"
I will give only this of Voltaire; a mild Epigram,
done at The Delices, in pleasant view of Ferney and
good things coming.
I will give only this of Voltaire; a mild Epigram,
done at The Delices, in pleasant view of Ferney and
good things coming.
Thomas Carlyle
The site is a
"narrow dell, narrow chasm, with labyrinthic chasms branch-
"ing off from it; narrow and gloomy as seen from the River,
"but opening out even into cornfields as you advance in-
"wards: work of a small Brook, which is still industriously
"tinkling and gushing there, and has in Pre-Adamite times
"been alake, and we know not what. Nieder-Raden, this, on
"the north side of the River; of Ober-Raden, on the south
"side, there is nothing visible from your Inn windows," --nor
have we anything to do with it farther. An older Guide of
Tourists yields us this second Fraction (capable of conden-
sation):
"* * To Halbstadt, thence to Ebenheit, your path is
"steeper and steeper; from Ebenheit to the Lilienstein you
"take a guide. The Mountain is conical; coarse red sand-
"stone; steps cut for you where needed: August the Strong's
"Hunting-Lodge (JagdMtte) is here (August went thither in a
"grand way, 1708, with his Wife); Lodge still extant, by the
"side of a wood; -- Lilienstein towering huge and sheer,
"solitary, grand, like some colossal Pillar of the Cyclops,
"from this round Pediment of Country which you have been
"climbing; tops of Lilienstein plumed everywhere with fir
"and birch, Pediment also very green and woody. August
"the Strong, grandly visiting here, 1708, on finish of those
"stair-steps cut for you, set up an Ebenezer, or Column of
"Memorial at this Hunting Hut, with Inscription which can
"still be read, though now with difficulty in its time-worn
"state:
"'Friedericus Augustus, Rex'" (of what? Dare not say of
Poland just now, for fear of Charles XH. ), "' et Elector Sax. , ut
"'Fortunam virtute, ita asperam hanc Rupemprimus'" (primus
not of men, but of Saxon Electors) "'superamt, Aditumque fact-
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? CHAP. VII. ] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OP PIRNA. 301
14th Oct. 1766.
". lliorem reddi curavit. Anno 1708. ' -- "Ut Fortunam virtute, "As his fortune by valour, so he conquered this rugged rock
"by" -- Poor devil, only hear him; -- and think how good
Nature is (for the time being) to poor devils and their 354
bastards! *
Briihl and the Polish Majesty, safe enough they,
and snug in the Konigstein, are clear for advancing:
"Die like soldiers, for your King and Country! " writes
Polish Majesty, "Thursday, two in the morning:" that
also Rutowski reads; and I think still other Royal
Autographs, sent as Postscripts to that. From the
Konigstein they duly fire off the two Cannon-shot, as
signal that we are coming; signal which Browne, just
in the act of departing, never heard, owing to the
piping of the winds and rattling of the rain. "Advance,
my heroes! " counsel they: "You cannot drag your
ammunitions, say you; your poor couple of big guns?
Here are his Majesty's own royal horses for that
service! " -- and, in effect, the royal stud is heroically
flung open in this pressure; and a splashing column of
sleek quadrupeds, "150 royal draught-horses, early in
the forenoon,"** swim across to Ebenheit accordingly,
if that could encourage. And "about noon, there is
strong cannonading from the Konigstein, as signal to
Browne," who is off. Polish Majesty looking with his
* M. (agister) Wilhelm Lebrecht Gotzinger, Schandau und seine Vmge-
hungen, oder Beschreihung der Sachsischen Schmeilz (Dresden, 1812) pp. 145-
148. Gotzinger, who designates himself as "Pastor at Neustadt near
Stolpen" (north-west border of the Pima Country), has made of this
(which would now be called a Tourist's Guide, and has something geologi-
cal in it) a modest, good little Book, put together with industry, clearness,
brevity. Gives interesting Narrative of our present Business, too, as
gathered from his "Father" and other good sources and testimonies.
? * GetBinger, p. 156.
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? 302 , SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. [book xvir.
15th-17th Oct. 1766.
spy-glass in an astonishing manner. In vain! Rutowski
and his Council of War, -- sitting wet in a hut of
Ehenheit, with 14,000 starved men outside, who have
stood seventy-two hours of rain, for one item, -- see
nothing for it but "surrender on such terms as we
can get. "
"In fact," independently of weather and circum-
"stances, the Enterprise," says Friedrich, "was radically
"impossible; nobody that had known the ground could
"have judged it other. " Rutowski had not known it,
then? Browne never pretended to know it. Rutowski
was not candid with the conditions; the conditions never
known nor candidly looked at; and they are now re-
plying to him with candour enough. From the first his
Enterprise was a final flicker of false hope; going out,
as here, by spasm, in the rigours of impossibility and
flat despair.
That column of royal horses sent splashing across
the River, -- that was the utmost of self-sacrifice which
I find recorded of his Polish Majesty in this matter.
He was very obstinate; his Briihl and he were. But
his conduct was not very heroic. That royal Autograph,
"General Rutowski, and ye true Saxons, attack these
Prussian lines, then; sell your lives like men" (not
like Briihl and me), must have fallen cold on the heart,
after seventy-two hours of rain! Rutowski's wet Council
of War, in the hut at Ebenheit, rain still pouring,
answers unanimously, "That it were a leading of men
to the butchery;" that there is nothing for it but sur-
render. Briihl and Majesty can only answer: "Well-
a-day; it must be so, then! " -- Winterfeld, Prussian
Commander hereabouts, grants Armistice, grants liberal
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? CHAP. VII. J HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA. 303
15th-17th Oct. 1756.
"wagon-loads of bread" first of all; terms of Capitulation
to be settled at Struppen tomorrow.
Friday, October 15<<A, Eutowski goes across to
Struppen, the late Saxon head-quarter, nowFriedrich's;
-- Friday gone a fortnight was the Day of Lobositz.
Winterfeld and he are the negotiators there; Friedrich
ratifying or refusing by marginal remarks. The terms
granted are hard enough: but they must be accepted. First
preliminary of all terms has already been accepted: a
gift of bread to these poor Saxons; their haversacks
are empty, their cartridge-boxes drowned; it has rained
on them three days and nights. Last upshot of all terms
is still well known to everybody: That the 14,000
Saxons are compelled to become Prussian, and "forced
to volunteer"!
That had been Friedrich's determination, and
reading of his rights in the matter, now that hard had
come to hard. "You refused all terms; you have
resisted to death (or death's-Aw); and are now at
discretion! " Of the question, What is to be done with
those Saxons? Friedrich had thought a great deal,
first and last; and had found it very intricate, -- as
readers too will, if they think of it. "Prisoners of
War, -- to keep them locked up, with trouble and
expense, in that fashion? They can never be exchanged:
Saxony has now nothing to exchange them with; and
Austria will not. Their obstinacy has had costs to me;
who of us can count what costs! In short, they shall
volunteer! "
"Never did I, for my poor part, authorise such a
thing," loudly asseverated Eutowski afterwards. And
indeed the Capitulation is not precise on that interesting
point. A lengthy Document, and not worth the least
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? 304 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. [book XVII.
