No More Learning

5th Oct. 1734.
"to accompany him to Berlin. " Which, of course, I did;
taking Ruppin first. "I arrived at Berlin from Ruppin, in
"1734, two days after the marriage of Friedrich Wilhelm
"Margraf of Schwedt" (111 Margrafs elder Brother, wildest
wild-beast of this Camp) "with the Princess Sophie," -- that
is to say, 12th of November; Marriage having been on the
10th, as the Books teach us. Chasot remembers that on the
14th, "the Crown-Prince gave, in his Berlin mansion, a
"dinner to all the Royal Family," in honour of that auspi-
cious wedding. *
Thus is Chasot established with the Crown-Prince.
He will turn up fighting well in subsequent parts of
this History; and again duelling fatally, though nothing
of a quarrelsome man, as he asserts.
Crown-Princes Visit to Baireuth on the way home.
October 4th, the Crown-Prince has parted with
Prince Eugene, -- not to meet again in this world;
"an old hero gone to the shadow of himself," says the
Crown-Prince;** -- and is giving his Prussian War-
Captains a farewell dinner at Frankfurt on the Mayn;
having himself led the Ten Thousand so far, towards
Winter-quarters, and handing them over now to their
usual commanders. They are to winter in Westphalia,
these Ten Thousand, in the Paderborn-Munster Country;
where they are nothing like welcome to the Ruling
* Kurd von SchlSzer: Chasot (Berlin, 1856), pp. 20-22. A pleasant
little Book; tolerably accurate, and of very readable quality.
** CEuvi es {Mem. de Drandebourg), 1. 1<<T.
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? CHaF. X. ] PRINCE GOES TO THE RHINE CAMPAIGN. 89
6th Oct. 1734.
Powers; nor are intended to be so, -- Kur-Koln (pro-
prietor there) and his Brother of Bavaria having openly?
French leanings. The Prussian Ten Thousand will
have to help themselves to the essential, therefore,
without welcome; -- and things are not pleasant. And
the Ruling Powers, by protocolling, still more the
Commonalty if it try at mobbing,* can only make
them worse. Indeed it is said the Ten Thousand,
though their bearing was so perfect otherwise, gene-
rally behaved rather ill in their marches over Germany,
during this War, -- and always worst, it was remarked
by observant persons, in the countries (Bamberg and
Wiirzburg, for instance) where then- Officers had in
past years been in recruiting troubles. Whereby ob-
servant persons explained the phenomenon to them-
selves. But we omit all that; our concern lying else-
where. "Directly after dinner at Frankfurt," the
Crown-Prince drives off, rapidly as his wont is, to-
wards Baireuth. He arrives there on the morrow;
"October 5th," says Wilhelmina, -- who again illu-
minates him to us, though with oblique lights, for an
instant.
Wilhelmina was in low spirits: -- weak health;
add funeral of the Prince of Culmbach (killed in the
Battle of Parma), illness of Papa, and other sombre
events: -- and was by no means content with the
Crown-Prince, on this occasion. Strangely altered since
we met him in July last! It may be, the Crown-
Prince, looking, with an airy buoyancy of mind, to-
<< "28th March 1735" (Fassmann, p. 547); Buchholz, i. 136.
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? 90 friedrich's APPRENTICESHIP, LAST STAGE, [book IX.
5th Oct. 1734.
wards a certain Event probably near, has got his young
head inflated a little, and carries himself with a height
new to this beloved Sister; -- but probably the sad
humour of the Princess herself has a good deal to do
with it. Alas, the contrast between a heart knowing
secretly its own bitterness, and a friend's heart con-
scious of joy and triumph, is harsh and shocking to the
former of the two! Here is the Princess's account, --
with the subtrahend, twenty-five or seventy-five per
cent, not deducted from it:
"My Brother arrived, the 5th of October. He seemed to
"me put-out (de'contenance); and to break off conversation
"with me, he said he had to write to the King and Queen.
