I have
Infantry
enough to meet them; but
"Cavalry is quite wanting.
"Cavalry is quite wanting.
Thomas Carlyle
"*
Austria is standing to Arms.
Schwerin has been doing his best in this interim;
collecting magazines with double diligence while the
roads are hard, taking up the Key-positions far and
wide, from the Jablunka round to the Frontier Valleys
of Glatz again. He was through Jablunka, at one
time; on into Mahren, as far as Olmtitz; levying con-
tributions, emitting patents: but as to intimidating her
Hungarian Majesty, if that was the intention, or changing
her mind at all, that is not the issue got. Austria lias
still strength, and Pragmatic Sanction and the Laws
of Nature have! Very fixed is her Hungarian Majesty's
determination, to part with no inch of Territory, but
to drive the intrusive Prussians home well punished. ;
How she has got the funds is, to this day, a mystery:
-- unless George and Walpole, from their Secret -Ser-
vice Moneys, have smuggled her somewhat? For the
Parliament is not sitting, and there will be such jar
gonings, such delays: a preliminary 100,000/. , say by
degrees 200,000/. , -- we should not miss it, and in
her Majesty's hands it would go far! Hints in the
English Dryasdust we have; but nothing definite; and
we are left to our guesses. ** A romantic story, first
* Helden-Geschickle, i. 723.
** Tindal (xx. 497) says expressly 200,0001. , but gives no date or other
particular.
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEBRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 287
21th Feb. --9th March 1741.
set current by Voltaire, has gone the round of the
world, and still appears in all Histories: How in Eng-
land, there was a Subscription set on foot for her
Hungarian Majesty; outcome of the enthusiasm of
English Ladies of quality, -- old Sarah Duchess of
Marlborough putting down her name for 40,000? . , or
indeed putting down the ready sum itself; magnanimous
veteran that she was. Voltaire says, omitting date and
circumstance, but speaking as if it were indubitable,
and a thing you could see with eyes: "The Duchess
"of Marlborough, widow of him who had fought for
Karl VI. " (and with such signal returns of gratitude
from the said Karl VI. ), "assembled the principal
"Ladies of London; who engaged to furnish 100,000/.
"among them; the Duchess herself putting down" (en
deposa, tabling in corpore) "40,000/. of it. The Queen
"of Hungary had the greatness of soul to refuse this
"money; -- needing only, as she intimated, what the
"Nation in Parliament assembled might please to offer
"her. "*
One is sorry to run athwart such a piece of mutual
magnanimity; but the fact is, on considering a little
and asking evidence, it turns out to be mythical. One
Dilworth, an innocent English soul (from whom our
grandfathers used to learn Arithmetic, I think), writing
on the spot some years after Voltaire, has this useful
passage: "It is the great failing of a strong imagination
"to catch greedily at wonders. Voltaire was misin-
"formed; and would perhaps learn, by a second inquiry,
"a truth less splendid and amusing. A Contribution
"was, by Newswriters upon their own authority, fruit-
lessly proposed. It ended in nothing: the Parliament
* Voltaire, (Emret (Siicle de Louis XV, c. 6), xxviii. 79.
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? 288 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [bookIII.
27th Feb 9th Marck 1741.
"voted a supply;" -- that did it, Mr. Dilworth; supplies
enough; and many of* them! "Fruitlessly, by News-
writers on their own authority;" that is the sad fact*
It is certain, little George, who considers Pragmatic
Sanction as the Keystone of Nature in a manner, has
been' venturing far deeper than purse for that adorable
object; and indeed has been diving, secretly, in mud-
dier waters than we expected, to a dangerous extent,
on behalf of it, at this very time. In the first days of
March, Friedrich has heard from his Minister at Peters-
burg of a detestable Project,** -- project for "Partition-
ing the Prussian Kingdom," no less; for fairly cutting
into Friedrich, and paring him down to the safe pitch,
as an enemy to Pragmatic and mankind. They say,
a Treaty, Draught of a Treaty, for that express ob-
ject, is now ready; and lies at Petersburg, only waiting
signature. Here is a Project! Contracting parties
(Russian signature still wanting) are: Kur-Sachsen; her
Hungarian Majesty; King George; and that Eegent
Anne (Mrs. Anton Ulrich, so to speak), who sits in a
huddle of undress, -- impatient of Political objects,
but sensible to the charms of handsome men. To the
charms of Count Lynar, especially; the handsomest of
Danish noblemen (more an ancient Roman than a Dane),
* The Life and Heroick Actions of Frederick III. (sic , a common blan-
der): by W. H. Dilworth, M. A. (London 1758), p. 25. A poor little Book,
one of many coming out on that subject just then (for a reason we shall see
on getting thither); which contains, of available now, the above sentence
and no more. Indeed its brethren, one of them by Samuel Johnson (tm-
pransus, the imprisoned giant), do not even contain that, and have gone
wholly to . zero. -- Neither little Dilworth nor big Voltaire give the least
shadow of specific date; but both evidently mean, Spring 1742 (not 1741).
** Orlich, i. 83 (scrap of Note to Old Dessauer; no date allowed us i
"early in March").
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 289
27th Feb 9th March 1741.
whom the Polish Majesty, calculating cause and effect,
had despatched to her, with that view, in the dead of
winter lately. To whom she has given ear; -- dis-
missing her Miinnich, as we saw above; -- and is
ready for signing, or perhaps has signed! * Friedrich's
astonishment, on hearing of this "detestable Project,"
was great. However, he takes his measures on it; --
right lucky that he has the Old Dessauer, and machinery
for acting on Kur-Sachsen and the Britannic Majesty.
"Get your machinery in gear! " is naturally his first
order. And the Old Dessauer does it, with effect: of
which by and by.
Never did I hear, before or since, of such a plunge
into the muddy unfathomable, on the part of little
George, who was an honourable creature, and dubitative
to excess: and truly this rash plunge might have cost
him dear, had not he directly scrambled out again. Or
did Friedrich exaggerate to himself his Uncle's real
share in the matter? I always guess, there had been
more of loose talk, of hypothesis and fond hope, in re-
gard to George's share, than of determinate fact or
procedure on his own part. The transaction, having
had to be dropped on the sudden, remains somewhat
dark; but, in substance, it is not doubtful;** and Par-
liament itself took afterwards to poking into it, though
with little effect. Kur-Sachsen's objects in the ad-
venture were of the earth, earthy; but on George's
part it was pure adoration of Pragmatic Sanction,
anxiety for the Keystone of Nature, and lest Chaos
come again. In comparison with such transcendent
divings, what is a little Secret-Service money! --
The Count Lynar of this adventure, who had well
* (Euvres de Frederic, ii. 68. ** Tindal, xx. 497.
