Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 12
#18 in our series by Thomas Carlyle
V12 of 21


Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!!

Please take a look at the important information in this header.
We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
electronic path open for the next readers.  Do not remove this.


**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**

**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**

*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*

Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
further information is included below.	We need your donations.


History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 12

by Thomas Carlyle

March, 2000  [Etext #2112]


Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 12
*******This file should be named 12frd10.txt or 12frd10.zip********

Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, 12frd11.txt
VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 12frd10a.txt


Prepared by D.R. Thompson <drthom@ihug.co.nz>


Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,
all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a
copyright notice is included.  Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any
of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition.


We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance
of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.

Please note:  neither this list nor its contents are final till
midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
and editing by those who wish to do so.  To be sure you have an
up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes
in the first week of the next month.  Since our ftp program has
a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a
look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a
new copy has at least one byte more or less.


Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)

We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-six text
files per month, or 432 more Etexts in 1999 for a total of 2000+
If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the
total should reach over 200 billion Etexts given away this year.

The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
Files by December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]
This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
which is only ~5% of the present number of computer users.

At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we
manage to get some real funding; currently our funding is mostly
from Michael Hart's salary at Carnegie-Mellon University, and an
assortment of sporadic gifts; this salary is only good for a few
more years, so we are looking for something to replace it, as we
don't want Project Gutenberg to be so dependent on one person.

We need your donations more than ever!


All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are
tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.	(CMU = Carnegie-
Mellon University).

For these and other matters, please mail to:

Project Gutenberg
P. O. Box  2782
Champaign, IL 61825

When all other email fails. . .try our Executive Director:
Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org
if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if
it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . .

We would prefer to send you this information by email.

******

To access Project Gutenberg etexts, use any Web browser
to view http://promo.net/pg.  This site lists Etexts by
author and by title, and includes information about how
to get involved with Project Gutenberg.  You could also
download our past Newsletters, or subscribe here.  This
is one of our major sites, please email hart@pobox.com,
for a more complete list of our various sites.

To go directly to the etext collections, use FTP or any
Web browser to visit a Project Gutenberg mirror (mirror
sites are available on 7 continents; mirrors are listed
at http://promo.net/pg).

Mac users, do NOT point and click, typing works better.

Example FTP session:

ftp sunsite.unc.edu
login: anonymous
password: your@login
cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg
cd etext90 through etext99
dir [to see files]
get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
GET GUTINDEX.??  [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99]
GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]

***

**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor**

(Three Pages)


***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
fault.	So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.

*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
this "Small Print!" statement.	If you do not, you can receive
a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.

ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-
tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor
Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at
Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project").  Among other
things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
distribute it in the United States without permission and
without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.

To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
works.	Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.

LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this
etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
receive it electronically.

THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
may have other legal rights.

INDEMNITY
You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,
officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost
and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or
indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:
[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,
or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.

DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
or:

[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
     including any form resulting from conversion by word pro-
     cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as
     *EITHER*:

     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
	  does *not* contain characters other than those
	  intended by the author of the work, although tilde
	  (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
	  be used to convey punctuation intended by the
	  author, and additional characters may be used to
	  indicate hypertext links; OR

     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
	  no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
	  form by the program that displays the etext (as is
	  the case, for instance, with most word processors);
	  OR

     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
	  no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
	  etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
	  or other equivalent proprietary form).

[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
     "Small Print!" statement.

[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the
     net profits you derive calculated using the method you
     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
     payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon
     University" within the 60 days following each
     date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare)
     your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.

WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time,
scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty
free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution
you can think of.  Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg
Association / Carnegie-Mellon University".

*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*





Prepared by D.R. Thompson <drthom@ihug.co.nz>





Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia"
  Book XII
Processed by D.R. Thompson
drthom@ihug.co.nz





BOOK XII.

FIRST SILESIAN WAR, AWAKENING A GENERAL
EUROPEAN ONE, BEGINS.

December, 1740-May, 1741.


Chapter I.

OF SCHLESIEN, OR SILESIA.

Schlesien, what we call Silesia, lies in elliptic shape, spread on
the top of Europe, partly girt with mountains, like the crown or
crest to that part of the Earth;--highest table-land of Germany or
of the Cisalpine Countries; and sending rivers into all the seas.
The summit or highest level of it is in the southwest; longest
diameter is from northwest to southeast. From Crossen, whither
Friedrich is now driving, to the Jablunka Pass, which issues upon
Hungary, is above 250 miles; the AXIS, therefore, or longest
diameter, of our Ellipse we may call 230 English miles;--its
shortest or conjugate diameter, from Friedland in Bohemia
(Wallenstein's old Friedland), by Breslau across the Oder to the
Polish Frontier, is about 100. The total area of Schlesien is
counted to be some 20,000 square miles, nearly the third of
England Proper.

Schlesien--will the reader learn to call it by that name, on
occasion? for in these sad Manuscripts of ours the names alternate
--is a fine, fertile, useful and beautiful Country. It leans
sloping, as we hinted, to the East and to the North; a long curved
buttress of Mountains ("RIESENGEBIRGE, Giant Mountains," is their
best-known name in foreign countries) holding it up on the South
and West sides. This Giant-Mountain Range,--which is a kind of
continuation of the Saxon-Bohemian "Metal Mountains (ERZGEBIRGE)"
and of the straggling Lausitz Mountains, to westward of these,
--shapes itself like a bill-hook (or elliptically, as was said):
handle and hook together may be some 200 miles in length.
The precipitous side of this is, in general, turned outwards,
towards Bohmen, Mahren, Ungarn (Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, in our
dialects); and Schlesien lies inside, irregularly sloping down,
towards the Baltic and towards the utmost East, From the Bohemian
side of these Mountains there rise two Rivers: Elbe, tending for
the West; Morawa for the South;--Morawa, crossing Moravia, gets
into the Donau, and thence into the Black-Sea; while Elbe, after
intricate adventures among the mountains, and then prosperously
across the plains, is out, with its many ships, into the Atlantic.
Two rivers, we say, from the Bohemian or steep side: and again,
from the Silesian side, there rise other two, the Oder and the
Weichsel (VISTULA); which start pretty near one another in the
Southeast, and, after wide windings, get both into the Baltic, at a
good distance apart.

For the first thirty, or in parts, fifty miles from the Mountains,
Silesia slopes somewhat rapidly; and is still to be called a
Hill-country, rugged extensive elevations diversifying it: but
after that, the slope is gentle, and at length insensible, or
noticeable only by the way the waters run. From the central part of
it, Schlesien pictures itself to you as a plain; growing ever
flatter, ever sandier, as it abuts on the monotonous endless
sand-flats of Poland, and the Brandenburg territories; nothing but
Boundary Stones with their brass inscriptions marking where the
transition is; and only some Fortified Town, not far off, keeping
the door of the Country secure in that quarter.

On the other hand, the Mountain part of Schlesien is very
picturesque; not of Alpine height anywhere (the Schnee-Koppe itself
is under 5,000 feet), so that verdure and forest wood fail almost
nowhere among the Mountains; and multiplex industry, besung by
rushing torrents and the swift young rivers, nestles itself high
up; and from wheat husbandry, madder and maize husbandry, to
damask-weaving, metallurgy, charcoal-burning, tar-distillery,
Schlesien has many trades, and has long been expert and busy at
them to a high degree. A very pretty Ellipsis, or irregular Oval,
on the summit of the European Continent;--"like the palm of a left
hand well stretched out, with the Riesengebirge for thumb!" said a
certain Herr to me, stretching out his arm in that fashion towards
the northwest. Palm, well stretched out, measuring 250 miles; and
the crossway 100. There are still beavers in Schlesien; the
Katzbach River has gold grains in it, a kind of Pactolus not now
worth working; and in the scraggy lonesome pine-woods, grimy
individuals, with kindled mounds of pine-branches and smoke
carefully kept down by sods, are sweating out a substance which
they inform you is to be tar.


HISTORICAL EPOCHS OF SCHLESIEN;--AFTER THE QUADS AND MARCHMEN.

Who first lived in Schlesien, or lived long since in it, there is
no use in asking, nor in telling if one knew. "The QUADI and the
Lygii," says Dryasdust, in a groping manner: Quadi and consorts, in
the fifth or sixth Century, continues he with more confidence,
shifted Rome-ward, following the general track of contemporaneous
mankind; weak remnant of Quadi was thereupon overpowered by Slavic
populations, and their Country became Polish, which the eastern rim
of it still essentially is. That was the end of the Quadi in those
parts, says History. But they cannot speak nor appeal for
themselves; History has them much at discretion. Rude burial urns,
with a handful of ashes in them, have been dug up in different
places; these are all the Archives and Histories the Quadi now
have. It appears their name signifies WICKED. They are those poor
Quadi (WICKED PEOPLE) who always go along with the Marcomanni
(MARCHMEN), in the bead-roll Histories one reads; and I almost
guess they must have been of the same stock: "Wickeds and
Borderers;" considered, on both sides of the Border, to belong to
the Dangerous Classes in those times. Two things are certain:
First, QUAD and its derivatives have, to this day, in the speech of
rustic Germans, something of that meaning,--"nefarious," at least
"injurious," "hateful, and to be avoided:" for example, QUADdel, "a
nettle-burn;" QUETSchen, "to smash" (say, your thumb while
hammering); &c. &c. And then a second thing: The Polish equivalent
word is ZLE (Busching says ZLEXI); hence ZLEzien, SCHLEsien,
meaning merely BADland, QUADland, what we might called DAMAGitia,
or Country where you get into Trouble. That is the etymology, or
what passes for such. As to the History of Schlesien, hitherwards
of these burial urns dug up in different places, I notice, as not
yet entirely buriable, Three Epochs.

FIRST EPOCH; CHRISTIANITY: A.D. 966. Introduction of Christianity;
to the length of founding a Bishopric that year, so hopeful were
the aspects; "Bishopric of Schmoger" (SchMAGram, dim little Village
still discoverable on the Polish frontier, not far from the Town of
Namslau); Bishopric which, after one removal farther inward, got
across the Oder, to "WRUTISLAV," which me now call Breslau; and
sticks there, as Bishopric of Breslau, to this day. Year 966: it
was in Adalbert, our Prussian Saint and Missionary's younger time.
Preaching, by zealous Polacks, must have been going on, while
Adalbert, Bright in Nobleness, was studying at Magdeburg, and
ripening for high things in the general estimation. This was a new
gift from the Polacks, this of Christianity; an infinitely more
important one than that nickname of "ZLEZIEN," or "DAMAGitia,"
stuck upon the poor Country, had been.

SECOND EPOCH; GET GRADUALLY CUT LOOSE FROM POLAND: A.D. 1139-1159.
Twenty years of great trouble in Poland, which were of lasting
benefit to Schlesien. In 1139 the Polack King, a very potent
Majesty whom we could name but do not, died; and left his Dominions
shared by punctual bequest among his five sons. Punctual bequest
did avail: but the eldest Son (who was King, and had Schlesien with
much else to his share) began to encroach, to grasp; upon which the
others rose upon him, flung him out into exile; redivided;
and hoped now they might have quiet. Hoped, but were disappointed;
and could come to no sure bargain for the next twenty years,--not
till "the eldest brother," first author of these strifes, "died an
exile in Holstein," or was just about dying, and had agreed to take
Schlesien for all claims, and be quiet thenceforth.

His, this eldest's, three Sons did accordingly, in 1159, get
Schlesien instead of him; their uncles proving honorable. Schlesien
thereby was happy enough to get cut loose from Poland, and to
continue loose; steering a course of its own;--parting farther and
farther from Poland and its habits and fortunes. These three Sons,
of the late Polish Majesty who died in exile in Holstein, are the
"Piast Dukes," much talked of in Silesian Histories: of whose
merits I specify this only, That they so soon as possible strove to
be German. They were Progenitors of all the "Piast Dukes,"
Proprietors of Schlesien thenceforth, till the last of them died
out in 1675,--and a certain ERBVERBRUDERUNG they had entered into
could not take effect at that time. Their merits as Sovereign Dukes
seem to have been considerable; a certain piety, wisdom and
nobleness of mind not rare among them; and no doubt it was partly
their merit, if partly also their good luck, that they took to
Germany, and leant thitherward; steering looser and looser from
Poland, in their new circumstances. They themselves by degrees
became altogether German; their Countries, by silent immigration,
introduction of the arts, the composures and sobrieties, became
essentially so. On the eastern rim there is still a Polack remnant,
its territories very sandy, its condition very bad; remnant which
surely ought to cease its Polack jargon, and learn some dialect of
intelligible Teutsch, as the first condition of improvement. In all
other parts Teutsch reigns; and Schlesien is a green abundant
Country; full of metallurgy, damask-weaving, grain-husbandry.--
instead of gasconade, gilt anarchy, rags, dirt, and NIE POZWALAM.

A.D. 1327; GET COMPLETELY CUT LOOSE. The Piast Dukes, who soon
ceased to be Polish, and hung rather upon Bohemia, and thereby upon
Germany, made a great step in that direction, when King Johann, old
ICH-DIEN whom we ought to recollect, persuaded most of them, all of
them but two, "PRETIO AC PRECE," to become Feudatories (Quasi-
Feudatories, but of a sovereign sort) to his Crown of Bohemia.
The two who stood out, resisting prayer and price, were the Duke of
Jauer and the Duke of Schweidnitz,--lofty-minded gentlemen, perhaps
a thought too lofty. But these also Johann's son, little Kaiser
Karl IV., "marrying their heiress," contrived to bring in;--one
fruitful adventure of little Karl's, among the many wasteful he
made, in the German Reich. Schlesien is henceforth a bit of the
Kingdom of Bohemia; indissolubly hooked to Germany; and its
progress in the arts and composures, under wise Piasts with
immigrating Germans, we guess to have become doubly rapid.
[Busching, <italic> Erdbeschreibung, <end italic> viii. 725;
Hubner, t. 94.]

THIRD EPOCH; ADOPT THE REFORMATION: A.D. 1414-1517. Schlesien,
hanging to Bohemia in this manner, extensively adopted Huss's
doctrines; still more extensively Luther's; and that was a
difficult element in its lot, though, I believe, an unspeakably
precious one. It cost above a Century of sad tumults, Zisca Wars;
nay above two Centuries, including the sad Thirty-Years War;--which
miseries, in Bohemia Proper, were sometimes very sad and even
horrible. But Schlesien, the outlying Country, did, in all this,
suffer less than Bohemia Proper; and did NOT lose its Evangelical
Doctrine in result, as unfortunate Bohemia did, and sink into
sluttish "fanatical torpor, and big Crucifixes of japanned Tin by
the wayside," though in the course of subsequent years, named of
Peace, it was near doing so. Here are the steps, or unavailing
counter-steps, in that latter direction:--

A.D. 1537. Occurred, as we know, the ERBVERBRUDERUNG; Duke of
Liegnitz, and of other extensive heritages, making Deed of
Brotherhood with Kur-Brandenburg;--Deed forbidden, and so far as
might be, rubbed out and annihilated by the then King of Bohemia,
subsequently Kaiser Ferdinand I., Karl V.'s Brother. Duke of
Liegnitz had to give up his parchments, and become zero in that
matter: Kur-Brandenburg entirely refused to do so; kept his
parchments, to see if they would not turn to something.

A.D. 1624. Schlesien, especially the then Duke of Liegnitz
(great-grandson of the ERBVERBRUDERUNG one), and poor Johann
George, Duke of Jagerndorf, cadet of the then Kur-Brandenburg, went
warmly ahead into the Winter-King project, first fire of the
Thirty-Years War; sufferings from Papal encroachment, in high
quarters, being really extreme. Warmly ahead; and had to smart
sharply for it;--poor Johann George with forfeiture of Jagerndorf,
with REICHES-ACHT (Ban of the Empire), and total ruin; fighting
against which he soon died. Act of Ban and Forfeiture was done
tyrannously, said most men; and it was persisted in equally so,
till men ceased speaking of it;--Jagerndorf Duchy, fruit of the
Act, was held by Austria, ever after, in defiance of the Laws of
the Reich. Religious Oppression lay heavy on Protestant Schlesien
thenceforth; and many lukewarm individualities were brought back to
Orthodoxy by that method, successful in the diligent skilled hands
of Jesuit Reverend Fathers, with fiscals and soldiers in the rear
of them.

A.D. 1648. Treaty of Westphalia mended much of this, and set fair
limits to Papist encroachment;--had said Treaty been kept: but how
could it? By Orthodox Authority, auxious to recover lost souls, or
at least to have loyal subjects, it was publicly kept in name; and
tacitly, in substance, it was violated more and more. Of the
"Blossoming of Silesian Literature," spoken of in Books; of the
Poet Opitz, Poets Logan, Hoffmannswaldau, who burst into a kind of
Song better or worse at this Period, we will remember nothing; but
request the reader to remember it, if he is tunefully given, or
thinks it a good symptom of Schlesien.

A.D. 1707. Treaty of Altranstadt: between Kaiser Joseph I. and Karl
XII. Swedish Karl, marching through those parts,--out of Poland, in
chase of August the Physically Strong, towards Saxony, there to
beat him soft,--was waited upon by Silesian Deputations of a
lamentable nature; was entreated, for the love of Christ and His
Evangel, to "Protect us poor Protestants, and get the Treaty of
Westphalia observed on our behalf, and fair-play shown!" Which Karl
did; Kaiser Joseph, with such weight of French War lying on him,
being much struck with the tone of that dangerous Swede. The Pope
rebuked Kaiser Joseph for such compliance in the Silesian matter:
"Holy Father," answered this Kaiser (not of distinguished orthodoxy
in the House), "I am too glad he did not ask me to become Lutheran;
I know not how I should have helped myself!" [Pauli, <italic>
Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Geschichte <end italic> (viii.
298-592); Busching, <italic> Erdbeschreibung <end italic> (viii.
700-739); &c.--Heinrich Wuttke, <italic> Friedrichs des Grossen
Besitzergreifung von Schlesien <end italic> (Seizure of Silesia by
Friedrich, 2 vols. Leipzig, 1843), I mention only lest ingenuous
readers should be tempted by the Title to buy it. Wuttke begins at
the Creation of the World; and having, in two heavy volumes, at
last struggled down close TO the BESITZERGREIFUNG or Seizure in
question, calls halt; and stands (at ease, we will hope) immovably
there for the seventeen years since.]

These are the Three Epochs;--most things, in respect of this Third
or Reformation Epoch, stepping steadily downward hitherto. As to
the Fourth Epoch, dating "13th Dec. 1740," which continues, up to
our day and farther, and is the final and crowning Epoch of
Silesian History,--read in the following Chapters.



Chapter II.

FRIEDRICH MARCHES ON GLOGAU.

At what hour Friedrich ceased dancing on that famous Ball-night of
Bielfeld's, and how long he slept after, or whether at all, no
Bielfeld even mythically says: but next morning, as is patent to
all the world, Tuesday, 13th December, 1740, at the stroke of nine,
he steps into his carriage; and with small escort rolls away
towards Frankfurt-on-Oder; [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
italic> i. 452; Preuss, <italic> Thronbesteigung, <end italic>
p. 456.] out upon an Enterprise which will have results for himself
and others.

Two youngish military men, Adjutant-Generals both, were with him,
Wartensleben, Borck; both once fellow Captains in the Potsdam
Giants, and much in his intimacy ever since. Wartensleben we once
saw at Brunswick, on a Masonic occasion; Borck, whom we here see
for the first time, is not the Colonel Borck (properly
Major-General) who did the Herstal Operation lately; still less is
he the venerable old Minister, Marlborough Veteran, and now
Field-Marshal Borck, whom Hotham treated with, on a certain
occasion. There are numerous Borcks always in the King's service;
nor are these three, except by loose cousinry, related to one
another. The Borcks all come from Stettin quarter; a brave kindred,
and old enough,--"Old as the Devil, DAS IST SO OLD ALS DE BORCKEN
UND DE DUWEL," says the Pomeranian Proverb;-- the Adjutant-General,
a junior member of the clan, chances to be the notablest of them at
this moment. Wartensleben, Borck, and a certain Colonel von der
Golz, whom also the King much esteems, these are his company on
this drive. For escort, or guard of honor out of Berlin to the next
stages, there is a small body of Hussars, Life-guard and other
Cavalry, "perhaps 500 horse in all."

They drive rapidly, through the gray winter; reach Frankfurt-on-
Oder, sixty miles or more; where no doubt there is military
business waiting. They are forward, on the morrow, for dinner,
forty miles farther, at a small Town called Crossen, which looks
over into Silesia; and is, for the present, headquarters to a
Prussian Army, standing ready there and in the environs.
Standing ready, or hourly marching in, and rendezvousing; now about
28,000 strong, horse and foot. A Rearguard of Ten or Twelve
Thousand will march from Berlin in two days, pause hereabouts, and
follow according to circumstances: Prussian Army will then be some
40,000 in all. Schwerin has been Commander, manager and mainspring
of the business hitherto: henceforth it is to be the King;
but Schwerin under him will still have a Division of his own.

Among the Regiments, we notice "Schulenburg Horse-Grenadiers,"
--come along from Landsberg hither, these Horse-Grenadiers, with
little Schulenburg at the head of them;--"Dragoon Regiment
Bayreuth," "Lifeguard Carbineers," "Derschau of Foot;" and other
Regiments and figures slightly known to us, or that will be better
known. [List in <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 453.]
Rearguard, just getting under way at Berlin, has for leaders the
Prince of Holstein-Beck ("Holstein-VAISSELLE," say wags, since the
Principality went all to SILVER-PLATE) and the Hereditary Prince of
Anhalt-Dessau, whom we called the Young Dessauer, on the Strasburg
Journey lately: Rearguard, we say, is of 12,000; main Army is
28,000; Horse and Foot are in the proportion of about 1 to 3.
Artillery "consists of 20 three-pounders; 4 twelve-pounders;
4 howitzers (HAUBITZEN); 4 big mortars, calibre fifty pounds;
and of Artillerymen 166 in all."

With this Force the young King has, on his own basis (pretty much
in spite of all the world, as we find now and afterwards),
determined to invade Silesia, and lay hold of the Property he has
long had there;--not computing, for none can compute, the sleeping
whirlwinds he may chance to awaken thereby. Thus lightly does a man
enter upon Enterprises which prove unexpectedly momentous, and
shape the whole remainder of his days for him; crossing the Rubicon
as it were in his sleep. In Life, as on Railways at certain points,
--whether you know it or not, there is but an inch, this way or
that, into what tram you are shunted; but try to get out of it
again! "The man is mad, CET HOMME-LA EST FOL!" said Louis XV. when
he heard it. [Raumer, <italic> Beitrage <end italic> (English
Translation, called <italic> Frederick II. and his Times; from
British Museum and State-Paper 0ffice: <end italic> --a very
indistinct poor Book, in comparison with whet it might have been),
p. 73 (24th Dec. 1740).]


FRIEDRICH AT CROSSEN, AND STILL IN HIS OWN TERRITORY,
14th-16th DECEMBER;--STEPS INTO SCHLESIEN.

At all events, the man means to try;--and is here dining at
Crossen, noon of Wednesday, the 14th; certain important persons,
--especially two Silesian Gentlemen, deputed from Grunberg,
the nearest Silesian Town, who have come across the border on
business,--having the honor to dine with him. To whom his manner is
lively and affable; lively in mood, as if there lay no load upon
his spirits. The business of these two Silesian Gentlemen, a Baron
von Hocke one of them, a Baron von Kestlitz the other, was To
present, on the part of the Town and Amt of Grunberg, a solemn
Protest against this meditated entrance on the Territory of
Schlesien; Government itself, from Breslau, ordering them to do so.
Protest was duly presented; Friedrich, as his manner is, and
continues to be on his march, glances politely into or at the
Protest; hands it, in silence, to some page or secretary to deposit
in the due pigeon-hole or waste-basket; and invites the two
Silesian Gentlemen to dine with him; as, we see, they have the
honor to do. "He (ER) lives near Grunberg, then, Mein Herr von
Hocke?" "Close to it, IHRO MAJESTAT. My poor mansion, Schloss of
Deutsch-Kessel, is some fifteen miles hence; how infinitely at your
Majesty's service, should the march prove inevitable, and go that
way!"--"Well, perhaps!" I find Friedrich did dine, the second day
hence, with one of these Gentlemen; and lodged with the other.
Government at Breslau has ordered such Protest, on the part of the
Frontier populations and Official persons: and this is all that
comes of it.

During these hours, it chanced that the big Bell of Crossen dropped
from its steeple,--fulness of time, or entire rottenness of
axle-tree, being at last completed, at this fateful moment. Perhaps
an ominous thing? Friedrich, as Caesar and others have done,
cheerfully interprets the omen to his own advantage: "Sign that the
High is to be brought low!" says Friedrich. Were the march-routes,
wagon-trains, and multifarious adjustments perfect to the last item
here at Crossen, he will with much cheerfulness step into Silesia,
independent of all Grunberg Protests and fallen Bells.

On the second day he does actually cross; "the regiments marching
in, at different points; some reaching as far as 25 miles in."
It is Friday, 16th December, 1740; there has a game begun which
will last long! They went through the Village of Lasgen; that was
the first point of Silesian ground ("Circle of Schwiebus," our old
friend, is on the left near by); and "Schwerin's Regiment was the
foremost." Others cross more to the left or right; "marching
through the Village of Lessen," and other dim Villages and little
Towns, round and beyond Grunberg; all regiments and divisions
bearing upon Grunberg and the Great Road; but artistically
portioned out,--several miles in breadth (for the sake of
quarters), and, as is generally the rule, about a day's march in
length. This evening nearly the whole Army was on Silesian ground.

Printed "Patent" or Proclamation, briefly assuring all Silesians,
of whatever rank, condition or religion, "That we have come as
friends to them, and will protect all persons in their privileges,
and molest no peaceable mortal," is posted on Church-doors, and
extensively distributed by hand. Soldiers are forbidden, "under
penalty of the rods," Officers under that of "cassation with
infamy," to take anything, without first bargaining and paying
ready money for it. On these terms the Silesian villages cheerfully
enough accept their new guests, interesting to the rural mind; and
though the billeting was rather heavy, "as many as 24 soldiers to a
common Farmer (GARTNER)," no complaints were made. In one Schloss,
where the owners had fled, and no human response was to be had by
the wayworn-soldiery, there did occur some breakages and impatient
kickings about; which it grieved his Majesty to hear of, next
morning;--in one, not in more.

Official persons, we perceive, study to be absolutely passive.
This was the Burgermeister's course at Grunberg to-night; Grunberg,
first Town on the Frontier, sets an example of passivity which
cannot be surpassed. Prussian troops being at the Gate of Grunberg,
Burgermeister and adjuncts sitting in a tacit expectant condition
in their Town-hall, there arrives a Prussian Lieutenant requiring
of the Burgermeister the Key of said Gate. "To deliver such Key?
Would to God I durst, Mein Herr Lieutenant; but how dare I!
There is the Key lying: but to GIVE it--You are not the Queen of
Hungary's Officer, I doubt?"--The Prussian Lieutenant has to put
out hand, and take the Key; which he readily does. And on the
morrow, in returning it, when the march recommences, there are the
same phenomena: Burgermeister or assistants dare not for the life
of them touch that Key: It lay on the table; and may again, in the
course of Providence, come to lie!--The Prussian Lieutenant lays it
down accordingly, and hurries out, with a grin on his face.
There was much small laughter over this transaction; Majesty
himself laughing well at it. Higher perfection of passivity no
Burgermeister could show.

The march, as readers understand, is towards Glogau; a strongish
Garrison Town, now some 40 miles ahead; the key of Northern
Schlesien. Grunberg (where my readers once slept for the night, in
the late King's time, though they have forgotten it) is the first
and only considerable Town on the hither side of Glogau. On to
Glogau, I rather perceive, the Army is in good part provisioned
before starting: after Glogau,--we must see. Bread-wagons, Baggage-
wagons, Ammunition-and-Artillery wagons, all is in order; Army
artistically portioned out. That is the form of march; with Glogau
ahead. King, as we said above, dines with his Baron von Hocke, at
the Schloss of Deutsch-Kessel, short way beyond Grunberg, this
first day: but he by no means loiters there;--cuts across, a dozen
miles westward, through a country where his vanguard on its various
lines of march ought to be arriving;--and goes to lodge, at the
Schloss of Schweinitz, with his other Baron, the Von Kestlitz of
Wednesday at Crossen. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
i. 459.] This is Friday, 16th December, his first night on
Silesian ground.


WHAT GLOGAU, AND THE GOVERNMENT AT BRESLAU, DID UPON IT.

Silesia, in the way of resistance, is not in the least prepared for
him. A month ago, there were not above 3,000 Austrian Foot and 600
Horse in the whole Province: neither the military Governor Count
Wallis, nor the Imperial Court, nor any Official Person near or
far, had the least anticipation of such a Visit. Count Wallis, who
commands in Glogau, did in person, nine or ten days ago, as the
rumors rose ever higher, run over to Crossen; saw with his eyes the
undeniable there; and has been zealously endeavoring ever since,
what he could, to take measures. Wallis is now shut in Glogau;
his second, the now Acting Governor, General Browne, a still more
reflective man, is doing likewise his utmost; but on forlorn terms,
and without the least guidance from Court. Browne has, by violent
industry, raked together, from Mahren and the neighboring
countries, certain fractions which raise his Force to 7,000 Foot:
these he throws, in small parties, into the defensible points;
or, in larger, into the Chief Garrisons. New Cavalry he cannot get;
the old 600 Horse he keeps for himself, all the marching Army he
has. [Particulars in <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
i. 465; total of Austrian Force seems to be 7,800 horse and foot.]

Fain would he get possession of Breslau, and throw in some garrison
there; but cannot. Neither he nor Wallis could compass that.
Breslau is a City divided against itself, on this matter; full of
emotions, of expectations, apprehensions for and against. There is
a Supreme Silesian Government (OBER-AMT "Head-Office," kind of
Austrian Vice-Royalty) in Breslau; and there is, on Breslau's own
score, a Town-Rath; strictly Catholic both these, Vienna the breath
of their nostrils. But then also there are forty-four Incorporated
Trades; Oppressed Protestant in Majority; to whom Vienna is not
breath, but rather the want of it. Lastly, the City calls itself
Free; and has crabbed privileges still valid; a "JUS PROESIDII" (or
right to be one's own garrison) one of them, and the most
inconvenient just now. Breslau is a REICH-STADT; in theory,
sovereign member of the Reich, and supreme over its own affairs,
even as Austria itself:--and the truth is, old Theory and new Fact,
resolved not to quarrel, have lapsed into one another's arms in a
quite inextricable way, in Breslau as elsewhere! With a Head
Government which can get no orders from Vienna, the very Town-Rath
has little alacrity, inclines rather to passivity like Grunberg;
and a silent population threatens to become vocal if you press
upon it.

Breslau, that is to say the OBER-AMT there, has sent courier on
courier to Vienna for weeks past: not even an answer;--what can
Vienna answer, with Kur-Baiern and others threatening war on it,
and only l0,000 pounds in its National Purse? Answer at last is,
"Don't bother! Danger is not so near. Why spend money on couriers,
and get into such a taking?" General Wallis came to Breslau, after
what he had seen at Crossen; and urged strongly, in the name of
self-preservation, first law of Nature, to get an Austrian real
Garrison introduced; wished much (horrible to think of!) "the
suburbs should be burnt, and better ramparts raised:" but could not
succeed in any of these points, nor even mention some of them in a
public manner. "You shall have a Protestant for commandant,"
suggested Wallis; "there is Count von Roth, Silesian-Lutheran, an
excellent Soldier!"--"Thanks," answered they, "we can defend
ourselves; we had rather not have any!" And the Breslau Burghers
have, accordingly, set to drill themselves; are bringing out old
cannon in quantity; repairing breaches; very strict in sentry-work:
"Perfectly able to defend our City,--so far as we see good!"--
Tuesday last, December 13th (the very day Friedrich left Berlin),
as this matter of the Garrison, long urged by the Ober-Amt, had at
last been got agreed to by the Town-Rath, "on proviso of consulting
the Incorporated Trades", or at least consulting their Guild-
Masters, who are usually a silent folk,--the Guild-Masters suddenly
became in part vocal; and their forty-four Guilds unusually
so:--and there was tumult in Breslau, in the Salz-Ring (big central
Square or market-place, which they call RING) such as had not been;
idle population, and guild-brethren of suspicious humor, gathering
in multitudes into and round the fine old Town-hall there;
questioning, answering, in louder and louder key; at last bellowing
quite in alt; and on the edge of flaming into one knew not what:
[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 469.]--till the matter
of Austrian Garrison (much more, of burning the suburbs!) had to be
dropt; settled in what way we see.

Head Government (OBER-AMT) has, through its Northern official
people, sent Protest, strict order to the Silesian Population to
look sour on the Prussians:--and we saw, in consequence, the two
Silesian Gentlemen did dine with Friedrich, and he has returned
their visits; and the Mayor of Grunberg would not touch his keys.
Head Government is now redacting a "Patent," or still more solemn
Protest of its own; which likewise it will affix in the Salz-Ring
here, and present to King Friedrich: and this--except "despatching
by boat down the river a great deal of meal to Glogau", which was
an important quiet thing, of Wallis's enforcing--is pretty much all
it can do. No Austrian Garrison can be got in ("Perfectly able to
defend ourselves!")--let Government and Wallis or Browne contrive
as they may. And as to burning the suburbs, better not whisper of
that again. Breslau feels, or would fain feel itself "perfectly
able;"--has at any rate no wish to be bombarded; and contains
privately a great deal of Protestant humor. Of all which,
Friedrich, it is not doubted, has notice more or less distinct;
and quickens his march the more.

General Browne is at present in the Southern parts; an able active
man and soldier; but, with such a force what can he attempt to do?
There are three strong places in the Country, Glogau, then Brieg,
both on the Oder river; lastly Neisse, on the Neisse river, a
branch of the Oder (one of the FOUR Neisse rivers there are in
Germany, mostly in Silesia,--not handy to the accurate reader of
German Books). Browne is in Neisse; and will start into a strange
stare when the flying post reaches him: Prussians actually on
march! Debate with them, if debate there is to be, Browne himself
must contrive to do; from Breslau, from Vienna, no Government
Supreme or Subordinate can yield his 8,000 and him the least help.

Glogau, as we saw, means to defend itself; at least, General Wallis
the Commandant, does, in spite of the Glogau public; and is, with
his whole might, digging, palisading, getting in meal, salt meat
and other provender;--likewise burning suburbs, uncontrollable he,
in the small place; and clearing down the outside edifices and
shelters, at a diligent rate. Yesterday, 15th December, he burnt
down the "three Oder-Mills, which lie outside the big suburban
Tavern, also the ZIEGEL-SCHEUNE (Tile-Manufactory)," and other
valuable buildings, careless of public lamentation,--fire catching
the Town itself, and needing to be quenched again.
[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 473-475.] Nay, he was
clear for burning down, or blowing up, the Protestant Church,
indispensable sacred edifice which stands outside the walls:
"Prussians will make a block-house of it!" said Wallis. A chief
Protestant, Baron von Something, begged passionately for only
twelve hours of respite,--to lay the case before his Prussian
Majesty. Respite conceded, he and another chief Protestant had
posted off accordingly; and did the next morning (Friday, 16th),
short way from Crossen, meet his Majesty's carriage; who graciously
pulled up for a few instants, and listened to their story. "MEINE
HERREN, you are the first that ask a favor of me on Silesian
ground; it shall be done you!" said the King; and straightway
despatched, in polite style, his written request to Wallis,
engaging to make no military use whatever of said Church, "but to
attack by the other side, if attack were necessary." Thus his
Majesty saved the Church of Glogau; which of course was a popular
act. Getting to see this Church himself a few days hence, he said,
"Why, it must come down at any rate, and be rebuilt; so ugly
a thing!"

Wallis is making strenuous preparation; forces the inhabitants,
even the upper kinds of them, to labor day and night by relays, in
his rampartings, palisadings; is for burning all the adjacent
Villages,--and would have done it, had not the peasants themselves
turned out in a dangerous state of mind. He has got together about
1,000 men. His powder, they say, is fifty years old; but he has
eatable provender from Breslau, and means to hold out to the
utmost. Readers must admit that the Austrian military, Graf von
Wallis to begin with,-- still more, General Browne, who is a
younger man and has now the head charge,--behave well in their
present forsaken condition. Wallis (Graf FRANZ WENZEL this one, not
to be confounded with an older Wallis heard of in the late Turk
War) is of Scotch descent,--as all these Wallises are; "came to
Austria long generations ago; REICHSGRAFS since 1612:"--Browne is
of Irish; age now thirty-five, ten years younger than Wallis.
Read this Note on the distinguished Browne:--

"A German-Irish Gentleman, this General (ultimately Fieldmarshal)
Graf von Browne; one of those sad exiled Irish Jacobites, or sons
of Jacobites, who are fighting in foreign armies; able and notable
men several of them, and this Browne considerably the most so.
We shall meet him repeatedly within the next eighteen years.
Maximilian-Ulysses Graf von Browne: I said he was born German;
Basel his birthplace (23d October, 1705), Father also a soldier:
he must not be confounded with a contemporary Cousin of his, who is
also 'Fieldmarshal Browne,' but serves in Russia, Governor of Riga
for a long time in the coming years. This Austrian General,
Fieldmarshal Browne, will by and by concern us somewhat; and the
reader may take note of him.

"Who the Irish Brothers Browne, the Fathers of these Marshals
Browne, were? I have looked in what Irish Peerages and printed
Records there were, but without the least result. One big dropsical
Book, of languid quality, called <italic> King James's Irish
Army-List, <end italic> has multitudes of Brownes and others, in an
indistinct form; but the one Browne wanted, the one Lacy, almost
the one Lally, like the part of HAMLET, are omitted. There are so
many Irish in the like case with these Brownes. A Lacy we once
slightly saw or heard of; busy in the Polish-Election time,--
besieging Dantzig (investing Dantzig, that Munnich might besiege
it);--that Lacy, 'Governor of Riga,' whom the RUSSIAN Browne will
succeed, is also Irish: a conspicuous Russian man; and will have a
Son Lacy, conspicuous among the Austrians. Maguires, Ogilvies (of
the Irish stock), Lieutenants 'Fitzgeral;' very many Irish;
and there is not the least distinct account to be had of any of
them." [For Browne see "Anonymous of Hamburg" (so I have had to
label a J.F.S. <italic> Geschichte des &c. <end italic>--in fact,
History of Seven-Years War, in successive volumes, done chiefly by
the scissors; Leipzig and Frankfurt, 1759, et seqq.), i. 123-131
n.: elaborate Note of eight pages there; intimating withal that he,
J.F.S., wrote the <italic> "Life of Browne," <end italic> a Book I
had in vain sought for; and can now guess to consist of those same
elaborate eight pages, PLUS water and lathering to the due amount.
Anonymous "of Hamburg" I call my J.F.S.,--having fished him out of
the dust-abysses in that City: a very poor take; yet worth citing
sometimes, being authentic, as even the darkest Germans generally
are.--For a glimpse of LACY (the Elder Lacy) see Busching, <italic>
Beitrage, <end italic> vi. 162.--For WALLIS (tombstone Note on
Wallis) see (among others who are copious in that kind of article,
and keep large sacks of it, in admired disorder) Anonymous
Seyfarth, <italic> Geschichte Friedrichs des Andern <end italic>
(Leipzig, 1784-1788), i. 112 n.; and Anonymous, <italic> Leben der
&c. Marie Theresie <end italic> (Leipzig, 1781), 27 n.: laboriously
authentic Books both; essentialy DICTIONARIES,--stuffed as into a
row of blind SACKS.]

Let us attend his Majesty on the next few marches towards Glogau,
to see the manner of the thing a little; after which it will
behoove us to be much more summary, and stick by the
main incidents.


MARCH TO WEICHAU (SATURDAY, 17th, AND STAY SUNDAY THERE);
TO MILKAU (MONDAY, 19th); GET TO HERRENDORF, WITHIN SIGHT OF
GLOGAU, DECEMBER 22d.

Friedrich's march proceeds with speed and regularity. Strict
discipline is maintained; all things paid for, damage carefully
avoided: "We come, not as invasive enemies of you or of the Queen
of Hungary, but as protective friends of Silesia and of her
Majesty's rights there;--her Majesty once allowing us (as it is
presumable she will) our own rights in this Province, no man shall
meddle with hers, while we continue here." To that effect runs the
little "Patent," or initiatory Proclamation, extensively handed
out, and posted in public places, as was said above; and the
practice is conformable. To all men, coming with Protests or
otherwise, we perceive, the young King is politeness itself;
giving clear answer, and promise which will be kept, on the above
principle. Nothing angers him except that gentlemen should
disbelieve, and run away. That a mansion be found deserted by its
owners, is the one evil omen for such mansion. Thus, at the Schloss
of Weichau (which is still discoverable on the Map, across the
"Black Ochel" and the "White," muddy streams which saunter eastward
towards, the Oder there, nothing yet running westward for the
Bober, our other limitary river), next night after Schweinitz,
second night in Silesia, there was no Owner to be met with; and the
look of his Majesty grew FINSTER (dark); remembering what had
passed yesternight, in like case, at that other Schloss from which
the owner with his best portable furniture had vanished. At which
Schloss, as above noticed, some disorders were committed by angry
parties of the march;--doors burst open (doors standing impudently
dumb to the rational proposals made them!), inferior remainders of
furniture smashed into firewood, and the like,--no doubt to his
Majesty's vexation. Here at Weichau stricter measures were taken:
and yet difficulties, risks were not wanting; and the AMTMANN
(Steward of the place) got pulled about, and once even a stroke or
two. Happily the young Herr of Weichau appeared in person on the
morrow, hearing his Majesty was still there: "Papa is old; lives at
another Schloss; could not wait upon your Majesty; nor, till now,
could I have that honor."--"Well; lucky that you have come:
stay dinner!" Which the young Count did, and drove home in the
evening to reassure Papa; his Majesty continuing there another
night, and the risk over. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
i. 459.]

This day, Sunday, 18th, the Army rests; their first Sunday in
Silesia, while the young Count pays his devoir: and here in
Weichau, as elsewhere, it is in the Church, Catholic nearly always,
that the Heretic Army does its devotions, safe from weather at
least: such the Royal Order, they say; which is taken note of, by
the Heterodox and by the Orthodox. And ever henceforth, this is the
example followed; and in all places where there is no Protestant
Church and the Catholics have one, the Prussian Army-Chaplain
assembles his buff-belted audience in the latter: "No offence,
Reverend Fathers, but there are hours for us, and hours for you;
and such is the King's Order." There is regular divine-service in
this Prussian Army; and even a good deal of inarticulate religion,
as one may see on examining.

Country Gentlemen, Town Mayors and other civic Authorities, soon
learn that on these terms they are safe with his Majesty; march
after march he has interviews with such, to regulate the supplies,
the necessities and accidents of the quartering of his Troops.
Clear, frank, open to reasonable representation, correct to his
promise; in fact, industriously conciliatory and pacificatory:
such is Friedrich to all Silesian men. Provincial Authorities, who
can get no instructions from Head-quarters; Vienna saying nothing,
Breslau nothing, and Deputy-Governor Browne being far south in
Neisse,--are naturally in difficulties: How shall they act?
Best not to act at all, if one can help it; and follow the Mayor of
Grunberg's unsurpassable pattern!--

"These Silesians," says an Excerpt I have made, "are still in
majority Protestant; especially in this Northern portion of the
Province; they have had to suffer much on that and other scores;
and are secretly or openly in favor of the Prussians.
Official persons, all of the Catholic creed, have leant heavy, not
always conscious of doing it, against Protestant rights. The
Jesuits, consciously enough, have been and are busy with them;
intent to recall a Heretic Population by all methods, fair and
unfair. We heard of Charles XII.'s interference, three-and-thirty
years ago; and how the Kaiser, hard bested at that time, had to
profess repentance and engage for complete amendment. Amendment
did, for the moment, accordingly take place. Treaty of Westphalia
in all its stipulations, with precautionary improvements, was
re-enacted as Treaty of Altranstadt; with faithful intention of
keeping it too, on Kaiser Joseph's part, who was not a
superstitious man: 'Holy Father, I was too glad he did not demand
my own conversion to the Protestant Heresy, bested as I am,--with
Louis Quatorze and Company upon the neck of me!' Some improvement
of performance, very marked at first, did ensue upon this
Altranstadt Treaty. But the sternly accurate Karl of Sweden soon
disappeared from the scene; Kaiser Joseph of Austria soon
disappeared; and his Brother, Karl VI., was a much more
orthodox person.

"The Austrian Government, and Kaiser Karl's in particular, is not
to be called an intentionally unjust one; the contrary, I rather
find; but it is, beyond others, ponderous; based broad on such
multiplex formalities, old habitudes; and GRAVITATION has a great
power over it. In brief, Official human nature, with the best of
Kaisers atop, flagitated continually by Jesuit Confessors, does
throw its weight on a certain side: the sad fact is, in a few years
the brightness of that Altranstadt improvement began to wax dim;
and now, under long Jesuit manipulation, Silesian things are nearly
at their old pass; and the patience of men is heavily laden. To see
your Chapel made a Soldiers' Barrack, your Protestant School become
a Jesuit one,--Men did not then think of revolting under injuries;
but the poor Silesian weaver, trudging twenty miles for his Sunday
sermon; and perceiving that, unless their Mother could teach the
art of reading, his boys, except under soul's peril, would now
never learn it: such a Silesian could not want for reflections.
Voiceless, hopeless, but heavy; and dwelling secretly, as under
nightmare, in a million hearts. Austrian Officiality, wilfully
unjust, or not wilfully so, is admitted to be in a most heavy-
footed condition; can administer nothing well. Good Government in
any kind is not known here: Possibly the Prussian will be better;
who can say?

"The secret joy of these populations, as Friedrich advances among
them, becomes more and more a manifest one. Catholic Officials do
not venture on any definite hope, or definite balance of hope and
fear, but adopt the Mayor of Grunberg's course, and study to be
passive and silent. The Jesuit-Priest kind are clear in their minds
for Austria; but think, Perhaps Prussia itself will not prove very
tyrannous? At all events, be silent; it is unsafe to stir.
We notice generally, it is only in the Southern or Mountain regions
of Silesia, where the Catholics are in majority, that the
population is not ardently on the Prussian side. Passive, if they
are on the other side; accurately passive at lowest, this it is
prescribed all prudent men to be."

On the 18th, while divine service went on at Weichau, there was at
Breslau another phenomenon observable. Provincial Government in
Breslau had, at length, after intense study, and across such
difficulties as we have no idea of, got its "Patent," or carefully
worded Protestation against Prussia, brought to paper; and does,
this day, with considerable solemnity, affix it to the Rathhaus
door there, for the perusal of mankind; despatching a Copy for his
Prussian Majesty withal, by two Messengers of dignity. It has
needed courage screwed to the sticking-place to venture on such a
step, without instruction from Head-quarters; and the utmost powers
of the Official mind have been taxed to couch this Document in
language politely ambiguous, and yet strong enough;--too strong,
some of us now think it. In any case, here it now is; Provincial
Government's bolt, so to speak, is shot. The affixing took place
under dark weather-symptoms; actual outburst of thunder and rain at
the moment, not to speak of the other surer omens. So that, to the
common mind at Breslau, it did not seem there would much fruit come
of this difficult performance. Breslau is secretly a much-agitated
City; and Prussian Hussar Parties, shooting forth to great
distances ahead, were, this day for the first time, observed within
sight of it.

And on the same Sunday we remark farther, what is still more
important: Herr von Gotter, Friedrich's special Envoy to Vienna,
has his first interview with the Queen of Hungary, or with Grand-
Duke Franz the Queen's Husband and Co-Regent; and presents there,
from Friedrich's own hand, written we remember when, brief distinct
Note of his Prussian Majesty's actual Proposals and real meaning in
regard to this Silesian Affair. Proposals anxiously conciliatory in
tone, but the heavy purport of which is known to us: Gotter had
been despatched, time enough, with these Proposals (written above a
month ago); but was instructed not to arrive with them, till after
the actual entrance into Silesia. And now the response to them
is--? As good as nothing; perhaps worse. Let that suffice us at
present. Readers, on march for Glogau, would grudge to pause over
State-papers, though we shall have to read this of Friedrich's at
some freer moment.

Monday, 19th, before daybreak, the Army is astir again,
simultaneously wending forward; spread over wide areas, like a vast
cloud (potential thunder in it) steadily advancing on the winds.
Length of the Army, artistically portioned out, may be ten or
fifteen miles, breadth already more, and growing more; Schwerin
always on the right or western wing, close by the Bober River as
yet, through Naumburg and the Towns on that side,--Liegnitz and
other important Towns lying ahead for Schwerin, still farther apart
from the main Body, were Glogau once settled.

So that the march is in two Columns; Schwerin, with the westernmost
small column, intending towards Liegnitz, and thence ever farther
southward, with his right leaning on the high lands which rise more
and more into mountains as you advance. Friedrich himself commands
the other column, has his left upon the Oder, in a country mounting
continually towards the South, but with less irregularity of level,
and generally flat as yet. From beginning to end, the entire field
of march lies between the Oder and its tributary the Bober;
climbing slowly towards the sources of both. Which two rivers, as
the reader may observe, form here a rectangular or trapezoidal
space, ever widening as we go southward. Both rivers, coming from
the Giant Mountains, hasten directly north; but Oder, bulging out
easterly in his sandy course, is obliged to turn fairly westward
again; and at Glogau, and a good space farther, flows in that
direction;--till once Bober strikes in, almost at right angles,
carrying Oder with HIM, though he is but a branch, straight
northward again. Northward, but ever slower, to the swollen Pommern
regions, and sluggish exit into the Baltic there.