"I ordered him pen and paper. He wrote in my room; and
"spent more than a good hour in writing a couple of Letters,
"of a line or two each. He then had all the Court, one after
"the other, introduced to him; said nothing to any of them,
"looked merely with a mocking air at them; after which we
"went to dinner.
"Here his whole conversation consisted in quizzing (turlu-
"piner) whatever he saw; and repeating to me, aboveahun-
"dred times over, the words 'little Prince,' 'little Court. '
"1 was shocked; and could not understand how he had
"changed so suddenly towards me. The etiquette of all
"Courts in the Empire is, that nobody who has not at the
"least the rank of Captain can sit at a Prince's table: my
"Brother put a Lieutenant there, who was in his suite;
"saying to me, 'A King's Lieutenants are as good as a
"'Margraf's Ministers. ' I swallowed this incivility, and
"showedno sign.
"After dinner, being alone with me, he said," -- turning
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? CHAP. X. ] PRINCE GOES TO THE RHINE CAMPAIGN. 91
5th Oct. 1734.
up the flippant side of his thoughts, truly, in a questionable
way: -- "' Our Sire is going to end {tire a sa fin); he will not
"' live out this month. IknowIhave made you great promises;
"' but I am not in a condition to keep them. I will leave you
"'theHalf of the sum which my predecessor (feu Rot) lent you;
"'I think you will have every reason to be satisfied with that. '
"I answered, That my regard for him had never been of an
"interested nature; that I would never ask anything of him,
"but the continuance of his friendship; and did not wish one
"sou, if it would in the least inconvenience him. 'No, no,'
"said he, 'you shall have those 100,000 thalers; I have de-
"'stined them for you. -- People will be much surprised,'
"continued he, 'to see me act quite differently from what they
"'had expected. They imagine I am going to lavish all my
"'treasures, and that money will become as common as
"' pebbles at Berlin: but they will find I know better. I mean
"'to increase my Army, and to leave all other things on the
"' old footing. I will have every consideration for the Queen
"'my Mother, and will sate her (rassasierai) with honours;
"'but I do not mean that she shall meddle in my affairs; and
"'if she try it, she will find so. '" What a speech; what an
outbreak of candour in the young man, preoccupied with his
own great thoughts and difficulties, -- to the exclusion of any
other person's!
"I fell from the clouds, on hearing all that; and knew not
"if I was sleeping or waking. He then questioned me on the
"affairs of this Country. I gave him the detail of them. He
"said to me: 'When your goose (benet) of a Father-in-Law
"'dies, I advise you to break up the whole Court, and reduce
'"yourselves to the footing of a private gentleman's establish-
'"ment, in order to pay your debts. In real truth, you have
'"no need of so many people; and you must try also to re-
"'duce the wages of those whom you cannot help keeping.
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? 92 friedrich's APPRENTICESHIP, LAST STAGE, [book IX.
5th Oct. 1734.
"' You have been accustomed to live at Berlin with a table of
"'four dishes; that is all you want here: and I will invite you
^"now and then to Berlin; which will spare table and house-
"'keeping. '
"For a long while my heart had been getting big; I could
"not restrain my tears, at hearing all these indignities. 'Why
'"do you cry? ' said he: 'Ah, ah, you are in low spirits, I see.
"' We must dissipate that dark humour. The music waits us;
"' I will drive that fit out of you by an air or two on the flute. '
"He gave me his hand, and led me into the other room. I sat
** down to the harpsichord; which I inundated (inondai) with
"my tears. Marwitz" (my artfulDemoiselle d'Atours, perhaps
too artful in time coming) "placed herself opposite me, so as
"to hide from the others what disorder I was in. " *
For the last two days of the visit, Wilhelmina ad-
mits her Brother was a little kinder. But on the fourth
day there came, by estafette, a Letter from the Queen,
conjuring him to return without delay, the King grow-
ing worse and worse. Wilhelmina, who loved her
Father, and whose outlooks in case of his decease ap-
peared to be so little flattering, was overwhelmed with
sorrow. Of her Brother, however, she strove to forget
that strange outbreak of candour; and parted with him
as if all were mended between them again. Nay, the
day after his departure, there goes a beautifully affec-
tionate Letter to him; which we could give, if there
were room:** "the happiest time I ever in my life had;"
"my heart so full of gratitude and so sensibly touched;"
"every one repeating the words 'dear Brother' and
* Wilhelmina, II. 216-218. ** CEuvres, xxvii. part 1st, p. 23.
