BOOK XX.

FRIEDRICH IS NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED:
THE SEVEN-YEARS WAR GRADUALLY ENDS.

25th April, 1760-15th February, 1763.


Chapter I.

FIFTH CAMPAIGN OPENS.

There were yet, to the world's surprise and regret, Three Campaigns
of this War; but the Campaign 1760, which we are now upon, was what
produced or rendered possible the other two;--was the crisis of
them, and is now the only one that can require much narrative from
us here. Ill-luck, which, Friedrich complains, had followed him
like his shadow, in a strange and fateful manner, from the day of
Kunersdorf and earlier, does not yet cease its sad company; but, on
the contrary, for long months to come, is more constant than ever,
baffling every effort of his own, and from the distance sending him
news of mere disaster and discomfiture. It is in this Campaign,
though not till far on in it, that the long lane does prove to have
a turning, and the Fortune of War recovers its old impartial form.
After which, things visibly languish: and the hope of ruining such
a Friedrich becomes problematic, the effort to do it slackens also;
the very will abating, on the Austrian part, year by year, as of
course the strength of their resources is still more steadily
doing. To the last, Friedrich, the weaker in material resources,
needs all his talent,--all his luck too. But, as the strength, on
both sides, is fast abating,--hard to say on which side faster
(Friedrich's talent being always a FIXED quantity, while all else
is fluctuating and vanishing),--what remains of the once terrible
Affair, through Campaigns Sixth and Seventh, is like a race between
spent horses, little to be said of it in comparison. Campaign 1760
is the last of any outward eminence or greatness of event. Let us
diligently follow that, and be compendious with the remainder.

Friedrich was always famed for his Marches; but, this Year, they
exceeded all calculation and example; and are still the admiration
of military men. Can there by no method be some distant notion
afforded of them to the general reader? They were the one resource
Friedrich had left, against such overwhelming superiority in
numbers; and they came out like surprises in a theatre,--
unpleasantly surprising to Daun. Done with such dexterity, rapidity
and inexhaustible contrivance and ingenuity, as overset the schemes
of his enemies again and again, and made his one army equivalent in
effect to their three.

Evening of April 25th, Friedrich rose from his Freyberg
cantonments; moved back, that is, northward, a good march;
then encamped himself between Elbe and the Hill-Country; with freer
prospect and more elbow-room for work coming. His left is on
Meissen and the Elbe; his right at a Village called the
Katzenhauser, an uncommonly strong camp, of which one often hears
afterwards; his centre camp is at Schlettau, which also is strong,
though not to such a degree. This line extends from Meissen
southward about 10 miles, commanding the Reich-ward Passes of the
Metal Mountains, and is defensive of Leipzig, Torgau and the Towns
thereabouts. [Tempelhof, iv. 16 et seq.] Katzenhauser is but a mile
or two from Krogis--that unfortunate Village where Finck got his
Maxen Order: "ER WEISS,--You know I can't stand having difficulties
raised; manage to do it!"

Friedrich's task, this Year, is to defend Saxony; Prince Henri
having undertaken the Russians,--Prince Henri and Fouquet, the
Russians and Silesia. Clearly on very uphill terms, both of them:
so that Friedrich finds he will have a great many things to assist
in, besides defending Saxony. He lies here expectant till the
middle of June, above seven weeks; Daun also, for the last two
weeks, having taken the field in a sort. In a sort;--but comes no
nearer; merely posting himself astride of the Elbe, half in
Dresden, half on the opposite or northern bank of the River, with
Lacy thrown out ahead in good force on that vacant side; and so
waiting the course of other people's enterprises.

Well to eastward and rearward of Daun, where we have seen Loudon
about to be very busy, Prince Henri and Fouquet have spun
themselves out into a long chain of posts, in length 300 miles or
more, "from Landshut, along the Bober, along the Queiss and Oder,
through the Neumark, abutting on Stettin and Colberg, to the Baltic
Sea." [Tempelhof, iv. 21-24.] On that side, in aid of Loudon or
otherwise, Daun can attempt nothing; still less on the
Katzenhauser-Schlettau side can he dream of an attempt:
only towards Brandenburg and Berlin--the Country on that side, 50
or 60 miles of it, to eastward of Meissen, being vacant of troops--
is Daun's road open, were he enterprising, as Friedrich hopes he is
not. For some two weeks, Friedrich--not ready otherwise, it being
difficult to cross the River, if Lacy with his 30,000 should think
of interference--had to leave the cunctatory Feldmarschall this
chance or unlikely possibility. At the end of the second week
("June 14th," as we shall mark by and by), the chance
was withdrawn.

Daun and his Lacy are but one, and that by no means the most
harassing, of the many cares and anxieties which Friedrich has upon
him in those Seven Weeks, while waiting at Schlettau, reading the
omens. Never hitherto was the augury of any Campaign more
indecipherable to him, or so continually fluctuating with wild
hopes, which proved visionary, and with huge practical fears, of
what he knew to be the real likelihood. "Peace coming?" It is
strange how long Friedrich clings to that fond hope: "My Edelsheim
is in the Bastille, or packed home in disgrace: but will not the
English and Choiseul make Peace? It is Choiseul's one rational
course; bankrupt as he is, and reduced to spoons and kettles.
In which case, what a beautiful effect might Duke Ferdinand
produce, if he marched to Eger, say to Eger, with his 50,000
Germans (Britannic Majesty and Pitt so gracious), and twitched Daun
by the skirt, whirling Daun home to Bohemia in a hurry!" Then the
Turks; the Danes,--"Might not the Danes send us a trifle of Fleet
to Colberg (since the English never will), and keep our Russians at
bay?"--"At lowest these hopes are consolatory," says he once,
suspecting them all (as, no doubt, he often enough does), "and give
us courage to look calmly for the opening of this Campaign, the
very idea of which has made me shudder!" ["To Prince Henri:" in
 Schoning,  ii. 246 (3d April, 1760): ib. 263
(of the DANISH outlook); &c. &c.]

Meanwhile, by the end of May, the Russians are come across the
Weichsel again, lie in four camps on the hither side; start about
June 1st;--Henri waiting for them, in Sagan Country his head-
quarter; and on both hands of that, Fouquet and he spread out,
since the middle of May, in their long thin Chain of Posts, from
Landshut to Colberg again, like a thin wall of 300 miles.
To Friedrich the Russian movements are, and have been, full of
enigma: "Going upon Colberg? Going upon Glogau; upon Breslau?"
That is a heavy-footed certainty, audibly tramping forward on us,
amid these fond visions of the air! Certain too, and visible to a
duller eye than Friedrich's; Loudon in Silesia is meditating
mischief. "The inevitable Russians, the inevitable Loudon; and
nothing but Fouquet and Henri on guard there, with their long thin
chain of posts, infinitely too thin to do any execution!" thinks
the King. To whom their modes of operating are but little
satisfactory, as seen at Schlettau from the distance.
"Condense yourself," urges he always on Henri; "go forward on the
Russians; attack sharply this Corps, that Corps, while they are
still separate and on march!" Henri did condense himself, "took
post between Sagan and Sprottau; post at Frankfurt,"--poor
Frankfurt, is it to have a Kunersdorf or Zorndorf every year, then?
No; the cautious Henri never could see his way into these
adventures; and did not attack any Corps of the Russians. Took post
at Landsberg ultimately,--the Russians, as usual, having Posen as
place-of-arms,--and vigilantly watched the Russians, without coming
to strokes at all. A spectacle growing gradually intolerable to the
King, though he tries to veil his feelings.

Neither was Fouquet's plan of procedure well seen by Friedrich in
the distance. Ever since that of Regiment Manteuffel, which was a
bit of disappointment, Loudon has been quietly industrious on a
bigger scale. Privately he cherishes the hope, being a swift
vehement enterprising kind of man, to oust Fouquet; and perhaps to
have Glatz Fortress taken, before his Russians come! In the very
end of May, Loudon, privately aiming for Glatz, breaks in upon
Silesia again,--a long way to eastward of Fouquet, and as if
regardless of Glatz. Upon which, Fouquet, in dread for Schweidnitz
and perhaps Breslau itself, hastened down into the Plain Country,
to manoeuvre upon Loudon; but found no Loudon moving that way;
and, in a day or two, learned that Landshut, so weakly guarded, had
been picked up by a big corps of Austrians; and in another day or
two, that Loudon (June 7th) had blocked Glatz,--Loudon's real
intention now clear to Fouquet. As it was to Friedrich from the
first; whose anger and astonishment at this loss of Landshut were
great, when he heard of it in his Camp of Schlettau. "Back to
Landshut," orders he (11th June, three days before leaving
Schlettau); "neither Schweidnitz nor Breslau are in danger: it is
Glatz the Austrians mean [as Fouquet and all the world now see they
do!]; watch Glatz; retake me Landshut instantly!"

The tone of Friedrich, which is usually all friendliness to
Fouquet, had on this occasion something in it which offended the
punctual and rather peremptory Spartan mind. Fouquet would not have
neglected Glatz; pity he had not been left to his own methods with
Landshut and it. Deeply hurt, he read this Order (16th June);
and vowing to obey it, and nothing but it, used these words, which
were remembered afterwards, to his assembled Generals:
"MEINE HERREN, it appears, then, we must take Landshut again.
Loudon, as the next thing, will come on us there with his mass of
force; and we must then, like Prussians, hold out as long as
possible, think of no surrender on open field, but if even beaten,
defend ourselves to the last man. In case of a retreat, I will be
one of the last that leaves the field: and should I have the
misfortune to survive such a day, I give you my word of honor never
to draw a Prussian sword more." [Stenzel, v. 239.] This speech of
Fouquet's (June 16th) was two days after Friedrich got on march
from Schlettau. June 17th, Fouquet got to Landshut; drove out the
Austrians more easily than he had calculated, and set diligently,
next day, to repair his works, writing to Friedrich: "Your
Majesty's Order shall be executed here, while a man of us lives."
Fouquet, in the old Crown-Prince time, used to be called Bayard by
his Royal friend. His Royal friend, now darker of face and scathed
by much ill-weather, has just quitted Schlettau, three days before
this recovery of Landshut; and will not have gone far till he again
hear news of Fouquet.

NIGHT OF JUNE 14th-15th, Friedrich, "between Zehren and Zabel,"
several miles down stream,--his bridges now all ready, out of
Lacy's cognizance,--has suddenly crossed Elbe; and next afternoon
pitches camp at Broschwitz, which is straight towards Lacy again.
To Lacy's astonishment; who is posted at Moritzburg, with head-
quarter in that beautiful Country-seat of Polish Majesty,--only 10
miles to eastward, should Friedrich take that road. Broschwitz is
short way north of Meissen, and lies on the road either to
Grossenhayn or to Radeburg (Radeburg only four miles northward of
Lacy), as Friedrich shall see fit, on the morrow. For the Meissen
north road forks off there, in those two directions:
straight northward is for Grossenhayn, right hand is for Badeburg.
Most interesting to Lacy, which of these forks, what is quite
optional, Friedrich will take! Lacy is an alert man; looks well to
himself; warns Daun; and will not be caught if he can help it.
Daun himself is encamped at Reichenberg, within two miles of him,
inexpugnably intrenched as usual; and the danger surely is not
great: nevertheless both these Generals, wise by experience, keep
their eyes open.

The FIRST great Feat of Marching now follows, On Friedrich's part;
with little or no result to Friedrich; but worth remembering, so
strenuous, so fruitless was it,--so barred by ill news from
without! Both this and the Second stand recorded for us, in brief
intelligent terms by Mitchell, who was present in both; and who is
perfectly exact on every point, and intelligible throughout,--if
you will read him with a Map; and divine for yourself what the real
names are, out of the inhuman blotchings made of them, not by
Mitchell's blame at all. [Mitchell,  Memoirs and Papers,
 ii. 160 et seq.]

TUESDAY, JUNE 17th, second day of Friedrich's stay at Broschwitz,
Mitchell, in a very confidential Dialogue they had together,
learned from him, under seal of secrecy, That it was his purpose to
march for Radeburg to-morrow morning, and attack Lacy and his
30,000, who lie encamped at Moritzburg out yonder; for which step
his Majesty was pleased farther to show Mitchell a little what the
various inducements were: "One Russian Corps is aiming as if for
Berlin; the Austrians are about besieging Glatz,--pressing need
that Fouquet were reinforced in his Silesian post of difficulty.
Then here are the Reichs-people close by; can be in Dresden three
days hence, joined to Daun: 80,000 odd there will then be of
Enemies in this part: I must beat Lacy, if possible, while time
still is!"--and ended by saying: "Succeed here, and all may yet be
saved; be beaten here, I know the consequences: but what can I do?
The risk must be run; and it is now smaller than it will ever
again be."

Mitchell, whose account is a fortnight later than the Dialogue
itself, does confess, "My Lord, these reasons, though unhappily the
thing seems to have failed, 'appear to me to be solid and
unanswerable.'" Much more do they to Tempelhof, who sees deeper
into the bottom of them than Mitchell did; and finds that the
failure is only superficial. [Mitchell,  Memoirs and
Papers,  ii. 160 (Despatch, "June 30th, 1760");
Tempelhof, iv. 44.] The real success, thinks Tempelhof, would be,
Could the King manoeuvre himself into Silesia, and entice a
cunctatory Daun away with him thither. A cunctatory Daun to preside
over matters THERE, in his superstitiously cautious way;
leaving Saxony free to the Reichsfolk,--whom a Hulsen, left with
his small remnant in Schlettau, might easily take charge of, till
Silesia were settled? "The plan was bold, was new, and completely
worthy of Friedrich," votes Tempelhof; "and it required the most
consummate delicacy of execution. To lure Daun on, always with the
prospect open to him of knocking you on the head, and always by
your rapidity and ingenuity to take care that he never got it
done." This is Tempelhof's notion: and this, sure enough, was
actually Friedrich's mode of management in the weeks following;
though whether already altogether planned in his head, or only
gradually planning itself, as is more likely, nobody can say.
We will look a very little into the execution, concerning which
there is no dubiety:--

WEDNESDAY, 18th JUNE, "Friedrich," as predicted to Mitchell, the
night before, "did start punctually, in three columns, at 3 A.M.
[Sun just rising]; and, after a hot march, got encamped on the
southward side of Radeburg: ready to cross the Rodern Stream there
to-morrow, as if intending for the Lausitz [should that prove
needful for alluring Lacy],--and in the mean while very inquisitive
where Lacy might be. One of Lacy's outposts, those Saxon light
horse, was fallen in with; was chased home, and Lacy's camp
discovered, that night. At Bernsdorf, not three miles to southward
or right of us; Daun only another three to south of him. Let us
attack Lacy to-morrow morning; wind round to get between Daun and
him, [Tempelhof, iv. 47-49.]--with fit arrangements; rapid as
light! In the King's tent, accordingly, his Generals are assembled
to take their Orders; brief, distinct, and to be done with brevity.
And all are on the move for Bernsdorf at 4 next morning;
when, behold,--

"THURSDAY, 19th, At Bernsdorf there is no Lacy to be found.
Cautions Dorn has ordered him in,--and not for Lacy's sake, as
appears, but for his own: 'Hitherward, you alert Lacy; to cover my
right flank here, my Hill of Reichenberg,--lest it be not
impregnable enough against that feline enemy!' And there they have
taken post, say 60,000 against 30,000; and are palisading to a
quite extraordinary degree. No fight possible with Lacy or Daun."

This is what Mitchell counts the failure of Friedrich's enterprise:
and certainly it grieved Friedrich a good deal. Who, on riding out
to reconnoitre Reichenberg (Quintus Icilius and Battalion QUINTUS
part of his escort, if that be an interesting circumstance], finds
Reichenberg a plainly unattackable post; finds, by Daun's rate of
palisading, that there will be no attack from Daun either.
No attack from Daun;--and, therefore, that Hulsen's people may be
sent home to Schlettau again; and that he, Friedrich, will take
post close by, and wearisomely be content to wait for some new
opportunity.

Which he does for a week to come; Daun sitting impregnable,
intrenched and palisaded to the teeth,--rather wishing to be
attacked, you would say; or hopeful sometimes of doing something of
the Hochkirch sort again (for the country is woody, and the enemy
audacious);--at all events, very clear not to attack. A man erring,
sometimes to a notable degree, by over-caution. "Could hardly have
failed to overwhelm Friedrich's small force, had he at once, on
Friedrich's crossing the Elbe, joined Lacy, and gone out against
him," thinks Tempelhof, pointing out the form of operation too.
[Tempelhof, iv. 42, 48.] Caution is excellent; but not quite by
itself. Would caution alone do it, an Army all of Druidic
whinstones, or innocent clay-sacks, incapable of taking hurt, would
be the proper one!--Daun stood there; Friedrich looking daily into
him,--visibly in ill humor, says Mitchell; and no wonder; gloomy
and surly words coming out of him, to the distress of his Generals:
"Which I took the liberty of hinting, one evening, to his Majesty;"
hint graciously received, and of effect perceptible, at least to
my imagining.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25th, After nearly a week of this, there rose,
towards sunset, all over the Reichenberg, and far and wide, an
exuberant joy-firing: "For what in the world?" thinks Friedrich.
Alas, your Majesty,--since your own messenger has not arrived, nor
indeed ever will, being picked up by Pandours,--here, gathered from
the Austrian outposts or deserters, are news for you, fatal enough!
Landshut is done; Fouquet and his valiant 13,000 are trodden out
there. Indignant Fouquet has obeyed you, not wisely but too well.
He has kept Landshut six nights and five days. On the morning of
the sixth day, here is what befell:--

"LANDSHUT, MONDAY, 23d JUNE, About a quarter to two in the morning,
Loudon, who had gathered 31,000 horse and foot for the business,
and taken his measures, fired aloft, by way of signal, four
howitzers into the gray of the summer morning; and burst loose upon
Fouquet, in various columns, on his southward front, on both
flanks, ultimately in his rear too: columns all in the height of
fighting humor, confident as three to one,--and having brandy in
them, it is likewise said. Fouquet and his people stood to arms, in
the temper Fouquet had vowed they would: defended their Hills with
an energy, with a steady skill, which Loudon himself admired;
but their Hill-works would have needed thrice the number;--Fouquet,
by detaching and otherwise, has in arms only 10,680 men. Toughly as
they strove, after partial successes, they began to lose one Hill,
and then another; and in the course of hours, nearly all their
Hills. Landshut Town Loudon had taken from them, Landshut and its
roads: in the end, the Prussian position is becoming permeable,
plainly untenable;--Austrian force is moving to their rearward to
block the retreat.

"Seeing which latter fact, Fouquet throws out all his Cavalry, a
poor 1,500, to secure the Passes of the Bober; himself formed
square with the wrecks of his Infantry; and, at a steady step, cuts
way for himself with bayonet and bullet. With singular success for
some time, in spite of the odds. And is clear across the Bober;
when lo, among the knolls ahead, masses of Austrian Cavalry are
seen waiting him, besetting every passage! Even these do not break
him; but these, with infantry and cannon coming up to help them,
do. Here, for some time, was the fiercest tug of all,--till a
bullet having killed Fouquet's horse, and carried the General
himself to the ground, the spasm ended. The Lichnowski Dragoons, a
famed Austrian regiment, who had charged and again charged with
nothing but repulse on repulse, now broke in, all in a foam of
rage; cut furiously upon Fouquet himself; wounded Fouquet thrice;
would have killed him, had it not been for the heroism of poor
Trautschke, his Groom [let us name the gallant fellow, even if
unpronounceable], who flung himself on the body of his Master, and
took the bloody strokes instead of him; shrieking his loudest,
'Will you murder the Commanding General, then!' Which brought up
the Colonel of Lichnowski; a Gentleman and Ritter, abhorrent of
such practices. To him Fouquet gave his sword;--kept his vow never
to draw it again.

"The wrecks of Fouquet's Infantry were, many of them, massacred, no
quarter given; such the unchivalrous fury that had risen.
His Cavalry, with the loss of about 500, cut their way through.
They and some stragglers of Foot, in whole about 1,500 of both
kinds, were what remained of those 10,680 after this bloody
morning's work. There had been about six hours of it; 'all over by
8 o'clock.'" [ Hofbericht von der am 23 Junius, 1760, bey
Landshuth vorgefallenen Action  (in Seyfarth, 
Beylagen,  ii. 669-671);  Helden-Geschichte,
 vi. 258-284; Tempelhof, iv. 26-41; Stenzel, v. 241
(who, by oversight,--this Volume being posthumous to poor Stenzel,
--protracts the Action to "half-past 7 in the evening").]

Fouquet has obeyed to the letter: "Did not my King wrong me?"
Fouquet may say to himself. Truly, Herr General, your King's Order
was a little unwise; as you (who were on the ground, and your King
not) knew it to be. An unwise Order;--perhaps not inexcusable in
the sudden circumstances. And perhaps a still more perfect Bayard
would have preferred obeying such a King in spirit, rather than in
letter, and thereby doing him vital service AGAINST his temporary
will? It is not doubted but Fouquet, left to himself and his
13,000, with the Fortresses and Garrisons about him, would have
maintained himself in Silesia till help came. The issue is,--
Fouquet has probably lost this fine King his Silesia, for the time
being; and beyond any question, has lost him 10,000 Prussian-
Spartan fighters, and a fine General whom he could ill spare!--In a
word, the Gate of Silesia is burst open; and Loudon has every
prospect of taking Glatz, which will keep it so.

What a thunder-bolt for Friedrich! One of the last pillars struck
away from his tottering affairs. "Inevitable, then? We are over
with it, then?" One may fancy Friedrich's reflections. But he
showed nothing of them to anybody; in a few hours, had his mind
composed, and new plans on the anvil. On the morrow of that
Austrian Joy-Firing,--morrow, or some day close on it (ought to
have been dated, but is not),--there went from him, to Magdeburg,
the Order: "Have me such and such quantities of Siege-Artillery in
a state of readiness." [Tempelhof, iv. 51.] Already meaning, it is
thought, or contemplating as possible a certain Siege, which
surprised everybody before long! A most inventive, enterprising
being; no end to his contrivances and unexpected outbreaks;
especially when you have him jammed into a corner, and fancy it is
all over with him!

"To no other General," says Tempelhof, "would such a notion of
besieging Dresden have occurred; or if it had suggested itself, the
hideous difficulties would at once have banished it again, or left
it only as a pious wish. But it is strokes of this kind that
characterize the great man. Often enough they have succeeded, been
decisive of great campaigns and wars, and become splendid in the
eyes of all mankind; sometimes, as in this case, they have only
deserved to succeed, and to be splendid in the eyes of judges.
How get these masses of enemies lured away, so that you could try
such a thing? There lay the difficulty; insuperable altogether,
except by the most fine and appropriate treatment. Of a truth, it
required a connected series of the wisest measures and most secret
artifices of war;--and withal, that you should throw over them such
a veil as would lead your enemy to see in them precisely the
reverse of what they meant. How all this was to be set in action,
and how the Enemy's own plans, intentions and moods of mind were to
be used as raw material for attainment of your object,--studious
readers will best see in the manoeuvres of the King in his now more
than critical condition; which do certainly exhibit the completest
masterpiece in the Art of leading Armies that Europe has
ever seen."

Tempelhof is well enough aware, as readers should continue to be,
that, primarily, and onward for three weeks more, not Dresden, but
the getting to Silesia on good terms, is Friedrich's main
enterprise: Dresden only a supplement or substitute, a second
string to his bow, till the first fail. But, in effect, the two
enterprises or strings coincide, or are one, till the first of them
fail; and Tempelhof's eulogy will apply to either. The initiatory
step to either is a Second Feat of Marching;--still notabler than
the former, which has had this poor issue. Soldiers of the studious
or scientific sort, if there are yet any such among us, will
naturally go to Tempelhof, and fearlessly encounter the ruggedest
Documents and Books, if Tempelhof leave them dubious on any point
(which he hardly will): to ingenuous readers of other sorts, who
will take a little pains for understanding the thing, perhaps the
following intermittent far-off glimpses may suffice. [Mitchell, ii.
162 et seq.; and Tempelhof (iv. 50-53 et seq.), as a scientific
check on Mitchell, or unconscious fellow-witness with him,--
agreeing beautifully almost always.]

On ascertaining the Landshut disaster, Friedrich falls back a
little; northward to Gross-Dobritz: "Possibly Daun will think us
cowed by what has happened; and may try something on us?" Daun is
by no means sure of this COWED phenomenon, or of the retreat it has
made; and tries nothing on it; only rides up daily to it, to
ascertain that it is there; and diligently sends out parties to
watch the Northeastward parts, where run the Silesian Roads.
After about a week of this, and some disappointments, Friedrich
decides to march in earnest. There had, one day, come report of
Lacy's being detached, Lacy with a strong Division, to block the
Silesian roads; but that, on trial, proved to be false.
"Pshaw, nothing for us but to go ourselves!" concludes Friedrich,--
and, JULY 1st, sends off his Bakery and Heavy Baggage; indicating
to Mitchell, "To-morrow morning at 3!"--Here is Mitchell's own
account; accurate in every particular, as we find: [Mitchell, ii.
164; Tempelhof, iv. 54.]

WEDNESDAY, JULY 2d. "From Gross-Dobritz to Quosdorf [to Quosdorf, a
poor Hamlet there, not QuoLsdorf, as many write, which is a Town
far enough from there]--the Army marched accordingly. In two
columns; baggage, bakery and artillery in a third; through a
country extremely covered with wood. Were attacked by some Uhlans
and Hussars; whom a few cannon-shot sent to the road again.
March lasted from 3 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon;"
twelve long hours. "Went northeastward a space of 20 miles, leaving
Radeburg, much more leaving Reichenberg, Moritzburg and the Daun
quarters well to the right, and at last quite to rearward;
crossed the Roder, crossed the Pulsnitz," small tributaries or sub-
tributaries of the Elbe in those parts; "crossed the latter (which
divides Meissen from the Lausitz) partly by the Bridge of Krakau,
first Village in the Lausitz. Head-quarter was the poor Hamlet of
Quosdorf, a mile farther on. 'This march had been carefully kept
secret,' says Mitchell; 'and it was the opinion of the most
experienced Officers, that, had the Enemy discovered the King of
Prussia's design, they might, by placing their light troops in the
roads with proper supports, have rendered it extremely difficult,
if not impracticable.'"

Daun very early got to know of Friedrich's departure, and
whitherward; which was extremely interesting to Daun: "Aims to be
in Silesia before me; will cut out Loudon from his fine prospects
on Glatz?"--and had instantly reinforced, perhaps to 20,000, Lacy's
Division; and ordered Lacy, who is the nearest to Friedrich's
March, to start instantly on the skirts of said March, and endeavor
diligently to trample on the same. For the purpose of harassing
said March, Lacy is to do whatever he with safety can (which we see
is not much: "a few Uhlans and Hussars"); at lowest, is to keep it
constantly in sight; and always encamp as near it as he dare;
[Tempelhof, iv. 54.]--Daun himself girding up his loins;
and preparing, by a short-cut, to get ahead of it in a day or two.
Lacy was alert enough, but could not do much with safety: a few
Uhlans and Hussars, that was all; and he is now encamped somewhere
to rearward, as near as he dare.

THURSDAY, 3d JULY. "A rest-day; Army resting about Krakau, after
such a spell through the woody moors. The King, with small escort,
rides out reconnoitring, hither, thither, on the southern side or
Lacy quarter: to the top of the Keulenberg (BLUDGEON HILL), at
last,--which is ten or a dozen miles from Krakau and Quosdorf, but
commands an extensive view. Towns, village-belfries, courses of
streams; a country of mossy woods and wild agricultures, of bogs,
of shaggy moor. Southward 10 miles is Radeberg [not RadebUrg,
observe]; yonder is the town of Pulsnitz on our stream of Pulsnitz;
to southeast, and twice as far, is Bischofswerda, chasmy Stolpen
(too well known to us before this): behind us, Konigsbruck, Kamenz
and the road from Grossenhayn to Bautzen: these and many other
places memorable to this King are discoverable from Bludgeon Hill.
But the discovery of discoveries to him is Lacy's Camp,--not very
far off, about a mile behind Pulsnitz; clearly visible, at
Lichtenberg yonder. Which we at once determine to attack; which,
and the roads to which, are the one object of interest just now,
--nothing else visible, as it were, on the top of the Keulenberg
here, or as we ride homeward, meditating it with a practical view.
'March at midnight,' that is the practical result arrived at, on
reaching home."

FRIDAY, JULY 4th. "Since the stroke of midnight we are all on march
again; nothing but the baggages and bakeries left [with Quintus to
watch them, which I see is his common function in these marches];
King himself in the Vanguard,--who hopes to give Lacy a salutation.
[Tempelhof, iv. 56.] 'The march was full of defiles,' says
Mitchell: and Mitchell, in his carriage, knew little what a region
it was, with boggy intricacies, lakelets, tangly thickets, stocks
and stumps; or what a business to pass with heavy cannon, baggage-
wagons and columns of men! Such a march; and again not far from
twenty miles of it: very hot, as the morning broke, in the
breathless woods. Had Lacy known what kind of ground we had to
march in, and been enterprising--! thinks Tempelhof. The march
being so retarded, Lacy got notice of it, and vanished quite away,
--to Bischofswerda, I believe, and the protecting neighborhood of
Daun. Nothing of him left when we emerge, simultaneously from this
hand and from that, on his front and on his rear, to take him as in
a vice, as in the sudden snap of a fox-trap;--fox quite gone.
Hardly a few hussars of him to be picked up; and no chase possible,
after such a march."

Friedrich had done everything to keep himself secret: but Lacy has
endless Pandours prowling about; and, I suppose, the Country-people
(in the Lausitz here, who ought to have loyalty) are on the Lacy
side. Friedrich has to take his disappointment. He encamps here, on
the Heights, head-quarter Pulsnitz,--till Quintus come up with the
baggage, which he does punctually, but not till nightfall, not till
midnight the last of him.

SATURDAY, JULY 5th. "To the road again at 3 A.M. Again to
northward, to Kloster (CLOISTER) Marienstern, a 15 miles or so,--
head-quarter in the Cloister itself. Daun had set off for Bautzen,
with his 50 or 60,000, in the extremest push of haste, and is at
Bautzen this night; ahead of Friedrich, with Lacy as rear-guard of
him, who is also ahead of Friedrich, and safe at Bischofswerda.
A Daun hastening as never before. This news of a Daun already at
Bautzen awakened Friedrich's utmost speed: 'Never do, that Daun be
in Silesia before us! Indispensable to get ahead of Bautzen and
him, or to be waiting on the flank of his next march!' Accordingly,

"SUNDAY, JULY 6th, Friedrich, at 3 A.M., is again in motion;
in three columns, streaming forward all day: straight eastward,
Daun-ward. Intends to cross the Spree, leaving Bautzen to the
right; and take post somewhere to northeast of Bautzen, and on the
flank of Daun. The windless day grows hotter and hotter; the roads
are of loose sand, full of jungles and impediments. This was such a
march for heat and difficulty as the King never had before.
In front of each Column went wagons with a few pontoons; there
being many brooks and little streams to cross. The soldier, for his
own health's sake, is strictly forbidden to drink; but as the
burning day rose higher, in the sweltering close march, thirst grew
irresistible. Crossing any of these Brooks, the soldiers pounce
down, irrepressible, whole ranks of them; lift water, clean or
dirty; drink it greedily from the brim of the hat. Sergeants may
wag their tongues and their cudgels at discretion: 'showers of
cudgel-strokes,' says Archenholtz; Sergeants going like threshers
on the poor men;--'though the upper Officers had a touch of mercy,
and affected not to see this disobedience to the Sergeants and
their cudgels,' which was punishable with death. War is not an
over-fond Mother, but a sufficiently Spartan one, to her Sons.
There dropt down, in the march that day, 105 Prussian men, who
never rose again. And as to intercepting Daun by such velocity,--
Daun too is on march; gone to Gorlitz, at almost a faster pace, if
at a far heavier,--like a cart-horse on gallop; faring still worse
in the heat: '200 of Daun's men died on the road this day, and 300
more were invalided for life.' [Tempelhof, iv. 58; Archenholtz, ii.
68; Mitchell, ii. 166.]

"Before reaching the Spree, Friedrich, who is in the Vanguard,
hears of this Gorlitz March, and that the bird is flown. For which
he has, therefore, to devise straightway a new expedient: 'Wheel to
the right; cross Spree farther down, holding towards Bautzen
itself,' orders Friedrich. And settles within two miles of Bautzen;
his left being at Doberschutz,--on the strong ground he held after
Hochkirch, while Daun, two years ago, sat watching so quiescent.
Daun knows what kind of march these Prussians, blocked out from
relief of Neisse, stole on him THEN, and saved their Silesia, in
spite of his watching and blocking;--and has plunged off, in the
manner of a cart-horse scared into galloping, to avoid the like."
What a Sabbath-day's journey, on both sides, for those Sons of War!
Nothing in the Roman times, though they had less baggage, comes up
to such modern marching: nor is this the fastest of Friedrich's,
though of Daun's it unspeakably is. "Friedrich, having missed Daun,
is thinking now to whirl round, and go into Lacy,--which will
certainly bring Daun back, even better.

"This evening, accordingly, Ziethen occupies Bautzen; sweeps out
certain Lacy precursors, cavalry in some strength, who are there.
Lacy has come on as far as Bischofswerda: and his Horse-people seem
to be wide ahead; provokingly pert upon Friedrich's outposts, who
determines to chastise them the first thing to-morrow.
To-morrow, as is very needful, is to be a rest-day otherwise.
For Friedrich's wearied people a rest-day; not at all for Daun's,
who continues his heavy-footed galloping yet another day and
another, till he get across the Queiss, and actually
reach Silesia."

MONDAY, JULY 7th. "Rest-day accordingly, in Bautzen neighborhood;
nothing passing but a curious Skirmish of Horse,--in which
Friedrich, who had gone westward reconnoitring, seeking Lacy, had
the main share, and was notably situated for some time. Godau, a
small town or village, six miles west of Bautzen, was the scene of
this notable passage: actors in it were Friedrich himself, on the
Prussian part; and, on the Austrian, by degrees Lacy's Cavalry
almost in whole. Lacy's Cavalry, what Friedrich does not know, are
all in those neighborhoods: and no sooner is Godau swept clear of
them, than they return in greater numbers, needing to be again
swept; and, in fact, they gradually gather in upon him, in a
singular and dangerous manner, after his first successes on them,
and before his Infantry have time to get up and support.

"Friedrich was too impatient in this provoking little haggle,
arresting him here. He had ordered on the suitable Battalion with
cannon; but hardly considers that the Battalion itself is six miles
off,--not to speak of the Order, which is galloping on horseback,
not going by electricity:--the impatient Friedrich had slashed in
at once upon Godau, taken above 100 prisoners; but is astonished to
see the slashed people return, with Saxon-Dragoon regiments, all
manner of regiments, reinforcing them. And has some really
dangerous fencing there;--issuing in dangerous and curious pause of
both parties; who stand drawn up, scarcely beyond pistol-shot, and
gazing into one another, for I know not how many minutes;
neither of them daring to move off, lest, on the instant of
turning, it be charged and overwhelmed. As the impatient Friedrich,
at last, almost was,--had not his Infantry just then got in, and
given their cannon-salvo. He lost about 200, the Lacy people hardly
so many; and is now out of a considerable personal jeopardy, which
is still celebrated in the Anecdote-Books, perhaps to a mythical
extent. 'Two Uhlans [Saxon-Polish Light-Horse], with their
truculent pikes, are just plunging in,' say the Anecdote-Books:
Friedrich's Page, who had got unhorsed, sprang to his feet,
bellowed in Polish to them: 'What are you doing here, fellows?'
'Excellenz [for the Page is not in Prussian uniform, or in uniform
at all, only well-dressed], Excellenz, our horses ran away with
us,' answer the poor fellows; and whirl back rapidly." The story,
says Retzow, is true. [Retzow, ii. 215.]

This is the one event of July 7th,--and of July 8th withal;
which day also, on news of Daun that come, Friedrich rests. Up to
July 8th, it is clear Friedrich is shooting with what we called the
first string of his bow,--intent, namely, on Silesia. Nor, on
hearing that Daun is forward again, now hopelessly ahead, does he
quit that enterprise; but, on the contrasy, to-morrow morning, July
9th, tries it by a new method, as we shall see: method cunningly
devised to suit the second string as well. "How lucky that we have
a second string, in case of failure!"--

TUESDAY, 8th JULY. "News that Daun reached Gorlitz yesternight;
and is due to-night at Lauban, fifty miles ahead of us:--no hope
now of reaching Daun. Perhaps a sudden clutch at Lacy, in the
opposite direction, might be the method of recalling Daun, and
reaching him? That is the method fallen upon.

"Sun being set, the drums in Bautzen sound TATTOO,--audible to
listening Croats in the Environs;--beat TATTOO, and, later in the
night, other passages of drum-music, also for Croat behoof
(GENERAL-MARCH I think it is); indicating That we have started
again, in pursuit of Daun. And in short, every precaution being
taken to soothe the mind of Lacy and the Croats, Friedrich silently
issues, with his best speed, in Three columns, by Three roads,
towards Lacy's quarters, which go from that village of Godau
westward, in a loose way, several miles. In three columns, by three
routes, all to converge, with punctuality, on Lacy. Of the columns,
two are of Infantry, the leftmost and the rightmost, on each hand,
hidden as much as possible; one is of Cavalry in the middle.
Coming on in this manner--like a pair of triple-pincers, which are
to grip simultaneously on Lacy, and astonish him, if he keep quiet.
But Lacy is vigilant, and is cautious almost in excess. Learning by
his Pandours that the King seems to be coming this way, Lacy
gathers himself on the instant; quits Godau, by one in the morning;
and retreats bodily, at his fastest step, to Bischofswerda again;
nor by any means stops there." [Tempelhof, iv. 61-63.]

For the third time! "Three is lucky," Friedrich may have thought:
and there has no precaution, of drum-music, of secrecy or
persuasive finesse, been neglected on Lacy. But Lacy has ears that
hear the grass grow: our elaborately accurate triple-pincers,
closing simultaneously on Bischofswerda, after eighteen miles of
sweep, find Lacy flown again; nothing to be caught of him but some
80 hussars. All this day and all next night Lacy is scouring
through the western parts at an extraordinary rate; halting for a
camp, twice over, at different places,--Durre Fuchs (THIRSTY FOX),
Durre Buhle (THIRSTY SWEETHEART), or wherever it was; then again
taking wing, on sound of Prussian parties to rear; in short,
hurrying towards Dresden and the Reichsfolk, as if for life.

Lacy's retreat, I hear, was ingeniously done, with a minimum of
disorder in the circumstances: but certainly it was with a velocity
as if his head had been on fire; and, indeed, they say he escaped
annihilation by being off in time. He put up finally, not at
Thirsty Sweetheart, still less at Thirsty Fox, successive Hamlets
and Public Houses in the sandy Wilderness which lies to north of
Elbe, and is called DRESDEN HEATH; but farther on, in the same
Tract, at Weisse Hirsch (WHITE HART); which looks close over upon
Dresden, within two miles or so; and is a kind of Height, and
military post of advantage. Next morning, July 10th, he crosses
Dresden Bridge, comes streaming through the City; and takes shelter
with the Reichsfolk near there:--towards Plauen Chasm; the
strongest ground in the world; hardly strong enough, it appears, in
the present emergency.

Friedrich's first string, therefore, has snapt in two; but, on the
instant, he has a second fitted on:--may that prove luckier!



Chapter II.

FRIEDRICH BESIEGES DRESDEN.

From and after the Evening of Wednesday, July 9th, it is upon a
Siege of Dresden that Friedrich goes;--turning the whole war-
theatre topsy-turvy; throwing Daun, Loudon, Lacy, everybody OUT, in
this strange and sudden manner. One of the finest military feats
ever done, thinks Tempelhof. Undoubtedly a notable result so far,
and notably done; as the impartial reader (if Tempelhof be a little
inconsistent) sees for himself. These truly are a wonderful series
of marches, opulent in continual promptitudes, audacities,
contrivances;--done with shining talent, certainly; and also with
result shining, for the moment. And in a Fabulous Epic I think
Dresden would certainly have fallen to Friedrich, and his crowd of
enemies been left in a tumbled condition.

But the Epic of Reality cares nothing for such considerations;
and the time allowable for capture of Dresden is very brief.
Had Daun, on getting warning, been as prompt to return as he was to
go, frankly fronting at once the chances of the road, he might have
been at Dresden again perhaps within a week,--no Siege possible for
Friedrich, hardly the big guns got up from Magdeburg. But Friedrich
calculated there would be very considerable fettling and haggling
on Daun's part; say a good Fortnight of Siege allowed;--and that,
by dead-lift effort of all hands, the thing was feasible within
that limit. On Friedrich's part, as we can fancy, there was no want
of effort; nor on his people's part,--in spite of his complainings,
say Retzow and the Opposition party; who insinuate their own
private belief of impossibility from the first. Which is not
confirmed by impartial judgments,--that of Archenholtz, and others
better. The truth is, Friedrich was within an inch of taking
Dresden by the first assault,--they say he actually could have
taken it by storm the first day; but shuddered at the thought of
exposing poor Dresden to sack and plunder; and hoped to get it
by capitulation.

One of the rapidest and most furious Sieges anywhere on record.
Filled Europe with astonishment, expectancy, admiration, horror:--
must be very briefly recited here. The main chronological epochs,
salient points of crisis and successive phases of occurrence, will
sufficiently indicate it to the reader's fancy.

"It was Thursday Evening, 10th July, when Lacy got to his
Reichsfolk, and took breath behind Plauen Chasm. Maguire is
Governor of Dresden. The consternation of garrison and population
was extreme. To Lacy himself it did not seem conceivable that
Friedrich could mean a Siege of Dresden. Friedrich, that night, is
beyond the River, in Daun's old impregnability of Reichenberg:
'He has no siege-artillery,' thinks Lacy; 'no means, no time.'

"Nevertheless, Saturday, next day after to-morrow,--behold, there
is Hulsen, come from Schlettau to our neighborhood, on our Austrian
side of the River. And at Kaditz yonder, a mile below Dresden, are
not the King's people building their Pontoons; in march since 2 in
the morning,-- evidently coming across, if not to besiege Dresden,
then to attack us; which is perhaps worse! We outnumber them,--but
as to trying fight in any form? Zweibruck leaves Maguire an
additional 10,000;--every help and encouragement to Maguire;
whose garrison is now 14,000: 'Be of courage, Excellenz Maguire!
Nobody is better skilled in siege-matters. Feldmarschall and relief
will be here with despatch!'--and withdraws, Lacy and he, to the
edge of the Pirna Country, there to be well out of harm's way.
Lacy and he, it is thought, would perhaps have got beaten, trying
to save Dresden from its misery. Lacy's orders were, Not, on any
terms, to get into fighting with Friedrich, but only to cover
Dresden. Dresden, without fighting, has proved impossible to cover,
and Lacy leaves it bare." [Tempelhof, iv. 65.]

"At Kaditz," says Mitchell, "where the second bridge of boats took
a great deal of time, I was standing by his Majesty, when news to
the above effect came across from General Hulsen. The King was
highly pleased; and, turning to me, said: 'Just what I wished!
They have saved me a very long march [round by Dippoldiswalde or
so, in upon the rear of them] by going of will.' And immediately
the King got on horseback; ordering the Army to follow as fast as
it could." [Mitchell, ii. 168.] "Through Preisnitz, Plauen-ward,
goes the Army; circling round the Western and the Southern side of
Dresden; [a dread spectacle from the walls]; across Weistritz Brook
and the Plauen Chasm [comfortably left vacant]; and encamps on the
Southeastern side of Dresden, at Gruna, behind the GREAT GARDEN;
ready to begin business on the morrow. Gruna, about a mile to
southeast of Dresden Walls, is head-quarter during this Siege.

"Through the night, the Prussians proceed to build batteries, the
best they can;--there is no right siege-artillery yet; a few
accidental howitzers and 25-pounders, the rest mere field-guns;--
but to-morrow morning, be as it may, business shall begin.
Prince von Holstein [nephew of the Holstein Beck, or "Holstein
SILVER-PLATE," whom we lost long ago], from beyond the River,
encamped at the White Hart yonder, is to play upon the
Neustadt simultaneously.

MONDAY 14th, "At 6 A.M., cannonade began; diligent on Holstein's
part and ours; but of inconsiderable effect. Maguire has been
summoned: 'Will [with such a garrison, in spite of such
trepidations from the Court and others] defend himself to the last
man.' Free-Corps people [not Quintus's, who is on the other side of
the River], [Tempelhof, v. 67.] with regulars to rear, advance on
the Pirna Gate; hurl in Maguire's Out-parties; and had near got in
along with them,--might have done so, they and their supports, it
is thought by some, had storm seemed the recommendable method.

"For four days there is livelier and livelier cannonading;
new batteries getting opened in the Moschinska Garden and other
points; on the Prussian part, great longing that the Magdeburg
artillery were here. The Prussians are making diligently ready for
it, in the mean while (refitting the old Trenches, 'old Envelope'
dug by Maguire himself in the Anti-Schmettau time; these will do
well enough):--the Prussians reinforce Holstein at the Weisse,
Hirsch, throw a new bridge across to him; and are busy day and
night. Maguire, too, is most industrious, resisting and preparing:
Thursday shuts up the Weistritz Brook (a dam being ready this long
while back, needing only to be closed), and lays the whole South
side of Dresden under water. Many rumors about Daun: coming, not
coming;--must for certain come, but will possibly be slowish."

FRIDAY 18th. "Joy to every Prussian soul: here are the heavy guns
from Magdeburg. These, at any rate, are come; beds for them all
ready; and now the cannonading can begin in right earnest. As it
does with a vengeance. To Mitchell, and perhaps others, 'the King
of Prussia says He will now be master of the Town in a few days.
And the disposition he has made of his troops on the other side of
the River is intended not only to attack Dresden on that side [and
defend himself from Daun], but also to prevent the Garrison from
retiring. ... This morning, Friday, 18th, the Suburb of Pirna, the
one street left of it, was set fire to, by Maguire; and burnt out
of the way, as the others had been. Many of the wretched
inhabitants had fled to our camp: "Let them lodge in Plauen, no
fighting there, quiet artificial water expanses there instead."
Many think the Town will not be taken; or that, if it should, it
will cost very dear,--so determined seems Maguire. [Mitchell, iii.
170, 171.] And, in effect, from this day onwards, the Siege became
altogether fierce, and not only so, but fiery as well; and, though
lasting in that violent form only four, or at the very utmost
seven, days more, had near ruined Dresden from the face of
the world."

SATURDAY, 19th, "Maguire, touched to the quick by these new
artilleries of the Prussians this morning, found good to mount a
gun or two on the leads of the Kreuz-Kirche [Protestant High
Church, where, before now, we have noticed Friedrich attending
quasi-divine service more than once];--that is to say, on the crown
of Dresden; from which there is view into the bottom of Friedrich's
trenches and operations. Others say, it was only two or three old
Saxon cannon, which stand there, for firing on gala-days; and that
they hardly fired on Friedrich more than once. For certain, this is
one of the desirablest battery-stations,--if only Friedrich will
leave it alone. Which he will not for a moment; but brings terrific
howitzers to bear on it; cannon-balls, grenadoes; tears it to
destruction, and the poor Kreuz-Kirche along with it.
Kirche speedily all in flames, street after street blazing up round
it, again and again for eight-and-forty hours coming;
hapless Dresden, during two days and nights, a mere volcano
henceforth." "By mistake all that, and without order of mine," says
Friedrich once;--meaning, I think, all that of the Kreuz-Kirche:
and perhaps wishing he could mean the bombardment altogether,
[Schoning, ii. 361 "To Prince Henri, at Giessen [Frankfurt
Country], 23d July, 1760."]--who nevertheless got, and gets, most
of the credit of the thing from a shocked outside world.

"This morning," same Saturday, 19th, "Daun is reported to have
arrived; vanguard of him said to be at Schonfeld, over in THIRSTY-
SWEETHEART Country yonder which Friedrich, going to reconnoitre,
finds tragically indisputable: 'There, for certain; only five miles
from Holstein's post at the WHITE HART, and no River between;--as
the crow flies, hardly five from our own Camp. Perhaps it will be
some days yet before he do anything?' So that Friedrich persists in
his bombardment, only the more: 'By fire-torture, then! Let the
bombarded Royalties assail Maguire, and Maguire give in;--it is our
one chance left; and succeed we will and must!' Cruel, say you?--
Ah, yes, cruel enough, not merciful at all. The soul of Friedrich,
I perceive, is not in a bright mood at this time, but in a black
and wrathful, worn almost desperate against the slings and arrows
of unjust Fate: 'Ahead, I say! If everybody will do miracles,
cannot we perhaps still manage it, in spite of Fate?'" Mitchell is
very sorry; but will forget and forgive those inexorable passages
of war.

"I cannot think of the bombardment of Dresden without horror," says
he; "nor of many other things I have seen. Misfortunes naturally
sour men's temper [even royal men's]; and long continued, without
interval, at last extinguish humanity." "We are now in a most
critical and dangerous situation, which cannot long last: one lucky
event, approaching to a miracle, may still save all: but the
extreme caution and circumspection of Marshal Daun--!" [Mitchell,
ii. 184, 185.]

If Daun could be swift, and end the miseries of Dresden, surely
Dresden would be much obliged to him. It was ten days yet, after
that of the Kreuz-Kirche, before Dresden quite got rid of its
Siege: Daun never was a sudden man. By a kind of accident, he got
Holstein hustled across the River that first night (July 19th),--
not annihilated, as was very feasible, but pushed home, out of his
way. Whereby the North side of Dresden is now open; and Daun has
free communication with Maguire.

Maguire rose thereupon to a fine pitch of spirits; tried several
things, and wished Daun to try; but with next to no result. For two
days after Holstein's departure, Daun sat still, on his safe
Northern shore; stirring nothing but his own cunctations and
investigations, leaving the bombardment, or cannonade, to take its
own course. One attempt he did make in concert with Maguire (night
of Monday 21st), and one attempt only, of a serious nature;
which, like the rest, was unsuccessful. And would not be worth
mentioning,--except for the poor Regiment BERNBURG'S sake;
Bernburg having got into strange case in consequence of it.

"This Attempt [night of 21st-22d July] was a combined sally and
assault--Sally by Maguire's people, a General Nugent heading them,
from the South or Plauen side of Dresden, and Assault by 4,000 of
Daun's from the North side--upon Friedrich's Trenches. Which are to
be burst in upon in this double way, and swept well clear, as may
be expected. Friedrich, however, was aware of the symptoms, and had
people ready waiting,--especially, had Regiment BERNBURG,
Battalions 1st and 2d; a Regiment hitherto without stain.

"Bernburg accordingly, on General Nugent's entering their trenches
from the south side, falls altogether heartily on General Nugent;
tumbles him back, takes 200 prisoners, Nudent himself one of them
[who is considered to have been the eye of the enterprise, worth
many hundreds this night] all this Bernburg, in its usually
creditable manner, does, as expected of it. But after, or during
all this, when the Dann people from the north come streaming in,
say four to one, both south and north, Bernburg looked round for
support; and seeing none, had, after more or less of struggle, to
retire as a defeated Bernburg,--Austrians taking the battery, and
ruling supreme there for some time. Till Wedell, or somebody with
fresh Battalions, came up; and, rallying Bernburg to him, retook
their Battery, and drove out the Austrians, with a heavy loss
of prisoners. [Tempelhof, iv. 79.]

"I did not hear that Bernburg's conduct was liable to the least
fair censure. But Friedrich's soul is severe at this time;
demanding miracles from everybody: 'You runaway Bernburg, shame on
you!'--and actually takes the swords from them, and cuts off their
Hat-tresses: 'There!' Which excited such an astonishment in the
Prussian Army as was seldom seen before. And affected Bernburg to
the length almost of despair, and breaking of heart,--in a way that
is not ridiculous to me at all, but beautiful and pathetic.
Of which there is much talk, now and long afterwards, in military
circles. 'The sorrows of these poor Bernburgers, their desperate
efforts to wash out this stigma, their actual washing of it out,
not many weeks hence, and their magnificent joy on the occasion,--
these are the one distinguishing point in Daun's relief of Dresden,
which was otherwise quite a cunctatory, sedentary matter."

Daun built three Bridges,--he had a broad stone one already,--but
did little or nothing with them; and never himself came across at
all. Merely shot out nocturnal Pandour Parties, and ordered up Lacy
and the Reichsfolk to do the like, and break the night's rest of
his Enemy. He made minatory movements, one at least, down the
River, by his own shore, on Friedrich's Ammunition-Boats from
Torgau, and actually intercepted certain of them, which was
something; but, except this, and vague flourishings of the Pandour
kind, left Friedrich to his own course.

Friedrich bombarded for a day or two farther; cannonaded, out of
more or fewer batteries, for eight, or I think ten days more.
Attacks from Daun there were to be, now on this side, now on that;
many rumors of attack, but, except once only (midnight Pandours
attempting the King's lodging, "a Farm-house near Gruna," but to
their astonishment rousing the whole Prussian Army "in the course
of three minutes" [Archenholtz, ii. 81 (who is very vivid, but does
not date); Rodenbeck, ii. 24 (quotes similar account by another
Eye-witness, and guesses it to be "night of July 22d-23d").]),
rumor was mainly all. For guarding his siege-lines, Friedrich has
to alter his position; to shift slightly, now fronting this way,
now the other way; is "called always at midnight" (against these
nocturnal disturbances), and "never has his clothes off."
Nevertheless, continues his bombardment, and then his cannonading,
till his own good time, which I think is till the 26th.
His "ricochet-battery," which is good against Maguire's people,
innocent to Dresden, he continued for three days more;--while
gathering his furnitures about Plauen Country, making his
arrangements at Meissen;--did not march till the night of June
29th. Altogether calmly; no Daun or Austrian molesting him in the
least; his very sentries walking their rounds in the trenches till
daylight; after which they also marched, unmolested, Meissen-ward.

Unfortunate Friedrich has made nothing of Dresden, then. After such
a June and July of it, since he left the Meissen Country; after all
these intricate manoeuvrings, hot fierce marchings and superhuman
exertions, here is he returning to Meissen Country poorer than if
he had stayed. Fouquet lost, Glatz unrelieved--Nay, just before
marching off, what is this new phenomenon? Is this by way of "Happy
journey to you!" Towards sunset of the 29th, exuberant joy-firing
rises far and wide from the usually quiet Austrian lines,--"Meaning
what, once more?" Meaning that Glatz is lost, your Majesty; that,
instead of a siege of many weeks (as might have been expected with
Fouquet for Commandant), it has held out, under Fouquet's Second,
only a few hours; and is gone without remedy! Certain, though
incredible. Imbecile Commandant, treacherous Garrison (Austrian
deserters mainly), with stealthy Jesuits acting on them: no use
asking what. Here is the sad Narrative, in succinct form.


CAPTURE OF GLATZ (26th July, 1760).

"Loudon is a swift man, when he can get bridle; but the curb-hand
of Daun is often heavy on him. Loudon has had Glatz blockaded since
June 7th; since June 23d he has had Fouquet rooted away, and the
ground clear for a Siege of Glatz. But had to abstain altogether,
in the mean time; to take camp at Landshut, to march and manoeuvre
about, in support of Daun, and that heavy-footed gallop of Daun's
which then followed: on the whole, it was not till Friedrich went
for Dresden that the Siege-Artillery, from Olmutz, could be ordered
forward upon Glatz; not for a fortnight more that the Artillery
could come; and, in spite of Loudon's utmost despatch, not till
break of day, July 26th, that the batteries could open.
After which, such was Loudon's speed and fortune,--and so diligent
had the Jesuits been in those seven weeks,--the 'Siege,' as they
call it, was over in less than seven hours.

"One Colonel D'O [Piedmontese by nation, an incompetent person,
known to loud Trenck during his detention here] was Commandant of
Glatz, and had the principal Fortress,--for there are two, one on
each side the Neisse River;--his Second was a Colonel Quadt, by
birth Prussian, seemingly not very competent he either, who had
command of the Old Fortress, round which lies the Town of Glatz:
a little Town, abounding in Jesuits;--to whose Virgin, if readers
remember, Friedrich once gave a new gown; with small effect on her,
as would appear. The Quadt-D'O garrison was 2,400,--and, if tales
are true, it had been well bejesuited during those seven weeks.
[ OEuvres de Frederic,  v. 55.] At four in the
morning, July 26th) the battering began on Quadt; Quadt, I will
believe, responding what he could,--especially from a certain
Arrowhead Redoubt (or FLECHE) he has, which ought to have been
important to him. After four or five hours of this, there was
mutual pause,--as if both parties had decided upon breakfast before
going farther.

"Quadt's Fortress is very strong, mostly hewn in the rock; and he
has that important outwork of a FLECHE; which is excellent for
enfilading, as it extends well beyond the glacis; and, being of
rock like the rest, is also abundantly defensible. Loudon's people,
looking over into this FLECHE, find it negligently guarded;
Quadt at breakfast, as would seem:--and directly send for Harsch,
Captain of the Siege, and even for Loudon, the General-in-Chief.
Negligently guarded, sure enough; nothing in the FLECHE but a few
sentries, and these in the horizontal position, taking their
unlawful rest there, after such a morning's work. 'Seize me that,'
eagerly orders Loudon; 'hold that with firm grip!' Which is done;
only to step in softly, two battalions of you, and lay hard hold.
Incompetent Quadt, figure in what a flurry, rushing out to
recapture his FLECHE,--explodes instead into mere anarchy, whole
Companies of him flinging down their arms at their Officers' feet,
and the like. So that Quadt is totally driven in again, Austrians
along with him; and is obliged to beat chamade;--D'O following the
example, about an hour after, without even a capitulation.
Was there ever seen such a defence! Major Unruh, one of a small
minority, was Prussian, and stanch; here is Unruh's personal
experience,--testimony on D'O's Trial, I suppose,--and now pretty
much the one thing worth reading on this subject.

"MAJOR ULZRUH TESTIFIES: 'At four in the morning, 26th July, 1760,








the Enemy began to cannonade the Old Fortress [that of Quadt];
and about nine, I was ordered with 150 men to clear the Envelope
from Austrians. Just when I had got to the Damm-Gate, halt was
called. I asked the Commandant, who was behind me, which way I
should march; to the Crown-work or to the Envelope? Being answered,
To the Envelope, I found on coming out at the Field-Gate nothing
but an Austrian Lieutenant-colonel and some men. He called to me,
"There had been chamade beaten, and I was not to run into
destruction (MICH UNGLUCKLICH MACHEN)!" I offered him Quarter;
and took him in effect prisoner, with 20 of his best men; and sent
him to the Commandant, with request that he would keep my rear
free, or send me reinforcement. I shot the Enemy a great many
people here; chased him from the Field-Gate, and out of both the
Envelope and the Redoubt called the Crane [that is the FLECHE
itself, only that the Austrians are mostly not now there, but gone
THROUGH into the interior there!]--Returning to the Field-Gate, I
found that the Commandant had beaten chamade a second time;
there were marching in, by this Field-Gate, two battalions of the
Austrian Regiment ANDLAU; I had to yield myself prisoner, and was
taken to General Loudon. He asked me, "Don't you know the rules of
war, then; that you fire after chamade is beaten?" I answered in my
heat, "I knew of no chamade; what poltroonery or what treachery had
been going on, I knew not!" Loudon answered, "You might deserve to
have your head laid at your feet, Sir! Am I here to inquire which
of you shows bravery, which poltroonery?"' [Seyfarth, ii. 652.]
A blazing Loudon, when the fire is up!"--

After the Peace, D'O had Court-Martial, which sentenced him to
death, Friedrich making it perpetual imprisonment: "Perhaps not a
traitor, only a blockhead!" thought Friedrich. He had been
recommended to his post by Fouquet. What Trenck writes of him is,
otherwise, mostly lies.

Thus is the southern Key of Silesia (one of the two southern Keys,
Neisse being the other) lost to Friedrich, for the first time;
and Loudon is like to drive a trade there; "Will absolutely nothing
prosper with us, then?" Nothing, seemingly, your Majesty!
Heavier news Friedrich scarcely ever had. But there is no help.
This too he has to carry with him as he can into the Meissen
Country. Unsuccessful altogether; beaten on every hand.
Human talent, diligence, endeavor, is it but as lightning smiting
the Serbonian Bog? Smite to the last, your Majesty, at any rate;
let that be certain. As it is, and has been. That is always
something, that is always a great thing.

Friedrich intends no pause in those Meissen Countries. JULY 30th,
on his march northward, he detaches Hulsen with the old 10,000 to
take Camp at Schlettau as before, and do his best for defence of
Saxony against the Reichsfolk, numerous, but incompetent;
he himself, next day, passes on, leaving Meissen a little on his
right, to Schieritz, some miles farther down,--intending there to
cross Elbe, and make for Silesia without loss of an hour.
Need enough of speed thither; more need than even Friedrich
supposes! Yesterday, July 30th, Loudon's Vanguard came blockading
Breslau, and this day Loudon himself;--though Friedrich heard
nothing, anticipated nothing, of that dangerous fact, for a week
hence or more.

Soltikof's and Loudon's united intentions on Silesia he has well
known this long while; and has been perpetually dunning Prince
Henri on the subject, to no purpose,--only hoping always there
would probably be no great rapidity on the part of these discordant
Allies. Friedrich's feelings, now that the contrary is visible, and
indeed all through the Summer in regard to the Soltikof-Loudon
Business, and the Fouquet-Henri method of dealing with it, have
been painful enough, and are growing ever more so. Cautious Henri
never would make the smallest attack on Soltikof, but merely keep
observing him;--the end of which, what can the end of it be? urges
Friedrich always: "Condense yourselves; go in upon the Russians,
while they are in separate corps;"--and is very ill-satisfied with
the languor of procedures there. As is the Prince with such
reproaches, or implied reproaches, on said languor. Nor is his
humor cheered, when the King's bad predictions prove true. What has
it come to? These Letters of King and Prince are worth reading,--if
indeed you can, in the confusion of Schoning (a somewhat exuberant
man, loud rather than luminous);--so curious is the Private
Dialogue going on there at all times, in the background of the
stage, between the Brothers. One short specimen, extending through
the June and July just over,--specimen distilled faithfully out of
that huge jumbling sea of Schaning, and rendered legible,--the
reader will consent to.


DIALOGUE OF FRIEDRICH AND HENRI
(from their Private Correspondence: June 7th-July 29th, 1760).

FRIEDRICH (June 7th; before his first crossing Elbe: Henri at
Sagan; he at Schlettau, scanning the waste of fatal possibilities).
... Embarrassing? Not a doubt, of that! "I own, the circumstances
both of us are in are like to turn my head, three or four times a
day." Loudon aiming for Neisse, don't you think? Fouquet all in the
wrong.--"One has nothing for it but to watch where the likelihood
of the biggest misfortune is, and to run thither with one's
whole strength."

henri ... "I confess I am in great apprehension for Colberg:"--
shall one make thither; think you? Russians, 8,000 as the first
instalment of them, have ARRIVED; got to Posen under Fermor, June
1st:--so the Commandant of Glogau writes me (see enclosed).

FRIEDRICH (June 9th). Commandant of Glogau writes impossibilities:
Russians are not on march yet, nor will be for above a week.

"I cross Elbe, the 15th. I am compelled to undertake something of
decisive nature, and leave the rest to chance. For desperate
disorders desperate remedies. My bed is not one of roses.
Heaven aid us: for human prudence finds itself fall short in
situations so cruel and desperate as ours." [Schoning, ii. 313
("Meissen Camp, 7th June, 1760"); ib. ii. 317 ("9th June").]

HENRI. Hm, hm, ha (Nothing but carefully collected rumors, and
wire-drawn auguries from them, on the part of Henri; very intense
inspection of the chicken-bowels,--hardly ever without a shake of
the head).

FRIEDRICH (June 26th; has heard of the Fouquet disaster). ...
"Yesterday my heart was torn to pieces [news of Landshut, Fouquet's
downfall there], and I felt too sad to be in a state for writing
you a sensible Letter; but to-day, when I have come to myself a
little again, I will send you my reflections. After what has
happened to Fouquet, it is certain Loudon can have no other design
but on Breslau [he designs Glatz first of all]: it will be the
grand point, therefore, especially if the Russians too are bending
thither, to save that Capital of Silesia. Surely the Turks must be
in motion:--if so, we are saved; if not so, we are lost! To-day I
have taken this Camp of Dobritz, in order to be more collected, and
in condition to fight well, should occasion rise,--and in case all
this that is said and written to me about the Turks is TRUE [which
nothing of it was], to be able to profit by it when the time
comes." [Schoning, ii. 341 ("Gross-Dobritz, 26th June, 1760").]

HENRI (simultaneously, June 26th: Henri is forward from Sagan,
through Frankfurt, and got settled at Landsberg, where he remains
through the rest of the Dialogue). ... Tottleben, with his
Cossacks, scouring about, got a check from us,--nothing like
enough. "By all my accounts, Soltikof, with the gross of the
Russians, is marching for Posen. The other rumors and symptoms
agree in indicating a separate Corps, under Fermor, who is to join
Tottleben, and besiege Colberg: if both these Corps, the Colberg
and the Posen one, act, in concert, my embarrassment will be
extreme. ... I have just had news of what has befallen General
Fouquet. Before this stroke, your affairs were desperate enough;
now I see but too well what we have to look for." [Ib. ii. 339
("Landsberg, 26th June, 1760").] (How comforting!)

FRIEDRICH. "Would to God your prayers for the swift capture of
Dresden had been heard; but unfortunately I must tell you, this
stroke has failed me. ... Dresden has been reduced to ashes, third
part of the Altstadt lying burnt;--contrary to my intentions: my
orders were, To spare the City, and play the Artillery against
the works. My Minister Graf von Finck will have told you what
occasioned its being set on fire." [Schoning, ii. 361
("2d-3d July").]

HENRI (July 26th; Dresden Siege gone awry). ... "I am to keep the
Russians from Frankfurt, to cover Glogau, and prevent a besieging
of Breslau! All that forms an overwhelming problem;--which I, with
my whole heart, will give up to somebody abler for it than I am."
[Ib. ii. 369-371 ("Landsherg, 26th July").]

FRIEDRICH (29th July; quits the Trenches of Dresden this night).
... "I have seen with pain that you represent everything to
yourself on the black side. I beg you, in the name of God, my
dearest Brother, don't take things up in their blackest and worst
shape:--it is this that throws your mind into such an indecision,
which is so lamentable. Adopt a resolution rather, what resolution
you like, but stand by it, and execute it with your whole strength.
I conjure you, take a fixed resolution; better a bad than none at
all. ... What is possible to man, I will do; neither care nor
consideration nor effort shall be spared, to secure the result of
my plans. The rest depends on circumstances. Amid such a number of
enemies, one cannot always do what one will, but must let them
prescribe." [Ib. ii. 370-372 ("Leubnitz, before Dresden, 29th
July, 1760").]

An uncomfortable little Gentleman; but full of faculty, if one can
manage to get good of it! Here, what might have preceded all the
above, and been preface to it, is a pretty passage from him;
a glimpse he has had of Sans-Souci, before setting out on those
gloomy marchings and cunctatory hagglings. Henri writes (at Torgau,
April 26th, just back from Berlin and farewell of friends):--

"I mean to march the day after to-morrow. I took arrangements with
General Fouquet [about that long fine-spun Chain of Posts, where we
are to do such service?]--the Black Hussars cannot be here till
to-morrow, otherwise I should have marched a day sooner. My Brother
[poor little invalid Ferdinand] charged me to lay him at your feet.
I found him weak and thin, more so than formerly. Returning hither,
the day before yesterday, I passed through Potsdam; I went to
Sans-Souci [April 24th, 1760]:--all is green there; the Garden
embellished, and seemed to me excellently kept. Though these
details cannot occupy you at present, I thought it would give you
pleasure to hear of them for a moment." [Schoning, ii. 233
("Torgau, 26th April, 1760").] Ah, yes; all is so green and
blessedly silent there: sight of the lost Paradise, actually IT,
visible for a moment yonder, far away, while one goes whirling in
this manner on the illimitable wracking winds!--

Here finally, from a distant part of the War-Theatre, is another
Note; which we will read while Friedrich is at Schieritz. At no
other place so properly; the very date of it, chief date (July
31st), being by accident synchronous with Schieritz:--


DUKE FERDINAND'S BATTLE OF WARBURG (31st July, 1760).

Duke Ferdinand has opened his difficult Campaign; and especially--
just while that Siege of Dresden blazed and ended--has had three
sharp Fights, which were then very loud in the Gazettes, along with
it. Three once famous Actions; which unexpectedly had little or no
result, and are very much forgotten now. So that bare enumeration
of them is nearly all we are permitted here. Pitt has furnished
7,000 new English, this Campaign,--there are now 20,000 English in
all, and a Duke Ferdinand raised to 70,000 men. Surely, under good
omens, thinks Pitt; and still more think the Gazetteers, judging by
appearances. Yes: but if Broglio have 130,000, what will it come
to? Broglio is two to one; and has, before this, proved himself a
considerable Captain.

Fight FIRST is that of KORBACH (July 10th): of Broglio, namely, who
has got across the River Ohm in Hessen (to Ferdinand's great
disgust with the General Imhof in command there), and is streaming
on to seize the Diemel River, and menace Hanover; of Broglio, in
successive sections, at a certain "Pass of Korbach," VERSUS the
Hereditary Prince (ERBPRINZ of Brunswick), who is waiting for him
there in one good section,--and who beautifully hurls back one and
another of the Broglio sections; but cannot hurl back the whole
Broglio Army, all marching by sections that way; and has to retire,
back foremost, fencing sharply, still in a diligently handsome
manner, though with loss. [Mauvillon, ii. 105.] That is the Battle
of Korbach, fought July 10th,--while Lacy streamed through Dresden,
panting to be at Plauen Chasm, safe at last.

Fight SECOND (July 16th) was a kind of revenge on the Erbprinz's
part: Affair of EMSDORF, six days after, in the same neighborhood;
beautiful too, said the Gazetteers; but of result still more
insignificant. Hearing of a considerable French Brigade posted not
far off, at that Village of Emsdorf, to guard Broglio's meal-carts
there, the indignant Erbprinz shoots off for that; light of
foot,--English horse mainly, and Hill Scots (BERG-SCHOTTEN so
called, who have a fine free stride, in summer weather);--dashes in
upon said Brigade (Dragoons of Bauffremont and other picked men),
who stood firmly on the defensive; but were cut up, in an amazing
manner, root and branch, after a fierce struggle, and as it were
brought home in one's pocket. To the admiration of military
circles,--especially of mess-rooms and the junior sort. "Elliot's
light horse [part of the new 7,000], what a regiment! Unparalleled
for willingness, and audacity of fence; lost 125 killed,"--in fact,
the loss chiefly fell on Elliot. [Ib. ii. 109 (Prisoners got "were
2,661, including General and Officers 179," with all their
furnitures whatsoever, "400 horses, 8 cannon," &c.).] The BERG-
SCHOTTEN too,--I think it was here that these kilted fellows,
who had marched with such a stride, "came home mostly riding:" poor
Beauffremont Dragoons being entirely cut up, or pocketed as
prisoners, and their horses ridden in this unexpected manner!
But we must not linger,--hardly even on WARBURG, which was the
THIRD and greatest; and has still points of memorability, though
now so obliterated.

"Warburg," says my Note on this latter, "is a pleasant little
Hessian Town, some twenty-five miles west of Cassel, standing on
the north or left bank of the Diemel, among fruitful knolls and
hollows. The famous 'BATTLE OF WARBURG,'--if you try to inquire in
the Town itself, from your brief railway-station, it is much if
some intelligent inhabitant, at last, remembers to have heard of
it! The thing went thus: Chevalier du Muy, who is Broglio's Rear-
guard or Reserve, 30,000 foot and horse, with his back to the
Diemel, and eight bridges across it in case of accident, has his
right flank leaning on Warburg, and his left on a Village of
Ossendorf, some two miles to northwest of that. Broglio, Prince
Xavier of Saxony, especially Duke Ferdinand, are all vehemently and
mysteriously moving about, since that Fight of Korbach;
Broglio intent to have Cassel besieged, Du Muy keeping the Diemel
for him; Ferdinand eager to have the Diemel back from Du Muy
and him.

"Two days ago (July 29th), the Erbprinz crossed over into these
neighborhoods, with a strong Vanguard, nearly equal to Du Muy;
and, after studious reconnoitring and survey had, means, this
morning (July 31st), to knock him over the Diemel again, if he can.
No time to be lost; Broglio near and in such force. Duke Ferdinand
too, quitting Broglio for a moment, is on march this way;
crossed the Diemel, about midnight, some ten miles farther down, or
eastward; will thence bend southward, at his best speed, to support
the Erbprinz, if necessary, and beset the Diemel when got;--
Erbprinz not, however, in any wise, to wait for him; such the
pressure from Broglio and others. A most busy swift-going scene
that morning;--hardly worth such describing at this date of time.

