the reader perhaps like to see it IN
NATURA, as a specimen of German human-nature, and the art these
Silesian spinners have in drawing out their yarns?
"As well I as [1.] The Titular Herr Johann David Fischer,
distinguished trader and merchant of this Town, who, by his
tradings in and beyond our Silesian Countries, has made himself
renowned, and by his merit and address in particular instances
[delicate instances known to Landshut, not to us] has made himself
beloved, who has now been installed as Raths-Senior; and also as
[2.] The Titular Herr Johann Caspar Ruffer, well-respected Citizen,
and Revenue-office Manager here, who for many years has with much
fidelity and vigilance managed the Revenue-office, and who for his
experience in the economic constitution of this Town has been all-
graciously nominated Raths-Herr;--and not less [3.] The Titular
Johann Jacob Umminger, whilom Advocate at Law in Breslau, who, for
his good studies in Law, and manifested skill in the practice of
Law, has been an all-graciously nominated Supernumerary Councillor
and Notary's-Adjunct among us:--As well I as these Three not only
assure you, High-honored Gentlemen, of all imaginable estimation
and return of love on our part; but do likewise assure all and
sundry these respectable Herren Town-Jurats [specially present],
representing here the universal well-beloved Citizenry of our
Town,--that we bring a heart sincere, and intent only on aiming at
the welfare of a Citizenry so loveworthy. We have the firm purpose
by God's grace, so to order our walk, and so to conduct our
government that we may, one day, when summoned from our judgment-
seats to answer before the Universal Judgment-seat of Christ, be
able to say, with that pious King and Judge of Israel: 'Lord, thou
knowest if we have walked uprightly before thee.' And we hope to
understand that the rewards of justice, in that Life, will be much
more than those of injustice in this.
"We believe that the Most High will, in so far, bless these our
honest purposes and wholesome endeavors, as that the actual fruits
thereof will in time coming, and when Peace now soon expected
(which God grant) has returned to us, be manifest; and that if, in
our Office, as is common, we should rather have thorns of
persecution than roses of recompense to expect, yet to each of us
there will at last accrue praise in the Earth and reward in Heaven.
[Hear Spener!]
"Meanwhile we will unite all our wishes, That the Almighty may
vouchsafe to his Royal Majesty, our now All-dearest Duke and
Land's-Father, many long years of life and of happy reign; and
maintain this All-highest Royal-Prussian and Elector-Brandenburgic
House in supremest splendor and prosperity, undisturbed to the end
of all Days; and along with it, our Town-Council, and whole
Merchantry and Citizenry, safe under this Prussian Sceptre, in
perpetual blessing, peace and unity [what a modest prayer!]: to all
which may Heaven speak its powerful Amen!" [ Helden-
Geschichte, ii. 416-422.]--
Whereupon solemn waving of hats; indistinct sough of loyal murmur
from the universal Landshut Population; after which, continued to
the due extent, they return to their spindles and shuttles again.
Chapter VII.
FRIEDRICH PURPOSES TO MEND THE KLEIN-SCHNELLENDORF
FAILURE: FORTUNES OF THE BELLEISLE ARMAMENT.
We shall not dwell upon the movements of the French into Germany
for the purpose of overwhelming Austria, and setting up four
subordinate little Sovereignties to take their orders from
Louis XV. The plan was of the mad sort, not recognized by Nature at
all; the diplomacy was wide, expensive, grandiose, but vain and
baseless; nor did the soldiering that followed take permanent hold
of men's memory. Human nature cannot afford to follow out these
loud inanities; and, at a certain distance of time, is bound to
forget them, as ephemera of no account in the general sum.
Difficult to say what profit human nature could get out of such
transaction. There was no good soldiering on the part of the French
except by gleams here and there; bad soldiering for the most part,
and the cause was radically bad. Let us be brief with it; try to
snatch from it, huge rotten heap of old exuviae and forgotten
noises and deliriums, what fractions of perennial may turn up for
us, carefully forgetting the rest.
Maillebois with his 40,000, we have seen how they got to Osnabruck,
and effectually stilled the war-fervor of little George II.;
sent him home, in fact, to England a checkmated man, he riding out
of Osnabruck by one gate, the French at the same moment marching in
by the other. There lies Maillebois ever since; and will lie,
cantoned over Westphalia, "not nearer than three leagues to the
boundary of Hanover," for a year and more. There let Maillebois
lie, till we see him called away else-wither, upon which the
gallant little George, check-mate being lifted, will get into
notable military activity, and attempt to draw his sword again,--
though without success, owing to the laggard Dutch. Which also, as
British subjects, if not otherwise, the readers of this Book will
wish to see something of. Maillebois did not quite keep his
stipulated distance of "three leagues from the boundary" (being
often short of victual), and was otherwise no good neighbor.
Among his Field-Officers, there is visible (sometimes in trouble
about quarters and the like) a Marquis du Chatelet,--who, I find,
is Husband or Ex-Husband to the divine Emilie, if readers care to
think of that! [ Campagnes (i. 45, 193); and
French Peerage-Books, ? DU CHATELAT.] Other known face, or point of
interest for or against, does not turn up in the Maillebois
Operation in those parts.
