History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 9
by
Thomas Carlyle
Part 2 out of 4
from Majesty,--or, likelier, it may be Lieutenant Buddenbrock, his
Son, merely returning to Ruppin? We can guess, that the flattering
Dessauer has sent his Majesty five gigantic men from the Magdeburg
regiments, and that Friedrich is ordered to hustle out thirty of
insignificant stature from his own, by way of counter-gift to the
Dessauer;--which Friedrich does instantly, but cannot, for his
life, see how (being totally cashless) he is to replace them with
better, or replace them at all!
2. TO CAPTAIN HACKE, OF THE POTSDAM GUARD.
"RUPPIN, 15th July, 1732.
"MEIN GOTT, what a piece of news Buddenbrock has brought me! I am
to get nothing out of Brandenburg, my dear Hacke? Thirty men I had
to shift out of my company in consequence [of Buddenbrock's
order]; and where am I now to get other thirty? I would gladly
give the King tall men, as the Dessauer at Magdeburg does; but I
have no money; and I don't get, or set up for getting, six men for
one [thirty short for five tall], as he does. So true is that
Scripture: To him that hath shall be given; and from him that hath
not shall be taken away even that he hath.
"Small art, that the Prince of Dessau's and the Magdeburg
Regiments are fine, when they have money at command, and thirty
men GRATIS over and above! I, poor devil, have nothing; nor shall
have, all my days. Prithee, dear Hacke (BITTE IHN, LIEBER HACKE),
think of all that: and if I have no money allowed, I must bring
Asmus [Recruit unknown to me] alone as Recruit next year; and my
Regiment will to a certainty be rubbish (KROOP). Once I had
learned a German Proverb--
'VERSPRECHEN UND HALTEN (To promise and to keep)
ZIEMT WOHL JUNGEN UND ALTEN (Is pretty for young and for old)!'
"I depend alone on you (IHN), dear Hacke; unless you help, there
is a bad outlook. To-day I have knocked again [written to Papa for
money]; and if that does not help, it is over. If I could get any
money to borrow, it would do; but I need not think of that.
Help me, then, dear Hacke! I assure you I will ever remember it;
who, at all times, am my dear Herr Captain's devoted (GANZ
ERGEBENER) servant and friend,
"FRIDERICH."
[In German: OEuvres, xxvii. part 3d,
p. 177.]
To which add only this Note, two days later, to Seckendorf;
indicating that the process of "borrowing" has already, in some
form, begun,--process which will have to continue: and to develop
itself;--and that his Majesty, as Seckendorf well knows, is
resolved upon his Bohemian journey:--
3. TO THE GENERAL FELDZEUGMEISTER GRAF VON SECKENDORF.
"RUPPIN, 17th July, 1732.
"MY VERY DEAR GENERAL,--I have written to the King, that I owed
you 2,125 THALERS for the Recruits; of which he says there are
600 paid: there remain, therefore, 1,525, which he will pay
you directly.
"The King is going to Prague: I shall not be of the party [as you
will]. To say truth, I am not very sorry; for it would infallibly
give rise to foolish rumors in the world. At the same time, I
should have much wished to see the Emperor, Empress, and Prince of
Lorraine, for whom I have a quite particular esteem. I beg you,
Monsieur, to assure him of it;--and to assure yourself that I
shall always be,--with a great deal of consideration, MONSIEUR,
MON TRES-CHER GENERAL, &c. FREDERIC."
And now--for the Bohemian Journey, "Visit at Kladrup" as they call
it;--Ruppin being left in this assiduous and wholesome, if rather
hampered condition.
Kaiser Karl and his Empress, in this summer of 1732, were at
Karlsbad, taking the waters for a few weeks. Friedrich Wilhelm,
who had long, for various reasons, wished to see his Kaiser face
to face, thought this would be a good opportunity. The Kaiser
himself, knowing how it stood with the Julich-and-Berg and other
questions, was not anxious for such an interview; still less were
his official people; among whom the very ceremonial for such a
thing was matter of abstruse difficulty. Seckendorf accordingly
had been instructed to hunt wide, and throw in discouragements, so
far as possible;--which he did, but without effect. Friedrich
Wilhelm had set his heart upon the thing; wished to behold for
once a Head of the Holy Roman Empire, and Supreme of Christendom;
--also to see a little, with his own eyes, into certain
matters Imperial.
And so, since an express visit to Karlsbad might give rise to
newspaper rumors, and will not suit, it is settled, there shall be
an accidental intersection of routes, as the Kaiser travels
homeward,--say in some quiet Bohemian Schloss or Hunting-seat of
the Kaiser's own, whither the King may come incognito; and thus,
with a minimum of noise, may the needful passage of hospitality be
done. Easy all of this: only the Vienna Ministers are dreadfully
in doubt about the ceremonial, Whether the Imperial hand can be
given (I forget if for kissing or for shaking)?--nay at last they
manfully declare that it cannot be given; and wish his Prussian
Majesty to understand that it must be refused. [Forster, i. 328.]
"RES SUMMAE CONSEQUENTIAE," say they; and shake solemnly their big
wigs.--Nonsense (NARRENPOSSEN)! answers the Prussian Majesty:
You, Seckendorf, settle about quarters, reasonable food,
reasonable lodgings; and I will do the ceremonial.
Seckendorf--worth glancing into, for biographical purposes, in
this place--has written to his Court: That as to the victual
department, his Majesty goes upon good common meat; flesh, to
which may be added all manner of river-fish and crabs: sound old
Rhenish is his drink, with supplements of brown and of white beer.
Dinner-table to be spread always in some airy place, garden-house,
tent, big clean barn,--Majesty likes air, of all things;--will
sleep, too, in a clean barn or garden-house: better anything than
being stifled, thinks his Majesty. Who, for the rest, does not
like mounting stairs. [Seckendorf's Report (in Forster, i. 330).]
These are the regulations; and we need not doubt they were
complied with.
Sunday, 27th July, 1732, accordingly, his Majesty, with five or
six carriages, quits Berlin, before the sun is up, as is his wont:
eastward, by the road for Frankfurt-on-Oder; "intends to look at
Schulenburg's regiment," which lies in those parts,--Schulenburg's
regiment for one thing: the rest is secret from the profane
vulgar. Schulenburg's regiment (drawn up for Church, I should
suppose) is soon looked at; Schulenburg himself, by
preappointment, joins the travelling party, which now consists of
the King and Eight:--known figures, seven, Buddenbrock,
Schulenburg, Waldau, Derschau, Seckendorf; Grumkow, Captain Hacke
of the Potsdam Guard; and for eighth the Dutch Ambassador, Ginkel,
an accomplished knowing kind of man, whom also my readers have
occasionally seen. Their conversation, road-colloquy, could it
interest any modern reader? It has gone all to dusk; we can know
only that it was human, solid, for most part, and had much tobacco
intermingled. They were all of the Calvinistic persuasion, of the
military profession; knew that life is very serious, that speech
without cause is much to be avoided. They travelled swiftly, dined
in airy places: they are a FACT, they and their summer dust-cloud
there, whirling through the vacancy of that dim Time; and have an
interest for us, though an unimportant one.
The first night they got to Grunberg; a pleasant Town, of
vineyards and of looms, across the Silesian frontier. They are now
turning more southeastward; they sleep here, in the Kaiser's
territory, welcomed by some Official persons; who signify that the
overjoyed Imperial Majesty has, as was extremely natural, paid the
bill everywhere. On the morrow, before the shuttles awaken,
Friedrich Wilhelm is gone again; towards the Glogau region,
intending for Liegnitz that night. Coursing rapidly through the
green Silesian Lowlands, blue Giant Mountains (RIESENGEBIRGE)
beginning to rise on the southwestward far away. Dines, at noon,
under a splendid tent, in a country place called Polkwitz,
["Balkowitz," say Pollnitz (ii. 407) and Forster; which is not the
correct name.] with country Nobility (sorrow on them, and yet
thanks to them) come to do reverence. At night he gets
to Liegnitz.
Here is Liegnitz, then. Here are the Katzbach and the Blackwater
(SCHWARZWASSER), famed in war, your Majesty; here they coalesce;
gray ashlar houses (not without inhabitants unknown to us) looking
on. Here are the venerable walls and streets of Liegnitz; and the
Castle which defied Baty Khan and his Tartars, five hundred years
ago. [1241, the Invasion, and Battle here, of this unexpected
Barbarian.]--Oh, your Majesty, this Liegnitz, with its princely
Castle, and wide rich Territory, the bulk of the Silesian Lowland,
whose is it if right were done? Hm, his Majesty knows full well;
in Seckendorf's presence, and going on such an errand, we must not
speak of certain things. But the undisputed truth is, Duke
Friedrich II., come of the Sovereign Piasts, made that
ERBVERBRUDERUNG, and his Grandson's Grandson died childless:
so the heirship fell to us, as the biggest wig in the most
benighted Chancery would have to grant;--only the Kaiser will not,
never would; the Kaiser plants his armed self on Schlesien, and
will hear no pleading. Jagerndorf too, which we purchased with our
own money---No more of that; it is too miserable! Very impossible
too, while we have Berg and Julich in the wind!--
At Liegnitz, Friedrich Wilhelm "reviews the garrison, cavalry and
infantry," before starting; then off for Glatz, some sixty miles
before we can dine. The goal is towards Bohemia, all this while;
and his Majesty, had he liked the mountain-passes, and unlevel
ways of the Giant Mountains, might have found a shorter road and a
much more picturesque one. Road abounding in gloomy valleys,
intricate rock-labyrinths, haunts of Sprite RUBEZAHL, sources of
the Elbe and I know not what. Majesty likes level roads, and
interesting rock-labyrinths built by man rather than by Nature.
Majesty makes a wide sweep round to the east of all that;
leaves the Giant Mountains, and their intricacies, as a blue
Sierra far on his right,--had rather see Glatz Fortress than the
caverns of the Elbe; and will cross into Bohemia, where the Hills
are fallen lowest. At Glatz during dinner, numerous Nobilities are
again in waiting. Glatz is in Jagerndorf region; Jagerndorf, which
we purchased with our own money, is and remains ours, in spite of
the mishaps of the Thirty-Years War;--OURS, the darkest Chancery
would be obliged to say, from under the immensest wig! Patience,
your Majesty; Time brings roses!--
From Glatz, after viewing the works, drilling the guard a little,
not to speak of dining, and despatching the Nobilities, his
Majesty takes the road again; turns now abruptly westward, across
the Hills at their lowest point; into Bohemia, which is close at
hand. Lewin, Nachod, these are the Bohemian villages, with their
remnant of Czechs; not a prosperous population to look upon:
but it is the Kaiser's own Kingdom: "King of Bohemia" one of his
Titles ever since Sigismund SUPER-GRAMMATICAM'S time. And here
now, at the meeting of the waters (Elbe one of them, a brawling
mountain-stream) is Jaromierz, respectable little Town, with an
Imperial Officiality in it,--where the Official Gentlemen meet us
all in gala, "Thrice welcome to this Kingdom, your Majesty!"--
and signify that they are to wait upon us henceforth, while we do
the Kaiser's Kingdom of Bohemia that honor.
It is Tuesday night, 29th July, this first night in Bohemia.
The Official Gentlemen lead his Majesty to superb rooms, new-hung
with crimson velvet, and the due gold fringes and tresses,--very
grand indeed; but probably not so airy as we wish. "This is the
way the Kaiser lodges in his journeys; and your Majesty is to be
served like him." The goal of our journey is now within few miles.
Wednesday, 30th July, 1732, his Majesty awakens again, within
these crimson-velvet hangings with the gold tresses and fringes,
not so airy as he could wish; despatches Grumkow to the Kaiser,
who is not many miles off, to signify what honor we would
do ourselves.
It was on Saturday last that the Kaiser and Kaiserinn, returning
from Karlsbad, illuminated Prag with their serene presence;
"attended high-mass, vespers," and a good deal of other worship,
as the meagre old Newspapers report for us, on that and the Sunday
following. And then, "on Monday, at six in the morning," both the
Majesties left Prag, for a place called Chlumetz, southwestward
thirty miles off, in the Elbe region, where they have a pretty
Hunting Castle; Kaiser intending "sylvan sport for a few days,"
says the old rag of a Newspaper, "and then to return to Prag."
It is here that Grumkow, after a pleasant morning's drive of
thirty miles with the sun on his back, finds Kaiser Karl VI.;
and makes his announcements, and diplomatic inquiries what next.
Had Friedrich Wilhelm been in Potsdam or Wusterhausen, and heard
that Kaiser Karl was within thirty miles of him, Friedrich Wilhelm
would have cried, with open arms, Come, come! But the Imperial
Majesty is otherwise hampered; has his rhadamanthine Aulic
Councillors, in vast amplitude of wig, sternly engaged in study of
the etiquettes: they have settled that the meeting cannot be in
Chlumetz; lest it might lead to night's lodgings, and to
intricacies. "Let it be at Kladrup," say the Ample-wigged;
Kladrup, an Imperial Stud, or Horse-Farm, half a dozen miles from
this; where there is room for nothing more than dinner. There let
the meeting be, to-morrow at a set hour; and, in the mean time, we
will take precautions for the etiquettes. So it is settled, and
Grumkow returns with the decision in a complimentary form.