One of the worst features is the state of the weather. On Sunday,
at Breslau, we noticed thunder bursting out on an important
occasion; "ominous," some men thought;--omen, for one thing, that
the weather was breaking. At Weichau, that same day, rain began,
--the young Herr of Weichau, driving home to Papa from dinner with
Majesty, would get his share of it;--and on Monday, 19th, there was
such a pour of rain as kept most wayfarers, though it could not the
Prussian Army, within doors. Rain in plunges, fallen and falling,
through that blessed day; making roads into mere rivers of mud.
The Prussian hosts marched on, all the same. Head-quarters, with
the van of the wet Army, that night, were at Milkau;--from which
place we have a Note of Friedrich's for Friend Jordan, perhaps
producible by and by. His Majesty lodged in some opulent Jesuit
Establishment there. And indeed he continued there, not idle, under
shelter, for a couple of days. The Jesuits, by their two head men,
had welcomed him with their choicest smiles; to whom the King was
very gracious, asking the two to dinner as usual, and styling them
"Your Reverence." Willing to ingratiate himself with persons of
interest in this Country; and likes talk, even with Jesuits
of discernment.

On the morrow (20th), came to him, here at Milkau,-- probably from
some near stage, for the rain was pouriug worse than ever,--that
Breslau "Patent," or strongish Protestation, by its two Messengers
of dignity. The King looked over it "without visible anger" or
change of countenance; "handed it," we expressly see, "to a Page to
reposit" in the proper waste-basket;--spoke politely to the two
gentlemen; asked each or one of them, "Are you of the Ober-Amt at
Breslau, then?"--using the style of ER (He).--"No, your Majesty;
we are only of the Land-Stande" (Provincial Parliament, such as it
is). "Upon which [do you mark!] his Majesty became still more
polite; asked them to dinner, and used the style of SIE." For their
PATENT, now lying safe in its waste-basket, he gave them signed
receipt; no other answer.

Rain still heavier, rain as of Noah, continued through this
Tuesday, and for days afterwards: but the Prussian hosts, hastening
towards Glogau, marched still on. This Tuesday's march, for the
rearward of the Army, 10,000 foot and 2,000 horse; march of ten
hours long, from Weichau to the hamlet Milkau (where his Majesty
sits busy and affable),--is thought to be the wettest on record.
Waters all out, bridges down, the Country one wild lake of eddying
mud. Up to the knee for many miles together; up to the middle for
long spaces; sometimes even up to the chin or deeper, where your
bridge was washed away. The Prussians marched through it, as if
they had been slate or iron. Rank and file, nobody quitted his
rank, nobody looked sour in the face; they took the pouring of the
skies, and the red seas of terrestrial liquid, as matters that must
be; cheered one another with jocosities, with choral snatches
(tobacco, I consider, would not burn); and swashed unweariedly
forward. Ten hours some of them were out, their march being twenty
or twenty-five miles; ten to fifteen was the average distance come.
Nor, singular to say, did any loss occur; except of ALMOST one poor
Army-Chaplain, and altogether of one poor Soldier's Wife;--sank
dangerously both of them, beyond redemption she, taking the wrong
side of some bridge-parapet. Poor Soldier's Wife, she is not named
to me at all; and has no history save this, and that "she was of
the regiment Bredow." But I perceive she washed herself away in a
World-Transaction; and there was one rough Bredower, who probably
sat sad that night on getting to quarters. His Majesty surveyed the
damp battalions on the morrow (21st), not without sympathy, not
without satisfaction; allowed them a rest-day here at Milkau, to
get dry and bright again; and gave them "fifteen thalers a
company," which is about ninepence apiece, with some words of
praise. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i.482.]

Next day, Thursday, 22d, his Majesty and they marched on to
Herrendorf; which is only five miles from Glogau, and near enough
for Head-quarters, in the now humor of the place. Wallis has his
messenger at Herrendorf, "Sorry to warn your Majesty, That if there
be the least hostility committed, I shall have to resist it to the
utmost." Head-quarters continue six days at Herrendorf, Army (main
body, or left Column, of the Army) cantoned all round, till we
consider what to do.

As to the right Column, or Schwerin's Division, that, after a
rest-day or two, gathers itself into more complete separation here,
tucking in its eastern skirts; and gets on march again, by its own
route. Steadily southward;--and from Liegnitz, and the upland
Countries, there will be news of Schwerin and it before long.
Rain ending, there ensued a ringing frost;--not favorable for
Siege-operations on Glogau:--and Silesia became all of flinty
glass, with white peaks to the Southwest, whither Schwerin is gone.



Chapter III.

PROBLEM OF GLOGAU.

Friedrich was over from Herrendorf with the first daylight,
"reconnoitring Glogau, and rode up to the very glacis;" scanning it
on all sides. [Ib. i. 484.] Since Wallis is so resolute, here is an
intricate little problem for Friedrich, with plenty of corollaries
and conditions hanging to it. Shall we besiege Glogau, then? We
have no siege-cannon here. Time presses, Breslau and all things in
such crisis; and it will take time. By what methods COULD Glogau be
besieged?--Readers can consider what a blind many-threaded coil of
things, heaping itself here in wide welters round Glogau, and
straggling to the world's end, Friedrich has on hand: probably
those six days, of Head-quarters at Herrendorf, were the busiest he
had yet had.

One thing is evident, there ought to be siege-cannon got
straightway; and, still more immediate, the right posts and
battering-places should be ready against its coming.--"Let the
Young Dessauer with that Rearguard, or Reserve of 10,000, which is
now at Crossen, come up and assist here," orders Friedrich; "and
let him be swift, for the hours are pregnant!" On farther
reflection, perhaps on new rumors from Breslau, Friedrich perceives
that there can be no besieging of Glogau at this point of time;
that the Reserve, Half of the Reserve, must be left to "mask" it;
to hold it in strict blockade, with starvation daily advancing as
an alIy to us, and with capture by bombarding possible when we
like. That is the ultimate decision;--arrived at through a welter
of dubieties, counterpoisings and perilous considerations, which we
now take no account of. A most busy week; Friedrich incessantly in
motion, now here now there; and a great deal of heavy work got well
and rapidly done. The details of which, in these exuberant
Manuscripts, would but weary the reader. Choosing of the proper
posts and battering-places (post "on the other side of the River,"
"on this side of it," "on the Island in the middle of it"), and
obstinate intrenching and preparing of the same in spite of frost;
"wooden bridge built" farther up; with "regulation of the river-
boats, the Polish Ferry," and much else: all this we omit; and will
glance only at one pregnant point, by way of sample:--

... "Most indispensable of all, the King has to provide
Subsistences:--and enters now upon the new plan, which will have to
be followed henceforth. The Provincial Chief-men (LANDES-AELTESTEN,
 Land's-ELDESTS, their title) are summoned, from nine or ten
Circles which are likely to be interested: they appear punctually,
and in numbers,--lest contumacy worsen the inevitable. King dines
them, to start with; as many as 'ninety-five covers,'--day not
given, but probably one of the first in Herrendorf: not Christmas
itself, one hopes!

"Dinner done, the ninety-five Land's-Eldest are instructed by
proper parties, What the Infantry's ration is, in meat, in bread,
exact to the ounce; what the Cavalry's is, and that of the
Cavalry's Horse. Tabular statement, succinct, correct, clear to the
simplest capacity, shows what quotities of men on foot, and of men
on horseback, or men with draught-cattle, will march through their
respective Circles; Lands-Eldests conclude what amount of meal and
butcher's-meat it will be indispensable to have in readiness;--what
Lands-Eldest can deny the fact? These Papers still exist, at least
the long-winded Summary of them does: and I own the reading of it
far less insupportable than that of the mountains of Proclamatory,
Manifesto and Diplomatic matter. Nay it leaves a certain wholesome
impression on the mind, as of business thoroughly well done; and a
matter, capable, if left in the chaotic state, of running to all
manner of depths and heights, compendiously forced to become cosmic
in this manner.

"These Lands-Eldest undertake, in a mildly resigned or even hopeful
humor. They will manage as required, in their own Circles; will
communicate with the Circles farther on; and everywhere the due
proviants, prestations, furtherances, shall be got together by fair
apportionment on the Silesian Community, and be punctually ready
a,s the Army advances. Book-keeping there is to be, legible record
of everything; on all hands 'quittance' for everything furnished;
and a time is coming, when such quittance, presented by any
Silesian man, will be counted money paid by him, and remitted at
the next tax-day, or otherwise made good. Which promise also was
accurately kept, the hoped-for time having come. It must be owned
the Prussian Army understands business; and, with brevity, reduces
to a minimum its own trouble, and that of other people, non-
fighters, who have to do with it. Non-fighters, I say; to fighters
we hope it will give a respectable maximum of trouble when applied
to!" [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 492-499.]

The Gotter Negotiation at Vienna, which we saw begin there that wet
Sunday, is now fast ending, as good as ended; without result except
of a negative kind. Gotter's Proposals,--would the reader wish to
hear these Proposals, which were so intensely interesting at one
time? They are fivefold; given with great brevity by Friedrich, by
us with still greater:--
1. "Will fling myself heartily into the Austrian scale, and
endeavor for the interest of Austria in this Pragmatic matter, with
my whole strength against every comer.
2. "Will make treaty with Vienna, with Russia and the Sea-Powers,
to that effect.
3. "Will help by vote, and with whole amount of interest will
endeavor, to have Grand-Duke Franz, the Queen's Husband, chosen
Kaiser; and to maintain such choice against all and sundry.
Feel myself strong enough to accomplish this result; and may,
without exaggeration, venture to say it shall be done.
4. "To help the Court of Vienna in getting its affairs into good
order and fencible condition,--will present to it, on the shortest
notice, Two Million Gulden (200,000 pounds) ready money."--
Infinitely welcome this Fourth Proposition; and indeed all the
other Three are welcome: but they are saddled with a final
condition, which pulls down all again. This, which is studiously
worded, politely evasive in phrase, and would fain keep old
controversies asleep, though in substance it is so fatally
distinct,--we give in the King's own words:
5. "For such essential services as those to which I bind myself by
the above very onerous conditions, I naturally require a
proportionate recompense; some suitable assurance, as indemnity for
all the dangers I risk, and for the part (ROLE) I am ready to play:
in short, I require hereby the entire and complete cession of all
Silesia, as reward for my labors and dangers which I take upon
myself in this course now to be entered upon for the preservation
and renown of the House of Austria;"--Silesia all and whole; and we
say nothing of our "rights" to it; politely evasive to her
Hungarian Majesty, though in substance we are so fatally distinct.
[Preuss, <italic> Thronbesteigung, <end italic> p. 451;
"from Olenschlager, <italic> Geschichte des Interegni <end italic>
[Frankfurt, 1746], i. 134."]

These were Friedrich's Proposals; written down with his own hand at
Reinsberg, five or six weeks ago (November 17th is the date of it);
in what mood, and how wrought upon by Schwerin and Podewils, we saw
above. Gotter has fulfilled his instructions in regard to this
important little Document; and now the effect of it is--?
Gotter can report no good effect whatever. "Be cautious," Friedrich
instructs him farther; "modify that Fifth Proposal; I will take
less than the whole, 'if attention is paid to my just claims on
Schlesien.'" To that effect writes Friedrich once or twice. But it
is to no purpose; nor can Gotter, with all his industry, report
other than worse and worse. Nay, he reports before long, not
refusal only, but refusal with mockery: "How strange that his
Prussian Majesty, whose official post in Germany, as Kur-
Brandenburg and Kaiser's Chamberlain, has been to present ewer and
towel to the House of Austria, should now set up for prescribing
rules to it!" A piece of wit, which could not but provoke
Friedrich; and warn him that negotiation on this matter might as
well terminate. Such had been his own thought, from the first; but
in compliance with Schwerin and Podewils he was willing to try.

Better for Maria Theresa, and for all the world how much better,
could she have accepted this Fifth Proposition! But how could she,
--the high Imperial Lady, keystone of Europe, though by accident
with only a few pounds of ready money at present? Twenty years of
bitter fighting, and agony to herself and all the world, were
necessary first; a new Fact of Nature having turned up, a new
European Kingdom with real King to it; NOT recognizable as such,
by the young Queen of Hungary or by any other person, till it do
its proofs.


WHAT BERLIN IS SAYING; WHAT FRIEDRICH IS THINKING.

What Friedrich's own humor is, what Friedrich's own inner man is
saying to him, while all the world so babbles about his Silesian
Adventure? Of this too there are, though in diluted state, some
glimmerings to be had,--chiefly in the Correspondence with Jordan.

Ingenious Jordan, Inspector of the Poor at Berlin,--his thousand
old women at their wheels humming pleasantly in the background of
our imaginations, though he says nothing of that,--writes twice a
week to his Majesty: pleasant gossipy Letters, with an easy
respectfulness not going into sycophancy anywhere; which keep the
campaigning King well abreast of the Berlin news and rumors:
something like the essence of an Old Newspaper; not without worth
in our present Enterprise. One specimen, if we had room!


JORDAN TO THE KING (successively from Berlin,--somewhat abridged.)

No. 1. "BERLIN, 14th DECEMBER, 1740 [day after his Majesty left].
Everybody here is on tiptoe for the Event; of which both origin and
end are a riddle to the most. I am charmed to see a part of your
Majesty's Dominions in a state of Pyrrhonism; the disease is
epidemical here at present. Those who, in the style of theologians,
consider themselves entitled to be certain, maintain That your
Majesty is expected with religious impatience by the Protestants,
and that the Catholics hope to see themselves delivered from a
multitude of imposts which cruelly tear up the beautiful bosom of
their Church. You cannot but succeed in your valiant and stoical
Enterprise, since both religion and worldly interest rank
themselves under your flag.

"Wallis," Austrian Commandant in Glogau, "they say, has punished a
Silesian Heretic of enthusiastic turn, as blasphemer, for
announcing that a new Messiah is just coming. I have a taste for
that kind of martyrdom. Critical persons consider the present step
as directly opposed to certain maxims in the ANTI-MACHIAVEL.

"The word MANIFESTO--[your Majesty's little PATENT on entering
Silesia, which no reader shall be troubled with at present]--is the
burden of every conversation. there is a short Piece of the kind to
come out to-day, by way of preface to a large complete exposition,
which a certain Jurisconsult is now busy with. People crowd to the
Bookshops for it, as if looking out for a celestial phenomenon that
had been predicted.--This is the beginning of my Gazette; can only
come out twice a week, owing to the arrangement of the Posts.
Friday, the day your Majesty crosses into Silesia, I shall spend in
prayer and devotional exercises: Astronomers pretend that Mars will
that day enter"--no matter what.

NOTE, The above Manifesto rumor is correct; Jurisconsult is
ponderous Herr Ludwig, Kanzler (Chancellor) of Halle University,
monster of law-learning,--who has money also, and had to help once
with a House in Berlin for one Nussler, a son-in-law of his,
transiently known to us;--ponderous Ludwig, matchless or difficult
to match in learning of this kind, will write ample enough
Deductions (which lie in print still, to the extent of tons'
weight), and explain the ERBVERBRUDERUNG and violence done upon it,
so that he who runs may read. Postpone him to a calmer time.

No. 2. "BERLIN, SATURDAY, 17th DECEMBER. Manifesto has appeared,"
--can be seen, under thick strata of cobwebs, in many Books;
[In <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 448, 453 (what
Jordan now alludes to); IB. 559-592 ("Deduction" itself, Ludwig in
all his strength, some three weeks hence; in OLENSCHLAGER
(doubtless); in &c. &c.] is not worth reading now: Incontestable
rights which our House has for ages had on Schlesien, and which
doubtless the Hungarian Majesty will recognize; not the slightest
injury intended, far indeed from that; and so on!--"people are
surprised at its brevity; and, studying it as theologians do a
passage of Scripture, can make almost nothing of it. Clear as
crystal, says one; dexterously obscure by design, says another.

"Rumor that the Grand-Duke of Lorraine," Maria Theresa's Husband,
"was at Reinsberg incognito lately," Grand-Duke a concerting party,
think people looking into the thing with strong spectacles on their
nose! "M. de Beauvau [French Ambassador Extraordinary, to whom the
aces were promised if they came] said one thing that surprised me:
'What put the King on taking this step, I do not know; but perhaps
it is not such a bad one.' Surprising news that the Elector of
Saxony, King of Poland, is fallen into inconsolable remorse for
changing his religion [to Papistry, on Papa's hest, many long years
ago] and that it is not to the Pope, but to the King of Prussia,
that he opens his heart to steady his staggering orthodoxy."
Very astonishing to Jordan. "One thing is certain, all Paris rings
with your Majesty's change of religion" (over to Catholicism, say
those astonishing people, first conjurers of the universe)!

No. 3. "BERLIN, 20th DECEMBER. M. de Beauvau," French Ambassador,
"is gone. Ended, yesterday, his survey of the Cabinet of Medals;
charmed with the same: charmed too, as the public is, with the rich
present he has got from said Cabinet [coronation medal or medals in
gold, I could guess]: people say the King of France's Medal given
to our M. de Camas is nothing to it.

"Rumor of alliance between your Majesty and France with Sweden,"
--premature rumor. Item, "Queen of Hungary dead in child-birth;"
--ditto with still more emphasis! "The day before yesterday, in all
churches, was prayer to Heaven for success to your Majesty's arms;
interest of the Protestant religion being the one cause of the War,
or the only one assigned by the reverend gentlemen. At sound of
these words, the zeal of the people kindles: 'Bless God for raising
such a Defender! Who dared suspect our King's indifference
to Protestantism?'"

A right clever thing this last (O LE BEAU COUP D'ETAT)! exclaims
Jordan,--though it is not clever or the contrary, not being
dramatically prearranged, as Jordan exults to think. Jordan, though
there are dregs of old devotion lying asleep in him, which will
start into new activity when stirred again, is for the present a
very unbelieving little gentleman, I can perceive.--This is the
substance of public rumor at Berlin for one week.
Friedrich answers:--

TO M. JORDAN, AT BERLIN.

"QUARTER AT MILKAU, TOWARDS GLOGAU, 19th DECEMBER, 1740
[comfortable Jesuit-Establishment at Milkau, Friedrich just got in,
out of the rain].--Seigneur Jordan, thy Letter has given me a deal
of pleasure in regard to all these talkings thou reportest.
To-morrow [not to-morrow, nor next day; wet troops need a rest] I
arrive at our last station this side Glogau, which place I hope to
get in a few days. All favors my designs: and I hope to return to
Berlin, after executing them gloriously and in a way to be content
with. Let the ignorant and the envious talk; it is not they that
shall ever serve as loadstar to my designs; not they, but Glory
[LA GLOIRE; Fame, depending not on them]: with the love of that I
am penetrated more than ever; my troops have their hearts big with
it, and I answer to thee for success. Adieu, dear Jordan. Write me
all the ill that the public says of thy Friend, and be persuaded
that I love and will esteem thee always."--F.

JORDAN TO THE KING.

No. 4; "BERLIN, 24th DECEMBER. Your Majesty's Letter fills me with
joy and contentment. The Town declared your Majesty to be already
in Breslau; founding on some Letter to a Merchant here. Ever since
they think of your Majesty acting for Protestantism, they make you
step along with strides of Achilles to the ends of Silesia.--
Foreign Courts are all rating their Ambassadors here for not
finding you out.

"Wolf," his negotiations concluded at last, "has entered Halle
almost like the triumphant Entry to Jerusalem. A concourse of
pedants escorted him to his house. Lange [his old enemy, who
accused him of Atheism and other things] has called to see him, and
loaded him with civilities, to the astonishment of the old
Orthodox." There let him rest, well buttoned in gaiters, and
avoiding to mount stairs. ... "Madame de Roucoulles has sent me the
three objects adjoined, for your Majesty's behoof,"--woollen
achievements, done by the needle, good against the winter weather
for one she nursed. The good old soul. Enough now, of Jordan.
[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xvii. 75-78.]

Voltaire, who left Berlin 2d or 3d December, seems to have been
stopt by overflow of rivers about Cleve, then to have taken boat;
and is, about this very time, writing to Friedrich "from a vessel
on the Coasts of Zealand, where I am driven mad." (Intends,
privately, for Paris before long, to get his MAHOMET acted, if
possible.) To Voltaire, here is a Note coming:

KING TO H. DE VOLTAIRE (at Brussels, if once got thither).

"QUARTER OF HERRENDORF IN SILESIA,
23d December, 1740.

"MY DEAR VOLTAIRE,--I have received two of your Letters; but could
not answer sooner; I am like Charles Twelfth's Chess-King, who was
always kept on the move. For a fortnight past, we have been
continually afoot and under way, in such weather as you never saw.

"I am too tired to reply to your charming Verses; and shivering too
much with cold to taste all the charm of them: but that will come
round again. Do not ask poetry from a man who is actually doing the
work of a wagoner, and sometimes even of a wagoner stuck in the
mud. Would you like to know my way of life? We march from seven in
the morning till four in the afternoon. I dine then; afterwards I
work, I receive tiresome visits; with these comes a detail of
insipid matters of business. 'Tis wrong-headed men, punctiliously
difficult, who are to be set right; heads too hot which must be
restrained, idle fellows that must be urged, impatient men that
must be rendered docile, plunderers to restrain within the bounds
of equity, babblers to hear babbling, dumb people to keep in talk:
in fine, one has to drink with those that like it, to eat with
those that are hungry; one has to become a Jew with Jews, a Pagan
with Pagans.

"Such are my occupations;--which I would willingly make over to
another, if the Phantom they call Fame (GLOIRE) did not rise on me
too often. In truth, it is a great folly, but a folly difficult to
cast away when once you are smitten by it. [Phantom of GLOIRE
somewhat rampant in those first weeks; let us see whether it will
not lay itself again, forevermore, before long!]

"Adieu, my dear Voltaire; may Heaven preserve from misfortune the
man I should so like to sup with at night, after fighting in the
morning! The Swan of Padua [Algarotti, with his big hook-nose and
dusky solemnly greedy countenance] is going, I think, to Paris, to
profit by my absence; the Philosopher Geometer [big Maupertuis, in
red wig and yellow frizzles, vainest of human kind] is squaring
curves; poor little Jordan [with the kindly hazel eyes, and pen
that pleasantly gossips to us] is doing nothing, or probably
something near it. Adieu once more, dear Voltaire; do not forget
the absent who love you.	     FREDERIC."
[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxii. 57.]


SCHWERIN AT LIEGNITZ; FRIEDRICH HUSHES UP THE GLOGAU PROBLEM,
AND STARTS WITH HIS BEST SPEED FOR BRESLAU.

Meanwhile, on the Western road, and along the foot of the snowy
peaks over yonder, Schwerin with the small Right column is going
prosperously forwards. Two columns always, as the reader
recollects,--two parallel military currents, flowing steadily on,
shooting out estafettes, or horse-parties, on the right and left;
steadily submerging all Silesia as they flow forward. Left column
or current is in slight pause at Glogau here; but will directly be
abreast again. On Tuesday, 27th, Schwerin is within wind of
Liegnitz; on Wednesday morning, while the fires are hardly lighted,
or the smoke of Liegnitz risen among the Hills, Schwerin has done
his feat with the usual deftness: Prussian grenadiers came softly
on the sentry, softly as a dream; but with sudden levelling of
bayonets, sudden beckoning, "To your Guard-house!"--and there, turn
the key upon his poor company and him. Whereupon the whole Prussian
column marches in; tramp tramp, without music, through the streets:
in the Market-place they fold themselves into a ranked mass, and
explode into wind-harmony and rolling of drums. Liegnitz, mostly in
nightcap, looks cautiously out of window: it is a deed done, IHR
HERREN; Liegnitz ours, better late than never; and after so many
years, the King has his own again. Schwerin is sumptuously lodged
in the Jesuits, Palace: Liegnitz, essentially a Protestant Town,
has many thoughts upon this event, but as yet will be stingy of
speaking them.

Thus is Liegnitz managed. A pleasant Town, amid pleasant hills on
the rocky Katzbach; of which swift stream, and other towns and
passes on it, we shall yet hear more. Population, silently
industrious in weaving and otherwise, is now above 14,000; was then
perhaps about half that number. Patiently inarticulate, by no means
bright in speech or sentiment; a much-enduring, steady-going,
frugal, pious and very desirable people.

The situation of Breslau, all this while, is very critical.
Much bottled emotion in the place; no Austrian Garrison admissible;
Authorities dare not again propose such a thing, though Browne is
turning every stone for it,--lest the emotion burst bottle, and
take fire. I have dim account that Browne has been there, has got
300 Austrian dragoons into the Dom Insel (CATHEDRAL ISLAND; "Not in
the City, you perceive!" says General Browne: "no, separated by the
Oder, on both sides, from the rest of the City; that stately mass
of edifices, and good military post");--and had hoped to get the
suburbs burnt, after all. But the bottled emotion was too
dangerous. For, underground, there are ANTI-Brownes: one
especially; a certain busy Deblin, Shoemaker by craft, whom
Friedrich speaks of, but gives no name to; this zealous Cordwainer,
Deblin, and he is not the only individual of like humor, operates
on the guild-brothers and lower populations: [Preuss, <italic>
Thronbesteigung, <end italic> p. 469; <italic> OEuvres de Frederic,
<end italic> ii. 61. ] things seem to be looking worse and worse
for the Authorities, in spite of General Browne and his activities
and dragoons.

What the issue will be? Judge if Friedrich wished the Young
Dessauer come! Friedrich's Hussar parties (or Schwerin's,
instructed by Friedrich) go to look if the Breslau suburbs are
burnt. Far from it, if Friedrich knew;--the suburbs merely sit
quaking at such a proposal, and wish the Prussians were here.
"But there is time ahead of us," said everybody at Breslau;
"Glogau will take some sieging!" Browne, in the course of a day or
two,--guessing, I almost think, that Glogau was not to be
besieged,--ranked his 300 Austrian dragoons, and rode away;
sending the Austrian State-Papers, in half a score of wagons, ahead
of him. "Archives of Breslau!" cried the general population, at
sight of these wagons; and largely turned out, with emotion again
like to unbottle itself. "Mere Tax-Ledgers, and records of the
Government Offices; come and convince yourselves!" answered the
Authorities. And the ten wagons went on; calling at Ohlau and
Brieg, for farther lading of the like kind. Which wagons the
Prussian light-horse chased, but could not catch. On to Mahren went
these Archive-wagons; to Brunn, far over the Giant Mountains;--did
not come back for a long while, nor to their former Proprietor at
all. Tuesday, 27th, Leopold the Young Dessauer does finally arrive,
with his Reserve, at Glogau: never man more welcome; such a
fermentation going on at Breslau,--known to Friedrich, and what it
will issue in, if he delay, not known. With despatch, Leopold is
put into his charge; posts all yielded to him; orders given,--
blockade to be strictness itself, but no fighting if avoidable;
"starvation will soon do it, two months at most," hopes Friedrich,
too sanguine as it proved:--and with earliest daylight on the 28th,
Friedrich's Army, Friedrich himself in the van as usual, is on
march again; at its best speed for Breslau. Read this Note for
Jordan:--

FRIEDRICH TO M. JORDAN, AT BERLIN.

"HERRENDORF, 27th Dec. 1740.

"SIEUR JORDAN,--I march to-morrow for Breslau; and shall be there
in four days [three, it happened; there rising, as would seem, new
reason for haste]. You Berliners [of the 24th last] have a spirit
of prophecy, which goes beyond me. In fine, I go my road; and thou
wilt shortly see Silesia ranked in the list of our Provinces.
Adieu; this is all I have time to tell thee. Religion [Silesian
Protestantism, and Breslau's Cordwainer], religion and our brave
soldiers will do the rest.

"Tell Maupertuis I grant those Pensions he proposes for his
Academicians; and that I hope to find good subjects for that
dignity in the Country where I am, withal. Give him my compliments.

FREDERIC."

The march was of the swiftest,--swifter even than had been
expected;--which, as Silesia is all ringing glass, becomes more
achievable than lately. But certain regiments outdid themselves in
marching; "in three marches, near upon seventy miles,"--with their
baggage jingling in due proximity. Through Glasersdorf, thence
through Parchwitz, Neumarkt, Lissa, places that will be better
known to us;--on Saturday, last night of the Year, his Majesty
lodged at a Schloss called Pilsnitz, five miles to west of Breslau;
and van-ward regiments, a good few, quartered in the Western and
Southern suburbs of Breslau itself; suburbs decidedly glad to see
them, and escape conflagration. The Town-gates are hermetically
shut;--plenty of emotion bottled in the 100,000 hearts within.
The sentries on the walls presented arms; nay, it is affirmed, some
could not help exclaiming, "WILKOMMEN, IHR LIEBEN HERREN (Welcome,
dear Sirs)!" [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 534.]

Colonel Posadowsky (active Horse Colonel whom we have seen before,
who perhaps has been in Breslau before) left orders "at the Scultet
Garden-House," that all must be ready and the rooms warmed, his
Majesty intending to arrive here early on the morrow. Which
happened accordingly; Majesty alighting duly at said Garden-House,
near by the Schweidnitz Gate,--I fancy almost before break of day.



Chapter IV.

BRESLAU UNDER SOFT PRESSURE.

The issue of this Breslau transaction is known, or could be stated
in few words; nor is the manner of it such as would, for Breslau's
sake, deserve many. But we are looking into Friedrich, wish to know
his manners and aspects: and here, ready to our hand, a Paper turns
up, compiled by an exact person with better leisure than ours,
minutely detailing every part of the affair. This Paper, after the
question, Burn or insert? is to have the lot of appearing here,
with what abridgments are possible:--

"SUNDAY, 1st JANUARY, 1741. The King having established himself in
Herrn Scultet's Garden-House, not far from the Schweidnitz Gate,
there began a delicate and great operation. The Prussians, in a
soft cautious manner, in the gray of the morning, push out their
sentries towards the three Gates on this side of the Oder; seize
any 'Excise House,' or the like, that may be fit for a post; and
softly put 'twenty grenadiers' in it. All this before sunrise.
Breslau is rigidly shut; Breslau thought always it could stand upon
its guard, if attacked;--is now, in Official quarters, dismally
uncertain if it can; general population becoming certain that it
cannot, and waiting anxious on the development of this grand drama.

"About 7 A.M. a Prussian subaltern advancing within cry of the
Schweidnitz Gate, requests of the Town-guard there, To send him out
a Town-Officer. Town-Officer appears; is informed, 'That Colonels
Posadowsky and Borck, Commissioners or plenipotentiary Messengers
from his Prussian Majesty, desire admittance to the Chief
Magistrate of Breslau, for the purpose of signifying what his
Prussian Majesty's instructions are.' Town-Officer bows, and goes
upon his errand. Town-Officer is some considerable time before he
can return; City Authorities being, as we know, various, partly
Imperial, partly Civic; elderly; and some of them gone to church,--
for matins, or to be out of the way. However, he does at last
return; admits the two Colonels, and escorts them honorably, to the
Chief RATHS-SYNDIC (Lord-Mayor) old Herr von Gutzmar's; where the
poor old "President of the OBER AMT" (Von Schaffgotsch the name of
this latter) is likewise in attendance.

"Prussian Majesty's proposals are of the mildest sort: 'Nothing
demanded of Breslau but the plainly indispensable and indisputable,
That Prussia be in it what Austria has been. In all else, STATUS
QUO. Strict neutrality to Breslau, respect for its privileges as a
Free City of the Reich; protection to all its rights and privileges
whatsoever. Shall be guarded by its own Garrison; no Prussian
soldier to enter except with sidearms; only 30 guards for the
King's person, who will visit the City for a few days;--intends to
form a Magazine, with guard of 1,000 men, but only outside the
City: no requisitions; ready money for everything. Chief Syndic
Gutzmar and President Schaffgotsch shall consider these points.'
[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 537.] Syndic and
President answer, Surely! Cannot, however, decide till they have
assembled the Town-Rath; the two Herren Colonels will please to be
guests of Breslau, and lodge in the City till then.

"And they lodged, accordingly, in the 'GROSSE RING' (called also
SALZ-RING, big Central Square, where the Rathhaus is); and they
made and received visits,--visited especially the Chief President's
Office, the Ober-Amt, and signified there, that his Prussian
Majesty's expectation was, They would give some account of that
rather high Proclamation or 'Patent' they had published against him
the other day, amid thunder and lightning here, and what they now
thought would be expedient upon it? All in grave official terms,
but of such a purport as was not exhilarating to everybody in those
Ober-Amt localities.

"MONDAY MORNING, 2d JANUARY. The Rath is assembled; and consults,--
consults at great length. RATH-House and Syndic Gutzmar, in such
crisis, would fain have advice from AMT-House or President
Schaffgotsch; but can get none: considerable coming and going
between them: at length, about 3 in the afternoon, the Treaty is
got drawn up; is signed by the due Breslau hands, and by the two
Prussian Colonels,--which latter ride out with it, about 4 of the
clock; victorious after thirty hours. Straight towards the Scultet
Garden ride they; Town-guard presenting Arms, at the Schweidnitz
Gate; nay Town-band breaking out into music, which is never done
but to Ambassadors and high people. By thirty hours of steady soft
pressure, they have brought it thus far.

"Friedrich had waited patiently all Sunday, keeping steady guard at
the Gates; but on Monday, naturally, the thirty hours began to hang
heavy: at all events, he perceived that it would be well to
facilitate conclusions a little from without. Breslau stands on the
West, more strictly speaking, on the South side of the Oder, which
makes an elbow here, and thus bounds it, or mostly bounds it, on
two sides. The big drab-colored River spreads out into Islands, of
a confused sort, as it passes; which are partly built upon, and
constitute suburbs of the Town,--stretching over, here and there,
into straggles of farther suburb beyond the River, where a road
with its bridge happens to cross for the Eastern parts.
The principal of these Islands is the DOM INSEL,"--known to General
Browne and us,--"on which is the Cathedral, and the CLOSE with rich
Canons and their edifices; Island filled with strong high
architecture; and a superior military post.

"Friedrich has already as good as possessed himself of the three
landward Gates, which look to the south and to the west; the
riverward gates, or those on the north and the east, he perceives
that it were good now also to have; these, and even perhaps
something more? 'Gather all the river-boats, make a bridge of them
across the Oder; push across 400 men:' this is done on Monday
morning, under the King's own eye. This done, 'March up to that
riverward Gate, and also to that other, in a mild but dangerous-
looking manner; hew the beams of said Gate in two; start the big
locks; fling wide open said Gate and Gates:' this too is done;
Town-guard looking mournfully on. This done, 'March forward
swiftly, in two halves, without beat of drum,--whitherward
you know!'

"Those three hundred Austrian Dragoons, we saw them leave the Dom
Island, three days ago; there are at present only Six Men, of the
BISHOP'S Guard, walking under arms there,--at the end of the chief
bridge, on the Townward side of their Dom Island. See, Prussian
caps and muskets, ye six men under arms! The six men clutch at
their drawbridge, and hastily set about hoisting:--alas, another
Prussian corps, which has come privately by the eastern (or
Country-ward) Bridge, King himself with it, taps them on the
shoulder at this instant; mildly constrains the six into their
guard-house: the drawbridge falls; 400 Prussian grenadiers take
quiet possession of the Dom Island: King may return to the Scultet
Garden, having quickened the lazy hours in this manner. To such of
the Canons as he came upon, his Majesty was most polite; they most
submiss. The six soldiers of the drawbridge, having spoken a little
loud,--still more a too zealous beef-eater of old Schaffgotsch's
found here, who had been very loud,--were put under arrest; but
more for form's sake; and were let go, in a day or two."

Nothing could be gentler on Friedrich's part, and on that of his
two Colonels, than this delicate operation throughout:-- and at
4 P.M., after thirty hours of waiting, it is done, and nobody's
skin scratched. Old Syndic Gutzmar, and the Town-Rath, urged by
perils and a Town Population who are Protestant, have signed the
Surrender with good-will, at least with resignation, and a feeling
of relief. The Ober-Amt Officials have likewise had to sign;
full of all the silent spleen and despondency which is natural to
the situation: spleen which, in the case of old Schaffgotsch, weak
with age, becomes passionately audible here and there. He will have
to give account of that injurious Proclamation, or Queen's
"Patent," to this King that has now come.



KING ENTERS BRESLAW; STAYS THERE, GRACIOUS AND VIGILANT,
FOUR DAYS (Jan. 2d-6th, 1741).

In the Royal Entrance which took place next day, note these points.
Syndic Gutzmar and the Authorities came out, in grand coaches, at 8
in the morning; had to wait awhile; the King, having ridden away to
look after his manifold affairs, did not get back till 10. Town
Guard and Garrison are all drawn out; Gates all flung open,
Prussian sentries withdrawn from them, and from the Excise-houses
they had seized: King's Kitchen-and-Proviant Carriages (four mules
to each, with bells, with uncommonly rich housings): King's Body-
Coach very grand indeed, and grandly escorted, the Thirty Body-
guards riding ahead; but nothing in it, only a most superfine cloak
"lined wholly with ermine" flung upon the seat. Other Coaches, more
or less grandly escorted; Head Cup-bearers, Seneschals, Princes,
Margraves:--but where is the King? King had ridden away, a second
time, with chief Generals, taking survey of the Town Walls, round
as far as the ZIEGEL-THOR (Tile-Gate, extreme southeast, by the
river-edge): he has thus made the whole circuit of Breslau;--
unwearied in picking up useful knowledge, "though it was very
cold," while that Procession of Coaches went on.

At noon, his Majesty, thrifty of time, did enter: on horseback,
Schwerin riding with him; behind him miscellaneous chief Officers;
Borck and Posadowsky among others; some miscellany of Page-people
following. With this natural escort, he rode in; Town-Major
(Commandant of Town-guard), with drawn sword going ahead;--King
wore his usual Cocked Hat, and practical Blue Cloak, both a little
dimmed by service: but his gray horse was admirable; and four
scarlet Footmen, grand as galloon and silver fringe could make
them, did the due magnificence in dress. He was very gracious;
saluting to this side and to that, where he noticed people of
condition in the windows. "Along Schweidnitz Street, across the
Great Ring, down Albrecht Street." He alighted, to lodge, at the
Count-Schlegenberg House; which used to be the Austrian Cardinal
von Sinzendorf Primate of Silesia's hired lodging,-- Sinzendorf's
furniture is put gently aside, on this new occasion. King came on
the balcony; and stood there for some minutes, that everybody might
see him. The "immense shoutings," Dryasdust assures me, have been
exaggerated; and I am warned not to believe the KRIEGS-FAMA such
and such a Number, except after comparing it with him.--That day
there was dinner of more than thirty covers, Chief Syndic Gutzmar
and other such guests; but as to the viands, says my friend, these,
owing to the haste, were nothing to speak of. [<italic>Helden-
Geschichte, <end italic> i. 545-548.]

Dinner, better and better ordered, King more and more gracious, so
it continued all the four days of his Majesty's stay:--on the
second day be had to rise suddenly from table, and leave his guests
with an apology; something having gone awry, at one of the Gates.
Awry there, between the Town Authorities and a General Jeetz of
his,--who is on march across the River at this moment (on what
errand we shall hear), and a little mistakes the terms. His Majesty
puts Jeetz right; and even waits, till he sees his Brigade and him
clear across. A junior Schaffgotsch, [<italic> Helden-Geschichte,
<end italic> ii. 159.] not the inconsolable Schaffgotsch senior,
but his Nephew, was one of the guests this second day; an
ecclesiastic, but of witty fashionable type, and I think a very
worthless fellow, though of a family important in the Province.
Dinner falls about noon; does not last above two hours or three, so
that there is space for a ride ("to the Dom," the first afternoon,
"four runners" always), and for much indoor work, before the
supper-hour.

As the Austrian Authorities sat silent in their place, and gave no
explanation of that "Patent," affixed amid thunder and lightning,
--they got orders from his Majesty to go their ways next day;
and went. In behalf of old President von Schaffgotsch, a chief of
the Silesian Nobility, and man much loved, the Breslau people,
and men from every guild and rank of society, made petition That,
he should be allowed to continue in his Town House here. Which
"first request of yours" his Majesty, with much grace, is sorry to
be obliged to refuse. The suppressed, and insuppressible, weak
indignation of old Schaffgotsch is visible on the occasion; nor, I
think, does Friedrich take it ill; only sends him out of the way
with it, for the time. The Austrian Ober-Amt vanished bodily from
Breslau in this manner; and never returned. Proper "War-Commission
(FELD-KRIEGS-COMMISSARIAT)," with Munchow, one of those skilful
Custrin Munchows, at the top of it, organized itself instead;
which, almost of necessity, became Supreme Government in a City
ungoverned otherwise:--and truly there was little regret of the
Ober-Amt, in Breslau; and ever less, to a marked extent, as the
years went on.

On the 5th of January (fourth and last night here), his Majesty
gave a grand Ball. Had hired, or Colonel Posadowsky instead of him
had hired, the Assembly Rooms (REDOUTEN-SAAL), for the purpose:
"Invite all the Nobility high and low;"-- expense by estimate is a
ducat (half-guinea) each; do it well, and his Majesty will pay.
About 6 in the evening, his Majesty in person did us the honor to
drive over; opened the Ball with Madam the Countess von
Schlegenberg (I should guess, a Dowager Lady), in whose house he
lodges. I am not aware that his Majesty danced much farther; but he
was very condescending, and spoke and smiled up and down;--till,
about l0 P.M., an Officer came in with a Letter. Which Letter his
Majesty having read, and seemingly asked a question or two in
regard to, put silently in his pocket, as if it were a finished
thing. Nevertheless, after a few minutes, his Majesty was found to
have silently withdrawn; and did not return, not even to supper.
Perceiving which, all the Prussian official people gradually
withdrew; though the dancing and supping continued not the less, to
a late hour. [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 557.]

"Open the Austrian Mail-bag (FELLEISEN); see a little what they are
saying over there!" Such order had evidently been given, this
night. In consequence of which, people wrote by Dresden, and not
the direct way, in future; wishing to avoid that openable
FELLEISEN. Next morning, January 6th, his Majesty had left for
Ohlau,--early, I suppose; though there proved to be nothing
dangerous ahead there, after all.



Chapter V.

FRIEDRICH PUSHES FORWARD TOWARDS BRIEG AND NEISSE.

Ohlau is a pleasant little Town, two marches southeast of Breslau;
with the Ohlau River on one side, and the Oder on the other;
capable of some defence, were there a garrison. Brieg the important
Fortress, still on the Oder, is some fifteen miles beyond Ohlau;
after which, bending straight south and quitting Oder, Neisse the
still more important may be thirty miles:--from Breslau to Neisse,
by this route (which is BOW, not STRING), sixty-five or seventy
miles. One of my Topographers yields this Note, if readers care
for it:--

"Ohlau River, an insignificant drab-colored stream, rises well
south of Breslau, about Strehlen; makes, at first, direct eastward
towards the Oder; and then, when almost close upon it, breaks off
to north, and saunters along, irregularly parallel to Oder, for
twenty miles farther, before it can fall fairly in. To this
circumstance both Breslau and a Town of Ohlau owe their existence;
Towns, both of them, 'between the waters,' and otherwise well
seated; Ohlau sheltering itself in the attempted outfall of its
little river; Breslau clustering itself about the actual outfall:
both very defensible places in the old rude time, and good for
trade in all times. Both Oder  and Ohlau Rivers have split and
spread themselves into islands and deltas a good deal, at their
place of meeting; and even have changed their courses, and cut out
new channels for themselves, in the sandy country; making a very
intricate watery network of a site for Breslau: and indeed the
Ohlau River here, for centuries back, has been compelled into wide
meanderings, mere filling of rampart-ditches, so that it issues
quite obscurely, and in an artificial engineered condition,
at Breslau."

Ohlau had been expected to make some defence; General Browne having
thrown 300 men into it, and done what he could for the works.
And Ohlau did at first threaten to make some; but thought better of
it overnight, and in effect made none; but was got (morning of
January 9th) on the common terms, by merely marching up to it in
minatory posture. "Prisoners of War, if you make resistance;
Free Withdrawal [Liberty to march away, arms shouldered, and not
serve against us for a year], if you have made none:" this is the
common course, where there are Austrian Soldiers at all; the course
where none are, and only a few Syndics sit, with their Town-Key
laid on the table, a prey to the stronger hand, we have
already seen.

From Ohlau, proper Detachment, under General Kleist, is pushed
forward to summon Brieg; Jeetz from the other side of the river
(whom we saw crossing at Breslau the other day, interrupting his
Majesty's dinner) is to co-operate with Kleist in that enterprise,
--were the Country once cleared on his, Jeetz's, east side of Oder;
especially were Namslau once had, a small Town and Castle over
there, which commands the Polish and Hungarian road. Friedrich's
hopes are buoyant; Schwerin is swiftly rolling forward to
rightward, nothing resisting him; Detachment is gone from Schwerin,
over the Hills, to Glatz (the GRAFSCHAFT, or County Glatz, an
Appendage to Schlesien), under excellent guidance; under guidance,
namely, of Colonel Camas, who has just come home from his Parisian
Embassy, and got launched among the wintry mountains, on a new
operation,--which, however, proves of non-effect for the present.
[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 678; Orlich, <italic>
Geschichte der beiden Schlesischen Kriege, <end italic> i. 49.]

Indeed, it is observable that southward of Breslau, the dispute,
what dispute there can be, properly begins; and that General Browne
is there, and shows himself a shining man in this difficult
position. It must be owned, no General could have made his small
means go farther. Effective garrisons, 1,600 each, put into Brieg
and Neisse; works repaired, magazines collected, there and
elsewhere; the rest of his poor 7,000 thriftily sprinkled about, in
what good posts there are, and "capable of being got together in
six hours:" a superior soldier, this Browne, though with a very bad
task; and seems to have inspired everybody with something of his
own temper. So that there is marching, detaching, miscellaneous
difficulty for Friedrich in this quarter, more than had been
expected. If the fate of Brieg and Neisse be inevitable, Browne
does wonders to delay it.

Of the Prussian marches in these parts, recorded by intricate
Dryasdust, there was no point so notable to me as this unrecorded
one: the Stone Pillar which, I see, the Kleist Detachment was sure
to find, just now, on the march from Ohlau to Brieg; last portion
of that march, between the village of Briesen and Brieg. The Oder,
flowing on your left hand, is hereabouts agreeably clothed with
woods: the country, originally a swamp, has been drained, and given
to the plough, in an agreeable manner; and there is an excellent
road paved with solid whinstone,--quarried in Strehlen, twenty
miles away, among the Hills to the right yonder, as you may guess;
--road very visible to the Prussian soldier, though he does not ask
where quarried. These beautiful improvements, beautiful humanities,
--were done by whom? "Done in 1584," say the records, by "George
the Pious;" Duke of Liegnitz, Brieg and Wohlau; 156 years ago.
"Pious" his contemporaries called this George;--he was son of the
ERBVERBRUDERUNG Duke, who is so important to us; he was
grandfather's grandfather of the last Duke of all; after whom it
was we that should have got these fine Territories; they should all
have fallen to the Great Elector, had not the Austrian strong hand
provided otherwise. George did these plantations, recoveries to the
plough; made this perennial whinstone road across the swamps; upon
which, notable to the roughest Prussian (being "twelve feet high by
eight feet square"), rises a Hewn Mass with this Inscription on
it,--not of the name or date of George; but of a thought of his,
which is not without a pious beauty to me:--
<italic>
Straverunt alii nobis, nos Posteritati;
Omnibus at Christus stravit ad asra viam.
<end italic>
Others have made roads for us; we make them for still others:
Christ made a road to the stars for us all.
[Zollner, <italic> Briefe uber Schlesien, <end italic> i. 175;
Hubner, i. t. 101.]

I know not how many Brandenburgers of General Kleist's Detachment,
or whether any, read this Stone; but they do all rustle past it
there, claiming the Heritage of this Pious George; and their mute
dim interview with him, in this manner, is a thing slightly more
memorable than orders of the day, at this date.

It was on the 11th, two days after Ohlau, that General Kleist
summoned Brieg; and Brieg answered resolutely, No. There is a
garrison of 1,600 here, and a proper magazine: nothing for it but
to "mask" Brieg too; Kleist on this side the River, Jeetz on that,
--had Jeetz once done with Namslau, which he has not by any means.
Namslau's answer was likewise stiffly in the negative; and Jeetz
cannot do Namslau, at least not the Castle, all at once; having no
siege-cannon. Seeing such stiffness everywhere, Friedrich writes to
Glogau, to the Young Dessauer, "Siege-artillery hither! Swift, by
the Oder; you don't need it where you are!" and wishes it were
arrived, for behoof of Neisse and these stiff humors.


FRIEDRICH COMES ACROSS TO OTTMACHAU; SITS THERE, IN SURVEY OF
NEISSE, TILL HIS CANNON COME.

The Prussians met with serious resistance, for the first time (9th
January, same day when Ohlau yielded), at a place called Ottmachau;
a considerable little Town and Castle on the Neisse River, not far
west of Neisse Town, almost at the very south of Silesia. It lay on
the route of Schwerin's Column; long distances ahead of Liegnitz,
--say, by straight highway a hundred miles;--during which, to right
and to left, there had been nothing but submission hitherto.
No resistance was expected here either, for there was not hope in
any; only that Browne had been here; industrious to create delay
till Neisse were got fully ready. He is, by every means, girding up
the loins of Neisse for a tight defence; has put 1,600 men into it,
with proper stores for them, with a resolute skilful Captain at the
top of them: assiduous Browne had been at Ottmachau, as the outpost
of Neisse, a day or two before; and, they say, had admonished them
"Not to yield on any terms, for he would certainly come to their
relief." Which doubtless he would have done, had it been in his
power; but how, except by miracle, could it be? On the 9th of
January, when Schwerin comes up, Browne is again waiting
hereabouts. Again in defensive posture, but without force to
undertake anything; stands on the Southern Uplands, with Bohmen and
Mahren and the Giant Mountains at his back;--stands, so to speak,
defensive at his own House-door, in this manner; and will have,
after SEEING Ottmachau's fate and Neisse's, to duck in with a slam!
At any rate, he had left these Towns in the above firm humor,
screwed to the sticking-place; and had then galloped else-whither
to screw and prepare.

