History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 14
by
Thomas Carlyle
Part 1 out of 3
Prepared by D.R. Thompson
History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 14
by Thomas Carlyle
BOOK XIV.
THE SURROUNDING EUROPEAN WAR DOES NOT END.
August, 1742-July, 1744.
Chapter I.
FRIEDRICH RESUMES HIS PEACEABLE PURSUITS.
Friedrich's own Peace being made on such terms, his wish and hope
was, that it might soon be followed by a general European one;
that, the live-coal, which had kindled this War, being quenched,
the War itself might go out. Silesia is his; farther interest in
the Controversy, except that it would end itself in some fair
manner, he has none. "Silesia being settled," think many, thinks
Friedrich for one, "what else of real and solid is there
to settle?"
The European Public, or benevolent individuals of it everywhere,
indulged also in this hope. "How glorious is my King, the youngest
of the Kings and the grandest!" exclaims Voltaire (in his Letters
to Friedrich, at this time), and re-exclaims, till Friedrich has to
interfere, and politely stop it: "A King who carries in the one
hand an all-conquering sword, but in the other a blessed olive-
branch, and is the Arbiter of Europe for Peace or War!" "Friedrich
the THIRD [so Voltaire calls him, counting ill, or misled by
ignorance of German nomenclature], Friedrich the Third, I mean
Friedrich the Great (FREDERIC LE GRAND)," will do this, and do
that;--probably the first emergence of that epithet in human
speech, as yet in a quite private hypothetic way. [Letters of
Voltaire, in OEuvres de Frederic, xxii. 100,
&c.: this last Letter is of date "July, 1742"--almost contemporary
with the" Jauer Transparency" noticed above.] Opinions about
Friedrich's conduct, about his talents, his moralities, there were
many (all wide of the mark): but this seemed clear, That the weight
of such a sword as his, thrown into either scale, would be
decisive; and that he evidently now wished peace. An unquestionable
fact, that latter! Wished it, yes, right heartily; and also strove
to hope,--though with less confidence than the benevolent outside
Public, as knowing the interior of the elements better.
These hopes, how fond they were, we now all know. True, my friends,
the live-coal which kindled this incendiary whirlpool (ONE of the
live-coals, first of them that spread actual flame in these
European parts, and first of them all except Jenkins's Ear) is out,
fairly withdrawn; but the fire, you perceive, rages not the less.
The fire will not quench itself, I doubt, till the bitumen, sulphur
and other angry fuel have run much lower! Austria has fighting men
in abundance, England behind it has guineas; Austria has got
injuries, then successes:--there is in Austria withal a dumb pride,
quite equal in pretensions to the vocal vanity of France, and far
more stubborn of humor. The First Nation of the Universe, rashly
hurling its fine-throated hunting-pack, or Army of the Oriflamme,
into Austria,--see what a sort of badgers, and gloomily indignant
bears, it has awakened there! Friedrich had to take arms again;
and an unwelcome task it was to him, and a sore and costly.
We shall be obliged (what is our grand difficulty in this History)
to note, in their order, the series of European occurrences;
and, tedious as the matter now is, keep readers acquainted with the
current of that big War; in which, except Friedrich broad awake,
and the Ear of Jenkins in somnambulancy, there is now next to
nothing to interest a human creature.
It is an error still prevalent in England, though long since
exploded everywhere else, that Friedrich wanted new wars, "new
successful robberies," as our Gazetteers called them; and did
wilfully plunge into this War again, in the hope of again doing a
stroke in that kind. English readers, on consulting the facts a
little, will not hesitate to sweep that notion altogether away.
Shadow of basis, except in their own angry uninformed imaginations,
they will find it never had; and that precisely the reverse is
manifest in Friedrich's History. A perfectly clear-sighted
Friedrich; able to discriminate shine from substance;
and gravitating always towards the solid, the actual. That of
"GLOIRE," which he owns to at starting, we saw how soon it died
out, choked in the dire realities. That of Conquering Hero, in the
Macedonia's-madman style, was at all times far from him, if the
reader knew it,--perhaps never farther from any King who had such
allurements to it, such opportunities for it. This his First
Expedition to Silesia--a rushing out to seize your own stolen
horse, while the occasion answered--was a voluntary one; produced,
we may say, by Friedrich's own thought and the Invisible Powers.
But the rest were all purely compulsory,--to defend the horse he
had seized. Clear necessities, and Powers very Visible, were the
origin of all his other Expeditions and Warlike Struggles, which
lasted to the end of his life.
That recent "Moravian Foray;" the joint-stock principle in War
matters; and the terrible pass a man might reduce himself to, at
that enormous gaming-table of the gods, if he lingered there:
think what considerations these had been for him! So that "his look
became FAROUCHE," in the sight of Valori; and the spectre of Ruin
kept him company, and such hell-dogs were in chase of him;--till
Czaslau, when the dice fell kind again! All this had been didactic
on a young docile man. He was but thirty gone. And if readers mark
such docility at those years, they will find considerable meaning
in it. Here are prudence, moderation, clear discernment;
very unusual VERACITY of intellect, as we define it,--which
quality, indeed, is the summary and victorious outcome of all
manner of good qualities, and faithful performances, in a man.
"Given up to strong delusions," in the tragical way many are,
Friedrich was not; and, in practical matters, very seldom indeed
"believed a lie."
Certain it is, he now resumes his old Reinsberg Program of Life;
probably with double relish, after such experiences the other way;
and prosecutes it with the old ardor; hoping much that his History
will be of halcyon pacific nature, after all. Would the mad War-
whirlpool but quench itself; dangerous for singeing a near
neighbor, who is only just got out of it! Fain would he be arbiter,
and help to quench it; but it will not quench. For a space of Two
Years or more (till August, 1744, Twenty-six Months in all),
Friedrich, busy on his own affairs, with carefully neutral aspect
towards this War, yet with sword ready for drawing in case of need,
looks on with intense vigilance; using his wisest interference, not
too often either, in that sense and in that only, "Be at Peace; oh,
come to Peace!"--and finds that the benevolent Public and he have
been mistaken in their hopes. For the next Two Years, we say:--for
the first Year (or till about August, 1743), with hope not much
abated, and little actual interference needed; for the latter
Twelvemonth, with hope ever more abating; interference, warning,
almost threatening ever more needed, and yet of no avail, as if
they had been idle talking and gesticulation on his part:--till, in
August, 1744, he had to--But the reader shall gradually see it, if
by any method we can show it him, in something of its real
sequence; and shall judge of it by his own light.
Friedrich's Domestic History was not of noisy nature, during this
interval:--and indeed in the bewildered Records given of it, there
is nothing visible, at first, but one wide vortex of simmering
inanities; leading to the desperate conclusion that Friedrich had
no domestic history at all. Which latter is by no means the fact!
Your poor Prussian Dryasdust (without even an Index to help you)
being at least authentic, if you look a long time intensely and on
many sides, features do at last dawn out of those sad vortexes;
and you find the old Reinsberg Program risen to activity again;
and all manner of peaceable projects going on. Friedrich visits the
Baths of Aachen (what we call Aix-la-Chapelle); has the usual
Inspections, business activities, recreations, visits of friends.
He opens his Opera-House, this first winter. He enters on Law-
reform, strikes decisively into that grand problem; hoping to
perfect it. What is still more significant, he in private begins
writing his MEMOIRS. And furthermore, gradually determines on
having a little Country House, place of escape from his big Potsdam
Palace; and gets plans drawn for it,--place which became very
famous, by the name of SANS-SOUCI, in times coming. His thoughts
are wholly pacific; of Life to Minerva and the Arts, not to Bellona
and the Battles:--and yet he knows well, this latter too is an
inexorable element. About his Army, he is quietly busy;
augmenting, improving it; the staff of life to Prussia and him.
Silesian Fortress-building, under ugly Walrave, goes on at a
steadily swift rate. Much Silesian settlement goes on; fixing of
the Prussian-Austrian Boundaries without; of the Catholic-
Protestant limits within: rapid, not too rough, remodelling of the
Province from Austrian into Prussian, in the Financial,
Administrative and every other respect:--in all which important
operations the success was noiseless, but is considered to have
been perfect, or nearly so. Cannot we, from these enormous Paper-
masses, carefully riddled, afford the reader a glimpse or two, to
quicken his imagination of these things?
SETTLES THE SILESIAN BOUNDARIES, THE SILESIAN ARRANGEMENTS;
WITH MANIFEST PROFIT TO SILESIA AND HIMSELF.
In regard to the Marches, Herr Nussler, as natural, was again the
person employed. Nussler, shifty soul, wide-awake at all times, has
already seen this Country; "noticed the Pass into Glatz with its
block-house, and perceived that his Majesty would want it."
From September 22d to December 12th, 1742, the actual Operation
went on; ratified, completely set at rest, 16th January following.
[Busching, Beitrage, ? Nussler: and
Busching's Magazin, b. x. (Halle, 1776);
where, pp. 475-538, is a "GESCHICHTE DER &c. SHLESISCHEN
GRANZSCHEIDUNG IM JAHR 1742," in great amplitude and authenticity.]
Nussler serves on three thalers (nine shillings) a day.
The Austrian Head-Commissioner has 5 pounds (thirty thalers) a day;
but he is an elderly fat gentleman, pursy, scant of breath;
cannot stand the rapid galloping about, and thousand-fold
inspecting and detailing; leaves it all to Nussler; who goes like
the wind. Thus, for example, Nussler dictates, at evening from his
saddle, the mutual Protocol of the day's doings; Old Pursy sitting
by, impatient for supper, and making no criticisms. Then at night,
Nussler privately mounts again; privately, by moonlight, gallops
over the ground they are to deal with next day, and takes notice of
everything. No wonder the boundary-pillars, set up in such manner,
which stand to this day, bear marks that Prussia here and there has
had fair play!--Poor Nussler has no fixed appointment yet, except
one of about 100 pounds a year: in all my travels I have seen no
man of equal faculty at lower wages. Nor did he ever get any signal
promotion, or the least exuberance of wages, this poor Nussler;--
unless it be that he got trained to perfect veracity of
workmanship, and to be a man without dry-rot in the soul of him;
which indeed is incalculable wages. Income of 100 pounds a year,
and no dry-rot in the soul of you anywhere; income of 100,000
pounds a year, and nothing but dry and wet rot in the soul of you
(ugly appetites unveracities, blusterous conceits,--and probably,
as symbol of all things, a pot-belly to your poor body itself):
Oh, my friends!
In settling the Spiritual or internal Catholic-Protestant limits of
Silesia, Friedrich did also a workmanlike thing. Perfect fairness
between Protestant and Catholic; to that he is bound, and never
needed binding. But it is withal his intention to be King in
Catholic Silesia; and that no Holy Father, or other extraneous
individual, shall intrude with inconvenient pretensions there.
He accordingly nominates the now Bishop of Neisse and natural
Primate of Silesia,--Cardinal von Sinzendorf, who has made
submission for any late Austrian peccadilloes, and thoroughly
reconciled himself,--nominates Sinzendorf "Vicar-General" of the
Country; who is to relieve the Pope of Silesian trouble, and be
himself Quasi-Supreme of the Catholic Church there. "No offence,
Holy Papa of Christian Mankind! Your holy religion is, and shall
be, intact in these parts; but the palliums, bulls and other holy
wares and interferences are not needed here. On that footing, be
pleased to rest content."
The Holy Father shrieked his loudest (which is now a quite
calculable loudness, nothing like so loud as it once was);
declared he would "himself join the Army of Martyrs sooner;"
and summoned Sinzendorf to Rome: "What kind of HINGE are you,
CARDINALIS of the Gates of"-- Husht! Shrieked his loudest, we say;
but, as nobody minded it, and as Sinzendorf would not come, had to
let the matter take its course. [Adelung, iii. A. 197-200.]
And, gradually noticing what correct observance of essentials there
was, he even came quite round, into a high state of satisfaction
with this Heretic King, in the course of a few years. Friedrich and
the Pope were very polite to each other thenceforth; always ready
to do little mutual favors. And it is to be remarked, Friedrich's
management of his Clergy, Protestant and Catholic, was always
excellent; true, in a considerable degree, to the real law of
things; gentle, but strict, and without shadow of hypocrisy,--
in which last fine particular he is singularly unique among
Modern Sovereigns.
He recognizes honestly the uses of Religion, though he himself has
little; takes a good deal of pains with his Preaching Clergy, from
the Army-Chaplain upwards,--will suggest texts to them, with scheme
of sermon, on occasion;--is always anxious to have, as Clerical
Functionary, the right man in the important place; and for the
rest, expects to be obeyed by them, as by his Sergeants and
Corporals. Indeed, the reverend men feel themselves to be a body of
Spiritual Sergeants, Corporals and Captains; to whom obedience is
the rule, and discontent a thing not to be indulged in by any
means. And it is worth noticing, how well they seem to thrive in
this completely submissive posture; how much real Christian worth
is traceable in their labors and them; and what a fund of piety and
religious faith, in rugged effectual form, exists in the Armies and
Populations of such a King. ["In 1780, at Berlin, the population
being 140,000, there are of ECCLESIASTIC kind only 140; that is
1 to the 1,000;--at Munchen there are thirty times as many in
proportion" (Mirabeau, Monarchie Prussienne,
viii. 342; quoting NICOLAI).] ...
