Miraculous
Anecdotes,
"true and not true, are many.
"true and not true, are many.
Thomas Carlyle
In column, the cannon-shot from
* (Euvres, xxvm. 150 (Siecle de Louis Qitinzc, c. xv. "Bataillg de Fonte-
noi," -- elaborately exact on all such points).
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? CHAP, vm. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY. 127
11th May 1745.
"Fontenoy on the left, and Redoubt d'Euon our right, will
"tell less on us; and between these two death-dealing locali-
"ties, by the hollowest, least shelterless way discoverable,
"we mean to penetrate: 'Forward, my men, steady and swift,
"'till we are through the shot-range, and find men to grapple
"'with, instead of case-shot and projectile iron! ' Marechal
"de Saxe owned afterwards, 'He should have put an ad-
"'ditional redoubt in that place, but he did not think any
"'Army would try such a thing' (cannon batteries playing on
"each hand at 400 yards distance); -- nor has any Army
"since or before!
"These columns advance, however; through bushy hollows,
"water-courses, through what defiles or hollowest grounds
"there are; endure the cannon-shot, while they must; trailing
"their own heavy-guns by hand, and occasionally blasting
"out of them where the ground favours; -- and do, with in-
dignant patience, wind themselves through, pretty much
"beyond direct shot-range of either d'Eu or Fontenoy. And
"have actually got into the interior mystery of the French
"Line of Battle, -- which is not a little astonished to see them
"there! It is over a kind of blunt ridge, or rising ground,
"that they are coming: on the crown of this rising ground,
"the French regiment fronting it (Gardes Francoises as it
"chanced to be) notices, with surprise, field-cannon pointed
"the wrong way; actual British artillery unaccountably
"showing itself there. Regiment of Gardes rushes up to seize
"said fieldpieces: but, on the summit, perceives with amaze-
"ment that it cannot; that a heavy volley of musketry blazes
"into it (killing sixty men); that it will have to rush back
"again, and report progress: Huge British force, of unknown
"extent, is readjusting itself into column there, and will be
"upon us on the instant. Here is news!
"News true enough. The head of the English column
"comes to sight, over the rising ground, close by: their offi-
"cersdoff their hats, politely saluting ours, who return the
"civility: was ever such politeness seen before? It is a fact;
"and among the memorablest of this Battle. Nay a certain
"English Officer of mark, -- Lord Charles Hay the name of
"him, valued surely in the annals of the Hay and Tweeddale
"House, -- steps forward from the ranks, as if wishing some-
"thing. Towards whom" (says the accurate Espagnac)
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? 128 SECOKD SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"Marquis d'Auteroche, grenadier-lieutenant, with air of polite
"interrogation, not knowing what he meant, made a step or
"two: 'Monsieur,' said Lord Charles (Lord Charles-hay),
"' bid your people fire (faites tirer vos gens )V 'Non, Monsieur,
"'nous ne tirons jamais les premiers (We never fire first). '*
"After you, Sirs! Is not this a bit of modern chivalry? A
"supreme politeness in that sniffing pococurante kind; pro-
bably the highest point (or lowest) it ever went to. Which I
"have often thought of. "
It is almost pity to disturb an elegant Historical Passage
of this kind, circulating round the world, in some glory, for
a century past: but there has a small irrefragable Document
come to me, which modifies it a good deal, and reduces
matters to the business form. Lord Charles Hay, "Lieutenant-
Colonel," practical Head, "of the First Regiment of Foot-
guards," wrote, about three weeks after (or dictated in sad
spelling, not himself able to write for wounds), a Letter to
his Brother, of which here is an Excerpt at first hand, with
only the spelling altered: * * "It was our Regiment that
"attacked the French Guards: and when we came within
"twenty or thirty paces of them, I advanced before our Regi-
"ment; drank to them" (to the French, from the pocket-
pistol one carries on such occasions), "and told them that
"we were the English Guards, and hoped that they would
"stand till we came quite up to them, and not swim the
"Scheld as they did the Mayn at Dettingen" (shameful
third-bridge, not of wood, though carpeted with blue cloth
there)! "Upon which I immediately turned about to our
"ownRegiment; speeched them, and made them huzzah,"
-- I hope with a will. "An Officer" (d'Auteroche) "came out
"of the ranks, and tried to make his men huzzah; however,
* Espagnac, n. 60 (of the Original, Toulouse, 1789); n. 48 of the Ger-
man Translation (Leipzig, 1774), our usual reference. Voltaire, endlessly
informed upon details this time, is equally express: "Milord Charles Hay,
"capitaine aux gardes anglaises, cria: 'Messieurs des gardes francaises,
"tireiP To which Count d'Auteroche with a loud voice answered" &c.
((Euvres, vol. xxvm. p. 1551. See also Souvenirs du Marquis de Valfons
(edited by a Grand-Nephew, Paris, 1860), p. 151; -- a poor, considerably
noisy and unclean little Book; which proves unexpectedly worth looking
at, in regard to some of those poor Battles and personages and occurrences:
the Bohemian Belleisle-Broglio part, to my regret, if to no other person's,
has been omitted, as extinct, or undecipherable by the Grand-Nephew.
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? CBAP. m] BATTLE OP FONTENOY. 129
11th May 1745.
"there were not above three or four in their Brigade that
did. "f * *
Very poor counter-huzzah. And not the least whisper of
that sublime "After you, Sirs! " but rather, in confused
form, of quite the reverse; Hay having been himself fired
into ("fire had begun on my left;" Hay totally ignorant on
which side first), -- fired into, rather feebly, and wounded
by those dAuteroche people, while he was still advancing
with shouldered arms; -- upon which, and not till which, he
did give it them: in liberal dose; and quite blew them off
the ground, for that day. From all which, one has to infer,
That the mutual salutation by hat was probably a fact; that,
for certain, there was some slight preliminary talk and
gesticulation, but in the Homeric style, by no means in the
Espagnac-French, -- not chivalrous epigram at all, mere
rough banter, and what is called "chaffing;"-- and in short,
that the French Mess-rooms (with their eloquent talent that
way) had rounded off the thing into the current epigrammatic
redaction; the authentic business-form of it being ruggedly
what is now given. Let our Manuscript proceed.
"D'Auteroche declining the first fire," -- or accepting it,
if ever offered, nobody can say, -- "the three Guards Regi-
"ments, Lord Charles's on the right, give it him hot and
"heavy, 'tremendous rolling fire;' so that D'Auteroche,
"responding more or less, cannot stand it; but has at once
"to rustle into discontinuity, he and his, and roll rapidly
"out of the way. And the British Column advances, steadily,
"terribly, hurling back all opposition from it; deeper and
"deeper into the interior mysteries of the French Host;
"blasting its way with gunpowder; -- in a magnificent
"manner. A compact Column, slowly advancing, -- ap-
parently of some 16,000 foot. Pauses, readjusts itself a
"little, when not meddled with; when meddled with, has
"cannon, has rolling fire, ? --delivers from it, in fact, on both
"hands such a torrent of deadly continuous fire as was rarely
"seen before or since. 'Feu infernal,' the French call it.
"The French make vehement resistance. Battalions,
"squadrons, regiment after regiment, charge madly on this
t "Ath, May ye 20th, o. a. " (to John, Fourth Marquis of Tweeddale,
last 'Secretary of State for Scotland,' and a man of figure. in his day);
Letter is at Yester House, East Lothian; Excerpt penes me.
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. VIU. 9
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? 130 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"terrible Column; but rush only on destruction thereby.
"Regiment This storms in from the right, regiment That
"from the left; have their colonels shot, 'lose the half of
"' their people;' and hastily draw back again, in a wrecked
"condition. The cavalry-horses cannot stand such smoke
"and blazing; nor indeed, I think, can the cavaliers. Regi-
"ment du Roi rushing on, full gallop, to charge this Column,
"got one volley from it" (says Espagnac) "which brought to
"the ground 460 men. Natural enough that horses take the
"bit between their teeth; likewise that men take it, and
"career very madly in such circumstances!
