History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 19
by
Thomas Carlyle
Part 1 out of 5
Prepared by D.R. Thompson
BOOK XIX.
FRIEDRICH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED IN
THE SEVEN-YEARS WAR.
1759-1760.
Chapter I.
PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN.
The posting of the Five Armies this Winter--Five of them in
Germany, not counting the Russians, who have vanished to Cimmeria
over the horizon, for their months of rest--is something wonderful,
and strikes the picturesque imagination. Such a Chain of Posts, for
length, if for nothing else! From the centre of Bohemia eastward,
Daun's Austrians are spread all round the western Silesian Border
and the southeastern Saxon; waited on by Prussians, in more or less
proximity. Next are the Reichsfolk; scattered over Thuringen and
the Franconian Countries; fronting partly into Hessen and Duke
Ferdinand's outskirts:--the main body of Duke Ferdinand is far to
westward, in Munster Country, vigilant upon Contades, with the
Rhine between. Contades and Soubise,--adjoining on the Reichsfolk
are these Two French Armies: Soubise's, some 25,000, in Frankfurt-
Ems Country, between the Mayn and the Lahn, with its back to the
Rhine; then Contades, onward to Maes River and the Dutch Borders,
with his face to the Rhine,--and Duke Ferdinand observant of him on
the other side. That is the "CORDON of Posts" or winter-quarters
this Year. "From the Giant Mountains and the Metal Mountains, to
the Ocean;--to the mouth of Rhine," may we not say; "and back again
to the Swiss Alps or springs of Rhine, that Upper-Rhine Country
being all either French or Austrian, and a basis for Soubise?"
[Archenholtz, i. 306.] Not to speak of Ocean itself, and its winged
War-Fleets, lonesomely hovering and patrolling; or of the Americas
and Indies beyond!
"This is such a Chain of mutually vigilant Winter-quarters," says
Archenholtz, "as was never drawn in Germany, or in Europe, before."
Chain of about 300,000 fighting men, poured out in that lengthy
manner. Taking their winter siesta there, asleep with one eye open,
till reinforced for new business of death and destruction against
Spring. Pathetic surely, as well as picturesque. "Three Campaigns
there have already been," sighs the peaceable observer:
"Three Campaigns, surely furious enough; Eleven Battles in them,"
[Stenzel, v. 185. This, I suppose, would be his enumeration:
LOBOSITZ (1756); PRAG, KOLIN, Hastenbeck, Gross-Jagersdorf,
ROSSBACH, Breslau, LEUTHEN, (1757); Crefeld, ZORNDORF, HOCHKIRCH
(1758): "eleven hitherto in all."] a Prag, a Kolin, Leuthen,
Rossbach;--must there still be others, then, to the misery of poor
mankind?" thus sigh many peaceful persons. Not considering what
are, and have been, the rages, the iniquities, the loud and silent
deliriums, the mad blindnesses and sins of mankind; and what
amount, of CALCINING these may reasonably take. Not calcinable in
three Campaigns at all, it would appear! Four more Campaigns are
needed: then there will be innocuous ashes in quantity; and a
result unexpected, and worth marking in World-History.
It is notably one of Friedrich's fond hopes,--of which he keeps up
several, as bright cloud-hangings in the haggard inner world he now
has,--that Peace is just at hand; one right struggle more, and
Peace must come! And on the part of Britannic George and him,
repeated attempts were made,--one in the end of this Year
1759;--but one and all of them proved futile, and, unless for
accidental reasons, need not be mentioned here. Many men, in all
nations, long for Peace; but there are Three Women at the top of
the world who do not; their wrath, various in quality, is great in
quantity, and disasters do the reverse of appeasing it.
The French people, as is natural, are weary of a War which yields
them mere losses and disgraces; "War carried on for Austrian whims,
which likewise seem to be impracticable!" think they. And their
Bernis himself, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who began this sad
French-Austrian Adventure, has already been remonstrating with
Kaunitz, and grumbling anxiously, "Could not the Swedes, or
somebody, be got to mediate? Such a War is too ruinous!" Hearing
which, the Pompadour is shocked at the favorite creature of her
hands; hastens to dismiss him ("Be Cardinal then, you ingrate of a
Bernis; disappear under that Red Hat!")--and appoints, in his
stead, one Choiseul (known hitherto as STAINVILLE, Comte de
Stainville, French Excellency at Vienna, but now made Duke on this
promotion), Duc de Choiseul; [Minister of Foreign Affairs, "11th
November, 1758" (Barbier, iv. 294).] who is a Lorrainer, or Semi-
Austrian, by very birth; and probably much fitter for the place.
A swift, impetuous kind of man, this Choiseul, who is still rather
young than otherwise; plenty of proud spirit in him, of shifts,
talent of the reckless sort; who proved very notable in France for
the next twenty years.
French trade being ruined withal, money is running dreadfully low:
but they appoint a new Controller-General; a M. de Silhouette, who
is thought to have an extraordinary creative genius in Finance.
Had he but a Fortunatus-Purse, how lucky were it! With Fortunatus
Silhouette as purse-holder, with a fiery young Choiseul on this
hand, and a fiery old Belleisle on that, Pompadour meditates great
things this Year,--Invasions of England; stronger German Armies;
better German Plans, and slashings home upon Hanover itself, or the
vital point;--and flatters herself, and her poor Louis, that there
is on the anvil, for 1759, such a French Campaign as will perhaps
astonish Pitt and another insolent King. Very fixed, fell and
feminine is the Pompadour's humor in this matter. Nor is the
Czarina's less so; but more, if possible; unappeasable except by
death. Imperial Maria Theresa has masculine reasons withal;
great hopes, too, of late. Of the War's ending till flat
impossibility stop it, there is no likelihood.
To Pitt this Campaign 1759, in spite of bad omens at the outset,
proved altogether splendid: but greatly the reverse on Friedrich's
side; to whom it was the most disastrous and unfortunate he had yet
made, or did ever make. Pitt at his zenith in public reputation;
Friedrich never so low before, nothing seemingly but extinction
near ahead, when this Year ended. The truth is, apart from his
specific pieces of ill-luck, there had now begun for Friedrich a
new rule of procedure, which much altered his appearance in the
world. Thrice over had he tried by the aggressive or invasive
method; thrice over made a plunge at the enemy's heart, hoping so
to disarm or lame him: but that, with resources spent to such a
degree, is what he cannot do a fourth time: he is too weak
henceforth to think of that.
Prussia has always its King, and his unrivalled talent; but that is
pretty much the only fixed item: Prussia VERSUS France, Austria,
Russia, Sweden and the German Reich, what is it as a field of
supplies for war! Except its King, these are failing, year by year;
and at a rate fatally SWIFT in comparison. Friedrich cannot now do
Leuthens, Rossbachs; far-shining feats of victory, which astonish
all the world. His fine Prussian veterans have mostly perished;
and have been replaced by new levies and recruits; who are inferior
both in discipline and native quality;--though they have still,
people say, a noteworthy taste of the old Prussian sort in them;
and do, in fact, fight well to the last. But "it is observable,"
says Retzow somewhere, and indeed it follows from the nature of the
case, "that while the Prussian Army presents always its best kind
of soldiers at the beginning of a war, Austria, such are its
resources in population, always improves in that particular, and
its best troops appear in the last campaigns." In a word, Friedrich
stands on the defensive henceforth; disputing his ground inch by
inch: and is reduced, more and more, to battle obscurely with a
hydra-coil of enemies and impediments; and to do heroisms which
make no noise in the Gazettes. And, alas, which cannot figure in
History either,--what is more a sorrow to me here!
Friedrich, say all judges of soldiership and human character who
have studied Friedrich sufficiently, "is greater than ever," in
these four Years now coming. [Berenhorst, in Kriegskunst;
Retzow; &c.] And this, I have found more and more to
be a true thing; verifiable and demonstrable in time and place,--
though, unluckily for us, hardly in this time or this place at all!
A thing which cannot, by any method, be made manifest to the
general reader; who delights in shining summary feats, and is
impatient of tedious preliminaries and investigations,--especially
of MAPS, which are the indispensablest requisite of all. A thing,
in short, that belongs peculiarly to soldier-students; who can
undergo the dull preliminaries, most dull but most inexorably
needed; and can follow out, with watchful intelligence, and with a
patience not to be wearied, the multifarious topographies, details
of movements and manoeuvrings, year after year, on such a Theatre
of War. What is to be done with it here! If we could, by
significant strokes, indicate, under features true so far as they
went, the great wide fire-flood that was raging round the world;
if we could, carefully omitting very many things, omit of the
things intelligible and decipherable that concern Friedrich
himself, nothing that had meaning: IF indeed--! But it is idle
preluding. Forward again, brave reader, under such conditions as
there are!
Friedrich's Winter in Breslau was of secluded, silent, sombre
character, this time; nothing of stir in it but from work only:
in marked contrast with the last, and its kindly visitors and
gayeties. A Friedrich given up to his manifold businesses, to his
silent sorrows. "I have passed my winter like a Carthusian monk,"
he writes to D'Argens: "I dine alone; I spend my life in reading
and writing; and I do not sup. When one is sad, it becomes at last
too burdensome to hide one's grief continually; and it is better to
give way to it by oneself, than to carry one's gloom into society.
Nothing solaces me but the vigorous application required in steady
and continuous labor. This distraction does force one to put away
painful ideas, while it lasts: but, alas, no sooner is the work
done, than these fatal companions present themselves again, as if
livelier than ever. Maupertuis was right: the sum of evil does
certainly surpass that of good:--but to me it is all one; I have
almost nothing more to lose; and my few remaining days, what
matters it much of what complexion they be?" ["Breslau, 1st March,
1759," To D'Argens ( OEuvres de Frederic,
xix. 56).]
The loss of his Wilhelmina, had there been no other grief, has
darkened all his life to Friedrich. Readers are not prepared for
the details of grief we could give, and the settled gloom of mind
they indicate. A loss irreparable and immeasurable; the light of
life, the one loved heart that loved him, gone. His passionate
appeals to Voltaire to celebrate for him in verse his lost
treasure, and at least make her virtues immortal, are perhaps known
to readers: [ODE SUR LA MORT DE S. A. S. MADAME LA PRINCESSE DE
BAREITH (in OEuvres de Voltaire, xviii.
79-86): see Friedrich's Letter to him (6th November, 1758);
with Voltaire's VERSES in Answer (next month); Friedrich's new
Letter (Breslau, 23d January 1759), demanding something more,--
followed by the ODE just cited (Ib. lxxii. 402; lxxviii. 82, 92;
or OEuvres de Frederic, xxiii. 20-24: &c.]
alas, this is a very feeble kind of immortality, and Friedrich too
well feels it such. All Winter he dwells internally on the sad
matter, though soon falling silent on it to others.
The War is ever more dark and dismal to him; a wearing, harassing,
nearly disgusting task; on which, however, depends life or death.
This Year, he "expects to have 300,000 enemies upon him;" and "is,
with his utmost effort, getting up 150,000 to set against them."
Of business, in its many kinds, there can be no lack! In the
intervals he also wrote considerably: one of his Pieces is a SERMON
ON THE LAST JUDGMENT; handed to Reader De Catt, one evening:--to De
Catt's surprise, and to ours; the Voiceless in a dark Friedrich
trying to give itself some voice in this way! [ OEuvres de
Frederic, xv. 1-10 (see Preuss's PREFACE there;
Formey, SOUVENIRS, i. 37; &c. &c.] Another
Piece, altogether practical, and done with excellent insight,
brevity, modesty, is ON TACTICS; [REFLEXIONS SUR LA TACTIQUE:
in OEuvres de Frederic, xxviii. 153-166.]--
properly it might be called, "Serious very Private Thoughts,"
thrown on paper, and communicated only to two or three, "On the new
kind of Tactics necessary with those Austrians and their Allies,"
who are in such overwhelming strength. "To whose continual
sluggishness, and strange want of concert, to whose incoherency of
movements, languor of execution, and other enormous faults, we have
owed, with some excuse for our own faults, our escaping of
destruction hitherto,"--but had better NOT trust that way any
longer! Fouquet is one of the highly select, to whom he
communicates this Piece; adding along with it, in Fouquet's case,
an affectionate little Note, and, in spite of poverty, some
New-year's Gift, as usual,--the "Widow's Mite [300 pounds, we
find]; receive it with the same heart with which it was set apart
for you: a small help, which you may well have need of, in these
calamitous times." ["Breslau, 23d December, 1758;" with Fouquet's
Answer, 2d January, 1759: in OEuvres de Frederic,
italic> xx. 114-117.] Fouquet much admires the new Tactical
Suggestions;--seems to think, however, that the certainly
practicable one is, in particular, the last, That of "improving our
Artillery to some equality with theirs." For which, as may appear,
the King has already been taking thought, in more ways than one.
Finance is naturally a heavy part of Friedrich's Problem; the part
which looks especially impossible, from our point of vision!