By degrees the Munchows and Official Persons intrusted with Silesia
got it wrought in all respects, financial, administrative,
judicial, secular and spiritual, into the Prussian model: a long
tough job; but one that proved well worth doing. [In Preuss
(i. 197-200), the various steps (from 1740 to 1806).] In this
state, counts one authority, it was worth to Prussia "about six
times what it had been to Austria;"--from some other forgotten
source, I have seen the computation "eight times." In money
revenue, at the end of Friedrich's reign, it is a little more than
twice; the "eight times" and the "six times," which are but loose
multiples, refer, I suppose, to population, trade, increase of
national wealth, of new regiments yielded by new cantons, and the
like. [Westphalen, in Feldzuge des Herzogs Ferdinand
italic> (printed, Berlin, 1859, written 100 years before by that
well-informed person), i. 65, says in the rough "six times:"
Preuss, iv. 292, gives, very indistinctly, the ciphers of Revenue,
in 1740 and SOME later Year: according to Friedrich himself
( Oeuvres, ii. 102), the Silesian Revenue at first was
"3,600,000 thalers" (540,000 pounds, little more than Half a
Million); Population, a Million-and-Half.]
Six or eight times as useful to Prussia: and to the Inhabitants
what multiple of usefulness shall we give? To be governed on
principles fair and rational, that is to say, conformable to
Nature's appointment in that respect; and to be governed on
principles which contradict the very rules of Cocker, and with
impious disbelief of the very Multiplication Table: the one is a
perpetual Gospel of Cosmos and Heaven to every unit of the
Population; the other a Gospel of Chaos and Beelzebub to every unit
of them: there is no multiple to be found in Arithmetic which will
express that!--Certain of these advantages, in the new Government,
are seen at once; others, the still more valuable, do not appear,
except gradually and after many days and years. With the one and
the other, Schlesien appears to have been tolerably content.
From that Year 1742 to this, Schlesien has expressed by word and
symptom nothing but thankfulness for the Transfer it underwent;
and there is, for the last Hundred Years, no part of the Prussian
Dominion more loyal to the Hohenzollerns (who are the Authors of
Prussia, without whom Prussia had never been), than this their
latest acquisition, when once it too got moulded into their own
image. [Preuss, i. 193, and ib. 200 (Note from Klein, a Silesian
Jurist): "Favor not merit formerly;" "Magistracies a regular branch
of TRADE;"--"highway robbers on a strangely familiar footing with
the old Breslau magistrates;" &c. &c.]
OPENING OF THE OPERA-HOUSE AT BERLIN.
... December 7th, this Winter, Carnival being come or just coming,
Friedrich opens his New Opera-House, for behoof of the cultivated
Berlin classes; a fine Edifice, which had been diligently built by
Knobelsdorf, while those Silesian battlings went on. "One of the
largest and finest Opera-houses in the whole world; like a
sumptuous Palace rather. Stands free on all sides, space for 1,000
Coaches round it; Five great Entrances, five persons can walk
abreast through each; and inside--you should see, you should hear!
Boxes more like rooms or boudoirs, free view and perfect hearing of
the stage from every point: air pure and free everywhere;
water aloft, not only for theatrical cascades, but to drown out any
fire or risk of fire." [Seyfarth, i. 234; Nicolai,
Beschreibung von Berlin, i. 169.] This is Seyfarth's
account, still capable of confirmation by travelling readers of a
musical turn. I have seen Operas with much more brilliancy of gas
and gilding; but none nearly so convenient to the human mind and
sense; or where the audience (not now a gratis one) attended to the
music in so meritorious a way.
"Perhaps it will attract moneyed strangers to frequent our
Capital?"--some guess, that was Friedrich's thought. "At all
events, it is a handsome piece of equipage, for a musical King and
People; not to be neglected in the circumstances. Thalia, in
general,--let us not neglect Thalia, in such a dearth of
worshipable objects." Nor did he neglect Thalia. The trouble
Friedrich took with his Opera, with his Dancing-Apparatus, French
Comedy, and the rest of that affair, was very great. Much greater,
surely, than this Editor would have thought of taking; though, on
reflection, he does not presume to blame. The world is dreadfully
scant of worshipable objects: and if your Theatre is your own, to
sweep away intrusive nonsense continually from the gates of it?
Friedrich's Opera costs him heavy sums (surely I once knew
approximately what, but the sibylline leaf is gone again upon the
winds!)--and he admits gratis a select public, and that only.
[Preuss, i. 277; and Preuss, Buch fur Jedermann,
italic> i. 100.] "This Winter, 1742-43, was unusually magnificent at
Court: balls, WIRTHSCHAFTEN [kind of MIMIC FAIRS], sledge-parties,
masquerades, and theatricals of all sorts;--and once even, December
2d, the new Golden Table-Service [cost of it 200,000 pounds] was in
action, when the two Queens [Queen Regnant and Queen Mother] dined
with his Majesty."
FRIEDRICH TAKES THE WATERS AT AACHEN, WHERE VOLTAIRE COMES TO SEE HIM.
Months before that of the Opera-House or those Silesian
settlements, Friedrich, in the end of August, what is the first
thing visible in his Domestic History, makes a visit, for health's
sake, to Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle so called), with a view to the
waters there. Intends to try for a little improvement in health, as
the basis of ulterior things. Health has naturally suffered a
little in these War-hardships; and the Doctors recommend Aix.
After Wesel, and the Westphalian Inspections, Friedrich,
accordingly, proceeds to Aix; and for about a fortnight (23th
August-9th September) drinks the waters in that old resting-place
of Charlemagne;--particulars not given in the Books; except that
"he lodged with Baege" (if any mortal now knew Baege), and did an
Audience or so to select persons now unknown. He is not entirely
incognito, but is without royal state; the "guard of twenty men,
the escort of 160 men," being no men of his, but presumably mere
Town-guard of Aix coming in an honorary way. Aix is proud to see
him; he himself is intent on the waters here at old Aix:--
Aquisgranum, urbs regalis,
Sedes Regni principalis:--
)
My friend, this was Charlemagne's high place; and his dust lies
here, these thousand years last past. And there used to soar "a
very large Gilt Eagle," ten feet wide or so, aloft on the
Cathedral-steeple there; Eagle turned southward when the Kaiser was
in Frankenland, eastward when he was in Teutsch or Teuton-land;
in fact, pointing out the Kaiser's whereabouts to loyal mankind.
[Kohler, Reichs-Historie. ] Eagle which shines
on me as a human fact; luminously gilt, through the dark
Dryasdustic Ages, gone all spectral under Dryasdust's sad handling.
Friedrich knows farther, that for many centuries after, the
"Reich's INSIGNIA (REICHS-KLEINODIEN)" used to be here,--though
Maria Theresa has them now, and will not give them up. The whole of
which points are indifferent to him. The practical, not the
sentimental, is Friedrich's interest;--not to say that WERTER and
the sentimental were not yet born into our afflicted Earth. A King
thoroughly practical;--yet an exquisite player on the flute withal,
as we often notice; whose adagio could draw tears from you. For in
himself, too, there were floods of tears (as when his Mother died);
and he has been heard saying, not bragging but lamenting, what was
truly the fact, that "he had more feeling than other men." But it
was honest human feeling always; and was repressed, where not
irrepressible;--as it behooved to be.
Friedrich's suite was not considerable, says the French spy at Aix
on this occasion; pomp of Entrance,--a thing to be mute upon!
"Came driving in with the common post-horses of the country;
and such a set of carriages as your Lordship, intent on the
sublime, has no idea of." [Spy-Letter, in Campagnes des
Trois Marechaux, i. 222.] Rumor was, His Britannic
Majesty was coming (also on pretext of the waters) to confer with
him; other rumor is, If King George came in at one gate, King
Friedrich would go out at the other. A dubious Friedrich, to the
French spy, at this moment; nothing like so admirable as he
once was!--
The French emotions (of which we say little), on Friedrich's making
Peace for himself, had naturally been great. To the French Public
it was unexpected, somewhat SUDDEN even to the Court; and, sure
enough, it was of perilous importance in the circumstances.
Few days ago, Broglio (by order given him) "could not spare a man,"
for the Common Cause;--and now the Common Cause has become entirely
the Broglio one, and Broglio will have the full use of all his men!
"Defection [plainly treasonous to your Liege Lord and Nation]!
horrible to think of!" cried the French Public; the Court outwardly
taking a lofty tragic-elegiac tone, with some air of hope that his
Prussian Majesty would perhaps come round again, to the side of his
afflicted France! Of which, except in the way of helping France and
the other afflicted parties to a just Peace if he could, his
Prussian Majesty had small thought at this time.
More affecting to Friedrich were the natural terrors of the poor
Kaiser on this event. The Kaiser has already had his Messenger at
Berlin, in consequence of it; with urgent inquiries, entreaties;--
an expert Messenger, who knows Berlin well. So other than our old
friend, the Ordnance-Master Seckendorf, now titular Feldmarschall,
--whom one is more surprised than delighted to meet again!
Being out with Austria (clamoring for great sums of "arrears,"
which they will not pay), he has been hanging about this new
Kaiser, ever since Election-time; and is again getting into
employment, Diplomatic, Strategic, for some years,--though we hope
mostly to ignore him and it. Friedrich's own feeling at sight of
him,--ask not about it, more than if there had been none! Friedrich
gave him "a distinguished reception;" Friedrich's answer sent by
him to the Kaiser was all kindness; emphatic assurance, "That, not
'hostility' by any means, that loyalty, friendship, and aid
wherever possible within the limits, should always be his rule
towards the now Kaiser, lawful Head of the Reich, in difficult
circumstances." ["Audience, 30th July" (Adelung, iii. A, 217).]
Which was some consolation to the poor man,--stript of his old
revenues, old Bavarian Dominions, and unprovided with new;
this sublime Headship of the Reich bring moneyless; and one's new
"Kingdom of Bohemia" hanging in so uncertain a state, with nothing
but a Pharsalia-Sahay to show for itself!--
Among Friedrich's "inconsiderable suite," at Aachen, was Prince
Henri (his youngest Brother, age now sixteen, a small, sensitive,
shivering creature, but of uncommon parts); and another young man,
Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, his Wife's youngest Brother;
a soldier, as all the Brothers are; soldier in Friedrich's Army,
this one; in whose fine inarticulate eupeptic character are
excellent dispositions and capacities discernible. Ferdinand goes
generally with the King; much about him in these years. All the
Brothers follow soldiering; it is the one trade of German Princes.
When at home, Friedrich is still occasionally with his Queen;
who lives at Schonhausen, in the environs of Berlin, but goes with
him to Charlottenburg, to old Reinsberg; and has her share of galas
in his company, with the Queen Mother and cognate Highnesses.
Another small fact, still more memorable at present, is, That
Voltaire now made him a Third Visit,--privately on Fleury's
instance, as is evident this time. Of which Voltaire Visit readers
shall know duly, by and by, what little is knowable. But, alas,
there is first an immense arrear of War-matters to bring up;
to which, still more than to Voltaire, the afflicted reader must
address himself, if he would understand at all what Friedrich's
Environment, or circumambient Life-element now was, and how
Friedrich, well or ill, comported himself in the same.
Brevity, this Editor knows, is extremely desirable, and that the
scissors should be merciless on those sad Paper-Heaps, intolerable
to the modern mind; but, unless the modern mind chance to prefer
ease and darkness, what can an Editor do!
Chapter II.
AUSTRIAN AFFAIRS ARE ON THE MOUNTING HAND.
Austrian affairs are not now in their nadir-point; a long while now
since they passed that. Austria, to all appearance dead, started
up, and began to strike for herself, with some success, the instant
Walpole's SOUP-ROYAL (that first 200,000 pounds, followed since by
abundance more) got to her lips. Touched her poor pale lips;
and went tingling through her, like life and fiery elasticity, out
of death by inanition! Cardinal moment, which History knows, but
can never date, except vaguely, some time in 1741; among the last
acts of judicious Walpole.
Austria, thanks to its own Khevenhullers and its English guineas,
was already rising in various quarters: and now when the Prussian
Affair is settled, Austria springs up everywhere like an elastic
body with the pressure taken from it; mounts steadily, month after
month, in practical success, and in height of humor in a still
higher ratio. And in the course of the next Two Years rises to a
great height indeed. Here--snatched, who knows with what
difficulty, from that shoreless bottomless slough of an Austrian-
Succession War, deservedly forgotten, and avoided by extant
mankind--are some of the more essential phenomena, which Friedrich
had to witness in those months. To witness, to scan with such
intense interest,--rightly, at his peril;--and to interpret as
actual "Omens" for him, as monitions of a most indisputable nature!
No Haruspex, I suppose, with or without "white beard, and long
staff for cutting the Heavenly Vault into compartments from the
zenith downwards," could, in Etruria or elsewhere, "watch the
flight of birds, now into this compartment, now into that," with
stricter scrutiny than, on the new terms, did this young King from
his Potsdam Observatory.
WAR-PHENOMENA IN THE WESTERN PARTS: KING GEORGE TRIES,
A SECOND TIME, TO DRAW HIS SWORD; TUGS AT IT VIOLENTLY,
FOR SEVEN MONTHS (February-October, 1742).
"The first phenomenon, cheering to Austria, is that of the
Britannic Majesty again clutching sword, with evident intent to
draw it on her behalf. [Tindal, xx. 552; Old Newspapers; &c. &c.]
