No More Learning

hard to take us in flank, -- did not the Brook, the
bad ground, and the platoon firing (fearfully swift,
from discipline and the iron ramrods) hold them back
in some measure. They make a violent attempt or
two; but the problem is very rugged. Nor can the
Austrian infantry, behind or to the west of burning
Chotusitz, make an impression, though they try it,
with levelled bayonets, and deadly energy, again and
again: the Prussian ranks are as if built of rock, and
their fire is so sure and swift. Here is one Austrian
regiment, came rushing on like lions; would not let
go, death or no-death: -- and here it lies, shot down
in ranks; whole swaths of dead men, and their muskets
by them, -- as if they had got the word to take that
posture, and had done it hurriedly! A small transitory
gleam of proud rage is visible, deep down, in the soul
of Friedrich as he records this fact. Shock Second
was very violent.
The Austrian horse, after such experimenting in
the Brtlinka quarter, gallop off to try to charge the
Prussians in the rear; -- "pleasanter by far," judge
many of them, "to plunder the Prussian camp," which
they descry in those regions; whither accordingly they
rush. Too many of them; and the Hussars as one man.
To the sorrowful indignation of Prince Karl, whose
right arm (or wing) is fallen paralytic in this manner.
After the Fight, they repented in dust and ashes; and
went to say so, as if with the rope about their neck;
upon which he pardoned them.
Nor is Prince Karl's left wing gaining garlands just
at this moment. Shock Third is awakening; -- and
will be decisive on Prince Karl. Chotusitz, set on
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? CHAP. XHI. ] BATTLE OF CHOTUSITZ. 185
17th May 1742.
fire an hour since (about 9 A. m. ), still burns; cutting
him in two, as it were, or disjoining his left wing from
his riglrt: and it is on his right wing that Prince Karl
is depending for victory, at present; his left wing,
ruffled by those first Prussian charges of horse, with
occasional Prussian swift musketry ever since, being
left to its own inferior luck, which is beginning to
produce impression on it. And, lo, on the sudden
(what brought finis to the business), Friedrich, seizing
the moment, commands a united charge on this left
wing: Friedrich's right wing dashes forward on it,
double-quick, takes it furiously, on front and flank;
fifteen fieldpieces preceding, and intolerable musketry
behind them. So that the Austrian left wing cannot
stand it at all.
The Austrian left wing, stormed in upon in this
manner, swags and sways, threatening to tumble pellmell
upon the right wing; which latter has its own hands
full. No Chotusitz or point of defence to hold by,
Prince Karl is eminently ill off, and will be hurled
wholly into the Brtlinka, and the islands and gullies,
unless he mind! Prince Karl, -- what a moment for
mm! -- noticing this undeniable phenomenon, rapidly
gives the word for retreat, to avoid worse. It is near
upon Noon; four hours of battle; very fierce on both
the wings, together or alternately; in the centre (west-
ward of Chotusitz) mostly insignificant: "more than
half the Prussians" standing with arms shouldered.
Prince Karl rolls rapidly away, through Czaslau towards
south-west again; loses guns in Czaslau; goes, not quite
broken, but at double-quick time for five miles; cavalry,
Prussian and Austrian, bickering in the rear of him;
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? 186 FIRST SILESIAN WAR ENDS. [book XIII.
17th May 1742.
and vanishes over the horizon towards Willimow and
Haber that night, the way he had come.
This is the battle of Chotusitz, called also of
Czaslau: Thursday, 17th May 1742. Vehemently
fought on both sides; -- calculated, one may hope, to
end this Silesian matter? The results, in killed and
wounded, were not very far from equal. Nay, in killed
the Prussians suffered considerably the worse; the exact
Austrian cipher of killed being 1,052, while that of
the Prussians was 1,905, -- owing chiefly to those
fierce ineffectual horse-charges and bickerings, on the
right wing and left; "above 1,200 Prussian cavalry
were destroyed in these. " But, in fine, the general
loss, including wounded and missing, amounted on the
Austrian side (prisoners being many, and deserters very
many) to near seven thousand, and on the Prussian to
between four and five. " * Two Generals Friedrich had
lost, who are not specially of our acquaintance; and
several younger friends whom he loved. Rothenburg,
who was in that first charge of horse with Budden-
brock, or in rescue of Buddenbrock, and did exploits,
got badly hurt, as we saw, badly, not fatally, as Fried-
rich's first terror was, -- and wore his arm in a sling
for a long while afterwards.
