"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!
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!
Thomas Carlyle
-- 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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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 273
Jan. -- July 1762.
"Politician can have almost no data of that kind. "*
(How easy everybody's trade but one's own! )
Readers know what a tragedy poor Peter's was.
His Czernichef did join the King; but with far less
advantage than Czernichef or anybody had anticipated!
-- It is none of our intention to go into the chaotic
Russian element, or that wildly-blazing sanguinary Ca-
tharine-and-Peter business; of which, at any rate, there
are plentiful accounts in common circulation, more or
less accurate,-^--especially M. Rulhiere's,** the most suc-
cinct, lucid, and least unsatisfactory, in the accessible
languages. Only so far as Friedrich was concerned
are we. But readers saw this Couple married, under
Friedrich's auspices, -- a Marriage which he thought
important twenty years ago; and sure enough the Dis-
solution of it did prove important to him, and is a ne-
cessary item here!
Readers, even those that know Rulhiere, will doubt-
less consent to a little supplementing from Two other
Eye-witnesses of credit. The first and principal is a
respectable Ex-Swedish Gentleman, whom readers used
to hear of; the Colonel Hordt above mentioned once
of the Free-Corps Hordt, but fallen Prisoner latterly;
-- whose experiences and reports are all the more in-
teresting to us, as Friedrich himself had specially to
depend on them at present; and doubtless, in times long
afterwards, now and then heard speech of them from
Hordt. Our second Eye-witness is the Reverend Herr
* (Entires de Frederic, x^x. P- 329.
** Histoire ou Anecdotes sur la Revolution de Russie en Vannee 1762
(written, 1768; first printed, Paris, 1797: English Translation, London
1797).
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. XII. 18
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? 274 FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED, [book XX.
Jan. -- July 1762.
Doctor Biisching (of the Erdbeschreibung, of the Beytrage, and many other Works, an invaluable friend to us
all along); who, in his wandering time, has come to be
"Pastor of the German Church at Petersburg" some
years back.
What Colonel Hordt and the Others saw at Petersburg
(January--July 1762).
Autumn 1759, in the sequel to Kunersdorf -- when the
Russians and Daun lay so long torpid, uncertain what to do
except keep Friedrich and Prince Henri well separate, and
Friedrich had such watchings, campings, and marchings
about on the hither skirt of them (skirt always veiled in Cos-
sacks , and producing skirmishes as you marched past), -- we
did mention Hordt's capture ;* not much hoping that readers
could remember it in such a press of things more memorable.
It was in, or as prelude to, one of those skirmishes (one of the
earliest, and a rather sharp one," atTrebatsch," inFrankfurt-
Liberose Country, "4th September 1759"), that Hordt had
his misfortune: he had been out reconnoitering, with an Or-
derlyor two, before the skirmish began, was suddenly "sur-
sounded by 200 Cossacks," and after desperate plunging into
bogs, desperate firing of pistols and the like, was taken pri-
soner. Was carted miserably to Petersburg, -- such a jour-
ney for dead ennui as Hordt never knew; and was then
tumbled out into solitary confinement in the Citadel, a place
like the Spanish Inquisition; not the least notice taken of his
requests for a few Books, for leave to answer his poor Wife's
Letter merely by the words, "Dear one, lam alive;" -- and
was left there, to the company of his own reflexions, and a life
as if in vacant Hades, for twenty-five months and three days.
After the lapse of that period, he has something to say to us
again, and we transiently look in upon him there.
The Book we excerpt from is, Memoires du Comte de Hordt
(second edition, 2 volumes 12mo, Berlin, 1789). This is Book-
seller Pitra's redaction of the Hordt Autobiography (Berlin,
1788, was Pitra's first edition): several years after, how many
is not said, nor whether Hordt (who had become a dignitary
* Supra, vol. xi. p. 234.