"The terrible Column with slow inflexibility advances;
"cannon (now in reversed position) from that Redoubt d'Eu
"('Shame on you, Ingoldsby! ') and irregular musketry from
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? CHAP. VIII. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY. . 131
11th May 1745.
"Fontenoy side, playing upon it; defeated regiments making
"barriers of their dead men and firing there; Column always
"closing its gapped ranks, and girdled with insupportable
"fire. It ought to have taken Fontenoy and Redoubt d'Eu,
"say military men; it ought to have done several things! It
"has now cut the French fairly in two; -- and Saxe, who is
"earnestly surveying it a hundred paces a-head, sends word,
"conjuring the King to retire instantly, -- across the Scheld,
"by Calonne Bridge and the strong rear-guard there, -- who,
"however, will not. King and Dauphin, on horseback both,
"have stood 'at the Justice (Gallows, in fact) of our Lady of
"'the Woods,' not stirring much, occasionally shifting to a
"windmill higher, -- ye Heaven, with what intrepidity, all
"day! -- 'a good many country-folk in trees close behind
"'them. ' Country-folk, I suppose, have by this time seen
"enough, and are copiously making off: but the King will not,
"though things do look dubious.
"In fact, the Battle hangs now upon a hair; the Battle is
"as good as lost, thinks Marechal the Saxe. His battle-lines
"torn in two in that manner, hovering in ragged clouds over
"the field, what hope is there in the Battle? Fontenoy is firing
"blank, this some time; its cannon-balls done. Officers, in An-
"toine, are about withdrawing the artillery, -- then again (on
"new order) replacing it a while. All are looking towards the
"Scheld Bridge; earnestly entreating his Majesty to with-
"draw. Had the Dutch, at this point of time, broken heartily
"in, as Waldeck was urging them to do, upon the redoubts
"of Antoine; or had His Royal Highness the Duke, for his
"own behoof, possessed due cavalry or artillery to act upon
"these ragged clouds, which hang broken there, very fit for
"being swept, were there an artillery-and-horse besom to do
"it,-- in either of these cases, the Battle was the Duke's.
"And a right fiery victory it would have been; to make his
"name famous; and confirm the English in their mad method
"of figthing, like Baresarks or Janizaries rather than stra-
tegic human creatures. *
"But neither of these contingencies had befallen. The
* See, in BUschings Magazin, xvi. 169 ("Your illustrious 'Column/ at
Fontenoy? It was fortuitous, I say; done like janizariesand so forth), a Criticism worth reading by soldiers.
9*
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? 132 SECOND SILESIAN WAS. [bookXV.
11th May 1745.
"Dutch-Austrian wing did evince some wish to get possession
"of Antoine; and drew out a little; but the guns also awoke
"upon them; whereupon the Dutch-Austrians drew in again,
"thinking the time not come. As for the Duke, he had taken
"with him of cannon a good few; but of horse none at all (im-
"possible for horse, unless Fontenoy and the Redoubt d'Eu
"were ours! ) -- and his horse have been hanging about, in the
"Wood of Barry all this while, uncertain what to do; their
"old Commander being killed withal, and their new a dubi-
"tative person, and no orders left. The Duke had left no
"orders; having indeed broken in here, in what we called a
"spiritual white-heat, without asking himself much what he
"would do when in: 'Beat the French, knock them to
"'powder, if I can! ' -- Meanwhile the French clouds are re-
assembling a little: Royal Highness too is readjusting him-
"self, now got '300 yards ahead of Fontenoy,' -- pauses
"there about half an hour, not seeing his way farther.
"During which pause, Due de Richelieu, famous black-
"guard man, gallops up to the Mare'chal, gallops rapidly
"from Mare'chal to King; suggesting, 'Were cannon brought
"ahead of this close deep Column, might not they shear it
"into beautiful destruction; and then a general charge be
"made? " So counselled Richelieu: it is said, the Jacobite
"Irishman, Count Lally of the Irish Brigade, was prime
"author of this notion, -- a man of tragic notoriety in time
"coming. * Whoever was author of it, Mare'chal de Saxe
"adopts it eagerly, King Louis eagerly: swift it becomes a
"fact. Universal rally, universal simultaneous charge on
"both flanks of the terrible Column: this it might resist, as it
"has done these two hours past; but cannon ahead, shearing
"gaps through it from end to end, this is what no column can
"resist; -- and only perhaps one of Friedrich's columns (if
"even that) with Friedrich's eye upon it, could make its half-
"right-about (quart de conversion), turn its side to it, and ma-
"noeuvre out of it, in such circumstances. The wrathful Eng-
"lish Column, slit into ribbons, can do nothing at manoeuver-
* "Thomas Arthur Lally Comte de Tollendal," patronymical]y
"O'MuIaMi/ of Tullindally" (a place somewhere in Connaught, undiscover-
able where, not material where): see our dropsical friend (in one of his
whocziest states), King James's Irish Army-List (Dublin, 1855), pp. 594-600.
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? CHAP, viil. l BATTLE OP FONTENOY. 133
11th May 1745.
"ing; blazes and rages, -- more and more clearly in vain;
"collapses by degrees, rolls into ribbon coils, and winds it-
"self out of the field. Not much chased, -- its cavalry now
"seeing a job, and issuing from the Wood of Barry to cover
"the retreat. Not much chased; -- yet with a loss, they say
"in all, of 7,000 killed and wounded, and about 2,000 pn-
"soners; French loss being under 5,000.
"The Dutch and Austrians had found that the fit time was
"now come, or taken time by the forelock, -- their part of
"the loss, they said, was a thousand and odd hundreds. The
"Battle ended about two o'clock of the day; had begun about
"eight. Tuesday, 11th May 1745: one of the hottest half-
"day's works I have known. A thing much to be meditated
"by the English mind. -- King Louis stept down from the
"Gallows-Hill of Our Lady; and kissed Mare'chal de Saxe.
"Saxe was nearly dead of dropsy; could not sit on horseback,
"except for minutes; was carried about in a wicker bed; has
"had a lead bullet in his mouth, all day, to mitigate the in-
"tolerable thirst. Tournay was soon taken; the Dutch gar-
"rison, though strong, and in a strong place, making no due
"debate.
"Royal Highness retired upon Ath and Brussels; hovered
"about, nothing daunted, he or his: 'Dastard fellows, they
"' would not come out into the open ground, and try us fairly f'
"snort indignantly the Gazetteers and enlightened Public. *
"Nothing daunted; -- but, as it were, did not do anything
"farther, this Campaign; except loseGand, by negligence
"versus vigilance, and eat his victuals, -- till called home by
"the Rebellion Business, in an unexpected manner! Fonte-
"noy was the nearest approach he ever made to getting
"victory in a battle; but a miss too, as they all were. He was
"nothinglike so rash, on subsequent occasions; but had no
"betterTuck; and was beaten in all his battles, -- except the
"immortal Victory of Culloden alone. Which latter indeed,
"was it not itself (in the Gazetteer mind) a kind of apotheosis,
"or lifting of a man to the immortal gods, --by endless tar-
"barrels and beer, for the time being?
"Old Mare'chal de Noailles was in this Battle; busy about
"the redans, and proud to see his Saxe do well. Chivalrous
* Old Newspapers.
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? 134 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"Grammont, too, as we saw, was there,--killed at the first
"discharge. Prince deSoubise too (not killed); acertain Lord
"George Sackville (hurt slightly, --perhaps hadieHer have
"been killed! ) -- and others known to us, or that will be
"known. Army-Surgeon La Mettrie, of busy brain, expert
"with his tourniquets and scalpels, but of wildly blusterous
"heterodox tongue and ways, is thrice busy in Hospital this
"night, -- 'English and French all one to you, nay if any-
"thing the English better! ' those are the Royal orders: --
"La Mettrie will turn up, in new capacity, still blusterous, at
"Berlin, by and by.