Curlyle, Frederick the Great. VI. 19
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? 290 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [book ID.
27th Feb. --Oth March 1711.
nigh done such a feat in Diplomacy, may turn up
transiently again. A conspicuous, more or less ridiculous
person of those times. Biisching (our Geographical
friend) had gone with him, as Excellency's Chaplain,
in this Russian Journey; which is a memorable one to
Biisching; and still presents vividly, through his Book,
those haggard Baltic Coasts in mid-winter, to readers
who have business there. Such a Journey for grimness
of outlook, upon pine-tufts and frozen sand; for cold
(the Count's very tobacco-pipe freezing in his mouth),
for hardship, for bad lodging, and extremity of dirt in
the unfreezable kinds, as seldom was. They met, one
day on the road, a Lord Hyndford, English Ambassa-
dor just returning from Petersburg, with his fourgons
and vehicles, and arrangements for sleep and victual,
in an enviably luxurious condition, -- whom we shall
meet, to our cost. They saw, in the body, old Field-
marshal Lacy, and dined with him, at Riga; who ad-
vised brandy schnapps; a recipe rejected by Biisching.
And other memorabilia, which by accident hang about
this Lynar. * -- All through Regent Anne's time he
continued a dangerous object to Friedrich; and it was
a relief when Elizabeth Colin became Autocrat, in-
stead of Deshabille Anne and her Lynar. Adieu to
him, for fifteen years or more.
Of Friedrich's military operations, of his magazines,
posts, diligent plannings and gallopings about, in those
weeks; of all this the reader can form some notion by
looking on the map and remembering what has gone
before: but that subterranean growling which attended
him, prophetic of Earthquake, that universal breaking
* Bttsching, Beytrdge, vi. 132-164.
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDKICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 291
27th Feb. --9th March 1741.
forth of Bedlams, now fallen so extinct, no reader can
imagine. Bedlams totally extinct to everybody; but
which were then very real, and raged wide as the
world, high as the stars, to a hideous degree among
the then sons of men; -- unimaginable now by any
mortal.
And, alas, this is one of the grand difficulties for
my readers and me; Friedrich's Life-element having
fallen into such a dismal condition. Most dismal, dark,
ugly, that Austrian-Succession Business, and its world-
wide battlings, throttlings and intriguings: not Dismal
Swamp, under a coverlid of London Fog, could be
uglier! A Section of "History" so-called, which human
nature shrinks from; of which the extant generation
already knows nothing, and is impatient of hearing
anything! Truly, Oblivion is very due to such an
Epoch: and from me far be it to awaken, beyond need,
its sordid Bedlams, happily extinct. But without Life-
element, no Life can be intelligible; and till Friedrich
and one or two others are extricated from it, Dismal
Swamp cannot be quite filled in. Courage, reader! --
Our Constitutional Historian makes this farther reflection:
"English moneys, desperate Russian intrigues, Treaties
"made and Treaties broken -- If instead of Pragmatic Sanc-
"tion with eleven Potentates guaranteeing, Maria Theresa
"had at this time had 200,000 soldiers and a full treasury (as
"Prince Eugene used to advise the late Kaiser), how different
"might it have been with her, and with the whole world that
"fellupon one another's throats in her quarrel! Some eight
"years of the most disastrous War; and except the falling of
"Silesia to its new place, no result gained by it. War at any
"rateinevitable, you object? English-Spanish War having
"been obliged to kindle itself; French sure to fall in, on the
"Spanish side; sure to fall upon Hanover, so soon as beaten
"at sea, and thus to involve all Europe? Well, it is too likely.
19*
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? 292
FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [book sn.
9th March 1741.
"But, even in that case, the poor English would have gone
"upon their necessary Spanish War, By the direct road and
"with their eyes open, instead of somnambulating and stum-
"bling over the chimney-tops; and the settlement might
"have come far sooner, and far cheaper to mankind. -- Nay,
"we are to admit that the new place for Silesia was, likewise,
"the place appointed it by just Heaven; and Friedrich's too
"was a necessary War. Heaven makes use of Shadow-hunt-
"ing Kaisers too; and its ways in this mad world are through
"the great Deep. "
Thg Young Dessauer captures Glogau (March 9(h); the
Old Dessauer, by his Camp of Gottin (April 2d),
checkmates certain Designing Persons.
Money somewhere her Hungarian Majesty has got;
that is one thing evident. She has an actual Army on
foot, "drawn out of Italy," or whence she could;
formidable Army, says rumour, and getting well
equipped; -- and here are the Pandour Precursors of
it, coming down like storm-clouds through the Glatz
valleys; -- nearly finishing the War for her at a stroke,
the other day, had accident favoured; -- and have
thrown reinforcement of 600 into Neisse. Friedrich is
not insensible to these things; and amid such alarms
from far and from near, is becoming eager to have, at
least, Glogau in his hand. Glogau, he is of opinion,
could now, and should, straight-way be done.
Glogau is not a strong place; after all the repair-
ing, it could stand little siege, were we careless of
hurting it. But Wallis is obstinate; refuses Free With-
drawal; will hold out to the uttermost, though his meal
is running low. He pretends there is relief coming;
relief just at hand; -- and once, in midnight time,
"lets off a rocket and fires six guns," alarming Prince
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 293
9th March 1741.
Leopold as if relief were just in the neighbourhood.
A tough industrious military man; stiff to his purpose,
and not without shift.
Friedrich thinks the place might be had by assault:
"Open trenches; set your batteries going, which need
not injure the Town; need only alarm Wallis, and ter-
rify it; then, under cover of this noise and feint of
cannonading, storm with vigour. " Leopold, the Young
Dessauer, is cautious; wants petards if he must storm,
wants two new battalions if he must open trenches; --
he gets these requisites, and is still cunctatory. Fried-
rich has himself got the notion, "from clear intel-
ligence," true or not, that relief to Glogau is actually
on way; and under such imminences, Russian and
other, in so ticklish a state of the world, he becomes
more and more impatient that this thing were done. In
the first week of March, still hurrying about on inspec-
tion-business, he writes, from four or five different
places ("Mollwitz nearBrieg" is one of them, a Village
we shall soon know better), Note after Note to Leopold;
who still makes difficulties, and is not yet perfect to
the last finish in his preparations. "Preparations! "
answers Friedrich impatiently (date Mollwitz, bth March,
the third or fourth impatient Note he has sent); and
adds, just while quitting Mollwitz for Ohlau, this Post-
script in his own hand:
P. S. "I am sorry you have not understood me! They
"have, in Bohmen, a regular enterprise on hand for the rescue
"of Glogau.