As for the other still grander Army, Army of the Oriflamme as we
have called it,--which would be Belleisle's, were not he so
overwhelmed with embassying, and persuading the Powers of Germany,
--this, since we last saw it, has struck into a new course, which
it is essential to indicate. The major part of it (Four rear
Divisions! if readers recollect) lay at Ingolstadt, its place of
arms; while the Vanward Three Divisions, under Maurice Comte de
Saxe, flowed onward, joining with Bavaria at Passau; down the Donau
Country, to Linz and farther, terrifying Vienna itself; and driving
all the Court to Presburg, with (fabulous) "MORIAMUR PRO REGE
NOSTRO MARIA THERESIA," but with actual armament of Tolpatches,
Pandours, Warasdins, Uscocks and the like unsightly beings of a
predatory centaur nature. Which fine Hungarian Armament, and others
still more ominous, have been diligently going on, while Karl
Albert sat enjoying his Homagings at Linz, his Pisgah-views Vienna-
ward; and asking himself, "Shall we venture forward, and capture
Vienna, then?"
The question is intricate, and there are many secret biasings
concerned in the solution of it. Friedrich, before Klein-
Schnellendorf time, had written eagerly, had sent Schmettau with
eager message, "Push forward; it is feasible, even easy: cut the
matter by the root!" This, they say, was Karl Albert's own notion,
had not the French overruled him;--not willing, some guess, he
should get Austria, and become too independent of them all at once.
Nay, it appears Karl Albert had inducements of his own towards
Bohemia rather. The French have had Kur-Sachsen to manage withal;
and there are interests in Bohemia of his and theirs,--clippings of
Bohemia promised him as bribes, besides that "Kingdom of Moravia,"
to get his 21,000 set on march. "Clippings of Bohemia? Interests of
Kur-Sachsen's in that Country?" asks Karl Albert with alarm:
and thinks it will be safer, were he himself present there, while
Saxony and France do the clippings in question! Sure enough, he did
not push on. Belleisle, from the distance, strongly opined
otherwise; Karl Albert himself had jealous fears about Bohmen.
Friedrich's importunities and urgencies were useless: and the one
chance there ever was for Karl Albert, for Belleisle and the Ruin
of Austria, vanished without return.
Karl Albert has turned off, leftwards, towards his Bohemian
Enterprises: French, Bavarians, Saxons, by their several routes,
since the last days of October, are all on march that way. We will
mark an exact date here and there, as fixed point for the reader's
fancy. Poor Karl Albert, he had sat some six weeks at Linz,--about
three weeks since that Homaging there (October 2d);--imaginary
Sovereign of Upper Austria; looking over to Vienna and the Promised
Land in general. And that fine Pisgah-view was all he ever had of
it. Of Austrian or other Conquests earthly or heavenly, there came
none to him in this Adventure;--mere MINUS quantities they all
proved. For a few weeks more, there are, blended with awful
portents, an imaginary gleam or two in other quarters; after which,
nothing but black horror and disgrace, deepening downwards into
utter darkness, for the poor man. Belleisle is an imaginary
Sun-god; but the poor Icarus, tempted aloft in that manner into the
earnest elements, and melting at once into quills and rags, is a
tragic reality!--Let us to our dates:--
"OCTOBER 24th, The Bavarian Troops, who had lain at Mautern on the
Donau some time, forty miles from Vienna and the Promised Land, got
under way again;--not FORWARD, but sharp to left, or northward,
towards the Bohemian parts. Thither all the Belleisle Armaments are
now bound; and a general rallying of them is to be at Prag; for
conquest of that Country, as more inviting than Austria at present.
Comte de Saxe, who had lain at St. Polten, a march to southward of
Mautern, he with the Vanward of the great Belleisle Army, bestirred
himself at the same time; and followed steadily (Karl Albert in
person was with Saxe), at a handy distance by parallel roads.
To Prag may be about 200 miles. Across the Mannhartsberg Country,
clear out of Austria, into Bohmen, towards Prag. At Budweis, or
between that and Tabor, Towns of our old friend Zisca's, of which
we shall hear farther in these Wars; Towns important by their
intricate environment of rock and bog, far up among the springs of
the Moldau,--there can these Bavarians, and this French Vanward of
Belleisle, halt a little, till the other parties, who are likewise
on march, get within distance.
For in these same days, as hinted above, the Rearward of the
Belleisle Army (Four Divisions, strength not accurately given)
pushes forward from Donauworth, well rested, through the Bavarian
Passes, towards Bohemia and Prag: these have a longer march (say
250 miles)? to northeast; and the leader of them is one Polastron,
destined unhappily to meet us on a future occasion. With them go
certain other Bavarians; accompanying or preceding, as in the
Vanward case. And then the Saxons (21,000 strong, a fine little
Army, all that Saxony has) are, at the same time, come across the
Metal Mountains (ERZGEBIRGE), in quest of those Bohemian clippings,
of that Kingdom of Moravia: and march from the westward upon Prag,
--Rutowsky leading them. Comte de Rutowsky, Comte de Saxe's Half-
Brother, one of the Three Hundred and Fifty-four:--with whom is
CHEVALIER de Saxe, a second younger ditto; and I think there is
still a third, who shall go unnamed. In this grand Oriflamme
Expedition, Four of the Royal-Saxon Bastards altogether." Who cost
us more distinguishing than they are worth!
Chief General of these Saxons, says an Authentic Author, is
Rutowsky; got from a Polish mother, I should guess: he commands in
chief here;--once had a regiment under Friedrich Wilhelm, for a
while; but has not much head for strategy, it may be feared.