Buddenbrock's charge, I since hear, was ruined by
the dust;** the King's vanguard, under Rothenburg, a
"new-raised regiment of hussars in green," coming to
the rescue, were mistaken for Austrians, and the cry
rose, "Enemy to rear! " which brought Rothenburg his
* Orlich, i. 255; Feldzuge der Preussen, p. 113; Stille, pp. 62-71; Fried-
rich himself, (Emms, ii. 121 126; and (ib. pp. H5-150) the Newspaper ''Re-
lalion," written also by him.
** CEuvres de Frederic. ii. 121.
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? CHAP. xni. ] BATTLE OF CHOTUSITZ. 187
17th May 1742.
disaster. Friedrich much loved and valued the man;
employed him afterwards as Ambassador to France
and in places of trust. Friedrich's ambassadors are
oftenest soldiers as well: bred soldiers, he finds, if they
chance to have natural intelligence, are fittest for all
kinds of work. -- Some eighteen Austrian cannon were
got; no standards, because, said the Prussians, they
took the precaution of bringing none to the field, but
had beforehand rolled them all up, out of harm's way.
-- Let us close with this Fraction of Topography old
and new.
"King Friedrich purchased Nine Acres of ground, near
"Chotusitz, to bury the slain; rented it from the proprietor for
"twenty-five years. * I asked, Where are those nine acres;
"whatcrop is now upon them? but could learn nothing. A
"dim people, those poor Czech natives; stupid, dirty-skinned,
"ill-given; not one in twenty of them speaking any German;
"-- and our dragoman a fortuitous Jew Pedlar; with the
"mournfullest of human faces, though a head worth twenty of
"those Czech ones, poor oppressed soul! The Battle-plain
"bears rye, barley, miscellaneous pulse, potatoes, mostly in-'
"significant crops; -- the nine hero-acres in question, perhaps
"still of slightly richer quality, lie indiscriminate among the
"others; their very fence, if they ever had one, now torn
"away.
"The Country, as you descend by dusty intricate lanes
"fromKuttenberg, with your left hand to the Elbe, and at
"length with your back to it, would be rather pretty, were it
"well cultivated, the scraggy litter swept off, and replaced by
"verdure and reasonable umbrage here and there. The Field
"of Chotusitz, where you emerge on it, is a wide wavy plain;
"the steeple of Chotusitz, and three or four miles farther, that
"of'Czaslau (pronounce 'ifomsitz,' 'CAaslau'), are the con-
spicuous objects in it. The Lakes Friedrich speaks of,
"which covered his right, and should cover ours, are not now
"there, -- ' all, or mostly all, drained away, eighty years ago,'
"answered the Czechs; answered one wiser Czech, when
* Helden-Geschiehte, li. 634.
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? 188 FIRST SILESIAN WAR ENDS. [book XIII.
17th May 1742.
"pressed upon, and guessed upon; thereby solving the enigma
"which was distressful to us. Between those Lakes and the
"Brtlinka Brook may be some two miles; Chotusitz is on the
"crown ofthe space, if it have a crown. But there is no 'height'
"on it, worth calling a height except by the military man; no
"tree or bush; no fence among the scrubby ryes and pulses: no
"obstacle but that Brook, which, or the hollow of which, you
"see sauntering steadily northward or Elbe-ward, a good
"distance on your left, as you drive for Chotusitz and steeple.
"Schuschitz, a peaked brown edifice, is visible everywhere,
"wellahead and leftwards, well beyond said hollow; some-
"thing of wood and 'deer-park,' still noticeable or imaginable
"yonder.
