An unexpectedly dull Book (Garve having talent and reputation);
kind of monotonous Preachment upon Friedrich's character; almost no-
thing but the above fraction now derivable from it.
kind of monotonous Preachment upon Friedrich's character; almost no-
thing but the above fraction now derivable from it.
Thomas Carlyle
] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ.
Ill
2Ma-27th Jane 1757.
beginning of November), Friedrich cannot tell what to
do with them; and has to scatter himself into thin
threads, and roam about, chiefly in Thiiringen and
the West of Saxony, seeking something to fight with,
and finding nothing; getting more and more impatient
of such paltry misery; at times nigh desperate; and
habitually drifting on desperation as on a lee shore in
the night, despite all his efforts. Till, in Section third,
which goes from November 5th, through December 5th,
and into the New Year, he does find what to do; and
does it, -- in a forever memorable way.
Three Sections; of which the reader shall succes-
sively have some idea, if he exert himself; though it
is only in snatches, suggestive to an active fancy, that
we can promise to dwell on them, especially on the
First Two, which lie pretty much wrcsurveyable in those
chaotic records, like a world-wide coil of thrums. Let
us be swift, in Friedrich's own manner; and try to dis-
emprison the small portions of essential! Here, partly
from Eyewitnesses, are some Notes in regard to Section
First: *
"Sunday, 19th June, At 2 a. m. , Major Grant arrives at
"Prag" (must have started instantly after that of 'We two
cannot take the battery, your Majesty! ')-- "goes to Prince
"Ferdinand of Brunswick, interim Commander on the Zisca-
"berg, with order To raise Siege. Consternation on the part
"of some; worse, on the Prince of Prussia's part; the others
"kept silence at least, -- and set instantly to work. On both
"Hills, the cannons are removed (across Moldau the Zisca-
"Hill ones), batteries destroyed, Siege-gear neatly gathered
"up, to go in wagons to Leitmeritz, thence by boat to
"Dresden: all this lies ready done, the dangerous part of it
"done, when Friedrich arrives.
* Westphalen, Geschichte der Feldzuge des Herzogs Ferdinand (and a
Private Journal of W. 's there), n. 13-19; Retzow; &c.
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? 112 SEVEN-YEARS WAS RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XvIII.
>>7th June.
"Monday 20th, before sunrise, Siege raised. At three in
"the morning, Friedrich marches from the Ziscaberg; to
"eastward he, to Alt-Buntzlau, thence to Alt-Lissa," --
Nimburg way, with what objects we shall see. "Marshal
"Keith's fine performance. Keith, from the Weissenberg,
"does not march, such packing and loading still; all the
"baggages and artilleries being with Keith. Not till four in
"the afternoon did Keith march; but beautifully then; and
"folded himself away, -- rearguard under Schmettau 're-
"treating chequerwise,' nothing but Tolpatcheries attempt-
"ing on him, -- westward, Budin-ward, without loss of a
"linstock, not to speak of guns. Very prettily done on the
"part of Keith. By Budin, to Leitmeritz, he; where the
"King will join him shortly. "
Friedrich's errand in Alt-Lissa, eastward, while
Keith went westward, was, To be within due arm's-
length of the Moritz-Bevern, or beaten Kolin Army,
which is coming up that way; intending to take post,
and do its best, in those parts, with Zittau Magazine
and the Lausitz to rear of it. One of our Eyewitnesses,
a Herr Westphalen, Ferdinand of Brunswick's Secre-
tary, -- who, with his Chief, got into wider fields
before long, -- yields these additional particulars face
to face:
"Tuesday, 21st June 1757. King's Headquarters in Lissa
"or neighbourhood till Friday next; which is central for both
"these movements, -- Thursday, orders seven regiments of
"horse to reinforce Keith. No symptom yet of pursuit any-
"where.
"Friday, 24th. Prince Moritz with the Kolin Army made
"appearance, all safe, and is to command here; King in-
"tending for Keith. After dinner, and the due interchange
"of battalions to that end, King sets off, with Prince Henri,
'' towards Keith; Headquarter in Alt-Buntzlau again. Satur-
"day Night, at Melnick; Sunday, Gastorf: Monday Night,
"27th June, Leitmeritz; King lodges in the Cathedral Close,
"in sight of Keith, wo is on the opposite side of Elbe, -- but
"the town has a Bridge for tomorrow. 'Never was a quieter
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? CHAP. v. ] FRIEDRICII AT liBITMKRITZ. 113
20tli-27th Juno 1757.
"march; not the shadow of aPandour visible. The Duke"
(Ferdinand, my Chief, Chatham's jewel that is to be, and
precious to England) "has suffered much from a" -- in fact,
from "a cours de ventre, temporary bowel-derangement,
"which was very troublesome, owing to the excessive heats
"by day, and coldness of the nights.
"Tuesday, 28th. Junction with Keith, -- Bridge rightly
"secured, due party of dragoons and foot left on the right
"bank, to occupy a height which covers Leitmeritz. 'Clear-
ing of the Pascopol' (that is, sweeping the Pandours out of
"it), is the first business; Colonel Loudon with his Pandours,
"a most swift sharp-cutting man, being now here in those
"parts; doing a deal of mischief. Three days ago, Satur-
"day 25th, Keith had sent seven battalions, with the proper
"steel-besoms, on that Pascopol affair; Tuesday, on junc-
"tion, Majesty sends three more: job done on Wednesday;
"reported 'done,'-- though I should not be surprised," says
Westphalen, "if some little highway robbery still went on
"among the Mountains up there.
No; -- and before quitting hold, what is this that
Loudon (on the very day of the King's arrival, June
27th), on the old Field of Lobositz over yonder, has
managed to do! General Mannstein, wounded at Kolin,
happened, with others in like case, to be passing that
way, towards Dresden and better surgery, -- when
Loudon's Croats set upon them, scattering their slight
escort: "Quarter, on surrender! Prisoners? " "Never! "
answeredMannstein; "Never! " that too impetuous man,
starting out from his carriage, and snatching a musket:
and was instantly cut down there. And so ends; --
a man of strong head, and of heart only too strong. *
From Prag onwards, here has been a delicate set
of operations; perfectly executed, -- thanks to Fried-
rich's rapidity of shift, and also to the cautious slowly*
* Preuss, n. 58; iiilitair-Lexikon, m. 10.
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. X. 8
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? 114 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XvIII.
27th June -- 20th July 1767.
puzzling mind of Daun. Had Daun used any diligence,
had Daun and Prince Karl been broad awake, together
or even singly! But Friedrich guessed they seldom or
never were; that they would spend some days in puzzling;
and that, with despatch, he would have time for every-
thing. Daun, we could observe, stood singing TeDeum,
greatly at leisure, in his old Camp, 20th June, while
Friedrich, from the first gray of morning, and diligently
all day long, was withdrawing from the trenches of
Prag, -- Friedrich's people, self, and goods getting
folded out in the finest gradation, and with perfect
success; no Daun to hinder him, -- Daun leisurely
doing Te Deum, forty miles off, helping on the wrong
side by that exertion! * -- "Poor Browne, he is dead
"of his wounds, in Prag yonder," writes Westphalen in
his Leitmeritz Journal, "news came to us, July 1st:
"men said, 'Ah, that was why they lay asleep. '"
Till June 26th, Daun and Karl had not united;
nor, except sending out Loudon and Croats, done any-
thing, either of them. Sunday, June 26th, at Pod-
schernitz on the old Field of Prag, a week and a day
after Kolin, they did get together; still seemingly a little
puzzled, "Shall we follow the King? Shall we follow
Moritz and Bevern? " -- nothing clear for some time,
except to send out Pandour parties upon both. Moritz,
since parting with the King in Alt-Buntzlau neighbour-
hood, has gone northward some marches, thirty miles
or so, to /wng'-Buntzlau, -- meeting of Iser and Elbe,
surely a good position: -- Moritz, on receipt of these
Pandour allowances of his, writes to the King, "Shall
we retreat on Zittau, then, your Majesty? Straight
upon Zittau? " Fancy Friedrich's astonishment; --
* Cogniazo, n. 367.