"The French made immense explosions of rejoicing over
"this Victory of Fontenoy; Voltaire (now a man well at
"Court) celebrating it in prose and verse, to an amazing de-
"gree (21,000 copies sold in one day); the whole Nation blaz-
ing out over it mto illuminations, arcs of triumph, anduni-
"versal three times three: -- in short, I think, nearly the
"heartiest National Huzzah, loud, deep, long-drawn, that
"the Nation ever gave in like case. Now rather curious to
"consider, at this distance of time.
Miraculous Anecdotes,
"true and not true, are many. Not to mention again that
"surprising offer of the first fire to us, what shall we say of
"' the two camp-suttlers whom I noticed,' English females of
"the lowest degree; 'one of whom was busy slitting the gold-
"'lace from a dead Officer, when a cannon-ball came whist-
'"ling, and shore her head away. Upon which, without
"'sound uttered, her neighbour snatched the scissors, and de-
"'liberately proceeded. '* A deliberate gloomy People; --
"unconquerable except by French prowess, glory to that
"same! "
Britannic Majesty is not successful this season;
Highland Rebellions rising on him, and much going
awry. He is founding his National Debt, poor Majesty;
nothing else to speak of. His poor Army, fighting
never so well in foreign quarrels, -- and generally
* A French Officer'* Account (translated In Gentleman's Magazine, 1745; where, pp. 246, 250, 291, 313, &c. , are many confused details and specula-
tions on this subject).
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? CHAP, vm. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY. 135
11th May 1745.
itself standing the brunt, with the copartners looking
on till it is time to run (as at Roucoux again next
season, and at Lauffeld next), -- can win nothing but
hard knocks and losses. And is defined by mankind,
-- in phraseology which we have heard again since
then! -- as having "the heart of a Lion and the head
of an Ass. "* Portentous to contemplate! --
Cape Breton was besieged this Summer, in a credit-
able manner; and taken. The one real stroke done
upon France this Year, or indeed (except at sea)
throughout the War. "Ruin to their Fisheries, and a
clear loss of 1,400,000 /. a-year. " Compared with which
all these fine "Victories in Flanders" are a bottle of
moonshine. This was actually a kind of stroke; --
and this, one finds, was accomplished under presidency
of a small squadron of King's ships, by "New England
Volunteers," on funds raised by subscription, in the
way of joint-stock. A shining Colonial feat; said to be
very perfectly done, both scrip part of it, and fighting
part;** -- and might have yielded, what incalculable
dividends in the Fishery way! But had to be given
up again, in exchange for the Netherlands, when Peace
came. Alas, your Majesty! Would it be quite im-
possible, then, to go direct upon your own sole errand,
the Jenkins's-Ear one; instead of stumbling about
among the Foreign chimney-pots, far and wide, under
nightmares, in this terrible manner? -- Let us to
Silesia again.
* Old Pamphlets, smpius.
** Adolung, v. 82-35 ("27th June 1745, after a siege of forty-nine days"):
see "Gibson, Journal of the Siege;" "Mr. Prince (of the South Church,
Boston), Thanksgiving Sermon (price fourpence);" &c. &c. : in the Old
Newspapers, 1745, 1748, multifarious Notices about it, and then about the
"repayment" of those excellent "joint-stock" people.
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? 136
SECOND SILESIAK WAR. [book XV.
12th May -- 3d June 1745.
CHAPTER IX.
THE AUSTRIAN-SAXON ARMY INVADES SILESIA, ACROSS
THE MOUNTAINS.
Valori, who is to be of Friedrich's Campaign this
Year, came posting off directly in rear of the glorious
news of Fontenoy; found Friedrich at Camenz, rather
in spirits than otherwise; and lodged pleasantly with
Abbot Tobias and him, till the Campaign should begin.
Two things surprise Valori: first, the great strength,
impregnable as it were, to which Neisse has been
brought since he saw it last, -- superlative condition
of that Fortress, and of the Army itself, as it gathers
daily more and more about Frankenstein here: -- and
then secondly, and contrariwise, the strangely neglected
posture of mountainous or Upper Silesia, given up to
Pandours. Quite submerged, in a manner: Margraf
Karl lies quiet among them at Jagerndorf, "eating
his magazine;" General Hautcharmoi (Winterfeld's late
chief in that Wiirben affair), with his small Detach-
ment, still hovers about in those Ratibor parts, "with
the Strong Towns to fall back upon," or has in effect
fallen back accordingly; and nothing done to coerce
the Pandours at all. While Prince Karl and Weissen-
fels are daily coming on, in force 100,000, their in-
tention certain; force, say, about 100,000 regular!
Very singular to Valori.
"Sire, will not you dispute the Passes, then? "
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? CHAP. IX. ] AUSTRIAN-SAXON ARMY INVADES SILESIA. 137
12th May--3d June 1745.
asks Valori, amazed: "Not defend your Mountain ram-
part, then? " "Mon cher, the Mountain rampart is three
or four hundred miles long; there are twelve or twenty
practicable roads through it. One is kept in darkness,
too; endless Pandour doggery shutting out your day-
light: -- ill defending such a rampart," answers Fried-
rich. "But how, then," persists Valori; "but --? "
"One day the King answered me," says Valori, '"Mora
"ami, if you want to get the mouse, don't shut the
"trap; leave the trap open (on laisse la souriciere ou-
'Wfe)! "' Which was a beam of light to the inquiring
thought of Valori, a military man of some in-
telligence*
That, in fact, is Friedrich's purpose privately
formed. He means that the Austrians shall consider
him cowed into nothing, as he understands they al-
ready do; that they shall enter Silesia in the notion of
chasing him; and shall, if need be, have the pleasure
of chasing him, -- till perhaps a right moment arrive.
For he is full of silent finesse, this young King; soon
sees into his man, and can lead him strange dances
on occasion. In no man is there a plentifuller vein of
cunning, nor of a finer kind. Lynx-eyed perspicacity,
inexhaustible contrivance, prompt ingenuity, -- a man
very dangerous to play with at games of skill. And
it is cunning regulated always by a noble sense of
honour, too; instinctively abhorrent of attorneyism and
the swindler element: a cunning, sharp as the vulpine,
yet always strictly human, which is rather beautiful to
see. This is one of Friedrich's marked endowments.
Intellect sun-clear, wholly practical (need not be specially
deep), and entirely loyal to the fact before it; this, --
* See Valori, i. 222, 224, 228.
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? 138 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XT.
22d May 1745.
if you add rapidity and energy, prompt weight of stroke,
such as was seldom met with, -- will render a man
very dangerous to his adversary in the game of war.
-- Here jis the last of our Pandour Adventures, for
the present:
"From May 12th, Friedrich had been gathering closer and
"closer about Frankenstein; by the end of the month (28th,
"as it proved) he intends that all Detachments shall be home,
"and the Army take Camp there. The most are home; Mar-
"grafKarl, at Jagerndorf, has not yet done eating his maga-
"zine; but he too must come home. Summon the Margraf
"home: -- it is not doubted he will cut himself through, he and
"his 12,000; but such is the swarm of Pandours hovering be-
"tween him and us, no estafette, or cleverest letterbearer, can
"hope to get across to him. Ziethen with 500Hussars, he
"must take the Letter; there is no other way. Ziethen mounts;
"fares swiftly forth, towardsNeustadt, with his Letter; lodges
"in woods; dodges the thick-crowding Tolpatcheries (passes
"himself off for a Tolpatchery, say some, and captures
"Hungarian Staff-Officers who come to give him orders*); is
"at length found out, and furiously set upon, 'Ziethen, Hah! '
"-- but gets to Jagerndorf, Margraf Karl coming out to the
"rescue, and delivers his Letter. 'Home, then', all of us
''' tomorrow! ' And so, Saturday, 22d May, before we get to
"Neustadt on the way home, there is an authentic passage of
"arms,done very brilliantlybyMargrafKarlagainst Pandours
"and others.