"Chotusitz itself is a poor littery place; standing white-
washed, but much unswept: in two straggling rows, now
"wide enough apart (no Konigseck need no w get burnt there):
"utterly silent under the hot sun; not a child looked out on us,
"and I think the very dogs lay wisely asleep. Church and
"steeple are at the farther or south end of the Village, and
"have an older date than 1742. High up on the steeple,
"mending the clock-hands or I know not what, hung in mid
"air, one Czech; the only living thing we saw. Population
"may be three or four hundred, -- all busy with their teams or
"otherwise, we will hope. Czaslau, which you approach by
"something of avenues, of human roads (dust and litter still
"abounding), is a much grander place; say of 2,000 or more:
"shiny, white, but also somnolent; vast market-place, orcen-
"tral square, sloping against you; two shiny Hotels on it, with
"Austrian uniforms loitering about; -- and otherwise great
"emptiness and silence. The shiny Hotels (shine due to paint
"mainly) offer little of humanly edible; and, in the interior,
"smells strike you as--as the oldest you have ever met before.
"A people not given to washing, to ventilating! Many gospels
"have been preached in those parts, and abstruse Orthodoxies,
"sometimes with fire and sword and no end of emphasis; but
"that of Soap-and-Water (which surely is as Catholic as any,
"and the plainest of all) has not yet got introduced there! " *
Czaslau hangs upon the English mind (were not the igno-
rance so total) by another tie: it is the resting-place of Zisca,
whose drum, or the fable of whose drum, we saw in the citadel
* Tourist's Note U3th September 1858).
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? CHAP. Xiii. ] BATTLE OF CHOTUSITZ. 189
17th May 1742.
ofGlatz. Zisca was buried in his skin, at Czaslau finally: in
the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul there; with due epitaph;
and his big mace or battle-club, mostly iron, hung honourable
on the wall close by. Kaiser Ferdinand, Karl v. 's brother,
on a Progress toPrag, came to lodge at Czaslau, one after-
noon: 'What is that? ' said the Kaiser, strolling over this
Peter-and-Paul's Church, and noticing the mace. 'Ugh!
Faugh! ' growled he angrily, on hearing what; and would
not lodge in the Town, but harnessed again, and drove farther
that same night. The club is now gone; but Zisca's dust lies
there irremovable till Doomsday, in the land where his limbs
were made. A great behemoth of a war-captain; one of the
fiercest, inflexiblest, ruggedest creatures ever made in the
form of man. Devoured Priests with appetite, wherever dis-
coverable: Dishonourers of his sister; murderers of the God's-
witness John Huss; them may all the Devils help! Beat Kaiser
Sigismund Supra-Grammaticam again and ever again, scat-
tering the Ritter hosts in an extraordinary manner; -- a Zisca
conquerable only by Death, and the Pest-Fever passing that
way.
His birthplace, Troznow, is a village in the Budweis neigh-
bourhood , 100 miles to south. There, for three centuries after
him, stood 'Zisca's Oak' (under shade of which his mother,
taken suddenly on the harvest-field, had born Zisca): a weird
object, gate of Heaven and of Orcus to the superstitious popu-
lations about. At midnight on the Hallow-Eve, dark smiths
would repair thither, to cut a twig of the Zisca Oak: twig of
it put,*at the right moment, under your stithy, insures good
luck, lends pith to arm and heart, which is already good luck.
So that a Bishop of those parts, being of some culture, had
to cut it down, above a hundred years ago, -- and build some
Chapel in its stead; no Oak there now, but an orthodox In-
scription, not dated that I could see. *
Friedrich did not much pursue the Austrians after
this Victory, having cleared the Czaslau region of
them, he continued there (at Kuttenberg mainly); and
directed all his industry to getting Peace made. His
experiences of Broglio, and of what help was likely to
** Honnayr, (Esterreichischer Plula'. ch, ill- (3tes), 110-145.
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? 190 FIRST SILESIAN WAS ENDS. [bOOKXIII.
17th May 1742.
be had from Broglio, -- whom his Court, as Friedrich
chanced to know, had ordered "to keep well clear of
the King of Prussia," -- had not been flattering.
Beaten in this Battle, Broglio's charity would have
been a weak reed to lean upon: he is happy to in-
form Broglio, that though kept well clear of, he is not
beaten.