I have Infantry enough to meet them; but
"Cavalry is quite wanting. You must therefore, without
"delay, begin the siege. Let us finish there, I pray you! " *
? Orlich, 1. 70.
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? 294
[book xn.
FIRST SILESIAN WAR.
9th March 1741.
And next day, Monday 6th, to cut the matter short,
he despatches his General-Adjutant Goltz in person
(the distance is above seventy miles), with this Note
wholly in autograph, which nothing vocal on Leopold's
part will answer:
ilOhlau, 6lh March. As I am certainly informed that the
"Enemy will make some attempt, I hereby with alldistinct-
"ness command, That, so soon as the petards are come"
(which they are), "you attack Glogau. And you must make
''your Arrangement (Disposition) for more than one attack;
"so that, if one fail, the other shall certainly succeed. I hope
"you will put off no longer; -- otherwise the blame of all the
"mischief that might arise out of longer delay must lie on you
"alone. "*
Goltz arrived with this emphatic Piece, Tuesday
Evening, after his course of seventy miles: this did at
last rouse our cautious Young Dessauer; and so there
is next obtainable, on much compression, the following
authentic Excerpt:
"Glogau, 8lh March 1741. His Durchlaucht the prince
"Leopold summoned all the Generals at noon; and informed
"them That, this very night, Glogau must be won. He gave
"them their Instructions in writing: where each was to post
"himself; with what detachments; how to proceed. There
"are to be Three Attacks: one up stream, coming on with the
'' River to its left; one down stream, River to its right; and a
"third from the landward side, perpendicular to the other
"two. The very captains that shall go foremost are speci-
"fied; at what hour each is to leave quarters, so that all be
"ready simultaneously, waiting in the posts assigned; --
"against what points to advance out of these, and storm
"Rampart and Wall. Places, times, particulars, everything
"is fixed with mathematical exactitude: 'Be steady, becor-
"rect, especially be silent; and so far as Law of Nature will
"permit, be simultaneous! When the big steeple of Glogau
"peals Midnight, -- Forward, with the first stroke; with the
* Orlich, i. 71.
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 295
9t! i March 1741.
"second, much more with the twelfth stroke, be one and all of
"you, in the utmost silence, advancing! And, under pain of
"death, two things: Not one shot till you are in; No plunder-
"ing when you are. ' -- In this manner is the silent three-sided
"avalanche to be let go. Whereupon," says my Dryasdust,
"the Generals retired; and had, for one item, their fire-arms
"all cleaned, and new-loaded. "*
Without plans of Glogau, and more detail and
stuiy than the reader would consent to, there can no
Narrative be given. Glogau has Ramparts, due Ring-
fenee, palisaded and repaired by Wallis; inside of this
is &n old Town-Wall, which will need petards: there
are about 1,000 men under Wallis, and altogether on
the works, not to count a mortar or two, fifty-eight big
guns. The reader must conceive a poor Town under
bloclade, in the wintry night-time, with its tough
Courl Wallis; ill off for the necessaries of life; Town
shrouJed in darkness, and creeping quietly to its bed.
This >n the one hand: and on the other hand, Prussian
battaLons marching up, at 10 o'clock or later, with
the utmost softness of step; "taking post behind the
ordinary field-watches;" and at length, all standing
ranked in the invisible dark; silent, like machinery,
like a deeping avalanche: Husht! -- No sentry from
the wals dreams of such a thing. "Twelve! " sings
out the steeple of Glogau; and in grim whisper the
word is 'Vorwdrls! " and the three-winged avalanche
is in moton.
They reach their glacises, their ditches, covered
ways, corpct as mathematics; tear out chevaux-de-frise,
hew down oalisades, in the given number of minutes:
Swift, ye legiment's-carpenters; smite your best! Four
* Helden-Geschichte, i. 823; ii. 165.
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? 296 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [bookSH.
9th March 1741.
cannon-shot do now boom out upon them; which go
high over their heads, little dreaming how close at
hand they are. The glacis is thirty feet high, of stiff
slope, and slippery with frost: no matter, the avalanche,
led on by Leopold in person, by Margraf Karl the
King's Cousin, by Adjutant Golz and the chief par-
sonages, rushes up with strange impetus; hews dowi a
second palisade; surges in; -- Wallis's sentries extinct,
or driven to their main guards. There is a singular
fire in the besieging party. For example, Four Gre-
nadiers, -- I think of this First Column, which sac-
ceeded sooner, certainly of the Regiment Glasenapp,--
four grenadiers, owing to slippery or other accidents,
in climbing the glacis, had fallen a few steps belind
the general body; and on getting to the top, took the
wrong course, and rushed along rightward insteal of
leftward. Rightward, the first thing they come ipon
is a mass of Austrians still ranked in firms; Fiffr-two
men, as it turned out, with their Captain over them.
Slight stutter ensues on the part of the Four Grenatiers;
but they give one another the hint, and dash forward:
"Prisoners? " ask they sternly, as if all Prusaa had
been at their rear. The Fifty-two, in the darkless, in
the danger and alarm, answer "Yes. " -- "Pib arms,
then! " Three of the grenadiers stand to see th;t done;
the fourth runs off for force, and happily gits back
with it before the comedy had become tragic for his
comrades. "I must make acquaintance with tiese four
men," writes Friedrich, on hearing of it; aid he did
reward them by present, by promotion to iergeantcy
(to ensigncy one of them), or what else tfoy were fit
for. Grenadiers of Glasenapp: these are the men Fried-
rich heard swearing-in under his window, one memor-
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 297
9th March 1741.
able morning when he burst into tears! At half-past
Twelve, the Ramparts, on all sides, are ours.
The Gates of the Town, under axe and petard, can
make little resistance, to Leopold's Column or the other
two. A hole is soon cut in the Town-Gate, where Leo-
pold is; and gallant Wallis, who had rallied behind it,
with his Artillery-General and what they could get
together, fires through the opening, kills four men; but
is then (by order, and not till then) fired upon, and
obliged to draw back, with his Artillery-General mor-
tally hurt. Inside he attempts another rally, some 200
with him; and here and there perhaps a house-window
tries to give shot; but it is to no purpose, not the least
stand can be made. Poor Wallis is rapidly swept back,
into the Market-place, into the Main Guardhouse; and
there piles arms: "Glogau yours, Ihr Herren, and we
prisoners of War! " The steeple had not yet quite
struck One. Here has been a good hour's-work!
Glogau, as in a dream, or half-awake, and timidly
peeping from behind window-curtains, finds that it is a
Town taken. Glogau easily consoles itself, I hear, or
even is generally glad; Prussian discipline being so
perfect, and ingress now free for the necessaries of life.