Besides his potent soup-royal of Half-Millions annually, the
Britannic Majesty has a considerable sword, say 40,000, of British
and of subsidized;--sword which costs him a great deal of money to
keep by his side; and a great deal of clamor and insolent gibing
from the Gazetteer species, because he is forced to keep it
strictly in the scabbard hitherto. This Year, we observe, he has
determined again to draw it, in the Cause of Human Liberty,
whatever follow. From early Spring there were symptoms: Camps on
Lexden and other Heaths, much reviewing in Hyde-Park and elsewhere;
from all corners a universal marching towards the Kent Coast;
the aspects being favorable. 'We can besiege Dunkirk at any rate,
cannot we, your High Mightinesses? Dunkirk, which, by all the
Treaties in existence, ought to need no besieging; but which, in
spite of treatyings innumerable, always does?' The High
Mightinesses answer nothing articulate, languidly grumble something
in OPTATIVE tone;--'meaning assent,' thinks the sanguine mind.
'Dutch hoistable, after all!' thinks he; 'Dutch will co-operate, if
they saw example set!' And, in England, the work of embarking
actually begins.
"Britannic Majesty's purpose, and even fixed resolve to this
effect, had preceded the Prussian-Austrian Settlement. May 20th,
["9th" by the Old Newspapers; but we always TRANSLATE their o.s.]
'Two regiments of Foot,' first poor instalment of British Troops,
had actually landed at Ostend;--news of the Battle of Chotusitz,
much more, of the Austrian-Prussian Settlement, or Peace of
Breslau, would meet them THERE. But after that latter auspicious
event, things start into quick and double-quick time; and the
Gazetteers get vocal, almost lyrical: About Howard's regiment,
Ponsonby's regiment, all manner of regiments, off to Flanders, for
a stroke of work; how 'Ligonier's Dragoons [a set of wild swearing
fellows, whom Guildford is happy to be quit of] rode through
Bromley with their kettle-drums going, and are this day at
Gravesend to take ship;'"--or to give one other, more
specific example:
"Yesterday [3d July, 1742] General Campbell's Regiment of Scotch
Greys arrived in the Borough of Southwark, on their march to Dover,
where they are to embark for Flanders. They are fine hardy fellows,
that want no seasoning; and make an appearance agreeable to all but
the innkeepers,"--who have such billeting to do, of late.
[ Daily Post, June 23d (o.s.), 1742.]
"Grey Dragoons," or Royal Scots-Greys, is the title of this fine
Regiment; and their Colonel is Lieutenant-General John Campbell,
afterwards Duke of Argyle (fourth Duke), Cousin of the great second
Duke of Argyle that now is. [Douglas, Scotch Peerage
italic> (Edinburgh, 1764), p. 44.] Visibly billeting there, in
Southwark, with such intentions:--and, by accident, this Editor
knows Twenty of these fine fellows! Twenty or so, who had gone in
one batch as Greys; sons of good Annandale yeomen, otherwise
without a career open: some Two of whom did get back, and lived to
be old men; the rumor of whom, and of their unheard-of adventures,
was still lingering in the air, when this Editor began existence.
Pardon, O reader!--
"But, all through those hot days, it is a universal drumming,
kettle-drumming, coast-ward; preparation of transports at
Gravesend, at the top of one's velocity. 'All the coopers in London
are in requisition for water-casks, so that our very brewers have
to pause astonished for want of tubs.' There is pumping in of water
day and night, Sunday not excepted, then throwing of it out again
[owing to new circumstances]: 250 saddle-horses, and 100 sumpter
ditto, for his Majesty's own use,--these need a deal of water,
never to speak of Ligonier and the Greys. 'For the honor of our
Country, his Majesty will make a grander appearance this Campaign
than any of his Predecessors ever did; and as to the magnificence
of his equipage,'--besides the 350 quadrupeds, 'there are above 100
rich portmanteaus getting ready with all expedition.'
[ Daily Post, September 13th (I.E. 26th).]
The Fat Boy too [Royal Highness Duke of Cumberland, one should say]
is to go; a most brave-hearted, flaxen-florid, plump young
creature; hopeful Son of Mars, could he once get experience, which,
alas, he never could, though trying it for five-and-twenty years to
come, under huge expense to this Nation! There are to be 16,000
troops, perhaps more; '1,000 sandbags' (empty as yet);
demolition of Dunkirk the thing aimed at." If only the Dutch
prove hoistable!--
"And so, from May on to September, it noisily proceeds, at
multiplex rates? and often with more haste than speed: and in such
five months (seven, strictly counted) of clangorous movement and
dead-lift exertion, there were veritably got across, of Horse and
Foot with their equipments, the surprising number of '16,334 men.'
[Adelung, iii. A, 201.] May 20th it began,--that is, the embarking
began; the noise and babble about it, which have been incessant
ever since, had begun in February before;--and on September 26th,
Ostend, now almost weary of huzzaing over British glory by
instalment, had the joy of seeing our final portions of Artillery
arrive: Such a Park of Siege-and-Field Artillery," exults the
Gazetteer, "as"--as these poor creatures never dreamt of before.
"Magnanimous Lord Stair, already Plenipotentiary to the Dutch, is
to be King's General-in-Chief of this fine Enterprise; Carteret,
another Lord of some real brilliancy, and perhaps of still
weightier metal, is head of the Cabinet; hearty, both of them, for
these Anti-French intentions: and the Public cannot but think,
Surely something will come of it this time? More especially now
that Maillebois, about the middle of August, by a strange turn of
fortune, is swept out of the way. Maillebois, lying over in
Westphalia with his 30 or 40,000, on 'Check to your King' this year
past, had, on sight of these Anti-Dunkirk movements, been ordered
to look Dunkirk way, and at length to move thitherward, for
protection of Dunkirk. So that Stair, before his Dunkirk business,
will have to fight Maillebois; which Stair doubts not may be
satisfactorily done. But behold, in August and earlier, come
marvellous news from the Prag quarter, tragical to France;
and Maillebois is off, at his best speed, in the reverse direction;
on a far other errand!"--Of which readers shall soon hear enough.
"Dunkirk, therefore, is now open. With 16,000 British troops,
Hanoverians to the like number, and Hessians 6,000, together near
40,000, not to speak of Dutch at all, surely one might manage
Dunkirk, if not something still better? It is AFTER Maillebois's
departure that these dreadful exertions, coopering of water-casks,
pumping all Sunday, go on at Gravesend: 'Swift, oh, be swift, while
time is!' And Generalissimo-Plenipotentiary Stair, who has run over
beforehand, is ardent enough upon the Dutch; his eloquence fiery
and incessant: 'Magnanimous High Mightinesses, was there, will
there again be, such a chance? The Cause of Human Liberty may be
secured forever! Dunkirk--or what is Dunkirk even? Between us and
Paris, there is nothing, now that Maillebois is off on such an
errand! Why should not we play Marlborongh again, and teach them a
little what Invasion means? It is ourselves alone that can hinder
it! Now, I say, or never!'
"Stair was a pupil of Marlborough's; is otherwise a shining kind of
man; and has immense things in his eye, at this time. They say,
what is not unlikely, he proposed an Interview with Friedrich now
at Aachen; would come privately, to 'take the waters' for a day or
two,--while Maillebois was on his new errand, and such a crisis had
risen. But Friedrich, anxious to be neutral and give no offence,
politely waived such honor. Lord Stair was thought to be something
of a General, in fact as well as in costume;--and perhaps he was
so. And had there been a proper COUNTESS of Stair, or new Sarah
Jennings,--to cover gently, by art-magic, the Britannic Majesty and
Fat Boy under a tub; and to put Britain, and British Parliament and
resources, into Stair's hand for a few years,--who knows what Stair
too might have done! A Marlborough in the War Arts,--perhaps still
less in the Peace ones, if we knew the great Marlborough,--he could
not have been. But there is in him a recognizable flash of
magnanimity, of heroic enterprise and purpose; which is highly
peculiar in that sordid element. And it can be said of him, as of
lightning striking ineffectual on the Bog of Allen or the Stygian
Fens, that his strrngth was never tried."--For the upshot of him we
will wait; not very long.
These are fine prospects, if only the Dutch prove hoistable.
But these are as nothing to what is passing, and has passed, in the
Eastern Parts, in the Bohemian-Bavarian quarter, since we were
there. Poor Kaiser Karl, what an outlook for him! His own real
Bavaria, much more his imaginary "Upper Austria" and "Conquests on
the Donau," after that Segur Adventure, are plunging headlong.
As to his once "Kingdom of Bohemia," it has already plunged;
nay, the Army of the Oriflamme is itself near plunging, in spite of
that Pharsalia of a Sahay! Bavaria itself, we say, is mostly gone
to Khevenhuller; Segur with his French on march homeward, and
nothing but Bavarians left. Thz Belleisle-Broglio grand Budweis
Expedition is gone totally heels over head; Belleisle and Broglio
are getting, step by step, shut up in Prag and besieged there:
while Maillebois--Let us try whether, by snatching out here a
fragment and there a fragment, with chronological and other
appliances, it be not possible to give readers some conceivable
notion of what Friedrich was now looking at with such interest!--
HOW DUC D'HARCOURT, ADVANCING TO REINFORCE THE ORIFLAMME,
HAD TO SPLIT HIMSELF IN TWO; AND BECOME AN "ARMY OF
BAVARIA," TO LITTLE EFFECT.
The poor Kaiser, who at one time counted "30,000 Bavarians of his
own," has all along been ill served by them and the bad Generals
they had: two Generals; both of whom, Minuzzi, and old
Feldmarschall Thorring (Prime Minister withal), came to a bad
reputation in this War. Beaten nearly always; Thorring quite
always,--"like a DRUM, that Thorring; never heard of except when
beaten," said the wits! Of such let us not speak. Understand only,
FIRST, that the French, reasonably soon after that Linz explosion,
did, in such crisis, get reinforcements on the road; a Duc
d'Harcourt with some 25,000 faring forward, in an intermittent
manner, ever since "March 4th." And SECONDLY, that Khevenhuller has
fast hold of Passau, the Austrian-Bavarian Key-City; is master of
nearly all Bavaria (of Munchen, and all that lies south of the
Donau); and is now across on the north shore, wrenching and tugging
upon Kelheim and the Ingolstadt-Donauworth regions, with nothing
but Thorring people and small French Garrisons to hinder him;--
where it will be fatal if he quite prosper; Ingolstadt being our
Place-of-Arms, and House on the Highway, both for Bavaria
and Bohemia!
"For months past, there had been a gleam of hope for Kaiser Karl,
and his new 'Kingdom of Bohemia,' and old Electorate of Bavaria,
from the rumor of 'D'Harcourt's reinforcement,'--a 20 or 30,000 new
Frenchmen marching into those parts, in a very detached
intermittent manner; great in the Gazettes. But it proved a gleam
only, and came to nothing effectual. Poor D'Harcourt, owing to
cross orders [Groglio clamorously demanding that the new force
should come to Prag; Karl Albert the Kaiser, nominally General-in-
Chief, demanding that it should go down the Donau and sweep his
Bavaria clear], was in difficulty. To do either of these cross
orders might have brought some result; but to half-do both of them,
as he was enjoined to attempt, was not wise! Some half of his force
he did detach towards Broglio; which got to actual junction, partly
before, partly after, that Pharsalia-Sahay Affair, and raised
Broglio to a strength of 24,000,--still inadequate against Prince
Karl. Which done, D'Harcourt himself went down the Donau, on his
original scheme, with the remainder of his forces,--now likewise
become inadequate. He is to join with Feldmarschall Thorring in
the"--And does it, as we shall see presently! ...
MUNCHEN, 5th MAY. "Rumor of D'Harcourt had somewhat cleared Bavaria
of Austrians; but the reality of him, in a divided state, by no
means corresponds. Thus Munchen City, in the last days of April,--
D'Harcourt advancing, terrible as a rumor,--rejoiced exceedingly to
see the Austrians march out, at their best pace. And the exultant
populace even massacred a loitering Tolpatch or two; who well
deserve it, think the populace, judging by their experience for the
last three months, since Barenklau and Mentzel became King here.--
'Rumor of D'Harcourt?' answers Khevenhuller from the Kelheim-Passau
side of things: 'Let us wait for sight of him, at least!'
And orders Munchen to be reoccupied. So that, alas, 'within a
week,' on the 5th of May, Barenklau is back upon the poor City;
exacts severe vengeance for the Tolpatch business; and will give
them seven months more of his company, in spite of D'Harcourt, and
'the Army of Bavaria' as he now called himself:"--new "Army of
Bavaria," when once arrived in those Countries, and joined with
poor Thorring and the Kaiser's people there. Such an "Army of
Bavaria," first and last, as--as Khevenhuller could have wished it!
Under D'Harcourt, joined with old Feldmarschall Thorring (him whom
men liken to a DRUM, "never heard of except when beaten"), this is
literally the sum of what fighting it did:
"HILGARTSBERG (Deggendorf Donau-Country), MAY 28th. D'Harcourt and
Thorring, after junction at Donauworth several weeks ago, and a
good deal of futile marching up and down in those Donau Countries,
--on the left bank, for most part; Khevenhuller holding stiffly,
as usual, by the Inn, the Iser, and the rivers and countries on the
right,--did at last, being now almost within sight of Passau and
that important valley of the Inn across yonder, seriously decide to
have a stroke at Passau, and to dislodge Khevenhuller, who is weak
in force, though obstinate. They perceive that there is, on this
left bank, a post in the woods, Castle of Hilgartsberg, none of the
strongest Castles, rather a big Country Mansion than a Castle,
which it will be necessary first to take. They go accordingly to
take it (May 28th, having well laid their heads together the day
before); march through intricate wet forest country, peat above all
abundant; see the Castle of Hilgartsberg towering aloft,
picturesque object in the Donau Valley, left bank;--are met by
cannon-shot, case-shot, shot of every kind; likewise by Croats
apparently innumerable, by cavalry sabrings and levelled bayonets;
do not behave too well, being excessively astonished; and are glad
to get off again, leaving one of their guns lodged in the mud, and
about a hundred unfortunate men. [ Guerre de Boheme,
italic> ii. 146-148, 136, &c.] This quite disgusted D'Harcourt with
the Passau speculation and these grim Khevenhuller outposts.