Blustering Broglio might have guessed that he now
would have to look to himself. But he did not; his
eyes, naturally dim and bad, being dazzled at this
time, by "an ever-glorious victory" (so Broglio thinks
it) of his own achieving. Broglio, some couple of days
after Czaslau, had marched hastily out of Prag for
Budweis quarter, where Lobkowitz and the Austrians
were unexpectedly bestirring themselves, and threaten-
ing to capture that "Castle of Frauenberg" (mythic
old Hill-castle among woods), Broglio's chief post in
those regions. Broglio, May 24th, has fought a hand-
some skirmish (thanks partly to Belleisle, who chanced
to arrive from Frankfurt just in the nick of time, and
joined Broglio): Skirmish of Sahay; magnified^ in all
the French gazettes into a Victory of Sahay, victory
little short of Pharsalia, says Friedrich; -- the com-
plete account of which, forgotten now by all creatures,
is to be read in him they call Mauvillon;* and makes
a pretty enough piece of fence, on the small scale.
Lobkowitz had to give up the Frauenberg enterprise;
and cross to Budweis again, till new force should
come.
"Why not drive him out of Budweis," think the
Two French Marshals, "him and whatever force can
* Guerre de Boheme, ii. 204.
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? CHAP. sm. ] BATTLE OF CHOTUSITZ. 191
17th May 1742.
come? If those lucky Prussians would cooperate, and
those unlucky Saxons, how easy were it! " -- Belleisle
sets off to persuade Friedrich, to persuade Saxony (and
we shall see him on the route); Broglio waiting sublime,
on the hither side of the Moldau, well within wind of
Budweis, till Belleisle prevail, and return with said
cooperation. What became of Broglio, waiting in this
sublime manner, we shall also have to see; but per-
haps not for a great while yet (cannot pause on such
absurd phenomena yet), -- though Broglio's catastrophe
is itself a thing imminent; and, within some ten days
of that astonishing Victory of Sahay, astonishes poor
Broglio the reverse way. A man born for surprises!
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? 192 FIRST SILESIAN WAR ENDS. [book xiii.
17th May--11th Jane 1742.
CHAPTER XIV.
PEACE OF BRESLAU.
In actual loss of men or of ground, the results of
that Chotusitz Affair were not of decisive nature. But
it had been fought with obstinacy; with great fury on
the Austrian side (who, as it were, had a bet upon it
ever since February 25th), Britannic George, and all
the world, looking on: and, in dispiritment and dis-
credit to the beaten party, its results were considerable.
The voice of all the world, declaring through its Ga-
zetteer Editors, "You cannot beat these Prussians!
"
voice confirmed by one's own sad thoughts: -- in such
sounding of the rams' horns round one's Jericho, there
is always a strange influence (what is called panic, as
if Pan or some god were in it), and one's Jericho is
the apter to fall!
Among the Austrian Prisoners, there was a General
Pallandt, mortally wounded too; whom Friedrich, ac-
cording to custom, treated with his best humanity,
though all help was hopeless to poor Pallandt. Calling
one day at Pallandt's sick-couch, Friedrich was so sym-
pathetic, humane, and noble, that Pallandt was touched
by it; and said, What a pity your noble Majesty and
my noble Queen should ruin one another, for a set of
French intruders, who play false even to your Majesty!
"False? " Friedrich inquires further; Pallandt, a man
familiar at Court, has seen a Letter from Fleury to
the Queen of Hungary, conclusive as to Fleury's good
faith; will undertake, if permitted, to get his Majesty
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? CHAP. XIV. ] PEACE OF BRESLAU. 193
17th May--11th June 1742.
a sight of it. Friedrich permits; the Fleury letter
comes; to the effect: "Make peace with us, 0 Queen;
"with -your Prussian neighbour you shall make --
"what suits you! " Friedrich read; learned conclusively,
what perhaps he had already as good as known other-
wise; and drew the inference. * Actual copy of this
letter the most ardent Gazetteer curiosity could not
attain to, at that epoch; but the Pallandt story seems
to have been true; -- and as to the Fleury letter in
such circumstances, copies of various Fleury letters to
the like purport are still public enough; and Fleury's
private intentions, already guessed at by Friedrich,
are in our time a secret to nobody that inquires about
them.