"The Erbprinz, who is still rather to northeastward, that is to
rightward, not directly frontward, of Du Muy's lines; and whose
plan of attack is still dark to Du Muy, commences [about 8 A.M., I
should guess] by launching his British Legion so called,--which is
a composite body, of Free-Corps nature, British some of it
('Colonel Beckwith's people,' for example), not British by much the
most of it, but an aggregate of wild strikers, given to plunder
too:--by launching his British Legion upon Warburg Town, there to
take charge of Du Muy's right wing. Which Legion, 'with great
rapidity, not only pitched the French all out, but clean plundered
the poor Town;' and is a sad sore on Du Muy's right, who cannot
get it attended to, in the ominous aspects elsewhere visible.
For the Erbprinz, who is a strategic creature, comes on, in the
style of Friedrich, not straight towards Du Muy, but sweeps out in
two columns round northward; privately intending upon Du Muy's left
wing and front--left wing, right wing, (by British Legion), and
front, all three;--and is well aided by a mist which now fell, and
which hung on the higher ground, and covered his march, for an hour
or more. This mist had not begun when he saw, on the knoll-tops,
far off on the right, but indisputable as he flattered himself,
--something of Ferdinand emerging! Saw this; and pours along, we
can suppose, with still better step and temper. And bursts, pretty
simultaneously, upon Du Muy's right wing and left wing, coercing
his front the while; squelches both these wings furiously together;
forces the coerced centre, mostly horse, to plunge back into the
Diemel, and swim. Horse could swim; but many of the Foot, who
tried, got drowned. And, on the whole, Du Muy is a good deal
wrecked [1,600 killed, 2,000 prisoners, not to speak of cannon
and flags], and, but for his eight bridges, would have been
totally ruined.

"The fight was uncommonly furious, especially on Du Muy's left;
'Maxwell's Brigade' going at it, with the finest bayonet-practice,
musketry, artillery-practice; obstinate as bears. On Du Muy's
right, the British Legion, left wing, British too by name, had a
much easier job. But the fight generally was of hot and stubborn
kind, for hours, perhaps two or more;--and some say, would not have
ended so triumphantly, had it not been for Duke Ferdinand's
Vanguard, Lord Granby and the English Horse; who, warned by the
noise ahead, pushed on at the top of their speed, and got in before
the death. Granby and the Blues had gone at the high trot, for
above five miles; and, I doubt not, were in keen humor when they
rose to the gallop and slashed in. Mauvillon says, 'It was in this
attack that Lord Granby, at the head of the Blues, his own
regiment, had his hat blown off; a big bald circle in his head
rendering the loss more conspicuous. But he never minded; stormed
still on,' bare bald head among the helmets and sabres; 'and made
it very evident that had he, instead of Sackville, led at Minden,
there had been a different story to tell. The English, by their
valor,' adds he, 'greatly distinguished themselves this day.
And accordingly they suffered by far the most; their loss amounting
to 590 men:' or, as others count,--out of 1,200 killed and wounded,
800 were English." [Mauvillon, ii. 114. Or better, in all these
three cases, as elsewhere, Tempelhof's specific Chapter on
Ferdinand (Tempelhof, iv. 101-122). Ferdinand's Despatch (to King
George), in  Knesebeck,  ii. 96-98;--or in the
Old Newspapers ( Gentleman's Magazine,  xxx.
386, 387), where also is Lord Granby's Despatch.]

This of Granby and the bald head is mainly what now renders Warburg
memorable. For, in a year or two, the excellent Reynolds did a
Portrait of Granby; and by no means forgot this incident; but gives
him bare-headed, bare and bald; the oblivious British connoisseur
not now knowing why, as perhaps he ought. The portrait, I suppose,
may be in Belvoir Castle; the artistic Why of the baldness is this
BATTLE OF WARBURG, as above. An Affair otherwise of no moment.
Ferdinand had soon to quit the Diemel, or to find it useless for
him, and to try other methods,--fencing gallantly, but too weak for
Broglio; and, on the whole, had a difficult Campaign of it, against
that considerable Soldier with forces so superior.



Chapter III.

BATTLE OF LIEGNITZ.

Friedrich stayed hardly one day in Neissen Country; Silesia, in the
jaws of destruction, requiring such speed from him. His new Series
of Marches thitherward, for the next two weeks especially, with
Daun and Lacy, and at last with Loudon too, for escort, are still
more singular than the foregoing; a fortnight of Soldier History
such as is hardly to be paralleled elsewhere. Of his inward gloom
one hears nothing. But the Problem itself approaches to the
desperate; needing daily new invention, new audacity, with imminent
destruction overhanging it throughout. A March distinguished in
Military Annals;--but of which it is not for us to pretend
treating. Military readers will find it in TEMPELHOF, and the
supplementary Books from time to time cited here. And, for our own
share, we can only say, that Friedrich's labors strike us as
abundantly Herculean; more Alcides-like than ever,--the rather as
hopes of any success have sunk lower than ever. A modern Alcides,
appointed to confront Tartarus itself, and be victorious over the
Three-headed Dog. Daun, Lacy, Loudon coming on you simultaneously,
open-mouthed, are a considerable Tartarean Dog! Soldiers judge that
the King's resources of genius were extremely conspicuous on this
occasion; and to all men it is in evidence that seldom in the Arena
of this Universe, looked on by the idle Populaces and by the
eternal Gods and Antigods (called Devils), did a Son of Adam fence
better for himself, now and throughout.

This, his Third march to Silesia in 1760, is judged to be the most
forlorn and ominous Friedrich ever made thither; real peril, and
ruin to Silesia and him, more imminent than even in the old Leuthen
days. Difficulties, complicacies very many, Friedrich can foresee:
a Daun's Army and a Lacy's for escort to us; and such a Silesia
when we do arrive. And there is one complicacy more which he does
not yet know of; that of Loudon waiting ahead to welcome him, on
crossing the Frontier, and increase his escort thenceforth!--Or
rather, let us say, Friedrich, thanks to the despondent Henri and
others, has escaped a great Silesian Calamity;--of which he will
hear, with mixed emotions, on arriving at Bunzlau on the Silesian
Frontier, six days after setting out. Since the loss of Glatz (July
26th), Friedrich has no news of Loudon; supposes him to be trying
something upon Neisse, to be adjusting with his slow Russians;
and, in short, to be out of the dismal account-current just at
present. That is not the fact in regard to Loudon; that is far from
the fact.


LOUDON IS TRYING A STROKE-OF-HAND ON BRESLAU, IN THE
GLATZ FASHION, IN THE INTERIM (July 30th-August 3d).

Hardly above six hours after taking Glatz, swift Loudon, no Daun
now tethering him (Daun standing, or sitting, "in relief of
Dresden" far off), was on march for Breslau--Vanguard of him
"marched that same evening (July 26th):" in the liveliest hope of
capturing Breslau; especially if Soltikof, to whom this of Glatz
ought to be a fine symbol and pledge, make speed to co-operate.
Soltikof is in no violent enthusiasm about Glatz; anxious rather
about his own Magazine at Posen, and how to get it carted out of
Henri's way, in case of our advancing towards some Silesian Siege.
"If we were not ruined last year, it was n't Daun's fault!" growls
he often; and Montalembert has need of all his suasive virtues
(which are wonderful to look at, if anybody cared to look at them,
all flung into the sea in this manner) for keeping the barbarous
man in any approach to harmony. The barbarous man had, after haggle
enough, adjusted himself for besieging Glogau; and is surly to
hear, on the sudden (order from Petersburg reinforcing Loudon),
that it is Breslau instead. "Excellenz, it is not Cunctator Daun
this time, it is fiery Loudon." "Well, Breslau, then!" answers
Soltikof at last, after much suasion. And marches thither;
[Tempelhof, iv. 87-89 ("Rose from Posen, July 26th").] faster than
usual, quickened by new temporary hopes, of Montalembert's raising
or one's own: "What a place-of-arms, and place of victual, would
Breslau be for us, after all!"

And really mends his pace, mends it ever more, as matters grow
stringent; and advances upon Breslau at his swiftest:
"To rendezvous with Loudon under the walls there,--within the walls
very soon, and ourselves chief proprietor!"--as may be hoped.
Breslau has a garrison of 4,000, only 1,000 of them stanch;
and there are, among other bad items, 9,000 Austrian Prisoners in
it. A big City with weak walls: another place to defend than rock-
hewn little Glatz,--if there be no better than a D'O for Commandant
in it! But perhaps there is.

"WEDNESDAY, 30th JULY, Loudon's Vanguard arrived at Breslau;
next day Loudon himself;--and besieged Breslau very violently,
according to his means, till the Sunday following. Troops he has
plenty, 40,000 odd, which he gives out for 50 or even 60,000;
not to speak of Soltikof, 'with 75,000' (read 45,000), striding on
in a fierce and dreadful manner to meet him here. 'Better surrender
to Christian Austrians, had not you?' Loudon's Artillery is not
come up, it is only struggling on from Glatz; Soltikof of his own
has no Siege-Artillery; and Loudon judges that heavy-footed
Soltikof, waited on by an alert Prince Henri, is a problematic
quantity in this enterprise. 'Speedy oneself; speedy and fiery!'
thinks Loudon: 'by violence of speed, of bullying and bombardment,
perhaps we can still do it!' And Loudon tried all these things to a
high stretch; but found in Tauentzien the wrong man.

"THURSDAY, 3lst, Loudon, who has two bridges over Oder, and the
Town begirt all round, summons Tauentzien in an awful sounding
tone: 'Consider, Sir: no defence possible; a trading Town, you
ought not to attempt defence of it: surrender on fair terms, or I
shall, which God forbid, be obliged to burn you and it from the
face of the world!' 'Pooh, pooh,' answers Tauentzien, in brief
polite terms; 'you yourselves had no doubt it was a Garrison, when
we besieged you here, on the heel of Leuthen; had you? Go to!'--
Fiery Loudon cannot try storm, the Town having Oder and a wet ditch
round it. He gets his bombarding batteries forward, as the one
chance he has, aided by bullying. And to-morrow,

"FRIDAY, AUGUST 1st, sends, half officially, half in the friendly
way, dreadful messages again: a warning to the Mayor of Breslau
(which was not signed by Loudon), 'Death and destruction, Sir,
unless'--!--warning to the Mayor; and, by the same private half-
official messenger, a new summons to Tauentzien: 'Bombardment
infallible; universal massacre by Croats; I will not spare the
child in its mother's womb.' 'I am not with child,' said
Tauentzien, 'nor are my soldiers! What is the use of such talk?'
And about 10 that night, Loudon does accordingly break out into all
the fire of bombardment he is master of. Kindles the Town in
various  places, which were quenched again by Tauentzien's
arrangements; kindles especially the King's fine Dwelling-house
(Palace they call it), and adjacent streets, not quenchable till
Palace and they are much ruined. Will this make no impression?
Far too little.

"Next morning Loudon sends a private messenger of conciliatory
tone: 'Any terms your Excellency likes to name. Only spare me the
general massacre, and child in the mother's womb!' From all which
Tauentzien infers that you are probably short of ammunition;
and that his outlooks are improving. That day he gets guns brought
to bear on General Loudon's own quarter; blazes into Loudon's
sitting-room, so that Loudon has to shift else-whither.
No bombardment ensues that night; nor next day anything but
desultory cannonading, and much noise and motion;--and at night,
SUNDAY, 3d, everything falls quiet, and, to the glad amazement of
everybody, Loudon has vanished." [Tempelhof, iv. 90-100;
Archenholtz, ii. 89-94; HOFBERICHT VON DER BELAGERUNG VON BRESLAU
IM AUGUST 1760 (in Seyfarth,  Beylagen, 
ii. 688-698); also in  Helden-Geschichte, 
vi. 299-309: in  Anonymous of Hamburg 
(iv. 115-124), that is, in the OLD NEWSPAPERS, extremely particular
account, How "not only the finest Horse in Breslau, and the finest
House [King's Palace], but the handsomest Man, and, alas, also the
prettiest Girl [poor Jungfer Muller, shattered by a bomb-shell on
the streets], were destroyed in this short Siege,"--world-famous
for the moment. Preuss, ii. 246.]

Loudon had no other shift left. This Sunday his Russians are still
five days distant; alert Henri, on the contrary, is, in a sense,
come to hand. Crossed the Katzbach River this day, the Vanguard of
him did, at Parchwitz; and fell upon our Bakery; which has had to
take the road. "Guard the Bakery, all hands there," orders Loudon;
"off to Striegau and the Hills with it;"--and is himself gone
thither after it, leaving Breslau, Henri and the Russians to what
fate may be in store for them. Henri has again made one of his
winged marches, the deft creature, though the despondent; "march of
90 miles in three days [in the last three, from Glogau, 90; in the
whole, from Landsberg, above 200], and has saved the State," says
Retzow. "Made no camping, merely bivouacked; halting for a rest
four or five hours here and there;" [Retzow, ii. 230 (very vague);
in Tempelhof (iv. 89, 90, 95-97) clear and specific account.] and
on August 5th is at Lissa (this side the Field of Leuthen);
making Breslau one of the gladdest of cities.

So that Soltikof, on arriving (village of Hundsfeld, August 8th),
by the other side of the River, finds Henri's advanced guards
intrenched over there, in Old Oder; no Russian able to get within
five miles of Breslau,--nor able to do more than cannonade in the
distance, and ask with indignation, "Where are the siege-guns,
then; where is General Loudon? Instead of Breslau capturable, and a
sure Magazine for us, here is Henri, and nothing but steel to eat!"
And the Soltikof risen into Russian rages, and the Montalembert
sunk in difficulties: readers can imagine these.
Indignant Soltikof, deaf to suasion, with this dangerous Henri in
attendance, is gradually edging back; always rather back, with an
eye to his provisions, and to certain bogs and woods he knows of.
But we will leave the Soltikof-Henri end of the line, for the
opposite end, which is more interesting.--To Friedrich, till he got
to Silesia itself, these events are totally unknown. His cunctatory
Henri, by this winged march, when the moment came, what a service
has he done!--

Tauentzien's behavior, also, has been superlative at Breslau;
and was never forgotten by the King. A very brave man, testifies
Lessing of him; true to the death: "Had there come but three, to
rally with the King under a bush of the forest, Tauentzien would
have been one." Tauentzien was on the ramparts once, in this
Breslau pinch, giving orders; a bomb burst beside him, did not
injure him. "Mark that place," said Tauentzien; and clapt his hat
on it, continuing his orders, till a more permanent mark were put.
In that spot, as intended through the next thirty years, he now
lies buried. [ Militair-Lexikon,  iv. 72-75; Lessing's  Werke;  &c. &c.]


FRIEDRICH ON MARCH, FOR THE THIRD TIME, TO RESCUE SILESIA
(August 1st-15th).

AUGUST 1st, Friedrich crossed the Elbe at Zehren, in the Schieritz
vicinity, as near Meissen as he could; but it had to be some six
miles farther down, such the liabilities to Austrian disturbance.
All are across that morning by 5 o'clock (began at 2); whence we
double back eastward, and camp that night at Dallwitz,--are quietly
asleep there, while Loudon's bombardment bursts out on Breslau, far
away! At Dallwitz we rest next day, wait for our Bakeries and
Baggages; and SUNDAY, AUGUST 3d, at 2 in the morning, set forth on
the forlornest adventure in the world.

The arrangements of the March, foreseen and settled beforehand to
the last item, are of a perfection beyond praise;--as is still
visible in the General Order, or summary of directions given out;
which, to this day, one reads with a kind of satisfaction like that
derivable from the Forty-seventh of Euclid: clear to the meanest
capacity, not a word wanting in it, not a word superfluous, solid
as geometry. "The Army marches always in Three Columns, left Column
foremost: our First Line of Battle [in case we have fighting] is
this foremost Column; Second Line is the Second Column; Reserve is
the Third. All Generals' chaises, money-wagons, and regimental
Surgeons' wagons remain with their respective Battalions; as do the
Heavy Batteries with the Brigades to which they belong. When the
march is through woody country, the Cavalry regiments go in between
the Battalions [to be ready against Pandour operations
and accidents].

"With the First Column, the Ziethen Hussars and Free-Battalion
Courbiere have always the vanguard; Mohring Hussars and Free-
Battalion Quintus [speed to you, learned friend!] the rear-guard.
With the Second Column always the Dragoon regiments Normann and
Krockow have the vanguard; Regiment Czetteritz [Dragoons, poor
Czetteritz himself, with his lost MANUSCRIPT, is captive since
February last], the rear-guard. With the Third Column always the
Dragoon regiment Holstein as head, and the ditto Finkenstein to
close the Column.--During every march, however, there are to be of
the Second Column 2 Battalions joined with Column Third; so that
the Third Column consists of 10 Battalions, the Second of 6, while
on march.

"Ahead of each Column go three Pontoon Wagons; and daily are 50
work-people allowed them, who are immediately to lay Bridge, where
it is necessary. The rear-guard of each Column takes up these
Bridges again; brings them on, and returns them to the head of the
Column, when the Army has got to camp. In the Second Column are to
be 500 wagons, and also in the Third 500, so shared that each
battalion gets an equal number. The battalions--" [In TEMPELHOF
(iv. 125, 126) the entire Piece.] ... This may serve as specimen.

The March proceeded through the old Country; a little to left of
the track in June past: Roder Water, Pulsnitz Water;
Kamenz neighborhood, Bautzen neighborhood,--Bunzlau on Silesian
ground. Daun, at Bischofswerda, had foreseen this March; and, by
his Light people, had spoiled the Road all he could; broken all the
Bridges, HALF-felled the Woods (to render them impassable).
Daun, the instant he heard of the actual March, rose from
Bischofswerda: forward, forward always, to be ahead of it, however
rapid; Lacy, hanging on the rear of it, willing to give trouble
with his Pandour harpies, but studious above all that it should not
whirl round anywhere and get upon his, Lacy's, own throat. One of
the strangest marches ever seen. "An on-looker, who had observed
the march of these different Armies," says Friedrich, "would have
thought that they all belonged to one leader. Feldmarschall Daun's
he would have taken for the Vanguard, the King's for the main Army,
and General Lacy's for the Rear-guard." [ OEuvres de
Frederic,  v. 56.] Tempelhof says: "It is given only to
a Friedrich to march on those terms; between Two hostile Armies,
his equals in strength, and a Third [Loudon's, in Striegau Country]
waiting ahead."

The March passed without accident of moment; had not, from Lacy or
Daun, any accident whatever. On the second day, an Aide-de-Camp of
Daun's was picked up, with Letters from Lacy (back of the cards
visible to Friedrich). Once,--it is the third day of the March
(August 6th, village of Rothwasser to be quarter for the night),--
on coming toward Neisse River, some careless Officer, trusting to
peasants, instead of examining for himself and building a bridge,
drove his Artillery-wagons into the so-called ford of Neisse;
which nearly swallowed the foremost of them in quicksands.
Nearly, but not completely; and caused a loss of five or six hours
to that Second Column. So that darkness came on Column Second in
the woody intricacies; and several hundreds of the deserter kind
took the opportunity of disappearing altogether. An unlucky,
evidently too languid Officer; though Friedrich did not annihilate
the poor fellow, perhaps did not rebuke him at all, but merely
marked it in elucidation of his qualities for time coming."
This miserable village of Rothwasser" (head-quarters after the
dangerous fording of Neisse), says Mitchell, "stands in the middle
of a wood, almost as wild and impenetrable as those in North
America. There was hardly ground enough cleared about it for the
encampment of the troops." [Mitchell, ii. 190; Tempelhof, iv. 131.]
THURSDAY, AUGUST 7th, Friedrich--traversing the whole Country, but
more direct, by Konigsbruck and Kamenz this time--is at Bunzlau
altogether. "Bunzlau on the Bober;" the SILESIAN Bunzlau, not the
Bohemian or any of the others. It is some 30 miles west of
Liegnitz, which again lies some 40 northwest of Schweidnitz and the
Strong Places. Friedrich has now done 100 miles of excellent
marching; and he has still a good spell more to do,--dragging
"2,000 heavy wagons" with him, and across such impediments within
and without. Readers that care to study him, especially for the
next few days, will find it worth their while.

Tempelhof gives, as usual, a most clear Account, minute to a
degree; which, supplemented by Mitchell and a Reimann Map, enables
us as it were to accompany, and to witness with our eyes.
Hitherto a March toilsome in the extreme, in spite of everything
done to help it; starting at 3 or at 2 in the morning; resting to
breakfast in some shady place, while the sun is high, frugally
cooking under the shady woods,--"BURSCHEN ABZUKOCHEN here," as the
Order pleasantly bears. All encamped now, at Bunzlau in Silesia, on
Thursday evening, with a very eminent week's work behind them.
"In the last five days, above 100 miles of road, and such road;
five considerable rivers in it"--Bober, Queiss, Neisse, Spree,
Elbe; and with such a wagon-train of 2,000 teams. [Tempelhof, iv.
123-150.]

Proper that we rest a day here; in view of the still swifter
marchings and sudden dashings about, which lie ahead. It will be by
extremely nimble use of all the limbs we have,--hands as well as
feet,--if any good is to come of us now! Friedrich is aware that
Daun already holds Striegau "as an outpost [Loudon thereabouts,
unknown to Friedrich], these several days;" and that Daun
personally is at Schmottseifen, in our own old Camp there, twenty
or thirty miles to south of us, and has his Lacy to leftward of
him, partly even to rearward: rather in advance of US, both of
them,--if we were for Landshut; which we are not. "Be swift enough,
may not we cut through to Jauer, and get ahead of Daun?" counts
Friedrich: "To Jauer, southeast of us, from Bunzlau here, is 40
miles; and to Jauer it is above 30 east for Daun: possible to be
there before Daun! Jauer ours, thence to the Heights of Striegau
and Hohenfriedberg Country, within wind of Schweidnitz, of Breslau:
magazines, union with Prince Henri, all secure thereby?" So reckons
the sanguine Friedrich; unaware that Loudon, with his corps of
35,000, has been summoned hitherward; which will make important
differences! Loudon, Beck with a smaller Satellite Corps, both
these, unknown to Friedrich, lie ready on the east of him:
Loudon's Army on the east; Daun's, Lacy's on the south and west;
three big Armies, with their Satellites, gathering in upon this
King: here is a Three-headed Dog, in the Tartarus of a world he now
has! On the fourth side of him is Oder, and the Russians, who are
also perhaps building Bridges, by way of a supplementary or
fourth head.

AUGUST 9th (BUNZLAU TO GOLDBERG), Friedrich, with his Three Columns
and perfect arrangements, makes a long march: from Bunzlau at 3 in
the morning; and at 5 afternoon arrives in sight of the Katzbach
Valley, with the little Town of Goldberg some miles to right.
Katzbach River is here; and Jauer, for to-morrow, still fifteen
miles ahead. But on reconnoitring here, all is locked and bolted:
Lacy strong on the Hills of Goldberg; Daun visible across the
Katzbach; Daun, and behind him Loudon, inexpugnably posted:
Jauer an impossibility! We have bread only for eight days;
our Magazines are at Schweidnitz and Breslau: what is to be done?
Get through, one way or other, we needs must! Friedrich encamps for
the night; expecting an attack. If not attacked, he will make for
Liegnitz leftward; cross the Katzbach there, or farther down at
Parchwitz:--Parchwitz, Neumarkt, LEUTHEN, we have been in that
country before now:--Courage!

AUGUST 10th-11th (TO LIEGNITZ AND BACK). At 5 A.M., Sunday, August
10th, Friedrich, nothing of attack having come, got on march again:
down his own left bank of the Katzbach, straight for Liegnitz;
unopposed altogether; not even a Pandour having attacked him
overnight. But no sooner is he under way, than Daun too rises;
Daun, Loudon, close by, on the other side of Katzbach, and keep
step with us, on our right; Lacy's light people hovering on our
rear:--three truculent fellows in buckram; fancy the feelings of
the way-worn solitary fourth, whom they are gloomily dogging in
this way! The solitary fourth does his fifteen miles to Liegnitz,
unmolested by them; encamps on the Heights which look down on
Liegnitz over the south; finds, however, that the Loudon-Daun
people have likewise been diligent; that they now lie stretched out
on their right bank, three or four miles up-stream or to rearward,
and what is far worse, seven miles downwards, or ahead: that, in
fact, they are a march nearer Parchwitz than he;--and that there is
again no possibility. "Perhaps by Jauer, then, still? Out of this,
and at lowest, into some vicinity of bread, it does behoove us to
be!" At 11 that night Friedrich gets on march again; returns the
way he came. And,

AUGUST 11th, At daybreak, is back to his old ground; nothing now to
oppose him but Lacy, who is gone across from Goldberg, to linger as
rear of the Daun-Loudon march. Friedrich steps across on Lacy,
thirsting to have a stroke at Lacy; who vanishes fast enough,
leaving the ground clear. Could but our baggage have come as fast
as we! But our baggage, Quintus guarding and urging, has to groan
on for five hours yet; and without it, there is no stirring.
Five mortal hours;--by which time, Daun, Lacy, Loudon are all up
again; between us and Jauer, between us and everything helpful;--
and Friedrich has to encamp in Seichau,--"a very poor Village in
the Mountains," writes Mitchell, who was painfully present there,
"surrounded on all sides by Heights; on several of which, in the
evening, the Austrians took camp, separated from us by a deep
ravine only." [Mitchell, ii. 194.]

Outlooks are growing very questionable to Mitchell and everybody.
"Only four days' provisions" (in reality six), whisper the Prussian
Generals gloomily to Mitchell and to one another: "Shall we have to
make for Glogau, then, and leave Breslau to its fate? Or perhaps it
will be a second Maxen to his Majesty and us, who was so indignant
with poor Finck?" My friends, no; a Maxen like Finck's it will
never be: a very different Maxen, if any! But we hope
better things.

Friedrich's situation, grasped in the Three-lipped Pincers in this
manner, is conceivable to readers. Soltikof, on the other side of
Oder, as supplementary or fourth lip, is very impatient with these
three. "Why all this dodging, and fidgeting to and fro? You are
above three to one of your enemy. Why don't you close on him at
once, if you mean it at all? The end is, He will be across Oder;
and it is I that shall have the brunt to bear: Henri and he will
enclose me between two fires!" And in fact, Henri, as we know,
though Friedrich does not or only half does, has gone across Oder,
to watch Soltikof, and guard Breslau from any attempts of his,--
which are far from HIS thoughts at this moment;--a Soltikof fuming
violently at the thought of such cunctations, and of being made
cat's-paw again. "Know, however, that I understand you," violently
fumes Soltikof, "and that I won't. I fall back into the Trebnitz
Bog-Country, on my own right bank here, and look out for my own
safety."--"Patience, your noble Excellenz," answer they always;
"oh, patience yet a little! Only yesterday (Sunday, 10th) the day
after his arrival in this region), we had decided to attack and
crush him; Sunday very early: [Tempelhof, iv. 137, 148-150.] but he
skipped away to Liegnitz. Oh, be patient yet a day or two: he skips
about at such a rate!" Montalembert has to be suasive as the Muses
and the Sirens. Soltikof gloomily consents to another day or two.
And even, such his anxiety lest this swift King skip over upon HIM,
pushes out a considerable Russian Division, 24,000 ultimately,
under Czernichef, towards the King's side of things, towards Auras
on Oder, namely,--there to watch for oneself these interesting
Royal movements; or even to join with Loudon out there, if that
seem the safer course, against them. Of Czernichef at Auras we
shall hear farther on,--were these Royal movements once got
completed a little.

MORNING OF AUGUST 12th, Friedrich has, in his bad lodging at
Seichau, laid a new plan of route: "Towards Schweidnitz let it be;
round by Pombsen and the southeast, by the Hill-roads, make a sweep
flankward of the enemy!"--and has people out reconnoitring the
Hill-roads. Hears, however, about 8 o'clock, That Austrians in
strength are coming between us and Goldberg! "Intending to enclose
us in this bad pot of a Seichau; no crossing of the Katzbach, or
other retreat to be left us at all?" Friedrich strikes his tents;
ranks himself; is speedily in readiness for dispute of such
extremity;--sends out new patrols, however, to ascertain.
"Austrians in strength" there are NOT on the side indicated;--
whereupon he draws in again. But, on the other hand, the Hill-roads
are reported absolutely impassable for baggage; Pombsen an
impossibility, as the other places have been. So Friedrich sits
down again in Seichau to consider; does not stir all day.
To Mitchell's horror, who, "with great labor," burns all the
legationary ciphers and papers ("impossible to save the baggage if
we be attacked in this hollow pot of a camp"), and feels much
relieved on finishing. [Mitchell, ii. 144; Tempelhof, iv. 144.]

Towards sunset, General Bulow, with the Second Line (second column
of march), is sent out Goldberg-way, to take hold of the passage of
the Katzbach: and at 8 that night we all march, recrossing there
about 1 in the morning; thence down our left bank to Liegnitz for
the second time,--sixteen hours of it in all, or till noon of the
13th. Mitchell had been put with the Cavalry part; and "cannot but
observe to your Lordship what a chief comfort it was in this long,
dangerous and painful March," to have burnt one's ciphers and dread
secrets quite out of the way.

And thus, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13th, about noon, we are in our old
Camp; Head-quarter in the southern suburb of Liegnitz (a wretched
little Tavern, which they still show there, on mythical terms):
main part of the Camp, I should think, is on that range of Heights,
which reaches two miles southward, and is now called "SIEGESBERG
(Victory Hill)," from a modern Monument built on it, after nearly
100 years. Here Friedrich stays one day,--more exactly, 30 hours;--
and his shifting, next time, is extremely memorable.


BATTLE, IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF LIEGNITZ, DOES ENSUE
(Friday morning, 15th August, 1760).

Daun, Lacy and Loudon, the Three-lipped Pincers, have of course
followed, and are again agape for Friedrich, all in scientific
postures: Daun in the Jauer region, seven or eight miles south;
Lacy about Goldberg, as far to southwest; Loudon "between
Jeschkendorf and Koischwitz," northeastward, somewhat closer on
Friedrich, with the Katzbach intervening. That Czernichef, with an
additional 24,000, to rear of Loudon, is actually crossing Oder at
Auras, with an eye to junction, Friedrich does not hear till
to-morrow. [Tempelhof, iv. 148-151; Mitchell, ii. 197.]

The scene is rather pretty, if one admired scenes. Liegnitz, a
square, handsome, brick-built Town, of old standing, in good repair
(population then, say 7,000), with fine old castellated edifices
and aspects: pleasant meeting, in level circumstances, of the
Katzbach valley with the Schwartz-wasser (BLACK-WATER) ditto, which
forms the north rim of Liegnitz; pleasant mixture of green poplars
and brick towers,--as seen from that "Victory Hill" (more likely to
be "Immediate-Ruin Hill!") where the King now is. Beyond Liegnitz
and the Schwartzwasser, northwestward, right opposite to the
King's, rise other Heights called of Pfaffendorf, which guard the
two streams AFTER their uniting. Kloster Wahlstatt, a famed place,
lies visible to southeast, few miles off. Readers recollect one
Blucher "Prince of Wahlstatt," so named from one of his Anti-
Napoleon victories gained there? Wahlstatt was the scene of an
older Fight, almost six centuries older, [April 9th, 1241 (Kohler,
REICHS-HISTORIE).]--a then Prince of Liegnitz VERSUS hideous Tartar
multitudes, who rather beat him; and has been a CLOISTER Wahlstatt
ever since. Till Thursday, 14th, about 8 in the evening, Friedrich
continued in his Camp of Liegnitz. We are now within reach of a
notable Passage of War.

Friedrich's Camp extends from the Village of Schimmelwitz, fronting
the Katzbach for about two miles, northeastward, to his Head-
quarter in Liegnitz Suburb: Daun is on his right and rearward, now
come within four or five miles; Loudon to his left and frontward,
four or five, the Katzbach separating Friedrich and him; Lacy lies
from Goldberg northeastward, to within perhaps a like distance
rearward: that is the position on Thursday, 14th. Provisions being
all but run out; and three Armies, 90,000 (not to count Czernichef
and his 24,000 as a fourth) watching round our 30,000, within a few
miles; there is no staying here, beyond this day. If even this day
it be allowed us? This day, Friedrich had to draw out, and stand to
arms for some hours; while the Austrians appeared extensively on
the Heights about, apparently intending an attack; till it proved
to be nothing: only an elaborate reconnoitring by Daun; and we
returned to our tents again.

Friedrich understands well enough that Daun, with the facts now
before him, will gradually form his plan, and also, from the lie of
matters, what his plan will be: many are the times Daun has
elaborately reconnoitred, elaborately laid his plan; but found, on
coming to execute, that his Friedrich was off in the interim, and
the plan gone to air. Friedrich has about 2,000 wagons to drag with
him in these swift marches: Glogau Magazine, his one resource,
should Breslau and Schweidnitz prove unattainable, is forty-five
long miles northwestward. "Let us lean upon Glogau withal," thinks
Friedrich; "and let us be out of this straightway! March to-night;
towards Parchwitz, which is towards Glogau too. Army rest till
daybreak on the Heights of Pfaffendorf yonder, to examine, to wait
its luck: let the empty meal-wagons jingle on to Glogau;
load themselves there, and jingle back to us in Parchwitz
neighborhood, should Parchwitz not have proved impossible to our
manoeuvrings,--let us hope it may not!"--Daun and the Austrians
having ceased reconnoitring, and gone home, Friedrich rides with
his Generals, through Liegnitz, across the Schwartzwasser, to the
Pfaffendorf Heights. "Here, Messieurs, is our first halting-place
to be: here we shall halt till daybreak, while the meal-wagons
jingle on!" And explains to them orally where each is to take post,
and how to behave. Which done, he too returns home, no doubt a
wearied individual; and at 4 of the afternoon lies down to try for
an hour or two of sleep, while all hands are busy packing,
according to the Orders given.

It is a fact recorded by Friedrich himself, and by many other
people, That, at this interesting juncture, there appeared at the
King's Gate, King hardly yet asleep, a staggering Austrian Officer,
Irish by nation, who had suddenly found good to desert the Austrian
Service for the Prussian--("Sorrow on them: a pack of"--what shall
I say?)--Irish gentleman, bursting with intelligence of some kind,
but evidently deep in liquor withal. "Impossible; the King is
asleep," said the Adjutant on duty; but produced only louder
insistence from the drunk Irish gentleman. "As much as all your
heads are worth; the King's own safety, and not a moment to lose!"
What is to be done? They awaken the King: "The man is drunk, but
dreadfully in earnest, your Majesty." "Give him quantities of weak
tea [Tempelhof calls it tea, but Friedrich merely warm water];
then examine him, and report if it is anything." Something it was:
"Your Majesty to be attacked, for certain, this night!" what his
Majesty already guessed:--something, most likely little; but nobody
to this day knows. Visible only, that his Majesty, before sunset,
rode out reconnoitring with this questionable Irish gentleman, now
in a very flaccid state; and altered nothing whatever in prior
arrangements;--and that the flaccid Irish gentleman staggers out of
sight, into dusk, into rest and darkness, after this one appearance
on the stage of history. [ OEuvres de Frederic,  v. 63; Tempelhof, iv. 154.]

From about 8 in the evening, Friedrich's people got on march, in
their several columns, and fared punctually on; one column through
the streets of Liegnitz, others to left and to right of that;
to left mainly, as remoter from the Austrians and their listening
outposts from beyond the Katzbach River;--where the camp-fires are
burning extremely distinct to-night. The Prussian camp-fires, they
too are all burning uncommonly vivid; country people employed to
feed them; and a few hussar sentries and drummers to make the
customary sounds for Daun's instruction, till a certain hour.
Friedrich's people are clearing the North Suburb of Liegnitz,
crossing the Schwartzwasser: artillery and heavy wagons all go by
the Stone-Bridge at Topferberg (POTTER-HILL) there; the lighter
people by a few pontoons farther down that stream, in the
Pfaffendorf vicinity. About one in the morning, all, even the right
wing from Schimmelwitz, are safely across.

Schwartzwasser, a River of many tails (boggy most of them, Sohnelle
or SWIFT Deichsel hardly an exception), gathering itself from the
southward for twenty or more miles, attains its maximum of north at
a place called Waldau, not far northwest of Topferberg. Towards
this Waldau, Lacy is aiming all night; thence to pounce on our
"left wing,"--which he will find to consist of those empty watch-
fires merely. Down from Waldau, past Topferberg and Pfaffendorf
(PRIEST-town, or as we should call it, "Preston"), which are all on
its northern or left bank, Schwartzwasser's course is in the form
of an irregular horse-shoe; high ground to its northern side,
Liegnitz and hollows to its southern; till in an angular way it do
join Katzbach, and go with that, northward for Oder the rest of its
course. On the brow of these horse-shoe Heights,--which run
parallel to Schwartzwasser one part of them, and nearly parallel to
Katzbach another (though above a mile distant, these latter, from
IT),--Friedrich plants himself: in Order of Battle;
slightly altering some points of the afternoon's program, and
correcting his Generals, "Front rather so and so; see where their
fires are, yonder!" Daun's fires, Loudon's fires; vividly visible
both:--and, singular to say, there is nothing yonder either but a
few sentries and deceptive drums! All empty yonder too, even as our
own Camp is; all gone forth, even as we are; we resting here, and
our meal-wagons jingling on Glogau way!

Excellency Mitchell, under horse-escort, among the lighter baggage,
is on Kuchelberg Heath, in scrubby country, but well north behind
Friedrich's centre: has had a dreadful march; one comfort only,
that his ciphers are all burnt. The rest of us lie down on the
grass;--among others, young Herr von Archenholtz, ensign or
lieutenant in Regiment FORCADE: who testifies that it is one of the
beautifulest nights, the lamps of Heaven shining down in an
uncommonly tranquil manner; and that almost nobody slept.
The soldier-ranks all lay horizontal, musket under arm;
chatting pleasantly in an undertone, or each in silence revolving
such thoughts as he had. The Generals amble like observant spirits,
hoarsely imperative. [Archenholtz, ii. 100-111.] Friedrich's line,
we observed, is in the horse-shoe shape (or PARABOLIC, straighter
than horse-shoe), fronting the waters. Ziethen commands in that
smaller Schwartzwasser part of the line, Friedrich in the Katzbach
part, which is more in risk. And now, things being moderately in
order, Friedrich has himself sat down--I think, towards the middle
or convex part of his lines--by a watch-fire he has found there;
and, wrapt in his cloak, his many thoughts melting into haze, has
sunk ito a kind of sleep. Seated on a drum, some say; half asleep
by the watch-fire, time half-past 2,--when a Hussar Major, who has
been out by the Bienowitz, the Pohlschildern way, northward,
reconnoitring, comes dashing up full speed: "The King? where is the
King?" "What is it, then?" answers the King for himself.
"Your Majesty, the Enemy in force, from Bienowitz, from
Pohlschildern, coming on our Left Wing yonder; has flung back all
my vedettes: is within 500 yards by this time!"

Friedrich springs to horse; has already an Order speeding forth,
"General Schenkendorf and his Battalion, their cannon, to the crown
of the Wolfsberg, on our left yonder; swift!" How excellent that
every battalion (as by Order that we read) "has its own share of
the heavy cannon always at hand!" ejaculate the military critics.
Schenkendorf, being nimble, was able to astonish the Enemy with
volumes of case-shot from the Wolfsberg, which were very deadly at
that close distance. Other arrangements, too minute for recital
here, are rapidly done; and our Left Wing is in condition to
receive its early visitors,--Loudon or whoever they may be. It is
still dubious to the History-Books whether Friedrich was in clear
expectation of Loudon here; though of course he would now guess it
was Loudon. But there is no doubt Loudon had not the least
expectation of Friedrich; and his surprise must have been intense,
when, instead of vacant darkness (and some chance of Prussian
baggage, which he had heard of), Prussian musketries and case-shot
opened on him.

Loudon had, as per order, quitted his Camp at Jeschkendorf, about
the time Friedrich did his at Schimmelwitz; and, leaving the lights
all burning, had set forward on his errand; which was (also
identical with Friedrich's), to seize the Heights of Pfaffendorf,
and be ready there when day broke. scouts having informed him that
the Prussian Baggage was certainly gone through to Topferberg,--
more his scouts did not know, nor could Loudon guess,--"We will
snatch that Baggage!" thought Loudon; and with such view has been
speeding all he could; no vanguard ahead, lest he alarm the Baggage
escort: Loudon in person, with the Infantry of the Reserve,
striding on ahead, to devour any Baggage-escort there may be.
Friedrich's reconnoitring Hussar parties had confirmed this belief:
"Yes, yes!" thought Loudon. And now suddenly, instead of Baggage to
capture, here, out of the vacant darkness, is Friedrich in person,
on the brow of the Heights where we intended to form!--

Loudon's behavior, on being hurled back with his Reserve in this
manner, everybody says, was magnificent. Judging at once what the
business was, and that retreat would be impossible without ruin, he
hastened instantly to form himself, on such ground as he had,--
highly unfavorable ground, uphill in part, and room in it only for
Five Battalions (5,000) of front;--and came on again, with a great
deal of impetuosity and good skill; again and ever again, three
times in all. Had partial successes; edged always to the right to
get the flank of Friedrich; but could not, Friedrich edging
conformably. From his right-hand, or northeast part, Loudon poured
in, once and again, very furious charges of Cavalry; on every
repulse, drew out new Battalions from his left and centre, and
again stormed forward: but found it always impossible. Had his
subordinates all been Loudons, it is said, there was once a fine
chance for him. By this edging always to the northeastward on his
part and Friedrich's, there had at last a considerable gap in
Friedrich's Line established itself,--not only Ziethen's Line and
Friedrich's Line now fairly fallen asunder, but, at the Village of
Panten, in Friedrich's own Line, a gap where anybody might get in.
One of the Austrian Columns was just entering Panten when the Fight
began: in Panten that Column has stood cogitative ever since;
well to left of Loudon and his struggles; but does not, till the
eleventh hour, resolve to push through. At the eleventh hour;--and
lo, in the nick of time, Mollendorf (our Leuthen-and-Hochkirch
friend) got his eye on it; rushed up with infantry and cavalry;
set Panten on fire, and blocked out that possibility and the too
cogitative Column.

Loudon had no other real chance: his furious horse-charges and
attempts were met everywhere by corresponding counter-fury.
Bernburg, poor Regiment Bernburg, see what a figure it is making!
Left almost alone, at one time, among those horse-charges;
spending its blood like water, bayonet-charging, platooning as
never before; and on the whole, stemming invincibly that horse-
torrent,--not unseen by Majesty, it may be hoped; who is here where
the hottest pinch is. On the third repulse, which was worse than
any before, Loudon found he had enough; and tried it no farther.
Rolled over the Katzbach, better or worse; Prussians catching 6,000
of him, but not following farther: threw up a tine battery at
Bienowitz, which sheltered his retreat from horse:--and went his
ways, sorely but not dishonorably beaten, after an hour and half of
uncommonly stiff fighting, which had been very murderous to Loudon.
Loss of 10,000 to him: 4,000 killed and wounded; prisoners 6,000;
82 cannon, 28 flags, and other items; the Prussian loss being 1,800
in whole. [Tempelhof, iv. 159.] By 5 o'clock, the Battle, this
Loudon part of it, was quite over; Loudon (35,000) wrecking himself
against Friedrich's Left Wing (say half of his Army, some 15,000)
in such conclusive manner. Friedrich's Left Wing alone has been
engaged hitherto. And now it will be Ziethen's turn, if Daun and
Lacy still come on.

By 11 last night, Daun's Pandours, creeping stealthily on, across
the Katzbach, about Schimmelwitz, had discerned with amazement that
Friedrich's Camp appeared to consist only of watch-fires; and had
shot off their speediest rider to Daun, accordingly; but it was one
in the morning before Daun, busy marching and marshalling, to be
ready at the Katzbach by daylight, heard of this strange news;
which probably he could not entirely believe till seen with his own
eyes. What a spectacle! One's beautiful Plan exploded into mere
imbroglio of distraction; become one knows not what! Daun's watch-
fires too had all been left burning; universal stratagem, on both
sides, going on; producing--tragically for some of us--a TRAGEDY of
Errors, or the Mistakes of a Night! Daun sallied out again, in his
collapsed, upset condition, as soon as possible: pushed on, in the
track of Friedrich; warning Lacy to push on. Daun, though within
five miles all the while, had heard nothing of the furious Fight
and cannonade; "southwest wind having risen," so Daun said, and is
believed by candid persons,--not by the angry Vienna people, who
counted it impossible: "Nonsense; you were not deaf; but you
loitered and haggled, in your usual way; perhaps not sorry that,
the brilliant Loudon should get a rebuff!"

Emerging out of Liegnitz, Daun did see, to northeastward, a vast
pillar or mass of smoke, silently mounting, but could do nothing
with it. "Cannon-smoke, no doubt; but fallen entirely silent, and
not wending hitherward at all. Poor Loudon, alas, must have got
beaten!" Upon which Daun really did try, at least upon Ziethen;
but could do nothing. Poured cavalry across the Stone-bridge at the
Topferberg: who drove in Ziethen's picket there; but were torn to
pieces by Ziethen's cannon. Ziethen across the Schwartzwasser is
alert enough. How form in order of battle here, with Ziethen's
batteries shearing your columns longitudinally, as they march up?
Daun recognizes the impossibility; wends back through Liegnitz to
his Camp again, the way he had come. Tide-hour missed again;
ebb going uncommonly rapid! Lacy had been about Waldau, to try
farther up the Schwartzwasser on Ziethen's right: but the
Schwartzwasser proved amazingly boggy; not accessible on any point
to heavy people,--"owing to bogs on the bank," with perhaps poor
prospect on the other side too!

And, in fact, nothing of Lacy more than of Daun, could manage to
get across: nothing except two poor Hussar regiments; who, winding
up far to the left, attempted a snatch on the Baggage about
Hummeln,--Hummeln, or Kuchel of the Scrubs. And gave a new alarm to
Mitchell, the last of several during this horrid night; who has sat
painfully blocked in his carriage, with such a Devil's tumult,
going on to eastward, and no sight, share or knowledge to be had of
it. Repeated hussar attacks there were on the Baggage here,
Loudon's hussars also trying: but Mitchell's Captain was
miraculously equal to the occasion; and had beaten them all off.
Mitchell, by magnanimous choice of his own, has been in many Fights
by the side of Friedrich; but this is the last he will ever be in
or near;--this miraculous one of Liegnitz, 3 to 4.30 A.M., Friday,
August 15th, 1760.

Never did such a luck befall Friedrich before or after. He was
clinging on the edge of slippery abysses, his path hardly a foot's-
breadth, mere enemies and avalanches hanging round on every side:
ruin likelier at no moment, of his life;--and here is precisely the
quasi-miracle which was needed to save him. Partly by accident too;
the best of management crowned by the luckiest of accidents.
[Tempelhof, iv. 151-171; Archenholtz, ubi supra; HO BERICHT VON DER
SCHLACHT SO AM 15 AUGUST, 1760, BEY LIEGNITZ, VORGEFALLEN
(Seyfarth,  Beylagen,  ii. 696-703); &c. &c.]

Friedrich rested four hours on the Battle-field,--if that could be
called rest, which was a new kind of diligence highly wonderful.
Diligence of gathering up accurately the results of the Battle;
packing them into portable shape; and marching off with them in
one's pocket, so to speak. Major-General Saldern had charge of
this, a man of many talents; and did it consummately. The wounded,
Austrian as well as Prussian, are placed in the empty meal-wagons;
the more slightly wounded are set on horseback, double in possible
cases: only the dead are left lying: 100 or more meal-wagons are
left, their teams needed for drawing our 82 new cannon;--the wagons
we split up, no Austrians to have them; usable only as firewood for
the poor Country-folk. The 4 or 5,000 good muskets lying on the
field, shall not we take them also? Each cavalry soldier slings one
of them across his back, each baggage driver one: and the muskets
too are taken care of. About 9 A.M., Friedrich, with his 6,000
prisoners, new cannon-teams, sick-wagon teams, trophies,
properties, is afoot again. One of the succinctest of Kings.

I should have mentioned the joy of poor Regiment Bernburg;
which rather affected me. Loudon gone, the miracle of Battle done,
and this miraculous packing going on,--Friedrich riding about among
his people, passed along the front of Bernburg, the eye of him
perhaps intimating, "I saw you, BURSCHE;" but no word coming from
him. The Bernburg Officers, tragically tressless in their hats,
stand also silent, grim as blackened stones (all Bernburg black
with gunpowder): "In us also is no word; unless our actions perhaps
speak?" But a certain Sergeant, Fugleman, or chief Corporal, stept
out, saluting reverentially: "Regiment Bernburg, IHRO MAJESTAT--?"
"Hm; well, you did handsomely. Yes, you shall have your side-arms
back; all shall be forgotten and washed out!" "And you are again
our Gracious King, then?" says the Sergeant, with tears in his
eyes.--"GEWISS, Yea, surely!" [Tempelhof, iv. 162-164.] Upon which,
fancy what a peal of sound from the ecstatic throat and heart of
this poor Regiment. Which I have often thought of; hearing mutinous
blockheads,"glorious Sons of Freedom" to their own thinking, ask
their natural commanding Officer, "Are not we as good as thou? Are
not all men equal?" Not a whit of it, you mutinous blockheads;
very far from it indeed!

This was the breaking of Friedrich's imprisonment in the deadly
rock-labyrinths; this success at Liegnitz delivered him into free
field once more. For twenty-four hours more, indeed, the chance was
still full of anxiety to him; for twenty-four hours Daun, could he
have been rapid, still had the possibilities in hand;--but only
Daun's Antagonist was usually rapid. About 9 in the morning, all
road-ready, this latter Gentleman "gave three Salvos, as Joy-fire,
on the field of Liegnitz;" and, in the above succinct shape,--
leaving Ziethen to come on, "with the prisoners, the sick-wagons
and captured cannon," in the afternoon,--marched rapidly away.
For Parchwitz, with our best speed: Parchwitz is the road to
Breslau, also to Glogau,--to Breslau, if it be humanly possible!
Friedrich has but two days' bread left; on the Breslau road, at
Auras, there is Czernichef with 24,000; there are, or there may be,
the Loudon Remnants rallied again, the Lacy Corps untouched, all
Daun's Force, had Daun made any despatch at all. Which Daun seldom
did. A man slow to resolve, and seeking his luck in leisure.

All judges say, Daun ought now to have marched, on this enterprise
of still intercepting Friedrich, without loss of a moment. But he
calculated Friedrich would probably spend the day in TE-DEUM-ing on
the Field (as is the manner of some); and that, by to-morrow,
things would be clearer to one's own mind. Daun was in no haste;
gave no orders,--did not so much as send Czernichef a Letter.
Czernichef got one, however. Friedrich sent him one; that is to
say, sent him one TO INTERCEPT. Friedrich, namely, writes a Note
addressed to his Brother Henri: "Austrians totally beaten this day;
now for the Russians, dear Brother; and swift, do what we have
agreed on!" [ OEuvres de Frederic,  v. 67.]
Friedrich hands this to a Peasant, with instructions to let himself
be taken by the Russians, and give it up to save his life.
Czernichef, it is thought, got this Letter; and perhaps rumor
itself, and the delays of Daun, would, at any rate, have sent him
across. Across he at once went, with his 24,000, and burnt his
Bridge. A vanished Czernichef;--though Friedrich is not yet sure of
it: and as for the wandering Austrian Divisions, the Loudons,
Lacys, all is dark to him.

So that, at Parchwitz, next morning (August 16th), the question,
"To Glogau? To Breslau?" must have been a kind of sphinx-enigma to
Friedrich; dark as that, and, in case of error, fatal. After some
brief paroxysm of consideration, Friedrich's reading was, "To
Breslau, then!" And, for hours, as the march went on, he was
noticed "riding much about," his anxieties visibly great. Till at
Neumarkt (not far from the Field of LEUTHEN), getting on the
Heights there,--towards noon, I will guess,--what a sight!
Before this, he had come upon Austrian Out-parties, Beck's or
somebody's, who did not wait his attack: he saw, at one point, "the
whole Austrian Army on march (the tops of its columns visible among
the knolls, three miles off, impossible to say whitherward);"
and fared on all the faster, I suppose, such a bet depending;--and,
in fine, galloped to the Heights of Neumarkt for a view: "Dare we
believe it? Not an Austrian there!" And might be, for the moment,
the gladdest of Kings. Secure now of Breslau, of junction with
Henri: fairly winner of the bet;--and can at last pause, and take
breath, very needful to his poor Army, if not to himself, after
such a mortal spasm of sixteen days! Daun had taken the Liegnitz
accident without remark; usually a stoical man, especially in other
people's misfortunes; but could not conceal his painful
astonishment on this new occasion,--astonishment at unjust fortune,
or at his own sluggardly cunctations, is not said.

Next day (August 17th), Friedrich encamps at Hermannsdorf, head-
quarter the Schloss of Hermannsdorf, within seven miles of Breslau;
continues a fortnight there, resting his wearied people, himself
not resting much, watching the dismal miscellany of entanglements
that yet remain, how these will settle into groups,--especially
what Daun and his Soltikof will decide on. In about a fortnight,
Daun's decision did become visible; Soltikof's not in a fortnight,
nor ever clearly at all. Unless it were To keep a whole skin, and
gradually edge home to his victuals. As essentially it was, and
continued to be; creating endless negotiations, and futile
overtures and messagings from Daun to his barbarous Friend, endless
suasions and troubles from poor Montalembert,--of which it would
weary every reader to hear mention, except of the result only.

Friedrich, for his own part, is little elated with these bits of
successes at Liegnitz or since; and does not deceive himself as to
the difficulties, almost the impossibilities, that still lie ahead.
In answer to D'Argens, who has written ("at midnight," starting out
of bed "the instant the news came"), in zealous congratulation on
Liegnitz, here is a Letter of Friedrich's: well worth reading,--
though it has been oftener read than almost any other of his.
A Letter which D'Argens never saw in the original form; which was
captured by the Austrians or Cossacks; [See  OEuvres de
Frederic,  xix. 198 (D'Argens himself, "19th October"
following), and ib. 191 n.; Rodenbeck, ii. 31, 36;--mention of it
in Voltaire, Montalembert, &c.] which got copied everywhere, soon
stole into print, and is ever since extensively known.


FRIEDRICH TO MARQUIS D'ARGENS (at Berlin).

"HERMANNSDORF, near Breslau, 27th August, 1760.

"In other times, my dear Marquis, the Affair of the 15th would have
settled the Campaign; at present it is but a scratch. There will be
needed a great Battle to decide our fate: such, by all appearance,
we shall soon have; and then you may rejoice, if the event is
favorable to us. Thank you, meanwhile, for all your sympathy.
It has cost a deal of scheming, striving and much address to bring
matters to this point. Don't speak to me of dangers; the last
Action costs me only a Coat [torn, useless, only one skirt left, by
some rebounding cannon-ball?] and a Horse [shot under me]: that is
not paying dear for a victory.

"In my life, I was never in so bad a posture as in this Campaign.
Believe me, miracles are still needed if I am to overcome all the
difficulties which I still see ahead. And one is growing weak
withal. 'Herculean' labors to accomplish at an age when my powers
are forsaking me, my weaknesses increasing, and, to speak candidly,
even hope, the one comfort of the unhappy, begins to be wanting.
You are not enough acquainted with the posture of things, to know
all the dangers that threaten the State: I know them, and conceal
them; I keep all the fears to myself, and communicate to the Public
only the hopes, and the trifle of good news I may now and then
have. If the stroke I am meditating succeed [stroke on Daun's Anti-
Schweidnitz strategies, of which anon], then, my dear Marquis, it
will be time to expand one's joy; but till then let us not flatter
ourselves, lest some unexpected bit of bad news depress us
too much.

"I live here [Schloss of Hermannsdorf, a seven miles west of
Breslau] like a Military Monk of La Trappe: endless businesses, and
these done, a little consolation from my Books. I know not if I
shall outlive this War: but should it so happen, I am firmly
resolved to pass the remainder of my life in solitude, in the bosom
of Philosophy and Friendship. When the roads are surer, perhaps you
will write me oftener. I know not where our winter-quarters this
time are to be! My House in Breslau is burnt down in the
Bombardment [Loudon's, three weeks ago]. Our enemies grudge us
everything, even daylight, and air to breathe: some nook, however,
they must leave us; and if it be a safe one, it will be a true
pleasure to have you again with me.

"Well, my dear Marquis, what has become of the Peace with France
[English Peace]! Your Nation, you see, is blinder than you thought:
those fools will lose their Canada and Pondicherry, to please the
Queen of Hungary and the Czarina. Heaven grant Prince Ferdinand may
pay them for their zeal! And it will be the innocent that suffer,
the poor officers and soldiers, not the Choiseuls and--... But here
is business come on me. Adieu, dear Marquis; I embrace you.--F."
[ OEuvres de Frederic,  xix. 191.]

Two Events, of opposite complexion, a Russian and a Saxon,
Friedrich had heard of while at Hermannsdorf, before writing as
above. The Saxon Event is the pleasant one, and comes first.

HULSEN ON THE DURRENBERG, AUGUST 20th. "August 20th, at Strehla, in
that Schlettau-Meissen Country, the Reichsfolk and Austrians made
attack on Hulsen's Posts, principal Post of them the Durrenberg
(DRY-HILL) there,--in a most extensive manner; filling the whole
region with vague artillery-thunder, and endless charges, here,
there, of foot and horse; which all issued in zero and minus
quantities; Hulsen standing beautifully to his work, and Hussar
Kleist especially, at one point, cutting in with masterly
execution, which proved general overthrow to the Reichs Project;
and left Hulsen master of the field and of his Durrenberg, PLUS
1,217 prisoners and one Prince among them, and one cannon: a Hulsen
who has actually given a kind of beating to the Reichsfolk and
Austrians, though they were 30,000 to his 10,000, and had counted
on making a new Maxen of it." [Archenholts, ii. 114; BERICHT VON
DER OM 20 AUGUST 1780 BEY STREHLA VORGEFALLONEN ACTION (Seyfarth,
 Beylagen,  ii. 703-719).] Friedrich writes a
glad laudatory Letter to Hulsen: "Right, so; give them more of that
when they apply next!" [Letter in SCHONING, ii. 396, "Hermsdorf"
(Hermannsdorf), "27th August, 1760."]

This is a bit of sunshine to the Royal mind, dark enough otherwise.
Had Friedrich got done here, right fast would he fly to the relief
of Hulsen, and recovery of Saxony. Hope, in good moments, says,
"Hulsen will be able to hold out till then!" Fear answers, "No, he
cannot, unless you get done here extremely soon!"--The Russian
Event, full of painful anxiety to Friedrich, was a new Siege of
Colberg. That is the sad fact; which, since the middle of August,
has been becoming visibly certain.

SECOND SIEGE OF COLBERG, AUGUST 26th. "Under siege again, that poor
Place; and this time the Russians seem to have made a vow that take
it they will. Siege by land and by sea; land-troops direct from
Petersburg, 15,000 in all (8,000 of them came by ship), with
endless artillery; and near 40 Russian and Swedish ships-of-war,
big and little, blackening the waters of poor Colberg. August 26th
[the day before Friedrich's writing as above], they have got all
things adjusted,--the land-troops covered by redoubts to rearward,
ships moored in their battering-places;--and begin such a
bombardment and firing of red-hot balls upon Colberg as was rarely
seen. To which, one can only hope old Heyde will set a face of
gray-steel character, as usual; and prove a difficult article to
deal with, till one get some relief contrived for him.
[Archenholtz, ii. 116: in  Helden-Geschichte, 
(vi.73-83), "TAGEBUCH of Siege, 26th August-18th September," and
other details.]



Chapter IV.

DAUN IN WRESTLE WITH FRIEDRICH IN THE SILESIAN HILLS.

In spite of Friedrich's forebodings, an extraordinary recoil, in
all Anti-Friedrich affairs, ensued upon Liegnitz; everything taking
the backward course, from which it hardly recovered, or indeed did
not recover at all, during the rest of this Campaign. Details on
the subsequent Daun-Friedrich movements--which went all aback for
Daun, Daun driven into the Hills again, Friedrich hopeful to cut
off his bread, and drive him quite through the Hills, and home
again--are not permitted us. No human intellect in our day could
busy itself with understanding these thousand-fold marchings,
manoeuvrings, assaults, surprisals, sudden facings-about (retreat
changed to advance); nor could the powerfulest human memory, not
exclusively devoted to study the Art Military under Friedrich,
remember them when understood. For soldiers, desirous not to be
sham-soldiers, they are a recommendable exercise; for them I do
advise Tempelhof and the excellent German Narratives and Records.
But in regard to others-- A sample has been given: multiply that by
the ten, by the threescore and ten; let the ingenuous imagination
get from it what will suffice. Our first duty here to poor readers,
is to elicit from that sea of small things the fractions which are
cardinal, or which give human physiognomy and memorability to it;
and carefully suppress all the rest.

Understand, then, that there is a general going-back on the
Austrian and Russian part. Czernichef we already saw at once retire
over the Oder. Soltikof bodily, the second day after, deaf to
Montalembert, lifts himself to rearward; takes post behind bogs and
bushy grounds more and more inaccessible; ["August 18th, to
Trebnitz, on the road to Militsch" (Tempelhof, iv. 167).] followed
by Prince Henri with his best impressiveness for a week longer,
till he seem sufficiently remote and peaceably minded: "Making home
for Poland, he," thinks the sanguine King; "leave Goltz with 12,000
to watch him. The rest of the Army over hither!" Which is done,
August 27th; General Forcade taking charge, instead of Henri,--who
is gone, that day or next, to Breslau, for his health's sake.
"Prince Henri really ill," say some; "Not so ill, but in the
sulks," say others:--partly true, both theories, it is now thought;
impossible to settle in what degree true. Evident it is, Henri sat
quiescent in Breslau, following regimen, in more or less pathetic
humor, for two or three months to come; went afterwards to Glogau,
and had private theatricals; and was no more heard of in this
Campaign. Greatly to his Brother's loss and regret; who is often
longing for "your recovery" (and return hither), to no purpose.

Soltikof does, in his heart, intend for Poland; but has to see the
Siege of Colberg finish first; and, in decency even to the
Austrians, would linger a little: "Willing I always, if only YOU
prove feasible!" Which occasions such negotiating, and messaging
across the Oder, for the next six weeks, as--as shall be omitted in
this place. By intense suasion of Montalembert, Soltikof even
consents to undertake some sham movement on Glogau, thereby to
alleviate his Austrians across the River; and staggers gradually
forward a little in that direction:--sham merely; for he has not a
siege-gun, nor the least possibility on Glogau; and Goltz with the
12,000 will sufficiently take care of him in that quarter.

Friedrich, on junction with Forcade, has risen to perhaps 50,000;
and is now in some condition against the Daun-Loudon-Lacy Armies,
which cannot be double his number. These still hang about, in the
Breslau-Parchwitz region; gloomy of humor; and seem to be aiming at
Schweidnitz,--if that could still prove possible with a Friedrich
present. Which it by no means does; though they try it by their
best combinations;--by "a powerful Chain of Army-posts, isolating
Schweidnitz, and uniting Daun and Loudon;" by "a Camp on the
Zobtenberg, as crown of the same;"--and put Friedrich on his
mettle. Who, after survey of said Chain, executes (night of August
30th) a series of beautiful manoeuvres on it, which unexpectedly
conclude its existence:--"with unaccountable hardihood," as
Archenholtz has it, physiognomically TRUE to Friedrich's general
style just now, if a little incorrect as to the case in hand,
"sees good to march direct, once for all, athwart said Chain;
right across its explosive cannonadings and it,--counter-
cannonading, and marching rapidly on; such a march for insolence,
say the Austrians!" [Archenholtz (ii. 115-116); who is in a hurry,
dateless, and rather confuses a subsequent DAY (September 18th)
with this "night of August 30th." See RETZOW, ii. 26; and still
better, TEMPELHOF, iv. 203.] Till, in this way, the insolent King
has Schweidnitz under his protective hand again; and forces the
Chain to coil itself wholly together, and roll into the Hills for a
safe lodging. Whither he again follows it: with continual changes
of position, vying in inaccessibility with your own;
threatening your meal-wagons; trampling on your skirts in this or
the other dangerous manner; marching insolently up to your very
nose, more than once ("Dittmannsdorf, September 18th," for a chief
instance), and confusing your best schemes. [Tempelhof, iv.
193-231; &c. &c.: in  Anonymous of Hamburg, 
iv. 222-235, "Diary of the AUSTRIAN Army" (3-8th September).]

This "insolent" style of management, says Archenholtz, was
practised by Julius Caesar on the Gauls; and since his time by
nobody,--till Friedrich, his studious scholar and admirer, revived
it "against another enemy." "It is of excellent efficacy," adds
Tempelhof; "it disheartens your adversary, and especially his
common people, and has the reverse effect on your own; confuses him
in endless apprehensions, and details of self-defence; so that he
can form no plan of his own, and his overpowering resources become
useless to him." Excellent efficacy,--only you must be equal to
doing it; not unequal, which might be very fatal to you!

For about five weeks, Friedrich, eminently practising this style,
has a most complex multifarious Briarean wrestle with big Daun and
his Lacy-Loudon Satellites; who have a troublesome time, running
hither, thither, under danger of slaps, and finding nowhere an
available mistake made. The scene is that intricate Hill-Country
between Schweidnitz and Glatz (kind of GLACIS from Schweidnitz to
the Glatz Mountains): Daun, generally speaking, has his back on
Glatz, Friedrich on Schweidnitz; and we hear of encampings at
Kunzendorf, at BUNZELWITZ, at BURKERSDORF--places which will be
more famous in a coming Year. Daun makes no complaint of his Lacy-
Loudon or other satellite people; who are diligently circumambient
all of them, as bidden; but are unable, like Daun himself, to do
the least good; and have perpetually, Daun and they, a bad life of
it beside this Neighbor. The outer world, especially the Vienna
outer world, is naturally a little surprised: "How is this,
Feldmarschall Daun? Can you do absolutely nothing with him, then;
but sit pinned in the Hills, eating sour herbs!"

In the Russians appears no help. Soltikof on Glogau, we know what
that amounts to! Soltikof is evidently intending home, and nothing
else. To all Austrian proposals,--and they have been manifold, as
poor Montalembert knows too well,--the answer of Soltikof was and
is: "Above 90,000 of you circling about, helping one another to do
Nothing. Happy were you, not a doubt of it, could WE be wiled
across to you, to get worried in your stead!" Daun begins to be
extremely ill-off; provisions scarce, are far away in Bohemia;
and the roads daily more insecure, Friedrich aiming evidently to
get command of them altogether. Think of such an issue to our once
flourishing Campaign 1760! Daun is vigilance itself against such
fatality; and will do anything, except risk a Fight. Here, however,
is the fatal posture: Since September 18th, Daun sees himself
considerably cut off from Glatz, his provision-road more and more
insecure;--and for fourteen days onward, the King and he have got
into a dead-lock, and sit looking into one another's faces; Daun in
a more and more distressed mood, his provender becoming so
uncertain, and the Winter season drawing nigh. The sentries are in
mutual view: each Camp could cannonade the other; but what good
were it? By a tacit understanding they don't. The sentries,
outposts and vedettes forbear musketry; on the contrary, exchange
tobaccoes sometimes, and have a snatch of conversation. Daun is
growing more and more unhappy. To which of the gods, if not to
Soltikof again, can he apply?

Friedrich himself, successful so far, is abundantly dissatisfied
with such a kind of success;--and indeed seems to be less thankful
to his stars than in present circumstances he ought.
Profoundly wearied we find him, worn down into utter disgust in the
Small War of Posts: "Here we still are, nose to nose," exclaims he
(see Letters TO HENRI), "both of us in unattackable camps.
This Campaign appears to me more unsupportable than any of the
foregoing. Take what trouble and care I like, I can't advance a
step in regard to great interests; I succeed only in trifles. ...
Oh for good news of your health: I am without all assistance here;
the Army must divide again before long, and I have none to intrust
it to." [Schoning, ii. 416.]

And TO D'ARGENS, in the same bad days: "Yes, yes, I escaped a great
danger there [at Liegnitz]. In a common War it would have signified
something; but in this it is a mere skirmish; my position little
improved by it. I will not sing Jeremiads to you; nor speak of my
fears and anxieties, but can assure you they are great. The crisis
I am in has taken another shape; but as yet nothing decides it, nor
can the development of it be foreseen. I am getting consumed by
slow fever; I am like a living body losing limb after limb.
Heaven stand by us: we need it much. [ OEuvres de Frederic,
 xix. 193 ("Dittmannsdorf, 18th September," day after,
or day of finishing, that cannonade).] ... You talk always of my
person, of my dangers. Need I tell you, it is not necessary that I
live; but it is that I do my duty, and fight for my Country to save
it if possible. In many LITTLE things I have had luck: I think of
taking for my motto, MAXIMUS IN MINIMIS, ET MINIMUS IN MAXIMIS.
A worse Campaign than any of the others: I know not sometimes what
will become of it. But why weary you with such details of my labors
and my sorrows? My spirits have forsaken me. All gayety is buried
with the Loved Noble Ones whom my heart was bound to. Adieu."

Or, again, TO HENRI: Berlin? Yes; I am trying something in bar of
that. Have a bad time of it, in the interim." Our means, my dear
Brother, are so eaten away; far too short for opposing the
prodigious number of our enemies set against us:--if we must fall,
let us date our destruction from the infamous Day of Maxen!"

Is in such health, too, all the while: "Am a little better, thank
you; yet have still the"--what shall we say (dreadful biliary
affair)?--"HEMORRHOIDES AVEUGLES: nothing that, were it not for the
disquietudes I feel: but all ends in this world, and so will these.
... I flatter myself your health is recovering. For these three
days in continuance I have had so terrible a cramp, I thought it
would choke me;--it is now a little gone. No wonder the chagrins
and continual disquietudes I live in should undermine and at length
overturn the robustest constitution." [Schoning, ii. 419:
"2d October." Ib. ii. 410: "16th September." Ib. ii. 408.]

Friedrich, we observe, has heard of certain Russian-Austrian
intentions on Berlin; but, after intense consideration, resolves
that it will behoove him to continue here, and try to dislodge
Daun, or help Hunger to dislodge him; which will be the remedy for
Berlin and all things else. There are news from Colberg of welcome
tenor: could Daun be sent packing, Soltikof, it is probable, will
not be in much alacrity for Berlin!--September 18th, at
Dittmannsdorf, was the first day of Daun's dead-lock: ever since,
he has had to sit, more and more hampered, pinned to the Hills,
eating sour herbs; nothing but Hunger ahead, and a retreat (battle
we will not dream of), likely to be very ruinous, with a Friedrich
sticking to the wings of it. Here is the Note on Colberg:--

SEPTEMBER 18th, COLHERG SIEGE RAISED. "The same September 18th,
what a day at Colberg too! it is the twenty-fourth day of the
continual bombardment there. Colberg is black ashes, most of its
houses ruins, not a house in it uninjured. But Heyde and his poor
Garrison, busy day and night, walk about in it as if fire-proof;
with a great deal of battle still left in them. The King, I know
not whether Heyde is aware, has contrived something of relief;
General Werner coming:--the fittest of men, if there be
possibility. When, see, September 18th, uneasy motion in the
Russian intrenchments (for the Russians too are intrenched against
attack): Something that has surprised the Russians yonder.
Climb, some of you, to the highest surviving steeple, highest
chimney-top if no steeple survive:--Yonder IS Werner come to our
relief, O God the Merciful!"

"Werner, with 5,000, was detached from Glogau (September 5th), from
Goltz's small Corps there; has come as on wings, 200 miles in
thirteen days. And attacks now, as with wings, the astonished
Russian 15,000, who were looking for nothing like him,--with wings,
with claws, and with beak; and in a highly aquiline manner, fierce,
swift, skilful, storms these intrenched Russians straightway,
scatters them to pieces,--and next day is in Colberg, the Siege
raising itself with great precipitation; leaving all its
artilleries and furnitures, rushing on shipboard all of it that can
get,--the very ships-of-war, says Archenholtz, hurrying dangerously
out to sea, as if the Prussian Hussars might possibly take THEM.
A glorious Werner! A beautiful defence, and ditto rescue; which has
drawn the world's attention." [Seyfarth, ii. 634; Archenholtz, ii.
116: in  Helden-Geschichte,  (vi. 73-83),
TAGEBUCH of Siege.]

Heyde's defence of Colberg, Werner's swift rescue of it, are very
celebrated this Autumn. Medals were struck in honor of them at
Berlin, not at Friedrich's expense, but under Friedrich's
patronage; who purchased silver or gold copies, and gave them
about. Veteran Heyde had a Letter from his Majesty, and one of
these gold Medals;--what an honor! I do not hear that Heyde got any
other reward, or that he needed any. A beautiful old Hero,
voiceless in History; though very visible in that remote sphere, if
you care to look.

