For there is
"much consulting about it, and redactingof it; PolishMajesty
"himself very busy.
"much consulting about it, and redactingof it; PolishMajesty
"himself very busy.
Thomas Carlyle
?
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? 202 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
30th Sept. 1745.
he was there, and what he did there,* -- though in
Glatz under lock and key, three good months before.
"How could I help mistakes," said he afterwards, when
people objected to this and that in his blusterous men-
dacity of a Book: "I had nothing but my poor agitated
memory to trust to! " A man's memory, when it gets
the length of remembering that he was in the Battle of
Sohr while bodily absent, ought it not to -- in fact,
to strike work; to still its agitations altogether, and
call halt? Trenck, some months after, got clambered
out of Glatz, by sewers, or I forget how; and leaped,
or dropped, from some parapet into the River Neisse,
? -- sinking to the loins in tough mud, so that he could
not stir farther. "Fouque1 let me stand there, half a
day, before he would pick me out again. " Rigorous
Fouque', human mercy forbidding, could not let him
stand there in permanence, -- as we, better circum-
stanced , may with advantage try to do, in time
coming!
Friedrich lay at Sohr five days; partly for the
honour of the thing, partly to eat out the Country to
perfection. Prince Karl, from Konigshof, soon fell
back to Konigsgratz; and lay motionless there, nothing
but his Tolpatcheries astir. Sohr Country all eaten,
Friedrich, in the due Divisions, marched northward.
Through Trautenau, Schatzlar, his own Division, which
was the main one; -- and, fencing off the Tolpatches
successfully with trouble, brings all his men into Silesia
again. A good job of work behind them, surely! Can-
tons them to right and left of Landshut, about Rohn-
* Fre'de'rlcBaron de Trenck, Memoires, traduits par lui-mSme (Strasborg
and Paris, 1789), i. 74-78, 79.
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? CHAP. JOB. ] BATTLE OF SOHR. 203
30th Sept. 1745.
stock and Hohenfriedberg, hamlets known so well; and
leaving the Young Dessauer to command, drives for
Berlin (30th October), -- rapidly, as his wont is.
Prince Karl has split up his force at Konigsgratz;
means, one cannot doubt, to go into winter-quarters.
If he think of invading, across that eaten Country and
those bad Mountains, -- well, our troops can all be
got together in six hours' time.
At Trautenau, a week after Sohr, Friedrich had at
last received the English ratification of that Convention
of Hanover, signed 26th August, almost a month ago;
not ratified till September 22d. About which there had
latterly been some anxiety, lest his Britannic Majesty
himself might have broken off from it. With Austria,
with Saxony, Britannic Majesty has been entirely un-
successful: -- "May not Sohr, perhaps, be a fresh per-
suasive? " hopes Friedrich; -- but as to Britannic Ma-
jesty's breaking off, his thoughts are far from that, if
we knew! Poor Majesty: not long since, Supreme Jove
of Germany; and now -- is like to be swallowed in
ragamuffin street-riots; not a thunderbolt within clutch
of him (thunderbolts all sticking in the mud of the
Netherlands, far off), and not a constable's staff of the
least efficacy! Consider these dates in combination.
Battle of Sohr was on Thursday, September 30^:
"Sunday preceding, September 26th, was such a Lord's
"Day in the City of Edinburgh, as had not been seen there,
"-- not since Jenny Geddes's stool went flying at theBishop's
"head, a hundred years before. Big alarm-bell bursting
"out in the middle of divine service; emptying all the
"Churches (' Highland rebels just at hand! ') -- into General
"Meeting of the Inhabitants, into Chaos come again, for the
"next forty hours. Till, in the gaunt midnight, Tuesday,
"2 a. m. , Lochiel with about 1,000 Camerons, waiting slight
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? 204 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
30th Sept. 1745.
"opportunity, crushed in through the Netherbow Port; and"
-- And, about noon of that day, a poor friend of ours, loiter-
ing expectant in the road that leads by St. Anthony's Well,
saw making entry into paternal Holyrood, -- the Young
Pretender, in person, who is just being proclaimed Prince of
Wales, up in the High-Street yonder! "A tall slender young
"man, about five feet ten inches high; of a ruddy complexion,
"high-nosed, large rolling brown eyes; long-visaged, red-
"haired, but at that time wore a pale periwig. He was in a
"Highland habit" (coat); "over the shoulder a blue sash
"wrought with gold; red velvet breeches; a green velvet
"bonnet, with white cockade on it and a gold lace. His
"speech seemed very like that of an Irishman; very sly"
(how did you know, my poor friend? ); -- "spoke often to
"O'Sullivan" (thought to be a person of some counsel; had
been Tutor toMaillebois'sBoys, had even tried some irregular
fighting under Maillebois) -- "to O'Sullivan and"+ * * And
on Saturday, in short, came Prestonpans. Enough of such a
Supreme Jove; good for us here as a time-table chiefly, or
marker of dates!
Sunday, 3d October, King's Adjutant, Captain
Mollendorf, a young Officer deservedly in favour, ar-
rives at Berlin with the joyful tidings of this Sohr
business ("Prausnitz" we then called it): to the joy of
all Prussians, especially of a Queen Mother, for whom
there is a Letter in pencil. After brief congratulation,
Mollendorf rushes on; having next to give the Old
Dessauer notice of it in his Camp at Dieskau, in the
Halle neighbourhood. Mollendorf appears in Halle
suddenly next morning, Monday, about ten o'clock,
sixteen postillions trumpeting, and at their swiftest
trot, in front of him; -- shooting like a melodious
morning-star, across the rusty old city, in this manner,
-- to Dieskau Camp, where he gives the Old Des-
sauer his good news. Excellent Victory indeed; sharp
* Henderson, Highland Rebellion, p. 14.
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? cBap. xn. ]
Sth-9th Oct. 1745.
BATTLE OP SOHR.
205striking, swift self-help on our part. Halle and the
Camp have enough to think of, for this day and the
next. Whither Mollendorf went next, we will not ask:
perhaps to Brunswick and other consanguineous places?