And so the Ottmachau Austrians, "260 picked grenadiers" (400
dragoons there also at first were, who, after flourishing about on
the outskirts as if for fighting, rode away), fire "DESPERAT," says
my intricate friend; [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, i. 672-677;
Orlich, i. 50.] entirely refusing terms from Schwerin; kill twelve
of his people (Major de Rege, distinguished Engineer Major, one of
them): so that Schwerin has to bring petards upon them, four cannon
upon them; and burst in their Town Gate, almost their Castle Gate,
and pretty much their Castle itself;--wasting three days of his
time upon this paltry matter. Upon which they do signify a
willingness for "Free Withdrawal." "No, IHR HERREN" answers,
Schwerin; "not now; after such mad explosion. His Majesty will have
to settle it." Majesty, who is by this time not far off, comes over
to Ottmachau (January 12th); gives words of rebuke, rebuke not very
inexorable; and admits them Prisoners of War. "The officers were
sent to Custrin, common men to Berlin;" the usual arrangement in
such case. Ottmachau Town belongs to the Right Reverend von
Sinzendorf, Bishop of Breslau, and Primate; whose especial Palace
is in Neisse; though he "commonly sends his refractory Priests to
do their penance in the Schloss at Ottmachau here,"--and, I should
say, had better himself make terms, and come out hitherward, under
present aspects.

Friedrich continues at Ottmachau; head-quarters there thenceforth,
till he see Neisse settled. On the morrow, 13th) he learns that the
Siege Artillery is at Grotkau; well forward towards Neisse;
halfway between Brieg and it. Same day, Colonel Camas returns to
him out of Glatz; five of his men lost; and reports That Browne has
had the roads torn up, that Glatz is mere ice and obstruction, and
that nothing can be made of it at this season. Good news
alternating with not so good.

The truth is, Friedrich has got no Strong Place in Schlesien;
all strengths make unexpected defence; paltry little Namslan itself
cannot be quite taken, Castle cannot, till Jeetz gets his siege-
artillery,--which does not come along so fast as that to Neisse
does. Here is an Excerpt from my Dryasdust, exact though abridged,
concerning Jeetz:--

"JANUARY 24th, 1741. Prussians, masters of the Town for a couple of
weeks back, have got into the Church at Namslau, into the Cloister;
are preparing plank floors for batteries, cutting loop-holes;
diligent as possible,--siege-guns now at last just coming.
The Castle fires fiercely on them, makes furious sallies, steals
six of our oxen,--makes insolent gestures from the walls; at least
one soldier does, this day. 'Sir, may I give that fellow a shot?'
asks the Prussian sentry. 'Do, then,' answers his Major: 'too
insolent that one!' And the sentry explodes on him; brings him
plunging down, head foremost (HERUNTER PURZELTE); the too insolent
mortal, silent enough thenceforth." [<italic> Helden-Geschichte,
<end italic> i. 703.]--Jeetz did get his cannon, though not till
now, this very day I think; and then, in a couple of days more,
Jeetz finished off Namslau ("officers to Custrin, Common men to
Berlin"); and thereupon blockades the Eastern side of Brieg,
joining hands with Kleist on the Western: whereby Brieg, like
Glogau, is completely masked,--till the season mend.

Friedrich, now that his artillery is come, expects no difficulty
with Neisse. A "paltry hamlet (BICOQUE)" he playfully calls it;
and, except this, Silesia is now his. Neisse got (which would be
the desirable thing), or put under "mask" as Glogau is, and as
Brieg is being, Austria possesses not an inch of land within these
borders. Here are some Epistolary snatches; still in the light
style, not to say the flimsy and uplifted; but worth giving, so
transparent are they; off hand, like words we had heard his Majesty
SPEAK, in his high mood:--

KING TO M. JORDAN, AT BERLIN (two successive Letters).

1. "OTTMACHAU, 14th JANUARY, 1741 [second day after our arrival
there]. My dear Monsieur Jordan, my sweet Monsieur Jordan, my quiet
Monsieur Jordan, my good, my benign, my pacific, my humanest
Monsieur Jordan,--I announce to Thy Serenity the conquest of
Silesia; I warn thee of the bombardment of Neisse [just getting
ready], and I prepare thee for still more important projects;
and instruct thee of the happiest successes that the womb of
Fortune ever bore.

"This ought to suffice thee. Be my Cicero as to the justice of my
cause, and I will be thy Caesar as to the execution. Adieu: thou
knowest whether I am not, with the most cordial regard, thy
faithful friend.--F."

2. "OTTMACHAU, 17th JANUARY, 1741. I have the honor to inform your
Humanity that we are christianly preparing to bombard Neisse;
and that if the place will not surrender of good-will, needs must
that it be beaten to powder (NECESSITE SERA DE L'ABIMER). For the
rest, our affairs go the best in the world; and soon thou wilt hear
nothing more of us. For in ten days it will all be over; and I
shall have the pleasure of seeing you and hearing you, in about
a fortnight.

"I have seen neither my Brother [August Wilhelm, not long ago at
Strasburg with us, and betrothed since then] nor Keyserling:
I left them at Breslau, not to expose them to the dangers of war.
They perhaps will be a little angry; but what can I do?--The rather
as, on this occasion, one cannot share in the glory, unless one is
a mortar!

"Adieu, M. le Conseiller [Poor's-RATH, so styled]. Go and amuse
yourself with Horace, study Pausanias, and be gay over Anacreon.
As to me, who for amusement have nothing but merlons, fascines and
gabions, [Merlons are mounds of earth placed behind the solid or
blind parts of the parapet (that is, between the embrasures) of a
Fortification; fascines are bundles of brushwood for filling up a
ditch; gabions, baskets filled with earth to be ranged in defence
till you get trenches dug.] I pray God to grant me soon a
pleasanter and peacefuler occupation, and you health, satisfaction
and whatever your heart desires.--F." [<italic> OEuvres de
Frederic, <end italic> xvii. 84.]

KING FRIEDRICH TO M. LE COMTE ALGAROTTI (gone on a journey).

"OTTMACHAU, 17th JANUARY, 1741 [same day as the above to Jordan].
I have begun to settle the Figure of Prussia: the outline will not
be altogether regular; for the whole of Silesia is taken, except
one miserable hamlet (BICOQUE), which perhaps I shall have to keep
blockaded till next spring.

"Up to this time, the whole conquest has cost only Twenty Men, and
Two Officers, one of whom is the poor De Rege, whom you have seen
at Berlin,"--De Rege, Engineer Major, killed here at Ottmachau, in
Schwerin's late tussle.

"You are greatly wanting to me here. So soon as you have talked
that business over, write to me about it. [What is the business?
Whither is the dusky Swan of Padua gone?] In all these three
hundred miles I have found no human creature comparable to the Swan
of Padua. I would willingly give ten cubic leagues of ground for a
genius similar to yours. But I perceive I was about entreating you
to return fast, and join me again,--while you are not yet arrived
where your errand was. Make haste to arrive, then; to execute your
commission, and fly back to me. I wish you had a Fortunatus Hat;
it is the only thing defective in your outfit.

"Adieu, dear Swan of Padua: think, I pray you, sometimes of those
who are getting themselves cut in slices [ECHINER, chined] for the
sake of glory here, and above all do not forget your friends who
think a thousand times of you.		      "FREDERIC."
[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xviii. 28.]

The object of the dear Swan's journey, or even the whereabouts of
it, cannot be discovered without difficulty; and is not much worth
discovering. "Gone to Turin," we at last make out, "with secret
commissions:" [Denina, <italic> La Prusse Litteraire <end italic>
(Berlin, 1790), i. 198. A poor vague Book; only worth consulting in
case of extremity.] desirable to sound the Sardinian Majesty a
little, who is Doorkeeper of the Alps, between France and Austria,
and opens to the best bidder? No great things of a meaning in this
mission, we can guess, or Algarotti had not gone upon it,--though
he is handy, at least, for keeping it unnoticed by the Gazetteer
species. Nor was the Swan successful, it would seem; the more the
pity for our Swan! However, he comes back safe; attends Friedrich
in Silesia; and in the course of next month readers will see him,
if any reader wished it.



Chapter VI.

NEISSE IS BOMBARDED.

Neisse, which Friedrich calls a paltry hamlet (BICOQUE) is a
pleasant strongly fortified Town, then of perhaps 6 or 8,000
inhabitants, now of double that number; stands on the right or
south bank of the Neisse,--at this day, on both banks. Pleasant
broad streets, high strong houses, mostly of stone. Pleasantly
encircled by green Hills, northward buttresses of the Giant
Mountains; itself standing low and level, on rich ground much
inclined to be swampy. A lesser river, Biele, or Bielau, coming
from the South, flows leisurely enough into the Neisse,--filling
all the Fortress ditches, by the road. Orchard-growth and meadow-
growth are lordly (HERRLICH); a land rich in fruit, and flowing
with milk and honey. Much given to weaving, brewing, stocking-
making; and, moreover, trades greatly in these articles, and above
all in Wine. Yearly on St. Agnes Day, "21st January, if not a
Sunday," there is a Wine-fair here; Hungarian, of every quality
from Tokay downward, is gathered here for distribution into Germany
and all the Western Countries. While you drink your Tokay, know
that it comes through Neisse. St. Agnes Day falls but unhandily
this year; and I think the Fair will, as they say, AUSBLEIBEN, or
not be held.

Neisse is a Nest of Priests (PFAFFEN-NEST), says Friedrich once;
which came in this way. About 600 years ago, an ill-conditioned
Heir-Apparent of the Liegnitz Sovereign to whom it then belonged,
quarrelled with his Father, quarrelled slightly with the Universe;
and, after moping about for some time, went into the Church.
Having Neisse for an apanage already his own, he gave it to the
Bishop of Breslau; whose, in spite of the old Father's protestings,
it continued, and continues.  Bishops of Breslau are made very
grand by it; Bishops of Breslau have had their own difficulties
here. Thus once (in our Perkin-Warbeck time, A.D. 1497), a Duke of
Oppeln, sitting in some Official Conclave or meeting of magnates
here,--zealous for country privilege, and feeling himself
insufferably put upon,--started up, openly defiant of Official men;
glaring wrathfully into Duke Casimir of Teschen (Bohemian-Austrian
Captain of Silesia), and into the Bishop of Breslau himself; nay at
last, flashed out his sword upon those sublime dignitaries.
For which, by and by, he had to lay his head on the block, in the
great square here; and died penitent, we hope.

This place, my Dryasdust informs me, had many accidents by floodage
and by fire; was seized and re-seized in the Thirty-Years War
especially, at a great rate: Saxon Arnheim, Austrian Holk, Swedish
Torstenson; no end to the battering and burning poor Neisse had, to
the big ransoms "in new Reichs-thalers and 300 casks of wine."
But it always rebuilt itself, and began business again. How happy
when it could get under some effectual Protector, of the Liegnitz
line, of the Austrian-Bohemian line, and this or the other
battering, just suffered, was to be the last for some time!--Here
again is a battering coming on it; the first of a series that are
now imminent.

The reader is requested to look at Neisse; for besides the Tokay
wine, there will things arrive there.--Neisse River, let us again
mention, is one of four bearing that name, and all belonging to the
Oder:--could not they be labelled, then, or NUMBERED, in some way?
This Neisse, which we could call Neisse the FIRST (and which
careful readers may as well make acquaintance with on their Map,
where too they will find Neisse the SECOND, "the WUTHENDE or
Roaring Neisse," and two others which concern us less), rises in
the "Western Snow-Mountains (SCHNEEGEBIRGE)," Southwestern or Glatz
district of the Giant Mountains; drains Glatz County and grows big
there; washes the Town of Glatz; then eastward by Ottmachau, by
Neisse Town; whence turning rather abruptly north or northeast, it
gets into the Oder not far south of Brieg.

Neisse as a Place of Arms, the chief Fortress of Silesia and the
nearest to Austria, is extremely desirable for Friedrich; but there
is no hope of it without some kind of Siege; and Friedrich
determines to try in that way. From Ottmachau, accordingly, and
from the other sides, the Siege-Artillery being now at hand, due
force gathers itself round Neisse, Schwerin taking charge; and for
above a week there is demonstrating and posting, summoning and
parleying; and then, for three days, with pauses intervening, there
is extremely furious bombardment, red-hot at times: "Will you
yield, then?"--with steady negative from Neisse. Friedrich's
quarter is at Ottmachau, twelve miles off; from which he can ride
over, to see and superintend. The fury of his bombardment, which
naturally grieved him, testifies the intensity of his wish. But it
was to no purpose. The Commandant, Colonel von Roth (the same who
was proposed for Breslau lately, a wise head and a stout, famed in
defences) had "poured water on his ramparts," after well repairing
them,--made his ramparts all ice and glass;--and done much else.
Would the reader care to look for a moment? Here, from our waste
Paper-masses, is abundance, requiring only to be abridged:--

"JANUARY, 1741: MONDAY, 9th-WEDNESDAY, 11th. Monday, 9th, day when
that sputter at Ottmachau began,--Prussian light-troops appeared
transiently on the heights about Neisse, for the first time.
Directly on sight of whom, Commandant Roth assembled the Burghers
of the place; took a new Oath of Fidelity from one and all;
admonished them to do their utmost, as they should see him do.
The able-bodied and likeliest of them (say about 400) he has had
arranged into Militia Companies, with what drill there could be in
the interim; and since his coming, has employed every moment in
making ready. Wednesday, llth, he locks all the Gates, and stands
strictly on his guard. The inhabitants are mostly Catholic; with
sumptuous Bishops of Breslau, with KREUZHERREN (imaginary Teutsch
or other Ritters with some reality of money), with Jesuit
Dignitaries, Church and Quasi-Church Officialities, resident among
them: population, high and low, is inclined by creed to the Queen
of Hungary. Commandant Roth has only 1,200 regular soldiers; at the
outside 1,600 men under arms: but he has gunpowder, he has meal;
experience also and courage; and hopes these may suffice him for a
time. One of the most determined Commandants; expert in the defence
of strong places. A born Silesian (not Saxon, as some think),--and
is of the Augsburg Confession; but that circumstance is not
important here, though at Breslau Browne thought it was.

"THURSDAY, 12th. The Prussians, in regular force, appear on the
Kaninchen Berg (Cony Hill, so called from its rabbits), south of
the River, evidently taking post there. Roth fires a signal shot;
the Southern Suburbs of Neisse, as preappointed, go up in flame;
crackle high and far; in a lamentable manner (ERBARMLICH), through
the grim winter air." This is the day Friedrich came over to
Ottmachau, and settled the sputter there.

"Next day, and next again, the same phenomena at Neisse; the
Prussians edging ever nearer, building their batteries, preparing
to open their cannonade. Whereupon Roth burns the remaining
Suburbs, with lamentable crackle; on all sides now are mere ashes.
Bishop's Mill, Franciscan Cloister, Bishop's Pleasure-garden, with
its summer-houses; Bishop's Hospital, and several Churches:
Roth can spare none of these things, with the Prussians nestling
there. Surely the Bishop himself, respectable Cardinal Graf von
Sinzendorf, had better get out of these localities while time yet
is?" "Saturday, 14th," that was the day Friedrich, at Ottmachau,
wrote as above to Jordan (Letter No. 1), while the Neisse Suburbs
crackled lamentably, twelve miles off, "Schwerin gets order to
break up, in person, from Ottmachan to-morrow, and begin actual
business on the Kaninchen Hill yonder.

"SUNDAY, 15th. Schwerin does; marches across the River; takes post
on the south side of Neisse: notable to the Sunday rustics.
Nothing but burnt villages and black walls for Schwerin, in that
Cony-Hill quarter, and all round; and Roth salutes him with one
twenty-four pounder, which did no hurt. And so the cannonade
begins, Sunday, 15th; and intermittently, on both sides of the
River, continues, always bursting out again at intervals, till
Wednesday; a mere preliminary cannonade on Schwerin's part;
making noise, doing little hurt: intended more to terrify, but
without effect that way on Roth or the Townsfolk. The poor Bishop
did, on the second day of it, come out, and make application to
Schwerin; was kindly conducted to his Majesty, who happened to be
over there; was kept to dinner; and easily had leave to retire to
Freywalde, a Country-House he has, in the safe distance.
[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 683.] There let him
be quiet, well out of these confused batterings and burnings
of property.

"His Majesty's Head-quarter is at Ottmachau, but in two hours he
can be here any day; and looks into everything; sorry that the
cannonade does not yet answer. And remnants of suburbs are still
crackling into flame; high Country-Houses of Kreuzherren, of
Jesuits; a fanatic people seemingly all set against us. 'If Neisse
will not yield of good-will, needs is it must be beaten to powder,'
wrote his Majesty to Jordan in these circumstances, as we read
above. Roth is sorry to observe, the Prussians have still one good
Bishop's-mansion, in a place called the Karlau (Karl-Meadow), with
the Bishop's winter fuel all ready stacked there; but strives to
take order about the same.

"WEDNESDAY, 18th. This day two provocations happened. First, in the
morning by his Majesty's order, Colonel Borck (the same we saw at
Herstal) had gone with a Trumpeter towards Roth; intending to
inform Roth how mild the terms would be, how terrible the penalty
of not accepting them. But Roth or Roth's people singularly
disregard Borck and his Parley Trumpet; answer its blasts by
musketry; fire upon it, nay again fire worse when it advances a
step farther; on these terms Borck and Trumpet had to return.
Which much angered his Majesty at Ottmachau that evening; as was
natural. Same evening, our fine quarters in the Karlau crackled up
in flame, the Bishop's winter firewood all along with it: this was
provocation second. Roth had taken order with the Karlau; and got a
resolute Butcher to do the feat, under pretext of bringing us beef.
It is piercing cold; only blackened walls for us now in the Karlau
or elsewhere. His Majesty, naturally much angered, orders for the
morrow a dose of bomb-shells and red-hot balls. Plant a few mortars
on the North side too, orders his Majesty.

"THURSDAY, 19th. Accordingly, by 8 of the clock, cannon batteries
reawaken with a mighty noise, and red-hot balls are noticeable;
and at 10 the actual bombarding bursts out, terrible to hear and
see;--first shell falling in Haubitz the Clothier's shop, but being
happily got under. Roth has his City Militia companies, organized
with water-hose for quenching of the red-hot balls: in which they
became expert. So that though the fire caught many houses, they
always put it out. Late in the night, hearing no word from Roth,
the Prussians went to bed.

"FRIDAY, 20th. Still no word; on which, about 4 P.M., the Prussian
batteries awaken again: volcanic torrent of red-hot shot and
shells, for seven hours; still no word from Roth. About 11 at night
his Majesty again sends a Drum (Parley Trumpet or whatever it is)
to the Gate; formally summons Roth; asks him, 'If he has well
considered what this can lead to? Especially what he, Roth, meant
by firing on our first Trumpet on Wednesday last?' Roth answered,
'That as to the Trumpet, he had not heard of it before. On the
other hand, that this mode of sieging by red-hot balls seems a
little unusual; for the rest, that he has himself no order or
intention but that of resisting to the last.' Some say the Drum
hereupon by order talked of 'pounding Neisse into powder, mere
child's-play hitherto;' to which Roth answered only by respectful
dumb-show.

"SATURDAY, 21st-MONDAY, 23d. Midnight of Friday-Saturday, on this
answer coming, the fire-volcanoes open again;--nine hours long;
shells, and red-hot material, in terrible abundance. Which hit
mostly the churches, Jesuits' Seminariums and Collegiums;
but produced no change in Roth. From 9 A.M. the batteries are
silent. Silent still, next morning: Divine Service may proceed, if
it like. But at 4 of the afternoon, the batteries awaken worse than
ever; from seven to nine bombs going at once. Universal rage, of
noise and horrid glare, making night hideous, till 10 of the clock;
Roth continuing inflexible. This is the last night of the Siege."

Friedrich perceived that Roth would not yield; that the utter
smashing-down of Neisse might more concern Friedrich than Roth;
--that, in fine, it would be better to desist till the weather
altered. Next day, "Monday, 23d, between noon and 1 o'clock," the
Prussians drew back;--converted the siege into a blockade.
Neisse to be masked, like Brieg and Glogau (Brieg only half done
yet, Jeetz without cannon till to-morrow, 24th, and little Namslau
still gesticulating): "The only thing one could try upon it was
bombardment. A Nest of Priests (PFAFFEN-NEST); not many troops in
it: but it cannot well be forced at present. If spring were here,
it will cost a fortnight's work." [FRIEDRICH TO THE OLD DESSAUER:
Fraction of Letter (Ottmachau, 16th-21st January, 1741) cited by
Orlich, i. 51;--from the Dessau Archives, where Herr Orlich has
industriously been. To all but strictly military people these
pieces of Letters are the valuable feature of Orlich's Book; and a
general reader laments that it does not all consist of such,
properly elucidated and labelled into accessibility.]

A noisy business; "King's high person much exposed: a bombardier
and then a sergeant were killed close by him, though in all he lost
only five men." [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
i. 680-690.]


BROWNE VANISHES IN A SLIGHT FLASH OF FIRE.

Browne all this while has hung on the Mountain-side, witnessing
these things; sending stores towards Glatz southwestward, and
"ruining the ways" behind them; waiting what would become of
Neisse. Neisse done, Schwerin is upon him; Browne makes off
Southeastward, across the Mountains, for Moravia and home;
Schwerin following hard. At a little place called Gratz, [The name,
in old Slavic speech, signifies TOWN; and there are many GRATZES:
KONIGINgratz (QUEEN'S, which for brevity is now generally called
KONIGSgratz, in Bohemia); Gratz in Styria; WINDISCHgratz
(Wendish-town); &c.] on the Moravian border, Browne faced round,
tried to defend the Bridge of the Oppa, sharply though without
effect; and there came (January 25th) a hot sputter between them
for a few minutes:--after which Browne vanished into the interior,
and we hear, in these parts, comparatively little more of him
during this War. Friend and foe must admit that he has neglected
nothing; and fairly made the best of a bad business here. He is but
an interim General, too; his Successor just coming; and the Vienna
Board of War is frequently troublesome,--to whose windy
speculations Browne replies with sagacious scepticism, and here and
there a touch of veiled sarcasm, which was not likely to conciliate
in high places. Had her Hungarian Majesty been able to retain
Browne in his post, instead of poor Neipperg who was sent instead,
there might have been a considerably different account to give of
the sequel. But Neipperg was Tutor (War-Tutor) to the Grand-Duke;
Browne is still of young standing (age only thirty-five), with a
touch of veiled sarcasm; and things must go their course.

In Schlesien, Schwerin is now to command in chief; the King going
off to Berlin for a little, naturally with plenty of errand there.
The Prussian Troops go into Winter-quarters; spread themselves
wide; beset the good points, especially the Passes of the Hills,--
from Jagerndorf, eastward to the Jablunka leading towards Hungary;
--nay they can, and before long do, spread into the Moravian
Territories, on the other side; and levy contributions, the Queen
proving unreasonable.

It was Monday, 23d, when the Siege of Neisse was abandoned: on
Wednesday, Friedrich himself turns homeward; looks into
Schweidnitz, looks into Liegnitz; and arrives at Berlin as the week
ends,--much acclamation greeting him from the multitude.
Except those three masked Fortresses, capable of no defence to
speak of, were Winter over, Silesia is now all Friedrich's,--has
fallen wholly to him in the space of about Seven Weeks. The seizure
has been easy; but the retaining of it, perhaps he himself begins
to see more clearly, will have difficulties! From this point, the
talk about GLOIRE nearly ceases in his Correspondence. In those
seven weeks he has, with GLOIRE or otherwise, cut out for himself
such a life of labor as no man of his Century had.



Chapter VII.

AT VERSAILLES, THE MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY CHANGES HIS
SHIRT, AND BELLEISLE IS SEEN WITH PAPERS.

While Friedrich was so busy in Silesia, the world was not asleep
around him; the world never is, though it often seems to be, round
a man and what action he does in it. That Sunday morning, First Day
of the Year 1741, in those same hours while Friedrich, with energy,
with caution, was edging himself into Breslau, there went on in the
Court of Versailles an interior Phenomenon; of which, having by
chance got access to it face to face, we propose to make the reader
participant before going farther.

Readers are languidly aware that phenomena do go on round their
Friedrich; that their busy Friedrich, with his few Voltaires and
renowned persons, are not the only population of their Century, by
any means. Everybody is aware of that fact; yet, in practice,
almost everybody is as good as not aware; and the World all round
one's Hero is a darkness, a dormant vacancy. How strange when, as
here, some Waste-paper spill (so to speak) turns up, which you can
KINDLE; and, by the brief flame of it, bid a reader look with his
own eyes!--From Herr Doctor Busching, who did the GEOGRAPHY and
about a Hundred other Books,--a man of great worth, almost of
genius, could he have elaborated his Hundred Books into Ten (or
distilled, into flasks of aqua-vitae, what otherwise lies tumbling
as tanks of mash and wort, now run very sour and mal-odorous);--
it is from Herr Busching that we gain the following rough Piece,
illuminative if one can kindle it:--

The Titular-Herr Baron Anton von Geusau, a gentleman of good parts,
scholastic by profession, and of Protestant creed, was accompanying
as Travelling Tutor, in those years, a young Graf von Reuss.
Graf von Beuss is one of those indistinct Counts Reuss, who always
call themselves "Henry;" and, being now at the eightieth and
farther, with uncountable collateral Henrys intertwisted, are
become in effect anonymous, or of nomenclature inscrutable to
mankind. Nor is the young one otherwise of the least interest to
us;--except that Herr Anton, the Travelling Tutor, punctually kept
a Journal of everything. Which Journal, long afterwards, came into
the hands of Busching, also a punctual man; and was by him
abridged, and set forth in print in his <italic> Beitrage. <end
italic> Offering at present a singular daguerrotype glimpse of the
then actual world, wherever Graf von Reuss and his Geusau happened
to be. Nine-tenths of it, even in Busching's Abridgment, are now
fallen useless and wearisome; but to one studying the days that
then were, even the effete commonplace of it occasionally becomes
alive again. And how interesting to catch, here and there, a
Historical Figure on these conditions; Historical Figure's very
self, in his work-day attitude; eating his victuals; writing,
receiving letters, talking to his fellow-creatures; unaware that
Posterity, miraculously through some chink of the Travelling
Tutor's producing, has got its eye upon him.

"SUNDAY, 1st JANUARY, 1741, Geusau and his young Gentleman leave
Paris, at 5 in the morning, and drive out to Versailles; intending
to see the ceremonies of New-year's day there. Very wet weather it
had been, all Wednesday, and for days before; [See in <italic>
Barbier <end italic> (ii. 283 et seqq.) what terrible Noah-like
weather it had been; big houses, long in soak, tumbling down at
last into the Seine; CHASSE of St. Genevieve brought out (two days
ago), December 30th, to try it by miracle; &c. &c.] but on this
Sunday, New-year's morning, all is ice and glass; and they slid
about painfully by lamplight,--with unroughened horses, and on the
Hilly or Meudon road, having chosen that as fittest, the waters
being out;--not arriving at Court till 9. Nor finding very much to
comfort them, except on the side of curiosity, when there.
Ushers, INTRODUCTEURS, Cabinet Secretaries, were indeed assiduous
to oblige; and the King's Levee will be: but if you follow it, to
the Chapel Royal to witness high mass, you must kneel at elevation
of the host; and this, as reformed Christians, Reuss and his Tutor
cannot undertake to do. They accept a dinner invitation (12 the
hour) from some good Samaritan of Quality; and, for sights, will
content themselves with the King's Levee itself, and generally with
what the King's Antechamber and the OEil-de-Boeuf can exhibit to
them. The Most Christian King's Levee [LEVER, literally here his
Getting out of Bed] is a daily miracle of these localities, only
grander on New-year's day; and it is to the following effect:--

"Till Majesty please to awaken, you saunter in the Salle des
Ambassadeurs; whole crowds jostling one another there; gossiping
together in a diligent, insipid manner;" gossip all reported;
snatches of which have acquired a certain flavor by long keeping;--
which the reader shall imagine. "Meanwhile you keep your eye on the
Grate of the Inner Court, which as yet is only ajar, Majesty
inaccessible as yet. Behold, at last, Grate opens itself wide; sign
that Majesty is out of bed; that the privileged of mankind may
approach, and see the miracles." Geusau continues, abridged by
Busching and us:--

"The whole Assemblage passed now into the King's Anteroom; had to
wait there about half an hour more, before the King's bedroom was
opened. But then at last, lo you,--there is the King, visible to
Geusau and everybody, washing his hands.' Which effected itself in
this way: 'The King was seated; a gentleman-in-waiting knelt,
before him, and held the Ewer, a square vessel silver-gilt, firm
upon the King's breast; and another gentleman-in-waiting poured
water on the King's hands.' Merely an official washing, we
perceive; the real, it is to be hoped, had, in a much more
effectual way, been going on during the half-hour just elapsed.
After washing, the King rose for an instant; had his dressing-gown,
a grand yellow silky article with silver flowerings, pulled off,
and flung round his loins; upon which he sat down again, and,"--
observe it, ye privileged of mankind,--"the Change of Shirt took
place! 'They put the clean shirt down over his head,' says Anton,
(and plucked up the dirty one from within, so that of the naked
skin you saw little or nothing.'" Here is a miracle worth getting
out of bed to look at!

"His Majesty now quitted chair and dressing-gown; stood up before
the fire; and, after getting on the rest of his clothing, which, on
account of Czarina Annette's death [readers remember that], was of
violet or mourning color, he had the powder-mantle thrown round
him, and sat down at the Toilette to have his hair frizzled. The
Toilette, a table with white cover shoved into the middle of the
room, had on it a mirror, a powder-knife, and"--no mortal cares
what. "The King," what all mortals note, as they do the heavenly
omens, "is somewhat talky; speaks sometimes with the Dutch
Ambassador, sometimes with the Pope's Nuncio, who seems a jocose
kind of gentleman; sometimes with different French Lords, and at
last with the Cardinal Fleury also,--to whom, however, he does not
look particularly gracious,"--not particularly this time. These are
the omens; happy who can read them!--Majesty then did his morning-
prayer, assisted only by the common Almoners-in-waiting (Cardinal
took no hand, much less any other); Majesty knelt before his bed,
and finished the business 'in less than six seconds.' After which
mankind can ebb out to the Anteroom again; pay their devoir to the
Queen's Majesty, which all do; or wait for the Transit to Morning
Chapel, and see Mesdames of France and the others flitting past in
their sedans.

"Queen's Majesty was already altogether dressed," says Geusau,
almost as if with some disappointment; "all in black; a most
affable courteous Majesty; stands conversing with the Russian
Ambassador, with the Dutch ditto, with the Ladies about her, and at
last, 'in a friendly and merry tone,' with old Cardinal Fleury.
Her Ladies, when the Queen spoke with them, showed no constraint at
all; leant loosely with their arms on the fire-screens, and took
things easy. Mesdames of France"--Geusau saw Mesdames. Poor little
souls, they are the LOQUE, the COCHON (Rag, Pig, so Papa would call
them, dear Papa), who become tragically visible again in the
Revolution time:--all blooming young children as yet (Queen's
Majesty some thirty-seven gone), and little dreaming what lies
fifty years ahead! King Louis's career of extraneous gallantries,
which ended in the Parc-aux-Cerfs, is now just beginning: think of
that too; and of her Majesty's fine behavior under it; so affable,
so patient, silent, now and always!--"In a little while, their
Majesties go along the Great Gallery to Chapel;" whither the
Protestant mind cannot with comfort accompany. [Busching, <italic>
Beitrage, <end italic> ii. 59-78.]

This is the daily miracle done at Versailles to the believing
multitude; only that on New-year's day, and certain supreme
occasions, the shirt is handed by a Prince of the Blood, and the
towel for drying the royal hands by a ditto, with other
improvements; and the thing comes out in its highest power of
effulgence,--especially if you could see high mass withal. In the
Antechamber and (OEil-de-Boeuf, Geusau, among hundreds of phenomena
fallen dead to us, saw the Four following, which have still
some life:--
1. Many Knights of the Holy Ghost (CHEVALIERS DU SAINT ESPRIT) are
about; magnificently piebald people, indistinct to us, and fallen
dead to us: but there, among the company, do not we indisputably
see, "in full Cardinal's costume," Fleury the ancient Prime
Minister talking to her Majesty? Blandly smiling; soft as milk, yet
with a flavor of alcoholic wit in him here and there. That is a man
worth looking at, had they painted him at all. Red hat, red
stockings; a serenely definite old gentleman, with something of
prudent wisdom, and a touch of imperceptible jocosity at times;
mildly inexpugnable in manner: this King, whose Tutor he was twenty
years ago, still looks to him as his father; Fleury is the real
King of France at present. His age is eighty-seven gone; the King's
is thirty (seven years younger than his Queen): and the Cardinal
has red stockings and red hat; veritably there, successively in
both Antechambers, seen by Geusau, January 1st, 1741: that is all
I know.
2. The Prince de Clermont, a Prince of the Blood, "handed the
shirt," TESTE Geusau. Some other Prince, notable to Geusau, and to
us nameless, had the honor of the "towel:" but this Prince de
Clermont, a dissolute fellow of wasted parts, kind of Priest, kind
of Soldier too, is seen visibly handing the shirt there;--whom the
reader and I, if we cared about it, shall again see, getting beaten
by Prince Ferdinand, at Crefeld, within twenty years hence.
These are points first and second, slightly noticeable, slightly if
at all.

Of the actual transit to high mass, transit very visible in the
Great Gallery or OEil-de-Boeuf, why should a human being now say
anything? Queen, poor Stanislaus's Daughter, and her Ladies, in
their sublime sedans, one flood of jewels, sail first; next sails
King Louis, shirt warm on his back, with "thirty-four Chevaliers of
the Holy Ghost" escorting; next "the Dauphin" (Boy of eleven, Louis
XVI.'s. Father), and "Mesdames of France, with"--but even Geusau
stops short. Protestants cannot enter that Chapel, without peril of
idolatry; wherefore Geusau and Pupil kept strolling in the general
(OEil-de-Boeuf,--and "the Dutch Ambassador approved of it," he for
one. And here now is another point, slightly noticeable:--
3. High mass over, his Majesty sails back from Chapel, in the same
magnificently piebald manner; and vanishes into the interior;
leaving his Knights of the Holy Ghost, and other Courtier
multitude, to simmer about, and ebb away as they found good.
Geusau and his young Reuss had now the honor of being introduced to
various people; among others "to the Prince de Soubise." Prince de
Soubise: frivolous, insignificant being; of whom I have no portrait
that is not nearly blank, and content to be so;--though Herr von
Geusau would have one, with features and costume to it, when he
heard of the Beating at Rossbach, long after! Prince de Soubise is
pretty much a blank to everybody:--and no sooner are we loose of
him, than (what every reader will do well to note) 4. Our Herren
Travellers are introduced to a real Notability: Monseigneur, soon
to be Marechal, the Comte de Belleisle; whom my readers and I are
to be much concerned with, in time coming. "A tall lean man (LANGER
HAGERER MANN), without much air of quality," thinks Geusau;
but with much swift intellect and energy, and a distinguished
character, whatever Geusau might think. "Comte de Belleisle was
very civil; but apologized, in a courtly and kind way, for the
hurry he was in; regretting the impossibility of doing the honors
to the Comte de Reuss in this Country,--his, Belleisle's, Journey
into Germany, which was close at hand, overwhelming him with
occupations and engagements at present. And indeed, even while he
spoke to us," says Geusau, "all manner of Papers were put into his
hand." [Busching, ii. 79; see Barbier, ii. 282, 287.]

"Journey to Germany, Papers put into his hand:" there is perhaps no
Human Figure in the world, this Sunday (except the one Figure now
in those same moments over at Breslau, gently pressing upon the
locked Gates there), who is so momentous for our Silesian
Operations; and indeed he will kindle all Europe into delirium; and
produce mere thunder and lightning, for seven years to come,-- with
almost no result in it, except Silesia! A tall lean man; there
stands he, age now fifty-six, just about setting out on such
errand. Whom one is thankful to have seen for a moment, even in
that slight manner.

OF BELLEISLE AND HIS PLANS.

Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, Comte de Belleisle, is Grandson of
that Intendant Fouquet, sumptuous Financier, whom Louis XIV. at
last threw out, and locked into the Fortress of Pignerol, amid the
Savoy Alps, there to meditate for life, which lasted thirty years
longer. It was never understood that the sumptuous Fouquet had
altogether stolen public moneys, nor indeed rightly what he had
done to merit Pignerol; and always, though fallen somehow into such
dire disfavor, he was pitied and respected by a good portion of the
public. "Has angered Colbert," said the public; "dangerous rivalry
to Colbert; that is what has brought Pignerol upon him." Out of
Pignerol that Fouquet never came; but his Family bloomed up into
light again; had its adventures, sometimes its troubles, in the
Regency time, but was always in a rising way:--and here, in this
tall lean man getting papers put into his hand, it has risen very
high indeed. Going as Ambassador Extraordinary to the Germanic
Diet, "to assist good neighbors, as a neighbor and Most Christian
Majesty should, in choosing their new Kaiser to the best
advantage:" that is the official color his mission is to have.
Surely a proud mission;--and Belleisle intends to execute it in a
way that will surprise the Germanic Diet and mankind. Privately,
Belleisle intends that he, by his own industries, shall himself
choose the right Kaiser, such Kaiser as will suit the Most
Christian Majesty and him; he intends to make a new French thing of
Germany in general; and carries in his head plans of an amazing
nature! He and a Brother he has, called the Chevalier de Belleisle,
who is also a distinguished man, and seconds M. le Comte with
eloquent fire and zeal in all things, are grandsons of that old
Fouquet, and the most shining men in France at present.
France little dreams how much better it perhaps were, had they also
been kept safe in Pignerol!--

The Count, lean and growing old, is not healthy; is ever and anon
tormented, and laid up for weeks, with rheumatisms, gouts and
ailments: but otherwise he is still a swift ardent elastic spirit;
with grand schemes, with fiery notions and convictions, which
captivate and hurry off men's minds more than eloquence could, so
intensely true are they to the Count himself;--and then his Brother
the Chevalier is always there to put them into the due language and
logic, where needed. [Voltaire, xxviii. 74; xxix. 392; &c.]
A magnanimous high-flown spirit; thought to be of supreme skill
both in War and in Diplomacy; fit for many things; and is still
full of ambition to distinguish himself, and tell the world at all
moments, "ME VOILA; World, I too am here!"--His plans, just now,
which are dim even to himself, except on the hither skirt of them,
stretch out immeasurable, and lie piled up high as the skies.
The hither skirt of them, which will suffice the reader at
present, is:--

That your Grand-Duke Franz, Maria Theresa's Husband, shall in no
wise, as the world and Duke Franz expect, be the Kaiser chosen.
Not he, but another who will suit France better: "Kur-Sachsen
perhaps, the so-called King of Poland? Or say it were Karl Albert
Kur-Baiern, the hereditary friend and dependent of France? We are
not tied to a man: only, at any and at all rates, not Grand-Duke
Franz." This is the grand, essential and indispensable point, alpha
and omega of points; very clear this one to Belleisle,--and towards
this the first steps, if as yet only the first, are also clear to
him. Namely that "the 27th of February next",--which is the time
set by Kur-Mainz and the native Officials for the actual meeting of
their Reichstag to begin Election Business, will be too early a
time; and must be got postponed. [Adelung, ii. 185 ("27th February-
1st March, 1741, at Frankfurt-on-Mayn," appointed by Kur-Mainz
"Arch-Chancellor of the REICH," under date November 3d, 1740);--
ib. 236 ("Delay for a month or two," suggests Kur-Pfalz, on January
12th, seconded by others in the French interest);-- upon which the
appointment, after some arguing, collapsed into the vague, and
there ensued delay enough; actual Election not till January 24th,
1742.] Postponed; which will be possible, perhaps for long; one
knows not for how long: that is a first step definitely clear to
Belleisle. Towards which, as preliminary to it and to all the
others in a dimmer state, there is a second thing clear, and has
even been officially settled (all but the day): That, in the mean
while, and surely the sooner the better, he, Belleisle, Most
Christian Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary to the Reichstag
coming,--do, in his most dazzling and persuasive manner, make a
Tour among German Courts. Let us visit, in our highest and yet in
our softest splendor, the accessible German Courts, especially the
likely or well-disposed: Mainz, Koln, Trier, these, the three
called Spiritual, lie on our very route; then Pfalz, Baiern,
Sachsen:--we will tour diligently up and down; try whether, by
optic machinery and art-magic of the mind, one cannot bring
them round.

In all these preliminary steps and points, and even in that alpha
and omega of excluding Grand-Duke Franz, and getting a Kaiser of
his own, Belleisle succeeded. With painful results to himself and
to millions of his fellow-creatures, to readers of this History,
among others. And became in consequence the most famous of mankind;
and filled the whole world with rumor of Belleisle, in those
years.--A man of such intrinsic distinction as Belleisle, whom
Friedrich afterwards deliberately called a great Captain, and the
only Frenchman with a genius for war; and who, for some time,
played in Europe at large a part like that of Warwick the
Kingmaker: how has he fallen into such oblivion? Many of my readers
never heard of him before; nor, in writing or otherwise, is there
symptom that any living memory now harbors him, or has the least
approach to an image of him! "For the times are babbly," says
Goethe," And then again the times are dumb:--
    <italic>
    Denn geschwatzig sind die Zeiten,
    Und sie sind auch wieder stumm."
    <end italic>

 Alas, if a man sow only chaff, in never so sublime a manner, with
the whole Earth and the long-eared populations looking on, and
chorally singing approval, rendering night hideous,--it will avail
him nothing. And that, to a lamentable extent, was Belleisle's
case. His scheme of action was in most felicitously just accordance
with the national sense of France, but by no means so with the Laws
of Nature and of Fact; his aim, grandiose, patriotic, what you
will, was unluckily false and not true. How could "the times"
continue talking of him? They found they had already talked too
much. Not to say that the French Revolution has since come; and has
blown all that into the air, miles aloft,--where even the solid
part of it, which must be recovered one day, much more the gaseous,
which we trust is forever irrecoverable, now wanders and whirls;
and many things are abolished, for the present, of more value
than Belleisle!--

For my own share, being, as it were, forced accidentally to look at
him again, I find in Belleisle a really notable man; far superior
to the vulgar of noted men, in his time or ours. Sad destiny for
such a man! But when the general Life-element becomes so
unspeakably phantasmal as under Louis XV., it is difficult for any
man to be real; to be other than a play-actor, more or less
eminent,and artistically dressed. Sad enough, surely, when the
truth of your relation to the Universe, and the tragically earnest
meaning of your Life, is quite lied out of you, by a world sunk in
lies; and you can, with effort, attain to nothing but to be a more
or less splendid lie along with it! Your very existence all become
a vesture, a hypocrisy, and hearsay; nothing left of you but this
sad faculty of sowing chaff in the fashionable manner!
After Friedrich and Voltaire, in both of whom, under the given
circumstances, one finds a perennial reality, more or less,--
Belleisle is next; none FAILS to escape the mournful common lot by
a nearer miss than Belleisle.

Beyond doubt, there are in this man the biggest projects any French
head has carried, since Louis XIV. with his sublime periwig first
took to striking the stars. How the indolent Louis XV. and the
pacific Fleury have been got into this sublimely adventurous mood?
By Belleisle chiefly, men say;--and by King Louis's first
Mistresses, blown upon by Belleisle; poor Louis having now, at
length, left his poor Queen to her reflections, and taken into that
sad line, in which by degrees he carried it so far. There are three
of them, it seems;--the first female souls that could ever manage
to kindle, into flame or into smoke: in this or any other kind,
that poor torpid male soul: those Mailly Sisters, three in number
(I am shocked to hear), successive, nay in part simultaneous!
They are proud women, especially the two younger; with ambition in
them, with a bravura magnanimity, of the theatrical or operatic
kind; of whom Louis is very fond. "To raise France to its place,
your Majesty; the top of the Universe, namely!" "Well; if it could
be done,--and quite without trouble?" thinks Louis.
Bravura magnanimity, blown upon by Belleisle, prevails among these
high Improper Females, and generally in the Younger Circles of the
Court; so that poor old Fleury has had no choice but to obey it or
retire. And so Belleisle stalks across the OEil-de-Boeuf in that
important manner, visibly to Geusau; and is the shining object in
Paris, and much the topic there at present.

A few weeks hence, he is farther--a little out of the common turn,
but not beyond his military merits or capabilities--made Marechal
de France; [<italic> Fastes de Louis XV., <end italic> i. 356 (12th
February, 1741).] by way of giving him a new splendor in the German
Political World, and assisting in his operations there, which
depend much upon the laws of vision. French epigrams circulate in
consequence, and there are witty criticisms; to which Belleisle,
such a dusky world of Possibility lying ahead, is grandly
indifferent. Marechal de France;--and Geusau hears (what is a fact)
that there are to be "thirty young French Lords in his suite;" his
very "Livery," or mere plush retinue, "to consist of 110 persons;"
such an outfit for magnificence as was never seen before. And in
this equipment, "early in March" (exact day not given),
magnificence of outside corresponding to grandiosity of faculty and
idea, Belleisle, we shall find, does practically set off towards
Germany;--like a kind of French Belus, or God of the Sun; capable to
dazzle weak German Courts, by optical machinery, and to set much
rotten thatch on fire!--

"There are curious daguerrotype glimpses of old Paris to be found
in that Notebook of Geusau's", says another Excerpt; "which come
strangely home to us, like reality at first-hand;--and a rather
unexpected Paris it is, to most readers; many things then alive
there, which are now deep underground. Much Jansenist Theology
afloat; grand French Ladies piously eager to convert a young
Protestant Nobleman like Reuss; sublime Dorcases, who do not rouge,
or dress high, but eschew the evil world, and are thrifty for the
Poor's sake, redeeming the time. There is a Cardinal de Polignac,
venerable sage and ex-political person, of astonishing erudition,
collector of Antiques (with whom we dined); there is the Chevalier
Ramsay, theological Scotch Jacobite, late Tutor of the young
Turenne. So many shining persons, now fallen indistinct again.
And then, besides gossip, which is of mild quality and in fair
proportion,--what talk, casuistic and other, about the Moral
Duties, the still feasible Pieties, the Constitution Unigenitus!
All this alive, resonant at dinner-tables of Conservative stamp;
the Miracles of Abbe Paris much a topic there:--and not a whisper
of Infidel Philosophies; the very name of Voltaire not once
mentioned in the Reuss section of Parisian things.

"There is rumor now and then of a 'Comte de Rothenbourg,'
conspicuous in the Parisian circles; a shining military man, but
seemingly in want of employment; who has lost in gambling, within
the last four years, upwards of 50,000 pounds (1,300,000 livres,
the exact cipher given). This is the Graf von Rothenburg whom
Friedrich made acquaintance with, in the Rhine Campaign six years
ago, and has ever since had in his eye;--whom, in a few weeks
hence, Friedrich beckons over to him into the Prussian States:
'Hither, and you shall have work!' Which Rothenburg accepts; with
manifold advantage to both parties:--one of Friedrich's most
distinguished friends for the rest of his life.

"Of Cardinal Polignac there is much said, and several dinners with
him are transacted, dialogue partly given: a pious wise old
gentleman really, in his kind (age now eighty-four); looking mildly
forth upon a world just about to overset itself and go topsy-turvy,
as he sees it will. His ANTI-LUCRETIUS was once such a Poem!--but
we mention him here because his fine Cabinet of Antiques came to
Berlin on his death, Friedrich purchasing; and one often hears of
it (if one cared to hear) from the Prussian Dryasdust in subsequent
years. [Came to Charlottenburg, August, 1742 (old Polignac had died
November last, ten months after those Geusau times): cost of the
Polignac Cabinet was 40,000 thalers (6,000 pounds) say some, 90,000
livres (under 4,000 pounds) say others; cheap at either price;--
and, by chance, came opportunely, "a fire having just burnt down
the Academy Edifice," and destroyed much ware of that kind.
Rodenbeck, i. 73; Seyfarth (Anonymous), <italic> Geschichte
Friedrichs des Andern, <end italic> i. 236.]

"Of Friedrich's unexpected Invasion of Silesia there are also
talkings and surmisings, but in a mild indifferent tone, and much
in the vague. And in the best-informed circles it is thought
Belleisle will manage to HAVE Grand-Duke Franz, the Queen of
Hungary's Husband, chosen Kaiser, and, in some mild good way, put
an end to all that;"--which is far indeed from Belleisle's
intention!



Chapter VIII.

PHENOMENA IN PETERSBURG.

I know not whether Major Winterfeld, who was sent to Petersburg in
December last, had got back to Berlin in February, now while
Friedrich is there: but for certain the good news of him had, That
he had been completely successful, and was coming speedily, to
resume his soldier duties in right time. As Winterfeld is an
important man (nearly buried into darkness in the dull Prussian
Books), let us pause for a moment on this Negotiation of his;--and
on the mad Russian vicissitudes which preceded and followed, so far
as they concern us. Russia, a big demi-savage neighbor next door,
with such caprices, such humors and interests, is always an
important, rather delicate object to Friedrich; and Fortune's mad
wheel is plunging and canting in a strange headlong way there, of
late. Czarina Anne, we know, is dead; the Autocrat of All the
Russias following the Kaiser of the Romans within eight days.
Iwan, her little Nephew, still in swaddling-clothes, is now
Autocrat of All the Russias if he knew it, poor little red-colored
creature; and Anton Ulrich and his Mecklenburg Russian Princess--
But let us take up the matter where our Notebooks left it, in
Friedrich Wilhelm's time:--

"Czarina Anneliese with the big cheek," continues that Notebook, [Supra,
p. 129.] "was extremely delighted to see little Iwan; but enjoyed
him only two months; being herself in dying circumstances.
She appointed little Iwan her Successor, his Mother and Father to
be Guardians over him; but one Bieren (who writes himself Biron,
and "Duke of Courland,' being Czarina's Quasi-Husband these many
years) to be Guardian, as it were, over both them and him. Such had
been the truculent insatiable Bieren's demand on his Czarina.
'You are running on your destruction,' said she, with tears;
but complied, as she had been wont.

