Poniatowski
will be
"King of Poland in the course of events.
"King of Poland in the course of events.
Thomas Carlyle
org/access_use#pd-google
? 258 FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
Jan. --July 1762.
"you, or of failing in respect for you; and deign to receive
"with more benignity the humble representations which the
"conjunctures sometimes force from me. F. " -- Which re-
lieves Eichel of his difficulties, and quenches this sputter. *
Prince Henri, for all his complaining, did beautifully,
this Season again (though to us it must be silent, being small-
war merely); -- and in particular, May 12$, early in the
morning, simultaneously in many different parts, burst across
the Mulda, ten or twenty miles long (or broad rather, from
his right hand to his left), sudden as lightning, upon the
supine Serbelloni and his Austrians and Reichsfolk. And
hurled them back, one and all, almost to the Plauen Chasm
and their old haunts; widening his quarters notably. ** A
really brilliant thing, testifies everybody, though not to be
dwelt on here. Seidlitz was of it (much fine cutting and
careering, from the Seidlitz and others, we have to omit in
these two Saxon Campaigns! ) -- Seidlitz was of it; he, and
another still more special acquaintance of ours, the learned
Quintus Icilius; who also did his best in it, but lost his
"Amusette" (small bit of cannon, "Plaything," so called by
Marechal de Saxe, inventor of the article), and did not shine
like Seidlitz.
Henri's quarters being notably widened in this way, and
nothing but torpid Serbellonis and Prince Stollbergs on the
opposite part, Henri "drew himself out thirty-five miles
long;" and stood there, almost looking into Plauen region as
formerly. And with his fiery Seidlitzes, Kleists, made a
handsome Summer of it. And beat the Austrians and Reichs-
folk at Freyberg {October 2. 9th, a fine Battle, and his sole
one), -- on the Horse which afterwards carried Gellert, as is
pleasantly known.
But we are omitting the news from Petersburg, --
which came the very day after that gloomy Letter to
D'Argens; months before the Tiff of Quarrel with Henri,
and the brilliant better destinies of that Gentleman in
his Campaign.
* Plucked up from the waste imbroglios of Schoning (in. 296-311), by
arranging and omitting.
** tiericht won dem Uebergang uber die Mulde, den der Prim Hcinrich den
Men May 176% glucklich misgefuhrt (in Seyfarth, Beylagen, ni. 280-291). .
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 259
5th-19th Jan. 1762.
Bright News from Petersburg (certain, January 19th);
which grow ever brighter; and become a Star-of-day
for Friedrich.
To Friedrich, long before all this of Henri, indeed
almost on the very day while he was writing so despond-
ently to D'Argens, a new phasis had arisen. Hardly
had he been five weeks at Breslau, in those gloomy
circumstances, when, -- about the middle of January
1762 (day not given, though it is forever notable), --
there arrive rumours, arrive news, -- news from Peters-
burg; such as this King never had before! "Among
the thousand ill strokes of Fortune, does there at length
come one preeminently good? The unspeakable So-
vereign Woman, is she verily dead, then, and become
peaceable to me for evermore? " We promised Fried-
rich a wonderful star-of-day; and this is it, -- though
it is long before he dare quite regard it as such. Peter,
the Successor, he knows to be secretly his friend and
admirer; if only, in the new Czarish capacity and its
chaotic environments and conditions, Peter dare and
can assert these feelings? What a hope to Friedrich, from this time onward! Russia may be counted as the
bigger half of all he had to strive with; the bigger, or
at least the far uglier, more ruinous and incendiary; --
and if this were at once taken away, think what a day-
break when the night was at the blackest!
Pious people say, The darkest hour is often nearest
the dawn. And a dawn this proved to be for Friedrich.
And the fact grew always the longer the brighter; --
and before Campaign time, had ripened into real day-
light and sunrise. The dates should have been precise;
but are not to be had so: here is the nearest we could
17*
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? 260 ERIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
5th-19th Jan. 1762
come. January 14th, writing to Henri, the King has a
mysterious word about "possibilities of an uncommon
"sort," -- rumours from Petersburg, I could conjecture;
though perhaps they are only Turk or Tartar-Khan
affairs, which are higher this year than ever, and as
futile as ever. But, on January 19th, he has heard
plainly, -- with what hopes (if one durst indulge them)!
-- that the implacable Imperial Woman, in fame Catin
du Nord, is verily dead. Dead; and does not hate me
any more. Deliverance, Peace and Victory lie in the
word! -- Catin had long been failing, but they kept it
religiously secret within the Court walls: even at Pe-
tersburg, nobody knew till the Prayers of the Church
were required: Prayers as zealous as you can, -- the
Doctors having plainly intimated that she is desperate,
and that the thing is over. On Christmas-day 1761
by Russian Style, bth January 1762 by European, the
poor Imperial Catin lay dead; -- a death still more
important than that of George II. to this King.
Peter HI. , who succeeded, has long been privately
a sworn friend and admirer of the King; and hastens,
not too slowly as the King had feared, but far the re-
verse, to make that known to all mankind. That, and
much else,-- in a far too headlong manner, poor soul!
Like an ardent, violent, totally inexperienced person
(enfranchised schoolboy, come to the age of thirty-four),
who has sat hitherto in darkness, in intolerable com-
pression; as if buried alive! He is now Czar Peter,
Autocrat, not of Himself only, but of All the Russias;
-- and has, besides the complete regeneration of Russia,
two great thoughts: First, That of avenging native
Holstein, and his poor martyr of a Father now with
God, against the Danes; -- and,
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. ,261
5th-19tll Jan. 1762.
Second, what is scarcely second in importance to the
first, and indeed is practically a kind of preliminary to
it, That of delivering the Prussian Pattern of Heroes
from such a pattern of foul combinations, and bringing
Peace to Europe, while he settles the Holstein-Danish
business. Peter is Russian by the Mother's side; his
Mother was Sister of the late Catin, a Daughter, like
her, of Czar Peter called the Great, and of the little
brown Catharine whom we saw transiently long ago.
His Holstein Business shall concern us little; but that
with Friedrich, during the brief Six Months allowed
him for it, -- for it, and for all his remaining businesses
in this world, -- is of the highest importance to Fried-
rich and us.
Peter is one of the wildest men; his fate, which
was tragical, is now to most readers rather of a ghastly-
grotesque than of a lamentable and pitiable character.
Few know, or have ever considered, in how wild an
element poor Peter was born and nursed; what a time
he has had, since his fifteenth year especially, when
Cousin of Zerbst and he were married. Perhaps the
wildest and maddest any human soul had, during that
Century. I find in him, starting out from the Lethean
quagmires where he had to grow, a certain rash great-
ness of idea; traces of veritable conviction, just resolu-
tion; veritable and just, though rash. That of admira-
tion for King Friedrich was not intrinsically foolish,
in the solitary thoughts of the poor young fellow; nay
it was the reverse; though it was highly inopportune
in the place where he stood. Nor was the Holstein
notion bad; it was generous rather, noble and natural,
though, again, somewhat impracticable in the circum-
stances.