-- Certain it is,
"On Wednesday the 6th, about two in the afternoon, the
"OldDessauer has his whole Army drawn out there, with
"green sprigs in their hats, at Dieskau, close upon the Saxon
"Frontier: and, after swashing and manoeuvering about in
"the highest military style of art, ranks them all in line,
"or two suitable lines, 30,000 of them; and then, with
"clangorous outburst of trumpet, kettledrum and all manner
"of field-music, fires off his united artillery a first time;
"almost shaking the very hills by such a thunderous peal, in
"the still afternoon. And mark, close fitted into the artillery
"peal, commences a rolling fire, like a peal spread out in
"threads, sparkling strangely to eye and ear; from right to
"left, long spears of fire and sharp strokes of sound, darting
"aloft, successive-simultaneous, winding for the space of
''miles, then back by the rear line, and home to the starting
"point: very grand indeed. Again, and also again, the artillery
"peal, and rolling small-arms fitted into it, is repeated; a
"second and a third time, kettledrums and trumpets doing
"what they can. That was the OldDessauer's bonfiring(what
"is called feu-de-joie), for the Victory of Sohr; audible
"almost at Leipzig, if the wind were westerly. Overpower-
"ing to the human mind; at least, to the old Newspaper
"reporter of that day. But what was strangest in the busi-
ness," continues he (das Curieuseste dabey), "was that the
"Saxon Uhlans, lying about in the villages across the Border,
"were out in the fields, watching the sight, hardly 300 yards
"off, from beginning to end; and little dreamed that his
"High-Princely Serenity," blue of face and dreadful in war,
"was quite close to them, on the Height calledBornhock;
"condescending to 'take all this into High-Serene Eye-shine
"'there; and, by having a white flag waved, deigning to
"'give signal for the discharges of the artillery. '"*
* Uelden-Geschichle, i. 1124.
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? 206 SECOND S1LESIAN WAR. [book XV.
6th-9th Oct. 1745.
By this the reader may know that the Old Des-
sauer is alive, ready for action if called on; and Briihl
ought to comprehend better how riskish his game with
edgetools is. Briihl is not now in an unprepared state:
-- here are Uhlans at one's elbow looking on.
Butowski's Uhlans; who lies encamped, not far off, in
good force, posted among morasses; strongly entrenched,
and with schemes in his head, and in Briihl's, of an
aggressive, thrice-secret, and very surprising nature! I
remark only that, in Heidelberg Country, victorious
old Traun is putting his people into winter-quarters;
himself about to vanish from this History, * -- and has
detached General Griine with 10,000 men; who left
Heidelberg, October 9th, on a mysterious errand,
heeded by nobody; and will turn up in the next
Chapter.
* Went to Siebcnbiirgen (Transylvania) as Governor; died there,
February 1748, age seventy-one (Maria Theresicns Leben, p. 56 n. ).
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? CHAP. XIII. ] SURPRISING I/AST ATTEMPT ON FRIEDRICH. 207
SttOct. --23d Nov. 1745.
CHAPTER XIII.
SAXONY AND AUSTRIA MAKE A SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT.
After this strenuous and victorious Campaign,
which has astonished all public men, especially all
Pragmatic Gazetteers, and with which all Europe is
disharmoniously ringing, Friedrich is hopeful there
will be Peace, through England; -- cannot doubt, at
least, but theAustrians have had enough for one year;
and looks forward to certain months, if not of rest, yet
of another kind of activity. Negotiation, Peace through
England, if possible; that is the high prize: and in the
other case, or in any case, readiness for next Campaign;
-- which with the treasury exhausted, and no honour-
able subsidy from France, is a difficult problem.
That was Friedrich's, and everybody's, program of
affairs for the months coming: but in that Friedrich
and everybody found themselves greatly mistaken.
Briihl and theAustrians had decided otherwise. "Open
mousetrap," at Striegau; claws of the sleeping cat, at
Sohr: these were sad experiences; ill to bear, with the
Sea-Powers grumbling on you, and the world sniffing
its pity on you; -- but are not conclusive, are only
provoking and even maddening, to the sanguine mind.
Two sad failures; but let us try another time. "A
tricky man; cunning enough, your King of Prussia! "
thinks Briihl, with a fellness of humour against Fried-
rich which is little conceivable to us now: "Cunning.
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? 208 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
8th Oct. --23d Nov. 1745.
enough. But it is possible cunning may be surpassed
by deeper cunning! " ? --? and decides, Bartenstein and
an indignant Empress-Queen assenting eagerly, That
there shall, in the profoundest secrecy till it break out,
be a third, and much fiercer trial, this Winter yet.
The Bruhl-Bartenstein plan (owing mainly to the Russian Bugbear which hung over it, protective, but with
whims of its own) underwent changes, successive re-
dactions or editions; which the reader would grudge to
hear explained to him. * Of the final or acted edition,
some loose notion, sufficient for our purpose, may be
collected from the following fractions of Notes:
November 17 th(Interior of Germany). * * "Feldmarschall-
"Lieutenant von Griine, a General of mark, detached by
"Traun not long since, from the Rhine Country, with a force
"of 10,000 men, why is he marching about: first to Baheuth
"Country, 'atHof, November 9th, as if for Bohemia; then
"north, to Gera ('lies at Gera till the 17th'), as if for Saxony
"Proper? Prince Karl, you would certainly say, has gone
"into winter-quarters; about Konigsgratz, and farther on?
"Gone or going, sure enough, is Prince Karl, into the con-
"venient Bohemian districts, -- uncertain which particular
"districts; at least the YoungDessauer, watching him from
"the Silesian side, is uncertain which. Better be vigilant,
"Prince Leopold! -- Griine, lying at Gera yonder, is notin-
"tending for Prince Karl, then? No, not thither. Then
"perhaps towards Saxony, to reinforce the Saxons? Or
"somewhither to find fat winter-quarters: who knows? ln-
"deed who cares particularly, for such inconsiderable Griine
"and his 10,000! --
"The Saxons quitted their inexpugnable Camp towards
"Halle, some time ago; went into cantonments farther in-
* Account of them in Orlich, II. 273-278 (from various Rutotoski Papers;
and from the contemporary satirical Pamphlet, "Mondscheinwiirfe, Mirror-
"castings of Moonshine, by Zebeddus Cuckoo, beaten Captain of a beaten
"Army. ")
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? CHAP, xnr. ] SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON PRIEDRICH. 209
8lh Oct. --23d Nov. 1745.
"land; -- the Old Dessauer (middle of October) having done
"the like, and gone home: his force lies rather scattered, for
"convenience of food and forage. From the Silesian side,
"again, Prince Leopold, whose head-quarters are about
"Striegau, intimates, That he cannot yet say, with certainty,
"what districts Prince Karl will occupy for winter-quarters
"in Bohemia. Prince Karl is vaguely roving about; de-
"taching Pandours to the Silesian Mountains, as if for check-
"ing our victorious Nassau there; -- always rather creeping
"northward; skirting Western Silesia with his main force;
"30,000 or better, with Lobkowitz and Nadasti ahead. Mean-
"ing what? Be vigilant, my young friend.