"To right of us, to left, barring our road, the enemy,
"20,000of them, stand ranked on heights, in chosen positions;
"cannon-batteries,grenadiers, dragoons of Gotha,and infinite
"Pandours: military jungle bristling far and wide. And you
"must push it heartily, and likewise cut the tap-root of it
"(seize its big guns), or it will not roll away. Margraf Karl
"shoots forth his steady infantry ('Silent till you see the
"' whites of their eyes! '), -- his cavalry with new manoeuvres;
* Prau von Blumenthal. Life of De Ziethen, pp. 171-181 (extremely
romantic; now given up as mythical, for most part): see Orlich (n. 150);
but also Ranke (in. 245), Preuss, &c.
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? CHAP. IX. ] AUSTRIAN-SAXON ARMY INVADES SILESIA. 139
22d May 1745.
"whose behaviour is worthy of Ziethen himself: -- in brief,
"the jungle is struck as by a whirlwind, the tap-root of it cut,
"and rolls simultaneously out of range, leaving only the
"Regiment of Gotha, Regiment of Ogilvy, and some Regulars,
"who also get torn to shreds, and utterly ruined. Seeing which,
"the Pandour jungle plunges wholly into the woods, uttering
"horrible cries (enpoussant des cris terribles), says Friedrich. *
"Our new cavalry manoeuvres deserve praise. MargrafKarl
"had the honour to gain his Cousin's approbation this day;
"and to prove himself, says the Cousin, 'worthy of the grand-
"'father he came from,' -- my own great-grandfather; Great
"Elector, Friedrich-Wilhelm; whose style of motion atFehr-
"bellin, or on the ice of theFrischeHaf (soldiers all in sledges,
"tearing along to be at the Swedes), was probably somewhat
"ofthiskind. ^ * *
"Some days ago, Winterfeld had been pushed out to
"Landshut, with Detachment of 2,000, to judge a little for
"himself which way the Austrians were coming, and to scare
"off certain Uhlans (the Saxon species of Tolpatchery), who
"were threateningto be mischievous thereabouts. The Uhlans,
"at sound of Winterfeld, jingled away at once: but, in a day
"or two j there came upon him, on the sudden, Pandour out-
"burst in quite other force; -- and in the very hours while
"Ziethen was struggling into Jagerndorf, and still more em-
"phatically next day, while Margraf Karl was handling his
"Pandours, -- Colonel Winterfeld, a hundred miles to west-
ward lapped among the Mountains, chanced to be dealing
"again with the same article. Very busy with it,from4o'clock
"this morning; likely to give a good account of the job.
"Steadily defendingLandshut and himself, against the grena-
dier battalions, cannon, and furious overplus of Pandours
"(8,000 or 9,000, it is said, six to one or so in the article of
"cavalry), which General Nadasti, a scientific leader of men
"or Pandours, skilfully and furiously hurls upon Landshut
"and him, in an unexpected manner. Colonel Winterfeld had
"need of all his art and energy, in the intricate ground;
"against the furious overplus well manoeuvred: but in him too
"there are manoeuvres; if he fall back here, it is to rush-on
* (Euvres de Fr&d6ric, nr. 106. More specially Bericht von der am
22 Mai 1745 bei Neustadt in Ober-Schlesien vorgefallenen Action (Seyfartb,
Bejloje, 1. 159-166).
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? 140 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
12th May --3d June 1745.
"double strong there; hour after hour he inexpugnably
"defends himself, -- till General Stille, Friedrich's old Tutor,
"our worthy writing friend, whom we occasionally quote,
"comes up with help; and Nadasti is at once brushed home
"again, with sore smart of failure, and 'the loss of 600 killed,'
"among other items. * Colonel Winterfeld was made Major-
"General next day, for this action. Colonel Winterfeld is
"cutting out a high course for himself, by his conduct in these
"employments; solidity, brilliant effectuality, shining through
"all he does; his valour and value, his rapid just insight, fiery
"energy, and nobleness of mind, more ana more disclosing
"themselves,---to one who is a judge of men, andgreatly needs
"for his own use the first-rate quality in that article. "
Friedrich has left the mousetrap open; -- and lat-
terly has been baiting it with a pleasant spicing of
toasted cheese. One of his Spies, reporting from Prince
Karl's quarters, Friedrich has at this time discovered to
be a Double-Spy, reporting thither as well. Double-
Spy, there is an ugly fact; -- perhaps not quite con-
venient to abolish it by hemp and gibbet; perhaps it
could be turned to use, as most facts can? "Very good,
my expert Herr von Schonfeld" (that was the knave's
name): "and now of all things, whenever the Prince
does get across, -- instant word to us of that! Nothing
so important to us. If he should get between us and
Breslau, for example, what would the consequence be! "
To this purport Friedrich instructs his Double-Spy;
sends him off, unhanged, to Prince Karl's Camp, to
blab this fresh bit of knowledge. "We likewise," says
Friedrich, "ordered some repairs on the roads leading
"to Breslau;" -- last turn of the hand to our bit of
toasted fragrancy. And Prince Karl is actually striding
* Bericht von der am 21 Mai 1745 bei Landshnt vorgefallenen Action, in
Feldzuge, 1. 302-305 (or in Seyfarth, Beglage, 1. 155-158); (Euvres de Frederic,
in. 105 ;. Stille, pp. 120-124 (who misdates, "23d May" for 22d).
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? diuf>. IX. ] AUSTRlAN-SAXON ARMY INVADES SILESIA. 141
mh May 1745.
forward, at an eager pace: -- andNadasti versusWinter-
feld, the other day, could Winterfeld have guessed it,
was the actual vanguard of the march; and will be up
again straightway! Whereupon Winterfeld too is called
home; and all eyes are bent on the Landshut side.
Prince Karl, under these fine omens, had been
urgent on the Saxons to be swift; Saxons under Weissen-
fels did at last "get their cannon up," and we hear of
them for certain, in junction with the Austrians, at
Schatzlar, on the Bohemian side of the Giant-Mountains;
climbing with diligence those wizard solitudes and high-
land wastes. In a word, they roll across into Silesia,
to Landshut (29th May); nothing doubting but Friedrich
has cowered into what retreats he has, as good as de-
sperate of Silesia, and will probably be first heard of in
Breslau, when they get thither with their sieging guns.
No cautious sagacious old Feldmarschall Traun is in
that Host, at present; nothing but a Prince Karl, and
a poor Duke of Weissenfels; who are too certain of
several things; -- very capable of certainty, and also
of doubt, the wrong way of the facts. Their force is,
by strict count, 75,000; and they march from Lands-
hut, detained a little by provender concerns, on the
last day of May. *
May 28th, Friedrich had encamped at Franken-
stein; May 30th, he sets forth north-westward, to be
nearer the new scene; encamps at Reichenbach, that
night; pushes forward again, next day, for Schweidnitz,
for Striegau (in all, a shift north-west of some forty
miles); -- and from June 1st, lies stretched out between
Schweidnitz and Striegau, nine miles long; well hidden
* Orlioh, ii. 14G; Ranke, m. 247; Stenzel, iv. 245.
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? 142 SECOND SILES1AN WAR. [book XV.
3d June 1745.
in the hollows of the little Rivers thereabouts (Schweid-
nitz Water, Striegau Water), with their little knolls
and hills; watching Prince Karl's probable place of
egress from the Mountain Country opposite. His main
Camp is from Schweidnitz to Jauernik, some five miles
long; but he has his vanguard up as far as Striegau,
Dumoulin andWinterfeld as vanguard, in good strength,
a little way behind or westward of that Town and
Stream; Nassau and his Division are screened in the
Wood called Nonnenbusch (Nun's ?