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? CHAP. v. I FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ. 115
28th Jane 1757.
who well intends to eat the Country first, perhaps to fight if there he chance, and at least to lie outside the
doors of Silesia and the Lausitz, as well as of Saxony
here! -- and answers, with his own hand, on the in-
stant: "Your Dilection will not be so mad! "* And
at once recals Moritz, and appoints the Prince of Prus-
sia to go and take command. Who directly went; --
a most important step for the King's interests and his
own. Whose fortunes in that business we shall see
before long! --
At Leitmeritz the King continues four weeks, with
his Army parted in this way; waiting how the endless
hostile element, which begirdles his horizon all round,
will shape itself into combinations, that he may set
upon the likeliest or the needfullest of these, when once
it has disclosed itself. Horizon all round is black
enough: Austrians, French, Swedes, Russians, Reichs
Army; closer upon him or not so close, all are rolling
in: Saxony, the Lausitz and Silesia, Brandenburg it-
self, it is uncertain which of these may soonest require
his active presence.
The very day after his arrival in Leitmeritz, --
Tuesday, 28th of June, while that junction with Keith
was going on, and the troops were defiling along the
Bridge for junction with Keith,-- a heavy sorrow had
befallen him, which he yet knew not of. An irrepar-
able Domestic loss; sad complement to these Military
and other Public disasters. Queen Sophie Dorothee,
about whose health he had been anxious, but had again
been set quiet, died at Berlin that day. ** In her
seventy-first year: of no definite violent disease; worn
* In Preuss, n. 58, the pungent little Autograph in full.
** Montyjon, 28th June 1757; born at Hanover, 27th March 1687.
8*
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? 116 SEVEN-YEAKS WAE RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVin.
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
down with chagrins and apprehensions, in this black
whirlpool of Public troubles. So far as appears, the
news came on Friedrich by surprise: -- "bad cough,"
we hear of, and of his anxieties about it, in the Spring
time; then again of "improvement, recovery, in the
fine weather;" -- no thought, just now, of such an
event: and he took it with a depth of affliction, which
my less informed readers are far from expecting of
him.
July 2d, the news came: King withdrew into pri-
vacy; to weep and bewail under this new pungency of
grief, superadded to so many others. Mitchell says:
"For two days he had no levee; only the Princes dined
"with him" (Princes Henri and Ferdinand; Prince of
Prussia is gone to Jung-Buntzlau, would get the sad
message there, among his other troubles): "yesterday,
"July 3d, King sent for me in the afternoon, --, the
"first time he has seen anybody since the news came:
"-- I had the honour to remain with him some hours in
"his closet . I must own to your Lordship I was most
"sensibly afflicted to see him indulging his grief, and
"giving way to the warmest filial affections; recalling
"to mind the many obligations he had to her late Ma-
"jesty; all she had suffered, and how nobly she bore it;
"the good she did to everybody; the one comfort he
"now had, to think of having tried to make her last
"years more agreeable. " * In the thick of public business,
this kind of mood to Mitchell seems to have lasted all
the time of Leitmeritz, which is about three weeks yet:
Mitchell's Notebooks and Despatches, in that part, have
* Papers and Memoirs, i. 253; Despatch to Holderness, 4th July
slightly abridged); -- see lb. i. 357-359 (Private Journal). Westphalen,
n. 14. See (Emres it Frederic, iv. 182.
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? CHAP. v. J PRIEDRIOH AT LEITMERITZ. 117
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
a fine Biographic interest; the wholly human Friedrich
wholly visible to us there as he seldom is. Going over
his past Life to Mitchell; brief, candid, pious to both
his Parents; --. inexpressibly sad; like moonlight on
the grave of one's Mother, silent that, while so much
else is too noisy! --
This Friedrich, upon whom the whole world has
risen like a mad Sorcerer's-Sabbath, how safe he once
lay in his cradle, like the rest of us, mother's love
wrapping him soft: -- and now! These thoughts
commingle in a very tragic way with the avalanche of
public disasters which is thundering down on all sides.
Warm tears the meed of this new sorrow; small in
compass, but greater in poignancy than all the rest to-
gether. "My poor old Mother, oh, my Mother, that
so loved me always, and would have given her own
life to shelter mine! " -- It was at Leitmeritz, as I
guess, that Mitchell first made decisive acquaintance,
that we may almost call intimacy, with the King: we
already defined him as a sagacious, long-headed, loyal-
hearted diplomatic gentleman, Scotch by birth and by
turn of character; abundantly polite, vigilant, discreet,
and with a fund of general sense and rugged veracity
of mind; whom Friedrich at once recognised for what
he was, and much took to, finding a hearty return
withal; so that they were soon well with one another,
and continued so. Mitchell, as orders were, "attended
"theKing's person" all through this War, sometimes in
the blaze of battle itself and nothing but cannon-shot
going, if it so chanced; and has preserved, in his
multifarious Papers, a great many traits of Friedrich,
not to be met with elsewhere.
Mitchell's occasional society, conversation with a
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? 118 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book Xvin.
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
man of sense and manly character, which Friedrich
always much loved, was, no doubt, a resource to Fried-
rich in his lonely roamings and vicissitudes in those
dark years. No other British Ambassador ever had
the luck to please him or be pleased by him, -- most
of them, as Ex-Exchequer Legge and the like Ex-Par-
liamentary people, he seems to have considered dull,
obstinate, wooden fellows, of fantastic, abrupt, rather
abstruse kind of character, not worth deciphering; --
some of them, as Hanbury Williams, with the mis-
chievous tic (more like galvanism or St. Vitus'-dance)
which he called "wit," and the inconvenient turn for
plotting and intriguing, Friedrich could not endure at
all, but had them as soon as possible recalled, -- of
course, not without detestation on their part.
At Leitmeritz, it appears, he kept withdrawn to his
closet, a good deal; gave himself up to his sorrows and
his thoughts; would sit many hours drowned in tears,
weeping bitterly like a child or a woman. This is
strange to some readers; but it is true, -- and ought
to alter certain current notions. Friedrich, flashing like
clear steel upon evil-doers and mendacious unjust per-
sons and their works, is not by nature a cruel man,
then, or an unfeeling, as Rumour reports? Reader, no,
far the reverse; -- and public Rumour, as you may
have remarked, is apt to be an extreme blockhead, full
of fury and stupidity on such points, and had much
better hold its tongue till it know in some measure.
