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History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 12

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Title: History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 12

Author: Thomas Carlyle


        
Release date: June 16, 2008 [eBook #2112]
                Most recently updated: July 14, 2008

Language: English

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Credits: Produced by D.R. Thompson and David Widger


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II OF PRUSSIA — VOLUME 12 ***




Produced by D.R. Thompson





HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II OF PRUSSIA

FREDERICK THE GREAT

By Thomas Carlyle

Volume XII.





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, _Erdbeschreibung,_ 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, anxious 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,
_ Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Geschichte_ (viii. 298-592); Busching,
_Erdbeschreibung_ (viii. 700-739); &c.--Heinrich Wuttke, _Friedrichs
des Grossen Besitzergreifung von Schlesien_ (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;
[_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 452; Preuss, _Thronbesteigung,_ 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
_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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, _Beitrage_ (English Translation, called
_Frederick II. and his Times; from British Museum and State-Paper
Office:_--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. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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 _Helden-Geschichte,_ 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 10,000 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: [_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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 _King James's Irish Army-List,_ 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. _Geschichte des
&c._--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 _"Life of Browne,"_ 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, _Beitrage,_ 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,
_Geschichte Friedrichs des Andern_ (Leipzig, 1784-1788), i. 112 n.;
and Anonymous, _Leben der &c. Marie Theresie_ (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. [_Helden-Geschichte,_
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 pouring 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. [_Helden-Geschichte,_
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 ally 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 quanties 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 as
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!" [_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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, _Thronbesteigung,_ p. 451; "from
Olenschlager, _Geschichte des Interegni_ [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
_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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. [_OEuvres de
Frederic,_ 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." [_OEuvres de
Frederic,_ 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, _Thronbesteigung,_ p. 469; _OEuvres de
Frederic,_ 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)!" [_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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.' [_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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 he
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,
[_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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 10 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.
[_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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.
[_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 678; Orlich, _Geschichte der beiden
Schlesischen Kriege,_ 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:--_Straverunt alii nobis, nos Posteritati;
Omnibus at Christus stravit ad asra viam._ Others have made roads for
us; we make them for still others: Christ made a road to the stars for
us all. [Zollner, _Briefe uber Schlesien,_ 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; [_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." [_Helden-Geschichte,_
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." [_OEuvres de
Frederic,_ 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." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ 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, _La Prusse Litteraire_ (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, 11th, 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. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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." [_Helden-Geschichte,_ 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 _Beitrage._ 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 _Barbier_ (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 Anne'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, _Beitrage,_ 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:--

     Denn geschwatzig sind die Zeiten,
     Und sie sind auch wieder stumm."


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;
[_Fastes de Louis XV.,_ 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), _Geschichte Friedrichs des Andern,_ 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 Anne 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 Ivan 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 Friedrich 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,
_Charakteristik des siebenjahrigen Krieges_ (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) _Memoires_ (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, _Aus Vier Jahrhunderten_ (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; _OEuvres
de Frederic,_ 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, _Anekdoten,_
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:"--victory 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, _Reichs-Historie,_ pp. 585-589.]--if indeed
there were any duties, except dramatic ones! But the Reich 

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