"The private fact is, Prince Karl does not mean to go into
"winter-quarters at all. In private fact, Prince Karl is one
"of Three mysterious Elements or Currents, sent on a far
"errand: Grime is another: Rutowski's Saxon Camp (now
"become Cantonment) is a third. Three Currents instinct
"with fire and destruction, but as yet quite opaque; which
"have been launched, -- whitherward thinks the reader? On
"Berlin itself, and the Mark of Brandenburg; thereto col-
"lide, and ignite in a marvellous manner. There is their
"meeting-point: there shall they, on a sudden, smite one
"another into flame; and the destruction blaze, fiery enough,
"round Friedrich and his own Brandenburg homesteads
"there! --
"It is a grand scheme; scheme at least on a grand scale.
"For the legs of it, Grime's march and Prince Karl's, are
"about 500 miles long! Plan due chiefly, they say, to the
"yellow rage of Briihl; aided by the contrivance of Rutowski, "and the counsel of Austrian military men.
For there is
"much consulting about it, and redactingof it; PolishMajesty
"himself very busy. To Briihl's yellow rage it is highly
"solacing and hopeful. 'Rutowski, lying close in his Canton-
ments, and then suddenly springing out, will overwhelm the
"OldDessauer, who lies wide; -- can do it, surely; and Griine
"is there to help if necessary. Dessauer blown to pieces,
"Griine, with Rutowski combined, push in upon Branden-
"burg, -- Griine himself upon Berlin, -- from the west and
"south, nobody expecting him. Prince Karl, not taking into
"winter-quarters in Bohemia, as they idly think; but falling
"down the Valley of the Bober, or Bober and Queiss, into the Carlyle, Frederick the Great. VIII. 14
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? 210 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV,
8th Nov. 1745.
"Lausitz (toGorlitz, Guben, where we have Magazines for
"him), comes upon it from the south-east, -- nobody expect-
"ing any of them. Three simultaneous Armies hurled on
"the head of your Friedrich; combustible deluges flowing
"towards him, as from the ends of Germany; so opaque,
"silent, yet of fire wholly: 'will not that surprise him! '
"thinks Briihl. These are the schemes of the little man. "
Briihl, having constituted himself rival to Fried-
rich, and fallen into pale or yellow rage by the course
things took, this Plan is naturally his chief joy, or
crown of joys; a bubbling well of solace to him in his
parched condition. He should, obviously, have kept it
secret; thrice-secret, the little fool; -- but a poor
parched man is not always master of his private
bubbling wells in that kind! Wolfstierna is Swedish
Envoy at Dresden; Rudenskjold, Swedish Envoy at
Berlin, has run over to see him in the dim November
days. Swedes, since Ulrique's marriage, are friendly
to Prussia. Briihl has these two men to dinner; talks
with them, over his wine, about Friedrich's insulting
usage of him, among other topics. "Insulting; how,
your Excellency? " asks Rudenskjold, privately a friend
of Friedrich. Briihl explains, with voice quivering,
those cuts in the Friedrich manifesto of August last,
and other griefs suffered; the two Swedes soothing him
with what oil they have ready. "No matter! " hints
Briihl; and proceeds from hint to hint, till the two
Swedes are fully aware of the grand scheme: Griine,
Prince Karl; and how Destruction, with legs 500 miles
long, is steadily advancing to assuage one with just
revenge. "Right, your Excellency! " --: only that
Eudenskjold proceeds to Berlin; and there straightway
("8th November") punctually makes Friedrich also
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? CHAP, xm. ] SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON FRIEDRICH. 211
10th Nov. 1745.
aware. * Foolish Briihl: a man that has a secret
should not only hide it, but hide that he has it to
hide.
Friedrich goes out to meet his Three-legged Monster; cuts
one Leg of it in two (Fight of Hennersdorf, 23d
November 1745).
Friedrich, having heard the secret, gazes into it
with horror and astonishment: "What a time I have!
"This is not living; this is being killed a thousand
"times a day! "** -- with horror and astonishment; but
also with what most luminous flash of eyesight is in
him; compares it with Prince Karl's enigmatic motions,
Grime's open ones, and the other phenomena; -- per-
ceives that it is an indisputable fact, and a thrice
formidable; requiring to be instantly dealt with by the
party interested! Whereupon, after hearty thanks to
Rudenskjold, there occur these rapidly successive
phases of activity, which we study to take up in a
curt form.
First (probably 9th or 10th November), there is
Council held with Minister Podewils and the Old Des-
sauer; Council from which comes little benefit, or none.
Podewils and Old Leopold stare incredulous; cannot
be made to believe such a thing. "Impossible any
Saxon minister or man would voluntarily bring the
theatre of war into his own Country, in this manner! "
thinks the Old Dessauer, and persists to think, -- on
* Stenzel, iv. 262; Ranke, m. 317-323; Friedrich's own narrative of it,
(Enures, in. 148.
** Ranke (in. 321 n. ): to whom said, we are not told.
14*
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? 212 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
10th Nov. 1745.
what obstinate ground Friedrich never knew. To
which Podewils, "who has properties in the Lausitz,
"and would so fain think them safe," obstinately
though more covertly adheres. "Impossible! " urge both these Councillors; and Friedrich cannot even
make them believe it. Believe it; and, alas, believing
it is not the whole problem!
Happily Friedrich has the privilege of ordering,
with or without their belief. "You, Podewils, an-
nounce the matter to foreign Courts. You, Serene
Highness of Anhalt, at your swiftest, collect yonder,
and encamp again. Your eye well on Grune and
Rutowski; and the instant I give you signal --! I am
for Silesia, to look after Prince Karl, the other long
leg of this Business. " Old Leopold, according to
Friedrich's account, is visibly glad of such opportunity
to fight again before he die: and yet, for no reason ex-
cept some senile jealousy, is not content with these ar-
rangements; perversely objects to this and that. At
length the King says, ? --? think of this hard word, and
of the eyes that accompany it! -- "When your High- "ness gets Armies of your own, you will order them
"according to your mind; at present, it must be ac-
cording to mine. " On, then; and not a moment lost:
for of all things we must be swift!
Old Leopold goes accordingly. Friedrich himself
goes in a week hence. Orders, correspondences from
Podewils and the rest, are flying right and left; -- to
Young Leopold in Silesia, first of all. Young Leopold
draws out his forces towards the Silesian-Lausitz
border, where Prince Karl's intentions are now be-
coming visible. And, -- here is the second phase
notable, --
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? CHAP, xm. ] SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON FRIEDRICH". 213
15th-23d Nov. 1745.
"On Monday 15th,* at 7 A. m. ," Friedrich rushes
off, by Crossen, full speed for Liegnitz; "with Rothen-
"burg, with the Prince of Prussia, and Ferdinand of
"Brunswick accompanying. " With what thoughts, --
though, in his face, you can read nothing; all Berlin
being already in such tremor! Friedrich is in Liegnitz
next day; and after needful preliminaries there, does,
on the Thursday following, "at Nieder-Adelsdorf" not
far off, take actual command of Prince Leopold's Army,
which had lain encamped for some days, waiting him.
