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History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 18

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Title: History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 18

Author: Thomas Carlyle


        
Release date: June 16, 2008 [eBook #2118]
                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 18 ***




Produced by D.R. Thompson





HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA

FREDERICK THE GREAT

By Thomas Carlyle




BOOK XVIII.--SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT.--1757-1759.




Chapter I.--THE CAMPAIGN OPENS.

Seldom was there seen such a combination against any man as this against
Friedrich, after his Saxon performances in 1756. The extent of his sin,
which is now ascertained to have been what we saw, was at that time
considered to transcend all computation, and to mark him out for
partition, for suppression and enchainment, as the general enemy of
mankind. "Partition him, cut him down," said the Great Powers to one
another; and are busy, as never before, in raising forces, inciting new
alliances and calling out the general POSSE COMITATUS of mankind, for
that salutary object. What tempestuous fulminations in the Reichstag,
and over all Europe, England alone excepted, against this man!

Latterly the Swedes, who at first had compunctions on the score of
Protestantism, have agreed to join in the Partitioning adventure: "It
brings us his Pommern, all Pommern ours!" cry the Swedish Parliamentary
Eloquences (with French gold in their pocket): "At any rate," whisper
they, "it spites the Queen his Sister!"--and drag the poor Swedish
Nation into a series of disgraces and disastrous platitudes it was
little anticipating. This precious French-Swedish Bargain ("Swedes to
invade with 25,000; France to give fair subsidy," and bribe largely) was
consummated in March; ["21st March, 1757" (Stenzel, v. 38; &c.).] but
did not become known to Friedrich for some months later; nor was it of
the importance he then thought it, in the first moment of surprise and
provocation. Not indeed of importance to anybody, except, in the reverse
way, to poor Sweden itself, and to the French, who had spent a great
deal of pains and money on it, and continued to spend, with as good as
no result at all. For there never was such a War, before or since,
not even by Sweden in the Captainless state! And the one profit the
copartners reaped from it, was some discountenance it gave to the rumor
which had risen, more extensively than we should now think, and even
some nucleus of fact in it as appears, That Austria, France and the
Catholic part of the Reich were combining to put down Protestantism. To
which they could now answer, "See, Protestant Sweden is with us!"--and
so weaken a little what was pretty much Friedrich's last hold on the
public sympathies at this time.

As to France itself,--to France, Austria, Russia,--bound by such
earthly Treaties, and the call of very Heaven, shall they not, in united
puissance and indignation, rise to the rescue? France, touched to the
heart by such treatment of a Saxon Kurfurst, and bound by Treaty of
Westphalia to protect all members of the Reich (which it has sometimes,
to our own knowledge, so carefully done), is almost more ardent than
Austria itself. France, Austria, Russia; to these add Polish Majesty
himself; and latterly the very Swedes, by French bribery at Stockholm:
these are the Partitioning Powers;--and their shares (let us spare one
line for their shares) are as follows.

The Swedes are to have Pommern in whole; Polish-Saxon Majesty gets
Magdeburg, Halle, and opulent slices thereabouts; Austria's share,
we need not say, is that jewel of a Silesia. Czarish Majesty, on the
extreme East, takes Preussen, Konigsberg-Memel Country in whole; adds
Preussen to her as yet too narrow Territories. Wesel-Cleve Country, from
the other or Western extremity, France will take that clipping, and make
much of it. These are quite serious business-engagements, engrossed on
careful parchment, that Spring, 1757, and I suppose not yet boiled down
into glue, but still to be found in dusty corners, with the tape much
faded. The high heads, making preparation on the due scale, think them
not only executable, but indubitable, and almost as good as done. Push
home upon him, as united Posse Comitatus of Mankind; in a sacred cause
of Polish Majesty and Public Justice, how can one malefactor resist?"AH,
MA TRES-CHERE" and "Oh, my dearest Princess and Cousin," what a chance
has turned up!

It is computed that there are arrayed against this one King, under
their respective Kings, Empress-Queens, Swedish Senates, Catins and
Pompadours, populations to the amount of above 100 millions,--in after
stages, I remember to have seen "150 millions" loosely given as the
exaggerated cipher. Of armed soldiers actually in the field against him
(against Hanover and him), in 1757, there are, by strict count, 430,000.
Friedrich's own Dominions at this time contain about Five Millions of
Population; of Revenue somewhat less than Two Millions sterling. New
taxes he cannot legally, and will not, lay on his People. His SCHATZ
(ready-money Treasure, or Hoard yearly accumulating for such end) is, I
doubt not, well filled,--express amount not mentioned. Of drilled men he
has, this Year, 150,000 for the field; portioned out thriftily,--as well
beseems, against Four Invasions coming on him from different points. In
the field, 150,000 soldiers, probably the best that ever were; and
in garrison, up and down (his Country being, by nature, the least
defensible of all Countries), near 40,000, which he reckons of inferior
quality. So stands the account. [Stenzel, iv. 308, 306, v. 39; Ranke,
iii. 415; Preuss, ii, 389, 43, 124; &c. &c.;--substantially true, I
doubt not; but little or nothing of it so definite and conclusively
distinct as it ought, in all items, to have been by this time,--had poor
Dryasdust known what he was doing.] These are, arithmetically precise,
his resources,--PLUS only what may lie in his own head and heart, or
funded in the other heads and hearts, especially in those 150,000,
which he and his Fathers have been diligently disciplining, to good
perfection, for four centuries come the time.

France, urged by Pompadour and the enthusiasms, was first in the field.
The French Army, in superb equipment, though privately in poorish state
of discipline, took the road early in March; "March 26th and 27th,"
it crossed the German Border, Cleve Country and Koln Country; had been
rumored of since January and February last, as terrifically grand;
and here it now actually is, above 100,000 strong,--110,405, as
the Army-Lists, flaming through all the Newspapers, teach mankind.
[_Helden-Geschichte,_ iv. 391; iii. 1073.] Bent mainly upon Prussia,
it would seem; such the will of Pompadour. Mainly upon Prussia; Marechal
d'Estrees, crossing at Koln, made offers even to his Britannic Majesty
to be forgiven in comparison; "Yield us a road through your Hanover,
merely a road to those Halberstadt-Magdeburg parts, your Hanover shall
have neutrality!" "Neutrality to Hanover?" sighed Britannic Majesty:
"Alas, am not I pledged by Treaty? And, alas, withal, how is it
possible, with that America hanging over us?" and stood true. Nor is
this all, on the part of magnanimous France: there is a Soubise getting
under way withal, Soubise and 30,000, who will reinforce the Reich's
Armament, were it on foot, and be heard of by and by! So high runs
French enthusiasm at present. A new sting of provocation to Most
Christian Majesty, it seems, has been Friedrich's conduct in that
Damiens matter (miserable attempt, by a poor mad creature, to
assassinate; or at least draw blood upon the Most Christian Majesty
["Evening of 5th January, 1757" (exuberantly plentiful details of it,
and of the horrible Law-procedures which followed on it: In Adelung,
viii. 197-220; Barbier, &c. &c.).]); about which Friedrich, busy
and oblivious, had never, in common politeness, been at the pains to
condole, compliment, or take any notice whatever. And will now take the
consequences, as due!--

The Wesel-Cleve Countries these French find abandoned: Friedrich's
garrisons have had orders to bring off the artillery and stores, blow up
what of the works are suitable for blowing up; and join the "Britannic
Army of Observation" which is getting itself together in those regions.
Considerable Army, Britannic wholly in the money part: new Hanoverians
so many, Brunswickers, Buckeburgers, Sachsen-Gothaers so many; add those
precious Hanoverian-Hessian 20,000, whom we have had in England guarding
our liberties so long,--who are now shipped over in a lot; fair wind
and full sea to them. Army of 60,000 on paper; of effective more than
50,000; Head-quarters now at Bielefeld on the Weser;--where, "April
16th," or a few days later, Royal Highness of Cumberland comes to take
command; likely to make a fine figure against Marechal d'Estrees and his
100,000 French! But there was no helping it. Friedrich, through Winter,
has had Schmettau earnestly flagitating the Hanoverian Officialities:
"The Weser is wadable in many places, you cannot defend the Weser!"
and counselling and pleading to all lengths,--without the least effect.
"Wants to save his own Halberstadt lands, at our expense!" Which was the
idea in London, too: "Don't we, by Apocalyptic Newswriters and eyesight
of our own, understand the man?" Pitt is by this time in Office,
who perhaps might have judged a little otherwise. But Pitt's seat is
altogether temporary, insecure; the ruling deities Newcastle and
Royal Highness, who withal are in standing quarrel. So that Friedrich,
Schmettau, Mitchell pleaded to the deaf. Nothing but "Defend the Weser,"
and ignorant Fatuity ready for the Impossible, is to be made out there.
"Cannot help it, then," thinks Friedrich, often enough, in bad moments;
"Army of Observation will have its fate. Happily there are only 5,000
Prussians in it, Wesel and the other garrisons given up!"

Only 5,000 Prussians: by original Engagement, there should have
been 25,000; and Friedrich's intention is even 45,000 if he prosper
otherwise. For in January, 1757 (Anniversary, or nearly so, of that
NEUTRALITY CONVENTION last year), there had been--encouraged by Pitt,
as I could surmise, who always likes Friedrich--a definite, much closer
TREATY OF ALLIANCE, with "Subsidy of a million sterling," Anti-Russian
"Squadron of Observation in the Baltic," "25,000 Prussians," and other
items, which I forget. Forget the more readily, as, owing to the strange
state of England (near suffocating in its Constitutional bedclothes),
the Treaty could not be kept at all, or serve as rule to poor England's
exertions for Friedrich this Year; exertions which were of the
willing-minded but futile kind, going forward pell-mell, not by plan,
and could reach Friedrich only in the lump,--had there been any "lump"
of them to sum together. But Pitt had gone out;--we shall see what, in
Pitt's absence, there was! So that this Treaty 1757 fell quite into
the waste-basket (not to say, far deeper, by way of "pavement" we know
where!),--and is not mentioned in any English Book; nor was known to
exist, till some Collector of such things printed it, in comparatively
recent times. ["M. Koch in 1802," not very perfectly (Scholl, iii. 30
n.; who copies what Koch has given).] A Treaty 1757, which, except
as emblem of the then quasi-enchanted condition of England, and as
Foreshadow of Pitt's new Treaty in January, 1758, and of three others
that followed and were kept to the letter, is not of moment farther.




REICH'S THUNDER, SLIGHT SURVEY OF IT; WITH QUESTION, WHITHERWARD, IF
ANY-WHITHER.

The thunderous fulminations in the Reich's-Diet--an injured Saxony
complaining, an insulted Kaiser, after vain DEHORTATORIUMS, reporting
and denouncing "Horrors such as these: What say you, O Reich?"--have
been going on since September last; and amount to boundless masses
of the liveliest Parliamentary Eloquence, now fallen extinct to all
creatures. [Given, to great lengths, in _Helden-Geschichte,_ iii. iv.
(and other easily avoidable Books).] The Kaiser, otherwise a solid
pacific gentleman, intent on commercial operations (furnishes a good
deal of our meal, says Friedrich), is Officially extremely violent in
behalf of injured Saxony,--that is to say, in fact, of injured Austria,
which is one's own. Kur-Mainz, Chairman of the Diet (we remember how he
was got, and a Battle of Dettingen fought in consequence, long since);
Kur-Mainz is admitted to have the most decided Austrian leanings:
Britannic George, Austria being now in the opposite scale, finds him
an unhandy Kur-Mainz, and what profit it was to introduce false weights
into the Reich's balance that time! Not for long generations before, had
the poor old semi-imaginary Reich's-Diet risen into such paroxysms; nor
did it ever again after. Never again, in its terrestrial History, was
there such agonistic parliamentary struggle, and terrific noise of
parliamentary palaver, witnessed in the poor Reich's-Diet. Noise and
struggle rising ever higher, peal after peal, from September, 1756, when
it started, till August, 1757, when it had reached its acme (as perhaps
we shall see), though it was far from ending then, or for years to come.

Contemporary by-standers remark, on the Austrian part, extraordinary
rage and hatred against Prussia; which is now the one point memorable.
Austria is used to speak loud in the Diet, as we have ourselves seen:
and it is again (if you dive into those old AEolus'-Caves, at your
peril) unpleasantly notable to what pitch of fixed rage, and hot sullen
hatred Austria has now gone; and how the tone has in it a potency of
world-wide squealing and droning, such as you nowhere heard before.
Omnipotence of droning, edged with shrieky squealing, which fills the
Universe, not at all in a melodious way. From the depths of the gamut
to the shrieky top again,--a droning that has something of porcine or
wild-boar character. Figure assembled the wild boars of the world, all
or mostly all got together, and each with a knife just stuck into its
side, by a felonious individual too well known,--you will have some
notion of the sound of these things. Friedrich sometimes remonstrates:
"Cannot you spare such phraseology, unseemly to Kings? The quarrels of
Kings have to be decided by the sword; what profit in unseemly language,
Madam?"--but, for the first year and more, there was no abatement on the
Austrian part.

Friedrich's own Delegate at Regensburg, a Baron von Plotho, come of
old Brandenburg kindred, is a resolute, ready-tongued, very undaunted
gentleman; learned in Diplomacies and Reich's Law; carries his head
high, and always has his story at hand. Argument, grounded on Reich's
Law and the nature of the case, Plotho never lacks, on spur of the hour:
and is indeed a very commendable parliamentary mastiff; and honorable
and melodious in the bark of him, compared with those infuriated
porcine specimens. He has Kur-Hanover for ally on common occasions, and
generally from most Protestant members individually, or from the CORPUS
EVANGELICORUM in mass, some feeble whimper of support. Finds difficulty
in getting his Reich's Pleadings printed;--dangerous, everywhere in
those Southern Parts, to print anything whatever that is not Austrian:
so that Plotho, at length, gets printers to himself, and sets up a
Printing-Press in his own house at Regensburg. He did a great deal of
sonorous pleading for Friedrich; proud, deep-voiced, ruggedly logical;
fairly beyond the Austrian quality in many cases,--and always far
briefer, which is another high merit. October coming, we purpose to
look in upon Plotho for one minute; "October 14th, 1757;" which may
be reckoned essentially the acme or turning-point of these unpleasant
thunderings. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ iv. 745-749.]

What good he did to Friedrich, or could have done with the tongue of
angels in such an audience, we do not accurately know. Some good he
would do even in the Reich's-Diet there; and out of doors, over a German
public, still more; and is worth his frugal wages,--say 1,000 pounds a
year, printing and all other expense included! This is a mere guess of
mine, Dryasdust having been incurious: but, to English readers it is
incredible for what sums Friedrich got his work done, no work ever
better. Which is itself an appreciable advantage, computable in pounds
sterling; and is the parent of innumerable others which no Arithmetic
or Book-keeping by Double Entry will take hold of, and which are indeed
priceless for Nations and for persons. But this poor old bedridden
Reich, starting in agonistic spasm at such rate: is it not touching, in
a Corpus moribund for so many Centuries past! The Reich is something;
though it is not much, nothing like so much as even Kaiser Franz
supposes it. Much or not so much, Kaiser Franz wishes to secure it for
himself; Friedrich to hinder him,--and it must be a poor something, if
not worth Plotho's wages on Friedrich's part.

It would insult the patience of every reader to go into these spasmodic
tossings of the poor paralytic Reich; or to mention the least item of
them beyond what had some result, or fraction of result, on the world's
real affairs. We shall say only, therefore, that after tempests not a
few of porcine squealing, answered always by counter-latration on the
vigilant Plotho's part;--squealing, chiefly, from the Reich's-Hofrath
at Vienna, the Head Tribunal of Imperial Majesty, which sits judging and
denouncing there, touched to the soul, as if by a knife driven into
its side, by those unheard-of treatments of Saxony and disregard to
our DEHORTATORIUMS, and which bursts out, peal after peal, filling the
Universe, Plotho not unvigilant;--the poor old Reich's-Diet did at
last get into an acting posture, and determine, by clear majority of 99
against 60, that there should be a "Reich's Execution Army" got on foot.
Reich's Execution Army to coerce, by force of arms, this nefarious King
of Prussia into making instant restitution to Saxony, with ample damages
on the nail; that right be done to Kurfursts of this Reich. To such
height of vigor has the Reich's-Diet gone;--and was voting it at
Regensburg January 10th, 1757; [_Helden-Geschichte,_ iv. 252, 302,
330; Stenzel, v. 32.] that very day when nefarious Friedrich at Berlin,
case-hardened in iniquity to such a pitch, sat writing his INSTRUCTION
TO COUNT FINCK, which we read not long since. Simultaneous movements,
unknown to one another, in this big wrestle.

Reich's-Diet perfected its Vote; had it quite through, and sanctioned
by the Kaiser's Majesty, January 29th: "Arming to be a TRIPLUM" (triple
contingent required of you this time); with Romish-months (ROMERMONATE)
of cash contributions from all and sundry (rigorously gathered, I should
hope, where Austria has power), so many as will cover the expense. Army
to be got on actual foot hastily, instantly if possible: an "EILENDE
REICHS-EXECUTIONS ARMEE;" so it ran, but the word EILENDE (speedy) had
a mischance in printing, and was struck off into ELENDE (contemptibly
wretched): so that on all Market-Squares and Public Places of poor
Teutschland, you read flaming Placards summoning out, not a speedy or
immediate, but "a MISERABLE Reich's Execution Army!" A word which, we
need not say, was laughed at by the unfeeling part of the public; and
was often called to mind by the Reich's Execution Army's performances,
when said SPEEDY Army did at last take the field.

For the Reich performed its Vote; actually had a Reich's Execution Army;
the last it ever had in this world, not by any means the worst it ever
had, for they used generally to be bad. Commanders, managers are named,
Romermonate are gathered in, or the sure prospect of them; and,
through May-June, 1757, there is busy stir, of drumming, preparing and
enlisting, all over the Reich. End of July, we shall see the Reich's
Army in Camp; end of August, actually in the field; and later on, a
touch of its fighting withal. Many other things the Reich tried against
unfortunate Friedrich,--gradual advance, in fact, to Ban of the Reich
(or total anathema and cutting-off from fire and water): but in none of
these, in Ban as little as any, did it come to practical result at all,
or acquire the least title to be remembered at this day. Finis of Ban,
some eight months hence, has something of attractive as futility,
the curious Death of a Futility. Finis of Ban (October 14th, already
indicated) we may for one moment look in upon, if there be one moment
to spare; the rest--readers may fancy it; and read only of the actuality
and fighting part, which will itself be enough for them on such a
matter.




FRIEDRICH SUDDENLY MARCHES ON PRAG.

Four Invasions, from their respective points of the compass, northeast,
northwest, southeast and southwest: here is a formidable outlook for
the one man against whom they are all advancing open-mouthed. The one
man--with nothing but a Duke of Cumberland and his Observation Army for
backing in such duel--had need to look to himself! Which, we well know,
he does; wrapt in profoundly silent vigilance, with his plans all laid.
Of the Four Invasions, three, the Russian, French, Austrian, are
very large; and the two latter, especially the last, are abundantly
formidable. The Swedish, of which there is rumoring, he hopes may come
to little, or not come at all. Nor is Russia, though talking big, and
actually getting ready above 100,000 men, so immediately alarming.
Friedrich always hopes the English, with their guineas and their
managements, will do something for him in that quarter; and he knows,
at worst, that the Russian Hundred Thousand will be a very slow-moving
entity. The Swedish Invasion Friedrich, for the present, leaves to
chance: and against Russia, he has sent old Marshal Lehwald into those
Baltic parts; far eastward, towards the utmost Memel Frontier, to put
the Country upon its own defence, and make what he can of it with 30,000
men,--West-Prussian militias a good few of them. This is all he can
spare on the Swedish-Russian side: Austria and France are the perilous
pair of entities; not to be managed except by intense concentration of
stroke; and by going on them in succession, if one have luck!--

Friedrich's motions and procedures in canton-quarters, through Winter
and in late months, have led to the belief that he means to stand on the
defensive; that the scene of the Campaign will probably be Saxony;
and that Austria, for recovering injured Saxony, for recovering dear
Silesia, will have to take an invasive attitude. And Austria is busy
everywhere preparing with that view. Has Tolpatcheries, and advanced
Brigades, still harassing about in the Lausitz. A great Army assembling
at Prag,--Browne forward towards the Metal Mountains securing posts,
gathering magazines, for the crossing into Saxony there. There, it is
thought, the tug of war will probably be. Furious, and strenuous, it is
not doubted, on this Friedrich's part: but against such odds, what can
he do? With Austrians in front, with Russians to left, with French to
right and arear, not to mention Swedes and appendages: surely here, if
ever, is a lost King!--

It is by no means Friedrich's intention that Saxony itself shall need to
be invaded. Friedrich's habit is, as his enemies might by this time be
beginning to learn, not that of standing on the defensive, but that of
GOING on it, as the preferable method wherever possible. March 24th,
Friedrich had quitted Dresden City; and for a month after (head-quarters
Lockwitz, edge of the Pirna Country), he had been shifting,
redistributing, his cantoned Army,--privately into the due Divisions,
due readiness for march. Which done, on fixed days, about the end of
April, the whole Army, he himself from Lockwitz, April 20th,--to the
surprise of Austria and the world, Friedrich in three grand Columns,
Bevern out of the Lausitz, King himself over the Metal Mountains,
Schwerin out of Schlesien, is marching with extraordinary rapidity
direct for Prag; in the notion that a right plunge into the heart of
Bohemia will be the best defence for Saxony and the other places under
menace.

This is a most unexpected movement; which greatly astonishes the
world-theatre, pit, boxes and gallery alike (as Friedrich's sudden
movements often do); and which is, above all, interesting on the stage
itself, where the actors had been counting on a quite opposite set of
entries and activities! Feldmarschall Browne and General Konigseck (not
our old friend Konigseck, who used to dry-nurse in the Netherlands, but
his nephew and heir) may cease gathering Magazines, in those Lausitz
and Metal-Mountain parts: happy could they give wings to those already
gathered! Magazines, for Austrian service, are clearly not the things
wanted there. One does not burn one's Magazines till the last extremity;
but wings they have none; and such is the enigmatic velocity of those
Prussian movements, one seldom has time even to burn them, in the last
crisis of catastrophe! Considerable portions of that provender fell into
the Prussian throat; as much as "three months' provision for the
whole Army," count they,--adding to those Frontier sundries the really
important Magazine which they seized at Jung-Bunzlau farther in.
[_Helden-Geschichte_, iv. 6-13; &c.] It is one among their many greater
advantages from this surprisal of the enemy, and sudden topsy-turvying
of his plans. Browne and Konigseck have to retire on Prag at their
swiftest; looking to more important results than Magazines.