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 275
Jan. --July 1762.
in Berlin society before Pitra's feat) was still living or not, a
"M. Borelly, Professor in the Military School," undertook a
second considerably enlarged and improved redaction; -- of
which latter there is an English Translation; easy enough to
read; but nearly without meaning, I should fear, to readers
unacquainted with the scene and subject. * Hordt was
reckoned a perfectly veracious, intelligent kind of man: but
he seldom gives the least date, specification, or precise detail;
and his Book reads, not like the Testimony of an Eye-witness,
which it is, and valuable when you understand it; but more
like some vague Forgery, compiled by a destitute inventive
individual, regardless of the Ten Commandments (sparingly
consulting even his file of Old Newspapers), and writing a
Book which would deserve the treadmill, were there any
Police in his trade! --
Wednesday, 6th January 1762, Hordt's vacant Hades of an
existence in the Citadel of Petersburg was broken by a loud
sound: three minute guns went off from different sides, close
by; and then whole salvos, peal after peal: "Czarina gone
overnight, Peter III. Czar in her stead! " said the Officer,
rushing in to tell Hordt; to whom it was as news of resurrec-
tion from the dead. "Evening of same day, an Aide-de-
"Camp of the new Czar came to announce my liberty; equi-
page waiting to take me at once to his Russian Majesty.
"Asked him to defer it till the following day; -- so agitated
"was I. " And indeed the Czar, busy taking acclamations,
oaths of fealty, riding about among his Troops by torchlight,
could have made little of me that evening. ** "Ultimately,
"my presentation was deferred till Sunday," January 10th,
"that it might be done with proper splendour, all theNobility
"being then usually assembled about his Majesty. "
"Waited, amid crowds of Nobility, in the Gallery, accord-
ingly. Was presented in the Gallery, through which the
"Czar, followed by Czarina and all the Court, were passing
"on their way to Chapel. Czar made a short kind speech
"('Delighted to do you an act of justice, Monsieur, and re-
"turn a valuable servant to the King I esteem'); gave me his
* Memoirs of the Count de Hordt: London, 1806: 2 voll. 12mo, -- only
the first volume of which (unavailable here) is in my possession.
** Hermann, Geschichte des Russischen Staats, v. 241.
18*
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? 276
FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
Jan. --July 1762.
"hand to kiss: Czarina did the same. General Korf," an ex-
cellent friend, so kind to me atKonigsberg while I was get-
ting carted hither, and a General now in high Office here,
"who had been my introducer, led me into Chapel, to the
"Court's place (tribune de la Cour). Czar came across re-
"peatedly" (while public worship was going on; a Czar per-
haps too regardless that way! ) "to talk to me; dwelt much "Chamberlain whispered me, 'You dine with the Court. '"
Which, of course, I did.
"Table was of sixty covers; splendid as the Arabian
"Tales. Czar and Czarina sat side by side; Korf and I had
"the honour to be placed opposite them. Hardly were we
"seated when the Czar addressed me: 'You have had no
"'Prussian news this long while. I am glad to tell you that
"' the King is well, though he has had such fighting to right
"'and left;-- but I hope there will soon be an end to all that. '
''Words which everybody listened to like prophecy! " (Peter "'Prison? ' continued the Czar. 'Twenty-five months and
'"three days, your Majesty. ' 'Were you well treated? '" Hordt hesitated, knew not what to say; but the Czar urging
him, confessed, "'He had been always rather badly used; not
"'even allowed to buy a few books to read. ' At which the
"Czarina was evidently shocked: lCela est bien barbare! '
"she exclaimed aloud. " "I wished much to return home
"at once; and petitioned the Czar on that subject during
"coffee, in the withdrawing rooms; but he answered,'No, you
"'must not, -- not till an express Prussian Envoy arrive! ' I
"had to stay, therefore; and was thenceforth almost daily
"at Court," -- but unluckily a little vague, and altogether
dateless as to what I saw there!