And now with such force in hand, -- 35,000, soldiers
every man of them, and freshened by a month's rest,
-- one will endeavour to do some good upon Prince
Karl. Probably sooner than Prince Karl supposes.
For there is great velocity in this young King; a
panther-like suddenness of spring in him: cunning, too,
as any Felis of them; and with claws like the Felis
Leo on occasion. Here follows the brief Campaign
that ensued, which I strive greatly to abridge.
Prince Karl's intentions towards Frankfurt-on-Oder
Country, through the Lausitz, are now becoming prac-
tically manifest. There is a Magazine for him at
Guben, within thirty miles of Frankfurt; arrangements
getting ready all the way. A winter march of 150
miles; -- but what, say the spies, is to hinder it?
Prince Karl dreams not that Friedrich is on the ground,
or that anybody is aware. Which notion Friedrich
finds that it will be extremely suitable to maintain in
Prince Karl. Friedrich is now at Adelsdorf, some
thirty miles eastward of the Lausitz Border, perhaps
* "18th," Fcldiige, i. 402 (aae Roienbeck, 1. 122. ).
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? 214
SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
18th-23d Nov. 1745.
forty or more from the route Prince Karl will follow
through that Province.
"It is a high-lying irregularly hilly Country; hilly, not
"mountainous, various streams rise out of it that have a
"long course, -- among others, the Spree, which washes
"Berlin; -- especially three Valleys cross it, three Rivers
"with their Valleys: Bober, Queiss, Neisse (the thirdNeisse
"we have come upon); all running northward, pretty much
"parallel, though all are branches of the Oder. This is
"Neisse Third, we say; not the Neisse of Neisse City, which
"we used to know at the north base of the Giant Mountains,
"nor the Roaring Neisse, which we have seen at Hohenfried-
"berg; but a third" -- (and the fourth and last, "Black
Neisse," thank Heaven, is an upper branch of this, and we
havej and shall have, nothing to do with it! ) -- "third Neisse,
"which we may call the Lausitz Neisse. On which, near
"the head of it, there is a fine old spinning, linen-weaving
"Town called Zittau,-- where, to make it memorable, one
"Tourist has read, on the Townhouse, an Inscription worth
"repeating: 'Bene facere et male audire regium est, To do
"|good and have evil said of you, is a kingly thing. ' Other
"Towns, as Gorlitz, and seventy miles farther, the above-
"saidGuben, lie on this same Neisse, -- shall we add that
"Herrnhuth stands near the head of it? The wondrous
"Town of Herrnhuth (Lord's-Keeping), founded by Count
"Zinzendorf, twenty years before those dates;* where are a
"kind of German Methodist-Quakers to this day, who have
"become very celebrated in the interim. An opulent enough,
"most silent, strictly regular, strange little Town. The
"women are in uniform; wives, maids, widows, each their
"form of dress. Missionaries, speaking flabby English, who
"have been in the West Indies or are going thither, seem to
"abound in the place; male population otherwise, 1 should
"think, must be mainly doing trade elsewhere; nothing but
"prayers, preachings, charitable boarding-schooling and the
"like, appeared to be going on. Herrnhuth is 'a Sabbath
"'Petrified; CalvinisticSabbath done into Stone,' as one of
"my companions called it. " **
* "In 1722, the first tree felled" (Lives of Zinzendorf).
t ? ? Tourist's Note (Autumn 1852).
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? CHAP, xm. l SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON FRIEDRICH. 215
18th-23d Nov. 1745.
Herrnhuth, of which all Englishmen have heard, stands
near the head of this our third Neisse; as doesZittau, a few
miles higher up. I can do nothing more to give it mark for
them. Bober Valley, then Queiss valley, which run parallel
though they join at last, and become Bober wholly before
fetting into the Oder, -- these two Valleys and Rivers lie in
riedrich's own Territory; and are between him and the
Lausitz, Queiss River being the boundary of Silesia and the
Lausitz here. It is down the Neisse that Prince Karl means
to march. There are Saxons already gathering about Zittau;
and down as far asGruben, they are making Magazines and
arrangements, -- for it is all their own Country in those years,
though most of it is Prussia's now. Prince Karl's march will
go parallel to the Bober and the Queiss; separated from the
Queiss in this part by an undulating Hill-tract of twenty
miles or more.
Friedrich has had somewhat to settle for the Southern
Frontier of Silesia withal, which new doggeries of
Pandours are invading,-- to lie ready for Prince Karl
on his return thither, whose grand meaning all this
while (as Friedrich well knows), is "Silesia in the
lump" again, had he once cut us off from Brandenburg
and our supplies! General Nassau, far eastward, who
is doing exploits in Moravia itself, -- him Friedrich
has ordered homeward, westward to his own side of
the Mountains, to attend these new Pandour gentlemen;
Winterfeld he has called home, out of those Southern
mountains, as likely to be usefuller here on this
Western frontier. Winterfeld arrived in Camp the
same day with Friedrich; and is sent forward with a
body of 3,000 light troops, to keep watch about the
Lausitz Frontier and the River Queiss; "careful not to
quit our own side of that stream," -- as we mean to
hoodwink Prince Karl, if we can!
Friedrich lies strictly within his own borders, for a
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? 216
SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
20Ui Nov. 1745.
day or two; till Prince Karl march, till his own ar-
rangements are complete. Friedrich himself keeps the
Bober, Winterfeld the Queiss; "all pass freely out of
"the Lausitz; none are allowed to cross into it: thereby
"we hear notice of Prince Karl, he none of us. " Per-
fectly quiescent, we, poor creatures, and aware of
nothing! Thus, too, Friedrich, -- in spite of his war-
like Manifesto, which the Saxons are on the eve of
answering with a formal Declaration of War, -- affects
great rigour in considering the Saxons as not yet at
war with him: respects their frontier, Winterfeld even
punishes hussars "for trespassing on Lausitz ground. "
Friedrich also affects to have roads repaired, which he
by no means intends to travel: -- the whole with a
view of lulling Prince Karl; of keeping the mousetrap open, as he had done in the Striegau case. It suc-
ceeded again, quite as conspicuously, and at less ex-
pense.
Prince Karl, -- whose Tolpatch doggery Winter-
feld will not allow to pass the Queiss, and to whom no
traveller or tidings can come from beyond that River,
-- discerns only, on the farther shore of it, Winterfeld
with his 3,000 light troops. Behind these, he discerns
either nothing, or nothing immediately momentous;
but contentedly supposes that this, the superficies of
things, is all the solid-content they have. Prince Karl
gets under way, therefore, nothing doubting; with his
Saxons as vanguard. Down the Neisse Valley, on the
right or Queissward side of it: Saturday, 20th November,
is his first march in Lusatian territory. He lies that
night spread out in three Villages, Schonberg, Schon-
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?