15th-17tli Oct. 1756.
perusal otherwise; we condense it into three articles,
all grounding on this general Basis, not deniable by
Rutowski: "The Saxon Army, being at such a pass,
ready to die of hunger, if we did not lift our finger,
has, so to speak, become our property; and we grant
it the following terms:"
"1? . Kettledrums, standards, and the like insignia, and
"matters of honour, -- carry these to the Konigstein, with my
"regretful respects to his Polish Majesty. Konigstein to be a
"neutral Fortress during this War. Polish Majesty at perfect
"liberty to go to Warsaw" (as he on the instant now did, and
never returned).
"2? . Officers to depart on giving their parole, Not to serve
''against us during this War" (Parole given, nothing like too
well kept).
"3? . Rest of the Army, with all its equipments, munitions,
"soul and body (so to speak), is to surrender utterly, and be
"ours, as all Saxony shall for the present be. " *
That is, in sum, the Capitulation of Struppen.
Nothing articulate in it about the one now interesting
point, -- and in regard to that, I can only fancy
Eutowski might interject, interrogatively, perhaps at
some length: "Our soldiers to be Prisoners of War,
then? " "Prisoners; yes, clearly, -- unless they choose
to volunteer, and have a better fate! Prisoners can
volunteer. They are at discretion; they would die, if
we did not lift our finger! " thus I suppose Winterfeld
would rejoin, if necessary; -- and that, in the Winter-
feld-Rutowski Conferences, the thing had probably been
kept in a kind of chiaroscuro by both parties.
* In Hclden-Geschichte, jn. 980-928, at fall length, --with Friedrich's marginalia noticeably brief.
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? OTAP. VII. ] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA. 305
17th Oct. 1756.
Very certain it is, Sunday, 17th October 1756,
Capitulation being signed the night before, Friedrich
goes across at Nieder-Eaden (where the Pilgrim of the
Picturesque now climbs to see the Bastei; where the
Prussians have, by this time, a Bridge thrown together
out of those Pontoons), -- goes across at Nieder-Eaden,
up that chasmy Pass; rides to the Heights of Walters-
dorf, in the opener country behind; and pauses there,
while the captive Saxon Army defiles past him, laying
down its arms at his feet. Unarmed, and now under
Prussian word of command, these Ex-Saxon soldiers go
on defiling; march through by that Chasm of Nieder-
Eaden; cross to Ober-Eaden; and, in the plainer
country thereabouts, are, -- in I know not what length
of hours, but in an incredibly short length, so swift
is the management, -- changed wholly into Prus-
sian soldiers: "obliged to volunteer," every one of
them!
That is the fact; fact loudly censured; fact surely
questionable, -- to what intrinsic degree, I at this mo-
ment do not know. Fact much blamable before the
loose public of mankind; upon which I leave men to
their verdict. It is not a fact which invites imitation,
as we shall see! Fact how accomplished; by what
methods? that would be the question with me; but
even that is left dark. "The horse regiments, three of
"heavy horse, he broke; and distributed about, a good
"few in his own Garde-du-Corps. " Three other horse
regiments were in Poland, the sole Saxon Army now
left, -- of whom, at least of one man among whom,
we may happen to hear. "Ten foot regiments" (what
was reckoned a fault) "he left together; in Prussian
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. IX. 20
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? 306 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. [book XVII.
17th Oct. 1756.
"uniform, with Prussian Officers. They were scattered
"up and down; put in garrisons; not easy handling
"them: they deserted by whole companies at a time
"in the course of this War. "* Not a measure for
imitation, as we said! --How Friedrich defended such
hard conduct to the Saxons? Reader, I know only that
Destiny and Necessity, urged on by Saxons and others,
was hard as adamant upon Friedrich at this time; and
that Friedrich did not the least dream of making any
defence; -- and will have to take your verdict, such
as it may be.
Moritz of Dessau had a terrible Winter of it,
organising and breaking-in these Saxon people, -- got
by press-gang in this way. Polish Majesty, "with 500
of suite," had driven instantly for Warsaw; post-horses
most politely furnished him, and all the Prussian posts
and soldieries well kept out of his road, -- road chosen
for him to that end. Poor soul, he never came back.
For six years coming, he saw, from Warsaw in the
distance (amid anarchy and nie-poz-walam, which he
never lacked there), the wide War raging, in Saxony
especially; and died soon after it was done. Nor did
Briihl return, except broken by that event, and to die
in few months after. Let us pity the poor fat-goose of
a Majesty (not ill-natured at all, only stupid and idle):
some pity even to the doomed-phantasm Briihl, if you
can; -- and thank Heaven to have got done with such
a pair! --
Friedrich's treatment of the Saxon Troops, Saxon
Majesty and Country: who shall say that it was wise
* Preuss, u. 22,135; in Stenzel (v. 16-20) more precise details.
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? CHAP. VII. ] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA. 307
17th Oct. 1756.
in all points? It would be singular treatment, if it
were! In all things, After is so different from Before
and During. The truth is, Friedrich hoped long to
have made some agreement with the Saxons. And
readers now, in the universal silence, have no notion
of Friedrich's complexities from fact, and of the loud
howl of hostile rumour, which was piping through all
journals, diplomacies, and foreign human throats,
against him at that time.
"The essential passages of War and Peace," says a
certain Commentator, "during those Five weeks of Pirna,
"can be made intelligible in small compass. But how the
"world argued of them then and afterwards and rang with
"hot Gazetteer and Diplomatic logic from side to side, no
"reader will now ever know. A world-tornado extinct,
"gone: -- think of the sounds uttered from human windpipes,
"shrill with rage some of them, hoarse others with ditto; or "the vituperations, execrations, printed and vocal, -- grating
"harsh thunder upon Friedrich and this new course of his.
"Huge melody of Discords, shrieking, droning, grinding on
"that topic, through the afflicted Universe in general, for
"certain years. The very Pamphlets printed on it, -- cannot
"Dryasdust give me the number of tons weight, then? Dead
"now every Pamphlet of them; a thing fallen horrible to
"human nature; extinct forever, as is the wont in such
"cases.
"
I will give only this of Voltaire; a mild Epigram,
done at The Delices, in pleasant view of Ferney and
good things coming. A bolt shot into the storm-tost
Sea and its wreckages, by a Mariner now cheerily
drying his clothes on the shore there; -- in fact, an
indifferent Epigram, on Kings Friedrich and George,
which is now flying about in select circles:
20*
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? 308 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. [book XVII.