In Friedrich's Country, the War Budget does not differ from the
Peace one. Neither is any borrowing possible; that sublime Art, of
rolling over on you know not whom the expenditure, needful or
needless, of your heavy-laden self, had not yet--though England is
busy at it--been invented among Nations. Once, or perhaps twice,
from the STANDE of some willing Province, Friedrich negotiated some
small Loan; which was punctually repaid when Peace came, and was
always gratefully remembered. But these are as nothing, in face of
such expenses; and the thought how he did contrive on the Finance
side, is and was not a little wonderful. An ingenious Predecessor,
whom I sometimes quote, has expressed himself in these words:--
"Such modicum of Subsidy [he is speaking of the English Subsidy in
1758], how useful will it prove in a Country bred everywhere to
Spartan thrift, accustomed to regard waste as sin, and which will
lay out no penny except to purpose! I guess the Prussian Exchequer
is, by this time, much on the ebb; idle precious metals tending
everywhere towards the melting-pot. At what precise date the
Friedrich-Wilhelm balustrades, and enormous silver furnitures, were
first gone into, Dryasdust has not informed me: but we know they
all went; as they well might. To me nothing is so wonderful as
Friedrich's Budget during this War. One day it will be carefully
investigated, elucidated and made conceivable and certain to
mankind: but that as yet is far from being the case. We walk about
in it with astonishment; almost, were it possible, with
incredulity. Expenditure on this side, work done on that:
human nature, especially British human nature, refuses to conceive
it. Never in this world, before or since, was the like.
The Friedrich miracles in War are great; but those in Finance are
almost greater. Let Dryasdust bethink him; and gird his flabby
loins to this Enterprise; which is very behooveful in these
Californian times!"--
The general Secret of Prussian Thrift, I do fear, is lost from the
world. And how an Army of about 200,000, in field and garrison,
could be kept on foot, and in some ability to front combined
Europe, on about Three Million Sterling annually ("25 million
THALERS"=3,150,000 pounds, that is the steady War-Budget of those
years), remains to us inconceivable enough;--mournfully miraculous,
as it were; and growing ever more so in the Nugget-generations that
now run. Meanwhile, here are what hints I could find, on the
Origins of that modest Sum, which also are a wonder: [Preuss, ii.
388-392; Stenzel, v. 137-141.]--
"The hoarded Prussian Moneys, or 'TREASURES' [two of them, KLEINE
SCHATZ, GROSSE SCHATZ, which are rigidly saved in Peace years, for
incidence of War], being nearly run out, there had come the English
Subsidy: this, with Saxony, and the Home revenues and remnants of
SCHATZ had sufficed for 1758; but will no longer suffice. Next to
Saxony, the English Subsidy (670,000 pounds due the second time
this year) was always Friedrich's principal resource: and in the
latter years of the War, I observe, it was nearly twice the amount
of what all his Prussian Countries together, in their ravaged and
worn-out state, could yield him. In and after 1759, besides Home
Income, which is gradually diminishing, and English Subsidy, which
is a steady quantity, Friedrich's sources of revenue are
mainly Two:--
"FIRST, there is that of wringing money from your Enemies, from
those that have deserved ill of you,--such of them as you can come
at. Enemies, open or secret, even Ill-wishers, we are not
particular, provided only they lie within arm's-length. Under this
head fall principally three Countries (and their three poor
Populations, in lieu of their Governments): Saxony, Mecklenburg (or
the main part of it, Mecklenburg-SCHWERIN), and Anhalt; from these
three there is a continual forced supply of money and furnishings.
Their demerits to Friedrich differ much in intensity; nor is his
wringing of them--which in the cases of Mecklenburg and Saxony
increases year by year to the nearly intolerable pitch--quite in
the simple ratio of their demerits; but in a compound ratio of that
and of his indignation and of his wants.
"Saxony, as Prime Author of this War, was from the first laid hold
of, collared tightly: 'Pay the shot, then, what you can' (in the
end it was almost what you cannot)! As to Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the
grudge against Prussia was of very old standing, some generations
now; and the present Duke, not a very wise Sovereign more than his
Ancestors, had always been ill with Friedrich; willing to spite and
hurt him when possible: in Reichs Diet he, of all German Princes,
was the first that voted for Friedrich's being put to Ban of the
Reich,--he; and his poor People know since whether that was a wise
step! The little Anhalt Princes, too, all the Anhalts, Dessau,
Bernburg, Cothen, Zerbst [perhaps the latter partially excepted,
for a certain Russian Lady's sake], had voted, or at least had
ambiguously half-voted, in favor of the Ban, and done other
unfriendly things; and had now to pay dear for their bits of
enmities. Poor souls, they had but One Vote among them all Four;--
and they only half gave it, tremulously pulling it back again.
I should guess it was their terrors mainly, and over-readiness to
reckon Friedrich a sinking ship; and to leap from the deck of him,
--with a spurn which he took for insolent! The Anhalt-Dessauers
particularly, who were once of his very Army, half Prussians for
generations back, he reckoned to have used him scandalously ill.
"This Year the requisition on the Four Anhalts--which they submit
to patiently, as people who have leapt into the wrong ship--is, in
precise tale: of money, 330,000 thalers (about 50,000 pounds);
recruits, 2,200; horses, 1,800. In Saxony, besides the fixed Taxes,
strict confiscation of Meissen Potteries and every Royalty, there
were exacted heavy 'Contributions,' more and more heavy, from the
few opulent Towns, chiefly from Leipzig; which were wrung out,
latterly, under great severities,--'chief merchants of Leipzig all
clapt in prison, kept on bread-and-water till they yielded,'--AS
great severities as would suffice, but NOT greater; which also was
noted. Unfortunate chief merchants of Leipzig,--with Bruhl and
Polish Majesty little likely to indemnify them! Unfortunate Country
altogether. An intelligent Saxon, who is vouched for as impartial,
bears witness as follows: 'And this I know, that the oppressions
and plunderings of the Austrians and Reichsfolk, in Saxony, turned
all hearts away from them; and it was publicly said, We had rather
bear the steady burden of the Prussians than such help as these our
pretended Deliverers bring.' [Stenzel (citing from KRIEGSKANZLEI,
which I have not), v. 137 n.] Whereby, on the whole, the poor
Country got its back broken, and could never look up in the world
since. Resource FIRST was abundantly severe.
"Resource SECOND is strangest of all;--and has given rise to
criticism enough! It is no other than that of issuing base money;
mixing your gold and silver coin with copper,--this, one grieves to
say, is the Second and extreme resource. (A rude method--would we
had a better--of suspending Cash-payments, and paying by bank-notes
instead!' thinks Friedrich, I suppose. From his Prussian Mints,
from his Saxon [which are his for the present], and from the little
Anhalt-Bernburg Mint [of which he expressly purchased the sad
privilege,--for we are not a Coiner, we are a King reduced to
suspend Cash-payments, for the time being], Friedrich poured out
over all Germany, in all manner of kinds, huge quantities of bad
Coin. This, so long as it would last, is more and more a copious
fountain of supply. This, for the first time, has had to appear as
an item in War-Budget 1759: and it fails in no following, but
expands more and more. It was done through Ephraim, the not lovely
Berlin Jew, whom we used to hear of in Voltaire's time;--through
Ephraim and two others, Ephraim as President: in return for a net
Sum, these shall have privilege to coin such and such amounts, so
and so alloyed; shall pay to General Tauentzien, Army Treasurer, at
fixed terms, the Sums specified: 'Go, and do it; our Mint-Officers
sharply watching you; Mint-Officers, and General Tauentzien [with a
young Herr Lessing, as his Chief Clerk, of whom the King knows
nothing]; Go, ye unlovely!' And Ephraim and Company are making a
great deal of money by the unlovely job. Ephraim is the pair of
tongs, the hand, and the unlovely job, are a royal man's.
Alas, yes. And none of us knows better than King Friedrich, perhaps
few of us as well, how little lovely a job it was; how shockingly
UNkingly it was,--though a practice not unknown to German Kings and
Kinglets before his time, and since down almost to ours.
[In STENZEL (v. 141) enumeration of eight or nine unhappy
Potentates, who were busy with it in those same years.] In fact,
these are all unkingly practices;--and the English Subsidy itself
is distasteful to a proud Friedrich: but what, in those
circumstances, can any Friedrich do?
"The first coinages of Ephraim had, it seems, in them about 3-7ths
of copper; something less than the half, and more than the third,"
--your gold sovereign grown to be worth 28s. 6d. "But yearly it
grew worse; and in 1762 [English Subsidy having failed] matters had
got inverted; and there was three times as much copper as silver.
Commerce, as was natural, went rocking and tossing, as on a sea
under earthquakes; but there was always ready money among
Friedrich's soldiers, as among no other: nor did the common people,
or retail purchasers, suffer by it. 'Hah, an Ephraimite!' they
would say, grinning not ill-humoredly, at sight of one of these
pieces; some of which they had more specifically named 'BLUE-GOWNS'
[owing to a tint of blue perceivable, in spite of the industrious
plating in real silver, or at least "boiling in some solution" of
it]; these they would salute with this rhyme, then current:--
"Von aussen schon, van innen schlimm;
Von aussen Friedrich, von innen Ephraim.
Outside noble, inside slim:
Outside Friedrich, inside Ephraim.
"By this time, whatever of money, from any source, can be scraped
together in Friedrich's world, flows wholly into the Army-Chest, as
the real citadel of life. In these latter years of the War,
beginning, I could guess, from 1759, all Civil expenditures, and
wages of Officials, cease to be paid in money; nobody of that kind
sees the color even of bad coin; but is paid only in 'Paper
Assignments,' in Promises to Pay 'after the Peace.' These Paper
Documents made no pretence to the rank of Currency: such holders of
them as had money, or friends, and could wait, got punctual payment
when the term did arrive; but those that could not, suffered
greatly; having to negotiate their debentures on ruinous terms,--
sometimes at an expense of three-fourths.--I will add Friedrich's
practical Schedule of Amounts from all these various Sources;
and what Friedrich's own view of the Sources was, when he could
survey them from the safe distance.
"SCHEDULE OF AMOUNTS [say for 1761]. To make up the Twenty-five
Million thalers, necessary for the Army, there are:--
"From our Prussian Countries, ruined, harried as THALERS
they have been, . . . . . . . . . . 4 millions only.
From Saxony and the other Wringings, . . . . . 7 millions.
English Subsidy (4 of good gold; becoppered
into double), . . . . . . . . . . . 8 "
From Ephraim and his Farm of the Mint
(MUNZ-PATENT), . . . . . . . . . . 7 "
In sum Twenty-six Millions; leaving you one Million of margin,--
and always a plenty of cash in hand for incidental sundries.
[Preuss, ii. 388.]
"Friedrich's own view of these sad matters, as he closes his
History of the Seven-Years War [at "Berlin,
17th December, 1763"], is in these words: 'May Heaven grant,--if
Heaven deign to look down on the paltry concerns of men,--that the
unalterable and flourishing destiny of this Country preserve the
Sovereigns who shall govern it from the scourges and calamities
which Prussia has suffered in these times of trouble and
subversion; that they may never again be forced to recur to the
violent and fatal remedies which we (L'ON) have been obliged to
employ in maintenance of the State against the ambitious hatred of
the Sovereigns of Europe, who wished to annihilate the House of
Brandenburg, and exterminate from the world whatever bore the
Prussian name!'" [ OEuvres de Frederic,
v. 234.]
OF THE SMALL-WAR IN SPRING, 1759. THERE ARE FIVE DISRUPTIONS
OF THAT GRAND CORDON (February-April); AND FERDINAND OF
BRUNSWICK FIGHTS HIS BATTLE OF BERGEN (April 13th).
Friedrich, being denied an aggressive course this Year, by no means
sits idly expectant and defensive in the interim; but, all the more
vigorously, as is observable, from February onwards, strikes out
from him on every side: endeavoring to spoil the Enemy's Magazines,
and cripple his operations in that way. So that there was, all
winter through, a good deal of Small-War (some of it not Small), of
more importance than usual,--chiefly of Friedrich's originating,
with the above view, or of Ferdinand his Ally's, on a still more
pressing score. And, on the whole, that immense Austrian-French
Cordon, which goes from the Carpathians to the Ocean, had by no
means a quiet time; but was broken into, and violently hurled back,
in different parts: some four, or even five, attacks upon it in
all; three of them by Prince Henri,--in two of which Duke
Ferdinand's people co-operated; the business being for mutual
behoof. These latter Three were famous in the world, that Winter;
and indeed are still recognizable as brilliant procedures of their
kind; though, except dates and results, we can afford almost
nothing of them here. These Three, intended chiefly against Reichs
people and their Posts and Magazines, fell out on the western and
middle part of the Cordon. Another attack was in the extreme
eastward, and was for Friedrich's own behoof; under Fouquet's
management;--intended against the Austrian-Moravian Magazines and
Preparations, but had little success. Still another assault, or
invasive outroad, northward against the Russian Magazines, there
also was; of which by and by. Besides all which, and more memorable
than all, Duke Ferdinand, for vital reasons of his own, fought a
Battle this Spring, considerable Battle, and did NOT gain it;
which made great noise in the world.
It is not necessary the reader should load his memory with details
of all these preliminary things; on the contrary, it is necessary
that he keep his memory clear for the far more important things
that lie ahead of these, and entertain these in a summary way, as a
kind of foreground to what is coming. Perhaps the following
Fractions of Note, which put matters in something of Chronological
or Synoptical form, will suffice him, or more than suffice. He is
to understand that the grand tug of War, this Year, gradually turns
out not to be hereabouts, nor with Daun and his adjacencies at all,
but with the Russians, who arrive from the opposite Northern
quarter; and that all else will prove to be merely prefatory and
nugatory in comparison.
JANUARY 2d, 1759: FRANKFURT-ON-MAYN, THOUGH IT IS A REICHSTADT,
FINDS ITSELF SUDDENLY BECOME FRENCH. "Prince de Soubise lies
between Mayn and Lahn, with his 25,000; beautifully safe and
convenient,--though ill off for a place-of-arms in those parts.