? 202 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
30th Sept. 1745.
he was there, and what he did there,* -- though in
Glatz under lock and key, three good months before.
"How could I help mistakes," said he afterwards, when
people objected to this and that in his blusterous men-
dacity of a Book: "I had nothing but my poor agitated
memory to trust to! " A man's memory, when it gets
the length of remembering that he was in the Battle of
Sohr while bodily absent, ought it not to -- in fact,
to strike work; to still its agitations altogether, and
call halt? Trenck, some months after, got clambered
out of Glatz, by sewers, or I forget how; and leaped,
or dropped, from some parapet into the River Neisse,
? -- sinking to the loins in tough mud, so that he could
not stir farther. "Fouque1 let me stand there, half a
day, before he would pick me out again. " Rigorous
Fouque', human mercy forbidding, could not let him
stand there in permanence, -- as we, better circum-
stanced , may with advantage try to do, in time
coming!
Friedrich lay at Sohr five days; partly for the
honour of the thing, partly to eat out the Country to
perfection. Prince Karl, from Konigshof, soon fell
back to Konigsgratz; and lay motionless there, nothing
but his Tolpatcheries astir. Sohr Country all eaten,
Friedrich, in the due Divisions, marched northward.
Through Trautenau, Schatzlar, his own Division, which
was the main one; -- and, fencing off the Tolpatches
successfully with trouble, brings all his men into Silesia
again. A good job of work behind them, surely! Can-
tons them to right and left of Landshut, about Rohn-
* Fre'de'rlcBaron de Trenck, Memoires, traduits par lui-mSme (Strasborg
and Paris, 1789), i. 74-78, 79.
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? CHAP. JOB. ] BATTLE OF SOHR. 203
30th Sept. 1745.
stock and Hohenfriedberg, hamlets known so well; and
leaving the Young Dessauer to command, drives for
Berlin (30th October), -- rapidly, as his wont is.
Prince Karl has split up his force at Konigsgratz;
means, one cannot doubt, to go into winter-quarters.
If he think of invading, across that eaten Country and
those bad Mountains, -- well, our troops can all be
got together in six hours' time.
At Trautenau, a week after Sohr, Friedrich had at
last received the English ratification of that Convention
of Hanover, signed 26th August, almost a month ago;
not ratified till September 22d. About which there had
latterly been some anxiety, lest his Britannic Majesty
himself might have broken off from it. With Austria,
with Saxony, Britannic Majesty has been entirely un-
successful: -- "May not Sohr, perhaps, be a fresh per-
suasive? " hopes Friedrich; -- but as to Britannic Ma-
jesty's breaking off, his thoughts are far from that, if
we knew! Poor Majesty: not long since, Supreme Jove
of Germany; and now -- is like to be swallowed in
ragamuffin street-riots; not a thunderbolt within clutch
of him (thunderbolts all sticking in the mud of the
Netherlands, far off), and not a constable's staff of the
least efficacy! Consider these dates in combination.
Battle of Sohr was on Thursday, September 30^:
"Sunday preceding, September 26th, was such a Lord's
"Day in the City of Edinburgh, as had not been seen there,
"-- not since Jenny Geddes's stool went flying at theBishop's
"head, a hundred years before. Big alarm-bell bursting
"out in the middle of divine service; emptying all the
"Churches (' Highland rebels just at hand! ') -- into General
"Meeting of the Inhabitants, into Chaos come again, for the
"next forty hours. Till, in the gaunt midnight, Tuesday,
"2 a. m. , Lochiel with about 1,000 Camerons, waiting slight
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? 204 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
30th Sept. 1745.
"opportunity, crushed in through the Netherbow Port; and"
-- And, about noon of that day, a poor friend of ours, loiter-
ing expectant in the road that leads by St. Anthony's Well,
saw making entry into paternal Holyrood, -- the Young
Pretender, in person, who is just being proclaimed Prince of
Wales, up in the High-Street yonder! "A tall slender young
"man, about five feet ten inches high; of a ruddy complexion,
"high-nosed, large rolling brown eyes; long-visaged, red-
"haired, but at that time wore a pale periwig. He was in a
"Highland habit" (coat); "over the shoulder a blue sash
"wrought with gold; red velvet breeches; a green velvet
"bonnet, with white cockade on it and a gold lace. His
"speech seemed very like that of an Irishman; very sly"
(how did you know, my poor friend? ); -- "spoke often to
"O'Sullivan" (thought to be a person of some counsel; had
been Tutor toMaillebois'sBoys, had even tried some irregular
fighting under Maillebois) -- "to O'Sullivan and"+ * * And
on Saturday, in short, came Prestonpans. Enough of such a
Supreme Jove; good for us here as a time-table chiefly, or
marker of dates!
Sunday, 3d October, King's Adjutant, Captain
Mollendorf, a young Officer deservedly in favour, ar-
rives at Berlin with the joyful tidings of this Sohr
business ("Prausnitz" we then called it): to the joy of
all Prussians, especially of a Queen Mother, for whom
there is a Letter in pencil. After brief congratulation,
Mollendorf rushes on; having next to give the Old
Dessauer notice of it in his Camp at Dieskau, in the
Halle neighbourhood. Mollendorf appears in Halle
suddenly next morning, Monday, about ten o'clock,
sixteen postillions trumpeting, and at their swiftest
trot, in front of him; -- shooting like a melodious
morning-star, across the rusty old city, in this manner,
-- to Dieskau Camp, where he gives the Old Des-
sauer his good news. Excellent Victory indeed; sharp
* Henderson, Highland Rebellion, p. 14.
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? cBap. xn. ]
Sth-9th Oct. 1745.
BATTLE OP SOHR.
205striking, swift self-help on our part. Halle and the
Camp have enough to think of, for this day and the
next. Whither Mollendorf went next, we will not ask:
perhaps to Brunswick and other consanguineous places?