But mark that Fourth individual of the Three Hundred and Fifty-
four, who has a great deal. Fourth individual, called Comte de
Saxe, who is now in that French Vanward a good way to east, was
(must I again remind you!) the produce of the fair Aurora von
Konigsmark, Sister of the Konigsmark who vanished instantaneously
from the light of day at Hanover long since, and has never
reappeared more. It was in search of him that Aurora, who was
indeed a shining creature (terribly insolvent all her life, whose
charms even Charles XII. durst not front), came to Dresden; and,--
in this Comte de Saxe, men see the result. Tall enough, restless
enough; most eupeptic, brisk, with a great deal of wild faculty,--
running to waste, nearly all. There, with his black arched
eyebrows, black swift physically smiling eyes, stands Monseigneur
le Comte, one of the strongest-bodied and most dissolute-minded men
now living on our Planet. He is now turned of forty: no man has
been in such adventures, has swum through such seas of transcendent
eupepticity determined to have its fill. In this new Quasi-sacred
French Enterprise, under the Banner of Belleisle and the
Chateauroux, he has at last, after many trials, unconsciously found
his culmination: and will do exploits of a wonderful nature,--very
worthy of said Banner and its patrons.
"Here, then, are Three streams or Armaments pouring forward upon
Prag; perhaps some 60,000 men in all:--a good deal uncertain what
they are to do at Prag, except arrive simultaneously so far as
possible. Belleisle, far off, has fallen sick in these critical
days. Comte de Saxe cannot see his way in the matter at all:
'What are we to live upon,' asks Comte de Saxe, 'were there nothing
more!'--For, simultaneously with these Three Armaments on march,
there is an important Austrian one, likewise on the road for Prag:
that of Grand-Duke Franz, who has left Presburg, with say 30,000
(including the Pandour element); and duly meets the Neipperg, or
late Silesian Army;--well capable, now, to do a stroke upon the
Three Armaments, if he be speedy? 'November 7th' it was when Grand-
Duke Franz picked up Neipperg, 'at Frating' deep in Moravia
(November 7th, the very day while Friedrich was getting homaged in
Breslau), and turned him northwestward again. The Grand-Duke, in
such strength, marches Rag-ward what he can; might be there before
the French, were he swift; and is at any rate in disagreeable
proximity to that Budmeis-Tabor Country, appointed as one's
halting-place."
And Belleisle, in these critical days, is--consider it!--"Poor
Belleisle, he has all the Election Votes ready; he has done
unspeakable labors in the diplomatic way; and leaves Europe in
ebullition and conflagration behind him. He has all these Armies in
motion, and has got rid of 'that Moravia,'--given it to Saxony, who
adds the title 'King of Moravia' to his other dignities, and has
set on march those 21,000 men. 'Would he were ready with them!'
Belleisle had been saying, ever since the Treaty for them,--Treaty
was, September 19th. Belleisle, to expedite him, came to Dresden
[what day is not said, but deep in October]; intending next for the
Prag Country, there to commence General, the diplomacies being
satisfactorily done. Valori ran over from Berlin to wait upon him
there. Alas, the Saxons are on march, or nearly so; but the great
man himself, worn down with these Herculean labors, has fallen into
rheumatic fever; is in bed, out at Hubertsburg (serene Country
Palace of his Moravian Polish Majesty); and cannot get the least
well, to march in person with the Three Armaments, with the flood
of things he has set reeling and whirling at such rate.
"The sympathies of Valori go deep at this spectacle. The Alcides,
who was carrying the axis of the world, fallen down in physical
rheumatism! But what can sympathies avail? The great man sees the
Saxons march without him. The great man, getting no alleviation
from physicians, determines, in his patriotic heroism, to surrender
glory itself; writes home to Court, 'That he is lamed, disabled
utterly; that they must nominate another General.' And they
nominate another; nominate Broglio, the fat choleric Marshal, of
Italian breed and physiognomy, whom we saw at Strasburg last year,
when Friedrich was there. Broglio will quit Strasburg too soon, and
come. A man fierce in fighting, skilled too in tactics; totally
incompetent in strategy, or the art of LEADING armies, and managing
campaigns;--defective in intelligence indeed, not wise to discern;
dim of vision, violent of temper; subject to sudden cranks, a
headlong, very positive, loud, dull and angry kind of man; with
whose tumultuous imbecilities the great Belleisle will be sore
tried by and by. 'I reckon this,' Valori says, 'the root of all our
woes;' this Letter which the great Belleisle wrote home to Court.
Let men mark it, therefore, as a cardinal point,--and snatch out
the date, when they have opportunity upon the Archives of France.
[See Valori, i. 131.]
"Monseigneur the Comte de Saxe, before quitting the Vienna
Countries, had left some 10,000 French and Bavarians, posted
chiefly in Linz, under a Comte de Segur, to maintain those Donau
Conquests, which have cost only the trouble of marching into them.
Count Khevenhuller has ceased working at the ramparts of Vienna,
nothing of siege to be apprehended now, civic terror joyfully
vanishing again; and busies himself collecting an Army at Vienna,
with intent of looking into those same French Segurs, before long.
It is probable the so-called Conquests on the Donau will not be
very permanent.