There was no plundering; not the least insult: no
townsman was hurt; not even in houses where soldiers
had tried firing from windows. The Prussian Battalions
rendezvous in the Market-place, and go peaceably
about their patrolling, and other business; and meddle
with nothing else. They lost, in killed, ten men; had
of killed and wounded, forty-eight; the Austrians rather
more. * Wallis was to have been set free on parole;
* Orlich, i. 75, 78; Helilen-Geschichle, i. 829: irreconcilable otherwise,
in some slight points.
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? 298
FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [book TO.
9th March 1U1.
but was not, -- in retaliation for some severity of
General Browne's in the interim (picking up of two
Silesian Noblemen, suspected of Prussian tendency,
and locking them in Briinn over the Hills), -- and
had to go to Berlin, till that was repaired. To the
wounded Artillery-General there was every tenderness
shown, but he died in few days. The other Prisoners
were marched to the Ciistrin-Stettin quarter; "and
many of them took Prussian service. "
And this is the Scalade of Glogau: a shining feat
of those days; which had great rumour in the Gazettes,
and over all the then feverish Nations, though it has
now fallen dim again, as feats do. Its importance at
that time, its utility to Friedrich's affairs, was un-
deniable; and it filled Friedrich with the highest satis-
faction, and with admiration to overflowing. Done,
9th March 1741; in one hour, the very earliest of the
day.
Goltz posted back to Schweidnitz with the news;
got thither about 5 p. m. ; and was received, naturally,
with open arms. Friedrich in person marched out, next
morning, to make Feu-de-joie and Te-Deum-ing; --
there was Royal Letter to Leopold, which flamed
through all the Newspapers, and can still be read in
innumerable Books; Letter omissible in this place.
We remark only how punctual the King is, to reward
in money as well as praise and not the high only, but
the low that had deserved: to Prince Leopold he pre-
sents 2,000/. ; to each private soldier who had been of
the storm, say half-a-guinea, -- doubling and qua-
drupling, in the special cases, to as high as twenty
guineas, of our present money. To the old Gazetteers,
and their readers everywhere, this of Glogau is a very
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 299
Mh March--2d April 1741.
effulgent business; bursting out on them, like sudden
Bude-light, in the uncertain stagnancy and expectancy
of mankind. Friedrich himself writes of it to the Old
Dessauer:
"The more I think of the Glogau business, the more im-
"portant I find it. Prince Leopold has achieved the prettiest
"military stroke (die schbnste Action) that has been done in
"this Century. From my heart I congratulate you on having
"such a Son. In boldness of resolution, in plan, in execu-
tion, it is alike admirable; and quite gives a turn to my
"affairs. "*
And indeed, it is a perfect example of Prussian dis-
cipline, and military quality in all kinds; such as it
would be difficult to match elsewhere. Most potently
correct; coming out everywhere with the completeness
and exactitude of mathematics; and has in it such a
fund of martial fire, not only ready to blaze out (which
can be exampled elsewhere), but capable of bottling
itself in, and of lying silently ready. Which is much
rarer; and very essential in soldiering! Due a little to
the Old Dessauer, may we not say, as well as to the
Young? Friedrich Wilhelm is fallen silent; but his
heavy labours, and military and other drillings to Prus-
sian mankind, still speak with an audible voice.
About three weeks after this of Glogau, Leopold
the Old Dessauer, over in Brandenburg, does another
thing which is important to Friedrich, and of great
rumour in the world. Steps out, namely, with a force
of 36,000 men, horse, foot and artillery, completely
equipped in all points; and takes Camp, at this early
season, at a place called Gottin, not far from Magde-
* Date, 13th March 1741 (Orlich, i. 77).
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? 300 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [bOOKDI.
9th March--2d April Ml
burg, handy at once for Saxony and for Hanover; and
continues there encamped, -- "merely for review pur-
poses. " Readers can figure what an astonishment it
was to Kur-Sachsen and British George; and how it
struck the wind out of their Russian Partition-Dream,
and awoke them to a sense of the awful fact! --
Capable of being slit in pieces, and themselves par-
titioned, at a day's warning, as it were! It was on
April 2d, that Leopold, with the first division of the
36,000, planted his flag near Gottin. No doubt it
was the "detestable Project," that had brought him out,
at so early a season for tent life, and nobody could
then guess why. He steadily paraded here, all summer;
keeping his 36,000 well in drill, since there was nothing
else needed of him.
The Camp at Gottin flamed greatly abroad through
the timorous imaginations of mankind, that Year; and
in the Newspapers are many details of it. And, be-
sides the important general fact, there is still one little
point worth special mention: namely, that old Field-
marshal Katte (Father of poor Lieutenant Katte whom
we knew) was of it; and perhaps even got his death
by it: "Chief Commander of the Cavalry here," such
honour had he; but died at his post, in a couple of
months, "at Rekahn, May 31st;"* poor old gentleman,
perhaps unequal to the hardships of field-life at so
early a season of the year.
Friedrich takes the Field, with some Pomp; goes into the
Mountains, -- but comes fast back.
At Glogau there was Homaging, on the very mor-
row after the storm; on the second day, the superfluous
* Milituir-Lexikon, ii. 254.
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 301
9tli March--2d April 1741.
regiments marched off: no want of vigorous activity to
settle matters on their new footing there. General
Kalkstein (Friedrich's old Tutor, whom readers have
forgotten again) is to be Commandant of Glogau; an
office of honour, which can be done by deputy except
in cases of real stress. The place is to be thoroughly
new-fortified, --- which important point they commit to
Engineer Wallrave, a strong-headed heavy-built Dutch
Officer, long since acquired to the service, on account
of his excellence in that line; who did, now and after-
wards, a great deal of excellent engineering for Fried-
rich; but for himself (being of deep stomach withal,
and of life too dissolute) made a tragic thing of it
ultimately. As will be seen, if we have leisure.
In seven or eight days, Prince Leopold, having
wound up his Glogau affairs, and completed the new
preliminaries there, joins the King at Schweidnitz. In
the highest favour, as was natural. Kalkstein is to
take a main hand in the Siege of Neisse; for which
operation it is hoped there will soon be weather, if not
favourable yet supportable. What of the force was
superfluous at Glogau had at once marched off, as we
observed; and is now getting re-distributed where need-
ful. There is much shifting about; strengthening of
posts, giving up of posts: the whole of which readers
shall imagine for themselves, -- except only two points
that are worth remembering: First, that Kalkstein with
about 12,000 takes post at Grotkau, some twenty-five
miles north of Neisse, ready to move on, and open
trenches, when required: and second, that Holstein-
Beck gets posted at Frankenstein (chief place of that
Baumgarten Skirmish), say thirty-five miles west-by-
north of Neisse; and has some 8 or 10,000 Horse and
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Austria is standing to Arms.