-- Certain it is,
"On Wednesday the 6th, about two in the afternoon, the
"OldDessauer has his whole Army drawn out there, with
"green sprigs in their hats, at Dieskau, close upon the Saxon
"Frontier: and, after swashing and manoeuvering about in
"the highest military style of art, ranks them all in line,
"or two suitable lines, 30,000 of them; and then, with
"clangorous outburst of trumpet, kettledrum and all manner
"of field-music, fires off his united artillery a first time;
"almost shaking the very hills by such a thunderous peal, in
"the still afternoon. And mark, close fitted into the artillery
"peal, commences a rolling fire, like a peal spread out in
"threads, sparkling strangely to eye and ear; from right to
"left, long spears of fire and sharp strokes of sound, darting
"aloft, successive-simultaneous, winding for the space of
''miles, then back by the rear line, and home to the starting
"point: very grand indeed. Again, and also again, the artillery
"peal, and rolling small-arms fitted into it, is repeated; a
"second and a third time, kettledrums and trumpets doing
"what they can. That was the OldDessauer's bonfiring(what
"is called feu-de-joie), for the Victory of Sohr; audible
"almost at Leipzig, if the wind were westerly. Overpower-
"ing to the human mind; at least, to the old Newspaper
"reporter of that day. But what was strangest in the busi-
ness," continues he (das Curieuseste dabey), "was that the
"Saxon Uhlans, lying about in the villages across the Border,
"were out in the fields, watching the sight, hardly 300 yards
"off, from beginning to end; and little dreamed that his
"High-Princely Serenity," blue of face and dreadful in war,
"was quite close to them, on the Height calledBornhock;
"condescending to 'take all this into High-Serene Eye-shine
"'there; and, by having a white flag waved, deigning to
"'give signal for the discharges of the artillery. '"*
* Uelden-Geschichle, i. 1124.
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? 206 SECOND S1LESIAN WAR. [book XV.
6th-9th Oct. 1745.
By this the reader may know that the Old Des-
sauer is alive, ready for action if called on; and Briihl
ought to comprehend better how riskish his game with
edgetools is. Briihl is not now in an unprepared state:
-- here are Uhlans at one's elbow looking on.
Butowski's Uhlans; who lies encamped, not far off, in
good force, posted among morasses; strongly entrenched,
and with schemes in his head, and in Briihl's, of an
aggressive, thrice-secret, and very surprising nature! I
remark only that, in Heidelberg Country, victorious
old Traun is putting his people into winter-quarters;
himself about to vanish from this History, * -- and has
detached General Griine with 10,000 men; who left
Heidelberg, October 9th, on a mysterious errand,
heeded by nobody; and will turn up in the next
Chapter.
* Went to Siebcnbiirgen (Transylvania) as Governor; died there,
February 1748, age seventy-one (Maria Theresicns Leben, p. 56 n. ).
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? CHAP. XIII. ] SURPRISING I/AST ATTEMPT ON FRIEDRICH. 207
SttOct. --23d Nov. 1745.
CHAPTER XIII.
SAXONY AND AUSTRIA MAKE A SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT.
After this strenuous and victorious Campaign,
which has astonished all public men, especially all
Pragmatic Gazetteers, and with which all Europe is
disharmoniously ringing, Friedrich is hopeful there
will be Peace, through England; -- cannot doubt, at
least, but theAustrians have had enough for one year;
and looks forward to certain months, if not of rest, yet
of another kind of activity. Negotiation, Peace through
England, if possible; that is the high prize: and in the
other case, or in any case, readiness for next Campaign;
-- which with the treasury exhausted, and no honour-
able subsidy from France, is a difficult problem.
That was Friedrich's, and everybody's, program of
affairs for the months coming: but in that Friedrich
and everybody found themselves greatly mistaken.
Briihl and theAustrians had decided otherwise. "Open
mousetrap," at Striegau; claws of the sleeping cat, at
Sohr: these were sad experiences; ill to bear, with the
Sea-Powers grumbling on you, and the world sniffing
its pity on you; -- but are not conclusive, are only
provoking and even maddening, to the sanguine mind.
Two sad failures; but let us try another time. "A
tricky man; cunning enough, your King of Prussia! "
thinks Briihl, with a fellness of humour against Fried-
rich which is little conceivable to us now: "Cunning.
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? 208 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
8th Oct. --23d Nov. 1745.
enough. But it is possible cunning may be surpassed
by deeper cunning! " ? --? and decides, Bartenstein and
an indignant Empress-Queen assenting eagerly, That
there shall, in the profoundest secrecy till it break out,
be a third, and much fiercer trial, this Winter yet.
The Bruhl-Bartenstein plan (owing mainly to the Russian Bugbear which hung over it, protective, but with
whims of its own) underwent changes, successive re-
dactions or editions; which the reader would grudge to
hear explained to him. * Of the final or acted edition,
some loose notion, sufficient for our purpose, may be
collected from the following fractions of Notes:
November 17 th(Interior of Germany). * * "Feldmarschall-
"Lieutenant von Griine, a General of mark, detached by
"Traun not long since, from the Rhine Country, with a force
"of 10,000 men, why is he marching about: first to Baheuth
"Country, 'atHof, November 9th, as if for Bohemia; then
"north, to Gera ('lies at Gera till the 17th'), as if for Saxony
"Proper? Prince Karl, you would certainly say, has gone
"into winter-quarters; about Konigsgratz, and farther on?
"Gone or going, sure enough, is Prince Karl, into the con-
"venient Bohemian districts, -- uncertain which particular
"districts; at least the YoungDessauer, watching him from
"the Silesian side, is uncertain which. Better be vigilant,
"Prince Leopold! -- Griine, lying at Gera yonder, is notin-
"tending for Prince Karl, then? No, not thither. Then
"perhaps towards Saxony, to reinforce the Saxons? Or
"somewhither to find fat winter-quarters: who knows? ln-
"deed who cares particularly, for such inconsiderable Griine
"and his 10,000! --
"The Saxons quitted their inexpugnable Camp towards
"Halle, some time ago; went into cantonments farther in-
* Account of them in Orlich, II. 273-278 (from various Rutotoski Papers;
and from the contemporary satirical Pamphlet, "Mondscheinwiirfe, Mirror-
"castings of Moonshine, by Zebeddus Cuckoo, beaten Captain of a beaten
"Army. ")
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? CHAP, xnr. ] SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON PRIEDRICH. 209
8lh Oct. --23d Nov. 1745.
"land; -- the Old Dessauer (middle of October) having done
"the like, and gone home: his force lies rather scattered, for
"convenience of food and forage. From the Silesian side,
"again, Prince Leopold, whose head-quarters are about
"Striegau, intimates, That he cannot yet say, with certainty,
"what districts Prince Karl will occupy for winter-quarters
"in Bohemia. Prince Karl is vaguely roving about; de-
"taching Pandours to the Silesian Mountains, as if for check-
"ing our victorious Nassau there; -- always rather creeping
"northward; skirting Western Silesia with his main force;
"30,000 or better, with Lobkowitz and Nadasti ahead. Mean-
"ing what? Be vigilant, my young friend.
"The private fact is, Prince Karl does not mean to go into
"winter-quarters at all. In private fact, Prince Karl is one
"of Three mysterious Elements or Currents, sent on a far
"errand: Grime is another: Rutowski's Saxon Camp (now
"become Cantonment) is a third. Three Currents instinct
"with fire and destruction, but as yet quite opaque; which
"have been launched, -- whitherward thinks the reader? On
"Berlin itself, and the Mark of Brandenburg; thereto col-
"lide, and ignite in a marvellous manner. There is their
"meeting-point: there shall they, on a sudden, smite one
"another into flame; and the destruction blaze, fiery enough,
"round Friedrich and his own Brandenburg homesteads
"there! --
"It is a grand scheme; scheme at least on a grand scale.