It is Friedrich's old plan. Long since, in 1744, we saw a march of this
kind, Three Columns rushing with simultaneous rapidity on Prag; and need
not repeat the particulars on this occasion. Here are some Notes on the
subject, which will sufficiently bring it home to readers:--

"The Three Columns were, for a part of the way, Four; the King's being,
at first, in two branches, till they united again, on the other side
of the Hills. For the King," what is to be noted, "had shot out, three
weeks before, a small preliminary branch, under Moritz of Dessau; who
marched, well westward, by Eger (starting from Chemnitz in Saxony); and
had some tussling with our poor old friend Duke d'Ahremberg, Browne's
subordinate in those parts. D'Ahremberg, having 20,000 under him, would
not quit Eger for Moritz; but pushed out Croats upon him, and sat still.
This, it was afterwards surmised, had been a feint on Friedrich's part;
to give the Austrians pleasant thoughts: 'Invading us, is he? Would fain
invade us, but cannot!' Moritz fell back from Eger; and was ready to
join the King's march, (at Linay, April 23d' (third day from Lockwitz,
on the King's part). Onwards from which point the Columns are
specifically Three; in strength, and on routes, somewhat as follows:--

1. "The FIRST Column, or King's,--which is 60,000 after this junction,
45,000 foot, 15,000 horse,--quitted Lockwitz (head-quarter for a month
past), WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20TH. They go by the Pascopol and other roads;
through Pirna, for one place: through Karbitz, Aussig, are at Linay on
the 23d; where Moritz joins: 24th, in the united state, forward again
(leave Lobositz two miles to left); to Trebnitz, 25th, and rest there
one day.

"At Aussig an unfortunate thing befell. Zastrow, respectable old General
Zastrow, was to drive the Austrians out of Aussig: Zastrow does it,
April 22d-23d, drives them well over the heights; April 25th, however,
marching forward towards Lobositz, Zastrow is shot through both temples
(Pandour hid among the bushes and cliffs, OTHER side of Elbe), and falls
dead on the spot. Buried in GOTTLEUBE Kirk, 1st May."

In these Aussig affairs, especially in recapturing the Castle of
Tetschen near by, Colonel Mayer, father of the new "Free-Corps," did
shining service;--and was approved of, he and they. And, a day or
two after, was detached with a Fifteen Hundred of that kind, on more
important business: First, to pick up one or two Bohemian Magazines
lying handy; after which, to pay a visit to the Reich and its bluster
about Execution-Army, and teach certain persons who it is they are
thundering against in that awkwardly truculent manner! Errand shiningly
done by Mayer, as perhaps we may hear,--and certainly as all the
Newspapers loudly heard,--in the course of the next two months.

At crossing of the Eger, Friedrich's Column had some chasing of poor
D'Ahremberg; attempting to cut him off from his Bridges, Bridge of
Koschlitz, Bridge of Budin; but he made good despatch, Browne and he;
and, except a few prisoners of Ziethen's gathering, and most of his
Magazines unburnt, they did him no damage. The chase was close enough;
more than once, the Austrian head-quarter of to-night was that of the
Prussians to-morrow. Monday, May 2d, Friedrich's Column was on the
Weissenberg of Prag; Browne, D'Ahremberg, and Prince Karl, who is now
come up to take command, having hastily filed through the City, leaving
a fit garrison, the day before. Except his Magazines, nothing the least
essential went wrong with Browne; but Konigseck, who had not a Friedrich
on his heels,--Konigseck, trying more, as his opportunities were
more,--was not quite so lucky.

2. "Column SECOND, to the King's left, comes from the Lausitz under
Brunswick-Bevern,--18,000 foot, 5,000 horse. This is the Bevern who so
distinguished himself at Lobositz last year; and he is now to culminate
into a still brighter exploit,--the last of his very bright ones, as it
proved. Bevern set out from about Zittau (from Grottau, few miles south
of Zittau), the same day with Friedrich, that is April 20th;--and had
not well started till he came upon formidable obstacles. Came upon
General Konigseck, namely: a Konigseck manoeuvring ahead, in superior
force; a Maguire, Irish subordinate of Konigseck's, coming from the
right to cut off our baggage (against whom Bevern has to detach); a
Lacy, coming from the left;--or indeed, Konigseck and Lacy in concert,
intending to offer battle. Battle of Reichenberg, which accordingly
ensued, April 21st,"--of which, though it was very famous for so small a
Battle, there can be no account given here.

The short truth is, Konigseck falling back, Parthian-like, with a force
of 30,000 or more, has in front of him nothing but Bevern; who, as he
issues from the Lausitz, and till he can unite with Schwerin farther
southward, is but some 20,000 odd: cannot Konigseck call halt, and
bid Bevern return, or do worse? Konigseck, a diligent enough soldier,
determines to try; chooses an excellent position,--at or round
Reichenberg, which is the first Bohemian Town, one march from Zittau in
the Lausitz, and then one from Liebenau, which latter would be Bevern's
SECOND Bohemian stage on the Prag road, if he continued prosperous.
Reichenberg, standing nestled among hills in the Neisse Valley (one
of those Four Neisses known to us, the Neisse where Prince Karl got
exploded, in that signal manner, Winter, 1745, by a certain King),
offers fine capabilities; which Konigseck has laid hold of. There is
especially one excellent Hollow (on the left or western bank of Neisse
River, that is, ACROSS from Reichenberg), backed by woody hills, nothing
but hills, brooks, woods all round; Hollow scooped out as if for the
purpose; and altogether of inviting character to Konigseck. There,
"Wednesday, April 20th," Konigseck posts himself, plants batteries,
fells abatis; plenty of cannon, of horse and foot, and, say all
soldiers, one of the best positions possible.

So that Bevern, approaching Reichenberg at evening, evening of his
first march, Wednesday, April 20th, finds his way barred; and that the
difficulties may be considerable. "Nothing to be made of it to-night,"
thinks Bevern; "but we must try to-morrow!" and has to take camp,
"with a marshy brook in front of him," some way on the hither side of
Reichenberg; and study overnight what method of unbarring there may be.
Thursday morning early, Bevern, having well reconnoitred and studied,
was at work unbarring. Bevern crossed his own marshy brook; courageously
assaulted Konigseck's position, left wing of Konigseck; stormed the
abatis, the batteries, plunged in upon Konigseck, man to man, horse to
horse, and after some fierce enough but brief dispute, tumbled Konigseck
out of the ground. Konigseck made some attempt to rally; attempted
twice, but in vain; had fairly to roll away, and at length to run,
leaving 1,000 dead upon the field, about 500 prisoners; one or two guns,
and I forget how many standards, or whether any kettle-drums. This
was thought to be a decidedly bright feat on Bevern's part
(rather mismanaged latterly on Konigseck's); [Tempelhof, i. 100;
_Helden-Geschichte,_ iii. 1077 (Friedrich's own Account, "Linay in
Bohmen, 24th April, 1757"); &c. &c. There is, in Busching's _Magazin_
(xvi. 139 et seq.), an intelligible sketch of this Action of
Reichenherg, with satirical criticisms, which have some basis, on Lacy,
Maguire and others, by an Anonymous Military Cynic,--who gives many
such in BUSCHING (that of Fontenoy, for example), not without force of
judgment, and signs of wide study and experience in his trade.]--much
approved by Friedrich, as he hears of it, at Linay, on his own
prosperous march Prag-ward. A comfortable omen, were there nothing more.

Konigseck and Company, torn out of Reichenberg, and set running, could
not fairly halt again and face about till at Liebenau, twenty miles off,
where they found some defile or difficult bit of ground fit for them;
and this too proved capable of yielding pause for a few hours only. For
Schwerin, with his Silesian Column, was coming up from the northeast,
threatening Konigseck on flank and rear: Konigseck could only tighten
his straps a little at this Liebenau, and again get under way; and
making vain attempts to hinder the junction of Schwerin and Bevern, to
defend the Jung-Bunzlau Magazine, or do any good in those parts, except
to detain the Schwerin-Bevern people certain hours (I think, one day in
all), had nothing for it but to gird himself together, and retreat on
Prag and the Ziscaberg, where his friends now were.

The Austrian force at Reichenberg was 20,000; would have been 30 and
odd thousands, had Maguire come up (as he might have done, had not the
appearances alarmed him too much); Bevern, minus the Detachment sent
against Maguire, was but 15,000 in fight; and he has quite burst the
Austrians away, who had plugged his road for him in such force: is it
not a comfortable little victory, glorious in its sort; and a good omen
for the bigger things that are coming? Bevern marched composedly on,
after this inspiriting tussle, through Liebenau and what defiles
there were; April 24th, at Turnau, he falls into the Schwerin Column;
incorporates himself therewith, and, as subordinate constituent part,
accompanies Schwerin thenceforth.

3. "Column THIRD was Schwerin's, out of Schlesien; counted to be 32,000
foot, 12,000 horse. Schwerin, gathering himself, from Glatz and the
northerly country, at Landshut,--very careless, he, of the pleasant
Hills, and fine scattered peaks of the Giant Mountains thereabouts,--was
completely gathered foremost of all the Columns, having farthest to go.
And on Monday, 18th April, started from Landshut, Winterfeld leading one
division. In our days, it is the finest of roads; high level Pass, of
good width, across the Giant Range; pleasant painted hamlets sprinkling
it, fine mountain ridges and distant peaks looking on; Schneekoppe
(SNOWfell, its head bright-white till July come) attends you, far to
the right, all the way:--probably Sprite Rubezahl inhabits there; and no
doubt River Elbe begins his long journey there, trickling down in little
threads over yonder, intending to float navies by and by: considerations
infinitely indifferent to Schwerin. 'The road,' says my Tourist, (is not
Alpine; it reminds you of Derbyshire-Peak country; more like the road
from Castletown to Sheffield than any I could name;'--we have been in
it before, my reader and I, about Schatzlar and other places. Trautenau,
well down the Hills, with swift streams, more like torrents, bound
Elbe-wards, watering it, is a considerable Austrian Town, and the
Bohemian end of the Pass,--Sohr only a few miles from it: heartily
indifferent to Schwerin at this moment; who was home from the Army, in
a kind of disfavor, or mutual pet, at the time Sohr was done. Schwerin's
March we shall not give; his junction with Bevern (at Turnau, on the
Iser, April 24th), then their capture of Jung-Bunzlau Magazine, and
crossing of the Elbe at Melnick, these were the important points; and,
in spite of Konigseck's tusslings, these all went well, and nothing was
lost except one day of time."

The Austrians, some days ago, as we observed, filed THROUGH
Prag,--Sunday, May 1st, not a pleasant holiday-spectacle to the
populations;--and are all encamped on the Ziscaberg high ground, on the
other side of the City. Had they been alert, now was the time to attack
Friedrich, who is weaker than they, while nobody has yet joined him.
They did not think of it, under Prince Karl; and Browne and the Prince
are said to be in bad agreement.




Chapter II.--BATTLE OF PRAG.

Monday morning, 2d May, 1757, the Vanguard, or advanced troops of
Friedrich's Column, had appeared upon the Weissenberg, northwest corner
of Prag (ground known to them in 1744, and to the poor Winter-King in
1620): Vanguard in the morning; followed shortly by Friedrich himself;
and, hour after hour, by all the others, marching in. So that, before
sunset, the whole force lay posted there; and had the romantic City
of Prag full in view at their feet. A most romantic, high-piled,
many-towered, most unlevel old City; its skylights and gilt
steeple-cocks glittering in the western sun,--Austrian Camp very visible
close beyond it, spread out miles in extent on the Ziscaberg Heights, or
eastern side;--Prag, no doubt, and the Austrian Garrison of Prag, taking
intense survey of this Prussian phenomenon, with commentaries, with
emotions, hidden now in eternal silence, as is fit enough. One thing we
know, "Head-quarter was in Welleslawin:" there, in that small Hamlet,
nearly to north, lodged Friedrich, the then busiest man of Europe; whom
Posterity is still striving for a view of, as something memorable.

Prince Karl, our old friend, is now in chief command yonder; Browne also
is there, who was in chief command; their scheme of Campaign gone all
awry. And to Friedrich, last night, at his quarters "in the Monastery of
Tuchomirsitz," where these two Gentlemen had lodged the night before,
it was reported that they had been heard in violent altercation;
[_Helden-Geschichte, _ iv. 11 (exact "Diary of the march" given
there).]--both of them, naturally, in ill-humor at the surprising turn
things had taken; and Feldmarschall Browne firing up, belike, at
some platitude past or coming, at some advice of his rejected, some
imputation cast on him, or we know not what. Prince Karl is now chief;
and indignant Browne, as may well be the case, dissents a good deal,--as
he has often had to do. Patience, my friend, it is near ending now!
Prince Karl means to lie quiet on the Ziscaberg, and hold Prag; does not
think of molesting Friedrich in his solitary state; and will undertake
nothing, "till Konigseck, from Jung-Bunzlau, come in," victorious or
not; or till perhaps even Daun arrive (who is, rather slowly, gathering
reinforcement in Maren): "What can the enemy attempt on us, in a Post of
this strength?" thinks Prince Karl. And Browne, whatever his insight or
convictions be, has to keep silence.

"Weissenberg," let readers be reminded, "is on the hither or western
side of Prag: the Hradschin [pronounce RadSHEEN, with accent on the last
syllable, as in "SchwerIN" and other such cases], the Hradschin, which
is the topmost summit of the City and of the Fashionable Quarter,--old
Bohemian Palace, still occasionally habitable as such, and in constant
use as a DOWNING STREET,--lies on the slope or shoulder of the
Weissenberg, a good way from the top; and has a web of streets rushing
down from it, steepest streets in the world; till they reach the Bridge,
and broad-flowing Moldau (broad as Thames at half-flood, but nothing
like so deep); after which the streets become level, and spread out in
intricate plenty to right and to left, and ahead eastward, across the
River, till the Ziscaberg, with frowning precipitous brow, suddenly
puts a stop to them in that particular direction. From Ziscaberg top to
Weissenberg top may be about five English miles; from the Hradschin
to the foot of Ziscaberg, northwest to southeast, will be half that
distance, the greatest length of Prag City. Which is rather rhomboidal
in shape, its longer diagonal this that we mention. The shorter
diagonal, from northmost base of Ziscaberg to southmost of Hradschin, is
perhaps a couple of miles. Prag stands nestled in the lap of mountains;
and is not in itself a strong place in war: but the country round
it, Moldau ploughing his rugged chasm of a passage through the piled
table-land, is difficult to manoeuvre in.

"Moldau Valley comes straight from the south, crosses Prag; and--making,
on its outgate at the northern end of Prag (end of 'shortest diagonal'
just spoken of), one big loop, or bend and counter-bend, of horse-shoe
shape," which will be notable to us anon--"again proceeds straight
northward and Elbe-ward. It is narrow everywhere, especially when once
got fairly north of Prag; and runs along like a Quasi-Highland Strath,
amid rocks and hills. Big Hill-ranges, not to be called barren, yet with
rock enough on each hand, and fine side valleys opening here and there:
the bottom of your Strath, which is green and fertile, with pleasant
busy Villages (much intent on water-power and cotton-spinning in our
time), is generally of few furlongs in breadth. And so it lasts, this
pleasant Moldau Valley, mile after mile, on the northern or Lower
Moldau, generally straight north, though with one big bend eastward just
before ending; and not till near Melnick, or the mouth of Moldau, do
we emerge on that grand Elbe Valley,--glanced at once already, from
Pascopol or other Height, in the Lobositz times."

Friedrich's first problem is the junction with Schwerin: junction not
to be accomplished south of Ziscaberg in the present circumstances; and
which Friedrich knows to be a ticklish operation, with those Austrians
looking on from the high grounds there. Tuesday, 3d May, in the way
of reconnoitring, and decisively on Wednesday, 4th, Friedrich is off
northward, along the western heights of Lower Moldau, proper force
following him, to seek a fit place for the pontoons, and get across in
that northern quarter. "How dangerous that Schwerin is a day too late!"
murmurs he; but hopes the Austrians will undertake nothing. Keith,
with 30,000, he has left on the Weissenberg, to straiten Prag and the
Austrian Garrison on that side: our wagon-trains arrive from Leitmeritz
on that side, Elbe-boats bring them up to Leitmeritz; very indispensable
to guard that side of Prag. Friedrich's fixed purpose also is to beat
the Austrians, on the other side of it, and send them packing; but for
that, there are steps needful!

Up so far as Lissoley, the first day, Friedrich has found no fit place;
but on the morrow, Thursday, 5th, farther up, at a place called Seltz,
Friedrich finds his side of the Strath to be "a little higher than the
other,"--proper, therefore, for cannonading the other, if need be;--and
orders his pontoons to be built together there. He knows accurately of
the Schwerin Column, of the comfortable Bevern Victory at Reichenberg,
and how they have got the Jung-Bunzlau Magazine, and are across the
Elbe, their bridges all secured, though with delay of one day; and do
now wait only for the word,--for the three cannon-shot, in fact, which
are to signify that Friedrich is actually crossing to their side of
Lower Moldau.

Friedrich's Bridge is speedily built (trained human hands can be no
speedier), his batteries planted, his precautions taken: the three
cannon-shot go off, audible to Schwerin; and Friedrich's troops stream
speedily across, hardly a Pandour to meddle with them. Nay, before the
passage was complete--what light-horse squadrons are these? Hussars,
seen to be Seidlitz's (missioned by Schwerin), appear on the outskirts:
a meeting worthy of three cheers, surely, after such a march on both
sides! Friedrich lies on the eastern Hill-tops that night (Hamlet of
Czimitz his Head-quarter, discoverable if you wish it, scarcely three
miles north of Prag); and accurate appointment is made with Schwerin
as to the meeting-place to-morrow morning. Meeting-place is to be the
environs of Prossik Village, southeastward over yonder, short way north
of the Prag-Konigsgratz Highway; and rather nearer Prag than we now
are, in Czimitz here: time at Prossik to be 6 A.M. by the clock; and
Winterfeld and Schwerin to come in person and speak with his Majesty.
This is the program for Friday, May 6th, which proves to be so memorable
a day.

Schwerin is on foot by the stroke of midnight; comes along, "over the
heights of Chaber," by half a dozen, or I know not how many roads;
visible in due time to Friedrich's people, who are likewise punctually
on the advance: in a word, the junction is accomplished with all
correctness. And, while the Columns are marching up, Schwerin and
Winterfeld ride about in personal conference with his Majesty; taking
survey, through spy-glasses, of those Austrians encamped yonder on the
broad back of their Zisca Hill, a couple of miles to southward. "What a
set of Austrians," exclaim military critics, "to permit such junction,
without effort to devour the one half or the other, in good time!"
Friedrich himself, it is probable, might partly be of the same opinion;
but he knew his Austrians, and had made bold to venture. Friedrich, we
can observe, always got to know his man, after fighting him a month or
two; and took liberties with him, or did not take, accordingly. And,
for most part,--not quite always, as one signal exception will Show,--he
does it with perfect accuracy; and often with vital profit to his
measures. "If the Austrian cooking-tents are a-smoke before eight in the
morning," notes he, "you may calculate, in such case, the Austrians will
march that day." [MILITARY INSTRUCTIONS.] With a surprising vividness of
eye and mind (beautiful to rival, if one could), he watches the signs of
the times, of the hours and the days and the places; and prophesies from
them; reads men and their procedures, as if they were mere handwriting,
not too cramp for him.--The Austrians have, by this time, got their
Konigseck home, very unvictorious, but still on foot, all but a thousand
or two: they are already stronger than the Prussians by count of
heads; and till even Daun come up, what hurry in a Post like this? The
Austrians are viewing Friedrich, too, this morning; but in the blankest
manner: their outposts fire a cannon-shot or two on his group of
adjutants and him, without effect; and the Head people send their
cavalry out to forage, so little prophecy have they from signs seen.

Zisca Hill, where the Austrians now are, rises sheer up, of well-nigh
precipitous steepness, though there are trees and grass on it, from
the eastern side of Prag, say five or six hundred feet. A steep,
picturesque, massive green Hill; Moldau River, turning suddenly to
right, strikes the northwest corner of it (has flowed well to west of
it, till then), and winds eastward round its northern base. As will
be noticed presently. The ascent of Ziscaberg, by roads, is steep and
tedious: but once at the top, you find that it is precipitous on two
sides only, the City or westward side, and the Moldau or northward.
Atop it spreads out, far and wide, into a waving upland level; bare
of hedges; ploughable all of it, studded with littery hamlets and
farmsteadings; far and wide, a kind of Plain, sloping with extreme
gentleness, five or six miles to eastward, and as far to southward,
before the level perceptibly rise again.

Another feature of the Ziscaberg, already hinted at, is very notable:
that of the Moldau skirting its northern base, and scarping the Hill,
on that side too, into a precipitous, or very steep condition. Moldau
having arrived from southward, fairly past the end of Ziscaberg, had,
so to speak, made up his mind to go right eastward, quarrying his way
through the lower uplands there, And he proceeds accordingly, hugging
the northern base of Ziscaberg, and making it steep enough; but finds,
in the course of a mile or so, that he can no more; upland being still
rock-built, not underminable farther; and so is obliged to wind round
again, to northward, and finally straight westward, the way he came,
or parallel to the way he came; and has effected that great Horse-shoe
Hollow we heard of lately. An extremely pretty Hollow, and curious to
look upon; pretty villas, gardens, and a "Belvedere Park," laid out in
the bottom part; with green mountain-walls rising all round it, and a
silver ring of river at the base of them: length of Horse-shoe, from
heel to toe, or from west to east, is perhaps a mile; breadth, from heel
to heel, perhaps half as much. Having arrived at his old distance
to west, Moldau, like a repentant prodigal, and as if ashamed of his
frolic, just over against the old point he swerved from, takes straight
to northward again. Straight northward; and quarries out that fine
narrow valley, or Quasi-Highland Strath, with its pleasant busy
villages, where he turns the overshot machinery, and where Friedrich and
his men had their pontoons swimming yesterday.