He straightway took to collecting Magazines; lodging himself in the
attainable Towns thereabouts, Deggendorf the chief strength for
him; and gave up fighting till perhaps better times might arrive."
We will wish him good success in the victualling department, hope
to hear no more of him in this History;--and shall say only that
Comte de Saxe, before long, relieves him of this Bavarian Army;--
and will be seen at the head of it, on a most important business
that rises.
Kaiser Karl begins to have real thoughts of recalling this
Thorring, who is grown so very AUDIBLE, altogether home; and of
appointing Seckendorf instead. A course which Belleisle has been
strongly recommending for some time. Seckendorf is at present
"gathering meal in the Ober-Pfalz" (Upper Palatinate, road from
Ingolstadt to Eger, to Bohmen generally), that is, forming
Magazines, on the Kaiser's behalf there: "Surely a likelier man
than your Thorring!" urges Belleisle always. With whom the Kaiser
does finally comply; nominates Seckendorf commander,--recalls the
invaluable Thorring!" to his services in our Cabinet Council, which
more befit his great age." In which safe post poor Thorring, like a
Drum NOT beaten upon, has thenceforth a silent life of it;
Seckendorf fighting in his stead,--as we shall have to witness,
more or less.
Khevenhuller's is a changed posture, since he stood in Vienna,
eight or nine months ago; grimly resolute, drilling his "6,000 of
garrison," with the wheelbarrows all busy!--But her Hungarian
Majesty's chief success, which is now opening into outlooks of a
quite triumphant nature, has been that over the New Oriflamme
itself, the Belleisle-Broglio Army,--most sweet to her Majesty to
triumph over! Shortly after Chotusitz, shortly after that Pharsalia
of a Sahay, readers remember Belleisle's fine Project, "Conjoined
attack on Budweis, and sweeping of Bohemia clear;"--readers saw
Belleisle, in the Schloss of Maleschau, 5th June last, rushing out
(with violence to his own wig, says rumor); hurrying off to Dresden
for co-operation; equally in vain. "Co-operation, M. le Marechal;
attack on Budweis?"--Here is another Fragment:--
HOW BELLEISLE, RETURNING FROM DRESDEN WITHOUT CO-OPERATION,
FOUND THE ATTACK HAD BEEN DONE,--IN A FATALLY REVERSE WAY.
PRAG EXPECTING SIEGE. COLLOQUY WITH BROGLIO ON THAT
INTERESTING POINT. PRAG BESIEGED.
BUDWEIS, JUNE 4th,-PRAG, JUNE 13th. "Broglio, ever since that Sahay
[which had been fought so gloriously on Frauenberg's account], lay
in the Castle of Frauenberg, in and around,--hither side of the
Moldau river, with his Pisek thirty miles to rear, and judicious
outposts all about. There lay Broglio, meditating the attack on
Budweis [were co-operation once here],--when, contrariwise,
altogether on the sudden, Budweis made attack on Broglio;
tumbled him quite topsy-turvy, and sent him home to Prag, uncertain
which end uppermost; rolling like a heap of mown stubble in the
wind, rather than marching like an army!" ... Take one glance
at him:--
"JUNE 4th, 1742 [day BEFORE that of Belleisle's "Wig" at Maleschau,
had Belleisle known it!]--Prince Karl, being now free of the
Prussians, and ready for new work, issued suddenly from Budweis;
suddenly stept across the Moldau,--by the Bridge of Moldau-Tein,
sweeping away the French that lay there. Prince Karl swept away
this first French Post, by the mere sight and sound of him;
swept away, in like fashion, the second and all following posts;
swept Broglio himself, almost without shot fired, and in huge
flurry, home to Prag, double-quick, night and day,--with much loss
of baggage, artillery, prisoners, and total loss of one's presence
of mind. 'Poor man, he was born for surprises' [said Friedrich's
Doggerel long ago]! Manoeuvred consummately [he asserts] at
different points, behind rivers and the like; but nowhere could he
call halt, and resolutely stand still. Which undoubtedly he could
and should have done, say Valori and all judges;--nothing quite
immediate being upon him, except the waste-howling tagraggery of
Croats, whom it had been good to quench a little, before going
farther. On the third night, June 7th, he arrived at Pisek;
marched again before daybreak, leaving a garrison of 1,200,--who
surrendered to Prince Karl next day, without shot fired.
Broglio tumbling on abead, double-quick, with the tagraggery of
Croats continually worrying at his heels, baggage-wagons sticking
fast, country people massacring all stragglers, panted home to Prag
on the 13th; with 'the Gross of the Army saved, don't you observe!'
And thinks it an excellent retreat, he if no one-else.
[ Guerre de Boheme, ii. 122, &c.;
Campagnes, v. 167 (his own Despatch).]
"At Pisek, Prince Karl has ceased chasing with his regulars, the
pace being so uncommonly swift. From Pisek, Prince Karl struck off
towards Pilsen, there to intercept a residue of Harcourt
reinforcements who were coming that way: from Broglio, who knew of
it, but in such flurry could not mind it, he had no hindrance; and
it was by good luck, not management of Broglio's, that these poor
reinforcements did in part get through to him, and in part seek
refuge in Eger again. Broglio has encamped under the walls of Prag;
in a ruinous though still blusterous condition; his positions all
gone; except Prag and Eger, nothing in Bohemia now his."
PRAG, 17th JUNE-17th AUGUST. "It is in this condition that
Belleisle, returning from the Kuttenberg-Dresden mission (June
15th), finds his Broglio. Most disastrous, Belleisle thinks it;
and nothing but a Siege in Prag lying ahead; though Broglio is of
different opinion, or, blustering about his late miraculous
retreat, and other high merits too little recognized, forms no
opinion at all on such extraneous points. ... From Versailles, they
had auswered Belleisle: 'Nothing to be made of Dresden either, say
you? Then go you and take the command at Prag; send Broglio to
command the Bavarian Army. See, you, what can be done by fighting.'
On this errand Belleisle is come, the heavy-laden man, and Valori
with him,--if, in this black crisis, Valori could do anything.
Valori at least reports the colloquy the Two Marshals had [one bit
of colloquy, for they had more than one, though as few as possible;
Broglio being altogether blusterous, sulphurous, difficult to speak
with on polite terms]. [Valori, i. 162-166; Campagnes,
v. 170, 124, &c. &c.] 'Army of Bavaria?' answers
Broglio; 'I will have those Ten Battalions of the D'Harcourt
reinforcement, then. I tell you, Yes! Prag? Prag may go to the--
What have I to do with Prag? The oldest Marechal of France,
superseded, after such merits, and on the very heel of such a
retreat! Nay, but where is YOUR commission to command in Prag,
M. le Marechal?' Belleisle, in the haste there was, has no
Commission rightly drawn out by the War-office; only an Order from
Court. '_I_ have a regular commission, Monseigneur: I want a Sign-
manual before laying it down!' The unreasonable Broglio.
"Belleisle, tormented with rheumatic nerves, and of violent temper
at any rate, compresses the immense waste rage that is in him.
His answers to Broglio are calm and low-voiced; admirable to
Valori. One thing he wished to ascertain definitely: What M. de
Broglio's intentions were; and whether he would, or would not, go
to Bavaria and take charge there? If so, he shall have all the
Cavalry for escort; Cavalry, unless it be dragoons, will only eat
victual in case of siege.--No, Broglio will not go with Cavalry;
must have those Ten Battalions, must have Sign-manual; won't, in
short!"--Will stay, then, thinks Belleisle; and one must try to
drive him, as men do pigs, covertly and by the rule of contraries,
while Prag falls under Siege.
What an outlook for his Most Christian Majesty's service,--fatal
altogether, had not Belleisle been a high man, and willing to
undertake pig-driving! ... "Discouragement in the Army is total,
were it not for Belleisle; anger against Broglio very great.
The Officers declare openly, 'We will quit, if Broglio continue
General! Our commissions were made out in the name of Marechal de
Belleisle [in the spring of last Year, when he had such levees,
more crowded than the King's!]--we are not bound to serve another
General!'--'You recognize ME for your General?' asks Belleisle.
'Yes!'--'Then, I bid you obey M. de Broglio, so long as he is
here.' [Valori, i. 166.] ...
"JUNE 27th. The Grand-Duke, Maria Theresa's Husband, come from
Vienna to take command-in-chief, joins the Austrian main Army and
his Brother Karl, this day: at Konigsaal, one march to the south of
Prag. Friedrich being now off their hands, why should not they
besiege Prag, capture Prag! Under Khevenhullcr, with Barenklau, and
the Mentzels, Trencks,--poor D'Harcourt merely storing victual,--
Bavaria lies safe enough. And the Oriflamme caged in Prag:--Have at
the Oriflamme!
"Prag is begirdled, straitened more and more, from this day.
Formal Siege to begin, so soon 'as the artillery can come up' which is not for seven weeks yet]. And so, in fine, 'AUGUST 17th, all at
once,' furious bombardment bursts out, from 36 mortars and above
100 big guns, disposed in batteries around. [ Guerre de
Boheme, ii. 149, 170.] To which the French,
Belleisle's high soul animating everything, as furiously responded;
making continual sallies of a hot desperate nature; especially, on
the fifth day of the siege, one sally [to be mentioned by and by]
which was very famous at Prag and at Paris." ...
CONCERNING THE ITALIAN WAR WHICH SIMULTANEOUSLY WENT ON, ALL ALONG.
War in Italy--the Spanish Termagant very high in her Anti-Pragmatic
notions--there had been, for eight months past; and it went on,
fiercely enough, doggedly enough, on both sides for Six Years more,
till 1748, when the general Finis came. War of which we propose to
say almost nothing; but must request the reader to imagine it, all
along, as influential on our specific affairs.
The Spanish Termagant wished ardently to have the Milanese and
pertinents, as an Apanage for her second Infant, Don Philip; a
young gentleman who now needs to be provided for, as Don Carlos had
once done. "Cannot get to be Pope this one, it appears," said the
fond Mother (who at one time looked that way for her Infant,):
"Well, here is the Milanese fallen loose!" Readers know her for a
lady of many claims, of illimitable aspirations; and she went very
high on the Pragmatic Question. "Headship of the Golden Fleece,
Madam; YOU head of it? I say all Austria, German and Italian, is
mine!"--though she has now magnanimously given up the German part
to Kaiser Karl VII.; and will be content with the Italian, as an
Apanage for Don Philip. And so there is War in Italy, and will be.
To be imagined by us henceforth.
A War in which these Three Elements are noticeable as the chief.
FIRST, the Sardinian Majesty, [Charles Emanuel, Victor Amadeus's
Son (Hubner, t. 293): born 27th April, 1701; lived and reigned till
19th February, 1773 (OErtel, t. 77).] who is very anxious himself
for Milanese parings and additaments; but, except by skilfully
playing off-and-on between the French side and the Austrian, has no
chance of getting any. For Spain he is able to fight; and also (on
good British Subsidies) against Spain. Element SECOND is the
British Navy, cruising always between Spain and the Seat of War;
rendering supplies by sea impossible,--almost impossible.
THIRD, the Passes of Savoy; wild Alpine chasms, stone-labyrinths;
inexpugnable, with a Sardinian Majesty defending; which are the one
remaining road, for Armies and Supplies, out of Spain or France.
The Savoy Passes are, in fact, the gist of the War; the insoluble
problem for Don Philip and the French. By detours, by circuitous
effort and happy accident, your troops may occasionally squeeze
through: but without one secure road open behind them for supplies
and recruitments, what good is it? Battles there are, behind the
Alps, on what we may call the STAGE itself of this Italian War-
theatre; but the grand steady battle is that of France and Don
Philip, struggling spasmodically, year after year, to get a road
through the COULISSES or side-scenes,--namely, those Savoy Passes.
They try it by this Pass and by that; Pass of Demont, Pass of
Villa-Franca or Montalban (glorious for France, but futile), Pass
of Exilles or Col d'Assiette (again glorious, again futile and
fatal); sometimes by the way of Nice itself, and rocky mule-tracks
overhanging the sea-edge (British Naval-cannon playing on them);--
and can by no way do it.
There were fine fightings, in the interior too, under Generals of
mark; General Browne doing feats, excellent old General
Feldmarschall Traun, of whom we shall hear; Maillebois, Belleisle
the Younger, of whom we have heard. There was Battle of Campo-
Santo, new battle there (Traun's); there was Battle of Rottofreddo;
of Piacenza (doleful to Maillebois),--followed by Invasion of
Provence, by Revolt of Genoa and other things: which all readers
have now forgotten. [Two elaborate works on the subject are said to
be instructive to military readers: Buonamici (who was in it, for a
while). De Bello Italico Commentarii (in
Works of Buonamici, Lyon, 1750); and Pezay, Campagnes de
Maillebois (our Westphalian friend again) en
Italie, 1745-1746 (Paris, 1775).] Readers are to
imagine this Italian War, all along, as a fact very loud and real
at that time, and continually pulsing over into our German Events
(like half-audible thunder below the horizon, into raging thunder
above), little as we can afford to say of it here. One small Scene
from this Italian War;--one, or with difficulty two;--and if
possible be silent about all the rest:
SCENE, ROADS OF CADIZ, October, 1741: BY WHAT ASTONISHING
ARTIFICE THIS ITALIAN WAR DID, AT LENGTH, GET BEGUN.