That is the news from Colberg; comfortable to Friedrich; not likely
to inspire Soltikof with new alacrity in behalf of Daun. It remains
to us only to add, that Friedrich, with a view to quicken Daun,
shot out (September 24th, after nightfall, and with due mystery) a
Detachment towards Neisse,--4,000 or so, who call themselves
15,000, and affect to be for Mahren ultimately. "For Mahren, and my
bit of daily bread!" Daun may well think; and did for some time
think, or partly did. Pushed off one small detachment really
thither, to look after Mahren; and (September 29th) pushed off
another bigger; Lacy namely, with 15,000, pretending to be
thither,--but who, the instant they were out of Friedrich's sight,
have whirled, at a rapid pace, quite into the opposite direction:
as will shortly be seen! Daun has now other irons in the fire.
Daun, ever since this fatal Dead-lock in the Hills, has been
shrieking hoarsely to the Russians, day and night; who at last take
pity on him,--or find something feasible in his proposals.


THE RUSSIANS MAKE A RAID ON BERLIN, FOR RELIEF OF DAUN
AND THEIR OWN BEHOOF (October 3d-12th, 1760).

Powerful entreaties, influences are exercised at Petersburg, and
here in the Russian Camp: "Noble Russian Excellencies, for the love
of Heaven, take this man off my windpipe! A sally into Brandenburg:
oh, could not you? Lacy shall accompany; seizure of Berlin, were it
only for one day!" Soltikof has falleu sick,--and, indeed,
practically vanishes from our affairs at this point;--Fermor, who
has command in the interim, finally consents: "Our poor siege of
Colberg, what an end is come to it! What an end is the whole
Campaign like to have! Let us at least try this of Berlin, since
our hands are empty." The joy of Daun, of Montalembert, and of
everybody in Austrian Court and Camp may be conceived.

Russians to the amount of 20,000, Czernichef Commander; Tottleben
Second in command, a clever soldier, who knows Berlin: these are to
start from Sagan Country, on this fine Expedition, and to push on
at the very top of their speed. September 20th, Tottleben, with
3,000 of them as Vanguard, does accordingly cross Oder, at Beuthen
in Sagan Country; and strides forward direct upon Berlin:
Lacy, with 15,000, has started from Silesia, we saw how, above a
week later (September 29th), but at a still more furious rate of
speed. Soltikof,--theoretically Soltikof, but practically Fermor,
should the dim German Books be ambiguous to any studious creature,
--with the Main Army (which by itself is still a 20,000 odd), moves
to Frankfurt, to support the swift Expedition, and be within two
marches of it. Here surely is a feasibility! Berlin, for defence,
has nothing but weak palisades; and of effective garrison
1,200 men.

And feasible, in a sort, this thing did prove; indisputably
delivering Daun from strangulation in the Silesian Mountains;
filling the Gazetteer mind with loud emotion of an empty nature;
and very much affecting many poor people in Berlin and
neighborhood. Making a big Chapter in Berlin Local History;
though compressible to small bulk for strangers, who have no
specific sympathies in that locality.

"FRIDAY, 3d OCTOBER, 1760, Tottleben, with his hasty Vanguard of
3,000, preceded by hastier rumor, comes circling round Berlin
environs; takes post at the Halle Gate [West side of the City];
summons Rochow [the same old Commandant of Haddick's time];--
requires instant admittance; ransom of Four million Thalers, and
other impossible things. Berlin has been putting itself in some
posture; repairing its palisades, throwing up bits of redoubts in
front of the gates, and, though sounding with alarms and
uncertainties, shows a fine spirit of readiness for the emergency.
Rochow is still Commandant, the same old Rochow who shrunk so
questionably in Haddick's time: but Rochow has no Court to tremble
for at present; Queen and Royal Family, Archives, Principal
Ministries, Directorium in a body, went all to Magdeburg again, on
the Kunersdorf Disaster last year, and are safe from such insults.
The spirit of the population, it appears, even of the rich classes,
some of whom are very rich, is extraordinary. Besides Rochow,
moreover, there are, by accident, certain Generals in Berlin:
Seidlitz and two others, recovering from their Kunersdorf hurts,
who step into the breach with heart admirably willing, if with
limbs still lame. Then there is old Field-marshal Lehwald [Anti-
Russian at Gross Jagersdorf, but dismissed as too old], who is
official Governor of Berlin, who succeeded poor Keith in that
honorable office: all these were strong for defence;--and do not
now grudge, great men as they are, to take each his Gate of Berlin,
his small redoubt thrown up there, and pass the night and the day
in doing his utmost with it.

"Rochow refuses the surrender, and the Four Millions pure specie;
and Tottleben, about 3 P.M. in an intermittent way, and about 5 in
a constant, begins bombarding--grenadoes, red-hot balls, what he
can;--and continues the s&me till 3 next morning. Without result to
speak of; Seidlitz and Consorts making good counter-play; the poor
old 1,200 of Garrison growing almost young again with energy, under
their Seidlitzes; and the population zealously co-operating,
especially quenching all fires that rose. What greatly contributed
withal was the arrival of Prince Eugen overnight. Eugen of
Wurtemberg [cadet of that bad Duke] had been engaged driving home
the Swedes, but instantly quitted that with a 5,000 he had; and has
marched this day,--his Vanguard has, mostly Horse, whom the Foot
will follow to-morrow,--a distance of forty miles, on this fine
errand. Delicate manoeuvring, by these wearied horsemen, to enter
Berlin amid uncertain jostlings, under the shine of Russian
bombardment; ecstatic welcome to them, when they did get in,--
instant subscription for fat oxen to them; a just abundance of beef
to them, of generous beer I hope not more than an abundance:
phenomena which, with others of the like, could be dwelt on, had
we room. [Tempelhof, iv. 266-290; Archenholtz, ii. 122-148;
 Helden-Geschichte,  vi. 103-149, 350-352;
&c. &c.]'

"Tottleben, under these omens, found it would not do; wended off
towards his Czernichef next morning; eastward again as far as
Copenik, Prince Eugen attending him in a minatory manner: and, in
Berlin for the moment, the bad ten hours were over. For four days
more, the fate of things hung dubious; hope soon fading again, but
not quite going out till the fifth day. And this, in fact, was
mainly all of bombardment that the City had to suffer; though its
fate of capture was not to be averted. Is not Tottleben gone?
Yes; but Lacy, marching at a rate he never did before (except from
Bischofswerda), is arrived in the environs this same evening,
cautious but furious. The King is far away; what are Eugen's 5,000
against these?

"On the other hand, Hulsen, leaving his Saxon affairs to their
chance,--which, alas, are about extinct, at any rate;
except Wittenberg, all Saxony gone from us!--Hulsen is on winged
march hitherward with about 9,000. 'How would the King come on
wings, like an eagle from the Blue, if he were but aware!' thought
everybody, and said. Hulsen did arrive on the 8th; so that there
are now 14,000 of us. Hulsen did;--but no King could; the King is
just starting (October 4th, the King, on these bad rumors about
Saxony, about Berlin, quitted the attempt on Daun; October 7th, got
on march hitherward; has finished his first march hitherward,--Daun
gradually preparing to attend him in the distance),--when Hulsen
arrives. And here are all their Lacys, Czernichefs fairly
assembled; five to two of us,--35,000 of them against our 14,000.

"Hulsen and Eugen, drawn out in their skilfulest way, manoeuvred
about, all this Wednesday, 8th; attempted, did not attempt;
found on candid examination, That 14,000 VERSUS 35,000 ran a great
risk of being worsted; that, in such case, the fate of the City
might be still more frightful; and that, on the whole, their one
course was that of withdrawing to Spandau, and leaving poor Berlin
to capitulate as it could. Capitulation starts again with Tottleben
that same night; Gotzkowsky, a magnanimous Citizen and Merchant-
Prince, stepping forth with beautiful courageous furtherances of
every kind; and it ends better than one could have hoped: Ransom--
not of Four Millions pure specie (which would have been 600,000
pounds): 'Gracious Sir, it is beyond our utmost possibility!'--but
of One and a Half Million in modern Ephraim coin; with a 30,000
pounds of douceur-money to the common man, Russian and Austrian,
for his forbearance;--'for the rest, we are at your Excellency's
mercy, in a manner!' And so,

"THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9th, about 7 in the morning, Tottleben marches
in; exactly six days since he first came circling to the Halle Gate
and began bombarding. Tottleben, knowing Friedrich, knew the value
of despatch; and, they say, was privately no enemy to Berlin,
remembering old grateful days here. For Tottleben has himself been
in difficulties; indeed, was never long out of them, during the
long stormy life he had. Not a Russian at all; though I suppose
Father of the now Russian Tottlebens whom one hears of: this one
was a poor Saxon Gentleman, Page once to poor old drunken
Weissenfels, whom, for a certain fair soul's sake, we sigh to
remember! Weissenfels dying, Tottleben became a soldier of Polish
Majesty's;--acceptable soldier, but disagreed with Bruhl, for which
nobody will like him worse. Disagreed with Bruhl; went into the
Dutch service (may have been in Fontenoy for what I know);
was there till Aix-la-Chapelle, till after Aix-la-Chapelle;
kindly treated, and promoted in the Dutch Army; but with outlooks,
I can fancy, rather dull. Outlooks probably dull in such an
element,--when, being a handsome fellow in epaulettes (Major-
General, in fact, though poor), he, diligently endeavoring, caught
the eye of a Dutch West-Indian Heiress; soft creature with no end
of money; whom he privately wedded, and ran away with. To the
horror of her appointed Dutch Lover and Friends; who prosecuted the
poor Major-General with the utmost rigor, not of Law only. And were
like to be the ruin of his fair West-Indian and him;
when Friedrich, about 1754 as I guess, gave him shelter in Berlin;
finding no insupportable objection in what the man had done.
The rather, as his Heiress and he were rich. Tottleben gained
general favor in Berlin society; wished, in 1756, to take service
with Friedrich on the breaking out of this War. 'A Colonel with me,
yes,' said Friedrich. But Tottleben had been Major-General among
the Dutch, and could not consent to sink; had to go among the
Russians for a Major-Generalcy; and there and elsewhere, for many
years coming, had many adventures, mostly troublesome, which shall
not be memorable to us here. [Sketch of Tottleben's Life; in
RODENBECK, ii. 69-72.]

"Lacy, who, after hovering about in these vicinities for four days,
had now actually come up, so soon as Eugen and Hulsen withdrew,--
was deeply disgusted at the Terms of Capitulation; angry to find
that Tottleben had concluded without him; and, in fact, flew into
open rage at the arrangements Tottleben had made for himself and
for others. 'No admittance, except on order from his Excellency!'
said the Russian Sentry to Lacy's Austrians: upon which, Lacy
forced the Gate, and violently marched in. Took lodging, to his own
mind, in the Friedrichstadt quarter; and was fearfully truculent
upon person and property, during his short stay. A scandal to be
seen, how his Croats and loose hordes went openly ravening about,
bent on mere housebreaking, street-robbery and insolent violence.
So that Tottleben had fairly to fire upon the vagabonds once or
twice; and force on the unwilling Lacy some coercion of them within
limits. For the three days of his continuance,--it was but three
days in all,--Lacy was as the evil genius of Berlin; Tottleben and
his Russians the good. Their discipline was so excellent;
all Cossacks and loose rabble strictly kept out beyond the Walls.
To Bachmann, Russian Commandant, the Berliners, on his departure,
had gratefully got ready a money-gift of handsome amount: 'By no
means,' answered Bachmann: 'your treatment was according to the
mildness of our Sovereign Czarina. For myself, if I have served you
in anything, the fact that for three days I have been Commandant of
the Great Friedrich's Capital is more than a reward to me.'

"Tottleben and Lacy, during those three days of Russian and
Austrian joint dominion, had a stormy time of it together.
'Destroy the LAGER-HAUS,' said Lacy: Lager-Haus, where they
manufacture their soldiers' uniforms; it is the parent of all
cloth-manufacturing in Prussia; set up by Friedrich Wilhelm,--not
on free-trade principles. 'The Lager-Haus, say you? I doubt, it is
now private property; screened by our Capitulation;'--which it
proves to be. 'You shall blow up the Arsenal!' said Lacy, with
vehemence and truculence. A noble edifice, as travellers yet know:
fancy its fragments flying about among the populous streets,
plunging through the roofs of Palaces, and great houses all round.
Lacy was inexorable; Tottleben had to send a Russian Party (one
wishes they had been Croats) on this sad errand. They proceeded to
the Powder-Magazine for explosive material, as preliminary;
they were rash in handling the gunpowder there, which blew up in
their hands; sent itself and all of them into the air; and saved
the poor Arsenal: 'Not powder enough now left for our own artillery
uses,' urged Tottleben.

"Saxon and Austrian Parties were in the Palaces about,--at Potsdam,
at Charlottenburg, Schonhausen (the Queen's), at Friedrichsfeld
(the Margraf Karl's), some of whom behaved well, some horribly ill.
In Charlottenburg, certain Saxon Bruhl-Dragoons, who by their
conduct might have been Dragoons of Attila, smashed the furnitures,
the doors, cutting the Pictures, much maltreating the poor people;
and, what was reckoned still more tragical, overset the poor
Polignac Collection of Antiques and Classicalities; not only
knocking off noses and arms, but beating them small, lest
reparation by cement should be possible. Their Officers, Pirna
people, looking quietly on. A scandalous proceeding, thought
everybody, friend or foe,--especially thought Friedrich;
whose indignation at this ruin of Charlottenburg came out in way of
reprisal by and by. At Potsdam, on the other hand, Prince
Esterhazy, with perhaps Hungarians among his people, behaved like a
very Prince; received from the Castellan an Attestation that he had
scrupulously respected everything; and took, as souvenir, only one
Picture of little value; Prince de Ligne, who was under him,
carrying off, still more daintily, one goose-quill, immortal by
having been a pen of the Great Friedrich's.

"Tottleben, with no feeling other than Official tempered by Human,
was in great contrast with Lacy, and very beneficent to Berlin
during the three days it lay under the TRIBULA, or harrow of War.
But the Tutelary Angel of Berlin, then and afterwards for weeks
and months, till all scores got settled, was the Gotzkowsky
mentioned above." Whom we shall see again helpful at Leipzig;
a man worth marking in these tumults. "If Tottleben was the
temporal Armed King, this Gotzkowsky was the Spiritual King, PAPA
or Universal Father, armed only with charities, pieties, prayers,
ever shiningly attended by self-sacrifices on Gotzkowsky's part;
which averted woes innumerable (Lager-Haus only one of a long
list); and which 'surpassed all belief,' write the Berlin
Magistracy, as if in tears over such heroism. Truly a Prince of
Merchants, this Gotzkowsky, not for his vast enterprises, and the
mere 1,500 workmen he employs, but for the still greater heart that
dwells in him. Had begun as a travelling Pedler; used to call at
Reinsberg, with female haberdasheries exquisitely chosen
('GALLANTERIE wares' the Germans call them), for the then Princess
Royal; not unnoticed by Friedrich, who recognized the broad sense,
solidity and great thoughts of the man. Of all which Friedrich has
known far more since then, in various branches of Prussian commerce
improved by Gotzkowsky's managements. A truly notable Gotzkowsky;
became bankrupt at last, one is sorry to hear; and died in
affliction and neglect,--short of the humblest wages for so much
good work done in the world! [Preuss, ii. 257, &c. &c.;
GESCHICHTE EINES PATRIOTISCHEN KAUFMANNS (Berlin, 1769, by
Gotzkowsky himself).]

"Gotzkowsky's House was like a general storeroom for everybody's
preciosities; his time, means, self were the refuge of all the
needy. In Zorndorf time, when this Czernichef [if readers can
remember], who is now so supreme,--Czernichef, Soltikof and
others,--had nothing for it but to lodge in the cellars of burnt
Custrin, Gotzkowsky, with ready money, with advice, with
assuagement, had been their DEUS EX MACHINA: and now Czernichef
remembers it; and Gotzkowsky, as Papa, has to go with continual
prayers, negotiations, counsellings, expedients, and be the refuge
of all unjustly suffering men Berlin has immensities of trade in
war-furnitures: the capitals circulating are astonishing to
Archenholtz; million on the back of million; no such city in
Germany for trade. The desire of the Three-days Lacy Government is
towards any Lager-Haus; any mass of wealth, which can be construed
as Royal or connected with Royalty. Ephraim and Itzig, mint-
masters of that copper-coinage; rolling in foul wealth by the ruin
of their neighbors; ought not these to bleed? Well, yes,--if
anybody; and copiously if you like! I should have said so: but the
generous Gotzkowsky said in his heart, 'No;' and again pleaded and
prevailed. Ephraim and Itzig, foul swollen creatures, were not
broached at all; and their gratitude was, That, at a future day,
Gotzkowsky's day of bankruptcy, they were hardest of any
on Gotzkowsky.

"Archenholtz and the Books are enthusiastically copious upon
Gotzkowsky and his procedures; but we must be silent. This Anecdote
only, in regard to Freedom of the Press,--to the so-called 'air we
breathe, not having which we die!' Would modern Friends of Progress
believe it? Because, in former stages of this War, the Berlin
Newspapers have had offensive expressions (scarcely noticeable to
the microscope in our day, and below calculation for smallness)
upon the Russian and Austrian Sovereigns or Peoples,--the Able
Editors (there are only Two) shall now in person, here in the
market-place of Berlin, actually run the gantlet for it,--'run the
rods (GASSEN-LAUFEN'), as the fashion now is; which is worse than
GANTLET, not to speak of the ignominy. That is the barbaric Russian
notion: 'who are you, ill-formed insolent persons, that give a
loose to your tongue in that manner? Strip to the waistband, swift!
Here is the true career opened for you: on each hand, one hundred
sharp rods ranked waiting you; run your courses there,--no hurry
more than you like!' The alternative of death, I suppose, was open
to these Editors; Roman death at least, and martyrdom for a new
Faith (Faith in the Loose Tongue), very sacred to the Democratic
Ages now at hand. But nobody seems to have thought of it;
Editors and Public took the thing as a 'sorrow incident to this
dangerous Profession of the Tongue Loose (or looser than usual);
which nobody yet knew to be divine. The Editors made passionate
enough lamentation, in the stript state; one of then, with loud
weeping, pulled off his wig, showed ice-gray hair; 'I am in my 68th
year!' But it seems nothing would have steaded them, had not
Gotzkowsky been busy interceding. By virtue of whom there was
pardon privately in readiness: to the ice-gray Editor complete
pardon; to the junior quasi-complete; only a few switches to assert
the principle, and dismissal with admonition." [ Helden-
Geschichte, vi. 103-148; Rodenbeck, ii. 41-54; Archenholtz, ii.
130-147; Preuss, UBI SUPRA: &c. &c.]

The pleasant part of the fact is, that Gotzkowsky's powerful
intercessions were thenceforth no farther needed. The same day,
Saturday, October 11th, a few hours after this of the GASSEN-
LAUFEN, news arrived full gallop: "The King is coming!" After which
it was beautiful to see how all things got to the gallop; and in a
no-time Berlin was itself again. That same evening, Saturday, Lacy
took the road, with extraordinary velocity, towards Torgau Country,
where the Reichsfolk, in Hulsen's absence, are supreme; and, the
second evening after, was got 60 miles thitherward. His joint
dominion had been of Two days. On the morning of Sunday, 12th, went
Tottleben, who had businesses, settlements of ransom and the like,
before marching. Tottleben, too, made uncommon despatch;
marched, as did all these invasive Russians, at the rate of thirty
miles a day; their Main Army likewise moving off from Frankfurt to
a safer distance. Friedrich was still five marches off; but there
seemed not a moment to lose.

The Russian spoilings during the retreat were more horrible than
ever: "The gallows gaping for us; and only this one opportunity, if
even this!" thought the agitated Cossack to himself. Our poor
friend Nissler had a sad tale to tell of them; [In Busching,
 Beitrage,  i. 400, 401, account of their
sacking of Nussler's pleasant home and estate, "Weissensee, near
Berlin."] as who had not? Terror and murder, incendiary fire and
other worse unnamable abominations of the Pit. One old Half-pay
gentleman, whom I somewhat respect, desperately barricaded himself,
amid his domestics and tenantries, Wife and Daughters assisting:
"Human Russian Officers can enter here; Cossacks no, but shall kill
us first. Not a Cossack till all of us are lying dead!"
[Archenholtz, ii. 150.] And kept his word; the human Russians
owning it to be proper.

In Guben Country, "at Gross-Muckro, October 15th," the day after
passing Guben, Friedrich first heard for certain, That the Russians
had been in Berlin, and also that they were gone, and that all was
over. He made two marches farther,--not now direct for Berlin, but
direct for Saxony AND it;--to Lubben, 50 or 60 miles straight south
of Berlin; and halted there some days, to adjust himself for a new
sequel. "These are the things," exclaims he, sorrowfully, to
D'Argens, "which I have been in dread of since Winter last; this is
what gave the dismal tone to my Letters to you. It has required not
less than all my philosophy to endure the reverses, the
provocations, the outrages, and the whole scene of atrocious things
that have come to pass." [ OEuvres de Frederic,  xix. 199; "22d October."] Friedrich's grief about Berlin we
need not paint; though there were murmurs afterwards, "Why did not
he start sooner?" which he could not, in strict reason, though
aware that these savageries were on march. He had hoped the Eugen-
Hulsen appliances, even should all else fail, might keep them at
bay. And indeed, in regard to these latter, it turned only on a
hair. Montalembert calculating, vows, on his oath, "Can assure you,
M. l'Ambassadeur, PUIS BIEN VOUS ASSURER COMME SI J,ETAIS DEVANT
DIEU, as if I stood before God," [Montalembert, ii. 108.] that,
from first to last, it was my doing; that but for me, at the very
last, the Russians, on sight of Hulsen and Eugen, and no Lacy come,
would have marched away!

Friedrich's orderings and adjustings, dated Lubben, where his Army
rested after this news from Berlin, were manifold; and a good deal
still of wrecks from the Berlin Business fell to his share.
For instance, one thing he had at once ordered: "Your Bill of a
Million-and-half to the Russians, don't pay it, or any part of it!
When Bamberg was ransomed, Spring gone a year,--Reich and Kaiser,
did they respect our Bill we had on Bamberg? Did not they cancel
it, and flatly refuse?" Friedrich is positive on the point,
"Reprisal our clear remedy!" But Berlin itself was in alarm, for
perhaps another Russian visit; Berlin and Gotzkowsky were humbly
positive the other way. Upon which a visit of Gotskowsky to the
Royal Camp: "Merchants' Bills are a sacred thing, your Majesty!"
urged Gotzkowsky. Who, in his zeal for the matter, undertook
dangerous visits to the Russian Quarters, and a great deal of
trouble, peril and expense, during the weeks following.
Magnanimous Gotzkowsky, "in mere bribes to the Russian Officials,
spent about 6,000 pounds of his own," for one item. But he had at
length convinced his Majesty that Merchants' Bills were a sacred
thing, in spite of Bamberg and desecrative individualities;
and that this Million-and-half must be paid. Friedrich was struck
with Gotzkowsky and his view of the facts. Friedrich, from his own
distressed funds, handed to Gotzkowsky the necessary Million-and-
half, commanding only profound silence about it; and to Gotzkowsky
himself a present of 150,000 thalers (20,000 pounds odd);
[Archenholtz, ii. 146.] and so the matter did at last end.

It had been a costly business to Berlin, and to the King, and to
the poor harried Country. To Berlin, bombardment of ten hours;
alarm of discursive siege-work in the environs for five days;
foreign yoke for three days; lost money to the amounts above
stated; what loss in wounds to body or to peace of mind, or whether
any loss that way, nobody has counted. The Berlin people rose to a
more than Roman height of temper, testifies D'Argens; [
OEuvres de Frederic,  xix. 195-199: "D'Argens to the
King: Berlin, 19th October, 1760,"--an interesting Letter of
details.] so that perhaps it was a gain. The King's Magazines and
War-furnitures about Berlin are wasted utterly,--Arsenal itself not
blown up, we well know why;--and much Hunnish ruin in
Charlottenburg, with damage to Antiques,--for which latter clause
there shall, in a few months, be reprisal: if it please the Powers!

Of all this Montalembert declares, "Before God, that he,
Montalembert, is and was the mainspring." And indeed, Tempelhof,
without censure of Montalembert and his vocation, but accurately
computing time and circumstance, comes to the same conclusion;--as
thus: "OCTOBER 8th, seeing no Lacy come, Czernichef, had it not
been for Montalembert's eloquence, had fixed for returning to
Copenik: whom cautious Lacy would have been obliged to imitate.
Suppose Czernichef had, OCTOBER 9th, got to Copenik,--Eugen and
Hulsen remain at Berlin; Czernichef could not have got back thither
before the 11th; on the 11th was news of Friedrich's coming; which
set all on gallop to the right about." [Tempelhof, iv. 277.]
So that really, before God, it seems Montalembert must have the
merit of this fine achievement:--the one fruit, so far as I can
discover, of his really excellent reasonings, eloquences,
patiences, sown broadcast, four or five long years, on such a field
as fine human talent never had before. I declare to you,
M. l'Ambassadeur, this excellent vulture-swoop on Berlin, and
burning or reburning of the Peasantry of the Mark, is due solely to
one poor zealous gentleman!--

What was next to follow out of THIS,--in Torgau neighborhood, where
Daun now stands expectant,--poor M. de Montalembert was far from
anticipating; and will be in no haste to claim the merit of before
God or man.



Chapter V.

BATTLE OF TORGAU.

After Hulsen's fine explosion on the Durrenberg, August 20th, on
the incompetent Reichs Generals, there had followed nothing
eminent; new futilities, attemptings and desistings, advancings and
recoilings, on the part of the Reich; Hulsen solidly maintaining
himself, in defence of his Torgau Magazine and Saxon interests in
those regions, against such overwhelming odds, till relief and
reinforcement for them and him should arrive; and gaining time,
which was all he could aim at in such circumstances. Had the Torgau
Magazine been bigger, perhaps Hulsen might have sat there to the
end. But having solidly eaten out said Magazine, what could Hulsen
do but again move rearward? [ Hogbericht von dem Ruckzug
des General-Lieutenants von Hulsen aus dem Lager bey Torgau
 (in Seyfarth,  Beylagen,  ii.
755-784).] Above all, on the alarm from Berlin, which called him
off double-quick, things had to go their old road in that quarter.
Weak Torgau was taken, weak Wittenberg besieged. Leipzig, Torgau,
Wittenberg, all that Country, by the time the Russians left Berlin,
was again the Reich's. Eugen and Hulsen, hastening for relief of
Wittenberg, the instant Berlin was free, found Wittenberg a heap of
ruins, out of which the Prussian garrison, very hunger urging, had
issued the day before, as prisoners of war. Nothing more to be done
by Eugen, but take post, within reach of Magdeburg and victual, and
wait new Order from the King.

The King is very unquestionably coming on; leaves Lubben
thitherward October 20th. [Rodenbeck, ii. 35: in  Anonymous
of Hamburg  (iv. 241-245) Friedrich's Two Marches,
towards and from Berlin (7th-17th October, to Lubben; thence, 20th
October-3d November, to Torgau).] With full fixity of purpose as
usual; but with as gloomy an outlook as ever before. Daun, we said,
is now arrived in those parts: Daun and the Reich together are near
100,000; Daun some 60,000,--Loudon having stayed behind, and gone
southward, for a stroke on Kosel (if Goltz will permit, which he
won't at all!),--and the Reich 35,000. Saxony is all theirs;
cannot they maintain Saxony? Not a Town or a Magazine now belongs
to Friedrich there, and he is in number as 1 to 2.
"Maintain Saxony; indisputably you can!" that is the express Vienna
Order, as Friedrich happens to know. The Russians themselves have
taken Camp again, and wait visibly, about Landsberg and the Warta
Country, till they see Daun certain of executing said Order;
upon which they intend, they also, to winter in those Elbe-Prussian
parts, and conjointly to crush Friedrich into great confinement
indeed. Friedrich is aware of this Vienna Order; which is a kind of
comfort in the circumstances. The intentions of the hungry
Russians, too, are legible to Friedrich; and he is much resolved
that said Order shall be impossible to Daun. "Were it to be
possible, we are landless. Where are our recruits, our magazines,
our resources for a new Campaign? We may as well die, as suffer
that to be possible!" Such is Friedrich's fixed view. He says to
D'Argens:--

"You, as a follower of Epicurus, put a value on life; as for me, I
regard death from the Stoic point of view. Never shall I see the
moment that forces me to make a disadvantageous Peace;
no persuasion, no eloquence, shall ever induce me to sign my
dishonor. Either I will bury myself under the ruins of my Country,
or if that consolation appears too sweet to the Destiny that
persecutes me, I shall know how to put an end to my misfortunes
when it is impossible to bear them any longer. I have acted, and
continue to act, according to that interior voice of conscience and
of honor which directs all my steps: my conduct shall be, in every
time, conformable to those principles. After having sacrificed my
youth to my Father, my ripe years to my Country, I think I have
acquired the right to dispose of my old age. I have told you, and I
repeat it, Never shall my hand sign a humiliating Peace.
Finish this Campaign I certainly will, resolved to dare all, and to
try the most desperate things either to succeed or to find a
glorious end (FIN GLORIEUSE)." [ OEuvres de Frederic,  xix. 202 ("Kemberg, 28th October, 1760," a week and a day
before Torgau).]

Friedrich had marched from Lubben, after three days, settling of
affairs, OCTOBER 20th; arrived at Jessen, on the Elbe, within wind
of Wittenberg, in two days more. "He formed a small magazine at
Duben," says Archenholtz; "and was of a velocity, a sharpness,"--
like lightning, in a manner! Friedrich is uncommonly dangerous when
crushed into a corner, in this way; and Daun knows that he is.
Friedrich's manoeuvrings upon Daun--all readers can anticipate the
general type of them. The studious military reader, if England
boasts any such, will find punctual detail of them in TEMPELHOF and
the German Books. For our poor objects, here is a Summary which
may suffice:--

From Lubben, having winded up these bad businesses,--and reinforced
Goltz, at Glogau, to a 20,000 for Silesia's sake, to look towards
Kosel and Loudon's attempts there,--Friedrich gathered himself into
proper concentration; and with all the strength now left to him
pushed forward (20th October) towards Wittenberg, and recovery of
those lost Saxon Countries. To Wittenberg from Lubben is some 60
miles;--can be done, nearly, in a couple of days. With the King,
after Goltz is furnished, there are about 30,000; Eugen and Hulsen,
not idle for their own part, wait in those far Western or Ultra-
Wittenberg regions (in and beyond Dessau Country), to join him with
their 14,000, when they get signal. Joined with these, he will be
44,000; he will then cross Elbe somewhere, probably not where Daun
and the Reich imagine, and be in contact with his Problem;
with what a pitch of willingness nobody need be told! Daun, in
Torgau Country, has one of the best positions; nor is Daun a man
for getting flurried.

The poor Reichs Army, though it once flattered itself with
intending to dispute Friedrich's passage of the Elbe, and did make
some detachings and manoeuvrings that way, on his approach to
Wittenberg (October 22d-23d),--took a safer view, on his actual
arrival there, on his re-seizure of that ruined place, and
dangerous attitude on the right bank below and above. Safer view,
on salutary second thoughts;--and fell back Leipzig-way, southward
to Duben, 30 or 40 miles. Whence rapidly to Leipzig itself, 30 or
40 more, on his actually putting down his bridges over Elbe.
Friedrich's crossing-place was Schanzhaus, in Dessau Country,
between Roslau and Klikau, 12 or 15 miles below Wittenberg;
about midway between Wittenberg and the inflow of the Mulda into
Elbe. He crossed OCTOBER 26th, no enemy within wind at all; Daun at
Torgau in his inexpugnable Camp, Reichsfolk at Duben, making
towards Leipzig at their best pace. And is now wholly between Elbe
and Mulda; nothing but Mulda and the Anhall Countries and the Halle
Country now to rear of him.

At Jonitz, next march southward, he finds the Eugen-Hulsen people
ready. We said they had not been idle while waiting signal:
of which here is one pretty instance. Eugen's Brother, supreme
Reigning Duke of Wurtemberg,--whom we parted with at Fulda, last
Winter, on sore terms; but who again, zealous creature, heads his
own little Army in French-Austrian service, in still more eclipsed
circumstances ("No subsidy at all, this Year, say your august
Majesties? Well, I must do without: a volunteer; and shall need
only what I can make by forced contributions!" which of course he
is diligent to levy wherever possible),--has latterly taken Halle
Country in hand, very busy raising contributions there: and Eugen
hears, not without interest, that certain regiments or detachments
of his, pushed out, are lying here, there, superintending that
salutary work,--within clutch, perhaps, of Kleist the Hussar!
Eugen despatches Kleist upon him; who pounces with his usual fierce
felicity upon these people. To such alarm of his poor Serenity and
poor Army, that Serenity flies off homeward at once, and out of
these Wars altogether; where he never had other than the reverse of
business to be, and where he has played such a farce-tragedy for
four years back. Eugen has been heard to speak,--theoretically, and
in excited moments,--of "running such a fellow through the body,
were one near him:: but it is actually Eugen in person that sends
him home from these Wars: which may be counted a not unfraternal or
unpatriotic procedure; being of indisputable benefit to the poor
Sovereign man himself, and to everybody concerned with him.

Hearing that Friedrich was across, Daun came westward that same day
(October 26th), and planted himself at Eilenburg; concluding that
the Reichsfolk would now be in jeopardy first of all. Which was
partly the fact; and indeed this Daun movement rather accelerated
the completion of it. Without this the Reichs Army might have lived
another day. It had quitted Duben, and gone in all haste for
Leipzig, at 1 in the morning (not by Eilenburg, of which or of
Daun's arrival there it knows nothing),--"at 1 in the morning of
the 27th," or in fact, so soon as news could reach it at the
gallop, That Friedrich was across. And now Friedrich, seeing Daun
out in this manner, judged that a junction was contemplated;
and that one could not be too swift in preventing it. October 29th,
with one diligent march, Friedrich posted himself at Duben;
there, in a sort now between Daun and the Reichsfolk, detached
Hulsen with a considerable force to visit these latter in Leipzig
itself; and began with all diligence forming "a small Magazine in
Duben," Magdeburg and the current of the Elbe being hitherto his
only resource in that kind. By the time of Hulsen's return, this
little operation will be well forward, and Daun will have declared
himself a little.

Hulsen, evening of October 30th, found Leipzig in considerable
emotion, the Reichsfolk taking refuge in it: not the least inclined
to stand a push, when Hulsen presented himself. Night of 30th-31st,
there was summoning and menacing; Reich endeavoring to answer in
firm style; but all the while industriously packing up to go. By 5
in the morning, things had come to extremity;---morning, happily
for some of us, was dark mist. But about 5 o'clock, Hulsen (or
Hulsen's Second) coming on with menace of fire and sword upon these
poor Reichspeople, found the Reichspeople wholly vanished in the
mist. Gone bodily; in full march for the spurs of the Metal-
Mountain Range again;--concluding, for the fourth time, an
extremely contemptible Campaign. Daun, with the King ahead of him,
made not the least attempt to help them in their Leipzig
difficulty; but retired to his strong Camp at Torgau; feels his
work to lie THERE,--as Friedrich perceives of him, with
some interest.

Hulsen left a little garrison in Leipzig (friend Quintus a part of
it); [Tempelhof, iv. 290.] and returned to the King; whose small
Magazine at Duben, and other small affairs there,--Magdeburg with
boats, and the King with wagons, having been so diligent in
carrying grain thither,--are now about completed. From Daun's
returning to Torgau, Friedrich infers that the cautious man has got
Order from Court to maintain Torgau at all costs,--to risk a battle
rather than go. "Good: he shall have one!" thinks Friedrich.
And, NOVEMBER 2d, in four columns, marches towards Torgau;
to Schilda, that night, which is some seven miles on the southward
side of Torgau. The King, himself in the vanguard as usual, has
watched with eager questioning eye the courses of Daun's advanced
parties, and by what routes they retreat; discerns for certain that
Daun has no views upon Duben or our little Magazine; and that the
tug of wrestle for Torgau, which is to crown this Campaign into
conquest of Saxony, or shatter it into zero like its foregoers on
the Austrian part, and will be of death-or-life nature on the
Prussian part, ought to ensue to-morrow. Forward, then!

This Camp of Torgau is not a new place to Daun. It was Prince
Henri's Camp last Autumn; where Daun tried all his efforts to no
purpose; and though hugely outnumbering the Prince, could make
absolutely nothing of it. Nothing, or less; and was flowing back to
Dresden and the Bohemian Frontier, uncheered by anything, till that
comfortable Maxen Incident turned up. Daun well knows the strength
of this position. Torgau and the Block of Hill to West, called Hill
of Siptitz:--Hulsen, too, stood here this Summer; not to mention
Finck and Wunsch, and their beating the Reichspeople here. A Hill
and Post of great strength; not unfamiliar to many Prussians, nor
to Friedrich's studious considerations, though his knowledge of it
was not personal on all points;--as To-morrow taught him, somewhat
to his cost.

"Tourists, from Weimar and the Thuringian Countries," says a Note-
book, sometimes useful to us, "have most likely omitted Rossbach in
their screaming railway flight eastward; and done little in Leipzig
but endeavor to eat dinner, and, still more vainly, to snatch a
little sleep in the inhuman dormitories of the Country.
Next morning, screaming Dresden-ward, they might, especially if
military, pause at Oschatz, a stage or two before Meissen, where
again are objects of interest. You can look at Hubertsburg, if
given that way,--a Royal Schloss, memorable on several grounds;--at
Hubertsburg, and at other features, in the neighborhood of Oschatz.
This done, or this left not done, you strike off leftward, that is
northward, in some open vehicle, for survey of Torgau and its
vicinities and environs. Not above fifteen miles for you; a drive
singular and pleasant; time enough to return and be in Dresden
for dinner.

"Torgau is a fine solid old Town; Prussian military now abundant in
it. In ancient Heathen times, I suppose, it meant the GAU, or
District, of THOR; Capital of that Gau,--part of which, now under
Christian or quasi-Christian circumstances, you have just been
traversing, with Elbe on your right hand. Innocent rural aspects of
Humanity, Boor's life, Gentry's life, all the way, not in any
holiday equipment; on the contrary, somewhat unkempt and scraggy,
but all the more honest and inoffensive. There is sky, earth, air,
and freedom for your own reflections: a really agreeable kind of
Gau; pleasant, though in part ugly. Large tracts of it are pine-
wood, with pleasant Villages and fine arable expanses interspersed.
Schilda and many Villages you leave to right and left.
Old-fashioned Villages, with their village industries visible
around; laboring each in its kind,--not too fast; probably with
extinct tobacco-pipe hanging over its chin (KALT-RAUCHEND, 'smoking
COLD,' as they phrase it).

"Schilda has an absurd celebrity among the Germans: it is the
Gotham of Teutschland; a fountain of old broad-grins and homely and
hearty rustic banter; welling up from the serious extinct Ages to
our own day; 'SCHILTburger' (Inhabitant of SCHILDA) meaning still,
among all the Teutsch populations, a man of calmly obstinate whims
and delusions, of notions altogether contrary to fact, and
agreeable to himself only; resolutely pushing his way through life
on those terms: amid horse-laughter, naturally, and general wagging
of beards from surrounding mankind. Extinct mirth, not to be
growled at or despised, in Ages running to the shallow, which have
lost their mirth, and become all one snigger of mock-mirth. For it
is observable, the more solemn is your background of DARK, the
brighter is the play of all human genialities and coruscations on
it,--of genial mirth especially, in the hour for mirth. Who the
DOCTOR BORDEL of Schilda was, I do not know: but they have had
their Bordel, as Gotham had;--probably various Bordels;
industrious to pick up those Spiritual fruits of the earth. For the
records are still abundant and current; fully more alive than those
of Gotham here are.--And yonder, then, is actually Schilda of the
absurd fame. A small, cheerful-looking human Village, in its Island
among the Woods; you see it lying to the right:--a clean brick-
slate congeries, with faint smoke-canopy hanging over it,
indicating frugal dinner-kettles on the simmer;--and you remember
kindly those good old grinnings, over good SCHILTBURGER, good WISE
MEN OF GOTHAM, and their learned Chroniclers, and unlearned Peasant
Producers, who have contributed a wrinkle of human Fun to the
earnest face of Life.

"After Schilda, and before, you traverse long tracts of Pine
Forest, all under forest management; with long straight stretches
of sandy road (one of which is your own), straight like red tape-
strings, intersecting the wide solitudes: dangerous to your
topographies,--for the finger-posts are not always there, and human
advice you can get none. Nothing but the stripe of blue sky
overhead, and the brown one of tape (or sand) under your feet:
the trees poor and mean for most part, but so innumerable, and all
so silent, watching you all like mute witnesses, mutely whispering
together; no voice but their combined whisper or big forest SOUGH
audible to you in the world:--on the whole, your solitary ride
there proves, unexpectedly, a singular deliverance from the mad
railway, and its iron bedlamisms and shrieking discords and
precipitances; and is soothing, and pensively welcome, though sad
enough, and in outward features ugly enough. No wild boars are now
in these woods, no chance of a wolf:"--what concerns us more is,
that Friedrich's columns, on the 3d of November, had to march up
through these long lanes, or tape-stripes of the Torgau Forest;
and that one important column, one or more, took the wrong turn at
some point, and was dangerously wanting at the expected moment!--

"Torgau itself stands near Elbe; on the shoulder, eastern or Elbe-
ward shoulder, of a big mass of Knoll, or broad Height, called of
Siptitz, the main Eminence of the Gau. Shoulder, I called it, of
this Height of Siptitz; but more properly it is on a continuation,
or lower ulterior height dipping into Elbe itself, that Torgau
stands. Siptitz Height, nearly a mile from Elbe, drops down into a
straggle of ponds; after which, on a second or final rise, comes
Torgau dipping into Elbe. Not a shoulder strictly, but rather a
CHEEK, with NECK intervening;--neck GOITRY for that matter, or
quaggy with ponds! The old Town stands high enough, but is enlaced
on the western and southern side by a set of lakes and quagmires,
some of which are still extensive and undrained. The course of the
waters hereabouts; and of Elbe itself, has had its intricacies:
close to northwest, Torgau is bordered, in a straggling way, by
what they call OLD ELBE; which is not now a fluent entity, but a
stagnant congeries of dirty waters and morasses. The Hill of
Siptitz abuts in that aqueous or quaggy manner; its forefeet being,
as it were, at or in Elbe River, and its sides, to the South and to
the North for some distance each way, considerably enveloped in
ponds and boggy difficulties.

"Plenty of water all about, but I suppose mostly of bad quality;
at least Torgau has declined drinking it, and been at the trouble
to lay a pipe, or ROHRGRABEN, several miles long, to bring its
culinary water from the western neighborhoods of Siptitz Height.
Along the southern side of Siptitz Height goes leisurely an
uncomfortable kind of Brook, called the 'ROHRGRABEN (Pipe-Ditch);'
the meaning of which unexpected name you find to be, That there is
a SERVICE-PIPE laid cunningly at the bottom of this Brook;
lifting the Brook at its pure upper springs, and sending it along,
in secret tubular quasi-bottled condition; leaving the fouler
drippings from the neighborhood to make what 'brook' they still
can, over its head, and keep it out of harm's way till Torgau get
it. This is called the ROHRGRABEN, this which comes running through
Siptitz Village, all along by the southern base of Siptitz Hill;
to the idle eye, a dirtyish Brook, ending in certain notable Ponds
eastward: but to the eye of the inquiring mind, which has pierced
deeper, a Tube of rational Water, running into the throats of
Torgau, while the so-called Brook disembogues at discretion into
the ENTEFANG (Duck-trap), and what Ponds or reedy Puddles there
are,"--of which, in poor Wunsch's fine bit of fighting, last Year,
we heard mention. Let readers keep mind of them.

The Hill Siptitz, with this ROHRGRABEN at the southern basis of it,
makes a very main figure in the Battle now imminent. Siptitz Height
is, in fact, Daun's Camp; where he stands intrenched to the utmost,
repeatedly changing his position, the better to sustain Friedrich's
expected attacks. It is a blunt broad-backed Elevation, mostly in
vineyard, perhaps on the average 200 feet above the general level,
and of five or six square miles in area: length, east to west, from
Grosswig neighborhood to the environs of Torgau, may be about three
miles; breadth, south to north, from the Siptitz to the Zinna
neighborhoods, above half that distance. The Height is steepish on
the southern side, all along to the southwest angle (which was
Daun's left flank in the great Action coming), but swells up with
easier ascent on the west, earth and other sides. Let the reader
try for some conception of its environment and it, as the floor or
arena of a great transaction this day.

Daun stands fronting southward along these Siptitz Heights, looking
towards Schilda and his dangerous neighbor; heights, woods, ponds
and inaccessibilities environing his Position and him. One of the
strongest positions imaginable; which, under Prince Henri, proved
inexpugnable enough to some of us. A position not to be attacked on
that southern front, nor on either of its flanks:--where can it be
attacked? Impregnable, under Prince Henri in far inferior force:
how will you take it from Daun in decidedly superior? A position
not to be attacked at all, most military men would say;--though One
military man, in his extreme necessity, must and will find a way
into it.

One fault, the unique military man, intensely pondering, discovers
that it has: it is too small for Daun; not area enough for
manoeuvring 65,000 men in it; who will get into confusion if
properly dealt with. A most comfortable light-flash, the EUREKA of
this terrible problem. "We will attack it on rear and on front
simultaneously; that is the way to handle it!" Yes; simultaneously,
though that is difficult, say military judges; perhaps to Prussians
it may be possible. It is the opinion of military judges who have
studied the matter, that Friedrich's plan, could it have been
perfectly executed, might have got not only victory from Daun, but
was capable to fling his big Army and him pell-mell upon the Elbe
Bridge, that is to say, in such circumstances, into Elbe River, and
swallow him bodily at a frightful rate! That fate was spared
poor Daun.

MONDAY, 3d NOVEMBER, 1760, at half-past 6 in the morning Friedrich
is on march for this great enterprise. The march goes northward, in
Three Columns, with a Fourth of Baggage; through the woods, on four
different roads; roads, or combinations of those intricate sandy
avenues already noticed. Northward all of it at first; but at a
certain point ahead (at crossing of the Eilenburg-Torgau Road,
namely), the March is to divide itself in two. Half of the force is
to strike off rightward there with Ziethen, and to issue on the
south side of Siptitz Hill; other half, under Friedrich himself, to
continue northward, long miles farther, and then at last bending
round, issue--simultaneously with Ziethen, if possible--upon
Siptitz Hill from the north side. We are about 44,000 strong,
against Daun, who is 65,000.

Simultaneously with Ziethen, so far as humanly possible: that is
the essential point! Friedrich has taken every pains that it shall
be correct, in this and all points; and to take double assurance of
hiding it from Daun, he yesternight, in dictating his Orders on the
other heads of method, kept entirely to himself this most important
Ziethen portion of the Business. And now, at starting, he has taken
Ziethen in his carriage with him a few miles, to explain the thing
by word of mouth. At the Eilenburg road, or before it, Ziethen
thinks he is clear as to everything; dismounts; takes in hand the
mass intrusted to him; and strikes off by that rightward course:
"Rightward, Herr Ziethen; rightward till you get to Klitschen, your
first considerable island in this sea of wood; at Klitschen strike
to the left into the woods again,-- your road is called the Butter-
Strasse (BUTTER-STREET); goes by the northwest side of Siptitz
Height; reach Siptitz by the Butter-Street, and then do
your endeavor!"

With the other Half of his Army, specially with the First Column of
it, Friedrich proceeds northward on his own part of the adventure.
Three Columns he has, besides the Baggage one: in number about
equal to Ziethen's; if perhaps otherwise, rather the chosen Half;
about 8,000 grenadier and footguard people, with Kleist's Hussars,
are Friedrich's own Column. Friedrich's Column marches nearest the
Daun positions; the Baggage-column farthest; and that latter is to
halt, under escort, quite away to left or westward of the
disturbance coming; the other Two Columns, Hulsen's of foot,
Holstein's mostly of horse, go through intermediate tracks of wood,
by roads more or less parallel; and are all, Friedrich's own
Column, still more the others, to leave Siptitz several miles to
right, and to end, not AT Siptitz Height, but several miles past
it, and then wheeling round, begin business from the northward or
rearward side of Daun, while Ziethen attacks or menaces his front,
--simultaneously, if possible. Friedrich's march, hidden all by
woods, is more than twice as far as Ziethen's,--some 14 or 15 miles
in all; going straight northward 10 miles; thence bending eastward,
then southward through woods; to emerge about Neiden, there to
cross a Brook (Striebach), and strike home on the north side of
Daun. The track of march is in the shape somewhat of a shepherd's
crook; the long HANDLE of it, well away from Siptitz, reaches up to
Neiden, this is the straight or wooden part of said crook; after
which comes the bent, catching, or iron part,--intended for Daun
and his fierce flock. Ziethen has hardly above six miles; and ought
to be deliberate in his woodlands, till the King's party have time
to get round.

The morning, I find, is wet; fourteen miles of march: fancy such a
Promenade through the dripping Woods; heavy, toilsome, and with
such errand ahead! The delays were considerable; some of them
accidental. Vigilant Daun has Detachments watching in these Woods:
--a General Ried, who fires cannon and gets off: then a General St.
Ignon and the St. Ignon Regiment of Dragoons; who, being BETWEEN
Column First and Column Second, cannot get away; but, after some
industry by Kleist and those of Column Two, are caught and
pocketed, St. Ignon himself prisoner among the rest. This delay may
perhaps be considered profitable: but there were other delays
absolutely without profit. For example, that of having difficulties
with your artillery-wagons in the wet miry lanes; that of missing
your road, at some turn in the solitary woods; which latter was the
sad chance of Column Third, fatally delaying it for many hours.

Daun, learning by those returned parties from the Woods what the
Royal intentions on him are, hastily whirls himself round, so as to
front north, and there receive Friedrich: best line northward for
Friedrich's behoof; rear line or second-best will now receive
Ziethen or what may come. Daun's arrangements are admitted to be
prompt and excellent. Lacy, with his 20,000,--who lay, while
Friedrich's attack was expected from south, at Loswig, as advanced
guard, east side of the GROSSE TEICH (supreme pond of all, which is
a continuation of the Duck-trap, ENTEFANG, and hangs like a chief
goitre on the goitry neck of Torgau),--Lacy is now to draw himself
north and westward, and looking into the Entefang over his left
shoulder (so to speak), be rear-guard against any Ziethen or
Prussian party that may come. Daun's baggage is all across the
Elbe, all in wagons since yesterday; three Bridges hanging for Daun
and it, in case of adverse accident. Daun likewise brings all or
nearly all his cannon to the new front, for Friedrich's behoof:
200 new pieces hither; Archenholtz says 400 in whole;
certainly such a weight of artillery as never appeared in Battle
before. Unless Friedrich's arrangements prove punctual, and his
stroke be emphatic, Friedrich may happen to fare badly. On the
latter point, of emphasis, there is no dubiety for Friedrich:
but on the former,--things are already past doubt, the wrong way!
For the last hour or so of Friedrich's march there has been
continual storm of cannonade and musketry audible from Ziethen's
side:--"Ziethen engaged!" thinks everybody; and quickens step here,
under this marching music from the distance. Which is but a wrong
reading or mistake, nothing more; the real phenomenon being as
follows: Ziethen punctually got to Klitschen at the due hour;
struck into the BUTTER-STRASSE, calculating his paces; but, on the
edge of the Wood found a small Austrian party, like those in
Friedrich's route; and, pushing into it, the Austrian party replied
with cannon before running. Whereupon Ziethen, not knowing how
inconsiderable it was, drew out in battle-order; gave it a salvo or
two; drove it back on Lacy, in the Duck-trap direction,--a long way
east of Butter-Street, and Ziethen's real place;--unlucky that he
followed it so far! Ziethen followed it; and got into some languid
dispute with Lacy: dispute quite distant, languid, on both sides,
and consisting mainly of cannon; but lasting in this way many
precious hours. This is the phenomenon which friends, in the
distance read to be, "Ziethen engaged!" Engaged, yes, and alas with
what? What Ziethen's degree of blame was, I do not know.
Friedrich thought it considerable:--"Stupid, stupid, MEIN LIEBER!"
which Ziethen never would admit;--and, beyond question, it was of
high detriment to Friedrich this day. Such accidents, say military
men, are inherent, not to be avoided, in that double form of
attack: which may be true, only that Friedrich had no choice left
of forms just now.

About noon Friedrich's Vanguard (Kleist and Hussars), about 1
o'clock Friedrich himself, 7 or 8,000 Grenadiers, emerged from the
Woods about Neiden. This Column, which consists of choice troops,
is to be Front-line of the Attack. But there is yet no Second
Column under Hulsen, still less any Third under Holstein, come in
sight: and Ziethen's cannonade is but too audible. Friedrich halts;
sends Adjutants to hurry on these Columns;--and rides out
reconnoitring, questioning peasants; earnestly surveying Daun's
ground and his own. Daun's now right wing well eastward about Zinna
had been Friedrich's intended point of attack; but the ground, out
there, proves broken by boggy brooks and remnant stagnancies of the
Old Elbe: Friedrich finds he must return into the Wood again;
and attack Daun's left. Daun's left is carefully drawn down EN
POTENCE, or gallows-shape there; and has, within the Wood,
carefully built by Prince Henri last year, an extensive Abatis, or
complete western wall,--only the north part of which is perhaps now
passable, the Austrians having in the cold time used a good deal of
it as firewood lately. There, on the northwest corner of Daun,
across that weak part of the Abatis, must Friedrich's attack lie.
But Friedrich's Columns are still fatally behind,--Holstein, with
all the Cavalry we have, so precious at present, is wandering by
wrong paths; took the wrong turn at some point, and the Adjutant
can hardly find him at all, with his precept of "Haste, Haste!"

We may figure Friedrich's humor under these ill omens.
Ziethen's cannonade becomes louder and louder; which Friedrich
naturally fancies to be death or life to him,--not to mean almost
nothing, as it did. "MEIN GOTT, Ziethen is in action, and I have
not my Infantry up!" [Tempelhof, iv. 303.] cried he. And at length
decided to attack as he was: Grenadiers in front, the chosen of his
Infantry; Ramin's Brigade for second line; and, except about 800 of
Kleist, no Cavalry at all. His battalions march out from Neiden
hand, through difficult brooks, Striebach and the like, by bridges
of Austrian build, which the Austrians are obliged to quit in
hurry. The Prussians are as yet perpendicular to Daun, but will
wheel rightward, into the Domitsch Wood again; and then form,--
parallel to Daun's northwest shoulder; and to Prince Henri's
Abatis, which will be their first obstacle in charging.
Their obstacles in forming were many and intricate; ground so
difficult, for artillery especially: seldom was seen such
expertness, such willingness of mind. And seldom lay ahead of men
such obstacles AFTER forming! Think only of one fact: Daun, on
sight of their intention, has opened 400 pieces of Artillery on
them, and these go raging and thundering into the hem of the Wood,
and to whatever issues from it, now and for hours to come, at a
rate of deafening uproar and of sheer deadliness, which no observer
can find words for.

Archenholtz, a very young officer of fifteen, who came into it
perhaps an hour hence, describes it as a thing surpassable only by
Doomsday: clangorous rage of noise risen to the infinite;
the boughs of the trees raining down on you, with horrid crash;
the Forest, with its echoes, bellowing far and near, and
reverberating in universal death-peal; comparable to the Trump of
Doom. Friedrich himself, who is an old hand, said to those about
him: "What an infernal fire (HOLLISCHES FEUER)! Did you ever hear
such a cannonade before? I never." [Tempelhof, iv. 304;
Archenholtz, ii. 164.] Friedrich is between the Two Lines of his
Grenadiers, which is his place during the attack: the first Line of
Grenadiers, behind Prince Henri's Abatis, is within 800 yards of
Daun; Ramin's Brigade is to rear of the Second Line, as a Reserve.
Horse they have none, except the 800 Kleist Hussars; who stand to
the left, outside the Wood, fronted by Austrian Horse in hopeless
multitude. Artillery they have, in effect, none: their Batteries,
hardly to be got across these last woody difficulties of trees
growing and trees felled, did rank outside the Wood, on their left;
but could do absolutely nothing (gun-carriages and gunners,
officers and men, being alike blown away); and when Tempelhof saw
them afterwards, they never had been fired at all. The Grenadiers
have their muskets, and their hearts and their right-hands.

With amazing intrepidity, they, being at length all ready in rank
within 800 yards, rush into the throat of this Fire-volcano; in the
way commanded,--which is the alone way: such a problem as human
bravery seldom had. The Grenadiers plunge forward upon the throat
of Daun; but it is into the throat of his iron engines and his
tearing billows of cannon-shot that most of them go. Shorn down by
the company, by the regiment, in those terrible 800 yards,--then
and afterwards. Regiment STUTTERHEIM was nearly all killed and
wounded, say the Books. You would fancy it was the fewest of them
that ever got to the length of selling their lives to Daun, instead
of giving them away to his 400 cannon. But it is not so.
The Grenadiers, both Lines of them, still in quantity, did get into
contact with Daun. And sold him their lives, hand to hand, at a
rate beyond example in such circumstances;--Daun having to hurry up
new force in streams upon them; resolute to purchase, though the
price, for a long while, rose higher and higher.

At last the 6,000 Grenadiers, being now reduced to the tenth man,
had to fall back. Upon which certain Austrian Battalions rushed
dawn in chase, counting it Victory come: but were severely
admonished of that mistake; and driven back by Ramin's people, who
accompanied them into their ranks and again gave Daun a great deal
of trouble before he could overpower them. This is Attack First,
issuing in failure first: one of the stiffest bits of fighting ever
known. Began about 2 in the afternoon; ended, I should guess,
rather after 3. Daun, by this time, is in considerable disorder of
line; though his 400 fire-throats continue belching ruin, and
deafening the world, without abatement. Daun himself had got
wounded in the foot or leg during this Attack, but had no time to
mind it: a most busy, strong and resolute Daun; doing his very
best. Friedrich, too, was wounded,--nobody will tell me in which of
these attacks;--but I think not now, at least will not speak of it
now. What his feelings were, as this Grenadier Attack went on,--a
struggle so unequal, but not to be helped, from the delays that had
risen,--nobody, himself least of all, records for us: only by this
little symptom: Two Grandsons of the Old Dessauer's are Adjutants
of his Majesty, and well loved by him; one of them now at his hand,
the other heading his regiment in this charge of Grenadiers.
Word comes to Friedrich that this latter one is shot dead. On which
Friedrich, turning to the Brother, and not hiding his emotion, as
was usual in such moments, said: "All goes ill to-day; my friends
are quitting me. I have just heard that your Brother is killed
(TOUT VA MAL AUJOURD'HUI; MES AMIS ME QUITTENT. ON VIENT DE
M'ANNONCER LA MORT DE VOTRE FRERE)!" [Preuss, ii. 226.] Words which
the Anhalt kindred, and the Prussian military public, treasured up
with a reverence strange to us. Of Anhalt perhaps some word by and
by, at a fitter season.

Shortly after 3, as I reckon the time, Hulsen's Column did arrive:
choice troops these too, the Pomeranian MANTEUFFEL, one regiment of
them;--young Archenholtz of FORCADE (first Battalion here, second
and third are with Ziethen, making vain noise) was in this Column;
came, with the others, winding to the Wood's edge, in such
circuits, poor young soul; rain pouring, if that had been worth
notice; cannon-balls plunging, boughs crashing, such a TODES-
POSAUNE, or Doomsday-Thunder, broken loose:--they did emerge
steadily, nevertheless, he says, "like sea-billows or flow of tide,
under the smoky hurricane." Pretty men are here too, Manteuffel
Pommerners; no hearts stouter. With these, and the indignant
Remnants which waited for them, a new assault upon Daun is set
about. And bursts out, on that same northwest corner of him;
say about half-past 3. The rain is now done, "blown away by the
tremendous artillery," thinks Archenholtz, if that were any matter.

The Attack, supported by a few more Horse (though Column Three
still fatally lingers), and, I should hope, by some practicable
weight of Field-batteries, is spurred by a grimmer kind of
indignation, and is of fiercer spirit than ever. Think how
Manteuffel of Foot will blaze out; and what is the humor of those
once overwhelmed Remnants, now getting air again! Daun's line is
actually broken in this point, his artillery surmounted and become
useless; Daun's potence and north front are reeling backwards,
Prussians in possession of their ground. "The field to be ours!"
thinks Friedrich, for some time. If indeed Ziethen had been
seriously busy on the southern side of things, instead of vaguely
cannonading in that manner! But resolute Daun, with promptitude,
calls in his Reserve from Grosswig, calls in whatsoever of
disposable force he can gather; Daun rallies, rushes again on the
Prussians in overpowering number; and, in spite of their most
desperate resistance, drives them back, ever back; and recovers
his ground.

A very desperate bout, this Second one; probably the toughest of
the Battle: but the result again is Daun's; the Prussians palpably
obliged to draw back. Friedrich himself got wounded here;--poor
young Archenholtz too, ONLY wounded, not killed, as so many were:--
Friedrich's wound was a contusion on the breast; came of some spent
bit of case-shot, deadened farther by a famed pelisse he wore,--
"which saved my life," he said afterwards to Henri. The King
himself little regarded it (mentioning it only to Brother Henri, on
inquiry and solicitation), during the few weeks it still hung about
him. The Books intimate that it struck him to the earth, void of
consciousness for some time, to the terror of those about him;
and that he started up, disregarding it altogether in this press of
business, and almost as if ashamed of himself, which imposed
silence on people's tongues. In military circles there is still, on
this latter point, an Anecdote; which I cannot confirm or deny, but
will give for the sake of Berenhorst and his famed Book on the ART
OF WAR. Berenhorst--a natural son of the Old Dessauer's, and
evidently enough a chip of the old block, only gone into the
articulate-speaking or intellectual form--was, for the present, an
Adjutant or Aide-de-camp of Friedrich's; and at this juncture was
seen bending over the swooned Friedrich, perhaps with an over-
pathos or elaborate something in his expression of countenance:
when Friedrich reopened his indignant eyes: "WAS MACHT ER HIER?"
cried Friedrich: "ER SAMMLE FUYARDS! What have you to do here? Go
and gather runaways" (be of some real use, can't you)!--which
unkind cut struck deep into Berenhorst, they say; and could never
after be eradicated from his gloomy heart. It is certain he became
Prince Henri's Adjutant soon after, and that in his KRIEGSKUNST,
amidst the clearest orthodox admiration, he manifests, by little
touches up and down, a feeling of very fell and pallid quality
against the King; and belongs, in a peculiarly virulent though
taciturn way, to the Opposition Party. H1s Book, next to English
Lloyd's (or perhaps superior, for Berenhorst is of much the more
cultivated intellect, highly condensed too, though so discursive
and far-read, were it not for the vice of perverse diabolic
temper), seemed, to a humble outsider like myself, greatly the
strongest-headed, most penetrating and humanly illuminative I had
had to study on that subject. Who the weakest-headed was (perhaps
JOMINI, among the widely circulating kind?), I will not attempt to
decide, so great is the crush in that bad direction. To return.

This Second Attack is again a repulse to the indignant Friedrich;
though he still persists in fierce effort to recover himself:
and indeed Daun's interior, too, it appears, is all in a whirl of
confusion; his losses too having been enormous:--when, see, here at
length, about half-past 4, Sun now down, is the tardy Holstein,
with his Cavalry, emerging from the Woods. Comes wending on yonder,
half a mile to north of us; straight eastward or Elbe-ward
(according to the order of last night), leaving us and our death-
struggles unregarded, as a thing that is not on his tablets, and is
no concern of Holstein's. Friedrich halts him, not quite too late;
organizes a new and third Attack. Simultaneous universal effort of
foot and horse upon Daun's Front; Holstein himself, who is almost
at Zinna by this time, to go upon Daun's right wing. This is Attack
Third; and is of sporadic intermittent nature, in the thickening
dusk and darkness: part of it successful, none of it beaten, but
nowhere the success complete. Thus, in the extreme west or leftmost
of Friedrich's attack, SPAEN Dragoons,--one of the last Horse
Regiments of Holstein's Column,--SPAEN Dragoons, under their
Lieutenant-Colonel Dalwig (a beautiful manoeuvrer, who has stormed
through many fields, from Mollwitz onwards), cut in, with an
admired impetuosity, with an audacious skill, upon, the Austrian
Infantry Regiments there; broke them to pieces, took two of them in
the lump prisoners; bearded whole torrents of Austrian cavalry
rushing up to the rescue,--and brought off their mass of prisoner
regiments and six cannon;--the Austrian rescuers being charged by
some new Prussian party, and hunted home again. [Tempelhof, iv.
305.] "Had these Prussian Horse been on their ground at 2 o'clock,
and done as now, it is very evident," says Tempelhof, "what the
Battle of Torgau had by this time been!"

Near by, too, farther rightwards, if in the bewildering
indistinctness I might guess where (but the where is not so
important to us), Baireuth Dragoons, they of the 67 standards at
Striegau long since, plunged into the Austrian Battalions at an
unsurpassable rate; tumbled four regiments of them (Regiment
KAISER, Regiment NEIPPERG,--nobody now cares which four) heels over
head, and in few minutes took the most of them prisoners;
bringing them home too, like Dalwig, through crowds of rescuers.
Eastward, again, or Elbe-ward, Holstein has found such intricacies
of ground, such boggy depths and rough steeps, his Cavalry could
come to no decisive sabring with the Austrian; but stood exchanging
shot;--nothing to be done on that right wing of Daun.

Daun's left flank, however, does appear, after Three such Attacks,
to be at last pretty well ruined: Tempelhof says, "Daun's whole
Front Line was tumbled to pieces; disorder had, sympathetically,
gone rearward, even in those eastern parts; and on the western and
northwestern the Prussian Horse Regiments were now standing in its
place." But, indeed, such charging and recharging, pulsing and
repulsing, has there been hereabouts for hours past, the rival
Hosts have got completely interpenetrated; Austrian parties, or
whole regiments, are to rear of those Prussians who stand ranked
here, and in victorious posture, as the Night sinks. Night is now
sinking on this murderous day: "Nothing more to be made of it;
try it again to-morrow!" thinks the King; gives Hulsen charge of
bivouacking and re-arranging these scattered people; and rides with
escort northwestward to Elsnig, north of Neiden, well to rear of
this bloody arena,--in a mood of mind which may be figured as
gloomy enough.

Daun, too, is home to Torgau,--1 think, a little earlier,--to have
his wound dressed, now that the day seems to him secure.
Buccow, Daun's second, is killed; Daun's third is an Irish Graf
O'Donnell, memorable only on this one occasion; to this O'Donnell,
and to Lacy, who is firm on his ground yonder, untouched all day,
the charge of matters is left. Which cannot be a difficult one,
hopes Daun. Daun, while his wound is dressing, speeds off a courier
to Vienna. Courier did enter duly there, with glorious trumpeting
postilions, and universal Hep-hep-hurrah; kindling that ardently
loyal City into infinite triumph and illumination,--for the space
of certain hours following.

Hulsen meanwhile has been doing his best to get into proper bivouac
for the morrow; has drawn back those eastward horse regiments,
drawn forward the infantry battalions; forward, I think, and well
rightward, where, in the daytime, Daun's left flank was. On the
whole, it is northwestward that the general Prussian Bivouac for
this night is; the extremest SOUTHwestern-most portion of it is
Infantry, under General Lestwitz; a gallant useful man, who little
dreams of becoming famous this dreary uncertain night.

It is 6 o'clock. Damp dusk has thickened down into utter darkness,
on these terms:--when, lo, cannonade and musketade from the south,
audible in the Lestwitz-Hulsen quarters: seriously loud; red glow
of conflagration visible withal,--some unfortunate Village going up
("Village of Siptitz, think you?"); and need of Hulsen at his
fastest! Hulsen, with some readiest Foot Regiments, circling round,
makes thitherward; Lestwitz in the van. Let us precede him thither,
and explain a little what it was.

Ziethen, who had stood all day making idle noises,--of what a fatal
quality we know, if Ziethen did not,--waiting for the King's
appearance, must have been considerably displeased with himself at
nightfall, when the King's fire gradually died out farther and
farther north, giving rise to the saddest surmises.
Ziethen's Generals, Saldern and the Leuthen Mollendorf, are full of
gloomy impatience, urgent on him to try something. "Push westward,
nearer the King? Some stroke at the enemy on their south or
southwestern side, where we have not molested them all day?
No getting across the Rohrgraben on them, says your Excellenz?
Siptitz Village, and their Battery there, is on our side of the
Rohrgraben:--UM GOTTES WILLEN, something, Herr General!"
Ziethen does finally assent: draws leftward, westward;
unbuckles Saldern's people upon Siptitz; who go like sharp hounds
from the slip; fasten on Siptitz and the Austrians there, with a
will; wrench these out, force them to abandon their Battery, and to
set Siptitz on fire, while they run out of it. Comfortable bit of
success, so far,--were not Siptitz burning, so that we cannot get
through. "Through, no: and were we through, is not there the
Rohrgraben?" thinks Ziethen, not seeing his way.

How lucky that, at this moment, Mollendorf comes in, with a
discovery to westward; discovery of our old friend "the Butter-
Street,"--it is nothing more,--where Ziethen should have marched
this morning: there would he have found a solid road across the
Rohrgraben, free passage by a bridge between two bits of ponds, at
the SCHAFEREI (Sheep-Farm) of Siptitz yonder. "There still,"
reports Mollendorf, "the solid road is; unbeset hitherto, except by
me Mollendorf!" Thitherward all do now hasten, Austrians,
Prussians: but the Prussians are beforehand; Mollendorf is master
of the Pass, deploying himself on the other side of it, and Ziethen
and everybody hastening through to support him there, and the
Austrians making fierce fight in vain. The sound of which has
reached Hulsen, and set Lestwitz and him in motion thither.

For the thing is vital, if we knew it. Close ahead of Mollendorf,
when he is through this Pass, close on Mollendorf's left, as he
wheels round on the attacking Austrians, is the southwest corner of
Siptitz Height. Southwest corner, highest point of it; summit and
key of all that Battle area; rules it all, if you get cannon
thither. It hangs steepish on the southern side, over the
Rohrgraben, where this Mollendorf-Austrian fight begins; but it is
beautifully accessible, if you bear round to the west side,--a fine
saddle-shaped bit of clear ground there, in shape like the outside
or seat of a saddle; Domitsch Wood the crupper part; summit of this
Height the pommel, only nothing like so steep:--it is here (on tho
southern saddle-flap, so to speak), gradually mounting westward to
the crupper-and-pommel part, that the agony now is.

And here, in utter darkness, illuminated only by the musketry and
cannon blazes, there ensued two hours of stiff wrestling in its
kind: not the fiercest spasm of all, but the final which decided
all. Lestwitz, Hulsen, come sweeping on, led by the sound and the
fire; "beating the Prussian march, they," sharply on all their
drums,--Prussian march, rat-tat-tan, sharply through the gloom of
Chaos in that manner; and join themselves, with no mistake made, to
Mollendorf's, to Ziethen's left and the saddle-flap there, and fall
on. The night is pitch-dark, says Archenholtz; you cannot see your
hand before you. Old Hulsen's bridle-horses were all shot away,
when he heard this alarm, far off: no horse left; and he is old,
and has his own bruises. He seated himself on a cannon; and so
rides, and arrives; right welcome the sight of him, doubt not!
And the fight rages still for an hour or more.

To an observant Mollendorf, watching about all day, the importance
and all-importance of Siptitz Summit, if it can be got, is probably
known; to Daun it is alarmingly well known, when he hears of it.
Daun is zealously urgent on Lacy, on O'Donnell; who do try what
they can; send reinforcements, and the like; but nothing that
proves useful. O'Donnell is not the man for such a crisis:
Lacy, too, it is remarked, has always been more expert in ducking
out of Friedrich's way than in fighting anybody. [Archenholtz's
sour remark.] In fine, such is the total darkness, the difficulty,
the uncertainty, most or all of the reinforcements sent halted
short, in the belly of the Night, uncertain where; and their poor
friends got altogether beaten and driven away.

MAP FACING PAGE 527, BOOK XX--------


About 9 at night, all the Austrians are rolling off, eastward,
eastward. Prussians goading them forward what they could (firing
not quite done till 10); and that all-important pommel of the
saddle is indisputably won. The Austrians settled themselves, in a
kind of half-moon shape, close on the suburbs of Torgau;
the Prussians in a parallel half-moon posture, some furlongs behind
them. The Austrians sat but a short time; not a moment longer than
was indispensable. Daun perceives that the key of his ground is
gone from him; that he will have to send a second Courier to
Vienna. And, above all things, that he must forthwith get across
the Elbe and away. Lucky for him that he has Three Bridges (or
Four, including the Town Bridge), and that his Baggage is already
all across and standing on wheels. With excellent despatch and
order Daun winds himself across,--all of him that is still
coherent; and indeed, in the distant parts of the Battle-field,
wandering Austrian parties were admonished hitherward by the
River's voice in the great darkness,--and Daun's loss in prisoners,
though great, was less than could have been expected: 8,000 in all.