It is here, on this broad back of the Ziscaberg, that the Austrians now
lie; looking northward over to the King, and trying cannon-shots
upon him. There they have been encamping, and diligently intrenching
themselves for four days past; diligent especially since yesterday, when
they heard of Friedrich's crossing the River. Their groups of tents,
and batteries at all the good points, stretch from near the crown of
Ziscaberg, eastward to the Villages of Hlaupetin, Kyge, and their
Lakes, near four miles; and rearward into the interior one knows not how
far;--Prince Karl, hardly awake yet, lies at Nussel, near the Moldau,
near the Wischerad or southeastmost point of Prag; six good miles
west-by-south of Kyge, at the other end of the diagonal line. About the
same distance, right east from Nussel, and a mile or more to south of
Kyge, over yonder, is a littery Farmstead named Sterbohol, which is
not yet occupied by the Austrians, but will become very famous in their
War-Annals, this day!--

Where the Austrian Camp or various Tent-groups were, at the time
Friedrich first cast eye on them, is no great concern of his or ours;
inasmuch as, in two or three hours hence, the Austrians were obliged,
rather suddenly, to take Order of Battle; and that, and not their
camping, is the thing we are curious upon. Let us step across, and take
some survey of that Austrian ground, which Friedrich is now surveying
from the distance, fully intending that it shall be a battle-ground in
few hours; and try to explain how the Austrians drew up on it, when they
noticed the Prussian symptoms to become serious more and more. By nine
in the morning,--some two hours after Friedrich began his scanning, and
the Austrian outposts their firing of stray cannon-shots on him,--it is
Battle-lines, not empty Tents (which there was not time to strike), that
salute the eye over yonder.

From behind that verdant Horse-shoe Chasm we spoke of, buttressed by
the inaccessible steeps, and the Moldau, double-folded in the form of
Horse-shoe, all along the brow of that sloping expanse, stands (by 9
A.M. "foragers all suddenly called in") the Austrian front; the second
line and the reserve, parallel to it, at good distances behind. Ranked
there; say 65,000 regulars (Prussian force little short of the same),
on the brow of Ziscaberg slope, some four miles long. Their right wing
ends, in strong batteries, in intricate marshes, knolls, lakelets,
between Hlaupetin and Kyge: the extreme of their left wing looks over on
that Horse-shoe Hollow, where Moldau tried to dig his way, but could not
and had to turn back. They have numerous redoubts, in front and in all
the good places; and are busy with more, some of them just now getting
finished, treble-quick, while the Prussians are seen under way. As many
as sixty heavy cannon in battery up and down: of field-pieces they
have a hundred and fifty. Excellent always with their Artillery, these
Austrians; plenty of it, well-placed and well-served: thanks to Prince
Lichtenstein's fine labors within these ten years past. [_OEuvres
de Frederic,_ (in several places); see Hormayr,? Lichtenstein.] The
villages, the farmsteads, are occupied; every rising ground especially
has its battery,--Homoly Berg, Tabor Berg, "Mount of Tabor;" say
KNOLL of Tabor (nothing like so high as Battersea Rise, hardly even
as Constitution Hill), though scriptural Zisca would make a Mount of
it;--these, and other BERGS of the like type.

That is the Austrian Battle Order (as it stood about 9, though it had
still to change a little, as we shall see): their first line, straight
or nearly so, looking northward, stands on the brow of the Zisca Slope;
their second and their third, singularly like it, at the due distances
behind;--in the intervals, their tents, which stand scattered, in groups
wide apart, in the ample interior to southward. The cavalry is on
both wings; left wing, behind that Moldau Chasm, cannot attack nor be
attacked,--except it were on hippogriffs, and its enemy on the
like, capable of fighting in the air, overhead of these Belvedere
Pleasure-grounds: perhaps Prince Karl will remedy this oversight; fruit
of close following of the orthodox practice? Prince Karl, supreme Chief,
commands on the left wing; Browne on the right, where he can attack or
be attacked, NOT on hippogriffs. As we shall see, and others will! Light
horse, in any quantity, hang scattered on all outskirts. With foot, with
cannon batteries, with horse, light or heavy, they cover in long broad
flood the whole of that Zisca Slope, to near where it ceases, and the
ground to eastward begins perceptibly to rise again.

In this latter quarter, Zisca Slope, now nearly ended, begins to get
very swampy in parts; on the eastern border of the Austrian Camp, at
Kyge, Hostawitz, and beyond it southward, about Sterbohol and Michelup,
there are many little lakelets; artificial fish-ponds, several of them,
with their sluices, dams and apparatus: a ragged broadish lacing of
ponds and lakelets (all well dried in our day) straggles and zigzags
along there, connected by the miserablest Brook in nature, which takes
to oozing and serpentizing forward thereabouts, and does finally get
emptied, now in a rather livelier condition, into the Moldau, about the
TOE-part of that Horse-shoe or Belvedere region. It runs in sight of the
King, I think, where he now is; this lower livelier part of it: little
does the King know how important the upper oozing portion of it will
be to him this day. Near Michelup are lakelets worth noticing; a little
under Sterbohol, in the course of this miserable Brook, is a string of
fish-ponds, with their sluices open at this time, the water out, and
the mud bottom sown with herb-provender for the intended carps, which
is coming on beautifully, green as leeks, and nearly ready for the fish
getting to it again.

Friedrich surveys diligently what he can of all this, from the northern
verge. We will now return to Friedrich; and will stay on his side
through the terrible Action that is coming. Battle of Prag, one of the
furious Battles of the World; loud as Doomsday;--the very Emblem of
which, done on the Piano by females of energy, scatters mankind to
flight who love their ears! Of this great Action the Narratives old and
modern are innumerable; false some of them, unintelligible well-nigh
all. There are three in Lloyd, known probably to some of my readers.
Tempelhof, with criticisms of these three, gives a fourth,--perhaps the
one Narrative which human nature, after much study, can in some sort
understand. Human readers, especially military, I refer to that as their
finale. [In Lloyd, i. 38 et seq. (the Three): in Tempelhof, i. 123
(the Fourth); ib. i. 144 (strength of each Army), 105-149 (remarks of
Tempelhof).--The "HISTORY," or Series of Lectures on the Battles &c. of
this War, "BY THE ROYAL STAFF-OFFICERS"--which, for the last thirty or
forty years, is used as Text-Book, or Military EUCLID, in the Prussian
Cadet-Schools,--appears to possess the fit professorial lucidity and
amplitude; and, in regard to all Official details, enumerations and the
like, is received as of CANONICAL authority: it is not accessible to
the general Public,--though liberally enough conceded in special cases;
whereby, in effect, the main results of it are now become current in
modern Prussian Books. By favor in high quarters, I had once possession
of a copy, for some months; but not, at that time, the possibility
of thoroughly reading any part of it.] Other interest than
military-scientific the Action now has not much. The stormy fire of soul
that blazed that day (higher in no ancient or modern Fight of men) is
extinct, hopeless of resuscitation for English readers. Approximately
what the thing to human eyes might be like; what Friedrich's procedure,
humor and physiognomy of soul was in it: this, especially the latter
head, is what we search for,--had lazy Dryasdust given us almost
anything on this latter head! What little can be gleaned from him
on both heads let us faithfully give, and finish our sad part of the
combat.

Friedrich, with his Schwerin and Winterfeld, surveying these things
from the northern edge, admits that the Austrian position is extremely
strong; but he has no doubt that it must be, by some good method,
attacked straightway, and the Austrians got beaten. Indisputably the
enterprise is difficult. Unattackable clearly, the Austrians, on that
left wing of theirs; not in the centre well attackable, nor in the
front at all, with that stiff ground, and such redoubts and points of
strength: but round on their right yonder; take them in flank,--cannot
we? On as far as Kyge, the Three have ridden reconnoitring; and found
no possibility upon the front; nor at Kyge, where the front ends in
batteries, pools and quagmires, is there any. "Difficult, not undoable,"
persists the King: "and it must be straightway set about and got done."
Winterfeld, always for action, is of that opinion, too: and, examining
farther down along their right flank, reports that there the thing is
feasible.

Feasible perhaps: "but straightway?" objects Schwerin. His men have been
on foot since midnight, and on forced marches for days past: were it not
better to rest for this one day? "Rest:--and Daun, coming on with 30,000
of reinforcement to them, might arrive this night? Never, my good
Feldmarschall;"--and as the Feldmarschall was a man of stiff notions,
and had a tongue of some emphasis, the Dialogue went on, probably with
increasing emphasis on Friedrich's side too, till old Schwerin, with
a quite emphatic flash of countenance, crushing the hat firm over his
brow, exclaims: "Well, your Majesty: the fresher fish the better fish
(FRISCHE FISCHE, GUTE FISCHE): straightway, then!" and springs off on
the gallop southward, he too, seeking some likely point of attack.
He too,--conjointly or not with Winterfeld, I do not know: Winterfeld
himself does not say; whose own modest words on the subject readers
shall see before we finish. But both are mentioned in the Books as
searching, at hand-gallop, in this way: and both, once well round to
south, by the Podschernitz ["Podschernitz" is pronounced PotSHERnitz
(should we happen to mentionn it again); "Kyge," KEEGA.] quarter, with
the Austrian right flank full in view, were agreed that here the thing
was possible. "Infantry to push from this quarter towards Sterbohol
yonder, and then plunge into their redoubts and them! Cavalry may sweep
still farther southward, if found convenient, and even take them in
rear." Both agree that it will do in this way: ground tolerably good,
slightly downwards for us, then slightly upwards again; tolerable for
horse even:--the intermediate lacing of dirty lakelets, the fish-ponds
with their sluices drawn, Schwerin and Winterfeld either did not notice
at all, or thought them insiginificant, interspersed with such beautiful
"pasture-ground,"--of unusual verdure at this early season of the year.

The deployment, or "marching up (AUFMARSCHIREN)" of the Prussians
was wonderful; in their squadrons, in their battalions, horse,
foot, artillery, wheeling, closing, opening; strangely checkering a
country-side,--in movements intricate, chaotic to all but the scientific
eye. Conceive them, flowing along, from the Heights of Chaber, behind
Prossik Hamlet (right wing of infantry plants itself at Prossik, horse
westward of them); and ever onwards in broad many-checkered tide-stream,
eastward, eastward, then southward ("our artillery went through
Podschernitz, the foot and horse a little on this westward side of it"):
intricate, many-glancing tide of coming battle; which, swift, correct
as clock-work, becomes two lines, from Prossik to near Chwala ("baggage
well behind at Gbell"); thence round by Podschernitz quarter; and
descends, steady, swift, tornado-storm so beautifully hidden in it,
towards Sterbohol, there to grip to. Gradually, in stirring up those old
dead pedantic record-books, the fact rises on us: silent whirlwinds
of old Platt-Deutsch fire, beautifully held down, dwell in those mute
masses; better human stuff there is not than that old Teutsch (Dutch,
English, Platt-Deutsch and other varieties); and so disciplined as here
it never was before or since. "In an hour and half," what military men
may count almost incredible, they are fairly on their ground, motionless
the most of them by 9 A.M.; the rest wheeling rightward, as they
successively arrive in the Chwala-Podschernitz localities; and,
descending diligently, Sterbohol way; and will be at their harvest-work
anon.

Meanwhile the Austrians, seeing, to their astonishment, these phenomena
to the north, and that it is a quite serious thing, do also rapidly
bestir themselves; swarming like bees;--bringing in their foraging
Cavalry, "No time to change your jacket for a coat:" rank, double-quick!
Browne is on that right wing of theirs: "Bring the left wing over
hither," suggests Browne; "cavalry is useless yonder, unless they had
hippogriffs!"--and (again Browne suggesting) the Austrians make a change
in the position of their right wing, both horse and foot: change which
is of vital importance, though unnoted in many Narratives of this
Battle. Seeing, namely, what the Prussians intend, they wheel their
right wing (say the last furlong or two of their long Line of Battle)
half round to right; so that the last furlong or two stands at right
angles ("EN POTENCE," gallows-wise, or joiner's-square-wise to the
rest); and, in this way, make front to the Prussian onslaught,--front
now, not flank, as the Prussians are anticipating. This is an important
wheel to right, and formation in joiner's-square manner; and involves no
end of interior wheeling, marching and deploying; which Austrians cannot
manage with Prussian velocity. "Swift with it, here about Sterbohol
at least, my men! For here are the Prussians within wind of us!" urges
Browne. And here straightway the hurricane does break loose.

Winterfeld, the van of Schwerin's infantry (Schwerin's own regiment,
and some others, with him), is striding rapidly on Sterbohol; Winterfeld
catches it before Browne can. But near by, behind that important
post, on the Homely Hill (BERG or "Mountain," nothing like so high as
Constitution Mountain), are cannon-batteries of devouring quality; which
awaken on Winterfeld, as he rushes out double-quick on the advancing
Austrians; and are fatal to Winterfeld's attempt, and nearly to
Winterfeld himself. Winterfeld, heavily wounded, sank in swoon from his
horse; and awakening again in a pool of blood, found his men all off,
rushing back upon the main Schwerin body; "Austrian grenadiers gazing on
the thing, about eighty paces off, not venturing to follow." Winterfeld,
half dead, scrambled across to Schwerin, who has now come up with the
main body, his front line fronting the Austrians here. And there
ensued, about Sterbohol and neighborhood, led on by Schwerin, such a
death-wrestle as was seldom seen in the Annals of War. Winterfeld's miss
of Sterbohol was the beginning of it: the exact course of sequel none
can describe, though the end is well known.

The Austrians now hold Sterbohol with firm grip, backed by those
batteries from Homoly Hill. Redoubts, cannon-batteries, as we said,
stud all the field; the Austrian stock of artillery is very great;
arrangement of it cunning, practice excellent; does honor to Prince
Lichtenstein, and indeed is the real force of the Austrians on this
occasion. Schwerin must have Sterbohol, in spite of batteries and ranked
Austrians, and Winterfeld's recoil tumbling round him:--and rarely had
the oldest veteran such a problem. Old Schwerin (fiery as ever, at the
age of 73) has been in many battles, from Blenheim onwards; and now has
got to his hottest and his last. "Vanguard could not do it; main body,
we hope, kindling all the hotter, perhaps may!" A most willing mind is
in these Prussians of Schwerin's: fatigue of over-marching has tired
the muscles of them; but their hearts,--all witnesses say, these (and
through these, their very muscles, "always fresh again, after a few
minutes of breathing-time") were beyond comparison, this day!

Schwerin's Prussians, as they "march up" (that is, as they front and
advance upon the Austrians), are everywhere saluted by case-shot, from
Homoly Hill and the batteries northward of Homoly; but march on, this
main line of them, finely regardless of it or of Winterfeld's disaster
by it. The general Prussian Order this day is: "By push of bayonet;
no firing, none, at any rate, till you see the whites of their eyes!"
Swift, steady as on the parade-ground, swiftly making up their gaps
again, the Prussians advance, on these terms; and are now near those
"fine sleek pasture-grounds, unusually green for the season." Figure the
actual stepping upon these "fine pasture-grounds:"--mud-tanks, verdant
with mere "bearding oat-crop" sown there as carp-provender! Figure the
sinking of whole regiments to the knee; to the middle, some of them; the
steady march become a wild sprawl through viscous mud, mere case-shot
singing round you, tearing you away at its ease! Even on those terrible
terms, the Prussians, by dams, by footpaths, sometimes one man abreast,
sprawl steadily forward, trailing their cannon with them; only a few
regiments, in the footpath parts, cannot bring their cannon. Forward;
rank again, when the ground will carry; ever forward, the case-shot
getting ever more murderous! No human pen can describe the deadly chaos
which ensued in that quarter. Which lasted, in desperate fury, issue
dubious, for above three hours; and was the crisis, or essential agony,
of the Battle. Foot-chargings, (once the mud-transit was accomplished),
under storms of grape-shot from Homoly Hill; by and by, Horse-chargings,
Prussian against Austrian, southward of Homoly and Sterbohol,
still farther to the Prussian left; huge whirlpool of tumultuous
death-wrestle, every species of spasmodic effort, on the one side
and the other;--King himself present there, as I dimly discover;
Feldmarschall Browne eminent, in the last of his fields; and, as the old
NIEBELUNGEN has it, "a murder grim and great" going on.

Schwerin's Prussians, in that preliminary struggle through the mud-tanks
(which Winterfeld, I think, had happened to skirt, and avoid), were hard
bested. This, so far as I can learn, was the worst of the chaos, this
preliminary part. Intolerable to human nature, this, or nearly so; even
to human nature of the Platt-Teutsch type, improved by Prussian drill.
Winterfeld's repulse we saw; Schwerin's own Regiment in it. Various
repulses, I perceive, there were,--"fresh regiments from our Second
Line" storming in thereupon; till the poor repulsed people "took
breath," repented, "and themselves stormed in again," say the Books.
Fearful tugging, swagging and swaying is conceivable, in this Sterbohol
problem! And after long scanning, I rather judge it was in the wake of
that first repulse, and not of some other farther on, that the veteran
Schwerin himself got his death. No one times it for us; but the fact is
unforgettable; and in the dim whirl of sequences, dimly places itself
there. Very certain it is, "at sight of his own regiment in retreat,"
Feldmarschall Schwerin seized the colors,--as did other Generals, who
are not named, that day. Seizes the colors, fiery old man: "HERAN, MEINE
KINDER (This way, my sons)!" and rides ahead, along the straight dam
again; his "sons" all turning, and with hot repentance following. "On,
my children, HERAN!" Five bits of grape-shot, deadly each of them, at
once hit the old man; dead he sinks there on his flag; and will never
fight more. "HERAN!" storm the others with hot tears; Adjutant von
Platen takes the flag; Platen, too, is instantly shot; but another
takes it. "HERAN, On!" in wild storm of rage and grief:--in a word,
they manage to do the work at Sterbohol, they and the rest. First line,
Second line, Infantry, Cavalry (and even the very Horses, I suppose),
fighting inexpressibly; conquering one of the worst problems ever seen
in War. For the Austrians too, especially their grenadiers there, stood
to it toughly, and fought like men;--and "every grenadier that survived
of them," as I read afterwards, "got double pay for life."

Done, that Sterbohol work;--those Foot-chargings, Horse-chargings; that
battery of Homoly Hill; and, hanging upon that, all manner of redoubts
and batteries to the rightward and rearward:--but how it was done no
pen can describe, nor any intellect in clear sequence understand. An
enormous MELEE there: new Prussian battalions charging, and ever new,
irrepressible by case-shot, as they successively get up; Marshal Browne
too sending for new battalions at double-quick from his left, disputing
stiffly every inch of his ground. Till at length (hour not given), a
cannon-shot tore away his foot; and he had to be carried into Prag,
mortally wounded. Which probably was a most important circumstance, or
the most important of all.

Important too, I gradually see, was that of the Prussian Horse of the
Left Wing. Prussian Horse of the extreme left, as already noticed, had,
in the mean while, fallen in, well southward, round by certain lakelets
about Michelup, on Browne's extreme right; furiously charging the
Austrian Horse, which stood ranked there in many lines; breaking it,
then again half broken by it; but again rallying, charging it a second
time, then a third time, "both to front and flank, amid whirlwinds
of dust" (Ziethen busy there, not to mention indignant Warnery and
others);--and at length, driving it wholly to the winds: "beyond Nussel,
towards the Sazawa Country;" never seen again that day. Prince Karl
(after Browne's death-wound, or before, I never know) came galloping
to rally that important Right Wing of horse. Prince Karl did his very
utmost there; obtesting, praying, raging, threatening:--but to no
purpose; the Zietheners and others so heavy on the rear of them:--and at
last there came a cramp, or intolerable twinge of spasm, through Prince
Karl's own person (breast or heart), like to take the life of him: so
that he too had to be carried into Prag to the doctors. And his Cavalry
fled at discretion; chased by Ziethen, on Friedrich's express order, and
sent quite over the horizon. Enough, "by about half-past one," Sterbohol
work is thoroughly done: and the Austrian Battle, both its Commanders
gone, has heeled fairly downwards, and is in an ominous way.

The whole of this Austrian Right Wing, horse and foot, batteries and
redoubts, which was put EN POTENCE, or square-wise, to the main battle,
is become a ruin; gone to confusion; hovers in distracted clouds,
seeking roads to run away by, which it ultimately found. Done all this
surely was; and poor Browne, mortally wounded, is being carried off
the ground; but in what sequence done, under what exact vicissitudes
of aspect, special steps of cause and effect, no man can say; and only
imagination, guided by these few data, can paint to itself. Such a
chaotic whirlwind of blood, dust, mud, artillery-thunder, sulphurous
rage, and human death and victory,--who shall pretend to describe it, or
draw, except in the gross, the scientific plan of it?

For, in the mean time,--I think while the dispute at Sterbohol, on the
extreme of the Austrian right wing "in joiner's-square form," was past
the hottest (but nobody will give the hour),--there has occurred
another thing, much calculated to settle that. And, indeed, to settle
everything;--as it did. This was a volunteer exploit, upon the very
elbow or angle of said "joiner's-square;" in the wet grounds between
Hlaupetin and Kyge, a good way north of Sterbohol. Volunteer exploit; on
the part of General Mannstein, our old Russian friend; which Friedrich,
a long way off from it, blames as a rash fault of Mannstein's, made good
by Prince Henri and Ferdinand of Brunswick running up to mend it; but
which Winterfeld, and subsequent good judges, admit to have been highly
salutary, and to have finished everything. It went, if I read right,
somewhat as follows.

In the Kyge-Hlaupetin quarter, at the corner of that Austrian right
wing EN POTENCE, there had, much contrary to Browne's intention, a
perceptible gap occurred; the corner is open there; nothing in it but
batteries and swamps. The Austrian right wing, wheeling southward, there
to form POTENCE; and scrambling and marching, then and subsequently,
through such ground at double-quick, had gone too far (had thinned and
lengthened itself, as is common, in such scrambling, and double-quick
movement, thinks Tempelhof), and left a little gap at elbow; which
always rather widened as the stress at Sterbohol went on. Certain
enough, a gap there is, covered only by some half-moon battery in
advance: into this, General Mannstein has been looking wistfully a long
time: "Austrian Line fallen out at elbow yonder; clouted by some battery
in advance?"--and at length cannot help dashing loose on it with
his Division. A man liable to be rash, and always too impetuous in
battle-time.

He would have fared ill, thinks Friedrich, had not Henri and Ferdinand,
in pain for Mannstein (some think, privately in preconcert with
him), hastened in to help; and done it altogether in a shining way;
surmounting perilous difficulties not a few. Hard fighting in that
corner, partly on the Sterbohol terms; batteries, mud-tanks; chargings,
rechargings: "Comrades, you have got honor enough, KAMERADEN, IHR HABT
EHRE GENUG [the second man of you lying dead]; let us now try!" said a
certain Regiment to a certain other, in this business. [Archenholtz, i.
75; Tempelhof, &c.] Prince Henri shone especially, the gallant little
gentleman: coming upon one of those mud-tanks with battery beyond, his
men were spreading file-wise, to cross it on the dams; "BURSCHE, this
way!" cried the Prince, and plunged in middle-deep, right upon the
battery; and over it, and victoriously took possession of it. In a word,
they all plunge forward, in a shining manner; rush on those half-moon
batteries, regardless of results; rush over them, seize and secure them.
Rush, in a word, fairly into that Austrian hole-at-elbow, torrents more
following them,--and irretrievably ruin both fore-arm and shoulder-arm
of the Austrians thereby.