... "The Spanish Court, that is, Termagant Elizabeth, who rules
everybody there, being in this humor, was passionate to begin;
and stood ready a good while, indignantly champing the bit, before
the sad preliminary obstacles could be got over. At Barcelona she
had, in the course of last summer, doubly busy ever since Mollwitz
time, got into equipment some 15,000 men; but could not by any
method get them across,--owing to the British Fleets, which hung
blockading this place and that; blockading Cadiz especially, where
lay her Transport-ships and War-ships, at this interesting
juncture. Fleury's cunctations were disgusting to the ardent mind;
and here now, still more insuperable, are the British Fleets;
here--and a pest to him!--is your Admiral Haddock, blockading
Cadiz, with his Seventy-fours!
"But again, on the other or Pragmatic side, there were cunctations.
The Sardinian Majesty, Charles Emanuel of Savoy, holding the door
of the Alps, was difficult to bargain with, in spite of British
Subsidies;--stood out for higher door-fees, a larger slice of the
Milanese than could be granted him; had always one ear open for
France, too; in short, was tedious and capricious, and there seemed
no bringing him to the point of drawing sword for her Hungarian
Majesty. In the end, he was brought to it, by a stroke of British
Art,--such to the admiring Gazetteer and Diplomatic mind it
seemed;--equal to anything we have since heard of, on the part of
perfidious Albion.
"One day, 'middle of October last,' the Seventy-fours of Haddock
and perfidious Albion,--Spanish official persons, looking out from
Cadiz Light-house, ask themselves, 'Where are they? Vanished from
these waters; not a Seventy-four of them to be seen!'--Have got
foul in the underworks, or otherwise some blunder has happened;
and the blockading Fleet of perfidious Albion has had to quit its
post, and run to Gibraltar to refit. That, I guess, was the
Machiavellian stroke of Art they had done; without investigating
Haddock and Company [as indignant Honorable Members did], I will
wager, That and nothing more!
"In any case, the Termagant, finding no Seventy-fours there, and
the wind good, despatches swiftly her Transports and War-ships to
Barcelona; swiftly embarks there her 15,000, France cautiously
assisting; and lands them complete, 'by the middle of December,'
Haddock feebly opposing, on the Genoa coast: 'Have at the Milanese,
my men!' Which obliges Charles Emanuel to end his cunctations, and
rank at once in defence of that Country, [Adelung, ii. 535, 538
(who believes in the "stroke of art"): what kind of "art" it was,
learn sufficiently in Gentleman's Magazine,
&c. of those months.] lest he get no share of it whatever. And so
the game began. Europe admired, with a shudder, the refined stroke
of art; for in cunning they equal Beelzebub, those perfidious
Islanders;--and are always at it; hence their greatness in the
world. Imitate them, ye Peoples, if you also would grow great.
That is our Gazetteer Evangel, in this late epoch of
Man's History." ...
OTHER SCENE, BAY OF NAPLES, 19th~20th August, 1742: KING OF TWO
SICILIES (BABY CARLOS THAT WAS), HAVING BEEN ASSISTING MAMMA,
IS OBLIGED TO BECOME NEUTRAL IN THE ITALIAN WAR.
Readers will transport themselves to the Bay of Naples, and
beautiful Vesuvian scenery seen from sea. The English-Spanish War,
it would appear, is not quite dead, nor carried on by Jenkins and
the Wapping people alone. Here in this Bay it blazes out into
something of memorability; and gives lively sign of its existence,
among the other troubles of the world.
"SUNDAY, AUGUST 19th, Commodore Martin, who had arrived overnight,
appears in the Bay, with due modicum of seventy-fours, 'dursley
galleys,' bomb-vessels, on an errand from his Admiral [one
Matthews] and the Britannic Majesty, much to the astonishment of
Naples. Commodore Martin hovers about, all morning, and at 4 P.M.
drops anchor,--within shot of the place, fearfully near;--and
therefrom sends ashore a Message: 'That his Sicilian Majesty [Baby
Carlos, our notable old friend, who is said to be a sovereign of
merit otherwise], has not been neutral, in this Italian War, as his
engagements bore; but has joined his force to that of the
Spaniards, declared enemies of his Britannic Majesty; which rash
step his Britannic Majesty hereby requires him to retract, if
painful consequences are not at once to ensue!' That is Martin's
message; to which he stands doggedly, without variation, in the
extreme flutter and multifarious reasoning of the poor Court of
Naples: 'Recall your 20,000 men, and keep them recalled,' persists
Martin; and furthermore at last, as the reasoning threatens to get
lengthy: 'Your answer is required within one hour,'--and lays his
watch on the Cabin-table.
"The Court, thrown into transcendent tremor, with no resource but
either to be burnt or comply, answers within the hour: 'Yes: in all
points.' Some eight hours or so of reasoning: deep in the night of
Sunday, it is all over; everything preparing to get signed and
sealed; ships making ready to sail again;--and on Tuesday at
sunrise, there is no Martin there. Martin, to the last top-gallant,
has vanished clean over the horizon; never to be seen again, though
long remembered. [Tindal's Rapin, xx. 572
(MISdates, and is altogether indistinct); Gentleman's
Magazine, xii. 494:--CAME, "Sunday morning, 19th
August, n.s.;" "anchored abont 4 p.m.;" "2 a.m. of 20th" all
agreed; King Carlos's LETTER is GOT, ships prepared for sailing;--
sail that night, and to-morrow, 21st, are out of sight.]
One wonders, Were Pipes and Hatchway perhaps there, in Martin's
squadron? In what station Commodore Trunnion did then serve in the
British Navy? Vanished ghosts of grim mute sea-kings, there is no
record of them but what is itself a kind of ghost! Ghost, or
symbolical phantasm, from the brain of that Tobias Smollett;
an assistant Surgeon, who served in the body along with them, his
singular value altogether unknown."--King Carlos's Neutrality,
obtained in this manner, lasted for a year-and-half; a sensible
alleviation to her Hungarian Majesty for the time. We here quit the
Italian War; leaving it to the reader's fancy, on the above terms.
.......
THE SIEGE OF PRAG CONTIMES. A GRAND SALLY THERE.
"PRAG, 22d AUGUST. In the same hours, while Martin lay coercing
Naples, the Army of the Oriflamme in Prag City was engaged in
'furious sallies;'"--readers may divine what that means for Prag
and the Oriflamme!
"Prag is begirdled, bombarded from all the Wischerads, Ziscabergs
and Hill environments; every avenue blocked, 'above 60,000
Austrians round it, near 40,000 of them regulars:' a place
difficult to defend; but with excellent arrangements for defence on
Belleisle's part, and the garrison with its blood up.
Garrison makes continual furious sallies,--which are eminently
successful, say the French Newspapers; but which end, as all
sallies do, in returning home again, without conquest, except of
honor;--and on this Wednesday, 22d August, comes out with the
greatest sally of all. [ Campagnes, vi. 5;
Guerre de Boheme, ii. 173.] While Commodore
Martin, many a Pipes and Hatchway standing grimly on the watch
unknown to us, is steering towards Matthews and the Toulon waters
again. The equal sun looking down on all.
"It was about twelve o'clock, when this Prag sally, now all in
order, broke out, several thousand strong, and all at the white
heat, now a constant temperature. Sally almost equal to that
Pharsalia of a Sahay, it would seem;--concerning which we can spend
no word in this brief summary. Fierce fighting, fiery irresistible
onslaught; but it went too far, lost all its captured cannon again;
and returned only with laurels and a heavy account of killed and
wounded,--the leader of it being himself carried home in a very
bleeding state. 'Oh, the incomparable troops!' cried Paris;--cried
Voltaire withal (as I gather), and in very high company, in that
Visit at Aachen. A sally glorious, but useless.
"The Imperial Generals were just sitting down to dinner, when it
broke out; had intended a Council of War, over their wine, in the
Grand-Duke's tent: 'What, won't they let us have our dinner!' cried
Prince Karl, in petulant humor, struggling to be mirthful.
He rather likes his dinner, this Prince Karl, I am told, and does
not object to his wine: otherwise a hearty, talky, free-and-easy
Prince,--'black shallow-set eyes, face red, and much marked with
small-pox.' Clapping on his hat, faculties sharpened by hunger and
impatience, let him do his best, for several hours to come, till
the sally abate and go its ways again. Leaving its cannon, and
trophies. No sally could hope to rout 60,000 men; this furious
sally, almost equal to Sahay, had to return home again, on the
above terms. Upon which Prince Karl and the others got some snatch
of dinner; and the inexorable pressure of Siege, tightening itself
closer and closer, went on as before.
"The eyes of all Europe are turned towards Prag; a big crisis
clearly preparing itself there. ... France, or aid in France, is
some 500 miles away. In D'Harcourt, merely gathering magazines,
with his Khevenhuller near, is no help; help, not the question
there! The garrison of Eger, 100 miles to west of us, across the
Mountains, barely mans its own works. Other strong post, or support
of any kind in these countries, we have now none. We are 24,000;
and of available resource have the Magazines in Prag, and our own
right hands.
"The flower of the young Nobility had marched in that Oriflamme;--
now standing at bay, they and it, in Prag yonder: French honor
itself seems shut up there! The thought of it agitates bitterly the
days and nights of old Fleury, who is towards ninety now, and
always disliked war. The French public too,--we can fancy what a
public! The young Nobility in Prag has its spokes-men, and spokes-
women, at Versailles, whose complaint waxes louder, shriller;
the whole world, excited by rumor of those furious sallies, is
getting shrill and loud. What can old Fleury do but order
Maillebois: 'Leave Dunkirk to its own luck; march immediately for
relief of Prag!' And Maillebois is already on march; his various
divisions (August 9th-20th) crossing the Rhine, in Dusseldorf
Country;"--of whom we shall hear.
... "Some time before the actual Bombardment, Fleury, seeing it
inevitable, had ordered Belleisle to treat. Belleisle accordingly
had an interview, almost two interviews, with Konigseck.
[ Guerre de Boheme, ii. 156 ("2d July" the actual
interview); ib. 161 (the corollary to it, confirmatory of it, which
passed by letters).] 'Liberty to march home, and equitable Peace-
Negotiations in the rear?' proposed Belleisle. 'Absolute surrender;
Prisoners of War!' answered Konigseck; 'such is her Hungarian
Majesty's positive order and ultimatum.' The high Belleisle
responded nothing unpolite; merely some, 'ALORS, MONSIEUR--!'
And rode back to Prag, with a spirit all in white heat;--gradually
heating all the 24,000 white, and keeping them so.
"In fact, Belleisle, a high-flown lion reduced to silence and now
standing at bay, much distinguishes himself in this Siege;
which, for his sake, is still worth a moment's memory from mankind.
He gathers himself into iron stoicism, into concentration of
endeavor; suffers all things, Broglio's domineering in the first
place; as if his own thin skin were that of a rhinoceros; and is
prepared to dare all things. Like an excellent soldier, like an
excellent citizen. He contrives, arranges; leads, covertly drives
the domineering Broglio, by rule of contraries or otherwise,
according to the nature of the beast; animates all men by his
laconic words; by his silences, which are still more emphatic. ...
Sechelles, provident of the future, has laid in immense supplies of
indifferent biscuit; beef was not attainable: Belleisle dismounts
his 4,000 cavalry, all but 400 dragoons; slaughters 160 horses per
day, and boils the same by way of butcher's-meat, to keep the
soldier in heart. It is his own fare, and Broglio's, to serve as
example. At Broglio's quarter, there is a kind of ordinary of
horse-flesh: Officers come in, silent speed looking through their
eyes; cut a morsel of the boiled provender, break a bad biscuit,
pour one glass of indifferent wine; and eat, hardly sitting the
while, in such haste to be at the ramparts again. The 80,000
Townsfolk, except some Jews, are against them to a man.
Belleisle cares for everything: there is strict charge on his
soldiers to observe discipline, observe civility to the Townsfolk;
there is occasional 'hanging of a Prag Butcher' or so, convicted of
spyship, but the minimum of that, we will hope."
MAILLEBOIS MARCHES, WITH AN "ARMY OF REDEMPTION" OR "OF MATHURINS"
(WITTILY SO CALLED), TO RELIEVE PRAG; REACHES THE BOHEMIAN
FRONTIER, JOINED BY THE COMTE DE SAXE; ABOVE 50,000 STRONG
(August 9th-September 19th).
Maillebois has some 40,000 men: ahead of him 600 miles of difficult
way; rainy season come, days shortening; uncertain staff of bread
("Seckendorf's meal," and what other commissariat there may be):
a difficult march, to Amberg Country and the top of the Ober-Pfalz.
After which are Mountain-passes; Bohemian Forest: and the Event--?
"Cannot be dubious!" thinks France, whatever Maillebois think.
Witty Paris, loving its timely joke, calls him Army of Redemption,
"L'ARMEE DES MATHURINS,"--a kind of Priests, whose business is
commonly in Barbary, about Christian bondage:--how sprightly!