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? 262
FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
Jan. --July 1762.
The summary of the Friedrich-Peter business is
perhaps already known to most readers, and can be
very briefly given; nor is Peter's tragical Six Months
of Czarship (bth January -- 9th July 1762) a thing
for us to dwell on beyond need. But it is wildly
tragical, strokes of deep pathos in it, blended with the
ghastly and grotesque: it is part of Friedrich's strange
element and environment: and though the outer in-
cidents are public enough, it is essentially little known.
Had there been an . 53schylus, had there been a
Shakespeare! -- But poor Peter's shocking Six Months
of History has been treated by a far different set of
hands, themselves almost shocking to see: and, to the
seriously inquiring mind, it lies, and will long lie, in
a very waste, chaotic, enigmatic condition. Here, out
of considerable bundles now burnt, are some rough
jottings, Excerpts of Notes and Studies, -- which, I
still doubt rather, ought to have gone in Auto de Fe
along with the others. Auto de Fe I called it; Act of
Faith, not Spanish-Inquisitional, but essentially Celestial
many times, if you reflect well on the poisonous con-
sequences, on the sinfulness and deadly criminality, of
Human Babble, -- as nobody does nowadays! I label
the different Pieces, and try to make legible; -- hasty
readers have the privilege of skipping, if they like.
The first Two are of preliminary or prefatory nature,
-- perhaps still more skippable than those that will by
and by follow:
1. Genealogy of Peter. "His grandfather was Friedrich
"IV. , Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Schleswig, KarlXlI. 's
"brother-in-law; on whose score it was (Denmark finding the
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 263
Jan. -- July 1762.
"time opportune for a stroke of robbery there) that Karl XII. ,
"a young lad hardly eighteen, first took arms; and began the
"career of fighting that astonished Denmark and certain
"other Neighbours who had been too covetous on a young
"King. This his young Brother-in-law,Friedrich of Holstein-
"Gottorp (young he too, though Karl's senior by ten years),
"had been reinstated in his Territory, and the Danes sternly
"forbidden farther burglary there, by the victorious Karl;
"but went with Karl in his farther expeditions. Always
"Karl's intimate, and at his right hand for the next two years:
"fell in the Battle of Clissow, 19th July 1702; age not yet
"thirty-one.
"He left as Heir a poor young Boy, at this time only two
"years old. His young Widow Hedwig survived him six
"years. * Her poor child grew to manhood; and had tragic
"fortunes in this world; Danes again burglarious in that part,
"again robbing this poor Boy at discretion, so soon as Karl
"XII. became unfortunate; and refusing to restore (have not
''restored Schleswig at all:**) -- a grimly sad story to the now
"Peter, his only Child! This poor Duke at last died, 18th
"June 1739, age thirty-nine; the now Peter then about 11, --
"who well remembers tragic Papa; tragic Mamma not, who
"died above ten years before. ***
"Czar Peter called the Great had evidently a pity for this
"unfortunate Duke, a hope in his just hopes; and pleaded,
"as did various others, and endeavoured with the unjust
"Danes, mostly without effect. Did, however, give him one
"of his Daughters to wife; -- the result of whom is this new
"Czar Peter, called the Third: a Czar who is Sovereign of
"Holstein, and has claims of Sovereignty in Sweden, right
"of heirship in Schleswig, and of damages against Denmark,
"which are in litigation to this day. The Czarina Catin,
"tenderly remembering her Sister, would hear of no Heir to
"Russia but this Peter. Peter, in virtue of his paternal
"affinities, was elected King of Sweden about the same time;
"but preferred Russia, --with an eye to his Danes, some
"think. For certain, did adopt the Russian Expectancy, the
"Greek religion so-called; and was," in the way we saw long
* Michaelis, II. 618-629.
? * a. d. 1864, have at last had to do it, under unexpected circumstances!
*** Michaelis, n. 617; Hiibner, tt. 227, 229.
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? 264 FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
Jan. --July 17ti2.
years ago, "married (or to all appearance married) to Ca- "tharina Alexiewna of Anhalt-Zerbst, born in Stettin;* a
"Lady who became world-famous as Czarina of the Russias.
"Peter is an abstruse creature; has lived, all this while,
"with his Catharine an abstruse life, which would have gone
"altogether mad except for Catharine's superior sense. An
'' awkward, ardent, but helpless kind of Peter, with vehement
"desires, with a dash of wild magnanimity even: but in such
"an inextricable element amid such darkness, such provoca "tions of unmanageable opulence, such impediments, imagi-
nary and real, -- dreadfully real to poor Peter, -- as made
"him the unique of mankind in his time. He 'used to drill
"cats,' it is said, and to do the maddest-looking things (in
"his late buried-alive condition);-- and fell partly, never
"quite, which was wonderful, into drinking, as the solution
"of his inextricabilities. Poor Peter: always, and now more
"than ever, the cynosure of vulturous vulpine neighbours,
"withal; which infinitely aggravated his otherwise bad
"case! --
"For seven or eight years, there came no progeny, nor
"could come; about the eighth or ninth, there could, and did:
"the marvellous Czar Paul that was to be. Concerning whose
"exact paternity there are still calumnious assertions widely
"current; to this individual Editor much a matter of in-
difference, though on examining, his verdict is: 'Calumnies,
"to all appearance; mysteries which decent or decorous
"society refuses to speak of, and which indecent is pretty sure
"to make calumnies out of. ' Czar Paul may be considered
"genealogically genuine, if that is much an object to him.
"Poor Paul, does not he father himself, were there nothing
"more? Only that Peter and this Catharine could have be-
"gotten such a Paul. Genealogically genuine enough, --
"my poor Czar, that needed to be garrotted so very soon!
2. Of Catharine and the Books upon Peter and Her. "Catha-
rine too had an intricate time of it under the Catin; which
* Herr Preuss knows the house: "Now Dr, Lehmann's" (at that time,
the Governor of Stettin's), "in which also Czar Paul's second Spouse"
(Eugen of Wiirtemberg, a new Governor's Daughter), "who is Mother of
the Czars that follow, was born:" Preuss, n. 310, 311. Catharine, during her reign, was pious in a small way to the place of her cradle; sent her
successive Medals &c. to Stettin, which still has them to show.
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 265
Jan. --July 1762.
"was consoled to her only by a tolerably rapid succession of
"lovers, the best the ground yielded. In which department
"it is well known what a Thrice-Greatest she became: supe-
rior to any Charles II. ; equal almost to an August the
"Strong! Of her loves now and henceforth, which are heartily
"uninteresting to me, I propose to say nothing further:
"merely this, That in extent they probably rivalled the
"highest male sovereign figures (and are to be put in the same
"category with these, and damned as deep, or a little deeper);
"-- and cost her, in gifts, in magnificent pensions to the
"emeriti (for she did things always in a grandiose manner,
"quietly and yet inexorably dismissing the emeritus with
"stores of gold), the considerable sum of 20 millions sterling,
"in the course of her long reign. One, or at most two, were
"off on pension, when Hanbury Williams brought Ponia-
"towski for her, as we transiently saw.