Fore-arm (Austrian right wing, if still struggling and wriggling about
Sterbohol) is taken in flank; shoulder-arm, or main line, the like;
we have them both in flank; with their own batteries to scour them to
destruction here:--the Austrian Line, throughout, is become a ruin.
Has to hurl itself rapidly to rightwards, to rearwards, says Tempelhof,
behind what redoubts and strong points it may have in those parts; and
then, by sure stages (Tempelhof guesses three, or perhaps four), as one
redoubt after another is torn from the loose grasp of it, and the stand
made becomes ever weaker, and the confusion worse,--to roll pell-mell
into Prag, and hastily close the door behind it. The Prussians,
Sterbohol people, Mannstein-Henri people, left wing and right, are quite
across the Zisca Back, on by Nussel (Prince Earl's head-quarter that
was), and at the Moldau Brink again, when the thing ends. Ziethen's
Hussars have been at Nussel, very busy plundering there, ever since that
final charge and chase from Sterbohol. Plundering; and, I am ashamed
to say, mostly drunk: "Your Majesty, I cannot rank a hundred sober,"
answered Ziethen (doubtless with a kind of blush), when the King applied
for them. The King himself has got to Branik, farther up stream. Part
of the Austrian foot fled, leftwards, southwards, as their right wing
of horse had all done, up the Moldau. About 16,000 Austrians are
distractedly on flight that way. Towards, the Sazawa Country; to unite
with Daun, as the now advisable thing. Near 40,000 of them are getting
crammed into Prag; in spite of Prince Karl, now recovered of his cramp,
and risen to the frantic pitch; who vainly struggles at the Gate
against such inrush, and had even got through the Gate, conjuring and
commanding, but was himself swum in again by those panic torrents of
ebb-tide.

Rallying within, he again attempted, twice over, at two different
points, to get out, and up the Moldau, with his broken people; but the
Prussians, Nussel-Branik way, were awake to him: "No retreat up the
Moldau for you, Austrian gentlemen!" They tried by another Gate, on the
other side of the River; but Keith was awake too: "In again, ye Austrian
gentlemen! Closed gates here too. What else?" Browne, from his bed of
pain (death-bed, as it proved), was for a much more determined outrush:
"In the dead of night, rank, deliberately adjust yourselves; storm out,
one and all, and cut your way, night favoring!" That was Browne's last
counsel; but that also was not taken. A really noble Browne, say all
judges; died here in about six weeks,--and got away from Kriegs-Hofraths
and Prince Karls, and the stupidity of neighbors, and the other ills
that flesh is heir to, altogether.

At Branik the victorious King had one great disappointment: Prince
Moritz of Dessau, who should have been here long hours ago, with Keith's
right wing, a fresh 15,000, to fall upon the enemy's rear;--no Moritz
visible; not even now, when the business is to chase! "How is this?" "Ill
luck, your Majesty!" Moritz's Pontoon Bridge would not reach across,
when he tried it. That is certain: "just three poor pontoons wanting,"
Rumor says:--three or more; spoiled, I am told, in some narrow road,
some short-cut which Moritz had commanded for them: and now they are
not; and it is as if three hundred had been spoiled. Moritz, would
he die for it, cannot get his Bridge to reach: his fresh 15,000 stand
futile there; not even Seidlitz with his light horse could really swim
across, though he tried hard, and is fabled to have done so. Beware of
short-cuts, my Prince: your Father that is gone, what would he say of
you here! It was the worst mistake Prince Moritz ever made. The Austrian
Army might have been annihilated, say judges (of a sanguine temper), had
Moritz been ready, at his hour, to fall on from rearward;--and where had
their retreat been? As it is, the Austrian Army is not annihilated; only
bottled into Prag, and will need sieging. The brightest triumph has
a bar of black in it, and might always have been brighter. Here is a
flying Note, which I will subjoin:--

Friedrich's dispositions for the Battle, this day, are allowed to have
been masterly; but there was one signal fault, thinks Retzow: That
he did not, as Schwerin counselled, wait till the morrow. Fault which
brought many in the train of it; that of his "tired soldiers," says
Retzow, being only a first item, and small in comparison. "Had he waited
till the morrow, those fish-ponds of Sterbohol, examined in the interim,
need not have been mistaken for green meadows; Prince Moritz, with his
15,000, would have been a fact, instead of a false hope; the King might
have done his marching down upon Sterbohol in the night-time, and been
ready for the Austrians, flank, or even rear, at daybreak: the King
might"--In reality, this fault seems to have been considerable; to have
made the victory far more costly to him, and far less complete. No doubt
he had his reasons for making haste: Daun, advancing Prag-ward with
30,000, was within three marches of him; General Beck, Daun's vanguard,
with a 10,000 of irregulars, did a kind of feat at Brandeis, on the
Prussian post there (our Saxons deserting to him, in the heat of
action), this very day, May 6th; and might, if lucky, have taken part at
Ziscaberg next day. And besides these solid reasons, there was perhaps
another. Retzow, who is secretly of the Opposition-party, and well worth
hearing, knows personally a curious thing. He says:--

"Being then [in March or April, weeks before we left Saxony] employed to
translate the PLAN OF OPERATIONS into French, for Marshal Keith's
use, who did not understand German, I well know that it contained the
following three main objects: 1. 'All Regiments cantoning in Silesia as
well as Saxony march for Bohemia on one and the same day. 2. Whole Army
arrives at Prag May 4th [Schwerin was a day later, and got scolded in
consequence]; if the Enemy stand, he is attacked May 6th, and beaten.
3. So soon as Prag is got, Schwerin, with the gross of the Army, pushes
into Mahren,' and the heart of Austria itself; 'King hastens with 40,000
to help of the Allied Army,'"--Royal Highness of Cumberland's; who will
much need it by that time! [Retzow, i. 84 n.]

Here is a very curious fact and consideration. That the King had so
prophesied and preordained: "May 4th, Four Columns arrive at Prag; May
6th, attack the Austrians, beat them,"--and now wished to keep his word!
This is an aerial reason, which I can suspect to have had its weight
among others. There were twirls of that kind in Friedrich; intricate
weak places; knots in the sound straight-fibred mind he had (as in
whose mind are they not?),--which now and then cost him dear! The
Anecdote-Books say he was very ill of body, that day, May 6th; and
called for something of drug nature, and swallowed it (drug not named),
after getting on horseback. The Evening Anecdote is prettier: How, in
the rushing about, Austrians now flying, he got eye on Brother Henri
(clayey to a degree); and sat down with him, in the blessed sunset, for
a minute or two, and bewailed his sad losses of Schwerin and others.

Certain it is, the victory was bought by hard fighting; and but for
the quality of his troops, had not been there. But the bravery of the
Prussians was exemplary, and covered all mistakes that were made. Nobler
fire, when did it burn in any Army? More perfect soldiers I have
not read of. Platt-Teutsch fire--which I liken to anthracite, in
contradistinction to Gaelic blaze of kindled straw--is thrice noble,
when, by strict stern discipline, you are above it withal; and wield
your fire-element, as Jove his thunder, by rule! Otherwise it is but
half-admirable: Turk-Janissaries have it otherwise; and it comes to
comparatively little.

This is the famed Battle of Prag; fought May 6th, 1757; which sounded
through all the world,--and used to deafen us in drawing-rooms within
man's memory. Results of it were: On the Prussian side, killed, wounded
and missing, 12,500 men; on the Austrian, 13,000 (prisoners included),
with many flags, cannon, tents, much war-gear gone the wrong road;--and
a very great humiliation and dispiritment; though they had fought well:
"No longer the old Austrians, by any means," as Friedrich sees; but have
iron ramrods, all manner of Prussian improvements, and are "learning to
march," as he once says, with surprise not quite pleasant.

Friedrich gives the cipher of loss, on both sides, much higher: "This
Battle," says he, "which began towards nine in the morning, and lasted,
chase included, till eight at night, was one of the bloodiest of the
age. The Enemy lost 24,000 men, of whom were 5,000 prisoners; the
Prussian loss amounted to 18,000 fighting men,--without counting Marshal
Schwerin, who alone was worth above 10,000." "This day saw the pillars
of the Prussian Infantry cut down," says he mournfully, seeming almost
to think the "laurels of victory" were purchased too dear. His account
of the Battle, as if it had been a painful object, rather avoided in
his after-thoughts, is unusually indistinct;--and helps us little in the
extreme confusion that reigns otherwise, both in the thing itself and in
the reporters of the thing. Here is a word from Winterfeld, some private
Letter, two days after; which is well worth reading for those who would
understand this Battle.

"The enemy had his Left Wing leaning on the City, close by the Moldau,"
at Nussel; "and stretched with his Right Wing across the high Hill [of
Zisca] to the village of Lieben [so he HAD stood, looking into Prag;
but faced about, on hearing that Friedrich was across the River]; having
before him those terrible Defiles [DIE TERRIBLEN DEFILEES, "Horse-shoe
of the Moldau," as we call it], and the village of Prossik, which was
crammed with Pandours. It was about half-past six in the morning, when
our Schwerin Army [myself part of it, at this time] joined with the
twenty battalions and twenty squadrons, which the King had brought
across to unite with us, and which formed our right wing of battle that
day [our left wing were Schweriners, Sterbohol and the fighting done by
Schweriners after their long march]. The King was at once determined to
attack the Enemy; as also were Schwerin [say nothing of the arguing] and
your humble servant (MEINE WENIGKEIT): but the first thing was, to find
a hole whereby to get at him.

"This too was selected, and decided on, my proposal being found good;
and took effect in manner following: We [Schweriners] had marched off
left-wise, foremost; and we now, without halt, continued marching so
with the Left Wing" of horse, "which had the van (TETE); and moved on,
keeping the road for Hlaupetin, and ever thence onwards along for Kyge,
round the Ponds of Unter-Podschernitz, without needing to pass these,
and so as to get them in our rear.

"The Enemy, who at first had expected nothing bad, and never supposed
that we would attack him at once, FLAGRANTE DELICTO, and least of all in
this point; and did not believe it possible, as we should have to wade,
breast-deep in part, through the ditches, and drag our cannon,--was at
first quite tranquil. But as he began to perceive our real design (in
which, they say, Prince Karl was the first to open Marshal Browne's
eyes), he drew his whole Cavalry over towards us, as fast as it could
be done, and stretched them out as Right Wing; to complete which, his
Grenadiers and Hungarian Regulars of Foot ranked themselves as they
got up [makes his POTENCE, HAKEN, or joiner's-square, outmost end of it
Horse.]

"The Enemy's intention was to hold with the Right Wing of his infantry
on the Farmstead which they call Sterbaholy [Sterbohol, a very dirty
Farmstead at this day]; I, however, had the good luck, plunging on, head
foremost, with six battalions of our Left Wing and two of the Flank, to
get to it before him. Although our Second Line was not yet come forward,
yet, as the battalions of the First were tolerably well together, I
decided, with General Fouquet, who had charge of the Flank, to begin
at once; and, that the Enemy might not have time to post himself still
better, I pushed forward, quick step, out of the Farmstead" of Sterbohol
"to meet him,--so fast, that even our cannon had not time to follow. He
did, accordingly, begin to waver; and I could observe that his people
here, on this Wing, were making right-about.

"Meanwhile, his fire of case-shot opened [from Homoly Hill, on our
left], and we were still pushing on,--might now be about two hundred
steps from the Enemy's Line, when I had the misfortune, at the head of
Regiment Schwerin, to get wounded, and, swooning away (VOR TOD), fell
from my horse to the ground. Awakening after some minutes, and raising
my head to look about, I found nobody of our people now here beside or
round me; but all were already behind, in full flood of retreat (HOCH
ANSCHLAGEN). The Enemy's Grenadiers were perhaps eighty paces from me;
but had halted, and had not the confidence to follow us. I struggled to
my feet, as fast as, for weakness, I possibly could; and got up to our
confused mass [CONFUSEN KLUMPEN,--exact place, where?]: but could not,
by entreaties or by threats, persuade a single man of them to turn his
face on the Enemy, much less to halt and try again.

"In this embarrassment the deceased Feldmarschall found me, and noticed
that the blood was flowing stream-wise from my neck. As I was on foot,
and none of my people now near, he bade give me his led horse which he
still had [and sent me home for surgery? Winterfeld, handsomely effacing
himself when no longer good for anything, hurries on to the Catastrophe,
leaving us to guess that he was NOT an eye-witness farther]--bade
give me the led horse which he still had; AND [as if that had happened
directly after, which surely it did not? AND] snatched the flag from
Captain Rohr, who had taken it up to make the Bursche turn, and rode
forward with it himself.' But before he could succeed in the attempt,
this excellent man, almost in a minute, was hit with five case-shot
balls, and fell dead on the ground; as also his brave Adjutant von
Platen was so wounded that he died next day.

"During this confusion and repulse, by which, as already mentioned, the
Enemy had not the heart to profit, not only was our Second Line come on,
but those of the First, who had not suffered, went vigorously (FRISCH)
at the Enemy,"--and in course of time (perhaps two hours yet), and by
dint of effort, we did manage Sterbohol and its batteries:--"Like as
[still in one sentence, and without the least punctuation; Winterfeld
being little of a grammarian, and in haste for the close], Like as
Prince Henri's Royal Highness with our Right Wing," Mannstein and he,
"without waiting for order, attacked so PROMPT and with such FERMOTE,"
in that elbow-hole far north of US, "that everywhere the Enemy's Line
began to give way; and instead of continuing as Line, sought corps-wise
to gain the Heights, and there post itself. And as, without winning
said Heights, we could not win the Battle, we had to storm them all, one
after the other; and this it was that cost us the best, most and bravest
people.

"The late Colonel von Goltz [if we glance back to Sterbohol itself],
who, with the regiment Fouquet, was advancing, right-hand of Schwerin
regiment" and your servant, "had likewise got quite close to the Enemy;
and had he not, at the very instant when he was levelling bayonets, been
shot down, I think that he, with myself and the Schwerin regiment, would
have got in,"--and perhaps have there done the job, special and general,
with much less expense, and sooner! [Preuss, ii. 45-47 (in Winterfeld's
hand; dated "Camp at Prag, 8th May, 1757:" addressed to one knows not
whom; first printed by Preuss).]

This is what we get from Winterfeld; a rugged, not much grammatical man,
but (as I can perceive) with excellent eyes in his head, and interior
talent for twenty grammatical people, had that been his line. These,
faithfully rendered here, without change but of pointing, are the
only words I ever saw of his: to my regret,--which surely the Prussian
Dryasdust might still amend a little?--in respect of so distinguished
a person, and chosen Peer of Friedrich's. This his brief theory of Prag
Battle, if intensely read, I find to be of a piece with his practice
there.

Schwerin was much lamented in the Army; and has been duly honored ever
since. His body lies in Schwerinsburg, at home, far away; his Monument,
finale of a series of Monuments, stands, now under special guardianship,
near Sterbohol on the spot where he fell. A late Tourist says:--

"At first there was a monument of wood [TREE planted, I will hope],
which is now all gone; round this Kaiser Joseph II. once, in the year
1776, holding some review there, made his grenadier battalions and
artilleries form circle, fronting the sky all round, and give three
volleys of great arms and small, Kaiser in the centre doffing hat at
each volley, in honor of the hero. Which was thought a very pretty thing
on the Kaiser's part. In 1824, the tree, I suppose, being gone to a
stump, certain subscribing Prussian Officers had it rooted out, and a
modest Pyramid of red-veined marble built in its room. Which latter
the then King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm III., determined to improve
upon; and so, in 1839, built a second Pyramid close by, bigger, finer,
and of Prussian iron, this one;--purchasing also, from the Austrian
Government, a rood or two of ground for site; and appointing some
perpetual Peculium, or increase of Pension to an Austrian Veteran of
merit for taking charge there. All which, perfectly in order, is in
its place at this day. The actual Austrian Pensioner of merit is a
loud-voiced, hard-faced, very limited, but honest little fellow; who
has worked a little polygon ditch and miniature hedge round the two
Monuments; keeps his own cottage, little garden, and self, respectably
clean; and leads stoically a lone life,--no company, I should think, but
the Sterbohol hinds, who probably are Czechs and cannot speak to him. He
was once 'of the regiment Hohenlohe;' suffers somewhat from cold, in
the winter-time, in those upland parts (the 'cords of wood' allowed him
being limited); but complains of nothing else. Two English names were
in his Album, a military two, and no more. 'EHRET DEN HELD (Honor the
Hero)!' we said to him, at parting. 'Don't I?' answered he; glancing at
his muddy bare legs and little spade, with which he had been working
in the Polygon Ditch when we arrived. I could wish him an additional
'KLAFTER HOLZ' (cord more of firewood) now and then, in the cold
months!--

"Sterbohol Farmstead has been new built, in man's memory, but is dirty
as ever. Agriculture, all over this table-land of the Ziscaberg,
I should judge to be bad. Not so the prospect; which is cheerfully
extensive, picturesque in parts, and to the student of Friedrich offers
good commentary. Roads, mansions, villages: Prossik, Kyge, Podschernitz,
from the Heights of Chaber round to Nussel and beyond: from any
knoll, all Friedrich's Villages, and many more, lie round you as on a
map,--their dirt all hidden, nothing wanting to the landscape, were it
better carpeted with green (green instead of russet), and shaded here
and there with wood. A small wild pink, bright-red, and of the size of
a star, grows extensively about; of which you are tempted to pluck
specimens, as memorial of a Field so famous in War." [Tourist's Note
(September, 1858).]




Chapter III.--PRAG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE.

What Friedrich's emotions after the Battle of Prag were, we do not much
know. They are not inconceivable, if we read his situation well; but
in the way of speech, there is, as usual, next to nothing. Here are two
stray utterances, worth gathering from a man so uncommunicative in that
form.

FRIEDRICH A MONTH BEFORE PRAG (From Lockwitz, 25th March, to Princess
Amelia, at Berlin).--"My dearest Sister, I give you a thousand thanks
for the hints you have got me from Dr. Eller on the illness of our dear
Mother. Thrice-welcome this; and reassures me [alas, not on good basis!]
against a misfortune which I should have considered very great for me.

"As to us and our posture of affairs, political and military,--place
yourself, I conjure you, above every event. Think of our Country and
remember that one's first duty is to defend it. If you learn that a
misfortune happens to one of us, ask, 'Did he die fighting?' and if Yes,
give thanks to God. Victory or else death, there is nothing else for
us; one or the other we must have. All the world here is of that temper.
What! you would everybody sacrifice his life for the State, and you
would not have your Brothers give the example? Ah, my dear Sister, at
this crisis, there is no room for bargaining. Either at the summit of
glorious success, or else abolished altogether. This Campaign now
coming is like that of Pharsalia for Rome, or that of Leuctra for the
Greeks,"--a Campaign we verily shall have to win, or go to wreck upon!
[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. i. 391.]

FRIEDERICH SHORTLY AFTER PRAG (To his Mother, Letter still extant in
Autograph, without date).--"My Brothers and I are still well. The whole
Campaign runs risk of being lost to the Austrians; and I find myself
free, with 150,000 men. Add to this, that we are masters of a Kingdom
[Bohemia here], which is obliged to furnish us with troops and money.
The Austrians are dispersed like straw before the wind. I will send a
part of my troops to compliment Messieurs the French; and am going [if I
once had Prag!] to pursue the Austrians with the rest of my Army." [Ib.
xxvi. 75.]

Friedrich, who keeps his emotions generally to himself, does not, as
will be seen, remain quite silent to us throughout this great Year;
but, by accident, has left us some rather impressive gleanings in that
kind;--and certainly in no year could such accident have been luckier to
us; this of 1757 being, in several respects, the greatest of his Life.
From nearly the topmost heights down to the lowest deeps, his fortunes
oscillated this year; and probably, of all the sons of Adam, nobody's
outlooks and reflections had in them, successive and simultaneous, more
gigantic forms of fear and of hope. He is on a very high peak at this
moment; suddenly emerging from his thick cloud, into thunderous victory
of that kind; and warning all Pythons what they get by meddling with
the Sun-god! Loud enough, far-clanging, is the sound of the silver bow;
gazetteers and men all on pause at such new Phoebus Apollo risen in his
wrath;--the Victory at Prag considered to be much more annihilative
than it really was. At London, Lord Holderness had his Tower-guns in
readiness, waiting for something of the kind; and "the joy of the
people was frantic." [_Mitchell Papers and Memoirs_ (i. e the PRINTED
Selection, 2 vols. London, 1850;--which will be the oftenest cited by
us, "Papers AND MEMOIRS"), i. 249: "Holderness to Mitchell, 20th May,
1757." Mitchell is now attending Friedrich; his Letter from Keith's
Camp, during the thunder of "Friday, May 6th," is given, ib. i. 248.]

Very dominant, our "Protestant Champion" yonder, on his Ziscaberg;
bidding the enormous Pompadour-Theresa combinations, the French,
Austrian, Swedish, Russian populations and dread sovereigns, check their
proud waves, and hold at mid-flood. It is thought, had he in effect,
"annihilated" the Austrian force at Prag, that day (Friday, 6th May, as
he might have done by waiting till Saturday, 7th), he could then, with
the due rapidity, rapidity being indispensable in the affair, have
become master of Prag, which meant of Bohemia altogether; and have
stormed forward, as his program bore, into the heart, of an Austria
still terror-stricken, unrallied;--in which case, it is calculated, the
French, the Russians, Swedes, much more the Reich and such like, would
all have drawn bridle; and Austria itself have condescended to make
Peace with a Neighbor of such quality, and consent to his really modest
desire of being let alone! Possible, all this,--think Retzow and
others. [See RETZOW, i. 100-108; &c. ] But the King had not waited till
to-morrow; no persuasion could make him wait: and it is idle speculating
on the small turns which here, as everywhere, can produce such
deflections of course.