And yet the enthusiasm was great: young Princes of the Blood
longing to be off as volunteers, needing strict prohibition by the
King;--upon which, Prince de Conti, gallant young fellow, leaving
his wife, his mistress, and miraculously borrowing 2,500 pounds for
equipments, rushed off furtively by post; and did join, and do his
best. Was reprimanded, clapt in arrest for three days;
but afterwards promoted; and came to some distinction in these
Wars. [Barbier, ii. 326 (that of Conti, ib. 331); Adelung, &c.]
The March goes continually southeast; by Frankfurt, thence towards
Nurnberg Country ("be at Furth, September 6th"), and the skirts of
the Pine-Mountains (FICHTEL-GEBIRGE),--Anspach and Baireuth well to
your left;--end, lastly, in the OBER-PFALZ (Upper Palatinate), Town
of Amberg there. Before trying the Bohemian Passes, you shall have
reinforcement. Best part of the "Bavarian Army," now under Comte de
Saxe, not under D'Harcourt farther, is to cease collecting victual
in the Donau-Iser Countries (Deggendorf, north bank of Donau, its
head-quarter); and to get on march,--circling very wide, not
northward, but by the Donan, and even by the SOUTH, bank of it
mainly (to avoid the hungry Mountains and their Tolpatcheries),
--and, at Amberg, is to join Maillebois. This is a wide-lying game.
The great Marlborough used to play such, and win; making the wide
elements, the times and the spaces, hit with exactitude: but a
Maillebois? "He is called by the Parisians, 'VIEUX PETIT-MAITRE
(dandy of sixty,' so to speak); has a poor upturned nose, with
baboon-face to match, which he even helps by paint." ... Here is
one Scene; at Frankfurt-on-Mayn; fact certain, day not given.
FRANKFURT, "LATTER END OF AUGUST," 1742. "At Frankfurt, his Army
having got into the neighborhood,"--not into Frankfurt itself,
which, as a REICHS-STADT, is sacred from Armies and their
marchings,--"Marechal de Maillebois, as in duty bound, waited on
the Kaiser to pay his compliments there: on which occasion, we
regret to say, Marechal de Maillebois was not so reverent to the
Imperial Majesty as he should have been. Angry belike at the
Adventure now forced on him, and harassed with many things;
seeing in the Imperial Majesty little but an unfortunate Play-actor
Majesty, who lives in furnished lodgings paid for by France, and
gives France and Maillebois an infinite deal of trouble to little
purpose. Certain it is, he addressed the Imperial Majesty in the
most free-and-easy manner; very much the reverse of being dashed by
the sacred Presence: and his Officers in the ante-chamber, crowding
about, all day, for presentation to the Imperial Majesty, made a
noise, and kept up a babble of talk and laughter, as if it had been
a mess-room, instead of the Forecourt of Imperial Majesty. So that
Imperial Majesty, barely master of its temper and able to finish
without explosion, signified to Maillebois on the morrow, That
henceforth it would dispense with such visits, Poor Imperial
Majesty; a human creature doing Play-actorisms of too high a
flight. He had the finest Palace in Germany; a wonder to the Great
Gustavus long ago: and now he has it not; mere Meutzels and horrent
shaggy creatures rule in Munchen and it: and the Imperial quasi-
furnished lodgings are respected in this manner!" [Van Loon,
Kleine Schriften, ii. 271 (cited in Buchholz,
ii. 71). CAMPAGNES is silent; usually suppressing scenes of that
kind.]--The wits say of him, "He would be Kaiser or Nothing: see
you, he is Kaiser and Nothing!" [ "Aut nihil aut Caesar,
Bavarus Dux esse volebat; Et nihil et Caesar factus utrumque
simul." (Barbier, ii. 322.)] ...
AUGUST 19th-SEPTEMBER 14th. "Comte de Saxe is on march, from
Deggendorf; north bank of the Donau, by narrow mountain roads;
then crosses the Donau to south bank, and a plain country;--making
large circuit, keeping the River on his right,--to meet Maillebois
at Amberg; his force, some 10 or 12,000 men. Seckendorf, now
Bavarian Commander-in-chief, accompanies Saxe; with considerable
Bavarian force, guess 20,000, 'marching always on the left.'
Accompanies; but only to Regensburg, to Stadt-am-Hof, a Suburb of
Regensburg, where they cross the Donau again."--SUBURB of
Regensburg, mark that; Regensburg itself being a Reichs-Stadt, very
particularly sacred from War;--the very Reichs-DIET commonly
sitting here; though it has gone to Frankfurt lately, to be with
its Kaiser, and out of these continual trumpetings and tumults
close by. [Went 10th May, 1742,--after three months' arguing and
protesting on the Austrian part (Adelung, iii. A, 102, 138).]--
"At Regensburg, once across, Seckendorf with his Bavarians calls
halt; plants himself down in Kelheim, Ingolstadt, and the safe
Garrisons thereabouts,--calculates that, if Khevenhuller should be
called away Prag-ward, there may be a stroke do-able in these
parts. Saxe marches on; straight northward now, up the Valley of
the Naab; obliged to be a good deal on his guard. Mischievous
Tolpatcheries and Trencks, ever since he crossed the Donau again,
have escorted him, to right, as close as they durst; dashing out
sometimes on the magazines." One of the exploits they had done,
take only one:--in their road TOWARDS Saxe, a few days ago:--
... "SEPTEMBER 7th, Trenck with his Tolpatcheries had appeared at
Cham,--a fine trading Town on the hither or neutral side of the
mountains [not in Bohmen, but in Ober-Pfalz, old Kur-Pfalz's
country, whom the Austrians hate];--and summoning and assaulting
Cham, over the throat of all law, had by fire and by massacre
annihilated the same. [Adelung, iii A, 258; Guerre de
Boheme; &c.] Fact horrible, nearly incredible;
but true. The noise of which is now loud everywhere. Less lovely
individual than this Trenck [Pandour Trenck, Cousin of the Prussian
one,] there was not, since the days of Attila and Genghis, in any
War. Blusters abominably, too; has written [save the mark!] an
'AUTOBIOGRAPHY,'--having happily afterwards, in Prison and even in
Bedlam, time for such a Work;--which is stuffed with sanguinary
lies and exaggerations: unbeautifulest of human souls. Has a face
the color of indigo, too;--got it, plundering in an Apothecary's
[in this same country, if I recollect]: 'ACH GOTT, your Grace,
nothing of money here!' said the poor Apothecary, accompanying
Colonel Trenck with a lighted candle over house and shop.
Trenck, noticing one likely thing, snatched the candle, held it
nearer:--likely thing proved gunpowder; and Trenck, till Doomsday,
continues deep blue. [ Guerre de Boheme. ]
Soul more worthy of damnation I have seldom known."
"SEPTEMBER 19th (five days after dropping Seckendorf), Saxe
actually gets joined with Maillebois;--not quite at Amberg, but at
Vohenstrauss, in that same Sulzbach Country, a forty miles to
eastward, or Prag-ward, of Amberg. Maillebois and he conjoined are
between 50 and 60,000. They are got now to the Bohemian Boundary,
edge of the Bohemian Forest (big BOHMISCHE WALD, Mountainous woody
Country, 70 miles long); they are within 60 miles of Pilsen, within
100 of Prag itself,--if they can cross the Forest. Which may
be diflicult."
PRINCE KARL AND THE GRAND-DUKE, HEARING OF MAILLEBOIS, GO TO
MEET HIM (September 14th); AND THE SIEGE OF PRAG IS RAISED.
"SEPTEMBER llth, the Besieged at Prag notice that the Austrian fire
slackens; that the Enemy seems to be taking away his guns.
Villages and Farmsteads, far and wide all round, are going up in
fire. A joyful symptom:--since August 13th, Belleisle has known of
Maillebois's advent; guesses that the Austrians now know it.--
SEPTEMBER 14th, their Firing has quite ceased. Grand-Duke and
Prince Karl are off to meet this Maillebois, amid the intricate
defiles, 'Better meet him there than here:'--and on this fourth
morning, Belleisle, looking out, perceives that the Siege is
raised. [Espagnac, i. 145; Campagnes,
v. 348.]
"A blessed change indeed. No enemy here,--perhaps some Festititz,
with his canaille of Tolpatches, still lingering about,--no enemy
worth mention. Parties go out freely to investigate:--but as to
forage? Alas, a Country burnt, Villages black and silent for ten
miles round;--you pick up here and there a lean steer, welcome amid
boiled horse-flesh; you bundle a load or two of neglected grass
together, for what cavalry remains. The genius of Sechelles, and
help from the Saxon side, will be much useful!
"Perhaps the undeniablest advantage of any is this, That Broglio,
not now so proud of the situation Prag is in, or led by the rule of
contraries, willingly quits Prag: Belleisle will not have to do his
function by the medium of pig-driving, but in the direct manner
henceforth. 'Give me 6 or 8,000 foot, and what of the cavalry have
horses still uneaten,' proposes Broglio; 'I will push obliquely
towards Eger,--which is towards Saxony withal, and opens our food-
communications there:--I will stretch out a hand to Maillebois,
across the Mountain Passes; and thus bring a victorious issue!'
[Espagnac, i. 170.] Belleisle consents: 'Well, since my Broglio
will have it so!'--glad to part with my Broglio at any rate,--
'Adieu, then, M. le Marechal (and,' SOTTO VOCE, 'may it be long
before we meet again in partnership)!' Broglio marches accordingly
('hand' beautifully held out to Maillebois, but NOT within grasping
distance); gets northwestward some 60 miles, as far as Toplitz
[sadly oblique for Eger],--never farther on that errand."
THE MAILLEBOIS ARMY OF REDEMPTION CANNOT REDEEM AT ALL;--
HAS TO STAGGER SOUTHWARD AGAIN; AND BECOMES AN "ARMY
OF BAVARIA," UNDER BROGLIO.
"SEPTEMBER 19th-OCTOBER 10th,,'--Scene is, the Eger-VohenStrauss
Country, in and about that Bohemian Forest of seventy miles.--
"For three weeks, Maillebois and the Comte de Saxe, trying their
utmost, cannot, or cannot to purpose, get through that Bohemian
Wood. Only Three practicable Passes in it; difficult each, and each
conducting you towards more new difficulties, on the farther side;
--not surmountable except by the determined mind. A gloomy
business: a gloomy difficult region, solitary, hungry; nothing in
it but shaggy chasms (and perhaps Tolpatchery lurking), wastes,
mountain woodlands, dumb trees, damp brown leaves. Maillebois and
Saxe, after survey, shoot leftwards to Eger; draw food and
reinforcement from the Garrison there. They do get through the
Forest, at one Pass, the Pass nearest Eger;--but find Prince Karl
and the Grand-Duke ranked to receive them on the other side.
'Plunge home upon Prince Karl and the Grand-Duke; beat them, with
your Broglio to help in the rear?' That possibly was Friedrich's
thought as he watched [now home at Berlin again] the
contemporaneous Theatre of War.
"But that was not the Maillebois-Broglio method;--nay, it is said
Maillebois was privately forbidden 'to run risks.' Broglio, with
his stretched-out hand (12,000 some count him, and indeed it is no
matter), sits quiet at Toplitz, far too oblique: 'Come then, come,
O Maillebois!' Maillebois,--manoeuvring Prince Karl aside, or
Hunger doing it for him,--did once push forward Prag-ward, by the
Pass of Caaden; which is very oblique to Toplitz. By the Pass of
Caaden,--down the Eger River, through those Mountains of the Circle
of Saatz, past a Castle of Ellenbogen, key of the same;--and 'Could
have done it [he said always after], had it not been for Comte de
Saxe!' Undeniable it is, Saxe, as vanguard, took that Castle of
Ellenbogen; and, time being so precious, gave the Tolpatchery
dismissal on parole. Undeniable, too, the Tolpatchery, careless of
parole, beset Caaden Village thereupon, 4,000 strong; cut off our
foreposts, at Caaden Village; and-- In short, we had to retire from
those parts; and prove an Army of Redemption that could not redeem
at all!
"Maillebois and Saxe wend sulkily down the Naab Valley (having
lost, say 15,000, not by fighting, but by mud and hardship);
and the rapt European Public (shilling-gallery especially) says,
with a sneer on its face, 'Pooh; ended, then!' Sulkily wending,
Maillebois and Saxe (October 30th-November 7th) get across the
Donau, safe on the southern bank again; march for the Iser Country
and the D'Harcourt Magazines,--and become 'Grand Bavarian Army,'
usual refuge of the unlucky." ...
OF SECKENDORF IN THE INTERIM. "For Belleisle and relief of Prag,
Maillebois in person had proved futile; but to Seckendorf, waiting
with his Bavarians, the shadow and rumor of Maillebois had brought
famous results,--famous for a few weeks. Khevenhuller being called
north to help in those Anti-Maillebois operations, and only
Barenklau with about 10,000 Austrians now remaining in Baiern,
Seckendorf, clearly superior (not to speak of that remnant of
D'Harcourt people, with their magazines), promptly bestirred
himself, in the Kelheim-Ingolstadt Country; got on march; and drove
the Austrians mostly out of Baiern. Out mostly, and without stroke
of sword, merely by marching; out for the time. Munchen was
evacuated, on rumor of Seckendorf (October 4th): a glad City to see
Barenklau march off. Much was evacuated,--the Iser Valley, down
partly to the Inn Valley,--much was cleared, by Seckendorf in these
happy circumstances. Who sees himself victorious, for once; and has
his fame in the Gazettes, if it would last. Pretty much without
stroke of sword, we say, and merely by marching: in one place,
having marched too close, the retreating Barenklau people turned on
him, 'took 100 prisoners' before going; [Espagnac, i. 166.]--other
fighting, in this line 'Reconquest of Bavaria,' I do not recollect.