Through Konigsgratz, down the right bank of the Upper Elbe, on the
morrow morning, Thursday, 31st July, 1732, Friedrich Wilhelm
rushes on towards Kladrup; finds that little village, with the
Horse-edifices, looking snug enough in the valley of Elbe;--
alights, welcomed by Prince Eugenio von Savoye, with word that the
Kaiser is not come, but steadily expected soon. Prinoe Eugenio von
Savoye: ACH GOTT, it is another thing, your Highness, than when we
met in the Flanders Wars, long since;--at Malplaquet that morning,
when your Highness had been to Brussels, visiting your Lady Mother
in case of the worst! Slightly grayer your Highness is grown;
I too am nothing like so nimble; the great Duke, poor man, is
dead!--Prince Eugenio von Savoye, we need not doubt, took snuff,
and answered in a sprightly appropriate manner.
Kladrup is a Country House as well as a Horse-Farm: a square court
is the interior, as I gather; the Horse-buildings at a reverent
distance forming the fourth side. In the centre of this court,--
see what a contrivance the Aulic Councillors have hit upon,--there
is a wooden stand built, with three staircases leading up to it,
one for each person, and three galleries leading off from it into
suites of rooms: no question of precedence here, where each of you
has his own staircase and own gallery to his apartment! Friedrich
Wilhelm looks down like a rhinoceros on all those cobwebberies.
No sooner are the Kaiser's carriage-wheels heard within the court,
than Friedrich Wilhelm rushes down, by what staircase is readiest;
forward to the very carriage-door; and flings his arms about the
Kaiser, embracing and embraced, like mere human friends glad to
see one another. On these terms, they mount the wooden stand,
Majesty of Prussia, Kaiser, Kaiserinn, each by his own staircase;
see, for a space of two hours, the Kaiser's foals and horses led
about,--which at least fills up any gap in conversation that may
threaten to occur. The Kaiser, a little man of high and humane
air, is not bright in talk; the Empress, a Brunswick Princess of
fine carriage, Grand-daughter of old Anton Ulrich who wrote the
Novels, is likewise of mute humor in public life; but old Nord-
Teutschland, cradle of one's existence; Brunswick reminiscences;
news of your Imperial Majesty's serene Father, serene Sister,
Brother-in-law the Feldmarschall and Insipid Niece whom we have
had the satisfaction to betroth lately,--furnish small-talk
where needful.
Dinner being near, you go by your own gallery to dress. From the
drawing-room, Friedrich Wilhelm leads out the Kaiserinn;
the Kaiser, as Head of the world, walks first, though without any
lady. How they drank the healths, gave and received the ewers and
towels, is written duly in the old Books, but was as indifferent
to Friedrich Wilhelm as it is to us; what their conversation was,
let no man presume to ask. Dullish, we should apprehend,--and
perhaps BETTER lost to us? But where there are tongues, there are
topics: the Loom of Time wags always, and with it the tongues of
men. Kaiser and Kaiserinn have both been in Karlsbad lately;
Kaiser and Kaiserinn both have sailed to Spain, in old days, and
been in sieges and things memorable: Friedrich Wilhelm, solid
Squire Western of the North, does not want for topics, and talks
as a solid rustic gentleman will. Native politeness he knows on
occasion; to etiquette, so far as concerns his own pretensions,
he feels callous altogether,--dimly sensible that the Eighteenth
Century is setting in, and that solid musketeers and not
goldsticks are now the important thing. "I felt mad to see him so
humiliate himself," said Grumkow afterwards to Wilhelmina,
"J'ENRAGEAIS DANS MA PEAU:" why not?
Dinner lasted two hours; the Empress rising, Friedrich Wilhelm
leads her to her room; then retires to his own, and "in a quarter
of an hour" is visited there by the Kaiser; "who conducts him," in
so many minutes exact by the watch, "back to the Empress,"--for a
sip of coffee, as one hopes; which may wind up the Interview well.
The sun is still a good space from setting, when Friedrich
Wilhelm, after cordial adieus, neglectful of etiquette, is rolling
rapidly towards Nimburg, thirty miles off on the Prag Highway;
and Kaiser Karl with his Spouse move deliberately towards Chlumetz
to hunt again. In Nimburg Friedrich Wilhelm sleeps, that night;--
Imperial Majesties, in a much-tumbled world, of wild horses,
ceremonial ewers, and Eugenios of Savoy and Malplaquet, probably
peopling his dreams. If it please Heaven, there may be another
private meeting, a day or two hence.
Nimburg, ah your Majesty, Son Fritz will have a night in Nimburg
too;--riding slowly thither amid the wrecks of Kolin Battle, not
to sleep well;--but that happily is hidden from your Majesty.
Kolin, Czaslau (Chotusitz), Elbe Teinitz,--here in this Kladrup
region, your Majesty is driving amid poor Villages which will be
very famous by and by. And Prag itself will be doubly famed in
war, if your Majesty knew it, and the Ziscaberg be of bloodier
memory than the Weissenberg itself!--His Majesty, the morrow's sun
having risen upon Nimburg, rolls into Prag successfully about
eleven A.M., Hill of Zisca not disturbing him; goes to the Klein-
Seite Quarter, where an Aulic Councillor with fine Palace is
ready; all the cannon thundering from the walls at his Majesty's
advent; and Prince Eugenio, the ever-present, being there to
receive his Majesty,--and in fact to invite him to dinner this day
at half-past twelve. It is Friday, 1st of August, 1732.
By a singular chance, there is preserved for us in Fassmann's
Book, what we may call an Excerpt from the old Morning
Post of Prag, bringing that extinct Day into clear
light again; recalling the vanished Dinner-Party from the realms
of Hades, as a thing that once actually WAS. The List of the
Dinner-guests is given complete; vanished ghosts, whom, in
studying the old History-Books, you can, with a kind of interest,
fish up into visibility at will. There is Prince Eugenio von
Savoye at the bottom of the table, in the Count-Thun Palace where
he lodges; there bodily, the little man, in gold-laced coat of
unknown cut; the eyes and the tempers bright and rapid, as usual,
or more; nose not unprovided with snuff, and lips in consequence
rather open. Be seated, your Majesty, high gentlemen all.
A big chair-of-state stands for his Majesty at the upper end of
the table: his Majesty will none of it; sits down close by Prince
Eugene at the very bottom, and opposite Prince Alexander of
Wurtemberg, whom we had at Berlin lately, a General of note in the
Turkish and other wars: here probably there will be better talk;
and the big chair may preside over us in vacancy. Which it does.
Prince Alexander, Imperial General against the Turks, and Heir-
Apparent of Wurtemberg withal, can speak of many things,--hardly
much of his serene Cousin the reigning Duke; whose health is in a
too interesting state, the good though unlucky man. Of the
Gravenitz sitting now in limbo, or travelling about disowned,
TOUJOURS UN LAVEMENT SES TROUSSES, let there be deep silence.
But the Prince Alexander can answer abundantly on other heads.
He comes to his inheritance a few months hence; actual reigning
Duke, the poor serene Cousin having died: and perhaps we shall
meet, him transiently again.
He is Ancestor of the Czars of Russia, this Prince Alexander, who
is now dining here in the body, along with Friedrich Wilhelm and
Prince Eugene: Paul of Russia, unbeautiful Paul, married the
second time, from Mumpelgard (what the French call Montbeillard,
in Alsace), a serene Grand-daughter of his, from whom come the
Czars,--thanks to her or not. Prince Alexander is Ancestor withal
of our present "Kings of Wurtemberg," if that mean anything:
Father (what will mean something) to the serene Duke, still in
swaddling-clothes, [Born 21st January, 1732; Carl Eugen the name
of him (Michaelis, iii. 450).] who will be son-in-law to Princess
Wilhelmina of Baireuth (could your Majesty foresee it); and will
do strange pranks in the world, upon poet Schiller and others.
Him too, and Brothers of his, were they born and become of size,
we shall meet. A noticeable man, and not without sense, this
Prince Alexander; who is now of a surety eating with us,--as we
find by the extinct Morning Post in
Fassmann's old Book.
Of the others eating figures, Stahrembergs, Sternbergs, Kinsky
Ambassador to England, Kinsky Ambassador to France, high Austrian
dignitaries, we shall say nothing;--who would listen to us?
Hardly can the Hof-Kanzler Count von Sinzendorf, supreme of Aulic
men, who holds the rudder of Austrian State-Policy, and probably
feels himself loaded with importance beyond most mortals now
eating here or elsewhere,--gain the smallest recognition from
oblivious English readers of our time. It is certain he eats here
on this occasion; and to his Majesty he does not want for
importance. His Majesty, intent on Julich and Berg and other high
matters, spends many hours next day, in earnest private dialogue
with him. We mention farther, with satisfaction, that Grumkow and
Ordnance-Master Seckendorf are both on the list, and all our
Prussian party, down to Hacke of the Potsdam grenadiers, friend
Schulenburg visibly eating among the others. Also that the dinner
was glorious (HERRLICH), and ended about five. [Fassmann, p. 474.]
After which his Majesty went to two evening parties, of a high
order, in the Hradschin Quarter or elsewhere; cards in the one
(unless you liked to dance, or grin idle talk from you), and
supper in the other.
His Majesty amused himself for four other days in Prag,
interspersing long earnest dialogues with Sinzendorf, with whom he
spent the greater part of Saturday, [Pollnitz, ii. 411.]--results
as to Julioh and Berg of a rather cloudy nature. On Saturday came
the Kaiser, too, and Kaiserinn, to their high Nouse, the Schloss
in Prag; and there occurred, in the incognito form, "as if by
accident," three visits or counter-visits, two of them of some
length. The King went dashing about; saw, deliberately or in
glimpses, all manner of things,--from "the Military Hospital" to
"the Tongue of St. Nepomuk" again. Nepomuk, an imaginary Saint of
those parts; pitched into the Moldau, as is fancied and fabled, by
wicked King Wenzel (King and Deposed-Kaiser, whom we have heard
of), for speaking and refusing to speak; Nepomuk is now become the
Patron of Bridges, in consequence; stands there in bronze on the
Bridge of Prag; and still shows a dried Tongue in the world:
[ Die Legende vom heiligen Johann von Nepomuk,
italic> von D. Otto Abel (Berlin, 1855); an acute bit of
Historical Criticism.] this latter, we expressly find, his
Majesty saw.
On Sunday, his Majesty, nothing of a strait-laced man, attended
divine or quasi-divine worship in the Cathedral Churoh,--where
high Prince Bishops delivered PALLIUMS, did histrionisms;
"manifested the ABSURDITAT of Papistry" more or less. Coming out
of the Church, he was induced to step in and stie the rooms of the
Schloss, or Imperial Palace. In one of the rooms, as if by
accident, the Kaiser was found lounging:--"Extremely delighted to
see your Majesty!"--and they had the first of their long or
considerable dialogues together; purport has not transpired.
The second considerable dialogue was on the morrow, when Imperial
Majesty, as if by accident, found himself in the Count-Nostitz
Palace, where Friedrich Wilhelm lodges. Delighted to be so
fortunate again! Hope your Majesty likes Prag? Eternal friendship,
OH JA:--and as to Julich and Berg? Particulars have
not transpired.
Prag is a place full of sights: his Majesty, dashing about in all
quarters, has a busy time; affairs of state (Julich and Berg
principally) alternating with what we now call the LIONS.
Zisca's drum, for instance, in the Arsenal here? Would your
Majesty wish to see Zisca's own skin, which he bequeathed to be a
drum when HE had done with it? "NARRENPOSSEN!"--for indeed the
thing is fabulous, though in character with Zisca. Or the Council-
Chamber window, out of which "the Three Prag Projectiles fell into
the Night of things," as a modern Historian expresses it?
Three Official Gentlemen, flung out one morning, [13th (23d) May,
1618 (Kohler, p. 507).] 70 feet, but fell on "sewerage," and did
not die, but set the whole world on fire? That is too certain, as
his Majesty knows: that brought the crowning of the Winter-
King, Battle of the Weissenberg, Thirty-Years War; and lost us
Jagerndorf and much else.
Or Wallenstein's Palace,--did your Majesty look at that? A thing
worth glancing at, on the score of History and even of Natural-
History. That rugged son of steel and gunpowder could not endure
the least noise in his sleeping-room or even sitting-room,--a
difficulty in the soldiering way of life;--and had, if I remember,
one hundred and thirty houses torn away in Prag, and sentries
posted all round in the distance, to secure silence for his much-
meditating indignant soul. And yonder is the Weissenberg,
conspicuous in the western suburban region: and here in the
eastern, close by, is the Ziscaberg;--O Heaven, your Majesty, on
this Zisca-Hill will be a new "Battle of Prag," which will throw
the Weissenberg into eclipse; and there is awful fighting coming
on in these parts again!