Beyond question, Prag is not captured, and may, as now garrisoned,
require a great deal of capturing:--and perhaps it is but a PEAK, this
high dominancy of Friedrich's, not a solid table-land, till much more
have been done! Friedrich has nothing of the Gascon: but there may well
be conceivable at this time a certain glow of internal pride, like
that of Phoebus amid the piled tempests,--like that of the One Man
prevailing, if but for a short season, against the Devil and All Men:
"I have made good my bit, of resolution so far: here are the Austrians
beaten at the set day, and Prag summoned to surrender, as per
program!"--

Intrinsically, Prag is not a strong City: we have seen it, taken in few
days; in one night;--and again, as in Belleisle's time, we have seen it
making tough defence for a series of weeks. It depends on the garrison,
what extent of garrison (the circuit of it being so immense), and what
height of humor. There are now 46,000 men caged in it, known to have
considerable magazines; and Friedrich, aware that it will cost trouble,
bends all his strength upon it, and from his two camps, Ziscaberg,
Weissenberg, due Bridges uniting, Keith and he batter it, violently,
aiming chiefly at the Magazines (which are not all bomb-proof); and hope
they may succeed before it is too late.

The Vienna people are in the depths of amazement and discouragement;
almost of terror, had it not been for a few, or especially for one high
heart among them. Feldmarschall Daun, on the news of May 6th, hastily
fell back, joined by the wrecks of the right wing, which fled Sazawa
way. Brunswick-Bevern, with a 20,000, is detached to look after Daun;
finds Daun still on the retreat; greedily collecting reinforcements
from the homeward quarter; and hanging back, though now double or so of
Bevern's strength. Amazement and discouragement are the general feeling
among Friedrich's enemies. Notable to see how the whole hostile world
marching in upon him,--French, Russians, much more the Reich, poor
faltering entity,--pauses, as with its breath taken away, at news of
Prag; and, arrested on the sudden, with lifted foot, ceases to stride
forward; and merely tramp-tramps on the same place (nay in part, in the
Reich part, visibly tramps backward), for above a month ensuing!
Who knows whether, practically, any of them will come on; [See
CORRESPONDANCE DU COMTE DE SAINT-GERMAIN, an Eye-witness, i. 108 (cited
in Preuss, ii. 50); &c. &c.] and not leave Austria by itself to do the
duel with Friedrich? If Prag were but got, and the 46,000 well locked
away, it would be very salutary for Friedrich's affairs!--Week after
week, the City holds out; and there seems no hope of it, except by
hunger, and burning their Magazines by red-hot balls.




COLONEL MAYER WITH HIS "FREE-CORPS" PARTY MAKES A VISIT, OF DIDACTIC
NATURE, TO THE REICH.

Friedrich, as we saw, on entering Bohmen, had shot off a Light
Detachment under Colonel Mayer, southward, to seize any Austrian
Magazines there were, especially one big Magazine at Pilsen:--which
Mayer has handsomely done, May 2d (Pilsen "a bigger Magazine than
Jung-Bunzlau, even"); after which Mayer is now off westward, into the
Ober-Pfalz, into the Nurnberg Countries; to teach the Reich a small
lesson, since they will not listen to Plotho. Prag Battle, as happens,
had already much chilled the ardor of the Reich! Mayer has two
Free-Corps, his own and another; about 1,300 of foot; to which are
added a 200 of hussars. They have 5 cannon, carry otherwise a minimum of
baggage; are swift wild fellows, sharp of stroke; and do, for the time,
prove didactic to the Reich; bringing home to its very bosom the late
great lesson of the Ziscaberg, in an applied form. Mayer made a pretty
course of it, into the Ober-Pfalz Countries; scattering the poor
Execution Drill-Sergeants and incipiencies of preparation, the
deliberative County Meetings, KREIS-Convents: ransoming Cities, Nurnberg
for one city, whose cries went to Friedrich on the Ziscaberg, and wide
over the world. [In _Helden-Geschichte,_ iv. 360-367, the Nurnberg
Letter and Response (31st May-5th June, 1757): in Pauli, _Leben grosser
Helden_ (iii. 159 et seq.), Account of the Mayer Expedition; also in
_Militair-Lexikon, _ iii. 29 (quoting from Pauli).] Nurnberg would have
been but too happy to "refuse its contingent to the Reich's Army," as
many others would have been (poor Kur-Baiern hurrying off a kind
of Embassy to Friedrich, great terror reigning among the wigs of
Regensburg, and everybody drawing back that could),--had not Imperial
menaces, and an Event that fell out by and by in Prag Country, forced
compliance.

Mayer's Expedition made a loud noise in the Newspapers; and was truly
of a shining nature in its kind; very perfectly managed on Mayer's part,
and has traits in it which are amusing to read, had one time. Take one
small glance from Pauli:--

"At Furth in Anspach, 1st June [after six days' screwing of Nurnberg
from without, which we had no cannon to take], a Gratuity for the
Prussian troops [amount not stated] was demanded and given: at
Schwabach, farther up the Regnitz River, they took quarters; no
exemption made, clergy and laity alike getting soldiers billeted. Meat
and drink had to be given them: as also 100 carolines [guineas and
better], and twenty new uniforms. Upon which, next day, they marched
to Zirndorf, and the Reichsgraf Puckler's Mansion, the Schloss of
Farrenbach there. Mayer took quarter in the Schloss itself. Here the
noble owners got up a ball for Mayer's entertainment; and did all they
could contrive to induce a light treatment from him." Figure it, the
neighboring nobility and gentry in gala; Mayer too in his best uniform,
and smiling politely, with those "bright little black eyes" of his! For
he was a brilliant airy kind of fellow, and had much of the chevalier,
as well as of the partisan, when requisite!

"Out of Farrenbach, the Mayer people circulated upon all the neighboring
Lordships; at Wilhelmsdorf, the Reichs-Furst von Hohenlohe [a too busy
Anti-Prussian] had the worst brunt to bear. The adjacent Baireuth lands
[dear Wilhelmina, fancy her too in such neighborhood!] were to the
utmost spared all billeting, and even all transit,"--though wandering
sergeants of the Reich's Force, "one sergeant with the Wurzburg Herr
Commissarius and eight common men, did get picked up on Baireuth ground:
and this or the other Anspach Official (Anspach being disaffected), too
busy on the wrong side, found himself suddenly Prisoner of War; but was
given up, at Wilhelmina's gracious request. On Bamberg he was sharp
as flint; and had to be; the Bambergers, reinforced at last by
'Circle-Militias (KREIS-TRUPPEN)' in quantity, being called out in mass
against him; and at Vach an actual Passage of Fight had occurred."

Of the "Affair at Vach," pretty little Drawn-Battle (mostly an affair
of art), Mayer VERSUS "Kreis-troops to the amount of 6,000, with twelve
cannon, or some say twenty-four" (which they couldn't handle); and how
Mayer cunningly took a position unassailable, "burnt Bridges of the
Regnitz River," and, plying his five cannon against these ardent awkward
people, stood cheerful on the other side; and then at last, in good
time, whisked himself off to the Hill of Culmbach, with all his baggage,
inexpugnable there for three days:--of all this, though it is set down
at full length, we can say nothing. [Pauli, iii. 159, &c. (who gives
Mayer's own LETTER, and others, upon Vach).] And will add only, that,
having girt himself and made his packages, Mayer left the Hill of
Culmbach; and deliberately wended home, by Coburg and other Countries
where he had business, eating his way; and early in July was safe in
the Metal Mountains again; having fluttered the Volscians in their
Frankenland Corioli to an unexpected extent. It is one of five or six
such sallies Friedrich made upon the Reich, sometimes upon the Austrians
and Reich together, to tumble up their magazines and preparations. Rapid
unexpected inroads, year after year; done chiefly by the Free-Corps; and
famous enough to the then Gazetteers. Of which, or of their doers, as
we can in time coming afford little or no notice, let us add this small
Note on the Free-Corps topic, which is a large one in the Books, but
must not interrupt us again:--

"Before this War was done," say my Authorities, "there came gradually
to be twenty-one Prussian Free-Corps,"--foot almost all; there being
already Hussars in quantity, ever since the first Silesian experiences.
"Notable Aggregates they were of loose wandering fellows, broken Saxons,
Prussians, French; 'Hungarian-Protestant' some of them, 'Deserters from
all the Armies' not a few; attracted by the fame of Friedrich,--as the
Colonels enlisting them had been; Mayer himself, for instance, was by
birth a Vienna man; and had been in many services and wars, from
his fifteenth year and onwards. Most miscellaneous, these Prussian
Free-Corps; a swift faculty the indispensable thing, by no means
a particular character: but well-disciplined, well-captained; who
generally managed their work well.

"They were, by origin, of Anti-Tolpatch nature, got up on the
diamond-cut-diamond principle; they stole a good deal, with order
sometimes, and oftener without; but there was nothing of the old
Mentzel-Trenck atrocity permitted them, or ever imputed to them; and
they did, usually with good military talent, sometimes conspicuously
good, what was required of them. Regular Generals, of a high merit, one
or two of their Captains came to be: Wunsch, for example; Werner, in
some sort; and, but for his sudden death, this Mayer himself. Others of
them, as Von Hordt (Hard is his Swedish name); and 'Quintus Icilius'
(by nature GUICHARD, of whom we shall hear a great deal in the Friedrich
circle by and by), are distinguished as honorably intellectual and
cultivated persons. [Count de Hordt's _Memoirs_ (autobiographical, or
in the first person: English Translation, London, 1806; TWO French
Originals, a worse in 1789, and a better now at last), Preface,
i-xii. In _Helden-Geschichte,_ v. 102-104, 93, a detailed "List of the
Free-Corps in 1758" (twelve of foot, two of horse, at that time): see
Preuss, ii. 372 n.; Pauli (ubi supra), _Life of Mayer._]

"Poor Mayer died within two years hence (5th January, 1759); of fever,
caught by unheard-of exertions and over fatigues; after many exploits,
and with the highest prospect, opening on him. A man of many adventures,
of many qualities; a wild dash of chivalry in him all along, and much
military and other talent crossed in the growing. In the dull old Books
I read one other fact which is vivid to me, That Wilhelmina, as sequel
of those first Franconian exploits and procedures, 'had given him her
Order of Knighthood, ORDER OF SINCERITY AND FIDELITY,'"--poor dear
Princess, what an interest to Wilhelmina, this flash of her Brother's
thunder thrown into those Franconian parts, and across her own pungent
anxieties and sorrowfully affectionate thoughts, in these weeks!--

Shortly after Mayer, about the time when Mayer was wending homeward,
General von Oldenburg, a very valiant punctual old General, was pushed
out westward upon Erfurt, a City of Kur-Mainz's, to give Kur-Mainz a
similar monition. And did it handsomely, impressively upon the Gazetteer
world at least and the Erfurt populations,--though we can afford it no
room in this place. Oldenburg's force was but some 2,000; Pirna Saxons
most of them:--such a winter Oldenburg has had with these Saxons;
bursting out into actual musketry upon him once; Oldenburg,
volcanically steady, summoning the Prussian part, "To me, true Prussian
Bursche!"--and hanging nine of the mutinous Saxons. And has coerced
and compesced them (all that did not contrive to desert) into soldierly
obedience; and, 20th June, appears at the Gate of Erfurt with them,
to do his delicate errand there. Sharply conclusive, though polite and
punctual. "Send to Kur-Mainz say you? Well, as to your Citadel, and
those 1,400 soldiers all moving peaceably off thither,--Yes. As to
your City: within one hour, Gate open to us, or we open it!" [In
_Helden-Geschichte_ (v. 371-384) copious Account, with the Missives
to and from, the Reichs-Pleadings that followed, the &c. &c.
_Militair-Lexikon,_? Oldenburg.] And Oldenburg marches in, as
vice-sovereign for the time:--but, indeed, has soon to leave again;
owing to what Event in the distance will be seen!

If Prag Siege go well, these Mayer-Oldenburg expeditions will have an
effect on the Reich: but if it go ill, what are they, against Austria
with its force of steady pressure? All turns on the issue of Prag
Siege:--a fact extremely evident to Friedrich too! But these are what
in the interim can be done. One neglects no opportunity, tries by every
method.




OF THE SINGULAR QUASI-BEWITCHED CONDITION OF ENGLAND; AND WHAT IS TO BE
HOPED FROM IT FOR THE COMMON CAUSE, IF PRAG GO AMISS.

On the Britannic side, too, the outlooks are not good;--much need
Friedrich were through his Prag affair, and "hastening with forty
thousand to help his Allies,"--that is, Royal Highness of Cumberland and
Britannic Purse, his only allies at this moment. Royal Highness and
Army of Observation (should have been 67,000, are 50 to 60,000, hired
Germans; troops good enough, were they tolerably led) finds the Hanover
Program as bad as Schmettau and Friedrich ever represented it; and,
already,--unless Prag go well,--wears, to the understanding eye, a
very contingent aspect. D'Estrees outnumbers him; D'Estrees, too, is
something of a soldier,--a very considerable advantage in affairs of
war.

D'Estrees, since April, is in Wesel; gathering in the revenues,
changing the Officialities: much out of discipline, they say;--"hanging"
gradually "1,000 marauders;" in round numbers 1,000 this Year. [Stenzel,
v. 65; Retzow, i. 173.] D'Estrees does not yet push forward, owing to
Prag. If he do--It is well known how Royal Highness fared when he did,
and what a Campaign Royal Highness made of it this Year 1757! How the
Weser did prove wadable, as Schmettau had said to no purpose; wadable,
bridgable; and Royal Highness had to wriggle back, ever back; no stand
to be made, or far worse than none: back, ever back, till he got into
the Sea, for that matter, and to the END of more than one thing! Poor
man, friends say he has an incurable Hanover Ministry, a Program that is
inexecutable. As yet he has not lost head, any head he ever had: but he
is wonderful, he;--and his England is! We shall have to look at him once
again; and happily once only. Here, from my Constitutional Historian,
are some Passages which we may as well read in the present interim of
expectation. I label, and try to arrange:--

1. ENGLAND IN CRISIS. "England is indignant with its Hero of Culloden
and his Campaign 1757; but really has no business to complain. Royal
Highness of Cumberland, wriggling helplessly in that manner, is a fair
representative of the England that now is. For years back, there has
been, in regard to all things Foreign or Domestic, in that Country, by
way of National action, the miserablest haggling as to which of
various little-competent persons shall act for the Nation. A melancholy
condition indeed!--

"But the fact is, his Grace of Newcastle, ever since his poor Brother
Pelham died (who was always a solid, loyal kind of man, though a dull;
and had always, with patient affection, furnished his Grace, much
UNsupplied otherwise, with Common sense hitherto), is quite insecure in
Parliament, and knows not what hand to turn to. Fox is contemptuous of
him; Pitt entirely impatient of him; Duke of Cumberland (great in the
glory of Culloden) is aiming to oust him, and bear rule with his Young
Nephew, the new Rising Sun, as the poor Papa and Grandfather gets old.
Even Carteret (Earl Granville as they now call him, a Carteret much
changed since those high-soaring Worms-Hanau times!) was applied to.
But the answer was--what could the answer be? High-soaring Carteret,
scandalously overset and hurled out in that Hanau time, had already
tried once (long ago, and with such result!) to spring in again, and
'deliver his Majesty from factions;' and actually had made a 'Granville
Ministry;' Ministry which fell again in one day. ["11th February, 1746"
(Thackeray, _Life of Chatham,_ i. 146).] To the complete disgust of
Carteret-Granville;--who, ever since, sits ponderously dormant (kind of
Fixture in the Privy Council, this long while back); and is resigned,
in a big contemptuous way, to have had his really considerable career
closed upon him by the smallest of mankind; and, except occasional
blurts of strong rugged speech which come from him, and a good deal of
wine taken into him, disdains making farther debate with the world and
its elect Newcastles. Carteret, at this crisis, was again applied to,
'Cannot you? In behalf of an afflicted old King?' But Carteret answered,
No. [Ib. i. 464.]

"In short, it is admitted and bewailed by everybody, seldom was there
seen such a Government of England (and England has seen some strange
Governments), as in these last Three Years. Chaotic Imbecility reigning
pretty supreme. Ruler's Work,--policy, administration, governance,
guidance, performance in any kind,--where is it to be found? For if
even a Walpole, when his Talking-Apparatus gets out of gear upon him, is
reduced to extremities, though the stoutest of men,--fancy what it will
be, in like case, and how the Acting-Apparatuses and Affairs generally
will go, with a poor hysterical Newcastle, now when his Common Sense is
fatally withdrawn! The poor man has no resource but to shuffle about in
aimless perpetual fidget; endeavoring vainly to say Yes and No to all
questions, Foreign and Domestic, that may rise. Whereby, in the
Affairs of England, there has, as it were, universal St.-Vitus's dance
supervened, at an important crisis: and the Preparations for America,
and for a downright Life-and-Death Wrestle with France on the
JENKINS'S-EAR QUESTION, are quite in a bad way. In an ominously bad. Why
cannot we draw a veil over these things!"--

2. PITT, AND THE HOUR OF TIDE. "The fidgetings and shufflings, the
subtleties, inane trickeries, and futile hitherings and thitherings of
Newcastle may be imagined: a man not incapable of trick; but anxious
to be well with everybody; and to answer Yes and No to almost
everything,--and not a little puzzled, poor soul, to get through, in
that impossible way! Such a paralysis of wriggling imbecility fallen
over England, in this great crisis of its fortunes, as is still painful
to contemplate: and indeed it has been mostly shaken out of mind by
the modern Englishman; who tries to laugh at it, instead of weeping
and considering, which would better beseem. Pitt speaks with a tragical
vivacity, in all ingenious dialects, lively though serious; and with
a depth of sad conviction, which is apt to be slurred over and missed
altogether by a modern reader. Speaks as if this brave English Nation
were about ended; little or no hope left for it; here a gleam of
possibility, and there a gleam, which soon vanishes again in the fatal
murk of impotencies, do-nothingisms. Very sad to the heart of Pitt. A
once brave Nation arrived at its critical point, and doomed to higgle
and puddle there till it drown in the gutters: considerably tragical
to Pitt; who is lively, ingenious, and, though not quitting the
Parliamentary tone for the Hebrew-Prophetic, far more serious than the
modern reader thinks.

"In Walpole's Book [_Memoirs of the Last Ten Years of George II._] there
is the liveliest Picture of this dismal Parliamentary Hellbroth,--such
a Mother of Dead Dogs as one has seldom looked into! For the Hour is
great; and the Honorable Gentlemen, I must say, are small. The hour,
little as you dream of it, my Honorable Friends, is pregnant with
questions that are immense. Wide Continents, long Epochs and AEons hang
on this poor jargoning of yours; the Eternal Destinies are asking
their much-favored Nation, 'Will you, can you?'--much-favored Nation is
answering in that manner. Astonished at its own stupidity, and taking
refuge in laughter. The Eternal Destinies are very patient with some
Nations; and can disregard their follies, for a long while; and have
their Cromwell, have their Pitt, or what else is essential, ready for
the poor Nation, in a grandly silent way!

"Certain it is,--though how could poor Newcastle know it at all!--here
is again the hour of tide for England. Tide is full again; has been
flowing long hundreds of years, and is full: certain, too, that time and
tide wait on no man or nation. In a dialect different from Cromwell's or
Pitt's, but with a sense true to theirs, I call it the Eternal Destinies
knocking at England's door again: 'Are you ready for the crisis,
birth-point of long Ages to you, which is now come?' Greater question
had not been, for centuries past. None to be named with it since that
high Spiritual Question (truly a much higher, and which was in fact
the PARENT of this and of all of high and great that lay ahead), which
England and Oliver Cromwell were there to answer: 'Will you hold by
Consecrated Formulas, then, you English, and expect salvation from
traditions of the elders; or are you for Divine Realities, as the one
sacred and indispensable thing?' Which they did answer, in what way we
know. Truly the Highest Question; which if a Nation can answer WELL, it
will grow in this world, and may come to be considerable, and to have
many high Questions to answer,--this of Pitt's, for example. And the
Answers given do always extend through coming ages; and do always bear
harvests, accursed or else blessed, according as the Answers were. A
thing awfully true, if you have eye for it;--a thing to make Honorable
Gentlemen serious, even in the age of percussion-caps! No, my friend,
Newcastleisms, impious Poltrooneries, in a Nation, do not die:--neither
(thank God) do Cromwellisms and pious Heroisms; but are alive for the
poor Nation, even in its somnambulancies, in its stupidest dreams. For
Nations have their somnambulancies; and, at any rate, the questions
put to Nations, in different ages, vary much. Not in any age, or
turning-point in History, had England answered the Destinies in such a
dialect as now under its Newcastle and National Palaver."

3. OF WALPOLE, AS RECORDING ANGEL. "Walpole's _George the Second_ is a
Book of far more worth than is commonly ascribed to it; almost the
one original English Book yet written on those times,--which, by the
accident of Pitt, are still memorable to us. But for Walpole,--burning
like a small steady light there, shining faithfully, if stingily, on the
evil and the good,--that sordid muddle of the Pelham Parliaments, which
chanced to be the element of things now recognizable enough as great,
would be forever unintelligible. He is unusually accurate, punctual,
lucid; an irrefragable authority on English points. And if, in regard to
Foreign, he cannot be called an understanding witness, he has read
the best Documents accessible, has conversed with select Ambassadors
(Mitchell and the like, as we can guess); and has informed himself to
a degree far beyond most of his contemporaries. In regard to Pitt's
Speeches, in particular, his brief jottings, done rapidly while the
matter was still shining to him, are the only Reports that have the
least human resemblance. We may thank Walpole that Pitt is not dumb to
us, as well as dark. Very curious little scratchings and etchings, those
of Walpole; frugal, swift, but punctual and exact; hasty pen-and-ink
outlines; at first view, all barren; bald as an invoice, seemingly; but
which yield you, after long study there and elsewhere, a conceivable
notion of what and how excellent these Pitt Speeches may have been.
Airy, winged, like arrow-flights of Phoebus Apollo; very superlative
Speeches indeed. Walpole's Book is carefully printed,--few errors in
it like that 'Chapeau' for CHASOT," which readers remember:--"but, in
respect to editing, may be characterized as still wanting an Editor. A
Book UNedited; little but lazy ignorance of a very hopeless type,
thick contented darkness, traceable throughout in the marginal part. No
attempt at an Index, or at any of the natural helps to a reader now at
such distance from it. Nay, till you have at least marked, on the top of
each page, what Month and Year it actually is, the Book cannot be read
at all,--except by an idle creature, doing worse than nothing under the
name of reading!"