18th Oct. 1756.
"Rivaux tin Vainqueur de VEuphrate,
"L'Oncle el le Neveu,
"L'un fait la guerre en pirate,
"L'autre en parti bleu. "
"Rivals of Alexander the Great, this Uncle and Nephew
"make war, the one as a Pirate" (seizure of those French
ships), "the other" (Saxony stolen) "as Captain of an Ac-
cidental Thieving-Squad," -- parti bleu, as the French
soldiers call it. *
Pirna was no sooner done than Friedrich returned
to the "Camp of Lobositz," where his victorious Keith-
Army has been lying all this while. The Camp of
Lobositz, and all Camps Prussian and Austrian, are
about to strike their tents, and proceed to Winter-
quarters, to prepare against next Spring. Friedrich set
off thither, October 18th (the very day after that of
Waltersdorf); with intent to bring home Keith's Army,
and see if Browne meant anything farther (which
Browne did not, or does only in the small Tolpatcb
way); also to meet Schwerin, whom he had summoned
over from Silesia for a little conference there. Schwerin,
after eating Konigsgratz Country well, -- which was
all he could do, as Piccolomini would not come out,
and we know how strong the ground is, -- had retired
to Silesia again, in due season (snapping up, in a
sharply conclusive manner, any Tolpatcheries that at-
tempted chase of him); taken Winter cantonments in
Silesia, headquarter Schweidnitz; and is now getting
his Instructions, here personally, in the Metal-Mountains,
for a day or two. **
* Walpole's Letters, "To Sir Horace Mann, 8th December 1756. "
** Helden-Geschichle, m. 946, 948.
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? CHAP, vn. ] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OP PIKNA. 309
Uth Nov. 1756.
Friedrich brought his Keith-Army home to Gross-
Sedlitz, to join the other Force there; and distributed
the whole into their Winter-quarters. Cantoned far
and wide, spreading out from Pirna on both hands:
on the left or western hand, by Zwickau, Freyberg,
Chemnitz, up to Leipzig, Torgau; and on the right or
north-east hand, by Zittau, Gbrlitz, Bautzen, to protect
the Lausitz against Austrian inroads, -- while a re-
mote Detachment, under Winterfeld, watches theBober
River, with similar views. * All which done, or settled
to be done, Friedrich quits Gross-Sedlitz, November
14th; and takes up his abode at Dresden for this
Winter.
* In Helden-Ceschichte, m. 948 et seq. , a minute List by Place and
Regiment.
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? 810 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. "[book m.
Jan. --March 1757.
CHAPTER VIII.
WINTER IN DRESDEN.
The Saxon Army is incorporated, then; its King
gone under the horizon; the Saxon Country has a
Prussian Board set over it, to administer all things of
Government, especially to draw taxes and recruits from
Saxony. Torgau, seat of this new Board, has got forti-
fied; "1,500 inhabitants were requisitioned as spade-
"men for that end, at first with wages," -- latterly, I
almost fear, without! The Saxon Ministers are getting
drilled, cashiered if necessary; and on all hands,
rigorous methods going forward; -- till Saxony is com-
pletely under grasp; in which state it was held very
tight indeed, for the six years coming. There is no
detailing of all that; details, were they even known to
an Editor at such distance, would weary every reader.
Enough to understand that Friedrich has not on this
occasion, as he did in 1744, omitted to disarm Saxony,
to hobble it in every limb, and have it, at discretion,
tied as with ropes to his interests and him. * His
management was never accounted cruel; and it was
studiously the reverse of violent or irregular: but it
had to be rigorous as the facts were;-- nor was it the
worst, or reckoned the worst, of Saxony's miseries in
this time.
Poor Country, suffering for its Briihl! In theCoun-
* HeUenGeschichte, in. 946-956.
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? CHAP. vm. ] WINTER IN DRESDEN. 3ll
Jan. -- March 1757.
try, except for its Briilil, there was no sin against
Prussia; the reverse rather. The Saxon population, as
Protestants, have no goodwill to Austria and its aims
of aggrandisement. In Austrian spy-letters, now and
afterwards, they are described to us as "gut Preussisch;"
"strong for Prussia, the most of them, even in Dresden
itself. "
Whether Friedrich could have had much real hope
to end the War this Year, or scare it off from be-
ginning, may be a question. If he had, it is totally
disappointed. The Saxon Government has brought
ruin on itself and Country, but it has been of great
damage to Friedrich. Would Polish Majesty have
consented to disband his soldiers, and receive Friedrich with a bond-fide "Neutrality," Friedrich could have
passed the Mountains still in time for a heavy stroke
on Bohemia, which was totally unprepared for such a
visit. And he might, -- from the Towers of Prag, for
instance, -- have, far more persuasively, held out the
olive-branch to an astonished Empress-Queen: "Leave
me alone, Madam; will you, then! Security for that; I
wanted and want nothing more! " But Polish Majesty,
taking on him the character of Austrian martyr, and
flinging himself into the gulf, has prevented all that;
has turned all that the other way.
Austria, it appears, is quite ungrateful: "Wasn't
he bound? " thinks Austria, -- as its wont rather is.
Forgetful of the great deliverance wrought for it by
poor Polish Majesty; whom it could not deliver -- ex-
cept into bottomless wreck! Austria, grateful or not,
stands unscathed; has time to prepare its Armaments,
its vocal Arguments: Austria is in higher provocation
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? 312 SEVEN-YEAKS WAR BEGINS. [book XVII-
Jan. --March 1757.
than ever; and its very Arguments, highly vocal to
the Eeich and the world, "Is not this man a robber,
and enemy of mankind? " do Friedrich a great deal of
ill. Friedrich's sudden Campaign, instead of landing
him in the heart of the Austrian States, there to pro-
pose Peace, has kindled nearly all Europe into flames
of rage against him, -- which will not consist in words
merely! Never was misunderstanding of a man at a
higher pitch: "Such treatment of a peaceable Neigh-
bour and Crowned Head, -- witness it, ye Heavens
and thou Earth! " Dauphiness falling on her knees to
Most Christian Majesty; "Princess and dearest Sister"
to Most Christian Majesty's Pompadour; especially no
end of Pleading to the German Reich, in a furious,
Delphic-Pythoness or quasi-inspired tone: all this
goes on.
From the time when Pirna was blockaded, Kaiser
Franz, his high Consort and sense of duty urging him,
has been busy in the Reich's-Hofrath (kind of Privy-
Council or Supreme Court of the Reich, which sits at
Vienna); busy there, and in the Reich's Diet at Re-
gensburg; busy everywhere, with utmost diligence over
Teutschland; -- forging Reich thunder. Manifestos,
Hof-Decrets, Dehortatoriums, Excitatoriums; so goes it,
exploding like Vesuvius, shock on the back of shock:
-- 20th September it began; and lasts, crescendo,
through Winter and onwards, at an extraordinary rate. *
Of all which, leaving readers to imagine it, we will
say nothing, -- except that it points towards "Armed
Interference by the Reich," "Reich's Execution Army;"
nay towards "Ban of the Reich" (total excommunica-
* In Helden-Geschichte (rv. 163-174; in. 956; and Indeed passim through
those Volumes), the Originals in frightful superabundance.