Till towards one in the morning, the Prussians, in their half-moon,
had not learned what he was doing. About one they pushed into
Torgau, and across the Town Bridge; found 26 pontoons,--all the
rest packed off except these 26;--and did not follow farther.
Lacy retreated by the other or left bank of the River, to guard
against attempts from that side. Next day there was pursuit of
Lacy; some prisoners and furnitures got from him, but nothing of
moment: Daun and Lacy joined at Dresden; took post, as usual,
behind their inaccessible Plauen Chasms. Sat there, in view of the
chasing Prussians, without farther loss than this of Torgau, and of
a Campaign gone to water again. What an issue, for the third time!
[Tempelhof, iv. 291-318,; Archenholtz, ii. 159-174; Retzow, ii. 299
et seq.; UMSTANDLICHE BESCHREIBUNG DES &C, (in Seyfarth, 
Beylagen,  ii. 823-848): in  Helden-Geschichte,
 or in  Anonymous of Hamburg  (iv.
245-300), the Daun DESPATCHES, the Lists, &c.]--

On Torgau-field, behind that final Prussian half-moon, there
reigned, all night, a confusion which no tongue can express.
Poor wounded men by the hundred and the thousand, weltering in
their blood, on the cold wet ground; not surgeons or nurses, but
merciless predatory sutlers, equal to murder if necessary, waiting
on them and on the happier that were dead. "Unutterable!" says
Archenholtz; who, though wounded, had crawled or got carried to
some village near. The living wandered about in gloom and
uncertainty; lucky he whose haversack was still his, and a crust of
bread in it: water was a priceless luxury, almost nowhere
discoverable. Prussian Generals roved about with their Staff-
Officers, seeking to re-form their Battalions; to little purpose.
They had grown indignant, in some instances, and were vociferously
imperative and minatory; but in tbe dark who needed mind them?--
they went raving elsewhere, and, for the first time, Prussian word-
of-command saw itself futile. Pitch darkness, bitter cold, ground
trampled into mire. On Siptitz Hill there is nothing that will
burn: farther back, in the Domitsch Woods, are numerous fine fires,
to which Austrians and Prussians alike gather: "Peace and truce
between us; to-morrow morning we will see which are prisoners,
which are captors." So pass the wild hours, all hearts longing for
the dawn, and what decision it will bring.

Friedrich, at Elsnig, found every hut full of wounded, and their
surgeries, and miseries silent or loud. He himself took shelter in
the little Church; passed the night there. Busy about many things;
--"using the altar," it seems, "by way of writing-table [self or
secretaries kneeling, shall we fancy, on those new terms?], and the
stairs of it as seat." Of the final Ziethen-Lestwitz effort he
would scarcely hear the musketry or cannonade, being so far away
from it. At what hour, or from whom first, he learned that the
Battle of Torgau had become Victory in the night-time, I know not:
the Anecdote-Books send him out in his cloak, wandering up and down
before daybreak; standing by the soldiers' fires; and at length,
among the Woods, in the faint incipiency of dawn, meeting a Shadow
which proves to be Ziethen himself in the body, with embraces and
congratulations:--evidently mythical, though dramatic. Reach him
the news soon did; and surely none could be welcomer.
Head-quarters change from the altar-steps in Elsnig Church to
secular rooms in Torgau. Ziethen has already sped forth on the
skirts of Lacy; whole Army follows next day; and, on the War-
theatre it is, on the sudden, a total change of scene.
Conceivable to readers without the details.

Hopes there were of getting back Dresden itself; but that, on
closer view, proved unattemptable. Daun kept his Plauen Chasm, his
few square miles of ground beyond; the rest of Saxony was
Friedrich's, as heretofore. Loudon had tried hard on Kosel for a
week; storming once, and a second time, very fiercely, Goltz being
now near; but could make nothing of it; and, on wind of Goltz, went
his way. [HOFBERICHT VON DER BELAGERUNG VON KOSEL, IM OCTOBER 1760
(Seyfarth,  Beylagen,  ii. 798-804): began
"October 21st;" ended "at daybreak, October 27th."] The Russians,
on sound of Torgau, shouldered arms, and made for Poland. Daun, for
his own share, went to Vienna this Winter; in need of surgery, and
other things. The population there is rather disposed to be grumbly
on its once heroic Fabius; wishes the Fabius were a little less
cunctatory. But Imperial Majesty herself, one is proud to relate,
drove out, in Old Roman spirit, some miles, to meet him, her
defeated ever-honored Daun, and to inquire graciously about his
health, which is so important to the State. [Archenholtz, ii. 179.]

Torgau was Daun's last Battle: Daun's last battle; and, what is
more to the joy of readers and their Editor here, was Friedrich's
last,--so that the remaining Two Campaigns may fairly be condensed
to an extreme degree; and a few Chapters more will deliver us
altogether from this painful element!--

Daun lost at Torgau, by his own account, "about 11,000 men,"--
should have said, according to Tempelhof, and even to neutral
persons, "above 12,000 killed and wounded, PLUS 8,000 prisoners,
45 cannon, 29 flags, 1 standard (or horse-flag)," [Tempelhof, iv.
213; Kausler, p. 726.] which brings him to at least 20,000 minus;--
the Prussian loss, heavy enough too, being, by Tempelhof's
admission, "between 13 and 14,000, of whom 4,000 prisoners."
The sore loss, not so computable in arithmetic,--but less sore to
Daun, perhaps, than to most people,--is that of being beaten, and
having one's Campaign reduced to water again. No Conquest of
Saxony, any more than of Silesia, possible to Daun, this Year.
In Silesia, thanks to Loudon, small thanks to Loudon's Chief, they
have got Glatz: Kosel they could not get; fiery Loudon himself
stormed and blazed to no purpose there, and had to hurry home on
sight of Goltz and relief. Glatz is the net sum-total. Daun knows
all this; but in a stoical arithmetical manner, and refuses to be
flurried by it.

Friedrich, as we said, had hoped something might be done in Saxony
on the defeated Daun;--perhaps Dresden itself be got back from him,
and his Army altogether sent to winter in Bohemia again? But it
proved otherwise. Daun showed not the least disposition to quit his
Plauen Chasm, or fall into discouragement: and after some weeks of
diligent trial, on Friedrich's part, and much running about in
those central and Hill-ward parts, Friedrich found he would have to
be content with his former allotment of Saxon territory, and to
leave the Austrians quiet in theirs. Took winter-quarters
accordingly, and let the Enemy take. Cantoned himself, in that
Meissen-Freyberg Country, in front of the Austrians and their
impassable Plauens and Chasms:--pretty much as in the past Year,
only that the Two Armies lay at a greater distance, and were more
peaceable, as if by mutual consent.

Head-quarter of the King is Leipzig; where the King did not arrive
till December 8th,--such adjusting and arranging has he had, and
incessant running to and fro. He lived in the "Apel House, NEW
Neumarkt, No. 16;" [Rodenbeck, ii. 65.] the same he had occupied in
1757, in the Rossbach time. "ACH! how lean your Majesty has grown!"
said the Mistress of it, at sight of him again (mythically, I
should fancy, though it is in the Anecdote-Books). "Lean, JA WOHL,"
answered he: "and what wonder, with Three Women [Theresa, Czarina,
Pompadour] hanging on the throat of me all this while!" But we
propose to look in upon him ourselves, in this Apel House, on more
authentic terms, by and by. Read, meanwhile, these Two bits of
Autograph, thrown off incidentally, at different places, in the
previous busy journeyings over Meissen-Freyberg country:--


1. FRIEDRICH TO MARQUIS D'ARGENS (at Berlin).

"MEISSEN, 10th November, 1760.

... "I drove the enemy to the Gates of Dresden; they occupy their
Camp of last Year; all my skill is not enough to dislodge them,"--
[Chasm of Plauen, "a place impregnable, were it garrisoned by
chimney-sweeps," says the King once]. "We have saved our reputation
by the Day of Torgau: but don't imagine our enemies are so
disheartened as to desire Peace. Duke Ferdinand's affairs are not
in a good way [missed Wesel, of which presently;--and, alas also,
George II. died, this day gone a fortnight, which is far worse for
us, if we knew it!]--I fear the French will preserve through Winter
the advantages they gained during the Campaign.

"In a word, I see all black, as if I were at the bottom of a tomb.
Have some compassion on the situation I am in; conceive that I
disguise nothing from you, and yet that I do not detail to you all
my embarrassments, my apprehensions and troubles. Adieu, dear
Marquis; write to me sometimes,--don't forget a poor devil, who
curses ten times a day his fatal existence, and could wish he
already were in those Silent Countries from which nobody returns
with news." [ OEuvres de Frederic,  xix.
204, 205.]

2. The Second, of different complexion, is a still more interesting
little Autograph, date elsewhere, farther on, in those wanderings.
Madam Camas, Widow of the Colonel Camas whom we knew twenty years
ago, is "Queen's OBER-HOFMEISTERINN (Lady in Chief),"--to whom the
King's Letters are always pretty:--

FREIDRICH TO MADAM CAMAS (at Magdeburg, with the Queen's Majesty.

"NEUSTADT, 18th November, 1760.

"I am exact in answering, and eager to satisfy you [in that matter
of the porcelain: you shall have a breakfast-set, my good Mamma;
six coffee-cups, very pretty, well diapered, and tricked out with
all the little embellishments which increase their value.
On account of some pieces which they are adding to the set, you
will have to wait a few days; but I flatter myself this delay will
contribute to your satisfaction, and produce for you a toy that
will give you pleasure, and make you remember your old Adorer.
It is curious how old people's habits agree. For four years past I
have given up suppers, as incompatible with the Trade I am obliged
to follow; and in marching days, my dinner consists of a cup
of chocolate.

"We hurried off, like fools, quite inflated with our Victory, to
try if we could not chase the Austrians out of Dresden: they made a
mockery of us from the tops of their mountains. So I have
withdrawn, like a bad little boy, to conceal myself, out of spite,
in one of the wretchedest villages in Saxony. And here the first
thing will be to drive the Circle gentlemen, [Reichs Army] out of
Freyberg into Chemnitz, and get ourselves room to quarter and
something to live upon. It is, I swear to you, a dog of a life [or
even a she-dog, CHIENNE DE VIE], the like of which nobody but Don
Quixote ever led before me. All this tumbling and toiling, and
bother and confusion that never ceases, has made me so old, that
you would scarcely know me again. On the right side of my head the
hair is all gray; my teeth break and fall out; I have got my face
wrinkled like the falbalas of a petticoat; my back bent like a
fiddle-bow; and spirit sad and downcast like a monk of La Trappe.
I forewarn you of all this, lest, in case we should meet again in
flesh and bone, you might feel yourself too violently shocked by my
appearance. There remains to me nothing but the heart,--which has
undergone no change, and which will preserve, so long as I breathe,
its feelings of esteem and of tender friendship for my good Mamma.
Adieu." [ OEuvres de Frederic,  XVIII. 144.]--
To which add only this on Duke Ferdinand, "whose affairs," we just
heard, "are not in a good way:"--


FIGHT OF KLOSTER KAMPEN (Night of October 15th-16th);
WESEL NOT TO BE HAD BY DUKE FERDINAND.

After WARBURG (July 31st, while Friedrich was on the eve of
crossing Elbe on new adventures, Dresden Siege having failed him),
Duke Ferdinand made no figure to the Gazetteers; fought no Battle
farther; and has had a Campaign, which is honorable only to judges
of a higher than the Gazetteer sort.

By Warburg Ferdinand had got the Diemel; on the north bank of which
he spread himself out, impassable to Broglio, who lay trying on the
opposite bank:--"No Hanover by this road." Broglio thereupon drew
back a little; pushed out circuitously from his right wing, which
reaches far eastward of Ferdinand, a considerable Brigade,--
circuitously, round by the Weser-Fulda Country, and beyond the
embouchure of Diemel,--to try it by that method. Got actually a few
miles into Hanoverian territory, by that method; laid hold of
Gottingen, also of Munden, which secures a road thither: and at
Gottingen there, "ever since August 4th," Broglio has been throwing
up works, and shooting out hussar-parties to a good distance;
intending, it would seem, to maintain himself, and to be
mischievous, in that post. Would, in fact, fain entice Ferdinand
across the Weser, to help Gottingen. "Across Weser, yes;--and so
leave Broglio free to take Lippstadt from me, as he might after a
short siege," thinks Ferdinand always; "which would beautifully
shorten Broglio's communication [quite direct then, and without
interruption, all the way to Wesel], and make Hanover itself,
Hanover and Brunswick, the central Seat of War!" Which Ferdinand,
grieved as he is for Gottingen, will by no means consent to.

Ferdinand, strong only as one to two, cannot hinder Broglio, though
he tries variously; and is much at a loss, seeing Broglio
irrepressibly busy this way, all through August and on into
September;--has heard, however, from Wesel, through secret
partisans there, that Wesel, considered altogether out of risk, is
left in a very weak condition; weak in garrison, weak even in
gunners. Reflecting upon which, in his difficulties, Ferdinand asks
himself, "A sudden stroke at Wesel, 200 miles away, might it not
astonish Broglio, who is so busy on us just here?"--and, September
22d, despatches the Hereditary Prince on that errand. A man likely
for it, if there be one in the world:--unable to do it, however, as
the issue told. Here is what I find noted.

"SEPTEMBER 22d, the Erbprinz, with a chosen Corps of 15,000, mostly
English, left these Diemel regions towards Wesel, at his speediest.
September 29th, Erbprinz and vanguard, Corps rapidly following, are
got to Dorsten, within 20 miles of Wesel. A most swift Erbprinz;
likely for such work. And it is thought by judges, Had he had
either siege-artillery or scaling apparatus, he might really have
attacked Wesel with good chance upon it. But he has not even a
ladder ready, much less a siege-gun. Siege-guns are at Bielefeld
[come from Bremen, I suppose, by English boating, up the Weser so
far]; but that is six score miles of wheel-carriage; roads bad, and
threatening to be worse, as it is equinoctial weather. There is
nothing for it but to wait for those guns.

"The Erbprinz, hopefully waiting, does his endeavor in the interim;
throws a bridge over the Rhine, pounces upon Cleve garrison
(prisoners, with their furnitures), pounces upon this and that;
'spreads terror' on the French thereabouts 'up to Dusseldorf and
Koln,--and on Broglio himself, so far off, the due astonishment.
'Wesel to be snatched,--ye Heavens! Our Netherlands road cut off:
Dusseldorf, Koln, our Rhine Magazines, all and sundry, fallen to
the hawks,--who, the lighter-winged of them, might pay visits in
France itself!' Broglio has to suspend his Gottingen operations,
and detach Marquis de Castries with (say ultimately, for Castries
is to grow and gather by the road) 35,000, to relieve Wesel.
Castries marches double-quick; weather very rainy;--arrives in
those parts OCTOBER 13th;--hardly a gun from Bielefeld come to hand
yet, Erbprinz merely filling men with terror. And so,

"OCTOBER 14th, after two weeks and a day, the Hereditary Prince
sees, not guns from Bielefeld, but Castries pushing into Wesel a
7,000 of additional garrison,--and the Enterprise on Wesel grown
impossible. Impossible, and probably far more; Castries in a
condition to devour us, if he prove sharp. It behooves the
Hereditary Prince to be himself sharp;--which he undoubtedly was,
in this sharp crisis. Next day, our Erbprinz, taking survey of
Castries in his strong ground of Kloster Kampen, decides, like a
gallant fellow, to attack HIM;--and straightway does it.
Breaks, that same night (October 15th-16th, 1760), stealthily,
through woods and with precautions, into Castries's Post;--
intending surprisal, and mere ruin to Castries. And there ensued,
not the SURPRISAL as it turned out, but the BATTLE OF KLOSTER
KAMPEN; which again proved unsuccessful, or only half-successful,
to the Hereditary Prince. A many-winged, intricate Night-Battle;
to be read of in Books. This is where the Chevalier d'Assas, he or
Somebody, gave the alarm to the Castries people at the expense of
his life. 'A MOI, AUVERGNE, Ho, Auvergne!' shouted D'Assas (if it
was D'Assas at all), when the stealthy English came upon him;
who was at once cut down. [Preuss (ii. 270 n.) asserts it to be
proved, in  "Miscellen aus den neuesten auslandischen
Litteratur  (1824, No. 3, p. 409)," a Book which none
of us ever saw, "That the real hero [equal to a Roman Decius or
more] was not Captain d'Assas, of the Regiment Auvergne, but a poor
Private Soldier of it, called Dubois"!--Is not this a strange turn,
after such be-PENSIONING, be-painting, singing and celebrating, as
rose upon poor D'Assas, or the Family of D'Assas, twenty years
afterwards (1777-1790)!--Both Dubois and D'Assas, I conclude, lay
among the slain at Kloster Kampen, silent they forever:--and a
painful doubt does rise, As to the miraculous operation of
Posthumous Rumor and Wonder; and Whether there was any "miracle of
heroism," or other miracle at all, and not rather a poor nocturnal
accident,--poor sentry in the edge of the wood, shrieking out, on
apparition of the stealthy English, "Ho, Auvergne, help!" probably
firing withal; and getting killed in consequence? NON NOSTRUM EST.]
It is certain, Auvergne gave fire; awoke Castries bodily; and saved
him from what was otherwise inevitable. Surprise now there was none
farther; but a complex Fight, managed in the darkness with uncommon
obstinacy; ending in withdrawal of the Erbprinz, as from a thing
that could not be done. His loss in killed, wounded and prisoners,
was 1,638; that of Castries, by his own counting, 2,036:
but Kloster Kampen, in the wide-awake state, could not be won.

"During the Fight, the Erbprinz's Rhine-Bridge had burst in two:
his ammunition was running short;--and, it would seem, there is no
retreat, either! The Erbprinz put a bold face on the matter, stood
to Castries in a threatening attitude; mamoeuvred skilfully for two
days longer, face still to Castries, till the Bridge was got
mended; then, night of October 18th-19th, crossed to his own side;
gathered up his goods; and at a deliberate pace marched home, on
those terms;--doing some useful fighting by the road."
[Mauvillon, ii. 120-129: Tempelhof, ii. 325-332.]

Had lost nothing, say his admirers, "but one cannon, which burst."
One burst cannon left on the field of Kloster Kampen;--but also, as
we see, his errand along with it; and 1,600 good fighters lost aud
burst: which was more important! Criticisms there were on it in
England, perhaps of the unwise sort generally; sorrow in the
highest quarter. "An unaccountable expedition," Walpole calls it,
"on which Prince Ferdinand suddenly despatched his Nephew, at the
head of a considerable force, towards the frontiers of Holland,"--
merely to see the country there?--"which occasioned much solicitude
in England, as the Main Army, already unequal to that of France,
was thus rendered much weaker. King George felt it with much
anxiety." [Walpole's  George Second,  iii.
299.]  An unaccountable Enterprise, my poor Gazetteer friends,--
very evidently an unsuccessful one, so far as Wesel went.
Many English fallen in it, too: "the English showed here again a
GANZ AUSNEHMENDE TAPFERKEIT," says Mauvillon; and probably their
share of the loss was proportionate.

Clearly enough there is no Wesel to be had. Neither could Broglio,
though disturbed in his Gottingen fortifyings and operations, be
ejected out of Gottingen. Ferdinand, on failure of Wesel, himself
marched to Gottingen, and tried for some days; but found he could
not, in such weather, tear out that firmly rooted French Post, but
must be content to "mask it," for the present; and, this done,
withdrew (December 13th) to his winter-quarters near by, as did
Broglio to his,--about the time Friedrich and Daun had finally
settled in theirs.

Ferdinand's Campaigns henceforth, which turn all on the defence of
Hanover, are highly recommended to professional readers; but to the
laic sort do not prove interesting in proportion to the trouble.
In fact, the huge War henceforth begins everywhere, or everywhere
except in Pitt's department of it, to burn lower, like a lamp with
the oil getting done; and has less of brilliancy than formerly.
"Let us try for Hanover," the Belleisles, Choiseuls and wise French
heads had said to themselves: "Canada, India, everything is lost;
but were dear Hanover well in our clutch, Hanover would be a remedy
for many things!" Through the remaining Campaigns, as in this now
done, that is their fixed plan. Ferdinand, by unwearied effort,
succeeded in defending Hanover,--nothing of it but that
inconsiderable slice or skirt round Gottingen, which they kept
long, could ever be got by the French. Ferdinand defended Hanover;
and wore out annually the big French Armies which were missioned
thither, as in the spasm of an expiring last effort by this poor
hag-ridden France,--at an expense to her, say, of 50,000 men per
year. Which was good service on Ferdinand's part; but done less and
less in the shining or universally notable way.

So that with him too we are henceforth, thank Heaven, permitted and
even bound to be brief. Hardly above two Battles more from him, if
even two:--and mostly the wearied Reader's imagination left to
conceive for itself those intricate strategies, and endless
manoeuvrings on the Diemel and the Dill, on the Ohm River and the
Schwalm and the Lippe, or wherever they may be, with small help
from a wearied Editor!--



Chapter VI.

WINTER-QUARTERS 1760-1761.

A melancholy little event, which afterwards proved unexpectedly
unfortunate for Friedrich, had happened in England ten days before
the Battle of Torgau. Saturday, 25th October, 1760, George II.,
poor old gentleman, suddenly died. He was in his 77th year;
feeble, but not feebler than usual,--unless, perhaps, the
unaccountable news from Kloster Kampen may have been too agitating
to the dim old mind? On the Monday of this week he had, "from a
tent in Hyde Park," presided at a Review of Dragoons; and on
Thursday, as his Coldstream Guards were on march for Portsmouth and
foreign service, "was in his Portico at Kensington to see them
pass;"--full of zeal always in regard to military matters, and to
this War in particular. Saturday, by sunrise he was on foot;
took his cup of chocolate; inquired about the wind, and the chances
of mails arriving; opened his window, said he would have a turn in
the Gardens, the morning being so fine. It was now between 7 and 8.
The valet then withdrew with the chocolate apparatus; but had
hardly shut the door, when he heard a deep sigh, and fall of
something,--"billet of wood from the fire?" thought he;--upon
which, hurrying back, he found it was the King, who had dropt from
his seat, "as if in attempting to ring the bell." King said
faintly, "Call Amelia," and instantly died. Poor deaf Amelia
(Friedrich's old love, now grown old and deaf) listened wildly for
some faint sound from those lips now mute forever. George Second
was no more; his grandson George Third was now King.
[Old Newspapers (in  Gentleman's Magazine, 
xxx. 486-488).]

Intrinsically taken, this seemed no very great event for Friedrich,
for Pitt, for England or mankind: but it proved otherwise.
The merit of this poor King deceased, who had led his Nation
stumbling among the chimney-pots at such a rate in these mad German
Wars for Twenty Years past, was, That he did now stand loyal to the
Enterprise, now when it had become sane indeed; now when the Nation
was broad awake, and a Captain had risen to guide it out of that
perilous posture, into never-expected victory and triumph! Poor old
George had stood by his Pitt, by his Ferdinand, with a perfect
loyalty at all turns; and been devoted, heart and soul and
breeches-pocket, to completely beating Bourbon's oppressive ideas
out of Bourbon's head. A little fact, but how important, then and
there! Under the Successor, all this may be different:--ghastly
beings, Old Tutors, Favorites, Mother's-Favorites, flit, as yet
invisible, on the new backstairs:--should Bute and Company get into
the foreground, people will then know how important it was.
Walpole says:--

"The Yorkes [Ex-Chancellor Hardwicke people] had long distasted
this War:" yes, and been painfully obliged to hold their tongues:
"but now," within a month or so of the old King's death, "there was
published, under Lord Hardwicke's countenance, a Tract setting
forth the burden and ill policy of our German measures. It was
called CONSIDERATIONS ON THE GERMAN WAR; was ably written, and
changed many men's minds." This is the famous "Mauduit Pamphlet:"
first of those small stones, from the sling of Opposition not
obliged to be dormant, which are now beginning to rattle on Pitt's
Olympian Dwelling-place,--high really as Olympus, in comparison
with others of the kind, but which unluckily is made of GLASS like
the rest of them! The slinger of this first resounding little
missile, Walpole informs us, was "one Mauduit, formerly a
Dissenting Teacher,"--son of a Dissenting Minister in Bermondsey, I
hear, and perhaps himself once a Preacher, but at present concerned
with Factorage of Wool on the great scale; got soon afterwards
promoted to be Head of the Custom-house in Southampton, so lovely
did he seem to Bute and Company. "How agreeable his politics were
to the interior of the Court, soon appeared by a place [Southampton
Custom-house] being bestowed on him by Lord Bute." A fortunate
Mauduit, yet a stupidly tragical; had such a destiny in English
History! Hear Walpole a little farther, on Mauduit, and on other
things then resonant to Arlington Street in a way of their own.
"TO SIR HORACE MANN [at Florence]:--

"NOVEMBER 14th, 1760 [tenth night after Torgau]. ... We are all in
guns and bonfires for an unexpected victory of the King of Prussia
over Daun; but as no particulars are yet arrived, there
are doubters."

"DECEMBER 5th, 1760. I have received the samples of brocadella. ...
I shall send you a curious Pamphlet, the only work I almost ever
knew that changed the opinions of many. It is called CONSIDERATIONS
ON THE PRESENT GERMAN WAR, ["London: Printed for John Wilkie, at
the Bible, in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1761," adds my poor Copy (a
frugal 12mo, of pp. 144), not adding of what edition.] and is
written by a wholesale Woollen-Draper [connected with Wool, in some
way; "Factor at Blackwell Hall," if that mean Draper:--and a
growing man ever after; came to be "Agent for Massachusetts," on
the Boston-TEA occasion, and again did Tracts; was "President of
the"--in short, was a conspicuous Vice-President, so let us define
him, of The general Anti-Penalty or Life-made-Soft Association,
with Cause of civil and religious Liberty all over the World, and
such like; and a Mauduit comfortably resonant in that way till he
died [Chalmers, BIOG. DICTIONARY; Nichols, LITERARY ANECDOTES;
&c. &c.]; but the materials are supposed to be furnished by the
faction of the Yorkes. The confirmation of the King of Prussia's
victory near Torgau does not prevent the disciples of the Pamphlet
from thinking that the best thing which could happen for us would
be to have that Monarch's head shot off. [Hear, hear!]--

"There are Letters from the Hague [what foolish Letters do fly
about, my friend!], that say Daun is dead of his wounds. If he is,
I shall begin to believe that the King of Prussia will end
successfully at last. [Oh!] It has been the fashion to cry down
Daun; but, as much as the King of Prussia may admire himself [does
immensely, according to our Selwyn informations], I dare say he
would have been glad to be matched with one much more like himself
than one so opposite as the Marshal."

"JANUARY 2d, i761. The German War is not so popular as you imagine,
either in the Closet or in the Nation." [Walpole,  Letters
to Sir Horace Mann  (Lond. 1843), i. 6, 7.]
(Enough, enough.)

The Mauduit Pamphlet, which then produced such an effect, is still
to be met in old Collections and on Bookstalls; but produces little
save weariness to a modern reader. "Hanover not in real danger,"
argues he; "if the French had it, would not they, all Europe
ordering them, have to give it up again?" Give it up,--GRATIS, or
in return for Canada and Pondicherry, Mauduit's does not say.
Which is an important omission! But Mauduit's grand argument is
that of expense; frightful outlay of money, aggravated by ditto
mismanagement of same.

A War highly expensive, he says--(and the truth is, Pitt was never
stingy of money: "Nearly the one thing we have in any plenty;
be frank in use of that, in an Enterprise so ill-provided
otherwise, and involving life and death!" thinks Pitt);--
"dreadfully expensive," urges Mauduit, and gives some instances of
Commissariat moneys signally wasted,--not by Pitt, but by the
stupidity of Pitt's War Offices, Commissariat Offices, Offices of
all kinds; not to be cured at once by any Pitt:--How magazines of
hay were shipped and reshipped, carried hither, thither, up this
river, down that (nobody knowing where the war-horses would be that
were to eat it); till at length, when it had reached almost the
value of bohea tea, the right place of it was found to be Embden
(nearest to Britain from the first, had one but known), and not a
horse would now taste it, so spoiled was the article; all horses
snorted at it, as they would have done at bohea, never so
expensive. [Mauduit (towards the end) has a story of that
tenor,--particulars not worth verifying.] These things are incident
to British warfare; also to Swedish, and to all warfares that have
their War Offices in an imaginary state,--state much to be abhorred
by every sane creature; but not to be mended all at once by the
noblest of men, into whose hands they are suddenly thrust for
saving his Nation. Conflagration to be quenched; and your buckets
all in hideous leakage, like buckets of the Danaides:--your one
course is, ply them, pour with them, such as they are.

Mauduit points out farther the enormous fortunes realized by a
swindling set of Army-Furnishers, Hebrews mainly, and unbeautiful
to look on. Alas, yes; this too is a thing incident to the case;
and in a degree to all such cases, and situations of sudden crisis;
--have not we seen Jew Ephraim growing rich by the copper money
even of a Friedrich? Christian Protestants there are, withal,
playing the same game on a larger scale. Herr Schimmelmann
("MOULDY-man") the Dane, for instance,--Dane or Holsteiner,--is
coining false money for a Duke of Holstein-Plon, who has not a
Seven-Years War on his hands. Diligently coining, this Mouldy
Individual; still more successfully, is trading in Friedrich's
Meissen China (bought in the cheapest market, sold in the dearest);
has at Hamburg his "Auction of Meissen Porcelain," steadily going
on, as a new commercial institution of that City;--and, in short,
by assiduously laboring in such harvest-fields, gathers a colossal
fortune, 100,000 pounds, 300,000 pounds, or I will not remember
what. Gets "ennobled," furthermore, by a Danish Government prompt
to recognize human merit: Elephant Order, Dannebrog Order; no Order
good enough for this Mouldy-man of merit; [Preuss, ii. 391, 282,
&c.]--and is, so far as I know, begetting "Nobles," that is to say,
Vice-Kings and monitory Exemplars, for the Danish People, to this
day. Let us shut down the iron lid on all that.

Mauduit's Pamphlet, if it raised in the abhorrent unthinking
English mind some vague notion, as probably it did, that Pitt was
responsible for these things, or was in a sort the cause or author
of them, might produce some effect against him. "What a splash is
this you are making, you Great Commoner; wetting everybody's feet,
--as our Mauduit proves;--while the Conflagration seems to be going
out, if you let it alone!" For the heads of men resemble--
My friend, I will not tell you what they, in multitudinous
instances, resemble.

But thus has woollen Mauduit, from his private camp ("Clement's
Lane, Lombard Street," say the Dictionaries), shot, at a very high
object, what pigeon's-egg or small pebble he had; the first of many
such that took that aim; with weak though loud-sounding impact, but
with results--results on King Friedrich in particular, which were
stronger than the Cannonade of Torgau! As will be seen. For within
year and day,--Mauduit and Company making their noises from
without, and the Butes and Hardwickes working incessantly with such
rare power of leverage and screwage in the interior parts,--a
certain Quasi-Olympian House, made of glass, will lie in sherds,
and the ablest and noblest man in England see himself forbidden to
do England any service farther: "Not needed more, Sir! Go you,--and
look at US for the remainder of your life!"


KING FRIEDRICH IN THE APEL HOUSE AT LEIPZIG
(8th December, 1760-17th March, 1761).

Friedrich's Winter in the Apel House at Leipzig is of cheerfuler
character than we might imagine. Endless sore business he doubtless
has, of recruiting, financiering, watching and providing, which
grows more difficult year by year; but he has subordinates that
work to his signal, and an organized machinery for business such as
no other man. And solacements there are withal: his Books he has
about him; welcomer than ever in such seasons: Friends too,--he is
not solitary; nor neglectful of resources. Faithful D'Argens came
at once (stayed till the middle of March): [ OEuvres de
Frederic,  xix. 212, 213. Sends a Courier to conduct
D'Argens "FOR December 8th;" "21st March," D'Argens is back at
Berlin.] D'Argens, Quintus Icilius, English Mitchell; these three
almost daily bore him company. Till the middle of January, also, he
had his two Nephews with him (Sons of his poor deceased Brother,
the late tragic Prince of Prussia),--the elder of whom, Friedrich
Wilhelm, became King afterwards; the second, Henri by name, died
suddenly of small-pox within about seven years hence, to the King's
deep and sore grief, who liked him the better of the two.
Their ages respectively are now about 16 and 14. [Henri, born 30th
December, 1747, died 26th May, 1767;--Friedrich Wilhelm, afterwards
Friedrich Wilhelm II. (sometimes called DER DICKE, The Big), born
25th December, 1744; King, 17th August, 1786; died 16th November,
1797.] Their appetite for dancing, and their gay young ways, are
pleasant now and afterwards to the old Uncle in his grim element.
[Letters, &c. in SCHONING.]

Music, too, he had; daily evening Concert, though from himself
there is no fluting now. One of his Berlin Concert people who had
been sent for was Fasch, a virtuoso on I know not what instrument,
--but a man given to take note of things about him. Fasch was
painfully surprised to see his King so altered in the interim past:
"bent now, sunk into himself, grown old; to whom these five years
of war-tumult and anxiety, of sorrow and hard toil, had given a
dash of gloomy seriousness and melancholy, which was in strong
contrast with his former vividly bright expression, and was not
natural to his years." [Zelter's  Life of Fasch  (cited in PREUSS, ii. 278).]

From D'Argens there is one authentic Anecdote, worth giving.
One evening D'Argens came to him; entering his Apartment, found him
in a situation very unexpected; which has been memorable ever
since. "One evening [there is no date to it, except vaguely, as
above, December, 1760-March, 1761], D'Argens, entering the King's
Apartment, found him sitting on the ground with a big platter of
fried meat, from which he was feeding his dogs. He had a little
rod, with which he kept order among them, and shoved the best bits
to his favorites. The Marquis, in astonishment, recoiled a step,
struck his hands together, and exclaimed: 'The Five Great Powers of
Europe, who have sworn alliance, and conspired to undo the Marquis
de Brandebourg, how might they puzzle their heads to guess what he
is now doing! Scheming some dangerous plan for the next Campaign,
think they; collecting funds to have money for it; studying about
magazines for man and horse; or he is deep in negotiations to
divide his enemies, and get new allies for himself? Not a bit of
all that. He is sitting peaceably in his room, and feeding his
dogs!'" [Preuss, ii. 282.]


INTERVIEW WITH HERR PROFESSOR GELLERT
(Thursday, 18th December, 1760).

Still more celebrated is the Interview with Gellert; though I
cannot say it is now more entertaining to the ingenuous mind.
One of Friedrich's many Interviews, this Winter, with the Learned
of Leipzig University; for he is a born friend of the Muses so
called, and never neglects an opportunity. Wonderful to see how, in
such an environment, in the depths of mere toil and tribulation,
with a whole breaking world lying on his shoulders, as it were,--he
always shows such appetite for a snatch of talk with anybody
presumably of sense, and knowledge on something!

This Winter, say the Books, "he had, in vacant intervals, a great
deal of communing with the famed of Leipzig University;" this or
the other famed Professor,--Winkler, Ernesti, Gottsched again, and
others, coming to give account, each for himself, of what he
professed to be teaching in the world: "on the Natural Sciences,
more especially the Moral; on Libraries, on Rare Books.
Gottsched was able to satisfy the King on one point; namely, That
the celebrated passage of St. John's Gospel--"THERE ARE THREE THAT
BEAR RECORD--was NOT in the famous Manuscript of the Vienna
Library; Gottsched having himself examined that important CODEX,
and found in the text nothing of said Passage, but merely, written
on the margin, a legible intercalation of it, in Melanchthon's
hand. Luther, in his Version, never had it at all."
[ Helden-Geschichte,  vi. 596.] A Gottsched
inclined to the Socinian view? Not the least consequence to
Friedrich or us! Our business is exclusively with Gellert here.

Readers have heard of Gellert; there are, or there were, English
Writings about him, LIVES, or I forget what: and in his native
Protestant Saxony, among all classes, especially the higher, he
had, in those years and onwards to his death, such a popularity and
real splendor of authority as no man before or since. Had risen,
against his will in some sort, to be a real Pope, a practical
Oracle in those parts. In his modest bachelor lodging (age of him
five-and-forty gone) he has sheaves of Letters daily,--about
affairs of the conscience, of the household, of the heart:
from some evangelical young lady, for example, Shall I marry HIM,
think you, O my Father?" and perhaps from her Papa, "Shall SHE,
think you, O my ditto?"--Sheaves of Letters: and of oral consulters
such crowds, that the poor Oracle was obliged to appoint special
hours for that branch of his business. His class-room (he lectures
on MORALS, some THEORY OF MORAL SENTIMENT, or such like) is crowded
with "blue uniforms" (ingenuous Prussian Officers eager to hear a
Gellert) in these Winters. Rugged Hulsen, this very season, who
commands in Freyberg Country, alleviates the poor village of
Hainichen from certain official inflictions, and bids the poor
people say "It is because Gellert was born among you!" Plainly the
Trismegistus of mankind at that date:--who is now, as usual, become
a surprising Trismegistus to the new generations!

He had written certain thin Books, all of a thin languid nature;
but rational, clear; especially a Book of FABLES IN VERSE, which
are watery, but not wholly water, and have still a languid flavor
in them for readers. His Book on LETTER-WRITING was of use to the
rising generation, in its time. Clearly an amiable, ingenious,
correct, altogether good man; of pious mind,--and, what was more,
of strictly orthodox, according to the then Saxon standard in the
best circles. This was the figure of his Life for the last fifteen
years of it; and he was now about the middle of that culminating
period. A modest, despondent kind of man, given to indigestions,
dietetics, hypochondria: "of neat figure and dress; nose hooked,
but not too much; eyes mournfully blue and beautiful, fine open
brow;"--a fine countenance, and fine soul of its sort, poor
Gellert: "punctual like the church-clock at divine service, in all
weathers." [Jordens,  Lexikon Deutscher Dichter und
Prosaisten  (Leipzig, 1807), ii. 54-68 (§ Gellert).]

A man of some real intellect and melody; some, by no means much;
who was of amiable meek demeanor; studious to offend nobody, and to
do whatever good he could by the established methods;--and who,
what was the great secret of his success, was of orthodoxy perfect
and eminent. Whom, accordingly, the whole world, polite Saxon
orthodox world, hailed as its Evangelist and Trismegistus.
Essentially a commonplace man; but who employed himself in
beautifying and illuminating the commonplace of his clay and
generation:--infinitely to the satisfaction of said generation.
"How charming that you should make thinkable to us, make vocal,
musical and comfortably certain, what we were all inclined to
think; you creature plainly divine!" And the homages to Gellert
were unlimited and continual, not pleasant all of them to an idlish
man in weak health.

Mitchell and Quintus Icilius, who are often urging on the King that
a new German Literature is springing up, of far more importance
than the King thinks, have spoken much to him of Gellert the
Trismegistus;--and at length, in the course of a ten days from
Friedrich's arrival here, actual Interview ensues. The DIALOGUE,
though it is but dull and watery to a modern palate, shall be given
entire, for the sake of one of the Interlocutors. The Report of it,
gleaned gradually from Gellert himself, and printed, not long
afterwards, from his manuscripts or those of others, is to be taken
as perfectly faithful. Gellert, writing to his inquiring Friend
Rabener (a then celebrated Berlin Wit), describes, from Leipzig,
"29th January, 1760," or about six weeks after the event: "How, one
day about the middle of December, Quintus Icilius suddenly came to
my poor lodging here, to carry me to the King." Am too ill to go.
Quintus will excuse me to-day; but will return to-morrow, when no
excuse shall avail. Did go accordingly next day, Thursday, 18th
December, 4 o'clock of the afternoon; and continued till a quarter
to 6. "Had nothing of fear in speaking to the King. Recited my
MALER ZU ATHEN." King said, at parting, he would send for me again.
"The English Ambassador [Mitchell], an excellent man, was probably
the cause of the King's wish to see me. ... The King spoke
sometimes German, sometimes French; I mostly German."
[ Gellert's Briefwechsel mit Demoiselle Lucius,
herausgegeben von F. A. Ebert  (Leipzig, 1823),
pp. 629, 631.] As follows:--

RING. "Are you (ER) the Professor Gellert?"

GELLERT. "Yea, IHRO MAJESTAT."

KING. "The English Ambassador has spoken highly of you to me.
Where do you come from?"

GELLERT. "From Hainichen, near Freyberg."

KING. "Have not you a brother at Freyberg?"

GELLERT. "Yea, IHRO MAJESTAT."

KING. "Tell me why we have no good German Authors."

MAJOR QUINTUS ICILIUS (puts in a word). "Your Majesty, you see here
one before you;--one whom the French themselves have translated,
calling him the German La Fontaine!"

KING. "That is much. Have you read La Fontaine?"

GELLERT. "Yes, your Majesty; but have not imitated: I am original
(ICH BIN EIN ORIGINAL)."

KING. "Well, this is one good Author among the Germans; but why
have not we more?"

GELLERT. "Your Majesty has a prejudice against the Germans."

KING. "No; I can't say that (Nein; das kann ich nicht sagen)."

GELLERT. "At least, against German writers."

KING. "Well, perhaps. Why have we no good Historians? Why does no
one undertake a Translation of Tacitus?"

GELLERT. "Tacitus is difficult to translate; and the Frenoh
themselves have but bad translations of him."

KING. "That is true (DA HAT ER RECHT)."

GELLERT. "And, on the whole, various reasons may be given why the
Germans have not yet distinguished themselves in every kind of
writing. While Arts and Sciences were in their flower among the
Greeks, the Romans were still busy in War. Perhaps this is the
Warlike Era of the Germans:--perhaps also they have yet wanted
Augustuses and Louis-Fourteenths!"

KING. "How, would you wish one Augustus,then, for all Germany?"

GELLERT. "Not altogether that; I could wish only that every
Sovereign encouraged men of genius in his own country."

KING (starting a new subject). "Have you never been out of Saxony?"

GELLERT. "I have been in Berlin."

KING. "You should travel."

GELLERT. "IHRO MAJESTAT, for that I need two things,--health
and means."

KING. "What is your complaint? Is it DIE GELEHRTE KRANKHEIT
(Disease of the Learned," Dyspepsia so called)? "I have myself
suffered from that. I will prescribe for you. You must ride daily,
and take a dose of rhubarb every week."

GELLERT. "ACH, IHRO MAJESTAT: if the horse were as weak as I am, he
would be of no use to me; if he were stronger, I should be too weak
to manage him." (Mark this of the Horse, however; a tale hangs
by it.)

KING. "Then you must drive out."

GELLERT. "For that I am deficient in the means."

KING. "Yes, that is true; that is what Authors (GELEHRTE) in
Deutschland are always deficient in. I suppose these are bad times,
are not they?"

GELLERT. "JA WOHL; and if your Majesty would grant us Peace (DEN
FRIEDEN GEBEN WOLLTEN)--"

KING. "How can I? Have not you heard, then? There are three of them
against me (ES SIND JA DREI WIDER MICH)!"

GELLERT. "I have more to do with the Ancients and their History
than with the Moderns."

KING (changing the topic). "What do you think, is Homer or Virgil
the finer as an Epic Poet?"

GELLERT. "Homer, as the more original."

KING. "But Virgil is much more polished (VIEL POLIRTER)."

GELLERT. "We are too far removed from Homer's times to judge of
his language. I trust to Quintilian in that respect, who
prefers Homer."

KING. "But one should not be a slave to the opinion of
the Ancients."

GELLERT. "Nor am I that. I follow them only in cases where, owing
to the distance, I cannot judge for myself."

MAJOR ICILIUS (again giving a slight fillip or suggestion). "He,"
the Herr Professor here, "has also treated of GERMAN LETTER-
WRITING, and has published specimens."

KING. "So? But have you written against the CHANCERY STYLE, then"
(the painfully solemn style, of ceremonial and circumlocution;
Letters written so as to be mainly wig and buckram)?

GELLERT. "ACH JA, that have I, IHRO MAJESTAT!"

KING. "But why doesn't it change? The Devil must be in it (ES IST
ETWAS VERTEUFELTES). They bring me whole sheets of that stuff, and
I can make nothing of it!"

GELLERT. "If your Majesty cannot alter it, still less can I. I can
only recommend, where you command."

KING. "Can you repeat any of your Fables?"

GELLERT. "I doubt it; my memory is very treacherous."

KING. "Bethink you a little; I will walk about [Gellert bethinks
him, brow puckered. King, seeing the brow unpucker itself].
Well, have you one?"

GELLERT. "Yes, your Majesty: THE PAINTER." Gellert recites (voice
plaintive and hollow; somewhat PREACHY, I should doubt, but not
cracked or shrieky);--we condense him into prose abridgment for
English readers; German can look at the bottom of the page:
[(Gellert's WERKE: Leipzig, 1840; i. 135.)]--

"'A prudent Painter in Athens, more intent on excellence than on
money, had done a God of War; and sent for a real Critic to give
him his opinion of it. On survey, the Critic shook his head: "Too
much Art visible; won't do, my friend!" The Painter strove to think
otherwise; and was still arguing, when a young Coxcomb [GECK, Gawk]
stept in: "Gods, what a masterpiece!" cried he at the first glance:
"Ah, that foot, those exquisitely wrought toenails; helm, shield,
mail, what opulence of Art!" The sorrowful Painter looked
penitentially at the real Critic, looked at his brush; and the
instant this GECK was gone, struck out his God of War.'"

KING. "And the Moral?"

GELLERT (still reciting):

"'When the Critic does not like thy Bit of Writing, it is a bad
sign for thee; but when the Fool admires, it is time thou at once
strike it out.'"


"Ein kluger Maler in Athen,
Der minder, weil man ihn bezhalte,
Als weil er Ehre suchte, malte,
Liess einen Kenner einst den Mars im Bilde sehn,
Und bat sich seine Meinung aus.
Der Kenner sagt ihm fiei heraus,
Dass ihm das Bild nicht ganz gefallen wollte,
Und dass es, um recht schon zu sein,
Weit minder Kunst verrathen sollte.
Der Maler wandte vieles ein;
Der Kenner stritt mit ihm aus Grunden,
Und konnt ihn doch nicht uberwinden.
Gleich trat ein junger Geck herein,
Und nahm das Bild in Augenschein.
'O,' rief er, 'bei dem ersten Blicke,
Ihr Gotter, welch ein Meisterstucke!
Ach, welcher Fuss! O, wie geschickt
Sind nicht die Nagel ausgedruckt!
Mars lebt durchaus in diesem Bilde.
Wie viele Kunst, wie viele Pracht
Ist in dem Helm und in dem Schilde,
Und in der Rustung angebracht!'
Der Maler ward beschamt geruhret,
Und sah den Kenner klaglich an.
'Nun,' sprach er, 'bin ich uberfuhret!
Ihr habt mir nicht zu viel gethan.'
Der junge Geck war kaum hinaus,
So strich er seinen Kriegsgott aus."


MORAL.


"Wenn deine Schrift dem Kenner nicht gefallt,
So ist es schon ein boses Zeichen;
Doch, wenn sie gar des Narren Lob erhalt,
So ist es Zeit, sie auszustreichen."


KING. "That is excellent; very fine indeed. You have a something of
soft and flowing in your verses; them I understand altogether.
But there was Gottsched, one day, reading me his Translation of
IPHIGENIE; I had the French Copy in my hand, and could not
understand a word of him [a Swan of Saxony, laboring in vain that
day]! They recommended me another Poet, one Peitsch [Herr Peitsch
of Konigsberg, Hofrath, Doctor and Professor there, Gottsched's
Master in Art; edited by Gottsched thirty years ago; now become a
dumb idol, though at one time a god confessed]; him I flung away."

GELLERT. "IHRO MAJESTAT, him I also fling away."

KING. "Well, if I continue here, you must come again often;
bring your FABLES with you, and read me something."

GELLERT. "I know not if I can read well; I have the singing kind of tone, native to the Hill Country."

KING. "JA, like the Silesians. No, you must read me the FABLES
yourself; they lose a great deal otherwise. Come back soon."
[ Gellert's Briefwechsel mit Demoiselle Lucius 
(already cited), pp. 632 et seq.] (EXIT GELLERT.)

KING (to Icilius, as we learn from a different Record). "That is
quite another man than Gottsched!" (EXUENT OMNES.)

The modest Gellert says he "remembered Jesus Sirach's advice, PRESS
NOT THYSELF ON KINGS,--and never came back;" nor was specially sent
for, in the hurries succeeding; though the King never quite forgot
him. Next day, at dinner, the King said, "He is the reasonablest
man of all the German Literary People, C'EST LE PLUS RAISONNABLE DE
TOUS LES SAVANS ALLEMANDS." And to Garve, at Breslau, years
afterwards: "Gellert is the only German that will reach posterity;
his department is small, but he has worked in it with real
felicity." And indeed the King had, before that, as practical
result of the Gellert Dialogue, managed to set some Berlin
Bookseller upon printing of these eligible FABLES, "for the use of
our Prussian Schools;" in which and other capacities the FABLES
still serve with acceptance there and elsewhere. [Preuss, ii. 274.]

In regard to Gellert's Horse-exercise, I had still to remember that
Gellert, not long after, did get a Horse; two successive Horses;
both highly remarkable. The first especially; which was Prince
Henri's gift: "The Horse Prince Henri had ridden at the Battle of
Freyberg" (Battle to be mentioned hereafter);--quadruped that must
have been astonished at itself! But a pretty enough gift from the
warlike admiring Prince to his dyspeptic Great Man. This Horse
having yielded to Time, the very Kurfurst (grandson of Polish
Majesty that now is) sent Gellert another, housing and furniture
complete; mounted on which, Gellert and it were among the sights of
Leipzig;--well enough known here to young Goethe, in his College
days, who used to meet the great man and princely horse, and do
salutation, with perhaps some twinkle of scepticism in the corner
of his eye. [DICHTUNG UND WAHRHEIT, Theil ii. Buch 6 (in Goethe's
WERKE, xxv. 51 et seq).] Poor Gellert fell seriously ill in
December, 1769; to the fear and grief of all the world: "estafettes
from the Kurfurst himself galloped daily, or oftener, from Dresden
for the sick bulletin;" but poor Gellert died, all the same (13th
of that month); and we have (really with pathetic thoughts, even
we) to bid his amiable existence in this world, his bits of glories
and him, adieu forever.


DIALOGUE WITH GENERAL SALDERN (in the Apel House,
Leipzig, 21st January, 1761).

Four or five weeks after this of Gellert, Friedrich had another
Dialogue, which also is partly on record, and is of more importance
to us here: Dialogue with Major-General Saldern; on a certain
business, delicate, yet profitable to the doer,--nobody so fit for
it as Saldern, thinks the King. Saldern is he who did that
extraordinary feat of packing the wrecks of battle on the Field of
Liegnitz; a fine, clear-flowing, silent kind of man, rapid and
steady; with a great deal of methodic and other good faculty in
him,--more, perhaps, than he himself yet knows of. Him the King has
sent for, this morning; and it is on the business of Polish
Majesty's Royal Hunting-Schloss at Hubertsburg,--which is a thing
otherwise worth some notice from us.

For three months long the King had been representing, in the proper
quarters, what plunderings, and riotous and even disgusting
savageries, the Saxons had perpetrated at Charlottenburg,
Schonhausen, Friedrichsfeld, in October last, while masters there
for a few days: but neither in Reichs Diet, where Plotho was
eloquent, nor elsewhere by the Diplomatic method, could he get the
least redress, or one civil word of regret. From Polish Majesty
himself, to whom Friedrich remonstrated the matter, through the
English Resident at Warsaw, Friedrich had expected regret; but he
got none. Some think he had hoped that Polish Majesty, touched by
these horrors of war, and by the reciprocities evidently liable to
follow, might be induced to try something towards mediating a
General Peace: but Polish Majesty did not; Polish Majesty answered
simply nothing at all, nor would get into any correspondence:
upon which Friedrich, possibly a little piqued withal, had at
length determined on retaliation.

Within our cantonments, reflects Friedrich, here is Hubertsburg
Schloss, with such a hunting apparatus in and around it;
Polish Majesty's HERTZBLATT ("lid of the HEART," as they call it;
breastbone, at least, and pit of his STOMACH, which inclines to
nothing but hunting): let his Hubertsburg become as our
Charlottenburg is; perhaps that will touch his feelings!
Friedrich had formed this resolution; and, Wednesday, January 21st,
sends for Saldern, one of the most exact, deft-going and
punctiliously honorable of all his Generals, to execute it.
Enter Saldern accordingly,--royal Audience-room "in the APEL'SCHE
HAUS, New Neumarkt, No. 16," as above;--to whom (one Kuster, a
reliable creature, reporting for us on Saldern's behalf) the King
says, in the distinct slowish tone of a King giving orders:--

KING. "Saldern, to-morrow morning you go [ER, He goes) with a
detachment of Infantry and Cavalry, in all silence, to Hubertsburg;
beset the Schloss, get all the furnitures carefully packed up and
invoiced. I want nothing with them; the money they bring I mean to
bestow on our Field Hospitals, and will not forget YOU in disposing
of it."

Saldern, usually so prompt with his "JA" on any Order from the
King, looks embarrassed, stands silent,--to the King's great
surprise;--and after a moment or two says:--

SALDERN. "Forgive me, your Majesty: but this is contrary to my
honor and my oath."

KING (still in a calm tone). "You would be right to think so if I
did not intend this desperate method for a good object. Listen to
me: great Lords don't feel it in their scalp, when their subjects
are torn by the hair; one has to grip their own locks, as the only
way to give them pain." (These last words the King said in a
sharper tone; he again made his apology for the resolution he had
formed; and renewed his Order. With the modesty usual to him, but
also with manliness, Saldern replied:)--

SALDERN. "Order me, your Majesty, to attack the enemy and his
batteries, I will on the instant cheerfully obey: but against
honor, oath and duty, I cannot, I dare not!"

The King, with voice gradually rising, I suppose, repeated his
demonstration that the thing was proper, necessary in the
circumstances; but Saldern, true to the inward voice,
answered steadily:--

SALDERN. "For this commission your Majesty will easily find another
person in my stead."

KING (whirling hastily round, with an angry countenance, but, I
should say, an admirable preservation of his dignity in such
extreme case). "SALDERN, ER WILL NICHT REICH WERDEN,--Saldern, you
refuse to become rich." And EXIT, leaving Saldern to his own stiff
courses. [Kuster,  Charakterzuge des General-Lieutenant v.
Saldern  (Berlin, 1793), pp. 39-44.]

Nothing remained for Saldern but to fall ill, and retire from the
Service; which he did: a man honorably ruined, thought everybody;--
which did not prove to be the case, by and by.

This surely is a remarkable Dialogue; far beyond any of the Gellert
kind. An absolute King and Commander-in-Chief, and of such a type
in both characters, getting flat refusal once in his life (this
once only, so far as I know), and how he takes it:--one wishes
Kuster, or somebody, had been able to go into more details!--
Details on the Quintus-Icilius procedure, which followed next day,
would also have been rather welcome, had Kuster seen good. It is
well known, Quintus Icilius and his Battalion, on order now given,
went cheerfully, next day, in Saldern's stead. And sacked
Hubertsburg Castle, to the due extent or farther: 100,000 thalers
(15,000 pounds) were to be raised from it for the Field-Hospital
behoof; the rest was to be Quintus's own; who, it was thought, made
an excellent thing of it for himself. And in hauling out the
furnitures, especially in selling them, Quintus having an
enterprising sharp head in trade affairs, "it is certain," says
Kuster, as says everybody, "various SCHANDLICHKEITEN (scandals)
occurred, which were contrary to the King's intention, and would
not have happened under Saldern." What the scandals particularly
were, is not specified to me anywhere, though I have searched up
and down; much less the net amount of money realized by Quintus.
I know only, poor Quintus was bantered about it, all his life
after, by this merciless King; and at Potsdam, in years coming, had
ample time and admonition for what penitence was needful.

"The case was much canvassed in the Army," says poor Kuster;
"it was the topic in every tent among Officers and common Men.
And among us Army-Chaplains too," poor honest souls, "the question
of conflicting duties arose: Your King ordering one thing, and your
own Conscience another, what ought a man to do? What ought an Army-
Chaplain to preach or advise? And considerable mutual light in
regard to it we struck out from one another, and saw how a prudent
Army-Chaplain might steer his way. Our general conclusion was, That
neither the King nor Saldern could well be called wrong.
Saldern listening to the inner voice; right he, for certain.
But withal the King, in his place, might judge such a thing
expedient and fit; perhaps Saldern himself would, had Saldern been
King of Prussia there in January, 1761."

Saldern's behavior in his retirement was beautiful; and after the
Peace, he was recalled, and made more use of than ever:
being indeed a model for Army arrangements and procedures, and
reckoned the completest General of Infantry now left, far and near.
The outcries made about Hubertsburg, which still linger in Books,
are so considerable, one fancies the poor Schloss must have been
quite ruined, and left standing as naked walls. Such, however, we
by no means find to be the case; but, on the contrary, shall
ourselves see that everything was got refitted there, and put into
perfect order again, before long.


THERE ARE SOME WAR-MOVEMENTS DURING WINTER; GENERAL
FINANCIERING DIFFICULTIES. CHOISEUL PROPOSES PEACE.

February 15th, there fell out, at Langensalza, on the Unstrut, in
Gotha Country, a bit of sharp fighting; done by Friedrich's people
and Duke Ferdinand's in concert; which, and still more what
followed on it, made some noise in the quiet months. Not a great
thing, this of Langensalza, but a sudden, and successfully done;
costing Broglio some 2,000 prisoners; and the ruin of a
considerable Post of his, which he had lately pushed out thither,
"to seize the Unstrut," as he hoped. A Broglio grasping at more
than he could hold, in those Thuringen parts, as elsewhere!
And, indeed, the Fight of Langensalza was only the beginning of a
series of such; Duke Ferdinand being now upon one of his grand
Winter-Adventures: that of suddenly surprising and exploding
Broglio's Winter-quarters altogether, and rolling him back to
Frankfurt for a lodging. So that, since the first days of February,
especially since Langensalza day, there rose suddenly a great deal
of rushing about, in those regions, with hard bits of fighting, at
least of severe campaigning;--which lasted two whole-months;--
filling the whole world with noise that Winter; and requiring
extreme brevity from us here. It was specially Duke Ferdinand's
Adventure; Friedrich going on it, as per bargain, to the
Langensalza enterprise, but no farther; after which it did not much
concern Friedrich, nor indeed come to much result for anybody.

"Strenuous Ferdinand, very impatient of the Gottingen business and
provoked to see Broglio's quarters extend into Hessen, so near
hand, for the first time, silently determines to dislodge him.
Broglio's chain of quarters, which goes from Frankfurt north as far
as Marburg, then turns east to Ziegenhayn; thence north again to
Cassel, to Munden with its Defiles; and again east, or southeast,
to Langensalza even: this chain has above 150 miles of weak length;
and various other grave faults to the eye of Ferdinand,--especially
this, that it is in the form, not of an elbow only, or joiner's-
square, which is entirely to be disapproved, but even of two
elbows; in fact, of the PROFILE OF A CHAIR [if readers had a Map at
hand]. FOOT of the chair is Frankfurt; SEAT part is from Marburg to
Ziegenhayn; BACK part, near where Ferdinand lies in chief force, is
the Cassel region, on to Munden, which is TOP of the back,--still
backwards from which, there is a kind of proud CURL or overlapping,
down to Langensalza in Gotha Country, which greedy Broglio has
likewise grasped at! Broglio's friends say he himself knew the
faultiness of this zigzag form, but had been overruled.
Ferdinand certainly knows it, and proceeds to act upon it.

"In profound silence, namely, ranks himself (FEBRUARY lst-12th) in
three Divisions, wide enough asunder; bursts up sudden as
lightning, at Langensalza and elsewhere; kicks to pieces Broglio's
Chair-Profile, kicks out especially the bottom part which ruins
both foot and back, these being disjointed thereby, and each
exposed to be taken in rear;--and of course astonishes Broglio not
a little; but does not steal his presence of mind.

"So that, in effect, Broglio had instantly to quit Cassel and warm
lodging, and take the field in person; to burn his Magazines;
and, at the swiftest rate permissible, condense himself, at first
partially about Fulda (well down the leg of his chair), and then
gradually all into one mass near Frankfurt itself;--with
considerable losses, loss especially of all his Magazines, full or
half full. And has now, except Marburg, Ziegenhayn and Cassel, no
post between Gottingen and him. Ferdinand, with his Three
Divisions, went storming along in the wild weather, Granby as
vanguard; pricking into the skirts of Broglio. Captured this and
that of Corps, of Magazines that had not been got burnt; laid siege
to Tassel, siege to Ziegenhayn; blocked Marburg, not having guns
ready: and, for some three or four weeks, was by the Gazetteer
world and general public thought to have done a very considerable
feat;--though to himself, such were the distances, difficulties of
the season, of the long roads, it probably seemed very questionable
whether, in the end, any feat at all.

"Cassel he could not take, after a month's siege under the best of
Siege-Captains; Ziegenhayn still less under one of the worst.
Provisions, ammunitions, were not to be had by force of wagonry:
scant food for soldiers, doubly scant the food of Sieges;"--"the
road from Beverungen [where the Weser-boats have to stop, which is
30 miles from Cassel, perhaps 60 from Ziegenhayn, and perhaps 100
from the outmost or southern-most of Ferdinand's parties] is paved
with dead horses," nor has even Cassel nearly enough of
ammunition:--in a word, Broglio, finding the time come, bursts up
from his Frankfurt Position (March 14th-21st) in a sharp and
determined manner; drives Ferdinand's people back, beats the
Erbprinz himself one day (by surprisal, 'My compliment for
Langensalza'), and sets his people running. Ferdinand sees the
affair to be over; and deliberately retires; lucky, perhaps, that
he still can deliberately: and matters return to their old posture.
Broglio resumes his quarters, somewhat altered in shape, and not
quite so grasping as formerly; and beyond his half-filled
Magazines, has lost nothing considerable, or more considerable than
has Ferdinand himself." [Tempelhof, v. 15-45; Mauvillon, ii.
135-148.]

The vital element in Ferdinand's Adventure was the Siege of Cassel;
all had to fail, when this, by defect of means, under the best of
management, declared itself a failure. Siege Captain was a Graf von
Lippe-Buckeburg, Ferdinand's Ordnance-Master, who is supposed to be
"the best Artillery Officer in the world,"--and is a man of great
mark in military and other circles. He is Son and Successor of that
fantastic Lippe-Buckeburg, by whom Friedrich was introduced to
Free-Masonry long since. He has himself a good deal of the fantast
again, but with a better basis of solidity beneath it. A man of
excellent knowledge and faculty in various departments; strict as
steel, in regard to discipline, to practice and conduct of all
kinds; a most punctilious, silently supercilious gentleman, of
polite but privately irrefragable turn of mind. A tall, lean, dusky
figure; much seen to by neighbors, as he stalks loftily through
this puddle of a world, on terms of his own. Concerning whom there
circulates in military circles this Anecdote, among many others;--
which is set down as a fact; and may be, whether quite believable
or not, a symbol of all the rest, and of a man not unimportant in
these Wars. "Two years ago, on King Friedrich's birthday, 24th
January, 1759, the Count had a select dinner-party in his tent in
Ferdinand's Camp, in honor of the occasion. Dinner was well over,
and wine handsomely flowing, when somebody at last thought of
asking, 'What is it, then, Herr Graf, that whistling kind of noise
we hear every now and then overhead?' 'That is nothing,' said the
Graf, in his calm, dusky way: 'that is only my Artillery-people
practising; I have bidden them hit the pole of our tent if they
can: unhappily there is not the slightest danger. Push the bottles
on.'" [Archenholtz, ii. 356; Zimmermann,  Einsamkeit,  iii. 461; &c.] Lippe-Buckeburg was Siege-Captain at Cassel;
Commandant besieged was Comte de Broglio, the Marshal's younger
Brother, formerly in the Diplomatic line;--whom we saw once, five
years ago, at the Pirna Barrier, fly into fine frenzy, and kick
vainly against the pricks. Friedrich says once, to D'Argens or
somebody: "I hope we shall soon have Cassel, and M. le Comte de
Broglio prisoner" (deserves it for his fine frenzies, at Pirna and
since);--but that comfort was denied us.

Some careless Books say, Friedrich had at first good hopes of this
Enterprise; and "had himself lent 7,000 men to it:" which is the
fact, but not the whole fact. Friedrich had approved, and even
advised this plan of Ferdinand's, and had agreed to send 7,000 men
to co-operate at Langensalza,--which, so far out in Thuringen, and
pointing as if to the Reichsfolk, is itself an eye-sorrow to
Friedrich. The issue we have seen. His 7,000 went accordingly,
under a General Syburg; met the Ferdinand people (General Sporken
head of these, and Walpole's "Conway" one of them); found the
Unstrut in flood, but crossed nevertheless; dashed in upon the
French and Saxons there, and made a brilliant thing of it at
Langensalza. [ Bericht von der bey Langensalza am 15
Februar 1761 vorgefallenen Action  in Seyfarth,
 Beylagen,  iii. 75; Tempelhof, v. 22-27.]
Which done, Syburg instantly withdrew, leaving Sporken and his
Conways to complete the Adventure; and, for his part, set himself
with his whole might "to raising contributions, recruits, horses,
proviants, over Thuringen;" "which," says Tempelhof, "had been his
grand errand there, and in which he succeeded wonderfully."

Towards the end of Ferdinand's Affair, Cassel Siege now evidently
like to fail, Friedrich organized a small Expedition for his own
behoof: expedition into Voigtland, or Frankenland, against the
intrusive Reichs-people, who have not now a Broglio or Langensalza
to look across to, but are mischievous upon our outposts on the
edge of the Voigtland yonder. The expedition lasted only ten days
(APRIL 1st it left quarters; APRIL 11th was home again); a sharp,
swift and very pretty expedition; [Tempelhof, v. 48-57.] of which
we can here say only that it was beautifully impressive on the
Reichs gentlemen, and sent their Croateries and them home again, to
Bamberg, to Eger, quite over the horizon, in a considerably
flurried state. After which there was no Small-War farther, and
everybody rested in cantonment, making ready till the Great
should come.

The Prussian wounded are all in Leipzig this Winter; a crowded
stirring Town; young Archenholtz, among many others, going about in
convalescent state,--not attending Gellert's course, that I hear
of,--but noticing vividly to right and left. Much difficulty about
the contributions, Archenholtz observes;--of course an ever-
increasing difficulty, here as everywhere, in regard to finance!
From Archenholtz chiefly, I present the following particulars;
which, though in loose form, and without date, except the general
one of Winter 1760-1761, to any of them, are to be held
substantially correct.

... "'It is impossible to pay that Contribution,' exclaim the
Leipzigers: 'you said, long since, it was to be 75,000 pounds on us
by the year; and this year you rise to 160,000 pounds; more than
double!'--'Perhaps that is because you favored the Reichsfolk while
here?' answer the Prussians, if they answer anything: 'It is the
King's order. Pay it you must.'--'Cannot; simply impossible.'
'Possible, we tell you, and also certain; we will burn your Leipzig
if you don't!' And they actually, these Collector fellows, a stony-
hearted set, who had a percentage of their own on the sums levied,
got soldiers drawn out more than once pitch-link in hand, as if for
immediate burning: hut the Leipzigers thought to themselves, 'King
Friedrich is not a Soltikof!' and openly laughed at those pitch-
links. Whereupon about a hundred of their Chief Merchants were
thrown into prison,--one hundred or so, riddled down in a day or
two to Seventeen; which latter Seventeen, as they stood out, were
detained a good many days, how many is not said, but only that they
were amazingly firm. Black-hole for lodging, bread-and-water for
diet, straw for bed: nothing would avail on the Seventeen:
'Impossible,' they answered always; each unit of them, in sight of
the other sixteen, was upon his honor, and could not think of
flinching. 'You shall go for soldiers, then;--possibly you will
prefer that, you fine powdered velvet gentlemen? Up then, and
march; here are your firelocks, your seventeen knapsacks: to the
road with us; to Magdeburg, there to get on drill!' Upon which the
Seventeen, horror-struck at such quasi-ACTUAL possibility, gave in.

"Magnanimous Gotzkowsky, who had come to Leipzig on business at the
time [which will give us a date for this by and by], and been
solemnly applied to by Deputation of the Rath, pleaded with his
usual zealous fidelity on their behalf; got various alleviations,
abatements; gave bills:--'Never was seen such magnanimity!' said
the Leipzig Town-Council solemnly, as that of Berlin, in October
last, had done." [Archenholtz, ii. 187-192.]

Of course the difficulties, financial and other, are increasing
every Winter;--not on Friedrich's side only. Here, for instance,
from the Duchy of Gottingen, are some items in the French Account
current, this Winter, which are also furnished by Archenholtz:--

"For bed-ticking, 13,000 webs; of shirts ready-made, 18,000;
shoes," I forget in what quantity; but "from the poor little Town
of Duderstadt 600 pairs,--liability to instant flogging if they are
not honest shoes; flogging, and the whole shoemaker guild summoned
out to see it." Hardy women the same Duderstadt has had to produce:
300 of them, "each with basket on back, who are carrying cannon-
balls from the foundry at Lauterberg to Gottingen, the road being
bad." [Archenholtz, ii. 237.] "These French are in such necessity,"
continues Archenholtz, "they spare neither friend nor foe.
The Frankish Circle, for example, pleads piteously in Reichs Diet
that it has already smarted by this War to the length of 2,230,000
pounds, and entreats the Kaiser to bid Most Christian Majesty cease
HIS exactions,--but without the least result." Result! If Most
Christian Majesty and his Pompadour will continue this War, is it
he, or is it you, that can furnish the Magazines?
"Magazine-furnishings, over all Hessen and this part of Hanover,
are enormous. Recruits too, native Hessian, native Hanoverian, you
shall furnish,--and 'We will hang them, and do, if caught
deserting' [to their own side]!"

I add only one other item from Archenholtz: "Mice being busy in
these Hanover Magazines, it is decided to have cats, and a
requisition goes out accordingly [cipher not given]: cats do
execution for a time, but cannot stand the confinement," are averse
to the solitary system, and object (think with what vocality!):
"upon which Hanover has to send foxes and weasels." [Ib. ii. 240]
These guardian animals, and the 300 women laden with cannon-balls
from the forge, are the most peculiar items in the French Account
current, and the last I will mention.

Difficulty, quasi-impossibility, on the French side, there
evidently is, perhaps more than on any other. But Choiseul has many
arts;--and his Official existence, were there nothing more, demands
that he do the impossible now if ever. This Spring (26th March,
1761), to the surprise and joy of mankind, there came formal
Proposal, issuing from Choiseul, to which Maria Theresa and the
Czarina had to put their signatures; regretting that the British-
Prussian Proposal of last Year had, by ill accident, fallen to the
ground, and now repeating it themselves (real "Congress at
Augsburg," and all things fair and handsome) to Britannic and
Prussian Majesties. Who answered (April 3d) as before, "Nothing
with more willingness, we!" [The "Declaration" (of France &c.),
with the Answer or "Counter-Declaration," in Seyfarth, 
Beylagen,  iii. 12-16.]

And there actually did ensue, at Paris, a vivid Negotiating all
Summer; which ended, not quite in nothing, but in less, if we might
say so. Considerably less, for some of us. We shall have to look
what end it had, and Mauduit will look!--Most people, Pitt probably
among the others, came to think that Choiseul, though his France is
in beggary, had no real view from the first, except to throw powder
in the eyes of France and mankind, to ascertain for himself on what
terms those English would make Peace, and to get Spain drawn into
his quarrel. A Choiseul with many arts. But we will leave him and
his Peace-Proposals, and the other rumors and futilities of this
Year. They are part of the sound and smoke which fill all Years;
and which vanish into next to nothing, oftenest into pure nothing,
when the Years have waited a little. Friedrich's finances, copper
and other, were got completed; his Armies too were once more put on
a passable footing;--and this Year will have its realities withal.

Gotzkowsky, in regard to those Leipzig Finance difficulties, yields
me a date, which is supplementary to some of the Archenholtz
details. I find it was "January 20th, 1761,"--precisely while the
Saldern Interview, and subsequent wreck of Hubertsburg, went on,
--that "Gotzkowsky arrived in Leipzig," [Rodenbeck, ii. 77.] and
got those unfortunate Seventeen out of ward, and the
contributions settled.

And withal, at Paris, in the same hours, there went on a thing
worth noting. That January day, while Icilius was busy on the
Schloss of Hubertsburg, poor old Marechal de Belleisle,--mark him,
reader!--"in the Rue de Lille at Paris," lay sunk in putrid fever;
and on the fourth day after, "January 26th, 1761," the last of the
grand old Frenchmen died. "He had been reported dead three days
before," says Barbier: "the public wished it so; they laid the
blame on him of this apparent" (let a cautious man write it,
"apparent) derangement in our affairs,"--instead of thanking him
for all he had done and suffered (loss of so much, including
reputation and an only Son) to repair and stay the same. "He was in
his 77th year. Many people say, 'We must wait three months, to see
if we shall not regret him,'"--even him! [Barbier, iv. 373;
i. 154.] So generous are Nations.

Marechal Duc de Belleisle was very wealthy: in Vernon Country,
Normandy, he had estates and chateaux to the value of about 24,000
pounds annually. All these, having first accurately settled for his
own debts, he, in his grand old way, childless, forlorn, but
loftily polite to the last, bequeathed to the King. His splendid
Paris Mansion he expressly left "to serve in perpetuity as a
residence for the Secretary of State in the Department of War:"
a magnificent Town-House it is, "HOTEL MAGNIFIQUE, at the end of
the Pont-Royal,"--which, I notice farther, is in our time called
"Hotel de CHOISEUL-PRASLIN,"--a house latterly become horrible in
men's memory, if my guess is right.