4. PITT'S SPEECHES, FORESHADOWING WHAT. "It is a kind of epoch in your
studies of modern English History when you get to understand of Pitt's
Speeches, that they are not Parliamentary Eloquences, but things which
with his whole soul he means, and is intent to DO. This surprising
circumstance, when at last become undeniable, makes, on the sudden, an
immense difference for the Speeches and you! Speeches are not a thing
of high moment to this Editor; it is the Thing spoken, and how far the
speaker means to do it, that this Editor inquires for. Too many Speeches
there are, which he hears admired all round, and has privately to
entertain a very horrid notion of! Speeches, the finest in quality
(were quality really 'fine' conceivable in such case), which WANT a
corresponding fineness of source and intention, corresponding nobleness
of purport, conviction, tendency; these, if we will reflect, are
frightful instead of beautiful. Yes;--and always the frightfuler, the
'finer' they are; and the faster and farther they go, sowing themselves
in the dim vacancy of men's minds. For Speeches, like all human things,
though the fact is now little remembered, do always rank themselves as
forever blessed, or as forever unblessed. Sheep or goats; on the right
hand of the Final Judge, or else on the left. There are Speeches which
can be called true; and, again, Speeches which are not true:--Heavens,
only think what these latter are! Sacked wind, which you are intended
to SOW,--that you may reap the whirlwind! After long reading, I find
Chatham's Speeches to be what he pretends they are: true, and worth
speaking then and there. Noble indeed, I can call them with you: the
highly noble Foreshadow, necessary preface and accompaniment of Actions
which are still nobler. A very singular phenomenon within those walls,
or without!

"Pitt, though nobly eloquent, is a Man of Action, not of Speech; an
authentically Royal kind of Man. And if there were a Plutarch in these
times, with a good deal of leisure on his hands, he might run a Parallel
between Friedrich and Chatham. Two radiant Kings: very shining Men of
Action both; both of them hard bested, as the case often is. For your
born King will generally have, if not "all Europe against him," at
least pretty much all the Universe. Chatham's course to Kingship was
not straight or smooth,--as Friedrich, too, had his well-nigh fatal
difficulties on the road. Again, says the Plutarch, they are very
brave men both; and of a clearness and veracity peculiar among their
contemporaries. In Chatham, too, there is something of the flash of
steel; a very sharp-cutting, penetrative, rapid individual, he too; and
shaped for action, first of all, though he has to talk so much in the
world. Fastidious, proud, no King could be prouder, though his element
is that of Free-Senate and Democracy. And he has a beautiful poetic
delicacy, withal; great tenderness in him, playfulness, grace; in
all ways, an airy as well as a solid loftiness of mind. Not born a
King,--alas, no, not officially so, only naturally so; has his kingdom
to seek. The Conquering of Silesia, the Conquering of the Pelham
Parliaments--But we will shut up the Plutarch with time on his hands.

"Pitt's Speeches, as I spell them from Walpole and the other faint
tracings left, are full of genius in the vocal kind, far beyond any
Speeches delivered in Parliament: serious always, and the very truth,
such as he has it; but going in many dialects and modes; full of airy
flashings, twinkles and coruscations. Sport, as of sheet-lightning
glancing about, the bolt lying under the horizon; bolt HIDDEN, as is
fit, under such a horizon as he had. A singularly radiant man. Could
have been a Poet, too, in some small measure, had he gone on that line.
There are many touches of genius, comic, tragic, lyric, something of
humor even, to be read in those Shadows of Speeches taken down for us by
Walpole....

"In one word, Pitt, shining like a gleam of sharp steel in that murk of
contemptibilities, is carefully steering his way towards Kingship over
it. Tragical it is (especially in Pitt's case, first and last) to see a
Royal Man, or Born King, wading towards his throne in such an element.
But, alas, the Born King (even when he tries, which I take to be the
rarer case) so seldom can arrive there at all;--sinful Epochs there are,
when Heaven's curse has been spoken, and it is that awful Being, the
Born Sham-King, that arrives! Pitt, however, does it. Yes; and the more
we study Pitt, the more we shall find he does it in a peculiarly high,
manful and honorable as well as dexterous manner; and that English
History has a right to call him 'the acme and highest man of
Constitutional Parliaments; the like of whom was not in any Parliament
called Constitutional, nor will again be.'"

Well, probably enough; too probably! But what it more concerns us to
remember here, is the fact, That in these dismal shufflings which have
been, Pitt--in spite of Royal dislikes and Newcastle peddlings and
chicaneries--has been actually in Office, in the due topmost place, the
poor English Nation ardently demanding him, in what ways it could.
Been in Office;--and is actually out again, in spite of the Nation. Was
without real power in the Royal Councils; though of noble promise, and
planting himself down, hero-like, evidently bent on work, and on ending
that unutterable "St.-Vitus's-dance" that had gone so high all round
him. Without real power, we say; and has had no permanency. Came in
11th-19th November, 1756; thrown out 5th April, 1757. After six months'
trial, the St. Vitus finds that it cannot do with him; and will prefer
going on again. The last act his Royal Highness of Cumberland did in
England was to displace Pitt: "Down you, I am the man!" said Royal
Highness; and went to the Weser Countries on those terms.

Would the reader wish to see, in summary, what Pitt's Offices have been,
since he entered on this career about thirty years ago? Here, from
our Historian, is the List of them in order of time; STAGES OF PITT'S
COURSE, he calls it:--

1. "DECEMBER, 1734, Comes into Parliament, age now twenty-six; Cornet in
the Blues as well; being poor, and in absolute need of some career that
will suit. APRIL, 1736, makes his First Speech:--Prince Frederick the
subject,--who was much used as battering-ram by the Opposition; whom
perhaps Pitt admired for his madrigals, for his Literary patronizings,
and favor to the West-Wickham set. Speech, full of airy lightning, was
much admired. Followed by many, with the lightning getting denser
and denser; always on the Opposition side [once on the JENKINS'S-EAR
QUESTION, as we saw, when the Gazetteer Editor spelt him Mr. Pitts]: so
that Majesty was very angry, sulky Public much applausive; and Walpole
was heard to say, 'We must muzzle, in some way, that terrible Cornet
of Horse!'--but could not, on trial; this man's 'price,' as would seem,
being awfully high! AUGUST-OCTOBER, 1744, Sarah Duchess of Marlborough
bequeathed him 10,000 pounds as Commissariat equipment in this his
Campaign against the Mud-gods, [Thackeray, i. 138.]--glory to the
old Heroine for so doing! Which lifted Pitt out of the Cornetcy
or Horse-guards element, I fancy; and was as the nailing of his
Parliamentary colors to the mast.

2. "FEBRUARY 14th, 1746, Vice-Treasurer for Ireland: on occasion of that
Pelham-Granville 'As-you-were!' (Carteret Ministry, which lasted One
Day), and the slight shufflings that were necessary. Now first in
Office,--after such Ten Years of colliding and conflicting, and fine
steering in difficult waters. Vice-Treasurer for Ireland: and 'soon
after, on Lord Wilmington's death,' PAYMASTER OF THE FORCES. Continued
Paymaster about nine years. Rejects, quietly and totally, the big
income derivable from Interest of Government Moneys lying delayed in the
Paymaster's hand ('Dishonest, I tell you!')--and will none of it, though
poor. Not yet high, still low over the horizon, but shining brighter
and brighter. Greatly contemptuous of Newcastle and the Platitudes and
Poltrooneries; and still a good deal in the Opposition strain, and NOT
always tempering the wind to the shorn lamb. For example, Pitt (still
Paymaster) to Newcastle on King of the Romans Question (1752 or so):
'You engage for Subsidies, not knowing their extent; for Treaties,
not knowing the terms!'--'What a bashaw!' moan Newcastle and the top
Officials. 'Best way is, don't mind it,' said Mr. Stone [one of their
terriers,--a hard-headed fellow, whose brother became Primate of Ireland
by and by].

3. "NOVEMBER 20th, 1755, Thrown out:--on Pelham's death, and the general
hurly-burly in Official regions, and change of partners with no little
difficulty, which had then ensued! Sir Thomas Robinson," our old friend,
"made Secretary,--not found to answer. Pitt sulkily looking on America,
on Minorca; on things German, on things in general; warily set
on returning, as is thought; but How? FOX to Pitt: 'Will you join
ME?'--PITT: 'No,'--with such politeness, but in an unmistakable way! Ten
months of consummate steering on the part of Pitt; Chancellor Hardwicke
coming as messenger, he among others; Pitt's answer to him dexterous,
modestly royal. Pitt's bearing, in this grand juncture and crisis, is
royal, his speakings and also his silences notably fine. OCTOBER 20th,
1756: to Newcastle face to face, 'I will accept no situation under your
Grace!'--and, about that day month, comes IN, on his own footing. That
is to say,

"NOVEMBER 19th, 1756, to England's great comfort, Sees himself Secretary
of State (age now just forty-eight). Has pretty much all England at his
back; but has, in face of him, Fox, Newcastle and Company, offering
mere impediment and discouragement; Royal Highness of Cumberland looking
deadly sour. Till finally,

"APRIL 5th, 1757, King bids him resign; Royal Highness setting off for
Germany the second day after. Pitt had been IN rather more than Four
months. England, at that time a silent Country in comparison, knew not
well what to do; took to offering him Freedoms of Corporations in
very great quantity. Town after Town, from all the four winds,
sympathetically firing off, upon a misguided Sacred Majesty, its little
Box, in this oblique way, with extraordinary diligence. Whereby,
after six months bombardment by Boxes, and also by Events, JUNE 29th,
1757"--We will expect June 29th. [Thackeray, i. 231, 264; Almon,
_Anecdotes of Pitt_ (London, 1810), i. 151, 182, 218.]

In these sad circumstances, Preparations so called have been making for
Hanover, for America;--such preparations as were never seen before. Take
only one instance; let one be enough:--

"By the London Gazette, well on in February, 1756, we learn that Lord
Loudon, a military gentleman of small faculty, but of good connections,
has been nominated to command the Forces in America; and then, more
obscurely, some days after, that another has been nominated:--one of
them ought certainly to make haste out, if he could; the French, by
account, have 25,000 men in those countries, with real officers to lead
them! Haste out, however, is not what this Lord Loudon or his rival can
make. In March, we learn that Lord Loudon has been again nominated;
in an improved manner, this time;--and still does not look like going.
'Again nominated, why again?' Alas, reader, there have been hysterical
fidgetings in a high quarter; internal shiftings and shufflings,
contradictions, new proposals, one knows not what. [_Gentleman's
Magazine _ for 1756, pp. 92, 150, 359, 450.] One asks only: How is the
business ever to be done, if you cannot even settle what imbecile is to
go and try it?

"Seldom had Country more need of a Commander than America now. America
itself is of willing mind; and surely has resources, in such a Cause;
but is full of anarchies as well: the different States and sections of
it, with their discrepant Legislatures, their half-drilled Militias,
pulling each a different way, there is, as in the poor Mother Country,
little result except of the St.-Vitus kind. In some Legislatures
are anarchic Quakers, who think it unpermissible to fight with those
hectoring French, and their tail of scalping Indians; and that the
'method of love' ought to be tried with them. What is to become of those
poor people, if not even a Lord Loudon can get out?"

The result was, Lord Loudon had not in his own poor person come to hand
in America till August, 1756, Season now done; and could only write
home, "All is St. Vitus out here! Must have reinforcement of 10,000
men!" "Yes," answers Pitt, who is now in Office: "you shall have them;
and we will take Cape Breton, please Heaven!"--but was thrown out; and
by the wrigglings that ensued, nothing of the 10,000 reached Lord Loudon
till Season 1757 too was done. Nor did they then stead his Lordship
much, then or afterwards; who never took Cape Breton, nor was like doing
it;--but wriggled to and fro a good deal, and revolved on his axis,
according to pattern given. And set (what chiefly induces us to name
him here) his not reverent enough Subordinate, Lord Charles Hay, our old
Fontenoy friend, into angry impatient quizzing of him;--and by and
by into Court-Martial for such quizzing. [Peerage Books,? Tweeddale.]
Court-Martial, which was much puzzled by the case; and could decide
nothing, but only adjourn and adjourn;--as we will now do, not
mentioning Lord Loudon farther, or the numerous other instances at all.
["1st May, 1760, Major-General Lord Charles Hay died" (_Gentleman's
Magazine_ of Year); and his particular Court-Martial could adjourn for
the last time.--"I wrote something for Lord Charles," said the great
Johnson once, many years afterwards; "and I thought he had nothing to
fear from a Court-Martial. I suffered a great loss when he died: he was
a mighty pleasing man in conversation, and a reading man" (Boswell's
_Life of Johnson:_ under date, "3d April, 1776").]

Pitt, we just saw, far from being confirmed and furthered, has been
thrown out by Royal Highness of Cumberland, the last thing before
crossing to that exquisite Weser Problem. "Nothing now left at home to
hinder us and our Hanover and Weser Problem!" thinks Royal Highness.
No, indeed: a comfortable pacific No-government, or Battle of the Four
Elements, left yonder; the Anarch Old waggling his addle head over it;
ready to help everybody, and bring fire and water, and Yes and No, into
holy matrimony, if he could!--Let us return to Prag. Only one remark
more; upon "April 5th." That was the Day of Pitt's Dismissal at
St. James's: and I find, at Schonbrunn it is likewise the day when
REICHS-HOFRATH (Kaiser in Privy Council) decides, in respect to
Friedrich, that Ban of the Reich must be proceeded with, and recommends
Reich's Diet to get through with the same. [_Helden-Geschichte_
(Reichs-Procedures, UBI SUPRA).] Official England ordering its Pitt into
private life, and Official Teutschland its Friedrich into outlawry ("Be
quiet henceforth, both of YOU!")--are, by chance, synchronous phenomena.




PHENOMENA OF PRAG SIEGE:--PRAG SIEGE IS INTERRUPTED.

Friedrich's Siege of Prag proved tedious beyond expectation. In
four days he had done that exploit in 1744; but now, to the world's
disappointment, in as many weeks he cannot. Nothing was omitted on his
part: he seized all egresses from Prag, rapidly enough; had beset them
with batteries, on the very night or morrow of the Battle; every egress
beset, cannon and ruin forbidding any issue there. On the 9th of May,
cannonading began; proper siege-cannon and ammunition, coming up
from Dresden, were completely come May 19th; after which the place is
industriously battered, bombarded with red-hot balls; but except by
hunger, it will not do. Prag as a fortress is weak, but as a breastwork
for 50,000 men it is strong. The Austrians tried sallies; but these
availed nothing,--very ill-conducted, say some. The Prussians, more than
once, had nearly got into the place by surprisal; but, owing to mere
luck of the Austrians, never could,--say the same parties. [Archenholtz,
i. 85, 87.]

A DIARIUM of Prag Siege is still extant, Two DIARIUMS; punctual diurnal
account, both Austrian and Prussian: [In _ Helden-Geschichte,_ iv.
42-56, Prussian DIARIUM; ib. 73-86, Austrian.] which it is far from our
intention to inflict on readers, in this haste. Siege lasted six weeks;
four weeks extremely hot,--from May 19th, when the proper artilleries,
in complete state, got up from Dresden. Line of siege-works, or
intermittent series of batteries, is some twelve miles long; from
Branik southward to beyond the Belvedere northward, on both sides of
the Moldau. King's Camp is on the Ziscaberg; Keith's on the Lorenz
Berg, embracing and commanding the Weissenberg; there are two Bridges
of communication, Branik and Podoli: King lodges in the Parsonage of
Michel,--the busiest of all the sons of Adam; what a set of meditations
in that Parsonage! The Besieged, 46,000 by count, offer to surrender
Prag on condition of "Free withdrawal:" "No; you shall engage, such of
you as won't enlist with us, not to serve against me for six years."
Here are some select Specimens; Prussian chiefly, in an abridged
state:--

"MAY 19th, No sooner was our artillery come (all the grounds and beds
for it had been ready beforehand), than as evening fell, it began to
play in terrific fashion."

"NIGHT OF THE 23d-24th MAY, There broke out a furious sally; their
first, and much their hottest, say the Prussians: a very serious
affair;--which fell upon Keith's quarter, west side of the Moldau.
Sally, say something like 10,000 strong; picked men all, and
strengthened with half a pound of horse-flesh each" (unluckily without
salt): judge what the common diet must have been, when that was
generous! "No salt to it; but a fair supplement of brandy. Browne, from
his bed of pain (died 26th June), had been strongly urgent. Aim is, To
force the Prussian lines, by determination and the help of darkness,
in some weak point: the whole Army, standing ranked on the walls, shall
follow, if things go well; and storm itself through,--away Daun-wards,
across the River by Podoli Bridge.

"Sally broke out between 1 and 2 A.M.; but we had wind of it, and were
on the alert. Sally tried on this place and on that; very furious in
places, but could not anywhere prevail. The tussling lasted for near
six hours (Prince Ferdinand" of Preussen, King's youngest Brother, "and
others of us, getting hurts and doing exploits),--till, about 7 A.M.,
it was wholly swept in, with loss of 1,000 dead. Upon which, their
whole Army retired to its quarters, in a hopeless condition. Escape
impossible. Near 50,000 of them; but in such a posture. Provision of
bread, the spies say, is not scarce, unless the Prussians can burn
it, which they are industriously trying (diligent to learn where the
Magazines are, and to fire incessantly upon the same): plenty of meal
hitherto; but for butcher's-meat, only what we saw. Forage nearly done,
and 12,000 horses standing in the squares and market-places,--not even
stabling for them, not to speak of food or work,--slaughtering and
salting [if one but had salt!] the one method. Horse-flesh two kreutzers
a pound; rises gradually to double that value.

"MAY 29th, About sunset there came a furious burst of weather:
rain-torrents mixed with battering hail;--some flaw of water-spout among
the Hills; for it lasted hour on hour, and Moldau came down roaring
double-deep, above a hundred yards too wide each way; with cargoes of
ruin, torn-up trees, drowned horses; which sorely tried our Bridge at
Branik. Bridge, half of it, did break away (Friedrich's half, forty-four
pontoons; Keith's people got their end of the Bridge doubled in and
saved): the Austrians, in Prag, fished out twenty-four of Friedrich's
pontoons; the other twenty we caught at our Bridge of Podoli, farther
down. A most wild night for the Prussian Army in tents; and indeed for
Prag itself, the low parts of which were all under water; unfortunate
individuals getting drowned in the cellars; and, still more important, a
great deal of Austrian meal, which had been carried thither, to be safe
from the red-hot balls.

"It was thought the Austrians, our Bridge being down, might try a sally
again. To prevent which, hardly was the rain done, when, on our part, a
rocket flew aloft; and there began on the City, from all sides, a deluge
of bombs and red hot balls. So that the still-dripping City was set
fire to, in various parts: and we could hear [what this Editor never can
forget] the WEH-KLAGEN (wail) of the Townsfolk as they tried to quench
it, and it always burst out again. The fire-deluge lasted for six
hours."--Human WEH-KLAGEN, through the hollow of Night, audible to the
Prussians and us: "Woe's me! water-deluges, then fire-deluges; death
on every hand!" According to the Austrian accounts, there perished, by
bursting of bomb-shells, falling of walls, by hunger and other misery
and hurts, "above 9,000 Townsfolk in this Siege." Yes, my Imperial
friends; War is not a thing of streamering and ornamental trumpeting
alone; War is an inexorable, dangerously incalculable thing. Is it not a
terrible question, at whose door lies the beginning of a War!

"JUNE 5th, 12,000 poor people of Prag were pushed out: 'Useless mouths,
will you contrive to disappear some way!' But, after haggling about all
day, they had to be admitted in again, under penalty of being shot.

"JUNE 8th, City looking black and ruinous, whole of the Neustadt in
ashes; few houses left in the Jew Town; in the Altstadt the fire raged
on (WUTHETE FORT). Nothing but ruin and confusion over there; population
hiding in cellars, getting killed by falling buildings. Burgermeister
and Townsfolk besiege Prince Karl, 'For the Virgin's sake, have pity
on us, Your Serenity!' Poor Prince Karl has to be deaf, whatever his
feelings.

"He was diligent in attending mass, they say: he alone of the Princes,
of whom there were several; two Saxon Princes among others, Prince
Xavier the elder of them, who will be heard of again. A profane set,
these, lodging in the CLEMENTINUM [vast Jesuit Edifice, which had
been cleared out for them, and "the windows filled with dung outside,"
against balls]: there, with wines of fine vintage, and cookeries
plentiful and exquisite, that know nothing of famine outside, they led
an idle disorderly life,--ran races in the long corridors [not so bad a
course], dressed themselves in Priests' vestures [which are abundant in
such locality], and made travesties and mummeries of Holy Religion; the
wretched creatures, defying despair, as buccaneers might when their ship
is sinking. To surrender, everything forbids; of escape, there is no
possibility. [Archenholtz i. 86; _Helden-Geschichte,_ iv. 73-84.]

"JUNE 9th, The bombardment abates; a LABORATORIUM of our own flew aloft
by some spark or accident; and killed thirteen men.

"JUNE 15th, From the King's Camp a few bombs [King himself now gone]
kindled the City in three places:"--but there is, by this time, new game
afield; Prag Siege awaiting its decision not at Prag, but some way off.

Friedrich has been doing his utmost; diligent, by all methods, to learn
where the Austrian Magazines were, that is, on what special edifices
and localities shot might be expended with advantage; and has fired into
these "about 12,000 bombs." Here is a small thing still remembered:--

"Spies being, above all, essential in this business, Friedrich had
bethought him of one Kasebier, a supreme of House-breakers, whom he
has, safe with a ball at his ankle, doing forced labor at Spandau
[in Stettin, if it mattered]. Kasebier was actually sent for, pardon
promised him if he could do the State a service. Kasebier smuggled
himself twice, perhaps three times, into Prag; but the fourth time he
did not come back." [Retzow, i. 108. n.] Another Note says: "Kasebier
was a Tailor, and Son of a Tailor, in Halle; and the expertest of
Thieves. Had been doing forced labor, in Stettin, since 1748; twice did
get into Prag; third time, vanished. A highly celebrated Prussian thief;
still a myth among the People, like Dick Turpin or Cartouche, except
that his was always theft without violence." [Preuss, ii. 57 n.]

We learn vaguely that the price of horse-flesh in Prag has risen to
double; famine very sore: but still one hears nothing of surrender. And
again there is vague rumor that the City may be as it will; but that
the Garrison has meal, after all we have ruined, which will last till
October. Such a Problem has this King: soluble within the time; or not
soluble? Such a question for the whole world, and for himself more than
any.

MAP GOES IN HERE--fACING PAGE 446, BOOK xviii




Chapter IV.--BATTLE OF KOLIN.

On and after June 9th, the bombardment at Prag abated, and never rose
to briskness again; the place of trial for decision of that Siege having
flitted else-whither, as we said. About that time, rumors came in, not
so favorable, from the Duke of Bevern; which Friedrich, strong in hope,
strove visibly to disbelieve, but at last could not. Bevern reports that
Daun is actually coming on, far too strong for his resisting;--in other
terms, that the Siege of Prag will not decide itself by bombardment, but
otherwise and elsewhere. Of which we must now give some account; brief
as may be, especially in regard to the preliminary or marching part.