"For the legs of it, Grime's march and Prince Karl's, are
"about 500 miles long! Plan due chiefly, they say, to the
"yellow rage of Briihl; aided by the contrivance of Rutowski, "and the counsel of Austrian military men.
For there is
"much consulting about it, and redactingof it; PolishMajesty
"himself very busy. To Briihl's yellow rage it is highly
"solacing and hopeful. 'Rutowski, lying close in his Canton-
ments, and then suddenly springing out, will overwhelm the
"OldDessauer, who lies wide; -- can do it, surely; and Griine
"is there to help if necessary. Dessauer blown to pieces,
"Griine, with Rutowski combined, push in upon Branden-
"burg, -- Griine himself upon Berlin, -- from the west and
"south, nobody expecting him. Prince Karl, not taking into
"winter-quarters in Bohemia, as they idly think; but falling
"down the Valley of the Bober, or Bober and Queiss, into the Carlyle, Frederick the Great. VIII. 14
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? 210 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV,
8th Nov. 1745.
"Lausitz (toGorlitz, Guben, where we have Magazines for
"him), comes upon it from the south-east, -- nobody expect-
"ing any of them. Three simultaneous Armies hurled on
"the head of your Friedrich; combustible deluges flowing
"towards him, as from the ends of Germany; so opaque,
"silent, yet of fire wholly: 'will not that surprise him! '
"thinks Briihl. These are the schemes of the little man. "
Briihl, having constituted himself rival to Fried-
rich, and fallen into pale or yellow rage by the course
things took, this Plan is naturally his chief joy, or
crown of joys; a bubbling well of solace to him in his
parched condition. He should, obviously, have kept it
secret; thrice-secret, the little fool; -- but a poor
parched man is not always master of his private
bubbling wells in that kind! Wolfstierna is Swedish
Envoy at Dresden; Rudenskjold, Swedish Envoy at
Berlin, has run over to see him in the dim November
days. Swedes, since Ulrique's marriage, are friendly
to Prussia. Briihl has these two men to dinner; talks
with them, over his wine, about Friedrich's insulting
usage of him, among other topics. "Insulting; how,
your Excellency? " asks Rudenskjold, privately a friend
of Friedrich. Briihl explains, with voice quivering,
those cuts in the Friedrich manifesto of August last,
and other griefs suffered; the two Swedes soothing him
with what oil they have ready. "No matter! " hints
Briihl; and proceeds from hint to hint, till the two
Swedes are fully aware of the grand scheme: Griine,
Prince Karl; and how Destruction, with legs 500 miles
long, is steadily advancing to assuage one with just
revenge. "Right, your Excellency! " --: only that
Eudenskjold proceeds to Berlin; and there straightway
("8th November") punctually makes Friedrich also
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? CHAP, xm. ] SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON FRIEDRICH. 211
10th Nov. 1745.
aware. * Foolish Briihl: a man that has a secret
should not only hide it, but hide that he has it to
hide.
Friedrich goes out to meet his Three-legged Monster; cuts
one Leg of it in two (Fight of Hennersdorf, 23d
November 1745).
Friedrich, having heard the secret, gazes into it
with horror and astonishment: "What a time I have!
"This is not living; this is being killed a thousand
"times a day! "** -- with horror and astonishment; but
also with what most luminous flash of eyesight is in
him; compares it with Prince Karl's enigmatic motions,
Grime's open ones, and the other phenomena; -- per-
ceives that it is an indisputable fact, and a thrice
formidable; requiring to be instantly dealt with by the
party interested! Whereupon, after hearty thanks to
Rudenskjold, there occur these rapidly successive
phases of activity, which we study to take up in a
curt form.
First (probably 9th or 10th November), there is
Council held with Minister Podewils and the Old Des-
sauer; Council from which comes little benefit, or none.
Podewils and Old Leopold stare incredulous; cannot
be made to believe such a thing. "Impossible any
Saxon minister or man would voluntarily bring the
theatre of war into his own Country, in this manner! "
thinks the Old Dessauer, and persists to think, -- on
* Stenzel, iv. 262; Ranke, m. 317-323; Friedrich's own narrative of it,
(Enures, in. 148.
** Ranke (in. 321 n. ): to whom said, we are not told.
14*
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? 212 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
10th Nov. 1745.
what obstinate ground Friedrich never knew. To
which Podewils, "who has properties in the Lausitz,
"and would so fain think them safe," obstinately
though more covertly adheres. "Impossible! " urge both these Councillors; and Friedrich cannot even
make them believe it. Believe it; and, alas, believing
it is not the whole problem!
Happily Friedrich has the privilege of ordering,
with or without their belief. "You, Podewils, an-
nounce the matter to foreign Courts. You, Serene
Highness of Anhalt, at your swiftest, collect yonder,
and encamp again. Your eye well on Grune and
Rutowski; and the instant I give you signal --! I am
for Silesia, to look after Prince Karl, the other long
leg of this Business. " Old Leopold, according to
Friedrich's account, is visibly glad of such opportunity
to fight again before he die: and yet, for no reason ex-
cept some senile jealousy, is not content with these ar-
rangements; perversely objects to this and that. At
length the King says, ? --? think of this hard word, and
of the eyes that accompany it! -- "When your High- "ness gets Armies of your own, you will order them
"according to your mind; at present, it must be ac-
cording to mine. " On, then; and not a moment lost:
for of all things we must be swift!
Old Leopold goes accordingly. Friedrich himself
goes in a week hence. Orders, correspondences from
Podewils and the rest, are flying right and left; -- to
Young Leopold in Silesia, first of all. Young Leopold
draws out his forces towards the Silesian-Lausitz
border, where Prince Karl's intentions are now be-
coming visible. And, -- here is the second phase
notable, --
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? CHAP, xm. ] SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON FRIEDRICH". 213
15th-23d Nov. 1745.
"On Monday 15th,* at 7 A. m. ," Friedrich rushes
off, by Crossen, full speed for Liegnitz; "with Rothen-
"burg, with the Prince of Prussia, and Ferdinand of
"Brunswick accompanying. " With what thoughts, --
though, in his face, you can read nothing; all Berlin
being already in such tremor! Friedrich is in Liegnitz
next day; and after needful preliminaries there, does,
on the Thursday following, "at Nieder-Adelsdorf" not
far off, take actual command of Prince Leopold's Army,
which had lain encamped for some days, waiting him.