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? CHAP. VUI. ] WINTER IN DRESDEN. 313
Jan. -- March 1757.
tion of this Enemy of Mankind, and giving of him up
to Satan, by bell, book and candle), which is a kind
of thunderbolt not heard of for a good few ages past!
Thunderbolt thought to be gone mainly to rust, by the
judicious; -- which, however, the poor old Reich did
grasp again, and attempt to launch. As perhaps we
shall have to notice by and by, among the miracles
going.
France too, urged by the noblest concern, feels it-
self called upon. France magnanimously intimates to
the Reich's Diet, once and again, "That Most Christian
Majesty is guarantee of the Treaty of Westphalia;
Most Christian Majesty cannot stand such procedures;"
and then the second time, "That Most Christian
Majesty will interfere practically," -- by 100,000 men
and odd. * In short, the sleeping world-whirlwinds are
awakened against this man. General Dance of the
Furies; there go they, in the dusky element, those
Eumenides, "giant-limbed, serpent-haired, slow-pacing,
circling, torch in hand" (according to Schiller), --
scattering terror and madness. At least, in the Diplo-
matic Circles of mankind; -- if haply the Populations
will follow suit! --
Friedrich, abundantly contemptuous of Reich's-
thunder in the rusted kind, and well able to distinguish
sound from substance in the Reich or elsewhere, re-
cognises in all this sufficiently portentous prophecies of
fact withal; and understands, none better, what a
perilous position he has got into. But he cannot mend
it; -- can only, as usual, do his own utmost in it. As
readers will believe he does; and that his vigilance and
diligence are very great. Continual, ubiquitous, and * Ifelden-Geschichte, iv. 340 ("26th March 1757").
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? 314 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. [book XVII.
Jan. -- March 1757.
at the top of his bent, one fancies his effort must have
been, ---. though he makes no noise on the subject.
Considerable work he has with Hanover, this Winter;
with the poor English Government, and their "Army
of Observation," which is to appear in the Hanover
parts, versus those 100,000 French, next Spring. To
Hanover he has sent Schmettau (the Younger Schmettau,
Elder is now dead) in regard to said Army; has made
a new and closer Treaty with England (impossible to
be fulfilled on poor England's part); -- and laments,
as Mitchell often does, the tragically embroiled condi-
tion of that Country, struggling so vehemently, to no
purpose, to get out of bed, and not unlike strangling
or smothering itself in its own blankets, at present!
"With and in regard to Saxony, his work is of course
extremely considerable; and in regard to his own
Army, and its coming Business, considerablest of all.
Counter-Manifesto work, to state his case in a distinct
manner, and leave it with the Populations if the Diplo-
macies are deaf: this too is copiously proceeding; under
Artists who probably do not require much supervision.
In fact, no King living has such servants, in the Civil
or the Military part, to execute his will. And no King
so little wastes himself in noises; a King who has good
command of himself, first of all; not to be thrown off
his balance, by any terror, any provocation even, though
his temper is very sharp.
Friedrich in person is mainly at Dresden, lodged
in the Brtihl Palace; -- endless wardrobes and magni-
ficences there; three hundred and sixty-four Pairs of
Breeches hanging melancholy, in a widowed manner:
Cest assez de culottes; montrez-moi des vertus! Bruhl is
far away, in Poland; Madam Briihl has still her Apart-
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? CHAP. vm. ] WINTER IN DRESDEN. 315
Jan. -- March 1757.
ments in this Palace, -- a frugal King needs only the
necessary spaces. Madam Briihl is very busy here;
and not to good purpose, being well seen into. "She
"had a cask of wine sent her from Warsaw" says
Friedrich; "orders were given to decant for her every
"drop of the wine, but to be sure and bring us the
"cask. " Cask was found to have two bottoms, inter-
mediate space filled with spy-correspondence. Madam
Briihl protests and pleads, Friedrich not unpolite in
reply; his last Letter to her says, "Madam, it is better
that you go and join your Husband. "
Another high Dame gets sausages from Bohemia;
-- some of Friedrich's light troops have an appetite,
beyond strict law, for sausages; break in, find Letters
along with the other stuffing* Friedrich has a good
deal of watching and coercing to do in that kind, --
some arresting, conveyance even to Ciistrin for a time,
though nothing crueller proved needful. To the poor
Queen he keeps up civilities, but is obliged to be strict
as Argus; -- she made him a Gift too, the Night of
Correggio, admired Notte of Correggio; having heard
that he sat before it silent for half an hour, on entering
that fine Gallery, -- which is due to our Sovereign
Lord and his Briihl, alas! On the other hand, Friedrich
had to take from her Majesty's Royal Abode those
Hundred Swiss of Bodyguard; to discharge the same,
and put Prussians in their stead. Nay, at one time, on
loud outcry from her Majesty, and great private cause
of complaint against her, there was talk of sending the
poor Royal Lady to Warsaw, after her Husband; but
her objection being violent, nothing came of that:
* (Euvres lie Frederic, iv. 108; Mitchell, "27th March 1757" (Raumer,
p. 321).
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? 316 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. [book XVII.
Jan. -- March 1757.
Winter following, her poor Majesty died,* and gave
nobody any farther trouble.
Friedrich's outposts, especially in the Lausitz, are
a good deal disturbed by Austrian Tolpatcheries; and
do feats, heroic in the small way, in smiting down that
rabble. A valuable Officer or two is lost in such poor
service, poor but indispensable;** and the troops have
not always the repose which is intended them.
Lieutenant-Colonel Loudon (Scotch by kindred, and
famous enough before long) is the soul of these Croat
enterprises, -- and gets his Colonelcy by them, in a
month or two; Browne recommending. Loudon had
arrived too late for Lobositz, but had been with Browne
to Schandau; and, on the march homewards, did a
bright feat of the Croat kind: -- surprisal, very com-
plete, of that Hill-Castle of Tetschen and considerable
Hussar Party there; done in a style which caught the
eye of Browne; and was the beginning of great things
to poor Loudon, after his twenty years of painful
eclipse under the Indigo Trencks, and miscellaneous
Doggeries, Austrian and Russian. ***
Tetschen, therefore, will again need capture by
the Prussians, if they again intend that way. And in
the mean while, Friedrich, to counterpoise those mis-
chievous Croat people, has bethought him of organising
a similar Force of his own; -- Foot chiefly, for, on
hint of former experience, he already has Hussars in
quantity. And, this Winter, there are accordingly, in
different Saxon Towns, three Irregular Regiments
* 27th November 1757.