And thus vanishes, in sour dark clouds, the once great Belleisle.
Grandiose, something almost of great in him, of sublime,--alas,
yes, of too sublime; and of unfortunate beyond proportion, paying
the debt of many foregoers! He too is a notability gone out, the
last of his kind. Twenty years ago, he crossed the OEil-de-Boeuf
with Papers, just setting out to cut Teutschland in Four; and in
the Rue de Lille, No. 54, with that grandiose Enterprise drawing to
its issue in universal defeat, disgrace, discontent and preparation
for the General Overturn (CULBUTE GENERALE of 1789)) he closes his
weary old eyes. Choiseul. succeeds him as War-Minister;
War-Minister and Prime-Minister both in one;--and by many arts of
legerdemain, and another real spasm of effort upon Hanover to do
the impossible there, is leading France with winged steps the
same road.

Since March 17th, Friedrich was no longer in Leipzig. He left at
that time, for Meissen Country, and the Hill Cantonments,--
organized there his little Expedition into Voigtland, for behoof of
the Reichsfolk;--and did not return. Continued, mostly in Meissen
Country, as the fittest for his many businesses, Army-regulatings
and other. Till the Campaign come, we will remember of him nothing,
but this little Note, and pleasant little Gift, to his CHERE MAMAN,
the day after his arrival in those parts:--


TO MADAM CAMAS (at Magdeburg, with the Queen).

"MEISSEN, 20th March, 1761.

"I send you, my dear Mamma, a little Trifle, by way of keepsake and
memento [Snuffbox of Meissen Porcelain, with the figure of a Dog on
the lid]. You may use the Box for your rouge, for your patches, or
you may put snuff in it, or BONBONS or pills: but whatever use you
turn it to, think always, when you see this Dog, the Symbol of
Fidelity, that he who sends it outstrips, in respect of fidelity
and attachment to MAMAN, all the dogs in the world; and that his
devotion to you has nothing whatever in common with the fragility
of the material which is manufactured hereabouts.

"I have ordered Porcelain here for all the world, for Schonhausen
[for your Mistress, my poor uncomplaining Wife], for my Sisters-in-
law; in fact, I am rich in this brittle material only. And I hope
the receivers will accept it as current money: for, the truth is,
we are poor as can be, good Mamma; I have nothing left but honor,
my coat, my sword, and porcelain.

"Farewell, my beloved Mamma. If Heaven will, I shall one day see
you again face to face; and repeat to you, by word of mouth, what I
have already said and written; but, turn it and re-turn it as I
may, I shall never, except very incompletely, express what the
feelings of my heart to you are.--F." [Given in Rodenbeck, ii. 79;
omitted, for I know not what reason, in  OEuvres de
Frederic,  xviii. 145: cited partly in Preuss,
ii. 282.]

------

It was during this Winter, if ever it was, that Friedrich received
the following Letter from an aspiring Young Lady, just coming out,
age seventeen,--in a remote sphere of things. In "Sleepy Hollow"
namely, or the Court of Mirow in Mecklenburg-Strelitz, where we
once visited with Friedrich almost thirty years ago. The poor
collapsed Duke has ceased making dressing-gowns there; and this is
his Niece, Princess Charlotte, Sister to the now reigning Duke.

This Letter, in the translated form, and the glorious results it
had for some of us, are familiar to all English readers for the
last hundred years. Of Friedrich's Answer to it, if he sent one, we
have no trace whatever. Which is a pity, more or less;--though, in
truth, the Answer could only have been some polite formality; the
Letter itself being a mere breath of sentimental wind, absolutely
without significance to Friedrich or anybody else,--except always
to the Young Lady herself, to whom it brought a Royal Husband and
Queenship of England, within a year. Signature, presumably, this
Letter once had; date of place, of day, year, or even century
(except by implication), there never was any: but judicious
persons, scanning on the spot, have found that the "Victory" spoken
of can only have meant Torgau; and that the aspiring Young Lady,
hitherto a School Girl, not so much as "confirmed" till a month or
two ago, age seventeen in May last, can only have I written it, at
Mirow, in the Winter subsequent. [Ludwig Giesebrecht,--DER
FURSTENHOF IN MIROW WUHREND DER JAHRE 1708-1761, in 
Programm des vereinigten Koniglichen und Stadt-Gymnasiums   for 1863 (Stettin, 1863), pp. 26-29,--enters into a minute
criticism.] Certain it is, in September NEXT, September, 1761,
directly after George III.'s Wedding, there appeared in the English
Newspapers, what doubtless had been much handed about in society
before, the following "TRANSLATION OF A LETTER, SAID TO HAVE BEEN
WRITTEN BY PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF MECKLENBERG TO THE KING OF
PRUSSIA, ON ONE OF HIS VICTORIES,"--without farther commentary or
remark of any kind; everybody then understanding, as everybody
still. So notable a Document ought to be given in the Original as
well (or in what passes for such), and with some approach to the
necessary preliminaries of time and place: [From 
Gentleman's Magazine  (for October, 1761, xxxi. 447) we
take, verbatim, the TRANSLATION; from PREUSS (ii. 186) the
"ORIGINAL," who does not say where he got it,--whether from an old
German Newspaper or not.]--


[TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF PRUSSIA (in Leipzig, or Somewhere.
or Somewhere).

MIROW IN MECHLENBURG-STRELITZ, Winter of 1760-1761.]

"Sire!--Ich weiss nicht, ob ich uber Ewr. Majestat letzteren Sieg
frohlich odor traurig sein soll, weil eben der gluckliche Sieg, der
neue Lorbeern um Dero Scheitel geflochten hat, uber mein Vaterland
Jammer und Elend verbreitet. Ich weiss, Sire, in diesem unserm
lasterhaft verfeinerten Zeitalter werde ich verlacht werden, dass
mein Herz uber das Ungluck des Landes trauert, dass ich die
Drangsale des Krieges beweine, und von ganzer Seele die Ruckkehr
des Friedens wunsche. Selbst Sie, Sire, werden vielleicht denken,
es schicke sich besser fur mich, mich in der Kunst zu gefallen zu
uben, oder mich nur um hausliche Angelegenheiten zu bekummern.
Allein dem seye wie ihm wolle, so fuhlt mein Herz zu sehr fur diese
Unglucklichen, um eine dringende Furbitte fur dieselben zuruck
zu halten.

"Seit wenigen Jahren hatte dieses Land die angenehmste Gestalt
gewonnen. Man traf keine verodete Stellen an. Alles war angebaut.
Das Landvolk sah vergnugt aus, und in den Stadten herrschte
Wohlstand und Freude. Aber welch' eine Veranderung gegen eine so
angenehme Scene! Ich bin in partheischen Beschreibungen nicht
erfahren, noch weniger kann ich die Grauel der Verwilstung mit
erdichteten Schilderungen schrecklicher darstellen. Allein gewiss
selbst Krieger, welche ein edles Herz und Gefuhl besitzen, wurden
durch den Anblick dieser Scenen zu Thranen bewegt werden. Das ganze
Land, mein werthes Vaterland, liegt da gleich einer Wuste. Der
Ackerbau und die Viehzucht haben aufgehort. Der Bauer und der Hirt
sind Soldaten worden, und in den Stadten sieht man nur Greise,
Weiber, und Kinder, vielleicht noch hie und da einen jungen Mann,
der aber durch empfangene Wunden ein Kruppel ist und den ihn
umgebenden kleinen Knaben die Geschichte einer jeden Wunde mit
einem so pathetischen Heldenton erzahlt, dassihr Herz schon der
Trommel folgt, ehe sie recht gehen konnen. Was aber das Elend auf
den hochsten Gipfel bringt, sind die immer abwechselnden
Vorruckungen und Zuruckziehungen beider Armeen, da selbst die, so
sich unsre Freunde nennen, beim Abzuge alles mitnehmen und
verheeren, und wenn sie wieder kommen, gleich viel wieder herbei
geschafft haben wollen. Von Dero Gerechtigkeit, Sire, hoffen wir
Hulfe in dieser aussersten Noth. An Sie, Sire, mogen auch Frauen,
ja selbst Kinder ihre Klagen bringen. Sie, die sich auch zur
niedrigsten Klasse gutigst herablassen, und dadurch, wenn es
moglich ist, noch grosser werden, als selbst durch ihre Siege,
werden die meinigen nicht unerhort lassen und, zur Ehre Dero
eigenen Ruhmes, Bedruckungen und Drangsalen abhelfen, welche wider
alle Menschenliebe und wider alle gute Kriegszucht streiten.
Ich bin &c."


"MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,
"I am at a loss whether I shall congratulate or condole with you on
your late victory; since the same success that has covered you with
laurels has overspread the Couutry of MecklenburgH with desolation.
I know, Sire, that it seems unbecoming my sex, in this age of
vicious refinement, to feel for one's Country, to lament the
horrors of war, or wish for the return of peace. I know you may
think it more properly my province to study the art of pleasing, or
to turn my thoughts to subjects of a more domestic nature:
but, however unbecoming it may be in me, I can't resist the desire
of interceding for this unhappy people.

"It was but a very few years ago that this territory wore the most
pleasing appearance. The Country was cultivated, the peasant looked
cheerful, and the towns abounded with riches and festivity. What an
alteration at present from such a charming scene! I am not expert
at description, nor can my fancy add any horrors to the picture;
but sure even conquerors themselves would weep at the hideous
prospect now before me. The whole Country, my dear Country, lies
one frightful waste, presenting only objects to excite terror, pity
and despair. The business of the husbandman and the shepherd are
quite discontinued; the husbandman and the shepherd are become
soldiers themselves, and help to ravage the soil they formerly
occupied. The towns are inhabited only by old men, women and
children; perhaps here and there a warrior, by wounds and loss of
limbs rendered unfit for service, left at his door; his little
children hang round him, ask a history of every wound, and grow
themselves soldiers before they find strength for the field.
But this were nothing, did we not feel the alternate insolence of
either army, as it happens to advance or retreat. It is impossible
to express the confusion, even those who call themselves our
friends create. Even those from whom we might expect redress,
oppress us with new calamities. From your justice, therefore, it is
that we hope relief; to you even children and women may complain,
whose humanity stoops to the meanest petition, and whose power is
capable of repressing the greatest injustice.

"I am, Sire, &c."


It is remarked that this Young Lady, so amiably melodious in tone,
though she might address to King Friedrich, seems to be writing to
the wind; and that she gives nothing of fact or picture in regard
to Mecklenburg, especially to Mecklenburg-STRELITZ, but what is
taken from her own beautiful young brain. All operatic, vague,
imaginary,--some of it expressly untrue. [In Mecklenburg-SCHWERIN,
which had always to smart sore for its Duke and the line he took,
the Swedes, this year, as usual (but, TILL Torgau, with more hope
than usual), had been trying for winter-quarters: and had by the
Prussians, as usual, been hunted out,--Eugen of Wurtemberg speeding
thither, directly after Torgau; Rostock his winter-quarters;--who,
doubtless with all rigor, is levying contributions for Prussian
behoof. But as to Mecklenburg-Strelitz,--see, for example, in
SCHONING, iii. 30 &c., an indirect but altogether conclusive proof
of the perfectly amicable footing now and always subsisting there;
Friedrich reluctant to intrude even with a small request or
solicitation, on Eugen's behalf, at this time.] So that latterly
there have been doubts as to its authenticity altogether.
["Boll,  Geschichte Mecklenburgs mit besonderer
Berucksichtigung der Culturgeschichte  (Neubrandenburg,
1856), ii. 303-305;"--cited by Giesebrecht, who himself takes the
opposite view.] And in fact the Piece has a good deal the air of
some School-Exercise, Model of Letter-writing, Patriotic Aspiration
or the like;--thrown off, shall we say, by the young Parson of
Mirow (Charlotte's late Tutor), with Charlotte there to SIGN; or by
some Patriotic Schoolmaster elsewhere, anywhere, in a moment of
enthusiasm, and without any Charlotte but a hypothetic one?
Certainly it is difficult to fancy how a modest, rational,
practical young person like Charlotte can have thought of so airy a
feat of archery into the blue! Charlotte herself never disavowed
it, that I heard of; and to Colonel Grahame the Ex-Jacobite,
hunting about among potential Queens of England, for behoof of Bute
and of a certain Young King and King's Mother, the Letter did seem
abundantly unquestionable and adorable. Perhaps authentic, after
all;--and certainly small matter whether or not.



Chapter VII.

SIXTH CAMPAIGN OPENS: CAMP OF BUNZELWITZ.

To the outward observer Friedrich stands well at present, and seems
again in formidable posture. After two such Victories, and such
almost miraculous recovery of himself, who shall say what
resistance he will not yet make? In comparison with 1759 and its
failures and disasters, what a Year has 1760 been! Liegnitz and
Torgau, instead of Kunersdorf and Maxen, here are unexpected
phenomena; here is a King risen from the deeps again,--more
incalculable than ever to contemporary mankind. "How these things
will end?" Fancy of what a palpitating interest THEN, while
everybody watched the huge game as it went on; though it is so
little interesting now to anybody, looking at it all finished!
Finished; no mystery of chance, of world-hope or of world-terror
now remaining in it; all is fallen stagnant, dull, distant;--and it
will behoove us to be brief upon it.

Contemporaries, and Posterity that will make study, must alike
admit that, among the sons of men, few in any Age have made a
stiffer fight than Friedrich has done and continues to do. But to
Friedrich himself it is dismally evident, that year by year his
resources are melting away; that a year must come when he will have
no resource more. Ebbing very fast, his resources;--fast too, no
doubt, those of his Enemies, but not SO fast. They are mighty
Nations, he is one small Nation. His thoughts, we perceive, have
always, in the background of them, a hue of settled black. Easy to
say, "Resist till we die;" but to go about, year after year,
practically doing it, under cloudy omens, no end of it visible
ahead, is not easy. Many men, Kings and other, have had to take
that stern posture;--few on sterner terms than those of Friedrich
at present; and none that I know of with a more truly stoical and
manful figure of demeanor. He is long used to it! Wet to the bone,
you do not regard new showers; the one thing is, reach the bridge
before IT be swum away.

The usual hopes, about Turks, about Peace, and the like, have not
been wanting to Friedrich this Winter; mentionable as a trait of
Friedrich's character, not otherwise worth mention. Hope of aid
from the Turks, it is very strange to see how he nurses this fond
shadow, which never came to anything! Happily, it does not prevent,
it rather encourages, the utmost urgency of preparation:
"The readier we are, the likelier are Turks and everything!"
Peace, at least, between France and England, after such a Proposal
on Choiseul's part, and such a pass as France has really got to,
was a reasonable probability. But indeed, from the first year of
this War, as we remarked, Peace has seemed possible to Friedrich
every year; especially from 1759 onward, there is always every
winter a lively hope of Peace:--"No slackening of preparation;
the reverse, rather; but surely the Campaign of next Summer will be
cut short, and we shall all get home only half expended!"
[Schoning (IN LOCIS).]

Practically, Friedrich has been raising new Free-Corps people, been
recruiting, refitting and equipping, with more diligence than ever;
and, in spite of the almost impossibilities, has two Armies on
foot, some 96,000 men in all, for defence of Saxony and of
Silesia,--Henri to undertake Saxony, VERSUS Daun; Silesia, with
Loudon and the Russians, to be Friedrich's heavier share.
The Campaign, of which, by the one party and the other, very great
things had been hoped and feared, seemed once as if it would begin
two months earlier than usual; but was staved off, a long time, by
Friedrich's dexterities, and otherwise; and in effect did not
begin, what we can call beginning, till two months later than
usual. Essentially it fell, almost all, to Friedrich's share;
and turned out as little decisive on him as any of its foregoers.
The one memorable part of it now is, Friedrich's Encampment at
Bunzelwitz; which did not occur till four months after Friedrich's
appearance on the Field. And from the end of April, when Loudon
made his first attempt, till the end of August, when Friedrich took
that Camp, there was nothing but a series of attempts, all
ineffectual, of demonstrations, marchings, manoeuvrings and small
events; which, in the name of every reader, demand condensation to
the utmost. If readers will be diligent, here, so far as needful,
are the prefatory steps.

Since Fouquet's disaster, Goltz generally has Silesia in charge;
and does it better than expected. He was never thought to have
Fouquet's talent in him; but he shows a rugged loyalty of mind,
less egoistic than the fiery Fouquet's; and honestly flings himself
upon his task, in a way pleasant to look at: pleasant to the King
especially, who recognizes in Goltz a useful, brave, frank soul;--
and has given him, this Spring, the ORDER OF MERIT, which was a
high encouragement to Goltz. In Silesia, after Kosel last Year,
there had been truce between Goltz and Loudon; which should have
produced repose to both; but did not altogether, owing to mistakes
that rose. And at any rate, in the end of April, Loudon, bursting
suddenly into Silesia with great increase to the forces already
there, gave notice, as per bargain, That "in 96 hours" the Truce
would expire. And waiting punctiliously till the last of said hours
was run out, Loudon fell upon Goltz (APRIL 25th, in the
Schweidnitz-Landshut Country) with his usual vehemence;--meaning to
get hold of the Silesian Passes, and extinguish Goltz (only 10 or
12,000 against 30,000), as he had done Fouquet last Year.

But Goltz took his measures better; seized "the Gallows-Hill of
Hohenfriedberg," seized this and that; and stood in so forcible an
attitude, that Loudon, carefully considering, durst not risk an
assault; and the only result was: Friedrich hastened to relief of
Goltz (rose from Meissen Country MAY 3d), and appeared in Silesia
six weeks earlier than he had intended. But again took Cantonments
there (Schweidnitz and neighborhood);--Loudon retiring wholly, on
first tidings of him, home to Bohemia again. Home in Bohemia;
at Braunau, on the western edge of the Glatz Mountains,--there sits
Loudon thenceforth, silent for a long time; silently collecting an
Army of 72,000, with strict orders from Vienna to avoid fighting
till the Russians come. Loudon has very high intentions this Year.
Intends to finish Silesia altogether;--cannot he, after such a
beginning upon Glatz last Year? That is the firm notion at Vienna
among men of understanding: ever-active Loudon the favorite there,
against a Cunctator who has been too cunctatory many times.
Liegnitz itself, was not that (as many opine) a disaster due to
cunctation, not of Loudon's?

Loudon is to be joined by 60,000 Russians, under a Feldmarschall
Butturlin, not under sulky Soltikof, this Year; junction to be in
Upper Silesia, in Neisse neighborhood. We take that Fortress," say
the Vienna people; "it is next on the file after Glatz. Neisse
taken; thence northward, cleaning the Country as we go;
Brieg, Schweidnitz, Glogau, probably Breslau itself in some good
interim: there are but Four Fortresses to do; and the thing is
finished. Let the King, one to three, and Loudon in command against
him, try if he can hinder it!" This is the Program in Vienna and in
Petersburg. And, accordingly, the Russians have got on march about
the end of May; plodding on ever since, due hereabouts before June
end: "junction to be as near Neisse as you can: and no fighting of
the King, on any terms, till the Russians come." Never were the
Vienna people so certain before. Daun is to do nothing "rash" in
Saxony (a Daun not given that way, they can calculate), but is to
guard Loudon's game; carefully to reinforce, comfort and protect
the brave Loudon and his Russians till they win;--after which
Saxony as rash as you like. This is the Program of the Season:--
readers feel what an immensity of preliminary higglings, hitchings
and manoeuvrings will now demand to be suppressed by us! Read these
essential Fractions, chiefly chronological;--and then, at once, To
Bunzelwitz, and the time of close grips in Silesia here.

"Last Year," says a loose Note, which we may as well take with us,
"Tottleben did not go home with the rest, but kept hovering about,
in eastern Pommern, with a 10,000, all Winter; attempting several
kinds of mischief in those Countries, especially attempting to do
something on Colberg; which the Russians mean to besiege next
Summer, with more intensity than ever, for the Third, and, if
possible, the last time. 'Storm their outposts there,' thinks
Tottleben, 'especially Belgard, the chief outpost; girdle tighter
and tighter the obstinate little crow's-nest of a Colberg, and have
it ready for besieging in good time.' Tottleben did try upon the
outposts, especially Belgard the chief one (January 18th, 1761),
but without the least success at Belgard; with a severe reproof
instead, Werner's people being broad awake: [Account of itt,
 Helden-Geschichte,  vi. 670.] upon which
Tottleben and they made a truce, 'Peaceable till May 12th;'
till June 1st, it proved, about which time [which time, or
afterwards, as the Silesian crisis may admit!] we will look in on
them again."

MAY 3d, as above intimated, Friedrich hastened off for Silesia,
quitted Meissen that day, with an Army of some 50,000;
pressingly intent to relieve Goltz from his dangerous predicament
there. This is one of Friedrich's famed marches, done in a minimum
of time and with a maximum of ingenuity; concerning which I will
remember only that, one night, "he lodged again at Rodewitz, near
Hochklrch, in the same house as on that Occasion [what a thirty
months to look back upon, as you sink to sleep!]--and that no
accident anywhere befell the March, though Daun's people, all
through Saxony and the Lausitz, were hovering on the flank,--
apprehensive chiefly lest it might mean a plunge INTO BOHEMIA, for
relief of Goltz, instead of what it did." For six weeks after that
hard March, the King's people got Cantonments again, and rested.

Prince Henri is left in Saxony, with Daun in huge force against
him, Daun and the Reich; between whom and Henri,--Seidlitz being in
the field again with Henri, Seidlitz and others of mark,--there
fell out a great deal of exquisite manoeuvring, rapid detaching and
occasional sharp cutting on the small scale; but nothing of moment
to detain us here or afterwards, We shall say only that Henri, to a
wonderful extent, maintained himself against the heavy overwhelming
Daun and his Austrian and Reichs masses; and that Napoleon, I know
not after what degree of study, pronounced this Campaign of 1761 to
be the masterpiece of Henri, and really a considerable thing,
 "La campagne de 1761 est celle ou ce Prince a vraiment
montre des talents superieurs;  the Battle of Freyberg
[wait till next Year] nothing in comparison." [Montholon, 
Memoires de Napoleon,  vii. 324.] Which may well detain
soldier-people upon it; but must not us, in any measure. The result
of Henri being what we said,--a drawn game, or nearly so,--we will,
without interference from him, follow Friedrich and Goltz.

Friedrich and Goltz,--or, alas, it is very soon Friedrich alone;
the valiant Goltz soon perishing from his hand! After brief
junction in Schweidnitz Country, Friedrich detached Goltz to his
old fortified Camp at Glogau, there to be on watch. Goltz watching
there, lynx-eyed, skilful, volunteered a Proposal (June 22d):
"Reinforce me to 20,000, your Majesty; I will attack so and so of
those advancing Russians!" Which his Majesty straightway approved
of, and set going. [Goltz's Letter to the King, "Glogau, 22d June,
1761," is in Tempelhof (v. 88-90), who thinks the plan good.]
Goltz thereupon tasked all his energies, perhaps overmuch; and it
was thought might at last really have done something for the King,
in this matter of the Russians still in separate Divisions,--a
thing feasible if you have energy and velocity; always unfeasible
otherwise. But, alas, poor Goltz, just when ready to march, was
taken with sudden violent fever, the fruit probably of overwork;
and, in that sad flame, blazed away his valiant existence in three
or four days:-gone forever, June 30th, 1761; to the regret of
Friedrich and of many.

Old Ziethen was at once pushed on, from Glogau over the frontier,
to replace Goltz; but, I doubt, had not now the requisite velocity:
Ziethen merely manoeuvred about, and came home "attending the
Russians," as Henri, Dohna and others had done. The Russians
entered Silesia, from the northeast or Polish side, without
difficulty; and (July 15th-20th) were within reach of Breslau and
of an open road to southward, and to junction with Loudon, who is
astir for them there. About Breslau they linger and higgle, at
their leisure, for three weeks longer: and if their junction with
the Austrians "in Neisse neighborhood" is to be prevented or
impeded, it is Friedrich, not Ziethen, that will have to do it.

Junction in Neisse neighborhood (Oppeln, where it should have been,
which is some 35 miles from Neisse), Friedrich did, by velocity and
dexterity, contrive to prevent; but junction somewhere he probably
knows to be inevitable. These are among Friedrich's famed marches
and manoeuvrings, these against the swift Loudon and his slow
Russians; but we will not dwell on them. My readers know the King's
manner in such cases; have already been on two Marches with him,
and even in these same routes and countries. We will say only, that
the Russians were and had been very dilatory; Loudon much the
reverse; and their and Loudon's Adversary still more. That, for
five days, the Russians, at length close to Breslau (August
6th-11th), kept vaguely cannonading and belching noise and
apprehension upon the poor City, but without real damage to it, and
as if merely to pass the time; and had gradually pushed out fore-
posts, as far as Oppeln, towards Loudon, up their safe right bank
of Oder. That Loudon, on the first glimpse of these, had made his
best speed Neisse-ward; and did a march or two with good hope;
but at Munsterberg (July 22d), on the morning of the third or
fourth day's march, was astonished to see Friedrich ahead of him,
nearer Neisse than he; and that in Neisse Country there was nothing
to be done, no Russian junction possible there.

"Try it in Schweidnitz Country, then!" said Loudon. The Russians
leave off cannonading Breslau; cross Oder, about Auras or Leubus
(August 11th-12th); and Loudon, after some finessing, marches back
Schweidnitz-way, cautiously, skilfully; followed by Friedrich,
anxious to prevent a junction here too or at lowest to do some
stroke before it occur. A great deal of cunning marching, shifting
and manoeuvring there is, for days round Schweidnitz on all sides;
encampings by Friedrich, now Liegnitz head-quarter, now Wahlstadt,
now Schonbrunn, Striegau;--without the least essential harm to
Loudon or likelihood increasing that the junction can be hindered.
No offer of battle either; Loudon is not so easy to beat as some.
The Russians come on at a snail's pace, so Loudon thinks it, who is
extremely impatient; but makes no mistakes in consequence, keeps
himself safe (Kunzendorf, on the edge of the Glatz Hills, his main
post), and the roads open for his heavy-footed friends.

In Nicolstadt, a march from Wahlstadt, 16th August, there are
60,000 Russians in front of Friedrich, 72,000 Austrians in rear:
what can he, with at the very utmost 57,000, do against them?
Now was the time to have fallen upon the King, and have consumed
him between two fires, as it is thought might have been possible,
had they been simultaneous, and both of them done it with a will.
But simultaneity was difficult, and the will itself was wanting, or
existed only on Loudon's side. Nothing of the kind was attempted on
the confederate part, still less on Friedrich's,--who stands on his
guard, and, from the Heights about, has at last, to witness what he
cannot hinder. Sees both Armies on march; Austrians from the
southeast or Kunzendorf-Freyberg side, Russians from the northeast
or Kleinerwitz side, wending in many columns by the back of Jauer
and the back of Liegnitz respectively; till (August 18th) they
"join hands," as it is termed, or touch mutually by their light
troops; and on the 19th (Friedrich now off on another scheme, and
not witnessing), fall into one another's arms, ranked all in one
line of posts. [Tempelhof, v. 58-150.] "Can the Reichshofrath say
our junction is not complete?" And so ends what we call the
Prefatory part; and the time of Close Grips seems to be come!--
Friedrich has now nothing for it but to try if he cannot possibly
get hold of Kunzendorf (readers may look in their Map), and cut off
Loudon's staff of bread; Loudon's, and Butturlin's as well; for the
whole 130,000 are now to be fed by Loudon, and no slight task he
will find it. By rushing direct on Kunzendorf with such a velocity
as Friedrich is capable of, it is thought he might have managed
Kunzendorf; but he had to mask his design, and march by the rear or
east side of Schweidnitz, not by the west side: "They will think I
am making off in despair, intending for the strong post of Pilzen
there, with Schweidnitz to shelter me in front!" hoped Friedrich
(morning of the 19th), as he marched off on that errand. But on
approaching in that manner, by the bow, he found that Loudon had
been quite sceptical of such despair, and at any rate had, by the
string, made sure of Kunzendorf and the food-sources. August 20th,
at break of day, scouts report the Kunzendorf ground thoroughly
beset again, and Loudon in his place there. No use marching
thitherward farther:--whither now, therefore?

Friedrich knows Pilzen, what an admirable post it really is;
except only that Schweidnitz will be between the enemy and him, and
liable to be besieged by them; which will never do! Friedrich, on
the moment of that news from Kunzendorf, gets on march, not by the
east side (as intended till the scouts came in), but by the west or
exposed side of Schweidnitz:--he stood waiting, ready for either
route, and lost not a moment on his scouts coming in. All upon the
road by 3 A.M. August 20th; and encamps, still at an early hour,
midway between Schweidnitz and Striegau: right wing of him at
Zedlitz (if the reader look on his Map), left wing at Jauernik;
headquarters, Bunzelwitz, a poor Village, celebrated ever since in
War-annals. And begins (that same evening, the earlier or RESTED
part of him begins) digging and trenching at a most extraordinary
rate, according to plan formed; no enemy taking heed of him, or
giving the least molestation. This is the world-famous Camp of
Bunzelwitz, upon which it is worth while to dwell for a little.

To common eyes the ground hereabouts has no peculiar military
strength: a wavy champaign, with nothing of abrupt or high, much of
it actual plain, excellent for cavalry and their work;--this
latter, too, is an advantage, which Friedrich has well marked, and
turns to use in his scheme. The area he takes in is perhaps some
seven or eight miles long, by as many broad. On the west side runs
the still-young Striegau Water, defensive more or less; and on the
farther bank of it green little Hills, their steepest side stream-
ward. Inexpugnable Schweidnitz, with its stores of every kind,
especially with its store of cannon and of bread, is on the left or
east part of the circuit; in the intervening space are peaceable
farm-villages, spots of bog; knolls, some of them with wood. Not a
village, bog, knoll, but Friedrich has caught up, and is busy
profiting by. "Swift, BURSCHE, dig ourselves in here, and be ready
for any quotity and quantity of them, if they dare attack!"

And 25,000 spades and picks are at work, under such a Field-
Engineer as there is not in the world when he takes to that
employment. At all hours, night and day, 25,000 of them: half the
Army asleep, other half digging, wheeling, shovelling; plying their
utmost, and constant as Time himself: these, in three days, will do
a great deal of spade-work. Batteries, redoubts, big and little;
spare not for digging. Here is ground for Cavalry, too; post them
here, there, to bivouac in readiness, should our Batteries be
unfortunate. Long Trenches there are, and also short; Batteries
commanding every ingate, and under them are Mines: "We will blow
you and our Batteries both into the air, in case of capture!" think
the Prussians, the common men at least, if Friedrich do not.
"Mines, and that of being blown into the air," says Tempelhof, "are
always very terrible to the common man." In places there are
"Trenches 16 feet broad, by 16 deep," says an admiring Archenholtz,
who was in it: "and we have two of those FLATTERMINEN
(scatter-mines," blowing-up apparatuses) "to each battery."
[Archenholtz, ii. 262 &c.]

"Bunzelwitz, Jauernik, Tschechen and Peterwitz, all fortified,"
continues Archenholtz; "Wurben, in the centre, is like a citadel,
looking down upon Striegau Water. Heavy cannon, plenty of them, we
have brought from Schweidnitz: we have 460 pieces of cannon in all
and 182 mines. Wurben, our citadel and centre, is about five miles
from Schweidnitz. Our intrenchments"--You already heard what gulfs
some of them were! "Before the lines are palisades, storm-posts,
the things we call Spanish Horse (CHEVAUX-DE-FRISE);--woods we have
in abundance in our Circuit, and axes busy for carpentries of that
kind. There are four intrenched knolls; 24 big batteries, capable
of playing beautifully, all like pieces in a concert." Four knolls
elaborately intrenched, clothed with cannon; founded upon FLATTER-
mines: try where you will to enter, such torrents of death-shot
will converge on you, and a concert of 24 big batteries begin
their music!--

On the third day, Loudon, looking into this thing, which he has not
minded hitherto, finds it such a thing as he never dreamt of
before. A thing strong as Gibraltar, in a manner;--which it will be
terribly difficult to attack with success! For eight days more
Friedrich did not rest from his spadework; made many changes and
improvements, till he had artificially made a very Stolpen of it, a
Plauen, or more. Cogniazzo, the AUSTRIAN VETERAN, says: "Plauen,
and Daun's often ridiculed precautions there, were nothing to it.
Not as if Bunzelwitz had been so inaccessible as our sheer rocks
there; but because it is a masterpiece of Art, in which the
principles of tactics are combined with those of field-
fortification, as never before." Tielke grows quite eloquent on it:
"A masterpiece of judgment in ground," says he; "and the treatment
of it a model of sound, true and consummate field-engineering."
[Tielke, iii. § BUNZELWITZ (which is praised as an attractive
Piece); OESTERREICHISCHER VETERAN, iv. 79: cited in PREUSS,
ii. 285.]

Ziethen, appointed to that function, watches on the Heights of
Wurben, the citadel of the place: keeps a sharp eye to the
southwest. All round, in huge half-moon on the edge of the Hills
over there, six or more miles from Ziethen, lie the angry Enemies;
Austrians south and nearest, about Kunzendorf and Freyberg.
Russians are on the top of Striegau Hills, which are well known to
some of us; Russian head-quarter is Hohenfriedberg,--who would have
thought it, Herr General von Ziethen? Sixteen years ago, we have
seen these Heights in other tenancy: Austrian field-music and
displayed banners coming down; a thousand and a thousand Austrian
watch-fires blazing out yonder, in the silent June night, eve of
such a Day! Baireuth Dragoons and their No. 67;--you will find the
Baireuth Dragoons still here in a sense, but also in a sense not.
Their fencing Chasot is gone to Lubeck long since; will perhaps pay
Friedrich a visit by and by: their fiery Gessler is gone much
farther, and will never visit anybody more! Many were the reapers
then, and they are mostly gone to rest. Here is a new harvest;
the old SICKLES are still here; but the hands that wielded them--!
"Steady!" answers the Herr General; profoundly aware of all that,
but averse to words upon it.

Fancy Loudon's astonishment, on the third day: "While we have sat
consulting how to attack him, there is he,--unattackable, shall we
say?" Unattackable, Loudon will not consent to think him, though
Butturlin has quite consented. "Difficult, murderous," thinks
Loudon; "but possible, certain, could Butturlin but be persuaded!"
And tries all his rhetoric on Butturlin: "Shame on us!" urges the
ardent Loudon: "Imperial and Czarish Majesties; Kriegshofrath,
Russian Senate; Vienna, Petersburg, Versailles and all the world,--
what are they expecting of us? To ourselves it seemed certain, and
here we sit helplessly gazing!" Loudon is very diligent upon
Butturlin: "Do but believe that it is possible. A plan can be made;
many plans: the problem is solved, if only your Excellency will
believe." Which Butturlin never quite will.

Nobody knows better than Friedrich in what perilous crisis he now
stands: beaten here, what army or resource has he left? Silesia is
gone from him; by every likelihood, the game is gone. This of
Bunzelwitz is his last card; this is now his one stronghold in the
world:--we need not say if he is vigilant in regard to this.
From about the fourth day, when his engineering was only complete
in outline, he particularly expects to be attacked. On the fifth
night he concludes it will be; knowing Loudon's way. Towards
sunset, that evening (August 25th), all the tents are struck:
tents, cookeries, every article of baggage, his own among the rest,
are sent to Wurben Heights (to Schweidnitz, Archenholtz says; but
has misremembered): the ground cleared for action. And horse and
foot, every man marches out, and stands ready under arms.

Contrary to everybody's expectation, not a shot was heard, that
night. Nor the next night, nor the next: but the practice of
vigilance was continued. Punctual as mathematics: at a given hour
of the afternoon, tents are all struck; tents and furnitures, field
swept clear; and the 50,000 in their places wait under arms.
Next morning, nothing having fallen out, the tents come back;
the Army (half of it at once, or almost the whole of it, according
to aspects) rests, goes to sleep if it can. By night there is
vigilance, is work, and no sleep. It is felt to be a hard life, but
a necessary.

Nor in these labors of detail is the King wanting; far from it;
the King is there, as ear and eye of the whole. For the King alone
there is, near the chief Battery, "on the Pfarrberg, namely, in the
clump of trees there," a small Tent, and a bundle of straw where he
can lie down, if satisfied to do so. If all is safe, he will do so;
but perhaps even still he soon awakens again; and strolls about
among his guard-parties, or warms himself by their fires.
One evening, among the orders, is heard this item: "And remember, a
lock of straw, will you,--that I may not have to sleep on the
ground, as last night!" [Seyfarth, ii. 16 n.] Many anecdotes are
current to this day, about his pleasant homely ways and
affabilities with the sentry people, and the rugged hospitalities
they would show him at their watch-fires. "Good evening, children."
"The same to thee, Fritz." "What is that you are cooking?"--and
would try a spoonful of it, in such company; while the rough
fellows would forbid smoking, "Don't you know he dislikes it?"
"No, smoke away!" the King would insist.

Mythical mainly, these stories; but the dialect of them true;
and very strange to us. Like that of an Arab Sheik among his
tribesmen; like that of a man whose authority needs no keeping up,
but is a Law of Nature to himself and everybody. He permits a
little bantering even; a rough joke against himself, if it spring
sincerely from the complexion of the fact. The poor men are
terribly tired of this work: such bivouacking, packing, unpacking;
and continual waiting for the tug of battle, which never comes.
Biscuits, meal are abundant enough; but flesh-meat wearing low;
above all, no right sleep to be had. Friedrich's own table, I
should think, is very sparingly beset ("A cup of chocolate is my
dinner on marching-days," wrote he once, this Season);
certainly his Lodging,--damp ground, and the straw sometimes
forgotten,--is none of the best. And thus it has to last, night
after night and day after day. On September 8th, General Bulow went
out for a little butcher's-meat; did bring home "200 head of neat
cattle [I fear, not very fat] and 300 sheep." [Tempelhof, v. 172.]

Loudon, all this while, is laboring, as man seldom did, to bring
Butturlin to the striking place; who continues flaccid, Loudon
screwing and rescrewing, altogether in vain. Loudon does not deny
the difficulty; but insists on the possibility, the necessity:
Councils of War are bid, remonstrances, encouragements. "We will
lend you a Corps," answers Butturlin; "but as to our Army
cooperating,--except in that far-off way, it is too dangerous!"
Meanwhile provisions are running low; the time presses. A formal
Plan, presented by the ardent Loudon ,--Loudon himself to take the
deadlier part,--"Mark it, noble Russian gentlemen; and you to have
the easier!"--surely that is loyal, and not in the old cat's-paw
way? But in that, too, there is an offence. Butturlin and the
Russians grumble to themselves: "And you to take all the credit, as
you did at Kunersdorf? A mere adjunct, or auxiliary, we: and we are
a Feldmarschall; and you, what is your rank and seniority?" In
short, they will not do it; and in the end coldly answer: "A Corps,
if you like; but the whole Army, positively no." Upon which Loudon
goes home half mad; and has a colic for eight-and-forty hours.
This was September 2d; the final sour refusal;--nearly heart-
breaking to Loudon. Provisions are run so low withal: the Campaign
season all but done; result, nothing: not even an attempt at
a result.

No Prussian, from Friedrich downwards, had doubted but the attack
would be: the grand upshot and fiery consummation of these dark
continual hardships and nocturnal watchings. Thrice over, on
different nights, the Prussians imagined Loudon to have drawn out,
intending actual business; and thrice over to have drawn in again,
--instead of once only, as was the fact, and then taken colic.
[Tempelhof, v. 170.] Friedrich's own notion, that "over dinner,
glass in hand," the two Generals had, in the enthusiasm of such a
moment, agreed to do it, but on sober inspection found it too
dubious, [ OEuvres de Frederic,  v. 125.]
appears to be ungrounded. Whether they could in reality have
stormed him, had they all been willing, is still a question;
and must continue one. Wednesday evening, 9th September, there was
much movement noticeable in the Russian camp; also among the
Austrian, there are regiments, foot and horse, coming down
hitherward . "Meaning to try it then?" thought Friedrich, and got
at once under arms. Suppositions were various; but about 10 at
night, the whole Russian Camp went up in flame; and, next morning,
the Russians were not there.

Russian main Army clean gone; already got to Jauer, as we hear; and
Beck with a Division to see them safe across the Oder;--only
Czernichef and 20,000 being left, as a Corps of Loudon's. Who, with
all Austrians, are quiet in their Heights of Kunzendorf again.
And thus, on the twentieth morning, September 10th, this strange
Business terminated. Shot of those batteries is drawn again;
powder of those mines lifted out again: no firing of your heavy
Artillery at all, nor even of your light, after such elaborate
charging and shoving of it hither and thither for the last three
weeks. The Prussians cease their bivouacking, nightly striking of
tents; and encamp henceforth in a merely human manner; their
"Spanish Riders" (FRISIAN Horse, CHEVAUX-DE-FRISE, others of us
call them), their Storm-pales and elaborate wooden Engineerings,
they gradually burn as fuel in the cold nights; finding Loudon
absolutely quiescent, and that the thing is over, for the present.
One huge peril handsomely staved away, though so many
others impend.

By way of accelerating Butturlin, Friedrich, next day, September
11th, despatched General Platen with some 8,000 (so I will guess
them from Tempelhof's enumeration by battalions), to get round the
flank of Butturlin, and burn his Magazines. Platen, a valiant
skilful person, did this business, as he was apt to do, in a
shining style; shot dexterously forward by the skirts of Butturlin;
heard of a big WAGENBURG or Travelling Magazine of his, at Gostyn
over the Polish Frontier; in fact, his travelling bread-basket,
arranged as "Wagon-fortress" in and round some Convent there, with
trenches, brick walls, cannon and defence considered strong enough
for so important a necessary of the road. September 15th, Platen,
before cock-crow, burst out suddenly on this Wagon-fortress, with
its cannons, trenches, brick walls and defensive Russians;
stormed into it with extraordinary fury: "Fixed bayonets," ordered
he at the main point of their defence, "not a shot till they are
tumbled out!"--tumbled them out accordingly, into flight and ruin;
took of prisoners 1,845, seven cannon, and burnt the 5,000
provender wagons, which was the soul of the adventure; and directly
got upon the road again. [Tempelhof, v. 281-293; 
Helden-Geschichte,  vi. 643-649.] Detachments of him
then fell on Posen, on Posen and other small Russian repositories
in those parts,--hay-magazines, biscuit-stores soldiers' uniforms;
distributed or burnt the same;--completely destroying the
travelling haversack or general road-bag of Butturlin; a Butturlin
that will have to hasten forward or starve.

Which done, Platen (not waiting the King's new orders, but
anticipating them, to the King's great contentment) marched
instantly, with his best speed and skilfulest contrivance of routes
and methods, not back to the King, but onward towards Colberg,--
(which he knows, as readers shall anon, to be much in need of him
at present);--and without injury, though begirt all the way by a
hurricane of Cossacks and light people doing their utmost upon him,
arrived there September 25th; victoriously cutting in across the
Besieging Party: and will again be visible enough when we arrive
there. Indignant Butturlin chased violently, eager to punish
Platen; but could get no hold: found Platen was clear off, to
Pommern,--on what errand Butturlin knew well, if not so well what
to do in consequence. "Reinforce our poor Besiegers there, and
again reinforce [to enormous amounts, 40,000 of them in the end];--
get bread from them withal:--and, before long, flow bodily
thitherward, for bread to ourselves and for their poor sake!"
That, on the whole, was what Butturlin did.

Friedrich stayed at Bunzelwitz above a fortnight after Butturlin.
"Why did not Friedrich stay altogether, and wait here?" said some,
triumphantly soon after. That was not well possible.
His Schweidnitz Magazine is worn low; not above a month's provision
now left for so many of us. The rate of sickness, too, gets heavier
and heavier in this Bunzelwitz Circuit. In fine, it is greatly
desirable that Loudon, who has nothing but Bohemia for outlook,
should be got to start thither as soon as possible, and be
quickened homeward. September 25th-26th, Friedrich will be under
way again.

And, in the mean while, may not we employ this fortnight of
quiescence in noting certain other things of interest to him and us
which have occurred, or are occurring, in other parts of the Field
of War? Of Henri in Saxony we undertook to say nothing; and indeed
hitherto,--big Daun with his Lacys and Reichsfolk, lying so
quiescent, tethered by considerations (Daun continually detaching,
watching, for support of his Loudon and Russians and their thrice-
important operation, which has just had such a finish),--there
could almost nothing be said. Nothing hitherto, or even henceforth,
as it proves, except mutual vigilances, multifarious bickerings,
manoeuvrings, affairs of posts: sharp bits of cutting (Seidlitz,
Green Kleist and other sharp people there); which must not detain
us in such speed. But there are two points, the Britannic-French
Campaign, and the Third Siege of Colberg; which in no rate of speed
could be quite omitted.


OF FERDINAND'S BATTLE OF VELLINGHAUSEN (15th-16th July);
AND THE CAMPAIGN 1761.

Vellinghausen is a poor little moory Hamlet in Paderborn Country,
near the south or left bank of the Lippe River; lies to the north
of Soest,--some 15 miles to your left-hand there, as you go by rail
from Aachen to Paderborn;--but nobody now has ever heard of it at
Soest or elsewhere, famous as it once became a hundred years ago.
Ferdinand had taken a singular position there, in the early days of
July, 1761. Here is brief Notice of that Affair, and of some
results, or adjuncts, still more important, which it had:--

"This Year, Ferdinand's Campaign is more difficult than ever;
Choiseul having made a quite spasmodic effort towards Hanover,
while negotiating for Peace. Two Armies, counting together 160,000
men, in great completeness of equipment, Choiseul has got on foot,
against Ferdinand's of 95,000. Had a fine dashing plan, too;--
devised by himself (something of a Soldier he too, and full of what
the mess-rooms call 'dash');--not so bad a Plan of the dashing
kind, say judges. But it was marred sadly in one point:
That Broglio, on issuing from his Hessian Winter-quarters, is not
to be sole General; that Soubise, from the Lower-Rhine Country, is
to be Co-General;--such the inexorable will of Pompadour.
This clause of the business Ferdinand, at an early stage, appears
to have guessed or discerned might, for him, be the saving clause.

"Now, as formerly, Ferdinand's first grand business is to guard
Lippstadt,--guard it now from these two Generals:--and, singular to
see, instead of opposing the junction of them, he has submitted
cheerfully to let them join. And in the course of a week or two
after taking the field, is found to be on the western or outmost
flank of Soubise, crushing him up towards Broglio, not otherwise!
And has, partly by accident, taken a position at Vellinghausen
which infinitely puzzles Broglio and Soubise, when they rush into
junction at Soest (July 6th)) and study the thing, with their own
eyes, for eight whole days, in concert.' What continual
reconnoitring, galloping about of high-plumed gentlemen together or
apart; what MEMOIR-ing, mutual consulting, beating of brains, to
little purpose, during those eight days!--

"Ferdinand stands in moory difficult ground, length of him about
eight miles, looking eastward; with his left at Vellinghausen and
the Lippe; centre of him is astride of the Ahse (centre partly, and
right wing wholly, are on the south side of Ahse), which is a
branch of Lippe; and in front, he has various little Hamlets,
Kirch-Denkern [KIRCH-Denkern, for there are three or four other
Denkerns thereabouts], Scheidingen, Wambeln and others; and his
right wing is covered farther by a quaggy brook, which runs into
the above-said Ahse, and is a SUB-branch of Lippe. At most of these
Villages Ferdinand has thrown up something of earthworks: there are
bogs, rough places, woods; all are turned to advantage.
Ferdinand is in a strongish, but yet a dangerous position; and will
give difficulties, and does give endless dubieties, to these high-
plumed gentlemen galloping about with their spy-glasses for eight
days. One possibility they pretty soon discern in him: His left
flank rests on Lippe, yes; but his right flank is in the air, has
nothing to rest on;--here surely is some possibility for us?
A strong Position, that of his; but if driven out of it by any
method, he has no retreat; is tumbled back into the ANGLE where
Ahse and Lippe meet, and into the little Town of Hamm there, where
his Magazine is. What a fate for him, if we succeed!--

"Ferdinand, by the incessant reconnoitring and other symptoms,
judges what is coming; concludes he will be attacked in this
posture of his; and on the whole, what critics now reckon very wise
and very courageous of him, determines to stand his chance in it.
The consultations of Broglio and Soubise are a thing unique to look
upon; spread over volumes of Official Record, and about a volume
and a half even of BOURCET, where it is still almost amusing to
read; [ Memoires Historiques  (that is to say,
for most part, Selection of Official Papers)  sur la Guerre
que les Francais ont soutenue en Allemagne depuis 1757 jusqu'au
 1762: par M. de Bourcet, Lieutenant-General des Armees
du Roi (3 tomes, Paris, 1792);--worthily done; but occupied,
two-thirds of it, with this Vellinghausen and the paltry "Campaign
of 1761"!] and ending in helpless downbreak on both parts.
Of strategic faculty nobody supposes they had much, and nearly all
of it is in Broglio; Soubise being strong in Court-favor only.
Exquisitely polite they both strive to be; and under the exquisite
politeness, what infirmities of temper, splenetic suspicions, and
in fact mutual hatred lay hidden, could never be accurately known.
'Attack him, Sunday next; on the 13th!' so, at the long last, both
of them had said. And then, on more reflection, Broglio afterwards:
 'Or not till the 15th, M. le Prince; till I reconnoitre yet again,
and drive in his outposts?' 'M. le Marechal's will is always mine:
Tuesday, 15th, reconnoitre him, drive him in; be it so, then!'
answers Soubise, with extreme politeness,--but thinking in his own
mind (or thought to be thinking), 'Wants to do it himself, or to
get the credit of doing it, as in former cases; and bring me into
disgrace!' Not quite an insane notion either, on Soubise's part,
say some who have looked into the Broglio-Soubise Controversy;--
which far be it from any of us, at this or at any time, to do.
Here are the facts that ensued.

"TUESDAY, JULY 15th, 1761, Broglio reconnoitred with intensity all
day, drove in all Ferdinand's outposts; and about six in the
evening, seeing hope of surprise, or spurred by some notion of
doing the feat by himself, suddenly burst into onslaught on
Ferdinand's Position: 'Vellinghausen yonder, and the woody
strengths about,--could not we get hold of that; it would be so
convenient to-morrow morning!' Granby and the English are in camp
about Vellinghausen; and are taken quite on the sudden: but they
drew out rapidly, in a state of bottled indignation, and fought,
all of them,--Pembroke's Brigade of Horse, Cavendish's of Foot,
BERG-SCHOTTEN, Maxwell's Brigade and the others, in a highly
satisfactory way,--'MIT UNBESCHREIBLICHER TAPFERKEIT,' says
Mauvillon on this occasion again. Broglio truly has burst out into
enormous cannonade, musketade and cavalry-work, in this part;
and struggles at it, almost four hours,--a furious, and especially
a very noisy business, charging, recharging through the woods
there;--but, met in this manner, finds he can make nothing of it;
and about 10 at night, leaves off till a new morning.

"Next morning, about 4, Broglio, having diligently warned Soubise
overnight, recommenced; again very fiercely, and with loud
cannonading; but with result worse than before.
Ferdinand overnight, while Broglio was warning Soubise, had
considerably strengthened his left wing here,--by detachments from
the right or Anti-Soubise wing; judging, with good foresight, how
Soubise would act. And accordingly, while poor Broglio kept
storming forward with his best ability, and got always hurled back
again, Soubise took matters easy; 'had understood the hour of
attack to be' so-and-so, 'had understood' this and that; and on the
whole, except summoning or threatening, in the most languid way,
one outlying redoubt ('redoubt of Scheidingen') on Ferdinand's
right wing, did nothing, or next to nothing, for behoof of his
Broglio. Who, hour after hour, finds himself ever worse bested;--
those Granby people proving 'indescribable' once more [their
Wutgenau also with his Hanoverians NOT being absent, as they rather
were last night];--and about 10 in the morning gives up the bad
job; and sets about retiring. If retiring be now permissible;
which it is not altogether. Ferdinand, watching intently through
his glass the now silent Broglio, discerns 'Some confusion in the
Marechal yonder!'--and orders a general charge of the left wing
upon Broglio; which considerably quickened his retreat; and broke
it into flight, and distressful wreck and capture, in some parts,--
Regiment ROUGE, for one item, falling wholly, men, cannon, flags
and furniture, to that Maxwell and his Brigade.

"Ferdinand lost, by the indistinct accounts, 'from 1,500 to 2,000:'
Broglio's loss was 'above 5,000; 2,000 of them prisoners.'
Soubise, for his share, 'had of killed 24,'--O you laggard of a
Soubise! [Mauvillon, ii. 171-189; Tempelhof, v. 207-221;
Bourcet, ii. 75 et seq. In  Helden-Geschichte 
(vi. 770-782-792) the French Account, and the English (or Allied),
with LISTS, and the like. Slight LETTER from Sir Robert Murray
Keith to his Excellency Papa, now at Petersburg, "Excellency
first," as we used to define him, stands in the miserably edited
 Memoirs and Correspondence  (London, 1849),
i. 104-105; and may tempt you to a reading; but alters nothing,
adds little or nothing. Sir R. fights here as a Colonel of
Highlanders, but afterwards became "Excellency second" of his
name.] And it is a Battle lost to Choiseul's grand Pair of Armies;
a Campaign checked in mid volley; and nothing but recriminations,
courts-martial, shrieky jargonings,--and plain incompatibility
between the two Marechaux de France; so that they had to part
company, and go each his own road henceforth. Choiseul remonstrates
with them, urges, eucourages; writes the 'admirablest Despatches;'
to no purpose. 'How ridiculous and humiliating would it be for us,
if, with Two Armies of such strength, we accomplished nothing, and
the whole Campaign were lost!' writes he once to them.

"Which was in fact the result arrived at; the two Generals parting
company for this Campaign (and indeed for all others); and each, in
his own way, proving futile. Soubise, with some 30,000, went
gasconading about, in the Westphalian, or extreme western parts;
taking Embden (from two Companies of Chelsea Pensioners; to whom he
broke his word, poor old souls;--to whom, and much more to the
Populations there [LETTER FROM A FRENCH PROTESTANT GENTLEMAN AT
GRONINGEN; followed by confirmatory LETTER FROM &c. &c. (copied
into  Gentleman's Magazine  for 1761), give
special details of the altogether ULTRA-Soltikof atrocities
perpetrated by Soubise's people (doubtless against his will) on the
recalcitrant or disaffected Peasants, on the &c. &c.]),--taking
Embden, not taking Bremen; and in fact doing nothing, except keep
the Gazetteers in vain noise: a Soubise not in force, by himself,
to shake Ferdinand; and who, it is remarked, now and formerly,
always prefers to be at a good distance from that Gentleman.
Broglio, on the other hand, keeps violently pulsing out, round
Ferdinand's flanks; taking Wolfenbuttel (Broglio's for two days),
besieging Brunswick (for one day);-and, in short, leaving, he too,
the matter as he had found it. A man of difficult, litigious
temper, I should judge; but clearly has something of generalship:
'does understand tactic, if strategy NOT,' said everybody;
'while Soubise, in both capacities, is plain zero!' [Excellency
Stanley (see INFRA) to Pitt, "Paris, 30th July, 1761:" in
THACKERAY, ii. 561-562.] The end, however, was: next Winter,
Broglio got dismissed, in favor of Soubise;--rest from shrieky
jargon having its value to some of us; and 'hold of Hanover' being
now plainly a matter hopeless to France and us."

In this Battle a fine young Prince of Brunswick got killed;
Erbprinz's second Brother;--leading on a Regiment of BERG-SCHOTTEN,
say the accounts. [ "The Life of Prince Albert Henry  [had lived only 19 years, poor youth, not much of a
"Life"!-but the account of his Education is worth reading, from a
respectable Eye-witness]  of Brunswick-Luneburg, Brother to
the Hereditary Prince; who so eminently &c. at Fellinghausen  &c. &c. (London, Printed for &c. 1763).  Written
originally in German by the Rev. Mr. Hierusalem" 
(Father of the "Young Jerusalem" who killed himself afterwards, and
became, in a sense, Goethe's WERTHER and SORROWS). Price, probably,
Twopence).] Berg-Schotten, and English generally, Pembroke's Horse,
Cavendish's Brigade,--we have mentioned their behavior; and how
Maxwell's Brigade took one whole regiment prisoners, in that final
charge on Broglio. "What a glorious set of fellows!" said the
English people over their beer at home. Beer let us fancy it;
at the sign of THE MARQUIS OF GRANBY, which is now everywhere
prevalent and splendent;--the beer, we will hope, good. And as this
is a thing still said, both over beer and higher liquors, and
perhaps is liable to be too much insisted on, I will give, from a
caudid By-stander, who knows the matter well, what probably is a
more solid and circumstantially correct opinion. Speaking of
Ferdinand's skill of management, and of how very composite a kind
his Army was, Major Mauvillon has these words:--

"The first in rank," of Ferdinand's Force, "were the English;
about a fourth part of the whole Army. Braver troops, when on the
field of battle and under arms against the enemy, you will nowhere
find in the world: that is a truth;--and with that the sum of their
military merits ends. In the first place, their Infantry consists
of such an unselected hand-over-head miscellany of people, that it
is highly difficult to preserve among them even a shadow of good
discipline,"--of MANNSZUCHT, in regard to plunder, drinking and the
like; does not mean KRIEGSZUCHT, or drill. "Their Cavalry indeed is
not so constituted; but a foolish love for their horses makes them
astonishingly plunderous of forage; and thus they exhaust a
district far faster in that respect than do the Germans.

"Officers' Commissions among them are all had by purchase:
from which it follows that their Officers do not trouble their
heads about the service; and understand of it, very VERY few
excepted, absolutely nothing whatever [what a charming set of
"Officers"!]--and this goes from the Ensign up to the General.
Their home-customs incline them to the indulgences of life;
and, nearly without exception, they all expect to have ample and
comfortable means of sleep. [Hear, hear!] This leads them often
into military negligences, which would sound incredible, were they
narrated to a soldier. To all this is added a quiet natural
arrogance (UEBERMUTH),"--very quiet, mostly unconscious, and as if
inborn and coming by discernment of mere facts,--"which tempts them
to despise the enemy as well as the danger; and as they very seldom
think of making any surprisal themselves, they generally take it
for granted that the enemy will as little.

"This arrogance, however, had furthermore a very bad consequence
for their relation to the rest of the Army. It is well known how
much these people despise all Foreigners. This of itself renders
their co-operating with Troops of other Nations very difficult.
But in this case there was the circumstance that, as the Army was
in English pay, they felt a strong tendency to regard their fellow-
soldiers and copartners as a sort of subordinate war-valets, who
must be ready to put up with anything:--which was far indeed from
being the opinion of the others concerned! The others had not the
smallest notion of consenting to any kind of inferior treatment or
consideration in respect of them. To the Hanoverians especially,
from known political feelings, they were at heart, for most part,
specially indisposed; and this mode of thinking was capable of
leading to very dangerous outbreaks. The Hanoverians, a dull steady
people, brave as need be, but too slow for anything but foot
service, considered silently this War to be their War, and that all
the rest, English as well, were here on their [and Britannic
Majesty's] account.

"Think what difficulties Ferdinand's were, and what his merit in
quietly subduing them; while to the cursory observer they were
invisible, and nobody noticed them but himself!" [Mauvillon, ii.
270-272.]

Yes, doubtless. He needed to know his kinds of men; to regard
intensely the chemic affinities and natural properties, to keep his
phosphorescents his nitres and charcoals well apart; to get out of
these English what they were capable of giving him, namely, heavy
strokes,--and never ask them for what they had not: them or the
others; but treat each according to his kind. Just, candid,
consummately polite: an excellent manager of men, as well as of
war-movements, though Voltaire found him shockingly defective in
ESPRIT. The English, I think, he generally quartered by themselves;
employed them oftenest under the Hereditary Prince,--a man of swift
execution and prone to strokes like themselves. "Oftenest under the
Erbprinz," says Mauvillon: "till, after the Fight of Kloster
Kampen, it began to be noticed that there was a change in that
respect; and the mess-rooms whispered, 'By accident or not?'"--
which shall remain mysterious to me. In Battle after Battle he got
the most unexceptionable sabring and charging from Lord Granby and
the difficult English element; and never was the least discord
heard in his Camp;--nor could even Sackville at Minden tempt him
into a loud word.

But enough of English soldiering, and battling with the French.
For about two months prior to this of Vellinghausen, and for more
than two months after, there is going on, by special Envoys between
Pitt and Choiseul, a lively Peace-Negotiation, which is of more
concernment to us than any Battle. "Congress at Augsburg" split
upon formalities, preliminaries, and never even tried to meet:
but France and England are actually busy. Each Country has sent its
Envoy: the Sieur de Bussy, a tricky gentleman, known here of old,
is Choiseul's, whom Pitt is on his guard against; "Mr. Hans
Stanley," a lively, clear-sighted person, of whom I could never
hear elsewhere, is Pitt's at Paris: and it is in that City between
Choiseul and Stanley, with Pitt warily and loftily presiding in the
distance, that the main stress of the Negotiation lies. Pitt is
lofty, haughty, but very fine and noble; no King or Kaiser could be
more. Sincere, severe, though most soft-shining; high, earnest,
steady, like the stars. Artful Choiseul, again, flashes out in a
cheerily exuberant way; and Stanley's Despatches about Choiseul
("CE FOU PLEIN D'ESPRIT," as Friedrich once christens him), about
Choiseul and the France then round him, and the effects of
Vellinghausen in society and the like,--are the liveliest reading
one almost anywhere meets with in that kind. [In THACKERAY, i.
505-579, and especially ii. 520-626, is the Stanley-and-Pitt
Correspondence: Stanley went "23d May;" returned (got his passports
for returning) "September 20th."] Choiseul frankly admits that he
has come to the worst: ready for concessions, but the question is,
What? Canada is gone, for instance; of Canada you will allow us
nothing: but our poor Fisher-people, toiling in the Newfoundland
waters, cannot they have a rock to dry their fish on; "Isle of
Miquelon, or the like?" "Not the breadth of a blanket,"--that is
Pitt's private expression, I believe; and for certain, that, in
polite official language, is his inexorable determination.
"You shall go home out of those Countries, Messieurs; America is to
be English or YANkee, not FRANGcee: that has turned out to be the
Decree of Heaven; and we will stand by that."

So that Choiseul soon satisfies himself it will be a hard bargain,
this with Pitt; and turns the more assiduously to the Majesty of
Spain (Baby Carlos, our old friend, who has sore grudges of his own
against the English, standing grievance of Campeachy Logwood, of
bitter Naples reminiscences, and enough else), turns to Baby
Carlos, time after time, with his pathetic "See, your Most Catholic
Majesty!" And by rapid degrees induces Most Catholic Majesty to go
wholly into the adventure with Most Christian Ditto;--and to say,
at length, or to let Choiseul say for him, by way of cautious
first-step (15th July, a date worth remembering, if the reader
please): "Might not Most Catholic Majesty be allowed perhaps to
mediate a little in this Business?" "Most Catholic Majesty!"
answers Pitt, with a flash as if from the empyrean: "Who sent for
Most Catholic Majesty?"--and the matter catches fire, totally
explodes, and Spain too declares War; in what way is
generally known.

Details are not permitted us. The Catastrophe we shall give
afterwards, and can here say only: FIRST, That old Earl Marischal,
Friedrich's Spanish Envoy, is a good deal in England, coming and
going, at this time,--on that interesting business of the Kintore
Inheritance, doubtless,--and has been beautifully treated.
Been pardoned, disattainted, permitted to inherit,--by the King on
the instant, by the Parliament so soon as possible; [King's Patent
is of "30th April, 1760 [DATED 29th May, 1759], Act of Parliament
to follow shortly;" "August 16th, 1760, Act having passed, is
Marischal's public Presentation to his Majesty (late Majesty);"
Old GAZETTES in  Gentleman's Magazine  (for
1760), xxx. 201, 392.]--and is of a naturally grateful turn.
SECONDLY, That in the profoundest secrecy, penetrable only to eyes
near at hand and that see in the dark, a celebrated Bourbon Family
Compact was signed (August 15th, 1761, ten days before the digging
at Bunzelwitz began), of which the first news to the Olympian man
(conveyed by Marischal, as is thought) was like--like news of dead
Pythons pretending to revive upon him. And THIRDLY, That,
postponing the Catastrophe, and recommending the above two dates,
15th JULY, 15th AUGUST, to careful readers, we must hasten to
Colberg for the present.


THIRD SIEGE OF COLBERG.

Readers had, some while ago, a flying Note, which we promised to
take up again; about Tottleben's procedures, and a Third Siege of
Colberg coming. Siege, we have chanced to see, there accordingly
is, and a Platen gone to help against it. Siege, after infinite
delays and haggles, has at length come,--uncommonly vivid during
the final days of Bunzelwitz;--and is, and has been, and continues
to be, much in the King's thoughts. Probably a matter of more
concernment to him, before, during and after Bunzelwitz (though the
Pitt Catastrophe, going on simultaneously, is still more important,
if he knew it), than anything else befalling in the distance.
Let us now give a few farther indications on that matter.

Truce between Werner and Tottleben expired May 12th; but for five
weeks more nothing practical followed; except diligent reinforcing,
revictualling and extraordinary fortifying of Colberg and its
environs, on the Prussian part,--Eugen of Wurtemberg, direct from
Restock and his Anti-Swede business, Eugen 12,000 strong, with a
Werner and other such among them, taking head charge outside the
walls; old Heyde again as Commandant within: while on the Russian
part, under General Romanzow, there is a most tortoise-like
advance,--except that the tortoise carries all his resources with
him, and Romanzow's, multifarious and enormous, are scattered over
seas and lands, and need endless waiting for, in the intervals
of crawling.

This is the Romanzow who failed at Colherg once already (on the
heel of Zorndorf in 1758, if readers recollect); and is the more
bound to be successful now. From sea and from land, for five weeks,
there is rumor of a Romanzow in overwhelming force, and with
intentions very furious upon Colberg,--upon the outposts, under
Werner, as first point. Five weeks went, before anything of
Romanzow was visible even to Werner (22d June, at Coslin, forty
miles to eastward); after which his advance (such waiting for the
ships, for the artilleries, the this and the that) was slower than
ever; and for about eight weeks more, he haggles along through
Coslin, through Corlin, Belgard again, flowing slowly forward upon
Werner's outposts, like a summer glacier with its rubbishes;
or like a slow lava-tide,--a great deal of smoke on each side of
him (owing to the Cossacks), as usual. Romanzow's progress is of
the slowest; and it is not till August 19th that he practically
gets possession of Corlin, Belgard and those outposts on the
Persante River, and comes within sight of Colberg and his problem.
By which time, he finds Eugen of Wurtemberg encamped and intrenched
still ahead of him, still nearer Colberg, and likely to give him
what they call "DE LA TABLATURE," or extremely difficult music
to play.

"It was on AUGUST 19th [very eve of Friedrich's going into
Bunzelwitz] that Romanzow,--Werner, for the sake of those poor
Towns he holds, generally retiring without bombardment or utter
conflagration,--had got hold of Corlin and of the River Persante
[with "Quetzin and Degow," if anybody knew them, as his main posts
there]: and was actually now within sight of Colberg,--only 7 or 8
miles west of him, and a river more or less in his way:--when,
singular to see, Eugen of Wurtemberg has rooted himself into the
ground farther inward, environing Colberg with a fortified Camp as
with a second wall; and it will be a difficult problem indeed!

"But Sea Armaments, Swedish-Russian, with endless siege-material
and red-hot balls, are finally at hand; and this pitiful Colberg
must be done, were it only by falling flat, on it, and smothering
it by weight of numbers and of red-hot iron. The day before
yesterday, August 17th, after such rumoring and such manoeuvring as
there has been, six Russian ships-of-war showed themselves in
Colberg Roads, and three of them tried some shooting on Heyde's
workpeople, busy at a redoubt on the beach; but hit nothing, and
went away till Romanzow himself should come. Romanzow come, there
is utmost despatch; and within the eight days following, the
Russian ships, and then the Swedish as well, have all got to their
moorings,--12 sail of the line, with 42 more of the frigate and
gunboat kind, 54 ships in all;--and from August 24th, especially
from August 28th, bombardment to the very uttermost is going on.
[Tempelhof, v. 311.] Bombardment by every method, from sea and from
land, continues diligent for the next fortnight,--with little or no
result; so diligent are Eugen and veteran Heyde.

"SEPTEMBER 4th. The Swedish-Russian gunboats have been much shot
down by Heyde's batteries on the beach; no success had, owing to
Heyde and Eugen: paltry little Colberg as impossible as Bunzelwitz,
it seems? 'Double our diligence, therefore!' That is Romanzow's and
everybody's sentiment here. Romanzow comes closer in, September
4th; besieges in form, since not Colberg, Eugen's CAMP, or brazen
wall of Colberg; and there rises in and round this poor little
Colberg (a 2,000 balls daily, red-hot and other) such a volcano as
attracts the eyes of all the world thither.

"SEPTEMBER 12th. News yesterday of reinforcement, men and
provender, coming from Stettin; is to be at Treptow on the 13th.
Werner, night of the 11th, stealthily sets out to meet it, IT in
the first place; then, joined with it, to take by rearward a
certain inconvenient battery, which Romanzow is building to
westward of us, out that way; to demolish said battery, and be
generally distressful to the rear of Romanzow. At Treptow, after
his difficult night's march, Werner is resting, secure now of the
adventure;--too contemptuous of his slow Russians, as appeared!
Who, for once, surprise HIM; and, at and round Treptow, next
morning, Werner finds himself suddenly in a most awkward
predicament. Werner, one of the rapidest and stormiest of skilful
men, plunged valiantly into the affair; would still have managed
it, they say, had not, in some sudden swoop,--charge, or something
of critical or vital nature,--rapid Werner's horse got shot, and
fallen with him; whereby not only the charge failed, but Werner
himself was taken prisoner. A loss of very great importance, and
grievous to everybody: though, I believe, the reinforcement and
supply, for this time, got mostly through, and the dangerous
battery was got demolished by other means. [Seyfarth, 
Beylagen,  iii. 238; Tempelhof, v. 314.] This is
Romanzow's first item of success, this of getting such a Werner
snatched out of the game [and sent to Petersburg instead as we
shall hear]; and other items fell to Romanzow thenceforth by the
aid of time and hunger.

"In the way of storming, battering or otherwise capturing Eugen's
Camp, not to speak of Heyde's town, Romanzow finds, on trial after
trial, that he can do as good as nothing; and his unwieldy sea-
comrades (equinoctial gales coming on them, too) are equally
worthless. September 19th [a week after this of Werner, tenth day
after Bunzelwitz had ended], Romanzow made his fiercest attempt
that way; fiercest and last: furious extremely, from 2 in the
morning onwards; had for some time hold of the important 'Green
Redoubt;' but was still more furiously battered and bayoneted out
again, with the loss of above 3,000 men; and tried that no farther.
Impossible by that method. But he can stand between the Eugen-Heyde
people and supplies; and by obstinacy hunger them out: this,
added to the fruitless bombardment, is now his more or less
fruitful industry.

"In the end of September, the effects of Bunzelwitz are felt:
Platen, after burning the Butturlin Magazine at Gostyn, has
hastened hither; in what style we know. Blaten arrives 25th
September; cuts his way through Romanzow into Eugen's Camp, raises
Eugen to about 15,000; [Tempelhof, v. 350.] renders Eugen, not to
speak of Heyde, more impossible than ever. Butturlin did truly send
reinforcements, a 10,000, a 12,000, 'As many as you like, my
Romanzow!' And, in the beginning of October, came rolling
thitherward bodily; hoping, they say, to make a Maxen of it upon
those Eugens and Platens: but after a fortnight's survey of them,
found there was not the least feasibility;--and that he himself
must go home, on the score of hunger. Which he did, November 2d;
leaving Romanzow reinforced at discretion [40,000, but with him too
provisions are fallen low], and the advice, 'Cut off their
supplies: time and famine are our sole chances here!'
Butturlin's new Russians, endless thousands of them, under Fermor
and others, infesting the roads from Stettin, are a great comfort
to Romanzow. Nor could any Eugen--with his Platens, Thaddens, and
utmost expenditure of skill and of valor and endurance, which are
still memorable in soldier-annals, [ Tagebuch der
Unternehmungen des Platenschen Corps vom September bis November
1761  (Seyfarth,  Beylagen,  iii.
32-76).  Bericht von der Unternehmungen des Thaddenschen
Corps vom Jenner bis zum December 1761  (ibid.
77-147).]--suffice to convey provisions through that disastrous
Wilderness of distances and difficulties.

"From Stettin, which lies southwest, through Treptow Gollnow and
other wild little Prussian Towns is about 100 miles; from Landsberg
south, 150: Friedrich himself is well-nigh 300 miles away;
in Stettin alone is succor, could we hold the intervening Country.
But it is overrun with Russians, more and ever more. A Country of
swamps and moors, winter darkness stealing over it,--illuminated by
such a volcano as we see: a very gloomy waste scene; and traits of
stubborn human valor and military virtue plentiful in it with utter
hardship as a constant quantity; details not permissible here only
the main features and epochs, if they could be indicated.