"NOVEMBER 19th-21st, The Three Belleisle Armaments, Karl Albert's
first, have, simultaneously enough for the case, arrived on three
sides of Prag; and lie looking into it,--extremely uncertain what
to do when there. To Comte de Saxe, to Schmettau, who is still
here, the outlook of this grand Belleisle Army, standing
shelterless, provisionless, grim winter at hand, long hundreds of
miles from home or help, is in the highest degree questionable,
though the others seem to make little of it: 'Fight the Grand-Duke
when he comes,' say they; 'beat him, and--' 'Or suppose, he won't
fight? Or suppose, we are beaten by him?' answer Saxe and
Schmettau, like men of knowledge, in the same boat with men of
none. (We have no strong place, or footing in this Country:
what are we to do? Take Prag!' advises Comte de Saxe, with
earnestness, day after day. [His Letters on it to Karl Albert and
others (in Espagnac, i. 94-99).] 'Take Prag: but how?' answer they.
'By escalade, by surprise, and sword in hand, answers he: 'Ogilvy
their General has but 3,000, and is perhaps no wizard at his trade:
we can do it, thus and thus, and then farther thus; and I perceive
we are a lost Army if we don't!' So counsels Maurice Comte de Saxe,
brilliant, fervent in his military views;--and, before it is quite
too late, Schmettau and he persuade Karl Albert, persuade Rutowsky
chief of the Saxons; and Count Polastron, Gaisson or whatever
subaltern Counts there are, of French type, have to accede, and be
saved in spite of themselves. And so,
"SATURDAY NIGHT, 25th NOVEMBER, 1741, brightest of moonshiny
nights, our dispositions are all made: Several attacks, three if I
remember; one of them false, under some Polastron, Gaisson, from
the south side; a couple of them true, from the northwest and the
southeast sides, under Maurice with his French, and Rutowsky with
his Saxons, these two. And there is great marching 'on the side of
the Karl-Thor (Charles-Gate),' where Rutowsky is; and by Count
Maurice 'behind the Wischerad;'--and shortly after midnight the
grand game begins. That French-Polastron attack, false, though with
dreadful cannonade from the south, attracts poor Ogilvy with almost
all his forces to that quarter; while the couple of Saxon Captains
(Rutowsky not at once successful, Maurice with his French
completely so) break in upon Ogilvy from rearward, on the right
flank and on the left; and ruin the poor man. Military readers will
find the whole detail of it well given in Espagnac. Looser account
is to be had in the Book they call Mauvillon's." [ Derniere
Guerre de Boheme, i. 252-264. Saxe's own Account
(Letter to Chevalier de Folard) is in Espagnac, i. 89 et seqq.]
One thing I remember always: the bright moonlight; steeples of Prag
towering serene in silvery silence, and on a sudden the wreaths of
volcanic fire breaking out all round them. The opposition was but
trifling, null in some places, poor Ogilvy being nothing of a
wizard, and his garrison very small. It fell chiefly on Rutowsky;
who met it with creditable vigor, till relieved by the others.
Comte Maurice, too, did a shifty thing. Circling round by the
outside of the Wischerad, by rural roads in the bright moonshine,
he had got to the Wall at last, hollow slope and sheer wall; and
was putting-to his scaling-ladders,--when, by ill luck, they proved
too short! Ten feet or so; hopelessly too short. Casting his head
round, Maurice notices the Gallows hard by: "There, see you, are a
few short ladders: MES ENFANS, bring me these, and we will splice
with rope!" Supplemented by the gallows, Maurice soon gets in, cuts
down the one poor sentry; rushes to the Market-place, finds all his
Brothers rushing, embraces them with "VICTOIRE!" and "You see I am
eldest; bound to be foremost of you!"
"No point in all the War made a finer blaze in the French
imagination, or figured better in the French gazettes, than this of
the Scalade of Prag, 25th November, 1741. And surely it was
important to get hold of Prag; nevertheless, intrinsically it is no
great thing, but an opportune small thing, done by the Comte de
Saxe, in spite of such contradiction as we saw."
It was while news of this exploit was posting towards Berlin, but
not yet arrived there, that Friedrich, passing through the
apartment, intimated to Hyndford, "Milord, all is divulged, our
Klein-Schnellendorf mystery public as the house-tops;" and vanished
with a shrug of the shoulders,--thinking doubtless to himself,
"What is OUR next move to be, in consequence?" Treaty with Kur-
Baiern (November 4th) he had already signed in consequence,
expressly declaring for Kur-Baiern, and the French intentions
towards him. This news from Prag--Prag handsomely captured, if
Vienna had been foolishly neglected--put him upon a new Adventure,
of which in following Chapters we shall hear more.
THE FRENCH SAFE IN PRAG; KAISERWAHL JUST COMING ON.
Grand-Duke Franz, with that respectable amount of Army under him,
ought surely to have advanced on Prag, and done some stroke of war
for relief of it, while time yet was. Grand-Duke Franz, his Brother
Karl with him and his old Tutor Neipperg, both of whom are thought
to have some skill in war, did advance accordingly. But then withal
there was risk at Prag; and he always paused again, and waited to
consider. From Frating, on the 16th, [Espagnac, i. 87.] he had got
to Neuhaus, quite across Mahren into Bohemian ground, and there
joined with Lobkowitz and what Bohemian force there was; by this
time an Army which you would have called much stronger than the
French. Forward, therefore! Yes; but with pauses, with
considerations. Pause of two days at Neuhaus; thence to Tabor
(famed Zisca's Tabor), a safe post, where again pause three days.