"narrow dell, narrow chasm, with labyrinthic chasms branch-
"ing off from it; narrow and gloomy as seen from the River,
"but opening out even into cornfields as you advance in-
"wards: work of a small Brook, which is still industriously
"tinkling and gushing there, and has in Pre-Adamite times
"been alake, and we know not what. Nieder-Raden, this, on
"the north side of the River; of Ober-Raden, on the south
"side, there is nothing visible from your Inn windows," --nor
have we anything to do with it farther. An older Guide of
Tourists yields us this second Fraction (capable of conden-
sation):
"* * To Halbstadt, thence to Ebenheit, your path is
"steeper and steeper; from Ebenheit to the Lilienstein you
"take a guide. The Mountain is conical; coarse red sand-
"stone; steps cut for you where needed: August the Strong's
"Hunting-Lodge (JagdMtte) is here (August went thither in a
"grand way, 1708, with his Wife); Lodge still extant, by the
"side of a wood; -- Lilienstein towering huge and sheer,
"solitary, grand, like some colossal Pillar of the Cyclops,
"from this round Pediment of Country which you have been
"climbing; tops of Lilienstein plumed everywhere with fir
"and birch, Pediment also very green and woody. August
"the Strong, grandly visiting here, 1708, on finish of those
"stair-steps cut for you, set up an Ebenezer, or Column of
"Memorial at this Hunting Hut, with Inscription which can
"still be read, though now with difficulty in its time-worn
"state:
"'Friedericus Augustus, Rex'" (of what? Dare not say of
Poland just now, for fear of Charles XH. ), "' et Elector Sax. , ut
"'Fortunam virtute, ita asperam hanc Rupemprimus'" (primus
not of men, but of Saxon Electors) "'superamt, Aditumque fact-
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? CHAP. VII. ] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OP PIRNA. 301
14th Oct. 1766.
". lliorem reddi curavit. Anno 1708. ' -- "Ut Fortunam virtute, "As his fortune by valour, so he conquered this rugged rock
"by" -- Poor devil, only hear him; -- and think how good
Nature is (for the time being) to poor devils and their 354
bastards! *
Briihl and the Polish Majesty, safe enough they,
and snug in the Konigstein, are clear for advancing:
"Die like soldiers, for your King and Country! " writes
Polish Majesty, "Thursday, two in the morning:" that
also Rutowski reads; and I think still other Royal
Autographs, sent as Postscripts to that. From the
Konigstein they duly fire off the two Cannon-shot, as
signal that we are coming; signal which Browne, just
in the act of departing, never heard, owing to the
piping of the winds and rattling of the rain. "Advance,
my heroes! " counsel they: "You cannot drag your
ammunitions, say you; your poor couple of big guns?
Here are his Majesty's own royal horses for that
service! " -- and, in effect, the royal stud is heroically
flung open in this pressure; and a splashing column of
sleek quadrupeds, "150 royal draught-horses, early in
the forenoon,"** swim across to Ebenheit accordingly,
if that could encourage. And "about noon, there is
strong cannonading from the Konigstein, as signal to
Browne," who is off. Polish Majesty looking with his
* M. (agister) Wilhelm Lebrecht Gotzinger, Schandau und seine Vmge-
hungen, oder Beschreihung der Sachsischen Schmeilz (Dresden, 1812) pp. 145-
148. Gotzinger, who designates himself as "Pastor at Neustadt near
Stolpen" (north-west border of the Pima Country), has made of this
(which would now be called a Tourist's Guide, and has something geologi-
cal in it) a modest, good little Book, put together with industry, clearness,
brevity. Gives interesting Narrative of our present Business, too, as
gathered from his "Father" and other good sources and testimonies.
? * GetBinger, p. 156.
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? 302 , SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. [book xvir.
15th-17th Oct. 1766.
spy-glass in an astonishing manner. In vain! Rutowski
and his Council of War, -- sitting wet in a hut of
Ehenheit, with 14,000 starved men outside, who have
stood seventy-two hours of rain, for one item, -- see
nothing for it but "surrender on such terms as we
can get. "
"In fact," independently of weather and circum-
"stances, the Enterprise," says Friedrich, "was radically
"impossible; nobody that had known the ground could
"have judged it other. " Rutowski had not known it,
then? Browne never pretended to know it. Rutowski
was not candid with the conditions; the conditions never
known nor candidly looked at; and they are now re-
plying to him with candour enough. From the first his
Enterprise was a final flicker of false hope; going out,
as here, by spasm, in the rigours of impossibility and
flat despair.
That column of royal horses sent splashing across
the River, -- that was the utmost of self-sacrifice which
I find recorded of his Polish Majesty in this matter.
He was very obstinate; his Briihl and he were. But
his conduct was not very heroic. That royal Autograph,
"General Rutowski, and ye true Saxons, attack these
Prussian lines, then; sell your lives like men" (not
like Briihl and me), must have fallen cold on the heart,
after seventy-two hours of rain! Rutowski's wet Council
of War, in the hut at Ebenheit, rain still pouring,
answers unanimously, "That it were a leading of men
to the butchery;" that there is nothing for it but sur-
render. Briihl and Majesty can only answer: "Well-
a-day; it must be so, then! " -- Winterfeld, Prussian
Commander hereabouts, grants Armistice, grants liberal
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? CHAP. VII. J HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA. 303
15th-17th Oct. 1756.
"wagon-loads of bread" first of all; terms of Capitulation
to be settled at Struppen tomorrow.
Friday, October 15<<A, Eutowski goes across to
Struppen, the late Saxon head-quarter, nowFriedrich's;
-- Friday gone a fortnight was the Day of Lobositz.
Winterfeld and he are the negotiators there; Friedrich
ratifying or refusing by marginal remarks. The terms
granted are hard enough: but they must be accepted. First
preliminary of all terms has already been accepted: a
gift of bread to these poor Saxons; their haversacks
are empty, their cartridge-boxes drowned; it has rained
on them three days and nights. Last upshot of all terms
is still well known to everybody: That the 14,000
Saxons are compelled to become Prussian, and "forced
to volunteer"!
That had been Friedrich's determination, and
reading of his rights in the matter, now that hard had
come to hard. "You refused all terms; you have
resisted to death (or death's-Aw); and are now at
discretion! " Of the question, What is to be done with
those Saxons? Friedrich had thought a great deal,
first and last; and had found it very intricate, -- as
readers too will, if they think of it. "Prisoners of
War, -- to keep them locked up, with trouble and
expense, in that fashion? They can never be exchanged:
Saxony has now nothing to exchange them with; and
Austria will not. Their obstinacy has had costs to me;
who of us can count what costs! In short, they shall
volunteer! "
"Never did I, for my poor part, authorise such a
thing," loudly asseverated Eutowski afterwards. And
indeed the Capitulation is not precise on that interesting
point. A lengthy Document, and not worth the least
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? 304 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. [book XVII.