Poniatowski will be
"King of Poland in the course of events. " * *
"Russia is not a publishing country; the Books about Ca-
"tharine are few, and of little worth. Tooke, an English
"Chaplain; Castera, an unknown French Hanger-on, who
"copies from Tooke, or Tooke from him: these are to be read,
"as the bad-best, and will yield little satisfactory insight;
"Castera, in particular, a great deal of dubious backstairs
"gossip and street rumour, which are not delightful to a
"reader of sense. In fine, there has been published, inthese
"very years, a Fragment of early Autobiography by Catharine
"herself, -- a credible and highly remarkable little Piece;
'' worth all the others, if it is knowledge of Catharine you are
"seeking. * A most placid, solid, substantial young Lady
"comes to light there; dropped into such an element as might
*"Memoires de I'Imperatrice CatharineII, ecrits par EUe-memc (A. Herzen
editing; London, 1859); -- which we already cited, on occasion of Catha-
rine's marriage.
Anonymous (Castera), Vie de Catharine II, Imperatrice de Russie (a
Paris, 1797; or reprinted, most of it, enough of it, a Varsovie, 1798), 2 tomes, 8vo. Tooke, Life of Catharine II. (4th edition, London, 1800),
3 Toll. 8vo; View of the Russian Empire during &c. (London, 1799), 3 voll.
8vo. -- Hermann, Geschichte des Russischen Stoats (Hamburg, 1853 et
antea), v. 241-308 et seq. ; is by much the most solid Book, though a dull
and heavy. Stenzel cites, as does Hermann, a Biographic Peters des Illten;
which no doubt exists, in perhaps 3 volumes; but, where, when, by whom,
or of what quality, they do not tell me.
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? 266 FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XI.
Jan. --July 17tH.
"have driven most people mad. But it did not her; it only
"made her wiser and wiser in her generation. Element black, i
"hideous, dirty, as Lapland Sorcery; -- in which the first
"clear duty is to hold one's tongue well, and keep one's eyes
'' open. Stars, -- not very heavenly, but of fixed nature, and
"heavenly to Catharine, -- a star or two, shine through the
"abominable murk: Steady, patient; steer silently, in all
"weathers, towards these!
"Young Catharine's immovable equanimity in this dis-
"tracted environment strikes us very much. Peter is career-
"ing, tumbling about, on all manner of absurd broomsticks,
"driven too surely by the Devil; terrific-absurd big Lapland
"Witch, surrounded by multitudes smaller, and some of them
"less ugly. Will be Czar of Russia, however; -- and is one's
"so-called Husband. These are prospects for an observant,
"immovably steady-going young Woman! The reignhig
"Czarina, old Catin herself, is silently the Olympian Jove to
"Catharine, who reveres her very much. Though articulately
"stupid as ever, in this Book of Catharine's, she comes out
"with a dumb weight, of silence, of obstinacy, of intricate ab-
"rupt rigour, which -- who knows but it may savour of dumb
"unconscious wisdom in the fat old blockhead? The Book
"says little of her, and in the way of criticism, of praise or of
"blame, nothing whatever; but one gains the notion of some
"dark human female object, bigger than one had fancied it
"before.
"Catharine steered towards her stars. Lovers were vouch-
"safed her, of a kind (her small stars, as we may call them);
"and, at length, through perilous intricacies, the big star,
"Autocracy of all the Russias, -- through what horrors of in-
"tricacy, that last! She had hoped always it would be by
"Husband Peter that she, with the deeper steady head, would
"be Autocrat: but the intricacies kept increasing, grew at
"last to the strangling pitch; and it came to be, between
"Peter and her, 'Either you to Siberia (perhaps farther), or
"else I! ' And it was Peter "that had to go; -- in what hideous
"way is well enough known; no Siberia, no Holstein thought
"to be far enough for Peter: -- and Catharine, merely weep-
"ing a little for him, mounted to the Autocracy herself. And
"then, the big star of stars being once hers, she had, not in
"the lover kind alone, but in all uncelestial kinds, whole ne-
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 267
Jan. -- July 1762.
"bulae and milky-ways of small stars. A very Semiramis, or
"the Louis-Quatorze of those Northern Parts. 'Second Crea-
"tress of Russia,' second Peter the Great in a sense. To me
"none of the loveliest objects; yet there are uglier, howin-
"finitely uglier: object grandiose, if not great. " -- We return
to Friedrich and the Death of Catin.
Colonel Hordt, I believe, was the first who credibly
apprised Friedrich of the great Russian Event. Colonel
Hordt, late of the Free-Corps Hordt, but captive since
soon after the Kunersdorf time; and whose doleful
quasi-infernal "twenty-five months and three days" in
the Citadel of Petersburg have changed in one hour
into celestial glories in the Court of that City; -- as
readers shall themselves see anon. By Hordt or by
whomsoever, the instant Friedrich heard, by an authentic
source, of the new Czar's Accession, Friedrich hastened
to turn round upon him with the friendliest attitude,
with arms as if ready to open; dismissing all his Rus-
sian Prisoners; and testifying, in every polite and royal
way, how gladly he would advance if permitted. To
which the Czar, by Hordt and by other channels, im-
perially responded; rushing forward, he, as if with arms
flung wide.
January 31st, is Order from the King,* That our
Russian Prisoners, one and all, shod, clad and dieted,
be forthwith set under way from Stettin: in return for
which generosity the Prussians, from Siberia or where- ever they were buried, are, soon after, hastening home
in like manner. Gudowitsh, Peter's favourite Adjutant,
who had been sent to congratulate at Zerbst, comes
round by Breslau (February 20th), and has joyfully
benign audience next day; directly on the heel of
* In Schiming, nI. 275 ("Breslau, 31st January 1762").
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? 268 FRIEDEICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
Jan. -- July 1762.
whom, Adjutant Colonel von der Goltz, who is Kam-
merherr as well as Colonel, and understands things of
business, goes to Petersburg. February 23d, Czarish
Majesty, to the horror of Vienna and glad astonish-
ment of mankind, emits Declaration (Note to all the
Foreign Excellencies in Petersburg), "That there ought
"to be Peace with this King of Prussia; that Czarish
"Majesty, for his own part, is resolved on the thing;
"gives up East Preussen and the so-called conquests
"made; Russian participation in such a War has
"ceased. " And practically orders Czernichef, who is
wintering with his 20,000 in Glatz, to quit Glatz and
the Austrian Combinations, and march homeward with
his 20,000. Which Czernichef, so soon as arrange-
ments of proviant and the like are made, hastens to
do; -- and does, as far as Thorn; but no farther, for
a reason that will be seen. On the last day of March,
Czernichef, off about a week ago from Glatz, and now
got into the Breslau latitude, -- came across, with a
select Suite of Four, to pay his court there; and had
the honour to dine with his Majesty, and to be, per-
sonally too, a Czernichef agreeable to his Majesty.