Opulent Frankfurt, on his right; how handy would that be, were not
Reichs Law so express! Marburg, Giessen are outposts of his;
on which side one of Ferdinand's people, Prince von Ysenburg,
watches him with an 8 or 10,000, capable of mischief in
that quarter.
"On the Eve of New-year's day, or on the auspicious Day itself,
Soubise requests, of the Frankfurt Authorities, permission for a
regiment of his to march through that Imperial City. To which, by
law and theory, the Imperial City can say Yes or No;
but practically cannot, without grave inconvenience, say other than
Yes, though most Frankfurters wish it could. 'Yes,' answer the
Frankfurt Magnates; Yes surely, under the known conditions.
Tuesday, January 2d, about 5 in the morning, while all is still
dark in Frankfurt, regiment Nassau appears, accordingly, at the
Sachsenhausen Gate, Town-guard people all ready to receive it and
escort it through; and is admitted as usual. Quite as usual: but
instead of being escorted through, it orders, in calm peremptory
voice, the Town-guard, To ground arms; with calm rapidity proceeds
to admit ten other regiments or battalions, six of them German;
seizes the artillery on the Walls, seizes all the other Gates:--and
poor Frankfurt finds itself tied hand and foot, almost before it is
out of bed! Done with great exactitude, with the minimum of
confusion, and without a hurt skin to anybody. The Inhabitants
stood silent, gazing; the Town-guard laid down their arms, and went
home. Totally against Law; but cleverly done; perhaps Soubise's
chief exploit in the world; certainly the one real success the
French have yet had.
"Soubise made haste to summon the Magistrates: 'Law of Necessity
alone, most honored Sirs! Reichs Law is clear against me. But all
the more shall private liberties, religions, properties, in this
Imperial Free-Town, be sacred to us. Defence against any
aggression: and the strictest discipline observed. Depend on me, I
bid you!'--And kept his word to an honorable degree, they say;
or in absence, made it be kept, during the Four Years that follow.
Most Frankfurters are, at heart, Anti-French: but Soubise's
affability was perfect; and he gave evening parties of a sublime
character; the Magistrates all appearing there, in their square
perukes and long gowns, with a mournful joy." [Tempelhof, iii. 7-8;
Stenzel, v. 198-200.]
Soubise soon went home, to assist in important businesses,--
Invasion of England, no less; let England look to itself this
Summer!--and Broglio succeeded him, as Army-Captain in the
Frankfurt parts; with laurels accruing, more or less. Soubise, like
Broglio, began with Rossbach; Soubise ends with Frankfurt, for the
present; where Broglio also gains his chief laurels, as will
shortly be seen. Frankfurt is a great gain to France, though an
illicit one. It puts a bar on Duke Ferdinand in that quarter;
secures a starting-point for attacks on Hessen, Hanover;
for co-operation with Contades and the Lower Rhine. It is the one
success France has yet had in this War, or pretty much that it ever
had in it. Due to Prince de Soubise, in that illegal fashion.--
A highly remarkable little Boy, now in his tenth year, Johann
Wolfgang Goethe, has his wondering eyes on these things: and, short
while hence, meets daily, on the stairs and lobbies at home, a
pleasant French Official Gentlemen who is quartered there;
------page 195 Book XIX-----^ [sic]-----------
between whom and Papa occur rubs,--as readers may remember, and
shall hear in April coming.
GRAND CORDON DISRUPTED: ERFURT COUNTRY, 16th FEBRUARY-2d MARCH.
"About six weeks after this Frankfurt achievement, certain
Reichsfolk and Austrian Auxiliaries are observed to be cutting down
endless timber, '18,800 palisades, 6,000 trees of 60 feet,' and
other huge furnishings, from the poor Duke of Gotha's woods;
evidently meaning to fortify themselves in Erfurt. Upon which
Prince Henri detaches a General Knobloch thitherward, Duke
Ferdinand contributing 4,000 to meet him there; which combined
expedition, after some sharp knocking and shoving, entirely
disrooted the Austrians and Reichsfolk, and sent them packing.
Had them quite torn out by the end of the month; and had planned to
'attack them on two sides at once' (March 2d), with a view of
swallowing them whole,--when they (these Reichs Volscians, in such
a state of flutter) privately hastened off, one and all of them,
the day before." [Narrative, in Helden-Geschichte,
italic> v. 1022 et seq.]
This was BREAKAGE FIRST of the Grand Cordon; an explosive hurling
of it back out of those Erfurt parts. Done by Prince Henri's
people, in concert with Duke Ferdinand's,--who were mutually
interested in the thing.
BREAKAGE SECOND: ERFURT-FULDA COUNTRY, 31st MARCH-8th APRIL.
"About the end of March, these intrusive Austrian Reichsfolk made
some attempt to come back into those Countries; but again got
nothing but hard knocks; and gave up the Erfurt project. For, close
following on this FIRST, there was a SECOND still deeper and
rougher Breakage, in those same regions; the Hereditary Prince of
Brunswick dashing through, on a special Errand of Ferdinand's own
[of which presently], with an 8 or 10,000, in his usual fiery
manner; home into the very bowels of the Reich (April 3d, and for a
week onward); and returning with 'above 2,000 prisoners' in hand;
especially with a Reich well frightened behind him;--still in time
for Duke Ferdinand's Adventure [in fact, for his Battle of Bergen,
of which we are to hear]. Had been well assisted by Prince Henri,
who 'made dnngerous demonstrations in the distance,' and was
extremely diligent--though the interest was chiefly Ferdinand's
this time." [Tempelhof, iii. 19-22.]--Contemporary with that FIRST
Erfurt Business, there went on, 300 miles away from it, in the
quite opposite direction, another of the same;--too curious to
be omitted.
ACROSS THE POLISH FRONTIER: FEBRUARY, 24th-MARCH 4th. "In the end
of February, General Wobersnow, an active man, was detached from
Glogau, over into Poland, Posen way, To overturn the Russian
provision operations thereabouts; in particular, to look into a
certain high-flying Polack, a Prince Sulkowski of those parts;
who with all diligence is gathering food, in expectation of the
Russian advent; and indeed has formally 'declared War against the
King of Prussia;' having the right, he says, as a Polish Magnate,
subject only to his own high thought in such affairs. The Russians
and their wars are dear to Sulkowski. He fell prisoner in their
cause, at Zorndorf, last Autumn; was stuck, like all the others,
Soltikoff himself among them, into the vaulted parts of Custrin
Garrison: 'I am sorry I have no Siberia for you,' said Friedrich,
looking, not in a benign way, on the captive Dignitaries, that hot
afternoon; 'go to Custrin, and see what you have provided for
yourselves!' Which they had to do; nothing, for certain days, but
cellarage to lodge in; King inexorable, deaf to remonstrance.
Which possibly may have contributed to kindle Sulkowski into these
extremely high proceedings.
"At any rate, Wobersnow punctually looks in upon him: seizes his
considerable stock of Russian proviants; his belligerent force, his
high person itself; and in one luckless hour snuffs him out from
the list of potentates. His belligerent force, about 1,000 Polacks,
were all compelled, 'by the cudgel, say my authorities, to take
Prussian service [in garrison regiments, and well scattered about,
I suppose]; his own high person found itself sitting locked in
Glogau, left to its reflections. Sat thus 'till the War ended,' say
some; certainly till the Sulkowski War had been sufficiently
exploded by the laughter of mankind." Here are, succinctly, the
dates of this small memorability:--
"End of February, Wobersnow gathers, at Glogau, a force of about
8,000 horse and foot. Marches, 24th FEBRUARY, over Oder Bridge,
straight into Poland; that same night, to the neighborhood of Lissa
and Reisen (Sulkowski's dominion), about thirty miles northeast of
Glogau. Sulkowski done next day;--part of the capture is 'fifteen
small guns.' Wobersnow goes, next, for Posen; arrives, 28th
FEBRUARY; destroys Russian Magazine, ransoms Jews. Shoots out other
detachments on the Magazine Enterprise;--detaches Platen along the
Warta, where are picked up various items, among others 'eighty tuns
of brandy,'--but himself proceeds no farther than Posen. MARCH 4th,
sets out again from Posen, homewards." [NACHRICHT VON DER
UNTERNEHMUNG DES GENERAL-MAJORS VON WOBERSNOW IN POLEN, IM FEB. UND
MARZ. 1759: in Seyfarth, Beylagen, ii.
526-529. Helden-Geschichte, v. 829.] We shall
hear again of Wobersnow, in a much more important way, before long.
To the Polish Republic so called, Friedrich explained politely, not
apologetically: "Since you allow the Russians to march through you
in attack of me, it is evident to your just minds that the attacked
party must have similar privilege." "Truly!" answered they, in
their just minds, generally; and I made no complaint about
Sulkowski (though Polish Majesty and Primate endeavored to be loud
about "Invasion" and the like):--and indeed Polish Republic was
lying, for a long while past, as if broken-backed, on the public
highway, a Nation anarchic every fibre of it, and under the feet
and hoofs of travelling Neighbors, especially of Russian Neighbors;
and is not now capable of saying much for itself in such cases, or
of doing anything at all.
FRANKFURT COUNTRY, APRIL 13th: DUKE FERDINAND'S BATTLE OF BERGEN.
"Duke Ferdinand, fully aware what a stroke that seizure of
Frankfurt was to him, resolved to risk a long march at this bad
season, and attempt to drive the French out. Contades was absent in
Paris,--no fear of an attack from Contades's Army; Broglio's in
Frankfurt, grown now to about 35,000, can perhaps be beaten if
vigorously attacked. Ferdinand appoints a rendezvous at Fulda, of
various Corps, Prince Ysenburg's and others, that lie nearest,
Hessians many of them, Hanoverians others; proceeds, himself, to
Fulda, with a few attendants [a drive of about 200 miles];--having
left Lord George Sackville [mark the sad name of him!]--Sackville,
head of the English, and General Sporken, a Hanoverian,--to take
charge in Munster Country, during his absence. It was from Fulda
that he shot out the Hereditary Prince on that important Errand we
lately spoke of, under the head of 'BREAKAGE SECOND,'--namely, to
clear his right flank, and scare the Reich well off him, while he
should be marching on Frankfurt. All which, Henri assisting from
the distance, the Hereditary Prince performed to perfection,--and
was back (APRIL 8th) in excellent time for the Battle.
"Ferdinand stayed hardly a day in Fulda, ranking himself and
getting on the road. Did his long march of above 100 miles without
accident or loss of time;--of course, scaring home the Broglio
Outposts in haste enough, and awakening Broglio's attention in a
high degree;--and arrives, Thursday, April 12th, at Windecken, a
Village about fifteen miles northeast of Frankfurt; where he passes
the night under arms; intending Battle on the morrow. Broglio is
all assembled, 35,000 strong; his Assailant, with the Hereditary
Prince come in, counts rather under 30,000. Broglio is posted in,
and on both sides of, Bergen, a high-lying Village, directly on
Ferdinand's road to Frankfurt. Windecken is about fifteen miles
from Frankfurt; Bergen about six:--idle Tourists of our time, on
their return from Homburg to that City, leave Bergen a little on
their left. The ground is mere hills, woody dales, marshy brooks;
Broglio's position, with its Village, and Hill, and ravines and
advantages, is the choicest of the region; and Broglio's methods,
procedures and arrangements in it are applauded by all judges.
"FRIDAY, 13th APRIL, 1759, Ferdinand is astir by daybreak; comes
on, along one of those woody balleys, pickeering, reconnoitring;--
in the end, directly up the Hill of Bergen; straight upon the
key-point. It is about 10 A.M., when the batteries and musketries
awaken there; very loud indeed, for perhaps two hours or more.
Prince von Ysenburg is leader of Ferdinand's attacking party.
Their attack is hot and fierce, and they stick to it steadily;
though garden-hedges, orchards and impediments are many, and
Broglio, with, much cannon helping, makes vigorous defence.
These Ysenburgers fought till their cartridges were nearly spent,
and Ysenburg himself lay killed; but could not take Bergen.
Nor could the Hereditary Prince; who, in aid of them, tried it in
flank, with his own usual impetuosity rekindling theirs, and at
first with some success; but was himself taken in flank by
Broglio's Reserve, and obliged to desist. No getting of Bergen by
that method.
"Military critics say coolly, 'You should have smashed it well with
cannon, first [which Ferdinand had not in stock here];
and especially have flung grenadoes into it, till it was well in
flame: impossible otherwise!' [Mauvillon, ii. 19.] The Ysenburgers
and Hereditary Prince withdraw. No pursuit of them; or almost less
than none; for the one or two French regiments that tried it
(against order), nearly got cut up. Broglio, like a very Daun at
Kolin, had strictly forbidden all such attempts: 'On no temptation
quit your ground!'
"The Battle, after this, lay quiet all afternoon; Ferdinand still
in sight; motioning much, to tempt French valor into chasing of
him. But all in vain: Broglio, though his subalterns kept urging,
remonstrating, was peremptory not to stir. Whereupon, towards
evening, across certain woody Heights, perhaps still with some hope
of drawing him out, Ferdinand made some languid attempt on
Broglio's wing, or wings;--and this also failing, had to give up
the affair. He continued cannonading till deep in the night;
withdrew to Windecken: and about two next morning, marched for
home,--still with little or no pursuit: but without hope of
Frankfurt henceforth. And, in fact, has a painful Summer ahead.
"Ferdinand had lost 5 cannon, and of killed and wounded 2,500;
the French counted their loss at about 1,900. [Mauvillon, ii.