15th-17tli Oct. 1756.
perusal otherwise; we condense it into three articles,
all grounding on this general Basis, not deniable by
Rutowski: "The Saxon Army, being at such a pass,
ready to die of hunger, if we did not lift our finger,
has, so to speak, become our property; and we grant
it the following terms:"
"1? . Kettledrums, standards, and the like insignia, and
"matters of honour, -- carry these to the Konigstein, with my
"regretful respects to his Polish Majesty. Konigstein to be a
"neutral Fortress during this War. Polish Majesty at perfect
"liberty to go to Warsaw" (as he on the instant now did, and
never returned).
"2? . Officers to depart on giving their parole, Not to serve
''against us during this War" (Parole given, nothing like too
well kept).
"3? . Rest of the Army, with all its equipments, munitions,
"soul and body (so to speak), is to surrender utterly, and be
"ours, as all Saxony shall for the present be. " *
That is, in sum, the Capitulation of Struppen.
Nothing articulate in it about the one now interesting
point, -- and in regard to that, I can only fancy
Eutowski might interject, interrogatively, perhaps at
some length: "Our soldiers to be Prisoners of War,
then? " "Prisoners; yes, clearly, -- unless they choose
to volunteer, and have a better fate! Prisoners can
volunteer. They are at discretion; they would die, if
we did not lift our finger! " thus I suppose Winterfeld
would rejoin, if necessary; -- and that, in the Winter-
feld-Rutowski Conferences, the thing had probably been
kept in a kind of chiaroscuro by both parties.
* In Hclden-Geschichte, jn. 980-928, at fall length, --with Friedrich's marginalia noticeably brief.
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? OTAP. VII. ] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA. 305
17th Oct. 1756.
Very certain it is, Sunday, 17th October 1756,
Capitulation being signed the night before, Friedrich
goes across at Nieder-Eaden (where the Pilgrim of the
Picturesque now climbs to see the Bastei; where the
Prussians have, by this time, a Bridge thrown together
out of those Pontoons), -- goes across at Nieder-Eaden,
up that chasmy Pass; rides to the Heights of Walters-
dorf, in the opener country behind; and pauses there,
while the captive Saxon Army defiles past him, laying
down its arms at his feet. Unarmed, and now under
Prussian word of command, these Ex-Saxon soldiers go
on defiling; march through by that Chasm of Nieder-
Eaden; cross to Ober-Eaden; and, in the plainer
country thereabouts, are, -- in I know not what length
of hours, but in an incredibly short length, so swift
is the management, -- changed wholly into Prus-
sian soldiers: "obliged to volunteer," every one of
them!
That is the fact; fact loudly censured; fact surely
questionable, -- to what intrinsic degree, I at this mo-
ment do not know. Fact much blamable before the
loose public of mankind; upon which I leave men to
their verdict. It is not a fact which invites imitation,
as we shall see! Fact how accomplished; by what
methods? that would be the question with me; but
even that is left dark. "The horse regiments, three of
"heavy horse, he broke; and distributed about, a good
"few in his own Garde-du-Corps. " Three other horse
regiments were in Poland, the sole Saxon Army now
left, -- of whom, at least of one man among whom,
we may happen to hear. "Ten foot regiments" (what
was reckoned a fault) "he left together; in Prussian
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. IX. 20
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? 306 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. [book XVII.
17th Oct. 1756.
"uniform, with Prussian Officers. They were scattered
"up and down; put in garrisons; not easy handling
"them: they deserted by whole companies at a time
"in the course of this War. "* Not a measure for
imitation, as we said! --How Friedrich defended such
hard conduct to the Saxons? Reader, I know only that
Destiny and Necessity, urged on by Saxons and others,
was hard as adamant upon Friedrich at this time; and
that Friedrich did not the least dream of making any
defence; -- and will have to take your verdict, such
as it may be.
Moritz of Dessau had a terrible Winter of it,
organising and breaking-in these Saxon people, -- got
by press-gang in this way. Polish Majesty, "with 500
of suite," had driven instantly for Warsaw; post-horses
most politely furnished him, and all the Prussian posts
and soldieries well kept out of his road, -- road chosen
for him to that end. Poor soul, he never came back.
For six years coming, he saw, from Warsaw in the
distance (amid anarchy and nie-poz-walam, which he
never lacked there), the wide War raging, in Saxony
especially; and died soon after it was done. Nor did
Briihl return, except broken by that event, and to die
in few months after. Let us pity the poor fat-goose of
a Majesty (not ill-natured at all, only stupid and idle):
some pity even to the doomed-phantasm Briihl, if you
can; -- and thank Heaven to have got done with such
a pair! --
Friedrich's treatment of the Saxon Troops, Saxon
Majesty and Country: who shall say that it was wise
* Preuss, u. 22,135; in Stenzel (v. 16-20) more precise details.
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? CHAP. VII. ] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA. 307
17th Oct. 1756.
in all points? It would be singular treatment, if it
were! In all things, After is so different from Before
and During. The truth is, Friedrich hoped long to
have made some agreement with the Saxons. And
readers now, in the universal silence, have no notion
of Friedrich's complexities from fact, and of the loud
howl of hostile rumour, which was piping through all
journals, diplomacies, and foreign human throats,
against him at that time.
"The essential passages of War and Peace," says a
certain Commentator, "during those Five weeks of Pirna,
"can be made intelligible in small compass. But how the
"world argued of them then and afterwards and rang with
"hot Gazetteer and Diplomatic logic from side to side, no
"reader will now ever know. A world-tornado extinct,
"gone: -- think of the sounds uttered from human windpipes,
"shrill with rage some of them, hoarse others with ditto; or "the vituperations, execrations, printed and vocal, -- grating
"harsh thunder upon Friedrich and this new course of his.
"Huge melody of Discords, shrieking, droning, grinding on
"that topic, through the afflicted Universe in general, for
"certain years. The very Pamphlets printed on it, -- cannot
"Dryasdust give me the number of tons weight, then? Dead
"now every Pamphlet of them; a thing fallen horrible to
"human nature; extinct forever, as is the wont in such
"cases.
"
I will give only this of Voltaire; a mild Epigram,
done at The Delices, in pleasant view of Ferney and
good things coming. A bolt shot into the storm-tost
Sea and its wreckages, by a Mariner now cheerily
drying his clothes on the shore there; -- in fact, an
indifferent Epigram, on Kings Friedrich and George,
which is now flying about in select circles:
20*
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? 308 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. [book XVII.
18th Oct. 1756.