Extreme sensibility is not sure to be a merit; though
it is sure to be reckoned one, by the greedy dim fel-
lows looking idly on: but, in any case, the degree of
it that dwelt (privately, for most part) in Friedrich
was great; and to himself it seemed a sad rather than
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? CHAT, v. ] FRIEDRIC1I AT LEITMERITZ. 119
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
joyful fact. Speaking of this matter, long afterwards,
to Garve, a Silesian Philosopher, with whom he used
to converse at Breslau, he says; -- or let dull Garve
himself report it, in the literal third-person:
"And herein, I," the Herr Garve (venturing to dispute, or
qualify, on one of his Majesty's favourite topics) "believe,
"lies the real ground of 'happiness:' it is the capacity and
"opportunity to accomplish great things. This the King
"would not allow; but said, That I did not sufficiently take "into account the natural feelings, different in different
"people, which, when painful, embittered the life of the
"highest as of the lowest. That, in his own life, he had ex-
perienced the deepest sufferings of this kind: 'And,' added
"he, with a touching tone of kindness and familiarity which
"never occurred again in his interviews with me, 'if you (Er)
"knew, for instance, whatl underwent on the death of my
"Mother, you would see that I have been as unhappy as any
"other, and unhappier than others, because of the greater
"sensibility I had (weil ich mehr Emp/indlichkeit gehabt
"habe). '"*
There needed not this new calamity in Friedrich's
lot just now! From all points of the compass, his enemies, held in check so long, are flooding on: the
confluence of disasters and ill tidings, at this time, very
great. From Jung-Buntzlau, close by, his Brother's
accounts are bad; and grow ever worse, -- as will be
seen! On the extreme West, "July 3d," while Fried-
rich at Leitmeritz sat weeping for his Mother, the
French take Embden from him; "July 5th," the Rus-
sians, Memel, on the utmost East. June 30th, six days
* Fragmente tar ScUUermg des Geistes, des Charaklers und der Ile-
gierung Friedrichs des Zweilen, von Christian Garve (Breslaa, 1798), i. 314-
316.
An unexpectedly dull Book (Garve having talent and reputation);
kind of monotonous Preachment upon Friedrich's character; almost no-
thing but the above fraction now derivable from it.
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? 120 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT. [BOOK XVIII.
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
before, the Russians, after as many months of haggling,
did cross the Border; 37,000 of them on this point;
and set to bombarding Memel from land and sea.
Poor Memel (garrison only 700) answered very fiercely,
"sank two of their gunboats" and the like; but the end
was as we see, -- Feldmarschall Lehwald able to give
no relief. For there were above 70,000 other Russians
(Feldmarschall Apraxin with these latter, and Cossacks
and Calmucks more than enough) crossing elsewhere,
south in Tilsit Country, upon old Lehwald. * Lehwald,
with 30,000, in such circumstances -- what is to be-
come of Preussen and him! Nearer hand, the Austrians,
the French, the very ReichsArmy, do now seem intent
on business.
The Reichs Execution Army, we saw how Mayer
and the Battle of Prag had checked it in the birth-
pangs; and given rise to pangs of another sort; the
poor Reichs Circles generally exclaiming, "What!
Bring the war into our own borders? Bring the King
of Prussia on our own throats! " -- and stopping short
in their enlistments and preparations; in vain for
Austrian Officials to urge them. Watching there, with
awe-struck eye, while the 12,000 bombs flew into
Prag.
The Battle of Kolin has reversed all that; and the
poor old Reich is again bent on business in the Exe-
cution way. Drumming, committeeing, projecting and
endeavouring with all her might, in all quarters; and,
from and after the event of Kolin, holding visible En-
campment, in theNiirnberg Country; fractions of actual
troops assembling there. "On the Plains of Fiirth,
"between Fiirth and Farrenbach, east side the River
? Helden-Geschichte, iv. 407-413.
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? CKAP. v. ] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ. 121
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
"Regnitz, there was the Camp pitched," says my Anony-
mous Friend; who gives me a cheerful Copperplate of
the thing: red pennons, blue, and bright mixed colours;
generals' tents; order-of-battle, and respective rallying
points: with Bamberg Country in front, and the peaks
of the Pine Mountains lying pleasantly behind: a sight
for the curious. * It is the same ground where Mayer
was careering lately; neighbouring nobility and gentry
glad to come in gala, and dance with Mayer. Hither, all
through July, come contingents straggling in, thicker and
thicker; "August 8th," things now about complete, the
Bishop of Bamberg came to take survey of the Reichs-Heer
(Bishop's remarks not given); August 10th, came the
young reigning Duke of Hildburghausen (Duke's grand-
uncle is to be Commander), on like errand; August
11th, the Reichs-Heer got on march. Westward ho!
-- readers will see towards what.
A truly elende, or miserable, Reichs Execution Army
(as the nwVprinter had made it); but giving loud voice
in the Gazettes; and urged by every consideration to
do something for itself. Prince of Hildburghausen, --
a general of small merit, though he has risen in the
Austrian service, and we have seen him with Secken-
dorf in old Turk times, -- has, for his Kaiser's sake,
taken the command; sensible perhaps that glory is not
likely to be rife here; but willing to make himself use-
ful. Kaiser and Austria urge, everywhere, with all
their might: Prince of Hessen-Darmstadt, who lay on
the Weissenberg lately, one of Keith's distinguished
seconds there and a Prussian Officer of long standing,
* J. F. S. (whom I named Anonymous of Hamburg long since; who has
boiled down, with great diligence, the old Newspapers, and gives a great
many dates, notes &c. , without Index), i. 211, 224 (the Copperplate).
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? 122 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIII.
27tU June -- 20th July 1757.
has, on Kaiser's order, quitted all that, and become Hildburghausen's second here, in the Camp of Fiirth;
thinking the path of duty lay that way, -- though his
Wife, one of the noble women of her age, thought
very differently. * A similar Kaiser's order, backed by
what Law-thunder lay in the Reich, had gone out
against Friedrich's own Brothers, and against every
Reichs Prince who was in Friedrich's service; but, ex-
cept him of Hessen-Darmstadt, none of them had much
minded. ** I did not hear that his strategic talent was
momentous: but Prussia had taught him the routine of
right soldiering, surely to small purpose; and Friedrich,
no doubt, glanced indignantly at this small thing, among
the many big ones.
From about the end of June, the Reichs Army kept
dribbling in: the most inferior Army in the world; no
part of it well drilled, most of it not drilled at all; and
for variety in colour, condition, method, and military
and pecuniary and other outfit, beggaring description.
Hildburghausen does his utmost; Kaiser the like. The
number should have far exceeded 50,000; but was not,
on the field, of above half that number: 25,000; add
at last 8,000 Austrian troops, two regiments of them
cavalry; good these 8,000, the rest bad, -- that was
the Reichs Execution Army; most inferior among
Armies; and considerable part of it, all the Protestant
part, privately wishing well to Friedrich, they say.
Drills itself multifariously in that Camp between Piirth
and Farrenbach, on the east side of Regnitz River.
* Her Letter to Friedrich, "Berlin, 30th October 1757," (Etwres da
Frideric, ixvn. n. 135.
? * In Orlich, FUrtt Uoritt von Anhall-Dessau (Berlin, 1842), pp. 74, 75,
Prince Moritz's rather mournful Letter on the subject, with Priedrich's
sharp Answer.
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? CHAP. v. ] FEIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ. 123
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
Fancy what a sight to Wilhelmina, if she ever drove
that way; which I think she hardly would. The Bai-
reuth contingent itself is there; theMargraf would have
held out stiff on that point; but Friedrich himself ad-
vised compliance. Margraf of Anspach, -- perverse
tippling creature, ill with his Wife, I doubt, -- has
joyfully sent his legal hundreds; will vote for theReichs
Ban against this worst of Germans, whom he has for
Brother-in-law. Dark days in the heart of Wilhel-
mina, those of the Camp at Fiirth. Days which grow
ever darker, with strange flashings-out of empyrean
lightning from that shrill true heart; no peace more,
till the noble heroine die! --
This elende Reichs-Heer, miserable "Army of the
Circles," is mockingly called "the Hoopers, Coopers
(Tonneliers)," and gets quizzing enough, under that
and other titles, from an Opposition Public. Far other
from the French and Austrians; who are bent that it
should do feats in the world, and prove impressive on
a robber King. Thus too, "for Deliverance of Saxony,"
to cooperate with Reichs-Heer in that sacred object,
thanks to the zeal of Pompadour, Prince de Soubise
has got together, in Elsass, a supplementary 30,000
(40,330 said Theory, but Fact never quite so many);
and is passing them across the Rhine, in Frankfurt
Country, 'all through July, while the drilling at Fiirth
goes on. With these, Soubise, simultaneously getting
under way, will steer north-eastward; join the Reichs-
Heer about Erfurt, before August end; and -- and we
shall see what becomes of the combined Soubise and
Reichs Army after that!