10-19; Tempelhof, iii. 26-31.] The joy of France over this immense
victory was extraordinary. Broglio was made Prince of the Reich,
Marechal de France; would have been raised to the stars, had one
been able,--for the time being. 'And your immense victory,' so
sneered the by-standers, 'consists in not being beaten, under those
excellent conditions;--perhaps victory is a rarity just now!'"
This is the Battle which our Boy-Friend Johann Wolfgang watched
with such interest, from his garret-window, hour after hour;
all Frankfurt simmering round him, in such a whirlpool of self-
contradictory emotions; till towards evening, when, in long rows of
carts, poor wounded Hessians and Hanoverians came jolting in, and
melted every heart into pity. into wailing sorrow, and eagerness to
help. A little later, Papa Goethe, stepping downstairs, came across
the Official French Gentleman; who said radiantly: "Doubtless you
congratulate yourself and us on this victory to his Majesty's
arms." "Not a whit (KEINESWEGS)," answers Papa Goethe, a stiff kind
of man, nowise in the mood of congratulating: "on the contrary, I
wish they had chased you to the Devil, though I had had to go too!"
Which was a great relief to his feelings, though a dangerous one in
the circumstances. [Goethe's WERKE (Stuttgart und Tubingen, 1829),
xxiv. (DICHTUNG UND WAHRHEIT, i.), 153-157.]
BREAKAGE THIRD: OVER THE METAL MOUNTAINS INTO BOHMEN (APRIL
14th-20th). "Ferdinand's Battle was hardly ending, when Prince
Henri poured across the Mountains,--in two columns, Hulsen leading
the inferior or rightmost one,--into Leitmeritz-Eger Country;
and made a most successful business of the Austrian Magazines he
found there. Magazines all filled; Enemy all galloping for Prag:--
Daun himself, who is sitting vigilant, far in the interior, at
Jaromirtz this month past, was thrown into huge flurry, for some
days! Speedy Henri (almost on the one condition of BEING speedy)
had his own will of the Magazines: burnt, Hulsen and he, 'about
600,000 pounds worth' of Austrian provender in those parts, 'what
would have kept 50,000 men five months in bread' (not to mention
hay at all); gave the Enemy sore slaps (caught about 3,000 of him,
NOT yet got on gallop for Prag); burnt his 200 boats on the Elbe:--
forced him to begin anew at the beginning; and did, in effect,
considerably lame and retard certain of his operations through the
Summer. Speedy Henri marched for home April 20th; and was all
across the Mountains April 23d: a profitable swift nine days."
[Tempelhof iii. 47-53; Helden-Geschichte,
v. 963-966.]--And on the sixth day hence he will have something
similar, and still more important, on foot. A swift man, when
he must!
BREAKAGE FOURTH: INTO MAHREN (APRIL 16th-21st). "This is Fouquet's
attempt, alluded to above; of which--as every reader must be
satisfied with Small-War--we will give only the dates.
Fouquet, ranking at Leobschutz, in Neisse Country, did break
through into Mahren, pushing the Austrians before him; but found
the Magazines either emptied, or too inaccessible for any worth
they had;--could do nothing on the Magazines; and returned without
result; home at Leobschutz again on the fifth day." [
Helden-Geschichte, v. 958-963; Tcmpelhof, iii. 44-47.]
This, however, had a sequel for Fouquet; which, as it brought the
King himself into those neighborhoods, we shall have to mention,
farther on.
BREAKAGE FIFTH: INTO FRANKEN (MAY 5th-JUNE 1st). "This was Prince
Henri's Invasion of the Bamberg-Nurnberg Countries; a much sharper
thing than in any former Year. Much the most famous, and," luckily
for us, "the last of the Small-War affairs for the present.
Started,--from Tschopau region, Bamberg way,--April 29th-May 5th.
In Three Columns: Finck leftmost, and foremost (Finck had marched
April 29th, pretending to mean for Bohemia); after whom Knobloch;
and (May 5th) the Prince himself. Who has an eye to the Reichs
Magazines and Preparations, as usual;--nay, an eye to their Camp of
Rendezvous, and to a fight with their miscellaneous Selves and
Auxiliaries, if they will stand fight. 'You will have to leave
Saxony, and help us with the Russians, soon: beat those Reichs
people first!' urged the King; 'well beaten, they will not trouble
Saxony for a while.' If they will stand fight? But they would not
at all. They struck their tents everywhere; burnt their own
Magazines, in some cases; and only went mazing hither and thither,
--gravitating all upon Nurnberg, and an impregnable Camp which they
have in that neighborhood. Supreme Zweibruck was himself with them;
many Croats, Austrians, led by Maguire and others; all marching,
whirling at a mighty rate; with a countenance sometimes of vigor,
but always with Nurnberg Camp in rear. There was swift marching,
really beautiful manoeuvring here and there; sharp bits of
fighting, too, almost in the battle-form:--Maguire tried, or was
for trying, a stroke with Finck; but made off hastily, glad to get
away. [Templehof, iii. 64.] May 11th, at Himmelskron in Baireuth,
one Riedesel of theirs had fairly to ground arms, self and 2,500,
and become prisoners of war." Much of this manoeuvring and
scuffling was in Baireuth Territory. Twice, or even thrice, Prince
Henri was in Baireuth Town: "marched through Baireuth," say the
careless Old Books. Through Baireuth:--No Wilhelmina now there,
with her tremulous melodies of welcome! Wilhelminn's loves, and
terrors for her loved, are now all still. Perhaps her poor Daughter
of Wurtemberg, wandering unjustly disgraced, is there; Papa, the
Widower Margraf, is for marrying again: [Married 20th September,
1759 (a Brunswick Princess, Sister's-daughter of his late Wife);
died within four years.]--march on, Prince Henri!
"In Bamberg," says a Note from Archenholtz, "the Reichs troops
burnt their Magazine; and made for Nurnberg, as usual; but left
some thousand or two of Croats, who would not yet. Knobloch and his
Prussians appeared shortly after; summoned Bamberg, which agreed to
receive them; and were for taking possession; but found the Croats
determined otherwise. Fight ensued; fight in the streets; which, in
hideousness of noises, if in nothing else, was beyond parallel.
The inhabitants sat all quaking in their cellars; not an inhabitant
was to be seen: a City dead,--and given up to the demons, in this
manner. Not for some hours were the Croats got entirely trampled
out. Bamberg, as usual, became a Prussian place-of-arms;
was charged to pay ransom of 40,000 pounds;--'cannot possibly!'--
did pay some 14,000 pounds, and gave bills for the remainder."
[Archenholtz. i. 371-373.] Which bills, let us mark withal, the
Kaiser in Reichs Diet decreed to be invalid: "Don't pay them!"
A thing not forgotten by Friedrich;--though it is understood the
Bambergers, lest worse might happen, privately paid their bills.
"The Expedition lasted, in whole, not quite four weeks: June 1st,
Prince Henri was at the Saxon frontier again; the German world all
ringing loud,--in jubilation, counter-jubilation and a great
variety of tones,--with the noise of what he had done. A sharp
swift man; and, sure enough, has fluttered the Reichs Volscians in
their Corioli to an unexpected degree." [Seyfarth,
Beylagen, ii. 537-563; BERICHT VON DER UNTERNEHMUNG
DES PRINZEN HEINRICH IN FRANKEN, IM JAHR, 1759; Helden-
Geschichte, v. 1033-1039; Tempelhof, ????, et seq.]
---COPY ILLEGIBLE. PAGE 203, BOOK XIX-------------^^^--
A Colonel Wunsch (Lieutenant-Colonel of the Free Corps WUNSCH)
distinguished himself in this Expedition; The beginning of notably
great things to him in the few following months. Wunsch is a
Wurtemberger by birth; has been in many services, always in
subaltern posts, and, this year, will testify strangely how worthy
he was of the higher. What a Year, this of 1759, to stout old
Wunsch! In the Spring, here has he just seen his poor son,
Lieutenant Wunsch, perish in one of these scuffles; in Autumn, he
will see himself a General, shining suddenly bright, to his King
and to all the world; before Winter, he will be Prisoner to
Austria, and eclipsed for the rest of this war!--Kleist, of the
GREEN HUSSARS, also made a figure here; and onwards rapidly ever
higher; to the top of renown in his business:--fallen heir to
Mayer's place, as it were. A Note says: "Poor Mayer of the Free
Corps does not ride with the Prince on this occasion.
Mayer, dangerously worn down with the hard services of last Year,
and himself a man of too sleepless temper, caught a fever in the
New-year time; and died within few days: burnt away before his
time; much regretted by his Brethren of the Army, and some few
others. Gone in this way; with a high career just opening on him at
the long last! Mayer was of Austrian, of half Spanish birth;
a musical, really melodious, affectionate, but indignant, wildly
stormful mortal; and had had adventures without end. Something of
pathos, of tragedy, in the wild Life of him. [Still worth reading:
in Pauli (our old watery BRANDENBURG-HISTORY Friend).
Leben grosser Helden (Halle, 1759-1764, 9 vols.), iii.
142-188;--much the best Piece in that still rather watery (or
windy) Collection, which, however, is authentic, and has some
tolerable Portraits.] A man of considerable genius, military and
other:--genius in the sleepless kind, which is not the best kind;
sometimes a very bad kind. The fame of Friedrich invites such
people from all sides of the world; and this was no doubt a
sensible help to him."--But enough of all this.
Here, surely, is abundance of preliminary Small-War, on the part of
a Friedrich reduced to the defensive!--Fouquet's Sequel, hinted at
above, was to this effect. On Fouquet's failing to get hold of the
Moravian Magazines, and returning to his Post at Leobschutz, a
certain rash General Deville, who is Austrian chief in those parts,
hastily rushed through the Jagerndorf Hills, and invaded Fouquet.
Only for a few days; and had very bad success, in that bit of
retaliation. The King, who is in Landshut, in the middle of his
main cantonments, hastened over to Leobschutz with reinforcement to
Fouquet; in the thought that a finishing-stroke might be done on
this Deville;--and would have done it, had not the rash man plunged
off again (May 1st, or the night before); homewards, at full speed.
So that Friedrich, likewise at full speed, could catch nothing of
him; but merely cannonade him in the Passes of Zuckmantel, and cut
off his rear-guard of Croats. Poor forlorn of Croats, whom he had
left in some bushy Chasm; to gain him a little time, and then to
perish if THEY must! as Tempelhof remarks. [Tempelhof, iii. 56.]
Upon which Friedrich returned to Landshut; and Fouquet had
peace again.
It was from this Landshut region, where his main cantonments are,
that Friedrich had witnessed all these Inroads, or all except the
very earliest of them; the first Erfurt one, and the Wobersnow-
Sulkowski. He had quitted Breslau in the end of March, and gone to
his cantonments; quickened thither, probably, by a stroke that had
befallen him at Griefenberg, on his Silesian side of the Cordon.
At Griefenberg stood the Battalion Duringshofen, with its Colonel
of the same name,--grenadier people of good quality, perhaps near
1,000 in whole. Which Battalion, General Beck, after long
preliminary study of it, from his Bohemian side,--marching
stealthily on it, one night (March 25-26th), by two or more roads,
with 8,000 men, and much preliminary Croat-work,--contrived to
envelop wholly, and carry off with him, before help could come up.
This, I suppose, had quickened Friedrich's arrival. He has been in
that region ever since,--in Landshut for the last week or two;
and returns thither after the Deville affair.
And at Landshut,--which is the main Pass into Bohemia or from it,
and is the grand observatory-point at present,--he will have to
remain till the first days of July; almost three months.
Watching, and waiting on the tedious Daun, who has the lifting of
the curtain this Year! Daun had come to Jaromirtz, to his
cantonments, "March 24th" (almost simultaneously with Friedrich to
his); expecting Friedrich's Invasion, as usual. Long days sat Daun,
expecting the King in Bohemia:--"There goes he, at last!" thought
Daun, on Prince Henri's late flamy appearance there (BREAKAGE THIRD
we labelled it);--and Daun had hastily pushed a Division
thitherward, double-quick, to secure Prag; but found it was only
the Magazines. "Above four millions worth [600,000 pounds, counting
the THALERS into sterling], above four millions worth of bread and
forage gone to ashes, and the very boats burnt? Well; the poor
Reichsfolk, or our poor Auxiliaries to them, will have empty
haversacks:--but it is not Prag!" thinks Daun.
At what exact point of time Daun came to see that Friedrich was not
intending Invasion, and would, on the contrary, require to be
invaded, I do not know. But it must have been an interesting
discovery to Daun, if he foreshadowed to himself what results it
would have on him: "Taking the defensive, then? And what is to
become of one's Cunctatorship in that case!" Yes, truly.
Cunctatorship is not now the trade needed; there is nothing to be
made of playing Fabius-Cunctator:--and Daun's fame henceforth is a
diminishing quantity. The Books say he "wasted above five weeks in
corresponding with the Russian Generals." In fact, he had now weeks
enough on hand; being articulately resolved (and even commanded by
Kriegshofrath) to do nothing till the Russians came up;--and also
(INarticulately and by command of Nature) to do as little as
possible after! This Year, and indeed all years following, the
Russians are to be Daun's best card.