The THIRD of the considerable dialogues in Prag was on this same
Monday night; when his Majesty went to wait upon the Kaiserinn,
and the Kaiser soon accidentally joined them. Precious gracious
words passed;--on Berg and Julich nothing particular, that we
hear;--and the High Personages, with assurances of everlasting
friendship, said adieu; and met no more in this world. On his
toilet-table Friedrich Wilhelm found a gold Tobacco-box, sent by
the highest Lady extant; gold Tobacco-box, item gold Tobacco-
stopper or Pipe-picker: such the parting gifts of her Imperial
Majesty. Very precious indeed, and grateful to the honest heart;--
yet testifying too (as was afterwards suggested to the royal mind)
what these high people think of a rustic Orson King; and how they
fling their nose into the air over his Tabagies and him.
On the morrow morning early, Friedrich Wilhelm rolls away again
homewards, by Karlsbad, by Baireuth; all the cannon of Prag saying
thrice, Good speed to him. "He has had a glorious time," said the
Berlin Court-lady to Queen Sophie one evening, "no end of kindness
from the Imperial Majesties: but has he brought Berg and Julich in
his pocket?"--Alas, not a fragment of them; nor of any solid thing
whatever, except it be the gold Tobacco-box; and the confirmation
of our claims on East-Friesland (cheap liberty to let us vindicate
them if we can), if you reckon that a solid thing. These two
Imperial gifts, such as they are, he has consciously brought back
with him;--and perhaps, though as yet unconsciously, a third gift
of much more value, once it is developed into clearness: some dim
trace of insight into the no-meaning of these high people; and how
they consider US as mere Orsons and wild Bisons, whom they will do
the honor to consume as provision, if we behave well!
The great King Friedrich, now Crown-Prince at Ruppin, writing of
this Journey long afterwards,--hastily, incorrectly, as his wont
is, in regard to all manner of minute outward particulars;
and somewhat maltreating, or at least misplacing, even the inward
meaning, which was well known to him WITHOUT investigation, but
which he is at no trouble to DATE for himself, and has dated at
random,--says, in his thin rapid way, with much polished
bitterness:--
"His [King Friedrich Wilhelm's] experience on this occasion served
to prove that good-faith and the virtues, so contrary to the
corruption of the age, do not succeed in it. Politicians have
banished sincerity (LA CANDEUR) into private life: they look upon
themselves as raised quite above the laws which they enjoin on
other people; and give way without reserve to the dictates of
their own depraved mind.
"The guaranty of Julich and Berg, which Seckendorf had formally
promised in the name of the Emperor, went off in smoke; and the
Imperial Ministers were in a disposition so opposed to Prussia,
the King saw clearly [not for some years yet] that if there was a
Court in Europe intending to cross his interests, it was certainly
that of Vienna. This Visit of his to the Emperor was like that of
Solon to Croesus [Solon not I recognizable, in the grenadier
costume, amid the tobacco-smoke, and dim accompaniments?]--and he
returned to Berlin, rich still in his own virtue. The most
punctilious censors could find no fault in his conduct, except a
probity carried to excess. The Interview ended as those of Kings
often do: it cooled [not for some time yet], or, to say better, it
extinguished the friendship there had been between the two Courts.
Friedrich Wilhelm left Prag full of contempt [dimly, altogether
unconsciously, tending to have some contempt, and in the end to be
full of it] for the deceitfulness and pride of the Imperial Court:
and the Emperor's Ministers disdained a Sovereign who looked
without interest on frivolous ceremonials and precedences.
Him they considered too ambitious in aiming at the Berg-and-Julich
succession: them he regarded [came to regard] as a pack of knaves,
who had broken their word, and were not punished for it."
Very bitter, your Majesty; and, in all but the dates, true enough.
But what a drop of concentrated absinthe follows next, by way of
finish,--which might itself have corrected the dating!
"In spite of so many subjects of discontent, the King wedded his
Eldest Son [my not too fortunate self], out of complaisance to the
Vienna Court, with a Princess of Brunswick-Bevern, Niece to the
Empress:"--bitter fact; necessitating change of date in the
paragraphs just written. [ OEuvres de Frederic (Memoires
de Brandenbourg), i. 162, 163.]
Friedrich Wilhelm, good soul, cherishes the Imperial gifts,
Tobacco-box included;--claps the Arms of East-Friesland on his
escutcheon; will take possession of Friesland, if the present Duke
die heirless, let George of England say what he will. And so he
rolls homeward, by way of Baireuth. He stayed but a short while in
Karlsbad; has warned his Wilhelmina that he will be at Baireuth on
the 9th of the month. [Wilhelmina, ii. 55.]
Wilhelmina is very poorly; "near her time," as wives say;
rusticating in "the Hermitage," a Country-House in the vicinity of
Baireuth; Husband and Father-in-law gone away, towards the
Bohemian frontier, to hunt boars. Oh, the bustle and the bother
that high Lady had; getting her little Country House stretched out
to the due pitch to accommodate everybody,--especially her foolish
Sister of Anspach and foolish Brother-in-law and suite,--with
whom, by negligence of servants and otherwise, there had like to
have risen incurable quarrel on the matter. But the dexterous
young Wife, gladdest; busiest and weakliest of hopeful creatures,
contrived to manage everything, like a Female Fieldmarshal, as she
was. Papa was delighted; bullied the foolish Anspach people,--or
would have done so, had not I intervened, that the matter might
die. Papa was gracious, happy; very anxious about me in my
interesting state. "Thou hast lodged me to perfection, good
Wilhelmina. Here I find my wooden stools, tubs to wash in;
all things as if I were at Potsdam:--a good girl; and thou must
take care of thyself, my child (MEIN KIND)."
At dinner, his Majesty, dreading no ill, but intent only on the
practical, got into a quiet, but to me most dreadful, lecture to
the old Margraf (my Father-in-law) upon debt and money and
arrears: How he, the Margraf, was cheated at every turn, and led
about by the nose, and kept weltering in debt: how he should let
the young Margraf go into the Offices, to supervise, and withal to
learn tax-matters and economics betimes. How he (Friedrich
Wilhelm) would send him a fellow from Berlin who understood such
things, and would drill his scoundrels for him! To which the old
Margraf, somewhat flushed in the face, made some embarrassed
assent, knowing it in fact to be true; and accepted the Berlin
man:--but he made me (his poor Daughter-in-law) smart for it
afterwards: "Not quite dead YET, Madam; you will have to wait a
little!"--and other foolish speech; which required to be tempered
down again by a judicious female mind.
Grumkow himself was pleasant on this occasion; told us of Kladrup,
the Prag etiquettes; and how he was like to go mad seeing his
Majesty so humiliate himself. Fraulein Grumkow, a niece of his,
belonging to the Austrian court, who is over here with the rest, a
satirical intriguing baggage, she, I privately perceive, has made
a conquest of my foolish Brother-in-law, the Anspach Margraf
here;--and there will be jealousies, and a cat-and-dog life over
yonder, worse than ever! Tush, why should we talk?--These are the
phenomena at Baireuth; Husband and Father-in-law having quitted
their boar-hunt and hurried home.
After three days, Friedrich Wilhelm rolled away again;
lodged, once more, at Meuselwitz, with abstruse Seckendorf, and
his good old Wife, who do the hospitalities well when they must,
in spite of the single candle once visible. On the morrow after
which, 14th August, 1732, his Majesty is off again, "at four in
the morning," towards Leipzig, intending to be home that night,
though it is a long drive. At Leipzig, not to waste time, he
declines entering the Town; positively will not, though the
cannon-salvos are booming all round;--"breakfasts in the suburbs,
with a certain Horse-dealer (ROSS-HANDLER) now deceased:"
a respectable Centaur, capable, no doubt, of bargaining a little
about cavalry mountings, while one eats, with appetite and at
one's ease. Which done, Majesty darts off again, the cannon-salvos
booming out a second time;--and by assiduous driving gets home to
Potsdam about eight at night. And so has happily ENDED this
Journey to Kladrup: [Fassmann, pp. 474-479; Wilhelmina, ii. 46-55;
Pollnitz, ii. 407-412; Forster, i. 328-334.]
Chapter V.
GHOST OF THE DOUBLE-MARRIAGE RISES; TO NO PURPOSE.
We little expected to see the "Double-Marriage" start up into
vitality again, at this advanced stage; or, of all men,
Seckendorf, after riding 25,000 miles to kill the Double-Marriage,
engaged in resuscitating it! But so it is: by endless intriguing,
matchless in History or Romance, the Austrian Court had, at such
expense to the parties and to itself, achieved the first problem
of stifling the harmless Double-Marriage; and now, the wind having
changed, it is actually trying its hand the opposite way.
Wind is changed: consummate Robinson has managed to do his thrice-
salutary "Treaty of Vienna;" [16th March, 1731, the TAIL of it
(accession of the Dutch, of Spain, &c.) not quite coiled up till
20th February, 1732: Scholl, i. 218-222.] to clout up all
differences between the Sea-Powers and the Kaiser, and restore the
old Law of Nature,--Kaiser to fight the French, Sea-Powers to feed
and pay him while engaged in that necessary job. And now it would
be gratifying to the Kaiser, if there remained, on this side of
the matter, no rent anywhere, if between his chief Sea ally and
his chief Land one, the Britannic Majesty and the Prussian, there
prevailed a complete understanding, with no grudge left.
The honor of this fine resuscitation project is ascribed to
Robinson by the Vienna people: "Robinson's suggestion," they
always say: how far it was, or whether at all it was or not,
nobody at present knows. Guess rather, if necessary, it had been
the Kaiser's own! Robinson, as the thing proceeds, is instructed
from St. James's to "look on and not interfere;" [Despatches, in
State-Paper Office] Prince Eugene, too, we can observe, is
privately against it, though officially urgent, and doing his
best. Who knows,--or need know?
Enough that High Heads are set upon it; that the diplomatic wigs
are all wagging with it, from about the beginning of October,
1732; and rumors are rife and eager, occasionally spurting out
into the Newspapers: Double-Marriage after all, hint the old
Rumors: Double-Marriage somehow or other; Crown-Prince to have his
English Princess, Prince Fred of England to console the Brunswick
one for loss of her Crown-Prince; or else Prince Karl of Brunswick
to-- And half a dozen other ways; which Rumor cannot settle to its
satisfaction. The whispers upon it, from Hanover, from Vienna, at
Berlin, and from the Diplomatic world in general, occasionally
whistling through the Newspapers, are manifold and incessant,--not
worthy of the least attention from us here. [Forster, iii. 111,
120, 108, 113, 122.] What is certain is, Seckendorf, in the end of
October, is corresponding on it with Prince Eugene; has got
instructions to propose the matter in Tobacco-Parliament; and does
not like it at all. Grumkow, who perhaps has seen dangerous clouds
threatening to mount upon him, and never been quite himself again
in the Royal Mind since that questionable NOSTI business,
dissuades earnestly, constantly. "Nothing but mischief will come
of such a proposal," says Grumkow steadily; and for his own share
absolutely declines concern in it.
But Prince Eugene's orders are express; remonstrances, cunctations
only strengthen the determination of the High Heads or Head:
Forward with this beautiful scheme! Seckendorf, puckered into
dangerous anxieties, but summoning all his cunning, has at length,
after six weeks' hesitation, to open it, as if casually, in some
favorable hour, to his Prussian Majesty. December 5th, 1732, as we
compute;--a kind of epoch in his Majesty's life. Prussian Majesty
stares wide-eyed; the breath as if struck out of him; repeats,
"Julich and Berg absolutely secured, say you? But--hm, na!"--and
has not yet taken in the unspeakable dimensions of the occurrence.
"What? Imperial Majesty will make me break my word before all the
world? Imperial Majesty has been whirling me about, face now to
the east, face straightway round to the west: Imperial Majesty
does not feel that I am a man and king at all; takes me for a mere
machine, to be seesawed and whirled hither and thither, like a
rotatory Clothes-horse, to dry his Imperial Majesty's linen upon.
TAUSEND HIMMEL--!"
The full dimensions of all this did not rise clear upon the
intellect of Prussian Majesty,--a slow intellect, but a true and
deep, with terrible earthquakes and poetic fires lying under it,--
not at once, or for months, perhaps years to come. But they had
begun to dawn upon him painfully here; they rose gradually into
perfect clearness: all things seen at last as what they were;--
with huge submarine earthquake for consequence, and total change
of mind towards Imperial Majesty and the drying of his Pragmatic
linen, in Friedrich Wilhelm. Amiable Orson, true to the heart;
amiable, though terrible when too much put upon!
This dawning process went on for above two years to come,
painfully, reluctantly, with explosions, even with tears.
But here, directly on the back of Seckendorf's proposal, and
recorded from a sure hand, is what we may call the peep-of-day in
that matter: First Session of Tobacco-Parliament, close after that
event. Event is on the 5th December, 1732; Tobacco Session is of
the 6th;--glimpse of it is given by Speaker Grumkow himself;
authentic to the bone.