"Czarina Anne died 28th October, 1740; leaving a Czar in his
cradle; little Czar Iwan of two months, with Mother and Father to
preside over him, and to be themselves presided over by Bieren, in
this manner. [Mannstein, pp. 264-267 (28th October, by Russian or
Old Style, is "17th;" we TRANSLATE, in this and other cases,
Russian or English, into New Style, unless the contrary is
indicated). This was the first great change for Anton Ulrich;
but others greater are coming. Little Anton, readers know, is
Friedrich's Brother-in-law, much patronized by Austria; Anton's
spouse is the Half-Russian Princess Catherine of Mecklenburg (now
wholly Russian, and called Princess Anne), whom Friedrich at one
time thought of applying for, in his distress about a Wife. These
two, will they side with Prussia, will they side with Austria?
It was hardly worth inquiry, had not Fortune's wheel made suddenly
a great cant, and pitched them to the top, for the time being.

"Bieren lasted only twenty days. He was very high and arbitrary
upon everybody; Anne and Anton Ulrich suffering naturally most from
him. They took counsel with Feldmarschall Munnich on the matter;
who, after study, declared it a remediable case. Friday, 18th
November, Munnich had, by invitation, to dine with Duke Bieren;
Munnich went accordingly that day, and dined; Duke looking a little
flurried, they say: and the same evening, dinner being quite over,
and midnight come, Munnich had his measures all taken, soldiers
ready, warrant in hand;--and arrested Bieren in his bed;
mere Siberia, before sunrise, looming upon Bieren. Never was such a
change as this from 18th day to 19th with a supreme Bieren.
Our friend Mannstein, excellent punctual Aide-de-Camp of Munnich,
was the executor of the feat; and has left punctual record of it,
as he does of everything,---what Bieren said, and what Madam
Bieren, who was a little obstreperous on the occasion. [Mannstein,
p. 268.] What side Anton Ulrich and Spouse will take in a quarrel
between Prussia and Austria, is now well worth asking.

"Anton Ulrich and Wife Anne, that is to say, 'Regent Anne' and
'Generalissimo Anton Ulrich,' now ruled, with Munnich for right-
hand man; and these were high times for Anton Ulrich, Generalissimo
and Czar's-Father; who indeed was modest, and did not often
interfere in words, though grieved at the foolish ways his Wife
had. An indolent flabby kind of creature, she, unfit for an
Autocrat; sat in her private apartments, all in a huddle of
undress; had foolish notions,--especially had soubrettes who led
her about by the ear. And then there was a 'Princess Elizabeth,'
Cousin-german of Regent Anne,--daughter, that is to say, last child
there now was, of Peter the Great and his little brown Catherine:
--who should have been better seen to. Harmless foolish Princess,
not without cunning; young, plump, and following merely her
flirtations and her orthodox devotions; very orthodox and soft, but
capable of becoming dangerous, as a centre of the disaffected.
As 'Czarina Elizabeth' before long, and ultimately as 'INFAME CATIN
DU NORD, she--" But let us not anticipate!

It was in this posture of affairs, about a month after it had
begun, that Winterfeld arrived in Petersburg; and addressed himself
to Munnich, on the Prussian errand. Winterfeld was Munnich's Son-
in-law (properly stepson-in-law, having married Munnich's
stepdaughter, a Fraulein von Malzahn, of good Prussian kin);
was acquainted with the latitudes and longitudes here, and well
equipped for the operation in hand. To Madam Munnich, once Madam
Malzahn, his Mother-in-law, he carried a diamond ring of 1,200
pounds, "small testimony of his Prussian Majesty's regard to so
high a Prussian Lady;" to Munnich's Son and Madam's a present of
3,000 pounds on the like score: and the wheels being oiled in this
way, and the steam so strong (son Winterfeld an ardent man, father
Munnich the like, supreme in Russia, and the thing itself a
salutary thing), the diplomatic speed obtained was great.
Winterfeld had arrived in Petersburg December 19th: Treaty of
Alliance to the effect, "Firm friends and good neighbors, we Two,
Majesties of Prussia and of All the Russias; will help each the
other, if attacked, with 12,000 men,"--was signed on the 27th:
whole Transaction, so important to Friedrich, complete in eight
days. Austrian Botta, directly on the heel of those unsatisfactory
Dialogues about Silesian roads, about troops that were pretty, but
had never looked the wolf in the face,--had rushed off, full speed,
for Petersburg, in hopes of running athwart such a Treaty as
Winterfeld's, and getting one for Austria instead. But he arrived
too late; and perhaps could have done nothing had he been in time.
Botta tried his utmost for years afterwards, above ground and
below, to obstruct and reverse this thing; but it was to no
purpose, and even to less; and only, in result, brought Botta
himself into flagrant diplomatic trouble and scandal; which made
noise enough in the then Gazetteer world, and was the finale of
Botta's Russian efforts, [Adelung, iii. ii. 289; Mannstein, p. 375
("Lapuschin Plot," of Botta's raising, found out "August, 1743;"--
Botta put in arrest, &c.).] though not worth mentioning now.
The Russian Notebook continues:--

"Munnich, supreme in Russia since Bieren's removal, had wise
counsels for the Regent Anne and her Husband; though perhaps, being
a high old military gentleman, he might be somewhat abrupt in his
ways. And there were domestic Ostermanns, foreign Bottas, La
Chetardies, and dangerous Intriguers and Opposition figures, to
improve any grudge that might arise. Sure enough, in March, 1741,
Feldmarschall Munnich was forbid the Court (some Ostermann
succeeding him there): 'Ever true to your Two Highnesses, though no
longer needed;'--and withdrew, in a lofty friendly strain; his Son
continuing at Court, though Papa had withdrawn. Supreme Munnich had
lasted about four months; Supreme Bieren hardly three weeks;--and
Siberia is still agape.

"Munnich being gone to his own Town-Mansion, and Regent Anne
sitting in hers in a huddle of undress; little accessible to her
long-headed melancholic Ostermann, and too accessible to her
Livonian maid: with poor little Anton Ulrich pouting and
remonstrating, but unable to help,--this state of matters, with
such intrigues undermining it, could not last forever. And had not
Princess Elizabeth been of indolent luxurious nature, intent upon
her prayers and flirtations, it would have ended sooner even than
it did. Princess Elizabeth had a Surgeon called L'Estoc; a Marquis
de la Chetardie, a high-flown French Excellency (who used to be at
Berlin, to our young Friedrich's delight), was her--What shall I
say? La Chetardie himself had no scruple to say it! These two
plotted for her; these were ready,--could she have been got ready;
which was not so easy. Regent Anne had her suspicions; but the
Princess was so indolent, so good: at last, when directly taxed
with such a thing, the Princess burst into ingenuous weeping; quite
disarmed Regent Anne's suspicions;--but found she had now better
take L'Estoc's advice, and proceed at once. Which she did.

"And so, on the morrow morning, 5th December, 1741, by aid of the
Preobrazinsky Regiment, and the motions usual on such occasions,--
in fact by merely pulling out the props from an undermined state of
matters,--she reduced said state gently to ruin, ready for carting
to Siberia, like its foregoers; and was hereby Czarina of All the
Russias, prosperously enough for the rest of her life. Twenty years
or rather more. An indolent, orthodox, plump creature, disinclined
to cruelty; 'not an ounce of nun's flesh in her composition,' said
the wits. She maintained the Friedrich Treaty, indignant at Botta
and his plots; was well with Friedrich, or might have been kept so
by management, for there was no cause of quarrel, but the reverse,
between the Countries,--could Friedrich have held his witty tongue,
when eavesdroppers were by. But he could not always; though he
tried. And sarcastic quizzing (especially if it be truth too), on
certain female topics, what Improper Female, Czarina of All the
Russias, could stand it? The history is but a distressing one, a
disgusting one, in human affairs. Elizabeth was orthodox, too, and
Friedricb not, 'the horrid man!' The fact is,--fact dismally
indubitable, though it is huddled into discreet dimness, and all
details of it (as to what Friedrich's witticisms were, and the
like) are refused us in the Prussian Books,--indignation, owing to
such dismal cause, became fixed hate on the Czarina's part, and
there followed terrible results at last: A Czarina risen to the
cannibal pitch upon a man, in his extreme need;--'INFAME CATIN DU
NORD,' thinks the man! Friedrich's wit cost him dear; him, and half
a million others still dearer, twenty years hence."--Till which
time we will gladly leave the Czarina and it.

Major von Winterfeld had been in Russia before this; and had wooed
his fair Malzahn there. He is the same Winterfeld whom we once saw
dining by the wayside with the late Friedrich Wilhelm, on that last
Review-Journey his Majesty made. A Captain in the Potsdam Giants at
that time; always in great favor with the late King; and in still
greater with the present,--who finds in him, we can dimly discover,
and pretty much in him alone, a soul somewhat like his own; the one
real "peer" he had about him. A man of little education; bred in
camps; yet of a proud natural eminency, and rugged nobleness of
genius and mind. Let readers mark this fiery hero-spirit, lying
buried in those dull Books, like lightning among clay. Here is
another anecdote of his Russian business:--

"Winterfeld had gone, in Friedrich Wilhelm's time, with a party of
Prussian drill-sergeants for Petersburg [year not given]; and duly
delivered them there. He naturally saw much of Feldmarschall
Munnich, naturally saw the Step-daughter of the Feldmarschall, a
shining beauty in Petersburg; Winterfeld himself a man of shining
gifts, and character; and one of the handsomest tall men in the
world. Mutual love between the Fraulein and him was the rapid
result. But how to obtain marriage? Winterfeld cannot marry,
without leave had of his superiors: you, fair Malzahn, are Hof-Dame
of Princess Elizabeth, all your fortune the jewels you wear; and it
is too possible she will not let you go!

"They agreed to be patient, to be silent; to watch warily till
Winterfeld got home to Prussia, till the Fraulein Malzahn could




also contrive to get home. Winterfeld once home, and the King's
consent had, the Fraulein applied to Princess Elizabeth for leave
of absence: 'A few months, to see my friends in Deutschland, your
Highness!' Princess Elizabeth looked hard at her; answered
evasively this and that. At last, being often importuned, she
answered plainly, 'I almost feel convinced thou wilt never come
back!' Protestations from the Fraulein were not wanting:--
'Well then,' said Elizabeth, 'if thou art so sure of it, leave me
thy jewels in pledge. Why not?' The poor Fraulein could not say
why; had to leave her jewels, which were her whole fine fortune,
'worth 100,000 rubles' (20,000 pounds); and is now the brave Wife
of Winterfeld;--but could never, by direct entreaty or circuitous
interest and negotiation, get back the least item of her jewels.
Elizabeth, as Princess and as Czarina, was alike deaf on that
subject. Now or henceforth that proved an impossible private
enterprise for Winterfeld, though he had so easily succeeded in the
public one." [Retzow, <italic> Charakteristik des siebenjahrigen
Krieges <end italic> (Berlin, 1802), i. 45 n.]

The new Czarina was not unmerciful. Munnich and Company were tried
for life; were condemned to die, and did appear on the scaffold
(29th January, 1742), ready for that extreme penalty; but were
there, on the sudden, pardoned or half-pardoned by a merciful new
Czarina, and sent to Siberia and outer darkness. Whither Bieren had
preceded them. To outer darkness also, though a milder destiny had
been intended them at first, went Anton Ulrich and his Household.
Towards native Germany at first; they had got as far as Riga on the
way to Germany, but were detained there, for a long while (owing to
suspicions, to Botta Plots, or I know not what), till finally they
were recalled into Russian exile. Strict enough exile, seclusion
about Archangel and elsewhere; in convents, in obscure
uncomfortable places:--little Iwan, after vicissitudes, even went
underground; grew to manhood, and got killed (partly by accident,
not quite by murder), some twenty-three years hence, in his dungeon
in the Fortress of Schlusselburg, below the level of the Ladoga
waters there. Unluckier Household, which once seemed the luckiest
of the world, was never known. Canted suddenly, in this way, from
the very top of Fortune's wheel to the very bottom; never to rise
more;--and did not even die, at least not all die, for thirty or
forty years after. [Anton Ulrich, not till 15th May, 1775 (two
Daughters of his went, after this, to "Horstens, a poor Country-
House in Jutland," whither Catherine II. had manumitted them, with
pension;--she had wished Anton Ulrich to go home, many years
before; but he would not, from shame).--Iwan had perished 5th
August, 1764 (Catherine II. blamed for his death, but without
cause); Iwan's Mother, Princess Anne, (mercifully) 18th March,
1746. See Russian Histories, TOOKE, CASTERA, &c.,--none of which,
except MANNSTEIN, is good for much, or to be trusted
without scrutiny.]

This is the Chetardie-L'Estoc conspiracy, of 5th December, 1741;
the pitching up of Princess Elizabeth, and the pitching down of
Anton Ulrich and his Munnichs, who had before pitched Bieren down.
After which, matters remained more stationary at Petersburg:
Czarina Elizabeth, fat indolent soul, floated with a certain native
buoyancy, with something of bulky steadiness, in the turbid plunge
of things, and did not sink. On the contrary, her reign, so called,
was prosperous, though stupid; her big dark Countries, kindled
already into growth, went on growing rather. And, for certain, she
herself went on growing, in orthodox devotions of spiritual type
(and in strangely heterodox ditto of NONspiritual!); in indolent
mansuetudes (fell rages, if you cut on the RAWS at all!);
in perpetual incongruity; and, alas, at last, in brandy-and-water,
--till, as "INFAME CATIN DU NORD," she became terribly important to
some persons!

At her accession, and for two years following, Czarina Elizabeth,
in spite of real disinclination that way, had a War on her hands:
the Swedish War (August, 1741-August, 1743), which, after long
threatening on the Swedish side, had broken out into unwelcome
actuality, in Anton Ulrich's time; and which could not, with all
the Czarina's industry, be got rid of or staved off; Sweden being
bent upon the thing, reason or no reason. War not to be spoken of,
except on compulsion, in the most voluminous History! It was the
unwisest of wars, we should say, and in practice probably the
contemptiblest; if there were not one other Swedish War coming,
which vies with it in these particulars, of which we shall be
obliged to speak, more or less, at a future stage. Of this present
Russian-Swedish war, having happily almost nothing to do with it,
we can, except in the way of transient chronology, refrain
altogether from speaking or thinking.

Poor Sweden, since it shot Karl XII. in the trenches at
Fredericshall, could not get a King again; and is very anarchic
under its Phantasm King and free National Palaver,--Senate with
subaltern Houses;--which generally has French gold in its pocket,
and noise instead of wisdom in its head. Scandalous to think of or
behold. The French, desirous to keep Russia in play during these
high Belleisle adventures now on foot, had, after much egging,
bribing, flattering, persuaded vain Sweden into this War with
Russia. "At Narva they were 80,000, we 8,000; and what became of
them!" cry the Swedes always. Yes, my friends, but you had a
Captain at Narva; you had not yet shot your Captain when you did
Narva! "Faction of Hats," "Faction of Caps" (that is, NIGHT-caps,
as being somnolent and disinclined to France and War): seldom did a
once-valiant far-shining Nation sink to such depths, since they
shot their Captain, and said to Anarchy, "THOU art Captaincy, we
see, and the Divine thing!" Of the Wars and businesses of such a
set of mortals let us shun speaking, where possible.

Mannstein gives impartial account, pleasantly clear and compact, to
such as may be curious about this Swedish-Russian War; and, in the
didactic point of view, it is not without value. To us the
interesting circumstance is, that it does not interfere with our
Silesian operations at all; and may be figured as a mere
accompaniment of rumbling discord, or vacant far-off noise, going
on in those Northern parts,--to which therefore we hope to be
strangers in time coming. Here are some dates, which the reader may
take with him, should they chance to illustrate anything:--

"AUGUST 4th, 1741. The Swedes declare War: 'Will recover their lost
portions of Finland, will,' &c. &c. They had long been meditating
it; they had Turk negotiations going on, diligent emissaries to the
Turk (a certain Major Sinclair for one, whom the Russians waylaid
and assassinated to get sight of his Papers) during the late Turk-
Russian War; but could conclude nothing while that was in activity;
concluded only after that was done,--striking the iron when grown
COLD. A chief point in their Manifesto was the assassination of
this Sinclair; scandal and atrocity, of which there is no doubt now
the Russians were guilty. Various pretexts for the War:--prime
movers to it, practically, were the French, intent on keeping
Russia employed while their Belleisle German adventure went on, and
who had even bargained with third parties to get up a War there, as
we shall see.

"SEPTEMBER 3d, 1741. At Wilmanstrand,--key of Wyborg, their
frontier stronghold in Finland, which was under Siege,--the Swedes
(about 5,000 of them, for they had nothing to live upon, and lay
scattered about in fractions) made fight, or skirmish, against a
Russian attacking party: Swedes, rather victorious on their hill-
top, rushed down; and totally lost their bit of victory, their
Wilmanstrand, their Wyborg, and even the War itself;--for this was,
in literal truth, the only fighting done by them in the entire
course of it, which lasted near two years more. The rest of it was
retreat, capitulation, loss on loss without stroke struck; till
they had lost all Finland, and were like to lose Sweden itself,--
Dalecarlian mutiny bursting out ('Ye traitors, misgovernors, worthy
of death!'), with invasive Danes to rear of it;--and had to call in
the very Russians to save them from worse. Czarina Elizabeth at the
time of her accession, six months after Wilmanstrand, had made
truce, was eager to make peace: 'By no means!' answered Sweden,
taking arms again, or rather taking legs again; and rushing
ruin-ward, at the old rate, still without stroke.

"JUNE 28th, 1743. They did halt; made Peace of Abo (Truce and
Preliminaries signed there, that day: Peace itself, August 17th);
Czarina magnanimously restoring most of their Finland (thinking to
herself, 'Not done enough for me yet; cook it a little yet!');--
and settling who their next King was to be, among other friendly
things. And in November following, Keith, in his Russian galleys,
with some 10,000 Russians on board, arrived in Stockholm;
protective against Danes and mutinous Dalecarles: stayed there till
June of next year, 1744." [Adelung, ii. 445. Mannstein, pp. 297
(Wilmanstrand Affair, himself present), 365 (Peace), 373 (Keith's
RETURN with his galleys). Comte de Hordt (present also, on the
Swedish side, and subsequently a Soldier of Friedrich's) <italic>
Memoires) <end italic> (Berlin, 1789), i. 18-88. The murder of
Sinclair (done by "four Russian subalterns, two miles from Naumberg
in Silesia, 17th June, 1739, about 7 P.M.") is amply detailed from
Documents, in a late Book: Weber, <italic> Aus Vier Jahrhunderten
<end italic> (Leipzig, 1858), i. 274-279.] Is not this a War!

On the Russian side, General Keith, under Field-marshal Lacy as
chief in command (the same Keith whom we saw at Oczakow under
Munnich, some time ago), had a great deal of the work and
management; which was of a highly miscellaneous kind, commanding
fleets of gunboats, and much else; and readers of MANNSTEIN can
still judge,--much more could King Friedrich, earnestly watching
the affair itself as it went on,--whether Keith did not do it in a
solid and quietly eminent and valiant manner. Sagacious, skilful,
imperturbable, without fear and without noise; a man quietly ever
ready. He had quelled, once, walking direct into the heart of it, a
ferocious Russian mutiny, or uproar from below, which would have
ruined everything in few minutes more. [Mannstein, p. 130 (no date,
April-May, 1742.) He suffered, with excellent silence, now and
afterwards, much ill-usage from above withal;--till Friedrich
himself, in the third year hence, was lucky enough to get him as
General. Friedrich's Sister Ulrique, the marriage of Princess
Ulrique,--that also, as it chanced, had something to do with this
Peace of Abo. But we anticipate too far.



Chapter IX.

FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA.

Friedrich stayed only three weeks at home; moving about, from
Berlin to Potsdam, to Reinsberg and back: all the gay world is in
Berlin, at this Carnival time; but Friedrich has more to do with
business, of a manifold and over-earnest nature, than with Carnival
gayeties. French Valori is here, "my fat Valori," who is beginning
to be rather a favorite of Friedrich's: with Excellency Valori, and
with the other Foreign Excellencies, there was diplomatic passaging
in these weeks; and we gather from Valori, in the inverse way
(Valori fallen sulky), that it was not ill done on Friedrich's
part. He had some private consultation with the Old Dessauer, too;
"probably on military points," thinks Valori. At least there was
noticed more of the drill-sergeant than before, in his handling of
the Army, when he returned to Silesia, continues the sulky one.
"Troops and generals did not know him again,"--so excessively
strict was he grown, on the sudden. And truly "he got into details
which were beneath, not only a Prince who has great views, but even
a simple Captain of Infantry,"--according to my (Valori's) military
notions and experiences! [Valori, i. 99.]--

The truth is, Friedrich begins to see, more clearly than he did
with GLOIRE dazzling him, that his position is an exceedingly grave
one, full of risk, in the then mood and condition of the world;
that he, in the whole world, has no sure friend but his Army;
and that in regard to IT he cannot be too vigilant! The world is
ominous to this youngest of the Kings more than to another.
Sounds as of general Political Earthquake grumble audibly to him
from the deeps: all Europe likely, in any event, to get to
loggerheads on this Austrian Pragmatic matter; the Nations all
watching HIM, to see what he will make of it:--fugleman he to the
European Nations, just about bursting up on such an adventure.
It may be a glorious position, or a not glorious; but, for certain,
it is a dangerous one, and awfully solitary!--

Fuglemen the world and its Nations always have, when simultaneously
bent any-whither, wisely or unwisely; and it is natural that the
most adventurous spirit take that post. Friedrich has not sought
the post; but following his own objects, has got it; and will be
ignominiously lost, and trampled to annihilation under the hoofs of
the world, if he do not mind! To keep well ahead;--to be rapid as
possible; that were good:--to step aside were still better!
And Friedrich we find is very anxious for that; "would be content
with the Duchy of Glogau, and join Austria;" but there is not the
least chance that way. His Special Envoy to Vienna, Gotter, and
along with him Borck the regular Minister, are come home;
all negotiation hopeless at Vienna; and nothing but indignant war-
preparation going on there, with the most animated diligence, and
more success than had seemed possible. That is the law of
Friedrich's Silesian Adventure: "Forward, therefore, on these
terms; others there are not: waste no words!" Friedrich recognizes
to himself what the law is; pushes stiffly forward, with a fine
silence on all that is not practical, really with a fine steadiness
of hope, and audacity against discouragements. Of his anxieties,
which could not well be wanting, but which it is royal to keep
strictly under lock and key, of these there is no hint to Jordan or
to anybody; and only through accidental chinks, on close scrutiny,
can we discover that they exist. Symptom of despondency, of
misgiving or repenting about his Enterprise, there is none
anywhere, Friedrich's fine gifts of SILENCE (which go deeper than
the lips) are noticeable here, as always; and highly they availed
Friedrich in leading his life, though now inconvenient to
Biographers writing of the same!--

It was not on matters of drill, as Valori supposes, that Friedrich
had been consulting with the Old Dessauer: this time it was on
another matter. Friedrich has two next Neighbors greatly
interested, none more so, in the Pragmatic Question: Kur-Sachsen,
Polish King, a foolish greedy creature, who is extremely uncertain
about his course in it (and indeed always continued so, now against
Friedrich, now for him, and again against); and Kur-Hanover, our
little George of England, whose course is certain as that of the
very stars, and direct against Friedrich at this time, as indeed,
at all times not exceptional, it is apt to be. Both these
Potentates must be attended to, in one's absence; method to be
gentle but effectual; the Old Dessauer to do it:--and this is what
these consultings had turned upon; and in a month or two, readers,
and an astonished Gazetteer world, will see what comes of them.

It was February 19th when Friedrich left Berlin; the 21st he spends
at Glogau, inspecting the Blockade there, and not ill content with
the measures taken: "Press that Wallis all you can," enjoins he:
"Hunger seems to be slow about it! Summon him again, were your new
Artillery come up; threaten with bombardment; but spare the Town,
if possible. Artillery is coming: let us have done here, and soon!"
Next day he arrives, not at Breslau as some had expected, but at
Schweidnitz sidewards; a strong little Town, at least an
elaborately fortified, of which we shall hear much in time coming.
It lies a day's ride west of Breslau: and will be quieter for
business than a big gazing Capital would be,--were Breslau even
one's own city; which it is not, though perhaps tending to be.
Breslau is in transition circumstances at present; a little
uncertain WHOSE it is, under its Munchows and new managers: Breslau
he did not visit at all on this occasion. To Schweidnitz certain
new regiments had been ordered, there to be disposed of in
reinforcing: there, "in the Count Hoberg's Mansion," he principally
lodges for six weeks to come; shooting out on continual excursions;
but always returning to Schweidnitz, as the centre, again.

Algarotti, home from Turin (not much of a success there, but always
melodious for talk), had travelled with him; Algarotti, and not
long after, Jordan and Maupertuis, bear him company, that the
vacant moments too be beautiful. We can fancy he has a very busy,
very anxious, but not an unpleasant time. He goes rapidly about,
visiting his posts,--chiefly about the Neisse Valley; Neisse being
the prime object, were the weather once come for siege-work. He is
in many Towns (specified in RODENBECK and the Books, but which may
be anonymous here); doubtless on many Steeples and Hill-tops;
questioning intelligent natives, diligently using his own eyes:
intent to make personal acquaintance with this new Country,--where,
little as he yet dreams of it, the deadly struggles of his Life lie
waiting him, and which he will know to great perfection before all
is done!

Neisse lies deep enough in Prussian environment; like Brieg, like
Glogau, strictly blockaded; our posts thereabouts, among the
Mountains, thought to be impregnable. Nevertheless, what new thing
is this? Here are swarms of loose Hussar-Pandour people, wild
Austrian Irregulars, who come pouring out of Glatz Country;
disturbing the Prussian posts towards that quarter; and do not let
us want for Small War (KLEINE KRIEG) so called. General Browne, it
appears, is got back to Glatz at this early season, he and a
General Lentulus busy there; and these are the compliments they
send! A very troublesome set of fellows, infesting one's purlieus
in winged predatory fashion; swooping down like a cloud of
vulturous harpies on the sudden; fierce enough, if the chance
favor; then to wing again, if it do not. Communication, especially
reconnoitring, is not safe in their neighborhood. Prussian
Infantry, even in small parties, generally beats them; Prussian
Horse not, but is oftener beaten,--not drilled for this rabble and
their ways. In pitched fight they are not dangerous, rather are
despicable to the disciplined man; but can, on occasion, do a great
deal of mischief.

Thus, it was not long after Friedrich's coming into these parts,
when he learnt with sorrow that a Body of "500 Horse and 500 Foot"
(or say it were only 300 of each kind, which is the fact [Orlich,
i. 79; <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> ii. 68.]) had
eluded our posts in the Mountains, and actually got into Neisse.
"The Foot will be of little consequence," writes Friedrich;
"but the Horse, which will disturb our communications, are a
considerable mischief." This was on the 5th of March. And about a
week before, on the 27th of February, there had well-nigh a far
graver thing befallen,--namely the capture of Friedrich himself,
and the sudden end of all these operations.


SKIRMISH OF BAUMGARTEN, 27th FEBRUARY, 1741.

In most of the Anecdote-Books there used to figure, and still does,
insisting on some belief from simple persons, a wonderful Story in
very vague condition: How once "in the Silesian Wars," the King, in
those Upper Neisse regions, in the Wartha district between Glatz
and Neisse, was, one day, within an inch of being taken,--clouds of
Hussars suddenly rising round him, as he rode reconnoitring, with
next to no escort, only an adjutant or so in attendance. How he
shot away, keeping well in the shade; and erelong whisked into a
Convent or Abbey, the beautiful Abbey of Kamenz in those parts;
and found Tobias Stusche, excellent Abbot of the place, to whom he
candidly disclosed his situation. How the excellent Tobias
thereupon instantly ordered the bells to be rung for a mass
extraordinary, Monks not knowing why; and, after bells, made his
appearance in high costume, much to the wonder of his Monks, with a
SECOND Abbot, also in high costume, but of shortish stature, whom
they never saw before or after. Which two Abbots, or at least
Tobias, proceeded to do the so-called divine office there and then;
letting loose the big chant especially, and the growl of organs, in
a singularly expressive manner. How the Pandours arrived in clouds
meanwhile; entered, in searching parties, more or less reverent of
the mass; searched high and low; but found nothing, and were
obliged to take Tobias's blessing at last, and go their ways.
How the Second Abbot thereupon swore eternal friendship with
Tobias, in the private apartments; and rode off as--as a rescued
Majesty, determined to be more cautious in Pandour Countries for
the future! [Hildebrandt, <italic> Anekdoten, <end italic> i. 1-7.
Pandour proper is a FOOT-soldier (tall raw-boned ill-washed biped,
in copious Turk breeches, rather barish in the top parts of him;
carries a very long musket, and has several pistols and butcher's-
knives stuck in his girdle): specifically a footman; but readers
will permit me to use him withal, as here, in the generic sense.]--
Which story, as to the body of it, is all myth; though, as is
oftenest the case, there lies in it some soul of fact too.
The History-Books, which had not much heeded the little fact, would
have nothing to do with this account of it. Nevertheless the people
stuck to their Myth; so that Dryasdust (in punishment for his
sinful blindness to the human and divine significance of facts) was
driven to investigate the business; and did at last victoriously
bring it home to the small occurrence now called SKIRMISH OF
BAUMGARTEN, which had nearly become so great in the History of the
World,--to the following effect.

There are two Valleys with roads that lead from that Southwest
quarter of Silesia towards Glatz, each with a little Town at the
end of it, looking up into it: Wartha the name of the one:
Silberberg that of the other. Through the Wartha Valley, which is
southernmost, young Neisse River comes rushing down,--the blue
mountains thereabouts very pretty, on a clear spring day, says my
touring friend. Both at Wartha, and at Silberberg the little Town
which looks into the mouth of the northernmost Valley, the
Prussians have a post. Old Derschau, Malplaquet Derschau, with
headquarters at Frankenstein, some seven or eight miles nearer
Schweidnitz, has not failed in that precaution. Friedrich wished to
visit Silberberg and Wartha; set out accordingly, 27th February,
with small escort, carelessly as usual: the Pandour people had wind
of it; knew his habits on such occasions; and, gliding through
other roadless valleys, under an adventurous Captain, had
determined to whirl him off. And they were in fact not far from
succeeding, had not a mistake happened.

Silberberg, and Wartha the southernmost, which stands upon the
Neisse River (rushing out there into the plainer country), are each
about seven or eight miles from Frankenstein, the Head-quarters;
and there are relays of posts, capable of supporting one another,
all the way from Frankenstein to each. Friedrich rode to Silberberg
first; examined the post, found it right; then rode across to
Wartha, seven or eight miles southward; examined Wartha likewise;
after which, he sat down to dinner in that little Town, with an
Officer or two for company,--having, I suppose, found all right in
both the posts. In the way hither, he had made some change in the
relay arrangements, which at first involved some diminution of his
own escort, and then some marching about and redistributing:
so that, externally, it seemed as if the Principal Relay-party were
now marching on Baumgarten, an intermediate Village,--at least so
the Pandour Captain understands the movements going on; and
crouches into the due thickets in consequence, not doubting but the
King himself is for Baumgarten, and will be at hand presently.
Principal relay-party, a squadron of Schulenburg's Dragoons, with a
stupid Major over them, is not quite got into Baumgarten, when
"with horrible cries the Pandour Captain with about 500 horse,"
plunges out of cover, direct upon the throat of it: and Friedrich,
at Wartha, is but just begun dining when tumult of distant musketry
breaks in upon him. With Friedrich himself, at this time, as I
count, there might be 150 Horse; in Wartha post itself are at least
"forty hussars and fifty foot." By no means "nothing but a single
adjutant," as the Myth bears.

The stupid Major ought to have beaten this rabble, though above two
to one of him. But he could not, though he tried considerably;
on the contrary, he was himself beaten; obliged to make off,
leaving "ten dragoons killed, sixteen prisoners, one standard and
two kettle-drums:"--victorv and all this plunder, ye Pandour
gentry; but evidently no King. The Pandour gentry, on the instant,
made off too, alarm being abroad; got into some side-valley, with
their prisoners and drum-and-standard honors, and vanished from
view of mankind.

Friedrich had started from dinner; got his escort under way, with
the forty hussars and the fifty foot, and what small force was
attainable; and hurried towards the scene. He did see, by the road,
another strongish party of Pandours; dashed them across the Neisse
River out of sight;--but, getting to Baumgarten, found the field
silent, and ten dead men upon it. "I always told you those
Schulenburg Dragoons were good for nothing!" writes he to the Old
Dessauer; but gradually withal, on comparing notes, finds what a
danger he had run, and how rash and foolish he had been.
"An ETOURDERIE (foolish trick)," he calls it, writing to Jordan;
"a black eye;" and will avoid the like. Vienna got its two kettle-
drums and flag; extremely glad to see them; and even sang TE-DEUM
upon them, to general edification. [Orlich, i. 62-64.] This is the
naked primordial substance out of which the above Myth grew to its
present luxuriance in the popular imagination. Place, the little
Village of Baumgarten; day, 27th February, 1741. Of Tobias Stusche
or the Convent of Kamenz, not one authentic word on this occasion.
Tobias did get promotions, favors in coming years: a worthy Abbot,
deserving promotion on general grounds; and master of a Convent
very picturesque, but twelve miles from the present scene
of action.


ASPECTS OF BRESLAU.

Friedrich avoided visiting Breslau, probably for the reasons above
given; though there are important interests of his there,
especially his chief Magazine; and issues of moment are silently
working forward. Here are contemporary Excerpts (in abridged form),
which are authentic, and of significance to a lively reader:--

"BRESLAU, MIDDLE OF JANUARY, 1741. The Prussian Envoy, Herr von
Gotter, had appeared here, returning from Vienna; Gotter, and then
Borck, who made no secret in Breslau society, That not the
slightest hope of a peaceable result existed, as society might have
flattered itself; but that war and battle would have to decide this
matter. A Saxon Ambassador was also here, waiting some time;
message thought to be insignificant:--probably some vague
admonitory stuff again from Kur-Sachsen (Polish King, son of August
the Strong, a very insignificant man), who acts as REICHS-VICARIUS
in those Northern parts." For the reader is to know, there are
Reichs-Vicars more than one (nay more than two on this occasion,
with considerable jarring going on about them); and I could say
much about their dignities, limits, duties, [Adelung, ii. 143, &c.;
Kohler, <italic> Reichs-Historie, <end italic> pp. 585-589.]--if
indeed there were any duties, except dramatic ones! But the Reich
itself, and Vicarship along with it, are fallen into a nearly
imaginary condition; and the Regensburg Diet (not Princes now, but
mere Delegates of Princes, mostly Bombazine People), which, "ever
since 1663," has sat continual, instead of now and then, is become
an Enchanted Piggery, strange to look upon, under those earnest
stars. "As King Friedrich did not call at Greslau," after those
Neisse bombardments, but rolled past, straight homewards, the three
Excellencies all departed,--Borck and Gotter to Berlin, the Saxon
home again with his insignificant message.

"JANUARY 19th. Schwerin too was here in the course of the winter,
to see how the magazines and other war-preparations were going on:
Breslau outwardly and inwardly is whirling with business, and
offers phenomena. For instance, it is known that the Army-Chest,
heaps of silver and gold in it, lies in the Scultet Garden-House,
where the King lodged; and that only one sentry walks there, and
that in the guard-house itself, which is some way off, there are
only thirty men. January 19th, about 9 of the clock,
[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 700.] alarm rises,
That 2,000 DIEBS-GESINDEL (Collective Thief-rabble of Breslau and
dependencies) are close by; intending a stroke upon said Garden-
House and Army-Chest! Perhaps this rumor sprang of its own accord;
--or perhaps not quite? It had been very rife; and ran high; not
without remonstrances in Town-Hall, and the like, which we can
imagine. Issue was, The Officer on post at Scultet's loaded his
treasure in carts; conveyed it, that same night, to the interior of
the City, in fact to the OBERAMTS-HAUS (Government-House that was);
--which doubtless was a step in the right direction. For now the
Two Feld-Kriegs-Commissariat Gentlemen (one of whom is the expert
Munchow, son of our old Custrin friend), supreme Prussian
Authorities here, do likewise shift out of their inns; and take old
Schaffgotsch's apartments in the same Oberamts-Haus; mutely
symbolling that perhaps THEY are likely to become a kind of
Government. And the reader can conceive how, in such an element,
the function of governing would of itself fall more and more into
their hands. They were consummately polite, discreet, friendly
towards all people; and did in effect manage their business, tax-
gatherings in money and in kind, with a perfection and precision
which made the evil a minimum.

"FEBRUARY 17th. ... This day also, there arrived at Breslau, by
boat up the Oder, ten heavy cannon, three mortars, and ammunition
of powder, bombshells, balls, as much as loaded fifty wagons;
the whole of which were, in like manner, forwarded to Ohlau.
This day, as on other days before and after. Great Magazines
forming here; the Military chiefly at Ohlau; at Breslau the
Provender part,--and this latter under noteworthy circumstances.
In the Dom-Island, namely; which is definable (in a case of such
necessity) as being 'outside the walls.' Especially as the Reverend
Fathers have mostly glided into corners, and left the place vacant.
In the Dom-Island, it certainly is; and such a stock,--all bought
for money down, and spurred forward while the roads were under
frost,--'such a stock as was not thought to be in all Silesia,'
says exaggerative wonder. The vacant edifices in the Dom-Island are
filled to the neck with meal and corn; the Prussian brigade now
quartering there ('without the walls,' in a sense) to guard the
same. And in the Bishop's Garden [poor Sinzendorf, far enough away
and in no want of it just now] are mere hay-mows, bigger than
houses: who can object,--in a case of necessity? No man, unless he
politically meddle, is meddled with; politically meddling, you are
at once picked up; as one or two are,--clapped into gentle arrest,
or, like old Schaffgotsch, and even Sinzendorf before long,
requested to leave the Country till it get settled. Rigor there is,
but not intentional injustice on Munchow's part, and there is a
studious avoidance of harsh manner.

"FEBRUARY-MARCH. Considerable recruiting in Schlesien: six hundred
recruits have enlisted in Breslau alone. Also his Prussian Majesty
has sent a supply of Protestant Preachers, ordained for the
occasion, to minister where needed;--which is piously acknowledged
as a godsend in various parts of Silesia. Twelve came first, all
Berliners; soon afterwards, others from different parts, till, in
the end, there were about Sixty in all. Rigorous, punctilious
avoidance of offence to the Catholic minorities, or of whatever
least thing Silesian Law does not permit, is enjoined upon them;
'to preach in barns or town-halls, where by Law you have no
Church.' Their salary is about 30 pounds a year; they are all put
under supervision of the Chaplain of Margraf Karl's Regiment" (a
judicious Chaplain, I have no doubt, and fit to be a Bishop);
and so far as appears, mere benefit is got of them by Schlesien as
well as by Friedrich, in this function. Friedrich is careful to
keep the balance level between Catholic and Protestant; but it has
hung at such an angle, for a long while past! In general, we
observe the Catholic Dignitaries, and the zealous or fanatic of
that creed, especially the Jesuits, are apt to be against him:
as for the non-fanatic, they expect better government, secular
advantage; these latter weigh doubtfully, and with less weight
whichever way. In the general population, who are Protestant, he
recognizes friends;--and has sent them Sixty Preachers, which by
Law was their due long since. Here follow two little traits, comic
or tragi-comic, with which we can conclude:--

"Detached Jesuit parties, here and there, seem to have mischief in
hand in a small way, encouraging deserters and the like;--and we
keep an eye on them. No discontent elsewhere, at least none
audible; on the contrary, much enlisting on the part of the
Silesian youth, with other good symptoms. But in the Dom, there is,
singular to say, a Goblin found walking, one night;--advancing, not
with airs from Heaven, upon the Prussian sentry there! The Prussian
sentry handles arms; pokes determinedly into the Goblin, and
finding him solid, ever more determinedly, till the Goblin shrieked
'Jesus Maria!' and was hauled to the Guard-house for
investigation." A weak Goblin; doubtless of the valet kind; worth
only a little whipping; but testifies what the spirit is.

"Another time, two deserter Frenchmen getting hanged [such the law
in aggravated cases], certain polite Jesuits, who had by permission
been praying and extreme-unctioning about them, came to thank the
Colonel after all was over. Colonel, a grave practical man, needs
no 'thanks;' would, however, 'advise your Reverences to teach your
people that perjury is not permissible, that an oath sworn ought to
be kept;' and in fine 'would advise you Holy Fathers hereabouts,
and others, to have a care lest you get into'--And twitching his
reins, rode away without saying into what." [<italic> Helden-
Geschichte, <end italic> i. 723.]


AUSTRIA IS STANDING TO ARMS.

Schwerin has been doing his best in this interim; collecting
magazines with double diligence while the roads are hard, taking up
the Key-positions far and wide, from the Jablunka round to the
Frontier Valleys of Glatz again. He was through Jablunka, at one
time; on into Mahren, as far as Olmutz; levying contributions,
emitting patents: but as to intimidating her Hungarian Majesty, if
that was the intention, or changing her mind at all, that is not
the issue got. Austria has still strength, and Pragmatic Sanction
and the Laws of Nature have! Very fixed is her Hungarian Majesty's
determination, to part with no inch of Territory, but to drive the
intrusive Prussians home well punished.

How she has got the funds is, to this day, a mystery;--unless
George and Walpole, from their Secret-Service Moneys, have smuggled
her somewhat.? For the Parliament is not sitting, and there will be
such jargonings, such delays: a preliminary 100,000 pounds, say by
degrees 200,000 pounds,--we should not miss it, and in her
Majesty's hands it would go far! Hints in the English Dryasdust we
have; but nothing definite; and we are left to our guesses. [Tindal
(XX. 497) says expressly 200,000 pounds, but gives no date or other
particular.] A romantic story, first set current by Voltaire, has
gone the round of the world, and still appears in all Histories:
How in England there was a Subscription set on foot for her
Hungarian Majesty; outcome of the enthusiasm of English Ladies of
quality,--old Sarah Duchess of Marlborough putting down her name
for 40,000 pounds, or indeed putting down the ready sum itself;
magnanimous veteran that she was. Voltaire says, omitting date and
circumstance, but speaking as if it were indubitable, and a thing
you could see with eyes: "The Duchess of Marlborough, widow of him
who had fought for Karl VI. [and with such signal returns of
gratitude from the said Karl VI.], assembled the principal Ladies
of London; who engaged to furnish 100,000 pounds among them; the
Duchess herself putting down [EN DEPOSA, tabling IN CORPORE] 40,000
pounds of it. The Queen of Hungary had the greatness of soul to
refuse this money;--needing only, as she intimated, what the Nation
in Parliament assembled might please to offer her." [Voltaire,
<italic> OEuvres (Siecle de Louis XV., <end italic> c. 6),
xxviii. 79.]

One is sorry to run athwart such a piece of mutual magnanimity;
but the fact is, on considering a little and asking evidence, it
turns out to be mythical. One Dilworth, an innocent English soul
(from whom our grandfathers used to learn ARITHMETIC, I think),
writing on the spot some years after Voltaire, has this useful
passage: "It is the great failing of a strong imagination to catch
greedily at wonders. Voltaire was misinformed; and would perhaps
learn, by a second inquiry, a truth less splendid and amusing.
A Contribution was, by News-writers upon their own authority,
fruitlessly proposed. It ended in nothing: the Parliament voted a
supply;"--that did it, Mr. Dilworth; supplies enough, and many of
them! "Fruitlessly, by News-writers on their own authority;"
that is the sad fact. [<italic> The Life and Heroick Actions of
Frederick III. <end italic> (SIC, a common blunder), by W. H.
Dilworth, M.A. (London, 1758), p. 25. A poor little Book, one of
many coming out on that subject just then (for a reason we shall
see on getting thither); which contains, of available now, the
above sentence and no more. Indeed its brethren, one of them by
Samnel Johnson (IMPRANSUS, the imprisoned giant), do not even
contain that, and have gone wholly to zero.-- Neither little
Dilworth nor big Voltaire give the least shadow of specific date;
but both evidently mean Spring, 1742 (not 1741).]

It is certain, little George, who considers Pragmatic Sanction as
the Keystone of Nature in a manner, has been venturing far deeper
than purse for that adorable object; and indeed has been diving,
secretly, in muddier waters than we expected, to a dangerous
extent, on behalf of it, at this very time. In the first days of
March, Friedrich has heard from his Minister at Petersburg of a
DETESTABLE PROJECT, [Orlich, i. 83 (scrap of Note to Old Dessauer;
no date allowed us; "early in March").]--project for "Partitioning
the Prussian Kingdom," no less; for fairly cutting into Friedrich,
and paring him down to the safe pitch, as an enemy to Pragmatic and
mankind. They say, a Treaty, Draught of a Treaty, for that express
object, is now ready; and lies at Petersburg, only waiting
signature. Here is a Project! Contracting parties (Russian
signature still wanting) are: Kur-Sachsen; her Hungarian Majesty;
King George; and that Regent Anne (MRS. Anton Ulrich, so to speak),
who sits in a huddle of undress, impatient of Political objects,
but sensible to the charms of handsome men. To the charms of Count
Lynar, especially: the handsomest of Danish noblemen (more an
ancient Roman than a Dane), whom the Polish Majesty, calculating
cause and effect, had despatched to her, with that view, in the
dead of winter lately. To whom she has given ear;--dismissing her
Munnich, as we saw above;--and is ready for signing, or perhaps has
signed! [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> ii. 68.]
Friedrich's astonishment, on hearing of this "detestable Project,"
was great. However, he takes his measures on it;--right lucky that
he has the Old Dessauer, and machinery for acting on Kur-Sachsen
and the Britannic Majesty. "Get your machinery in gear!" is
naturally his first order. And the Old Dessauer does it, with
effect: of which by and by.

Never did I hear, before or since, of such a plunge into the muddy
unfathomable, on the part of little George, who was an honorable
creature, and dubitative to excess: and truly this rash plunge
might have cost him dear, had not he directly scrambled out again.
Or did Friedrich exaggerate to himself his Uncle's real share in
the matter? I always guess, there had been more of loose talk, of
hypothesis and fond hope, in regard to George's share, than of
determinate fact or procedure on his own part. The transaction,
having had to be dropped on the sudden, remains somewhat dark;
but, in substance, it is not doubtful; [Tindal, xx. 497.] and
Parliament itself took afterwards to poking into it, though with
little effect. Kur-Sachsen's objects in the adventure were of the
earth, earthy; but on George's part it was pure adoration of
Pragmatic Sanction, anxiety for the Keystone of Nature, and lest
Chaos come again. In comparison with such transcendent divings,
what is a little Secret-Service money!--

The Count Lynar of this adventure, who had well-nigh done such a
feat in Diplomacy, may turn up transiently again. A conspicuous,
more or less ridiculous person of those times. Busching (our
Geographical friend) had gone with him, as Excellency's Chaplain,
in this Russian Journey; which is a memorable one to Busching;
and still presents vividly, through his Book, those haggard Baltic
Coasts in midwinter, to readers who have business there. Such a
journey for grimness of outlook, upon pine-tufts and frozen sand;
for cold (the Count's very tobacco-pipe freezing in his mouth), for
hardship, for bad lodging, and extremity of dirt in the unfreezable
kinds, as seldom was. They met, one day on the road, a Lord
Hyndford, English Ambassador just returning from Petersburg, with
his fourgons and vehicles, and arrangements for sleep and victual,
in an enviably luxurious condition,--whom we shall meet, to our
cost. They saw, in the body, old Field-marshal Lacy, and dined with
him, at Riga; who advised brandy schnapps; a recipe rejected by
Busching. And other memorabilia, which by accident hang about this
Lynar. [Busching, <italic> Beitrage, <end italic> vi. 132-164.]--
All through Regent Anne's time he continued a dangerous object to
Friedrich; and it was a relief when Elizabeth CATIN became
Autocrat, instead of Deshabille Anne and her Lynar. Adieu to him,
for fifteen years or more.

Of Friedrich's military operations, of his magazines, posts,
diligent plannings and gallopings about, in those weeks; of all
this the reader can form some notion by looking on the map and
remembering what has gone before: but that subterranean growling
which attended him, prophetic of Earthquake, that universal
breaking forth of Bedlams, now fallen so extinct, no reader can
imagine. Bedlams totally extinct to everybody; but which were then
very real, and raged wide as the world, high as the stars, to a
hideous degree among the then sons of men;--unimaginable now by
any mortal.

And, alas, this is one of the grand difficulties for my readers and
me; Friedrich's Life-element having fallen into such a dismal
condition. Most dismal, dark, ugly, that Austrian-Succession
Business, and its world-wide battlings, throttlings and
intriguings: not Dismal Swamp, under a coverlid of London Fog,
could be uglier! A Section of "History" so called, which human
nature shrinks from; of which the extant generation already knows
nothing, and is impatient of hearing anything! Truly, Oblivion is
very due to such an Epoch: and from me far be it to awaken, beyond
need, its sordid Bedlams, happily extinct. But without Life-
element, no Life can be intelligible; and till Friedrich and one or
two others are extricated from it, Dismal Swamp cannot be quite
filled in. Courage, reader!--Our Constitutional Historian makes
this farther reflection:--

"English moneys, desperate Russian intrigues, Treaties made and
Treaties broken--If instead of Pragmatic Sanction with eleven
Potentates guaranteeing, Maria Theresa had at this time had 200,000
soldiers and a full treasury (as Prince Eugene used to advise the
late Kaiser), how different might it have been with her, and with
the whole world that fell upon one another's throats in her
quarrel! Some eight years of the most disastrous War; and except
the falling of Silesia to its new place, no result gained by it.
War at any rate inevitable, you object? English-Spanish War having
been obliged to kindle itself; French sure to fall in, on the
Spanish side; sure to fall upon Hanover, so soon as beaten at sea,
and thus to involve all Europe? Well, it is too likely. But, even
in that case, the poor English would have gone upon their necessary
Spanish War, by the direct road and with their eyes open, instead
of somnambulating and stumbling over the chimney-tops; and the
settlement might have come far sooner, and far cheaper to mankind.
--Nay, we are to admit that the new place for Silesia was,
likewise, the place appointed it by just Heaven; and Friedrich's
too was a necessary War. Heaven makes use of Shadow-hunting Kaisers
too; and its ways in this mad world are through the great Deep."