Waiting for three months here till the curtain rose, it was
Friedrich that had to play Cunctator. A wearisome task to him, we
need not doubt. But he did it with anxious vigilance; ever thinking
Daun would try something, either on Prince Henri or on him, and
that the Play would begin. But the Play did not. There was endless
scuffling and bickering of Outposts; much hitching and counter-
hitching, along that Bohemian-Silesian Frontier,--Daun gradually
hitching up, leftwards, northwards, to be nearer his Russians;
Friedrich counter-hitching, and, in the end, detaching against the
Russians, as they approached in actuality. The details of all which
would break the toughest patience. Not till July came, had both
parties got into the Lausitz; Daun into an impregnable Camp near
Mark-Lissa (in Gorlitz Country); Friedrich, opposite and eastward
of him, into another at Schmottseifen:--still after which, as the
Russians still were not come, the hitching (if we could concern
ourselves with it), the maze of strategic shuffling and counter-
dancing, as the Russians get nearer, will become more intricate
than ever.
Except that of General Beck on Battalion Duringshofen,--if that was
meant as retaliatory, and was not rather an originality of Beck's,
who is expert at such strokes,--Daun, in return for all these
injurious Assaults and Breakages, tried little or no retaliation;
and got absolutely none. Deville attempted once, as we saw;
Loudon once, as perhaps we shall see: but both proved futile.
For the present absolutely none. Next Year indeed, Loudon, on
Fouquet at Landshut-- But let us not anticipate! Just before
quitting Landshut for Schmottseifen, Friedrich himself rode into
Bohemia, to look more narrowly; and held Trautenau, at the bottom
of the Pass, for a day or two--But the reader has had enough of
Small-War! Of the present Loudon attempt, Friedrich, writing to
Brother Henri, who is just home from his Franconian Invasion
(BREAKAGE FIFTH), has a casual word, which we will quote.
"Reich-Hennersdorf" is below Landshut, farther down the Pass;
"Liebau" still farther down,--and its "Gallows," doubtless, is on
some knoll in the environs!
REICH-HENNERSDORF, 9th JUNE. "My congratulations on the excellent
success you have had [out in Frankenland yonder]! Your prisoners,
we hear, are 3,000; the desertion and confusion in the Reichs Army
are affirmed to be enormous:--I give those Reichs fellows two good
months [scarcely took so long] to be in a condition to show face
again. As for ourselves, I can send you nothing but
contemptibilities. We have never yet had the beatific vision of Him
with the Hat and Consecrated Sword [Papal Daun, that is];
they amuse us with the Sieur Loudon instead;--who, three days ago
[7th July, two days] did us the honor of a visit, at the Gallows of
Liebau. He was conducted out again, with all the politeness
imaginable, on to near Schatzlar," well over the Bohemian Border;
"where we flung a score of cannon volleys into the"--into the
"DERRIERE of him, and everybody returned home." [In SCHONING, ii.
65: "9th June, 1759."]
Perhaps the only points now noticeable in this tedious Landshut
interim, are Two, hardly noticed then at all by an expectant world.
The first is: That in the King's little inroad down to Trautenau,
just mentioned, four cannon drawn by horses were part of the King's
fighting gear,--the first appearance of Horse Artillery in the
world. "A very great invention," says the military mind: "guns and
carriages are light, and made of the best material for strength;
the gunners all mounted as postilions to them. Can scour along,
over hill and dale, wherever horse can; and burst out, on the
sudden, where nobody was expecting artillery. Devised in 1758;
ready this Year, four light six-pounders; tried first in the King's
raid down to Trautenau [June 29th-30th]. Only four pieces as yet.
But these did so well, there were yearly more. Imitated by the
Austrians, and gradually by all the world." [Seyfarth, ii. 543.]
The second fact is: That Herr Guichard (Author of that fine Book on
the War-methods of the Greeks and Romans) is still about Friedrich,
as he has been for above a year past, if readers remember;
and, during those tedious weeks, is admitted to a great deal of
conversation with the King. Readers will consent to this Note on
Guichard; and this shall be our ultimatum on the wearisome Three
Months at Landshut.
MAJOR QUINTUS ICILIUS. "Guichard is by birth a Magdeburger, age now
thirty-four; a solid staid man, with a good deal of hard faculty in
him, and of culture unusual for a soldier. A handy, sagacious,
learned and intelligent man; whom Friedrich, in the course of a
year's experience, has grown to see willingly about him. There is
something of positive in Guichard, of stiff and, as it were,
GRITTY, which might have offended a weaker taste; but Friedrich
likes the rugged sense of the man; his real knowledge on certain
interesting heads; and the precision with which the known and the
not rightly known are divided from one another, in Guichard.
"Guichard's business about the King has been miscellaneous, not
worth mention hitherto; but to appearance was well done. Of talk
they are beginning to have more and more; especially at Landshut
here, in these days of waiting; a great deal of talk on the Wars of
the Ancients, Guichard's Book naturally leading to that subject.
One night, datable accidentally about the end of May, the topic
happened to be Pharsalia, and the excellent conduct of a certain
Centurion of the Tenth Legion, who, seeing Pompey's people about to
take him in flank, suddenly flung himself into oblique order
[SCHRAGE STELLUNG, as we did at Leutheu], thereby outflanking
Pompey's people, and ruining their manoeuvre and them. 'A dexterous
man, that Quintus Icilius the Centurion!' observed Friedrich. 'Ah,
yes: but excuse me, your Majesty, his name was Quintus Caecilius,'
said Guichard. 'No, it was Icilius,' said the King, positive to his
opinion on that small point; which Guichard had not the art to let
drop; though, except assertion and counter-assertion, what could be
made of it there? Or of what use was it anywhere?
"Next day, Guichard came with the book [what "Book" nobody would
ever yet tell me], and putting his finger on the passage, 'See,
your Majesty: Quintus CAEcilius!' extinguished his royal opponent.
'Hm,' answered Friedrich: 'so?--Well, you shall be Quintus Icilius,
at any rate!' And straightway had him entered on the Army Books 'as
Major Quintus Icilius;' his Majorship is to be dated '10th April,
1758' (to give him seniority); and from and after this '26th May,
1759,' he is to command the late Du Verger's Free-Battalion.
All which was done:--the War-Offices somewhat astonished at such
advent of an antique Roman among them; but writing as bidden, the
hand being plain, and the man an undeniable article. Onward from
which time there is always a 'Battalion Quintus' on their Books,
instead of Battalion Du Verger; by degrees two Batallions Quintus,
and at length three, and Quintus become a Colonel:--at which point
the War ended; and the three Free-Battalions Quintus, like all
others of the same type, were discharged." This is the authentic
origin of the new name Quintus, which Guichard got, to extinction
of the old; substantially this, as derived from Quintus himself,--
though in the precise details of it there are obscurities, never
yet solved by the learned. Nicolai, for example, though he had the
story from Quintus in person, who was his familiar acquaintance,
and often came to see him at Berlin, does not, with his usual
punctuality, say, nor even confess that he has forgotten, what Book
it was that Quintus brought with him to confute the King on their
Icilius-Caecilius controversy; Nicolai only says, that he, for his
part, in the fields of Roman Literature and History, knows only
three Quintus-Iciliuses, not one of whom is of the least
likelihood; and in fact, in the above summary, I have had to INVERT
my Nicolai on one point, to make the story stick together.
[Nicolai, Anekdoten, vi. 129-145.]
"Quintus had been bred for the clerical profession; carefully, at
various Universities, Leyden last of all; and had even preached, as
candidate for license,--I hope with moderate orthodoxy;--though he
soon renounced that career. Exchanged it for learned and vigorous
general study, with an eye to some College Professorship instead.
He was still hardly twenty-three, when, in 1747, the new
Stadtholder," Prince of Orange, whom we used to know, "who had his
eye upon him as a youth of merit, graciously undertook to get him
placed at Utrecht, in a vacancy which had just occurred there,--
whither the Prince was just bound, on some ceremonial visit of a
high nature. The glad Quintus, at that time Guichard and little
thinking of such an alias, hastened to set off in the Prince's
train; but could get no conveyance, such was the press of people
all for Utrecht. And did not arrive till next day,--and found
quarter, with difficulty, in the garret of some overflowing Inn.
"In the lower stories of his Inn, solitary Guichard, when night
fell, heard a specific GAUDEAMUS going on; and inquired what it
was. 'A company of Professors, handselling a newly appointed
Professor;'--appointed, as the next question taught, to the very
Chair poor Quintus had come for! Serene Highness could not help
himself; the Utrechters were so bent on the thing. Quintus lay
awake, all night, in his truckle-bed; and gloomily resolved to have
done with Professorships, and become a soldier. 'If your Serene
Highness do still favor me,' said Quintus next day, 'I solicit, as
the one help for me, an ensign's commission!'--And persisted
rigorously, in spite of all counsellings, promises and outlooks on
the professorial side of things. So that Serene Highness had to
grant him his commission; and Quintus was a soldier thenceforth.
Fought, more or less, in the sad remainder of that Cumberland-Saxe
War; and after the Peace of 1748 continued in the Dutch service.
Where, loath to be idle, he got his learned Books out again, and
took to studying thoroughly the Ancient Art of War. After years of
this, it had grown so hopeful that he proceeded to a Book upon it;
and, by degrees, determined that he must get to certain Libraries
in England, before finishing. In 1754, on furlough, graciously
allowed and continued, he came to London accordingly; finished his
manuscript there (printed at the Hague 1757 [ Memoires
Militaires sur les &c. (a La Haye, 1757: 2 vols.
4to);--was in the 5th edition when I last heard of it.]): and new
War having now begun, went over (probably with English
introductions) as volunteer to Duke Ferdinand. By Duke Ferdinand he
was recommended to Friedrich, the goal of all his efforts, as of
every vagrant soldier's in those times:--and here at last, as
Quintus Icilius, he has found permanent billet, a Battalion and
gradually three Battalions, and will not need to roam any farther.
"They say, what is very credible, that Quintus proved an active,
stout and effectual soldier, in his kind; and perhaps we may hear
of some of his small-war adventures by and by: that he was a
studious, hard-headed, well-informed man, and had written an
excellent Book on his subject, is still abundantly clear.
Readers may look in the famous Gibbon's Autobiography,
or still better in the Guichard Book itself, if they
want evidence. The famous Gibbon was drilling and wheeling, very
peaceably indeed, in the Hampshire Militia, in those wild years of
European War. Hampshire Militia served as key, or glossary in a
sort, to this new Book of Guichard's, which Gibbon eagerly bought
and studied; and it, was Guichard, ALIAS Quintus Icilius, who
taught Gibbon all he ever knew of Ancient War, at least all the
teaching he ever had of it, for his renowned DECLINE AND FALL."
[See Gibbon's Works (4to, London, 1796:
Memoirs of my Life and Writings ), i. 97;
and ( Extraits de mes Lectures ), ii. 52-54, of
dates May 14th-26th, 1762,--during which days Gibbon is engaged in
actual reading of the Memoires Militaires;
and already knows the Author by his ALIAS of Quintus Icilius, "a
man of eminent sagacity and insight, who was in the Dutch, and is
now, I believe, in the Prussian service."
It was in the last days of June that Daun, after many litchings,
got into more decisive general movement northward; and slowly but
steadily planted himself at Mark-Lissa in the Lausitz: upon which,
after some survey of the phenomenon, Friedrich got to
Schmottseifen, opposite him, July 10th. Friedrich, on noticing such
stir, had ridden down to Trautenau (June 29th-30th), new Horse-
Artillery attending, to look closer into Daun's affairs;
and, seeing what they were, had thereupon followed. Above a month
before this, Friedrich had detached a considerable force against
the Russians,--General Dohna, of whom in next Chapter:--and both
Daun and he again sit waiting, till they see farther.
Rapid Friedrich is obliged to wait; watching Daun and the Dohna-
Russian adventure: slow Daun will continue to wait and watch there,
long weeks and months, after that is settled, that and much else,
fully to his mind! Each is in his impregnable Camp; and each, Daun
especially, has his Divisions and Detachments hovering round him,
near or far, on different strategic errands; each Main-Camp like a
planet with various moons--Mark-Lissa especially, a kind of sun
with planets and comets and planetary moons:--of whose intricate
motions and counter-motions, mostly unimportant to us, we promised
to take no notice, in face of such a crisis just at hand.
By the 6th of July, slow Daun had got hitched into his Camp of
Mark-Lissa; and four days after, Friedrich attending him, was in
Schmottseifen: where again was pause; and there passed nothing
mentionable, even on Friedrich's score; and till July was just
ending, the curtain did not fairly rise. Panse of above two weeks
on Friedrich's part, and of almost three months on Daun's.
Mark-Lissa, an impregnable Camp, is on the Lausitz Border;
with Saxony, Silesia, Bohemia all converging hereabouts, and
Brandenburg itself in the vicinity,--there is not a better place
for waiting on events. Here, accordingly, till well on in
September, Daun sat immovable; not even hitching now,--only
shooting out Detachments, planetary, cometary, at a great rate,
chiefly on his various Russian errands.
Daun, as we said, had been uncomfortably surprised to find, by
degrees, that Invasion was not Friedrich's plan this Year; that the
dramatic parts are redistributed, and that the playing of Fabius-
Cunctator will not now serve one's turn. Daun, who may well be
loath to believe such a thing, clings to his old part, and seems
very lazy to rise and try another. In fact, he does not rise,
properly speaking, or take up his new part at all. This Year, and
all the following, he waits carefully till the Russian Lion come;
will then endeavor to assist,--or even do jackal, which will be
safer still. The Russians he intends shall act lion; he himself
modestly playing the subaltern but much safer part! Diligent to
flatter the lion; will provide him guidances, and fractional
sustenances, in view of the coming hunt; will eat the lion's
leavings, once the prey is slaughtered. This really was, in some
sort, Daun's yearly game, so long as it would last!--
July ending, and the curtain fairly risen, we shall have to look at
Friedrich with our best eyesight. Preparatory to which, there is,
on Friedrich's part, ever since the middle of June, this Anti-
Russian Dohna adventure going on:--of which, at first, and till
about the time of getting to Schmottseifen, he had great hopes;
great, though of late rapidly sinking again:--into which we must
first throw a glance, as properly the opening scene.