SESSION OF TOBACCO-PARLIAMENT, 6th DECEMBER, 1732.
Grumkow, shattered into "headache" by this Session, writes Report
of it to Seckendorf before going to bed. Look, reader, into one of
the strangest Political Establishments; and how a strange Majesty
comports himself there, directly after such proposal from Vienna
to marry with England still!--"Schwerin" is incidentally in from
Frankfurt-on-Oder, where his Regiment and business usually lie:
the other Honorable Members we sufficiently know. Majesty has been
a little out of health lately; perceptibly worse the last two
days. "Syberg" is a Gold-cook (Alchemical gentleman, of very high
professions), came to Berlin some time ago; whom his Majesty,
after due investigation, took the liberty to hang. [Forster, iii.
126.] Readers can now understand what speaker Grumkow writes, and
despatches by his lackey, in such haste:--
"I never saw such a scene as this evening. Derschau, Schwerin,
Buddenbrock, Rochow, Flanz were present. We had been about an hour
in the Red Room [languidly doing our tobacco off and on], when he
[the King] had us shifted into the Little Room: drove out the
servants; and cried, looking fixedly at me: 'No, I cannot endure
it any longer! ES STOSSET MIR DAS HERZ AB,' cried he, breaking
into German: 'It crushes the heart out of me; to make me do a bit
of scoundrelism, me, me! I say; no, never! Those damned intrigues;
may the Devil take them!'--
"EGO (Grumkow). 'Of course, I know of nothing. But I do not
comprehend your Majesty's inquietude, coming thus on the sudden,
after our common indifferent mood.'
"KING. 'What, make me a villain! I will tell it right out.
Certain damned scoundrels have been about betraying me.
People that should have known me better have been trying to lead
me into a dishonorable scrape'--("Here I called in the hounds, JE
ROMPIS LES CHIENS," reports Grumkow, "for he was going to blab
everything; I interrupted, saying):--
"EGO. 'But, your Majesty, what is it ruffles you so? I know not
what you talk of. Your Majesty has honorable people about you;
and the man who lets himself be employed in things against your
Majesty must be a traitor.'
"KING. 'Yes, JA, JA. I will do things that will surprise
them. I--'
"And, in short, a torrent of exclamations: which I strove to
soften by all manner of incidents and contrivances; succeeding
at last,"--by dexterity and time (but, at this point, the light is
now blown out, and we SEE no more):--"so that he grew quite calm
again, and the rest of the evening passed gently enough.
"Well, you see what the effect of your fine Proposal is, which you
said he would like! I can tell you, it is the most detestable
incident that could have turned up. I know, you had your orders:
but you may believe and depend on it, he has got his heart driven
rabid by the business, and says, 'Who knows now whether that
villain Syberg' Gold-cook, that was hanged the other day, 'was not
set on by some people to poison me?' In a word, he was like
a madman.
"What struck me most was when he repeated, 'Only think! Think! Who
would have expected it of people that should have known me;
and whom I know, and have known, better than they fancy!'"--
Pleasant passage for Seckendorf to chew the cud upon, through the
night-watches!
"In fine, as I was somewhat confused; and anxious, above all, to
keep him from exploding with the secret, I cannot remember
everything, But Derschau, who was more at his ease, will be able
to give you a full account. He [the King] said more than once:
'THIS was his sickness; the thing that ailed him, this: it gnawed
his heart, and would be the death of him!' He certainly did not
affect; he was in a very convulsive condition. [JARNI-BLEU, here
is a piece of work, Herr Seckendorf!]--Adieu, I have a headache."
Whereupon to bed.
"GRUMKOW."
[Forster, iii. 135, 136.]
This Hansard Report went off direct to Prince Eugene; and ought to
have been a warning to the high Vienna heads and him. But they
persisted not the less to please Robinson or themselves;
considering his Prussian Majesty to be, in fact, a mere rotatory
Clothes-horse for drying the Imperial linen on; and to have no
intellect at all, because he was without guile, and had no
vulpinism at all. In which they were very much mistaken indeed.
History is proud to report that the guileless Prussian Majesty,
steadily attending to his own affairs in a wise manner, though
hoodwinked and led about by Black-Artists as he had been, turned
out when Fact and Nature subsequently pronounced upon it, to have
had more intellect than the whole of them together,--to have been,
in a manner, the only one of them that had any real "intellect,"
or insight into Fact and Nature, at all. Consummate Black-art
Diplomacies overnetting the Universe, went entirely to water,
running down the gutters to the last drop; and a prosperous
Drilled Prussia, compact, organic in every part, from diligent
plough-sock to shining bayonet and iron ramrod, remained standing.
"A full Treasury and 200,000 well-drilled men would be the one
guarantee to your Pragmatic Sanction," Prince Eugene had said.
But that bit of insight was not accepted at Vienna; Black-art, and
Diplomatic spider-webs from pole to pole, being thought the
preferable method.
Enough, Seckendorf was ordered to manipulate and soothe down the
Prussian Majesty, as surely would be easy; to continue his
galvanic operations on the Double-Match, or produce a rotation in
the purposes of the royal breast. Which he diligently strove to
do, when once admitted to speech again;--Grumkow steadily
declining to meddle, and only Queen Sophie, as we can fancy,
auguring joyfully of it. Seckendorf, admitted to speech the third
day after that explosive Session, snuffles his softest, his
cunningest;--continues to ride diligently, the concluding portion
(such it proved) of his 25,000 miles with the Prussian Majesty up
and down through winter and spring; but makes not the least
progress, the reverse rather.
Their dialogues and arguings on the matter, here and elsewhere,
are lost in air; or gone wholly to a single point unexpectedly
preserved for us. One day, riding through some village, Priort
some say his Majesty calls it, some give another name,--advocate
Seckendorf, in the fervor of pleading and arguing, said some word,
which went like a sudden flash of lightning through the dark
places of his Majesty's mind, and never would go out of it again
while he lived after. In passionate moments, his Majesty spoke of
it sometimes, a clangorous pathos in his tones, as of a thing
hideous, horrible, never to be forgotten, which had killed him,--
death from a friend's hand. "It was the 17th of April, 1733, [All
the Books (Forster, ii. 142, for one) mention this utterance of
his Majesty, on what occasion we shall see farther on; and give
the date "1732," not 1733: but except as amended above, it refuses
to have any sense visible at this distance. The Village of Priort
is in the Potsdam region.] riding through Priort, a man said
something to me: it was as if you had turned a dagger about in my
heart. That man was he that killed me; there and then I got my
death!"
A strange passion in that utterance: the deep dumb soul of his
Majesty, of dumb-poetic nature, suddenly brought to a fatal
clearness about certain things. "O Kaiser, Kaiser of the Holy
Roman Empire; and this is your return for my loyal faith in you?
I had nearly killed my Fritz, my Wilhelmina, broken my Feekin's
heart and my own, and reduced the world to ruins for your sake.
And because I was of faith more than human, you took me for a dog?
O Kaiser, Kaiser!"--Poor Friedrich Wilhelm, he spoke of this
often, in excited moments, in his later years; the tears running
down his cheeks, and the whole man melted into tragic emotion:
but if Fritz were there, the precious Fritz whom he had almost
killed for their sake, he would say, flashing out into proud rage,
"There is one that will avenge me, though; that one! DA STEHT
EINER, DER MICH RACHEN WIRD!"[Forster, ii. 153.] Yes, your
Majesty; perhaps that one. And it will be seen whether YOU were a
rotatory Clothes-horse to dry their Pragmatic linen upon, or
something different a good deal.
Chapter VI.
KING AUGUST MEDITATING GREAT THINGS FOR POLAND.
In the New-year's days of 1733, the topic among diplomatic
gentlemen, which set many big wigs wagging, and even tremulously
came out in the gray leaves of gazetteers and garreteers of the
period, was a royal drama, dimly supposed to be getting itself up
in Poland at this time. Nothing known about it for certain;
much guessed. "Something in the rumor!" nods this wig; "Nothing!"
wags that, slightly oscillating; and gazetteers, who would earn
their wages, and have a peck of coals apiece to glad them in the
cold weather, had to watch with all eagerness the movements of
King August, our poor old friend, the Dilapidated-Strong, who is
in Saxony at present; but bound for Warsaw shortly,--just about
lifting the curtain on important events, it is thought and not
thought. Here are the certainties of it, now clear enough, so far
as they deserve a glance from us.
January l0th, 1733, August the Dilapidated-Strong of Poland has
been in Saxony, looking after his poor Electorate a little; and is
on the road from Dresden homewards again;--will cross a corner of
the Prussian Dominions, as his wont is on such occasions.
Prussian Majesty, if not appearing in person, will as usual, by
some Official of rank, send a polite Well-speed-you as the brother
Majesty passes. This time, however, it was more than politeness;
the Polish Majesty having, as was thought, such intricate affairs
in the wind. Let Grumkow, the fittest man in all ways, go, and do
the greeting to his old Patroon: greeting, or whatever else may
be needed.
Patroon left Dresden,--"having just opened the Carnival" or
fashionable Season there, opened and nothing more,--January l0th,
1733; [Fassmann, Leben Friedrich Augusti des Grossen,
p. 994.] being in haste home for a Polish Diet close
at hand. On which same day Grumkow, we suppose, drives forth from
Berlin, to intersect him, in the Neumark, about Crossen; and have
a friendly word again, in those localities, over jolly wine.
Intersection took place duly;--there was exuberant joy on the part
of the Patroon; and such a dinner and night of drinking, as has
seldom been. Abstruse things lie close ahead of August the
Dilapidated-Strong, important to Prussia, and for which Prussia is
important; let Grumkow try if he can fish the matter into
clearness out of these wine-cups. And then August, on his side,
wishes to know what the Kaiser said at Kladrup lately; there is
much to be fished into clearness.
Many are the timea August the Strong has made this journey;
many are the carousals, on such and other occasions, Grumkow and
he have had. But there comes an end to all things. This was their
last meeting, over flowing liquor or otherwise, in the world.
Satirical History says, they drank all night, endeavoring to pump
one another, and with such enthusiasm that they never recovered
it; drank themselves to death at Crossen on that occasion.
[ OEuvres de Frederic (Memoires de Brandenbourg),
italic> i. 163.] It is certain August died within three weeks;
and people said of Grumkow, who lived six years longer, he was
never well after this bout. Is it worth any human Creature's while
to look into the plans of this precious pair of individuals?
Without the least expense of drinking, the secrets they were
pumping out of each other are now accessible enough,--if it were
of importance now. One glance I may perhaps commend to the reader,
out of these multifarious Note-books in my possession:--
"August, by change of his religion, and other sad operations, got
to be what they called the King of Poland, thirty five years ago;
but, though looking glorious to the idle public, it has been a
crown of stinging-nettles to the poor man,--a sedan-chair running
on rapidly, with the bottom broken out! To say nothing of the
scourgings he got, and poor Saxony along with him, from Charles
XII., on account of this Sovereignty so called, what has the thing
itself been to him? In Poland, for these thirty-five years, the
individual who had least of his real will done in public matters
has been, with infinite management, and display of such good-humor
as at least deserves credit, the nominal Sovereign Majesty of
Poland. Anarchic Grandees have been kings over him; ambitious,
contentious, unmanageable;--very fanatical too, and never
persuaded that August's Apostasy was more than a sham one, not
even when he made his Prince apostatize too. Their Sovereignty has
been a mere peck of troubles, disgraces and vexations: for those
thirty-five years, an ever-boiling pot of mutiny, contradiction,
insolence, hardly tolerable even to such nerves as August's.
"August, for a long time back, has been thinking of schemes to
clap some lid upon all that. To make the Sovereignty hereditary in
his House: that, with the good Saxon troops we have, would be a
remedy;--and in fact it is the only remedy. John Casimir (who
abdicated long ago, in the Great Elector's time, and went to
Paris,--much charmed with Ninon de l'Enclos there) told the Polish
Diets, With their LIBERUM VETO, and 'right of confederation' and
rebellion, they would bring the country down under the feet of
mankind, and reduce their Republic to zero one day, if they
persisted. They have not failed to persist. With some hereditary
King over it, and a regulated Saxony to lean upon: truly might it
not be a change to the better? To the worse, it could hardly be,
thinks August the Strong; and goes intent upon that method, this
long while back;--and at length hopes now, in few days longer, at
the Diet just assembling, to see fruits appear, and the thing
actually begin.
"The difficulties truly are many; internal and external:--but
there are calculated methods, too. For the internal: Get up, by
bribery, persuasion, some visible minority to countenance you;
with these manoeuvre in the Diets; on the back of these, the
30,000 Saxon troops. But then what will the neighboring Kings say?