* (Euvres, xxvm. 150 (Siecle de Louis Qitinzc, c. xv. "Bataillg de Fonte-
noi," -- elaborately exact on all such points).
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? CHAP, vm. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY. 127
11th May 1745.
"Fontenoy on the left, and Redoubt d'Euon our right, will
"tell less on us; and between these two death-dealing locali-
"ties, by the hollowest, least shelterless way discoverable,
"we mean to penetrate: 'Forward, my men, steady and swift,
"'till we are through the shot-range, and find men to grapple
"'with, instead of case-shot and projectile iron! ' Marechal
"de Saxe owned afterwards, 'He should have put an ad-
"'ditional redoubt in that place, but he did not think any
"'Army would try such a thing' (cannon batteries playing on
"each hand at 400 yards distance); -- nor has any Army
"since or before!
"These columns advance, however; through bushy hollows,
"water-courses, through what defiles or hollowest grounds
"there are; endure the cannon-shot, while they must; trailing
"their own heavy-guns by hand, and occasionally blasting
"out of them where the ground favours; -- and do, with in-
dignant patience, wind themselves through, pretty much
"beyond direct shot-range of either d'Eu or Fontenoy. And
"have actually got into the interior mystery of the French
"Line of Battle, -- which is not a little astonished to see them
"there! It is over a kind of blunt ridge, or rising ground,
"that they are coming: on the crown of this rising ground,
"the French regiment fronting it (Gardes Francoises as it
"chanced to be) notices, with surprise, field-cannon pointed
"the wrong way; actual British artillery unaccountably
"showing itself there. Regiment of Gardes rushes up to seize
"said fieldpieces: but, on the summit, perceives with amaze-
"ment that it cannot; that a heavy volley of musketry blazes
"into it (killing sixty men); that it will have to rush back
"again, and report progress: Huge British force, of unknown
"extent, is readjusting itself into column there, and will be
"upon us on the instant. Here is news!
"News true enough. The head of the English column
"comes to sight, over the rising ground, close by: their offi-
"cersdoff their hats, politely saluting ours, who return the
"civility: was ever such politeness seen before? It is a fact;
"and among the memorablest of this Battle. Nay a certain
"English Officer of mark, -- Lord Charles Hay the name of
"him, valued surely in the annals of the Hay and Tweeddale
"House, -- steps forward from the ranks, as if wishing some-
"thing. Towards whom" (says the accurate Espagnac)
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? 128 SECOKD SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"Marquis d'Auteroche, grenadier-lieutenant, with air of polite
"interrogation, not knowing what he meant, made a step or
"two: 'Monsieur,' said Lord Charles (Lord Charles-hay),
"' bid your people fire (faites tirer vos gens )V 'Non, Monsieur,
"'nous ne tirons jamais les premiers (We never fire first). '*
"After you, Sirs! Is not this a bit of modern chivalry? A
"supreme politeness in that sniffing pococurante kind; pro-
bably the highest point (or lowest) it ever went to. Which I
"have often thought of. "
It is almost pity to disturb an elegant Historical Passage
of this kind, circulating round the world, in some glory, for
a century past: but there has a small irrefragable Document
come to me, which modifies it a good deal, and reduces
matters to the business form. Lord Charles Hay, "Lieutenant-
Colonel," practical Head, "of the First Regiment of Foot-
guards," wrote, about three weeks after (or dictated in sad
spelling, not himself able to write for wounds), a Letter to
his Brother, of which here is an Excerpt at first hand, with
only the spelling altered: * * "It was our Regiment that
"attacked the French Guards: and when we came within
"twenty or thirty paces of them, I advanced before our Regi-
"ment; drank to them" (to the French, from the pocket-
pistol one carries on such occasions), "and told them that
"we were the English Guards, and hoped that they would
"stand till we came quite up to them, and not swim the
"Scheld as they did the Mayn at Dettingen" (shameful
third-bridge, not of wood, though carpeted with blue cloth
there)! "Upon which I immediately turned about to our
"ownRegiment; speeched them, and made them huzzah,"
-- I hope with a will. "An Officer" (d'Auteroche) "came out
"of the ranks, and tried to make his men huzzah; however,
* Espagnac, n. 60 (of the Original, Toulouse, 1789); n. 48 of the Ger-
man Translation (Leipzig, 1774), our usual reference. Voltaire, endlessly
informed upon details this time, is equally express: "Milord Charles Hay,
"capitaine aux gardes anglaises, cria: 'Messieurs des gardes francaises,
"tireiP To which Count d'Auteroche with a loud voice answered" &c.
((Euvres, vol. xxvm. p. 1551. See also Souvenirs du Marquis de Valfons
(edited by a Grand-Nephew, Paris, 1860), p. 151; -- a poor, considerably
noisy and unclean little Book; which proves unexpectedly worth looking
at, in regard to some of those poor Battles and personages and occurrences:
the Bohemian Belleisle-Broglio part, to my regret, if to no other person's,
has been omitted, as extinct, or undecipherable by the Grand-Nephew.
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? CBAP. m] BATTLE OP FONTENOY. 129
11th May 1745.
"there were not above three or four in their Brigade that
did. "f * *
Very poor counter-huzzah. And not the least whisper of
that sublime "After you, Sirs! " but rather, in confused
form, of quite the reverse; Hay having been himself fired
into ("fire had begun on my left;" Hay totally ignorant on
which side first), -- fired into, rather feebly, and wounded
by those dAuteroche people, while he was still advancing
with shouldered arms; -- upon which, and not till which, he
did give it them: in liberal dose; and quite blew them off
the ground, for that day. From all which, one has to infer,
That the mutual salutation by hat was probably a fact; that,
for certain, there was some slight preliminary talk and
gesticulation, but in the Homeric style, by no means in the
Espagnac-French, -- not chivalrous epigram at all, mere
rough banter, and what is called "chaffing;"-- and in short,
that the French Mess-rooms (with their eloquent talent that
way) had rounded off the thing into the current epigrammatic
redaction; the authentic business-form of it being ruggedly
what is now given. Let our Manuscript proceed.
"D'Auteroche declining the first fire," -- or accepting it,
if ever offered, nobody can say, -- "the three Guards Regi-
"ments, Lord Charles's on the right, give it him hot and
"heavy, 'tremendous rolling fire;' so that D'Auteroche,
"responding more or less, cannot stand it; but has at once
"to rustle into discontinuity, he and his, and roll rapidly
"out of the way. And the British Column advances, steadily,
"terribly, hurling back all opposition from it; deeper and
"deeper into the interior mysteries of the French Host;
"blasting its way with gunpowder; -- in a magnificent
"manner. A compact Column, slowly advancing, -- ap-
parently of some 16,000 foot. Pauses, readjusts itself a
"little, when not meddled with; when meddled with, has
"cannon, has rolling fire, ? --delivers from it, in fact, on both
"hands such a torrent of deadly continuous fire as was rarely
"seen before or since. 'Feu infernal,' the French call it.
"The French make vehement resistance. Battalions,
"squadrons, regiment after regiment, charge madly on this
t "Ath, May ye 20th, o. a. " (to John, Fourth Marquis of Tweeddale,
last 'Secretary of State for Scotland,' and a man of figure. in his day);
Letter is at Yester House, East Lothian; Excerpt penes me.
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. VIU. 9
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? 130 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"terrible Column; but rush only on destruction thereby.
"Regiment This storms in from the right, regiment That
"from the left; have their colonels shot, 'lose the half of
"' their people;' and hastily draw back again, in a wrecked
"condition. The cavalry-horses cannot stand such smoke
"and blazing; nor indeed, I think, can the cavaliers. Regi-
"ment du Roi rushing on, full gallop, to charge this Column,
"got one volley from it" (says Espagnac) "which brought to
"the ground 460 men. Natural enough that horses take the
"bit between their teeth; likewise that men take it, and
"career very madly in such circumstances!