From Tabor is broad highway to Prag, only sixty miles off now:--
screwing their resolution to the sticking-point, Grand-Duke and
Consorts advance at length with fixed determination, all Friday,
all Saturday (November 24th, 25th), part of Sunday too, not
thinking it shall be only PART; and their light troops are almost
within sight of Prag, when--they learn that Prag is scaladed the
night before, and quite settled; that there is nothing except
destruction to be looked for in Prag! Back again, therefore, to the
Tabor-and-Budweis land. They strike into that boggy broken country
about Budweis, some 120 miles south of Prag; and will there wait
the signs of the times.
Grand-Duke Franz had seen war, under Seckendorf, under Wallis and
otherwise, in the disastrous Turk Countries; but, though willing
enough, was never much of a soldier: as to Neipperg, among his own
men especially, the one cry is, He ought to go about his business
out of Austrian Armies, as an imbecile and even a traitor. "Is it
conceivable that Friedrich could have beaten us, in that manner,
except by buying Neipperg in the first place? Neipperg and the
generality of them, in that luckless Silesian Business? Glogau
scaladed with the loss of half a dozen men; Brieg gone within a
week; Neisse ditto: and Mollwitz, above all, where, in spite of
Romer and such Horse-charging as was never seen, we had to melt,
dissolve, and roll away in the glitter of the evening sun.!"
The common notion is, they are traitors, partial-traitors, one and
all. [ Guerre de Boheme, saepius.] Poor
Neipperg he has seen hard service, had ugly work to do: it was he
that gave away Belgrade to the Turks (so interpreting his orders),
and the Grand Vizier, calling him Dog of a Giaour: spat in his
face, not far from hanging him; and the Kaiser and Vienna people,
on his coming home, threw him into prison, and were near cutting
off his head. And again, after such sleety marchings through the
Mountains, he has had to dissolve at Mollwitz; float away in
military deluge in the manner we saw. And now, next winter, here is
he lodged among the upland bogs at Budweis, escorted by mere
curses. What a life is the soldier's, like other men's; what a
master is the world! Aulic Cabinet is not all-wise; but may readily
be wiser than the vulgar, and, with a Maria Theresa at his head, it
is incapable of truculent impiety like that. Neipperg, guilty of
not being a Eugene, is not hanged as a traitor; but placed quietly
as Commandant in Luxemburg, spends there the afternoon of his life,
in a more commodious manner. Friedrich had, of late, rather admired
his movements on the Neisse River; and found him a stiff article to
deal with.
The French, now with Prag for their place of arms, stretched
themselves as far as Pisek, some seventy miles southwestward;
occupied Pisek, Pilsen and other Towns and posts, on the southwest
side, some seventy miles from Prag; looking towards the Bavarian
Passes and homeward succors that might come: the Saxons, a while
after, got as far as Teutschbrod, eighty miles on the southeastward
or Moravian hand. Behind these outposts, Prag may be considered to
hang on Silesia, and have Friedrich for security. This, in front or
as forecourt of Friedrich's Silesia, this inconsiderable section,
was all of Bohemian Country the French and Confederates ever held,
and they did not hold this long. As for Karl Albert, he had his new
pleasant Dream of Sovereignty at Prag; Titular of Upper Austria,
and now of Bohmen as well; and enjoyed his Feast of the Barmecide,
and glorious repose in the captured Metropolis, after difficulty
overcome. December 7th, he was homaged (a good few of the Nobility attending, for which they smarted afterwards), with much processioning, blaring and TE-DEUM-ing: on the 19th he rolled off, home to Munchen; there to await still higher Romish-Imperial glories, which it is hoped are now at hand.
A day or two after the Capture of Prag, Marechal de Belleisle,
partially cured of his rheumatisms, had hastened to appear in that
City; and for above four weeks he continued there, settling,
arranging, ordering all things, in the most consummate manner, with
that fine military head of his. About Christmas time, arrived
Marechal de Broglio, his unfortunate successor or substitute;
to whom he made everything over; and hastened off for Frankfurt,
where the final crisis of KAISERWAHL is now at hand, and the
topstone of his work is to be brought out with shouting.
Marechal de Broglio had an unquiet Winter of it in his new command;
and did not extend his quarters, but the contrary.
BROGLIO HAS A BIVOUAC OF PISEK; KHEVENHULLER LOOKS IN
UPON THE DONAU CONQUESTS.
Grand-Duke Franz edged himself at last a little out of that Tabor-
Budweis region, and began looking Prag-ward again;--hung about, for
some time, with his Hungarian light-troops scouring the country;
but still keeping Prag respectfully to right, at seventy miles
distance. December 28th, to Broglio's alarm, he tried a night-
attack on Pisek, the chief French outpost, which lies France-ward
too, and might be vital. But he found the French (Broglio having
got warning) unexpectedly ready for him at Pisek,--drawn up in the
dark streets there, with torrents of musketry ready for his
Pandours and him;--and entirely failed of Pisek. Upon which he
turned eastward to the Budweis-Tabor fastnesses again; left Brother
Karl as Commander in those parts (who soon leaves Lobkowitz as
Substitute, Vienna in the idle winter-time being preferable);--
left Brother Karl, and proceeded in person, south, towards the
Donau Countries, to see how Khevenhuller might be prospering, who
is in the field there, as we shall hear.