THE YOUNG DESSAUER CAPTURES GLOGAU (MARCH 9th); THE OLD
DESSAUER, BY HIS CAMP OF GOTTIN (APRIL 2d), CHECKMATES
CERTAIN DESIGNING PERSONS.

Money somewhere her Hungarian Majesty has got; that is one thing
evident. She has an actual Army on foot, "drawn out of Italy," or
whence she could; formidable Army, says rumor, and getting well
equipped;--and here are the Pandour Precursors of it, coming down
like storm-clouds through the Glatz valleys;--nearly finishing the
War for her at a stroke, the other day, had accident favored;--and
have thrown reinforcement of 600 into Neisse. Friedrich is not
insensible to these things; and amid such alarms from far and from
near, is becoming eager to have, at least, Glogau in his hand.
Glogau, he is of opinion, could now, and should, straightway
be done.

Glogau is not a strong place; after all the repairing, it could
stand little siege, were we careless of hurting it. But Wallis is
obstinate; refuses Free Withdrawal; will hold out to the uttermost,
though his meal is running low. He pretends there is relief coming;
relief just at hand; and once, in midnight time, "lets off a rocket
and fires six guns," alarming Prince Leopold as if relief were just
in the neighborhood. A tough industrious military man; stiff to his
purpose, and not without shift.

Friedrich thinks the place might be had by assault: "Open trenches;
set your batteries going, which need not injure the Town; need only
alarm Wallis, and TERRIFY it; then, under cover of this noise and
feint of cannonading, storm with vigor." Leopold, the Young
Dessauer, is cautious; wants petards if he must storm, wants two
new battalions if he must open trenches;--he gets these requisites,
and is still cunctatory. Friedrich has himself got the notion,
"from clear intelligence," true or not, that relief to Glogau is
actually on way; and under such imminences, Russian and other, in
so ticklish a state of the world, he becomes more and more
impatient that this thing were done. In the first week of March,
still hurrying about on inspection-business, he writes, from four
or five different places ("Mollwitz near Brieg" is one of them, a
Village we shall soon know better), Note after Note to Leopold;
who still makes difficulties, and is not yet perfect to the last
finish in his preparations. "Preparations!" answers Friedrich
impatiently (date MOLLWITZ, 5th MARCH, the third or fourth
impatient Note he has sent); and adds, just while quitting Mollwitz
for Ohlau, this Postscript in his own hand:--

P.S. "I am sorry you have not understood me! They have, in Bohmen,
a regular enterprise on hand for the rescue of Glogau. I have
Infantry enough to meet them; but Cavalry is quite wanting.
You must therefore, without delay, begin the siege. Let us finish
there, I pray you!" [Orlich, i. 70.]

And next day, Monday 6th, to cut the matter short, he despatches
his General-Adjutant Goltz in person (the distance is above seventy
miles), with this Note wholly in autograph, which nothing vocal on
Leopold's part will answer:--

"OHLAU, 6th MARCH. As I am certainly informed that the Enemy will
make some attempt, I hereby with all distinctness command, That, so
soon as the petards are come [which they are], you attack Glogau.
And you must make your Arrangement (DISPOSITION) for more than one
attack; so that if one fail, the other shall certainly succeed.
I hope you will put off no longer;--otherwise the blame of all the
mischief that might arise out of longer delay must lie on you
alone." [Ib. i. 71.]

Goltz arrived with this emphatic Piece, Tuesday Evening, after his
course of seventy miles: this did at last rouse our cautious Young
Dessauer; and so there is next obtainable, on much compression, the
following authentic Excerpt:--

"GLOGAU, 8th MARCH, 1741. His Durchlaucht the Prince Leopold
summoned all the Generals at noon; and informed them That, this
very night, Glogau must be won. He gave them their Instructions in
writing: where each was to post himself; with what detachments;
how to proceed. There are to be three Attacks: one up stream,
coming on with the River to its right; one down stream, River to
its left; and a third from the landward side, perpendicular to the
other two. The very captains that shall go foremost are specified;
at what hour each is to leave quarters, so that all be ready
simultaneously, waiting in the posts assigned;--against what points
to advance out of these, and storm Rampart and Wall. Places, times,
particulars, everything is fixed with mathematical exactitude:
'Be steady, be correct, especially be silent; and so far as Law of
Nature will permit, be simultaneous! When the big steeple of Glogau
peals Midnight,--Forward, with the first stroke; with the second,
much more with the twelfth stroke, be one and all of you, in the
utmost silence, advancing! And, under pain of death, two things:
Not one shot till you are in; No plundering when you are.'--In this
manner is the silent three-sided avalanche to be let go.
Whereupon", says my Dryasdust, "the Generals retired; and had, for
one item, their fire-arms all cleaned and new-loaded."
[<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 823; ii. 165.]

Without plans of Glogau, and more detail and study than the reader
would consent to, there can no Narrative be given. Glogau has
Ramparts, due Ring-fence, palisaded and repaired by Wallis;
inside of this is an old Town-Wall, which will need petards:
there are about 1,000 men under Wallis, and altogether on the
works, not to count a mortar or two, fifty-eight big guns.
The reader must conceive a poor Town under blockade, in the wintry
night-time, with its tough Count Wallis; ill-off for the
necessaries of life; Town shrouded in darkness, and creeping
quietly to its bed. This on the one hand: and on the other hand,
Prussian battalions marching up, at 10 o'clock or later, with the
utmost softness of step; "taking post behind the ordinary field-
watches;" and at length, all standing ranked, in the invisible
dark; silent, like machinery, like a sleeping avalanche: Husht!--
No sentry from the walls dreams of such a thing. "Twelve!" sings
out the steeple of Glogau; and in grim whisper the word is,
"VORWARTS!" and the three-winged avalanche is in motion.

They reach their glacises, their ditches, covered ways, correct as
mathematics; tear out chevaux-de-frise, hew down palisades, in the
given number of minutes: Swift, ye Regiment's-carpenters;
smite your best! Four cannon-shot do now boom out upon them;
which go high over their heads, little dreaming how close at hand
they are. The glacis is thirty feet high, of stiff slope, and
slippery with frost: no matter, the avalanche, led on by Leopold in
person, by Margraf Karl the King's Cousin, by Adjutant Goltz and
the chief personages, rushes up with strange impetus; hews down a
second palisade; surges in;--Wallis's sentries extinct, or driven
to their main guards. There is a singular fire in the besieging
party. For example, Four Grenadiers,--I think of this First Column,
which succeeded sooner, certainly of the Regiment Glasenapp,--four
grenadiers, owing to slippery or other accidents, in climbing the
glacis, had fallen a few steps behind the general body; and on
getting to the top, took the wrong course, and rushed along
rightward instead of leftward. Rightward, the first thing they come
upon is a mass of Austrians still ranked in arms; fifty-two men, as
it turned out, with their Captain over them. Slight stutter ensues
on the part of the Four Grenadiers; but they give one another the
hint, and dash forward: "Prisoners?" ask they sternly, as if all
Prussia had been at their rear. The fifty-two, in the darkness, in
the danger and alarm, answer "Yes."--"Pile arms, then!" Three of
the grenadiers stand to see that done; the fourth runs off for
force, and happily gets back with it before the comedy had become
tragic for his comrades. "I must make acquaintance with these four
men," writes Friedrich, on hearing of it; and he did reward them by
present, by promotion to sergeantcy (to ensigncy one of them), or
what else they were fit for. Grenadiers of Glasenapp: these are the
men Friedrich heard swearing-in under his window, one memorable
morning when he burst into tears! At half-past Twelve, the
Ramparts, on all sides, are ours.

The Gates of the Town, under axe and petard, can make little
resistance, to Leopold's Column or the other two. A hole is soon
cut in the Town-Gate, where Leopold is; and gallant Wallis, who had
rallied behind it, with his Artillery-General and what they could
get together, fires through the opening, kills four men; but is
then (by order, and not till then) fired upon, and obliged to draw
back, with his Artillery-General mortally hurt. Inside he attempts
another rally, some 200 with him; and here and there perhaps a
house-window tries to give shot; but it is to no purpose, not the
least stand can be made. Poor Wallis is rapidly swept back, into
the Market-place, into the Main Guard-house; and there piles arms:
"Glogau yours, Ihr Herren, and we prisoners of War!" The steeple
had not yet quite struck One. Here has been a good hour's-work!

Glogau, as in a dream, or half awake, and timidly peeping from
behind window-curtains, finds that it is a Town taken. Glogau
easily consoles itself, I hear, or even is generally glad;
Prussian discipline being so perfect, and ingress now free for the
necessaries of life. There was no plundering; not the least insult:
no townsman was hurt; not even in houses where soldiers had tried
firing from windows. The Prussian Battalions rendezvous in the
Market-place, and go peaceably about their patrolling, and other
business; and meddle with nothing else. They lost, in killed, ten
men; had of killed and wounded, forty-eight; the Austrians rather
more. [Orlich, i. 75, 78; <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
i. 829; irreconcilable otherwise, in some slight points.]
Wallis was to have been set free on parole; but was not,--in
retaliation for some severity of General Browne's in the interim
(picking up of two Silesian Noblemen, suspected of Prussian
tendency, and locking them in Brunn over the Hills),--and had to go
to Berlin, till that was repaired. To the wounded Artillery-General
there was every tenderness shown, but he died in few days.--The
other Prisoners were marched to the Custrin-Stettin quarter; "and
many of them took Prussian service."

And this is the Scalade of Glogau: a shining feat of those days;
which had great rumor in the Gazettes, and over all the then
feverish Nations, though it has now fallen dim again, as feats do.
Its importance at that time, its utility to Friedrich's affairs,
was undeniable; and it filled Friedrich with the highest
satisfaction, and with admiration to overflowing. Done 9th March,
1741; in one hour, the very earliest of the day.

Goltz posted back to Schweidnitz with the news; got thither about
5 P.M.; and was received, naturally, with open arms. Friedrich in
person marched out, next morning, to make FEU-DE-JOIE and
TE-DEUM-ing;--there was Royal Letter to Leopold, which flamed
through all the Newspapers, and can still be read in innumerable
Books; Letter omissible in this place. We remark only how punctual
the King is, to reward in money as well as praise, and not the high
only, but the low that had deserved: to Prince Leopold he presents
2,000 pounds; to each private soldier who had been of the storm,
say half a guinea,--doubling and quadrupling, in the special cases,
to as high as twenty guineas, of our present money. To the old
Gazetteers, and their readers everywhere, this of Glogau is a very
effulgent business; bursting out on them, like sudden Bude-light,
in the uncertain stagnancy and expectancy of mankind. Friedrich
himself writes of it to the Old Dessauer:--

"The more I think of the Glogau business, the more important I find
it. Prince Leopold has achieved the prettiest military stroke (DIE
SCHONSTE ACTION) that has been done in this Century. From my heart
I congratulate you on having such a Son. In boldness of resolution,
in plan, in execution, it is alike admirable; and quite gives a
turn to my affairs." [Date, 13th March, 1741 (Orlich, i. 77).]

And indeed, it is a perfect example of Prussian discipline, and
military quality in all kinds; such as it would be difficult to
match elsewhere. Most potently correct; coming out everywhere with
the completeness and exactitude of mathematics; and has in it such
a fund of martial fire, not only ready to blaze out (which can be
exampled elsewhere), but capable of bottling itself IN, and of
lying silently ready. Which is much rarer; and very essential in
soldiering! Due a little to the OLD Dessauer, may we not say, as
well as to the Young? Friedrich Wilhelm is fallen silent; but his
heavy labors, and military and other drillings to Prussian mankind,
still speak with an audible voice.

About three weeks after this of Glogau, Leopold the Old Dessauer,
over in Brandenburg, does another thing which is important to
Friedrich, and of great rumor in the world. Steps out, namely, with
a force of 36,000 men, horse, foot and artillery, completely
equipped in all points; and takes Camp, at this early season, at a
place called Gottin, not far from Magdeburg, handy at once for
Saxony and for Hanover; and continues there encamped,--"merely for
review purposes." Readers can figure what an astonishment it was to
Kur-Sachsen and British George; and how it struck the wind out of
their Russian Partition-Dream, and awoke them to a sense of the
awful fact!--Capable of being slit in pieces, and themselves
partitioned, at a day's warning, as it were! It was on April 2d,
that Leopold, with the first division of the 36,000, planted his
flag near Gottin. No doubt it was the "detestable Project" that had
brought him out, at so early a season for tent-life, and nobody
could then guess why. He steadily paraded here, all summer;
keeping his 36,000 well in drill, since there was nothing else
needed of him.

The Camp at Gottin flamed greatly abroad through the timorous
imaginations of mankind, that Year; and in the Newspapers are many
details of it. And, besides the important general fact, there is
still one little point worth special mention: namely, that old
Field-marshal Katte (Father of poor Lieutenant Katte whom we knew)
was of it; and perhaps even got his death by it: "Chief Commander
of the Cavalry here," such honor had he; but died at his post, in a
couple of months, "at Rekahn, May 31st;" [<italic> Militair-
Lexikon, <end italic> ii. 254.] poor old gentleman, perhaps unequal
to the hardships of field-life at so early a season of the year.


FRIEDRICH TAKES THE FIELD, WITH SOME POMP; GOES INTO THE MOUNTAINS,
--BUT COMES FAST BACK.

At Glogau there was Homaging, on the very morrow after the storm;
on the second day, the superfluous regiments marched off: no want
of vigorous activity to settle matters on their new footing there.
General Kalkstein (Friedrich's old Tutor, whom readers have
forgotten again) is to be Commandant of Glogau; an office of honor,
which can be done by deputy except in cases of real stress.
The place is to be thoroughly new-fortified,--which important point
they commit to Engineer Wallrave, a strong-headed heavy-built Dutch
Officer, long since acquired to the service, on account of his
excellence in that line; who did, now and afterwards, a great deal
of excellent engineering for Friedrich; but for himself (being of
deep stomach withal, and of life too dissolute) made a tragic thing
of it ultimately. As will be seen, if we have leisure.

In seven or eight days, Prince Leopold having wound up his Glogau
affairs, and completed the new preliminaries there, joins the King
at Schweidnitz. In the highest favor, as was natural. Kalkstein is
to take a main hand in the Siege of Neisse; for which operation it
is hoped there will soon be weather, if not favorable yet
supportable. What of the force was superfluous at Glogau had at
once marched off, as we observed; and is now getting re-distributed
where needful. There is much shifting about; strengthening of
posts, giving up of posts: the whole of which readers shall imagine
for themselves,--except only two points that are worth remembering:
FIRST, that Kalkstein with about 12,000 takes post at Grotkau, some
twenty-five miles north of Neisse, ready to move on, and open
trenches, when required: and SECOND, that Holstein-Beck gets posted
at Frankenstein (chief place of that Baumgarten Skirmish), say
thirty-five miles west-by-north of Neisse; and has some 8 or 10,000
Horse and Foot thereabouts, spread up and down,--who will be much
wanted, and not procurable, on an occasion that is coming.

Friedrich has given up the Jablunka Pass; called in the Jablunka
and remoter posts; anxious to concentrate, before the Enemy get
nigh. That is the King's notion; and surely a reasonable one;
the AREA of the Prussian Army, as I guess it from the Maps, being
above 2,000 square miles, beginning at Breslau only, and leaving
out Glogau. Schwerin thinks differently, but without good basis.
Both are agreed, "The Austrian Army cannot take the field till the
forage come," till the new grass spring, which its cavalry find
convenient. That is the fair supposition; but in that both are
mistaken, and Schwerin the more dangerously of the two.--Meanwhile,
the Pandour swarms are observably getting rifer, and of stormier
quality; and they seem to harbor farther to the East than formerly,
and not to come all out of Glatz. Which perhaps are symptomatic
circumstances? The worst effect of these preliminary Pandour clouds
is, Your scout-service cannot live among them; they hinder
reconnoitring, and keep the Enemy veiled from you. Of that sore
mischief Friedrich had, first and last, ample experience at their
hands! This is but the first instalment of Pandours to Friedrich;
and the mere foretaste of what they can do in the veiling way.

Behind the Mountains, in this manner, all is inane darkness to
Friedrich and Schwerin. They know only that Neipperg is
rendezvousing at Olmutz; and judge that he will still spend many
weeks upon it; the real facts being: That Neipperg--"who arrived in
Olmutz on the 10th of March," the very day while Glogau was
homaging--has been, he and those above him and those under him,
driving preparations forward at a furious rate. That Neipperg held
--I think at Steinberg his hithermost post, some twenty miles
hither of Olmutz--a Council of War, "all the Generals and even
Lentulus from Glatz, present at it," day not given; where the
unanimous decision was, "March straightway; save Neisse, since
Glogau is gone!"--and in fine, That on the 26th, Neipperg took the
road accordingly, "in spite of furious snow blowing in his face;"
and is ever since (30,000 strong, says rumor, but perhaps 10,000 of
them mere Pandours) unweariedly climbing the Mountains, laboriously
jingling forward with his heavy guns and ammunition-wagons;
"contending with the steep snowy icy roads;" intent upon saving
Neisse. This is the fact; profoundly unknown to Friedrich and
Schwerin; who will be much surprised, when it becomes patent to
them at the wrong time.

SCHWEIDNITZ, 27th MARCH. This day Friedrich, with considerable
apparatus, pomp and processional cymballing, greatly the reverse of
his ulterior use and wont in such cases, quitted Schweidnitz and
his Algarottis; solemnly opening Campaign in this manner; and drove
off for Ottmachau, having work there for to-morrow.

The Siege of Neisse is now to proceed forthwith; trenches to be
opened April 4th. Friedrich is still of opinion, that his posts lie
too wide apart; that especially Schwerin, who is spread among the
Hills in Jagerndorf Country, ought to come down, and take closer
order for covering the siege. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end
italic> ii. 70.] Schwerin answers, That if the King will spare him
a reinforcement of eight squadrons and nine battalions (say 1,200
Horse, 9,000 Foot), he will maintain himself where he is, and no
Enemy shall get across the Mountains at all. That is Schwerin's
notion; who surely is something of a judge. Friedrich assents; will
himself conduct the reinforcement to Schwerin, and survey matters,
with his own eyes, up yonder. Friedrich marches from Ottmachau,
accordingly, 29th March;--Kalkstein, Holstein-Beck, and others are
to be rendezvoused before Neisse, in the interim; trenches ready
for opening on the sixth day hence;--and in this manner, climbs
these Mountains, and sees Jagerndorf Country for the first time.

Beautiful blue world of Hills, ridge piled on ridge behind that
Neisse region; fruitful valleys lapped in them, with grim stone
Castles and busy little Towns disclosing themselves as we advance:
that is Jagerndorf Country,--which Uncle George of Anspach,
hundreds of years ago, purchased with his own money; which we have
now come to lay hold of as his Heir! Friedrich, I believe, thinks
little of all this, and does not remember Uncle George at all.
But such are the facts; and the Country, regarded or not, is very
blue and beautiful, with the Spring sun shining on it; or with the
sudden Spring storms gathering wildly on the peaks, as if for
permanent investiture, but vanishing again straightway, leaving
only a powdering of snow.

He met Schwerin at Neustadt, half-way to Jagerndorf; whither they
proceeded next day. "What news have you of the Enemy?" was
Friedrich's first question. Schwerin has no news whatever; only
that the Enemy is far off, hanging in long thin straggle from
Olmutz westward. "I have a spy out," said Schwerin; "but he has not
returned yet,"--nor ever will, he might have added. If diligent
readers will now take to their Map, and attend day by day, an
invincible Predecessor has compelled what next follows into human
intelligibility, and into the Diary Form, for their behoof;--
readers of an idler turn can skip: but this confused hurry-scurry
of marches issues in something which all will have to attend to.

"JAGERNDORF, 2d APRIL, 1741. This is the day when the Old Dessauer
makes appearance with the first brigades of his Camp at Gottin.
Friedrich is satisfied with what he has seen of Jagerndorf matters;
and intends returning towards Neisse, there to commence on the 4th.
He is giving his final orders, and on the point of setting off,
when--Seven Austrian Deserters, 'Dragoons of Lichtenstein,' come
in; and report, That Neipperg's Army is within a few miles!
And scarcely had they done answering and explaining, when sounds
rise of musketry and cannon, from our outposts on that side;
intimating that here is Neipperg's Army itself. Seldom in his life
was Friedrich in an uglier situation. In Jagerndorf, an open Town,
are only some three or four thousand men, 'with three field-pieces,
and as much powder as will charge them forty times.' Happily these
proved only the Pandour outskirts of Neipperg's Army, scouring
about to reconnoitre, and not difficult to beat; the real body of
it is ascertained to be at Freudenthal, fifteen miles to westward,
southwestward; making towards Neisse, it is guessed, by the other
or western road, which is the nearer to Glatz and to the Austrian
force there.

"Had Neipperg known what was in Jagerndorf--! But he does not know.
He marches on, next morning, at his usual slow rate; wide clouds of
Pandours accompanying and preceding him; skirmishing in upon all
places [upon Jagerndorf, for instance, though fifteen miles wide of
their road], to ascertain if Prussians are there. One can judge
whether Friedrich and Schwerin were thankful when the huge alarm
produced nothing! 'The mountain,' as Friedrich says, 'gave birth to
a mouse;'--nay it was a 'mouse' of essential vital use to Friedrich
and Schwerin; a warning, That they must instantly collect
themselves, men and goods; and begone one and all out of these
parts, double-quick towards Neisse. Not now with the hope of
besieging Neisse,--far from that;--but of getting their wide-
scattered posts together thereabouts, and escaping destruction
in detail!

"APRIL 4th, HEAD-QUARTERS NEUSTADT. By violent exertion, with the
sacrifice only of some remote little storehouses, all is
rendezvoused at Jagerndorf, within two days; and this day they
march; King and vanguard reaching Neustadt, some twenty-five miles
forward, some twenty still from Neisse. At Neustadt, the posts that
had stood in that neighborhood are all assembled, and march with
the King to-morrow. Of Neipperg, except by transitory contact with
his Pandour clouds, they have seen nothing: his road is pretty much
parallel to theirs, and some fifteen miles leftward, Glatzward;
goes through Zuckmantel, Ziegenhals, straight upon Neisse.
[Zuckmantel, "Twitch-Cloak," occurs more than once as a Town's name
in those regions: name which, says my Dryasdust without smile
visible, it got from robberies done on travellers, "twitchings of
your cloak," with stand-and-deliver, as you cross those wild
mountain spaces. (Zeiller, <italic> Beschreibung des Konigreichs
Boheim, <end italic> Frankfurt, 1650;--a rather worthless old Book,
like the rest of Zeiller's in that kind.)] Neipperg's men are
wearied with the long climb out of Mahren; and he struggles towards
Neisse as the first object;--holding upon Glatz and Lentulus with
his left. Numerous orders have been speeded from the King's
quarters, at Jagerndorf, and here at Neustadt; order especially to
Holstein-Beck at Frankenstein, and to Kalkstein at Grotkau, How
they are to unite, first with one another; and then to cross Neisse
River, and unite with the King,--to which end there is already a
Bridge laid for them, or about to be laid in good time.

"APRIL 5th, HEAD-QUARTERS STEINAU. Steinau is a little Town twenty
miles east of Neisse, on the road to Kosel [strongish place, on the
Oder, some forty miles farther east]: here Friedrich, with the main
body, take their quarters; rearguard being still at Neustadt.
Temporary Bridge there is, ready or all but ready, at Sorgau
[twelve miles to north of us, on our left]: by this Kalkstein, with
his 10,000, comes punctually across; while other brigades from the
Kosel side are also punctual in getting in; which is a great
comfort: but of Holstein-Beck there is no vestige, nor did there
ever appear any. Holstein, 'whom none of the repeated orders sent
him could reach,' says Friedrich, 'remained comfortably in his
quarters; and looked at the Enemy rushing past him to right and
left, without troubling his head with them.' [<italic> OEuvres de
Frederic, <end italic> ii. 70.] The too easy-minded Holstein!
Austrian Deserters inform us, That General Neipperg arrived to-day
with his Army in Neisse; and has there been joined by Lentulus with
the Glatz force, chiefly cavalry, a good many thousands. We may be
attacked, then, this very night, if they are diligent? Friedrich
marks out ground and plan in such case, and how and where each is
to rank himself. There came nothing of attack; but the poor little
Village of Steinau, with so many troops in it and baggage-drivers
stumbling about, takes fire; burns to ashes; 'and we had great
difficulty in saving the artillery and powder through the narrow
streets, with the houses all burning on each hand.'" Fancy it,--and
the poor shrieking inhabitants; gone to silence long since with
their shrieks, not the least whisper left of them. "The Prussians
bivouac on the field, each in the place that has been marked out.
Night extremely cold."

In this poor Steinau was a Schloss, which also went up in fire;
disclosing certain mysteries of an almost mythical nature to the
German Public. It was the Schloss of a Grafin von Callenberg, a
dreadful old Dowager of Medea-Messalina type, who "always wore
pistols about her;" pistols, and latterly, with more and more
constancy, a brandy-bottle;--who has been much on the tongues of
men for a generation back. Herr Nussler (readers recollect shifty
Nussler) knew her, in the way of business, at one time; with pity,
if also with horror. Some weeks ago, she was, by the Austrian
Commandant at Neisse, summoned out of this Schloss, as in
correspondence with Prussian Officers: peasants breaking in, tied
her with ropes to the bed where she was; put bed and her into a
farm-cart, and in that scandalous manner delivered her at Neisse to
the Commandant; by which adventure, and its rages and
unspeakabilities, the poor old Callenberg is since dead. And now
the very Schloss is dead; and there is finis to a human dust-
vortex, such as is sometimes noisy for a time. Perhaps Nussler may
again pass that way, if we wait. [Busching, <italic> Beitrage, <end
italic> ii.273 et seqq.]

"APRIL 6th, HEAD-QUARTERS FRIEDLAND. To Friedland on the 6th.,--and
do not, as expected, get away next morning. Friedland is ten miles
down the Neisse, which makes a bend of near ninety degrees opposite
Steinau; and runs thence straight north for the Oder, which it
reaches some dozen miles or more above Brieg. Both Steinau and
Friedland are a good distance from the River; Friedland, the nearer
of the two, with Sorgau Bridge direct west of it, is perhaps eight
miles from that important structure. There, being now tolerably
rendezvoused, and in strength for action, Friedrich purposes to
cross Neisse River to-morrow; hoping perhaps to meet Holstein-Beck,
and incorporate him; anxious, at any rate, to get between the
Austrians and Ohlau, where his heavy Artillery, his Ammunition, not
to mention other indispensables, are lying. The peculiarity of
Neipperg at this time is, that the ground he occupies bears no
proportion to the ground he commands. His regular Horse are
supposed to be the best in the world; and of the Pandour kind, who
live, horse and man, mainly upon nothing (which means upon theft),
his supplies are unlimited. He sits like a volcanic reservoir,
therefore, not like a common fire of such and such intensity and
power to burn;--casts the ashes of him, on all sides, to many
miles distance.

"FRIDAY 7th APRIL, FRIEDLAND (still Head-quarters). Unluckily, on
trying, there is no passage to be had at Sorgau. The Officer on
charge there still holds the Bridge, but has been obliged to break
away the farther end of it; 'Lentulus and Dragoons, several
thousands strong' (such is the report), having taken post there.
Friedrich commands that the Bridge be reinstated; field-pieces to
defend it; Prince Leopold to cross, and clear the ways. All Friday,
Friedrich waiting at Friedland, was spent in these details.
Leopold in due force started for Sorgau, himself with Cavalry in
the van; Leopold did storm across, and go charging and fencing,
some space, on the other side; but, seeing that it was in truth
Lentulus, and Dragoons without limit, had to send report
accordingly; and then to wind himself to this side again, on new
order from the King. What is to be done, then? Here is no crossing.
Friedrich decides to go down the River; he himself to Lowen,
perhaps near twenty miles farther down, but where there is a Bridge
and Highway leading over; Prince Leopold, with the heavier
divisions and baggages, to Michelau, some miles nearer, and there
to build his Pontoons and cross. Which was effected, with success.
And so,

"SATURDAY, 8th APRIL, With great punctuality, the King and Leopold
met at Michelau, both well across the Neisse. Here on Pontoons,
Leopold had got across about noon; and precisely as he was
finishing, the King's Column, which had crossed at Lowen, and come
up the left bank again, arrived. The King, much content with
Leopold's behavior, nominates him General of Infantry, a stage
higher in promotion, there and then. Brieg Blockade is, as natural,
given up; the Blockading Body joining with the King, this morning,
while he passed that way. From Holstein-Beck not the least
whisper,--nor to him, if we knew it.

"Neipperg has quitted Neisse; but walks invisible within clouds of
Pandours; nothing but guessing as to Neipperg's motions.
Rightly swift, aud awake to his business, Neipperg might have done,
might still do, a stroke upon us here. But he takes it easy;
marches hardly five miles a day, since he quitted Neisse again.
From Michelau, Friedrich for his part turns southwestward, in quest
of Holstein and other interests; marches towards Grotkau, not
intending much farther that night. Thick snow blowing in their
faces, nothing to be seen ahead, the Prussian column tramps along.
[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> ii. 156.] In Leipe, a
little Hamlet sidewards of the road, short way from Grotkau, our
Hussar Vanguard had found Austrian Hussars; captured forty, and
from them learned that the Austrian Army is in Grotkau; that they
took Grotkau half an hour before, and are there! A poor Lieutenant
Mitschepfal (whom I think Friedrich used to know in Reinsberg) lay
in Grotkau, 'with some sixty recruits and deserters,' says
Friedrich,--and with several hundreds of camp-laborers (intended
for the trenches, which will not now be opened):--Mitschepfal made
a stout defence; but, after three hours of it, had to give in: and
there is nothing now for us at Grotkau. 'Halt,' therefore! Neipperg
is evidently pushing towards Ohlau, towards Breslau, though in a
leisurely way; there it will behoove us to get the start of him, if
humanly possible: To the right about, therefore, without delay!
The Prussians repass Leipe (much to the wonder of its simple
people); get along, some seven miles farther, on the road for
Ohlau; and quarter, that night, in what handy villages there are;
the King's Corps in two Villages, which he calls 'Pogrel and
Alsen,'"--which are to be found still on the Map as "Pogarell and
Alzenau," on the road from Lowen towards Ohlau.

This is the end of that March into the Mountains, with Neisse Siege
hanging triumphant ahead. These are the King's quarters, this
wintry Spring night, Saturday, 8th April, 1741; and it is to be
guessed there is more of care than of sleep provided for him there.
Seldom, in his life, was Friedrich in a more critical position;
and he well knows it, none better. And could have his remorses upon
it,--were these of the least use in present circumstances. Here are
two Letters which he wrote that night; veiling, we perceive, a very
grim world of thoughts; betokening, however, a mind made up.
Jordan, Prince August Wilhelm Heir-Apparent, and other fine
individuals who shone in the Schweidnitz circle lately, are in
Breslau, safe sheltered against this bad juncture; Maupertuis was
not so lucky as to go with them.

THE KING TO PRINCE AUGUST WILHELM (in Breslau).

"POGARELL, 8th April, 1741.

"MY DEAREST BROTHER,--The Enemy has just got into Silesia; we are
not more than a mile (QUART DE MILLE) from them. To-morrow must
decide our fortune.

"If I die, do not forget a Brother who has always loved you very
tenderly. I recommend to you my most dear Mother, my Domestics, and
my First Battalion [LIFEGUARD OF FOOT, men picked from his own old
Ruppin Regiment and from the disbanded Giants, star of all the
Battalions]. [See Preuss, i. 144, iv. 309; Nicolai, <italic>
Beschreibung von Berlin, <end italic> iii, 1252.] Eichel and
Schuhmacher [Two of the Three Clerks] are informed of all my
testamentary wishes. Remember me always, you; but console yourself
for my death: the glory of the Prussian Arms, and the honor of the
House have set me in action, and will guide me to my last moment.
You are my sole Heir: I recommend to you, in dying, those whom I
have the most loved during my life: Keyserling, Jordan,
Wartensleben; Hacke, who is a very honest man; Fredersdorf
[Factotum], and Eichel, in whom you may place entire confidence.
I bequeath 8,000 crowns (1,200 pounds, which I have with me, to my
Domestics; but all that I have elsewhere depends on you. To each of
my Brothers and Sisters make a present in my name; a thousand
affectionate regards (AMITIES ET COMPLIMENTS) to my Sister of
Baireuth. You know what I think on their score; and you know better
than I could tell you, the tenderness and all the sentiments of
most inviolable friendship with which I am, dearest Brother,

"Your faithful Brother and Servant till death,

"FEDERIC."
[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxvi. 85; List of

Friedrich's Testamentary arrangements in Note there,--Six in all,
at different times, besides this.]

THE KING TO M. JORDAN (in Breslau).

"POGARELL, 8th April, 1741.

"My DEAR JORDAN,---We are going to fight to-morrow. Thou knowest
the chances of war; the life of Kings not more regarded than that
of private people. I know not what will happen to me.

"If my destiny is finished, remember a friend, who loves thee
always tenderly: if Heaven prolong my days, I will write to thee
after to-morrow, and thou wilt hear of our victory. Adieu, dear
friend; I shall love thee till death.

"FEDERIC."
[Ib. xvii. 98.]

The King, we incidentally discover somewhere, "had no sleep that
night;" none, "nor the next night either,"--such a crisis coming,
still not come.



Chapter X.

BATTLE OF MOLLWITZ.

"To-morrow," Sunday, did not prove the Day of Fight, after all.
Being a day of wild drifting snow, so that you could not see twenty
paces, there was nothing for it but to sit quiet. The King makes
all his dispositions; sketches out punctually, to the last item,
where each is to station himself, how the Army is to advance in
Four Columns, ready for Neipperg wherever he may be,--towards Ohlau
at any rate, whither it is not doubted Neipperg is bent.
These snowy six-and-thirty hours at Pogarell were probably, since
the Custrin time, the most anxious of Friedrich's life.

Neipperg, for his part, struggles forward a few miles, this Sunday,
April 9th; the Prussians rest under shelter in the wild weather.
Neipperg's head-quarters, this night, are a small Village or
Hamlet, called Mollwitz: there and in the adjacent Hamlets, chiefly
in Laugwitz and Gruningen, his Army lodges itself:--he is now
fairly got between us and Ohlau,--if, in the blowing drift, we knew
it, or he knew it. But, in this confusion of the elements, neither
party knows of the other: Neipperg has appointed that to-morrow,
Monday, l0th, shall be a rest-day:--appointment which could by no
means be kept, as it turned out!

Friedrich had despatched messengers to Ohlau, that the force there
should join him; messengers are all captured. The like message had
already gone to Brieg, some days before, and the Blockading Body, a
good few thousand strong, quitted Brieg, as we saw, and effected
their junction with him. All day, this Sunday, 9th, it still snows
and blows; you cannot see a yard before you. No hope now of
Holstein-Beck. Not the least news from any quarter; Ohlau
uncertain, too likely the wrong way: What is to be done? We are cut
off from our Magazines, have only provision for one other day.
"Had this weather lasted," says an Austrian reporter of these
things, "his Majesty would have passed his time very ill."
[<italic> Feldzuge der Preussen <end italic> (the complete Title
is, <italic> Sammlung ungedruckter Nachrichten so die Geschichte
der Feldzuge der Preussen von 1740 bis 1779 erlautern, <end italic>
or in English words, <italic> Collection of unprinted Narratives
which elucidate the Prussian Campaigns from 1740 to 1779: <end
italic> 5 vols. Dresden, 1782-1785), i. 33. Excellent Narratives,
modest, brief, effective (from Private Diaries and the like; many
of them given also in SEYFARTH); well worth perusal by the studious
military man, and creditably characteristic of the Prussian writers
of them and actors in them.]

Of the Battle of Mollwitz, as indeed of all Friedrich's Battles,
there are ample accounts new and old, of perfect authenticity and
scientific exactitude; so that in regard to military points the due
clearness is, on study, completely attainable. But as to personal
or human details, we are driven back upon a miscellany of sources;
most of which, indeed all of which except Nicolai, when he
sparingly gives us anything, are of questionable nature;
and, without intending to be dishonest, do run out into the
mythical, and require to be used with caution. The latest and
notablest of these, in regard to Mollwitz, is the pamphlet of a
Dr. Fuchs; from which, in spite of its amazing quality, we expect
to glean a serviceable item here and there. [<italic> Jubelschrift
zur Feier <end italic> (Centenary) <italic> der Schlacht bei
Mollwitz, 10 April, 1741, <end italic> von Dr. Medicinae Fuchs
(Brieg, 10th April, 1841).] It is definable as probably the most
chaotic Pamphlet ever written; and in many places, by dint of
uncorrected printing, bad grammar, bad spelling, bad sense, and in
short, of intrinsic darkness in so vivacious a humor, it has become
abstruse as Sanscrit; and really is a sharp test of what knowledge
you otherwise have of the subject. Might perhaps be used in that
way, by the Examining Military Boards, in Prussia and elsewhere, if
no other use lie in it? Fuchs's own contributions, mere ignorance,
folly and credulity, are not worth interpreting: but he has
printed, and in the same abstruse form, one or two curious Parish
Manuscripts, particularly a "HISTORY" of this War, privately jotted
down by the then Schoolmaster of Mollwitz, a good simple accurate
old fellow-creature; through whose eyes it is here and there worth
while to look. In regard to Fuchs himself, a late Tourist says:--

"This 'Centenary-Celebration Pamphlet' (Celebration itself, so
obtuse was the Country, did not take effect) was by a zealous,
noisy but not wise, old Medical Gentleman of these parts, called
Dr. Fuchs (FOX); who had set his heart on raising, by subscription,
a proper National Monument on the Field of Mollwitz, and so closing
his old career. Subscriptions did not take, in that April, 1841,
nor in the following months or twelve-months: the zealous Doctor,
therefore, indignantly drew his own purse; got a big Obelisk of
Granite hewn ready, with suitable Inscription on it; carted his big
Obelisk from the quarries of Strehlen; assembled the Country round
it, on Mollwitz Field; and passionately discoursed and pleaded,
That at least the Country should bring block-and-tackle, with
proper framework, and set up this Obelisk on the pedestal he had
there built for it. The Country listened cheerfully (for the old
Doctor was a popular man, clever though flighty); but the Country
was again obtuse in the way of active furtherance, and would not
even bring block-and-tackle. The old Doctor had to answer, 'Well,
then!' and go on his way on more serious errands. The cattle have
much undermined, and rubbed down, his poor Pedestal, which is of
rubble-work; his Obelisk still lies mournfully horizontal,
uninjured;--and really ought to be set up, by some parish-rate, or
effort of the community otherwise." [Tourist's Note (Brieg, 1858).]

From the old Mollwitz Schoolmaster we distil the following:--

"MOLLWITZ, SUNDAY, 9th APRIL. Country for two days back: was in new
alarm by the Austrian Garrison of Brieg now left at liberty, who
sallied out upon the Villages about, and plundered black-cattle,
sheep, grain, and whatever they could come at. But this day
(Sunday) in Mollwitz the whole Austrian Army was upon us.
First, there went 300 Hussars through the Village to Gruningen, who
quartered themselves there; and rushed hither and thither into
houses, robbing and plundering. From one they took his best horses,
from another they took linen, clothes, and other furnitures and
victual. General Neuburg [Neipperg] halted here at Mollwitz, with
the whole Army; before the Village, in mind to quarter. And quarter
was settled, so that a BAUER [Plough-Farmer] got four to five
companies to lodge, and a GARTNER [Spade-Farmer] two or three
hundred cavalry. .The houses were full of Officers, the GARTE
[Garths] and the Fields full of horsemen and baggage; and all
round, you saw nothing but fires burning; the ZAUNE [wooden
railings] were instantly torn down for firewood; the hay, straw,
barley and haver, were eaten away, and brought to nothing;
and everything from the barns was carried out. And, as the whole
Army could not lodge itself with us, 1,100 Infantry quartered at
Laugwitz; Barzdorf got 400 Cavalry; and this day, nobody knew what
would come of it." [Extract in FUCHS, p. 6.]

Monday morning, the Prussians are up betimes; King Friedrich, as
above noted, had not, or had hardly at all, slept during those two
nights, such his anxieties. This morning, all is calm, sleeked out
into spotless white; Pogarell and the world are wrapt as in a
winding-sheet, near two feet of snow on the ground. Air hard and
crisp; a hot sun possible about noon season. "By daybreak" we are
all astir, rendezvousing, ranking,--into Four Columns; ready to
advance in that fashion for battle, or for deploying into battle,
wherever the Enemy turn up. The orders were all given overnight,
two nights ago; were all understood, too, and known to be
rhadamanthine; and, down to the lowest pioneer, no man is uncertain
what to do. If we but knew where the Enemy is; on which side of us;
what doing, what intending?

Scouts, General-Adjutants are out on the quest; to no purpose
hitherto. One young General-Adjutant, Saldern, whose name we shall
know again, has ridden northward, has pulled bridle some way north
of Pogarell; hangs, gazing diligently through his spy-glass,
there;--can see nothing but a Plain of silent snow, with sparse
bearding of bushes (nothing like a hedge in these countries), and
here and there a tree, the miserable skeleton of a poplar:--
when happily, owing to an Austrian Dragoon--Be pleased to accept
(in abridged form) the poor old Schoolmaster's account of a
small thing:--

"Austrian Dragoon of the regiment Althan, native of Kriesewitz in
this neighborhood, who was billeted in Christopher Schonwitz's, had
been much in want of a clean shirt, and other interior outfit;
and had, last night, imperatively despatched the man Scholzke, a
farm-servant of the said Christopher's, off to his, the Dragoon's,
Father in Kriesewitz, to procure such shirt or outfit, and to
return early with the same; under penalty of--Scholzke and his
master dare not think under what penalty. Scholzke, floundering
homewards with the outfit from Kriesewitz, flounders at this moment
into Saldern's sphere of vision: 'Whence, whither?' asks Saldern:
'Dost thou know where the Austrians are?' (RECHT GUT: in Mollwitz,
whither I am going!' Saldern takes him to the King,--and that was
the first clear light his Majesty had on the matter." [Fuchs, pp.
6, 7.] That or something equivalent, indisputably was; Saldern and
"a Peasant," the account of it in all the Books.

The King says to this Peasant, "Thou shalt ride with me to-day!"
And Scholzke, Ploschke others call him,--heavy-footed rational
biped knowing the ground there practically, every yard of it,--did,
as appears, attend the King all morning; and do service, that was
recognizable long years afterwards. "For always," say the Books,
"when the King held review here, Ploschke failed not to make
appearance on the field of Pogarell, and get recognition and a gift
from his Majesty."

At break of day the ranking and arranging began. Pogarell clock is
near striking ten, when the last squadron or battalion quits
Pogarell; and the Four Columns, punctiliously correct, are all
under way. Two on each side of Ohlau Highway; steadily advancing,
with pioneers ahead to clear any obstacle there may be.
Few obstacles; here and there a little ditch (where Ploschke's
advice may be good, under the sleek of the snow), no fences, smooth
wide Plain, nothing you would even call a knoll in it for many
miles ahead and around. Mollwitz is some seven miles north from
Pogarell; intermediate lie dusty fractions of Villages more than
one; two miles or more from Mollwitz we come to Pampitz on our
left, the next considerable, if any of them can be
counted considerable.

"All these Dorfs, and indeed most German ones," says my Tourist,
"are made on one type; an agglomerate of dusty farmyards, with
their stalls and barns; all the farmyards huddled together in two
rows; a broad negligent road between, seldom mended, never swept
except by the elements. Generally there is nothing to be seen, on
each hand, but thatched roofs, dead clay walls and rude wooden
gates; sometimes a poor public-house, with probable beer in it;
never any shop, nowhere any patch of swept pavement, or trim
gathering-place for natives of a social gossipy turn: the road lies
sleepy, littery, good only for utilitarian purposes. In the middle
of the Village stands Church and Churchyard, with probably some
gnarled trees around it: Church often larger than you expected;
the Churchyard, always fenced with high stone-and-mortar wall, is
usually the principal military post of the place. Mollwitz, at the
present day, has something of whitewash here and there; one of the
farmer people, or more, wearing a civilized prosperous look.
The belfry offers you a pleasant view: the roofs and steeples of
Brieg, pleasantly visible to eastward; villages dotted about,
Laugwitz, Barzdorf, Hermsdorf, clear to your inquiring: and to
westward, and to southward, tops of Hill-country in the distance.
Westward, twenty miles off, are pleasant Hills; and among them, if
you look well, shadowy Town-spires, which you are assured are
Strehlen, a place also of interest in Friedrich's History.--Your
belfry itself, in Mollwitz, is old, but not unsound; and the big
iron clock grunts heavily at your ear, or perhaps bursts out in a
too deafening manner, while you study the topographies.
Pampitz, too, seems prosperous, in its littery way; the Church is
bigger and newer,"--owing to an accident we shall hear of soon;--
"Country all about seems farmed with some industry, but with
shallow ploughing; liable to drought. It is very sandy in quality;
shorn of umbrage; painfully naked to an English eye." That is the
big champaign, coated with two feet of snow, where a great Action
is now to go forward.

Neipperg, all this while, is much at his ease on this white
resting-day, He is just sitting down to dinner at the Dorfschulzes
(Village Provost, or miniature Mayor of Mollwitz), a composed man;
when--rockets or projectiles, and successive anxious sputterings
from the steeple-tops of Brieg, are hastily reported: what can it
mean? Means little perhaps;--Neipperg sends out a Hussar party to
ascertain, and composedly sets himself to dine. In a little while
his Hussar party will come galloping back, faster than it went;
faster and fewer;--and there will be news for Neipperg during
dinner! Better here looking out, though it was a rest-day?--

The truth is, the Prussian advance goes on with punctilious
exactitude, by no means rapidly. Colonel Count van Rothenburg,--
the same whom we lately heard of in Paris as a miracle of gambling,
--he now here, in a new capacity, is warily leading the Vanguard of
Dragoons; warily, with the Four Columns well to rear of him:
the Austrian Hussar party came upon Rothenburg, not two miles from
Mollwitz; and suddenly drew bridle. Them Rothenburg tumbles to the
right-about, and chases;--finds, on advancing, the Austrian Army
totally unaware. It is thought, had Rothenburg dashed forward, and
sent word to the rearward to dash forward at their swiftest, the
Austrian Army might have been cut in pieces here, and never have
got together to try battle at all. But Rothenburg had no orders;
nay, had orders Not to get into fighting;--nor had Friedrich
himself, in this his first Battle, learned that feline or leonine
promptitude of spring which he subsequently manifested. Far from
it! Indeed this punctilious deliberation, and slow exactitude as on
the review-ground, is wonderful and noteworthy at the first start
of Friedrich;--the faithful apprentice-hand still rigorous to the
rules of the old shop. Ten years hence, twenty years hence, had
Friedrich found Neipperg in this condition, Neipperg's account had
been soon settled!-- Rothenburg drove back the Hussars, all manner
of successive Hussar parties, and kept steadily ahead of the main
battle, as he had been bidden.

Pampitz Village being now passed, and in rear of them to left, the
Prussian Columns halt for some instants; burst into field-music;
take to deploying themselves into line. There is solemn wheeling,
shooting out to right and left, done with spotless precision:
once in line,--in two lines, "each three men deep," lines many
yards apart,--they will advance on Mollwitz; still solemnly, field-
music guiding, and banners spread. Which will be a work of time.
That the King's frugal field-dinner was shot away, from its camp-
table near Pampitz (as Fuchs has heard), is evidently mythical;
and even impossible, the Austrians having yet no cannon within
miles of him; and being intent on dining comfortably themselves,
not on firing at other people's dinners.

Fancy Neipperg's state of mind, busy beginning dinner in the little
Schulze's, or Town-Provost's house, when the Hussars dashed in at
full gallop, shouting "DER FEIND, The Enemy! All in march there;
vanguard this side of Pampitz; killed forty of us!"--Quick, your
Plan of Battle, then? Whitherward; How; What? answer or perish!
Neipperg was infinitely struck; dropt knife and fork: "Send for
Romer, General of the Horse!" Romer did the indispensable: a swift
man, not apt to lose head. Romer's battle-plan, I should hope, is
already made; or it will fare ill with Neipperg and him. But beat,
ye drummers; gallop, ye aides-de-camp as for life! The first thing
is to get our Force together; and it lies scattered about in three
other Villages besides Mollwitz, miles apart. Neipperg's trumpets
clangor, his aides-de-camp gallop: he has his left wing formed, and
the other parts in a state of rapid genesis, Horse and Foot pouring
in from Laugwitz, Barzdorf, Gruningen, before the Prussians have
quite done deploying themselves, and got well within shot of him.
Romer, by birth a Saxon gentleman, by all accounts a superior
soldier and excellent General of Horse, commands this Austrian left
wing, General Goldlein, [(Anonymous) MARIA THERESA (already cited),
p. 8 n.] a Swiss veteran of good parts, presiding over the Infantry
in that quarter. Neipperg himself, were he once complete, will
command the right wing.