"The terrible Column with slow inflexibility advances;
"cannon (now in reversed position) from that Redoubt d'Eu
"('Shame on you, Ingoldsby! ') and irregular musketry from
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? CHAP. VIII. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY. . 131
11th May 1745.
"Fontenoy side, playing upon it; defeated regiments making
"barriers of their dead men and firing there; Column always
"closing its gapped ranks, and girdled with insupportable
"fire. It ought to have taken Fontenoy and Redoubt d'Eu,
"say military men; it ought to have done several things! It
"has now cut the French fairly in two; -- and Saxe, who is
"earnestly surveying it a hundred paces a-head, sends word,
"conjuring the King to retire instantly, -- across the Scheld,
"by Calonne Bridge and the strong rear-guard there, -- who,
"however, will not. King and Dauphin, on horseback both,
"have stood 'at the Justice (Gallows, in fact) of our Lady of
"'the Woods,' not stirring much, occasionally shifting to a
"windmill higher, -- ye Heaven, with what intrepidity, all
"day! -- 'a good many country-folk in trees close behind
"'them. ' Country-folk, I suppose, have by this time seen
"enough, and are copiously making off: but the King will not,
"though things do look dubious.
"In fact, the Battle hangs now upon a hair; the Battle is
"as good as lost, thinks Marechal the Saxe. His battle-lines
"torn in two in that manner, hovering in ragged clouds over
"the field, what hope is there in the Battle? Fontenoy is firing
"blank, this some time; its cannon-balls done. Officers, in An-
"toine, are about withdrawing the artillery, -- then again (on
"new order) replacing it a while. All are looking towards the
"Scheld Bridge; earnestly entreating his Majesty to with-
"draw. Had the Dutch, at this point of time, broken heartily
"in, as Waldeck was urging them to do, upon the redoubts
"of Antoine; or had His Royal Highness the Duke, for his
"own behoof, possessed due cavalry or artillery to act upon
"these ragged clouds, which hang broken there, very fit for
"being swept, were there an artillery-and-horse besom to do
"it,-- in either of these cases, the Battle was the Duke's.
"And a right fiery victory it would have been; to make his
"name famous; and confirm the English in their mad method
"of figthing, like Baresarks or Janizaries rather than stra-
tegic human creatures. *
"But neither of these contingencies had befallen. The
* See, in BUschings Magazin, xvi. 169 ("Your illustrious 'Column/ at
Fontenoy? It was fortuitous, I say; done like janizariesand so forth), a Criticism worth reading by soldiers.
9*
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? 132 SECOND SILESIAN WAS. [bookXV.
11th May 1745.
"Dutch-Austrian wing did evince some wish to get possession
"of Antoine; and drew out a little; but the guns also awoke
"upon them; whereupon the Dutch-Austrians drew in again,
"thinking the time not come. As for the Duke, he had taken
"with him of cannon a good few; but of horse none at all (im-
"possible for horse, unless Fontenoy and the Redoubt d'Eu
"were ours! ) -- and his horse have been hanging about, in the
"Wood of Barry all this while, uncertain what to do; their
"old Commander being killed withal, and their new a dubi-
"tative person, and no orders left. The Duke had left no
"orders; having indeed broken in here, in what we called a
"spiritual white-heat, without asking himself much what he
"would do when in: 'Beat the French, knock them to
"'powder, if I can! ' -- Meanwhile the French clouds are re-
assembling a little: Royal Highness too is readjusting him-
"self, now got '300 yards ahead of Fontenoy,' -- pauses
"there about half an hour, not seeing his way farther.
"During which pause, Due de Richelieu, famous black-
"guard man, gallops up to the Mare'chal, gallops rapidly
"from Mare'chal to King; suggesting, 'Were cannon brought
"ahead of this close deep Column, might not they shear it
"into beautiful destruction; and then a general charge be
"made? " So counselled Richelieu: it is said, the Jacobite
"Irishman, Count Lally of the Irish Brigade, was prime
"author of this notion, -- a man of tragic notoriety in time
"coming. * Whoever was author of it, Mare'chal de Saxe
"adopts it eagerly, King Louis eagerly: swift it becomes a
"fact. Universal rally, universal simultaneous charge on
"both flanks of the terrible Column: this it might resist, as it
"has done these two hours past; but cannon ahead, shearing
"gaps through it from end to end, this is what no column can
"resist; -- and only perhaps one of Friedrich's columns (if
"even that) with Friedrich's eye upon it, could make its half-
"right-about (quart de conversion), turn its side to it, and ma-
"noeuvre out of it, in such circumstances. The wrathful Eng-
"lish Column, slit into ribbons, can do nothing at manoeuver-
* "Thomas Arthur Lally Comte de Tollendal," patronymical]y
"O'MuIaMi/ of Tullindally" (a place somewhere in Connaught, undiscover-
able where, not material where): see our dropsical friend (in one of his
whocziest states), King James's Irish Army-List (Dublin, 1855), pp. 594-600.
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? CHAP, viil. l BATTLE OP FONTENOY. 133
11th May 1745.
"ing; blazes and rages, -- more and more clearly in vain;
"collapses by degrees, rolls into ribbon coils, and winds it-
"self out of the field. Not much chased, -- its cavalry now
"seeing a job, and issuing from the Wood of Barry to cover
"the retreat. Not much chased; -- yet with a loss, they say
"in all, of 7,000 killed and wounded, and about 2,000 pn-
"soners; French loss being under 5,000.
"The Dutch and Austrians had found that the fit time was
"now come, or taken time by the forelock, -- their part of
"the loss, they said, was a thousand and odd hundreds. The
"Battle ended about two o'clock of the day; had begun about
"eight. Tuesday, 11th May 1745: one of the hottest half-
"day's works I have known. A thing much to be meditated
"by the English mind. -- King Louis stept down from the
"Gallows-Hill of Our Lady; and kissed Mare'chal de Saxe.
"Saxe was nearly dead of dropsy; could not sit on horseback,
"except for minutes; was carried about in a wicker bed; has
"had a lead bullet in his mouth, all day, to mitigate the in-
"tolerable thirst. Tournay was soon taken; the Dutch gar-
"rison, though strong, and in a strong place, making no due
"debate.
"Royal Highness retired upon Ath and Brussels; hovered
"about, nothing daunted, he or his: 'Dastard fellows, they
"' would not come out into the open ground, and try us fairly f'
"snort indignantly the Gazetteers and enlightened Public. *
"Nothing daunted; -- but, as it were, did not do anything
"farther, this Campaign; except loseGand, by negligence
"versus vigilance, and eat his victuals, -- till called home by
"the Rebellion Business, in an unexpected manner! Fonte-
"noy was the nearest approach he ever made to getting
"victory in a battle; but a miss too, as they all were. He was
"nothinglike so rash, on subsequent occasions; but had no
"betterTuck; and was beaten in all his battles, -- except the
"immortal Victory of Culloden alone. Which latter indeed,
"was it not itself (in the Gazetteer mind) a kind of apotheosis,
"or lifting of a man to the immortal gods, --by endless tar-
"barrels and beer, for the time being?
"Old Mare'chal de Noailles was in this Battle; busy about
"the redans, and proud to see his Saxe do well. Chivalrous
* Old Newspapers.
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? 134 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
11th May 1745.
"Grammont, too, as we saw, was there,--killed at the first
"discharge. Prince deSoubise too (not killed); acertain Lord
"George Sackville (hurt slightly, --perhaps hadieHer have
"been killed! ) -- and others known to us, or that will be
"known. Army-Surgeon La Mettrie, of busy brain, expert
"with his tourniquets and scalpels, but of wildly blusterous
"heterodox tongue and ways, is thrice busy in Hospital this
"night, -- 'English and French all one to you, nay if any-
"thing the English better! ' those are the Royal orders: --
"La Mettrie will turn up, in new capacity, still blusterous, at
"Berlin, by and by.