Schwerin has been doing his best in this interim;
collecting magazines with double diligence while the
roads are hard, taking up the Key-positions far and
wide, from the Jablunka round to the Frontier Valleys
of Glatz again. He was through Jablunka, at one
time; on into Mahren, as far as Olmtitz; levying con-
tributions, emitting patents: but as to intimidating her
Hungarian Majesty, if that was the intention, or changing
her mind at all, that is not the issue got. Austria lias
still strength, and Pragmatic Sanction and the Laws
of Nature have! Very fixed is her Hungarian Majesty's
determination, to part with no inch of Territory, but
to drive the intrusive Prussians home well punished. ;
How she has got the funds is, to this day, a mystery:
-- unless George and Walpole, from their Secret -Ser-
vice Moneys, have smuggled her somewhat? For the
Parliament is not sitting, and there will be such jar
gonings, such delays: a preliminary 100,000/. , say by
degrees 200,000/. , -- we should not miss it, and in
her Majesty's hands it would go far! Hints in the
English Dryasdust we have; but nothing definite; and
we are left to our guesses. ** A romantic story, first
* Helden-Geschickle, i. 723.
** Tindal (xx. 497) says expressly 200,0001. , but gives no date or other
particular.
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEBRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 287
21th Feb. --9th March 1741.
set current by Voltaire, has gone the round of the
world, and still appears in all Histories: How in Eng-
land, there was a Subscription set on foot for her
Hungarian Majesty; outcome of the enthusiasm of
English Ladies of quality, -- old Sarah Duchess of
Marlborough putting down her name for 40,000? . , or
indeed putting down the ready sum itself; magnanimous
veteran that she was. Voltaire says, omitting date and
circumstance, but speaking as if it were indubitable,
and a thing you could see with eyes: "The Duchess
"of Marlborough, widow of him who had fought for
Karl VI. " (and with such signal returns of gratitude
from the said Karl VI. ), "assembled the principal
"Ladies of London; who engaged to furnish 100,000/.
"among them; the Duchess herself putting down" (en
deposa, tabling in corpore) "40,000/. of it. The Queen
"of Hungary had the greatness of soul to refuse this
"money; -- needing only, as she intimated, what the
"Nation in Parliament assembled might please to offer
"her. "*
One is sorry to run athwart such a piece of mutual
magnanimity; but the fact is, on considering a little
and asking evidence, it turns out to be mythical. One
Dilworth, an innocent English soul (from whom our
grandfathers used to learn Arithmetic, I think), writing
on the spot some years after Voltaire, has this useful
passage: "It is the great failing of a strong imagination
"to catch greedily at wonders. Voltaire was misin-
"formed; and would perhaps learn, by a second inquiry,
"a truth less splendid and amusing. A Contribution
"was, by Newswriters upon their own authority, fruit-
lessly proposed. It ended in nothing: the Parliament
* Voltaire, (Emret (Siicle de Louis XV, c. 6), xxviii. 79.
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? 288 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [bookIII.
27th Feb 9th Marck 1741.
"voted a supply;" -- that did it, Mr. Dilworth; supplies
enough; and many of* them! "Fruitlessly, by News-
writers on their own authority;" that is the sad fact*
It is certain, little George, who considers Pragmatic
Sanction as the Keystone of Nature in a manner, has
been' venturing far deeper than purse for that adorable
object; and indeed has been diving, secretly, in mud-
dier waters than we expected, to a dangerous extent,
on behalf of it, at this very time. In the first days of
March, Friedrich has heard from his Minister at Peters-
burg of a detestable Project,** -- project for "Partition-
ing the Prussian Kingdom," no less; for fairly cutting
into Friedrich, and paring him down to the safe pitch,
as an enemy to Pragmatic and mankind. They say,
a Treaty, Draught of a Treaty, for that express ob-
ject, is now ready; and lies at Petersburg, only waiting
signature. Here is a Project! Contracting parties
(Russian signature still wanting) are: Kur-Sachsen; her
Hungarian Majesty; King George; and that Eegent
Anne (Mrs. Anton Ulrich, so to speak), who sits in a
huddle of undress, -- impatient of Political objects,
but sensible to the charms of handsome men. To the
charms of Count Lynar, especially; the handsomest of
Danish noblemen (more an ancient Roman than a Dane),
* The Life and Heroick Actions of Frederick III. (sic , a common blan-
der): by W. H. Dilworth, M. A. (London 1758), p. 25. A poor little Book,
one of many coming out on that subject just then (for a reason we shall see
on getting thither); which contains, of available now, the above sentence
and no more. Indeed its brethren, one of them by Samuel Johnson (tm-
pransus, the imprisoned giant), do not even contain that, and have gone
wholly to . zero. -- Neither little Dilworth nor big Voltaire give the least
shadow of specific date; but both evidently mean, Spring 1742 (not 1741).
** Orlich, i. 83 (scrap of Note to Old Dessauer; no date allowed us i
"early in March").
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 289
27th Feb 9th March 1741.
whom the Polish Majesty, calculating cause and effect,
had despatched to her, with that view, in the dead of
winter lately. To whom she has given ear; -- dis-
missing her Miinnich, as we saw above; -- and is
ready for signing, or perhaps has signed! * Friedrich's
astonishment, on hearing of this "detestable Project,"
was great. However, he takes his measures on it; --
right lucky that he has the Old Dessauer, and machinery
for acting on Kur-Sachsen and the Britannic Majesty.
"Get your machinery in gear! " is naturally his first
order. And the Old Dessauer does it, with effect: of
which by and by.
Never did I hear, before or since, of such a plunge
into the muddy unfathomable, on the part of little
George, who was an honourable creature, and dubitative
to excess: and truly this rash plunge might have cost
him dear, had not he directly scrambled out again. Or
did Friedrich exaggerate to himself his Uncle's real
share in the matter? I always guess, there had been
more of loose talk, of hypothesis and fond hope, in re-
gard to George's share, than of determinate fact or
procedure on his own part. The transaction, having
had to be dropped on the sudden, remains somewhat
dark; but, in substance, it is not doubtful;** and Par-
liament itself took afterwards to poking into it, though
with little effect. Kur-Sachsen's objects in the ad-
venture were of the earth, earthy; but on George's
part it was pure adoration of Pragmatic Sanction,
anxiety for the Keystone of Nature, and lest Chaos
come again. In comparison with such transcendent
divings, what is a little Secret-Service money! --
The Count Lynar of this adventure, who had well
* (Euvres de Frederic, ii. 68. ** Tindal, xx. 497.
Curlyle, Frederick the Great. VI. 19
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? 290 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [book ID.