It must be owned, the French, Pompadour and love
of glory urging, are diligent since the event of Kolin.
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? 124 SEVEN" YEARS WAR EISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIII.
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
In select Parisian circles, the Soubise Army, or even
that of D'Estrdes altogether, -- produced by the tears
of a filial Dauphiness, -- is regarded as a quasi-sacred,
or uncommonly noble thing; and is called by her name,
"L'Armee de la Dauphine," or for shortness, "La
Dauphine" without adjunct. Thus, like a kind of
chivalrous Bellona, vengeance in her right hand, tears
and fire in her eyes, The Dauphiness advances; and will
join Reichs-Heer at Erfurt before August end. Such
the will of Pompadour; Richelieu encouraging, for
reasons of his own. Soubise, I understand, is privately
in pique against poor D'Estrees;* and intends to eclipse
him by a higher style of diligence; though D'Estrees
too is doing his best.
July 3d, we saw the D'Estrdes people taking
Embden; D'Estrdes, quiet so long in his Camp^at
Bielefeld, had at once bestirred himself, Kolin being
done; -- shot out a detachment leftwards, and Embden
had capitulated that day. Adieu to the Shipping
Interests there, and to other pleasant things! "July
9th, after sunset," D'Estrdes himself got on march from
Bielefeld; set forth, in the cool of night, 60,000 strong,
and 10,000 more to join him by the road (the rest are
left as garrisons, reserves, -- 1,000 marauders of them
swing as monitory pendulums, on their various trees,
for one item), -- direct towards Hanover and Royal
Highness of Cumberland; who retreats, and has re-
treated, behind the Ems, the Weser, back, ever back;
and, to appearance, will make a bad finish yonder.
* "Reappeared unexpectedly in Paris11 from D'Estrees's Army), "22d
June" (four days after Kolin); got up this Dauphi,iess Army, by aid of
Pompadour, with Richelieu, &c: liarbicr, iv. 227, 231. Richelieu "busy at Strasburg lately" (29th July: Collini's Voltaire, p. 191).
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? CHAP, v. ] TRIED RICH AT LEITMERITZ. 125
1st July 1757.
To Friedrich, waiting at Leitmeritz, all these things
are gloomily known; but the most pressing of them is
that of the Austrians and Jung-Buntzlau close by. Let
us give some utterances of his to Wilhelmina, nearly
all we have of direct from him in that time; and then
hasten to the Prince of Prussia there:
Friedrich to Wilhelmina (at Baireuth).
Leitmeritz, 1st July 1751. * * "Sensible as heart can
"be to the tender interest you deign to take in what concerns
"me. Dear Sister, fear nothing on my score: men are
"always in the hand of what we call Fate ('Predestination,
Gnadenwahl,' -- Pardon us, Papa! -- "ce qu'on nomme le
"destin); accidents willbefal people, walking on the streets,
"sitting in their room, lying in their bed; and there are
"many who escape the perils of war. " * * "I think, through
"Hessen will be the safest route for your Letters, till we see;
"-- and not to write just now except on occasions of im-
"portance. Here is a piece in cipher; anonymous," -- in-
tended for the Newspapers, or some such road.
July 5th. "By a Courier of Plotho's, returning to Regens-
"burg" (who passes near you), "I write to apprise my dear
"Sister of the new misery which overwhelms us. We have
"no longer a Mother. This loss puts the crown on my sorrows.
"I am obliged to act; and have not time to give free course
"to my tears. Judge, I pray you, of the situation of a
"feeling heart put to so cruel a trial. All losses in the world
"are capable of being remedied; but those which Death
"causes are beyond the reach of hope. "
July 7th. "You are too good; I am ashamed to abuse
"your indulgence. But do, since you will, try to sound the
''' French, what conditions of Peace they would demand; one
"might judge as to their intentions. Send that Mirabeau
"fee M. de Mirabeau) to France. Willingly will I pay the
"expense. He may offer as much as five million thalers"
(750,000*. ) "to the Favourite" (yes, even to the Pompadour)
"for Peace alone. Of course, his utmost discretion will be
"needed;" -- should the English get the least wind of it 1 But
if they are gone to St. Vitus, and fail in every point, what
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? 126 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIII.
13th July 1757.
can one do? Ce M. de Mirabeau, readers will be surprised to
learn, is an Uncle of the great Mirabeau's; who has fallen
into roving courses, gone abroad insolvent; and "directs the
Opera atBaireuth," in these years! -- One Letter we will
give in full:
"My deabest Sisteb, -- Your Letter has arrived: I see in
"it your regrets for the irreparable loss we have had of the
"best and worthiest Mother in this world. I am so struck
"down with all these blows from within and without, that I
"feel myself in a sort of stupefaction.
"The French have just laid hold of Friesland" (seized
Embden, July 3d); "are about to pass the Weser: they have
"Swedes are sending 17,000men" (rather more if anything;
but they proved beautifully ineffectual) "into Pommern," --
will be burdensome to Stralsund and the poor country people
mainly; having no Captain over them but a hydra-headed
National Palaver at home, and a Long-pole with Cocked-hat
on it here at hand. "The Russians are besieging Memel"
(have taken it, ten days ago): "Lehwald has them on his
"front and in his rear. The Troops of the Reich," from
your Plains of Fiirth yonder, "are also about to march. All
"this will force me to evacuate Bohemia, so soon as that
"crowd of Enemies gets into motion.
"I am firmly resolved on the extremest efforts to save my
"Country. We shall see (quitte a voir) if Fortune will take a
"new thought, or if she will entirely turn her back upon me.
"Happy the moment when I took to training myself in philo-
"sophy! There is nothing else that can sustain the soul in a
"situation like mine. I spread out to you, dear Sister, the
"detail of my sorrows: if these things regarded only myself,
"I could stand it with composure; but I am bound Guardian
"of the safety and happiness of a People which has been put
"under my charge. There lies the sting of it: and I shall
"have to reproach myself with every fault, if, by delay or
"by overhaste, I occasion the smallest accident; all the
"more as, at present, any fault may be capital.
"What a business! Here is the liberty of Germany, and
"thatProtestant Cause for which so much blood has been
"shed; here are those Two great Interests again at stake
"Leitmeritz, 13th July 1757.
declare War against me; the
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? CHAP. v. ] FEEEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ. 127
27th June - 20th July 1757.
"and the pinch of this huge game is such, that an unlucky
"quarter of an hour may establish over Germany the tyran-
nous domination of the House of Austria forever! I am in
"the case of a traveller who sees himself surrounded and
"ready to be assassinated by a troop of cutthroats, who
"intend to share his spoils. Since the League of Cambrai"
(1508--1510, with a Pope in it and a Kaiser and Most
Christian King, iniquitously sworn against poor Venice; --
to no purpose, as happily appears), "there is no example of
"such a Conspiracy as that infamous Triumvirate" (Austria,
France, Russia) "now forms against me. Was it ever seen
"before that three great Princes laid plot in concert to
"destroy a Fourth, who had done nothing against them?
"I have not had the least quarrel either with France or with
"Russia, still less with Sweden. If, in common life, three
"citizens took it into their heads to fall upon their neighbour,
"and burn his house about him, they very certainly, by
"sentence of tribunal, would be broken on the wheel. What!
"and will Sovereigns, who maintain these tribunals and
"these laws in their States, give such example to their
"subjects? " -- "Happy, my dear Sister, is the obscure man,
"whose good sense, from youth upwards, has renounced all
"sorts of glory; who, in his safe low place, has none to envy
"him, and whose fortune does not excite the cupidity of
"scoundrels!