The vehemency of Austrian Diplomacies at Peters-
burg; and the horror of Kaiserinn and Kriegshofrath,
in Vienna, -- who have just discharged 20,000 of their
own people, counting on this Czernichef, and being
dreadfully tight for money, -- may be fancied. But
all avails nothing. The ardent Czar advances towards
Friedrich with arms flung wide. Goltz and Gudowitsch
are engaged on Treaty of Peace; Czar frankly gives
up East Preussen, "Yours again, what use has Russia
for it, Royal Friend? " Treaty of Peace goes forward
like the drawing of a Marriage-settlement (concluded
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 269
Jan. --July 1762.
May 5th); and, in a month more, has changed into
Treaty of Alliance; -- Czernichef ordered to stop short
at Thorn; to turn back, and join himself to this heroic
King instead of fighting against him. Which again
Czernichef, himself an admirer of this King, joyfully
does; -- though, unhappily, not with all the advantage
he expected to the King.
Swedish Peace, Queen Ulrique and the Anti-French
Party now getting the upper hand, had been hastening
forward in the interim (finished, at Hamburg, May 22): a most small matter in comparison to the Russian;
but welcome enough to Friedrich; -- though he said
slightingly of it, when first mentioned: "Peace? I
know not hardly of any War there has been with
Sweden; -- ask Colonel Belling about it! " Colonel
Belling, a most shining swift Hussar Colonel, who,
with a 2,000 sharp fellows, hanging always on the
Swedish flanks, sharp as lightning, "nowhere and yet
everywhere," as was said of him, has mainly, for the
last year or two, had the management of this extra-
ordinary "War. " Peace over all the North, Peace
and more, is now Friedrich's. Strangling imbroglio,
wide as the world, has ebbed to man's height; dawn of
day has ripened into sunrise for Friedrich; the way out
is now a thing credible and visible to him. Peter's
friendliness is boundless; almost too boundless! Peter
begs a Prussian Regiment, -- dresses himself in its
uniform, Colonel of Itzenplitz; Friedrich begs a Russian
Regiment, Colonel of Schuwalof: and all is joyful,
hopeful; marriage-bells instead of dirge ditto and gal-
lows ditto, -- unhappily not for very long.
In regard to Friedrich's feelings while all this went
on, take the following small utterances of his, before
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? 270 FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
Jan. --July 1762.
going farther: January 27th, 1762 (To Madame Camas,
-- eight days after the Russian Event): "I rejoice, my
'good Mamma, to find you have such courage; I ex-
"hort you to redouble it! All ends in this world; so
"we may hope this accursed War will not be the only
"thing eternal there. Since Death has trussed up a
"certain Catin of the Hyperborean Countries, our situation
"has advantageously changed, and becomes more sup-
portable than it was. We must hope that some other
"good events" (favour of the new Czar mainly) "will
"happen; by which we may profit to arrive at a good
"Peace. "
January 31st (To Minister Finckenstein): "Behold
"the first gleam of light that rises; -- Heaven be praised
"for it! We must hope good weather will succeed these
storms. God grant it. "f
End of March (To D'Argens): * * "All that" (at
Paris; about the Pompadourisms, the exile of Broglio
and Brother, and your other news) "is very miserable;
"as well as that discrepancy between King's Council
"and Parlement for and against the Jesuits! But, mon
"cher Marquis, my head is so ill, I can tell you nothing
"more, -- except that the Czar of Russia is a divine
"man; to whom I ought to erect altars. "++
May 2bth (To the same, -- Russian Peace three
weeks ago): "It is very pleasant to me, dear Marquis,
"that Sans-Souci could afford you an agreeable retreat
"during the beautiful Spring days. If it depended
"only on me, how soon should I be there beside you!
"But to the Six Campaigns there is a Seventh to be
"added, and will soon open; either because the Number
t Prcuss, n. 312.
tt (Enures de Frederic, xix. 301.
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? CHAP. X. ] j HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 271
Jan. --July 17ii_'.
"7 bad once mystic qualities, or because in the Book
"of Fate from all eternity the" -- * * "Jesuits banished
"from France? Ah, yes: -- hearing of that, I made
"my bit of plan for them" (mean to have my pick of
them as schoolmasters in Silesia here); "and am waiting
"only till I get Silesia cleared of Austrians as the first
"thing. You see we must not mow the corn till it is
"ripe. " f
May 28th (To the same): * * "Tartar Khan actually
"astir, 10,000 men of his in Hungary" (I am told);
"Turk potentially ditto, with 200,000" (futile both, as
ever): "All things show me the sure prospect of Peace
"by the end of this Year; and, in the background of
"it, Sans-Souci and my dear Marquis! A sweet calm
"springs up again in my soul; and a feeling of hope,
"to which for six years I had got unused, consoles me
"for all I have come through. Think only what a
"coil I shall be in, before a month hence" (Campaign
opened by that time, horrid Game begun again); "and
"what a pass we had come to, in December last:
"Country at its last gasp (agonisait), as if waiting for
"extreme unction: and now --! "tt * *
June 8t/i (To Madame Camas, -- Russian Alliance
now come): "I know well, my good Mamma, the sincere
"part you take in the lucky events that befal us.
"The mischief is, we are got so low, that we want at
"present all manner of fortunate events to raise us
"again; and Two grand conclusions of Peace" (the
Russian, the Swedish), "which might reestablish Peace
"throughout, are at this moment only a step towards
"finishing the War less unfortunately. " t+t
f (Euvres de Frederic, xix. 321.
ttt Ibid, iviu. U6-7.
tt Ibid. p. 323.
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? 272 FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [dOOK XX.
Jan. --July 1762.
Same day, June 8th (To D'Argens): "Czernichef is
"on march to join us. Our Campaign will not open till
"towards the end of this month" (did open, July 1st);
"but think then, what a pretty noise in this poor Silesia
"again! In fine, my dear Marquis, the job ahead of me
"is hard and difficult; and nobody can say positively
"how it will all go. Pray for us; and don't forget a poor
"devil who kicks about strangely in his harness, who
"leads the life of one damned; and who nevertheless
"loves you sincerely. -- Adieu. "* D'Argens (May 24th)
has heard, by Letters from very well-informed persons
in Vienna, that "Imperial Majesty, for some time past,
"spends half of her time in praying to the Virgin, and
"the other half in weeping. " "I wish her," adds the
ungallant D'Argens, "as punishments for the mischiefs
"her ambition has cost mankind these seven years past,
"the fate of Phae'thons Sisters, and that she melt alto-
"gether into water! " ** -- Take one other little utterance;
and then to Colonel Hordt and the Petersburg side of
things.
June 19th (still to D'Argens): "What is now going
"on in Russia no Count Kaunitz could foresee: what
"has come to pass in England, -- of which the hate-
"fullest part" (Bute's altogether extraordinary attempts,
in the Kaunitz, in the Czar Peter direction, to force a
Peace upon me) "is not yet known to you, -- I had no
"notion of, in forming my plans! The Governor of a
"State, in troublous times, never can be sure. This is
"what disgusts me with the business, in comparison.
"A Man of Letters operates on something certain; a
* (Euvrcs de Frederic, xix. 327.