The neighboring Kings, with their big-mouthed manifestoes, pities
for an oppressed Republic, overwhelming forces, and invitations to
'confederate' and revolt: without their tolerance first had,
nothing can be done. That is the external difficulty. For which
too there is a remedy. Cut off sufficient outlying slices of
Poland; fling these to the neighboring Kings to produce consent:
Partition of Poland, in fact; large sections of its Territory
sliced away: that will be the method, thinks King August.
"Neighboring Kings, Kaiser, Prussia, Russia, to them it is not
grievous that Poland should remain in perennial anarchy, in
perennial impotence; the reverse rather: a dead horse, or a dying,
in the next stall,--he at least will not kick upon us, think the
neighboring Kings. And yet,--under another similitude,--you do not
like your next-door neighbor to be always on the point of catching
fire; smoke issuing, thicker or thinner, through the slates of his
roof, as a perennial phenomenon? August will conciliate the
neighboring Kings. Russia, big-cheeked Anne Czarina there, shall
have not only Courland peaceably henceforth, but the Ukraine,
Lithuania, and other large outlying slices; that surely will
conciliate Russia. To Austria, on its Hungarian border, let us
give the Country of Zips;--nay there are other sops we have for
Austria. Pragmatic Sanction, hitherto refused as contrary to plain
rights of ours,--that, if conceded to a spectre-hunting Kaiser?
To Friedrich Wilhelm we could give West-Preussen; West-Preussen
torn away three hundred years ago, and leaving a hiatus in the
very continuity of Friedrich Wilhelm: would not that conciliate
him? Of all enemies or friends, Friedrich Wilhelm, close at hand
with 80,000 men capable of fighting at a week's, notice, is by far
the most important.
"These are August's plans: West-Preussen for the nearest Neighbor;
Zips for Austria; Ukraine, Lithuania, and appendages for the
Russian Czarina: handsome Sections to be sliced off, and flung to
good neighbors; as it were, all the outlying limbs and wings of
the Polish Territory sliced off; compact body to remain, and
become, by means of August and Saxon troops, a Kingdom with
government, not an imaginary Republic without government any
longer. In fact, it was the 'Partition of Poland,' such as took
effect forty years after, and has kept the Newspapers weeping ever
since. Partition of Poland,--MINUS the compact interior held under
government, by a King with Saxon troops or otherwise.
Compact interior, in that effective partition, forty years after,
was left as anarchic as ever; and had to be again partitioned, and
cut away altogether,--with new torrents of loud tears from the
Newspapers, refusing to be comforted to this day.
"It is not said that Friedrich Wilhelm had the least intention of
countenancing August in these dangerous operations, still less of
going shares with August; but he wished much, through Grumkow, to
have some glimpse into the dim program of them; and August wished
much to know Friedrich Wilhelm's and Grumkow's humor towards them.
Grumkow and August drank oopiously, or copiously pressed drink on
one another, all night (llth-12th January, 1733, as I compute;
some say at Crossen, some say at Frauendorf a royal domain near
by), with the view of mutually fishing out those secrets;--and
killed one another in the business, as is rumored."
What were Grumkow's news at home-coming, I did not hear; but he
continues very low and shaky;--refuses, almost with horror, to
have the least hand in Seckendorf's mad project, of resuscitating
the English Double-Marriage, and breaking off the Brunswick one,
at the eleventh hour and after word pledged. Seckendorf himself
continues to dislike and dissuade: but the High Heads at Vienna
are bent on it; and command new strenuous attempts;--literally at
the last moment; which is now come.
Chapter VII.
CROWN-PRINCE'S MARRIAGE.
Since November last, Wilhelmina is on visit at Berlin,--first
visit since her marriage;--she stays there for almost ten months;
not under the happiest auspices, poor child. Mamma's reception of
her, just off the long winter journey, and extenuated with
fatigues and sickly chagrins, was of the most cutting cruelty:
"What do you want here? What is a mendicant like you come hither
for?" And next night, when Papa himself came home, it was little
better. "Ha, ha," said he, "here you are; I am glad to see you."
Then holding up a light, to take view of me: "How changed you
are!" said he: "What is little Frederika [my little Baby at
Baireuth] doing?" And on my answering, continued: "I am sorry for
you, on my word. You have not bread to eat; and but for me you
might go begging. I am a poor man myself, not able to give you
much; but I will do what I can. I will give you now and then a
twenty or a thirty shillings (PAR DIX OU DOUZE FLORINS), as my
affairs permit: it will always be something to assuage your want.
And you, Madam," said he, turning to the Queen, "you will
sometimes give her an old dress; for the poor child has n't a
shift to her back." [Wilhelmina, ii. 85.] This rugged paternal
banter was taken too literally by Wilhelmina, in her weak state;
and she was like "to burst in her skin," poor Princess.
So that,--except her own good Hereditary Prince, who was here
"over from Pasewalk" and his regimental duties, waiting to welcome
her; in whose true heart, full of honest human sunshine towards
her, she could always find shelter and defence,--native Country
and Court offer little to the brave Wilhelmina. Chagrins enough
are here: chagrins also were there. At Baireuth our old Father
Margraf has his crotchets, his infirmities and outbreaks;
takes more and more to liquor; and does always keep us frightfully
bare in money. No help from Papa here, either, on the finance
side; no real hope anywhere (thinks Seckendorf, when we consult
him), except only in the Margraf's death: "old Margraf will soon
drink himself dead," thinks Seckendorf; "and in the mean while
there is Vienna, and a noble Kaiserinn who knows her friends in
case of extremity!" thinks he. [Wilhelmina, ii. 81-111.]
Poor Princess, in her weak shattered state, she has a heavy time
of it; but there is a tough spirit in her; bright, sharp, like a
swift sabre, not to be quenched in any coil; but always cutting
its way, and emerging unsubdued.
One of the blessings reserved for her here, which most of all
concerns us, was the occasional sight of her Brother. Brother in a
day or two ["18th November," she says; which date is wrong, if it
were of moment (see OEuvres de Frederic,
xxvii. part 1st, where their CORRESPONDENCE is).] ran over from
Ruppin, on short leave, and had his first interview. Very kind and
affectionate; quite the old Brother again; and "blushed" when, at
supper, Mamma and the Princesses, especially that wicked Charlotte
(Papa not present), tore up his poor Bride at such a rate.
"Has not a word to answer you, but YES or NO," said they;
"stupid as a block." "But were you ever at her toilette?" said the
wicked Charlotte: "Out of shape, completely: considerable
waddings, I promise you: and then"--still worse features, from
that wicked Charlotte, in presence of the domestics here.
Wicked Charlotte; who is to be her Sister-in-law soon;--and who is
always flirting with my Husband, as if she liked that better!--
Crown-Prince retired, directly after supper: as did I, to my
apartment, where in a minute or two he joined me.
"To the question, How with the King and you? he answered, 'That
his situation was changing every moment; that sometimes he was in
favor, sometimes in disgrace;--that his chief happiness consisted
in absence. That he led a soft and tranquil life with his Regiment
at Ruppin; study and music his principal occupations; he had built
himself a House there, and laid out a Garden, where he could read,
and walk about.' Then as to his Bride, I begged him to tell me
candidly if the portrait the Queen and my Sister had been making
of her was the true one. 'We are alone,' replied he, 'and I will
conceal nothing from you. The Queen, by her miserable intrigues,
has been the source of our misfortunes. Scarcely were you gone
when she began again with England; wished to substitute our Sister
Charlotte for you; would have had me undertake to contradict the
King's will again, and flatly refuse the Brunswick Match;--which I
declined. That is the source of her venom against this poor
Princess. As to the young Lady herself, I do not hate her so much
as I pretend; I affect complete dislike, that the King may value
my obedience more. She is pretty, a complexion lily-and-rose;
her features delicate; face altogether of a beautiful person.
True, she has no breeding, and dresses very ill: but I flatter
myself, when she comes hither, you will have the goodness to take
her in hand. I recommend her to you, my dear Sister; and beg your
protection for her.' It is easy to judge, my answer would be such
as he desired." [Wilhelmina, ii. 89.]
For which small glimpse of the fact itself, at first-hand, across
a whirlwind of distracted rumors new and old about the fact, let
us be thankful to Wilhelmina. Seckendorf's hopeless attempts to
resuscitate extinct English things, and make the Prussian Majesty
break his word, continue to the very last; but are worth no notice
from us. Grumkow's Drinking-bout with the Dilapidated-Strong at
Crossen, which follows now in January, has been already noticed by
us. And the Dilapidated-Strong's farewell next morning,--"Adieu,
dear Grumkow; I think I shall not see you again!" as he rolled off
towards Warsaw and the Diet,--will require farther notice;
but must stand over till this Marriage be got done. Of which
latter Event,--Wilhelmina once more kindling the old dark Books
into some light for us,--the essential particulars are briefly
as follows.
Monday, 8th June, 1733, the Crown-Prince is again over from
Ruppin: King, Queen and Crown-Prince are rendezvoused at Potsdam;
and they set off with due retinues towards Wolfenbuttel, towards
Salzdahlum the Ducal Schloss there; Sister Wilhelmina sending
blessings, if she had them, on a poor Brother in such interesting
circumstances. Mamma was "plunged in black melancholy;" King not
the least; in the Crown-Prince nothing particular to be remarked.
They reached Salzdahlum, Duke Ludwig Rudolf the Grandfather's
Palace, one of the finest Palaces, with Gardens, with antiques,
with Picture-Galleries no end; a mile or two from Wolfenbuttel;
built by old Anton Ulrich, and still the ornament of those parts;
--reached Salzdahlum, Wednesday the 10th; where Bride, with
Father, Mother, much more Grandfather, Grandmother, and all the
sublimities interested, are waiting in the highest gala;
Wedding to be on Friday next.
Friday morning, this incident fell out, notable and somewhat
contemptible: Seckendorf, who is of the retinue, following his bad
trade, visits his Majesty who is still in bed:--"Pardon, your
Majesty: what shall I say for excuse? Here is a Letter just come
from Vienna; in Prince Eugene's hand;--Prince Eugene, or a Higher,
will say something, while it is still time!" Majesty, not in
impatience, reads the little Prince's and the Kaiser's Letter.
"Give up this, we entreat you for the last time; marry with
England after all!" Majesty reads, quiet as a lamb; lays the
Letter under his pillow; will himself answer it; and does
straightway, with much simple dignity, to the effect, "For
certain, Never, my always respected Prince!" [Account of the
Interview by Seckendorf, in Forster, iii, 148-155; Copy of the
answer itself is in the State-Paper Office here.] Seckendorf,
having thus shot his last bolt, does not stay many hours longer at
Salzdahlum;--may as well quit Friedrich Wilhelm altogether, for
any good he will henceforth do upon him. This is the one incident
between the Arrival at Salzdahlum and the Wedding there.
Same Friday, 12th June, 1733, at a more advanced hour, the Wedding
itself took effect; Wedding which, in spite of the mad rumors and
whispers, in the Newspapers, Diplomatic Despatches and elsewhere,
went off, in all respects, precisely as other weddings do; a quite
human Wedding now and afterwards. Officiating Clergyman was the
Reverend Herr Mosheim: readers know with approval the
Ecclesiastical History of Mosheim: he, in the
beautiful Chapel of the Schloss, with Majesties and Brunswick
Sublimities looking on, performed the ceremony: and Crown-Prince
Friedrich of Prussia has fairly wedded the Serene Princess
Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick-Bevern, age eighteen coming,
manners rather awkward, complexion lily-and-rose;--and History is
right glad to have done with the wearisome affair, and know it
settled on any tolerable terms whatever. Here is a Note of
Friedrich's to his dear Sister, which has been preserved:--
TO PRINCESS WILHELMINA OF BAIREUTH, AT BERLIN.
"SALZDAHLUM, Noon, 19th June, 1733.
"MY DEAR SISTER,--A minute since, the whole Ceremony was got
finished; and God be praised it is over! I hope you will take it
as a mark of my friendship that I give you the first news of it.
"I hope I shall have the honor to see you again soon; and to
assure you, my dear Sister, that I am wholly yours (TOUT A VOUS).
I write in great haste; and add nothing that is merely formal.
Adieu. [ OEuvres, xxvii. part 1st, p. 9.]
FREDERIC."
One Keyserling, the Prince's favorite gentleman, came over
express, with this Letter and the more private news; Wilhelmina
being full of anxieties. Keyserling said, The Prince was inwardly
"well content with his lot; though he had kept up the old farce to
the last; and pretended to be in frightful humor, on the very
morning; bursting out upon his valets in the King's presence, who
reproved him, and looked rather pensive,"--recognizing, one hopes,
what a sacrifice it was. The Queen's Majesty, Keyserling reported,
"was charmed with the style and ways of the Brunswick Court;
but could not endure the Princess-Royal [new Wife], and treated
the two Duchesses like dogs (COMME DES CHIENS)." [Wilhelmina,
ii. 114.] Reverend Abbot Mosheim (such his title; Head Churchman,
theological chief of Helmstadt University in those parts, with a
couple of extinct little ABBACIES near by, to help his stipend)
preached next Sunday, "On the Marriage of the Righteous,"--
felicitous appropriate Sermon, said a grateful public;
[Text, Psalm, xcli. 12; "Sermon printed in Mosheim's
Works." ]--and in short, at Salzdahlum all goes, if
not as merry as some marriage-bells, yet without jarring to
the ear.