"The French made immense explosions of rejoicing over
"this Victory of Fontenoy; Voltaire (now a man well at
"Court) celebrating it in prose and verse, to an amazing de-
"gree (21,000 copies sold in one day); the whole Nation blaz-
ing out over it mto illuminations, arcs of triumph, anduni-
"versal three times three: -- in short, I think, nearly the
"heartiest National Huzzah, loud, deep, long-drawn, that
"the Nation ever gave in like case. Now rather curious to
"consider, at this distance of time.
Miraculous Anecdotes,
"true and not true, are many. Not to mention again that
"surprising offer of the first fire to us, what shall we say of
"' the two camp-suttlers whom I noticed,' English females of
"the lowest degree; 'one of whom was busy slitting the gold-
"'lace from a dead Officer, when a cannon-ball came whist-
'"ling, and shore her head away. Upon which, without
"'sound uttered, her neighbour snatched the scissors, and de-
"'liberately proceeded. '* A deliberate gloomy People; --
"unconquerable except by French prowess, glory to that
"same! "
Britannic Majesty is not successful this season;
Highland Rebellions rising on him, and much going
awry. He is founding his National Debt, poor Majesty;
nothing else to speak of. His poor Army, fighting
never so well in foreign quarrels, -- and generally
* A French Officer'* Account (translated In Gentleman's Magazine, 1745; where, pp. 246, 250, 291, 313, &c. , are many confused details and specula-
tions on this subject).
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? CHAP, vm. ] BATTLE OF FONTENOY. 135
11th May 1745.
itself standing the brunt, with the copartners looking
on till it is time to run (as at Roucoux again next
season, and at Lauffeld next), -- can win nothing but
hard knocks and losses. And is defined by mankind,
-- in phraseology which we have heard again since
then! -- as having "the heart of a Lion and the head
of an Ass. "* Portentous to contemplate! --
Cape Breton was besieged this Summer, in a credit-
able manner; and taken. The one real stroke done
upon France this Year, or indeed (except at sea)
throughout the War. "Ruin to their Fisheries, and a
clear loss of 1,400,000 /. a-year. " Compared with which
all these fine "Victories in Flanders" are a bottle of
moonshine. This was actually a kind of stroke; --
and this, one finds, was accomplished under presidency
of a small squadron of King's ships, by "New England
Volunteers," on funds raised by subscription, in the
way of joint-stock. A shining Colonial feat; said to be
very perfectly done, both scrip part of it, and fighting
part;** -- and might have yielded, what incalculable
dividends in the Fishery way! But had to be given
up again, in exchange for the Netherlands, when Peace
came. Alas, your Majesty! Would it be quite im-
possible, then, to go direct upon your own sole errand,
the Jenkins's-Ear one; instead of stumbling about
among the Foreign chimney-pots, far and wide, under
nightmares, in this terrible manner? -- Let us to
Silesia again.
* Old Pamphlets, smpius.
** Adolung, v. 82-35 ("27th June 1745, after a siege of forty-nine days"):
see "Gibson, Journal of the Siege;" "Mr. Prince (of the South Church,
Boston), Thanksgiving Sermon (price fourpence);" &c. &c. : in the Old
Newspapers, 1745, 1748, multifarious Notices about it, and then about the
"repayment" of those excellent "joint-stock" people.
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? 136
SECOND SILESIAK WAR. [book XV.
12th May -- 3d June 1745.
CHAPTER IX.
THE AUSTRIAN-SAXON ARMY INVADES SILESIA, ACROSS
THE MOUNTAINS.
Valori, who is to be of Friedrich's Campaign this
Year, came posting off directly in rear of the glorious
news of Fontenoy; found Friedrich at Camenz, rather
in spirits than otherwise; and lodged pleasantly with
Abbot Tobias and him, till the Campaign should begin.
Two things surprise Valori: first, the great strength,
impregnable as it were, to which Neisse has been
brought since he saw it last, -- superlative condition
of that Fortress, and of the Army itself, as it gathers
daily more and more about Frankenstein here: -- and
then secondly, and contrariwise, the strangely neglected
posture of mountainous or Upper Silesia, given up to
Pandours. Quite submerged, in a manner: Margraf
Karl lies quiet among them at Jagerndorf, "eating
his magazine;" General Hautcharmoi (Winterfeld's late
chief in that Wiirben affair), with his small Detach-
ment, still hovers about in those Ratibor parts, "with
the Strong Towns to fall back upon," or has in effect
fallen back accordingly; and nothing done to coerce
the Pandours at all. While Prince Karl and Weissen-
fels are daily coming on, in force 100,000, their in-
tention certain; force, say, about 100,000 regular!
Very singular to Valori.
"Sire, will not you dispute the Passes, then? "
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? CHAP. IX. ] AUSTRIAN-SAXON ARMY INVADES SILESIA. 137
12th May--3d June 1745.
asks Valori, amazed: "Not defend your Mountain ram-
part, then? " "Mon cher, the Mountain rampart is three
or four hundred miles long; there are twelve or twenty
practicable roads through it. One is kept in darkness,
too; endless Pandour doggery shutting out your day-
light: -- ill defending such a rampart," answers Fried-
rich. "But how, then," persists Valori; "but --? "
"One day the King answered me," says Valori, '"Mora
"ami, if you want to get the mouse, don't shut the
"trap; leave the trap open (on laisse la souriciere ou-
'Wfe)! "' Which was a beam of light to the inquiring
thought of Valori, a military man of some in-
telligence*
That, in fact, is Friedrich's purpose privately
formed. He means that the Austrians shall consider
him cowed into nothing, as he understands they al-
ready do; that they shall enter Silesia in the notion of
chasing him; and shall, if need be, have the pleasure
of chasing him, -- till perhaps a right moment arrive.
For he is full of silent finesse, this young King; soon
sees into his man, and can lead him strange dances
on occasion. In no man is there a plentifuller vein of
cunning, nor of a finer kind. Lynx-eyed perspicacity,
inexhaustible contrivance, prompt ingenuity, -- a man
very dangerous to play with at games of skill. And
it is cunning regulated always by a noble sense of
honour, too; instinctively abhorrent of attorneyism and
the swindler element: a cunning, sharp as the vulpine,
yet always strictly human, which is rather beautiful to
see. This is one of Friedrich's marked endowments.
Intellect sun-clear, wholly practical (need not be specially
deep), and entirely loyal to the fact before it; this, --
* See Valori, i. 222, 224, 228.
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? 138 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XT.
22d May 1745.
if you add rapidity and energy, prompt weight of stroke,
such as was seldom met with, -- will render a man
very dangerous to his adversary in the game of war.
-- Here jis the last of our Pandour Adventures, for
the present:
"From May 12th, Friedrich had been gathering closer and
"closer about Frankenstein; by the end of the month (28th,
"as it proved) he intends that all Detachments shall be home,
"and the Army take Camp there. The most are home; Mar-
"grafKarl, at Jagerndorf, has not yet done eating his maga-
"zine; but he too must come home. Summon the Margraf
"home: -- it is not doubted he will cut himself through, he and
"his 12,000; but such is the swarm of Pandours hovering be-
"tween him and us, no estafette, or cleverest letterbearer, can
"hope to get across to him. Ziethen with 500Hussars, he
"must take the Letter; there is no other way. Ziethen mounts;
"fares swiftly forth, towardsNeustadt, with his Letter; lodges
"in woods; dodges the thick-crowding Tolpatcheries (passes
"himself off for a Tolpatchery, say some, and captures
"Hungarian Staff-Officers who come to give him orders*); is
"at length found out, and furiously set upon, 'Ziethen, Hah! '
"-- but gets to Jagerndorf, Margraf Karl coming out to the
"rescue, and delivers his Letter. 'Home, then', all of us
''' tomorrow! ' And so, Saturday, 22d May, before we get to
"Neustadt on the way home, there is an authentic passage of
"arms,done very brilliantlybyMargrafKarlagainst Pandours
"and others.