Daun, whose light troops plundered Brandeis (almost within wind of the
Prussian Rear) on the day while Prag Battle was fighting, had, on that
fatal event, gradually drawn back to Czaslau, a place we used to know
fifteen years ago; and there, or in those neighborhoods, defensively
manoeuvring, and hanging upon Kuttenberg, Kolin, especially upon
his Magazine of Suchdol, Daun, always rather drawing back, with
Brunswick-Bevern vigilantly waiting on him, has continued ever since;
diligently recruiting himself; ranking the remains of the right wing
defeated at Prag; drawing regiments out of Mahren, or whencesoever to
be had. Till, by these methods, he is grown 60,000 strong; nearly thrice
superior to Bevern; though being a "Fabius Cunctator" (so called by and
by), he as yet attempts nothing. Forty thousand in Prag, with Sixty here
in the Czaslau Quarter, [Tempelhof, i. 196; Retzow (i. 107, 109)
counts 46,000+66,000.] that makes 100,000; say his Prussian Majesty
has two-thirds of the number: can the Fabius Cunctator attempt nothing,
before Prag utterly famish?

Order comes to him from Vienna: "Rescue Prag; straightway go upon it,
cost what it like!" Daun does go upon it; advances visibly towards Prag,
Bevern obliged to fall back in front of him. Sunday, 12th June, Daun
despatches several Officers to Prince Karl at Prag, with notice that,
"On the 20th, Monday come a week, he will be in the neighborhood of Prag
with this view:--they, of course, to sally out, and help from rearward."
"Several Officers, under various disguises," go with that message, June
12th; but none of them could get into the City; and some of them, I
judge, must have fallen into the Prussian Hussar Parties:--at any rate,
the news they carried did get into the Prussian circuit, and produced
an instant resolution there. Early next morning, Monday 13th, King
Friedrich, with what disposable force is on the spot,--10,000 capable
of being spared from siege-work, and 4,000 more that will be capable of
following, under Prince Moritz, in two days,--sets forth in all speed.
Joins Bevern that same night; at Kaurzim, thirty-five miles off, which
is about midway from Prag to Czaslau, and only three miles or so from
Daun's quarters that night,--had the King known it, which he did not.

Daun must be instantly gone into; and shall,--if he is there at all, and
not fallen back at the first rumor of us, as Friedrich rather supposes.
In any case, there are preliminaries indispensable: the 4,000 of Prince
Moritz still to come up; secondly, bread to be had for us, which is
baking at Nimburg, across the Elbe, twenty miles off; lastly (or rather
firstly, and most indispensable of all), Daun to be reconnoitred.
Friedrich reconnoitres Daun with all diligence; pushes on everything
according to his wont; much obstructed in the reconnoitring by Pandour
clouds, under which Daun has veiled himself, which far outnumber our
small Hussar force. Daun, as usual,--showing always great skill in
regard to camps and positions,--has planted himself in difficult
country: a little river with its boggy pools in front; behind and
around, an intricate broken country of knolls and swamps, one ridge in
it which they even call a BERG or Hill, Kamhayek Berg; not much of a
Hill after all, but forming a long backbone to the locality, west end
of it straight behind Daun's centre, at present. Friedrich's position is
from north to south; like Daun's, taking advantage of what heights and
brooks there are; and edging northward to be near his bread-ovens: right
wing still holds by Kaurzim, left wing looking down on Planian, a little
Town on the High Road (KAISER-STRASSE) from Prag to Vienna. Little Town
destined to get up its name in a day or two,--next little Town to which,
twelve miles farther on, is Kolin, secretly destined to become and
continue still more famous among mankind. Kolin is close to the Elbe,
left or south bank; Elbe hereabouts strikes into his long northwestern
course (to Wittenberg all the way; Pirna, say 150 miles off, is his
half-way house in that direction);--strikes off northward hereabouts,
making for Nimburg, among other places: Planian, right south of Nimburg,
is already fifteen good miles from Elbe.

This is Friedrich's position, Wednesday, June 15th and the day
following; somewhat nearer his ovens than yesterday. Daun is yet
parallel to him, has his centre behind Swoyschitz, an insignificant
Village at the foot of those Kamhayek Heights, which is, ever since,
to be found in Maps. Friday, 17th, Friedrich's bread-wagons and 4,000
having come in, as doubtless the Pandours report in the proper place,
Daun does not quite like his strong position any more, but would prefer
a stronger. Friday about sunset, "great clouds of dust" rise from Daun:
changing his position, the Prussians see, if for Pandours and gathering
darkness they can at present see little else. Daun, truly, observing the
King to have in that manner edged up, towards Planian, is afraid of his
right wing from such a neighbor. So that the reader must take his Map
again. Or, if he care not for such things, let him skip, and leave me
solitary to my sad function; till we can meet on easier ground, and
report the battle which ensued. Daun hustles his right wing back out of
that dangerous proximity; wheels his whole right wing and centre ninety
degrees round, so as to reach out now towards Kolin, and lie on the
north slope of the Kamhayek ridge; places his left wing EN POTENCE
(gibbet-wise), hanging round the western end of said Kamhayek, its
southern extremity at Swoyschitz, its northern at Hradenin, where (not
a mile from Planian) his right wing had formerly been;--with other
intricate movements not worth following, under my questionable guidance,
on a Map with unpronounceable names. Enough to say that Daun's right
wing is now far east at Krzeczhorz, well beyond Chotzemitz, whereabouts
his centre now comes to stand (and most of his horse THERE, both the
wings being hilly and rough, unfit for horse);--and that, this being
nearly the last of Daun's shiftings and hustlings for the present, or
indeed in essential respects the very last, readers may as well note the
above main points in it.

Hustled into this still stronger place, with wheeling and shoving, which
lasted to a late hour, Daun composes himself for the night. He lies now,
with centre and right looking northward, pretty much parallel to the
Planian-Kolin or Prag-Vienna Highway, and about a mile south of the
same; extreme posts extending almost to Kolin on that side; left wing
well planted EN POTENCE; Kamhayek ridge, north face and west end of it,
completely his on both the exposed or Anti-Prussian faces. Friedrich
feels uncertain whether he has not gone his ways altogether; but
proposes to ascertain by break of day.

By break of day Friedrich starts, having cleared off certain Pandour
swarms visible in places of difficulty, who go on first notice, and
without shot fired. [Lloyd, i. 61 et seq. (or Tempelhof's Translation,
i. 151-164); Tempelhof's own Account is, i. 179-196; Retzow's, i.
120-149 (fewer errors of detail than usual); Kutzen, _Der Tag von Kolin_
(Breslau, 1857), a useful little compilation from many sources. Very
incorrect most of the common accounts are; Kausler's _ Schlachten,_
Jomini, and the like.] Marches through Planian in two columns, along
the Kolin Highway and to north of it; marches on, four or five miles
farther, nothing visible but the skirts of retiring Pandours,--"Daun's
rear-guard probably?"--Friedrich himself is with Ziethen, who has the
vanguard, as Friedrich's wont is, eagerly enough looking out; reaches
a certain Inn on the wayside (WIRTHSHAUS "of Slatislunz or GOLDEN-SUN,"
say the Modern Books,--though I am driven to think it Novomiesto, nearer
Planian; but will not quarrel on the subject); Inn of good height for
one thing; and there, mounting to the top-story or perhaps the leads,
descries Daun, stretching far and wide, leant against the Kamhayek,
in the summer morning. What a sight for Friedrich: "Big game SHALL be
played, then; death sure, this day, to thousands of men: and to me--?
Well!"

Friedrich calls halt: rest here a little; to consider, examine, settle
how. A hot close morning; rest for an hour or two, till our rear from
Kaurzim come up: horses and men will be the better for it,--horses can
have a mouthful of grass, mouthful of water; some of them "had no drink
last night, so late in getting home." Poor quadrupeds, they also have to
get into a blaze of battle-rage this day, and be blown to pieces a great
many of them,--in a quarrel not of their seeking! Horse and rider are
alike satisfied on that latter point; silently ready for the task THEY
have; and deaf on questions that are bottomless.

At this Hostelry of Novomiesto (not of Slatislunz or "GOLDEN-SUN" at
all, which is a "Sun" fallen dismally eclipsed in other ways ["The Inn
of Slati-Slunz was burnt, about twenty years ago; nothing of it but
the stone walls now dates from Friedrich's time. It is a biggish
solid-looking House of two stories (whether ever of three, I could not
learn); stands pleasantly, at the crown of a long rise from Kolin;--and
inwardly, alas, in our day, offers little but bad smells and negative
quantities! Only the ground-floor is now inhabited. From the front,
your view northward, Nimburg way, across the Elbe Valley, is fertile,
wide-waving, pretty: but rearward, upstairs,--having with difficulty
got permission,--you find bare balks, tattered feathers, several
hundredweight of pigeon's dung, and no outlook at all, except into walls
of office-houses and the overhanging brow of Heights,--fatal, clearly,
to any view of Daun, even from a third story!" (TOURIST'S NOTE,
1858.)--Tempelhof (UBI SUPRA) seems to have known the right, place; not,
Retzow, or almost anybody since: and indeed the question, except for
expressly Military people, is of no moment.]), Friedrich halted for
three hours and more; saw Daun developing himself into new Order of
Battle, "every part of his position visible;" considered with his whole
might what was to be tried upon him;--and about noon, having made up his
mind, called his Generals, in sight of the phenomenon itself there, to
give them their various orders and injunctions in regard to the same.
The Plan of Fight, which was thought then, and is still thought by
everybody, an excellent one,--resting on the "oblique order of attack,"
Friedrich's favorite mode,--was, if the reader will take his Map,
conceivable as follows.

Daun has by this time deployed himself; in three lines, or two lines and
a reserve; on the high-lying Champaign south of the Planian-Kolin Great
Road; south, say a mile, and over the crests of the rising ground, or
Kamhayek ridge, so that from the Great Road you can see nothing of him.
His line, swaying here and there a little, to take advantage of its
ground, extends nearly five miles, from east to west; pointing towards
Planian side, the left wing of it; from Planian, eastward, the way
Friedrich has marched, Daun's left wing may be four miles distant. On
the other side, Daun's right wing--main line always pretty parallel
to the Highway, and pointing rather southward of Kolin--reaches to the
small Hamlet of Krzeczhorz, which is two miles off Kolin. In front of
his centre is a Village called Chotzemitz (from which for a while,
in those months, the Battle gets its name, "Battle of Chotzemitz," by
Daun's christening): in front of him, to right or to left of Chotzemitz,
are some four or even six other Villages (dim rustic Hamlets, invisible
from the High Road), every Village of which Daun has well beset with
batteries, with good infantry, not to speak of Croat parties hovering
about, or dismounted Pandours squatted in the corn. That easternmost
Village of his is spelt "Krzeczhorz" (unpronounceable to mankind),
a dirty little place; in and round which the Battle had its hinge or
cardinal point: the others, as abstruse of spelling, all but equally
impossible to the human organs, we will forbear to name, except in case
of necessity. Half a mile behind Krzeczhorz (let us write it Kreczor,
for the future: what can we do?), is a thin little Oak-wood, bushes
mainly, but with sparse trees too, which is now quite stubbed out,
though it was then important enough, and played a great part in the
result of this day's work. Radowesnitz, a pronounceable little Village,
half a mile farther or southward of the Oak-bush, is beyond the
extremity of Daun's position; low down on a marshy little Brook,
which oozes through lakes and swamps towards Kolin, in the northerly
direction.

Most or all of these Villages are on little Brooks (natural thirst so
leading them): always some little runlet of water, not so swampy when
there is any fall for it; in general lively when it gets over the ridge,
and becomes visible from this Highway. And it is curious to see what
a considerable dell, or green ascending chasm, this little thread of
water, working at all moments for thousands of years, has hollowed out
for itself in the sloping ground; making a great military obstacle, if
you are mounting to attack there. Poor Czech Hamlets all of them, dirty,
dark, mal-odorous, ignorant, abhorrent of German speech;--in what nook
those inarticulate inhabitants, diving underground at a great rate this
morning, have hidden themselves to-day, I know not. The country consists
of knolls and slopes, with swamps intermediate; rises higher on the
Planian side; but except the top of that Kamhayek ridge on the Planian
side, and "Friedrich's-Berg" on the Kolin side, there is nothing
that you could think of calling a Hill, though many Books (and even
Friedrich's Book) rashly say otherwise. Friedrich's-Berg, now so called,
is on the north side of the Highway: half a mile northeastward of
Slatislunz, the mal-odorous Inn. A conical height of perhaps a hundred
and fifty feet; rises rather suddenly from the still-sloping ground,
checking the slope there; on which the Austrian populations have built
some memorial lately, notable to Tourists. Here Friedrich "stood during
the Battle," say they; and the Prussians "had a battery there." Which
remains uncertain to me, at least the battery part of it: that Friedrich
himself was there, now and then, can be believed; but not that he kept
"standing there" for long together. Friedrich's-Berg does command some
view of the Kreczor scene, which at times was cardinal, at others not:
but Friedrich did not stand anywhere: "oftenest in the thick of the
fire," say those who saw.

Friedrich, from his Inn near Planian, seeing how Daun deploys himself,
considers him impregnable on the left wing; impregnable, too, in front:
not so on the Kreczor side, right flank and rear; but capable of being
rolled together, if well struck at there. Thither therefore; that is his
vulnerable point. March along his front: quietly parallel in due Order
of Battle, till we can bend round, and plunge in upon that. The Van,
which consists of Ziethen's Horse and Hulsen's Infantry; Van, having
faced to right at the proper moment and so become Left Wing, will attack
Kreczor; probably carry it; each Division following will in like manner
face to right when it arrives there, and fall on in regular succession
in support of Hulsen (at Hulsen's right flank, if Hulsen be found
prospering): our Right Wing is to refuse itself, and be as a
Reserve,--no fighting on the road, you others, but steady towards
Hulsen, in continual succession, all you; no facing round, no fighting
anywhere, till we get thither:--"March!"

The word is given about 2 P.M.; and all, on the instant, is in motion;
rolls steadily eastward, in two columns, which will become First Line
and Second. One along the Highway, the second at due distance leftward
on the green ground, no hedge or other obstacle obstructing in that part
of the world. Daun's batteries, on the right, spit at them in passing,
to no purpose; sputters of Pandour musketry, from coverts, there may
be: Prussians finely disregarding, pass along; flowing tide-like towards
THEIR goal and place of choice. An impressive phenomenon in the sunny
afternoon; with Daun expectant of them, and the Czech populations well
hidden underground!--

Ziethen, vanmost of all, finds Nadasti and his Austrian squadrons drawn
across the Highway, hitherward of the Kreczor latitude: Ziethen dashes
on Nadasti; tumbles his squadrons and him away; clears the Road, and
Kreczor neighborhood, of Nadasti: drives him quite into the hollow of
Radowesnitz, where he stood inactive for the rest of the day. Hulsen now
at the level of Kreczor (in the latitude of Kreczor, as we phrased it),
halts, faces to right; stiffly presses up, opens his cannon-thunders,
his bayonet-charges and platoon-fires upon Kreczor. Stiffly pressing
up, in spite of the violent counter-thunders, Hulsen does manage Kreczor
without very much delay, completely enough, and like a workman; takes
the battery, two batteries; overturns the Infantry;--in a word, has
seized Kreczor, and, as new tenant, swept the old, and their litter,
quite out. Of all which Ziethen has now the chase, and by no means will
neglect that duty. Ziethen, driving the rout before him, has driven it
in some minutes past the little Oak-wood above mentioned; and, or
rather BUT,--what is much to be noted,--is there taken in flank with
cannon-shot and musketry, Daun having put batteries and Croat parties in
the Oak-wood; and is forced to draw bridle, and get out of range again.

Hulsen, advancing towards this little Oak-wood, is surprised to
discover, not the wood alone, but a strong Austrian force, foot and
horse, to rear of it;--such had been Daun's and Nadasti's precaution, on
view of those Friedrich phenomena, flowing on from Planian, guessed to
be hitherward. At sight of which Wood and foot-party, Hulsen, no new
Battalion having yet arrived to second him, pauses, merely cannonading
from the distance, till new Battalions shall arrive. Unhappily they did
not arrive, or not in due quantity at the set time,--for what reason,
by what strange mistake? men still ask themselves. Probably by more
mistakes than one. Enough, Hulsen struggling here all day, with
reinforcements never adequate, did take the Wood, and then lose it; did
take and lose this and that;--but was unable to make more of it than
keep his ground thereabouts. A resolute man, says Retzow, but without
invention of his own, or head to mend the mistakes of others. In and
about Kreczor, Hulsen did maintain himself with more and more tenacity,
till the general avalanche, fruit of sad mistakes swept HIM, quite
spasmodically struggling at that period, off to the edge of it, and all
the others clean away! Mistakes have been to rightwards, one or even
two, the fruit of which, small at first, suffices to turn the balance,
and ends in an avalanche, or precipitous descent of ruin on the Prussian
side

One mistake there was, miles westward on the right wing; due to
Mannstein, our too impetuous Russian friend, Mannstein well to right,
while marching forward according to order, has Croat musketry spitting
upon him from amid the high corn, to an inconvenient extent: such was
the common lot, which others had borne and disregarded: perhaps it
was beyond the average on Mannstein, or Mannstein's patience was less
infinite; any way it provoked Mannstein to boil over; and in an evil
moment he said, "Extinguish me that Croat canaille, then!" Regiment
Bornstedt faced to right, accordingly; took to extinguishing the Croat
canaille, which of course fled at once, or squatted closer, but came
back with reinforcements; drew Mannstein deeper in, fatally delayed
Bornstedt, and proved widely ruinous. For now he stopped the way to
those following him: regiments marching on to rear of Mannstein see
Mannstein halted, volleying with the Austrians; ask themselves "How? Is
there new order come? Attack to be in this point?" And successively fall
on to support Mannstein, as the one clear point in such dubiety. So that
the whole right wing from Regiment Bornstedt westward is storming up
the difficult steeps, in hot conflict with the Austrians there, where
success against them had been judged impracticable;--and there is now
no reserve force anywhere to be applied to in emergency, for Hulsen's
behoof or another's; and the Plan of Battle from Mannstein westward has
been fatally overturned. Poor Mannstein, there is no doubt, committed
this error, being too fiery a man. Surely to him it was no luxury,
and he paid the smart for it in skin and soul: "badly wounded in this
business;" nay, in direct sequel, not many weeks after, killed by it, as
we shall see!--

To Mannstein's mistake, Friedrich himself, in his account of Kolin,
mainly imputes the disaster that followed; and such, then and
afterwards, was the universal judgment in military circles; loading the
memory of too impetuous Mannstein with the whole. [See Retzow, i.
135; Templehof, i. 214, 220.] Much talk there was in Prussian military
circles; but there must also have been an admirable silence on the part
of some. To Three Persons it was known that another strange incident
had happened far ahead, far eastward, of Mannstein's position:
incident which did not by any means tend to alleviate, which could only
strengthen and widen, the evil results of Mannstein; and which might
have lifted part of the load from Mannstein's memory! Not till the
present Century, after the lapse of almost fifty years, was this secret
slowly dug out of silence, and submitted to modern curiosity.

The incident is this;--never whispered of for near fifty years (so
silent were the three); and endlessly tossed about since that; the sense
of it not understood till almost now. [See Retzow, i. 126; Berenhorst;
&c. &c.;--then FINALLY Kutzen, pp. 99, 217.] The three parties were:
King Friedrich; Moritz of Dessau, leading on the centre here; Moritz's
young Nephew Franz, Heir of Dessau, a brisk lad of seventeen, learning
War here as Aide-de-camp to Moritz: the exact spot is not known to
me,--probably the ground near that Inn of Slatislunz, or Golden-Sun;
between the foot of Friedrich's-Berg and that:--fact indubitable, though
kept dark so long. Moritz is marching with the centre, or main battle,
that way, intending to wheel and turn hillwards, Kreczor-wise, as per
order, certain furlongs ahead; when Friedrich (having, so I can conceive
it, seen from his Hill-top, how Hulsen had done Kreczor, altogether
prosperous there; and what endless capability there was of prospering to
all lengths and speeding the general winning, were Hulsen but supported
soon enough, were there any safe short-cut to Hulsen) dashed from his
Hill-top in hot haste towards Prince Moritz, General of the centre,
intending to direct him upon such short-cut; and hastily said, with
Olympian brevity and fire, "Face to right HERE!" With Jove-like brevity,
and in such blaze of Olympian fire as we may imagine. Moritz himself
is of brief, crabbed, fiery mind, brief in temper; and answers to the
effect, "Impossible to attack the enemy here, your Majesty; postured as
they are; and we with such orders gone abroad!"--"Face to right, I
tell you!" said the King, still more Olympian, and too emphatic for
explaining. Moritz, I hope, paused, but rather think he did not, before
remonstrating the second time; neither perhaps was his voice so low as
it should have been: it is certain Friedrich dashed quite up to Moritz
at this second remonstrance, flashed out his sword (the only time he
ever drew his sword in battle); and now, gone all to mere Olympian
lightning and thundertone, asks in THIS attitude, "WILL ER (Will He)
obey orders, then?"--Moritz, fallen silent of remonstrance, with gloomy
rapidity obeys.

Prince Franz, the young Nephew of Moritz, alone witnessed this scene;
scene to be locked in threefold silence. In his old age, Franz had
whispered it to Berenhorst, his bastard Half-Uncle, a famed military
Critic,--who is still in the highest repute that way (Berenhorst's
KRIEGSKUNST, and other deep Books), and is recognizable, to LAY readers,
for an abstruse strong judgment; with equal strength of abstruse temper
hidden behind it, and very privately a deep grudge towards Friedrich,
scarcely repressible on opportunity. From Berenhorst it irrepressibly
oozed out; ["Heinrich van Berenhorst [a natural son of the Old
Dessauer's], in his _Betrachtungen uber die Kriegskunst,_ is the first
that alludes to it in print. (Leipzig, 1797,--page in SECOND edition,
1798, is i. 219)."] much more to Friedrich's disadvantage than it now
looks when wholly seen into. Not change of plan, not ruinous caprice on
Friedrich's part, as Berenhorst, Retzow and others would have it; only
excess of brevity towards Moritz, and accident of the Olympian fire
breaking out. Friedrich is chargeable with nothing, except perhaps
(what Moritz knows the evil of) trying for a short-cut! Such is now the
received interpretation. Prince Franz, to his last day, refused to speak
again on the subject; judiciously repentant, we can fancy, of having
spoken at all, and brought such a matter into the streets and their
pie-powder adjudications. [In KUTZEN, pp. 217-237, a long dissertation
on it.] For the present, he is Adjutant to Moritz, busy obeying to the
letter.