Neipperg is to be in two lines, as the Prussians are, with horse on
each wing, which is orthodox military order. His length of front,
I should guess, must have been something better than two English
miles: a sluggish Brook, called of Laugwitz, from the Village of
that name which lies some way across, is on his right hand;
sluggish, boggy; stagnating towards the Oder in those parts:--
improved farming has, in our time, mostly dried the strip of bog,
and made it into coarse meadow, which is rather a relief amid the
dry sandy element. Neipperg's right is covered by that. His left
rests on the Hamlet of Gruningen, a mile-and-half northeast of
Mollwitz;--meant to have rested on Hermsdorf nearly east, but the
Prussians have already taken that up. The sun coming more and more
round to west of south (for it is now past noon) shines right in
Neipperg's face, and is against him: how the wind is, nobody
mentions,--probably there was no wind. His regular Cavalry, 8,600,
outnumbers twice or more that of the Prussians, not to mention
their quality; and he has fewer Infantry, somewhat in proportion;--
the entire force on each side is scarcely above 20,000, the
Prussians slightly in majority by count. In field-pieces Neipperg
is greatly outnumbered; the Prussians having about threescore, he
only eighteen. [Kausler, <italic> Atlas der merkwurdigsten
Schlachten, <end italic>  p. 232.] And now here ARE the Prussians,
close upon our left wing, not yet in contact with the right,--which
in fact is not yet got into existence;--thank Heaven they have not
come before our left got into existence, as our right (if you knew
it) has not yet quite finished doing!--

The Prussians, though so ready for deploying, have had their own
difficulties and delays. Between the boggy Brook of Laugwitz on
their left, and the Village of Hermsdorf, two miles distant, on
which their right wing is to lean, there proves not to be room
enough; [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> ii. 73.] and
then, owing to mistake of Schulenburg (our old pipe-clay friend,
who commands the right wing of Horse here, and is not up in time),
there is too much room. Not room enough, for all the Infantry, we
say: the last three Battalions of the front line therefore, the
three on the utmost right, wheel round, and stand athwart;
EN POTENCE (as soldiers say), or at right angles to the first line;
hanging to it like a kind of lid in that part,--between Schulenburg
and them,--had Schulenburg come up. Thus are the three battalions
got rid of at least; "they cap the First Prussian line
rectangularly, like a lid," says my authority,--lid which does not
reach to the Second Line by a good way. This accidental arrangement
had material effects on the right wing. Unfortunate Schulenburg did
at last come up:--had he miscalculated the distances, then? Once on
the ground, he will find he does not reach to Hermsdorf after all,
and that there is now too much room! What his degree of fault was I
know not; Friedrich has long been dissatisfied with these Dragoons
of Schulenburg; "good for nothing, I always told you" (at that
Skirmish of Baumgarten): and now here is the General himself fallen
blundering!--In respect of Horse, the Austrians are more than two
to one; to make out our deficiency, the King, imitating something
he had read about Gustavus Adolphus, intercalates the Horse-
Squadrons, on each wing, with two Battalions of Grenadiers, and SO
lengthens them;--"a manoeuvre not likely to be again imitated,"
he admits.

All these movements and arrangements are effected above a mile from
Mollwitz, no enemy yet visible. Once effected, we advance again
with music sounding, sixty pieces of artillery well in front,--
steady, steady!--across the floor of snow which is soon beaten
smooth enough, the stage, this day, of a great adventure. And now
there is the Enemy's left wing, Romer and his Horse; their right
wing wider away, and not yet, by a good space, within cannon-range
of us. It is towards Two of the afternoon; Schulenburg now on his
ground, laments that he will not reach to Hermsdorf;--but it may be
dangerous now to attempt repairing that error? At Two of the clock,
being now fairly within distance, we salute Romer and the Austrian
left, with all our sixty cannon; and the sound of drums and
clarinets is drowned in universal artillery thunder. Incessant, for
they take (by order) to "swift-shooting," which is almost of the
swiftness of musketry in our Prussian practice; and from sixty
cannon, going at that rate, we may fancy some effect. The Austrian
Horse of the left wing do not like it; all the less as the
Austrians, rather short of artillery, have nothing yet to
reply with.

No Cavalry can stand long there, getting shivered in that way;
in such a noise, were there nothing more. "Are we to stand here
like milestones, then, and be all shot without a stroke struck?"
"Steady!" answers Romer. But nothing can keep them steady: "To be
shot like dogs (WIE HUNDE)! For God's sake (URN GOTTES WILLEN),
lead us forward, then, to have a stroke at them!"--in tones ever
more plangent, plaintively indignant; growing ungovernable.
And Romer can get no orders; Neipperg is on the extreme right, many
things still to settle there; and here is the cannon-thunder going,
and soon their very musketry will open. And--and there is
Schulenburg, for one thing, stretching himself out eastwards
(rightwards) to get hold of Hermsdorf; thinking this an opportunity
for the manoeuvre. "Forward!" cries Romer; and his thirty
Squadrons, like bottled whirlwind now at last let loose, dash upon
Schulenburg's poor ten (five of them of Schulenburg's own
regiment,--who are turned sideways too, trotting towards Hermsdorf,
at the wrong moment,--and dash them into wild ruin. That must have
been a charge! That was the beginning of hours of chaos, seemingly
irretrievable, in that Prussian right wing.

For the Prussian Horse fly wildly; and it is in vain to rally.
The King is among them; has come in hot haste, conjuring and
commanding: poor Schulenburg addresses his own regiment, "Oh,
shame, shame! shall it be told, then?" rallies his own regiment,
and some others; charges fiercely in with them again; gets a sabre-
slash across the face,--does not mind the sabre-slash, small
bandaging will do;--gets a bullet through the head (or through the
heart, it is not said which); [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end
italic> i. 899.] and falls down dead; his regiment going to the
winds again, and HIS care of it and of other things concluding in
this honorable manner. Nothing can rally that right wing; or the
more you rally, the worse it fares: they are clearly no match for
Romer, these Prussian Horse. They fly along the front of their own
First Line of Infantry, they fly between the two Lines; Romer
chasing,--till the fire of the Infantry (intolerable to our
enemies, and hitting some even of our fugitive friends) repels him.
For the notable point in all this was the conduct of the Infantry;
and how it stood in these wild vortexes of ruin; impregnable,
immovable, as if every man of it were stone; and steadily poured
out deluges of fire,--"five Prussian shots for two Austrian:"--such
is perfect discipline against imperfect; and the iron ramrod
against the wooden.

The intolerable fire repels Romer, when he trenches on the
Infantry: however, he captures nine of the Prussian sixty guns;
has scattered their Horse to the winds; and charges again and
again, hoping to break the Infantry too,--till a bullet kills him,
the gallant Romer; and some other has to charge and try. It was
thought, had Goldlein with his Austrian Infantry advanced to
support Romer at this juncture, the Battle had been gained.
Five times, before Romer fell and after, the Austrians charged
here; tried the Second Line too; tried once to take Prince Leopold
in rear there. But Prince Leopold faced round, gave intolerable
fire; on one face as on the other, he, or the Prussian Infantry
anywhere, is not to be broken. "Prince Friedrich", one of the
Margraves of Schwedt, King's Cousin, whom we did not know before,
fell in these wild rallyings and wrestlings; "by a cannon-ball, at
the King's hand," not said otherwise where. He had come as
Volunteer, few weeks ago, out of Holland, where he was a rising
General: he has met his fate here,--and Margraf Karl, his Brother,
who also gets wounded, will be a mournful man to-night.

The Prussian Horse, this right wing of it, is a ruined body;
boiling in wild disorder, flooding rapidly away to rearward,--
which is the safest direction to retreat upon. They "sweep away the
King's person with them," say some cautious people; others say,
what is the fact, that Schwerin entreated, and as it were
commanded, the King to go; the Battle being, to all appearance,
irretrievable. Go he did, with small escort, and on a long ride,--
to Oppeln, a Prussian post, thirty-five miles rearward, where there
is a Bridge over the Oder and a safe country beyond. So much is
indubitable; and that he despatched an Aide-de-camp to gallop into
Brandenburg, and tell the Old Dessauer, "Bestir yourself! Here all
seems lost!"-- and vanished from the Field, doubtless in very
desperate humor. Upon which the extraneous world has babbled a good
deal, "Cowardice! Wanted courage: Haha!" in its usual foolish way;
not worth answer from him or from us. Friedrich's demeanor, in that
disaster of his right wing, was furious despair rather; and neither
Schulenburg nor Margraf Friedrich, nor any of the captains, killed
or left living, was supposed to have sinned by "cowardice" in a
visible degree!--

Indisputable it is, though there is deep mystery upon it, the King
vanishes from Mollwitz Field at this point for sixteen hours, into
the regions of Myth, "into Fairyland," as would once have been
said; but reappears unharmed in to-morrow's daylight: at which
time, not sooner, readers shall hear what little is to be said of
this obscure and much-disfigured small affair. For the present we
hasten back to Mollwitz,--where the murderous thunder rages
unabated all this while; the very noise of it alarming mankind for
thirty miles round. At Breslau, which is thirty good miles off,
horrible dull grumble was heard from the southern quarter ("still
better, if you put a staff in the ground, and set your ear to it");
and from the steeple-tops, there was dim cloudland of powder-smoke
discernible in the horizon there. "At Liegnitz," which is twice the
distance, "the earth sensibly shook," [<italic> Helden-Geschichte;
<end italic> and Jordan's Letter, infra.]--at least the air did,
and the nerves of men.

"Had Goldlein but advanced with his Foot, in support of gallant
Romer!" say the Austrian Books. But Goldlein did not advance;
nor is it certain he would have found advantage in so doing:
Goldlein, where he stands, has difficulty enough to hold his own.
For the notable circumstance, miraculous to military men, still is,
How the Prussian Foot (men who had never been in fire, but whom
Friedrich Wilhelm had drilled for twenty years) stand their ground,
in this distraction of the Horse. Not even the two outlying
Grenadier Battalions will give way: those poor intercalated
Grenadiers, when their Horse fled on the right and on the left,
they stand there, like a fixed stone-dam in that wild whirlpool of
ruin. They fix bayonets, "bring their two field-pieces to flank"
(Winterfeld was Captain there), and, from small arms and big,
deliver such a fire as was very unexpected. Nothing to be made of
Winterfeld and them. They invincibly hurl back charge after charge;
and, with dogged steadiness, manoeuvre themselves into the general
Line again; or into contact with the three superfluous Battalions,
arranged EN POTENCE, whom we heard of. Those three, ranked athwart
in this right wing ("like a lid," between First Line and second),
maintained themselves in like impregnable fashion,--Winterfeld
commanding;--and proved unexpectedly, thinks Friedrich, the saving
of the whole. For they also stood their ground immovable, like
rocks; steadily spouting fire-torrents. Five successive charges
storm upon them, fruitless: "Steady, MEINE KINDER; fix bayonets,
handle ramrods! There is the Horse-deluge thundering in upon you;
reserve your fire, till you see the whites of their eyes, and get
the word; then give it them, and again give it them: see whether
any man or any horse can stand it!"

Neipperg, soon after Romer fell, had ordered Goldlein forward:
Goldlein with his Infantry did advance, gallantly enough; but to no
purpose. Goldlein was soon shot dead; and his Infantry had to fall
back again, ineffectual or worse. Iron ramrods against wooden;
five shots to two: what is there but falling back? Neipperg sent
fresh Horse from his right wing, with Berlichingen, a new famed
General of Horse; Neipperg is furiously bent to improve his
advantage, to break those Prussians, who are mere musketeers left
bare, and thinks that will settle the account: but it could in no
wise be done. The Austrian Horse, after their fifth trial, renounce
charging; fairly refuse to charge any more; and withdraw dispirited
out of ball-range, or in search of things not impracticable.
The Hussar part of them did something of plunder to rearward;--and,
besides poor Maupertuis's adventure (of which by and by), and an
attempt on the Prussian baggage and knapsacks, which proved to be
"too well guarded,"--"burnt the Church of Pampitz," as some small
consolation. The Prussians had stript their knapsacks, and left
them in Pampitz: the Austrians, it was noticed, stript theirs in
the Field; built walls of them, and fired behind,the same, in a
kneeling, more or less protected posture,--which did not avail
them much.

In fact, the Austrian Infantry too, all Austrians, hour after hour,
are getting wearier of it: neither Infantry nor Cavalry can stand
being riddled by swift shot in that manner. In spite of their
knapsack walls, various regiments have shrunk out of ball-range;
and several cannot, by any persuasion, be got to come into it
again. Others, who do reluctantly advance,--see what a figure they
make; man after man edging away as he can, so that the regiment
"stands forty to eighty men deep, with lanes through it every two
or three yards;" permeable everywhere to Cavalry, if we had them;
and turning nothing to the Enemy but color-sergeants and bare poles
of a regiment! And Romer is dead, and Goldlein of the Infantry is
dead. And on their right wing, skirted by that marshy Brook of
Laugwitz,--Austrian right wing had been weakened by detachments,
when Berlichingen rode off to succeed Romer,--the Austrians are
suffering: Posadowsky's Horse (among whom is Rothenburg, once
vanguard), strengthened by remnants who have rallied here, are at
last prospering, after reverses. And the Prussian fire of small
arms, at such rate, has lasted now for five hours. The Austrian
Army, becoming instead of a web a mere series of flying tatters,
forming into stripes or lanes in the way we see, appears to have
had about enough.

These symptoms are not hidden from Schwerin. His own ammunition,
too, he knows is running scarce, and fighters here and there are
searching the slain for cartridges:--Schwerin closes his ranks,
trims and tightens himself a little; breaks forth into universal
field-music, and with banners spread, starts in mass wholly,
"Forwards!" Forwards towards these Austrians and the setting sun.

An intelligent Austrian Officer, writing next week from Neisse,
[<italic> Feldzuge der Preussen <end italic> (above cited),
i. 38.]' confesses he never saw anything more beautiful. "I can
well say, I never in my life saw anything more beautiful.
They marched with the greatest steadiness, arrow-straight, and
their front like a line (SCHNURGLEICH), as if they had been upon
parade. The glitter of their clear arms shone strangely in the
setting sun, and the fire from them went on no otherwise than a
continued peal of thunder." Grand picture indeed; but not to be
enjoyed as a Work of Art, for it is coming upon us! "The spirits of
our Army sank altogether", continues he; "the Foot plainly giving
way, Horse refusing to come forward, all things wavering towards
dissolution:"--so that Neipperg, to avoid worse, gives the word to
go;--and they roll off at double-quick time, through Mollwitz, over
Laugwitz Bridge and Brook, towards Grotkau by what routes they can.
The sun is just sunk; a quarter to eight, says the intelligent
Austrian Officer,--while the Austrian Army, much to its amazement,
tumbles forth in this bad fashion.

They had lost nine of their own cannon, and all of those Prussian
nine which they once had, except one: eight cannon MINUS, in all.
Prisoners of them were few, and none of much mark: two Field-
marshals, Romer and Goldlein, lie among the dead; four more of that
rank are wounded. Four standards too are gone; certain kettle-drums
and the like trophies, not in great number. Lieutenant-General
Browne was of these retreating Austrians; a little fact worth
noting: of his actions this day, or of his thoughts (which latter
surely must have been considerable), no hint anywhere.
The Austrians were not much chased; though they might have been,--
fresh Cavalry (two Ohlau regiments, drawn hither by the sound
[Interesting correct account of their movements and adventures this
day and some previous days, in Nicolai, <italic> Anekdoten, <end
italic> ii. 142-148.]) having hung about to rear of them, for some
time past; unable to get into the Fight, or to do any good till
now. Schwerin, they say, though he had two wounds, was for pursuing
vigorously: but Leopold of Anhalt over-persuaded him; urged the
darkness, the uncertainty. Berlichingen, with their own Horse,
still partly covered their rear; and the Prussians, Ohlauers
included, were but weak in that branch of the service.
Pursuit lasted little more than two miles, and was never hot.
The loss of men, on both sides, was not far from equal, and rather
in favor of the Austrian side:--Austrians counted in killed,
wounded and missing, 4,410 men; Prussians 4,613; [Orlich, i. 108;
Kansler, p. 235, correct; <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic>
i. 895, incorrect.]--but the Prussians bivouacked on the ground, or
quartered in these Villages, with victory to crown them, and the
thought that their hard day's work had been well done. Besides
Margraf Friedrich, Volunteer from Holland, there lay among the
slain Colonel Count von Finkenstein (Old Tutor's Son), King's
friend from boyhood, and much loved. He was of the six whom we saw
consulting at the door at Reinsberg, during a certain ague-fit;
and he now rests silent here, while the matter has only come
thus far.

Such was Mollwitz, the first Battle for Silesia; which had to cost
many Battles first and last. Silesia will be gained, we can expect,
by fighting of this kind in an honest cause. But here is something
already gained, which is considerable, and about which there is no
doubt. A new Military Power, it would appear, has come upon the
scene; the Gazetteer-and-Diplomatic world will have to make itself
familiar with a name not much heard of hitherto among the Nations.
"A Nation which can fight," think the Gazetteers; "fight almost as
the very Swedes did; and is led on by its King too,--who may prove,
in his way, a very Charles XII., or small Macedonia's Madman, for
aught one knows?" In which latter branch of their prognostic the
Gazetteers were much out.--

The Fame of this Battle, which is now so sunk out of memory, was
great in Europe; and struck, like a huge war-gong, with long
resonance, through the general ear. M. de Voltaire had run across
to Lille in those Spring days: there is a good Troop of Players in
Lille; a Niece, Madame Denis, wife of some Military Commissariat
Denis, important in those parts, can lodge the divine Emilie and
me;--and one could at last see MAHOMET, after five years of
struggling, get upon the boards, if not yet in Paris by a great
way, yet in Lille, which is something. MAHOMET is getting upon the
boards on those terms; and has proceeded, not amiss, through an Act
or two, when a Note from the King of Prussia was handed to
Voltaire, announcing the victory of Mollwitz. Which delightful Note
Voltaire stopt the performance till he read to the Audience:
"Bravissimo!" answered the Audience. "You will see," said M. de
Voltaire to the friends about him, "this Piece at Mollwitz will
make mine succeed:" which proved to be the fact. [Voltaire,
<italic> OEuvres (Vie Privee), <end italic> ii. 74.] For the French
are Anti-Austrian; and smell great things in the wind. "That man is
mad, your Most Christian Majesty?" "Not quite; or at any rate not
mad only!" think Louis and his Belleisles now.

Dimly poring in those old Books, and squeezing one's way into
face-to-face view of the extinct Time, we begin to notice what a
clangorous rumor was in Mollwitz to the then generation of
mankind;--betokening many things; universal European War, as the
first thing. Which duly came to pass; as did, at a slower rate, the
ulterior thing, not yet so apparent, that indeed a new hour had
struck on the Time Horologe, that a New Epoch had risen. Yes, my
friends. New Charles XII. or not, here truly has a new Man and King
come upon the scene: capable perhaps of doing something?
Slumberous Europe, rotting amid its blind pedantries, its lazy
hypocrisies, conscious and unconscious: this man is capable of
shaking it a little out of its stupid refuges of lies, and
ignominious wrappages and bed-clothes, which will be its grave-
clothes otherwise; and of intimating to it, afar off, that there is
still a Veracity in Things, and a Mendacity in Sham-Things, and
that the difference of the two is infinitely more considerable than
was supposed.

This Mollwitz is a most deliberate, regulated, ponderously
impressive (GRAVITATISCH) Feat of Arms, as the reader sees; done
all by Regulation methods, with orthodox exactitude; in a slow,
weighty, almost pedantic, but highly irrefragable manner. It is the
triumph of Prussian Discipline; of military orthodoxy well put in
practice: the honest outcome of good natural stuff in those
Brandenburgers, and of the supreme virtues of Drill. Neipperg and
his Austrians had much despised Prussian soldiering: "Keep our soup
hot," cried they, on running out this day to rank themselves; "hot
a little, till we drive these fellows to the Devil!" That was their
opinion, about noon this day: but that is an opinion they have
renounced for all remaining days and years.--It is a Victory due
properly to Friedrich Wilhelm and the Old Dessauer, who are far
away from it. Friedrich Wilhelm, though dead, fights here, and the
others only do his bidding on this occasion. His Son, as yet, adds
nothing of his own; though he will ever henceforth begin largely
adding,--right careful withal to lose nothing, for the Friedrich
Wilhelm contribution is invaluable, and the basis of everything;--
but it is curious to see in what contrast this first Battle of
Friedrich's is with his latter and last ones.

Considering the Battle of Mollwitz, and then, in contrast, the
intricate Pragmatic Sanction, and what their consequences were and
their antecedents, it is curious once more! This, then, is what the
Pragmatic Sanction has come to? Twenty years of world-wide
diplomacy, cunningly devised spider-threads overnetting all the
world, have issued here. Your Congresses of Cambray, of Soissons,
your Grumkow-Seckendorf Machiavelisms, all these might as well have
lain in their bed. Real Pragmatic Sanction would have been, A well-
trained Army and your Treasury full. Your Treasury is empty
(nothing in it but those foolish 200,000 English guineas, and the
passionate cry for more): and your Army is not trained as this
Prussian one; cannot keep its ground against this one. Of all those
long-headed Potentates, simple Friedrich Wilhelm, son of Nature,
who had the honesty to do what Nature taught him, has come out,
gainer. You all laughed at him as a fool: do you begin to see now
who was wise, who fool? He has an Army that "advances on you with
glittering musketry, steady as on the parade-ground, and pours out
fire like one continuous thunder-peal;" so that, strange as it
seems, you find there will actually be nothing for you but--taking
to your heels, shall we say?--rolling off with despatch, as second-
best! These things are of singular omen. Here stands one that will
avenge Friedrich Wilhelm,--if Friedrich Wilhelm were not already
sufficiently avenged by the mere verdict of facts, which is
palpably coming out, as Time peels the wiggeries away from them
more and more. Mollwitz and such places are full of veracity;
and no head is so thick as to resist conviction in that kind.


OF FRIEDRICH'S DISAPPEARANCE INTO FAIRYLAND, IN THE INTERIM;
AND OF MAUPERTUIS'S SIMILAR ADVENTURE.

Of the King's Flight, or sudden disappearance into Fairyland,
during this first Battle, the King himself, who alone could have
told us fully, maintained always rigorous silence, and nowhere
drops the least hint. So that the small fact has come down to us
involved in a great bulk of fabulous cobwebs, mostly of an ill-
natured character, set agoing by Voltaire, Valori and others {which
fabulous process, in the good-natured form, still continues
itself); and, except for Nicolai's good industry (in his ANEKDOTEN-
Book), we should have difficulty even in guessing, not to say
understanding, as is now partly possible. The few real particulars
--and those do verify themselves, and hang perfectly together, when
the big globe of fable is burnt off from them--are to the
following effect.

"Battle lost," said Schwerin: "but what is the loss of a Battle to
that of your Majesty's own Person? For Heaven's sake, go; get
across the Oder; be you safe, till this decide itself!" That was
reasonable counsel. If defeated, Schwerin can hope to retreat upon
Ohlau, upon Breslau, and save the Magazines. This side the Oder,
all will be movements, a whirlpool of Hussars; but beyond the Oder,
all is quiet, open. To Ohlau, to Glogau, nay home to Brandenburg
and the Old Dessauer with his Camp at Gottin, the road is free, by
the other side of the Oder.--Schwerin and Prince Leopold urging
him, the King did ride away; at what hour, with what suite, or with
what adventures (not mostly fabulous) is not known:--but it was
towards Lowen, fifteen miles off (where he crossed Neisse River,
the other day); and thence towards Oppeln, on the Oder, eighteen
miles farther; and the pace was swift. Leopold, on reflection,
ordered off a Squadron of Gens-d'Armes to overtake his Majesty, at
Lowen or sooner; which they never did. Passing Pampitz, the King
threw Fredersdorf a word, who was among the baggage there:
"To Oppeln; bring the Purse, the Privy Writings!" Which
Fredersdorf, and the Clerks (and another Herr, who became Nicolai's
Father-in-law in after years) did; and joined the King at Lowen;
but I hope stopped there.

The King's suite was small, names not given; but by the time he got
to Lowen, being joined by cavalry fugitives and the like, it had
got to be seventy persons: too many for the King. He selected what
was his of them; ordered the gates to be shut behind him on all
others, and again rode away. The Leopold Squadron of Gens-d'Armes
did not arrive till after his departure; and having here lost trace
of him, called halt, and billeted for the night. The King speeds
silently to Oppeln on his excellent bay horse, the worse-mounted
gradually giving in. At Oppeln is a Bridge over the Oder, a free
Country beyond: Regiment La Motte lay, and as the King thinks,
still lies in Oppeln;--but in that he is mistaken. Regiment La
Motte is with the baggage at Pampitz, all this day; and a wandering
Hussar Party, some sixty Austrians, have taken possession of
Oppeln. The King, and the few who had not yet broken down, arrive
at the Gate of Oppeln, late, under cloud of night: "Who goes?"
cried the sentry from within. "Prussians! A Prussian Courier!"
answer they;--and are fired upon through the gratings;
and immediately draw back, and vanish unhurt into Night again.
"Had those Hussars only let him in!" said Austria afterwards: but
they had not such luck. It was at this point, according to Valori,
that the King burst forth into audible ejaculations of a lamentable
nature. There is no getting over, then, even to Brandenburg, and in
an insolvent condition. Not open insolvency and bankrupt disgrace;
no, ruin, and an Austrian jail, is the one outlook. "O MON DIEU,
O God, it is too much (C'EN EST TROP)!" with other the like
snatches of lamentation; [Valori, i. 104.] which are not
inconceivable in a young man, sleepless for the third night, in
these circumstances; but which Valori knows nothing of, except by
malicious rumor from the valet class,--who have misinformed Valori
about several other points.

The King riding diligently, with or without ejaculations, back
towards Lowen, comes at an early hour to the Mill of Hilbersdorf,
within a mile-and-half of that place. He alights at the Mill;
sends one of his attendants, almost the only one now left, to
inquire what is in Lowen. The answer, we know, is: "A squadron of
Gens-d'Armes there; furthermore, a Prussian Adjutant come to say,
Victory at Mollwitz!" Upon which the King mounts again;--issues
into daylight, and concludes these mythical adventures. That "in
Lowen, in the shop at the corner of the Market-place, Widow
Panzern, subsequently Wife Something-else, made his Majesty a cup
of coffee, and served a roast fowl along with it," cannot but be
welcome news, if true; and that his Majesty got to Mollwitz again
before dark that same "day," [Fuchs, p. 11.] is liable to
no controversy.

In this way was Friedrich snatched by Morgante into Fairyland,
carried by Diana to the top of Pindus (or even by Proserpine to
Tartarus, through a bad sixteen hours), till the Battle whirlwind
subsided. Friendly imaginative spirits would, in the antique time,
have so construed it: but these moderns were malicious-valetish,
not friendly; and wrapped the matter in mere stupid worlds of
cobweb, which require burning. Friedrich himself was stone-silent
on this matter, all his life after; but is understood never quite
to have pardoned Schwerin for the ill-luck of giving him such
advice. [Nicolai, ii. 180-195 (the one true account); Laveaux,
i. 194; Valori, i. 104; &c., &c. (the myth in various stages).
Most distractedly mythical of all, with the truth clear before it,
is the latest version, just come out, in <italic> Was sich die
Schlesier vom alten Fritz erzahlen <end italic> (Brieg, 1860),
pp. 113-125.]

Friedrich's adventure is not the only one of that kind at Mollwitz;
there is another equally indubitable,--which will remain obscure,
half-mythical to the end of the world. The truth is, that Right
Wing of the Prussian Army was fallen chaotic, ruined; and no man,
not even one who had seen it, can give account of what went on
there. The sage Maupertuis, for example, had climbed some tree or
place of impregnability ("tree" Voltaire calls it, though that is
hardly probable), hoping to see the Battle there. And he did see
it, much too clearly at last! In such a tide of charging and
chasing, on that Right Wing and round all the Field in the Prussian
rear; in such wide bickering and boiling of Horse-currents,--which
fling out, round all the Prussian rear quarters, such a spray of
Austrian Hussars for one element,--Maupertuis, I have no doubt,
wishes much he were at home, doing his sines and tangents. An
Austrian Hussar-party gets sight of him, on his tree or other
standpoint (Voltaire says elsewhere he was mounted on an ass, the
malicious spirit!)--too certain, the Austrian Hussars got sight of
him: his purse, gold watch, all he has of movable is given frankly;
all will not do. There are frills about the man, fine laces, cloth;
a goodish yellow wig on him, for one thing:--their Slavonic
dialect, too fatally intelligible by the pantomime accompanying it,
forces sage Maupertuis from his tree or standpoint; the big red
face flurried into scarlet, I can fancy; or scarlet and ashy-white
mixed; and--Let us draw a veil over it! He is next seen shirtless,
the once very haughty, blustery, and now much-humiliated man;
still conscious of supreme acumen, insight and pure science; and,
though an Austrian prisoner and a monster of rags, struggling to
believe that he is a genius and the Trismegistus of mankind. What a
pickle! The sage Maupertuis, as was natural, keeps passionately
asking, of gods and men, for an Officer with some tincture of
philosophy, or even who could speak French. Such Officer is at last
found; humanely advances him money, a shirt and suit of clothes;
but can in nowise dispense with his going to Vienna as prisoner.
Thither he went accordingly; still in a mythical condition. Of
Voltaire's laughing, there is no end; and he changes the myth from
time to time, on new rumors coming; and there is no truth to be had
from him. [Voltaire, <italic> OEuvres (Vie Prive), <end italic> ii.
33-34; and see his LETTERS for some were after the event.]

This much is certain: at Vienna, Maupertuis, prisoner on parole,
glided about for some time in deep eclipse, till the Newspapers
began babbling of him. He confessed then that he was Maupertuis,
Flattener of the Earth; but for the rest, "told rather a blind
story about himself," says Robinson; spoke as if he had been of the
King's suite, "riding with the King," when that Hussar accident
befell;--rather a blind story, true story being too sad. The Vienna
Sovereignties, in the turn things had taken, were extremely kind;
Grand-Duke Franz handsomely pulled out his own watch, hearing what
road the Maupertuis one had gone; dismissed the Maupertuis, with
that and other gifts, home:--to Brittany (not to Prussia), till
times calmed for engrafting the Sciences. [<italic> Helden-
Geschichte, <end italic> i. 902; Robinson's Despatch (Vienna,
22d April, 1741, n.s.); Voltaire, ubi supra.]

On Wednesday, Friedrich writes this Note to his Sister; the first
utterance we have from him since those wild roamings about Oppeln
and Hilbersdorf Mill:--

KING TO WILHELMINA (at Baireuth; two days after Mollwitz).

"OHLAU, 12th April, 1741.

"MY DEAREST SISTER,--I have the satisfaction to inform you that we
have yesterday [day before yesterday; but some of us have only had
one sleep!] totally beaten the Austrians. They have lost more than
5,000 men, killed, wounded and prisoners. We have lost Prince
Friedrich, Brother of Margraf Karl; General Schulenburg,
Wartensleben of the Carabineers, and many other Officers.
Our troops did miracles; and the result shows as much. It was one
of the rudest Battles fought within memory of man.

"I am sure you will take part in this happiness; and that you will
not doubt of the tenderness with which I am, my dearest Sister,--
Yours wholly,				FEDERIC."
[<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xxvii. i. 101.]

And on the same day there comes, from Breslau, Jordan's Answer to
the late anxious little Note from Pogarell; anxieties now gone, and
smoky misery changed into splendor of flame:

JORDAN TO THE KING (finds him at Ohlau).

"BRESLAU, 11th April, 1741.
"SIRE,--Yesterday I was in terrible alarms. The sound of the cannon
heard, the smoke of powder visible from the steeple-tops here;
all led us to suspect that there was a Battle going on.
Glorious confirmation of it this morning! Nothing but rejoicing
among all the Protestant inhabitants; who had begun to be in
apprehension, from the rumors which the other party took pleasure
in spreading. Persons who were in the Battle cannot enough
celebrate the coolness and bravery of your Majesty. For myself, I
am at the overflowing point. I have run about all day, announcing
this glorious news to the Berliners who are here. In my life I have
never felt a more perfect satisfaction.

"M. de Camas is here, very ill for the last two days; attack of
fever--the Doctor hopes to bring him through,"--which proved beyond
the Doctor: the good Camas died here three days hence (age sixty-
three); an excellent German-Frenchman, of much sense, dignity and
honesty; familiar to Friedrich from infancy onwards, and no doubt
regretted by him as deserved. The Widow Camas, a fine old Lady,
German by birth, will again come in view. Jordan continues:--

"One finds, at the corner of every street, an orator of the Plebs
celebrating the warlike feats of your Majesty's troops. I have
often, in my idleness, assisted at these discourses: not artistic
eloquence, it must be owned, but spurting rude from the heart. ..."

Jordan adds in his next Note: "This morning (14th) I quitted M. de
Camas; who, it is thought, cannot last the day. I have hardly left
him during his illness:" [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end
italic> xvii. 99.]--and so let that scene close.

Neipperg, meanwhile, had fallen back on Neisse; taken up a strong
encampment in that neighborhood; he lies thereabouts all summer;
stretched out, as it were, in a kind of vigilant dog-sleep on the
threshold, keeping watch over Neisse, and tries fighting no more at
this time, or indeed ever after, to speak of. And always, I think,
with disadvantage, when he does try a little. He had been Grand-
Duke Franz's Tutor in War-matters; had got into trouble at Belgrade
once before, and was almost hanged by the Turks. George II. had
occasionally the benefit of him, in coming years. Be not too severe
on the poor man, as the Vienna public was; he had some faculty,
though not enough. "Governor of Luxemburg," before long: there, for
most part, let him peacefully drill, and spend the remainder of his
poor life. Friedrich says, neither Neipperg nor himself, at this
time, knew the least of War; and that it would be hard to settle
which of them made the more blunders in their Silesian tussle.

Friedrich, in about three weeks hence, was fully ready for opening
trenches upon Brieg; did open trenches, accordingly, by moonlight,
in a grand nocturnal manner (as readers shall see anon); and, by
vigorous cannonading,--Marechal de Belleisle having come, by this
time, to enjoy the fine spectacle,--soon got possession of Brieg,
and held it thenceforth. Neisse now alone remained, with Neipperg
vigilantly stretched upon the threshold of it. But the Marechal de
Belleisle, we say, had come; that was the weighty circumstance.
And before Neisse can be thought of, there is a whole Europe,
bickering aloft into conflict; embattling itself from end to end,
in sequel of Mollwitz Battle; and such a preliminary sea of
negotiating, diplomatic finessing, pulse-feeling, projecting and
palavering, with Friedrich for centre all summer, as--as I wish
readers could imagine without my speaking of it farther!
But they cannot.

MAP ON PAGE 75 GOES HEREABOUTS--------



Chapter XI.

THE BURSTING FORTH OF BEDLAMS: BELLEISLE AND THE
BREAKERS OF PRAGMATIC SANCTION.

The Battle of Mollwitz went off like a signal-shot among the
Nations; intimating that they were, one and all, to go battling.
Which they did, with a witness; making a terrible thing of it, over
all the world, for above seven years to come. Foolish Nations;
doomed to settle their jarring accounts in that terrible manner!
Nay, the fewest of them had any accounts, except imaginary ones, to
settle there at all; and they went into the adventure GRATIS,
spurred on by spectralities of the sick brain, by phantasms of
hope, phantasms of terror; and had, strictly speaking, no actual
business in it whatever.

Not that Mollwitz kindled Europe; Europe was already kindled for
some two years past;--especially since the late Kaiser died, and
his Pragmatic Sanction was superadded to the other troubles afoot.
But ever since that Image of JENKINS'S EAR had at last blazed up in
the slow English brain, like a fiery constellation or Sign in the
Heavens, symbolic of such injustices and unendurabilities, and had
lighted the Spanish-English War, Europe was slowly but pretty
surely taking fire. France "could not see Spain humbled," she said:
England (in its own dim feeling, and also in the fact of things)
could not do at all without considerably humbling Spain. France,
endlessly interested in that Spanish-English matter, was already
sending out fleets, firing shots,--almost, or altogether, putting
forth her hand in it. "In which case, will not, must not, Austria
help us?" thought England,--and was asking, daily, at Vienna (with
intense earnestness, but without the least result), through
Excellency Robinson there, when the late Kaiser died. Died, poor
gentleman;--and left his big Austrian Heritages lying, as it were,
in the open market-place; elaborately tied by diplomatic packthread
and Pragmatic Sanction; but not otherwise protected against the
assembled cupidities of mankind! Independently of Mollwitz, or of
Silesia altogether, it was next to impossible that Europe could
long avoid blazing out; especially unless the Spanish-English
quarrel got quenched, of which there was no likelihood.

But if not as cause, then as signal, or as signal and cause
together (which it properly was), the Battle of Mollwitz gave the
finishing stroke, and set all in motion. This was "the little stone
broken loose from the mountain;" this, rather than the late
Kaiser's Death, which Friedrich defined in that manner. Or at
least, this was the first LEAP it took; hitting other stones big
and little, which again hit others with their leaping and rolling,
--till the whole mountain-side is in motion under law of gravity,
and you behold one wide stone-torrent thundering towards the
valleys; shivering woods, farms, habitations clean away with it:
fatal to any Image of composite Clay and Brass which it may meet!

There is, accordingly, from this point, a change in Friedrich's
Silesian Adventure; which becomes infinitely more complicated for
him,--and for those that write of him, no less! Friedrich's
business henceforth is not to be done by direct fighting, but
rather by waiting to see how, and on what side, others will fight:
nor can we describe or understand Friedrich's business, except as
in connection with the immense, obsolete, and indeed delirious
Phenomenon called Austrian-Succession War, upon which it is
difficult to say any human word. If History, driven upon Dismal
Swamp with its horrors and perils, can get across unsunk, she will
be lucky!

For, directly on the back of Mollwitz, there ensued, first, an
explosion of Diplomatic activity such as was never seen before;
Excellencies from the four winds taking wing towards Friedrich; and
talking and insinuating, and fencing and fugling, after their sort,
in that Silesian Camp of his, the centre being there. A universal
rookery of Diplomatists;--whose loud cackle and cawing is now as if
gone mad to us; their work wholly fallen putrescent and avoidable,
dead to all creatures. And secondly, in the train of that, there
ensued a universal European War, the French and the English being
chief parties in it; which abounds in battles and feats of arms,
spirited but delirious, and cannot be got stilled for seven or
eight years to come; and in which Friedrich and his War swim only
as an intermittent Episode henceforth. What to do with such a War;
how extricate the Episode, and leave the War lying? The War was at
first a good deal mad; and is now, to men's imagination, fallen
wholly so; who indeed have managed mostly to forget it; only the
Episode (reduced thereby to an UNintelligible state) retaining
still some claims on them.

It is singular into what oblivion the huge Phenomenon called
Austrian-Succession War has fallen; which, within a hundred years
ago or little more, filled all mortal hearts! The English were
principals on one side; did themselves fight in it, with their
customary fire, and their customary guidance ("courageous Wooden
Pole with Cocked Hat," as our friend called it); and paid all the
expenses, which were extremely considerable, and are felt in men's
pockets to this day: but the English have more completely forgotten
it than any other People. "Battle of Dettingen, Battle of Fontenay,
--what, in the Devil's name, were we ever doing there?" the
impatient Englishman asks; and can give no answer, except the
general one: "Fit of insanity; DELIRIUM TREMENS, perhaps FURENS;--
don't think of it!" Of Philippi and Arbela educated Englishmen can
render account; and I am told young gentlemen entering the Army are
pointedly required to say who commanded at Aigos-Potamos and
wrecked the Peloponnesian War: but of Dettingen and Fontenoy, where
is the living Englishman that has the least notion, or seeks for
any? The Austrian-Succession War did veritably rage for eight
years, at a terrific rate, deforming the face of Earth and Heaven;
the English paying the piper always, and founding their National
Debt thereby:--but not even that could prove mnemonic to them;
and they have dropped the Austrian-Succession War, with one accord,
into the general dustbin, and are content it should lie there.
They have not, in their language, the least approach to an
intelligible account of it: How it went on, whitherward, whence;
why it was there at all,--are points dark to the English, and on
which they do not wish to be informed. They have quitted the
matter, as an unintelligible huge English-and-Foreign Delirium
(which in good part it was); Delirium unintelligible to them;
tedious, not to say in parts, as those of the Austrian Subsidies,
hideous and disgusting to them; happily now fallen extinct; and
capable of being skipped, in one's inquiries into the wonders of
this England and this World. Which, in fact, is a practical
conclusion not so unwise as it looks.

"Wars are not memorable," says Sauerteig, "however big they may
have been, whatever rages and miseries they may have occasioned, or
however many hundreds of thousands they may have been the death
of,--except when they have something of World-History in them
withal. If they are found to have been the travail-throes of great
or considerable changes, which continue permanent in the world, men
of some curiosity cannot but inquire into them, keep memory of
them. But if they were travail-throes that had no birth, who of
mortals would remember them? Unless perhaps the feats of prowess,
virtue, valor and endurance, they might accidentally give rise to,
were very great indeed. Much greater than the most were, which came
out in that Austrian-Succession case! Wars otherwise are mere
futile transitory dust-whirlwinds stilled in blood; extensive fits
of human insanity, such as we know are too apt to break out;--such
as it rather beseems a faithful Son of the House of Adam NOT to
speak about again; as in houses where the grandfather was hanged,
the topic of ropes is fitly avoided.

"Never again will that War, with its deliriums, mad outlays of
blood, treasure, and of hope and terror, and far-spread human
destruction, rise into visual life in any imagination of living
man. In vain shall Dryasdust strive: things mad, chaotic and
without ascertainable purpose or result, cannot be fixed into human
memories. Fix them there by never so many Documentary Histories,
elaborate long-eared Pedantries, and cunning threads, the poor
human memory has an alchemy against such ill usage;--it forgets
them again; grows to know them as a mere torpor, a stupidity and
horror, and instinctively flies from Dryasdust and them."

Alive to any considerable degree, in the poor human imagination,
this Editor does not expect or even wish the Austrian-Succession
War to be. Enough for him if it could be understood sufficiently to
render his poor History of Friedrich intelligible. For it enwraps
Friedrich like a world-vortex henceforth; modifies every step of
his existence henceforth; and apart from it, there is no
understanding of his business or him. "So much as sticks to
Friedrich:" that was our original bargain! Assist loyally,
O reader, and we will try to make the indispensable a minimum
for you.


WHO WAS TO BLAME FOR THE AUSTRIAN-SUCCESSION WAR?

The first point to be noted is, Where did it originate? To which
the answer mainly is, With that lean Gentleman whom we saw with
Papers in the OEil-de-Boeuf on New-year's day last. With
Monseigneur the Marechal de Belleisle principally; with the
ambitious cupidities and baseless vanities of the French Court and
Nation, as represented by Belleisle. George II.'s Spanish War, if
you will examine, had a real necessity in it. Jenkins's Ear was the
ridiculous outside figure this matter had: Jenkins's Ear was one
final item of it; but the poor English People, in their wrath and
bellowings about that small item, were intrinsically meaning:
"Settle the account; let us have that account cleared up and
liquidated; it has lain too long!" And seldom were a People more in
the right, as readers shall yet see.

The English-Spanish War had a basis to stand on in this Universe.
The like had the Prussian-Austrian one; so all men now admit.
If Friedrich had not business there, what man ever had in an
enterprise he ventured on? Friedrich, after such trial and proof as
has seldom been, got his claims on Schlesien allowed by the
Destinies. His claims on Schlesien;--and on infinitely higher
things; which were found to be his and his Nation's, though he had
not been consciously thinking of them in making that adventure.
For, as my poor Friend insists, there ARE Laws valid in Earth and
in Heaven; and the great soul of the world is just. Friedrich had
business in this War; and Maria Theresa VERSUS Friedrich had
likewise cause to appear in court, and do her utmost pleading
against him.

But if we ask, What Belleisle or France and Louis XV. had to do
there? the answer is rigorously, Nothing. Their own windy vanities,
ambitions, sanctioned not by fact and the Almighty Powers, but by
phantasm and the babble of Versailles; transcendent self-conceit,
intrinsically insane; pretensions over their fellow-creatures which
were without basis anywhere in Nature, except in the French brain
alone: it was this that brought Belleisle and France into a German
War. And Belleisle and France having gone into an Anti-Pragmatic
War, the unlucky George and his England were dragged into a
Pragmatic one,--quitting their own business, on the Spanish Main,
and hurrying to Germany,--in terror as at Doomsday, and zeal to
save the Keystone of Nature these. That is the notable point in
regard to this War: That France is to be called the author of it,
who, alone of all the parties, had no business there whatever.
And the wages due to France for such a piece of industry,--the
reader will yet see what wages France and the other parties got, at
the tail of the affair. For that too is apparent in our day.

We have often said, the Spanish-English War was itself likely to
have kindled Europe; and again Friedrich's Silesian War was itself
likely,--France being nearly sure to interfere. But if both these
Wars were necessary ones, and if France interfered in either of
them on the wrong side, the blame will be to France, not to the
necessary Wars. France could, in no way, have interfered in a more
barefacedly unjust and gratuitous manner than she now did; nor, on
any terms, have so palpably made herself the author of the
conflagration of deliriums that ensued for above Seven years
henceforth. Nay for above Twenty years,--the settlement of this
Silesian Pragmatic-Antipragmatic matter (and of Jenkins's Ear,
incidentally, ALONG with this!) not having fairly completed itself
till 1763.


HOW BELLEISLE MADE VISIT TO TEUTSCHLAND; AND THERE WAS NO
FIT HENRY THE FOWLER TO WELCOME HIM.

It is very wrong to keep Enchanted Wiggeries sitting in this world,
as if they were things still alive! By a species of "conservatism,"
which gets praised in our Time, but which is only a slothful
cowardice, base indifference to truth, and hatred to trouble in
comparison with lies that sit quiet, men now extensively practise
this method of procedure;--little dreaming how bad and fatal it at
all times is. When the brains are out, things really ought to die;
--no matter what lovely things they were, and still affect to be,
the brains being out, they actually ought in all cases to die, and
with their best speed get buried. Men had noses, at one time;
and smelt the horror of a deceased reality fallen putrid, of a once
dear verity become mendacious, phantasmal; but they have, to an
immense degree, lost that organ since, and are now living
comfortably cheek-by-jowl with lies. Lies of that sad
"conservative" kind,--and indeed of all kinds whatsoever: for that
kind is a general mother; and BREEDS, with a fecundity that is
appalling, did you heed it much!--

It was pity that the "Holy Romish Reich, Teutsch by Nation," had
not got itself buried some ages before. Once it had brains and
life, but now they were out. Under the sway of Barbarossa, under
our old anti-chaotic friend Henry the Fowler, how different had it
been! No field for a Belleisle to come and sow tares in; no rotten
thatch for a French Sun-god to go sailing about in the middle of,
and set fire to! Henry, when the Hungarian Pan-Slavonic Savagery
came upon him, had got ready in the interim; and a mangy dog was
the "tribute" he gave them; followed by the due extent of broken
crowns, since they would not be content with that. That was the due
of Belleisle too,--had there been a Henry to meet him with it, on
his crossing the marches, in Trier Country, in Spring, 1741:
"There, you anarchic Upholstery-Belus, fancying yourself God of the
Sun; there is what Teutschland owes you. Go home with that; and
mind your own business, which I am told is plentiful, if you had
eye for it!"

But the sad truth is, for above Four Centuries now,--and especially
for Three, since little Kaiser Karl IV. "gave away all the moneys
of it," in his pressing occasions, this Holy Romish Reich, Teutsch
by Nation, has been more and ever more becoming an imaginary
quantity; the Kaisership of it not capable of being worn by
anybody, except a Hapsburger who had resources otherwise his own.
The fact is palpable. And Austria, and Anti-Reformation Entity,
"conservative" in that bad sense, of slothfully abhorring trouble
in comparison with lies, had not found the poison more mal-odorous
in this particular than in many others. And had cherished its "Holy
Romish Reich" grown UNholy, phantasmal, like so much else in
Austrian things; and had held firm grip of it, these Three Hundred
years; and found it a furthersome and suitable thing, though
sensible it was more and more becoming an Enchanted Wiggery pure
and simple. Nor have the consequences failed; they never do.
Belleisle, Louis XIV., Henri II., Francois I.: it is long since the
French have known this state of matters; and been in the habit of
breaking in upon it, fomenting internal discontents, getting up
unjust Wars,--with or without advantage to France, but with endless
disadvantage to Germany. Schmalkaldic War; Thirty-Years War;
Louis XIV.'s Wars, which brought Alsace and the other fine
cuttings; late Polish-Election War, and its Lorraine; Austrian-
Succession War: many are the wars kindled on poor Teutschland by
neighbor France; and large is the sum of woes to Europe and to it,
chargeable to that score. Which appears even yet not to be
completed?--Perhaps not, even yet. For it is the penalty of being
loyal to Enchanted Wiggeries; of living cheek-by-jowl with lies of
a peaceable quality, and stuffing your nostrils, and searing your
soul, against the accursed odor they all have!--For I can assure
you the curse of Heaven does dwell in one and all of them; and the
son of Adam cannot too soon get quit of their bad partnership, cost
him what it may.

Belleisle's Journey as Sun-god began in March,--"end of March,
1741," no date of a day to be had for that memorable thing:--and he
went gyrating about, through the German Courts, for almost a year
afterwards; his course rather erratic, but always in a splendor as
of Belus, with those hundred and thirty French Lords and Valets,
and the glory of Most Christian King irradiating him. Very diligent
for the first six months, till September or October next, which we
may call his SEED-TIME; and by no means resting after nine or
twelve months, while the harrowing and hoeing went on. In January,
1742, he had the great satisfaction to see a Bavarian Kaiser got,
instead of an Austrian; and everywhere the fruit of his diligent
husbandry begin to BEARD fairly above ground, into a crop of facts
(like armed men from dragon's teeth), and "the pleasure of the"--
WHOM was it the pleasure of?--"prosper in his hands." Belleisle was
a pretty man; but I doubt it was not "the Lord" he was doing the
pleasure of, on this occasion, but a very Different Personage,
disguised to resemble him in poor Belleisle's eyes!--

Austria was not dangerous to France in late times, and now least of
all; how far from it,--humbled by the loss of Lorraine; and now as
it were bankrupt, itself in danger from all the world. And France,
so far as express Treaties could bind a Nation, was bound to
maintain Austria in its present possessions. The bitter loss of
Lorraine had been sweetened to the late Kaiser by that solitary
drop of consolation;--as his Failure of a Life had been, poor man:
"Failure the most of me has been; but I have got Pragmatic
Sanction, thanks to Heaven, and even France has signed it!" Loss of
Lorraine, loss of Elsass, loss of the Three Bishoprics; since Karl
V.'s times, not to speak of earlier, there has been mere loss on
loss:--and now is the time to consummate it, think Belleisle and
France, in spite of Treaties.