Certain enough, Peace with Friedrich is now on
the way; and cannot well linger: -- what prospect has
Austria otherwise? Its very supplies from England
will be stopped. Hyndford redoubles his diligence;
Britannic Majesty reiterates at Vienna: "Did not I tell
you, Madam; there is no hope or possibility till these
Prussians are off our hands! " To which her Hungarian
Majesty, as the bargain was, now sorrowfully assents;
sorrowfully, unwillingly, -- and always lays the blame
on his Britannic Majesty afterwards, and brings it up
again as a great favour she had done him. "Did not
I give up my invaluable Silesia, the jewel of my
crown, for you, cruel Britannic Majesty with the big
purse, and no heart to speak of? " This she urges
always, on subsequent occasions; the high-souledLady;
reproachful of the patient, big-pursed little Gentleman,
* Helden-Geschichte, ii. 633; Hormayr, Anemonen, ii. 186; Adelong,
iii. o. H9n.
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. VII. 13
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? 194 FIRST SILESIAN WAR ENDS. [book xm.
17th May-- 11th June 1742.
who never answers, as he might, "For me, Madam?
Well --I" -- In short, Hyndford, Podewils, and the
Vienna Excellencies are busy.
Of these negotiations which go on at Breslau, and
of the acres of despatches, English, Austrian, and other,
let us not say one word. Enough that the Treaty is
getting made, and rapidly, -- though military offences
do not quite cease; clouds of Austrian Pandours hover-
ing about everywhere in Prince Karl's rear; pouncing
down upon Prussian outposts, convoys, mostly to little
purpose; hoping (what proves quite futile) they may
even burn a Prussian magazine here or there. Con-
temptible to the Prussian soldier, though very trouble-
some to him. Friedrich regards the Pandour sort, with
their jingling savagery, as a kind of military vermin;
not conceivable a Prussian formed corps should yield
to any odds of Pandour Tolpatch tagraggery. Nor
does the Prussian soldier yield; though sometimes, like
the mastiff galled by inroad of distracted weasels in
too great quantity, he may have his own difficulties.
Witness Colonel Retzow and the Magazine at Par-
dubitz ("daybreak, May 24th") versus the infinitude
of sudden Tolpatchery, bursting from the woods; rabid
enough for many hours, but ineffectual, upon Pardubitz
and Retzow. A distinguished Colonel this; of whom
we shall hear again. Whose style of Narrative (modest,
clear, grave, brief), much more, whose vigilant inex-
pugnable procedure on the occasion, is much to be
commended to the military man. * Friedrich, the better
to cover his Magazines, and be out of such annoyances,
- fell back a little; gradually to Kuttenberg again (Tol-
patchery vanishing, of its own accord); and lay en-
* Given in Seyfarth, Beylage, i. 548 et sqq.
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? CHAP. XIV. ] PEACE OF BRESLAU. 195
17th May-- 11th June 1742.
camped there, headquarters in the Schloss of Maleschau
near by, -- till the Breslau Negotiations completed
themselves.
Prince Karl, fringed with Tolpatchery in this
manner, but with much desertion, much dispiritment,
in his main body, -- the hoops upon him all loose, so
to speak, -- staggers zigzag back towards Budweis,
and the Lobkowitz Party there; intending nothing more
upon the Prussians; -- capable now, think some Non-
Prussians, of being well swept out of Budweis, and
over the horizon altogether. If only his Prussian
Majesty will cooperate! thinks Belleisle. "Your King
of Prussia will not, M. le Mar^chal! " answers Broglio:
-- No, indeed; he has tried that trade already, M. le
Marechal! think Broglio and we. The suspicions that
Friedrich, so quiescent after his Chotusitz, is making
Peace, are rife everywhere; especially in Broglio's
head and old Fleury's; though Belleisle persists with
emphasis, officially and privately, in the opposite opi-
nion, "Husht, Messieurs! " Better go and see, how-
ever.
Belleisle does go; starts for Kuttenberg, for Dresden;
his beautiful Budweis project now ready, French rein-
forcements streaming towards us, heart high again, --
if only Friedrich and the Saxons will cooperate. Belle-
isle, the Two Belleisles, with Valori and Company,
arrived June 2d, at Kuttenberg, at the Schloss of
Maleschau; -- "spoke little of Chotusitz," says Stille;
"and were none of them at the pains to ride to the
"ground. " Marechal Belleisle, for the next three days,
had otherwise speech of Friedrich; especially, on June
5th, a remarkable Dialogue. "Won't your Majesty
13*
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? 196 FIRST SILESIAN WAR ENDS. [bookxhi.