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? CHaP. X. ] PRINCE GOES TO THE RHINE CAMPAIGN. 93
6th Oct. 1734.
"'charming Prince-Royal:'" -- a Letter in very lively
contrast to what we have just been reading. A Prince-
Royal not without charm, in spite of the hard practica-
lities he is meditating, obliged to meditate! --
As to the outbreak of candour, offensive to Wilhel-
mina and us, we suppose her report of it to be in sub-
stance true, though of exaggerated, perhaps perverted
tone; and it is worth the reader's notice, with these de
ductions. The truth is, our charming Princess is always
liable to a certain subtrahend. In 1744, when she
wrote those Memoires, "in a Summerhouse at Baireuth,"
her Brother and she, owing mainly to go-betweens
acting on the susceptible female heart, were again in
temporary quarrel (the longest and worst they ever
had), and hardly on speaking terms; which of itself
made her heart very heavy; -- not to say that Mar-
witz, the too artful Demoiselle, seemed to have stolen
her Husband's affections from the poor Princess, and
made the world look all a little grim to her. These
circumstances have given their colour to parts of her
Narrative, and are not to be forgotten by readers.
The Crown-Prince, -- who goes by Dessau, lod-
ging for a night with the Old Dessauer, and writes
affectionately to his Sister from that place, their Letters
crossing on the road, -- gets home on the 12th to
Potsdam. October 12th, 1734, he has ended his Rhine
Campaign, in that manner; -- and sees his poor Father,
with a great many other feelings besides those ex-
pressed in the dialogue at Baireuth.
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? 94 friedrich's apprenticeship, last stage, [book IX.
Sept. -Oct. 1734.
CHAPTER XI.
m papa's sick-room; Prussian inspections; end of war.
It appears, Friedrich met a cordial reception in the
sick-room at Potsdam; and, in spite of his levities to
Wilhelmina, was struck to the heart by what he saw
there. For months to come, he seems to be continually
running between Potsdam and Ruppin, eager to minister
to his sick Father, when military leave is procurable.
Other fact about him, other aspect of him, in those
months, is not on record for us.
Of his young Madam, or Princess-Royal, peaceably
resident at Berlin or at Schonhausen, and doing the
vacant officialities, formal visitings and the like, we
hear nothing; of Queen Sophie and the others, nothing:
-- anxious, all of them, no doubt, about the event at
Potsdam, and otherwise silent to us. His Majesty's
illness comes and goes; now hope, and again almost
none. Margraf of Schwedt and his young Bride, we
already know, were married in November; and Lieute-
nant Chasot (two days old in Berlin) told us, there was
Dinner by the Crown-Prince to all the Royal Family
on that occasion; -- poor Majesty out at Potsdam
languishing in the background, meanwhile.
His Carnival the Crown-Prince passes naturally at
Berlin. We find he takes a good deal to the French
Ambassador, one Marquis de la CWtardie; a showy
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? CHaP. XI. ] in papa's sick-room. 95
Sept. -Oct. 1734.
restless character, of fame in the Gazettes of that time;
who did much intriguing at Petersburg some years
hence, first in a signally triumphant way, and then in
a signally untriumphant; and is not now worth any
knowledge but a transient accidental one. Chdtardie
came hither about Stanislaus and his affairs; tried hard,
but in vain, to tempt Friedrich Wilhelm into inter-
ference; -- is naturally anxious to captivate the Crown-
Prince, in present circumstances.