Of Pisek and the night-skirmish at Pisek, glorious to France, think
all the Gazettes, I should have said nothing, were it not that
Marechal Broglio, finding what a narrow miss he had made,
established a night-watch there, or bivouac, for six weeks to come;
such as never was before or since: Cavalry and Infantry, in
quantity, bivouacking there, in the environs of Pisek, on the grim
Bohemian snow or snow-slush, in the depth of winter, nightly for
six weeks, without whisper of an enemy at any time; whereby the
Marechal did save Pisek (if Pisek was ever again in danger), but
froze horse and man to the edge of destruction or into it; so that
the "Bivouac of Pisek" became proverbial in French Messrooms, for a
generation coming. [ Guerre de Boheme, ii. 23,
&c.] And one hears in the mind a clangorous nasal eloquence from
antique gesticulative mustachio-figures, witty and indignant,--who
are now gone to silence again, and their fruitless bivouacs, and
frosty and fiery toils, tumbling pell-mell after them. This of
Pisek was but one of the many unwise hysterical things poor Broglio
did, in that difficult position; which, indeed, was too difficult
for any mortal, and for Broglio beyond the average.
One other thing we note: Graf von Khevenhuller, solid Austrian man,
issued from Vienna, December 31st, last day of the Year, with an
Army of only some 15,000, but with an excellent military head of
his own, to look into those Conquests on the Donau. Which he finds,
as he expected, to be mere conquests of stubble, capable of being
swept home again at a very rapid rate. "Khevenhuller, here as
always, was consummate in his choice of posts," says Lloyd;
[General Lloyd, History of Seven-Years War,
&c. (incidentally, somewhere).]--discovered where the ARTERIES of
the business lay, and how to handle the same. By choice of posts,
by silent energy and military skill, Khevenhuller very rapidly
sweeps Segur back; and shuts him up in Linz. There Segur, since the
first days of January, is strenuously barricading himself;
"wedging beams from house to house, across the streets;"--and hopes
to get provision, the Donau and the Bavarian streams being still
open behind him; and to hold out a little. It will be better if he
do,--especially for poor Karl Albert and his poor Bavaria!
Khevenhuller has also detached through the Tyrol a General von
Barenklau (BEAR'S-CLAW, much heard of henceforth in these Wars),
who has 12,000 regulars; and much Hussar-folk under bloody
Mentzel:-across the Tyrol, we say; to fall in upon Bavaria and
Munchen itself; which they are too like doing with effect.
Ought not Karl Albert to be upon the road again? What a thing, were
the Kaiser Elect taken prisoner by Pandours!
In fine, within a short two weeks or so, Karl Albert quits Munchen,
as no safe place for him; comes across to Mannheim to his Cousin
Philip, old Kur-Pfalz, whom we used to know, now extremely old, but
who has marriages of Grand-daughters, and other gayeties, on hand;
which a Cousin and prospective Kaiser--especially if in peril of
his life--might as well come and witness. This is the excuse Karl
Albert makes to an indulgent Public; and would fain make to
himself, but cannot. Barenklau and Khevenhuller are too
indisputable. Nay this rumor of Friedrich's "Peace with Austria,"
divulged Bargain of Klein-Schnellendorf, if this also (horrible to
think) were true--! Which Friedrich assures him it is not.
Karl Albert writes to Friedrich, and again writes; conjuring him,
for the love of God, To make some thrust, then, some inroad or
other, on those man-devouring Khevenhullers; and take them from
his, Karl Albert's, throat and his poor Country's. Which Friedrich,
on his own score, is already purposing to do.
Chapter VIII.
FRIEDRICH STARTS FOR MORAVIA, ON A NEW SCHEME HE HAS.
The Austrian Court had not kept Friedrich's secret of Klein-
Schnellendorf, hardly even for a day. It was whispered to the
Dowager Empress, or Empresses; who whispered it, or wrote it, to
some other high party; by whom again as usual:--in fact, the
Austrian Court, having once got their Neipperg safe to hand, took
no pains to keep the secret; but had probably an interest rather in
letting it filter out, to set Friedrich and his Allies at variance.
At all events, in the space of a few weeks, as we have seen, the
rumor of a Treaty between Austria and Friedrich was everywhere
rife; Friedrich, as he had engaged, everywhere denying it, and
indeed clearly perceiving that there was like to be no ground for
acknowledging it. The Austrian Court, instead of "completing the
Treaty before Newyear's-day," had broken the previous bargain;
evidently not meaning to complete; intent rather to wait upon their
Hungarian Insurrection, and the luck of War.
There is now, therefore, a new turn in the game. And for this also
Friedrich has been getting the fit card ready; and is not slow to
play it. Some time ago, November 4th,--properly November 1st,
hardly three weeks since that of Klein-Schnellendorf,--finding the
secret already out ("whispered of at Breslau, 28th October,"
casually testifies Hyndford), he had tightened his bands with
France; had, on November 4th, formally acceded to Karl Albert's
Treaty with France. [Accession agreed to, "Frankfurt, Nov. 1st,"
1741; ratified "Nov. 4th."] Glatz to be his: he will not hear of
wanting Glatz; nor of wanting elsewhere the proper Boundary for
Schlesien, "Neisse River both banks" (which Neipperg had agreed to,
in his late Sham-Bargain);--quite strict on these preliminaries.