"To right of us, to left, barring our road, the enemy,
"20,000of them, stand ranked on heights, in chosen positions;
"cannon-batteries,grenadiers, dragoons of Gotha,and infinite
"Pandours: military jungle bristling far and wide. And you
"must push it heartily, and likewise cut the tap-root of it
"(seize its big guns), or it will not roll away. Margraf Karl
"shoots forth his steady infantry ('Silent till you see the
"' whites of their eyes! '), -- his cavalry with new manoeuvres;
* Prau von Blumenthal. Life of De Ziethen, pp. 171-181 (extremely
romantic; now given up as mythical, for most part): see Orlich (n. 150);
but also Ranke (in. 245), Preuss, &c.
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? CHAP. IX. ] AUSTRIAN-SAXON ARMY INVADES SILESIA. 139
22d May 1745.
"whose behaviour is worthy of Ziethen himself: -- in brief,
"the jungle is struck as by a whirlwind, the tap-root of it cut,
"and rolls simultaneously out of range, leaving only the
"Regiment of Gotha, Regiment of Ogilvy, and some Regulars,
"who also get torn to shreds, and utterly ruined. Seeing which,
"the Pandour jungle plunges wholly into the woods, uttering
"horrible cries (enpoussant des cris terribles), says Friedrich. *
"Our new cavalry manoeuvres deserve praise. MargrafKarl
"had the honour to gain his Cousin's approbation this day;
"and to prove himself, says the Cousin, 'worthy of the grand-
"'father he came from,' -- my own great-grandfather; Great
"Elector, Friedrich-Wilhelm; whose style of motion atFehr-
"bellin, or on the ice of theFrischeHaf (soldiers all in sledges,
"tearing along to be at the Swedes), was probably somewhat
"ofthiskind. ^ * *
"Some days ago, Winterfeld had been pushed out to
"Landshut, with Detachment of 2,000, to judge a little for
"himself which way the Austrians were coming, and to scare
"off certain Uhlans (the Saxon species of Tolpatchery), who
"were threateningto be mischievous thereabouts. The Uhlans,
"at sound of Winterfeld, jingled away at once: but, in a day
"or two j there came upon him, on the sudden, Pandour out-
"burst in quite other force; -- and in the very hours while
"Ziethen was struggling into Jagerndorf, and still more em-
"phatically next day, while Margraf Karl was handling his
"Pandours, -- Colonel Winterfeld, a hundred miles to west-
ward lapped among the Mountains, chanced to be dealing
"again with the same article. Very busy with it,from4o'clock
"this morning; likely to give a good account of the job.
"Steadily defendingLandshut and himself, against the grena-
dier battalions, cannon, and furious overplus of Pandours
"(8,000 or 9,000, it is said, six to one or so in the article of
"cavalry), which General Nadasti, a scientific leader of men
"or Pandours, skilfully and furiously hurls upon Landshut
"and him, in an unexpected manner. Colonel Winterfeld had
"need of all his art and energy, in the intricate ground;
"against the furious overplus well manoeuvred: but in him too
"there are manoeuvres; if he fall back here, it is to rush-on
* (Euvres de Fr&d6ric, nr. 106. More specially Bericht von der am
22 Mai 1745 bei Neustadt in Ober-Schlesien vorgefallenen Action (Seyfartb,
Bejloje, 1. 159-166).
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? 140 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
12th May --3d June 1745.
"double strong there; hour after hour he inexpugnably
"defends himself, -- till General Stille, Friedrich's old Tutor,
"our worthy writing friend, whom we occasionally quote,
"comes up with help; and Nadasti is at once brushed home
"again, with sore smart of failure, and 'the loss of 600 killed,'
"among other items. * Colonel Winterfeld was made Major-
"General next day, for this action. Colonel Winterfeld is
"cutting out a high course for himself, by his conduct in these
"employments; solidity, brilliant effectuality, shining through
"all he does; his valour and value, his rapid just insight, fiery
"energy, and nobleness of mind, more ana more disclosing
"themselves,---to one who is a judge of men, andgreatly needs
"for his own use the first-rate quality in that article. "
Friedrich has left the mousetrap open; -- and lat-
terly has been baiting it with a pleasant spicing of
toasted cheese. One of his Spies, reporting from Prince
Karl's quarters, Friedrich has at this time discovered to
be a Double-Spy, reporting thither as well. Double-
Spy, there is an ugly fact; -- perhaps not quite con-
venient to abolish it by hemp and gibbet; perhaps it
could be turned to use, as most facts can? "Very good,
my expert Herr von Schonfeld" (that was the knave's
name): "and now of all things, whenever the Prince
does get across, -- instant word to us of that! Nothing
so important to us. If he should get between us and
Breslau, for example, what would the consequence be! "
To this purport Friedrich instructs his Double-Spy;
sends him off, unhanged, to Prince Karl's Camp, to
blab this fresh bit of knowledge. "We likewise," says
Friedrich, "ordered some repairs on the roads leading
"to Breslau;" -- last turn of the hand to our bit of
toasted fragrancy. And Prince Karl is actually striding
* Bericht von der am 21 Mai 1745 bei Landshnt vorgefallenen Action, in
Feldzuge, 1. 302-305 (or in Seyfarth, Beglage, 1. 155-158); (Euvres de Frederic,
in. 105 ;. Stille, pp. 120-124 (who misdates, "23d May" for 22d).
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? diuf>. IX. ] AUSTRlAN-SAXON ARMY INVADES SILESIA. 141
mh May 1745.
forward, at an eager pace: -- andNadasti versusWinter-
feld, the other day, could Winterfeld have guessed it,
was the actual vanguard of the march; and will be up
again straightway! Whereupon Winterfeld too is called
home; and all eyes are bent on the Landshut side.
Prince Karl, under these fine omens, had been
urgent on the Saxons to be swift; Saxons under Weissen-
fels did at last "get their cannon up," and we hear of
them for certain, in junction with the Austrians, at
Schatzlar, on the Bohemian side of the Giant-Mountains;
climbing with diligence those wizard solitudes and high-
land wastes. In a word, they roll across into Silesia,
to Landshut (29th May); nothing doubting but Friedrich
has cowered into what retreats he has, as good as de-
sperate of Silesia, and will probably be first heard of in
Breslau, when they get thither with their sieging guns.
No cautious sagacious old Feldmarschall Traun is in
that Host, at present; nothing but a Prince Karl, and
a poor Duke of Weissenfels; who are too certain of
several things; -- very capable of certainty, and also
of doubt, the wrong way of the facts. Their force is,
by strict count, 75,000; and they march from Lands-
hut, detained a little by provender concerns, on the
last day of May. *
May 28th, Friedrich had encamped at Franken-
stein; May 30th, he sets forth north-westward, to be
nearer the new scene; encamps at Reichenbach, that
night; pushes forward again, next day, for Schweidnitz,
for Striegau (in all, a shift north-west of some forty
miles); -- and from June 1st, lies stretched out between
Schweidnitz and Striegau, nine miles long; well hidden
* Orlioh, ii. 14G; Ranke, m. 247; Stenzel, iv. 245.
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? 142 SECOND SILES1AN WAR. [book XV.
3d June 1745.
in the hollows of the little Rivers thereabouts (Schweid-
nitz Water, Striegau Water), with their little knolls
and hills; watching Prince Karl's probable place of
egress from the Mountain Country opposite. His main
Camp is from Schweidnitz to Jauernik, some five miles
long; but he has his vanguard up as far as Striegau,
Dumoulin andWinterfeld as vanguard, in good strength,
a little way behind or westward of that Town and
Stream; Nassau and his Division are screened in the
Wood called Nonnenbusch (Nun's ?