Towards humbling or extinguishing Austria, Belleisle has two
preliminary things to do: FIRST, Break the Pragmatic Sanction, and
get everybody to break it; SECOND, Guide the KAISERWAHL (Election
of a Kaiser), so that it issue, not in Grand-Duke Franz, Maria
Theresa's Husband, as all expect it will, but in another party
friendly to France:--say in Karl Albert of Bavaria, whose Family
have long been good clients of ours, dependent on us for a living
in the Political World. Belleisle, there is little doubt, had from
the first cast his eye on this unlucky Karl Albert for Kaiser;
but is uncertain as to carrying him. Belleisle will take another if
he must; Kur-Sachsen, for example;--any other, and all others, only
not the Grand-Duke: that is a point already fixed with Belleisle,
though he keeps it well in the background, and is careful not to
hint it till the time come.

In regard to Pragmatic Sanction, Belleisle and France found no
difficulty,--or the difficulty only (which we hope must have been
considerable) of eating their own Covenant in behalf of Pragmatic
Sanction; and declaring, which they did without visible blush, That
it was a Covenant including, if not expressly, then tacitly, as all
human covenants do, this clause, "SALVO JURE TERTII (Saving the
rights of Third Parties),"--that is, of Electors of Bavaria, and
others who may object, against it! O soul of honor, O first Nation
of the Universe, was there ever such a subterfuge? Here is a field
of flowering corn, the biggest in the world, begirt with elaborate
ring-fence, many miles of firm oak-paling pitched and buttressed;
--the poor gentleman now dead gave you his Lorraine, and almost his
life, for swearing to keep up said paling. And you do keep it up,--
all except six yards; through which the biggest team on the highway
can drive freely, and the paltriest cadger's ass can step in for
a bellyful!

It appears, the first Nation of the Universe had, at an early
period of their consultations, hit upon this of SALVO JURE TERTII,
as the method of eating their Covenant, before an enlightened
public. [20th January, 1741, in their Note of Ceremony, recognizing
Maria Theresa as Queen of Hungary, Note which had been due so very
long (ADELUNG, ii. 206), there is ominous silence on Pragmatic
Sanction; "beginning of March," there is virtual avowal of SALVO
JURE (ib. 279);--open avowal on Belleisle's advent (ib. 305).]
And they persisted in it, there being no other for them.
An enlightened public grinned sardonically, and was not taken in;
but, as so many others were eating their Covenants, under equally
poor subterfuges, the enlightened public could not grin long on any
individual,--could only gape mutely, with astonishment, on all.
A glorious example of veracity and human nobleness, set by the gods
of this lower world to their gazing populations, who could read in
the Gazettes! What is truth, falsity, human Kingship, human
Swindlership? Are the Ten Commandments only a figure of speech,
then? And it was some beggarly Attorney-Devil that built this
sublunary world and us? Questions might rise; had long been
rising;--but now there was about enough, and the response to them
was falling due; and Belleisle himself, what is very notable, had
been appointed to get ready the response. Belleisle (little as
Belleisle dreamt of it, in these high Enterprises) was ushering in,
by way of response, a RAGNAROK, or Twilight of the Gods, which, as
"French Revolution, or Apotheosis of SANSCULOTTISM," is now well
known;--and that is something to consider of!


DOWNBREAK OF PRAGMATIC SANCTION; MANNER OF THE CHIEF
ARTISTS IN HANDLING THEIR COVENANTS.

The operation once accomplished on its own Pragmatic Covenant,
France found no difficulty with the others. Everybody was disposed
to eat his Covenant, who could see advantage in so doing, after
that admirable example. The difficulty of France and Belleisle
rather was, to keep the hungry parties back: "Don't eat your
Covenant TILL the proper time; patience, we say!" A most sad
Miscellany of Royalties, coming all to the point, "Will you eat
your Covenant, Will you keep it?"--and eating, nearly all; in fact,
wholly all that needed to eat.

On the first Invasion of Silesia, Maria Theresa had indignantly
complained in every Court; and pointing to Pragmatic Sanction, had
demanded that such Law of Nature be complied with, according to
covenant. What Maria Theresa got by this circuit of the Courts,
everybody still knows. Except England, which was willing, and
Holland, which was unwilling, all Courts had answered, more or less
uneasily: "Law of Nature,--humph: yes!"--and, far from doing
anything, not one of them would with certainty promise to do
anything. From England alone and her little King (to whom Pragmatic
Sanction is the Palladium of Human Freedoms and the Keystone of
Nature) could she get the least help. The rest hung back; would not
open heart or pocket; waited till they saw. They do now see;
now that Belleisle has done his feat of Covenant-eating!--

Eleven great Powers, some count Thirteen, some Twelve, [Scholl,
ii. 286; Adelung, LIST, ii. 127.]--but no two agree, and hardly one
agrees with himself;--enough, the Powers of Europe, from Naples and
Madrid to Russia and Sweden, have all signed it, let us say a Dozen
or a Baker's-Dozen of them. And except our little English Paladin
alone, whose interest and indeed salvation seemed to him to lie
that way, and who needed no Pragmatic Covenant to guide him, nobody
whatever distinguished himself by keeping it. Between December,
1740, when Maria Theresa set up her cries in all Courts, on to
April, 1741, England, painfully dragging Holland with her, had
alone of the Baker's-Dozen spoken word of disapproval; much less
done act of hindrance. Two especially (France and Bavaria, not to
mention Spain) had done the reverse, and disowned, and declared
against, Pragmatic Sanction. And after the Battle of Mollwitz, when
the "little stone" took its first leap, and set all thundering,
then came, like the inrush of a fashion, throughout that high
Miscellany or Baker's-Dozen, the general eating of Covenants (which
was again quickened in August, for a reason we shall see):
and before November of that Year, there was no Covenant left to
eat. Of the Baker's-Dozen nobody remained but little George the
Paladin, dragging Holland painfully along with him;--and Pragmatic
Sanction had gone to water, like ice in a June day, and its
beautiful crystalline qualities and prismatic colors were forever
vanished from the world. Will the reader note a point or two, a
personage or two, in this sordid process,--not for the process's
sake, which is very sordid and smells badly, but for his own sake,
to elucidate his own course a little in the intricacies now coming
or come upon him and me?

1. ELECTOR OF BAVARIA.--Karl Albert of Baiern is by some counted
as a Signer of the Pragmatic Sanction, and by others not;
which occasions that discrepancy of sum-total in the Books. And he
did once, in a sense, sign it, he and his Brother of Koln;
but, before the late Kaiser's death, he had openly drawn back from
it again; and counted himself a Non-signer. Signer or not, he, for
his part, lost no moment (but rather the contrary) in openly
protesting against it, and signifying that he never would
acknowledge it. Of this the reader saw something, at the time of
her Hungarian Majesty's Accession. Date and circumstances of it,
which deserve remembering, are more precisely these: October 20th,
1740, Karl Albert's Ambassador, Perusa by name, wrote to Karl from
Vienna, announcing that the Kaiser was just dead. From Munchen, on
the 21st, Karl Albert, anticipating such an event, but not yet
knowing it, orders Perusa, in CASE of the Kaiser's decease, which
was considered probable at Munchen, to demand instant audience of
the proper party (Kanzler Sinzendorf), and there openly lodge his
Protest. Which Perusa did, punctually in all points,--no moment
LOST, but rather the contrary, as we said! Let poor Karl Albert
have what benefit there is in that fact. He was, of all the Anti-
Pragmatic Covenant-Breakers (if he ever fairly were such), the only
one that proceeded honorably, openly and at once, in the matter;
and he was, of them all, by far the most unfortunate.

This is the poor gentleman whom Belleisle had settled on for being
Kaiser. And Kaiser he became; to his frightful sorrow, as it
proved: his crown like a crown of burning iron, or little better!
There is little of him in the Books, nor does one desire much:
a tall aquiline type of man; much the gentleman in aspect; and in
reality, of decorous serious deportment, and the wish to be high
and dignified. He had a kind of right, too, in the Anti-Pragmatic
sense; and was come of Imperial kindred,--Kaiser Ludwig the
Bavarian, and Kaiser Rupert of the Pfalz, called Rupert KLEMM, or
Rupert Smith's-vice, if any reader now remember him, were both of
his ancestors. He might fairly pretend to Kaisership and to
Austrian ownership,--had he otherwise been equal to such
enterprises. But, in all ambitions and attempts, howsoever grounded
otherwise, there is this strict question on the threshold: "Are you
of weight for the adventure; are not you far too light for it?"
Ambitious persons often slur this question; and get squelched to
pieces, by bringing the Twelve Labors of Hercules on Unherculean
backs! Not every one is so lucky as our Friedrich in that
particular,--whose back, though with difficulty, held out.
Which poor Karl Albert's never had much likelihood to do.
Few mortals in any age have offered such an example of the
tragedies which Ambition has in store for her votaries; and what a
matter Hope FULFILLED may be to the unreflecting Son of Adam.

We said, he had a kind of right to Austria, withal. He descended by
the female line from Kaiser Ferdinand I. (as did Kur-Sachsen,
though by a younger Daughter than Karl Albert's Ancestress); and he
appealed to Kaiser Ferdinand's Settlement of the Succession, as a
higher than any subsequent Pragmatic could be. Upon which there
hangs an incident; still famous to German readers. Karl Albert,
getting into Public Argument in this way, naturally instructed
Perusa to demand sight of Kaiser Ferdinand's Last Will, the tenor
of which was known by authentic Copy in Munchen, if not elsewhere
among the kindred. After some delay, Perusa (4th November, 1740),
summoning the other excellencies to witness, got sight of the Will:
to his horror, there stood, in the cardinal passage, instead of
"MUNNLICHE" (male descendants), "EHELICHE" (lawfully begotten
descendants),--fatal to Karl Albert's claim! Nor could he PROVE
that the Parchment had been scraped or altered, though he kept
trying and examining for some days. He withdrew thereupon, by
order, straightway from Vienna; testifying in dumb-show what he
thought. "It is your Copy that is false," cried the Vienna people:
"it has been foisted on you, with this wrong word in it; done by
somebody (your friend, the Excellency Herr von Hartmann, shall we
guess?), wishing to curry favor with ambitious foolish persons!"
Such was the Austrian story. Perhaps in Munchen itself their
Copyist was not known;--for aught I learn, the Copy was made long
since, and the Copyist dead. Hartmann, named as Copyist by the
Vienna people, made emphatic public answer: "Never did I copy it,
or see it!" And there rose great argument, which is not yet quite
ended, as to the question, "Original falsified, or Copy falsified?"
--and the modern vote, I believe, rather clearly is, That the
Austrian Officials had done it--in a case of necessity. [Adelung,
ii. 150-154 (14th-20th November, 1740), gives the public facts,
without commentary. Hormayr (<italic> Anemonen aus dem Tagebuch
eines alten Pilgersmannes, <end italic> Jena, 1845, i. 162-169,--
our old Hormayr of the AUSTRIAN PLUTARCH, but now Anonymous, and in
Opposition humor) considers the case nearly proved against Austria,
and that Bartenstein and one Bessel, a pillar of the Church, were
concerned in it.] Possi-ble? "But you will lose your soul!" said
the Parson once to a poor old Gentlewoman, English by Nation, who
refused, in dying, to contradict some domestic fiction, to give up
some domestic secret: "But you will lose your soul, Madam!"--
"Tush, what signifies my poor silly soul compared with the honor of
the family?"--

2. KING FRIEDRICH;--King Friedrich may be taken as the Anti-
Pragmatic next in order of time. He too lost not a moment, and
proceeded openly; no quirking to be charged upon him. His account
of himself in this matter always was: "By the Treaty of
Wusterhausen, 1726, unquestionably Prussia undertook to guarantee
Pragmatic Sanction; the late Kaiser undertaking in return, by the
same Treaty, to secure Berg and Julich to Prussia, and to have some
progress made in it within six months from signing.
And unquestionably also, the late Kaiser did thereupon, or even had
already done, precisely the reverse; namely, secured, so far as in
him was possible, Berg and Julich to Kur-Pfalz. Such Treaty, having
in this way done suicide, is dead and become zero: and I am free,
in respect of Pragmatic Sanction, to do whatever shall seem good to
me. My wish was, and would still be, To maintain Pragmatic
Sanction, and even to support it by 100,000 men, and secure the
Election of the Grand-Duke to the Kaisership,--were my claims on
Silesia once liquidated. But these have no concern with Pragmatic
Sanction, for or against: these are good against whoever may fall
Heir to the House of Austria, or to Silesia: and my intention is,
that the strong hand, so long clenched upon my rights, shall open
itself by this favorable opportunity, and give them out." That is
Friedrich's case. And in truth the jury everywhere has to find,--so
soon as instructed, which is a long process in some sections of it
(in England, for example),--That Pragmatic Sanction has not, except
helpless lamentations, "Alas that YOU should be here to insist upon
your rights, and to open fists long closed!"--the least, word to
say to Friedrich.

3. TERMAGANT OF SPAIN.--Perhaps the most distracted of the Anti-
Pragmatic subterfuges was that used by Spain, when the She-dragon
or Termagant saw good to eat her Covenant; which was at a very
early stage. The Termagant's poor Husband is a Bourbon, not a
Hapsburg at all: "But has not he fallen heir to the Spanish
Hapsburgs; become all one as they, an ALTER-EGO of the Spanish
Hapsburgs?" asks she. "And the Austrian Hapsburgs being out, do not
the Spanish Hapsburgs come in? He, I say, this BOURBON-Hapsburg, he
is the real Hapsburg, now that the Austrian Branch is gone;
President he of the Golden Fleece [which a certain "Archduchess,"
Maria Theresa, had been meddling with]; Proprietor, he, of Austrian
Italy, and of all or most things Austrian!"--and produces
Documentary Covenants of Philip II. with his Austrian Cousins;
"to which Philip," said the Termagant, "we Bourbons surely, if you
consider it, are Heir and Alter-Ego!" Is not, this a curious case
of testamentary right; human greed obliterating personal
identity itself?

Belleisle had a great deal of difficulty, keeping the Termagant
back till things were ripe. Her hope practically was, Baby Carlos
being prosperous King of Naples this long while, to get the
Milanese for another Baby she has,--Baby Philip, whom she once
thought of making Pope;--and she is eager beyond measure to have a
stroke at the Milanese. "Wait!" hoarsely whispers Belleisle to her;
and she can scarcely wait. Maria Theresa's Note of Announcement
"New Queen of Hungary, may it please you!" the French, as we saw,
were very long in answering. The Termagant did not answer it at
all; complained on the contrary, "What is this, Madam! Golden
Fleece, you?"--and, early in March, informed mankind that she was
Spanish Hapsburg, the genuine article; and sent off Excellency
Montijos, a little man of great expense, to assist at the Election
of a proper Kaiser, and be useful to Belleisle in the great things
now ahead. [Spain's Golden-Fleece pretensions, 17th January, 1741
(Adelung, ii. 233, 234); "Publishes at Paris," in March (ib. 293);
and on the 23d March accredits Montijos (ib. 293): Italian War,
held back by Belleisle and the English Fleets, cannot get begun
till October following.]

4. KING OF POLAND.--The most ticklish card in Belleisle's game, and
probably the greatest fool of these Anti-Pragmatic Dozen, was
Kur-Sachsen, King of Poland. He, like Karl Albert Kur-Baiern,
derives from Kaiser Ferdinand, though by a YOUNGER Daughter, and
has a like claim on the Austrian Succession; claim nullified,
however, by that small circumstance itself, but which he would fain
mend by one makeshift or another; and thinks always it must surely
be good for something. This is August III., this King of Poland, as
readers know; son of August the Strong: Papa made him change to the
Catholic religion so called,--for the sake of getting Poland, which
proves a very poor possession to him. Who knows what damage the
poor creature may have got by that sad operation;--which all Saxony
sighed to the heart on hearing of; for it was always hoped he had
some real religion, and would deliver them from that Babylonish
Captivity again! He married Kaiser Joseph I.'s Daughter,--Maria
Theresa's Cousin, and by an Elder Brother;--this, too, ought surely
to be something in the Anti-Pragmatic line? It is true, Kur-Baiern
has to Wife another Daughter of Kaiser Joseph's; but she is the
younger: "I am senior THERE, at least! "thinks the foolish man.

Too true, he had finally, in past years, to sign Pragmatic
Sanction; no help for it, no hope without it, in that Polish-
Election time. He will have to eat his Covenant, therefore, as the
first step in Anti-Pragmatism; and he is extremely in doubt as to
the How, sometimes as to the Whether. And shifts and whirls,
accordingly, at a great rate, in these months and years; now on
Maria Theresa's side, deluded by shadows from Vienna, and getting
into Russian Partition-Treaties; anon tickled by Belleisle into the
reverse posture; then again reversing. An idle, easy-tempered, yet
greedy creature, who, what with religious apostasy in early
manhood, what with flaccid ambitions since, and idle gapings after
shadows, has lost helm in this world; and will make a very bad
voyage for self and country.

His Palinurus and chief Counsellor, at present and afterwards, is a
Count von Bruhl, once page to August the Strong; now risen to such
height: Bruhl of the three hundred and sixty-five suits of clothes;
whom it has grown wearisome even to laugh at. A cunning little
wretch, they say, and of deft tongue; but surely among the unwisest
of all the Sons of Adam in that day, and such a Palinurus as seldom
steered before. Kur-Sachsen, being Reichs-Vicar in the Northern
Parts,--(Kur-Baiern and Kur-Pfalz, as friends and good
Wittelsbacher Cousins surely ought, in a crisis like this, have
agreed to be JOINT-Vicars in the Southern Parts, and no longer
quarrel upon it),--Kur-Sachsen has a good deal to do in the
Election preludings, formalities and prearrangements; and is
capable, as Kur-Pfalz and Cousin always are, of serving as chisel
to Belleisle's mallet, in such points, which will plentifully
turn up.

5. KING OF SARDINIA.--Reichs-Vicar in the Italian Parts is Charles
Amadeus King of Sardinia (tough old Victor's Son, whom we have
heard of): an office mostly honorary; suitable to the important
individual who keeps the Door of the Alps. Charles Amadeus had
signed the Pragmatic Sanction; but eats his Covenant, like the
others, on example of France;--having, as he now bethinks himself,
claims on the Milanese. There are two claimants on the Milanese,
then; the Spanish Termagant, and he? Yes; and they will have their
difficulties, their extensive tusslings in Italian War and
otherwise, to make an adjustment of it; and will give Belleisle
(at least the Doorkeeper will) an immensity of trouble, in
years coming.

In this way do the Pragmatic people eat their own Covenant, one
after the other, and are not ashamed;--till all have eaten, or as
good as eaten; and, almost within year and day, Pragmatic Sanction
is a vanished quantity; and poor Kaiser Karl's life-labor is not
worth the sheepskin and stationery it cost him. History reports in
sum, That "nobody kept the Pragmatic Sanction; that the few
[strictly speaking, the one] who acted by it, would have done
precisely the same, though there had never been such a Document in
existence." To George II., it is, was and will be, the Keystone of
Nature, the true Anti-French palladium of mankind; and he, dragging
the unwilling Dutch after him, will do great things for it:
but nobody else does anything at all. Might we hope to bid adieu to
it, in this manner, and never to mention it again!--

Document more futile there had not been in Nature, nor will be.
Friedrich had not yet fought at Mollwitz in assertion of his
Silesian claim, when the poor Pope--poor soul, who had no Covenant
to eat, but took pattern by others--claimed, in solemn Allocution,
Parma and Piacenza for the Holy See. [Adelung, ii. 376 (5th April,
1741)] All the world is claiming. Of the Court of Wurtemberg and
its Protestings, and "extensive Deduction" about nothing at all, we
do not speak; [Ib. ii. 195, 403.] nor of Montmorency claiming
Luxemburg, of which he is Titular "Duke;" nor of Monsignore di
Guastalla claiming Mantua; nor of--In brief, the fences are now
down; a broad French gap in those miles of elaborate paling, which
are good only as firewood henceforth, and any ass may rush in and
claim a bellyful. Great are the works of Belleisle!--


CONCERNING THE IMPERIAL ELECTION (Kaiserwahl) THAT IS
TO BE: CANDIDATES FOR KAISERSHIP.

At equal step with the ruining of Pragmatic Sanction goes on that
spoiling of Grand-Duke Franz's Election to the Kaisership:
these two operations run parallel; or rather, under different
forms, they are one and the same operation. "To assist, as a Most
Christian neighbor ought, in picking out the fit Kaiser," was
Belleisle's ostensible mission; and indeed this does include
virtually his whole errand. Till three months after Belleisle's
appearance in the business, Grand-Duke Franz never doubted but he
should be Kaiser; Friedrich's offers to, help him in it he had
scorned, as the offer of a fifth wheel to his chariot, already
rushing on with four. "Here is Kur-Bohmen, Austria's own vote,"
counts the Grand-Duke; "Kur-Sachsen, doing Prussian-Partition
Treaties for us; Kur-Trier, our fat little Schonborn, Austrian to
the bone; Kur-Mainz, important chairman, regulator of the Conclave;
here are Four Electors for us: then also Kur-Pfalz, he surely, in
return for the Berg-Julich service; finally, and liable to no
question Kur-Hanover, little George of England with his endless
guineas and resources, a little Jack-the-Giantkiller, greater than
all Giants, Paladin of the Pragmatic and us: here are Six Electors
of the Nine. Let Brandenburg and the Bavarian Couple, Kur-Baiern
and Kur-Koln, do their pleasure!" This was Grand-Duke
Franz's calculation.

By the time Belleisle had been three months in Germany, the Grand-
Duke's notion had changed; and he began "applying to the
Sea-Powers," "to Russia," and all round. In Belleisle's sixth
month, the Grand-Duke, after such demolition of Pragmatic, and such
disasters and contradictions as had been, saw his case to be
desperate; though he still stuck to it, Austrian-like,--or rather,
Austria for him stuck to it, the Grand-Duke being careless of such
things;--and indeed, privately, never did give in, even AFTER the
Election, as we shall have to note.

The Reich itself being mainly a Phantasm or Enchanted Wiggery, its
"Kaiser-Choosing" (KAISERWAHL),--now getting under way at
Frankfurt, with preliminary outskirts at Regensburg, and in the
Chancery of Mainz--is very phantasmal, not to say ghastly;
and forbidding, not inviting, to the human eye. Nine Kurfursts,
Choosers of Teutschland's real Captain, in none of whom is there
much thought for Teutschland or its interests,--and indeed in
hardly more than One of whom (Prussian Friedrich, if readers will
know it) is there the least thought that way; but, in general, much
indifference to things divine or diabolic, and thought for one's
own paltry profits and losses only! So it has long been; and so it
now is, more than usual.--Consider again, are Enchanted Wiggeries a
beautiful thing, in this extremely earnest World?--

The Kaiserwahl is an affair depending much on processions,
proclamations, on delusions optical, acoustic; on palaverings,
manoeuvrings, holdings back, then hasty pushings forward;
and indeed is mainly, in more senses than one, under guidance of
the Prince of the Power of the Air. Unbeautiful, like a World-
Parliament of Nightmares (if the reader could conceive such a
thing); huge formless, tongueless monsters of that species, doing
their "three readings,"--under Presidency or chief-pipership as
above! Belleisle, for his part, is consummately skilful, and
manages as only himself could. Keeps his game well hidden, not a
hint or whisper of it except in studied proportions; spreads out
his lines, his birdlime; tickles, entices, astonishes; goes his
rounds, like a subtle Fowler, taking captive the minds of men;
a Phoebus-Apollo, god of melody and of the sun, filling his net
with birds.

I believe, old Kur-Pfalz, for the sake of French neighborhood, and
Berg-and-Julich, were there nothing more, was very helpful to him;
--in March past, when the Election was to have been, when it would
have gone at once in favor of the Grand-Duke, Kur-Pfalz got the
Election "postponed a little." Postponing, procrastinating;
then again pushing violently on, when things are ripe: Belleisle
has only to give signal to a fit Kur-Pfalz. In all Kurfurst Courts,
the French Ambassadors sing diligently to the tune Belleisle sets
them; and Courts give ear, or will do, when the charmer
himself arrives.

Kur-Sachsen, as above hinted, was his most delicate operation, in
the charming or trout-tickling way. And Kur-Sachsen--and poor
Saxony, ever since--knows if he did not do it well! "Deduct this
Kur-Sachsen from the Austrian side," calculates Belleisle; "add him
to ours, it is almost an equality of votes. Kur-Baiern, our own
Imperial Candidate; Kur-Koln, his Brother; Kur-Pfalz, by genealogy
his Cousin (not to mention Berg-Julich matters); here are three
Wittelsbachers, knit together; three sure votes; King Friedrich,
Kur-Brandenburg, there is a fourth; and if Kur-Sachsen would join?"
But who knows if Kur-Sachsen will! The poor soul has himself
thoughts of being Kaiser; then no thoughts, and again some:
thoughts which Belleisle knows how to handle. "Yes, Kaiser you,
your Majesty; excellent!" And sets to consider the methods:
"Hm, ha, hm! Think, your Majesty: ought not that Bohemian Vote to
be excluded, for one thing? Kur-Bohmen is fallen into the distaff,
Maria Theresa herself cannot vote. Surely question will rise,
Whether distaff can, validly, hand it over to distaff's husband, as
they are about doing? Whether, in fact, Kur-Bohmen is not in
abeyance for this time?" "So!" answered Kur-Sachsen, Reichs-
Vicarius. And thereupon meetings were summoned; Nightmare
Committees sat on this matter under the Reichs-Vicar, slowly
hatching it; and at length brought out, "Kur-Bohmen NOT
transferable by the distaff; Kur-Bohmen in abeyance for this time."
Greatly to the joy of Belleisle; infinitely to the chagrin of her
Hungarian Majesty,--who declared it a crying injustice (though I
believe legally done in every point); and by and by, even made it a
plea of Nullity, destructive to the Election altogether, when her
Hungarian Majesty's affairs looked up again, and the world would
listen to Austrian sophistries and obstinacies. This was an
essential service from Kur-Sachsen. [Began, indistinctly, "in
March" (1741); languid "for some months" (Adelung, ii. 292);
"November 4th," was settled in the negative, "Kur-Bohmen not to
have a vote" (<italic> Maria Theresiens Leben,	<end italic>
p. 47 n.).

After which Kur-Sachsen's own poor Kaisership died away into
"Hm, ha, hm!" again, with a grateful Belleisle. Who nevertheless
dexterously retained Kur-Sachsen as ally; tickling the poor wretch
with other baits. Of the Kaiser he had really meant all along,
there was dead silence, except between the parties; no whisper
heard, for six months after it had been agreed upon; none, for two
or near three months after formal settlement, and signing and
sealing. Karl Albert's Treaty with Belleisle was 18th May, 1741;
and he did not declare himself a Candidate till 1st-4th July
following. [Adelung, ii. 357, 421.] Belleisle understands the
Nightmare Parliaments, the electioneering art, and how to deal with
Enchanted Wiggeries. More perfect master, in that sad art, has not
turned up on record to one's afflicted mind. Such a Sun-god, and
doing such a Scavengerism! Belleisle, in the sixth month (end of
August, 1741), feels sure of a majority. How Belleisle managed,
after that, to checkmate George of England, and make even George
vote for him, and the Kaiserwahl to be unanimous against Grand-
Duke Franz, will be seen. Great are Belleisle's doings in this
world, if they were useful either to God or man, or to Belleisle
himself first of all!--


TEUTSCHLAND TO BE CARVED INTO SOMETHING OF SYMMETRY,
SHOULD THE BELLEISLE ENTERPRISES SUCCEED.

Belleisle's schemes, in the rear of all this labor, are grandiose
to a degree. Men wonder at the First Napoleon's mad notions in that
kind. But no Napoleon, in the fire of the revolutionary element; no
Sham-Napoleon, in the ashes of it: hardly a Parisian Journalist of
imaginative turn, speculating on the First Nation of the Universe
and what its place is,--could go higher than did this grandiose
Belleisle; a man with clear thoughts in his head, under a torpid
Louis XV. Let me see, thinks Belleisle. Germany with our Bavarian
for Kaiser; Germany to be cut into, say, Four little Kingdoms:
1. Bavaria with the lean Kaiserhood; 2. Saxony, fattened by its
share of Austria; 3. Prussia the like; 4. Austria itself, shorn
down as above, and shoved out to the remote Hungarian parts: VOILA.
These, not reckoning Hanover, which perhaps we cannot get just yet,
are Four pretty Sovereignties. Three, or Two, of these hireable by
gold, it is to be hoped. And will not France have a glorious time
of it; playing master of the revels there, egging one against the
other! Yes, Germany is then, what Nature designed it, a Province of
France: little George of Hanover himself, and who knows but England
after him, may one day find their fate inevitable, like the others.
O Louis, O my King, is not this an outlook? Louis le Grand was
great; but you are likely to be Louis the Grandest; and here is a
World shaped, at last, after the real pattern!

Such are, in sad truth, Belleisle's schemes; not yet entirely
hatched into daylight or articulation; bnt becoming articulate, to
himself and others, more and more. Reader, keep them well in mind:
I had rather not speak of them again. They are essential to our
Story; but they are afflictively vain, contrary to the Laws of
Fact; and can, now or henceforth, in nowise be. My friend, it was
not Beelzebub, nor Mephistopheles, nor Autolyeus-Apollo that built
this world and us; it was Another. And you will get your crown well
rapped, M. le Marechal, for so forgetting that fact! France is an
extremely pretty creature; but this of making France the supreme
Governor and God's-Vicegerent of Nations, is, was, and remains, one
of the maddest notions. France at its ideal BEST, and with a demi-
god for King over it, were by no means fit for such function; nay
of many Nations is eminently the unfittest for it. And France at
its WORST or nearly so, with a Louis XV. over it by way of demi-god
--O Belleisle, what kind of France is this; shining in your
grandiose imagination, in such contrast to the stingy fact: like a
creature consisting of two enormous wings, five hundred yards in
potential extent, and no body bigger than that of a common cock,
weighing three pounds avoirdupois. Cock with his own gizzard much
out of sorts, too!

It was "early in March" [Adelung, ii. 305.] when Belleisle, the
Artificial Sun-god, quitted Paris on this errand. He came by the
Moselle road; called on the Rhine Kurfursts, Koln, Trier, Mainz;
dazzling them, so far as possible, with his splendor for the mind
and for the eye. He proceeded next to Dresden, which is a main
card: and where there is immense manipulation needed, and the most
delicate trout-tickling; this being a skittish fish, and an
important, though a foolish. Belleisle was at Dresden when the
Battle of Mollwitz fell out: what a windfall into Belleisle's game!
He ran across to Friedrich at Mollwitz, to congratulate, to
consult,--as we shall see anon.

Belleisle, I am informed, in this preliminary Tour of his, speaks
only, or hints only (except in the proper quarters), of Election
Business; of the need there perhaps is, on the part of an Age
growing in liberal ideas, to exclude the Austrian Grand-Duke;
to curb that ponderous, harsh, ungenerous House of Austria, too
long lording it over generous Germany; and to set up some better
House,--Bavaria, for example; Saxony, for example? Of his plans in
the rear of this he is silent; speaks only by hints, by innuendoes,
to the proper parties. But ripening or ripe, plans do lie to rear;
far-stretching, high-soaring; in part, dark even at Versailles;
darkly fermenting, not yet developed, in Belleisle's own head; only
the Future Kaiser a luminous fixed point, shooting beams across the
grandiose Creation-Process going on there.

By the end of August, 1741, Belleisle had become certain of his
game; 24th January, 1742, he saw himself as if winner.
Before August, 1741, he had got his Electors manipulated, tickled
to his purpose, by the witchery of a Phoebus-Autolycus or
Diplomatic Sun-god; majority secured for a Bavarian Kaiser, and
against an Austrian one. And in the course of that month,--what was
still more considerable!--he was getting, under mild pretexts,
about a hundred thousand armed Frenchmen gently wafted over upon
the soil of Germany. Two complete French Armies, 40,000 each (PLUS
their Reserves), one over the Upper Rhine, one over the Lower;
about which we shall hear a great deal in time coming! Under mild
pretexts: "Peaceable as lambs, don't you observe? Merely to protect
Freedom of Election, in this fine neighbor country; and as allies
to our Friend of Bavaria, should he chance to be new Kaiser, and to
persist in his modest claims otherwise." This was his crowning
stroke. Which finished straightway the remnants of Pragmatic
Sanction and of every obstacle; and in a shining manner swept the
roads clear. And so, on January 24th following, the Election, long
held back by Belleisle's manoeuvrings, actually takes effect,--in
favor of Karl Albert, our invaluable Bavarian Friend. Austria is
left solitary in the Reich; Pragmatic Sanction, Keystone of Nature,
which Belleisle and France had sworn to keep in, is openly torn out
by Belleisle and by France and the majority of mankind;
and Belleisle sees himself, to all appearance, winner.

This was the harvest reaped by Belleisle, within year and day;
after endless manoeuvring, such as only a Belleisle in the
character of Diplomatic Sun-god could do. Beyond question, the
distracted ambitions of several German Princes have been kindled by
Belleisle; what we called the rotten thatch of Germany is well on
fire. This diligent sowing in the Reich--to judge by the 100,000,
armed men here, and the counter hundreds of thousands arming--
has been a pretty stroke of dragon's-teeth husbandry on
Belleisle's part.


BELLEISLE ON VISIT TO FRIEDRICH; SEES FRIEDRICH BESIEGE
BRIEG, WITH EFFECT.

It was April 26th when Marechal de Belleisle, with his Brother the
Chevalier, with Valori and other bright accompaniment, arrived in
Friedrich's Camp. "Camp of Mollwitz" so named; between Mollwitz and
Brieg; where Friedrich is still resting, in a vigilant expectant
condition; and, except it be the taking of Brieg, has nothing
military on hand. Wednesday, 26th April, the distinguished
Excellency--escorted for the last three miles by 120 Horse, and the
other customary ceremonies--makes his appearance: no doubt an
interesting one to Friedrich, for this and the days next following.
Their talk is not reported anywhere: nor is it said with exactitude
how far, whether wholly now, or only in part now, Belleisle
expounded his sublime ideas to Friedrich; or what precise reception
they got. Friedrich himself writes long afterwards of the event;
but, as usual, without precision, except in general effect. Now, or
some time after, Friedrich says he found Belleisle, one morning,
with brow clouded, knit into intense meditation: "Have you had bad
news, M. le Marechal?" asks Friedrich. "No, oh no! I am considering
what we shall make of that Moravia?"--"Moravia; Hm!" Friedrich
suppresses the glance that is rising to his eyes: "Can't you give
it to Saxony, then? Buy Saxony into the Plan with it!" "Excellent,"
answers Belleisle, and unpuckers his stern brow again.

Friedrich thinks highly, and about this time often says so, of the
man Belleisle: but as to the man's effulgencies, and wide-winged
Plans, none is less seduced by them than Friedrich: "Your chickens
are not hatched, M. le Marechal; some of us hope they never will
be,--though the incubation-process may have uses for some of us!"
Friedrich knows that the Kaisership given to any other than Grand-
Duke Franz will be mostly an imaginary quantity. "A grand Symbolic
Cloak in the eyes of the vulgar; but empty of all things, empty
even of cash, for the last Two Hundred Years: Austria can wear it
to advantage; no other mortal. Hang it on Austria, which is a solid
human figure,--so." And Friedrich wishes, and hopes always, Maria
Theresa will agree with him, and get it for her Husband. "But to
haug it on Bavaria, which is a lean bare pole? Oh, M. le Marechal!
--And those Four Kingdoms of yours: what a brood of poultry, those!
Chickens happily yet UNhatched;--eggs addle, I should venture to
hope:--only do go on incubating, M. le Marechal!" That is
Friedrich's notion of the thing. Belleisle stayed with Friedrich "a
few days," say the Books. After which, Friedrich, finding Belleisle
too winged a creature, corresponded, in preference, with Fleury and
the Head Sources;--who are always intensely enough concerned about
those "aces" falling to him, and how the same are to be "shared."
[Details in <italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 912, 962,
916; in <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> ii. 79, 80; &c.]

Instead of parade or review in honor of Belleisle, there happened
to be a far grander military show, of the practical kind. The Siege
of Brieg, the Opening of the Trenches before Brieg, chanced to be
just ready, on Belleisle's arrival:--and would have taken effect,
we find, that very night, April 26th, had not a sudden wintry
outburst, or "tempest of extraordinary violence," prevented.
Next night, night of the 27th-28th, under shine of the full Moon,
in the open champaign country, on both sides of the River, it did
take effect. An uncommonly fine thing of its sort; as one can still
see by reading Friedrich's strict Program for it,--a most minute,
precise and all-anticipating Program, which still interests
military men, as Friedrich's first Piece in that kind,--and
comparing therewith the Narratives of the performance which ensued.
[<italic> Ordre und Dispositiones (SIC), wornach sich der General-
Lieutenant von Kalckstein bei Eroffnung der Trancheen, &c.
(Oeuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxx. 39-44): the Program.
<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 916-928:
the Narrative.]


Kalkstein, Friedrich's old Tutor, is Captain of the Siege;
under him Jeetz, long used to blockading about Brieg. The silvery
Oder has its due bridges for communication; all is in readiness,
and waiting manifold as in the slip,--and there is Engineer
Walrave, our Glogau Dutch friend, who shall, at the right instant,
"with his straw-rope (STROHSEIL) mark out the first parallel," and
be swift about it! There are 2,000 diggers, with the due
implements, fascines, equipments; duly divided, into Twelve equal
Parties, and "always two spademen to one pickman " (which indicates
soft sandy ground): these, with the escorting or covering
battalions, Twelve Parties they also, on both sides of the River,
are to be in their several stations at the fixed moments;
man, musket, mattock, strictly exact. They are to advance at
Midnight; the covering battalions so many yards ahead: no speaking
is permissible, nor the least tobacco-smoking; no drum to be
allowed for fear of accident; no firing, unless you are fired on.
The covering battalions are all to "lie flat, so soon as they get
to their ground, all but the Officers and sentries." To rear of
these stand Walrave and assistants, silent, with their straw-rope;
--silent, then anon swift, and in whisper or almost by dumb-show,
"Now, then!" After whom the diggers, fascine-men, workers, each in
his kind, shall fall to, silently, and dig and work as for life.

All which is done; exact as clock-work: beautiful to see, or half
see, and speak of to your Belleisle, in the serene moonlight! Half
an hour's marching, half an hour's swift digging: the Town-clock of
Brieg was hardly striking One, when "they had dug themselves in."
And, before daybreak, they had, in two batteries, fifty cannon in
position, with a proper set of mortars (other side the River),--
ready to astonish Piccolomini and his Austrians; who had not had
the least whisper of them, all night, though it was full moon.
Graf von Piccolomini, an active gallant person, had refused terms,
some time before; and was hopefully intent on doing his best.
And now, suddenly, there rose round Piccolomini such a tornado of
cannonading and bombardment, day after day, always "three guns of
ours playing against one of theirs," that his guns got ruined;
that "his hay-magazines took fire,"--and the Schloss itself, which
was adjacent to them, took fire (a sad thing to Friedrich, who
commanded pause, that they might try quenching, but in vain):--and
that, in short, Piccolomini could not stand it; but on the 4th of
May, precisely after one week's experience, hung out the white
flag, and "beat chamade at 3 of the afternoon." He was allowed to
march out next morning, with escort to Neisse; parole pledged, Not
to serve against us for two years coming.

Friedrich in person (I rather guess, Belleisle not now at his side)
saw the Garrison march out;--kept Piccolomini to dinner; a gallant
Piccolomini, who had hoped to do better, but could not. This was a
pretty enough piece of Siege-practice. Torstenson, with his Swedes,
had furiously besieged Brieg in 1642, a hundred years ago; and
could do nothing to it. Nothing, but withdraw again, futile;
leaving 1,400 of his people dead. Friedrich, the Austrian Garrison
once out, set instantly about repairing the works, and improving
them into impregnability,--our ugly friend Walrave presiding over
that operation too.

Belleisle, we may believe, so long as he continued, was full of
polite wonder over these things; perhaps had critical advices here
and there, which would be politely received. It is certain he came
out extremely brilliant, gifted and agreeable, in the eyes of
Friedrich; who often afterwards, not in the very strictest
language, calls him a great man, great soldier, and by far the
considerablest person you French have. It is no less certain,
Belleisle displayed, so far as displayable, his magnificent
Diplomatic Ware to the best advantage. To which, we perceive, the
young King answered, "Magnificent, indeed!" but would not bite all
at once; and rather preferred corresponding with Fleury, on
business points, keeping the matter dexterously hanging, in an
illuminated element of hope and contingency, for the present.

Belleisle, after we know not how many days, returned to Dresden;
perfected his work at Dresden, or shoved it well forward, with
"that Moravia" as bait. "Yes, King of Moravia, you, your Polish
Majesty, shall be!"--and it is said the simple creature did so
style himself, by and by, in certain rare Manifestoes, which still
exist in the cabinets of the curious. Belleisle next, after only a
few days, went to Munchen; to operate on Karl Albert Kur-Baiern, a
willing subject. And, in short, Belleisle whirled along
incessantly, torch in hand; making his "circuit of the German
Courts,"--details of said circuit not to be followed by us farther.
One small thing only I have found rememberable; probably true,
though vague. At Munchen, still more out at Nymphenburg, the fine
Country-Palace not far off, there was of course long conferencing,
long consulting, secret and intense, between Belleisle with his
people and Karl Albert with his. Karl Albert, as we know, was
himself willing. But a certain Baron von Unertl--heavy-built
Bavarian of the old type, an old stager in the Bavarian Ministries
--was of far other disposition. One day, out at Nymphenburg, Unertl
got to the Council-room, while Belleisle and Company were there:
Unertl found the apartment locked, absolutely no admittance; and
heard voices, the Kurfurst's and French voices, eagerly at work
inside. "Admit me, Gracious Herr; UM GOTTES WILLEN, me!" No
admission. Unertl, in despair, rushed round to the garden side of
the Apartment; desperately snatched a ladder, set it up to the
window, and conjured the Gracious Highness: "For the love of
Heaven, my ALLERGNADIGSTER, don't! Have no trade with those French!
Remember your illustrious Father, Kurfurst Max, in the Eugene-
Marlborough time, what a job he made of it, building actual
architecture on THEIR big promises, which proved mere acres of gilt
balloon!" [Hormayr, <italic> Anemonen <end italic> (cited above),
ii. 152.] Words terribly prophetic; but they were without effect on
Karl Albert.

The rest of Belleisle's inflammatory circuitings and extensive
travellings, for he had many first and last in this matter, shall
be left to the fancy of the reader. May 18th, he made formal Treaty
with Karl Albert: Treaty of Nymphenburg, "Karl Albert to be Kaiser;
Bavaria, with Austria Proper added to it, a Kingdom; French armies,
French moneys, and other fine items." [Given in Adelung, ii. 359.]
Treaty to be kept dead secret; King  Friedrich, for the present,
would not accede. [Given in Adelung, ii. 421.] June 25th, after
some preliminary survey of the place, Belleisle made his Entry into
Frankfurt: magnificent in the extreme. And still did not rest
there; but had to rush about, back to Versailles, to Dresden,
hither, thither: it was not till the last day of July that he
fairly took up his abode in Frankfurt; and--the Election eggs, so
to speak, being now all laid--set himself to hatch the same.
A process which lasted him six months longer, with curious
phenomena to mankind. Not till the middle of August did he bring
those 80,000 Armed Frenchmen across the Rhine, "to secure peace in
those parts, and freedom of voting." Not till November 4th had
Kur-Sachsen, with the Nightmares, finished that important problem
of the Bohemian Vote, "Bohemian Vote EXCLUDED for this time;"--
after which all was ready, though still not in the least hurry.
November 20th, came the first actual "Election-Conference (WAHL-
CONFERENZ)" in the Romer at Frankfurt; to which succeeded Two
Months more of conferrings (upon almost nothing at all):
and finally, 24th January, 1742, came the Election itself, Karl
Albert the man; poor wretch, who never saw another good day in
this world.

Belleisle during those six months was rather high and airy,
extremely magnificent; but did not want discretion: "more like a
Kurfurst than an Ambassador;" capable of "visiting Kur-Mainz, with
servants purposely in OLD liveries,"--where the case needed old,
where Kur-Mainz needed snubbing; not otherwise. [Buchholz, ii.
57 n.] "The Marechal de Belleisle," says an Eye-witness, of some
fame in those days, "comes out in a variety of parts, among us
here; plays now the General, now the Philosopher, now the Minister
of State, now the French Marquis;--and does them all to perfection.
Surely a master in his art. His Brother the Chevalier is one of the
sensiblest and best-trained persons you can see. He has a
penetrating intellect; is always occupied, and full of great
schemes; and has nevertheless a staid kind of manner. He is one of
the most important Personages here; and in all things his Brother's
right hand." [Von Loen, <italic> Kleine Schriften <end italic>
(cited in Adelung, ii. 400).] In Frankfurt, both Belleisle and his
Brother were much respected, the Brother especially, as men of
dignified behavior and shining qualities; but as to their hundred
and thirty French Lords and other Valetry, these by their
extravagances and excesses (AUSSCHWEIFUNGEN) made themselves
extremely detestable, it would appear. [Buchholz, ii. 54;
in Adelung, ii. 398 n., a French BROCARD on the subject, of
sufficient emphasis.]



Chapter XII.

SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY.

George II. did not hear of Mollwitz for above a fortnight after it
fell out; but he had no need of Mollwitz to kindle his wrath or his
activity in that matter. [Mollwitz first heard of in London, April
25th (14th); Subsidy of 300,000 pounds voted same day. <italic>
London Gazette <end italic> (April 11th-14th, 1741); <italic>
Commons Journals, <end italic> xxiii. 705.] George II. had seen,
all along, with natural manifold aversion and indignation, these
high attempts of his Nephew. "Who is this new little King, that
will not let himself be snubbed, and laughed at, and led by the
nose, as his Father did; but seems to be taking a road of his own,
and tacitly defying us all? A very high conduct indeed, for a
Sovereign of that magnitude. Aspires seemingly to be the leader
among German Princes; to reduce Hanover and us,--us, with the gold
of England in our breeches-pocket,--to the second place? A reverend
old Bishop of Liege, twitched by the rochet, and shaken hither and
thither, like a reverend old clothes-screen, till he agree to stand
still and conform. And now a Silesia seized upon; a Pragmatic
Sanction kicked to the winds: the whole world to be turned topsy-
turvy, and Hanover and us, with our breeches-pocket, reduced to--?"

The emotions, the prognosticatings, and distracted procedures of
his Britannic Majesty, of which we have ourselves seen somewhat, in
this fermentation of the elements, are copiously set down for us by
the English Dryasdust (mostly in unintelligible form): but, except
for sane purposes, one must be careful not to dwell on them, to the
sorrow of readers. Seldom was there such a feat of Somnambulism, as
that by the English and their King in the next twenty Years.
To extract the particle of sanity from it, and see how the poor
English did get their own errand done withal, and Jenkins's Ear
avenged,--that is the one interesting point; Dryasdust and the
Nightmares shall, to all time, be welcome to the others. Here are
some Excerpts, a select few; which will perhaps be our readiest
expedient. These do, under certain main aspects, shadow forth the
intricate posture of King George and his Nation, when Belleisle, as
Protagonistes or Chief Bully, stept down into the ring, in that
manner; asking, "Is there an Antagonistes, then, or Chief
Defender?" I will label them, number them; and, with the minimum of
needful commentary, leave them to imaginative readers.


No. 1. SNATCH OF PARLIAMENTARY ELOQUENCE BY MR. VINER
(19th April, 1741).

The fuliginous explosions, more or less volcanic, which went on in
Parliament and in English society, against Friedrich's Silesian
Enterprise, for long years from this date, are now all dead and
avoidable,--though they have left their effects among us to this
day. Perhaps readers would like to see the one reasonable word I
have fallen in with, of opposite tendency; Mr. Viner's word, at the
first starting of that question: plainly sensible word, which, had
it been attended to (as it was not), might have saved us so much
nonsense, not of idle talk only, but of extremely serious deed
which ensued thereupon!

"LONDON, 19th APRIL, 1741. This day [Mollwitz not yet known, Camp
of Gottin too well known!] King George, in his own high person,
comes down to the House of Lords,--which, like the Other House, is
sunk painfully in Walpole Controversies, Spanish-War Controversies,
of a merely domestic nature;--and informs both Honorable Houses,
with extreme caution, naming nobody, That he much wishes they would
think of helping him in these alarming circumstances of the
Celestial Balance, ready apparently to go heels uppermost.
To which the general answer is, 'Yes, surely!'--with a vote of
300,000 pounds for her Hungarian Majesty, a few days hence.
From those continents of Parliamentary tufa, now fallen so waste
and mournful, here is one little piece which ought to be extricated
into daylight:--

"MR. VINER (on his legs): ... 'If I mistake not the true intention
of the Address proposed,' in answer to his Majesty's most gracious
Speech from the Throne, 'we are invited to declare that we will
oppose the King of Prussia in his attempts upon Silesia:
a declaration in which I see not how any man can concur who KNOWS
NOT the nature of his Prussian Majesty's Claim, and the Laws of the
German Empire [NOR DO I, MR. V.]! It ought therefore, Sir, to have
been the first endeavor of those by whom this Address has been so
zealously supported, to show that his Prussian Majesty's Claim, so
publicly explained [BY KAUZLER LUDWIG, OF HALLE, WHO, IT SEEMS, HAS
STAGGERED OR CONVINCED MR. VINER], so firmly urged and so strongly
supported, is without foundation and reason, and is only one of
those imaginary titles which Ambition may always find to the
dominions of another.' (HEAR MR VINER!)" [Tindal, xx. 491, gives
the Royal Speech (DATE in a very slobbery condition); see also
Coxe, <italic> House of Austria, <end italic> iii. 365. Viner's
Fragment of a Speech is in Thackeray, <italic> Life of Chatham,
<end italic> i. 87.] ...