Bieren and Milnnich, both of them just home from Siberia,
are to drink together (No date: Palace of Petersburg, Spring
1762). -- Peter had begun in a great way: all for liberalism, enlightenment, abolition of abuses, general magnanimity on
his own and everybody's part. Rulhiere did not see the fol-
lowing scene; but it seems to be well enough vouched for, and
Rulhiere heard it talked of in society. "As many as 20,000
"persons, it is counted, have come home from Siberian Exile:"
the L'Estocs, the MUnaichs, Bierens, all manner of internecine
"How long have you been in
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? CHAP. x. l HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 277
Jan. --July 1762.
figures, as if risen from the dead. "Since the night when
"Miinnich arrested Bieren" (readers possibly remember it,
and Mannstein's account of it*), "the first time these two met
"was in the gay and tumultuous crowd which surrounded the
"new Czar. 'Come, bygones be bygones,' said Peter,
'' noticing them;'let us three all drink together, like friends!
"-- and ordered three glasses of wine. Peter was beginning
"his glass to show the others an example, when somebody
"came with a message to him, which was delivered in a low
"tone; Peter listening drank out his wine, set down the glass,
"and hastened off; so that Bieren and Miinnich, the two old
"enemies, were left standing, glass in hand, each with his
"eyes on the Czar's glass; -- at length, as the Czar did not
"return, they flashed each his eyes into the other's face; and
"after a moment's survey, set down their glasses untasted, "and walked off in opposite directions. "** Won't coalesce,
it seems, in spite of the Czar's high wishes. An emblem of
much that betel the poor Czar in his present high course of
good intentions and headlong magnanimities! -- We return
to Hordt:
The Czar wears a Portrait of Friedrich on his Finger. "Czar
"Peter never disguised his Prussian predilections. One even-
"inghesaid, 'Propose to your friend Keith' (English Excel-
"lency here, whom we know) 'to give me a supper at his
'"house tomorrow night. The other Foreign/Ministers will
"'perhaps be jealous; but I don't care! ' Supper at the Eng-
"lish Embassy took place.
"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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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 273
Jan. -- July 1762.
"Politician can have almost no data of that kind. "*
(How easy everybody's trade but one's own! )
Readers know what a tragedy poor Peter's was.
His Czernichef did join the King; but with far less
advantage than Czernichef or anybody had anticipated!
-- It is none of our intention to go into the chaotic
Russian element, or that wildly-blazing sanguinary Ca-
tharine-and-Peter business; of which, at any rate, there
are plentiful accounts in common circulation, more or
less accurate,-^--especially M. Rulhiere's,** the most suc-
cinct, lucid, and least unsatisfactory, in the accessible
languages. Only so far as Friedrich was concerned
are we. But readers saw this Couple married, under
Friedrich's auspices, -- a Marriage which he thought
important twenty years ago; and sure enough the Dis-
solution of it did prove important to him, and is a ne-
cessary item here!
Readers, even those that know Rulhiere, will doubt-
less consent to a little supplementing from Two other
Eye-witnesses of credit. The first and principal is a
respectable Ex-Swedish Gentleman, whom readers used
to hear of; the Colonel Hordt above mentioned once
of the Free-Corps Hordt, but fallen Prisoner latterly;
-- whose experiences and reports are all the more in-
teresting to us, as Friedrich himself had specially to
depend on them at present; and doubtless, in times long
afterwards, now and then heard speech of them from
Hordt. Our second Eye-witness is the Reverend Herr
* (Entires de Frederic, x^x. P- 329.
** Histoire ou Anecdotes sur la Revolution de Russie en Vannee 1762
(written, 1768; first printed, Paris, 1797: English Translation, London
1797).
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. XII. 18
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? 274 FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED, [book XX.
Jan. -- July 1762.
Doctor Biisching (of the Erdbeschreibung, of the Beytrage, and many other Works, an invaluable friend to us
all along); who, in his wandering time, has come to be
"Pastor of the German Church at Petersburg" some
years back.