2Ma-27th Jane 1757.
beginning of November), Friedrich cannot tell what to
do with them; and has to scatter himself into thin
threads, and roam about, chiefly in Thiiringen and
the West of Saxony, seeking something to fight with,
and finding nothing; getting more and more impatient
of such paltry misery; at times nigh desperate; and
habitually drifting on desperation as on a lee shore in
the night, despite all his efforts. Till, in Section third,
which goes from November 5th, through December 5th,
and into the New Year, he does find what to do; and
does it, -- in a forever memorable way.
Three Sections; of which the reader shall succes-
sively have some idea, if he exert himself; though it
is only in snatches, suggestive to an active fancy, that
we can promise to dwell on them, especially on the
First Two, which lie pretty much wrcsurveyable in those
chaotic records, like a world-wide coil of thrums. Let
us be swift, in Friedrich's own manner; and try to dis-
emprison the small portions of essential! Here, partly
from Eyewitnesses, are some Notes in regard to Section
First: *
"Sunday, 19th June, At 2 a. m. , Major Grant arrives at
"Prag" (must have started instantly after that of 'We two
cannot take the battery, your Majesty! ')-- "goes to Prince
"Ferdinand of Brunswick, interim Commander on the Zisca-
"berg, with order To raise Siege. Consternation on the part
"of some; worse, on the Prince of Prussia's part; the others
"kept silence at least, -- and set instantly to work. On both
"Hills, the cannons are removed (across Moldau the Zisca-
"Hill ones), batteries destroyed, Siege-gear neatly gathered
"up, to go in wagons to Leitmeritz, thence by boat to
"Dresden: all this lies ready done, the dangerous part of it
"done, when Friedrich arrives.
* Westphalen, Geschichte der Feldzuge des Herzogs Ferdinand (and a
Private Journal of W. 's there), n. 13-19; Retzow; &c.
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? 112 SEVEN-YEARS WAS RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XvIII.
>>7th June.
"Monday 20th, before sunrise, Siege raised. At three in
"the morning, Friedrich marches from the Ziscaberg; to
"eastward he, to Alt-Buntzlau, thence to Alt-Lissa," --
Nimburg way, with what objects we shall see. "Marshal
"Keith's fine performance. Keith, from the Weissenberg,
"does not march, such packing and loading still; all the
"baggages and artilleries being with Keith. Not till four in
"the afternoon did Keith march; but beautifully then; and
"folded himself away, -- rearguard under Schmettau 're-
"treating chequerwise,' nothing but Tolpatcheries attempt-
"ing on him, -- westward, Budin-ward, without loss of a
"linstock, not to speak of guns. Very prettily done on the
"part of Keith. By Budin, to Leitmeritz, he; where the
"King will join him shortly. "
Friedrich's errand in Alt-Lissa, eastward, while
Keith went westward, was, To be within due arm's-
length of the Moritz-Bevern, or beaten Kolin Army,
which is coming up that way; intending to take post,
and do its best, in those parts, with Zittau Magazine
and the Lausitz to rear of it. One of our Eyewitnesses,
a Herr Westphalen, Ferdinand of Brunswick's Secre-
tary, -- who, with his Chief, got into wider fields
before long, -- yields these additional particulars face
to face:
"Tuesday, 21st June 1757. King's Headquarters in Lissa
"or neighbourhood till Friday next; which is central for both
"these movements, -- Thursday, orders seven regiments of
"horse to reinforce Keith. No symptom yet of pursuit any-
"where.
"Friday, 24th. Prince Moritz with the Kolin Army made
"appearance, all safe, and is to command here; King in-
"tending for Keith. After dinner, and the due interchange
"of battalions to that end, King sets off, with Prince Henri,
'' towards Keith; Headquarter in Alt-Buntzlau again. Satur-
"day Night, at Melnick; Sunday, Gastorf: Monday Night,
"27th June, Leitmeritz; King lodges in the Cathedral Close,
"in sight of Keith, wo is on the opposite side of Elbe, -- but
"the town has a Bridge for tomorrow. 'Never was a quieter
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? CHAP. v. ] FRIEDRICII AT liBITMKRITZ. 113
20tli-27th Juno 1757.
"march; not the shadow of aPandour visible. The Duke"
(Ferdinand, my Chief, Chatham's jewel that is to be, and
precious to England) "has suffered much from a" -- in fact,
from "a cours de ventre, temporary bowel-derangement,
"which was very troublesome, owing to the excessive heats
"by day, and coldness of the nights.
"Tuesday, 28th. Junction with Keith, -- Bridge rightly
"secured, due party of dragoons and foot left on the right
"bank, to occupy a height which covers Leitmeritz. 'Clear-
ing of the Pascopol' (that is, sweeping the Pandours out of
"it), is the first business; Colonel Loudon with his Pandours,
"a most swift sharp-cutting man, being now here in those
"parts; doing a deal of mischief. Three days ago, Satur-
"day 25th, Keith had sent seven battalions, with the proper
"steel-besoms, on that Pascopol affair; Tuesday, on junc-
"tion, Majesty sends three more: job done on Wednesday;
"reported 'done,'-- though I should not be surprised," says
Westphalen, "if some little highway robbery still went on
"among the Mountains up there.
No; -- and before quitting hold, what is this that
Loudon (on the very day of the King's arrival, June
27th), on the old Field of Lobositz over yonder, has
managed to do! General Mannstein, wounded at Kolin,
happened, with others in like case, to be passing that
way, towards Dresden and better surgery, -- when
Loudon's Croats set upon them, scattering their slight
escort: "Quarter, on surrender! Prisoners? " "Never! "
answeredMannstein; "Never! " that too impetuous man,
starting out from his carriage, and snatching a musket:
and was instantly cut down there. And so ends; --
a man of strong head, and of heart only too strong. *
From Prag onwards, here has been a delicate set
of operations; perfectly executed, -- thanks to Fried-
rich's rapidity of shift, and also to the cautious slowly*
* Preuss, n. 58; iiilitair-Lexikon, m. 10.
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. X. 8
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? 114 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XvIII.
27th June -- 20th July 1767.
puzzling mind of Daun. Had Daun used any diligence,
had Daun and Prince Karl been broad awake, together
or even singly! But Friedrich guessed they seldom or
never were; that they would spend some days in puzzling;
and that, with despatch, he would have time for every-
thing. Daun, we could observe, stood singing TeDeum,
greatly at leisure, in his old Camp, 20th June, while
Friedrich, from the first gray of morning, and diligently
all day long, was withdrawing from the trenches of
Prag, -- Friedrich's people, self, and goods getting
folded out in the finest gradation, and with perfect
success; no Daun to hinder him, -- Daun leisurely
doing Te Deum, forty miles off, helping on the wrong
side by that exertion! * -- "Poor Browne, he is dead
"of his wounds, in Prag yonder," writes Westphalen in
his Leitmeritz Journal, "news came to us, July 1st:
"men said, 'Ah, that was why they lay asleep. '"
Till June 26th, Daun and Karl had not united;
nor, except sending out Loudon and Croats, done any-
thing, either of them. Sunday, June 26th, at Pod-
schernitz on the old Field of Prag, a week and a day
after Kolin, they did get together; still seemingly a little
puzzled, "Shall we follow the King? Shall we follow
Moritz and Bevern? " -- nothing clear for some time,
except to send out Pandour parties upon both. Moritz,
since parting with the King in Alt-Buntzlau neighbour-
hood, has gone northward some marches, thirty miles
or so, to /wng'-Buntzlau, -- meeting of Iser and Elbe,
surely a good position: -- Moritz, on receipt of these
Pandour allowances of his, writes to the King, "Shall
we retreat on Zittau, then, your Majesty? Straight
upon Zittau? " Fancy Friedrich's astonishment; --
* Cogniazo, n. 367.