"The King is greatly interested for Colberg; sends orders to
collect from every quarter supplies at Stettin, and strain every
nerve for the relief of that important little Haven. Which is done
by the diligent Bevern, the collecting part; could only the
conveying be accomplished. But endless Russians are afield, Fermor
with a 15,000 of them waylaying; the conveyance is the difficulty."
[ Bericht von den Unternehmungen der Wurtembergischen Corps
in Pommern, vom May 1761 bis December 1761  (Seyfarth,
 Beylagen,  iii. 147-258). Tempelhof, v.
313-326.  Helden-Geschichte,  vi. 669-708.]

But now we must return to Bunzelwitz, and September 25th, in Head-
quarters there.



Chapter VIII.

LOUDON POUNCES UPON SCHWEIDNITZ ONE NIGHT (LAST OF SEPTEMBER, 1761).

It was September 25th, more properly 26th, [Tempelhof, v. 327.]
when Friedrich quitted Bunzelwitz; we heard on what errand.
Early that morning he marches with all his goods, first to Pilzen
(that fine post on the east side of Schweidnitz); and from that,
straightway,--southwestward, two marches farther,--to Neisse
neighborhood (Gross-Nossen the name of the place); Loudon making
little dispute or none. In Neisse are abundant Magazines:
living upon these, Friedrich intends to alarm Loudon's rearward
country, and draw him towards Bohemia. As must have gradually
followed; and would at once,--had Loudon been given to alarms,
which he was not. Loudon, very privately, has quite different game
afield. Loudon merely detaches this and the other small Corps to
look after Friedrich's operations, which probably he believes to be
only a feint:--and, before a week passes, Friedrich will have news
he little expects!

Friedrich, pausing at Gross-Nossen, and perhaps a little surprised
to find no Loudon meddling with him, pushes out, first one party
and then another,--Dalwig, Bulow, towards Landshut Hill-Country, to
threaten Loudon's Bohemian roads;--who, singular to say, do not
hear the least word of Loudon thereabouts. A Loudon strangely
indifferent to this new Enterprise of ours. On the third day of
Gross-Nossen (Friday, October 2d), Friedrich detaches General
Lentulus to rearward, or the way we came, for news of Loudon.
Rearward too, Lentulus sees nothing whatever of Loudon: but, from
the rumor of the country, and from two Prussian garrison-soldiers,
whom he found wandering about,--he hears, with horror and
amazement, That Loudon, by a sudden panther-spring, the night
before last, has got hold of Schweidnitz: now his wholly, since
5 A.M. of yesterday; and a strong Austrian garrison in it by this
time! That was the news Lentulus brought home to his King;
the sorest Job's-post of all this War.

Truly, a surprising enterprise this of Loudon's; and is allowed by
everybody to have been admirably managed. Loudon has had it in his
head for some time;--ever since that colic of forty-eight hours, I
should guess; upon the wrecks of which it might well rise as a new
daystar. He kept it strictly in his own head; nobody but Daun and
the Kaiser had hint of it, both of whom assented, and agreed to
keep silence.

"On Friedrich's removal towards Neisse and threatening of Bohemia,"
says my Note on this subject, "Loudon's time had come.
Friedrich had disappeared to southwestward, Saturday, September
26th: 'Gone to Pilzen,' reported Loudon's scouts; 'rests there over
Sunday. Gone to Sigeroth, 28th; gone to Gross-Nossen, Tuesday,
September 29th.' [Tempelhof, v. 330.] That will do, thinks Loudon;
who has sat immovable at Kunzendorf all this while;--and,
WEDNESDAY, 30th, instantly proceeds to business.

"Draws out, about 10 A.M. of Wednesday, all round Schweidnitz at
some miles distance, a ring, or complete girdle, of Croat-Cossack
people; blocking up every path and road: 'Nobody to pass, this day,
towards Schweidnitz, much less into it, on any pretext.' That is
the duty of the Croat people. To another active Officer he intrusts
the task of collecting from the neighboring Villages (outside the
Croat girdle) as many ladders, planks and the like, as will be
requisite; which also is punctually done. For the Attack itself,
which is to be Fourfold, our picked Officers are chosen, with the
20 best Battalions in the Army: Czernichef is apprised; who warmly
assents, and offers every help:--'800 of your Grenadiers,' answers
Loudon; 'no more needed.' Loudon's arrangements for management of
the ladders, for punctuality about the routes, the times, the
simultaneity, are those of a perfect artist; no Friedrich could
have done better.

"About 4 in the afternoon, all the Captains and Battalions, with
their ladders and furnitures, everybody with Instruction very
pointed and complete, are assembled at Kunzendorf: Loudon addresses
the Troops in a few fiery words; assures himself of victory by
them; promises them 10,060 pounds in lieu of plunder, which he
strictly prohibits. Officers had better make themselves acquainted
with the Four Routes they are to take in the dark: proper also to
set all your watches by the chief General's, that there be no
mistake as to time. [In TEMPELHOF (v. 332-349) and ARCHENHOLTZ
(ii. 272-280) all these details.] At 9, all being now dark, and the
Croat girdle having gathered itself closer round the place since
nightfall, the Four Divisions march to their respective starting-
places; will wait there, silent; and about 2 in the morning, each
at its appointed minute, step forward on their business. With fixed
bayonets all of them; no musketry permitted till the works are won.
Loudon will wait at the Village of Schonbrunn [not WARKOTSCH'S
Schonbrunn, of which by and by, and which also is not far [See
ARCHENHOLTZ, ii. 287; and correct his mistake of the two places.]]
--at Schonbrunn, within short distance; give Loudon notice when you
are within 600 yards;--there shall, if desirable, be
reinforcements, farther orders. Loudon knows Schweidnitz like his
own bedroom. He was personally there, in Leuthen time, improving
the Works. By nocturnal Croat parties, in the latter part of
Bunzelwitz time; and since then, by deserters and otherwise,--he
knows the condition of the Garrison, of the Commandant, and of
every essential point. Has calculated that the Garrison is hardly
third part of what it ought to be,--3,800 in whole, and many of
them loose deserter fellows; special artillery-men, instead of
about 400, only 191;--most important of all, that Commandant
Zastrow is no wizard in his trade; and, on the whole, that the
Enterprise is likely to succeed.

"Zastrow has been getting married lately; and has many things to
think of, besides Schweidnitz. Some accounts say this was his
wedding-night,--which is not true, but only that he had meant to
give a Ball this last night of September; and perhaps did give it,
dancing over BEFORE 2, let us hope! Something of a jolter-head
seemingly, though solid and honest. I observe he is a kind of butt,
or laughing-stock, of Friedrich's, and has yielded some gleams of
momentary fun, he and this marriage of his, between Prince Henri
and the King, in the tragic gloom all round. [Schoning, ii.
SOEPIUS.] Nothing so surprises me in Friedrich as his habitual
inattention to the state of his Garrisons. He has the best of
Commandants and also the worst: Tauentzien in Breslau, Heyde in
Colberg, unsurpassable in the world; in Glatz a D'O, in Schweidnitz
a Zastrow, both of whom cost him dear. Opposition sneers secretly,
'It is as they happen to have come to hand.' Which has not much
truth, though some. Tauentzien he chose; D'O was Fouquet's choice,
not his; Zastrow he did choose; Heyde he had by accident; of Heyde
he had never heard till the defence of Colberg began to be a
world's wonder. And in regard to his Garrisons, it is indisputable
they were often left palpably defective in quantity and quality;
and, more than once, fatally gave way at the wrong moment. We can
only say that Friedrich was bitterly in want of men for the field;
that 'a Garrison-Regiment' was always reckoned an inferior article;
and that Friedrich, in the press of his straits, had often had to
say: 'Well, these [plainly Helots, not Spartans], these will have
to do!' For which he severely suffered: and perhaps repented,--
who knows?

"Zastrow, in spite of Loudon's precautionary Girdle of Croats, and
the cares of a coming Ball, had got sufficient inkling of something
being in the wind. And was much on the Walls all day, he and his
Officers; scanning with their glasses and their guesses the
surrounding phenomena, to little purpose. At night he sent out
patrols; kept sputtering with musketry and an occasional cannon
into the vacant darkness ('We are alert, you see, Herr Loudon!').
In a word, took what measures he could, poor man;--very stupid
measures, thinks Tempelhof, and almost worse than none, especially
this of sputtering with musketry;--and hoped always there would be
no Attack, or none to speak of. Till, in fine, between 2 and 3 in
the morning, his patrols gallop in, 'Austrians on march!' and
Zastrow, throwing out a rocket or two, descries in momentary
illumination that the Fact is verily here.

"His defence (four of the Five several Forts attacked at once) was
of a confused character; but better than could have been expected.
Loudon's Columns came on with extraordinary vigor and condensed
impetuosity; stormed the Outworks everywhere, and almost at once
got into the shelter of the Covered-way: but on the Main Wall, or
in the scaling part of their business, were repulsed, in some
places twice or thrice; and had a murderous struggle, of very
chaotic nature, in the dark element. No picture of it in the least
possible or needful here. In one place, a Powder-Magazine blew up
with about 400 of them,--blown (said rumor, with no certainty) by
an indignant Prussian artillery-man to whom they had refused
quarter: in another place, the 800 Russian Grenadiers came
unexpectedly upon a chasm or bridgeless interstice between two
ramparts; and had to halt suddenly,--till (says rumor again, with
still less certainty) their Officers insisting with the rearward
part, 'Forward, forward!' enough of front men were tumbled in to
make a roadway! This was the story current; [Archenholtz, ii. 275.]
greatly exaggerated, I have no doubt. What we know is, That these
Russians did scramble through, punctually perform their part of the
work;--and furthermore, that, having got upon the Town-Wall, which
was finis to everything, they punctually sat down there;
and, reflectively leaning on their muskets, witnessed with the
gravity and dignity of antique sages, superior to money or money's
worth, the general plunder which went on in spite of
Loudon's orders.

"For, in fine, between 5 and 6, that is in about three hours and a
half, Loudon was everywhere victorious; Zastrow, Schweidnitz
Fortress, and all that it held, were Loudon's at discretion;
Loudon's one care now was to stop the pillage of the poor
Townsfolk, as the most pressing thing. Which was not done without
difficulty, nor completely till after hours of exertion by cavalry
regiments sent in. The captors had fought valiantly; but it was
whispered there had been a preliminary of brandy in them;
certainly, except those poor Russians, nobody's behavior
was unexceptionable."

The capture of Schweidnitz cost Loudon about 1,400 men; he found in
Schweidnitz, besides the Garrison all prisoners or killed, some 240
pieces of artillery,--"211 heavy guns, 135 hand-mortars," say the
Austrian Accounts, "with stores and munitions" in such quantities;
"89,760 musket-cartridges, 1,300,000 flints," [In  Helden-
Geschichte,  (vi. 651-665) the Austrian Account,
with LISTS &c.] for two items:--and all this was a trifle compared
to the shock it has brought on Friedrich's Silesian affairs.
For, in present circumstances, it amounts to the actual conquest of
a large portion of Silesia; and, for the first time, to a real
prospect of finishing the remainder next Year. It is judged to have
been the hardest stroke Friedrich had in the course of this War.
"Our strenuous Campaign on a sudden rendered wind, and of no worth!
The Enemy to winter in Silesia, after all; Silesia to go
inevitably,--and life along with it!" What Friedrich's black
meditations were, "In the following weeks [not close following, but
poor Kuster does not date], the King fell ill of gout, saw almost
nobody, never came out; and, it was whispered, the inflexible heart
of him was at last breaking; that is to say, the very axis of this
Prussian world giving way. And for certain, there never was in his
camp and over his dominions such a gloom as in this October, 1761;
till at length he appeared on horseback again, with a cheerful
face; and everybody thought to himself, 'Ha, the world will still
roll, then!'" [Kuster,  Lebens-Rettungen Friedrichs des
Zweyten  (Berlin, 1797), p. 59 &c. It is the same
innocent reliable Kuster whom we cited, in SALDERN'S
case, already.]

This is what Loudon had done, without any Russians, except Russians
to give him eight-and-forty hours colic, and put him on his own
shifts. And the way in which the Kriegshofrath, and her Imperial
Majesty the Kaiserinn, received it, is perhaps still worth a word.
The Kaiser, who had alone known of Loudon's scheme, and for good
reason (absolute secrecy being the very soul of it) had whispered
nothing of it farther to any mortal, was naturally overjoyed.
But the Olympian brow of Maria Theresa, when the Kaiser went
radiant to her with this news, did not radiate in response;
but gloomed indignantly: "No order from Kriegshofrath, or me!"
Indignant Kriegshofrath called it a CROATEN-STREICH
(Croat's-trick); and Loudon, like Prince Eugen long since, was with
difficulty excused this act of disobedience. Great is Authority;--
and ought to be divinely rigorous, if (as by no means always
happens) it is otherwise of divine quality!

Friedrich's treatment of Zastrow was in strong contrast of style.
Here is his Letter to that unlucky Gentleman, who is himself clear
that he deserves no blame: "My dear Major-General von Zastrow,--
The misfortune that has befallen me is very grievous; but what
consoles me in it is, to see by your Letter that you have behaved
like a brave Officer, and that neither you nor the Garrison have
brought disgrace or reproach on yourselves. I am your well-
affectioned King,--FRIEDRICH." And in Autograph this Postscript:
"You may, in this occurrence, say what Francis I., after the Battle
of Pavia, wrote to his Mother: 'All is lost except honor.' As I do
not yet completely understand the affair, I forbear to judge of it;
for it is altogether extraordinary.--F." [
Militair-Lexikon,  iv. 305, 306 (Letter undated there;
date probably, "Gross-Nossen, October 3d").]

And never meddled farther with Zastrow; only left him well alone
for the future. "Grant me a Court-Martial, then!" said Zastrow,
finding himself fallen so neglected, after the Peace. "No use,"
answered Friedrich: "I impute nothing of crime to you; but after
such a mishap, it would be dangerous to trust you with any post or
command;"--and in 1766, granted him, on demand, his demission
instead. The poor man then retired to Cassel, where he lived twenty
years longer, and was no more heard of. He was half-brother of the
General Zastrow who got killed by a Pandour of long range (bullet
through both temples, from brushwood, across the Elbe), in the
first year of this War.



Chapter IX.

TRAITOR WARKOTSCH.

Friedrich's Army was to have cantoned itself round Neisse, October
3d: but on the instant of this fatal Schweidnitz news proceeded
(3d-6th October) towards Strehlen instead,--Friedrich personally on
the 5th;--and took quarters there and in the villages round.
General cantonment at Strehlen, in guard of Breslau and of Neisse
both; Loudon, still immovable at Kunzendorf, attempting nothing on
either of those places, and carefully declining the risk of a
Battle, which would have been Friedrich's game: all this continued
till the beginning of December, when both parties took Winter-
quarters; [Tempelhof, v. 349.] cantoned themselves in the
neighboring localities,--Czernichef, with his Russians, in Glatz
Country; Friedrich in Breslau as headquarter;--and the Campaign had
ended. Ended in this part, without farther event of the least
notability;--except the following only, which a poor man of the
name of Kappel has recorded for us. Of which, and the astounding
Sequel to which, we must now say something.

Kappel is a Gentleman's Groom of those Strehlen parts; and shall,
in his own words, bring us face to face with Friedrich in that
neighborhood, directly after Schweidnitz was lost. It is October
5th, day, or rather night of the day, of Friedrich's arrival
thereabouts; most of his Army ahead of him, and the remainder all
under way. Friedrich and the rearward part of his Army are filing
about, in that new Strehlen-ward movement of theirs, under cloud of
night, in the intricate Hill-and-Dale Country; to post themselves
to the best advantage for their double object, of covering Breslau
and Neisse both; Kappel LOQUITUR; abridged by Kuster, whom
we abridge:--

"MONDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 5th, 1761, The King, with two or three
attendants, still ahead of his Army, appeared at Schonbrunn, a
Schloss and Village, five or six miles south from Strehlen;
[THIS is the Warkotsch Schonbrunn; not the other near Schweidnitz,
as Archenholtz believes: see ARCHENHOLTZ, ii. 287, and the bit of
myth he has gone into in consequence.] and did the owner, Baron von
Warkotsch, an acquaintance of his, the honor of lodging there.
Before bedtime,--if indeed the King intended bed at all, meaning to
be off in four hours hence,--Friedrich inquired of Warkotsch for 'a
trusty man, well acquainted with the roads in this Country.'
Warkotsch mentioned Kappel, his own Groom; one who undoubtedly knew
every road of the Country; and who had always behaved as a trusty
fellow in the seven years he had been with him. 'Let me see him,'
said the King. Kappel was sent up, about midnight, King still
dressed; sitting on a sofa, by the fire; Kappel's look was
satisfactory; Kappel knows several roads to Strehlen, in the
darkest night. 'It is the footpath which goes so-and-so that I
want' (for Friedrich knows this Country intimately: readers
remember his world-famous Camp of Strehlen, with all the
diplomacies of Europe gathered there, through summer, in the train
of Mollwitz). 'JA, IHRO MAJESTAT, I know it!' 'Be ready, then,
at 4.'

"Before the stroke of 4, Kappel was at the door, on Master's best
horse; the King's Groom too, and led horse, a nimble little gray,
were waiting. As 4 struck, Friedrich came down, Warkotsch with him.
'Unspeakable the honor you have done my poor house!' Besides the
King's Groom, there were a Chamberlain, an Adjutant and two mounted
Chasers (REITENDE JAGER), which latter had each a lighted lantern:
in all seven persons, including Kappel and the King. (Go before us
on foot with your lanterns,' said the King. Very dark it was. And
overnight the Army had arrived all about; some of them just coming
in, on different roads and paths. The King walked above two miles,
and looked how the Regiments were, without speaking a word.
At last, as the cannons came up, and were still in full motion, the
King said: 'Sharp, sharp, BURSCHE; it will be MARCH directly.'
'March? The Devil it will: we are just coming into Camp!' said a
cannonier, not knowing it was the King.

"The King said nothing. Walked on still a little while;
then ordered, 'Blow out the lanterns; to horseback now!' and
mounted, as we all did. Me he bade keep five steps ahead, five and
not more, that he might see me; for it was very dark. Not far from
the Lordship Casserey, where there is a Water-mill, the King asked
me, 'Have n't you missed the Bridge here?' (a King that does not
forget roads and topographies which may come to concern him!)--and
bade us ride with the utmost silence, and make no jingle. As day
broke, we were in sight of Strehlen, near by the Farm of
Treppendorf. 'And do you know where the Kallenberg lies?' said the
King: 'It must be to left of the Town, near the Hills; bring
us thither!'

"When we got on the Kallenberg, it was not quite day; and we had to
halt for more light. After some time the King said to his Groom,
'Give me my perspective!' looked slowly all round for a good while,
and then said, 'I see no Austrians!'--(ground all at our choice,
then; we know where to choose!) The King then asked me if I knew
the road to"--in fact, to several places, which, in a Parish
History of those parts, would be abundantly interesting; but must
be entirely omitted here. ... "The King called his Chamberlain;
gave some sign, which meant 'Beer-money to Kappel!'--and I got four
eight-groschen pieces [three shillings odd; a rich reward in those
days]; and was bid tell my Master, 'That the King thanked him for
the good quarters, and assured him of his favor.'

"Riding back across country, Kappel, some four or five miles
homeward, came upon the 'whole Prussian Army,' struggling forward
in their various Columns. Two Generals,--one of them Krusemark,
King's Adjutant [Colonel Krusemark, not General, as Kappel thinks,
who came to know him some weeks after],--had him brought up:
to whom he gave account of himself, how he had been escorting the
King, and where he had left his Majesty. 'Behind Strehlen, say you?
Breslau road? Devil knows whither we shall all have to go yet!'
observed Krusemark, and left Kappel free." [Kuster, 
Lebens-Rettungen,  pp. 66-76.]

In those weeks, Colberg Siege, Pitt's Catastrophe and high things
are impending, or completed, elsewhere: but this is the one thing
noticeable hereabouts. In regard to Strehlen, and Friedrich's
history there, what we have to say turns all upon this Kappel and
Warkotsch: and,--after mentioning only that Friedrich's lodging is
not in Strehlen proper, but in Woiselwitz, a village or suburb
almost half a mile off, and very negligently guarded,--we have to
record an Adventure which then made a great deal of noise in
the world.

Warkotsch is a rich lord; Schonbrunn only one of five or six
different Estates which he has in those parts; though, not many
years ago, being younger brother, he was a Captain in the Austrian
service (Regiment BOTTA, if you are particular); and lay in
Olmutz,--with very dull oulooks; not improved, I should judge, by
the fact that Silesia and the Warkotsch connections were become
Prussian since this junior entered the Austrian Army. The junior
had sown his wild oats, and was already getting gray in the beard,
in that dull manner, when, about seven years ago, his Elder
Brother, to whom Friedrich had always been kind, fell unwell;
and, in the end of 1755, died: whereupon the junior saw himself
Heir; and entered on a new phase of things. Quitted his Captaincy,
quitted his allegiance; and was settled here peaceably under his
new King in 1756, a little while before this War broke out. And, at
Schonbrunn, October 5th, 1761, has had his Majesty himself
for guest.

Warkotsch was not long in riding over to Strehlen to pay his court,
as in duty bound, for the honor of such a Visit; and from that
time, Kappel, every day or two, had to attend him thither. The King
had always had a favor for Warkotsch's late Brother, as an
excellent Silesian Landlord and Manager, whose fine Domains were in
an exemplary condition; as, under the new Warkotsch too, they have
continued to be. Always a gracious Majesty to this Warkotsch as
well; who is an old soldier withal, and man of sense and ingenuity;
acceptable to Friedrich, and growing more and more familiar among
Friedrich's circle of Officers now at Strehlen.

To Strehlen is Warkotsch's favorite ride; in the solitary country,
quite a charming adjunct to your usual dull errand out for air and
exercise. Kappel, too, remarks about this time that he (Kappel)
gets once and again, and ever more frequently, a Letter to carry
over to Siebenhuben, a Village three or four miles off; the Letter
always to one Schmidt, who is Catholic Curate there; Letter under
envelope, well sealed,--and consisting of two pieces, if you finger
it judiciously. And, what is curious, the Letter never has any
address; Master merely orders, "Punctual; for Curatus Schmidt, you
know!" What can this be? thinks Kappel. Some secret, doubtless;
perhaps some intrigue, which Madam must not know of,--"ACH, HERR
BARON; and at your age,--fifty, I am sure!" Kappel, a solid fellow,
concerned for groom-business alone, punctually carries his Letters;
takes charge of the Responses too, which never have any Address;
and does not too much trouble himself with curiosities of an
impertinent nature.

To these external phenomena I will at present only add this
internal one: That an old Brother Officer of Warkotsch's, a Colonel
Wallis, with Hussars, is now lying at Heinrichau,--say, 10 miles
from Strehlen, and about 10 from Schonbrunn too, or a mile more if
you take the Siebenhuben way; and that all these missives, through
Curatus Schmidt, are for Wallis the Hussar Colonel, and must be a
secret not from Madam alone! How a Baron, hitherto of honor, could
all at once become TURPISSIMUS, the Superlative of Scoundrels?
This is even the reason,--the prize is so superlative.

"MONDAY NIGHT, NOVEMBER 30th, 1761 [night bitter cold], Kappel
finds himself sitting mounted, and holding Master's horse, in
Strehlen, more exactly in Woiselwitz, a suburb of Strehlen, near
the King's door,--Majesty's travelling-coach drawn out there,
symbol that Strehlen is ending, general departure towards Breslau
now nigh. Not to Kappel's sorrow perhaps, waiting in the cold
there. Kappel waits, hour after hour; Master taking his ease with
the King's people, regardless of the horses and me, in this shivery
weather;--and one must not walk about either, for disturbing the
King's sleep! Not till midnight does Master emerge, and the
freezing Kappel and quadrupeds get under way. Under way, Master
breaks out into singular talk about the King's lodging: Was ever
anything so careless; nothing but two sentries in the King's
anteroom; thirteen all the soldiers that are in Woiselwitz;
Strehlen not available in less than twenty minutes: nothing but
woods, haggly glens and hills, all on to Heinrichau: How easy to
snatch off his Majesty! "UM GOTTES WILLEN, my Lord, don't speak so:
think if a patrolling Prussian were to hear it, in the dark!"
Pooh, pooh, answers the Herr Baron.

"At Schonbrunn, in the short hours, Kappel finds Frau Kappel in
state of unappeasable curiosity: 'What can it be? Curatus Schmidt
was here all afternoon; much in haste to see Master; had to go at
last,--for the Church-service, this St. Andrew's Eve. And only
think, though he sat with My Lady hours and hours, he left this
Letter with ME: "Give it to your Husband, for my Lord, the instant
they come; and say I must have an Answer to-morrow morning at 7."
Left it with me, not with My Lady;--My Lady not to know of it!'
'Tush, woman!' But Frau Kappel has been, herself, unappeasably
running about, ever since she got this Letter; has applied to two
fellow-servants, one after the other, who can read writing, 'Break
it up, will you!' But they would not. Practical Kappel takes the
Letter up to Master's room; delivers it, with the Message.
'What, Curatus Schmidt!' interrupts My Lady, who was sitting there:
'Herr Good-man, what is that?' 'That is a Letter to me,' answers
the Good-man: 'What have you to do with it?' Upon which My Lady
flounces out in a huff, and the Herr Baron sets about writing his
Answer, whatever it may be.

"Kappel and Frau are gone to bed, Frau still eloquent upon the
mystery of Curatus Schmidt, when his Lordship taps at their door;
enters in the dark: 'This is for the Curatus, at 7 o'clock
to-morrow; I leave it on the table here: be in time, like a good
Kappel!' Kappel promises his Unappeasable that he will actually
open this Piece before delivery of it; upon which she appeases
herself, and they both fall asleep. Kappel is on foot betimes next
morning. Kappel quietly pockets his Letter; still more quietly,
from a neighboring room, pockets his Master's big Seal (PETSCHAFT),
with a view to resealing: he then steps out; giving his BURSCH
[Apprentice or Under-Groom] order to be ready in so many minutes,
'You and these two horses' (specific for speed); and, in the
interim, walks over, with Letter and PETSCHAFT, to the Reverend
Herr Gerlach's, for some preliminary business. Kappel is Catholic;
Warkotsch, Protestant; Herr Gerlach is Protestant preacher in the
Village of Schonbrunn,--much hated by Warkotsch, whose standing
order is: 'Don't go near that insolent fellow;' but known by Kappel
to be a just man, faithful in difficulties of the weak against the
strong. Gerlach, not yet out of bed, listens to the awful story:
reads the horrid missive; Warkotsch to Colonel Wallis: 'You can
seize the King, living or dead, this night!'--hesitates about
copying it (as Kappel wishes, for a good purpose]; but is
encouraged by his Wife, and soon writes a Copy. This Copy Kappel
sticks into the old cover, seals as usual; and, with the Original
safe in his own pocket, returns to the stables now. His Bursch and
he mount; after a little, he orders his Bursch: 'Bursch, ride you
to Siebenhuben and Curatus Schmidt, with this sealed Letter;
YOU, and say nothing. I was to have gone myself, but cannot;
be speedy, be discreet!' And the Bursch dashes off for Siebenhuben
with the sealed Copy, for Schmidt, Warkotsch, Wallis and Company's
behoof; Kappel riding, at a still better pace, to Strehlen with the
Original, for behoof of the King's Majesty.

"At Strehlen, King's Majesty not yet visible, Kappel has great
difficulties in the anteroom among the sentry people. But he
persists, insists: 'Read my Letter, then!' which they dare not do;
which only Colonel Krusemark, the Adjutant, perhaps dare. They take
him to Krusemark. Krusemark reads, all aghast; locks up Kappel;
runs to the King; returns, muffles Kappel in soldier's cloak and
cap, and leads him in. The King, looking into Kappel's face, into
Kappel's clear story and the Warkotsch handwriting, needed only a
few questions; and the fit orders, as to Warkotsch and Company,
were soon given: dangerous engineers now fallen harmless, blown up
by their own petard. One of the King's first questions was:
'But how have I offended Warkotsch?' Kappel does not know;
Master is of strict wilful turn;--Master would grumble and growl
sometimes about the peasant people, and how a nobleman has now no
power over them, in comparison. 'Are you a Protestant?' 'No, your
Majesty, Catholic.' 'See, IHR HERREN,' said the King to those about
him; 'Warkotsch is a Protestant; his Curatus Schmidt is a Catholic;
and this man is a Catholic: there are villains and honest people in
every creed!'

"At noon, that day, Warkotsch had sat down to dinner, comfortably
in his dressing-gown, nobody but the good Baroness there;
when Rittmeister Rabenau suddenly descended on the Schloss and
dining-room with dragoons: 'In arrest, Herr Baron; I am sorry you
must go with me to Brieg!' Warkotsch, a strategic fellow, kept
countenance to Wife and Rittmeister, in this sudden fall of the
thunder-bolt: 'Yes, Herr Rittmeister; it is that mass of Corn I was
to furnish [showing him an actual order of that kind], and I am
behind my time with it! Nobody can help his luck. Take a bit of
dinner with us, anyway!' Rittmeister refused; but the Baroness too
pressed him; he at length sat down. Warkotsch went 'to dress;'
first of all, to give orders about his best horse; but was shocked
to find that the dragoons were a hundred, and that every outgate
was beset. Returning half-dressed, with an air of baffled
hospitality: 'Herr Rittmeister, our Schloss must not be disgraced;
here are your brave fellows waiting, and nothing of refreshment
ready for them. I have given order at the Tavern in the Village;
send them down; there they shall drink better luck to me, and have
a bit of bread and cheese.' Stupid Rabenau again consents:--and in
few minutes more, Warkotsch is in the Woods, galloping like Epsom,
towards Wallis; and Rabenau can only arrest Madam (who knows
nothing), and return in a baffled state.

"Schmidt too got away. The party sent after Schmidt found him in
the little Town of Nimptsch, half-way home again from his Wallis
errand; comfortably dining with some innocent hospitable people
there. Schmidt could not conceal his confusion; but pleading
piteously a necessity of nature, was with difficulty admitted to
the--to the ABTRITT so called; and there, by some long pole or
rake-handle, vanished wholly through a never-imagined aperture, and
was no more heard of in the upper world. The Prussian soldiery does
not seem expert in thief-taking.

"Warkotsch came back about midnight that same Tuesday, 500 Wallis
Hussars escorting him; and took away his ready moneys, near 5,000
pounds in gold, reports Frau Kappel, who witnessed the ghastly
operation (Hussars in great terror, in haste, and unconscionably
greedy as to sharing);--after which our next news of him, the last
of any clear authenticity, is this Note to his poor Wife, which was
read in the Law Procedures on him six months hence: 'My Child (MEIN
KIND),--The accursed thought I took up against my King has
overwhelmed me in boundless misery. From the top of the highest
hill I cannot see the limits of it. Farewell; I am in the farthest
border of Turkey.--WARKOTSCH.'" [Kuster,  Lebens-Rettungen,
 p. 88: Kuster, pp. 65-188 (for the general Narrative);
Tempelhof, v. 346, &c. &c.]

Schmidt and he, after patient trial, were both of them beheaded and
quartered,--in pasteboard effigy,--in the Salt Ring (Great Square)
of Breslau, May, 1762:--in pasteboard, Friedrich liked it better
than the other way. "MEINETWEGEN," wrote he, sanctioning the
execution, "For aught I care; the Portraits will likely be as
worthless as the Originals." Rittmeister Rabenau had got off with a
few days' arrest, and the remark, "ER IST EIN DUMMER TEUFEL (You
are a stupid devil)!" Warkotsch's Estates, all and sundry,
deducting the Baroness's jointure, which was punctually paid her,
were confiscated to the King,--and by him were made over to the
Schools of Breslau and Glogau, which, I doubt not, enjoy them to
this day. Reverend Gerlach in Schonbrunn, Kappel and Kappel's
Bursch, were all attended to, and properly rewarded, though there
are rumors to the contrary. Hussar-Colonel Wallis got no public
promotion, though it is not doubted the Head People had been well
cognizant of his ingenious intentions. Official Vienna, like
mankind in general, shuddered to own him; the great Counts Wallis
at Vienna published in the Newspapers, "Our House has no connection
with that gentleman;"--and, in fact, he was of Irish breed, it
seems, the name of him WallISCH (or Walsh), if one cared.
Warkotsch died at Raab (THIS side the farthest corner of Turkey),
in 1769: his poor Baroness had vanished from Silesia five years
before, probably to join him. He had some pension or aliment from
the Austrian Court; small or not so small is a disputed point.

And this is, more minutely than need have been, in authentic form
only too diffuse, the once world-famous Warkotsch Tragedy or
Wellnigh-Tragic Melodrama; which is still interesting and a matter
of study, of pathos and minute controversy, to the patriot and
antiquary in Prussian Countries, though here we might have been
briefer about it. It would, indeed, have "finished the War at
once;" and on terms delightful to Austria and its Generals near by.
But so would any unit of the million balls and bullets which have
whistled round that same Royal Head, and have, every unit of them,
missed like Warkotsch! Particular Heads, royal and other, meant for
use in the scheme of things, are not to be hit on any terms till
the use is had.

Friedrich settled in Breslau for the Winter, December 9th.
From Colberg bad news meet him in Breslau; bad and ever worse:
Colberg, not Warkotsch, is the interesting matter there, for a
fortnight coming,--till Colberg end, it also irremediable.
The Russian hope on Colberg is, long since, limited to that of
famine. We said the conveyance of Supplies, across such a Hundred
Miles of wilderness, from Stettin thither, with Russians and the
Winter gainsaying, was the difficulty. Our short Note continues:--

"In fact, it is the impossibility: trial after trial goes on, in a
strenuous manner, but without success. October 13th, Green Kleist
tries; October 22d, Knobloch and even Platen try. For the next two
months there is trial on trial made (Hussar Kleist, Knobloch,
Thadden, Platen), not without furious fencing, struggling; but with
no success. There are, in wait at the proper places, 15,000
Russians waylaying. Winter comes early, and unusually severe:
such marchings, such endeavorings and endurances,--without success!
For darkness, cold, grim difficulty, fierce resistance to it, one
reads few things like this of Colberg. 'The snow lies ell-deep,'
says Archenholtz; 'snow-tempests, sleet, frost: a country wasted
and hungered out; wants fuel-wood; has not even salt. The soldier's
bread is a block of ice; impracticable to human teeth till you thaw
it,--which is only possible by night.' The Russian ships disappear
(17th October); November 2d, Butturlin, leaving reinforcements
without stint, vanishes towards Poland. The day before Butturlin
went, there had been solemn summons upon Eugen, 'Surrender
honorably, we once more bid you; never will we leave this ground,
till Colberg is ours!' 'Vain to propose it!' answers Eugen, as
before. The Russians too are clearly in great misery of want;
though with better roads open for them; and Romanzow's obstinacy
is extreme.

"Night of November 14th-15th, Eugen, his horse-fodder being
entirely done, and Heyde's magazines worn almost out, is obliged to
glide mysteriously, circuitously from his Camp, and go to try the
task himself. The most difficult of marches, gloriously executed;
which avails to deliver Eugen, and lightens the pressure on Heyde's
small store. Eugen, in a way Tempelhof cannot enough admire, gets
clear away. Joins with Platen, collects Provision; tries to send
Provision in, but without effect. By the King's order, is to try it
himself in a collective form. Had Heyde food, he would care little.

"Romanzow, who is now in Eugen's old Camp, summons the Veteran;
they say, it is 'for the twenty-fifth time,'--not yet quite the
last. Heyde consults his people: 'KAMERADEN, what think you should
I do?' 'THUN SIE'S DURCHAUS NICHT, HERR OBRIST, Do not a whit of
it, Herr Colonel: we will defend ourselves as long as we have bread
and powder.' [Seyfarth, iii. 28; Archenholtz, ii. 304.] It is grim
frost; Heyde pours water on his walls. Romanzow tries storm;
the walls are glass; the garrison has powder, though on half
rations as to bread: storm is of no effect. By the King's order,
Eugen tries again. December 6th, starts; has again a march of the
most consummate kind; December 12th, gets to the Russian
intrenchment; storms a Russian redoubt, and fights inexpressibly;
hut it will not do. Withdraws; leaves Colberg to its fate.
Next morning, Heyde gets his twenty-sixth summons; reflects on it
two days; and then (December 16th), his biscuit done, decides to
'march out, with music playing, arms shouldered and the honors of
war."' [Tempelhof, v. 351-377; Archenholtz, ii. 294-307; especially
the Seyfarth  Beylagen  above cited.] Adieu to
the old Hero; who, we hope, will not stay long in Russian prison.

"What a Place of Arms for us!" thinks Romanzow;--"though, indeed,
for Campaign 1762, at this late time of year, it will not so much
avail us." No;--and for 1763, who knows if you will need it then!

Six weeks ago, Prince Henri and Daun had finished their Saxon
Campaign in a much more harmless manner. NOVEMBER 5th, Daun, after
infinite rallying, marshalling, rearranging, and counselling with
Loudon, who has sat so long quiescent on the Heights at Kunzendorf,
ready to aid and reinforce, did at length (nothing of "rashness"
chargeable on Daun) make "a general attack on Prince Henri's
outposts", in the Meissen or Mulda-Elbe Country, "from Rosswein all
across to Siebeneichen;" simultaneous attack, 15 miles wide, or I
know not how wide, but done with vigor; and, after a stiff struggle
in the small way, drove them all in;--in, all of them, more or
less;--and then did nothing farther whatever. Henri had to contract
his quarters, and stand alertly on his guard: but nothing came.
"Shall have to winter in straiter quarters, behind the Mulda, not
astride of it as formerly; that is all." And so the Campaign in
Saxony had ended, "without, in the whole course of it", say the
Books, "either party gaining any essential advantage over the
other." [Seyfarth, iii. 54; Tempelhof, v. 275 et seq. (ibid. pp.
263-280 for the Campaign at large, in all breadth of detail).]



Chapter X.

FRIEDRICH IN BRESLAU; HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG.

Since December 9th, Friedrich is in Breslau, in some remainder of
his ruined Palace there; and is represented to us, in Books, as
sitting amid ruins; no prospect ahead of him but ruin.
Withdrawn from Society; looking fixedly on the gloomiest future.
Sees hardly anybody; speaks, except it be on business, nothing.
"One day," I have read somewhere, "General Lentulus dined with him;
and there was not a word uttered at all." The Anecdote-Books have
Dialogues with Ziethen; Ziethen still trusting in Divine
Providence; King trusting only in the iron Destinies, and the stern
refuge of Death with honor: Dialogues evidently symbolical only.
In fact, this is not, or is not altogether, the King's common
humor. He has his two Nephews with him (the elder, old enough to
learn soldiering, is to be of next Campaign under him); he is not
without society when he likes,--never without employment whether he
like or not; and, in the blackest murk of despondencies, has his
Turk and other Illusions, which seem to be brighter this Year than
ever. [LETTERS to Henri: in SCHONING, iii. (SOEPIUS).]

For certain, the King is making all preparation, as if victory
might still crown him: though of practical hope he, doubtless often
enough, has little or none. England seems about deserting him;
a most sad and unexpected change has befallen there: great Pitt
thrown out; perverse small Butes come in, whose notions and
procedures differ far from Pitt's! At home here, the Russians are
in Pommern and the Neumark; Austrians have Saxony, all but a poor
strip beyond the Mulda; Silesia, all but a fraction on the Oder:
Friedrich has with himself 30,000; with Prince Henri, 25,000;
under Eugen of Wurtemberg, against the Swedes, 5,000; in all his
Dominions, 60,000 fighting men. To make head against so many
enemies, he calculates that 60,000 more must be raised this Winter.
And where are these to come from; England and its help having also
fallen into such dubiety? Next Year, it is calculated by everybody,
Friedrich himself hardly excepted (in bad moments), must be the
finis of this long agonistic tragedy. On the other hand, Austria
herself is in sore difficulties as to cash; discharges 20,000 men,
--trusting she may have enough besides to finish Friedrich.
France is bankrupt, starving, passionate for Peace; English Bute
nothing like so ill to treat with as Pitt: to Austria no more
subsidies from France. The War is waxing feeble, not on Friedrich's
side only, like a flame short of fuel. This Year it must go out;
Austria will have to kill Friedrich this Year, if at all.

Whether Austria's and the world's prophecy would have been
fulfilled? Nobody can say what miraculous sudden shifts, and
outbursts of fiery enterprise, may still lie in this man.
Friedrich is difficult to kill, grows terribly elastic when you
compress him into a corner. Or Destiny, perhaps, may have tried him
sufficiently; and be satisfied? Destiny does send him a wonderful
star-of-day, bursting out on the sudden, as will be seen!--
Meanwhile here is the English calamity; worse than any Schweidnitz,
Colberg or other that has befallen in this blackest, of the night.


THE PITT CATASTROPHE: HOW THE PEACE-NEGOTIATION WENT OFF BY EXPLOSION;
HOW PITT WITHDREW (3d October, 1761),
AND THERE CAME A SPANISH WAR NEVERTHELESS.

In St. James's Street, "in the Duke of Cumberland's late lodgings,"
on the 2d of October, 1761, there was held one of the most
remarkable Cabinet-Councils known in English History: it is the
last of Pitt's Cabinet-Councils for a long time,--might as well
have been his last of all;--and is of the highest importance to
Friedrich through Pitt. We spoke of the Choiseul Peace-Negotiation;
of an offer indirectly from King Carlos, "Could not I mediate a
little?"--offer which exploded said Negotiation, and produced the
Bourbon Family Compact and an additional War instead. Let us now
look, slightly for a few moments, into that matter and
its sequences.

It was JULY 15th, when Bussy, along with something in his own
French sphere, presented this beautiful Spanish Appendix,--
"apprehensive that War may break out again with Spain, when we Two
have got settled." By the same opportunity came a Note from him,
which was reckoned important too: "That the Empress Queen would and
did, whatever might become of the Congress of Augsburg, approve of
this Separate Peace between France and England,--England merely
undertaking to leave the King of Prussia altogether to himself in
future with her Imperial Majesty and her Allies." "Never, Sir!"
answered Pitt, with emphasis, to this latter Proposition; and to
the former about Spain's interfering, or whispering of
interference, he answered--by at once returning the Paper, as a
thing non-extant, or which it was charitable to consider so.
"Totally inadmissible, Sir; mention it no more!"--and at once
called upon the Spanish Ambassador to disavow such impertineuce
imputed to his Master. Fancy the colloquies, the agitated
consultations thereupon, between Bussy and this Don, in view
suddenly of breakers ahead!

In about a week (July 23d), Bussy had an Interview with Pitt
himself on this high Spanish matter; and got some utterances out of
him which are memorable to Bussy and us. "It is my duty to declare
to you, Sir, in the name of his Majesty," said Pitt, "that his
Majesty will not suffer the disputes with Spain to be blended, in
any manner whatever, in the Negotiation of Peace between the Two
Crowns. To which I must add, that it will be considered as an
affront to his Majesty's dignity, and as a thing incompatible with
the sincerity of the Negotiation, to make farther mention of such a
circumstance." [In THACKERAY, ii. 554;--Pitt next day putting it in
writing, "word for word," at Bussy's request.] Bussy did not go at
once, after this deliverance; but was unable, by his arguments and
pleadings, by all his oil and fire joined together, to produce the
least improvement on it: "Time enough to treat of all that, Sir,
when the Tower of London is taken sword in hand!" [Beatson, ii.
434. Archenholtz (ii. 245) has heard of this expression, in a
slightly incorrect way.] was Pitt's last word. An expression which
went over the world; and went especially to King Carlos, as fast as
it could fly, or as his Choiseul could speed it: and, in about
three weeks: produced--it and what had gone before it, by the
united industry of Choiseul and Carlos, finally produced--the famed
BOURBON FAMILY COMPACT (August 15th, 1761), and a variety of other
weighty results, which lay in embryo therein.

Pitt, in the interim, had been intensely prosecuting, in Spain and
everywhere, his inquiry into the Bussy phenomenon of July 15th;
which he, from the first glimpse of it, took to mean a mystery of
treachery in the pretended Peace-Negotiation, on the part of
Choiseul and Catholic Majesty;--though other long heads, and Pitt's
Ambassador at Madrid investigating on the spot, considered it an
inadvertence mainly, and of no practical meaning. On getting
knowledge of the Bourbon Family Compact, Pitt perceived that his
suspicion was a certainty;--and likewise that the one clear course
was, To declare War on the Spanish Bourbon too, and go into him at
once: "We are ready; fleets, soldiers, in the East, in the West;
he not ready anywhere. Since he wants War, let him have it, without
loss of a moment!" That is Pitt's clear view of the case; but it is
by no means Bute and Company's,--who discern in it, rather, a means
of finishing another operation they have long been secretly busy
upon, by their Mauduits and otherwise; and are clear against
getting into a new War with Spain or anybody: "Have not we enough
of Wars? " say they.

Since September 18th, there had been three Cabinet-Councils held on
this great Spanish question: "Mystery of treachery, meaning War
from Spain? Or awkward Inadvertence only, practically meaning
little or nothing?" Pitt, surer of his course every time, every
time meets the same contradiction. Council of October 2d was the
third of the series, and proved to be the last.

"Twelve Seventy-fours sent instantly to Cadiz", had been Pitt's
proposal, on the first emergence of the Bussy phenomenon. Here are
his words, October 2d, when it is about to get consummated:
"This is now the time for humbling the whole House of Bourbon:
and if this opportunity is let slip, we shall never find another!
Their united power, if suffered to gather strength, will baffle our
most vigorous efforts, and possibly plunge us in the gulf of ruin.
We must not allow them a moment to breathe. Self-preservation bids
us crush them before they can combine or recollect themselves."--
"No evidence that Spain means war; too many wars on our hands;
let us at least wait!" urge all the others,--all but one, or one
and A HALF, of whom presently. Whereupon Pitt: "If these views are
to be followed, this is the last time I can sit at this Board.
I was called to the Administration of Affairs by the voice of the
People: to them I have always considered myself as accountable for
my conduct; and therefore cannot remain in a situation which makes
me responsible for measures I am no longer allowed to guide."
[Beatson, ii. 438.]

Carteret Granville, President of said Council for ten years past,
[Came in "17th June, 1751",--died "2d January, 1763."] now an old
red-nosed man of seventy-two, snappishly took him up,--it is the
last public thing poor Carteret did in this world,--in the
following terms: "I find the Gentleman is determined to leave us;
nor can I say I am sorry for it, since otherwise he would have
certainly compelled us to leave him [Has ruled us, may not I say,
with a rod of iron!] But if he be resolved to assume the office of
exclusively advising his Majesty and directing the operations of
the War, to what purpose are we called to this Council? When he
talks of being responsible to the People, he talks the language of
the House of Commons; forgets that, at this Board, he is only
responsible to the King. However, though he may possibly have
convinced himself of his infallibility, still it remains that we
should be equally convinced, before we can resign our
understandings to his direction, or join with him in the measure he
proposes." [BIOG. BRITANNICA (Kippis's; London, 1784), iii. 278.
See Thackeray, i. 589-592.]

Who, besides Temple (Pitt's Brother-in-law) confirmatory of Pitt,
Bute negatory, and Newcastle SILENT, the other beautiful gentlemen
were, I will not ask; but poor old Carteret,--the wine perhaps sour
on his stomach (old age too, with German memories of his own,
"A biggish Life once mine, all futile for want of this same
Kingship like Pitt's!")--I am sorry old Carteret should have ended
so! He made the above Answer; and Pitt resigned next day.
[Thackeray, i. 592 n. "October 5th" (ACCEPTANCE of the resignation,
I suppose?) is the date commonly given.] "The Nation was
thunderstruck, alarmed and indignant," says Walpole: [
Memoirs of the Reign of George the Third,  i. 82 et
seq.] yes, no wonder;--but, except a great deal of noisy jargoning
in Parliament and out of it, the Nation gained nothing for itself
by its indignant, thunderstricken and other feelings. Its Pitt is
irrecoverable; and it may long look for another such.
These beautiful recalcitrants of the Cabinet-Council had,
themselves, within three months (think under what noises and
hootings from a non-admiring Nation), to declare War on Spain,
["2d January, 1762," the English; "18th January," the Spaniard
(ANNUAL REGISTER for 1762, p. 50; or better, Beatson, ii. 443).]
NOT on better terms than when Pitt advised; and, except for the
"readiness" in which Pitt had left all things, might have fared
indifferently in it.

To Spain and France the results of the Family Compact (we may as
well give them at once, though they extend over the whole next year
and farther, and concern Friedrich very little) were: a War on
England (chiefly on poor Portugal for England's sake); with a War
BY England in return, which cost Spain its Havana and its
Philippine Islands.

"From 1760 and before, the Spanish Carlos, his orthodox mind
perhaps shocked at Pombal and the Anti-Jesuit procedures, had
forbidden trade with Portugal; had been drawing out dangerous
'militia forces on the Frontier;' and afflicting and frightening
the poor Country. But on the actual arrival of War with England,
Choiseul and he, as the first feasibility discernible, make Demand
(three times over, 16th March-18th April, 1762, each time more
stringently) on poor Portuguese Majesty: 'Give up your
objectionable Heretic Ally, and join with us against him; will you,
or will you not?' To which the Portuguese Majesty, whose very title
is Most Faithful, answered always: 'You surprise me! I cannot;
how can I? He is my Ally, and has always kept faith with me!
For certain, No!' [ London Gazette,  5th May,
1762, &c. (in  Gentleman's Magazine  for 1762,
xxxii. 205, 321, 411).] So that there is English reinforcement got
ready, men, money; an English General, Lord Tyrawley, General and
Ambassador; with a 5 or 6,000 horse and foot, and many volunteer
officers besides, for the Portuguese behoof. [List of all this in
Beatson, ii. 491, iii. 323;--"did not get to sea till 12th May,
1762" ( Gentleman's Magazine  for 1762,
p. 239).] In short, every encouragement to poor Portugal:
'Pull, and we will help you by tracing.'

"The poor Portuguese pulled very badly: were disgusting to
Tyrawley, he to them; and cried passionately, 'Get us another
General;'--upon which, by some wise person's counsel, that singular
Artillery Gentleman, the Graf von der Lippe Buckeburg, who gave the
dinner in his Tent with cannon firing at the pole of it, was
appointed; and Tyrawley came home in a huff. [Varnhagen van Ense,
GRAF WILHELM ZUR LIPPE (Berlin, 1845), in  Vermischte
Schriften,  i. 1-118: pp. 33-54, his Portuguese
operations.] Which was probably a favorable circumstance.
Buckeburg understands War, whether Tyrawley do or not.
Duke Ferdinand has agreed to dispense with his Ordnance-Master;
nay I have heard the Ordnance-Master, a man of sharp speeoh on
occasion, was as good as idle; and had gone home to Buckeburg, this
Winter: indignant at the many imperfections he saw, and perhaps too
frankly expressing that feeling now and then. What he thought of
the Portuguese Army in comparison is not on record; but, may be
judged of by this circumstance, That on dining with the chief
Portuguese military man, he found his Portuguese captains and
lieutenants waiting as valets behind the chairs. [VARNHAGEN (gives
no date anywhere).]

"The improvements he made are said to have been many;--and
Portuguese Majesty, in bidding farewell, gave him a park of
Miniature Gold Cannon by way of gracious symbol. But, so far as the
facts show, he seems to have got from his Portuguese Army next to
no service whatever: and, but for the English and the ill weather,
would have fared badly against his French and Spaniards,--42,000 of
them, advancing in Three Divisions, by the Douro and the Tagus,
against Oporto and Lisbon.

"His War has only these three dates of event. 1. May 9th, The
northmost of the Three Divisions [ANNUAL REGISTER for 1762, p. 30.]
crosses the Portuguese Frontier on the Douro; summons Miranda, a
chief Town of theirs; takes it, before their first battery is
built; takes Braganza, takes Monte Corvo; and within a week is
master of the Douro, in that part, 'Will be at Oporto directly!'
shriek all the Wine people (no resistance anywhere, except by
peasants organized by English Officers in some parts); upon which
Seventy-fours were sent.

"2. Division Second of the 42,000 came by Beira Country, between
Tagus and Douro, by Tras-os-Montes; and laid siege to a place
called Almeida [northwest some 20 odd miles from CUIDAD RODRIGO, a
name once known to veterans of us still living], which Buckeburg
had tried to repair into strength, and furnish with a garrison.
Garrison defended itself well; but could not be relieved;--had to
surrender, August 25th: whereby it seems the Tagus is now theirs!
All the more, as Division Three is likewise got across from
Estremadura, invading Alemtejo: what is to keep these Two from
falling on Lisbon together?

"3. Against this, Buckeburg does find a recipe. Despatches
Brigadier Burgoyne with an English party upon a Town called
Valencia d'Alcantara [not Alcantara Proper, but Valencia of ditto,
not very far from Badajoz], where the vanguard of this Third
Division is, and their principal Magazine. Burgoyne and his English
did perfectly: broke into the place, stormed it sword in hand
(August 27th); kept the Magazine and it, though 'the sixteen
Portuguese Battalions' could not possibly get up in time. In manner
following (say the Old Newspapers):--

"'The garrison of Almeida, before which place the whole Spanish
Army had been assembled, surrendered to the Spaniards on the 25th
[August 25th, as we have just heard], having capitulated on
condition of not serving against Spain for six months.

"'As a counterbalance to this advantage, the Count de Lippe caused
Valencia d'Alcantara to be attacked, sword in hand, by the British
troops; who carried it, after an obstinate resistance. The loss of
the British troops, who had the principal share in this affair, is
luckily but inconsiderable: and consists in Lieutenant Burk of
Colonel Frederick's, one sergeant and three privates killed;
two sergeants, one drummer, 18 privates wounded; 10 horses killed
and 2 wounded [loss not at all considerable, in a War of such
dimensions!]. The British troops behaved upon this occasion with as
much generosity as courage; and it deserves admiration, that, in an
affair of this kind, the town and the inhabitants suffered very
little; which is owing to the good order Brigadier Burgoyne kept up
even in the heat of the action. This success would probably have
been attended with more, if circumstances, that could not well be
expected, had not retarded the march of sixteen Portuguese
battalions, and three regiments of cavalry.' [Old Newspapers (in
 Gentleman's Magazine  for 1762, p, 443).]

"Upon which--upon which, in fact, the War had to end. Rainy weather
came, deluges of rain; Burgoyne, with or without the sixteen
battalions of Portuguese, kept the grip he had. Valencia
d'Alcantara and its Magazine a settled business, roads round gone
all to mire,--this Third Division, and with it the 42,000 in
general, finding they had nothing to live upon, went their ways
again." NOTE, The Burgoyne, who begins in this pretty way at
Valencia d'Alcantara, is the same who ended so dismally at
Saratoga, within twenty years:--perhaps, with other War-Offices,
and training himself in something suitabler than Parliamentary
Eloquence, he might have become a kind of General, and have ended
far otherwise than there?--

"Such was the credit account on Carlos's side: By gratuitous
assault on Portugal, which had done him no offence; result zero,
and pay your expenses. On the English, or PER CONTRA side, again,
there were these three items, two of them specifically on Carlos:
FIRST, Martinique captured from the French this Spring (finished
4th February, 1762): [ Gentleman's Magazine 
for 1762, p. 127.]--was to have been done in any case, Guadaloupe
and it being both on Pitt's books for some time, and only
Guadaloupe yet got. SECONDLY, King Carlos, for Family Compact and
fruitless attempt at burglary on an unoffending neighbor, Debtor:
1. To Loss of the Havana (6th June-13th August, 1762), [Ib. pp.
408-459, &c.] which might easily have issued in loss of all his
West Indies together, and total abolition of the Pope's meridian in
that Western Hemisphere; and 2. To Loss of Manilla, with his
Philippine Islands (23d September-6th October, 1762),
[ Gentleman's Magazine  for 1762, xxxiii.
171-177.] which was abolition of it in the Eastern. After which,
happily for Carlos, Peace came,--Peace, and no Pitt to be severe
upon his Indies and him. Carlos's War of ten months had stood him
uncommonly high."

All these things the English Public, considerably sullen about the
Cabinet-Council event of October 3d, ascribed to the real owner of
them. The Public said: "These are, all of them, Pitt's bolts, not
yours,--launched, or lying ready for launching, from that Olympian
battery which, in the East and in the West, had already smitten
down all Lallys and Montcalms; and had force already massed there,
rendering your Havanas and Manillas easy for you. For which,
indeed, you do not seem to care much; rather seem to be embarrassed
with them, in your eagerness for Peace and a lazy life!"--Manilla
was a beautiful work; [A JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS QF HIS
MAJESTY'S FORCES IN THE EXPEDITION TO MANILLA ( London
Gazette,  April 19th, 1763;  Gentleman's
Magazine,  xxxiii. 171 et seq.). Written by Colonel or
BrigadiecGeneral Draper (suggester, contriver and performer of the
Enterprise; an excellent Indian Officer, of great merit with his
pen as well,--Bully JUNIUS'S Correspondent afterwards).] but the
Manilla Ransom; a million sterling, half of it in bills,--which the
Spaniards, on no pretext at all but the disagreeableness, refused
to pay! Havana, though victorious, cost a good many men:
was thought to be but badly managed. "What to do with it?" said
Bute, at the Peace: "Give us Florida in lieu of it",--which proved
of little benefit to Bute. Enough, enough of Bute and his
performances.

Pitt being gone, Friedrich's English Subsidy lags: this time
Friedrich concludes it is cut off;--silent on the subject; no words
will express one's thoughts on it. Not till April 9th has poor
Mitchell the sad errand of announcing formally That such are our
pressures, Portuguese War and other, we cannot afford it farther.
Answered by I know not what kind of glance from Friedrich;
answered, I find, by words few or none from the forsaken King:
"Good; that too was wanting," thought the proud soul: "Keep your
coin, since you so need it; I have still copper, and my sword!"
The alloy this Year became as 3 to 1:--what other remedy?

From the same cause, I doubt not, this Year, for the first time in
human memory, came that complete abeyance of the Gift-moneys
(DOUCEUR-GELDER), which are become a standing expectation, quasi-
right, and necessary item of support to every Prussian Officer,
from a Lieutenant upwards: not a word, in the least official, said
of them this Year; still less a penny of them actually forthcoming
to a wornout expectant Army. One of the greatest sins charged upon
Friedrich by Prussian or Prussian-Military public opinion: not to
be excused at all;--Prussian-Military and even Prussian-Civil
opinion having a strange persuasion that this King has boundless
supply of money, and only out of perversity refuses it for objects
of moment. In the Army as elsewhere much ha8 gone awry;
[See Mollendorf's two or three LETTERS (Preuss, iv. 407-411).] many
rivets loose after such a climbing of the Alps as there has been,
through dense and rare.

It will surprise everybody that Friedrich, with his copper and
other resources, actually raised his additional 60,000; and has for
himself 70,000 to recover Schweidnitz, and bring Silesia to its old
state; 40,000 for Prince Henri and Saxony, with a 10,000 of margin
for Sweden and accidental sundries. This is strange, but it is
true. [Stenzel, v. 297, 286; Tempelhof, vi. 2, 10, 63.] And has not
been done without strivings and contrivings, hard requisitions on
the places liable; and has involved not a little of severity and
difficulty,--especially a great deal of haggling with the
collecting parties, or at least with Prince Henri, who presides in
Saxony, and is apt to complain and mourn over the undoable, rather
than proceed to do it. The King's Correspondence with Henri, this
Winter, is curious enough; like a Dialogue between Hope on its
feet, and Despair taking to its bed. "You know there are Two
Doctors in MOLIERE," says Friedrich to him once; "a Doctor
TANT-MIEUX (So much the Better) and a Doctor TANT-PIS (So much the
Worse): these two cannot be expected to agree!"--Instead of
infinite arithmetical details, here is part of a Letter of
Friedrich's to D'Argens; and a Passage, one of many, with Prince
Henri;--which command a view into the interior that concerns us.


THE KING TO D'ARGENS (at Berlin).

"BRESLAU, 18th January, 1762.

... "You have lifted the political veil which covered horrors and
perfidies meditated and ready to burst out [Bute's dismal
procedures, I believe; who is ravenous for Peace, and would fain
force Friedrich along with him on terms altogether disgraceful and
inadmissible [See D'Argens's Letter (to which this is Answer),
 OEuvres de Frederic,  xix. 281, 282.]]: you
judge correctly of the whole situation I am in, of the abysses
which surround me; and, as I see by what you say, of the kind of
hope that still remains to me. It will not be till the month of
February [Turks, probably, and Tartar Khan; great things coming
then!] that we can speak of that; and that is the term I
contemplate for deciding whether I shall hold to CATO [Cato,--and
the little Glass Tube I have!] or to CAESAR'S COMMENTARIES," and
the best fight one can make.

"The School of patience I am at is hard, long-continued, cruel, nay
barbarous. I have not been able to escape my lot: all that human
foresight could suggest has been employed, and nothing has
succeeded. If Fortune continues to pursue me, doubtless I shall
sink; it is only she that can extricate me from the situation I am
in. I escape out of it by looking at the Universe on the great
scale, like an observer from some distant Planet; all then seems to
me so infinitely small, and I could almost pity my enemies for
giving themselves such trouble about so very little. What would
become of us without philosophy, without this reasonable contempt
of things frivolous, transient and fugitive, about which the greedy
and ambitious make such a pother, fancying them to be solid!
This is to become wise by stripes, you will tell me; well, if one
do become wise, what matters it how?--I read a great deal; I devour
my Books, and that brings me useful alleviation. But for my Books,
I think hypochondria would have had me in bedlam before now.
In fine, dear Marquis, we live in troublous times and in desperate
situations:--I have all the properties of a Stage-Hero; always in
danger, always on the point of perishing. One must hope the
conclusion will come; and if the end of the piece be lucky, we will
forget the rest. Patience then, MON CHER, till February 20th [By
which time, what far other veritable star-of-day will have risen on
me!]. ADIEU, MON CHER.--F." [ OEuvres de Frederic,  xix. 282, 283.]


    TIFF OF QUARREL BETWEEN KING AND HENRI (March-April, 1762).

In the Spring months Prince Henri is at Hof in Voigtland, on the
extreme right of his long line of "Quarters behind the Mulda;"
busy enough, watching the Austrians and Reich; levying the severe
contributions; speeding all he can the manifold preparatives;--
conscious to himself of the greatest vigilance and diligence, but
wrapt in despondency and black acidulent humors; a "Doctor SO MUCH
THE WORSE," who is not a comforting Correspondent. From Hof,
towards the middle of March, he becomes specially gloomy and
acidulous; sends a series of Complaints; also of News, not
important, but all rather in YOUR favor, my dearest Brother, than
in mine, if you will please to observe! As thus:--

HENRI (at Hof, 10th-13th March). ... "Sadly off here, my dearest
Brother.! Of our '1,284 head of commissariat horses,' only 180 are
come in; of our '287 drivers,' not one. Will be impossible to open
Campaign at that rate."--"Grenadier Battalions ROTHENBURG and GRANT
demand to have picked men to complete them [of CANTONIST, or sure
Prussian sort]. ... I find [NOTA BENE, Reader!] there are eight
Austrian regiments going to Silesia [off my hands, and upon YOURS,
in a sense], eight instead of four that I spoke of: intending,
probably, for Glatz, to replace Czernichef [a Czernichef off for
home lately, in a most miraculous way; as readers shall hear!]--to
replace Czernichef, and the blank he has left there? Eight of them:
Your Majesty can have no difficulty; but I will detach Platen or
somebody, if you order it; though I am myself perilously ill off
here, so scattered into parts, not capable of speedy junction like
your Majesty."

FRIEDRICH (14th-16th March). "Commissariat horses, drivers?
I arranged and provided where everything was to be got. But if my
orders are not executed, nor the requisitions brought in, of course
there is failure. I am despatching Adjutant von Anhalt to Saxony a
second time, to enforce matters. If I could be for three weeks in
Saxony, myself, I believe I could put all on its right footing;
but, as I must not stir two steps from here, I will send you
Anhalt, with orders to the Generals, to compel them to their duty."
[Schoning, iii. 301, 302.] "As to Grenadier Battalions GRANT and
ROTHENBURG, it is absurd." (Henri falls silent for about a week,
brooding his gloom;--not aware that still worse is coming.)
King continues:--

KING (22d March). "Eight regiments, you said? Here, by enclosed
List, are seventeen of them, names and particulars all given",
which is rather a different view of the account against Silesia!
Seventeen of them, going, not for Glatz, I should say, but to
strengthen our Enemies hereabouts.

HENRI. "Hm, hah [answers only in German; dry military reports,
official merely;--thinks of writing to Chief-Clerk Eichel, who is
factotum in these spheres]. ... Artillery recruits are scarce in
the extreme; demand bounty: five thalers, shall we say?"

KING. "Seventeen regiments of them, beyond question, instead of
eight, coming on us: strange that you did n't warn me better.
I have therefore ordered your Major-General Schmettau hitherward at
once. As he has not done raising the contributions in the Lausitz,
you must send another to do it, and have them ready when General
Platen passes that way hither."--"'Five thalers bounty for
artillery men" say you? It is not to be thought of. Artillery men
can be had by conscription where you are." Henri (in silence, still
more indignant) sends military reports exclusively. March 26th,
Henri's gloom reaches the igniting point; he writes to Chief-
Clerk Eichel:--

"Monsieur, you are aware that Adjutant von Anhalt is on the way
hither. To judge by his orders, if they correspond to the Letters I
have had from the King, Adjutant von Anhalt's appearance here will
produce an embarrassment, from which I am resolved to extricate
myself by a voluntary retirement from office. My totally ruined
(ABIMEE) health, the vexations I have had, the fatigues and
troubles of war, leave in me little regret to quit the employment.
I solicit only, from your attentions and skill of management, that
my retreat be permitted to take place with the decency observed
towards those who have served the State. I have not a high opinion
of my services; but perhaps I am not mistaken in supposing that it
would be more a shame to the King than to me if he should make me
endure all manner of chagrins during my retirement." [Schoning,
iii. 307.]

Eichel sinks into profound reflection; says nothing. How is this
fire to be got under? Where is the place to trample on it, before
opening door or window, or saying a word to the King or anybody?

HENRI (same day, 26th March). "My dearest Brother,--In the List you
send me of those seventeen Austrian regiments, several, I am
informed, are still in Saxony; and by all the news that I get,
there are only eight gone towards Silesia."--"From Leipzig my
accounts are, the Reichs Army is to make a movement in advance, and
Prince Xavier with the Saxons was expected at Naumburg the 20th
ult. I know not if you have arranged with Duke Ferdinand for a
proportionate succor, in case his French also should try to
penetrate into Saxony upon me? I am, with the profoundest
attachment, your faithful and devoted servant and Brother."

KING (30th March). "Seventeen of them, you may depend; I am too
well informed to be allowed to doubt in any way. What you report of
the Reichsfolk and Saxons moving hither, thither; that seems to me
a bit of game on their part. They will try to cut one post from
you, then another, unless you assemble a corps and go in upon them.
Till you decide for this resolution, you have nothing but chicanes
and provocations to expect there. As to Duke Ferdinand of
Brunswick, I don't imagine that his Orders [from England] would
permit him what you propose [for relief of yourself]: at any rate,
you will have to write at least thrice to him,--that is to say,
waste three weeks, before he will answer No or Yes. You yourself
are in force enough for those fellows: but so long as you keep on
the defensive alone, the enemy gains time, and things will always
go a bad road." Henri's patience is already out; this same day he
is writing to the King.

HENRI (30th March). ... "You have hitherto received proofs enough
of my ways of thinking and acting to know that if in reality I was
mistaken about those eight regiments, it can only have been a piece
of ignorance on the part of my spy: meanwhile you are pleased to
make me responsible for what misfortune may come of it. I think I
have my hands full with the task laid on me of guarding 4,000
square miles of country with fewer troops than you have, and of
being opposite an enemy whose posts touch upon ours, and who is
superior in force. Your preceding Letters [from March 16th
hitherto], on which I have wished to be silent, and this last proof
of want of affection, show me too clearly to what fortune I have
sacrificed these Six Years of Campaigning."

KING (3d April: Official Orders given in Teutsch; at the tail of
which). "Spare your wrath and indignation at your servant,
Monseigneur! You, who preach indulgence, have a little of it for
persons who have no intention of offending you, or of failing in
respect for you; and deign to receive with more benignity the
humble representations which the conjunctures sometimes force from
me. F."--Which relieves Eichel of his difficulties, and quenches
this sputter. [Plucked up from the waste imbroglios of SCHONING
(iii. 296-311), by arranging and omitting.]

Prince Henri, for all his complaining, did beautifully this Season
again (though to us it must be silent, being small-war merely);--
and in particular, MAY 12th) early in the morning, simultaneously
in many different parts, burst across the Mulda, ten or twenty
miles long (or BROAD rather, from his right hand to his left),
sudden as lightning, upon the supine Serbelloni and his Austrians
and Reichsfolk. And hurled them back, one and all, almost to the
Plauen Chasm and their old haunts; widening his quarters notably.
[ Bericht von dem Uebergang uber die Mulde, den der Prinz
Heinrich den 12ten May 1762 glucklich ausgefuhrt  (in
Seyfarth,  Beylagen,  iii, 280-291).] A really
brilliant thing, testifies everybody, though not to be dwelt on
here. Seidlitz was of it (much fine cutting and careering, from the
Seidlitz and others, we have to omit in these two Saxon Campaigns!)
--Seidlitz was of it; he and another still more special
acquaintance of ours, the learned Quintus Icilius; who also did his
best in it, but lost his "AMUSETTE" (small bit of cannon,
"Plaything," so called by Marechal de Saxe, inventor of the
article), and did not shine like Seidlitz.

Henri's quarters being notably widened in this way, and nothing but
torpid Serbellonis and Prince Stollbergs on the opposite part,
Henri "drew himself out thirty-five miles long;" and stood there,
almost looking into Plauen region as formerly. And with his fiery
Seidlitzes, Kleists, made a handsome Summer of it. And beat the
Austrians and Reichsfolk at Freyberg (OCTOBER 29th) a fine Battle,
and his sole one),--on the Horse which afterwards carried Gellert,
as is pleasantly known.

But we are omitting the news from Petersburg,--which came the very
day after that gloomy LETTER TO D'ARGENS; months before the TIFF OF
QUARREL with Henri, and the brilliant better destinies of that
Gentleman in his Campaign.


BRIGHT NEWS FROM PETERSBURG (certain, Jan. 19th); WHICH GROW
EVER BRIGHTER; AND BECOME A STAR-OF-DAY FOR FRIEDRICH.

To Friedrich, long before all this of Henri, indeed almost on the
very day while he was writing so despondently to D'Argens, a new
phasis had arisen. Hardly had he been five weeks at Breslau, in
those gloomy circumstances, when,--about the middle of January,
1762 (day not given, though it is forever notable),--there arrive
rumors, arrive news,--news from Petersburg; such as this King never
had before! "Among the thousand ill strokes of Fortune, does there
at length come one pre-eminently good? The unspeakable Sovereign
Woman, is she verily dead, then, and become peaceable to me
forevermore?" We promised Friedrich a wonderful star-of-day; and
this is it,--though it is long before he dare quite regard it as
such. Peter, the Successor, he knows to be secretly his friend and
admirer; if only, in the new Czarish capacity and its chaotic
environments and conditions, Peter dare and can assert these
feelings? What a hope to Friedrich, from this time onward!
Russia may be counted as the bigger half of all he had to strive
with; the bigger, or at least the far uglier, more ruinous and
incendiary;--and if this were at once taken away, think what a
daybreak when the night was at the blackest!

Pious people say, The darkest hour is often nearest the dawn. And a
dawn this proved to be for Friedrich. And the fact grew always the
longer the brighter;--and before Campaign time, had ripened into
real daylight and sunrise. The dates should have been precise;
but are not to be had so: here is the nearest we could come.
January 14th, writing to Henri, the King has a mysterious word
about "possibilities of an uncommon sort,"--rumors from Petersburg,
I could conjecture; though perhaps they are only Turk or Tartar-
Khan affairs, which are higher this year than ever, and as futile
as ever. But, on JANUARY 19th, he has heard plainly,--with what
hopes (if one durst indulge them)!--that the implacable Imperial
Woman, INFAME CATIN DU NORD, is verily dead. Dead; and does not
hate me any more. Deliverance, Peace and Victory lie in the word!--
Catin had long been failing, but they kept it religiously secret
within the Court walls: even at Petersburg nobody knew till the
Prayers of the Church were required: Prayers as zealous as you
can,--the Doctors having plainly intimated that she is desperate,
and that the thing is over. On CHRISTMAS-DAY, 1761, by Russian
Style, 5th JANUARY, 1762, by European, the poor Imperial Catin lay
dead;--a death still more important than that of George II. to
this King.