Friedrich Wilhelm lay at Potsdam, between death
and life, for almost four months to come; the News-
papers speculating much on his situation; political
people extremely anxious what would become of him,
-- or in fact, when he would die; for that was con-
sidered the likely issue. Fassmann gives dolorous
clippings from the Leyden Gazette, all in a blubber of
tears, according to the then fashion, but full of imper-
tinent curiosity withal. And from the Seckendorf
private Papers there are Extracts of a still more in-
quisitive and notable character; Seckendorf and the
Kaiser having an intense interest in this painful oc-
currence.
Seckendorf is not now himself at Berlin; but run-
ning much about, on other errands; can only see Fried-
rich Wilhelm, if at all, in a passing way. And even
this will soon cease; -- and in fact, to us, it is by
far the most excellent result of this French-Austrian
War, that it carries Seckendorf clear away; who now
quits Berlin and the Diplomatic line, and obligingly
goes out of our sight henceforth. The Old Ordnance-
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? 96 FEIEDRICn's APPRENTICESHIP, LAST STAGE, [book IX.
Sept. -Oct. 1734.
Master, as an Imperial General of rank, is needed now
for War-service, if he has any skill that way. In those
late months, he was duly in attendance at Philipsburg
and the Rhine-Campaign, in a subaltern torpid capacity,
like Brunswick-Bevern and the others; ready for work,
had there been any: but next season, he expects to
have a Division of his own, and to do something con-
siderable. -- In regard to Berlin and the Diplomacies,
he has appointed a Nephew of his, a Seckendorf
Junior, to take his place there; to keep the old
machinery in gear, if nothing more; and furnish copious
reports during the present crisis.
These Reports of
Seckendorf Junior, -- full of eavesdroppings, got from
a Kammermohr (Nigger Lackey), who waits in the sick-
room at Potsdam, and is sensible to bribes, -- have
been printed; and we mean to glance slightly into
them. But as to Seckendorf Senior, readers can enter-
tain the fixed hope that they have at length done with
him; that, in these our premises, we shall never see
him again; -- nay shall see him, on extraneous dim
fields, far enough away, smarting and suffering, till
even we are almost sorry for the old knave! --
Friedrich Wilhelm's own prevailing opinion is, that
he cannot recover. His bodily sufferings are great:
dropsically swollen, sometimes like to be choked: no
bed that he can bear to lie on; -- oftenest rolls about
in a Bath-chair; very heavy-laden indeed; and I think
of tenderer humour than in former sicknesses. To the
Old Dessauer he writes, few days after getting home to
Potsdam: "I am ready to quit the world, as Your Di-
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? CHaP. XX. ] in papa's sick-room. 97
Sept. -Oct. 1734.
"lection knows, and has various times heard me say.
"One ship sails faster, another slower; but they come
"all to one haven. Let it be with me, then, as the
"Most High has determined for me. "* He has settled
his affairs, Fassmann says, so far as possible; settled
the order of his funeral, How he is to be buried, in the
Garrison Church of Potsdam, without pomp or fuss,
like a Prussian Soldier; and what regiment or regi-
ments it is that are to do the triple volley over him,
by way of finis and long farewell. His soul's interests
too, -- we need not doubt, he is in deep conference,
in deep consideration about these; though nothing is
said on that point. A serious man always, much feeling
what immense facts he was surrounded with; and here
is now the summing-up of all facts. Occasionally, again,
he has hopes; orders up "two hundred of his Potsdam
Giants to march through the sick-room," since he can-
not get out to them; or old Generals, Buddenbrock,
Waldau, come and take their pipe there, in reminiscence
of a Tabagie. Here, direct from the fountain-head, or
Nigger Lackey bribed by Seckendorf Junior, is a
notice or two:
"Potsdam, September 30th, 1734. Yesterday, for half an
"hour, the King could get no breath: he keeps them con-
"tinually rolling him about" in his Bath-chair, "over the
"room, and cries: 'Luft, Luft (Air, air)! '
"October 2d. The King is not going to die just yet; but
"will scarcely see Christmas. He gets on his clothes; argues
* Orlich: Geschichte der Schlesischen Kriege (Berlin, 1841), i. 14. "From
the Dessau Archives; date, 21st September 1734. "
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. V. <<
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? 98 friedrich's apprenticeship, LAST STAGE, [book IX.