On Tuesday, both the Majesties set out towards Potsdam again;
"where his Majesty," having business waiting, "arrived some time
before the Queen." Thither also, before the week ends, Crown-
Prince Friedrich with his Bride, and all the Serenities of
Brunswick escorting, are upon the road,--duly detained by
complimentary harangues, tedious scenic evolutions at Magdeburg
and the intervening Towns;--grand entrance of the Princess-Royal
into Berlin is not till the 27th, last day of the week following.
That was such a day as Wilhelmina never saw; no sleep the night
before; no breakfast can one taste: between Charlottenburg and
Berlin, there is a review of unexampled splendor; "above eighty
oarriages of us," and only a tent or two against the flaming June
sun: think of it! Review begins at four a.m.;--poor Wilhelmina
thought she would verily have died, of heat and thirst and hunger,
in the crowded tent, under the flaming June sun; before the Review
could end itself, and march into Berlin, trumpeting and salvoing,
with the Princess-Royal at the head of it. [Wilhelmina,
ii. 127-129.]
Of which grand flaming day, and of the unexampled balls and
effulgent festivities that followed, "all Berlin ruining itself in
dresses and equipages," we will say nothing farther; but give
only, what may still have some significance for readers,
Wilhelmina's Portrait of the Princess-Royal on their first
meeting, which had taken place at Potsdam two days before.
The Princess-Royal had arrived at Potsdam too, on that occasion,
across a grand Review; Majesty himself riding out, Majesty and
Crown-Prince, who had preceded her a little, to usher in the poor
young creature;--Thursday, June 25th, 1733:--
"The King led her into the Queen's Apartment; then seeing, after
she had saluted us all, that she was much heated and dispowdered
(DEPOUDREE), he bade my Brother take her to her own room.
I followed them thither. My Brother said to her, introducing me:
'This is a Sister I adore, and am obliged to beyond measure.
She has had the goodness to promise me that she will take care of
you, and help you with her good counsel; I wish you to respect her
beyond even the King and Queen, and not to take the least step
without her advice: do you understand?' I embraced the Princess-
Royal, and gave her every assurance of my attachment; but she
remained like a statue, not answering a word. Her people not being
come, I repowdered her myself, and readjusted her dress a little,
without the least sign of thanks from her, or any answer to all my
caressings. My Brother got impatient at last; and said aloud:
'Devil's in the blockhead (PESTE SOIT DE LA BETE): thank my
Sister, then!' She made me a courtesy, on the model of that of
Agnes in the ECOLE DES FEMMES. I took her back to the Queen's
Apartment; little edified by such a display of talent.
"The Princess-Royal is tall; her figure is not fine: stooping
slightly, or hanging forward, as she walks or stands, which gives
her an awkward air. Her complexion is of dazzling whiteness,
heightened by the liveliest colors: her eyes are pale blue, and
not of much promise for spiritual gifts. Mouth small; features
generally small,--dainty (MIGNONS) rather than beautiful:--and the
countenance altogether is so innocent and infantine, you would
think this head belonged to a child of twelve. Her hair is blond,
plentiful, curling in natural locks. Teeth are unhappily very bad,
black and ill set; which are a disfigurement in this fine face.
She has no manners, nor the least vestige of tact; has much
difficulty in speaking and making herself understood: for most
part you are obliged to guess what she means; which is very
embarrassing." [Wilhelmina, ii. 119-121.]
The Berlin gayeties--for Karl, Heir-Apparent of Brunswick, brother
to this Princess-Royal, wedded his Charlotte, too, about a week
hence [2d July, 1733.]--did not end, and the serene Guests
disappear, till far on in July. After which an Inspection with
Papa; and then Friedrich got back to Ruppin and his old way of
life there. Intrinsically the old studious, quietly diligent way
of life; varied by more frequent excursions to Berlin;--where as
yet the Princess-Royal usually resides, till some fit residence be
got ready in the Ruppin Country for a wedded Crown-Prince and her.
The young Wife had an honest guileless heart; if little articulate
intellect, considerable inarticulate sense; did not fail to learn
tact, perpendicular attitude, speech enough;--and I hope kept well
clear of pouting (FAIRE LA FACHEE), a much more dangerous rock for
her. With the gay temper of eighteen, and her native loyalty of
mind, she seems to have shaped herself successfully to the
Prince's taste; and growing yearly gracefuler and better-looking
was an ornament and pleasant addition to his Ruppin existence.
These first seven years, spent at Berlin or in the Ruppin quarter,
she always regarded as the flower of her life. [Busching
(Autobiography, Beitrage, vi.) heard her say
so, in advanced years.]
Papa, according to promise, has faithfully provided a Crown-
Prince Palace at Berlin; all trimmed and furnished, for occasional
residences there; the late "Government House" (originally
SCHOMBERG House), new-built,--which is, to this day, one of the
distinguished Palaces of Berlin. Princess-Royal had Schonhausen
given her; a pleasant Royal Mansion some miles out of Berlin, on
the Ruppin side. Furthermore, the Prince-Royal, being now a wedded
man, has, as is customary in such case, a special AMT (Government
District) set apart for his support; the "Amt of Ruppin," where
his business lies. What the exact revenues of Ruppin are, is not
communicated; but we can justly fear they were far too frugal,--
and excused the underhand borrowing, which is evident enough as a
painful shadow in the Prince's life henceforth. He does not seem
to have been wasteful; but he borrows all round, under sevenfold
secrecy, from benevolent Courts, from Austria, Russia, England:
and the only pleasant certainty we notice in such painful business
is, that, on his Accession, he pays with exactitude,--sends his
Uncle George of England, for example, the complete amount in
rouleaus of new coin, by the first courier that goes. [Despatch
(of adjacent date) in the State-Paper Office here.]
A thought too frugal, his Prussian Majesty; but he means to be
kind, bountiful; and occasionally launches out into handsome
munificence. This very Autumn, hearing that the Crown-Prince and
his Princess fancied Reinsberg; an old Castle in their Amt Ruppin,
some miles north of them,--his Majesty, without word spoken,
straightway purchased Reinsberg, Schloss and Territory, from the
owner; gave it to his Crown-Prince, and gave him money to new-
build it according to his mind. [23d Oct. 1733-16th March, 1734
(Preuss, i. 75).] Which the Crown-Prince did with much interest,
under very wise architectural advice, for the next three years;
then went into it, to reside;--yet did not cease new-building,
improving, artistically adorning, till it became in all points the
image of his taste.
A really handsome princely kind of residence, that of Reinsberg:--
got up with a thrift that most of all astonishes us. In which
improved locality we shall by and by look in upon him again.
For the present we must to Warsaw, where tragedies and troubles
are in the wind, which turn out to be not quite without importance
to the Crown-Prince and us.
Chapter VIII.
KING AUGUST DIES; AND POLAND TAKES FIRE.
Meanwhile, over at Warsaw, there has an Event fallen out.
Friedrich, writing rapidly from vague reminiscence, as he often
does, records it as "during the marriage festivities;"
[ OEuvres (Memoires de Brandenbourg),
i. 163.] but it was four good months earlier. Event we must now
look at for a moment.
In the end of January last, we left Grumkow in a low and
hypochondriacal state, much shaken by that drinking-bout at
Crossen, when the Polisb Majesty and he were so anxious to pump
one another, by copious priming with Hungary wine. About a
fortnight after, in the first days of February following (day is
not given), Grumkow reported something curious. "In my presence,"
says Wilhelmina, "and that of forty persons," for the thing was
much talked about, "Grumkow said to the King one morning:
'Ah Sire, I am in despair; the poor Patroon is dead! I was lying
broad awake, last night: all on a sudden, the curtains of my bed
flew asunder: I saw him; he was in a shroud: he gazed fixedly at
me: I tried to start up, being dreadfully taken; but the phantom
disappeared!'" Here was an illustrious ghost-story for Berlin, in
a day or two when the Courier came. "Died at the very time of the
phantom; Death and phantom were the same night," say Wilhelmina
and the miraculous Berlin public,--but do not say WHAT night for
either of them it was. [Wilhelmina, ii. 98. Event happened, 1st
February; news of it came to Berlin, 4th February: Fassmann
(p. 485); Buchholz; &c.] By help of which latter circumstance the
phantom becomes reasonably unmiraculous again, in a nervous system
tremulous from drink. "They had been sad at parting," Wilhelmina
says, "having drunk immensities of Hungary wine; the Patroon
almost weeping over his Grumkow: 'Adieu, my dear Grumkow,' said
he; "I shall never see you more!'"
Miraculous or not, the catastrophe is true: August, the once
Physically Strong, lies dead;--and there will be no Partition of
Poland for the present. He had the Diet ready to assemble;
waiting for him, at Warsaw; and good trains laid in the Diet,
capable of fortunate explosion under a good engineer.
Engineer, alas! The Grumkow drinking-bout had awakened that old
sore in his foot: he came to Warsaw, eager enough for business;
but with his stock of strength all out, and Death now close upon
him. The Diet met, 26th-27th January; engineer all alert about the
good trains laid, and the fortunate exploding of them; when,
almost on the morrow--"Inflammation has come on!" said the
Doctors, and were futile to help farther. The strong body, and its
life, was done; and nothing remained but to call in the
Archbishop, with his extreme unctions and soul-apparatus.
August made no moaning or recalcitrating; took, on the prescribed
terms, the inevitable that had come. Has been a very great sinner,
he confesses to the Archbishop: "I have not at present strength to
name my many and great sins to your Reverence," said he; "I hope
for mercy on the"--on the usual rash terms. Terms perhaps known to
August to be rash; to have been frightfully rash; but what can he
now do? Archbishop thereupon gives absolution of his sins;
Archbishop does,--a baddish, unlikely kind of man, as August well
knows. August "laid his hand on his eyes," during such sad
absolution-mummery; and in that posture had breathed his last,
before it was well over. ["Sunday, 1st February, 1733, quarter
past 4 A.M." (Fassmann, Leben Frederici Augusti Konigs in
Pohlen, pp. 994-997).] Unhappy soul; who shall judge
him?--transcendent King of edacious Flunkies; not without fine
qualities, which he turned to such a use amid the temptations of
this world!
POLAND HAS TO FIND A NEW KING.
His death brought vast miseries on Poland; kindled foolish Europe
generally into fighting, and gave our Crown-Prince his first
actual sight and experience of the facts of War. For which reason,
hardly for another, the thing having otherwise little memorability
at present, let us give some brief synopsis of it, the briefer the
better. Here, excerpted from multifarious old Note-books, are some
main heads of the affair:--
"On the disappearance of August the Strong, his plans of
Partitioning Poland disappeared too, and his fine trains in the
Diet abolished themselves. The Diet had now nothing to do, but
proclaim the coming Election, giving a date to it; and go home to
consider a little whom they would elect. ["Interregnum
proclaimed," 11th February; Preliminary Diet to meet 21st April;--
meets; settles, before May is done, that the Election shall BEGIN
25th August: it must END in six weeks thereafter, by law of the
land.] A question weighty to Poland. And not likely to be settled
by Poland alone or chiefly; the sublime Republic, with LIBERUM
VETO, and Diets capable only of anarchic noise, having now reached
such a stage that its Neighbors everywhere stood upon its skirts;
asking, 'Whitherward, then, with your anarchy? Not this way;--we
say, that way!'-and were apt to get to battle about it, before
such a thing could be settled. A house, in your street, with
perpetual smoke coming through the slates of it, is not a pleasant
house to be neighbor to! One honest interest the neighbors have,
in an Election Crisis there, That the house do not get on fire,
and kindle them. Dishonest interests, in the way of theft and
otherwise, they may have without limit.
"The poor house, during last Election Crisis,--when August the
Strong was flung out, and Stanislaus brought in; Crisis presided
over by Charles XII., with Czar Peter and others hanging on the
outskirts, as Opposition party,--fairly got into flame;
[Description of it in Kohler, Munzbelustigungen,
italic> vi. 228-230.] but was quenched down again by that stout
Swede; and his Stanislaus, a native Pole, was left peaceably as
King for the years then running. Years ran; and Stanislaus was
thrown out, Charles himself being thrown out; and had to make way
for August the Strong again:--an ejected Stanislaus: King only in
title; known to most readers of this time. [Stanislaus Lesczinsky,
"Woywode of Posen," born 1677: King of Poland, Charles XII.
superintending, 1704 (age then 27); driven out 1709, went to
Charles XII. at Bender; to Zweibruck, 1714; thence, on Charles's
death, to Weissenburg (Alsace, or Strasburg Country): Daughter
married to Louis XV., 1725. Age now 56.--Hubner, t. 97;
Histoire de Stanislas I., Roi de Pologlne (English
Translation, London, 1741), pp. 96-126; &c.]