27th Feb. --Oth March 1711.
nigh done such a feat in Diplomacy, may turn up
transiently again. A conspicuous, more or less ridiculous
person of those times. Biisching (our Geographical
friend) had gone with him, as Excellency's Chaplain,
in this Russian Journey; which is a memorable one to
Biisching; and still presents vividly, through his Book,
those haggard Baltic Coasts in mid-winter, to readers
who have business there. Such a Journey for grimness
of outlook, upon pine-tufts and frozen sand; for cold
(the Count's very tobacco-pipe freezing in his mouth),
for hardship, for bad lodging, and extremity of dirt in
the unfreezable kinds, as seldom was. They met, one
day on the road, a Lord Hyndford, English Ambassa-
dor just returning from Petersburg, with his fourgons
and vehicles, and arrangements for sleep and victual,
in an enviably luxurious condition, -- whom we shall
meet, to our cost. They saw, in the body, old Field-
marshal Lacy, and dined with him, at Riga; who ad-
vised brandy schnapps; a recipe rejected by Biisching.
And other memorabilia, which by accident hang about
this Lynar. * -- All through Regent Anne's time he
continued a dangerous object to Friedrich; and it was
a relief when Elizabeth Colin became Autocrat, in-
stead of Deshabille Anne and her Lynar. Adieu to
him, for fifteen years or more.
Of Friedrich's military operations, of his magazines,
posts, diligent plannings and gallopings about, in those
weeks; of all this the reader can form some notion by
looking on the map and remembering what has gone
before: but that subterranean growling which attended
him, prophetic of Earthquake, that universal breaking
* Bttsching, Beytrdge, vi. 132-164.
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDKICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 291
27th Feb. --9th March 1741.
forth of Bedlams, now fallen so extinct, no reader can
imagine. Bedlams totally extinct to everybody; but
which were then very real, and raged wide as the
world, high as the stars, to a hideous degree among
the then sons of men; -- unimaginable now by any
mortal.
And, alas, this is one of the grand difficulties for
my readers and me; Friedrich's Life-element having
fallen into such a dismal condition. Most dismal, dark,
ugly, that Austrian-Succession Business, and its world-
wide battlings, throttlings and intriguings: not Dismal
Swamp, under a coverlid of London Fog, could be
uglier! A Section of "History" so-called, which human
nature shrinks from; of which the extant generation
already knows nothing, and is impatient of hearing
anything! Truly, Oblivion is very due to such an
Epoch: and from me far be it to awaken, beyond need,
its sordid Bedlams, happily extinct. But without Life-
element, no Life can be intelligible; and till Friedrich
and one or two others are extricated from it, Dismal
Swamp cannot be quite filled in. Courage, reader! --
Our Constitutional Historian makes this farther reflection:
"English moneys, desperate Russian intrigues, Treaties
"made and Treaties broken -- If instead of Pragmatic Sanc-
"tion with eleven Potentates guaranteeing, Maria Theresa
"had at this time had 200,000 soldiers and a full treasury (as
"Prince Eugene used to advise the late Kaiser), how different
"might it have been with her, and with the whole world that
"fellupon one another's throats in her quarrel! Some eight
"years of the most disastrous War; and except the falling of
"Silesia to its new place, no result gained by it. War at any
"rateinevitable, you object? English-Spanish War having
"been obliged to kindle itself; French sure to fall in, on the
"Spanish side; sure to fall upon Hanover, so soon as beaten
"at sea, and thus to involve all Europe? Well, it is too likely.
19*
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? 292
FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [book sn.
9th March 1741.
"But, even in that case, the poor English would have gone
"upon their necessary Spanish War, By the direct road and
"with their eyes open, instead of somnambulating and stum-
"bling over the chimney-tops; and the settlement might
"have come far sooner, and far cheaper to mankind. -- Nay,
"we are to admit that the new place for Silesia was, likewise,
"the place appointed it by just Heaven; and Friedrich's too
"was a necessary War. Heaven makes use of Shadow-hunt-
"ing Kaisers too; and its ways in this mad world are through
"the great Deep. "
Thg Young Dessauer captures Glogau (March 9(h); the
Old Dessauer, by his Camp of Gottin (April 2d),
checkmates certain Designing Persons.
Money somewhere her Hungarian Majesty has got;
that is one thing evident. She has an actual Army on
foot, "drawn out of Italy," or whence she could;
formidable Army, says rumour, and getting well
equipped; -- and here are the Pandour Precursors of
it, coming down like storm-clouds through the Glatz
valleys; -- nearly finishing the War for her at a stroke,
the other day, had accident favoured; -- and have
thrown reinforcement of 600 into Neisse. Friedrich is
not insensible to these things; and amid such alarms
from far and from near, is becoming eager to have, at
least, Glogau in his hand. Glogau, he is of opinion,
could now, and should, straight-way be done.
Glogau is not a strong place; after all the repair-
ing, it could stand little siege, were we careless of
hurting it. But Wallis is obstinate; refuses Free With-
drawal; will hold out to the uttermost, though his meal
is running low. He pretends there is relief coming;
relief just at hand; -- and once, in midnight time,
"lets off a rocket and fires six guns," alarming Prince
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 293
9th March 1741.
Leopold as if relief were just in the neighbourhood.
A tough industrious military man; stiff to his purpose,
and not without shift.
Friedrich thinks the place might be had by assault:
"Open trenches; set your batteries going, which need
not injure the Town; need only alarm Wallis, and ter-
rify it; then, under cover of this noise and feint of
cannonading, storm with vigour. " Leopold, the Young
Dessauer, is cautious; wants petards if he must storm,
wants two new battalions if he must open trenches; --
he gets these requisites, and is still cunctatory. Fried-
rich has himself got the notion, "from clear intel-
ligence," true or not, that relief to Glogau is actually
on way; and under such imminences, Russian and
other, in so ticklish a state of the world, he becomes
more and more impatient that this thing were done. In
the first week of March, still hurrying about on inspec-
tion-business, he writes, from four or five different
places ("Mollwitz nearBrieg" is one of them, a Village
we shall soon know better), Note after Note to Leopold;
who still makes difficulties, and is not yet perfect to
the last finish in his preparations. "Preparations! "
answers Friedrich impatiently (date Mollwitz, bth March,
the third or fourth impatient Note he has sent); and
adds, just while quitting Mollwitz for Ohlau, this Post-
script in his own hand:
P. S. "I am sorry you have not understood me! They
"have, in Bohmen, a regular enterprise on hand for the rescue
"of Glogau.
I have Infantry enough to meet them; but
"Cavalry is quite wanting. You must therefore, without
"delay, begin the siege. Let us finish there, I pray you! " *
? Orlich, 1. 70.