Oct. 1734.
"with the Doctors, is impatient; won't have people speak of
"his illness; -- is quite black in the face; drinks nothing but
"Moll" (which we suppose to be small bitter beer), "takes
"physic, writes in bed.
"October bth. The Nigger tells me things are better. The
"King begins to bring up phlegm; drinks a great deal of oat-
"meal-water" {Hafergrtttzwasser, comfortable to the sick);
"says to the Nigger: 'Pray diligently, all of you; perhaps I
"shall not die! '"
October 5th: this is the day the Crown-Prince ar-
rives at Baireuth; to be called away by express four
days after. How valuable, at Vienna or elsewhere,
our dark friend the Lackey's medical opinion is, may
be gathered from this other Entry, three weeks farther
on, -- enough to suffice us on that head:
"The Nigger tells me he has a bad opinion of the King's
"health. If you roll the King a little fast in his Bath-chair,
"you hear the water jumble in his body," -- with astonish-
ment! "King gets into passions; has beaten the pages"
(may we hope, our dark friend among the rest? ), "so that it
"was feared apoplexy would take him. "
This will suffice for the physiological part; let us
now hear our poor friend on the Crown-Prince and his
arrival:
"October 12th. Beturn of the Prince-Royal to Potsdam;
"tender reception. -- October list. Things look ill in Pots-
"dam. The other leg is now also begun running; and above
"a quart (maas) of water has come from it. Without a miracle
"the King cannot live," -- thinks our dark friend. "The
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? chap, xi. ] is papa's sick-boom. 99
Oct. 1734.
"Prince-Royal is truly affected {virilablement attendr! ) at the
"King's situation; -- has his eyes full of water, has wept the
"eyes out of his head: has schemed in all ways to contrive a
"commodious bed for the King; wouldn't go away from Pots-
"dam. King forced him away; he is to return Saturday
"afternoon. The Prince-Royal has been heard to say, 'If
"' the King will let me live in my own way, I would give an
"'arm to lengthen his life for twenty years. ' King always
"calls him Fritzchen. But Fritzchen," thinks Seckendorf Ju-
nior, "knows nothing about business. The King is aware of
"it; and said in the face of him one day: 'If thou begin at
"' the wrong end with things, and all go topsy-turvy after I am
"' gone, I will laugh at thee out of my grave! "'*
So Friedrich Wilhelm; labouring amid the mortal
quicksands; looking into the Inevitable, in various
moods. But the memorablest speech he made to Fritz-
chen or to anybody at present, was that covert one
about the Kaiser and Seckendorf, and the sudden flash
of insight he got, from some word of Seckendorf's, into
what they had been meaning with him all along.
Riding through the Village of Priort, in debate about
Vienna politics of a strange nature, Seckendorf said
something, which illuminated his Majesty, dark for so many years, and showed him where he was. A ghastly
horror of a country, yawning indisputable there; re-
vealed to one as if by momentary lightning, in that
manner! This is a speech which all the Ambassadors
report, and which was already mentioned by us, -- in
reference to that opprobrious Proposal about the Crown-
* Seckendorf (Baron): Journal Secret; cited in FBrster, ii. 143.
7*
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? 100 fiuedrich's apprenticeship, last stage, [book IX.
Jan. 1735.