Winter come, he makes for Maillebois and the Iser Countries;
cantons himself on the Upper Inn itself, well in advance of the
French [Braunau his chief strong-place, if readers care to look on
the Map]; and strives to expect a combined seizure of Passau, and
considerable things, were Spring come." ...
AND OF BROGLIO IN THE INTERIM. "As for Broglio, left alone at
Toplitz, gazing after a futile Maillebois, he sends the better half
of his Force back to Prag; other half he establishes at Leitmeritz:
good halfway-house to Dresden. 'Will forward Saxon provender to
you, M. de Belleisle!' (never did, and were all taken prisoners
some weeks hence). Which settled, Broglio proceeded to the Saxon
Court; who answered him: 'Provender? Alas, Monseigneur! We are (to
confess it to you!) at Peace with Austria: [Treatying ever since
"July 17th;" Treaty actually done, "11th September" (Adelung, iii.
A, 201, 268).] not an ounce of provender possible; how dare we?'--
but were otherwise politeness itself to the great Broglio.
Great Broglio, after sumptuous entertainments there, takes the road
for Baiern; circling grandly "through Nurnberg with escort of 500
Horse') to Maillebois's new quarters;--takes command of the
'Bavarian Army' (may it be lucky for him!); and sends Maillebois
home, in deep dudgeon, to the merciless criticisms of men.
'Could have done it,' persists the VIEUX PETIT-MAITRE always, 'had
not'--one knows what, but cares not, at this date!--
"Broglio's quarters in the Iser Country, I am told, are fatally too
crowded, men perishing at a frightful rate per day. [Espagnac,
i. 182.] 'Things all awry here,--thanks to that Maillebois and
others!' And Broglio's troubles and procedures, as is everywhere
usual to Broglio, run to a great height in this Bavarian Command.
And poor Seckendorf, in neighborhood of such a Broglio, has his
adoes; eyes sparkling; face blushing slate-color; at times nearly
driven out of his wits;--but strives to consume his own smoke, and
to have hopes on Passau notwithstanding."--And of Belleisle in
Prag, and his meditations on the Oriflamme?--Patience, reader.
Meantime, what a relief to Kaiser Karl, in such wreck of Bohemian
Kingdoms and Castles in Spain, to have got his own Munchen and
Country in hand again; with the prospect of quitting furnished-
lodgings, and seeing the color of real money! April next, he
actually goes to Munchen, where we catch a glimpse of him.
["17th April, 1743," Montijos &c. accompanying (Adelung, iii. B,
119, 120).] This same October, the Reich, after endless debatings
on the question, "Help our Kaiser, or not help?" [Ib. iii A, 289.]
has voted him fifty ROMER-MONATE ("Romish-months," still so termed,
though there is NOT now any marching of the Kaiser to Rome on
business); meaning fifty of the known QUOTAS, due from all and
sundry in such case,--which would amount to about 300,000 pounds
(could it, or the half of it, be collected from so wide a Parish),
and would prove a sensible relief to the poor man.
VOLTAIRE HAS BEEN ON VISIT AT AACHEN, IN THE INTERIM,--
HIS THIRD VISIT TO KING FRIEDRICH.
King Priedrich had come to the Baths of Aachen, August 25th;
the Maillebois Army of Redemption being then, to the last man of
it, five days across the Rhine on its high errand, which has since
proved futile. Friedrich left Aachen, taking leave of his Voltaire,
who had been lodging with him for a week by special invitation,
September 9th; and witnessed the later struggles and final
inability of Maillebois to redeem, not at Aix, but at Berlin, amid
the ordinary course of his employments there. We promised something
of Voltaire's new visit, his Third to Friedrich. Here is what
little we have,--if the lively reader will exert his fancy on it.
Voltaire and his Du Chatelet had been to Cirey, and thence been at
Paris through this Spring and Summer, 1742;--engaged in what to
Voltaire and Paris was a great thing, though a pacific one:
The getting of MAHOMET brought upon the boards. August 9th,
precisely while the first vanguard of the Army of Redemption got
across the Rhine at Dusseldorf, Voltaire's Tragedy of MAHOMET came
on the stage.
August 9th, llth, 13th, Paris City was in transports of various
kinds; never were such crowds of Audience, lifting a man to the
immortal gods,--though a part too, majority by count of heads, were
dragging him to Tartarus again. "Exquisite, unparalleled!"
exclaimed good judges (as Fleury himself had anticipated, on
examining the Piece):--"Infamous, irreligious, accursed!"
vociferously exclaimed the bad judges; Reverend Desfontaines (of
Sodom, so Voltaire persists to define him), Reverend Desfontaines
and others giving cue; hugely vociferous, these latter, hugely in
majority by count of heads. And there was such a bellowing and such
a shrieking, judicious Fleury, or Maurepas under him, had to
suggest, "Let an actor fall sick; let M. de Voltaire volunteer to
withdraw his Piece; otherwise--!" And so it had to be: Actor fell
sick on the 14th (Playbills sorry to retract their MAHOMET on the
14th); and--in fact, it was not for nine years coming, and after
Dedication to the Pope, and other exquisite manoeuvres and
unexpected turns of fate, that MAHOMET could be acted a fourth time
in Paris, and thereafter AD LIBITUM down to this day.
[ OEuvres de Voltaire, ii. 137 n.; &c. &c.]
Such tempest in a teapot is not unexampled, nay rather is very
frequent, in that Anarchic Republic called of Letters.
Confess, reader, that you too would have needed some patience in
M. de Voltaire's place; with such a Heaven's own Inspiration of a
MAHOMET in your hands, and such a terrestrial Doggery at your
heels. Suppose the bitterest of your barking curs were a Reverend
Desfontaines of Sodom, whom you yourself had saved from the gibbet
once, and again and again from starving? It is positively a great
Anarchy, and Fountain of Anarchies, all that, if you will consider;
and it will have results under the sun. You cannot help it, say
you; there is no shutting up of a Reverend Desfontaines, which
would be so salutary to himself and to us all? No:--and when human
reverence (daily going, in such ways) is quite gone from the world;
and your lowest blockhead and scoundrel (usually one entity) shall
have perfect freedom to spit in the face of your highest sage and
hero,--what a remarkably Free World shall we be!
Voltaire, keeping good silence as to all this, and minded for
Brussels again, receives the King of Prussia's invitation; lays it
at his Eminency Fleury's feet; will not accept, unless his Eminency
and my own King of France (possibly to their advantage, if one
might hint such a thing!) will permit it. [Ib. lxxii. 555 (Letter
to Fleury, "Paris, Aug. 22d").] "By all means; go, and"--The rest
is in dumb-show; meaning, "Try to pump him for us!" Under such
omens, Voltaire and his divine Emilie return to their Honsbruck
Lawsuit: "Silent Brussels, how preferable to Paris and its mad
cries!" Voltaire, leaving the divine Emilie at Brussels, September
2d, sets out for Aix,--Aix attainable within the day. He is back at
Brussels late in the evening, September 9th:--how he had fared, and
what extent of pumping there was, learn from the following
Excerpts, which are all dated the morrow after his return:--
THREE LETTERS OF VOLTAIRE, DATED BRUSSELS, 10th SEPT. 1742.
1. TO CIDEVILLE (the Rouen Advocate, who has sometimes troubled
us). ... "I have been to see the King of Prussia since I began this
Letter [beginning of it dates September 1st]. I have courageously
resisted his fine proposals. He offers me a beautiful House in
Berlin, a pretty Estate; but I prefer my second-floor in Madame du
Chatelet's here. He assures me of his favor, of the perfect freedom
I should have;--and I am running to Paris [did not just yet run] to
my slavery and persecution. I could fancy myself a small Athenian,
refusing the bounties of the King of Persia. With this difference,
however, one had liberty [not slavery] at Athens; and I am sure
there were many Cidevilles there, instead of one,"--HELAS,
my Cideville!
2. TO MARQUIS D'ARGENSON (worthy official Gentleman, not War-
Minister now or afterwards; War-Minister's senior brother,--
Voltaire's old school-fellows, both these brothers, in the College
of Louis le Grand). ... "I have just been to see the King of
Prussia in these late days [in fact, quitted him only yesterday;
both of us, after a week together, leaving Aix yesterday]: I have
seen him as one seldom sees Kings,--much at my ease, in my own
room, in the chimney-nook, whither the same man who has gained two
Battles would come and talk familiarly, as Scipio did with Terence.
You will tell me, I am not Terence; true, but neither is he
altogether Scipio.
"I learned some extraordinary things,"--things not from Friedrich
at all: mere dinner-table rumors; about the 16,000 English landing
here ("18,000" he calls them, and farther on, "20,000") with the
other 16,000 PLUS 6,000 of Hanoverian-Hessian sort, expecting
20,000 Dutch to join them,--who perhaps will not? "M. de Neipperg
[Governor of Luxemburg now] is come hither to Brussels; but brings
no Dutch troops with him, as he had hoped,"--Dutch perhaps won't
rise, after all this flogging and hoisting? "Perhaps we may soon
get a useful and glorious Peace, in spite of my Lord Stair, and of
M. van Haren, the Tyrtaeus of the States-General [famed Van Haren,
eyes in a fine Dutch frenzy rolling, whose Cause-of-Liberty verses
let no man inquire after]: Stair prints Memoirs, Van Haren makes
Odes; and with so much prose and so much verse, perhaps their High
and Slow Mightinesses [Excellency Fenelon sleeplessly busy
persuading them, and native Gravitation SLEEPILY ditto] will sit
quiet. God grant it!
"The English want to attack us on our own soil [actually Stair's
plan]; and we cannot pay them in that kind. The match is too
unfair! If we kill the whole 20,000 of them, we merely send 20,000
Heretics to-- What shall I say?--A L'ENFER, and gain nothing;
if they kill us, they even feed at our expense in doing it.
Better have no quarrels except on Locke and Newton! The quarrel I
have on MAHOMET is happily only ridiculous." ... Adieu,
M. le Marquis.
3. TO THE CARDINAL DE FLEURY. "Monseigneur, ... to give your
Eminency, as I am bound, some account of my journey to Aix-la-
Chapelle." Friedrich's guest there; let us hear, let us look.
"I could not get away from Brussels till the 2d of this month.
On the road, I met a courier from the King of Prussia, coming to
reiterate his Master's orders on me. The King had me lodged near
his own Apartment; and he passed, for two consecutive days, four
hours at a time in my room, with all that goodness and familiarity
which forms, as you know, part of his character, and which does not
lower the King's dignity, because one is duly careful not to abuse
it [be careful!]. I had abundant time to speak, with a great deal
of freedom, on what your Eminency had prescribed to me; and the
King spoke to me with an equal frankness.
"First, he asked me, If it was true that the French Nation was so
angered against him; if the King was, and if you were? I answered,"
--mildly reprobatory, yet conciliative, "Hm, no, nothing permanent,
nothing to speak of." "He then deigned to speak to me, at large, of
the reasons which had induced him to be so hasty with the Peace."
"Extremely remarkable reasons;" "dare not trust them to this Paper"
(Broglio-Belleisle discrepancies, we guess, distracted Broglio
procedures);--they have no concern with that Pallandt-Letter Story,
--"they do not turn on the pretended Secret Negotiations at the
Court of Vienna [which are not pretended at all, as I among others
well know], in regard to which your Eminency has condescended to
clear yourself [by denying the truth, poor Eminency; there was no
help otherwise]. All I dare state is, that it seems to me easy to
lead back the mind of this Sovereign, whom the situation of his
Territories, his interest, and his taste would appear to mark as
the natural ally of France."
"He said farther [what may be relied on as true by his Eminency
Fleury, and my readers here], That he passionately wished to see
Bohemia in the Emperor's hands [small chance for it, as things now
go!]; that he renounced, with the best faith in the world, all
claim whatever on Berg and Julich; and that, in spite of the
advantageous proposals which Lord Stair was making him, he thought
only of keeping Silesia. That he knew well enough the House of
Austria would, one day, wish to recover that fine Province, but
that he trusted he could keep his conquest; that he had at this
time 130,000 soldiers always ready; that he would make of Neisse,
Glogau, Brieg, fortresses as strong as Wesel [which he is now
diligently doing, and will soon have done]; that besides he was
well informed the Queen of Hungary already owed 80,000,000 German
crowns, which is about 300 millions of our money [about 12 millions
sterling]; that her Provinces, exhausted, and lying wide apart,
would not be able to make long efforts; and that the Austrians, for
a good while to come, could not of themselves be formidable."
Of themselves, no: but with Britannic soup-royal in quantity?--
"My Lord Hyndford had spoken to him" as if France were entirely
discouraged and done for: How false, Monseigneur! "And Lord Stair
in his letters represented France, a month ago, as ready to give
in. Lord Stair has not ceased to press his Majesty during this Aix
Excursion even:" and, in spite of what your Eminency hears from the
Hague, "there was, on the 30th of August, an Englishman at Aix on
the part of Milord Stair; and he had speech with the King of
Prussia [CROYEZ MOI!] in a little Village called Boschet
[Burtscheid, where are hot wells], a quarter of a league from Aix.