Peter III., who succeeded has lang been privately a sworn friend
and admirer of the King; and hastens, not too SLOWLY as the King
had feared, but far the reverse, to make that known to all mankind.
That, and much else,--in a far too headlong manner, poor soul!
Like an ardent, violent, totally inexperienced person (enfranchised
SCHOOL-BOY, come to the age of thirty-four), who has sat hitherto
in darkness, in intolerable compression; as if buried alive! He is
now Czar Peter, Autocrat, not of Himself only, but of All the
Russias;--and has, besides the complete regeneration of Russia, two
great thoughts: FIRST, That of avenging native Holstein, and his
poor martyr of a Father now with God, against the Danes;--and,

SECOND, what is scarcely second in importance to the first, and
indeed is practically a kind of preliminary to it, That of
delivering the Prussian Pattern of Heroes from such a pattern of
foul combinations, and bringing Peace to Europe, while he settles
the Holstein-Danish business. Peter is Russian by the Mother's
side; his Mother was Sister of the late Catin, a Daughter, like
her, of Czar Peter called the Great, and of the little brown
Catharine whom we saw transiently long ago. His Holstein Business
shall concern us little; but that with Friedrich, during the brief
Six Months allowed him for it,--for it, and for all his remaining
businesses in this world,--is of the highest importance to
Friedrich and us.

Peter is one of the wildest men; his fate, which was tragical, is
now to most readers rather of a ghastly grotesque than of a
lamentable and pitiable character. Few know, or have ever
considered, in how wild an element poor Peter was born and nursed;
what a time he has had, since his fifteenth year especially, when
Cousin of Zerbst and he were married. Perhaps the wildest and
maddest any human soul had, during that Century. I find in him,
starting out from the Lethean quagmires where he had to grow, a
certain rash greatness of idea; traces of veritable conviction,
just resolution; veritable and just, though rash. That of
admiration for King Friedrich was not intrinsically foolish, in the
solitary thoughts of the poor young fellow; nay it was the reverse;
though it was highly inopportune in the place where he stood.
Nor was the Holstein notion bad; it was generous rather, noble
and natural, though, again, somewhat impracticable in
the circumstances.

The summary of the Friedrich-Peter business is perhaps already
known to most readers, and can be very briefly given; nor is
Peter's tragical Six Months of Czarship (5th JANUARY-9th JULY,
1762) a thing for us to dwell on beyond need. But it is wildly
tragical; strokes of deep pathos in it, blended with the ghastly
and grotesque: it is part of Friedrich's strange element and
environment: and though the outer incidents are public enough, it
is essentially little known. Had there been an AEschylus, had there
been a Shakspeare!--But poor Peter's shocking Six Months of History
has been treated by a far different set of hands, themselves almost
shocking to see: and, to the seriously inquiring mind, it lies, and
will long lie, in a very waste, chaotic, enigmatic condition.
Here, out of considerable bundles now burnt, are some rough
jottings, Excerpts of Notes and Studies,--which, I still doubt
rather, ought to have gone in AUTO DA FE along with the others.
AUTO DA FE I called it; Act of FAITH, not Spanish-Inquisitional,
but essentially Celestial many times, if you reflect well on the
poisonous consequences, on the sinfulness and deadly criminality,
of Human Babble,--as nobody does nowadays! I label the different
Pieces, and try to make legible;--hasty readers have the privilege
of skipping, if they like. The first Two are of preliminary or
prefatory nature,--perhaps still more skippable than those that
will by and by follow.

1. GENEALOGY OF PETER. "His grandfather was Friedrich IV., Duke of
Holstein-Gottorp and Schleswig, Karl XII.'s brother-in-law;
on whose score it was (Denmark finding the time opportune for a
stroke of robbery there) that Karl XII., a young lad hardly
eighteen, first took arms; and began the career of fighting that
astonished Denmark and certain other Neighbors who had been too
covetous on a young King. This his young Brother-in-law, Friedrich
of Holstein-Gottorp (young he too, though Karl's senior by ten
years), had been reinstated in his Territory, and the Danes sternly
forbidden farther burglary there, by the victorious Karl; but went
with Karl in his farther expeditions. Always Karl's intimate, and
at his right hand for the next two years: fell in the Battle of
Clissow, 19th July, 1702; age not yet thirty-one.

"He left as Heir a poor young Boy, at this time only two years old.
His young Widow Hedwig survived him six years. [Michaelis, ii.
618-629.] Her poor child grew to manhood; and had tragic fortunes
in this world; Danes again burglarious in that part, again robbing
this poor Boy at discretion, so soon as Karl XII. became
unfortunate; and refusing to restore (have not restored Schleswig
at all [A.D. 1864, HAVE at last had to do it, under unexpected
circumstances!]):--a grimly sad story to the now Peter, his only
Child! This poor Duke at last died, 18th June, 1739, age thirty-
nine; the now Peter then about 11,--who well remembers tragic Papa;
tragic Mamma not, who died above ten years before. [Michaelis, ii.
617; Hubner, tt. 227, 229.]

"Czar Peter called the Great had evidently a pity for this
unfortunate Duke, a hope in his just hopes; and pleaded, as did
various others, and endeavored with the unjust Danes, mostly
without effect. Did, however, give him one of his Daughters to
wife;--the result of whom is this new Czar Peter, called the Third:
a Czar who is Sovereign of Holstein, and has claims of Sovereignty
in Sweden, right of heirship in Schleswig, and of damages against
Denmark, which are in litigation to this day. The Czarina CATIN,
tenderly remembering her Sister, would hear of no Heir to Russia
but this Peter. Peter, in virtue of his paternal affinities, was
elected King of Sweden about the same time; but preferred Russia,--
with an eye to his Danes, some think. For certain, did adopt the
Russian Expectancy, the Greek religion so called; and was," in the
way we saw long years ago, "married (or to all appearance married)
to Catharina Alexiewna of Anhalt-Zerbst, born in Stettin;
[Herr Preuss knows the house: "Now Dr. Lehmann's [at that time the
Governor of Stettin's], in which also Czar Paul's second Spouse
[Eugen of Wurtemberg a NEW Governor's Daughter], who is Mother of
the Czars that follow, was born:" Preuss, ii. 310, 311.
Catharine, during her reign, was pious in a small way to the place
of her cradle; sent her successive MEDALS &c. to Stettin, which
still has them to show.] a Lady who became world-famous as Czarina
of the Russias.

"Peter is an abstruse creature; has lived, all this while, with his
Catharine an abstruse life, which would have gone altogether mad
except for Catharine's superior sense. An awkward, ardent, but
helpless kind of Peter, with vehement desires, with a dash of wild
magnanimity even: but in such an inextricable element, amid such
darkness, such provocations of unmanageable opulence, such
impediments, imaginary and real,--dreadfully real to poor Peter,--
as made him the unique of mankind in his time. He 'used to drill
cats,' it is said, and to do the maddest-looking things (in his
late buried-alive condition);--and fell partly, never quite, which
was wonderful, into drinking, as the solution of his
inextricabilities. Poor Peter: always, and now more than ever, the
cynosure of vulturous vulpine neighbors, withal; which infinitely
aggravated his otherwise bad case!--

"For seven or eight years, there came no progeny, nor could come;
about the eighth or ninth, there could, and did: the marvellous
Czar Paul that was to be. Concerning whose exact paternity there
are still calumnious assertions widely current; to this individual
Editor much a matter of indifference, though on examining, his
verdict is: 'Calumnies, to all appearance; mysteries which decent
or decorous society refuses to speak of, and which indecent is
pretty sure to make calumnies out of.' Czar Paul may be considered
genealogically genuine, if that is much an object to him.
Poor Paul, does not he father himself, were there nothing more?
Only that Peter and this Cathariue could have begotten such a Paul.
Genealogically genuine enough, my poor Czar,--that needed to be
garroted so very soon!

2. OF CATHARINE AND THE BOOKS UPON PETER AND HER. "Catharine too
had an intricate time of it under the Catin; which was consoled to
her only by a tolerably rapid succession of lovers, the best the
ground yielded. In which department it is well known what a Thrice-
Greatest she became: superior to any Charles II.; equal almost to
an August the Strong! Of her loves now and henceforth, which are
heartily uninteresting to me, I propose to say nothing farther;
merely this, That in extent they probably rivalled the highest male
sovereign figures (and are to be put in the same category with
these, and damned as deep, or a little deeper);--and cost her, in
gifts, in magnificent pensions to the EMERITI (for she did things
always in a grandiose manner, quietly and yet inexorably dismissing
the EMERITUS with stores of gold), the considerable sum of 20
millions sterling, in the course of her long reign. One, or at most
two, were off on pension, when Hanbury Williams brought Poniatowski
for her, as we transiently saw. Poniatowski will be King of Poland
in the course of events. ...

"Russia is not a publishing country; the Books about Catharine are
few, and of little worth. TOOKE, an English Chaplain; CASTERA, an
unknown French Hanger-on, who copies from Tooke, or Tooke from him:
these are to be read, as the bad-best, and will yield little
satisfactory insight; Castera, in particular, a great deal of
dubious backstairs gossip and street rumor, which are not
delightful to a reader of sense. In fine, there has been published,
in these very years, a FRAGMENT of early AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Catharine
herself,--a credible and highly remarkable little Piece: worth all
the others, if it is knowledge of Catharine you are seeking.
[ Memoires de l'Imperatrice Catharine II., ecrits par elle-
meme  (A. Herzen editing; London, 1859);--which we
already cited, on occasion of Catharine's marriage.

Anonymous (Castera),  Vie de Catharine II., Imperatrice de
Russie  (a Paris, 1797; or reprinted, most of it,
enough of it, A VARSOVIE, 1798) 2 tomes, 8vo. Tooke,  Life
of Catharine II.  (4th edition, London, 1800), 3 vols.
8vo;  View of the Russian Empire during &c. 
(London, 1799), 3 vols. 8vo.- Hermann,  Geschichte des
Russischen Staats  (Hamburg, 1853 ET ANTEA), v. 241-308
et seq.; is by much the most solid Book, though a dull and heavy.
Stenzel cites, as does Hermann, a  Biographie Peters des
IIIten;  which no doubt exists, in perhaps 3 volumes;
but where, when, by whom, or of what quality, they do not tell me.]
A most placid, solid, substantial young Lady comes to light there;
dropped into such an element as might have driven most people mad.
But it did not her; it only made her wiser and wiser in her
generation. Element black, hideous, dirty, as Lapland Sorcery;--in
which the first clear duty is, to hold one's tongue well, and keep
one's eyes open. Stars,--not very heavenly, but of fixed nature,
and heavenly to Catharine,--a star or two, shine through the
abominable murk: Steady, patient; steer silently, in all weathers,
towards these!

"Young Catharine's immovable equanimity in this distracted
environment strikes us very much. Peter is careering, tumbling
about, on all manner of absurd broomsticks, driven too surely by
the Devil; terrific-absurd big Lapland Witch, surrounded by
multitudes smaller, and some of them less ugly. Will be Czar of
Russia, however;--and is one's so-called Husband. These are
prospects for an observant, immovably steady-going young Woman!
The reigning Czarina, old CATIN herself, is silently the Olympian
Jove to Catharine, who reveres her very much. Though articulately
stupid as ever, in this Book of Catharine's, she comes out with a
dumb weight, of silence, of obstinacy, of intricate abrupt rigor,
which--who knows but it may savor of dumb unconscious wisdom in the
fat old blockhead? The Book says little of her, and in the way of
criticism, of praise or of blame, nothing whatever; but one gains
the notion of some dark human female object, bigger than one had
fancied it before.

"Catharine steered towards her stars. Lovers were vouchsafed her,
of a kind (her small stars, as we may call them); and, at length,
through perilous intricacies, the big star, Autocracy of All the
Russias,--through what horrors of intricacy, that last! She had
hoped always it would be by Husband Peter that she, with the deeper
steady head, would be Autocrat: but the intricacies kept
increasing, grew at last to the strangling pitch; and it came to
be, between Peter and her, 'Either you to Siberia (perhaps
FARTHER), or else I!' And it was Peter that had to go;--in what
hideous way is well enough known; no Siberia, no Holstein thought
to be far enough for Peter:--and Catharine, merely weeping a little
for him, mounted to the Autocracy herself. And then, the big star
of stars being once hers, she had, not in the lover kind alone, but
in all uncelestial kinds, whole nebulae and milky-ways of small
stars. A very Semiramis, the Louis-Quatorze of those Northern
Parts. 'Second Creatress of Russia,' second Peter the Great in a
sense. To me none of the loveliest objects; yet there are uglier,
how infinitely uglier: object grandiose, if not great."--
We return to Friedrich and the Death of Catin.

Colonel Hordt, I believe, was the first who credibly apprised
Friedrich of the great Russian Event. Colonel Hordt, late of the
Free-Corps HORDT, but captive since soon after the Kunersdorf time;
and whose doleful quasi-infernal "twenty-five months and three
days" in the Citadel of Petersburg have changed in one hour into
celestial glories in the Court of that City;--as readers shall
themselves see anon. By Hordt or by whomsoever, the instant
Friedrich heard, by an authentic source, of the new Czar's
Accession, Friedrich hastened to turn round upon him with the
friendliest attitude, with arms as if ready to open; dismissing all
his Russian Prisoners; and testifying, in every polite and royal
way, how gladly he would advance if permitted. To which the Czar,
by Hordt and by other channels, imperially responded; rushing
forward, he, as if with arms flung wide.

January 31st is Order from the King, [In SCHONING, iii. 275
("Breslau, 31st January, 1762").] That our Russian Prisoners, one
and all, shod, clad and dieted, be forthwith set under way from
Stettin: in return for which generosity the Prussians, from Siberia
or wherever they were buried, are, soon after, hastening home in
like manner. Gudowitsh, Peter's favorite Adjutant, who had been
sent to congratulate at Zerbst, comes round by Breslau (February
20th), and has joyfully benign audience next day; directly on the
heel of whom, Adjutant Colonel von Goltz, who KAMMERHERR as well as
Colonel, and understands things of business, goes to Petersburg.
February 23d, Czarish Majesty, to the horror of Vienna and glad
astonishment of mankind, emits Declaration (Note to all the Foreign
Excellencies in Petersburg), "That there ought to be Peace with
this King of Prussia; that Czarish Majesty, for his own part, is
resolved on the thing; gives up East Preussen and the so-called
conquests made; Russian participation in such a War has ceased."
And practically orders Czernichef, who is wintering with his 20,000
in Glatz, to quit Glatz and these Austrian Combinations, and march
homeward with his 20,000. Which Czernichef, so soon as arrangements
of proviant and the like are made, hastens to do;--and does, as far
as Thorn; but no farther, for a reason that will be seen. On the
last day of March, Czernichef--off about a week ago from Glatz, and
now got into the Breslau latitude--came across, with a select Suite
of Four, to pay his court there; and had the honor to dine with his
Majesty, and to be, personally too, a Czernichef agreeable to
his Majesty.

The vehemency of Austrian Diplomacies at Petersburg; and the horror
of Kaiserinn and Kriegshofrath in Vienna,--who have just discharged
20,000 of their own people, counting on this Czernichef, and being
dreadfully tight for money,--may be fancied. But all avails
nothing. The ardent Czar advances towards Friedrich with arms flung
wide. Goltz and Gudowitsh are engaged on Treaty of Peace;
Czar frankly gives up East Preussen, "Yours again; what use has
Russia for it, Royal Friend?" Treaty of Peace goes forward like the
drawing of a Marriage-settlement (concluded MAY 5th); and, in a
month more, has changed into Treaty of Alliance;--Czernichef
ordered to stop short at Thorn; to turn back, and join himself to
this heroic King, instead of fighting against him. Which again
Czernichef, himself an admirer of this King, joyfully does;--
though, unhappily, not with all the advantage he expected to
the King.

Swedish Peace, Queen Ulrique and the Anti-French Party now getting
the upper hand, had been hastening forward in the interim
(finished, at Hamburg, MAY 2d): a most small matter in comparison
to the Russian; but welcome enough to Friedrich;--though he said
slightingly of it, when first mentioned: "Peace? I know not hardly
of any War there has been with Sweden;--ask Colonel Belling about
it!" Colonel Belling, a most shining swift Hussar Colonel, who,
with a 2,000 sharp fellows, hanging always on the Swedish flanks,
sharp as lightning, "nowhere and yet everywhere," as was said of
him, has mainly, for the last year or two, had the management of
this extraordinary "War." Peace over all the North, Peace and more,
is now Friedrich's. Strangling imbroglio, wide as the world, has
ebbed to man's height; dawn of day has ripened into sunrise for
Friedrich; the way out is now a thing credible and visible to him.
Peter's friendliness is boundless; almost too boundless! Peter begs
a Prussian Regiment,--dresses himself in its uniform, Colonel of
ITZENPLITZ; Friedrich begs a Russian Regiment, Colonel of
SCHUWALOF: and all is joyful, hopeful; marriage-bells instead of
dirge ditto and gallows ditto,--unhappily not for very long.

In regard to Friedrich's feelings while all this went on, take the
following small utterances of his, before going farther.
JANUARY 27th, 1762 (To Madam Camas,--eight days after the Russian
Event): "I rejoice, my good Mamma, to find you have such courage;
I exhort you to redouble it! All ends in this world; so we may hope
this accursed War will not be the only thing eternal there.
Since death has trussed up a certain CATIN of the Hyperborean
Countries, our situation has advantageously changed, and becomes
more supportable than it was. We must hope that some other events
[favor of the new Czar mainly] will happen; by which we may profit
to arrive at a good Peace."

JANUARY 31st (To Minister Finkenstein) "Behold the first gleam of
light that rises;--Heaven be praised for it! We must hope good
weather will succeed these storms. God grant it!" [Preuss,
ii. 312.]

END OF MARCH (To D'Argens): ... "All that [at Paris; about the
Pompadourisms, the EXILE of Broglio and Brother, and your other
news] is very miserable; as well as that discrepancy between King's
Council and Parlement for and against the Jesuits! But, MON CHER
MARQUIS, my head is so ill, I can tell you nothing more,--
except that the Czar of Russia is a divine man; to whom I ought to
erect altars." [ OEuvres de Frederic, 
xix. 301.]

MAY 25th (To the same,--Russian PEACE three weeks ago): "It is very
pleasant to me, dear Marquis, that Sans-Souci could afford you an
agreeable retreat during the beautiful Spring days. If it depended
only on me, how soon should I be there beside you! But to the Six
Campaigns there is a Seventh to be added, and will soon open;
either because the Number 7 had once mystic qualities, or because
in the Book of Fate from all eternity the"-- ... "Jesuits banished
from France? Ah, yes:--hearing of that, I made my bit of plan for
them [mean to have my pick of them as schoolmasters in Silesia
here]; and am waiting only till I get Silesia cleared of Austrians
as the first thing. You see we must not mow the corn till it is
ripe." [ OEuvres de Frederic,  xix. p. 321.]

MAY 28th (To the same): ... Tartar Khan actually astir, 10,000 men
of his in Hungary (I am told); Turk potentially ditto, with 200,000
(futile both, as ever): "All things show me the sure prospect of
Peace by the end of this Year; and, in the background of it, Sans-
Souci and my dear Marquis! A sweet calm springs up again in my
soul; and a feeling of hope, to which for six years I had got
unused, consoles me for all I have come through. Think only what a
coil I shall be in, before a month hence [Campaign opened by that
time, horrid Game begun again]; and what a pass we had come to, in
December last: Country at its last gasp (AGONISAIT), as if waiting
for extreme unction: and now--!" [Ib. xix. 323.] ...

JUNE 8th (To Madame Camas,--Russian ALLIANCE now come): "I know
well, my good Mamma, the sincere part you take in the lucky events
that befall us. The mischief is, we are got so low, that we want at
present all manner of fortunate events to raise us again; and Two
grand conclusions of Peace [the Russian, the Swedish], which might
re-establish Peace throughout, are at this moment only a step
towards finishing the War less unfortunately." [Ib. xviii.
146, 147.]*

Same day, JUNE 8th (To D'Argens): "Czernichef is on march to join
us. Our Campaign will not open till towards the end of this month
[did open July 1st]; but think then what a pretty noise in this
poor Silesia again! In fine, my dear Marquis, the job ahead of me
is hard and difficult; and nobody can say positively how it will
all go. Pray for us; and don't forget a poor devil who kicks about
strangely in his harness, who leads the life of one damned; and who
nevertheless loves you sincerely.--Adieu." [ OEuvres de
Frederic,  xix. 327.] D'Argens (May 24th) has heard, by
Letters from very well-informed persons in Vienna, that "Imperial
Majesty, for some time past, spends half of her time in praying to
the Virgin, and the other half in weeping." "I wish her," adds the
ungallant D'Argens, "as punishment for the mischiefs her ambition
has cost mankind these seven years past, the fate of Phaethon's
Sisters, and that she melt altogether into water!" [Ib. xix. 320
("24th May, 1762").]--Take one other little utterance; and then to
Colonel Hordt and the Petersburg side of things.

JUNE 19th (still to D'Argens); "What is now going on in Russia no
Count Kaunitz could foresee: what has come to pass in England,--of
which the hatefulest part [Bute's altogether extraordinary
attempts, in the Kaunitz, in the Czar Peter direction, to FORCE a
Peace upon me] is not yet known to you,--I had no notion of, in
forming my plans! The Governor of a State, in troublous times,
never can be sure. This is what disgusts me with the business, in
comparison. A Man of Letters operates on something certain;
a Politician can have almost no data of that kind." [Ib. xix.
p. 329.] (How easy everybody's trade but one's own!)

Readers know what a tragedy poor Peter's was. His Czernichef did
join the King; but with far less advantage than Czernichef or
anybody had anticipated!--It is none of our intention to go into
the chaotic Russian element, or that wildly blazing sanguinary
Catharine-and-Peter business; of which, at any rate, there are
plentiful accounts in common circulation, more or less accurate,--
especially M. Rulhiere's, [Histoire ou Anecdotes sur la Revolution
de Russie en l'annes 1762 (written 1768; first printed Paris, 1797:
English Translation, London, 1797).] the most succinct, lucid and
least unsatisfactory, in the accessible languages. Only so far as
Friedrich was concerned are we. But readers saw this Couple
married, under Friedrich's auspices,--a Marriage which he thought
important twenty years ago; and sure enough the Dissolution of it
did prove important to him, and is a necessary item here!

Readers, even those that know RULHIERE, will doubtless consent to a
little supplementing from Two other Eye-witnesses of credit.
The first and principal is a respectable Ex-Swedish Gentleman, whom
readers used to hear of; the Colonel Hordt above mentioned, once of
the Free-Corps HORDT, but fallen Prisoner latterly;--whose
experiences and reports are all the more interesting to us, as
Friedrich himself had specially to depend on them at present;
and doubtless, in times long afterwards, now and then heard speech
of them from Hordt. Our second Eye-witness is the Reverend Herr
Doctor Busching (of the ERDBESCHREIBUNG, of the BEITRAGE, and many
other Works, an invaluable friend to us all along); who, in his
wandering time, had come to be "Pastor of the GERMAN CHURCH AT
PETERSBURG," some years back.


WHAT COLONEL HORDT AND THE OTHERS SAW AT PETERSBURG
(January-July, 1762).

Autumn, 1759, in the sequel to KUNERSDORF,--when the Russians and
Daun lay so long torpid, uncertain what to do except keep Friedrich
and Prince Henri well separate, and Friedrich had such watchings,
campings and marchings about on the hither skirt of them (skirt
always veiled in Cossacks, and producing skirmishes as you marched
past),--we did mention Hordt's capture; [Supra, vol. x. p. 315.]
not much hoping that readers could remember it in such a press of
things more memorable. It was in, or as prelude to, one of those
skirmishes (one of the earliest, and a rather sharp one, "at
Trebatsch," in Frankfurt-Lieberose Country, "4th September, 1759"),
that Hordt had his misfortune: he had been out reconnoitring, with
an Orderly or two, before the skirmish began, was suddenly
"surrounded by 200 Cossacks," and after desperate plunging into
bogs, desperate firing of pistols and the like, was taken prisoner.
Was carted miserably to Petersburg,--such a journey for dead ennui
as Hordt never knew; and was then tumbled out into solitary
confinement in the Citadel, a place like the Spanish Inquisition;
not the least notice taken of his request for a few Books, for
leave to answer his poor Wife's Letter, merely by the words, "Dear
one, I am alive;"--and was left there, to the company of his own
reflections, and a life as if in vacant Hades, for twenty-five
months and three days. After the lapse of that period, he has
something to say to us again, and we transiently look in upon
him there.

The Book we excerpt from is  Memoires du Comte de Hordt
 (second edition, 2 volumes 12mo, Berlin, 1789).
This is Bookseller Pitra's redaction of the Hordt Autobiography
(Berlin, 1788, was Pitra's first edition): several years after, how
many is not said, nor whether Hordt (who had become a dignitary in
Berlin society before Pitra's feat) was still living or not, a
"M. Borelly, Professor in the Military School," undertook a second
considerably enlarged and improved redaction;--of which latter
there is an English Translation; easy enough to read; but nearly
without meaning, I should fear, to readers unacquainted with the
scene and subject. [ Memoirs of the Count de Hordt:
 London, 1806: 2 vols. 12mo,--only the FIRST volume of
which (unavailable here) is in my possession.] Hordt was reckoned a
perfectly veracious, intelligent kind of man: but he seldom gives
the least date, specification or precise detail; and his Book
reads, not like the Testimony of an Eye-witness, which it is, and
valuable when you understand it; but more like some vague Forgery,
compiled by a destitute inventive individual, regardless of the Ten
Commandments (sparingly consulting even his file of Old
Newspapers), and writing a Book which would deserve the tread-mill,
were there any Police in his trade!--

WEDNESDAY, 6th JANUARY, 1762, Hordt's vacant Hades of an existence
in the Citadel of Petersburg was broken by a loud sound:
three minute-guns went off from different sides, close by; and then
whole salvos, peal after peal: "Czarina gone overnight, Peter III.
Czar in her stead!" said the Officer, rushing in to tell Hordt;
to whom it was as news of resurrection from the dead. "Evening of
same day, an Aide-de-Camp of the new Czar came to announce my
liberty; equipage waiting to take me at once to his Russian
Majesty. Asked him to defer it till the following day--so agitated
was I." And indeed the Czar, busy taking acclamations, oaths of
fealty, riding about among his Troops by torchlight, could have
made little of me that evening. [Hermann,  Geschichte des
Russischen Staats,  v. 241.] "Ultimately, my
presentation was deferred till Sunday" January 10th, "that it might
be done with proper splendor, all the Nobility being then usually
assembled about his Majesty."

"JANUARY 10th, Waited, amid crowds of Nobility, in the Gallery,
accordingly. Was presented in the Gallery, through which the Czar,
followed by Czarina and all the Court, were passing on their way to
Chapel. Czar made a short kind speech ('Delighted to do you an act
of justice, Monsieur, and return a valuable servant to the King I
esteem'); gave me his hand to kiss: Czarina did the same.
General Korf," an excellent friend, so kind to me at Konigsberg,
while I was getting carted hither, and a General now in high office
here, "who had been my introducer, led me into Chapel, to the
Court's place (TRIBUNE DE LA COUR). Czar came across repeatedly
[while public worship was going on; a Czar perhaps too regardless
that way!] to talk to me; dwelt much on his attachment to the King.
On coming out, the Head Chamberlain whispered me, 'You dine with
the Court.'" Which, of course, I did.

"Table was of sixty covers; splendid as the Arabian Tales. Czar and
Czarina sat side by side; Korf and I had the honor to be placed
opposite them. Hardly were we seated when the Czar addressed me:
'You have had no Prussian news this long while. I am glad to tell
you that the King is well, though he has had such fighting to right
and left;--but I hope there will soon be an end to all that.'
Words which everybody listened to like prophecy! [Peter is nothing
of a Politician.] 'How long have you been in prison?' continued the
Czar. 'Twenty-five months and three days, your Majesty.' 'Were you
well treated?' Hordt hesitated, knew not what to say; but, the Czar
urging him, confessed, 'He had been always rather badly used;
not even allowed to buy a few books to read.' At which the Czarina
was evidently shocked: 'CELA EST BIEN BARBARE!' she exclaimed
aloud.--I wished much to return home at once; and petitioned the
Czar on that subject, during coffee, in the withdrawing rooms;
but he answered, 'No, you must not,--not till an express Prussian
Envoy arrive!' I had to stay, therefore; and was thenceforth almost
daily at Court",--but unluckily a little vague, and altogether
DATELESS as to what I saw there!

BIEREN AND MUNNICH, BOTH OF THEM JUST HOME FROM SIBERIA, ARE TO
DRINK TOGETHER (No date: Palace of Petersburg, Spring, 1762).--
Peter had begun in a great way: all for liberalism, enlightenment,
abolition of abuses, general magnanimity on his own and everybody's
part. Rulhiere did not see the following scene; but it seems to be
well enough vouched for, and Rulhiere heard it talked of in
society. "As many as 20,000 persons, it is counted, have come home
from Siberian Exile:" the L'Estocs, the Munnichs, Bierens, all
manner of internecine figures, as if risen from the dead.
"Since the night when Munnich arrested Bieren [readers possibly
remember it, and Mannstein's account of it [Supra, vol. vii.
p. 363.]], the first time these two met was in the gay and
tumultuous crowd which surrounded the new Czar. 'Come, bygones be
bygones,' said Peter, noticing them; 'let us three all drink
together, like friends!'--and ordered three glasses of wine.
Peter was beginning his glass to show the others an example, when
somebody came with a message to him, which was delivered in a low
tone; Peter listening drank out his wine, set down the glass, and
hastened off; so that Bieren and Munnich, the two old enemies, were
left standing, glass in hand, each with his eyes on the Czar's
glass;--at length, as the Czar did not return, they flashed each
his eyes into the other's face; and after a moment's survey, set
down their glasses untasted, and walked off in opposite
directions." [Rulhiere, p. 33.] Won't coalesce, it seems, in spite
of the Czar's high wishes. An emblem of much that befell the poor
Czar in his present high course of good intentions and headlong
magnanimities!--We return to Hordt:--

THE CZAR WEARS A PORTRAIT OF FRIEDRICH ON HIS FINGER. "Czar Peter
never disguised his Prussian predilections. One evening he said,
'Propose to your friend Keith [English Excellency here, whom we
know] to give me a supper at his house to-morrow night. The other
Foreign Ministers will perhaps be jealous; but I don't care!'
Supper at the English Embassy took place. Only ten or twelve
persons, of the Czar's choosing, were present. Czar very gay and in
fine spirits. Talked much of the King of Prussia. Showed me a
signet-ring on his finger, with Friedrich's Portrait in it;
ring was handed round the table." [Hordt, ii. 118, 124, 129.]
This is a signet-ring famous at Court in these months. One day
Peter had lost it (mislaid somewhere), and got into furious
explosion till it was found for him again. [Hermann, v. 258.]
Let us now hear Busching, our Geographical Friend, for a moment:--

HERR PASTOR BUSCHING DOES THE HOMAGING FOR SELF AND PEOPLE. ...
"In most Countries, it is Official or Military People that
administer the Oath of Homage, on a change of Sovereigns. But in
Petersburg, among the German population, it is the Pastors of their
respective Churches. At the accession of Peter III., I, for the
first time [being still a young hand rather than an old], took the
Oath from several thousands in my Church,"--and handed it over,
with my own, in the proper quarter.

"As to the Congratulatory Addresses, the new Czar received the
Congratulations of all classes, and also of the Pastors of the
Foreign Churches, in the following manner. He came walking slowly
through a suite of rooms, in each of which a body of Congratulators
were assembled. Court-officials preceded, State-officials followed
him. Then came the Czarina, attended in a similar way. And always
on entering a new room they received a new Congratulation from the
spokesman of the party there. The spokesman of us Protestant
Pastors was my colleague, Senior Trefurt; but the General-in-Chief
and Head-of-Police, Baron von Korf [Hordt's friend, known to us
above, German, we perceive, by creed and name], thinking it was I
that had to make the speech, and intending to present me at the
same time to the Czar, motioned to me from his place behind the
Czar to advance. But I did not push forward; thinking it
inopportune and of no importance to me."--"Neither did I share the
great expectations which Baron von Korf and everybody entertained
of this new reign. All people now promised themselves better times,
without reflecting [as they should have done!] that the better men
necessary to produce these were nowhere forthcoming!" [Busching's
 Beitrage,  vi. ("Author's own Biography") 462
et seq.]

For the first two or three months, Peter was the idol of all the
world: such generosities and magnanimities; Such zeal and
diligence, one magnanimous improvement following another! He had at
once abolished Torture in his Law-Courts: resolved to have a
regular Code of Laws,--and Judges to be depended on for doing
justice. He "destroyed monopolies;" "lowered the price of salt."
To the joy of everybody, he had hastened (January 18th, second week
of reign) to abolish the SECRET CHANCERY,--a horrid Spanish-
Inquisition engine of domestic politics. His Nobility he had
determined should be noble: January 28th (third week of reign just
beginning), he absolved the Nobility from all servile duties to
him: "You can travel when and where you please; you are not obliged
to serve in my Armies; you may serve in anybody's not at war with
me!" under plaudits loud and universal from that Order of men.
And was petitioned by a grateful Petersburg world: "Permit us,
magnanimous Czar, to raise a statue of your Majesty in solid Gold!"
"Don't at all!" answered Peter: "Ah, if by good governing I could
raise a memorial in my People's hearts; that would be the Statue
for me!" [Hermann, v. 248.] Poor headlong Peter!--It was a less
lucky step that of informing the Clergy (date not given), That in
the Czarship lay Spiritual Sovereignty as well as Temporal, and
that HE would henceforth administer their rich Abbey Lands and the
like:--this gave a sad shock to the upper strata of Priesthood,
extending gradually to the lower, and ultimately raising an ominous
general thought (perhaps worse than a general cry) of "Church in
Danger! Alas, is our Czar regardless of Holy Religion, then?
Perhaps, at heart still Lutheran, and has no Religion?" This, and
his too headlong Prussian tendencies, are counted to have done him
infinite mischief.

HERR BUSCHING SEES THE CZAR ON HORSEBACK. "When the Czar's own
Regiment of Cuirassiers came to Petersburg, the Czar, dressed in
the uniform of the regiment, rode out to meet it; and returning at
its head, rode repeatedly through certain quarters of the Town.
His helmet was buckled tight with leather straps under the chin;
he sat his horse as upright and stiff as a wooden image; held his
sabre in equally stiff manner; turned fixedly his eyes to the
right; and never by a hair's-breadth changed that posture. In such
attitude he twice passed my house with his regiment, without
changing a feature at sight of the many persons who crowded the
windows. To me [in my privately austere judgment] he seemed so
KLEINGEISTISCH, so small-minded a person, that I"--in fact, knew
not what to think of it. [Busching,  Beitrage, 
vi. 464.]

HORDT SEES THE DECEASED CZARINA LYING IN STATE. "One day, after
dining at Court, General Korf proposed that we should go and see
the LIT DE PARADE" (Parade-bed) of the late Czarina, which is in
another Palace, not far off. "Count Schuwalof [NOT her old lover,
who has DIED since her, poor old creature; but his Son, a
cultivated man, afterwards Voltaire's friend] accompanied us;
and, his rooms being contiguous to those of the dead Lady, he asked
us to take coffee with him afterwards. The Imperial Bier stood in
the Grand Saloon, which was hung all round with black, festooned
and garlanded with cloth-of-silver; the glare of wax-lights quite
blinding. Bier, covered with cloth-of-gold trimmed with silver
lace, was raised upon steps. A rich Crown was on the head of the
dead Czarina. Beside the bier stood Four Ladies, two on each hand,
in grand mourning; immense crape training on the ground behind
them. Two Officers of the Life-Guard occupied the lowest steps:
on the topmost, at the foot of the bier, was an Archimandrite
(superior kind of ABBOT), who had a Bible before him, from which he
read aloud,--continuously till relieved by another. This went on
day and night without interruption. All round the bier, on stools
(TABOURETS), were placed different Crowns, and the insignia of
various Orders,--those of Prussia, among others. It being
established usage, I had, to my great repugnance, to kiss the hand
of the corpse! We then talked a little to the Ladies in attendance
(with their crape trains), joking about the article of hand-
kissing; finally we adjourned for coffee to Count Schuwalof's
apartments, which were of an incredible magnificence." That same
evening, farther on,--

"I supped with the Czar in his PETIT APPARTEMENT, Private Rooms [a
fine free-and-easy nook of space!]. The company there consisted of
the Countess Woronzow, a creature without any graces, bodily or
mental, whom the Czar had chosen for his Mistress [snub-nosed,
pock-marked, fat, and with a pert tongue at times], whom I liked
the less, as there were one or two other very handsome women there.
Some Courtiers too; and no Foreigners but the English Envoy and
myself. The supper was very gay, and was prolonged late into the
night. These late orgies, however, did not prevent his Majesty from
attending to business in good time next morning. He would appear
unexpectedly, at an early hour, at the Senate, at the Synod [Head
CONSISTORY], making them stand to their duties,"--or pretend to do
it. His Majesty is not understood to have got much real work out of
either of these Governing Bodies; the former, the Senate, or
SECULAR one, which had fallen very torpid latterly, was, not long
after this, suffered to die out altogether. Peter himself was a
violently pushing man, and never shrank from labor; always in a
plunge of hurries, and of irregular hours. In his final time,
people whispered, "The Czar is killing himself; sits smoking,
tippling, talking till 2 in the morning; and is overhead in
business again by 7!"

CZARINA ELIZABETH'S FUNERAL, AS SEEN BY HORDT (much abridged).
"At 10 in the morning all the bells in Petersburg broke out;
and tolled incessantly [day or month not hinted at,--nor worth
seeking; grim darkness of universal frost perceptible enough;
clangor of bells; and procession seemingly of miles long,--on this
extremely high errand!]--Minute-guns were fired from the moment the
procession set out from the Castle till it arrived at the Citadel,
a distance of two English miles and a half. Planks were laid all
the way; forming a sort of bridge through the streets, and over the
ice of the Neva. All the soldiers of the Garrison were ranked in
espalier on each side. Three hundred grenadiers opened the march;
after them, three hundred priests, in sacerdotal costume;
walking two-and-two, singing hymns. All the Crowns and Orders,
above mentioned by me, were carried by high Dignitaries of the
Court, walking in single file, each a chamberlain behind him.
Hearse was followed by the Czar, skirt of his black cloak held up
by Twelve Chamberlains, each a lighted taper in the OTHER hand.
Prince George of Holstein [Czar's Uncle] came next, then Holstein-
Beck [Czar's Cousin]. Czarina Catharine followed, also on foot,
with a lighted taper; her cloak borne by all her Ladies.
Three hundred grenadiers closed the procession. Bells tolling,
minute-guns firing, seas of people crowding."--Thus the Russians
buried their Czarina. Day and its dusky frost-curtains sank;
and Bootes, looking down from the starry deeps, found one Telluric
Anomaly forever hidden from him. She had left of unworn Dresses,
the richest procurable in Nature (five a day her usual allowance,
and never or seldom worn twice), "15,000 and some hundreds."
[Hermann, v. 176.]

HORDT IS OF THE NEW CZARINA CATHARINE'S EVENING PARTIES.
"The Czarina received company every morning. She received everybody
with great affability and grace. But notwithstanding her efforts to
appear gay, one could perceive a deep background of sadness in her.
She knew better than anybody the violent (ARDENTE) character of her
husband; and perhaps she then already foresaw what would come.
She also had her circle every evening, and always asked the company
to stay supper. One evening, when I was of her party, a
confidential Equerry of the Czar came in, and whispered me That I
had been searched for all over Town, to come to supper at the
COUNTESS'S (that was the usual designation of the Sultana,"--DAS
FRAULEIN, spelt in Russian ways, is the more usual). "I begged to
be excused for this time, being engaged to sup with the Czarina, to
whom I could not well state the reason for which I was to leave.
The Equerry had not gone long, when suddenly a great noise was
heard, the two wings of the door were flung open, and the Czar
entered. He saluted politely the Czarina and her circle; called me
with that smiling and gracious air which he always had; took me by
the arm, and said to the Czarina: 'Excuse me, Madam, if to-night I
carry off one of your guests; it is this Prussian I had searched
for all over the Town.' The Czarina laughed; I made her a deep bow,
and went away with my conductor. Next morning I went to the
Czarina; who, without mentioning what had passed last night, said
smiling, 'Come and sup with me always when there is nothing to
prevent it.'"

FEBRUARY 21st, HORDT AT ZARSKOE-ZELOE. "On occasion of the Czar's
birthday [which gives us a date, for once], [Michaelis, ii. 627:
"Peter born, 21st February, 1728."] there were great festivities,
lasting a week. It began with a grand TE DEUM, at which the Czar
was present, but not the Czarina. She had, that morning, in
obedience to her husband's will, decorated 'the Countess' with the
cordon of the Order of St. Catharine. She was now detained in her
Apartment 'by indisposition;' and did not leave it during the eight
days the festivities lasted." This happened at the Country Palace,
Zarskoe-Zeloe; and is a turning-point in poor Peter's History.
[Hermann, p. 253.] From that day, his Czarina saw that, by the
medium of her Peter, it was not she that would ever come to be
Autocrat; not she, but a pock-marked, unbeautiful Person, with
Cordon of the Order of St. Catharine,--blessings on it! From that
day the Czarina sat brooding her wrongs and her perils,--wrongs
DOUE, very many, and now wrongs to be SUFFERED, who can say how
many! She perceives clearly that the Czar is gone from her, fixedly
sullen at her (not without cause);--and that Siberia, or worse, is
possible by and by. The Czarina was helplessly wretched for some
time; and by degrees entered on a Plot;--assisted by Princess
Dashkof (Sister of the Snub-nosed), by Panin (our Son's Tutor,
"a genuine Son, I will swear, whatever the Papa may think in his
wild moments!"), by Gregory Orlof (one's present Lover), and
others of less mark;--and it ripened exquisitely within the next
four months!--

HORDT HEARS THE PRAISES OF HIS KING. "Next day [nobody can guess
what DAY] I dined at Court. I sat opposite the Czar, who talked of
nothing but of his 'good friend the King of Prussia.' He knew all
the smallest details of his Campaigns; all his military
arrangements; the dress and strength of all his Regiments; and he
declared aloud that he would shortly put all his troops upon the
same footing [which he did shortly, to the great disgust of his
troops].--Rising from table, the Czar himself did me the honor to
say, 'Come to-morrow; dine with me EN PETIT APPARTEMENT [on the
SNUG, where we often play high-jinks, and go to great lengths in
liquor and tobacco]; I will show you something curious, which you
will like.' I went at the accustomed hour; I found--Lieutenant-
General Werner [hidden since his accident at Colberg last winter,
whom a beneficent Czar has summoned again into the light of noon]!
I made a great friendship with this distinguished General, who was
a charming man; and went constantly about with him, till he left me
here,"--Czarish kindness letting Werner home, and detaining me, to
my regret. [HORDT, i. 133-145, 151.]

The Prussian Treaties, first of Peace (May 5th), with all our
Conquests flung back, and then of Alliance, with yourself and
ourselves, as it were, flung into the bargain,--were by no means so
popular in Petersburg as in Berlin! From May 5th onwards, we can
suppose Peter to be, perhaps rather rapidly, on the declining hand.
Add the fatal element, "Church in Danger" (a Czar privately
Apostate); his very Guardsmen indignant at their tight-fitting
Prussian uniforms, and at their no less tight Prussian DRILL
(which the Czar is uncommonly urgent with); and a Czarina Plot
silently spreading on all sides, like subterranean mines filled
with gunpowder!--

HERR BUSCHING SEES THE CATASTROPHE (Friday, 9th July, 1762).
"This being the day before Peter-and-Paul, which is a great Holiday
in Petersburg, I drove out, between 9 and 10 in the morning, to
visit the sick. On my way from the first house where I had called,
I heard a distant noise like that of a rising thunder-storm, and
asked my people what it was. They did not know; but it appeared to
them like the Shouting of a Mob (VOLKSGESCHREI), and there were all
sorts of rumors afloat. Some said, 'The Czar had suddenly resolved
to get himself crowned at Petersburg, before setting out for the
War on Denmark.' Others said, 'He had named the Czarina to be
Regent during his absence, and that she was to be crowned for this
purpose.' These rumors were too silly: meanwhile the noise
perceptibly drew nearer; and I ordered my coachman to proceed no
farther, but to turn home.

"On getting home, I called my Wife; and told her, That something
extraordinary was then going on, but that I could not learn what;
that it appeared to me like some popular Tumult, which was coming
nearer to us every moment. We hurried to the corner room of our
house; threw open the window, which looks to the Church of St. Mary
of Casan [where an Act of Thanksgiving has just been consummated,
of a very peculiar kind!]--and we then saw, near this Church, an
innumerable crowd of people; dressed and half-dressed soldiers of
the foot-regiments of the Guards mixed with the populace.
We perceived that the crowd pressed round a common two-seated
Hackney Coach drawn by two horses; in which, after a few minutes, a
Lady dressed in black, and wearing the Order of St. Catharine,
coming out of the church, took a seat. Whereupon the church-bells
began ringing, and the priests, with their assistants carrying
crosses, got into procession, and walked before the Coach. We now
recognized that it was the Czarina Catharine saluting the multitude
to right and left, as she fared along." [ Beitrage,  vi. 465: compare RULHIERE, p. 95; HERMANN, v. 287.]

Yes, Doctor, that Lady in black is the Czarina; and has come a
drive of twenty miles this morning; and done a great deal of
business in Town,--one day before the set time. In her remote
Apartment at Peterhof, this morning, between 2 and 3, she awoke to
see Alexei Orlof, called oftener SCARRED Orlof (Lover GREGORY'S
Brother), kneeling at her bedside, with the words, "Madam, you must
come: there is not a moment to lose!"--who, seeing her awake,
vanished to get the vehicles ready. About 7, she, with the Scarred
and her maid and a valet or two, arrived at the Guards' Barracks
here,--Gregory Orlof, and others concerned, waiting to receive her,
in the fit temper for playing at sharps. She has spoken a little,
wept a little, to the Guards (still only half-dressed, many of
them): "Holy religion, Russian Empire thrown at the feet of
Prussia; my poor Son to be disinherited: Alack, ohoo!"
Whereupon the Guards (their Officers already gained by Orlof) have
indignantly blazed up into the fit Hurra-hurra-ing:--and here,
since about 9 A.M., we have just been in the "Church of St. Mary of
Casan" ("Oh, my friends, Orthodox Religion, first of all!") doing
TE-DEUMS and the other Divine Offices, for the thrice-happy
Revolution and Deliverance now vouchsafed us and you! And the Herr
Doctor, under outburst of the chimes of St. Mary, and of the
jubilant Soldieries and Populations, sees the Czarina saluting to
right and left; and Priests, with their assistants and crucifixes
("Behold them, ye Orthodox; is there anything equal to true
Religion?"), walking before her Hackney Coach.

"On the one step of her Coach," continues the Herr Doctor, "stood
Grigorei Grigorjewitsh Orlow," so he spells him, "and in front of
it, with drawn sword, rode the Field-marshal and Hetman Count
Kirila Grigorjewitsh Rasomowski, Colonel of the Ismailow Guard.
Lieutenant-General (soon to be General-Ordnance-Master) Villebois
came galloping up; leapt from his horse under our windows, and
placed himself on the other step of the Coach. The procession
passed before our house; going first to the New stone Palace, then
to the Old wooden Winter Palace. Common Russians shouted mockingly
up to us, 'Your god [meaning the Czar] is dead!' And others, 'He is
gone; we will have no more of him!'"--

About this hour of the day, at Oranienbaum (ORANGE-TREE, some
twenty miles from here, and from Peterhof guess ten or twelve),
Czar Peter is drilling zealously his brave Holsteiners (2,000 or
more, "the flower of all my troops"); and has not, for hours after,
the least inkling of all this. Catharine had been across to visit
him on Wednesday, no farther back; and had kindled Oranienbaum into
opera, into illumination and what not. Thursday (yesterday), Czar
and Czarina met at some Grandee's festivity, who lives between
their two Residences. This day the Czar is appointed for Peterhof;
to-morrow, July 10th (Peter-and-Paul's grand Holiday), Czar,
Czarina and united Court were to have done the Festivities together
there,--with Czarina's powder-mine of Plot laid under them;
which latter has exploded one day sooner, in the present happy
manner! The poor Czar, this day, on getting to Peterhof, and
finding Czarina vanished, understood too well; he saw "big smoke-
clouds rise suddenly over Petersburg region," withal,--"Ha, she has
cannon going for her yonder; salvoing and homaging!"--and rushed
back to Oranienbaum half mad. Old Munnich undertook to save him, by
one, by two or even three different methods, "Only order me, and
stand up to it with sword bare!"--but Peter's wits were all flying
miscellaneously about, and he could resolve on nothing.

Peter and his Czarina never met more. Saturday (to-morrow), he
abdicates; drives over to Peterhof, expecting, as per bargain,
interview with his Wife; freedom to retire to Holstein, and "every
sort of kindness compatible with his situation:" but is met there
instead, on the staircase, by brutal people, who tear the orders
off his coat, at length the very clothes off his back,--and pack
him away to Ropscha, a quiet Villa some miles off, to sit silent
there till Orlof and Company have considered. Consideration is:
"To Holstein? He has an Anti-Danish Russian Army just now in that
neighborhood; he will not be safe in Holstein;--where will he be
safe?" Saturday, 17th, Peter's seventh day in Ropscha, the Orlofs
(Scarred Orlof and Four other miscreants, one of them a Prince, one
a Play-actor) came over, and murdered poor Peter, in a treacherous,
and even bungling and disgusting, and altogether hideous manner.
"A glass of burgundy [poisoned burgundy], your Highness?" said
they, at dinner with his poor Highness. On the back of which, the
burgundy having failed and been found out, came grappling and
hauling, trampling, shrieking, and at last strangulation.
Surely the Devil will reward such a Five of his Elect?-- But we
detain Herr Busching: it is still only Friday morning, 9th of the
month; and the Czarina's Hackney Coach, in the manner of a comet
and tail, has just gone into other streets:--

"After this terrible uproar had left our quarter, I hastened to the
Danish Ambassador, Count Haxthausen, who lived near me, to bring
him the important news that the Czar was said to be dead. The Count
was just about to burn a mass of Papers, fearing the mob would
plunder his house; but he did not proceed with it now, and thanked
Heaven for saving his Country. His Secretary of Legation, my friend
Schumacher, gave me all the money he had in his pockets, to
distribute amongst the poor; and I returned home. Directly after,
there passed our house, at a rate as if the horses were running
away, a common two-horse coach, in which sat Head-Tutor (OBER-
HOFMEISTER) von Panin with the Grand Duke [famous Czar Paul that is
to be], who was still in his nightgown," poor frightened
little boy!--

"Not long after, I saw some of the Foot-guards, in the public
street near the Winter Palace, selling, at rates dog-cheap, their
new uniforms after the Prussian cut, which they had stript off;
whilst others, singing merrily, carried about, stuck on the top of
their muskets, or on their bayonets, their new grenadier caps of
Prussian fashion. [See in HERMANN (v. 291) the Saxon Ambassador's
Report.] I saw several soldiers,, out on errand or otherwise,
seizing the coaches they met in the streets, and driving on in
them. Others appropriated the eatables which hucksters carried
about in baskets. But in all this wild tumult, nobody was killed;
and only at Oranienbaum a few Holstein soldiers got wounded by some
low Russians, in their wantonness.

"July 11th, the disorder amongst the soldiers was at its height;
yet still much less than might have been expected. Many of them
entered the houses of Foreigners, and demanded money. Seeing a
number of them come into my house, I hastily put a quantity of
roubles and half-roubles in my pocket, and went out with a servant,
especially with a cheerful face, to meet them,"--and no harm
was done.

"SATURDAY, JULY 17th, was the day of the Czar's death; on the same
17th, the Empress was informed of it; and next day, his body was
brought from Ropscha to the Convent of St. Alexander Newski, near
Petersburg. Here it lay in state three days; nay, an Imperial
Manifesto even ordered that the last honors and duty be paid to it.
July 20th, I drove thither with my Wife; and to be able to view the
body more minutely, we passed twice through the room where it lay.
[An uncommonly broad neckcloth on it, did you observe?] Owing to
the rapid dissolution, it had to be interred on the following day:
--and it was a touching circumstance, that this happened to be the
very day on which the Czar had fixed to start from Petersburg on
his Campaign against Denmark." [Busching, vi. 464-467.]

Catharine, one must own with a shudder, has not attained the
Autocracy of All the Russias gratis. Let us hope she would once--
till driven upon a dire alternative--have herself shuddered to
purchase at such a price. A kind of horror haunts one's notion of
her red-handed brazen-faced Orlofs and her, which all the cosmetics
of the world will never quite cover. And yet, on the spot, in
Petersburg at the moment--! Read this Clipping from Smelfungus, on
a collateral topic:--

"In BUSCHING'S MAGAZINE are some Love-letters from the old Marshal
Munnich to Catharine just after this event, which are
psychologically curious. Love-letters, for they partake of that
character; though the man is 82, and has had such breakages and
vicissitudes in this Earth. Alive yet, it would seem; and full of
ambitions. Unspeakably beautiful is this young Woman to him;
radiant as ox-eyed Juno, as Diana of the silver bow,--such a power
in her to gratify the avarices, ambitions, cupidities of an
insatiable old fellow: O divine young Empress, Aurora of bright
Summer epochs, rosy-fingered daughter of the Sun,--grant me the
governing of This, the administering of That: and see what a thing
I will make of it (I, an inventive old gentleman), for your
Majesty's honor and glory, and my own advantage! [Busching,
 Magazin fur die neue Historie und Geographie 
(Halle, Year 1782), xvi. 413-477 (22 LETTERS, and only thrice or so
a word of RESPONSE from "MA DIVINITE:" dates, "Narva, 4th August,
1762" ... "Petersburg, 3d October, 1762").]--Innumerable persons of
less note than Munnich have their Biographies, and are known to the
reading public and in all barbers'-shops, if that were an advantage
to them. Very considerable, this Munnich, as a soldier, for one
thing. And surely had very strange adventures; an original German
character withal:--about the stature of Belleisle, for example;
and not quite unlike Belleisle in some of his ways? Came originally
from the swamps of Oldenburg, or Lower Weser Country,--son of a
DEICHGRAFE (Ditch-Superintendent) there. REQUIESCANT in oblivious
silence, Belleisle and he; it is better than being lied of, and
maundered of, and blotched and blundered of.

"Biographies were once rhythmic, earnest as death or as life,
earnest as transcendent human Insight risen to the Singing pitch;
some Homer, nay some Psalmist or Evangelist, spokesman of reverent
Populations, was the Biographer. Rhythmic, WITH exactitude,
investigation to the very marrow; this, or else oblivion, Biography
should now, and at all times, be; but is not,--by any manner of
means. With what results is visible enough, if you will look!
Human Stupor, fallen into the dishonest, lazy and UNflogged
condition, is truly an awful thing."

Catharine did not persist in her Anti-Prussian determination.
July 9th, the Manifesto had been indignantly emphatic on Prussia;
July 22d, in a Note to Goltz from the Czarina, it was all withdrawn
again. [Rodenbeck, ii. 171.] Looking into the deceased Czar's
Papers, she found that Friedrich's Letters to him had contained
nothing of wrong or offensive; always excellent advices, on the
contrary,--advice, among others, To be conciliatory to his clever-
witted Wife, and to make her his ally, not his opponent, in living
and reigning. In Konigsberg (July 16th, seven days after July 9th),
the Russian Governor, just on the point of quitting, emitted
Proclamation, to everybody's horror: "No; altered, all that;
under pain of death, your Oath to Russia still valid!" Which for
the next ten days, or till his new proclamation, made such a
Konigsberg of it as may be imagined. The sight of those Letters is
understood to have turned the scale; which had hung wavering till
July 22d in the Czarina's mind. "Can it be good," she might
privately think withal, "to begin our reign by kindling a foolish
War again?" How Friedrich received the news of July 9th, and into
what a crisis it threw him, we shall soon see. His Campaign had
begun July 1st;-- and has been summoning us home, into ITS horizon,
for some time.



Chapter XI.

SEVENTH CAMPAIGN OPENS.

Freidrich's plan of Campaign is settled long since: Recapture
Schweidnitz; clear Silesia of the enemy; Silesia and all our own
Dominions clear, we can then stand fencible against the Austrian
perseverances. Peace, one day, they must grant us. The general tide
of European things is changed by these occurrences in Petersburg
and London. Peace is evidently near. France and England are again
beginning to negotiate; no Pitt now to be rigorous. The tide of War
has been wavering at its summit for two years past; and now, with
this of Russia, and this of Bute instead of Pitt, there is ebb
everywhere, and all Europe determining for peace. Steady at the
helm, as heretofore, a Friedrich, with the world-current in his
favor, may hope to get home after all.

Austrian Head-quarters had been at Waldenburg, under Loudon or his
Lieutenants, all Winter. Loudon returned thither from Vienna April
7th; but is not to command in chief, this Year,--Schweidnitz still
sticking in some people's throats: "Dangerous; a man with such rash
practices, rapidities and Pandour tendencies!" Daun is to command
in Silesia; Loudon, under him, obscure to us henceforth, and
inoffensive to Official people. Reichs Army shall take charge of
Saxony; nominally a Reichs Army, though there are 35,000 Austrians
in it, as the soul of it, under some Serbelloni, some Stollberg as
Chief--(the fact, I believe, is: Serbelloni got angrily displaced
on that "crossing of the Mulda by Prince Henri, May 13th;"
Prince of Zweibruck had angrily abdicated a year before; and a
Prince von Stollberg is now Generalissimo of Reich and Allies:
but it is no kind of matter),--some Stollberg, with Serbelloni,
Haddick, Maguire and such like in subaltern places. Cunctator Daun,
in spite of his late sleepy ways, is to be Head-man again:
this surely is a cheering circumstance to Friedrich; Loudon, not
Daun, being the only man he ever got much ill of hitherto.

Daun arrives in Waldenburg, May 9th; and to show that he is not
cunctatory, steps out within a week after. May 15th, he has
descended from his Mountains; has swept round by the back and by
the front of Schweidnitz, far and wide, into the Plain Country, and
encamped himself crescent-wise, many miles in length, Head-quarter
near the Zobtenberg. Bent fondly round Schweidnitz; meaning, as is
evident, to defend Schweidnitz against all comers,--his very
position symbolically intimating: "I will fight for it, Prussian
Majesty, if you like!"

Prussian Majesty, however, seemed to take no notice of him;
and, what was very surprising, kept his old quarters:
"a Cantonment, or Chain of Posts, ten miles long; Schweidnitz Water
on his right flank, Oder on his left;" perfectly safe, as he
perceives, being able to assemble in four hours, if Daun try
anything. [Tempelhof, vi. 66.] And, in fact, sat there, and did not
come into the Field at all for five weeks or more;--waiting till
Czernichef's 20,000 arrive, who are on march from Thorn since June
2d. Mere small-war goes on in the interim; world getting all
greener and flowerier; the Glatz Highlands, to one's left yonder
(Owl-Mountains, EULENGEBIRGE so called), lying magically blue and
mysterious:--on the Plain in front of them, ten miles from the
final peaks of them, is Schweidnitz Fortress, lying full in view,
with a picked Garrison of 12,000 under a picked Captain, and all
else of defence or impregnability; and Friedrich privately
determined to take it, though by methods of his own choosing, and
which cannot commence till Czernichef come. Daun, with his right
wing, has hold of those Highland Regions, and cautiously guards
them; can, when he pleases, wend back to Waldenburg Country; and at
once, with his superior numbers, block all passages, and sit there
impregnable. The methods of dislodging him are obscure to Friedrich
himself; but methods there must be, dislodged he must be, and sent
packing. Without that, all siege of Schweidnitz is
flatly impossible.

June 27th, Friedrich's Head-quarter is Tintz, Czernichef now nigh:
[Tempelhof, vi. 76.] two days ago (June 25th), Czernichef's
Cossacks "crossed the Oder at Auras,"--with how different objects
from those they used to have! JULY 1st, Czernichef himself is here,
in full tale and equipment. Had encamped, a day ago, on the Field
of Lissa; where Majesty reviewed him, inspected and manoeuvred him,
with great mutual satisfaction. "Field of Lissa;" it is where our
poor Prussian people encamped on the night of Leuthen, with their
"NUN DANKET ALLE GOTT," five years ago, in memorable circumstances:
to what various uses are Earth's Fields liable!

Friedrich, by degrees, has considerably changed his opinion, and
bent towards the late Keith's, about Russian Soldiery: a Soldiery
of most various kinds; from predatory Cossacks and Calmucks to
those noble Grenadiers, whom we saw sit down on the Walls of
Schweidnitz when their work was done. A perfectly steady obedience
is in these men; at any and all times obedient, to the death if
needful, and with a silence, with a steadfastness as of rocks and
gravitation. Which is a superlative quality in soldiers. Good in
Nations too, within limits; and much a distinction in the Russian
Nation: rare, or almost unique, in these unruly Times. The Russians
have privately had their admirations of Friedrich, all this while;
and called him by I forget what unpronounceable vernacular epithet,
signifying "Son of Lightning," or some such thing.
[Buchholz,  Neueste Preussisch-Brandenburgische Geschichte
 (1775), vol ii. (page irrecoverable).] No doubt they
are proud to have a stroke of service under such a one, since
Father Peter Feodorowitsh graciously orders it: the very Cossacks
show an alertness, a vivacity; and see cheery possibilities ahead,
in Countries not yet plundered out. They stayed with Friedrich only
Three Weeks,--Russia being an uncertain Country. As we have seen
above; though Friedrich, who is vitally concerned, has not yet
seen! But their junction with him, and review by him in the Field
of Lissa, had its uses by and by; and may be counted an epoch in
Russian History, if nothing more. The poor Russian Nation, most
pitiable of loyal Nations,--struggling patiently ahead, on those
bad terms, under such CATINS and foul Nightmares,--has it, shall we
say, quite gone without conquest in this mad War? Perhaps, not
quite. It has at least shown Europe that it possesses fighting
qualities: a changed Nation, since Karl XII. beat them easily, at
Narva, 8,000 to 80,000, in the snowy morning, long since!--

Czernichef once come, and in his place in the Camp of Tintz,
business instantly begins,--business, and a press of it, in right
earnest;--upon the hitherto idle Daun. July 1st, there is general
complex Advance everywhere on Friedrich's part; general attempt
towards the Mountains. Upon which Daun, well awake, at once rolls
universally thitherward again; takes post in front of the
Mountains,--on the Heights of Kunzendorf, to wit (Loudon's old post
in Bunzelwitz time);-and elaborately spreads himself out in defence
there. "Take him multifariously by the left flank, get between him
and his Magazine at Braunau!" thinks Friedrich. Discovering which,
Daun straightway hitches back into the Mountains altogether,
leaving Kunzendorf to Friedrich's use as main camp. His outmost
Austrians, on the edge of the Mountain Country, and back as far as
suitable, Daun elaborately posts; and intrenches himself behind
them in all the commanding points,--Schweidnitz still well in
sight; and Braunau and the roads to it well capable of being
guarded. Daun's Head-quarter is Tannhausen; Burkersdorf,
Ludwigsdorf, if readers can remember them, are frontward posts:--in
his old imperturbable way Daun sits there waiting events.

And for near three weeks there ensues a very multiplex series of
rapid movements, and alarming demonstrations, on Daun's front, on
Daun's right flank; with serious extensive effort (masked in that
way) to turn Daun's left flank, and push round by Landshut Country
upon Bohemia and Braunau. Effort very serious indeed on that
Landshut side: conducted at first by Friedrich in person, with
General Wied (called also NEUwied, a man of mark since Liegnitz
time) as second under him; latterly by Wied himself, as Friedrich
found it growing dubious or hopeless. That was Friedrich's first
notion of the Daun problem. There are rapid marches here, there,
round that western or left flank of Daun; sudden spurts of fierce
fighting, oftenest with a stiff climb as preliminary: but not the
least real success on Daun. Daun perfectly comprehends what is on
foot; refuses to take shine for substance; stands massed, or
grouped, at his own skilful judgment, in the proper points for
Braunau, still more for Schweidnitz; and is very vigilant
and imperturbable.

Kunzendorf Heights, which are not of the Hills, but in front of
them, with a strip of flat still intervening;--these, we said, Daun
had at once quitted: and these are now Friedrich's;--but yield him
a very complex prospect at present. A line of opposing Heights,
Burkersdorf, Ludwigsdorf, Leuthmannsdorf, bristling with abundant
cannon; behind is the multiplex sea of Hills, rising higher and
higher, to the ridge of the Eulenberg in Glatz Country 10 or 12
miles southward: Daun, with forces much superior, calmly lord of
all that; infinitely needing to be ousted, could one but say how!
Friedrich begins to perceive that Braunau will not do; that he must
contrive some other plan. General Wied he still leaves to prosecute
the Braunau scheme: perhaps there is still some chance in it;
at lowest it will keep Daun's attention thitherward. And Wied
perseveres upon Braunau; and Braunau proving impossible, pushes
past it deeper into Bohemia, Daun loftily regardless of him.
Wied's marches and attempts were of approved quality;
though unsuccessful in the way of stirring Daun. Wied's Light
troops went scouring almost as far as Prag,--especially a 500
Cossacks that were with him, following their old fashion, in a new
Country. To the horror of Austria; who shrieked loudly, feeling
them in her own bowels; though so quiet while they were in other
people's on her score. This of the 500 Cossacks under Wied, if this
were anything, was all of actual work that Friedrich had from his
Czernichef Allies;--nothing more of real or actual while they
stayed, though something of imaginary or ostensible which had its
importance, as we shall see.

Friedrich, in the third week, recalls Wied: "Braunau clearly
impossible; only let us still keep up appearances!" July 18th, Wied
is in Kunzendorf Country again; on an important new enterprise, or
method with the Daun Problem, in which Wied is to bear a principal
hand. That is to say, The discomfiture and overturn of Daun's right
wing, if we can,--since his left has proved impossible. This was
the STORMING OF BURKERSDORF HEIGHTS; Friedrich's new plan.
Which did prove successful, and is still famous in the Annals of
War: reckoned by all judges a beautiful plan, beautifully executed,
and once more a wonderful achieving of what seemed the impossible,
when it had become the indispensable. One of Friedrich's prettiest
feats; and the last of his notable performances in this War.
Readers ought not to be left without some shadowy authentic notion
of it; though the real portraiture or image (which is achievable
too, after long study) is for the professional soldier only,--for
whom TEMPELHOF, good maps and plenty of patience are the recipe.

"The scene is the Wall of Heights, running east and west, parallel
to Friedrich's Position at Kunzendorf; which form the Face, or
decisive beginning, of that Mountain Glacis spreading up ten miles
farther, towards Glatz Country. They, these Heights called of
Burkersdorf, are in effect Daun's right wing; vitally precious to
Daun, who has taken every pains about them. Burkersdorf Height (or
Heights, for there are two, divided by the Brook Weistritz; but we
shall neglect the eastern or lower, which is ruled by the other,
and stands or falls along with it), Burkersdorf Height is the
principal: a Hill of some magnitude (short way south of the Village
of Burkersdorf, which also is Daun's); Hill falling rather steep
down, on two of its sides, namely on the north side, which is
towards Friedrich and Kunzendorf, and on the east side, where
Weistritz Water, as yet only a Brook, gushes out from the
Mountains,--hastening towards Schweidnitz or Schweidnitz Water;
towards Lissa and Leuthen Country, where we have seen it on an
important night. Weistritz, at this part, has scarped the eastern
flank of Burkersdorf Height; and made for itself a pleasant little
Valley there: this is the one Pass into the Mountains. A Valley of
level bottom; where Daun has a terrific trench and sunk battery
level with the ground, capable of sweeping to destruction whoever
enters there without leave.

"East from Burkersdorf Lesser Height (which we neglect for the
present), and a little farther inwards or south, are Two other
Heights: Ludwigsdorf and Leuthmannsdorf; which also need capture,
as adjuncts of Burkersdorf, or second line to Burkersdorf; and are
abundantly difficult, though not so steep as Burkersdorf.

"The Enterprise, therefore, divides itself into two. Wied is to do
the Ludwigsdorf-Leuthmannsdorf part; Mollendorf, the Burkersdorf.
The strength of guns in these places, especially on Burkersdorf,--
we know Daun's habit in that particular; and need say nothing.
Man-devouring batteries, abatis; battalions palisaded to the teeth,
'the pales strong as masts, and room only for a musket-barrel
between;' nay, they are 'furnished with a lath or cross-strap all
along, for resting your gun-barrel on and taking aim:'--so careful
is Daun. The ground itself is intricate, in parts impracticably
steep; everywhere full of bushes, gnarls and impediments.
Seldom was there such a problem altogether! Friedrich's position,
as we say, is Kunzendorf Heights, with Schweidnitz and his old
ground of Bunzelwitz to rear, Czernichef and others lying there,
and Wurben and the old Villages and Heights again occupied as
posts:--what a tale of Egyptian bricks has one to bake, your
Majesty, on certain fields of this world; and with such
insufficiency of raw-material sometimes!"

By the 16th of July, Friedrich's plans are complete. Contrived, I
must say, with a veracity and opulent potency of intellect,
flashing clear into the matter, and yet careful of the smallest
practical detail. FRIDAY, 17th, Mollendorf, with men and furnitures
complete, circles off northwestward by Wurben (for the benefit of
certain on-lookers), but will have circled round to Burkersdorf
neighborhood two days hence; by which time also Wied will be
quietly in his place thereabouts, with a view to business on the
20th and 21st. Mollendorf, Wied and everything, are prosperously
under way in this manner,--when, on the afternoon of that same
Friday, 17th, [Compare Tempelhof, vi. 99, and Rodenbeck, ii. 164.]
Czernichef steps over, most privately, to head-quarters: with what
a bit of news! "A Revolution in Petersburg [JULY 9th, as we saw
above, or as Herr Busching saw]; Czar Peter,--your Majesty's
adorer, is dethroned, perhaps murdered; your Majesty's enemies, in
the name of Czarina Catharine, order me instantly homeward with my
20,000!" This is true news, this of Czernichef. A most unexpected,
overwhelming Revolution in those Northern Parts;--not needing to be
farther touched upon in this place.

What here concerns us is, Friedrich's feelings on hearing of it;
which no reader can now imagine. Horror, amazement, pity, very
poignant; grief for one's hapless friend Peter, for one's still
more hapless self! "The Sisyphus stone, which we had got dragged to
the top, the chains all beautifully slack these three months past,
--has it leapt away again? And on the eve of Burkersdorf, and our
grand Daun problem!" Truly, the Destinies have been quite dramatic
with this King, and have contrived the moment of hitting him to the
heart. He passionately entreats Czernichef to be helpful to him,--
which Czernichef would fain be, only how can he? To be helpful;
at least to keep the matter absolutely secret yet for some hours:
this the obliging Czernichef will do. And Friedrich remains,
Czernichef having promised this, in the throes of desperate
consideration and uncertainty, hour after hour,--how many hours I
do not know. It is confidently said, [Retzow, ii. 415.] Friedrich
had the thought of forcibly disarming Czernichef and his 20,000:--
in which case he must have given up the Daun Enterprise;
for without Czernichef as a positive quantity, much more with
Czernichef as a negative, it is impossible. But, at any rate, most
luckily for himself, he came upon a milder thought: "Stay with us
yet three days, merely in the semblance of Allies, no service
required of you, but keeping the matter a dead secret;--on the
fourth day go, with my eternal thanks!" This is his milder
proposal; urged with his best efforts upon the obliging Czernichef:
who is in huge difficulty, and sees it to be at peril of his head,
but generously consents. It is the same Czernichef who got lodged
in Custrin cellars, on one occasion: know, O King,--the King,
before this, does begin to know,--that Russians too can have
something of heroic, and can recognize a hero when they see him!
In this fine way does Friedrich get the frightful chasm, or sudden
gap of the ground under him, bridged over for the moment;
and proceeds upon Burkersdorf all the same.

Of the Attack itself we propose to say almost nothing. It consists
of Two Parts, Wied and Mollendorf, which are intensely Real; and of
a great many more which are Scenic chiefly,--some of them Scenic to
the degree of Drury-Lane itself, as we perceive;--all cunningly
devised, and beautifully playing into one another, both the real
and the scenic. EVENING OF THE 20th, Friedrich is on his ground,
according to Program. Friedrich--who has now his Mollendorf and
Wied beside him again, near this Village of Burkersdorf; and has
his completely scenic Czernichef, and partly scenic Ziethen and
others, all in their places behind him--quietly crushes Daun's
people out of Burkersdorf Village; and furthermore, so soon as
Night has fallen, bursts up, for his own uses, Burkersdorf old
Castle, and its obstinate handful of defenders, which was a noisier
process. Which done, he diligently sets to trenching, building
batteries in that part; will have forty formidable guns, howitzers
a good few of them, ready before sunrise. And so,

WEDNESDAY, 21st JULY, 1762, All Prussians are in motion, far and
wide; especially Mollendorf and Wied (VERSUS O'Kelly and Prince de
Ligne),--which Pair of Prussians may be defined rather as near and
close; these Two being, in fact, the soul of the matter, and all
else garniture and semblance. About 4 in the morning, Friedrich's
Battery of 40 has begun raging; the howitzers diligent upon O'Kelly
and his Burkersdorf Height,--not much hurting O'Kelly or his
Height, so high was it, but making a prodigious noise upon O'Kelly;
--others of the cannon shearing home on those palisades and
elaborations, in the Weistritz Valley in particular, and quite
tearing up a Cavalry Regiment which was drawn out there; so that
O'Kelly had instantly to call it home, in a very wrecked condition.
Why O'Kelly ever put it there--except that he saw no place for it
in his rugged localities, or no use for it anywhere--is still a
mystery to the intelligent mind. [Tempelhof, vi. 107.]
The howitzers, their shells bursting mostly in the air, did O'Kelly
little hurt, nor for hours yet was there any real attack on
Burkersdorf or him; but the noise, the horrid death-blaze was
prodigious, and kept O'Kelly, like some others, in an agitated,
occupied condition till their own turn came.