"Poor man, he has been living in Zweibruck, in Weissenburg and
such places, in that Debatable French-German region,--which the
French are more and more getting stolen to themselves, in late
centuries:--generally on the outskirts of France he lives;
having now connections of the highest quality with France. He has
had fine Country-houses in that Zweibruck (TWO-BRIDGE, Deux-Ponts)
region; had always the ghost of a Court there; plenty of money,--
a sinecure Country-gentleman life;--and no complaints have been
heard from him. Charles XII., as proprietor of Deux-Ponts, had
first of all sent him into those parts for refuge; and in general,
easy days have been the lot of Stanislaus there.
"Nor has History spoken of him since, except on one small
occasion: when the French Politician Gentlemen, at a certain
crisis of their game, chose a Daughter of his to be Wife for young
Louis XV., and bring royal progeny, of which they were scarce.
This was in 1724-1725; Duc de Bourbon, and other Politicians male
and female, finding that the best move. A thing wonderful to the
then Gazetteers, for nine days; but not now worth much talk.
The good young Lady, it is well known, a very pious creature, and
sore tried in her new station, did bring royal progeny enough,--
and might as well have held her hand, had she foreseen what would
become of them, poor souls! This was a great event for Stanislaus,
the sinecure Country-gentleman, in his French-German rustication.
One other thing I have read of him, infinitely smaller, out of
those ten years: in Zweibruck Country, or somewhere in that
French-German region, he 'built a pleasure-cottage,' conceivable
to the mind, 'and called it SCHUHFLICK (Shoe-Patch),' [Busching,
Erdbeschreibung, v. 1194.]--a name that
touches one's fancy on behalf of the innocent soul. Other fact I
will not remember of him. He is now to quit Shoe-Patch and his
pleasant Weissenburg Castle; to come on the public stage again,
poor man; and suffer a second season of mischances and disgraces
still worse than the first. As we shall see presently;--a new
Polish Election Crisis having come!
"What individual the Polish Grandees would have chosen for King if
entirely left alone to do it? is a question not important;
and indeed was never asked, in this or in late Elections. Not the
individual who could have BEEN a King among them were they, for a
long time back, in the habit of seeking after; not him, but
another and indeed reverse kind of individual,--the one in whom
there lay most NOURISHMENT, nourishment of any kind, even of the
cash kind, for a practical Polish Grandee. So that the question
was no longer of the least importance, to Poland or the Universe;
and in point of fact, the frugal Destinies had ceased to have it
put, in that quarter. Not Grandees of Poland; but Intrusive
Neighbors, carrying Grandees of Poland 'in their breeches-pocket'
(as our phrase is), were the voting parties. To that pass it was
come. Under such stern penalty had Poland and its Grandees fallen,
by dint of false voting: the frugal Destinies had ceased to ask
about their vote; and they were become machines for voting with,
or pistols for fighting with, by bad Neighbors who cared to vote!
Nor did the frugal Destinies consider that the proper method,
either; but had, as we shall see, determined to abolish that too,
in about forty years more."
OF THE CANDIDATES; OF THE CONDITIONS. HOW THE ELECTION WENT.
It was under such omens that the Polish Election of 1733 had to
transact itself. Austria, Russia, Prussia, as next Neighbors, were
the chief voting parties, if they cared to intrude;--which Austria
and Russia were clear for doing; Prussia not clear, or not beyond
the indispensable or evidently profitable. Seckendorf, and one
Lowenwolde the Russian Ambassador at Berlin, had, some time ago,
in foresight of this event, done their utmost to bring Friedrich
Wilhelm into co-operation,--offering fine baits, "Berg and Julich"
again, among others;--but nothing definite came of it: peaceable,
reasonably safe Election in Poland, other interest Friedrich
Wilhelm has not in the matter; and compliance, not co-operation,
is what can be expected of him by the Kaiser and Czarina.
Co-operating or even complying, these three could have settled it;
and would,--had no other Neighbor interfered. But other neighbors
can interfere; any neighbor that has money to spend, or likes to
bully in such a matter! And that proved to be the case, in this
unlucky instance.
Austria aud Russia, with Prussia complying, had,--a year ago,
before the late August's decease, his life seeming then an
extremely uncertain one, and foresight being always good,--
privately come to an understanding, [31st December, 1731, "Treaty
of Lowenwolde" (which never got completed or became valid):
Scholl, ii. 223.] in case of a Polish Election:--
"1. That France was to have no hand in it whatever,--no tool of
France to be King; or, as they more politely expressed it, having
their eye upon Stanislaus, No Piast or native Pole could be
eligible.
"2. That neither could August's Son, the new August, who would
then be Kurfurst of Saxony, be admitted King of Poland.--And, on
the whole,
"3. That an Emanuel Prince of Portugal would be the eligible man."
Emanuel of Portugal, King of Portugal's Brother; a gentleman
without employment, as his very Title tells us: gentleman never
heard of before or since, in those parts or elsewhere, but
doubtless of the due harmless quality, as Portugal itself was:
he is to be the Polish King,--vote these Intrusive Neighbors.
What the vote of Poland itself may be, the Destinies do not, of
late, ask; finding it a superfluous question.
So had the Three Neighbors settled this matter:--or rather,
I should say, so had Two of them; for Friedrich Wilhelm wanted,
now or afterwards, nothing in this Election, but that it should
not take fire and kindle him. Two of the Neighbors: and of these
two, perhaps we might guess the Kaiser was the principal contriver
and suggester; France and Saxony being both hateful to him,--
obstinate refusers of the Pragmatic Sanction, to say nothing more.
What the Czarina, Anne with the big cheek, specially wanted, I do
not learn,--unless it were peaceable hold of Courland; or perhaps
merely to produce herself in these parts, as a kind of regulating
Pallas, along with the Jupiter Kaiser of Western Europe;--which
might have effects by and by.
Emanuel of Portugal was not elected, nor so much as spoken of in
the Diet. Nor did one of these Three Regulations take effect;
but much the contrary,--other Neighbors having the power to
interfere. France saw good to interfere, a rather distant
neighbor; Austria, Russia, could not endure the French vote at
all; and so the whole world got on fire by the business.
France is not a near Neighbor; but it has a Stanislaus much
concerned, who is eminently under the protection of France:--
who may be called the "FATHER of France," in a sense, or even the
"Grandfather;" his Daughter being Mother of a young creature they
call Dauphin, or "Child of France." Fleury and the French Court
decide that Stanislaus, Grandfather of France, was once King of
Poland: that it will behoove, for various reasons, he be King
again. Some say old Fleury did not care for Stanislaus;
merely wanted a quarrel with the Kaiser,--having got himself in
readiness, "with Lorraine in his eye;" and seeing the Kaiser not
ready. It is likelier the hot young spirits, Belleisle and others,
controlled old Fleury into it. At all events, Stanislaus is
summoned from his rustication; the French Ambassador at Warsaw
gets his instructions. French Ambassador opens himself largely, at
Warsaw, by eloquent speech, by copious money, on the subject of
Stanislaus; finds large audience, enthusiastic receptivity;--and
readers will now understand the following chronological phenomena
of the Polish Election:--
"AUGUST 25th, 1733. This day the Polish Election begins. So has
the Preliminary Diet (kind of Polish CAUCUS) ordered it;--
Preliminary Diet itself a very stormy matter; minority like to be
'thrown out of window,' to be 'shot through the head,' on some
occasions. [ History of Stanislaus (cited
above), p. 136.] Actual Election begins; continues SUB DIO, 'in
the Field of Wola,' in a very tempestuous fashion; bound to
conclude within six weeks. Kaiser has his troops assembled over
the border, in Silesia, 'to protect the freedom of election;'
Czarina has 30,000 under Marshal Lacy, lying on the edge of
Lithuania, bent on a like object; will increase them to 50,000, as
the plot thickens.
"So that Emanuel of Portugal is not heard of; and French
interference is, with a vengeance,--and Stanislaus, a born Piast,
is overwhelmingly the favorite. Intolerable to Austria, to Russia;
the reverse to Friedrich Wilhelm, who privately thinks him the
right man. And Kurfurst August of Saxony is the other Candidate,--
with troops of his own in the distance, but without support in
Poland; and depending wholly on the Kaiser and Czarina for his
chance. And our 'three settled points' are gone to water in
this manner!
"August seeing there was not the least hope in Poland's own vote,
judiciously went to the Kaiser first of all: 'Imperial Majesty, I
will accept your Pragmatic Sanction root and branch, swallow it
whole; make me King of Poland!'--'Done!' answers Imperial Majesty;
[16th July, 1733; Treaty in Scholl, ii. 224-231.] brings the
Czarina over, by good offers of August's and his;--and now there
is an effective Opposition Candidate in the field, with strength
of his own, and good backing close at hand. Austrian, Russian
Ambassadors at Warsaw lift up their voice, like the French one;
open their purse, and bestir themselves; but with no success in
the Field of Wola, except to the stirring up of noise and tumult
there. They must look to other fields for success. The voice of
Wola and of Poland, if it had now a voice, is enthusiastic
for Stanislaus.
"SEPTEMBER 7th. A couple of quiet-looking Merchants arrive in
Warsaw,--one of whom is Stanislaus in person. Newspapers say he is
in the French Fleet of War, which is sailing minatory towards
these Coasts: and there is in truth a Gentleman in Stanislaus's
clothes on board there;--to make the Newspapers believe.
Stanislaus himself drove through Berlin, a day or two ago;
gave the sentry a ducat at the Gate, to be speedy with the
Passports,--whom Friedrich Wilhelm affected to put under arrest
for such negligent speed. And so, on the 10th of the month,
Stanislaus being now rested and trimmed; makes his appearance on
the Field of Wola itself; and captivates all hearts by the kind
look of him. So that, on the second day after, 12th September,
1733, he is, as it were, unanimously elected; with acclamation,
with enthusiasm; and sees himself actual King of Poland,--if
France send proper backing to continue him there. As, surely, she
will not fail?--But there are alarming news that the Russians are
advancing: Marshal Lacy with 30,000; and reinforcements in the
rear of him.
"SEPTEBER 22d. Russians advancing more and more, no French help
arrived yet, and the enthusiastic Polish Chivalry being good for
nothing against regular musketry,--King Stanislaus finds that he
will have to quit Warsaw, and seek covert somewhere. Quits Warsaw
this day; gets covert in Dantzig. And, in fact, from this 22d of
September, day of the autumnal equinox, 1733, is a fugitive,
blockaded, besieged Stanislaus: an Imaginary King thenceforth.
His real Kingship had lasted precisely ten days.
"OCTOBER 3d. Lacy and his Russians arrive in the suburbs of
Warsaw, intent upon 'protecting freedom of election.' Bridges
being broken, they do not yet cross the River, but invite the free
electors to come across and vote: 'A real King is very necessary,
--Stanislaus being an imaginary one, brought in by compulsion, by
threats of flinging people out of window, and the like.' The free
electors do not cross. Whereupon a small handful, now free enough,
and NOT to be thrown out of window, whom Lacy had about him,
proceed to elect August of Saxony; he, on the 5th of October,
still one day within the legal six weeks, is chosen and declared
the real King:--'twelve senators and about six hundred gentlemen'
voting for him there, free they in Lacy's quarters, the rest of
Poland having lain under compulsion when voting for Stanislaus.
That is the Polish Election, so far as Poland can settle it.
We said the Destinies had ceased, some time since, to ask Poland
for its vote; it is other people who have now got the real power
of voting. But that is the correct state of the poll at Warsaw, if
important to anybody."
August is crowned in Cracow before long; "August III.," whom we
shall meet again in important circumstances. Lacy and his Russians
have voted for August; able, they, to disperse all manner of
enthusiastic Polish Chivalry; which indeed, we observe, usually
stands but one volley from the Russian musketry; and flies
elsewhither, to burn and plunder its own domestic enemies. Far and
wide, robbery and arson are prevalent in Poland; Stanislaus lying
under covert; in Dantzig,--an imaginary King ever since the
equinox, but well trusting that the French will give him a plumper
vote. French War-fleet is surely under way hither.
POLAND ON FIRE; DANTZIG STANDS SIEGE.
These are the news our Crown-Prince hears at Ruppin, in the first
months of his wedded life there. With what interest we may fancy.
Brandenburg is next neighbor; and these Polish troubles reach far
enough;--the ever-smoking house having taken fire; and all the
street threatening to get on blaze. Friedrich Wilhelm, nearest
neighbor, stands anxious to quencth, carefully sweeping the hot
coals across again from his own borders; and will not interfere on
one or the other side, for any persuasion.