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? CHAP. v. I FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ. 115
28th Jane 1757.
who well intends to eat the Country first, perhaps to fight if there he chance, and at least to lie outside the
doors of Silesia and the Lausitz, as well as of Saxony
here! -- and answers, with his own hand, on the in-
stant: "Your Dilection will not be so mad! "* And
at once recals Moritz, and appoints the Prince of Prus-
sia to go and take command. Who directly went; --
a most important step for the King's interests and his
own. Whose fortunes in that business we shall see
before long! --
At Leitmeritz the King continues four weeks, with
his Army parted in this way; waiting how the endless
hostile element, which begirdles his horizon all round,
will shape itself into combinations, that he may set
upon the likeliest or the needfullest of these, when once
it has disclosed itself. Horizon all round is black
enough: Austrians, French, Swedes, Russians, Reichs
Army; closer upon him or not so close, all are rolling
in: Saxony, the Lausitz and Silesia, Brandenburg it-
self, it is uncertain which of these may soonest require
his active presence.
The very day after his arrival in Leitmeritz, --
Tuesday, 28th of June, while that junction with Keith
was going on, and the troops were defiling along the
Bridge for junction with Keith,-- a heavy sorrow had
befallen him, which he yet knew not of. An irrepar-
able Domestic loss; sad complement to these Military
and other Public disasters. Queen Sophie Dorothee,
about whose health he had been anxious, but had again
been set quiet, died at Berlin that day. ** In her
seventy-first year: of no definite violent disease; worn
* In Preuss, n. 58, the pungent little Autograph in full.
** Montyjon, 28th June 1757; born at Hanover, 27th March 1687.
8*
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? 116 SEVEN-YEAKS WAE RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVin.
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
down with chagrins and apprehensions, in this black
whirlpool of Public troubles. So far as appears, the
news came on Friedrich by surprise: -- "bad cough,"
we hear of, and of his anxieties about it, in the Spring
time; then again of "improvement, recovery, in the
fine weather;" -- no thought, just now, of such an
event: and he took it with a depth of affliction, which
my less informed readers are far from expecting of
him.
July 2d, the news came: King withdrew into pri-
vacy; to weep and bewail under this new pungency of
grief, superadded to so many others. Mitchell says:
"For two days he had no levee; only the Princes dined
"with him" (Princes Henri and Ferdinand; Prince of
Prussia is gone to Jung-Buntzlau, would get the sad
message there, among his other troubles): "yesterday,
"July 3d, King sent for me in the afternoon, --, the
"first time he has seen anybody since the news came:
"-- I had the honour to remain with him some hours in
"his closet . I must own to your Lordship I was most
"sensibly afflicted to see him indulging his grief, and
"giving way to the warmest filial affections; recalling
"to mind the many obligations he had to her late Ma-
"jesty; all she had suffered, and how nobly she bore it;
"the good she did to everybody; the one comfort he
"now had, to think of having tried to make her last
"years more agreeable. " * In the thick of public business,
this kind of mood to Mitchell seems to have lasted all
the time of Leitmeritz, which is about three weeks yet:
Mitchell's Notebooks and Despatches, in that part, have
* Papers and Memoirs, i. 253; Despatch to Holderness, 4th July
slightly abridged); -- see lb. i. 357-359 (Private Journal). Westphalen,
n. 14. See (Emres it Frederic, iv. 182.
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? CHAP. v. J PRIEDRIOH AT LEITMERITZ. 117
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
a fine Biographic interest; the wholly human Friedrich
wholly visible to us there as he seldom is. Going over
his past Life to Mitchell; brief, candid, pious to both
his Parents; --. inexpressibly sad; like moonlight on
the grave of one's Mother, silent that, while so much
else is too noisy! --
This Friedrich, upon whom the whole world has
risen like a mad Sorcerer's-Sabbath, how safe he once
lay in his cradle, like the rest of us, mother's love
wrapping him soft: -- and now! These thoughts
commingle in a very tragic way with the avalanche of
public disasters which is thundering down on all sides.
Warm tears the meed of this new sorrow; small in
compass, but greater in poignancy than all the rest to-
gether. "My poor old Mother, oh, my Mother, that
so loved me always, and would have given her own
life to shelter mine! " -- It was at Leitmeritz, as I
guess, that Mitchell first made decisive acquaintance,
that we may almost call intimacy, with the King: we
already defined him as a sagacious, long-headed, loyal-
hearted diplomatic gentleman, Scotch by birth and by
turn of character; abundantly polite, vigilant, discreet,
and with a fund of general sense and rugged veracity
of mind; whom Friedrich at once recognised for what
he was, and much took to, finding a hearty return
withal; so that they were soon well with one another,
and continued so. Mitchell, as orders were, "attended
"theKing's person" all through this War, sometimes in
the blaze of battle itself and nothing but cannon-shot
going, if it so chanced; and has preserved, in his
multifarious Papers, a great many traits of Friedrich,
not to be met with elsewhere.
Mitchell's occasional society, conversation with a
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? 118 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book Xvin.
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
man of sense and manly character, which Friedrich
always much loved, was, no doubt, a resource to Fried-
rich in his lonely roamings and vicissitudes in those
dark years. No other British Ambassador ever had
the luck to please him or be pleased by him, -- most
of them, as Ex-Exchequer Legge and the like Ex-Par-
liamentary people, he seems to have considered dull,
obstinate, wooden fellows, of fantastic, abrupt, rather
abstruse kind of character, not worth deciphering; --
some of them, as Hanbury Williams, with the mis-
chievous tic (more like galvanism or St. Vitus'-dance)
which he called "wit," and the inconvenient turn for
plotting and intriguing, Friedrich could not endure at
all, but had them as soon as possible recalled, -- of
course, not without detestation on their part.
At Leitmeritz, it appears, he kept withdrawn to his
closet, a good deal; gave himself up to his sorrows and
his thoughts; would sit many hours drowned in tears,
weeping bitterly like a child or a woman. This is
strange to some readers; but it is true, -- and ought
to alter certain current notions. Friedrich, flashing like
clear steel upon evil-doers and mendacious unjust per-
sons and their works, is not by nature a cruel man,
then, or an unfeeling, as Rumour reports? Reader, no,
far the reverse; -- and public Rumour, as you may
have remarked, is apt to be an extreme blockhead, full
of fury and stupidity on such points, and had much
better hold its tongue till it know in some measure.
Extreme sensibility is not sure to be a merit; though
it is sure to be reckoned one, by the greedy dim fel-
lows looking idly on: but, in any case, the degree of
it that dwelt (privately, for most part) in Friedrich
was great; and to himself it seemed a sad rather than
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? CHAT, v. ] FRIEDRIC1I AT LEITMERITZ. 119
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
joyful fact. Speaking of this matter, long afterwards,
to Garve, a Silesian Philosopher, with whom he used
to converse at Breslau, he says; -- or let dull Garve
himself report it, in the literal third-person:
"And herein, I," the Herr Garve (venturing to dispute, or
qualify, on one of his Majesty's favourite topics) "believe,
"lies the real ground of 'happiness:' it is the capacity and
"opportunity to accomplish great things. This the King
"would not allow; but said, That I did not sufficiently take "into account the natural feelings, different in different
"people, which, when painful, embittered the life of the
"highest as of the lowest. That, in his own life, he had ex-
perienced the deepest sufferings of this kind: 'And,' added
"he, with a touching tone of kindness and familiarity which
"never occurred again in his interviews with me, 'if you (Er)
"knew, for instance, whatl underwent on the death of my
"Mother, you would see that I have been as unhappy as any
"other, and unhappier than others, because of the greater
"sensibility I had (weil ich mehr Emp/indlichkeit gehabt
"habe). '"*
There needed not this new calamity in Friedrich's
lot just now! From all points of the compass, his enemies, held in check so long, are flooding on: the
confluence of disasters and ill tidings, at this time, very
great. From Jung-Buntzlau, close by, his Brother's
accounts are bad; and grow ever worse, -- as will be
seen! On the extreme West, "July 3d," while Fried-
rich at Leitmeritz sat weeping for his Mother, the
French take Embden from him; "July 5th," the Rus-
sians, Memel, on the utmost East. June 30th, six days
* Fragmente tar ScUUermg des Geistes, des Charaklers und der Ile-
gierung Friedrichs des Zweilen, von Christian Garve (Breslaa, 1798), i. 314-
316.