For it had been ordered that Wied and Mollendorf were not to attack
together: not together, but successively,--for the following
reasons. TOGETHER; suppose Mollendorf to prosper on O'Kelly (whom
he is to storm, not by the steep front part as O'Kelly fancies, but
to go round by the western flank and take him in rear); suppose
Mollendorf to be near prospering on Burkersdorf Height,--unless
Wied too have prospered, Ludwigsdorf batteries and forces will have
Mollendorf by the right flank, and between two fires he will be
ruined; he and everything! On the other hand, let Wied try first:
if Wied can manage Ludwigsdorf, well: if Wied cannot, he comes home
again with small damage; and the whole Enterprise is off for the
present. That was Friedrich's wise arrangement, and the reason why
he so bombards O'Kelly with thunder, blank mostly.

And indeed, from 4 this morning and till 4 in the afternoon, there
is such an outburst and blazing series of Scenic Effect, and
thunder mostly blank, going on far and near all over that District
of Country: General This ostentatiously speeding off, as if for
attack on some important place; General That, for attack on some
other; all hands busy,--the 20,000 Russians not yet speeding, but
seemingly just about to do it,--and blank thunder so mixed with not
blank, and scenic effect with bitter reality, [Tempelhof, vi.
105-111.]--as was seldom seen before. And no wisest Daun, not to
speak of his O'Kellys and lieutenants, can, for the life of him,
say where the real attack is to be, or on what hand to turn
himself. Daun in person, I believe, is still at Tannhausen, near
the centre of this astonishing scene; five or six miles from any
practical part of it. And does order forward, hither, thither,
masses of force to support the De Ligne, the O'Kelly, among
others,--but who can tell what to support? Daun's lieutenants were
alert some of them, others less: General Guasco, for instance, who
is in Schweidnitz, an alert Commandant, with 12,000 picked men, was
drawing out, of his own will, with certain regiments to try
Friedrich's rear: but a check was put on him (some dangerous shake
of the fist from afar), when he had to draw in again. In general
the O'Kelly supports sat gazing dubiously, and did nothing for
O'Kelly but roll back along with him, when the time came. But let
us first attend to Wied, and the Ludwigsdorf-Leuthmannsdorf part.

Wied, divided into Three, is diligently pushing up on Ludwigsdorf
by the slacker eastern ascents; meets firm enough battalions,
potent, dangerous and resolute in their strong posts; but endeavors
firmly to be more dangerous than they. Dislodges everything, on his
right, on his left; comes in sight of the batteries and ranked
masses atop, which seem to him difficult indeed; flatly impossible,
if tried on front; but always some Colonel Lottum, or quick-eyed
man, finds some little valley, little hollow; gets at the Enemy
side-wise and rear-wise; rushes on with fixed bayonets, double-
quick, to co-operate with the front: and, on the whole, there are
the best news from Wied, and we perceive he sees his way through
the affair.

Upon which, Mollendorf gets in motion, upon his specific errand.
Mollendorf has been surveying his ground a little, during the
leisure hour; especially examining what mode of passage there may
be, and looking for some road up those slacker western parts:
has found no road, but a kind of sheep track, which he thinks will
do. Mollendorf, with all energy, surmounting many difficulties,
pushes up accordingly; gets into his sheep-track; finds, in the
steeper part of this track, that horses cannot draw his cannon;
sets his men to do it; pulls and pushes, he and they, with a right
will;--sees over his left shoulder, at a certain point, the ranked
Austrians waiting for him behind their cannon (which must have been
an interesting glimpse of scenery for some moments); tugs along,
till he is at a point for planting his cannon; and then, under help
of these, rushes forward,--in two parts, perhaps in three, but with
one impetus in all,--to seize the Austrian fruit set before him.
Surely, if a precious, a very prickly Pomegranate, to clutch hold
of on different sides, after such a climb! The Austrians make stiff
fight; have abatis, multiplex defences; and Mollendorf has a
furious wrestle with this last remnant, holding out wonderfully,--
till at length the abatis itself catches fire, in the musketry, and
they have to surrender. This must be about noon, as I collect:
and Feldmarschall Daun himself now orders everybody to fall back.
And the tug of fight is over;--though Friedrich's scenic effects
did not cease; and in particular his big battery raged till 5 in
the afternoon, the more to confirm Daun's rearward resolutions and
quicken his motions. On fall of night, Daun, everybody having had
his orders, and been making his preparations for six hours past,
ebbed totally away; in perfect order, bag and baggage. Well away to
southward; and left Friedrich quit of him. [Tempelhof. vi. 100-115:
compare  Bericht von der bey Leutmannsdorf den 21sten
Julius 1762 vorgefallenen Action  (Seyfarth, 
Beylagen,  iii. 302-308);  Anderweiter Bericht
von der &c.  (ib. 308-314); Archenholtz, &c. &c.]

Quit of Daun forevermore, as it turned out. Plainly free, at any
rate, to begin upon Schweidnitz, whenever he sees good. Of the
behavior of Wied, Mollendorf, and their people, indeed of the
Prussians one and all, what can be said, but that it was worthy of
their Captain and of the Plannings he had made? Which is saying a
great deal. "We got above 14 big guns," report they; "above 1,000
prisoners, and perhaps twice as many that deserted to us in the
days following." Czernichef was full of admiration at the day's
work: he marched early next morning,--I trust with lasting
gratitude on the part of an obliged Friedrich.

Some three weeks before this of Burkersdorf, Duke Ferdinand, near a
place called Wilhelmsthal, in the neighborhood of Cassel, in woody
broken country of Hill and Dale, favorable for strategic
contrivances, had organized a beautiful movement from many sides,
hoping to overwhelm the too careless or too ignorant French, and
gain a signal victory over them: BATTLE, so called, OF
WILHELMSTHAL, JUNE 24th, 1762, being the result. Mauvillon never
can forgive a certain stupid Hanoverian, who mistook his orders;
and on getting to his Hill-top, which was the centre of all the
rest,--formed himself with his BACK to the point of attack;
and began shooting cannon at next to nothing, as if to warn the
French, that they had better instantly make off! Which they
instantly set about, with a will; and mainly succeeded in;
nothing all day but mazes of intricate marching on both sides, with
spurts of fight here and there,--ending in a truly stiff bout
between Granby and a Comte de Stainville, who covered the retreat,
and who could not be beaten without a great deal of trouble.
The result a kind of victory to Ferdinand; but nothing like what he
expected. [Mauvillon, ii. 227-236; Tempelhof, vi. &c. &c.]

Soubise leads the French this final Year; but he has a D'Estrees
with him (our old D'Estrees of HASTENBECK), who much helps the
account current; and though generally on the declining hand
(obliged to give up Gottingen, to edge away farther and farther out
of Hessen itself, to give up the Weser, and see no shift but the
farther side of Fulda, with Frankfurt to rear),--is not often
caught napping as here at Wilhelmsthal. There ensued about the
banks of the Fulda, and the question, Shall we be driven across it
sooner or not so soon? a great deal of fighting and pushing (Battle
called of LUTTERNBERG, Battle of JOHANNISBERG, and others): but all
readers will look forward rather to the CANNONADE OF AMONEBURG,
more precisely Cannonade of the BRUCKEN-MUHLE (September 2lst),
which finishes these wearisome death-wrestlings. Peace is coming;
all the world can now count on that!

Bute is ravenous for Peace; has been privately taking the most
unheard-of steps:--wrote to Kaunitz, "Peace at once and we will
vote for your HAVING Silesia;" to which Kaunitz, suspecting
trickery in artless Bute, answered, haughtily sneering, "No help
needed from your Lordship in that matter!" After which repulse, or
before it, Bute had applied to the Czar's Minister in London:
"Czarish Majesty to have East Preussen guaranteed to him, if he
will insist that the King of Prussia DISPENSE with Silesia;"
which the indignant Czar rejected with scorn, and at once made his
Royal Friend aware of; with what emotion on the Royal Friend's part
we have transiently seen. "Horrors and perfidies!" ejaculated he,
in our hearing lately; and regarded Bute, from that time, as a
knave and an imbecile both in one; nor ever quite forgave Bute's
Nation either, which was far from being Bute's accomplice in this
unheard-of procedure. "No more Alliances with England!" counted he:
"What Alliance can there be with that ever-fluctuating People?
To-day they have a thrice-noble Pitt; to-morrow a thrice-paltry
Bute, and all goes heels-over-head on the sudden!" [Preuss, ii.
308; Mitchell, ii. 286.]

Bute, at this rate of going, will manage to get hold of Peace
before long. To Friedrich himself, a Siege of Schweidnitz is now
free; Schweidnitz his, the Austrians will have to quit Silesia.
"Their cash is out: except prayer to the Virgin, what but Peace can
they attempt farther? In Saxony things will have gone ill, if there
be not enough left us to offer them in return for Glatz. And Peace
and AS-YOU-WERE must ensue!"

Let us go upon Schweidnitz, therefore; pausing on none of these
subsidiary things; and be brief upon Schweidnitz too.



Chapter XII.

SIEGE OF SCHWEIDNITZ: SEVENTH CAMPAIGN ENDS.

Daun being now cleared away, Friedrich instantly proceeds upon
Schweidnitz. Orders the necessary Siege Materials to get under way
from Neisse; posts his Army in the proper places, between Daun and
the Fortress,--King's head-quarter Dittmannsdorf, Army spread in
fine large crescent-shape, to southwest of Schweidnitz some ten
miles, and as far between Daun and it;--orders home to him his
Upper-Silesia Detachments, "Home, all of you, by Neisse Country, to
make up for Czernichef's departure; from Neisse onwards you can
guard the Siege-Ammunition wagons!" Naturally he has blockaded
Schweidnitz, from the first; he names Tauentzien Siege-Captain,
with a 10 or 12,000 to do the Siege: "Ahead, all of you!"--and in
short, AUGUST 7th, with the due adroitness and precautions, opens
his first parallel; suffering little or nothing hitherto by a
resistance which is rather vehement. [Tempelhof, vi. 126.]
He expects to have the place in a couple of weeks--"one week (HUIT
JOUR)" he sometimes counts it, but was far out in his reckoning as
to time.

The Siege of Schweidnitz occupied two most laborious, tedious
months;--and would be wearisome to every reader now, as it was to
Friedricb then, did we venture on more than the briefest outline.
The resistance is vehement, very skilful:--Commandant is Guasco
(the same who was so truculent to Schmettau in the Dresden time);
his Garrison is near 12,000, picked from all regiments of the
Austrian Army; his provisions, ammunitions, are of the amplest;
and he has under him as chief Engineer a M. Gribeauval, who
understands "counter-mining" like no other. After about a fortnight
of trial, and one Event in the neighborhood which shall be
mentioned, this of Mining and Counter-mining--though the External
Sap went restlessly forward too, and the cannonading was incessant
on both sides--came to be regarded more and more as the real
method, and for six or seven weeks longer was persisted in, with
wonderful tenacity of attempt and resistance. Friedrich's chief
Mining Engineer is also a Frenchman, one Lefebvre; who is
personally the rival of Gribeauval (his old class-fellow at
College, I almost think); but is not his equal in subterranean
work,--or perhaps rather has the harder task of it, that of Mining,
instead of COUNTER-mining, or SPOILING Mines. Tempelhof's account
of these two people, and their underground wrestle here, is really
curious reading;--clear as daylight to those that will study, but
of endless expansion (as usual in Tempelhof), and fit only to be
indicated here. [Tempelhof, vi. 122-219;  Bericht und
Tagebuch von der Belagerung von Schweidnitz vom 7ten August bis 9
October, 1762  (Seyfarth,  Beylagen,  iii. 376-479); Archenholtz, Retzow, &c.]

The external Event I promised to mention is an attempt on Daun's
part (August 16th) to break in upon Friedrich's position, and
interrupt the Siege, or render it still impossible. Event called
the BATTLE OF REICHENBACH, though there was not much of battle in
it;--in which our old friend the Duke of Brunswick-Bevern (whom we
have seen in abeyance, and merely a Garrison Commandant, for years
back, till the Russians left Stettin to itself) again played a
shining part.

Daun--at Tannhausen, 10 miles to southwest of Friedrich, and spread
out among the Hills, with Loudons, Lacys, Becks, as lieutenants,
and in plenty of force, could he resolve on using it--has at last,
after a month's meditation, hit upon a plan. Plan of flowing round
by the southern skirt of Friedrich, and seizing certain Heights to
the southeastern or open side of Schweidnitz,--Koltschen Height the
key one; from which he may spread up at will, Height after Height,
to the very Zobtenberg on that eastern side, and render Schweidnitz
an impossibility. The plan, people say, was good; but required
rapidity of execution,--a thing Daun is not strong in.

Bevern's behavior, too, upon whom the edge of the matter fell, was
very good. Bevern, coming on from Neisse and Upper Silesia, had
been much manoeuvred upon for various days by Beck; Beck, a
dangerous, alert man, doing his utmost to seize post after post,
and bar Bevern's way,--meaning especially, as ultimate thing, to
get hold of a Height called Fischerberg, which lies near
Reichenbach (in the southern Schweidnitz vicinities), and is
preface to Koltschen Height and to the whole Enterprise of Daun.
In most of which attempts, especially in this last, Bevern, with
great merit, not of dexterity alone (for the King's Orders had
often to be DISobeyed in the letter, and only the spirit of them
held in view), contrived to outmanoeuvre Beck; and be found (August
13th) already firm on the Fischerberg, when Beck, in full
confidence, came marching towards it. "The Fischerberg lost to us!"
 Beck had to report, in disappointment. "Must be recovered, and my
grand Enterprise no longer put off!" thinks Daun to himself, in
still more disappointment ("Laggard that I am!").--And on the third
day following, the BATTLE OF REICHENBACH ensued. Lacy, as chief,
with abundant force, and Beck and Brentano under him: these are to
march, "Recover me that Fischerberg; it is the preface to Koltschen
and all else!" [Tempelhof, vi. 144.]

MONDAY, AUGUST 16th, pretty early in the day, Lacy, with his Becks
and Brentanos, appeared in great force on the western side of
Fischerberg; planted themselves there, about the three Villages of
Peilau (Upper, Nether and Middle Peilau, a little way to south of
Reichenbach), within cannon-shot of Bevern; their purpose
abundantly clear. Behind them, in the gorges of the Mountains, what
is not so clear, lay Daun and most of his Army; intending to push
through at once upon Koltschen and seize the key, were this of
Fischerberg had. Lacy, after reconnoitring a little, spreads his
tents (which it is observable Beck does not); and all Austrians
proceed to cooking their dinner. "Nothing coming of them till
to-morrow!" said Friedrich, who was here; and went his way home, on
this symptom of the Austrian procedures;--hardly consenting to
regard them farther, even when he heard their cannonade begin.

Lacy, the general composure being thus established, and dinner well
done, suddenly drew out about five in the evening, in long strong
line, before these Hamlets of Peilau, on the western side of the
Fischerberg; Beck privately pushing round by woods to take it on
the eastern side: and there ensued abundant cannonading on the part
of Lacy and Brentano, and some idle flourishing about of horse,
responded to by Bevern; and, on the part of Lacy and Brentano,
nothing else whatever. More like a theatre fight than a real one,
says Tempelhof. Beck, however, is in earnest; has a most difficult
march through the tangled pathless woods; does arrive at length,
and begin real fighting, very sharp for some time; which might have
been productive, had Lacy given the least help to it, as he did
NOT. [Tempelhof, vi. 146-151.] Beck did his fieriest; but got
repulsed everywhere. Beck tries in various places; finds swamps,
impediments, fierce resistance from the Bevern people;--finds, at
length, that the King is awake, and that reinforcements, horse,
foot, riding-artillery, are coming in at the gallop; and that he,
Beck, cannot too soon get away.

None of the King's Foot people could get in for a stroke, though
they came mostly running (distance five miles); but the Horse-
charges were beautifully impressive on Lacy's theatrical
performers, as was the Horse-Artillery to a still more surprising
degree; and produced an immediate EXEUNT OMNES on the Lacy part.
All off; about 7 P.M.,--Sun just going down in the autumn sky;--and
the Battle of Reichenbach a thing finished. Seeing which, Daun also
immediately withdrew, through the gorges of the Mountains again.
And for seven weeks thenceforth sat contemplative, without the
least farther attempt at relief of Schweidnitz. It was during those
seven weeks, some time after this, that poor Madam Daun, going to a
Levee at Schonbrunn one day, had her carriage half filled with
symbolical nightcaps, successively flung in upon her by the Vienna
people;--symbolical; in lieu of Slashing Articles, and Newspapers
the best Instructors, which they as yet have not.

Next day the Joy-fire of the Prussians taught Guasco what disaster
had happened; and on the fifth day afterwards (August 22d), hearing
nothing farther of Daun, Guasco offered to surrender, on the
principle of Free Withdrawal. "No, never," answered Tauentzien, by
the King's order: "As Prisoners of War it must be!" Upon which
Guasco stood to his defences again; and maintained himself,--
Gribeauval and he did,--with an admirable obstinacy: the details of
which would be very wearisome to readers. Gribeauval and he, I
said; for from this time, Engineer Lefebvre, though he tried (with
bad skill, thinks Tempelhof) some bits of assault above ground,
took mainly to mining, and a grand underground invention called
GLOBES DE COMPRESSION; which he reckoned to be the real sovereign
method,--unlucky that he was! I may at least explain what GLOBE DE
COMPRESSION is; for it becomes famous on this occasion, and no name
could be less descriptive of the thing. Not a GLOBE at all, for
that matter, nor intended to "compress," but to EXpress, and
shatter to pieces in a transcendent degree: it is, in fact, a huge
cubical mine-chamber, filled by a wooden box (till Friedrich, in
his hurry, taught Lefebvre that a sack would do as well), loaded
with, say, five thousand-weight of powder. Sufficient to blow any
horn-work, bastion, bulwark, into the air,--provided you plant it
in the right place; which poor Lefebre never can. He tried, with
immense labor, successively some four or almost five of these
"PRESS BALLS" so called (or Volcanoes in Little); mining on, many
yards, 15 or 20 feet underground (tormented by Gribeauval all the
way); then at last, exploding his five thousand-weight,--would
produce a "Funnel," or crater, of perhaps "30 yards in diameter,"
but, alas, "150 yards OFF any bastion." Funnel of no use to him;--
mere sign to him that he must go down into it, and begin there
again; with better aim, if possible. And then Gribeauval's
tormentings; never were the like! Gribeauval has, all round under
the Glacis, mine-galleries, or main-roads for Counter-mining, ready
to his hand (mine-galleries built by Friedrich while lately
proprietor); there Gribeauval is hearkening the beat of Lefebvre's
picks: "Ten yards from us, think you? Six yards? Get a 30
hundredweight of chamber ready for him!" And will, at the right
moment, blow Lefebvre's gallery about his ears;--sometimes bursts
in upon him bodily with pistol and cutlass, or still worse, with
explosive sulphur-balls, choke-pots and infinitudes of mal-odor
instantaneously developed on Lefebvre,--which mean withal, "You
will have to begin again, Monsieur!" Enough to drive a Lefebvre out
of his wits. Twice, or oftener, Lefebvre, a zealous creature but a
thin-skinned, flew out into open paroxysm; wept, invoked the gods,
threatened suicide: so that Friedrich had to console him, "Courage,
you will manage it; make chicanes on Gribeauval, as he does on
you,"--and suggested that powder-SACK instead of deal-box, which we
just mentioned.

Friedrich's patience seems to have been great; but in the end he
began to think the time long. He was in three successive head-
quarters, Dittmannsdorf, Peterswaldau, Bogendorf, nearer and
nearer; at length quite near (Bogendorf within a couple of miles);
and wondering Gazetteers reported him on horseback, examining
minutely the parallels and siege-works,--with a singular
indifference to the cannon-balls flying about ("Not easy to hit a
small object with cannon!"), and intent only on giving Tauentzien
suggestions, admonitions and new orders. Here, prior to Bogendorf,
are three snatches of writing, which successively have indications
for us. KING TO PRINCE HENRI:--

PETERSWALDAU, AUGUST 13th, 1762 (King has just shifted hither,
August 10th, on the Bevern-REICHENBACH score; continues here till
September 23d). ... "You are right to say, 'We ourselves are our
best Allies.' I am of the same opinion; nevertheless, it is a clear
duty and call of prudence to try and alleviate the burden as much
as possible: and I own to you, that if, after all I have written,
the thing fails this time [as it does], I shall be obliged to grant


MAP GOES HERE--FACING PAGE 152, CHAP XII, BOOK 20------


that there is nothing to be made of those Turks."--"We are now in
the press of our crisis as to Schweidnitz. The Siege advances
beautifully: but Beck is come hereabouts, Lacy masked behind him;
and I cannot yet tell you [not till REICHENBACH and the 16th]
whether the Enemy intends some big adventure for disengaging
Schweidnitz, or will content himself with disturbing and
annoying us."

PETERSWALDAU, 9th SEPTEMBER. Springs, water-threads coming into our
mines delay us a little: "by the 12th [in 3 days' time, little
thinking it would be 30 days!] I still hope to despatch you a
courier with the news, All is over! Your Nephew [Prince of Prussia]
is out to-day assisting in a forage; he begins to kindle into fine
action. We are nothing but pygmies in comparison to him [in point
of physical stature]; imagine to yourself Prince Franz [of
Brunswick; killed, poor fellow, at Hochkirch], only taller still:
this is the figure of him at present."

PETERSWALDAU, SEPTEMBER 19th. ... "Our Siege wearies all the world;
people persecute me to know the end of it; I never get a Berlin
Letter without something on that head;--and I have no resource
myself but patience. We do all we can: but I cannot hinder the
enemy from defending himself, and Gribeauval from being a clever
fellow:--soon, however, surely soon, soon, we shall see the end.
Our weather here is like December; the Seasons are as mad as the
Politics of Europe. Finally, my dear Brother, one must shove Time
on; day follows day, and at last we shall catch the one that ends
our labors. Adieu; JE VOUS EMBRASSE." [Schoning, iii. 403, 430,
446.]--Here farther, from the Siege-ground itself, are some
traceries, scratchings by a sure hand, which yield us something of
image. Date is still only "BEFORE Schweidnitz," far on in the
eighth week:--

SEPTEMBER 23d. "This morning, before 9, the King [direct from
Peterswaldau, where he has been lodging hitherto,--must have
breakfasted rather early] came into the Lines here:--his quarter is
now to be at Bogendorf near hand, in a Farm house there. The Prince
of Prussia was riding with him, and Lieutenant-Colonel von Anhalt
[the Adjutant whom we have heard of]: he looked at the Battery"
lately ordered by him; "looked at many things; rode along, a good
100 yards inside of the vedettes; so that the Enemy noticed him,
and fired violently,"--King decidedly ignoring. "To Captain
Beauvrye [Captain of the Miners] he paid a gracious compliment;
Major Lefebvre he rallied a little for losing heart, for bungling
his business; but was not angry with him, consoled him rather;
bantered him on the shabbiness of his equipments, and made him a
gift of 400 thalers (60 pounds), to improve them. Lefebvre,
Tauentzien and" another General "dined with him at Bogendorf
to-day." ["Captain Gotz's NOTE-book" (a conspicuous Captain here,
Note-book still in manuscript, I think): cited in SCHONING, iii.
453 et seq.]

SEPTEMBER 24th, EARLY. "The King on horseback viewed the trenches,
rode close behind the first parallel, along the mid-most
communication-line: the Enemy cannonaded at us horribly
(ERSCHRECKLICH); a ball struck down the Page von Pirch's horse
[Pirch lay writhing, making moan,--plainly overmuch, thought the
King]: on Pirch's accident, too, the Prince of Prussia's horse made
a wild plunge, and pitched its rider aloft out of the saddle;
people thought the Prince was shot, and everybody was in horror:
great was the commotion; only the King was heard calling with a
clear voice, 'PIRCH, VERGISS ER SEINEN SATTEL NICHT,--Pirch, bring
your saddle with you!'"

This of Pirch and the saddle is an Anecdote in wide circulation;
taken sometimes as a proof of Royal thrift; but is mainly the Royal
mode of rebuking Pirch for his weak behavior in the accident that
had befallen. Pirch, an ingenious handy kind of fellow, famed for
his pranks and trickeries in those Page-days, had many adventures
in the world;--was, for one while, something of a notability among
the French; will "teach you the Prussian mode of drill," and
actually got leave to try it "on the German Regiments in our
service:" [Voltaire's wondering Report of him ("Ferney, 7th
December, 1774"), and Friedrich's quiet Answer ("Berlin, 28th Dec.
1774"): in  OEuvres de Frederic,  xxiii. 297,
301. Rodenbeck (ii. 198-200) haa a slight "BIOGRAPHY" of Pirch.]--
died, finally, as Colonel of one of these, at the Siege of
Gibraltar, in 1783.

SEPTEMBER 25th. "Morning and noon, each time two hours, the King
was in his new batteries; and, with great satisfaction, watched the
working of them. This day there dined with him the Prince of
Bernburg [General of Brigade here], Tauentzien, Lefebvre and
Dieskau" (head of the Artillery).

The King is always riding about; has now, virtually, taken charge
of the Siege himself. "In Bogendorf, the first night, he dismissed
the Guard sent for him; would have nothing there but six chasers
(JAGER):" an alarming case! "After a night or two, there came
always, without his knowledge, a dragoon party of 30 horse;
took post behind Bogendorf Church, patrolled towards Kunzendorf,
Giesdorf, and had three pickets."

SEPTEMBER 28th. "Gribeauval has sprung a mine last night;"
totally blown up Lefebvre again! "Engineer-Lieutenants Gerhard and
Von Kleist were wounded by our own people; Captain Guyon was shot:"
things all going wrong,--weather, I suspect also, bad. "The King
was in dreadful humor (SEHR UNGNADIG); rated and rebuked to right
and left: 'If it should last till January, the Attack must go on.
Nobody seems to be able for his business; Lefebvre a blockhead
(DUMMER TEUFEL), who knows nothing of mining: the Generals, too,
where are they? Every General henceforth is to take his place in
the third parallel, at the head of his Covering-Party [most exposed
place of all], and stay his whole twenty-four hours there [Prince
of Anhalt-Bernburg is Covering-Party today; I hope, in his post
during this thunder!]: Taken the Place can and must be! We have the
misfortune, That a stupid Engineer who knows nothing of his art has
the direction; and a General without sense in Sieging has the
command. Everybody is at a NON PLUS, it appears! Not all our
Artillery can silence that Front-fire; not in a single place can
Thirty stupid Miners get into the Fort.' To-day and yesterday the
King spoke neither to General Tauentzien nor to Major Lefebvre;
Lieutenant-Colonel von Anhalt had to give all the Orders."
An electric kind of day!

The weather is becoming wet. In fact, there ensue whole weeks of
rain,--the trenches swimming, service very hard. Guasco's guns are
many of them dismounted; no Daun to be heard of. Guasco again and
again proposes modified capitulations; answer always, "Prisoners of
War on the common terms." Guasco is wearing low: OCTOBER 7th
(Lefebvre sweating and puffing at his last Globe of Expression,
hoping to hit the mark this last time), an accidental grenade from
Tauentzien, above ground, rolled into one of Guasco's powder-
vaults; blew it, and a good space of Wall along with it, into
wreck; two days after which, Guasco had finished his Capitulating;
--and we get done with this wearisome affair. [Tempelhof, vi.
122-220;  Tagebuch von der Belagerung von Schweidnitz vom
7ten August bis 9ten October, 1762  (Seyfarth, 
Beylagen,  iii. 376-497); Tielke, &c. &c.] Guasco was
invited to dine with the King; praised for his excellent defence.
Prisoners of War his Garrison and he; about 9,000 of them still on
their feet; their entire loss had been 3,552 killed and wounded;
that of the Prussians 3,033. Poor Guasco died, in Konigsberg, still
prisoner, before the Peace came.

Of Austrian fighting in Silesia, this proved to be the last, in the
present Controversy which has endured so long. No thought of
fighting is in Daun; far the reverse. Daun is getting ill off for
horse-forage in his Mountains; the weather is bad upon him; we hear
"he has had, for some time past, 12,000 laborers" palisading and
fortifying at the Passes of Bohemia: "Truce for the Winter" is what
he proposes. To which the King answers, "No; unless you retire
wholly within Bohemia and Glatz Country:" this at present Daun
grudged to do; but was forced to it, some weeks afterwards, by the
sleets and the snows, had there been no other pressure. In about
three weeks hence, Friedrich, leaving Bevern in command here, and a
Silesia more or less adjusted, made for Saxony; whither important
reinforcements had preceded him,--reinforcements under General
Wied, the instant it was possible. Saxony he had long regarded as
the grand point, were Schweidnitz over: "Recapture Dresden, and
they will have to give us Peace this very Winter!" Daun, also with
reinforcements, followed him to Saxony, as usual; but never quite
arrived, or else found matters settled on arriving;--and will not
require farther mention in this History. He died some three years
hence, age 60; ["5th February, 1766;" "born 24th September, 1705"
(Hormayr  OEster-reichischer Plutarch,  ii.
80-111).] an honorable, imperturbable, eupeptic kind of man,
sufficiently known to readers by this time.

Friedrich did not recapture Dresden; far enough from that,--though
Peace came all the same. Hardly a week after our recovery of
Schweidnitz, Stollberg and his Reichsfolk, especially his
Austrians, became unexpectedly pert upon Henri; pressed forward
(October 15th), in overpowering force, into his Posts about
Freyberg, Pretschendorf and that southwestern Reich-ward part:
"No more invadings of Bohemia from you, Monseigneur; no more
tormentings of the Reich; here is other work for you, my Prince!"--
and in spite of all Prince Henri could do, drove him back, clear
out of Freyberg; northwestward, towards Hulsen and his reserves.
[ Bericht von dem Angriff so am 15ten October, 1762, van
der Reichs-Armee auf die Kongilich-Preussischen unter dem Prinzen
Heinrich geschehen  (Seyfarth,  Beylagen,  iii. 362-364).  Ausfuhrlicher Bericht von der den
15ten October, 1762, bey Brand vorgefallenen Action 
(Ib. iii. 350-362). Tempelhof, vi. 238.] Giving him, in this
manner, what soldiers call a slap; slap which might have been more
considerable, had those Stollberg people followed it up with
emphasis. But they did not; so alert was Henri. Henri at once
rallied beautifully from his slap (King's reinforcements coming
too, as we have said); and, in ten days' time, without any
reinforcement, paid Stollberg and Company by a stunning blow:
BATTLE OF FREYBERG (October 29th),--which must not go without
mention, were it only as Prince Henri's sole Battle, and the last
of this War. Preparatory to which and its sequel, let us glance
again at Duke Ferdinand and the English-French posture,--also for
the last time.

CANNONADE AT AMONEBURG (2lst September, 1762). "The controversies
about right or left bank of the Fulda have been settled long since
in Ferdinand's favor; who proceeded next to blockade the various
French strongholds in Hessen; Marburg, Ziegenhayn, especially
Cassel; with an eye to besieging the same, and rooting the French
permanently out. To prevent or delay which, what can Soubise and
D'Estrees do but send for their secondary smaller Army, which is in
the Lower-Rhine Country under a Prince de Conde, mostly idle at
present, to come and join them in the critical regions here.
Whereupon new Controversy shifting westward to the Mayn and Nidda-
Lahn Country, to achieve said Junction and to hinder it.
Junction was not to be hindered. The D'Estrees-Soubise people and
young Conde made good manoeuvring, handsome fight on occasion;
so that in spite of all the Erbprinz could do, they got hands
joined; far too strong for the Erbprinz thenceforth; and on the
last night of August were all fairly together, head-quarter
Friedberg in Frankfurt Country (a thirty miles north of Frankfurt);
and were earnestly considering the now not hopeless question, 'How,
or by what routes and methods, push to northwestward, get through
to those blockaded Hessian Strong-places, Cassel especially;
and hinder Ferdinand's besieging them, and quite outrooting
us there?'

"This is a difficult question, but a vital. 'Sweep rapidly past
Ferdinand,--cannot we? Well frontward or eastward of him,
dexterously across the Lahn and its Branches (our light people are
to rear of him, on this side of the Fulda, between the Fulda and
him): once joined with those light people by such methods, we have
Cassel ahead, Ferdinand to rear, and will make short work with the
blockades,--the blockades will have to rise in a hurry!' This was
the plan devised by D'Estrees; and rapidly set about; but it was
seen into, at the first step, by Ferdinand, who proved still more
rapid upon it. Campings, counter-campings, crossings of the Lahn by
D'Estrees people, then recrossings of it, ensued for above a
fortnight; which are not for mention here: in fine, about the
middle of September, the D'Estrees Enterprise had plainly become
impossible, unless it could get across the Ohm,--an eastern, or
wide-circling northeastern Branch of the Lahn,--where, on the right
or eastern bank of which, as better for him than the Lahn itself in
this part, Ferdinand now is. 'Across the Ohm: and that, how can
that be done, the provident Ferdinand having laid hold of Ohm, and
secured every pass of it, several days ago! Perhaps by a Surprisal;
by extreme despatch?'

"Amoneburg is a pleasant little Town, about thirty miles east of
Marburg,--in which latter we have been, in very old times; looking
after St. Elizabeth, Teutsch Ritters, Philip the Magnanimous and
other objects. Amoneburg stands on the left or western bank of the
Ohm, with an old Schloss in it, and a Bridge near by; both of
which, Ferdinand, the left or southmost wing of whose Position on
the other bank of Ohm is hereabouts, has made due seizure of.
Seizure of the Bridge, first of all,--Bridge with a Mill at it
(which, in consequence, is called BRUCKEN-MUHLE, Bridge-Mill),--at
the eastern end of this there is a strong Redoubt, with the Bridge-
way blocked and rammed ahead of it; there Ferdinand has put 200
men; 500 more are across in Amoneburg and its old Castle. Unless by
surprisal and extreme despateh, there is clearly no hope!
Ferdinand's head-quarter is seven or eight miles to northwest of
this his Brucken-Muhle and extreme left; next to Brucken-Muhle is
Zastrow's Division; next, again, is Granby's; several Divisions
between Ferdinand and it; 'Do it by surprisal, by utmost force of
vehemency!' say the French. And accordingly,

"SEPTEMBER 21st [day of the Equinox, 1762], An hour before sunrise,
there began, quite on the sudden, a vivid attack on the Brucken-
Muhle and on Amoneburg, by cannon, by musketry, by all methods;
and, in spite of the alert and completely obstinate resistance,
would not cease; but, on the contrary, seemed to be on the
increasing hand, new cannon, new musketries; and went on, hour
after hour, ever the more vivid. So that, about 8 in the morning,
after three hours of this, Zastrow, with his Division, had to
intervene: to range himself on the Hill-top behind this Brucken-
Muhle; replace the afflicted 200 (many of them hurt, not a few
killed) by a fresh 200 of his own; who again needed to be relieved
before long. For the French, whom Zastrow had to imitate in that
respect, kept bringing up more cannon, ever more, as if they would
bring up all the cannon of their Army: and there rose between
Zastrow and them such a cannonade, for length and loudness
together, as had not been heard in this War. Most furious
cannonading, musketading; and seemingly no end to it.
Ferdinand himself came over to ascertain; found it a hot thing
indeed. Zastrow had to relieve his 200 every hour: 'Don't go down
in rank, you new ones,' ordered he--'slide, leap, descend the hill-
face in scattered form: rank at the bottom!'--and generally about
half of the old 200 were left dead or lamed by their hour's work.
'They intend to have this Bridge from us at any cost,' thinks
Ferdinand; 'and at any cost they shall not!' And, in the end,
orders Granby forward in room of Zastrow, who has had some eight
hours of it now; and rides home to look after his main quarters.

"It was about 4 in the afternoon when Granby and his English came
into the fire; and I rather think the French onslaught was, if
anything, more furious than ever:--Despair striding visibly forward
on it, or something too like Despair. Amoneburg they had battered
to pieces, Wall and Schloss, so that the 500 had to ground arms:
but not an inch of way had they made upon the Bridge, nor were like
to make. Granby continued on the old plan, plying all his
diligences and artilleries; needing them all. Fierce work to a
degree: '200 of you go down on wings' (in an hour about 100 will
come back)! In English Families you will still hear some vague
memory of Amoneburg, How we had built walls of the dead, and fired
from behind them,--French more and more furious, we more and more
obstinate. Granby had still four hours of it; sunset, twilight,
dusk; about 8, the French, in what spirits I can guess, ceased, and
went their ways. Bridge impossible; game up. They had lost, by
their own account, 1,100 killed and wounded; Ferdinand probably not
fewer." [Mauvillon, ii. 251;  Helden-Geschichte,  vii. 432-439.]

And in this loud peal, what none could yet know, the French-English
part of the Seven-Years War had ended. The French attempted nothing
farther; hutted themselves where they were, and waited in the
pouring rains: Ferdinand also hutted himself, in guard of the Ohm;
while his people plied their Siege-batteries on Cassel, on
Ziegenhayn, cannonading their best in the bad weather;--took
Cassel, did not quite take Ziegenhayn, had it been of moment;--and
for above six weeks coming (till November 7th-14th [Preliminaries
of Peace SIGNED, "Paris, November 3d;" known to French Generals
"November 7th;" not, OFFICIALLY, to Ferdinand till "November 14th"
(Mauvillon, ii. 257).]), nothing more but skirmishings and small
scuffles, not worth a word from us, fell out between the Two
Parties there. That Cannonade of the Brucken-Muhle had been finis.

For supreme Bute, careless of the good news coming in on him from
West and from East, or even rather embarrassed by them, had some
time ago started decisively upon the Peace Negotiation.
"September 5th," three weeks before that of Amoneburg, "the Duke of
Bedford, Bute's Plenipotentiary, set out towards Paris,--
considerably hissed on the street here by a sulky population," it
would seem;--"but sure of success in Paris. Bute shared in none of
the national triumphs of this Year. The transports of rejoicing
which burst out on the news of Havana" were a sorrow and distress
to him. [Walpole's  George the Third, 
ii. 191.] "Havana, what shall we do with it?" thought he; and for
his own share answered stiffly, "Nothing with it; fling it back to
them!"--till some consort of his persuaded him Florida would look
better. [Thackeray, ii. 11.] Of Manilla and the Philippines he did
not even hear till Peace was concluded; had made the Most Catholic
Carlos a present of that Colony,--who would not even pay our
soldiers their Manilla Ransom, as too disagreeable. Such is the
Bute, such and no other, whom the satirical Fates have appointed to
crown and finish off the heroic Day's-work of such a Pitt. Let us,
if we can help it, speak no more of him! Friedrich writes before
leaving for Saxony: "The Peace between the English and the French
is much farther off than was thought;--so many oppositions do the
Spaniards raise, or rather do the French,--busy duping this buzzard
of an English Minister, who has not common sense." [Schoning, iii.
480 (To Henri: "Peterswaldau, 17th October, 1762").] Never fear,
your Majesty: a man with Havanas and Manillas of that kind to fling
about at random, is certain to bring Peace, if resolved on it!--

We said, Prince Henri rallied beautifully from his little slap and
loss of Freyberg (October 15th), and that the King was sending Wied
with reinforcements to him. In fact, Prince Henri of himself was
all alertness, and instantly appeared on the Heights again;
seemingly quite in sanguinary humor, and courting Battle, much more
than was yet really the case. Which cowed Stollberg from meddling
with him farther, as he might have done. Not for some ten days had
Henri finished his arrangements; and then, under cloud of night
(28th-29th OCTOBER, 1762), he did break forward on those
Spittelwalds and Michael's Mounts, and multiplex impregnabilities
about Freyberg, in what was thought a very shining manner.
The BATTLE OF FREYBERG, I think, is five or six miles long, all on
the west, and finally on the southwest side of Freyberg (north and
northwest sides, with so many batteries and fortified villages, are
judged unattackable); and the main stress, very heavy for some
time, lay in the abatis of the Spittelwald (where Seidlitz was
sublime), and about the roots of St. Michael's Mount (the TOP of it
Stollberg, or some foolish General of Stollberg's, had left empty;
nobody there when we reached the top),--down from which, Freyberg
now lying free ahead of us, and the Spittelwald on our left now
also ours, we take Stollberg in rear, and turn him inside out.
The Battle lasted only three hours, till Stollberg and his
Maguires, Campitellis and Austrians (especially his Reichsfolk, who
did no work at all, except at last running), were all under way;
and the hopes of some Saxon Victory to balance one's disgraces in
Silesia had altogether vanished. [ Beschreibung der am
29sten October, 1762, bey Freyberg vorgefallenen Schlacht  (Seyfarth,  Beylagen,  iii. 365-376).
Tempelhof, vi. 235-258;  Helden-Geschichte, 
vii. 177-181.]

Of Austrians and Reichsfolk together I dimly count about 40,000 in
this Action; Prince Henri seems to have been well under 30,000.
["29 battalions, 60 squadrons," VERSUS "49 battalions, 68
squadrons" (Schoning, iii. 499).] I will give Prince Henri's
DESPATCH to his Brother (a most modest Piece); and cannot afford to
say more of the matter,--except that "Wegfurth," where Henri gets
on march the night before, lies 8 or more miles west-by-north of
Freyberg and the Spittelwald, and is about as far straight south
from Hainichen, Gellert's birthplace, who afterwards got the War-
horse now coming into action,--I sometimes think, with what
surprise to that quadruped!


PRINCE HENRI TO THE KING (Battle just done; King on the road
from Silesia hither, Letter meets him at Lowenberg).

"FREYBERG, 29th October, 1762.

"MY DEAREST BROTHER,--It is a happiness for me to send you the
agreeable news, That your Army has this day gained a considerable
advantage over the combined Austrian and Reichs Army. I marched
yesternight; I had got on through Wegfurth, leaving Spittelwald
[Tempelhof, p. 237.] to my left, with intent to seize [storm, if
necessary] the Height of St. Michael,--when I came upon the Enemy's
Army. I made two true attacks, and two false: the Enemy resisted
obstinately; but the sustained valor of your troops prevailed:
and, after three hours in fire, the Enemy was obliged to yield
everywhere. I don't yet know the number of Prisoners; but there
must be above 4,000:--the Reichs Army has lost next to nothing;
the stress of effort fell to the Austrian share. We have got
quantities of Cannon and Flags; Lieutenant-General Roth of the
Reichs Army is among our Prisoners. I reckon we have lost from 2 to
3,000 men; among them no Officer of mark. Lieutenant-General von
Seidlitz rendered me the highest services; in a place where the
Cavalry could not act [border of the Spittelwald, and its
impassable entanglements and obstinacies], he put himself at the
head of the Infantry, and did signal services [his Battle mainly,
scheming and all, say some ill-natured private accounts];
Generals Belling and Kleist [renowned Colonels known to us, now
become Major-Generals] did their very best. All the Infantry was
admirable; not one battalion yielded ground. My Aide-de-Camp
[Kalkreuth, a famous man in the Napoleon times long after], who
brings you this, had charge of assisting to conduct the attack
through the Spittelwald [and did it well, we can suppose]: if, on
that ground, you pleased to have the goodness to advance him, I
should have my humble thanks to give you. There are a good many
Officers who have distinguished themselves and behaved with
courage, for whom I shall present similar requests. You will permit
me to pay those who have taken cannons and flags (100 ducats per
cannon, 50 per flag, or whatever the tariff was:--"By all manner of
means!" his Majesty would answer].

"The Enemy is retiring towards Dresden and Dippoldiswalde. I am
sending at his heels this night, and shall hear the result.
My Aide-de-Camp is acquainted with all, and will be able to render
you account of everything you may wish to know in regard to our
present circumstances. General Wied, I believe, will cross Elbe
to-morrow [General Wied, with 10,000 to help us,--for whom it was
too dangerous to wait, or perhaps there was a spur on one's own
mind?]; his arrival would be [not "would have been:" CELA
VIENDRAIT, not even VIENDRA] very opportune for me. I am, with all
attachment, my dearest Brother,--your most devoted Servant and
Brother,--HENRI." [Schoning, iii. 491, 492.]

To-morrow, in cipher, goes the following Despatch:--

"FREYBERG, 30th October, 1762.

"General Wied [not yet come to hand, or even got across Elbe]
informs me, That Prince Albert of Saxony [pushing hither with
reinforcement, sent by Daun] must have crossed Elbe yesterday at
Pirna [did not show face here, with his large reinforcements to
them, or what would have become of us!];--and that for this reason
he, Wied, must himself cross; which he will to-morrow. The same day
I am to be joined by some battalions from General Hulsen; and the
day after to-morrow, when General Wied [coming by Meissen Bridge,
it appears] shall have reached the Katzenhauser, the whole of
General Hulsen's troops will join me. Directly thereupon I shall--"
[Schoning, p. 493.] Or no more of that second Despatch; Friedrich's
LETTER IN RESPONSE is better worth giving:--

"LOWENBERG, 2d November, 1762.

"MY DEAR BROTHER,--The arrival of Kalkreuter [so he persists in
calling him], and of your Letter, my dear Brother, has made me
twenty [not to say forty] years younger: yesterday I was sixty,
to-day hardly eighteen. I bless Heaven for preserving you in health
(BONNE SANTE," so we term escape of lesion in fight); "and that
things have passed so happily! You took the good step of attacking
those who meant to attack you; and, by your good and solid measures
(DISPOSITIONS), you have overcome all the difficulties of a strong
Post and a vigorous resistance. It is a service so important
rendered by you to the State, that I cannot enough express my
gratitude, and will wait to do it in person.

"Kalkreuter will explain what motions I-- ... If Fortune favor our
views on Dresden [which it cannot in the least, at this late
season], we shall indubitably have Peace this Winter or next
Spring,--and get honorably out of a difficult and perilous
conjuncture, where we have often seen ourselves within two steps of
total destruction. And, by this which you have now done, to you
alone will belong the honor of having given the final stroke to
Austrian Obstinacy, and laid the foundations of the Public
Happiness, which will be the consequence of Peace.--F." [Ib. iii.
495, 496.]

Two days after this, November 4th, Friedrich is in Meissen;
November 9th, he comes across to Freyberg; has pleasant day,--
pleasant survey of the Battle-field, Henri and Seidlitz escorting
as guides. Henri, in furtherance of the Dresden project, has Kleist
out on the Bohemian Magazines,--"That is the one way to clear
Dresden neighborhood of Enemies!" thinks Henri always. Kleist burns
the considerable magazine of Saatz; finds the grand one of
Leitmeritz too well guarded for him:--upon which, in such
snowdrifts and sleety deluges, is not Dresden plainly impossible,
your Majesty? Impossible, Friedrich admits,--the rather as he now
sees Peace to be coming without that. Freyberg has at last broken
the back of Austrian Obstinacy. "Go in upon the Reich," Friedrich
now orders Kleist, the instant Kleist is home from his Bohemian
inroad: "In upon the Reich, with 6,000, in your old style! That
will dispose the Reichs Principalities to Peace."

Kleist marched November 3d; kept the Reich in paroxysm till
December 13th;--Plotho, meanwhile, proclaiming in the Reichs Diet:
"Such Reichs Princes as wish for Peace with my King can have it;
those that prefer War, they too can have it!" Kleist, dividing
himself in the due artistic way, flew over the Voigtland, on to
Bamberg, on to Nurnberg itself (which he took, by sounding rams'-
horns, as it were, having no gun heavier than a carbine, and held
for a week); [ Helden-Geschichte,  vii.
186-194.]--fluttering the Reichs Diet not a little, and disposing
everybody for Peace. The Austrians saw it with pleasure, "We
solemnly engaged to save these poor people harmless, on their
joining us;--and, behold, it has become thrice and four times
impossible. Let them fall off into Peace, like ripe pears, of
themselves; we can then turn round and say, 'Save you harmless?
Yes; if you had n't fallen off!'"

NOVEMBER 24th, all Austrians make truce with Friedrich, Truce till
March 1st;--all Austrians, and what is singular, with no mention of
the Reich whatever. The Reich is defenceless, at the feet of Kleist
and his 6,000. Stollberg is still in Prussian neighborhood; and may
be picked up any day! Stollberg hastens off to defend the Reich;
finds the Reich quite empty of enemies before his arrival;--and at
least saves his own skin. A month or two more, and Stollberg will
lay down his Command, and the last Reichs-Execution Army, playing
Farce-Tragedy so long, make its exit from the Theatre of
this World.



Chapter XIII.

PEACE OF HUBERTSBURG.

The Prussian troops took Winter-quarters in the Meissen-Freyberg
region, the old Saxon ground, familiar to them for the last three
years: room enough this Winter, "from Plauen and Zwickau, round by
Langensalza again;" Truce with everybody, and nothing of
disturbance till March 1st at soonest. The usual recruiting went
on, or was preparing to go on,--a part of which took immediate
effect, as we shall see. Recruiting, refitting, "Be ready for a new
Campaign, in any case: the readier we are, the less our chance of
having one!" Friedrich's head-quarter is Leipzig; but till December
5th he does not get thither. "More business on me than ever!"
complains he. At Leipzig he had his Nephews, his D'Argens; for a
week or two his Brother Henri; finally, his Berlin Ministers,
especially Herzberg, when actual Peace came to be the matter in
hand. Henri, before that, had gone home: "Peace being now the
likelihood;--Home; and recruit one's poor health, at Berlin,
among friends!"

Before getting to Leipzig, the King paid a flying Visit at Gotha;--
probably now the one fraction of these manifold Winter movements
and employments, in which readers could take interest. Of this, as
there happens to be some record left of it, here is what will
suffice. From Meissen, Friedrich writes to his bright Grand-
Duchess, always a bright, high and noble creature in his eyes:
"Authorized by your approval [has politely inquired beforehand], I
shall have the infinite satisfaction of paying my duties on
December 3d [four days hence], and of reiterating to you, Madam, my
liveliest and sincerest assurances of esteem and friendship. ...
Some of my Commissariat people have been misbehaving?
Strict inquiry shall be had," [To the Grand-Duchess, "Meissen,
29th November" ( OEuvres de Frederic,  xviii.
199).]--and we soon find WAS. But the Visit is our first thing.

The Visit took place accordingly; Seidlitz, a man known in Gotha
ever since his fine scenic-military procedures there in 1757,
accompanied the King. Of the lucent individualities invited to meet
him, all are now lost to me, except one Putter, a really learned
Gottingen Professor (deep in REICHS-HISTORY and the like), whom the
Duchess has summoned over. By the dim lucency of Putter, faint to
most of us as a rushlight in the act of going out, the available
part of our imagination must try to figure, in a kind of
Obliterated-Rembrandt way, this glorious Evening; for there was but
one,--December 3d-4th,--Friedrich having to leave early on the 4th.
Here is Putter's record, given in the third person:--

"During dinner, Putter, honorably present among the spectators of
this high business, was beckoned by the Duchess to step near the
King [right hand or left, Putter does not say]; but the King
graciously turned round, and conversed with Putter."
The King said:--

KING. "In German History much is still buried; many important
Documents lie hidden in Monasteries." Putter answered "schicklich--
fitly;" that is all we know of Putter's answer.

KING (thereupon). "Of Books on Reichs-History I know only the PERE
BARRI." [ Barri de Beaumarchais,  10 vols. 4to,
Paris, 1748: I believe, an extremely feeble Pillar of Will-o'-Wisps
by Night;--as I can expressly testify Pfeffel to be (Pfeffel,
 Abrege Chronologique de l'Histoire d'Allemagne,  2 vols. 4to, Paris, 1776), who has succeeded Barri as
Patent Guide through that vast SYLVA SYLVARUM aud its pathless
intricacies, for the inquiring French and English.]

PUTTER. ... "Foreigners have for most part known only, in regard to
our History, a Latin work written by Struve at Jena."
[Burkhard Gotthelf Struve,  Syntagma Historiae Germanicus
 (1730, 2 vols. folio).]

KING. "Struv, Struvius; him I don't know."

PUTTER. "It is a pity Barri had not known German."

KING. "Barri was a Lorrainer; Barri must have known German!"--Then
turning to the Duchess, on this hint about the German Language, he
told her, "in a ringing merry tone, How, at Leipzig once, he had
talked with Gottsched [talk known to us] on that subject, and had
said to him, That the French had many advantages; among others,
that a word could often be used in a complex signification, for
which you had in German to scrape together several different
expressions. Upon which Gottsched had said, 'We will have that
mended (DAS WOLLEN WIR NOCH MACHEN)!' These words the King repeated
twice or thrice, with such a tone that you could well see how the
man's conceit had struck him;"--and in short, as we know already,
what a gigantic entity, consisting of wind mainly, he took this
elevated Gottsched to be.

Upon which, Putter retires into the honorary ranks again;
silent, at least to us, and invisible; as the rest of this Royal
Evening at Gotha is. ["Putter's  Selbstbiographie  (Autobiography), p. 406:" cited in Preuss, ii. 277 n.]
Here, however, is the Letter following on it two days after:--


FRIEDRICH TO THE DUCHESS OF SACHSEN-GOTHA.

"LEIPZIG, 6th December, 1762.

"MADAM,--I should never have done, my adorable Duchess, if I
rendered you account of all the impressions which the friendship
you lavished on me has made on my heart. I could wish to answer it
by entering into everything that can be agreeable to you [conduct
of my Recruiters or Commissariat people first of all]. I take the
liberty of forwarding the ANSWERS which have come in to the Two
MEMOIRES you sent me. I am mortified, Madam, if I have not been
able to fulfil completely your desires: but if you knew the
situation I am in, I flatter myself you would have some
consideration for it.

"I have found myself here [in Leipzig, as elsewhere] overwhelmed
with business, and even to a degree I had not expected.
Meanwhile, if I ever can manage again to run over and pay you in
person the homage of a heart which is more attached to you than
that of your near relations, assuredly I will not neglect the first
opportunity that shall present itself.

"Messieurs the English [Bute, Bedford and Company, with their
Preliminaries signed, and all my Westphalian Provinces left in a
condition we shall hear of] continue to betray. Poor M. Mitchell
has had a stroke of apoplexy on hearing it. It is a hideous thing
(CHOSE AFFREUSE); but I will speak of it no more. May you, Madam,
enjoy all the prosperities that I wish for you, and not forget a
Friend, who will be till his death, with sentiments of the highest
esteem and the most perfect consideration,--Madam, your Highness's
most faithful Cousin and Servant,         FRIEDRICH."
[ OEuvres de Frederic,  xzvii. 201.]

For a fortnight past, Friedrich has had no doubt that general Peace
is now actually at hand. November 25th, ten days before this visit,
a Saxon Privy-Councillor, Baron von Fritsch, who, by Order from his
Court, had privately been at Vienna on the errand, came privately
next, with all speed, to Friedrich (Meissen, November 25th):
[Rodenbeck, ii. 193.] "Austria willing for Treaty; is your Majesty
willing?" "Thrice-willing, I; my terms well known!" Friedrich would
answer,--gladdest of mankind to see general Pacification coming to
this vexed Earth again. The Dance of the Furies, waltzing itself
off, HOME out of this upper sunlight: the mad Bellona steeds
plunging down, down, towards their Abysses again, for a season!--

This was a result which Friedrich had foreseen as nearly certain
ever since the French and English signed their Preliminaries.
And there was only one thing which gave him anxiety; that of his
Rhine Provinces and Strong Places, especially Wesel, which have
been in French hands for six years past, ever since Spring, 1757.
Bute stipulates That those places and countries shall be evacuated
by his Choiseul, as soon as weather and possibility permit;
but Bute, astonishing to say, has not made the least stipulation as
to whom they are to be delivered to,--allies or enemies, it is all
one to Bute. Truly rather a shameful omission, Pitt might
indignantly think,--and call the whole business steadily, as he
persisted to do, "a shameful Peace," had there been no other
article in it but this;--as Friedrich, with at least equal emphasis
thought and felt. And, in fact, it had thrown him into very great
embarrassment, on the first emergence of it.

For her Imperial Majesty began straightway to draw troops into
those neighborhoods: "WE will take delivery, our Allies playing
into our hand!" And Friedrich, who had no disposable troops, had to
devise some rapid expedient; and did. Set his Free-Corps agents and
recruiters in motion: "Enlist me those Light people of Duke
Ferdinand's, who are all getting discharged; especially that
BRITANNIC LEGION so called. All to be discharged; re-enlist them,
you; Ferdinand will keep them till you do it. Be swift!" And it is
done;--a small bit of actual enlistment among the many prospective
that were going on, as we noticed above. Precise date of it not
given; must have been soon after November 3d. There were from 5 to
6,000 of them; and it was promptly done. Divided into various
regiments; chief command of them given to a Colonel Bauer, under
whom a Colonel Beckwith whose name we have heard: these, to the
surprise of Imperial Majesty, and alarm of a pacific Versailles,
suddenly appeared in the Cleve Countries, handy for Wesel, for
Geldern; in such posts, and in such force and condition as
intimated, "It shall be we, under favor, that take delivery!"
Snatch Wesel from them, some night, sword in hand: that had been
Bauer's notion; but nothing of that kind was found necessary;
mere demonstration proved sufficient. To the French Garrisons the
one thing needful was to get away in peace; Bauer with his brows
gloomy is a dangerous neighbor. Perhaps the French Officers
themselves rather favored Friedrich than his enemies. Enough, a
private agreement, or mutual understanding on word of honor, was
come to: and, very publicly, at length, on the 11th and 12th days
of March, 1763 (Peace now settled everywhere), Wesel, in great
gala, full of field-music, military salutations and mutual dining,
saw the French all filing out, aud Bauer and people filing in, to
the joy of that poor Town. [Preuss, ii. 342.]

Soon after which, painful to relate, such the inexorable pressure
of finance, Bauer and people were all paid off, flung loose again:
ruthlessly paid off by a necessitous King! There were about 6,000
of those poor fellows,--specimens of the bastard heroic, under
difficulties, from every country in the world; Beckwith and I know
not what other English specimens of the lawless heroic; who were
all cashiered, officer and man, on getting to Berlin. As were the
earlier Free-Corps, and indeed the subsequent, all and sundry,
"except seven," whose names will not be interesting to you.
Paid off, with or without remorse, such the exhaustion of finance;
Kleist, Icilius, Count Hordt and others vainly repugning and
remonstrating; the King himself inexorable as Arithmetic.
"Can maintain 138,000 of regular, 12,000 of other sorts; not a man
more!" Zealous Icilius applied for some consideration to his
Officers: "partial repayment of the money they have spent from
their own pocket in enlistment of their people now discharged!"
Not a doit. The King's answer is in autograph, still extant; not in
good spelling, but with sense clear as light: "SEINE OFFICIERS
HABEN WIE DIE RABEN GESTOLLEN SIE KRIGEN NICHTS, Your Officers
stole like ravens;--they get Nothing." [Preuss, ii. 320.]
Lessing's fine play of MINNA VON BARNHELM testifies to considerable
public sympathy for these impoverished Ex-Military people.
Pathetic truly, in a degree; but such things will happen.
Irregular gentlemen, to whom the world 's their oyster,--said
oyster does suddenly snap to on them, by a chance. And they have to
try it on the other side, and say little!--But we are forgetting
the Peace-Treaty itself, which still demands a few words.

Kleist's raid into the Reich had a fine effect on the Potentates
there; and Plotho's Offer was greedily complied with; the Kaiser,
such his generosity, giving "free permission." We spoke of Privy-
Councillor von Fritsch, and his private little word with Friedrich
at Meissen, on November 25th. The Electoral-Prince of Saxony, it
seems, was author of that fine stroke; the history of it this.
Since November 3d, the French and English have had their
preliminaries signed; and all Nations are longing for the like.
"Let us have a German Treaty for general Peace," said the Kurprinz
of Saxony, that amiable Heir-Apparent whom we have seen sometimes,
who is rather crooked of back, but has a sprightly Wife. "By all
means," answered Polish Majesty: "and as I am in the distance, do
you in every way further it, my Son!" Whereupon despatch of Fritsch
to Vienna, and thence to Meissen; with "Yes" to him from both
parties. Plenipotentiaries are named: "Fritsch shall be ours:
they shall have my Schloss of Hubertsburg for Place of Congress,"
said the Prince. And on Thursday, December 30th, 1762, the Three
Dignitaries met at Hubertsburg, and began business.

This is the Schloss in Torgau Country which Quintus Icilius's
people, Saldern having refused the job, willingly undertook
spoiling; and, as is well known, did it, January 22d, 1761; a thing
Quintus never heard the end of. What the amount of profit, or the
degree of spoil and mischief, Quintus's people made of it, I could
not learn; but infer from this new event that the wreck had not
been so considerable as the noise was; at any rate, that the
Schloss had soon been restored to its pristine state of brilliancy.
The Plenipotentiaries,--for Saxony, Fritsch; for Austria, a Von
Collenbach, unknown to us; for Prussia, one Hertzberg, a man
experienced beyond his years, who is of great name in Prussian
History subsequently,--sat here till February 15th, 1763, that is
for six weeks and five days. Leaving their Protocols to better
judges, who report them good, we will much prefer a word or two
from Friedrich himself, while waiting the result they come to.


FRIEDRICH TO PRINCE HENRI (home at Berlin).

"LEIPZIG, 14th JANUARY, 1763. ... Am not surprised you find Berlin
changed for the worse: such a train of calamities must, in the end,
make itself felt in a poor and naturally barren Country, where
continual industry is needed to second its fecundity and keep up
production. However, I will do what I can to remedy this dearth (LA
DISETTE), at least as far as my small means permit. ...

"No fear of Geldern and Wesel; all that has been cared for by Bauer
and the new Free-Corps. By the end of February Peace will be
signed; at the beginning of April everybody will find himself at
home, as in 1756.

"The Circles are going to separate: indifferent to me, or nearly
so; but it is good to be plucking out tiresome burning sticks,
stick after stick. I hope you amuse yourself at Berlin: at Leipzig
nothing but balls and redouts; my Nephews diverting themselves
amazingly. Madam Friedrich, lately Garden-maid at Seidlitz [Village
in the Neumark, with this Beauty plucking weeds in it,--little
prescient of such a fortune], now Wife to an Officer of the Free
Hussars, is the principal heroine of these Festivities."
[Schoning, iii. 528.]

LEIPZIG, 25th JANUARY, 1763. "Thanks for your care about my
existence. I am becoming very old, dear Brother; in a little while
I shall be useless to the world and a burden to myself: it is the
lot of all creatures to wear down with age,-- but one is not, for
all that, to abuse one's privilege of falling into dotage.

"You still speak without full confidence of our Negotiation
business [going on at Hubertsburg yonder]. Most certainly the
chapter of accidents is inexhaustible; and it is still certain
there may happen quantities of things which the limited mind of man
cannot foresee: but, judging by the ordinary course, and such
degrees of probability as human creatures found their hopes on, I
believe, before the month of February entirely end, our Peace will
be completed. In a permanent Arrangement, many things need
settling, which are easier to settle now than they ever will be
again. Patience; haste without speed is a thriftless method."
[Ib. iii. 529.]

February 5th, the trio at Hubertsburg got their Preliminaries
signed. On the tenth day thereafter, the Treaty itself was signed
and sealed. All other Treaties on the same subject had been guided
towards a contemporary finis: England and France, ready since the
3d of November last, signed and ended February 10th. February 11th,
the Reich signed and ended; February 15th, Prussia, Austria,
Saxony; and the THIRD SILESIAN or SEVEN-YEARS WAR was completely
finished. [Copy of the treaty in  Helden-Geschichte,  vii. 624 et seq.; in Seyfarth,  Beylagen,  iii. 479-495; in ROUSSET, in WENCK, in &c. &c.]

It had cost, in loss of human lives first of all, nobody can say
what: according to Friedrich's computation, there had perished of
actual fighters, on the various fields, of all the nations,
853,000; of which above the fifth part, or 180,000, is his own
share: and, by misery and ravage, the general Population of Prussia
finds itself 500,000 fewer; nearly the ninth man missing. This is
the expenditure of Life. Other items are not worth enumerating, in
comparison; if statistically given, you can find the most approved
guesses at them by the same Head, who ought to be an authority.
[ OEuvres de Frederic,  v. 230-234; Preuss,
iii. 349-351.] It was a War distinguished by--Archenholtz will tell
you, with melodious emphasis, what a distinguished, great and
thrice-greatest War it was. There have since been other far bigger
Wars,--if size were a measure of greatness; which it by no means
is! I believe there was excellent Heroism shown in this War, by
persons I could name; by one person, Heroism really to be called
superior, or, in its kind, almost of the rank of supreme;--and that
in regard to the Military Arts and Virtues, it has as yet, for
faculty and for performance, had no rival; nor is likely soon to
have. The Prussians, as we once mentioned, still use it as their
school-model in those respects. And we-- O readers, do not at least
you and I thank God to have now done with it!--

Of the Peace-Treaties at Hubertsburg, Paris and other places, it is
not necessary that we say almost anything. They are to be found in
innumerable Books, dreary to the mind; and of the 158 Articles to
be counted there, not one could be interesting at present.
The substance of the whole lies now in Three Points, not mentioned
or contemplated at all in those Documents, though repeatedly
alluded to and intimated by us here.

The issue, as between Austria and Prussia, strives to be, in all
points, simply AS-YOU-WERE; and, in all outward or tangible points,
strictly is so. After such a tornado of strife as the civilized
world had not witnessed since the Thirty-Years War.
Tornado springing doubtless from the regions called Infernal;
and darkening the upper world from south to north, and from east to
west for Seven Years long;--issuing in general AS-YOU-WERE!
Yes truly, the tornado was Infernal; but Heaven too had silently
its purposes in it. Nor is the mere expenditure of men's diabolic
rages, in mutual clash as of opposite electricities, with reduction
to equipoise, and restoration of zero and repose again after seven
years, the one or the principal result arrived at.
Inarticulately, little dreamt of at the time by any by-stander, the
results, on survey from this distance, are visible as Threefold.
Let us name them one other time:--

1. There is no taking of Silesia from this man; no clipping of him
down to the orthodox old limits; he and his Country have palpably
outgrown these. Austria gives up the Problem: "We have lost
Silesia!" Yes; and, what you hardly yet know,--and what, I
perceive, Friedrich himself still less knows,--Teutschland has
found Prussia. Prussia, it seems, cannot be conquered by the whole
world trying to do it; Prussia has gone through its Fire-Baptism,
to the satisfaction of gods and men; and is a Nation henceforth.
In and of poor dislocated Teutschland, there is one of the Great
Powers of the World henceforth; an actual Nation. And a Nation not
grounding itself on extinct Traditions, Wiggeries, Papistries,
Immaculate Conceptions; no, but on living Facts,--Facts of
Arithmetic, Geometry, Gravitation, Martin Luther's Reformation, and
what it really can believe in:--to the infinite advantage of said
Nation and of poor Teutschland henceforth. To be a Nation; and to
believe as you are convinced, instead of pretending to believe as
you are bribed or bullied by the devils about you; what an
advantage to parties concerned! If Prussia follow its star-- As it
really tries to do, in spite of stumbling! For the sake of Germany,
one hopes always Prussia will; and that it may get through its
various Child-Diseases, without death: though it has had sad
plunges and crises,--and is perhaps just now in one of its worst
Influenzas, the Parliamentary-Eloquence or Ballot-Box Influenza!
One of the most dangerous Diseases of National Adolescence;
extremely prevalent over the world at this time,--indeed
unavoidable, for reasons obvious enough. "SIC ITUR AD ASTRA;"
all Nations certain that the way to Heaven is By voting, by
eloquently wagging the tongue "within those walls"! Diseases, real
or imaginary, await Nations like individuals; aud are not to be
resisted, but must be submitted to, and got through the best you
can. Measles and mumps; you cannot prevent them in Nations either.
Nay fashions even; fashion of Crinoline, for instance (how
infinitely more, that of Ballot-Box and Fourth-Estate!),--are you
able to prevent even that? You have to be patient under it, and
keep hoping!

2. In regard to England. Her JENKINS'S-EAR CONTROVERSY is at last
settled. Not only liberty of the Seas, but, if she were not wiser,
dominion of them; guardianship of liberty for all others
whatsoever: Dominion of the Seas for that wise object. America is
to be English, not French; what a result is that, were there no
other! Really a considerable Fact in the History of the World.
Fact principally due to Pitt, as I believe, according to my best
conjecture, and comparison of probabilities and circumstances.
For which, after all, is not everybody thankful, less or more?
O my English brothers, O my Yankee half-brothers, how oblivious are
we of those that have done us benefit!--

These are the results for England. And in the rear of these, had
these and the other elements once ripened for her, the poor Country
is to get into such merchandisings, colonizings, foreign-settlings,
gold-nuggetings, as lay beyond the drunkenest dreams of Jenkins
(supposing Jenkins addicted to liquor);--and, in fact, to enter on
a universal uproar of Machineries, Eldorados, "Unexampled
Prosperities," which make a great noise for themselves in the very
days now come. Prosperities evidently not of a sublime type:
which, in the mean while, seem to be covering the at one time
creditably clean and comely face of England with mud-blotches,
soot-blotches, miscellaneous squalors and horrors; to be preaching
into her amazed heart, which once knew better, the omnipotence of

SHODDY; filling her ears and soul with shriekery and metallic
clangor, mad noises, mad hurries mostly no-whither;--and are
awakening, I suppose, in such of her sons as still go into
reflection at all, a deeper and more ominous set of Questions than
have ever risen in England's History before. As in the foregoing
case, we have to be patient and keep hoping.

3. In regard to France. It appears, noble old Teutschland, with
such pieties and unconquerable silent valors, such opulences human
and divine, amid its wreck of new and old confusions, is not to be
cut in Four, and made to dance to the piping of Versailles or
another. Far the contrary! To Versailles itself there has gone
forth, Versailles may read it or not, the writing on the wall:
"Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting" (at last even
"FOUND wanting")! France, beaten, stript, humiliated;
sinful, unrepentant, governed by mere sinners and, at best, clever
fools (FOUS PLEINS D'ESPRIT),--collapses, like a creature whose
limbs fail it; sinks into bankrupt quiescence, into nameless
fermentation, generally into DRY-ROT. Rotting, none guesses
whitherward;--rotting towards that thrice-extraordinary
Spontaneous-Combustion, which blazed out in 1789. And has kindled,
over the whole world, gradually or by explosion, this unexpected
Outburst of all the chained Devilries (among other chained things),
this roaring Conflagration of the Anarchies; under which it is the
lot of these poor generations to live,--for I know not what length
of Centuries yet. "Go into Combustion, my pretty child!" the
Destinies had said to this BELLE FRANCE, who is always so fond of
shining and outshining: "Self-Combustion;--in that way, won't you
shine, as none of them yet could?" Shine; yes, truly,--till you are
got to CAPUT MORTUUM, my pretty child (unless you gain new wisdom!)
--But not to wander farther:--

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16th, Friedrich, all Saxon things being now
settled,--among the rest, "eight Saxon Schoolmasters" to be a model
in Prussia,--quitted Leipzig, with the Seven-Years War safe in his
pocket, as it were. Drove to Moritzburg, to dinner with the amiable
Kurprinz and still more amiable Wife: "It was to your Highness that
we owe this Treaty!" A dinner which readers may hear of again.
At Moritzburg; where, with the Lacys, there was once such rattling
and battling. After which, rapidly on to Silesia, and an eight days
of adjusting and inspecting there.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30th, Friedrich arrives in Frankfurt-on-Oder, on
the way homeward from Silesia: "takes view of the Field of
Kunersdorf" (reflections to be fancied); early in the afternoon
speeds forward again; at one of the stages (place called Tassdorf)
has a Dialogue, which we shall hear of; and between 8 and 9 in the
evening, not through the solemn receptions and crowded streets,
drives to the Schloss of Berlin. "Goes straight to the Queen's
Apartment," Queen, Princesses and Court all home triumphantly some
time ago; sups there with the Queen's Majesty and these bright
creatures,--beautiful supper, had it consisted only of cresses and
salt; and, behind it, sound sleep to us under our own roof-tree
once more. [Rodenbeck, ii. 211, 212; Preuss, ii. 345, 346; &c. &c.]
Next day, "the King made gifts to," as it were, to everybody;
"to the Queen about 5,000 pounds, to the Princess Amelia 1,000
pounds," and so on; and saw true hearts all merry round him,--
merrier, perhaps, than his own was.