Prince's Marriage, "Marry with England, after all;
never mind breaking your word! " Here is the manner
of it, with time and place:
"Sunday last," Sunday 17thOctober 1734, reports Secken- dorf Junior, through the Nigger or some better witness, "the
"King said to the Prince-Royal: 'My dear Son, I tell thee I
"' got my death atPriort. I entreat thee, above all things in
"'the world, don't trust those people (denen Leuten), however
"'many i^romises they make. That day, it was April 17th,
"'1733, there was a man said something to me: it was as if
"'you had turned a dagger round in my heart. '" * --
Figure that, spoken from amid the dark sick whirl-
pools, the mortal quicksands, in Friedrich Wilhelm's
voice, clangorously plaintive; what a wild sincerity,
almost pathos, is in it; and whether Fritzchen, with his
eyes all bewept even for what Papa had suffered in
that matter, felt lively gratitudes to the House of Austria
at this moment! --
It was four months after, "21st January 1735,"**
when the King first got back to Berlin, to enlighten
the eyes of the Carnival a little, as his wont had been.
The crisis of his Majesty's illness is over, present
danger gone; and the Carnival people, not without
some real gladness, though probably with less than they
pretend, can report him well again. Which is far from
being the fact, if they knew it . Friedrich Wilhelm is
on his feet again; but he never more was well. Nor
<< Scckcndorf (Baron): Journal Secret; cited in Fb'rster, 1i. 142.
** Fassmann, p. 533.
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? CHaP. St. ] PRUSSIAN INSPECTIONS. 101
April 1735.
has he forgotten that word at Priort, "like the turning
of a dagger in one's heart;" -- and indeed gets him-
self continually reminded of it by practical commen-
taries from the Vienna Quarter.
In April, Prince Lichtenstein arrives on Embassy
with three requests or demands from Vienna: "l". That,
"besides the Ten Thousand due by Treaty, his Majesty
"would send his Reich's-Contingent," -- not compre-
hended in those Ten Thousand, thinks the Kaiser.
"2? . That he would have the goodness to dismiss Mar-
"quis de la Ch&ardie the French Ambassador, as a
"plainly superfluous person at a well-affected German
"Court in present circumstances;" -- person excessively
dangerous, should the present Majesty die, Crown-
Prince being so fond of that Chdtardie. "3". That his
"Prussian Majesty do give up the false Polish Majesty
"Stanislaus, and no longer harbour him in East Preus-
"sen or elsewhere. " The whole of which demands his
Prussian Majesty refuses; the latter two especially, as
something notably high on the Kaiser's part, or on any
mortal's, to a free Sovereign and Gentleman. Prince
Lichtenstein is eloquent, conciliatory; but it avails not.
He has to go home empty-handed; --manages to leave
with Herr von Suhm, who took care of it for us, that
Anecdote of the Crown-Prince's behaviour under cannon-
shot from Philipsburg last year; and does nothing else
recordable, in Berlin.
The Crown-Prince's hopes were set, with all eager-
ness, on getting to the Rhine-Campaign next ensuing;
nor did the King refuse, for a long while, but still less
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? 102 friedrich's apprenticeship, LAST STAGE, [book DC.
April-Bcpt. 1735.
did he consent; and in the end there came nothing of
it . From an early period of the year, Friedrich Wil-
helm sees too well what kind of campaigning the Kaiser
will now make; at a certain Wedding-dinner where his
Majesty was, -- precisely a fortnight after his Majesty's
arrival in Berlin, -- Seckendorf Junior has got, by eavesdropping, this utterance of his Majesty's: "The
"Kaiser has not a groschen of money. His Army in
"Lombardy is gone to Twenty-four thousand men, will
"have to retire into the Mountains. Next campaign"
(just coming), "he will lose Mantua and the Tyrol.
"God's righteous judgment it is: a War like this!