And now with such force in hand, -- 35,000, soldiers
every man of them, and freshened by a month's rest,
-- one will endeavour to do some good upon Prince
Karl. Probably sooner than Prince Karl supposes.
For there is great velocity in this young King; a
panther-like suddenness of spring in him: cunning, too,
as any Felis of them; and with claws like the Felis
Leo on occasion. Here follows the brief Campaign
that ensued, which I strive greatly to abridge.
Prince Karl's intentions towards Frankfurt-on-Oder
Country, through the Lausitz, are now becoming prac-
tically manifest. There is a Magazine for him at
Guben, within thirty miles of Frankfurt; arrangements
getting ready all the way. A winter march of 150
miles; -- but what, say the spies, is to hinder it?
Prince Karl dreams not that Friedrich is on the ground,
or that anybody is aware. Which notion Friedrich
finds that it will be extremely suitable to maintain in
Prince Karl. Friedrich is now at Adelsdorf, some
thirty miles eastward of the Lausitz Border, perhaps
* "18th," Fcldiige, i. 402 (aae Roienbeck, 1. 122. ).
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? 214
SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
18th-23d Nov. 1745.
forty or more from the route Prince Karl will follow
through that Province.
"It is a high-lying irregularly hilly Country; hilly, not
"mountainous, various streams rise out of it that have a
"long course, -- among others, the Spree, which washes
"Berlin; -- especially three Valleys cross it, three Rivers
"with their Valleys: Bober, Queiss, Neisse (the thirdNeisse
"we have come upon); all running northward, pretty much
"parallel, though all are branches of the Oder. This is
"Neisse Third, we say; not the Neisse of Neisse City, which
"we used to know at the north base of the Giant Mountains,
"nor the Roaring Neisse, which we have seen at Hohenfried-
"berg; but a third" -- (and the fourth and last, "Black
Neisse," thank Heaven, is an upper branch of this, and we
havej and shall have, nothing to do with it! ) -- "third Neisse,
"which we may call the Lausitz Neisse. On which, near
"the head of it, there is a fine old spinning, linen-weaving
"Town called Zittau,-- where, to make it memorable, one
"Tourist has read, on the Townhouse, an Inscription worth
"repeating: 'Bene facere et male audire regium est, To do
"|good and have evil said of you, is a kingly thing. ' Other
"Towns, as Gorlitz, and seventy miles farther, the above-
"saidGuben, lie on this same Neisse, -- shall we add that
"Herrnhuth stands near the head of it? The wondrous
"Town of Herrnhuth (Lord's-Keeping), founded by Count
"Zinzendorf, twenty years before those dates;* where are a
"kind of German Methodist-Quakers to this day, who have
"become very celebrated in the interim. An opulent enough,
"most silent, strictly regular, strange little Town. The
"women are in uniform; wives, maids, widows, each their
"form of dress. Missionaries, speaking flabby English, who
"have been in the West Indies or are going thither, seem to
"abound in the place; male population otherwise, 1 should
"think, must be mainly doing trade elsewhere; nothing but
"prayers, preachings, charitable boarding-schooling and the
"like, appeared to be going on. Herrnhuth is 'a Sabbath
"'Petrified; CalvinisticSabbath done into Stone,' as one of
"my companions called it. " **
* "In 1722, the first tree felled" (Lives of Zinzendorf).
t ? ? Tourist's Note (Autumn 1852).
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? CHAP, xm. l SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON FRIEDRICH. 215
18th-23d Nov. 1745.
Herrnhuth, of which all Englishmen have heard, stands
near the head of this our third Neisse; as doesZittau, a few
miles higher up. I can do nothing more to give it mark for
them. Bober Valley, then Queiss valley, which run parallel
though they join at last, and become Bober wholly before
fetting into the Oder, -- these two Valleys and Rivers lie in
riedrich's own Territory; and are between him and the
Lausitz, Queiss River being the boundary of Silesia and the
Lausitz here. It is down the Neisse that Prince Karl means
to march. There are Saxons already gathering about Zittau;
and down as far asGruben, they are making Magazines and
arrangements, -- for it is all their own Country in those years,
though most of it is Prussia's now. Prince Karl's march will
go parallel to the Bober and the Queiss; separated from the
Queiss in this part by an undulating Hill-tract of twenty
miles or more.
Friedrich has had somewhat to settle for the Southern
Frontier of Silesia withal, which new doggeries of
Pandours are invading,-- to lie ready for Prince Karl
on his return thither, whose grand meaning all this
while (as Friedrich well knows), is "Silesia in the
lump" again, had he once cut us off from Brandenburg
and our supplies! General Nassau, far eastward, who
is doing exploits in Moravia itself, -- him Friedrich
has ordered homeward, westward to his own side of
the Mountains, to attend these new Pandour gentlemen;
Winterfeld he has called home, out of those Southern
mountains, as likely to be usefuller here on this
Western frontier. Winterfeld arrived in Camp the
same day with Friedrich; and is sent forward with a
body of 3,000 light troops, to keep watch about the
Lausitz Frontier and the River Queiss; "careful not to
quit our own side of that stream," -- as we mean to
hoodwink Prince Karl, if we can!
Friedrich lies strictly within his own borders, for a
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? 216
SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
20Ui Nov. 1745.
day or two; till Prince Karl march, till his own ar-
rangements are complete. Friedrich himself keeps the
Bober, Winterfeld the Queiss; "all pass freely out of
"the Lausitz; none are allowed to cross into it: thereby
"we hear notice of Prince Karl, he none of us. " Per-
fectly quiescent, we, poor creatures, and aware of
nothing! Thus, too, Friedrich, -- in spite of his war-
like Manifesto, which the Saxons are on the eve of
answering with a formal Declaration of War, -- affects
great rigour in considering the Saxons as not yet at
war with him: respects their frontier, Winterfeld even
punishes hussars "for trespassing on Lausitz ground. "
Friedrich also affects to have roads repaired, which he
by no means intends to travel: -- the whole with a
view of lulling Prince Karl; of keeping the mousetrap open, as he had done in the Striegau case. It suc-
ceeded again, quite as conspicuously, and at less ex-
pense.
Prince Karl, -- whose Tolpatch doggery Winter-
feld will not allow to pass the Queiss, and to whom no
traveller or tidings can come from beyond that River,
-- discerns only, on the farther shore of it, Winterfeld
with his 3,000 light troops. Behind these, he discerns
either nothing, or nothing immediately momentous;
but contentedly supposes that this, the superficies of
things, is all the solid-content they have. Prince Karl
gets under way, therefore, nothing doubting; with his
Saxons as vanguard. Down the Neisse Valley, on the
right or Queissward side of it: Saturday, 20th November,
is his first march in Lusatian territory. He lies that
night spread out in three Villages, Schonberg, Schon-
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