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? 294
[book xn.
FIRST SILESIAN WAR.
9th March 1741.
And next day, Monday 6th, to cut the matter short,
he despatches his General-Adjutant Goltz in person
(the distance is above seventy miles), with this Note
wholly in autograph, which nothing vocal on Leopold's
part will answer:
ilOhlau, 6lh March. As I am certainly informed that the
"Enemy will make some attempt, I hereby with alldistinct-
"ness command, That, so soon as the petards are come"
(which they are), "you attack Glogau. And you must make
''your Arrangement (Disposition) for more than one attack;
"so that, if one fail, the other shall certainly succeed. I hope
"you will put off no longer; -- otherwise the blame of all the
"mischief that might arise out of longer delay must lie on you
"alone. "*
Goltz arrived with this emphatic Piece, Tuesday
Evening, after his course of seventy miles: this did at
last rouse our cautious Young Dessauer; and so there
is next obtainable, on much compression, the following
authentic Excerpt:
"Glogau, 8lh March 1741. His Durchlaucht the prince
"Leopold summoned all the Generals at noon; and informed
"them That, this very night, Glogau must be won. He gave
"them their Instructions in writing: where each was to post
"himself; with what detachments; how to proceed. There
"are to be Three Attacks: one up stream, coming on with the
'' River to its left; one down stream, River to its right; and a
"third from the landward side, perpendicular to the other
"two. The very captains that shall go foremost are speci-
"fied; at what hour each is to leave quarters, so that all be
"ready simultaneously, waiting in the posts assigned; --
"against what points to advance out of these, and storm
"Rampart and Wall. Places, times, particulars, everything
"is fixed with mathematical exactitude: 'Be steady, becor-
"rect, especially be silent; and so far as Law of Nature will
"permit, be simultaneous! When the big steeple of Glogau
"peals Midnight, -- Forward, with the first stroke; with the
* Orlich, i. 71.
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 295
9t! i March 1741.
"second, much more with the twelfth stroke, be one and all of
"you, in the utmost silence, advancing! And, under pain of
"death, two things: Not one shot till you are in; No plunder-
"ing when you are. ' -- In this manner is the silent three-sided
"avalanche to be let go. Whereupon," says my Dryasdust,
"the Generals retired; and had, for one item, their fire-arms
"all cleaned, and new-loaded. "*
Without plans of Glogau, and more detail and
stuiy than the reader would consent to, there can no
Narrative be given. Glogau has Ramparts, due Ring-
fenee, palisaded and repaired by Wallis; inside of this
is &n old Town-Wall, which will need petards: there
are about 1,000 men under Wallis, and altogether on
the works, not to count a mortar or two, fifty-eight big
guns. The reader must conceive a poor Town under
bloclade, in the wintry night-time, with its tough
Courl Wallis; ill off for the necessaries of life; Town
shrouJed in darkness, and creeping quietly to its bed.
This >n the one hand: and on the other hand, Prussian
battaLons marching up, at 10 o'clock or later, with
the utmost softness of step; "taking post behind the
ordinary field-watches;" and at length, all standing
ranked in the invisible dark; silent, like machinery,
like a deeping avalanche: Husht! -- No sentry from
the wals dreams of such a thing. "Twelve! " sings
out the steeple of Glogau; and in grim whisper the
word is 'Vorwdrls! " and the three-winged avalanche
is in moton.
They reach their glacises, their ditches, covered
ways, corpct as mathematics; tear out chevaux-de-frise,
hew down oalisades, in the given number of minutes:
Swift, ye legiment's-carpenters; smite your best! Four
* Helden-Geschichte, i. 823; ii. 165.
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? 296 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [bookSH.
9th March 1741.
cannon-shot do now boom out upon them; which go
high over their heads, little dreaming how close at
hand they are. The glacis is thirty feet high, of stiff
slope, and slippery with frost: no matter, the avalanche,
led on by Leopold in person, by Margraf Karl the
King's Cousin, by Adjutant Golz and the chief par-
sonages, rushes up with strange impetus; hews dowi a
second palisade; surges in; -- Wallis's sentries extinct,
or driven to their main guards. There is a singular
fire in the besieging party. For example, Four Gre-
nadiers, -- I think of this First Column, which sac-
ceeded sooner, certainly of the Regiment Glasenapp,--
four grenadiers, owing to slippery or other accidents,
in climbing the glacis, had fallen a few steps belind
the general body; and on getting to the top, took the
wrong course, and rushed along rightward insteal of
leftward. Rightward, the first thing they come ipon
is a mass of Austrians still ranked in firms; Fiffr-two
men, as it turned out, with their Captain over them.
Slight stutter ensues on the part of the Four Grenatiers;
but they give one another the hint, and dash forward:
"Prisoners? " ask they sternly, as if all Prusaa had
been at their rear. The Fifty-two, in the darkless, in
the danger and alarm, answer "Yes. " -- "Pib arms,
then! " Three of the grenadiers stand to see th;t done;
the fourth runs off for force, and happily gits back
with it before the comedy had become tragic for his
comrades. "I must make acquaintance with tiese four
men," writes Friedrich, on hearing of it; aid he did
reward them by present, by promotion to iergeantcy
(to ensigncy one of them), or what else tfoy were fit
for. Grenadiers of Glasenapp: these are the men Fried-
rich heard swearing-in under his window, one memor-
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 297
9th March 1741.
able morning when he burst into tears! At half-past
Twelve, the Ramparts, on all sides, are ours.
The Gates of the Town, under axe and petard, can
make little resistance, to Leopold's Column or the other
two. A hole is soon cut in the Town-Gate, where Leo-
pold is; and gallant Wallis, who had rallied behind it,
with his Artillery-General and what they could get
together, fires through the opening, kills four men; but
is then (by order, and not till then) fired upon, and
obliged to draw back, with his Artillery-General mor-
tally hurt. Inside he attempts another rally, some 200
with him; and here and there perhaps a house-window
tries to give shot; but it is to no purpose, not the least
stand can be made. Poor Wallis is rapidly swept back,
into the Market-place, into the Main Guardhouse; and
there piles arms: "Glogau yours, Ihr Herren, and we
prisoners of War! " The steeple had not yet quite
struck One. Here has been a good hour's-work!
Glogau, as in a dream, or half-awake, and timidly
peeping from behind window-curtains, finds that it is a
Town taken. Glogau easily consoles itself, I hear, or
even is generally glad; Prussian discipline being so
perfect, and ingress now free for the necessaries of life.