And furthermore, Kur-Sachsen being now a Partner in that French-
Bavarian Treaty,--and a highly active one (with 21,000 in the field
for him), who is "King of Moravia" withal, and has some
considerable northern Paring of Bohemia thrown in, by way of "Road
to Moravia,"--Friedrich made, at the same time, special Treaty with
Kur-Sachsen, on the points specially mutual to them; on the
Boundary point, first of all. Which latter treaty is dated also
November 1st, and was "ratified November 8th."
Treaty otherwise not worth reading; except perhaps as it shows us
Friedrich putting, in his brief direct way, Kur-Sachsen at once
into Austria's place, in regard to Ober-Schlesien. "Boundary
between your Polish Majesty and me to be the River Neisse PLUS a
full German mile;"--which (to Belleisle's surprise) the Polish
Majesty is willing to accept; and consents, farther, Friedrich
being of succinct turn, That Commissioners go directly and put down
the boundary-stones, and so an end. "Let the Silesian matter stand
where it stood," thinks Friedrich: "since Austria will not, will
you? Put down the boundary-pillars, then!"--an interesting little
glance into Friedrich's inner man. And a Prussian Boundary
Commissioner, our friend Nussler the man, did duly appear;--whom
perhaps we shall meet,--though no Saxon one quite did. [Busching,
Beitrage, i. 339 (? NUSSLER).] It is this
boundary clause, it is Friedrich's little decision, "Put down the
pillars, then," that alone can now interest any mortal in this
Saxon Bargain; the clause itself, and the bargain itself, having
quite broken down on the Saxon side, and proved imaginary as a
covenant made in dreams. Could not be helped, in the sequel!--
Meanwhile, the preliminary diplomacies being done in this manner,
Friedrich had ordered certain of his own Forces to get in motion a
little; ordered Leopold, who has had endless nicety of management,
since the French and Saxons came into those Bohemian Circles of
his, to go upon Glatz; to lay fast hold of Glatz, for one thing.
And farther eastward, Schwerin, by order, has lately gone across
the Mountains; seized Troppau, Friedenthal; nay Olmutz itself, the
Capital of Mahren,--in one day (December 27th), garrison of Olmutz
being too weak to resist, and the works in disrepair. "In Heaven's
name, what are your intentions, then?" asked the Austrians there.
"Peaceable in the extreme," answered Schwerin, "if only yours are.
And if they are NOT--!" There sits Schwerin ever since, busy
strengthening himself, and maintains the best discipline;
waiting farther orders.
"The Austrians will not complete their bargain of Klein-
Schnellendorf?" thinks this young King; "Very well; we will not
press them to completion. We will not ourselves complete, should
they now press. We will try another method, and that without loss
of time."--It was a pungent reflection with Friedrich that Karl
Albert had not pushed forward on Vienna, from Linz that time, but
had blindly turned off to the left, and thrown away his one chance.
"Cannot one still mend it; cannot one still do something of the
like?" thinks Friedrich now: "Schwerin in Olmutz; Prussian Troops
cantoned in the Highlands of Silesia, or over in Bohemia itself,
near the scene of action; the Saxons eastward as far as
Teutschbrod, still nearer; the French triumphant at Prag, and
reinforcement on the road for them: a combined movement on Vienna,
done instantly and with an impetus!" That is the thing Friedrich is
now bent upon; nor will he, like Karl Albert, be apt to neglect the
hour of tide, which is so inexorable in such operations.
At Berlin, accordingly, he has been hurrying on his work,
inspection, preparation of many kinds,--Marriage of his Brother
August Wilhelm, for one business; [6th January, 1742 (in Bielfeld,
ii. 55-69, exuberant account of the Ceremony, and of B.'s part in
it).]--and (Jannary 18th), after a stay of two months, is off
fieldward again, on this new project. To Dresden, first of all;
Saxony being an essential element; and Valori being appointed to
meet him there on the French side. It is January 20th, 1742, when
Friedrich arrives; due Opera festivities, "triple salute of all the
guns," fail not at Dresden; but his object was not these at all.
Polish Majesty is here, and certain of the warlike Bastard Brothers
home from Winter-quarters, Comte de Saxe for one; Valori also,
punctually as due; and little Graf von Bruhl, highest-dressed of
human creatures, who is factotum in this Court.
"Your Polish Majesty, by treaty and title you are King of Moravia
withal: now is the time, now or never, to become so in fact!
Forward with your Saxons:" urges Friedrich: "The Austrians and
their Lobkowitz are weak in that Country: at Iglau, just over the
Moravian border, they have formed a Magazine; seize that, snatch it
from Lobkowitz: that gives us footing and basis there. Forward with
your Saxons; Valori gives us so-many French; I myself will join
with 20,000: swift, steady, all at once; we can seize Moravia, who
knows if not Vienna itself, and for certain drive a stroke right
home into the very bowels of the Enemy!" That is Friedrich's theme
from the first hour of his arrival, and during all the four-and-
twenty that he stayed.
In one hour, Polish Majesty, who is fonder of tobacco and pastimes
than of business, declared himself convinced;--and declared also
that the time of Opera was come; whither the two Majesties had to
proceed together, and suspend business for a while. Polish Majesty
himself was very easily satisfied; but with the others, as Valori
reports it, the argument was various, long and difficult.