Fouquet has been left at Landshut, should the Daun remnants still
in Bohemia think of invading. Fouquet is about rooting himself
rather firmly into that important Post; fortifying various select
Hills round Landshut, with redoubts, curtains, communications;
so as to keep ward there, inexpugnable to a much stronger force.
There for about a year, with occasional short sallies, on errands
that arise, Fouquet sat successfully vigilant; resisting the
Devilles, Becks, Harsches; protecting Glatz and the Passes of
Silesia: in about a year we shall hear of his fortunes worsening,
and of a great catastrophe to him in that Landshut Post.
Friedrich allowed the Reichsfolk "two good months," after all that
flurrying and havoc done on them, "before they could show face in
Saxony." They did take about that time; and would have taken more,
had not Prince Henri been called away by other pressing occasions
in Friedrich's own neighborhood; and Saxony, for a good while (end
of June to beginning of September), been left almost bare of
Prussian troops. Which encourages the Reichs Army to hurry afield
in very unprepared condition,--still rather within the two months.
End of July, Light people of them push across to Halberstadt or
Halle Country; and are raising Contributions, and plundering
diligently, if nothing else. Of which we can take no notice
farther: if the reader can recollect it, well; if not, also well.
The poor Reichs Army nominally makes a figure this Year, but
nominally only; the effective part of it, now and henceforth, being
Austrian Auxiliaries, and the Reichs part as flaccid and
insignificant as ever.
Prince Henri's call to quit Saxony was this. Daun, among the
numerous Detachments he was making, of which we can take no notice,
had shot out Two (rather of COMETARY type, to use our old figure),
--which every reader must try to keep in mind. Two Detachments,
very considerable: Haddick (who grew at last to 20,000), and Loudon
(16,000); who are hovering about mysteriously over the Lausitz;--
intending what? Their intention, Friedrich thinks, especially
Haddick's intention, may be towards Brandenburg, and even Berlin:
wherefore he has summoned Henri to look after it. Henri, resting in
cantonments about Tschopau and Dresden, after the late fatigues,
and idle for the moment, hastens to obey; and is in Bautzen
neighborhood, from about the end of June and onward. Sufficiently
attentive to Haddick and Loudon: who make no attempt on
Brandenburg; having indeed, as Friedrich gradually sees, and as all
of us shall soon see, a very different object in view!--
Chapter II.
GENERAL DOHNA; DICTATOR WEDELL: BATTLE OF ZULLICHAU.
The Russian Lion, urged by Vienna and Versailles, made his entry,
this Year, earlier than usual,--coming now within wind of Mark-
Lissa, as we see;--and has stirred Daun into motion, Daun and
everybody. From the beginning of April, the Russians, hibernating
in the interior parts of Poland, were awake, and getting slowly
under way. April 24th, the Vanguard of 10,000 quitted Thorn;
June 1st, Vanguard is in Posen; followed by a First Division and a
Second, each of 30,000. They called it "Soltikof crossing the
Weichsel with 100,000 men;" but, exclusive of the Cossack swarms,
there were not above 76,000 regulars: nor was Soltikof their
Captain just at first; our old friend Fermor was, and continued to
be till Soltikof, in a private capacity, reached Posen (June 29th),
and produced his new commission. At Fermor's own request, as Fermor
pretended,--who was skilled in Petersburg politics, and with a
cheerful face served thenceforth as Soltikof's second.
At Posen, as on the road thither, they find Sulkowski's and the
other burnt provenders abundantly replaced: it is evident they
intend, in concert with Daun, to enclose Friedrich between two
fires, and do something considerable. Whether on Brandenburg or
Silesia, is not yet known to Friedrich. Friedrich, since the time
they crossed Weichsel, has given them his best attention; and more
than once has had schemes on their Magazines and them,--once a new
and bigger Scheme actually afoot, under Wobersnow again, our Anti-
Sulkowski friend; but was obliged to turn the force elsewhither, on
alarms that rose. He himself cannot quit the centre of the work;
his task being to watch Daun, and especially, should Daun attempt
nothing else, to prevent junction of Soltikof and him.
Daun still lies torpid, or merely hitching about; but now when the
Russians are approaching Posen, and the case becomes pressing,
Friedrich, as is usual to him, draws upon the Anti-Swedish
resource, upon the Force he has in Pommern. That is to say, orders
General Dohna, who has the Swedes well driven in at present, to
quit Stralsund Country, to leave the ineffectual Swedes with some
very small attendance; and to march--with certain reinforcements
that are arriving (Wobersnow already, Hulsen with 10,000 out of
Saxony in few days)--direct against the Russians; and at once go in
upon them. Try to burn their Magazines again; or, equally good, to
fall vigorously on some of their separate Divisions, and cut them
off in the vagrant state;--above all, to be vigorous, be rapid,
sharp, and do something effectual in that quarter. These were
Dohna's Instructions. Dohna has 18,000; Hulsen, with his 10,000, is
industriously striding forward, from the farther side of Saxony;
Wobersnow, with at least his own fine head, is already there.
Friedrich, watching in the Anti-Junction position, ready for the
least chance that may turn up.
Dohna marched accordingly; but was nothing like rapid enough:
an old man, often in ill health too; and no doubt plenty of
impediments about him. He consumed some time rallying at Stargard;
twelve days more at Landsberg, on the Warta, settling his provision
matters: in fine, did not get to Posen neighborhood till June 23d,
three weeks after the Russian Vanguard of 10,000 had fixed itself
there, and other Russian parties were daily dropping in. Dohna was
15,000, a Wobersnow with him: had he gone at once on Posen, as
Wobersnow urged, it is thought he might perhaps have ruined this
Vanguard and the Russian Magazine; which would have been of signal
service for the remaining Campaign. But he preferred waiting for
Hulsen and the 10,000, who did not arrive for seven or eight days
more; by which time Soltikof and most of the Russian Divisions had
got in;--and the work was become as good as hopeless, on those
languid terms. Dohna did try upon the Magazine, said to be ill
guarded in some Suburb of Posen; crossed the Warta with that view,
found no Magazine; recrossed the Warta; and went manoeuvring about,
unable to do the least good on Soltikof or his Magazines or
operations. Friedrich was still in Landshut region, just about
quitting it,--just starting on that little Trautenau Expedition,
with his Four Pieces of Horse-Artillery (June 29th), when the first
ill news of Dohna came in; which greatly disappointed Friedrich,
and were followed by worse, instead of better.
The end was, Soltikof, being now all ready, winded himself out of
Posen one day, veiled by Cossacks; and, to Dohna's horror, had got,
or was in the act of getting, between Dohna and Brandenburg;
which necessitated new difficult manoeuvres from Dohna.
Soltikof too can manoeuvre a little: Soltikof edges steadily
forward; making for Crossen-on-Oder, where he expects to find
Austrians (Haddick and Loudon, if Friedrich could yet guess it),
with 30,000 odd, especially with provision, which is wearing scarce
with him. Twice or so there was still a pretty opportunity for
Dohna on him; but Dohna never could resolve about it in time.
Back and ever back goes Dohna; facing Soltikof; but always hitching
back; latterly in Brandenburg ground, the Russians and he;--having
no provision, he either. In fine, July 17th (one week after
Friedrich had got to Schmottseifen), Dohna finds himself at the
little Town of Zullichau (barely in time to snatch it before
Soltikof could), within thirty miles of Crossen; and nothing but
futility behind and before. [Tempelhof, iii, 78-88;
Helden-Geschichte, v. 835-847.]
We can imagine Friedrich's daily survey of all this; his gloomy
calculations what it will soon amount to if it last. He has now no
Winterfeld, Schwerin, no Keith, Retzow, Moritz:--whom has he?
His noblest Captains are all gone; he must put up with the less
noble. One Wedell, Lieutenant-General, had lately recommended
himself to the royal mind by actions of a prompt daring. The royal
mind, disgusted with these Dohna hagglings, and in absolute
necessity of finding somebody that had resolution, and at least
ordinary Prussian skill, hoped Wedell was the man. And determined,
the crisis being so urgent, to send Wedell in the character of
ALTER-EGO, or "with the powers of a Roman Dictator," as the Order
expressed it. [Given in Preuss, ii. 207, 208; in Stenzel, v. 212,
other particulars.] Dictator Wedell is to supersede Dohna;
shall go, at his own swift pace, fettered by nobody;--and, at all
hazards, shall attack Soltikof straightway, and try to beat him.
"You are grown too old for that intricate hard work; go home a
little, and recover your health," the King writes to Dohna. And to
the Dohna Army, "Obey this man, all and sundry of you, as you would
myself;" the man's private Order being, "Go in upon Soltikof;
attack him straightway; let us have done with this wriggling and
haggling." Date of this Order is "Camp at Schmottseifen, 20th July,
1759." The purpose of such high-flown Title, and solemnity of
nomination, was mainly, it appears, to hush down any hesitation or
surprise among the Dohna Generals, which, as Wedell was "the
youngest Lieutenant-General of the Army," might otherwise have
been possible.
Wedell, furnished with some small escort and these Documents,
arrives in Camp Sunday Evening, 22d July:--poor Dohna has not the
least word or look of criticism; and every General, suppressing
whatever thoughts there may be, prepares to yield loyal obedience
to Dictator Wedell. "Wobersnow was the far better soldier of the
two!" murmured the Opposition party, then and long afterwards,
[Retzow, &c.]--all the more, as Wobersnow's behavior under it was
beautiful, and his end tragical, as will be seen. Wobersnow I
perceive to have been a valiant sharp-striking man, with
multifarious resources in his head; who had faithfully helped in
these operations, and I believe been urgent to quicken them.
But what I remember best of him is his hasty admirable contrivance
for field-bakery in pressing circumstances,--the substance of which
shall not be hidden from a mechanical age:--
"You construct six slight square iron frames, each hinged to the
other; each, say, two feet square, or the breadth of two common
tiles, and shaped on the edges so as to take in tiles;--tiles are
to be found on every human cottage. This iron frame, when you hook
it together, becomes the ghost of a cubic box, and by the help of
twelve tiles becomes a compact field-oven; and you can bake with
it, if you have flour and water, and a few sticks. The succinctest
oven ever heard of; for your operation done, and your tiles flung
out again, it is capable of all folding flat like a book."
[Retzow, ii. 82 n.] Never till now had Wobersnow's oven been at
fault: but in these Polish Villages, all of mere thatched hovels,
there was not a tile to be found; and the Bakery, with
astonishment, saw itself unable to proceed.
Wedell arrived Sunday evening, 22d July; had crossed Oder at
Tschischerzig,--some say by Crossen Bridge; no matter which.
Dohna's Camp is some thirty miles west of Crossen; in and near the
small Town called Zullichau, where his head-quarter is. In those
dull peaty Countries, on the right, which is thereabouts the
NORTHERN (not eastern), bank of Oder; between the Oder and the
Warta; some seventy miles south-by-east of Landsberg, and perhaps
as far southwest of Posen: thither has Dohna now got with his
futile manoeuvrings. Soltikof, drawn up amid scrubby woods and
sluggish intricate brooks, is about a mile to east of him.
Poor Dohna demits at once; and, I could conjecture, vanishes that
very night; glad to be out of such a thing. Painfully has Dohna
manoeuvred for weeks past; falling back daily; only anxious
latterly that Soltikof, who daily tries it, do not get to westward
of him on the Frankfurt road, and so end this sad shuffle.
Soltikof as yet has not managed that ultimate fatality; Dohna, by
shuffling back, does at least contrive to keep between Frankfurt
and him;--will not try attacking him, much as Wobersnow urges it.
Has agreed twice or oftener, on Wobersnow's urgency: "Yes, yes;
we have a chance," Dohna would answer; "only let us rest till
to-morrow, and be fresh!" by which time the opportunity was always
gone again.
Wedell had arrived with a grenadier battalion and some horse for
escort; had picked up 150 Russian prisoners by the way. Retzow has
understood he came in with a kind of state; and seemed more or less
inflated; conscious of representing the King's person, and being a
Roman Dictator,--though it is a perilously difficult office too,
and requires more than a Letter of Instructions to qualify you for
it! This is not Leonidas Wedell, whom readers once knew;
poor Leonidas is dead long since, fell in the Battle of Sohr, soon
after the heroic feat of Ziethen's and his at Elbe-Teinitz (Defence
of Elbe against an Army); this is Leonidas's elder Brother.
Friedrich had observed his fiery ways on the day of Leuthen:
"Hah, a new Winterfeld perhaps?" thought Friedrich, "All the
Winterfeld I now have!"--which proved a fond hope. Wedell's
Dictatorship began this Sunday towards sunset; and lasted--in
practical fact, it lasted one day.
DICTATOR WEDELL FIGHTS HIS BATTLE (Monday, 23d July, 1759),
WITHOUT SUCCESS.
Monday morning early, Wedell is on the heights, reconnoitring
Soltikof; cannot see much of him, the ground being so woody;
does see what he takes to be Soltikof's left wing; and judges that
Soltikof will lie quiet for this day. Which was far from a right
reading of Soltikof; the fact being that Soltikof, in long columns
and divisions, beginning with his right wing, was all on march
since daybreak; what Wedell took for Soltikof's "left wing" being
Soltikof's rear-guard and baggage, waiting till the roads cleared.