** Ibid. 320 ("24th May 1762").
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?
? 258 FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
Jan. --July 1762.
"you, or of failing in respect for you; and deign to receive
"with more benignity the humble representations which the
"conjunctures sometimes force from me. F. " -- Which re-
lieves Eichel of his difficulties, and quenches this sputter. *
Prince Henri, for all his complaining, did beautifully,
this Season again (though to us it must be silent, being small-
war merely); -- and in particular, May 12$, early in the
morning, simultaneously in many different parts, burst across
the Mulda, ten or twenty miles long (or broad rather, from
his right hand to his left), sudden as lightning, upon the
supine Serbelloni and his Austrians and Reichsfolk. And
hurled them back, one and all, almost to the Plauen Chasm
and their old haunts; widening his quarters notably. ** A
really brilliant thing, testifies everybody, though not to be
dwelt on here. Seidlitz was of it (much fine cutting and
careering, from the Seidlitz and others, we have to omit in
these two Saxon Campaigns! ) -- Seidlitz was of it; he, and
another still more special acquaintance of ours, the learned
Quintus Icilius; who also did his best in it, but lost his
"Amusette" (small bit of cannon, "Plaything," so called by
Marechal de Saxe, inventor of the article), and did not shine
like Seidlitz.
Henri's quarters being notably widened in this way, and
nothing but torpid Serbellonis and Prince Stollbergs on the
opposite part, Henri "drew himself out thirty-five miles
long;" and stood there, almost looking into Plauen region as
formerly. And with his fiery Seidlitzes, Kleists, made a
handsome Summer of it. And beat the Austrians and Reichs-
folk at Freyberg {October 2. 9th, a fine Battle, and his sole
one), -- on the Horse which afterwards carried Gellert, as is
pleasantly known.
But we are omitting the news from Petersburg, --
which came the very day after that gloomy Letter to
D'Argens; months before the Tiff of Quarrel with Henri,
and the brilliant better destinies of that Gentleman in
his Campaign.
* Plucked up from the waste imbroglios of Schoning (in. 296-311), by
arranging and omitting.
** tiericht won dem Uebergang uber die Mulde, den der Prim Hcinrich den
Men May 176% glucklich misgefuhrt (in Seyfarth, Beylagen, ni. 280-291). .
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 259
5th-19th Jan. 1762.
Bright News from Petersburg (certain, January 19th);
which grow ever brighter; and become a Star-of-day
for Friedrich.
To Friedrich, long before all this of Henri, indeed
almost on the very day while he was writing so despond-
ently to D'Argens, a new phasis had arisen. Hardly
had he been five weeks at Breslau, in those gloomy
circumstances, when, -- about the middle of January
1762 (day not given, though it is forever notable), --
there arrive rumours, arrive news, -- news from Peters-
burg; such as this King never had before! "Among
the thousand ill strokes of Fortune, does there at length
come one preeminently good? The unspeakable So-
vereign Woman, is she verily dead, then, and become
peaceable to me for evermore? " We promised Fried-
rich a wonderful star-of-day; and this is it, -- though
it is long before he dare quite regard it as such. Peter,
the Successor, he knows to be secretly his friend and
admirer; if only, in the new Czarish capacity and its
chaotic environments and conditions, Peter dare and
can assert these feelings? What a hope to Friedrich, from this time onward! Russia may be counted as the
bigger half of all he had to strive with; the bigger, or
at least the far uglier, more ruinous and incendiary; --
and if this were at once taken away, think what a day-
break when the night was at the blackest!
Pious people say, The darkest hour is often nearest
the dawn. And a dawn this proved to be for Friedrich.
And the fact grew always the longer the brighter; --
and before Campaign time, had ripened into real day-
light and sunrise. The dates should have been precise;
but are not to be had so: here is the nearest we could
17*
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? 260 ERIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
5th-19th Jan. 1762
come. January 14th, writing to Henri, the King has a
mysterious word about "possibilities of an uncommon
"sort," -- rumours from Petersburg, I could conjecture;
though perhaps they are only Turk or Tartar-Khan
affairs, which are higher this year than ever, and as
futile as ever. But, on January 19th, he has heard
plainly, -- with what hopes (if one durst indulge them)!
-- that the implacable Imperial Woman, in fame Catin
du Nord, is verily dead. Dead; and does not hate me
any more. Deliverance, Peace and Victory lie in the
word! -- Catin had long been failing, but they kept it
religiously secret within the Court walls: even at Pe-
tersburg, nobody knew till the Prayers of the Church
were required: Prayers as zealous as you can, -- the
Doctors having plainly intimated that she is desperate,
and that the thing is over. On Christmas-day 1761
by Russian Style, bth January 1762 by European, the
poor Imperial Catin lay dead; -- a death still more
important than that of George II. to this King.
Peter HI. , who succeeded, has long been privately
a sworn friend and admirer of the King; and hastens,
not too slowly as the King had feared, but far the re-
verse, to make that known to all mankind. That, and
much else,-- in a far too headlong manner, poor soul!
Like an ardent, violent, totally inexperienced person
(enfranchised schoolboy, come to the age of thirty-four),
who has sat hitherto in darkness, in intolerable com-
pression; as if buried alive! He is now Czar Peter,
Autocrat, not of Himself only, but of All the Russias;
-- and has, besides the complete regeneration of Russia,
two great thoughts: First, That of avenging native
Holstein, and his poor martyr of a Father now with
God, against the Danes; -- and,
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. ,261
5th-19tll Jan. 1762.
Second, what is scarcely second in importance to the
first, and indeed is practically a kind of preliminary to
it, That of delivering the Prussian Pattern of Heroes
from such a pattern of foul combinations, and bringing
Peace to Europe, while he settles the Holstein-Danish
business. Peter is Russian by the Mother's side; his
Mother was Sister of the late Catin, a Daughter, like
her, of Czar Peter called the Great, and of the little
brown Catharine whom we saw transiently long ago.
His Holstein Business shall concern us little; but that
with Friedrich, during the brief Six Months allowed
him for it, -- for it, and for all his remaining businesses
in this world, -- is of the highest importance to Fried-
rich and us.
Peter is one of the wildest men; his fate, which
was tragical, is now to most readers rather of a ghastly-
grotesque than of a lamentable and pitiable character.
Few know, or have ever considered, in how wild an
element poor Peter was born and nursed; what a time
he has had, since his fifteenth year especially, when
Cousin of Zerbst and he were married. Perhaps the
wildest and maddest any human soul had, during that
Century. I find in him, starting out from the Lethean
quagmires where he had to grow, a certain rash great-
ness of idea; traces of veritable conviction, just resolu-
tion; veritable and just, though rash. That of admira-
tion for King Friedrich was not intrinsically foolish,
in the solitary thoughts of the poor young fellow; nay
it was the reverse; though it was highly inopportune
in the place where he stood. Nor was the Holstein
notion bad; it was generous rather, noble and natural,
though, again, somewhat impracticable in the circum-
stances.
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? 262
FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
Jan. --July 1762.