"Rivaux tin Vainqueur de VEuphrate,
"L'Oncle el le Neveu,
"L'un fait la guerre en pirate,
"L'autre en parti bleu. "
"Rivals of Alexander the Great, this Uncle and Nephew
"make war, the one as a Pirate" (seizure of those French
ships), "the other" (Saxony stolen) "as Captain of an Ac-
cidental Thieving-Squad," -- parti bleu, as the French
soldiers call it. *
Pirna was no sooner done than Friedrich returned
to the "Camp of Lobositz," where his victorious Keith-
Army has been lying all this while. The Camp of
Lobositz, and all Camps Prussian and Austrian, are
about to strike their tents, and proceed to Winter-
quarters, to prepare against next Spring. Friedrich set
off thither, October 18th (the very day after that of
Waltersdorf); with intent to bring home Keith's Army,
and see if Browne meant anything farther (which
Browne did not, or does only in the small Tolpatcb
way); also to meet Schwerin, whom he had summoned
over from Silesia for a little conference there. Schwerin,
after eating Konigsgratz Country well, -- which was
all he could do, as Piccolomini would not come out,
and we know how strong the ground is, -- had retired
to Silesia again, in due season (snapping up, in a
sharply conclusive manner, any Tolpatcheries that at-
tempted chase of him); taken Winter cantonments in
Silesia, headquarter Schweidnitz; and is now getting
his Instructions, here personally, in the Metal-Mountains,
for a day or two. **
* Walpole's Letters, "To Sir Horace Mann, 8th December 1756. "
** Helden-Geschichle, m. 946, 948.
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? CHAP, vn. ] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OP PIKNA. 309
Uth Nov. 1756.
Friedrich brought his Keith-Army home to Gross-
Sedlitz, to join the other Force there; and distributed
the whole into their Winter-quarters. Cantoned far
and wide, spreading out from Pirna on both hands:
on the left or western hand, by Zwickau, Freyberg,
Chemnitz, up to Leipzig, Torgau; and on the right or
north-east hand, by Zittau, Gbrlitz, Bautzen, to protect
the Lausitz against Austrian inroads, -- while a re-
mote Detachment, under Winterfeld, watches theBober
River, with similar views. * All which done, or settled
to be done, Friedrich quits Gross-Sedlitz, November
14th; and takes up his abode at Dresden for this
Winter.
* In Helden-Ceschichte, m. 948 et seq. , a minute List by Place and
Regiment.
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? 810 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. "[book m.
Jan. --March 1757.
CHAPTER VIII.
WINTER IN DRESDEN.
The Saxon Army is incorporated, then; its King
gone under the horizon; the Saxon Country has a
Prussian Board set over it, to administer all things of
Government, especially to draw taxes and recruits from
Saxony. Torgau, seat of this new Board, has got forti-
fied; "1,500 inhabitants were requisitioned as spade-
"men for that end, at first with wages," -- latterly, I
almost fear, without! The Saxon Ministers are getting
drilled, cashiered if necessary; and on all hands,
rigorous methods going forward; -- till Saxony is com-
pletely under grasp; in which state it was held very
tight indeed, for the six years coming. There is no
detailing of all that; details, were they even known to
an Editor at such distance, would weary every reader.
Enough to understand that Friedrich has not on this
occasion, as he did in 1744, omitted to disarm Saxony,
to hobble it in every limb, and have it, at discretion,
tied as with ropes to his interests and him. * His
management was never accounted cruel; and it was
studiously the reverse of violent or irregular: but it
had to be rigorous as the facts were;-- nor was it the
worst, or reckoned the worst, of Saxony's miseries in
this time.
Poor Country, suffering for its Briihl! In theCoun-
* HeUenGeschichte, in. 946-956.
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? CHAP. vm. ] WINTER IN DRESDEN. 3ll
Jan. -- March 1757.
try, except for its Briilil, there was no sin against
Prussia; the reverse rather. The Saxon population, as
Protestants, have no goodwill to Austria and its aims
of aggrandisement. In Austrian spy-letters, now and
afterwards, they are described to us as "gut Preussisch;"
"strong for Prussia, the most of them, even in Dresden
itself. "
Whether Friedrich could have had much real hope
to end the War this Year, or scare it off from be-
ginning, may be a question. If he had, it is totally
disappointed. The Saxon Government has brought
ruin on itself and Country, but it has been of great
damage to Friedrich. Would Polish Majesty have
consented to disband his soldiers, and receive Friedrich with a bond-fide "Neutrality," Friedrich could have
passed the Mountains still in time for a heavy stroke
on Bohemia, which was totally unprepared for such a
visit. And he might, -- from the Towers of Prag, for
instance, -- have, far more persuasively, held out the
olive-branch to an astonished Empress-Queen: "Leave
me alone, Madam; will you, then! Security for that; I
wanted and want nothing more! " But Polish Majesty,
taking on him the character of Austrian martyr, and
flinging himself into the gulf, has prevented all that;
has turned all that the other way.
Austria, it appears, is quite ungrateful: "Wasn't
he bound? " thinks Austria, -- as its wont rather is.
Forgetful of the great deliverance wrought for it by
poor Polish Majesty; whom it could not deliver -- ex-
cept into bottomless wreck! Austria, grateful or not,
stands unscathed; has time to prepare its Armaments,
its vocal Arguments: Austria is in higher provocation
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? 312 SEVEN-YEAKS WAR BEGINS. [book XVII-
Jan. --March 1757.
than ever; and its very Arguments, highly vocal to
the Eeich and the world, "Is not this man a robber,
and enemy of mankind? " do Friedrich a great deal of
ill. Friedrich's sudden Campaign, instead of landing
him in the heart of the Austrian States, there to pro-
pose Peace, has kindled nearly all Europe into flames
of rage against him, -- which will not consist in words
merely! Never was misunderstanding of a man at a
higher pitch: "Such treatment of a peaceable Neigh-
bour and Crowned Head, -- witness it, ye Heavens
and thou Earth! " Dauphiness falling on her knees to
Most Christian Majesty; "Princess and dearest Sister"
to Most Christian Majesty's Pompadour; especially no
end of Pleading to the German Reich, in a furious,
Delphic-Pythoness or quasi-inspired tone: all this
goes on.
From the time when Pirna was blockaded, Kaiser
Franz, his high Consort and sense of duty urging him,
has been busy in the Reich's-Hofrath (kind of Privy-
Council or Supreme Court of the Reich, which sits at
Vienna); busy there, and in the Reich's Diet at Re-
gensburg; busy everywhere, with utmost diligence over
Teutschland; -- forging Reich thunder. Manifestos,
Hof-Decrets, Dehortatoriums, Excitatoriums; so goes it,
exploding like Vesuvius, shock on the back of shock:
-- 20th September it began; and lasts, crescendo,
through Winter and onwards, at an extraordinary rate. *
Of all which, leaving readers to imagine it, we will
say nothing, -- except that it points towards "Armed
Interference by the Reich," "Reich's Execution Army;"
nay towards "Ban of the Reich" (total excommunica-
* In Helden-Geschichte (rv. 163-174; in. 956; and Indeed passim through
those Volumes), the Originals in frightful superabundance.