Wedell, having settled everything on the above footing, returns to
Zullichau about 10 o'clock; and about 11, Soltikof, miles long,
disengaged from the bushy hollows, makes his appearance on the open
grounds of Palzig: he, sure enough (though Wedell can hardly
believe it),--five or six miles to northeast yonder;
tramping diligently along, making for Crossen and the Oder Bridge;
--and is actually got ahead of us, at last!
This is what Wedell cannot suffer, cost what it may.
Wedell's orders were, in such case, Attack the Russians.
Wedell instantly took his measures; not unskilfully, say judges,--
though the result proved disappointing; and Wobersnow himself
earnestly dissuaded: "Too questionable, I should doubt! Soltikof is
70,000, and has no end of Artillery; we are 26,000, and know not if
we can bring a single gun to where Soltikof is!" [Tempelhof, iii.
132-134.]
Wedell's people have already, of their own accord, got to arms
again; stand waiting his orders on this new emergency. No delay in
Wedell or in them. "May not it be another Rossbach (if we are
lucky)?" thinks Wedell: "Cannot we burst in on their flank, as they
march yonder, those awkward fellows; and tumble them into heaps?"
The differences were several-fold: First, that Friedrich and
Seidlitz are not here. Many brave men we have, and skilful; but not
a master and man like these Two. Secondly, that there is no Janus
Hill to screen our intentions; but that the Russians have us in
full view while we make ready. Thirdly, and still more important,
that we do not know the ground, and what hidden inaccessibilities
lie ahead. This last is judged to have been the killing
circumstance. Between the Russians and us there is a paltry little
Brook, or line of quagmire; scarcely noticeable here, but passable
nowhere except at the Village-Mill of Kay, by one poor Bridge
there. And then, farther inwards, as shelter of the Russians, there
is another quaggy Brook, branch of the above, which is without
bridge altogether. Hours will be required to get 26,000 people
marched up there, not to speak of heavy guns at all.
The 26,000 march with their usual mathematical despatch: Manteuffel
and the Vanguard strike in with their sharpest edge, foot and
horse, direct on the Head of the Russian Column, Manteuffel leading
on, so soon as his few battalions and squadrons are across.
Head means BRAIN (or life) to this Russian Column; and these
Manteuffel people go at it with extraordinary energy. The Russian
Head gives way; infantry and cavalry:--their cavalry was driven
quite to rear, and never came in sight again after this of
Manteuffel. But the Russians have abundance of Reserves; also of
room to manoeuvre in,--no lack of ground open, and ground
defensible (Palzig Village and Churchyard, for example);--above
all, they have abundance of heavy guns.
Well in recoil from Manteuffel and his furies, the beaten Russians
succeed in forming "a long Line behind Palzig Village," with that
Second, slighter or Branch Quagmire between them and us; they get
the Village beset, and have the Churchyard of it lined with
batteries,--say seventy guns. Manteuffel, unsupported, has to fall
back;--unwillingly, and not chased or in disorder,--towards Kay-
Mill again; where many are by this time across. Hulsen, with the
Centre, attacks now, as the Vanguard had done; with a will, he too:
Wobersnow, all manner of people attack; time after time, for about
four hours coming: and it proves all in vain, on that Churchyard
and new Line. Without cannon, we are repulsed, torn away by those
Russian volcano-batteries; never enough of us at once!
Hulsen, Wobersnow, everybody in detail is repulsed, or finds his
success unavailing. Poor Wobersnow did wonders; but he fell,
killed. Gone he; and has left so few of his like: a man that could
ill be spared at present!--Day is sinking; we find we have lost, in
killed, wounded and prisoners, some 6,000 men. "About sunset,"--
flaming July sun going down among the moorlands on such a scene,--
Wedell gives it up; retires slowly towards Kay Bridge. Slowly;
not chased, or molested; Soltikof too glad to be rid of him.
Soltikof's one aim is, and was, towards Crossen; towards Austrian
Junction, and something to live upon. Soltikof's loss of men is
reckoned to be heavier even than Wedell's: but he could far better
afford it. He has gained his point; and the price is small in
comparison. Next day he enters Crossen on triumphant terms.
Poor Wedell had returned over Kay-Mill Bridge, in the night-time
after his Defeat. On the morrow (Tuesday, 24th, day of Soltikof's
glad entry), Wedell crosses Oder; at Tschischerzig, the old place
of Sunday evening last,--in how different a humor, this time!--and
in a day more, posts himself opposite to Crossen Bridge, five or
six miles south; and again sits watchful of Soltikof there.
At Crossen, triumphant Soltikof has found no Austrian Junction, nor
anything additional to live upon. A very disappointing circumstance
to Soltikof; "Austrian Junction still a problem, then; a thing in
the air? And perhaps the King of Prussia taking charge of it now!"
Soltikof, more and more impatient, after waiting some days, decided
Not to cross Oder by that Bridge;--"shy of crossing anywhere [think
the French Gentlemen, Montazet, Montalembert], to the King of
Prussia's side!" [Stenzel, iv. 215 (indistinct, and giving a WRONG
citation of "Montalembert, ii. 87").] Which is not unlikely, though
the King is above 100 miles off him, and has Daun on his hands.
Certain enough, keeping the River between him and any operations of
the King, Soltikof set out for Frankfurt, forty or fifty miles
farther down. In the hope probably of finding something of human
provender withal? July 30th, one week after his Battle, the
vanguard of him is there.
Thus, in two days, or even in one, has Wedell's Dictatorship ended.
Easy to say scoffingly, "Would it had never begun!" Friedrich knows
that, and Wedell knows it;--AFTER the event everybody knows it!
Friedrich said nothing of reproachful; the reverse rather,--
"I dreaded something of the kind; it is not your fault;"
[TO WEDELL, FROM THE KING, "Schmottseifen, July 24th. 1759" (in
Schoning, ii. 118).]--ordered Wedell to watch diligently at Crossen
Bridge, and be ready on farther signal. The Wedell Problem, in such
ruined condition, has now fallen to Friedrich himself.
This is the BATTLE OF ZULLICHAU (afternoon of 23d July, 1759);
the beginning of immense disasters in this Campaign. Battle called
also of KAY and of PALZIG, those also being main localities in it.
It was lost, not by fault of Wedell's people, who spent themselves
nobly upon it, nor perhaps by fault of Wedell himself, but
principally, if not solely, by those two paltry Brooks, or threads
of Quagmire, one of which turns Kay-Mill; memorable Brooks in this
Campaign, 1759. [Tempelhof, iii. 125-131.]
Close in the same neighborhood, there is another equally
contemptible Brook, making towards Oder, and turning the so-called
Krebsmuhle, which became still more famous to the whole European
Public twenty years hence. KREBS-MUHLE (Crab-Mill), as yet quite
undistinguished among Mills; belonging to a dusty individual called
Miller Arnold, with a dusty Son of his own for Miller's Lad: was it
at work this day? Or had the terrible sound from Palzig quenched
its clacking?--
Some three weeks ago (4th-6th JULY), there occurred a sudden sharp
thing at Havre-de-Grace on the French Coast, worth a word from us
in this place. The Montazets, Montalemberts, watching, messaging
about, in the Austrian-Russian Courts and Camps, assiduously
keeping their Soltikofs in tune, we can observe how busy they are.
Soubise with his Invasion of England, all the French are very busy;
they have conquered Hessen from Duke Ferdinand, and promise
themselves a glorious Campaign, after that Seizure of Frankfurt.
Soubise, intent on his new Enterprise, is really making ardent
preparations: at Vanues in the Morbihan, such rendezvousing and
equipping;--especially at Havre, no end of flat-bottomed boats
getting built; and much bluster and agitation among the weaker
sorts in both Nations. Whereupon,--
"JULY 1st [just in the days while Friedrich was first trying Horse
Artillery], Rear-Admiral Rodney sails from Portsmouth with a few
Frigates, and Six Bomb-ketches [FIREDRAKE, BASILISK, BLAST, and
such nomenclatures [List of him, in Beatson, Naval and
Military Memoirs (London, 1804), ii. 241; his Despatch
excellently brief, ib. ii. 323]]; and in the afternoon of Tuesday,
3d, arrives in the frith or bay of Havre. Steers himself properly
into 'the Channel of Honfleur' before dark; and therefrom, with his
Firedrake, Basilisk and Company, begins such a bombardment of Havre
and the flat-bottomed manufactories as was quite surprising.
Fifty-two incessant hours of it, before he thought poor Havre had
enough. Poor Havre had been on fire six times; the flat manufactory
(unquenchable) I know not how many; all the inhabitants off in
despair; and the Garrison building this battery to no purpose, then
that; no salvation for them but in Rodney's 'mortars getting too
hot.' He had fired of shells 1,900, of carcasses, 1,150:
from Wednesday about sunrise till Friday about 8 A.M.,--about time
now for breakfast; which I hope everybody had, after such a stretch
of work. 'No damage to speak of,' said the French Gazetteers;
'we will soon refit everything!' But they never did; and nothing
came of Havre henceforth. Vannes was always, and is now still more,
to be the main place; only that Hawke--most unexpectedly, for one
fancied all their ships employed in distant parts--rides there with
a Channel Fleet of formidable nature; and the previous question
always is: 'Cannot we beat Hawke? Can we! Or will not he perhaps
go, of himself, when the rough weather comes?'"
Chapter III.
FRIEDRICH IN PERSON ATTEMPTS THE RUSSIAN PROBLEM; NOT WITH SUCCESS.
Before Wedell's catastrophe, the Affair of those Haddick-Loudon
Detachments had become a little plainer to Friedrich.
The intention, he begins to suspect, is not for Berlin at all;
but for junction with Soltikof,--at Crossen, or wherever it may be.
This is in fact their real purpose; and this, beyond almost Berlin
itself, it is in the highest degree important to prevent!
Important; and now as if become impossible!
Prince Henri had come to Bautzen with his Army, specially to look
after Loudon and Haddick; and he has, all this while, had Finck
with some 10,000 diligently patrolling to westward of them,
guarding Berlin; he himself watching from the southern side,--
where, as on the western, there was no danger from them. Some time
before Wedell's affair, Friedrich had pushed out Eugen of
Wurtemberg to watch these people on the eastern side;--suspicious
that thitherward lay their real errand. Eugen had but 6,000;
and, except in conjunction with Finck and Henri, could do nothing,
--nor can, now when Friedrich's suspicion turns out to be fatally
true. Friedrich had always the angry feeling that Finck and Prince
Henri were the blameworthy parties in what now ensued; that they,
who were near, ought to have divined these people's secret, and
spoiled it in time; not have left it to him who was far off, and so
busy otherwise. To the last, that was his fixed private opinion;
by no means useful to utter,--especially at present, while
attempting the now very doubtful enterprise himself, and needing
all about him to be swift and zealous. This is one of Friedrich's
famous labors, this of the Haddick-Loudon junction with Soltikof;
strenuous short spasm of effort, of about a week's continuance;
full of fiery insight, velocity, energy; still admired by judges,
though it was unsuccessful, or only had half success. Difficult to
bring home, in any measure, to the mind of modern readers, so
remote from it.
Friedrich got the news of Zullichau next day, July 24th;--and
instantly made ready. The case is critical; especially this
Haddick-Loudon part of it: add 30 or 36,000 Austrians to Soltikof,
how is he then to be dealt with? A case stringently pressing:--and
the resources for it few and scattered. For several days past,
Haddick, and Loudon under him, whose motions were long enigmatic,
have been marching steadily eastward through the Lausitz,--with the
evident purpose of joining Soltikof; unless Wedell could forbid.
Wedell ahead was the grand opposition;--Finck, Henri, Wurtemberg,
as good as useless;--and Wedell being now struck down, these
Austrians will go, especially Loudon will, at a winged rate.
They are understood to be approaching Sagan Country; happily, as
yet, well to westward of it, and from Sagan Town well
NORTH-westward;--but all accounts of them are vague, dim: they are
an obscure entity to Friedrich, but a vitally important one.
Sagan Town may be about 70 miles northward of where Friedrich now
is: from Sagan, were they once in the meridian of Sagan, their road
is free eastward and northward;--to Crossen is about 60 miles
north-by-east from Sagan, to Frankfurt near 100 north. Sagan is on
the Bober; Bober, in every event, is between the Austrians and
their aim.
Friedrich feels that, however dangerous to quit Daun's
neighborhood, he must, he in person, go at once. And who, in the
interim, will watch Daun and his enterprises? Friedrich's
reflections are: "Well, in the crisis of the moment, Saxony--though
there already are marauding Bodies of Reichsfolk in it--must still
be left to itself for a time; or cannot Finck and his 10,000 look
to it? Henri, with his Army, now useless at Bautzen, shall
instantly rendezvous at Sagan; his Army to go with me, against the
Russians and their Haddick-Loudons; Henri to Schmottseifen, instead
of me, and attend to Daun; Henri, I have no other left! Finck and
his 10,000 must take charge of Saxony, such charge as he can:--how
lucky those Spring Forays, which destroyed the Reichs Magazines!
Whereby there is no Reichs Army yet got into Saxony (nothing but
preliminary pulses and splashings of it); none yet, nor like to be
quite at once." That is Friedrich's swift plan.