5th June 1742.
cooperate? " "Alas, Monseigneur de Belleisle--" How
gladly would we give this last Dialogue of Friedrich's
and Belleisle's, one of the most ticklish conceivable:
but there is not anywhere the least record of it that
can be called authentic; -- and we learn only that
Friedrich, with considerable distinctness, gave him to
know, "clearly" (say all the Books, except Friedrich's
own), that cooperation was henceforth a thing of the
preterpluperfect tense. "All that I ever wanted, more
than I ever demanded, Austria now offers; can any
one blame me that I close such a business as ours has
all along been, on such terms as these now offered
me are? "
It is said, and is likely enough, the Pallandt Fleury
Letter came up; as probably the Moravian Foray, and
various Broglio passages, would, in the train of said
Letter. To all which, and to the inexorable painful
corollary, Belleisle, in his high lean way, would listen
with a stern grandiose composure. But the rumours
add, On coming out into the Anteroom, dialogue and
sentence now done, Monseigneur de Belleisle tore the
peruke from his head; and stamping on it, was heard
to say volcanically, "That cursed parson, -- ce maudit
"calotte" (old Fleury), -- has ruined everything! "
Perhaps it is not true? If true, -- the prompt valets
would quickly replace Monseigneur's wig; chasing his
long strides; and silence, in so dignified a man, would
cloak whatever emotions there were* He rolled off,
* Adelung, iii. a. 154; &c. &. Guerre de Boheme (silent about the wig)
admits, as all Books do, the perfect clearness ; -- compare, however, (Euvres
de Frederic; and also Broglio's strange darkness, twelve days later, and
Belleisle now beside him again (Campagnes des Trois Mare'chaux, v. 190,
191, of date'17th June); -- darkness due perhaps to the strange humour
Broglio was then in?
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? CHAP. XIV. ] PEACE OF BRESLAU. 197
11th June--11th July 1742.
he and his, straightway to Dresden, there to invite
cooperation in the Budweis Project; there also in
vain. -- "Cooperation," M. le Marshal? Alas, it has
already come to operation, if you knew it! And your
Broglio is -- Better hurry back to Prag, where you
will find phenomena!
June 15th, Friedrich has a grand dinner of Gene-
rals at Maleschau; and says, in proposing the first
bumper, "Gentlemen, I announce to you, that, as I
"never wished to oppress the Queen of Hungary, I
"have formed the resolution of agreeing with that
"Princess, and accepting the Proposals she has made
"me in satisfaction of my rights," -- telling them
withal what the chief terms were, and praising my
Lord Hyndford for his great services. Upon which
was congratulation, cordial, universal; and, with full
rammers, "Health to the Queen of Hungary! " fol-
lowed by others of the like type, "Grand-Duke of Lor-
raine! " and "The brave Prince Karl! " especially.
Brevity being incumbent on us, we shall say only
that the Hyndford-Podewils operations had been speeded,
day and night; brought to finis, in the form of Signed
Preliminaries, as "Treaty of Breslau, 11th June 1742;"
and had gone to Friedrich's satisfaction in every par-
ticular. Thanks to the useful Hyndford, -- to the
willing mind of his Britannic Majesty, once so indignant,
but made willing, nay passionately eager, by his love
of Human Liberty and the pressure of events! To
Hyndford, some weeks hence,* -- I conclude, on Fried-
rich's request, -- there was Order of the Thistle sent;'
and grandest investiture ever seen, almost, done by
* 2d August (llelden-Geschichte, ii. 729).
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? 198 FIRST SILESIAN WAR ENDS. [bookxiii.
11th June--11th July 1742.
Friedrich upon Hyndford (Jordan, Keyserling, Schwerin,
and the Sword of State busy in it; Two Queens and
all the Berlin firmament looking on); and, perhaps
better still, on Friedrich's part there was gift of a Silver
Dinner-Service; gift of the Royal Prussian Arms (which
do enrich ever since the Shield of those Scottish Car-
michaels, as doubtless the Dinner-Service does their
Plate-chest); -- and abundant praise and honour to
the useful Hyndford, heavy of foot, but sure, who had
reached the goal.