The summary of the Friedrich-Peter business is
perhaps already known to most readers, and can be
very briefly given; nor is Peter's tragical Six Months
of Czarship (bth January -- 9th July 1762) a thing
for us to dwell on beyond need. But it is wildly
tragical, strokes of deep pathos in it, blended with the
ghastly and grotesque: it is part of Friedrich's strange
element and environment: and though the outer in-
cidents are public enough, it is essentially little known.
Had there been an . 53schylus, had there been a
Shakespeare! -- But poor Peter's shocking Six Months
of History has been treated by a far different set of
hands, themselves almost shocking to see: and, to the
seriously inquiring mind, it lies, and will long lie, in
a very waste, chaotic, enigmatic condition. Here, out
of considerable bundles now burnt, are some rough
jottings, Excerpts of Notes and Studies, -- which, I
still doubt rather, ought to have gone in Auto de Fe
along with the others. Auto de Fe I called it; Act of
Faith, not Spanish-Inquisitional, but essentially Celestial
many times, if you reflect well on the poisonous con-
sequences, on the sinfulness and deadly criminality, of
Human Babble, -- as nobody does nowadays! I label
the different Pieces, and try to make legible; -- hasty
readers have the privilege of skipping, if they like.
The first Two are of preliminary or prefatory nature,
-- perhaps still more skippable than those that will by
and by follow:
1. Genealogy of Peter. "His grandfather was Friedrich
"IV. , Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Schleswig, KarlXlI. 's
"brother-in-law; on whose score it was (Denmark finding the
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 263
Jan. -- July 1762.
"time opportune for a stroke of robbery there) that Karl XII. ,
"a young lad hardly eighteen, first took arms; and began the
"career of fighting that astonished Denmark and certain
"other Neighbours who had been too covetous on a young
"King. This his young Brother-in-law,Friedrich of Holstein-
"Gottorp (young he too, though Karl's senior by ten years),
"had been reinstated in his Territory, and the Danes sternly
"forbidden farther burglary there, by the victorious Karl;
"but went with Karl in his farther expeditions. Always
"Karl's intimate, and at his right hand for the next two years:
"fell in the Battle of Clissow, 19th July 1702; age not yet
"thirty-one.
"He left as Heir a poor young Boy, at this time only two
"years old. His young Widow Hedwig survived him six
"years. * Her poor child grew to manhood; and had tragic
"fortunes in this world; Danes again burglarious in that part,
"again robbing this poor Boy at discretion, so soon as Karl
"XII. became unfortunate; and refusing to restore (have not
''restored Schleswig at all:**) -- a grimly sad story to the now
"Peter, his only Child! This poor Duke at last died, 18th
"June 1739, age thirty-nine; the now Peter then about 11, --
"who well remembers tragic Papa; tragic Mamma not, who
"died above ten years before. ***
"Czar Peter called the Great had evidently a pity for this
"unfortunate Duke, a hope in his just hopes; and pleaded,
"as did various others, and endeavoured with the unjust
"Danes, mostly without effect. Did, however, give him one
"of his Daughters to wife; -- the result of whom is this new
"Czar Peter, called the Third: a Czar who is Sovereign of
"Holstein, and has claims of Sovereignty in Sweden, right
"of heirship in Schleswig, and of damages against Denmark,
"which are in litigation to this day. The Czarina Catin,
"tenderly remembering her Sister, would hear of no Heir to
"Russia but this Peter. Peter, in virtue of his paternal
"affinities, was elected King of Sweden about the same time;
"but preferred Russia, --with an eye to his Danes, some
"think. For certain, did adopt the Russian Expectancy, the
"Greek religion so-called; and was," in the way we saw long
* Michaelis, II. 618-629.
? * a. d. 1864, have at last had to do it, under unexpected circumstances!
*** Michaelis, n. 617; Hiibner, tt. 227, 229.
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? 264 FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
Jan. --July 17ti2.
years ago, "married (or to all appearance married) to Ca- "tharina Alexiewna of Anhalt-Zerbst, born in Stettin;* a
"Lady who became world-famous as Czarina of the Russias.
"Peter is an abstruse creature; has lived, all this while,
"with his Catharine an abstruse life, which would have gone
"altogether mad except for Catharine's superior sense. An
'' awkward, ardent, but helpless kind of Peter, with vehement
"desires, with a dash of wild magnanimity even: but in such
"an inextricable element amid such darkness, such provoca "tions of unmanageable opulence, such impediments, imagi-
nary and real, -- dreadfully real to poor Peter, -- as made
"him the unique of mankind in his time. He 'used to drill
"cats,' it is said, and to do the maddest-looking things (in
"his late buried-alive condition);-- and fell partly, never
"quite, which was wonderful, into drinking, as the solution
"of his inextricabilities. Poor Peter: always, and now more
"than ever, the cynosure of vulturous vulpine neighbours,
"withal; which infinitely aggravated his otherwise bad
"case! --
"For seven or eight years, there came no progeny, nor
"could come; about the eighth or ninth, there could, and did:
"the marvellous Czar Paul that was to be. Concerning whose
"exact paternity there are still calumnious assertions widely
"current; to this individual Editor much a matter of in-
difference, though on examining, his verdict is: 'Calumnies,
"to all appearance; mysteries which decent or decorous
"society refuses to speak of, and which indecent is pretty sure
"to make calumnies out of. ' Czar Paul may be considered
"genealogically genuine, if that is much an object to him.
"Poor Paul, does not he father himself, were there nothing
"more? Only that Peter and this Catharine could have be-
"gotten such a Paul. Genealogically genuine enough, --
"my poor Czar, that needed to be garrotted so very soon!
2. Of Catharine and the Books upon Peter and Her. "Catha-
rine too had an intricate time of it under the Catin; which
* Herr Preuss knows the house: "Now Dr, Lehmann's" (at that time,
the Governor of Stettin's), "in which also Czar Paul's second Spouse"
(Eugen of Wiirtemberg, a new Governor's Daughter), "who is Mother of
the Czars that follow, was born:" Preuss, n. 310, 311. Catharine, during her reign, was pious in a small way to the place of her cradle; sent her
successive Medals &c. to Stettin, which still has them to show.
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 265
Jan. --July 1762.
"was consoled to her only by a tolerably rapid succession of
"lovers, the best the ground yielded. In which department
"it is well known what a Thrice-Greatest she became: supe-
rior to any Charles II. ; equal almost to an August the
"Strong! Of her loves now and henceforth, which are heartily
"uninteresting to me, I propose to say nothing further:
"merely this, That in extent they probably rivalled the
"highest male sovereign figures (and are to be put in the same
"category with these, and damned as deep, or a little deeper);
"-- and cost her, in gifts, in magnificent pensions to the
"emeriti (for she did things always in a grandiose manner,
"quietly and yet inexorably dismissing the emeritus with
"stores of gold), the considerable sum of 20 millions sterling,
"in the course of her long reign. One, or at most two, were
"off on pension, when Hanbury Williams brought Ponia-
"towski for her, as we transiently saw.