I have been assured, moreover, that the Englishman returned in much
discontent. On the other hand, General Schmettau, who was with the
King [elder Schmettau, Graf SAMUEL, who does a great deal of
envoying for his Majesty], sent, at that very time, to Brussels,
for Maps of the Moselle and of the Three Bishoprics, and purchased
five copies,"--means to examine Milord Stair's proposed Seat of
War, at any rate. (Here is a pleasant friend to have on visit to
you, in the next apartment, with such an eye and such a nose!) ...
"Monseigneur," finely insinuates Voltaire in conclusion, "is not
there" a certain Frenchman, true to his Country, to his King, and
to your Eminency, with perhaps peculiar facilities for being of
use, in such delicate case?--"JE SUIS," much your Eminency's.
[ OEuvres, lxxii. p. 568 (to Cideville),
p. 579 (D'Argenson), p. 574 (Fleury).]
Friedrich, on the day while Voltaire at Brussels sat so busy
writing of him, was at Salzdahl, visiting his Brunswick kindred
there, on the road home to his usual affairs. Old Fleury, age
ninety gone, died 29th January, 1743,--five months and nineteen
days after this Letter. War-Minister Breteuil had died January 1st.
Here is room for new Ministers and Ministries; for the two
D'Argensons,--if it could avail their old School-fellow, or France,
or us; which it cannot much.
Chapter III.
CARNIVAL PHENOMENA IN WAR-TIME.
Readers were anticipating it, readers have no sympathy; but the
sad fact is, Britannic Majesty has NOT got out his sword;
this second paroxysm of his proves vain as the first did!
Those laggard Dutch, dead to the Cause of Liberty, it is they
again. Just as the hour was striking, they--plump down, in spite of
magnanimous Stair, into their mud again; cannot be hoisted by
eugineering. And, after all that filling and emptying of water-
casks, and pumping and puffing, and straining of every fibre for a
twelvemonth past, Britannic Majesty had to sit down again, panting
in an Olympian manner, with that expensive long sword of his still
sticking in the scabbard.
Tongue cannot tell what his poor little Majesty has suffered from
those Dutch,--checking one's noble rage, into mere zero, always;
making of one's own glorious Army a mere expensive Phantasm!
Hanoverian, Hessian, British: 40,000 fighters standing in harness,
year after year, at such cost; and not the killing of a French
turkey to be had of them in return. Patience, Olympian patience,
withal! He cantons his troops in the Netherlands Towns; many of the
British about Ghent (who consider the provisions, and customs, none
of the best); [Letters of Officers, from Ghent
( Westminster Journal, Oct. 23d, &c.).] his
Hanoverians, Hessians, farther northward, Hanover way;--and,
greatly daring, determines to try again, next Spring. Carteret
himself shall go and flagitate the Dutch. Patience; whip and
hoist!--What a conclusion, snorts the indignant British Public
through its Gazetteers.
"Next year, yes, exclaims one indignant Editor: 'if talking will do
business, we shall no doubt perform wonders; for we have had as
much talking and puffing since February last, as during any ten
years of the late Administration' [ The Daily Post,
italic> December 31st (o.s.), 1742.] [under poor Walpole, whom you
could not enough condemn]! The Dutch? exclaims another: 'If WE were
a Free People [F-- P-- he puts it, joining caution with his rage],
QUOERE, Whether Holland would not, at this juncture, come cap in
hand, to sue for our protection and alliance; instead of making us
dance attendance at the Hague?' Yes, indeed;--and then the CASE OF
THE HANOVER FORCES (fear not, reader; I understand your terror of
locked-jaw, and will never mention said CASE again); but it is
singular to the Gazetteer mind, That these Hanover Forces are to be
paid by England, as appears; Hanover, as if without interest in the
matter, paying nothing! Upon which, in covert form of symbolic
adumbration, of witty parable, what stinging commentaries, not the
first, nor by many thousands the last (very sad reading in our day)
on this paltry Hanover Connection altogether: What immensities it
has cost poor England, and is like to cost, 'the Lord of the Manor'
(great George our King) being the gentleman he is; and how England,
or, as it is adumbratively called, 'the Manor of St. James's,' is
become a mere 'fee-farm to Mumland.' Unendurable to think of.
'Bob Monopoly, the late Tallyman [adumbrative for Walpole, late
Prime Minister], was much blamed on this account; and John the
Carter [John Lord Carteret], Clerk of the Vestry and present
favorite of his Lordship, is not behind Robin in his care for the
Manor of MUMLAND' [In Westminster Journal
(Feb. 12th, n.s., 1743), a long Apologue in this strain.] (that
contemptible Country, where their very beer is called MUM),--and no
remedy within view?"
RETREAT FROM PRAG; ARMY OF THE ORIFLAMME, BOHEMIAN SECTION
BOHEMIAN SECTION OF IT, MAKES EXIT.
"And Belleisle in Prag, left solitary there, with his heroic
remnant,--gone now to 17,000, the fourth man of them in hospital,
with Festititz Tolpatchery hovering round, and Winter and Hunger
drawing nigh,--what is to become of Belleisle? Prince Karl and the
Grand-Duke had attended Maillebois to Bavaria; steadily to left of
Maillebois between Austria and him; and are now busy in the Passau
Country, bent on exploding those Seckendorf-Broglio operations and
intentions, as the chief thing now. Meanwhile they have detached
Prince Lobkowitz to girdle in Belleisle again; for which Lobkowitz
(say, 20,000, with the Festititz Tolpatchery included) will be
easily able. On the march thither he easily picked up (18th-25th
November) that new French Post of Leitmeritz (Broglio's fine 'Half-
way House to Saxony and Provender'), with its garrison of 2,000:
the other posts and outposts, one and all, had to hurry home, in
fear of a like fate. Beyond the circuit of Prag, isolated in ten
miles of burnt country, Belleisle has no resource except what his
own head may furnish. The black landscape is getting powdered with
snow; one of the grimmest Winters, almost like that of 1740;
Belleisle must see what he will do.
"Belleisle knows secretly what he will do. Belleisle has orders to
come away from Prag; bring his Army off, and the chivalry of France
home to their afflicted friends. [ Campagnes,
vi. 244-251; Espagnac, i. 168.] A thing that would have been so
feasible two months ago, while Maillebois was still wriggling in
the Pass of Caaden; but which now borders on impossibility, if not
reaches into it. As a primary measure, Belleisle keeps those orders
of his rigorously secret. Within the Garrison, or on the part of
Lobkowitz, there is a far other theory of Belleisle's intentions.
Lobkowitz, unable to exist in the black circuit, has retired beyond
it, and taken the eastern side of the Moldau, as the least ruined;
leaving the Tolpatchery, under one Festititz, to caracole round the
black horizon on the west. Farther, as the Moldau is rolling ice,
and Lobkowitz is afraid of his pontoons, he drags them out high and
dry: 'Can be replaced in a day, when wanted.' In a day; yes, thinks
Belleisle, but not in less than a day;--and proceeds now to the
consummation. Detailed accounts exist, Belleisle's own Account
(rapid, exact, loftily modest); here, compressing to the utmost,
let us snatch hastily the main features.
"On the 15th December, 1742, Prag Gates are all shut: Enter if you
like; but no outgate. Monseigneur le Marechal intends to have a
grand foraging to-morrow, on the southwestern side of Prag.
Lobkowitz heard of it, in spite of the shut gates; for all Prag is
against Belleisle, and does spy-work for Lobkowitz. 'Let him
forage,' thought Lobkowitz; 'he will not grow rich by what he
gathers;' and sat still, leaving his pontoons high and dry. So that
Belleisle, on the afternoon of December 16th,--between 12 and
14,000 men, near 4,000 of them cavalry, with cannon, with
provision-wagons, baggage-wagons, goods and chattels in mass,--has
issued through the two Southwestern Gates; and finds himself fairly
out of Prag. On the Pilsen road; about nightfall of the short
winter day: earth all snow and 'VERGLAS,' iron glazed; huge olive-
colored curtains of the Dusk going down upon the Mountains ahead of
him; shutting in a scene wholly grim for Belleisle.
Brigadier Chevert, a distinguished and determined man, with some
4,000 sick, convalescent and half able, is left in Prag to man the
works; the Marechal has taken hostages, twenty Notabilities of
Prag; and neglected no precaution. He means towards Eger; has, at
least, got one march ahead; and will do what is in him, he and
every soul of those 14,000. The officers have given their horses
for the baggage-wagons, made every sacrifice; the word Homewards
kindles a strange fire in all hearts; and the troops, say my French
authorities, are unsurpassable. The Marechal himself, victim of
rheumatisms, cannot ride at all; but has his light sledge always
harnessed; and, at a moment's notice, is present everywhere.
Sleep, during these ten days and nights, he has little.
"Eger is 100 miles off, by the shortest Highway: there are two bad
Highways, one by Pilsen southerly, one by Karlsbad northerly,--with
their bridges all broken, infested by Hussars:--we strike into a
middle combination of country roads, intricate parish lanes;
and march zigzag across these frozen wildernesses: we must dodge
these Festititz Hussar swarms; and cross the rivers near their
springs. Forward! Perhaps some readers, for the high Belleisle's
sake, will look out these localities subjoined in the Note, and
reduced to spelling. [Tachlowitz, Lischon (near Rakonitz); Jechnitz
(as if you were for the Pilsen road; then turn as if for the
Karlsbad one); Steben (not discoverable, but a DESPATCH from
it,-- Campagnes, v. 280), Chisch, Luditz,
Theysing (hereabouts you break off into smaller columns, separate
parties and patches, cavalry all ahead, among the Hills): Schonthal
AND Landeck (Belleisle passes Christmas-day at Landeck,--
Campagnes, vii. 10); Einsiedel (AND by Petschau),
Lauterbach, Konigswart, AND likewise by Topl, Sandau, Treunitz
(that is, into Eger from two sides).] Resting-places in this grim
wilderness of his: poor snow-clad Hamlets,--with their little hood
of human smoke rising through the snow; silent all of them, except
for the sound of here and there a flail, or crowing cock;--but have
been awakened from their torpor by this transit of Belleisle.
Happily the bogs themselves are iron; deepest bog will bear.
"Festititz tries us twice,--very anxious to get Belleisle's Army-
chest, or money; we give him torrents of sharp shot instead.
Festititz, these two chief times, we pepper rapidly into the Hills
again; he is reduced to hang prancing on our flanks and rear.
Men bivouac over fires of turf, amid snow, amid frost; tear down,
how greedily, any wood-work for fire. Leave a trumpet to beg
quarter for the frozen and speechless;--which is little respected:
they are lugged in carts, stript by the savageries, and cruelly
used. There were first extensive plains, then boggy passes,
intricate mouutains; bog and rock; snow and VERGLAS.--On the 26th,
after indescribable endeavors, we got into Eger;--some 1,300 (about
one in ten) left frozen in the wilderness; and half the Army
falling ill at Eger, of swollen limbs, sore-throats, and other
fataler diseases, fatal then, or soon after. Chevert, at Prag,
refused summons from Prince Lobkowitz: 'No, MON PRINCE; not by any
means! We will die, every man of us, first; and we will burn Prag
withal!'--So that Lobkowitz had to consent to everything;
and escort Chevert to Eger, with bag and baggage, Lobkowitz
furnishing the wagons.
"Comparable to the Retreat of Xenophon! cry many. Every Retreat is
compared to that. A valiant feat, after all exaggerations. A thing
well done, say military men;--'nothing to object, except that the
troops were so ruined;'--and the most unmilitary may see, it is the
work of a high and gallant kind of man. One of the coldest
expeditions ever known. There have been three expeditions or
retreats of this kind which were very cold: that of those Swedes in
the Great Elector's time (not to mention that of Karl XII.'s Army
out of Norway, after poor Karl XII. got shot); that of Napoleon
from Moscow; this of Belleisle, which is the only one brilliantly
conducted, and not ending in rout and annihilation.
"The troops rest in Eger for a week or two; then homeward through
the Ober-Pfalz:--'go all across the Rhine at Speyer' (5th February
next); the Bohemian Section of the Oriflamme making exit in this
manner. Not quite the eighth man of them left; five-eighths are
dead: and there are about 12,000 prisoners, gone to Hungary,--who
ran mostly to the Turks, such treatment had they, and were not
heard of again." [ Guerre de Boheme, ii. 221
(for this last fact). IB. 204, and Espagnac, i. 176 (for
particulars of the Retreat); and still better, Belleisle's own
Despatch and Private Letter (Eger, 2d January and 5th January,
1743), in Campagnes, vii. 1-21.]--
Ah, Belleisle, Belleisle!
The Army of the Oriflamme gets home in this sad manner; Germany not
cut in Four at all. "Implacable Austrian badgers," as we call them,
"gloomily indignant bears," how have they served this fine French
hunting-pack; and from hunted are become hunters, very dangerous to
contemplate! At Frankfurt, Belleisle, for his own part, pauses;
cannot, in this entirely down-broken state of body, serve his
Majesty farther in the military business; will do some needful
diplomatics with the Kaiser, and retire home to government of Metz,
till his worn-out health recover itself a little.
A GLANCE AT VIENNA, AND THEN AT BERLIN.
Prince Karl had been busy upon Braunau (the BAVARIAN Braunau, not
the BOHEMIAN or another, Seckendorf's chief post on the Inn);
had furiously bombarded Braunau, with red-hot balls, for some days;
[2d-10th December (Espagnac, i. 171).] intent to explode the
Seckendorf-Broglio projects before winter quite came. Seckendorf,
in a fine frenzy, calls to Broglio, "Help!" and again calls; both
Kaiser and he, CRESCENDO to a high pitch, before Broglio will come.
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