This welcome Treaty, signed at Breslau, June 11th,
and confirmed by "Treaty of Berlin, July 28th," in
more explicit solemn manner, to the self-same effect,
can be read by him that runs (if compelled to read
Treaties);* the terms, in compressed form, are:
1o. "Silesia, Lower and Upper, to beyond the watershed
"and the Oppa-stream, -- reserving only the Principality of
"Teschen, with pertinents, which used to be reckoned
'! Silesian, and the ulterior Mountain-tops" (Mountain-tops
good for what? thought Friedrich, a year or two after-
wards! )-- "Silesia wholly, within those limits, andfurther-
"more the County Grlatz and its dependencies, are and remain
",the property of Friedrich and of his Heirs male or female;
"igiven up, and made his, to all intents and purposes, forever-
"more. With which Friedrich, to the like long date, engages
"to rest satisfied, and claim nothing further anywhere.
2>>. "Silesian Dutch-English Debt" (Loan of about Two
Millions, better half of it English, contracted by the late
Kaiser, on Silesian security, in that dreadful Polish-Election
crisis, when the Sea-Powers would not help, but left it to their
Stock-brokers), "is undertaken by Friedrich, who will pay
"interest on the same till liquidated.
3o. "Religion to stand where it is. Prussian Majesty not
"to meddle in this present or in other Wars of her Hungarian
? In Helden-Geschichle, i. 1061-4 (Treaty of Breslau), lb. '1065-70 (that
of Berlin); to be found also in. Wenek. Bousset, Scholl, Adelnng, &c.
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? CHAP. XIV. J PEACE OF BRESLAU. 199
11th June--Hth July 1742.
"Majesty, except with his ardent wishes that General Peace
"would ensue, and that all his friends, Hungarian Majesty
"among others, were living in good agreement around him. "
This is the Treaty of Breslau (June 11th, 1742),
or, in second more solemn edition, Treaty of Berlin
(July 28th following); signed, ratified, guaranteed by
his Britannic Majesty for one,* and firmly planted on
the Diplomatic adamant (at least on the Diplomatic
parchment) of this world. And now: Homewards, then;
march! --
Huge huzzahing, herald-trumpeting, bob-major-ing,
bursts forth from all Prussian Towns, especially from
all Silesian ones, in those June days, as the drums
beat homewards; elaborate Illuminations, in the short
nights; with bonfires, with transparencies, -- Trans-
parency inscribed "Frederico Magno (To Friedrich the
Great)" in one small instance, still of premature na-
ture. **
Omitting very many things, about Silesian For-
tresses, Army Cantons, Silesian settlements, military
and civil, which would but weary the reader, we add
only this from Bielfeld: dusty Transit of a victorious
Majesty, now on the threshold of home. Precise date
(which Bielfeld prudently avoids guessing at) is July
Uth, 1742; "M. de Pollnitz and I are in the suite of
"the King:
"We never stopped on the road, except some hours at
"Frankfurt-on-Oder, where the Fair was just going on. On
"approaching the Town, we found the highway lined on both
* Treaty of Westminster, between Friedrich and George, 29th (18th)
November 1742 (Sehflll, ii. 313).
** Helden-Geschichlc (ii. 702-729) is endless on these Illuminations; the
Jnoer case, of Frcderico Mayno (Jauer in Silesia) is of June 15th (ib. 712).
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? 200 FIRST SILESIAN WAR ENDS. [bOOKXIH.
11th July 1742.
"sides with crowds of traders, and other strangers of all
"nations; who had come out, attracted by curiosity to see the
"conqueror of Silesia, and had ranged themselves in two rows
"there. His Majesty's entry into Frankfurt, although a very
"triumphant one, was far from being ostentatious. We passed
"like lightning before the eyes of the spectators, and we were
"so covered with dust, that it was difficult to distinguish the
"colour of our coats and the features of our faces. We made
"some purchases at Frankfurt; and arrived safely in the
"Capital" (next day), "where the King was received amidst
"the acclamations of his People. "*
Here is a successful young King; is not he? Has
plunged into the Mahlstrom for his jewelled gold Cup,
and comes up with it, alive, unlamed. Will he, like
that Diver of Schiller's, have to try the feat a second
time?