"Winter time; so dangerous, so precarious," answer Bruhl and Comte
de Saxe: There is this danger, this uncertainty, and then that
other;--which the King and Valori, with all their eloquence,
confute. "Impossible, for want of victual," answers Maurice at
last, driven into a corner: "Iglau, suppose we get it, will soon be
eaten; then where is our provision?"--"Provision?" answers Valori:
"There is M. de Sechelles, Head of our Commissariat in Prag; such a
Commissary never was before." "And you consent, if I take that in
hand?" urges Friedrich upon them. They are obliged to consent, on
that proviso. Friedrich undertakes Sechelles: the Enterprise cannot
now be refused. [ OEuvres de Frederic, ii. 170; Valori, i.
139; &c. &c.] "Alert, then; not a moment to be lost! Good-night;
AU REVOIR, my noble friends!"--and to-morrow many hours before
daybreak, Friedrich is off for Prag, leaving Dresden to awaken when
it can.
At Prag he renews acquaintance with his old maladroit Strasburg
friend, Marechal de Broglio, not with increase of admiration, as
would seem; declines the demonstrations and civilities of Broglio,
business being urgent: finds M. de Sechelles to be in truth the
supreme of living Commissaries (ready, in words which Friedrich
calls golden, "to make the impossible possible"): "Only march,
then, noble Saxons: swift!"--and dashes off again, next morning, to
northeastward, through Leopold's Bohemian cantonments, Glatz-ward
by degrees, to be ready with his own share of the affair; no delay
in him, for one. January 24th, after Konigsgratz and other Prussian
posts,--January 24th, which is elsewhere so notable a day,--his
route goes northeast, to Glatz, a hundred miles away, among the
intricacies of the Giant Mountains, hither side of the Silesian
Highlands; wild route for winter season, if the young King feared
any route. From Berlin, hither and farther, he may have gone well-
nigh his seven hundred miles within the week; rushing on
continually (starts, at say four in the winter morning);
doing endless business, of the ordering sort, as he speeds along.
Glatz, a southwestern mountainous Appendage to Silesia, abutting on
Moravia and Bohemia, is a small strong Country; upon which, ever
since the first Friedrich times, we have seen him fixed; claiming
it too, as expenses from the Austrians, since they will not
bargain. For he rises Sibyl-like: a year ago, you might have had
him with his 100,000 to boot, for the one Duchy of Glogau;
and now--! At Glatz or in these adjacent Bohemian parts, the Young
Dessauer has been on duty, busy enough, ever since the late Siege
of Neisse: Glatz Town the Young Dessauer soon got, when ordered;
Town, Population, Territory, all is his,--all but the high mountain
Fortress (centre of the Town of Glatzj, with its stiff-necked
Austrian Garrison shut up there, which he is wearing out by hunger.
We remember the little Note from Valori's waistcoat-pocket, "Don't
give him Glatz, if you can possibly help it!" In his latest
treaties with the French and their Allies, Friedrich has very
expressly bargained for the Country (will even pay money for it);
[ OEuvres de Frederic, ii. 85.] and is
determined to have it, when the Austrians next take to bargaining.
Of Glatz Fortress, now getting hungered out by Leopold's Prussian
Detachment, I will say farther, though Friedrich heeds these
circumstances little at present, that it stands on a scarped rock,
girt by the grim intricate Hills; and that in the Arsenal, in dusty
fabulous condition, lies a certain Drum, which readers may have
heard of. Drum is not a fable, but an antique reality fallen
flaccid; made, by express bequest, as is mythically said, from the
skin of Zisca, above 300 years ago: altogether mythic that latter
clause. Drum, Fortress, Town, Villages and Territory, all shall be
Friedrich's, had hunger done its work. [Town already, after short
scuffle, 14th January, 1742; Fortress, by hunger (no firing nor
being fired on, in the interim), 25th April following,--when the
once 2,000 of garrison, worn to about 200, pale as shadows, marched
away to Brunn; "only ten of them able for duty on arriving."
(Orlich, i. 174.)]
Friedrich, while at Glatz this time, gave a new Dress to the
Virgin, say all the Biographers; of which the story is this.
Holy Virgin stood in the main Convent of Glatz, in rather a
threadbare condition, when the Prussians first approached;
the Jesuits, and ardently Orthodox of both sexes, flagitating
Heaven and her with their prayers, that she would vouchsafe to keep
the Prussians out. In which case pious Madame Something, wife of
the Austrian Commandant, vowed her a new suit of clothes.
Holy Virgin did not vouchsafe; on the Contrary, here the Prussians
are, and Starvation with them. "Courage, nevertheless, my new
friends!" intimates Friedrich: "The Prussians are not bugaboos, as
you imagined: Holy Virgin shall have a new coat, all the same!" and
was at the expense of the bit of broadcloth with trimmings. He was
in the way of making such investments, in his light sceptical
humor; and found them answer to him. At Glatz, and through those
Bohemian and Silesian Cantonments, he sets his people in motion for
the Moravian Expedition; rapidly stirs up the due Prussian
detachments from their Christmas rest among the Mountains; and has
work enough in these regions, now here now there. Schwerin is
already in Olmutz, for a month past; and towards him, or his
neighborhood, the march is to be.
January 26th, Friedrich, now with considerable retinue about him,
gets from Glatz to Landskron, some fifty miles Olmutz-ward; such a
march as General Stille never saw,--"through the ice and through
the snow, which covered that dreadful Chain of Mountains between
Bohmen and Mahren: we did not arrive till very late; many of our
carriages broken down, and others overturned more than once."
[Stille (Anonymous, Friedrich's Old-Tutor Stille),
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