Friedrich, withdrawing to his Height again, and looking back on Moritz,
finds that he is making right in upon the Austrian line; which was by
no means Friedrich's meaning, had not he been so brief. Friedrich,
doubtless with pain, remembers now that he had said only, "Face to
right!" and had then got into Olympian tempest, which left things dark
to Moritz. "HALB-LINKS, Half to left withal!" he despatches that new
order to Moritz, with the utmost speed: "Face to right; THEN, forward
half to left." Had Moritz, at the first, got that commentary to his
order, there had probably been no remonstrance on Moritz's part,
no Olympian scene to keep silent; and Moritz, taking that diagonal
direction from the first, had hit in at or below Kreczor, at the very
point where he was needed. Alas for overhaste; short-cuts, if they are
to be good, ought at least to be made clear! Moritz, on the new order
reaching him, does instantly steer half-left: but he arrives now above
Kreczor, strikes the Austrian line on this side of Kreczor; disjoined
from Hulsen, where he can do no good to Hulsen: in brief, Moritz, and
now the whole line with him, have to do as Mannstein and sequel are
doing, attack in face, not in flank; and try what, in the proportion of
one to two, uphill, and against batteries, they can make of it in that
fashion!

And so, from right wing to left, miles long, there is now universal
storm of volleying, bayonet-charging, thunder of artillery, case-shot,
cartridge-shot, and sulphurous devouring whirlwind; the wrestle very
tough and furious, especially on the assaulting side. Here, as at Prag,
the Prussian troops were one and all in the fire; each doing strenuously
his utmost, no complaint to be made of their performance. More perfect
soldiers, I believe, were rarely or never seen on any field of war. But
there is no reserve left: Mannstein and the rest, who should have been
reserve, and at a General's disposal, we see what they are doing! In
vain, or nearly so, is Friedrich's tactic or manoeuvring talent; what
now is there to manoeuvre? All is now gone up into one combustion. To
fan the fire, to be here, there, fanning the fire where need shows: this
is now Friedrich's function; "everywhere in the hottest of the fight,"
that is all we at present know of him, invisible to us otherwise. This
death-wrestle lasted perhaps four hours; till seven or towards eight
o'clock in the June evening; the sun verging downwards; issue still
uncertain.

And, in fact, at last the issue turned upon a hair;--such the empire of
Chance in War matters. Cautious Daun, it is well known, did not like the
aspect of the thing; cautious Daun thinks to himself, "If we get pushed
back into that Camp of yesternight, down the Kamhayek Heights, and right
into the impassable swamps; the reverse way, Heights now HIS, not
ours, and impassable swamps waiting to swallow us? Wreck complete, and
surrender at discretion--!" Daun writes in pencil: "The retreat is to
Suchdol" (Kuttenberg way, southward, where we have heights again and
magazines); Daun's Aide-de-camp is galloping every-whither with
that important Document; and Generals are preparing for retreat
accordingly,--one General on the right wing has, visibly to Hulsen and
us, his cannon out of battery, and under way rearwards; a welcome sight
to Hulsen, who, with imperfect reinforcement, is toughly maintaining
himself there all day.

And now the Daun Aide-de-camp, so Chance would have it, cannot find
Nostitz the Saxon Commandant of Horse in that quarter; finds a "Saxon
Lieutenant-Colonel B---" ("Benkendorf" all Books now write him plainly),
who, by another little chance, had been still left there: "Can the Herr
Lieutenant-Colonel tell me where General Nostitz is?" Benkendorf can
tell;--will himself take the message: but Benkendorf looks into the
important Pencil Document; thinks it premature, wasteful, and that the
contrary is feasible! persuades Nostitz so to think; persuades this
regiment and that (Saxon, Austrian, horse and foot); though the cannon
in retreat go trundling past them: "Merely shifting their battery, don't
you see:--Steady!" And, in fine, organizes, of Saxon and Austrian horse
and foot in promising quantity (Saxons in great fury on the Pirna score,
not to say the Striegau, and other old grudges), a new unanimous assault
on Hulsen.

The assault was furious, and became ever more so; at length irresistible
to Hulsen. Hulsen's horse, pressing on as to victory, are at last hurled
back; could not be rallied; [That of "RUCKER, WOLLT IHR EWIG LEBEN,
Rascals, would you live forever?" with the "Fritz, for eight groschen,
this day there has been enough!"--is to be counted pure myth; not
unsuccessful, in its withered kind.] fairly fled (some of them);
confusing Hulsen's foot,--foot is broken, instantly ranks itself, as the
manner of Prussians is; ranks itself in impromptu squares, and stands
fiercely defensive again, amid the slashing and careering: wrestle of
extreme fury, say the witnesses. "This for Striegau!" cried the Saxon
dragoons, furiously sabring. [Archenholtz, i. 100.] Yes; and is there
nothing to account of Pirna, and the later scores? Scores unliquidated,
very many still; but the end is, Hulsen is driven away; retreats,
Parthian-like, down-hill, some space; whose sad example has to spread
rightwards like a powder-train, till all are in retreat,--northward,
towards Nimburg, is the road;--and the Battle of Kolin is finished.

Friedrich made vehement effort to rally the Horse, to rally this and
that; but to no purpose: one account says he did collect some small
body, and marched forth at the head of it against a certain battery;
but, in his rear, man after man fell away, till Lieutenant-Colonel Grant
(not "Le Grand," as some call him, and indeed there is an ACCENT of
Scotch in him, still audible to us here) had to remark, "Your Majesty
and I cannot take the battery ourselves!" Upon which Friedrich turned
round; and, finding nobody, looked at the Enemy through his glass, and
slowly rode away [Retzow, i. 139.]--on a different errand.

Seeing the Battle irretrievably lost, he now called Bevern and Moritz
to him; gave them charge of the retreat--"To Nimburg; cross Elbe there
[fifteen good miles away]; and in the defiles of Planian have especial
care!" and himself rode off thitherward, his Garde-du-Corps escorting.
Retzow says, "a swarm of fugitive horse-soldiers, baggage-people,
grooms and led horses gathered in the train of him: these latter, at one
point," Retzow has heard in Opposition circles, "rushed up, galloping:
'Enemy's hussars upon us!' and set the whole party to the gallop for
some time, till they found the alarm was false." [Ib. i. 140.] Of
Friedrich we see nothing, except as if by cloudy moonlight in an
uncertain manner, through this and the other small Anecdote, perhaps
semi-mythical, and true only in the essence of it.

Daun gave no chase anywhere; on his extreme left he had, perhaps as
preparative for chasing, ordered out the cavalry; "General Stampach and
cavalry from the centre," with cannon, with infantry and appliances, to
clear away the wrecks of Mannstein, and what still stands, to right of
him, on the Planian Highway yonder. But Stampach found "obstacles
of ground," wet obstacles and also dry,--Prussian posts, smaller and
greater, who would not stir a hand-breadth: in fact, an altogether
deadly storm of Negative, spontaneous on their part, from the indignant
regiments thereabouts, King's First Battalion, and two others; who
blazed out on Stampach in an extraordinary manner, tearing to shreds
every attempt of his, themselves stiff as steel: "Die, all of us, rather
than stir!" And, in fact, the second man of these poor fellows did
die there? [Kutzen, p. 138 (from the canonical, or "STAFF-OFFICER'S"
enumeration: see SUPRA, p. 403 n.).] So that Bevern, Commander in that
part, who was absent speaking with the King, found on his return a new
battle broken out; which he did not forbid but encourage; till Stampach
had enough, and withdrew in rather torn condition. This, if this were
some preparative for chasing, was what Daun did of it, in the cavalry
way; and this was all. The infantry he strictly prohibited to stir from
their position,--"No saying, if we come into the level ground, with such
an enemy!"--and passed the night under arms. Far on our left, or what
was once our left, Ziethen with all his squadrons, nay Hulsen with most
of his battalions, continued steady on the ground; and marched away at
their leisure, as rear-guard.

"It seemed," says Tempelhof, in splenetic tone, "as if Feldmarschall
Daun, like a good Christian, would not suffer the sun to go down on his
wrath. This day, nearly the longest in the year, he allowed the Prussian
cavalry, which had beaten Nadasti, to stand quiet on the field till ten
at night [till nine]; he did not send a single hussar in chase of the
infantry. He stood all night under arms; and next day returned to his
old Camp, as if he had been afraid the King would come back. Arriving
there himself, he could see, about ten in the morning, behind Kaurzim
and Planian, the whole Prussian Baggage fallen into such a coil that the
wagons were with difficulty got on way again; nevertheless he let
it, under cover of the grenadier battalion Manteuffel, go in peace."
[Tempelhof, i. 195.] A man that for caution and slowness could make no
use of his victory!

The Austrian force in the Field this day is counted to have been 60,000;
their losses in killed, wounded and missing, 8,114. The Prussians, who
began 34,000 in strength, lost 13,773; of whom prisoners (including all
the wounded), 5,380. Their baggage, we have seen, was not meddled with:
they lost 45 cannon, 22 flags,--a loss not worth adding, in comparison
to this sore havoc, for the second time, in the flower of the Prussian
Infantry. [Retzow, i. 141 (whose numbers are apt to be inaccurate);
Kutzen, p. 144 (who depends on the Canonical STAFF-OFFICER Account).]

The news reached Prag Camp at two in the morning (Sunday, 19th): to the
sorrowful amazement of the Generals there; who "stood all silent;
only the Prince of Prussia breaking out into loud lamentations and
accusations," which even Retzow thinks unseemly. Friedrich arrived that
Sunday evening: and the Siege was raised, next day; with next to no
hindrance or injury. With none at all on the part of Daun; who was still
standing among the heights and swamps of Planian,--busy singing, or
shooting, universal TE-DEUM, with very great rolling fire and other
pomp, that day while Friedrich gathered his Siege-goods and got on
march.




THE MARIA-THERESA ORDER, NEW KNIGHTHOOD FOR AUSTRIA.

No tongue can express the joy of the Austrians over this
victory,--vouchsafed them, in this manner, by Lieutenant-Colonel
Benkendorf and the Powers above. Miraculously, behold, they are not upon
the retreat to Suchdol, at double-quick, and in ragged ever-lengthening
line; but stand here, keeping rank all night, on the Planian-Kolin
upland of the Kamhayek:--behold, they have actually beaten Friedrich;
for the first time, not been beaten by him. Clearly beaten that
Friedrich, by some means or other. With such a result, too; consider
it,--drawn sword was at our throat; and marvellously now it is turned
round upon his (if Daun be alert), and we--let us rejoice to all
lengths, and sing TE-DEUM and TE-DAUNUM with one throat, till the
Heavens echo again.

 There was quite a hurricane, or lengthened storm, of jubilation
and tripudiation raised at Vienna on this victory: New ORDER OF MARIA
THERESA, in suitable Olympian fashion, with no end of regulating and
inaugurating,--with Daun the first Chief of it; and "Pensions to Merit"
a conspicuous part of the plan, we are glad to see. It subsists to this
day: the grandest Military Order the Austrians yet have. Which
then deafened the world, with its infinite solemnities, patentings,
discoursings, trumpetings, for a good while. As was natural, surely, to
that high Imperial Lady with the magnanimous heart; to that loyal solid
Austrian People with its pudding-head. Daun is at the top of the Theresa
Order, and of military renown in Vienna circles;--of Lieutenant-Colonel
Benkendorf I never heard that he got the least pension or
recognition;--continued quietly a military lion to discerning men, for
the rest of his days. ["Died at Dresden, General of Cavalry," 5th May,
1801 (Rodenbeck, i. 338, 339).]

Nay once, on Dauu's TE-DEUM day, he had a kind of recognition;--and
even, by good accident, can tell us of it in his own words: [Kutzen
(citing some BIOGRAPHY of Benkendorf), p. 143.]--

"I was sent for to head-quarters by a trumpeter,"--Benkendorf
was,--"when all was ready for the TE-DEUM. Feldmarschall Daun was
pleased to say at sight of me, 'That as I had had so much to do with the
victory, it was but right I should thank our Herr Gott along with him.'
Having no change of clothes,--as the servant, who was to have a uniform
and some linens ready for me, had galloped off during the Fight, and our
baggage was all gone to rearward,--I tried to hustle out of sight among
the crowd of Imperial Officers all in gala: but the reigning Duke of
Wurtemberg [Wilhelmina's Son-in-law, a perverse obstinate Herr, growing
ever more perverse; one of Wilhelmina's sad afflictions in these days]
called me to him, and said, 'He would give his whole wardrobe, could he
wear that dusty coat with such honor as I!'"--yes; and tried hard, in
his perverse way, for some such thing; but never could, as we shall see.

How lucky that Polish Majesty had some remains of Cavalry still at
Warsaw in the Pirna time; that they were made into a Saxon Brigade, and
taken into the Austrian service; Brigade of three Regiments, Nostitz for
Chief, and this Benkendorf a Lieutenant-Colonel, among them;--and that
Polish Majesty, though himself lost, has been the saving of Austria
twice within one year!




Chapter V.--FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ, HIS WORLD OF ENEMIES COMING ON.

Of Friedrich's night-thoughts at Nimburg; how he slept, and what his
dreams were, we have no account. Seldom did a wearied heart sink down
into oblivion on such terms. By narrow miss, the game gone; and with
such results ahead. It was a right valiant plunge this that he made,
with all his strength and all his skill, home upon the heart of his
chief enemy. To quench his chief enemy before another came up: it was
a valiant plan, and valiantly executed; and it has failed. To dictate
peace from the walls of Vienna: that lay on the cards for him this
morning; and at night--? Kolin is lost, the fruit of Prag Victory too is
lost; and Schwerin and new tens of thousands, unreplaceable for worth
in this world, are lost; much is lost! Courage, your Majesty, all is not
lost, you not, and honor not.

To the young Graf von Anhalt, on the road to Nimburg, he is recorded to
have said, "Don't you know, then, that every man must have his reverses
(MAIS NE SAVEZ-VOUS DONC PAS QUE CHAQUE HOMME DOIT AVOIR SES REVERS)?
It appears I am to have mine." [Rodenbeck, i. 309.] And more vaguely,
in the Anecdote-Books, is mention of some stanch ruggedly pious old
Dragoon, who brought, in his steel cap, from some fine-flowing well he
had discovered, a draught of pure water to the King; old Mother Earth's
own gift, through her rugged Dragoon, exquisite refection to the thirsty
wearied soul; and spoke, in his Dragoon dialect,--"Never mind, your
Majesty! DER ALLMACHTIGE and we; It shall be mended yet. 'The Kaiserin
may get a victory for once; but does that send us to the Devil (DAVON
HOLT UNS DER TEUFEL-NICHT)!'"--words of rough comfort, which were well
taken.

Next morning, several Books, and many Drawings and Sculptures of a dim
unsuccessful nature, give us view of him, at Kimburg; sitting silent
"on a BRUNNEN-ROHR" (Fountain Apparatus, waste-pipe or feeding-pipe,
too high for convenient sitting): he is stooping forward there, his
eyes fixed on the ground, and is scratching figures in the sand with his
stick, as the broken troops reassemble round him. Archenholtz says: "He
surveyed with speechless feeling the small remnant of his Life-guard of
Foot, favorite First Battalion; 1,000 strong yesterday morning, hardly
400 now;"--gone the others, in that furious Anti-Stampach outburst
which ended the day's work! "All soldiers of this chosen Battalion were
personally known to him; their names, their age, native place, their
history [the pick of his Ruppin regiment was the basis of it]: in one
day, Death had mowed them down; they had fought like heroes, and it was
for him that they had died. His eyes were visibly wet, down his face
rolled silent tears." [Archenholtz, i. 104, 101; Kutzen, pp. 259, 138;
Retzow, i. 142.]

In public I never saw other tears from this King,--though in private
I do not warrant him; his sensibilities, little as you would think it,
being very lively and intense. "To work, however!" This King can shake
away such things; and is not given overmuch to retrospection on
the unalterable Past. "Like dewdrops from the lion's mane" (as is
figuratively said); the lion swiftly rampant again! There was manifold
swift ordering, considering and determining, at Nimburg, that day; and
towards night Friedrich shot rapidly into Head-quarters at Prag, where,
by order, there is, as the first thing of all, a very rapid business
going on, well forward by the time he arrives.

To fold one's Siege-gear and Army neatly together from those Two
Hill-tops, and march away with them safe, in sight of so many enemies:
this has to be the first and rapidest thing; if this be found possible,
as one calculates it may. After which, the world of enemies, held in
the slip so long, will rush in from all the four winds,--unknown
whitherward; one must wait to see whitherward and how.

Friedrich's History for the remaining six months of this Year falls,
accordingly, into three Sections. Section FIRST: Waiting how and
towards what objects his enemies, the Austrians first of all, will
advance;--this lasts for about a month; Friedrich waiting mainly at
Leitmeritz, on guard there both of Saxony and of Silesia, till this
slowly declare itself. Slowly, perhaps almost stupidly, but by no means
satisfactorily to Friedrich, as will be seen! After which, Section
SECOND of his History lasts above two months; Friedrich's enemies being
all got to the ground, and united in hope and resolution to overwhelm
and abolish him; but their plans, positions, operations so extremely
various that, for a long time (end of August to beginning of November),
Friedrich cannot tell what to do with them; and has to scatter himself
into thin threads, and roam about, chiefly in Thuringen and the West of
Saxony, seeking something to fight with, and finding nothing; getting
more and more impatient of such paltry misery; at times nigh desperate;
and habitually drifting on desperation as on a lee shore in the night,
despite all his efforts. Till, in Section THIRD, which goes from
November 5th, through December 5th, and into the New Year, he does find
what to do; and does it,--in a forever memorable way.

Three Sections; of which the reader shall successively have some idea,
if he exert himself; though it is only in snatches, suggestive to an
active fancy, that we can promise to dwell on them, especially on the
First Two, which lie pretty much unsurveyable in those chaotic records,
like a world-wide coil of thrums. Let us be swift, in Friedrich's own
manner; and try to disimprison the small portions of essential! Here,
partly from Eye-witnesses, are some Notes in regard to Section First:
[Westphalen, _Geschichte der Feldzuge des Herzogs Ferdinand _ (and a
Private Journal of W.'s there), ii. 13-19; Retzow; &c.]--

"SUNDAY, 19th JUNE, At 2 A.M., Major Grant arrives at Prag [must have
started instantly after that of "We two cannot take the battery, your
Majesty!"]--goes to Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, interim Commander on
the Ziscaberg, with order To raise Siege. Consternation on the part of
some; worse, on the Prince of Prussia's part; the others kept silence
at least,--and set instantly to work. On both Hills, the cannons are
removed (across Moldau the Zisca-Hill ones), batteries destroyed,
Siege-gear neatly gathered up, to go in wagons to Leitmeritz, thence
by boat to Dresden; all this lies ready done, the dangerous part of it
done, when Friedrich arrives.

"MONDAY, 20th, before sunrise, Siege raised. At three in the morning
Friedrich marches from the Ziscaberg; to eastward he, to Alt-Bunzlau,
thence to Ah-Lissa,"--Nimburg way, with what objects we shall see.
"Marshal Keith's fine performance. Keith, from the Weissenberg, does not
march, such packing and loading still; all the baggages and artilleries
being with Keith. Not till four in the afternoon did Keith march; but
beautifully then; and folded himself away,--rear-guard under Schmettau
'retreating checkerwise,' nothing but Tolpatcheries attempting on
him,--westward, Budin-ward, without loss of a linstock, not to speak of
guns. Very prettily done on the part of Keith. By Budin, to Leitmeritz,
he; where the King will join him shortly."

Friedrich's errand in Alt-Lissa, eastward, while Keith went westward,
was, To be within due arm's-length of the Moritz-Bevern, or beaten Kolin
Army, which is coming up that way; intending to take post, and do its
best, in those parts, with Zittau Magazine and the Lausitz to rear
of it. One of our Eye-witnesses, a Herr Westphalen, Ferdinand of
Brunswick's Secretary,--who, with his Chief, got into wider fields
before long,--yields these additional particulars face to face:--

"TUESDAY, 21st JUNE, 1757. King's Head-quarters in Lissa or neighborhood
till Friday next; which is central for both these movements,--Thursday,
orders seven regiments of horse to reinforce Keith. No symptom yet of
pursuit anywhere.

"FRIDAY, 24th. Prince Moritz with the Kolin Army made appearance, all
safe, and is to command here; King intending for Keith. After dinner,
and the due interchange of battalions to that end, King sets off, with
Prince Henri, towards Keith; Head-quarter in Alt-Bunzlau again. SATURDAY
NIGHT, at Melnick; SUNDAY, Gastorf: MONDAY NIGHT, 27th JUNE, Leitmeritz;
King lodges in the Cathedral Close, in sight of Keith, who is on the
opposite side of Elbe,--but the town has a Bridge for to-morrow. 'Never
was a quieter march; not the shadow of a Pandour visible. The Duke
[Ferdinand, my Chief, Chatham's jewel that is to be, and precious to
England] has suffered much from a'--in fact, from a COURS DE VENTRE,
temporary bowel-derangement, which was very troublesome, owing to the
excessive heats by day, and coldness of the nights.

"TUESDAY, 28th. Junction with Keith,--Bridge rightly secured, due party
of dragoons and foot left on the right bank, to occupy a height which
covers Leitmeritz. 'Clearing of the Pascopol' (that is, sweeping the
Pandours out of it) is the first business; Colonel Loudon with his
Pandours, a most swift sharpcutting man, being now here in those parts;
doing a deal of mischief. Three days ago, Saturday, 25th, Keith had sent
seven battalions, with the proper steel-besoms, on that Pascopol affair;
Tuesday, on junction, Majesty sends three more: job done on Wednesday;
reported 'done,'--though I should not be surprised," says Westphalen,
"if some little highway robbery still went on among the Mountains up
there."

No;--and before quitting hold, what is this that Loudon (on the very
day of the King's arrival, June 27th), on the old Field of Lobositz
over yonder, has managed to do! General Mannstein, wounded at Kolin,
happened, with others in like case, to be passing that way, towards
Dresden and better surgery,--when Loudon's Croats set upon them,
scattering their slight escort: "Quarter, on surrender! Prisoners?"
"Never!" answered Mannstein; "Never!" that too impetuous man, starting
out from his carriage, and snatching a musket: and was instantly cut
down there. And so ends;--a man of strong head, and of heart only too
strong. [Preuss, ii. 58; _Militair-Lexiko

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