Poniatowski will be
"King of Poland in the course of events. " * *
"Russia is not a publishing country; the Books about Ca-
"tharine are few, and of little worth. Tooke, an English
"Chaplain; Castera, an unknown French Hanger-on, who
"copies from Tooke, or Tooke from him: these are to be read,
"as the bad-best, and will yield little satisfactory insight;
"Castera, in particular, a great deal of dubious backstairs
"gossip and street rumour, which are not delightful to a
"reader of sense. In fine, there has been published, inthese
"very years, a Fragment of early Autobiography by Catharine
"herself, -- a credible and highly remarkable little Piece;
'' worth all the others, if it is knowledge of Catharine you are
"seeking. * A most placid, solid, substantial young Lady
"comes to light there; dropped into such an element as might
*"Memoires de I'Imperatrice CatharineII, ecrits par EUe-memc (A. Herzen
editing; London, 1859); -- which we already cited, on occasion of Catha-
rine's marriage.
Anonymous (Castera), Vie de Catharine II, Imperatrice de Russie (a
Paris, 1797; or reprinted, most of it, enough of it, a Varsovie, 1798), 2 tomes, 8vo. Tooke, Life of Catharine II. (4th edition, London, 1800),
3 Toll. 8vo; View of the Russian Empire during &c. (London, 1799), 3 voll.
8vo. -- Hermann, Geschichte des Russischen Stoats (Hamburg, 1853 et
antea), v. 241-308 et seq. ; is by much the most solid Book, though a dull
and heavy. Stenzel cites, as does Hermann, a Biographic Peters des Illten;
which no doubt exists, in perhaps 3 volumes; but, where, when, by whom,
or of what quality, they do not tell me.
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? 266 FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XI.
Jan. --July 17tH.
"have driven most people mad. But it did not her; it only
"made her wiser and wiser in her generation. Element black, i
"hideous, dirty, as Lapland Sorcery; -- in which the first
"clear duty is to hold one's tongue well, and keep one's eyes
'' open. Stars, -- not very heavenly, but of fixed nature, and
"heavenly to Catharine, -- a star or two, shine through the
"abominable murk: Steady, patient; steer silently, in all
"weathers, towards these!
"Young Catharine's immovable equanimity in this dis-
"tracted environment strikes us very much. Peter is career-
"ing, tumbling about, on all manner of absurd broomsticks,
"driven too surely by the Devil; terrific-absurd big Lapland
"Witch, surrounded by multitudes smaller, and some of them
"less ugly. Will be Czar of Russia, however; -- and is one's
"so-called Husband. These are prospects for an observant,
"immovably steady-going young Woman! The reignhig
"Czarina, old Catin herself, is silently the Olympian Jove to
"Catharine, who reveres her very much. Though articulately
"stupid as ever, in this Book of Catharine's, she comes out
"with a dumb weight, of silence, of obstinacy, of intricate ab-
"rupt rigour, which -- who knows but it may savour of dumb
"unconscious wisdom in the fat old blockhead? The Book
"says little of her, and in the way of criticism, of praise or of
"blame, nothing whatever; but one gains the notion of some
"dark human female object, bigger than one had fancied it
"before.
"Catharine steered towards her stars. Lovers were vouch-
"safed her, of a kind (her small stars, as we may call them);
"and, at length, through perilous intricacies, the big star,
"Autocracy of all the Russias, -- through what horrors of in-
"tricacy, that last! She had hoped always it would be by
"Husband Peter that she, with the deeper steady head, would
"be Autocrat: but the intricacies kept increasing, grew at
"last to the strangling pitch; and it came to be, between
"Peter and her, 'Either you to Siberia (perhaps farther), or
"else I! ' And it was Peter "that had to go; -- in what hideous
"way is well enough known; no Siberia, no Holstein thought
"to be far enough for Peter: -- and Catharine, merely weep-
"ing a little for him, mounted to the Autocracy herself. And
"then, the big star of stars being once hers, she had, not in
"the lover kind alone, but in all uncelestial kinds, whole ne-
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 267
Jan. -- July 1762.
"bulae and milky-ways of small stars. A very Semiramis, or
"the Louis-Quatorze of those Northern Parts. 'Second Crea-
"tress of Russia,' second Peter the Great in a sense. To me
"none of the loveliest objects; yet there are uglier, howin-
"finitely uglier: object grandiose, if not great. " -- We return
to Friedrich and the Death of Catin.
Colonel Hordt, I believe, was the first who credibly
apprised Friedrich of the great Russian Event. Colonel
Hordt, late of the Free-Corps Hordt, but captive since
soon after the Kunersdorf time; and whose doleful
quasi-infernal "twenty-five months and three days" in
the Citadel of Petersburg have changed in one hour
into celestial glories in the Court of that City; -- as
readers shall themselves see anon. By Hordt or by
whomsoever, the instant Friedrich heard, by an authentic
source, of the new Czar's Accession, Friedrich hastened
to turn round upon him with the friendliest attitude,
with arms as if ready to open; dismissing all his Rus-
sian Prisoners; and testifying, in every polite and royal
way, how gladly he would advance if permitted. To
which the Czar, by Hordt and by other channels, im-
perially responded; rushing forward, he, as if with arms
flung wide.
January 31st, is Order from the King,* That our
Russian Prisoners, one and all, shod, clad and dieted,
be forthwith set under way from Stettin: in return for
which generosity the Prussians, from Siberia or where- ever they were buried, are, soon after, hastening home
in like manner. Gudowitsh, Peter's favourite Adjutant,
who had been sent to congratulate at Zerbst, comes
round by Breslau (February 20th), and has joyfully
benign audience next day; directly on the heel of
* In Schiming, nI. 275 ("Breslau, 31st January 1762").
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? 268 FRIEDEICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
Jan. -- July 1762.
whom, Adjutant Colonel von der Goltz, who is Kam-
merherr as well as Colonel, and understands things of
business, goes to Petersburg. February 23d, Czarish
Majesty, to the horror of Vienna and glad astonish-
ment of mankind, emits Declaration (Note to all the
Foreign Excellencies in Petersburg), "That there ought
"to be Peace with this King of Prussia; that Czarish
"Majesty, for his own part, is resolved on the thing;
"gives up East Preussen and the so-called conquests
"made; Russian participation in such a War has
"ceased. " And practically orders Czernichef, who is
wintering with his 20,000 in Glatz, to quit Glatz and
the Austrian Combinations, and march homeward with
his 20,000. Which Czernichef, so soon as arrange-
ments of proviant and the like are made, hastens to
do; -- and does, as far as Thorn; but no farther, for
a reason that will be seen. On the last day of March,
Czernichef, off about a week ago from Glatz, and now
got into the Breslau latitude, -- came across, with a
select Suite of Four, to pay his court there; and had
the honour to dine with his Majesty, and to be, per-
sonally too, a Czernichef agreeable to his Majesty.