What Colonel Hordt and the Others saw at Petersburg
(January--July 1762).
Autumn 1759, in the sequel to Kunersdorf -- when the
Russians and Daun lay so long torpid, uncertain what to do
except keep Friedrich and Prince Henri well separate, and
Friedrich had such watchings, campings, and marchings
about on the hither skirt of them (skirt always veiled in Cos-
sacks , and producing skirmishes as you marched past), -- we
did mention Hordt's capture ;* not much hoping that readers
could remember it in such a press of things more memorable.
It was in, or as prelude to, one of those skirmishes (one of the
earliest, and a rather sharp one," atTrebatsch," inFrankfurt-
Liberose Country, "4th September 1759"), that Hordt had
his misfortune: he had been out reconnoitering, with an Or-
derlyor two, before the skirmish began, was suddenly "sur-
sounded by 200 Cossacks," and after desperate plunging into
bogs, desperate firing of pistols and the like, was taken pri-
soner. Was carted miserably to Petersburg, -- such a jour-
ney for dead ennui as Hordt never knew; and was then
tumbled out into solitary confinement in the Citadel, a place
like the Spanish Inquisition; not the least notice taken of his
requests for a few Books, for leave to answer his poor Wife's
Letter merely by the words, "Dear one, lam alive;" -- and
was left there, to the company of his own reflexions, and a life
as if in vacant Hades, for twenty-five months and three days.
After the lapse of that period, he has something to say to us
again, and we transiently look in upon him there.
The Book we excerpt from is, Memoires du Comte de Hordt
(second edition, 2 volumes 12mo, Berlin, 1789). This is Book-
seller Pitra's redaction of the Hordt Autobiography (Berlin,
1788, was Pitra's first edition): several years after, how many
is not said, nor whether Hordt (who had become a dignitary
* Supra, vol. xi. p. 234.
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? CHAP. X. ] HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 275
Jan. --July 1762.
in Berlin society before Pitra's feat) was still living or not, a
"M. Borelly, Professor in the Military School," undertook a
second considerably enlarged and improved redaction; -- of
which latter there is an English Translation; easy enough to
read; but nearly without meaning, I should fear, to readers
unacquainted with the scene and subject. * Hordt was
reckoned a perfectly veracious, intelligent kind of man: but
he seldom gives the least date, specification, or precise detail;
and his Book reads, not like the Testimony of an Eye-witness,
which it is, and valuable when you understand it; but more
like some vague Forgery, compiled by a destitute inventive
individual, regardless of the Ten Commandments (sparingly
consulting even his file of Old Newspapers), and writing a
Book which would deserve the treadmill, were there any
Police in his trade! --
Wednesday, 6th January 1762, Hordt's vacant Hades of an
existence in the Citadel of Petersburg was broken by a loud
sound: three minute guns went off from different sides, close
by; and then whole salvos, peal after peal: "Czarina gone
overnight, Peter III. Czar in her stead! " said the Officer,
rushing in to tell Hordt; to whom it was as news of resurrec-
tion from the dead. "Evening of same day, an Aide-de-
"Camp of the new Czar came to announce my liberty; equi-
page waiting to take me at once to his Russian Majesty.
"Asked him to defer it till the following day; -- so agitated
"was I. " And indeed the Czar, busy taking acclamations,
oaths of fealty, riding about among his Troops by torchlight,
could have made little of me that evening. ** "Ultimately,
"my presentation was deferred till Sunday," January 10th,
"that it might be done with proper splendour, all theNobility
"being then usually assembled about his Majesty. "
"Waited, amid crowds of Nobility, in the Gallery, accord-
ingly. Was presented in the Gallery, through which the
"Czar, followed by Czarina and all the Court, were passing
"on their way to Chapel. Czar made a short kind speech
"('Delighted to do you an act of justice, Monsieur, and re-
"turn a valuable servant to the King I esteem'); gave me his
* Memoirs of the Count de Hordt: London, 1806: 2 voll. 12mo, -- only
the first volume of which (unavailable here) is in my possession.