An unexpectedly dull Book (Garve having talent and reputation);
kind of monotonous Preachment upon Friedrich's character; almost no-
thing but the above fraction now derivable from it.
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? 120 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT. [BOOK XVIII.
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
before, the Russians, after as many months of haggling,
did cross the Border; 37,000 of them on this point;
and set to bombarding Memel from land and sea.
Poor Memel (garrison only 700) answered very fiercely,
"sank two of their gunboats" and the like; but the end
was as we see, -- Feldmarschall Lehwald able to give
no relief. For there were above 70,000 other Russians
(Feldmarschall Apraxin with these latter, and Cossacks
and Calmucks more than enough) crossing elsewhere,
south in Tilsit Country, upon old Lehwald. * Lehwald,
with 30,000, in such circumstances -- what is to be-
come of Preussen and him! Nearer hand, the Austrians,
the French, the very ReichsArmy, do now seem intent
on business.
The Reichs Execution Army, we saw how Mayer
and the Battle of Prag had checked it in the birth-
pangs; and given rise to pangs of another sort; the
poor Reichs Circles generally exclaiming, "What!
Bring the war into our own borders? Bring the King
of Prussia on our own throats! " -- and stopping short
in their enlistments and preparations; in vain for
Austrian Officials to urge them. Watching there, with
awe-struck eye, while the 12,000 bombs flew into
Prag.
The Battle of Kolin has reversed all that; and the
poor old Reich is again bent on business in the Exe-
cution way. Drumming, committeeing, projecting and
endeavouring with all her might, in all quarters; and,
from and after the event of Kolin, holding visible En-
campment, in theNiirnberg Country; fractions of actual
troops assembling there. "On the Plains of Fiirth,
"between Fiirth and Farrenbach, east side the River
? Helden-Geschichte, iv. 407-413.
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? CKAP. v. ] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ. 121
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
"Regnitz, there was the Camp pitched," says my Anony-
mous Friend; who gives me a cheerful Copperplate of
the thing: red pennons, blue, and bright mixed colours;
generals' tents; order-of-battle, and respective rallying
points: with Bamberg Country in front, and the peaks
of the Pine Mountains lying pleasantly behind: a sight
for the curious. * It is the same ground where Mayer
was careering lately; neighbouring nobility and gentry
glad to come in gala, and dance with Mayer. Hither, all
through July, come contingents straggling in, thicker and
thicker; "August 8th," things now about complete, the
Bishop of Bamberg came to take survey of the Reichs-Heer
(Bishop's remarks not given); August 10th, came the
young reigning Duke of Hildburghausen (Duke's grand-
uncle is to be Commander), on like errand; August
11th, the Reichs-Heer got on march. Westward ho!
-- readers will see towards what.
A truly elende, or miserable, Reichs Execution Army
(as the nwVprinter had made it); but giving loud voice
in the Gazettes; and urged by every consideration to
do something for itself. Prince of Hildburghausen, --
a general of small merit, though he has risen in the
Austrian service, and we have seen him with Secken-
dorf in old Turk times, -- has, for his Kaiser's sake,
taken the command; sensible perhaps that glory is not
likely to be rife here; but willing to make himself use-
ful. Kaiser and Austria urge, everywhere, with all
their might: Prince of Hessen-Darmstadt, who lay on
the Weissenberg lately, one of Keith's distinguished
seconds there and a Prussian Officer of long standing,
* J. F. S. (whom I named Anonymous of Hamburg long since; who has
boiled down, with great diligence, the old Newspapers, and gives a great
many dates, notes &c. , without Index), i. 211, 224 (the Copperplate).
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? 122 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIII.
27tU June -- 20th July 1757.
has, on Kaiser's order, quitted all that, and become Hildburghausen's second here, in the Camp of Fiirth;
thinking the path of duty lay that way, -- though his
Wife, one of the noble women of her age, thought
very differently. * A similar Kaiser's order, backed by
what Law-thunder lay in the Reich, had gone out
against Friedrich's own Brothers, and against every
Reichs Prince who was in Friedrich's service; but, ex-
cept him of Hessen-Darmstadt, none of them had much
minded. ** I did not hear that his strategic talent was
momentous: but Prussia had taught him the routine of
right soldiering, surely to small purpose; and Friedrich,
no doubt, glanced indignantly at this small thing, among
the many big ones.
From about the end of June, the Reichs Army kept
dribbling in: the most inferior Army in the world; no
part of it well drilled, most of it not drilled at all; and
for variety in colour, condition, method, and military
and pecuniary and other outfit, beggaring description.
Hildburghausen does his utmost; Kaiser the like. The
number should have far exceeded 50,000; but was not,
on the field, of above half that number: 25,000; add
at last 8,000 Austrian troops, two regiments of them
cavalry; good these 8,000, the rest bad, -- that was
the Reichs Execution Army; most inferior among
Armies; and considerable part of it, all the Protestant
part, privately wishing well to Friedrich, they say.
Drills itself multifariously in that Camp between Piirth
and Farrenbach, on the east side of Regnitz River.
* Her Letter to Friedrich, "Berlin, 30th October 1757," (Etwres da
Frideric, ixvn. n. 135.
? * In Orlich, FUrtt Uoritt von Anhall-Dessau (Berlin, 1842), pp. 74, 75,
Prince Moritz's rather mournful Letter on the subject, with Priedrich's
sharp Answer.
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? CHAP. v. ] FEIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ. 123
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
Fancy what a sight to Wilhelmina, if she ever drove
that way; which I think she hardly would. The Bai-
reuth contingent itself is there; theMargraf would have
held out stiff on that point; but Friedrich himself ad-
vised compliance. Margraf of Anspach, -- perverse
tippling creature, ill with his Wife, I doubt, -- has
joyfully sent his legal hundreds; will vote for theReichs
Ban against this worst of Germans, whom he has for
Brother-in-law. Dark days in the heart of Wilhel-
mina, those of the Camp at Fiirth. Days which grow
ever darker, with strange flashings-out of empyrean
lightning from that shrill true heart; no peace more,
till the noble heroine die! --
This elende Reichs-Heer, miserable "Army of the
Circles," is mockingly called "the Hoopers, Coopers
(Tonneliers)," and gets quizzing enough, under that
and other titles, from an Opposition Public. Far other
from the French and Austrians; who are bent that it
should do feats in the world, and prove impressive on
a robber King. Thus too, "for Deliverance of Saxony,"
to cooperate with Reichs-Heer in that sacred object,
thanks to the zeal of Pompadour, Prince de Soubise
has got together, in Elsass, a supplementary 30,000
(40,330 said Theory, but Fact never quite so many);
and is passing them across the Rhine, in Frankfurt
Country, 'all through July, while the drilling at Fiirth
goes on. With these, Soubise, simultaneously getting
under way, will steer north-eastward; join the Reichs-
Heer about Erfurt, before August end; and -- and we
shall see what becomes of the combined Soubise and
Reichs Army after that!