The vehemency of Austrian Diplomacies at Peters-
burg; and the horror of Kaiserinn and Kriegshofrath,
in Vienna, -- who have just discharged 20,000 of their
own people, counting on this Czernichef, and being
dreadfully tight for money, -- may be fancied. But
all avails nothing. The ardent Czar advances towards
Friedrich with arms flung wide. Goltz and Gudowitsch
are engaged on Treaty of Peace; Czar frankly gives
up East Preussen, "Yours again, what use has Russia
for it, Royal Friend? " Treaty of Peace goes forward
like the drawing of a Marriage-settlement (concluded
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 269
Jan. --July 1762.
May 5th); and, in a month more, has changed into
Treaty of Alliance; -- Czernichef ordered to stop short
at Thorn; to turn back, and join himself to this heroic
King instead of fighting against him. Which again
Czernichef, himself an admirer of this King, joyfully
does; -- though, unhappily, not with all the advantage
he expected to the King.
Swedish Peace, Queen Ulrique and the Anti-French
Party now getting the upper hand, had been hastening
forward in the interim (finished, at Hamburg, May 22): a most small matter in comparison to the Russian;
but welcome enough to Friedrich; -- though he said
slightingly of it, when first mentioned: "Peace? I
know not hardly of any War there has been with
Sweden; -- ask Colonel Belling about it! " Colonel
Belling, a most shining swift Hussar Colonel, who,
with a 2,000 sharp fellows, hanging always on the
Swedish flanks, sharp as lightning, "nowhere and yet
everywhere," as was said of him, has mainly, for the
last year or two, had the management of this extra-
ordinary "War. " Peace over all the North, Peace
and more, is now Friedrich's. Strangling imbroglio,
wide as the world, has ebbed to man's height; dawn of
day has ripened into sunrise for Friedrich; the way out
is now a thing credible and visible to him. Peter's
friendliness is boundless; almost too boundless! Peter
begs a Prussian Regiment, -- dresses himself in its
uniform, Colonel of Itzenplitz; Friedrich begs a Russian
Regiment, Colonel of Schuwalof: and all is joyful,
hopeful; marriage-bells instead of dirge ditto and gal-
lows ditto, -- unhappily not for very long.
In regard to Friedrich's feelings while all this went
on, take the following small utterances of his, before
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? 270 FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
Jan. --July 1762.
going farther: January 27th, 1762 (To Madame Camas,
-- eight days after the Russian Event): "I rejoice, my
'good Mamma, to find you have such courage; I ex-
"hort you to redouble it! All ends in this world; so
"we may hope this accursed War will not be the only
"thing eternal there. Since Death has trussed up a
"certain Catin of the Hyperborean Countries, our situation
"has advantageously changed, and becomes more sup-
portable than it was. We must hope that some other
"good events" (favour of the new Czar mainly) "will
"happen; by which we may profit to arrive at a good
"Peace. "
January 31st (To Minister Finckenstein): "Behold
"the first gleam of light that rises; -- Heaven be praised
"for it! We must hope good weather will succeed these
storms. God grant it. "f
End of March (To D'Argens): * * "All that" (at
Paris; about the Pompadourisms, the exile of Broglio
and Brother, and your other news) "is very miserable;
"as well as that discrepancy between King's Council
"and Parlement for and against the Jesuits! But, mon
"cher Marquis, my head is so ill, I can tell you nothing
"more, -- except that the Czar of Russia is a divine
"man; to whom I ought to erect altars. "++
May 2bth (To the same, -- Russian Peace three
weeks ago): "It is very pleasant to me, dear Marquis,
"that Sans-Souci could afford you an agreeable retreat
"during the beautiful Spring days. If it depended
"only on me, how soon should I be there beside you!
"But to the Six Campaigns there is a Seventh to be
"added, and will soon open; either because the Number
t Prcuss, n. 312.
tt (Enures de Frederic, xix. 301.
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? CHAP. X. ] j HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 271
Jan. --July 17ii_'.
"7 bad once mystic qualities, or because in the Book
"of Fate from all eternity the" -- * * "Jesuits banished
"from France? Ah, yes: -- hearing of that, I made
"my bit of plan for them" (mean to have my pick of
them as schoolmasters in Silesia here); "and am waiting
"only till I get Silesia cleared of Austrians as the first
"thing. You see we must not mow the corn till it is
"ripe. " f
May 28th (To the same): * * "Tartar Khan actually
"astir, 10,000 men of his in Hungary" (I am told);
"Turk potentially ditto, with 200,000" (futile both, as
ever): "All things show me the sure prospect of Peace
"by the end of this Year; and, in the background of
"it, Sans-Souci and my dear Marquis! A sweet calm
"springs up again in my soul; and a feeling of hope,
"to which for six years I had got unused, consoles me
"for all I have come through. Think only what a
"coil I shall be in, before a month hence" (Campaign
opened by that time, horrid Game begun again); "and
"what a pass we had come to, in December last:
"Country at its last gasp (agonisait), as if waiting for
"extreme unction: and now --! "tt * *
June 8t/i (To Madame Camas, -- Russian Alliance
now come): "I know well, my good Mamma, the sincere
"part you take in the lucky events that befal us.
"The mischief is, we are got so low, that we want at
"present all manner of fortunate events to raise us
"again; and Two grand conclusions of Peace" (the
Russian, the Swedish), "which might reestablish Peace
"throughout, are at this moment only a step towards
"finishing the War less unfortunately. " t+t
f (Euvres de Frederic, xix. 321.
ttt Ibid, iviu. U6-7.
tt Ibid. p. 323.
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? 272 FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [dOOK XX.
Jan. --July 1762.
Same day, June 8th (To D'Argens): "Czernichef is
"on march to join us. Our Campaign will not open till
"towards the end of this month" (did open, July 1st);
"but think then, what a pretty noise in this poor Silesia
"again! In fine, my dear Marquis, the job ahead of me
"is hard and difficult; and nobody can say positively
"how it will all go. Pray for us; and don't forget a poor
"devil who kicks about strangely in his harness, who
"leads the life of one damned; and who nevertheless
"loves you sincerely. -- Adieu. "* D'Argens (May 24th)
has heard, by Letters from very well-informed persons
in Vienna, that "Imperial Majesty, for some time past,
"spends half of her time in praying to the Virgin, and
"the other half in weeping. " "I wish her," adds the
ungallant D'Argens, "as punishments for the mischiefs
"her ambition has cost mankind these seven years past,
"the fate of Phae'thons Sisters, and that she melt alto-
"gether into water! " ** -- Take one other little utterance;
and then to Colonel Hordt and the Petersburg side of
things.
June 19th (still to D'Argens): "What is now going
"on in Russia no Count Kaunitz could foresee: what
"has come to pass in England, -- of which the hate-
"fullest part" (Bute's altogether extraordinary attempts,
in the Kaunitz, in the Czar Peter direction, to force a
Peace upon me) "is not yet known to you, -- I had no
"notion of, in forming my plans! The Governor of a
"State, in troublous times, never can be sure. This is
"what disgusts me with the business, in comparison.
"A Man of Letters operates on something certain; a
* (Euvrcs de Frederic, xix. 327.
** Ibid. 320 ("24th May 1762").
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