"Comes of flinging old principles overboard, -- of
"meddling in business that was none of yours;" and
more, of a plangent alarming nature. *
Friedrich Wilhelm sends back his Ten Thousand,
according to contracts; sends, over and above, a beau-
tiful stock of "copper pontoons" to help the Imperial
Majesty in that River Country, says Fassmann; --
sends also a super-numerary Troop of Hussars, who
are worth mentioning, "Six-score horse of Hussar type,"
under one Captain Ziethen, a taciturn, much-enduring,
much observing man, whom we shall see again: these
are to be diligently helpful, as is natural; but they are
also, for their own behoof, to be diligently observant,
and learn the Austrian Hussar methods, which his Ma-
jesty last year saw to be much superior. Nobody
that knows Ziethen doubts but he learnt; Hussar-Colonel
Baronay, his Austrian teacher here, became too well
* Fb'rater, ii. 144 (and date it from Wlitair-Lexikon, li. 84).
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? CHaP. XL. ] PRUSSIAN INSPECTIONS. 103
April-Sept. 11735.
convinced of it when they met on a future occasion*
All this his Majesty did for the ensuing campaign: but
as to the Crown-Prince's going thither, after repeated
requests on his part, it is at last signified to him, deep
in the season, that it cannot be: "Won't answer for a
Crown-Prince to be sharer in such a Campaign; -- be
patient, my good Fritzchen, I will find other work for
thee. " ** Fritzchen is sent into Preussen, to do the Re-
viewings and Inspections there; Papa not being able
for them this season; and strict manifold Inspection, in
those parts, being more than usually necessary, owing to
the Russian-Polish troubles. On this errand, which is
clearly a promotion, though in present circumstances
not a welcome one for the Crown-Prince, he sets out
without delay; and passes there the equinoctial and
autumnal season, in a much more useful way than he
could have done in the Rhine-Campaign.
In the Rhine-Moselle Country and elsewhere, the
poor Kaiser does exert himself to make a Campaign
of it; but without the least success. Having not a
groschen of money, how could he succeed? Noailles,
as foreseen, manoeuvres him, hitch after hitch, out of
Italy; French are greatly superior, more especially
when Montemar, having once got Carlos crowned in
Naples and put secure, comes to assist the French:
* Life of Ziethen (veridical but inexact, by the Fran von Blumenthal, a
kinswoman of his; English Translation, very ill printed, Berlin, 1803),
p. 54.
** Friedrich's Letter, 5th September 1736; Friedrlch Wilhelm's answer
next day ((Euvrcs de Fridirio, xxvii. part 8d, 93-95).
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? 104 fbeedrich's apprenticeship, last stage, [book IS.
Sept-Oct. 1735.
Kaiser has to lean for shelter on the Tyrol Alps, as
predicted. Italy, all but some sieging of strong places,
may be considered as lost for the present
.
Nor on the Rhine did things go better. Old Eugene,
"the shadow of himself," had no more effect this year than last: nor, though Lacy and Ten Thousand Rus-
sians came as allies, Poland being all settled now, could the least good be done. Reichs-Feldmarschall Karl Alexander of Wiirtemberg did "burn a Magazine,"
(probably of hay among better provender), by his
bomb-shells, on one occasion. Also the Prussian Ten Thousand, -- Old Dessauer leading them, General
Roder having fallen ill, -- burnt something: an Islet
in the Rhine, if I recollect, "Islet of Lorch near
Bingen," where the French had a post; which and
whom the Old Dessauer burnt away. And then Secken-
dorf, at the head of Thirty Thousand, he, after long
delays, marched to Trarbach in the interior Moselle
Country; and got into some explosive sputter of battle
with Belleisle, one afternoon, -- some say, rather
beating Belleisle; but a good judge says, it was a
mutual flurry and terror they threw one another into. *
Seckendorf meant to try again on the morrow: but
there came an estafette that night: "Preliminaries
signed (Vienna, 3d October 1735); -- try no farther! "**
And this was the second Rhine-Campaign, and the end
of the Kaiser's French War. The Sea-Powers, steadily
* CEuvres lie Fridiric, I. 168.
** "Cessation" is to be, 6th November for Germany, 15th for Italy;
"Preliminaries" were, Vienna, "3d October" 1735 (Sohb'll, ii. S45).
? ?