There was no plundering; not the least insult: no
townsman was hurt; not even in houses where soldiers
had tried firing from windows. The Prussian Battalions
rendezvous in the Market-place, and go peaceably
about their patrolling, and other business; and meddle
with nothing else. They lost, in killed, ten men; had
of killed and wounded, forty-eight; the Austrians rather
more. * Wallis was to have been set free on parole;
* Orlich, i. 75, 78; Helilen-Geschichle, i. 829: irreconcilable otherwise,
in some slight points.
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? 298
FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [book TO.
9th March 1U1.
but was not, -- in retaliation for some severity of
General Browne's in the interim (picking up of two
Silesian Noblemen, suspected of Prussian tendency,
and locking them in Briinn over the Hills), -- and
had to go to Berlin, till that was repaired. To the
wounded Artillery-General there was every tenderness
shown, but he died in few days. The other Prisoners
were marched to the Ciistrin-Stettin quarter; "and
many of them took Prussian service. "
And this is the Scalade of Glogau: a shining feat
of those days; which had great rumour in the Gazettes,
and over all the then feverish Nations, though it has
now fallen dim again, as feats do. Its importance at
that time, its utility to Friedrich's affairs, was un-
deniable; and it filled Friedrich with the highest satis-
faction, and with admiration to overflowing. Done,
9th March 1741; in one hour, the very earliest of the
day.
Goltz posted back to Schweidnitz with the news;
got thither about 5 p. m. ; and was received, naturally,
with open arms. Friedrich in person marched out, next
morning, to make Feu-de-joie and Te-Deum-ing; --
there was Royal Letter to Leopold, which flamed
through all the Newspapers, and can still be read in
innumerable Books; Letter omissible in this place.
We remark only how punctual the King is, to reward
in money as well as praise and not the high only, but
the low that had deserved: to Prince Leopold he pre-
sents 2,000/. ; to each private soldier who had been of
the storm, say half-a-guinea, -- doubling and qua-
drupling, in the special cases, to as high as twenty
guineas, of our present money. To the old Gazetteers,
and their readers everywhere, this of Glogau is a very
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 299
Mh March--2d April 1741.
effulgent business; bursting out on them, like sudden
Bude-light, in the uncertain stagnancy and expectancy
of mankind. Friedrich himself writes of it to the Old
Dessauer:
"The more I think of the Glogau business, the more im-
"portant I find it. Prince Leopold has achieved the prettiest
"military stroke (die schbnste Action) that has been done in
"this Century. From my heart I congratulate you on having
"such a Son. In boldness of resolution, in plan, in execu-
tion, it is alike admirable; and quite gives a turn to my
"affairs. "*
And indeed, it is a perfect example of Prussian dis-
cipline, and military quality in all kinds; such as it
would be difficult to match elsewhere. Most potently
correct; coming out everywhere with the completeness
and exactitude of mathematics; and has in it such a
fund of martial fire, not only ready to blaze out (which
can be exampled elsewhere), but capable of bottling
itself in, and of lying silently ready. Which is much
rarer; and very essential in soldiering! Due a little to
the Old Dessauer, may we not say, as well as to the
Young? Friedrich Wilhelm is fallen silent; but his
heavy labours, and military and other drillings to Prus-
sian mankind, still speak with an audible voice.
About three weeks after this of Glogau, Leopold
the Old Dessauer, over in Brandenburg, does another
thing which is important to Friedrich, and of great
rumour in the world. Steps out, namely, with a force
of 36,000 men, horse, foot and artillery, completely
equipped in all points; and takes Camp, at this early
season, at a place called Gottin, not far from Magde-
* Date, 13th March 1741 (Orlich, i. 77).
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? 300 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [bOOKDI.
9th March--2d April Ml
burg, handy at once for Saxony and for Hanover; and
continues there encamped, -- "merely for review pur-
poses. " Readers can figure what an astonishment it
was to Kur-Sachsen and British George; and how it
struck the wind out of their Russian Partition-Dream,
and awoke them to a sense of the awful fact! --
Capable of being slit in pieces, and themselves par-
titioned, at a day's warning, as it were! It was on
April 2d, that Leopold, with the first division of the
36,000, planted his flag near Gottin. No doubt it
was the "detestable Project," that had brought him out,
at so early a season for tent life, and nobody could
then guess why. He steadily paraded here, all summer;
keeping his 36,000 well in drill, since there was nothing
else needed of him.
The Camp at Gottin flamed greatly abroad through
the timorous imaginations of mankind, that Year; and
in the Newspapers are many details of it. And, be-
sides the important general fact, there is still one little
point worth special mention: namely, that old Field-
marshal Katte (Father of poor Lieutenant Katte whom
we knew) was of it; and perhaps even got his death
by it: "Chief Commander of the Cavalry here," such
honour had he; but died at his post, in a couple of
months, "at Rekahn, May 31st;"* poor old gentleman,
perhaps unequal to the hardships of field-life at so
early a season of the year.
Friedrich takes the Field, with some Pomp; goes into the
Mountains, -- but comes fast back.
At Glogau there was Homaging, on the very mor-
row after the storm; on the second day, the superfluous
* Milituir-Lexikon, ii. 254.
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? CHAP. IX. ] FRIEDRICH RETURNS TO SILESIA. 301
9tli March--2d April 1741.
regiments marched off: no want of vigorous activity to
settle matters on their new footing there. General
Kalkstein (Friedrich's old Tutor, whom readers have
forgotten again) is to be Commandant of Glogau; an
office of honour, which can be done by deputy except
in cases of real stress. The place is to be thoroughly
new-fortified, --- which important point they commit to
Engineer Wallrave, a strong-headed heavy-built Dutch
Officer, long since acquired to the service, on account
of his excellence in that line; who did, now and after-
wards, a great deal of excellent engineering for Fried-
rich; but for himself (being of deep stomach withal,
and of life too dissolute) made a tragic thing of it
ultimately. As will be seen, if we have leisure.
In seven or eight days, Prince Leopold, having
wound up his Glogau affairs, and completed the new
preliminaries there, joins the King at Schweidnitz. In
the highest favour, as was natural. Kalkstein is to
take a main hand in the Siege of Neisse; for which
operation it is hoped there will soon be weather, if not
favourable yet supportable. What of the force was
superfluous at Glogau had at once marched off, as we
observed; and is now getting re-distributed where need-
ful. There is much shifting about; strengthening of
posts, giving up of posts: the whole of which readers
shall imagine for themselves, -- except only two points
that are worth remembering: First, that Kalkstein with
about 12,000 takes post at Grotkau, some twenty-five
miles north of Neisse, ready to move on, and open
trenches, when required: and second, that Holstein-
Beck gets posted at Frankenstein (chief place of that
Baumgarten Skirmish), say thirty-five miles west-by-
north of Neisse; and has some 8 or 10,000 Horse and
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