Henri rose on the instant, as did everybody concerned: July 29th,
Henri and Army were at Sagan; Army waiting for the King; Henri so
far on his road to Schmottseifen. He had come to Sagan "by almost
the rapidest marches ever heard of,"--or ever till some others of
Henri's own, which he made in that neighborhood soon. Punctual, he,
to his day; as are Eugen of Wurtemberg's people, and all
Detachments and Divisions: Friedrich himself arrives at Sagan that
same 29th, "about midnight,"--and finds plenty of work waiting:
no sleep these two nights past; and none coming just yet! A most
swift rendezvous. The speed of everybody has been, and needs still
to be, intense.
This rendezvous at Sagan--intersection of Henri and Friedrich,
bound different roads (the Brothers, I think, did not personally
meet, Henri having driven off for Schmottseifen by a shorter road)
--was SUNDAY, JULY 29th. Following which, are six days of such a
hunt for those Austrian reynards as seldom or never was!
Most vehement, breathless, baffling hunt; half of it spent in
painfully beating cover, in mere finding and losing. Not rightly
successful, after all. So that, on the eighth day hence, AUGUST
6th, at Mullrose, near Frankfurt, 80 miles from Sagan, there is a
second rendezvous,--rendezvous of Wedell and Friedrich, who do not
now "intersect," but meet after the hunt is done;--and in the
interim, there has been a wonderful performance, though an
unsuccessful. Friedrich never could rightly get hold of his
Austrians. Once only, at Sommerfeld, a long march northwest of
Sagan, he came upon some outskirts of them. And in general, in
those latter eight days, especially in the first six of them, there
is, in that Kotbus-Sagan Country, such an intersecting, checking,
pushing and multifarious simmering of marches, on the part of half
a dozen Strategic Entities, Friedrich the centre of them, as--as, I
think, nobody but an express soldier-student, well furnished with
admiration for this particular Soldier, would consent to have
explained to him. One of the maziest, most unintelligible whirls of
marching; inextricable Sword Dance, or Dance of the Furies,--five
of them (that is the correct number: Haddick, Loudon, Friedrich,
Wurtemberg, Wedell);--and it is flung down for us, all in a huddle,
in these inhuman Books (which have several errors of the press,
too): let no man rashly insist with himself on understanding it,
unless he have need! Humanly pulled straight, not inhumanly flung
down at random, here the essentials of it are,--in very
brief state:--
"SAGAN, MONDAY, 30th JULY. Friedrich is at Sagan, since midnight
last, busier and busier;" beating cover, as we termed it, and
getting his hounds (his new Henri-Army) in leash; "endeavoring,
especially, to get tidings of those Austrian people; who are very
enigmatic,--Loudon a dexterous man,--and have hung up such a
curtain of Pandours between Friedrich and them as is nearly
impenetrable. In the course of this Monday Friedrich ascertains
that they are verily on the road; coming eastward, for Sommerfeld,
--'thence for Crossen!' he needs no ghost to tell him. Wherefore,
"TUESDAY, SAGAN TO NAUMBURG. Tuesday before daybreak Friedrich too
is on the road: northwestward; in full march towards Naumburg on
Bober, meaning to catch the Bridge from them there. March of the
swiftest; he himself is ahead, as usual, with the Vanguard of
Horse. He reaches Naumburg (northward, a march of 20 miles);
finds, not Haddick or Loudon, but a Detachment of theirs: which he
at once oversets with his cavalry, and chases,--marking withal that
'westward is the way they run.' Westward; and that we are still
ahead, thank Heaven!
"Before his Infantry are all up, or are well rested in Naumburg,
Friedrich ascertains, on more precise tidings, that the Austrians
are in Sommerfeld, to westward (again a 20 miles); and judges That,
no doubt, they will bear off more to leftward, by Guben probably,
and try to avoid him,--unless he can still catch them in
Sommerfeld. About nightfall he marches for Sommerfeld, at his
swiftest; arrives Wednesday early; finds--alas!--
"SOMMERFELD, WEDNESDAY MORNING, AUGUST 1st, Friedrich finds that
Loudon was there last night,--preterite tense, alas; the question
now being, Where is he!" In fact, Loudon had written yesterday to
Daun (Letter still extant, "Sommerfeld, July 31st"), That "being
swift and light," consisting of horse for most part, "he may
probably effect Junction this very night;"--but has altered his
mind very much, on sight of these fugitives from Naumburg, since!
And has borne off more to leftward. Straight north now, and at a
very brisk pace; being now all of horse;--and has an important
conference with Haddick at Guben, when they arrive there. "Not in
Sommerfeld?" thinks Friedrich (earnestly surveying, through this
slit he has made in the Pandour veil): "Gone to Guben most likely,
bearing off from us to leftward?"--Which was the fact; though not
the whole fact. And indeed the chase is now again fallen uncertain,
and there has to be some beating of covers. For one thing, he
learns to-day (August 1st) that the Russians are gone to Frankfurt:
"Follow them, you Wedell,"--orders Friedrich: them we shall have to
go into,--however this hunt end!--
"To Markersdorf, Thursday, August 2d. Friedrich takes the road for
Guben; reaches Markersdorf (twenty miles' march, still seven or
eight from Guben); falls upon--What phenomenon is this?
The Austrian heavy Train; meal-wagons not a few, and a regiment of
foot in charge of it;--but going the wrong way, not TOWARDS the
Russians, but from them! What on earth can this be? This is
Haddick,--if Friedrich could yet clearly know it,--Haddick and
Train, who for his own part has given up the junction enterprise.
At Guben, some hours ago, he had conference with Loudon; and this
was the conclusion arrived at: 'Impossible, with that King so near!
You, Herr Loudon, push on, without heavy baggage, and with the
Cavalry altogether: you can get in, almost 20,000 strong; I, with
the Infantry, with the meal and heavy guns, will turn, and make for
the Lausitz again!'
"This mysterious Austrian Train, going the wrong way, Friedrich
attacks, whatever it be (hoping, I suppose, it might be the
Austrians altogether); chases it vigorously; snatches all the meal-
wagons, and about 1,000 prisoners. Uncertain still what it is,--if
not the Austrians altogether? To his sorrow, he finds, on pushing
farther into it, that it is only Haddick and the Infantry;
that Loudon, with the 20,000 Horse, will have gone off for
Frankfurt;--irretrievably ahead, the swift Loudon,--ever careering
northward all this while, since that afternoon at Sommerfeld, when
the fugitives altered his opinion: a now unattainable Loudon.
In the course of Thursday night, Friedrich has satisfied himself
that the Loudon junction is a thing as good as done;--in effect,
Loudon did get to Frankfurt, morning of August 3d, and joined the
Russians there; and about the same time, or only a few hours
sooner, Friedrich, by symptoms, has divined that his hunt has
ended, in this rather unsuccessful way; and that chasing of Haddick
is not the road to go." [Tempelhof, iii. 135-139.]
Not Haddick now; with or without their Austrians, it shall be the
Russians now! Two days ago (Wednesday, as was mentioned), before
sight of those enigmatic meal-wagons, Friedrich had learned that
the Russians were to be in Frankfurt again; and had ordered Wedell
to march thitherward, at any rate. Which Wedell is doing, all this
Thursday and the four following days. As does likewise, from and
after "FRIDAY, AUGUST 3d, 1 A.M." (hunt then over), Friedrich
himself,--renouncing Haddick and the hunt. Straight towards
Frankfurt thenceforth; head-quarters Beeskow that night;
next night, Mullrose, whither Wedell is appointed, within twelve
miles of Frankfurt. This is the end of Friedrich's sore Chase and
March; burnt deeply into his own weary brain, if ours still refuse
it admittance! Here, of utterly fatigued tone, is a Note of his,
chiefly on business, to Minister Finkenstein. Indeed there are,
within the next ten days, Three successive Notes to Finkenstein,
which will be worth reading in their due places. This is the First
of them:--
THE KING TO GRAF VON FINKENSTEIN (at Berlin).
"BEESKOW, 3d August,1759."
"I am just arrived here, after cruel and frightful marchings
[CHECKS HIMSELF, HOWEVER]. There is nothing desperate in all that;
and I believe the noise and disquietude this hurly-burly has caused
will be the worst of it. Show this Letter to everybody, that it may
be known the State is not undefended. I have made above 1,000
prisoners from Haddick. All his meal-wagons have been taken.
Finck, I believe, will keep an eye on him," and secure Berlin from
attempts of his. "This is all I can say.
"To-morrow I march to within two leagues of Frankfurt [to Mullrose,
namely]. Katte [the Minister who has charge of such things] must
send me instantly Two Hundred Wispels [say tons] of Meal, and
Bakers One Hundred, to Furstenwalde. I shall encamp at Wulkow. I am
very tired. For six nights I have not closed an eye. Farewell.--F."
During the above intricate War-Dance of Five,--the day while
Friedrich was at Sommerfeld, the day before he came in sight of
Haddick's meal-wagons going the wrong road,--there went on, at
Minden, on the Weser, three hundred miles away, a beautiful feat of
War, in the highest degree salutary to Duke Ferdinand and Britannic
Majesty's Ministry; feat which requires a word from us here.
A really splendid Victory, this of Minden, August 1st:
French driven headlong through the Passes there; their "Conquest of
Hanover and Weser Country" quite exploded and flung over the
horizon; and Duke Ferdinand relieved from all his distresses, and
lord of the ascendant again in those parts. Highly interesting to
Friedrich;--especially to Prince Henri; whose apprehensions about
Ferdinand and the old Richelieu Hastenbeck-Halberstadt time
returning on us, have been very great; and who now, at
Schmottseifen, fires FEU-DE-JOIE for it with all his heart. This is
a Battle still of some interest to English readers. But can English
readers consent to halt in this hot pinch of the Friedrich crisis;
and read the briefest thing which is foreign to it? Alas, I fear
they can;--and will insert the Note here:--
BATTLE OF MINDEN: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1st, 1759.---"Ever since
Bergen, things have gone awry with Ferdinand, and in spite of
skilful management, of hard struggles and bright sparkles of
success, he has had a bad Campaign of it. The French, it would
seem, are really got into better fighting order; Belleisle's
exertions as War-Minister have been almost wonderful,--in some
respects, TOO wonderful, as we shall hear!--and Broglio and
Contades, in comparison with Clermont and Soubise, have real
soldier qualities. Contades, across Rhine again, in those Weser
Countries, who is skilful in his way, and is pricked on by
emulation of Broglio, has been spreading himself out steadily
progressive there; while Broglio, pushing along from Frankfurt-on-
Mayn, has conquered Hessen; is into Hanover; on the edge of
conqueriug Hanover,--which how is Ferdinand to hinder?
Ferdinand has got two, if not three Armies to deal with, and in
number is not mnch superior to one. If he run to save Hanover from
Broglio, he loses Westphalia: Osnabruck (his magazine)? Munster,
Lippstadt,--Contades, if left to himself, will take these, after
short siege; and will nestle himself there, and then advance, not
like a transitory fever-fit, but like visible death, on Hanover.
Ferdinand, rapid yet wary, manoeuvred his very best among those
interests of his, on the left bank of Weser; but after the
surprisal of Minden from him (brilliantly done by Broglio, and the
aid of a treacherous peasant), especially after the capture of
Osnabruck, his outlooks are gloomy to a degree: and at Versailles,
and at Minden where Contades has established himself, 'the Conquest
of Hanover' (beautiful counterweight to all one's losses in America
or elsewhere) is regarded as a certainty of this Year.
"For the last ten days of July, about Minden, the manoeuvring,
especially on Ferdinand's part, had been intense; a great idea in
the head of Ferdinand, more or less unintelligible to Contades.
Contades, with some 30,000, which is the better half of his force,
has taken one of the unassailablest positions. He lies looking
northward, his right wing on the Weser with posts to Minden (Minden
perhaps a mile northeastward there), on his left impassable peat-
bogs and quagmires; in front a quaggy River or impassable black
Brook, called the Bastau, coming from the westward, which
disembogues at Minden: [Sketch of Plan, p. 238]--there lies
Contades, as if in a rabbit-hole, say military men; for defence, if
that were the sole object, no post can be stronger. Contades has in
person say 30,000; and round him, on both sides of the Weser, are
Broglio with 20,000; besides other Divisions, I know not how many,
besieging Munster, capturing Osnabruck (our hay magazine),
attempting Lippstadt by surprise (to no purpose), and diligently
working forward, day by day, to Ferdinand's ruin in those Minden
regions. Three or four Divisions busy in that manner;--and above
all, we say, he has Broglio with a 20,000 on the right or east bank
of the Weser,--who, if Ferdinand quit him even for a day, seems to
have Hanover at discretion, and can march any day upon Hanover
City, where his light troops have already been more than once.
Why does n't Ferdinand cross Weser, re-cross Weser; coerce Broglio
back; and save Hanover? cry the Gazetteers and a Public of weak
judgment. Pitt's Public is inclined to murmur about Ferdinand;
Pitt himself never. Ferdinand persists in sticking by Minden
neighborhood,--and, in a scarcely accountable way, manoeuvring
there, shooting out therefrom what mischief he can upon the various
Contades people in their sieges and the like.
"On Contades himself he can pretend to do nothing,--except hoodwink
him, entice him out, and try to get a chance on him. But for his
own subsistence and otherwise, he is very lively;--snatches, by a
sudden stroke, Bremen City: 'Yes truly, Bremen is a Reichstadt;
nor shall YOU snatch it, as you did Frankfurt; but I will, instead;
and my English proviant-ships shall have a sure haven henceforth!'
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