** Hermann, Geschichte des Russischen Staats, v. 241.
18*
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? 276
FRIEDRICH NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XX.
Jan. --July 1762.
"hand to kiss: Czarina did the same. General Korf," an ex-
cellent friend, so kind to me atKonigsberg while I was get-
ting carted hither, and a General now in high Office here,
"who had been my introducer, led me into Chapel, to the
"Court's place (tribune de la Cour). Czar came across re-
"peatedly" (while public worship was going on; a Czar per-
haps too regardless that way! ) "to talk to me; dwelt much "Chamberlain whispered me, 'You dine with the Court. '"
Which, of course, I did.
"Table was of sixty covers; splendid as the Arabian
"Tales. Czar and Czarina sat side by side; Korf and I had
"the honour to be placed opposite them. Hardly were we
"seated when the Czar addressed me: 'You have had no
"'Prussian news this long while. I am glad to tell you that
"' the King is well, though he has had such fighting to right
"'and left;-- but I hope there will soon be an end to all that. '
''Words which everybody listened to like prophecy! " (Peter "'Prison? ' continued the Czar. 'Twenty-five months and
'"three days, your Majesty. ' 'Were you well treated? '" Hordt hesitated, knew not what to say; but the Czar urging
him, confessed, "'He had been always rather badly used; not
"'even allowed to buy a few books to read. ' At which the
"Czarina was evidently shocked: lCela est bien barbare! '
"she exclaimed aloud. " "I wished much to return home
"at once; and petitioned the Czar on that subject during
"coffee, in the withdrawing rooms; but he answered,'No, you
"'must not, -- not till an express Prussian Envoy arrive! ' I
"had to stay, therefore; and was thenceforth almost daily
"at Court," -- but unluckily a little vague, and altogether
dateless as to what I saw there!
Bieren and Milnnich, both of them just home from Siberia,
are to drink together (No date: Palace of Petersburg, Spring
1762). -- Peter had begun in a great way: all for liberalism, enlightenment, abolition of abuses, general magnanimity on
his own and everybody's part. Rulhiere did not see the fol-
lowing scene; but it seems to be well enough vouched for, and
Rulhiere heard it talked of in society. "As many as 20,000
"persons, it is counted, have come home from Siberian Exile:"
the L'Estocs, the MUnaichs, Bierens, all manner of internecine
"How long have you been in
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? CHAP. x. l HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG. 277
Jan. --July 1762.
figures, as if risen from the dead. "Since the night when
"Miinnich arrested Bieren" (readers possibly remember it,
and Mannstein's account of it*), "the first time these two met
"was in the gay and tumultuous crowd which surrounded the
"new Czar. 'Come, bygones be bygones,' said Peter,
'' noticing them;'let us three all drink together, like friends!
"-- and ordered three glasses of wine. Peter was beginning
"his glass to show the others an example, when somebody
"came with a message to him, which was delivered in a low
"tone; Peter listening drank out his wine, set down the glass,
"and hastened off; so that Bieren and Miinnich, the two old
"enemies, were left standing, glass in hand, each with his
"eyes on the Czar's glass; -- at length, as the Czar did not
"return, they flashed each his eyes into the other's face; and
"after a moment's survey, set down their glasses untasted, "and walked off in opposite directions. "** Won't coalesce,
it seems, in spite of the Czar's high wishes. An emblem of
much that betel the poor Czar in his present high course of
good intentions and headlong magnanimities! -- We return
to Hordt:
The Czar wears a Portrait of Friedrich on his Finger. "Czar
"Peter never disguised his Prussian predilections. One even-
"inghesaid, 'Propose to your friend Keith' (English Excel-
"lency here, whom we know) 'to give me a supper at his
'"house tomorrow night. The other Foreign/Ministers will
"'perhaps be jealous; but I don't care! ' Supper at the Eng-
"lish Embassy took place.