Dantzig, strong in confidence of French help, refuses to give up
Stanislaus when summoned; will stand siege rather. Stands siege,
furious lengthy siege,--with enthusiastic defence; "a Lady of Rank
firing off the first gun," against the Russian batteries. Of the
Siege of Dantzig, which made the next Spring and Summer loud for
mankind (February-June, 1734), we shall say nothing,--our own poor
field, which also grows loud enough, lying far away from
Dantzig,---except:
FIRST, That no French help came, or as good as none; the minatory
War-fleet having landed a poor 1,500 men, headed by the Comte de
Plelo, who had volunteered along with them; that they attempted
one onslaught on the Russian lines, and that Plelo was shot, and
the rest were blown to miscellaneous ruin, and had to disappear,
not once getting into Dantzig. SECONDLY, That the Saxons, under
Weissenfels, our poor old friend, with proper siege-artillery,
though not with enough, did, by effort (end of May), get upon the
scene; in which this is to be remarked, that Weissenfels's siege-
artillery "came by post;" two big mortars expressly passing
through Berlin, marked as part of the Duke of Weissenfels's
Luggage. And THIRDLY, That Munnich, who had succeeded Lacy as
Besieging General, and was in hot haste, and had not artillery
enough, made unheard-of assaults (2,000 men, some say 4,000, lost
in one night-attack upon a post they call the Hagelberg;
rash attack, much blamed by military men); [ OEuvres de
Frederic, xxvii. part 2d, p. 31.]--but nevertheless,
having now (by Russian Fleet, middle of June) got siege-artillery
enough, advances irrepressibly day by day.
So that at length, things being now desperate, Stanislaus,
disguised as a cattle-dealer, privately quitted Dantzig, night of
27th June, 1734; got across the intricate mud-and-water
difficulties of the Weichsel and its mouths, flying perilously
towards Preussen and Friedrich Wilhelm's protection. [Narrative by
himself, in HISTORY, pp. 235-248.] Whereby the Siege of Dantzig
ended in chamade, and levying of penalties; penalties severe to a
degree, though Friedrich Wilhelm interceded what he could.
And with the Siege of Dantzig, the blazing Polish Election went
out in like manner; [Clear account, especially of Siege, in
Mannstein (pp. 71-83), who was there as Munnich's Aide-de-damp.]--
having already kindled, in quarters far away from it,
conflagrations quite otherwise interesting to us.
Whitherward we now hasten.
Chapter IX.
KAISER'S SHADOW-HUNT HAS CAUGHT FIRE.
Franz of Lorraine, the young favorite of Fortune, whom we once saw
at Berlin on an interesting occasion, was about this time to have
married his Imperial Archduchess; Kaiser's consent to be formally
demanded and given; nothing but joy and splendor looked for in the
Court of Vienna at present. Nothing to prevent it,--had there been
no Polish Election; had not the Kaiser, in his Shadow-Hunt
(coursing the Pragmatic Sanction chiefly, as he has done these
twenty years past), gone rashly into that combustible foreign
element. But so it is: this was the fatal limit. The poor Kaiser's
Shadow-Hunt, going Scot-free this long while, and merely
tormenting other people, has, at this point, by contact with
inflammable Poland, unexpectedly itself caught fire; goes now
plunging, all in mad flame, over precipices one knows not how
deep: and there will be a lamentable singeing and smashing before
the Kaiser get out of this, if he ever get! Kaiser Karl, from this
point, plunges down and down, all his days; and except in that
Shadow of a Pragmatic Sanction, if he can still save that, has no
comfort left. Marriages are not the thing to be thought of
at present!--
Scarcely had the news of August's Election, and Stanislaus's
flight to Dantzig, reached France, when France, all in a state of
readiness, informed the Kaiser, ready for nothing, his force lying
in Silesia, doing the Election functions on the Polish borders
there, "That he the Kaiser had, by such treatment of the
Grandfather of France and the Polish Kingdom fairly fallen to him,
insulted the most Christian Majesty; that in consequence the most
Christian Majesty did hereby declare War against the said
Kaiser,"--and in fact had, that very day (14th of October, 1733),
begun it. Had marched over into Lorraine, namely, secured Lorraine
against accidents; and, more specially, gone across from Strasburg
to the German side of the Rhine, and laid siege to Kehl.
Kehl Fortress; a dilapidated outpost of the Reich there, which
cannot resist many hours. Here is news for the Kaiser, with his
few troops all on the Polish borders; minding his neighbors'
business, or chasing Pragmatic Sanction, in those
inflammable localities.
Pacific Fleury, it must be owned, if he wanted a quarrel with the
Kaiser, could not have managed it on more advantageous terms.
Generals, a Duc de Berwick, a Noailles, Belleisle; generals,
troops, artillery, munitions, nothing is wanting to Fleury; to the
Kaiser all things. It is surmised, the French had their eye on
Lorraine, not on Stanislaus, from the first. For many centuries,
especially for these last two,--ever since that Siege of Metz,
which we once saw, under Kaiser Karl V. and Albert Alcibiades,--
France has been wrenching and screwing at this Lorraine, wriggling
it off bit by bit; till now, as we perceived on Lyttelton junior
of Hagley's visit, Lorraine seems all lying unscrewed; and France,
by any good opportunity, could stick it in her pocket. Such
opportunity sly Fleury contrived, they say;--or more likely it
might be Belleisle and the other adventurous spirits that urged it
on pacific Fleury;--but, at all events, he has got it. Dilapidated
Kehl yields straightway: [29th October, 1733. Memoires du
Marechal de Berwick (in Petitot'e Collection, Paris,
1828), ii. 303.] Sardinia, Spain, declare alliance with Fleury;
and not Lorraine only, and the Swabian Provinces, but Italy itself
lies at his discretion,--owing to your treatment of the
Grandfather of France, and these Polish Elective methods.
The astonished Kaiser rushes forward to fling himself into the
arms of the Sea-Powers, his one resource left: "Help! moneys,
subsidies, ye Sea-Powers!" But the Sea-Powers stand obtuse, arms
not open at all, hands buttoning their pockets: "Sorry we cannot,
your Imperial Majesty. Fleury engages not to touch the
Netherlands, the Barrier Treaty; Polish Elections are not our
concern!" and callously decline. The Kaiser's astonishment is
extreme; his big heart swelling even with a martyr-feeling; and he
passionately appeals: "Ungrateful, blind Sea-Powers! No money to
fight France, say you? Are the Laws of Nature fallen void?"
Imperial astonishment, sublime martyr-feeling, passionate appeals
to the Laws of Nature, avail nothing with the blind Sea-Powers:
"No money in us," answer they: "we will help you to negotiate."--
"Negotiate!" answers he: and will have to pay his own Election
broken-glass, with a sublime martyr-feeling, without money from
the Sea-Powers.
Fleury has got the Sardinian Majesty; "Sardinian doorkeeper of the
Alps," who opens them now this way, now that, for a consideration:
"A slice of the Milanese, your Majesty;" bargains Fleury.
Fleury has got the Spanish Majesty (our violent old friend the
Termagant of Spain) persuaded to join: "Your infant Carlos made
Duke of Parma and Piacenza, with such difficulty: what is that?
Naples itself, crown of the Two Sicilies, lies in the wind for
Carlos;--and your junior infant, great Madam, has he no need of
apanages?" The Termagant of Spain, "offended by Pragmatic
Sanction" (she says), is ready on those terms; the Sardinian
Majesty is ready: and Fleury, this same October, with an
overwhelming force, Spaniards and Sardinians to join, invades
Italy; great Marshal Villars himself taking the command.
Marshal Villars, an extremely eminent old military gentleman,--
somewhat of a friend, or husband of a lady-friend, to M. de
Voltaire, for one thing;--and capable of slicing Italy to pieces
at a fine rate, in the condition it was in.
Never had Kaiser such a bill of broken-glass to pay for meddling
in neighbors, elections before. The year was not yet ended, when
Villars and the Sardinian Majesty had done their stroke on
Lombardy; taken Milan Citadel, taken Pizzighetone, the Milanese in
whole, and appropriated it; swept the poor unprepared Kaiser clear
out of those parts. Baby Carlos and the Spaniards are to do the
Two Sicilies, Naples or the land one to begin with, were the
Winter gone. For the present, Louis XV. "sings TE DEUM, at Paris,
23d December, 1733" [ Fastes du Regne de Louis XV.
italic> (Paris, 1766), i. 248.]--a merry Christmas there.
Villars, now above four-score, soon died of those fatigues;
various Marshals, Broglio, Coigny, Noailles, succeeding him, some
of whom are slightly notable to us; and there was one Maillebois,
still a subordinate under them, whose name also may reappear in
this History.
SUBSEQUENT COURSE OF THE WAR, IN THE ITALIAN PART OF IT.
The French-Austrian War, which had now broken out, lasted a couple
of years; the Kaiser steadily losing, though he did his utmost;
not so much a War, on his part, as a Being Beaten and Being
Stript. The Scene was Italy and the Upper-Rhine Country of
Germany; Italy the deciding scene; where, except as it bears on
Germany, our interest is nothing, as indeed in Germany too it is
not much. The principal events, on both stages, are
chronologically somewhat as follows;--beginning with Italy:--
MARCH 29th, 1734. Baby Carlos with a Duke of Montemar for General,
a difficult impetuous gentleman, very haughty to the French allies
and others, lands in Naples Territory; intending to seize the Two
Sicilies, according to bargain. They find the Kaiser quite
unprepared, and their enterprise extremely feasible.
"MAY 10th. Baby Carlos--whom we ought to call Don Carlos, who is
now eighteen gone, and able to ride the great horse--makes
triumphant entry into Naples, having easily swept the road clear;
styles himself 'King of the Two Sicilies' (Papa having surrendered
him his 'right' there); whom Naples, in all ranks of it, willingly
homages as such. Wrecks of Kaiser's forces intrench themselves,
rather strongly, at a place called Bitonto, in Apulia, not
far off.
"MAY 25th. Montemar, in an impetuous manner, storms them there:--
which feat procures for him the title, Duke of Bitonto; and
finishes off the First of the Sicilies. And indeed, we may say,
finishes Both the Sicilies: our poor Kaiser having no considerable
force in either, nor means of sending any; the Sea-Powers having
buttoned their pockets, and the Combined Fleet of France and Spain
being on the waters there.
"We need only add, on this head, that, for ten months more, Baby
Carlos and Montemar went about besieging, Gaeta, Messina,
Syracuse; and making triumphal entries;--and that, on the 30th of
June, 1735, Baby Carlos had himself fairly crowned at Palermo.
[ Fastes de Louis XV., i. 278.] 'King of the Two Sicilies'
DE FACTO; in which eminent post he and his continue, not with much
success, to this day.
"That will suffice for the Two Sicilies. As to Lombardy again,
now that Villars is out of it, and the Coignys and Broglios
have succeeded:--
"JUNE 29th, 1734. Kaiser, rallying desperately for recovery of the
Milanese, has sent an Army thither, Graf von Mercy leader of it:
Battle of Parma between the French and it (29th June);--totally
lost by the Kaiser's people, after furious fighting; Graf von
Mercy himself killed in the action. Graf von Mercy, and what comes
nearer us, a Prince of Culmbach, amiable Uncle of our Wilhelmina's
Husband, a brave man and Austrian Soldier, who was much regretted
by Wilhelmina and the rest; his death and obsequies making a
melancholy Court of Baireuth in this agitated year. The Kaiser,
doing his utmost, is beaten at every point.
"SEPTEMBER 15th. Surprisal of the Secchia. Kaiser's people rally,
--under a General Graf von Konigseck worth noting by us,--and
after some manoeuvring, in the Guastalla-Modena region, on the
Secchia and Po rivers there, dexterously steal across the Secchia
that night (15th September), cutting off the small guard-party at
the ford of the Secchia, then wading silently; and burst in upon
the French Camp in a truly alarming manner. [Hormayr, xx. 84;
Fastes, as it is liable to do, misdates.]
So that Broglio, in command there, had to gallop with only one
boot on, some say 'in his shirt,' till he got some force rallied,
and managed to retreat more Parthian-like upon his brother
Marechal's Division. Artillery, war-chest, secret correspondence,
'King of Sardinia's tent,' and much cheering plunder beside
Broglio's odd boot, were the consequences; the Kaiser's one
success in this War; abolished, unluckily, in four days!--
The Broglio who here gallops is the second French Marechal of the
name, son of the first; a military gentleman whom we shall but too
often meet in subsequent stages. A son of this one's, a third
Marechal Broglio, present at the Secchia that bad night, is the
famous War-god of the Bastille time, fifty-five years hence,--
unfortunate old War-god, the Titans being all up about him. As to
Broglio with the one boot, it is but a triumph over him till--
"SEPTEMBER 19th. Battle of Guastalla, that day. Battle lost by the
Kaiser's people, after eight hours, hot fighting; who are then
obliged to hurry across the Secchia again;--and in fact do not
succeed in fighting any more in that quarter, this year or
afterwards. For, next year (1735), Montemar is so advanced with
the Two Sicilies, he can assist in these Northern operations;
and Noailles, a better Marechal, replaces the Broglio and Coigny
there; who, with learned strategic movements, sieges, threatenings
of siege, sweeps the wrecks of Austria, to a satisfactory degree,
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