A most indispensable thing, surely. Which was never done, nor can
ever be done; but was assumed as either unnecessary or else done of
its own accord, by that Collective Wisdom of England (with a sage
George II. at the head of it); who plunged into Dettingen,
Fontenoy, Austrian Subsidies, Aix-la-Chapelle, and foundation of
the English National Debt, among other strange things, in
consequence!--

Upon that of Kanzler Ludwig, and the "so public Explanation" (which
we slightly heard of long since), here is another Note,--unless
readers prefer to skip it:--

"That the Diplomatic and Political world is universally in travail
at this time, no reader need be told; Europe everywhere in dim
anxiety, heavy-laden expectation (which to us has fallen so
vacant); looking towards inevitable changes and the huge inane.
All in travail;--and already uttering printed Manifestoes, Patents,
Deductions, and other public travail-SHRIEKS of that kind.
Printed; not to speak of the unprinted, of the oral which vanished
on the spot; or even of the written which were shot forth by
breathless estafettes, and unhappily did not vanish, but lie in
archives, still humming upon us, "Won't you read me, then?"--Alas,
except on compulsion, No! Life being precious (and time, which is
the stuff of life), No!--

"At Reinsberg as elsewhere, at Reinsberg first of all, it had been
felt, in October last, that there would be Manifestoes needed;
learned Proof, the more irrefragable the better, of our Right to
Silesia. It was settled there, Let Ludwig, Kanzler of the
University of Halle, do it. [Herr Kanzler Ludwig, monster of
Antiquarian, Legal and other Learning there: wealthy, too, and
close-fisted; whom we have seen obliged to open his closed fist,
and to do building in the Friedrich Strasse, before now;
Nussler, his son-in-law, having no money:--as careless readers have
perhaps forgotten?] Ludwig set about his new task with a proud joy.
Ludwig knows that story, if he know anything. Long years ago he put
forth a Chapter upon it; weighty Chapter; in a Book of weight, said
Judges;--Book weighing, in pounds avoirdupois and otherwise, none
of us now knows what: [Title of this weighty Performance (see
Preuss, <italic> Thronbesteigung, <end italic> p. 432) is, or was
(size not given), <italic> Germania Princeps <end italic> (Halae,
1702). Preuss says farther, "That Book ii. c. 3 handles the
Prussian claims: Jagerndorf being ? 13; Liegnitz, ? 14; Oppeln and
Ratibor, ? 16;--and that Ludwig had sent a Copy of this Argument
[weighty Performance altogether? Or Book ii. c. 3 of it, which
would have had a better chance?] to King Friedrich, on the death of
Kaiser Karl VI."]--but, in after years, it used to be said by
flatterers of the Kanzler, 'Herr Kanzler, see the effect of
Learning. It was you, it was your weighty Book, that caused all
this World-tumult, and flung the Nations into one another's hair!'
Upon which the old Kanzler would blush: 'You do me too much honor!'

"Ludwig, directly on order given, gathered out his documents again,
in the King's name this time; and promised something weighty by
New-year's day at latest." Doubtless to the joy of Nussler, who has
still no regular appointment, though well deserving one. "And sure
enough, on January 7th) at Berlin, 'in three languages,' Ludwig's
DEDUCTION had come out; an eager Public waiting for it: [Title is,
<italic> Rechtsgegrundetes Eigenthum <end italic> (in the Latin
copies, <italic> Patrimonium, <end italic> and <italic> Propriete
fondee en Droit <end italic> in the French copies) <italic> des
&c., <end italic>--that is to say, <italic> Legal Right of Propetiy
in the Royal-Electoral House of Brandenburg to the Duchies and
Principalities of Jagerndorf, Liegnitz, Brieg, Wohlau <end italic>
(Berlin, 7th January, 1741).]--and at Berlin it was generally
thought to be conclusive. I have looked into Ludwig's Deduction,
stern duty urging, in this instance for one: such portions as I
read are nothing like so stupid as was expected; and, in fact, are
not to be called stupid at all, but fit for their purpose, and
moderately intelligible to those who need them,"--which happily we
do not in this place.

Judicious Mr. Viner availed nothing against the Proposed Address;
any more than he would against the Atlantic Tide, coming in
unanimous, under influence of the Moon itself,--as indeed this
Address, and the triumphant Subsidy which was voted in the rear of
it, may be said to have done. [Coxe, iii. 265.] Subsidy of 300,000
pounds to her Hungarian Majesty; which, with the 200,000 pounds
already gone that road, makes a handsome Half-million for the
present Year. The first gush of the Britannia Fountain,--which
flowed like an Amalthea's Horn for seven years to come;
refreshing Austria, and all thirsty Pragmatic Nations, to defend
the Keystone of this Universe. Unluckily every guinea of it went,
at the same time, to encourage Austria in scorning King Friedrich's
offers to it; which perhaps are just offers, thinks Mr. Viner;
which once listened to, Pragmatic Sanction would be safe.
[Mr. Viner was of Pupham, or Pupholm, in Lincolnshire, for which
County he sat then, and for many years before and after,--from
about 1713 till 1761, when he died. A solid, instructed man, say
his contemporaries. "He was a friend of Bolingbroke's, and had a
house near Bolingbroke's Battersea one." He is Great great-
grandfather to the present Mr. Viner, and to the Countess de
Grey and Ripon; which is an interesting little fact.]

This Parliament is strong for Pragmatic Sanction, and has high
resentments against Walpole; in both which points the New
Parliament, just getting elected, will rival and surpass it,--
especially in the latter point, that of uprooting Walpole, which
the Nation is bent on, with a singular fury. Pragmatic Sanction
like to be ruined; and Walpole furiously thrown out: what a pair of
sorrows for poor George! During his late Caroline's time, all went
peaceably, and that of "governing" was a mere pleasure; Walpole and
Caroline cunningly doing that for him, and making him believe he
was doing it. But now has come the crisis, the collapse; and his
poor Majesty left alone to deal with it!--


No. 2. CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORIAN ON THE PHENOMENON OF WALPOLE IN ENGLAND.

"For above Ten Years, Walpole himself", says my Constitutional
Historian (unpublished), "for almost Twenty Years, Walpole
virtually and through others, has what they call 'governed'
England; that is to say, has adjusted the conflicting Parliamentary
Chaos into counterpoise, by what methods he had; and allowed
England, with Walpole atop, to jumble whither it would and could.
Of crooked things made straight by Walpole, of heroic performance
or intention, legislative or administrative, by Walpole, nobody
ever heard; never of the least hand-breadth gained from the Night-
realm in England, on Walpole's part: enough if he could manage to
keep the Parish Constable walking, and himself float atop.
Which task (though intrinsically zero for the Community, but all-
important to the Walpole, of Constitutional Countries) is a task
almost beyond the faculty of man, if the careless reader knew it!

"This task Walpole did,--in a sturdy, deep-bellied, long-headed,
John-Bull fashion, not unworthy of recognition. A man of very
forcible natural eyesight, strong natural heart,--courage in him to
all lengths; a very block of oak, or of oakroot, for natural
strength. He was always very quiet with it, too; given to digest
his victuals, and be peaceable with everybody. He had one rule,
that stood in place of many: To keep out of every business which it
was possible for human wisdom to stave aside. 'What good will you
get of going into that? Parliamentary criticism, argument and
botheration? Leave well alone. And even leave ill alone:--are you
the tradesman to tinker leaky vessels in England? You will not want
for work. Mind your pudding, and say little!' At home and abroad,
that was the safe secret. For, in Foreign Politics, his rule was
analogous: 'Mind your own affairs. You are an Island, you can do
without Foreign Politics; Peace, keep Peace with everybody:
what, in the Devil's name, have you to do with those dog-worryings
over Seas? Once more, mind your pudding!' Not so bad a rule;
indeed it is the better part of an extremely good one;--and you
might reckon it the real rule for a pious Rritannic Island
(reverent of God, and contemptuous of the Devil) in times of
general Down-break and Spiritual Bankruptcy, when quarrellings of
Sovereigns are apt to be mere dog-worryings and Devil's work, not
good to interfere in.

"In this manner, Walpole, by solid John-Bull faculty (and methods
of his own), had balanced the Parliamentary swaggings and
clashings, for a great while; and England had jumbled whither it
could, always in a stupid, but also in a peaceable way. As to those
same 'methods of his own' they were--in fact they were Bribery.
Actual purchase of votes by money slipt into the hand. Go straight
to the point. 'The direct real method this,' thinks Walpole:
'is there in reality any other?' A terrible question to
Constitutional Countries; which, I hear, has never been resolved in
the negative, by the modern improvements of science. Changes of
form have introduced themselves; the outward process, I hear, is
now quite different. According as the fashions and conditions
alter,--according as you have a Fourth Estate developed, or a
Fourth Estate still in the grub stage and only developing,--much
variation of outward process is conceivable.

"But Votes, under pain of Death Official, are necessary to your
poor Walpole: and votes, I hear, are still bidden for, and bought.
You may buy them by money down (which is felony, and theft simple,
against the poor Nation); or by preferments and appointments of the
unmeritorious man,--which is felony double-distilled (far deadlier,
though more refined), and theft most compound; theft, not of the
poor Nation's money, but of its soul and body so far, and of ALL
its moneys and temporal and spiritual interests whatsoever;
theft, you may say, of collops cut from its side, and poison put
into its heart, poor Nation! Or again, you may buy, not of the
Third Estate in such ways, but of the Fourth, or of the Fourth and
Third together, in other still more felonious and deadly, though
refined ways. By doing clap-traps, namely; letting off
Parliamentary blue-lights, to awaken the Sleeping Swineries, and
charm them into diapason for you,--what a music! Or, without clap-
trap or previous felony of your own, you may feloniously, in the
pinch of things, make truce with the evident Demagogos, and Son of
Nox and of Perdition, who has got 'within those walls' of yours,
and is grown important to you by the Awakened Swineries, risen into
alt, that follow him. Him you may, in your dire hunger of votes,
consent to comply with; his Anarchies you will pass for him into
'Laws,' as you are pleased to term them;--instead of pointing to
the whipping-post, and to his wicked long ears, which are so fit to
be nailed there, and of sternly recommending silence, which were
the salutary thing.--Buying may be done in a great variety of ways.
The question, How you buy? is not, on the moral side, an important
one. Nay, as there is a beauty in going straight to the point, and
by that course there is likely to be the minimum of mendacity for
you, perhaps the direct money-method is a shade less damnable than
any of the others since discovered;--while, in regard to practical
damage resulting, it is of childlike harmlessness in comparison!

"That was Walpole's method; with this to aid his great natural
faculty, long-headed, deep-bellied, suitable to the English
Parliament and Nation, he went along with perfect success for ten
or twenty years. And it might have been for longer,--had not the
English Nation accidentally come to wish, that it should CEASE
jumbling NO-whither; and try to jumble SOME-whither, at least for a
little while, on important business that had risen for England in a
certain quarter. Had it not been for Jenkins's Ear blazing out in
the dark English brain, Walpole might have lasted still a long
while. But his fate lay there:--the first Business vital to England
which might turn up; and this chanced to be the Spanish War.
How vital, readers shall see anon. Walpole, knowing well enough in
what state his War-apparatus was, and that of all his Apparatuses
there was none in a working state, but the Parliamentary one,--
resisted the Spanish War; stood in the door against it, with a
rhinoceros determination, nay almost something of a mastiff's;
resolute not to admit it, to admit death as soon. Doubtless he had
a feeling it would be death, the sagacious man;--and such it is now
proving; the Walpole Ministry dying by inches from it; dying hard,
but irremediably.

"The English Nation was immensely astonished, which Walpole was
not, any more than at the other Laws of Nature, to find Walpole's
War-apparatus in such a condition. All his Apparatuses, Walpole
guesses, are in no better, if it be not the Parliamentary one.
The English Nation is immensely astonished, which Walpole again is
not, to find that his Parliamentary Apparatus has been kept in gear
and smooth-going by the use of OIL: 'Miraculous Scandal of
Scandals!' thinks the English Nation. 'Miracle? Law of Nature, you
fools!' thinks Walpole. And in fact there is such a storm roaring
in England, in those and in the late and the coming months, as
threatens to be dangerous to high roofs,--dangerous to Walpole's
head at one time. Storm such as had not been witnessed in men's
memory; all manner of Counties and Constituencies, with solemn
indignation, charging their representatives to search into that
miraculous Scandal of Scandals, Law of Nature, or whatever it may
be; and abate the same, at their peril.

"To the now reader there is something almost pathetic in these
solemn indignations, and high resolves to have Purity of Parliament
and thorough Administrative Reform, in spite of Nature and the
Constitutional Stars;--and nothing I have met with, not even the
Prussian Dryasdust, is so unsufferably wearisome, or can pretend to
equal in depth of dull inanity, to ingenuous living readers, our
poor English Dryasdust's interminable, often-repeated Narratives,
volume after volume, of the debatings and colleaguings, the
tossings and tumults, fruitless and endless, in Nation and National
Palaver, which ensued thereupon. Walpole (in about a year hence),
[February 13th (2d), 1742, quitting the House after bad usage
there, said he would never enter it again; nor did: February 22d,
resigned in favor of Pulteney and Company (Tindal, xx. 530;
Thackeray, i. 45).] though he struck to the ground like a
rhinoceros, was got rolled out. And a Successor, and series of
Successors, in the bright brand-new state, was got rolled in;
with immense shouting from mankind:--but up to this date we have no
reason to believe that the Laws of Nature were got abrogated on
that occasion, or that the constitutional stars have much altered
their courses since."

That Walpole will probably be lost, goes much home to the Royal
bosom, in these troublous Spring months of 1741, as it has done and
will do. And here, emerging from the Spanish Main just now, is a
second sorrow, which might quite transfix the Royal bosom, and
drive Majesty itself to despair; awakening such insoluble
questions,--furnishing such proof, that Walpole and a good few
other persons (persons, and also things, and ideas and practices,
deep-rooted in the Country) stand much in need of being lost, if
England is to go a good road!

The Spanish War being of moment to us here, we will let our
Constitutional Historian explain, in his own dialect, How it was so
vital to England; and shall even subjoin what he gives as History
of it, such being so admirably succinct, for one quality.


No. 3. OF THE SPANISH WAR, OR THE JENKINS'S-EAR QUESTION.

"There was real cause for a War with Spain. It is one of the few
cases, this, of a war from necessity. Spain, by Decree of the
Pope,--some Pope long ago, whose name we will not remember, in
solemn Conclave, drawing accurately 'his Meridian Line,' on I know
not what Telluric or Uranic principles, no doubt with great
accuracy 'between Portugal and Spain,'--was proprietor of all those
Seas and Continents. And now England, in the interim, by Decree of
the Eternal Destinies, had clearly come to have property there,
too; and to be practically much concerned in that theoretic
question of the Pope's Meridian. There was no reconciling of theory
with fact. 'Ours indisputably,' said Spain, with loud articulate
voice; 'Holiness the Pope made it ours!'--while fact and the
English, by Decree of the Eternal Destinies, had been grumbling
inarticulately the other way, for almost two hundred years past,
and no result had.

"In Oliver Cromwell's time, it used to be said, 'With Spain, in
Europe, there may be peace or war; but between the Tropics it is
always war.' A state of things well recognized by Oliver, and acted
on, according to his opportunities. No settlement was had in
Oliver's brief time; nor could any be got since, when it was
becoming yearly more pressing. Bucaniers, desperate naval gentlemen
living on BOUCAN, or hung beef; who are also called Flibustiers
(FLIBUTIERS, 'Freebooters,' in French pronunciation, which is since
grown strangely into FILIBUSTERS, Fillibustiers, and other mad
forms, in the Yankee Newspapers now current): readers have heard of
those dumb methods of protest. Dumb and furious; which could bring
no settlement; but which did astonish the Pope's Decree, slashing
it with cutlasses and sea-cannon, in that manner, and circuitously
forwarded a settlement. Settlement was becoming yearly more
needful: and, ever since the Treaty of Utrecht especially, there
had been an incessant haggle going on, to produce one; without the
least effect hitherto. What embassyings, bargainings, bargain-
breakings; what galloping of estafettes; acres of diplomatic paper,
now fallen to the spiders, who always privately were the real
owners! Not in the Treaty of Utrecht, not in the Congresses of
Cambray, of Soissons, Convention of Pardo, by Ripperda, Horace
Walpole, or the wagging of wigs, could this matter be settled at
all. Near two hundred years of chronic misery;--and had there been,
under any of those wigs, a Head capable of reading the Heavenly
Mandates, with heart capable of following them, the misery might
have been briefly ended, by a direct method. With what immense
saving in all kinds, compared with the oblique method gone upon!
In quantity of bloodshed needed, of money, of idle talk and
estafettes, not to speak of higher considerations, the saving had
been incalculable. For it was England's one Cause of War during the
Century we are now upon; and poor England's course, when at last
driven into it, went ambiguously circling round the whole Universe,
instead of straight to the mark. Had Oliver Cromwell lived ten
years longer;--but Oliver Cromwell did not live; and, instead of
Heroic Heads, there came in Constitutional Wigs, which makes a
great difference.

"The pretensions of Spain to keep Half the World locked up in
embargo were entirely chimerical; plainly contradictory to the Laws
of Nature; and no amount of Pope's Donation Acts, or Ceremonial in
Rota or Propaganda, could redeem them from untenability, in the
modern days. To lie like a dog in the manger over South America,
and say snarling, 'None of you shall trade here, though I cannot!'
--what Pope or body of Popes can sanction such a procedure?
Had England had a Head, instead of Wigs, amid its diplomatists,
England, as the chief party interested, would have long since
intimated gently to such dog in the manger: 'Dog, will you be so
obliging as rise! I am grieved to say, we shall have to do
unpleasant things otherwise. Dogs have doors for their hutches:
but to pretend barring the Tropic of Cancer,--that is too big a
door for any dog. Can nobody but you have business here, then,
which is not displeasing to the gods? We bid you rise!' And in this
mode there is no doubt the dog, bark and bite as he might, would
have ended by rising; not only England, but all the Universe being
against him. And furthermore, I compute with certainty, the
quantity of fighting needed to obtain such result would, by this
mode, have been a minimum. The clear right being there, and now
also the clear might, why take refuge in diplomatic wiggeries, in
Assiento Treaties, and Arrangements which are NOT analogous to the
facts; which are but wigged mendacities, therefore; and will but
aggravate in quantity and in quality the fighting yet needed?
Fighting is but (as has been well said) a battering out of the
mendacities, pretences, and imaginary elements: well battered-out,
these, like dust and chaff, fly torrent-wise along the winds, and
darken all the sky; but these once gone, there remain the facts and
their visible relation to one another, and peace is sure.

"The Assiento Treaty being fixed upon, the English ought to have
kept it. But the English did not, in any measure; nor could pretend
to have done. They were entitled to supply Negroes, in such and
such number, annually to the Spanish Plantations; and besides this
delightful branch of trade, to have the privilege of selling
certain quantities of their manufactured articles on those coasts;
quantities regulated briefly by this stipulation, That their
Assiento Ship was to be of 600 tons burden, so many and no more.
The Assiento Ship was duly of 600 tons accordingly, promise kept
faithfully to the eye; but the Assiento Ship was attended and
escorted by provision-sloops, small craft said to be of the most
indispensable nature to it. Which provision-sloops, and
indispensable small craft, not only carried merchandise as well,
but went and came to Jamaica and back, under various pretexts, with
ever new supplies of merchandise; converting the Assiento Ship into
a Floating Shop, the Tons burden and Tons sale of which set
arithmetic at defiance. This was the fact, perfectly well known in
England, veiled over by mere smuggler pretences, and obstinately
persisted in, so profitable was it. Perfectly well known in Spain
also, and to the Spanish Guarda-Costas and Sea-Captains in those
parts; who were naturally kept in a perennial state of rage by it,
--and disposed to fly out into flame upon it, when a bad case
turned up! Such a case that of Jenkins had seemed to them;
and their mode of treating it, by tearing off Mr. Jenkins's Ear,
proved to be--bad shall we say, or good?--intolerable to England's
thick skin; and brought matters to a crisis, in the ways
we saw." ...

The Jenkins's-Ear Question, which then looked so mad to everybody,
how sane has it now grown to my Constitutional Friend! In abstruse
ludicrous form there lay immense questions involved in it;
which were serious enough, certain enough, though invisible to
everybody. Half the World lay hidden in embryo under it.
Colonial-Empire, whose is it to be? Shall Half the World be
England's, for industrial purposes; which is innocent, laudable,
conformable to the Multiplication-table at least, and other plain
Laws? Or shall it be Spain's for arrogant-torpid sham-devotional
purposes, contradictory to every Law? The incalculable Yankee
Nation itself, biggest Phenomenon (once thought beautifulest) of
these Ages,--this too, little as careless readers on either side of
the sea now know it, lay involved. Shall there be a Yankee Nation,
shall there not be; shall the New World be of Spanish type, shall
it be of English? Issues which we may call immense. Among the then
extant Sons of Adam, where was he who could in the faintest degree
surmise what issues lay in the Jenkins's-Ear Question? And it is
curious to consider now, with what fierce deep-breathed doggedness
the poor English Nation, drawn by their instincts, held fast upon
it, and would take no denial, as if THEY had surmised and seen.
For the instincts of simple guileless persons (liable to be counted
STUPID, by the unwary) are sometimes of prophetic nature, and
spring from the deep places of this Universe!--My Constitutional
Friend entitles his next Section CARTHAGENA; but might more fitly
have headed it (for such in reality it is, Carthagena proving the
evanescent point of that sad business),


SUCCINCT HISTORY OF THE SPANISH WAR, WHICH BEGAN IN 1739;
AND ENDED--WHEN DID IT END?

1. WAR, AND PORTO-BELLO (NOVEMBER, 1739-MARCH, 1740).--"November
4th, 1739, War was at length (after above four months' obscure
quasi-declaring of it, in the shape of Orders in Council, Letters
of Marque, and so on) got openly declared; 'Heralds at Arms at the
usual places' blowing trumpets upon it, and reading the royal
Manifesto, date of which is five days earlier, 'Kensington, October
30th (19th).' The principal Events that ensue, arrange themselves
under Three Heads, this of Porto-Bello being the FIRST; and (by
intense smelting) are datable as follows:--[<italic> Gentleman's
Magazine, <end italic> ix. 551, x. 124, 142, 144, 350; Tindal,
xx. 430-433, 442; &c.]

"Tuesday Evening, 1st December, 1739, Admiral Vernon, our chosen
Anti-Spaniard, finding, a while ago, that he had missed the Azogue
Ships on the Coast of Spain, and must try America and the Spanish
Main, in that view arrives at Porto-Bello. Next day, December 2d,
Vernon attacks Porto-Bello; attacks certain Castles so called, with
furious broadsiding, followed by scalading; gets surrender (on the
3d);--seamen have allowance instead of plunder;--blows up what
Castles there are; and returns to Port Royal in Jamaica.

"Never-imagined joy in England, and fame to Vernon, when the news
came: 'Took it with Six Ships,' cry they; 'the scurvy Ministry, who
had heard him, in the fire of Parliamentary debate, say Six, would
grant him no more: invincible Vernon!' Nay, next Year, I see,
'London was illuminated on the Anniversary of Porto-Bello:'--
day settled in permanence as one of the High-tides of the Calendar,
it would appear. And 'Vernon's Birthday' withal--how touching is
stupidity when loyal!--was celebrated amazingly in all the chief
Towns, like a kind of Christmas, when it came round; Nature having
deigned to produce such a man, for a poor Nation in difficulties.
Invincible Vernon, it is thought by Gazetteers, 'will look in at
Carthagena shortly;' much more important Place, where a certain
Governor Don Blas has been insolent withal, and written
Vernon letters.

"2. PRELIMINARIES TO CARTHAGENA (MARCH-NOVEMBER, 1740).--Monday,
14th March, 1740, Vernon did, accordingly, look in on Carthagena;
[<italic> Gentleman's Magazine, <end italic> x. 350.] cast anchor
in the shallow waste of surfs there, that Monday; and tried some
bombarding, with bomb-ketches and the like, from Thursday till
Saturday following. Vernon hopes he did hit the Jesuits' College,
South Bastion, Custom-house and other principal edifices; but found
that there was no getting near enough on that seaward side.
Found that you must force the Interior Harbor,--a big Inland Gulf
or Lake, which gushes in by what they call LITTLE-MOUTH (Boca-
Chica), and has its Booms, Castles and Defences, which are numerous
and strongish;--and that, for this end, you must have seven or
eight thousand Land Forces, as well as an addition of Ships.
On Saturday Evening, therefore, Vernon calls in his bomb-ketches;
sails past, examining these things; and goes forth on other small
adventures. For example,--

"Sunday, 3d April, 1740, 'about 10 at night' opens cannonade on
Chagres (place often enough taken, by cutlass and pistol, in the
Bucanier times); and, on Tuesday, 5th, gets surrender of Chagres:
'Custom-house crammed with goods, which we set fire to.' On news of
which, there is again, in England, joy over the day of small
things. The poor English People are set on this business of
avenging Jenkins's Ear, and of having the Ocean Highway unbarred;
and hope always it can be done by the Walpole Apparatuses, which
ought to be in working order, and are not. 'Support this hero, you
Walpole and Company, in his Carthagena views: it will be better
for you!"

"Walpole and Company, aware of that fact, do take some trouble
about it; and now, may not we say, PAULLO MAJORA CANAMUS?
All through that Summer, 1740,"--while King Friedrich went rushing
about, to Strasburg, to Wesel; doing his Herstals and
Practicalities, with a light high hand, in almost an entertaining
manner; and intent, still more, on his Voltaires and a Life to the
Muses,--"there was, in England, serious heavy tumult of activity,
secret and public. In the Dockyards, on the Drill-grounds, what a
stir: Camp in the Isle of Wight, not to mention Portsmouth and the
Sea-Industries; 6,000 Marines are to be embarked, as well as Land
Regiments,--can anybody guess whither? America itself is to furnish
'one Regiment, with Scotch Officers to discipline it,' if they can.

"Here is real haste and effort; but by no means such speed as could
be wished; multiplex confusions and contradictions occurring, as is
usual, when your machinery runs foul. Nor are the Gazetteers
without their guesses, though they study to be discreet. 'Here is
something considerable in the wind; a grand idea, for certain;'--
and to men of discernment it points surely towards Carthagena and
heroic Vernon out yonder? Government is dumb altogether; and lays
occasional embargo; trying hard (without success), in the delays
that occurred, to keep it secret from Don Blas and others.
The outcome of all which was,

"3. CARTHAGENA ITSELF (NOVEMBER, 1740--APRIL, 1741).--On November
6th,--by no means 'July 3d,' as your first fond program bore;
which delay was itself likely to be fatal, unless the Almanac, and
course of the Tropical Seasons would delay along with you!--we say,
On Sunday, 6th November, 1740 [Kaiser Karl's Funeral just over, and
great thoughts going on at Reinsberg], Rear-Admiral Sir Chaloner
Ogle,--so many weeks and months after the set time,--does sail from
St. Helen's (guessed, for Carthagena); all people sending blessings
with him. Twenty-five big Ships of the Line, with three Half-
Regiments on board; fireships, bomb-ketches, in abundance; and
eighty Transports, with 6,000 drilled Marines: a Sea-and-Land Force
fit to strengthen Hero Vernon with a witness, and realize his
Carthagena views. A very great day at Portsmouth and St. Helen's
for these Sunday folk. [Tindal, xx. 463 (LISTS, &c. there; date
wrong, "31st October," instead of 26th (o.s.),--many things wrong,
and all things left loose and flabby, and not right! As is poor
Tindal's way).]

"Most obscure among the other items in that Armada of Sir
Chaloner's, just taking leave of England; most obscure of the items
then, but now most noticeable, or almost alone noticeable, is a
young Surgeon's-Mate,--one Tobias Smollett; looking over the waters
there and the fading coasts, not without thoughts. A proud, soft-
hearted, though somewhat stern-visaged, caustic and indignant young
gentleman. Apt to be caustic in speech, having sorrows of his own
under lock and key, on this and subsequent occasions.
Excellent Tobias; he has, little as he hopes it, something
considerable by way of mission in this Expedition, and in this
Universe generally. Mission to take Portraiture of English
Seamanhood, with the due grimness, due fidelity; and convey the
same to remote generations, before it vanish. Courage, my brave
young Tobias; through endless sorrows, contradictions, toils and
confusions, you will do your errand in some measure; and that will
be something!--

"Five weeks before (29th September, 1740, which was also several
months beyond time set), there had sailed, strictly hidden by
embargoes which were little effectual, another Expedition, all
Naval; intended to be subsidiary to this one: Commodore Anson's, of
three inconsiderable Ships; who is to go round Cape Horn, if he
can; to bombard Spanish America from the other side; and stretch
out a hand to Vernon in his grand Carthagena or ulterior views.
Together they may do some execution, if we judge by the old
Bucanier and Queen-Elizabeth experiences? Anson's Expedition has
become famous in the world, though Vernon got no good of it."

Well! Here truly was a business; not so ill-contrived. Somebody of
head must have been at the centre of this: and it might, in result,
have astonished the Spaniard, and tumbled him much topsy-turvy in
those latitudes,--had the machinery for executing it been well in
gear. Under Friedrich Wilhelm's captaincy and management, every
person, every item, correct to its time, to its place, to its
function, what a thing! But with mere Walpole Machinery: alas, it
was far too wide a Plan for Machinery of that kind, habitually out
of order, and only used to be as correct as--as it could.
Those DELAYS themselves, first to Anson, then to Ogle, since the
Tropical Almanac would not delay along with them, had thrown both
Enterprises into weather such as all but meant impossibility in
those latitudes! This was irremediable;--had not been remediable,
by efforts and pushings here and there. The best of management, as
under Anson, could not get the better of this; worst of management,
as in the other case, was likely to make a fine thing of it! Let us
hasten on:--

"January 20th, 1741, We arrive, through much rough weather and
other confused hardships, at Port Royal in Jamaica; find Vernon
waiting on the slip; the American Regiment, tolerably drilled by
the Scotch Lieutenants, in full readiness and equipment; a body of
Negroes superadded, by way of pioneer laborers fit for those hot
climates. One sad loss there had been on the voyage hither:
Land forces had lost their Commander, and did not find another.
General Cathcart had died of sickness on the voyage; a Charles Lord
Cathcart, who was understood to possess some knowledge of his
business; and his Successor, one Wentworth, did not happen to have
any. Which was reckoned unlucky, by the more observant.
Vernon, though in haste for Carthagena, is in some anxiety about a
powerful French Fleet which has been manoeuvring in those waters
for some time; intent on no good that Vernon can imagine. The first
thing now is, See into that French Fleet. French Fleet, on our
going to look in the proper Island, is found to be all off for
home; men 'mostly starved or otherwise dead,' we hear; so that now,
after this last short delay,--To Carthagena with all sail.

"Wednesday Evening, 15th March, 1741, We anchor in the Playa
Grande, the waste surfy Shallow which washes Carthagena seaward:
124 sail of us, big and little. We find Don Blas in a very prepared
posture. Don Blas has been doing his best, this twelvemonth past;
plugging up that Boca-Chica (LITTLE MOUTH) Ingate, with batteries,
booms, great ships; and has castles not a few thereabouts and in
the Interior Lake or Harbor; all which he has put in tolerable
defence, so far as can be judged: not an inactive, if an insolent
Don. We spend the next five days in considering and surveying these
Performances of his: What is to be done with them; how, in the
first place, we may force Boca-Chica; and get in upon his Interior
Castles and him. After consideration, and plan fixed:

"Monday, 20th March, Sir Chaloner, with broadsides, sweeps away
some small defences which lie to left of Boca-Chica [to our LEFT,
to Boca-Chica's RIGHT, if anybody cares to be particular].
Whereupon the Troops land, some of them that same evening; and,
within the next two days, are all ashore, implements, Negroes and
the rest; building batteries, felling wood; intent to capture
Boca-Chica Castle, and demolish the War-Ships, Booms, and fry of
Fascine and other Batteries; and thereby to get in upon Don Blas,
and have a stroke at his Interior Castles and Carthagena itself.
Till April 5th, here are sixteen days of furious intricate work;
not ill done:--the physical labor itself, the building of
batteries, with Boca-Chica firing on you over the woods, is
scarcely do-able by Europeans in that season; and the Negroes who
are able for it, 'fling down their burdens, and scamper, whenever a
gun goes off.' Furious fighting, too, there was, by seamen and
landsmen; not ill done, considering circumstances.

"On the sixteenth day, April 5th [King Friedrich hurrying from the
Mountains that same day, towards Steinau, which took fire with him
at night], Boca-Chica Castle and the intricate War-Ships, Booms,
and Castles thereabouts (Don Blas running off when the push became
intense), are at last got. So that now, through Boca-Chica, we
enter the Interior Harbor or Harbors. 'Harbors' which are of wide
extent, and deep enough: being in fact a Lake, or rather Pair of
Lakes, with Castles (CASTILLO GRANDE, 'Castle Grand,' the chief of
them), with War-Ships sunk or afloat, and miscellaneous
obstructions: beyond all which, at the farther shore, some five
miles off, Carthagena itself does at last lie potentially
accessible; and we hope to get in upon Don Blas and it. There ensue
five days of intricate sea-work; not much of broadsiding, mainly
tugging out of sunk War-Ships, and the like, to get alongside of
Castle Grand, which is the chief obstruction.

"April 10, Castle Grand itself is got; nobody found in it when we
storm. Don Blas and the Spaniards seem much in terror; burning any
Ships they still have, near Carthagena; as if there were no chance
now left." This is the very day of Mollwitz Battle; near about the
hour when Schwerin broke into field-music, and advanced with
thunderous glitter against the evening sun! "Carthagena Expedition
is, at length, fairly in contact with its Problem,--the question
rising, 'Do you understand it, then?'

"Up to this point, mistakes of management had been made good by
obstinate energy of execution; clear victory had gone on so far,
the Capture of Carthagena now seemingly at hand. One thing was
unfortunate: 'the able Mr. Moor [meritorious Captain of Foot, who,
by accident, had spent some study on his business], the one real
Engineer we had,' got killed in that Boca-Chica struggle: an end to
poor Moor! So that the Siege of Carthagena will have to go on
WITHOUT Engineer science henceforth. May be important, that,--who
knows? Another thing was still more palpably important: Sea-General
Vernon had an undisguised contempt for Land-General Wentworth.
'A mere blockhead, whose Brother has a Borough,' thinks Vernon
(himself an Opposition Member, of high-sniffing, angry, not too
magnanimous turn);--and withdraws now to his Ships; intimating:
'Do your Problem, then; I have set you down beside it, which was my
part of the affair!'--Let us give the attack of Fort Lazar, and end
this sad business.

"Sunday, 16th April, Wentworth, once master of the Uppermost Lake
or Harbor (what the Natives call the SURGIDERO, or Anchorage
Proper), had disembarked, high up to the right, a good way south of
Carthagena; meaning to attack there-from a certain Fort Lazar,
which stands on a Hill between Carthagena and him: this Hill and
Fort once his, he has Carthagena under his cannon; Carthagena in
his pocket, as it were. 'Fort not to be had without batteries,'
thinks Wentworth; though the sickly rainy season has set in.
'Batteries? Scaling-ladders, you mean!' answers Vernon, with
undisguised contempt. For the two are, by this time, almost in open
quarrel. Wentworth starts building batteries, in spite of the rain-
deluges; then stops building;--decides to do it by scalade, after
all. And, at two in the morning of this Sunday, April 16th, sets
forth, in certain columns,--by roads ill-known, with arrangements
that do NOT fit like clock-work,--to storm said Hill and Fort.
The English are an obstinate people; and strenuous execution will
sometimes amend defects of plan,--sometimes not.

"The obstinate English, nothing in them but sullen fire of valor,
which has to burn UNluminous, did, after mistake on mistake, climb
the rocks or heights of Lazar Hill, in spite of the world and Don
Blas's cannonading; but found, when atop, That Fort Lazar, raining
cannon-shot, was still divided from them by chasms; that the
scaling-ladders had not come (never did come, owing to indiscipline
somewhere),--and that, without wings as of eagles, they could not
reach Fort Lazar at all! For about four hours, they struggled with
a desperate doggedness, to overcome the chasms, to wrench aside the
Laws of Nature, and do something useful for themselves; patiently,
though sulkily; regardless of the storm of shot which killed 600 of
them, the while. At length, finding the Laws of Nature too strong
for them, they descended gloomily: 'in gloomy silence' marched home
to their tents again,--in a humor too deep for words.

"Yes; and we find they fell sick in multitudes, that night;
and, 'in two days more, were reduced from 6,645 to 3,200
effective;' Vernon, from the sea, looking disdainfully on:--and it
became evident that the big Project had gone to water; and that
nothing would remain but to return straightway to Jamaica, in
bankrupt condition. Which accordingly was set about. And ten days
hence (April 26th)) the final party of them did get on board,--
punctual to take 'three tents,' their last rag of Siege-furniture,
along with them; 'lest Don Blas have trophies,' thinks poor
Wentworth. And sailed away, with their sad Siege finished in such
fashion. Strenuous Siege; which, had the War-Sciences been
foolishness, and the Laws of Nature and the rigors of Arithmetic
and Geometry been stretchable entities, might have succeeded
better!" [Smollett's Account, <italic> Miscellaneous Works <end
italic> (Edinburgh, 1806), iv. 445-469, is that of a highly
intelligent Eye-witness, credible and intelligible in
every particular.]

"Evening of April 26th:"--I perceive it was in the very hours while
Belleisle arrived in Friedrich's Camp at Mollwitz; eve of that
Siege of Brieg, which we saw performing itself with punctual regard
to said Laws and rigors, and issuing in so different a manner!
Nothing that my Constitutional Historian has said equals in pungent
enormity the matter-of-fact Picture, left by Tobias Smollett, of
the sick and wounded, in the interim which follow&d that attempt on
Fort Lazar and the Laws of Nature:--

"As for the sick and wounded", says Tobias, "they were, next day,
sent on board of the transports and vessels called hospital-ships;
where they languished in want of every necessary comfort and
accommodation. They were destitute of surgeons, nurses, cooks and
proper provision; they were pent up between decks in small vessels,
where they had not room to sit upright; they wallowed in filth;
myriads of maggots were hatched in the putrefaction of their sores,
which had no other dressing than that of being washed by themselves
with their own allowance of brandy; and nothing was heard but
groans, lamentations and the language of despair, invoking death to
deliver them from their miseries. What served to encourage this
despondence, was the prospect of those poor wretches who had
strength and opportunity to look around them; for there they beheld
the naked bodies of their fellow-soldiers and comrades floating up
and down the harbor, affording prey to the carrion-crows and
sharks, which tore them in pieces without interruption, and
contributing by their stench to the mortality that prevailed.

"This picture cannot fail to be shocking to the humane reader,
especially when he is informed, that while those miserable objects
cried in vain for assistance, and actually perished for want of
proper attendance, every ship of war in the fleet could have spared
a couple of surgeons for their relief; and many young gentlemen of
that profession solicited their captains in pain for leave to go
and administer help to the sick and wounded. The necessities of the
poor people were well known; the remedy was easy and apparent;
but the discord between the chiefs was inflamed to such a degree of
diabolical rancor, that the one chose rather to see his men perish
than ask help of the other, who disdained to offer his assistance
unasked, though it might have saved the lives of his fellow-
subjects." [Smollett, IBID. (Anderson's Edition), iv. 466.]

In such an amazing condition is the English Fighting Apparatus
under Walpole, being important for England's self only; while the
Talking Apparatus, important for Walpole, is in such excellent
gearing, so well kept in repair and oil! By Wentworth's blame, who
had no knowledge of war; by Vernon's, who sat famous on the
Opposition side, yet wanted loyalty of mind; by one's blame and
another's, WHOSE it is idle arguing, here is how your Fighting
Apparatus performs in the hour when needed. Unfortunate General, or
General's Cocked-Hat (a brave heart too, they say, though of brain
too vacant, too opaque); unfortunate Admiral (much blown away by
vanity, in-nature and Parliamentary wind);--doubly unfortunate
Nation, that employs such to lead its armaments! How the English
Nation took it? The English Nation has had much of this kind to
take, first and last; and apparently will yet have. "Gloomy
silence," like that of the poor men going home to their tents, is
our only dialect towards it.

This is a dreadful business, this of the wrecked Carthagena
Expedition; such a force of war-munitions in every kind,--
including the rare kind, human Courage and force of heart, only not
human Captaincy, the rarest kind,--as could have swallowed South
America at discretion, had there been Captains over it. Has gone
blundering down into Orcus and the shark's belly, in that
unutterable manner. Might have been didactic to Eugland, more than
it was; England's skin being very thick against lessons of that
nature. Might have broken the heart of a little Sovereign Gentleman
Curator of England, had he gone hypochondriacally into it; which he
was far from doing, brisk little Gentleman; looking out else-
whither, with those eyes A FLEUR DE TETE, and nothing of insoluble
admitted into the brain that dwelt inside.

What became subsequently of the Spanish War, we in vain inquire of
History-Books. The War did not die for many years to come, but
neither did it publicly live; it disappears at this point: a River
Niger, seen once flowing broad enough; but issuing--Does it issue
nowhere, then? Where does it issue? Except for my Constitutional
Historian, still unpublished, I should never have known where.--
By the time these disastrous Carthagena tidings reached England,
his Britannic Majesty was in Hanover; involved, he, and all his
State doctors, English and Hanoverian, in awful contemplation on
Pragmatic Sanction, Kaiserwahl, Celestial Balance, and the saving
of Nature's Keystone, should this still prove possible to human
effort and contrivance. In which Imminency of Doomsday itself, the
small English-Spanish matter, which the Official people, and his
Majesty as much as any, had bitterly disliked, was quite let go,
and dropped out of view. Forgotten by Official people; left to the
dumb English Nation, whose concern it was, to administer as
IT could.

Anson--with his three ships gone to two, gone ultimately to one--is
henceforth what Spanish War there officially is. Anson could not
meet those Vernon-Wentworth gentlemen "from the other side of the
Isthmus of Darien," the gentlemen, with their Enterprise, being
already bankrupt and away. Anson, with three inconsiderable ships,
which rotted gradually into one, could not himself settle the
Spanish War: but he did, on his own score, a series of things,
ending in beautiful finis of the Acapulco Ship, which were of
considerable detriment, and of highly considerable disgrace, to
Spain;--and were, and are long likely to be, memorable among the
Sea-heroisms of the world. Giving proof that real Captains,
taciturn Sons of Anak, are still born in England; and Sea-kings,
equal to any that were. Luckily, too, he had some chaplain or
ship's-surgeon on board, who saw good to write account of that
memorable VOYAGE of his; and did it, in brief, perspicuous terms,
wise and credible: a real Poem in its kind, or Romance all Fact;
one of the pleasantest little Books in the World's Library at this
date. Anson sheds some tincture of heroic beauty over that
otherwise altogether hideous puddle of mismanagement, platitude,
disaster; and vindicates, in a pathetically potential way, the
honor of his poor Nation a little.

Apart from Official Anson, the Spanish War fell mainly, we may say,
into the hands of--of Mr. Jenkins himself, and such Friends of his,
at Wapping, Bristol and the Seaports, as might be disposed to go
privateering. In which course, after some crosses at first, and
great complaints of losses to Spanish Privateers, Wapping and
Bristol did at length eminently get the upper hand; and thus
carried on this Spanish War (or Spanish-French, Spain and France
having got into one boat), for long years coming; in an entirely
inarticulate, but by no means quite ineffectual manner,--indeed, to
the ultimate clearance of the Seas from both French and Spaniard,
within the next twenty years. Readers shall take this little
Excerpt, dated Three Years hence, and set it twinkling in the night
of their imaginations:--

BRISTOL, MONDAY, 21st (10th) SEPTEMBER, 1744. ... "Nothing is to be
seen here but rejoicings for the number of French prizes brought
into this port. Our Sailors are in high spirits, and full of money;
and while on shore, spend their whole time in carousing, visiting
their mistresses, going to plays, serenading, &c., dressed out with
laced hats, tossels (SIC), swords with sword-knots, and every other
way of spending their money." [Extract of a Letter from Bristol, in
<italic> Gentleman's Magazine, <end italic>  xiv. 504.]

Carthagena, Walpole, Viners: here are Sorrows for a Britannic
Majesty;--and these are nothing like all. But poor readers should
have some respite; brief breathing-time, were it only to use their
pocket-handkerchiefs, and summon new courage!



Chapter XIII.

SMALL-WAR: FIRST EMERGENCE OF ZIETHEN THE HUSSAR GENERAL INTO NOTICE.

After Brieg, Friedrich undertook nothing military, except strict
vigilance of Neipperg, for a couple of months or more. Military,
especially offensive operations, are not the methods just now.
Rest on your oars; see how this seething Ocean of European
Politics, and Peace or War, will settle itself into currents, into
set winds; by which of them a man may steer, who happens to have a
fixed port in view. Neipperg, too, is glad to be quiescent;
"my Infantry hopelessly inferior," he writes to head-quarters:
"Could not one hire 10,000 Saxons, think you,"--or do several other
chimerical things, for help? Except with his Pandour people,
working what mischief they can, Neipperg does nothing. But this
Hungarian rabble is extensively industrious, scouring the country
far and wide; and gives a great deal of trouble both to Friedrich
and the peaceable inhabitants. So that there is plenty of Small War
always going on:--not mentionable here, any passage of it, except
perhaps one, at a place called Rothschloss; which concerns a
remarkable Prussian Hussar Major, their famed Ziethen, and is still
remembered by the Prussian public.

We have heard of Captain, now Major Ziethen, how Friedrich Wilhelm
sent him to the Rhine Campaign, six years ago, to learn the Hussar
Art from the Austrians there. One Baronay (BARONIAY, or even
BARANYAI, as others write him), an excellent hand, taught him the
Art;--and how well he has learned, Baronay now sadly experiences.
The affair of Rothschloss (in abridged form) befell as follows:--

"In these Small-War businesses, Baronay, Austrian Major-General of
Hussars, had been exceedingly mischievous hitherto. It was but the
other day, a Prussian regular party had to go out upon him, just in
time; and to RE-wrench 'sixty cart-loads of meal,' wrenched by him
from suffering individuals; with which he was making off to Neisse,
when the Prussians [from their Camp of Mollwitz, where they still
are] came in sight.

"And now again (May 16th) news is, That Baronay, and 1,400 Hussars
with him, has another considerable set of meal-carts,--in the
Village of Rothschloss, about twenty miles southward, Frankenstein
way; and means to march with them Neisse-ward to-morrow.
Two marches or so will bring him home; if Prussian diligence
prevent not. 'Go instantly,' orders Friedrich,--appointing
Winterfeld to do it: Winterfeld with 300 dragoons, with Ziethen and
Hussars to the amount of 600; which is more than one to two
of Austrians.

"Winterfeld and Ziethen march that same day; are in the
neighborhood of Rothschloss by nightfall; and take their measures,
--block the road to Neisse, and do other necessary things. And go
in upon Baronay next morning, at the due rate, fiery men both of
them; sweep poor Baronay away, MINUS the meal; who finds even his
road blocked (bridge bursting into cannon-shot upon him, at one
point), instead of bridge, a stream, or slow current of quagmire
for him,--and is in imminent hazard. Ziethen's behavior was
superlative (details of it unintelligible off the ground);
and Baronay fled totally in wreck;--his own horse shot, and at the
moment no other to be had; swam the quagmire, or swashed through
it, 'by help of a tree;" and had a near miss of capture.
Recovering himself on the other side, Baronay, we can fancy, gave a
grin of various expression, as he got into saddle again: 'The arrow
so near killing was feathered from one's own wing, too!'--And
indeed, a day or two after, he wrote Ziethen a handsome Letter to
that effect." [<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> i. 927;
Orlich, i. 120. <italic> The Life of General de Zieten <end italic>
(English Translation, very ill printed, Berlin, 1803), BY FRAU VON
BLUMENTHAL (a vaguish eloquent Lady, but with access to
information, being a connection of Z.'s), p. 84.]

Ziethen, for minor good feats, had been made Lieutenant-Colonel,
the very day he marched; his Commission dates May 16th, 1741;
and on the morrow he handsels it in this pretty manner. He is now
forty-two; much held down hitherto; being a man of inarticulate
turn, hot and abrupt in his ways,--liable always to multifarious
obstruction, and unjust contradiction from his fellow-creatures.
But Winterfeld's report on this occasion was emphatic; and Ziethen
shoots rapidly up henceforth; Colonel within the year, General in
1744; and more and more esteemed by Friedrich during their
subsequent long life together.

Though perhaps the two most opposite men in Nature, and standing so
far apart, they fully recognized one another in their several
spheres. For Ziethen too had good eyesight, though in abstruse
sort:--rugged simple son of the moorlands; nourished, body and
soul, on orthodox frugal oatmeal (so to speak), with a large
sprinkling of fire and iron thrown in! A man born poor: son of some
poor Squirelet in the Ruppin Country;--"used to walk five miles
into Ruppin on Saturday nights," in early life, "and have his hair
done into club, which had to last him till the week following."
[<italic> Militair-Lexikon, <end italic> iv. 310.] A big-headed,
thick-lipped, decidedly ugly little man. And yet so beautiful in
his ugliness: wise, resolute, true, with a dash of high
uncomplaining sorrow in him;--not the "bleached nigger" at all, as
Print-Collectors sometimes call him! No; but (on those oatmeal
terms) the Socrates-Odysseus, the valiant pious Stoic, and much-
enduring man. One of the best Hussar Captains ever built.
By degrees King Friedrich and he grew to be,--with considerable
tiffs now and then, and intervals of gloom and eclipse,--what we
might call sworn friends. On which and on general grounds, Ziethen
has become, like Friedrich himself, a kind of mythical person with
the soldiery and common people; more of a demi-god than any other
of Friedrich's Captains.

Friedrich is always eagerly in quest of men like Ziethen;
specially so at this time. He has meditated much on the bad figure
his Cavalry made at Mollwitz; and is already drilling them anew in
multiplex ways, during those leisure days he now has,--with evident
success on the next trial, this very Summer. And, as his wont is,
will not rest satisfied there. But strives incessantly, for a
series of summers and years to come, till he bring them to
perfection; or to the likeness of his own thought, which probably
was not far from that. Till at length it can be said his success
became world-famous; and he had such Seidlitzes and Ziethens as
were not seen before or since.

MAP FOR THE FIRST AND SECOND SILESIAN WAR HERE---------


END OF BOOK 12-------




End of Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 12