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? CHAP. VUI. ] WINTER IN DRESDEN. 313
Jan. -- March 1757.
tion of this Enemy of Mankind, and giving of him up
to Satan, by bell, book and candle), which is a kind
of thunderbolt not heard of for a good few ages past!
Thunderbolt thought to be gone mainly to rust, by the
judicious; -- which, however, the poor old Reich did
grasp again, and attempt to launch. As perhaps we
shall have to notice by and by, among the miracles
going.
France too, urged by the noblest concern, feels it-
self called upon. France magnanimously intimates to
the Reich's Diet, once and again, "That Most Christian
Majesty is guarantee of the Treaty of Westphalia;
Most Christian Majesty cannot stand such procedures;"
and then the second time, "That Most Christian
Majesty will interfere practically," -- by 100,000 men
and odd. * In short, the sleeping world-whirlwinds are
awakened against this man. General Dance of the
Furies; there go they, in the dusky element, those
Eumenides, "giant-limbed, serpent-haired, slow-pacing,
circling, torch in hand" (according to Schiller), --
scattering terror and madness. At least, in the Diplo-
matic Circles of mankind; -- if haply the Populations
will follow suit! --
Friedrich, abundantly contemptuous of Reich's-
thunder in the rusted kind, and well able to distinguish
sound from substance in the Reich or elsewhere, re-
cognises in all this sufficiently portentous prophecies of
fact withal; and understands, none better, what a
perilous position he has got into. But he cannot mend
it; -- can only, as usual, do his own utmost in it. As
readers will believe he does; and that his vigilance and
diligence are very great. Continual, ubiquitous, and * Ifelden-Geschichte, iv. 340 ("26th March 1757").
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? 314 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. [book XVII.
Jan. -- March 1757.
at the top of his bent, one fancies his effort must have
been, ---. though he makes no noise on the subject.
Considerable work he has with Hanover, this Winter;
with the poor English Government, and their "Army
of Observation," which is to appear in the Hanover
parts, versus those 100,000 French, next Spring. To
Hanover he has sent Schmettau (the Younger Schmettau,
Elder is now dead) in regard to said Army; has made
a new and closer Treaty with England (impossible to
be fulfilled on poor England's part); -- and laments,
as Mitchell often does, the tragically embroiled condi-
tion of that Country, struggling so vehemently, to no
purpose, to get out of bed, and not unlike strangling
or smothering itself in its own blankets, at present!
"With and in regard to Saxony, his work is of course
extremely considerable; and in regard to his own
Army, and its coming Business, considerablest of all.
Counter-Manifesto work, to state his case in a distinct
manner, and leave it with the Populations if the Diplo-
macies are deaf: this too is copiously proceeding; under
Artists who probably do not require much supervision.
In fact, no King living has such servants, in the Civil
or the Military part, to execute his will. And no King
so little wastes himself in noises; a King who has good
command of himself, first of all; not to be thrown off
his balance, by any terror, any provocation even, though
his temper is very sharp.
Friedrich in person is mainly at Dresden, lodged
in the Brtihl Palace; -- endless wardrobes and magni-
ficences there; three hundred and sixty-four Pairs of
Breeches hanging melancholy, in a widowed manner:
Cest assez de culottes; montrez-moi des vertus! Bruhl is
far away, in Poland; Madam Briihl has still her Apart-
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? CHAP. vm. ] WINTER IN DRESDEN. 315
Jan. -- March 1757.
ments in this Palace, -- a frugal King needs only the
necessary spaces. Madam Briihl is very busy here;
and not to good purpose, being well seen into. "She
"had a cask of wine sent her from Warsaw" says
Friedrich; "orders were given to decant for her every
"drop of the wine, but to be sure and bring us the
"cask. " Cask was found to have two bottoms, inter-
mediate space filled with spy-correspondence. Madam
Briihl protests and pleads, Friedrich not unpolite in
reply; his last Letter to her says, "Madam, it is better
that you go and join your Husband. "
Another high Dame gets sausages from Bohemia;
-- some of Friedrich's light troops have an appetite,
beyond strict law, for sausages; break in, find Letters
along with the other stuffing* Friedrich has a good
deal of watching and coercing to do in that kind, --
some arresting, conveyance even to Ciistrin for a time,
though nothing crueller proved needful. To the poor
Queen he keeps up civilities, but is obliged to be strict
as Argus; -- she made him a Gift too, the Night of
Correggio, admired Notte of Correggio; having heard
that he sat before it silent for half an hour, on entering
that fine Gallery, -- which is due to our Sovereign
Lord and his Briihl, alas! On the other hand, Friedrich
had to take from her Majesty's Royal Abode those
Hundred Swiss of Bodyguard; to discharge the same,
and put Prussians in their stead. Nay, at one time, on
loud outcry from her Majesty, and great private cause
of complaint against her, there was talk of sending the
poor Royal Lady to Warsaw, after her Husband; but
her objection being violent, nothing came of that:
* (Euvres lie Frederic, iv. 108; Mitchell, "27th March 1757" (Raumer,
p. 321).
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? 316 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS. [book XVII.
Jan. -- March 1757.
Winter following, her poor Majesty died,* and gave
nobody any farther trouble.
Friedrich's outposts, especially in the Lausitz, are
a good deal disturbed by Austrian Tolpatcheries; and
do feats, heroic in the small way, in smiting down that
rabble. A valuable Officer or two is lost in such poor
service, poor but indispensable;** and the troops have
not always the repose which is intended them.
Lieutenant-Colonel Loudon (Scotch by kindred, and
famous enough before long) is the soul of these Croat
enterprises, -- and gets his Colonelcy by them, in a
month or two; Browne recommending. Loudon had
arrived too late for Lobositz, but had been with Browne
to Schandau; and, on the march homewards, did a
bright feat of the Croat kind: -- surprisal, very com-
plete, of that Hill-Castle of Tetschen and considerable
Hussar Party there; done in a style which caught the
eye of Browne; and was the beginning of great things
to poor Loudon, after his twenty years of painful
eclipse under the Indigo Trencks, and miscellaneous
Doggeries, Austrian and Russian. ***
Tetschen, therefore, will again need capture by
the Prussians, if they again intend that way. And in
the mean while, Friedrich, to counterpoise those mis-
chievous Croat people, has bethought him of organising
a similar Force of his own; -- Foot chiefly, for, on
hint of former experience, he already has Hussars in
quantity. And, this Winter, there are accordingly, in
different Saxon Towns, three Irregular Regiments
* 27th November 1757.