It must be owned, the French, Pompadour and love
of glory urging, are diligent since the event of Kolin.
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? 124 SEVEN" YEARS WAR EISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIII.
27th June -- 20th July 1757.
In select Parisian circles, the Soubise Army, or even
that of D'Estrdes altogether, -- produced by the tears
of a filial Dauphiness, -- is regarded as a quasi-sacred,
or uncommonly noble thing; and is called by her name,
"L'Armee de la Dauphine," or for shortness, "La
Dauphine" without adjunct. Thus, like a kind of
chivalrous Bellona, vengeance in her right hand, tears
and fire in her eyes, The Dauphiness advances; and will
join Reichs-Heer at Erfurt before August end. Such
the will of Pompadour; Richelieu encouraging, for
reasons of his own. Soubise, I understand, is privately
in pique against poor D'Estrees;* and intends to eclipse
him by a higher style of diligence; though D'Estrees
too is doing his best.
July 3d, we saw the D'Estrdes people taking
Embden; D'Estrdes, quiet so long in his Camp^at
Bielefeld, had at once bestirred himself, Kolin being
done; -- shot out a detachment leftwards, and Embden
had capitulated that day. Adieu to the Shipping
Interests there, and to other pleasant things! "July
9th, after sunset," D'Estrdes himself got on march from
Bielefeld; set forth, in the cool of night, 60,000 strong,
and 10,000 more to join him by the road (the rest are
left as garrisons, reserves, -- 1,000 marauders of them
swing as monitory pendulums, on their various trees,
for one item), -- direct towards Hanover and Royal
Highness of Cumberland; who retreats, and has re-
treated, behind the Ems, the Weser, back, ever back;
and, to appearance, will make a bad finish yonder.
* "Reappeared unexpectedly in Paris11 from D'Estrees's Army), "22d
June" (four days after Kolin); got up this Dauphi,iess Army, by aid of
Pompadour, with Richelieu, &c: liarbicr, iv. 227, 231. Richelieu "busy at Strasburg lately" (29th July: Collini's Voltaire, p. 191).
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? CHAP, v. ] TRIED RICH AT LEITMERITZ. 125
1st July 1757.
To Friedrich, waiting at Leitmeritz, all these things
are gloomily known; but the most pressing of them is
that of the Austrians and Jung-Buntzlau close by. Let
us give some utterances of his to Wilhelmina, nearly
all we have of direct from him in that time; and then
hasten to the Prince of Prussia there:
Friedrich to Wilhelmina (at Baireuth).
Leitmeritz, 1st July 1751. * * "Sensible as heart can
"be to the tender interest you deign to take in what concerns
"me. Dear Sister, fear nothing on my score: men are
"always in the hand of what we call Fate ('Predestination,
Gnadenwahl,' -- Pardon us, Papa! -- "ce qu'on nomme le
"destin); accidents willbefal people, walking on the streets,
"sitting in their room, lying in their bed; and there are
"many who escape the perils of war. " * * "I think, through
"Hessen will be the safest route for your Letters, till we see;
"-- and not to write just now except on occasions of im-
"portance. Here is a piece in cipher; anonymous," -- in-
tended for the Newspapers, or some such road.
July 5th. "By a Courier of Plotho's, returning to Regens-
"burg" (who passes near you), "I write to apprise my dear
"Sister of the new misery which overwhelms us. We have
"no longer a Mother. This loss puts the crown on my sorrows.
"I am obliged to act; and have not time to give free course
"to my tears. Judge, I pray you, of the situation of a
"feeling heart put to so cruel a trial. All losses in the world
"are capable of being remedied; but those which Death
"causes are beyond the reach of hope. "
July 7th. "You are too good; I am ashamed to abuse
"your indulgence. But do, since you will, try to sound the
''' French, what conditions of Peace they would demand; one
"might judge as to their intentions. Send that Mirabeau
"fee M. de Mirabeau) to France. Willingly will I pay the
"expense. He may offer as much as five million thalers"
(750,000*. ) "to the Favourite" (yes, even to the Pompadour)
"for Peace alone. Of course, his utmost discretion will be
"needed;" -- should the English get the least wind of it 1 But
if they are gone to St. Vitus, and fail in every point, what
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? 126 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIII.
13th July 1757.
can one do? Ce M. de Mirabeau, readers will be surprised to
learn, is an Uncle of the great Mirabeau's; who has fallen
into roving courses, gone abroad insolvent; and "directs the
Opera atBaireuth," in these years! -- One Letter we will
give in full:
"My deabest Sisteb, -- Your Letter has arrived: I see in
"it your regrets for the irreparable loss we have had of the
"best and worthiest Mother in this world. I am so struck
"down with all these blows from within and without, that I
"feel myself in a sort of stupefaction.
"The French have just laid hold of Friesland" (seized
Embden, July 3d); "are about to pass the Weser: they have
"Swedes are sending 17,000men" (rather more if anything;
but they proved beautifully ineffectual) "into Pommern," --
will be burdensome to Stralsund and the poor country people
mainly; having no Captain over them but a hydra-headed
National Palaver at home, and a Long-pole with Cocked-hat
on it here at hand. "The Russians are besieging Memel"
(have taken it, ten days ago): "Lehwald has them on his
"front and in his rear. The Troops of the Reich," from
your Plains of Fiirth yonder, "are also about to march. All
"this will force me to evacuate Bohemia, so soon as that
"crowd of Enemies gets into motion.
"I am firmly resolved on the extremest efforts to save my
"Country. We shall see (quitte a voir) if Fortune will take a
"new thought, or if she will entirely turn her back upon me.
"Happy the moment when I took to training myself in philo-
"sophy! There is nothing else that can sustain the soul in a
"situation like mine. I spread out to you, dear Sister, the
"detail of my sorrows: if these things regarded only myself,
"I could stand it with composure; but I am bound Guardian
"of the safety and happiness of a People which has been put
"under my charge. There lies the sting of it: and I shall
"have to reproach myself with every fault, if, by delay or
"by overhaste, I occasion the smallest accident; all the
"more as, at present, any fault may be capital.
"What a business! Here is the liberty of Germany, and
"thatProtestant Cause for which so much blood has been
"shed; here are those Two great Interests again at stake
"Leitmeritz, 13th July 1757.
declare War against me; the
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? CHAP. v. ] FEEEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ. 127
27th June - 20th July 1757.
"and the pinch of this huge game is such, that an unlucky
"quarter of an hour may establish over Germany the tyran-
nous domination of the House of Austria forever! I am in
"the case of a traveller who sees himself surrounded and
"ready to be assassinated by a troop of cutthroats, who
"intend to share his spoils. Since the League of Cambrai"
(1508--1510, with a Pope in it and a Kaiser and Most
Christian King, iniquitously sworn against poor Venice; --
to no purpose, as happily appears), "there is no example of
"such a Conspiracy as that infamous Triumvirate" (Austria,
France, Russia) "now forms against me. Was it ever seen
"before that three great Princes laid plot in concert to
"destroy a Fourth, who had done nothing against them?
"I have not had the least quarrel either with France or with
"Russia, still less with Sweden. If, in common life, three
"citizens took it into their heads to fall upon their neighbour,
"and burn his house about him, they very certainly, by
"sentence of tribunal, would be broken on the wheel. What!
"and will Sovereigns, who maintain these tribunals and
"these laws in their States, give such example to their
"subjects? " -- "Happy, my dear Sister, is the obscure man,
"whose good sense, from youth upwards, has renounced all
"sorts of glory; who, in his safe low place, has none to envy
"him, and whose fortune does not excite the cupidity of
"scoundrels!
